Grand Forks daily herald., 1914-09-28
MONDAY. SEPTEMBER %, 1914.
HAS HUMAN NATURE CHANGEDo

The statement is often made that,
In spite of all the education and cul-
tufe of modern times human nature
really remains unchanged, and refer
ence is often made to the world war
as proof that this is true. Here we
are told, are men who have had the
advantage of the accumulated culture
OF generations and centuries, and Of
two thousand years of Christianity,
flr:nC at each others throats like so
many cave men who had never known
of culture or heard of Christianity
The conclusion is that human nature
Is the same, yesterday, today and for
ever and nothing can change it.
This is a depressing view. More
over, it is peculiar in that it is based
on the assum ption that in a universe
which is in constant condition of
fuN and change, where evolution and
development and disintegration and
recreation are going on constantly,
there exists thing which we are
pleased to call human nature which
stands out unchanged and unchange-
able. the solitary exception in an il
limitable universe. Such strange
thing would merit more than the
mere statement that it exists.
When the statement is made that
human nature is unchanged and I'M
changeable. the reference is usually
to some of the undesirable qualities
which human beings frequently man
ifest greed, anger and the like. Human
nature, then, appears to be pretty
poor thing, after all, and the power
that created it must not only have
done poor job in creating it. but
must have done the truly remark
able thing of selecting from among
all the things in the universe of which
we have knowledge this one worth
less thing and giving it fixed and
permanent form. Such thing would
be truly remarkable.
What is human nature? There are
human beings whose ordinary lives
are as unlike as are any other things
in nature. We have the Patagonian,
the Digger Indian. the Australian
groups who have their places in the
various stages of what we call civ
ilization. Are we to understand that
the lowest type that we can find is the
true representative of human nature,
and that all the others are really the
same, essentially, with the addition
of little veneer which has not be-
come part of the real' being. but
which will rub off when subjected to
a little friction? This is about the
only hypothesis on which one can JUS
tify the statement that human nature
does not change.
Such a hypothesis. however, ignores
certain facts which have become pref
ty we'll established. 1t ignores the
fact, for instance. that up to a GER
tain point, the life history of any two
individuals, no matter how different
the races from which they spring, is
identical. There is the evolution from
complex stages. toward the form
which is finally to be assumed, and,
could the development of the eau
casian be arrested at the point where
the Patagonian stops, we would have,
to all intents and purposes, two Pata-
gonians. rather than individuals of
two distinct types. Instead of this,
however, the one continues to develop
until there are important structural
differences which make the indivi-
duals utterly unlike each other. The
difference between the skull forma-
ton of the higher and lower races is
not veneer. 1t Is the result Of an
evolutionary process which has caus-
ed the one to pass through the stage
where his neighbor stopped. And the
difference has become part of the
real being.
Human nature bas changed. 1t is
still changing. The qualities of mod
ern man, which have been produced
by the selective processes working on
heredity and environment. have be-
come part of man. He retains his In
stinct of self-preservation, and when
his existence is threatened, or when
he believes that 1t is. he will use in
his defense all the agencies at his
command, from the customs of his
higher culture to the primitive weap-
ons of tooth and claw. But, when
the danger has passed. all of the cuI-
ture which the individual has known
will again assert ITSELF and the chang
ed and changeable qualities of human
nature will be again in evidence.
In oP
tons now prevailing. the development
OF thousands, yes. of millions of years,
has not been merely superficial, nor
has the world slipped backward.