The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-07-15

DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
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BY THE REV FRANK DE WITT TALMAeE, D. D.


/ in our brain as well as our depth of
chest and clea1mess of vision. We inherit
the ability of our minds to think and
to reason as well as the conformation
of our craniums within the dome of
which that brain is protected and thinks
and plans and studies the problems of
life. We recognize the Unbeatable quail
ties of the mind in which the lower or
ders of animals are produced. Why
should we not be willing TO grant that
man inherits his mental acumen also?
You can take one OF the most ordinary
animals, If you will, away from his par
ents when he is very young and never
let him associate with his kind, and yet
that animal will develop the mental char
acteristics of his family, not one mem
Der of which. perhaps, he has ever seen
since he was a few weeks old. Some
years ago a friend was talking to a
professor of one of the New England
colleges. He said: Il do not believe all
this stuff told about beavers being able
to build dams" The professor sadd moth
ing at the time. A few weeks later he
sent his skeptical friend little baby
beaver, which he had bought from a
hunter. This beaver became tame pet
in the family. The beaver, If rightly do
INVESTIGATED, becomes as lovable as a little
dog All went quietly for a time. The
any desire to build a dam. But one day
a lealSy pail was put in the back kitchen.
No sooner did the little animal see It
than he ran out fnj the yard and Drought
back a chip In his mouth and began
to build a dam. The skeptical friend or
the professor came in and saw the crea-
ture at work. He ordered the pail to
be left just where it was and kept fuli
of water As the water continued to
leak out of the pail the little beaver con-
tinued to work at his dam. And, says the
Lewiston Journal, from which the ac-
count was taken, within four weeks that
little beaver who had never seen another
beaver building, constructed solid dam
all around that leaking pail.
The Theory of Mental Inheritance.
So it is with the inherited abilities of
the humand mind A child may be taken
from his parents when young, yet that
child's mind will to a certain extent, be
a reproduction of some ancestors mind,
whom he may never have seen or heard
of. This fact can be demonstrated in
many ways. I was never more impressed
with this theory of mental Inheritance
than when some years, ago, was study
ing the statistics and the records of some
of our insanity experts DR.. Hammond
tells us of one family record which he
investigated. n iutl tldu TIL &C ClliAoi I'll.
One night while taking a warm bath
the father committed suicide by cutting
his throat with a razor Time passed on
and the Children grew up to manhood and
womanhood When the eldest boy reached
the age at which his father died he killed
himself in the same way. At the same
age the second son killed himself with a
razor In a warm bath. At the same age
the only remaining child, daughter
committed suicide in the same way. And,
stranger still, the only child of the daugh-
ter, at about the same age, killed himself
with a razor. Dare any one affirm that
the suicidal tendency of this father was
not inherited by the three children and
by the grandchild? DIR. strahan, in that
wonderful book entitled Suicide and In
sanity" gives illustration after illustra-
ton of parents afflicted with suicidal
mania whose children and grandchildren
and Observation-Disclosures have suffered
from the same fatal affliction.
Now. If we can inherit the mental weak
nesses of our forefathers we can also
inherit their mental strength. 1t is surely
something more than coincidence that
we have had in our national history
statesmen and patriots whose sons or
grandsons have served their country With
the ability of their ancestors and have
resembled them in mental calibre. The
Adamses. father and son, the Harrisons,
grandfather and grandson, in our list of
Presidents are conspicuous illustrations.
So we have seen the Beechers produce
ministers because their ancestors were
ministers. and the Rothsehilds produce
bankers because their ancestors were
bankers always did admire the policy
of the Presidents of the United States,
which Is to give a preference to the sons
x.hat how
make their appointments to West Point.
AS a rule 1t is far easier to make a
soldier out of boy whose father and
grandfather were soldiers than to make
| a soldier out of the son of merchant
| or out of one whose ancestors were tillers
| of the soil Learn the tendency OF your
minds by studying the records of your
| ancestors mental accomplishments Our
| mental aeumen comes from them as well
| as our physical equipment. Whose son
art thou?" From whom didst thou get
| the gray matter of thy brain?
Inheritance of Capacity.
We inherit our physical and mental ten
| denotes then but we do more than that.
| We also inherit our capacities. AS some
| people are born with a musical GIT or
an artists gift or with weak legs or with
weak eyes, or some people are born i'm
| ardly. Our way of dealing with Inc brain
| or the body Is Just as much an ancestral
| heritage as the body and the mind them
| selves Let me illustrate my Thought by a
very common Incident of everyday life;
| Here for instance, is a child born with
| the quality of cautionness we'll developed
| This chlld's father and mother and grand
| fathers and grandmothers were all eau
tious The male ancestors were not men
! of adventure They were not fishermen,
| defying the storms off the banks of New
| foundland But these ancestors werefquiet
| merchants of the city. What is the re-
| suit? The country boy who roams over
| the field barefooted laughs at the city
| boy as a coward BY birth and education
| he Is in direct contrast to him and Is
| afraid of nothing The horses hoofs and
| the barking dogs and the squirming
| snakes and the deadly tarantulas mean
| no more to him than so many harmless
| doves or fleeing cotton tail rabbits. In
| the one case the child both by birth and
| by education is a cautious child. while In
| the other the country boy, by birth and
education knows not what physical fear
means
| But let us go further and find this IN
! herited tendency in the moral and the
| spiritual life. Here, for instance, Is child
| born the son and the grandson and the
great grandson of criminals Oh, yes those
ancestors may have been physically brave
| They may have been brave as highway
| men to halt the stagecoaeh at the point
| Of the revolver or brave as unarmed Grim
/ teal. u,ra,ob Tho t,iStO1 ont of the graSr