ORGANIC EVOLUTION — MENTAL 185 



that the mental differences exhibited by the various 

 peoples and nations of men are racial (i. e. inborn), not 

 educational (i. e. acquired) ; or perhaps it would be 

 more correct to say, that it is remarkable that generally 

 they have not perceived, when considering aggregates 

 of men, that the units of the aggregate are like mentally 

 to one another, and to their progenitors, mainly because 

 they have all received after birth, like mental stimula- 

 tion from the environment, have all been subjected to 

 like educational influences, not mainly because their 

 racial or inborn traits are similar ; and that they differ 

 mentally from the units of other aggregates of men 

 mainly because their educational influences have been 

 different, not mainly because their inborn mental traits 

 are different. 



The enormous importance of educational influences 

 as regards individuals is very generally and fully 

 recognized, and therefore parents in all countries exer- 

 cise the most anxious and vigilant care in the bringing 

 up of their children ; but seldom is the fact recognized, 

 that the educational influences which affect in common 

 the individuals of a whole race may be good or bad, or 

 a combination of the two, and that by them is deter- 

 mined the material and intellectual progress or stagna- 

 tion, the weal or woe of the whole race ; seldom is the 

 fact recognized, that just as different races of men differ 

 in the languages they acquire from their progenitors, so 

 also do they probably differ in other acquired traits of 

 great importance ; never is the fact appreciated that 

 the young human being, unlike the young of lower 

 animals, is born with a mind which is practically blank, 

 and that nearly all that is mental in him is subsequently 

 acquired in resj^onse to stimulation from the environ- 

 ment, the chief factor in that environment being the 

 influence exercised on him by his progenitors. It is 

 generally realized that a child reared by the uncleanly 



