HEREDITY. 



Opposition to 



Parental 



Responsibility* 



Placing the 

 Blame Upon 

 God. 



that the soul might have a more fit abiding place, 

 a better instrument of expression during its weary 

 march on this mundane sphere. 



Some oppose heredity because it places respon- 

 sibility upon parents and holds them accountable 

 (in a measure at least) for the physical constitu- 

 tion, mentality and disposition of their offspring. 

 When a child is exceptionally bright it is usually 

 easy to discover the origin of its intelligence, but 

 when one is unfortunately born, parents can sel- 

 dom undertsand why it should be so. Self preser- 

 vation is a primary law in man's nature, therefore 

 it is no wonder that persons given to self indul- 

 gence and the abuse of the propensities, should 

 oppose the doctrine of heredity. It is much more 

 soothing to the conscience, and certainly sounds 

 better in society, to attribute the bad inheritance 

 of a child to blind chance or "Divine providence" 

 than to acknowledge it to be the result of the will- 

 ful violation of nature's lazvs. 



The old idea that God sends all the children in 

 a family, few or many, in rapid succession or far 

 apart, strong or weak, bright or stupid, good or 

 bad, and preordains their lives has little place in 

 the minds of the well informed. This malicious 

 doctrine, born of man's selfishness and paraded 

 under the cloak of religion has caused thousands 

 to be unfortunately born. Suppose we should 

 apply the same doctrine to the postnatal develop- 

 ment of children, pay no attention to their physical 

 welfare, intellectual training or moral develop- 

 ment, but just turn the whole matter over to 

 Providence and blind chance, what sort of 

 children would we raise? The proposition is 



