LAWS CONTROLLING HUMAN SOCIAL HEREDITY 317 



mental powers would increase with successive gen- 

 erations. But with the conception of heredity that 

 denies the transmission of acquired characters it is 

 no longer possible to think of one generation as 

 profiting by the characters acquired by the last, and 

 hence it has been difficult to explain how a develop- 

 ing civilization could develop mental powers. Now, 

 while science may not yet perhaps have definitely 

 reached the extreme position that acquired char- 

 acters can have no influence upon subsequent gen- 

 erations, still the discussion of the last two decades 

 has shown conclusively that such characters cannot 

 be counted upon as playing any important part in 

 evolution. This being the case, the questions arise : 

 1. If civilization is only a series of acquired char- 

 acters, and if acquired characters are not inherited, 

 how can we account for the fact that intelligence has 

 increased with developing civilization? 2. How can 

 we explain the evolution of intelligence itself if we 

 assume that acquired characters are not inherited? 

 3. If civilization is nothing but a series of acquired 

 characters, and if intelligence is a part of the organic 

 heritage of man, how could the former have any 

 influence upon the latter? 



Human Progress. — We are frequently told that the 

 mind of man has not advanced at all since the time 

 of the Greeks. Perhaps this is true ; and it may be 

 perhaps said with equal cogency that the mind of 

 man has not advanced since the time of the Egyp- 

 tians, when they built their vast monuments so long 

 ago. We may even raise the question whether the 

 mind of man has any greater powers than it had in 

 the time of the old stone men of prehistoric ages; 

 for it is a question whether it did not take just as 



