IX-AXD-IX BREEDING. IQl 



physical development is believed to depend on the ivis- 

 dom of the selection, upon the presence- of the desirable 

 hereditary qualities, and the absence of injurious ones, and 

 not upon relationship whether near or remote. 



It has fallen within the observation of most persons 

 that in the human race frequent intermarriages in the 

 same family for successive generations often tend to 

 degeneracy of both mind and body ; size and vigor 

 diminishing, and constitutional defects and diseases 

 being perpetuated and aggravated ; but neither in this 

 case is the result believed to be a necessary and inevi- 

 table consequence. Else how could it be, that Infinite 

 AVisdom, whose operations are ever in accordance with 

 the laws of his own institution, in originating a ''pe- 

 culiar people,'' chosen to be the depositories of intel- 

 lectual ar.d physical power, wealth and influence, and 

 who, in spite of oppression without parallel in the 

 world's history, have ever maintained the possession of 

 a goodly share of all these, — would have allowed their 

 first progenitor, Abraham, to marry his near kinswoman 

 Sarah, a half sister, niece or cousin, and Isaac their son 

 to wed his first cousin Eebecca, and Jacob who sprang 

 from that union, to marry first cousins, and their off- 

 spring for long generations to intermarry within their 

 own people and tribes alone ? At a later period, mar- 

 riages within certain degrees of consanguinity were 



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