When this exceedingly important and undeniable fact is mentioned, it generally causes great offence, and yet in reality it is silently and universally acknowledged. For upon what else do the ideas of “hereditary sin,” “hereditary wisdom,” and “hereditary aristocracy,” etc., rest than upon the conviction that the _quality of the human mind_ is transmitted by propagation—that is, by a purely _material_ process—through the body, from the parents to the descendants? The recognition of this great importance of transmission by inheritance is shown in a number of human institutions, as for example, among many nations in the division into castes, such as the castes of warriors, castes of priests, and castes of labourers, etc. It is evident that the institution of such castes originally arose from the notion of the great importance of hereditary distinctions possessed by certain families, which it was presumed would always be transmitted by the parents to the children. The institution of an hereditary aristocracy and an hereditary monarchy is to be traced to the notion of such a transmission of special excellencies. However, it is unfortunately not only virtues, but also vices that are transmitted and accumulated by inheritance; and if, in the history of the world, we compare the different individuals of the different dynasties, we shall everywhere find a great number of proofs of the transmission of qualities by inheritance, but fewer of transmissions of virtues than of vices. Look only, for example, at the Roman emperors, at the Julii and the Claudii, or at the Bourbons in France, Spain, and Italy!