ongst the 80,000 children who came
under her inspection in the London schools she would often find side
by side with gentle, affectionate little beings others who showed
criminal tendencies from birth.

Looking at the question from another point of view, are we not
continually finding in schools and educational establishments pupils
who, for no explicable reason, show a disposition for one branch of
instruction only? They shine in this, but are dunces in every other
subject.

As a final example, do not infant prodigies prove that men are not
born equal? Young, who discovered the undulatory theory of light,
could read with wonderful rapidity at the age of two, whilst at eight
he had a thorough knowledge of six languages.

Sir W. R. Hamilton began to learn Hebrew when he was three, and knew
it perfectly four years later. At the age of thirteen he knew thirteen
languages.

Gauss, of Brunswick--the greatest mathematician in Europe, according
to Laplace--solved problems in arithmetic when only three.

No, men are not born equal. Nor does environment cause the
inequalities we find; it favours or checks the development of
qualities, but has no part in their creation. Still, its influence is
sufficiently important for us to give it due consideration.

We are linked to one another by the closest bonds of solidarity,
whether we wish it and are conscious thereof or not. Everything
absorbs and throws off, breathes in and breathes out, and this
universal exchange, if at times bad, is none the less a powerful
factor in evolution. The atom of carbon, on entering into the
combinations of the human body, is endowed with a far higher power of
combining than the one which has just left the lump of ore; to obtain
its new properties, this atom has had to pass through millions of
vegetable, animal, and human molecules. Animals brought into close
contact with man develop mentally to a degree that is sometimes
incredible, by reason of the intellectual food with which our thoughts
supply them. The man who lives alone is, other things being equal,
weaker physically, morally, and mentally than he who lives in a large
social environment; it is for this reason that the mind develops far
more rapidly in large centres of life than in the country. And what is
true of good is, unfortunately, true also of evil qualities.

Consequently, environment has an undeniable influence, and it is
perfectly true to say that the social conditions under whic