126 BIOLOGY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 



I confess to a slight measure of feeling that 

 I be allowed some individual freedom in this 

 matter. 



And this brings me to another aspect of 

 the social evolution in man. We have seen 

 how immensely powerful and compelling the 

 forces of organic inheritance are, but we have 

 also seen that what we call ourselves is a 

 growth built up in our nervous organization 

 in part directly by daily experience and in 

 part indirectly by what I have called social 

 inheritance. The personality thus developed, 

 though it must depend upon a certain or- 

 ganically inherited soil and cannot rightly 

 flourish unless this is wholesome, is in itself 

 no whit less important a factor in the evolu- 

 tion of man than that of inheritance through 

 the substance of the egg. Memory and above 

 all the ability to act voluntarily are most sig- 

 nificant factors in our daily affairs. Without 

 them the fabric of human society would never 

 have come into existence. Voluntary action is 

 a basic fact upon which all social responsibil- 

 ity rests. It makes a code of morals effective. 

 By education this capacity can be greatly 

 improved and set forward and no small part 

 of human progress has depended upon this 



