“There is nothing so true as the inheritance of consequences, except that one does not inherit the guilt. Even with the guilt there is sometimes the tendency to certain lines of action. ‘Nothing so hereditary as the drink craving,’ says the physician. So I suppose there may be a hereditary tendency in other directions. Some men--I have known some--cannot sit down to steady work; they must lie about in the sun; they must loaf; they have a _vitium_, an incurable disease, as incurable as a humpback, of indolence, mind and body. Some seem unable to remain honest--we all know examples of such men; some cannot possibly tell the truth. What I mean”--Leonard went on, clearing his own mind by putting his wandering thoughts into argumentative array--“is that the liability to temptation--the tendency--is inherited, but the necessity which forces a man to act is not inherited; that is due to himself. What says the Prophet again? ‘As I live, saith the Lord God’--saith the Lord God. It is magnificent; it is terrible in its depth of earnestness. He declares an inspiration; through him the Lord strengthens His own word--veritably strengthens His own word--by an oath, ‘As I live, saith the Lord God.’ Can you imagine anything stronger, more audacious, but for the eternal Verity that follows?” The speaker’s voice trembled; his cheek, touched by the setting sun, glowed; the light of the western sky filled his eyes. Constance, woman-like, trembled at the sight of the man who stood revealed to her--the new man--transformed by the experience of shames and sorrows. “As the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine; but if a man doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God.” “‘Saith the Lord God!’” Leonard repeated. “What must have been the faith of a man who could so attribute his words? How to sound the depths of his faith and his insight?” “He verily believed that he heard the voice of the Lord.”