factors so far
discussed which determine individual differences are independent
of the particular conditions of life in which an individual
happens to be placed. An individual's race, sex, family
are beyond modification by anything that happens to him
after birth. Maturity, in so far as it is mere growth independent
of training, is also largely a fixed and unmodifiable
condition.

The original nature, determined by race, sex, and immediate
ancestry, with which a man starts life is subject to modification
by his social environment, by the ideas, customs, companions,
beliefs, by which he is surrounded, and with which
he comes continuously in contact. Commonly the influence
of environment is held to be very high. It is difficult, however,
accurately to distinguish between effects which are due
to original nature and effects which are due to environment.

Differences in training are important, but the results vary
with the natures trained. Precisely the same environment
will not have the same consequences for two different natures.
Two approximately same natures will show something like
the same effects in dissimilar environments. Human beings
are certainly differentiated by the customs, laws, ideals,
friends, and occupations to which they are exposed. But
what the net result will be in a specific case, depends on the
individual's equipment to start with, an equipment that is
fixed before the environment has had a chance to act at all.
The kindliness and indulgence that save some children
demoralize others. In some people a soft answer turneth away
wrath; in others it will kindle it. Andrew Carnegie starts as a
bobbin boy, and becomes a millionaire; but there were many
other bobbin boys. The sunset that stirs in one man a lyric,
leaves another cold. The same course in biology arouses in
one student a passion for a life of science; it leaves another
hoping never to see a microscope again. On the other hand,
the same types of original capacity thrown into different
environments will yet attain somewhat comparable results, in
the way of character and achievement. The biographies of
a few poets, painters, philosophers, and scientists chosen at
random, show the most diverse antecedents.[1]

[Footnote 1: Taking the social and professional status of a
distinguished man's father as some index of the social environment
to which he was subjected during his youth, we find some
interesting examples: The father of John Keats wa