320 GENERAL BIOLOGY 



characters that are equally remote from the missing sex 

 organs of the latter. Doubtless the condition of the body 

 does affect the germ cells also (whether well- or ill-nour- 

 ished; healthy or not, but in what manner and to what 

 extent is not readily determinable at the present day. 



The physical basis of racial solidarity. — This we know; 

 that with all the changes of its outward conditions, human 

 nature changes little. . Civilization advances, but civiliza- 

 tion concerns itself with methods of nurture alone ; and its 

 gains, every individual must re-appropriate for himself. 

 Nurture creates many artificial distinctions among men, but 

 their nature is little altered. Good health and good spirits 

 and normal desires for life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 

 ness are not the possession of any class or condition of men. 

 Good brains are probably as equitably distributed as are 

 good muscles, although the opportunity for their develop- 

 ment may not be. Dynasties may rise and fall, systems 

 come and go, but the racial currents run on serenely. Art 

 and science are not transmitted in the germ; the only part 

 of our education that is inherited is the organic part of it 

 that is common to the race. Fortunately or unfortunately, 

 the springs of racial progress lie very deep ; and if they are 

 not readily reached by humanitarian effort, they are at least 

 remote from unskillful meddling. It is the common stock 

 of germ plasm of our race that breeds our common 

 interests and common needs, and makes it possible for us to 

 have common schools and common law. This is the great 

 guarantee of democracy. 



Racial differentiation. — Nevertheless, our common stock 

 of germ plasm is not quite homogeneous. It has had a long 

 history. It has developed divergent tendencies. It has 

 lived under different environments. The spirit of one people 

 is not that of another. That the slow methods of nature 



