GENETICS AND ETHICS 44,6 



has gotten into the automobile. Of course the 

 actions of all animate things were held to be the 

 result of choice ; the &y that dances on your 

 head or gets into the soup is doing it to annoy 

 you; the cats that yowl, the dogs that howl, 

 the maniacs that screech are possessed of 

 devils, evil wills, and should be punished. All 

 good is the result of good will, all evil of evil 

 will. Some being, some volition, is responsi- 

 ble for everything that happens. AU nature 

 is the expression of big or little wills, of good 

 or bad wills, and the good should be rewarded 

 and the bad pimished. 



This conception of nature finds its counter- 

 part and probably its origin in similar views 

 concerning human conduct and responsibility. 

 According to this belief every man is the archi- 

 tect of his own character ; the will is absolutely 

 free ; no taint of heredity or necessity rests on 

 the mind or soul; character is a tabula rasa, 

 upon which the self writes its own record as 

 it chooses, and is responsible for the result. 

 Conduct whether good or bad, benevolent or 

 criminal, rational or irrational rests upon vol- 

 vmtary choice, and for such choices men must 



