22, Heredity and Child Culture 



often produces better results than a good in- 

 heritance with poor conditions. He further 

 believes that hereditary possibilities may re- 

 main latent and undeveloped unless stimulated 

 into activity by environment. 



This leads to the distinction that may be made 

 between individual and social evolution, the 

 forces of which are controlled by different laws. 

 For the individual we have biological heredity ; 

 for society we have what may properly be called 

 a social heredity that passes along accumula- 

 tions gained by parents from the surrounding 

 civilization, — in other words, from the environ- 

 ment. These are the acquired characters that 

 can be passed along from parents to offspring 

 by teaching and example, although not by direct 

 biological inheritance. While the latter, ac- 

 cording to modern science, cannot be immedi- 

 ately influenced, the social inheritance and evo- 

 lution of the individual can be powerfully af- 

 fected by education. 



A glance at some of the characters that 

 may be acquired by social heredity shows how 

 large a number of important influences lie en- 

 tirely outside organic heredity. 



