that, independent of these, Nature has stamped an original impression on certain minds, which education may greatly alter or efface, but seldom so entirely as to prevent its traces being seen by an accurate observer.

"How a certain character or constitution of mind can be transmitted from a parent to a child is a question of more difficulty than importance. It is indeed equally difficult to account for the external resemblance of features, or for bodily diseases being transmitted from a parent to a child. But we never dream of a difficulty in explaining any appearance of nature which is exhibited to us every day. A proper attention to this subject would enable us to improve not only the constitutions but the characters of our posterity. Yet we every day see very sensible people, who are anxiously attentive to preserve or improve the breed of their horses, tainting the blood of their children,* and entailing on them not only the most loathsome diseases of the body, but madness, folly, and the most unworthy dispositions--and this, too, when they cannot plead being stimulated by necessity or impelled by passion."+

A French writer, who has written much sound as well as a good deal of false philosophy, observes that "physical organisation, of which moral is the offspring, transmits the same character from father to son through a succession of ages. The Apii were always haughty and inflexible, the Catos always severe. The whole line of the Guises were bold, rash, factious; compounded of the most insolent pride and the most seductive politeness. From Francis de Guise to him who, alone and in silence, went and put himself at the head of the people of Naples, they were all, in figure, in courage, and in turn of mind, above ordinary men. I have seen whole-length portraits of Francis de Guise, of the Balafré and his son they were all six feet high, with the same features, the same courage and boldness in the forehead, the eye, and the attitude. This continuity, this

To much the same effect Roger Ascham wrote more than two centuries ago: "It is pity that commonly more care is had, yea, and that among very wise men, to find out rather a cunning man for their horse than a cunning man for their children that sitteth in heaven laugheth their choice to scorn; He suffereth them to have tame and well-ordered horse, but wild and unfortunate children."-ED. 1893.

God

for

+"Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with those of the Animal World" (3rd edit., Lond., 1766), pp. 18, 19,

series of beings alike, is still more observable in animals ; and if as much care were taken to perpetuate fine races of men as some nations still take to prevent the mixing of the breeds of their horses and hounds, the genealogy would be written in the countenance and displayed in the manners."*

Dr. King, in speaking of the fatality which attended the House of Stewart, says: "If I were to ascribe their calamities to another cause (than an evil fate), or endeavour to account for them by any natural means, I should think they were chiefly owing to a certain obstinacy of temper, which appears to have been hereditary and inherent in all the Stewarts except Charles II.”

It is well known that of all the castes in Hindustan, that of the Brahmins is the highest in intelligence as well as in rank; and it is mentioned by the missionaries as an ascertained fact that their children are naturally more acute, intelligent, and docile than the children of the inferior castes, age and other circumstances being equal.

The character of the mother seems to have great influence in determining the qualities of the children, particularly when she has much force of character, and is superior in mental energy to her husband. There is perhaps no instance of a man of distinguished vigour and activity of mind whose mother did not display a considerable amount of the same qualities; and the fact of eminent men having so frequently children far inferior to themselves is in most cases explicable by the circumstance that men of talent often marry women whose minds are comparatively weak. When the mother's brain is very defective, the minds of the children are feeble. "We know," says Haller, "a very remarkable instance of two noble women, who were married on account of their wealth, although they were nearly idiots, and from whom the mental defect has extended for a century into several families, so that some of all their descendants still continue idiots in the fourth and even the fifth generation." In many families the qualities of both father and mother are seen blended in the children.

"In my own case," says a medical friend, "I can trace a very marked combination of the qualities of both parents.

*

"Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary"; article CATO. + Study of Medicine,” 2d edit,, Vol. IV., p. 187.

My father is a large-chested, strong, healthy man, with a large but not active brain; my mother was a spare, thin woman, with a highly nervous temperament, a rather delicate frame, and a mind of uncommon activity. Her brain I should suppose to have been of moderate size. I often think that to the father I am indebted for a strong frame and the enjoyment of excellent health, and to the mother for activity of mind and an excessive fondness for exertion. These things, and a hundred more, have been brought to my mind by the perusal of "The Constitution of Man."" Finally, it often happens that the mental peculiarities of the father are transmitted to some of the children, and those of the mother to others.

Mental qualities, then, are determined by the form and constitution of the brain; and these are transmitted by hereditary descent. This law, however faint or obscure it may appear in individual cases, becomes absolutely undeniable in that of nations. When we place in juxtaposition a number of Esquimo, Hindu, and Swiss skulls, we perceive a national form and distinctive peculiarities in each race, obtruding itself upon our notice, and corresponding with the mental characters of the respective tribes; the cerebral development of one tribe is seen to differ as widely from that of another as the European mind does from that of the Hindu. Each Esquimo and Hindu inherits from his parents a certain general type of head; and so does each European. And if the general forms of brain are thus palpably transmitted, can we doubt that the individual varieties follow the same rule, modified slightly by causes peculiar to the parents of the individual?

The differences of national character are as conspicuous as those of national brain, and it is surprising how permanently both endure. It is observed by an author, cited in the Edinburgh Review, that "the Vicentine district is, as every one knows, and has been for ages, an integral part of the Venetian dominions, professing the same religion and governed by the same laws as the other continental provinces of Venice: yet the English character is not more different from the French than that of the Vicentine from the Paduan; while the contrast between the Vicentine and his other neighbour, the Veronese, is hardly less remarkable."

*Edin. Rev., Vol. XLII., p. 459.

An undeniable proof of the effect produced on the character and dispositions of children by the form of brain transmitted to them by hereditary descent is to be found in the progeny of marriages between Europeans, whose brains possess a favourable development of the moral and intellectual organs, and Hindus and American Indians, whose brains are inferior. All authors agree (and report the circumstance as singularly striking) that the children of such unions are decidedly superior in mental qualities to the native, while they are still inferior to the European parent. Sir John Franklin says that the half-breed American Indians “are, upon the whole, a good-looking people, and where the experiments have been made, have shown much expertness in learning and willingness to be taught; they have, however, been sadly neglected."* He adds: "It has been remarked, I do not know with what truth, that half-breeds show more personal courage than the pure breeds."

The writers on South America mention that the offspring of aboriginal and Spanish parents constitute the most active, vigorous, and powerful portion of the inhabitants of these countries, and that many of them rose to high commands during the revolutionary war. So similar is the case of the mixed race in Hindustan, that several authors have already pointed to them as destined to become the future sovereigns of India. They inherit from the native parent a certain adaptation to the climate, and from the European a higher development of brain; the two combined constituting their superiority.

If, then, form and constitution of brain are transmitted from parents to children, and if these determine the natural talents and dispositions, which in their turn exercise the greatest influence on the happiness of individuals through life, it becomes extremely important to discover the laws according to which this transmission takes place. At the first aspect of the question, three views present themselves for our consideration. In the first place, Is the constitution of brain, which the parents themselves inherited at birth, transmitted absolutely, so that the children, sex following sex, are exact copies, without variation or modification, of the one parent or the other? Or, secondly, Are the natural and inherent qualities of the father and mother combined, and transmitted in a modified form to the offspring? Or,

* "First Journey," p. 86.

thirdly, Are the qualities of the children determined jointly by the constitution of the stock, and by the faculties which predominate in power and activity in the parents at the particular time when the organic existence of each child commences?

We learn by observation that the first is not the law; for, as often mentioned, a real law of nature admits of no exceptions. It is well established that the brains of children are not exact copies, without variation or modification, of those of the parents, sex following sex. Neither can the second be the law; because it is equally certain that the brains of children, although sometimes, are not always, exactly blended reproductions of those of the father and mother. If this law prevailed, no child would be a copy of the father, none a copy of the mother or of any collateral relation; but each would be invariably a compound of the two parents, and all the children would be exactly alike, sex alone excepted. Observation enables us to say that this is not the law. What, then, does experience say to the third idea that the form of the brain of each child is determined by the particular qualities of the stock, combined with those which predominated in the parents when its existence commenced?

Firstly, We may suppose the law of hereditary descent to apply to all qualities, whether good or bad.

I have already adverted to the influence of the stock, and shall now illustrate that of the condition of the parents when existence is communicated. For this purpose we may consider-1st, The transmission of factitious or temporary conditions of the body; 2dly, The transmission of acquired habits; 3dly, The appearance of peculiarities in children in consequence of impressions made on the mind of the mother; and, 4thly, The transmission of temporary mental and bodily qualities.*

1. With respect to the first of these topics, Dr. Prichard states the result of his investigation to be, first, that the organisation of the offspring is always modelled according to the type of the original structure of the parent; and secondly, "that changes produced by external causes in the appearance or constitution of the individual are temporary;

*On these questions the reader will find much information and material for reflection in Mr. Darwin's treatise "On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection "; London, 1860. See also an article in the British Quarterly Review for January, 1859.—Ep.