We need not have recourse to the doctrine of original sin in order to account for these.

So far I have said nothing about heredity, partly because its influence on the moral development of the individual is, I think, very small compared with that of environment, and partly because it is impossible to consider the extent and character of its influence, without going deeply into certain large and complicated problems.

For example, it would be impossible for me to say much about the current, though gradually waning, belief in the force of heredity, without saying something about its Far Eastern equivalent, the belief in re-incarnation,--in other words, without asking whether a man inherits from his parents and other ancestors, or from his former selves.

That different persona are born with widely different moral tendencies and propensities, is as certain as that some strains of wheat are hardier and more productive than others.

And it is possible, and even probable, that there are exceptional cases of moral evil which point to congenital depravity, and cannot otherwise be accounted for.