Facts and arguments on the transmission of intellectual and moral qualities from parents to offspring.

Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Facts and arguments on the transmission of intellectual and moral qualities from parents to offspring. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    thers. Biography furnishes sufficient examples to prove the truth of this opinion. Those examples, however, require to be brought forward and forced upon general observation, for this is a theory that will require manifold and striking facts to establish it, as it will have to contend with the pride and preju- dice of the unreflecting.(c) though linked with humbler powers of mind—this mother trans- mitted to her son all the powers of her intellect, and the intense spirit of her character, but she had no moral excellence to implant them; she had none to cherish in his childhood. Out at a military review but a few days before his birth ; in camp during many months previous : surrounded with, and enjoying all the pomp and circumstance of war—familiarized with, and reconciled to its liorrors and anguish—it is no wonder that her son was born with an appetite for blood ; no wonder tliat during his life, the continent of Europe was made one vast altar, on which human sacrifice was offered to the ambition of a Na- poleon. Have such facts no interest for female minds'? Do we see nothing in them to arouse our noblest ambition—to stir the soul to noble execution ] Shall tlie voice of ages appeal to us in vainl Shall reason contiime to urge her claim upon us only to be denied 1 Shall duty plead in vain with us 1 Have the hap- piness of our children and of society no weight in our minds, compared with the follies of fashion, and tlie momentary pur- suit of pleasure] Are our patriotism and philanthropy worth- less, as they are asserted to be ? If not, let us prove it by show- ing that we can cast away trifles when they interfere with the discharge of our duty. If not, let us show that we are women, wortliy of being the mothers of a free nation.—(Mrs. E. W. Farnam.)