26 



HEREDITY. 



A Self-evident 

 Truth. 



McCosh, Fowler, Drummond, Ribot, Weismann, 

 Cowan, Dugdale, Galton, and a score of others 

 whose names are familiar to the reading public, 

 have made the study of heredity the common 

 property of the people and brought to light an 

 array of facts that need only to be formulated 

 into a definite system and practically applied to 

 be of incalculable value to the race. 



The fact of heredity is universally admitted ; 

 it is self-evident. To deny it would be to deny 

 existence. All there is of a man, in both his 

 physical and mental constitution, whether rudi- 

 mentary or fully developed at birth, constitutes his 

 heredity. 



The term "heredity," however, is used by many 

 in a more restricted sense and made to include 

 only those special peculiarities of body or mind 

 that offspring are supposed to derive from their 

 immediate parents. When used in this restricted 

 sense, authorities are not fully agreed as to just 

 how far the peculiarities of the parent, especially 

 their acquired characters, may effect the offspring ; 

 some have denied even the possibility of parents 

 being able to influence the offspring in the least. 

 This extreme ground, however, has been taken 

 only by those who, according to their theory, 

 could not see how the transmission of acquired 

 characters was possible; it certainly never has 

 been advocated by any unbiased, close observer 

 of the facts of nature. 



All nature attests that the mental and tempera- 

 mental peculiarities of each individual, that dif- 

 Peculiarities are ferentiate him from all others and largely deter- 

 mine his possibilities in life are inborn. Morri- 



Why Thinkers 

 Disagree. 



Inborn. 



