CHAPTER VII 



CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT 



WE are too prone to think that soil and climate, hill- 

 side or plain, mountain and shore, temperature and 

 rainfall, constitute the sole or the most important 

 elements in human environment. Every one of these 

 elements is doubtless important. Frost, drought, or 

 barrenness of soil may make a region a desert, or dwarf 

 the development of its inhabitants. Mountaineer, and 

 the dweller on the plain, and the fisherman on the 

 shore of the ocean develop different traits through the 

 influence of their surroundings. In too warm a cli- 

 mate the human race loses its mental and moral vigor 

 and degenerates. This is undeniable. 



But, though one soil and climate and set of phys- 

 ical surroundings may be more conducive than an- 

 other to the development of heroism, truthfulness, un- 

 selfishness, and righteousness, no one is essential to 

 their production or sure to give rise to them. Moral 

 and religious character is a feature of man's personality 5 

 and our personality is moulded mainly by the men and 

 women with whom we associate. A man is not only 

 " known by the company which he keeps ; ' he is usu- 

 ally fashioned by and conforms to it. As President 

 Seelye has well said, " The only motive which can 

 move a will is either a will itself, or something into 

 which a will enters. It is not a thought, but only a 

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