The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-10-08
LOOK WITHIN.

A very wise philosopher, not gifted u.. .r.
saving grace Of practically, once auuumc... ....
the way to reform a to begin OFF lis --.,a.
father. That remark, though it Lacks a.r rra..
teal working value, nevertheless contains rr.
food for thought. The growth of tile human ra..
from generation to generation Is proo..a that
sociologists have been working ON for many wear.
and much has been learned which seems 70. 10. IT,
REPUTABLE. Backed as they are by facr+ and F-
ures, the socoogists are in position to cnume-a-s
causes for degeneracy. criminal tendencies and r-
tuous conduct entirely outside of external iatr.
enees upon children and men and women. influences
which come from within the home, nurtured there
by the presence or absence of religion, teaching,
and religious life.
We are prone to look upon the external iuFg-
ences of the world upon ourselves and our chill
dren as the sole causes for our Deficiencies Weare
prone to lay drunkenness to the presence Of the
saIoon to lay the evils of gambling to the presence
of the race tracks and gambling houses Vet #
must be plain that these things, the presence If
which in society Is to be deplored appeal only to
the weaknesses of humanity to the inherited ar
acquired deficiencies, and that they would cease
to exist if the human race could be lifted above
them. To combat the external causes or wrong IS
to fight losing battle. To get down To primary
causes is to reach back into the past and begin he
reformation with the grandfathers This being
manifestly impossible the reformation must begin
with ourselves and through us our children.
The influences of environment and hereji.v
about which there has been an endless discussion
are nevertheless most potent in guiding the lives
of children into paths of right or wrong. There
can be but little doubt that the pathway. up OF
down. is marked out in the early years of boys
or girls life. The external influences of the world
will have little effect or the characters OF boys and
girls if they have been born right fed right raised
right and have had inculcated the imperishabLe
truths of Christianity, by precept and practice
Children depart from the paths of rectitudc from
the lack of one or all of these home influences
Vice is the great weakener, physical, mental and
moral And the sins of the father are visited upon
the children Of the third and fourth generation.
Criminals and buns are not made in day.
They are not made by the external influences in the
world; not by the saloon, the gambling house, the
brothe or the dive. The existence or these things
is evidence enough that humanity has not reached
that stage of development wherein there are no
internal domestic wrongs to be righted. They fur
nish outward manifestation Of inward
wrong. Like a fostering sore, they give outward
evidence of an inward disorder. Something back
of them. some great deep-seated moral deficiency,
something that has drained the vitality, the phys,-
cal. moral and mental stamina. and left the We
Tins without hope, without energy, robbed them
of intelligence and discrimination. aud that
thing is the Goddess irreligion which stalks the
world from end to end.