ed knowledge and the
increased sense of responsibility which have even now been attained.

Closely connected with these considerations on the diminution of death,
disease, and suffering by improved sanitary arrangements, is the
delicate subject of the propagation of hereditary disease. It is a
commonplace that the most important of all the acts of life, is that on
which men and women venture most thoughtlessly. But experience shews,
unmistakably, that there are many forms of disease, both mental and
bodily, which are transmitted from the parents to the children, and
that, consequently, the marriage of a diseased parent, or of a parent
with a tendency to disease, will probably be followed by the existence
of diseased children. In a matter of this kind, everything, of course,
depends on the amount of the risk incurred, that is to say, on the
extent of the evil and the probability of its transmission. The former
of these data is supplied by common observation, the latter by the
researches of the pathologist. It is for the moralist simply to draw
attention to the subject, and to insist on the responsibility attaching
to a knowledge of it. The marriages of persons who are very poor, and
have no reasonable prospect of bringing up children in health, decency,
and comfort, are open to similar considerations but, as in the last
case, I must content myself with simply adverting to the responsibility
attaching to them, and noting the extent to which that responsibility is
usually ignored. In connexion with this question, it may be added that
many of the attempts made by well-meaning people to alleviate poverty
and distress have, unfortunately, too often the effect of ultimately
aggravating those evils by diverting attention from their real causes. A
not unnatural reluctance to discuss or reflect on matters of this
delicate character, combined with the survival of maxims and sentiments
derived from an entirely different condition of society, are, doubtless,
to a great extent, the reasons of the backward condition of morality on
this subject.

The importance, from a social point of view, of the careful education of
children with reference to their future position in life has already
been considered, but, in connexion with the class of duties I am now
treating, I may draw attention to the obligation under which parents
lie, in this respect, to their children themselves. The ancient
morality, which was the product of the patriarchal