158 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



have now to show that his assertion is in itself un 

 founded. But, preliminary to this, we must call 

 attention to another point. 



How it is that Mr. Buckle, who holds fast to 

 the law of development, can reject the law of he 

 reditary transmission, we are unable to imagine. 

 Nevertheless, reject it he does, in the following 

 passage, which, as Mr. Lewes remarks, must ex 

 cite the astonishment of the physiologist : 



We often hear of hereditary talents, hereditary vices, 

 and hereditary virtues ; but whoever will critically ex 

 amine the evidence will find that we have no proof 

 of their existence. The way in which they are com 

 monly proved is in the highest degree illogical ; the 

 usual course being for writers to collect instances of 

 some mental peculiarity found in a parent and in his 

 child, and then to infer that the peculiarity was be 

 queathed. By this mode of reasoning, we might dem 

 onstrate any proposition ; since, in all large fields of 

 inquiry there are a sufficient number of empirical coin 

 cidences to make a plausible case in favour of whatever 

 view a man chooses to advocate. But this is not the 

 way in which truth is discovered ; and we ought to in 

 quire, not only how many instances there are of heredi 

 tary talents, etc., but how many instances there are of 

 such qualities not being hereditary. Until something 

 of this sort is attempted, we can know nothing about 

 the matter inductively ; while, until physiology and 



