Year: 1875

is a difference in the natural moral en-
dowments of individuals = differences
that are Just as marked as are the differ
ences in intelligence 1t is just as lmpos-
sible for the person born with weak NOR
al sensibilities to attain to the hlghes6
position of moral excellence, as 1t is tor
the simple-minded man to become devel-
oped by education into one of the most
illustrious intellectual men of the age
Genius in morals is inborn as we'll as IS
genius in intellect. There is an inherit
ed difference in the moral capacities OF
men, while all are possessed of sutflclent
moral capacity to enable them, under
favoring circumstances, to become Firtu-
Gus citizens; yet some of these, if expos
ed to vicious surroundings, lmbloe wee
through every pore as sponge takes IN
water. Vice is their natural element,
and if anything different is made OF
them, they must be transplanted to
purer atmosphere


There are others who by natural con-
stitution are virtuous Virtuous infiu-
ences find as ready response In their
minds as does the warm sunlight IN the
tree buds in Spring The favorlng mo-
ment needs but to arrive, and they burst
forth into luxuriant growth. The largest
class of men, however, occupy the inter
mediate position between those of the
highest moral endowments and those of
the most vicious inclinations. They are
not irresistibly impelled in either direc-
ton; but are as susceptible to virtuous
impulses as to vicious. Yet even here
there are infinite degrees. diversities, and
com binations of virtuous and vicious ten
denotes, and the vital point of the whole
matter is the question, what causes the
differences in the innate tendencies to
virtue or vice2 The answer must be,
that these vicious and virtuous tenden-
cies are inherited from the parents.


at is very singular, says DR.. Holmes,
"that we recognize all the bodily defects
that unfit a man for military service, and
all the intellectual ones that limit his
range of thought; but always talk at him
as though all the moral powers were per
feet. Some persons talk about
the human will as if it stood on some
high lookout, with plenty of light and
elbow-room, reaching to the horizon.
Doctors are constantly noticing how it is
tied up and darkened by inferior organi-
zation, by disease, and all sorts of crowd
ing interferences, until they get to look
upon Hottentots and Indians-and a
good many of our race, too-as kind of
self-conscious blood clocks, with very
limited power of selfdetermination and
they find it as hard to hold child ac-
countable in any moral point of view for
inheriting gout or asthma


The physiologist Burdach said "that
heritage has in reality more power over
our constitution and character, than all
the influences from without, whether
moral or physical"


"An acquired and habitual vice" says
DR.. Elom, will rarely fail to leave its
trace upon one or more of the offspring,
either in its original form or one eloself
allied. The habit Of the parent
becomes the all but irresistible instinct
of the child; the voluntary adopted and
cherished vice of the father or mother
becomes the overpowering impulse of the
son or daughter; the organic tendency is
excited to the uttermost and the power
of the will and of the conscience is pro-
portionately ENTHUSIASTICALLY consid-
erations in forming judgment on the
responsibility of those so fatally effected
by this direct inheritance of crime


The .propensities and tendencies to par
ticular. forms of virtue and vice are he
reditary, but not the acts themselves A
child is not guilty for possessing by in
heritance tendency to vice. He ineurs
guilt only SO far as he yields to that in.
nate tendency. To one so situated, life
is beset by perils unknown to more IA
vored natures, and if by the force of will





besetting SINS greater is the glory of the
victory and the greater is the praise due
to the hero


Drunken parents bring forth children
endowed with appetites that crave intox-
icating drinks, and their lives are beset
by fearful perils and terrible temptations
which one more favorably born fails to
comprehend or appreciate. Such chill
dren, if they are to be saved from an in
temperate life, need to have thrown
around them the most kindly influences
and the most strenuous protection from
temptation. Such unfortunate beings
can repeat with heartfelt earnestness,
Lead US not into temptation"


Children of dishonest parents will early
evince dishonest tendencies. So strong
will these tendencies often be found,
that with the utmost care and painstak-
ing in their training, the innate disposi-
tion cannot be fully eradicated. There
is want of the principle of honesty
which it is difficult to supply by the most
assiduous training.


Children of inveterate liars will assume
the parental vice almost with their first
words, and oftentimes all discipline fails
in eradicating the disposition to tell
falsehoods. Cruelty and immortality are ?
clearly Unbeatable. The despotic, cruel
and unrelenting Claudian family long
lourished at Rome 1t produced the
and detestable tyrant, Tiberius,
and at length ended after course of six
hundred years in the bloody Caligula,
and Agrippina, and then that
monster Nero.


Happy is the person whose virtuously
Inclined parents have transmitted to him
! .virtuous mind. To such the trials and
of life are shorn of half their
power for evil. Great is the responsible
ty of such an one that he should raise
till higher the foundations of morality
md virtue in the pure hearts of his own
,ffspring. Each parent, by strengthen
ng; purifying and ennobling his own
mind by a virtuous life, may impart to
lis children stronger tendencies TO vir-
ne than those were which he himself in
lerited. This a duty of each person in
he regeneration and uplifting of hui
nanity.


A curious superstition prevails on the
ele of sS - ffaa k1.ok 1Is