220 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



written in sucli a charming style, as Dr. Whetham's " Family 

 and the Nation." From its Preface to its concluding page are 

 to be found felicitous phrases that sei"ve to carry home and fix 

 upon the mind ideas which had but vaguely floated before it. 

 There are many in this nation of ours who feel strangely perturbed, 

 haunted by vague fears that something is wrong in the body 

 pohtic, and yet who cannot define their fears or express the nature 

 of the intellectual restlessness which they feel whenever they 

 think of our social problems. To them the book of Dr. Whetham 

 and his wife will give coherency of thought, definiteness of 

 idea, and will express their experience in a beautiful language. 

 It may do more even than that. It is to be hoped it will arouse 

 the nation — or at least those who have undertaken to lead opinion 

 and initiate action — to a sense of the danger of the over-valued 

 altruism and emotional sentiment which seems to be guiding its 

 destiny now. 



The general aim of the book can be best indicated by a few 

 sentences culled from the Introduction : " The efEorts of men of 

 science, philanthropists, and statesmen have been directed for 

 centuries towards improving the general environment of the race, 

 and of late years with conspicuous success." . . . '' But in 

 our wise and beneficent search for better conditions of life, we 

 must not forget the other influence which, even more than en- 

 vironment, goes to make personality. To improve the conditions 

 in which life is passed and by which it is moulded, is but part, 

 probably by far the smaller part, of the problem. The deeper 

 question, the conscious solution of which is opening out to all 

 civilised nations, is how to maintain, and if possible to improve, 

 the innate quality and character of the life itself." The answer 

 to this latter question is given in the book itself. The main- 

 tenance of quaUty is achieved by inheritance alone. In the 

 Introduction the authors point out that enough is known of the 

 problems of heredity in lower forms and in Man, " to give us, 

 here and there, certain principles which should be borne in mind 

 when we are considering proposals for legislative or social action." 

 They point out that until recently the effects of individual con- 

 duct or of social legislation on the innate qualities of a people 

 have been ignored, perhaps not even suspected. We suppose that 

 deficiency in the knowledge of these effects must apply to our states- 

 men, philanthropists, and the community generally, for fifty years 

 ago, and again sixteen yearsago, Herbert Spencerwarnedhisnation, 

 in his characteristically vigorous and lucid language, not only of 

 the futility of legislation, but of its disastrous tendency in creating 

 new evils as well as in faihng to remedy those it set out to mend. 

 He it was who asked us to " Change our vague idea of a bad law 

 into a definite idea of it as an agency operating on people's lives. 



