Heredity and Environment, Beginning 

 With the Primordial Cell. 



IT has been said, " The child is father to the man," and that 

 if we would comprehend a character, we must trace his birth, 

 his surroundings, the method of his growth, the forces that 

 have shaped him and made him what he is. 



The past is fixed ; the future lies before us like the block of rough 

 marble before the sculptor. It can be shaped into beautiful de- 

 signs according to his tastes and fancies, or left untouched with all 

 its beauty and usefulness undeveloped. 



The famous inscription of the Oracle of Delphi said, " Man, 

 know thyself" And to do this thoroughly, we have not only to 

 know ourselves but our ancestors as well, and the best way to do 

 this is to begin at the very commencement of life, the primordial 

 cell or germ. We shall then be able to get at the root of health and 

 disea.s^ — heredity and environment — the latter two factoi having 

 a great deal to do with man's proper development, happiness and 

 misery. 



In order that we may properly comprehend the great importance 

 of heredity, it will be necessary to review some of the elementary 

 principles of organic and inorganic nature. 



The verdict of modern thought is almost unanimous in asserting 

 that there was a time when the material universe was in a chaotic 

 state — that it was without form ; in other words, in a nebulous 

 condition, when the plastic material had been created but the 

 magical touch of the Supreme Intelligence had not yet moulded 

 the chaos into wondrous designs that now furnish food for the 

 souls of finite beings. Architecture was then unknown, and with- 

 out architecture of what use were the materials — the soft clay or 

 the perfect marble? Beauty and utility were yet latent. But ere 

 long the designs and specifications of the Supreme Architect were 

 revealed, and the product of two mighty forces — vital and physical 

 — by the union of mind and matter, produced a living cell. The 

 Great Architect had united the material with the immaterial, the 

 visible with the invisible, and out of the chaos of a dead universe 

 there evolved the greatest mystery of creation — life. 



HHHUI 



