NURTURE AND NATURE 33 



have reason to think that such small correlations as 

 exist may be secondary results of racial or hereditary 

 influences. 



Practically all social legislation has been based 

 on the assumption that better environment meant 

 race progress, whereas the link between the two is 

 probably that a genuine race progress will result in 

 a better environment. The views of philanthropists 

 and of those who insist that the race can be sub- 

 stantially bettered by changed environment appeal 

 to our sympathies, but these reformers have yet to 

 prove their creed. So far as our investigations have 

 gone they show that improvement in social conditions 

 will not compensate for a bad hereditary influence ; 

 the problem of physical and mental degeneration 

 cannot be solved by preventing mothers from work- 

 ing, by closing public-houses, or by erecting model 

 dwellings- The only way to keep a nation strong 

 mentally and physically is to see to It that each new 

 generation Is derived chiefly from the fitter members 

 of the generation before. 



