"Punk," responded Dick promptly. "Sometimes, if it's very sickening,
we call it pink punk."

"All right," interrupted Hardman impatiently. "Say what you like
about Hauptmann and Sudermann. They are no friends of mine. Be as
ferocious with them as you please. But you surely do not mean to
claim that the right kind of study and understanding of the classics
could have had any practical influence on the German character, or
any value in saving the German Empire from its horrible blunders."

"Precisely that is what I do mean."

"But how?"

"Through the mind, _animus_, the intelligent directing spirit
which guides human conduct in all who have passed beyond the stage
of mere barbarism."

"You exaggerate the part played by what you call the mind. Human
conduct is mainly a matter of heredity and environment. Most of it
is determined by instinct, impulse, and habit."

"Granted, for the sake of argument. But may there not be a mental
as well as a physical inheritance, an environment of thought as
well as of bodily circumstances?"

"Perhaps so. Yes, I suppose that is true to a certain extent."

"A poor phrase, my dear Hardman; but let it pass. Will you admit