1 7 o THE CHILD AND HEREDITY 



inherited faculty, the greater the opportunities which any 

 given environment brings. Where the inherited endow- 

 ment is meagre, the environment can do little either to 

 develop or to repress. And, relatively to his animal pro- 

 genitors, i_t_js_jDej^iu^_the_J^ 



are_so great that the nature^ of his_-exiyirQnment is so im- 

 prtant. You can swing a canary's cage in the most 

 immoral surroundings without detriment to the bird ; but 

 to place the child there is to come near to making a 

 calamitous result inevitable. 



It is not to be considered, however, that the environ- 

 ment can be regarded as causing the character. Mere 

 environment can obviously cause nothing ; at the very 

 most it is only one element or factor in the cause. Nay, if 

 we keep close to the view of evolution which we have 

 been discussing, it will be seen that the word "cause" is 

 not appropriate in this context, and that the influence 

 exerted by the environment isjiot "causal" in its char- 

 acter. For it does not determine the develppment._of-tlie 

 child ; it only furnishes the means for il 



tion. It can initiate no powers, and possibly it can 

 ultimately destroy none ; for the germ-plasm theory pro- 

 vides for the indestructibility of life and its potencies as 

 well as for their continuity. What it can do, and does, 

 is to provide the conditions under which particular powers 

 of the individual may or may not be developed. And in 

 this respect the importance of the part it plays cannot well 

 be exaggerated. It is, I believe, as vain to expect the 

 normal or right development of a child's rational nature 

 in an unfavourable environment, as it is to expect the 

 healthy growth of the body under unhealthy conditions. 

 The dependence of_the_ child's welfare upon the external 



