332 Heredity. 



the veins of Europeans to enable their race to rise to its present 

 very moderate level of natural morality.' l 



Without dwelling any longer on the part played by heredity in 

 the evolution of the sentiments, we will now consider certain 

 curious phenomena of reversion, or atavism. 



We are sometimes astonished to see how obstinately the warlike 

 and nomadic instincts which characterize savage life persist in 

 certain civilized persons, and how difficult it is for certain natures 

 to adapt themselves to that complex environment, the result of a 

 host of opinions and habits, which we call civilization. Here we 

 cannot but recognize a root of primitive savagery, preserved and 

 vivified by heredity. 



Thus, the taste for war is a sentiment very general among 

 savages : for them life is warfare. This instinct, common to all 

 primitive people, has been of service in the progress of humanity^ 

 if, as we may well believe, it has insured the victory of the stronger 

 and more intelligent races over those less gifted. But these war- 

 like instincts, preserved and accumulated by heredity, have become 

 a true cause of destruction, of carnage, and of ruin. After having 

 served to create social life, they are no longer of any use but to 

 destroy it; after having assured the triumph of civilization, they now 

 only contribute toward its overthrow. Even when these instincts 

 do not bring two nations into conflict, they manifest themselves in 

 ordinary life in certain individuals, by a quarrelsome, contentious 

 disposition, which leads often to revenge, to duels, and to murder. 



So, too, with regard to the love of adventure : savage races possess 

 this to such a degree that they launch out into the unknown with 

 all the thoughtlessness of children. No doubt this love of ad- 

 venture has still a rightful place even in the most advanced civili- 

 zations, and it would be a great misfortune for humanity were it to 

 disappear. Yet it cannot be denied that this enterprising, reckless 

 spirit, serviceable as it is at first in opening new worlds to com- 

 merce, travel, science, and art, has for some men been only a 

 source of vain or ruinous excitement, the only one which circum- 

 stances permit them like gaming, speculation, and intrigue, or 

 the selfish, turbulent ambition of conquerors, who sacrifice whole 

 nations to their caprice. 



1 Hereditary Genius, p. 357- 



