24 Heredity and Social Progress 



into a general law, it will be this : I acquired 

 characters are not inherited, but the improved 

 situation of parents who acquire characters 

 gives to their children more vitality and 

 better opportunities to develop their natural 

 qualities, and results in new qualities which 

 the children utilize by a change of occupa- 

 tion or environment In short, every acquired 

 quality increases energy, and the additional 



energy startTTlm5Veient toward a new envi- 



( i( -'-- 

 ronmemyT Putting this fact in another way, 



it may IDC % said that present environments do 

 not make the qualities of those who live in 

 them, but that people seek these environments 

 because they have the characters necessary 

 to their utilization. Qualities are an index of 

 energy, and energy determines the environ- 

 ment that a man seeks. The adjustment to it 

 is not the cause of the qualities, but a result 

 of their presence. What men have of natural 

 character, they acquired in some other environ- 

 ment Acquired characters only are the result 

 of present conditions, and when they have had 

 their proper effect in the increase of energy, 

 another shifting of environments results, by 



