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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST 



[Vol. XLV 



which an individual has. Some characters are born in the 

 individual, some are acquired, and some are thrust upon him. 



A Koman nose or a pug nose is neither acquired nor thrust 

 upon the individual. They are born to the individuals which 

 possess them. The same is true of gray eyes or blue eyes, and 

 many other characters. They are inborn and are matters of 

 heredity. 



A mutilation is not born to an individual or acquired by him. 

 It is thrust upon him by accident or by the action of some other 

 person, and against the will of the individual. A person is not 

 born gray, nor does he achieve grayness. It is thrust upon him 

 by age or by mental distress. We sometimes say that a person 

 acquires a sun-burned face, but the statement is inaccurate. 

 Sunburn is thrust upon the individual by the action of the sun's 

 rays. 



Those things which are acquired are obtained by the efforts, 

 either physical or mental, of the individual which acquires them. 

 But not all things which are acquired by efforts are " characters." 

 Thus, a person may acquire wealth by his individual efforts, but 

 wealth is not a character. It is a possession. An education is 

 also acquired by efforts, but an education is a possession and not 

 a character. So also athletes and race horses acquire records of 

 various kinds, but these records are also possessions and not 

 characters. 



Characters arc those things which pertain to and form a part 

 of the individual as an individual. Acquired characters are not 

 new characters, but characters which are changed from their 

 normal inborn condition by their own functional activity, and 

 are to be clearly distinguished from characters thrust upon a 

 passive individual. Using a generic term to cover many specific 

 qualities, it may be said that strength is the main if not the sole 

 acquired character under this definition. Weakness is negative 

 strength correlated with negative efforts. 



Physical strength above the inherited strength is acquired by 

 special physical efforts, such as training, and mental strength 

 above the inherited mental strength is similarly acquired by 

 special mental training. Conversely, physical strength is lost 

 by the absence of physical efforts, and mental strength is lost 

 by the absence of mental efforts. Efforts are something we can 

 see and measure, and the relationship between these acquire- 

 ments and the efforts by which they are obtained is such that we 

 can measure the acquirements in terms of efforts. 



