240 HEREDITY. 



virtuous life, every man who fills his soul with the 

 Divine Spirit, every man who by self-surrender to nat- 

 ural laws puts their power on his side, shall be blessed 

 above his anticipation, shall have good judgment 

 given him when he did not possess it before, shall 

 have health as a kind of perpetual intoxication, shall 

 have the power to transmit to another generation 

 better conditions than his own. You say that you 

 would vote for such a law, but not for its opposite. 

 Of course not. Man's vote is not asked for in the 

 passage of natural laws. It is not to be supposed, 

 that, because you would vote for what you call the 

 kind regulations, you would vote for the stern ones. 

 Not you ! Every thing must be callow and mucila- 

 ginous in your government. The government of the 

 universe is not callow at all. There is an Ebal yonder, 

 and a Gerizim also. With you, however, there must 

 be an upper, but not an under ; there must be a right 

 hand, but not a left hand ; there must be a before, 

 but not an after. But yonder different ideas pre- 

 vail. The truth is that your regulations, the moment 

 they were put in force, would become a curse, deep, 

 multiplex, immeasurable. 



Who does not see that the terrific seriousness of 

 the laws of hereditary descent, instead of being an 

 injustice, is a proclamation to every man to institute 

 a reform? Who does not see that the sternness of 

 what is done on the left hand pushes humanity into 

 the softness of the right hand ? Who does not see 

 that God makes all his chastisements like the mother's 

 tossing of her infant upon her knees ? This is for 



