98 BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN PROBLEMS 



relationships between old materials; yet it does 

 not overpraise these successes. It looks hopefully 

 to the future because it sees in the human germ 

 plasm a tendency to improve in the presence of 

 reasonably friendly surroundings. It is the enemy 

 of the doctrine of laissez faire, believing in intelligent 

 interference and regulation in all directions. It 

 recognizes the dangers of incompetent interference, 

 but knows that progress can be made only by taking 

 some risks in experimentation. It recognizes that 

 there are limits to the utility of interference in human 

 affairs, but teaches that these can be found only by 

 trial. And finally, the doctrine of scientific fatalism 

 looks only for results exactly proportioned to the 

 factors which determine personality the forces 

 inherent in the germ plasm and the external forces 

 which have been brought into action upon these 

 primitive materials. 



