sins of its fathers
Wollstonecraft refers to venereal diseases, but she echoes a
common biblical phrase; see, for instance, Exodus 34:6-7: "And
the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD
God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in
goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving
iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means
clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to
the fourth generation."
