174 DARWINISM AND HUMAN LIFE 



equivalent to the organic transmission of certain 

 kinds of modifications may be brought about. 



(/) Is there not some result of the almost tire- 

 some controversy on " the inheritance of acquired 

 characters," if we are thereby freed from indulging 

 in false hopes, but are forced to the conviction 

 that " nurture " is more important than ever ? 

 Although what is " acquired " may not be in- 

 herited, what is not inherited may be acquired. 

 Thus we are led to direct our energies even more 

 strenuously to the business of reimpressing desir- 

 able modifications, and therefore to developing 

 our functions and environments in the direction 

 of progress. 



It may be, however, that our methods must 

 change with the change in our expectations. For 

 though we can, by modification, directly influence 

 the individual, and in some measure even control 

 the expression of his inheritance, it is not through 

 modifications that we can hope directly to influence 

 posterity. Man is a slowly reproducing, slowly 

 varying organism. What is above all precious is 

 the conservation of good stock. No number of 

 veneering modifications — superficial screens of or- 

 ganic defects — can atone for allowing a deteriora- 

 tion of the germinal inheritance to diffuse itseK 

 or to accumulate. For progress which is really 

 organic — for progress, that is, in our natural 

 inheritance — ^we must wait, or rather work, 

 patiently. 



Even when it is impossible to do much, there is 

 practical importance in accuracy — ^which is greatly 

 needed in connection with human heredity. How 

 slow of dying is, for instance, the fallacy that ancient 

 and powerful famiUes are necessarily degenerate. 



