100 



HEREDITY. 



Each Factor an 



Unknown 



Quantity. 



Factors in 

 Opposition. 



Variations 

 Explained. 



tial. Any one of them may be the controlling 

 factor for good or evil. Thus a man may have 

 a great natural ability as an artist arising from 

 the factor of family traits, or from a combination 

 resulting from the union of certain qualities in- 

 herent in each parent, or from an acquired par- 

 ental condition, or from maternal impressions, or 

 from the combination of two or more of these 

 factors. In like manner, any traits of character 

 or physical conditions may arise from any one, 

 or from several of the factors. 



2. The several factors of heredity are seldom, 

 if ever, harmonious in their influence for good 

 or evil. As in the postnatal development of a 

 child the several factors of an environment may 

 be most conflicting the home influences good, 

 but the schooling poor, the education good, but 

 the ethical and religious training neglected, so 

 that the influence of the one is modified by the 

 other; so in the prenatal development of a life 

 some factors may be favorable to a good inher- 

 itance while others are unfavorable, thereby modi- 

 fying the inherent tendencies. 



3. The established characters of both parents 

 may be of a high order and favorable to a good 

 inheritance, but from a lack of adaptation their 

 qualities may not combine well, or the prenatal 

 conditions may be unfavorable, or the mother 

 may receive some abnormal impression sufficiently 

 strong to thwart the whole order of life. Thus 

 any one, two or more factors might easily coun- 

 teract the good inheritance that would naturally 

 be expected from the well organized parents. In 

 like manner, all the factors are subject to the 



