IX.] Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. 145 



" We often hear of hereditary talents, hereditary vices, 

 and hereditary virtues; but whoever will critically examine 

 the evidence, will find that we have no proof of their exist- 

 ence. The way in which they are commonly proved is in 

 the highest degree illogical ; the usual course being for 

 WTiters to collect instances of some mental peculiarity found 

 in a parent and in his child, and then to infer that the 

 peculiarity was bequeathed. By this mode of reasoning, 

 we might demonstrate any proposition ; since, in all large 

 fields of inquiry, there are a sufficient number of empirical 

 coincidences to make a plausible case in favour of whatever 

 view a man chooses to advocate. But this is not the way 

 in which truth is discovered ; and we ought to inquire, not 

 only how many instances there are of hereditary talents, &c., 

 but how many instances there are of such qualities not 

 being hereditary. Until something of this sort is attempted, 

 we can know nothing about the matter inductively ; while, 

 until physiology and chemistry are much more advanced, 

 we can know nothing about it deductively. These con- 

 siderations ought to prevent us from receiving statements 

 which positively affirm the existence of hereditary madness 

 and hereditary suicide ; and the same remark applies to 

 hereditary disease ; and with still greater force does it apply 

 to hereditary vices and hereditary virtues ; inasmuch as 

 ethical phenomena have not been registered as carefully as 

 physiological ones, and therefore our conclusions respecting 

 them are even more precarious."^ 



J^ Vol. i. p: 161, note 12. 



