September i, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



331 



Historians commonly ascribe sueli changes 

 as occurred in Athens, and will almost cer- 

 tainly come to pass in the United States, to 

 conditions of life and especially to polit- 

 ical institutions. These agencies, however, 

 do little unless they are such as to change 

 the breed. External changes may indeed 

 give an opportunity to special strains, 

 which then acquire ascendency. The in- 

 dustrial developments which began at the 

 end of the eighteenth century, for instance, 

 gave a chance to strains till then sub- 

 merged, and their success involved the de- 

 cay of most of the old aristocratic families. 

 But the demagogue who would argue from 

 the rise of the one and the fall of the other 

 that the original relative positions were not 

 justifiable altogether mistakes the facts. 



Conditions give opportunities, but cause 

 no variations. For example, in Athens, to 

 which I just referred, the universality of 

 cultivated discernment could never have 

 come to pass but for the institution of 

 slavery which provided the opportunity, 

 but slavery was in no sense a cause of that 

 development, for many other populations 

 have lived on slaves and remained alto- 

 gether inconspicuous. 



The long-standing controversy as to the 

 relative importance of nature and nurture, 

 to use Galton's "convenient jingle of 

 words," is drawing to an end, and of the 

 overwhelmingly greater significance of 

 nature there is no longer any possibility of 

 doubt. It may be well briefly to recapitu- 

 late the arguments on which naturalists 

 rely In coming to this decision as regards 

 both races and individuals. First, as re- 

 gards human individuals, there is the com- 

 mon experience that children of the same 

 parents reared under conditions sensibly 

 identical may develop quite differently, ex- 

 hibiting in character and aptitudes a segre- 

 gation just as great as in their colors or 

 hair-forms. Conversely, all the more marked 



aptitudes have at various times appeared 

 and not rarely reached perfection in cir- 

 cumstances the least favorable for their 

 development. Next, appeal can be made to 

 the universal experience of the breeder, 

 whether of animals or plants, that strain is 

 absolutely essential, that though bad con- 

 ditions may easily enough spoil a good 

 strain, yet that under the best conditions 

 a bad strain will never give a fine result. 

 It is faith, not evidence, which encour- 

 ages educationists and economists to hope 

 so greatly in the ameliorating effects of the 

 conditions of life. Let us consider what 

 they can do and what they can not. By 

 reference to some sentences in a charming 

 though pathetic book, ' ' What Is, and "What 

 Might Be," by Mr. Edmond Holmes, which 

 will be well known in the Educational Sec- 

 tion, I may make the point of view of us 

 naturalists clear. I take Mr. Holmes's 

 pronouncement partly because he is an 

 enthusiastic believer in the efficacy of nur- 

 ture as opposed to nature, and also because 

 he illustrates his views by frequent appeals 

 to biological analogies which help us to a 

 common ground. Wheat badly cultivated 

 will give a bad yield, though, as Mr. Holmes 

 truly says, wheat of the same strain in 

 similar soil well cultivated may give a good 

 harvest. But, having witnessed the suc- 

 cess of a great natural teacher in helping 

 unpromising peasant children to develop 

 their natural powers, lie gives us another 

 botanical parallel. Assuming that the wild 

 buUace is the origin of domesticated plums, 

 he tells us that by cultivation the bullace 

 can no doubt be improved so far as to be- 

 come a better bullace, but by no means can 

 the bullace be made to bear plums. All this 

 is sound biology ; but, translating these facts 

 into the human analogy, he declares that 

 the work of the successful teacher shows 

 that with man the facts are otherwise, arid 

 \ that the average rustic child, whose normal 



