452 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



tics of our minds as well as of our bodies are 

 inherited, it is easy and natural to go further 

 and to conclude not only that all the possibili- 

 ties of our hves are marked out in the germ 

 but that all that will actually develop from the 

 germ is there determined and cannot be al- 

 tered. There are many similarities between 

 such an extreme view and the old doctrine of 

 preformation, and it contains a hke absurdity. 

 It practically denies development altogether. 

 If the germ is a closed system and receives 

 nothing from without, and if adult character- 

 istics are predetermined in the germ, they 

 are as irrevocably fixed as if they were 

 predelineated. 



At the opposite extreme is the old voluntar- 

 istic view of absolute freedom and absolute 

 responsibility. This view, like the old epigene- 

 sis, virtually postulates a new creation for each 

 individual. As far as the mind and soul are 

 concerned there is no hereditary continuity 

 with past generations and none with future 

 ones. But while such a view may be logically 

 complete and theologically satisfying, it is not 

 scientific, for it also contradicts the evidence. 



