Hereditary

1895

Your strictures are unmerited;
Our follies are inherited;
Directly from our gram'pas they all came
Our defects have been transmitted,
And we should be acquitted
Of all responsibility and blame.

We are not depraved beginners,
But hereditary sinners,
For our fathers never acted as they should
'Tis the folly of our gram'pas
That continually hampers —
What a pity that our gram'pas wern't good

Yes, we'd all be reverend senators,
If our depraved progenitors
Had all been prudent, studious and wise;
But they were quite terrestrial,
Or we would be celestial —
Yes, we'd all be proper tenants for the skies.

If we're not all blameless sages,
And beacons to the ages,
And fit for principalities and powers;
If we do not guide and man it,
And engineer the planet,
'Tis the folly of our forefathers — not ours.

— Mildred Lancaster in Home and Country.