OUR NATURAL INHERITANCE 47 



clearly that whenever we begin to trade with our 

 surroundings (and who shall say how early that begins ?), 

 to adjust ourselves actively to our environment, to 

 play the great game, we build new elements into our- 

 selves, so that next time we act not only because of 

 our hereditary nature, but also because of what we have 

 ourselves made of it. This is particularly true of Man, 

 because of his fine brain and strong social predispositions, 

 but it is also true of dog and of starfish. 



The fundamental thing is the natural inheritance, by 

 which is meant everything that, in some way inconceiv- 

 able to us, lies implicit in the fertilised egg-cell. There, 

 in a microcosm whose outlines alone are visible, our 

 inheritance lies latent, and the quality of it, whether 

 rich or poor, depends on parental and ancestral con- 

 tributions, though the unification of these sometimes 

 yields, as we have said, unexpected and unpredicted 

 results. For while great geniuses are rare, minor geniuses 

 are not uncommon. 



But though the foundations of our constitution are 

 laid down for us by our relation to parents and ancestors, 

 the outcome depends on the way in which we — the 

 unified organisation — relate ourselves to air and food, 

 sunshine and rain, work and play, exercise and rest, 

 and to the social heritage which is registered in institu- 

 tions and traditions, literature and art, and the frame- 

 work of society itself. The number of talents we get 

 to start with is settled beforehand, but it is within 

 limits open to us to increase their value by trading. 



The living creature or organism is a concrete reality 



