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Chapter 7 



Changing Human Nature 



EVERYBODY old enough to vote has been impressed 

 with the doctrine that you cannot change human 

 nature. Although human beings have been described 

 as behaving sometimes like a pig, sometimes like a donkey 

 or a goose, we realize that after all these similes stress only 

 fragmentary and superficial resemblances. Nobody really 

 expects a human being to become a lion or a cucumber vine. 

 It is in the nature of the human being to remain always and 

 everywhere human, as it is in the nature of the cabbage to 

 remain always and everywhere cabbage. At the same time, 

 along with the categorical continuity of the human race 

 there may be an actual change in essential characteristics, a 

 real evolution. It is inconceivable that evolution can go on 

 without variation. It is in actual variations, therefore, that 

 we should look for the first indications of evolution, even 

 though the existence of variations does not of itself demon- 

 strate evolution. 



Our first problem in trying to find out whether human 

 nature remains fixed or undergoes change is to formulate as 

 definitely as possible just what constitutes human nature. 

 But this is no simple matter, for we are confronted at the 

 very start with a marvelous variability in the so-called human 

 race. It takes all kinds of people to make the world, as we 

 know it. 



Without 'Prejudice 



A chemist called upon to report on the metal in royal 

 jewels and in less sacred materials will use exactly the same 



