148 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



Nothing is farther from my desire than to appear 

 dogmatic, but I cannot help thinking that in this 

 central fact — ^that responsiveness to the environment 

 is itself an inherent quality — is to be found the 

 essence of the problem. Civilisation has not made 

 men, it is men who have made civilisation. In the 

 past as now, there were varying types of men. In 

 Neolithic times there were the artists and the hunters, 

 and doubtless there were men who were both. In 

 the Lake dwellings there were men gifted with the 

 attributes of thrift and who harvested in Autumn 

 a store of apples and corn for the coming Winter, 

 and there were thriftless men who were merry in 

 the over-plentitude of the bountiful season and 

 deservedly died in the barrenness of the unproductive 

 months. They were all exposed to the same environ- 

 ment, but they were not all the same in their 

 behaviour. 



In my original article* I considered a very 

 simple illustration in order that the essential 

 relationship between inherent qualities and en- 

 vironment might be discussed, uncomplicated by 

 unessential considerations. I described the be- 

 haviour of two plants, the Summer Savory and the 

 Flax, when both were removed from an old to a 

 new environment. These plants grow naturally 

 under similar conditions in the Tyrolese valleys 

 and elsewhere. But when they are removed to a high 

 altitude on the mountains, the Summer Savory 



*A Plea for the Operation of a More Virile Sentiment. Mendel Journal. 

 Vol. I., No. 1, Oct.. 1909. 



