i.] ANTECEDENTS 39 



not account for their being less prolific than 

 their parents who were also townsmen, nor for 

 the large number of wholly sterile marriages. 



HEREDITY. 



The effects of education and circumstances are 

 so interwoven with those of natural character in 

 determining a man's position among his contem- 

 poraries, that I find it impossible to treat them 

 wholly apart. Still less is it possible completely 

 to separate the evidences relating to that por- 

 tion of a man's nature which is due to here- 

 dity, from all the rest. Heredity and many 

 other co-operating causes must therefore be con- 

 sidered in connection ; but I feel sure that as the 

 reader proceeds, and becomes familiar with the 

 variety of the evidence, he will insensibly effect 

 for himself much of the required separation. 

 Also, from time to time, as opportunity may 

 offer, I shall attempt to draw distinctions. 



The study of hereditary form and features in 

 combination with character promises to be of 

 much interest, but it proves disappointing on 



