42 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



that the child comes from germ cells which 

 are not made by the bodies of the parents 

 but have arisen by the division of antecedent 

 germ cells. Every cell comes from a pre- 

 existing cell by a process of division, and every 

 germ cell comes from a pre-existing germ cell. 

 Consequently it is not possible to hold that the 

 body generates germ cells, nor that the soul 

 generates souls. The only possible scientific 

 position is that the mind (or soul) as well as 

 the body develops from the germ. 



No fact in human experience is more certain 

 than that the mind develops by gradual and 

 natural processes from a simple condition 

 which can scarcely be called mind at all; no 

 fact in human experience is fraught with 

 greater practical and philosophical significance 

 than this, and yet no fact is more generally 

 disregarded. We know that the greatest men 

 of the race were once babies, embryos, germ 

 cells, and that the greatest minds in human 

 history were once the minds of babies, em- 

 bryos and germ cells, and yet this stupendous 

 fact has had but little influence on our beliefs 

 as to the nature of man and of mind. We 



