460 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



ings ; they lie at the foundation of the applica- 

 tion of science to human welfare; they occupy 

 a large place in the thought and conduct of 

 all men. 



I. The Voluntaristic Conception of Na- 

 ture and or Human Responsibility 



Primitive men regarded their own activities 

 and all phenomena of nature as the expression 

 of will, and a similar view has been maintained 

 by certain philosophers and theologians even 

 in modern times. Nature was regarded as 

 the immediate expression of a vast will which 

 creates, rules, builds and destroys as it sees 

 fit. The lightning is hurled from the hand 

 of Jove, the sea is disturbed by angry deities, 

 the winds are let loose or stilled, the earth 

 trembles, the hills smoke, the sun and moon 

 and stars travel in their appointed courses as 

 the gods will. 



In this primitive view of nature even inani- 

 mate objects were supposed to be endowed 

 with wills of their own, and many modern men 

 are sufficiently primitive to kick the chair over 

 which they stumble, or to swear that the devil 



