WEISMANWS ESSAYS UPON HEREDITY. 25 



science in general, and Weismann's theory in 

 particular, are opposed to morals and religion, but 

 that they confessedly fail when they attempt to 

 cover the whole of human life. We may say of 

 them as Bacon says of final causes " not that 

 these causes are not true and worthy to be inquired, 

 being kept in their proper place," but that their 

 excursion into a region not their own "hath bred 

 a vastness and solitude in that tract." The 

 moment we apply to morals and religion the 

 principles which seem to dominate "nature," we 

 produce "a vastness and solitude" in the higher 

 life of man. "Love one another" cannot easily be 

 stated in terms of the struggle for existence, nor 

 can " the infinite value of the individual soul " and 

 the doctrine of personal immortality be fitted in 

 with a theory in which " somatogenic " characters 

 are of relatively little account. 



This contrast between the natural and the moral 

 is just as marked when we have to face the question 

 of responsibility and formulate a theory of punish- 

 ment. Heredity is sometimes appealed to as 

 excusing a man from responsibility, or at least as 

 mitigating his guilt. In a well-known story in 

 Aristotle's " Ethics " a man who kicked his father 

 out of doors excused himself on the ground that 

 his father had done the same to his grandfather, 

 and added, pointing to his son " When I am old 

 he will do the same for me. It runs in the family." 



