Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/134

 PART II.

THE REALISATION OF CHARACTER IN VOCATION.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHARACTER AND CONDUCT.

§1. The Growth of Character. In Part I. we traced the development of character, and examined in detail the various elements which go to constitute it. We found that the ultimate groundwork of character is provided by heredity, but that this groundwork would remain simply a formless aggregate of blind tendencies and empty capacities, if the environment were not allowed to influence it. We considered the influence of the physical and social environment on the development of the early life of the child, and showed how the rudimentary instincts with which. the child starts are modified and developed to form the basis of the great institutions of the moral life. Then, along two main lines, we traced the development of character out of the purely instinctive tendencies of human life. We showed that impulses, which may be regarded as instincts in