DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 47 



Life of Erasmus Darwin 1 he says that his uncle 

 Charles Darwin " inherited stammering " from 

 his father, Erasmus. " With the hope of curing 

 him his father sent him to France, when about 

 eight years old, with a private tutor, thinking 

 that if he was not allowed to speak English for 

 a time, the habit of stammering mishit be lost . 

 and it is a curious fact, that in after years, when 

 speaking French he never stammered." Is 

 not this " curious fact" an instant i a cruets which 

 proves that his stammering was not inherited ? 

 If it had been, he must have stammered in 

 every language. 



The lower down we go in the scale of animal 

 intelligence the more seems due to inherited 

 instincts : the higher we go the more is due 

 to imitation and to the training rendered 

 possible by the greater size and complexity of 

 the brain and necessary by the prolongation of 

 infancy. In the lower animals any habit which 

 is useful to the preservation of the species can 

 only be transmitted as an instinct. In the 

 higher animals much can be done by imitation 

 and instruction. Anions human beines, Ian- 

 guage and social institutions make it possible to 

 1 p. 80, quoted in Life and Letters, I. 7. 



