DOES HEREDITY OR ENVIRONMENT MAKE MEN? 403 



sum total of his character. Indeed, it seems to me it would be pretty 

 difficult to determine what one hundred per cent, of a man's character 

 really is, and when we had measured either ten per cent, or ninety 

 per cent, of its total. 



I am inclined to believe from what Thorndike and his students, 

 especially Doctor Paul F. Voelker, have proved as to the enormous in- 

 fluence of moral education and as to how much more we can influence 

 the moral character than we can develop the purely intellectual traits, 

 that by proper education and environment we could prevent nearly 

 all individuals from committing actual crimes. Crime is not itself in- 

 herited, because crime is a particular act by a particular individual. 

 And whether he commits that act, no doubt depends very greatly upon 

 previous education, habits, the particular stimulus before him and all 

 the forces of his environment. For all we know a man may commit a 

 particular crime or take a particular drink entirely from environment. 

 And it may be that he can be prevented from these particular acts 

 entirely by environment. We know that moral ideas tend to diffuse 

 themselves very widely over the mental life — or as the psychologists 

 say, there is a very large "transfer of learning" from one set of brain 

 centers to others. No doubt moral ideals set up wider transfers of 

 learning and thus influence larger areas of behavior than the cultiva- 

 tion of particular mental abilities or aptitudes. For this reason teach- 

 ing a boy trustworthiness, as Voelker has proved, influences his conduct 

 far more widely than teaching him algebra improves his proficiency 

 even in algebra. All of this is granted. 



What we know of heredity, therefore, should not in the least dis- 

 courage us (indeed, when deeply considered it ought to encourage us) 

 from throwing every possible good influence about our youth. The 

 very stability of society depends on our doing this. But when it 

 comes to the question as to which one of two individuals is the more 

 likely to commit crime at some time in his life or to take to excessive 

 drink, we are in reality dealing with a different set of scientific prob- 

 lems. And when we come to the question as to which family is likely 

 to have more members who, in any one age of the world, will be unable 

 to adjust themselves to sound social behavior or who will easily be 

 filled with aspirations for building a worthy character and maintaining 

 the social and political order, we are in a field where we can measure 

 the factors involved by fairly exact methods, and predict results with 

 considerable confidence. 



Doctor Charles F. Goring, of the Galton Eugenics Laboratory of 



