A lady possessing a large brain and active temperament was employed professionally as a teacher of music. Her husband also had a fine temperament and a well-constituted brain, but his talents for music were only moderate. They had several children, all of whom were produced while the mother was in the full practice of her profession, and all now indicate superior musical abilities. They have learned to play on several instruments as if by instinct, and highly excel. In this case the original endowments of the mother, and her actual exercise of them, conspired to transmit them to her children.

The Margravine of Anspach observes that when a woman is likely to become a mother, she ought to be doubly careful of her temper; and, in particular, to indulge no ideas that are not cheerful, and no sentiments that are not kind. Such is the connection between the mind and body, that the features of the face are moulded commonly into an expression of the internal disposition; and is it not natural to think that an infant, before it is born, may be affected by the temper of its mother?"*

When two persons marry very young, the eldest of their children generally inherits a less favourable development of the moral and intellectual faculties than those produced in mature age. The animal organs in the human race are, in general, most vigorous in early life, and this energy appears to cause them to be then more strongly transmitted to offspring. Indeed, it is difficult to account for the wide varieties in the mental constitution of children of the same family, except on the principle that the faculties which predominate in vigour and activity in the parents, at the time when existence begins, determine the tendency of corresponding faculties to develop themselves largely in the children. The facts illustrative of the truth of this principle, which have been communicated to me and observed by myself, are so numerous that I regard it as highly probable.

If this be the law of nature, parents in whom combativeness and destructiveness are habitually active will transmit these faculties to their children, with a constitutional tendency to high development and excitement; while parents in whom the moral and intellectual faculties reign supreme will transmit these in predominant activity.

This view is in harmony with the fact that children

* "Memoirs," Vol. II., chap. viii.

generally, although not universally, resemble their parents in their mental qualities. The habitual mental condition of the parents will be determined by the qualities which predominate in their own brains; and, on the principle that predominance in activity and energy causes the transmission of similar qualities to the offspring, the children will generally resemble the parents. But they will not always do so; because even inferior characters, in whom the moral and intellectual faculties are deficient, may be occasionally exposed to external influences which, for the time, may excite them to unwonted vivacity; and, according to the rule now explained, a child dating its existence from that period may inherit a brain superior to that of the parent.

On the other hand, a person with an excellent moral development may, by some particular occurrence, have his animal propensities roused to more than usual vigour, and his moral sentiments thrown for a time into the shade and any offspring connected with this condition would prove inferior to himself in the development of the moral qualities, and greatly surpass him in the propensities.

It is a general remark that talent is not always hereditary. Two explanations may be offered of this fact. If the mental superiority belong only to one of the parents, it may disappear in those of the children who most closely resemble the other. Or, which also is a common occurrence, very energetic minds neglect the laws of health, exhaust and wear out the vital organs of the body, and hence transmit feeble constitutions to their offspring.

I repeat that I present these views merely as inferences strongly supported by facts, and consistent with known phenomena. If we suppose them to be true, they will greatly strengthen the motives for preserving the habitual supremacy of the moral sentiments and the intellect; since, by our doing so, improved moral and intellectual capacities may be conferred on offspring. If the world is arranged in harmony with all the faculties-the moral and intellectual powers, in cases of conflict, holding the supremacy-what a noble prospect would this law open up of the possibility of Man's ultimately becoming capable of placing himself more fully in accordance with the Divine. institutions than he has hitherto been able to do, and, in consequence, of reaping numberless enjoyments that appear destined for him by his

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Creator, and of avoiding thousands of miseries that now render life too often only a series of calamities.

The views here expounded also harmonise with the principle maintained in a former part of this Work-that, as activity in the faculties is the fountain of enjoyment, the whole constitution of nature is designedly framed to support them in that state. What scope for observation, reflection, exercise of the moral sentiments, and the regulation of animal impulse, does not this picture of nature present!

It is remarkable to what extent mere pecuniary interest excites men to investigate and observe the natural laws, while moral and rational considerations exert so small an influence in leading them to do so. Before an insurance company will undertake the risk of paying £100 on the death of any one, the following or similar questions must be answered by credible and intelligent witnesses :

"1. How long have you known Mr. A. B.?

"2. Has he had the gout?

"3. Has he had a spitting of blood, asthma, consumption, or other pulmonary complaint?

"4. Do you consider him at all pre-disposed to any of these complaints?

"5. Has he been afflicted with fits or mental derangement?

"6. Do you think his constitution perfectly good, in the common acceptation of the term ?

"7. Are his habits in every respect strictly regular and temperate?

8. Is he at present in good health?

"9. Is there anything in his form, habits of living, or business which you are of opinion may shorten his life?

10. What complaints are his family most subject to ? "11. Are you aware of any reason why an insurance might not safely be effected on his life?"

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CHAPTER IX.

MARRIAGE AND THE ORGANIC LAWS.

A MAN and a woman about to marry have, on an average the health and happiness of five human beings depending on their attention to considerations essentially the same as those described in the last chapter; and yet, how much less scrupulous are they than the dealers in money! "Before the parties," says Dr. Caldwell, "form a compact fraught with consequences so infinitely weighty, let the constitution and education of both be matured. They will then not only transmit to their offspring a better organisation, but be themselves, from the knowledge and experience they have attained, better prepared to improve it by cultivation. For I shall endeavour to make it appear that cultivation can improve it. When a skilful agriculturist wishes to amend his breed of cattle, he does not employ for that purpose immature animals. On the contrary, he carefully prevents their intercourse.

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"Experience, moreover, teaches him not to expect fruit of the best quality from immature fruit-trees or vines. The product of such crudeness is always defective. In like manner, marriages between boarding-school girls and striplings in or just out of college ought to be prohibited. În such cases prohibition is a duty, no less to the parties themselves than to their offspring and society. Marriages of the kind are rarely productive of anything desirable. Mischief and unhappiness of some sort are their natural fruit. triotism, therefore, philanthropy, and every feeling of kindness to human nature, call for their prevention. Objections resting on grounds not altogether dissimilar may be justly urged against young women marrying men far advanced in years. Old men should in no case contract marriages likely to prove fruitful. Age has impaired their constitutional qualities, which descending to their offspring, the practice tends to deteriorate our race. It is rare for the descendants of men far advanced in years to be distinguished for high qualities either of body or of mind.

"As respects persons seriously deformed, or in any way constitutionally enfeebled-the rickety and club-footed, for

instance, and those with distorted spines, or who are predisposed to insanity, scrofula, pulmonary consumption, gout, or epilepsy-all persons of this description should conscientiously abstain from matrimony. In a special manner, where both the male and female labour under an hereditary taint, they should make it a part of their duty to God and their posterity never to be thus united. Marriage in such individuals cannot be defended on moral ground, much less on that of public usefulness. It is selfish to an extent but little short of crime. Its abandonment or prevention would tend, in a high degree, to the improvement of mankind.”*

I am indebted for the following particulars to the medical gentleman already repeatedly quoted, who was induced to communicate them by the perusal of an early edition of the present treatise :-"If your Work has no other effect than that of turning attention to the laws which regulate marriage and propagation, it will have done a vast service, for on no point are such grievous errors committed. I often see in my own practice the most lamentable consequences resulting from neglect of these laws. There are certain families which I attend, where the constitutions of both parents are bad, and where, when anything happens to the children, it is almost impossible to cure them. An inflamed gland, a common cold, hangs about them for months, and almost defies removal. In other families, where the parents are strong and healthy, the children are easily cured of almost any complaint.

"I know a gentleman aged fifty, the only survivor of a family of six sons and three daughters, all of whom, with the exception of himself, died young of pulmonary consumption. He is a little man, with a narrow chest, and married a lady of a delicate constitution and bad lungs. She is a tall spare woman, with a chest still more deficient than his own. They have had a large family, all of whom die off regularly as they reach manhood and womanhood, in consequence of affections of the lungs. In the year 1833, two sons and a daughter died within a period of ten months. Two still survive, but they are both delicate, and there can be no doubt that when they arrive at maturity they will follow the rest. This is a most striking instance of punishment under the organic laws."

"Thoughts on Physical Education and the True Mode of Improv ing the Condition of Man," 2nd British edition, p. 9; Edin. 1844.