THE TREND OF THE RA 



CHAPTER I 

 AN INTRODUCTORY ORIENTATION 



"It is the paradox and tragedy of high civilization that, in the 

 present and in all preceding ages, its tendency has been to destroy or 

 eliminate just those mental superiorities by which it has been built up 

 and which are essential for its maintenance and further progress." 

 Wm. McDougall, Eugenics Rev. 5, 297. 



IN any discussion of the biological evolution of man it is essen- 

 tial to distinguish clearly between changes in the hereditary 

 qualities of human beings and changes in what human beings 

 owe to the environment and institutions under which they live. 

 The latter are matters of what Prof. Baldwin has called social 

 heredity as distinguished from the heredity which has its physical 

 basis in the germ plasm. Man's physical and social heredity 

 while easily distinguished, at least theoretically, have very inti- 

 mate relations. It is obvious that social heredity is largely 

 dependent upon the innate qualities of men. No civilization 

 could possibly be supported by creatures with the inheritance of 

 the anthropoid apes, and it might happen that civilization would 

 not long endure among people no higher than the lowest races of 

 mankind. The innate endowments of races constitute a basic 

 factor conditioning the nature of every type of civilization and 

 every historic movement, although we may not be able to trace 

 the precise way in which their effects are wrought out in the 

 complex relations of human society. 



If the social heredity of man depends largely on his biological 

 heredity, the latter in turn may be profoundly influenced by the 

 kind of social environment under which men live. Those who 

 accept the Lamarckian theory that acquired characteristics may 



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