



Moral Consequences of Heredity\\* 359 



/ 





some notion of the part played by heredity in the formation t of 

 moral habits, the evolution of morals being really but tfrt evolution 

 of intelligence. 



Heredity, however, has a reverse side. If by accumulation it 

 aids progress, it at the same time preserves or recalls, in the midst 

 of civilization, sentiments and tendencies that are by no means '. 

 related to such an environment. We have already given instances- 

 of this. It is perfectly natural to recognize facts of atavism in 

 those sanguinary instincts, those savage tastes, that insane and 

 objectless passion for wild pursuits, that insatiable desire for 

 adventure, which we find in certain men who are, as it would seem, 

 highly civilized. No doubt there is in these vices such a ground- 

 work of power and greatness that the utter suppression of them 

 would be a weakening of the living forces of humanity; and it is 

 therefore the office of civilization to regulate these instincts, not to 

 destroy them. It utilizes this troubled activity by directing it into 

 wild lands, against unexplored regions. There, beyond the limits 

 of civilization, these men work for civilization. Those of them 

 who remain within her pale, but have the power of adapting them- 

 selves to it, are but a curse to society, for in them primitive 

 humanity reappears, though its natural environment has vanished. 



Then science verifies what many religions have discerned indis- 

 tinctly, and expressed after their own fashion. It is a belief com- 

 mon to them that man is a fallen creature, and that he bears the 

 stain of an original transgression, which is transmitted by heredity. 

 Science interprets this vague hypothesis. Without inquiring what 

 was the original state of humanity, we may confidently hold it to 

 have been lowly enough. Primitive man, ignorant and idealess, 

 the slave of his appetites and instincjts, which were simply the forces 

 of nature freely acting in him, rose but very gradually to the con- 

 ception of the ideal. Art, poetry, science, morality, all those 

 highest manifestations of the human soul, are like some frail and 

 precious plant which has come late into being and been enriched 

 by the long toil of generations. It is as impossible to govern life 

 without the ideal as it is to steer a ship without compass or stars ; 

 still the ideal was not revealed to man all at once, but only little 

 by little. Each people has had its own ideal ; each generation 

 has enabled the succeeding generation to aspire towards a more 



