Heredity and Child Culture 



CHAPTER I 



IMPORTANCE OP THE CHILD 



Two controlling factors are present in all 

 life, — heredity and environment, nature and 

 nurture, as expressed by Galton. At the birth 

 of the individual, heredity has done its best 

 or its worst, and can be reckoned with only in 

 the sense of having all the best potentialities 

 and predispositions cherished and developed, 

 and all the worst avoided. Its activity has 

 extended through long or short reaches of past 

 time, and the laws of its operation are not com- 

 pletely understood. The question of environ- 

 ment and nurture being of the present, and to a 

 certain extent possible of control, now assumes 

 the greatest importance. While from the bi- 

 ologic standpoint heredity may appear to be the 



