THE FUTURE OF SOCIETY 219 



ciples both of moral and physical heredity, curiously 

 enough, are unconsciously outraged by the author.^ 

 A vain, pompous, selfish, hypocritical, unscrupulous 

 father has a couple of pretty daughters engaged to 

 two young men, one of whom has been blind from 

 birth. The author seeks to enlist our sympathies 

 with his matrimonial scheme, and, so far as the 

 unreflecting portion of the public is concerned, 

 succeeds. Yet the two girls, charming though they 

 be in appearance, are presumably by hereditary 

 influence, that is to say, as the daughters of such 

 a father, moral lepers, born with a predisposition 

 to vice, while one of them mating with a blind man 

 may be expected to produce physically imperfect 

 children ! To those acquainted with the operation of 

 heredity the spectacle thus presented is as painful as 

 would be that of the beautiful and virtuous heroine 

 of a play, being forced to wed some old, deformed, and 

 miserly suitor. The performance of the comedy in 

 question passes without protest from tlie public of 

 the present day. If we mistake not, a time will 

 come when such a story will be utterly repugnant to 

 popular sentiment. 



How the difficulties connected with moral heredity 



* The Two Roses, by James Albery. 



