PREF ACE "and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, take ye the eum of all the oon~ gregation of Israel, after their families, by the house of their father: with the number of their nanco. a "and they declared their podigrecs after their families, by the house of their fathers. ‘As the Lord commandod Noses, go he numbered them. (dum. 111-2, 16-19 Sgouember the daye of old, consider the yoaro of many generations; ask ‘thy father and he will shew thee, thy wlders, and they will tell theest + (dout. 52! "Those cought thoir rogister among those who ware reckoned by genealogy." (S2re 2:62; Noh 7:64)e ee The oldest inetatution among mm, uf which we havo any Imowledge, te the family. God created Adam and Eva, and planted thom castard in the gar= den, and from that day to this, tho fundamental condition of all human soct- ety contere in the family. when that fails, sverything faile. Undor these circumatances it is cloarly evident that the firet duty, and highest duty, of all wise stateenanship, io to protect, encourage, and purify the fauilys ‘The Bible, as a whale, in made up almost ontirely of incidents in the histow ry of a single family. Anation is simply an aggregation of. families. When ‘tho family Le weak, thy nation ie weak. If thie be true, then it cannot be unwise for a family to consider its conditions and history. In fact, it would soom to be ite highest duty to do so, and to put away overything that woakono it, and encourage everything that, strengthens ite In thio free and independent country of ours, where the fundamontal Low of the nation doclaros that all men aro created frew and equal, it hae botk! the habit of our people to micapply this declaration to the conditions of n ture, instuad of legislation, whore it belonge. The result has been that to many people it iv aloost » ain to havo had a grandfather. This cortainly te a grave mistake. averyone who considers the subject soriously must iow, and every otudent of biology DOSS know, that the governing forcoo of every life are to a very large extent the forces of heredity. "Por we aro the camo our fathers have bewn; We ace the same sights our fathers have socn— - We drink the same stream and view tho samo sun, dnd run the same courses our fathers have run." In ohort, we are borne upon thy currents of a etroam whose fountain hoad Lios for back in tho infinito past. Ws my dofloct thie stroum seme what; we may purify it vomowhat; we may, by skill and coura-o, evade ite rocks und whirlpoole eoncwhats but nevertheless down that ourrent we mst go, and what we get wo must get within ito ever-flowing waters. ‘The questions of heredity, theroforo, arc oorious questions—seriou» to uo, and serious to thoes who shall come after us. If the stream be a bad ond, lot uo endeavor to make it better for our childron. If we find on ug- ly rock in ito channel, we can at least mirk its location ao a warning to ‘thone who eball como after us. In thie light, tharafore, Genealogy io net foolishness, but wiedom. In thie light, Genealogy in "Philosophy toaching by examplu." Tn thie epirit wo ohould consider the facts of our family bio~ tory.