EVOLUTION 115 



awakening of the emotions and the develop- 

 ment of attachments, the parent usually comes 

 to be an example to the child, and imitation 

 adds greatly to the obvious similarity of the 

 two minds. With the development of mental 

 independence on the part of the offspring, 

 the parental attitudes and acts may, however, 

 prove repugnant to the maturing individual 

 and lead to some courses of action directly 

 the opposite of those of the ancestor. Thus, 

 a dissimilarity, which, however, may rest upon 

 a more deep-seated agreement, may make its 

 appearance ; the children of the over-religious 

 may seek irreligion; those of the drunkard, 

 total abstinence. Into the quickening mind 

 of the developing individual, with its growing 

 knowledge, its expanding sympathies, and its 

 increasing capacity for action, the inheritance 

 of the race is poured ; knowledge representing 

 the past experience of mankind with all the 

 power it gives, the imagery of times gone by 

 with its capacity to awaken the emotions, in 

 short the total record of human effort in so 

 far as it is preserved. This race inheritance 

 comes to us from human memory, from the 

 written page, and from a thousand other 

 sources. It meets us on every side, but it is 



