HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 91 



But knowledge to their eyes her ample page 

 Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er enroll ; 



Chill penury repre.ss'd their noble rage, 

 And froze the genial current of the soul." 



We are told that there are no mute inglorious M ikons, 

 and that in point of fact genius always commands and 

 creates its own environment. No fragment of proof 

 is ever offered in support of these assertions, save the 

 argument — which would not impose upon a child — 

 that many instances of the triumph of genius over 

 obstacles are recorded in biographical history. It 

 behoves us to understand that, though envir<niment 

 cannot create, it has the last word, and that oidy by 

 the happily adjusted interplay of heredity and en- 

 vironment can any organism attain to " complete 

 living." Life is the " continuous adjustment of inner 

 to outer relations," 



Hitherto we have discussed only the relative im- 

 portance of heredity and environment to the indi- 

 vidual ; but what of their relative importance to the 

 race ? Plainly, if acquired characters are not trans- 

 missible, or, to state it more comprehensively, if the 

 action of the environment upon the intlividual never 

 reaches the germ-plasm, then the importance of 

 environment to the race is nil, so far as positive 

 action is concerned, but great in so far as it decrees 

 which individual shall propagate his like and whieh 

 shall not. If, however, the action of the environment 

 cannot be denied access even to the germ-plasm, then 

 its potencies are to be regarded as immeasurable ; and 

 it becomes a duty of mankind to exercise its power, 

 its unprecedented power, of so modifying the en- 

 vironment that the germ-plasm of any generation 

 may be educated for the benefit of the next. 



