CHAPTER IV 



INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL HEREDITY 



The subject of heredity becomes far more 

 interesting and more complicated when we ap- 

 proach the sphere of mind. Physical illustra- 

 tions are more easily verified than mental and 

 moral. Many that unhesitatingly grant the oper- 

 ation of this law in the bodily organism strenu- 

 ously deny that its action can be traced in the 

 realm of intellect and morals. But examples of 

 intellectual and moral heredity are not difficult 

 to find. The influence of ancestry on those now 

 living is freely acknowledged by nearly all great 

 educators and religious teachers. Ribot says : 

 " This [heredity] holds good also of psychical 

 qualities : a given animal possesses not only the 

 general instincts of the species, but also the 

 peculiar instincts of the race. The negro inher- 

 its not only the psychological faculties which are 

 common to all men, but also a certain peculiar 

 form of mental constitution, namely, an excess 

 of sensibility and imagination, sensual tendencies, 

 etc." 1 



1 Heredity, Ribot, p. 144. 

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