Influence of Environment 251 



part upon environment and training. Habits are the usual meth- 

 ods of responding to stimuli, and they may be classified as in- 

 herent or acquired. The former are instincts or reflexes and are 

 expressions of hereditary constitution; the latter are in a sense 

 forced upon organisms by environmental conditions. All educa- 

 tion is habit formation, and good education like good environment 

 is such experience as leads to the formation of good bodily, in- 

 tellectual, social and moral habits ; it consists in placing the in- 

 dividual in such an environment and bringing such stimuli to 

 bear upon him as to call forth desirable responses and to suppress 

 undesirable ones. 



Good and Bad Environment. Only that environment and 

 training are good which lead to the development of good habits 

 and traits and to the suppression of bad ones. What we com- 

 monly call "good environment" is frequently the worst possible, 

 what is often called a bad environment may be the best possible. 

 We are all strangely blind with regard to these matters. We 

 know of many cases in which men began their careers on a farm, 

 in the backwoods, on a flat-boat, amidst hardships and discom- 

 forts of every sort and yet who achieved great distinction. And 

 we speak of such men as winning in spite of disadvantages, for- 

 getting that often these very disadvantages, hardships, discom- 

 forts, have been stimuli which have given them sturdy bodies, 

 good judgments, good morals, and have called forth all their best 

 qualities. On the other hand under different circumstances or 

 with different men such conditions may prove to be too hard, too 

 severe, and the result be disastrous. But environment may be 

 too good as well as too hard. Food may be too rich and too 

 abundant for good health, life may be too easy and luxurious for 

 the development of character. Luxury, easy lives, refined sur- 

 roundings have less of educational value than we commonly sup- 

 pose and they may be a positive menace. Any environment is 

 bad, however cultured, refined or pleasant it may be, which leads 

 to the development of bad traits of body or mind. In general the 



