There were some bitter rebellious hours, when that thought
came to me. But to-day light has shone upon me, and I know there is
a law of Divine Heredity which is greater and more powerful than any
tendency we derive from parents or grandparents. I have believed
much in creeds all my life; and in the hour of great trials I found I
was leaning on broken reeds. I have now ceased to look to men or
books for truth--I have found it in my own soul. I acknowledge no
unfortunate tendencies from any earthly inheritance; centuries of
sinful or weak ancestors are as nothing beside the God within. The
divine and immortal ME is older than my ancestral tree; it is as old
as the universe. It is as old as the first great Cause of which it
is a part. Strong with this consciousness, I am prepared to meet the
world alone, and unafraid from this day onward. When I think of the
optimistic temperament, the good brain, and the vigorous body which
were naturally mine, and then of the wretched being who was my
legitimate sister, I know that I was rightly generated, however
unfortunately born, just as she was wrongly generated though legally
born.
"My father, I am told, married into a family whose crest is traced
back to the tenth century. I carry a coat-of-arms older yet--the
Cross; it dates back eighteen hundred years--yes, many thousand
years, and so I feel myself the nobler of the two.
Pages:
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181