178 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



will be the grandmother of good grandchildren. If a 

 mother possesses a noticeable lack of moral qualities, her 

 daughter will display a like defect at a corresponding 

 age. If the mother be a kleptomaniac, the daughter 

 will be " light-fingered." The heels of a filly foaled 

 by a kicking dam can not be trusted. This is Nature ; 

 and who would have it otherwise ? Each kind repro- 

 duces itself, yet with a capability for improvement in 

 offspring. If the capacity for betterment were not in 

 the hereditary scheme, bad stock should be squelched 

 at once, and not be permitted to reproduce. As it is, 

 a better race is within the range of possibilities. By 

 crossings, trainings, and provident attentions to a 

 thousand influences more or less swerving, a breeder 

 of stock may develop desirable or valuable qualities 

 in the objects he would improve. Thus it is with hu- 

 man beings as a family or race we may rise in the 

 world or degenerate ; and the elevating and depress- 

 ing influences are not wholly beyond our control. If 

 a boy is ambitious enough to aspire to wealth and dis- 

 tinction, he may accomplish wonders he may mount 

 higher than he ever dreamed of ascending. What 

 possibilities are within the grasp of every fairly favored 

 youth ! What degradation and misery are in store 

 for those who follow their baser instincts, and trust 

 to the foolish proverb that " the world owes them a 

 living." How came the world thus in debt to any- 

 body? What values have the shiftless imparted 

 that they should be recompensed by an unearned 

 living ? 



But, I have departed in some degree from the 

 idea I aimed to elucidate. Let parents study the 

 favored and weak points in their offspring ; and let 

 them endeavor to be wise in the management of pe- 



