36 HEREDITY. 



while virtue, genius and morality are attributed 

 to postnatal influences. Thus heredity has been 

 made a scapegoat, an apology, for all of man's 

 shortcomings. It is no wonder it should be 

 looked upon with disfavor by those who take this 

 false view of the subject. In this chapter I 



r s ^ a ^ a * m to arr i ye at tne true conception of the 

 Crime. relation of heredity to postnatal influences in the 



formation of character, and consider some of the 

 more plausible objections urged against its ac- 

 ceptance. 



Before we proceed to consider these objections 

 it will be well for us to get a clear idea of the 

 formation and development of a life. Every man 

 is the outgrowth of a series of influences. This 

 series besran with the inception of the primal cell 



Man the Product ... s , . 



of Centuries. (from which the race has been evolved) when 

 "God breathed into man the breath of life, and 

 man became a living soul." The series includes 

 all those processes and influences whereby the 

 race has been brought to its present condition. 

 Each new life at its inception partakes of the sum 

 total of all that has preceded it, and because of 

 its dual parentage, has a character unlike any 

 other person from the beginning. During em- 

 bryonic development it unfolds after the pattern 

 given it by its parents, but is continually sub- 

 ject to maternal impressions, which further dif- 

 ferentiate it from all other human beings. After 

 birth it receives impressions intuitively and 

 through the five senses and these impressions con- 

 tinue to change, develop, form and reform the 

 character throughout its entire existence. 



Now, heredity deals with the part of the series 



