IV. 



WEISMANN'S THEORY OF HEREDITY. 



The weak, untrained brain must have a 

 conclusion. It cannot reserve its decision or 

 render an open verdict. It is completely at sea 

 in the scientific world where the most pro- 

 found savant is often obliged to say, "I don't 

 know." In a crowded courtroom, ninety per 

 cent of the spectators have made up their 

 minds that the prisoner is innocent or guilty 

 before the first witness is called or a line of 

 the evidence has been read. He has a square 

 jaw, or bushy eyebrows, or thick lips, or he 

 shifts uneasily from one foot to the other, any 

 or all which proves to the simpletons back of 

 the rail, that he must be guilty no matter what 

 the crime is, or what the evidence may be. If 

 he has blue eyes and fair hair and mustache, 

 or a pleasant manner, or pretty hands and 

 the onlookers were to decide the matter, they 

 would hardly convict him on his own con- 

 fession. In England, a judge is not placed on 

 the bench because he "stands in" with a ward 

 boss, but because of his wide scholarship and 

 systematic training, and the reason advanced 



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