dicapped by the transmitted
results of the sins of our ancestors, we may say "There is no hope for
us, nor for our children." To us then will come, as special
"Good-tidings of great joy," the news that heredity is not fatality.
We are not obliged to sit and quietly bear the fetters our ancestors
have forged for us. We can break the chains, we can free ourselves. It
may be difficult, but it can be done, and a great incentive to the
effort is found in the fact that by success we not only improve
ourselves, but we can pass on a better inheritance to our posterity.

We may cultivate our health by obedience to its laws so as to overcome
inherited weaknesses to a very great extent. We are not absolutely
obliged to die with consumption because one of our parents did. By
simple living, and especially by deep breathing of pure air, we may so
strengthen ourselves that we will have the power to resist the
encroachments of the germ of tuberculosis.

We may be born with weak digestive power, but by plain, wholesome
fare, by freedom from worry, by a careful attention to all healthful
habits, we may grow strong and free from dyspeptic symptoms.

We can by cultivation of our minds and morals not only increase our
own powers, but add to the powers of our posterity.

Then, too, the effects of mental education are transmissible; not the
education itself, but an increased capacity, a new tendency. Every
mental activity is accompanied by an actual modifying influence on
brain structure, so that we are really building our brains by our
thoughts, and this increase of our own brains is transmissible to
posterity.

I know that some of our philosophers assert strongly that acquired
characteristics are not transmitted, and their theories seem quite
plausible; but I would rather accept facts than theories any time, and
Professor Elmer Gates has demonstrated that this theory does not
accord with the facts. He has trained dogs until they could recognize
seven or eight shades of green or red. The brains of these dogs, so
trained, show under the microscope a great increase of brain-cells in
the visual area, proving that the education has created actual brain
material. The progeny of these dogs, to several generations, shows at
birth a much larger number of brain-cells in the visual area than is
the case where the ancestry has not been so strained.

Where the dogs have been brought up in absolute darkness there is a
great lack of cells in the vi