174 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



Take a Jersey and a Shorthorn calf. Feed both all they will 

 eat. Will the Jersey equal the Shorthorn in growth and in flesh ? 

 No ; though he will be larger than another Jersey that has not 

 been so well fed. Feed a race horse liberally, and will he make 

 a draft horse ? No. Starve a draft horse, and will he make a 

 racer ? No. Everything will make what it was born to make, 

 or as near it as conditions permit. It is the function of the 

 environment to provide the opportunity and the materials for 

 development. If we desire the development of a particular 

 character, it is wise, after having secured it in the transmission, 

 to provide the means for its development. If, on the other 

 hand, we are conscious of the presence of an undesirable char- 

 acter in the nature of the animal or the plant, it is wise to with- 

 hold and prevent as far as lies within our power all influences 

 and conditions favorable to its development, and thereby make 

 its appearance as difficult and as unlikely as possible, hoping that 

 its ugly existence will remain forever dormant, understanding 

 well that the longer it remains undeveloped and unencouraged 

 the less likely is it to come to the surface. 1 



Environment does not add unit characters. Characters do 

 not arise out of their environment. They were there before or 

 they do not appear. Jersey cattle cannot be turned to red by 

 keeping them in a red barn, nor does the color of the colt 

 depend upon that of the working mate of the mother. 



No man was ever made a thief by seeing others steal, unless 

 he had a little of the thief in him before by inheritance. We 

 ourselves are not yet so far removed from savagery but that 

 these fundamental barbarisms still beset us to some extent. 

 The savage steals and kills and tortures, and our race is not 

 yet free from some slight taint of these elemental characters. 



1 That is why it is the highest duty of every person not only to keep him- 

 self sate, but also to keep his family line clean of undesirable blood lines which, 

 if introduced, will crop out to plague generations yet unborn. We owe all this 

 to the future. Unfortunately our own ancestors have not all lived up to their 

 duty in this regard, as most of us can testify by our own evil if not dangerous 

 impulses, mixed here and there with the best that is in us. 



