Evening journal., 1892-11-01

which mould iG are ever to be analyzed
accurately, that something should be
done to give our knowledge of first prin
ciples greater defniteness. Heredity,
for example, has had far.reaehing ef-
fect-so we are told--upon the race. But
what is heredity Just how does it
operate How large measure of re-
sponsibility for our individual sins and
frailties does it really bear Unless we
answer these questions somewhat to our
satisfaction we are in danger of over
working this particular catchword and
imputing a case Of parentage where two
tendencies ere not even related. Envi-
ronment, too, is another thing that we
talk about far more than we understand.
Do we, indeed take the color Of our sur
roundings so easily as some people think2
Is character apt to get the better of cir
cumstances or do cireuu stances usually
overrule character? Perhaps the Sociolo
gists, like ordinary men, have not yet
| quite freed their minds from cant.
| Another factor ia the human problem
/ is Temperament, and it is this which
! learned Scot discusses in a bulky
volume. Alexander Stewart, +. r. G. S.,
of Edinburgh, has set - work in
philosophical spirit. He believes that
i
! self which, if pursued in the synthetic
method, is likely to lead to really
momentous results We haven't got far
enough yet to know very much about it /;
but all that will come in time, and mean
while MIR Stewart gives us the benefit of
his observations. He begins by setting
forth the indisputable fact that every
body has temperament; which, let us
bear in mind, is not always the same
thing as having temper This seems
at first blush to be a tolerably plain basis
for philosophical deductions. Blu that
is the trouble with science; it looks so
easy until you get into it and then you
founder about without finding a solid
footing anywhere
Everybody has a temperament it is
true, but pretty nearly every body, alas !
has temperament of so much mixed
compound in such indefinite proportions
of other temperaments that the confusion
is indeseribable and the most patient in
vestigator finds it hard to define class
and species Mr. Stewart himself doesn' /
appear to have gone very far in this
useful work His book is mainly a sum
mary Of the evidence Of other people
The ordinary reader would hardly have
he patience, we fancy to wade through
al tins and extract the really important
part Of IT, Perhaps that has been done
with sufficient accuracy by the critic who
thus gives IN a few words the gist of the
earned Scots laborious complications -
"The first fact to be thoroughly ap.
pretended is that the word temperament,
when properly used, refers only to the
following attributes Of mankind The
color of the hair; the color Of the eyes
the color of the face (also called com
plexion); the shape of the face the shape
of the nose; the shape Of the neck and
the shape of the body There arc -four
temperaments, now called tue sanguine
the bilious, the lymphatic, and the nerv.
Gus. Everybody belongs to one, or some
or all these; but, as regards the four at
tributes. consisting of shape there is nc
difference between the first three of the
femperaments, everyone with a taperinq
face, thin nose, a long neck, or
slim body being pro tanto of nervous
temperament