Heredity. 



creates them ; and that the opponents of heredity err when they 

 explain by the external cause of education what results from the 

 internal cause of character. Their argument often consists in 

 stating this dilemma, which to them appears decisive : Either 

 children do not resemble their parents, and then there is no law 

 of heredity, or they do resemble them morally, and then there is 

 no need to look for any other cause than education. It is per- 

 fectly natural that a painter or a musician should teach his art to 

 his son, that a thief should train his children to theft, that a child 

 born amid debauchery should bear the impress of his surround- 

 ings. 



We must do Gall the justice to admit that he clearly saw and 

 proved, in the teeth of the prevailing prejudices, that the faculties 

 which occur in all the individuals of a species exist in the various 

 individuals in very different degrees, and that this variety of apti- 

 tudes, propensities and characteristics is a universal fact common 

 to all classes of beings, independently of education. Thus, among 

 domesticated animals, all spaniels and pointers by no means 

 exhibit the same acuteness of scent, the same skill in tracking, etc. ; 

 shepherd dogs are by no means all gifted with the same instinct ; 

 racehorses of the same stock differ from one another in speed, and 

 draught horses of the same race differ from one another in strength. 

 The same is true of wild animals. Singing birds have by nature 

 the note peculiar to their species, but they differ from one another 

 in the style, the depth, the range, and the charm of their voice. 

 Pierquin has even discovered among horses and dogs imbeciles, 

 maniacs, and lunatics. 



In the case of man, a few well chosen instances will suffice to 

 show the part played by spontaneity, often only another name for 

 heredity, and to cut short the incomplete explanations drawn from 

 the influence of education. The reader will remember how 

 D'Alembert, a foundling, brought up by a poor glazier's wife, 

 without means or advice, derided by his adoptive mother, his 

 comrades, and his master, who did not understand him, still went 

 his way without losing courage, and became at twenty-four a 

 member of the Academic des Sciences ; and this was only the 

 beginning of his fame. Suppose him brought up by his own 

 mother, Mademoiselle de Tencin, admitted at an early age to that 



