length of time? A moment's reflection, then, on these considerations, will suffice to show the wisdom of that law of Divine order, by which it was ordained that human beings should be created not directly as at first, but indirectly through the instrumentality of other human beings;—in a word, that existence should be inherited from one to another, thus establishing at once the tender relation of parent and child, and all the other family and social ties.
But, this being understood, it will at once be seen that to this order of things a condition is attached. If existence be inherited, it necessarily follows that the quality of the existence will depend, in some degree at least, on the character and state of those from whom it is inherited. All, indeed, receive the principle of life directly from the Divine Being, who is Life itself and the sole Source of Life: and this is communicated to man, not merely at birth, but every moment afresh from its Divine Fountain. There is no such thing therefore as inheriting life: man merely inherits from his parents, organisms, or organic forms, fit to receive the life as it flows in from God. These organisms are two, a spiritual and a material: namely, the soul or mind, which is a spiritual organism, and the body which is a material organism. Now it is plain that the inherited organisms in the child, must be similar to those of the parents, resembling either the one parent or the other, or, more usually, partaking of the characters of both. Thus, then, the qualities of parents, both mental and physical, must descend to their offspring; in variously modified forms, indeed, such as are presented in the different dispositions and bodily states of children of the same family, yet having a common fun-
