Scarlet Letter D.J. # 20 - Chapter 10: Part 2.

“This man,” said he, at one such moment, to himself, “pure as they deem him,—all spiritual as he seems,—hath inherited a strong animal nature from his father or his mother. Let us dig a little farther in the direction of this vein!” (pg. 113 paragraph 3) The book repeatedly mention that children are the way they are because of there parents. (Pearl is a demon because of the wrong her parents committed. Chillingworth is saying that Dimmesdale has inherited an animal like nature from one of his parents.) This relates to present times, because people are the way they are because of there parents in the present as well. The difference is now people are the way they are because of the way there parents raised them, rather then back then where children are supposedly the way they are just from the way there parents were or because of the bad things there parents did.