CHAPTER III. 



ACQUIRED CHARACTERS. 



" Man is subject to all the general laws of animal nature. The 

 law of heredity is one of those from which he. cannot escape, and 

 it is this law, which, under the influence of the conditions of life, 

 fashions races and makes them what they are." DE QUATRE- 



PAGES. 



FROM the little we have heard of the action of the 

 environment upon the individual, it will be under- 

 stood that it is not alone the blend of family char- 

 acters, received from our parents, which we in our 

 turn hand down to our children, but those characters 

 modified, as they may be for better or worse, for good 

 or evil, in our own lives, together with those acquired 

 by habit, occupation, mode of life by the action of 

 the environment, in fact. We should never forget 

 that we live not for ourselves alone, but for posterity : 

 that we hold the well-being of the race in trust for 

 our children, and should, as honest trustees, let the 

 estate pass on to the next heirs, free from waste or 

 dilapidation when our life-interest in it is done. The 

 man (or woman) who undermines his physical health, 

 or degrades his mental or moral nature, is dishonest. 

 He is robbing the children yet unborn. The spend- 



