132 NATURAL SELECTION AND 



characteristics, have also other modes of trans- 

 mitting sentiments and customs ; they are not 

 dependent merely on heredity in the bio- 

 logical sense. They can "inherit" by means 

 of language and institutions the experience of 

 their ancestors, which would otherwise be lost 

 and have to be acquired afresh unless of 

 course the Lamarckian hypothesis were true. 

 A conspicuous example of the extent to which 

 "social" inheritance may go, entirely unaided 

 by biological inheritance, is to be found in the 

 persistence of type and character in the Cath- 

 olic clergy. There may even be less change 

 in a celibate than in a hereditary official class. 

 " Le clerge," says Montesquieu, " est une famille 

 qui ne peut pas perir." 



This capacity of social inheritance is the 

 great advantage that mankind possesses over 

 the brutes; and the greater perfection in the 

 modes of transmitting experience constitutes 

 the advantage of civilised over uncivilised races. 

 I have already suggested a definition of civilisa- 

 tion as " the sum of those contrivances which 

 enable human beings to advance independently 

 of [biological] heredity." 1 



1 See above, p. 101. 



