HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN 

 PROBLEMS 



CHAPTER I 



THE LAW OF HEREDITY 



The problem of which this book is a study is the 

 relation of heredity and environment to thought 

 and conduct, with especial reference to the facts 

 and theories of religion ; or, phrasing it differently, 

 heredity and environment as factors to be con- 

 sidered by students of theology and ethics, and 

 by servants of humanity. My object is purely 

 ^ practical. While I have studied the subject care- 

 t fully for many years, I cannot claim to be, in the 

 *^ strict scientific sense, an original investigator. 

 ^ In these pages the well-attested results of the 

 researches of others are gathered and weighed, 

 not so much for a more exact knowledge of the 

 subjects themselves, as for a clearer understand- 

 ing of their bearing upon the life of man and the 

 modifications they call for in the theories concern- 

 ing human duty and responsibility. 



