Page:George Archdall Reid 1896 The present evolution of man.djvu/197

Rh that the mental differences exhibited by the various peoples and nations of men are racial (i.e. inborn), not educational (i.e. acquired); or perhaps it would be more correct to say, that it is remarkable that generally they have not perceived, when considering aggregates of men, that the units of the aggregate are like mentally to one another, and to their progenitors, mainly because they have all received after birth, like mental stimulation from the environment, have all been subjected to like educational influences, not mainly because their racial or inborn traits are similar; and that they differ mentally from the units of other aggregates of men mainly because their educational influences have been different, not mainly because their inborn mental traits are different.

The enormous importance of educational influences as regards individuals is very generally and fully recognized, and therefore parents in all countries exercise the most anxious and vigilant care in the bringing up of their children; but seldom is the fact recognized, that the educational influences which affect in common the individuals of a whole race may be good or bad, or a combination of the two, and that by them is determined the material and intellectual progress or stagnation, the weal or woe of the whole race; seldom is the fact recognized, that just as different races of men differ in the languages they acquire from their progenitors, so also do they probably differ in other acquired traits of great importance; never is the fact appreciated that the young human being, unlike the young of lower animals, is born with a mind which is practically blank, and that nearly all that is mental in him is subsequently acquired in response to stimulation from the environment, the chief factor in that environment being the influence exercised on him by his progenitors. It is generally realized that a child reared by the uncleanly