PHYSICAL HEREDITY 



33 



temptations, — slight in themselves and slight to 

 him, — as if swayed by a mechanical impulse, 

 apart from his own volition. It looked like an 

 organic defect, a congenital imperfection." ^ He 

 wrote of himself : — 



" O ! woful impotence of weak resolve, 

 Recorded rashly to the writer's shame, 



Days pass away, and time's large orbs revolve, 

 And every day beholds me still the same; 



Till oft neglected purpose loses aim, 



And hope becomes a flat, unheeded lie." 



Thus we are forced to face the fact that he who 

 forms his own character is at the same time help- 

 ing to form the character of subsequent gener- 

 ations. The pleasures of one generation may 

 become the curses of the next. The continuity 

 of the race is a terrible and remorseless reality. 

 Streams of tendency, hot with passion- and lust 

 and lurid with disease, flow from generation to 

 generation. We are not simply ourselves ; we 

 are also products of the past. 



These illustrations show in a general way the 

 operations of the law. But narrow the range of 

 observation. Particular qualities, dispositions, and 

 habits are subject to the operation of this law. 

 We now face a fact of solemn and awful signifi- 



^ A Physician's Problems^ Elam, p. 75. 

 D 



