500 EVOLUTION, GENETICS, AND EUGENICS 



ment or upon "bad luck," or complains that "things went against 

 him." We all blame our misfortunes upon something or somebody 

 else and lay our successes to ourselves. 



The inspiring thing about all this to me is that it gives us such an 

 exalting view of life. It proves, not that we are slaves, but that we are 

 masters of our environment. Look back at your own schoolboy or 

 schoolgirl friends. Have they not all carved out their own fortunes, 

 in the main? Have they not all developed about as you would expect 

 from your own intimate knowledge of their natures, their heredity? 

 The point is, have they not selected, chosen and built their own en- 

 vironments? There are seeming exceptions; but is not this the general 

 rule? It would fill me with despair if I thought that enviroment was 

 the main shaping influence of my life. It has some influence on my 

 character, and immense influence on my outward career; but if it had 

 the overwhelming power that many people ascribe to it, the power to 

 change my fundamental character then I should not have the slightest 

 idea what sort of man I would be twenty years from now. I have not 

 the slightest fear of the future because I know that my environment, 

 and above all my own inner character are mainly in my own hands. 

 I might be thrown to-morrow among criminals. I have not the slight- 

 est doubt that if I were I would begin at once to try to reform them, 

 probably without great results. But if I am the mere victim of my 

 environment, I have precisely the same mathematical chance as any 

 criminal has, of committing murder and being hanged within the year. 



Do you suppose that your grandchildren are going to be the victims 

 of their environment as far as their inner characters and mental ca- 

 pacities are concerned? Wars may disrupt the nation. Civilization 

 may go to pieces. But if you marry the right mate and endow your 

 children with your own royal nature and your marked abilities, you 

 may be sure they will rise amid its ashes and build a great and heroic 

 life. 



I have no doubt that there were great men among the cave men. 

 But they lived a poor and mean life. In a poor environment men must 

 live a poor life, as we look at it, although men always find excitement, 

 interest and adventure under any set of circumstances. We see that 

 in the case of our Puritan forefathers. Compared to the great build- 

 ings, laboratories and libraries of Yale, Harvard or Columbia, their 

 little log academy looks poor indeed. Yet I doubt seriously if the men 

 within this little structure lived a life of less mental excitement or of 

 less true inner glory. 



