90 PRODUCTION OF NATIONALITY 



The new generation begins at the stage in which its 

 predecessor left off ; every wave of emotion, of 

 sentiment, of ideal that traversed the former genera- 

 tion is stored in literature. A similar difference in 

 the rate of acquisition of characters is to be seen 

 when we compare a plant propagated by slips with 

 a plant propagated by seed. However a plant may 

 have been protected or favoured in its individual 

 life, the seedling grown from its seed has to start 

 afresh. But where a plant is propagated by slips, 

 the whole series is a continuous life ; the kindly 

 effects of each ray of the sun, each pruning and 

 grafting by the gardener, each condition of soil and 

 temperature has left a permanent mark, enduring 

 while the plant endures. Literature is a new organ 

 of a nation, transcending the individual life, being 

 shaped and growing from generation to generation, 

 and forming a permanent mental environment of the 

 most powerful kind. It is the organ of " Kultur," 

 giving a life, continuous through all change, to the 

 national ideals, emotions, political and social sys- 

 tems, conceptions of justice and religion. Its effects 

 are profound, far-reaching and acute, and it serves 

 to differentiate nations, however closely alike may 

 be their initial racial constitution, in a fashion that 

 is new and peculiar to man. 



I am convinced that most of the agencies affecting 

 the differentiation of nations, whether they be physical 

 conditions bringing about physical changes, or the 

 much more important agencies acting on the mind 

 and emotions, are epigenetic. So far as they are 

 concerned, the mind and the body of the infant are 

 neutral, clean sheets on which many kinds of writing 



