1802. ] 
The opinion of the Pythygoreans is ex- 
prefs on the fubjeét. Ina fragment quoted 
by Stobeus we find the enfuing obferva- 
tions :— 
*¢ *Thofe who breed any other kind of 
living creatures ufe their utmoft endea- 
vours to produce a generous race, but 
men beget their offspring negligently, and 
without care; this is the chief and moft 
manifeft caufe that fo many men are: fo 
evil and wicked.” 
The doétcines of the Stoics and Pla- 
tonifts were alfo highly favourable to this 
Virtuous procreation. ‘* Well” begotten 
(svyecvz) with the former, denoted the 
pofleiiion of every virtue; and the reader 
has only to confult Porphyrius de Abfti- 
hentia, to be convinced how intimately, 
according to the opinion of the latter, 
virtue is connected with the peculiar ha-. 
bits of the body. 
Were authority allowed to decide this 
queftion, in addition to the above, we 
might call to our aid that of Ariftotle, 
Horace, Valerius Maximus,. and many 
others: but laying thefe afide, we will 
endeavour to eftablifh the point by the 
more certain teft of reafon and experience. 
If virtue be hereditary, the children of 
virtuous parents muft unavoidably par- 
take of it accordingly. Do not we find 
this to be very generally the cafe; what 
placidity of temper, and congeniality of 
difpofition, do we difcover in every mein- 
ber of a virtuous family! Vice and in- 
famy are banifhed from its dwelling. 
Whoever heard of fons of the upright and 
induftrious defcending to commit even the 
peccadilloes that ftain the characters of the 
more mixed race? Suchacircumftancewould 
excite as much furprize as the difcovery 
of honefty in a Jew, or violence of paffion’ 
in a Quaker. ' 
It has -been the fafhionable do&trine of 
the prefent day, that man comes into the 
world a mere charte blanche; that he is 
indebted for every thing to his impref- 
fions and education. How weak and ill- 
founded is fuch an idea? Could we fearch 
the annals of Newgate, I have no doubt 
but we fhould find the halter to be as re- 
gularly tranfmitted from the father to the 
fon as the crown can be in the bett efta- 
blifhed monarchy in Europe. ‘That the 
anterior ftamp of nature is much more 
deep and important than any pofterior one 
can be, is proved by the frequent ill fuc- 
cefs of education; and I have no doubt 
BSE EERO (SS Nee re 
_ * Stanley’s Nat. Hift, part 9: The original 
1¢ Not at hand. 
Thoughts ok inherited Virtue. a 
we 
that if the fon of the moft virtuous cha- 
ragter were educated in the company of 
the moft abandoned, and wice verfa, the 
original imprefiion in either inftance would 
be too {trong to be at all obliterated, 
In order to prove that qualities are not 
hereditary, the inftances of the fons of 
Alcibiades, Pericles, Socrates, Brutus, 
Scipio, Cicero, Germanicus, Antoninus, 
Oliver Cromwell, and many others, will, 
perhaps, be quoted.. We fhall, perhaps, 
be intormed, that hardly an affize is holden 
in which the fon of fome poor but honeft 
parents dees not undergo the fentence of 
the law ; that it is hardly poffible to find, 
in any family, two of the fame dilpoh- 
tions and puriuits; and laftly, if quali- 
ties are hereditary, where is the progeny 
of thofe virtuous and independant cha- 
racters that have fhone fo confpicuoufly 
for wifdom and patriotifm in every period 
of the Eneolih hiftory ? 
But to thefe trifling objeétions may. it 
not be fairly urged—xz. There is a great 
difficulty, efpecially in the prefent day, 
in afcertaining who are the genuine off- 
fpring of a family-—2. It often happens 
that the virtues of a hufband may be 
marred by vices of the wife, and contra- 
riwife—3. That fome characters are, by 
turns, both virtsous and vicious, which 
may account, in fome degree, for the dif- 
ference obfervable in their progeny; and 
—4. Though there are fome who might 
merit the appellation of virtuous, yet 
their virtue has not acquired fufficient 
permanency to be in them certainly coz- 
genite. 
If, after all, there fhould be a few 
points to which it is impoffible to give an 
anfwer entirely fatisfa¢tory, ought this 
circumftance to overthrow a fyftem fo im- 
portant in its nature ard confequences ? 
Who is there fo cold-blooded as not to 
rejoice at the difcovery, that health and 
Virtue may with equal certainty be 
propagated co pofterity! And how ought 
every new-married couple to cogitate on 
this moft pregnant fubjeét! This doctrine 
once eftablifhed, how will the fon execrate 
the memory of his vicious anceftry, who 
have deprived him, for ever, of the power 
of becoming virtuous; and how will the 
certain knowledge, that the iniquity of the 
father defcends to the third and fourth 
generation, induce him to ceafe from the 
propagation of the race of fuch pettilent 
beings as himfelf + 
The greateft political advantages alfo 
might be reapt from the general admiffion 
of this principle. I intend, in fome fu- 
4, ture 
