introduced not merely with the view of making the reader acquainted
with the antecedents of my honoured mother; but the much higher object
of illustrating the sovereign mercy of God, and tracing the growth of
the religious element in the family. Many a page deeply interesting
and instructive might be written which would unfold the grace of God
in the history of particular families, flowing as a stream of light
from generation to generation, or diffusing itself in the collateral
branches; here swelling as "broad rivers and streams," and there
narrowed down to a single channel. The causes of such alternations
might be profitably investigated, and recorded. The inquiry into one's
ancestry would thus answer a nobler purpose than the gratification of
human vanity, or the recovery of an alienated inheritance; it would
exhibit the influence of the past upon the present, afford important
lessons of encouragement or admonition, and discover our claim
perhaps, to something better than gold or silver "for the good man"
even though he is poor, "leaveth an inheritance to his children's
children." How far the moral character as well as the physical
constitution of a parent may affect the happiness and control the
destiny of his children, is a question, which may be incapable of an
exact and satisfactory solution; but the general fact, notwithstanding
some strange exceptions, (which however may not be altogether
incapable of explanation,) is sufficiently established, that examples
of singular excellence, or notorious profligacy may usually he traced
to seeds sown in a former generation. They are not therefore to be
altogether regarded in the light of isolated phenomena, but as the
result of causes, which may be more or less accurately determined.
At all events, God reveals himself as "a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate him, and SHEWING MERCY UNTO THOUSANDS OF
THEM THAT LOVE HIM AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS."