34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



biological significance as the blue-eyed or long-headed races; they are 

 properly called biotypes. If some of these biotypes do not persist for 

 more than a few generations it is because of the constant cross-breeding 

 that is going on between biotypes. When a blue-eyed Irish girl marries 

 a south Italian the children are all brown-eyed — the potential blue-eyed 

 biotype is brought to an end by hybridization. So when a great color 

 artist marries a woman who belongs to a non-artistic family the chil- 

 dren may not belong to the artistic biotype; but, under appropriate ma- 

 tings, the characteristic of the biotype may reappear in later generations. 



The objection is raised to this view that it overlooks the importance 

 of opportunity in determining the vocation in which one finds success. 

 This objection is founded on the fundamental theory that all men have 

 equal capacities for all things and the reason why one person succeeds 

 in one occupation and another in a different occupation is because they 

 have different opportunities. And the objection vanishes when this 

 theory falls. A year in a Berlin conservatory of music would be a great 

 opportunity for some people ; but not for me. How often is the dearest 

 wish of a man to have his son take up the profession in which he him- 

 self has succeeded frustrated by the son's entire lack of taste or capacity 

 for such a profession. " Opportunity " assumes an innate capacity for 

 taking advantage of it. Hence, those who have had a " superior oppor- 

 tunity " must have had a germ plasm specially adapted thereto. Those 

 who regret a lack of early opportunities really (within limits) regret 

 their inability to respond more adequately to such stimuli — such culture 

 — as came to them. Now, "all men" are born into thousands of dis- 

 tinct biotypes and what is true of those of one biotype is not true of 

 others. A single standard "before the law" is as unbiological as it is 

 cruel. 



Consideration of the inequalities of persons " before the law " in- 

 volves an examination of the foundations of law and society. Again 

 and again, in various parts of the world, men have come together in 

 communal life for physical and moral support, responding to a gre- 

 garious instinct. A leader is selected to enforce these communal 

 customs that past experiences have proved to be favorable to the com- 

 munity. Moral law is merely this: behavior that is favorable for the 

 specific community is "good"; behavior that is harmful for the com- 

 munity is " bad." Good and bad thus refer to conduct which is judged 

 in its relation to the experiences, traditions and ideals of the given 

 community. 



Now, conduct is reaction to a stimulus; what the reaction shall be 

 depends not only on the stimulus, but also on the nature of the reacting 

 protoplasm ; particularly, in man, of the senso-neuro-muscular complex. 

 While in the young the relation of stimulus to reaction is relatively 

 simple, during development there appears, most markedly in gregarious 



