s a matter of regret that the white race generally is such a sorry
mixture of humanity. The good and the bad, the intelligent and the
ignorant, the feeble-minded and the strong, the criminal and the righteous,
have been combined so frequently and in so many ways that the marvel
is that more of the human race are not degenerate as the result of
contamination. Since the great characteristic of heredity is to breed true
and thus perpetuate its kind, and since training and education must take
the individual as he is, with only limited power to change his intrinsic
nature or to develop any capacity not present at birth, it becomes a matter
of serious importance that parents do all in their power to guide properly
the mating of their children. The teaching of the Gospel on this point is
most significant.

Heredity determines to a great extent the kind and the nature of the
individual, and thereby sets limits, which the environment may not
overcome. Among these limitations are the following:

1. The relative strength of instincts.

2. The number and kind of capacities.

3. The form, size and quality of bodily organs.

4. Susceptibility to, or power to resist disease.

5. The possibilities of mental attainment.

6. The possibilities of emotional and spiritual response.

7. The possibility to execute undertakings, to control situations, and to
govern self as well as others.

Heredity also endows a person with his peculiar temperament, with his good
or bad looks, and with the chief components of what is called personality.
On the other hand, training and education have almost everything to say
respecting the relative standing of the individual among the members of his
kind--whether or not he shall be a blighted or a perfect specimen. A fine,
sweet, juicy crabapple is more desirable than a scrubby, diseased Jonathan.

It is the province of training and education to take the individual as he
is born, and endeavor to make of him a perfect specimen of his kind. "A
child left to himself bringeth his parents to shame." If left alone or
improperly trained, a child is almost certain to revert to a lower type of
individual. The same high possibilities that, properly directed, produce
the superior being, if neglected, or subjected to a vicious environment,
produce the moral degenerate. The child is born morally neither good nor
bad, and while inherited tendencies may make development in one direction
easier than in another, it is