xactly what a man's nature
would be at birth, and exactly the nature of the influences to which he
would be exposed after his birth, could predict every act and word of
that man's life.

Given a particular nature; given particular influences, the result will
be as mathematically inevitable as the speed and orbit of a planet.

Man is what heredity (or God) and environment make him. Heredity gives
him his nature. That comes from his ancestors. Environment modifies his
nature: environment consists of the operation of forces external to
his nature. No man can select his ancestors; no man can select
his environment. His ancestors make his nature; other men, and
circumstances, modify his nature.

Ask any horse-breeder why he breeds from the best horses, and not from
the worst. He will tell you, because good horses are not bred from bad
ones.

Ask any father why he would prefer that his son should mix with good
companions rather than with bad companions. He will tell you that evil
communications corrupt good manners, and pitch defiles.

Heredity decides how a man shall be bred; environment regulates what he
shall learn.

One man is a critic, another is a poet. Each is what heredity and
environment have made him. Neither is responsible for his heredity nor
for his environment.

If the critic repents his evil deeds, it is because something has
happened to awake his remorse. Someone has told him of the error of his
ways. That adviser is part of his environment.

If the poet takes to writing musical comedies, it is because some
evil influence has corrupted him. That evil influence is part of his
environment.

Neither of these men is culpable for what he has done. With nobler
heredity, or happier environment, both might have been journalists; with
baser heredity, or more vicious environment, either might have been a
millionaire, a Socialist, or even a Member of Parliament.

We are all creatures of heredity and environment. It is Fate, and not
his own merit, that has kept George Bernard Shaw out of a shovel hat and
gaiters, and condemned some Right Honourable Gentlemen to manage State
Departments instead of planting cabbages.

The child born of healthy, moral, and intellectual parents has a
better start in life than the child born of unhealthy, immoral, and
unintellectual parents.

The child who has the misfortune to be born in the vitiated atmosphere
of a ducal palace is at a great disadvantage in comparison with th