Mr. Buckle s Fallacies. 163 



it is an axiom in every one's mouth. By exer- 

 cising an organ, we increase its size and power. 

 By neglecting to exercise it, we cause it to be- 

 come diminutive, weak, inefficient. 



It is evident, then, that when an individual has 

 grown to maturity in the constant exercise of any 

 faculty, the organ answering to that faculty will 

 be correspondingly developed ; and that, in the 

 natural course of things, he will transmit to his 

 offspring that faculty in its state of increased 

 power. Thus it is that a Philip becomes the 

 father of an Alexander; that the son of a Ber- 

 nardo Tasso gives to the world a deathless poem ; 

 and that a family of three hundred musical gen- 

 iuses at last counts among its members Johann 

 Sebastian Bach. In individual cases, however, 

 the operation of this law is obscured and often 

 hindered by a concurrence of unfavourable cir- 

 cumstances. It is in the case of large collections 

 of individuals, where the disturbing causes are 

 averaged, that we find it most strikingly exempli- 

 fied. Thus we see red Indians so swift of foot ; 

 u the telescopic-eyed Bushmen; "and Peruvians 

 with sense of smell so acute that, according to 

 Humboldt, they can distinguish by it, in the mid- 

 dle of the night, to what race a man belongs. 1 Ex- 



* Dunglison's Human Physiology, vol. i. p. 729. 



