i8 4 EVOLUTION AND NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



most cases those which arise from vicious or 

 unhealthy habits of life. These, affecting as they 

 must the whole constitution, are necessarily 

 transmitted, as well as useful or harmless pecu- 

 liarities, for our modern forms of civilisation do 

 not compel the inevitable destruction of those 

 who are not altogether " the fittest." Besides 

 the moral checks, and motives to improvement 

 of life or habits which such diseases impose, the 

 force of the principle of inheritance is much 

 modified in the human race by precept, example, 

 and the force of circumstances. Here we behold 

 the real meaning of the term " original sin" 

 (whether our present lives have any connection 

 with a forgotten past or not) and it depends 

 solely on ourselves whether we shall free our- 

 selves, as far as lies in our power, from inherited 

 or acquired evils, and transmit a sounder bodily 

 and mental constitution to our children than we 

 have received from our parents, or whether 

 we shall yield to evil, and hand down curses 

 instead of blessings to our descendants. 



Many remarkable statements have been pub- 

 lished. as to the proportions of the sexes being 

 dependent on the requirements of society, even 

 when these are merely temporary and artificial. 



