LAWS OF ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE 397 



but is the result of will power exercised in this particular direction. 

 An abstainer from alcoholic drinks has no unit-character distinguishing 

 him from those who drink. He uses his will power to create an ideal 

 of abstinence from which habits grow up, making it easy for him to 

 reject liquor. His son, however, will have to go through the same proc- 

 ess ; nor is the effect diminished unless the temptation is reduced by the 

 absence of opportunity. Bravery, honor, chastity, thrift, honesty and a 

 host of other virtues are in the same position. They are due to one 

 power manifested in many ways and not to many innate characters each 

 manifested in one way. Can any one pick out the psychic or physical mark 

 that accompanies these virtues ? If not, it is more reasonable to assume 

 that the virtues a man cherishes are due to the society of which he is a 

 part and not to the germinal determinants that make up his heredity. 

 The real difference between a virtuous person and a victim of vice is 

 that the one has will power to resist temptation while the other lacks 

 will power. The drunkard did not mean to become a drunkard, nor 

 did anything in his make-up force him to become one. He merely 

 wanted to enjoy himself and failed to exercise his will power in restraint 

 of temptation. The same is true of the prostitute. There is no race 

 trait separating her from other women. Lacking home restraints, she 

 drifted into vice, with the result that she was excluded from all social 

 relations except those of her occupation. Vice is not a physical abnor- 

 mality, but the lack of will power or of a restrictive social environment. 

 The negative of each virtue is a vice, and it appears when the contrasted 

 virtue is not evoked. Both are social in origin and in neither case are 

 there special unit characters except those involved in the expression of 

 will power. A single determinant coupled with a favorable environ- 

 ment gives reality to all the virtues. The lack of will power plus 

 temptation is vice ; the growth of will power minus temptation is virtue. 

 These two forces make the difference that exists between the good and 

 the bad. 



Criminal traits differ from virtues and vices in that they have a 

 physical background. The study of degeneration carried on by Lom- 

 broso and his disciples shows that they are biologic characters. They 

 represent, however, reversions and not creations. They are thus due 

 not to alterations in the germ cell by which it gets more or different 

 determinants, but to retardations in development by which a full 

 expression of inherited traits is prevented. The criminal has had his 

 growth checked, so that he expresses not the full power of his race, but 

 the traits of this race at some earlier period. To hate, to envy, to be 

 brutal are atavistic traits natural to his ancestors, but now suppressed 

 by the full development of normal powers. Their sources are therefore 

 the sources of retardation ; they must be studied as examples of retarda- 

 tion and not of germ cell development. 



