VI 

 THE CHILD AND HEREDITY 



" A MAN is what he is at any period of life, first, by virtue 

 of the original qualities which he has received from his 

 ancestors, and, secondly, by virtue of the modifications 

 which have been effected in his original nature by the 

 influence of education and of the conditions of life. But 

 what a complex composition of causes and conditions do 

 these simple statements import ! " 1 The task of deter- 

 mining what it is precisely which is inherited in any par- 

 ticular form of life, and how far and in what ways the 

 original inheritance may be enriched or impoverished, 

 continued in its first tendency or diverted therefrom, 

 constitutes the main enterprise of modern Biology. And 

 it has proved so difficult that, after many years of inquiry 

 and discussion, biologists have hardly succeeded in laying 

 down even general principles which they would agree in 

 regarding as open to no further doubt. 



But the problem of the nature and relative significance 

 of inherited qualities and of the influence of surroundings 

 with which the biologist deals, is simple as compared with 

 that which is raised by these facts for the psychologist, the 

 moral philosopher, and the metaphysician. For these latter 

 1 Dr. Maudsley's Pathology of Mind, p. 87. 



