110 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



to crime. Their environment, not their inherit- 

 ance, has been their ruin. 



If under the head of disposition we are think- 

 ing of the born genius, it is yet a debatable ques- 

 tion whether his genius is due to strength or weak- 

 ness, a plus to average human nature or a minus. 

 While forming an opinion on this question, let one 

 study Edgar Allan Poe, our greatest American 

 poetic genius, and answer the question for him- 

 self. At any rate ..this matter of disposition does 

 not seem to be a direct moral equipment, indicat- 

 ing a certain attitude of the will; but rather 

 something seated in the physical equipment of 

 nerves, or that which sustains the nerves, either 

 in the brain or the viscera. These are subject 

 to hereditary laws, with all the moral advantage 

 or disadvantage that they imply; but the moral 

 or spiritual qualities so often accredited to he- 

 redity are not directly derivable from ancestors. 

 Born dispositions are imbedded in the physical 

 qualities ; moral dispositions are personal acquire- 

 ments of life. 



Other differences of disposition, not classified 

 as degenerate or criminal, are simply the prepon- 

 derance of certain traits or their absence in usual 

 size, and are rationally traceable to the physical 

 equipment or the culture of the physical or moral 

 nature. One has a different disposition when 

 drunk from that which he has when sober, when 

 tired than when rested, when hungry than when 

 satisfied. As one may strengthen his arm by ex- 



