Heredity
Thro’ your Eden creeps the Serpent
Luring to the paths of sin:
In your own, weak self-indulgence
Life accursing crimes begin:
Aye, you blight your own with evils
Yielding to the tempter’s sway,
Hushing conscience, Sin imputing
To Eve’s early, shadowed day.
Science swings her torch above you
From her lofty templed heights—
Paths, by which the Race climb upward,
By command of God she lights;
Can you, with His laws before you,
Violate your sacred trust?
Dare you taint the soul you’re moulding
For Eternity, with lust?
Holy is your mission, mother,
Lives confided to your care—
Shall they, of your dissipations
Foulest scars forever bear?
Hush the voice of self-indulgence—
Thrust the serpent from your heart,
That he lure not to partaking
Of the sins you may impart.
While the fires of Being kindle
At your own life’s flame and glow
And the mother love is springing
From this holy interflow—
While the crimson tide is pulsing
Thro’ but one heart, for the two,
Stain not thou, with sin, the fountain
That the new life passes through.