Why does a French peasant never speak English? Because he has never been
taught.
Why is an English labourer deficient in the manners of polite society?
Because he has never moved in polite society.
Why does not Jones the engineer write poetry? Why does not Smith of
the Stock Exchange paint pictures? Why does not Robinson the musical
composer invent a flying machine?
Because they have not the gifts nor the skill.
Why does Jarman play the violin so evilly? He has no ear, and has been
badly taught. Why does Dulcett play the violin so well? He has a good
ear, and has been taught properly.
Would proper teaching have made a Jarman a proper player? It would have
made him a less villainous player than he has become. But teach him
never so wisely, Jarman will not play as Dulcett plays. He has not _the
gift_.
Is it Jarman's fault that he has no gift? It is not. He did not make his
own ear. Whence did he derive that defect of ear? From some ancestor,
near or remote.
Is Dulcett's fine musical ear due to any merit of Dulcett's? No. He did
not make his own ear; he derived it from some ancestor, near or remote.
Here are four brothers Brown. John Brown is a drunkard. Thomas, William,
and Stephen Brown do not drink. Does John deserve censure, and do his
brothers deserve praise? Let us see.
Why is John a drunkard? His grandfather was a drunkard, and he was
sent as a boy to work in a shop where the men drank. Then how is it his
brothers do not drink? Thomas had the same hereditary inclination to
drink, and he derived it from the same source. But he worked in
an office where all the clerks were steady, and when on one or two
occasions he indulged in liquor, a wise friend warned him, and with a
hard struggle he escaped from the danger.
William, although the same blood runs in his veins, has escaped the
hereditary taint To use the colloquial parlance, "he does not take after
his grandfather." He never felt inclined to take liquor, and although he
worked with men who drank, he remained steady without an effort.
Stephen also was free from the hereditary taint. He mixed with men who
drank, and he gradually formed the habit, which gradually formed the
taste for drink. But he married a good woman just in time, and she saved
him. Thus: