It is erroneous to speak of "a struggle between a man and his environment," or of a man "rising above his environment". What we call "a man" is a product of heredity _and_ environment. The "man" is largely what environment has already made him. At the instant of birth a child may be regarded as wholly a product of heredity. But his first breath is environment. The first touch of the nurse's hands is environment. The first washing, the swaddling clothes, the "binder," and the first drop of mother's milk are parts of his environment. And from the first moment of his birth until the time of his manhood, he is being continually moulded and affected by environment. All his knowledge, all his beliefs, all his opinions are given to him by environment. And now, with this in our mind, we can see the absurdity of Mr. Campbell's talk about John Bunyan. Before his conversion Bunyan was already "a creature of heredity _and_ environment." The very conscience of the man, which his wife, and the godly man, and Cromwell's soldiers, and the preachings in the church he frequented, were to awaken, had been created _by_ environment. For a child is born without conscience: with only the rudiments of a conscience, to be developed or destroyed--by environment. Now let us reconsider the example of our swimmer and the stream. The swimmer is something more than a mere "heredity." He is a man, and he has learnt to swim. Therefore in his battle with the stream of environment he is using heredity _and_ environment For environment taught him to swim. Let us take another simile. A man is rowing a boat across a bay. The tide, the currents, and the wind may be regarded as environments. All these environments may be with him, or against him. Or the tide may be against him, and the wind in his favour, and the currents dangerous if not avoided. But "the man" is largely what environments have made him. His knowledge of rowing came from environment, his knowledge of the bay is environment, his knowledge of the run and position of the dangerous currents is environment, the boat and the oars belong to his environment. And with all the useful and favourable environments, _plus_ his hereditary qualities, he fights the adverse environments of the wind, and the tide, and the currents. Now, let us suppose the sea to be rough, and the tide and wind strong, and against the oarsman. And then let us imagine the cases of two men, one of whom was an expert sailor, in a good boat, well found, and one a landsman, who could not row, who did not know the bay, who did not understand wind and tide, who was ignorant of the currents, who had bad oars and a leaky boat. It is evident that the sailor would have a chance of getting safely across the bay, and that the landsman would be in grave peril of being capsized, or carried out to sea. And the difference between the sailor and the landsman would be entirely a difference of environment.