204 FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART in 



When we turn to use-inheritance once more we 

 see that it also may be so developed as to convey the 

 same vicious suggestion. New qualities come from 

 without, not from within ; from the environment, and 

 not from the organism. The environment stamps 

 them on the passive organism, and it (according to 

 the doctrine of use-inheritance) transmits them to 

 offspring. But Mr. Sandeman has forestalled this 

 opinion by a remark of brilliant force and point. 

 Every acquired quality, he observes, is congenital [in 

 its rudiments], and every congenital quality is also 

 acquired [i.e. developed in the course of life]. Of 

 course this is a very strong form of statement, and 

 it seems to forbid all use of the wonted distinction. 

 But presently, having fired off his epigram, and hav- 

 ing bowled over his enemy with it, Mr. Sandeman 

 descends to a less rarefied atmosphere, and admits 

 that the two possibilities may be contrasted as matters 

 of fact and [conceivably, though experiment is diffi- 

 cult here] of evidence. For the truth is that every 

 living creature is more or less plastic in definite direc- 

 tions; and life develops this or that ; so it is a fair 

 question whether or not the offspring resemble the 

 parent as modified in his own development prior to 

 his begetting offspring. But Mr. Sandeman's para- 

 dox serves as a warning. We must not go to use- 

 inheritance for the direct production of new qualities 

 in the organism, miracle fashion, by an alien envi- 

 ronment. In a sense, use-inheritance is a more teleo- 

 logical theory than natural selection ; yet it may be 

 subordinated to the most extremely mechanical phi- 

 losophy, if in " use " environment is held to be active 

 and the organism itself passive. 



