A REJOINDER 185 



was written. Consequently she has been criticising 

 many matters which she herself has raised,'and which 

 find no place in the plea I urged for a more virile 

 treatment of the affairs of human life. When she 

 urges " that from the side of psychology, nobody can 

 say at present, except to a minute extent, what the 

 inherent unit-characters of mental qualities are," 

 she is dealing with one of these self-created subjects 

 of easy criticism. To play at nine-pins by putting 

 up the pins of your opponent in the most favourable 

 position for bowling over, is, of course, a facile way of 

 demonstrating his stupidity. But I confess I prefer 

 to arrange my pins myself. The question which 

 concerns us for the present, as a body of cautious 

 citizens, is not whether it is yet demonstrated that 

 mental traits are transmitted as Mendelian units or 

 not, but whether they are hereditarily transmitted 

 at all. Upon that matter there is no question. It 

 is undeniable. Any intelligent and observant parent 

 can answer it. Children think and play in some 

 things just as their parents thought and played at 

 the corresponding age. They may manifest little 

 tricks that were the peculiarity of one of their grand- 

 parents, whom they have not seen. To endeavour 

 to turn my plea from its sociological bearing and from 

 those facts which are sufficient and legitimate for 

 practical affairs into an academic groove, is but to 

 cloud the issue which my plea raises, and to beg the 

 question with which it is concerned. 



Similarly, that vague and unsubstantiated accusa- 

 tion impliedly brought against me in the closing 



