86 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



ink, lie ready to be evolved whenever the organism 

 is disturbed by certain known or unknown condi- 

 tions."^ 



How little the law of heredity is regarded in the 

 daily life of the community we all know; how im- 

 portant to the general welfare is a knowledge of its 

 principles the foregoing considerations abundantly 

 prove. Physical beauty is nearly always allowed to 

 outweigh moral beauty. It is true that physical 

 beauty is very often accompanied by goodness, but 

 the rule has many exceptions which men and 

 women habitually ignore. A man will decline to 

 marry a hunchback, but he seldom or never hesitates 

 to select as the mother of his children a pretty 

 woman because her father is a confirmed drunkard, or 

 because she has an aunt in a lunatic asylum. And 

 having done this, he is surprised to find that his son 

 in due time turns out to be a blackguard, or that 

 his daughter, despite the most careful training, takes 

 to the streets. Recently an ingenious writer, describ- 



1 Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestica- 

 tion. It is curious to compare this passage with one in Montaigne : 

 " Quel monstre est — ce que cette goutte de semence de quoy nous 

 sommes produits, qui jjorte en soy les impressions non de la forme 

 corporelle seulement mais des pcnsements et inclinations de uos 

 peres ! " 



