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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
of all the peculiarities of the individual's character, disposition and tendencies is disputed neither by the propounders of the thesis of heredity nor by the supporters of re-incarnation. There being a hopeful agreement between them on this important point, the issue to be determined may be framed as follows: whether the nucleus of the character residing in the germ-plasm is formed for the first time in the body of either parent, or does it possess any existence of its own.
But the first alternative is untenable, since character is inseparable from will and cannot possibly be described as the resultant, or product, of a process of compounding molecules or particles of matter. Furthermore, if the germ-plasm be the source of individuality, as it must be on the materialistic hypothesis, it would follow that character is the maker of man rather than man the maker of his character--which is by no means in harmony with the dictates of reason and commonsense. • We may now push this enquiry still further and transfer the store of tendencies, disposition, and the like, from the germ-plasm to some specific or central part within it; but tbe operation cannot result in greater satisfaction by any means, unless we accord to this part the power of having existed from all eternity, and, also, credit it with a will of its own to be the substratum of its mental equipment and choice. The only other way to get out of the difficulty is to say that this specific part, or the fundamental atom, as it has been called by certain writers, is manufactured in the parent's body, by a number of particles or electrons of matter becoming fused or blended together in a particular form; but that would not give
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