SEVEN PRINCIPAL LAWS OF HEREDITY. 239 



anrest in men's minds on this whole topic. What do 

 you suppose the government means ? 



But now, what if it should be enacted in Massa- 

 chusetts, in addition to both these other laws, that 

 every habitually intemperate man shall transmit a 

 diseased constitution to his offspring, and that this 

 injury to the health of the children shall endure to 

 the third and fourth generation? Who would vote 

 for such a regulation? Where is the man educated 

 in Arnoldism, where is the man brought up on the 

 platitudes of Spencerian Nescience, where is the 

 person who thinks that, on the whole, whatever we 

 do, the nature of things is on our side, where is the 

 man that believes that it is safe to teach the people 

 to rely on an opportunity for repentance after death, 

 that would not exclaim with horror if a proposition 

 were; made to him to pass such a law: "Is thy ser- 

 vant a dog. that he should do this thing? " If Massa- 

 chusetts should adopt such a law, and execute it every 

 time, you would be sure of two things, at least : that 

 she is terribly partisan, and that she is terribly in 

 earnest. The Supreme Powers have enacted such a 

 law, and executed it every time ; and they have not 

 made an apology for six thousand years. [Ap- 

 plause.] 



Evidently, the first thing to be said about this ter- 

 rific earnestness of the, Powers above is what has al- 

 ready been hinted, — that the law of initial heredity 

 belongs to virtue just as much as to vice. Suppose 

 that when these laws were passed in Massachusetts, 

 it should also be enacted that every man who lives a 



