Heredity and Environment 125 



deepest satisfaction that one detected this influence 

 in the opening address of the president ; two passages 

 are well worthy of record. " It was true," he said, 

 " that they could not but glory in this saving of suffer- 

 ing, for the spirit which led to the protection of the 

 weak and the afflicted was, of all things, that which was 

 the most worth preserving on earth. . . . The end they 

 had in view — an improvement in the racial qualities of 

 future generations — was noble enough to give them 

 courage for the fight. Their first effort must be to 

 establish such a moral code as would ensure that the 

 welfare of the unborn should be held in view in connec- 

 tion with all questions concerning both the marriage 

 of the individual and the organisation of the State." 

 We have here a complete vindication of Benjamin 

 Kidd's law of the spiritual evolution of man, the main 

 theme of whose thesis is that man is every day becoming 

 more and more religious, as evidenced by the growth of 

 self-denial and altruism, this being shown more par- 

 ticularly in regard to the perfecting of the environ- 

 ment of the generations of men who are to succeed 

 those already existing. We may now say with confi- 

 dence that our thesis is no longer tentative ; it is an 

 established fact, proved by the study of observed 

 phenomena, and must continue to mould the thoughts 

 and actions of men with ever-increasing power from 

 generation to generation. 



Mr. Hector Macpherson in summing up the conclu- 

 sions to be drawn from the Conference says some strik- 

 ing things well worthy of attention. " Man, unlike the 

 lower animals, is not completely at the mercy of mate- 

 rial laws. We attribute the vast difference between the 

 man of to-day and his savage ancestor to civilisation, 

 but, after all, what is civilisation but a colossal environ- 

 ment as a check upon his hereditary animality. We hear 

 talk of the great work of natural selection when not 



