EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT 287 
with a word about the growing dissimilarity being due 
to the action of the firm, free will of one or both the 
twins which had triumphed over natural tendencies ; 
and yet a large proportion of my correspondents happen 
to be clergymen, whose bent of mind is opposed, as I 
feel assured, to a necessitarian view of life.’ The only 
conclusion which can be drawn from these observations 
is that the relative influence of nurture as opposed to 
nature is very much smaller than has been generally 
supposed; and this inference is confirmed by the 
history of dissimilar twins. The descriptions of the 
latter agreed without exception in showing an entire 
absence of convergence of character in cases where 
the whole training and environment were closely 
similar. From this evidence it seems right to conclude 
that the hereditary nature of a man is more important 
than his training and circumstances in determining 
his adult mental and physical equipment, and the 
result of common observation may be said to be in 
agreement with this conclusion. + 
You may educate generation after generation, and 
yet the starting-point from which each individual has 
to begin his struggle upwards may remain the same, 
even though each may struggle a little farther than the 
one who came before him. On the other hand, we 
have all of us met a few of those happy people to 
whom it seemed second nature to do the right thing, 
and for whom the difficulties of life appear to have 
no menace. These qualities are those of nature, and 
not of nurture, and their children will inherit them. 
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and 
