IO i] SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION IO j 



serted minor propositions which are untenable, and which 

 were in contradiction to other propositions which he 

 admitted. It can readily be shown that the chief con- 

 tentions of Galton and Ward are reconcilable. 



Galton certainly considered of prime importance the 

 statement that " a man's natural abilities are derived by 

 inheritance." This, however, is a proposition which 

 Ward himself conceded to be sufficiently proved. 1 The 

 two men were therefore agreed on this basic proposi- 

 tion. 



Galton likewise admitted that heredity is not all-power- 

 ful when he said, " It is needless to insist that neither 

 (nature nor nurture) is self-sufficient; the highest natural 

 endowment may be starved by defective nurture." 2 



Moreover Galton admitted the importance of environ- 

 ment to such an extent as to satisfy Ward 3 when he said, 

 ' I acknowledge freely the great power of education and 

 social influences in developing the active powers of the 

 mind, just as I acknowledge the effect of use in develop- 

 ing the muscles of the blacksmith's arm, and no further." 4 

 Thus it appears that the two men were agreed on Ward's 

 fundamental proposition of the influence of environment, 

 as well as upon Galton's basic principle that " a man's 

 natural abilities are derived by inheritance." Both men 

 recognized that neither nature nor nurture alone can 

 account for all human achievement. 



It seems probable, therefore, that both Galton and 

 Ward would agree with the final conclusion drawn from 

 the data of this study, namely, that while without natural 



1 Ward, op. cit., p. 115. 



2 Galton, English Men of Science (London, 1874), P- 12. Cf. op. cit., 

 p. ix. 



3 Ward, op. cit., p. 247. 



* Galton, Hereditary Genius, p. 14. 



