Genetic Determination : the Factors 39 



better accommodations, then it is tlie accommodations 

 which set the pace, lay out the direction, and prophesy 

 the actual course of evolution. This meets the view of 

 the Lamarckians that evolution does somehow reflect indi- 

 vidual progress; but it meets it without adopting the 

 principle of Lamarckian inheritance. 



The second general position advocated, on the basis of 

 facts, in the following pages is that of Social Heredity,^ or 

 Social Transmission, with Tradition. This too falls into 

 place in our general theory of determination. If accom- 

 modation is a fact of real and vital importance, then some 

 natural way of regulating, abbreviating, and facilitating 

 it would be of the utmost utility. If animals were left 

 to constant experimentation each for himself, they would 

 die, as we have said above, before they made much devel- 

 opment. We find that an important function of conscious- 

 ness is that it enables them to profit by experience. By 

 memory, association of ideas, pleasure and pain motiva- 

 tion, they abbreviate, select, and handle experience to the 

 most profit. 



But there also arises an additional resource — and 

 certainly a very important one — by which tJiey are en- 

 abled to profit as zuell by the experience of others. So 

 soon as animals can use their native impulses in an imi- 

 tative way, they begin to learn directly, by what may be 

 called ' cross-cuts ' to a desirable goal, the traditional 

 habits of their species. The chick which imitates the hen 

 in drinking does not have to wait for a happy accident, 



1 In the earlier volumes of this series, where the psychological process of 

 acquisition is much in discussion, the phrase 'Social Heredity ' is largely used. 

 In the following pages, wherever possible, the expression ' Social Transmis- 

 sion' is employed. 



