LICIir IS LIKE KDL CATION IN EFFECT 



Light acts on Smut Nose corn as education does on men — it 

 brings out latent capacities. The ear of corn above 

 photographed was enclosed in dark paper, with the letters 

 L-I-G-H-T cut out in stencil from it, to make more evident 

 the effect of light in developing red coU)ring. The kernels 

 at the T failed to develop, but the first four letters are 

 clearly visible. If the capacity to turn red has not been 

 inherited, light produces no effect; similarly education 

 produces no effect on man unless there are inherited 

 capacities for it to work on. Photograph, reduced in 

 size, by A. F. Blakeslee. (Fig. 2.) 



ing any artistic talents they might 

 possess. Mere practice in art, however, 

 could never be inherited biologically, 

 though it might be socially. Educa- 

 tion is thus to be distinguished from 

 the ability to respond to edtication 

 which alone is inherited. 



Fig. 3 represents a "King Phillijj" 

 variety of corn that is unchanged by 

 light or darkness. The kernels are 

 covered by an o])aque red skin and look 

 alike. Where the skin has been scraped 

 away, however, it can be seen that they 

 show different colors. Some are dark 

 yellow; others are white. Scraping 

 away the red skin does not prevent the 

 red character from appearing in the 

 skin of kernels in the next generation. 

 It is merely a surgical oi)eration that 

 lays bare the i)arts within and has no 

 hereditary significance. Education may 

 thus act as a knife that scrapes away 

 some barrier, inherent or acquired, and 

 reveals the unsuspected character 

 within. One born blind and deaf is as 

 mute to express the mental life within 

 as wotild be another l)orn mentally defi- 

 cient though with sight and hearing 

 intact. Yet education has overcome 

 the physical impediments in cases like 

 the first and disco\'ered treasures < f 

 thought which else would have lain 

 concealed. In cases like the second, 

 education could avail little. It could 

 not discover what was not present. 



We start life like a i)hotographic 

 plate which has been exposed: there is 

 a i^otential image read\' for develop- 

 54 



ment. Chemical solutions in the hands 

 of the photographer furnish an environ- 

 ment which reveals the lines already 

 impressed upon the negative. Differ- 

 ences in this environment brought about 

 by changes in the chemicals or in the 

 time employed in the development may 

 alter the ai)])earance of the finished 

 picture. Tlie light i^arts may be made 

 lorighter, or dulled. The image may be 

 suppressed in places and intensified in 

 others. The whole color tone may be 

 changed by the proper choice of solu- 

 tions. Soft and harsh, warm and cold, 

 bright and dull, and other terms de- 

 scriptive of human character have been 

 borrowed by the expert photographer 

 to characterize the effects he can pro- 

 duce in a ])icture by changes in his 

 methods of development. And yet the 

 develo])ment can luring nothitig new into 

 the picture not already foreordained at 

 the moment its outlines were impressed 

 upon the sensitized plate when exposed 

 in the camera. 



REALITY OF PREDESTINATION 



A human life is an intricate jiicture, 

 a varied C()mi)lex of lights and shadows, 

 the possible outlines foreordained at 

 birth. Education is a developer which 

 may intensify parts of the image and 

 inhibit others but can create nothing. 



We have seen that education is of 

 l)rime importance in social evolution 

 Imt we nnisl admit that it is of no direct 

 x'alue in the biologic evolution of the 

 human race. Education, like other 



