SOCIAL HEREDITY 267 



breeders of stock animals. Social reformers who 

 accepted Galton's standpoint began, like Karl 

 Pearson in the passages before quoted, to enlarge on 

 the peculiar nature of inborn heredity in the indi- 

 vidual and on the great length of time required 

 to produce any fundamental change in human 

 nature. 



Within a short time the imaginative literature of 

 the West was deeply affected. It became tinged 

 throughout with the idea of biological predestination. 

 The idea of the persistence and the relative un- 

 changeableness of qualities in human nature resting 

 on inborn heredity became a dominant note, uttered 

 now, as it seemed, with authority coming direct from 

 the leaders of science. The quality of inevitableness 

 in inborn heredity conceived as overruling all the 

 elements of motive and intention imposed on the 

 individual by training was soon perceived to be a 

 principle in art which was capable of yielding pro- 

 found dramatic effect. 



In the literature of Great Britain, Russia, Germany, 

 and other countries it began to be used with telling 

 effect in the novel and the drama. The dominating 

 influence of inborn heredity was one of the principal 

 conceptions through which a writer of international 

 influence like Ibsen deeply moved the mind of 

 the West. The Norwegian dramatist used it with 



