56 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



which their inherent quahties made possible. The 

 Hfe they Kved was the product of their desires — it 

 was the outcome of their innate nature ; they were 

 not the product of their mode of Hfe. They made 

 their hfe, not their Ufe made them. It is the same 

 with our own social classes. The mode of life of 

 the higher strata is the outcome of their inherent 

 qualities in just the same way that the mode of life 

 of the lower is the product of their inborn desires and 

 capacities. Endeavour by altering the environment 

 to compel a cultured and refined woman of the upper 

 classes to lead the life of the slums, and we shall 

 eliminate her race. But, clear and obvious though 

 this is, social reformers fail to recognise the truth of 

 the reverse process. Try to alter the environment 

 of the lower classes, and compel them to give up their 

 inborn habits and desires — which are the product of 

 their line of evolution — and to lead a wholly different 

 life, and we shall repeat the concluding chapter 

 of Tasmanian history. The higher classes are the 

 outcome of their evolution, and the lower of theirs. 

 The existence of social classes is a natural fact, and 

 the existence of different grades of social condi- 

 tions is but the natural outcome of that fact. The 

 social conditions are the products of the social 

 classes, not the social classes the products of 

 social conditions. It is in this matter that those 

 medical men who are interested in social problems 

 and social reformers have confounded cause and effect. 

 And it is out of this confusion that modern social 

 sentiment has sprung. So long as this sentiment 



