Here’s an interesting quote by William Walker Atkinson:
“The modern tendency is to overestimate the effects of heredity and environment in forming character; but, on the other hand, we must not underestimate them.
We may suppose a case to show the great power of environment. Had a band of thieves stolen Shakespeare at birth, carried him to Tartary, and left him among the nomads, his environment would never have allowed him to produce such plays as he placed upon the English stage.
Many persons are reluctant to admit the effect of heredity upon character. They seem to regard heredity as the idea of a monster ruling the individual with an iron hand, and with an emphasis upon undesirable traits of character.
Such people lose sight of the fact that at the best heredity merely supplies us with the raw material of character rather than the finished product, and that there is much good in this raw material. We receive our inheritance of good as well as bad. Deprive a man of the advantage of his heredity, and we place him back to the plane of the savage, or perhaps still lower in the scale. Heredity is simply the shoulders of the race affording us a place for our feet, in order that we may rise higher than those who lived before. For heredity, substitute evolution, and we may get a clearer idea of this element of character.
As for environment, it is folly to deny its influence.
Take two young persons of equal ability, similar tastes, and the game heredity, and place them one in a small village, and the other in a great metropolis, and keep them there until middle age, and we will see the influence of environment. The two may be equally happy and contented, and may possess the same degree of book education, but, never-theless, their experiences will have been so different that the character of the two individuals must be different. In the same way, place the two young persons, one in the Whitechapel district, and the other amidst the best surroundings and example, and see the result. Remember, that in environment is included the influence of other persons. The effect of environment arises from Suggestion, that great moulding and creative principle of the mind. It is true that, “As a man thinketh, so is he,” but a man’s thoughts depend materially upon the associations of environment, experience, and suggestion.
But, without going further into the question of the elements which go toward forming character, let us take our position firmly upon the fact that each individual is stamped with the impression of a special character — a character all his own. Each has his own character or part to play in the great drama of life.”
