HEREDITY IN PHYSIOLOGY, IN MEDICINE, ETC. 363 
provement by convincing them that they can be made bet- 
ter. United with judicious cultivation of heredity when 
working for good, education thus conquers heredity in its 
evil working, and gives new life to the generations. 
Yet we must not concede to education an exaggerated 
influence, nor assume that it can by itself alone produce 
superior characters of great eminence. It has, like hered- 
ity itself, but a limited power. Genius eludes the one, as 
it does the other. Genius, the most whole and perfect ex- 
pression of the mind regarded as a free creative force, 
combines in one immortal consolation with eternal despair 
for our nature. It is a solace, because it is the fountain of 
all light and all rapture; it bids us despair precisely because 
it is singular, exceptional, capricious, strange, disdainful of 
the meddling touch of those who strive to pierce its mysteri 
ous secret, stubbornly defiant of the efforts of those who strive 
to subdue it, in a word, absolutely beyond the ken of the 
logic and discipline of the common run of men. It is a 
mighty tree, bearing fruit of food for the ages, and grow- 
ing under conditions that forbid us to hope either to incite 
or foretell its production, or to rule its existence or calculate 
its fertility. We must wait humbly and patiently till it 
pleases Providence to bestow on us its blessing and glory. 
Happily, men of genius are not indispensable to humanity. 
The more the general level of a nation is lifted, the less es- 
sential do they become. Now that level rises irresistibly, 
whenever the will and the ready force of all citizens know 
but one sincere desire, that of self-improvement. The cult- 
ure of heredity by relentlessly eradicating all causes that 
tend to degeneracy, and fostering causes that work im- 
provement, may be commended with all assurance to na- 
tions ambitious of winning by its means the foremost rank 
in the world. 
THE END. 
