RATIONAL LIFE 309 



observation the difference between natural law and 

 rational direction of conduct ; and it may lead with 

 great sense of security towards reliable discrimination 

 as to the wider bearings of heredity in the history of 

 man. For the risks we are not responsible ; for the 

 precautions all are responsible. 



Responsibility connected with knowledge of the 

 laws of heredity, rests on the parents ; no part of this 

 responsibility extends to offspring. Much importance 

 belongs to both sides of this statement. The respon 

 sibilities of parents are large. Their children s deepest 

 interests are involved in parental regard to these. 

 The child unborn will have its future decided by the 

 character of the stock from which it springs. There 

 is no law more severe. Physical health cared for and 

 cultivated by young men and by young women, as if 

 it were purely a thing of personal interest ; physical 

 health guarded by husband and wife, as if each were 

 but guarding the other s good, and sharing in the joy 

 of it, supply the surest provision for the physical gain 

 of their descendants. Feebleness may be transmitted, 

 for which grave responsibility belongs to the parents. 

 Thus, vigour of offspring may depend on rate of 

 increase within family history. A mother s strength 

 abated, will give a younger child a feebler frame, than 

 an earlier child has inherited. Parents burdened with 

 grief may extend depression into the life of descend 

 ants. There are wider reasons for self-command in 

 times of sorrow, than those of personal consolation. 

 There is no more serious aspect of responsibility than 

 that which is traced here as incidental to parentage. 

 It deserves to be more pondered than it has been. If 

 there be anything more serious still, it is connected 



