VIRILE SENTIMENT 105 



environment, train and educate them to become well- 

 conducted, self-supporting citizens (the possibility 

 of which I think Mr. Mudge will be willing to 

 grant) their children, though biologically they may 

 inherit nothing from our efforts, and will be born 

 with the same inherent bad characters as their 

 parents, nevertheless will be brought up under 

 entirely different conditions from those which they 

 would have experienced if nothing had been done 

 for their parents ; and their bad characteristics 

 may consequently never have a chance of developing. 

 For example, what does it matter if I, in England 

 inherit cannibal instincts from remote ancestors ? 

 Here in a civilized country those instincts have 

 no chance of developing. Tiiey may not perhaps 

 l)e eradicated by the civilization of centuries, and 

 remain latent in my character, yet a permanent 

 change of environment has been brought about, 

 transmitted by inheritance, which is just as effective 

 as if the cannibal instinct itself were abolished. 

 Take another example. We do not inherit speech ; 

 but because our parents have learnt to talk we grow 

 up in an environment such that speech comes to iis 

 without conscious effort, almost as easily indeed as if 

 we really, in the biological sense, inherited language. 

 Or, again, take the hypothetical case of an inherent 

 predisposition to tuberculosis in a given family. 

 Of what pennanent use to society is it, Mr. Mudge 

 seems to ask, to cure the affected members ? Their 

 children will suffer all the same. Not so ; if the 

 affected members are let alone the children will grow 



