2o8 ORIGIX.AX SIN 



state after his fall has the nature of an acquired charac- 

 ter, it is to be noticed that, as we have proved by his 

 own language. Professor Weismann himself does not 

 venture to assert the absolute impossibiHty of trans- 

 mission of any functional modifications acquired dur- 

 ing the lifetime of parents. Certain acquired diseases 

 are admitted by him to be inherited, and we only need 

 to remember how naturally man's present moral state 

 is described in terms of disease to perceive the reason- 

 ableness of belief that it was ''acquired" by our first 

 parents and "transmitted" to their offspring. 



This point may well be enlarged upon. The fallen 

 state of mankind is conventionally described by theo- 

 logians as a corruption of nature,^ and its several efi'ects 

 are usuallv called ''woimds." ^ Accordins; to the ordi- 

 nary di\ision these wounds are four. The wound of 

 bhndness, or ignorance, has reduced man's capacity 

 to discern spiritual things; the wounds of concupiscence 

 and mahce have disturbed human affections in their 

 passive and active aspects; and the wound of weakness 

 has disabled thewiU in relation to the fulfilment of man's 

 chief end. The word "wound" is not, of course, here 

 used in its strict and physical sense, for it describes 

 moral conditions. But the mutual interaction of mind 

 and body is too well estabhshed intelligently to be 

 denied; and a disturbance of our moral nature must 



* In the ninth of our Articles of Religion, it is described as "the 

 fault and corruption of the Nature of every man." 



2 See St. Thomas Aq., Sum. Theol., I., II. xxxv. 3; A. P. Forbes, 

 Thirty Nine Articles, pp. 145-150. 



