ENVIRONMENT 6/ 



thing that he sees and hears becomes a motive to 

 purity and honour, the good in him will be stim- 

 ulated and will increase, the evil will be repressed, 

 and habits of virtue and righteousness will be 

 formed, — the fair promise of virtuous maturity. 

 If this were not true, the good would reproduce 

 the good, the tainted the tainted, and the vile the 

 vile, to the end of time, and redemption there 

 could be none, except, perchance, by the direct 

 intervention of the Almighty. In my opinion all 

 that makes life worth living for many, and all that 

 saves from pessimism those who are possessed 

 with enthusiasm for humanity, is the fact that 

 heredity, when there is no incurable structural 

 defect, may be modified by environment; that 

 there is always something in a human being which 

 can respond to education and religion, and which 

 may be expected to respond to them when circum- 

 stances do not obstruct. Even Ribot, who seems 

 not to appreciate the commanding position that, 

 owing to the conflicting elements in heredity, envi- 

 ronment holds, feels obliged to confess that it " has 

 made us what we are." That may be an overstate- 

 ment, for the last word on evolution and the prim- 

 itive endowment of man has not yet been spoken ; 

 but it seems indubitable that on this modifying 

 and elevating power of environment depends very 



