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24 Heredity and Child Culture 



generalizations leading to laws that partially 

 explain many of the phenomena of nature and 

 life could not have been preserved or passed 

 along from generation to generation without the 

 ability to record them and thus elevate and 

 ennoble the mind. Professor Stewart Paton ^ 

 puts it thus, — '^If we recognize that the mind 

 is largely a social product, we shall avoid many 

 of the unnecessary difficulties introduced into 

 the discussion of the inheritance of mental 

 characteristics. Because of the fact that the 

 mental make-up is, to a considerable extent, the 

 result of environmental stimuli, it is to be con- 

 sidered as a 'social contribution.' Mental 

 potentiality is conditioned by heredity, but 

 development is encouraged or inhibited very 

 largely by what happens after birth. There is 

 also some reason to believe that changes in nur- 

 ture may serve as stimuli affecting the growth 

 of the embryo through the parental germ cells. " 

 The existence of a moral sense that can dis- 

 tinguish right from wrong is not born with the 

 individual. The infant has no moral sense and 



1 Human Behavior — Charles Scribner'a Sons. 



