METHODS OF SCHOLASTIC TEACHING 327 



is our only hope against disasters that loom great and terrible 

 in the near future. It goes deep down to the springs of 

 human life, and thought, and conduct, and explains why some 

 nations are inheriting the earth and the fruits thereof, while 

 others are dying physically or mentally. The philanthropist 

 must know something of this science or he will grope in the 

 dark. The statesman must know something of it or he may 

 labour in vain. 1 Transcending all else in importance is the 

 educational value of heredity. No nation in which a know- 

 ledge of it was widespread could possibly be stupid or brutal. 

 The habits of thought which must be brought to its study 

 are exactly those which counteract best the tendencies which 

 have plunged so many races into their Dark Ages. So few 

 are the essential facts of heredity, but so prolonged, close, 

 and accurate must be the reasoning founded on them, that 

 no great strain is placed on the memory while the reflective 

 faculties are exercised in the highest degree. So largely 

 would the students learning link up with the subsequent 

 experiences of his whole life that little would be forgotten, 

 and a sure foundation would be laid for a clear and wide 

 intellectual outlook. 



512. It will be easy to declare that I propose to regenerate 

 mankind by making it study heredity. I am almost disposed 

 to accept the challenge. If it be thought that I exaggerate 

 let the reader consider the case of China. China is still in 

 her Dark Age. Suppose we changed her present system of 

 classical education for that which forms the principal mental 

 food of our own governing classes ; would such an alteration 

 in the mental tone of the Chinese result that a great 

 intellectual, and therefore social and material revival would 

 follow like that in Japan ? Some change would result, 

 doubtless, especially in those Chinamen who assimilated, as 

 so few Englishmen do, the thoughts of the great Grecians ; 

 but the general mental tone of the Chinese, the murky 

 atmosphere of prejudice, would suffer little alteration. But 

 if heredity and all that a study of heredity implies, including 

 the doctrine of evolution, the essential facts and generaliza- 

 tions of many biological sciences, and the utter and necessary 

 reliance of the student on verifiable evidence first, verifiable 

 evidence next, and verifiable evidence last, were taught, can 

 it be doubted that that fog of superstition and prejudice, 

 which now chokes the nation, would clear away like mist 

 before a summer sun, and that we should then see such an 

 outburst of energy and enterprise, such an intellectual and 

 1 See the next Chapter. 



