one could soothe and manage her like her niece. Her son pitied her from his heart, but, not one whit understanding the reason of what, to his mind, was her causeless depression, he generally attempted to rouse her when she needed sympathy, and to sympathize with her when she only wanted to be assured and rallied. Until her support failed her, Mrs. Prescott never knew how entirely she had leaned upon Katherine. No one else understood her, no one else was a companion to her: and when mutual acquaintances would speak of her niece's altered appearance, how she avoided all society, looked pale, and worn by the devoted attention she paid to her sick husband, whose side she seldom left, Prescott learnt what there was to learn of | cause of these attacks, no her niece's extraordinary conduct. All of this she had to keep to herself; for, after a burst of outraged love and trust, on the receipt of a few lines from Katherine in defence of a step which she said he would one day understand and pardon, Sir Stephen would never hear her name mentioned. He began at once to make preparations for a lengthened tour, and, as soon as was possible after the announcement of the marriage, he was on his way; leaving poor Mrs. Prescott solitary and heart-broken, to brood over her shattered hopes. Many a bitter tear did she shed over Katherine's letters, which she had given a promise to her son she would not answer. Eagerly did she catch at every straw of gossip relating to the Mrs. Prescott's heart would ache for strangely matched couple; how that it the girl's sufferings, and she would long was impossible for Mr. Labouchere to to take her in her arms, and seek comfort live a year; that his wealth was enor- for both in their mutual bond of sorrow. mous; and that Mrs. Dormer (who had Well she knew that, though Katherine no managed the whole business) said every-longer wrote to her, her love was in no thing was left solely to her granddaughter, who she did not hesitate to add, would in all human probability soon be free. Free! and if so? would Śtephen ever forgive her? And Mrs. Prescott, remembering the fierce words her son had spoken, the bitter accusations he had brought against Katherine, shuddered as hope was swallowed up by fear. In a letter written the night before her marriage Katherine had said "It is to save our hopes from total wreck that I make a sacrifice, which you at least will comprehend, for you have often told me all that you have suffered for Stephen's sake; and surely it is worth giving up a few years of my life to know that our ambition is attained, and our aim accomplished; for I can make a will to-morrow leaving to whom I please the reversion of the money which will virtually then become mine, aunt. If Stephen will not see this, if he is bitter and misjudges me, entreat, plead for me, remembering that you have taught me that for those we love we can endure all things." way diminished. Each birthday or recurrent period of home festivity, some simple gift would arrive, with no word or donor's name, but showing how fondly the heart of the absent one still clung to the old memories. These little tokens Mrs. Prescott hoarded and treasured, often wondering, as she fondly handled them, if the old hopes, now growing dim, would ever be realized. Nearly five years had passed away, and Mr. Labouchere still lived-kept alive, it was said, by the unwearied care of his young wife. He had never dared to leave Italy, but moved from one invalid resort to another, according to the change of season and temperature. Old Mrs. Dormer had not lived to see Katharine sole possessor of the fortune she had procured for her. When she died, she left her all she had to leave; so that not a few spoke of the wonderful catch Mrs. Labouchere would one day be, and rather hinted that Sir Stephen would not remain long abroad after he heard that she was a widow. And at length the long-looked-for event came to pass, and Katherine, with her dead husband's body, returned rich and free to the country which, nearly six years before, she had left an affianced bride, poor in all save the lowe she had seemingly set small store upon. "Forgive me, Stephen, if I have been weak," wrote Mrs. Prescott some two months after her niece's arrival; "but when I learned that Katherine was in London, sorrowful and lonely like myself, more weight with Stephen than a volume spoken by any one else. Dear fellow, how I long to see him! It seems hard that you should go, Katey." with health gone and spirits broken, I could not refuse her entreaties to see me." Sir Stephen's answer was that, if, seeing his cousin afforded his mother any pleasure, he should be sorry to think any "But it is best, aunt, and I know you misgivings on his account would prevent will do better for me than I could do for her from gratifying her desire. Further, myself. I feel I cannot know any real he begged that she would entirely follow happiness until Stephen is reconciled to her own wishes, and if she desired to re-me, and we are friends again.” new her old terms of intimacy with her For thus the two, woman-like, fenced niece, he should be the last to place any with the word, and though they each knew barrier between them. the other's meaning, no warmer name Gradually therefore, and by slow de- than friendship had ever been given to grees, Mrs. Prescott and Katherine saw the tie sought to be renewed between the more and more of each other. At first cousins. Stephen's name was hardly mentioned; but as their conversations grew more Mrs. Prescott's whole mind was enlengthy and confidential, reserve was grossed by the one object of effecting a thrown aside, and they combined their reconciliation. Not a moment of the day energies to bring back the heart-broken lover, as they both secretly pictured him. So in each letter Mrs. Prescott wrote to her son, increased mention was made of Katherine; and because, though he did not answer, he did not forbid these remarks, much hope was indulged in that all might yet go well. From this time until her son's arrival but she was going through imaginary scenes in which she delicately, and seemingly unconsciously, led round to Katherine's name. This diplomatic opening well received, she proceeded to imagine what she should say, what he would say, the answers she should make, the arguments she should use, until she had the Mrs. Labouchere's first year of widow-crowning happiness to know that her hood was over, before Sir Stephen an- point was gained, and Stephen and Kathnounced to his mother that he was on his erine brought face to face. way to England and home. Indeed so much time did she spend in I shall go to Scotland at once," Kath-arranging and perfecting her plans, that erine said, as soon as their delight at the welcome intelligence had somewhat subsided. "It will be best for us not to meet until you find out how he feels towards me." "I fear," said Mrs. Prescott, "that we must be prepared for coldness at first and bitterness, too, Katherine. Stephen's love for you was of no common kind, and he has always been unreasonable about money. Oh! what a time that was !" she exclaimed, clasping her hands, as if in thankfulness for its being over. "I often wonder that I am alive after all I have gone through: - you lost to us; Stephen mad, reckless, not caring what became of anything. Why, each time he has come back, I have had to plead for keeping Pamphillon as if I was begging for a life." "Forget it now, dear aunt; you have forgiven me?" "Entirely; a temptation of that kind is so terrible. But Stephen will never understand it. Men forget that love makes women weak and prone to act from impulse. In some things Stephen is very hard." "Will he ever forgive me, aunt ?" "Oh! love changes a man's whole nature, and your slightest word had always she felt quite vexed when Stephen, on the evening of his arrival, during their afterdinner chat, said, in the most easy manner and unemotional tone of voice "And so you have seen a great deal of Katherine lately. How is she, and how is she looking?" Was it possible? Had she heard aright? She could scarce stammer out her confused answers. The tables were indeed turned. It was she who was to have been calm, and he ill at ease and agitated, and when he went on to make further inquiries about her plans, her house, her fortune, Mrs. Prescott was entirely puzzled and completely perplexed. "Perhaps you have no objection to meet her ?" she asked timidly. "I not the least; I expected to find her in town, perhaps here." 66 Certainly," reflected Mrs. Prescott, "Stephen is peculiar." And she decided that it was quite impossible to know how to deal with men, who she began to think had very little sensitiveness in their natures. "I only thought," she said, nettled by his coolness, "that after what has passed, you might still feel unwilling to meet her." "What, bear malice all my life?" he said, stretching himself into a more comfortable position, "because once upon a time she preferred a rich old gentleman to a spooney boy? On the contrary, I have lived to applaud her for such an uncommonly sensible decision, which has tended to enlarge my views considerably. In love, those who are first cured are best cured." "My dear boy, pray don't lay down those horrid maxims as any rule of life," said Mrs. Prescott, regarding her son with a troubled gaze; "I am sure they only tend to shake one's faith in everything and every person." Sir Stephen laughed. "Don't be alarmed, my dear mother," he said. "My doctrines are most sound, and my faith unshaken. All I want you to understand is this, that, as long as it affords you pleasure to receive your niece, it will give me no uneasiness to meet her." she elected, should now own the beauty he had so often praised? Yes, she had wonderfully recovered her good looks; her eyes were no longer surrounded by dark rims; her cheeks were fast regaining their roundness; and her fair pale complexion had once more the hue of health, which for a long time seemed gone for ever. "Oh! that time!" the shadow of it passing across her memory caused a shudder to run through her, and she turned away and sat down again to her letter, lingering over, and dwelling upon every sentence which related to Stephen and herself. 66 Rich, handsome, and free," not a few mouths watered over the good gifts fortune had so liberally lavished upon Katherine Labouchere; and thought, that if any one in the world was to be envied, it was the woman thus happily situated. Katherine herself perfectly concurred that the position she held was most desirable, and yet she wondered, whether to obtain this heaven of worldly good, many, knowing all, would consent to pass through the purgatory by which she had attained it. Mrs. Prescott kissed him as she thanked him, but she could not recover from her disappointment. Reflecting, after they had parted, on what he had said, she felt that her son had very much altered during these past six years. Each time he Influenced greatly by all she had heard had returned to her she had noticed a from her aunt, it was Katherine's earliest change, but now all the slight alterations dream of ambition to become the means had seemingly culminated in producing a of restoring the decayed splendour of man who thoroughly differed from the Pamphillon. Many a long hour had she ardent, impassioned lover Katherine beguiled in weaving a tangle of schemes Douglas had ruled and slighted. From a and plans by which this purpose was to natural love of home, and the constant be effected. Her aunt was to do this, companionship of the two in whom all his affections were centred, Sir Stephen had formerly seen but very little of the world, and so had retained a boyish freshness which his lady-love did not always appreciate. But these six years of absence and constant change now told in his altered bearing, and Mrs. Prescott saw but a fresh cause for fear lest Katherine should disapprove of the change, and her regard diminish in consequence. She betrayed, however, none of her anxiety in the letter which she at once despatched to Mrs. Labouchere. After giving a minute account of his arrival, his looks, and what he had said and done, she went on "And suddenly he spoke of you, asking me how you were, if you were at home, and how you were looking?" And with the triumphant smile which the reading of these words produced on her face, what wonder that Katherine Labouchere was satisfied with the answer her presence would give the man, who, Stephen was to become that, various peo- ing away the gifts of Providence, she | "Katherine, I have left everything to said, for a portionless girl to give up a you. In spite of what I used to say to fortune which the man, who could not urge you to a marriage which I foresaw carry it to his grave, was imploring her to would turn out happily, I never meant accept. Every one knew that Mr. La- that any but you should ever possess a bouchere was suffering from a mortal farthing of my money -" her misery complaint; every doctor he had consult- seemed greater than she could bear, and, ed agreed that nothing could keep him hiding her face in her hands, she cried alive beyond a few years. He was not out that fate had dealt very hardly with ignorant of all this himself, and indeed her. had freely spoken to Katherine on the subject. But why recall these clouds now, when all their darkness has passed, and only the silver lining remains in the shape of wealth and hopes which make life again look rosy and smiling? Mrs. Prescott's letter concluded by begging that her niece would not delay her return to London, and that immedíately after her arrival she would come to her; and as this was the very thing Mrs. Labouchere longed to do, the next week saw her back again in town and driving towards her aunt's house. And then the old temptress drew cunningly devised pictures to the girl of herself, possessed of a large fortune and able to marry whom she pleased. She constantly intimidated her by saying, that if she set so little value upon money, she would take care that hers should be left to some one with more sense; until, harassed by the dread of losing all on the one hand, and, on the other, buoyed up by the idea that there was something grand in sacrificing herself for the man she loved, Katherine gave a sudden consent, and, when all was over, she began gradually to realize that, to a woman not unprincipled or hardened enough to calmly wait for the end, which Mr. Labou- ON THE HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF chere's fits of illness seemed to stantly threaten, her true position was by no means an enviable one. con From The Contemporary Review. ACQUIRED PSYCHICAL HABITS.* PROCEEDING now to inquire how far the Physiological principles developed in At each attack Katherine, knowing how the previous paper * are applicable to the greatly in her secret heart she desired case of Man, we at once encounter a the sufferer's death, was seized with mis- series of difficulties arising out of the folgivings, grew anxious and nervous, and lowing considerations :-(1) The Human was tormented by gnawings of con- Infant comes into the world in a far less science. To still these reproaches she advanced state, as compared with that would devote herself to her husband by which he is ultimately to attain, than the day and night; calling in every available young of most of the higher Vertebrata; aid, consulting each authority, carrying (2), his Congenital Instincts are much out the most minute suggestions, until more limited in their range, sufficing only those around her marvelled at an anxiety, to enable him to take advantage of the which was so evidently unfeigned, as to food and nurture that are provided for leave no doubt that aught but love could him by others, and not enabling him in call it forth. any degree to take care of himself; (3), In addition to her self-inflicted tor- the development of his Intelligence is ments, she had to listen to Mr. Labou- relatively very slow, and is obviously chere's praises, and accept his thanks and blessings, every word of which seemed to humiliate and stab her. And when, to the wonder of all about him, the invalid would begin to rally again, then Katherine's strength seemed to fail, her spirits began to droop, and hope would sicken and die out while contemplating visions as far out of reach as ever. It was a terrible life of struggle, although she hid the conflict from all who saw her. But when Mrs. Dormer, feeling death drawing near, called her to her bedside and said guided in a great degree by the Experience of the Individual; and (4), in `ultimately attaining a much higher elevation than can be even approached by the highest among the lower Animals, the Human Intelligence has the benefit of the accumulations of Knowledge and Wisdom made by all previous generations; so that the improvement which is the result of increased capacity for thinking, is not easily separated from that which proceeds from increase of acquired knowledge. * See Living Age, No. 1498. Compare the Infant "mewling and puk-nity of making in my earlier life, in reing in the nurse's arms" with the Chick, gard to the visual perceptions of older which makes its own way out of its shell children, born blind, who had acquired by chipping it round in a circle at some sight by operation, that the Distancedistance from the large end, and speedily judging and Muscle-regulating power is gets upon its legs and runs about, pecking acquired in the Human infant by the genwithin a few hours, at insects or other eralization (which I believe to be for the small objects; or with the Lamb, which, most part unconsciously made) of the exwithin a few minutes of its birth, seems to periences it gains in the first twelve or find itself quite at home in its new dwell- eighteen months of its life. Mr. Spalding-place, moving from place to place with ing's deduction from the exactness with freedom and activity, and in a manner which his unhooded Chicks followed the which clearly indicates that it possesses movements of crawling insects, and the complete control over its Muscles, and is precision with which they pecked at them, guided in the use of them by its Visual| and other Senses. It is true that Kittens and Puppies are relatively less advanced; being in respect of power to use their eyes, even behind the Human infant. But this power they come to possess in a few days, and their progress both in Sensorial and in Muscular activity is thenceforth very rapid, so that they soon become capable of in a great degree taking care of themselves; a week or two sufficing to bring them up to a stage corresponding to that which is only reached by the Human infant between the first and second year. Nothing, as it seems to me, can be a greater mistake, than for the Pyschologist to build up any argument as to the congenital or the acquired nature of Human Instincts, especially such as depend on Visual Perception, and the regulation of Muscular Movements thereby, -on the basis of observation or experiment on the lower Animals. The question is one to be determined entirely by observation and experiment on the Human infant; for we have no more reason to affirm à priori, that, because a Chick can do so, a Human infant can judge of the directions and distances of objects, so as to be able to regulate its motions accordingly, than we have to say that because a Lamb can get upon its legs and run about, an Infant can do the same if it would only try. The experiments recently made by Mr. Spalding,* afford a very complete and interesting confirmation of what was previously known as a fact of observation, as to the congenital possession of this power by Birds. But, on the other hand, I do not hesitate to affirm, as the result of observations, ad hoc, prolonged through the infancy of five successive children, and also on the basis of observations which (as I shall presently state) I had often the opportu • Macmillan's Magazine" for February, 1873. LIVING AGE. VOL. II. 68 that "their behaviour was conclusive against the theory that the perceptions of distance and direction by the eye are the results of experience, of associations formed in the history of each individual life," is, I doubt not, perfectly sound as regards the Chick; but it will not bear extension to Man. I entirely agree with Mr. Spalding (see "Nature," Feb. 20, p. 300) that the absence of this faculty in the new-born Infant might be fairly ascribed, if we had no evidence to the contrary, to its backward general development; and that the Infant's evident possession of it when it comes to walk alone, might be simply a result of the evolution of its faculties, without any dependence upon individual experience. But there is evidence to the contrary. Having been introduced into the Medical profession by an eminent Surgeon of Bristol (the late Mr. J. B. Estlin), who had a large Ophthalmic practice in the West of England and South Wales, I had the opportunity of seeing many cases of congenital Cataract cured by operation; the condition of these children being exactly parallel in respect of Vision to that of Mr. Spalding's hooded chicks. Generally speaking, the operation was performed within the first twelve months; but I distinctly remember two cases, in one of which the subject was a remarkably sturdy little fellow of three years old, whilst the other was a lad of nine. In the latter case, however, there had been more visual power before the operation, than in the former; and I therefore present the well-remembered case of Jemmy Morgan as the basis of my assertion, that the acquirement of the power of visually guiding the muscular movements is experiential in the case of the Human infant. Jemmy had most assuredly come to that stage of his development, which would justify the expectation that if he had his Sight, he would at once use it for |