Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/43

Rh stimuli for the child I agree completely but when he states that we have half-used talents that we may greatly improve, I feel like adding "if only the proper stimulus is afforded" (such as Dr. Pepper afforded Dr. Conklin when Dr. Pepper reminded him that he could do what he had to do).

But in the last two paragraphs of his address Dr. Conklin's views diverge more widely from mine, and I confess I can not follow him. We are agreed that through bad environment or culture potential inhibitions may fail of development; but I can not see how a man is responsible for the consequences of this bad culture of inhibitions any more than he is for not knowing how to read if he has never been taught. And my reaction to his inquiry: "Is it not a fact that belief in our responsibility energizes our lives and gives vigor to our mental and moral fiber" would be a denial. The moral fiber of my dog leaves little to be desired, and there is much in the devotion of many an untaught denizen of Central Africa that can not be matched in the descendant of any Puritan; yet it is fair to doubt if their actions are energized by a "belief in their responsibility," I do not think that "shifting all responsibility from men to their heredity or to that part of their environment which is beyond their control helps to make them irresponsible" or alters to any appreciable degree their behavior; the Puritan will be a Puritan still; the wayward girl will be wayward still. My view is that a person really can not react otherwise than he does under the circumstances in which he finds himself placed; a person, therefore, who accepts the theory that he is not "responsible" can not fail to continue to react in the same old way; except in so far as the idea may cause him (if he reacts that way) to put himself in the way of getting his environment improved. If I am not (but others are) responsible for my conduct then I must seek good intellectual and moral influences. And if my neighbor is not responsible for his conduct, but I with others am, why then I must bestir myself to help train him and his children. Man has become in truth his brother's keeper. As the farmer cultivates his crops and rejoices to see them grow, so every man of us lends his service to the culture of his fellow men. But as the corn stalk is powerless in and of itself to add one kernel to its ear, as the spaniel can not train himself to become in any degree a terrier, so I can not find any mechanism in man by virtue of which he can react to a given stimulus in a way opposed to that indicated by his inherent traits and functions, including the culture that they have experienced during their development.