reedom with which we
may almost be said to be born into the world, and on the means by which we
may shake off these old chains, or at all events learn to carry them more
lightly and gracefully, that I wish to speak to you this evening.

You need not be afraid that I am going to enter upon the much discussed
subject of heredity, whether in its physiological or psychological
aspects. It is a favorite subject just now, and the most curious facts
have been brought together of late to illustrate the working of what is
called heredity. But the more we know of these facts, the less we seem
able to comprehend the underlying principle. Inheritance is one of those
numerous words which by their very simplicity and clearness are so apt to
darken our counsel. If a father has blue eyes and the son has blue eyes,
what can be clearer than that he inherited them? If the father stammers
and the son stammers, who can doubt but that it came by inheritance? If
the father is a musician and the son a musician, we say very glibly that
the talent was inherited. But what does _inherited_ mean? In no case does
it mean what _inherited_ usually means--something external, like money,
collected by a father, and, after his death, secured by law to his son.
Whatever else inherited may mean, it does not mean that. But unfortunately
the word is there, it seems almost pedantic to challenge its meaning, and
people are always grateful if an easy word saves them the trouble of hard
thought.

Another apparent advantage of the theory of heredity is that it never
fails. If the son has blue, and the father black, eyes, all is right
again, for either the mother, or the grandmother, or some historic or
prehistoric ancestor, may have had blue eyes, and atavism, we know, will
assert itself after hundreds and thousands of years.

Do not suppose that I deny the broad facts of what is called by the name
of heredity. What I deny is that the name of heredity offers any
scientific solution of a most difficult problem. It is a name, a metaphor,
quite as bad as the old metaphor of _innate ideas_; for there is hardly a
single point of similarity between the process by which a son may share
the black eyes, the stammering, or the musical talent of his father, and
that by which, after his father's death, the law secures to the son the
possession of the pounds, shillings, and pence which his father held in
the Funds.

But whatever the true meaning of heredity may be, certain