THE LAW OF HEREDITY 73 



that instinct is inherited custom. It is certain, how- 

 ever, that, by whatever means produced, congenital 

 peculiarities of the moral character exist and are 

 transmissible side by side with the physical. 



The importance of this principle need not be 

 insisted upon. Obviously many cherished beliefs, 

 religious and philosophical, have to be sacrificed 

 in view of the fact that men are born with their 

 moral natures as deformed or as imperfect as their 

 physical ones. Children may truly enough suffer for 

 the faults of their fathers even to the third and fourth 

 generation. We can no longer believe that there is 

 such a thing as absolute free will, or that education 

 has any but a relatively small part in the shaping 

 of individual character.^ Witliin certain limits the 

 thief steals, as the duckling swims, by instinct ; the 

 murderer resorts to violence as naturally as a cat 

 hunts a mouse. On the other hand, the good man 

 acts to a great extent upon the impulses transmitted 

 to him by his parents ; virtue is inherited like land 

 or money. And what of the mysterious " I " of our 

 natures, it may be asked, the ego, the iiwi pcnsant ? 

 Modern biologists show it small mercy. Eibot in his 



^ The famous Letters of Lord Chesterfield were written to mould 

 the character of a natural son, who, however, turned out quite 

 otherwise than his father intended. 



