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When a sufficient number of us come to realize that we need no longer be the sport of blind forces, but that we now know enough to control our destiny, we may expect marvelous developments of all kinds-at least among the more intelligent and forward-looking peoples. "The proper study of mankind is Man!"
Description
That famous line, coined by a poet long ago, now takes on its full significance. For the 'first time in his history, Man begins really to know himself and to appreciate the solemn fact, that within him lies the power to make or mar his destiny. Science's greatest achievement has been its discovery of those laws of life on which, in the last analysis, all human activity depends. By these discoveries our ideas concerning human nature have been radically altered. Hitherto we have usually believed that human beings were born pretty much alike, and that, how they developed, depended mainly upon their surroundings, these surroundings being both natural, like soil and climate, and man-made, such as the laws, institutions, customs, and ideals prevailing in the various human groups. Believing such theories, men have for ages devoted their best efforts to changing conditions, without studying closely the sort of people, to whom these conditions were to be applied. How the discoveries of modern science have altered this traditional attitude! We now know that the basic factor in human affairs is not men's surroundings but the qualities of men themselves, and that these qualities are inborn, not grafted on by outward circumstances. In other words, a man's heredity is of more fundamental importance than his environment in determining his course in life, because environment can only bring out the qualities that he has inherited.
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