366 HEREDITY IN MAN 



the origin of will. It is clear that, if it has to be referred to the 

 working of complex faculties which are themselves explicable in 

 the terms of more ultimate faculties, it is in a sense innately 

 given. Undoubtedly will is in a sense inherited. However 

 much will may be a product of the environment in the second 

 sense, there is clearly an innate tendency towards the develop- 

 ment of a will of a certain form and strength. Whether therefore 

 it is an ultimate faculty or not, it is due in some measure either 

 to a definite innate predisposition or to such a combination of 

 other innate predispositions as give rise to the manifestation of 

 a will of a certain nature. 



Finally, we may look at the whole problem of the inheritance 

 of mental characters from another point of view. It is known 

 that certain areas in the brain associated with particular functions 

 are differently developed in different individuals, and that there 

 are differences in the speed at which the nervous impulse travels 

 which are doubtless due to anatomical peculiarities and so on — 

 that there are, in fact, differences in the physical basis which 

 underlies the manifestation of mental characters. It is thus easy 

 to understand in a general way how mental characters which are 

 based upon the nervous organization are inherited. A man may 

 inherit a brain in which certain regions are of relatively large 

 size, or a nervous organization by which impulses are swiftly 

 conducted, and thus we can understand how quickness of re- 

 sponse, power of concentration, readiness of association, type of 

 mind (whether emotional or intellectual) are inherited. 



7. This brief inquiry into what is given in the germinal con- 

 stitution leads to the conception of large numbers of predis- 

 positions which under the stimulus of the environment develop 

 into the characters that we observe. This is true at least of 

 physical characters. In physical characters we observe the result 

 of the play of the environment upon certain predispositions. 

 With regard to mental characters the position is somewhat 

 different. Into mental characters, as presented to us — into ability, 

 for instance — there enters the influence of the environment in the 

 second sense. When we are judging the ability of a man from 

 a practical point of view, we are judging a character into the 

 make-up of which has entered not only certain predispositions 

 and a certain environment — using environment in the sense of 

 the complement to inheritance — but also the results of the influence 



