That is to say, that a man "is a creature of heredity and environment." He is what he is made by a certain kind of environment acting upon a certain kind of heredity.
He does not choose his ancestors: he does not choose his environment. How, then, can he be blamed if his ancestors give to him a bad heredity, or if his fellow-creatures give to him a bad environment?
Should we blame a bramble for yielding no strawberries, or a privet bush for bearing no chrysanthemums?
Should we blame a rose tree for running wild in a jungle, or for languishing in the shadow of great elms?
There are no figs on thistles, because the heredity of the thistle does not breed figs.
And the lily pines, and bears leaves only, in darkness and a hostile soil, because the conditions are against it.
The breed of the rose or the fig is its heredity: the soil and the sunshine, or the darkness and the cold, and the gardener's care or neglect, are its environment.
Let any one who under-rates the power of environment exercise his imagination for a minute.
Suppose he had never learnt to read! Suppose he had never learnt to talk! Suppose he had never learnt to speak the truth, to control his temper, to keep his word, to be courteous to women, to value life!
Now, he had nothing of this when he was born. He brought no knowledge of any kind into the world with him. He had to be taught to read, to speak, to be honest, to be courteous; and the teaching was part of his environment.