36 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



clear that he does not owe to such inheritance the new 

 powers that he acquires by using his brain and by 

 learning. What the child is when born he owes 

 to organic heredity, but what he becomes he owes 

 chiefly to social heredity. This general statement 

 will probably not be disputed. But when we try 

 to determine just how much of the mental equip- 

 ment of the adult is the result of his organic inher- 

 itance and how much of it is acquired by teaching 

 and imitation, we may find a considerable lack 

 of agreement. Inasmuch, however, as the primary 

 purpose of the following chapters is to develop 

 this phase of the subject, we will not here attempt 

 any further analysis of the matter. 



Social Heredity in Mankind 



It may be questioned whether the principle which 

 we are considering can properly be called heredity. 

 Certainly, it cannot be so called without a clear 

 understanding of it, which will prevent its being 

 confused with organic heredity. But with a proper 

 understanding the term is perfectly legitimate. 

 Indeed, one of the most common uses of the term 

 *' heredity" has always had reference to that phase 

 of it that we have called social heredity. It is com- 

 mon to speak of children inheriting property from 

 their parents, using thus exactly the same term 

 that is used in speaking of the inheritance of black 

 hair or blue eyes. In the common use of the 

 word, inheritance signifies the passing to the chil- 

 dren of anything possessed by the parents; and if 

 we adopt this common understanding, it is proper 

 to speak of the child as inheriting the language 

 as well as the property or the physical characters 



