TRAITS NOT TRANSMISSIBLE 97 



traits. Adam was as much an individual as any 

 other that lives after him. The law of heredity 

 will have no different effect in his case than if 

 he had not been humanity's only representative. 

 We dare to apply the law of heredity to him as 

 exactly and as comprehensively as we would if 

 there had been a thousand progenitors instead of 

 one. It was no different law because he was the 

 first man than if he had been in the second or the 

 tenth generation. If the law of heredity does not 

 transmit the acquired trait now, it would not do 

 so then. This doctrine, then, will be much affected 

 by our conclusion concerning this matter of fact. 

 It has never been contended that heredity can 

 operate to the restoration of humanity to his orig- 

 inal righteousness; yet it is difficult to see why 

 the law should not operate both ways if it oper- 

 ates at all.* 



*The opposite of our contention is widely held, and even taught by some writers 

 appealing to public influence. John B. Robins says: 



"We maintain that the best families religiously transmit better qualities to their 

 children than irreligious families; religious communities more than irreligious communi- 

 ties; and a religious nation more spiritual worth to its citizens than irreligious nations. 

 These are some of the practical results of heredity." (The Family, 129, cp. 137.) 



That he announces practical sequences in the above statement is too apparent 

 to need iteration, but that heredity is the law that accounts for it is a too swift and too 

 unscientific conclusion to announce. The cases mentioned cover heredity and envi- 

 ronment working together, which produce the results. But scientific observation is 

 against the conclusion that heredity alone will account for the transmission of religious 

 qualities. 



His Biblical illustrations are not much, if any, better than his scientific foundations. 

 He refers to the persistence of race qualities in the Jews. These qualities, however, 

 persist only while they remain under the peculiar Jewish environment and training. 

 Many Jews have left their race connections, have married with Gentiles, and given 

 up their religious culture. Does any one presume it to be possible to trace the blood 

 stream of Jewish parentage out into the Gentile peoples? The illustration proves that 

 as long as you maintain the Jewish environment, Jewish types persist; but heredity has 

 no power to perpetuate them as soon as this environment is abandoned. 



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