INTRODUCTION. 27 



. son says, "The result of all recent research points 

 to the conclusion that human beings are born into 

 the world with a distinct bent of temperament and 

 character which will always manifest itself in 

 some form, no matter what process of training 

 the individual is called upon to undergo." 



Mercier in "Sanity and Insanity" observes : 

 "Every man is the outcome and product of his 

 ancestry; this is true not only of the broad f un- 

 damental characteristics by which he is animal, 

 by which he is human, by which he is national, 

 by which he betrays the country and family from 

 which he proceeds, but 'extends to the trivial and 

 minutely trivial characteristics by which he is dis- 

 tinguished from other individuals of his own race, 

 country and family." 



Physical and mental peculiarities are often fully 

 as strongly marked in young children before there 

 has been time for the force of environment to 

 modify materially their characters, as among 

 adults, proving conclusively that they are inborn. 

 Again, where the environments have been the 

 same, the differences in the dispositions, tastes, 

 talents and moral tendencies are often quite as 

 marked as among children of different families 

 surrounded by substantially different environ- 

 ments. Surroundings and education do not 

 wholly control the character, so potential are the 

 inborn traits that it is absolutely impossible to 

 produce two characters strikingly alike solely by 

 the force of environment. 



All are familiar with the variety of talent and 

 peculiarities of mind displayed in the primary 

 grades of school. One pupil is apt in arithmetic, 



