human
His earnest purpose in life will be his protection, Mrs. Whitford. Work, ambition, devotion to a science or profession have in them an aegis of safety. The weak and the idle are most in danger.
gpt
It is wrong, I have sometimes thought, said Mrs. Whitford speaking both to the physician and the clergyman,
human
Society doesn't care much for anything but its own gratification, replied Dr. Hillhouse,
gpt
Rather hard on society,
human
Now take, for instance, its drinking customs, its toleration and participation in the freest public and private dispensation of intoxicating liquors to all classes, weak or strong, young or old. Is there not danger in this--great danger? I think I understand you, Mrs. Whitford.
gpt
Yes, doctor, you understand me; and dropping her voice to a lower tone, Mrs. Whitford added:
human
There are wives and mothers and sisters not a few here to-night whose hearts, though they may wear smiles on their faces, are ill at ease, and some of them will go home from these festivities sadder than when they came.
gpt
Right about that, said the doctor to himself as he turned away, a friend of Mrs. Whitford's having come up at the moment and interrupted the conversation--
human
Our friend isn't just herself to-night, remarked Mr. Elliott as he and Dr. Hillhouse moved across the room.
gpt
A little dyspeptic, maybe, and so inclined to look on the dark side of things. She has little cause, I should think, to be anxious for her own son or husband. I never saw Mr. Whitford the worse for wine; and as for Ellis, his earnest purpose in life, as you so well said just now, will hold him above the reach of temptation.
human
On the contrary, she has cause for great anxiety,
gpt
You surprise me. What reason have you for saying this?
human
A professional one--a reason grounded in pathology.
gpt
Ah?
human
The young man inherits, I fear, a depraved appetite.
gpt
Oh no. I happen to be too well acquainted with his father to accept that view of the case.
human
His father is well enough, replied Dr. Hillhouse,
gpt
If the depraved appetite has not shown itself in the children, it will hardly trouble the grandchildren, said Mr. Elliott.
human
Your fear is groundless, doctor. If Ellis were my son, I should feel no particular anxiety about him.
gpt
If he were your son, replied Dr. Hillhouse,
human
I am not so sure about your feeling no concern. Our personal interest in a thing is apt to give it a new importance. But you are mistaken as to the breaking of hereditary influences in the second generation. Often hereditary peculiarities will show themselves in the third and fourth generation. It is no uncommon thing to see the grandmother's red hair reappear in her granddaughter, though her own child's hair was as black as a raven's wing. A crooked toe, a wart, a malformation, an epileptic tendency, a swart or fair complexion, may disappear in all the children of a family, and show itself again in the grand-or great-grandchildren. Mental and moral conditions reappear in like manner. In medical literature we have many curious illustrations of this law of hereditary transmission and its strange freaks and anomalies.
gpt
They are among the curiosities of your literature, said Mr. Elliott, speaking as though not inclined to give much weight to the doctor's views--
human
The law of hereditary transmission, replied Dr. Hillhouse,