Page:George Archdall Reid 1896 The present evolution of man.djvu/198

186 will probably be uncleanly; that a child reared by the slothful will probably be slothful; that a child reared by the energetic will probably be energetic; that a child reared by the dishonest and immoral will probably be dishonest and immoral; that a child reared by the superstitious will probably be superstitious; that a child reared by the brave and enterprising will probably be brave and enterprising; that a child reared by the timid and cautious will probably be timid and cautious; that, in fact,' the mind of one generation imprints itself on the mind of the next generation, not racially but educationally; but there is a general failure to realize that the aggregation of individuals called a race or a nation is governed in this respect by the same laws and conditions as an individual, and therefore if one generation be slothful the next will also be slothful; if one generation be active the next also will be active, and so forth; but herein lies the key to the distinguishing peculiarities of nations and races, and to much of the history of the world.

Diverse educational influences produce diverse knowledge, modes of thought, and motives for acting, and since races are aggregations of individuals, and the aggregation of individual efforts moulds the destinies of the race, I can best explain what I mean by taking as examples three individuals, one of whom is a scientist, the second a manufacturer, and the third a monk. Though they may all be of equal powers, yet their different knowledge, ways of thinking, and motives for acting will lead to very different results. The labours of the scientist will result in an increase of knowledge, the manufacturer will produce an increase of wealth, whereas there will be no tangible result, at any rate on earth, to the labours of the monk. But if early influences had caused the scientist to be a monk, the monk to be a manufacturer, and the manufacturer