Chapter 17—Heredity and Environment
The Power of Heredity—Consider the power of heredity, the
influence of evil associations and surroundings, the power of wrong
habits. Can we wonder that under such influences many become
degraded? Can we wonder that they should be slow to respond to
efforts for their uplifting?—
The Ministry of Healing, 168
(1905).
Children Often Inherit Disposition—As a rule, children inherit
the dispositions and tendencies of their parents and imitate their exam-
ple so that the sins of the parents are practiced by the children from
generation to generation. Thus the vileness and irreverence of Ham
were reproduced in his posterity, bringing a curse upon them for many
generations....
On the other hand, how richly rewarded was Shem’s respect for
his father; and what an illustrious line of holy men appears in his
posterity!—
Patriarchs and Prophets, 118
(1890).
Mothers Should Inform Themselves on Laws of Heredity—In
past generations, if mothers had informed themselves in regard to the
laws of their being, they would have understood that their constitutional
strength, as well as the tone of their morals and their mental faculties,
[143]
would in a great measure be represented in their offspring. Their
ignorance upon this subject, where so much is involved, is criminal.—
Healthful Living, 37, 1865
(Part 2) . (
Selected Messages 2:431
.)
Disease Transmitted From Parents to Children—Through the
successive generations since the Fall, the tendency has been continu-
ally downward. Disease has been transmitted from parents to children,
generation after generation. Even infants in the cradle suffer from
afflictions caused by the sins of the parents.
Moses, the first historian, gives quite a definite account of social
and individual life in the early days of the world’s history, but we find
no record that an infant was born blind, deaf, crippled, or imbecile.
Not an instance is recorded of a natural death in infancy, childhood,
or early manhood.... It was so rare for a son to die before his father
that such an occurrence was considered worthy of record: “Haran died
115