Mr. Herbert Spencer 51 
but no matter how or why Mr. Spencer has been led to say 
what he has, he has no business to have said it. What can 
we think of a writer who, after so many years of writing 
upon his subject, in a passage in which he should make his 
meaning doubly clear, inasmuch as he is claiming ground 
taken by other writers, declares that though hereditary use 
and disuse, or, to use his own words, “‘ the inheritance of 
functionally produced modifications,”’ is indeed very impor- 
tant in connection with the development of the higher 
forms of life, yet heredity itself has little or nothing to do 
with that of the lower? Variations, whether produced 
functionally or not, can only be perpetuated and accumu- 
lated because they can be inherited ;—and this applies just 
as much to the lower as to the higher forms of life; the 
question which Professor Hering and I have tried to an- 
swer is, “‘ How comes it that anything can be inherited at 
all? In virtue of what power is it that offspring can repeat 
and improve upon the performances of their parents ?”’ 
Our answer was, “‘ Because in a very valid sense, though 
not perhaps in the most usually understood, there is con- 
tinued personality and an abiding memory between suc- 
cessive generations.’”” How does Mr. Spencer’s confession 
of faith touch this? If any meaning can be extracted 
from his words, he is no more supporting this view now 
than he was when he wrote the passages he has adduced to 
show that he was supporting it thirty years ago ; but after 
all no coherent meaning can be got out of Mr. Spencer’s 
letter—except, of course, that Professor Hering and myself 
are tostand aside. I have abundantly shown that I am very 
ready to do this in favour of Professor Hering, but see no 
reason for admitting Mr. Spencer’s claim to have been 
among the forestallers of “ Life and Habit.” 
