Manchester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (191 5), No. 11. 41 



these influences makes itself felt all through his life, and 

 above all during his early years. The differences to be 

 observed between the inhabitants of different countries, 

 which one is tempted to attribute to racial differences, are 

 due in large measure to differences of environment. This 

 is, for example, incontestable in the matter of language. 

 An Italian child brought up in England speaks English 

 exactly as an English child, and vice versa. 



The above indicates the route we have to follow in 

 order to better mankind. The moral attributes of men, 

 which alone we have to treat here, depend to a certain 

 extent on the physical environment in which they have 

 lived. Between the inhabitants of the plains and the 

 inhabitants of the mountains, the men who live on the 

 coast and those who inhabit the interior, there are certain 

 moral differences which, quite as much as the differences 

 of language, depend alone on the environment. But the 

 moral attributes of a man depend, above all, on the ideas 

 which have been inculcated in him, the habits of thought 

 which he has been made to contract, and, more still on the 

 examples which he has had before him, indeed, speaking 

 generally, on the influence of the men among whom he 

 has lived. 



All these. things have long been known, but it is useful 

 to recall them from time to time, for they seem very often 

 to be forgotten and their ENORMOUS IMPORTANCE seems 

 to be lost to view. Therefore every moment we hear men 

 of clear intellect speaking of the differences which exist 

 between different peoples, without giving themselves the 

 trouble to discover which traits of character depend upon 

 differences in innate attributes, and which traits have been 

 merely acquired under the influence of environment. 



Very fine books have been written on the art of im- 

 proving humanity by education, and we have no intention 



