Heredity, Variation and Genius 



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more than mere mixtures of matters. As chemical 

 bodies unite to form compounds having properties 

 unlike those of either component, it is not sur- 

 prising that the vital union of the infinitely com- 

 plex and numerous constituents of the germinal 

 plasm, containing essentially the qualities of two 

 individuals and their respective stocks — reaching 

 back indeed to the very beginnings of life — should 

 originate variations.* It would be more strange 

 if it were not so. Considering the innumerable 

 varieties of personal features which men and 

 women present, no two faces nor two voices nor 

 two gaits being exactly alike, and reflecting that 

 what is displayed outwardly must, so to speak, have 

 been contained essentially in the innermost of the 

 minute germ, the visible bespeaking that which 

 is invisible, it is plain that there are innate 



* The period during which organic life has been evolving on 

 this planet is differently estimated. Most experts agree that it 

 was from 100 to 200 million years, while some assign more 

 than double that time. A German scientist, taking the lowest 

 computation, has in imagination reduced the 100 million years 

 to a day, assigning the proper proportion of hours and minutes 

 to the successive geological periods. According to that estimate 

 the human period would be two minutes, and if the historic 

 period be estimated at 6,000 years it would be five seconds of 

 the imagined day and the Christian period in that case two 

 seconds. All too brief a period, plead Christian apologists, to 

 fulfil its destined function of regenerating mankind, when 

 account is taken of the many million years during which count- 

 less millions of the race died unregenerate, unwitting of the 

 transcendent event of its future redemption and powerless to 

 profit by it. 



