MAN ABNORMAL. 



By J. M. McWiiARF. Ottawa. 



^ N the presentation of this subject, it will be necessary to 

 ^ consider heredity, insanity and imbecility. A question 

 more vital, in so far as it relates to our well-being, could not 

 be brought forward. When we take into consideration the 

 thought that Jesus Christ, as he entered the arena of moral 

 darkness, dispelled the superstition of the ages; that by this 

 act he gave birth to a new era, which quickened the con- 

 sciences of men and created in them a new life, a life filled 

 with the light of science ; that this life is penetrating or trans- 

 forming many of the hidden mysteries into living truths, all 

 things must be brought to a plane of natural laws. 



The twentieth century evidently will be classed as the cen- 

 tury of science. To-day we are confronted with the demand 

 for definite knowledge, plain facts and demonstrable truths. 

 Rapid progress was made along this line in the last half of 

 the nineteenth century. Anthropology is no longer a dead 

 letter of the past, and archeology has given us very many rel- 

 ics of a prehistoric character, while ethnology is pushing to 

 the forefront ; we also have sociology, at one time the dream 

 of the idealist, but to-day a practical science — a science that 

 demands more than a passing notice. 



The new psychology is opening up the secrets and mys- 

 teries of the philosophy of ancient Egypt. It furnishes a 

 definite science of mind, and, its methods being reliable, gives 

 not only brain-building but soul-growth. To-day heredity is 

 not considered as a myth but as a fact, a science; when, if 

 applied in the light of the new psychology, it will serve as a 

 potent factor in solving the problem of human progress. 

 Heredity and psychology must of necessity revolutionize all 

 methods. Heredity is universally admitted ; it is a self-evident 

 truth. To deny this would be entering a plea against exist- 

 ence. I am firmly of the opinion that all of our possibilities 

 in life are inborn. A writer makes this statement : "The re- 

 sult of all recent research points to the conclusion that human 

 beings are born into the world with a distinct bent of tem- 

 perament and character which will always manifest itself in 



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