245 



triumphant than is usually admitted or imagined. Even 

 Burdach, a staunch supporter of the free-will theory, admits 

 that "heredity has actually more power over our mental 

 constitution and our character than all external influences, 

 physical or moral." To quote Ribot once more : " If it be 

 admitted," he says, "that the moral act comprises a great 

 number of ideas, judgments, and sentiments (as has been 

 already shown by the influence of heredity on the develop- 

 ment of sensibility and intelligence), then heredity also exerts 

 a great influence on the formation of habits and of moral 

 ideas moral heredity is only a form of psychical heredity" 



To escape, however, from theory to phenomena and 

 experience which we can deal with in a spirit of scientific 

 inquiry, properly so-called, and apart from metaphysical 

 disputations which are too frequently hypothetical, the 

 reader is referred to the earlier portion of this work, where, 

 in considering the heredity of the sentiments and passions, 

 I have alluded to tendencies to vice and crime as a heritage 

 which descends with the certainty of fate. There is, in 

 fact, no form of vice or of crime which may not be per- 

 petuated by heredity, and, if space permitted, it would be 

 an easy task to cite manifold and indisputable cases to 

 prove this assertion. I therefore maintain that like the 

 physical and mental nature of man, his moral nature alsa 

 is transmitted hereditarily. I have no desire to separate 

 the resistible from the irresistible tendencies which are 

 thus transmitted, as this would involve theological argu- 

 ments which I have neither the intention nor the capacity 

 to discuss ; but bearing in mind the influence of circum- 

 stances, in addition to that of heredity, in the development 

 of character, I may be permitted to ask if our legislature 

 and our codes of morality have adequately considered these 



Q 



