EDUCATION. 103 



out, have given us our greatest gifts, our geniuses, 

 our Shaksperes and Newtons. But, alas ! the race 

 of Shaksperes and Newtons is not kept up : less for- 

 tunate marriage, less fortunate nerve step in and bring 

 again the commonplace. 



NOTE III. CHANGE IN CHARACTER. 



It has already been said that a man is a human 

 being because his parents were human beings, and 

 that he is what he is mainly because they were what 

 they were. He is what he is chiefly because he pos- 

 sesses a particular sort of brain or nervous organisa- 

 tion ; and his brain is what it is because the brains of 

 his fathers and mothers were what they were. What 

 his nervous organisation is, so, in essentials, will his 

 character be. Other factors (which we call circum- 

 stances) tell on character by telling on brain or nerve. 

 But the brain which is acted upon will not only remain 

 brain ; it will remain one particular sort of brain one 

 in its form, construction, dimensions, weight, and 

 composition ; one in its forces ; one in the visible 

 manifestations of its forces which we call character. 



If circumstance does not alter the fundamental 

 qualities and properties of nerve (violent circumstance 

 may do this), it nevertheless exerts considerable influ- 

 ence upon them. Its influence begins early and it 

 never ceases. It operates on the father and mother 

 as it did on innumerable fathers and mothers before 

 them. 



Very forcible circumstance, in the form of injury, 

 probably occurs in early childhood with unsuspected 

 frequency a frequency unlikely to be revealed by 

 careless or incompetent attendants. Fortunately, in the 



