If they would
keep their wealth when they have made it they must exclude luck
thenceforth to the utmost of their power and their children must
follow their example, or they will soon lose their money. The fact
that the weaker go to the wall does not bring about the greater
strength of the stronger; it is the consequence of this last and not
the cause--unless, indeed, it be contended that a knowledge that the
weak go to the wall stimulates the strong to exertions which they
would not otherwise so make, and that these exertions produce
inheritable modifications. Even in this case, however, it would be
the exertions, or use and disuse, that would be the main agents in
the modification. But it is not often that Mr. Wallace thus
backslides. His present position is that acquired (as distinguished
from congenital) modifications are not inherited at all. He does
not indeed put his faith prominently forward and pin himself to it
as plainly as could be wished, but under the heading "The Non-
Heredity of Acquired Characters," he writes as follows on p.
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