The Editor: Nature or Nurture? 



239 



the situation, and is basing itself solidly 

 on biology, on the facts that I have set 

 before you this evening. But there are 

 yet a great many social workers, par- 

 ticularly those who have been trained 

 largely along psychological lines, who 

 still show an extraordinary inability to 

 reason accurately. An example of this 

 school's attitude may be found in a 

 recent article on "The Boy Who Goes 

 Wrong" which H. Addington Bruce, a 

 well-known writer on psychological top- 

 ics, published not long ago in the 

 Century Magazine. After alleging that 

 the boy who goes wrong does so because 

 he is not properly brought up, Mr. 

 Bruce quotes with approval the follow- 

 ing passage from "Dr. Paul Dubois, 

 the eminent Swiss physician and 

 philosopher : 



"If you have the happiness to be a 

 well-living man, take care not to 

 attribute the credit of it to yourself. 

 Remember the favorable conditions in 

 which you have lived, surrounded by 

 relatives who loved you and set you a 

 good example; do not forget the close 

 friends who have taken you by the hand 

 and led you away from the quagmires 

 of evil; keep a grateful remembrance 

 for all the teachers who have influenced 

 you, the kind and intelligent school- 

 master, the devoted pastor; realize all 

 these multiple influences which have 

 made of you what you are. Then you 

 will remember that such and such a 

 culprit has not in his sad life met with 

 these favorable conditions; that he had 

 a drunken father or a foolish mother, 

 and that he has lived without affection 

 exposed to all kinds of temptation. 

 You will then take pity upon this dis- 

 inherited man, whose mind has been 

 nourished upon malformed mental im- 

 ages, begetting evil sentiments such as 

 immoderate desire or social hatred." 



ENVIRONMENT MISUNDERSTOOD 



It is a thankless task to have to 

 destroy such pretty sentimentality, but 

 its prevalence is doing far more harm 

 in the world, I dare say, than all the 

 forces of charity and philanthropy can 

 correct. Mr. Bruce indorses this kind 

 of talk when he concludes, "The blame 

 for the boy who goes wrong does not 



rest with the boy himself, or yet with 

 his remote ancestors. It rests squarely 

 with the parents who, through ignorance 

 or neglect, have failed to mold him 

 aright in the plastic days of childhood." 



Where is the evidence of the existence 

 of these plastic days of childhood? 

 If they exist, why do not ordinary 

 brothers become as much alike as twins, 

 during them? How long are we to be 

 asked to believe, on blind faith, that 

 the child is putty, of which the educator 

 can make either mediocrity or genius, 

 depending on his skill? What does the 

 environmentalist know about these 

 "plastic days?" We long ago gave up 

 expecting that Mr. Bruce and his 

 friends would bring forward any proof 

 that there was such a thing, but we still 

 hope that they may learn to interpret 

 their own facts in the light of knowledge, 

 not dogma. If a bo}^ has a drunken 

 father or foolish mother, does it not 

 occur to them that there is something 

 wrong with his pedigree? If much of 

 it is like that sample, we do not expect 

 him to turn out well, no matter in what 

 home he is brought up. If a boy has 

 the kind of parents who bring him up 

 well; if he is, as Dubois says, surrounded 

 by relatives who love him and set him 

 a good example, we at once have data 

 for a suspicion that he comes of a 

 pretty good family, a stock character- 

 ized by a high standard of intellectuality 

 and morality, and it would surprise 

 us if such a boy did not turn out well. 

 But he turns out well because what's 

 bred in the bone will show in him, if it 

 gets any kind of a chance. It is his 

 nature, not his nurture, that is mainly 

 responsible for his character. 



Such is our conclusion, based on a 

 great many facts of the kind I have 

 presented to you here this evening. We 

 have never found a fact that has 

 contradicted this conclusion. If anyone 

 has ever found such a fact, I do not 

 know of it. He will make himself 

 famous if he will give it publicity. 



We do not for a minute desire to 

 depreciate the importance, the necessity 

 of a good environment. If it is not 

 good, and equally good for every man, 

 then some men's good hereditary traits 

 will fail to get expression, we will not 



