Hereditary Nature of Instincts 185 



moulded into all that could be desired showed 

 by their subsequent behaviour that their heredi- 

 tary instinctive qualities had only been subdued 

 when children, and by no means eliminated. 

 The unreliable, sly child, when he reached the 

 prime of life, in too many instances was an un- 

 trustworthy and scheming individual, and so on 

 with the other instinctive faculties. 1 



In spite, however, of these somewhat pessi- 

 mistic views as to 'the permanent results to be 

 obtained by the ordinary means employed to 

 educate young children, we are convinced that 

 if a healthy child is adequately fed and placed 

 in a fairly favourable environment, many of his 

 more desirable instinctive qualities may be de- 

 veloped, such, for instance, as those of parental 

 affection, respect for superiors, sympathy, and 

 disinterestedness, out of which an individual's 

 moral sensibilities are derived. In like manner 

 we can regulate, but cannot abolish, an indi- 

 vidual's undesirable hereditary tendencies, such 



1 The branch of science known as bio-chemistry has within 

 recent years shown that effective states of mentality depend much 

 on the circulation in the blood of certain materials derived from 

 the ductless glands of our bodies, the destruction of one or other 

 of the glands being followed by various abnormal conditions of 

 the nervous system. See also p. 21. 



