BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 395 



as Samuel Butler would have said, far exceeding that of any random 

 sample of the middle-class. If only man could be reproduced by 

 budding, what a simplification it would be! In vegetative reproduc- 

 tion heredity is usually complete. The Washington plum can be 

 divided to produce as many identical individuals as are required. If, 

 say, Washington, the statesman, or preferably King Solomon, could 

 similarly have been propagated, all the nations of the earth could 

 have been supplied with ideal rulers. 



Historians commonly ascribe such changes as occurred in Athens, 

 and will almost certainly come to pass in the United States, to con- 

 ditions of life and especially to political institutions. These agencies, 

 however, do little unless they are such as to change the breed. 

 External changes may indeed give an opportunity to special strains, 

 which then acquire ascendency. The industrial developments which 

 began at the end of the eighteenth century, for instance, gave a v 

 chance to strains till then submerged, and their success involved the 

 decay of most of the old aristocratic families. But the demagogue 

 who would argue from the rise of the one and the fall of the other 

 that the original relative positions were not justifiable altogether 

 mistakes the facts. 



Conditions give opportunities but cause no variations. For 

 example, in Athens, to which I just referred, the universality of 

 cultivated discernment could never have come to pass but for the 

 institution of slavery which provided the opportunity, but slavery 

 was in no sense a cause of that development, for many other popu- 

 lations have lived on slaves and remained altogether inconspicuous. 



The long-standing controversy as to the relative importance of 

 nature and nurture, to use Galton's " convenient jingle of words," is 

 drawing to an end, and of the overwhelmingly greater significance 

 of nature there is no longer any possibility of doubt. It may be 

 well briefly to recapitulate the arguments on which naturalists rely 

 in coming to this decision both as regards races and individuals. 

 First as regards human individuals, there is the common experience 

 that children of the same parents reared under conditions sensibly 

 identical may develop quite differently, exhibiting in character and 

 aptitudes a segregation just as great as in their colours or hair-forms. 

 Conversely, all the more marked aptitudes have at various times 

 appeared and not rarely reached perfection in circumstances the 

 least favourable for their development. Next, appeal can be made 

 to the universal experience of the breeder, whether of animals or 

 plants, that strain is absolutely essential, that though bad conditions 

 may easily enough spoil a good strain, yet that under the best con- 

 ditions a bad strain will never give a fine result. It is faith, not 

 evidence, which encourages educationists and economists to hope so 

 greatly in the ameliorating effects of the conditions of life. Let us 

 consider what they can do and what they cannot. By reference to 

 some sentences in a charming though pathetic book, ' What Is, and 

 What Might Be,' by Mr. Edmond Holmes, which will be well known 

 in the Educational Section, I may make the point of view of us 

 naturalists clear. I take Mr. Holmes's pronouncement partly 



