HEREDITY. 363 



away, exposing tlie old barbarism of the under-nature ! The sanguinary 

 and destructive instincts of a people, once thoroughly let loose, can 

 overturn in a few days a social fabric painfully wrought by generations. 

 Of popular outbreaks of fury history has many terrible records, and 

 none more so than of those revolts against order which, as in the 

 French Revolution, had a core of justice in them. The natural diifer- 

 ences among men in ability are very marked ; much less so are their 

 different capabilities of enjoying the rewards of skill and power: hence 

 inevitably arise discontent and the ignoble spirit of envy ; any arti- 

 ficial increase of the gulfs drawn by Nature between one man and 

 another excites this discontent and envy by a conviction of injustice, 

 and endano-ers order. From these causes the artificial enrichment of 

 nobles and clergy by exemption from taxation has again and again 

 deluo-ed Europe with blood ; and the enormous accumulations of prop- 

 erty in private hands by bequest and increment have even in Amer- 

 ica excited concern. In considering this subject. Mill proposed that 

 there should be a moderate limit to the amount one might legally re- 

 ceive by gifts and bequests ; and the same thinker, and others of equal 

 eminence, have declared their conviction that land shall at some future 

 time, near or remote, be redistributed on some equitable plan. 



The law of heredity has an important bearing, not onl}'- on questions 

 of education and property, but also on the problem as to the best treat- 

 ment of the criminal classes. Since the human character is so much 

 dependent on inheritance, and so indelibly impressed by depraved asso- 

 ciations in early life, it is thought that all incorrigible offenders, as 

 soon as their state can be proved, should in some right way, by impris- 

 onment or otherwise, be prevented from propagating their kind. Dr. 

 Duo-dale, of New York, followed the lines of descent from one Mar- 

 garet Jukes, through six generations, including in all seven hundred 

 and nine persons — thieves, prostitutes, murderers, and idiots. The 

 Chinese so firmly believe depravity to be a taint of blood, that a crimi- 

 nal's father and grandfather are sometimes required to perish with him ; 

 conversely, this nation of ancestor-worshipers deem a man so much 

 indebted to his parents for all that makes him great, that when a citi- 

 zen is ennobled for eminent services, titles are bestowed upon the as- 

 cending line of the family, and not the descending, as with us. 



Important as the relations of the law of heredity may be in the 

 various topics adverted to in this paper, none can be so much so as the 

 comprehension of the law, and obedience to it in marriage. The lower 

 animals are carefully bred, while men and women mate with rarely any 

 rational reflection as to their fitness for each other, thus often entailing 

 upon themselves and their offspring woes unspeakable. The plain sense 

 which should forbid the consumptive, syphilitic, or scrofulous, from 

 marrying is disregarded, and the results are terrible. When one's con- 

 stitution is impaired by some not serious organic ailment, special pains 

 should be taken to avoid the like in selecting a partner for life. Physi- 



