1 82 EVOL UTION AND NA TUEAL THEOL G Y. 



laws of Evolution as any other creature. We 

 now know that all mental and bodily pecu- 

 liarities are liable to be inherited, from the 

 most trifling habit to high genius.* The 

 highest genius, however, cannot be expected to 

 perpetuate itself directly, but indirectly, by 

 precept and example, for it is an unusual 

 development prophetic of the future capacities 

 of the race; especially when the genius of a 

 whole nation appears to culminate in one 

 man of unapproachable greatness (as in the 

 case of Christ) and then passes away for ever. 

 Hereditary influence is an immense power, 

 at present scarcely recognised, and which will 

 never perhaps be fully realised ; for it acts in a 

 mysterious, and at times apparently capricious 

 manner, which it is very difficult to explain or 

 understand. Among the lower animals, habits 

 wholly foreign to their wild nature become 

 hereditary under domestication. It is probable 

 that several of the habits of our modern civili- 

 sation become hereditary in a similar manner. 

 Girls learn sewing readily, but boys do not. 

 The tendency to speech, as well as accent, has 



* See Gallon's " Hereditary Genius ; " Dai win's "Descent of Man," etc. 



