Character 1 3 1 



from father to son, a tradition, a custom, a 

 moral rule, or an imitation, but not an organic 

 modification. It is a psychic, not a biologic, 

 inheritance, and represents the sum of the 

 acquired characters that have proven of use to 

 the species or the race. If acquired characters 

 are not inherited, a local situation cannot 

 mould character; they will be made effective 

 only through tradition, morality, and imitation. 

 Deficits act through these agents, and force 

 upon each age the acquired characters of past 

 ages in a strict routine from which no escape 

 is possible. 



A surplus, however, creating organic modi- 

 fications finds a psychic expression in an im- 

 pulse. I define an impulse as surplus energy 

 not used in routine acts. This energy effects 

 changes, but has no fixed routes of exit. Let 

 us notice the result of this distinction : deficits 

 build tradition, morality, and imitation, through 

 which activity is forced into fixed channels use- 

 ful in the present situation; a surplus makes 

 organic changes and evokes impulses which 

 have no fixed channel. This flow of energy, 

 modifying organism and environment, is the 



