GENETICS AND ETHICS 449 



are predetermined by heredity, and that we 

 can no more control them than we can control 

 our heart beats. For ages men have believed 

 in the influence of example, in the uplift of 

 high ideals, in the power of an absorbing pur- 

 pose; for ages men have lived and died for 

 what they believed to be duty and truth, and 

 have received the homage of mankind ; or they 

 have lived malevolent and criminal lives and 

 have been despised by men and punished by 

 society. But if our reactions, habits, charac- 

 ters are predetermined in the germ plasm such 

 men have deserved neither praise nor blame. 

 If personality is determined by heredity alone 

 all teaching, preaching, government is useless; 

 freedom, responsibility, duty are delusions; 

 whether men are useful or useless members of 

 society depends upon their inheritance, and 

 the only hope for the race is in eugenics 

 always supposing that enough freedom is left 

 to men or to society to control the important 

 function of choosing a mate. 



Already a few enthusiastic persons have 

 begun to apply these doctrines to practical af- 

 fairs. We are told that children should never 



