48 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



many "unexplored remainders." For a time, and 

 for no manifest reason, one quality will neutralize 

 another ; but the great fact remains beyond chal- 

 lenge that the past is at work in the present, its 

 power reaching down through the ages, to all the 

 race, modifying every human life, touching and 

 influencing every individual's thought and will, 

 and, more than any other force, colouring history. 

 A question of tremendous import arises at this 

 point. Is heredity as active in the direction of 

 blessing as of bane .'' Is a tendency toward virtue 

 as surely transmitted as a tendency toward vice .-' 

 We should expect the law to work impartially 

 whether for good or for ill ; yet, as a matter of 

 fact, the most striking examples of heredity seem 

 to be in the line of evil. There are special rea- 

 sons for this. A process of decay is always more 

 rapid than a process of growth. An apple rots 

 more quickly than it ripens. The spread of poison 

 in the blood is quicker than its possible eradication 

 from the system. There is nothing to indicate 

 that a perfectly pure and virtuous man would not 

 as surely and readily transmit a tendency toward 

 purity and virtue as some men do toward the 

 opposites of these ; but no man is perfectly pure 

 and virtuous. All are more or less corrupted and 

 perverted. A transmitted nature carries with it 



