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Few persons would deny that we bring into the world an

inheritance of mental and physical qualities derived first from

our parents, or through them from some remoter ancestor, secondly

from our race, thirdly from the general condition of mankind into

which we are born. Nothing is commoner than the remark, that 'So

and so is like his father or his uncle'; and an aged person may

not unfrequently note a resemblance in a youth to a

long-forgotten ancestor, observing that 'Nature sometimes skips a

generation.' It may be true also, that if we knew more about our

ancestors, these similarities would be even more striking to us.

Admitting the facts which are thus described in a popular way, we

may however remark that there is no method of difference by which

they can be defined or estimated, and that they constitute only a

small part of each individual.