HEREDITY BATESON. 391 



duction lieredit}^ is usually complete. The Washington plum can 

 be divided to produce as many identical individuals as are required. 

 If, say, Washington, the statesman, or preferably King Solomon, 

 could similarly have been propagated, all the nations of the earth 

 could lune been supplied with ideal rulers. 



Historians commonly ascribe such changes as occurred in Athens, 

 and will almost certainly come to pass in the United States, to con- 

 ditions of life, and especially to political institutions. These 

 agencies, however, do little unless they are such as to change the 

 breed. External changes may indeedgive an opportunity to special 

 strains, which then acquire ascendency. The industrial developments 

 which began at the end of the eigliteenth century, foi* instance, gave 

 a chance to strains till then submerged, and their success involved 

 the decay of most of the old aristocratic families. But tlie dema- 

 gogue who would argue from tlie rise of the one and the fall of the 

 other that the original relative positions were not justifiable alto- 

 gether mistakes the facts. 



Conditions give opportunities but cause no variations. For ex- 

 ample, in Athens, to which I just referred, the imiversality of culti- 

 vated discernment could never have come to pass but for the 

 institution of slavery which provided the opportunity, but slavery 

 was in no sense a cause of that development, for many other popu- 

 lations have lived on slaves and remained altogether inconspicuous. 



The long-standing controversy as to the relative importance of 

 nature and nurture, to use Galton's "convenient jingle of words," 

 is drawing to an end, and of the overwhelminglj^ greater significance 

 of nature there is no longer any possibility of doubt. It may be 

 well briefly to recapitulate the arguments on which naturalists rely 

 in coming to this decision both as regards races and individuals. 

 P^irst, as regards human individuals, there is the common experience 

 that children of the same parents, reared under conditions sensibly 

 identical, may develop quite differently, exhibiting in character and 

 aptitudes a segregation just as great as in their colors or hair forms. 

 Conversely all the more marked aptitudes have at various times 

 appeared and not rarely reached perfection in circumstances the 

 least favorable for their development. Next, appeal can be made to 

 the universal experience of the breeder, whether of animals or plants, 

 that strain is absolutely essential; that though bad conditions may 

 easily enough spoil a good strain, yet that under the best conditions 

 a bad strain will never give a fine result. It is faith, not evidence, 

 which encourages educationists and economists to hope so greatly 

 in the ameliorating effects of the conditions of life. Let us consider 

 what they can do and what they can not. By reference to some 

 sentences in a charming though pathetic book, " Wliat Is, and \Vliat 

 Might Be," by Mr. Edmond Holmes, wliich will be well known in 



