ii8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rare exceptions, and that nothing like a gen- 

 eral law of the descent of mental traits 

 could be established in the field of mind. 

 But this error must now be regarded as 

 abandoned. With the establishment of 

 heredity as a biological law, or in the field 

 of life, the presumj^tion immediately be- 

 came strong that it must also hold in tlie 

 field of psychological phenomena. From 

 the metaphysical point of view in which 

 mind is regarded as an abstraction de- 

 tached from organization, the law of heredity 

 would probably never have been arrived at ; 

 but modern scientific psychology, which re- 

 gards psychical phenomena as rooted and 

 based in vital phenomena, passes natural- 

 ly to the question as one of the necessary 

 correlations of the higher organic science. 

 And so it has come about that this princi- 

 ple of inherited mental predispositions and 

 character, from being universally discredit- 

 ed as a baseless doctrine, is now admitted 

 as a great truth, and not only so, but as a 

 truth which forms the corner-stone of the 

 latest philosophy. Among the students of 

 mind, there is an old and inveterate quarrel 

 about the origin of our ideas one school 

 holding that they are intuitions existing in 

 an abstract mental world, and independent 

 of all experience ; and another school hold- 

 ing that all ideas are derivable from the ex- 

 perience of individuals. Herbert Spencer 

 has shown that there is a partial truth in 

 both these views, and that they are capable 

 of essential reconciliation through the prin- 

 ciple of the evolution of faculties by in- 

 herited experience. 



So prominent has this doctrine become 

 in recent inquiry, and so profound is its im- 

 portance, that there has been an impera- 

 tive need of some work that should deal 

 distinctly and broadly with the subject, and 

 present its scientific aspects in a form suit- 

 able for popular study. Such a work we 

 now have from Prof Ribot. Mr. Galton's 

 work on " Hereditary Genius " is a valuable 

 contribution to the subject, but it is very 

 far from being complete in its exposition, 

 and its main facts are presented in a form 

 somewhat difficult for the reader to deal 

 with. Prof. Ribot's work is systematic and 

 full, taking up the subject under the four 

 successive departments of the facts, the 

 laws, the causes, and the consequences of 

 hereditv. 



The following passage, from the conclu- 

 sion of the work, will give an idea of the 

 author's style, and of the method of his 

 argument. In summing up all /ac/s in favor 

 of psychological heredity, he says : 



"As regards specific characteristics " (i. e., 

 those which distinguish one species from 

 another), " heredity comes before us with the 

 evidence of an axiom. In the physical, as 

 in the moral order, every animal necessarily 

 inherits the characteristics of its species. An 

 animal which should possess, with the organ- 

 ism of its own species, the instincts of an- 

 other, would be a monster in the psychologi- 

 cal order. The spider can neither liave the 

 sensations nor perform the actions of the 

 bee, nor the beaver those of the wolf. Just 

 so in one and the same species, whether ani- 

 mal or human, the races preserve their psy- 

 chical precisely as they do their physiologi- 

 cal characteristics. . . . Under the specific 

 form, then, mental heredity is unquestion- 

 able, and the only doubt possible would 

 have reference to individual characteristics. 

 We have shown, from an enormous mass of 

 facts, that the cases of individual heredity 

 are too numerous to be the result of mere 

 chance, as some have held them to be. We 

 have shown that all forms of mental activity 

 are transmissible instincts, perceptive fac- 

 ulties, imagination, aptitude for the fine arts, 

 reason, aptitude for science and abstract 

 studies, sentiments, passions, force of char- 

 acter. Nor are the morbid forms less trans- 

 missible than the normal, as we have seen 

 in the case of insanity, hallucination, and 

 idiocy." 



The book consists of four parts, as we 

 have remarked, under the headings indi- 

 cated in the sub-title. In Part I. we have 

 chapters on the Heredity of Instincts ; of 

 Sensorial Qualities ; of Memory ; of Imagi- 

 nation ; of Intellect ; of Sentiments and Pas- 

 sions ; of Will ; of Natural Character ; of 

 Morbid States. In Part II. the author de- 

 votes four chapters to a discussion of the 

 Laws of Heredity, the titles being: "Are 

 there Laws of Heredity ? " the " Laws of 

 Heredity ; " " Essays in Statistics " (con- 

 taining a criticism of Galton's great work); 

 " Exceptions to the Law of Heredity." 

 Part III. shows the dependence of psycho- 

 logical upon physiological heredity. In 

 Part IV. we have chapters on " Heredity 

 and the Law of Evolution ; " " The Psycho- 

 logical Consequences of Heredity ; " " Moral 

 Consequences;" "Social Consequences." 



