CHAPTER XI 



CONCLUSION 



We have now arrived at the end of our survey of the 

 influence of heredity on the character of the family, 

 and through it on the nation. Let us endeavour to 

 summarize the results of our inquiry and to take stock 

 of our present position. 



Modern biological and statistical investigations have 

 emphasized the importance of heredity in determining 

 individual character, ability, and constitution. All 

 men, and not poets only, are born, not made. The 

 influence of environment — home surroundings, educa- 

 tion, the accidents of life — do but modify the innate 

 qualities handed down to a man from his ancestors. 



It is impossible to predict the particular combination 

 of ancestral factors which will chance to fall Into 

 conjunction to fashion any one individual. But the 

 average quality of a fairly large family may be fore- 

 seen more or less clearly from a knowledge of the 

 parents and their ancestry, both lineal and collateral, 

 while, in dealing with numbers, as in the nation in 

 general, the statistical results are exact and predeter- 

 mined. 



From the national point of view, then, it becomes 



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