THE CHILD AND HEREDITY 171 



factor of his well-being_is complete^ even although its 

 dependence on the inner factor also is complete. 1 Both 

 are absolutely necessary conditions of his well-being, and 

 they must be concurrent and co-operate. 



But it does not follow that they are of the same rank, 

 or that we can regard them both equally as causes, or as 

 exercising the same parts in the determination of the child's 

 character. Both means and end are necessary to bring 

 about a result, and nevertheless the means is subordinate 

 to, as well as necessary for the realisation of the end. And 

 such, on this view of evolution, is the relation between 

 the inner and outer conditions of character. All that the 

 environment can do, in the last resort, is to call the child's 

 powers into activity, and furnish the means of their realisa- 

 tion. The direction and the final limits of his develop- 

 ment are prescribed from within. 



We must now endeavour to ascertain some of the results 

 which flow from this conception of the relation of inborn 

 character and environment. The first of these is that a 

 fresh light is thrown upon the nature of the dependence 

 of the child upon his surroundings. According to the 

 view both of the determinists and the indeterminists, any 

 kind of real or ontological connection between the child 

 and the natural system into which he is born was regarded 

 as an obstacle to his freedom, and therefore to his realisation 

 of a life which can be called moral or spiritual. Hence 

 the controversy between them turned upon the possibility 

 of liberating him from this system. According to the 



J If the reader is tempted to consider this statement to be a mere 

 paradox he may ask whether the dependence of animal life upon the 

 action of any one of such organs as the heart, or the brain, or the lungs, 

 is not complete. 



