4 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



knowledge of the power of heredity might weaken or 

 destroy the sense of moral responsibility and personal 

 freedom on which so much of our religious and ethical 

 standards of conduct depends. Such a view, we pro- 

 foundly believe, rests on a misconception of the basis of 

 that sense of freedom and responsibility with which we 

 are endowed. To this point we shall return ; but it 

 may be well at once to remind the reader that effective 

 freedom is increased and not diminished by a knowledge 

 of the natural laws in accordance with which, whether 

 we like it or not, life is organized. Civilized man, who 

 understands the limitations of mechanical powers, is in 

 effect much freer than is the savage, to whose credulous 

 mind nothing is impossible. Moreover, personal free- 

 dom, unchecked by a strong ethical sense or religious 

 conviction, may too readily degenerate into licence, and 

 lose what should be its accompanying feeling of personal 

 responsibility. 



Although as yet in the problems of heredity we see 

 but as in a glass darkly, nothing is gained by shutting 

 our eyes. The proper study of man is mankind, and 

 sooner or later the questions at issue must be faced. 

 There is light enough to show that the problems dis- 

 closed are of vital importance. The scientific investiga- 

 tion of inheritance is now beginning to lead to definite 

 knowledge — still fragmentary, it is true, but enough 

 to point the way for future inquiry, and here and there 

 to give certain principles which should be borne in 

 mind when we are considering proposals for legislative 

 or social action. 



Till recently, the effect of individual conduct or of 

 social legislation on the innate qualities of the people 



