154 Heredity and Social Progress 



SUMMARY 



1. Since growth in higher organisms is double, there are 

 two groups of organs through which energy is expressed. 

 The expression of the outer organs is through bodily move- 

 ments ; that of the inner neural organs reveals itself through 

 mental associations. These inner organs of expression are 

 the vehicle of acquired characters. They are cut back by 

 devolution less fully than the outer organs, and hence many 

 inner organs of expression which have no parallel outer 

 organs persist from earlier stages of development. These 

 primitive organs are linked to the acquired characters which 

 through them obtain organs of expression. 



2. All acquired characters act on the mind through the 

 association of ideas ; they never evoke new agencies through 

 which to act. The agents of the acquired characters are 

 imitation, fear, and reasoning. Each of these is the devel- 

 opment of primitive characters which now have no outer 

 organs of expression. 



3. Another agent of the acquired characters is disci- 

 pline. It acts primarily on the outer organs of expression 

 and makes them so rigid that emotions pass inward and 

 regenerate the primitive organs utilized by the acquired 

 characters. The ingoing bodily emotions are so safe- 

 guarded by instinct that they cannot injure the bodily or 

 mental mechanisms. Against centrally excited sensory 

 emotions, however, there are no safeguards. Their physi- 

 cal expression is nervousness ; their psychical expression 

 is melancholy ; their social expression is decadence ; and 

 their expression in trade and industry is a commercial 

 panic. 



