The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-03-30
THE LAW OF HEREDITY.
DR.. Talmage Says It is Largely
Responsible for Crime.
While COndemning the Misdoings of Others
We Should Exercise Charity and be
Careful to Temper Our Judg-
ment With Mercy.

L.
Witt Talmage explains how the condi-
tion of the world could be improved.
His text is Matt. Z: Q: with what
measure you mSte, it shall be measured
to you again."
In the greatest sermon ever preached
"a sermon about fifteen minutes long
according to the ordinary rate of
speech-a sermon on the Mount of
Olives, the preacher sitting while he
spoke, according to the ancient mode
of oratory, the people were given to
understand that the same yardstick
that they employed upon others would
be employed upon themselves. Meas
ure others by harsh rule and you
will be measured by harsh rule.
There is a great deal of unfairness in
criticism in human conduct. 1t was to
smite that unfairness that Christ ut
tered the words of the text, and my
sermon will be re-echo of the divine
sentiment. In estimating the misbe-
havior of others, we must take into
consideration the pressure of circum-
stances. 1t is never right to do wrong,
but there are degrees of culpability.
When men misbehave or commit some
atrocious wickedness we are disposed
indiscriminately to tumble them all
over the bank of condemnation. Suffer
they ought and suffer they must, but
in difference of degree.
In the first place, in estimating the
misdoing of others, we must take into
calculation the hereditary tendency.
There is such thing as good blood
and there is such thing as bad blood.
There are families that have had
moral twist in them for hundred
years back. They have not been care
full to keep the family record in that
regard. There have been escapades,
and maraudings and scoundrelisms,
and moral deficits all the way back,
whether you call it kleptomania, or py-
romania, or dipsomania, or whether it
be in a milder form, and amount to no
mania at all. The strong probability
is that the present criminal started
life with nerve, muscle and bone con-
taminated. As some start life with a
natural tendency to nobility and gen.
erosity and kindness and truthfulness,
there are others who start life with
just the opposite tendency, and they
are born liars, or born malcontents, or
born outlaws, or born swindlers.
There is in England school that is
called the Princess Mary school. All
the children in that school are the chill
dren of convicts. The school is under
high PATRONAGE. had the pleasure of
being present at one of the anniver-
saries, presided over by the Earl of
Kintore. By wise law in England,
after parents have committed certain
number of crimes, and thereby shown
themselves incompetent rightly to
bring up their children, the little
ones are taken from under pernicious
influences and put in reformatory
schools, where all gracious and kindly
influences shall be brought upon them.
OF course the experiment is young, and
it has got to be demonstrated how large
percentage of the children of conviets
may be brought up to responsibility
and usefulness. But we all know that
it is more difficult for children of bad
parentage to do right than for chill
dren of good parentage.
In this country we are taught by the
Declaration of American Independ-
ence that all people are born equal
There never was greater misrepre-
sentation put in one sentence than in
that sentence which implies that we
are all born equal. You may as well
say that flowers are born equal,
or trees are born equal, or animals
are born equal Why does one horse
cost 500 and another horse cost S., 900?
Why does one sheep cost $40 and an
other sheep cost $500? Difference in
blood. We are wise enough to recog-
nize it in horses, in cattle, in sheep,
but we are not wise enough to make
allowance for the difference in the
human blood. Now | demand by the
law of eternal fairness that you be
more lenient in your criticism of those
who were born wrong, in whose an
cestral line there was a hangman's
knot, or who came from tree the
fruit of which for centuries has been
gnarled and worm-eaten.
DIR. Harris, reformer, gave some
marvellous statistics in his story of a
woman he called Margaret, the Moth
er of Criminals" Ninety years ago she
lived in a village in upper New York
state. She was not only poor but she
was vicious. She was not well provid-
ed for. There were no almshouses
there. The public, however, somewhat
looked after her, but chiefly scolded at
her, and derided her, and pushed her
farther down in her crime. That was
ninety years ago. There have been
623 persons in that ancestral line, 200
of them criminals. In one branch of
that family there were 30, and 9 of
them have been in state prison, and
nearly all of the others have turned
out badly. 1t is estimated that that
family cost the county and state $780,
900, to say nothing of the property they
destroyed. Are you not willing, as
sensible, fair people, to acknowledge
that it is a fearful disaster to be born
in such an ancestral line? Does it not
make great difference whether one
descends from Margaret, the mother of
criminals, or from some mother in Is
rael? whether you are the son of Ahab
or the son of Joshua?
But, supposing now, that in this age,
when there are SO many people, that
come down into this audience and
select the very best man in it. do