34 2 Heredity and Environment 



time, under intelligent guidance, the worst qualities of the race 

 might be weeded out and the best qualities preserved. This is 

 the goal toward which intelligent effort should be directed. This 

 should be the supreme duty of society and of all who love their 

 fellow men. 



But I think that notable human improvement can take place 

 only upon two conditions : ( i ) The physical and intellectual im- 

 provement of the individual through environment and training 

 must not interfere with his racial and ethical obligations. Indi- 

 vidual freedom must be subordinated to racial welfare. (2) The 

 promotion of human evolution must be undertaken by society as 

 its greatest work. Not only has society greater freedom and 

 greater power than the individual but it persists while men come 

 and go. 



Our hereditary lines are so interwoven with those of other 

 races and will be so entangled with other lines in the future that 

 any selfish or narrow policy of improving our family or class can 

 have little permanent value. We shall rise only as our race rises. 

 Indeed when we consider all the influences of our fellow men 

 upon our development, when we consider our hereditary con- 

 nections with multitudes of men and women of the past, when 

 we think of the nexus of hereditary strands which are woven into 

 our personalities and which will be continued through us to 

 many future generations, we realize that after all the individual is 

 not really a separate and independent being, but a minor unit in 

 the great organism of humanity, and that his greatest duty is to 

 transmit unimpaired and undefiled a noble heritage to generations 

 yet unborn. 



It is possible greatly to improve environment. Conditions of 

 life are still hard and cruel for many. A vast amount of good 

 human material is wasted in modern society. As civilization be- 

 comes more complex the quantity of human wreckage and wast- 

 age ever grows greater. Many useful lives and some great possi- 

 bilities are blotted out by unfavorable environment. It is the 



