476 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for nothing can be so disastrous as to believe that the laws of Na- 

 ture are subject to change. We may require to modify our views 

 as to what -the laws of Nature really are, but so far as the world 

 has yet learned these laws are invariable. 



I must confess myself to have had at one time almost un- 

 bounded faith in the changes that the environment could work, 

 and especially that part of it that we call education, in the nar- 

 rower sense. But a close study of the subject by observation 

 and experiment in breeding some of our domestic animals for a 

 term of years has very strongly impressed upon my mind the 

 strength of heredity. Galton, Ribot, and others have given us 

 the most convincing proofs that heredity is stronger than its an- 

 tagonist variation or than its modifier environment. In account- 

 ing for variations for no two beings are quite alike we must 

 admit great ignorance ; however, it is impossible to ignore or dis- 

 believe in the effect of the environment. We know that unless 

 there be some favorable features in the environment the best 

 nature can never develop. 



The very same breeder we before visited might possibly be 

 able to show us an animal that through accident, inadequate feed- 

 ing, or other unfavorable condition in the environment had never 

 proved worthy of its parentage, and the observer will meet many 

 cases like this among human beings. They are instructive inas- 

 much as they illustrate the relative part played by heredity and 

 environment in the total result. Galton, after most exhaustive 

 and careful examination of large classes of men, as statesmen, 

 judges, commanders, divines, authors, artists, and others, shows 

 that of all those that attained great distinction a fair proportion 

 left posterity worthy of them. He concludes also that if a man 

 be possessed of really high-class native ability he will rise in spite 

 of the environment, or, as Shakespeare has it, " Some men are 

 born great/' 



But what of the mediocre ? Do the same laws as to heredity 

 and environment apply ? The best way, in my opinion, to be- 

 come convinced on this point is to make an honest and careful 

 study of one's self. It sometimes takes years to realize the extent 

 to which we represent, often in an occult manner, our ancestors ; 

 and we must remember that law, which Darwin has emphasized, 

 that traits of ancestors tend to appear at the same period of life 

 in the offspring as in the parents. It is further to be remem- 

 bered that by a study of parents alone we can not get nearly so 

 good an idea of the heredities of any individual as if more dis- 

 tant ancestors and collateral lines (uncle, cousins) be taken into 

 account. Indeed, the believer in man's evolution from lower 

 forms of life takes a much wider view of the whole subject. 



It must be plain that each individual in some measure is the 



