The question of the hereditary transmission of qualities, of the influence of both mind and body in determining the character of offspring, is a question of such vital importance that it cannot be disregarded even in the narrowest view of family welfare, and still less in any rational view of education, which lies at the base of national progress. This great question is still in its infancy, collected facts comparatively few, and the immense power of future development contained in it, hardly suspected by parents and philanthropists. We know already that various forms of disease, physical peculiarities, and mental qualities may all become hereditary; also that the tendency to drunkenness and to sensuality may be transmitted as surely as the tendency to insanity or to consumption. If we compare the mental and moral status of women in a Mahommedan country with the corresponding class of women in our own country, we perceive the effect which generations of simply sensual unions have produced on the character of the female population. The Christian idea of womanly characteristics is entirely reversed. The term ‘woman’ has become a by-word for untruth, irreligion, unchastity, and folly.[20]
The same observation may be made in so-called Christian countries under Mahommedan rule, in independent countries in close proximity to this degrading influence, and wherever the influence of unions whose key-note is sensuality, prevails. The woman is considered morally inferior. ‘She is man’s help, but not his helpmate. He guards and protects her, but it is as a man guards and protects a valuable horse or dog, getting all the service he can out of her, and rendering her in turn his half-contemptuous protection. He uncovers her face and lets her chat with her fellows in the courtyard, but he watches over her conduct with a jealous conviction that she is unable to guard herself. It is a modification, yet a development, of the Mussulman idea, and he seems to think if she has a soul to be saved he must manage to save it for her.’[21] Everyone who has observed society in Eastern Europe must be aware of the constant relation existing between the prevalence of sensuality and this moral degeneration of female character. This influence on the character is due, not only to the customs, religion, and circumstances which form the nation, but also to the accumulating influence of inherited qualities. The hereditary action produces tendencies in a particular direction in the offspring, which renders its development easier in that direction. It is only gradually, through education and the influence of heredity in a different direction, that the original tendency can be removed. But if all the circumstances of life favour its development, the individual, the family, and the nation will certainly display the result of these tendencies in full force.
A striking illustration of this subject has been published in the report of the New York Prison Association for 1876. An inquiry was undertaken by one of the members of the association, to ascertain the causes of crime and pauperism, as exhibited in a particular family or tribe of offenders called ‘The Jukes,’ which for nearly a century has inhabited one of the central counties of the State. The investigation is carried back for some five or six generations, the descendants numbering at least 1,200, and the number of persons whose biographies are condensed and collated is not less than 709. The facts in these criminal lives, which have grown in a century from one family into hundreds, are arranged in the order of their occurrence and the age given at which they took place, so that the relative importance of inherited tendencies and of immediate influences may be measured. The study of this family shows that the most general and potent cause, both of crime and pauperism, is the habit of licentiousness, with its result of bastardy and neglected and miseducated childhood. This tribe was traced back on the male side to two sons of a hard drinker named Max, living between 1720 and 1740, who became blind in his old age, transmitting blindness to some of his legitimate and illegitimate children. On the female side the race goes back to five sisters of bad character, two of whom intermarried with the two sons of Max, the lineage of three other sisters being also traced. In the course of the century, this family has remained an almost purely American family, inhabiting the same region of country in one of the finest States of the Union, largely intermarrying, and presenting an almost unbroken record of harlotry and crime. ‘The Jukes,’ says the report, ‘are not an exceptional race; analogous families may be found in every county of the State.’[22]
Conspicuous facts such as these, display in a striking manner the indubitable influence of mind in the exercise of the highest—the parental—function. We see as a positive fact that mental or moral qualities quite as much as physical peculiarities, tend to reproduce themselves in children. The mental quality or character of the parent must then be considered physiologically, as a positive element in the parental relation; thought, emotion, sensation, are all mental qualities. In human unions this great fact must be borne in mind. Any sneer at ‘sentiment’ proceeds from ignorance of facts. Happiness is as vivifying as sunshine, and is a potent element in the formation of a child. Hence arises the necessity of love between parents—love, the mental element, as distinguished from the simple physical instinct.
To understand the true relations of men and women in their bearing upon the race (relations which must determine the moral aim of education) the duality of sex and the peculiarity of the womanly organization must be recognised. Woman, having a special work to perform in family life, has special requirements and sharpened perceptions in relation to this work. She demands the constant presence of affection, an affection which alone can draw forth full response, and she possesses a perception which is almost a special instinct for detecting coldness or untruthfulness in the husband’s mental attitude towards her. The presence of unvarying affection has a real, material, as well as a moral power on the body and soul of a woman. Indifference or neglect is instantly felt. Sorrow, loneliness, jealousy, all constantly depressing emotions, exercise a powerful and injurious effect upon the sources of vital action. This physiological truth and the necessity of securing the full assent of the mother in the joint creation of superior offspring, are important facts bearing on the character and happiness of one-half of the human race, and influencing through that half the quality of offspring. These facts have not yet received the attention which so weighty a subject demands.
In pursuing the physiological inquiry, we are met by one remarkable fact which it is impossible to ignore, and which remains from age to age as a guide to the human race. This guide is found in the physiological fact of the equality in the birth of the sexes. This is a clear indication of the intention of Providence in relation to sexual union, a proof of the fundamental nature of the family group. Boys and girls are born in equal numbers all over the world, wherever our means of observation have extended, a slight excess of boys alone existing. Sadler writes: ‘The near equality in the birth of the sexes is an undoubted fact; it extends throughout Europe and wherever we have the means of accurate observation, the birth-rate being in the proportion of twenty-five boys to twenty-four girls.’[23] The injurious inequality which we so often find in a population is not Nature’s law, but is evidence of our social stupidity. It proves our sin against God’s design in the existence of brutal wars and our careless squandering of human life. All rational efforts for the improvement of society must be based upon Nature’s true intention—viz., the equality of the sexes in birth and in duration of life, not upon the false condition of inequality produced by our own ignorance. It is essential always to bear in mind this distinction between the permanent fact and the temporary phenomenon.
The foregoing facts illustrate fundamental physiological truths. They show the Type of creation towards which the human constitution tends and the distinctive methods of growth by which that type must be reached. In brief recapitulation, these truths are the following—viz., the slowness of human growth; the successive development of the human faculties; the injury caused by subverting the natural order of growth; the necessity of governing this order of growth by the control of Reason; the influence of Mind—i.e., Thought, Emotion, Will—on the development or condition of our organization; the necessity of considering the dual character of sex; the transmission of qualities by parents to their children; the natural equality in the creation of the sexes.
These truths, which are of universal application to human beings, furnish a Physiological Guide, showing the true laws of sex, in relation to human progress. We find that the laws of physiology point in one practical direction—viz., to the family—as the only institution which secures their observance; they show the necessity of the self-control of chastity in the young man and the young woman, as the only way to secure the strong mental and physical qualities requisite in the parental relation, whilst they also prove the special influence exerted by mutual love in the great work of Maternity. The preparation, therefore, of youth for family life should be the great aim of their sexual education.
Experience as well as Reason confirms the direct and indirect teaching of Physiology; they both point to the natural family group as the element out of which a healthy society grows. It is only in the family that the necessary conditions for this growth exist. The healthy and constantly varying development of children naturally constitutes the warmest interest of parents. Brothers and sisters are invaluable educators of one another; they are unique associates, creating a species of companionship that no other relation can supply. To enjoy this interest, to create this young companionship, to form this healthy germ of society, marriage must be unitary and permanent. A constantly deepening satisfaction should exist, arising from the steady growth together through life, from the identity of interest and from the strength of habit. Still farther we learn that such union should take place in the early period of complete adult life. Children should be the product of the first fresh vigour of parents. Everything that exhausts force or defers its freshest exercise is injurious to the Race. Customs of society or incorrect opinions which obstruct the union of men and women in their early vigour, which impair the happiness of either partner, or prevent the strong and steady growth of their union, impair their efficacy as parents, and are fatal to the highest welfare of our Race.