192 THE PRINCIPLES OF SELF-MASTERY
generation. Our physical inheritance, therefore, is a heterogeneous col-
lection of many habits and physical forms.
There seems little if any doubt that while the six basic human fears
could not have been inherited through physical heredity (these six fears
being mental states of mind and therefore not capable of transmission
through physical heredity), it is obvious that through physical heredity a
most favorable lodging place for these six fears has been provided.
By far the most important part of a persons makeup comes through
the law of social heredity. This term refers to the methods by which
one generation imposes upon the minds of the generation under its
immediate control the superstitions, beliefs, legends, and ideas that it, in
turn, inherited from the generation preceding.
The term social heredity should be understood to mean any and all
sources through which a person acquires knowledge, such as schooling
of religious and all other natures, reading, word-of-mouth conversation,
storytelling, and all manner of thought inspiration coming from his or
her personal experiences.
Through the operation of the law of social heredity, anyone having
control of the mind of a child may, through intense teaching, plant in
that child's mind any idea, whether false or true, in such a manner that
the child accepts it as true and it becomes as much a part of the child's
personality as any cell or organ of its physical body (and just as hard to
change in its nature ).
It is through the law of social heredity that the religionist plants
in a child's mind dogmas, creeds, and religious ceremonies too numer-
ous to describe, holding those ideas before that mind until the mind
accepts them and forever seals them as a part of its irrevocable belie£
The mind of a child which has not come into the age of general
understanding, during an average period covering, let us say, the first
two years of its life, is plastic, open, clean, and free. Any idea planted
in such a mind by one in whom the child has confidence takes root
and develops in such a manner that it never can be eradicated or wiped