176 DARWINISM AND HUMAN LIFE 



potent than in regard to structural features. We 

 cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, though 

 the plasticity of character under nurture is a fact 

 which gives us all hope. Explain it we cannot, 

 but the transmission of the raw material of 

 character is a fact, and we must still say, with Sir 

 Thomas Browne : " Bless not thyseK that thou 

 wert born in Athens ; but, among thy multiplied 

 acknowledgments, Hft up one hand to heaven 

 that thou wert born of honest parents, that 

 modesty, humility, and veracity lay in the same 

 egg, and came into the world with thee." 



Three General Conclusions. — (1) The study 

 of inheritance is apt to leave a fatalistic impression 

 in the mind, and to some extent this is justified. 

 We cannot get away from our inheritance. As 

 the poet Heine said, haK laughingly haK bitterly : 

 " A man should be very careful in the selection of 

 his parents." On the other hand, looking forward, 

 we may change the word " parent " into " partner," 

 recognising that a good inheritance is the most 

 precious of all possessions, and that it should be 

 guarded from mixture with bad stock. 



(2) But, again, the conclusion is strongly borne 

 in on us that a good nurture is the necessary comple- 

 ment of a good nature and the individual corrective 

 of a poor nature. 



(3) If there is little or no scientific warrant for 

 our being other than extremely sceptical at present 

 as to the inheritance of acquired characters — or 

 better, the transmission of modifications — ^this 

 scepticism lends greater importance than ever, on 

 the one hand, to a good " nature," to secure which 

 is the business of careful mating ; and, on the other 

 hand, to a good " nurture," to secure which for our 



