Page:Essays on the Social Problem.pdf/3

 Where disruption has come from within it has been on account of the undying desire for freedom of the toilers. Whenever a people had individuality enough to resist the enslavement which always comes with the rise of power and glory in nations, revolutions have occurred and nations gone down, as a result of the existence of individual character. So it is evident that nations cannot continue. If they grow strong enough to destroy individual character, they will die of inertia. If they cannot succeed in extinguishing individual character, then the individuals will, in the struggle for greater freedom, extinguish the nations.

It is evident that whatever helps to overthrow a nation is a good thing, but it would be hard to prove that any system of religion has ever existed that acted as a direct cause in the downfall of nations.

Infidel nations, nations that do not recognize any religion whatever, are as sure to fall as one that is founded on religion. The repression of individuality and the exploitation of labor, and the ostentation of vast wealth, will work the downfall of any nation—government—be it religious or non-religious.

This old hymn sums up the old Calvinistic conception of heredity, and many who imagine themselves emancipated from old superstitions hold very much the same view of heredity. The old conception was based on the "fall of Adam," and, strange as it may seem, the hereditary taint of Adam's sin has been transmitted through countless millions of persons that have lived since his time. Many of those who repudiate the original sin theory, and deny the fall, have adopted the theory of heredity, in order to account for much that they see in the human race, or in individuals, which seems to them otherwise inexplicable. In so doing they often fail to discriminate between what is inherited and the effect of environment, and often unwittingly fall into the same error as the one expressed in the aforementioned hymn. Some who have written voluminously and quite sagely on social topics have had much to say about hereditary crime, and have tried to trace most of the crimes that have startled the world, to an hereditary taint; to a desire inherited from criminal parents, or perhaps from a long line of criminal ancestors. The advocates of this theory make such plausible arguments, and bring such an array of facts, which at first sight seem to sustain the theory, and compare them with the really scientific facts of heredity, that the non-critical students are drawn into an acceptance and advocacy of these theories.

In order to distinguish between the truly hereditary characteristics of any given individual, and acquired characteristics, it is necessary to understand the effect of environment upon the individual, as well as to know what we inherit and what we acquire. I make bold to claim that morals are not inherited. They depend upon the economic conditions of a people, and upon their beliefs and knowledge. We inherit our physical structure, but even that is powerfully modified by environments, traits and characteristics which are special to any individual on account of peculiarities of the organism, which have been inherited, must display themselves in accordance with the conditions under which said individual lives. For instance: Owing to a peculiarity in the structure of the organs of taste, which has been inherited, a child may have an unusual love of sweets. It is evident that the child will try to satisfy this desire for sweets by eating sugar, honey, candy, or other sweet things that it can get possession of. So far the action of the child is strictly in accord with the hereditary tendency. It is neither moral nor immoral. But if the child is prohibited the eating of sweets, and,