HEREDITARY INFLUENCE. 
41 
of thinkers has energetically denied that we are born with 
any Moral Sense ; another school has energetically affirmed 
that we are born with it. And of the two we think the 
latter are nearest the truth. It is certain that we are so 
organized as to be powerfully affected by actions which appeal 
to this “ Moral Sense,” in a very different way from mere 
appeals to the intellect — the demonstration of abstract right 
and wrong will never move the mind to feel an action to be 
right or wrong ; were it otherwise, the keenest intellects 
would also be the kindest and the justest. What is meant 
by the “ moral sense” is the aptitude to be affected by actions 
in their moral bearings ; and it is impossible to consider 
various individuals without perceiving that this aptitude in 
them varies not according to their intellect, but according to 
their native tendencies in that direction. This aptitude to 
be so affected is a part and parcel of the heritage transmitted 
from forefathers. Just as the puppy pointer has inherited 
an aptitude to e: point” — which if it do not spontaneously 
manifest itself in “ pointing,” renders him incomparably 
more apt at learning it than any other dog — so also has the 
European boy inherited an aptitude for a certain moral life, 
which to the Papuan would be impossible. 66 Hereditary 
transmission,” says Mr. Spencer, “ displayed alike in all the 
plants we cultivate, in all the animals we breed, and in the 
human race, applies not only to physical but to psychical 
peculiarities. It is not simply that a modified form of con- 
stitution, produced by new habits of life, is bequeathed to 
future generations ; but it is, that the modified nervous ten- 
dencies produced by such new habits of life are also be- 
queathed : and if the new habits of life become permanent, 
the tendencies become permanent.”* As a consequence of 
this inheritance we have what is called National Character. 
The Jew, whether in Poland, in Vienna, in London, or in 
Paris, never altogether merges his original peculiarities in 
that of the people among whom - he dwells. He can only do 
this by intermarriage, which would be a mingling of his 
transmitted organization with that of the transmitted organi- 
zation of another race. This is the mystery of what is called 
the “ permanence of races.” The Mosaic Arab preserves all 
the features and moral peculiarities of his race, simply because 
he is a descendant of that race, and not a descendant of the 
race in whose cities he dwells. That the Jew should pre- 
* ‘'Principles of Psychology,’ p. 526. In this work Heritage, for the 
first time, is made the basis of a psychological system ; and we especially 
recommend any reader interested in the present article, to make himseif 
acquainted with a treatise in every way so remarkable. 
XXX. 
o 
