INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL HEREDITY 40 



the taints, the specks of decay, which have existed 

 in the parents or been handed down from ances- 

 tors ; and those degenerative tendencies will, in 

 the nature of the case, work faster than the re- 

 deeming, constructive ones. A tainted nature, 

 such as science, as well as religion, assures us 

 that we all have, will reproduce itself and its seeds 

 of death with it. That which is born of the spirit 

 is spirit ; but that which is born of spirit tainted 

 by the corruptions of the flesh is still tainted. 

 The best are only struggling upward. The presi- 

 dent of a great university said he would give 

 years of his life if he could forget the scenes 

 and thoughts which came to him from his youth. 

 Forces inside tend downward, and forces outside 

 co-operate. Therefore the operation of this law 

 in a redemptive process must be slower than its 

 operation in a deteriorating process, and spiritual 

 heredity will assert itself less quickly than sensual 

 heredity. Moreover, it is not to be forgotten that 

 it is rarely possible for virtuous conduct to produce 

 radical organic improvement in the body, while 

 bodily degeneration, and consequent structural 

 changes in the reproductive cells, are among the 

 most common effects of courses of vice. Further- 

 more, the time of reproduction in the human spe- 

 cies is largely when the passions are hot, and 



