“Her system of discipline began at a very early age, and it was her rule to resist the first, as well as every subsequent exhibition of temper or disobedience in the child, however young, until its will was brought into submission to the will of the parents.”

It is needless to say that all this added materially to the good inheritance of the children.

CHAPTER VI

CAPACITY, CHARACTER AND TRAINING

In view of what has been learned regarding Jonathan Edwards, his ancestors and his children, his grandchildren might have found some excuse for presuming upon the capacity and character which they inherited.  In their veins was the blood of famous lines of noble men and women; the blood of Edwards, Stoddard, Pierrpont, and Hooker was thrilling in their thought and intensifying their character.  They had inherited capacity and character at their best, but they did not presume upon it.  If ever inheritance would justify indifference to training, it was in the case of the grandchildren of Jonathan Edwards, but they were far from indifferent to their responsibility.

It must be understood that the “family of Jonathan Edwards” includes not only his descendants, but the men who married into the family and whose children became descendants of Mr. Edwards.  At first this may not seem the proper interpretation, but there is no other that is legitimate.  In the case of the “Jukes” Mr. Dugdale includes in the family both the men and the women who married into the family, but in the case of Mr. Edwards there is no call to include the women who thus came into the family, and it would have magnified the study needlessly.

Until quite recently there has been no way to discover the standing of married women in American life except as we know the social, scholastic, and professional position of their husbands.  In most families a son-in-law becomes a representative factor of a family.  Therefore, whenever the “Edwards family” is spoken of it includes the sons-in-law, but it does not include the daughters-in-law, nor does it go beyond Jonathan Edwards to include his brothers and sisters or their descendants.

The “Jukes” had no inherited capacity or training upon which they could safely presume.  Their only chance lay in nursing every germ of hope by means of industry and education, through the discipline of the shop, the training of the schools, and the inspiration of the church.  Did they appreciate this?  Far from it.  Instead of developing capacity by training, not one of the 1,200 secured even a moderate education, and only twenty of them ever had a trade, and ten of these learned it in the state prison.

On the other hand, although the Edwards family inherited abundant capacity and character, every child has been educated from early childhood.  Not all of the college members of the family have been discovered, and yet among the men alone I have found 285 graduates and a surprisingly large number of these have supplemented the college course with post-graduate or professional study.  Just as the “Jukes” have intensified their degeneracy by neglect, the Edwards family has magnified capacity and character by industry and education.