180 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
When this exceedingly important and undeniable fact is 
mentioned, it generally causes great offence, and yet in 
_reality it is silently and universally acknowledged. For 
upon what else do the ideas of “hereditary sin,” “hereditary 
wisdom,” and “hereditary aristocracy,” etc., rest than upon 
the conviction that the quality of the human mind is trans- 
mitted by propagation—that is, by a purely material pro- 
cess—through the body, from the parents to the descendants? 
The recognition of this great importance of transmission by 
inheritance is shown in a number of human institutions, as 
for example, among many nations in the division into castes, 
such as the castes of warriors, castes of priests, and castes of 
labourers, ete. It is evident that the institution of such 
castes originally arose from the notion of the great import- 
ance of hereditary distinctions possessed by certain families, 
which it was presumed would always be transmitted 
by the parents to the children. The institution of an 
hereditary aristocracy and an hereditary monarchy is 
to be traced to the notion of such a transmission of special 
excellencies. However, it is unfortunately not only virtues, 
but also vices that are transmitted and accumulated by 
inheritance; and if, in the history of the world, we compare 
the different individuals of the different dynasties, we shall 
everywhere find a great number of proofs of the transmission 
of qualities by inheritance, but fewer of transmissions of 
virtues than of vices. Look only, for example, at the Roman 
emperors, at the Julii and the Claudii, or at the Bourbons in 
France, Spain, and Italy ! 
In fact, scarcely anywhere could we find such a number 
of striking examples of the remarkable transmission of 
bodily and mental features by inheritance, as in the history 
