VIRILE SENTIMENT 137 



seem at all likely to be units ; and that we are al- 

 most certainly wrong if we choose as units any of 

 the qualities which are markedly valuable or hurt- 

 ful to the human race. 



I yield at once to my opponent the obvious 

 exception of such definite deformity in the mind or 

 brain as shows itself in insanity or feeble-minded- 

 ness. There seems to be good ground for believing 

 that these may be units and transmissible like 

 deformities in the hand or foot*^ But, unless special 

 evidence is produced, I do not yield those qualities 

 which we praise or blame in sane men. My reason 

 is that most of them seem to fall with far greater 

 naturalness into other classes, in none of which 

 inherent and simply hereditary units are to be found . 



(a) For instance, a great part of the social 

 value of a man depends not on anything that we 

 can believe to be simple qualities, but on the com- 

 binations of these. An amount of caution which 

 in a phlegmatic character without keen interests 

 might almost paralyse the man's power of action, 

 might in an energetic nature be just the tempering 

 required to make a first-rate general or Prime 

 Minister. 



(b) Another great part of social value or dis- 

 value depends on the fact that qualities, like muscles, 

 increase in strength as they are used. Consider the 

 way, familiar to educators, in Avhich a wise training- 

 may increase the power of taking responsibility. 

 No doubt the capacity for acquiring this poAver may 



