360 Heredity. 



perfect ideal, as, in ascending some lofty mountain, we take in a 

 wider horizon as we climb. And during this gradual conquest, in 

 which humanity endeavours to strip off all that is low and base, 

 primitive instincts, which are indeed an original stain, reappear 

 every moment indelible, though weakened to remind us, not 

 of a fall, but of the low estate from which we have risen. 



CHAPTER IV. 



SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF HEREDITY 



IT would be beside our subject and beyond the measure of our 

 powers to examine here in detail the social consequences of 

 heredity. To trace them through the manners, the legislation, 

 the civil and political institutions, and the modes of govern- 

 ment of various peoples, would require a separate work. Heredity 

 presents itself to us under two forms, one natural, the other 

 institutional. We have studied the former only, even so restricting 

 ourselves to only one of its aspects, its psychological side ; we 

 have but incidentally touched on the ground of physiology, in 

 order to confirm our positions. It will therefore suffice, in order 

 to conclude this work, to show how the institutional heredity 

 derives from natural heredity, and thus to refer the effects to 

 their cause. 



Every nation possesses at least a vague belief in hereditary 

 transmission. Facts compel it : and indeed it may even be main- 

 tained that in primitive times this belief is stronger than it is 

 under civilization. From this belief springs institutional heredity. 

 It is certain that social and political considerations, or even pre- 

 judices, must have contributed to develop and strengthen it, but 

 it were absurd to suppose that it has been invented. The 

 characters which we have already often recognized in heredity 

 necessity, conservatism, and stability are logically found in the 

 institutions which spring from it This a rapid examination of 

 the subject will show. In exhibiting the part of heredity in the 

 institution of the family, of castes, of nobility, of sovereignty > it 



