THE " MILTONOPLASM " THEORY 8i 



is emphatic on the matter, they have not yet moved 

 a single step in the direction of showing how to breed 

 Miltonoplasms. So far, they have brought no more 

 to the solution of the pecuHar qualities of man than 

 is contained in the old proverb : " You cannot make 

 a silk purse out of a sow's ear." Certainly the silk- 

 worm, spinning its cocoon, provides a material with 

 the potentiality and aptitude of being made into a 

 silk purse, but silk-worms might spin to all eternity 

 and yet fair ladies still have to carry their money in 

 their hands. By all means let us hope that Mendel- 

 ians will teach us how to multiply the fine silk of 

 human capacity, but we must fear them when they 

 claim an overwhelmingly greater significance for the 

 silk than for the making of the purse. They forget 

 the dominance of what we call mind over what we 

 call matter. It is after the Miltonoplasm has grown 

 into a sentient human being that the factors most 

 potent in shaping the direction, quality, and value 

 of his mental and emotional output come into opera- 

 tion. These factors are in his environment, not in 

 himself : they are products of the " Kultur " of the 

 nation in which he lives, and they, at least, are 

 created by human will and are subject to human will. 

 Quite possibly some definite elements could be 

 removed from a national stock by restrictions on 

 breeding — such elements, for instance, as feeble- 

 mindedness. But we cannot be certain that feeble- 

 mindedness is not due to a gross physical cause 

 affecting different kinds and qualities of brain and 

 mind, just as blight may fall on the fairest flowers 

 and the most ragged weeds. When we consider 

 oriented abnormalities of mental and moral dis- 



