XXII 



EVOLUTION AND EDUCATION 



THE vast question of education is touched at 

 many points by the theory of evolution. In the 

 present chapter it is attempted merely to note a 

 few of the most important of these. 



It is evident, in the first place, that our estimate 

 of the value of education will vary according to 

 whether we accept or repudiate the Lamarckian 

 theory of evolution. For if acquirements are 

 transmissible, education must have an infinite 

 potency. Sir James Simpson, for instance, be 

 lieved that education of the mother would in 

 crease the size of the child s brain. But this view 

 must be repudiated as an expression of the crudest 

 and most untenable form of Lamarckism. There 

 is no evidence whatever, nor any train of argu 

 ment, in favor of the view that the results of edu 

 cation are transmitted. Education may, indeed, 

 fit a mother to care for her child ; but only in such 

 a manner are the results of education to be seen 

 extending beyond the individual. But this is 

 very far from justifying the assertion, sometimes 

 made by opponents of Weismann, that on his 

 theory education is a waste of time. 



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