363 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



moral civilization. Our psychical, social and 

 moral environment has come to us from 

 the past with ever-increasing increments, every 

 age standing on the shoulders of the preceding 

 one. The aspirations, impulses, responsibili- 

 ties of modern life have become enormous and 

 our inherited natures and abilities have not 

 essentially improved. Social heredity has out- 

 run germinal heredity and the intellectual, so- 

 cial and moral responsibilities of our times are 

 too great for many men. Civilization is a 

 strenuous affair, with impulses and compul- 

 sions which are difficult for the primitive man 

 to fulfil, and many of us are hereditarily prim- 

 itive men. The frequent result is disharmony, 

 poor adjustment, the struggle of the primitive 

 instincts with high ideals, with a resulting 

 sense of discouragement and defeat which of- 

 ten ends in abnormal states of mind. The 

 great growth of alcoholism, depravity and in- 

 sanity is an ever-increasing protest and menace 

 of weak men against high civilization. We are 

 approaching the time when one or the other 

 must give way, either the responsibilities of 

 ^ life must be reduced and the march of civiliza- 



