much and no more. Some machines reach the breaking point soon and some
later, but all have their limit. Most people have a heredity that is not
the best nor yet the worst. Given an imperfect machine, they are thrown
into a certain environment, and then up to the capacity of their
machines the outcome depends entirely on the environment. Given an
environment easy enough they will succeed, or at least "get by." Given a
hard environment they will fail, or "go down." Tens of thousands of men
live in a comparatively easy environment and pass their lives as useful
citizens with no taint of criminality to their names, who under a hard
environment would be found in prison. On the other hand, perhaps most of
the inmates of prisons would have lived as respected citizens if their
environment had not been so hard. Heredity has everything to do with
making the machine strong and capable, or weak and useless; but when the
machine is made and thrown on the world in its imperfect shape,
environment has everything to do in determining what its fate shall be.




V

ADJUSTING HEREDITY AND
ENVIRONMENT


Most people live a narrow existence. Perhaps the great majority of men
and women find their safety in this kind of a life. The adjustment of
heredity and environment is not an easy task to one who lives an
unsheltered life. The ordinary person, thrown on his own resources, is
poorly equipped for existence. His opinions on most matters are not