46 DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 



On this subject of heredity, though Darwin 

 was too modest to urge his own discovery of 

 natural selection to its full length, he is much 

 more cautious in his statements than many who 

 are fond of using- his name. In his Autobio- 

 graphy, it is true, he says : " I am inclined to 

 aeree with Francis Galton in believing that 

 education and environment produce only a 

 small effect on the mind of any one, and that 

 most of our qualities are innate." x But in the 

 Descent of Man' 1 his position is much more 

 guarded, and he seems generally to allow early 

 influence to account for more than inheritance, 

 in respect of virtuous habits, etc. With regard 

 to himself he says that he owed his "humanity" 

 to the instruction and example of his sisters. 3 

 His statement that " handwriting is certainly 

 inherited " seems a very doubtful one.* In his 



1 life and Letters, I. 22. 



2 e.g. pp. 122-125. On p. 123 he says : "There is not 

 the least inherent improbability, it seems to me, in virtuous 

 tendencies being more or less strongly inherited." This is 

 a very negative and cautious position. 



'> Life and Letters, I. 29. "I doubt indeed whether 

 humanity is a natural or innate quality." 



4 Descent of Man, p. 88. He refers to Variation of 

 Animals and Plants tinder Domestication, vol. II. p. 6. [See 

 I. p. 449 in edition 2.] 



