Heredity and Social Progress 



acquired characters that are effective in adjust- 

 ment; the intensity of altruistic impulses is 

 likewise determined by the number of natural 

 characters made active by a surplus. 



Acquired characters, it must again be said, 

 result from the direct action of the present 

 environment, while natural characters have 

 sprung from conditions of earlier environ- 

 ments no longer operative to force reactions 

 in harmony with them. Inherited reactions 

 are free from environmental control, and act, 

 not only independently of it, but even directly 

 contrary to it. A scientific analysis of char- 

 acter thus justifies the popular view of it, and 

 shows how resistance to the dominance of 

 present conditions is the necessary precursor 

 of any improvement in them. 



SUMMARY 



1. All natural characters are due to the indirect action 

 of a social surplus. Deficits are guarded against by acquired 

 characters. The conditions that cause an elimination are 

 due to the presence of a deficit. Therefore a deficit cannot 

 create structure or be the means of evoking natural char- 

 acters. 



2. Character is action which modifies the environment 



