er power of
self-control; that is worth working for, isn't it? If, when I was of
your age, I had begun to govern my temper, I should have been helping
you. So it is in every field of effort. If you are a good student and
cultivate your mental powers to the best of your ability, you will make
it easier for your children to be good students. Now, in your young
girlhood, you are working to help future generations."

"But maybe I'll never have any children, mamma; what then?"

"None of us can see our future, but if we are wise we will prepare
for the probabilities. At your age I could not be sure that I would ever
be a mother, and now I have several children to call forth every power
that I possess through inheritance or by education. You are not sorry
that in many ways I was wise enough so to cultivate myself that you
have inherited desirable qualities; and you have cause to regret that
I did not know now to do better for you. You can learn through my
failures, and be kinder to your children than I have been to you. I
can assure you of one thing,--even if you never have children, you
will never regret having cultivated yourself in every talent and
virtue, but you may have great cause for sorrow if you fail to develop
the best in yourself. There is no grief in the world like that caused
by wilful or wicked sons and daughters. Their waywardness brings not
only sorrow but self-condemnation on the parents who must feel that in
some way they have been to blame, either in the inheritance they
passed on or the training they gave. And there is no happiness equal
to the just pride felt in honorable children. As Solomon says:
'Children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of
children are their fathers.'"

Helen was silent a moment and then asked, "Don't you think the law of
heredity a very cruel law? It doesn't seem fair that children should be
punished for the sins of their parents."

"God's laws are never cruel, dear. They are always made for our good,
and they will be for our good, if we use them rightly. Harry Severn fell
yesterday from a scaffold and broke his leg because of the law of
gravitation. You might say that was a cruel law, and that God was unkind
to make such a law whereby we can be so seriously injured. But think for
one moment what that law means in the universe. If it were not for this
mysterious force which we call gravitation, the whole creation would be
in chaos. Nothing would stay in place, b