210 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



I have thus tried to show how the race sins in 

 the individual. Men transmit tendencies to evil 

 to their descendants ; those tendencies result in 

 open sin, and those who start the evil are not 

 free from the blood of those who fall. Public 

 sentiment looks leniently on crimes, and speaks 

 sneeringly of virtues, and thus the weak, who 

 seldom make fine discriminations, are encouraged 

 in vicious courses. 



Those who give the heredity, and those who 

 make the sentiment, are sometimes more culpable 

 than those whose overt acts of wrong they abhor; 

 for they sin against greater light and with larger 

 ability to resist. 



Nothing in this chapter must be understood as 

 denying the ability of any to choose the good 

 when once it is presented. 



The problem of inheritance versus free will is 

 full of mystery, but of one thing we are sure, and 

 on it we must rest, — we all may choose the right. 

 Every one has some freedom ; none are utterly 

 driven to sin ; all who have done wrong are 

 conscious of their wrong ; none are altogether 

 able to excuse their guilt. But the crimes of 

 some are not so black as they seem to us at first; 

 while, on the other hand, large classes of respect- 

 able people are not so guiltless as they seem, are 



