76 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



ments faced by the child of temperate parents, 

 plus a natural craving of which the latter knows 

 nothing, and the choice of the former will inevita- 

 bly be more or less influenced by his vital inheri- 

 tance. True, he may have been so shocked and 

 disgraced by what he has seen among those whom 

 he loves, that he abhors the sight of that which 

 has worked ruin for them. Even then, the case is 

 not changed. The grave fact is that the will is so 

 hedged around with influences and tendencies in 

 such cases, that it is impossible for us to call it 

 free. He who feels a burning thirst for liquor 

 may be said to be in a sense free to choose as he 

 thinks best, but what he will actually think best at 

 that moment will be determined in all probability 

 by his physical condition. Jonathan Edwards ar- 

 gued that the will is as the greatest apparent good. 

 That contention, though it antedated by a long 

 time the modern discoveries in heredity, is quite in 

 harmony with them ; for his famous dictum in the 

 / last analysis means that men always choose what 

 seems best, which depends very much upon their 

 physical state at the moment of choice, and that is 

 very largely a matter of heredity. 



The peculiar aptitudes of many for special stud- 

 ies are too well known to require more than men- 

 tion. A young man, free to choose his profession 



