362 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



moral civilization. Our psychical, social and 

 moral environment has come to us from 

 the past with ever-increasing increments, every 

 age standing on the shoulders of the preceding 

 one. The aspirations, impulses, responsibili- 

 ties of modern life have become enormous and 

 our inherited natures and abilities have not 

 essentially improved. Social heredity has out- 

 run germinal heredity and the intellectual, so- 

 cial and moral responsibilities of our times are 

 too great for many men. Civilization is a 

 strenuous affair, with impulses and compul- 

 sions which are difficult for the primitive man 

 to fulfil, and many of us are hereditarily prim- 

 itive men. The frequent result is disharmony, 

 poor adjustment, the struggle of the primitive 

 instincts with high ideals, with a resulting 

 sense of discouragement and defeat which of- 

 ten ends in abnormal states of mind. The 

 great growth of alcoholism, depravity and in- 

 sanity is an ever-increasing protest and menace 

 of weak men against high civilization. We are 

 approaching the time when one or the other 

 must give way, either the responsibilities of 

 life must be reduced and the march of civiliza- 



