HEREDITY SETS THE LIMIT 529 



probably as well endowed mentally as ourselves, but for 

 lack of education they were practically barbarians. Our 

 schools hand over to children in ten or a dozen years 

 much of the knowledge and skill which it has taken the 

 race thousands of years to acquire. 



Heredity Sets the Limits. — It is not a question of 

 heredity or environment, but of heredity and environ- 

 ment. Both influences are operative in determining what 

 manner of person any given individual shall become. 

 What heredity does is to set limits to the influence which 

 it is possible for education to exert. It is to a great ex- 

 tent education which decides what the absolute achieve- 

 ment of a given population group shall be — that is, 

 whether its intellectual life shall in general be on a high 

 or low plane. On the other hand, it is heredity, chiefly, 

 which determines the relative achievement of an indi- 

 vidual as compared with other members of his popula- 

 tion group. At least this tends to be the case in a 

 democratic country where class privileges have been 

 abolished and where inequalities of opportunity have 

 been reduced to a minimum. To state it concretely, the 

 average Englishman of to-day is more civilized than his 

 ancestors of two thousand years ago, chiefly because of 

 education and environment, but Englishmen like Fara- 

 day, Lord Kelvin, or Lloyd George surpass the average 

 present-day Englishman in achievement chiefly because 

 of their superior endowment. 



Ordinary observation suggests the possibility that edu- 

 cation may have a greater influence upon moral traits 

 than upon general intelligence. This may be true, but 

 it is probable that even here original endowment counts 

 heavily. No nation has ever succeeded in reforming its 

 entire criminal class. 



Modifications of Mental Traits not Transmitted. 

 — In earlier chapters (XXVIII and XXXIII) it has 

 been shown that physical traits acquired during the life- 

 time of an individual do not affect the germ cell, that is, 



