Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-05-19
STRONGER Thar. Hered1ty

7 T IGHLY refreshing 1t is to hear Keen
II student in modern psychology re-
buking as "a feeble, childish whine"
the practice of laying the blame for all OF
lifes failures and muddles heredity.
1.-TWO things he writes in the London Daily
Express, will drive the forces of heredity
before them life chaff in the wind-a we'll
ordered education and a strictly disciplined
mind. Have the will to be other than you
are, if you are not satisfied with yourself.
Muster all the forces that lie within you,
(and, he might we'll have said, above you)
and fight. If you are naturally lazy, over
work yourself; if you are slipshod, train
yourself to thoroughness even though you
ache. Above all, do not plead inherited ten
denotes for your ineffectiveness; that is
cowardly."
This view, it scarcely need be said, does
not refer to the transmission of physical
traits and features, nor does it conflict with
the historically proved fact that when the
parents have eaten sour grapes the chill
dren's teeth will be on edge. 1--WE are all
omnibuses in which our ancestors ride" OBJ
served the genial Autocr8t of the Breakfast
Table, but it should be added that we our
selves hold the reins and are accountable
LOT the uilVlnS. ElS6WlSe, man is put a
mechanism, and this universal frame"
without a mind--in which case, o doughty
fatallst, you would not be seeking answers
and Venturlng explanations to life's riddle
nor buckllng your manhoOdS armor for any
Worth-WhlIe struggle; you would be merely
crouchlng like stump in your great dismal
swamp OF destiny. AS houses Of clay, we are
bound indeed, but minds and spirits we
are Tree to live and move in realms vastly
Wlder than the four stark walls of heredity
Nature herself suggests as much in her
endless diversity of form and color and
mood, her endless variation of species, from
the spineess fish of steamng primordial
beaches up to the brain Of Plato and the
glory of Jeanne DArc. She does not stupefy
with dull repetitions of tale that is told,
but stimulates with plots and scenes and
characters forever new, making no two
PLY has it been remarked that although
leaves, no two stars, no two lives alike. Hap
there be little difference between one man
and another, that little is very important
Likewise between generations the differences,
though imperceptible if observed only from,
say, 1890 to 1920, grow unmistakable If we
take range of three thousand years, which
itself spells but a word so in the chap
tiers of life's story that stretch behind us.
Change has made life what it is, has kept
life from hardening and dying into fatal
molds has smitten dark and formless deep
with light and purpose and freedom. More
and more effectual more and more impor-
tant does this wondrous power to change be-
come as life moves onward. Today the So
cial or collective mind attacks problems and
challenges wrongs which the wearied bodies
and shackled wills that built the pyramids
would accept mutely as the unchangable
sending of Fate. There is no i'll heritage
which human society, if given due time and
due intent, cannot throw off as already it
has thrown off slavery and the superstition
that once held it in awe of mortal kings.
What the group can do the individuals OF
whom group life is made and through whom
group change is wrought, can accomplish,
each in his own adventure, if he sail with
courage and faith. 1t is the wormling love
Of self-justification and self-indulgence that
bids us blame heredity and fate for our
failures None has said it so we'll as Shake
speare: when we are sick in fortune Gotten
the surfeit of our own behaviour) we make
guilty OF our disasters the sun, the moon,
the stars; as if we were Williams on neces-
sity, fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves,
thieves and PREACHERS by spherical predomi-
nance; drunkards, liars and adulterers by
an enforced obedience of planetary influ-
ence; and all that we are evil in, by divine
thrusting on"