Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-07-15


Individuality. but Environment
Gives it Shape and Directs its
Growth - Character Depends
Upon Mental and Physical Sur
rOundings Free Agency" is
Restricted by the Eternal Laws
of Natural Selection.
Written for the STANDARD by Lady Cooke nee
Tennessee G. Claffn.
The influence of environment upon
every organic being is no longer a
matter of doubt. The researches of
recent years have thrown much
light on this subject, and have
proved that the processes of evolution
are very largely dependent upon the
conditions of the environment. We
have passed from conjecture to GER
talnty, and are now able to predicate
what changes would ensue under GER
tain given circumstances. So many
students OF physical phenomena, in
cluding men of the most powerful
minds, have been continuously en-
gagged in investigating and interpret
ing the laws of nature, during the last
half century, that numbers CT her most
secret pages have become more or less
an open book. Before this, however,
the vaguest notions prevailed. An
able writer of the 18th century says
"I am satisfied that every country
produces people of the same bulk, fea-
lures and compilations, it did two
thousand years ago; and whenever a
new set of people take possession of a
country, they become like those who
inhabited it before in a very few gen.
erations. If swarthy Scythisn or
Tartar, of short squat make, fiat
nose, thick lips, and little black eyes
set deep in his head, were to be trans
ported into Germany Gas many nations
of the Scythians were formerly his
posterity, in hundred or two of years,
would infallibly be tall, lusty fellows,
OF fair compilations, and regular fea-
lures, as the present Germans are. t..
For notwithstanding We
all sprung from one original, our fea-
lures and compilations, our stature,
and even tempers, vary according to
the part of the world we happen to be
planted in. There is something in
the air, the soil, the diet, or manner of
life, which makes the inhabitants OF
one country appear as if they were
cast in different mould from those
of the other" This statement, how
ever, was only partially correct. Lo-
cality alone would not produce
these changes, because environment,
powerful as it is, is only one factor out
of many in producing evolutionary
changes, and can deteriorate as we'll as
improve. 1t may bring about great
physical alterations, may enlarge,
dwarf, may metamorphose an organ,
distort or beautify a structure, but the
essential character of the animal or
plant will remain the same. Habit
and race are equally potent in effect
ing variations, but perhaps the most
powerful of all isselection.
Nevertheless the fact remains that
environment has a prodigious infu-
ence in forming physical character.
1t is the same in the mental and the
moral world. Our intellectual culture
mainly depends upon our mental en-
vironment, as our moral culture upon
our moral environment. If child of
the most illiterate parents be closely
associated from early infancy with
persons OF culture, the chances are
many 10 one that he also will be cul-
tured. He may not have the wide
mental grasp of one born from a stock
of intellectual ancestors, but he will
have certain improved grasp, and his
mind will be harmonized to the tone
of theirs. There are not many even
amongst those of hereditary culture
who rise to great intellectual heights,
but all acquire an intellectual tone
which adds to the refinement and en-.
joyment of life. The love of knowl-
edge, for its own sake, apart from any
notion of utility,is one of the most de-
lightful of intellectual passions. And
this they all possess in a higher or
lower degree. Their intellectual en-
vironment elevates, as it were, and
spiritualizes every sense. They see,
for instance, with other eyes, and hear
with other ears, than those who have
not received their mental advantages.
And their perceptions may become so
refined that even the meanest things
of Nature become objects of absorbing
interest and beauty.
Now all this is distinct gain, bet
ter it may be, than wealth or power,
for it gives us something which we are
always able to enjoy, and which no
one can take from us. Nevertheless,
high culture may co-exist with great
vices, and many intellectual men have
become abandoned voluptuaries, max
ing their great requirements subserv-
lent to evil. Thus splendid physical
and mental powers may be destructive
to their possessors unless they are con-
trolled by correct moral feeling. Con.