HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 475 



of human nature, is supposed to devise methods that accord with 

 them. Even with such views he may not become a very success- 

 ful teacher, because teaching is an art, and it is one thing to un- 

 derstand in the abstract and another thing to apply. But given 

 the natural aptitude for the art, it is surely plain that the applica- 

 tion will be more in harmony with our nature if that be under- 

 stood. And in the application great skill will be required so that 

 the individual will not be lost sight of. In fact, it is just here 

 that the art of so many falls short. They lack the insight to 

 recognize just what constitutes the individuality in each case and 

 to adapt to this. I will therefore endeavor to assist in some meas- 

 ure in the solution of this problem by calling attention to a 

 guide to the individual nature through the subject of heredity. 



From the earliest times heredity, or the resemblance of offspring 

 to parents, has been admitted in some vague way at least ; and if 

 this were now as clearly recognized for man as it is by breeders 

 of our domestic animals, I would anticipate greater human prog- 

 ress than is likely till sound views on this subject are more 

 widespread and more deeply impressed. How few have ever seri- 

 ously sat down and pondered upon such questions as these : Why 

 is my nature such as it is ? To what degree am I and in what 

 measure are ancestors concerned in my being what I am ? What 

 am I likely to become ? I presume one might safely affirm that 

 most persons here never directly faced such considerations at all. 

 Probably many would regard it as impossible to account in any 

 approximately satisfactory way for their physical and mental 

 status, and would be very apt to refer the latter in no small degree 

 to what is commonly known as education. 



But if we were to visit the establishment of some successful 

 breeder of domestic animals we would find no such hazy mental 

 condition. The breeder does know why his stock is such as it is. 

 You point to some admirable specimen and compare it with an- 

 other of plainly inferior merit and ask him the reason why. He 

 does not attempt to explain the difference by the pasture, but he 

 tells you that the less valuable animal is a common cross-breed 

 without extended pedigree, while the other is derived from an- 

 cestors that he can trace for generations, and the parents of which 

 are now on his farm, the purchase price being a large one. 



The breeder would have been greatly puzzled if such ancestors 

 had produced offspring entirely unworthy of themselves. The same 

 applies to the vegetable world. " Do men gather grapes of thorns 

 or figs of thistles ?" But apparently we often expect this rule to 

 be reversed in regard to human beings. The fact is, man was so 

 much regarded as a creature apart by himself with laws of his 

 own laws that were every now and then at least interfered with 

 in some inexplicable way that the public mind got demoralized ; 



