•24 LUCK, OR CUNNING ? 



to be responsible for what ; and, after all, for nine 

 purposes of life out of ten the generally received 

 opinion that each person is himself and nobody else is 

 on many grounds the most convenient. Every now and 

 then, however, there comes a tenth purpose, for which 

 the continued personality side of the connection between 

 successive generations is as convenient as the new 

 personality side is for the remaining nine, and these 

 tenth purposes — some of which are not unimportant — 

 are obscured and fulfilled amiss owing to the complete- 

 ness with which the more commonly needed conception 

 has overgrown the other. 



Neither view is more true than the other, but the 

 one was wanted every hour and minute of the day, and 

 was therefore kept, so to speak, in stock, and in one of 

 the most accessible places of our mental storehouse, 

 while the other was so seldom asked for that it became 

 not worth while to keep it. By-and-by it was found 

 so troublesome to send out for it, and so hard to come 

 by even then, that people left off selling it at all, and 

 if any one wanted it he must think it out at home as 

 best he could ; this was troublesome, so by common 

 consent the world decided no longer to busy itself with 

 the continued personality of successive generations — 

 which was all very well until it also decided to busy 

 itself with the theory of descent with modification. On 

 the introduction of a foe so inimical to many of our 

 pre-existing ideas the balance of power among them 

 was upset, and a readjustment became necessary, which 

 is still far from having attained the next settlement 

 that seems likely to be reasonably permanent. 



