HEREDITY. 249 



growth of the feet, could never have become estaldished among 

 the ladies of China, had they not found abundant proof 

 that a small foot was significant of superior rank — tliat is 

 of a luxurious life — that is of a life mthout bodily 

 labour. There is some evidence, too, that modifica- 



tions of the eyes, caused by particular uses of the eyes, are 

 inherited. Short sight appears to be uncommon in rural 

 populations ; but it is frequent among classes of people who 

 use their eyes much for reading and writing ; and in these 

 classes, short sight is often congenital. Still more marked is 

 this relation in Germany. There, the educated classes are no- 

 toriously studious ; and judging from the numbers of young 

 Germans who wear spectacles, there is reason to think that 

 congenital myopia is very frequent among them. 



Some of the best illustrations of functional heredity, are 

 furnished by the mental characteristics of human races. Cer- 

 tain powers which mankind have gained in the course of civil- 

 ization, cannot, I think, be accounted for, without admitting 

 the inheritance of acquired modifications. The musical faculty 

 Is one of these. To say that *^ natural selection'^ has developed 

 it, by preserving the most musically endowed, seems an in- 

 adequate explanation. Even now that the development and 

 prevalence of the faculty have made music an occupation by 

 which the most musical can get sustenance and bring up 

 families ; it is very questionable whether, taking the musical 

 life as a whole, it has any advantage over others in the 

 struggle for existence and multiplioation. Still more if we 

 look back to those early stages through which the faculty must 

 have passed, before definite perception of melody was arrived 

 at, we fail to see how those possessing the rudimental faculty 

 in a somewhat greater degree than the rest, would thereby be 

 enabled the better to maintain themselves and their children. 

 If so, there is no explanation but that the habitual association 

 of certain cadences of human speech with certain emotions, 

 has slowly established in the race an organized and inherited 

 connexion between such cadences and such emotions ; tluit the 

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