158 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



have now to show that his assertion is in itself un- 

 founded. But, preliminary to this, we must call 

 attention to another point. 



How it is that Mr. Buckle, who holds fast to 

 the law of development, can reject the law of he- 

 reditary transmission, we are unable to imagine. 

 Nevertheless, reject it he does, in the following 

 passage, which, as Mr. Lewes remarks, must ex- 

 cite the astonishment of the physiologist : 



We often hear of hereditary talents, hereditary vices, 

 and hereditary virtues ; but whoever will critically ex- 

 amine the evidence will find that we have no proof 

 of their existence. The way in which they are com- 

 monly proved is in the highest degree illogical ; the 

 usual course being for writers to collect instances of 

 some mental peculiarity found in a parent and in his 

 child, and then to infer that the peculiarity was be- 

 queathed. By this mode of reasoning, we might dem- 

 onstrate any proposition ; since, in all large fields of 

 inquiry there are a sufficient number of empirical coin- 

 cidences to make a plausible case in favour of whatever 

 view a man chooses to advocate. But this is not the 

 way in which truth is discovered ; and we ought to in- 

 quire, not only how many instances there are of heredi- 

 tary talents, etc., but how many instances there are of 

 such qualities not being hereditary. Until something 

 of this sort is attempted, we can know nothing about 

 the matter inductively ; while, until physiology and 



