1262 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



and he knows very well that the unfolding of these buds will depend 

 largely on the nurture they receive. So he gets away from all 

 controversy about "nature and nurture"; for he is sure of this, that 

 the nature of these buds will express itself in proportion to the 

 generosity and the wholesomeness of the nurture they receive. 

 Thirdly, as he looks round that Baby Show he sees enough to punc- 

 ture that widespread fallacy of equalitarianism which is so rife in 

 uneducated circles, for he is quite sure by actual observation that 

 these babies are anything but equal; they are born with all sorts 

 of pluses and minuses. Equality is to the biologist the biggest of 

 fallacies. As you walk away solemnised, the ever- jocular friend says, 

 "Well, what do you think of the babies?" and you answer, "Well, 

 not so bad, but they might be better." When he rejoins, "But how 

 can they be made better?" you turn savagely on him and on 

 yourself, and answer, "The recipe for better babies is better parents." 



Tender Years. —We pass to the next arc or chapter of Tender 

 Years, when the entrancing bundle of variabilities is now a delightful 

 infant. We are speaking of the period under three years old. Sir 

 Ray Lankester long ago drew a very important contrast between 

 the little-brain type of organism and the big-brain type. The little- 

 brain type of organism reaches its climax in ants, bees, and wasps, 

 and is rich in ready-made tricks. It has a repertory or capacity for 

 doing apparently clever things, which is called instinct. The big- 

 brain type has relatively few instincts in the strict sense. It has 

 more in the way of generalised pre-dispositions, which do not quite 

 correspond to the very precise instinctive rules of behaviour that the 

 zoologist studies in ants and bees. But the positive significance of 

 the big-brain type, such as we see in horse, dog, elephant, monkey, 

 and man, is that though it is born with very few instincts and is poor 

 in any ready-made repertory, it is born rich in the power of learning. 

 Hence the importance in infancy of doing nothing that will limit 

 the plasticity of the big brain. Since the brain is of this particular 

 type, i.e. poor in instincts but strong in educability, the point is to 

 keep it plastic, not to impose limits on it, especially at this early 

 time. This is a conviction the biologist always has about children 

 of tender years: leave the brain plastic. That is the line of human 

 progress. 



We cannot look on these children of tender years without recalling 

 the wise saying of Lucretius: "Children by their caresses broke 

 down the haughty temper of their parents". There is an ethical 

 value in the prolonged infancy of mankind, for that period of 

 helplessness engenders in the parent a gentleness and sympath}^ that 

 would not otherwise be readily evolved. 



It is generally agreed that there is, to a certain extent, a recapi- 

 tulation of racial history in the lifetime of an individual. In dealing 

 with children, hoping to appreciate and help them, one must keep 



