SOME OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 37 



of influences that obtains before birth, environ- 

 ment, education and religion deal with the part 



that obtains after birth; but there is no break Prenatal Plus 



. , n . . . Postnatal 



in the series, neither should any conflict arise from Influences. 



recognizing the prenatal, as well as the postnatal 

 influences. 



Some high in authority have presumed to say 

 that one-fourth of a man's mental power, char- 

 acter and conduct is due to heredity, three-fourths 

 to environment, education and religion. To my 

 mind all such attempts to divide the potency of 

 the several factors in a man's life are very irra- Quantity. 

 tional. For instance, A, B and C are all first 

 class mechanics. A inherited but little mechan- 

 ical ingenuity, was brought up in a work shop, 

 was thoroughly educated in a manual training 

 school and became a skilled artisan by training. 

 B had considerable natural talent and with fair 

 advantages became a skilled artisan. C was a 

 natural mechanic, he had but few advantages, 

 never attended a manual training school, but by 

 the application of his native genius became a 

 skilled artisan also. In the case of A the here- 

 dity represented but 10 per cent and the train- 

 ing 90 per cent; with B 50 per cent was due to 

 heredity and 50 per cent to training; while with 

 C 90 per cent was due to heredity and 10 per 

 cent to training. 



Now this simple illustration applies with equal 

 force to vicious or criminal tendencies, to genius, All Factors are 

 virtue, or moral worth. All the factors are po- Potential. 

 tential in every life, but their degree of influence 

 is ever varying, and therefore can not be reduced 

 to a mathematical statement. 



