\\vii HUMAN PROGRESS: PAST AND FUTURE 505 



but the increased development given to that faculty by 

 continuous exercise, tends to be inherited. 1 



If it is thought that this non-inheritance of the results of 

 education and training is prejudicial to human progress, 

 we must remember that, on the other hand, it also pre- 

 vents the continuous degradation of humanity by the 

 inheritance of those vicious practices and degrading habits 

 which the deplorable conditions of our modern social 

 system undoubtedly foster in the bulk of mankind. 

 Throughout all trade and commerce lying and deceit 

 abound to such an extent that it has come to be con- 

 sidered essential to success. No dealer ever tells the 

 exact truth about the goods he advertises or offers for 

 sale, and the grossly absurd misrepresentations of material 

 and quality we everywhere meet with have, from their very 

 commonness, ceased to shock us. Now it is surely a great 

 blessing if we can believe that this widespread system of 

 fraud and falsehood does not produce any inherited de- 

 terioration in the next generation. And it is equally 

 satisfactory to believe that the physical deterioration 

 produced on the thousands who annually exchange country 

 for town life will have no permanent effect on their 

 offspring if they return at any time to more healthy con- 

 ditions. And we have direct evidence that this is so, in the 

 fact that the street arabs of our great cities, when brought 

 up under healthy and elevating conditions in the colonies, 

 usually improve both physically, intellectually, and 

 morally, so as to be fully equal to the average of their 

 fellow-countrymen. 



It appears, then, that the non-inheritance of the effects 

 of training, of habits, and of general surroundings, whether 

 these be good or bad, is by no means a hindrance to 



1 The only prominent example that looks like a progressive increase 

 of faculty for three generations is that of Dr. Erasmus Darwin and his 

 grandson Charles Darwin. But in this case the special faculties displayed 

 by the grandson were quite distinct from those of the grandfather and 

 father ; while if we consider the different state of knowledge at the 

 time when Erasmus Darwin lived, his occupation in a laborious 

 profession, and the absence of that stimulus to thought which the five 

 years' voyage round the world gave to his grandson, it is not at all 

 certain that in originality and mental powers, the former was not fully 

 the equal of the latter. 



