468 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



and fear of punishment or the desire for 

 praise and the fear of blame but also from 

 the deep seated social instinct to do good, 

 which may reach the highest levels of altruism 

 and self sacrifice. 



The higher the type of organization the 

 larger is the range of stimuli to which it will 

 respond and the larger the nimiber and kind 

 of responses which may be called forth; and 

 at the same time the larger becomes the power 

 of inhibition of responses whether through the 

 balancing of one stimulus against another or 

 from whatever cause. Human responsibility 

 varies with the complexity of the stimuli in- 

 volved as well as with the capacity of indi- 

 viduals to respond to those stimuli. A man 

 might be quite responsible in savage society 

 who would be quite irresponsible in civilized 

 communities. In an infant there is no capacity 

 to respond to rational, social or ethical stimuli 

 but with increasing capacity in this respect 

 comes increasing responsibility. Mental and 

 ethical imbeciles, insane and mentally defective 

 persons have a low capacity for such responses 

 and inhibitions and consequently less is ex- 



