futing the theorem that the artificial preservation of those least able to take care of themselves will result in mental and moral deterioration by the operation of heredity. He claims that these biological laws are pushed too far; that Mr. Spencer's conclusions are still more inadmissible than those of his relative to physical deterioration of society. "If any one denies," Mr. Spencer urges, "that children bear likenesses to their progenitors in character and capacity, if he holds that men, whose parents and grand-parents were habitual criminals, have tendencies as good as those of men whose parents and grand-parents were industrious and upright, he may consistently hold that it matters not from what families in a society the successive generations descend. He may think it just as well if the most active and capable and prudent and conscientious people die without issue, while many children are left by the reckless and dishonest." M. Fouillée does not attempt to refute this conclusion, but denies that it bears against philanthropy itself. Mr. Darwin has brought facts forward to prove that our moral qualities are directly due to our ancestors; that, for instance, kleptomania or a propensity to lie seemed to run in noble families for several generations, and so could hardly be imputed to any coincidence. The same is equally true of the inheritance of that moral quality called character, which, says M. Ribot, "whether individual or national, is the very complex result of physiological and psychological laws." The bold and vigorous traits of Puritan character were transmitted to their descendants; they began with this advantage over the other races that emigrated here; hence the fineness and purity of their mental and moral fiber evolved, of necessity, more swiftly leaders in peace and in war.[1]
On the other hand, it is argued by M. Fouillée that "the two elements which Mr. Spencer and Mr. Darwin have overlooked—education and just legislation—must be reinstated in the problem. He contends that education abrogates the law of heredity; that good character will result from good education. It has never been satisfactorily explained why education should be the only cure for crime, poverty, and misery. Huxley says, "If I am a knave or a fool, teaching me to read and write will not make me less of either one or the other, unless somebody shows me how to put my reading and writing to good purposes."[2] The zealous educationist is too apt to forget that the weak and vicious man is fighting single-handed for the mastery over perhaps a score of evil-minded ancestors. "We can make education compulsory, but we can not compel the conscience. To suppose that education will supply those inherited faculties of moral intuition that
