1 8 Heredity and Social Progress 



found useful ; they must put pressure on chil- 

 dren to make them accept their own avocation 

 and mental attitude; the standards and habits 

 of each generation must be instilled into the 

 succeeding generation. Every stable race is 

 careful to impress on the young its habits, 

 standards, and moral code. Surely this would 

 not be necessary if every modification in the 

 parent were directly inherited by the child. 

 The experience of the race seems to negative 

 the idea of the ready inheritance of acquired 

 characters, and to affirm that they do, in some 

 way, become natural characters. If not by 

 direct descent, where, then, is the road ? 



Let us follow the process of acquisition 

 more carefully, and perhaps its method will 

 become more obvious. Some of the indi- 

 viduals in a given environment perceive that 

 a new process or a new mode of adjustment, 

 demanding, we will assume, a stronger arm or 

 a firmer grasp, will give them an advantage 

 or offer a greater return. The process, often 

 repeated, develops the muscles of the arm and 

 causes a larger return, let us say, of wheat, to 

 be produced. After this fact is discovered by 



