Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/376

370 The vexing question of determining in any way the proportionate average influence taken by the three possible causes in the determination of human faculties and character can probably only be solved when we possess, on the one hand, a knowledge of the circumstances in which the individuals lived, and, on the other, a complete knowledge of the characteristics of their ancestors and family to a reasonable degree of remoteness.

In many instances psychologists, historians and philosophers have observed the evident relationship between the lives and actions of men and the environment in which they lived. Even as early as Aristotle the characteristics of the Greeks were noted as midway between the Chinese and the Egyptians, and their different relations to the climate, geography, etc., were observed and reasoned upon. One of the most famous of recent names in this connection is that of Buckle, who attempted to reduce history to a science, and explain the actions of men according to natural laws. To his mind, food, climate, volcanoes and other external causes played an important part. Against Buckle stood Carlyle and many others who considered it degrading to attempt to reduce human action to mechanics; for them the great soul or 'hero' was the all-important element, and history was to be considered largely as a set of biographies of great men. Mohammed, Luther and the great kings could not be explained as a product of the times. With Carlyle must always stand the theologians who dwell upon the greatness of the human will and the divinity of the spiritual side of man, which is supposed to raise him above his trials and make him the true lord of creation.

In more recent years an attempt has been made to show that heredity is very important in producing those geniuses whose influence is so paramount in molding the lives of others. Galton and de Candolle have met with much success in this line. Thus the three factors have all had their supporters—heredity, environment and free-will—some would give preponderance to one and some to another, and no one knows which is the most important or influential.

Now, thanks to the researches of Galton, Pearson and others, the proportionate amount of hereditary influence from each parent, and from each more remote ancestor is known with considerable approximation, except as regards certain peculiar types; as when for instance the maternal and paternal stocks differ very much from each other, or for some other reason we have prepotency, as in the case of albino animals, or perhaps when new varieties make their appearance we seem to have errors from the expected.

Still the law may be considered virtually true when we deal with large averages, and thus by knowing what we ought to expect from heredity alone, we may take a large number of verified individuals