CHAPTER FOURTEEN—SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED
THE upholders of the doctrine of free will commonly fall into the error of considering heredity and environment apart from each other.
Father Adderley, in a lecture given at Saltley, told his hearers that "all our great scientists agree that people have the power to overcome their hereditary tendencies." Perhaps: but they can only get that power from environment; and if the environment is bad they will not get that power.
But the most surprising example of this mental squinting is afforded by the Rev. C. A. Hall, who may be said to squint with both eyes. For, in a lecture given at Paisley, this gentleman first shows that we can overcome our heredity, and then shows that we can overcome our environment And yet it never occurred to him that to prove the freedom of the will we must be able to overcome our heredity and environment together.
Mr. Hall's argument may be stated thus: By the aid of environment we can overcome our heredity; by the aid of heredity, or of good environment we can overcome bad environment; therefore we are superior to heredity and environment.
It is like saying: by means of natural intelligence and a good teacher I can become a good scholar; by means of natural intelligence and a good teacher I can correct the errors of a bad teacher. Therefore I do not depend upon intelligence nor teaching for my knowledge.
But I have answered Messrs. Adderley and Hall in my chapter on self-control.
An example of a similar error is afforded by a clergyman who wrote to me from Warrington. He said:
You can never hope to improve the social environment until you persuade men that they can rise superior to their circumstances.