GENEOLOGICAL. 415 



interpretation is seldom the right one. The sun does 

 not go round the earth. (2) Second, it is an inter- 

 pretation which would seem to make the theory of 

 organic evolution simpler; it suggests a more direct 

 and rapid method than the natural selection of con- 

 genital variations. If to a growing and varying 

 nature or congenital inheritance there be continually 

 added the results of nurture, the rate of evolution 

 would be quickened both upwards and downwards. 

 Our first business, however, is to find out whether 

 the hypothesis actually consists with experience. 

 (3) Third, we are so accustomed in human affairs 

 to the entailment of gains from generation to genera- 

 tion, to standing on the shoulders of our ancestors' 

 achievements, that it seems difficult for some to 

 refrain from projecting this on organic nature, for- 

 getful of the fact that the greater part of our entail- 

 ing process is altogether apart from organic inherit- 

 ance. It comes about through social inheritance 

 embodied in tradition, convention, institution, lit- 

 erature, art, law, etc., of which there are among 

 animals only vague analogues. 



A General Argument Against. Apart from the 

 fact that he found the evidence brought forward in 

 favour of the belief in the inheritance of acquired 

 characters to be " a handful of anecdotes," Professor 

 Weismann was led to his position of extreme scepti- 

 cism by his realisation of the continuity of genera- 

 tions. 



It is evident that if the germ-plasm or the material 

 basis of inheritance be something apart from the 

 general life of the body, sometimes set apart from 

 a very early stage, there is a presumption against the 

 likelihood of its being readily affected in a specific 

 manner by changes in the nature of the body-cells. 



