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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Parenthood and Race Culture - An Outline of Eugenics - -Author: Caleb Williams Saleeby - -Release Date: June 11, 2013 [EBook #42913] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE *** - - - - -Produced by Sean/AB, Sandra Eder and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE - - - - - BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR - - "WORRY: THE DISEASE OF THE AGE" - "EVOLUTION: THE MASTER KEY" - "HEALTH, STRENGTH, AND HAPPINESS" - Etc., Etc. - - - - - PARENTHOOD - - AND - - RACE CULTURE - - An Outline of Eugenics - - - BY - CALEB WILLIAMS SALEEBY - M.D., Ch.B., F.Z.S., F.R.S. Edin. - - FELLOW OF THE OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, MEMBER OF - COUNCIL OF THE EUGENICS EDUCATION SOCIETY, OF THE - SOCIOLOGICAL SOCIETY, AND OF THE NATIONAL LEAGUE - FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND IMPROVEMENT - MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION - AND OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE - STUDY OF INEBRIETY - ETC., ETC. - - - [Illustration: Logo] - - - CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD. - LONDON, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND MELBOURNE - 1909 - - - - - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - - - - - Dedicated - TO - FRANCIS GALTON - THE - AUGUST MASTER OF ALL EUGENISTS - - - - - PREFACE - - -This book, a first attempt to survey and define the whole field of -eugenics, appears in the year which finds us celebrating the centenary -of the birth of Charles Darwin and the jubilee of the publication -of _The Origin of Species_. It is a humble tribute to that immortal -name, for it is based upon the idea of _selection for parenthood_ -as determining the nature, fate and worth of living races, which is -Darwin's chief contribution to thought, and which finds in eugenics its -supreme application. The book is also a tribute to the august pioneer -who initiated the modern study of eugenics in the light of his cousin's -principle. A few years ago I all but persuaded Mr. Galton himself to -write a general introduction to eugenics, but he felt bound to withdraw -from that undertaking, and has given us instead his Memories, which we -could ill have spared. - -The present volume seeks to supply what is undoubtedly a real need -at the present day--a general introduction to eugenics which is at -least considered and responsible. I am indebted to more than one -pair of searching and illustrious eyes, which I may not name, for -reading the proofs of this volume. My best hopes for its utility are -based upon this fact. If there be any other reason for hope it is -that during the last six years I have not only written incessantly on -eugenics, but have spoken upon various aspects of it some hundreds -of times to audiences as various as one can well imagine--a mainly -clerical assembly at Lambeth Palace with the Primate in the Chair, -drawing-rooms of title, working-class audiences from the Clyde to -the Thames. It has been my rule to invite questions whenever it was -possible. Such a discipline is invaluable. It gives new ideas and -points of view, discovers the existing forms of prejudice, sharply -corrects the tendency to partial statement. It is my hope that these -many hours of cross-examination will be profitable to the present -reader. - -It has been sought to define the scope of eugenics, and my consistent -aim has been, if possible, to preserve its natural unity without -falling into the error, which I seem to see almost everywhere, of -excluding what is strictly eugenic. Our primary idea, beyond dispute, -is selection for parenthood based upon the facts of heredity. This, -however, is not an end, but a means. Some eugenists seem to forget -the distinction. Our end is a better race. If then, beyond selecting -for parenthood, it be desirable to take care of those selected--as, -for instance, to protect the expectant mother from alcohol, lead or -syphilis--that is strict eugenics on any definition worth a moment's -notice. It then appears, of course, that our demands come into contact -with those prejudices which political parties call their principles. -A given eugenic proposal or argument, for instance, may be stamped -as "Socialist" or as "Individualist," and people who have labelled -their eyes with these catchwords, which eugenics will ere long make -obsolete, proceed to judge eugenics by them. But the question is not -whether a given proposal is socialistic, individualistic or anything -else, but whether it is eugenic. If it is eugenic, that is final. To -this all parties will come, and by this all parties will be judged. -The question is not whether eugenics is, for instance, socialist, but -whether socialism is eugenic. I claim for eugenics that it is the final -and only judge of all proposals and principles, however labelled, new -or old, orthodox or heterodox. Some years ago I ventured to coin -the word eugenist, which is now the accepted term. With that label I -believe any man or woman may well be content. If this be granted, the -old catchwords and the bias they create forgotten, we may be prepared -to consider what the scope of eugenics really is. - -Eugenics is not, for instance, a sub-section of applied mathematics. -It is at once a science, and a religion, based upon the laws of life, -and recognising in them the foundation of society. We shall some day -have a eugenic sociology, to which the first part of this volume seeks -to contribute: and the sociology and politics which have not yet -discovered that man is mortal will go to their own place. - -Only when we begin to think and work continuously at eugenics is its -range revealed. The present volume is a mere introduction to the -principles of the subject: the full elucidation of its practice is a -problem for generations to come. Nor is it easy to set logical limits -to our inquiry. We may say that eugenics deals with conceptions: and -that the care of the expectant mother is outside its scope: but of what -use is it to have a eugenic conception if its product is thereafter -to be ruined by, for instance, the introduction of lead into the -mother's organism? Again, the care of the individual is, in part, a -eugenic concern: for if we desire his offspring we desire that he shall -not contract transmissible disease nor vitiate his tissues with such -a racial poison as alcohol. Plainly, everything that affects every -possible parent is a matter of eugenic concern: and not only those -factors which affect the choice for parenthood. - -It follows that the second portion of this volume, which deals with the -practice of eugenics, cannot be more than merely indicative. In the -available space it has been attempted to define certain constituents -of practical eugenics, but in any case the entire ground has not been -surveyed. The concept of the _racial poisons_ may be commended to -special consideration. Whether a poison be so-called "chemical," as -lead, or made by a living organism, as the poison of syphilis, is of -great practical importance, because of the infection involved in the -second case: but, in principle, both cases belong to the same category. -Sooner or later, eugenists must face the transmissible infections, -and repudiate as hideous and devilish the so-called morality which -discountenances any attempt to save unborn innocence from a nameless -fate. He or she who would rather leave this matter is placing -"religion" or "morality" or "politics" above the welfare of the life -to come, and therein continuing the daily prostitution of those great -names. - -Again, the practice of eugenics may be commended and accepted as the -business of the patriot: and two chapters have been devoted to the -question as seen from the national point of view. I am of nothing -more certain than that the choice for Great Britain to-day is between -national eugenics and the fate of all her Imperial predecessors from -Babylon to Spain. The whole book might have been written from this -standpoint, but such a book would have been beneath the true eugenic -plane, which is not national but human. I believe in the patriotism of -William Watson, who desires the continuance of his country because, as -he addresses her, - - "O England, should'st thou one day fall, - . . . . . . . - Justice were thenceforth weaker throughout all - The world, and truth less passionately free, - And God the poorer for thine overthrow." - -This is a patriotism as splendid and vital as the patriotism of the -music-halls and of the political and journalistic makers of wars is -foul and fatal: and it is only in terms of such patriotism that the -appeal to love of country is permissible in the advocacy of eugenics, -which is a concern for all mankind. - -The prophet of that kind of Imperialism which has destroyed so many -Empires, has lately approved the emigration of our best to the -Colonies, on the ground that "it is good to give the second eleven -a chance." But as students of history know, it is at the heart that -Empires rot. The case of Ireland is at present an insoluble one -because the emigration of the worthiest has had full sway. So with the -agricultural intellect: the "first eleven" having gone to the towns. -Rome sent her "first eleven" to her Colonies: if you were not good -enough to be a Roman soldier you could at least remain and be a Roman -father: and the children of such fathers perished in the downfall of -the Empire which they could no longer sustain. I can imagine no more -foolish or disastrous advice than this of Mr. Kipling's, in commending -that transportation of the worthiest which, thoroughly enough persisted -in, must inevitably mean our ruin. - -The national aspect of eugenics suggests its international aspect, and -its inter-racial aspect. Not having spent six weeks rushing through -the United States, I am unfortunately dubious as to the worth of any -opinions I may possess regarding the most urgent form of this question -to-day. I mistrust not merely the brilliant students who, unhampered -by biological knowledge, pierce to the bottom of this question in -the course of such a tour, but also the humanitarian bias of those -who, like M. Finot, or the distinguished American sociologist, Mr. -Graham Brooks, would almost have us believe that the negro is mentally -and morally the equal of the Caucasian. Least of all does one trust -the vulgar opinions of the man in the street. Wisdom on this matter -waits for the advent of real knowledge. Similarly in the matter of -Caucasian-Mongolian unions. I question whether any living man knows -enough to warrant the expression of any decided opinion on this -subject. Merely I here recognise miscegenation in general as a problem -in eugenics, to which increasing attention must yearly be devoted. -But it would have been ridiculous to attempt to deal with that great -subject here. As for the marriage of cousins, to take the opposite -case, I always reply to the question, "Should cousins marry?" that it -depends upon the cousins. The good qualities of a good stock, the bad -qualities of a bad stock, are naturally accentuated by such unions: I -doubt whether there is much more to be said about them. - - * * * * * - -In the following general study of a subject to which no human affair -is wholly alien, it has been impossible to deal adequately with the -great question of eugenic education--that is to say, education _as for -parenthood_. If only to emphasise its overwhelming importance, one -must here insist upon the argument. There is, I believe, no greater -need for society to-day than to recognise that education must include, -_must culminate in_, preparation for the supreme duty of parenthood. -This involves instruction regarding those bodily functions which exist -not for the body nor for the present at all, but for the future life -of mankind. The exercise of these functions depends upon an instinct -which I have for some time been in the habit of terming the _racial -instinct_--a name which at once suggests to us that we are to represent -this instinct, to the boy or girl at puberty, not as something the -satisfaction of which is an end in itself--that is the false and -degrading assertion which will be made by the teachers whom youth will -certainly find, if we fail in our duty--but as existing for what is -immeasurably higher than any selfish end. Youth must be taught that -it is for man the self-conscious, "made with such large discourse, -looking before and after," as Hamlet says, to deal with his instincts -in terms of their purpose, as no creature but man can do. The boy and -girl must learn that the racial instinct exists for the highest of -ends--the continuance and ultimate elevation of the life of mankind. -It is a sacred trust for the life of this world to come. We must teach -our boys what it is to be really "manly"--the fine word used by the -tempter of youth when he means "beast-ly." To be manly is to be master -of this instinct. And the "higher education" of our girls, as we must -teach ourselves, will be lower, not higher, if it does not serve and -conserve the future mother, both by teaching her how to care for and -guard her body, which is the temple of life to come, and how afterwards -to be a right educator of her children. The leading idea upon which one -would insist is that the key to any of the right and useful methods -of eugenic education is to be found in the conception of the racial -instinct as existing for parenthood, and to be guarded, reverenced, -educated for that supreme end. It is for the reader who may be -responsible for youth of either sex with this key to solve the problem -on the lines best suited to his or her particular case. - -By the application of mathematical methods to statistics we can -ascertain their real meaning, if they have any. If, as frequently -happens, they have none, mathematical analysis is worse than useless. -Mr. Galton is the pioneer of this study, which Professor Karl Pearson -has named biometrics. Biometrics is not eugenics, as some have -supposed, but is a branch of scientific enquiry which, like genetics, -obstetrics and many more, contributes to the foundations of eugenics. -In the Appendix reference is made to various publications, mostly -inexpensive, which deal with biometrics. In the text I have availed -myself of biometric, genetic and other results impartially. Differences -of opinion between this school and that of scientific workers are to -be regretted by the eugenist; but it is for him to accept and use -knowledge of eugenic significance no matter by what method it has been -obtained. Directly he fails to do so he ceases to be a eugenist and -becomes the ordinary partisan. No reference is made in the following -pages, for instance, to the _law of ancestral inheritance_, formulated -by the Master to whom the volume is dedicated and of whom all eugenists -are the followers. I believe that law, despite its beauty, to be -without basis in fact and incompatible with demonstrated Mendelian -phenomena: and though the book is dedicated to Mr. Galton, it is more -deeply dedicated to the Future. This, indeed, is the _Credo_ of the -eugenist: _Expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi saeculi._ - - * * * * * - -Woman is Nature's supreme instrument of the future. The eugenist is -therefore deeply concerned with her education, her psychology, the -conditions which permit her to exercise her great natural function -of choosing the fathers of the future, the age at which she should -marry, and the compatibility between the discharge of her incomparable -function of motherhood and the lesser functions which some women now -assume. Obstetrics, and the modern physiology and psychology of sex, -must thus be harnessed to the service of eugenics, and I hope to employ -them for the elucidation, in a future volume, of the problems of woman -and womanhood, thus regarded. - - - - - CONTENTS - - - PART I - - THE THEORY OF EUGENICS - - CHAPTER PAGE - 1. Introductory 1 - 2. The Exchequer of Life 17 - 3. Natural Selection and the Law of Love 35 - 4. The Selection of Mind 52 - 5. The Multiplication of Man 71 - 6. The Growth of Individuality 86 - 7. Heredity and Race-Culture 99 - 8. Education and Race-Culture 120 - 9. The Supremacy of Motherhood 145 - 10. Marriage and Maternalism 160 - - - PART II - - THE PRACTICE OF EUGENICS - - 11. Negative Eugenics 171 - 12. Selection through Marriage 184 - 13. The Racial Poisons: Alcohol 205 - 14. The Racial Poisons: Lead, Narcotics, Syphilis 246 - 15. National Eugenics: Race-Culture and History 254 - 16. National Eugenics: Mr. Balfour on Decadence 279 - 17. The Promise of Race-Culture 287 - - APPENDIX Concerning Books to Read 305 - - INDEX 321 - - - - - PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE - - - - - PART I.--THE THEORY OF EUGENICS - - - - - CHAPTER I - - INTRODUCTORY - - "A little child shall lead them" - - -This book will be mere foolishness to those who repeat the inhuman and -animal cry that we have to take the world as we find it--the motto of -the impotent, the forgotten, the cowardly and selfish, or the merely -vegetable, in all ages. The capital fact of man, as distinguished -from the lower animals and from plants, is that he does not have to -take the world as he finds it, that he does not merely adapt himself -to his environment, but that he himself is a creator of his world. If -our ancestors had taken and left the world as they found it, we should -be little more than erected monkeys to-day. For none who accept the -hopeless dogma is this book written. They are welcome to take and leave -the world as they find it; they are of no consequence to the world; and -their existence is of interest only in so far as it is another instance -of that amazing wastefulness of Nature in her generations, with which -this book will be so largely concerned. - -Beginning, perhaps, some six million years ago, the fact which we call -human life has persisted hitherto, and shows no signs of exhaustion, -much less impending extinction, being indeed more abundant numerically -and more dominant over other forms of life and over the inanimate -world to-day than ever before. It is a continuous phenomenon. The -life of every blood corpuscle or skin cell of every human being now -alive is absolutely continuous with that of the living cells of the -first human beings--if not, indeed, as most biologists appear to -believe, of the first life upon the earth. Yet this continuous life -has been and apparently always must be lived in a tissue of amazing -discontinuity--amazing, at least, to those who can see the wonderful in -the commonplace. For though the world-phenomenon which we call Man has -been so long continuous, and is at this moment perhaps as much modified -by the total past as if it were really a single undying individual, -yet only a few decades ago, a mere second in the history of the earth, -no human being now alive was in existence. "As for man, his days are -as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind -passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it -no more." Indeed, not merely are we individually as grass, but in a -few years the hand that writes these words, and the tissues of eye -and brain whereby they are perceived, will actually _be_ grass. Here, -then, is the colossal paradox: absolute and literal continuity of life, -every cell from a preceding cell throughout the ages--_omnis cellula e -cellula_; yet three times in every century the living and only wealth -of nations is reduced to dust, and is raised up again from helpless -infancy. Where else is such catastrophic continuity? - -Each individual enters the world in a fashion the dramatic and -sensational character of which can be realised by none who have not -witnessed it; and in a few years the individual dies, scarcely less -dramatically as a rule, and sometimes more so. This continuous and -apparently invincible thing, human life, which began so humbly and to -the sound of no trumpets, in Southern Asia or the neighbourhood of the -Caspian Sea, but which has never looked back since its birth, and -is now the dominant fact of what might well be an astonished earth, -depends in every age and from moment to moment upon here a baby, there -a baby and there yet another; these curious little objects being of all -living things, animal or vegetable, young or old, large or small, the -most utterly helpless and incompetent, incapable even of finding for -themselves the breasts that were made for them. If but one of all the -"hungry generations" that have preceded us had failed to secure the -care and love of its predecessor, the curtain would have come down and -a not unpromising though hitherto sufficiently grotesque drama would -have been ended for ever. - -This discontinuity it is which persuades many of us to conceive -human life to be not so much a mighty maze without a plan, as a mere -stringing of beads on an endless cord of which one end arose in Mother -Earth, whilst the other may come at any time--but goes nowhere. The -beads, which we call generations, vary in size and colour, no doubt, -but on no system; each one makes a fresh start; the average difference -between them is merely one of position; and the result is merely to -make the string longer. Or the generations might be conceived as the -links of an indeterminate chain, necessarily held to each other: -but suggesting not at all the idea of a living process such that -its every step is fraught with eternal consequence. In a word, we -incline to think that History merely goes on repeating itself, and we -have to learn that History never repeats itself. Every generation is -epoch-making. - -It is thus to the conception of parenthood as the vital and organic -link of life that we are forced: and the whole of this book is -really concerned with parenthood. We shall see, in due course, that -no generation, whether of men or animals or plants, determines or -provides, as a whole, the future of the race. Only a percentage, as -a rule a very small percentage indeed, of any species reach maturity, -and fewer still become parents. Amongst ourselves, one-tenth of any -generation gives birth to one-half the next. These it is who, in the -long run, make History: a Kant or a Spencer, dying childless, may -leave what we call immortal works; but unless the parents of each new -generation are rightly chosen or "selected"--to use the technical -word--a new generation may at any time arise to whom the greatest -achievements of the past are nothing. The newcomers will be as swine -to these pearls, the immortality of which is always conditional upon -the capacity of those who come after to appreciate them. There is -here expressed the distinction between two kinds of progress: the -traditional progress which is dependent upon transmitted achievement, -but in its turn is dependent upon racial progress--this last being the -kind of progress of which the history of pre-human life upon the planet -is so largely the record and of which mankind is the finest fruit -hitherto. - - * * * * * - -It is possible that a concrete case, common enough, and thus the more -significant, may appeal to the reader, and help us to realise afresh -the conditions under which human life actually persists. - -Forced inside a motor-omnibus one evening, for lack of room outside, -I found myself opposite a woman, poorly-clothed, with a wedding-ring -upon her finger and a baby in her arms. The child was covered with a -black shawl and its face could not be seen. It was evidently asleep. -It should have been in its cot at that hour. The mother's face roused -feelings which a sonnet of Wordsworth's might have expressed, or a -painting by some artist with a soul, a Rembrandt or a Watts, such as -we may look for in vain amongst the be-lettered to-day. Here was the -spectacle of mother and child, which all the great historic religions, -from Buddhism to Christianity, have rightly worshipped; the spectacle -which more nearly symbolises the sublime than any other upon which the -eye of a man, himself once such a child, can rest; the spectacle which -alone epitomises the life of mankind and the unalterable conditions of -all human life and all human societies, reminding us at once of our -individual mortality, and the immortality of our race-- - - "While we, the brave, the mighty and the wise, - We Men, who in our morn of youth defied - The Elements, must vanish;--be it so! - Enough, if something from our hands have power - To live, and act, and serve the future hour:" - ---the spectacle which alone, if any can, may reconcile us to death; -the spectacle of that which alone can sanctify the love of the sexes; -the spectacle of motherhood in being, the supreme duty and supreme -privilege of womanhood--"a mother is a mother still, the holiest thing -alive." - -This woman, utterly unconscious of the dignity of her attitude and of -the contrast between herself and the imitation of a woman, elegantly -clothed, who sat next her, giving her not a thought nor a glance, nor -yet room for the elbow bent in its divine office, was probably some -thirty-two or three years old, as time is measured by the revolutions -of the earth around the sun. Measured by some more relevant gauge, -she was evidently aged, her face grey and drawn, desperately tired, -yet placid--not with due exultation but with the calm of one who has -no hope. She was too weary to draw the child to her bosom, and her -arms lay upon her knees; but instead she bent her body downwards to -her baby. She looked straight out in front of her, not at me nor at -the passing phantasms beyond, but at nothing. The eyes were open but -they were too tired to see. The face had no beauty of feature nor of -colour nor of intelligence, but it was wholly beautiful, made so by -motherhood; and I think she must have held some faith. The tint of her -skin and of her eyeballs spoke of the impoverishment of her blood, her -need of sleep and rest and ease of mind. She will probably be killed -by consumption within five years and will certainly never hold a -grand-child in her arms. The pathologist may lay this crime at the door -of the tubercle bacillus; but a prophet would lay it at the reader's -door and mine. - -While we read and write, play at politics or ping-pong, this woman -and myriads like her are doing the essential work of the world. _The -worm waits for us as well as for her and them: and in a few years her -children and theirs will be Mankind._ We need a prophet to cry aloud -and spare not; to tell us that if this is the fate of mothers in the -ranks which supply the overwhelming proportion of our children, our -nation may number Shakespeare and Newton amongst the glories of its -past, and the lands of ancient empires amongst its present possessions, -but it can have no future; that if, worshipping what it is pleased to -call success, it has no tears nor even eyes for such failures as these, -it may walk in the ways of its insensible heart and in the sight of -its blind eyes, yet it is walking not in its sleep but in its death, -is already doomed and damned almost past recall; and that, if it is to -be saved, there will avail not "broadening the basis of taxation," nor -teaching in churches the worship of the Holy Mother and Holy Child, -whilst Motherhood is blasphemed at their very doors, but this and this -only--the establishment, not in statutes but in the consciences of men -and women, of a true religion based upon these perdurable and evident -dogmas--that all human life is holy, all mothers and all children, -that history is made in the nursery, that the individual dies, that -therefore children determine the destinies of all civilisations, that -the race or society which succeeds with its mammoth ships and its -manufactures but fails to produce men and women, is on the brink of -irretrievable doom; that the body of man is an animal, endowed with -the inherited animal instincts necessary for self-preservation and the -perpetuation of the race, but that, if the possession of this body by a -conscious spirit, "looking before and after," is anything more than a -"sport" of the evolutionary forces, it demands that, the blind animal -instincts notwithstanding, the desecration of motherhood, the perennial -slaughter and injury of children, the casual unconsidered birth of -children for whom there is no room or light or air or food, and of -children whose inheritance condemns them to misery, insanity or crime, -must cease; and that the recurrent drama of human love and struggle -reaches its happy ending not when the protagonists are married, but -when they join hands over a little child that promises to be a worthy -heir of all the ages. This religion must teach that the spectacle of a -prematurely aged and weary and hopeless mother, which he who runs or -rides may see, produced by our rude foreshadowings of civilisation, is -an affront to all honest and thoughtful eyes: that where there are no -mothers, such as mothers should be, the people will assuredly perish, -though everything they touch should turn to gold, though science and -art and philosophy should flourish as never before. I believe that -history, rightly read, teaches these tremendous lessons. - - * * * * * - -In our own day the bounds of imagination are undoubtedly widening. -Means of communication, the press, the camera, the decadence of -obsolete dogmas, making room for the simple daily truths of morality -which have "the dignity of dateless age" and are too hard for the teeth -of time--these account in large measure for the fact that the happier -half of the world is at last beginning to realise how the other half -lives. There is perhaps more divine discontent with things as they are -than ever heretofore: this being due, as has been suggested, perhaps -as much to the modern aids of imagination as to any inherent increase -of sympathy. Science, too, in the form of sociology and economics, -adds warrant to the demand for some radical reform of the conditions -of life. It teaches that all forms of life are interdependent; that -society is thus an organism in more than merely loose analogy; that -the classes pay abundantly for the state of the masses: whilst -medicine teaches that the tuberculosis, for instance, which slays -so many members of the middle and upper classes, is bred by and in -the overcrowding of the lower classes, this and many other diseases -promising to resist all measures less radical than the abolition of -half our current social practice. - -Hence it is that we hear so much of social reform; and the promises of -representatives of many political -isms jostle one another at the gates -of our ears. The Anarchist at one extreme, and the Collectivist at the -other, with the Individualist and the Socialist somewhere between, -offer their panaceas. To me, I confess, they seem little better than -the scholastic metaphysicians of old days, like them mistaking words -for things, incapable of understanding each other, evading precise -definition and using terms which never mean the same thing twice as -missiles and weapons of abuse: and, above all, mistaking means for ends. - -But the leading error common to them all, as I seem to see it, is their -conception of society as a stable thing--a piece of machinery which -must be properly "assembled," as the engineers say; forgetful of the -extraordinary discontinuity which inheres in the swift-approaching -death of all its parts, and their replacement by helpless immaturity. -The first fact of society really is that all its individuals are -mortal. This we all know, but I question whether even Herbert Spencer -fully reckoned with it; and certainly the common run of social -speculators have not begun to realise what it means. Human life is -made up of generations, and the key to all progress lies in the nature -of the relation between one generation and another. Spencer records -the case of an Oxford graduate, desirous to be his secretary, who did -not know that the population of Great Britain is increasing. Here is -a capital present fact of the--merely quantitative--relation between -successive generations. So far as any influence on their theory or -practice is concerned, it is still unknown to nearly all our advisers. -Yet this fact of the ceaseless multiplication of man, which has -distinguished him from the first, and is absolutely peculiar to him of -all living species, animal or vegetable, as Sir E. Ray Lankester has -lately pointed out, is the source of the major facts of history and the -besetting condition of every social problem that can be named at this -hour. - -The professional and dedicated teachers of morality seem to be in -little better case. They believe in babies, perhaps, as the prime -and only really valid source of the weal and wealth and strength of -nations, and as the great moralisers and humanisers of the generation -that gives them birth. They are beginning to join in that public outcry -against infant mortality which will yet abolish this abominable stain -upon our time. But they are lamentably uninformed. They do not know, -for instance, that a high infant mortality habitually goes with a high -birth-rate, not only in human society but in all living species; and -they have yet to appreciate the proposition which I have so often -advanced and which, to me at any rate, seems absolutely self-evident, -that until we have learnt how to keep alive all the healthy babies -now born--that is to say, not less than ninety per cent. of all, the -babies in the slums included--it is monstrous to cry for more, _to -be similarly slain_. These bewailings about our mercifully falling -birth-rate, uncoupled with any attention to the slaughter of the -children actually born, are pitiable in their blindness and would be -lamentable if they had any effect--of which there is fortunately no -sign whatever, but indeed the contrary. - -Humanitarian sentiment, also, is terribly misguided. "Why always the -benefit of the future, has the present no claim upon us?" I have been -asked. Assuredly all sentient life, and therefore pre-eminently all -human life, in which sentiency is so incommensurably intensified by -self-consciousness, the power of "looking before and after," has a -claim upon us: but the question could have been asked by no one whose -imagination had been worthily employed. Our posterity will in due -course be as actual and present as we, their deeds and sufferings and -hopes as actual and present as ours. They outnumber us as the ocean -outweighs a raindrop; to avert evil from one of them is as much as to -relieve evil in one of us,--how much more to prevent the misery of five -in the next generation, fifty in the next and unnumbered hosts beyond? -To serve the future of the race is not to benefit a fiction: the men -and women of a hundred and a thousand years hence will be as real -as we. And to serve the future is to put out our talent at compound -interest a thousand-fold compounded. The weak imagination would rather -build a sanatorium for consumptives and see it filled with grateful -patients. This is a palpable, sensible good, for which the meanest -visual faculty suffices: but the strong imagination would rather open -the closed windows of nurseries or work at the mechanical problems -of ventilation, aye, or even at the structure of the bacteriological -microscope--finding the spectacle, in the mind's eye, of healthy men -and women fifty years hence as grateful and as real a reward as the -sight of a sanatorium in the present. The pace of progress will be -incalculably hastened when men, whether workers or bequeathers or -administrators, enlarge their imaginations so as to perceive that the -future will be, and therefore indeed is, as real as the present.[1] I -appeal to the reason of the kind-hearted reader. Would you rather make -one man or child happy now, or two or a thousand a century hence? - -It is, in a word, the idea of continuous causation or evolution that -explains the remarkable contrast between our outlook on the future and -our fathers'. In older--that is to say, younger--days, men's interest -in posterity was most naïvely and quaintly selfish. If they raised a -monument or did any piece of work which obviously would endure beyond -the span of their own lives, their chief motive seems to have been -that we should think well of them, nor forget how well they thought -of themselves. They were not concerned with us, but with our opinion -of them. They were anxious about the verdict of posterity; and the -verdict is that they little realised their responsibility for us, -or betrayed it if they did. There is also the frank attitude of Sir -Boyle Roche's famous bull, "What has posterity done for us?" This is -a quite familiar and conspicuous sentiment--as familiar as any other -form of selfishness: but it is as if a father should say, "What have -my children done for me?" and is open to the same condemnation. We -are assuredly responsible for posterity as any parent for any child. -Before the nineteenth century this fact could be realised by very few. -To-day, when the truth of organic evolution is a commonplace, and when -the plasticity of the forces of evolution is slowly becoming realised, -we must face our tremendous responsibility and privilege in a spirit -worthy of those to whom such mighty truths have been revealed. - -Parenthood and birth--in these the whole is summed. At the mercy of -these are all past discovery, all past achievement in art or science, -in action or in thought. The human species, secure though it be, is -only a race after all; only a sequence of runners who _quasi cursores, -vitaï lampada tradunt_--like runners, hand on the lamp of life, as -Lucretius said. This it is which, to the thoughtful observer, makes -each birth such an overwhelming event. It is a great event for the -mother and the father, but how much greater if its consequences be -only half realised. Education in its full sense, "the provision of an -environment," as I would define it, is a mighty and necessary force, -for nothing but potentiality is given at birth: but no education, no -influence of traditional progress, can avail, unless the potentialities -which these must unfold are worthy. The baby comes tumbling headlong -into the world. The fate of all the to-morrows depends upon it. -Hitherto its happening has depended upon factors animal and casual -enough, utterly improvident, concerned but rarely with this tremendous -consequence. Fate may be mistress, but she works only too often by -Chance, as Goethe remarked. Fate and Chance hitherto have never -failed to keep up the supply which the death of the individual makes -imperative: and forces have been at work determining for progress, -to some extent, but most imperfectly, the parentage of these headlong -babies. Yet the human intelligence cannot remain satisfied with their -working--and much less so when it realises how they can be controlled, -how effectively, and to what high ends. The physician may and must -concern himself, on these occasions, with the immediate needs of the -mother and the child, and when these are satisfied he may feel that -his duty has been done; but, as he journeys homewards, he must surely -reflect--that this astonishing thing, then, has happened again, as -indeed it has happened many times this very day; that whilst this baby -is to become an individual man or woman, an end in himself or herself, -in its young loins and in those of its like are the hosts of all the -unborn who are yet to be. If, then, these babies differ widely from -each other, as they do; if these differences are, on the whole, capable -of prediction in terms of heredity; if the future state of mankind is -involved in these differences, which will in their turn be transmitted -to the children of such as themselves become parents; and if this -business of parenthood will be confined to only a _small_ proportion -of these babies, _of whom one-half will never reach puberty_; if -these things be so, as they are, cannot these babies be chosen in -anticipation, there being thus effected an enormous vital economy, -Nature being commanded to the highest ends by the only method, which -is to obey her, as Bacon said; and the human intelligence thus making -its supreme achievement--the ethical direction and vast acceleration of -racial progress? What man can do for animals and plants, can he not do -for himself? Give imagination its fleetest and strongest wing, it can -never conceive a task so worth the doing. - -This, and this alone, is what requires to be brought home to the -general reader and the reformer alike. Says Mr. H. G. Wells: "It seemed -to me then that to prevent the multiplication of people below a certain -standard, and to encourage the multiplication of exceptionally superior -people, was the only real and permanent way of mending the ills of the -world. I think that still." And then, in a few sketchy pages, Mr. Wells -discredits, as with one glance of great eyes, the very proposal which -he thinks to be the only real and permanent way of mending the ills -of the world. Not one man in thousands has got so far as to hold this -opinion; and it is the more lamentable that Mr. Wells, having reached -it, should hold it in the loose, formal, and inoperative fashion in -which the man in the street or the woman in the pew holds the dogmas of -orthodox theology. We need to educate public opinion--that "chaos of -prejudices"--up to Mr. Wells' standard, and then we need to accomplish -the much harder task of converting a mere intellectual speculation into -a living belief. - -But so surely as this belief, the crowning and practical conclusion -to which all the teachings of modern biology converge, comes to life -in men's minds, so surely the difficulties will be met, not only on -paper but also in practice. "Where there's a will there's a way." -Meanwhile men are content to work at the impermanent, if not indeed -at measures which directly war against the selection of the best for -parenthood: they do not realise the stern necessity of obeying Nature -in this respect--for it is Her selection of parents that alone has -raised us from the beast and the worm--and since necessity alone, -whether inner or outer, whether of character or circumstance, is the -mother of invention, they fail to find the methods by which our ideal -can be carried out. There is nothing, either in the character of -the individual man and woman, or in the structure of society, that -makes the ideal of race-culture impossible to-day: nor must action -wait for further knowledge of heredity. Little though we surely know -so far, we have abundance of assured knowledge for immediate action -in many directions--knowledge which is agreed upon by Lamarckians -and neo-Lamarckians, Darwinians and Weismannians, Mendelians and -biometricians alike. All of these agree, for instance, as to the -fact that the insane tendency is transmissible and is transmitted by -heredity. We need only public opinion to say, "Then most surely those -who have such a tendency must forgo parenthood." - -For it is public opinion that governs the world. If it were, as it will -be one day--which may these pages hasten--an elementary and radical -truth, as familiar and as cogent to all, man in the House or man in -the public-house, as the fact of the earth's gravitation--that racial -maintenance, much more racial progress, depends absolutely upon the -selection of parents; if the establishment of this selective process in -the best and widest manner were the admitted goal of all legislation -and all social and political speculation--who can question that the -thing would be practicable and indeed easy? Without the formation of -public opinion this is as hopelessly Utopian and inaccessible an ideal -as words ever framed; public opinion once formed, nothing could be more -palpably feasible. Hence Mr. Galton's wisdom in demanding that, before -we dictate courses of procedure, and even before we can expect profit -from scientific investigation, whether by the biometric method of which -he is the founder, or by any other, _public opinion must be formed_; -that the idea of eugenics or good-breeding must be instilled into the -conscience of civilisation like a new religion--a religion of the most -lofty and austere, because the most unselfish, morality, a religion -which sets before it a sublime ideal, terrestrial indeed in its chosen -theatre, but celestial in its theme, human in its means, but literally -superhuman in its goal. If the intrinsic ennoblement of mankind does -not answer to this eulogy, where is the ideal that does? - - - - - CHAPTER II - - THE EXCHEQUER OF LIFE - - "This last lustrum has enabled us to make an astounding discovery, - of which neither Adam Smith nor Cobden nor Malthus dreamed--that - a nation is composed not of property nor of provinces, but of - men."--Tille (1904), quoted by Forel. - - -The main thesis which the last chapter was intended to introduce is, in -the words of Ruskin, simply this: "There is no wealth but life." The -assumption throughout this book is that Ruskin is the real founder of -political economy, he first of moderns having seen this supreme truth. - -We speak of a nation's possessions, but possessions imply a possessor -or possessors. Wealth, as Ruskin teaches us, is "the possession of the -valuable by the valiant." If our national possessions were made over -to a race of monkeys, "they being inherently and eternally incapable -of wealth," what would they be worth? Furthermore, to possess and to -be possessed by, are totally diverse things. Says Ruskin, "Lately in -a wreck of a Californian ship, one of the passengers fastened a belt -about him with two hundred pounds of gold in it, with which he was -found afterwards at the bottom. Now, as he was sinking--had he the gold -or had the gold him?" - -=Vital economics.=--We have already alluded to the unique property -of mankind in virtue of which the radical character of the essential -wealth, which is life, has only too commonly been forgotten. In the -case of any animal or vegetable species we should have no difficulty, -if asked regarding its "success" and "prospects," in directing our -enquiry to essentials. We should examine the individuals of that -species, young and old, its death-rate and its birth-rate, and these -would supply us with the answer. In the case of man there is the almost -incalculable complication involved in the fact that he is capable of -making external acquirements,--material possessions and spiritual -possessions which, so long as he remains capable of possessing them, -are of real value, and, on account of what they mean for life, are a -true though secondary wealth. Amongst civilised mankind, therefore, the -essential question as to the breed of men and women is obscured by the -secondary question as to their traditional or transmitted possessions -or external acquirements. But if we remember the case of the drowning -man and his gold we shall realise that, fundamentally, the case is the -same for the human as for any other species. No one can openly question -this, but not one publicist or politician in a thousand believes it in -any living sense. The true function of government, said Ruskin, is the -production and recognition of human worth. This has only to be said to -be admitted; it is one of the thoughts that shine, as Joubert says. No -one denies it and no one acts upon it. - -In this sense such a phrase as the National Exchequer begins to take on -a new meaning, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer loses every whit of -his importance, except in so far as his proceedings tend towards, or -away from, the production and recognition of human worth. He plays with -money, whereas the Chancellor of the real Exchequer would work for life. - -=The facts of childhood to-day.=--But since human life is -discontinuous, since three times in a century the essential wealth of -nations is reduced to dust, and raised again from helpless infancy, -our urgent business is with the children of the nation. What, then, in -general, are the facts of the National Exchequer thus conceived? - -We find that, so far as ordinary physical health is concerned, -the majority of human babies--including, for instance, so-called -Anglo-Saxon babies--are physically healthy at birth. On the other hand, -a certain proportion are as definitely and obviously unhealthy at the -very start as the more fortunate majority are healthy. If certain -influences, such as alcohol and _some few_ diseases, have been in -operation, the babies may be already doomed--not national wealth, but -national _illth_. In the absence of these pernicious factors, there is, -on the whole, _physical_ fitness. The ratio is perhaps as ninety to ten -per cent. - -Here then, is, on the whole, a ceaseless supply of essential wealth; -physically, at any rate, of good enough quality. As every one knows, or -should know, the greater part of it we immediately proceed to deface -and destroy. Our mouths are full of argument concerning the principles -of what we are pleased to conceive as political economy. The principles -of vital economy we do not enquire into but outrage and defy at every -turn. So horribly and wastefully are we misguided that in point of -fact we actually destroy altogether the greater number, not of all -the children merely, but even of the fit and healthy children; and -it may forcibly be argued that, before any one proceeds to attempt -any choice amongst the children, as to which shall in their turn -become parents and which shall not, it would be well, apart from any -question of discrimination, to revise radically the methods which at -present permit this wholesale destruction. Whilst we kill outright -by hundreds of thousands every year, we damage for life far more, -including a very large proportion of those who, as things at present -are, will in their turn become the parents who alone are the makers -of the real wealth of nations. If this destructive process had the -effect which common notions of heredity would lead us to expect, then -most certainly not merely would Britain, for instance, be doomed, but -the very name would long ago have become "one with Nineveh and Tyre." -But though this destructive process (which it is best to describe as -resulting in deterioration rather than degeneration) has been long -continued, and though, in consequence of the great economic changes of -last century and the rush into the cities with their over-crowding, -it is perhaps more disastrous now than ever before: _yet_ it remains -true that most of the babies born in the slums are splendid little -specimens of humanity--so far as physique is concerned--bearing no -marks of degeneration to correspond with the deterioration of their -parents. In a word, heredity works--the racial poisons apart, as we -shall see--so that each generation gets a fresh start. _If there be no -process of selection_, each new generation begins where its predecessor -began and is as a whole neither worse nor better, whether physically or -psychically. - -=Eugenics and infant mortality.=--In the face of the foregoing, which -merely outlines the appalling indictment that ought to be framed -against civilisation for its treatment of its children, it is evidently -incumbent upon us to answer the objector who should say that the -whole purpose and argument of our present enquiry is premature, and -that surely our first business should be not to propose any novel and -revolutionary doctrine as to the choice of parents and of children, but -rather to stop this child slaughter and child damage--in other words, -that we should devote ourselves rather, not to providing children -with a good heredity, but to providing them with a good environment, -it being only too demonstrable that the environment we at present -provide for the great majority of them is deadly and abominable in the -extreme. This argument is all the stronger because most of the children -are admittedly fit physically at birth. It would seem as if there were -little to complain of in their heredity, whilst there is certainly -almost everything to complain of in their environment. - -If this objection is to be met at all, we must be most careful and -serious in our going. Whatever conclusions we come to we must at any -rate be sure that we do not impugn or deny the instant, immediate and -constant law of love which declares that there can be no adequate ideal -short of doing our best for all children, once they are born--nay, -more, from the very moment, months before, at which their individual -history starts. Whoso suggests that, as a present and immediate -policy, it is not right to care for all children, healthy or diseased, -welcome or unwelcome, nurseried in Park Lane or in the slums, may have -plausible and even so-called eugenic arguments on his side, but his -proposal is essentially immoral and therefore essentially false. For -all children actually in being--whether they await or have passed the -particular moment of birth--it is our duty, ideal and real, to do our -utmost. The believer in the principle of race-culture or eugenics--whom -I shall hereafter, as for some years past, call the eugenist--may -believe that it would have been better had some of these children never -been born; he may believe that, in the present unorganised state of -society, in the present dethroned state of motherhood, it were vastly -better had many even of the healthy majority never been born. He may -be convinced that, since so many of them will certainly die, failing -our feeble efforts to save childhood, their birth is a misfortune: but -on no terms and for no objects whatever does, or can, the eugenist -propose that any of these children, even though from the moment of -birth they be riddled with disease, should be allowed to die. Though -some will say that the keeping alive of diseased children, or even of -many children at first healthy, is a disaster, I maintain that no such -question of choice, selection or discrimination can find any warrant -in any form of morality--eugenic or other--from the moment at which -the child in question began its individual existence. Those of us who -advocate the eugenic idea must be perpetually on our guard against the -insidious alliance of any who, agreeing with our premises, declare -that it is a mistake, for instance, to prosecute a campaign against -infant mortality. I myself have had a share--by a continuous propaganda -started in 1902--in making this last a publicly recognised question, -whilst, on the other hand, I have done my best to popularise the idea -of eugenics. Let me repeat here what I have already said elsewhere: -that I strenuously repudiate any suggestion that the eugenic end is -legitimately or effectively to be served by permitting the infant -mortality to continue. The distinguished Egyptologist, Professor -Flinders Petrie, in his recent book _Janus in Modern Life_, describes -as follows the results of the present crusade against infant mortality, -as he conceives them:--"We must agree that it would be of the lower or -lowest type of careless, thriftless, dirty, and incapable families that -the increase [of surviving children] would be obtained. Is it worth -while to dilute our increase of population by ten per cent. more of the -most inferior kind? Will England be stronger for having one-thirtieth -more, and that of the worst stock, added to the population every year? -This movement is doing away with one of the few remains of natural -weeding out of the unfit that our civilisation has left to us. And it -will certainly cause more misery than happiness in the course of a -century." - -Here, plainly, is a serious argument. We are bound to sympathise with -its underlying assumption, viz., that not all babies are such as we -can desire to carry on the race. Still more must we sympathise with -any author whatever who has imagination and foresight enough to write -anywhere, on any subject, wrongly or rightly, such a sentence as "and -it will certainly cause more misery than happiness in the course of -a century." We need more such authors. But without going into the -whole argument here--as, for instance, regarding the singular use of -the word "natural"--I do most entirely deny the right of the eugenic -idea to any voice or place as to the fate of children _once they have -come into being_. Another writer, arguing on the same lines, says _à -propos_ of the abolition of infant mortality: "This last change which, -as the Huddersfield experiment shows, is easy of accomplishment, is -likely to be completely effected in the next few years, and we shall -then have abolished the one factor which in any important degree at -present tends to redress the balance between the rates of reproduction -of the superior and the inferior classes." These are the words of -Dr. W. McDougall, the distinguished psychologist. Dr. McDougall has -subsequently shown that he repudiates the apparent deduction from them, -and entirely approves of the present campaign of mercy to childhood. -Nevertheless, these arguments, plainly derived from the principle -of natural selection, do express a most important truth--viz., that -indiscriminate survival must lead to racial decadence, whether in man, -microbe or moss. I submit that the difficulty can be solved only by the -eugenic principle. - -The fittest must become parents, and the unfit[2] must not; then kill -the unfit, says Nature. And this indeed, in all living species other -than man, is what Nature does. But "thou shalt not kill," says the -moral law--not even the unfit. As the foregoing will have shown, some -thinkers to-day propose to avail themselves in this dilemma of the "New -Decalogue":-- - - "Thou shalt not kill but need'st not strive - Officiously to keep alive." - -This is no solution of the problem. There is only one solution, and -that is the eugenic solution. Nature can preserve a race only by -destroying the unfit. We who are intelligent must preserve and elevate -the race by preventing the unfit from ever coming into existence at -all. We must replace Nature's selective death-rate by a selective -birth-rate. This is merciful and supremely moral; it means vast economy -in life and money and time and suffering; it is natural at bottom, but -it is Nature raised to her highest power in that almost supra-natural -fact--the moral intelligence of man. - -=The dilemma defined.=--The moral law, and our natural human sympathy, -insist that we should seek to preserve all the children that come into -the world, to amplify the health of the healthy, and to neutralise, -as far as possible, the unfitness of the unfit. A mother brings her -malformed baby to the surgeon, and he does his best to patch up the -gaps left by the imperfect processes of development. Otherwise the -baby will die. Who dares look that mother in the face and say "Ah, -but it is better for the race that your child should die!" Such a -doctrine, I submit, blasphemes our humanity; it is intolerable to -any decent person who will pause to think what it means: and yet, -in so saying, we seem to defy Nature with her imperative law of the -survival of the fittest only. Pre-eugenic writers on evolution state -the case in all its hardness. Dr. Archdall Reid says that "If we -wish to improve the individual, we must attend to his acquirements by -providing proper shelter, food, and training." Well, we do wish to -improve the individual, and to preserve the individual! We do not wish -the super-man on the terms of Nietzsche--the super-man obtained at -the cost of love would turn out to be inferior to any brute-beast, an -intellectual fiend. But, Dr. Reid goes on to say, "such means will not -effect an improvement of the race.... On the contrary, they will cause -deterioration[3] by an increased survival of the unfit." The provision -of "proper shelter, food and training" will cause racial decadence! -Is it not evident, then, that such provisions must rather be styled -improper, and that we must refrain from doing anything for the defects -and needs of the individual, lest a worse thing befall the race? This -is an outrageous proposition, yet it is offered us as a necessary -inference from the principle of natural selection or the survival of -the fittest--which no one now dares to dispute. - -Herbert Spencer, to whom we owe the phrase "the survival of the -fittest," expresses this critical difficulty as follows: "The law -that each creature shall take the benefits and the evils of its own -nature has been the law under which life has evolved thus far. Any -arrangements which, in a considerable degree, prevent superiority from -profiting by the rewards of superiority, or shield inferiority from the -evils it entails--any arrangements which tend to make it as well to be -inferior as to be superior, are arrangements diametrically opposed to -the progress of organisation, and the reaching of a higher life." This -is permanently and necessarily true, and in our care for childhood we -have to reckon with it. Yet even Spencer himself did not pursue this -supremely important enquiry to what I shall in a moment submit to be -its logical and almost incredibly hopeful conclusion. - -Huxley, writing his well-known Romanes Lecture, "Evolution and Ethics," -at a time when, unfortunately, he had somewhat parted company with -Spencer, and was too ready to accept any argument that made against -Spencer's political views, cuts the Gordian knot in an astonishingly -unsatisfactory fashion. He declares that "the ethical progress of -society depends, not on imitating the cosmic process [that is, the -selection of the fittest], still less in running away from it, but in -combating it." This is shallow thinking and very poor philosophy. One -wonders how Huxley can have forgotten the great dictum of Bacon that -Nature can be commanded only by obeying her. He declares that moral -evolution is the direct contradiction and antithesis of the process of -organic evolution hitherto. He says, "Social progress means a checking -of the cosmic process at every step and the substitution for it of -another, which may be called the ethical process;" and he declares -it to be a fallacy to suppose "that because on the whole animals and -plants have advanced in perfection of organisation, by means of the -struggle for existence and the consequent survival of the fittest; -therefore men in society, men as ethical beings, must look to the same -process to help them towards perfection." - -With all this Huxley offers us no real solution whatever, no hint -that he has realised in any degree what must be the consequences of -indiscriminate survival. It is astonishing how personal bias, so alien -to the whole character of the man as a rule, blinded him to a solution -which, as it seems to me, stared him in the face. Assuredly we can -transmute and elevate and raise to its highest power what he calls -the cosmic process, and can reconcile cosmic with ethical evolution, -_by extending to the unfit all our sympathy but forbidding them -parenthood_. I deny that the provision of a proper environment for the -individual entails racial deterioration. Cosmic and moral evolution -are compatible if, whilst caring for each individual, whether maim, -halt, blind, or insane, and whilst admitting the categorical imperative -of the law of love which demands our care for him, we continue to -obey the indication of Nature, which forbids such an individual to -perpetuate his infirmity. Nature has no choice; if she is to avert the -coming of the unfit race she must summarily extinguish its potential -ancestor, but we can prohibit the reproduction of his infirmity whilst -doing all we can for the success of his individual life. This is the -ideal course indicated and approved by biology and morality alike. - -=The eugenic reconciliation.=--I submit, then, that there is no -inconsistency in fighting simultaneously for the preservation and -care of all babies and all children without discrimination of any -kind--and, on the other hand, in declaring that, if the degeneration -of the race is to be averted, still more if racial, which is the only -sure, progress, is to be attained, we must have the worthy and only the -worthy to be the parents of the future. I submit further that only the -eugenist can maintain his position in this matter at the present day. - -On his one hand is the improvident humanitarian with his feeling -heart, he who, seeing misery and disease and death, whether in -babyhood, childhood, or at any other time of life, seeks to improve -the environment and so relieve these evils. Close beside this wholly -indiscriminate humanitarianism is that which declares that with -childhood is the future and therefore devotes its energies especially -to the young, is grateful for every baby born, whatever its state, and -when adult years are reached, assumes that all will be well for the -future, though the principle of natural selection is thus made of none -effect. - -On the other side of the eugenists stand those whom we may for short -call the Nietzscheans. They see one-half of the truth of natural -selection; they see that through struggle and internecine war, species -have hitherto maintained themselves or ascended. They declare that all -improvement of the environment, or at any rate all humanitarian effort, -tends to abrogate the struggle for existence, and even, as is only -too often true, to select unworth and let worth go to the wall. This -school then declares that infant mortality is a blessing and charity -an unmitigated curse. In short, that we must go back as quickly as -possible to the order of the beast. - -Between these two, surely, the eugenist stands, declaring that each has -a great truth, but that his teaching, and his alone, involves their -co-ordination and reconciliation. He agrees with the humanitarian that -no child should cry or starve or work or die--or at any rate this -particular eugenist does--and he agrees with the Nietzschean that -to abrogate, and still more, to reverse, the principle of natural -selection, is to set our faces for the goal of racial death. But -further, the eugenist declares that the indiscriminate humanitarian, -blind to the truth which the Nietzschean sees, would heap up, if -permitted, disaster upon disaster; whilst he repudiates as horrible and -ghastly the Nietzschean doctrine that morality must go by the board if -the race is to be raised:--that we must be damned to be saved. - -Our age is now awakening, at last, to the cry of the children. The -tendency of legislation and opinion in every civilised country is -one and the same. For this humanitarianism let only him who thinks -of any child as a brat refuse to give thanks. But it is the business -of all who, whilst loving children and still in love with love, are -yet acquainted with the principles of organic evolution--in short, -the business of all humane men of science, men of science who have -not ceased to be human--whilst aiding, abetting and directing this -humanitarian effort by every means in their power, to teach and preach, -in season and out of season, that unless meanwhile we make terms with -the principle of selection, the choice of worth for parents, and the -rejection of the unworthy, _not as individuals but as parents_, we -shall assuredly breed for posterity, whose lives and happiness and -moral welfare are in our hands, evils that can adequately neither be -named nor numbered. Already, together with much blessed good, this -indiscriminate humanitarianism has done much evil. Many of our most -instant and, for this generation, insoluble problems are the lamentable -fruit of this inherently good thing. The eugenist declares that this -fruit is not necessary, that if it were necessary he could see no way -out of our morass and would echo the half-wish of Huxley for some -kindly comet that should put a term to human history altogether; and, -in short, that only by the eugenic means can the humanitarian end be -attained. - -During the last year or two of the campaign against infant mortality -many things have become clear, and none clearer than the fundamental -compatibility between this campaign and the principles of eugenics. As -these two efforts wall be predominant in the real politics of all the -years to come, a few more words must here be devoted to the relation -between them. - -Granted that the highest of all objects is the making of worthy human -beings, it is quite evident that we must attend equally to the two -factors which determine all human life--heredity and environment. -Eugenics stands for the principle of heredity--the principle that the -right children shall be born. The campaign against infant mortality -stands for a good environment[4]--so that children, when born, may -survive and thrive. Obviously eugenics would be of no use if the -children could not survive, and no human infant can survive unless -it be born into a moral environment: no motherhood, no man. The two -campaigns, then, are strictly complementary. We must endeavour to rid -ourselves of the popular notion that the whole result of the campaign -against infant mortality can be measured by the number of babies -whose death is prevented. The infant mortality is merely an index of -a widespread social disease--an index and an extreme symptom. But -for every baby killed many are damaged; and to remove the causes of -infant mortality is to remove the causes which at present effect the -deterioration of millions of human beings. The eugenic campaign, then, -without the other would be almost futile. - -=The time for eugenics.=--On our principles the eugenic question can -be decently raised only _before conception_. The unyoked germ-cells -of any individual, though alive, are not entitled to claim protection -from the principle that life is sacred. It is permitted to allow them -to die; but from the moment of conception a new individual has been -formed--a new living human individual, even though it only consists of -a single cell, product of the union of the parental germ-cells: and -we shall not be safe unless we regard this being as sacred and its -destruction--except in order to save the life of the mother--as murder, -even at this as at any later stage. If the eugenist should raise his -voice, and say that this individual should not be born, he must be -regarded exactly as if he were to recommend infanticide or the lethal -chamber for unfit individuals. In such a case he would have entirely -mistaken the whole principle of (negative) eugenics, which is _not_ -to elevate the race by the destruction of the unfit, at any stage, -ante-natal or post-natal, but to do so by prohibiting the conception -of the unfit. Directly the new human individual is formed the eugenic -question is too late in that case. It is now the eugenist's duty, -because it is every one's duty, to regard the new individual, whether -born or yet unborn, as an end in himself or herself. But when the -question arises whether that individual is to become a parent, then the -eugenic question can and must be raised. - -Circumstances might arise in which "case-law" might be applicable. It -might be thought better to destroy the syphilitic child rather than -allow it to come into the world. But we cannot make these distinctions. -The question is simply one of expediency, and the only expedient thing -is that there shall be no paltering with the principle that when a -new human life is conceived our duty is to preserve it, whether it -were conceived only twenty-four hours ago or whether it be a decrepit -and helpless centenarian. The instant we let this principle go we are -proposing to revert to Nature's method of keeping up the level of a -race by murder. It is improper, then, for any one on eugenic grounds to -protest against proposals for the arrest of infant mortality. He should -have spoken sooner; at this stage he must hold his peace. - -=The two campaigns complementary.=--Yet further: not only is it evident -that the campaign against infant mortality (which is, in a word, the -campaign for the provision of a proper environment for the young) is -obviously necessary for the fulfilment of the eugenic ideal--since -what would be the good of choosing the right parents if their children -are then to be slain?--but it can be shown conversely that the object -of those who are working against infant mortality can never be fully -attained except by means of eugenics. Eugenics apart, we can and -shall reduce the infant mortality to a mere fraction of what it is -at present, by preventing the destruction of that great majority of -babies who are born healthy. Even, however, when we have provided an -ideal environment for every baby that comes into the world, we shall -not have abolished infant mortality, since there will always remain a -proportion, say ten per cent., whom not even an ideal environment can -save. They should never have been conceived. At the Infantile Mortality -Conference held in London in 1908, this was clearly recognised by more -than one speaker. The maternalist must have the eugenist to help him if -his ideal is to be attained. - -Not only is the ideal of the two campaigns one and the same; not only -is each necessary for the other, but their methods are the same. -It is true that at first this was not evident, since when we began -to fight against infant mortality many temporary expedients of no -eugenic relevance were adopted, such as the _crèche_ and the infant -milk depot. But in the interval between the Conferences of 1906 and -1908 many things became clear: so that, whereas the papers at the -first Conference were only accidentally connected, the programme -of the second proceeded upon a principle--the principle of the -supremacy of motherhood. We see now that the one fundamental method -by which infantile mortality may be checked is by the elevation of -motherhood. In the words of our President, Mr. John Burns, "you -must glorify, dignify, and purify motherhood by every means in your -power." Thus the first two papers read at the first morning's meeting -of the Conference--a brief paper by the present writer on "The Human -Mother," and an admirable paper by Miss Alice Ravenhill on "Education -for Motherhood"--might equally well have been read at a Eugenics -Conference. The opponent of infant mortality and the eugenist appeal -to the same principle and avow the same creed: that parenthood is -sacred, that it must not be casually undertaken, that it demands the -most assiduous preparation of body and intellect and emotions. When, at -last, these principles are believed and acted upon, infant mortality -will be a thing of the past and national eugenics a thing of the -present. - -It is essential in this first general study of the subject to state -the true nature of the relation between these two campaigns, to -which every succeeding year of the present century will find more -and more attention devoted. Between them they succeed in beginning -at the beginning, and it would be a disaster, indeed, if they were -incompatible. On the contrary, they are complementary and mutually -indispensable. As the years go on they will engage between them the -sympathy and the assistance of all serious people. In the year 1907 -infant mortality was first named in a speech by a Prime Minister, and -in that same year it was first mentioned in the Christmas-Day sermon -at St. Paul's Cathedral; in that year also Parliament passed the Early -Notification of Births Act, the first substantial legislative provision -which sets our feet on the road towards the goal of a true national -estimate of the value of parenthood. We are about to discover that -the true politics is domestics, since there is no wealth but life and -life begins at home. We are going to have the right kind of life born, -and we are going to take care of it when it is born. We shall raise a -generation which looks upon the ordinary money-changing politician as -an impudent public nuisance, and the brutal, blood-stained Imperialist, -shouting about the Empire which his very existence almost suffices to -condemn, whilst he battens on the cannibal sale of alcoholic poison -to babies and the mothers of future babies, as the very type of those -traitors--they of its own household--who have helped to destroy every -Empire in history. We propose to rebuild the living foundations of -empire. To this end we shall preach a New Imperialism, warning England -to beware lest her veins become choked with yellow dirt, and demanding -that over all her legislative chambers there be carved the more than -golden words, "There is no Wealth but Life." - - - - - CHAPTER III - - NATURAL SELECTION AND THE LAW OF LOVE - - "Truth justifies herself; and as she dwells - With hope, who would not follow where she leads?" - Wordsworth. - - "La plus haute tâche de l'action morale est le travail pour le bien - des générations futures."--Forel. - - -Before looking more closely than we are commonly apt to do at the -meaning of the phrases "natural selection" and "survival of the -fittest," let us exercise the right of man the moral being, as -distinguished from man the scientist or observer of Nature, to pass -ethical judgments upon the facts which it is the business of all the -sciences, except ethics itself, merely to record and interpret in and -for themselves. We are beginning at last, half a century after the -publication of the _Origin of Species_ in 1859, to realise the power -of the law of selection; what is the moral judgment which is to be -passed upon it? In a passage from the last page of Herbert Spencer's -Autobiography, we find words which may be quoted on both sides: "When -we think of the myriads of years of the Earth's past, during which have -arisen and passed away low forms of creatures, small and great, which, -_murdering and being murdered, have gradually evolved_,[5] how shall we -answer the question--To what end?" - -"Murdering and being murdered" suggests the adverse, and "have -gradually evolved," the favourable, ethical judgment. - -Many thinkers, finding Nature "so careless of the single life," finding -the murderous struggle for existence the dominant fact of the history -of the living world, return an adverse verdict. Amongst them are to be -found not merely those who are inclined, by temperament or imperfect -education, to rebellion against any conclusions of science, but also, -as we saw in the second chapter, such a great biologist as Huxley. -In another part of the lecture already cited he says that the Stoics -failed to see - - "... that cosmic nature is no school of virtue, but the headquarters - of the enemy of ethical nature. The logic of facts was necessary to - convince them that the cosmos works through the lower nature of man, - not for righteousness, but against it.... The practice of that which - is ethically best--what we call goodness or virtue--involves a course - of conduct which, in all respects, is opposed to that which leads to - success in the cosmic struggle for existence." - -In other words, honesty is the _worst_ policy: and to worship natural -selection is to deify the devil. - -The reader will realise that, if we are to succeed in establishing -the claim of natural selection to be the natural model upon which -those who desire the progress of society are to base their policy, it -is necessary to controvert the doctrine that natural selection is an -anti-moral process. But let us hear the other side. - -The directly contrary view, then, is taken that though, truly -enough, there has been and is much "murdering and being murdered," -yet organisms "have gradually evolved" towards fitness for their -surroundings, or the _milieu environnant_ of Lamarck, which we -translate environment; and that since fitness or adaptation obviously -makes for happiness, and since the moral being man has himself been -thus evolved, the process of natural selection, "murdering and being -murdered" notwithstanding, is essentially beneficent. - -The controversy is embittered and complicated by the fact that ultimate -questions of religion and philosophy are involved. Is the Universe -moral, as Emerson asserted it was, or is it immoral? A recent opponent -of the orthodox creed of a benevolent Deity teaches that "The Lesson -of Evolution" is to disprove the idea of benevolence behind or in -Nature: "The story of life has been a story of pain and cruelty of the -most ghastly description." The age-long fact of "murdering and being -murdered" is the weapon with which he attacks the theist: who, _per -contra_, points to the beneficent result, the exquisite adaptation of -all species to the circumstances of their life, and the evolution of -love itself. - -We may remind ourselves of those great lines of Mr. George Meredith, - - "... sure reward - We have whom knowledge crowns; - Who see in mould the rose unfold, - _The soul through blood and tears_." - -The one camp points to the "blood and tears" and asks for a verdict -accordingly. The other points to "the soul" as their product, and asks -for a verdict accordingly. But surely we need only to have the case -fairly stated, in order to realise that the "blood and tears" are true -but only half the truth, "the soul" true but only half the truth. -Natural Selection is a colossal paradox--the doing evil that good may -come. The evil is undoubtedly done, and the good undoubtedly comes. Is -not this the only verdict that is in consonance with all the facts? Is -it not less than philosophic to look at the process alone, or to look -at the result alone? Is any real end to be served by the incessant cry -that we should keep our eyes fixed on the "blood and tears" alone, or -on "the soul" alone? Is not the poet right when he says that the sure -reward of knowledge is not to see either half of the truth as if it -were the whole, but to see unfold "the soul through blood and tears?" - -Any attempt to cast up accounts between the evil of the process and -the good of the result--especially any attempt based on the assumption -that the process has yet achieved its final result--would be not -only premature in the eyes of those who can look forwards, but would -be irrelevant to our present enquiry. I certainly am with those who -repudiate as misleading Mill's description of Nature as a "vast -slaughter-house," and will declare that, apart from self-conscious -and supremely sensitive man, it is easy to exaggerate the misery and -to minimise the joy of the sub-human world. But our business here -is with the process and its results in man himself, in whom alone -are possible the heights of ecstasy and the depths of agony: and the -thesis--the sublime thesis, we may avouch--of the present discussion -is that, whatever the balance between the evil of the process of -Natural Selection and the good of its results in the natural state, -yet when it is transmuted, as it may be, by the moral intelligence of -man, according to the principles of race-culture or eugenics, the good -of the result can be attained, more abundantly and incomparably more -rapidly, than ever heretofore, _whilst the evil of the process can be -abolished altogether_. True or false, is this not a sublime thesis? - -=Nature must be cruel to be kind.=--If organic fitness or adaptation -to the circumstances of life is to be secured, Nature must choose -for future parents, out of every new generation, only those whose -inborn characters make for this adaptation, and who, in virtue of -the fact we call heredity, will tend to transmit this fitness to -their offspring. Now it is often convenient to personify Nature, -but we must not be misled. The process is really an automatic, not -an intelligently directed one. In order that it shall be possible, -certain conditions must obtain. The choice or selection depends not -merely upon the provision of a variety from which to choose--this -being afforded by what is called variation, which is the correlative -of heredity, both being obvious facts in any well-filled nursery--but -also upon the production of _more_ young creatures than there is or -will be room for. (If there be room for all, so that all survive, -there can be no selection, and instead of survival of the fittest -there will be indiscriminate survival.) The choice is effected amongst -this superfluity by an internecine "struggle for existence": hence -the "murdering and being murdered," hence the "blood and tears." The -motor force of the whole process may be symbolised as the "will to -life," ever seeking to realise itself in more abundance and with more -success--with more and more approximation to perfect adaptation. The -will to death is no ingredient of the will to life. Nature is, so -to say, by no means desirous of the process of "murdering and being -murdered": very much on the contrary. It is life, more life, and -fitter life, that is her desire: the "murdering and being murdered," -the "blood and tears" are no part of her aim. But they are inevitable, -though lamentable, if her aim is to be realised. She _must_ be cruel to -be kind--a little cruel to be very kind.[6] - -It is _imaginable_, though no more, that natural selection, in certain -circumstances, might have worked otherwise: the penalty for less as -against greater fitness might _imaginably_ have been not death but -merely sterility--the denial of future parenthood. This is the ideal -of race-culture. Had this been possible, Nature could have effected -her end, which is fitter and fuller life, without having incidentally -to mete out premature death to such an overwhelming majority of all -her creatures. But, actually, this was not possible: and, unless -the end was to be sacrificed, Nature was compelled--to keep up the -figure--summarily to kill right and left. Permitted to reach maturity, -the unfit as well as the fit would multiply; and since, in general, the -lower the form of life the greater its fertility, the species could not -possibly advance, or even maintain itself at the level already gained. - -To drop the figure, the process is a mechanical and automatic one, and -its appalling wastefulness and indisputable cruelty are inevitably -involved, whilst it so remains. - -=Intelligence may be kind to be kinder.=--But--and here is the -great event--this mechanical, automatic, non-intelligent process -has latterly given birth to intelligence, the moral intelligence of -man: and the question now to be answered is, what modification can -intelligence effect in the moral-immoral process that has created -it? Must intelligence abrogate that process altogether, as Huxley -declares, on the grounds of its murderous methods? Must intelligence -simply look on, recognise, but not reconstruct? Must intelligence -reverse the process--as indeed it is now doing in many cases--so -that in the new environment of which itself is a factor, that which -formerly was unfitness shall become fitness, and _vice versâ_? _Or_ -is it conceivable that intelligence can transmute the process, so -that, whilst hitherto mechanical, automatic, and therefore inevitably -murderous, it shall become _intelligent_, pressing towards the sublime -end, and reforming the murderous means? - -Hear Mr. Galton himself (_Sociological Papers_, 1905, p. 52):-- - - "Purely passive, or what may be styled mechanical evolution, displays - the awe-inspiring spectacle of a vast eddy of organic turmoil ... it - is moulded by blind and wasteful processes, namely, by an extravagant - production of raw material and the ruthless rejection of all that - is superfluous, through the blundering steps of trial and error.... - Evolution is in any case a grand phantasmagoria, but it assumes an - infinitely more interesting aspect under the knowledge that the - intelligent action of the human will is, in some small measure, - capable of directing its course. Man has the power of doing this - largely so far as the evolution of humanity is concerned; he has - already affected the quality and distribution of organic life so - widely that the changes on the surface of the earth, merely through - his disforestings and agriculture, would be recognisable from a - distance as great as that of the moon." - -Hear also Sir E. Ray Lankester, in the Romanes Lecture[7] for 1905: -"Man is ... a product of the definite and orderly evolution which is -universal, a being resulting from and driven by the one great nexus of -mechanism which we call Nature. He stands alone, face to face with that -relentless mechanism. It is his destiny to understand and to control -it." - -"Nature's insurgent son," Professor Lankester calls man in this -lecture: and yet again there recurs that mighty aphorism of Bacon, -which might well be printed on every page of these chapters, "Nature -is to be commanded only by obeying her." The struggle for existence is -the terrible fact of Nature, but is only a means to an end. It is our -destiny to command the end whilst _humanising_ the means. - -=The struggle for existence.=--The ideal of eugenics or race-culture -is to abolish the brutal elements of the struggle for existence -whilst gaining its great end. The nature of this struggle is commonly -misapprehended and, as I cannot improve upon the words of Professor -Lankester, I shall freely use them in the attempt to show what it -really is. He says:-- - - "The world, the earth's surface, is practically full, that is to - say, fully occupied. Only one pair of young can grow up to take the - place of the pair--male and female--which have launched a dozen, or - it may be as many as a hundred thousand, young individuals on the - world.... The 'struggle for existence' of Darwin is the struggle - amongst all the superabundant young of a given species, in a given - area, to gain the necessary food, to escape voracious enemies, and - gain protection from excesses of heat, cold, moisture, and dryness. - One pair in the new generation--only one pair--survive for every - parental pair. Animal population does not increase: 'Increase and - multiply' has never been said by Nature to her lower creatures. - Locally, and from time to time, owing to exceptional changes, a - species may multiply here and decrease there; but it is important - to realise that the 'struggle for existence' in Nature--that is to - say, among the animals and plants of this earth untouched by man--is - a desperate one, however tranquil and peaceful the battlefield may - appear to us. The struggle for existence takes place, not as a - clever French writer glibly informs his readers, between different - species, but between individuals of the same species, brothers and - sisters and cousins.... In Nature's struggle for existence, death, - immediate obliteration, is the fate of the vanquished, whilst the - only reward to the victors--few, very few, but rare and beautiful in - the fitness which has carried them to victory--is the permission to - reproduce their kind--to carry on by heredity to another generation - the specific qualities by which they triumphed. - - "It is not generally realised how severe is the pressure and - competition in Nature--not between different species, but between the - immature population of one and the same species, precisely because - they are of the same species and have exactly the same needs.... A - distinctive quality in the beauty of natural productions (in which - man delights) is due to the unobtrusive yet tremendous slaughter of - the unfit which is incessantly going on and the absolute restriction - of the privilege of parentage to the happy few who attain to the - standard described as 'the fittest.'" - -=The survival of the fittest.=--Now let us look closely at this most -famous of all Spencer's phrases, "the survival of the fittest," and try -to understand its full and exact meaning. There is no phrase in any -language so frequently misinterpreted. Even a writer who should know -better makes this mistake. Mr. H. G. Wells speaks[8] of "that same lack -of a fine appreciation of facts that enabled Herbert Spencer to coin -those two most unfortunate terms _Evolution_ and the _Survival of the -Fittest_. The implication is that the _best_ reproduces and survives. -Now really it is the _better_ that survives and not the _best_." What -the correction is supposed to signify I do not know, but the whole -passage is nonsense. The implication is neither that the _best_ nor -the _better_ survive, but the fittest--or if Mr. Wells prefers, for it -matters not one whit--the fitter. This lack of a fine appreciation of -words is not, unfortunately, peculiar to Mr. Wells. There is no word -in the language that more exactly expresses the fact than the word -fittest: as Darwin recognised when he promptly incorporated Spencer's -phrase in the second edition of the _Origin of Species_ as the best -interpretation of his own phrase "natural selection"![9] Fitness is -the capacity to fit: a thing that is fit is a thing that _fits_. A -living creature survives in proportion as it fits its environment--the -physical environment in the case of vegetables and the lower animals, -the physical, social, intellectual and moral environment in the case -of man. The kind of glove that most perfectly fits the hand is the -fittest glove and will survive in the struggle for existence between -gloves. If, instead of a glove, we take a living creature, say a -microbe, the kind of microbe that best fits into the environment -provided by, say, human blood, is the fittest and will survive and be -the cause of our commonest disease. Thus the tubercle bacillus is at -once the _fittest_ microbe and, not the best, but the worst. Among -ourselves, the newspaper devoted to yesterday's murder is the fittest -and survives, ousting the newspaper which reckons with the crucifixion, -or the murder of Socrates or Bruno. In a society of blackguardism, the -biggest blackguard is the fittest man and will survive: he is also the -worst. In another society the best man is the fittest and survives. The -capacity to fit into the environment is the capacity that determines -survival: it has no moral connotation whatever. If Herbert Spencer had -written the survival of the better, as Mr. Wells desires, he would have -written palpable nonsense: as it was he used the fittest word--in this -case also the best, because the truest. Referring to the queen-bee, -who destroys her own daughters, Darwin says, "undoubtedly this is for -the good of the community; maternal love or maternal hatred, though -the latter fortunately is most rare, is all the same to the inexorable -principle of natural selection." - -If natural selection were the survival of the better, as Mr. Wells -would have us believe, there would be nothing for eugenics or -race-culture to do: and heaven would long ago have come to earth. If -in all ages the better men and women had survived and become parents, -earth would long ago have become a demi-paradise indeed, there would -have been no arrests, no reversals in the history of human progress, -and life would be already what, some day, it will be, when there is -achieved the eugenic ideal--which is precisely that the best or better -members of our race shall be the selected for the supreme profession -of parenthood. In other words, the eugenic ideal, the ideal of -race-culture, is _to ensure that the fittest shall be the best_. -Always, everywhere, without a solitary exception, human, animal or -vegetable, the fittest have ultimately survived and must survive. Once -realise what is the meaning of the word fit--best seen in the verb "to -fit"--and we shall see that, as Herbert Spencer pointed out in his -overwhelming reply to the late Lord Salisbury's attack on evolution, -the idea of the survival of the fittest is a necessity of thought.[10] - -But, alas, the idea of the survival of the best or the better is not -a necessity of thought! The fittest microbes are the worst from our -point of view, because they are most inimical to the highest forms -of life; the fittest newspaper may be the worst, because it panders -to the worst but most widespread and irresponsible elements in human -nature; everything and every one that succeeds, succeeds because it or -he fits the conditions: but to succeed is not necessarily to be good. -Indeed everything that exists at all, living or lifeless, an atom or an -animal, a molecule or a moon, exists because it can exist, because it -fits the conditions of existence: there is no moral question involved, -but only a mechanical one. The business of eugenics or race-culture is -to make an environment, conditions of law and public opinion, _such -that the fittest shall be the best and the best the fittest therein_. - -If memory may be trusted, the primary meaning of the word _fit_ has -not hitherto been called in by any one to elucidate the meaning of -Spencer's phrase: perhaps it may be hoped that we shall at last begin -to understand it, if we remember that a thing is fit because it fits. -It is best not to be too sanguine, however, and therefore we may -attempt to illustrate the case from another aspect. - -=Survival-value.=--Every living thing and nearly every character -or feature of a living thing that survives, survives because it -has value or capacity for life--which may be called, in Professor -Lloyd Morgan's phrase, _survival-value_. The character that gives -an organism survival-value, or value for life, the character that -enables it to fit its environment, may be of any order. The atom, as -I have said elsewhere, is an organism writ small. The kinds of atoms -that have survived in the age-long struggle for existence between -atoms are those that have survival-value on account of their internal -stability: as Empedocles argued ages ago. In the case of living -things, which individually die, it is evident that the capacity to -reproduce themselves is one of supreme survival-value. If mankind lost -this capacity, all its other characters of survival-value, such as -intelligence, would obviously avail it nought. Certain valuable members -of society may fall short in this cardinal respect, and therefore -become extinct. Indeed, other forms of survival-value, as we shall see, -seem to be in large measure inimical to fertility: and this is perhaps -the chief obstacle to eugenics.[11] - -Fertility apart, the character having survival-value may take a -thousand forms. In the case of the parasitic microbe it is an evil -character, the power to produce toxins or poisons. In the case of -the tiger it is the possession of large and powerful bones and claws -and muscles and teeth. In the case of the ox it is a complicated -and efficient digestive apparatus, enabling it to fit into a -food-environment which is too innutritious to sustain the life of -creatures not so endowed. Nature seeks only the fittest; not the best -but the best-adapted; she asks no moral questions. A Keats, a Spinoza, -or a Schubert must go under if his factors of survival-value do not -enable him to resist those of the tubercle bacillus, its toxins or -poisons. She welcomes the parasitic tapeworm, all hooks and mouth or -stomach, because these give it survival-value; and so on. - -The business of eugenics or race-culture, then, is to create an -environment such that those characters which we desire as moral -and intelligent beings shall be endowed with the highest possible -survival-value, as against those which ally so many men with the -microbe and the tapeworm. There are those who live in society to-day, -and reproduce their like, in virtue of the poisons they produce, in -virtue of their tenacious hooks and voracious stomachs. If society be -organised so that these are factors of more survival-value than the -disinterested search for truth, or mother-love, or the power to create -great poetry or music--then, according to the inevitable and universal -law of the survival of the fittest, our parasites will oust our poets -and our poisoners our philosophers. These things have happened and may -happen again at any time. It does not matter that the good thing, in -virtue of survival-value then superior, has been evolved. Nature never -gives a final verdict in favour of good or bad but only and always in -favour of the fit. Let the conditions change, so that rapacity fits -them better than righteousness, or--as in a completely "collectivist" -state--vegetableness rather than virility, and the thing we call high -will go under before the thing we call low. Nature recognises neither -high nor low but only fitness or value for life in the conditions that -actually obtain. These laws enthroned and dethroned the civilisations -of the past: they have enthroned and may dethrone us. But this end is -not inevitable, since man--and this is his great character--not merely -reacts to his environment, as all creatures must, but can create and -recreate it. The business of eugenics or race-culture is to create an -environment such that the human characters of which the human spirit -approves shall in it outweigh those of which we disapprove. Make it -fittest to be best and the best will win--not because it is the best, -but because it is the fittest: had the worst been the fittest it would -have won. In society to-day both forms of the process may be observed. -The balance between them determines its destiny. It is the business of -eugenics to throw the whole weight of human purpose into the scale of -the good. - -=Evolution not necessarily progress.=--No excessive space has been -devoted to this distinction between the fittest and the best and to -the real meaning of Spencer's famous phrase, if perchance it should -avail in any degree to dispel one of the commonest of the many common -delusions regarding the nature of organic evolution and its outcome. -This delusion is that progress is an inevitable law of nature.[12] -The great process of history, as revealed by biology, displays as its -supreme fact the occurrence of progress. The principles of evolution -teach that this progress--as, for instance, in the evolution of man--is -a product of the survival of the fittest; whilst we are also reminded -that the survival of the fittest is a necessary truth: but it does not -follow that progress is inevitable. - -In the first place, natural selection involves selection. Where all -the young members of a new generation of any species survive, and -parenthood becomes not a privilege but a common and universal function, -plainly the process is in abeyance: and, in the second place, since -the survival of the fittest is not the survival of the best, but only -the survival of the best adapted, the process may at any time take the -form of retrogression rather than that of progress. The assumption -that, because progress has been effected through natural selection, we -need do no more than fold our hands, or unfold them merely to applaud, -involves the denial of one of the most familiar facts of natural -history--the fact of racial degeneration. The parasitic microbes, the -parasitic worms, the barnacles, innumerable living creatures both -animal and vegetable, individuals and races of mankind, to-day as in -all ages--these prove only too clearly that the process of the survival -of the fittest may make as definitely for retrogression in one case as -for progress in another. - -By all means let us infer from the facts of organic evolution the -conclusion that further progress must surely be possible, so much -progress having already been achieved as is represented by the -difference between inorganic matter or the amoeba or microbe on the one -hand, and man on the other hand. But let us most earnestly beware of -the false and disastrous optimism which should suppose that because -the survival of the fittest has often, and indeed most often, meant -the survival of the best, it means always that and nothing else. On -the contrary, we must learn that, even in natural circumstances, -apart from any interference by man, the survival of the fittest often -means racial degeneration--a tapeworm kept in spirits should stand -upon the study mantelpiece of all who think with Mr. Wells that the -survival of the fittest means the survival of the better; and still -more notably we must learn that the interference of man in the case of -his own species, sometimes of evil intent, sometimes for the highest -ends, with the process of natural selection, has repeatedly led, and -is now in large part leading, to nothing other than that process of -racial degeneration of which the tapeworm and the barnacle should be -our perpetual reminders. The case becomes serious enough when man -interferes with the process of selection merely with the effect of -suspending it, wholly or in part: but it becomes far more serious -when his interference constitutes a reversal of the process. This -most supremely disastrous of all conceivable consequences of man's -intelligence and moral sense is known as reversed selection, and must -be carefully studied hereafter. Meanwhile, we must devote some space to -a most important consideration--namely, that though Nature is impartial -in her choice, and will, for instance, allow the poisons of a microbe -such as the tubercle bacillus to destroy the life of a Spinoza or a -Keats or a Schubert, yet, on the whole, the survival-value of the -mental, spiritual, or psychical in all its forms does persistently tend -to outweigh that of the physical or material--of this great truth the -evolution and dominance of man himself being the supreme example. - -The very fact of progress, which I would define as the emergence -and increasing dominance of mind, demonstrates--it being remembered -that natural selection has no moral prejudices--that even in a world -of claws and toxins the psychical must have possessed sufficient -survival-value to survive. It is quite evident that even the lowliest -psychical characters, such as sharpness of sensation, discrimination, -and memory, must be of value in the struggle for life. More and more we -might expect to find, and do actually find in the course of evolution, -that creatures live by their wits, rather than by force of bone or -muscle. The psychical was certainly given no unfair start--on the -contrary. It has had to struggle for its emergence; it has emerged only -where there has been struggle and has done so because it could--because -of its superior survival-value. It has the right which belongs to -might--in the world of life there is no other.[13] - -By no means less evident is the inherently superior survival-value -of the psychical, if we turn from its aspects of sensation and -intelligence to those which are all summed up under the word love. -Notwithstanding Nietzsche's mad misconception of the Darwinian theory, -no one who has studied the facts of reproduction and its conditions -in the world of life can question the incalculable survival-value -of love in animal history. The success of those most ancient of all -societies, of which the ant-heap and the bee-hive are the types, -depends absolutely upon the self-sacrifice of the individual. If we -pass upwards from the insects to the lowest vertebrates, we find -the survival-value of love proved by the comparison between various -species of fish, and its increasing importance may be traced upwards -through amphibia, reptiles, birds and mammals in succession, up to -man. Natural selection thus actually selects morality. Without love no -baby could live for twenty-four hours. Every human being that exists -or ever has existed or ever will exist is a product of mother-love or -foster-mother-love, and I am well entitled to say, as I have so often -said, _no morals, no man_. The creature in whom organic morality is at -its height has become the lord of the earth in virtue of that morality -which natural selection has selected, not from any moral bias, but -because of its superior survival-value. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - THE SELECTION OF MIND - - "Many are the mighty things, but none is mightier than man.... He - conquers by his devices the tenant of the fields."--Sophocles. - - "L'homme n'est qu'un roseau, le plus faible de la Nature; mais c'est - un roseau pensant."--Pascal. - - "The soul of all improvement is the improvement of the - soul."--Burchell. - - -Whereas, in its beginning, _mind_, or the psychical in all its aspects, -was merely a useful property of _body_, all organic progress may be -conceived in terms of a change in this original relation between them. -In man, the mental or psychical has become the essential thing, and the -body its servant. We are well prepared, then, to accept the proposition -that in our own day and for our own species, the plane upon which -natural selection works has largely been transferred, and, indeed, if -any further progress is to be effected, _must_ be transferred, from -the bodily or physical to the mental or psychical. A certain most -remarkable fact in the anatomy of man may be cited, as we shall see, in -support of this proposition. - -We need not venture upon the controversial ground of the relation or -ultimate unity of mind and body; nor need we set up any suggestion of -antagonism between them. All, however, are absolutely agreed that the -psychical in all its forms, whatever it really be, has a consistent -relation of the most intimate kind with that part of the body which -we call the nervous system. For our present purposes the nature of -this relation matters nothing at all, and in place of the phrase, -the "selection of mind," I should be quite content, if the reader so -prefers, to speak of the selection of nerve or nervous selection. And -if I may for a moment anticipate the conclusion, we may say that, in -and for the future, the process of selection for life and parenthood, -as it occurs in mankind, must be based, if the highest results are to -be obtained, upon the principle that the selection of bodily qualities -other than those of the nervous system is of value only in so far as -these serve the nervous or psychical qualities. For practical and for -theoretical purposes we must accept the dictum of Professor Forel that -"the brain is the man"--or, to be more accurate and less epigrammatic, -the nervous system is the man. If, then, we counsel or approve of any -selection of bone or muscle or digestion, or any other bodily organ or -function; if we select for physical health, physical energy, longevity, -or immunity from disease--our estimate of these things, one and all, -must be wholly determined by the services which they can perform for -the nervous system, whether as its instruments, its guarantors of -health and persistence, or otherwise. But we are not to regard any of -these things as ends in themselves--notwithstanding the fact that this -temptation will constantly beset us. So to do is implicitly to deny and -renounce the supreme character of man--which is that, in him, mind or -nervous system is the master, and the rest of the body, with all its -attributes, the servant. - -=The body still necessary.=--Should anyone suppose that the principles -here laid down would speedily involve us, if executed, in a host -of disasters, let him reconsider that conclusion. Utterly ignorant -or jocose persons have hinted, more or less definitely, that if a -race of mankind were to be bred for brains, the product would be a -most misbegotten creature approaching as near as possible--and that -imperfectly enough--to the ideal of disembodied thought, a creature -monstrous as to head, impotent and puny as to limbs, and, in effect, -the least effective of living creatures. This supposition may be -commended as the last word in the way of nonsense. It depends upon -an abysmal ignorance of the necessary and permanent relations which -subsist between mind and body. It assumes that the healthy mind can -be obtained without the healthy body; it is totally unaware that the -nervous system cannot work properly unless the blood be well aerated by -active lungs and distributed by a healthy heart; that unless certain -glands, of which these people have never heard, are acting properly, -the nervous system falls into decadence, and the man becomes an -imbecile. To breed for brains is most assuredly to breed for body too: -only that the end in view will guide us as to what points of body to -breed for. For instance, it would prevent us from having any foolish -ambitions as to increasing the stature of the race, or the average -weight of its muscular apparatus. Stature may be a point to breed for -in the race-culture of giraffes and muscle in the race-culture of the -hippopotamus: but such bodily characters are of no moment for man, -who is above all things a mind. Whilst we shall pay little attention -to these, we or our descendants will be abundantly concerned with the -preservation and culture of those many bodily characters upon which -the health and vigour and sanity and durability of the nervous system -depend. - -Further, notwithstanding all the nonsense that has been written -concerning the man of the future, with bald and swollen head, -be-goggled eyes, toothless gums, and wicker-work skeleton, those -who know the alphabet of physiology and psychology are warranted in -believing that wisely to breed for brains will be to breed for beauty -too--not of the skin-deep but of the mind-deep variety--and also for -grace and energy and versatility of physique. Those who worship brawn -as brawn may be commended to the ox; those who respect brawn as the -instrument of brain, and value it not by its horse-power but by its -capacity as the agent of purpose, will find nothing to complain of in -the kinds of men and women whom a wise eugenics has for its ideal. - -=The erect attitude.=--And now we must briefly consider that "most -remarkable fact in the anatomy of man" to which allusion was made in -the first paragraph. It is that, as the most philosophic anatomists are -now coming to believe, the body of man actually represents the goal of -physical evolution. Of course the common opinion is, quite apart from -science, that man is the highest of creatures, and that there is no -more to be expected. But the doctrine of evolution regards man as the -latest, not necessarily the last, term in an age-long process which is -by no means completed, and from the evolutionary point of view it is -thus a daring and, at first hearing, a preposterous thing to say that, -so far as the physical aspects of organic evolution are concerned, the -body of man apparently represents the logical and final conclusion of -the age-long process which has produced it. Let us attempt very briefly -to outline the argument. - -We may say that a great step was taken when from the chaos of the -invertebrate or backbone-less animals there emerged the first -vertebrates. This unquestionably occurred in the sea, the first -backbone being evolved in a fish-like creature which, in the course of -time, developed two lateral fins. These became modified into two pairs -of limbs, the sole function of which was locomotion. In the next group -of vertebrates, the amphibia--such as the frog--we see these limbs -terminating each in five digits. (The frog, so to say, decided that -we should count in tens.) Now some creatures have specialised their -limbs at the cost of certain fingers. The horse, for instance, walks -on the nails (the hoofs) of its middle fingers and its middle toes. -In the main line of ascent, however, none of these precious fingers -(and toes)--how precious let the typist or the pianist say--have been -sacrificed. There has been, however, in later ages a tendency towards -the specialisation of the front limbs. Used for locomotion at times, -they are also used for grasping and tearing and holding, as in the -case of the tiger, a member of the carnivora, a relatively late and -high group of mammals. But the carnivore does not carry its food to -its mouth, and the cat carries her kittens in her mouth and not with -her paws. In the apes and monkeys, however, this specialisation goes -further, and things are actually carried by the hands to the mouth--a -very great advance on the tiger, who fixes his food with his "hands," -and then carries his mouth to it. Food to mouth instead of mouth to -food is a much later stage in evolution, a fact which may be recalled -when we watch the table manners of certain people. Finally, in man the -specialisation reaches its natural limit by the _complete_ liberation -of the fore-limbs from the purposes of locomotion--though the crawling -gait of a child recalls the base degrees by which we did ascend. - -This great change depends upon an alteration in the axis of the body. -The first fishes, like present fishes, were horizontal animals, but -gradually the axis has become altered, in the main line of progress, -until the semi-erect apes yield to man the erect, or "man the erected," -as Stevenson called him. The son of horizontal animals, he is himself -vertical: the "pronograde" has become "orthograde." Thus the phrase, -"the ascent of man," may be read in two senses. This capital fact has -depended upon a shifting of the centre of gravity of the body, which -in adult man lies behind the hip-joints, whereas in his ancestors and -in the small baby (still in the four-footed stage) it lies in front -of the hip-joints. Thus, whilst other creatures tend naturally to -fall forwards, so that they must use their fore-limbs for support and -locomotion, the whole body of man above the hip-joints tends naturally -to fall backwards, being prevented from doing so by two great ligaments -which lie in front of the hip-joints and have a unique development in -man. The complete erection of the spine means that the skull, instead -of being suspended in front, is now poised upon the top of the spinal -column. The field of vision is enormously enlarged, and it is possible -to sweep a great extent of horizon at a moment's notice. But the -complete discharge of the fore-limbs from the function of locomotion -has far vaster consequences, especially as they now assume the function -of educating their master, the brain, and enabling him to employ them -for higher and higher purposes. - -Thus, when we ask ourselves whether there is any further goal for -physical evolution, the answer is that none can be seen. So far as -physical evolution is concerned the goal has been attained with the -erect attitude. Future changes in the anatomy of man will not be -positive but negative. There doubtless will be a certain lightening of -the ship, the casting overboard of inherited superfluities, but that is -all: except that we may hope for certain modifications in the way of -increasing the adaptation of the body to the erect attitude, which at -present bears very hardly in many ways upon the body of man, and much -more so upon the body of woman. - -Thus race-culture will certainly not aim at the breeding of physical -freaks of any kind, nor yet at such things as stature. It must begin by -clearly recognising what are the factors which in man possess supreme -survival-value, and it must aim at their reinforcement rather than at -the maintenance of those factors which, of dominant value in lower -forms of life, have been superseded in him. A few words will suffice -to show in what fashion man has already shed vital characters which, -superfluous and burdensome for him, have in former times been of the -utmost survival-value. - -=The denudation of man.=--As contrasted with the whole mass of his -predecessors, man comes into the world denuded of defensive armour, -destitute of offensive weapons, possessed alone of the potentialities -of the psychical. So far as defence is concerned, he has neither fur -nor feathers nor scales, but is the most naked and thinnest skinned of -animals. In his _Autobiography_, Spencer tells us how he and Huxley, -sitting on the cliff at St. Andrews and watching some boys bathing, -"marvelled over the fact, seeming especially strange when they are no -longer disguised by clothes, that human beings should dominate over all -other creatures and play the wonderful part they do on the earth."[14] -But man is not only without armour against either living enemies or -cold; he is also without weapons of attack. His teeth are practically -worthless in this respect, not only on account of their small size but -also because his chin, a unique possession, and the shape of his jaws, -make them singularly unfit for catching or grasping. For claws he has -merely nails, capable only of the feeblest scratching; he can discharge -no poisons from his mouth; he cannot envelop himself in darkness -in order to hide himself; his speediest and most enduring runner is -a breathless laggard. And, lastly, he is at first almost bereft of -instinct, has to be burnt in order to dread the fire, and cannot find -his own way to the breast. His sole instrument of dominance is his mind -in all its attributes. - -On the grounds thus indicated, we must be wholly opposed to all -proposals for race education and race-culture, and to all social -practices, which assume more or less consciously that, for all his -boasting, man is after all only an animal: whilst we must applaud the -selection and culture of the physical exactly in so far as, but no -further than, it makes for health and strength of the psychical--or, if -the reader dislikes these expressions, the health and strength of that -particular part of the physical which we call the nervous system. - -It used to be generally asserted that whilst, in a civilised community, -we do not expect to find the biggest or most muscular man King or -Prime Minister, yet amongst savage tribes it _is_ the physical, muscle -and bone and brutality, that determines leadership. This, however, we -now know to be untrue even for the earliest stages of society that -anthropologists can recognise. The leader of the savage tribe is not -the biggest man but the cleverest. The suggestion is therefore that, -even in the earliest stages of human society, the plane of selection -has already been largely transferred from brawn to brain or from -physique to _psyche_. It has always been so, we may be well sure. The -Drift men of Taubach, living in the inter-glacial period, could kill -the full-grown elephant and rhinoceros. Says Professor Ranke: "It is -the mind of man that shows itself superior to the most powerful brute -force, even where we meet him for the first time." This remains true -whether the brute force be displayed in brutes or in other men. - -The great fact of intelligence, as against material apparatus of -any kind and even as against rigid instinct, is its limitless -applicability. With this one instrument man achieves what without it -could be achieved only by a creature who combined in his own person -every kind of material apparatus, offensive and defensive, locomotor or -what not, which animal life, and vegetable life too, have invented in -the past--and not even by such a creature. Man is a poor pedestrian, -but his mind makes locomotives which rival or surpass the fish of the -sea, the antelope on land, if not yet the bird of the air; his teeth -are of poor quality, but his mind supplies him with artificial ones and -enables him to cook and otherwise to prepare his food. All the physical -methods are self-limited, but the method of mind has no limits; it is -even more than cumulative, and multiplies its capacities by geometrical -progression. - -=The cult of muscle.=--A word must really be said here, in accordance -with all the foregoing argument, against the recent revival of what -may be called the Cult of Muscle. This cult of muscle, or belief -in physical culture, so called, as the true means of race-culture, -undoubtedly requires to have its absurd pretensions censured. We now -have many flourishing schools of physical culture which desire to -persuade us to a belief in the monstrous anachronism that, even in man, -muscle and bone are still pre-eminent. They want as many people as -possible to believe that the only thing really worth aiming at is what -they understand by physical culture. They pride themselves upon knowing -the names and positions of all the muscles in the body, and on being -able to provide us with instruments to develop all these muscles: they -are there and they ought to be developed, and you are a mere parody of -what a man ought to be unless they are developed--none of them must -be neglected. Many people have been persuaded of these doctrines, and -there is no doubt that the physical culture schools do thus develop a -large number of muscles which have no present service for man and would -otherwise have been allowed to rest in a decent obscurity. - -In order to prove this point, let us instance a few muscles which it -is utterly absurd to regard as still possessing any survival-value for -man. In the sole of the foot there are four distinct layers of muscles, -by means of which it is theoretically possible to turn each individual -toe to the left or the right, independently of its neighbours, and to -move the various parts of each toe upon themselves, just as in the case -of the fingers. All this muscular apparatus is a mere survival, worth -nothing at all for the special purposes of the human foot. In point of -fact the human foot is now decadent, and probably not more than two -or three specimens of feet in a hundred contain the complete normal -equipment of muscles, bones and joints--as Sir William Turner showed -many years ago. Thus many feet are possessed of muscles designed to -act upon joints which have not been developed at all in the feet in -question and which, if they were there, would not be of the smallest -use. To take another instance, we do not now use our external ears -for the purpose of catching sound, though we still possess muscles -which, if thrown into action, would move the external ear in various -directions. Again, there is a flat, thin stratum of muscle on the -front of the neck, corresponding to a muscle which in the dog and the -horse is quite important, but which is of no use to us. All would be -agreed as to the absurdity of devoting continued conscious effort to -the development of these particular muscles; but in point of fact we -have a whole host of muscles which are in a similar case, and which -are nevertheless objects of the most tender solicitude on the part of -the physical culturist. In general, this modern craze, whilst highly -profitable to those who foster it, is most misguided and reactionary. -Modern knowledge of heredity teaches us that our descendants will not -profit muscularly in the slightest degree because of our devotion to -these relics: the blacksmith's baby has promise of no bigger biceps -than any one else's. Further, the over-doing of muscular culture -is responsible for the consumption of a large amount of energy. A -muscle is a highly vital and active organ, requiring a large amount -of nourishment, which its possessor has to obtain, consume, digest -and distribute. The more time and energy spent in sustaining useless -muscles, the less is available for immeasurably more important -concerns. Man does not live by brawn alone: he _does_ live by brain -alone. - -=Strength versus skill.=--So far as true race-culture is concerned, -we should regard our muscles merely as servants or instruments of the -will. Since we have learnt to employ external forces for our purposes, -the mere bulk of a muscle is now a matter of little importance. Of the -utmost importance, on the other hand, is the power to co-ordinate and -graduate the activity of our muscles, so that they may become highly -trained servants. This is a matter, however, not of muscle at all but -of nervous education. Its foundation cannot be laid by mechanical -things like dumb-bells and exercises, but by games, in which will and -purpose and co-ordination are incessantly employed. In other words, the -only physical culture worth talking about is nervous culture. - -The principles here laid down are daily defied in very large measure in -our nurseries, our schools, and our barrack yards. The play of a child, -spontaneous and purposeful, is supremely human and characteristic. -Although, when considered from the outside, it is simply a means of -muscular development, properly considered it is really _the_ means of -nervous development. Here we see muscles used as human muscles should -alone be used--as instruments of mind. In schools the same principles -should be recognised. From the biological and psychological point of -view the playing-field is immeasurably superior to the gymnasium. -But it is in the barrack yard that the pitiable confusion between -the survival-value of mind and muscle respectively in man is most -ludicrously and disastrously exemplified. - -The glorious truth upon which we appear to act is that man is an -animated machine; that the business of the soldier is not to think, -not to be an individual, but to be an assemblage of muscles. We see -the marks of this idea even in a fine poem: "Their's not to reason -why, their's but to do or die"--which, of course, might just as well -be said of a stud of horses or motor-cars. Further, our worship of the -machine is, consistently enough, an unintelligent worship. We do not -even recognise the best conditions for its action. Every year hundreds -of young soldiers, originally healthy, have their hearts and lungs and -other vital organs permanently injured by the imbecile attitude of -chest--that of abnormal expansion--which they are required to adopt -during hard work. Army doctors are now protesting against this, but it -is in accordance with the fitness of things that the cult of muscle as -against intelligence should be unintelligent. - -I repeat that whilst in the study of race-culture the physical cannot -be ignored, since the psychical is so largely dependent upon it, -yet the physical is of worth to us only in so far as it serves the -psychical. The race the culture of which we propose to undertake has -long ago determined to abandon the physical in itself as an instrument -of success. We are not attempting the culture of the cretaceous -reptiles, which staked their all upon muscle, and finally, having -become as large as houses--and as agile--suffered extinction. We are -attempting the culture of a species which, so far as the physical is -concerned, has long ago crossed the Rubicon or burnt its boats. Even -if Mr. Sandow and the drill-sergeant had their way to the utmost, and, -having finally eliminated all traces of mind, succeeded in producing -the strongest and most perfect physical machine that could be made from -the human body, the species so produced would go down in a generation -before the elements or before any living species that may be named. -Man has staked his all upon mind. The only physical development -that is really worth anything to such a race is that which educates -intelligence and morality, on the one hand, and serves for their -expression, on the other. - -If there is any salient and irresistible tendency in our civilisation -to-day, it is the persistent decadence of muscle and of all of which -muscle is the type, as an instrument of survival-value. The development -of machinery, much deplored by the short-sighted, is in the direct line -of progress, because it reduces the importance of muscle and throws -all its weight into the scale of mind. Hewers of wood and drawers of -water are becoming less and less necessary, not because mechanical -force is not needed but because the human intelligence is learning how -to supersede the human machine as its source. Every development of -machinery makes the man who can merely offer his muscles of less value -to the community. Long ago--not so very long ago in some cases--it was -quite sufficient for a man to be able to say "I am a good machine:" he -was worth his keep and had his chance of becoming a parent; but the man -whom society wants now-a-days is not the man who is a good machine but -the man who can make one. These elementary truths are hidden, however, -from the political quacks who discourse to us upon unemployment. - -Herbert Spencer's remark that it is necessary to be a good animal -has an element of truth in it which was utterly ignored and needed -proclamation at that time; but it is necessary to be a good animal only -in so far as that state makes for being a good man--and not an iota -further. - -The present interest in many most important aspects of physical -education, such as may be summed up under the phrase "school hygiene," -must not blind us to the great principle that physical education is a -means and not an end. Our present educational system, which permits -schooling to end just when it should begin, or rather sooner, and -which, even through our Government Departments, permits boys to be -used as little more than animated machines, such as telegraph boys--is -very largely responsible for the great national evil of unemployment, -which we treat with soup-kitchens. We shall revise a large proportion -of our educational, political and social methods just so soon as--but -not before--we get into our heads the idea that in human society, -and pre-eminently in society to-day, the survival-value of mind -and consequently the selection of mind must predominate over the -survival-value and consequent selection of muscle. Further, whatever -factors tend to enhance the survival-value of the physical are _ipso -facto_ making for retrogression and a return to the order of the beast. -Whatever tend to enhance the survival-value of the psychical--by which -I most assuredly include not only intelligence but, for instance, -motherhood--are _ipso facto_ forces of progress. The products of -progress are not machinery but men, and the well-drilled-machine idea -of a man ought to be as obsolete as more than one recent war has proved -it disastrous. - -There is here to be read no pessimistic suggestion that the psychical -is in any permanent danger. No one can think so who knows its strength -and the relative impotence of the physical, but it is certainly -possible that the course of progress may be greatly delayed in any -given nation or race by worship of the physical, or even, as Sparta -shows, by worship of what may be called the physical virtues as against -the moral and intellectual virtues. But those who are interested in the -survival of any particular race or nation have to remember that arrest -or retardation of progress therein, relatively to its wiser neighbours, -must, before long, result in its utter downfall. - -=What are we to choose?=--The argument that the selection of mind has -been dominant throughout human history is reinforced by such knowledge -of that history as we possess. There is no record of any race that -established itself in virtue of great stature or exceptional muscular -strength. Even in cases of the most purely military dominance, it was -not force as such, but discipline and method, that determined success; -whilst some of the greatest soldiers in history have been physically -the smallest. The statement of the anthropologists, already alluded to, -regarding the selection of the leading men in primitive tribes, may -safely be taken as always true: selection in human society has always -been, in the main, selection of that which, for survival-value, is the -dominant character of man, _mind_ in its widest sense. We shall see, -later, that _physical eugenics_ can by no means be ignored: but our -guiding principle must be that the physical is of worth only in so far -as it serves the psychical, and is worse than worthless in so far as it -does not. It would surely be well, for instance, that we should breed -for "energy," to use Mr. Galton's term: but the energy we desire, and -the energy he commends, is nervous, not muscular. The confusion between -two radically different things, vitality and muscularity, is, however, -almost universal, though it will not stand a moment's examination. -In a volume devoted to personal hygiene I have discussed this point, -which is of real moment both for the individual and for the theory of -eugenics.[15] - -It is of interest to note, in passing from this question, that inherent -facts of the human constitution would interdict us if we thought it -a fit ideal to breed for stature or bulk. Giants are essentially -morbid--not favourable but unfavourable variations. They are very -frequently childless and almost constantly slow-witted. Their condition -is really a mild form of a well-marked and highly characteristic -disease known as acromegaly, and distinguished by great enlargement -of the face and extremities. The malady depends upon peculiarities in -the glandular activities of the body: _and the state of these which -makes for great stature and bulk makes against intelligence_. It is -suggested, then, that any considerable increase of human bulk and -stature could only be obtained at the cost of intelligence. It would be -very dear at the price. - -When we come to the subject of selection for parenthood in man through -the preferences exhibited by individuals for members of the opposite -sex, we shall see that what Darwin called "sexual selection" is -certainly a reality in the case of man, whether or not it be so in the -case of the lower animals. We shall see that this most potent factor -in human evolution acts even now very favourably, and is capable of -having its value enormously enhanced. In the selection of husbands, -nervous or psychical factors are notably of high survival-value in -civilised communities. In the selection of wives the survival-value of -the physical is still very high: but it may be hoped and believed that -the present tendency is to attach relatively less importance to them -and more to the psychical elements of the chosen. This tendency must be -furthered to the utmost point beyond which the physical requisites for -motherhood would suffer weakening--but no further. - -=How are we to estimate civic worth?=--We have already observed that -it is incorrect to use the word "fit" as if it were synonymous with -"worthy." If we insist on using this term, which means only "adapted -to conditions," we must define those conditions. We must say that we -desire to further the production of those who are fit for citizenship, -and to disfavour the production of those who are unfit for citizenship. -We shall thereby dispose at least of those vexatious objectors who -tell us that many eminent criminals are individually superior to many -eminent judges. The statement is doubtless untrue, but if it were -true it would still be irrelevant. A criminal may be individually a -remarkable personality, but in so far as he is a criminal he is unfit -for citizenship. - -It is far better to use consistently Mr. Galton's phrase, "civic -worth," or, for short, "worth." We may here note Mr. Galton's most -recent remarks on what he means by worth:-- - - "By this I mean the civic worthiness, or the Value to the State of a - person, as it would probably be assessed by experts or, say, by such - of his fellow-workers as have earned the respect of the community - in the midst of which they live. Thus the worth of soldiers would - be such as it would be rated by respected soldiers, students by - students, business men by business men, artists by artists, and so - on. The State is a vastly complex organism, and the hope of obtaining - a Proportional Representation of its best parts should be an avowed - object of issuing invitations to these gatherings. - - "Speaking only for myself, if I had to classify persons according - to Worth, I should consider each of them under the three heads of - Physique, Ability, and Character, subject to the provision that - inferiority in any one of the three should outweigh superiority in - the other two. I rank Physique first, because it is not only very - valuable in itself and allied to many other good qualities, but has - the additional merit of being easily rated. Ability I should place - second on similar grounds, and Character third, though in real - importance it stands first of all."[16] - -We shall certainly misunderstand this quotation unless we clearly -realise that Mr. Galton is speaking of eugenic worth--that is to say, -of worth in relation to parenthood and heredity. No one, of course, -would assert for a moment that inferiority in the matter of physique -outweighed superiority in ability and character, so far as our estimate -of an individual as an individual is concerned, nor yet so far as -our estimate of him as a citizen is concerned. But from the eugenic -standpoint, as a parent of citizens to come, such a person, though -he may have himself saved the State, is on the average rightly to be -regarded as unworthy on the eugenic scale--it being assumed, of course, -that the inferiority of physique in the person in question is either -native and therefore transmissible, or else due to forms of disease, or -poisoning, such as, according to our knowledge of ante-natal pathology, -will probably involve degeneracy on the part of his children. I would -add that love is as precious as ability, if not more so, and that we -should aim at its increase by making parenthood the most responsible -act in life, so that children are born only to those who love children -and who will transmit their high measure of the parental instinct and -the tender emotion which is its correlate.[17] - - - - - CHAPTER V - - THE MULTIPLICATION OF MAN - - "Increase and multiply" - - -The ceaseless multiplication of man is one of the facts which -distinguish him from all other living species, animal or vegetable.[18] - -We must not be misled by such a case as that of the multiplication -of rabbits in Australia. Apart from such circumstances as human -interference, the earth is already crammed with life of a kind, not the -highest life nor the most intense life, but at any rate fully extended -life. Man alone multiplies persistently, irresistibly, and has done -so from the very first, so that, arising locally, he is now diffused -over the whole surface of the earth. To quote from Professor Lankester -again: "Man is Nature's rebel. Where Nature says Die! Man says I will -live! According to the law previously in universal operation man should -have been limited in geographical area, killed by extremes of cold or -of heat, subject to starvation if one kind of diet were unobtainable, -and should have been unable to increase and multiply, just as are his -animal relatives, without losing his specific structure.... But man's -wits and his will have enabled him ... to 'increase and multiply,' as -no other animal, without change of form." - -Not only has man made himself the only animal which constantly -increases in numbers, but this increase, as Professor Lankester points -out in another part of his lecture, already threatening certain -difficulties, will be much more rapid than at present, assuming the -birth-rate to remain where it is, when disease is controlled. It -is within our power, as Pasteur declared long ago, to abolish all -parasitic, infectious or epidemic disease. This must be and will -be done--within a century, I have little doubt. The problem of the -increase of human population will become more pressing than ever. -Professor Lankester suggests that in one or five centuries the -difficulty raised by our multiplication "would, if let alone, force -itself upon a desperate humanity, brutalised by over-crowding and the -struggle for food. A return to Nature's terrible selection of the -fittest may, it is conceivable, be in this way in store for us. But -it is more probable that humanity will submit to a restriction by the -community in respect of the right to multiply." The lecturer added that -we must therefore perfect our knowledge of heredity in man, as to which -"there is absolutely no provision in any civilised community, and no -conception among the people or their leaders, that it is a matter which -concerns anyone but farmers." - -=The secret of multiplication.=--Professor Lankester, however, omits -to point out the astonishing paradox involved in the fact that--as -I pointed out at the Royal Institution in 1907--man, the only -ceaselessly multiplying animal, has the lowest birth-rate of any living -creature.[19] From the purely arithmetical point of view, what does it -mean? We may defer at present any deeper interpretation. - -It means necessarily and obviously that the effective means of -multiplication is not a high birth-rate but a low death-rate. It is -a necessary inference from the paradox in question that the infant -death-rate and the general death-rate in man are the lowest anywhere -to be found. Producing fewer young he alone multiplies.[20] It follows -that a smaller proportion of those young must die. Unless it is -supposed by bishops and others, then, that a peculiar value attaches to -the production of a baby shortly to be buried, the suggestion evidently -is the same as that to which every humanitarian and social and -patriotic impulse guides us, namely, the reduction of the death-rate -and especially the infant mortality. This is the true way in which -to insure the more rapid multiplication of man, if that be desired. -I believe it is not to be desired, but in any case the reduction of -the death-rate and especially of the infant mortality is a worthy and -necessary end in itself, and need not inevitably lead to our undue -multiplication provided that the birth-rate falls. Hence the eugenists -and the Episcopal Bench may join hands so far as the reduction of the -death-rate is concerned, and the only persons with whom a practical -quarrel remains are those who--in effect--applaud the mother who boasts -that she has buried twelve. - -=The facts of human multiplication.=--Human population continues to -increase notwithstanding any changes in the birth-rate. This fact -remains true, as shown by the latest obtainable figures. It should be -one of the dogmas never absent from the foreground of the statesman's -mind. Apparently nothing, however, will induce us to take this little -forethought. When we build a bridge across the Thames, we ignore it; -when we widen a bridge we ignore it likewise. When we make a new street -we ignore it; when we build railways and railway stations we ignore -it--excusably, perhaps, in this case; when we build hospitals we ignore -it: four times out of five there is no room for the addition of a -single ward in time to come. We have not yet even learnt, as they are -learning in America and Germany, how to acquire the outlying lands of -cities for the public possession, so that they may be properly employed -as the city grows. The man who builds himself a villa on the outskirts -of a city, ignores it, and is staggered by it in ten years. The lover -of nature and the country ignores it: "Just look at this," he says, -"this was in the country when first I knew it, look at these horrible -rows of villas!" The only possible reply to such a person is simply, -"Well, my dear sir, what do you propose? General infanticide?" Most -important of all, this fact, that, to take the case of Great Britain, -some half million babies are born every year in excess over the number -of all who die at all ages, is forgotten by our statesmen--or rather by -our politicians. It could, of course, not be forgotten by a statesman. -Quite apart from remoter consequences, especially in relation to the -wheat supply, this persistent multiplication--which one has actually -heard denied on the ground that the birth-rate is falling--is of urgent -moment to all of us. - -In 1907 the Census Bureau of Washington published some figures on the -mortality statistics of nations, a summary of which may be quoted: -"In all parts of the civilised world both the birth-rates and the -death-rates tend to decrease, and, as a rule, those countries having -the lowest death-rates have also the lowest birth-rates. In Europe -the lowest birth-rate is that of France, the highest those of Servia -and Roumania. The lowest death-rates are in Sweden and Norway; the -highest in Russia and Spain. The downward tendency of the birth- -and death-rates is best shown by diagrams prepared by the French -Government, and it is probable that the downward tendency is actually -steeper than the diagrams show, because both births and deaths are more -accurately registered than formerly." - -But these statements are by no means necessarily incompatible with -steady increase of population, which, of course, increases so long as -the birth-rate exceeds the death-rate. I quote a few figures from the -_Science Year Book_ of 1908: - -In 1890 the total population of the world was estimated at -1,487,900,000. - - Aryan (Europe, Persia, India, etc.) 545,000,000 - Mongolian (N. and E. Asia) 630,000,000 - Semitic (N. Africa) 65,000,000 - Negro (C. Africa) 150,000,000 - Malay and Polynesian 35,000,000 - American Indian 15,000,000 - -The total figure now must be something like sixteen hundred millions at -least. - -Density of population, in so far as it means what is commonly called -over-crowding, is an important factor in the death-rate, and has a most -inimical influence upon race-culture--in virtue of the opportunity -afforded to the racial poisons--syphilis, alcohol, etc. Thus Sweden -has the lowest death-rate in Europe, and has much the least density -of population--only 29 per square mile as compared with our own 341. -If now the fact of the increase of population, with all that it means -and will mean, may be taken as dealt with and accepted, there will be -no danger of leading the reader to false conclusions if we insist upon -the fall of the birth-rate, which in Great Britain in 1908 was the -lowest on record. The death-rate, however, persistently falls also. -The reader who thinks that the birth-rate alone determines the increase -of population, and those who believe in polygamy on the ground that it -necessarily makes for the rapid multiplication and therefore strength -of a nation, should compare the death-rate of London, which is under -16, with that of Bombay, which is just under 79. It is asserted that in -many large Indian cities the infant mortality approaches one-half of -all the children born. What it amounts to in such cities as Canton and -Pekin we can only surmise with horror. - -Notwithstanding the persistent fall in the birth-rate of London the -rate of increase in population remains stupendous, according to the -calculations of Mr. Cottrell, which may be quoted from the _Science -Year Book_ of 1908. He estimates the population of Greater London in -1910 at about 7½ millions, and in 1920 at well over 8½ millions--the -falling birth-rate notwithstanding. - -The increase of population of five great countries may be briefly noted -here. In all, with the possible exception of Russia, the birth-rate is -rapidly falling. In the course of the nineteenth century the population -of - - Russia (in Europe) rose from 38 to 105,000,000 - France " " 26 " 38,000,000 - Germany " " 23 " 55,000,000 - Great Britain " " 15 " 40,000,000 - United States " " 5 " 75,000,000 - -These are merely approximate figures, but accurate enough to be of -value. It need hardly be pointed out that immigration accounts for the -disproportionate increase of population in the United States. But it -may be added that the imminent arrest or control of this immigration -will assuredly have the most serious and pressing consequences for -Europe. Plainly it must hasten the coming of national eugenics. - -=The case of Germany.=--Especial interest and importance attach for -many reasons to the case of Germany in this connection, and, as -might be expected, many precise facts are available. Here I shall -avail myself freely of the paper contributed by Dr. Sombart to the -_International_ for December, 1907. In the first seven years of this -century the population of Germany increased almost ten per cent. -The figure in 1870 was 40.8 millions and in 1907 61 millions. The -population is increasing yearly at the rate of about 800,000, as -compared with about half a million in the case of Great Britain. In -France in 1907 the population actually declined by a few thousands. In -regard to the growth of population Germany is now at the head of all -civilised countries, excepting those cases in which immigration has -augmented the number of inhabitants. Does this expansion of population -depend upon an increasing birth-rate or a diminishing death-rate? -The fact, in strict parallel with the biological generalisation -already made, is that "Germany's population is increasing so swiftly -because the death-rate has been falling steadily. At the beginning -of the period, 1870-1880, there were nearly 30 deaths per thousand -inhabitants, while in recent years only about 20 deaths in every -thousand inhabitants have taken place each year.... Notwithstanding, -the birth-rate during the last ten years, during which the principal -growth of population occurs, has not in anywise increased in Germany. -Indeed, by careful investigation it becomes apparent that it has -declined almost unintermittently for a generation." The average -birth-rate for the ten years 1871-1880 was 40.7, for 1891-1900 the -average was 37.4. Since then it has fallen further, and in 1905 the -figure was 34, the lowest on record. As Dr. Sombart observes, we shall -only appreciate these figures if we regard them as an expression of -a tendency which will continue, and that this is so he proves. He -observes that "the more highly advanced the country, the lower its -birth-rate.... From this we may already draw the conclusion that a -diminution of births is a concomitant of our progress in civilisation. -Secondly, this is confirmed by the fact that the falling-off in the -birth-rate must be attributed largely to the big cities.... As a third -statistical argument that the birth-rate declines with the advance -of civilisation, the fact may be cited that in the quarters of the -well-to-do still fewer children are born than in those of the poor." -(In London, as we have seen, the birth-rate is highest in Stepney and -lowest in Hampstead). - -Dr. Sombart finally points out what must never be forgotten--that an -increase in population, dependent upon a fall in the death-rate, whilst -the birth-rate also falls, is necessarily self-limited. The decrease -of the death-rate is limited by definite natural age-limits, and "this -indicates that the increase of population in Germany is gradually -entering upon a period of less activity, and will perhaps quite cease -within a conceivable period unless other causes operate in the opposite -direction." - -=The yellow peril.=--The facts regarding the yellow races are extremely -difficult to ascertain. It appears, however, that the birth-rate in -Japan has almost doubled in 27 years--rising from 17.1 to 31. (I -doubt the accuracy of the earlier figure.) In China the population -is largely controlled by infanticide, but there is little doubt that -the main contention of Pearson was correct, and that the yellow races -are multiplying much more rapidly than the white races. It does -not necessarily follow, however, as we shall see, that this means -yellow ascendancy, any more than a similar comparison would mean -microbic ascendancy. It is not quantity but quality of life that -gives survival-value and dominance. This disparity between white and -yellow rates of increase is by far the most pregnant of contemporary -phenomena. In the present introductory volume it can merely be named. -But since we shall not survive in virtue of quantity, I, for one, am -well assured that the choice for Western civilisation will ere long be -the final one between eugenics or extinction. - -=The wheat problem.=--Meanwhile, we must consider briefly the question -evidently raised by this fact of human multiplication. As an expert -has lately said, the rise in the price of wheat "is not the transitory -result of market manipulation and 'corners,' forcing prices up to an -unnatural level, but of perfectly natural and irresistible causes -which, for all that, are the more anxious and disquieting. The truth is -we are for the first time beginning to feel individually the effect of -a great natural process--the race which started long ago between the -population of the world and the growth of the world's wheat supply. In -this race the growth of the world's population has been outstripping -the growth of its wheat-food production, and the consequence has been -a total growing shortage, in spite of the opening of vast new areas in -Canada and the Argentina." In this connection one of the best papers -in Great Britain--the _Westminster Gazette_--cheerfully remarked in -a leading article that, after all, we need not be alarmed as to the -difficulty in increasing the supply of wheat, since population would, -in any case, adapt itself to the food-supply. This is true, indeed: -there will never be more human beings than there is food to feed. But -the question is, how will the population be kept down? In a word, is it -to be by the awful and bloody processes of Nature or by the conscious, -provident and humane methods of man? - -We are reminded of the argument advanced by Sir William Crookes in -his Presidential Address to the British Association in 1898. The -distinguished author has himself written an invaluable book on the -subject which has been carefully revised and supplemented, and must be -read by the serious student.[21] We may note from the point of view of -the student of dietetics that wheat is and remains, on physiological -examination, what the proverb suggests. Bread is the staff of life, -wheat being, in proportion to its price, by far the best and cheapest -of all foods. - -The argument of Sir William Crookes was advanced exactly a century -after the publication of the great essay of Malthus which we must soon -consider. In the whole intervening century no one, capable of being -heard, had considered the question. The relation of Crookes to the -earlier thinker remains, though it is curious that Malthus was not -mentioned by his successor. Writing now, a decade later, I wish merely -to point out that Sir William's argument is found valid. He observed -that "the actual and potential wheat-producing capacity of the United -States is--and will be, for years to come--the dominant factor in the -world's bread-supply." Now the recent expert from whom we have already -quoted declares that "former great wheat exporting countries like the -United States, as well as Russia and India, while their production -remains as high, are sending far less abroad under the pressure of -their own increasing needs. In this connection it may be recorded -that a great American corn expert declares that in twenty-five years -the United States will want all, or very nearly all, of her wheat -production for herself, and will have very little indeed to send us." -In 1898 Sir William said, "A permanently higher price for wheat is, -I fear, a calamity that ere long must be faced." As everyone knows, -this prophecy is now being fulfilled. Sir William declared that "the -augmentation of the world's eating population in a geometrical ratio" -is a proved fact. The phrase means, of course, simply that the yearly -increase increases. On the other hand, the wheat supply is subject to -a yearly increase which does not itself increase--in other words the -increase is in an arithmetical ratio. This, a century later, precisely -illustrates the principle of Malthus. Sir William also declared that -exports of wheat from the United States are only of present interest, -and that "within a generation the ever-increasing population of the -United States will consume all the wheat grown within its borders, and -will be driven to import, and, like ourselves, will scramble for the -lion's share of the wheat crop of the world." - -Next to the United States Russia is the greatest wheat exporter, but -the Russian peasant population increases more rapidly than any other in -Europe, even though it is inadequately fed, and this source of supply -must fail ere very long. As Sir William points out, the Caucasian -civilisation is indeed founded upon bread. "Other races vastly superior -to us in numbers, but differing widely in material and intellectual -progress, are eaters of Indian corn, rice, millet and other -grains; but none of these grains have the food-value, concentrated -health-sustaining power of wheat." Sir William's argument was, and is, -that we must learn how to fix the nitrogen of the atmosphere--that is -to say, how to combine it in forms on which the plant can feed. "The -fixation of nitrogen is a question of the not far distant future. -Unless we can class it among certainties to come, the great Caucasian -race will cease to be foremost in the world, and will be squeezed out -of existence by races to whom wheat and bread is not the staff of life." - -Sir William Crookes was himself the pioneer in the discovery of the -electric method of fixing the atmospheric nitrogen, and now, a decade -after the delivery of his address, this method is in successful -commercial employment in Scandinavia. There is also a method of sowing -the bacteria which are capable of fixing nitrogen and this, according -to some, has been already proved practicable. Further, the Mendelians -offer us the possibility of new varieties of wheat having more grains -to the stalk than we obtain at present. By these methods the output -of the land devoted to wheat may be doubled or trebled, but it is -evident that even then there will be an impassable limit. We have to -face, indeed, the evident but unconsidered fact that _there must be a -maximum possible human population for this finite earth_, whether a -bread-eating population or any other. I do not propose to speculate -regarding this evident truth. If human life is worth living and is the -highest life we know, we may desire to obtain that maximum population, -but it must be obtained, and its limits observed, by the humane and -decent processes which man is capable of putting into practice, and not -by the check of starvation. - -It is of great interest to the British reader to look at the question -briefly from his point of view. At the present time our wheat -production is no more than one-eighth of our needs, and in twenty-five -years, when the supply from the United States will probably have -ceased, we shall require 40,000,000 quarters of wheat per annum. Yet -already, in time of peace, careful observers such as the Rt. Hon. -Charles Booth and Mr. Seebohm Rowntree declare that thirty per cent. -of our own population are living on the verge of starvation. Our -available supply of food of all kinds at any moment would last us -about three weeks. How many of us realise what a war would mean for -this country? Yet in the face of facts such as these, the majority of -those who attempt to guide public opinion are urging us to increase our -birth-rate and still pin their faith to quantity rather than quality of -population as our great need. - -=The theory of Malthus.=--The reader who is interested in general -biology will realise, of course, that we are here back to the great -argument of Malthus, advanced in 1798 in his _Essay on the Principle of -Population_. Malthus was a great and sincere thinker, a high and true -moralist, and the people who have a vague notion that his name has some -connection with immoral principles of any kind have no acquaintance -with the subject. It is of the deepest interest for the history of -thought to know that it was the work of Malthus which suggested, -independently, both to Charles Darwin and to Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, -that principle of natural selection, the survival of the fittest and -their choice for parenthood, the discovery of which constituted one of -the great epochs in the history of human knowledge, and which is the -cardinal principle underlying the whole modern conception of eugenics -or race-culture. - -Malthus found in all life the constant tendency to increase beyond the -nourishment available. In a given area, not even the utmost imaginable -improvement in developing the resources of the soil can or could keep -pace with the unchecked increase of population.[22] This applies alike -to Great Britain and to the whole world. At bottom, then, the check -to population--and this is true of microbes or men--is want of food, -notwithstanding that this is never the immediate and obvious check -except in cases of actual famine. There must therefore be a "struggle -for existence," and as Darwin and Wallace saw, it follows as a -necessary truth that, to use Spencer's term, the fittest must survive. -The question is whether we are to accept starvation as, at bottom, -the factor controlling population (which, in any case, must be and -is controlled) or whether we can substitute something better--as for -instance, the moral self-control which Malthus recommended. The single -precept of this much maligned thinker was "Do not marry till you have a -fair prospect of supporting a family"--a fairly decent and respectable -doctrine. In the words of Mr. Kirkup, "the greatest and highest moral -result of his principle is that it clearly and emphatically teaches the -responsibility of parentage, and it declares the sin of those who bring -human beings into the world for whose physical, intellectual, and moral -well-being no satisfactory provision is made." Who, alas, will declare -that even after a century and a decade this great lesson is yet learnt? - -It is to be added, first, that though improvement in agriculture is to -be commended on every conceivable ground, and though it may in some -degree relieve and postpone the difficulty, it is infinitely incapable -of abolishing it. Nothing but necessity can check the prolificness of -life. To this doctrine, however, there is, as we shall shortly see, -a great excepting principle, unrecognised by Malthus, discovered by -Herbert Spencer, and of vast and universal importance. Secondly, it is -to be noted that emigration--a real remedy for over-population--is so -only for a time. It cannot possibly abolish the problem--short of the -development of interplanetary communication, if then; and the observer -of contemporary politics must be well aware, as Germany, for instance, -is well aware already, that its effectiveness as a practical remedy for -over-population in some European countries is already being arrested by -the invaded states. - -The references already made to the work of Sir William Crookes will -suffice to show that the teaching of Malthus is of practical importance -to us to-day, and not least to the population of Great Britain. I am -tempted to quote the actual case in this connection of a young student -of biology who applied for Malthus's book at one of the greatest -official libraries in this country. He was looked at as a shameless -young rascal, and the librarian curtly said, "We have no books of -that kind here." I commend this exquisite instance of misapplied and -perfectly ignorant British prudery to Mr. Bernard Shaw: not even he -could imagine anything to surpass it. No more impeccably decent book -than this of "Parson Malthus" has ever been written, and I have no -adequate comment for the fact that its nature and contents were not -merely wholly unknown but grossly misimagined by this responsible -official, and that it could not be obtained in the great library of -science in question. - -We pass in the following chapter to the momentous discovery of Herbert -Spencer that the great truth seen by Malthus was not a whole but a -half-truth, and that there is a compensating principle, which is at -once a source of inspiration and of difficulty to the eugenist. It is -in general the principle that as life ascends it becomes less prolific, -and its consequences are infinitely more vast than the phrase at first -suggests. Had this principle been discovered by a Continental thinker -or by a member of a British University instead of by a man who never -passed an examination, it would not now need the discussion which we -shall have to give it. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - THE GROWTH OF INDIVIDUALITY - - -=The laws of multiplication.=--Implicit or explicit approval of a -falling birth-rate involves opposition to the opinion of the man in -the street, the general opinion of the medical profession,[23] the -bench of bishops and the social prophet and publicist in general. -Nevertheless a fall in the birth-rate is a factor in organic progress, -and, in general, the level of any species is in inverse proportion to -its birth-rate, from bacteria to the most civilised classes of men in -the most civilised countries of to-day. But in truth the uninformed -opinion, totally contrary to the whole history of life and to the most -obvious comparative facts of the birth-rate amongst and within present -day human societies, was utterly disposed of forty years ago in the -closing chapter of the greatest contribution yet made to philosophic -biology--Herbert Spencer's _Principles of Biology_. The last chapter -of that masterpiece is entitled "The Laws of Multiplication." -Unfortunately it has not been read by one in ten thousand of those who -think themselves entitled to hold, and even to express, opinions about -the birth-rate. Spencer's discovery is the complementary half-truth -to the discovery of Malthus, and just as the law of Malthus is -pessimistic, so the law of Spencer is optimistic. In a word, Malthus -assumed--indeed, formally declared--that there was no natural factor of -an internal kind tending to limit the rate of vital fertility. Spencer -discovered that there is such a factor, which can and does limit and -has been limiting vegetable, animal, and human fertility since the dawn -of life. - -All reproduction involves an expenditure of energy in some degree on -the part of the parent. Now the energy available by any individual is -finite. If he expends it all upon reproduction, he himself, or she -herself, must cease to exist. This happens in all the lowest forms -of life, which multiply by fission or simple splitting. The young -bacteria are their sub-divided parent. At the other extreme is the -case of the individual who retains the whole of his energy for his own -development and life, and has no offspring at all. Such consummate -bachelor philosophers as Kant and Spencer may be quoted, and the list -of childless men of genius might be extended quite indefinitely. This -is not to declare this last state to be the ideal, but merely to point -out the logical extremes. - -Spencer's principle is that there is an "Antagonism," or, as we -may rather say, an inverse ratio, between "Individuation" and -"Genesis"--between the proportion of energy expended upon the -individual and the proportion expended upon the continuance of the -race. Thus "Individuation," meaning all those processes which maintain -and expand the life of the individual, and "Genesis," meaning all -those processes which involve the formation of new individuals--are -necessarily antagonistic. Every higher degree of individual evolution -is followed by a lower degree of race multiplication, and _vice versâ_. -Increase in bulk (_cf._ the elephant), complexity or activity involves -diminution in fertility, and _vice versâ_. This is an obvious _à -priori_ principle. - -Should the reader declare that there must be something the matter with -an asserted principle of progress which leads in theory or in practice -to the production of a childless generation, and therefore the end of -all progress, and that this principle suggests that the most completely -developed man and woman cannot be parents--then I would join in the -chorus of fathers and mothers generally, who would say that, in human -parenthood, if not, indeed, in sub-human parenthood, the antagonism -is reconciled in a higher unity; that the best and most complete -development of the individual is effected only through parenthood, in -due degree--as Spencer, himself childless, formally declared. - -It is impossible here to show how complete is the evidence for -Spencer's law, both from the side of logical necessity and from the -side of observation. In order to indicate the overwhelming character -of the evidence, one would have to transcribe the whole of his -long chapter, and to add to it all our modern knowledge of human -birth-rates. This cannot be done, but even without it we may venture -to say that people who regard a falling birth-rate as in itself, and -obviously, a sign of racial degeneration or immorality, or approaching -weakness or failure of any kind, can have made no substantial additions -to their knowledge of the subject since they themselves formed items in -the birth-rate. - -Spencer goes on to show, with profound insight, that, in general, -greater individuality, or, to put it in other words, the more highly -evolved organism, "_though less fertile absolutely, is the more fertile -relatively_." The supreme instance of this truth is, of course, the -case of man, in whom individuation has reached its unprecedented -height, who is _absolutely_ the least fertile of creatures,[24] and -yet who is _relatively_ the most fertile--unique in his actual and -persistent multiplication. - -=Their action in man.=--Within the human species the laws of -multiplication hold. It is still worth while, after half a century, to -quote Spencer's remark as to infertility in women due to mental labour -carried to excess--"most of the flat-chested girls who survive their -high-pressure education are incompetent to bear a well-developed infant -and to supply it with the natural food for the natural period." On all -hands people with opened eyes are rightly urging this truth upon us -to-day. In the United States the so-called higher education of girls -has been proved in effect to sterilise them--and these the flower of -the nation's girlhood, and therefore, rightly, the very elect for -motherhood. Here is simply an instance of the Spencerian principle in -its most unfortunate misdirection by man. - -Before leaving Spencer, we must refer briefly to the predictions, -based upon the foregoing principles, with which he concluded his great -work. The further evolution of man, he declares, must take mainly the -direction of a higher intellectual and emotional development. Hitherto, -and even to-day, pressure of population is the original cause of human -competition, application, discipline, expenditure of energy--and one -may add, the possibility of continued selection. Excess of fertility, -then, says Spencer, is the cause of man's evolution, but "man's further -evolution itself necessitates a decline in his fertility." The future -progress of civilisation will be accompanied by increased development -of individuality, emotional and intellectual. As Spencer observes, this -does not necessarily mean a mentally laborious life, for as mental -activity "gradually becomes organic, it will become spontaneous and -pleasurable." - -Finally, the necessary antagonism between individuality and parenthood -ensures the ultimate attainment of the highest form of the maintenance -of the race--"... _a form in which the amount of life shall be the -greatest possible, and the births and deaths the fewest possible_." - - * * * * * - -If now we look back at the law of Malthus we shall realise the -enormous significance of the law of Spencer. In this respect we have -the advantage over Malthus that we are aware, as he was not, of the -great fact of organic evolution. We discover, then, that an actual -consequence of the pressure of population, leading as it does to the -struggle for existence, and, in the main, the survival of higher types, -is that the rate of fertility falls. This conception of the fall in -the birth-rate--which, it is maintained, has been a great factor in -all organic progress--was entirely absent from the mind of Malthus. -In a word, the unlimited multiplication which Malthus observed leads -to its own correction. It provides abundance of material for natural -selection to work upon, and then the survival-value of individuation, -wherever it appears, asserts itself, with the consequence that the rate -of multiplication declines. This is actually to be observed to-day. -Malthus desired that we should postpone marriage to later ages so -as to lower the birth-rate. The increasing necessity and demand for -individuation is effecting that which Malthus desired. The average age -at marriage has been rising in our own country in both sexes during the -last thirty years: and the evidence shows that as civilisation advances -the age of marriage becomes later and later. Professor Metchnikoff has -discussed some aspects of this question in his book _The Nature of Man_. - -=The intensive culture of life.=--For every student of progress, and -not least for the eugenist, Spencer's law is a warrant of hope and a -promise of better things to come. It teaches that in the development -of higher--that is to say, more specialised--that is to say, more -individualised--organic types, Nature is working already, and has -been working for ages, towards the elimination of the brutal elements -in the struggle for existence. This is, of course, what every worker -for progress, and every eugenist in especial, desires. Spencer's -discovery teaches also that individuality compensates a species for -loss of high fertility. The survival-value of individuation is greater -than the survival-value of rapid multiplication. _The very fact of -progress is the replacement of lower by higher life, the supersession -of the quantitative by the qualitative criterion of survival-value, -the increasing dominance of mind over matter, the substitution of the -intensive for the merely extensive cultivation of life._ These various -phrases express, I believe, various aspects of one and the same great -fact, and I only wish it were possible to include here an exhaustive -study of the conception which may be expressed by the phrase "the -intensity of life"--as distinguished from its mere extension. There is, -I believe, a real and significant analogy between the introduction of -what is called intensive cultivation in agriculture, and the eugenic -principle which seeks to replace the extensive by the intensive -cultivation of human life. - -=The eugenic difficulty.=--But it will be already evident to the reader -that, though Spencer's law offers hope and warrant to the eugenist, -it also poses him with a permanent and ineradicable difficulty which -is inherent in natural necessity--viz., the difficulty that, in -consequence of the operation of this law, those very classes or members -of a society whose parenthood he most desires must be, in general, the -least fertile. Throughout the animal world the lesser fertility of -higher species is no real handicap to them, as we know; but where the -conditions of selection are so profoundly modified as in human society, -the case is very different. Furthermore, amongst mankind individuality -has often grown, and does grow, to such an extent that parenthood -disappears altogether. Indeed, Spencer's law expresses itself--and -the eugenist must qualify his hopes by the fact--in the practical -infertility of many[25] of the most highly individualised and even -unique personalities, that is to say, in the ranks of what we call -genius. To this subject we must return. - -A notable section in Mr. Galton's great work, _Inquiries into Human -Faculty_, states very plainly the difficulty for the eugenist involved -in Spencer's law, under its more statistical aspect. What are the -relative effects of early and late marriages? Mr. Galton proves, -mathematically, that in a very few generations a group of persons who -marry late will be simply bred down and more than supplanted by those -who marry early. Now no one will dispute that the less individualised, -the lower types, the more nearly animal, do in general marry earlier, -and are more fertile. Here, then, is an anti-eugenic tendency in -human society, depending really upon Spencer's law and requiring us -to recognise and counteract it by throwing all the weight we can -upon the side of progress, which means _increasing to our utmost the -survival-value and the effective fertility of the higher types_. - -Much more space might be spent upon this gravest of problems for the -eugenist--the fact that the very persons from whom he desires to -recruit the future on account of their greater individuality are also -on that very account the persons who, by natural necessity, tend to be -less fertile. The difficulty shows itself in the male sex, but it shows -itself still more conspicuously in the female sex, where the proportion -of the individual energy devoted to the race, as compared with that -devoted to individuation, is necessarily far higher, and must so remain -if the race is to persist. Primarily, the body of woman is the temple -of life to come--and _therefore_, as we shall some day teach our girls, -the holy of holies. Without going further into this matter now, it -may be suggested that a cardinal principle of practical importance -is involved. It is that the individual development of women, their -higher education, their self-expression in works of art and thought and -practice, cannot safely be carried to the point at which motherhood -is compromised; else the race in question will necessarily disappear -and be replaced by any race whatsoever, the women of which continue to -be mothers. There are women of the worker bee type whom this argument -annoys intensely. No one wants _them_ to be mothers. - -The proposition that all progress in the psychical world depends upon -individuality, just as all organic progress, and indeed, all organic -evolution, depends upon the physical individuality which biologists -call variation, may suggest to the reader the importance which must -attach to our study of talent and genius, and the possibility of aiding -their production. Meanwhile, we must look a little further at the -general question of individuality or quality _versus_ quantity from the -international point of view. - -=Quantity versus quality.=--The reader will understand how it is -that anyone writing from the biological standpoint must view with -something like contempt the common assumption that, in international -competition, mere statistics of population furnish, as such, final -and adequate data for prophecy. Let us remind ourselves once more -that, according to these crude criteria, which were really superseded -untold æons ago, the dominance of the world must belong in the near -future not to Russia, with its balance of more than two million births -per annum, rather than to France, with its approximately stationary -population, but to the bacteria, the growth of population amongst -which, if it be not controlled by the less fertile creature we call -man, may be of simply inexpressible magnitude. But the world is not, -and will not be, ruled by bacteria, their fertility notwithstanding. -Indeed, the disease-producing bacteria have already had sentence of -death pronounced upon them by the higher intelligence of man, and -that sentence will be carried out within a century. Similarly within -the bounds of humanity we must recognise the limitations of mere -statistics. The population of France, some forty years ago, consisted -of so many millions of units. The figure does not matter,--let us put -it at 30,000,001. Now that 1, so to say, was called Louis Pasteur, -and from the point of view of statistics or those who think they can -predict history by counting heads, he was only an almost infinitesimal -fraction, about one-thirty-millionth part, of the French people. Yet, -as Huxley pointed out long ago, his mind sufficed to pay the entire -indemnity exacted from France after the Franco-Prussian war. This -single unit was worth more than a host of soldiers of the merely -mechanical kind. Or take Athens, with its population of 30,000 people, -mostly slaves, and consider its influence upon the world. Or, indeed, -go where you please, whether to the history of nations or the history -of religion or science or art, and ask whether the counting of heads, -the ordinary census taking which indeed amounts merely to weighing -nations by the ton, is an adequate one. In estimating national -capital by the methods of vital statistics alone, we are in a far -worse case than he would be who estimated monetary wealth by numbers -of coins, without considering whether they were pounds, shillings or -pence, whether they were genuine or counterfeit. The illustration is -ludicrously inadequate, as every illustration must be, simply because -the human case is unique. In the units of a population, which many -prophets treat as if they were all of equal value, there are not merely -differences to which the difference between a sovereign and a penny -offers no parallel; there is not merely an enormous quantity of bogus -or counterfeit units, but there is a very large number of units in -every population which, so far from adding to the value of the rest, -subtract from it, are parasitic upon it. Students of money will find -no parallel to this. Yet in the face of facts which ought to be common -intellectual property amongst school-children, we find many writers, -bishops, socialist economists, moralists, schoolboy Imperialists, and -the rest, pointing merely to the quantitative question of population -as if it were everything, though they must surely know that, if -international competition were the highest state of mankind, and if -the work of Kelvin and Lister had been sold at its real worth by us to -the rest of the world, those two men alone, in their services to life, -and in the power which they give us over life, would be equal in value -to, shall we say, the lower four-fifths of the whole birth-rate during -the last generation. All human history teaches, as all animal history -teaches in lesser degree, that quality and individuality is everything, -that quantity is nothing or far worse than nothing _except in so far -as it is quantity of quality_: yet though this lesson is written upon -every page of the past, the greater number of our publicists and our -public advisers still implicitly deny it. As Mr. Crackanthorpe put it, -speaking of the figures for 1907, it is not the defective numbers, but -the numbers of defectives, that should give us concern. - -=Mass versus mind.=--John Ruskin called Darwin "a dim comet, wagging -its tail of phosphorescent nothing against the steadfast stars"--a -description as delightful as it is foolish. Yet the conception of -eugenics, which is indeed a necessary deduction from Darwin's great -discovery, finds abundant warrant and support in Ruskin's own wonderful -writings, and here I quote, from _Time and Tide_, some sentences which -still require to be read and remembered by the majority of our present -advisers. He says:-- - - "And the question of numbers is wholly immaterial, compared with - that of character; or rather, its own materialness depends on the - prior determination of character. Make your nation consist of - knaves, and, as Emerson said long ago, it is but the case of any - other vermin--the more, the worse. Or, to put the matter in narrower - limits, it is a matter of no final concern to any parent whether he - shall have two children, or four; but matter of quite final concern - whether those he has shall, or shall not, deserve to be hanged.... - You have to consider first, by what methods of land distribution you - can maintain the greatest number of healthy persons; and secondly - whether, if, by any other mode of distribution and relative ethical - laws, you can raise their character, while you diminish their - numbers, such sacrifices should be made, and to what extent?... The - French and British public may and will, with many other publics, be - at last brought ... to see farther that a nation's real strength - and happiness do not depend upon properties and territories, nor on - machinery for their defence, but on their getting such territory as - they _have_, well filled with none but respectable persons, which is - a way of _infinitely_ enlarging one's territory, feasible to every - potentate." - -Surely it is not necessary, one feels, and yet one knows it is -necessary, again to lay down propositions of such shining truth, and -one wonders whether they shine so brightly as to blind those who should -see them: or what can conceivably be the explanation of such arguments -as those of the Bishop of London and others who, in the face of our -monstrous infant and child mortality, the awful pressure of population -and over-crowding in our great cities, where every year a larger and -larger proportion of the population lives, and is born and dies--plead -for a higher birth-rate on moral grounds, of all amazing grounds -conceivable; and those also who, from the military or so-called -Imperial point of view, regarding men primarily as "food for powder," -in Shakespeare's phrase, read and quote statistics of population in -order to promulgate the same advice? - -To the moralist we need make no reply except simply to name the infant -mortality which is at last coming to be recognised everywhere as, -perhaps, the most abominable of all our scandals. To the militarist I -would quote the case of our ally, Japan. He recalls the war between -China and Japan, and its issue, and has some idea, perhaps, of the -population ratio of those two Empires. How was it that Providence was -on the side of the small battalions? He recalls also the Russo-Japanese -war and its issue; and the population ratio of the two Empires in that -case. How many other instances does not military history afford of -the truth that in the human species mind is the master of matter? One -would suppose that a critical historical enquiry had been made, proving -that the results of all past wars could have been predicted by the -simple method of estimating the total aggregate weight of the combatant -nations in flesh and blood and bone! More than this, if the development -of the art of warfare means anything, if there has been any such -development since the days of fists and stones, it means, as all human -development in every sphere means, the increasing dominance of mind -over matter, character and initiative over machinery, _dead or alive_. -Meanwhile, the estimate of warriors in terms of the scale and the foot -rule are still accepted just as if they had not been rendered obsolete -for ever with the passing of the "dragons of the prime." - -As regards the psychical worth of the soldier, is it not recognised, -though too commonly forgotten, when we applaud the value of the veteran -or of seasoned troops? Physically the veteran is, on the average, -inferior to the younger man. It is the psychical that gives him -his worth, just as it was patriotism and sobriety that enabled the -few sober Japanese to beat the many drunken Russians. It is safe to -prophesy that, in all future war, the numerical criterion, which in -effect weighs armies by the ton, as if war were merely a tug-of-war, -will become less and less important--if, indeed, it is not already -negligible; whilst the purely psychical qualities, from generalship and -strategy and hygiene to initiative, judgment, accuracy, memory, and -down finally to mere brutal red-blooded courage, will determine the -issue. - -Platitude, of course, but if true, why ignored? Why cannot our military -advisers learn, in this respect, from the Navy? Owing to the very -nature of the sea as compared with the land, in relation to the merely -physical capacities of man, a Navy must be more intelligent than an -Army, just as it requires more intelligence to make a boat than to -walk; and it is in the Navy that the mechanical factor has been most -completely transferred, so that the human machinery is at a discount -and the steel machinery made by the human mind is much, whilst the -value of the psychical in all its aspects dominates and controls -the whole. Great Britain, as the foremost naval power in the world, -should long ago have left to its ultimate fate amongst other nations -the idea that quantity--so many tons of soldiers and so many tons of -sailors--affords an estimate of the warring force of a nation: even if -the whole history of this little isle and the possession of our present -Empire did not teach, as the history of Rome taught and as the history -of Athens teaches in another sphere, that not mass but mind makes a -nation great. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - HEREDITY AND RACE-CULTURE - - "We cannot but feel that the application of biological results - is _only beginning_, and beginning with a tardiness which is a - reproach to human foresight. There can be no doubt that it would - pay the British nation to put aside a million a year for research - on eugenics, or the improvement of the human breed." (Prof. J. A. - Thomson, _Heredity_, 1908.) - - -It is evident that the facts and principles of heredity lie at the -very basis of eugenics or race-culture in any of its forms, practical -or impractical, scientific or unscientific. Our continual assumption -throughout is that _like tends to beget like_, and it is on this ground -that we desire to make parenthood the privilege of those whom we regard -as _inherently_ the best. If there were no such thing as heredity there -could be no possibility of race-culture--nor indeed should we be here -to discuss it. If a man's children were equally likely to be acorns or -babies or tadpoles, the living world would not be the living world we -know. - -The potency of heredity is obscured to uncritical examination by the -fact that that which is inheritable is that which was innate, inherent -or germinal in the parent, as we shall shortly see. We, however, are -apt to compare the child with the parent, who has perhaps been much -modified by circumstances, so that the resemblance between father -and child may seem to be slight. Yet if we could bring back before -us that father, as he was, say at the age of two, and compare him -with his two-year-old child, we should perhaps be astonished by the -resemblance. But we see the acquirements or acquired characters of the -parent; make no distinction between them and his inherent characters; -fail to discover these acquired characters in his child;--and discount -the importance of heredity. Then, again, the eugenist may be utterly -confounded if he estimates the parental value of an individual without -reference to this limitation of heredity. Here is a man of culture and -accomplishment; his children, then, will presumably tend to be cultured -and accomplished. But every kind of advantage that forethought and -love and money can afford may have been showered upon that man. So far -as native endowment was concerned, he may have indeed been far below -mediocrity. Now it is native endowment alone that he can transmit, and -our eugenic estimate of him is therefore erroneous and will lead to -disappointment. It is impossible to lay too great stress upon the truth -that in all eugenic plans or demands or practices we are assuming the -fact of inheritance, and that therefore it is our first business to -distinguish absolutely between that which tends to be inherited and -that which, on the other hand, is never inherited. - -Yet again, this distinction is of almost incalculable social moment in -so far as it affects the process of selection actually occurring in -society. This, perhaps, has not been adequately recognised. One may -repeat a former statement of this point, which is cardinal for the -eugenist:-- - - "Even supposing that we were all identical at birth, yet, since - we would come to differ from one another in virtue of different - acquirements, due to our adaptation to differing environments, - natural selection would ultimately have different individuals - from which to select. Those who had made the most advantageous - acquirements, such as industry or great knowledge, would tend to - survive and prosper, whilst those who had made disadvantageous - acquirements, such as laziness or the loss of sight or limbs, would - be pushed to the wall. That process, of course, occurs in society - at the present day to a greater or less degree, but it has only - immediate and temporary or contemporary consequences. For if we - recall the assertion that acquirements cannot be transmitted, we - shall see that the selection of those who have made advantageous - acquirements cannot benefit the next generation, since these - acquirements die with their makers. The only process of natural - selection which can result in progress is one which consists in - the selection of favourable ... inborn and therefore transmissible - characters, such as good digestion, the musical sense, exceptional - intelligence, the sympathetic temperament or what not (in so far as - these are inborn)--the reason being that such are transmissible and - that the children of persons so selected will tend to inherit their - parents' good fortune. There is a fictitious way in which we speak - of a child inheriting his father's acquirements, as when his father - has acquired a fortune; but the child does much better to inherit - his father's good sense or good health, which were characters inborn - in him. Acquirements, then, are all very well for the day, but it is - inborn characters that alone count for the morrow."[26] - -It may be added that the time is coming when there will be a radical -"transvaluation," as Nietzsche would say, of the two fashions in which -a father "leaves" something to his children. When a question is asked -on this head now-a-days, we mean, foolishly enough, to enquire how -much money the father left his child, and we say of a man that he has -"inherited" a fortune. We can see plainly enough, as Theognis did -two thousand five hundred years ago, that such an "inheritance" may -and often does work in an anti-eugenic fashion. The gilded fool is -swallowed by the maiden whose native sense would have rejected such a -pill without its coat, and so the most pitiable degenerate becomes the -father of his like. This point will be alluded to later. The present -argument is that when we ask what a father "left" his children, we -should really desire to learn what he _gave_ them when he was still -alive and begot them. These vital, or mortal, characters which they -inherit--shall we say good health or insanity--are of incalculably -more moment to them as individuals than any monetary fortune, and of -incalculably more moment for the future. Yet again is it true that -there is no wealth but life, and the best "fortune" or wealth that you -can leave your children is sane and vigorous life. - -=The case of slum childhood.=--We have already seen that even in the -slums the children make a fresh start in a wonderful way, that their -stunted growth, their proneness to disease, are mainly due to their -environment, which it is therefore our duty to improve. This is _in -general_ true, and depends evidently upon the fact that the acquired -deterioration of the parents--_e.g._, dental decay--is not transmitted -to their children--poisonings apart--so that the children make a fresh -start where their parents did. It is necessary to point this out -again and again, as the present writer for one has long been weary -of doing, because it indicates our immediate duty in this respect, -and forbids us to shirk it with any too-comprehensive phrases about -"national degeneration." Now who could have predicted that this plain -and simple truth would be regarded by some people as constituting a -denial--on strict scientific grounds, and as the very latest scientific -pronouncement--of the principle of heredity? "The bubble of heredity -has been pricked," says Mr. Bernard Shaw. - -But popular muddleheadedness does not affect the palpable and universal -truth that the _inherent_ characters of parents do tend to be inherited -by their children; nor yet that these inherent characters differ -profoundly in different individuals; nor yet the eugenic argument, -which is that for purposes of parenthood, which means for the entire -future, some of these should be taken and others left. - -"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, -or figs of thistles?... Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." -These classical words surely have a special value for the eugenist. As -we have said, it is his particular necessity, alike in theory and in -practice, to "know" the real nature, the innate, inherent, germinal -characters, of the individuals who may or may not be parents: and -these, as we have seen, are frequently obscured by the action of the -environment--as, for instance, in the population of the slums on -the one hand, or the man of factitious culture on the other hand. -But "by their fruits ye shall know them." In general, the children -inherit what was innate in their parents, and in many an instance the -surest way in which you could ascertain what the parent really was by -nature--what, as we say, Nature "meant" him to be--is by a study of -his children. Only, of course, we must take the children very young -indeed, before environment has made its mark upon them also, for better -or for worse. Thus, when we find the new-born baby of some pallid, -half-starved, stunted mother in the slums, to be healthy and vigorous -and beautiful,[27] by this fruit we shall know what the mother might -and should have been. A healthy baby goes far to demonstrate that the -stock is healthy. This is one of the cardinal truths which emerge from -the study of infant mortality, and it may be perhaps permitted to -warn some students of race-culture of the errors into which they are -bound to fall if they do not reckon with what the student of infant -mortality is constantly asserting: viz., that the babies of the slums, -seen early, before ignorance and neglect have had their way with -them, are physically vigorous and promising in certainly not less than -ninety per cent. of cases. This primarily demonstrates, of course, the -murderous nature of our infant mortality; but it also demonstrates to -the eugenist that these classes are perhaps not so unworthy as he may -fancy. By their new-born babies ye shall know them. It is under the -influence of such considerations that the present writer, for one, is -somewhat chary of predictions and proposals based upon the relative -fertility of different classes of the community or of the masses as -compared with the classes. Directly the eugenist begins to talk in -terms of _social_ classes (as Mr. Galton has never done), he is skating -on thin ice, and if it lets him through, he will find the remains of -many of his rash predecessors beneath it.[28] - -In fine, then, if we observe the distinction between the innate and -the acquired, which is the distinction between the transmissible and -the intransmissible, this is so far from denying the fact of heredity -at all as in reality to emphasise its potency whilst undoubtedly -diminishing its range. - -=A criticism of terms.=--In order that this distinction may be clear -and never forgotten, it is well to look to our vocabulary--words -being good servants but bad masters. We should certainly have this -vocabulary purged altogether of a certain word in common and uncritical -employment, especially by the medical profession. This is the -thoroughly misleading, indeterminate and useless word "congenital." -Not on one occasion in a hundred of its use does any examined meaning -attach to it. The word is commonly used as the equivalent of innate, -inherent, inborn or germinal. Now nothing is truly innate or inborn -save what was present in the germ. But with childish confusion of -thought, we persist in attaching quite undeserved importance to the -_birth_ of those animals which are brought forth "alive"--as if a -bird's egg were not alive. Hence we speak of any character present at -birth as congenital, and then we assume that congenital is synonymous -with inherent or germinal. But it is an irrelevant detail that a young -mammal happens to leave its mother at the ninth week or month. During -the whole period that it spends within its mother, it is to be regarded -as an individual organism with its own environment. If that environment -so affects it as to strangle a limb, the result is an acquirement, -though it may be present at birth. An acquirement is an acquirement, -whether it be acquired five minutes or months before, or five minutes -or months after, the change of environment which we call birth. -Thus a character may be congenital--that is, present at birth--but -not inherent or germinal, not inborn at the _real birth_, which was -the union of the maternal and paternal germ-cells at conception. -Such congenital characters are really acquirements, and--poisonings -apart--are not transmissible. In common discussion this distinction -is wholly ignored; and two distinct things, fundamentally different -in origin and in potency, are lumped together under the blessed word -"congenital." - -This word is equally foolish and useless in an opposite direction. -It constantly leads those who use it to suppose that the inherent -characters of an individual are conterminous with his congenital -characters or his characters at birth, and that thus any characters -which he displays at a later age are acquired. All this comes -of the absurdly delusive significance attached to the change of -environment called birth, and may doubtless be traced historically to -the remotest superstitions which imagined that a baby is not alive -until it is born and breathes, or that the soul or breath or _pneuma_ -or "vital principle" is breathed into it at the moment of birth. We -know, however, that a man may display for the first time at the age -of twenty or sixty a character which was as truly inherent in his -constitution as his nose or his spinal column--perhaps a beard, perhaps -a mental character, perhaps a disease, or what not. Now this was not -congenital though it was inherent. But as long as the stupid[29] word -"congenital" is used as it is, we shall fail to realise that inherent -characters may display themselves in an individual at any time after -birth as at any time before birth. Thus, to sum up, a character may be -congenital or rather _pre-congenital_, yet not inherent but acquired: -a character may be post-congenital, yet not acquired but inherent. Now -the all-important question as regards heredity is not at what date in -the history of an individual a character appears--as, for instance, -before birth or after birth; but, whether that character is inherent -and therefore transmissible and therefore a possible architect of the -future of mankind; or merely an acquirement, with which--the racial -poisons apart--heredity has no concern. - -It is suggested, then, that the word congenital be expunged from the -vocabulary of science, or that, if it be retained, some meaning or -other--any will do--be attached to it. If the word is to be retained, -and if it be agreed to attach a meaning to it, probably "at birth" -would be the most convenient. If this were agreed upon, then the -phrase "congenital blindness," now in common use, could be retained, -as it would then accurately indicate the nature of the blindness in -question, which is due almost invariably, if not invariably, to an -infection acquired at the moment of birth. - -Yet further. When we say that a man's intelligence or length of limb -or whatever it be is hereditary, we mean in ordinary speech that this -character can be traced in one or more of his ancestors; and that is, -of course, an accurate use of the term. But Shakespeare, for instance, -had unremarkable ancestors, so that no one would say that his genius -was hereditary; are we, then, to say that it was acquired? Every one -would protest at once that a poet is born and not made--than which -there is certainly no truer popular saying. What, then, is to be said -of it if it was neither hereditary nor acquired? The truth is that -language is again at fault. Shakespeare's genius was of inherent or -germinal origin--the poet is born and not made: or, more accurately, -the poet is conceived and not made, either before birth or after it. -Therefore, though Shakespeare did not inherit his mother's genius or -his father's genius, neither of them having such a gift to transmit, -yet his genius was certainly potential either in the maternal or -paternal germ-cell which united to form him, or in both; or at the -least arose in consequence of that compromise or rearrangement or -settlement, shall we say, which is in effect always agreed upon by the -two germ-cells in bi-parental reproduction. Now the two germ-cells are -the hereditary material. They were given to Shakespeare by his parents; -nay more, they made him. His genius, then, was hereditary in an -absolutely correct sense of the word, yet not in the sense of ordinary -speech, nor even in the sense in which it is employed by Mr. Galton in -his book on _Hereditary Genius_. This confusion of terms is responsible -for much confusion of thought. It must the more urgently be cleared up -because of the discoveries in heredity initiated by the Abbot Mendel, -forty years ago, and now included in the department of the science of -heredity which is called Mendelism. We learn from this that highly -definite characters may appear in offspring though there was no sign of -them in either parent. These, then, are not hereditary in the sense of -ordinary speech. Yet, in a more accurate sense of the word they can be -proved to be hereditary--nay more, the manner and proportion of their -transmission can be predicted in the most exact mathematical terms. -These characters were not present in the parent's body; they did not -lie open to view in the parent; they were not patent in the parent. -They were latent, however, they lay hid, in the parent, or rather in -the germ-plasm of which that parent was the host. In many such cases, -if we go back a generation further we find that the character in -question was patent in a grand-parent. A mother's son may suffer from -hæmophilia or the bleeding disease, yet she is not a "bleeder," nor is -the boy's father; but her father was a bleeder, and the disease is, of -course, hereditary in her son, though neither of his parents displayed -a trace of it. - -Thus an individual may inherit or may have inherent in the germ-cells -from which he was formed characters which were not present in either -parent. They were, however, potentially present in the germ-cells of -which those parents were the trustees. - -But, the reader will say, do we find in the case of every "sport" or -"transilient variation," such as Shakespeare, that the new character -was, after all, present in some one or other of his ancestors though -absent in his immediate parents? The answer is negative, certainly. -But genius, to take this case, is a combination of qualities. And the -Mendelians are now able to call into existence organisms of new kinds -by combination of qualities derived from one parent, or rather from one -parental line, with other qualities, formerly apparently incompatible -with them derived from the other parental line. Thus Professor Biffen -of Cambridge has called into existence a new kind of wheat such as -never existed before--a wheat combining the quality technically called -"strength," hitherto lacking in all kinds of wheat capable of being -profitably grown in Great Britain, with the power of yielding a large -crop and other good qualities found in home-grown wheat. He has also -produced a wheat which, together with other desirable qualities, is -immune from the disease known as "rust," this immunity having never -been found before associated with the other good qualities in question. -These advances will not long be limited to the vegetable world merely. -Perhaps it requires no very great imagination, after all, to suppose -that even something like that combination of qualities which we call -genius may some day be produced at will in mankind. - -Such a new wheat, then,--I will not say such a Shakespeare--owes its -unique and unprecedented properties to heredity, and yet there was -never anything like it before. Its "genius" is not "hereditary." - -The words _innate_ and _inborn_ are harmless and may be employed, -though the apparent emphasis on birth is rather unfortunate. We mean, -however, by innate or inborn qualities, qualities which were potential -in the germ. The genius of Shakespeare was innate or inborn. It was -present potentially at his real birth, the union of the parental cells. -It preceded his "birth" in the ordinary sense of the word: Shakespeare, -when only _in embryo_, was a Shakespeare _in embryo_. - -Better still is the word _inherent_, which, of course, literally means -"sticking in." By anything inherent we mean that which was there from -the first as part and parcel of, as indeed essential to, the entity -to which we refer. Now inherent characters are always inherited in -the accurate sense that they inhere in the germ-cells, which are -the inherited material. As these germ-cells make us or as we are -made out of them, it follows, of course, that all our potentialities -whatsoever, our ultimate fates in every particular, partly depend upon -inheritance.[30] - -_Nature_ and _nurture_ are antithetic terms of Shakespearean origin -which are in frequent use and much favoured by Mr. Galton. That which -comes by nature is the inborn, inherent, or germinal; and that is due -to nurture which is the result of the converse of the germinal with the -environment--a man's accent, for instance. - -Perhaps, in some ways, _germinal_ is the most useful word of all, -though inherent is so convenient and familiar, as well as being -accurate etymologically, that it has been employed throughout this -book. Not only is the word germinal strictly accurate, but also it -suggests the idea of the germ-plasm, and has the particular virtue of -avoiding all reference to the change of environment to which young -mammals are subjected and which is called birth. - -There remains the terminological difficulty that, as I have tried to -show, the individual may display characters which were potential in the -germ, inherent and necessarily inherited, though they did not appear in -the parent nor yet in any ancestor. We have to face the paradox, then, -that in natural inheritance a parent can transmit what he has not got, -though this does not apply to the unnatural inheritance of property in -human society. Now what word is there which shall indicate the origin -or at least the time and conditions of origin, of such characters -as these? They are germinal, yet they are--in some cases--not wholly -present in either of the germ-cells which united to form the new -individual in question. They are present, however, in the new single -cell from which this individual, like every living organism, takes its -origin.[31] The terms "congerminal" or "conceptional" might be employed. - -"Acquired character," even, is a bad term. It replaced -"functionally-produced modification," which was long employed by -Spencer. The blacksmith's biceps answers to this phrase. It is this -and other such modifications that are non-transmissible. Alcoholic -degeneration is not a "functionally-produced modification," but it -is an "acquired character," as is lead poisoning. These do produce -results in offspring--naturally enough. If the older phrase were still -the one employed, we should see that the Weismannian argument as to -non-transmission does not apply to _such_ "acquired characters." - -The word "reversion," also, not to say "atavism," may well be dropped. -The attempted justification of its older meaning by Professor -Thomson has led to severe and conclusive Mendelian criticism. The -"reversion" of fancy pigeons to the blue ancestor is simply due -to the coming together of Mendelian units long separated. The -"reversion" of the feeble-minded is not reversion but the result of -poisoning--_di_version, or _per_version, if you like. Primitive man was -not feeble-minded, nor is the ape. Science has no further use for the -word as it is at present employed. - -=Maternal impressions.=--We are now, at last, after our attempt to -clear up the vocabulary of heredity, in a position to consider -certain doctrines and popular beliefs which bear very directly upon -race-culture. Realising, for instance, that "congenital" means nothing; -realising as perhaps some of us have not so clearly realised before, -_when_ exactly it is that the new human being comes into existence, we -shall be prepared to understand how definite and indisputable are the -denials which science offers to certain popular ideas. - -Thus, for instance, in the interests of race-culture, or, to be more -particular, in the interests of her unborn baby, the expectant mother -may faithfully follow the example of Lucy in _The Ordeal of Richard -Feverel_.[32] Does this have its intended effect? The answer is an -unqualified negative. Consider the case. The baby is at this time -already a baby, though rather small and uncanny, floating in a fluid of -its own manufacture. Its sole connection with its mother is by means -of its umbilical cord--that is to say, blood vessels, arterial and -venous. There is no nervous connection whatever: absolutely nothing but -the blood-stream, carried along a system of tubes. This blood is the -child's blood, which it sends forth from itself along the umbilical -cord to a special organ, the placenta or after-birth, half made by -itself and half made by the mother, in which the child's blood travels -in thin vessels so close to the mother's blood that their contents can -be interchanged. Yet the two streams never actually mix. The child's -blood, having disposed of its carbonic acid and waste-products to the -mother's blood, and having received therefrom oxygen and food, returns -so laden to the child. Pray how is the mother's reading of history to -make the child a historian? If, after birth, a small operation were -performed, so that some of the mother's blood should run along an -artificial tube into one of her baby's veins, the effective connection -between the two organisms would in a sense be actually closer than it -was before birth, when, as has been said, the two streams are always -kept apart. Should we expect such an operation to serve the child for -education? If the mother then acquired a scar should we expect it to -give the child a similar scar? - -We see now why the learning of geometry on the part of the mother -before its birth will not set her baby upon that royal road to geometry -of which Euclid rightly denied the existence--any more than after -its birth. Such a thing does not happen, and there is no conceivable -means by which it could happen--unless we are to call in telepathy. -All maternal hopes and efforts of this kind are utterly misguided: as -misguided as if the father entertained similar hopes. Let the devoted -mother acquaint herself not with what historians are pleased to call -history, but with the history of the developing human mind and body, so -that she may be a fit educator of her child when it is born. - -Let her also realise that her blood is everything to her child. It is -food and air and organ of excretion. If she introduces alcohol into -her blood in any considerable quantity she is feeding her child on -poisoned food. Surely the reader must see the distinction between a -case like this and the supposed transmission of historical knowledge or -even historical aptitude from mother to baby by the diligent perusal of -histories. Yet though the distinction is so palpable and evident, there -are extremists who believe and even print their beliefs that the denial -of the one (supposed) possibility, which is palpably inconceivable, -logically carries with it a denial of the other possibility, which is -indeed a palpable necessity. Or, to state the criticism in another way, -there are those who, if we protest that the introduction of poisons -into the mother's organism must surely involve risk to the child who is -nourished by her blood, will retort, "Oh, well, I suppose you believe -that if you learn a number of languages before your next child is born, -he or she will be a linguist!"[33] - -=Hereditary genius.=--Mr. Galton's world-famous work on _Hereditary -Genius_ was published in 1869 and reprinted with a most valuable -additional chapter in 1892. It has long been out of print, however, and -for the definite purpose of attempting to arouse the reader's interest -in it so that he may somehow or other obtain a copy to read, I may here -go over one or two points, chosen to that end. The argument, of course, -is that ability is hereditary.[34] - -This, in the judgment of most unbiassed people, Mr. Galton conclusively -proved: and we do not at all realise to-day how repugnant and -revolutionary this doctrine appeared to popular opinion some forty -years ago. Mr. Galton has, however, followed up his citation of facts -on more than one occasion since,[35] and those who now deny his view -belong to that very large majority of any population which finds -itself able to pronounce confidently upon the value of an author's -work without the labour, found necessary by less fortunate people, of -reading it. - -The following quotation states the question of national eugenics in -final form:-- - - "As an example of what could be sought with advantage, let us - suppose that we take a number, sufficient for statistical purposes, - of persons occupying different social classes, those who are the - least efficient in physical, intellectual, and moral grounds forming - our lowest class, and those who are the most efficient forming our - highest class. The question to be solved relates to the hereditary - permanence of the several classes. What proportion of each class - is descended from parents who belong to the same class, and what - proportion is descended from parents who belong to each of the other - classes? Do those persons who have honourably succeeded in life, - and who are presumably, on the whole, the most valuable portion of - our human stock, contribute on the aggregate their fair share of - posterity to the next generation? If not, do they contribute more - or less than their fair share, and in what degree? In other words, - is the evolution of man in each particular country favourably or - injuriously affected by its special form of civilisation? - - "Enough is already known to make it certain that the productiveness - of both the extreme classes, the best and the worst, falls short of - the average of the nation as a whole. Therefore, the most prolific - class necessarily lies between the two extremes, but at what - intermediate point does it lie? Taken altogether, on any reasonable - principle, are the natural gifts of the most prolific class, bodily, - intellectual, and moral, above or below the line of national - mediocrity? If above that line, then the existing conditions are - favourable to the improvement of the race. If they are below that - line, they must work towards its degradation." - -The main body of the book deals with enquiries in special cases--the -judges of England between 1660 and 1865, statesmen, commanders, -authors, men of science, poets, musicians, painters, divines, senior -classics of Cambridge, oarsmen and wrestlers. - -The concluding chapters should be printed in gold. Only one or two -notes can here be made. Mr. Galton believes that the dark ages were -largely due to the celibacy enjoined by religious orders on their -votaries:-- - - "Whenever a man or woman was possessed of a gentle nature that - fitted him or her to deeds of charity, to meditation, to literature - or to art, the social condition of the time was such that they had - no refuge elsewhere than in the bosom of the Church. But the Church - chose to preach and exact celibacy, and the consequence was that - these gentle natures had no continuance, and thus, by a policy - so singularly unwise and suicidal that I am hardly able to speak - of it without impatience, the Church brutalised the breed of our - forefathers. She acted precisely as if she had aimed at selecting - the rudest portion of the community to be, alone, parents of future - generations. She practised the arts which breeders would use, who - aimed at creating ferocious, currish, and stupid natures. No wonder - that club law prevailed for centuries over Europe; the wonder rather - is that enough good remained in the veins of Europeans to enable - their race to rise to its present very moderate level of natural - morality." - -Yet further:-- - - "The policy of the religious world in Europe was exerted in another - direction, with hardly less cruel effect on the nature of future - generations, by means of persecutions which brought thousands of the - foremost thinkers and men of political aptitudes to the scaffold, or - imprisoned them during a large part of their manhood, or drove them - as emigrants into other lands. In every one of these cases the check - upon their leaving issue was very considerable. Hence the Church, - having first captured all the gentle natures and condemned them to - celibacy, made another sweep of her huge nets, this time fishing - in stirring waters, to catch those who were the most fearless, - truth-seeking, and intelligent, in their modes of thought, and - therefore the most suitable parents of a high civilisation, and put - a strong check, if not a direct stop, to their progeny. Those she - reserved on these occasions, to breed the generations of the future, - were the servile, the indifferent, and, again, the stupid. Thus, as - she--to repeat my expression--brutalised human nature by her system - of celibacy applied to the gentle, she demoralised it by her system - of persecution of the intelligent, the sincere, and the free. It is - enough to make the blood boil to think of the blind folly that has - caused the foremost nations of struggling humanity to be the heirs of - such hateful ancestry, and that has so bred our instincts as to keep - them in an unnecessarily long-continued antagonism with the essential - requirements of a steadily advancing civilisation." - -For this final quotation no apology is needed:-- - - "The best form of civilisation in respect to the improvement of the - race, would be one in which society was not costly; where incomes - were chiefly derived from professional sources, and not much through - inheritance; where every lad had a chance of showing his abilities, - and, if highly gifted, was enabled to achieve a first-class education - and entrance into professional life, by the liberal help of the - exhibitions and scholarships which he had gained in his early youth; - where marriage was held in as high honour as in ancient Jewish times; - where the pride of race was encouraged (of course I do not refer to - the nonsensical sentiment of the present day, that goes under that - name); where the weak could find a welcome and a refuge in celibate - monasteries or sisterhoods, and lastly, where the better sort of - emigrants and refugees from other lands were invited and welcomed, - and their descendants naturalised." - -=The study of psychical inheritance.=--This early work of Mr. Galton -has been followed by much more on the same lines. Contemporary -psychology, however, is _just beginning_ to indicate the lines on -which new enquiry is needed. The naïve assertions of the actuary as -to the inheritance of, say, "conscientiousness" are not useful to the -psychologist, who has some idea of the structure and history of that -most complex social product we call conscience. The psychologists -must analyse out for us those elementary units of the mind upon -which experience and the social state, education and suggestion act, -to make human nature as we know it. The reader may be directed to -Dr. McDougall's recent work on _Social Psychology_--written at the -present writer's suggestion--for an outline analysis of what is really -inherent, and therefore alone transmissible, in the human mind--certain -instincts and impulses, together with native varieties in capacity of -memory, and so on. Recently the Mendelians have entered this field, -and they have the advantage of realising the importance of dealing -with real primary units. Their law seems to apply to the musical sense -in man and to the brooding instinct in the hen.[36] The line of study -here suggested is earnestly commended to the psychologists for their -_indispensable_ help. - -=Eugenics and parties.=--Let us once again consider the fashion in -which men and women are classified to the eugenic eye. We have already -realised that the most essential division _of fact_ is that between -those who will and those who will not be parents. The most essential -division _of ideal_ is of those who are worthy and those who are not -worthy to be parents. It is the object of eugenics to make the real and -the ideal divisions coincide. And let us here say with all possible -force that before such classifications as these all others are trivial -and nearly all others impudent. The eugenist has nothing to do with the -low game called party politics: terms like socialism and so forth mean -very little for him. He may or may not be a socialist, but if he be, -at least he does not subscribe to what, so far as I can judge, is the -first article in the creed of socialism--that all evil is of economic -origin; he knows that there is much evil of germinal origin. As for -conservatism and liberalism, he might have some use for these terms -if the creed of conservatism were that there is no wealth but life, -which must be conserved; and the creed of liberalism that life has not -yet reached its zenith, and there must be liberty for all progressive -variations of body and mind and thought and practice. As it is, all -these things are somewhat nauseating. If and when there is a thinking -party, and that party will have the eugenist, he will doubtless join -it. Meanwhile he appeals to that great and growing section of the -community which knows party-politics for the humbug and sham that it -is, and the House of Commons as a lethal chamber for souls. - -Similarly, the eugenic classification of mankind cuts right across -the ordinary social classification. The parasite and the parent of -parasites must be branded, whether he be at the top or the bottom of -the social scale. The quality of the germ-plasm which men and women -carry is the supremely important thing. Its architecture is the -architect of all empires. Year by year we shall more surely be able -to infer the nature and the worth of the germ-plasm in particular -cases, though its host may have been veneered or, on the other hand, -repressed; and year by year the basal facts of heredity will furnish -ever surer criteria for the theory and practice of a New Imperialism -which knows, for instance, what militarism did for Rome and Napoleon -for France, and which will some day sweep all the money changers out of -the Temple of Life.[37] - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - EDUCATION AND RACE-CULTURE - - "Education is but the giving or withholding of - opportunity."--Bateson. - - -It is true that education can seem to accomplish miracles; that in a -single generation the results of an ideal education would be amazing. -It is true, also, that in certain epochs of history, when wise counsels -have prevailed, great results have been attained. It is true that at -present scarcely a man or woman amongst us, if any, has reached the -full stature which would have been attained under an ideal system -of education. It is true, finally, that no system of race-culture -can ignore education or be effective without it. Though the general -question of education is not the specific question of the present -volume, yet there is only too good reason for some brief allusion to -the subject here, especially since it bears on the question of the -measure of importance which we ascribe to heredity. - -=Modern education--the destruction of mind.=--When we observe in such -contrasted cases as those of Herbert Spencer and Wordsworth, for -instance, that absence of early education, especially in the first -septennium, has co-existed with the subsequent efflorescence of the -mightiest genius, we may almost be inclined to enquire whether genius -could not in effect be made to order even in the very next generation -by the simple device of suspending the process which we are pleased to -call education. Doubtless that is scarcely so, though every one who has -any knowledge of the subject is well assured that mere suspension of -the present destructive process might suffice to produce a population -that would wonder at its ancestors. - -A simple analogy will show the disastrous character of the present -process, which may be briefly described as "education" by cram -and emetic. It is as if you filled a child's stomach to repletion -with marbles, pieces of coal and similar material incapable of -digestion--the more worthless the material the more accurate the -analogy: then applied an emetic and estimated your success by the -completeness with which everything was returned, more especially if it -was returned "unchanged," as the doctors say. Just so do we cram the -child's mental stomach, its memory, with a selection of dead facts of -history and the like (at least when they are not fictions) and then -apply a violent emetic called an examination (which like most other -emetics causes much depression) and estimate our success by the number -of statements which the child vomits on to the examination paper--if -the reader will excuse me. Further, if we are what we usually are, we -prefer that the statements shall come back "unchanged"--showing no -signs of mental digestion. We call this "training the memory." - -Such a process as one has imagined in the physical case would assuredly -ruin the physical digestion for life. In the mental case, which is not -imaginary but actual, a similar result ensues. It is thus unfair to -the Anglo-Saxon germ-plasm to credit it with the abundant stupidity -of its products. Much of this stupidity is factitious and artificial. -We shall continue to produce it so long as by education or drawing -forth we understand intrusion or thrusting in, and so long as the -only drawing forth which we practise is by means of the emetics we -call examinations. The present type of education is a curse to modern -childhood and a menace to the future. The teacher who cannot tell -whether a child is doing well without formally examining it, should -be heaving bricks; but such a teacher does not exist. In Berlin they -are now learning that the depression caused by these emetics, for which -the best physical parallel is antimony, often leads to child suicide--a -steadily-increasing phenomenon mainly due to educational over-pressure -and worry about examinations. - -Short of such appalling disasters, however, we have to reckon with -the existence of this enormous amount of stupidity, which those who -fortunately escaped such education in childhood have to drag along -with them in the long struggle towards the stars. This dead weight of -inertia lamentably retards progress. - -Our factitious stupidity is injurious both in the governing and the -governed. As Professor Patrick Geddes once remarked to the present -writer, there are three kinds of governments: the government of the -future--as yet only ideal, which believes that there are ideas and -that they may be worth acting upon: the second is instanced by the -Russian government, which believes that there are ideas, but fears and -suppresses them: the third by the British government, which denies -that there are ideas at all, and prefers the method of "muddling -through"--to use a Cabinet Minister's contented phrase--though truth is -one and error infinite, though there are a million ways of going wrong -for one of going right. This characteristic is not to be attributed to -any germinal stupidity of the ruling classes in England. If it were we -should of course look upon the decadence of their birth-rate with the -utmost gratitude. It is a factitious product of their education. If you -have been treated with marbles and emetics long enough, you may begin -to question whether there is such a thing as nourishing food; if you -have been crammed with dead facts, and then compelled to disgorge them, -you may well question whether there are such things as nourishing facts -or ideas. - -Not less disastrous is this factitious stupidity amongst the governed. -It produces, of course, the kind of man with whom we are all familiar. -Having at great labour been taught to read, he is incapable of reading -anything but rubbish. He never thinks for himself, and if he does you -wish he had not, so inadequate is his machinery and so deplorable -the result. He believes in politicians. He is, as we have said, so -much dead weight for the reformer, whose energy is diverted from the -discovery of new truth by the need of directing the eyes of stupidity -to the old, though it shines as the sun in his strength. - -Therefore, let not the reader suppose that in the advocacy of eugenics -or race-culture we have become blinded to the possibilities offered us -by reasonable education even of the very heterogeneous material offered -us by heredity. - -=The limits of education--individual and racial.=--Yet it must be -maintained that, though we cannot do without education, and though -something infinitely better than we practise at present will be -necessary if the ideal of race-culture is ever to be realised, yet -education alone, however good, can never enable us to achieve our end. -It must be maintained, in the first place, that education is limited -in its powers by the inherent nature of the educated material--it is a -process of _drawing out_, and you cannot draw out what is not there: -and secondly, that its value, so far as the nature of individuals -is concerned, is confined to the individuals in question and is not -reproduced or maintained in their children. Thus education alone would -have similar material to act upon from age to age, would have to make -a fresh beginning in each generation, and its results, however good, -relatively, would still be limited and finite. We shall do well, -perhaps, to obtain and retain an adequate definition of education. -No true conception of education was possible, notwithstanding the -derivation of the word, so long as the child's mind was likened to -a piece of "pure white paper" for us to write upon: or an empty box -waiting to be filled. The _tabula rasa_ of Locke is, we now know, the -last thing in the world to resemble a child's mind. Indeed, if any -such figure be demanded, the child's mind is a piece of mosaic--made -of ancestral pieces--and education is the process of realising what is -so given. Or, if a child's mind is a portmanteau, to educate is not to -pack but to unpack it. We understand, at least, that education never -can begin at the beginning, nor anywhere near it--that, as Professor -MacCunn says in his admirable book, _The Making of Character_, "the -page of the youngest life is so far from being blank that it bears upon -it characters in comparison with which the faded ink of palæography is -as recent history." - -We are learning, too, though none but the very few know this, that the -process by which the "faded ink" is made visible must not be credited -with having done the writing: any more than the fire to which you hold -a paper written upon with ink that fire makes visible. Still less do we -realise that what really seems to be the product of education is often -the result of an inherent mechanism now developed, which was not yet -formed when we began the educational process. One reason why the baby -cannot walk is that it has not the nervous apparatus. A child may walk -at the first attempt, if that attempt be delayed until the machinery is -developed. A child may similarly speak sentences at the first attempt. -Very commonly we start teaching a child something, which, after some -years, it learns. We have done nothing but interfere. The learning is -none of our doing: merely the mental apparatus is now evolved--and lo! -the result. At birth the sucking apparatus is perfect. If we could, -doubtless we should start teaching the unborn infant to suck long -before the machinery was ready--and should applaud ourselves for its -facility at birth; only that probably this facility would be impaired -by our efforts, as many capacities of later development are damaged by -our interference. What we understand, or misunderstand, by education -should begin approximately when a child is seven. The first seven years -of life should really have the term of childhood confined to them, -for there is a natural term so indicated. The growth of the brain is -a matter of the first seven years almost wholly. It grows relatively -little after that period; and until that is completed the physical -apparatus of mind is not ready for educational interference. Without -any such interference, and with merely the provision of conditions, -physical and mental, for its spontaneous development, the brain of -the seven year old will suffice for surprising things--so surprising -that if their evolution were possible under any system of schooling -practised before that date, we should applaud it as ideal. Probably -there is no such system--much less any that will improve on the -spontaneous process. - -=Education the provision of an environment.=--We are prepared, then, -to realise the limits to the action of education upon the individual. -We shall not confuse this great and many-sided thing with such of its -factors as instruction or schooling. It is not intrusion but education: -"the guidance of growth," to use Sir James Crichton-Browne's phrase. -This guidance, this process of unpacking, educing or realising, is -accomplished by the action of circumstances or the environment. -Environment is a large word and is invariably abused when it is used -in less than the large sense. Here it includes, for instance, air and -food, mother-love and the schoolmaster. I therefore define education -as _the provision of an environment_. This definition prepares us to -understand the limitations of the process. If we think of education as -a packing or cramming process, we shall err in this respect; we shall -expect limitless results from education provided that one packs early -and tightly and carefully enough. It is this erroneous conception -which rules us and daily betrays us in practice. If, however, we think -of education as the provision of an environment, capable of creating -nothing, but merely of causing the expression or the repression of -potential characters inherent in the individual educated, then we shall -begin to recast our methods on the lines determined by this truth. Yet, -further, we shall begin to understand the cardinal truth, one of the -many platitudes which we have yet to appreciate, that "you cannot make -a silk purse out of a sow's ear." - -=Heredity and environment.=--Let us consider the question in general -terms. The characters of any living thing are determined by two -factors--heredity and environment. The old phrases were character and -circumstances, but they were less than useful, since character is -modified by circumstances. Now one of the most important questions -in the world, and not least for the eugenist, is as to the relative -importance of these two factors. The technical terms may not be in -our mouths, but we discuss this instance or that of the question in -point almost every day of our lives. One part of the business of -philosophy and of science is not only to answer questions but to ask -them correctly. This question is always wrongly asked, and therefore -cannot be answered, or is incorrectly answered. We persist in using -the mathematical idea of addition, and we seek to show that, say, -seventy per cent. of the result is due to the innate factor and thirty -per cent. to the acquired. But the truth is that so long as we begin -with this idea we may prove what we please. If we keep our attention -fixed upon the environmental or educational factor we can easily and -correctly demonstrate that in certain circumstances Mozart would -have been tone-deaf and Shakespeare a gibbering idiot--hence, but -incorrectly, we argue that environment is practically everything. _Per -contra_, we can easily and correctly demonstrate that no education -in the world could enable a door-mat or a cabbage or ourselves to -write _Don Giovanni_ or _Hamlet_--hence, but incorrectly, we argue -that the material to be operated upon is everything. We have to -learn, however, that the analogy _is one not of addition but of -multiplication_. Neither inheritance nor environment, as such, gives -anything. The environmental factor may be potentially one hundred--an -ideal education--but the innate or inherited factor may be nothing, as -when the pupil is a door-mat or a fool. The result then is nothing. -Darwin had the trombone played to a plant, but he did not make a -Palestrina. No academy of music will make a beetroot into a Beethoven, -though I dare say a well-trained beetroot might write a musical comedy. -The point is that one hundred multiplied by nothing equals nothing. -Similarly, the innate factor may be one hundred, as in the case of a -potential genius, but he may be brought up upon alcohol and curses -amongst savages, and the result again is nothing. Keep the idea of -multiplication in the mind, and the facts are seen rightly. No matter -how big either factor be, if it be multiplied by nothing it yields -nothing, or if it be multiplied by a fraction, as in the ordinary -education of a genius, it yields less than it should. But in this -controversy people persist in assuming that inheritance or education -gives definitely so much which is there anyhow, whereas, really, -it only supplies a potential figure, which may realise infinity or -nothing, according to what it is multiplied by. With all deference, I -submit this as a real answer to these endless disputes. - -But further, granted that neither factor in itself produces any -actuality, which is normally the weightier of the two factors? We must -make the qualification, "normally," because such a thing as disease or -poison, included in the environmental factor, will dominate the result, -completely overshadowing the importance of whatever heredity gave. Such -things apart, however, we may be thoroughly assured that heredity is -the weightier of the two factors. The more we study education, the more -we recognise its true nature. Indeed, the more we realise its ideal, -the more do we realise its limitations. The more we study education -the more important does heredity appear. If the reader has not had -opportunities of observing children for himself let him refer to such -a book as Mr. Galton's _Inquiries into Human Faculty_, and he will -begin to realise how large is the factor given by inheritance and how -relatively small is the factor given by education. - -=Education can educate only what heredity gives.=--Heredity, as -the eugenist must never forget, gives not actualities but only -potentialities. It depends upon circumstances whether they shall -become actualities. That, however, we all know. No one supposes that -education is superfluous or impotent. We do, however, persistently -forget the converse truth that education, on the other hand, makes no -definite contribution, but merely multiplies--or alas, divides--the -potentialities given by inheritance. These potentialities constitute -a limiting condition which no education can transcend. Education can -educate only what heredity gives. Long ago Helvetius thought, as did -Kant, that the differences between men were due to differences in -education. But it is not so. We make, of course, the most ridiculous -claims for education. The remark wrongly attributed to the Duke of -Wellington, that "the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields -of Eton," is an instance in point. Recently, when Francis Thompson, -the poet, died, the local newspaper of his birthplace said that it -should be proud to have produced him. We may laugh at this conception -of the genesis of genius, but we all talk in this fashion. A genius -was educated at Eton, and we say that Eton produced him. The truth -is, of course, that Eton failed to destroy him. (One says Eton for -convenience, but the name of any accepted school will do.) If Eton -produced him, why does not it produce thousands like him? There is -plenty of material: but it is not the right material. We should -cease to speak, in our pride for our own _Alma Mater_ or our own -methods, as if education created genius or anything else. Men are born -unequal. To realise the nature of education is not only to avoid the -popular assumption that an ideal education will do everything for us, -forgetting that no amount of polishing will make pewter shine like -silver; it is not only to send us back to the principle of selection -in recognition of the power of inheritance; it is not merely to -dispose of the idea that men are born inherently equal; but it is -also to combat the idea that education is a levelling process. On the -contrary, it accentuates the differences between men. You may confuse -the unpolished pebble and the diamond, but not when education has done -its utmost for both. If education were a process of addition to what -inheritance gives, it would almost level men: the addition of a large -sum to figures such as, say, 1, 2, and 3, would almost obliterate -their original disproportion. But the analogy is with multiplication, -as I have suggested: and the larger the sum by which 1, 2 and 3 are -multiplied, the greater is the disparity between the products. This -is, perhaps, one of the truths of vast importance which the common rim -of contemporary Socialism implicitly denies: though it is of course -abundantly recognised by such a socialist as that master-thinker -Professor Forel. The socialist's panacea, ideal education for all, is -much to be desired, and will accomplish much, as we began by admitting; -but it is not a panacea. Those who believe it to be such do not -understand the nature of education nor its limitations. They should -remember the remark of Epictetus, "the condition and characteristic -of a fool is this: he never expects from himself profit nor harm, but -from externals." The dogma of the unthinking socialist--who exists, -though he is doubtless rarer than the unthinking individualist--is -that all evil is of economic origin: correct your economics and your -education and you obliterate evil. But it is not so. As Lowell said, -"A great part of human suffering has its root in the nature of man, -and not in that of his institutions." When by means of eugenics we -can give education the right material to work upon, we shall have a -Utopia, and as for forms of government they may be left for fools to -contest. Forel, incomparably the greatest socialist thinker of the -day, sees this. He makes his Utopian predictions not so much as to -mere externals, like clothing and language, but as regards the kind of -man and woman: and, unlike some writers, he entitles himself to paint -these pictures, for in that great eugenic treatise _Die Sexuel Frage_, -he tells us how to realise them by pedagogic reform working upon the -materials provided by human selection. A paragraph may be quoted from -Forel:-- - - "Malgré tout l'enthousiasme qu'on doit montrer pour une pédagogie - rationelle, il ne faut jamais oublier qu'elle est incapable de - remplacer la sélection. Elle sert au but immédiat et rapproché, qui - est d'utiliser le mieux possible le matérial humain tel qu'il existe - maintenant. Mais, par elle-même, elle n'améliore en rien la qualité - des germes à venir. Elle peut, néanmoins, grâce à l'instruction - donnée à la jeunesse sur la valeur sociale de la sélection, la - préparer à mettre cette dernière en oeuvre." #/ - -and another from Spencer:-- - - "We are not among those who believe in Lord Palmerston's dogma, - that all children are born good. On the whole, the opposite dogma, - untenable as it is, seems to us less wide of the truth. Nor do we - agree with those who think that, by skilful discipline, children - may be made altogether what they should be. Contrariwise, we are - satisfied that though imperfections of nature may be diminished by - wise management, they cannot be removed by it. The notion that an - ideal humanity might be forthwith produced by a perfect system of - education, is near akin to that implied in the poems of Shelley, that - would make mankind give up their old institutions and prejudices, all - the evils in the world would at once disappear; neither notion being - acceptable to such as have dispassionately studied human affairs." - -=Ruskin on education and inequality.=--Three great paragraphs may be -quoted from Ruskin's _Time and Tide_:-- - - "... Education _was desired by the lower orders because they thought - it would make them upper orders_, and be a leveller and effacer of - distinctions. They will be mightily astonished, when they really - get it, to find that it is, on the contrary, the fatallest of all - discerners and enforcers of distinctions; piercing, even to the - division of the joints and marrow, to find out wherein your body and - soul are less, or greater, than other bodies and souls, and to sign - deed of separation with unequivocal seal. - - "171. Education is, indeed, of all differences not divinely - appointed, an instant effacer and reconciler. Whatever is undivinely - poor, it will make rich; whatever is undivinely maimed, and halt, and - blind, it will make whole, and equal, and seeing. The blind and the - lame are to it as to David at the siege of the Tower of the Kings, - 'hated of David's soul.' But there are other divinely-appointed - differences, eternal as the ranks of the everlasting hills, and as - the strength of their ceaseless waters. And these, education does not - do away with; but measures, manifests, and employs. - - "In the handful of shingle which you gather from the sea-beach, which - the indiscriminate sea, with equality of fraternal foam, has only - educated to be, every one, round, you will see little difference - between the noble and the mean stones. But the jeweller's trenchant - education of them will tell you another story. Even the meanest - will be the better for it, but the noblest so much better that you - can class the two together no more. The fair veins and colours are - all clear now, and so stern is nature's intent regarding this, that - not only will the polish show which is best, but the best will take - most polish. You shall not merely see they have more virtue than the - others, but see that more of virtue more clearly; and the less virtue - there is, the more dimly you shall see what there is of it. - - "172. And the law about education, which is sorrowfullest to vulgar - pride, is this--that all its gains are at compound interest; so that, - as our work proceeds, every hour throws us farther behind the greater - men with whom we began on equal terms. Two children go to school hand - in hand, and spell for half an hour over the same page. Through all - their lives, never shall they spell from the same page more. One is - presently a page a-head, two pages, ten pages--and evermore, though - each toils equally, the interval enlarges--at birth nothing, at death - infinite." - -So much for one relation of this question to Socialism. Quite lately -(_The New Age_, April 11th, 1908) Mr. Havelock Ellis has summed the -matter up as follows:-- - - "Education has been put at the beginning, when it ought to have - been put at the end. It matters comparatively little what sort of - education we give children; the primary matter is what sort of - children we have got to educate. That is the most fundamental of - questions. It lies deeper even than the great question of Socialism - versus Individualism, and indeed touches a foundation that is - common to both. The best organised social system is only a house - of cards if it cannot be constructed with sound individuals; and - no individualism worth the name is possible, unless a sound social - organisation permits the breeding of individuals who count. On this - plane Socialism and Individualism move in the same circle." - -We cannot agree with Socialism when, as we think, it assumes that -all evil is of economic or of educational origin. The student of -heredity finds elements of evil abundant in poisoned germ-plasm and -not absent from the best. Surely, surely, the products of progress are -not mechanisms but men; and surely no economic system as such can be -the only mechanism worth naming--which would be one that made men. The -germ-plasm is such a mechanism, indeed; and hence its quality is all -important. - -But if Socialism, sooner than any other party, is going to identify -itself with the economic principle of Ruskin that "there is no wealth -but life"; and if in its discussion of the conditions of industry it -will concern itself primarily with the culture of the racial life, -which is the vital industry of any people (and basis enough for a New -Imperialism, or at least a New Patriotism, that might be quite decent); -if so, then it seems to me that we must look to the socialists for -salvation. But books which describe future externals, books which -assume that education is a panacea, forgetting that education can -educate only what heredity gives, turn us away again when we are almost -persuaded. The _economic_ panacea must fail (at least as a panacea); -the _educational_ panacea must fail; the _eugenic_ panacea may not fail. - - * * * * * - -Education, then, cannot achieve our ideal of race-culture. No matter -how good our polishing, we must have silver and diamonds to work upon, -not pewter and pebbles. When we have the right material to work upon, -our labour will not be wasted, or far worse than wasted, as it now too -often is. - -=Education a Sisyphean task.=--But the belief in education as in itself -an adequate instrument of race-culture chiefly depends upon the popular -doctrine as to its influence upon the race. It is supposed, in a word, -that if we educate the parents, the child will begin where the parents -left off. This is the doctrine of Lamarck, who said that if the necks -of the parent giraffe were educated or drawn out, the baby giraffe -would have this anatomical acquirement transmitted to it, and, so to -speak, when it grew up, would be able to begin feeding on the leaves of -trees at the level where its parents had to leave off. In the course -of its life its own neck would become elongated or educated, and its -children would outstretch both itself and their grand-parents. This -doctrine of the transmission of acquired characters by heredity, as -we have seen, is, at the present day, repudiated by biologists. It -is generally believed by the medical profession and by the public, -notwithstanding the fact that, for instance, the skin of the heel of -every new baby is almost as thin and delicate as it is anywhere else, -though for unthinkable generations all the ancestors of that baby on -both sides have greatly thickened the skin of both heels by the act of -walking. - -It is quite evident that, if the Lamarckian theory were true, education -would be a completely adequate instrument of race-culture, incomparable -in its rapidity and certainty. It would not reform the world in a -single generation because, as we have seen, its results would be -limited by the inherent nature of its material; but since those results -would involve the vast amelioration of the material upon which it -worked in the second generation, mankind would be little lower than -the angels in a century. The good habits acquired by one generation -would be innate in the next. If the father learnt one language in -addition to his own, the child would start with the knowledge of two, -waiting only for opportunity, and could accumulate more and hand them -on to its child. "My father's environment would be my heredity." If we -desired muscular strength we could in two generations produce a race -amongst whom Sandow would be a puny weakling. We should not need to -discuss any question of selection for parenthood. Without any such -process we could answer Browning's prayer and "elevate the race at -once"--physically, mentally and morally. - -But the Lamarckian theory does not correspond with facts. The -results of education, physical, mental, or moral, are limited to the -individuals educated. The children do not begin where the parents left -off, but they make a fresh start where the parents did. Thus even -though we had and employed an ideal method of education, we should make -no permanent improvement by its means alone in the breed of mankind, -any more than the breeder of race-horses could attain his end by the -same means. In each generation the same problem, the same difficulties, -the same limitations inherent in the nature of the new material, would -have to be faced. We must learn from the horse-breeder, who knows that -the blood of a single horse, Eclipse, runs in the veins of the great -majority of winners since his time. - -It is exceedingly difficult to dispossess the popular mind of the -Lamarckian idea, the more especially as members of the medical -profession, who are regarded as authorities on heredity, contentedly -accept this idea themselves. Yet the advocates of eugenics or -race-culture have to recognise that, so long as the Lamarckian idea -obtains, their crusade will fail to find a hearing. We believe that -nothing can really be accomplished in the way of race-culture until -public opinion--that "chaos of prejudices," as Huxley called it--is -marshalled on our side. But the popular notion of heredity is a most -formidable obstacle. The Lamarckian idea seems to provide a method for -the improvement of a species which cannot be surpassed for simplicity, -rapidity and certainty. It even excludes the possibility of mistakes. -You cannot go wrong if you simply educate every one to the utmost. -Doubtless some persons are more suited for parenthood than others, but -only let education be wise and universal, and any question of selection -by marriage or otherwise will be superfluous. A thousand difficulties -offered by public sentiment, by convention, by the churches, by the -large measure of uncertainty which attends the working of heredity, -could be ignored, if race-culture were simply a matter of education. - -Nevertheless, these difficulties have to be faced by the eugenist. The -popular misconception of heredity--instanced by Sir James Simpson's -belief, not inexcusable sixty years ago, that the education of a -future mother will enlarge her child's brain--must be removed. It can -scarcely be doubted that the sway of the Lamarckian idea will soon be -diminished, and then, at last, those who are interested in the future -will discover that only by the process of selection for parenthood, -which has brought mankind thus far, can further progress be assured. - -=Real functions of education for race-culture.=--Nevertheless education -has a true function for race-culture in addition to the obvious fact -of its necessity in order to realise the inherent potentialities -of the individual. One of its functions is to provide a level of -public opinion and public taste such that the finer specimens of each -generation shall receive their due reward and shall not be crushed out -of existence or perverted. There is a passage in Goethe which suggests -the true function of education, and makes us suspect that, so far as -many kinds of genius and talent are concerned, our immediate business -is perhaps less to endeavour to produce them by breeding--if that be -possible--than to make the most of them when they are vouchsafed us. -Says Goethe:-- - - "We admire the Tragedies of the ancient Greeks; but to take a - correct view of the case, we ought to admire the period and the - nation in which their production was possible rather than the - individual authors; for though these pieces differ in some points - from each other, and though one of these poets appears somewhat - greater and more finished than the other, still, taking all things - together, only one decided character runs through the whole. - - "This is the character of grandeur, fitness, soundness, human - perfection, elevated wisdom, sublime thought, pure, strong intuition, - and whatever other qualities one might enumerate. But when we find - all these qualities, not only in the dramatic works which have come - down to us, but also in lyrical and epic works--in the philosophers, - orators, and historians, and in an equally high degree in the works - of plastic art that have come down to us--we must feel convinced that - such qualities did not merely belong to individuals, but were the - current property of the nation and the whole period." - -=Education as to the principle of selection.=--Further, the hope -may be warranted that, though education, as such, will not achieve -the ideal of true race-culture, and though it has never hitherto -averted the ultimate failure of all civilisations, yet the case may -be different to-day, in that our acquired or traditional progress, -transmitted by the process of education accumulating from age to -age--not in our blood and bone and brain, but mainly in books, whereby -the non-transmission of the results of education is circumvented in a -sense--has reached the point at which the laws of racial or inherent -progress have been revealed to us, as to none of our predecessors.[38] -Having the knowledge of these laws it is possible that we may avert our -predecessors' fate by putting them into force. If we do not, we must -ultimately become "one with Nineveh and Tyre." Fifty years have now -elapsed since the principle of natural selection was demonstrated for -all time by the genius of Darwin. We must not be guilty of starting -to tell the story of organic evolution and leaving out the point. So -long as we supposed that man was created as he is, the idea of racial -progress was an absurdity. It is the correct thing now-a-days to decry -the possibility of human perfection. This possibility is rightly to be -decried if it be assumed that ideal education of the present material -or anything like it would realise perfection. We have seen that it -would not. It is the principle of selection, in which Darwin has -educated us, that must be taught to all mankind, and thus education may -indeed become the factor of an effective race-culture. - -=The power of individual opinion.=--Since ultimately opinion rules the -world, it is for us to create sound opinion. That is the purpose of -this book. But every individual may be a centre of eugenic opinion, -and the time has assuredly come for attempting to realise this ideal, -though a thousand years should pass before the facts of heredity are -completely ascertained and understood. The main principles are of the -simplest character, and can be readily imparted to a child. Especially -does the responsibility fall upon parents and those who are in charge -of childhood. - -The young people of the next and all succeeding generations must be -taught the supreme sanctity of parenthood. The little boy who asks -what he is to become when he grows up, must be taught that the highest -profession and privilege he can aspire to is responsible fatherhood; -the little girl may less frequently ask these questions, the answer to -which has been imparted to her by her own Mother-Nature--as the doll -instinct, so little appreciated or utilised, sufficiently demonstrates; -but she likewise must be taught reverence for Motherhood. As childhood -gives place to youth, what may be called the eugenic sense must be -cultivated as a cardinal aspect of the moral sense itself; so that even -personal inclination--at the controllable and self-controllable stage -which precedes "head over ears" affection--will wither when it is -directed to some one who, on any ground, offends the educated eugenic -sense. There is here a field for moral education of the highest and -most valuable kind, both for the individual and for the race. Is there -any other aspect of duty which can claim a higher warrant? Is there any -hitherto so wholly ignored? - -The preceding paragraph is re-printed from a brief account of its -objects written for the Eugenics Education Society, as a Society -which amongst other purposes exists "to further eugenic teaching at -home and in the schools and elsewhere." The difficulties of teaching -this subject to children are more apparent than real. I may freely -confess that though I have been speaking, writing, and thinking about -eugenics for six years, I did not realise the importance of eugenic -education until I heard the views of some of the women who belong -to this Society, and even then I was at first sceptical as to its -practicability. The subject has been entirely ignored by the pioneers -of this matter. But if we turn to such a work as Forel's masterpiece -we begin to realise that the eugenic education of children is the real -beginning at the beginning, that it is in fact indispensable, and must -be antecedent to all legislation in the direction of positive eugenics, -though not to certain forms of legislation in the direction of negative -eugenics.[39] In the earlier chapters of his great work Professor Forel -offers the parent and the guardian abundant, detailed and accurate -guidance as to the lines and methods of this teaching. It is urgently -necessary for both sexes, but more especially for girls, who may suffer -incredibly from the cruel prudery ordained by Mrs. Grundy, the only -old woman to whom the word "hag" should be applied. We must remove the -reproach of Herbert Spencer, made nearly fifty years ago in words -which may well be quoted:-- - - "The greatest defect in our programmes of education is entirely - overlooked. While much is being done in the detailed improvement - of our systems in respect both of matter and manner, the most - pressing desideratum, to prepare the young for the duties of life, - is tacitly admitted to be the end which parents and schoolmasters - should have in view; and happily, the value of the things taught, - and the goodness of the methods followed in teaching them, are now - ostensibly judged by their fitness to this end. The propriety of - substituting for an exclusively classical training, a training in - which the modern languages shall have a share, is argued on this - ground. The necessity of increasing the amount of science is urged - for like reasons. But though some care is taken to fit youth of - both sexes for society and citizenship, no care whatever is taken - to fit them for the position of parents. While it is seen that - for the purpose of gaining a livelihood, an elaborate preparation - is needed, it appears to be thought that for the bringing up of - children, no preparation whatever is needed. While many years are - spent by a boy in gaining knowledge of which the chief value is that - it constitutes 'the education of a gentleman'; and while many years - are spent by a girl in those decorative acquirements which fit her - for evening parties; not an hour is spent by either in preparation - for that gravest of all responsibilities--the management of a family. - Is it that this responsibility is but a remote contingency? On the - contrary, it is sure to devolve on nine out of ten. Is it that the - discharge of it is easy? Certainly not; of all functions which the - adult has to fulfil, this is the most difficult. Is it that each may - be trusted by self-instruction to fit himself, or herself, for the - office of parent? No; not only is the need for such self-instruction - unrecognised, but the complexity of the subject renders it the one of - all others in which self-instruction is least likely to succeed." - -=The lines of eugenic education.=--The teaching of the main facts of -heredity must come first in order to the end of eugenic education. -The vegetable world is at our service in this regard, the products of -horticulture with their beauty and grace and novelty are illustrations -one and all of what heredity means and what the due choice of parents -will effect. There need be no personal allusions at this stage; the -thing can be presented in an impersonal biological setting. And as -heredity produces these wonderful results in plants, so also does it -in the animal world. Numberless domestic forms are at our service. You -take your children and your dog to the Zoological gardens, and show the -resemblance between wolf and dog. What easier, then, than to point out -that by consistent choosing for many generations of the least ferocious -wolves, you may make a domesticated race?[40] - -The mind of any child that has fortunately escaped "education" will -make the transition for itself from sub-human races to mankind, and -instances will occur, say, where extreme short-sightedness or deafness -appears in children whose parents were similarly afflicted, and were -perhaps closely related. At yet a later age a boy or girl may learn the -doom which often falls upon the children of drunkards. - -And then may it not be possible, when a little boy asks what he is to -be when he grows up, to suggest that the highest profession to which -he can be called, for which he may strive to make himself worthy, is -fatherhood? And when the racial instinct awakes, would it be wrong, -improper, indecent, to teach that it has a purpose, that no attribute -of mind or body has a higher purpose, that this is holy ground? Or is -it better that by silence, both as to the fact and as to its meaning, -we should make it unmentionable, indecent, dishonourable? The Bible is -used now-a-days as an instrument of political immorality, but if and -when it should be employed for the function of other great literature, -there is a passage sufficiently relevant to our present argument.[41] - -Perhaps we are wrong in regarding and treating the racial instinct as -if it were animal and low, a thing as far as possible to be ignored, -repressed, treated with silent contempt in education and elsewhere. We -may be wrong in practice because the method is not successful, because -the development of this instinct is inevitable and little short of -imperious in every normal child if that child is ever to become a man -or a woman, and because our silence does not involve the silence of -less responsible persons who are less likely even than we ourselves to -teach the young enquirer that this thing exists for parenthood, and is -therefore holy and to be treated as such. - -Perhaps we are wrong in principle also, since that which exists for -parenthood, and without which the continuance and future terrestrial -hope of mankind is impossible, cannot be animal and low, unless human -life, even at its best attained or attainable, be animal and low. Our -business rather is to treat this great fact in a spirit worthy of the -purpose for which it exists; and therefore, as part of that process of -education by which we desire to make the young into reasonable, moral -and fully human beings, to teach explicitly, without unworthy shame, -that this thing exists for the highest of purposes that nothing which -the future holds for boy or girl can conceivably be higher or happier -than worthy parenthood, however commonplace that may appear to common -eyes, and that accordingly this instinct is to be guarded, treated, -used, honoured as for parenthood, a fact which immediately raises it -from the egoistic to the altruistic plane. We have to learn and to -teach that worthy parenthood is the highest end which education can -achieve--highest alike on the ground of its services to the individual -and its services to the future, and the relation of the racial instinct -to parenthood being what it is, we have to look upon it in that light, -at once austere and splendid. - -In the teaching of girls, only a false and disastrous prudery offers -any great obstacle. The idea of motherhood is essentially natural to -the normal girl. It is the eugenic education of boys that is more -difficult, and the possibility of which will be questioned in some -quarters, especially by those who regard the type of boy evolved in -semi-monastic institutions, devoid of feminine influence, as a normal -and unchangeable being. Co-educationists, however, are teaching us -to revise that opinion, and will yet demonstrate, perhaps, that the -inculcation of the idea of fatherhood is not so impossible nor so -alien to the boy nature as some would suppose. If such a duty devolved -upon the present writer, he would feel inclined, perhaps, to present -his teaching in terms of patriotism. He would urge that "there is no -wealth but life"; that nations are made not of provinces nor property -but of people; that modern biology is teaching historians to explain -such phenomena as the fall of Rome in terms of the quality of the -national life; that therefore, individuals being mortal, parenthood -necessarily takes its place as the supreme factor of national destiny; -that the true patriotism must therefore concern itself with the -conditions and the quality of parenthood--much less with its quantity; -that the patriotism which ignores these truths is ignorant and must be -disastrous; that we must turn our attention therefore from flag waving -to questions of individual conduct; that if alcohol and syphilis, -for instance, can be demonstrated to be what I would call racial -poisons, the young patriot must make himself aware of their relation to -parenthood, and must act upon his knowledge of that relation. It can -thus be demonstrated that righteousness exalteth a nation not only in -the spiritual but also in the most concrete sense. - -To this we shall come. We may even recognise eugenic education as the -most urgent need of the day, as the most radical and rational, perhaps -even the most hopeful, of the methods by which the cleansing of the -city, and much more, is to be achieved. We must create a eugenic aspect -for the moral sense. We can associate this alike with individual and -civic duty, and with those very ideals to which, as we all know, -the young most readily respond. Thus I believe it shall be said of -us in the after time that we have raised up the foundations of many -generations. - -And so, finally, the unselfish significance of marriage might -conceivably be taught, alike to boys and girls, and especially in the -case of undoubtedly good stocks might we inculcate, as Mr. Galton has -pointed out, a rational pride in ancestry--that is to say, a rational -pride in the quality of the germ-plasm which has been entrusted to us. -And so may be cultivated a eugenic aspect of the moral sense--which -is immeasurably more plastic than any but the student of moral ideas -knows--and, thus endowed, the young man or woman will be prepared -for the possibility of marriage. It is perfectly conceivable that in -days to come the argument--in any case false--that affection never -brooks control, may become wholly irrelevant, when there arises a -generation in whose members there has been cultivated or created -the eugenic sense. It is conceivable that, just as to-day the mere -possibility of falling in love is arrested by any of a thousand trivial -considerations, so misplaced affection may be incapable of arising -because its possible object affronts the educated eugenic sense. The -natural basis for such education already exists. But the natural -eugenic sense still works mainly on the physical plane, and although we -owe to it the maintenance of our present modest standard of physical -beauty, we aim at higher ideals--and will one day thus attain them. - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - THE SUPREMACY OF MOTHERHOOD - - "The dregs of the human species--the blind, the deaf mute, the - degenerate, the imbecile, the epileptic--are better protected than - pregnant women."--Bouchacourt. - - "I hold that the two crowning and most accursed sins of the society - of this present day are the carelessness with which it regards the - betrayal of women, and the brutality with which it suffers the - neglect of children."--Ruskin. - - -A chapter must be included here concerning a question which can never -safely be ignored in any consideration of race-culture, but the -importance of which, as I think I see it, is recognised by no one -who has concerned himself at all with this subject, from Mr. Francis -Galton himself downwards. We must all be agreed, Mr. Galton declares, -as to the propriety of breeding, if it be possible, for health, energy -and ability, whatever else may be doubtful. To this I would add that, -whether we are agreed or not, we must breed for motherhood, and that, -even if we do not, we shall have to reckon with it. The general eugenic -position, I fancy, is that the requirements which we should make of -both sexes, the mothers of the future as well as the fathers, are -essentially identical: but it seems to me that we have not yet reckoned -with the vast importance of motherhood as a factor in the evolution -of all the higher species of animals, and its absolute supremacy, -inevitable and persistent whether recognised or ignored, in the case of -man. Any system of eugenics or race-culture, any system of government, -any proposal for social reform--as, for instance, the reduction of -infant mortality--which fails to reckon with motherhood or falls -short of adequately appraising it, is foredoomed to failure and will -continue to fail so long as the basal facts of human nature and the -development of the human individual retain even approximately their -present character. Whatever proposals for eugenics or race-culture be -made or carried out, the fact will remain that the race is made up of -mortal individuals; that every one of these begins its visible life as -a helpless baby, and that the system which does not permit the babies -to survive, _they_ will not permit to survive. - -This is a general and universal proposition, admitting of no -exceptions, past, present or to come. It applies equally to conscious -systems of race-culture, to forms of marriage, to forms of government, -to any other social institution or practice or character that can be -named or conceived. Upon every one of these the babies pronounce a -judgment from which there is no appeal. The baby may be a potential -Newton, Shakespeare, Beethoven or Buddha, but it is at its birth the -most helpless thing alive, the potentialities of which avail it not one -whit. It is in more need of care, immediate and continuous, than a baby -microbe or a baby cat, whatever the unpublished glories of which its -brain contains the promise; and in the total absence of any apparatus, -mechanical, legal, or scientific, which can provide the mother's breast -and the mother's love, individual motherhood, in its exquisitely -complementary aspects, physical and psychical, will remain the dominant -factor of history so long as the final judgments upon every present and -the final determinations for every future lie in the hands of helpless -babyhood--which will be the case so long as man is mortal. When, if -ever, science, having previously conquered disease, identifies the -causes of natural death and removes them, then motherhood and babyhood -may be thrown upon the rubbish heap; but until that hour they are -enthroned by decree of Nature, and can be dethroned only at the cost of -Her certain and annihilative vengeance. - -It is the master paradox that at his first appearance the lord of the -earth should be the most helpless of living things. Consider a new-born -baby. "Unable to stand, much less to wander in search of food; very -nearly deaf; all but blind; well-nigh indiscriminating as to the nature -of what is presented to its mouth; utterly unable to keep itself clean, -yet highly susceptible to the effects of dirt; able to indicate its -needs only by alternately turning its head, open-mouthed, from side to -side and then crying; possessed of an almost ludicrously hypersensitive -interior; unable to fast for more than two or three hours, yet having -the most precise and complicated dietetic requirements; needing the -most carefully maintained warmth; easily injured by draughts; the prey -of bacteria (which take up a permanent abode in its alimentary canal -by the eleventh day)--where is to be found a more complete picture of -helpless dependence?"[42] How comes it that this creature is to be -lord of the earth, and a member of the only species which succeeds in -continually multiplying itself? - -=Motherhood and intelligence.=--We have maintained that the vital -character which is of supreme survival-value for man is his -intelligence, and this, as we know, is his unique possession. It is -very largely for intelligence, therefore, that race-culture or eugenics -proposes, if possible, to work. But if there be certain conditions -which must be complied with before intelligence can possibly be -evolved, eugenics will come to disaster should it ignore them. These -conditions do exist, and have hitherto been entirely ignored by all -students of this question. Let certain great facts be observed. - -Why is the human baby the most helpless of all creatures? Since it is -to become the most capable, should it not, even in its infant state, -show signs of its coming superiority? What is the meaning of this -paradox? - -The answer is that, so far as physical weapons of offence and defence -are concerned, these have disappeared because intelligence makes them -superfluous or even burdensome. But the peculiar helplessness of the -human infant depends not upon its nakedness in the physical sense but -upon its lack of very nearly all instinctive capacities. It is this -absence of effective instincts which distinguishes the baby from the -young of all other creatures. Why should its endowment in this respect -be so inferior? - -It is because of the fact that, if instinct is to give rise to -intelligence, it must be plastic. A purely instinctive creature reacts -to certain sets of circumstances in certain effortless, perfect and -fixed ways. The reactions are the whole of its psychical life. They -need no education, being as perfectly performed on the first occasion -as on the last, and in many instances being performed only once in the -whole history of the creature in question. But, on the other hand, they -are almost incapable of education, and even in the cases where they -lack absolute perfection at first, they only require the merest modicum -of opportunity in order to acquire it. Perfect within their limits, -they are yet most definitely limited. They never achieve the new, -they are utterly at fault in novel circumstances, and they are wholly -incapable of creating circumstances. - -A creature cannot be at once purely instinctive and intelligent. An -instinctive action is simply a compound reflex action, a highly adapted -automatism: now automatism and intelligence are necessarily inversely -proportional. It is possible for an intelligent creature to acquire -automatisms, which are popularly described as instinctive. They are -not instincts, however, but the acquired equivalents of instincts: -"secondary automatisms." If they are used to replace intelligence, the -individual, in so far, sinks from the human to the sub-human level. -Their proper function is to leave the intelligence free for higher -purposes more worthy of it than, say, the act of dressing oneself. - -In order that an intelligent creature should be evolved it was -necessary that instinct should become plastic. Intelligence could not -be superposed upon a complete and final instinctive equipment. You -cannot determine your own acts if they are already determined for -you by your nervous organisation. The incomparable superiority of -intelligence depends upon its limitless and creative character, in -virtue of which, as Disraeli puts it, "men are not the creatures of -circumstances: circumstances are the creatures of men." But whilst -intelligence can learn everything, it has everything to learn, and the -most nearly intelligent creature whom the earth affords thus begins -his independent life almost wholly bereft of all the instruments -which have served the lower creatures so well, whilst, on the other -hand, he is provided with an utterly undeveloped, and indeed, at -that time non-existent, weapon which, even if it did exist, he could -not use. Hence the unique helplessness of the human baby: one of -the most wonderful and little appreciated facts in the whole of -nature--effectively hidden from the glass eyes of the kind of man who -calls a baby a "brat," but, to eyes that can see, not only the master -paradox from the philosophical point of view but also a fact of the -utmost moment from the practical point of view. - -=The evolution of motherhood.=--It directly follows that motherhood is -supremely important in the case of man. It is the historical fact that -its importance in the history of the animal world has been steadily -increasing throughout æonian time. The most successful and ancient -societies we know, those of the social insects, which antedate by -incalculable ages even the first vertebrates, could not survive for a -single generation without the motherhood or foster-motherhood to which -the worker females sacrifice their lives and their own chances of -physical maternity. - -The development of maternal care may be steadily traced throughout the -vertebrate series--_pari passu_ with the evolution of sexual relations -towards the ideal of monogamy, which is ideal just because of its -incomparable services to motherhood. But whilst motherhood is of the -utmost service for lower creatures, tending always to lessen infant -mortality--if it may be so called--and to increase the proportion -of life to death and birth, it is of supreme service in the case of -man because of the absolute dependence upon it of intelligence, the -solitary but unexampled weapon with which he has won the earth. Hence -in breeding for intelligence we cannot afford to ignore that upon which -intelligence depends. Even if we could produce genius at will, we -should find our young geniuses just as dependent upon motherhood as the -common run of mankind. Newton himself was a seven months' baby, and the -potentialities of gravitation and the calculus and the laws of motion -in his brain could not save him: motherhood could and did. - -Even our least biological reformers must admit that purely physical -motherhood, up to the point of birth, can scarcely be omitted in any -schemes for social reform or race-culture. Some of them will even -admit that purely physical motherhood, so far as the mother's breasts -are concerned, cannot wisely be dispensed with. The psychical aspects -of motherhood, however, many of these writers--I do not call them -thinkers--ignore. In relation to infant mortality--which is the most -obvious symptom of causes productive of vast and widespread physical -deterioration amongst the survivors, and which must be abolished -before any really effective race-culture is possible--it is worth -noting that motherhood cannot safely be superseded. I do not believe -in the _crèche_ or the municipal milk depôt except as stop-gaps, or -as object-lessons for those who imagine that the slaughtered babies -are not slaughtered but die of inherent defect, and that therefore -infant mortality is a beneficent process. In working for the reduction -of this evil we must work through and by motherhood. In some future -age, boasting the elements of sanity, our girls will be instructed in -these matters. At present the most important profession in the world is -almost entirely carried on by unskilled labour, and until this state -of things is put an end to, it is almost idle to talk of race-culture -at all. But under our present system of education, false and rotten as -it is in principles and details alike, it is necessary for us to send -visitors to the homes of the classes which, in effect, supply almost -the whole of the future population of the country, and to establish -schools for mothers on every hand. - -=Psychical motherhood.=--I confess myself opposed to the principle -of bribing a woman to become a mother, whether overtly or covertly, -whether in the guise of State-aid or in the form of eugenic premiums -for maternity. It may sound very well to offer a bonus for the -production of babies by mothers whom the State or any eugenic power -considers fit and worthy. But though the bonus may help motherhood -in its physical aspects, the importance of which no one questions, -I do not see what service it renders to motherhood in its psychical -aspects--which are at least equally important. What is the outlook for -the baby when the bonus is spent? In fact, with all deference to Mr. -Galton, and with such deference as may be due to the literary triflers -who have discussed this matter, I am inclined to think that a cardinal -requisite for a mother is love of children. Ignorant this may be, and -indeed at first always is, but if it is there it can be instructed. The -woman who does not think the possession of a baby a sufficient prize is -no fit object, I should say, for any other kind of bribe or lure. The -woman who "would rather have a spare bedroom than a baby" is the woman -whom I do not want to have a baby. Thus I look with suspicion on any -proposals which assume that the psychical elements of motherhood are of -little moment in eugenics. I see no sign or prospect that they can be -dispensed with, and I think eugenics is going to work on wrong lines if -it proposes to ignore them. Even if you turn out Nature with a fork she -will yet return--_tamen usque recurret_. - -In this question we should be able to derive great assistance from -biography. Real guidance, I believe, is obtained from this source, but -only a pitiable fraction of that which should be obtained. Scientific -biography is yet to seek, and it is the ironical fact that when Herbert -Spencer, in his _Autobiography_, devoted a large amount of space to -the discussion of _both_ his parents and their relatives, the literary -critics were bored to death. Nevertheless, we cannot know too much -about the ancestry, on both sides, and the early environment, of great -men. At present it is always tacitly assumed that a great man is the -son of his father alone. The biographer would probably admit, if -pressed, that doubtless some woman or other was involved in the matter, -and that her name was so and so--if any one thinks it worth mentioning. -On the score of heredity alone, however, we derive, men and women -alike, with absolute equality from both parents; and we cannot know too -much about the mothers of men of genius. Such knowledge would often -avail us materially in cases where the paternal ancestry offers little -explanation of the child's destiny. - -We do owe, however, to great men themselves many warm and unqualified -tributes to their mothers, not on the score of heredity, but on the -score of the psychical aspects of motherhood. This, indeed, is one of -the great lessons of biography which some eugenists have forgotten. -It is all very well to breed for intelligence, but intelligence needs -nurture and guidance, and that need is the more urgent, the more -powerful and original the intelligence in question. The physical -functions of motherhood from the moment of birth onwards can be -effected, no doubt, though at very great cost, by means of incubators -and milk laboratories, and so forth. But there is no counterfeiting -or replacing the psychical component of complete maternity, and a -generation of the highest intelligence borne by unmaternal women would -probably succeed only in writing the blackest and maddest page in -history. - -=The eugenic demand for love.=--Mr. Galton desires that we breed for -physique, ability, and energy. But we also need more love, and we must -breed for that. Nothing is easier or more inevitable once we make -human parenthood conscious and deliberate. When children are born only -to those who love children, and who will tend to transmit their high -measure of that parental instinct from which all love is derived, we -shall bring to earth a heaven compared with which the theologian's is -but a fool's paradise. - -The first requisite, then, for the mothers of the future, the elements -of physical health being assumed, is that they should be motherly. They -may or may not, in addition, be worthy of such exquisite titles as -"the female Shakespeare of America," but they must have motherliness -to begin with. For this indispensable thing there is no substitute. It -must certainly be granted, and the fact should not be ignored, that the -hidden spring of motherliness in a girl may be revealed only by actual -maternity, and the frivolous damsel who used to think babies "silly -squalling things" may be mightily transformed when the silly squalling -thing is her own--and the Fifth Symphony sound and fury signifying -nothing compared with its slightest whimper. I will grant even that the -maternal instinct is so deeply rooted and universal that its absence -must be regarded as either a rare abnormality or else as the product of -the grossest mal-education in the wide sense. But the reader will not -blame me for insisting at such length upon what, as he would think, no -one could deny, when he discovers that these salient truths are denied, -and that in what should be the sacred name of eugenics, they are openly -flouted and defied. - -Before we go on to consider these perversions of a great idea, it may -briefly be observed that, though fatherhood is historically a mushroom -growth compared with motherhood, and though its importance is vastly -less, yet as a complementary principle, aiding and abetting motherhood, -and making for its most perfect expression, fatherhood played a great -part in animal evolution, in the right line of progress, ages before -man appeared upon the earth at all, and that its work is not yet done. -To this subject we must return. Meanwhile it is well to note the -dangers with which eugenics is at present threatened in the form of -certain proposals which, if for a time they became popular--and they -have elements making for popularity--would inevitably throw the gravest -discredit upon the whole subject. - -=Eugenics and the family.=--Certain remarkable tendencies invoking -the name of eugenics are now to be observed in Germany. These have -considerable funds, much enthusiasm, journalistic support, and even a -large measure of assistance in academic circles. In pursuance of the -idea of eugenics there is a movement the nature of which is indicated -by the following quotation from a private letter:-- - - "I wonder if your attention was drawn to the German projects of the - reform of the Family. They all aim at improving the German race and - rendering decisive its superiority over all others. The means seem - to be too revolutionary. The more modern wish the establishment of - the matriarchal family (_ein nach Mutterrecht_), the more logical - require universal polygamy and polyandry, an individualisation of - Society. Others hope to increase the production of German geniuses - by the 'hellenic friendship.'[!] The three movements are strongly - organised, command large pecuniary means, a phalanx of original and - prolific writers, and enthusiastic devotion to their cause. More - even than the support of Courts and aristocracy is, in my eyes, that - of the Universities. It is there that the destinies of Germany have - always been shaped, and if they are determined to reform the Family - in that way, it will be done.... The Herren Professoren are terribly - in earnest, yet they say things which even to the least prejudiced - minds appear ridiculous and even vulgar. Still, their projects have - some relation to Eugenics, and to Sociology in general." - -This sufficiently indicates the dangers run by the eugenic principle -at the hands of those who see in it an instrument of protest and -rebellion against established things. We dare not repudiate the sacred -principles of protest and rebellion, which have been the conditions of -all progress, but believing in motherhood as we must, believing it to -be authorised by nature herself and not by any human conventions, we -must deplore any tendencies such as the two last cited. For us in this -country, however, a more immediate interest attaches to the views of a -much admired and discussed writer who claims to be a social philosopher -of the first order, and whose claims must now be examined. - -The opinions of Mr. Bernard Shaw on the question of eugenics may be -quoted from his contribution to the subject published in _Sociological -Papers_ 1904, pp. 74, 75, in discussion of Mr. Galton's great paper. -Mr. Shaw begins by saying: "I agree with the paper and go so far as -to say that there is now no reasonable excuse for refusing to face the -fact that nothing but a eugenic religion can save our civilisation from -the fate that has overtaken all previous civilisations." And further:-- - - "I am afraid we must make up our minds either to face a considerable - shock to vulgar opinion in this matter or to let eugenics alone.... - What we must fight for is freedom to breed the race without being - hampered by the mass of irrelevant conditions implied in the - institution of marriage. If our morality is attacked, we can carry - the war into the enemy's country by reminding the public that the - real objection to breeding by marriage is that marriage places no - restraint on debauchery, so long as it is monogamic.... What we need - is freedom for people who have never seen each other before and never - intend to see one another again, to produce children under certain - definite public conditions, without loss of honour." - -The conception of individual fatherhood here stated involves a -deliberate reversion to the order of the beast: it excludes individual -fatherhood from any function in aiding motherhood or in serving the -future. It involves, of course, the total abolition of the family. It -denies and flouts the very best elements in human nature. It assumes -that the best women will find motherhood worth while without the -interest and sympathy and help and protection of the father. It does -not, however, condemn or exclude the psychical functions of motherhood, -since so far as this quotation goes it might be assumed that the mother -would be permitted to live with her own child. On this point, however, -Mr. Shaw offered us further guidance in his controversy with myself in -the _Pall Mall Gazette_, in December, 1907. One or two of his _dicta_ -must here be quoted--they followed upon my remark, "Anything less like -a mother than the State I find it hard to imagine":-- - - "When the State left the children to the mothers, they got no - schooling; they were sent out to work under inhuman conditions, - under-ground and over-ground for atrociously long hours, as soon as - they were able to walk; they died of typhus fever in heaps; they grew - up to be as wicked to their own children as their parents had been to - them. State socialism rescued them from the worst of that, and means - to rescue them from all of it. I now publicly challenge Dr. Saleeby - to propose, if he dares, to withdraw the hand of the State and - abandon the children to their mothers as they fall.... All I need say - is that before Dr. Saleeby can persuade me to sacrifice the future - of human society to his maternalism, he will have to tackle me with - harder weapons than the indignant enthusiasm of a young man's mother - worship." - -Mr. Shaw's teaching constitutes a brutal and deliberate libel upon the -highest aspects of womanhood. For his own purposes he attributes to the -mothers all the abominations which, as every one knows, have lain and -in some measure still lie, at the door of the State. The man who has -this opinion of motherhood is complacently ignorant of the elements of -the subject. His charge is denied by every one who has worked as doctor -or nurse or visitor or missionary amongst the poorer classes, and knows -that the mothers there met are of the very salt of the earth. - -It is well to state plainly here that these utterly irresponsible -_dicta_ have absolutely no relation or resemblance whatever to the -opinions or proposals of Mr. Francis Galton himself, who desires to -effect race-culture through marriage, and whose whole propaganda is -based upon this assumption. This we shall afterwards see. Meanwhile -we may note Mr. Galton's own words: "The aim of eugenics is to bring -as many influences as can be reasonably employed, to cause the useful -classes in the community to contribute more than their proportion to -the next generation." Mr. Galton would be the first to assert that -influences designed to supersede motherhood and to abolish everything -but the physical aspect of fatherhood, would not be reasonable, but -insane in the highest degree. - -The ideal of race-culture without fatherhood or motherhood, except in -the mere physiological sense, constitutes a denial of the greatest -facts in evolution, as we have seen. It ignores everything that is -known and daily witnessed regarding the development of the individual, -and the formation of character, without which intelligence is a curse. -There is not the slightest fear that any such reversion to the order -of the beast is possible, absolutely forbidden as it is by the laws of -human nature. There is, however, reasonable ground for apprehension, -especially when the recent developments in Germany are remembered, -that the public may obtain its notions of eugenics in a highly-garbled -form.[43] - -It must be asserted as fervently and plainly as possible that, if the -idea of race-culture is even in the smallest degree to be realised, -it must work through motherhood and fatherhood not less in their -psychical than in their physical aspects. It is time to have done with -the gross delusions of Nietzsche regarding the nature and course of -organic evolution. Morality is not an invention of man but man the -child of morality, and it is not by the abolition of motherhood, in -which morality originated, nor of fatherhood, its first ally, that -the super-man is to be evolved: but by the attainment of those lofty -conceptions of the function, the responsibility and the privilege of -parenthood which it is the first business of eugenics to inculcate. - -As for marriage, invaluable though at its best it be for the completion -and ennoblement of the individual life, its great function for society -and for the race is in relation to childhood. Thus considered, the -dictum of Professor Westermarck may be understood, that children are -not the result of marriage but marriage the result of children. -This, in other words, is to say that marriage has become evolved -and established as a social institution because of its services to -race-culture. It is, in short, the supreme eugenic institution. This -great subject must next occupy our attention. - - - - - CHAPTER X - - MARRIAGE AND MATERNALISM - - -Our present concern is the relation of marriage to race-culture, -and for this purpose we must investigate an epoch ages before the -institution of human marriage, ages before mankind itself. We must -first remind ourselves of what may be called the trend of progress -from the first in respect of that reproduction upon which all species -depend, all living individuals being mortal. - -At first, in the effort for survival and increase, life tried -the quantitative method. If we take the present day bacteria as -representatives of the primitive method, we see that not quality nor -individuality but quantity and numbers are the means by which, in -their case, life seeks to establish itself more abundantly. We express -our own birth-rate in its proportion per year to one thousand living: -but twenty thousand bacteria injected into a rabbit have been found -to multiply into twelve thousand million in one day. "One bacterium -has been actually observed to rear a small family of eighty thousand -within a period of twenty-four hours." "The cholera bacillus can -duplicate every twenty minutes, and might thus in one day become -5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, with the weight, according to the -calculations of Cohn, of about 7,366 tons. In a few days, at this rate, -there would be a mass of bacteria as big as the moon, huge enough to -fill the whole ocean." - -If now we trace the history of life up to man, we find in him--as -we have seen--the lowest birth-rate of any animal and the longest -ante-natal period in proportion to his body weight, the longest -period of maternal feeding, and by far the lowest infant mortality -and general death-rate. A chief fact of progress has been, in a word, -the supersession of the quantitative by the qualitative criterion of -survival-value. Immeasurably vast vital economy and efficiency have -thus been effected. The tendency of progress, in short--a tendency -coincident with the evolution of ever higher and higher species--is to -pass from the horrible Gargantuan wastefulness of the older methods -towards the evident but yet lamentably unrealised ideal--that every -child born shall reach maturity. This great historical tendency, which -will ultimately involve the restriction of parenthood to the fit, fine -and relatively few, has occurred under the impartial rule of natural -selection simply and solely because it has endowed with survival-value -the successive species in which it has been demonstrated. - -=The rise of parenthood.=--Consistently with this fact and with -the argument of the previous chapter is the tendency towards -the lengthening of infancy, a very characteristic condition of -the evolution of the higher forms of life. This lengthening and -accentuation of infancy makes for variety of development, and, as -we have seen, is supremely instanced in man, where it depends upon, -and makes possible, the transmutation of fixed instincts into the -plastic thing we call intelligence. Thus, to quote the words of Dr. -Parsons,[44] "we find that as infancy is prolonged in the progress -of species, the care given to offspring by parents is increased. It -extends over a longer period and it is directed more and more towards -the total welfare of offspring. The need of a potentially many-sided -and enduring kind of parental care is filled through the social group -we call the family." - -Apart from those immensely significant creatures, the social insects, -we find well-marked though primitive signs of motherhood amongst the -fishes, and in a few cases, such as the stickleback, the beginnings of -fatherhood. But it is not until we reach the mammals, and especially -the monkeys and apes, that we find a great development of motherhood, -far more prolonged and far more important than the more frequently -extolled parental care found amongst the birds. - -Very interesting, however, in the case of the fishes is the fact -observed by Sutherland that "as soon as the slightest trace of parental -care is discovered the chance of survival is increased and the -birth-rate is lowered." As a general summary these words of Dr. Parsons -will serve:--"Diminution of offspring is a threefold gain to a species. -(1) It lessens the vital drain upon the parent. (2) It enables the -size and capacity of the limited number of offspring to be increased. -(3) In the case of the higher developments of parental care after -birth, it concentrates the advantage of that care upon a few instead of -scattering it, and thereby weakening its influence, upon many." - -Now how are these facts connected with that relation between the -parents which we call marriage, temporary or permanent, foreshadowed or -perfected? - -_It may be submitted that the racial function or survival-value of -marriage in all its forms, low or high, animal or human, consists in -its services to the principle of motherhood, these services depending -upon the help and strength which are afforded to motherhood by -fatherhood._ - -=Animal marriage.=--Let us now look very briefly at the facts of animal -marriage from this point of view. The phrase, animal marriage, may -possibly offend the reader, but is there any reason to be offended -at the suggestion that the principle of marriage actually has a -warrant older even than mankind? It has lately been pointed out by a -distinguished naturalist, Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton, that animals, like -men, have long been groping, so to say, for an ideal form of marriage. -We now know, as will be shown, that, contrary to popular opinion, -promiscuity does not prevail amongst the lowest races of men. Equally -false is the popular notion that promiscuity prevails amongst most of -the lower animals. Promiscuity, it is true, does occur, but so also -does strict monogamy, "and promiscuous animals, such as rabbits and -voles, while high in the scale of fecundity, are low in the scale of -general development." Says Mr. Seton: "It is commonly remarked that -while the Mosaic law did not expressly forbid polygamy, it surrounded -marriage with so many restrictions that by living up to the spirit -of them the Hebrew ultimately was forced into pure monogamy. It is -extremely interesting to note that the animals, in their blind groping -for an ideal form of union, have gone through the same stages, and have -arrived at exactly the same conclusion. Monogamy is their best solution -of the marriage question, and is the rule among all the higher and most -successful animals." - -The moose, Mr. Seton tells us, has several wives in one season but only -one at a time. The hawks practise monogamy lasting for one season, "the -male staying with the family, and sharing the care of the young till -they are well-grown." The wolves consort for life, but the death of -one leaves the other free to mate again. There is a fourth method "in -which they pair for life, and, in case of death, the survivor remains -disconsolate and alone to the end. This seems absurd. It is the way of -the geese." The point especially to be insisted upon as regards animal -marriage is its evident service to their race-culture, in accordance -with the principle here laid down that _marriage is of value because it -supports motherhood by fatherhood_, and that its different forms are -of value in proportion as they do so more or less effectively. We may -note also, as a corollary to this, that marriage must be more important -in proportion as the young of a species are helpless and in proportion -as their helplessness is long continued. The importance of marriage for -man, therefore, must necessarily be higher than for any of the lower -animals. - -=Human marriage.=--We must turn now to human marriage, and the -principle which we must remember is that of survival-value. We are -discussing a natural phenomenon exhibited by living creatures. This is -what so few people realise when they speak of marriage. They cannot -disabuse themselves of the idea that it is a human invention, and -especially an ecclesiastical invention. Thus, on the one hand, it -is supported by persons who base its claims on mystical or dogmatic -grounds; whilst, on the other hand, it is attacked by those who are -opposed to ecclesiasticism or religion of any kind, and attacked in -the name of science--in which, if the fact could only be recognised, -is found every possible warrant and sanction, and indeed imperative -demand, for this most precious of all institutions. Here we must -endeavour to look upon it as an exceedingly ancient fact of life, -vastly more ancient than mankind; and in judging it and explaining -it we must apply Nature's universal criterion, which is that of -its survival-value or service to race-culture. Let us then glance -very briefly at the actual facts of human marriage--conceived as an -institution by which the survival-value of fatherhood is added to that -of motherhood. - -The pioneer student of marriage from the standpoint of science was -Herbert Spencer, who with great labour supported the conclusion that -monogamy is the highest, best and latest form of marriage. But in the -absence of the great mass of evidence which is now before us, Spencer -too readily assumed the truth of the popular notion that promiscuity -was the primitive state, and taught that human marriage has developed -from this through polygamy towards the ideal of monogamy. The work -of Professor Westermarck, however--Spencer's chief follower in this -path--has shown, and later writers have abundantly confirmed it, that -this primitive promiscuity never existed. There is no nation or race -or clan of man now extant, however primitive or barbaric, that has -not definite marriage laws; there is no society on earth, however -rude, that does not punish the unfaithful wife. Furthermore, polygamy, -the only historical rival of monogamy, is now known to have played a -quite trivial part in history, not merely compared with monogamy, but -as compared with that which it was supposed to have played. Even in -countries which we call polygamous to-day, polygamy is the relatively -rare exception and monogamy the rule. On this most important question -it is well, however, to quote the words of Professor Westermarck -himself:-- - - "The great majority of peoples are, as a rule, monogamous, and - the other forms of marriage are usually modified in a monogamous - direction." "As to the history of the forms of human marriage, two - inferences regarding monogamy and polygyny may be made with absolute - certainty; monogamy, always the predominant form of marriage, has - been more prevalent at the lowest stages of civilisation than at - somewhat higher stages; whilst, at a still higher stage, polygyny has - again, to a great extent, yielded to monogamy." "We may thus take it - for granted that civilisation, up to a certain point, is favourable - to polygyny; but it is equally certain that in its highest forms - it leads to monogamy." "But, though civilisation up to a certain - point is favourable to polygyny, _its higher forms invariably and - necessarily lead to monogamy_." - -It is the principle of survival-value that explains the dominance of -monogamy at all stages of human society--with the single exception -of continuously and wholly militant societies, in which polygamy -obtained in consequence of the great numerical excess of women. It is -the fate of the children, in which everything is involved, that has -determined the history of human marriage. Furthermore, we may see here -one more illustration of the truth that quality is ousting quantity in -the course of progress, and that a low birth-rate represents a more -advanced stage than a high birth-rate. The birth-rate under polygamy -is undoubtedly high, but polygamy does not make for the survival and -health of the children, and the infant mortality is gigantic. As I have -said elsewhere, "the form of marriage which does not permit the babies -to survive, _they_ do not permit to survive. There is the beginning and -the end of the whole matter in a nutshell. It is not a question of the -father's taste and fancy, but of what he leaves above ground when the -worms are eating him below.... No system yet conceived can compare for -a moment with monogamy in respect of the one criterion which time and -death recognise, the fate of the children." - -In a word, the wholly adequate and only possible explanation of -the historical fact of the dominance of monogamy is its supreme -survival-value. It has competed with every other kind of sex relation -and has been selected by natural selection because of its supreme -service for race-culture--the most perfect conceivable addition of -fatherhood to motherhood. - -=Plato and motherhood.=--Thus eugenics must repudiate not only the -ideas of Mr. Shaw on this subject, but the teaching of Plato, from whom -Mr. Shaw's ideas on this particular subject are apparently derived. It -is in the fifth book of his _Republic_ that the pioneer eugenist lays -down his ideas for race-culture. He realised, indeed, the importance, -after birth, of the nurture of children--"it is of considerable, nay, -of the utmost importance to the State, when this is rightly performed -or otherwise;" and he refers also to their nurture while very young, -"in the period between their generation and their education, which -seems to be the most troublesome of all." His method involved a -complete community of wives and children amongst the guardians of the -State, and on no account were the parents to know their own children -nor the children their parents. The best were to be chosen for parents, -on the analogy of animal race-culture by man. The children of inferior -parents were to be killed. The others were to be conveyed to the common -nursery of the city, but every precaution was to be taken that _no -mother should know her own child_. This practice was to be the cardinal -point of the Republic and "the cause of the greatest good to the city." - -We see here, then, that the very first proposals for race-culture -involved the destruction of marriage and the family, and a total denial -of the value of the psychical aspects of motherhood and fatherhood -alike. Plato's first critic, however, his own great pupil Aristotle, -devoted the best part of his work, the _Politics_, to showing that the -suggestions of Plato were not only wrong in themselves, but would not -secure his end. Aristotle showed, in the words of Mr. Barker, that "the -destruction of the family, and the substitution in its place of one -vast clan, would lead but to the destruction of warm feelings, and the -substitution of a sentiment which is to them as water is to wine.... -So with the system of common marriage, as opposed to monogamy. The one -encourages at best a poor and shadowy sentiment, while it denies to -man the satisfaction of natural instinct and the education of family -life; the other is natural and right, both because it is based on those -instincts, and because it satisfies the moral nature of man, in giving -him objects of permanent yet vivid interest above and beyond himself." -The truth of this matter is that the rest may reason and welcome--but -we fathers know. - -=Marriage a eugenic instrument.=--It has definitely to be stated, then, -that the abolition of marriage and the family is in no degree whatever -a part of the eugenic proposal. We desire to achieve race-culture by -and through marriage, on the lines which indeed many lower races of -men successfully practise at the present day. We must make parenthood -more responsible, not less so. It will afterwards be shown that the -suggested incompatibility between marriage and the family, on the one -hand, and race-culture or eugenics on the other, does not exist. It -will be shown that we have in marriage not only the greatest instrument -of race-culture that has yet been employed--half-consciously--by man, -but also an instrument supremely fitted, and indeed without a rival, -for the conscious, deliberate, and scientific intentions of modern -eugenists. The applicability of marriage for this purpose will be -shown by reference to actual facts. Mr. Galton himself has shown how -effectively an educated public opinion can employ marriage for the -purposes of race-culture, its services to which have indeed led to its -evolution. It has furthermore to be added that only the formation of -public opinion can ever lead to the ideal which we desire. This opinion -already exists in some degree as regards one or two transmissible -diseases, and, though without adequate scientific warrant, as regards -the marriage of first cousins. In these respects it is not without some -measure of effectiveness, and the fact is of the utmost promise. - -"Marriage," said Goethe, "is the origin and the summit of all -civilisation." Perhaps it would be more accurate to say _the family_ -rather than _marriage_. The childless marriage may be and often is a -thing of the utmost beauty and value to the individuals concerned, -but it is certainly not the origin of civilisation, and if it be -its summit it is also its grave. The eugenic support of marriage, -therefore, depends upon a belief in the family, and that form of -marriage will commend itself which provides the best form of family. -From the point of view of certain eugenists, polygamy would be -desirable in many cases, as extending the parental opportunities of -the man of fine physique or intellectual distinction. The problem -remains, however, as to the nurture of the children so obtained, and -historical study returns us a very clear answer as to the relative -merits of the polygamous family and the monogamous family. It is this -last that pre-eminently justifies itself on the score of its services -to childhood and therefore to the race. Its survival is a matter of -absolute certainty, because of its survival-value. Neither Plato nor -Mr. Shaw, nor any kind of collectivist legislation will permanently -abolish it. - -=The principle of maternalism.=--The merits of monogamy can be -defined in terms of the principle which I would venture to call -maternalism--the principle of the permanent and radical importance of -motherhood and whatever institutions afford it the greatest aid. - -Maternalism would point, I think, to the supreme paradox that the -dominant creature of the earth is born of woman, and born the most -absolutely helpless of all living creatures whatsoever, animal or -vegetable; it would note that this utter dependence upon others, mother -or foster-mother, is not only the most unqualified known, but the -longest maintained; it would observe that of all the human beings now -alive, all that have lived, all that are to be, not one could survive -its birth for twenty-four hours but for motherhood; it would note that -only motherhood has rendered possible the development of instinct into -that intelligence which, itself dependent upon motherhood for the -possibility of its development, has dependent upon it the fact that -the earth is now man's and the fulness thereof; and to the advocates -of all the political -isms that can be named, and the small proportion -of them that can be defined, it would apply its specific criterion: -Do you regard the safeguarding and the ennoblement of motherhood as -the proximate end of all political action, the end through which -the ultimate ends, the production and recognition of human worth, -can alone be attained; do you realise that marriage is invaluable -_because_ it makes for the enthronement of motherhood as nothing else -ever did or can; do you realise that, metaphors about State maternity -notwithstanding, the State has neither womb nor breasts, these most -reverend and divine of all vital organs being the appanage of the -individual mother alone? - -The maternalist principle being assumed, and the value of monogamy on -the ground that it supports motherhood by fatherhood, the forthcoming -discussion as to the possibilities of race-culture will assume the -persistence of monogamy and will centre upon the possibility of -selecting or rejecting, for the purposes of race-culture, those who are -available for entrance into the marriage state. The reader who has not -studied social anthropology--and this is true of nearly all the critics -of eugenics, very few of whom have studied anything--will be astounded, -I believe, to discover the practically unlimited extent to which public -opinion, whether or not formulated as law, has always been capable of -controlling marriage, and therefore, race-culture. - -=Proposed definition of marriage.=--Recognising the existence -of subhuman marriage, we may be at a loss to define marriage as -distinguished from sex-relations in general. It is that form of -sex-relation which involves or is adapted to _common parental care_ of -the offspring--the support of motherhood by fatherhood. - - - - - PART II--THE PRACTICE OF EUGENICS - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - NEGATIVE EUGENICS - - N'abandonnons pas l'avenir de notre race à la fatalité d'Allah; - créons-le nous-mêmes.--Forel. - - "It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, - leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but except in the case - of man himself, hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst - animals to breed. - - "With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated, and - those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We - civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process - of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maim and the - sick; we institute poor laws; and our medical men exert their utmost - skill to save the life of everyone to the last moment.... Thus the - weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who - has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this - must be highly injurious to the race of man."--Darwin, _The Descent - of Man_, 1871. Pt. i., chap. v. - - -Hitherto we have mainly concerned ourselves with broad aspects of -theory, endeavouring to prove that conscious race-culture is a -necessity for any civilisation which is to endure, and to show how -alone it can be effected. But evidently for a great many of the -practical proposals that might be, and for not a few that have been, -based upon these views, public opinion is not ripe. We may be thankful -to believe that for some it will never be ripe: it would be rotten -first. Marriage, for instance, we hold sacred and essential: we find -intolerable the idea of the human stud-farm; we are very dubious as -to the help of surgery; we are much more than dubious as to the -lethal chamber. It is necessary to be reasonable, and, in seeking -the superman, to remain at least human. Now if we are to achieve any -immediate success we must clearly divide our proposals, as the present -writer did some years ago, with Mr. Galton's approval, into two -classes: _positive eugenics_ and _negative eugenics_. The one would -seek to encourage the parenthood of the worthy, the other to discourage -the parenthood of the unworthy. Positive eugenics is the original -eugenics, but, as the writer endeavoured to show at the time, negative -eugenics is one with it in principle. The two are complementary, and -are both practised by Nature: natural selection is one with natural -rejection. To choose is to refuse. - -In regard to positive eugenics I, for one, must ever make the criticism -that I cannot believe in the propriety of attempting to bribe into -parenthood people who have no love of children: we have to consider -the parental environment of the children we desire, as well as their -innate quality. Thus, positive eugenics must largely take the form, at -present, of removing such disabilities as now weigh upon the desirable -members of the community, especially of the more prudent sort. - -For instance, it was recently pointed out by a correspondent of the -_Morning Post_ that in Great Britain, despite the alarm caused by the -decreasing marriage-rate, no one has protested against-- - - "... the tax which the propertied middle classes have to pay on - marriage.... To take a few instances. Two persons each having £160 a - year marry. Previous to marriage they were exempt from income tax; - after marriage they pay £6 per annum. Two persons each having £400 a - year pay £18 before and £30 after marriage. Similarly the additional - income tax payable on marriage by people each having £600 a year is - £9, by those having £1,200 a year £30, and by those having £2,000 a - year £50. It is difficult to see how our legislators arrived at this - result unless they started to average the incomes of married people - and then forgot to divide by two.... If, as I contend, a man and his - wife should be counted as two people, not one, should not children - also be counted in any scheme of graduated taxation, and an income - be divided by the number of persons it has to support in order to - fix the rate at which the tax is to be charged? It is ridiculous to - suppose that a man with a wife and six children is as well off on - £1,000 a year as a bachelor with the same income. It is, I believe, - acknowledged that the moderately well-off professional classes marry - later and have fewer children than the wage-earners, and I think - there can be no doubt that the special burthens they have to bear - is a material influence contributing to this result. Thus, while we - are deploring the decadence of the race, the State is doing what it - can to discourage marriage in a class whose children would in all - probability prove its most valued citizens." - -But it is in negative eugenics that we can accomplish most at this -stage, and in so doing can steadily educate public opinion, the -professional jesters notwithstanding. There is here a field for action -which does not demand a great revolution in the popular point of view; -and, further, does not require us to wait for certainty until the facts -and laws of heredity have been much further elucidated. The services -which a conscious race-culture, thus directed, may even now accomplish, -can scarcely be over-estimated; and even if we cannot reach the public -heart at once we can reach the public head by means of the public -pocket--which will benefit obviously and greatly when these proposals -are carried out. As Thoreau observes, for a thousand who are lopping -off the branches of an evil there is but one striking at its roots. If -we strike at the roots of certain grave and costly evils of the present -day, we shall abundantly demonstrate that this is a matter of the most -vital economy. - -=The deaf and dumb.=--We might begin with the case of the _deaf and -dumb_, since the facts here are utterly beyond dispute. The condition -known as deaf-mutism is congenital or due to innate defect in about -one-half of all the cases in Great Britain. Says Dr. Love,[45] "In -every institution examples may be found of deaf-mute children who have -one or two deaf parents or grand-parents, and of two or more deaf-mute -children belonging to one family." A recent report from Japan is of -a similar order, and the evidence might be multiplied indefinitely. -The obvious conclusion that the inherently deaf should not marry "is -generally conceded by those who work amongst the deaf, but the present -arrangements for the education of the deaf, and their management in -missions and institutes for the deaf during the period of adolescence, -is eminently fitted to encourage union between the congenitally -deaf. If not during the school period, at least during the period of -adolescence, everything should be done to discourage the association -of the deaf and dumb with each other, and the danger of their meeting -with those similarly afflicted should be constantly kept before the -congenitally deaf by those in charge of them." Dr. Love quotes the -following newspaper report: "At an inquest yesterday, on William -Earnshaw, 59, a St. Pancras saddler, it was stated that the relatives -could not identify the body, as the wife and sister were blind, deaf -and dumb, and that the four children were deaf and dumb. The deceased -was deaf and dumb, and was so when he was married." - -=The feeble-minded.=--The case of the _feeble-minded_ is of course -parallel. The problem would be at once reduced to negligible -proportions if all cases of feeble-mindedness were dealt with as they -should be. These unfortunate people might lead quite happy lives, -the utmost be done for their feeble capacities, the supreme demands -of the law of love be completely but providently complied with. -The feeble-minded girl might be protected from herself and from -others--her fate otherwise is often too deplorable for definition--and -the interests of the future be not compromised. These words were -written whilst awaiting the long overdue Report of the Royal Commission -on this subject--which abundantly confirms them. The proportion of -the mentally defective in Great Britain is now 0.83 per cent., and it -is doubtless rising yearly. Only by the recognition and application -of negative eugenics can this evil be cured. I have elsewhere[46] -discussed the supposed objection which will be raised in the name of -"liberty" by persons who think in words instead of realities. The right -care of the feeble-minded involves the greatest happiness and liberty -and self-development possible for them. The interests of the individual -and the race are one. What liberty has the feeble-minded prostitute, -such as our streets are filled with? - -=The insane.=--As regards obvious _insanity_, the same principles of -negative eugenics must be enforced. It is probably fair to say that the -whole trend of modern research has been to accentuate the importance, -if not indeed the indispensableness, of the inherent or inherited -factor in the production of insanity. Yet, on the other hand, the trend -of treatment of the insane has undoubtedly been towards permitting -them more liberty, sometimes of the kind which the principles of -race-culture must condemn. It is well, of course, that we should -be humane in our treatment of the insane. It is well that curative -medicine should do its utmost for them, and it seems well, at first -sight, that the proportion of discharges from asylums on the score of -recovery should be as high as it is. But at this point the possibility -of the gravest criticism evidently arises. I have no intention -whatever of exposing the question of race-culture to legitimate -criticism by laying down dogmatically any doctrines as to the perpetual -incarceration of insane persons, including those who have been, but -are not now, insane. Pope was, of course, right when he hinted at the -nearness of the relation between _certain forms_ of genius and certain -forms of insanity. It may well be that if we could provide a fit -environment we might welcome the children of some of those, highly and -perhaps uniquely gifted in brain, who, under the stress of the ordinary -environment of modern life, have broken down for shorter or longer -periods. On the other hand, there are forms of insanity which, beyond -all dispute, should utterly preclude their victims from parenthood. As -a result of recent controversies it seems on the whole probable, if not -certain, that the apparent persistent increase in the proportion of -the insane in civilised countries generally during many years past, is -a real increase, and not due simply to such factors as more stringent -certification or increase of public confidence in lunatic asylums. If, -then, there be in process a real increase in the proportion of the -insane, who will question that no time should be lost in ascertaining -the extent--undoubtedly most considerable--to which the principles of -negative eugenics can be invoked in order to arrest it? - -As regards _epilepsy_ and _epileptic insanity_ there can be no -question. There is, of course, such a thing as acquired epilepsy, and -we may even assume for the sake of the argument that no inherent and -therefore transmissible factor of predisposition is involved in such -cases. Yet, wholly excluding them, there remains the vast majority -of cases in which epilepsy and epileptic insanity are unquestionably -germinal in origin, and therefore transmissible. The principle of -negative eugenics cannot too soon be applied here. - -=The criminal.=--When we come to consider the question of _crime_ -the cautious and responsible eugenist is bound to be wary--chiefly, -perhaps, because such a vast amount of sheer nonsense has been written -on this subject. The whole question, of course, is the old one, Is it -heredity or environment that produces the criminal? If and when it is -the environment, race-culture has nothing to do with the question, -since the merely acquired criminality is, as we know, not in any -degree transmissible. If the criminal, however, is always or ever a -"born criminal," then the eugenist is intimately concerned. At the -one extreme are those who tell us that the idea of crime is a purely -conventional one, that the criminal is the product of circumstances or -environment, and that we, in his case, would have done likewise. The -remedy for crime, then, is education. It is pointed out, however, that -education merely modifies the variety of crime. There is less murder -but more swindling, and so forth. Then, on the other hand, there are -those who declare that criminality is innate, and that if we are to -make an end of crime we must attach surgeons to our gaols; or at any -rate must extend the principle of the life-sentence. - -Doubtless, the truth lies between these two extremes. In the face -of the work of Lombroso and his school, exaggerated though their -conclusions often be, we cannot dispute the existence of the born -criminal, and the criminal type. There are undoubtedly many such -persons in modern society. There is an abundance of crime which no -education, practised or imaginable, would eliminate. Present-day -psychology and medicine, and, for the matter of that, ordinary -common-sense, can readily distinguish cases at both extremes--the -_mattoid_ or semi-insane criminal at one end, and the decent citizen -who yields to exceptional temptation at the other end. Thus, even -though there remain a vast number of cases where our knowledge is -insufficient, we could accomplish great things already if the born -criminal, the habitual criminal and his like were rationally treated -by society, on the lines of the reformatory, the labour colony, -indeterminate sentences, and such other methods as aim, successfully or -unsuccessfully, at the reform of the individual, whilst incidentally -protecting the race. Here, as in some other cases, the nature of the -environment provided for their children by certain sections of the -community may be taken into account when we decide whether they are -to be prohibited from parenthood. Heredity or no heredity, we cannot -desire to have children born into the alcoholic home; heredity or no -heredity, we cannot desire to have children born into the criminal -environment. In Great Britain we are no longer to manufacture criminals -in hundreds by sending children to prison. It remains to be seen, after -the practical disappearance of the made criminal, what proportion -of crime is really due to the born criminal. He, when found, must -certainly be dealt with on the lines indicated by our principles.[47] - -=Other cases.=--So far we have considered exclusively diseases and -disorders of the brain, the question of alcoholism being deferred to -a special chapter. When we come to other forms of defect or disease -we find a long gradation of instances: at the one extreme being cases -where the fact of disastrous inheritance is palpable and inevitable, -whilst at the other extreme are kinds of disease and defect as to which -the share of heredity is still very uncertain. In some instances, then, -the eugenist is bound to lay down the most emphatic propositions, -as, for instance, that parenthood on the part of men suffering from -certain diseases is and should and must be regarded and treated as a -crime of the most heinous order: whilst in other instances all we can -say is that here is a direction in which more knowledge is needed. - -Some particular cases may be referred to. - -The diseases known as Daltonism or colour-blindness, and hæmophilia -or the "bleeding disease," are certainly hereditary. The sufferers -are usually male, but the disease is commonly transmitted by their -daughters (who do not themselves suffer) to their male descendants. -As regards colour-blindness, the defect is evidently insufficient -to concern the eugenist, but hæmophilia is a serious disease, the -transmission of which should not be excused. It may seem hard to assert -that the daughter of a hæmophilic father should not become a mother, -she herself being free from all disease. But it has to be remembered -that the possibility of this hardship depends upon the fact that a -hæmophilic man has become a father, as he should not have done. - -This point, as to the amount of hardship involved in the observance -of negative race-culture, has always to be kept in mind. If negative -eugenics were generally enforced upon a given generation some -persons would, of course, suffer in greater or less degree from the -disabilities imposed upon them. But their number would depend upon the -neglect of eugenics by previous generations, and _thereafter the number -of those upon whom our principles pressed hardly would be relatively -minute_. - -=Eugenics and tuberculosis.=--It would not be correct to say that -the old view of consumption regarded it as hereditary. In this and a -hundred other matters, medical, astronomical, or what we please, if -we go back to the Arabic students, or further, to the Greeks, we are -lucky enough to find sound observation and reasoning. Many quotations -might be made to show that the infectious nature of tuberculosis was -recognised long ago, just as the revolution of the earth round the -sun was recognised a millennium and a half before Copernicus. But -the view of our more immediate fathers was that tuberculosis is a -hereditary degeneration, and the medical profession proclaimed with no -uncertain sound the hopeless and paralysing doctrine that an almost -certain doom hung over the children of the consumptive. Then, in -memorable succession, came Villemin, Pasteur, and lastly Koch, with -his discovery of the bacillus in 1882. The doctrine was then altered -in its statement. There was, of course, no choice in the matter, since -it was easy to show that not one new-born baby in millions harbours -a tubercle bacillus; so all-but-miraculous and, rightly considered, -beautiful are the ante-natal defences. It was taught, then, that we -inherit a predisposition from consumptive parents, that the bacillus -is ubiquitous, and that variations in susceptibility determine the -incidence of the disease in one and not in another. It was lightly -assumed (simply through what may be called the inertia of belief) -that these variations in susceptibility were hereditary; but we are -wholly without evidence that the hereditary factor counts for anything -substantial, even assuming that it appreciably exists at all. These -differences, so far from being inherent, may be _most palpably_ -acquired. Under-feeding, alcohol, and influenza, let us say, will -adequately prepare any human soil. Furthermore, we are learning that -the bacillus is nothing like so ubiquitous as used to be supposed. -Tuberculosis is now sometimes described as a dwelling disease. It might -probably be described with still more accuracy as a bed-room disease, -or a bed-room and public-house disease. It has been evident for many -years past that the more we learnt about tuberculosis the less did -we talk about heredity; and in one of the most recent authoritative -pronouncements[48] upon the subject, the lecturer did not even allude -to heredity at all. Many readers will be up in arms at once with -apparently contrary instances; and much labour may be spent in the -mathematical analysis of statistical data--as that of cases where a -father and a child have tuberculosis. But suppose the father kissed the -child? What have you proved regarding heredity? No mathematics can get -more out of the data than is in them. - -The statistics designed to measure the degree of inheritance in this -disease labour under the cardinal fallacy of assuming that where father -and son suffer, the case is one of inheritance, and then proceed to -measure the average extent of this inheritance. These statistics are -so much waste paper and ink--assuming what they claim to prove. They -do not allow for the fact that the child is very frequently exposed -in grave measure to infection by the parent; they ignore wholly, -indeed, the entire question of exposure to infection, both as regards -its extent in time and the virulence of the infection in question. -At the present day, discussions as to the inheritance of consumption -and tuberculosis in general are not fit for practical application: -and a practical disservice is rendered by those who seek to divert -public attention from the removable environmental causes upon which -the disease mainly depends. We know, for instance, that the incidence -of tuberculosis is directly proportional to over-crowding: this being -universally true, we must work to abolish over-crowding and to provide -fresh air for every one by day and by night. When that is done, -alcoholism disposed of, and our milk-supply purified, we may turn to -the question of heredity: but the incidence of the disease will then -present merely trivial instead of the present appalling proportions. - -It is not asserted that inherent variations in susceptibility to -this disease are not existent. The case would be unique if it were -so. But it is asserted that the more we learn of the disease the -less importance we attach to this factor, and the more surely do -we see that the three syllables constituting the word "infection" -substantially suffice to dispose of all the confident dogmas with -which we are too familiar. One is almost tempted to quote a forcible -phrase of Mill's, and say that, given this point of view, "once -questioned, they are doomed." The only method of accurately studying -the question of inherited predisposition would be by comparative study -of the resistance of new-born infants as measured by their "opsonic -index"--which may be (very roughly) described as the measure of the -power of the white cells of the blood to eat up tubercle bacilli.[49] -Nor will even this method be free from fallacy. - -The present writer believes that eugenics is going to save the world; -that there is no study of such urgent and practical importance as that -of heredity; that if we get the right people born and the wrong people -not born, forms of government and such questions will be left even -without fools to contest regarding them. Thus he has every bias in -favour of emphasising the hereditary factor in tuberculosis. The fact -will at least not discredit the foregoing views, which are in absolute -accord with those of Dr. Newsholme, our leading authority, in his -recent work upon the subject. - -Nothing need here be said about cancer, the best and most recent -evidence tending to show that the disease is not hereditary. - -The foregoing may briefly suffice to illustrate the general proposition -that negative eugenics will seek to define the diseases and defects -which are really hereditary, to name those the transmission of which -is already certainly known to occur, and to raise the average of the -race by interfering as far as may be with the parenthood of persons -suffering from these transmissible disorders. Only thus can certain -of the gravest evils of society, as, for instance, feeble-mindedness, -insanity, and crime due to inherited degeneracy, be suppressed: and if -race-culture were absolutely incapable of effecting anything whatever -in the way of increasing the fertility of the worthiest classes and -individuals, its services in the negative direction here briefly -outlined would still be of incalculable value. No other proposal will -save so much life, present and to come: and save so much gold in doing -so--as one would insist if one were writing a eugenic primer for -politicians. To this policy we shall most certainly come: but here, -as in other cases, I trust far more in the influence of an educated -public opinion than in legislation; though there are certain forms of -transmissible disease, interfering in no way with the responsibility of -the individual, the transmission of which should be visited with the -utmost rigour of the law and regarded as utterly criminal no less than -sheer murder. - -In the next chapter, recognising marriage as the human mode of -selection, we must consider it in its relation to eugenics, both -positive and negative. - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - SELECTION THROUGH MARRIAGE - - -=Historical evidence of control of marriage: Westermarck's -evidence.=--To begin with the most recent refutation of the doctrine -that marriage selection is uncontrollable, one may quote from the -inaugural lecture delivered by Dr. Westermarck in December, 1907, on -his appointment as Professor of Sociology in the University of London. -He said:-- - - "For instance, when the suggestion has been made that the law should - step in and prevent unfit individuals from contracting marriage, - the objection has at once been raised that any such measure would - be impracticable. Now we find that many savages have tried the - experiment and succeeded. Mr. Im Thurn tells us that among the wild - Indians of Guiana, a man, before he is allowed to choose a wife, must - prove that he can do a man's work and is able to support himself - and his family. In various Bechuana and Kaffir tribes, according - to Livingstone, a youth is prohibited from marrying until he has - killed a rhinoceros. Among the Dyaks of Borneo no one can marry - until he has in his possession a certain number of human skulls. - Among the Arabs of Upper Egypt a man must undergo an ordeal of - whipping by the relatives of his bride, in order to test his courage; - and if he wishes to be considered worth having, he must receive - the chastisement, which is sometimes exceedingly severe, with an - expression of enjoyment. - - "I do not say that these particular methods are worthy of slavish - imitation, but the principle underlying them is certainly excellent, - and especially the fact that they are recognised and enforced by - custom shows that it has been quite possible among many people to - prohibit certain unfit individuals from marrying. The question - naturally arises whether, after all, something of the same kind may - not be possible among ourselves." - -=Mr. Galton's evidence.=--But Mr. Galton himself, with his -characteristic thoroughness, and in full recognition of the fact that -this young science must meet ignorant as well as other objections, read -before the Sociological Society[50] a paper entitled "Restrictions -in Marriage," with special reference to the objection "that human -nature would never brook interference with the freedom of marriage.... -How far have marriage restrictions proved effective, when sanctified -by the religion of the time, by custom and by law? I appeal from -armchair criticism to historical facts." Mr. Galton then proceeds to -quote seven forms of restriction in marriage which have actually been -practised--monogamy, endogamy, exogamy, Australian marriages, taboo, -prohibited degrees and celibacy. He shows how powerful under each of -these heads is the influence of "immaterial motives" upon marriage -selection, how they may all become hallowed by religion, accepted as -custom and enforced by law. "Persons who are born under their various -rules, live under them without any objection. They are unconscious of -their restrictions as we are unaware of the tension of the atmosphere." -In many cases the establishment of monogamy and the prohibition -of polygamy "has been due not to any natural instinct against the -practice, but to consideration of social well-being." "It was penal -for a Greek to marry a barbarian, for a Roman patrician to marry a -plebeian, for a Hindoo of one caste to marry one of another caste, -and so forth. Similar restrictions have been enforced in multitudes -of communities, even under the penalty of death." Cases from ancient -Jewish law are quoted; and, to take a very different case, that of the -marriage rule amongst the Australian bushmen, it is shown that "the -cogency of this rule is due to custom, religion and law, and is so -strong that nearly all Australians would be horrified at the idea of -breaking it." Passing further on, one need offer no excuse for quoting, -regarding marriage in general, the following words of the founder of -eugenics:--"_The institution of marriage as now sanctified by religion -and safeguarded by law in the more highly civilised nations, may not -be ideally perfect, nor may it be universally accepted in future -times, but it is the best that has hitherto been devised for the -parties primarily concerned, for their children, for home life, and for -society._" - -Mr. Galton then proceeds to show how extensive are the restrictions in -marriage already recognised and practised amongst ourselves and quite -contentedly accepted. He proves also that our objection to marriage -within prohibited degrees depends mainly upon what he calls immaterial -considerations, and adds "it is quite conceivable that a non-eugenic -marriage should hereafter excite no less loathing than that of a -brother and sister would do now." Then, in allusion to the possibility -"of a whole-hearted acceptance of eugenics as a national religion ... -the thorough conviction by a nation that no worthier object exists -for man than the improvement of his own race," Mr. Galton shows from -the history of conventual life what abundant evidence there is "of -the power of religious authority in directing and withstanding the -tendencies of human nature towards freedom in marriage." This paper -was discussed by no less than twenty-six authorities, British and -Continental, and in his reply Mr. Galton observes that not one of them -impugns his main conclusion "that history tells how restrictions in -marriage, even of an excessive kind, have been contentedly accepted -very widely, under the guidance of what I called immaterial motives." -Lastly, we may note Mr. Galton's admirable distinction between the -two stages of love, "that of slight inclination and that of falling -thoroughly into love, for it is the first of these rather than the -second that I hope the popular feeling of the future will successfully -resist. Every match-making mother appreciates the difference. If a -girl is taught to look upon a class of men as tabooed, whether owing -to rank, creed, connections or other causes, she does not regard them -as possible husbands and turns her thoughts elsewhere. The proverbial -'Mrs. Grundy' has enormous influence in checking the marriages she -considers indiscreet." - -Surely all the foregoing suffices to show, first, that eugenics or -race-culture is compatible with marriage, and secondly, that it is -compatible with the love of the sexes--two conclusions of the most -cardinal and fundamental importance. This importance it is, and the -obstinate stupidity of critics of a kind, which must excuse me for -having devoted so much space to propositions which the thoughtful -reader would naturally have arrived at for himself. - -=The present influence of marriage on race-culture.=--We must turn now -from the past to the present aspect of the question, viz., the actual -relation of marriage to eugenics at the present day. Its nature is -very much disputed. On the one hand, there are those who see in our -present methods what has elsewhere been called reversed selection--that -is to say, an anti-eugenic process, involving the mating of the least -desirable. On the other hand, there are many conservative critics who, -starting from a general opposition to any new thing, such as eugenics, -maintain that we are doing very well as we are, and that, without any -conscious interference, as they call it--as if there were no such -interference--selection by marriage is actually working for the eugenic -end. Dr. Maudsley, for instance, is "not sure but that nature in its -own blind impulsive way does not manage things better than we can by -any light of reason": an astounding opinion from the veteran pioneer -who has devoted so many decades to successfully modifying natural -processes by the light of his own splendid reason! - -This most important question, as to what is actually happening within -the limits of marriage, may legitimately be regarded as substantially -equivalent to the question of the extent and nature of selection, -for good or for evil, as it occurs in society to-day. If we remember -that an overwhelming proportion of children are born in wedlock, -that the death-rate of illegitimate children is gigantic, whilst -the illegitimate birth-rate is generally falling, we shall be fully -entitled to assume that the answer to the one question is the answer -to the other; in a word, if under the present conditions of selection -for marriage we find a eugenic tendency or an anti-eugenic tendency or -a mere neutrality, the answer will be, _on the whole_, the approximate -answer to the larger question as to the present state of selection -for parenthood and therefore of our racial prospects, marriage or no -marriage. The conclusion which we shall maintain is that _both forms -of selection occur in society to-day_--the selection of the desirable -and the selection of the undesirable. We shall go ludicrously wrong -if we agree, with one party, that society in general to-day exhibits -reversed selection; or, with the second party, that everything is -going on admirably on the whole; or, with the third party, which -jumbles the whole mass of facts and tendencies, and declares that -there is no process of selection of any kind occurring in society -to-day--an opinion which, in the face of disease, the enormous -premature death-rate, and the fact that whilst vast numbers of women -are unmarried, the choice of women for marriage does not occur by lot, -beggars comment; is a girl with a birth-mark covering half her face, -or a nose destroyed by transmissible disease, as likely to marry as -a "beauty"? If not, surely we actually select to-day for beauty and -therefore for whatever beauty depends upon--for instance, health. But -really it cannot be necessary to deal seriously with the proposition -that no selection occurs in society to-day. - -Let us attempt to state clearly the point at issue. There is granted, -in the first place, that by far the greater part of all parenthood, -in civilised and uncivilised communities alike, occurs within the -limits of marriage; to which may be added that, owing to the excessive -death-rate of illegitimate children, the proportion of effective -parenthood, so to say, that occurs within the limits of marriage is -even larger; and this intervention of marriage, and any selection that -may be involved in it, steadily recur from generation to generation. -Thus even those born outside wedlock will nevertheless be selected -for parenthood, on their own part, mainly by the selective factors in -marriage. - -=Selection by marriage has the last word.=--It follows, then, though -the fact is almost constantly ignored by eugenic writers, that -selection by marriage in effect has the last word. Thus supposing -that all other forms of selection, depending upon, for instance, -the various causes of death amongst the immature, were what we call -reversed selection; or supposing that, as is actually the case, society -permitted large numbers of the so-called unfit to survive,--even -so, marriage selection (if it meant that many or most of these were -rejected by it) would control and correct the dangerous tendency. On -all hands, scientific and unscientific, we have writers telling us of -the disastrous multiplication of the unfit. Such multiplication does -occur and is disastrous. Yet hitherto they have failed to recognise -that if--to take an extreme case--all these unfit are rejected -by marriage selection--that is to say, do not themselves become -parents--this alarming multiplication is, after all, not a persistent -factor in racial change, but merely the throwing up or throwing aside -in each generation of a certain number of undesirables _whose breed -gets no further_. Of course there would be much less urgent need for -eugenics if this last were wholly and happily the case. Our object, -indeed, is to make it the case: but so long as selection by marriage -exists,--and its occurrence is palpably indisputable--_it is a -serious flaw in the common argument to assume that the production and -preservation of undesirables necessarily involves their own parenthood -in due course_. It is necessary that strict statistical enquiry be -made on this point. It would show, I believe, that the marriage-rate -_and the birth-rate_ amongst the _grossly_ unfit is much lower than -that of the general community, or, in other words, that the influence -and value of selection by marriage (which, as we have shown, is in -effect selection for parenthood, the only selection that ultimately -matters) has not yet been fully appreciated. I very strongly incline -to the view that if this protective factor were not constantly at -work, the "multiplication of the unfit" would long ago have led to -the destruction of every civilised nation on the earth: they would -have swamped us long ago. Indeed, the proposition may be laid down -that, supreme and indispensable as are the services of marriage to -race-culture, in its protection of motherhood, and the support of -motherhood by fatherhood, probably the services of marriage as in -effect the working of sexual selection are worthy of being rated -almost, if not quite, as high. - -=Sexual selection is certainly true of mankind.=--Before adducing -the outlines of the evidence in favour of marriage as an instrument -of selection, it may be well to point out that here we are really -discussing what Darwin called "sexual selection," modified by the -psychology and peculiar characters of mankind. We must protect -ourselves from the critics who will remind us that sexual selection -is very largely discredited to-day, rather more than a generation -after Darwin's enunciation of it in _The Descent of Man_ (1871). The -controversy regarding sexual selection as the producer of feathers -and markings and song, and so forth, amongst the lower animals, is -fortunately quite irrelevant to our present discussion, which is -concerned with mankind. We can afford to note with equanimity the -observation that, in lower species, no mature female goes unmated, -for instance; the fact remains that in the case of mankind a very -considerable percentage of women remain unmarried. The case is similar -as regards the male sex. In short, one may declare that, whether or not -sexual selection is possible, or occurs, or accomplishes anything, in -the case of the lower animals, it palpably and patently is possible, -and does occur, amongst mankind, and especially amongst civilised -peoples, in the form of selection by or for marriage--which, as we have -seen, is in effect selection for parenthood. Let us first note the -statistical evidence regarding marriage-selection of health and energy. - -=Spencer on marital longevity.=--We are all aware that married people -live longer, on the average, than unmarried people, the conclusion -being, "of course," that marriage is good for the health. But some are -taken and others left in this respect, and if, for any conceivable -reason, health is a factor making for selection by marriage, that may -be a real explanation, in whole or in part, of the longer life of -married people. Considering the risks to life involved in motherhood, -the superior longevity of married as compared with unmarried women -would be incomprehensible except on some such assumption. Yet it is -the fact, so imperfect still is the entry of the idea of selection -into the popular and even the expert mind, that the superior longevity -of married people is still constantly asserted to mean that marriage -makes for long life; every year, when the statistics are printed, this -argument may be seen in the newspapers, and I remember encountering it -in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, to my utter astonishment. - -This uncritical conclusion was disposed of by the author of the phrase -"the survival of the fittest"--appropriately enough--more than thirty -years ago. If the reader will turn to Herbert Spencer's _Study of -Sociology_ (a masterpiece which may be commended to the publishers -for the purpose of indexing--twenty editions without an index are too -many) he will find in Chapter V. a discussion of this question. It is -an astonishing thing that though Spencer conclusively exposed it a -generation ago, the childish fallacy is still apparently as flourishing -as ever. He shows how the greater healthfulness of married life was -supposed to be proved by Dr. Stark from comparison of the rates of -mortality among the married and among the celibate. Then no less an -authority than M. Bertillon went into the matter and contributed a -paper called "The Influence of Marriage"--thus begging the question in -its very title--to the Brussels Academy of Medicine. He showed that, -from twenty-five to thirty years of age, several Continental countries -being taken into the reckoning, "the mortality per thousand is 4 in -married men, 10.4 in bachelors, and 22 in widows. This beneficial -influence of marriage is manifested at all ages, being always more -strongly marked in men than in women." The absurdity of the apparent -conclusion regarding widows is surely, as Spencer says, too obvious -for discussion. But, for the rest, Spencer goes on to show that, -in reality, "marriage and longevity are concomitant results of the -same cause"--in other words, "that superior quality of organisation -which conduces to long life also conduces to marriage. It is normally -accompanied by a predominance of the instincts and emotions prompting -marriage; there goes along with it that power[51] which can secure the -means of making marriage practicable; and it increases the probability -of success in courtship." Spencer shows how "of men whose marriages -depend upon getting the needful income," those who will succeed -are in general "the best, physically and mentally--the strong, the -intellectually capable, the morally well-balanced." He shows also -how "women are attracted towards men of power--physical, emotional, -intellectual; and obviously their freedom of choice leads them, in many -cases, to refuse inferior samples of men; especially the malformed, the -diseased, and those who are ill-developed, physically and mentally. -So that, in so far as marriage is determined by female selection, -the average result on men is that while the best easily get wives, a -certain proportion of the worst are left without wives." - -Very likely the stupid conclusion into which so many distinguished -men have been betrayed will survive for many years yet amongst less -distinguished people, but at any rate we may free our minds from it -here, and may recognise in the figures to which I have referred, and -which are of the same order to-day, the statistical proof of what any -observer, however casual, might have inferred from what he sees even -amongst his own friends only--that marriage is, as it probably always -has been, a selective agent of much value in preserving and augmenting -the desirable inherent qualities of the race. It is, of course, the -object of race-culture or eugenics to strengthen the hands of marriage -in this respect to the utmost possible degree. - -=Woman as practical eugenist.=--We must especially note one most -important matter, radically affecting race-culture, which is referred -to by Herbert Spencer in the passage cited, and has been greatly -insisted upon by Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer with -Darwin of the principle of natural selection. The matter in question -is the possibility of race-culture through the choice of their -husbands by women. Not long ago Dr. Wallace[52] described selection -through marriage as the "more permanently effective agency through -which the improvement of human character may be achieved." This, in -his opinion, can only be perfectly achieved "when a greatly improved -social system renders all our women economically and socially free to -choose; while a rational and complete education will have taught them -the importance of their choice both to themselves and to humanity.... -It will act through the agency of well-known facts and principles of -human nature, leading to a continuous reduction of the lower types in -each successive generation, and it is the only mode yet suggested which -will automatically and naturally effect this." Thus "for the first -time in the history of mankind his Character--his very Human Nature -itself--will be improved by the slow but certain action of a pure and -beautiful form of selection--a selection which will act, not through -struggle and death, but through brotherhood and love." - -Dr. Wallace is a socialist, and he believes that only through socialism -can we achieve "that perfect freedom of choice in marriage which will -only be possible when all are economically equal, and no question of -social rank or material advantage can have the slightest influence in -determining that choice." As I have said elsewhere, I would call myself -neither a socialist nor an anti-socialist, but if labels are necessary, -a eugenist and maternalist. As such, I can only say that this argument -for socialism--that it is the necessary condition of eugenics or -race-culture--is, for me, incomparably the best argument for that -creed; and if it were proved that only through socialism could the -utmost be made of women's choice of husbands, then no argument against -socialism could have any appreciable weight at all. The fundamental -and permanent argument against certain of the highly various and -incompatible doctrines which, for our confusion, are commonly lumped -together as socialism, is that they would arrest the process by which -Nature rewards worth and permits it to perpetuate itself. If, then, -it can be shown, as may or may not be the case, that only through -socialism can male worth be most effectively chosen and male unworth be -rejected for fatherhood, the supreme--that is, the eugenic--argument -against socialism becomes the conclusive argument in its favour. - -=The field of choice.=--But, however this may be, there can be no -question that the eugenic purpose, as well as the happiness and -elevation of individuals in the present, will be greatly served -by whatever measures increase, to the utmost extent possible, the -opportunities for choice in marriage afforded to women and also to men. -One of the most amazing and satisfactory facts about marriage as at -present practised is, I think, the large proportion--often estimated -at seventy-five per cent.--of unions which, apart from any eugenic -question, turn out happily, in Great Britain, at any rate. What makes -this fact more amazing is the almost incredible limitation of the -field of choice within which both sexes are still confined as a whole. -If the reader will consider the cases most familiar to him or her, -it will surely be admitted that the considerable success of marriage -takes on an astonishing aspect when the present strait conditions of -choice are taken into account. I am convinced that few more radical and -far-reaching, because eugenic, reforms can be conceived than any which, -in accordance with Dr. Wallace's argument, tend to widen the field of -choice, and that not for one sex only but for both. He would be a rash -man who ventured to allot superior value to the selection of man by -woman rather than of woman by man, or _vice versâ_. - -Quite apart from any deeper and more difficult reforms, such as Dr. -Wallace alludes to, I am sure that even the mere widening of the -field of choice, as such, is most desirable. To take an instance, -which the reader may very likely think trivial and absurd, I have -witnessed in my brief career as a hockey player two unions most happy -and eugenic in every way, which entirely depended upon the existence -of the amusement called mixed hockey--whereat the contracting parties -met one another! It is not asserted that these two cases suffice for -world-wide generalisation. They are merely cited as instances which -set at least one hockey player thinking, even on the field--the field -of choice. It is a great argument, because it is a eugenic argument, -in favour of community of sports and amusements amongst young people -of both sexes, that it does widen the field of choice in marriage, and -that in doing so it also tends to favour those factors of selection -which the eugenist would desire to see selected: and this especially as -compared with the ball-room. I think that the reader will agree that -the conditions, the "atmosphere," the costume, and the other features -of what young people call a "dance," whilst undoubtedly serving the -purpose of marriage and widening somewhat a field of choice which might -otherwise be ludicrously and impracticably restricted, compare most -unfavourably with the conditions of even the mixed hockey field, which, -decried though they often be, are to my mind immeasurably healthier on -every conceivable ground than those of the ball-room, and not least of -all on the eugenic ground of the prominence gained by most desirable -qualities, of which mere strength and energy and neuro-muscular skill -are quite the least, whilst unselfishness, capacity for self-control, -patience, real gallantry--as when a male "full back" refrains from -hitting the ball with all his might against the toes of a girl -"forward"--the sporting spirit and other true and radical virtues, are -the greatest. It is undoubtedly the case that the personal factors, -physical and psychical, which determine the mutual attraction of young -people, have dependent upon them the whole of human destiny. In society -to-day, what one may call the incidence of parenthood, upon which all -the future necessarily depends, _is_ determined by nothing other than -the humanised form of what Darwin called "sexual selection." Therefore, -it is not trivial but supremely important to discuss the conditions -under which the selection obtains.[53] - -It has already been suggested that in order to enhance the eugenic -value of marriage we should endeavour to widen the field of choice, at -present ludicrously restricted by custom, class, religion, economic -position, and so forth. The increased locomotion of to-day will be of -real eugenic service to the race in this respect, I believe. - -Then it has been hinted that young people should meet one another -under conditions which make prominent the psychical and put the merely -physical or animal into the background--_e.g._ on the hockey field or -the ice or in the "literary circle," rather than in the ball-room. This -proposition accords, of course, with what has been said elsewhere as to -that great factor of progress which I define as the enhancement of the -survival-value of the psychical as against that of the physical. (Note -the obvious sequence--survival-value, selection-value, marriage-value, -parenthood-value, progress-value.) This proposition and the last might -both be worked out, I believe, in considerable detail and not without -profit. - -Arguing on the same lines, we may agree that even such a small matter, -usually considered wholly domestic, as the length of engagements, -is of eugenic or racial importance. The eugenist, I think, must -welcome long engagements simply because, though they may involve a -reduced marriage-rate and a reduced birth-rate--the latter partly in -consequence of the reduced marriage-rate, and partly because of the -later age at marriage--they tend by the mere operation of time, as -we say, to enhance the importance of the psychical and to reduce the -importance of the physical factors which determine sexual attraction. - -To these three points a fourth, of great importance, must be added. -It is that we should favour, as far as possible, those factors of -choice for marriage which are inherent, and therefore transmissible, -as against those which are acquired, accidental, and therefore not -transmissible, _and therefore_ of no racial or eugenic importance. -This, of course, is the point made by Dr. Wallace in the article -quoted above--or at any rate it is involved in the point he makes. -I simply mean that every time a marriage is brought about by, for -instance, money, the eugenic value of marriage is at least nullified -and may become actually anti-eugenic. Again I say, _if_ Socialism, or -the abolition of (_un_-natural) inheritance, be necessary in order -that selection for marriage shall be determined by the possession of -personal qualities of racial value rather than the power of the purse, -which has always been a racial curse, then the sooner socialism is -established the better. - -=The eugenic value of contemporary marriage.=--The first purpose of -this chapter has been to show that in marriage, wherever, and in so -far as, it is determined by the mutual attractiveness of young people, -there exists a eugenic factor in society to-day; and since the race -is in effect recruited by the married people, this aspect of marriage -deserves the closest study and attention. I commend this subject, _the -eugenic value of contemporary marriage_, to the small but rapidly -increasing number of students who realise that eugenics or race-culture -will be the supreme science of the future, and who are now devoting -themselves to its foundations. No more important and urgent enquiry can -be undertaken at this stage. Which, for instance, is the more eugenic, -the English system or the French? - -The second purpose has been to show that one may believe in and work -for eugenics or race-culture without proposing to overthrow all human -institutions, or to adopt the methods of the stud-farm, or to initiate -a vast campaign of surgery, or sensational and drastic legislation, or -even, yet, the employment of marriage certificates. One or all of these -things may have their place, now or hereafter; or may, on the other -hand, be far worse than futile. But most assuredly it is possible now -for the individual parent of marriageable children, for the clergyman, -the leader of fashion, the doctor, not to start but to strengthen -such by no means impotent eugenic forces as already exist in society, -without outraging sentiment or custom--indeed, without attracting -public attention to their action at all. - -Eugenics has already suffered much at the hands of its so-called -friends. It is to be hoped that a real service may be discharged by -this attempt to show that on the highest, most accurate and scientific -eugenic grounds, we may recognise, claim and welcome every father and -mother who desire that the son or daughter whom they care for shall -marry for psychical and not for physical love. Every such parent is a -eugenist, in effect, though his sole motive may be the welfare of his -individual child. - -At present we interfere with marriage on every imaginable ground, many -utterly trivial, many worse. We encourage or discourage on economic -grounds; we recognize many taboos, of caste, creed, colour. It is not -for us, certainly, acting as we do, to be offended at the suggestion -that we should use our influence to affect marriage on the highest -conceivable ground--the life of mankind to come. What we really need -is not so much the abolition of Mrs. Grundy as her conversion to the -eugenic idea. It is the business of those who believe that eugenics is -the greatest ideal in the world to make a eugenist of Mrs. Grundy, as -we shall some day: and then it will be realised how potent for good -public opinion may become, once it is rightly educated. - -Says Mr. Galton, in his latest contribution to the subject:-- - - "The power of social opinion is apt to be rather under-rated than - over-rated. Like the atmosphere which we breathe and by which we - live, social opinion operates powerfully without our being conscious - of its existence. Everyone knows that governments, manners, and - beliefs which were thought to be right, decorous, and true at one - period have been judged wrong, indecorous, and false at another; and - that views which we have heard expressed by those in authority over - us in our childhood and early manhood tend to become axiomatic and - unchangeable in mature life. - - "Speaking for myself only, I look forward to local eugenic action in - numerous directions, including the accumulation of considerable funds - to start young couples of 'worthy' qualities in their married life, - and to assist them and their families at critical times. The gifts - to those who are the reverse of 'worthy' are enormous in amount; it - is stated that the charitable donations in the year 1907 amounted to - £4,868,050. I am not prepared to say how much of this was judiciously - spent, or in what ways, but merely quote the figures to justify the - inference that many of the thousands of persons who are willing to - give freely at the prompting of a sentiment based upon compassion, - might be persuaded to give largely also in response to a more virile - sentiment, based on the desire of promoting the natural gifts and the - National Efficiency of future generations. - - "In circumscribed communities especially, social approval and - disapproval exert a potent force. Its presence is only too easily - read by every one who is the object of either, in the countenances, - bearing, and manner of those with whom they daily meet and converse. - Is it then, I ask, too much to expect that when a public opinion in - favour of Eugenics has once taken sure hold of such communities and - has been accepted by them as a quasi-religion, the result will be - manifested in sundry and very effective modes of action which are as - yet untried and many of them even unforeseen?" - -="Breach of promise" and race-culture.=--It may be added that perhaps -we shall have to learn to reconsider our ill-judged and stupid -censoriousness, directed against young people who get engaged but then -become tired of one another--as they accurately say, discover that they -are not suited for one another. Not only is it obvious that we are -fools in denouncing this discovery of impermanence in their attraction, -happily made before marriage, whilst we ignore the disasters of -its lamentably _postmature_ discovery, after marriage: but also it -should be obvious that the eugenic end is negatively served whenever -what would have been an unfortunate union is broken off in time. Our -imbecile standard of honour, and the law of breach of promise, which -is outrageously abused, at present condemn the man, for instance, who -finds that he has made a mistake, whilst passively applauding him who, -finding his mistake, thinks it his duty to make it irreparable. Far -better would it be that the man incapable of forming an attachment made -of the non-material ties which last, should not marry at all. The man -who cannot see, or seeing, cannot find it in his heart to love, the -spiritual beauties of womanhood, is just the man who can be safely -omitted in the eugenist's scheme for fatherhood. - -The plea of insanity is, in English law, no protection against a -claim for damages for breach of promise to marry, unless it be proved -insanity at date of contract in the defendant. A valid contract once -made, it is no excuse for non-performance that insanity has been -discovered in the family of the other party. This wicked law must be -altered. - -=The need for further study.=--In his study of this subject the student -will naturally turn to Mr. Havelock Ellis's volume entitled _Sexual -Selection in Man_.[54] This, of course, has its own scientific value -as a statement of facts, notwithstanding its intensely nauseating -character. But anything less relevant to what most of us understand -by psychology it would be difficult to imagine. The book considers -_seriatim_, touch, smell, hearing, and vision as the bases of so-called -love. It thus deals with "sensology," not psychology. Indeed, to the -best of one's recollection, after very close and careful reading, there -is no allusion to the human mind in it anywhere. If men and women were -simply animals, this book would doubtless cover the ground, and perhaps -the word "psychology" would even be justified in connection with it. -From end to end men and women are consistently treated as animals and -no more. Since, however, the human species is possessed of psychical -characters which distinguish it from the lower animals, it is not -unreasonable to suppose that a volume which really dealt with sexual -selection in man would, to say the least of it, recognise the existence -of those characters--even if only to reject them as irrelevant to the -subject under discussion. - -The foregoing remarks do not imply that the purely anatomical and -sensory factors are irrelevant to the selection of parents in any -generation, and for methodological purposes it might be of value to -abstract from the factors of sexual selection in human society such -things as odour and contour. But it would be urgently necessary in -the course of such a study, if it were to be other than extremely -misleading, to observe that this selection of factors was made for -purposes of convenience and that the relation of their importance to -that of other factors was a matter for further and by no means casual -consideration. - -We may certainly agree with Mr. Havelock Ellis that sexual selection -occurs in human society, and may welcome his volume as supporting that -assertion. There follows the extremely interesting and indeed urgent -necessity of ascertaining what the factors of this selection really -are, what is their relative potency, and what is their capacity for -modification. We may further enquire whether they tend to be eugenic. -A contribution to this subject is furnished by Mr. Ellis when he shows -that width of "hips" is a female character commonly admired by men. -Since a wide pelvis is one which can accommodate and safely give birth -to a large foetal head, there is here, as a practically solitary case, -a bearing on the eugenic issue: large heads mean, in general, large -brains, and it would be ill for the white races if men admired hips as -narrow as those of, for instance, the negress, whose pelvis could not -find room for the average head of a purely white baby, and who suffers -terribly in many cases where the father is white, especially if the -child be a boy. - -Meanwhile we must wait for studies of this great question from various -points of view: notably for a study of the economics of sexual -selection as it obtains in human society. Yet further, we require -a detailed study of the influence of legislation, custom and public -opinion upon sexual selection--on the lines of Mr. Galton's paper on -"Restrictions in Marriage." Mr. Havelock Ellis has more than adequately -dealt with the nervous physiology of sexual selection; there remain the -psychology and sociology of it--these latter comprehending, one may -suppose, ninety-nine per cent. of the whole subject. In the preceding -pages allusion has been made to one or two of the more salient aspects -of this matter. - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - - THE RACIAL POISONS: ALCOHOL[55] - - -In the first chapter of our second Part, which deals with the practice -of eugenics, there were introduced, defined, and briefly illustrated, -the terms _positive eugenics_ and _negative eugenics_. Of these the -latter, as the more urgent and the more completely and immediately -practicable, claims our special attention; though the present writer, -notwithstanding that he has devoted to it the greater part of his -eugenic work, is bound to protest that the positive increase of ability -and worth is never to be regarded as of secondary importance. The two -methods are, of course, complementary in practice, as they are one -in principle--to select is to reject, to choose is to refuse. The -preceding chapter, on selection (and rejection) through marriage, has -dealt with the conditions under which both aims are to be pursued. -In the following pages we must discuss a specially urgent and -practicable and indisputable portion of negative eugenic practice: -none the less urgent because of the contemporary emergence and future -world-importance of sober nations, such as Japan and Turkey. The term -_racial poisons_, introduced by the present writer in the year 1907, -is self-explanatory. After dealing with the most important of these -poisons, we shall proceed, in the next chapter, to discuss some others. -The racial poisons constitute a special department of eugenics which -has not hitherto been considered by the pioneers of this subject, but -for which I press the claim of the utmost gravity and moment, and which -I conceive to be certainly a part, and a most important part, of our -manifold yet single subject. - - * * * * * - -The argument of this chapter is that parenthood must be forbidden to -the dipsomaniac, the chronic inebriate or the drunkard, whether male -or female; and this whether Lamarck or Galton and Weismann be right, -or whether, as we may believe with Galton and Weismann themselves, -the controversy between the two parties is wholly irrelevant to the -question in hand. This conclusion, that on no grounds whatever, -theoretical or practical, can we continue to permit parenthood on the -part of the drunkard, is one temperance reform, perhaps the only one, -on which disagreement is absolutely impossible. It is, further, the -most radical that can be named within the sphere of practical politics, -and it is conspicuously practicable. It has hitherto been lamentably -neglected by workers and reformers of all schools. Indeed, at the time -of writing, the London County Council, governing the greatest city in -the world, is pursuing a course of action in this regard, which will be -detailed later, and which, as will appear, is misguided and deplorable -in the last degree. - -=Alcohol and heredity.=--According to Dr. Archdall Reid, "alcohol, -year after year, eliminates from the race a great number of people so -constituted that intoxication affords them keen delight, leaving the -perpetuation of the race in great measure to those on whom intoxication -confers little or no delight.... Now since alcohol weeds out enormous -numbers of people of a particular type, it is a stringent agent of -selection--an agent of selection more stringent than any one disease." -The factor that really makes the drunkard "is certainly inborn, and -therefore as certainly transmissible to offspring. The man who has it -is cursed with the 'alcohol diathesis,' with the 'predisposition to -drunkenness.' Thus most savages are keenly capable of enjoying drink, -and their offspring inherit the capacity." Féré has shown that "it -is one of the characteristics of the degenerate that they are prone -to have recourse to the poisons, like alcohol and morphia, which -hasten their decadence and elimination." Thus, as Dr. W. C. Sullivan -points out, alcohol "might certainly be adjudged a salutary evil if -its incidence were limited to individuals whose extreme inferiority -of organisation renders them wholly undesirable and useless to the -community. _But this is very far from being the case._"[56] - -The whole crux of the question lies in this last sentence. Alcohol -certainly destroys many degenerate stocks, and that is good, though it -would be better to do what we shall do some day--hasten and ameliorate -the process by forbidding parenthood to the degenerate. _But does -alcohol also make degenerates; does it even make more degenerates than -it destroys?_ A somewhat similar difficulty arises in the case of -infant mortality. The causes of infant mortality destroy many children -inherently unfit, diseased or weakly. But we are not justified in -keeping up our infant mortality, if we find, as we do, that for every -diseased child whom they destroy they kill many who were healthy at -birth and damage for life many more. - -A man is born sober--in most cases, but not always,[57] as we shall -see--and any changes produced in his body by alcohol are "acquired." -Therefore, rejecting Lamarck, are we to reject the doctrine that the -effects produced by alcohol on parents are transmitted to offspring? - -The controversy between Lamarck and Weismann has _absolutely nothing -to do with the question_. Let us consider what would be a case of -Lamarckian transmission in the sense which the modern student of -heredity denies. The birth of a child with a scar on its scalp, to a -father who had acquired a similar scar before the child was conceived, -would be such a case: and this does not happen. Or suppose that instead -of a scar on the scalp the father has an inflammatory change, not so -dissimilar to a scar, produced by alcohol in the membranes covering -his brain. Then it would be a case of Lamarckian transmission if the -membranes of his baby's brain were similarly affected; and this does -not happen. Such is the kind of transmission of which exhaustive -experiment and observation fail to find a conclusive instance anywhere. - -But what has such a supposition to do with the theory, as definitely -supported by observation and experiment as the other is not, that if a -man saturates his body with alcohol carried by his blood, he injures -all the tissues which are nourished by that blood, including the racial -elements of his body with the rest: and therefore that his child may be -degenerate? - -What says Weismann himself? In _The Germ-Plasm_, p. 386, under the -heading "The influence of temporary abnormal conditions of the parents -on the child," he writes as follows:-- - - "Although I do not consider that the cases which come under the - above heading have anything to do with heredity, I should not like to - leave them entirely on one side. - - "It has often been supposed that drunkenness of the parents at the - time of conception may have a harmful effect on the nature of the - offspring. The child is said to be born in a weak bodily and mental - condition, and inclined to idiocy, or even to madness, etc., although - the parents may be quite normal both physically and mentally. - - "Cases certainly exist in which drunken parents have given rise to - a completely normal child, although this is not a convincing proof - against the above-named view; and in spite of the fact that most, or - perhaps even all, the statements with regard to the injurious effects - on the offspring will not bear a very close criticism,[58] I am - unwilling to entirely deny the _possibility_ that a harmful influence - may be exerted in such cases. These, however, have nothing to do with - heredity, but are concerned with an _affection of the germ by means - of an external influence_." - -Weismann goes on to quote cases showing how germ-cells may be injured -by various agents, and continues:-- - - "It does not appear to me impossible that an intermixture of alcohol - with the blood of the parents may produce similar effects on the ovum - and sperm cell. According to the relative quantity of alcohol either - an exciting or a depressing influence might be exerted, either of - which would lead to abnormal development.... - - "_New_ predispositions can certainly never arise owing to such - deviations from the normal course of development, and therefore - a modification of the process of heredity itself is out of the - question. It is, however, conceivable that more or less considerable - abnormalities may affect the course of development, and either - cause the death of the embryo, or else produce more or less marked - deformities. The question as to whether such deformities really - result in consequence of the drunken condition of the parents can - only be decided by observation."[59] - -This is all that Weismann has to say on the subject, since, not -referring to functionally-produced modifications,[60] it does not -concern his theory of heredity at all: yet it is upon this theory that -the most palpable facts of the racial influence of alcohol are denied. -Weismann's own remarks are quite open to criticism, as, for instance, -where he denies that new predispositions can arise in the manner -indicated. This is possibly only a question of words, and Weismann is -perhaps merely denying that alcohol can produce progressive variations. -Also his remarkably brief discussion of the subject seems to concern -itself mainly with the influence of alcohol on the germ-cells _just -before their union_. He has not a word to say regarding the influence -on the germinal tissues of years of soaking in alcohol. It suffices, -however, to make the point which is quite clearly made, that the -Weismannians are going absurdly beyond their book in denying what, -indeed, the book of Nature demonstrates. - -Let us turn now to the experimental side of this question. An American -botanist, Dr. T. D. MacDougal, read an address on "Heredity and -Environic Forces" at the Chicago Meeting of the American Association -for the Advancement of Science in 1907. His experiments require -confirmation, but may be provisionally accepted. He has permanently -modified the germ-plasm of plants under the influence of various -chemicals. There is here a vast field for experiment with alcohol. -I quote one paragraph indicating the remarkable results of these -experiments. The reader will see their bearing on our present question, -and will also see that they do not for a moment affect Weismann's -denial of the doctrine that by cutting off rats' tails you can produce -a race of tailless rats, or that by learning a language you can save -your future children the trouble of doing so for themselves:-- - - "It was found that the injection of various solutions into ovaries - of Raimannia was followed by the production of seeds bearing - qualities not exhibited by the parent, wholly irreversible, and fully - transmissible in successive generations. One of the seeds produced - by a plant of _OEnothera biennis_ which had been treated with zinc - sulphate differed so widely from the parental form that it could be - distinguished from it by a novice. This new form has been tested to - the third generation, and transmits all its characteristics fully." - -=Alcohol a proved racial poison.=--But the reader will rightly desire -some kind of experimental proof that alcohol itself can act as a cause -of racial degeneration. We may first refer to the chapter on alcoholism -and human degeneration in Dr. W. C. Sullivan's _Alcoholism, a Chapter -in Social Pathology_,[61] for a recent _résumé_ of the subject. -Without actually quoting Weismann, Dr. Sullivan begins by showing -that, as we have seen, the doctrinal objection of Dr. Reid and others -to the theory of alcoholic degeneration is quite irrelevant--"the -effects attributed to parental alcoholism are not in the category of -transmitted acquirements at all; they are the results, expressed in -defect and deviation of development, of a deleterious influence exerted -on the germ-cells, either directly through the alcohol circulating in -the blood, or indirectly, through the deterioration of the parental -organism in which these cells are lodged, and from which they draw -their nutriment." Later Dr. Sullivan points out that the racial effects -of alcoholism in man are similar to those obtained by experimental -intoxication in the lower animals. Combemale, for instance, found -that pups begotten of a healthy bitch by an alcoholised dog were -congenitally feeble and showed a marked degree of asymmetry of the -brain. Recent experiments have shown the same thing as regards other -poisons, and it is especially to be noted that in the experiments -cited the mother was healthy. They prove that _paternal_ alcoholism -alone (all questions of the nourishment of the growing child before -birth, for instance, thus being excluded) can determine degeneration. -Mr. Galton[62] himself long ago quoted the case "of a man who, after -begetting several normal children, became a drunkard and had imbecile -offspring"; and another case has been recorded "of a healthy woman who, -when married to a drunken husband, had five sickly children, dying in -infancy, but in subsequent union with a healthy man, bore normal and -vigorous children." - -Other intoxications show similar results though they are not _yet_ of -grave racial importance. For instance, "a man who had had two healthy -children acquired the cocaine habit, and while suffering from the -symptoms of chronic poisoning engendered two idiots." Brouardel and -others have observed that the expectant mother who is a morphinomaniac -may give birth to a child who shows all the phenomena of the morphia -habit. - -Demme has traced the appalling contrast between the offspring in ten -sober families, and in ten families where one or both parents suffered -from chronic alcoholism. Dr. Sullivan himself, realising the obviously -greater importance of maternal alcoholism, since here we have the -action of poisoned food--the maternal blood--upon the child before -birth, made an enquiry of his own. He found that - - "... of 600 children born of 120 drunken mothers 335 (55.8 per cent.) - died in infancy or were still-born, and that several of the survivors - were mentally defective, and as many as 4.1 per cent. were epileptic. - Many of these women had female relatives, sisters or daughters, - of sober habits and married to sober husbands; on comparing the - death-rate amongst the children of the sober mothers with that - amongst the children of the drunken women of the same stock, the - former was found to be 23.9 per cent., the latter 55.2 per cent., or - nearly two and a half times as much. It was further observed that in - the drunken families there was a progressive rise in the death-rate - from the earlier to the later born children." - -Dr. Sullivan cites as a typical alcoholic family one in which "the -first three children were healthy, the fourth was of defective -intelligence, the fifth was an epileptic idiot, the sixth was -dead-born, and finally the productive career ended with an abortion." -Dr. Claye Shaw told the Interdepartmental Committee on Physical -Deterioration, "we have inebriate mothers, and either abortions or -degenerate children. The teleological[63] relationship between the -two seems to be as certain as any other conditions of cause and -effect." The general rule is that any narcotic substance affects highly -developed tissues sooner and more markedly than simpler tissues, and -so it is in the case of alcohol and the infant. It is the developing -nervous system that is most markedly affected. This leads, of course, -to an increased child mortality, especially by way of convulsions. -This was the cause of sixty per cent. of all the deaths that occurred -amongst the six hundred children in Dr. Sullivan's series. But it has -especially to be remembered that a large number of children whose -nervous systems are injured for life by parental and more especially by -maternal alcoholism do not die either as infants or children. Instead -of dying of convulsions they live as epileptics. Of the children in Dr. -Sullivan's series "219 lived beyond infancy, and of these 9, or 4.1 per -cent., became epileptic, as compared with 0.1 per cent. of the whole -population." Other observers have found epilepsy in 12 per cent. and -even 15 per cent. of the children of alcoholic parents. Of course these -data, as such, do not demonstrate Dr. Sullivan's conclusion that "this -action of alcoholism on the health and vitality of the stock is the -most serious of the evils that intemperance brings on the community." - -Dr. Sullivan's enquiries show a very high rate of still-births and -abortions amongst the children of drunken mothers--quite sufficient -to prove that "the detrimental effect of maternal alcoholism must be -in a large measure due to a direct influence on the germ-cells and -on the developing embryo, and cannot be explained as merely a result -of the neglect and malnutrition from which the children of a drunken -mother are naturally apt to suffer." The point is of some theoretical -importance. Practically it matters little; _in either case the drunken -woman must not become a mother_. - -The same conclusion is reached even though we accord unlimited weight -to the unquestionably valid argument that the drunkard is himself -or herself usually degenerate from the first, and that the children -are therefore degenerate, and would indeed be degenerate even if the -parents had taken no alcohol. Let us, then, erroneously enough, but for -the sake of the argument, assume that solely and always alcoholism is -a symptom of degeneracy. It is, then, an indication of unfitness for -parenthood no less, and the practical issue is the same: one radical -cure for alcoholism, at any rate, is the prohibition of parenthood on -the part of the alcoholic.[64] - -=The most recent evidence.=--The most thorough and comprehensive -enquiry into this matter yet made is also the most recent. We owe it to -Dr. W. A. Potts, of the University of Birmingham, who did valuable work -as Medical Investigator to the Royal Commission on the Care and Control -of the Feeble-minded. His paper, entitled "The Relation of Alcohol to -Feeble-mindedness," is printed in the _British Journal of Inebriety_ -for January, 1909, together with communications from many authorities. -It is quite impossible to summarise here the enormous mass of evidence -which Dr. Potts has accumulated from the literature of the subject, and -to which he has added his own work. I believe that nothing could be -more moderate and assured than the following conclusions, to which he -commits himself after a study of the subject the quality and range of -which can only be appreciated at first hand:-- - - "... the evidence is not clear that alcoholism, by itself, in - the father will produce amentia; but it is quite plain that in - combination with other bad factors it is a most unfavourable element, - while maternal drinking, and drinking continued through more than one - generation, are potent influences in mental degeneracy." - -It is impossible, within the scope of the present volume, to analyse -in detail the Report of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control -of the Feeble-minded. In this present outline of eugenics it is our -business, however, to show main principles, and as the principle -expressed in the phrase "racial poisons" is to my mind absolutely -cardinal for eugenics, it is necessary here to comment, as I have -already done in the _Journal_ above quoted, upon the following most -unfortunate deliverance of the Commissioners: "That both on the grounds -of fact and of theory, there is the highest degree of probability that -feeble-mindedness is usually spontaneous in origin--that is, not due to -influences acting on the parent...." - -The word spontaneous has, of course, no meaning for science, or rather -is a denial of the fundamental axiom of science that causation is -universal. What the Commissioners mean when they say spontaneous is -"sportaneous," like the occasional production of a nectarine by a peach -tree. Apart from this highly suspicious phraseology, there is the still -more unfortunate fact that the Commissioners have lent their authority -to the view that feeble-mindedness is not due to influences acting on -the parent. The modern student of syphilis will be astonished at this -pronouncement, and also the student of lead-poisoning, as we shall see -in the following chapter. - -Every reader of Dr. Potts's admirable paper will realise that this -conclusion of the Commissioners--"not due to influences acting on the -parent"--is directly opposed to an extraordinary mass of evidence -and to the opinion of, I suppose, every authority on the subject, -British, Continental or American. The Commissioners' reference to -"theory," coupled with portions of the evidence given before them by -witnesses who suppose that the alleged influence of alcohol as a cause -of feeble-mindedness controverts the doctrine of the non-transmission -of "acquired characters," makes it necessary to point out for the -hundredth time that, for lack of analysis and criticism of terms, -the most prominent followers of Galton and Weismann persistently -misunderstand their masters' teaching. The modern doctrine of the -individual as the trustee of the germ-cells and of the non-transmission -of acquired characters is Mr. Galton's. Mr. Galton himself does not -question and never has questioned the possibility that alcohol may -cause feeble-mindedness. There is no reason why he should. If we take -the somewhat unusual course of consulting the words of the masters -before we swear by them, we find--as has been shown--that Weismann, who -subsequently stated and has so greatly supported Mr. Galton's view, -has expressly repudiated the Commissioners' idea of his "theory." The -Galton-Weismann doctrine is a doctrine of heredity proper,--the organic -relation of living generations. It does not assert that there are two -unconnected universes--the one made of germ-plasm and the other of the -rest of nature. The "grounds of theory," or rather, our elementary -physiological knowledge of the nutrition of the germ-plasm by the blood -of its host, are in reality precisely the grounds which would lead us -to expect those consequences of parental alcoholism which in fact we -find. - -=Alcoholism as a symptom of degeneracy.=--We have seen that alcohol -may be a cause of degeneracy: we now have to recognize the converse -relation. For an authoritative and radical discussion of the problem, -the reader may be referred to the second Norman Kerr Memorial -Lecture, delivered by Dr. Welsh Branthwaite, H.M. Inspector under the -Inebriates' Act, in 1907.[65] He speaks as "the only man in close touch -with all inebriates under legal detention in England." He reaches most -important conclusions which are generally accepted, as the discussion -shows. He says, "the more I see of habitual drunkards, the more I am -convinced that the real condition we have to study, the trouble we -have to fight, and the source of all the mischief, is ... defect[66] -in mental mechanism, generally congenital, sometimes more or less -acquired.... In the absence of alcohol, the same persons, instead of -meriting the term inebriate would have proved unreliable in many ways; -they would have been called ne'er-do-weels, profligates, persons of -lax morality, excitably or abnormally passionate individuals, persons -of melancholic tendency or eccentric.... It seems to me exceedingly -doubtful whether habitual inebriety ... is ever really acquired in the -strictest sense of the word--_i.e._ in the absence of some measure -of pre-existing defect." Having studied 2,277 inebriates, committed -under the Inebriates Acts, up to December 31st, 1906, Dr. Branthwaite -_finds 62.6 per cent. of these mentally defective_. The remainder he -regards as of average mental capacity, using, however, an exceedingly -low standard of what that capacity is. He concludes that in a large -majority of police-court cases, "mental disease was the condition for -which they were repeatedly imprisoned--mental disease merely masked by -alcoholic indulgence.... The majority of our insane inebriates have -become alcoholic because of their tendency to insanity.... Certain -peculiarities in cranial conformation, general physique, and conduct, -have long been recognised as evidences of congenital defect. Nearly -all the 1,375 cases included in the two defective sections of our -table have given evidence of possessing some of these characteristic -peculiarities, and _it is morally certain that the large majority of -them started life handicapped by imperfect brain development_."[67] -The lecture is accompanied with many photographs clearly showing the -physical marks of congenital defect, and Dr. Branthwaite remarks that -"even the untrained eye should meet with no difficulty in recognising -'something wrong' with all of them." - -Of the proportion of mentally defective inebriates (62.6 per cent. -of the whole) mentioned by Dr. Branthwaite, _all_ are "practically -hopeless from a reformation standpoint." This is a sufficient -comment, if any were needed, upon repeated imprisonment for habitual -drunkenness--which, as Dr. Branthwaite says, "is indefensible and -inhumane." He adds in closing that, in his judgment, habitual -drunkenness, so far as women are concerned, has materially increased, -during the last twenty-five years, "which I have spent entirely amongst -drunkards and drunkenness." The unfortunate people whom he studies -"_are not in the least affected by orthodox temperance efforts; they -continue to propagate drunkenness, and thereby nullify the good results -of temperance energy. Their children, born of defective parents, and -educated by their surroundings, grow up without a chance of decent -life, and constitute the reserve from which the strength of our present -army of habituals is maintained. Truly we have neglected in the past, -and are still neglecting, the main source of drunkard supply--the -drunkard himself; cripple that, and we should soon see some good result -from our work._" - -A foremost authority, Dr. F. W. Mott, F.R.S., has independently -reached the same conclusion as Dr. Branthwaite--that the chronic -inebriate comes as a rule of an inherently tainted stock. (Dr. Mott, -however, reminds us that "if alcohol is a weed killer, preventing the -perpetuation of poor types, it is probably even more effective as a -weed producer.") Professor David Ferrier, F.R.S., the great pioneer -of brain localisation, in reference to these people, speaks of "the -risk of propagation of a race of drunkards and imbeciles." Dr. J. C. -Dunlop, H.M. Inspector under the Inebriates Act, Scotland, states that -his experience leads him to precisely the same conclusion as that of -Dr. Branthwaite. Dr. A. R. Urquhart, an asylum authority, affirms -that chronic inebriety "is largely an affair of heredity ... is a -symptom of mental defect, disorder, or disease." Dr. Fleck, another -authority, says: "It is my strong conviction that a large percentage -of our mentally defective children, including idiots, imbeciles and -epileptics, are the descendants of drunkards." Mr. McAdam Eccles, the -distinguished surgeon, agrees; so does Dr. Langdon Down, Physician to -the National Association for the Welfare of the Feeble-minded; so does -Mr. Thomas Holmes, the Secretary of the Howard Association, who remarks -that "our habitual criminals, equally with our mental inebriates, are -not responsible beings, but victims of mental disease." Finally Miss -Kirby, Secretary of the National Association for the Feeble-minded, -insists upon the obvious conclusion that these people must be detained -permanently. She says, "When one case of a dissolute feeble-minded -woman in America is quoted as the mother of nine feeble-minded -children, we see the cause why inebriate homes, and also reformatories, -penitentiaries, and workhouses are full to overflowing, and society -taxed beyond bearing to keep them there. _Such institutions outnumber -homes for the feeble-minded._"[68] Speaking of the 62.6 per cent. noted -by Dr. Branthwaite, she says, "Would it not have been the more logical -course to have dealt with them in earlier years?" Now what would that -have accomplished? _It would have saved the future._ - -=The inebriate as parent.=--Is it a mere supposition that these women -become mothers? Amongst those committed as criminal inebriates (under -the London County Council) in 1905-6, three hundred and sixty-five of -those admitted to reformatories had two thousand two hundred children. -These are the official figures. As to the quality of these children -there is unfortunately no possibility of question. - -We may quote from Dr. Sullivan a notable enquiry:-- - - "Even more striking results with regard to the several forms of - degeneracy were obtained by Legrain, who investigated the question - from a somewhat different point of view. Selecting from the material - at his disposal all those cases in which ancestral intemperance had - appeared to exercise a causal influence, and working out their family - history, he collected 215 observations of heredo-alcoholism referring - to one generation, 98 referring to two generations, and 7 referring - to three generations. Of the children of the first generation, 508 - in number, 196 were mentally degenerate, the affection of the brain - being shown more particularly by moral and emotional abnormality, - while intellectual defects were less pronounced; 106 were insane, 52 - were epileptic, 16 suffered from hystero-epilepsy, and 3 from chorea; - and 39 had convulsions in infancy. Amongst the children of the second - generation, who numbered 294, the intellectual defects were more - marked, idiocy, imbecility, or debility, being noted in the offspring - of 54 out of the 98 families investigated. In 23 out of the 33 - families in which the children of the second generation had reached - adult age, one or more of them were insane. Epilepsy was found in - 40 families, infantile convulsions in 42, and meningitis in 14. - The third generation in 7 families was represented by 17 children, - all of whom were weak-minded, imbecile, or idiotic; 2 suffered, - moreover, from moral insanity, 2 from hysteria, and 2 from epilepsy; - 3 were scrofulous, and 4 had convulsions in childhood. In the three - generations taken together there were, in addition to the children - referred to above, 174 infants who were dead-born or died shortly - after birth." - -Therefore, the chronic inebriate must not become a parent. Let it be -said that these people are wicked or have no self-control, drink for -fun or love of degradation, then become drunkards, and prejudicially -affect their children. The conclusion is the same. Have any theory of -heredity you please--Lamarckianism, Darwin's pangenesis, Weismannism, -Mendelism; it matters not a straw. Look at the thing from the -uncharitable religious point of view, or from the charitable scientific -view which realizes, in the case of these women, that to know all is to -pardon all--the conclusion is still the same. - -=The present scandal of London's inebriates.=--This, then, being so, -abundance of official evidence having been gathered in addition to all -the unofficial evidence, let us consider the shameful facts which are -in process as I write, and are still so, on revision of these pages a -year later. They are outlined in the reply of Mr. Herbert Gladstone, -the Home Secretary, to a question in the House of Commons. The reply -is printed in full in _The Times_, Feb. 19th, 1908. There was a paltry -squabble between the Government and the London County Council as to the -exact number of shillings that each was to contribute per week for the -maintenance of inebriates. The London County Council was plainly in -the wrong, its ignorance being sufficiently indicated by the letter to -_The Times_, which I will quote. The result of the squabble is that, as -Mr. G. R. Sims said, "We shall have something like five hundred women, -all habitual drunkards, passing in and out of the prisons, a peril to -publicans, a pest to the police, an evil example to the women with whom -they mix, and free to bring children into the world, their little lives -poisoned at the source." We have therefore reverted to the shameful, -brutal, and disastrous system sufficiently indicated by the history of -Jane Cakebread, at whom, when one was a schoolboy as ignorant as those -who now govern us, one used to laugh because she had been convicted -so many hundreds of times.[69] As the present writer said in raising -the matter at a meeting of the Eugenics Education Society, the future -children of these women are not only doomed by the very nature of -their germ-plasm, but they will actually be many times intoxicated not -merely in their cradles but before their birth. There is no wealth but -life, and this future wealth of England is to be fed on poisoned food -and many times made drunken before it sees the light. The meeting of -the Society passed a unanimous resolution--"That this society enters -a protest against the present administration of the Inebriates Act, -whereby through the closing of inebriate homes some hundreds of chronic -inebriate women will be set adrift in London, with an inevitably -deteriorating result to the race."[70] - -For this particular scandal the London County Council was the more to -blame. Let not the reader suppose that a Liberal Government, however, -was likely to remedy the immoderate ignorance of a "Moderate" County -Council on this matter. Mr. Gladstone's reply in Parliament was an -exceptionally long one, but it did not contain a syllable to suggest -that any question of the future is involved, or that a woman may become -a mother. Further, the Licensing Bill introduced just when we were -drawing public attention to this scandal contained nowhere any hint of -the principle that you must attack drunkenness by attacking "the main -source of drunkard supply--the drunkard himself." These, the reader -will remember, are the words of His Majesty's Inspector. There is no -question of party-feeling, then, the reader will understand, in what -has here been said. Whether labelled Liberal, Conservative, Progressive -or Moderate, ignorance is still ignorance, and when in action is still -what Goethe called it, the most dangerous thing in the world. - -Pure ignorance, of course, is one of the things against which the -advocate of race-culture must fight. The lack of imagination, however, -is another. At present we have few homes for the feeble-minded, and -many for what the feeble-minded become: few for prevention, which -is possible and cheap, many for cure, which is impossible and dear. -The average county councillor or politician, of course, is rather -more short-sighted than the average man, simply because you cannot -be far-sighted and a partisan. What his defect of vision requires is -impossible, but it would be effective. It is that the consequences of -unworthy parenthood should be immediate, instead of taking months or -years to develop. Any one, even a politician, can see cause and effect -when they are close enough together. It is the little interval that -the political eye cannot pierce. Nevertheless, we shall one day learn -to think of the next generation, and then there will be an end of the -politician who thinks only of the next election. - -=Ignorance on its defence.=--The state of what has no excuse for being -uninformed opinion was only too well illustrated in a letter from the -Chairman of the Public Control Committee of the London County Council -which appeared in _The Times_ for Feb. 27th, 1908. In defending -the London County Council the writer used the following words: -"Reformation, not mere detention, was its object when it instituted -its reformatory under the Inebriates Acts.... The case of the Public -Control Committee is that the removal and detention of the hopeless -habituals is a matter for the police." The explanation aggravates -the offence. In the face of reiterated expert opinion, which has no -dissentient, as to the practical impossibility of reformation--you -cannot _re_form what has never been formed, viz., a normally developed -brain--here we find a man in this responsible position, a man who has -the power to put his ignorance into action, telling us that the London -County Council aims at the impossible in this respect; whilst, in utter -defiance of the future and of the useless brutality of the police-court -method, he tells us that these "hopeless habituals" are a matter for -the police. Then, by way of making the thing complete, he speaks of -"mere detention." What he calls "mere detention" is everything, for it -saves the future by preventing parenthood on the part of members of the -community who, more certainly than any others that can be named, are -unworthy of it. The adjective "mere" is only too adequate a measure -of the state of opinion which, by such retrograde courses as that -under discussion, promises to destroy the British people ere long--and -therefore, of course, the Empire of which that people is the living and -necessary foundation. - -It may be noted in passing that the word "reformatory," employed in -the Inebriates Act of 1898, is a highly unfortunate one. It suggests -a practically impossible hope, and it ignores what, I submit, must -and will ere long be regarded as the essential purpose, function and -value of the detention of inebriates--the prohibition of parenthood -on their part. In the case of women beyond the child-bearing age, -the whole case is radically altered. If it amuses the legislature to -cherish fantastic hopes, let it speak about the reformation of these -women. If it prefers the futile and disgusting cruelty of the Jane -Cakebread method for such women, when the plan for reformation is found -to fail, that is no affair of ours in the present volume. Such women -have been in effect sterilised by natural processes, and the advocate -of race-culture can afford to ignore them, for they do not concern -him. Let me note, however, that, of 294 female inebriates admitted to -reformatories in the year 1906, 170 were under forty years of age, -92, of whom a considerable proportion would be possible mothers, were -between forty and fifty, and only 32 of the total were over fifty years -of age.[71] It may be said that the lives of these unhappy women tend -to be terminated early. The only pity is that our present blindness -and ignorance in dealing with them are not neutralised, so far as -the future is concerned, by death at much earlier ages. If such a -reflection strikes the reader as cruel, how much more cruel are those -who are responsible for the present case of the women inebriates of -London? - -The _Pall Mall Gazette_, on March 4th, 1908, gave the utmost prominence -to an article of mine on this subject, entitled "An Urgent Public -Scandal, The Case of London's Inebriates." In this article I quoted -_The Times_ letter referred to above, and levelled the most vigorous -indictment I could against the authors of the outrage under discussion. -None of them ventured to reply. In the _Referee_ for March 8th, 1908, -however, a member of the Public Control Committee of the London County -Council made an attempt to defend its action. The curious reader may -refer to that letter as one more instance of that absolute blindness -to the nature of the problem and to any question of the future which -had already been indicated in _The Times_ letter from the Chairman of -the Committee. Taking these two letters together, we may say that never -has a public outrage committed by men in authority been more lamely or -ignorantly defended. - -=Ignorance in action--the present facts.=--Since the beginning of -January, 1908, the brutal course decreed by the London County Council -has been pursued. The wretched and deeply-to-be-pitied women have been -and are being discharged at the rate of some twenty to twenty-five -per month as their terms expire. The wiser sort of magistrates and -the police-court missionaries are at their wits' ends, and no wonder. -This country offers these women at the moment no refuge whatever; -nothing but the degrading and destructive round--police-court, prison, -public-house, pavement; _da capo_. Writing to _The Times_ in relation -to the correspondence there published (April 18th, 1908) between the -London County Council and the Eugenics Education Society, Sir Alfred -Reynolds, Chairman of the State Inebriate Reformatory Visiting Board -and a Visiting Justice of Holloway Prison, said (April 21st, 1908):-- - - "The correspondence published in _The Times_ of April 18, between the - London County Council and the President of the Eugenics Education - Society convinces me more than ever that the dispute between the - London County Council and the Treasury is a scandal and folly of the - worst description. For the sake of 6d. per case per day, the London - County Council (the same body which receives half a million sterling - from the sale of intoxicating liquor) has made it impossible for - the metropolitan magistrates to carry out the Act of 1898, and the - result is that 500 of the worst female inebriates are alternately on - the streets or in prison again, and the former scenes of horror and - drunken violence reappear. Holloway Prison will soon fill up again, - and all the good which has been done during the last few years will - be lost.... I will not trouble you further, except by emphasising - what I have said by adding that since January last year 1,500 women - have been notified to Scotland Yard as always in and out of prison - from the County of London, are qualified for inebriate homes, and - at the present moment there are over 50 of this number in Holloway - Prison serving absolutely useless short terms of imprisonment." - -=The London County Council performs a service for philosophy.=--As -we have seen, there exists or seems to exist a radical antagonism in -certain groups of cases between the interests of the individual and -the interests of the race. You may preserve the quality of the race, -as the Spartans did, by exposing defective infants; you may be kind to -feeble-minded children, as we are, but you will injure the race in the -long run. Darwin saw this more than a generation ago, but instead of -suggesting the prohibition of parenthood to the unfit, he said that we -must bear the ill effects of their multiplication rather than sacrifice -the law of love. Huxley similarly said that moral evolution consisted -in opposing natural evolution. Now it has for some time been evident -that this antagonism need not be radical if, whilst devoting hospitals -and charity and medical science to the care of the unfit, we deny them -the privilege of parenthood. On the other hand, the London County -Council by its present action has performed a service to biological -philosophy by showing that _it is possible to combine the maximum of -brutality to the individual and to the present with the maximum of -injury to the race and to the future_. In his report for 1906 Dr. -Branthwaite cites the history of a girl who, at the age of fifteen -years and nine months, was convicted in 1881 for being drunk and -disorderly. During the next quarter of a century she was sentenced 115 -times, and in January, 1906, was sent to a reformatory. She has twice -attempted to commit suicide. Her case is, of course, now hopeless, and -Dr. Branthwaite predicts that her life will end by suicide. Let any one -read Dr. Branthwaite's Report or Dr. Robert Jones's account of Jane -Cakebread, or let him acquaint himself with instances as they are to -be daily seen, and he will agree that the maximum of brutality is no -excessive phrase to describe the policy of shame at present pursued in -London: if, indeed, seeing that we now have knowledge, it should not be -described as something still worse. - -As for the injury to the future, we already know what the present -policy effects. We may grant, then, to the London County Council -that it has performed a service for philosophy in showing that it is -possible to combine both kinds of evil in one harmonious policy. Nor -let the reader suppose that any partisan feeling infects this protest. -The Government is also to blame. Even had the L.C.C. declined to -contribute anything at all to the cost of the proper policy, no really -educated and honourable Government had any choice but to undertake -all the cost itself--even at the cost of office! Better were--in Mr. -Balfour's words, the wisest he ever uttered--"the barren exchange of -one set of tyrants, or jobbers, for another," than the horrible birth -of thousands of feeble-minded babies. - -=The argument from economy.=--It would be easy to show that the present -policy is not economical even as regards the cost of these women -themselves, and even if it be assumed that gold is wealth. But consider -the remoter cost. During the period when the present writer was making -public protests very nearly every day on this matter without any -immediate effect, and only one month after the London County Council -had attempted to defend itself on the ground of economy when challenged -by the Eugenics Education Society, there was formally opened, with -a flourish of trumpets, the eighty-seventh school for feeble-minded -children established by the London County Council. It accommodates -sixty such children (besides sixty physically defective). This school -cost £6,000 to build alone. The sixty feeble-minded children whom it -accommodates are not a very large proportion of the 7,000 admittedly -feeble-minded school children in London--a number which is probably -not more than a third or a fourth of the real number. It has been -exhaustively proved that feeble-minded children are mainly, at any -given time, the progeny of feeble-minded persons such as constitute -the majority of chronic inebriates. Ignorance is again in action. -On the one hand, the London County Council, quarrelling over pence, -effectively suspends the working of the Inebriates Acts, and thus -ensures that the supply of feeble-minded children shall be kept up. On -the other hand, it takes these children, cares for them until they are -capable of becoming parents, and then turns them upon the world. The -Chairman at the opening ceremony of the school referred to said that -"at the special schools work was being done which would advance the -intelligence of the pupils, and thus benefit the entire race." It would -be difficult to concentrate more ignorance in fewer words or in ten -times as many. - -=A Home Office Committee appointed.=--The almost continuous protest of -two months did, however, bear fruit, the Home Secretary appointing a -Committee to consider the question of the amendment of the Inebriates -Acts. But the legal brutalities described are still being perpetrated, -and the future is being compromised. The London County Council may be -advised to make arrangements for building a few score more schools for -defective children in anticipation of the growing need which it is -assuring. - -Never again, when it is past, must we permit the present abominable -policy. It is for public opinion to effect this, and public opinion has -only to be directed to the case in order to realise its nature. If the -reader pleases he may discount altogether the eugenic argument, though -I believe that in the long run that is more important than any other. -But if he confines his attention solely to the cruelties perpetrated -upon these helpless women, infinitely more sinned against than sinning, -and especially if he considers the testimony of Sir Alfred Reynolds -above quoted, he will surely lend his aid to put an end to a state of -affairs which is a disgrace to our civilisation. We talk of progress, -and we are indeed incalculably indebted to our ancestors, but let any -one consider the case of the poor child, now a wrecked woman, quoted -above, and let him consider what it may be to be an heir of all the -ages in the greatest city of the world to-day. - -It will be sufficiently evident that if any warrant were needed for -the formation of the Eugenics Education Society or for the publication -of the present volume, it would be found only too abundantly in the -outrage upon decency and morality and science and the future which is -at present in perpetration. Further, if any warrant were required for -the incessant reiteration of the principle that there is no wealth -but life, it would be found in the fact that this outrage is being -committed in the name of economy. Yet even if the sane and sober London -ratepayer were saved a few shillings now, as he will not be, his -children will have to pay pounds in the future for the support of these -women's children. Economy, forsooth, when the rates of London benefited -to the extent of £559,000 out of the sale of intoxicating liquors in -1905, and spent £8,000 in the maintenance of committed inebriates! Need -one apologise for declaring again, that we require a new political -economy which teaches that gold is for the purchase of life, and not -life for the purchase of gold. For the public outrage under discussion, -whereby an untold measure of life, present and to come, "breathing and -to be," is to be destroyed and defiled for a squabble over shillings, -one can adequately quote only the words of Romeo to the apothecary: -"There is thy gold; worse poison to men's souls, doing more murders in -this loathsome world, than those poor compounds that thou may'st not -sell." - -=The last touches of art.=--If this protest hurts any one's -feelings, that cannot be helped. When the production of thousands -of feeble-minded children is involved, the self-esteem of what Mr. -George Meredith calls the "accepted imbecile" does not matter. The -question is, How soon do we propose to rectify our present course in -this respect?--a course which is a shame and a disgrace to our age and -nation, and which shall in any case be placed on record in printed -words, as well as in young children stamped with degeneracy--in order -to point for future ages the question "_An nescis, mi fili, quantilla -prudentia regitur orbis?_" "With how little wisdom"--and, whilst -perpetrating this shame, ignoring the _one_ indisputable means by which -legislation can and must check drunkenness, nearly all other measures -having failed since Babylon was an Empire, they were quarrelling -about a temperance measure, so-called, which regarded the question of -transference of money from one pocket to another as vital, and ignored -the one vital question, which is the question of life: a measure -showing scarcely a sign, either in its text or in the words of its -supporters or in the words of its opponents, that the question of the -future race had ever entered into the head of a public man; a measure -which left the protection of children from the public-house to the -discretion of local magistrates; a measure which certainly, whatever -else it might effect, could not have been more carefully drawn if its -object were to promote that secret drinking amongst women[72] which -means the poisoning of the racial life even before it sees the light. -This, then, "_mi fili_," was what was called practical statesmanship -in the year 1908 of the Christian Era: and in order that no last touch -might be wanted from the hand of ignorance and the blasphemous idolatry -which worships gold to the neglect of the only true god, which is -life, they announced just at this time the issue of a Royal Commission -to enquire and report upon the manufacture and variations in the -composition of whiskey. It has been a public joke for years past that -no one can answer the question, "What is whiskey?" Well, then, I will -answer the question, and we may save the labour of such commissions -hereafter. Whiskey is a _racial poison_, and there is nothing else to -know about it worth knowing _for the future_. Those who will never -become, or can no longer become, fathers or mothers, may do as they -please about whiskey, so far as the ideal of eugenics or race-culture -is concerned. They may say, if they like, that their personal habits -are their affair and concern no one else. Under the influence of -whiskey they may, perhaps, even believe this. But for those who are -to be the fathers and mothers of the future, such a plea is idle. The -question is not solely their affair; it is the affair of the unborn, -and we who champion the unborn are bound to say so. - -The time will come when it is recognised that there are two classes -of active mind in society: those who worship and uphold the past, and -will always sacrifice the living to the dead, nay more, the unborn to -the dead. The ultimate fate of these is the fate of her who looked -backwards to the shame and destruction from which she had escaped. -She was turned into a pillar of salt. And there are those who worship -and work for the future, who will, without hesitation, sacrifice the -interests of the dead (who are no longer interested) to those of the -living and the coming race--nay, more, who will even sacrifice the -interests of a few worthless living to those of many yet unborn, _that -they may be worthy_. Let the dead bury their dead; let the worshippers -of the dead and the dying ask themselves whether the life that is and -the life that is to be do not demand their homage and service. Not -until some such principles as these are recognised shall we rightly -deal with the drink problem, amongst many others, and bring to it the -mental and moral enlightenment which makes for life on the higher -plane, just as surely and just as indispensably as the light of the sun -creates all life whatsoever. - -=Mr. Balfour on legislation.=--Surely the moral of this argument is -clear. The most important, the most radical, the most practicable of -all temperance measures is that which attacks the main source of supply -of the drunkard. When a Licensing Bill is brought before the House of -Commons, Mr. Balfour repeats the ancient piece of nonsense that you -cannot make people moral by Act of Parliament--an assertion that any -child can see to be a muddle. We may let that pass for the moment, -but Mr. Balfour is a thinker, a student of biology, and heredity in -especial, and he has lately been lecturing on "Decadence." Might it -not have been expected that such a man would take an opportunity to -say what the humblest serious student of the subject would have said, -and thereby to bring far more damaging criticism against the opposing -party's bill than any he hinted at? He might have said, "Your bill, -even if passed, will accomplish little, or relatively little, at great -cost, because you have no grasp of the principles of the subject. You -have no idea of what drunkenness really is. If your bill were worth a -straw it would seek as a primary principle to safeguard the race by -arresting the supply of potential drunkards. Your endless financial -clauses deal merely with the re-distribution of money, but your bill -has no clause that deals with the only business of governments, the -creation and the economy of the only real wealth, which is human life." -That is what the ex-Premier did not say. He had plenty of passion, -plenty of party-feeling to give fire to his words, but so far as -knowledge is concerned or any conception of what alone is the wealth -of nations, there was nothing to choose between Mr. Balfour and Mr. -Asquith. Passion you must have if you are to do anything, but not -party-passion: whereas if you have passion for life and for children, -not only will it be effective, but, notwithstanding all that the -psychologists tell us as to the vitiation of judgment by emotion, it -will actually teach you the supreme and eternal truths. - -In this book hitherto little has been said as to formal eugenic -legislation. I believe with Etienne that it is opinion which governs -the world: legislation in front of public opinion brings all law into -contempt. But in his first speech opposing the Licensing Bill of -1908, Mr. Balfour, the author of the Licensing Bill of 1904, decried -legislation. "Intemperance," he said, "is a vice": and legislation -can do practically nothing in dealing with a vice. Plainly Mr. -Balfour is ignorant of the nature of intemperance, which largely -depends upon transmitted and inherent brain defect. He therefore -lost his opportunity of pointing out in what fashion you _can_ -actually, notwithstanding the parrots, make people sober by Act of -Parliament--viz., by forbidding parenthood to those whose children -would almost certainly become drunkards. We who are not politicians, -much less ex-Premiers, must make our own proposals then. Last year's -criticism of the London County Council began, I believe, to educate -public opinion to the necessary point. In the name of race-culture and -the New Patriotism, in the name of morality and charity and science, -we must demand, obtain and carry into effect the most stringent and -comprehensive legislation, such as effectively to forbid parenthood -on the part of the chronic inebriate. Ere long, the person who would -have become a chronic inebriate will be cared for and protected during -childhood and thereafter,--with the same result. This solution of the -problem is denounced, says Dr. Archdall Reid, - - "... as horrible, as Malthusian, as immoral, as impracticable.... - The alternative is more horrible and more immoral still. If by any - means we save the inebriates of this generation, but permit them - to have offspring, future generations must deal with an increased - number of inebriates.... The experience of many centuries has - rendered it sufficiently plain, that while there is drink, there - will be drunkards till the race be purged of them. We have therefore - no real choice between Temperance Reform by the abolition of drink, - and Temperance Reform by the elimination of the drunkard.... - Which is the worse; that miserable drunkards shall bear wretched - children to a fate of starvation and neglect and early death, or of - subsequent drunkenness and crime, or that, by our deliberate act, - the procreation of children shall be forbidden them? We are on the - horns of a dilemma from which there is no escape.... But our time has - seen the labours of Darwin. We know now the great secret. Science - has given us knowledge and with it power. We have learnt that if we - labour for the individual alone, we shall surely fail; but that if - we make our sacrifice greater, if we labour for the race as well, we - must succeed. Let us then by all means seek to save the individual - drunkard; with all our power let us endeavour to make and keep him - sober; but let us strive also to eradicate the type; for, as I have - said, if we do it not quickly and with mercy, Nature will do it - slowly and with infinite cruelty." - -=Women and children first.=--The noble cry on a sinking ship is -"women and children first." This perhaps is a plea for the service of -helplessness as such, though it might be equally warranted as a demand -for the sacrifice of the present to the future. And assuredly the cry -for a sinking society must also be "women and children first." It is -well if the cry be raised when the ship of state is not yet sinking, -but only water-logged or alcohol-logged. Temperance legislation and the -agitation for temperance reform are themselves in need of reform. Their -appalling record of failure--for it is such a record--should help even -the fanatic, one thinks, to accept the introduction of the eugenic idea -as a new principle of life for the temperance cause. In the present -state of custom and opinion, the teetotaler cannot force his own wise -habits upon the vast majority who do not agree with him. If he has an -infinite amount of energy and resources, let him spend as much of both -as he pleases upon the sort of propaganda with which we are familiar: -he will, by the hypothesis, still have an infinite amount of both -available for the cause to which the principle of race-culture would -direct him. If, however, his energy and resources are finite,--if, -indeed, they are by no means excessive in proportion to the urgent -task which the ideal of race-culture asks of him, then let him not -fritter away a moment or a penny or a breath until he has achieved the -process of salvage or salvation which is expressed in the phrase "women -and children first." More accurately, perhaps, our cry must be "parents -and possible parents first," and this for present practical purposes is -equivalent to "women and children first." - -It would have been well if the temperance propaganda from the first, -say two generations ago in Great Britain, had adopted this motto. -But its adoption is far more urgent to-day in consequence of the -fact, unfortunately no longer to be questioned, that drinking amongst -women, the mothers of the future, is, and has been for some time, -steadily increasing. Children yet unborn must be protected from the -injury which may be inflicted upon them by those who will be their -mothers. Yet though there is more need for action in this regard than -ever before, and though Mr. G. R. Sims in his books _The Cry of the -Children_ and _The Black Stain_ has lately drawn wide attention to -the subject, we have seen that the principle of women and children -first, a principle derived from the ideal of race-culture, and directly -serving that ideal, was almost wholly ignored in the Licensing Bill of -1908. The motto "Money, not motherhood," is a bad one for the framers -of a temperance measure. If ever we have a temperance measure worthy -the name the motto of its framers will be "Motherhood, not money." -Such a measure will most certainly have to introduce the principle -of indeterminate sentences--or rather, indeterminate _care_--in -the treatment of the chronic inebriate. There is no possibility -of two opinions as to the urgent and indispensable necessity of -such treatment, nor yet as to its scrupulous humanity both for the -unfortunate victim himself or herself and for the unborn. - -The word "reformatory" had better be abolished from official language, -since it leads accredited people to write to _The Times_ such -foolishness as "reformation, not mere detention." - -Further, the expense of dealing with the chronic inebriate in this, the -only humane and economical way, had better fall entirely and directly -upon the state. It must not be possible again for a local authority, -even the London County Council, however ignorant or criminally -careless, to commit a public indecency like that already recorded--but -the full record of which none of us will live to see. - -=An unpunished magistrate.=--Yet again, in this measure there must -be some means of compelling such magistrates as cannot be educated. -At present, even when accommodation is provided, the unfortunate -creature of the Jane Cakebread type, when she is only just beginning -to enter into competition with that horrible record, and when she is -therefore most dangerous as regards the possibility of motherhood, -can be detained only by the magistrate's order. Now it is very much -less trouble for all concerned to say "five shillings or a week" than -to make the necessary enquiries in such cases. Further, in putting -this measure of one's dreams upon the statute book, we shall have to -remember that the idea of protective care and the eugenic idea are, to -say the least, not native in the mind of every magistrate. In Dr. Welsh -Branthwaite's report for 1906, there is quoted a case where a woman had -been habitually drunken for at least thirteen years previous to her -committal to a reformatory. Her known sentences included 27 fines, and -138 terms of imprisonment. She was feeble-minded. On the termination -of her reformatory sentence the discharge certificate described her as -"quite unfit to control her own actions," and "certain to succumb to -the first temptation to drink." The woman was found drunk a few hours -after discharge. Said the magistrate, "this case clearly proves that -it is almost useless trying to reform such women as this.... I think, -after all, the old way is best and therefore I sentence her to one -month with hard labour." I refrain from suggesting a suitable sentence -for the magistrate: doubtless he got off scot-free. - -Surely we might agree, as regards this racial poison, that at least -parenthood and the future must be kept out of its clutches. It may be, -it assuredly is, a deplorable thing that the woman of fifty, to take -an instance, should become alcoholic, but at the worst this is only -the fate of an individual--in the main at any rate. Such principles -as these will some day be the cardinal principles of legislation, and -not only in regard to alcohol. The time will and must come when public -opinion will urge, whether in the name of a New Imperialism or of -common morality or of self-protection, that in our attempts to deal -with alcohol we shall begin by removing its fingers from the throat of -the race: "Women and children first." - -=The Report of the Inebriates Committee.=--In January, 1909, the -Committee which was at last appointed to consider this matter made its -Report.[73] I have not the literary capacity to comment adequately upon -the political wisdom which brings in a Licensing Bill, devotes vast -labour and much time to it and has it rejected by the House of Lords, -while such a Committee as this is at work. The spirit of the politician -who spoke of "those damned professors" still reigns over us, and will -certainly ruin us unless speedily deposed. However, here is the Report, -and its recommendations are earnestly to be commended to the study of -all students. New legislation, as it shows, is urgently required, and -it is pre-eminently the duty of every eugenist to hasten its coming. -This is not a party question, but merely a national one, and will -therefore be dealt with by politicians only under external pressure, -such as produced the Committee itself. The finger of public opinion -must apply that pressure forthwith. - -The recommendations of the Committee are so admirable and thorough and -eugenic in effect as to temper one's disappointment that the Report -contains no definite, overt recognition of the eugenic idea. I had -hoped that the evidence prepared and submitted to the Committee for -the Eugenics Education Society would suffice to ensure the recognition -of the eugenic idea in the Report, for the first time, we may suppose, -in official history. For the present we may merely note that the -suggestions made in preceding pages are confirmed by the Committee's -Report, and that the next legislation bearing on the question of -temperance will undoubtedly have to attack the subject in this radical -manner--by what will be in effect the sterilisation of the habitual -drinker of either sex and any social status. The Committee do not -recognise that that is what their Report involves, much less that that -gives it its real value; but so it is, as the year 1950 will be late -enough to show. - -Much time and trouble were spent in preparing for the Eugenics -Education Society answers to many of the questions submitted to it by -the Committee, and the Society may fairly claim, I think, that its -original services to this matter were well-continued. The present -writer also prepared for the Society a Memorandum (Minutes of Evidence, -p. 189), which perhaps fairly sums up, in the briefest possible space, -the indisputable relations between alcohol and parenthood, and which -may therefore be reprinted here. The reader will notice an omission -in that nothing is said as to the effects of alcohol in injuring -the germ-cells of healthy stock of either sex. The omission was made -in order that nothing possibly disputable might be included. It has -already been argued that on grounds both of fact and of theory there -is every reason to recognise in alcohol, as in syphilis and in lead, -a racial poison, originating racial degeneration which, in accordance -with generally recognised principles, shows itself in the latest, -highest and therefore most delicate portions of the organism. - -The Memorandum is as follows:-- - -"It may be pointed out that the children of the drunkard are on the -average less capable of citizenship on account of - - "(a) The inheritance of nervous defect inherent in the parent. - - "(b) Intra-uterine alcoholic poisoning in cases where the mother is - an inebriate. - - "(c) Neglect, ill-feeding, accidents, blows, etc., which are - responsible on the one hand for much infant mortality, and - combined with the possible causes before mentioned, for the - ultimate production of adults defective both in body and mind. - -"It would appear, then, that the drunkard, if not effectively -restrained, conduces to the production of a defective race, involving a -grave financial burden upon the sober portion of the community, to say -nothing of higher considerations. It therefore seems to the Eugenics -Education Society of extreme importance that some substantial effort -should be made for the reform of existing drunkards, or the permanent -control of the irreformable. - -"Scientific warrant for the foregoing propositions is now to be -found in no small abundance. Reference may be made, for instance, to -the chapter on 'Alcoholism and Human Degeneration,' in Dr. W. C. -Sullivan's recent work _Alcoholism_ (Nisbet, 1906). Dr. Sullivan quotes -the results of more than a dozen observers in this and other countries, -and special attention may be drawn to his own well-known study of the -history of 600 children born of 120 drunken mothers. The works of -Professor Forel of Zurich are widely known in this connection, notably -_Die Sexuel Frage_, and _The Hygiene of Nerves and Mind_ (Translation, -Murray, 1907). Parental alcoholism as a true cause of epilepsy in the -offspring is now generally recognised. For numerous and detailed proofs -from many sources reference may be made to page 210 of the last work -named. - -"It is not necessary, however, to go over the ground which has -doubtless been covered by the Royal Commission on the Care and Control -of the Feeble-minded. - -"The existing laws comply to only a very small and almost negligible -extent with the eugenic requirement. They only deal with (a) the very -minute proportion of inebriates who can be induced to voluntarily sign -away their liberty, and (b) those who are also criminal or all but -hopeless and who have done harm already, either as individuals or in -becoming parents. The third group of inebriates (c) not included in -(a) or (b) constitutes the overwhelming majority of the whole. They -are absolutely untouched by the present law, and further powers are -urgently required to deal with them. - -"Such legislation would be by no means without precedent, and may avail -itself of the experience of several of our own colonies and various -foreign countries. Such methods as compulsory control on petition, -guardianship and so forth are in employment, for instance, in the -Australian Commonwealth and New Zealand, California, Connecticut, -Massachusetts, various cantons in Switzerland, Nova Scotia, etc. - -"To sum up, the Society advocates the retention of the present law so -far as classes (a) and (b) are concerned, but would most strongly urge -the addition of powers to deal with that great majority of inebriates -whom the present law does not touch." - - -=The friends of alcohol.=--Those who defend the alcoholic poisoning -of the race may be easily classified. Some few honestly stand for -liberty. Like Archbishop Magee, they would rather see England free -than England sober, not asking in what sense England drunken could be -called free. Some are merely irritated by the temperance fanatic. Many -fear that their personal comfort may be interfered with. But probably -the overwhelming majority are concerned with their pockets. They live -by this cannibal trade; by selling death and the slaughter of babies, -feeble-mindedness and insanity, consumption and worse diseases, crime -and pauperism, degradation of body and mind in a thousand forms, to the -present generation and therefore to the future, the unconsulted party -to the bargain. Their motto is "Your money and your life." So powerful -are they that most of them are frank. They form associations for their -defence, and hold mass meetings at which they condemn any temperance -measure that is before the country, "whilst ready to welcome any real -temperance reform." They demand adequate compensation: though, if they -disgorged every farthing they possess, and devoted themselves body and -soul for the rest of their lives to the human cause, they could never -compensate us who are alive, let alone the dead or the unborn, for the -human ruin on which they build their success. They build their palaces -before our eyes; one of the largest and newest, not far from Piccadilly -Circus, I often pass; but where most see only fine stone, the student -of infant mortality, the lover of children, he who works and looks -for the life of this world to come, sees the bodies of the children of -men and is tempted to recall the curse of Joshua, "He shall lay the -foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he -set up the gates of it." - -=Alcoholic Imperialism.=--At least let the alcoholic party refrain from -calling themselves Imperialists. Amongst them, for instance, is the -"Imperial bard," the "poet of empire," he who has appealed to the "god -of our fathers," and who warns us lest it shall be said that "all our -pomp of yesterday is one with Nineveh and Tyre": and appeals to deity-- - - "Judge of the Nations, spare us yet, - Lest we forget, lest we forget!" - -This prophet of what some may think a blasphemous Imperialism gives -his name to the association which frankly in this matter of alcohol -stands for gold as against life. We are to beware lest "drunk with -sight of power" we boast as do the "lesser breeds" to whom the "awful -Hand" of God has not granted dominion: nor are we to put our trust in -reeking tube and iron shard. We may freely call ourselves Imperialists, -however, even though we should be numbered amongst those whom Ruskin, -himself the son of a wine merchant, called the "vendors of death." One -wonders whether the "Lord God" exists that he can withhold his "awful -Hand" at such a spectacle as this. If some amongst us are to win gold -by the sale of this racial poison, and if it must be so, let them at -least be consistent, and label themselves _the very littlest of little -Englanders_, which they are. An alcoholic Imperialism is of the kind -which no Empire can long survive. - -Those of us whom such things as these make sick, and who yet, with -true poets like Wordsworth, are proud of "the tongue that Shakespeare -spake," and who with him declare:-- - - "It is not to be thought of that the Flood - Of British freedom, which, to the open sea - Of the world's praise, from dark antiquity - Hath flowed, . . . . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - That this most famous Stream in bogs and sands - Should perish; and to evil and to good - Be lost for ever" - ---those of us who know that the foundations of any empire are living -men and women, and that, _to quote Mr. Kipling_, "when breeds are in -the making everything is worth while," may wonder what process has been -afoot that in three generations English poetry should pass from the -sonnets of Wordsworth to "Duke's son, cook's son," etc.; and may even -at times, especially those of us who know what alcohol costs in life, -feel a momentary recession of our faith that Great Britain need not now -be writing the last page of her great history. Meanwhile, we read the -controversy in Parliament and the press concerning alcohol. We see the -cannibal cause of beer and spirits, which makes many widows and orphans -every day,[74] represented, with an effrontery to which no parallel can -ever be imagined, as the cause of widows and children, and we recall -the lines which Wordsworth wrote rather more than a century ago:-- - - "How piteous, then, that there should be such dearth - Of knowledge; that whole myriads should unite - To work against themselves such fell despite; - Should come in frenzy and in drunken mirth, - Impatient to put out the only light - Of liberty that yet remains on earth!" - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - - THE RACIAL POISONS: LEAD, NARCOTICS, SYPHILIS - - -The term racial poisons teaches us to distinguish, amongst substances -known to be poisonous to the individual, those which injure the -germ-plasm: and amongst substances poisonous to the expectant mother -herself, we must distinguish those which may also poison her unborn -child. Alcohol is pre-eminently _the_ racial poison, thus defined, and -I plead for its recognition as primarily a racial poison, this being -immeasurably the most important aspect of the whole alcohol question. -Readers of Professor Forel will not lightly question this assertion. - -The total number of racial poisons is, of course, very large. Amongst -them must theoretically be included all abortifacient drugs. There -are also various poisons of disease to be included in this category. -Later pages must be devoted to what is by far the most important of -these. But we may observe in passing that such a disease as rheumatic -fever or acute rheumatism has especial significance for the student of -race-culture since, as he knows, its poisons circulating in the blood -of an expectant mother may not only injure her own heart for life but -may pass through the placenta and deform the valves of the child's -heart, with the subsequent result loosely described as "congenital -heart disease." The conditions giving rise to rheumatic fever, then, -are conditions from which the expectant mother, even more than the -ordinary individual, is entitled to be protected. But this is of minor -importance. We may here refer, however, to one or two striking cases, -especially since they bear in some degree upon social and individual -duty. - -=The racial influence of lead.=--In the first place, it is necessary to -draw attention to a really notable racial poison, viz., lead. - -Says Sir Thomas Oliver,[75] "Lead destroys the reproductive powers -of both men and women, but its special influence upon women during -pregnancy is the cause of a great destruction of human life." It may be -said that in a sense the production of miscarriages and still-births, -and also of infant mortality by lead, does not concern the student -of race-culture. Nevertheless some of these children survive. Says -Sir Thomas Oliver: "I have seen both cretinism and imbecility in -infants in whom, as there could have been no possible influence of -alcohol, and presumably none of syphilis, the occupation of one or -other parent as a lead worker must have determined the imperfectly -developed nervous system of the child." Later he says (page 202): -"Salpétrière and Bicêtre are large hospitals in Paris set aside for -the reception and treatment of nervous diseases. The experience of the -physicians of these institutions is unrivalled. One of the physicians, -M. Roques, speaking of the degenerates found in these hospitals, says -that slowly induced lead poisoning on the part of both parents or in -one or other of them is not only a cause of repeated abortions, high -percentage of still-births and high death-rate of infants, but is the -cause of convulsions, imbecility, and idiocy in many of the children -who survive the first year of existence. Of nineteen children born -to parents who were lead workers, Rennert found that one child was -still-born and that seventeen were macrocephalic. In his studies upon -hereditary degeneration and idiocy, Bourneville places house-painters -in the unenviable first rank of the occupations followed by parents of -mentally weak children. Out of eighty-seven cases relating to unhealthy -trades, fifty-one were connected with white lead in some form or -another, while syphilis was only responsible for nineteen." - -This racial influence of lead is by no means generally recognised--even -by Royal Commissioners. Its parallelism with the case of alcohol is -striking. We may note, for instance, that paternal lead-poisoning, -like paternal alcoholism, can cause degeneration in the offspring, if -not indeed death before or shortly after birth. To quote Oliver again: -"Taking seven healthy women who were married to lead workers, and in -whom there was a total of thirty-two pregnancies, Lewin tells us that -the results were as follows: eleven miscarriages, one still-birth, -eight children died within the first year after birth, four in the -second year, five in the third, and one subsequent to this, leaving -only two children out of thirty-two pregnancies, as likely to live to -manhood. In cases where women have a series of miscarriages so long as -their husbands worked in lead, a change of industrial occupation on -the part of the husbands restores to the wives normal child-bearing -powers." According to the statistical enquiry of Rennert, the malign -influence of lead is exerted upon the next generation, ninety-four -times out of one hundred when both parents have been working in lead, -ninety-two times when the mother alone is affected, and sixty-three -times when it is the father alone who has worked in lead. Here, then, -as in the case of alcohol, the racial poison may act either through -the father or through the mother, but especially through the mother. -The importance of the demonstration as regards the father in the -case of both poisons is that it means a poisoning of the paternal -germ-cell. The facts may be commended to those extremists, so much more -Weismannian than Weismann, who regard the germ-cells as existing in a -universe of their own, wholly unrelated to the rest of existence. - -Another extremely interesting parallel between these two racial poisons -may be noted. It is found, according to Professor Oliver, that "while -following a healthy occupation these women, after having frequently -miscarried when working in lead factories, would have two or three -living healthy children, but circumstances necessitating the return of -these women to town, and resumption of work in the lead factory, they -in each successive pregnancy again miscarried." He then quotes the -following most remarkable case: "Mrs. K., aged thirty-four, had four -children before going into the factory and two children after. She then -had six miscarriages in succession, when she came under my care in the -Royal Infirmary, having become the victim of plumbism and having lost -the power in her arms and legs. She made a slow but good recovery and -did not return to the lead works. In her next pregnancy she went to -full term and gave birth to a living child." - -We see here that, as is also true in the case of alcoholism, the -germinal tissue itself may escape or at any rate may recover from the -effects of chronic poisoning of the individual who is its host. The -race is more resistant than the individual. If, however, the poisoning -continues whilst a new individual is being formed--that is to say, -during pregnancy--that new individual succumbs, and indeed is far more -gravely affected than its mother. Such a pregnant woman presents three -distinct living objects for our study. Her own body is one: and this -is already developed. It has some measure of resistance to the poison -but is gravely affected. The embryo is the second; it is developing -and because developing is susceptible. It is usually killed before -birth. The third is the germ-plasm or the race, and this, as we have -seen, may withstand the poison so well that when the poisoning is -discontinued healthy children may be produced from it. Undoubtedly -the case is the same as regards alcohol. The race or germ-plasm is -most resistant, the developing individual is least resistant, and the -adult individual--that is to say, the mother--occupies an intermediate -position in this respect. - -This parallelism, which has escaped previous observers, may be pointed -out and its remarkable interest and significance suggested as a -definite advance upon the absurd view that the germ-plasm is incapable -of being poisoned. On the contrary, we know that many poisons will -kill it outright, so that sterility results. But its high degree of -resistance is a fact of great interest. Doubtless Dr. Archdall Reid's -acute explanation of it is correct: namely, that natural selection -would tend to evolve a resistant germ-plasm. Dr. Reid will, I think, be -interested to notice in these remarkable observations on lead-poisoning -a conspicuous illustration of this resistance. - -Our business here, however, is with the practical issue. This -fortunately is plain, nor are there the same difficulties of vested -interests which arise in the case of alcohol. Lead-poisoning must be -ended in the interests of race-culture and the essential wealth of -the nation, or, if it is to be continued, it must at least have its -clutches kept clear of parenthood. - -=The possible racial influence of narcotics.=--Alcohol is of course a -narcotic poison, or, more precisely still, a narcotic-irritant poison, -but here we may briefly refer to the possible racial influence of -certain other poisons. There is, for instance, the case, noted on p. -212, of the disastrous racial consequences of the cocaine habit. The -matter demands only a paragraph, since for the present, at least, it -is of small general importance, and since we must beware of going -beyond the facts; but when once the idea of race-culture has reached -the popular and professional mind--the latter at present frequently -feeding the pregnant woman with alcohol, as we all know--the whole -question of narcomania will have to be looked at from this aspect, and -the measure of danger in particular cases will then be ascertained. It -is probably safe to assume, however, that, on the whole, alcohol will -be found to stand somewhat apart from other narcotics, and for the -reason that it is not a pure narcotic but also an irritant. Thus, to -take the case of opium, it will probably be very difficult and, one may -hope, impossible to show that, shall we say, opium smoking or eating -has an injurious racial influence where it is practised. Here we have a -narcotic which is not an irritant. The individual may recover perfectly -from its abuse, as he may often fail to recover from the abuse of -alcohol, since this poison leaves permanent changes in the brain, and -elsewhere, dependent upon the fact that it is not merely a narcotic but -also a local irritant. The action of a pure narcotic on the germ-plasm -as compared with the action of a narcotic which is also an irritant may -afford a parallel. The abuse of opium by the expectant mother (see p. -212) is not of the same order: it means simply dosing a _very_ small -baby with opium. - -=Tobacco and the race.=--The poisonous compounds absorbed from tobacco -smoke are of interest in this connection. The question as to the -proportion of nicotine included amongst them is immaterial here. -It suffices to know, as we do, that certain substances, doubtless -including some proportion of nicotine, rapidly absorbed into the blood -by the smoker, are poisons to the individual body. The familiar fact of -the acquirement of immunity affects in no degree the statement as to -the toxic character of these substances. - -No one but the fanatic would venture to say that any racial -degeneration can be traced to tobacco-smoking. It would be hard to -prove the existence of any injury thus inflicted upon the children of -the father who is a smoker, though the question of the acquirement of -immunity is not without relevance here. The immunising substances or -anti-toxins which are doubtless produced in the smoker's blood may -protect the germ-plasm which he bears as well as his own body. - -But in the case of the expectant mother there is more warrant for -offering an opinion even in the absence hitherto of definite evidence. -Apart from any opinion as to the propriety of smoking by women in -general, there is a definite issue in the case of the expectant mother. -A very young child is now being exposed to the poisons of tobacco -smoke, and if we are right in passing laws to prevent this poisoning in -the case of the urchin of eight years (who is really, of course, eight -years and nine months old), what shall we say regarding the unborn -child who is only eight months old? I have observed that the expectant -mother may have her liking for tobacco replaced by violent dislike -during pregnancy. - -=The poison of syphilis.=--Brief mention must here be made of syphilis -as a racial poison. Sooner or later the eugenic campaign must and will -face this question, about which a murderous silence is now maintained. -No other disease can rival syphilis in its hideous influence upon -parenthood and the future. But it is no crime for a man to marry, -infect his innocent bride and their children: no crime against the -laws of our little lawgivers, but a heinous outrage against Nature's -decrees. When, at last, our laws are based on Nature's laws, criminal -marriages of this kind may be put an end to. - -The lay reader should acquaint himself with the play of Brieux, _Les -Avariés_. The student may be referred to Forel's _Sexual Question_, -Dr. C. F. Marshall's _Syphilology and Venereal Diseases_, and his -article, "Alcohol and Syphilis" in the _British Journal of Inebriety_, -January, 1908. - - * * * * * - -This chapter and the last do not profess to do more than indicate the -field of eugenics which the term racial poisons suggests. Our business -in the present volume is, if possible, to see eugenics whole: to treat -of this new science adequately is not for one author or one generation. -It is earnestly to be hoped that the medical profession will speedily -take up this question of the racial poisons. Already the profession is -beginning to become the great instrument of _individual hygiene_: and -every year will enhance the importance of this work, as compared with -the cure of disease. Now negative eugenics is substantially _racial -hygiene_: and the next great epoch in the evolution of medicine and the -medical profession will be the enrolment of its knowledge and influence -in the cause of racial hygiene. May this book do a little to hasten -that day. - -The two next chapters are designed to introduce that aspect of our -subject which may be called National Eugenics, and especially with -reference to decadence. Here is a matter which appeals to minds of type -and training often very different from the typical medical mind. But it -is part of one's purpose to show, if possible, that the historian must -become a eugenist, just as the physician must, for eugenics needs and -claims the work and help of both. - - - - - CHAPTER XV - - NATIONAL EUGENICS: RACE-CULTURE AND HISTORY[76] - - -The reader will not expect to be insulted here with any discussion of -the garbage and gossip, records of scoundrels, courts and courtesans, -battles, murder and theft, which we were taught at school, under the -great name of history.[77] If history be, as nearly all historians have -conceived it, and as Gibbon defined it, "little more than the register -of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind," it is an empty and -contemptible study, save for the social pathologist. But if history, -without by any means ignoring great men or underrating their influence, -is, or should be, the record of the past life of mankind, of progress -and decadence, the rise and fall of Empires and civilisations, and -their mutual reactions; if it be the record of the intermittent ascent -of man, "sagging but pertinacious"; if this record be subject to the -law of causation, and therefore susceptible, in theory, at least, of -explanation as well as description; if its factors are at work to-day -and will shape the destiny of all the to-morrows; if it be neither -phantasmagoria nor panorama nor pageant nor procession but _process_, -in short, an organic drama,--then, indeed, it is more than worthy -of all the study and thought of all who ever study or ever think. -Especially must it appeal to us, who boast a tradition greater than the -world has ever yet seen, and kinship with men who represent the utmost -of which the human spirit has yet shown itself capable,--to us who -speak the tongue that Shakespeare spake, but to whom the names of all -our Imperial predecessors, from Babylon to Spain, serve as a perpetual -_memento mori_. Our special question here is whether there are inherent -and necessary reasons why our predecessors' fate must sooner or later -be ours. Must races die?--or, if we are sceptical about races and more -especially about the so-called Anglo-Saxon race, must civilisations, -states, or nations die? What comment does modern biology, or the theory -of organic evolution, make upon the familiar words of Byron in his -address to the ocean?-- - - "Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee-- - Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they? - Thy waters wasted them while they were free - And many a tyrant since: their shores obey - The stranger, slave, or savage." - -And these, a few pages earlier in the same poem:-- - - "There is the moral of all human tales; - 'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, - First Freedom and then Glory--when that fails, - Wealth, vice, corruption--barbarism at last. - And History, with all her volumes vast, - Hath but _one_ page".... - -Nations, races, civilisations rise, we shall all agree, because to -inherent virtue of breed they add sound customs and laws, acquirements -of discipline and knowledge. But, these acquirements made, power -established, and crescent from year to year--why do they _then_ fall? -If they can _make_ a place for themselves, how much easier should it -not be to _maintain_ it? - -Two explanations, each falsely asserting itself to be rooted in -biological fact, have long been cited and are still cited in order to -account for these supreme tragedies of history. - -=The fallacy of racial senility.=--The first may claim Plato and -Aristotle as its founders, and consists of an argument from analogy. -Races may be conceived in similar terms to individuals. There are many -resemblances between a society--a "social organism," to use Herbert -Spencer's phrase--and an individual organism. Just, then, as the -individual is mortal, so is the race. Each has its birth, its period of -youth and growth, its maturity, and, finally, its decadence, senility -and death. So runs the common argument. - -We must reply, however, that biology, so far from confirming it, -declares as the capital fact which contrasts the individual and the -race that, whilst the individual is doomed to die from inherent causes, -the race is naturally immortal. The tendency of life is not to die but -to live. If individuals die, that is doubtless because, as I believe, -more life and fuller is thus attained than if life bodied itself in -immortal forms: but the germ-plasm is immortal; it has no inherent -tendency either to degenerate or to die. Species exist and flourish -now which are millions of years older than mankind. "The individual -withers, the race is more and more." - -It may be added that, in historical instances, civilisations have, on -the one hand, persisted, and, on the other, fallen, despite change, -and even substitution, in the races which created them: and, on the -other hand, the most conspicuously persistent of all races in the -historic epoch, the Jews, have survived one Empire after another of -their oppressors, but have never had an Empire of their own. Thus, so -far as the historian is concerned, it is not races at all that die, -but civilisations and Empires. Plato's argument from the individual to -the race is therefore irrelevant, as well as untrue. The fatalistic -conception to which it tempts us, saying that races must die, just as -individuals must, and that therefore it is idle to repine or oppose, -is utterly unwarrantable and extremely unhealthy. To take our own -case, despite the talk about our own racial decadence, nearly all our -babies still come into the world fit and strong and healthy--the racial -poisons apart. We kill them in scores of thousands every year, but this -infant mortality is not a sign that the race is dying, but a sign that -even the most splendid living material can be killed or damaged if you -try hard enough. The babies do not die because races are mortal, but -because individuals are and we kill them. The babies drink poison, -eat poison, and breathe poison, and in due course die. The theory of -racial senility, inapplicable everywhere because untrue, is most of all -inapplicable here. If a race became sterile, Plato and Aristotle would -be right. There is no such instance in history, apart from well-defined -external, _not inherent_, causes, as in the case of the Tasmanians. -Dismissing this analogy, we may also dismiss, as based upon nothing -better, the idea that the great tragedies of history were necessary -events at all. We must look elsewhere than amongst the inherent and -necessary factors of racial life for the causes which determine these -tragedies; and we shall be entitled to assume as conceivable the -proposition that, notwithstanding the consistent fall of all our -predecessors, the causes are not inevitable, but, being external and -environmental, may possibly be controlled: man being not only creature -but creator also. - -=The Lamarckian explanation of decadence.=--The second of the two false -interpretations of history in terms of biology is still, and always -has been, widely credited. When historians have paid any attention to -the breed of a people as determining its destiny, they have invariably -added to the fallacy of racial senility this no less fecund error. It -is that, in consequence of success, a people become idle, thoughtless, -unenterprising, luxurious, and that these _acquired characters are -transmitted_ to succeeding generations so that, finally, there is -produced a degenerate people unable to bear the burden of Empire--and -then the crash comes. The historian usually introduces the idea -already dismissed by saying that a "young and vigorous race" invaded -the Imperial territories--and so forth. The terms "young" and "old," -applied to human races, usually mean nothing at all. - -The reader will recognise, of course, in this doctrine of the -transmission to children of characters acquired by their parents, the -explanation of organic evolution advanced by Lamarck rather more than -a century ago. It is employed by historians for the explanation of -both the processes they record, progress and retrogression. Thus they -suppose that for many generations a race is disciplined, and so at last -there is produced a race with discipline in its very bone; or for many -generations a nation finds it necessary to make adventure upon the sea, -and so at last there is produced a generation of predestined sailors -with blue water in its blood. And in similar terms moral and physical -retrogression or degeneration are explained. - -Let us consider the contrast between the interpretation which accepts -the Lamarckian theory of the transmission of acquired characters and -that which does not. Consider the babies of a new generation. According -to Lamarck, these have in their blood and brain the consequences of -the habits of their ancestors. If these have been idle and luxurious, -the new babies are predestined to be idle and luxurious too. This, -in short, is a "dying nation." But, if acquired characters are not -transmitted, the new generation is, on the whole, not much better, not -much worse, than its predecessors--so far as this supposed factor of -change is concerned. Each generation makes a fresh start, as we see in -the babies of our slums to-day. It does not begin where the last left -off--whether that means beginning at a higher or at a lower level than -that at which the last started: but it makes a fresh start where the -last did. - -Now, in general, we have seen that Lamarck's theory is discredited. -The view of Mr. Galton is accepted, that acquired characters are not -transmitted, either for good or for evil. If there are no other factors -of racial degeneration or racial advance, then races do not degenerate -or advance, but make a fresh start every generation: and Empires rise -and fall without any relation to the breed of the Imperial people--an -incredible proposition. - -=The racial poisons and decadence.=--Certain apparent, though not -real, exceptions exist to the denial of the Lamarckian theory of the -transmission of acquired characters. These exceptions are furnished by -what I have called the _racial poisons_. Alcohol, for instance, is a -substance, certainly poisonous in all but very small doses, if not in -them, which is carried by the blood to every part of the body and may -and does injure its _racial_ elements. Thus a true racial degeneration -may be caused by its means: and the possibility of this is not to -be ignored. Other poisons, such as those of certain diseases, act -similarly. - -We must therefore note in passing a biological factor of historical -importance, though hitherto entirely unrecognised by historians, and -that is disease. Certain of our diseases, and especially consumption -or tuberculosis, are at present making history by their extermination -of aboriginal races. Minute living creatures, which we call microbes, -are introduced into the new and favourable environment constituted by -the blood and tissues of human races hitherto unacquainted with them: -and the consequences are known to all. But further, it has lately been -suggested as highly probable, by Professor Ross and others, that the -fall of Greece, that incalculable disaster for mankind, was due to -the invasion not of human foes but of the humble living species which -are responsible for the disease miscalled malaria. The evidence for -this view is by no means slight, and the most recent explanation of -an event so abrupt and so disastrous is in all likelihood the correct -one. Malaria, like alcohol, produces true racial degeneration, its -poisons affecting those _racial elements_ of which the individual body, -biologically conceived, is merely the ephemeral host: recalling the -great line of Lucretius, "_et quasi cursores, vitaï lampada tradunt_." -To lame the runner is not to injure the torch he bears--acquired -characters are not transmitted; but the racial poison makes dim the -lamp ere the runner passes it on. - -=Selection and racial change.=--But, leaving poisons out of the -question, races of men and animals _do_ undergo change, progressive -and retrogressive, in consequence of the action of another factor than -that advanced by Lamarck: and this is the factor of "natural selection" -or "survival of the fittest." If, of any generation, individuals of a -certain kind are chosen by the environment for survival and parenthood, -the character of the species will change accordingly. If what we call -the best are chosen, their goodness will be transmitted in some degree, -and the race will advance: if what we call the worst are chosen, -their badness will be transmitted in some degree, and the race will -degenerate. - -=The two kinds of progress.=--Now in the case of all species other than -man, the only possible progress is this racial or inherent progress, -dependent upon a choice or selection of parents, and comparable in some -measure, as Darwin showed, with the change similarly produced in the -selective breeding or "artificial selection" of the lower animals by -man. But in the case of man himself, there is a wholly different kind -of progress also attainable, which is not inherent or racial progress -at all, but yet is real progress: and which has the most important -relations to the inherent or racial progress that might be achieved by -the process of natural selection, or the choice of parents. - -It has been laid down that acquired characters are not transmissible -by heredity: but man has learnt--and it is well for him--to circumvent -the laws of heredity by transmitting his spiritual acquirements through -language and art. Even before writing there was tradition, passed on -from mouth to mouth. As long as man was without writing he advanced -little faster than other creatures, we may surmise: we know that he -has an undistinguished past of probably at least six million years: -but with speech _and writing_ came the transmission of acquirements -in this special sense; not that the past education of a mother will -enlarge her baby's brain, but that she can teach her daughter what she -has learnt, and so the child can begin where the parent left off, just -as Lamarck wrongly imagined to be the case with the young giraffe, that -he supposed to profit by the stretching of the parental necks. It is -this transmission of spiritual acquirements--outside the germ-plasm -and in defiance of its laws--that explains the amazing advance of man -in the last ten or twenty thousand years as compared with the almost -speechless ages before them. - -This kind of progress is peculiar to man,[78] it is the gift of -intelligence, and we may call it traditional or acquired progress. It -is an utterly different thing from inherent or racial progress, an -improvement in the breed dependent upon the happy choice of parents. -And it is surely evident, on a moment's consideration, that acquired -progress is compatible with inherent decadence. To use Coleridge's -image, a dwarf may see further than a giant if he sits on the giant's -shoulders: yet he is a dwarf and the other a giant. Any schoolboy now -knows more than Aristotle, and that is true progress of a kind, but the -schoolboy may well be a dwarf compared with Aristotle, and may belong -to a race degenerate when compared with his; _and that is inherent or -racial decadence subsisting with acquired or traditional progress_. - -Now whilst the accumulation of knowledge and art and power -from age to age is real progress, it evidently depends for its -stability and persistence upon the quality of the race.[79] If the -race degenerates--through, say, the selection of the worst for -parenthood--the time will come when its heritage is too much for it. -The pearls of the ancestral art are now cast before swine, and are -trampled on: statues, temples, books are destroyed or burnt or lost. If -an Empire has been built, the degenerate race cannot sustain it. _There -is no wealth but life: and if the quality of the life fails, neither -battleships nor libraries nor symphonies nor anything else will save a -nation._ This we all know, though no one who observed our legislation -or read our Parliamentary debates would suspect that it had ever -entered into our minds. Empires and civilisations, then, have fallen, -despite the strength and magnitude of the superstructure, because the -foundations decayed: and the bigger and heavier the superstructure the -less could it survive their failure. If the Fiji islanders degenerate, -there is little consequence: if the breed of Romans degenerate, all -their vast mass of acquired progress and power crushes them into -dramatic ruin. This image, I believe, truly expresses the relation -between the two wholly distinct kinds of progress, which we have yet -to learn to distinguish. Acquired progress will not compensate for -racial or inherent decadence. If the race is going down, it will not -compensate to add another colony to your Empire: on the contrary, -the bigger the Empire the stronger must be the race: the bigger the -superstructure the stronger the foundations. Acquired progress is real -progress, but it is always dependent for its maintenance upon racial or -inherent progress--or, at least, upon racial maintenance. - -=Nothing fails like success.=--I believe, then, that civilisations -and Empires have succumbed because they represented only acquired -or traditional or educational progress and this availed not at all -when the races that built them up began to degenerate. Now the only -explanation of racial degeneration yet offered by the historians--apart -from the foolish one of racial senility--is the Lamarckian one of -the transmission of habits of luxury and idleness from parent to -child: an explanation which the modern study of heredity empowers us -to repudiate. What theory of this alleged degeneration is there to -offer in its place: and especially what theory which explains racial -degeneration amongst not the conquered but the conquerors: amongst the -successful, the Imperial, the cultured, the leisured, the well-catered -for in all respects, bodily and mental? Why is it that not enslaved but -Imperial peoples degenerate? Why is it that nothing fails like success? - -What I believe to be the true and sufficient answer has been given -by no historian: but the key to it is only fifty years old. The -reason is that no race or species, vegetable or animal or human, -can maintain--much less raise--its organic level unless its best be -selected for parenthood. It is true of a race as of an individual that -it must work for its living--so to speak--if it is not to degenerate. -When the terms are too easy, down you go. The tape-worm has given -up even digesting for its living, and we know its degeneracy--all -hooks and mouth. Society works and hands over its predigested food -to such social parasites amongst ourselves. You must struggle or -you will degenerate--even if only with rhyme or counterpoint, not -necessarily for bread. "Effort is the law," as Ruskin said: whether for -a livelihood or for enjoyment. Living things are the product of the -struggle for existence: we are thus evolved strugglers by constitution: -and directly we cease to struggle we forfeit the possibilities of our -birthright. "Thou, O God," said Leonardo, "hast given all good things -to man at the price of labour." - -The case is the same with races. Directly the conditions become too -easy, selection ceases, and it is as successful to be incompetent or -lazy or vicious as to be worthy. The hard conditions that kept weeding -out the unworthy are now relaxed and the fine race they made goes back -again. Finally there occurs the phenomenon of _reversed selection_, -when it is fitter to be bad than good, cowardly than brave--as when -religious persecution murders all who are true to themselves and spares -hypocrites and apostates: or when healthy children are killed in -factories whilst feeble-minded children or deaf-mutes are carefully -tended until maturity and then sent into the world to reproduce their -maladies. Under reversed selection such results are obtained as a -breeder of race-horses or plants would obtain if he went to work on -similar lines: the race degenerates rapidly: and if it be an Imperial -race its Empire comes crashing down about its ears. All Empires and -civilisations hitherto have involved the partial or complete arrest -or reversal of the process of natural selection: and the racial -degeneration which necessarily ensued has been the cause of their -invariable doom. - -When a primitive race is making its way by force, selection is -stringent. The weak, cowardly, diseased, stupid are expunged from -generation to generation. As civilisation advances, a higher ethical -level is reached: all true civilisation tending to abrogate and -ameliorate the struggle for existence. The diseased and weakly and -feeble-minded are no longer left to pay the penalty sternly exacted -by Nature for unfitness: they are allowed to survive and multiply. A -successful race can apparently afford to permit this, as a race that is -fighting for its existence cannot. But in reality no race can afford -this absolutely fatal process. - -There is thus a real risk involved in the accumulation of acquired, -traditional or educational progress. Not only does it tend to -abrogate or even to reverse selection, but it serves to disguise -the consequences of this abrogation. If a subhuman race degenerates -the fact is evident: but such a nation as our own may quite well -degenerate whilst the accumulation of acquired progress, transmitted -by education, almost completely cloaks the fact _for a time_. We may -be congratulating ourselves upon our progress, upon our knowledge, our -science and art, our institutions, legal and charitable, whilst all -the time the breed is undergoing retrogression. - -We see now, I think, the explanation of the truth expressed by -Gibbon,--"all that is human must retrograde if it do not advance." Why -should this be so? Why should it not be possible merely to maintain -a position gained? The answer is that the civilisation which merely -maintains its position is one in which selection has ceased: if -selection had not ceased, the position would be more than maintained, -there would be advance. But without selection the breed will certainly -degenerate, the lower individuals multiplying more rapidly than higher -ones, in accordance with Spencer's law that the higher the type of the -individual the less rapidly does he multiply; and thus the race which -is not advancing is retrograding, as Gibbon declared. - -Natural selection is the sole factor of efficient and permanent -progress, but the traditional or acquired progress which we call -civilisation tends to thwart or abrogate or even invert this process. I -thus believe that the conditions necessary for the _secure_ ascent of -any race, an ascent secured in its very blood, made stable in its very -bone, have not yet been achieved in history: _and I advance this as the -reason why history records no enduring Empire_. - -=Some historical instances.=--In the face of certain facts of -contemporary history I do not for a moment assert that there are -no other causes of Imperial failure than the arrest or reversal of -selection. But I do assert that if this is not the cause, then, in -the absence of the transmission of acquired characters, the race has -not degenerated, and is capable of reasserting itself. Only by the -arrest or reversal of selection can a race degenerate--apart from the -racial poisons. If, then, a civilisation or Empire has fallen through -causes altogether non-biological--through carelessness, or neglect -of motherhood or alteration of ideals--the changes in character so -produced are not transmitted to the children, and the race is not -degenerate but merely deteriorated in each generation. - -For instance, we have been brought up to believe that there is no -possible future for Spain; it is a dying nation, a senile individual, -a people of degenerates; it has had its day, which can never return. -The historian explains this by the false analogy between a race and -an individual, and by the false Lamarckian theory of heredity. To -these the biologist retorts with comments upon their falsity, and with -the conviction that since Spain, even allowing for the anti-eugenic -labours of the Inquisition, has not been subjected to the only -process which can ensure real degeneration--viz., the consistent and -stringent selection of the worst--she is yet capable of regeneration. -Regeneration is not really the word, because there has been little real -degeneration, but only the successive deterioration of successive and -undegenerate generations. - -If we took an animal species that _has_ degenerated, such as the -intestinal parasites, and endeavoured to regenerate them, we -should begin to realise the magnitude of our task. That is not -the task for Spain, the biologist asserts. Merely the environment -must be altered,--not the mountain ranges and the rivers, Buckle -notwithstanding, but the really potent factors in the environment, the -spiritual and psychical and social factors--and the deterioration of -each new generation, inherently undegenerate, will cease. I am using -these opposed terms with great care and of set purpose. - -And the biologist is right. The facts concerning which so many -historians have shaken their heads, and upon which they have based -so many moralisings and theories of history, the facts which they -have cited in support of their false analogies and misconceptions of -heredity--due, of course, to the errors of former biology--turn out to -be not facts at all, or, at any rate, only facts of the moment. The -"dying nation," as Lord Salisbury called it, has occasion to alter -its psychical environment. It introduces the practice of education; -it begins to shake off the yoke of ecclesiasticism; and what are the -consequences? - -The new generation is found to be potentially little worse and little -better than its predecessors of the sixteenth century. There has been -no national or racial degeneration. The environment is modified for -the better, _i.e._, so as to choose the better, and Spain, as they say -in misleading phrase, "takes on a new lease of life." The historian of -the present day, knowing as a historian what qualities of blood have -been in the Spanish people, and basing his theories upon sound biology, -must confidently assert that that blood, incapable, as he knows, of -degeneration by any Lamarckian process, may still retain its ancient -quality and will yet make history. - -But the historian might well write a volume upon the same thesis -as applied to China and Japan. We know historically what were the -immediate effects in one generation of a total change of environment in -Japan. That change has not yet occurred in China, but must inevitably -occur. Consider for a moment how the historian, made far-sighted -and clear-sighted by biology, must contemplate the history of this -astounding people. The popular belief used to be that China illustrated -the so-called law of nations. It was the decadent, though monstrous, -relic of an ancient civilisation; it had had its day. Inevitable -degeneration, which must befall all peoples, had come upon it. Behold -it in the paralysis which precedes death! - -But in the light of the facts of Japan, the man in the street and the -historian alike have in this case found modern biology superfluous in -enabling them to arrive at sound conclusions. They now believe what -the Darwinian has been compelled to believe for half a century, and -more strongly than ever during the latter part of that period, when the -doctrine of the transmission of modifications was finally discredited. -A clever writer invents the phrase "the yellow peril," and people -discard their old theories. The metaphor must be changed. This is not -paralysis, but merely slumber. Doubtless, it is an unnatural slumber; -doubtless, it is not the slumber which brings renewed strength. It -is suspense or stupor, not recuperation; but assuredly it is not -paralysis. Who now would dare to say that China has had its day, even -if he still clings to the old fictions about Spain? - -=Motherhood and history.=--Here, also, reference must again be made -to another factor of history to which, as I think, the biologist must -attach enormous importance, but which no historian yet has adequately -reckoned with. Our prime assumption from beginning to end is that -"there is no wealth but life," or, if one may venture to improve upon -Ruskin, _there is no wealth but mind_; and in the attempt to suggest -interpretations of history based upon this truth, so little recked of -by the historian, we have considered the life in question from the -point of view of its determination by heredity, and its varying value -according to the inherent and transmissible characters selected in each -generation. But a word must be said as to the other factor which, with -heredity, determines the character of the individual--and that factor -is the environment. I wish merely to note the most important aspect -of the environment of human beings, and to observe that historians -hitherto have wholly ignored it; yet its influence is incalculable. I -refer to motherhood. - -One might have the most perfect system of selection of the finest -and highest individuals for parenthood; but the babies whose -potentialities--heredity gives no more--are so splendid, are always, -will be always, dependent upon motherhood. What was the state of -motherhood during the decline and fall of the Roman Empire? This factor -counts in history; and always will count so long as, three times in -every century, the only wealth of nations is reduced to dust, and is -raised again from helpless infancy. As to Rome we know little, whatever -may be suspected: but we know that here in the heart of the greatest -Empire in history--and it is at the heart that Empires rot--thousands -of mothers go out every day to tend dead machines, whilst their own -flesh and blood, with whom lies the Imperial destiny, are tended anyhow -or not at all. It may yet be said by some enlightened historian of the -future that the living wealth of this people, in the twentieth century, -began to be eaten away by the cancer which we call "married women's -labour," and that, as will be evident to that historian's readers, its -damnation was sure. To-day our historians and politicians think in -terms of regiments and tariffs and "Dreadnoughts": the time will come -when they must think in terms of babies and motherhood. We must think -in such terms too if we wish Great Britain to be much longer great. -Meanwhile some of us see the perennial slaughter of babies in this -land, and the deterioration of many for every one killed outright, the -waste of mothers' travail and tears: and we recall Ruskin's words:-- - - "Nevertheless, it is open, I repeat, to serious question, which - I leave to the reader's pondering, whether, among national - manufactures, that of Souls of a good quality may not at last turn - out a quite leadingly lucrative one? Nay, in some far-away and yet - undreamt-of hour, I can even imagine that England may cast all - thoughts of possessive wealth back to the barbaric nations among whom - they first arose; and that, while the sands of the Indus and adamant - of Golconda may yet stiffen the housings of the charger, and flash - from the turban of the slave, she, as a Christian mother, may at last - attain to the virtues and the treasures of a Heathen one, and be able - to lead forth her Sons, saying:-- - - "These are MY Jewels." - -Had all Roman mothers been Cornelias, would Rome have fallen?[80] -Consider the imitation mothers--no longer mammalia--to be found in -certain classes to-day--mothers who should be ashamed to look any -tabby-cat in the face; consider the ignorant and downtrodden mothers -amongst our lower classes; and ask whether these things are not making -history. - -=The survival of the Jews.=--The principles the discussion of which has -here been attempted had all been set down before it suddenly seemed -clear that they found their warrant and application in the unexampled -riddle of the persistence and success, throughout more than two -thousand years and a thousand vicissitudes, of the Jewish people. It is -true that we have here no exception to the apparent law that Empires -are mortal, for within this period there never was a Jewish Empire: the -Jews were never subject to the risk involved for racial or inherent -progress by the possession of great acquired powers. But just as the -fall of Empires has often _not_ been the fall of races--various races -having at various times carried on the same Imperial tradition--so -the persistence of the Jews, as contrasted with the impermanence of -Empires, _has_ been the persistence of a race. I believe that the -principles already laid down offer us an adequate explanation of this -unique case: and further, that if we had begun with the case of the -Jews, endeavouring, by the investigation of their case, to explain the -contrasted case of other races and of all Empires hitherto, we should -have arrived at the same principles. - -It has been asserted that that race or people decays in which selection -ceases or is reversed; that in the absence of selection of the -worthy for parenthood, no species, vegetable, animal or human, can -prosper--much less progress. Now the Jews, the one human race of which -we know assuredly that it has persisted unimpaired, have been the most -continuously and stringently selected of any race, I suppose, that can -be named. Every measure of persecution and repression practised against -them by the people amongst whom they have lived, has directly tended -towards the very end which those people least desired to compass. -Other peoples found themselves prosperous through the efforts of their -fathers; the struggle for existence abated; it was, so to say, as fit -to be unfit as to be fit--with the inevitable result. But this has -never been the case of the Jews. They have always had to struggle for -life intensely: and their unexampled struggle has been a great source -of their unexampled strength. The Jew who was a weakling or a fool -had no chance at all; the weaklings and the fools being weeded out, -intensity and strength of mind became the common heritage of this -amazing people. - -Secondly, there was everything to favour motherhood. Here religious -precept and ethical tradition joined with stem necessity to the same -end--the end which always meant a new and strong beginning for the next -generation. Even to-day all observers are agreed that infant mortality -is at a minimum amongst the Jews; their children are superior in height -and weight and chest measurement to Gentile children brought up amidst -poverty far less intense in our own great cities; _in a better material -environment, but a far inferior maternal environment_. The Jewish -mother is the mother of children innately superior, on the average, -since they are the fruit of such long ages of stringent parental -selection, and she makes more of them because she fails to nurse them -only in the rarest cases, when she has no choice, and because in -every detail her maternal care is incomparably superior to that of -her Gentile sister. Given a high standard of motherhood in a highly -selected race, what other result than that we daily witness and envy -can we expect? - -Thirdly, the Jews do not abuse alcohol, and thus avoid one of the few -causes of true racial degeneration apart from selection of the worst -for parenthood. - - * * * * * - -If these principles are valid, it is evident that our redemption from -the fate of all our predecessors is to be found only in Eugenics--the -selection of the best for parenthood. In his address to the -Sociological Society in 1904, in which he defined this term, Mr. Galton -named as one of the duties before the Society, "historical enquiry -into the rates with which the various classes of society (classified -according to civic usefulness) have contributed to the population at -various times, in ancient and modern nations." "There is strong reason -for believing," he continued, "that national rise and decline is -closely connected with this influence."[81] - -=What is a good environment?=--Using the word environment in its widest -sense, including, for instance, public opinion--and its use in any -sense less wide is always erroneous and misleading--we may say that it -is our business to provide the environment which selects the best for -parenthood and discourages the parenthood of the worst--say the deaf -and dumb, the feeble-minded, the insane, the epileptic, the inebriate, -those afflicted with hereditary disease of other kinds, and so forth. -Our principles should enable us, also, I think, to define what we -mean by a good environment. Comprehensive and indiscriminate charity -means a good environment for many in a sense, but it may also mean the -selection of the worst for parenthood--_e.g._, the feeble-minded. This -"good" environment _then_ means the degeneration of the race. We must -therefore _appraise environment in terms of its selective action_. -A good environment is that which selects the good, and the best -environment is that which selects the best; discovers them, makes the -utmost of them, and confers upon them the supreme privilege and duty of -parenthood. That and that alone is the best environment, and all other -moral judgments upon environment are fallacious and will be disastrous. - -=The necessary conclusion.=--National Eugenics teaches that the first -duty of all governments and patriots and good citizens is, to quote -Ruskin again, "the production and recognition of human worth, the -detection and extinction of human unworthiness." The idea is not -new-fangled, but was clearly laid down by Plato, and by Theognis two -centuries before him. - -Eugenics is a project of the most elevated and provident morality, -aiming at no object less sublime than the ennoblement of mankind; and -if one may suggest its motto it would be, _The products of progress -are not mechanisms but men_. It is based upon the principle of the -selection or choice of the superior for parenthood, which has been -the essential factor of all progress in the world of life, but which -all civilisations have tended in some degree to abrogate--or even to -reverse, as when the feeble-minded child is cared for till maturity and -sent out into the world to produce its like, whilst healthy children -are daily destroyed by ignorance and neglect. - -"Through Nature only can we ascend"--and the merit of the eugenic -proposal is that it is built upon "the solid ground of nature." - -To the economist, it declares that _the culture of the racial life is -the vital industry of any people_. - -It is to work through marriage, an institution more ancient than -mankind, and supremely valuable in its services to childhood--with -which lies all human destiny. - -Eugenics appeals to the individual, asking for a little imagination, -which will make us realise that the future will one day be the present -and that to serve it is to serve no fiction or phantom, but a reality -as real as the present generation. - -It teaches the responsibility of the noblest and most sacred of all -professions, which is parenthood, and it makes a sober and dignified -claim to be regarded as a constituent of the religion of the future. - -It goes to the root of the matter; where the well-meaning, but -short-sighted, pin their faith on the hospitals, the eugenist seeks -to brand the transmission of hereditary disease as a crime, and thus -literally to extirpate it altogether. - -That its methods are practicable is proved by the fact that it is -practised--as by the northern society for the "_permanent_ care of the -feeble-minded," which serves the present and the future simultaneously -and reconciles the law of love with the earlier law of nature--which -asserts that parenthood must be denied to the unworthy--without blame -or malice, but without exception. It suggests the principles of a New -Imperialism, and offers, I submit, our sole chance of escape from the -fate which has overtaken all previous civilisations. It honours men and -women by declaring that human parenthood is crowned with responsibility -to the unborn, and to all time coming, and that man, the animal in -body, is also a self-conscious being, "looking before and after," who -is human because he is responsible, and to whom the laws of nature have -been revealed, not to satisfy an intellectual curiosity, but for the -highest end conceivable--the elevation of his race. - -Let me quote a fine passage from Wordsworth's "Prelude":-- - - "With settling judgments now of what would last - And what would disappear; prepared to find - Presumption, folly, madness, in the men - Who thrust themselves upon the passive world - As Rulers of the world; to see in these, - Even when the public welfare is their aim, - Plans without thought, or built on theories - Vague and unsound; and having brought the books - Of modern statists to their proper test, - Life, human life, with all its sacred claims - Of sex and age, and heaven-descended rights, - Mortal, or those beyond the reach of death; - And having thus discerned how dire a thing - Is worshipped in that idol proudly named - 'The Wealth of Nations'; where alone that wealth - Is lodged, and how increased; and having gained - A more judicious knowledge of the worth - And dignity of individual man, - No composition of the brain, but man - Of whom we read, the man whom we behold - With our own eyes--I could not but enquire-- - Not with less interest than heretofore, - But greater, though in spirit more subdued-- - Why is this glorious creature to be found - One only in ten thousand? What one is, - Why may not millions be? What bars are thrown - By Nature in the way of such a hope?" - -Consider how far we have come, the base degrees by which we did ascend, -and answer with Shakespeare, "There are many events in the womb of -time which will be delivered." - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - - NATIONAL EUGENICS: MR. BALFOUR ON DECADENCE - - (1) "If the various checks specified in the two last paragraphs, - and perhaps others as yet unknown, do not prevent the reckless, the - vicious, and otherwise inferior members of society from increasing - at a quicker rate than the better class of men, the nation will - retrograde, as has too often occurred in the history of the world. - We must remember that progress is no invariable rule. It is very - difficult to say why one civilised nation rises, becomes more - powerful, and spreads more widely, than another; or why the same - nation progresses more quickly at one time than at another. We can - only say that it depends on an increase in the actual number of the - population, on the number of the men endowed with high intellectual - and moral faculties, as well as on their standard of excellence. - Corporeal structure appears to have little influence, except so far - as vigour of body leads to vigour of mind."--Darwin, _The Descent of - Man_, 1871. - - (2) Referring to "the rates with which the various classes of - society (classified according to civic usefulness) have contributed - to the population at various times, in ancient and modern nations," - Mr. Francis Galton said "there is strong reason for believing - that national rise and decline is closely connected with this - influence."--Galton, _Sociological Papers_, 1904, p. 47. - - (3) "The inexplicable decline and fall of nations following from no - apparent external cause receives instant light from the relative - fertility of the fitter and unfitter elements combined with what we - now know of the laws of inheritance."[82]--Pearson, 1904. - - (4) To the question, What were the causes of the fall of - Rome? Mr. Balfour replies, "I feel disposed to answer, - Decadence."[83]--Balfour, 1908. - - -The lecture of which the previous chapter is the written form was -prepared and delivered before I had an opportunity of seeing Mr. A. J. -Balfour's lecture on "Decadence" delivered a few days before. That has -since been printed, and is well worthy of our attention. In Mr. Balfour -we have a representative political thinker, an experimental statesman -and, furthermore, a former President of the British Association, deeply -interested in, and favourably disposed towards, scientific enquiry and -the scientific method. Further, this lecture has been widely noticed, -though all the criticisms I have seen seem to me to miss the point. -No apology, then, is necessary for a special discussion of this most -suggestive lecture in direct relation with the foregoing theory of its -subject. - -Political and national decadence is Mr. Balfour's theme, and we note -first that here is a contemporary thinker, not unread in recent -biology, including the work of Weismann, who is prepared to make use -of the idea that societies are inherently mortal, as individuals are. -One wonders when we shall be rid of this pernicious instance of the -argument from analogy, which is already much more than two thousand -years old. - -Next it may be noticed that, though Mr. Balfour has deliberately -discussed the idea of natural selection, he has been led wholly -astray from its true relation to the question under discussion by -reason of falling into the common error which Sir E. Ray Lankester -has recently exposed, as Huxley did several decades ago. Mr. Balfour -conceives natural selection to issue from the struggle for existence -between species or societies. It has already been pointed out that the -all-important natural selection is not between species or societies -but within them. The struggle for existence is fought out mainly -between the immature individuals of any species or society. Its issue -determines the survivors for parenthood and the future. Mr. Balfour -must have read Professor Ray Lankester's recent Romanes Lecture in -which all this is so clearly shown, but he has unfortunately retained -the popular conception of natural selection as acting between species -or societies, and has in consequence failed, I will not say to find, -but even to discuss in any adequate measure, the theory of racial -and national decadence, defined in the preceding chapter. He merely -discusses "competition between groups of communities," and rightly -finds it inadequate to account for the great tragedies of history. - -There follows a passage which may be heartily assented to, on the very -grounds on which the entire lecture may be welcomed, namely, that -it suggests the inadequacy of the common explanations of national -decadence advanced by historians. Says Mr. Balfour:-- - - "It is in vain that historians enumerate the public calamities which - preceded, and no doubt contributed to, the final catastrophe. Civil - dissensions, military disasters, pestilences, famines, tyrants, - tax-gatherers, growing burdens, and waning wealth--the gloomy - catalogue is unrolled before our eyes, yet somehow it does not in all - cases wholly satisfy us: we feel that some of these diseases are of a - kind which a vigorous body politic should easily be able to survive, - that others are secondary symptoms of some obscurer malady, and that - in neither case do they supply us with the full explanation of which - we are in search." - -One must heartily thank the author for the abundant demonstration -which follows, well warranting our feeling that these explanations do -not suffice--nor yet, in the case of Rome, diminution of population, -nor the "brutalities of the gladiatorial shows," nor "the gratuitous -distribution of bread to the urban mobs," nor yet slavery, lately -declared, by Mr. W. R. Paterson, in his _Nemesis of Nations_, to be -_the_ cause of the fall of empires. As Mr. Balfour says, "Who can -believe that this immemorial custom could, in its decline, destroy -the civilisation which, in its vigour, it had helped to create?" It -would have been more important, perhaps, to consider, as Mr. Balfour -does not, the latest view, advanced by Professor Ronald Ross, that the -incursion of malaria may have had something to do with the fall of Rome. - -=Mr. Balfour's theory--decadence the cause of decadence.=--Mr. Balfour -then falls back upon "decadence "as the explanation, and to the -critic of this elegant hypothesis that decadence is due to decadence, -replies that it is something to recognise the possibility of "subtle -changes in the social tissues of old communities." One regrets all -the more that he should not have considered anti-eugenic practices -as possibly accounting for these subtle changes. One must, however, -quote the excellent passage in which Mr. Balfour supports his use of -the word decadence, though one utterly disagrees with the suggestion -that the term "old age" might be its equivalent. He says: "The facile -generalisations with which we so often season the study of dry historic -fact; the habits of political discussion which induce us to catalogue -for purposes of debate the outward signs that distinguish (as we are -prone to think) the standing from the falling state, hide the obscurer, -but more potent, forces which silently prepare the fate of empires." - -We may note with interest (and surely with surprise when we consider -Japan and Spain and the China of to-morrow), Mr. Balfour's rejection -of the doctrine that "arrested progress, and even decadence, may be -but the prelude to a new period of vigorous growth. So that even those -races or nations which seem frozen into eternal immobility may base -upon experience their hopes of an awakening spring." It is, I fancy, -Mr. Balfour's fondness for the Platonic idea of senility in the race -as in the individual, that leads him to question what can surely -be no longer denied. Thus a little later we find him saying, "_If -civilisations wear out, and races become effete_, why should we expect -to progress indefinitely, why for us alone is the doom of man to be -reversed?" - -Nowhere in this lecture is there any recognition of what, I confess, -seems to me to be an obvious and necessary truth, the distinction -between the two kinds of progress--racial progress due to the choice -of the best for parenthood, and acquired or traditional progress. It -may be suggested that no one can usefully discuss decadence or progress -until he has seen and perceived this absolutely cardinal distinction, -suggested in my Royal Institution lectures in February, 1907, as one -of the great lessons taught by the study of biology to the student of -progress. - -Mr. Balfour does indeed avoid all those false solutions which depend -upon a Lamarckian belief in the transmission of acquired characters. -This, however, instead of leading him to insist upon the Darwinian -contribution to the study of decadence--the idea of _selection_--causes -him to regard the racial question as unimportant. He notes one or -two of the fashions in which the quality of a race may be modified, -thus influencing national character, and then dismisses this question -(wherein, as I cannot doubt, everything material lies) with the remark, -"But such changes are not likely, I suppose, to be considerable, -except perhaps those due to the mixture of races--and that only in new -countries."--Reaching page 45, the reader finds himself confident that -now at length the writer has put his finger on the crux of the problem. -Yet that is how he dismisses it; adding, indeed, to make it quite -clear, the following words: "The flexible element in any society, that -which is susceptible of progress or decadence, must therefore be looked -for rather in the physical and psychical conditions affecting the life -of its component units, than in their inherited constitution." - -Not a word as to cessation of selection! This omission, which is, -indeed, the omission of _the_ fact of decadence, mainly depends, one -fancies, upon that erroneous conception of natural selection as acting -between species and societies rather than within them, which for so -many decades the biologist has been at pains to correct. One would -indeed have thought that, for a scholar and student like Mr. Balfour, -Wordsworth's great sonnet would have sufficed to set up a train of -thought which, fusing with ordinary biological principles, would have -led him to what I believe to be the truth. Let us for a moment turn to -its consideration:-- - - "When I have borne in memory what has tamed - Great Nations, how ennobling thoughts depart - When men change swords for ledgers...." - -Should not this be enough to suggest to us the real meaning of the -consequence which has followed when men changed swords for ledgers, -and which even those who hate war as a vile blasphemy against life -must recognise? It is that, as we have seen, when a nation is making -its way there is selection of the fittest by the stern arbitrament of -war, in which the battle is to the individually strong and fleet and -brave and quick-witted. Later, "when men change swords for ledgers," -selection ceases; and that is why nothing fails like success. Yet later -still, as France should know, selection by war must take the form of -reversed selection, the flower of a nation's youth being immolated on -the battle-field, whilst its future is determined by the weak and small -and diseased, whom the recruiting sergeant rejects. "You are not good -enough to be a soldier," he says; "stay at home and be a father." That -was what Napoleon did for France. - -But to return--for the relations of war to eugenics would really demand -a volume--it may be noted that, though rejecting the Lamarckian -theory--the theory on which nothing should succeed like success--Mr. -Balfour nowhere emphasises the amazing paradox of history that nothing -fails like success. If we consider this fact with the idea of natural -selection in our minds (not between societies but within them), we -cannot fail to perceive that success involves failure because it -involves failure of selection, and therefore indiscriminate survival; -or indeed, survival of the worst. - -=Politics and domestics.=--It is, perhaps, a noteworthy comment upon -what may be called the political state of mind, that even when the idea -of natural selection has entered it, the bias is towards associating it -with international and not with intra-national or domestic politics. -The time will come, however, when the politician--or shall we say -the statesman?--realises that it is the domestic policy, it is the -internal struggle for survival within a society, that conditions -and fore-ordains all international politics. The history of nations -is determined not on the battlefield but in the nursery, and the -battalions which give lasting victory are battalions of babies. _The -politics of the future will be domestics._ - -Having rejected so many solutions of his problem, and having ignored -the solution which is advanced in this volume, Mr. Balfour is reduced -to such desperate resorts as phrases like this: "The point at which -the energy of advance is exhausted"--a mere meaningless phrase; and -even such an explanation as that through "mere weariness of spirit the -community resigns itself to ... stagnation." One is inclined to throw -up one's hands and ask--Do you, then, who deny the Lamarckian theory, -suppose that the fresh children come into the world with this "mere -weariness of spirit"? Has this been observed in children? Is there -anything conceivable that has been less observed in children, in all -times and all places? And if that be so, what kind of explanation of -decadence is this? - -=Science and industry.=--Lastly, in a series of fine passages, Mr. -Balfour offers us some hope in the help of science. Politics, says our -ex-Premier, too often means "the barren exchange of one set of tyrants -or jobbers, for another": a Daniel come to judgment. We owe the modern -spirit and modern progress, he tells us, neither to politicians nor to -political institutions, nor to theologians nor to philosophers, but -to science, which, he well says, "is the great instrument of social -change, all the greater because its object is not change but knowledge; -and its silent appropriation of this dominant function, amid the -din of political and religious strife, is the most vital of all the -revolutions which have marked the development of modern civilisation." - -And our cause of hope is "a social force, new in magnitude if not in -kind ... the modern alliance between pure science and industry." To -this I answer a thousand times yes, but I must define the kind of -industry. It is the culture of the racial life which is the vital -industry of any nation, and which Mr. Balfour has not even distantly -alluded to. I agree that our hope for the future is to be found in -science: that, as has been said already, perchance our acquired or -traditional progress in knowledge has now reached the point at which we -have sufficient to reveal to us the necessity of racial progress and -the means by which that may be effected. - -"Science and industry,"--yes, indeed! But the industry is to be the -making not of machines but men. _The products of progress are not -mechanisms but men_, and one may now ask, What is the industry whose -products can be named in the same breath with the men and women who -shall yet be produced by the supreme industry of race-culture? - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - - THE PROMISE OF RACE-CULTURE - - "The best is yet to be." - - -In its form of what we have called _negative_ eugenics, the practice -of our principle would assuredly reduce to an incalculable extent the -amount of human defect, mental and physical, which each generation -now exhibits. This alone, as has been said, would be far more than -sufficient to justify us. A world without hereditary disease of mind -and body, and its grave social consequences, would alone warrant the -hint of Ruskin that posterity may some day look back upon us with -"incredulous disdain." Yet, assuming that this could be accomplished, -as it will be accomplished, what more is to be hoped for? Must -race-culture cease merely when it has raised the average of the -community by reducing to a minimum the proportion of those who are -thus grossly defective in mind or body? Such disease apart, are we to -be content, must we be content, with the present level of mediocrity -in respect of intelligence and temper and moral sentiment? Can we -anticipate a London in which the present ratio of musical comedy -to great opera will be reversed, in which the works of Mr. George -Meredith will sell in hundreds of thousands, whilst some of our popular -novelists will have to find other means of earning a living? Can we -make for a critical democracy which no political party can fool, and -which will choose its best to govern it? Yet more, can we undertake, -now or hereafter, to provide every generation with its own Shakespeare -and Beethoven and Tintoretto and Newton? What, in a word, is the -promise of _positive_ eugenics? It is to this aspect of the question -that Mr. Galton has mainly directed himself. Indeed he was led to -formulate the principles and ideals of the new science by his study of -hereditary genius some four decades ago. Let us now attempt to answer -some of these questions. - -=The production of genius.=--And first as to the production of genius. -It is this, perhaps, that has been the main butt of the jesters who -pass for philosophers with some of us to-day. It may be said at once -that neither Mr. Galton nor any other responsible person has ever -asserted that we can produce genius at will. The difficulties in the -way of such a project--at present--are almost innumerable. One or two -may be cited. - -In the first place, there is the cardinal--but by no means -universal--difficulty that the genius is too commonly so occupied with -the development and expansion of his own individuality that he has -little time or energy for the purposes of the race. This, of course, is -an example of Spencer's great generalisation as to the antagonism or -inverse ratio between individuation and genesis. - -Again, there is the generalisation of heredity formulated by Mr. -Galton, and named by him the _law of regression towards mediocrity_. -It asserts that the children of those who are above or below the mean -of a race, tend to return towards that mean. The children of the born -criminal will be probably somewhat less criminal in tendency than he, -though more criminal than the average citizen. The children of the -man of genius, if he has any, will probably be nearer mediocrity than -he, though on the average possessing greater talent than the average -citizen. It is thus not in the nature of sheer genius to reproduce -on its own level. It is only the critics who are wholly ignorant of -the elementary facts of heredity that attribute to the eugenist an -expectation of which no one knows the absurdity so well as he does. - -On the other hand, it is impossible to question that the hereditary -transmission of genius or great talent does occur. One may cite at -random such cases as that of the Bach family, Thomas and Matthew -Arnold, James and John Stuart Mill: and the reader who is inclined -to believe that there is no law or likelihood in this matter, must -certainly make himself acquainted with Mr. Galton's _Hereditary -Genius_, and with such a paper as that which he printed in -_Sociological Papers_, 1904, furnishing an "index to achievements of -near kinsfolk of some of the Fellows of the Royal Society." There is, -of course, the obvious fallacy involved in the possibility that not -heredity but environment was really responsible for many of these -cases. It must have been a great thing to have such a father as James -Mill. But it would be equally idle to imagine that the evidence can -be dismissed with this criticism. A Matthew Arnold, a John Stuart -Mill, could not be manufactured out of any chance material by an ideal -education continued for a thousand years. - -=The transmission of genius.=--One single instance of the transmission -of genius or great talent in a family may be cited. We shall take the -family which produced Charles Darwin, the discoverer of the fundamental -principle of eugenics, and his first cousin, Francis Galton. Darwin's -grandfather was Erasmus Darwin, physician, poet and philosopher, and -independent expounder of the doctrine of organic evolution. Darwin's -father was a distinguished physician, described by his son as "the -wisest man I ever knew." Darwin's maternal grandfather was Josiah -Wedgwood, the famous founder of the pottery works. Amongst his first -cousins is Mr. Francis Galton. He has five living sons, each a man of -great distinction, including Mr. Francis Darwin and Sir George Darwin, -both of them original thinkers, honoured by the presidency of the -British Association. No one will put such a case as this down to pure -chance or to the influence of environment alone. This is evidently, -like many others, a greatly distinguished stock. The worth of such -families to a nation is wholly beyond any one's powers of estimation. -What if Erasmus Darwin had never married! - -No student of human heredity can doubt that, however limited our -immediate hopes, facts such as those alluded to furnish promise of -great things for the future. But let us turn now from genius to what we -usually call talent. - -=The production of talent.=--There can be no question that amongst -the promises of race-culture is the possibility of breeding such -things as talent and the mental energy upon which talent so largely -depends. In his _Inquiries into Human Faculty_, Mr. Galton shows the -remarkable extent to which energy or the capacity for labour underlies -intellectual achievement. He says, of energy-- - - "It is consistent with all the robust virtues, and makes a large - practice of them possible. It is the measure of fulness of life; the - more energy the more abundance of it; no energy at all is death; - idiots are feeble and listless. In the enquiries I made on the - antecedents of men of science no points came out more strongly than - that the leaders of scientific thought were generally gifted with - remarkable energy, and that they had inherited the gift of it from - their parents and grandparents. I have since found the same to be - the case in other careers.... It may be objected that if the race - were too healthy and energetic there would be insufficient call - for the exercise of the pitying and self-denying virtues, and the - character of men would grow harder in consequence. But it does not - seem reasonable to preserve sickly breeds for the sole purpose of - tending them, as the breed of foxes is preserved solely for sport - and its attendant advantages. There is little fear that misery will - ever cease from the land, or that the compassionate will fail to - find objects for their compassion; but at present the supply vastly - exceeds the demand: the land is over-stocked and over-burdened with - the listless and the incapable. In any scheme of eugenics, energy is - the most important quality to favour; it is, as we have seen, the - basis of living action, and it is eminently transmissible by descent." - -Need it be pointed out that any political system which ceases to favour -or actively disfavours energy, making it as profitable to be lazy as to -be active, is anti-eugenic, and must inevitably lead to disaster? That, -however, by the way. Our present point is that eugenics can reasonably -promise, when its principles are recognised, to multiply the human[84] -and diminish the vegetable type in the community. In so doing, it -will greatly further the production of talent, and therefore of that -traditional or acquired progress which men of talent and genius create. -Such a result will also further, though indirectly, the production -of genius itself. For, as Mr. Galton points out, "men of an order of -ability which is now very rare, would become more frequent, because the -level out of which they rose would itself have risen." - -This is by no means the only fashion in which an effective and -practicable race-culture would serve genius, and I shall not be blamed -for considering this matter further by any reader who realises, however -faintly, what the man of genius is worth to the world. If it were shown -possible to establish such social conditions that genius could never -flower in them, we should realise that their establishment would mean -the putting of an end to progress and the blasting of all the highest -hopes of the highest of all ages. - -The immediate need of this age, as of all ages, is perhaps not so much -the birth of babies capable of developing into men and women of genius, -as the full exploitation of the possibilities of genius with which, -as I fancy, every generation on the average is about as well endowed -as any other. There is, of course, the popular doctrine that there are -no mute inglorious Miltons, that "genius will out," and that therefore -if it does not appear, it is not there to appear. In expressing the -compelling power of genius in many cases, this doctrine is not without -truth. Yet history abounds in instances where genius has been destroyed -by environment--and we can only guess how many more instances there -are of which history has no record. To take the single case of musical -genius, it is a lamentable thought that there may be those now living -whose natural endowments, in a favourable environment, would have -enabled them to write symphonies fit to place beside Beethoven's, but -whom some environmental factors--conventional, economic, educational, -or what not--have silenced; or worse, have persuaded to write such -sterile nullities as need not here be instanced. There is surely no -waste in all this wasteful world so lamentable as this waste of genius. - -If, then, anyone could devise for us a means by which the genius, -potentially existing at any time, were realised, he would have -performed in effect a service equivalent to that of which eugenics -repudiates the present possibility--the actual creation of genius. But -if we consider what the conditions are which cause the waste of genius, -we realise at once that they mainly inhere in the level of the human -environment of the priceless potentiality in question. As we noted -elsewhere, in an age like that of Pericles genius springs up on all -hands. It is encouraged and welcomed because the average level of the -human environment in which it finds itself is so high. But if eugenics -can raise the average level of intelligence, in so doing not merely -does it render more likely, as Mr. Galton points out, the production -of men of the highest ability, but it provides those conditions in -which men of genius, now swamped, can swim. We could not undertake -to produce a Shakespeare, but we might reasonably hope to produce a -generation which would not damage or destroy its Shakespeares. And even -if men of genius still found it necessary, as men of genius have found -it necessary, to "play to the gallery," they would play, as Mr. Galton -says of the demagogue in a eugenic age, "to a more sensible gallery -than at present." - -Darwin somewhere points out that it is not the scientific, but the -unscientific man who denies future possibilities. Thus though an -advocate of eugenics may be applauded for his judgment if he declares -that the creation of genius will for ever be impossible, yet I should -not care to assert that the ultimate limitations of eugenics can thus -be defined. We have yet to hear the last of Mendelism. - -=Eugenics and unemployment.=--Let us look now at another aspect of -the promise of race-culture. When the time comes that quality rather -than quantity is the ideal of those who concern themselves with the -population question, it is quite evident that not a few of the social -problems which we now find utterly insoluble will disappear. In -this brief outline, we can only allude to one or two points. Take, -for instance, the question of unemployment. We know that some by no -means small proportion of the unemployed were really destined to be -unemployable from the first, as for instance by reason of hereditary -disease. It were better for them and for us had they never been -born. Many more of the unemployed have been made unemployable by the -influence of over-crowding, to which they were subjected in their -years of development. Is there, can there be, any real and permanent -remedy for over-crowding, but the erection of parenthood into an act of -personal and provident responsibility? - -=Eugenics and woman.=--Take, again, the woman question. No one will -deny that in many of its gravest forms, especially in its economic -form, and the question of the employment of women, wisely or horribly, -this depends (to a degree which few, I think, realise) upon the -fact that there are now, for instance, 1,300,000 women in excess in -this country. Is it then proposed, the reader will say, by means of -race-culture to exterminate the superfluous woman? Indeed, no. But is -the reader aware that Nature is not responsible for the existence of -the superfluous woman? There are more boys than girls born in the ratio -of about 103 or 104 to 100: and Nature means them all to live, boys and -girls alike. If they did so live, we should have merely the problem of -the superfluous man, which would not be an economic problem at all. -But we destroy hosts of all the children that are born, and since male -organisms are in general less resistant than female organisms, we -destroy a disproportionate number of boys, so that the natural balance -of the sexes is inverted. Unlike ancient societies, we largely practise -_male_ infanticide. Can the reader believe that there is any permanent -and final means of arresting this wastage of child-life, with its -singular and far-reaching consequences,--other than the elevation of -parenthood, on the principles which race-culture enjoins, even wholly -apart from the question of the selection of parents? We shall not -succeed in keeping all the children alive (with a trivial number of -exceptions), thereby abolishing the superfluous woman by keeping alive -the boy who should have grown up to be her partner, until we greatly -reduce the birth-rate; as it must and will be reduced when the ideal of -race-culture is realised, and no child comes into the world that is not -already loved and desired in anticipation. - -=Eugenics and cruelty to children.=--This ideal, also, offers us in its -realisation the only complete remedy for the present ghastly cruelty -under which so many children suffer even in Great Britain, even in the -twentieth century. Is the reader aware that the National Society for -the Prevention of Cruelty to Children enquired into the ill-treatment -or cruel neglect of 115,000 children in the year beginning April 1st, -1906? It has been reasonably and carefully estimated that "over half a -million children are involved in the total of the wastage of child-life -and the torture and neglect of child-life in a single year." Surely -Mr. G. R. Sims, to whom I would offer a hearty tribute for his recent -services to childhood, is justified in saying, "Against the guilt of -race-suicide our men of science are everywhere preaching their sermons -to-day. It is against the guilt of race-murder that the cry of the -children should ring through the land." As regards race suicide and the -men of science, I am not so sure as to the assertion. But the truth of -the second sentence quoted is as indisputable as it is horrible. - -Now no legislation conceivable will wholly cure this evil nor avert its -consequences. At bottom it depends upon human nature, and you can cure -it only by curing the defect of human nature. This, in general, is of -course beyond the immediate powers of man, but evidently we should gain -the same end if only we could confine the advent of children to those -parents who desired them--that is to say, those in whom human nature -displayed the first, if not indeed almost the only, requisite for -the happiness of childhood. To this most beneficent and wholly moral -end we shall come, notwithstanding the blind and pitiable guidance -of most of our accredited moral teachers to-day. By no other means -than the realisation of the ideal defined, that every new baby shall -be loved and desired in anticipation--an ideal which is perfectly -practicable--can the black stain of child murder and child torture and -child neglect be removed from our civilisation. - -=Ruskin and race-culture.=--The name of Ruskin, perhaps, would not -occur to the reader as likely to afford support to the fair hopes of -the eugenist. Consider then, these words from _Time and Tide_:-- - - "You leave your marriages to be settled by supply and demand, - instead of wholesome law. And thus, among your youths and maidens, - the improvident, incontinent, selfish, and foolish ones marry, - whether you will or not; and beget families of children necessarily - inheritors in a great degree of these parental dispositions; and - for whom, supposing they had the best dispositions in the world, - you have thus provided, by way of educators, the foolishest fathers - and mothers you could find; (the only rational sentence in their - letters, usually, is the invariable one, in which they declare - themselves 'incapable of providing for their children's education'). - On the other hand, whosoever is wise, patient, unselfish, and pure - among your youth, you keep maid or bachelor; wasting their best days - of natural life in painful sacrifice, forbidding them their best - help and best reward, and carefully excluding their prudence and - tenderness from any offices of parental duty. Is not this a beatific - and beautifully sagacious system for a Celestial Empire, such as that - of these British Isles?" - -Apart from the point as to wholesome law rather than the education of -opinion as the eugenic means, the foregoing passage must win the assent -and respect of every eugenist. It indicates the promise of race-culture -as it appeared to John Ruskin. The passage has been quoted in full not -for the benefit of the ordinary thoughtful reader but for that of the -professional literary man who, in this remarkable age, so far as I can -judge, reads nothing but what he writes, and thus qualifies himself for -dismissing Spencer or Darwin or Galton in any casual phrase--meanwhile -condemning Ruskin, whom he probably professes to adore. - -=Race-culture and human variety.=--Now let us turn to another question. -Let it be asserted most emphatically that, if there is anything in the -world which eugenics or race-culture does _not_ promise or desire, it -is the production of a uniform type of man. This delusion, for which -there has never been any warrant at all, possesses many of the critics -of eugenics, and they have made pretty play with it, just as they do -with their other delusions. Let us note one or two facts which bear -upon this most undesirable ideal. - -In the first place, it is unattainable because of the existence of what -we call variation. No apparatus conceivable would suffice to eliminate -from every generation those who varied from the accepted type. - -In the second place, this uniformity is supremely undesirable from -the purely evolutionary point of view, because its attainment would -mean the arrest of all progress. All organic evolution, as we know, -depends upon the struggle between creatures possessing variations and -the consequent selection of those variations which constitute their -possessors best adapted or fitted to the particular environment. -If there is no variation there can be no evolution. To aim at the -suppression of variation, therefore, on supposed eugenic grounds (which -would be involved in aiming at any uniform type of mankind) would be to -aim at destroying the necessary condition of all racial progress. The -mere fact that the critics of race-culture attribute to evolutionists, -of all people, the desire to suppress variation, is a pathognomic -symptom of their critical quality. - -And, of course, quite independently of the evolutionary function of -variation--though this is cardinal and must never be forgotten by the -politician of any school, since what we call individuality is variation -on the human plane--the value of variation in ordinary life is wholly -incalculable. It is not merely that, as Mr. Galton says, "There are -a vast number of conflicting ideals, of alternative characters, of -incompatible civilisations; but they are wanted to give fulness and -interest to life. Society would be very dull if every man resembled the -highly estimable Marcus Aurelius or Adam Bede." The question is not -merely as to the interest of life. Much more important is the fact that -it takes all sorts to make a world. What is the development of society -but the result of the psychological division of labour in the social -organism? And how could such division of labour be carried out if we -had not various types of labourers? What would be the good of science -if there were no poetry or music to live for? How would poetry and -music help us if we had not men of science to protect our shores from -plague? - -Obviously the existence of men of most various types is a necessity -for any highly organised society. Even if eugenics were capable--as -it is not--of producing a complete and balanced type, fit up to a -point to turn out a satisfactory poem, a satisfactory symphony or a -satisfactory sofa, the utmost could not be expected of such a man in -any of these directions. In a word, as long as their activities are -not anti-social, men cannot be of too various types. We require mystic -and mathematician, poet and pathologist. Only, we want good specimens -of each. "The aim of eugenics," says Mr. Galton, "is to represent -each class or sect by its best specimens; that done, to leave them -to work out their common civilisation in their own way.... Special -aptitudes would be assessed highly by those who possessed them, as the -artistic faculties by artists, fearlessness of enquiry and veracity by -scientists, religious absorption by mystics, and so on. There would be -self-sacrificers, self-tormentors, and other exceptional idealists." -But at least it is better to have good rather than bad specimens of -any kind, whatever that kind may be. Mr. Galton thinks that all except -cranks would agree as to including health, energy, ability, manliness -and courteous disposition amongst qualities uniformly desirable--alike -in poet and pathologist. We should desire also uniformity as to the -absence of the anti-social proclivities of the born criminal. So much -uniformity being granted, let us have with it the utmost conceivable -variety,--more, indeed, than most of us can conceive. - -This point, of course, is cardinal from the point of view of practice. -No progress could be made with eugenics, it would be impossible even -to form a Eugenics Education Society, if each of us were to regard the -particular type he belongs to as the ideal, and were to seek merely to -obtain the best specimens of that type. The doctrine that it takes all -sorts to make a world--a doctrine very hard for youth to learn, yet -unconsciously learnt by all who are capable of learning at all--must be -regarded as a cardinal truth for the eugenist. But he wisely seeks good -specimens rather than bad. Poets certainly, but not poetasters; jesters -certainly, but not clever fools, who stand Truth on her head and then -make street-boy gestures at her. - -=Time and its treasure.=--Taking the modern estimates of the -physicists, we are assured that the total period of past human -existence is very brief compared with what may reasonably be predicted. -Granted, then, practically unlimited time, what inherent limits are -there to the upward development of man as a moral and intellectual -being? Shall we answer this question by a study of the nature of -matter? Plainly not. Shall we answer it by a study of the nature of -mind? Surely not, for the study of existing mind cannot inform us as -to what mind might be. One source of guidance alone we have, and this -is the amazing contrast which exists between the mind of man at its -highest, and mind in its humblest animal forms: or shall we say even -between the highest and lowest manifestations of mind within the human -species? The measureless height of the ascent thus indicated offers -us no warrant for the conclusion that, as we stand on the heights -of our life, our "glimpse of a height that is higher" is only an -hallucination. On the contrary. - -There is no warrant whatever for supposing that the forces which have -brought us thus far are yet exhausted: they have their origin in the -inexhaustible. Who, gazing on the earth of a hundred million years -ago, could have predicted life--could have recognised, in the forces -then at work and the matter in which they were displayed, the promise -and potency of all terrestrial life? Who, contemplating life at a much -later stage, even later mammalian, could have seen in the simian the -prophecy of man? Who, examining the earliest nervous ganglia, could -have foreseen the human cerebrum? The fact that we can imagine nothing -higher than ourselves, that we make even our gods in our own image, -offers no warrant for supposing that nothing higher will ever be, -What ape could have predicted man, what reptile the bird, what amoeba -the bee? "There are many events in the womb of time which will be -delivered," and the fairest of her sons and daughters are yet to be. - -But even grant, for the sake of the argument, that the intelligence of -a Newton, the musical faculty of a Bach, the moral nature of any good -mother anywhere, represent the utmost limits of which the evolution -of the psychical is capable. There is every reason to deny this, but -let us for the moment assume it true. There still remains the thought -of Wordsworth, "What one is, why may not millions be?"--a thought to -which Spencer has also given utterance. What is shown possible for -human nature here and there, he says, is conceivable for human nature -at large. It is possible for a human being, whilst still remaining -human, to be a Shakespeare or a St. Francis: these things are thus -demonstrably within the possibilities of human nature. It is therefore -at the least conceivable that, in the course of almost infinite time -(even assuming, say, that intelligence must ever be limited, as even -Newton's intelligence was limited), some such capacities as his may be -common property amongst men of the scientific type; and so with other -types. We may answer Wordsworth that there is no bar thrown by Nature -in the way of such a hope. - -=What is possible?=--This, of course, is speculation and of no -immediate value. I would merely remind the reader that the doctrine of -optimism, as regards the future of mankind, which the principles of -race-culture assume and which they desire to justify, was definitely -shared by the great pioneers to whom we owe our understanding of those -principles. Notwithstanding grave nervous disorder, such as makes -pessimists of most men, both Darwin and Spencer were compelled by their -study of Nature to this rational optimism as regards man's future. -The doctrine of organic evolution, and of the age-long ascent of man -through the selection of the fittest (who have, _on the whole_, been -the _best_) for parenthood, is one not of despair but of hope. Exactly -half a century ago it struck horror into the minds of our predecessors. -Man, then, is only an erected ape, they thought--as if any historical -doctrine, however true, could shorten the dizzy distance to which man -has climbed since he was simian: and man being an ape, they thought -his high dreams palpably vain. But the measure of the accomplished -hints at the measure of the possible, and the value of the historical -facts lies not in themselves, all facts as such being as dead as are -the individual atoms of the living body, but in the principles which -grow out of them. It is of no importance as such that man has simian -ancestors; it is of immeasurable importance that he should learn by -what processes he has become human, and by what, indeed, they became -simian--which would have been a proud adjective for its own day. The -principles of organic progress matter for us because they are the -principles of race-culture, the only sure means of human progress. Our -looking backwards does not turn us into pillars of salt, but teaches us -that the best is yet to be, and how alone it is to be attained. - -Elsewhere the optimistic argument of Wordsworth is quoted. Hear also -John Ruskin:-- - - "There is as yet no ascertained limit to the nobleness of person and - mind which the human creature may attain, by persevering observance - of the laws of God respecting its birth and training."[85] - -and Herbert Spencer:-- - - "What now characterises the exceptionally high may be expected - eventually to characterise all. For that which the best human nature - is capable of, is within the reach of human nature at large."[86] - -and Francis Galton:-- - - "There is nothing either in the history of domestic animals or in - that of evolution to make us doubt that a race of sane men may be - formed, who shall be as much superior, mentally and morally, to the - modern European, as the modern European is to the lowest of the Negro - races. - - "It is earnestly to be hoped that enquiries will be increasingly - directed into historical facts, with the view of estimating the - possible effects of reasonable political action in the future, in - gradually raising the present miserably low standard of the human - race to one in which the Utopias in the dreamland of philanthropists - may become practical possibilities."[87] - -=Conclusion--Eugenics and Religion.=--In an early chapter it was -attempted to show that eugenics is not merely moral, but is of the -very heart of morality. We saw that it involves taking no life, that, -rather, it desires to make philanthropy more philanthropic, that, at -any rate so far as this eugenist is concerned, it recognises and bows -to the supreme law of love: and claims to serve that law, and the ideal -of social morality, which is the making of human worth. Eugenics may or -may not be practicable, it may or may not be based upon natural truth, -but it is assuredly moral: though I, for one, would proclaim eternal -war between this real morality and the damnable sham which approves the -unbridled transmission of the most hideous diseases, rotting body and -soul, in the interests of good. - -And if religion, whatever its origin and the more questionable chapters -in its past, be now "morality touched with emotion," I claim that -eugenics is religious, is and will ever be a religion. Elsewhere[88] -I have attempted to show that religion has survived and will survive -because of its survival-value--its services to the life of the -societies wherein it flourishes. The religion of the future, it was -sought to argue, will be that which "best serves Nature's unswerving -desire--fulness of life." The Founder of the Christian religion said, -"I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more -abundantly." It is higher and more abundant life that is the eugenic -ideal. Progress I define as the emergence and increasing dominance of -mind. Of progress, thus conceived, man is the highest fruit hitherto. -He is also its appointed agent, and eugenics is his instrument. - -To this end he must use all the powers which have blossomed in him from -the dust. He must claim Art: and indeed in Wagner's great music-drama, -at the moment when the prophetic Brünnhilde tells Sieglinde who has -just lost her mate that she, the expectant mother, may look for the -resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come in the child -Siegfried; and when the heroic theme is pronounced for the first time -and followed by that which signifies redemption by love--then, I think, -the eugenist may thrill not merely to the music, or to the humanity -of the story, but to the spiritual and scientific truth which it -symbolises. - -If the struggle towards individual perfection be religious, so, -assuredly, is the struggle, less egoistic, indeed, towards racial -perfection. If the historic meaning and purport of religion are as I -conceive them, and if its future evolution may thence be inferred, -there can be no doubt in the prophecy that in ages to come those high -aspirations and spiritual visions which astronomy has dishoused from -amongst the stars, and which, at their best, were ever selfish, will -find a place on this human earth of ours. If we have transferred our -hopes from heaven to earth and from ourselves to our children, they are -not less religious. And they that shall be of us shall build the old -waste places; for we shall raise up the foundations of many generations: - - "We feed the high tradition of the world, - And leave our spirits in our children's breasts." - - - - - APPENDIX - - CONCERNING BOOKS TO READ - - -The preceding pages are of course only tentative, preliminary and -introductory. I have merely tried to make a beginning. No better -purpose can be achieved than that the reader should proceed to study -the subject for himself. A few pages may therefore be devoted to the -names of some of the books which will be found useful. This is in no -sense a complete bibliography, nor even a tithe of such a bibliography. -But the reader who makes a beginning with the books here named, or even -with a well-chosen half dozen of them, will thereafter need no one to -tell him that the culture of the human race on scientific principles -will be the supreme science of all the future, the supreme goal of all -statesmen, the object and the final judge of all legislation. - -Where it is thought that useful remarks can be made they will be made, -but neither their presence nor absence nor their length is to be taken -as any index to the writer's opinion of the relative value of the works -in question. - -_Heredity._ (The Progressive Science Series, 1908.) By Professor J. A. -Thomson, M.A. - -This is the most recent and most valuable for general purposes of all -books on the subject of heredity. No layman should express opinions -on heredity or eugenics until he has read it, for it is extremely -improbable that they will be valuable. Professor Thomson covers the -whole ground with extreme lucidity and care and impartiality. The book -is readable, nay more, fascinating from end to end, and it is liberally -and usefully illustrated. It is the first general treatise on heredity -which leads consciously, yet as of necessity, towards eugenics as the -crown and goal of the whole study, and in this respect it undoubtedly -marks an epoch. - -_The Methods and Scope of Genetics._ (1908.) By W. Bateson, M.A., F.R.S. - -This is the inaugural lecture, destined, I have little doubt, to become -historic, which was delivered by Professor Bateson on his appointment -to the new Darwin Chair of Biology at Cambridge. It is purposely -included here for very good reasons. The reader who begins his serious -study of heredity with Professor Thomson's work must be informed that -though the author gives an interesting account of Mendelism, he is not -a Mendelian, and neither his account of Mendelism nor his estimate of -it is at all adequate for the present day. In truth there is the study -of heredity before Mendelism and after, and though eugenics owes its -modern origin to the founder of the school of biometrics, and though -among his followers there are to be found many who decry and oppose the -Mendelians, it is for the eugenist of single purpose to take the truth -wherever it is to be found. It is now idle to deny either the general -truth or the stupendous promise of Mendelism. Many vital phenomena -besides heredity are studied by the statistical method, and are put -down by it to heredity. The Mendelians take seeds of known origin, and -plant them and note the result. They carry out experimental breeding -not only amongst plants but amongst the higher animals, including -mammals who, in all essentials of structure and function, are one with -ourselves. It is not possible, I believe, to over-estimate the supreme -importance of Mendelian enquiry for eugenics. Eugenics is founded -upon heredity, and genetics, which is Professor Bateson's name for -the physiology of heredity and variation, is now working at the very -heart of those natural phenomena upon which eugenics depends. This -lecture of Professor Bateson's is by the far the best introduction -to Mendelism that exists, besides being the most recent and the most -authoritative possible. With the lucidity of the born teacher (whose -faculty, I have no doubt, is a Mendelian unit, not always inherited -by the born observer) the author explains the essence of Mendelism. -The usual expositor has not proceeded far upon his way before he is -encumbering himself and the learner with the phenomena of dominance -and recessiveness, which are not cardinal and are highly involved. -Professor Bateson makes no allusion to them. But he gives an account -of Mendelism which it is impossible to put down without finishing, and -which is elementary in the highest sense of the word. In the later -pages the author preaches eugenics with a vigour and conviction not -unworthy of notice as coming from the leader of a school which is -utterly opposed in principle and in methods, if not in results, to the -school of biometrics founded by the founder of eugenics. I insist upon -this because there is a half-instructed ignorance abroad which has -heard the name of Mendel, and seeks thereby to discredit Darwin and -natural selection, Mr. Galton and eugenics. Hear Professor Bateson:-- - -"If there are societies which refuse to apply the new knowledge, -the fault will not lie with Genetics. I think it needs but little -observation of the newer civilisations to foresee that _they_ will -apply every scrap of scientific knowledge which can help them, or seems -to help them in the struggle, and I am good enough selectionist to know -that in that day the fate of the recalcitrant communities is sealed." - -_Hereditary Genius, An Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences._ By -Francis Galton. - -This is the classical and pioneer enquiry, far beyond my praise -or appraisement. The main text is not long, is easily read and is -extremely interesting. The reader should acquaint himself also with Mr. -Constable's recent criticism, _Poverty and Hereditary Genius_. - -_A Study of British Genius._ (1904.) By Havelock Ellis. - -This is an extremely interesting book, which should be read in -association with the foregoing, to which it is a criticism and -supplement. The greater part of the volume is concerned with the -study of genius from the point of view of heredity--in terms of -nationality and race, and of individual parentage. Very great labour -and scholarship have been expended to very high purpose in this work. - -_Inquiries into Human Faculty._ (1883.) By Francis Galton. - -This is the next in order of Mr. Galton's works, _Hereditary Genius_ -dating from 1869. It has recently been reprinted in Dent's "Everyman's -Library," and can thus be purchased for one shilling. - -_Natural Inheritance._ (1889.) By Francis Galton. - -_Memories of my Life._ (1908.) By Francis Galton. - -This is Mr. Galton's latest book, and apart from its personal -fascination must be read by the serious eugenist if only on account -of its last five chapters, and especially the last two, which deal -with Heredity and Race Improvement. What could be more interesting -and significant, for instance, than to find Mr. Galton in 1908 saying -of himself in 1865, "I was too much disposed to think of marriage -under some regulation, and not enough of the effects of self-interest -and of social and religious sentiment." Mr. Galton comments on the -wrongheadedness of objectors to eugenics. I fancy, however, that the -familiar misrepresentations will soon cease to be possible. The whole -of this brief last chapter must be carefully read and studied. At -least I must quote the following paragraph:-- - -"What I desire is that the importance of eugenic marriages should be -reckoned at its just value, neither too high nor too low, and that -eugenics should form one of the many considerations by which marriages -are promoted or hindered, as they are by social position, adequate -fortune, and similarity of creed. I can believe hereafter that it will -be felt as derogatory to a person of exceptionally good stock to marry -into an inferior one as it is for a person of high Austrian rank to -marry one who has not sixteen heraldic quarterings. I also hope that -social recognition of an appropriate kind will be given to healthy, -capable, and large families, and that social influence will be exerted -towards the encouragement of eugenic marriages." - -This volume, a model for all future autobiographers, ends with the -following splendid statement of the eugenic creed:-- - -"A true philanthropist concerns himself not only with society as a -whole, but also with as many of the individuals who compose it as the -range of his affections can include. If a man devotes himself solely to -the good of a nation as a whole, his tastes must be impersonal and his -conclusions so far heartless, deserving the ill title of 'dismal' with -which Carlyle labelled statistics. If, on the other hand, he attends -only to certain individuals in whom he happens to take an interest, he -becomes guided by favouritism and is oblivious of the rights of others -and of the futurity of the race. Charity refers to the individual; -Statesmanship to the nation; Eugenics cares for both. - -"It is known that a considerable part of the huge stream of British -charity furthers by indirect and unsuspected ways the production of the -Unfit; it is most desirable that money and other attention bestowed -on harmful forms of charity should be diverted to the production and -well-being of the Fit. For clearness of explanation we may divide newly -married couples into three classes, with respect to the probable civic -worth of their offspring. There would be a small class of 'desirables,' -a large class of 'passables,' of whom nothing more will be said here, -and a small class of 'undesirables.' It would clearly be advantageous -to the country if social and moral support as well as timely material -help were extended to the desirables, and not monopolised as it is now -apt to be by the undesirables. - -"I take eugenics very seriously, feeling that its principles ought to -become one of the dominant motives in a civilised nation, much as if -they were one of its religious tenets. I have often expressed myself in -this sense, and will conclude this book by briefly reiterating my views. - -"Individuals appear to me as partial detachments from the infinite -ocean of Being, and this world as a stage on which Evolution takes -place, principally hitherto by means of Natural Selection, which -achieves the good of the whole with scant regard to that of the -individual. - -"Man is gifted with pity and other kindly feelings; he has also the -power of preventing many kinds of suffering. I conceive it to fall well -within his province to replace Natural Selection by other processes -that are more merciful and not less effective. - -"This is precisely the aim of eugenics. Its first object is to check -the birth-rate of the Unfit, instead of allowing them to come into -being, though doomed in large numbers to perish prematurely. The second -object is the improvement of the race by furthering the productivity -of the Fit by early marriages and healthful rearing of their children. -Natural Selection rests upon excessive production and wholesale -destruction; Eugenics on bringing no more individuals into the world -than can be properly cared for, and those only of the best stock." - -_Heredity and Selection in Sociology._ (1907.) By George -Chatterton-Hill. - -This is a useful and interesting work, the nature of which is well -indicated by its title. It contains many purely eugenic chapters, and -cannot be ignored by the student. - -_The Germ-plasm, A Theory of Heredity._ (The Contemporary Science -Series. 1893.) By August Weismann. - -This is Weismann's great work. It should be studied by politicians and -others who still interpret all social phenomena in terms of Lamarckian -theory, and also by modern writers who are so much more Weismannian -than Weismann. - -_The Evolution Theory._ (1904.) Translated by J. Arthur Thomson and M. -R. Thomson. By August Weismann. - -_The Principles of Heredity._ (1905.) By G. Archdall Reid. - -This is a very interesting and extremely Weismannian book which -contains the most recent statement of the author's remarkable enquiries -into the influence of disease as a factor of human selection. - -_Variation in Animals and Plants._ (The International Scientific -Series. 1903.) By H. M. Vernon. - -_Variation, Heredity and Evolution._ (1906.) By R. H. Lock. - -_The Origin of Species._ (1869. Last (sixth) edition. Reprinted 1901.) -By Charles Darwin. - -_The Descent of Man._ (1871. Second edition, 1874. Reprinted 1906.) By -Charles Darwin. - -These classics now cost only half-a-crown apiece. - -The beginner should read _The Descent of Man_ first, I think. Some -of the earlier chapters are of the utmost eugenic value, and would be -found immensely interesting by modern lecturers on decadence, and the -like. - -_Darwinism To-day._ (1907.) By Vernon L. Kellogg. - -An interesting and scholarly recent criticism, containing much matter -strictly relevant to eugenics. - -_The Evolution of Sex._ (The Contemporary Science Series. Revised -edition, 1901. Originally published in 1899.) By Patrick Geddes and J. -Arthur Thomson. - -A famous book, yet to be discovered by most "authorities" on the Woman -Question. - -_A History of Matrimonial Institutions._ (1904.) By G. E. Howard. - -This is a three-volume treatise, extremely comprehensive, and -especially valuable as a guide to the literature of the subject. Only -the professional student can be expected to read it from cover to -cover, but it is invaluable for purposes of reference. - -_The History of Human Marriage._ By E. Westermarck. - -This rightly celebrated and epoch-making work demonstrates in especial -the survival-value of monogamy, and its historical dominance as a -marriage form. - -_The Evolution of Marriage._ (The Contemporary Science Series.) By -Professor Letourneau. - -_The Principles of Population._ By T. R. Malthus. - -The substance of this may be conveniently read in the extracts -published in the _Economic Classics_ by Macmillan (1905). - -_The Principles of Biology._ By Herbert Spencer. - -The last section, "The Laws of Multiplication," _must_ be read as the -expression of the missing half of the truth discovered by Malthus. It -is tiresome, nearly half a century after Spencer's enunciation of his -law, to have to read the remarks of some modern writers who continue -to assume that Malthus expressed not merely the truth but the whole -truth. - -_The Republic of Plato._ - -Apart from the lines of Theognis quoted by Darwin in _The Descent of -Man_, which are some two centuries older than Plato, the fifth book of -the _Republic_ is the earliest discussion in literature of the idea of -eugenics, and utterly wild though we may consider most of the proposals -of Plato--or Socrates--to be, these early thinkers are yet more modern -and more scientific and more fundamental than all their successors, -even including our modern Utopia makers who have come after Darwin, -in recognising that it is the quality of the citizen which will make -a Utopia possible. The following will suffice to show that after more -than two thousand years we can still learn from the fundamental idea of -Plato's fifth chapter:-- - - "It is plain, then, that after this we must make marriages as much - as possible sacred; but the most advantageous should be most sacred. - By all means. How then shall they be most advantageous? Tell me - that, Glauco, for I see in your houses dogs of chace, and a great - many excellent birds. Have you then indeed ever attended at all, - in any respect, to their marriages, and the propagation of their - species? How? said he. First of all, that among these, although they - be excellent themselves, are there not some who are most excellent? - There are. Whether then do you breed from all of them alike? or are - you careful to breed chiefly from the best? From the best. But how? - From the youngest or from the oldest, or from those who are most - in their prime? From those in their prime. And if the breed be not - of this kind, you reckon that the race of birds and dogs greatly - degenerates. I reckon so, replied he. And what think you as to - horses, said I, and other animals? is the case any otherwise with - respect to these? That, said he, were absurd." - -Plato proposed to destroy the family, and to "practise every art that -no mother should know her own child." He also approved of infanticide. -Nevertheless, this fifth book of the _Republic_ is interesting and -valuable reading, and it is especially well to note that this pioneer -of Utopianism and Socialism possessed the idea which almost all living -Socialists, except Dr. A. R. Wallace and Professors Forel and Pearson, -lack, that we must first make the Utopian and Utopia will follow. - -_The Family._ (1906.) By Elsie Clews Parsons. - -This recent, scholarly and lucid book, of which any living man might -well be proud, may follow the reading of the utterly unconcerned and -taken-for-granted fashion in which Socrates and Plato proposed to -destroy the family. Lecture VIII., on "Sexual Choice," is brief, but -the references following it are extremely valuable and complete. It is -evident that one of the books which will have to be written on eugenics -in the near future must deal with the whole question of marriage and -human selection both in its historical and in its contemporary aspects. - -"The Possible Improvement of the Human Breed under Existing Conditions -of Law and Sentiment." _Nature_, 1901, p. 659; _Smithsonian Report_, -Washington, 1901, p. 523. By Francis Galton. - -This was the Huxley Lecture of the Anthropological Institute in 1901, -and the contemporary interest in eugenics may be said to date from it. - -"Eugenics, its Definition, Scope and Aims." (_Sociological Papers._ -1904.) By Francis Galton. - -This remarkable lecture constituted a further introduction of the -subject, and it is somewhat of the nature of an impertinence for -the professional jester, who is not acquainted with a line of it, -to dismiss eugenics with a phrase as if this lecture had never been -written or were unobtainable. Mr. Galton there defined eugenics as -"the science which deals with all influences that improve the inborn -qualities of a race...." The definition given in the _Century -Dictionary_ is unauthoritative, incorrect, and misses the entire point. - -An extremely valuable discussion follows this lecture, and it is -absolutely necessary for the student to acquaint himself with the whole -of these pages (45-99). - -_Restrictions in Marriage: Studies in National Eugenics: Eugenics as a -Factor in Religion._ By Francis Galton. - -These are memoirs communicated to the Sociological Society in 1905, and -published together with the subsequent discussions in _Sociological -Papers_ (1905). The three memoirs are also published separately under -one cover. - -_Probability, the Foundation of Eugenics._ The Herbert Spencer Lecture -of 1907. By Francis Galton. - -This lecture contains a very brief historical outline of the recent -progress of eugenic enquiry and a simple discussion of the mathematical -method of studying heredity. It must, of course, be read by every -serious student. - -_National Life from the Standpoint of Science._ (1905.) By Karl Pearson. - -This is a reprint of a lecture delivered by Professor Pearson in 1900, -together with some other valuable contributions of his to the subject. -There is scarcely a better introduction to eugenics. - -_The Scope and Importance to the State of the Science of National -Eugenics._ The Robert Boyle Lecture, 1907. (Second edition, 1909.) By -Karl Pearson. - -This fine lecture should be carefully read. It gives some index to the -quantity and quality of the work done by Professor Pearson and his -followers since the Francis Galton Eugenics Laboratory was founded. - -_Population and Progress._ (1907.) By Montague Crackanthorpe, K.C. - -Though only published recently, part of this book goes back far. The -first chapter is indeed a reprint of a eugenic article published in the -_Fortnightly Review_ as far back as 1872. Some of us may perhaps be -inclined to forget that more than a generation ago Mr. Crackanthorpe -had grasped the great truths which we are now trying to spread, and -had courageously expressed them in the face of ignorance and prejudice -even greater than those of to-day. This is unquestionably a book which -every student must read, but the press generally, with some notable -exceptions, have fought rather shy of it. It was sent to the present -writer at his request from a leading morning paper which trusts him, -and he wrote a column on it, most careful in diction and moderate in -opinion, which was, nevertheless, not printed. One of the leading -medical papers devoted a long article to the book, written on the -general principle that it is right for a medical paper to differ -from any non-medical person who approaches the closed neighbourhood -of medical enquiry. Another leading medical paper considered Mr. -Crackanthorpe's "ideal" to be "beyond present accomplishment," and -feared it must have "many generations of probation before it could -hope to enter the sphere of practical politics." I venture to say that -_Population and Progress_, dealing, as it does, with a subject that -really matters, contains more fundamental practical politics--in the -true sense of that word--than has been discussed in most of our current -newspapers since they were first established. - -_Race-Culture or Race-Suicide._ (1906.) By R. R. Rentoul. - -This is a second and enlarged edition of a remarkable pamphlet -published by Dr. Rentoul in 1903 under the title _Proposed -Sterilisation of Certain Mental and Physical Degenerates. An Appeal -to Asylum Managers and Others._ Dr. Rentoul's own description of this -pamphlet is as follows:--"In it I called attention to the large -and increasing number of the insane in the United Kingdom; to our -disgraceful system of child-marriages; to the growing suicide rate; -to our disgusting system of inducing certain mentally and physically -diseased persons to marry; and to a slight operation which I was the -first to propose as a means of checking the increase in the number of -the insane, and in preventing innocent offspring from being cursed by -some parental blemish." - -_Education._ (Originally published in 1861. New edition, with the -author's latest corrections, 1906.) By Herbert Spencer. - -This is the classic which marks an epoch in the personal development -of every one who reads it, and which made an epoch in the history of -education: the book was probably of more service to woman, owing to its -liberation of girlhood, than any other of its century. - -_The Study of Sociology._ (International Scientific Series. Originally -published in 1873. Twentieth edition, 1903.) By Herbert Spencer. - -This is, of course, _the_ introduction to sociology, written for that -purpose by a master, and in every respect a masterpiece. It contains -many eugenic references and arguments. As far as the eugenic education -of the adult is concerned, this is rightly the preliminary work. - -Besides _The Evolution of Sex_ and Mrs. Parson's book on _The Family_, -there are many others relevant to the question of woman and eugenics, -of which one or two may be noted here. - -_Sex and Society, Studies in the Social Psychology of Sex._ (1907.) By -W. I. Thomas. - -This is a very readable and recent work, and for the general reader -much the most suitable of any that I know. - -_Man and Woman._ (Contemporary Science Series.) By Havelock Ellis. - -A very clear and readable book. - -_Youth--its Education, Regimen and Hygiene._ (1907.) By Stanley Hall. - -This is a new and abbreviated version of Professor Stanley Hall's two -well-known volumes on _Adolescence_, published in 1904. For the general -reader this much smaller work is very suitable, and especial attention -may be directed to Chapter XI., "The Education of Girls." - -It would have been presumptuous and absurd to attempt, in the course of -a merely introductory volume, to deal, by anything more than allusion -to its existence, with the great question of human parenthood in -relation to race. Most urgently this question, of course, concerns the -negro problem in America. The student who has to trust entirely to -second-hand knowledge had best be silent. Lest, however, the reader -should imagine that the older doctrines of race can be accepted without -reserve, he will do well to study very carefully the latter part of Dr. -Archdall Reid's book, already referred to, and, with extreme caution, -the following:-- - -_Race Prejudice._ (1906.) By Jean Finot. - -This book most of us must believe to be extreme, but it should be read: -it bears on what may be called international eugenics, and the whole -question of inter-racial marriage. - - * * * * * - -On matters of transmissible disease and racial poisons there is much -literature. Only one or two books can be referred to here. - -_The Diseases of Society: The Vice and Crime Problem._ (1904.) By G. F. -Lydston. - -This, of course, is not a pleasant book, and it is open to much -criticism in many respects, but it is well worth reading, especially -in association with Dr. Rentoul's work. - -_Malaria--A Neglected Factor in the History of Greece and Rome._ -(1907.) By W. H. S. Jones, with an introduction by Ronald Ross. - -This is a recent historical study and may be a very substantial -contribution to the study of decadence. - -_Alcoholism._ (1906.) By W. C. Sullivan. - -This little book of Dr. Sullivan's contains a useful and scrupulously -moderate chapter on the relation of alcohol to human degeneration. - -_The Drink Problem._ (1907.) By Fourteen Medical Authorities. - -_The Children of the Nation._ (1906.) By Sir John Gorst. - -_Infant Mortality._ (1906.) By George Newman. - -_The Hygiene of Mind._ (1906.) By T. S. Clouston. - -_Diseases of Occupation._ (1908.) By Sir T. Oliver. - -_The Prevention of Tuberculosis._ (1908.) By A. Newsholme. - -These volumes all deal in part with questions of racial poisoning and -racial hygiene. - -_Alcoholism--A Study in Heredity._ (1901.) By Archdall Reid. - -_Alcohol and the Human Body._ (1907.) By Sir Victor Horsley and Mary D. -Sturge. - -_Hygiene of Nerves and Mind._ (The Progressive Science Series. 1907.) -By August Forel. - -_Inebriety--Its Causation and Control._ (The second Norman Kerr -Memorial Lecture, published in the _British Journal of Inebriety_, -January, 1908.) By R. Welsh Branthwaite. - -_Reports of the Inspector under the Inebriates Acts._ Especially those -for the years 1904, 1905, 1906. - -_The Cry of the Children: The Black Stain._ (1907.) By G. R. Sims. - -The above are especially recommended to politicians. Sooner or later, -as never yet, knowledge will have to be applied to the drink question -as it bears upon the quality of the race. The knowledge exists, and is -not difficult to acquire or understand. The references given are quite -sufficient to enable any one of mediocre intelligence to frame a bill -dealing with alcohol which would be worth all its predecessors put -together, and would arouse far less opposition than any one of them. - -_Reports of the National Conference on Infantile Mortality_ 1906 -and 1908 (P. S. King & Co.). In the 1906 Report note especially Dr. -Ballantyne's paper on the unborn infant, and in the 1908 Report, Miss -Alice Ravenhill's paper on the education of girls. - -It must be repeated that the foregoing names are merely noted as -including, perhaps, the greater number of the books with which the -serious beginner would do well to make a start. That is all. It would -be both unfair and unwise, however, to omit any mention of at least -three wonderful little books of John Ruskin's: _Unto this Last_, -_Munera Pulveris_ and _Time and Tide_, which add to their great -qualities of soul and style some of the most forcible and wisest -things that have ever been written on race-culture and its absolutely -fundamental relation to morality, patriotism and true economics. - -If the reader desires the name of only one book, that is certainly _The -Sexual Question_ (1908), by Professor August Forel. This has no rival -anywhere, and cannot be overpraised. - - - - -Footnotes: - -[1] A tribute is due to the anonymous pioneer of sane and provident -philanthropy who lately gave £20,000 to the London Hospital -for research. Such a thing is a commonplace in New York, it is -unprecedented in London. - -[2] The word is used in the ordinary loose sense, to which there -is no objection provided that there be no misunderstanding of its -exact scientific meaning, as in Spencer's phrase "survival of the -fittest"--_i.e._ not the best, but the best adapted. See p. 43. - -[3] "Degeneration," I think, is the best word for the racial, -"deterioration" for the individual, change. - -[4] That is in the ordinary sense of the words, not in the more exact -sense--as I think--in which a good environment would be defined as that -which selects the good for parenthood. - -[5] Italics mine. - -[6] We have seen that Huxley's assertion of the fundamental opposition -between moral and cosmic evolution is unwarrantable. We do recognise, -however, that in our present practice this opposition exists. Our -ancestors were cruel to the insane, but at least they prevented them -from multiplying. We are blindly kind to them, and therefore in the -long run cruel. But the dilemma, kind to be cruel, or cruel to be kind, -is not necessary. It is quite possible, as we have asserted, to be -at once kind to the individual and protective of the future. On the -other hand, it is also possible to be cruel to both. The London County -Council offers us, at the time of writing, a demonstration of this. -Sending wretched inebriates on the round of police-court, prison and -street, with intermittent gestations, rather than expend a shilling a -day, per individual, in decently detaining them, it serves at least the -philosophic purpose of demonstrating that it is possible to combine the -maximum of brutality to the individual and the present with the maximum -of injury to the race and the future. - -[7] Reprinted in _The Kingdom of Man_ (Constable). - -[8] _Sociological Papers_, 1905, p. 59. - -[9] Whilst allowing due weight to Mr. Wells' opinion, we may also -note that of Charles Darwin who, referring to his own phrase, natural -selection, says, "But the expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer -of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate." (_Origin of Species_, -popular edition, p. 76.) - -[10] _Collected Essays_, vol. i. p. 493. A valuable controversy but -poor sport. Thinker _versus_ politician is scarcely a match. - -[11] This is discussed at length in the writer's paper, "The Obstacles -to Eugenics," read before the Sociological Society, March 8, 1909. - -[12] Spencer introduced the non-moral word evolution in 1857, _in order -to_ avoid the moral connotation of the word progress, which he had -formerly employed. - -[13] In his recent work, _The Origin of Vertebrates_, Dr. W. H. -Gaskell, F.R.S., has adduced much evidence in support of this thesis. -He says, "The law of progress is this: The race is not to the swift nor -to the strong, but to the wise." And again; "As for the individual, -so for the nation; as for the nation, so for the race; the law of -evolution teaches that in all cases brain-power wins. Throughout, from -the dawn of animal life up to the present day, the evidence given in -this book suggests that the same law has always held. In all cases, -upward progress is associated with the development of the central -nervous system. The law for the whole animal kingdom is the same as for -the individual. 'Success in this world depends upon brains.'" - -[14] We may recall the words of Lear:-- - -"Is man no more than this? Consider him well: Thou owest the worm no -silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume:.... -Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a -poor, bare, forked animal as thou art." - -[15] Says Darwin, "So little is this subject understood, that I have -heard surprise repeatedly expressed at such great monsters as the -Mastodon ... having become extinct; as if mere bodily strength gave -victory in the battle of life. Mere size, on the contrary, would in -some cases determine ... quicker extermination from the greater amount -of requisite food." In the Russo-Japanese War, one of the effective -factors was the greater area of the Russian soldier as a target, and -the disparity between the food requirements of the little victors and -the big losers. - -[16] Quoted from a Paper read by Mr. Galton before the Eugenics -Education Society, October 14, 1908, and published in _Nature_, October -22, 1908. - -[17] See the author's paper, "The Psychology of Parenthood," _Eugenics -Review_, April, 1909. - -[18] An authoritative statement on this point has already been quoted -from Sir E. Ray Lankester's Romanes Lecture of 1905, p. 42. - -[19] The exception of one or two large animals, like the elephant, is -not important. In proportion to body weight man's birth-rate is lower -than theirs. And it is to be noted that the "infant" mortality is very -low in this case, where the birth-rate is so low. Says Darwin, of the -young elephant. "None are destroyed by beasts of prey; for even the -tiger in India most rarely dares to attack a young elephant protected -by its dam." The dam has no factory to go to, and no beast of prey to -sell her alcohol. - -[20] "The fulmar petrel lays but one egg, yet it is believed to be -the most numerous bird in the world." (_Origin of Species_, popular -edition, p. 81). - -[21] _The Wheat Problem_, by Sir Wm. Crookes, F.R.S., 2nd edition, -1905. The _Chemical News_ Office, 15, Newcastle St., Farringdon St., -E.C. - -[22] See Chap. iii. of the _Origin of Species_. - -[23] Including even such an exceptional student as Dr. George Newman, -who, in his book on _Infant Mortality_, regards a falling birth-rate -as an essential evil, and actually declares without qualification -that the factors "which lower the birth-rate tend to raise the infant -death-rate." - -[24] It is not necessary to point out again the exception of the -elephant, nor to explain it. - -[25] Mr. Galton believes their number has been exaggerated. - -[26] Quoted from the author's lectures on _Individualism and -Collectivism_ (Williams and Norgate, 1906). - -[27] As is usually the case, except when the mother or the father is -alcoholic or syphilitic. - -[28] If we make a diagram of society, with the social strata labelled, -and then proceed to make a eugenic comment upon it, certainly the -line dividing the sheep from the goats, _as for parenthood_, would -not be horizontal, at any level. Nor would it be vertical--as if the -proportions of worth and unworth were the same in all classes. Some -would draw it diagonally, counting most of the aristocracy good and -most of the lowest strata bad: others would slope it the other way. -I should not venture to draw it at all: there are individuals good -and bad in all classes and races, and their relative proportions are -unknown, at least to me. - -[29] "For words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them; -but they are the money of fools" (Hobbes, _Leviathan_, Pt. I. chap iv.). - -[30] It might be supposed that the words "inherent" and "inherited" -were allied etymologically. This is not so. "Inherit" is derived from -"heir," and this from a verb meaning "to take." In natural inheritance -the heir inherits what is inherent in the germ-cells which make him. -Says Professor Thomson: "The organisation of the fertilised ovum is the -inheritance"--_and the heir_, we may add. - -[31] Unless indeed it be an organism so lowly as only to consist of one -cell throughout. - -[32] The reader will remember the chapter, "A Berry to the Rescue." -"Says Lucy demurely: 'Now you know why I read history, and that sort -of books.... I only read sensible books and talk of serious things ... -because I have heard say ... dear Mrs. Berry! don't you understand -now?'" - -[33] Contrast Mr. Galton, the propounder of the now accepted view:-- - -"As a general rule, with scarcely any exception that cannot be ascribed -to other influences, such as bad nutrition or transmitted microbes, -the injuries or habits of the parents are found to have no effect on -the natural form or faculties of the child." (_Hereditary Genius_, -Prefatory Chapter to the Edition of 1892, p. xv.) - -[34] In the later edition Mr. Galton discusses the question of the -title, and says that if it could now be altered, it should appear as -_Hereditary Ability_. We may note that, as the author says himself, -"The reader will find a studious abstinence throughout the work from -speaking of genius as a special quality." - -[35] The reader may note "A Eugenic Investigation: Index to -Achievements of Near Kinsfolk of some of the Fellows of the Royal -Society," _Sociological Papers_, 1904, pp. 85-99 (Macmillan); also -_Noteworthy Families_ (John Murray, 1906). - -[36] These researches have not yet been published. - -[37] In the later chapters of a former book, "Health, Strength, and -Happiness" (Grant Richards, London; Mitchell Kennerley, New York, -1908), I have discussed various aspects of heredity from the eugenic -point of view more fully than has been possible here. - -[38] See the last sentence of the quotation from Forel on p. 130. - -[39] For definition of these terms see Chap. xi. - -[40] By some such means we may hope that man too may some day become -domesticated without losing his fertility! - -[41] 1 Corinthians xii. 22, 23, 24. - -[42] Quoted from the Author's _Evolution the Master Key_. - -[43] Mr. G. K. Chesterton, one of the most amusing of contemporary -phenomena, has lately said: "The most serious sociologists, the most -stately professors of eugenics, calmly propose that, 'for the good -of the race,' people should be forcibly married to each other by -the police." Readers unacquainted with Mr. Chesterton's standard of -accuracy and methods of criticism might be misled by this gay invention. - -[44] _The Family_, p. 20. - -[45] _Encyclopædia Medica_, vol. ii., Article "Deaf-Mutism." - -[46] In a lecture, "The Obstacles to Eugenics," delivered before the -Sociological Society, March 8, 1909. - -[47] Since these words were written there has been passed the -"Prevention of Crimes Act," which is the first attempt in this country -to apply the elementary truths of the subject in legislation. As an -essentially eugenic proposal it is to be heartily welcomed. - -[48] Dr. Bulstrode's Lecture to the Royal Institution, May 15, 1908. - -[49] This suggestion, first made by the present writer in March, 1908, -and in the paper referred to on p. 205, is, I believe, to be the -subject of an official enquiry. - -[50] _Sociological Papers_ (Macmillan, 1905), p. 3. - -[51] "In any scheme of eugenics, energy is the most important quality -to favour; it is, as we have seen, the basis of every action, and it is -eminently transmissible by descent."--Galton. - -[52] _Fortnightly Review_, January, 1908. - -[53] "As the German philosopher Schopenhauer remarks, the final aim -of all love intrigues, be they comic or tragic, is really of more -importance than all other ends in human life. What it all turns upon is -nothing less than the composition of the next generation.... It is not -the weal or woe of any one individual, but that of the human race to -come, which is at stake."--Darwin, _Descent of Man_, p. 893. - -[54] _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, vol. iv. (F. A. Davis Co., -Philadelphia, 1905). - -[55] Part of the matter of this chapter was included in papers entitled -"Racial Hygiene or Negative Eugenics, with special reference to the -Extirpation of Alcoholism," read before the Congress of the Royal -Institute of Public Health, at Buxton, 1908, and "Alcoholism and -Eugenics," read before the Society for the Study of Inebriety, April, -1909. - -[56] Italics mine. - -[57] To-day many of the children who make our destiny are born drunk, -owing to maternal intoxication during labour: I have myself attended -the birth of such children, both in Edinburgh and in York. - -[58] This was written in 1892, before the accumulation of the modern -evidence on the subject. - -[59] "Alcohol taken into the stomach can be demonstrated in the -testicle or ovary within a few minutes, and, like any other poison, -may injure the sperm or the germ element therein contained. As a -result of this intoxication of the primary elements, children may be -conceived and born who become idiots, epileptics, or feeble-minded. -Therefore it comes about that even before conception a fault may -be present."--McAdam Eccles, F.R.C.S., in the _British Journal of -Inebriety_, April, 1908. - -[60] See p. 111. - -[61] London: James Nisbet and Co., 1906. - -[62] Will our modern extremists be good enough to remember that Mr. -Galton is the prime author of the doctrine that functionally-produced -modifications are not inherited? - -[63] The use of this word thus is unusual, to say the least of it. Dr. -Claye Shaw simply means _causal relation_. - -[64] The subject of alcoholism and race-culture really demands a -large volume. There is no space here to detail the fashion in which -the drunken mother poisons her child after birth, when she nurses -it, since, as has been chemically proved, alcohol is excreted in her -milk. Says a most distinguished authority, Mrs. Scharlieb, "the child, -then, absolutely receives alcohol as part of his diet, with the worst -effect upon his organs, for alcohol has a greater effect upon cells -in proportion to their immaturity" ("The Drink Problem," in the New -Library of Medicine), and Dr. Sullivan refers to "numerous cases on -record of convulsions and other disorders occurring in infants when -the nurse has taken liquor, and ceasing when she has been put on a -non-alcoholic diet." The reader may be referred to my brief paper, -"Alcohol and Infancy," published in the form of a tract by the Church -of England Temperance Society. - -[65] This is printed in the _British Journal of Inebriety_, January, -1908, under the title "Inebriety, its Causation and Control"--with -comments by numerous authorities. - -[66] The author says "inherent defect." I have omitted the adjective, -as it is obviously misused. _Antecedent_ would have been the better -word, surely. - -[67] Italics mine. - -[68] Italics mine. A thousand pounds for cure--which does not cure--and -twopence for prevention is, of course, the rule with a half-educated -nation always. - -[69] She died in a lunatic asylum. I have not heard that society ever -offered her a public apology for its brutality to her. - -[70] See _Times_ report, February 28, 1908. - -[71] Report of the Inspector under the Inebriates Acts for the year -1906. - -[72] This drinking by women, which means drinking by mothers present, -expectant or possible, is rapidly increasing in Great Britain, though -almost unknown in our Colonies. It is at the heart that Empires rot. - -[73] Cd. 4438. Price 4½d. Volume of evidence Cd. 4439. Price 2s. - -[74] A careful and detailed enquiry by the present writer, published -in the _Westminster Gazette_ (Nov. 21, 1908), _Daily Chronicle_, and -_Manchester Guardian_, and hitherto unchallenged, showed that, on -the most moderate reckoning, alcohol makes 124 widows and orphans in -England and Wales every day, or more than 45,000 per annum. - -[75] _Diseases of Occupation_, by Sir Thomas Oliver. (The New Library -of Medicine, 1908.) - -[76] This chapter contains the substance of the author's Friday evening -discourse, entitled "Biology and History," delivered before the Royal -Institution of Great Britain and Ireland, February 14, 1908. The -substance of two lectures to the Royal Institution, entitled "Biology -and Progress," and delivered in February, 1907, is also included in the -present volume. - -[77] "It is thus everywhere that foolish Rumour babbles not of what -was done, but of what was misdone or undone; and foolish History -(ever, more or less, the written epitomised synopsis of Rumour) -knows so little that were not as well unknown. Attila invasions, -Walter-the-Penniless Crusades, Sicilian Vespers, Thirty-Years' Wars: -mere sin and misery; not work, but hindrance of work! For the Earth, -all this while, was yearly green and yellow with her kind harvests; -the hand of the craftsman, the mind of the thinker rested not: and so, -after all, and in spite of all, we have this so glorious high-domed -blossoming World; concerning which, poor History may well ask, with -wonder, Whence _it_ came? She knows so little of it, knows so much -of what obstructed it, what would have rendered it impossible. Such, -nevertheless, by necessity or foolish choice, is her rule and practice; -whereby that paradox, 'Happy the people whose annals are vacant,' is -not without its true side."--Carlyle, _French Revolution_. - -"In a little while it would come to be felt that the true history of -a nation was indeed not of its wars but of its households."--Ruskin, -_Time and Tide_. - -[78] "Literature, taken in all its bearings, forms the grand line of -demarcation between the human and the animal kingdoms."--William Godwin. - -[79] See the Author's paper, "The Essential Factor of Progress," -published in the _Monthly Review_, April, 1906. - -[80] Gibbon does not enlighten us much on such vital matters: but my -attention has been called to the following passage, not irrelevant -here. It is from the _Attic Nights_ of Aulus Gellius, Book xii., chap. -i., written about A.D. 150--Gibbon's critical epoch. I use the free -translation of Mr. Quintin Waddington:-- - -"Once when I was with the philosopher Favorinus, word was brought to -him that the wife of one of his disciples had just given birth to a son. - -"'Let us go,' said he, 'to enquire after the mother, and to -congratulate the father.' The latter was a noble of Senatorial rank. - -"All of us who were present accompanied him to the house and went in -with him. Meeting the father in the hall, he embraced and congratulated -him, and, sitting down, enquired how his wife had come through the -ordeal. And when he heard that the young mother, overcome with fatigue, -was now sleeping, he began to speak more freely. - -"'Of course,' said he, 'she will suckle the child herself.' And when -the girl's mother said that her daughter must be spared, and nurses -obtained in order that the heavy strain of nursing the child should -not be added to what she had already gone through, 'I beg of you, dear -lady,' said he, 'to allow her to be a whole mother to her child. Is it -not against nature, and being only half a mother, to give birth to a -child, and then at once to send him away? To have nourished with her -own blood and in her own body a something that she had never seen, -and then to refuse it her own milk, now that she sees it living, a -human being, demanding a mother's care? Or are you one of those who -think that nature gave a woman breasts, not that she might feed her -children, but as pretty little hillocks to give her bust a pleasing -contour? Many indeed of our present-day ladies--whom you are far from -resembling--do try to dry up and repress that sacred fount of the body, -the nourisher of the human race, even at the risk they run from turning -back and corrupting their milk, lest it should take off from the charm -of their beauty. In doing this they act with the same folly as those, -who, by the use of drugs and so forth, endeavour to destroy the very -embryo in their bodies, lest a furrow should mar the smoothness of -their skin, and they should spoil their figures in becoming mothers. -If the destruction of a human being in its first inception, whilst it -is being formed, whilst it is yet coming to life, and is still in the -hands of its artificer, Nature, be deserving of public detestation and -horror, is it not nearly as bad to deprive the child of his proper -and congenial nutriment to which he is accustomed, now that he is -perfected, is born into the world, is a child? - -"But it makes no difference--for as they say--so long as the child is -nourished and lives, with whose milk it is done. - -"Why does he who says this, since he is so dull in understanding -nature, think it also of no consequence in whose womb and from whose -blood the child is formed and fashioned? For is there not now in -the breasts the same blood--whitened, it is true, by agration and -heat--which was before in the womb? And is not the wisdom of Nature -to be seen in this, that as soon as the blood has done its work of -forming the body down below, and the time of birth has come, it betakes -itself to the upper parts of the body, and is ready to cherish the -spark of life and light by furnishing to the new-born babe his known -and accustomed food? And so it is not an idle belief, that, just as the -strength and character of the seed have their influence in determining -the likeness of the body and mind, so do the nature and properties of -the milk do their part in effecting the same results. And this has -been noticed, not in man alone, but in cattle as well. For if kids are -brought up on the milk of ewes, or lambs on that of goats, it is agreed -that the latter have stiffer wool, the former softer hair. In the case -of timber and fruit trees, too, the qualities of the water and soil -from which they draw their nourishment have more influence in stunting -or augmenting their growth than those of the seed which is sewn, and -often you may see a vigorous and healthy tree when transplanted into -another place perish owing to the poverty of the soil. - -"Is it then a reasonable thing to corrupt the fine qualities of -the new-born man, well endowed as to both body and mind so far as -parentage is concerned, with the unsuitable nourishment of degenerate -and foreign milk? Especially is this the case, if she whom you get -to supply the milk is a slave or of servile estate, and--as is very -often the case--of a foreign and barbarous race, if she is dishonest, -ugly, unchaste, or _addicted to drink_. For generally any woman who -happens to have milk is called in, without further enquiry as to her -suitability in other respects. Shall we allow this babe of ours to be -tainted by pernicious contagion, and to draw life into his body and -mind from a body and mind debased? - -"This is the reason why we are so often surprised that the children of -chaste mothers resemble their parents neither in body nor character. - -"... And besides these considerations, who can afford to ignore or -belittle the fact that those who desert their offspring and send them -away from themselves, and make them over to others to nurse, cut, or at -least loosen and weaken that chain and connection of mind and affection -by which Nature attaches children to their parents. For when the child, -sent elsewhere, is away from sight, the vigour of maternal solicitude -little by little dies away, and the call of motherly instinct grows -silent, and forgetfulness of a child sent away to nurse is not much -less complete than that of one lost by death. - -"A child's thoughts and the love he is ever ready to give, are -occupied, moreover, with her alone from whom he derives his food, and -soon he has neither feeling nor affection for the mother who bore him. -The foundations of the filial feelings with which we are born being -thus sapped and undermined, whatever affection children thus brought -up may seem to have for father and mother, for the most part is not -natural love, but the result of social convention.'" - -[81] Cf. the similar dicta of Darwin and Pearson (p. 279). - -[82] _National Life from the Standpoint of Science_, p. 99. - -[83] "Decadence," Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture, by the Rt. Hon. -A. J. Balfour, M.P., delivered at Newnham College, January 25, 1908. -(Cambridge University Press.) - -[84] "Restless activity proves the man," as Goethe says. - -[85] _Munera Pulveris_, par. 6. - -[86] _The Data of Ethics_, par. 97. - -[87] _Hereditary Genius_, Prefatory Chapter to Edition of 1902, pp. x. -and xxvii. - -[88] "The Survival-Value of Religion," _Fortnightly Review_, April, -1906. - - - - - INDEX OF SUBJECTS - - - Ability, inheritance of, 114 - - "Acquired characters," defined, 111 - - Acquired characters, Lamarckian theory of the transmission of, 283 - - ---- progress, 262 - - ---- ----, dangers of, 265 - - ---- ---- _versus_ natural selection, 266 - - Acquirements, transmission of, by the art of writing, 261 - - ---- _versus_ inborn characters, 101 - - Acromegaly, 67 - - "Adam Bede", 298 - - "Adolescence," by Prof. Stanley Hall, 318 - - Alcohol, a racial poison, 211, 259 - - ----, an agent of selection, 206 - - ---- and eugenics, 206 - - ----, and heredity, 206 - - ---- and human degeneration, 242 - - ---- and parenthood, 241 - - ----, effects of, on the racial organs, 208, 209 (_note_) - - ----, elimination by, 206 - - ----, the friends of, 243 - - ---- trade, the, and widows and orphans, 245 - - "Alcohol and Infancy," by Dr. Saleeby, 214 - - "Alcohol and the Human Body," by Sir Victor Horsley and Mary D. - Sturge, 319 - - Alcoholic Imperialism, 244 - - Alcoholism and the London County Council, 206 - - ----, both a cause and a symptom of degeneracy, 217 - - ----, parental, its influence on the offspring, 211 - - "Alcoholism, a Chapter in Social Pathology," by Dr. W. C. Sullivan, - 211, 242, 319 - - "Alcoholism, a Study in Heredity," by G. Archdall Reid, 319 - - Ancestral inheritance, the law of, xiv - - Ancestry of men of genius, 152 - - ----, paternal and maternal, of equal importance, 152 - - Animal life and monogamy, 163 - - ---- marriage, 162 - - Animals and promiscuity, 163 - - ----, the higher, and monogamy, 163 - - Army, inferior intelligence of the, to that of the Navy, 98 - - "Atavism," defined, 111 - - "Attic Nights, The," of Aulus Gellius, 271 (_note_) - - Australia, control of drunkards in, 242 - - "Autobiography" of Herbert Spencer, 58, 152 - - "Avariés, Les," by Brieux, 252 - - - Bacteria, domination of, 93 - - ----, rate of increase of, 160 - - Bibliography of eugenics, 305 - - ---- of racial poisons, 318 - - ---- of transmissible diseases, 318 - - Biography, as a guide to heredity, 152 - - ----, neglect of ancestral data in, 152 - - "Biology and History," by Dr. Saleeby, 254 (_note_) - - "Biology, The Principles of," by Herbert Spencer, 312 - - Biometrics, the study of, xiii - - Birth-rate, falling, eugenic aspect of the, 10 - - ---- in China, 78 - - ---- in Japan, 78 - - ---- of man, 72 - - ----, statistics of, 74 - - Births, ratio of, of the sexes, 294 - - "Black Stain, The," by G. R. Sims, 237, 319 - - Body, the necessity of the, 53 - - ----, relation of the, to the mind, 52 - - Brains, breeding for, 54 - - Breeding for brains, 54 - - ---- for energy, 66 - - ---- for intelligence, 147, 150, 153 - - ---- for motherhood, 145, 146 - - - Celibacy, non-eugenic results of, 116 - - Census, the uselessness of the, 6, 94 - - "Century Dictionary, The," on eugenics, 314 - - Characters, inborn, _versus_ acquirements, 101 - - Child-birth, superstition about, 106 - - Children, eugenics and cruelty to, 295 - - ----, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to, 295 - - "Children of the Nation, The," by Sir John Gorst, 319 - - China, the birth-rate in, 78 - - ----, racial state of, 274 - - Church, non-eugenic action of the, 116 - - Civic worth, 68 - - Civilisation, ideal, 117 - - Civilisations, the decay of, 255 - - Cocaine, the racial influence of, 250 - - "Collectivism, Individualism and," by Dr. Saleeby, 101 (_note_) - - Colour-blindness, _see_ Daltonism - - Conception, attitude of eugenics before and after, 30 - - "Congenital" defined, 105, 112 - - "Conscientiousness", 117 - - Crime, eugenics and, 177 - - ----, theories of, 177 - - ----, treatment of, 178 - - Criminality and civic worth, 68 - - "Cry of the Children, The," by G. R. Sims, 237, 319 - - - Daltonism and heredity, 179 - - "Dark ages," caused by the celibacy of the fittest, 116 - - "Darwinism To-day," by Vernon L. Kellogg, 312 - - "Data of Ethics, The," by Spencer, 302 (_note_) - - Deaf-mutism and heredity, 173 - - Death-rate, a low, the cause of the multiplication of man, 73 - - ----, influence of density of population on the, 75 - - ----, limitation of the, 78 - - ----, statistics of the, 74 - - Decadence, National, 279 - - "Decadence," by A. J. Balfour, 279 - - "Degeneration," defined, 25 (_note_) - - Degeneration, human, and alcohol, 217, 242 - - ----, racial, 49 - - "Descent of Man, The," by Charles Darwin, 171, 191, 197, 279, 311 - - "Deterioration," defined, 25 (_note_) - - Diminution of offspring, the eugenic value of, 162 - - Disease, latency of, 108 - - Diseases, transmissible, bibliography of, 318 - - "Diseases of Occupation," by Sir Thomas Oliver, 247 (_note_), 319 - - "Diseases of Society: The Vice and Crime Problem," by G. K. Lydston, - 318 - - Domestics, the politics of the future, 33, 285 - - "Drink Problem, The," by Fourteen Medical Authorities, 319 - - "Drink Problem, The," by Mrs. Scharlieb, 214 - - Drunkard, influence of the, on the race, 241 - - ----, marriage and parentage of the, 220, 235 - - ----, the habitual, control of, in various countries, 242 - - ----, ----, treatment of, by the London County Council, 39 (_note_), - 220-238 - - Drunkenness, habitual, imprisonment as a treatment for, 218 - - ----, increase of, 218 - - - Early Notification of Births Act, 33 - - "Economic Classics", 312 - - Education, age at which to begin, 125 - - ---- and heredity, 128 - - ---- and inequality, 131 - - ---- and race culture, 120 - - ----, eugenic, 139 - - ---- for parenthood, xii, 138 - - ----, higher, of woman, non-eugenic effects of, xiii, 89 - - ---- in the principle of selection, 137 - - ----, modern, the destruction of mind, 120 - - ----, sexual, of children, 139 - - ----, ----, of girls, 318 - - ----, the limits of, 123 - - ----, the provision of an environment, 12, 125 - - ----, the real functions of, 136 - - "Education," by Herbert Spencer, 317 - - Elephant, birth-rate of the, 72 (_note_) - - Emigration, the eugenic evils of, xi - - ----, a remedy for over-population, 84 - - Energetic cost of reproduction, the, 87 - - Energy, breeding for, 66 - - ----, eugenic value of, 291 - - Environment, education the provision of, 12, 125 - - ----, effects of, 103 - - ----, good, defined, 275 - - ---- and heredity, 126 - - ----, of motherhood, the, 270 - - Epilepsy, eugenics and, 176 - - Erect attitude, the, 55 - - "Essential Factor of Progress, The," by Dr. Saleeby, 262 - - Eugenic sense, the creation of a, 144 - - Eugenics and alcohol, 206 - - ----, bibliography of, 305 - - ---- and conception, 30 - - ---- and crime, 177 - - ---- and cruelty to children, 295 - - ---- and Daltonism, 179 - - ---- and hæmophilia, 179 - - ---- and insanity, 175 - - ----, defined, viii, 315 - - ----, epilepsy and, 176 - - ----, feeble-minded, the, and, 174 - - ----, higher education of woman, and, 89 - - ---- in Germany, 154 - - ----, infant mortality, and, 20 - - ----, international, xi - - ----, Nietzscheanism and, 28 - - ----, politics and, 118 - - ----, positive and negative, 172 - - ----, present influence of, on marriage, 187 - - ----, religion and, 303 - - ----, the aims of, summarized, 276, 309 - - ----, the classes of society and, 119 - - ----, the length of marriage engagements and, 198 - - ----, the morality of, 303 - - ----, tuberculosis and, 178 - - ----, unemployment and, 293 - - ----, woman and, 294 - - Eugenics Education Society, the, 222, 229, 230, 299 - - ---- ---- ----, the history and objects of, 139 - - ---- ---- ----, the Inebriates Committee and, 240 - - ---- ---- ----, the reform of drunkards and, 241 - - "Eugenics as a Factor in Religion," by F. Galton, 315 - - "Eugenics, Its Definition, Scope, and Aims," by F. Galton, 314 - - "Eugenics, National, Studies in," by F. Galton, 315 - - "Eugenics, National, The Scope and Importance to the State of the - Science of," by Karl Pearson, 315 - - "Eugenics, Probability the Foundation of," by F. Galton, 315 - - "Eugenics, The Obstacles to," by Dr. Saleeby, 175 (_note_) - - Evolution and progress, 48 - - ----, introduction of the term, 48 (_note_) - - "Evolution of Marriage, The," by Prof. Letourneau, 312 - - "Evolution of Sex, The," by Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson, 312 - - "Evolution, the Master Key," by Dr. Saleeby, 147 - - "Evolution Theory, The," by August Weismann, 311 - - Examinations, mental emetics, 121 - - - "Family, The," by Mrs. Elsie Clews Parsons, 161, 314 - - Fatherhood, eugenic, importance of, 154 - - ----, individual, 156 - - Feeble-minded, eugenics and the, 174 - - ----, the London County Council and the, 229 - - ----, the Royal Commission on the, 215, 242 - - "Fittest," defined, 43 - - France, effect of Napoleonic wars on, 284 - - ----, increase of population in, 76 - - Francis Galton Eugenics Laboratory, the, 315 - - "French Revolution, The," by Carlyle, 254 (_note_) - - Fulmar petrel, the multiplication of the, 73 (_note_) - - - Generation, the independence of every, 3 - - Genesis, individuation and, 87 - - "Genetics, the Methods and Scope of," by Prof. W. Bateson, 306 - - Genius, infertility of, 287, 92 - - ----, the production of, 289 - - ----, the transmission of, 289 - - ----, the value of, to the world, 291 - - "Genius, British, A Study of," by Havelock Ellis, 308 - - "Genius, Hereditary," by F. Galton, _see_ Hereditary Genius - - Germany, eugenics in, 158 - - ----, increase of population in, 76, 77 - - "Germinal," defined, 110 - - Germ-plasm, immortality of the, 256 - - "Germ-plasm, A Theory of Heredity, The," by August Weismann, 208, 311 - - Girls, the sexual education of, 318 - - Great Britain, increase of population in, 76 - - Greece, the fall of, 260 - - Gymnasium _versus_ playing fields, 63 - - - Hæmophilia and heredity, 179 - - Hampstead, birth-rate of, the lowest in London, 78 - - "Health, Strength and Happiness," by Dr. Saleeby, 119 (_note_) - - "Hereditary Genius," by F. Galton, 107, 114, 289, 302 (_note_), 307, - 308 - - Heredity, alcohol and, 206 - - ----, biography a guide to, 152 - - ----, Daltonism and, 179 - - ----, deaf-mutism and, 173 - - ----, education and, 128 - - ----, environment and, 126, 269 - - ----, hæmophilia and, 179 - - ----, obscured by acquired characters, 99 - - ----, race culture and, 99 - - ----, tuberculosis and, 179 - - "Heredity," by Prof. J. A. Thomson, 99, 305 - - "Heredity and Environic Forces," Dr. T. D. MacDougal on, 212 - - "Heredity and Selection in Sociology," by George Chatterton-Hill, 311 - - "Heredity, Alcoholism, A Study in," by G. Archdall Reid, 319 - - "Heredity, The Germ-Plasm, A Theory of," by August Weismann, 311 - - "Heredity, The Principles of," by G. Archdall Reid, 311 - - "History," defined, 254 - - "History of Human Marriage, The," by E., Westermarck, 312 - - "History of Matrimonial Institutions, A," by G. E. Howard, 312 - - "Human Breed, The Possible Improvement of the, etc.," by F. Galton, - 314 - - "Human Faculty, Inquiries into," by F. Galton, 308 - - Humanitarianism, indiscriminate, 27 - - Hygiene, individual and racial, 253 - - ----, school, 65 - - "Hygiene of Mind, The," by T. S. Clouston, 319 - - "Hygiene of Nerves and Mind," by August Forel, 242, 319 - - - Imperialism, alcoholic, 244 - - ----, the old and the new, 33, 34 - - India as a wheat-producing country, 80 - - Individual _versus_ race, 256 - - "Individualism and Collectivism," by Dr. Saleeby, 101 (_note_) - - Individuation and genesis, 87 - - Inebriates, _see_ Drunkards - - ---- Act, the, 222, 224, 225, 230 - - ---- ----, reports of the inspector under, 319 - - ---- Committee, the Report of the, 239 - - Inebriety, _see_ Drunkenness - - "Inebriety, Its Causation and Control," by R. Welsh Branthwaite, 319 - - Infancy, helplessness of, 3, 147, 148 - - ----, the mind of, 124 - - ----, the, of slum children, 102 - - "Infancy, Alcohol and," by Dr. Saleeby, 214 - - Infant mortality, 19, 97, 104, 150, 207, 257, 294 - - ---- ---- among the Jews, 274 - - ---- ----, eugenics and, 20, 29, 31 - - ---- ----, first public mention of, 33 - - ---- ---- in the east, 76 - - ---- ----, polygamy and, 166 - - ---- ----, reports of the 1908 conference on, 320 - - ---- ----, the war against, 21 - - "Infant Mortality," by Dr. George Newman, 86, 319 - - "Inherent," defined, 109 - - Inheritance, pecuniary, non-eugenic influence of, 101 - - ----, _see_ Heredity - - "Inquiries into Human Faculty," by F. Galton, 92, 128, 290, 308 - - Inquisition, anti-eugenic effects of the, 267 - - Insanity, "breach of promise" and, 202 - - ----, eugenics and, 175 - - ----, increase of, 176 - - Instinct, plasticity of, 148, 149 - - Intelligence, breeding for, 147, 150, 153 - - ----, the creation of, 149 - - ----, nature and, 40 - - "Intensity of life," the, 91 - - - "Janus in Modern Life," by Prof. Flinders Petrie, 22 - - Japan, birth-rate in, 78 - - ----, the racial development of, 268 - - Jews, the, alcohol and, 275 - - ---- motherhood and, 274 - - ----, the survival of, 272 - - - "Kingdom of Man, The," by Sir E. Ray Lankester, 41 (_note_) - - - Lamarckian theory of heredity, the, 134, 135, 208, 283 - - ---- ---- of racial degeneration, 258, 261 - - Lead, a racial poison, 247 - - "Leviathan," by Hobbes, 106 (_note_) - - Licensing Bill of 1908, the, 223, 232-237 - - Life, the continuity of, 2 - - London County Council, alcoholism and, 206 - - ---- ---- ----, feeble-minded children and, 229 - - ---- ---- ----, the treatment of inebriates by, 39 (_note_), 220-238 - - ---- Hospital, gift to, 11 (_note_) - - Longevity, marriage and, 191 - - Love, eugenic value of, 70 - - ----, motherhood and, 152 - - ----, survival value of, 51 - - ----, the two stages of, 186 - - - "Making of Character, The," by Prof. MacCunn, 124 - - Malaria, a racial poison, 260 - - "Malaria, A Neglected Factor in the History of Greece and Rome," by - W. H. S. Jones, 260, 282, 319 - - Man, the denudation and defencelessness of, 58 - - ----, the foundation of Empire, 262 - - ----, the future of, 299 - - ----, the latest product of evolution, 55 - - ----, the multiplication of, 71 - - "Man and Woman," by Havelock Ellis, 318 - - Marriage, animal, 162 - - ----, average age at, 90 - - ----, breach of promise of, and race culture, 201 - - ----, ---- ----, the law of, 202 - - ----, childless, 168 - - ----, contemporary, eugenic value of, 198 - - ----, control of, 184, 186 - - ----, defined, 170 - - ----, engagement of, eugenics and the length of, 198 - - ----, eugenic, 309 - - ----, ----, preparation for, 144 - - ----, ----, utility of, 162, 163, 168 - - ----, happiness in, extent of, 195 - - ----, human, 164 - - ----, inter-racial, xi - - ----, longevity and, 191 - - ----, "mixed" games and, 196, 197 - - ---- of cousins, xii, 168 - - ---- of the deaf and dumb, 173 - - ----, present influence of, on eugenics, 187 - - ----, procreation, the paramount function of, 158 - - ----, selection for, 189 - - ----, ----, by woman, 194 - - ----, socialism and, 198 - - ----, survival-value of, 164 - - ---- systems, English and French, 199 - - ----, the ball-room and, 196, 197 - - ----, the field of choice in, 195 - - ----, the Income Tax and, 174 - - ----, the, of inebriates, 235 - - ----, the sanctity of, 313 - - ----, unselfish, 144 - - "Marriage, Human, The History of," by E., Westermarck, 312 - - "Marriage, Restrictions in," by F. Galton, 185, 204, 315 - - "Marriage, The Evolution of," by Prof. Letourneau, 312 - - Married women's labour, 270 - - "Mass _versus_ mind", 95 - - Maternal care, development of, 150 - - ---- impressions, 111 - - Maternalism, the principle of, 169 - - Maternity, _see_ Motherhood - - "Matrimonial Institutions, A History of," by G. E. Howard, 312 - - "Memories of my Life," by F. Galton, vii, 308 - - Mendelism, 108, 118, 293 - - "Methods and Scope of Genetics, The," by Prof. W. Bateson, 306 - - Mind, selection of, 52 - - ----, the ascent of, 300 - - ----, the determinator of leadership, 59 - - ----, the master in war, 97 - - ----, the relation of, to the body, 52 - - ---- _versus_ mass, 95 - - ---- ---- muscle, 65 - - "Mind, The Hygiene of," by T. S. Clouston, 319 - - "Mind, Hygiene of Nerves and," by August Forel, 319 - - Monogamy, eugenic value of, 165, 170 - - ----, survival-value of, 166 - - ---- the ideal condition, 150 - - ---- the rule among higher animals, 163 - - Morality, survival-value of, 51 - - Morphinomania, parental, its influence on the offspring, 212 - - Motherhood, 169 - - ---- and love, 152 - - ----, breeding for, 145, 146 - - ---- carried on by unskilled labour, 151 - - ---- during the decline of Rome, 270, 271 (_note_) - - ----, education for, 151 - - ----, history and, 269 - - ----, Jewish, 274 - - ----, psychical, 151, 153 - - ----, the elevation of, 32 - - ----, the environment provided by, 269 - - ----, the evolution of, 149 - - ----, the safeguarding of, 170 - - ----, the subsidisation of, 151 - - Mothers, school for, 151 - - Multiplication of man, a low death-rate the cause of, 73 - - ---- ----, the laws of, 86 - - ---- ----, the rate of, 90 - - ---- of the unfit, 189, 279 - - "Munera Pulveris," by John Ruskin, 302 (_note_), 320 - - Muscle, right training of, 62 - - ----, the cult of, 60 - - ---- _versus_ Mind, 65 - - Muscles, useless, 61 - - - Narcotics, irritant and non-irritant, 251 - - ----, possible racial influence of, 250 - - "National Life from the Standpoint of Science," by Karl Pearson, 279, - 315 - - "Natural Inheritance," by F. Galton, 308 - - Natural selection, 35 _et seq._ - - ---- ---- and racial degeneration, 260 - - ---- ---- _versus_ acquired progress, 266 - - Nature, the cruelty of, 38 - - "Nature," defined, 110 - - "Nature of Man, The," by Metchinkoff, 90 - - Navy, superior intelligence of the, to that of the Army, 98 - - "Nemesis of Nations, The," by W. R. Paterson, 281 - - New Zealand, control of drunkards in, 242 - - Nicotine, racial influence of, 251 - - Nietzscheanism, eugenics and, 28 - - Nitrogen, the fixation of, 81 - - "Noteworthy Families", 114 (_note_) - - "Nurture," defined, 110 - - - "Obstacles to Eugenics, The," by Dr. Saleeby, 175 (_note_) - - Opinion, individual, power of, 138 - - ----, public, the education of, 14, 15 - - ----, the creation of, 138 - - Opium, possible racial influence of, 251 - - "Ordeal of Richard Feverel, The," by George Meredith, 112 (_note_) - - "Origin of Species, The," by Charles Darwin, vii, 73 (_note_), 311 - - "Origin of Vertebrates, The," by Dr. W. H. Gaskell, 50 (_note_) - - Overcrowding, 20 - - ---- and tuberculosis, 181 - - ---- and unemployment, 293 - - - Parenthood, alcohol and, 241 - - ----, classification of society for, 104 (_note_) - - ----, education for, xii, 138 - - ----, eugenic power of, 199 - - ---- of inebriates, 220 - - ----, selection for, vii, viii - - ----, the elevation of, 293, 294 - - ----, the link of life, 3 - - ----, the most desirable, 91 - - ----, the rise of, 161 - - ----, the sanctity of, 138 - - Parents, selection of, 4 - - ----, proportion of, to population, 4 - - Paris, hospitals in, 247 - - Physique, eugenic, importance of, 69 - - Playing fields _versus_ gymnasia, 63 - - Politics, defined, 286 - - ----, domestics the future, 33, 285 - - ----, eugenics and, 118 - - "Politics," Aristotle's, 167 - - Polygamy and infant mortality, 166 - - ----, significance of, 165 - - Population, density of, influence of the, on the death rate, 75 - - ----, increase of, and the food supply, 79 - - ----, ----, emigration a remedy for, 84 - - ----, ----, safe extent of, 93 - - ----, ----, statistics of, 75, 76 - - ----, quantity _versus_ quality of, 93 - - ----, starvation a controller of, 84 - - ----, statistics of, as data for prophecy, 93 - - ----, survival-value of, 90, 91 - - ----, the test of, 95 - - "Population and Progress," by Montague Crackanthorpe, 315 - - "Population, The Principles of," by T. R. Malthus, 83, 85, 312 - - "Possible Improvement of the Human Breed, etc.," by F. Galton, 314 - - Posterity, our duty to, 10 - - "Poverty and Hereditary Genius," by Constable, 308 - - Prevention of Crimes Act, The, 179 (_note_) - - "Prevention of Tuberculosis, The," by Dr. A. Newsholme, 319 - - "Principles of Biology, The," by Herbert Spencer, 86, 312 - - "Principles of Heredity, The," by G. Archdall Reid, 311 - - "Principles of Population, The," by T. R. Malthus, _see_ "Population, - The Principles of" - - "Probability, the Foundation of Eugenics," by F. Galton, 315 - - Progress, acquired, _see_ Acquired progress - - ---- defined, 50, 303 - - ----, evolution and, 48 - - ---- of achievement, and of the race, 4 - - ----, racial and acquired, 262 - - "Progress, Population and," by Montague Crackanthorpe, 315 - - Promiscuity among animals, 163 - - Public opinion, education of, 14, 15 - - - Quality _versus_ quantity, 293 - - - Race, immortality of, 256 - - ---- _versus_ individual, 256 - - Race-culture and human variety, 297 - - ----, education and, 120 - - ----, socialism and, 133 - - ----, the promise of, 287 - - "Race-Culture or Race Suicide," by R. R. Rentoul, 316 - - "Race Prejudice," by Jean Finot, 318 - - Racial degeneration and natural selection, 260 - - ---- ----, cause of, 263 - - ---- ----, the Lamarckian theory of, 258, 263 - - ---- instinct, education of the, xii - - ---- poisons, the, x, 246 - - ---- ---- and decadence, 259 - - ---- ----, bibliography of, 318 - - "Racial poisons," introduction of the term, 205 - - "Racial Hygiene or Negative Eugenics," by Dr. Saleeby, 205 - - Racial senility, the fallacy of, 256 - - "Reformatory," the word, 238 - - Regression towards mediocrity, the law of, 288 - - Religion, eugenics and, 303 - - ----, the survival-value of, 303 - - "Religion, Eugenics as a Factor in," by F. Galton, 315 - - Religious persecution, non-eugenic results of, 116, 264 - - Reproduction, the cost of, in energy, 87 - - "Republic, The," of Plato, 166, 313 - - "Restrictions in Marriage," by F. Galton, 185, 204, 315 - - Reversed selection, 265 - - ---- ----, the final cause of racial decay, 264, 266 - - ---- ----, war a cause of, 284 - - "Reversion," defined, 111 - - Rome, the decline of, 281 - - ----, motherhood during the decline of, 270 - - Russia, increase of population in, 76 - - ---- as a wheat-producing country, 80, 81 - - - "School hygiene", 65 - - "Scope and Importance to the State of the Science of National - Eugenics, The," by Karl Pearson, 315 - - Selection, alcohol an agent in, 206 - - ---- and racial change, 260 - - ---- by marriage, 189 - - ---- for parentage, vii, viii - - ----, natural, _see_ Natural Selection - - ---- of mind, 52 - - ---- of woman, for marriage, 189 - - ----, reversed, _see_ Reversed Selection - - ----, sexual, 67, 190, 197, 202 - - ----, the principle of, education in, 137 - - "Sex and Society," by W. I. Thomas, 317 - - "Sex, The Evolution of," by Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson, 312 - - "Sexual Choice", 314 - - Sexual education of children, 139 - - ---- ---- of girls, 318 - - ---- selection, 67, 190, 197, 202 - - "Sexual Selection in Man," by Havelock Ellis, 202 - - "Sexuel Frage, Die" (The Sexual Question), by August Forel, 130, 242, - 253, 320 - - Siegfried, the story of, 304 - - "Social Psychology," by Dr. McDougall, 117 - - Socialism and education, 129, 130, 132 - - ---- and marriage, 198 - - ---- and race-culture, 133 - - ---- and selection for marriage, 194 - - Society, the classification of, and eugenics, 119 - - ----, classification of, for parenthood, 104 (_note_) - - "Society, The Diseases of," by G. F. Lydston, 318 - - "Society, Sex and," by W. I. Thomas, 317 - - "Sociological Papers", 41, 114 (_note_), 185 (_note_), 279, 289, 314, - 315 - - Sociological Society, the, 275 - - "Sociology, Heredity and Selection in," by G. Chatterton-Hill, 311 - - "Sociology, The Study of," by Herbert Spencer, 317 - - Soldiers, mistaken muscular training of, 63 - - Spain, the racial condition of, 267, 268 - - "Spontaneous," defined, 215 - - Starvation as a controller of population, 84 - - ----, extent of, in England, 82 - - Stepney, birth-rate of, the highest in London, 78 - - Sterilization of mental and physical degenerates, 316 - - Strength _versus_ skill, 62 - - "Struggle for existence," the, 42, 83, 280 - - "Studies in National Eugenics," by F. Galton, 315 - - "Studies in the Psychology of Sex", 202 - - "Study of British Genius, A," by Havelock Ellis, 308 - - "Study of Sociology, The," by Herbert Spencer, 192, 317 - - "Survival of the fittest," the, 43, 49 - - Survival-value, 46 - - ---- of love, 51 - - ---- of monogamy, 51 - - ---- of population, 90, 91 - - ---- of religion, the, 303 - - ---- of the tape-worm, 47 - - ----, physical _versus_ psychical, 50 - - "Survival-Value of Religion, The," by Dr. Saleeby, 303 - - Syphilis, a racial poison, 252 - - "Syphilology and Venereal Diseases," by Dr. C. F. Marshall, 253 - - - Talent, the production of, 290 - - Tape-worm, survival value of the, 47 - - Tasmanians, racial disappearance of the, 257 - - Taubach, the Driftmen of, 59 - - Temperance legislation, the failure of, 236 - - "Time and Tide," by John Ruskin, 96, 131, 254 (_note_), 296, 320 - - Tobacco and the race, 257 - - ----, influence of, on pregnancy, 252 - - Tuberculosis, eugenics and, 179 - - ----, heredity and, 180 - - ----, overcrowding and, 181 - - ----, racial extermination by, 260 - - "Tuberculosis, The Prevention of," by A. Newsholme, 319 - - - Unemployment, eugenics and, 293 - - ----, overcrowding and, 293 - - United States, control of drunkards in the, 242 - - ---- ----, higher education of woman in the, 89 - - ---- ----, increase of population in the, 76 - - ---- ----, the, a wheat-producing country, 80, 81 - - "Unto this Last," by John Ruskin, 320 - - - Variation, 297 - - "Variation, Heredity and Evolution," by R. H. Lock, 311 - - "Variations in Animals and Plants," by H. M. Vernon, 311 - - Vertebrates, evolution of the, 55 - - Vital economy, the principle of, 17, 19 - - - War, a cause of reversed selection, 284 - - ----, mind the master in, 97 - - Wealth, Ruskin's definition of, 17 - - "Westminster Gazette, The," on the population and the food supply, 79 - - Wheat, improvement in, 82 - - ---- problem, the, 79 - - "Wheat Problem, The," by Sir William Crookes, 80 - - Wheat, Prof. Biffen's, 109 - - Whiskey, defined, 232 - - "Widows and Orphans," and the alcohol trade, 245 - - Woman and eugenics, 193, 294 - - ----, employment of, 294 - - ----, the higher education of, non-eugenic effects of, 89 - - Women, married, and labour, 270 - - ----, secret drinking by, 232 - - ----, selection for marriage by, 194 - - Work, the eugenic necessity of, 264 - - Writing, the art of, as a means of transmission, 261 - - - "Yellow Peril," the, 78, 269 - - "Youth, its Education, Regimen and Hygiene," by Stanley Hall, 318 - - - - - INDEX OF NAMES - - - Aristotle, 262 - - ---- on motherhood, 167 - - ---- on racial decay, 256, 257 - - ----, "Politics," by, 167 - - Arnold, Matthew, 289 - - ----, Thomas, 289 - - Asquith, H. H., 234 - - - Bach, 300 - - ---- family, the, 289 - - Bacon on the command of Nature, 13, 26, 41 - - Balfour, A. J., 228 - - ----, ----, on decadence, 234, 279, 280 - - ----, ----, on intemperance, 235 - - ----, ----, on legislation, 233 - - ----, ----, on Licensing Bill of 1908, 233 - - ----, ----, on politics, 286 - - Ballantyne, Dr., on the unborn infant, 320 - - Barker, Ernest, on the destruction of marriage, 167 - - Bateson, Prof. W., "Methods and Scope of Genetics," by, 306 - - Bateson, Prof. W., on education, 120 - - ----, ----, on Mendelism, 306 - - Beethoven, 127, 146, 289, 292 - - Bertillon, M., on marital longevity, 192 - - Biffen, Prof., and his experiments on wheat, 109 - - Booth, the Rt. Hon. Charles, on the extent of starvation, 82 - - Bouchacourt on the care of motherhood, 145 - - Bourneville, on lead poisoning, 247 - - Branthwaite, Dr. R. Welsh, 228, 238 - - ----, ----, "Inebriety, Its Causation and Control," by, 217 (_note_), - 319 - - ----, ----, on alcoholism as a symptom of degeneracy, 217 - - Brieux, "Les Avariés", 252 - - Brooks, Graham, on the Negro race, xi - - Brouardel, parental morphinomania, 212 - - Browning, Robert, 135 - - Buckle, 267 - - Buddha, 146 - - Bulstrode, Dr., on tuberculosis, 181 (_note_) - - Burchell, 52 - - Burns, the Rt. Hon. John, on motherhood, 32 - - Byron on the decay of nations, 255 - - - Cakebread, Jane, the case of, 222, 225, 228, 238 - - Carlyle, Thomas, 309 - - ----, ----, on history, 254 (_note_) - - ----, ----, "The French Revolution," by, 254 (_note_) - - Chatterton-Hill, George, "Heredity and Selection in Sociology," by, - 311 - - Chesterton, G. K., on eugenics, 158 (_note_) - - Clouston, T. S., "The Hygiene of Mind," by, 319 - - Cobden, Richard, 17 - - Cohn on the multiplication of bacteria, 160 - - Coleridge, 262 - - Combemale, experiments of, in alcoholism, 211 - - Constable, "Poverty and Hereditary Genius," by, 308 - - Copernicus, 180 - - Cottrell, Mr., on the population of London, 76 - - Crackanthorpe, Mr. Montague, on the birth rate, 95 - - ----, ----, "Population and Progress," by, 315 - - Crichton-Browne, Sir James, on education, 125 - - Crookes, Sir William, 85 - - ----, ----, on the wheat supply, 80 - - ----, ----, "The Wheat Problem," by, 80 - - - Darwin, Charles, 42, 236, 296, 301, 307, 313 - - ----, ----, and the effect of music on plants, 127 - - ----, ----, centenary of the birth of, vii - - ----, ----, his talented ancestry and kindred, 289 - - ----, ----, on degeneration, 171 - - ----, ----, on national rise and decline, 275 (_note_) - - ----, ----, on natural selection, 83, 137, 260, 261 - - ----, ----, on sexual selection, 67, 190, 197 - - ----, ----, on the elephant, 72 (_note_) - - ----, ----, on the future, 293 - - ----, ----, on the multiplication of the unfit, 227, 279 - - ----, ----, on the queen bee, 44 - - ----, ----, on vitality and muscularity, 67 (_note_) - - ----, ----, Ruskin on, 95 - - ----, ----, "The Descent of Man," by, 171, 191, 197, 279, 311 - - ----, ----, "The Origin of Species," by, 43, 73 (_note_), 311 - - Darwin, Erasmus, the grandfather of Charles Darwin, 289, 290 - - ----, Francis, 290 - - ----, Sir George, 290 - - Demme and parental alcoholism, 212 - - Disraeli on circumstances, 149 - - Down, Dr. Langdon, on drunkenness and the feeble-minded, 219 - - Dunlop, Dr. A. R., on habitual drunkenness, 219 - - - Eccles, McAdam, on alcohol and the racial organs, 209 - - ----, ----, on drunkenness, 221 - - Ellis, Havelock, "A Study of British Genius," by, 308 - - ----, ----, "Man and Woman," by, 318 - - ----, ----, on drunkenness, 219 - - ----, ----, on sexual selection, 202, 204 - - ----, ----, on socialism and education, 132 - - ----, ----, "Sexual Selection in Man," by, 202 - - Emerson on mass _versus_ mind, 96 - - ---- on the morality of the universe, 37 - - Empedocles on survival value, 46 - - Epictetus on fools, 130 - - Etienne on opinion as ruler, 234 - - - Féré on alcohol, 207 - - Ferrier, Prof. David, on habitual drunkenness, 219 - - Finot, Jean, on the Negro race, xi - - ----, ----, "Race Prejudice," by, 318 - - Fleck, Dr., on drunkenness and the feeble-minded, 219 - - Forel, Prof. August, 17, 137 - - ----, ----, "Die Sexuel Frage," by 130, 242, 253, 320 - - ----, ----, "Hygiene of Nerves and Mind," by, 242, 319 - - ----, ----, on alcohol as a racial poison, 244 - - ----, ----, on alcoholism and heredity, 242 - - ----, ----, on education, 129, 130 - - ----, ----, on our duty to posterity, 35 - - ----, ----, on the future of the race, 171 - - ----, ----, on the nervous system, 53 - - ----, ----, on the sexual education of children, 139 - - - Galton, Francis, vii, 110, 206, 293, 307 - - ----, ----, and acquired characters, the non-transmission of, 114 - (_note_), 216, 259 - - ----, ----, and biometrics, xiii - - ----, ----, and eugenics, positive and negative, 172 - - ----, ----, and G. B. Shaw, 155 - - ----, ----, and the law of regression towards mediocrity, 289 - - ----, ----, "Eugenics as a Factor in Religion," by, 315 - - ----, ----, "Eugenics, its Definition, Scope, and Aims," by, 314 - - ----, ----, "Hereditary Genius," by 107, 114, 289, 302 (_note_), 307, - 308 - - ----, ----, his kinship to Darwin, 289 - - ----, ----, "Inquiries into Human Faculty," by, 92, 128, 290, 308 - - ----, ----, "Memories of my Life," by, vii, 308 - - ----, ----, "Natural Inheritance," by, 308 - - ----, ----, on ancestry, a rational pride in, 144 - - ----, ----, on breeding for ability, 153 - - ----, ----, ---- energy, 67, 153 - - ----, ----, ---- health, 145, 153 - - ----, ----, on civic worth, 68 - - ----, ----, on civilisation, 117 - - ----, ----, on energy, 193 (_note_), 290 - - ----, ----, on eugenics, the meaning and the aims of, 157, 298, 315 - - ----, ----, on functionally produced modifications, the - non-inheritance of, 211 - - ----, ----, on genius, hereditary, 107, 114 - - ----, ----, ----, the quality of, 114 (_note_) - - ----, ----, on human intelligence, 41 - - ----, ----, on human variety, 298 - - ----, ----, on marriage, eugenic, 168 - - ----, ----, ----, late, 92 - - ----, ----, ----, the subsidisation of, 200 - - ----, ----, on motherhood, the subsidisation of, 157 - - ----, ----, on national eugenics, 115 - - ----, ----, on national rise and decline, 279 - - ----, ----, on public opinion, the formation of, 15 - - ----, ----, on society, the eugenic value of the various classes of, - 104 - - ----, ----, on sociology, the duties of, 275 - - ----, ----, on the desirable qualities, 299 - - ----, ----, on the future of man, 302 - - ----, ----, on the production of genius, 288 - - ----, ----, on the production of talent, 292 - - ----, ----, "Probability the Foundation of Eugenics," by, 315 - - ----, ----, "Restrictions in Marriage," by, 185, 204, 315 - - ----, ----, "Studies in National Eugenics," by, 315 - - ----, ----, "The Possible Improvement of the Human Breed, under - existing Conditions of Law and Sentiment," by, 314 - - Gaskell, Dr. W. H., "The Origin of Vertebrates," by, 50 (_note_) - - Geddes, Prof. Patrick, on Government, 122 - - ----, ----, "The Evolution of Sex," by, and Prof. J. A. Thomson, 312 - - Gibbon, 271 (_note_) - - ---- on history, 254 - - ---- on the necessity for advance or retrogression, 266 - - Gladstone, Herbert, and the treatment of chronic inebriates by the - London County Council, 222, 223 - - Godwin, William, on literature, 262 (_note_) - - Goethe on activity, 291 (_note_) - - ---- on fate and chance, 12 - - ---- on ignorance, 223 - - ---- on marriage, 168 - - ---- on the education of race, 136 - - Gorst, Sir John, "The Children of the Nation," by, 319 - - - Hall, Prof. Stanley, "Adolescence," by, 318 - - ----, ----, "Youth, its Education, Regimen and Hygiene," by, 318 - - Helvetius on the influence of education, 128 - - Hobbes, Thomas, on "Words", 106 - - ----, ----, "Leviathan," by, 106 (_note_) - - Holmes, Mr. Thomas, on habitual drunkenness, 220 - - Horsley, Sir Victor, and Mary D. Sturge, "Alcohol and the Human - Body," by, 319 - - Howard, G. E., "A History of Matrimonial Institutions," by, 312 - - Huxley, 29, 40, 58, 280, 281 - - ----, "Evolution and Ethics," by, 26 - - ---- on cosmic nature, 26, 36, 39 (_note_) - - ---- on Pasteur, 94 - - ---- on public opinion, 135 - - ---- on the multiplication of the unfit, 227 - - - Im Thurn, Mr., on marriage customs of Guiana, 184 - - - Jones, Dr. Robert, on the case of Jane Cakebread, 328 - - Jones, W. H. S., "Malaria: a Neglected Factor in the History of - Greece and Rome," by, 319 - - Joubert, 18 - - - Kant, 4, 87 - - ---- on the influence of education, 128 - - Keats, 46, 50 - - Kellogg, Vernon L., "Darwinism To-day," by, 312 - - Kelvin, Lord, his services to life, 95 - - Kipling, Rudyard, and imperialism, 244, 245 - - ----, ----, on breeds in the making, 245 - - ----, ----, on emigration, 9 - - Kirby, Miss, on the feeble-minded, 220 - - Kirkup, Thomas, on Malthusianism, 84 - - Koch and tuberculosis, 180 - - - Lamarck, 36 - - ---- on inheritance of acquired characters, 134, 258, 259, 261 - - ---- _versus_ Weismann, 206, 207, 208 - - Lankester, Sir E. Ray, on man, the controller of nature, 41 - - ----, ----, on the multiplication of man, 9, 71, 72 - - ----, ----, on the struggle for existence, 42, 280 - - ----, ----, "The Kingdom of Man," by, 41 (_note_) - - Legrain on alcoholism and heredity, 220 - - Leonardo da Vinci, 264 - - Letourneau, Prof., "The Evolution of Marriage," by, 312 - - Lewin on lead poisoning, 248 - - Lister, Lord, his services to life, 95 - - Livingstone, Dr., on African marriage customs, 184 - - Lock, R. H., "Variation, Heredity and Evolution," by, 311 - - Lombroso, criminological work of, 177 - - London, Bishop of, on the falling birth-rate, 96 - - Love, Dr., on deaf-mutism, 174 - - Lowell, J. R., on human suffering, 130 - - Lucretius, 12, 260 - - Lydston, G. F., "The Diseases of Society: the Vice and Crime - Problem," by, 318 - - - MacCunn, Prof., on the infant mind, 124 - - ----, ----, "The Making of Character," by, 124 - - MacDougal, Dr. T. D., on "Heredity and Environic Forces", 210 - - McDougall, Dr. W., on infant mortality, 23 - - ----, ----, on transmissible characters, 117 - - ----, ----, "Social Psychology," by, 117 - - Magee, Archbishop, 243 - - Malthus, T. R., 17, 313 - - ----, ----, his theory, 80, 83 - - ----, ----, ignorance as to his essay, 85 - - ----, ----, importance of his doctrine to-day, 85 - - ----, ----, "The Principles of Population," by, 83, 85, 312 - - Marcus Aurelius, 298 - - Marshall, Dr. C. F., on alcohol and syphilis, 253 - - ----, ----, "Syphilology" by, 253 - - Maudsley, Dr., on eugenics, 187 - - Mendel, the theory of, 108, 307 - - Meredith, George, 37, 231, 287 - - ----, ----, "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel," by, 112 (_note_) - - Metchnikoff, on age at marriage, 90 - - ----, "The Nature of Man," by, 90 - - Mill, James, 289 - - ----, John Stuart, 182, 289 - - ----, ----, on nature, 38 - - Milton, 292 - - Morgan, Prof. Lloyd, "Survival Value", 46 - - Mott, Dr. F. W., on habitual drunkenness, 219 - - Mozart, 126 - - - Napoleon, the wars of, cause of reversed selection in France, 284 - - Newman, Dr. George, on the falling birth-rate, 86 (_note_) - - ----, ----, "Infant Mortality," by, 86, 319 - - Newsholme, Dr. A., on tuberculosis, 182 - - ----, ----, "The Prevention of Tuberculosis," by, 319 - - Newton, Sir Isaac, 6, 146, 288, 300, 301 - - ----, saved by motherhood, 150 - - Nietzsche and the Darwinian theory, 51 - - ---- and the super-man theory, 25 - - ---- and "transvaluation," 101 - - ---- on organic evolution, 158 - - - Oliver, Sir Thomas, on lead poisoning, 247, 248, 249 - - ----, ----, "Diseases of Occupation," by, 247 (_note_), 319 - - - Palestrina, 127 - - Palmerston, Lord, 131 - - Parsons, Dr. Elsie Clews, on diminution of offspring, 162 - - ----, ----, on parentage, 161, 162 - - ----, ----, "The Family," by, 314 - - Pascal, 52 - - Pasteur and tuberculosis, 180 - - ----, his value to the French nation, 94 - - ---- on the abolition of disease, 72 - - Paterson, W. R., on slavery, the cause of the fall of empires, 281 - - ----, ----, "The Nemesis of Nations," by, 281 - - Pearson, Prof. Karl, 314 - - ----, ----, and biometrics, xiii - - ----, ----, "National Life from the Standpoint of Science," by, 279, - 315 - - ----, ----, on national rise and decline, 275 (_note_), 279 - - ----, ----, on the multiplication of the yellow races, 78 - - ----, ----, "The Scope and Importance to the State of the Science of - National Eugenics," by, 315 - - Pericles, 292 - - Petrie, Prof. Flinders, "Janus in Modern Life," by, 22 - - ----, ----, on infantile mortality, 22 - - Plato and motherhood, 166 - - ---- and the destruction of the family, 169, 313 - - ---- on the duty of Governments, 276 - - ---- on racial decay, 256, 257 - - ---- on the sanctity of marriage, 313 - - ---- on the State as mother, 313 - - ----, "The Republic," of, 166, 313, 314 - - Pope, on genius and insanity, 176 - - Potts, Dr. W. A., on "The Relation of Alcohol to Feeble-mindedness", - 214, 216 - - - Ranke, Prof., on the mind of man, 59 - - Ravenhill, Miss Alice, on "Education for Motherhood", 32 - - ----, ----, on the education of girls, 320 - - Reid, Dr. Archdall, on alcohol, 206, 211 - - ----, ----, on humanitarianism and deterioration, 24, 25 - - ----, ----, on the marriage of drunkards, 235 - - ----, ----, on the resistance of the germ-plasm, 250 - - ----, ----, "Alcoholism, A Study in Heredity," by, 319 - - ----, ----, "The Principles of Heredity," by, 311 - - Rembrandt, 4 - - Rennert on lead poisoning, 247, 248 - - Rentoul, Dr. R. R., on the sterilisation of mental and physical - degenerates, 316 - - ----, ----, "Race Culture or Race Suicide," by, 316 - - Reynolds, Sir Alfred, on the treatment of inebriates, 226, 230 - - Roche, Sir Boyle, on posterity, 11 - - Roques on lead poisoning, 247 - - Ross, Prof. Ronald, "Malaria, A Neglected Factor in the History of - Greece and Rome," introduced by, 319 - - ----, ----, on malaria as a cause of national decay, 260, 282 - - Rowntree, B. Seebohm, on the extent of starvation, 82 - - Ruskin, John, "Munera Pulveris," by, 302 (_note_), 320 - - ----, "Time and Tide," by, 96, 131, 254 (_note_), 296, 320 - - ----, "Unto this Last," by, 320 - - ---- on Darwin, 95 - - ---- on education and inequality, 131 - - ---- on life the only wealth, 17, 133, 269 - - ---- on marriage, 296 - - ---- on mass _versus_ mind, 96 - - ---- on posterity, 287 - - ---- on the duty of Governments, 18, 276 - - ---- on the future of man, 302 - - ---- on the manufacture of souls, 270 - - ---- on the neglect of children, 145 - - ---- on the neglect of woman, 145 - - ---- on true history, 254 (_note_) - - ---- on work, 264 - - - St. Francis, 301 - - Saleeby, Dr., "Alcohol and Infancy," by, 214 - - ----, ----, and G. B. Shaw, his controversy on marriage with, 157 - - ----, ----, "Evolution, the Master Key," by, 147 - - ----, ----, "Health, Strength and Happiness," by, 119 (_note_) - - ----, ----, "Individualism and Collectivism," by, 101 (_note_) - - ----, ----, "Obstacles to Eugenics," by, 175 (_note_) - - ----, ----, on biology and history, 254 (_note_) - - ----, ----, on London's inebriates, the case of, 226 - - ----, ----, on progress, 262 - - ----, ----, on the survival-value of religion, 303 - - ----, ----, on widows and orphans made by alcohol, 245 - - ----, ----, "The Essential Factor of Progress," by, 262 - - Salisbury, Lord, his attack on evolution, 45 - - ----, ----, on Spain a dying nation, 268 - - Sandow, 135 - - ---- and the development of physique, 64 - - Scharlieb, Mrs., on maternal alcoholism, 214 (_note_) - - ----, ----, "The Drink Problem," by, 214 (_note_) - - Schopenhauer on love intrigue, 197 (_note_) - - Schubert, 46, 50 - - Seton, Ernest Thompson, on animal marriage, 163 - - Shakespeare, 6, 126, 146, 245, 255, 287, 293, 301 - - ----, ancestry of, 107-109 - - ----, quoted, xii, 58 (_note_), 97, 231, 278 - - Shaw, Dr. Claye, on maternal alcoholism, 213 - - ----, George Bernard, 85, 169 - - ----, ----, on eugenics, 155, 156 - - ----, ----, on heredity, 102 - - ----, ----, on marriage, his controversy with Dr. Saleeby, 157 - - ----, ----, on motherhood, 166 - - Shaw, Dr. Claye, on the State as mother, 156 - - Shelley, 131 - - Simpson, Sir James, on the inheritance of acquired characters, 136 - - Sims, G. R., on children, the protection of, 237 - - ----, ----, on habitual drunkards, the treatment of, 222 - - ----, ----, "on the cry of the children", 295 - - ----, ----, "The Black Stain," by, 237, 319 - - ----, ----, "The Cry of the Children," by, 237, 319 - - Smith, Adam, 17 - - Socrates, 313, 314 - - Sombart, Dr., on the population of Germany, 77 - - Sophocles, quoted, 52 - - Spencer, Herbert, 4, 9, 85, 296, 300 - - ----, absence of early education of, 120 - - ---- and evolution, 43, 48 - - ---- and functionally produced modifications, 111 - - ---- and his reply to Lord Salisbury's attack on evolution, 45 - - ---- and Huxley, 26 - - ---- and "social organisms", 256 - - ---- on the cosmic process, 25 - - ---- on the defencelessness of man, 58 - - ---- on education, 131 - - ---- on education for parenthood, 140 - - ---- on human fertility, 89, 90, 91, 92 - - ---- on individuation and genesis, 288 - - ---- on marital longevity, 191, 192 - - ---- on marriage, 164 - - ---- on natural selection, 35 - - ---- on parenthood, 88 - - ---- on the future of man, 301, 302 - - ---- on the laws of multiplication, 86, 87, 266 - - ---- on woman and selection for marriage, 193 - - ----, the ancestry of, 152 - - ----, the "Autobiography" of, 35, 58, 65, 152 - - ----, "The Data of Ethics," by, 302 (_note_) - - ----, "the survival of the fittest", 23 (_note_), 43, 44, 84, 260 - - ----, "Education," by, 317 - - ----, "The Principles of Biology," by, 86, 312 - - ----, "The Study of Sociology," by, 192, 317 - - Spinoza, 46, 50 - - Stark, Dr., on marital longevity, 192 - - Sturge, Mary D., and Sir Victor Horsley, "Alcohol and the Human - Body," by, 319 - - Sullivan, Dr. W. C., "Alcoholism," by, 211, 242, 319 - - ----, ----, on alcohol and alcoholism, 207, 211-213, 220 - - Sutherland on parental care, 162 - - - Theognis on pecuniary inheritance, 101 - - ---- on the duty of Governments, 276 - - Thomas, W. I., "Sex and Society," by, 317 - - Thompson, Francis, 128 - - Thomson, Prof. J. A., "Heredity," by, 99, 305 - - ----, ----, on "inheritance", 110 (_note_) - - ----, ----, on race culture, 99 - - ----, ----, on reversion, 111 - - ----, ----, "The Evolution of Sex," by, and Patrick Geddes, 312 - - ----, ----, translator of Weismann, 311 - - ----, M. R., translator of Weismann, 311 - - Thoreau, quoted, 173 - - Tille on man the wealth of nations, 17 - - Tintoretto, 288 - - Turner, Sir William, on the human foot, 61 - - - Urquhart, Dr. A. R., on habitual drunkenness, 219 - - - Vernon, H. M., "Variations in Animals and Plants," by, 311 - - Villemin and tuberculosis, 180 - - - Waddington, Mr. Quintin, his translation of Aulus Gellius, 271 - (_note_) - - Wagner, "Siegfried", 303 - - Wallace, Alfred Russel, 314 - - ----, ----, on matrimonial choice by women, 194 - - ----, ----, on natural selection, 83 - - Watson, William, the patriotism of, x - - Watts, G. F., 4 - - Wedgwood, Josiah, maternal grandfather of Charles Darwin, 289 - - Weismann, August, 206, 211, 216, 248, 280 - - ----, his controversy with Lamarck, 208 - - ----, on parental alcoholism, 208-210 - - ----, "The Germ-Plasm: a Theory in Heredity," by, 208, 311 - - ----, "The Evolution Theory," by, 311 - - Wellington, Duke of, 128 - - Wells, H. G., on the multiplication of the unfit, 14 - - ---- on Spencer's terminology, 43, 44, 49 - - Westermarck, Dr. E., on marriage, 158, 165 - - ----, ----, on the control of marriage, 184 - - ----, ----, "The History of Human Marriage," by, 312 - - Wordsworth, 4, 244, 301, 302 - - ----, absence of early education of, 120 - - ---- on the decay of nations, 284 - - ----, quoted, 35, 277, 300 - - -Printed by The East of England Printing Works, London and Norwich - - * * * * * - -Transcriber's notes: - -This text was produced using page images of the book available from the -Internet Archive ( http://archive.org/details/parenthoodracec00sale ). -Every effort has been made to convey accurately the original work. - -Three typographical corrections have been made: in "millenium", -"symptons", and "be becomes guided by". - -Quotation marks have been added to balance quotes when missing, -and when supported by other sources; similarly with other cases of -obviously missing punctuation. - -Inconsistent hyphenation has been retained (e.g. "overcrowding" vs. -"over-crowding"). - -Italic text is surrounded by _underscores_. - -Bold text is surrounded by =equal signs=. - -Text in small capitals, such as quote attributions and the table of -contents detail, has been rendered in regular case. - -Index entries that use Roman numerals (referring to the Preface) have -each had two pages added due to obvious errors in the original. - -Footnotes have been numbered and collected at the end of the text but -before the indices. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Parenthood and Race Culture, by -Caleb Williams Saleeby - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE *** - -***** This file should be named 42913-8.txt or 42913-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/9/1/42913/ - -Produced by Sean/AB, Sandra Eder and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Parenthood and Race Culture - An Outline of Eugenics - -Author: Caleb Williams Saleeby - -Release Date: June 11, 2013 [EBook #42913] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE *** - - - - -Produced by Sean/AB, Sandra Eder and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - -</pre> - +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42913 ***</div> <div class="frontmatter"><p class="large">PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE</p></div> @@ -15581,387 +15542,6 @@ each had two pages added due to obvious errors in the original.</p> the book's title page, and does not represent any actual book cover.</p> </div> - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Parenthood and Race Culture, by -Caleb Williams Saleeby - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE *** - -***** This file should be named 42913-h.htm or 42913-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/9/1/42913/ - -Produced by Sean/AB, Sandra Eder and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Parenthood and Race Culture - An Outline of Eugenics - -Author: Caleb Williams Saleeby - -Release Date: June 11, 2013 [EBook #42913] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE *** - - - - -Produced by Sean/AB, Sandra Eder and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE - - - - - BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR - - "WORRY: THE DISEASE OF THE AGE" - "EVOLUTION: THE MASTER KEY" - "HEALTH, STRENGTH, AND HAPPINESS" - Etc., Etc. - - - - - PARENTHOOD - - AND - - RACE CULTURE - - An Outline of Eugenics - - - BY - CALEB WILLIAMS SALEEBY - M.D., Ch.B., F.Z.S., F.R.S. Edin. - - FELLOW OF THE OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, MEMBER OF - COUNCIL OF THE EUGENICS EDUCATION SOCIETY, OF THE - SOCIOLOGICAL SOCIETY, AND OF THE NATIONAL LEAGUE - FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND IMPROVEMENT - MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION - AND OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE - STUDY OF INEBRIETY - ETC., ETC. - - - [Illustration: Logo] - - - CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD. - LONDON, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND MELBOURNE - 1909 - - - - - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - - - - - Dedicated - TO - FRANCIS GALTON - THE - AUGUST MASTER OF ALL EUGENISTS - - - - - PREFACE - - -This book, a first attempt to survey and define the whole field of -eugenics, appears in the year which finds us celebrating the centenary -of the birth of Charles Darwin and the jubilee of the publication -of _The Origin of Species_. It is a humble tribute to that immortal -name, for it is based upon the idea of _selection for parenthood_ -as determining the nature, fate and worth of living races, which is -Darwin's chief contribution to thought, and which finds in eugenics its -supreme application. The book is also a tribute to the august pioneer -who initiated the modern study of eugenics in the light of his cousin's -principle. A few years ago I all but persuaded Mr. Galton himself to -write a general introduction to eugenics, but he felt bound to withdraw -from that undertaking, and has given us instead his Memories, which we -could ill have spared. - -The present volume seeks to supply what is undoubtedly a real need -at the present day--a general introduction to eugenics which is at -least considered and responsible. I am indebted to more than one -pair of searching and illustrious eyes, which I may not name, for -reading the proofs of this volume. My best hopes for its utility are -based upon this fact. If there be any other reason for hope it is -that during the last six years I have not only written incessantly on -eugenics, but have spoken upon various aspects of it some hundreds -of times to audiences as various as one can well imagine--a mainly -clerical assembly at Lambeth Palace with the Primate in the Chair, -drawing-rooms of title, working-class audiences from the Clyde to -the Thames. It has been my rule to invite questions whenever it was -possible. Such a discipline is invaluable. It gives new ideas and -points of view, discovers the existing forms of prejudice, sharply -corrects the tendency to partial statement. It is my hope that these -many hours of cross-examination will be profitable to the present -reader. - -It has been sought to define the scope of eugenics, and my consistent -aim has been, if possible, to preserve its natural unity without -falling into the error, which I seem to see almost everywhere, of -excluding what is strictly eugenic. Our primary idea, beyond dispute, -is selection for parenthood based upon the facts of heredity. This, -however, is not an end, but a means. Some eugenists seem to forget -the distinction. Our end is a better race. If then, beyond selecting -for parenthood, it be desirable to take care of those selected--as, -for instance, to protect the expectant mother from alcohol, lead or -syphilis--that is strict eugenics on any definition worth a moment's -notice. It then appears, of course, that our demands come into contact -with those prejudices which political parties call their principles. -A given eugenic proposal or argument, for instance, may be stamped -as "Socialist" or as "Individualist," and people who have labelled -their eyes with these catchwords, which eugenics will ere long make -obsolete, proceed to judge eugenics by them. But the question is not -whether a given proposal is socialistic, individualistic or anything -else, but whether it is eugenic. If it is eugenic, that is final. To -this all parties will come, and by this all parties will be judged. -The question is not whether eugenics is, for instance, socialist, but -whether socialism is eugenic. I claim for eugenics that it is the final -and only judge of all proposals and principles, however labelled, new -or old, orthodox or heterodox. Some years ago I ventured to coin -the word eugenist, which is now the accepted term. With that label I -believe any man or woman may well be content. If this be granted, the -old catchwords and the bias they create forgotten, we may be prepared -to consider what the scope of eugenics really is. - -Eugenics is not, for instance, a sub-section of applied mathematics. -It is at once a science, and a religion, based upon the laws of life, -and recognising in them the foundation of society. We shall some day -have a eugenic sociology, to which the first part of this volume seeks -to contribute: and the sociology and politics which have not yet -discovered that man is mortal will go to their own place. - -Only when we begin to think and work continuously at eugenics is its -range revealed. The present volume is a mere introduction to the -principles of the subject: the full elucidation of its practice is a -problem for generations to come. Nor is it easy to set logical limits -to our inquiry. We may say that eugenics deals with conceptions: and -that the care of the expectant mother is outside its scope: but of what -use is it to have a eugenic conception if its product is thereafter -to be ruined by, for instance, the introduction of lead into the -mother's organism? Again, the care of the individual is, in part, a -eugenic concern: for if we desire his offspring we desire that he shall -not contract transmissible disease nor vitiate his tissues with such -a racial poison as alcohol. Plainly, everything that affects every -possible parent is a matter of eugenic concern: and not only those -factors which affect the choice for parenthood. - -It follows that the second portion of this volume, which deals with the -practice of eugenics, cannot be more than merely indicative. In the -available space it has been attempted to define certain constituents -of practical eugenics, but in any case the entire ground has not been -surveyed. The concept of the _racial poisons_ may be commended to -special consideration. Whether a poison be so-called "chemical," as -lead, or made by a living organism, as the poison of syphilis, is of -great practical importance, because of the infection involved in the -second case: but, in principle, both cases belong to the same category. -Sooner or later, eugenists must face the transmissible infections, -and repudiate as hideous and devilish the so-called morality which -discountenances any attempt to save unborn innocence from a nameless -fate. He or she who would rather leave this matter is placing -"religion" or "morality" or "politics" above the welfare of the life -to come, and therein continuing the daily prostitution of those great -names. - -Again, the practice of eugenics may be commended and accepted as the -business of the patriot: and two chapters have been devoted to the -question as seen from the national point of view. I am of nothing -more certain than that the choice for Great Britain to-day is between -national eugenics and the fate of all her Imperial predecessors from -Babylon to Spain. The whole book might have been written from this -standpoint, but such a book would have been beneath the true eugenic -plane, which is not national but human. I believe in the patriotism of -William Watson, who desires the continuance of his country because, as -he addresses her, - - "O England, should'st thou one day fall, - . . . . . . . - Justice were thenceforth weaker throughout all - The world, and truth less passionately free, - And God the poorer for thine overthrow." - -This is a patriotism as splendid and vital as the patriotism of the -music-halls and of the political and journalistic makers of wars is -foul and fatal: and it is only in terms of such patriotism that the -appeal to love of country is permissible in the advocacy of eugenics, -which is a concern for all mankind. - -The prophet of that kind of Imperialism which has destroyed so many -Empires, has lately approved the emigration of our best to the -Colonies, on the ground that "it is good to give the second eleven -a chance." But as students of history know, it is at the heart that -Empires rot. The case of Ireland is at present an insoluble one -because the emigration of the worthiest has had full sway. So with the -agricultural intellect: the "first eleven" having gone to the towns. -Rome sent her "first eleven" to her Colonies: if you were not good -enough to be a Roman soldier you could at least remain and be a Roman -father: and the children of such fathers perished in the downfall of -the Empire which they could no longer sustain. I can imagine no more -foolish or disastrous advice than this of Mr. Kipling's, in commending -that transportation of the worthiest which, thoroughly enough persisted -in, must inevitably mean our ruin. - -The national aspect of eugenics suggests its international aspect, and -its inter-racial aspect. Not having spent six weeks rushing through -the United States, I am unfortunately dubious as to the worth of any -opinions I may possess regarding the most urgent form of this question -to-day. I mistrust not merely the brilliant students who, unhampered -by biological knowledge, pierce to the bottom of this question in -the course of such a tour, but also the humanitarian bias of those -who, like M. Finot, or the distinguished American sociologist, Mr. -Graham Brooks, would almost have us believe that the negro is mentally -and morally the equal of the Caucasian. Least of all does one trust -the vulgar opinions of the man in the street. Wisdom on this matter -waits for the advent of real knowledge. Similarly in the matter of -Caucasian-Mongolian unions. I question whether any living man knows -enough to warrant the expression of any decided opinion on this -subject. Merely I here recognise miscegenation in general as a problem -in eugenics, to which increasing attention must yearly be devoted. -But it would have been ridiculous to attempt to deal with that great -subject here. As for the marriage of cousins, to take the opposite -case, I always reply to the question, "Should cousins marry?" that it -depends upon the cousins. The good qualities of a good stock, the bad -qualities of a bad stock, are naturally accentuated by such unions: I -doubt whether there is much more to be said about them. - - * * * * * - -In the following general study of a subject to which no human affair -is wholly alien, it has been impossible to deal adequately with the -great question of eugenic education--that is to say, education _as for -parenthood_. If only to emphasise its overwhelming importance, one -must here insist upon the argument. There is, I believe, no greater -need for society to-day than to recognise that education must include, -_must culminate in_, preparation for the supreme duty of parenthood. -This involves instruction regarding those bodily functions which exist -not for the body nor for the present at all, but for the future life -of mankind. The exercise of these functions depends upon an instinct -which I have for some time been in the habit of terming the _racial -instinct_--a name which at once suggests to us that we are to represent -this instinct, to the boy or girl at puberty, not as something the -satisfaction of which is an end in itself--that is the false and -degrading assertion which will be made by the teachers whom youth will -certainly find, if we fail in our duty--but as existing for what is -immeasurably higher than any selfish end. Youth must be taught that -it is for man the self-conscious, "made with such large discourse, -looking before and after," as Hamlet says, to deal with his instincts -in terms of their purpose, as no creature but man can do. The boy and -girl must learn that the racial instinct exists for the highest of -ends--the continuance and ultimate elevation of the life of mankind. -It is a sacred trust for the life of this world to come. We must teach -our boys what it is to be really "manly"--the fine word used by the -tempter of youth when he means "beast-ly." To be manly is to be master -of this instinct. And the "higher education" of our girls, as we must -teach ourselves, will be lower, not higher, if it does not serve and -conserve the future mother, both by teaching her how to care for and -guard her body, which is the temple of life to come, and how afterwards -to be a right educator of her children. The leading idea upon which one -would insist is that the key to any of the right and useful methods -of eugenic education is to be found in the conception of the racial -instinct as existing for parenthood, and to be guarded, reverenced, -educated for that supreme end. It is for the reader who may be -responsible for youth of either sex with this key to solve the problem -on the lines best suited to his or her particular case. - -By the application of mathematical methods to statistics we can -ascertain their real meaning, if they have any. If, as frequently -happens, they have none, mathematical analysis is worse than useless. -Mr. Galton is the pioneer of this study, which Professor Karl Pearson -has named biometrics. Biometrics is not eugenics, as some have -supposed, but is a branch of scientific enquiry which, like genetics, -obstetrics and many more, contributes to the foundations of eugenics. -In the Appendix reference is made to various publications, mostly -inexpensive, which deal with biometrics. In the text I have availed -myself of biometric, genetic and other results impartially. Differences -of opinion between this school and that of scientific workers are to -be regretted by the eugenist; but it is for him to accept and use -knowledge of eugenic significance no matter by what method it has been -obtained. Directly he fails to do so he ceases to be a eugenist and -becomes the ordinary partisan. No reference is made in the following -pages, for instance, to the _law of ancestral inheritance_, formulated -by the Master to whom the volume is dedicated and of whom all eugenists -are the followers. I believe that law, despite its beauty, to be -without basis in fact and incompatible with demonstrated Mendelian -phenomena: and though the book is dedicated to Mr. Galton, it is more -deeply dedicated to the Future. This, indeed, is the _Credo_ of the -eugenist: _Expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi saeculi._ - - * * * * * - -Woman is Nature's supreme instrument of the future. The eugenist is -therefore deeply concerned with her education, her psychology, the -conditions which permit her to exercise her great natural function -of choosing the fathers of the future, the age at which she should -marry, and the compatibility between the discharge of her incomparable -function of motherhood and the lesser functions which some women now -assume. Obstetrics, and the modern physiology and psychology of sex, -must thus be harnessed to the service of eugenics, and I hope to employ -them for the elucidation, in a future volume, of the problems of woman -and womanhood, thus regarded. - - - - - CONTENTS - - - PART I - - THE THEORY OF EUGENICS - - CHAPTER PAGE - 1. Introductory 1 - 2. The Exchequer of Life 17 - 3. Natural Selection and the Law of Love 35 - 4. The Selection of Mind 52 - 5. The Multiplication of Man 71 - 6. The Growth of Individuality 86 - 7. Heredity and Race-Culture 99 - 8. Education and Race-Culture 120 - 9. The Supremacy of Motherhood 145 - 10. Marriage and Maternalism 160 - - - PART II - - THE PRACTICE OF EUGENICS - - 11. Negative Eugenics 171 - 12. Selection through Marriage 184 - 13. The Racial Poisons: Alcohol 205 - 14. The Racial Poisons: Lead, Narcotics, Syphilis 246 - 15. National Eugenics: Race-Culture and History 254 - 16. National Eugenics: Mr. Balfour on Decadence 279 - 17. The Promise of Race-Culture 287 - - APPENDIX Concerning Books to Read 305 - - INDEX 321 - - - - - PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE - - - - - PART I.--THE THEORY OF EUGENICS - - - - - CHAPTER I - - INTRODUCTORY - - "A little child shall lead them" - - -This book will be mere foolishness to those who repeat the inhuman and -animal cry that we have to take the world as we find it--the motto of -the impotent, the forgotten, the cowardly and selfish, or the merely -vegetable, in all ages. The capital fact of man, as distinguished -from the lower animals and from plants, is that he does not have to -take the world as he finds it, that he does not merely adapt himself -to his environment, but that he himself is a creator of his world. If -our ancestors had taken and left the world as they found it, we should -be little more than erected monkeys to-day. For none who accept the -hopeless dogma is this book written. They are welcome to take and leave -the world as they find it; they are of no consequence to the world; and -their existence is of interest only in so far as it is another instance -of that amazing wastefulness of Nature in her generations, with which -this book will be so largely concerned. - -Beginning, perhaps, some six million years ago, the fact which we call -human life has persisted hitherto, and shows no signs of exhaustion, -much less impending extinction, being indeed more abundant numerically -and more dominant over other forms of life and over the inanimate -world to-day than ever before. It is a continuous phenomenon. The -life of every blood corpuscle or skin cell of every human being now -alive is absolutely continuous with that of the living cells of the -first human beings--if not, indeed, as most biologists appear to -believe, of the first life upon the earth. Yet this continuous life -has been and apparently always must be lived in a tissue of amazing -discontinuity--amazing, at least, to those who can see the wonderful in -the commonplace. For though the world-phenomenon which we call Man has -been so long continuous, and is at this moment perhaps as much modified -by the total past as if it were really a single undying individual, -yet only a few decades ago, a mere second in the history of the earth, -no human being now alive was in existence. "As for man, his days are -as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind -passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it -no more." Indeed, not merely are we individually as grass, but in a -few years the hand that writes these words, and the tissues of eye -and brain whereby they are perceived, will actually _be_ grass. Here, -then, is the colossal paradox: absolute and literal continuity of life, -every cell from a preceding cell throughout the ages--_omnis cellula e -cellula_; yet three times in every century the living and only wealth -of nations is reduced to dust, and is raised up again from helpless -infancy. Where else is such catastrophic continuity? - -Each individual enters the world in a fashion the dramatic and -sensational character of which can be realised by none who have not -witnessed it; and in a few years the individual dies, scarcely less -dramatically as a rule, and sometimes more so. This continuous and -apparently invincible thing, human life, which began so humbly and to -the sound of no trumpets, in Southern Asia or the neighbourhood of the -Caspian Sea, but which has never looked back since its birth, and -is now the dominant fact of what might well be an astonished earth, -depends in every age and from moment to moment upon here a baby, there -a baby and there yet another; these curious little objects being of all -living things, animal or vegetable, young or old, large or small, the -most utterly helpless and incompetent, incapable even of finding for -themselves the breasts that were made for them. If but one of all the -"hungry generations" that have preceded us had failed to secure the -care and love of its predecessor, the curtain would have come down and -a not unpromising though hitherto sufficiently grotesque drama would -have been ended for ever. - -This discontinuity it is which persuades many of us to conceive -human life to be not so much a mighty maze without a plan, as a mere -stringing of beads on an endless cord of which one end arose in Mother -Earth, whilst the other may come at any time--but goes nowhere. The -beads, which we call generations, vary in size and colour, no doubt, -but on no system; each one makes a fresh start; the average difference -between them is merely one of position; and the result is merely to -make the string longer. Or the generations might be conceived as the -links of an indeterminate chain, necessarily held to each other: -but suggesting not at all the idea of a living process such that -its every step is fraught with eternal consequence. In a word, we -incline to think that History merely goes on repeating itself, and we -have to learn that History never repeats itself. Every generation is -epoch-making. - -It is thus to the conception of parenthood as the vital and organic -link of life that we are forced: and the whole of this book is -really concerned with parenthood. We shall see, in due course, that -no generation, whether of men or animals or plants, determines or -provides, as a whole, the future of the race. Only a percentage, as -a rule a very small percentage indeed, of any species reach maturity, -and fewer still become parents. Amongst ourselves, one-tenth of any -generation gives birth to one-half the next. These it is who, in the -long run, make History: a Kant or a Spencer, dying childless, may -leave what we call immortal works; but unless the parents of each new -generation are rightly chosen or "selected"--to use the technical -word--a new generation may at any time arise to whom the greatest -achievements of the past are nothing. The newcomers will be as swine -to these pearls, the immortality of which is always conditional upon -the capacity of those who come after to appreciate them. There is -here expressed the distinction between two kinds of progress: the -traditional progress which is dependent upon transmitted achievement, -but in its turn is dependent upon racial progress--this last being the -kind of progress of which the history of pre-human life upon the planet -is so largely the record and of which mankind is the finest fruit -hitherto. - - * * * * * - -It is possible that a concrete case, common enough, and thus the more -significant, may appeal to the reader, and help us to realise afresh -the conditions under which human life actually persists. - -Forced inside a motor-omnibus one evening, for lack of room outside, -I found myself opposite a woman, poorly-clothed, with a wedding-ring -upon her finger and a baby in her arms. The child was covered with a -black shawl and its face could not be seen. It was evidently asleep. -It should have been in its cot at that hour. The mother's face roused -feelings which a sonnet of Wordsworth's might have expressed, or a -painting by some artist with a soul, a Rembrandt or a Watts, such as -we may look for in vain amongst the be-lettered to-day. Here was the -spectacle of mother and child, which all the great historic religions, -from Buddhism to Christianity, have rightly worshipped; the spectacle -which more nearly symbolises the sublime than any other upon which the -eye of a man, himself once such a child, can rest; the spectacle which -alone epitomises the life of mankind and the unalterable conditions of -all human life and all human societies, reminding us at once of our -individual mortality, and the immortality of our race-- - - "While we, the brave, the mighty and the wise, - We Men, who in our morn of youth defied - The Elements, must vanish;--be it so! - Enough, if something from our hands have power - To live, and act, and serve the future hour:" - ---the spectacle which alone, if any can, may reconcile us to death; -the spectacle of that which alone can sanctify the love of the sexes; -the spectacle of motherhood in being, the supreme duty and supreme -privilege of womanhood--"a mother is a mother still, the holiest thing -alive." - -This woman, utterly unconscious of the dignity of her attitude and of -the contrast between herself and the imitation of a woman, elegantly -clothed, who sat next her, giving her not a thought nor a glance, nor -yet room for the elbow bent in its divine office, was probably some -thirty-two or three years old, as time is measured by the revolutions -of the earth around the sun. Measured by some more relevant gauge, -she was evidently aged, her face grey and drawn, desperately tired, -yet placid--not with due exultation but with the calm of one who has -no hope. She was too weary to draw the child to her bosom, and her -arms lay upon her knees; but instead she bent her body downwards to -her baby. She looked straight out in front of her, not at me nor at -the passing phantasms beyond, but at nothing. The eyes were open but -they were too tired to see. The face had no beauty of feature nor of -colour nor of intelligence, but it was wholly beautiful, made so by -motherhood; and I think she must have held some faith. The tint of her -skin and of her eyeballs spoke of the impoverishment of her blood, her -need of sleep and rest and ease of mind. She will probably be killed -by consumption within five years and will certainly never hold a -grand-child in her arms. The pathologist may lay this crime at the door -of the tubercle bacillus; but a prophet would lay it at the reader's -door and mine. - -While we read and write, play at politics or ping-pong, this woman -and myriads like her are doing the essential work of the world. _The -worm waits for us as well as for her and them: and in a few years her -children and theirs will be Mankind._ We need a prophet to cry aloud -and spare not; to tell us that if this is the fate of mothers in the -ranks which supply the overwhelming proportion of our children, our -nation may number Shakespeare and Newton amongst the glories of its -past, and the lands of ancient empires amongst its present possessions, -but it can have no future; that if, worshipping what it is pleased to -call success, it has no tears nor even eyes for such failures as these, -it may walk in the ways of its insensible heart and in the sight of -its blind eyes, yet it is walking not in its sleep but in its death, -is already doomed and damned almost past recall; and that, if it is to -be saved, there will avail not "broadening the basis of taxation," nor -teaching in churches the worship of the Holy Mother and Holy Child, -whilst Motherhood is blasphemed at their very doors, but this and this -only--the establishment, not in statutes but in the consciences of men -and women, of a true religion based upon these perdurable and evident -dogmas--that all human life is holy, all mothers and all children, -that history is made in the nursery, that the individual dies, that -therefore children determine the destinies of all civilisations, that -the race or society which succeeds with its mammoth ships and its -manufactures but fails to produce men and women, is on the brink of -irretrievable doom; that the body of man is an animal, endowed with -the inherited animal instincts necessary for self-preservation and the -perpetuation of the race, but that, if the possession of this body by a -conscious spirit, "looking before and after," is anything more than a -"sport" of the evolutionary forces, it demands that, the blind animal -instincts notwithstanding, the desecration of motherhood, the perennial -slaughter and injury of children, the casual unconsidered birth of -children for whom there is no room or light or air or food, and of -children whose inheritance condemns them to misery, insanity or crime, -must cease; and that the recurrent drama of human love and struggle -reaches its happy ending not when the protagonists are married, but -when they join hands over a little child that promises to be a worthy -heir of all the ages. This religion must teach that the spectacle of a -prematurely aged and weary and hopeless mother, which he who runs or -rides may see, produced by our rude foreshadowings of civilisation, is -an affront to all honest and thoughtful eyes: that where there are no -mothers, such as mothers should be, the people will assuredly perish, -though everything they touch should turn to gold, though science and -art and philosophy should flourish as never before. I believe that -history, rightly read, teaches these tremendous lessons. - - * * * * * - -In our own day the bounds of imagination are undoubtedly widening. -Means of communication, the press, the camera, the decadence of -obsolete dogmas, making room for the simple daily truths of morality -which have "the dignity of dateless age" and are too hard for the teeth -of time--these account in large measure for the fact that the happier -half of the world is at last beginning to realise how the other half -lives. There is perhaps more divine discontent with things as they are -than ever heretofore: this being due, as has been suggested, perhaps -as much to the modern aids of imagination as to any inherent increase -of sympathy. Science, too, in the form of sociology and economics, -adds warrant to the demand for some radical reform of the conditions -of life. It teaches that all forms of life are interdependent; that -society is thus an organism in more than merely loose analogy; that -the classes pay abundantly for the state of the masses: whilst -medicine teaches that the tuberculosis, for instance, which slays -so many members of the middle and upper classes, is bred by and in -the overcrowding of the lower classes, this and many other diseases -promising to resist all measures less radical than the abolition of -half our current social practice. - -Hence it is that we hear so much of social reform; and the promises of -representatives of many political -isms jostle one another at the gates -of our ears. The Anarchist at one extreme, and the Collectivist at the -other, with the Individualist and the Socialist somewhere between, -offer their panaceas. To me, I confess, they seem little better than -the scholastic metaphysicians of old days, like them mistaking words -for things, incapable of understanding each other, evading precise -definition and using terms which never mean the same thing twice as -missiles and weapons of abuse: and, above all, mistaking means for ends. - -But the leading error common to them all, as I seem to see it, is their -conception of society as a stable thing--a piece of machinery which -must be properly "assembled," as the engineers say; forgetful of the -extraordinary discontinuity which inheres in the swift-approaching -death of all its parts, and their replacement by helpless immaturity. -The first fact of society really is that all its individuals are -mortal. This we all know, but I question whether even Herbert Spencer -fully reckoned with it; and certainly the common run of social -speculators have not begun to realise what it means. Human life is -made up of generations, and the key to all progress lies in the nature -of the relation between one generation and another. Spencer records -the case of an Oxford graduate, desirous to be his secretary, who did -not know that the population of Great Britain is increasing. Here is -a capital present fact of the--merely quantitative--relation between -successive generations. So far as any influence on their theory or -practice is concerned, it is still unknown to nearly all our advisers. -Yet this fact of the ceaseless multiplication of man, which has -distinguished him from the first, and is absolutely peculiar to him of -all living species, animal or vegetable, as Sir E. Ray Lankester has -lately pointed out, is the source of the major facts of history and the -besetting condition of every social problem that can be named at this -hour. - -The professional and dedicated teachers of morality seem to be in -little better case. They believe in babies, perhaps, as the prime -and only really valid source of the weal and wealth and strength of -nations, and as the great moralisers and humanisers of the generation -that gives them birth. They are beginning to join in that public outcry -against infant mortality which will yet abolish this abominable stain -upon our time. But they are lamentably uninformed. They do not know, -for instance, that a high infant mortality habitually goes with a high -birth-rate, not only in human society but in all living species; and -they have yet to appreciate the proposition which I have so often -advanced and which, to me at any rate, seems absolutely self-evident, -that until we have learnt how to keep alive all the healthy babies -now born--that is to say, not less than ninety per cent. of all, the -babies in the slums included--it is monstrous to cry for more, _to -be similarly slain_. These bewailings about our mercifully falling -birth-rate, uncoupled with any attention to the slaughter of the -children actually born, are pitiable in their blindness and would be -lamentable if they had any effect--of which there is fortunately no -sign whatever, but indeed the contrary. - -Humanitarian sentiment, also, is terribly misguided. "Why always the -benefit of the future, has the present no claim upon us?" I have been -asked. Assuredly all sentient life, and therefore pre-eminently all -human life, in which sentiency is so incommensurably intensified by -self-consciousness, the power of "looking before and after," has a -claim upon us: but the question could have been asked by no one whose -imagination had been worthily employed. Our posterity will in due -course be as actual and present as we, their deeds and sufferings and -hopes as actual and present as ours. They outnumber us as the ocean -outweighs a raindrop; to avert evil from one of them is as much as to -relieve evil in one of us,--how much more to prevent the misery of five -in the next generation, fifty in the next and unnumbered hosts beyond? -To serve the future of the race is not to benefit a fiction: the men -and women of a hundred and a thousand years hence will be as real -as we. And to serve the future is to put out our talent at compound -interest a thousand-fold compounded. The weak imagination would rather -build a sanatorium for consumptives and see it filled with grateful -patients. This is a palpable, sensible good, for which the meanest -visual faculty suffices: but the strong imagination would rather open -the closed windows of nurseries or work at the mechanical problems -of ventilation, aye, or even at the structure of the bacteriological -microscope--finding the spectacle, in the mind's eye, of healthy men -and women fifty years hence as grateful and as real a reward as the -sight of a sanatorium in the present. The pace of progress will be -incalculably hastened when men, whether workers or bequeathers or -administrators, enlarge their imaginations so as to perceive that the -future will be, and therefore indeed is, as real as the present.[1] I -appeal to the reason of the kind-hearted reader. Would you rather make -one man or child happy now, or two or a thousand a century hence? - -It is, in a word, the idea of continuous causation or evolution that -explains the remarkable contrast between our outlook on the future and -our fathers'. In older--that is to say, younger--days, men's interest -in posterity was most naively and quaintly selfish. If they raised a -monument or did any piece of work which obviously would endure beyond -the span of their own lives, their chief motive seems to have been -that we should think well of them, nor forget how well they thought -of themselves. They were not concerned with us, but with our opinion -of them. They were anxious about the verdict of posterity; and the -verdict is that they little realised their responsibility for us, -or betrayed it if they did. There is also the frank attitude of Sir -Boyle Roche's famous bull, "What has posterity done for us?" This is -a quite familiar and conspicuous sentiment--as familiar as any other -form of selfishness: but it is as if a father should say, "What have -my children done for me?" and is open to the same condemnation. We -are assuredly responsible for posterity as any parent for any child. -Before the nineteenth century this fact could be realised by very few. -To-day, when the truth of organic evolution is a commonplace, and when -the plasticity of the forces of evolution is slowly becoming realised, -we must face our tremendous responsibility and privilege in a spirit -worthy of those to whom such mighty truths have been revealed. - -Parenthood and birth--in these the whole is summed. At the mercy of -these are all past discovery, all past achievement in art or science, -in action or in thought. The human species, secure though it be, is -only a race after all; only a sequence of runners who _quasi cursores, -vitai lampada tradunt_--like runners, hand on the lamp of life, as -Lucretius said. This it is which, to the thoughtful observer, makes -each birth such an overwhelming event. It is a great event for the -mother and the father, but how much greater if its consequences be -only half realised. Education in its full sense, "the provision of an -environment," as I would define it, is a mighty and necessary force, -for nothing but potentiality is given at birth: but no education, no -influence of traditional progress, can avail, unless the potentialities -which these must unfold are worthy. The baby comes tumbling headlong -into the world. The fate of all the to-morrows depends upon it. -Hitherto its happening has depended upon factors animal and casual -enough, utterly improvident, concerned but rarely with this tremendous -consequence. Fate may be mistress, but she works only too often by -Chance, as Goethe remarked. Fate and Chance hitherto have never -failed to keep up the supply which the death of the individual makes -imperative: and forces have been at work determining for progress, -to some extent, but most imperfectly, the parentage of these headlong -babies. Yet the human intelligence cannot remain satisfied with their -working--and much less so when it realises how they can be controlled, -how effectively, and to what high ends. The physician may and must -concern himself, on these occasions, with the immediate needs of the -mother and the child, and when these are satisfied he may feel that -his duty has been done; but, as he journeys homewards, he must surely -reflect--that this astonishing thing, then, has happened again, as -indeed it has happened many times this very day; that whilst this baby -is to become an individual man or woman, an end in himself or herself, -in its young loins and in those of its like are the hosts of all the -unborn who are yet to be. If, then, these babies differ widely from -each other, as they do; if these differences are, on the whole, capable -of prediction in terms of heredity; if the future state of mankind is -involved in these differences, which will in their turn be transmitted -to the children of such as themselves become parents; and if this -business of parenthood will be confined to only a _small_ proportion -of these babies, _of whom one-half will never reach puberty_; if -these things be so, as they are, cannot these babies be chosen in -anticipation, there being thus effected an enormous vital economy, -Nature being commanded to the highest ends by the only method, which -is to obey her, as Bacon said; and the human intelligence thus making -its supreme achievement--the ethical direction and vast acceleration of -racial progress? What man can do for animals and plants, can he not do -for himself? Give imagination its fleetest and strongest wing, it can -never conceive a task so worth the doing. - -This, and this alone, is what requires to be brought home to the -general reader and the reformer alike. Says Mr. H. G. Wells: "It seemed -to me then that to prevent the multiplication of people below a certain -standard, and to encourage the multiplication of exceptionally superior -people, was the only real and permanent way of mending the ills of the -world. I think that still." And then, in a few sketchy pages, Mr. Wells -discredits, as with one glance of great eyes, the very proposal which -he thinks to be the only real and permanent way of mending the ills -of the world. Not one man in thousands has got so far as to hold this -opinion; and it is the more lamentable that Mr. Wells, having reached -it, should hold it in the loose, formal, and inoperative fashion in -which the man in the street or the woman in the pew holds the dogmas of -orthodox theology. We need to educate public opinion--that "chaos of -prejudices"--up to Mr. Wells' standard, and then we need to accomplish -the much harder task of converting a mere intellectual speculation into -a living belief. - -But so surely as this belief, the crowning and practical conclusion -to which all the teachings of modern biology converge, comes to life -in men's minds, so surely the difficulties will be met, not only on -paper but also in practice. "Where there's a will there's a way." -Meanwhile men are content to work at the impermanent, if not indeed -at measures which directly war against the selection of the best for -parenthood: they do not realise the stern necessity of obeying Nature -in this respect--for it is Her selection of parents that alone has -raised us from the beast and the worm--and since necessity alone, -whether inner or outer, whether of character or circumstance, is the -mother of invention, they fail to find the methods by which our ideal -can be carried out. There is nothing, either in the character of -the individual man and woman, or in the structure of society, that -makes the ideal of race-culture impossible to-day: nor must action -wait for further knowledge of heredity. Little though we surely know -so far, we have abundance of assured knowledge for immediate action -in many directions--knowledge which is agreed upon by Lamarckians -and neo-Lamarckians, Darwinians and Weismannians, Mendelians and -biometricians alike. All of these agree, for instance, as to the -fact that the insane tendency is transmissible and is transmitted by -heredity. We need only public opinion to say, "Then most surely those -who have such a tendency must forgo parenthood." - -For it is public opinion that governs the world. If it were, as it will -be one day--which may these pages hasten--an elementary and radical -truth, as familiar and as cogent to all, man in the House or man in -the public-house, as the fact of the earth's gravitation--that racial -maintenance, much more racial progress, depends absolutely upon the -selection of parents; if the establishment of this selective process in -the best and widest manner were the admitted goal of all legislation -and all social and political speculation--who can question that the -thing would be practicable and indeed easy? Without the formation of -public opinion this is as hopelessly Utopian and inaccessible an ideal -as words ever framed; public opinion once formed, nothing could be more -palpably feasible. Hence Mr. Galton's wisdom in demanding that, before -we dictate courses of procedure, and even before we can expect profit -from scientific investigation, whether by the biometric method of which -he is the founder, or by any other, _public opinion must be formed_; -that the idea of eugenics or good-breeding must be instilled into the -conscience of civilisation like a new religion--a religion of the most -lofty and austere, because the most unselfish, morality, a religion -which sets before it a sublime ideal, terrestrial indeed in its chosen -theatre, but celestial in its theme, human in its means, but literally -superhuman in its goal. If the intrinsic ennoblement of mankind does -not answer to this eulogy, where is the ideal that does? - - - - - CHAPTER II - - THE EXCHEQUER OF LIFE - - "This last lustrum has enabled us to make an astounding discovery, - of which neither Adam Smith nor Cobden nor Malthus dreamed--that - a nation is composed not of property nor of provinces, but of - men."--Tille (1904), quoted by Forel. - - -The main thesis which the last chapter was intended to introduce is, in -the words of Ruskin, simply this: "There is no wealth but life." The -assumption throughout this book is that Ruskin is the real founder of -political economy, he first of moderns having seen this supreme truth. - -We speak of a nation's possessions, but possessions imply a possessor -or possessors. Wealth, as Ruskin teaches us, is "the possession of the -valuable by the valiant." If our national possessions were made over -to a race of monkeys, "they being inherently and eternally incapable -of wealth," what would they be worth? Furthermore, to possess and to -be possessed by, are totally diverse things. Says Ruskin, "Lately in -a wreck of a Californian ship, one of the passengers fastened a belt -about him with two hundred pounds of gold in it, with which he was -found afterwards at the bottom. Now, as he was sinking--had he the gold -or had the gold him?" - -=Vital economics.=--We have already alluded to the unique property -of mankind in virtue of which the radical character of the essential -wealth, which is life, has only too commonly been forgotten. In the -case of any animal or vegetable species we should have no difficulty, -if asked regarding its "success" and "prospects," in directing our -enquiry to essentials. We should examine the individuals of that -species, young and old, its death-rate and its birth-rate, and these -would supply us with the answer. In the case of man there is the almost -incalculable complication involved in the fact that he is capable of -making external acquirements,--material possessions and spiritual -possessions which, so long as he remains capable of possessing them, -are of real value, and, on account of what they mean for life, are a -true though secondary wealth. Amongst civilised mankind, therefore, the -essential question as to the breed of men and women is obscured by the -secondary question as to their traditional or transmitted possessions -or external acquirements. But if we remember the case of the drowning -man and his gold we shall realise that, fundamentally, the case is the -same for the human as for any other species. No one can openly question -this, but not one publicist or politician in a thousand believes it in -any living sense. The true function of government, said Ruskin, is the -production and recognition of human worth. This has only to be said to -be admitted; it is one of the thoughts that shine, as Joubert says. No -one denies it and no one acts upon it. - -In this sense such a phrase as the National Exchequer begins to take on -a new meaning, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer loses every whit of -his importance, except in so far as his proceedings tend towards, or -away from, the production and recognition of human worth. He plays with -money, whereas the Chancellor of the real Exchequer would work for life. - -=The facts of childhood to-day.=--But since human life is -discontinuous, since three times in a century the essential wealth of -nations is reduced to dust, and raised again from helpless infancy, -our urgent business is with the children of the nation. What, then, in -general, are the facts of the National Exchequer thus conceived? - -We find that, so far as ordinary physical health is concerned, -the majority of human babies--including, for instance, so-called -Anglo-Saxon babies--are physically healthy at birth. On the other hand, -a certain proportion are as definitely and obviously unhealthy at the -very start as the more fortunate majority are healthy. If certain -influences, such as alcohol and _some few_ diseases, have been in -operation, the babies may be already doomed--not national wealth, but -national _illth_. In the absence of these pernicious factors, there is, -on the whole, _physical_ fitness. The ratio is perhaps as ninety to ten -per cent. - -Here then, is, on the whole, a ceaseless supply of essential wealth; -physically, at any rate, of good enough quality. As every one knows, or -should know, the greater part of it we immediately proceed to deface -and destroy. Our mouths are full of argument concerning the principles -of what we are pleased to conceive as political economy. The principles -of vital economy we do not enquire into but outrage and defy at every -turn. So horribly and wastefully are we misguided that in point of -fact we actually destroy altogether the greater number, not of all -the children merely, but even of the fit and healthy children; and -it may forcibly be argued that, before any one proceeds to attempt -any choice amongst the children, as to which shall in their turn -become parents and which shall not, it would be well, apart from any -question of discrimination, to revise radically the methods which at -present permit this wholesale destruction. Whilst we kill outright -by hundreds of thousands every year, we damage for life far more, -including a very large proportion of those who, as things at present -are, will in their turn become the parents who alone are the makers -of the real wealth of nations. If this destructive process had the -effect which common notions of heredity would lead us to expect, then -most certainly not merely would Britain, for instance, be doomed, but -the very name would long ago have become "one with Nineveh and Tyre." -But though this destructive process (which it is best to describe as -resulting in deterioration rather than degeneration) has been long -continued, and though, in consequence of the great economic changes of -last century and the rush into the cities with their over-crowding, -it is perhaps more disastrous now than ever before: _yet_ it remains -true that most of the babies born in the slums are splendid little -specimens of humanity--so far as physique is concerned--bearing no -marks of degeneration to correspond with the deterioration of their -parents. In a word, heredity works--the racial poisons apart, as we -shall see--so that each generation gets a fresh start. _If there be no -process of selection_, each new generation begins where its predecessor -began and is as a whole neither worse nor better, whether physically or -psychically. - -=Eugenics and infant mortality.=--In the face of the foregoing, which -merely outlines the appalling indictment that ought to be framed -against civilisation for its treatment of its children, it is evidently -incumbent upon us to answer the objector who should say that the -whole purpose and argument of our present enquiry is premature, and -that surely our first business should be not to propose any novel and -revolutionary doctrine as to the choice of parents and of children, but -rather to stop this child slaughter and child damage--in other words, -that we should devote ourselves rather, not to providing children -with a good heredity, but to providing them with a good environment, -it being only too demonstrable that the environment we at present -provide for the great majority of them is deadly and abominable in the -extreme. This argument is all the stronger because most of the children -are admittedly fit physically at birth. It would seem as if there were -little to complain of in their heredity, whilst there is certainly -almost everything to complain of in their environment. - -If this objection is to be met at all, we must be most careful and -serious in our going. Whatever conclusions we come to we must at any -rate be sure that we do not impugn or deny the instant, immediate and -constant law of love which declares that there can be no adequate ideal -short of doing our best for all children, once they are born--nay, -more, from the very moment, months before, at which their individual -history starts. Whoso suggests that, as a present and immediate -policy, it is not right to care for all children, healthy or diseased, -welcome or unwelcome, nurseried in Park Lane or in the slums, may have -plausible and even so-called eugenic arguments on his side, but his -proposal is essentially immoral and therefore essentially false. For -all children actually in being--whether they await or have passed the -particular moment of birth--it is our duty, ideal and real, to do our -utmost. The believer in the principle of race-culture or eugenics--whom -I shall hereafter, as for some years past, call the eugenist--may -believe that it would have been better had some of these children never -been born; he may believe that, in the present unorganised state of -society, in the present dethroned state of motherhood, it were vastly -better had many even of the healthy majority never been born. He may -be convinced that, since so many of them will certainly die, failing -our feeble efforts to save childhood, their birth is a misfortune: but -on no terms and for no objects whatever does, or can, the eugenist -propose that any of these children, even though from the moment of -birth they be riddled with disease, should be allowed to die. Though -some will say that the keeping alive of diseased children, or even of -many children at first healthy, is a disaster, I maintain that no such -question of choice, selection or discrimination can find any warrant -in any form of morality--eugenic or other--from the moment at which -the child in question began its individual existence. Those of us who -advocate the eugenic idea must be perpetually on our guard against the -insidious alliance of any who, agreeing with our premises, declare -that it is a mistake, for instance, to prosecute a campaign against -infant mortality. I myself have had a share--by a continuous propaganda -started in 1902--in making this last a publicly recognised question, -whilst, on the other hand, I have done my best to popularise the idea -of eugenics. Let me repeat here what I have already said elsewhere: -that I strenuously repudiate any suggestion that the eugenic end is -legitimately or effectively to be served by permitting the infant -mortality to continue. The distinguished Egyptologist, Professor -Flinders Petrie, in his recent book _Janus in Modern Life_, describes -as follows the results of the present crusade against infant mortality, -as he conceives them:--"We must agree that it would be of the lower or -lowest type of careless, thriftless, dirty, and incapable families that -the increase [of surviving children] would be obtained. Is it worth -while to dilute our increase of population by ten per cent. more of the -most inferior kind? Will England be stronger for having one-thirtieth -more, and that of the worst stock, added to the population every year? -This movement is doing away with one of the few remains of natural -weeding out of the unfit that our civilisation has left to us. And it -will certainly cause more misery than happiness in the course of a -century." - -Here, plainly, is a serious argument. We are bound to sympathise with -its underlying assumption, viz., that not all babies are such as we -can desire to carry on the race. Still more must we sympathise with -any author whatever who has imagination and foresight enough to write -anywhere, on any subject, wrongly or rightly, such a sentence as "and -it will certainly cause more misery than happiness in the course of -a century." We need more such authors. But without going into the -whole argument here--as, for instance, regarding the singular use of -the word "natural"--I do most entirely deny the right of the eugenic -idea to any voice or place as to the fate of children _once they have -come into being_. Another writer, arguing on the same lines, says _a -propos_ of the abolition of infant mortality: "This last change which, -as the Huddersfield experiment shows, is easy of accomplishment, is -likely to be completely effected in the next few years, and we shall -then have abolished the one factor which in any important degree at -present tends to redress the balance between the rates of reproduction -of the superior and the inferior classes." These are the words of -Dr. W. McDougall, the distinguished psychologist. Dr. McDougall has -subsequently shown that he repudiates the apparent deduction from them, -and entirely approves of the present campaign of mercy to childhood. -Nevertheless, these arguments, plainly derived from the principle -of natural selection, do express a most important truth--viz., that -indiscriminate survival must lead to racial decadence, whether in man, -microbe or moss. I submit that the difficulty can be solved only by the -eugenic principle. - -The fittest must become parents, and the unfit[2] must not; then kill -the unfit, says Nature. And this indeed, in all living species other -than man, is what Nature does. But "thou shalt not kill," says the -moral law--not even the unfit. As the foregoing will have shown, some -thinkers to-day propose to avail themselves in this dilemma of the "New -Decalogue":-- - - "Thou shalt not kill but need'st not strive - Officiously to keep alive." - -This is no solution of the problem. There is only one solution, and -that is the eugenic solution. Nature can preserve a race only by -destroying the unfit. We who are intelligent must preserve and elevate -the race by preventing the unfit from ever coming into existence at -all. We must replace Nature's selective death-rate by a selective -birth-rate. This is merciful and supremely moral; it means vast economy -in life and money and time and suffering; it is natural at bottom, but -it is Nature raised to her highest power in that almost supra-natural -fact--the moral intelligence of man. - -=The dilemma defined.=--The moral law, and our natural human sympathy, -insist that we should seek to preserve all the children that come into -the world, to amplify the health of the healthy, and to neutralise, -as far as possible, the unfitness of the unfit. A mother brings her -malformed baby to the surgeon, and he does his best to patch up the -gaps left by the imperfect processes of development. Otherwise the -baby will die. Who dares look that mother in the face and say "Ah, -but it is better for the race that your child should die!" Such a -doctrine, I submit, blasphemes our humanity; it is intolerable to -any decent person who will pause to think what it means: and yet, -in so saying, we seem to defy Nature with her imperative law of the -survival of the fittest only. Pre-eugenic writers on evolution state -the case in all its hardness. Dr. Archdall Reid says that "If we -wish to improve the individual, we must attend to his acquirements by -providing proper shelter, food, and training." Well, we do wish to -improve the individual, and to preserve the individual! We do not wish -the super-man on the terms of Nietzsche--the super-man obtained at -the cost of love would turn out to be inferior to any brute-beast, an -intellectual fiend. But, Dr. Reid goes on to say, "such means will not -effect an improvement of the race.... On the contrary, they will cause -deterioration[3] by an increased survival of the unfit." The provision -of "proper shelter, food and training" will cause racial decadence! -Is it not evident, then, that such provisions must rather be styled -improper, and that we must refrain from doing anything for the defects -and needs of the individual, lest a worse thing befall the race? This -is an outrageous proposition, yet it is offered us as a necessary -inference from the principle of natural selection or the survival of -the fittest--which no one now dares to dispute. - -Herbert Spencer, to whom we owe the phrase "the survival of the -fittest," expresses this critical difficulty as follows: "The law -that each creature shall take the benefits and the evils of its own -nature has been the law under which life has evolved thus far. Any -arrangements which, in a considerable degree, prevent superiority from -profiting by the rewards of superiority, or shield inferiority from the -evils it entails--any arrangements which tend to make it as well to be -inferior as to be superior, are arrangements diametrically opposed to -the progress of organisation, and the reaching of a higher life." This -is permanently and necessarily true, and in our care for childhood we -have to reckon with it. Yet even Spencer himself did not pursue this -supremely important enquiry to what I shall in a moment submit to be -its logical and almost incredibly hopeful conclusion. - -Huxley, writing his well-known Romanes Lecture, "Evolution and Ethics," -at a time when, unfortunately, he had somewhat parted company with -Spencer, and was too ready to accept any argument that made against -Spencer's political views, cuts the Gordian knot in an astonishingly -unsatisfactory fashion. He declares that "the ethical progress of -society depends, not on imitating the cosmic process [that is, the -selection of the fittest], still less in running away from it, but in -combating it." This is shallow thinking and very poor philosophy. One -wonders how Huxley can have forgotten the great dictum of Bacon that -Nature can be commanded only by obeying her. He declares that moral -evolution is the direct contradiction and antithesis of the process of -organic evolution hitherto. He says, "Social progress means a checking -of the cosmic process at every step and the substitution for it of -another, which may be called the ethical process;" and he declares -it to be a fallacy to suppose "that because on the whole animals and -plants have advanced in perfection of organisation, by means of the -struggle for existence and the consequent survival of the fittest; -therefore men in society, men as ethical beings, must look to the same -process to help them towards perfection." - -With all this Huxley offers us no real solution whatever, no hint -that he has realised in any degree what must be the consequences of -indiscriminate survival. It is astonishing how personal bias, so alien -to the whole character of the man as a rule, blinded him to a solution -which, as it seems to me, stared him in the face. Assuredly we can -transmute and elevate and raise to its highest power what he calls -the cosmic process, and can reconcile cosmic with ethical evolution, -_by extending to the unfit all our sympathy but forbidding them -parenthood_. I deny that the provision of a proper environment for the -individual entails racial deterioration. Cosmic and moral evolution -are compatible if, whilst caring for each individual, whether maim, -halt, blind, or insane, and whilst admitting the categorical imperative -of the law of love which demands our care for him, we continue to -obey the indication of Nature, which forbids such an individual to -perpetuate his infirmity. Nature has no choice; if she is to avert the -coming of the unfit race she must summarily extinguish its potential -ancestor, but we can prohibit the reproduction of his infirmity whilst -doing all we can for the success of his individual life. This is the -ideal course indicated and approved by biology and morality alike. - -=The eugenic reconciliation.=--I submit, then, that there is no -inconsistency in fighting simultaneously for the preservation and -care of all babies and all children without discrimination of any -kind--and, on the other hand, in declaring that, if the degeneration -of the race is to be averted, still more if racial, which is the only -sure, progress, is to be attained, we must have the worthy and only the -worthy to be the parents of the future. I submit further that only the -eugenist can maintain his position in this matter at the present day. - -On his one hand is the improvident humanitarian with his feeling -heart, he who, seeing misery and disease and death, whether in -babyhood, childhood, or at any other time of life, seeks to improve -the environment and so relieve these evils. Close beside this wholly -indiscriminate humanitarianism is that which declares that with -childhood is the future and therefore devotes its energies especially -to the young, is grateful for every baby born, whatever its state, and -when adult years are reached, assumes that all will be well for the -future, though the principle of natural selection is thus made of none -effect. - -On the other side of the eugenists stand those whom we may for short -call the Nietzscheans. They see one-half of the truth of natural -selection; they see that through struggle and internecine war, species -have hitherto maintained themselves or ascended. They declare that all -improvement of the environment, or at any rate all humanitarian effort, -tends to abrogate the struggle for existence, and even, as is only -too often true, to select unworth and let worth go to the wall. This -school then declares that infant mortality is a blessing and charity -an unmitigated curse. In short, that we must go back as quickly as -possible to the order of the beast. - -Between these two, surely, the eugenist stands, declaring that each has -a great truth, but that his teaching, and his alone, involves their -co-ordination and reconciliation. He agrees with the humanitarian that -no child should cry or starve or work or die--or at any rate this -particular eugenist does--and he agrees with the Nietzschean that -to abrogate, and still more, to reverse, the principle of natural -selection, is to set our faces for the goal of racial death. But -further, the eugenist declares that the indiscriminate humanitarian, -blind to the truth which the Nietzschean sees, would heap up, if -permitted, disaster upon disaster; whilst he repudiates as horrible and -ghastly the Nietzschean doctrine that morality must go by the board if -the race is to be raised:--that we must be damned to be saved. - -Our age is now awakening, at last, to the cry of the children. The -tendency of legislation and opinion in every civilised country is -one and the same. For this humanitarianism let only him who thinks -of any child as a brat refuse to give thanks. But it is the business -of all who, whilst loving children and still in love with love, are -yet acquainted with the principles of organic evolution--in short, -the business of all humane men of science, men of science who have -not ceased to be human--whilst aiding, abetting and directing this -humanitarian effort by every means in their power, to teach and preach, -in season and out of season, that unless meanwhile we make terms with -the principle of selection, the choice of worth for parents, and the -rejection of the unworthy, _not as individuals but as parents_, we -shall assuredly breed for posterity, whose lives and happiness and -moral welfare are in our hands, evils that can adequately neither be -named nor numbered. Already, together with much blessed good, this -indiscriminate humanitarianism has done much evil. Many of our most -instant and, for this generation, insoluble problems are the lamentable -fruit of this inherently good thing. The eugenist declares that this -fruit is not necessary, that if it were necessary he could see no way -out of our morass and would echo the half-wish of Huxley for some -kindly comet that should put a term to human history altogether; and, -in short, that only by the eugenic means can the humanitarian end be -attained. - -During the last year or two of the campaign against infant mortality -many things have become clear, and none clearer than the fundamental -compatibility between this campaign and the principles of eugenics. As -these two efforts wall be predominant in the real politics of all the -years to come, a few more words must here be devoted to the relation -between them. - -Granted that the highest of all objects is the making of worthy human -beings, it is quite evident that we must attend equally to the two -factors which determine all human life--heredity and environment. -Eugenics stands for the principle of heredity--the principle that the -right children shall be born. The campaign against infant mortality -stands for a good environment[4]--so that children, when born, may -survive and thrive. Obviously eugenics would be of no use if the -children could not survive, and no human infant can survive unless -it be born into a moral environment: no motherhood, no man. The two -campaigns, then, are strictly complementary. We must endeavour to rid -ourselves of the popular notion that the whole result of the campaign -against infant mortality can be measured by the number of babies -whose death is prevented. The infant mortality is merely an index of -a widespread social disease--an index and an extreme symptom. But -for every baby killed many are damaged; and to remove the causes of -infant mortality is to remove the causes which at present effect the -deterioration of millions of human beings. The eugenic campaign, then, -without the other would be almost futile. - -=The time for eugenics.=--On our principles the eugenic question can -be decently raised only _before conception_. The unyoked germ-cells -of any individual, though alive, are not entitled to claim protection -from the principle that life is sacred. It is permitted to allow them -to die; but from the moment of conception a new individual has been -formed--a new living human individual, even though it only consists of -a single cell, product of the union of the parental germ-cells: and -we shall not be safe unless we regard this being as sacred and its -destruction--except in order to save the life of the mother--as murder, -even at this as at any later stage. If the eugenist should raise his -voice, and say that this individual should not be born, he must be -regarded exactly as if he were to recommend infanticide or the lethal -chamber for unfit individuals. In such a case he would have entirely -mistaken the whole principle of (negative) eugenics, which is _not_ -to elevate the race by the destruction of the unfit, at any stage, -ante-natal or post-natal, but to do so by prohibiting the conception -of the unfit. Directly the new human individual is formed the eugenic -question is too late in that case. It is now the eugenist's duty, -because it is every one's duty, to regard the new individual, whether -born or yet unborn, as an end in himself or herself. But when the -question arises whether that individual is to become a parent, then the -eugenic question can and must be raised. - -Circumstances might arise in which "case-law" might be applicable. It -might be thought better to destroy the syphilitic child rather than -allow it to come into the world. But we cannot make these distinctions. -The question is simply one of expediency, and the only expedient thing -is that there shall be no paltering with the principle that when a -new human life is conceived our duty is to preserve it, whether it -were conceived only twenty-four hours ago or whether it be a decrepit -and helpless centenarian. The instant we let this principle go we are -proposing to revert to Nature's method of keeping up the level of a -race by murder. It is improper, then, for any one on eugenic grounds to -protest against proposals for the arrest of infant mortality. He should -have spoken sooner; at this stage he must hold his peace. - -=The two campaigns complementary.=--Yet further: not only is it evident -that the campaign against infant mortality (which is, in a word, the -campaign for the provision of a proper environment for the young) is -obviously necessary for the fulfilment of the eugenic ideal--since -what would be the good of choosing the right parents if their children -are then to be slain?--but it can be shown conversely that the object -of those who are working against infant mortality can never be fully -attained except by means of eugenics. Eugenics apart, we can and -shall reduce the infant mortality to a mere fraction of what it is -at present, by preventing the destruction of that great majority of -babies who are born healthy. Even, however, when we have provided an -ideal environment for every baby that comes into the world, we shall -not have abolished infant mortality, since there will always remain a -proportion, say ten per cent., whom not even an ideal environment can -save. They should never have been conceived. At the Infantile Mortality -Conference held in London in 1908, this was clearly recognised by more -than one speaker. The maternalist must have the eugenist to help him if -his ideal is to be attained. - -Not only is the ideal of the two campaigns one and the same; not only -is each necessary for the other, but their methods are the same. -It is true that at first this was not evident, since when we began -to fight against infant mortality many temporary expedients of no -eugenic relevance were adopted, such as the _creche_ and the infant -milk depot. But in the interval between the Conferences of 1906 and -1908 many things became clear: so that, whereas the papers at the -first Conference were only accidentally connected, the programme -of the second proceeded upon a principle--the principle of the -supremacy of motherhood. We see now that the one fundamental method -by which infantile mortality may be checked is by the elevation of -motherhood. In the words of our President, Mr. John Burns, "you -must glorify, dignify, and purify motherhood by every means in your -power." Thus the first two papers read at the first morning's meeting -of the Conference--a brief paper by the present writer on "The Human -Mother," and an admirable paper by Miss Alice Ravenhill on "Education -for Motherhood"--might equally well have been read at a Eugenics -Conference. The opponent of infant mortality and the eugenist appeal -to the same principle and avow the same creed: that parenthood is -sacred, that it must not be casually undertaken, that it demands the -most assiduous preparation of body and intellect and emotions. When, at -last, these principles are believed and acted upon, infant mortality -will be a thing of the past and national eugenics a thing of the -present. - -It is essential in this first general study of the subject to state -the true nature of the relation between these two campaigns, to -which every succeeding year of the present century will find more -and more attention devoted. Between them they succeed in beginning -at the beginning, and it would be a disaster, indeed, if they were -incompatible. On the contrary, they are complementary and mutually -indispensable. As the years go on they will engage between them the -sympathy and the assistance of all serious people. In the year 1907 -infant mortality was first named in a speech by a Prime Minister, and -in that same year it was first mentioned in the Christmas-Day sermon -at St. Paul's Cathedral; in that year also Parliament passed the Early -Notification of Births Act, the first substantial legislative provision -which sets our feet on the road towards the goal of a true national -estimate of the value of parenthood. We are about to discover that -the true politics is domestics, since there is no wealth but life and -life begins at home. We are going to have the right kind of life born, -and we are going to take care of it when it is born. We shall raise a -generation which looks upon the ordinary money-changing politician as -an impudent public nuisance, and the brutal, blood-stained Imperialist, -shouting about the Empire which his very existence almost suffices to -condemn, whilst he battens on the cannibal sale of alcoholic poison -to babies and the mothers of future babies, as the very type of those -traitors--they of its own household--who have helped to destroy every -Empire in history. We propose to rebuild the living foundations of -empire. To this end we shall preach a New Imperialism, warning England -to beware lest her veins become choked with yellow dirt, and demanding -that over all her legislative chambers there be carved the more than -golden words, "There is no Wealth but Life." - - - - - CHAPTER III - - NATURAL SELECTION AND THE LAW OF LOVE - - "Truth justifies herself; and as she dwells - With hope, who would not follow where she leads?" - Wordsworth. - - "La plus haute tache de l'action morale est le travail pour le bien - des generations futures."--Forel. - - -Before looking more closely than we are commonly apt to do at the -meaning of the phrases "natural selection" and "survival of the -fittest," let us exercise the right of man the moral being, as -distinguished from man the scientist or observer of Nature, to pass -ethical judgments upon the facts which it is the business of all the -sciences, except ethics itself, merely to record and interpret in and -for themselves. We are beginning at last, half a century after the -publication of the _Origin of Species_ in 1859, to realise the power -of the law of selection; what is the moral judgment which is to be -passed upon it? In a passage from the last page of Herbert Spencer's -Autobiography, we find words which may be quoted on both sides: "When -we think of the myriads of years of the Earth's past, during which have -arisen and passed away low forms of creatures, small and great, which, -_murdering and being murdered, have gradually evolved_,[5] how shall we -answer the question--To what end?" - -"Murdering and being murdered" suggests the adverse, and "have -gradually evolved," the favourable, ethical judgment. - -Many thinkers, finding Nature "so careless of the single life," finding -the murderous struggle for existence the dominant fact of the history -of the living world, return an adverse verdict. Amongst them are to be -found not merely those who are inclined, by temperament or imperfect -education, to rebellion against any conclusions of science, but also, -as we saw in the second chapter, such a great biologist as Huxley. -In another part of the lecture already cited he says that the Stoics -failed to see - - "... that cosmic nature is no school of virtue, but the headquarters - of the enemy of ethical nature. The logic of facts was necessary to - convince them that the cosmos works through the lower nature of man, - not for righteousness, but against it.... The practice of that which - is ethically best--what we call goodness or virtue--involves a course - of conduct which, in all respects, is opposed to that which leads to - success in the cosmic struggle for existence." - -In other words, honesty is the _worst_ policy: and to worship natural -selection is to deify the devil. - -The reader will realise that, if we are to succeed in establishing -the claim of natural selection to be the natural model upon which -those who desire the progress of society are to base their policy, it -is necessary to controvert the doctrine that natural selection is an -anti-moral process. But let us hear the other side. - -The directly contrary view, then, is taken that though, truly -enough, there has been and is much "murdering and being murdered," -yet organisms "have gradually evolved" towards fitness for their -surroundings, or the _milieu environnant_ of Lamarck, which we -translate environment; and that since fitness or adaptation obviously -makes for happiness, and since the moral being man has himself been -thus evolved, the process of natural selection, "murdering and being -murdered" notwithstanding, is essentially beneficent. - -The controversy is embittered and complicated by the fact that ultimate -questions of religion and philosophy are involved. Is the Universe -moral, as Emerson asserted it was, or is it immoral? A recent opponent -of the orthodox creed of a benevolent Deity teaches that "The Lesson -of Evolution" is to disprove the idea of benevolence behind or in -Nature: "The story of life has been a story of pain and cruelty of the -most ghastly description." The age-long fact of "murdering and being -murdered" is the weapon with which he attacks the theist: who, _per -contra_, points to the beneficent result, the exquisite adaptation of -all species to the circumstances of their life, and the evolution of -love itself. - -We may remind ourselves of those great lines of Mr. George Meredith, - - "... sure reward - We have whom knowledge crowns; - Who see in mould the rose unfold, - _The soul through blood and tears_." - -The one camp points to the "blood and tears" and asks for a verdict -accordingly. The other points to "the soul" as their product, and asks -for a verdict accordingly. But surely we need only to have the case -fairly stated, in order to realise that the "blood and tears" are true -but only half the truth, "the soul" true but only half the truth. -Natural Selection is a colossal paradox--the doing evil that good may -come. The evil is undoubtedly done, and the good undoubtedly comes. Is -not this the only verdict that is in consonance with all the facts? Is -it not less than philosophic to look at the process alone, or to look -at the result alone? Is any real end to be served by the incessant cry -that we should keep our eyes fixed on the "blood and tears" alone, or -on "the soul" alone? Is not the poet right when he says that the sure -reward of knowledge is not to see either half of the truth as if it -were the whole, but to see unfold "the soul through blood and tears?" - -Any attempt to cast up accounts between the evil of the process and -the good of the result--especially any attempt based on the assumption -that the process has yet achieved its final result--would be not -only premature in the eyes of those who can look forwards, but would -be irrelevant to our present enquiry. I certainly am with those who -repudiate as misleading Mill's description of Nature as a "vast -slaughter-house," and will declare that, apart from self-conscious -and supremely sensitive man, it is easy to exaggerate the misery and -to minimise the joy of the sub-human world. But our business here -is with the process and its results in man himself, in whom alone -are possible the heights of ecstasy and the depths of agony: and the -thesis--the sublime thesis, we may avouch--of the present discussion -is that, whatever the balance between the evil of the process of -Natural Selection and the good of its results in the natural state, -yet when it is transmuted, as it may be, by the moral intelligence of -man, according to the principles of race-culture or eugenics, the good -of the result can be attained, more abundantly and incomparably more -rapidly, than ever heretofore, _whilst the evil of the process can be -abolished altogether_. True or false, is this not a sublime thesis? - -=Nature must be cruel to be kind.=--If organic fitness or adaptation -to the circumstances of life is to be secured, Nature must choose -for future parents, out of every new generation, only those whose -inborn characters make for this adaptation, and who, in virtue of -the fact we call heredity, will tend to transmit this fitness to -their offspring. Now it is often convenient to personify Nature, -but we must not be misled. The process is really an automatic, not -an intelligently directed one. In order that it shall be possible, -certain conditions must obtain. The choice or selection depends not -merely upon the provision of a variety from which to choose--this -being afforded by what is called variation, which is the correlative -of heredity, both being obvious facts in any well-filled nursery--but -also upon the production of _more_ young creatures than there is or -will be room for. (If there be room for all, so that all survive, -there can be no selection, and instead of survival of the fittest -there will be indiscriminate survival.) The choice is effected amongst -this superfluity by an internecine "struggle for existence": hence -the "murdering and being murdered," hence the "blood and tears." The -motor force of the whole process may be symbolised as the "will to -life," ever seeking to realise itself in more abundance and with more -success--with more and more approximation to perfect adaptation. The -will to death is no ingredient of the will to life. Nature is, so -to say, by no means desirous of the process of "murdering and being -murdered": very much on the contrary. It is life, more life, and -fitter life, that is her desire: the "murdering and being murdered," -the "blood and tears" are no part of her aim. But they are inevitable, -though lamentable, if her aim is to be realised. She _must_ be cruel to -be kind--a little cruel to be very kind.[6] - -It is _imaginable_, though no more, that natural selection, in certain -circumstances, might have worked otherwise: the penalty for less as -against greater fitness might _imaginably_ have been not death but -merely sterility--the denial of future parenthood. This is the ideal -of race-culture. Had this been possible, Nature could have effected -her end, which is fitter and fuller life, without having incidentally -to mete out premature death to such an overwhelming majority of all -her creatures. But, actually, this was not possible: and, unless -the end was to be sacrificed, Nature was compelled--to keep up the -figure--summarily to kill right and left. Permitted to reach maturity, -the unfit as well as the fit would multiply; and since, in general, the -lower the form of life the greater its fertility, the species could not -possibly advance, or even maintain itself at the level already gained. - -To drop the figure, the process is a mechanical and automatic one, and -its appalling wastefulness and indisputable cruelty are inevitably -involved, whilst it so remains. - -=Intelligence may be kind to be kinder.=--But--and here is the -great event--this mechanical, automatic, non-intelligent process -has latterly given birth to intelligence, the moral intelligence of -man: and the question now to be answered is, what modification can -intelligence effect in the moral-immoral process that has created -it? Must intelligence abrogate that process altogether, as Huxley -declares, on the grounds of its murderous methods? Must intelligence -simply look on, recognise, but not reconstruct? Must intelligence -reverse the process--as indeed it is now doing in many cases--so -that in the new environment of which itself is a factor, that which -formerly was unfitness shall become fitness, and _vice versa_? _Or_ -is it conceivable that intelligence can transmute the process, so -that, whilst hitherto mechanical, automatic, and therefore inevitably -murderous, it shall become _intelligent_, pressing towards the sublime -end, and reforming the murderous means? - -Hear Mr. Galton himself (_Sociological Papers_, 1905, p. 52):-- - - "Purely passive, or what may be styled mechanical evolution, displays - the awe-inspiring spectacle of a vast eddy of organic turmoil ... it - is moulded by blind and wasteful processes, namely, by an extravagant - production of raw material and the ruthless rejection of all that - is superfluous, through the blundering steps of trial and error.... - Evolution is in any case a grand phantasmagoria, but it assumes an - infinitely more interesting aspect under the knowledge that the - intelligent action of the human will is, in some small measure, - capable of directing its course. Man has the power of doing this - largely so far as the evolution of humanity is concerned; he has - already affected the quality and distribution of organic life so - widely that the changes on the surface of the earth, merely through - his disforestings and agriculture, would be recognisable from a - distance as great as that of the moon." - -Hear also Sir E. Ray Lankester, in the Romanes Lecture[7] for 1905: -"Man is ... a product of the definite and orderly evolution which is -universal, a being resulting from and driven by the one great nexus of -mechanism which we call Nature. He stands alone, face to face with that -relentless mechanism. It is his destiny to understand and to control -it." - -"Nature's insurgent son," Professor Lankester calls man in this -lecture: and yet again there recurs that mighty aphorism of Bacon, -which might well be printed on every page of these chapters, "Nature -is to be commanded only by obeying her." The struggle for existence is -the terrible fact of Nature, but is only a means to an end. It is our -destiny to command the end whilst _humanising_ the means. - -=The struggle for existence.=--The ideal of eugenics or race-culture -is to abolish the brutal elements of the struggle for existence -whilst gaining its great end. The nature of this struggle is commonly -misapprehended and, as I cannot improve upon the words of Professor -Lankester, I shall freely use them in the attempt to show what it -really is. He says:-- - - "The world, the earth's surface, is practically full, that is to - say, fully occupied. Only one pair of young can grow up to take the - place of the pair--male and female--which have launched a dozen, or - it may be as many as a hundred thousand, young individuals on the - world.... The 'struggle for existence' of Darwin is the struggle - amongst all the superabundant young of a given species, in a given - area, to gain the necessary food, to escape voracious enemies, and - gain protection from excesses of heat, cold, moisture, and dryness. - One pair in the new generation--only one pair--survive for every - parental pair. Animal population does not increase: 'Increase and - multiply' has never been said by Nature to her lower creatures. - Locally, and from time to time, owing to exceptional changes, a - species may multiply here and decrease there; but it is important - to realise that the 'struggle for existence' in Nature--that is to - say, among the animals and plants of this earth untouched by man--is - a desperate one, however tranquil and peaceful the battlefield may - appear to us. The struggle for existence takes place, not as a - clever French writer glibly informs his readers, between different - species, but between individuals of the same species, brothers and - sisters and cousins.... In Nature's struggle for existence, death, - immediate obliteration, is the fate of the vanquished, whilst the - only reward to the victors--few, very few, but rare and beautiful in - the fitness which has carried them to victory--is the permission to - reproduce their kind--to carry on by heredity to another generation - the specific qualities by which they triumphed. - - "It is not generally realised how severe is the pressure and - competition in Nature--not between different species, but between the - immature population of one and the same species, precisely because - they are of the same species and have exactly the same needs.... A - distinctive quality in the beauty of natural productions (in which - man delights) is due to the unobtrusive yet tremendous slaughter of - the unfit which is incessantly going on and the absolute restriction - of the privilege of parentage to the happy few who attain to the - standard described as 'the fittest.'" - -=The survival of the fittest.=--Now let us look closely at this most -famous of all Spencer's phrases, "the survival of the fittest," and try -to understand its full and exact meaning. There is no phrase in any -language so frequently misinterpreted. Even a writer who should know -better makes this mistake. Mr. H. G. Wells speaks[8] of "that same lack -of a fine appreciation of facts that enabled Herbert Spencer to coin -those two most unfortunate terms _Evolution_ and the _Survival of the -Fittest_. The implication is that the _best_ reproduces and survives. -Now really it is the _better_ that survives and not the _best_." What -the correction is supposed to signify I do not know, but the whole -passage is nonsense. The implication is neither that the _best_ nor -the _better_ survive, but the fittest--or if Mr. Wells prefers, for it -matters not one whit--the fitter. This lack of a fine appreciation of -words is not, unfortunately, peculiar to Mr. Wells. There is no word -in the language that more exactly expresses the fact than the word -fittest: as Darwin recognised when he promptly incorporated Spencer's -phrase in the second edition of the _Origin of Species_ as the best -interpretation of his own phrase "natural selection"![9] Fitness is -the capacity to fit: a thing that is fit is a thing that _fits_. A -living creature survives in proportion as it fits its environment--the -physical environment in the case of vegetables and the lower animals, -the physical, social, intellectual and moral environment in the case -of man. The kind of glove that most perfectly fits the hand is the -fittest glove and will survive in the struggle for existence between -gloves. If, instead of a glove, we take a living creature, say a -microbe, the kind of microbe that best fits into the environment -provided by, say, human blood, is the fittest and will survive and be -the cause of our commonest disease. Thus the tubercle bacillus is at -once the _fittest_ microbe and, not the best, but the worst. Among -ourselves, the newspaper devoted to yesterday's murder is the fittest -and survives, ousting the newspaper which reckons with the crucifixion, -or the murder of Socrates or Bruno. In a society of blackguardism, the -biggest blackguard is the fittest man and will survive: he is also the -worst. In another society the best man is the fittest and survives. The -capacity to fit into the environment is the capacity that determines -survival: it has no moral connotation whatever. If Herbert Spencer had -written the survival of the better, as Mr. Wells desires, he would have -written palpable nonsense: as it was he used the fittest word--in this -case also the best, because the truest. Referring to the queen-bee, -who destroys her own daughters, Darwin says, "undoubtedly this is for -the good of the community; maternal love or maternal hatred, though -the latter fortunately is most rare, is all the same to the inexorable -principle of natural selection." - -If natural selection were the survival of the better, as Mr. Wells -would have us believe, there would be nothing for eugenics or -race-culture to do: and heaven would long ago have come to earth. If -in all ages the better men and women had survived and become parents, -earth would long ago have become a demi-paradise indeed, there would -have been no arrests, no reversals in the history of human progress, -and life would be already what, some day, it will be, when there is -achieved the eugenic ideal--which is precisely that the best or better -members of our race shall be the selected for the supreme profession -of parenthood. In other words, the eugenic ideal, the ideal of -race-culture, is _to ensure that the fittest shall be the best_. -Always, everywhere, without a solitary exception, human, animal or -vegetable, the fittest have ultimately survived and must survive. Once -realise what is the meaning of the word fit--best seen in the verb "to -fit"--and we shall see that, as Herbert Spencer pointed out in his -overwhelming reply to the late Lord Salisbury's attack on evolution, -the idea of the survival of the fittest is a necessity of thought.[10] - -But, alas, the idea of the survival of the best or the better is not -a necessity of thought! The fittest microbes are the worst from our -point of view, because they are most inimical to the highest forms -of life; the fittest newspaper may be the worst, because it panders -to the worst but most widespread and irresponsible elements in human -nature; everything and every one that succeeds, succeeds because it or -he fits the conditions: but to succeed is not necessarily to be good. -Indeed everything that exists at all, living or lifeless, an atom or an -animal, a molecule or a moon, exists because it can exist, because it -fits the conditions of existence: there is no moral question involved, -but only a mechanical one. The business of eugenics or race-culture is -to make an environment, conditions of law and public opinion, _such -that the fittest shall be the best and the best the fittest therein_. - -If memory may be trusted, the primary meaning of the word _fit_ has -not hitherto been called in by any one to elucidate the meaning of -Spencer's phrase: perhaps it may be hoped that we shall at last begin -to understand it, if we remember that a thing is fit because it fits. -It is best not to be too sanguine, however, and therefore we may -attempt to illustrate the case from another aspect. - -=Survival-value.=--Every living thing and nearly every character -or feature of a living thing that survives, survives because it -has value or capacity for life--which may be called, in Professor -Lloyd Morgan's phrase, _survival-value_. The character that gives -an organism survival-value, or value for life, the character that -enables it to fit its environment, may be of any order. The atom, as -I have said elsewhere, is an organism writ small. The kinds of atoms -that have survived in the age-long struggle for existence between -atoms are those that have survival-value on account of their internal -stability: as Empedocles argued ages ago. In the case of living -things, which individually die, it is evident that the capacity to -reproduce themselves is one of supreme survival-value. If mankind lost -this capacity, all its other characters of survival-value, such as -intelligence, would obviously avail it nought. Certain valuable members -of society may fall short in this cardinal respect, and therefore -become extinct. Indeed, other forms of survival-value, as we shall see, -seem to be in large measure inimical to fertility: and this is perhaps -the chief obstacle to eugenics.[11] - -Fertility apart, the character having survival-value may take a -thousand forms. In the case of the parasitic microbe it is an evil -character, the power to produce toxins or poisons. In the case of -the tiger it is the possession of large and powerful bones and claws -and muscles and teeth. In the case of the ox it is a complicated -and efficient digestive apparatus, enabling it to fit into a -food-environment which is too innutritious to sustain the life of -creatures not so endowed. Nature seeks only the fittest; not the best -but the best-adapted; she asks no moral questions. A Keats, a Spinoza, -or a Schubert must go under if his factors of survival-value do not -enable him to resist those of the tubercle bacillus, its toxins or -poisons. She welcomes the parasitic tapeworm, all hooks and mouth or -stomach, because these give it survival-value; and so on. - -The business of eugenics or race-culture, then, is to create an -environment such that those characters which we desire as moral -and intelligent beings shall be endowed with the highest possible -survival-value, as against those which ally so many men with the -microbe and the tapeworm. There are those who live in society to-day, -and reproduce their like, in virtue of the poisons they produce, in -virtue of their tenacious hooks and voracious stomachs. If society be -organised so that these are factors of more survival-value than the -disinterested search for truth, or mother-love, or the power to create -great poetry or music--then, according to the inevitable and universal -law of the survival of the fittest, our parasites will oust our poets -and our poisoners our philosophers. These things have happened and may -happen again at any time. It does not matter that the good thing, in -virtue of survival-value then superior, has been evolved. Nature never -gives a final verdict in favour of good or bad but only and always in -favour of the fit. Let the conditions change, so that rapacity fits -them better than righteousness, or--as in a completely "collectivist" -state--vegetableness rather than virility, and the thing we call high -will go under before the thing we call low. Nature recognises neither -high nor low but only fitness or value for life in the conditions that -actually obtain. These laws enthroned and dethroned the civilisations -of the past: they have enthroned and may dethrone us. But this end is -not inevitable, since man--and this is his great character--not merely -reacts to his environment, as all creatures must, but can create and -recreate it. The business of eugenics or race-culture is to create an -environment such that the human characters of which the human spirit -approves shall in it outweigh those of which we disapprove. Make it -fittest to be best and the best will win--not because it is the best, -but because it is the fittest: had the worst been the fittest it would -have won. In society to-day both forms of the process may be observed. -The balance between them determines its destiny. It is the business of -eugenics to throw the whole weight of human purpose into the scale of -the good. - -=Evolution not necessarily progress.=--No excessive space has been -devoted to this distinction between the fittest and the best and to -the real meaning of Spencer's famous phrase, if perchance it should -avail in any degree to dispel one of the commonest of the many common -delusions regarding the nature of organic evolution and its outcome. -This delusion is that progress is an inevitable law of nature.[12] -The great process of history, as revealed by biology, displays as its -supreme fact the occurrence of progress. The principles of evolution -teach that this progress--as, for instance, in the evolution of man--is -a product of the survival of the fittest; whilst we are also reminded -that the survival of the fittest is a necessary truth: but it does not -follow that progress is inevitable. - -In the first place, natural selection involves selection. Where all -the young members of a new generation of any species survive, and -parenthood becomes not a privilege but a common and universal function, -plainly the process is in abeyance: and, in the second place, since -the survival of the fittest is not the survival of the best, but only -the survival of the best adapted, the process may at any time take the -form of retrogression rather than that of progress. The assumption -that, because progress has been effected through natural selection, we -need do no more than fold our hands, or unfold them merely to applaud, -involves the denial of one of the most familiar facts of natural -history--the fact of racial degeneration. The parasitic microbes, the -parasitic worms, the barnacles, innumerable living creatures both -animal and vegetable, individuals and races of mankind, to-day as in -all ages--these prove only too clearly that the process of the survival -of the fittest may make as definitely for retrogression in one case as -for progress in another. - -By all means let us infer from the facts of organic evolution the -conclusion that further progress must surely be possible, so much -progress having already been achieved as is represented by the -difference between inorganic matter or the amoeba or microbe on the one -hand, and man on the other hand. But let us most earnestly beware of -the false and disastrous optimism which should suppose that because -the survival of the fittest has often, and indeed most often, meant -the survival of the best, it means always that and nothing else. On -the contrary, we must learn that, even in natural circumstances, -apart from any interference by man, the survival of the fittest often -means racial degeneration--a tapeworm kept in spirits should stand -upon the study mantelpiece of all who think with Mr. Wells that the -survival of the fittest means the survival of the better; and still -more notably we must learn that the interference of man in the case of -his own species, sometimes of evil intent, sometimes for the highest -ends, with the process of natural selection, has repeatedly led, and -is now in large part leading, to nothing other than that process of -racial degeneration of which the tapeworm and the barnacle should be -our perpetual reminders. The case becomes serious enough when man -interferes with the process of selection merely with the effect of -suspending it, wholly or in part: but it becomes far more serious -when his interference constitutes a reversal of the process. This -most supremely disastrous of all conceivable consequences of man's -intelligence and moral sense is known as reversed selection, and must -be carefully studied hereafter. Meanwhile, we must devote some space to -a most important consideration--namely, that though Nature is impartial -in her choice, and will, for instance, allow the poisons of a microbe -such as the tubercle bacillus to destroy the life of a Spinoza or a -Keats or a Schubert, yet, on the whole, the survival-value of the -mental, spiritual, or psychical in all its forms does persistently tend -to outweigh that of the physical or material--of this great truth the -evolution and dominance of man himself being the supreme example. - -The very fact of progress, which I would define as the emergence -and increasing dominance of mind, demonstrates--it being remembered -that natural selection has no moral prejudices--that even in a world -of claws and toxins the psychical must have possessed sufficient -survival-value to survive. It is quite evident that even the lowliest -psychical characters, such as sharpness of sensation, discrimination, -and memory, must be of value in the struggle for life. More and more we -might expect to find, and do actually find in the course of evolution, -that creatures live by their wits, rather than by force of bone or -muscle. The psychical was certainly given no unfair start--on the -contrary. It has had to struggle for its emergence; it has emerged only -where there has been struggle and has done so because it could--because -of its superior survival-value. It has the right which belongs to -might--in the world of life there is no other.[13] - -By no means less evident is the inherently superior survival-value -of the psychical, if we turn from its aspects of sensation and -intelligence to those which are all summed up under the word love. -Notwithstanding Nietzsche's mad misconception of the Darwinian theory, -no one who has studied the facts of reproduction and its conditions -in the world of life can question the incalculable survival-value -of love in animal history. The success of those most ancient of all -societies, of which the ant-heap and the bee-hive are the types, -depends absolutely upon the self-sacrifice of the individual. If we -pass upwards from the insects to the lowest vertebrates, we find -the survival-value of love proved by the comparison between various -species of fish, and its increasing importance may be traced upwards -through amphibia, reptiles, birds and mammals in succession, up to -man. Natural selection thus actually selects morality. Without love no -baby could live for twenty-four hours. Every human being that exists -or ever has existed or ever will exist is a product of mother-love or -foster-mother-love, and I am well entitled to say, as I have so often -said, _no morals, no man_. The creature in whom organic morality is at -its height has become the lord of the earth in virtue of that morality -which natural selection has selected, not from any moral bias, but -because of its superior survival-value. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - THE SELECTION OF MIND - - "Many are the mighty things, but none is mightier than man.... He - conquers by his devices the tenant of the fields."--Sophocles. - - "L'homme n'est qu'un roseau, le plus faible de la Nature; mais c'est - un roseau pensant."--Pascal. - - "The soul of all improvement is the improvement of the - soul."--Burchell. - - -Whereas, in its beginning, _mind_, or the psychical in all its aspects, -was merely a useful property of _body_, all organic progress may be -conceived in terms of a change in this original relation between them. -In man, the mental or psychical has become the essential thing, and the -body its servant. We are well prepared, then, to accept the proposition -that in our own day and for our own species, the plane upon which -natural selection works has largely been transferred, and, indeed, if -any further progress is to be effected, _must_ be transferred, from -the bodily or physical to the mental or psychical. A certain most -remarkable fact in the anatomy of man may be cited, as we shall see, in -support of this proposition. - -We need not venture upon the controversial ground of the relation or -ultimate unity of mind and body; nor need we set up any suggestion of -antagonism between them. All, however, are absolutely agreed that the -psychical in all its forms, whatever it really be, has a consistent -relation of the most intimate kind with that part of the body which -we call the nervous system. For our present purposes the nature of -this relation matters nothing at all, and in place of the phrase, -the "selection of mind," I should be quite content, if the reader so -prefers, to speak of the selection of nerve or nervous selection. And -if I may for a moment anticipate the conclusion, we may say that, in -and for the future, the process of selection for life and parenthood, -as it occurs in mankind, must be based, if the highest results are to -be obtained, upon the principle that the selection of bodily qualities -other than those of the nervous system is of value only in so far as -these serve the nervous or psychical qualities. For practical and for -theoretical purposes we must accept the dictum of Professor Forel that -"the brain is the man"--or, to be more accurate and less epigrammatic, -the nervous system is the man. If, then, we counsel or approve of any -selection of bone or muscle or digestion, or any other bodily organ or -function; if we select for physical health, physical energy, longevity, -or immunity from disease--our estimate of these things, one and all, -must be wholly determined by the services which they can perform for -the nervous system, whether as its instruments, its guarantors of -health and persistence, or otherwise. But we are not to regard any of -these things as ends in themselves--notwithstanding the fact that this -temptation will constantly beset us. So to do is implicitly to deny and -renounce the supreme character of man--which is that, in him, mind or -nervous system is the master, and the rest of the body, with all its -attributes, the servant. - -=The body still necessary.=--Should anyone suppose that the principles -here laid down would speedily involve us, if executed, in a host -of disasters, let him reconsider that conclusion. Utterly ignorant -or jocose persons have hinted, more or less definitely, that if a -race of mankind were to be bred for brains, the product would be a -most misbegotten creature approaching as near as possible--and that -imperfectly enough--to the ideal of disembodied thought, a creature -monstrous as to head, impotent and puny as to limbs, and, in effect, -the least effective of living creatures. This supposition may be -commended as the last word in the way of nonsense. It depends upon -an abysmal ignorance of the necessary and permanent relations which -subsist between mind and body. It assumes that the healthy mind can -be obtained without the healthy body; it is totally unaware that the -nervous system cannot work properly unless the blood be well aerated by -active lungs and distributed by a healthy heart; that unless certain -glands, of which these people have never heard, are acting properly, -the nervous system falls into decadence, and the man becomes an -imbecile. To breed for brains is most assuredly to breed for body too: -only that the end in view will guide us as to what points of body to -breed for. For instance, it would prevent us from having any foolish -ambitions as to increasing the stature of the race, or the average -weight of its muscular apparatus. Stature may be a point to breed for -in the race-culture of giraffes and muscle in the race-culture of the -hippopotamus: but such bodily characters are of no moment for man, -who is above all things a mind. Whilst we shall pay little attention -to these, we or our descendants will be abundantly concerned with the -preservation and culture of those many bodily characters upon which -the health and vigour and sanity and durability of the nervous system -depend. - -Further, notwithstanding all the nonsense that has been written -concerning the man of the future, with bald and swollen head, -be-goggled eyes, toothless gums, and wicker-work skeleton, those -who know the alphabet of physiology and psychology are warranted in -believing that wisely to breed for brains will be to breed for beauty -too--not of the skin-deep but of the mind-deep variety--and also for -grace and energy and versatility of physique. Those who worship brawn -as brawn may be commended to the ox; those who respect brawn as the -instrument of brain, and value it not by its horse-power but by its -capacity as the agent of purpose, will find nothing to complain of in -the kinds of men and women whom a wise eugenics has for its ideal. - -=The erect attitude.=--And now we must briefly consider that "most -remarkable fact in the anatomy of man" to which allusion was made in -the first paragraph. It is that, as the most philosophic anatomists are -now coming to believe, the body of man actually represents the goal of -physical evolution. Of course the common opinion is, quite apart from -science, that man is the highest of creatures, and that there is no -more to be expected. But the doctrine of evolution regards man as the -latest, not necessarily the last, term in an age-long process which is -by no means completed, and from the evolutionary point of view it is -thus a daring and, at first hearing, a preposterous thing to say that, -so far as the physical aspects of organic evolution are concerned, the -body of man apparently represents the logical and final conclusion of -the age-long process which has produced it. Let us attempt very briefly -to outline the argument. - -We may say that a great step was taken when from the chaos of the -invertebrate or backbone-less animals there emerged the first -vertebrates. This unquestionably occurred in the sea, the first -backbone being evolved in a fish-like creature which, in the course of -time, developed two lateral fins. These became modified into two pairs -of limbs, the sole function of which was locomotion. In the next group -of vertebrates, the amphibia--such as the frog--we see these limbs -terminating each in five digits. (The frog, so to say, decided that -we should count in tens.) Now some creatures have specialised their -limbs at the cost of certain fingers. The horse, for instance, walks -on the nails (the hoofs) of its middle fingers and its middle toes. -In the main line of ascent, however, none of these precious fingers -(and toes)--how precious let the typist or the pianist say--have been -sacrificed. There has been, however, in later ages a tendency towards -the specialisation of the front limbs. Used for locomotion at times, -they are also used for grasping and tearing and holding, as in the -case of the tiger, a member of the carnivora, a relatively late and -high group of mammals. But the carnivore does not carry its food to -its mouth, and the cat carries her kittens in her mouth and not with -her paws. In the apes and monkeys, however, this specialisation goes -further, and things are actually carried by the hands to the mouth--a -very great advance on the tiger, who fixes his food with his "hands," -and then carries his mouth to it. Food to mouth instead of mouth to -food is a much later stage in evolution, a fact which may be recalled -when we watch the table manners of certain people. Finally, in man the -specialisation reaches its natural limit by the _complete_ liberation -of the fore-limbs from the purposes of locomotion--though the crawling -gait of a child recalls the base degrees by which we did ascend. - -This great change depends upon an alteration in the axis of the body. -The first fishes, like present fishes, were horizontal animals, but -gradually the axis has become altered, in the main line of progress, -until the semi-erect apes yield to man the erect, or "man the erected," -as Stevenson called him. The son of horizontal animals, he is himself -vertical: the "pronograde" has become "orthograde." Thus the phrase, -"the ascent of man," may be read in two senses. This capital fact has -depended upon a shifting of the centre of gravity of the body, which -in adult man lies behind the hip-joints, whereas in his ancestors and -in the small baby (still in the four-footed stage) it lies in front -of the hip-joints. Thus, whilst other creatures tend naturally to -fall forwards, so that they must use their fore-limbs for support and -locomotion, the whole body of man above the hip-joints tends naturally -to fall backwards, being prevented from doing so by two great ligaments -which lie in front of the hip-joints and have a unique development in -man. The complete erection of the spine means that the skull, instead -of being suspended in front, is now poised upon the top of the spinal -column. The field of vision is enormously enlarged, and it is possible -to sweep a great extent of horizon at a moment's notice. But the -complete discharge of the fore-limbs from the function of locomotion -has far vaster consequences, especially as they now assume the function -of educating their master, the brain, and enabling him to employ them -for higher and higher purposes. - -Thus, when we ask ourselves whether there is any further goal for -physical evolution, the answer is that none can be seen. So far as -physical evolution is concerned the goal has been attained with the -erect attitude. Future changes in the anatomy of man will not be -positive but negative. There doubtless will be a certain lightening of -the ship, the casting overboard of inherited superfluities, but that is -all: except that we may hope for certain modifications in the way of -increasing the adaptation of the body to the erect attitude, which at -present bears very hardly in many ways upon the body of man, and much -more so upon the body of woman. - -Thus race-culture will certainly not aim at the breeding of physical -freaks of any kind, nor yet at such things as stature. It must begin by -clearly recognising what are the factors which in man possess supreme -survival-value, and it must aim at their reinforcement rather than at -the maintenance of those factors which, of dominant value in lower -forms of life, have been superseded in him. A few words will suffice -to show in what fashion man has already shed vital characters which, -superfluous and burdensome for him, have in former times been of the -utmost survival-value. - -=The denudation of man.=--As contrasted with the whole mass of his -predecessors, man comes into the world denuded of defensive armour, -destitute of offensive weapons, possessed alone of the potentialities -of the psychical. So far as defence is concerned, he has neither fur -nor feathers nor scales, but is the most naked and thinnest skinned of -animals. In his _Autobiography_, Spencer tells us how he and Huxley, -sitting on the cliff at St. Andrews and watching some boys bathing, -"marvelled over the fact, seeming especially strange when they are no -longer disguised by clothes, that human beings should dominate over all -other creatures and play the wonderful part they do on the earth."[14] -But man is not only without armour against either living enemies or -cold; he is also without weapons of attack. His teeth are practically -worthless in this respect, not only on account of their small size but -also because his chin, a unique possession, and the shape of his jaws, -make them singularly unfit for catching or grasping. For claws he has -merely nails, capable only of the feeblest scratching; he can discharge -no poisons from his mouth; he cannot envelop himself in darkness -in order to hide himself; his speediest and most enduring runner is -a breathless laggard. And, lastly, he is at first almost bereft of -instinct, has to be burnt in order to dread the fire, and cannot find -his own way to the breast. His sole instrument of dominance is his mind -in all its attributes. - -On the grounds thus indicated, we must be wholly opposed to all -proposals for race education and race-culture, and to all social -practices, which assume more or less consciously that, for all his -boasting, man is after all only an animal: whilst we must applaud the -selection and culture of the physical exactly in so far as, but no -further than, it makes for health and strength of the psychical--or, if -the reader dislikes these expressions, the health and strength of that -particular part of the physical which we call the nervous system. - -It used to be generally asserted that whilst, in a civilised community, -we do not expect to find the biggest or most muscular man King or -Prime Minister, yet amongst savage tribes it _is_ the physical, muscle -and bone and brutality, that determines leadership. This, however, we -now know to be untrue even for the earliest stages of society that -anthropologists can recognise. The leader of the savage tribe is not -the biggest man but the cleverest. The suggestion is therefore that, -even in the earliest stages of human society, the plane of selection -has already been largely transferred from brawn to brain or from -physique to _psyche_. It has always been so, we may be well sure. The -Drift men of Taubach, living in the inter-glacial period, could kill -the full-grown elephant and rhinoceros. Says Professor Ranke: "It is -the mind of man that shows itself superior to the most powerful brute -force, even where we meet him for the first time." This remains true -whether the brute force be displayed in brutes or in other men. - -The great fact of intelligence, as against material apparatus of -any kind and even as against rigid instinct, is its limitless -applicability. With this one instrument man achieves what without it -could be achieved only by a creature who combined in his own person -every kind of material apparatus, offensive and defensive, locomotor or -what not, which animal life, and vegetable life too, have invented in -the past--and not even by such a creature. Man is a poor pedestrian, -but his mind makes locomotives which rival or surpass the fish of the -sea, the antelope on land, if not yet the bird of the air; his teeth -are of poor quality, but his mind supplies him with artificial ones and -enables him to cook and otherwise to prepare his food. All the physical -methods are self-limited, but the method of mind has no limits; it is -even more than cumulative, and multiplies its capacities by geometrical -progression. - -=The cult of muscle.=--A word must really be said here, in accordance -with all the foregoing argument, against the recent revival of what -may be called the Cult of Muscle. This cult of muscle, or belief -in physical culture, so called, as the true means of race-culture, -undoubtedly requires to have its absurd pretensions censured. We now -have many flourishing schools of physical culture which desire to -persuade us to a belief in the monstrous anachronism that, even in man, -muscle and bone are still pre-eminent. They want as many people as -possible to believe that the only thing really worth aiming at is what -they understand by physical culture. They pride themselves upon knowing -the names and positions of all the muscles in the body, and on being -able to provide us with instruments to develop all these muscles: they -are there and they ought to be developed, and you are a mere parody of -what a man ought to be unless they are developed--none of them must -be neglected. Many people have been persuaded of these doctrines, and -there is no doubt that the physical culture schools do thus develop a -large number of muscles which have no present service for man and would -otherwise have been allowed to rest in a decent obscurity. - -In order to prove this point, let us instance a few muscles which it -is utterly absurd to regard as still possessing any survival-value for -man. In the sole of the foot there are four distinct layers of muscles, -by means of which it is theoretically possible to turn each individual -toe to the left or the right, independently of its neighbours, and to -move the various parts of each toe upon themselves, just as in the case -of the fingers. All this muscular apparatus is a mere survival, worth -nothing at all for the special purposes of the human foot. In point of -fact the human foot is now decadent, and probably not more than two -or three specimens of feet in a hundred contain the complete normal -equipment of muscles, bones and joints--as Sir William Turner showed -many years ago. Thus many feet are possessed of muscles designed to -act upon joints which have not been developed at all in the feet in -question and which, if they were there, would not be of the smallest -use. To take another instance, we do not now use our external ears -for the purpose of catching sound, though we still possess muscles -which, if thrown into action, would move the external ear in various -directions. Again, there is a flat, thin stratum of muscle on the -front of the neck, corresponding to a muscle which in the dog and the -horse is quite important, but which is of no use to us. All would be -agreed as to the absurdity of devoting continued conscious effort to -the development of these particular muscles; but in point of fact we -have a whole host of muscles which are in a similar case, and which -are nevertheless objects of the most tender solicitude on the part of -the physical culturist. In general, this modern craze, whilst highly -profitable to those who foster it, is most misguided and reactionary. -Modern knowledge of heredity teaches us that our descendants will not -profit muscularly in the slightest degree because of our devotion to -these relics: the blacksmith's baby has promise of no bigger biceps -than any one else's. Further, the over-doing of muscular culture -is responsible for the consumption of a large amount of energy. A -muscle is a highly vital and active organ, requiring a large amount -of nourishment, which its possessor has to obtain, consume, digest -and distribute. The more time and energy spent in sustaining useless -muscles, the less is available for immeasurably more important -concerns. Man does not live by brawn alone: he _does_ live by brain -alone. - -=Strength versus skill.=--So far as true race-culture is concerned, -we should regard our muscles merely as servants or instruments of the -will. Since we have learnt to employ external forces for our purposes, -the mere bulk of a muscle is now a matter of little importance. Of the -utmost importance, on the other hand, is the power to co-ordinate and -graduate the activity of our muscles, so that they may become highly -trained servants. This is a matter, however, not of muscle at all but -of nervous education. Its foundation cannot be laid by mechanical -things like dumb-bells and exercises, but by games, in which will and -purpose and co-ordination are incessantly employed. In other words, the -only physical culture worth talking about is nervous culture. - -The principles here laid down are daily defied in very large measure in -our nurseries, our schools, and our barrack yards. The play of a child, -spontaneous and purposeful, is supremely human and characteristic. -Although, when considered from the outside, it is simply a means of -muscular development, properly considered it is really _the_ means of -nervous development. Here we see muscles used as human muscles should -alone be used--as instruments of mind. In schools the same principles -should be recognised. From the biological and psychological point of -view the playing-field is immeasurably superior to the gymnasium. -But it is in the barrack yard that the pitiable confusion between -the survival-value of mind and muscle respectively in man is most -ludicrously and disastrously exemplified. - -The glorious truth upon which we appear to act is that man is an -animated machine; that the business of the soldier is not to think, -not to be an individual, but to be an assemblage of muscles. We see -the marks of this idea even in a fine poem: "Their's not to reason -why, their's but to do or die"--which, of course, might just as well -be said of a stud of horses or motor-cars. Further, our worship of the -machine is, consistently enough, an unintelligent worship. We do not -even recognise the best conditions for its action. Every year hundreds -of young soldiers, originally healthy, have their hearts and lungs and -other vital organs permanently injured by the imbecile attitude of -chest--that of abnormal expansion--which they are required to adopt -during hard work. Army doctors are now protesting against this, but it -is in accordance with the fitness of things that the cult of muscle as -against intelligence should be unintelligent. - -I repeat that whilst in the study of race-culture the physical cannot -be ignored, since the psychical is so largely dependent upon it, -yet the physical is of worth to us only in so far as it serves the -psychical. The race the culture of which we propose to undertake has -long ago determined to abandon the physical in itself as an instrument -of success. We are not attempting the culture of the cretaceous -reptiles, which staked their all upon muscle, and finally, having -become as large as houses--and as agile--suffered extinction. We are -attempting the culture of a species which, so far as the physical is -concerned, has long ago crossed the Rubicon or burnt its boats. Even -if Mr. Sandow and the drill-sergeant had their way to the utmost, and, -having finally eliminated all traces of mind, succeeded in producing -the strongest and most perfect physical machine that could be made from -the human body, the species so produced would go down in a generation -before the elements or before any living species that may be named. -Man has staked his all upon mind. The only physical development -that is really worth anything to such a race is that which educates -intelligence and morality, on the one hand, and serves for their -expression, on the other. - -If there is any salient and irresistible tendency in our civilisation -to-day, it is the persistent decadence of muscle and of all of which -muscle is the type, as an instrument of survival-value. The development -of machinery, much deplored by the short-sighted, is in the direct line -of progress, because it reduces the importance of muscle and throws -all its weight into the scale of mind. Hewers of wood and drawers of -water are becoming less and less necessary, not because mechanical -force is not needed but because the human intelligence is learning how -to supersede the human machine as its source. Every development of -machinery makes the man who can merely offer his muscles of less value -to the community. Long ago--not so very long ago in some cases--it was -quite sufficient for a man to be able to say "I am a good machine:" he -was worth his keep and had his chance of becoming a parent; but the man -whom society wants now-a-days is not the man who is a good machine but -the man who can make one. These elementary truths are hidden, however, -from the political quacks who discourse to us upon unemployment. - -Herbert Spencer's remark that it is necessary to be a good animal -has an element of truth in it which was utterly ignored and needed -proclamation at that time; but it is necessary to be a good animal only -in so far as that state makes for being a good man--and not an iota -further. - -The present interest in many most important aspects of physical -education, such as may be summed up under the phrase "school hygiene," -must not blind us to the great principle that physical education is a -means and not an end. Our present educational system, which permits -schooling to end just when it should begin, or rather sooner, and -which, even through our Government Departments, permits boys to be -used as little more than animated machines, such as telegraph boys--is -very largely responsible for the great national evil of unemployment, -which we treat with soup-kitchens. We shall revise a large proportion -of our educational, political and social methods just so soon as--but -not before--we get into our heads the idea that in human society, -and pre-eminently in society to-day, the survival-value of mind -and consequently the selection of mind must predominate over the -survival-value and consequent selection of muscle. Further, whatever -factors tend to enhance the survival-value of the physical are _ipso -facto_ making for retrogression and a return to the order of the beast. -Whatever tend to enhance the survival-value of the psychical--by which -I most assuredly include not only intelligence but, for instance, -motherhood--are _ipso facto_ forces of progress. The products of -progress are not machinery but men, and the well-drilled-machine idea -of a man ought to be as obsolete as more than one recent war has proved -it disastrous. - -There is here to be read no pessimistic suggestion that the psychical -is in any permanent danger. No one can think so who knows its strength -and the relative impotence of the physical, but it is certainly -possible that the course of progress may be greatly delayed in any -given nation or race by worship of the physical, or even, as Sparta -shows, by worship of what may be called the physical virtues as against -the moral and intellectual virtues. But those who are interested in the -survival of any particular race or nation have to remember that arrest -or retardation of progress therein, relatively to its wiser neighbours, -must, before long, result in its utter downfall. - -=What are we to choose?=--The argument that the selection of mind has -been dominant throughout human history is reinforced by such knowledge -of that history as we possess. There is no record of any race that -established itself in virtue of great stature or exceptional muscular -strength. Even in cases of the most purely military dominance, it was -not force as such, but discipline and method, that determined success; -whilst some of the greatest soldiers in history have been physically -the smallest. The statement of the anthropologists, already alluded to, -regarding the selection of the leading men in primitive tribes, may -safely be taken as always true: selection in human society has always -been, in the main, selection of that which, for survival-value, is the -dominant character of man, _mind_ in its widest sense. We shall see, -later, that _physical eugenics_ can by no means be ignored: but our -guiding principle must be that the physical is of worth only in so far -as it serves the psychical, and is worse than worthless in so far as it -does not. It would surely be well, for instance, that we should breed -for "energy," to use Mr. Galton's term: but the energy we desire, and -the energy he commends, is nervous, not muscular. The confusion between -two radically different things, vitality and muscularity, is, however, -almost universal, though it will not stand a moment's examination. -In a volume devoted to personal hygiene I have discussed this point, -which is of real moment both for the individual and for the theory of -eugenics.[15] - -It is of interest to note, in passing from this question, that inherent -facts of the human constitution would interdict us if we thought it -a fit ideal to breed for stature or bulk. Giants are essentially -morbid--not favourable but unfavourable variations. They are very -frequently childless and almost constantly slow-witted. Their condition -is really a mild form of a well-marked and highly characteristic -disease known as acromegaly, and distinguished by great enlargement -of the face and extremities. The malady depends upon peculiarities in -the glandular activities of the body: _and the state of these which -makes for great stature and bulk makes against intelligence_. It is -suggested, then, that any considerable increase of human bulk and -stature could only be obtained at the cost of intelligence. It would be -very dear at the price. - -When we come to the subject of selection for parenthood in man through -the preferences exhibited by individuals for members of the opposite -sex, we shall see that what Darwin called "sexual selection" is -certainly a reality in the case of man, whether or not it be so in the -case of the lower animals. We shall see that this most potent factor -in human evolution acts even now very favourably, and is capable of -having its value enormously enhanced. In the selection of husbands, -nervous or psychical factors are notably of high survival-value in -civilised communities. In the selection of wives the survival-value of -the physical is still very high: but it may be hoped and believed that -the present tendency is to attach relatively less importance to them -and more to the psychical elements of the chosen. This tendency must be -furthered to the utmost point beyond which the physical requisites for -motherhood would suffer weakening--but no further. - -=How are we to estimate civic worth?=--We have already observed that -it is incorrect to use the word "fit" as if it were synonymous with -"worthy." If we insist on using this term, which means only "adapted -to conditions," we must define those conditions. We must say that we -desire to further the production of those who are fit for citizenship, -and to disfavour the production of those who are unfit for citizenship. -We shall thereby dispose at least of those vexatious objectors who -tell us that many eminent criminals are individually superior to many -eminent judges. The statement is doubtless untrue, but if it were -true it would still be irrelevant. A criminal may be individually a -remarkable personality, but in so far as he is a criminal he is unfit -for citizenship. - -It is far better to use consistently Mr. Galton's phrase, "civic -worth," or, for short, "worth." We may here note Mr. Galton's most -recent remarks on what he means by worth:-- - - "By this I mean the civic worthiness, or the Value to the State of a - person, as it would probably be assessed by experts or, say, by such - of his fellow-workers as have earned the respect of the community - in the midst of which they live. Thus the worth of soldiers would - be such as it would be rated by respected soldiers, students by - students, business men by business men, artists by artists, and so - on. The State is a vastly complex organism, and the hope of obtaining - a Proportional Representation of its best parts should be an avowed - object of issuing invitations to these gatherings. - - "Speaking only for myself, if I had to classify persons according - to Worth, I should consider each of them under the three heads of - Physique, Ability, and Character, subject to the provision that - inferiority in any one of the three should outweigh superiority in - the other two. I rank Physique first, because it is not only very - valuable in itself and allied to many other good qualities, but has - the additional merit of being easily rated. Ability I should place - second on similar grounds, and Character third, though in real - importance it stands first of all."[16] - -We shall certainly misunderstand this quotation unless we clearly -realise that Mr. Galton is speaking of eugenic worth--that is to say, -of worth in relation to parenthood and heredity. No one, of course, -would assert for a moment that inferiority in the matter of physique -outweighed superiority in ability and character, so far as our estimate -of an individual as an individual is concerned, nor yet so far as -our estimate of him as a citizen is concerned. But from the eugenic -standpoint, as a parent of citizens to come, such a person, though -he may have himself saved the State, is on the average rightly to be -regarded as unworthy on the eugenic scale--it being assumed, of course, -that the inferiority of physique in the person in question is either -native and therefore transmissible, or else due to forms of disease, or -poisoning, such as, according to our knowledge of ante-natal pathology, -will probably involve degeneracy on the part of his children. I would -add that love is as precious as ability, if not more so, and that we -should aim at its increase by making parenthood the most responsible -act in life, so that children are born only to those who love children -and who will transmit their high measure of the parental instinct and -the tender emotion which is its correlate.[17] - - - - - CHAPTER V - - THE MULTIPLICATION OF MAN - - "Increase and multiply" - - -The ceaseless multiplication of man is one of the facts which -distinguish him from all other living species, animal or vegetable.[18] - -We must not be misled by such a case as that of the multiplication -of rabbits in Australia. Apart from such circumstances as human -interference, the earth is already crammed with life of a kind, not the -highest life nor the most intense life, but at any rate fully extended -life. Man alone multiplies persistently, irresistibly, and has done -so from the very first, so that, arising locally, he is now diffused -over the whole surface of the earth. To quote from Professor Lankester -again: "Man is Nature's rebel. Where Nature says Die! Man says I will -live! According to the law previously in universal operation man should -have been limited in geographical area, killed by extremes of cold or -of heat, subject to starvation if one kind of diet were unobtainable, -and should have been unable to increase and multiply, just as are his -animal relatives, without losing his specific structure.... But man's -wits and his will have enabled him ... to 'increase and multiply,' as -no other animal, without change of form." - -Not only has man made himself the only animal which constantly -increases in numbers, but this increase, as Professor Lankester points -out in another part of his lecture, already threatening certain -difficulties, will be much more rapid than at present, assuming the -birth-rate to remain where it is, when disease is controlled. It -is within our power, as Pasteur declared long ago, to abolish all -parasitic, infectious or epidemic disease. This must be and will -be done--within a century, I have little doubt. The problem of the -increase of human population will become more pressing than ever. -Professor Lankester suggests that in one or five centuries the -difficulty raised by our multiplication "would, if let alone, force -itself upon a desperate humanity, brutalised by over-crowding and the -struggle for food. A return to Nature's terrible selection of the -fittest may, it is conceivable, be in this way in store for us. But -it is more probable that humanity will submit to a restriction by the -community in respect of the right to multiply." The lecturer added that -we must therefore perfect our knowledge of heredity in man, as to which -"there is absolutely no provision in any civilised community, and no -conception among the people or their leaders, that it is a matter which -concerns anyone but farmers." - -=The secret of multiplication.=--Professor Lankester, however, omits -to point out the astonishing paradox involved in the fact that--as -I pointed out at the Royal Institution in 1907--man, the only -ceaselessly multiplying animal, has the lowest birth-rate of any living -creature.[19] From the purely arithmetical point of view, what does it -mean? We may defer at present any deeper interpretation. - -It means necessarily and obviously that the effective means of -multiplication is not a high birth-rate but a low death-rate. It is -a necessary inference from the paradox in question that the infant -death-rate and the general death-rate in man are the lowest anywhere -to be found. Producing fewer young he alone multiplies.[20] It follows -that a smaller proportion of those young must die. Unless it is -supposed by bishops and others, then, that a peculiar value attaches to -the production of a baby shortly to be buried, the suggestion evidently -is the same as that to which every humanitarian and social and -patriotic impulse guides us, namely, the reduction of the death-rate -and especially the infant mortality. This is the true way in which -to insure the more rapid multiplication of man, if that be desired. -I believe it is not to be desired, but in any case the reduction of -the death-rate and especially of the infant mortality is a worthy and -necessary end in itself, and need not inevitably lead to our undue -multiplication provided that the birth-rate falls. Hence the eugenists -and the Episcopal Bench may join hands so far as the reduction of the -death-rate is concerned, and the only persons with whom a practical -quarrel remains are those who--in effect--applaud the mother who boasts -that she has buried twelve. - -=The facts of human multiplication.=--Human population continues to -increase notwithstanding any changes in the birth-rate. This fact -remains true, as shown by the latest obtainable figures. It should be -one of the dogmas never absent from the foreground of the statesman's -mind. Apparently nothing, however, will induce us to take this little -forethought. When we build a bridge across the Thames, we ignore it; -when we widen a bridge we ignore it likewise. When we make a new street -we ignore it; when we build railways and railway stations we ignore -it--excusably, perhaps, in this case; when we build hospitals we ignore -it: four times out of five there is no room for the addition of a -single ward in time to come. We have not yet even learnt, as they are -learning in America and Germany, how to acquire the outlying lands of -cities for the public possession, so that they may be properly employed -as the city grows. The man who builds himself a villa on the outskirts -of a city, ignores it, and is staggered by it in ten years. The lover -of nature and the country ignores it: "Just look at this," he says, -"this was in the country when first I knew it, look at these horrible -rows of villas!" The only possible reply to such a person is simply, -"Well, my dear sir, what do you propose? General infanticide?" Most -important of all, this fact, that, to take the case of Great Britain, -some half million babies are born every year in excess over the number -of all who die at all ages, is forgotten by our statesmen--or rather by -our politicians. It could, of course, not be forgotten by a statesman. -Quite apart from remoter consequences, especially in relation to the -wheat supply, this persistent multiplication--which one has actually -heard denied on the ground that the birth-rate is falling--is of urgent -moment to all of us. - -In 1907 the Census Bureau of Washington published some figures on the -mortality statistics of nations, a summary of which may be quoted: -"In all parts of the civilised world both the birth-rates and the -death-rates tend to decrease, and, as a rule, those countries having -the lowest death-rates have also the lowest birth-rates. In Europe -the lowest birth-rate is that of France, the highest those of Servia -and Roumania. The lowest death-rates are in Sweden and Norway; the -highest in Russia and Spain. The downward tendency of the birth- -and death-rates is best shown by diagrams prepared by the French -Government, and it is probable that the downward tendency is actually -steeper than the diagrams show, because both births and deaths are more -accurately registered than formerly." - -But these statements are by no means necessarily incompatible with -steady increase of population, which, of course, increases so long as -the birth-rate exceeds the death-rate. I quote a few figures from the -_Science Year Book_ of 1908: - -In 1890 the total population of the world was estimated at -1,487,900,000. - - Aryan (Europe, Persia, India, etc.) 545,000,000 - Mongolian (N. and E. Asia) 630,000,000 - Semitic (N. Africa) 65,000,000 - Negro (C. Africa) 150,000,000 - Malay and Polynesian 35,000,000 - American Indian 15,000,000 - -The total figure now must be something like sixteen hundred millions at -least. - -Density of population, in so far as it means what is commonly called -over-crowding, is an important factor in the death-rate, and has a most -inimical influence upon race-culture--in virtue of the opportunity -afforded to the racial poisons--syphilis, alcohol, etc. Thus Sweden -has the lowest death-rate in Europe, and has much the least density -of population--only 29 per square mile as compared with our own 341. -If now the fact of the increase of population, with all that it means -and will mean, may be taken as dealt with and accepted, there will be -no danger of leading the reader to false conclusions if we insist upon -the fall of the birth-rate, which in Great Britain in 1908 was the -lowest on record. The death-rate, however, persistently falls also. -The reader who thinks that the birth-rate alone determines the increase -of population, and those who believe in polygamy on the ground that it -necessarily makes for the rapid multiplication and therefore strength -of a nation, should compare the death-rate of London, which is under -16, with that of Bombay, which is just under 79. It is asserted that in -many large Indian cities the infant mortality approaches one-half of -all the children born. What it amounts to in such cities as Canton and -Pekin we can only surmise with horror. - -Notwithstanding the persistent fall in the birth-rate of London the -rate of increase in population remains stupendous, according to the -calculations of Mr. Cottrell, which may be quoted from the _Science -Year Book_ of 1908. He estimates the population of Greater London in -1910 at about 7-1/2 millions, and in 1920 at well over 8-1/2 millions--the -falling birth-rate notwithstanding. - -The increase of population of five great countries may be briefly noted -here. In all, with the possible exception of Russia, the birth-rate is -rapidly falling. In the course of the nineteenth century the population -of - - Russia (in Europe) rose from 38 to 105,000,000 - France " " 26 " 38,000,000 - Germany " " 23 " 55,000,000 - Great Britain " " 15 " 40,000,000 - United States " " 5 " 75,000,000 - -These are merely approximate figures, but accurate enough to be of -value. It need hardly be pointed out that immigration accounts for the -disproportionate increase of population in the United States. But it -may be added that the imminent arrest or control of this immigration -will assuredly have the most serious and pressing consequences for -Europe. Plainly it must hasten the coming of national eugenics. - -=The case of Germany.=--Especial interest and importance attach for -many reasons to the case of Germany in this connection, and, as -might be expected, many precise facts are available. Here I shall -avail myself freely of the paper contributed by Dr. Sombart to the -_International_ for December, 1907. In the first seven years of this -century the population of Germany increased almost ten per cent. -The figure in 1870 was 40.8 millions and in 1907 61 millions. The -population is increasing yearly at the rate of about 800,000, as -compared with about half a million in the case of Great Britain. In -France in 1907 the population actually declined by a few thousands. In -regard to the growth of population Germany is now at the head of all -civilised countries, excepting those cases in which immigration has -augmented the number of inhabitants. Does this expansion of population -depend upon an increasing birth-rate or a diminishing death-rate? -The fact, in strict parallel with the biological generalisation -already made, is that "Germany's population is increasing so swiftly -because the death-rate has been falling steadily. At the beginning -of the period, 1870-1880, there were nearly 30 deaths per thousand -inhabitants, while in recent years only about 20 deaths in every -thousand inhabitants have taken place each year.... Notwithstanding, -the birth-rate during the last ten years, during which the principal -growth of population occurs, has not in anywise increased in Germany. -Indeed, by careful investigation it becomes apparent that it has -declined almost unintermittently for a generation." The average -birth-rate for the ten years 1871-1880 was 40.7, for 1891-1900 the -average was 37.4. Since then it has fallen further, and in 1905 the -figure was 34, the lowest on record. As Dr. Sombart observes, we shall -only appreciate these figures if we regard them as an expression of -a tendency which will continue, and that this is so he proves. He -observes that "the more highly advanced the country, the lower its -birth-rate.... From this we may already draw the conclusion that a -diminution of births is a concomitant of our progress in civilisation. -Secondly, this is confirmed by the fact that the falling-off in the -birth-rate must be attributed largely to the big cities.... As a third -statistical argument that the birth-rate declines with the advance -of civilisation, the fact may be cited that in the quarters of the -well-to-do still fewer children are born than in those of the poor." -(In London, as we have seen, the birth-rate is highest in Stepney and -lowest in Hampstead). - -Dr. Sombart finally points out what must never be forgotten--that an -increase in population, dependent upon a fall in the death-rate, whilst -the birth-rate also falls, is necessarily self-limited. The decrease -of the death-rate is limited by definite natural age-limits, and "this -indicates that the increase of population in Germany is gradually -entering upon a period of less activity, and will perhaps quite cease -within a conceivable period unless other causes operate in the opposite -direction." - -=The yellow peril.=--The facts regarding the yellow races are extremely -difficult to ascertain. It appears, however, that the birth-rate in -Japan has almost doubled in 27 years--rising from 17.1 to 31. (I -doubt the accuracy of the earlier figure.) In China the population -is largely controlled by infanticide, but there is little doubt that -the main contention of Pearson was correct, and that the yellow races -are multiplying much more rapidly than the white races. It does -not necessarily follow, however, as we shall see, that this means -yellow ascendancy, any more than a similar comparison would mean -microbic ascendancy. It is not quantity but quality of life that -gives survival-value and dominance. This disparity between white and -yellow rates of increase is by far the most pregnant of contemporary -phenomena. In the present introductory volume it can merely be named. -But since we shall not survive in virtue of quantity, I, for one, am -well assured that the choice for Western civilisation will ere long be -the final one between eugenics or extinction. - -=The wheat problem.=--Meanwhile, we must consider briefly the question -evidently raised by this fact of human multiplication. As an expert -has lately said, the rise in the price of wheat "is not the transitory -result of market manipulation and 'corners,' forcing prices up to an -unnatural level, but of perfectly natural and irresistible causes -which, for all that, are the more anxious and disquieting. The truth is -we are for the first time beginning to feel individually the effect of -a great natural process--the race which started long ago between the -population of the world and the growth of the world's wheat supply. In -this race the growth of the world's population has been outstripping -the growth of its wheat-food production, and the consequence has been -a total growing shortage, in spite of the opening of vast new areas in -Canada and the Argentina." In this connection one of the best papers -in Great Britain--the _Westminster Gazette_--cheerfully remarked in -a leading article that, after all, we need not be alarmed as to the -difficulty in increasing the supply of wheat, since population would, -in any case, adapt itself to the food-supply. This is true, indeed: -there will never be more human beings than there is food to feed. But -the question is, how will the population be kept down? In a word, is it -to be by the awful and bloody processes of Nature or by the conscious, -provident and humane methods of man? - -We are reminded of the argument advanced by Sir William Crookes in -his Presidential Address to the British Association in 1898. The -distinguished author has himself written an invaluable book on the -subject which has been carefully revised and supplemented, and must be -read by the serious student.[21] We may note from the point of view of -the student of dietetics that wheat is and remains, on physiological -examination, what the proverb suggests. Bread is the staff of life, -wheat being, in proportion to its price, by far the best and cheapest -of all foods. - -The argument of Sir William Crookes was advanced exactly a century -after the publication of the great essay of Malthus which we must soon -consider. In the whole intervening century no one, capable of being -heard, had considered the question. The relation of Crookes to the -earlier thinker remains, though it is curious that Malthus was not -mentioned by his successor. Writing now, a decade later, I wish merely -to point out that Sir William's argument is found valid. He observed -that "the actual and potential wheat-producing capacity of the United -States is--and will be, for years to come--the dominant factor in the -world's bread-supply." Now the recent expert from whom we have already -quoted declares that "former great wheat exporting countries like the -United States, as well as Russia and India, while their production -remains as high, are sending far less abroad under the pressure of -their own increasing needs. In this connection it may be recorded -that a great American corn expert declares that in twenty-five years -the United States will want all, or very nearly all, of her wheat -production for herself, and will have very little indeed to send us." -In 1898 Sir William said, "A permanently higher price for wheat is, -I fear, a calamity that ere long must be faced." As everyone knows, -this prophecy is now being fulfilled. Sir William declared that "the -augmentation of the world's eating population in a geometrical ratio" -is a proved fact. The phrase means, of course, simply that the yearly -increase increases. On the other hand, the wheat supply is subject to -a yearly increase which does not itself increase--in other words the -increase is in an arithmetical ratio. This, a century later, precisely -illustrates the principle of Malthus. Sir William also declared that -exports of wheat from the United States are only of present interest, -and that "within a generation the ever-increasing population of the -United States will consume all the wheat grown within its borders, and -will be driven to import, and, like ourselves, will scramble for the -lion's share of the wheat crop of the world." - -Next to the United States Russia is the greatest wheat exporter, but -the Russian peasant population increases more rapidly than any other in -Europe, even though it is inadequately fed, and this source of supply -must fail ere very long. As Sir William points out, the Caucasian -civilisation is indeed founded upon bread. "Other races vastly superior -to us in numbers, but differing widely in material and intellectual -progress, are eaters of Indian corn, rice, millet and other -grains; but none of these grains have the food-value, concentrated -health-sustaining power of wheat." Sir William's argument was, and is, -that we must learn how to fix the nitrogen of the atmosphere--that is -to say, how to combine it in forms on which the plant can feed. "The -fixation of nitrogen is a question of the not far distant future. -Unless we can class it among certainties to come, the great Caucasian -race will cease to be foremost in the world, and will be squeezed out -of existence by races to whom wheat and bread is not the staff of life." - -Sir William Crookes was himself the pioneer in the discovery of the -electric method of fixing the atmospheric nitrogen, and now, a decade -after the delivery of his address, this method is in successful -commercial employment in Scandinavia. There is also a method of sowing -the bacteria which are capable of fixing nitrogen and this, according -to some, has been already proved practicable. Further, the Mendelians -offer us the possibility of new varieties of wheat having more grains -to the stalk than we obtain at present. By these methods the output -of the land devoted to wheat may be doubled or trebled, but it is -evident that even then there will be an impassable limit. We have to -face, indeed, the evident but unconsidered fact that _there must be a -maximum possible human population for this finite earth_, whether a -bread-eating population or any other. I do not propose to speculate -regarding this evident truth. If human life is worth living and is the -highest life we know, we may desire to obtain that maximum population, -but it must be obtained, and its limits observed, by the humane and -decent processes which man is capable of putting into practice, and not -by the check of starvation. - -It is of great interest to the British reader to look at the question -briefly from his point of view. At the present time our wheat -production is no more than one-eighth of our needs, and in twenty-five -years, when the supply from the United States will probably have -ceased, we shall require 40,000,000 quarters of wheat per annum. Yet -already, in time of peace, careful observers such as the Rt. Hon. -Charles Booth and Mr. Seebohm Rowntree declare that thirty per cent. -of our own population are living on the verge of starvation. Our -available supply of food of all kinds at any moment would last us -about three weeks. How many of us realise what a war would mean for -this country? Yet in the face of facts such as these, the majority of -those who attempt to guide public opinion are urging us to increase our -birth-rate and still pin their faith to quantity rather than quality of -population as our great need. - -=The theory of Malthus.=--The reader who is interested in general -biology will realise, of course, that we are here back to the great -argument of Malthus, advanced in 1798 in his _Essay on the Principle of -Population_. Malthus was a great and sincere thinker, a high and true -moralist, and the people who have a vague notion that his name has some -connection with immoral principles of any kind have no acquaintance -with the subject. It is of the deepest interest for the history of -thought to know that it was the work of Malthus which suggested, -independently, both to Charles Darwin and to Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, -that principle of natural selection, the survival of the fittest and -their choice for parenthood, the discovery of which constituted one of -the great epochs in the history of human knowledge, and which is the -cardinal principle underlying the whole modern conception of eugenics -or race-culture. - -Malthus found in all life the constant tendency to increase beyond the -nourishment available. In a given area, not even the utmost imaginable -improvement in developing the resources of the soil can or could keep -pace with the unchecked increase of population.[22] This applies alike -to Great Britain and to the whole world. At bottom, then, the check -to population--and this is true of microbes or men--is want of food, -notwithstanding that this is never the immediate and obvious check -except in cases of actual famine. There must therefore be a "struggle -for existence," and as Darwin and Wallace saw, it follows as a -necessary truth that, to use Spencer's term, the fittest must survive. -The question is whether we are to accept starvation as, at bottom, -the factor controlling population (which, in any case, must be and -is controlled) or whether we can substitute something better--as for -instance, the moral self-control which Malthus recommended. The single -precept of this much maligned thinker was "Do not marry till you have a -fair prospect of supporting a family"--a fairly decent and respectable -doctrine. In the words of Mr. Kirkup, "the greatest and highest moral -result of his principle is that it clearly and emphatically teaches the -responsibility of parentage, and it declares the sin of those who bring -human beings into the world for whose physical, intellectual, and moral -well-being no satisfactory provision is made." Who, alas, will declare -that even after a century and a decade this great lesson is yet learnt? - -It is to be added, first, that though improvement in agriculture is to -be commended on every conceivable ground, and though it may in some -degree relieve and postpone the difficulty, it is infinitely incapable -of abolishing it. Nothing but necessity can check the prolificness of -life. To this doctrine, however, there is, as we shall shortly see, -a great excepting principle, unrecognised by Malthus, discovered by -Herbert Spencer, and of vast and universal importance. Secondly, it is -to be noted that emigration--a real remedy for over-population--is so -only for a time. It cannot possibly abolish the problem--short of the -development of interplanetary communication, if then; and the observer -of contemporary politics must be well aware, as Germany, for instance, -is well aware already, that its effectiveness as a practical remedy for -over-population in some European countries is already being arrested by -the invaded states. - -The references already made to the work of Sir William Crookes will -suffice to show that the teaching of Malthus is of practical importance -to us to-day, and not least to the population of Great Britain. I am -tempted to quote the actual case in this connection of a young student -of biology who applied for Malthus's book at one of the greatest -official libraries in this country. He was looked at as a shameless -young rascal, and the librarian curtly said, "We have no books of -that kind here." I commend this exquisite instance of misapplied and -perfectly ignorant British prudery to Mr. Bernard Shaw: not even he -could imagine anything to surpass it. No more impeccably decent book -than this of "Parson Malthus" has ever been written, and I have no -adequate comment for the fact that its nature and contents were not -merely wholly unknown but grossly misimagined by this responsible -official, and that it could not be obtained in the great library of -science in question. - -We pass in the following chapter to the momentous discovery of Herbert -Spencer that the great truth seen by Malthus was not a whole but a -half-truth, and that there is a compensating principle, which is at -once a source of inspiration and of difficulty to the eugenist. It is -in general the principle that as life ascends it becomes less prolific, -and its consequences are infinitely more vast than the phrase at first -suggests. Had this principle been discovered by a Continental thinker -or by a member of a British University instead of by a man who never -passed an examination, it would not now need the discussion which we -shall have to give it. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - THE GROWTH OF INDIVIDUALITY - - -=The laws of multiplication.=--Implicit or explicit approval of a -falling birth-rate involves opposition to the opinion of the man in -the street, the general opinion of the medical profession,[23] the -bench of bishops and the social prophet and publicist in general. -Nevertheless a fall in the birth-rate is a factor in organic progress, -and, in general, the level of any species is in inverse proportion to -its birth-rate, from bacteria to the most civilised classes of men in -the most civilised countries of to-day. But in truth the uninformed -opinion, totally contrary to the whole history of life and to the most -obvious comparative facts of the birth-rate amongst and within present -day human societies, was utterly disposed of forty years ago in the -closing chapter of the greatest contribution yet made to philosophic -biology--Herbert Spencer's _Principles of Biology_. The last chapter -of that masterpiece is entitled "The Laws of Multiplication." -Unfortunately it has not been read by one in ten thousand of those who -think themselves entitled to hold, and even to express, opinions about -the birth-rate. Spencer's discovery is the complementary half-truth -to the discovery of Malthus, and just as the law of Malthus is -pessimistic, so the law of Spencer is optimistic. In a word, Malthus -assumed--indeed, formally declared--that there was no natural factor of -an internal kind tending to limit the rate of vital fertility. Spencer -discovered that there is such a factor, which can and does limit and -has been limiting vegetable, animal, and human fertility since the dawn -of life. - -All reproduction involves an expenditure of energy in some degree on -the part of the parent. Now the energy available by any individual is -finite. If he expends it all upon reproduction, he himself, or she -herself, must cease to exist. This happens in all the lowest forms -of life, which multiply by fission or simple splitting. The young -bacteria are their sub-divided parent. At the other extreme is the -case of the individual who retains the whole of his energy for his own -development and life, and has no offspring at all. Such consummate -bachelor philosophers as Kant and Spencer may be quoted, and the list -of childless men of genius might be extended quite indefinitely. This -is not to declare this last state to be the ideal, but merely to point -out the logical extremes. - -Spencer's principle is that there is an "Antagonism," or, as we -may rather say, an inverse ratio, between "Individuation" and -"Genesis"--between the proportion of energy expended upon the -individual and the proportion expended upon the continuance of the -race. Thus "Individuation," meaning all those processes which maintain -and expand the life of the individual, and "Genesis," meaning all -those processes which involve the formation of new individuals--are -necessarily antagonistic. Every higher degree of individual evolution -is followed by a lower degree of race multiplication, and _vice versa_. -Increase in bulk (_cf._ the elephant), complexity or activity involves -diminution in fertility, and _vice versa_. This is an obvious _a -priori_ principle. - -Should the reader declare that there must be something the matter with -an asserted principle of progress which leads in theory or in practice -to the production of a childless generation, and therefore the end of -all progress, and that this principle suggests that the most completely -developed man and woman cannot be parents--then I would join in the -chorus of fathers and mothers generally, who would say that, in human -parenthood, if not, indeed, in sub-human parenthood, the antagonism -is reconciled in a higher unity; that the best and most complete -development of the individual is effected only through parenthood, in -due degree--as Spencer, himself childless, formally declared. - -It is impossible here to show how complete is the evidence for -Spencer's law, both from the side of logical necessity and from the -side of observation. In order to indicate the overwhelming character -of the evidence, one would have to transcribe the whole of his -long chapter, and to add to it all our modern knowledge of human -birth-rates. This cannot be done, but even without it we may venture -to say that people who regard a falling birth-rate as in itself, and -obviously, a sign of racial degeneration or immorality, or approaching -weakness or failure of any kind, can have made no substantial additions -to their knowledge of the subject since they themselves formed items in -the birth-rate. - -Spencer goes on to show, with profound insight, that, in general, -greater individuality, or, to put it in other words, the more highly -evolved organism, "_though less fertile absolutely, is the more fertile -relatively_." The supreme instance of this truth is, of course, the -case of man, in whom individuation has reached its unprecedented -height, who is _absolutely_ the least fertile of creatures,[24] and -yet who is _relatively_ the most fertile--unique in his actual and -persistent multiplication. - -=Their action in man.=--Within the human species the laws of -multiplication hold. It is still worth while, after half a century, to -quote Spencer's remark as to infertility in women due to mental labour -carried to excess--"most of the flat-chested girls who survive their -high-pressure education are incompetent to bear a well-developed infant -and to supply it with the natural food for the natural period." On all -hands people with opened eyes are rightly urging this truth upon us -to-day. In the United States the so-called higher education of girls -has been proved in effect to sterilise them--and these the flower of -the nation's girlhood, and therefore, rightly, the very elect for -motherhood. Here is simply an instance of the Spencerian principle in -its most unfortunate misdirection by man. - -Before leaving Spencer, we must refer briefly to the predictions, -based upon the foregoing principles, with which he concluded his great -work. The further evolution of man, he declares, must take mainly the -direction of a higher intellectual and emotional development. Hitherto, -and even to-day, pressure of population is the original cause of human -competition, application, discipline, expenditure of energy--and one -may add, the possibility of continued selection. Excess of fertility, -then, says Spencer, is the cause of man's evolution, but "man's further -evolution itself necessitates a decline in his fertility." The future -progress of civilisation will be accompanied by increased development -of individuality, emotional and intellectual. As Spencer observes, this -does not necessarily mean a mentally laborious life, for as mental -activity "gradually becomes organic, it will become spontaneous and -pleasurable." - -Finally, the necessary antagonism between individuality and parenthood -ensures the ultimate attainment of the highest form of the maintenance -of the race--"... _a form in which the amount of life shall be the -greatest possible, and the births and deaths the fewest possible_." - - * * * * * - -If now we look back at the law of Malthus we shall realise the -enormous significance of the law of Spencer. In this respect we have -the advantage over Malthus that we are aware, as he was not, of the -great fact of organic evolution. We discover, then, that an actual -consequence of the pressure of population, leading as it does to the -struggle for existence, and, in the main, the survival of higher types, -is that the rate of fertility falls. This conception of the fall in -the birth-rate--which, it is maintained, has been a great factor in -all organic progress--was entirely absent from the mind of Malthus. -In a word, the unlimited multiplication which Malthus observed leads -to its own correction. It provides abundance of material for natural -selection to work upon, and then the survival-value of individuation, -wherever it appears, asserts itself, with the consequence that the rate -of multiplication declines. This is actually to be observed to-day. -Malthus desired that we should postpone marriage to later ages so -as to lower the birth-rate. The increasing necessity and demand for -individuation is effecting that which Malthus desired. The average age -at marriage has been rising in our own country in both sexes during the -last thirty years: and the evidence shows that as civilisation advances -the age of marriage becomes later and later. Professor Metchnikoff has -discussed some aspects of this question in his book _The Nature of Man_. - -=The intensive culture of life.=--For every student of progress, and -not least for the eugenist, Spencer's law is a warrant of hope and a -promise of better things to come. It teaches that in the development -of higher--that is to say, more specialised--that is to say, more -individualised--organic types, Nature is working already, and has -been working for ages, towards the elimination of the brutal elements -in the struggle for existence. This is, of course, what every worker -for progress, and every eugenist in especial, desires. Spencer's -discovery teaches also that individuality compensates a species for -loss of high fertility. The survival-value of individuation is greater -than the survival-value of rapid multiplication. _The very fact of -progress is the replacement of lower by higher life, the supersession -of the quantitative by the qualitative criterion of survival-value, -the increasing dominance of mind over matter, the substitution of the -intensive for the merely extensive cultivation of life._ These various -phrases express, I believe, various aspects of one and the same great -fact, and I only wish it were possible to include here an exhaustive -study of the conception which may be expressed by the phrase "the -intensity of life"--as distinguished from its mere extension. There is, -I believe, a real and significant analogy between the introduction of -what is called intensive cultivation in agriculture, and the eugenic -principle which seeks to replace the extensive by the intensive -cultivation of human life. - -=The eugenic difficulty.=--But it will be already evident to the reader -that, though Spencer's law offers hope and warrant to the eugenist, -it also poses him with a permanent and ineradicable difficulty which -is inherent in natural necessity--viz., the difficulty that, in -consequence of the operation of this law, those very classes or members -of a society whose parenthood he most desires must be, in general, the -least fertile. Throughout the animal world the lesser fertility of -higher species is no real handicap to them, as we know; but where the -conditions of selection are so profoundly modified as in human society, -the case is very different. Furthermore, amongst mankind individuality -has often grown, and does grow, to such an extent that parenthood -disappears altogether. Indeed, Spencer's law expresses itself--and -the eugenist must qualify his hopes by the fact--in the practical -infertility of many[25] of the most highly individualised and even -unique personalities, that is to say, in the ranks of what we call -genius. To this subject we must return. - -A notable section in Mr. Galton's great work, _Inquiries into Human -Faculty_, states very plainly the difficulty for the eugenist involved -in Spencer's law, under its more statistical aspect. What are the -relative effects of early and late marriages? Mr. Galton proves, -mathematically, that in a very few generations a group of persons who -marry late will be simply bred down and more than supplanted by those -who marry early. Now no one will dispute that the less individualised, -the lower types, the more nearly animal, do in general marry earlier, -and are more fertile. Here, then, is an anti-eugenic tendency in -human society, depending really upon Spencer's law and requiring us -to recognise and counteract it by throwing all the weight we can -upon the side of progress, which means _increasing to our utmost the -survival-value and the effective fertility of the higher types_. - -Much more space might be spent upon this gravest of problems for the -eugenist--the fact that the very persons from whom he desires to -recruit the future on account of their greater individuality are also -on that very account the persons who, by natural necessity, tend to be -less fertile. The difficulty shows itself in the male sex, but it shows -itself still more conspicuously in the female sex, where the proportion -of the individual energy devoted to the race, as compared with that -devoted to individuation, is necessarily far higher, and must so remain -if the race is to persist. Primarily, the body of woman is the temple -of life to come--and _therefore_, as we shall some day teach our girls, -the holy of holies. Without going further into this matter now, it -may be suggested that a cardinal principle of practical importance -is involved. It is that the individual development of women, their -higher education, their self-expression in works of art and thought and -practice, cannot safely be carried to the point at which motherhood -is compromised; else the race in question will necessarily disappear -and be replaced by any race whatsoever, the women of which continue to -be mothers. There are women of the worker bee type whom this argument -annoys intensely. No one wants _them_ to be mothers. - -The proposition that all progress in the psychical world depends upon -individuality, just as all organic progress, and indeed, all organic -evolution, depends upon the physical individuality which biologists -call variation, may suggest to the reader the importance which must -attach to our study of talent and genius, and the possibility of aiding -their production. Meanwhile, we must look a little further at the -general question of individuality or quality _versus_ quantity from the -international point of view. - -=Quantity versus quality.=--The reader will understand how it is -that anyone writing from the biological standpoint must view with -something like contempt the common assumption that, in international -competition, mere statistics of population furnish, as such, final -and adequate data for prophecy. Let us remind ourselves once more -that, according to these crude criteria, which were really superseded -untold aeons ago, the dominance of the world must belong in the near -future not to Russia, with its balance of more than two million births -per annum, rather than to France, with its approximately stationary -population, but to the bacteria, the growth of population amongst -which, if it be not controlled by the less fertile creature we call -man, may be of simply inexpressible magnitude. But the world is not, -and will not be, ruled by bacteria, their fertility notwithstanding. -Indeed, the disease-producing bacteria have already had sentence of -death pronounced upon them by the higher intelligence of man, and -that sentence will be carried out within a century. Similarly within -the bounds of humanity we must recognise the limitations of mere -statistics. The population of France, some forty years ago, consisted -of so many millions of units. The figure does not matter,--let us put -it at 30,000,001. Now that 1, so to say, was called Louis Pasteur, -and from the point of view of statistics or those who think they can -predict history by counting heads, he was only an almost infinitesimal -fraction, about one-thirty-millionth part, of the French people. Yet, -as Huxley pointed out long ago, his mind sufficed to pay the entire -indemnity exacted from France after the Franco-Prussian war. This -single unit was worth more than a host of soldiers of the merely -mechanical kind. Or take Athens, with its population of 30,000 people, -mostly slaves, and consider its influence upon the world. Or, indeed, -go where you please, whether to the history of nations or the history -of religion or science or art, and ask whether the counting of heads, -the ordinary census taking which indeed amounts merely to weighing -nations by the ton, is an adequate one. In estimating national -capital by the methods of vital statistics alone, we are in a far -worse case than he would be who estimated monetary wealth by numbers -of coins, without considering whether they were pounds, shillings or -pence, whether they were genuine or counterfeit. The illustration is -ludicrously inadequate, as every illustration must be, simply because -the human case is unique. In the units of a population, which many -prophets treat as if they were all of equal value, there are not merely -differences to which the difference between a sovereign and a penny -offers no parallel; there is not merely an enormous quantity of bogus -or counterfeit units, but there is a very large number of units in -every population which, so far from adding to the value of the rest, -subtract from it, are parasitic upon it. Students of money will find -no parallel to this. Yet in the face of facts which ought to be common -intellectual property amongst school-children, we find many writers, -bishops, socialist economists, moralists, schoolboy Imperialists, and -the rest, pointing merely to the quantitative question of population -as if it were everything, though they must surely know that, if -international competition were the highest state of mankind, and if -the work of Kelvin and Lister had been sold at its real worth by us to -the rest of the world, those two men alone, in their services to life, -and in the power which they give us over life, would be equal in value -to, shall we say, the lower four-fifths of the whole birth-rate during -the last generation. All human history teaches, as all animal history -teaches in lesser degree, that quality and individuality is everything, -that quantity is nothing or far worse than nothing _except in so far -as it is quantity of quality_: yet though this lesson is written upon -every page of the past, the greater number of our publicists and our -public advisers still implicitly deny it. As Mr. Crackanthorpe put it, -speaking of the figures for 1907, it is not the defective numbers, but -the numbers of defectives, that should give us concern. - -=Mass versus mind.=--John Ruskin called Darwin "a dim comet, wagging -its tail of phosphorescent nothing against the steadfast stars"--a -description as delightful as it is foolish. Yet the conception of -eugenics, which is indeed a necessary deduction from Darwin's great -discovery, finds abundant warrant and support in Ruskin's own wonderful -writings, and here I quote, from _Time and Tide_, some sentences which -still require to be read and remembered by the majority of our present -advisers. He says:-- - - "And the question of numbers is wholly immaterial, compared with - that of character; or rather, its own materialness depends on the - prior determination of character. Make your nation consist of - knaves, and, as Emerson said long ago, it is but the case of any - other vermin--the more, the worse. Or, to put the matter in narrower - limits, it is a matter of no final concern to any parent whether he - shall have two children, or four; but matter of quite final concern - whether those he has shall, or shall not, deserve to be hanged.... - You have to consider first, by what methods of land distribution you - can maintain the greatest number of healthy persons; and secondly - whether, if, by any other mode of distribution and relative ethical - laws, you can raise their character, while you diminish their - numbers, such sacrifices should be made, and to what extent?... The - French and British public may and will, with many other publics, be - at last brought ... to see farther that a nation's real strength - and happiness do not depend upon properties and territories, nor on - machinery for their defence, but on their getting such territory as - they _have_, well filled with none but respectable persons, which is - a way of _infinitely_ enlarging one's territory, feasible to every - potentate." - -Surely it is not necessary, one feels, and yet one knows it is -necessary, again to lay down propositions of such shining truth, and -one wonders whether they shine so brightly as to blind those who should -see them: or what can conceivably be the explanation of such arguments -as those of the Bishop of London and others who, in the face of our -monstrous infant and child mortality, the awful pressure of population -and over-crowding in our great cities, where every year a larger and -larger proportion of the population lives, and is born and dies--plead -for a higher birth-rate on moral grounds, of all amazing grounds -conceivable; and those also who, from the military or so-called -Imperial point of view, regarding men primarily as "food for powder," -in Shakespeare's phrase, read and quote statistics of population in -order to promulgate the same advice? - -To the moralist we need make no reply except simply to name the infant -mortality which is at last coming to be recognised everywhere as, -perhaps, the most abominable of all our scandals. To the militarist I -would quote the case of our ally, Japan. He recalls the war between -China and Japan, and its issue, and has some idea, perhaps, of the -population ratio of those two Empires. How was it that Providence was -on the side of the small battalions? He recalls also the Russo-Japanese -war and its issue; and the population ratio of the two Empires in that -case. How many other instances does not military history afford of -the truth that in the human species mind is the master of matter? One -would suppose that a critical historical enquiry had been made, proving -that the results of all past wars could have been predicted by the -simple method of estimating the total aggregate weight of the combatant -nations in flesh and blood and bone! More than this, if the development -of the art of warfare means anything, if there has been any such -development since the days of fists and stones, it means, as all human -development in every sphere means, the increasing dominance of mind -over matter, character and initiative over machinery, _dead or alive_. -Meanwhile, the estimate of warriors in terms of the scale and the foot -rule are still accepted just as if they had not been rendered obsolete -for ever with the passing of the "dragons of the prime." - -As regards the psychical worth of the soldier, is it not recognised, -though too commonly forgotten, when we applaud the value of the veteran -or of seasoned troops? Physically the veteran is, on the average, -inferior to the younger man. It is the psychical that gives him -his worth, just as it was patriotism and sobriety that enabled the -few sober Japanese to beat the many drunken Russians. It is safe to -prophesy that, in all future war, the numerical criterion, which in -effect weighs armies by the ton, as if war were merely a tug-of-war, -will become less and less important--if, indeed, it is not already -negligible; whilst the purely psychical qualities, from generalship and -strategy and hygiene to initiative, judgment, accuracy, memory, and -down finally to mere brutal red-blooded courage, will determine the -issue. - -Platitude, of course, but if true, why ignored? Why cannot our military -advisers learn, in this respect, from the Navy? Owing to the very -nature of the sea as compared with the land, in relation to the merely -physical capacities of man, a Navy must be more intelligent than an -Army, just as it requires more intelligence to make a boat than to -walk; and it is in the Navy that the mechanical factor has been most -completely transferred, so that the human machinery is at a discount -and the steel machinery made by the human mind is much, whilst the -value of the psychical in all its aspects dominates and controls -the whole. Great Britain, as the foremost naval power in the world, -should long ago have left to its ultimate fate amongst other nations -the idea that quantity--so many tons of soldiers and so many tons of -sailors--affords an estimate of the warring force of a nation: even if -the whole history of this little isle and the possession of our present -Empire did not teach, as the history of Rome taught and as the history -of Athens teaches in another sphere, that not mass but mind makes a -nation great. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - HEREDITY AND RACE-CULTURE - - "We cannot but feel that the application of biological results - is _only beginning_, and beginning with a tardiness which is a - reproach to human foresight. There can be no doubt that it would - pay the British nation to put aside a million a year for research - on eugenics, or the improvement of the human breed." (Prof. J. A. - Thomson, _Heredity_, 1908.) - - -It is evident that the facts and principles of heredity lie at the -very basis of eugenics or race-culture in any of its forms, practical -or impractical, scientific or unscientific. Our continual assumption -throughout is that _like tends to beget like_, and it is on this ground -that we desire to make parenthood the privilege of those whom we regard -as _inherently_ the best. If there were no such thing as heredity there -could be no possibility of race-culture--nor indeed should we be here -to discuss it. If a man's children were equally likely to be acorns or -babies or tadpoles, the living world would not be the living world we -know. - -The potency of heredity is obscured to uncritical examination by the -fact that that which is inheritable is that which was innate, inherent -or germinal in the parent, as we shall shortly see. We, however, are -apt to compare the child with the parent, who has perhaps been much -modified by circumstances, so that the resemblance between father -and child may seem to be slight. Yet if we could bring back before -us that father, as he was, say at the age of two, and compare him -with his two-year-old child, we should perhaps be astonished by the -resemblance. But we see the acquirements or acquired characters of the -parent; make no distinction between them and his inherent characters; -fail to discover these acquired characters in his child;--and discount -the importance of heredity. Then, again, the eugenist may be utterly -confounded if he estimates the parental value of an individual without -reference to this limitation of heredity. Here is a man of culture and -accomplishment; his children, then, will presumably tend to be cultured -and accomplished. But every kind of advantage that forethought and -love and money can afford may have been showered upon that man. So far -as native endowment was concerned, he may have indeed been far below -mediocrity. Now it is native endowment alone that he can transmit, and -our eugenic estimate of him is therefore erroneous and will lead to -disappointment. It is impossible to lay too great stress upon the truth -that in all eugenic plans or demands or practices we are assuming the -fact of inheritance, and that therefore it is our first business to -distinguish absolutely between that which tends to be inherited and -that which, on the other hand, is never inherited. - -Yet again, this distinction is of almost incalculable social moment in -so far as it affects the process of selection actually occurring in -society. This, perhaps, has not been adequately recognised. One may -repeat a former statement of this point, which is cardinal for the -eugenist:-- - - "Even supposing that we were all identical at birth, yet, since - we would come to differ from one another in virtue of different - acquirements, due to our adaptation to differing environments, - natural selection would ultimately have different individuals - from which to select. Those who had made the most advantageous - acquirements, such as industry or great knowledge, would tend to - survive and prosper, whilst those who had made disadvantageous - acquirements, such as laziness or the loss of sight or limbs, would - be pushed to the wall. That process, of course, occurs in society - at the present day to a greater or less degree, but it has only - immediate and temporary or contemporary consequences. For if we - recall the assertion that acquirements cannot be transmitted, we - shall see that the selection of those who have made advantageous - acquirements cannot benefit the next generation, since these - acquirements die with their makers. The only process of natural - selection which can result in progress is one which consists in - the selection of favourable ... inborn and therefore transmissible - characters, such as good digestion, the musical sense, exceptional - intelligence, the sympathetic temperament or what not (in so far as - these are inborn)--the reason being that such are transmissible and - that the children of persons so selected will tend to inherit their - parents' good fortune. There is a fictitious way in which we speak - of a child inheriting his father's acquirements, as when his father - has acquired a fortune; but the child does much better to inherit - his father's good sense or good health, which were characters inborn - in him. Acquirements, then, are all very well for the day, but it is - inborn characters that alone count for the morrow."[26] - -It may be added that the time is coming when there will be a radical -"transvaluation," as Nietzsche would say, of the two fashions in which -a father "leaves" something to his children. When a question is asked -on this head now-a-days, we mean, foolishly enough, to enquire how -much money the father left his child, and we say of a man that he has -"inherited" a fortune. We can see plainly enough, as Theognis did -two thousand five hundred years ago, that such an "inheritance" may -and often does work in an anti-eugenic fashion. The gilded fool is -swallowed by the maiden whose native sense would have rejected such a -pill without its coat, and so the most pitiable degenerate becomes the -father of his like. This point will be alluded to later. The present -argument is that when we ask what a father "left" his children, we -should really desire to learn what he _gave_ them when he was still -alive and begot them. These vital, or mortal, characters which they -inherit--shall we say good health or insanity--are of incalculably -more moment to them as individuals than any monetary fortune, and of -incalculably more moment for the future. Yet again is it true that -there is no wealth but life, and the best "fortune" or wealth that you -can leave your children is sane and vigorous life. - -=The case of slum childhood.=--We have already seen that even in the -slums the children make a fresh start in a wonderful way, that their -stunted growth, their proneness to disease, are mainly due to their -environment, which it is therefore our duty to improve. This is _in -general_ true, and depends evidently upon the fact that the acquired -deterioration of the parents--_e.g._, dental decay--is not transmitted -to their children--poisonings apart--so that the children make a fresh -start where their parents did. It is necessary to point this out -again and again, as the present writer for one has long been weary -of doing, because it indicates our immediate duty in this respect, -and forbids us to shirk it with any too-comprehensive phrases about -"national degeneration." Now who could have predicted that this plain -and simple truth would be regarded by some people as constituting a -denial--on strict scientific grounds, and as the very latest scientific -pronouncement--of the principle of heredity? "The bubble of heredity -has been pricked," says Mr. Bernard Shaw. - -But popular muddleheadedness does not affect the palpable and universal -truth that the _inherent_ characters of parents do tend to be inherited -by their children; nor yet that these inherent characters differ -profoundly in different individuals; nor yet the eugenic argument, -which is that for purposes of parenthood, which means for the entire -future, some of these should be taken and others left. - -"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, -or figs of thistles?... Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." -These classical words surely have a special value for the eugenist. As -we have said, it is his particular necessity, alike in theory and in -practice, to "know" the real nature, the innate, inherent, germinal -characters, of the individuals who may or may not be parents: and -these, as we have seen, are frequently obscured by the action of the -environment--as, for instance, in the population of the slums on -the one hand, or the man of factitious culture on the other hand. -But "by their fruits ye shall know them." In general, the children -inherit what was innate in their parents, and in many an instance the -surest way in which you could ascertain what the parent really was by -nature--what, as we say, Nature "meant" him to be--is by a study of -his children. Only, of course, we must take the children very young -indeed, before environment has made its mark upon them also, for better -or for worse. Thus, when we find the new-born baby of some pallid, -half-starved, stunted mother in the slums, to be healthy and vigorous -and beautiful,[27] by this fruit we shall know what the mother might -and should have been. A healthy baby goes far to demonstrate that the -stock is healthy. This is one of the cardinal truths which emerge from -the study of infant mortality, and it may be perhaps permitted to -warn some students of race-culture of the errors into which they are -bound to fall if they do not reckon with what the student of infant -mortality is constantly asserting: viz., that the babies of the slums, -seen early, before ignorance and neglect have had their way with -them, are physically vigorous and promising in certainly not less than -ninety per cent. of cases. This primarily demonstrates, of course, the -murderous nature of our infant mortality; but it also demonstrates to -the eugenist that these classes are perhaps not so unworthy as he may -fancy. By their new-born babies ye shall know them. It is under the -influence of such considerations that the present writer, for one, is -somewhat chary of predictions and proposals based upon the relative -fertility of different classes of the community or of the masses as -compared with the classes. Directly the eugenist begins to talk in -terms of _social_ classes (as Mr. Galton has never done), he is skating -on thin ice, and if it lets him through, he will find the remains of -many of his rash predecessors beneath it.[28] - -In fine, then, if we observe the distinction between the innate and -the acquired, which is the distinction between the transmissible and -the intransmissible, this is so far from denying the fact of heredity -at all as in reality to emphasise its potency whilst undoubtedly -diminishing its range. - -=A criticism of terms.=--In order that this distinction may be clear -and never forgotten, it is well to look to our vocabulary--words -being good servants but bad masters. We should certainly have this -vocabulary purged altogether of a certain word in common and uncritical -employment, especially by the medical profession. This is the -thoroughly misleading, indeterminate and useless word "congenital." -Not on one occasion in a hundred of its use does any examined meaning -attach to it. The word is commonly used as the equivalent of innate, -inherent, inborn or germinal. Now nothing is truly innate or inborn -save what was present in the germ. But with childish confusion of -thought, we persist in attaching quite undeserved importance to the -_birth_ of those animals which are brought forth "alive"--as if a -bird's egg were not alive. Hence we speak of any character present at -birth as congenital, and then we assume that congenital is synonymous -with inherent or germinal. But it is an irrelevant detail that a young -mammal happens to leave its mother at the ninth week or month. During -the whole period that it spends within its mother, it is to be regarded -as an individual organism with its own environment. If that environment -so affects it as to strangle a limb, the result is an acquirement, -though it may be present at birth. An acquirement is an acquirement, -whether it be acquired five minutes or months before, or five minutes -or months after, the change of environment which we call birth. -Thus a character may be congenital--that is, present at birth--but -not inherent or germinal, not inborn at the _real birth_, which was -the union of the maternal and paternal germ-cells at conception. -Such congenital characters are really acquirements, and--poisonings -apart--are not transmissible. In common discussion this distinction -is wholly ignored; and two distinct things, fundamentally different -in origin and in potency, are lumped together under the blessed word -"congenital." - -This word is equally foolish and useless in an opposite direction. -It constantly leads those who use it to suppose that the inherent -characters of an individual are conterminous with his congenital -characters or his characters at birth, and that thus any characters -which he displays at a later age are acquired. All this comes -of the absurdly delusive significance attached to the change of -environment called birth, and may doubtless be traced historically to -the remotest superstitions which imagined that a baby is not alive -until it is born and breathes, or that the soul or breath or _pneuma_ -or "vital principle" is breathed into it at the moment of birth. We -know, however, that a man may display for the first time at the age -of twenty or sixty a character which was as truly inherent in his -constitution as his nose or his spinal column--perhaps a beard, perhaps -a mental character, perhaps a disease, or what not. Now this was not -congenital though it was inherent. But as long as the stupid[29] word -"congenital" is used as it is, we shall fail to realise that inherent -characters may display themselves in an individual at any time after -birth as at any time before birth. Thus, to sum up, a character may be -congenital or rather _pre-congenital_, yet not inherent but acquired: -a character may be post-congenital, yet not acquired but inherent. Now -the all-important question as regards heredity is not at what date in -the history of an individual a character appears--as, for instance, -before birth or after birth; but, whether that character is inherent -and therefore transmissible and therefore a possible architect of the -future of mankind; or merely an acquirement, with which--the racial -poisons apart--heredity has no concern. - -It is suggested, then, that the word congenital be expunged from the -vocabulary of science, or that, if it be retained, some meaning or -other--any will do--be attached to it. If the word is to be retained, -and if it be agreed to attach a meaning to it, probably "at birth" -would be the most convenient. If this were agreed upon, then the -phrase "congenital blindness," now in common use, could be retained, -as it would then accurately indicate the nature of the blindness in -question, which is due almost invariably, if not invariably, to an -infection acquired at the moment of birth. - -Yet further. When we say that a man's intelligence or length of limb -or whatever it be is hereditary, we mean in ordinary speech that this -character can be traced in one or more of his ancestors; and that is, -of course, an accurate use of the term. But Shakespeare, for instance, -had unremarkable ancestors, so that no one would say that his genius -was hereditary; are we, then, to say that it was acquired? Every one -would protest at once that a poet is born and not made--than which -there is certainly no truer popular saying. What, then, is to be said -of it if it was neither hereditary nor acquired? The truth is that -language is again at fault. Shakespeare's genius was of inherent or -germinal origin--the poet is born and not made: or, more accurately, -the poet is conceived and not made, either before birth or after it. -Therefore, though Shakespeare did not inherit his mother's genius or -his father's genius, neither of them having such a gift to transmit, -yet his genius was certainly potential either in the maternal or -paternal germ-cell which united to form him, or in both; or at the -least arose in consequence of that compromise or rearrangement or -settlement, shall we say, which is in effect always agreed upon by the -two germ-cells in bi-parental reproduction. Now the two germ-cells are -the hereditary material. They were given to Shakespeare by his parents; -nay more, they made him. His genius, then, was hereditary in an -absolutely correct sense of the word, yet not in the sense of ordinary -speech, nor even in the sense in which it is employed by Mr. Galton in -his book on _Hereditary Genius_. This confusion of terms is responsible -for much confusion of thought. It must the more urgently be cleared up -because of the discoveries in heredity initiated by the Abbot Mendel, -forty years ago, and now included in the department of the science of -heredity which is called Mendelism. We learn from this that highly -definite characters may appear in offspring though there was no sign of -them in either parent. These, then, are not hereditary in the sense of -ordinary speech. Yet, in a more accurate sense of the word they can be -proved to be hereditary--nay more, the manner and proportion of their -transmission can be predicted in the most exact mathematical terms. -These characters were not present in the parent's body; they did not -lie open to view in the parent; they were not patent in the parent. -They were latent, however, they lay hid, in the parent, or rather in -the germ-plasm of which that parent was the host. In many such cases, -if we go back a generation further we find that the character in -question was patent in a grand-parent. A mother's son may suffer from -haemophilia or the bleeding disease, yet she is not a "bleeder," nor is -the boy's father; but her father was a bleeder, and the disease is, of -course, hereditary in her son, though neither of his parents displayed -a trace of it. - -Thus an individual may inherit or may have inherent in the germ-cells -from which he was formed characters which were not present in either -parent. They were, however, potentially present in the germ-cells of -which those parents were the trustees. - -But, the reader will say, do we find in the case of every "sport" or -"transilient variation," such as Shakespeare, that the new character -was, after all, present in some one or other of his ancestors though -absent in his immediate parents? The answer is negative, certainly. -But genius, to take this case, is a combination of qualities. And the -Mendelians are now able to call into existence organisms of new kinds -by combination of qualities derived from one parent, or rather from one -parental line, with other qualities, formerly apparently incompatible -with them derived from the other parental line. Thus Professor Biffen -of Cambridge has called into existence a new kind of wheat such as -never existed before--a wheat combining the quality technically called -"strength," hitherto lacking in all kinds of wheat capable of being -profitably grown in Great Britain, with the power of yielding a large -crop and other good qualities found in home-grown wheat. He has also -produced a wheat which, together with other desirable qualities, is -immune from the disease known as "rust," this immunity having never -been found before associated with the other good qualities in question. -These advances will not long be limited to the vegetable world merely. -Perhaps it requires no very great imagination, after all, to suppose -that even something like that combination of qualities which we call -genius may some day be produced at will in mankind. - -Such a new wheat, then,--I will not say such a Shakespeare--owes its -unique and unprecedented properties to heredity, and yet there was -never anything like it before. Its "genius" is not "hereditary." - -The words _innate_ and _inborn_ are harmless and may be employed, -though the apparent emphasis on birth is rather unfortunate. We mean, -however, by innate or inborn qualities, qualities which were potential -in the germ. The genius of Shakespeare was innate or inborn. It was -present potentially at his real birth, the union of the parental cells. -It preceded his "birth" in the ordinary sense of the word: Shakespeare, -when only _in embryo_, was a Shakespeare _in embryo_. - -Better still is the word _inherent_, which, of course, literally means -"sticking in." By anything inherent we mean that which was there from -the first as part and parcel of, as indeed essential to, the entity -to which we refer. Now inherent characters are always inherited in -the accurate sense that they inhere in the germ-cells, which are -the inherited material. As these germ-cells make us or as we are -made out of them, it follows, of course, that all our potentialities -whatsoever, our ultimate fates in every particular, partly depend upon -inheritance.[30] - -_Nature_ and _nurture_ are antithetic terms of Shakespearean origin -which are in frequent use and much favoured by Mr. Galton. That which -comes by nature is the inborn, inherent, or germinal; and that is due -to nurture which is the result of the converse of the germinal with the -environment--a man's accent, for instance. - -Perhaps, in some ways, _germinal_ is the most useful word of all, -though inherent is so convenient and familiar, as well as being -accurate etymologically, that it has been employed throughout this -book. Not only is the word germinal strictly accurate, but also it -suggests the idea of the germ-plasm, and has the particular virtue of -avoiding all reference to the change of environment to which young -mammals are subjected and which is called birth. - -There remains the terminological difficulty that, as I have tried to -show, the individual may display characters which were potential in the -germ, inherent and necessarily inherited, though they did not appear in -the parent nor yet in any ancestor. We have to face the paradox, then, -that in natural inheritance a parent can transmit what he has not got, -though this does not apply to the unnatural inheritance of property in -human society. Now what word is there which shall indicate the origin -or at least the time and conditions of origin, of such characters -as these? They are germinal, yet they are--in some cases--not wholly -present in either of the germ-cells which united to form the new -individual in question. They are present, however, in the new single -cell from which this individual, like every living organism, takes its -origin.[31] The terms "congerminal" or "conceptional" might be employed. - -"Acquired character," even, is a bad term. It replaced -"functionally-produced modification," which was long employed by -Spencer. The blacksmith's biceps answers to this phrase. It is this -and other such modifications that are non-transmissible. Alcoholic -degeneration is not a "functionally-produced modification," but it -is an "acquired character," as is lead poisoning. These do produce -results in offspring--naturally enough. If the older phrase were still -the one employed, we should see that the Weismannian argument as to -non-transmission does not apply to _such_ "acquired characters." - -The word "reversion," also, not to say "atavism," may well be dropped. -The attempted justification of its older meaning by Professor -Thomson has led to severe and conclusive Mendelian criticism. The -"reversion" of fancy pigeons to the blue ancestor is simply due -to the coming together of Mendelian units long separated. The -"reversion" of the feeble-minded is not reversion but the result of -poisoning--_di_version, or _per_version, if you like. Primitive man was -not feeble-minded, nor is the ape. Science has no further use for the -word as it is at present employed. - -=Maternal impressions.=--We are now, at last, after our attempt to -clear up the vocabulary of heredity, in a position to consider -certain doctrines and popular beliefs which bear very directly upon -race-culture. Realising, for instance, that "congenital" means nothing; -realising as perhaps some of us have not so clearly realised before, -_when_ exactly it is that the new human being comes into existence, we -shall be prepared to understand how definite and indisputable are the -denials which science offers to certain popular ideas. - -Thus, for instance, in the interests of race-culture, or, to be more -particular, in the interests of her unborn baby, the expectant mother -may faithfully follow the example of Lucy in _The Ordeal of Richard -Feverel_.[32] Does this have its intended effect? The answer is an -unqualified negative. Consider the case. The baby is at this time -already a baby, though rather small and uncanny, floating in a fluid of -its own manufacture. Its sole connection with its mother is by means -of its umbilical cord--that is to say, blood vessels, arterial and -venous. There is no nervous connection whatever: absolutely nothing but -the blood-stream, carried along a system of tubes. This blood is the -child's blood, which it sends forth from itself along the umbilical -cord to a special organ, the placenta or after-birth, half made by -itself and half made by the mother, in which the child's blood travels -in thin vessels so close to the mother's blood that their contents can -be interchanged. Yet the two streams never actually mix. The child's -blood, having disposed of its carbonic acid and waste-products to the -mother's blood, and having received therefrom oxygen and food, returns -so laden to the child. Pray how is the mother's reading of history to -make the child a historian? If, after birth, a small operation were -performed, so that some of the mother's blood should run along an -artificial tube into one of her baby's veins, the effective connection -between the two organisms would in a sense be actually closer than it -was before birth, when, as has been said, the two streams are always -kept apart. Should we expect such an operation to serve the child for -education? If the mother then acquired a scar should we expect it to -give the child a similar scar? - -We see now why the learning of geometry on the part of the mother -before its birth will not set her baby upon that royal road to geometry -of which Euclid rightly denied the existence--any more than after -its birth. Such a thing does not happen, and there is no conceivable -means by which it could happen--unless we are to call in telepathy. -All maternal hopes and efforts of this kind are utterly misguided: as -misguided as if the father entertained similar hopes. Let the devoted -mother acquaint herself not with what historians are pleased to call -history, but with the history of the developing human mind and body, so -that she may be a fit educator of her child when it is born. - -Let her also realise that her blood is everything to her child. It is -food and air and organ of excretion. If she introduces alcohol into -her blood in any considerable quantity she is feeding her child on -poisoned food. Surely the reader must see the distinction between a -case like this and the supposed transmission of historical knowledge or -even historical aptitude from mother to baby by the diligent perusal of -histories. Yet though the distinction is so palpable and evident, there -are extremists who believe and even print their beliefs that the denial -of the one (supposed) possibility, which is palpably inconceivable, -logically carries with it a denial of the other possibility, which is -indeed a palpable necessity. Or, to state the criticism in another way, -there are those who, if we protest that the introduction of poisons -into the mother's organism must surely involve risk to the child who is -nourished by her blood, will retort, "Oh, well, I suppose you believe -that if you learn a number of languages before your next child is born, -he or she will be a linguist!"[33] - -=Hereditary genius.=--Mr. Galton's world-famous work on _Hereditary -Genius_ was published in 1869 and reprinted with a most valuable -additional chapter in 1892. It has long been out of print, however, and -for the definite purpose of attempting to arouse the reader's interest -in it so that he may somehow or other obtain a copy to read, I may here -go over one or two points, chosen to that end. The argument, of course, -is that ability is hereditary.[34] - -This, in the judgment of most unbiassed people, Mr. Galton conclusively -proved: and we do not at all realise to-day how repugnant and -revolutionary this doctrine appeared to popular opinion some forty -years ago. Mr. Galton has, however, followed up his citation of facts -on more than one occasion since,[35] and those who now deny his view -belong to that very large majority of any population which finds -itself able to pronounce confidently upon the value of an author's -work without the labour, found necessary by less fortunate people, of -reading it. - -The following quotation states the question of national eugenics in -final form:-- - - "As an example of what could be sought with advantage, let us - suppose that we take a number, sufficient for statistical purposes, - of persons occupying different social classes, those who are the - least efficient in physical, intellectual, and moral grounds forming - our lowest class, and those who are the most efficient forming our - highest class. The question to be solved relates to the hereditary - permanence of the several classes. What proportion of each class - is descended from parents who belong to the same class, and what - proportion is descended from parents who belong to each of the other - classes? Do those persons who have honourably succeeded in life, - and who are presumably, on the whole, the most valuable portion of - our human stock, contribute on the aggregate their fair share of - posterity to the next generation? If not, do they contribute more - or less than their fair share, and in what degree? In other words, - is the evolution of man in each particular country favourably or - injuriously affected by its special form of civilisation? - - "Enough is already known to make it certain that the productiveness - of both the extreme classes, the best and the worst, falls short of - the average of the nation as a whole. Therefore, the most prolific - class necessarily lies between the two extremes, but at what - intermediate point does it lie? Taken altogether, on any reasonable - principle, are the natural gifts of the most prolific class, bodily, - intellectual, and moral, above or below the line of national - mediocrity? If above that line, then the existing conditions are - favourable to the improvement of the race. If they are below that - line, they must work towards its degradation." - -The main body of the book deals with enquiries in special cases--the -judges of England between 1660 and 1865, statesmen, commanders, -authors, men of science, poets, musicians, painters, divines, senior -classics of Cambridge, oarsmen and wrestlers. - -The concluding chapters should be printed in gold. Only one or two -notes can here be made. Mr. Galton believes that the dark ages were -largely due to the celibacy enjoined by religious orders on their -votaries:-- - - "Whenever a man or woman was possessed of a gentle nature that - fitted him or her to deeds of charity, to meditation, to literature - or to art, the social condition of the time was such that they had - no refuge elsewhere than in the bosom of the Church. But the Church - chose to preach and exact celibacy, and the consequence was that - these gentle natures had no continuance, and thus, by a policy - so singularly unwise and suicidal that I am hardly able to speak - of it without impatience, the Church brutalised the breed of our - forefathers. She acted precisely as if she had aimed at selecting - the rudest portion of the community to be, alone, parents of future - generations. She practised the arts which breeders would use, who - aimed at creating ferocious, currish, and stupid natures. No wonder - that club law prevailed for centuries over Europe; the wonder rather - is that enough good remained in the veins of Europeans to enable - their race to rise to its present very moderate level of natural - morality." - -Yet further:-- - - "The policy of the religious world in Europe was exerted in another - direction, with hardly less cruel effect on the nature of future - generations, by means of persecutions which brought thousands of the - foremost thinkers and men of political aptitudes to the scaffold, or - imprisoned them during a large part of their manhood, or drove them - as emigrants into other lands. In every one of these cases the check - upon their leaving issue was very considerable. Hence the Church, - having first captured all the gentle natures and condemned them to - celibacy, made another sweep of her huge nets, this time fishing - in stirring waters, to catch those who were the most fearless, - truth-seeking, and intelligent, in their modes of thought, and - therefore the most suitable parents of a high civilisation, and put - a strong check, if not a direct stop, to their progeny. Those she - reserved on these occasions, to breed the generations of the future, - were the servile, the indifferent, and, again, the stupid. Thus, as - she--to repeat my expression--brutalised human nature by her system - of celibacy applied to the gentle, she demoralised it by her system - of persecution of the intelligent, the sincere, and the free. It is - enough to make the blood boil to think of the blind folly that has - caused the foremost nations of struggling humanity to be the heirs of - such hateful ancestry, and that has so bred our instincts as to keep - them in an unnecessarily long-continued antagonism with the essential - requirements of a steadily advancing civilisation." - -For this final quotation no apology is needed:-- - - "The best form of civilisation in respect to the improvement of the - race, would be one in which society was not costly; where incomes - were chiefly derived from professional sources, and not much through - inheritance; where every lad had a chance of showing his abilities, - and, if highly gifted, was enabled to achieve a first-class education - and entrance into professional life, by the liberal help of the - exhibitions and scholarships which he had gained in his early youth; - where marriage was held in as high honour as in ancient Jewish times; - where the pride of race was encouraged (of course I do not refer to - the nonsensical sentiment of the present day, that goes under that - name); where the weak could find a welcome and a refuge in celibate - monasteries or sisterhoods, and lastly, where the better sort of - emigrants and refugees from other lands were invited and welcomed, - and their descendants naturalised." - -=The study of psychical inheritance.=--This early work of Mr. Galton -has been followed by much more on the same lines. Contemporary -psychology, however, is _just beginning_ to indicate the lines on -which new enquiry is needed. The naive assertions of the actuary as -to the inheritance of, say, "conscientiousness" are not useful to the -psychologist, who has some idea of the structure and history of that -most complex social product we call conscience. The psychologists -must analyse out for us those elementary units of the mind upon -which experience and the social state, education and suggestion act, -to make human nature as we know it. The reader may be directed to -Dr. McDougall's recent work on _Social Psychology_--written at the -present writer's suggestion--for an outline analysis of what is really -inherent, and therefore alone transmissible, in the human mind--certain -instincts and impulses, together with native varieties in capacity of -memory, and so on. Recently the Mendelians have entered this field, -and they have the advantage of realising the importance of dealing -with real primary units. Their law seems to apply to the musical sense -in man and to the brooding instinct in the hen.[36] The line of study -here suggested is earnestly commended to the psychologists for their -_indispensable_ help. - -=Eugenics and parties.=--Let us once again consider the fashion in -which men and women are classified to the eugenic eye. We have already -realised that the most essential division _of fact_ is that between -those who will and those who will not be parents. The most essential -division _of ideal_ is of those who are worthy and those who are not -worthy to be parents. It is the object of eugenics to make the real and -the ideal divisions coincide. And let us here say with all possible -force that before such classifications as these all others are trivial -and nearly all others impudent. The eugenist has nothing to do with the -low game called party politics: terms like socialism and so forth mean -very little for him. He may or may not be a socialist, but if he be, -at least he does not subscribe to what, so far as I can judge, is the -first article in the creed of socialism--that all evil is of economic -origin; he knows that there is much evil of germinal origin. As for -conservatism and liberalism, he might have some use for these terms -if the creed of conservatism were that there is no wealth but life, -which must be conserved; and the creed of liberalism that life has not -yet reached its zenith, and there must be liberty for all progressive -variations of body and mind and thought and practice. As it is, all -these things are somewhat nauseating. If and when there is a thinking -party, and that party will have the eugenist, he will doubtless join -it. Meanwhile he appeals to that great and growing section of the -community which knows party-politics for the humbug and sham that it -is, and the House of Commons as a lethal chamber for souls. - -Similarly, the eugenic classification of mankind cuts right across -the ordinary social classification. The parasite and the parent of -parasites must be branded, whether he be at the top or the bottom of -the social scale. The quality of the germ-plasm which men and women -carry is the supremely important thing. Its architecture is the -architect of all empires. Year by year we shall more surely be able -to infer the nature and the worth of the germ-plasm in particular -cases, though its host may have been veneered or, on the other hand, -repressed; and year by year the basal facts of heredity will furnish -ever surer criteria for the theory and practice of a New Imperialism -which knows, for instance, what militarism did for Rome and Napoleon -for France, and which will some day sweep all the money changers out of -the Temple of Life.[37] - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - EDUCATION AND RACE-CULTURE - - "Education is but the giving or withholding of - opportunity."--Bateson. - - -It is true that education can seem to accomplish miracles; that in a -single generation the results of an ideal education would be amazing. -It is true, also, that in certain epochs of history, when wise counsels -have prevailed, great results have been attained. It is true that at -present scarcely a man or woman amongst us, if any, has reached the -full stature which would have been attained under an ideal system -of education. It is true, finally, that no system of race-culture -can ignore education or be effective without it. Though the general -question of education is not the specific question of the present -volume, yet there is only too good reason for some brief allusion to -the subject here, especially since it bears on the question of the -measure of importance which we ascribe to heredity. - -=Modern education--the destruction of mind.=--When we observe in such -contrasted cases as those of Herbert Spencer and Wordsworth, for -instance, that absence of early education, especially in the first -septennium, has co-existed with the subsequent efflorescence of the -mightiest genius, we may almost be inclined to enquire whether genius -could not in effect be made to order even in the very next generation -by the simple device of suspending the process which we are pleased to -call education. Doubtless that is scarcely so, though every one who has -any knowledge of the subject is well assured that mere suspension of -the present destructive process might suffice to produce a population -that would wonder at its ancestors. - -A simple analogy will show the disastrous character of the present -process, which may be briefly described as "education" by cram -and emetic. It is as if you filled a child's stomach to repletion -with marbles, pieces of coal and similar material incapable of -digestion--the more worthless the material the more accurate the -analogy: then applied an emetic and estimated your success by the -completeness with which everything was returned, more especially if it -was returned "unchanged," as the doctors say. Just so do we cram the -child's mental stomach, its memory, with a selection of dead facts of -history and the like (at least when they are not fictions) and then -apply a violent emetic called an examination (which like most other -emetics causes much depression) and estimate our success by the number -of statements which the child vomits on to the examination paper--if -the reader will excuse me. Further, if we are what we usually are, we -prefer that the statements shall come back "unchanged"--showing no -signs of mental digestion. We call this "training the memory." - -Such a process as one has imagined in the physical case would assuredly -ruin the physical digestion for life. In the mental case, which is not -imaginary but actual, a similar result ensues. It is thus unfair to -the Anglo-Saxon germ-plasm to credit it with the abundant stupidity -of its products. Much of this stupidity is factitious and artificial. -We shall continue to produce it so long as by education or drawing -forth we understand intrusion or thrusting in, and so long as the -only drawing forth which we practise is by means of the emetics we -call examinations. The present type of education is a curse to modern -childhood and a menace to the future. The teacher who cannot tell -whether a child is doing well without formally examining it, should -be heaving bricks; but such a teacher does not exist. In Berlin they -are now learning that the depression caused by these emetics, for which -the best physical parallel is antimony, often leads to child suicide--a -steadily-increasing phenomenon mainly due to educational over-pressure -and worry about examinations. - -Short of such appalling disasters, however, we have to reckon with -the existence of this enormous amount of stupidity, which those who -fortunately escaped such education in childhood have to drag along -with them in the long struggle towards the stars. This dead weight of -inertia lamentably retards progress. - -Our factitious stupidity is injurious both in the governing and the -governed. As Professor Patrick Geddes once remarked to the present -writer, there are three kinds of governments: the government of the -future--as yet only ideal, which believes that there are ideas and -that they may be worth acting upon: the second is instanced by the -Russian government, which believes that there are ideas, but fears and -suppresses them: the third by the British government, which denies -that there are ideas at all, and prefers the method of "muddling -through"--to use a Cabinet Minister's contented phrase--though truth is -one and error infinite, though there are a million ways of going wrong -for one of going right. This characteristic is not to be attributed to -any germinal stupidity of the ruling classes in England. If it were we -should of course look upon the decadence of their birth-rate with the -utmost gratitude. It is a factitious product of their education. If you -have been treated with marbles and emetics long enough, you may begin -to question whether there is such a thing as nourishing food; if you -have been crammed with dead facts, and then compelled to disgorge them, -you may well question whether there are such things as nourishing facts -or ideas. - -Not less disastrous is this factitious stupidity amongst the governed. -It produces, of course, the kind of man with whom we are all familiar. -Having at great labour been taught to read, he is incapable of reading -anything but rubbish. He never thinks for himself, and if he does you -wish he had not, so inadequate is his machinery and so deplorable -the result. He believes in politicians. He is, as we have said, so -much dead weight for the reformer, whose energy is diverted from the -discovery of new truth by the need of directing the eyes of stupidity -to the old, though it shines as the sun in his strength. - -Therefore, let not the reader suppose that in the advocacy of eugenics -or race-culture we have become blinded to the possibilities offered us -by reasonable education even of the very heterogeneous material offered -us by heredity. - -=The limits of education--individual and racial.=--Yet it must be -maintained that, though we cannot do without education, and though -something infinitely better than we practise at present will be -necessary if the ideal of race-culture is ever to be realised, yet -education alone, however good, can never enable us to achieve our end. -It must be maintained, in the first place, that education is limited -in its powers by the inherent nature of the educated material--it is a -process of _drawing out_, and you cannot draw out what is not there: -and secondly, that its value, so far as the nature of individuals -is concerned, is confined to the individuals in question and is not -reproduced or maintained in their children. Thus education alone would -have similar material to act upon from age to age, would have to make -a fresh beginning in each generation, and its results, however good, -relatively, would still be limited and finite. We shall do well, -perhaps, to obtain and retain an adequate definition of education. -No true conception of education was possible, notwithstanding the -derivation of the word, so long as the child's mind was likened to -a piece of "pure white paper" for us to write upon: or an empty box -waiting to be filled. The _tabula rasa_ of Locke is, we now know, the -last thing in the world to resemble a child's mind. Indeed, if any -such figure be demanded, the child's mind is a piece of mosaic--made -of ancestral pieces--and education is the process of realising what is -so given. Or, if a child's mind is a portmanteau, to educate is not to -pack but to unpack it. We understand, at least, that education never -can begin at the beginning, nor anywhere near it--that, as Professor -MacCunn says in his admirable book, _The Making of Character_, "the -page of the youngest life is so far from being blank that it bears upon -it characters in comparison with which the faded ink of palaeography is -as recent history." - -We are learning, too, though none but the very few know this, that the -process by which the "faded ink" is made visible must not be credited -with having done the writing: any more than the fire to which you hold -a paper written upon with ink that fire makes visible. Still less do we -realise that what really seems to be the product of education is often -the result of an inherent mechanism now developed, which was not yet -formed when we began the educational process. One reason why the baby -cannot walk is that it has not the nervous apparatus. A child may walk -at the first attempt, if that attempt be delayed until the machinery is -developed. A child may similarly speak sentences at the first attempt. -Very commonly we start teaching a child something, which, after some -years, it learns. We have done nothing but interfere. The learning is -none of our doing: merely the mental apparatus is now evolved--and lo! -the result. At birth the sucking apparatus is perfect. If we could, -doubtless we should start teaching the unborn infant to suck long -before the machinery was ready--and should applaud ourselves for its -facility at birth; only that probably this facility would be impaired -by our efforts, as many capacities of later development are damaged by -our interference. What we understand, or misunderstand, by education -should begin approximately when a child is seven. The first seven years -of life should really have the term of childhood confined to them, -for there is a natural term so indicated. The growth of the brain is -a matter of the first seven years almost wholly. It grows relatively -little after that period; and until that is completed the physical -apparatus of mind is not ready for educational interference. Without -any such interference, and with merely the provision of conditions, -physical and mental, for its spontaneous development, the brain of -the seven year old will suffice for surprising things--so surprising -that if their evolution were possible under any system of schooling -practised before that date, we should applaud it as ideal. Probably -there is no such system--much less any that will improve on the -spontaneous process. - -=Education the provision of an environment.=--We are prepared, then, -to realise the limits to the action of education upon the individual. -We shall not confuse this great and many-sided thing with such of its -factors as instruction or schooling. It is not intrusion but education: -"the guidance of growth," to use Sir James Crichton-Browne's phrase. -This guidance, this process of unpacking, educing or realising, is -accomplished by the action of circumstances or the environment. -Environment is a large word and is invariably abused when it is used -in less than the large sense. Here it includes, for instance, air and -food, mother-love and the schoolmaster. I therefore define education -as _the provision of an environment_. This definition prepares us to -understand the limitations of the process. If we think of education as -a packing or cramming process, we shall err in this respect; we shall -expect limitless results from education provided that one packs early -and tightly and carefully enough. It is this erroneous conception -which rules us and daily betrays us in practice. If, however, we think -of education as the provision of an environment, capable of creating -nothing, but merely of causing the expression or the repression of -potential characters inherent in the individual educated, then we shall -begin to recast our methods on the lines determined by this truth. Yet, -further, we shall begin to understand the cardinal truth, one of the -many platitudes which we have yet to appreciate, that "you cannot make -a silk purse out of a sow's ear." - -=Heredity and environment.=--Let us consider the question in general -terms. The characters of any living thing are determined by two -factors--heredity and environment. The old phrases were character and -circumstances, but they were less than useful, since character is -modified by circumstances. Now one of the most important questions -in the world, and not least for the eugenist, is as to the relative -importance of these two factors. The technical terms may not be in -our mouths, but we discuss this instance or that of the question in -point almost every day of our lives. One part of the business of -philosophy and of science is not only to answer questions but to ask -them correctly. This question is always wrongly asked, and therefore -cannot be answered, or is incorrectly answered. We persist in using -the mathematical idea of addition, and we seek to show that, say, -seventy per cent. of the result is due to the innate factor and thirty -per cent. to the acquired. But the truth is that so long as we begin -with this idea we may prove what we please. If we keep our attention -fixed upon the environmental or educational factor we can easily and -correctly demonstrate that in certain circumstances Mozart would -have been tone-deaf and Shakespeare a gibbering idiot--hence, but -incorrectly, we argue that environment is practically everything. _Per -contra_, we can easily and correctly demonstrate that no education -in the world could enable a door-mat or a cabbage or ourselves to -write _Don Giovanni_ or _Hamlet_--hence, but incorrectly, we argue -that the material to be operated upon is everything. We have to -learn, however, that the analogy _is one not of addition but of -multiplication_. Neither inheritance nor environment, as such, gives -anything. The environmental factor may be potentially one hundred--an -ideal education--but the innate or inherited factor may be nothing, as -when the pupil is a door-mat or a fool. The result then is nothing. -Darwin had the trombone played to a plant, but he did not make a -Palestrina. No academy of music will make a beetroot into a Beethoven, -though I dare say a well-trained beetroot might write a musical comedy. -The point is that one hundred multiplied by nothing equals nothing. -Similarly, the innate factor may be one hundred, as in the case of a -potential genius, but he may be brought up upon alcohol and curses -amongst savages, and the result again is nothing. Keep the idea of -multiplication in the mind, and the facts are seen rightly. No matter -how big either factor be, if it be multiplied by nothing it yields -nothing, or if it be multiplied by a fraction, as in the ordinary -education of a genius, it yields less than it should. But in this -controversy people persist in assuming that inheritance or education -gives definitely so much which is there anyhow, whereas, really, -it only supplies a potential figure, which may realise infinity or -nothing, according to what it is multiplied by. With all deference, I -submit this as a real answer to these endless disputes. - -But further, granted that neither factor in itself produces any -actuality, which is normally the weightier of the two factors? We must -make the qualification, "normally," because such a thing as disease or -poison, included in the environmental factor, will dominate the result, -completely overshadowing the importance of whatever heredity gave. Such -things apart, however, we may be thoroughly assured that heredity is -the weightier of the two factors. The more we study education, the more -we recognise its true nature. Indeed, the more we realise its ideal, -the more do we realise its limitations. The more we study education -the more important does heredity appear. If the reader has not had -opportunities of observing children for himself let him refer to such -a book as Mr. Galton's _Inquiries into Human Faculty_, and he will -begin to realise how large is the factor given by inheritance and how -relatively small is the factor given by education. - -=Education can educate only what heredity gives.=--Heredity, as -the eugenist must never forget, gives not actualities but only -potentialities. It depends upon circumstances whether they shall -become actualities. That, however, we all know. No one supposes that -education is superfluous or impotent. We do, however, persistently -forget the converse truth that education, on the other hand, makes no -definite contribution, but merely multiplies--or alas, divides--the -potentialities given by inheritance. These potentialities constitute -a limiting condition which no education can transcend. Education can -educate only what heredity gives. Long ago Helvetius thought, as did -Kant, that the differences between men were due to differences in -education. But it is not so. We make, of course, the most ridiculous -claims for education. The remark wrongly attributed to the Duke of -Wellington, that "the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields -of Eton," is an instance in point. Recently, when Francis Thompson, -the poet, died, the local newspaper of his birthplace said that it -should be proud to have produced him. We may laugh at this conception -of the genesis of genius, but we all talk in this fashion. A genius -was educated at Eton, and we say that Eton produced him. The truth -is, of course, that Eton failed to destroy him. (One says Eton for -convenience, but the name of any accepted school will do.) If Eton -produced him, why does not it produce thousands like him? There is -plenty of material: but it is not the right material. We should -cease to speak, in our pride for our own _Alma Mater_ or our own -methods, as if education created genius or anything else. Men are born -unequal. To realise the nature of education is not only to avoid the -popular assumption that an ideal education will do everything for us, -forgetting that no amount of polishing will make pewter shine like -silver; it is not only to send us back to the principle of selection -in recognition of the power of inheritance; it is not merely to -dispose of the idea that men are born inherently equal; but it is -also to combat the idea that education is a levelling process. On the -contrary, it accentuates the differences between men. You may confuse -the unpolished pebble and the diamond, but not when education has done -its utmost for both. If education were a process of addition to what -inheritance gives, it would almost level men: the addition of a large -sum to figures such as, say, 1, 2, and 3, would almost obliterate -their original disproportion. But the analogy is with multiplication, -as I have suggested: and the larger the sum by which 1, 2 and 3 are -multiplied, the greater is the disparity between the products. This -is, perhaps, one of the truths of vast importance which the common rim -of contemporary Socialism implicitly denies: though it is of course -abundantly recognised by such a socialist as that master-thinker -Professor Forel. The socialist's panacea, ideal education for all, is -much to be desired, and will accomplish much, as we began by admitting; -but it is not a panacea. Those who believe it to be such do not -understand the nature of education nor its limitations. They should -remember the remark of Epictetus, "the condition and characteristic -of a fool is this: he never expects from himself profit nor harm, but -from externals." The dogma of the unthinking socialist--who exists, -though he is doubtless rarer than the unthinking individualist--is -that all evil is of economic origin: correct your economics and your -education and you obliterate evil. But it is not so. As Lowell said, -"A great part of human suffering has its root in the nature of man, -and not in that of his institutions." When by means of eugenics we -can give education the right material to work upon, we shall have a -Utopia, and as for forms of government they may be left for fools to -contest. Forel, incomparably the greatest socialist thinker of the -day, sees this. He makes his Utopian predictions not so much as to -mere externals, like clothing and language, but as regards the kind of -man and woman: and, unlike some writers, he entitles himself to paint -these pictures, for in that great eugenic treatise _Die Sexuel Frage_, -he tells us how to realise them by pedagogic reform working upon the -materials provided by human selection. A paragraph may be quoted from -Forel:-- - - "Malgre tout l'enthousiasme qu'on doit montrer pour une pedagogie - rationelle, il ne faut jamais oublier qu'elle est incapable de - remplacer la selection. Elle sert au but immediat et rapproche, qui - est d'utiliser le mieux possible le material humain tel qu'il existe - maintenant. Mais, par elle-meme, elle n'ameliore en rien la qualite - des germes a venir. Elle peut, neanmoins, grace a l'instruction - donnee a la jeunesse sur la valeur sociale de la selection, la - preparer a mettre cette derniere en oeuvre." #/ - -and another from Spencer:-- - - "We are not among those who believe in Lord Palmerston's dogma, - that all children are born good. On the whole, the opposite dogma, - untenable as it is, seems to us less wide of the truth. Nor do we - agree with those who think that, by skilful discipline, children - may be made altogether what they should be. Contrariwise, we are - satisfied that though imperfections of nature may be diminished by - wise management, they cannot be removed by it. The notion that an - ideal humanity might be forthwith produced by a perfect system of - education, is near akin to that implied in the poems of Shelley, that - would make mankind give up their old institutions and prejudices, all - the evils in the world would at once disappear; neither notion being - acceptable to such as have dispassionately studied human affairs." - -=Ruskin on education and inequality.=--Three great paragraphs may be -quoted from Ruskin's _Time and Tide_:-- - - "... Education _was desired by the lower orders because they thought - it would make them upper orders_, and be a leveller and effacer of - distinctions. They will be mightily astonished, when they really - get it, to find that it is, on the contrary, the fatallest of all - discerners and enforcers of distinctions; piercing, even to the - division of the joints and marrow, to find out wherein your body and - soul are less, or greater, than other bodies and souls, and to sign - deed of separation with unequivocal seal. - - "171. Education is, indeed, of all differences not divinely - appointed, an instant effacer and reconciler. Whatever is undivinely - poor, it will make rich; whatever is undivinely maimed, and halt, and - blind, it will make whole, and equal, and seeing. The blind and the - lame are to it as to David at the siege of the Tower of the Kings, - 'hated of David's soul.' But there are other divinely-appointed - differences, eternal as the ranks of the everlasting hills, and as - the strength of their ceaseless waters. And these, education does not - do away with; but measures, manifests, and employs. - - "In the handful of shingle which you gather from the sea-beach, which - the indiscriminate sea, with equality of fraternal foam, has only - educated to be, every one, round, you will see little difference - between the noble and the mean stones. But the jeweller's trenchant - education of them will tell you another story. Even the meanest - will be the better for it, but the noblest so much better that you - can class the two together no more. The fair veins and colours are - all clear now, and so stern is nature's intent regarding this, that - not only will the polish show which is best, but the best will take - most polish. You shall not merely see they have more virtue than the - others, but see that more of virtue more clearly; and the less virtue - there is, the more dimly you shall see what there is of it. - - "172. And the law about education, which is sorrowfullest to vulgar - pride, is this--that all its gains are at compound interest; so that, - as our work proceeds, every hour throws us farther behind the greater - men with whom we began on equal terms. Two children go to school hand - in hand, and spell for half an hour over the same page. Through all - their lives, never shall they spell from the same page more. One is - presently a page a-head, two pages, ten pages--and evermore, though - each toils equally, the interval enlarges--at birth nothing, at death - infinite." - -So much for one relation of this question to Socialism. Quite lately -(_The New Age_, April 11th, 1908) Mr. Havelock Ellis has summed the -matter up as follows:-- - - "Education has been put at the beginning, when it ought to have - been put at the end. It matters comparatively little what sort of - education we give children; the primary matter is what sort of - children we have got to educate. That is the most fundamental of - questions. It lies deeper even than the great question of Socialism - versus Individualism, and indeed touches a foundation that is - common to both. The best organised social system is only a house - of cards if it cannot be constructed with sound individuals; and - no individualism worth the name is possible, unless a sound social - organisation permits the breeding of individuals who count. On this - plane Socialism and Individualism move in the same circle." - -We cannot agree with Socialism when, as we think, it assumes that -all evil is of economic or of educational origin. The student of -heredity finds elements of evil abundant in poisoned germ-plasm and -not absent from the best. Surely, surely, the products of progress are -not mechanisms but men; and surely no economic system as such can be -the only mechanism worth naming--which would be one that made men. The -germ-plasm is such a mechanism, indeed; and hence its quality is all -important. - -But if Socialism, sooner than any other party, is going to identify -itself with the economic principle of Ruskin that "there is no wealth -but life"; and if in its discussion of the conditions of industry it -will concern itself primarily with the culture of the racial life, -which is the vital industry of any people (and basis enough for a New -Imperialism, or at least a New Patriotism, that might be quite decent); -if so, then it seems to me that we must look to the socialists for -salvation. But books which describe future externals, books which -assume that education is a panacea, forgetting that education can -educate only what heredity gives, turn us away again when we are almost -persuaded. The _economic_ panacea must fail (at least as a panacea); -the _educational_ panacea must fail; the _eugenic_ panacea may not fail. - - * * * * * - -Education, then, cannot achieve our ideal of race-culture. No matter -how good our polishing, we must have silver and diamonds to work upon, -not pewter and pebbles. When we have the right material to work upon, -our labour will not be wasted, or far worse than wasted, as it now too -often is. - -=Education a Sisyphean task.=--But the belief in education as in itself -an adequate instrument of race-culture chiefly depends upon the popular -doctrine as to its influence upon the race. It is supposed, in a word, -that if we educate the parents, the child will begin where the parents -left off. This is the doctrine of Lamarck, who said that if the necks -of the parent giraffe were educated or drawn out, the baby giraffe -would have this anatomical acquirement transmitted to it, and, so to -speak, when it grew up, would be able to begin feeding on the leaves of -trees at the level where its parents had to leave off. In the course -of its life its own neck would become elongated or educated, and its -children would outstretch both itself and their grand-parents. This -doctrine of the transmission of acquired characters by heredity, as -we have seen, is, at the present day, repudiated by biologists. It -is generally believed by the medical profession and by the public, -notwithstanding the fact that, for instance, the skin of the heel of -every new baby is almost as thin and delicate as it is anywhere else, -though for unthinkable generations all the ancestors of that baby on -both sides have greatly thickened the skin of both heels by the act of -walking. - -It is quite evident that, if the Lamarckian theory were true, education -would be a completely adequate instrument of race-culture, incomparable -in its rapidity and certainty. It would not reform the world in a -single generation because, as we have seen, its results would be -limited by the inherent nature of its material; but since those results -would involve the vast amelioration of the material upon which it -worked in the second generation, mankind would be little lower than -the angels in a century. The good habits acquired by one generation -would be innate in the next. If the father learnt one language in -addition to his own, the child would start with the knowledge of two, -waiting only for opportunity, and could accumulate more and hand them -on to its child. "My father's environment would be my heredity." If we -desired muscular strength we could in two generations produce a race -amongst whom Sandow would be a puny weakling. We should not need to -discuss any question of selection for parenthood. Without any such -process we could answer Browning's prayer and "elevate the race at -once"--physically, mentally and morally. - -But the Lamarckian theory does not correspond with facts. The -results of education, physical, mental, or moral, are limited to the -individuals educated. The children do not begin where the parents left -off, but they make a fresh start where the parents did. Thus even -though we had and employed an ideal method of education, we should make -no permanent improvement by its means alone in the breed of mankind, -any more than the breeder of race-horses could attain his end by the -same means. In each generation the same problem, the same difficulties, -the same limitations inherent in the nature of the new material, would -have to be faced. We must learn from the horse-breeder, who knows that -the blood of a single horse, Eclipse, runs in the veins of the great -majority of winners since his time. - -It is exceedingly difficult to dispossess the popular mind of the -Lamarckian idea, the more especially as members of the medical -profession, who are regarded as authorities on heredity, contentedly -accept this idea themselves. Yet the advocates of eugenics or -race-culture have to recognise that, so long as the Lamarckian idea -obtains, their crusade will fail to find a hearing. We believe that -nothing can really be accomplished in the way of race-culture until -public opinion--that "chaos of prejudices," as Huxley called it--is -marshalled on our side. But the popular notion of heredity is a most -formidable obstacle. The Lamarckian idea seems to provide a method for -the improvement of a species which cannot be surpassed for simplicity, -rapidity and certainty. It even excludes the possibility of mistakes. -You cannot go wrong if you simply educate every one to the utmost. -Doubtless some persons are more suited for parenthood than others, but -only let education be wise and universal, and any question of selection -by marriage or otherwise will be superfluous. A thousand difficulties -offered by public sentiment, by convention, by the churches, by the -large measure of uncertainty which attends the working of heredity, -could be ignored, if race-culture were simply a matter of education. - -Nevertheless, these difficulties have to be faced by the eugenist. The -popular misconception of heredity--instanced by Sir James Simpson's -belief, not inexcusable sixty years ago, that the education of a -future mother will enlarge her child's brain--must be removed. It can -scarcely be doubted that the sway of the Lamarckian idea will soon be -diminished, and then, at last, those who are interested in the future -will discover that only by the process of selection for parenthood, -which has brought mankind thus far, can further progress be assured. - -=Real functions of education for race-culture.=--Nevertheless education -has a true function for race-culture in addition to the obvious fact -of its necessity in order to realise the inherent potentialities -of the individual. One of its functions is to provide a level of -public opinion and public taste such that the finer specimens of each -generation shall receive their due reward and shall not be crushed out -of existence or perverted. There is a passage in Goethe which suggests -the true function of education, and makes us suspect that, so far as -many kinds of genius and talent are concerned, our immediate business -is perhaps less to endeavour to produce them by breeding--if that be -possible--than to make the most of them when they are vouchsafed us. -Says Goethe:-- - - "We admire the Tragedies of the ancient Greeks; but to take a - correct view of the case, we ought to admire the period and the - nation in which their production was possible rather than the - individual authors; for though these pieces differ in some points - from each other, and though one of these poets appears somewhat - greater and more finished than the other, still, taking all things - together, only one decided character runs through the whole. - - "This is the character of grandeur, fitness, soundness, human - perfection, elevated wisdom, sublime thought, pure, strong intuition, - and whatever other qualities one might enumerate. But when we find - all these qualities, not only in the dramatic works which have come - down to us, but also in lyrical and epic works--in the philosophers, - orators, and historians, and in an equally high degree in the works - of plastic art that have come down to us--we must feel convinced that - such qualities did not merely belong to individuals, but were the - current property of the nation and the whole period." - -=Education as to the principle of selection.=--Further, the hope -may be warranted that, though education, as such, will not achieve -the ideal of true race-culture, and though it has never hitherto -averted the ultimate failure of all civilisations, yet the case may -be different to-day, in that our acquired or traditional progress, -transmitted by the process of education accumulating from age to -age--not in our blood and bone and brain, but mainly in books, whereby -the non-transmission of the results of education is circumvented in a -sense--has reached the point at which the laws of racial or inherent -progress have been revealed to us, as to none of our predecessors.[38] -Having the knowledge of these laws it is possible that we may avert our -predecessors' fate by putting them into force. If we do not, we must -ultimately become "one with Nineveh and Tyre." Fifty years have now -elapsed since the principle of natural selection was demonstrated for -all time by the genius of Darwin. We must not be guilty of starting -to tell the story of organic evolution and leaving out the point. So -long as we supposed that man was created as he is, the idea of racial -progress was an absurdity. It is the correct thing now-a-days to decry -the possibility of human perfection. This possibility is rightly to be -decried if it be assumed that ideal education of the present material -or anything like it would realise perfection. We have seen that it -would not. It is the principle of selection, in which Darwin has -educated us, that must be taught to all mankind, and thus education may -indeed become the factor of an effective race-culture. - -=The power of individual opinion.=--Since ultimately opinion rules the -world, it is for us to create sound opinion. That is the purpose of -this book. But every individual may be a centre of eugenic opinion, -and the time has assuredly come for attempting to realise this ideal, -though a thousand years should pass before the facts of heredity are -completely ascertained and understood. The main principles are of the -simplest character, and can be readily imparted to a child. Especially -does the responsibility fall upon parents and those who are in charge -of childhood. - -The young people of the next and all succeeding generations must be -taught the supreme sanctity of parenthood. The little boy who asks -what he is to become when he grows up, must be taught that the highest -profession and privilege he can aspire to is responsible fatherhood; -the little girl may less frequently ask these questions, the answer to -which has been imparted to her by her own Mother-Nature--as the doll -instinct, so little appreciated or utilised, sufficiently demonstrates; -but she likewise must be taught reverence for Motherhood. As childhood -gives place to youth, what may be called the eugenic sense must be -cultivated as a cardinal aspect of the moral sense itself; so that even -personal inclination--at the controllable and self-controllable stage -which precedes "head over ears" affection--will wither when it is -directed to some one who, on any ground, offends the educated eugenic -sense. There is here a field for moral education of the highest and -most valuable kind, both for the individual and for the race. Is there -any other aspect of duty which can claim a higher warrant? Is there any -hitherto so wholly ignored? - -The preceding paragraph is re-printed from a brief account of its -objects written for the Eugenics Education Society, as a Society -which amongst other purposes exists "to further eugenic teaching at -home and in the schools and elsewhere." The difficulties of teaching -this subject to children are more apparent than real. I may freely -confess that though I have been speaking, writing, and thinking about -eugenics for six years, I did not realise the importance of eugenic -education until I heard the views of some of the women who belong -to this Society, and even then I was at first sceptical as to its -practicability. The subject has been entirely ignored by the pioneers -of this matter. But if we turn to such a work as Forel's masterpiece -we begin to realise that the eugenic education of children is the real -beginning at the beginning, that it is in fact indispensable, and must -be antecedent to all legislation in the direction of positive eugenics, -though not to certain forms of legislation in the direction of negative -eugenics.[39] In the earlier chapters of his great work Professor Forel -offers the parent and the guardian abundant, detailed and accurate -guidance as to the lines and methods of this teaching. It is urgently -necessary for both sexes, but more especially for girls, who may suffer -incredibly from the cruel prudery ordained by Mrs. Grundy, the only -old woman to whom the word "hag" should be applied. We must remove the -reproach of Herbert Spencer, made nearly fifty years ago in words -which may well be quoted:-- - - "The greatest defect in our programmes of education is entirely - overlooked. While much is being done in the detailed improvement - of our systems in respect both of matter and manner, the most - pressing desideratum, to prepare the young for the duties of life, - is tacitly admitted to be the end which parents and schoolmasters - should have in view; and happily, the value of the things taught, - and the goodness of the methods followed in teaching them, are now - ostensibly judged by their fitness to this end. The propriety of - substituting for an exclusively classical training, a training in - which the modern languages shall have a share, is argued on this - ground. The necessity of increasing the amount of science is urged - for like reasons. But though some care is taken to fit youth of - both sexes for society and citizenship, no care whatever is taken - to fit them for the position of parents. While it is seen that - for the purpose of gaining a livelihood, an elaborate preparation - is needed, it appears to be thought that for the bringing up of - children, no preparation whatever is needed. While many years are - spent by a boy in gaining knowledge of which the chief value is that - it constitutes 'the education of a gentleman'; and while many years - are spent by a girl in those decorative acquirements which fit her - for evening parties; not an hour is spent by either in preparation - for that gravest of all responsibilities--the management of a family. - Is it that this responsibility is but a remote contingency? On the - contrary, it is sure to devolve on nine out of ten. Is it that the - discharge of it is easy? Certainly not; of all functions which the - adult has to fulfil, this is the most difficult. Is it that each may - be trusted by self-instruction to fit himself, or herself, for the - office of parent? No; not only is the need for such self-instruction - unrecognised, but the complexity of the subject renders it the one of - all others in which self-instruction is least likely to succeed." - -=The lines of eugenic education.=--The teaching of the main facts of -heredity must come first in order to the end of eugenic education. -The vegetable world is at our service in this regard, the products of -horticulture with their beauty and grace and novelty are illustrations -one and all of what heredity means and what the due choice of parents -will effect. There need be no personal allusions at this stage; the -thing can be presented in an impersonal biological setting. And as -heredity produces these wonderful results in plants, so also does it -in the animal world. Numberless domestic forms are at our service. You -take your children and your dog to the Zoological gardens, and show the -resemblance between wolf and dog. What easier, then, than to point out -that by consistent choosing for many generations of the least ferocious -wolves, you may make a domesticated race?[40] - -The mind of any child that has fortunately escaped "education" will -make the transition for itself from sub-human races to mankind, and -instances will occur, say, where extreme short-sightedness or deafness -appears in children whose parents were similarly afflicted, and were -perhaps closely related. At yet a later age a boy or girl may learn the -doom which often falls upon the children of drunkards. - -And then may it not be possible, when a little boy asks what he is to -be when he grows up, to suggest that the highest profession to which -he can be called, for which he may strive to make himself worthy, is -fatherhood? And when the racial instinct awakes, would it be wrong, -improper, indecent, to teach that it has a purpose, that no attribute -of mind or body has a higher purpose, that this is holy ground? Or is -it better that by silence, both as to the fact and as to its meaning, -we should make it unmentionable, indecent, dishonourable? The Bible is -used now-a-days as an instrument of political immorality, but if and -when it should be employed for the function of other great literature, -there is a passage sufficiently relevant to our present argument.[41] - -Perhaps we are wrong in regarding and treating the racial instinct as -if it were animal and low, a thing as far as possible to be ignored, -repressed, treated with silent contempt in education and elsewhere. We -may be wrong in practice because the method is not successful, because -the development of this instinct is inevitable and little short of -imperious in every normal child if that child is ever to become a man -or a woman, and because our silence does not involve the silence of -less responsible persons who are less likely even than we ourselves to -teach the young enquirer that this thing exists for parenthood, and is -therefore holy and to be treated as such. - -Perhaps we are wrong in principle also, since that which exists for -parenthood, and without which the continuance and future terrestrial -hope of mankind is impossible, cannot be animal and low, unless human -life, even at its best attained or attainable, be animal and low. Our -business rather is to treat this great fact in a spirit worthy of the -purpose for which it exists; and therefore, as part of that process of -education by which we desire to make the young into reasonable, moral -and fully human beings, to teach explicitly, without unworthy shame, -that this thing exists for the highest of purposes that nothing which -the future holds for boy or girl can conceivably be higher or happier -than worthy parenthood, however commonplace that may appear to common -eyes, and that accordingly this instinct is to be guarded, treated, -used, honoured as for parenthood, a fact which immediately raises it -from the egoistic to the altruistic plane. We have to learn and to -teach that worthy parenthood is the highest end which education can -achieve--highest alike on the ground of its services to the individual -and its services to the future, and the relation of the racial instinct -to parenthood being what it is, we have to look upon it in that light, -at once austere and splendid. - -In the teaching of girls, only a false and disastrous prudery offers -any great obstacle. The idea of motherhood is essentially natural to -the normal girl. It is the eugenic education of boys that is more -difficult, and the possibility of which will be questioned in some -quarters, especially by those who regard the type of boy evolved in -semi-monastic institutions, devoid of feminine influence, as a normal -and unchangeable being. Co-educationists, however, are teaching us -to revise that opinion, and will yet demonstrate, perhaps, that the -inculcation of the idea of fatherhood is not so impossible nor so -alien to the boy nature as some would suppose. If such a duty devolved -upon the present writer, he would feel inclined, perhaps, to present -his teaching in terms of patriotism. He would urge that "there is no -wealth but life"; that nations are made not of provinces nor property -but of people; that modern biology is teaching historians to explain -such phenomena as the fall of Rome in terms of the quality of the -national life; that therefore, individuals being mortal, parenthood -necessarily takes its place as the supreme factor of national destiny; -that the true patriotism must therefore concern itself with the -conditions and the quality of parenthood--much less with its quantity; -that the patriotism which ignores these truths is ignorant and must be -disastrous; that we must turn our attention therefore from flag waving -to questions of individual conduct; that if alcohol and syphilis, -for instance, can be demonstrated to be what I would call racial -poisons, the young patriot must make himself aware of their relation to -parenthood, and must act upon his knowledge of that relation. It can -thus be demonstrated that righteousness exalteth a nation not only in -the spiritual but also in the most concrete sense. - -To this we shall come. We may even recognise eugenic education as the -most urgent need of the day, as the most radical and rational, perhaps -even the most hopeful, of the methods by which the cleansing of the -city, and much more, is to be achieved. We must create a eugenic aspect -for the moral sense. We can associate this alike with individual and -civic duty, and with those very ideals to which, as we all know, -the young most readily respond. Thus I believe it shall be said of -us in the after time that we have raised up the foundations of many -generations. - -And so, finally, the unselfish significance of marriage might -conceivably be taught, alike to boys and girls, and especially in the -case of undoubtedly good stocks might we inculcate, as Mr. Galton has -pointed out, a rational pride in ancestry--that is to say, a rational -pride in the quality of the germ-plasm which has been entrusted to us. -And so may be cultivated a eugenic aspect of the moral sense--which -is immeasurably more plastic than any but the student of moral ideas -knows--and, thus endowed, the young man or woman will be prepared -for the possibility of marriage. It is perfectly conceivable that in -days to come the argument--in any case false--that affection never -brooks control, may become wholly irrelevant, when there arises a -generation in whose members there has been cultivated or created -the eugenic sense. It is conceivable that, just as to-day the mere -possibility of falling in love is arrested by any of a thousand trivial -considerations, so misplaced affection may be incapable of arising -because its possible object affronts the educated eugenic sense. The -natural basis for such education already exists. But the natural -eugenic sense still works mainly on the physical plane, and although we -owe to it the maintenance of our present modest standard of physical -beauty, we aim at higher ideals--and will one day thus attain them. - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - THE SUPREMACY OF MOTHERHOOD - - "The dregs of the human species--the blind, the deaf mute, the - degenerate, the imbecile, the epileptic--are better protected than - pregnant women."--Bouchacourt. - - "I hold that the two crowning and most accursed sins of the society - of this present day are the carelessness with which it regards the - betrayal of women, and the brutality with which it suffers the - neglect of children."--Ruskin. - - -A chapter must be included here concerning a question which can never -safely be ignored in any consideration of race-culture, but the -importance of which, as I think I see it, is recognised by no one -who has concerned himself at all with this subject, from Mr. Francis -Galton himself downwards. We must all be agreed, Mr. Galton declares, -as to the propriety of breeding, if it be possible, for health, energy -and ability, whatever else may be doubtful. To this I would add that, -whether we are agreed or not, we must breed for motherhood, and that, -even if we do not, we shall have to reckon with it. The general eugenic -position, I fancy, is that the requirements which we should make of -both sexes, the mothers of the future as well as the fathers, are -essentially identical: but it seems to me that we have not yet reckoned -with the vast importance of motherhood as a factor in the evolution -of all the higher species of animals, and its absolute supremacy, -inevitable and persistent whether recognised or ignored, in the case of -man. Any system of eugenics or race-culture, any system of government, -any proposal for social reform--as, for instance, the reduction of -infant mortality--which fails to reckon with motherhood or falls -short of adequately appraising it, is foredoomed to failure and will -continue to fail so long as the basal facts of human nature and the -development of the human individual retain even approximately their -present character. Whatever proposals for eugenics or race-culture be -made or carried out, the fact will remain that the race is made up of -mortal individuals; that every one of these begins its visible life as -a helpless baby, and that the system which does not permit the babies -to survive, _they_ will not permit to survive. - -This is a general and universal proposition, admitting of no -exceptions, past, present or to come. It applies equally to conscious -systems of race-culture, to forms of marriage, to forms of government, -to any other social institution or practice or character that can be -named or conceived. Upon every one of these the babies pronounce a -judgment from which there is no appeal. The baby may be a potential -Newton, Shakespeare, Beethoven or Buddha, but it is at its birth the -most helpless thing alive, the potentialities of which avail it not one -whit. It is in more need of care, immediate and continuous, than a baby -microbe or a baby cat, whatever the unpublished glories of which its -brain contains the promise; and in the total absence of any apparatus, -mechanical, legal, or scientific, which can provide the mother's breast -and the mother's love, individual motherhood, in its exquisitely -complementary aspects, physical and psychical, will remain the dominant -factor of history so long as the final judgments upon every present and -the final determinations for every future lie in the hands of helpless -babyhood--which will be the case so long as man is mortal. When, if -ever, science, having previously conquered disease, identifies the -causes of natural death and removes them, then motherhood and babyhood -may be thrown upon the rubbish heap; but until that hour they are -enthroned by decree of Nature, and can be dethroned only at the cost of -Her certain and annihilative vengeance. - -It is the master paradox that at his first appearance the lord of the -earth should be the most helpless of living things. Consider a new-born -baby. "Unable to stand, much less to wander in search of food; very -nearly deaf; all but blind; well-nigh indiscriminating as to the nature -of what is presented to its mouth; utterly unable to keep itself clean, -yet highly susceptible to the effects of dirt; able to indicate its -needs only by alternately turning its head, open-mouthed, from side to -side and then crying; possessed of an almost ludicrously hypersensitive -interior; unable to fast for more than two or three hours, yet having -the most precise and complicated dietetic requirements; needing the -most carefully maintained warmth; easily injured by draughts; the prey -of bacteria (which take up a permanent abode in its alimentary canal -by the eleventh day)--where is to be found a more complete picture of -helpless dependence?"[42] How comes it that this creature is to be -lord of the earth, and a member of the only species which succeeds in -continually multiplying itself? - -=Motherhood and intelligence.=--We have maintained that the vital -character which is of supreme survival-value for man is his -intelligence, and this, as we know, is his unique possession. It is -very largely for intelligence, therefore, that race-culture or eugenics -proposes, if possible, to work. But if there be certain conditions -which must be complied with before intelligence can possibly be -evolved, eugenics will come to disaster should it ignore them. These -conditions do exist, and have hitherto been entirely ignored by all -students of this question. Let certain great facts be observed. - -Why is the human baby the most helpless of all creatures? Since it is -to become the most capable, should it not, even in its infant state, -show signs of its coming superiority? What is the meaning of this -paradox? - -The answer is that, so far as physical weapons of offence and defence -are concerned, these have disappeared because intelligence makes them -superfluous or even burdensome. But the peculiar helplessness of the -human infant depends not upon its nakedness in the physical sense but -upon its lack of very nearly all instinctive capacities. It is this -absence of effective instincts which distinguishes the baby from the -young of all other creatures. Why should its endowment in this respect -be so inferior? - -It is because of the fact that, if instinct is to give rise to -intelligence, it must be plastic. A purely instinctive creature reacts -to certain sets of circumstances in certain effortless, perfect and -fixed ways. The reactions are the whole of its psychical life. They -need no education, being as perfectly performed on the first occasion -as on the last, and in many instances being performed only once in the -whole history of the creature in question. But, on the other hand, they -are almost incapable of education, and even in the cases where they -lack absolute perfection at first, they only require the merest modicum -of opportunity in order to acquire it. Perfect within their limits, -they are yet most definitely limited. They never achieve the new, -they are utterly at fault in novel circumstances, and they are wholly -incapable of creating circumstances. - -A creature cannot be at once purely instinctive and intelligent. An -instinctive action is simply a compound reflex action, a highly adapted -automatism: now automatism and intelligence are necessarily inversely -proportional. It is possible for an intelligent creature to acquire -automatisms, which are popularly described as instinctive. They are -not instincts, however, but the acquired equivalents of instincts: -"secondary automatisms." If they are used to replace intelligence, the -individual, in so far, sinks from the human to the sub-human level. -Their proper function is to leave the intelligence free for higher -purposes more worthy of it than, say, the act of dressing oneself. - -In order that an intelligent creature should be evolved it was -necessary that instinct should become plastic. Intelligence could not -be superposed upon a complete and final instinctive equipment. You -cannot determine your own acts if they are already determined for -you by your nervous organisation. The incomparable superiority of -intelligence depends upon its limitless and creative character, in -virtue of which, as Disraeli puts it, "men are not the creatures of -circumstances: circumstances are the creatures of men." But whilst -intelligence can learn everything, it has everything to learn, and the -most nearly intelligent creature whom the earth affords thus begins -his independent life almost wholly bereft of all the instruments -which have served the lower creatures so well, whilst, on the other -hand, he is provided with an utterly undeveloped, and indeed, at -that time non-existent, weapon which, even if it did exist, he could -not use. Hence the unique helplessness of the human baby: one of -the most wonderful and little appreciated facts in the whole of -nature--effectively hidden from the glass eyes of the kind of man who -calls a baby a "brat," but, to eyes that can see, not only the master -paradox from the philosophical point of view but also a fact of the -utmost moment from the practical point of view. - -=The evolution of motherhood.=--It directly follows that motherhood is -supremely important in the case of man. It is the historical fact that -its importance in the history of the animal world has been steadily -increasing throughout aeonian time. The most successful and ancient -societies we know, those of the social insects, which antedate by -incalculable ages even the first vertebrates, could not survive for a -single generation without the motherhood or foster-motherhood to which -the worker females sacrifice their lives and their own chances of -physical maternity. - -The development of maternal care may be steadily traced throughout the -vertebrate series--_pari passu_ with the evolution of sexual relations -towards the ideal of monogamy, which is ideal just because of its -incomparable services to motherhood. But whilst motherhood is of the -utmost service for lower creatures, tending always to lessen infant -mortality--if it may be so called--and to increase the proportion -of life to death and birth, it is of supreme service in the case of -man because of the absolute dependence upon it of intelligence, the -solitary but unexampled weapon with which he has won the earth. Hence -in breeding for intelligence we cannot afford to ignore that upon which -intelligence depends. Even if we could produce genius at will, we -should find our young geniuses just as dependent upon motherhood as the -common run of mankind. Newton himself was a seven months' baby, and the -potentialities of gravitation and the calculus and the laws of motion -in his brain could not save him: motherhood could and did. - -Even our least biological reformers must admit that purely physical -motherhood, up to the point of birth, can scarcely be omitted in any -schemes for social reform or race-culture. Some of them will even -admit that purely physical motherhood, so far as the mother's breasts -are concerned, cannot wisely be dispensed with. The psychical aspects -of motherhood, however, many of these writers--I do not call them -thinkers--ignore. In relation to infant mortality--which is the most -obvious symptom of causes productive of vast and widespread physical -deterioration amongst the survivors, and which must be abolished -before any really effective race-culture is possible--it is worth -noting that motherhood cannot safely be superseded. I do not believe -in the _creche_ or the municipal milk depot except as stop-gaps, or -as object-lessons for those who imagine that the slaughtered babies -are not slaughtered but die of inherent defect, and that therefore -infant mortality is a beneficent process. In working for the reduction -of this evil we must work through and by motherhood. In some future -age, boasting the elements of sanity, our girls will be instructed in -these matters. At present the most important profession in the world is -almost entirely carried on by unskilled labour, and until this state -of things is put an end to, it is almost idle to talk of race-culture -at all. But under our present system of education, false and rotten as -it is in principles and details alike, it is necessary for us to send -visitors to the homes of the classes which, in effect, supply almost -the whole of the future population of the country, and to establish -schools for mothers on every hand. - -=Psychical motherhood.=--I confess myself opposed to the principle -of bribing a woman to become a mother, whether overtly or covertly, -whether in the guise of State-aid or in the form of eugenic premiums -for maternity. It may sound very well to offer a bonus for the -production of babies by mothers whom the State or any eugenic power -considers fit and worthy. But though the bonus may help motherhood -in its physical aspects, the importance of which no one questions, -I do not see what service it renders to motherhood in its psychical -aspects--which are at least equally important. What is the outlook for -the baby when the bonus is spent? In fact, with all deference to Mr. -Galton, and with such deference as may be due to the literary triflers -who have discussed this matter, I am inclined to think that a cardinal -requisite for a mother is love of children. Ignorant this may be, and -indeed at first always is, but if it is there it can be instructed. The -woman who does not think the possession of a baby a sufficient prize is -no fit object, I should say, for any other kind of bribe or lure. The -woman who "would rather have a spare bedroom than a baby" is the woman -whom I do not want to have a baby. Thus I look with suspicion on any -proposals which assume that the psychical elements of motherhood are of -little moment in eugenics. I see no sign or prospect that they can be -dispensed with, and I think eugenics is going to work on wrong lines if -it proposes to ignore them. Even if you turn out Nature with a fork she -will yet return--_tamen usque recurret_. - -In this question we should be able to derive great assistance from -biography. Real guidance, I believe, is obtained from this source, but -only a pitiable fraction of that which should be obtained. Scientific -biography is yet to seek, and it is the ironical fact that when Herbert -Spencer, in his _Autobiography_, devoted a large amount of space to -the discussion of _both_ his parents and their relatives, the literary -critics were bored to death. Nevertheless, we cannot know too much -about the ancestry, on both sides, and the early environment, of great -men. At present it is always tacitly assumed that a great man is the -son of his father alone. The biographer would probably admit, if -pressed, that doubtless some woman or other was involved in the matter, -and that her name was so and so--if any one thinks it worth mentioning. -On the score of heredity alone, however, we derive, men and women -alike, with absolute equality from both parents; and we cannot know too -much about the mothers of men of genius. Such knowledge would often -avail us materially in cases where the paternal ancestry offers little -explanation of the child's destiny. - -We do owe, however, to great men themselves many warm and unqualified -tributes to their mothers, not on the score of heredity, but on the -score of the psychical aspects of motherhood. This, indeed, is one of -the great lessons of biography which some eugenists have forgotten. -It is all very well to breed for intelligence, but intelligence needs -nurture and guidance, and that need is the more urgent, the more -powerful and original the intelligence in question. The physical -functions of motherhood from the moment of birth onwards can be -effected, no doubt, though at very great cost, by means of incubators -and milk laboratories, and so forth. But there is no counterfeiting -or replacing the psychical component of complete maternity, and a -generation of the highest intelligence borne by unmaternal women would -probably succeed only in writing the blackest and maddest page in -history. - -=The eugenic demand for love.=--Mr. Galton desires that we breed for -physique, ability, and energy. But we also need more love, and we must -breed for that. Nothing is easier or more inevitable once we make -human parenthood conscious and deliberate. When children are born only -to those who love children, and who will tend to transmit their high -measure of that parental instinct from which all love is derived, we -shall bring to earth a heaven compared with which the theologian's is -but a fool's paradise. - -The first requisite, then, for the mothers of the future, the elements -of physical health being assumed, is that they should be motherly. They -may or may not, in addition, be worthy of such exquisite titles as -"the female Shakespeare of America," but they must have motherliness -to begin with. For this indispensable thing there is no substitute. It -must certainly be granted, and the fact should not be ignored, that the -hidden spring of motherliness in a girl may be revealed only by actual -maternity, and the frivolous damsel who used to think babies "silly -squalling things" may be mightily transformed when the silly squalling -thing is her own--and the Fifth Symphony sound and fury signifying -nothing compared with its slightest whimper. I will grant even that the -maternal instinct is so deeply rooted and universal that its absence -must be regarded as either a rare abnormality or else as the product of -the grossest mal-education in the wide sense. But the reader will not -blame me for insisting at such length upon what, as he would think, no -one could deny, when he discovers that these salient truths are denied, -and that in what should be the sacred name of eugenics, they are openly -flouted and defied. - -Before we go on to consider these perversions of a great idea, it may -briefly be observed that, though fatherhood is historically a mushroom -growth compared with motherhood, and though its importance is vastly -less, yet as a complementary principle, aiding and abetting motherhood, -and making for its most perfect expression, fatherhood played a great -part in animal evolution, in the right line of progress, ages before -man appeared upon the earth at all, and that its work is not yet done. -To this subject we must return. Meanwhile it is well to note the -dangers with which eugenics is at present threatened in the form of -certain proposals which, if for a time they became popular--and they -have elements making for popularity--would inevitably throw the gravest -discredit upon the whole subject. - -=Eugenics and the family.=--Certain remarkable tendencies invoking -the name of eugenics are now to be observed in Germany. These have -considerable funds, much enthusiasm, journalistic support, and even a -large measure of assistance in academic circles. In pursuance of the -idea of eugenics there is a movement the nature of which is indicated -by the following quotation from a private letter:-- - - "I wonder if your attention was drawn to the German projects of the - reform of the Family. They all aim at improving the German race and - rendering decisive its superiority over all others. The means seem - to be too revolutionary. The more modern wish the establishment of - the matriarchal family (_ein nach Mutterrecht_), the more logical - require universal polygamy and polyandry, an individualisation of - Society. Others hope to increase the production of German geniuses - by the 'hellenic friendship.'[!] The three movements are strongly - organised, command large pecuniary means, a phalanx of original and - prolific writers, and enthusiastic devotion to their cause. More - even than the support of Courts and aristocracy is, in my eyes, that - of the Universities. It is there that the destinies of Germany have - always been shaped, and if they are determined to reform the Family - in that way, it will be done.... The Herren Professoren are terribly - in earnest, yet they say things which even to the least prejudiced - minds appear ridiculous and even vulgar. Still, their projects have - some relation to Eugenics, and to Sociology in general." - -This sufficiently indicates the dangers run by the eugenic principle -at the hands of those who see in it an instrument of protest and -rebellion against established things. We dare not repudiate the sacred -principles of protest and rebellion, which have been the conditions of -all progress, but believing in motherhood as we must, believing it to -be authorised by nature herself and not by any human conventions, we -must deplore any tendencies such as the two last cited. For us in this -country, however, a more immediate interest attaches to the views of a -much admired and discussed writer who claims to be a social philosopher -of the first order, and whose claims must now be examined. - -The opinions of Mr. Bernard Shaw on the question of eugenics may be -quoted from his contribution to the subject published in _Sociological -Papers_ 1904, pp. 74, 75, in discussion of Mr. Galton's great paper. -Mr. Shaw begins by saying: "I agree with the paper and go so far as -to say that there is now no reasonable excuse for refusing to face the -fact that nothing but a eugenic religion can save our civilisation from -the fate that has overtaken all previous civilisations." And further:-- - - "I am afraid we must make up our minds either to face a considerable - shock to vulgar opinion in this matter or to let eugenics alone.... - What we must fight for is freedom to breed the race without being - hampered by the mass of irrelevant conditions implied in the - institution of marriage. If our morality is attacked, we can carry - the war into the enemy's country by reminding the public that the - real objection to breeding by marriage is that marriage places no - restraint on debauchery, so long as it is monogamic.... What we need - is freedom for people who have never seen each other before and never - intend to see one another again, to produce children under certain - definite public conditions, without loss of honour." - -The conception of individual fatherhood here stated involves a -deliberate reversion to the order of the beast: it excludes individual -fatherhood from any function in aiding motherhood or in serving the -future. It involves, of course, the total abolition of the family. It -denies and flouts the very best elements in human nature. It assumes -that the best women will find motherhood worth while without the -interest and sympathy and help and protection of the father. It does -not, however, condemn or exclude the psychical functions of motherhood, -since so far as this quotation goes it might be assumed that the mother -would be permitted to live with her own child. On this point, however, -Mr. Shaw offered us further guidance in his controversy with myself in -the _Pall Mall Gazette_, in December, 1907. One or two of his _dicta_ -must here be quoted--they followed upon my remark, "Anything less like -a mother than the State I find it hard to imagine":-- - - "When the State left the children to the mothers, they got no - schooling; they were sent out to work under inhuman conditions, - under-ground and over-ground for atrociously long hours, as soon as - they were able to walk; they died of typhus fever in heaps; they grew - up to be as wicked to their own children as their parents had been to - them. State socialism rescued them from the worst of that, and means - to rescue them from all of it. I now publicly challenge Dr. Saleeby - to propose, if he dares, to withdraw the hand of the State and - abandon the children to their mothers as they fall.... All I need say - is that before Dr. Saleeby can persuade me to sacrifice the future - of human society to his maternalism, he will have to tackle me with - harder weapons than the indignant enthusiasm of a young man's mother - worship." - -Mr. Shaw's teaching constitutes a brutal and deliberate libel upon the -highest aspects of womanhood. For his own purposes he attributes to the -mothers all the abominations which, as every one knows, have lain and -in some measure still lie, at the door of the State. The man who has -this opinion of motherhood is complacently ignorant of the elements of -the subject. His charge is denied by every one who has worked as doctor -or nurse or visitor or missionary amongst the poorer classes, and knows -that the mothers there met are of the very salt of the earth. - -It is well to state plainly here that these utterly irresponsible -_dicta_ have absolutely no relation or resemblance whatever to the -opinions or proposals of Mr. Francis Galton himself, who desires to -effect race-culture through marriage, and whose whole propaganda is -based upon this assumption. This we shall afterwards see. Meanwhile -we may note Mr. Galton's own words: "The aim of eugenics is to bring -as many influences as can be reasonably employed, to cause the useful -classes in the community to contribute more than their proportion to -the next generation." Mr. Galton would be the first to assert that -influences designed to supersede motherhood and to abolish everything -but the physical aspect of fatherhood, would not be reasonable, but -insane in the highest degree. - -The ideal of race-culture without fatherhood or motherhood, except in -the mere physiological sense, constitutes a denial of the greatest -facts in evolution, as we have seen. It ignores everything that is -known and daily witnessed regarding the development of the individual, -and the formation of character, without which intelligence is a curse. -There is not the slightest fear that any such reversion to the order -of the beast is possible, absolutely forbidden as it is by the laws of -human nature. There is, however, reasonable ground for apprehension, -especially when the recent developments in Germany are remembered, -that the public may obtain its notions of eugenics in a highly-garbled -form.[43] - -It must be asserted as fervently and plainly as possible that, if the -idea of race-culture is even in the smallest degree to be realised, -it must work through motherhood and fatherhood not less in their -psychical than in their physical aspects. It is time to have done with -the gross delusions of Nietzsche regarding the nature and course of -organic evolution. Morality is not an invention of man but man the -child of morality, and it is not by the abolition of motherhood, in -which morality originated, nor of fatherhood, its first ally, that -the super-man is to be evolved: but by the attainment of those lofty -conceptions of the function, the responsibility and the privilege of -parenthood which it is the first business of eugenics to inculcate. - -As for marriage, invaluable though at its best it be for the completion -and ennoblement of the individual life, its great function for society -and for the race is in relation to childhood. Thus considered, the -dictum of Professor Westermarck may be understood, that children are -not the result of marriage but marriage the result of children. -This, in other words, is to say that marriage has become evolved -and established as a social institution because of its services to -race-culture. It is, in short, the supreme eugenic institution. This -great subject must next occupy our attention. - - - - - CHAPTER X - - MARRIAGE AND MATERNALISM - - -Our present concern is the relation of marriage to race-culture, -and for this purpose we must investigate an epoch ages before the -institution of human marriage, ages before mankind itself. We must -first remind ourselves of what may be called the trend of progress -from the first in respect of that reproduction upon which all species -depend, all living individuals being mortal. - -At first, in the effort for survival and increase, life tried -the quantitative method. If we take the present day bacteria as -representatives of the primitive method, we see that not quality nor -individuality but quantity and numbers are the means by which, in -their case, life seeks to establish itself more abundantly. We express -our own birth-rate in its proportion per year to one thousand living: -but twenty thousand bacteria injected into a rabbit have been found -to multiply into twelve thousand million in one day. "One bacterium -has been actually observed to rear a small family of eighty thousand -within a period of twenty-four hours." "The cholera bacillus can -duplicate every twenty minutes, and might thus in one day become -5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, with the weight, according to the -calculations of Cohn, of about 7,366 tons. In a few days, at this rate, -there would be a mass of bacteria as big as the moon, huge enough to -fill the whole ocean." - -If now we trace the history of life up to man, we find in him--as -we have seen--the lowest birth-rate of any animal and the longest -ante-natal period in proportion to his body weight, the longest -period of maternal feeding, and by far the lowest infant mortality -and general death-rate. A chief fact of progress has been, in a word, -the supersession of the quantitative by the qualitative criterion of -survival-value. Immeasurably vast vital economy and efficiency have -thus been effected. The tendency of progress, in short--a tendency -coincident with the evolution of ever higher and higher species--is to -pass from the horrible Gargantuan wastefulness of the older methods -towards the evident but yet lamentably unrealised ideal--that every -child born shall reach maturity. This great historical tendency, which -will ultimately involve the restriction of parenthood to the fit, fine -and relatively few, has occurred under the impartial rule of natural -selection simply and solely because it has endowed with survival-value -the successive species in which it has been demonstrated. - -=The rise of parenthood.=--Consistently with this fact and with -the argument of the previous chapter is the tendency towards -the lengthening of infancy, a very characteristic condition of -the evolution of the higher forms of life. This lengthening and -accentuation of infancy makes for variety of development, and, as -we have seen, is supremely instanced in man, where it depends upon, -and makes possible, the transmutation of fixed instincts into the -plastic thing we call intelligence. Thus, to quote the words of Dr. -Parsons,[44] "we find that as infancy is prolonged in the progress -of species, the care given to offspring by parents is increased. It -extends over a longer period and it is directed more and more towards -the total welfare of offspring. The need of a potentially many-sided -and enduring kind of parental care is filled through the social group -we call the family." - -Apart from those immensely significant creatures, the social insects, -we find well-marked though primitive signs of motherhood amongst the -fishes, and in a few cases, such as the stickleback, the beginnings of -fatherhood. But it is not until we reach the mammals, and especially -the monkeys and apes, that we find a great development of motherhood, -far more prolonged and far more important than the more frequently -extolled parental care found amongst the birds. - -Very interesting, however, in the case of the fishes is the fact -observed by Sutherland that "as soon as the slightest trace of parental -care is discovered the chance of survival is increased and the -birth-rate is lowered." As a general summary these words of Dr. Parsons -will serve:--"Diminution of offspring is a threefold gain to a species. -(1) It lessens the vital drain upon the parent. (2) It enables the -size and capacity of the limited number of offspring to be increased. -(3) In the case of the higher developments of parental care after -birth, it concentrates the advantage of that care upon a few instead of -scattering it, and thereby weakening its influence, upon many." - -Now how are these facts connected with that relation between the -parents which we call marriage, temporary or permanent, foreshadowed or -perfected? - -_It may be submitted that the racial function or survival-value of -marriage in all its forms, low or high, animal or human, consists in -its services to the principle of motherhood, these services depending -upon the help and strength which are afforded to motherhood by -fatherhood._ - -=Animal marriage.=--Let us now look very briefly at the facts of animal -marriage from this point of view. The phrase, animal marriage, may -possibly offend the reader, but is there any reason to be offended -at the suggestion that the principle of marriage actually has a -warrant older even than mankind? It has lately been pointed out by a -distinguished naturalist, Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton, that animals, like -men, have long been groping, so to say, for an ideal form of marriage. -We now know, as will be shown, that, contrary to popular opinion, -promiscuity does not prevail amongst the lowest races of men. Equally -false is the popular notion that promiscuity prevails amongst most of -the lower animals. Promiscuity, it is true, does occur, but so also -does strict monogamy, "and promiscuous animals, such as rabbits and -voles, while high in the scale of fecundity, are low in the scale of -general development." Says Mr. Seton: "It is commonly remarked that -while the Mosaic law did not expressly forbid polygamy, it surrounded -marriage with so many restrictions that by living up to the spirit -of them the Hebrew ultimately was forced into pure monogamy. It is -extremely interesting to note that the animals, in their blind groping -for an ideal form of union, have gone through the same stages, and have -arrived at exactly the same conclusion. Monogamy is their best solution -of the marriage question, and is the rule among all the higher and most -successful animals." - -The moose, Mr. Seton tells us, has several wives in one season but only -one at a time. The hawks practise monogamy lasting for one season, "the -male staying with the family, and sharing the care of the young till -they are well-grown." The wolves consort for life, but the death of -one leaves the other free to mate again. There is a fourth method "in -which they pair for life, and, in case of death, the survivor remains -disconsolate and alone to the end. This seems absurd. It is the way of -the geese." The point especially to be insisted upon as regards animal -marriage is its evident service to their race-culture, in accordance -with the principle here laid down that _marriage is of value because it -supports motherhood by fatherhood_, and that its different forms are -of value in proportion as they do so more or less effectively. We may -note also, as a corollary to this, that marriage must be more important -in proportion as the young of a species are helpless and in proportion -as their helplessness is long continued. The importance of marriage for -man, therefore, must necessarily be higher than for any of the lower -animals. - -=Human marriage.=--We must turn now to human marriage, and the -principle which we must remember is that of survival-value. We are -discussing a natural phenomenon exhibited by living creatures. This is -what so few people realise when they speak of marriage. They cannot -disabuse themselves of the idea that it is a human invention, and -especially an ecclesiastical invention. Thus, on the one hand, it -is supported by persons who base its claims on mystical or dogmatic -grounds; whilst, on the other hand, it is attacked by those who are -opposed to ecclesiasticism or religion of any kind, and attacked in -the name of science--in which, if the fact could only be recognised, -is found every possible warrant and sanction, and indeed imperative -demand, for this most precious of all institutions. Here we must -endeavour to look upon it as an exceedingly ancient fact of life, -vastly more ancient than mankind; and in judging it and explaining -it we must apply Nature's universal criterion, which is that of -its survival-value or service to race-culture. Let us then glance -very briefly at the actual facts of human marriage--conceived as an -institution by which the survival-value of fatherhood is added to that -of motherhood. - -The pioneer student of marriage from the standpoint of science was -Herbert Spencer, who with great labour supported the conclusion that -monogamy is the highest, best and latest form of marriage. But in the -absence of the great mass of evidence which is now before us, Spencer -too readily assumed the truth of the popular notion that promiscuity -was the primitive state, and taught that human marriage has developed -from this through polygamy towards the ideal of monogamy. The work -of Professor Westermarck, however--Spencer's chief follower in this -path--has shown, and later writers have abundantly confirmed it, that -this primitive promiscuity never existed. There is no nation or race -or clan of man now extant, however primitive or barbaric, that has -not definite marriage laws; there is no society on earth, however -rude, that does not punish the unfaithful wife. Furthermore, polygamy, -the only historical rival of monogamy, is now known to have played a -quite trivial part in history, not merely compared with monogamy, but -as compared with that which it was supposed to have played. Even in -countries which we call polygamous to-day, polygamy is the relatively -rare exception and monogamy the rule. On this most important question -it is well, however, to quote the words of Professor Westermarck -himself:-- - - "The great majority of peoples are, as a rule, monogamous, and - the other forms of marriage are usually modified in a monogamous - direction." "As to the history of the forms of human marriage, two - inferences regarding monogamy and polygyny may be made with absolute - certainty; monogamy, always the predominant form of marriage, has - been more prevalent at the lowest stages of civilisation than at - somewhat higher stages; whilst, at a still higher stage, polygyny has - again, to a great extent, yielded to monogamy." "We may thus take it - for granted that civilisation, up to a certain point, is favourable - to polygyny; but it is equally certain that in its highest forms - it leads to monogamy." "But, though civilisation up to a certain - point is favourable to polygyny, _its higher forms invariably and - necessarily lead to monogamy_." - -It is the principle of survival-value that explains the dominance of -monogamy at all stages of human society--with the single exception -of continuously and wholly militant societies, in which polygamy -obtained in consequence of the great numerical excess of women. It is -the fate of the children, in which everything is involved, that has -determined the history of human marriage. Furthermore, we may see here -one more illustration of the truth that quality is ousting quantity in -the course of progress, and that a low birth-rate represents a more -advanced stage than a high birth-rate. The birth-rate under polygamy -is undoubtedly high, but polygamy does not make for the survival and -health of the children, and the infant mortality is gigantic. As I have -said elsewhere, "the form of marriage which does not permit the babies -to survive, _they_ do not permit to survive. There is the beginning and -the end of the whole matter in a nutshell. It is not a question of the -father's taste and fancy, but of what he leaves above ground when the -worms are eating him below.... No system yet conceived can compare for -a moment with monogamy in respect of the one criterion which time and -death recognise, the fate of the children." - -In a word, the wholly adequate and only possible explanation of -the historical fact of the dominance of monogamy is its supreme -survival-value. It has competed with every other kind of sex relation -and has been selected by natural selection because of its supreme -service for race-culture--the most perfect conceivable addition of -fatherhood to motherhood. - -=Plato and motherhood.=--Thus eugenics must repudiate not only the -ideas of Mr. Shaw on this subject, but the teaching of Plato, from whom -Mr. Shaw's ideas on this particular subject are apparently derived. It -is in the fifth book of his _Republic_ that the pioneer eugenist lays -down his ideas for race-culture. He realised, indeed, the importance, -after birth, of the nurture of children--"it is of considerable, nay, -of the utmost importance to the State, when this is rightly performed -or otherwise;" and he refers also to their nurture while very young, -"in the period between their generation and their education, which -seems to be the most troublesome of all." His method involved a -complete community of wives and children amongst the guardians of the -State, and on no account were the parents to know their own children -nor the children their parents. The best were to be chosen for parents, -on the analogy of animal race-culture by man. The children of inferior -parents were to be killed. The others were to be conveyed to the common -nursery of the city, but every precaution was to be taken that _no -mother should know her own child_. This practice was to be the cardinal -point of the Republic and "the cause of the greatest good to the city." - -We see here, then, that the very first proposals for race-culture -involved the destruction of marriage and the family, and a total denial -of the value of the psychical aspects of motherhood and fatherhood -alike. Plato's first critic, however, his own great pupil Aristotle, -devoted the best part of his work, the _Politics_, to showing that the -suggestions of Plato were not only wrong in themselves, but would not -secure his end. Aristotle showed, in the words of Mr. Barker, that "the -destruction of the family, and the substitution in its place of one -vast clan, would lead but to the destruction of warm feelings, and the -substitution of a sentiment which is to them as water is to wine.... -So with the system of common marriage, as opposed to monogamy. The one -encourages at best a poor and shadowy sentiment, while it denies to -man the satisfaction of natural instinct and the education of family -life; the other is natural and right, both because it is based on those -instincts, and because it satisfies the moral nature of man, in giving -him objects of permanent yet vivid interest above and beyond himself." -The truth of this matter is that the rest may reason and welcome--but -we fathers know. - -=Marriage a eugenic instrument.=--It has definitely to be stated, then, -that the abolition of marriage and the family is in no degree whatever -a part of the eugenic proposal. We desire to achieve race-culture by -and through marriage, on the lines which indeed many lower races of -men successfully practise at the present day. We must make parenthood -more responsible, not less so. It will afterwards be shown that the -suggested incompatibility between marriage and the family, on the one -hand, and race-culture or eugenics on the other, does not exist. It -will be shown that we have in marriage not only the greatest instrument -of race-culture that has yet been employed--half-consciously--by man, -but also an instrument supremely fitted, and indeed without a rival, -for the conscious, deliberate, and scientific intentions of modern -eugenists. The applicability of marriage for this purpose will be -shown by reference to actual facts. Mr. Galton himself has shown how -effectively an educated public opinion can employ marriage for the -purposes of race-culture, its services to which have indeed led to its -evolution. It has furthermore to be added that only the formation of -public opinion can ever lead to the ideal which we desire. This opinion -already exists in some degree as regards one or two transmissible -diseases, and, though without adequate scientific warrant, as regards -the marriage of first cousins. In these respects it is not without some -measure of effectiveness, and the fact is of the utmost promise. - -"Marriage," said Goethe, "is the origin and the summit of all -civilisation." Perhaps it would be more accurate to say _the family_ -rather than _marriage_. The childless marriage may be and often is a -thing of the utmost beauty and value to the individuals concerned, -but it is certainly not the origin of civilisation, and if it be -its summit it is also its grave. The eugenic support of marriage, -therefore, depends upon a belief in the family, and that form of -marriage will commend itself which provides the best form of family. -From the point of view of certain eugenists, polygamy would be -desirable in many cases, as extending the parental opportunities of -the man of fine physique or intellectual distinction. The problem -remains, however, as to the nurture of the children so obtained, and -historical study returns us a very clear answer as to the relative -merits of the polygamous family and the monogamous family. It is this -last that pre-eminently justifies itself on the score of its services -to childhood and therefore to the race. Its survival is a matter of -absolute certainty, because of its survival-value. Neither Plato nor -Mr. Shaw, nor any kind of collectivist legislation will permanently -abolish it. - -=The principle of maternalism.=--The merits of monogamy can be -defined in terms of the principle which I would venture to call -maternalism--the principle of the permanent and radical importance of -motherhood and whatever institutions afford it the greatest aid. - -Maternalism would point, I think, to the supreme paradox that the -dominant creature of the earth is born of woman, and born the most -absolutely helpless of all living creatures whatsoever, animal or -vegetable; it would note that this utter dependence upon others, mother -or foster-mother, is not only the most unqualified known, but the -longest maintained; it would observe that of all the human beings now -alive, all that have lived, all that are to be, not one could survive -its birth for twenty-four hours but for motherhood; it would note that -only motherhood has rendered possible the development of instinct into -that intelligence which, itself dependent upon motherhood for the -possibility of its development, has dependent upon it the fact that -the earth is now man's and the fulness thereof; and to the advocates -of all the political -isms that can be named, and the small proportion -of them that can be defined, it would apply its specific criterion: -Do you regard the safeguarding and the ennoblement of motherhood as -the proximate end of all political action, the end through which -the ultimate ends, the production and recognition of human worth, -can alone be attained; do you realise that marriage is invaluable -_because_ it makes for the enthronement of motherhood as nothing else -ever did or can; do you realise that, metaphors about State maternity -notwithstanding, the State has neither womb nor breasts, these most -reverend and divine of all vital organs being the appanage of the -individual mother alone? - -The maternalist principle being assumed, and the value of monogamy on -the ground that it supports motherhood by fatherhood, the forthcoming -discussion as to the possibilities of race-culture will assume the -persistence of monogamy and will centre upon the possibility of -selecting or rejecting, for the purposes of race-culture, those who are -available for entrance into the marriage state. The reader who has not -studied social anthropology--and this is true of nearly all the critics -of eugenics, very few of whom have studied anything--will be astounded, -I believe, to discover the practically unlimited extent to which public -opinion, whether or not formulated as law, has always been capable of -controlling marriage, and therefore, race-culture. - -=Proposed definition of marriage.=--Recognising the existence -of subhuman marriage, we may be at a loss to define marriage as -distinguished from sex-relations in general. It is that form of -sex-relation which involves or is adapted to _common parental care_ of -the offspring--the support of motherhood by fatherhood. - - - - - PART II--THE PRACTICE OF EUGENICS - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - NEGATIVE EUGENICS - - N'abandonnons pas l'avenir de notre race a la fatalite d'Allah; - creons-le nous-memes.--Forel. - - "It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, - leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but except in the case - of man himself, hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst - animals to breed. - - "With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated, and - those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We - civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process - of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maim and the - sick; we institute poor laws; and our medical men exert their utmost - skill to save the life of everyone to the last moment.... Thus the - weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who - has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this - must be highly injurious to the race of man."--Darwin, _The Descent - of Man_, 1871. Pt. i., chap. v. - - -Hitherto we have mainly concerned ourselves with broad aspects of -theory, endeavouring to prove that conscious race-culture is a -necessity for any civilisation which is to endure, and to show how -alone it can be effected. But evidently for a great many of the -practical proposals that might be, and for not a few that have been, -based upon these views, public opinion is not ripe. We may be thankful -to believe that for some it will never be ripe: it would be rotten -first. Marriage, for instance, we hold sacred and essential: we find -intolerable the idea of the human stud-farm; we are very dubious as -to the help of surgery; we are much more than dubious as to the -lethal chamber. It is necessary to be reasonable, and, in seeking -the superman, to remain at least human. Now if we are to achieve any -immediate success we must clearly divide our proposals, as the present -writer did some years ago, with Mr. Galton's approval, into two -classes: _positive eugenics_ and _negative eugenics_. The one would -seek to encourage the parenthood of the worthy, the other to discourage -the parenthood of the unworthy. Positive eugenics is the original -eugenics, but, as the writer endeavoured to show at the time, negative -eugenics is one with it in principle. The two are complementary, and -are both practised by Nature: natural selection is one with natural -rejection. To choose is to refuse. - -In regard to positive eugenics I, for one, must ever make the criticism -that I cannot believe in the propriety of attempting to bribe into -parenthood people who have no love of children: we have to consider -the parental environment of the children we desire, as well as their -innate quality. Thus, positive eugenics must largely take the form, at -present, of removing such disabilities as now weigh upon the desirable -members of the community, especially of the more prudent sort. - -For instance, it was recently pointed out by a correspondent of the -_Morning Post_ that in Great Britain, despite the alarm caused by the -decreasing marriage-rate, no one has protested against-- - - "... the tax which the propertied middle classes have to pay on - marriage.... To take a few instances. Two persons each having L160 a - year marry. Previous to marriage they were exempt from income tax; - after marriage they pay L6 per annum. Two persons each having L400 a - year pay L18 before and L30 after marriage. Similarly the additional - income tax payable on marriage by people each having L600 a year is - L9, by those having L1,200 a year L30, and by those having L2,000 a - year L50. It is difficult to see how our legislators arrived at this - result unless they started to average the incomes of married people - and then forgot to divide by two.... If, as I contend, a man and his - wife should be counted as two people, not one, should not children - also be counted in any scheme of graduated taxation, and an income - be divided by the number of persons it has to support in order to - fix the rate at which the tax is to be charged? It is ridiculous to - suppose that a man with a wife and six children is as well off on - L1,000 a year as a bachelor with the same income. It is, I believe, - acknowledged that the moderately well-off professional classes marry - later and have fewer children than the wage-earners, and I think - there can be no doubt that the special burthens they have to bear - is a material influence contributing to this result. Thus, while we - are deploring the decadence of the race, the State is doing what it - can to discourage marriage in a class whose children would in all - probability prove its most valued citizens." - -But it is in negative eugenics that we can accomplish most at this -stage, and in so doing can steadily educate public opinion, the -professional jesters notwithstanding. There is here a field for action -which does not demand a great revolution in the popular point of view; -and, further, does not require us to wait for certainty until the facts -and laws of heredity have been much further elucidated. The services -which a conscious race-culture, thus directed, may even now accomplish, -can scarcely be over-estimated; and even if we cannot reach the public -heart at once we can reach the public head by means of the public -pocket--which will benefit obviously and greatly when these proposals -are carried out. As Thoreau observes, for a thousand who are lopping -off the branches of an evil there is but one striking at its roots. If -we strike at the roots of certain grave and costly evils of the present -day, we shall abundantly demonstrate that this is a matter of the most -vital economy. - -=The deaf and dumb.=--We might begin with the case of the _deaf and -dumb_, since the facts here are utterly beyond dispute. The condition -known as deaf-mutism is congenital or due to innate defect in about -one-half of all the cases in Great Britain. Says Dr. Love,[45] "In -every institution examples may be found of deaf-mute children who have -one or two deaf parents or grand-parents, and of two or more deaf-mute -children belonging to one family." A recent report from Japan is of -a similar order, and the evidence might be multiplied indefinitely. -The obvious conclusion that the inherently deaf should not marry "is -generally conceded by those who work amongst the deaf, but the present -arrangements for the education of the deaf, and their management in -missions and institutes for the deaf during the period of adolescence, -is eminently fitted to encourage union between the congenitally -deaf. If not during the school period, at least during the period of -adolescence, everything should be done to discourage the association -of the deaf and dumb with each other, and the danger of their meeting -with those similarly afflicted should be constantly kept before the -congenitally deaf by those in charge of them." Dr. Love quotes the -following newspaper report: "At an inquest yesterday, on William -Earnshaw, 59, a St. Pancras saddler, it was stated that the relatives -could not identify the body, as the wife and sister were blind, deaf -and dumb, and that the four children were deaf and dumb. The deceased -was deaf and dumb, and was so when he was married." - -=The feeble-minded.=--The case of the _feeble-minded_ is of course -parallel. The problem would be at once reduced to negligible -proportions if all cases of feeble-mindedness were dealt with as they -should be. These unfortunate people might lead quite happy lives, -the utmost be done for their feeble capacities, the supreme demands -of the law of love be completely but providently complied with. -The feeble-minded girl might be protected from herself and from -others--her fate otherwise is often too deplorable for definition--and -the interests of the future be not compromised. These words were -written whilst awaiting the long overdue Report of the Royal Commission -on this subject--which abundantly confirms them. The proportion of -the mentally defective in Great Britain is now 0.83 per cent., and it -is doubtless rising yearly. Only by the recognition and application -of negative eugenics can this evil be cured. I have elsewhere[46] -discussed the supposed objection which will be raised in the name of -"liberty" by persons who think in words instead of realities. The right -care of the feeble-minded involves the greatest happiness and liberty -and self-development possible for them. The interests of the individual -and the race are one. What liberty has the feeble-minded prostitute, -such as our streets are filled with? - -=The insane.=--As regards obvious _insanity_, the same principles of -negative eugenics must be enforced. It is probably fair to say that the -whole trend of modern research has been to accentuate the importance, -if not indeed the indispensableness, of the inherent or inherited -factor in the production of insanity. Yet, on the other hand, the trend -of treatment of the insane has undoubtedly been towards permitting -them more liberty, sometimes of the kind which the principles of -race-culture must condemn. It is well, of course, that we should -be humane in our treatment of the insane. It is well that curative -medicine should do its utmost for them, and it seems well, at first -sight, that the proportion of discharges from asylums on the score of -recovery should be as high as it is. But at this point the possibility -of the gravest criticism evidently arises. I have no intention -whatever of exposing the question of race-culture to legitimate -criticism by laying down dogmatically any doctrines as to the perpetual -incarceration of insane persons, including those who have been, but -are not now, insane. Pope was, of course, right when he hinted at the -nearness of the relation between _certain forms_ of genius and certain -forms of insanity. It may well be that if we could provide a fit -environment we might welcome the children of some of those, highly and -perhaps uniquely gifted in brain, who, under the stress of the ordinary -environment of modern life, have broken down for shorter or longer -periods. On the other hand, there are forms of insanity which, beyond -all dispute, should utterly preclude their victims from parenthood. As -a result of recent controversies it seems on the whole probable, if not -certain, that the apparent persistent increase in the proportion of -the insane in civilised countries generally during many years past, is -a real increase, and not due simply to such factors as more stringent -certification or increase of public confidence in lunatic asylums. If, -then, there be in process a real increase in the proportion of the -insane, who will question that no time should be lost in ascertaining -the extent--undoubtedly most considerable--to which the principles of -negative eugenics can be invoked in order to arrest it? - -As regards _epilepsy_ and _epileptic insanity_ there can be no -question. There is, of course, such a thing as acquired epilepsy, and -we may even assume for the sake of the argument that no inherent and -therefore transmissible factor of predisposition is involved in such -cases. Yet, wholly excluding them, there remains the vast majority -of cases in which epilepsy and epileptic insanity are unquestionably -germinal in origin, and therefore transmissible. The principle of -negative eugenics cannot too soon be applied here. - -=The criminal.=--When we come to consider the question of _crime_ -the cautious and responsible eugenist is bound to be wary--chiefly, -perhaps, because such a vast amount of sheer nonsense has been written -on this subject. The whole question, of course, is the old one, Is it -heredity or environment that produces the criminal? If and when it is -the environment, race-culture has nothing to do with the question, -since the merely acquired criminality is, as we know, not in any -degree transmissible. If the criminal, however, is always or ever a -"born criminal," then the eugenist is intimately concerned. At the -one extreme are those who tell us that the idea of crime is a purely -conventional one, that the criminal is the product of circumstances or -environment, and that we, in his case, would have done likewise. The -remedy for crime, then, is education. It is pointed out, however, that -education merely modifies the variety of crime. There is less murder -but more swindling, and so forth. Then, on the other hand, there are -those who declare that criminality is innate, and that if we are to -make an end of crime we must attach surgeons to our gaols; or at any -rate must extend the principle of the life-sentence. - -Doubtless, the truth lies between these two extremes. In the face -of the work of Lombroso and his school, exaggerated though their -conclusions often be, we cannot dispute the existence of the born -criminal, and the criminal type. There are undoubtedly many such -persons in modern society. There is an abundance of crime which no -education, practised or imaginable, would eliminate. Present-day -psychology and medicine, and, for the matter of that, ordinary -common-sense, can readily distinguish cases at both extremes--the -_mattoid_ or semi-insane criminal at one end, and the decent citizen -who yields to exceptional temptation at the other end. Thus, even -though there remain a vast number of cases where our knowledge is -insufficient, we could accomplish great things already if the born -criminal, the habitual criminal and his like were rationally treated -by society, on the lines of the reformatory, the labour colony, -indeterminate sentences, and such other methods as aim, successfully or -unsuccessfully, at the reform of the individual, whilst incidentally -protecting the race. Here, as in some other cases, the nature of the -environment provided for their children by certain sections of the -community may be taken into account when we decide whether they are -to be prohibited from parenthood. Heredity or no heredity, we cannot -desire to have children born into the alcoholic home; heredity or no -heredity, we cannot desire to have children born into the criminal -environment. In Great Britain we are no longer to manufacture criminals -in hundreds by sending children to prison. It remains to be seen, after -the practical disappearance of the made criminal, what proportion -of crime is really due to the born criminal. He, when found, must -certainly be dealt with on the lines indicated by our principles.[47] - -=Other cases.=--So far we have considered exclusively diseases and -disorders of the brain, the question of alcoholism being deferred to -a special chapter. When we come to other forms of defect or disease -we find a long gradation of instances: at the one extreme being cases -where the fact of disastrous inheritance is palpable and inevitable, -whilst at the other extreme are kinds of disease and defect as to which -the share of heredity is still very uncertain. In some instances, then, -the eugenist is bound to lay down the most emphatic propositions, -as, for instance, that parenthood on the part of men suffering from -certain diseases is and should and must be regarded and treated as a -crime of the most heinous order: whilst in other instances all we can -say is that here is a direction in which more knowledge is needed. - -Some particular cases may be referred to. - -The diseases known as Daltonism or colour-blindness, and haemophilia -or the "bleeding disease," are certainly hereditary. The sufferers -are usually male, but the disease is commonly transmitted by their -daughters (who do not themselves suffer) to their male descendants. -As regards colour-blindness, the defect is evidently insufficient -to concern the eugenist, but haemophilia is a serious disease, the -transmission of which should not be excused. It may seem hard to assert -that the daughter of a haemophilic father should not become a mother, -she herself being free from all disease. But it has to be remembered -that the possibility of this hardship depends upon the fact that a -haemophilic man has become a father, as he should not have done. - -This point, as to the amount of hardship involved in the observance -of negative race-culture, has always to be kept in mind. If negative -eugenics were generally enforced upon a given generation some -persons would, of course, suffer in greater or less degree from the -disabilities imposed upon them. But their number would depend upon the -neglect of eugenics by previous generations, and _thereafter the number -of those upon whom our principles pressed hardly would be relatively -minute_. - -=Eugenics and tuberculosis.=--It would not be correct to say that -the old view of consumption regarded it as hereditary. In this and a -hundred other matters, medical, astronomical, or what we please, if -we go back to the Arabic students, or further, to the Greeks, we are -lucky enough to find sound observation and reasoning. Many quotations -might be made to show that the infectious nature of tuberculosis was -recognised long ago, just as the revolution of the earth round the -sun was recognised a millennium and a half before Copernicus. But -the view of our more immediate fathers was that tuberculosis is a -hereditary degeneration, and the medical profession proclaimed with no -uncertain sound the hopeless and paralysing doctrine that an almost -certain doom hung over the children of the consumptive. Then, in -memorable succession, came Villemin, Pasteur, and lastly Koch, with -his discovery of the bacillus in 1882. The doctrine was then altered -in its statement. There was, of course, no choice in the matter, since -it was easy to show that not one new-born baby in millions harbours -a tubercle bacillus; so all-but-miraculous and, rightly considered, -beautiful are the ante-natal defences. It was taught, then, that we -inherit a predisposition from consumptive parents, that the bacillus -is ubiquitous, and that variations in susceptibility determine the -incidence of the disease in one and not in another. It was lightly -assumed (simply through what may be called the inertia of belief) -that these variations in susceptibility were hereditary; but we are -wholly without evidence that the hereditary factor counts for anything -substantial, even assuming that it appreciably exists at all. These -differences, so far from being inherent, may be _most palpably_ -acquired. Under-feeding, alcohol, and influenza, let us say, will -adequately prepare any human soil. Furthermore, we are learning that -the bacillus is nothing like so ubiquitous as used to be supposed. -Tuberculosis is now sometimes described as a dwelling disease. It might -probably be described with still more accuracy as a bed-room disease, -or a bed-room and public-house disease. It has been evident for many -years past that the more we learnt about tuberculosis the less did -we talk about heredity; and in one of the most recent authoritative -pronouncements[48] upon the subject, the lecturer did not even allude -to heredity at all. Many readers will be up in arms at once with -apparently contrary instances; and much labour may be spent in the -mathematical analysis of statistical data--as that of cases where a -father and a child have tuberculosis. But suppose the father kissed the -child? What have you proved regarding heredity? No mathematics can get -more out of the data than is in them. - -The statistics designed to measure the degree of inheritance in this -disease labour under the cardinal fallacy of assuming that where father -and son suffer, the case is one of inheritance, and then proceed to -measure the average extent of this inheritance. These statistics are -so much waste paper and ink--assuming what they claim to prove. They -do not allow for the fact that the child is very frequently exposed -in grave measure to infection by the parent; they ignore wholly, -indeed, the entire question of exposure to infection, both as regards -its extent in time and the virulence of the infection in question. -At the present day, discussions as to the inheritance of consumption -and tuberculosis in general are not fit for practical application: -and a practical disservice is rendered by those who seek to divert -public attention from the removable environmental causes upon which -the disease mainly depends. We know, for instance, that the incidence -of tuberculosis is directly proportional to over-crowding: this being -universally true, we must work to abolish over-crowding and to provide -fresh air for every one by day and by night. When that is done, -alcoholism disposed of, and our milk-supply purified, we may turn to -the question of heredity: but the incidence of the disease will then -present merely trivial instead of the present appalling proportions. - -It is not asserted that inherent variations in susceptibility to -this disease are not existent. The case would be unique if it were -so. But it is asserted that the more we learn of the disease the -less importance we attach to this factor, and the more surely do -we see that the three syllables constituting the word "infection" -substantially suffice to dispose of all the confident dogmas with -which we are too familiar. One is almost tempted to quote a forcible -phrase of Mill's, and say that, given this point of view, "once -questioned, they are doomed." The only method of accurately studying -the question of inherited predisposition would be by comparative study -of the resistance of new-born infants as measured by their "opsonic -index"--which may be (very roughly) described as the measure of the -power of the white cells of the blood to eat up tubercle bacilli.[49] -Nor will even this method be free from fallacy. - -The present writer believes that eugenics is going to save the world; -that there is no study of such urgent and practical importance as that -of heredity; that if we get the right people born and the wrong people -not born, forms of government and such questions will be left even -without fools to contest regarding them. Thus he has every bias in -favour of emphasising the hereditary factor in tuberculosis. The fact -will at least not discredit the foregoing views, which are in absolute -accord with those of Dr. Newsholme, our leading authority, in his -recent work upon the subject. - -Nothing need here be said about cancer, the best and most recent -evidence tending to show that the disease is not hereditary. - -The foregoing may briefly suffice to illustrate the general proposition -that negative eugenics will seek to define the diseases and defects -which are really hereditary, to name those the transmission of which -is already certainly known to occur, and to raise the average of the -race by interfering as far as may be with the parenthood of persons -suffering from these transmissible disorders. Only thus can certain -of the gravest evils of society, as, for instance, feeble-mindedness, -insanity, and crime due to inherited degeneracy, be suppressed: and if -race-culture were absolutely incapable of effecting anything whatever -in the way of increasing the fertility of the worthiest classes and -individuals, its services in the negative direction here briefly -outlined would still be of incalculable value. No other proposal will -save so much life, present and to come: and save so much gold in doing -so--as one would insist if one were writing a eugenic primer for -politicians. To this policy we shall most certainly come: but here, -as in other cases, I trust far more in the influence of an educated -public opinion than in legislation; though there are certain forms of -transmissible disease, interfering in no way with the responsibility of -the individual, the transmission of which should be visited with the -utmost rigour of the law and regarded as utterly criminal no less than -sheer murder. - -In the next chapter, recognising marriage as the human mode of -selection, we must consider it in its relation to eugenics, both -positive and negative. - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - SELECTION THROUGH MARRIAGE - - -=Historical evidence of control of marriage: Westermarck's -evidence.=--To begin with the most recent refutation of the doctrine -that marriage selection is uncontrollable, one may quote from the -inaugural lecture delivered by Dr. Westermarck in December, 1907, on -his appointment as Professor of Sociology in the University of London. -He said:-- - - "For instance, when the suggestion has been made that the law should - step in and prevent unfit individuals from contracting marriage, - the objection has at once been raised that any such measure would - be impracticable. Now we find that many savages have tried the - experiment and succeeded. Mr. Im Thurn tells us that among the wild - Indians of Guiana, a man, before he is allowed to choose a wife, must - prove that he can do a man's work and is able to support himself - and his family. In various Bechuana and Kaffir tribes, according - to Livingstone, a youth is prohibited from marrying until he has - killed a rhinoceros. Among the Dyaks of Borneo no one can marry - until he has in his possession a certain number of human skulls. - Among the Arabs of Upper Egypt a man must undergo an ordeal of - whipping by the relatives of his bride, in order to test his courage; - and if he wishes to be considered worth having, he must receive - the chastisement, which is sometimes exceedingly severe, with an - expression of enjoyment. - - "I do not say that these particular methods are worthy of slavish - imitation, but the principle underlying them is certainly excellent, - and especially the fact that they are recognised and enforced by - custom shows that it has been quite possible among many people to - prohibit certain unfit individuals from marrying. The question - naturally arises whether, after all, something of the same kind may - not be possible among ourselves." - -=Mr. Galton's evidence.=--But Mr. Galton himself, with his -characteristic thoroughness, and in full recognition of the fact that -this young science must meet ignorant as well as other objections, read -before the Sociological Society[50] a paper entitled "Restrictions -in Marriage," with special reference to the objection "that human -nature would never brook interference with the freedom of marriage.... -How far have marriage restrictions proved effective, when sanctified -by the religion of the time, by custom and by law? I appeal from -armchair criticism to historical facts." Mr. Galton then proceeds to -quote seven forms of restriction in marriage which have actually been -practised--monogamy, endogamy, exogamy, Australian marriages, taboo, -prohibited degrees and celibacy. He shows how powerful under each of -these heads is the influence of "immaterial motives" upon marriage -selection, how they may all become hallowed by religion, accepted as -custom and enforced by law. "Persons who are born under their various -rules, live under them without any objection. They are unconscious of -their restrictions as we are unaware of the tension of the atmosphere." -In many cases the establishment of monogamy and the prohibition -of polygamy "has been due not to any natural instinct against the -practice, but to consideration of social well-being." "It was penal -for a Greek to marry a barbarian, for a Roman patrician to marry a -plebeian, for a Hindoo of one caste to marry one of another caste, -and so forth. Similar restrictions have been enforced in multitudes -of communities, even under the penalty of death." Cases from ancient -Jewish law are quoted; and, to take a very different case, that of the -marriage rule amongst the Australian bushmen, it is shown that "the -cogency of this rule is due to custom, religion and law, and is so -strong that nearly all Australians would be horrified at the idea of -breaking it." Passing further on, one need offer no excuse for quoting, -regarding marriage in general, the following words of the founder of -eugenics:--"_The institution of marriage as now sanctified by religion -and safeguarded by law in the more highly civilised nations, may not -be ideally perfect, nor may it be universally accepted in future -times, but it is the best that has hitherto been devised for the -parties primarily concerned, for their children, for home life, and for -society._" - -Mr. Galton then proceeds to show how extensive are the restrictions in -marriage already recognised and practised amongst ourselves and quite -contentedly accepted. He proves also that our objection to marriage -within prohibited degrees depends mainly upon what he calls immaterial -considerations, and adds "it is quite conceivable that a non-eugenic -marriage should hereafter excite no less loathing than that of a -brother and sister would do now." Then, in allusion to the possibility -"of a whole-hearted acceptance of eugenics as a national religion ... -the thorough conviction by a nation that no worthier object exists -for man than the improvement of his own race," Mr. Galton shows from -the history of conventual life what abundant evidence there is "of -the power of religious authority in directing and withstanding the -tendencies of human nature towards freedom in marriage." This paper -was discussed by no less than twenty-six authorities, British and -Continental, and in his reply Mr. Galton observes that not one of them -impugns his main conclusion "that history tells how restrictions in -marriage, even of an excessive kind, have been contentedly accepted -very widely, under the guidance of what I called immaterial motives." -Lastly, we may note Mr. Galton's admirable distinction between the -two stages of love, "that of slight inclination and that of falling -thoroughly into love, for it is the first of these rather than the -second that I hope the popular feeling of the future will successfully -resist. Every match-making mother appreciates the difference. If a -girl is taught to look upon a class of men as tabooed, whether owing -to rank, creed, connections or other causes, she does not regard them -as possible husbands and turns her thoughts elsewhere. The proverbial -'Mrs. Grundy' has enormous influence in checking the marriages she -considers indiscreet." - -Surely all the foregoing suffices to show, first, that eugenics or -race-culture is compatible with marriage, and secondly, that it is -compatible with the love of the sexes--two conclusions of the most -cardinal and fundamental importance. This importance it is, and the -obstinate stupidity of critics of a kind, which must excuse me for -having devoted so much space to propositions which the thoughtful -reader would naturally have arrived at for himself. - -=The present influence of marriage on race-culture.=--We must turn now -from the past to the present aspect of the question, viz., the actual -relation of marriage to eugenics at the present day. Its nature is -very much disputed. On the one hand, there are those who see in our -present methods what has elsewhere been called reversed selection--that -is to say, an anti-eugenic process, involving the mating of the least -desirable. On the other hand, there are many conservative critics who, -starting from a general opposition to any new thing, such as eugenics, -maintain that we are doing very well as we are, and that, without any -conscious interference, as they call it--as if there were no such -interference--selection by marriage is actually working for the eugenic -end. Dr. Maudsley, for instance, is "not sure but that nature in its -own blind impulsive way does not manage things better than we can by -any light of reason": an astounding opinion from the veteran pioneer -who has devoted so many decades to successfully modifying natural -processes by the light of his own splendid reason! - -This most important question, as to what is actually happening within -the limits of marriage, may legitimately be regarded as substantially -equivalent to the question of the extent and nature of selection, -for good or for evil, as it occurs in society to-day. If we remember -that an overwhelming proportion of children are born in wedlock, -that the death-rate of illegitimate children is gigantic, whilst -the illegitimate birth-rate is generally falling, we shall be fully -entitled to assume that the answer to the one question is the answer -to the other; in a word, if under the present conditions of selection -for marriage we find a eugenic tendency or an anti-eugenic tendency or -a mere neutrality, the answer will be, _on the whole_, the approximate -answer to the larger question as to the present state of selection -for parenthood and therefore of our racial prospects, marriage or no -marriage. The conclusion which we shall maintain is that _both forms -of selection occur in society to-day_--the selection of the desirable -and the selection of the undesirable. We shall go ludicrously wrong -if we agree, with one party, that society in general to-day exhibits -reversed selection; or, with the second party, that everything is -going on admirably on the whole; or, with the third party, which -jumbles the whole mass of facts and tendencies, and declares that -there is no process of selection of any kind occurring in society -to-day--an opinion which, in the face of disease, the enormous -premature death-rate, and the fact that whilst vast numbers of women -are unmarried, the choice of women for marriage does not occur by lot, -beggars comment; is a girl with a birth-mark covering half her face, -or a nose destroyed by transmissible disease, as likely to marry as -a "beauty"? If not, surely we actually select to-day for beauty and -therefore for whatever beauty depends upon--for instance, health. But -really it cannot be necessary to deal seriously with the proposition -that no selection occurs in society to-day. - -Let us attempt to state clearly the point at issue. There is granted, -in the first place, that by far the greater part of all parenthood, -in civilised and uncivilised communities alike, occurs within the -limits of marriage; to which may be added that, owing to the excessive -death-rate of illegitimate children, the proportion of effective -parenthood, so to say, that occurs within the limits of marriage is -even larger; and this intervention of marriage, and any selection that -may be involved in it, steadily recur from generation to generation. -Thus even those born outside wedlock will nevertheless be selected -for parenthood, on their own part, mainly by the selective factors in -marriage. - -=Selection by marriage has the last word.=--It follows, then, though -the fact is almost constantly ignored by eugenic writers, that -selection by marriage in effect has the last word. Thus supposing -that all other forms of selection, depending upon, for instance, -the various causes of death amongst the immature, were what we call -reversed selection; or supposing that, as is actually the case, society -permitted large numbers of the so-called unfit to survive,--even -so, marriage selection (if it meant that many or most of these were -rejected by it) would control and correct the dangerous tendency. On -all hands, scientific and unscientific, we have writers telling us of -the disastrous multiplication of the unfit. Such multiplication does -occur and is disastrous. Yet hitherto they have failed to recognise -that if--to take an extreme case--all these unfit are rejected -by marriage selection--that is to say, do not themselves become -parents--this alarming multiplication is, after all, not a persistent -factor in racial change, but merely the throwing up or throwing aside -in each generation of a certain number of undesirables _whose breed -gets no further_. Of course there would be much less urgent need for -eugenics if this last were wholly and happily the case. Our object, -indeed, is to make it the case: but so long as selection by marriage -exists,--and its occurrence is palpably indisputable--_it is a -serious flaw in the common argument to assume that the production and -preservation of undesirables necessarily involves their own parenthood -in due course_. It is necessary that strict statistical enquiry be -made on this point. It would show, I believe, that the marriage-rate -_and the birth-rate_ amongst the _grossly_ unfit is much lower than -that of the general community, or, in other words, that the influence -and value of selection by marriage (which, as we have shown, is in -effect selection for parenthood, the only selection that ultimately -matters) has not yet been fully appreciated. I very strongly incline -to the view that if this protective factor were not constantly at -work, the "multiplication of the unfit" would long ago have led to -the destruction of every civilised nation on the earth: they would -have swamped us long ago. Indeed, the proposition may be laid down -that, supreme and indispensable as are the services of marriage to -race-culture, in its protection of motherhood, and the support of -motherhood by fatherhood, probably the services of marriage as in -effect the working of sexual selection are worthy of being rated -almost, if not quite, as high. - -=Sexual selection is certainly true of mankind.=--Before adducing -the outlines of the evidence in favour of marriage as an instrument -of selection, it may be well to point out that here we are really -discussing what Darwin called "sexual selection," modified by the -psychology and peculiar characters of mankind. We must protect -ourselves from the critics who will remind us that sexual selection -is very largely discredited to-day, rather more than a generation -after Darwin's enunciation of it in _The Descent of Man_ (1871). The -controversy regarding sexual selection as the producer of feathers -and markings and song, and so forth, amongst the lower animals, is -fortunately quite irrelevant to our present discussion, which is -concerned with mankind. We can afford to note with equanimity the -observation that, in lower species, no mature female goes unmated, -for instance; the fact remains that in the case of mankind a very -considerable percentage of women remain unmarried. The case is similar -as regards the male sex. In short, one may declare that, whether or not -sexual selection is possible, or occurs, or accomplishes anything, in -the case of the lower animals, it palpably and patently is possible, -and does occur, amongst mankind, and especially amongst civilised -peoples, in the form of selection by or for marriage--which, as we have -seen, is in effect selection for parenthood. Let us first note the -statistical evidence regarding marriage-selection of health and energy. - -=Spencer on marital longevity.=--We are all aware that married people -live longer, on the average, than unmarried people, the conclusion -being, "of course," that marriage is good for the health. But some are -taken and others left in this respect, and if, for any conceivable -reason, health is a factor making for selection by marriage, that may -be a real explanation, in whole or in part, of the longer life of -married people. Considering the risks to life involved in motherhood, -the superior longevity of married as compared with unmarried women -would be incomprehensible except on some such assumption. Yet it is -the fact, so imperfect still is the entry of the idea of selection -into the popular and even the expert mind, that the superior longevity -of married people is still constantly asserted to mean that marriage -makes for long life; every year, when the statistics are printed, this -argument may be seen in the newspapers, and I remember encountering it -in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, to my utter astonishment. - -This uncritical conclusion was disposed of by the author of the phrase -"the survival of the fittest"--appropriately enough--more than thirty -years ago. If the reader will turn to Herbert Spencer's _Study of -Sociology_ (a masterpiece which may be commended to the publishers -for the purpose of indexing--twenty editions without an index are too -many) he will find in Chapter V. a discussion of this question. It is -an astonishing thing that though Spencer conclusively exposed it a -generation ago, the childish fallacy is still apparently as flourishing -as ever. He shows how the greater healthfulness of married life was -supposed to be proved by Dr. Stark from comparison of the rates of -mortality among the married and among the celibate. Then no less an -authority than M. Bertillon went into the matter and contributed a -paper called "The Influence of Marriage"--thus begging the question in -its very title--to the Brussels Academy of Medicine. He showed that, -from twenty-five to thirty years of age, several Continental countries -being taken into the reckoning, "the mortality per thousand is 4 in -married men, 10.4 in bachelors, and 22 in widows. This beneficial -influence of marriage is manifested at all ages, being always more -strongly marked in men than in women." The absurdity of the apparent -conclusion regarding widows is surely, as Spencer says, too obvious -for discussion. But, for the rest, Spencer goes on to show that, -in reality, "marriage and longevity are concomitant results of the -same cause"--in other words, "that superior quality of organisation -which conduces to long life also conduces to marriage. It is normally -accompanied by a predominance of the instincts and emotions prompting -marriage; there goes along with it that power[51] which can secure the -means of making marriage practicable; and it increases the probability -of success in courtship." Spencer shows how "of men whose marriages -depend upon getting the needful income," those who will succeed -are in general "the best, physically and mentally--the strong, the -intellectually capable, the morally well-balanced." He shows also -how "women are attracted towards men of power--physical, emotional, -intellectual; and obviously their freedom of choice leads them, in many -cases, to refuse inferior samples of men; especially the malformed, the -diseased, and those who are ill-developed, physically and mentally. -So that, in so far as marriage is determined by female selection, -the average result on men is that while the best easily get wives, a -certain proportion of the worst are left without wives." - -Very likely the stupid conclusion into which so many distinguished -men have been betrayed will survive for many years yet amongst less -distinguished people, but at any rate we may free our minds from it -here, and may recognise in the figures to which I have referred, and -which are of the same order to-day, the statistical proof of what any -observer, however casual, might have inferred from what he sees even -amongst his own friends only--that marriage is, as it probably always -has been, a selective agent of much value in preserving and augmenting -the desirable inherent qualities of the race. It is, of course, the -object of race-culture or eugenics to strengthen the hands of marriage -in this respect to the utmost possible degree. - -=Woman as practical eugenist.=--We must especially note one most -important matter, radically affecting race-culture, which is referred -to by Herbert Spencer in the passage cited, and has been greatly -insisted upon by Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer with -Darwin of the principle of natural selection. The matter in question -is the possibility of race-culture through the choice of their -husbands by women. Not long ago Dr. Wallace[52] described selection -through marriage as the "more permanently effective agency through -which the improvement of human character may be achieved." This, in -his opinion, can only be perfectly achieved "when a greatly improved -social system renders all our women economically and socially free to -choose; while a rational and complete education will have taught them -the importance of their choice both to themselves and to humanity.... -It will act through the agency of well-known facts and principles of -human nature, leading to a continuous reduction of the lower types in -each successive generation, and it is the only mode yet suggested which -will automatically and naturally effect this." Thus "for the first -time in the history of mankind his Character--his very Human Nature -itself--will be improved by the slow but certain action of a pure and -beautiful form of selection--a selection which will act, not through -struggle and death, but through brotherhood and love." - -Dr. Wallace is a socialist, and he believes that only through socialism -can we achieve "that perfect freedom of choice in marriage which will -only be possible when all are economically equal, and no question of -social rank or material advantage can have the slightest influence in -determining that choice." As I have said elsewhere, I would call myself -neither a socialist nor an anti-socialist, but if labels are necessary, -a eugenist and maternalist. As such, I can only say that this argument -for socialism--that it is the necessary condition of eugenics or -race-culture--is, for me, incomparably the best argument for that -creed; and if it were proved that only through socialism could the -utmost be made of women's choice of husbands, then no argument against -socialism could have any appreciable weight at all. The fundamental -and permanent argument against certain of the highly various and -incompatible doctrines which, for our confusion, are commonly lumped -together as socialism, is that they would arrest the process by which -Nature rewards worth and permits it to perpetuate itself. If, then, -it can be shown, as may or may not be the case, that only through -socialism can male worth be most effectively chosen and male unworth be -rejected for fatherhood, the supreme--that is, the eugenic--argument -against socialism becomes the conclusive argument in its favour. - -=The field of choice.=--But, however this may be, there can be no -question that the eugenic purpose, as well as the happiness and -elevation of individuals in the present, will be greatly served -by whatever measures increase, to the utmost extent possible, the -opportunities for choice in marriage afforded to women and also to men. -One of the most amazing and satisfactory facts about marriage as at -present practised is, I think, the large proportion--often estimated -at seventy-five per cent.--of unions which, apart from any eugenic -question, turn out happily, in Great Britain, at any rate. What makes -this fact more amazing is the almost incredible limitation of the -field of choice within which both sexes are still confined as a whole. -If the reader will consider the cases most familiar to him or her, -it will surely be admitted that the considerable success of marriage -takes on an astonishing aspect when the present strait conditions of -choice are taken into account. I am convinced that few more radical and -far-reaching, because eugenic, reforms can be conceived than any which, -in accordance with Dr. Wallace's argument, tend to widen the field of -choice, and that not for one sex only but for both. He would be a rash -man who ventured to allot superior value to the selection of man by -woman rather than of woman by man, or _vice versa_. - -Quite apart from any deeper and more difficult reforms, such as Dr. -Wallace alludes to, I am sure that even the mere widening of the -field of choice, as such, is most desirable. To take an instance, -which the reader may very likely think trivial and absurd, I have -witnessed in my brief career as a hockey player two unions most happy -and eugenic in every way, which entirely depended upon the existence -of the amusement called mixed hockey--whereat the contracting parties -met one another! It is not asserted that these two cases suffice for -world-wide generalisation. They are merely cited as instances which -set at least one hockey player thinking, even on the field--the field -of choice. It is a great argument, because it is a eugenic argument, -in favour of community of sports and amusements amongst young people -of both sexes, that it does widen the field of choice in marriage, and -that in doing so it also tends to favour those factors of selection -which the eugenist would desire to see selected: and this especially as -compared with the ball-room. I think that the reader will agree that -the conditions, the "atmosphere," the costume, and the other features -of what young people call a "dance," whilst undoubtedly serving the -purpose of marriage and widening somewhat a field of choice which might -otherwise be ludicrously and impracticably restricted, compare most -unfavourably with the conditions of even the mixed hockey field, which, -decried though they often be, are to my mind immeasurably healthier on -every conceivable ground than those of the ball-room, and not least of -all on the eugenic ground of the prominence gained by most desirable -qualities, of which mere strength and energy and neuro-muscular skill -are quite the least, whilst unselfishness, capacity for self-control, -patience, real gallantry--as when a male "full back" refrains from -hitting the ball with all his might against the toes of a girl -"forward"--the sporting spirit and other true and radical virtues, are -the greatest. It is undoubtedly the case that the personal factors, -physical and psychical, which determine the mutual attraction of young -people, have dependent upon them the whole of human destiny. In society -to-day, what one may call the incidence of parenthood, upon which all -the future necessarily depends, _is_ determined by nothing other than -the humanised form of what Darwin called "sexual selection." Therefore, -it is not trivial but supremely important to discuss the conditions -under which the selection obtains.[53] - -It has already been suggested that in order to enhance the eugenic -value of marriage we should endeavour to widen the field of choice, at -present ludicrously restricted by custom, class, religion, economic -position, and so forth. The increased locomotion of to-day will be of -real eugenic service to the race in this respect, I believe. - -Then it has been hinted that young people should meet one another -under conditions which make prominent the psychical and put the merely -physical or animal into the background--_e.g._ on the hockey field or -the ice or in the "literary circle," rather than in the ball-room. This -proposition accords, of course, with what has been said elsewhere as to -that great factor of progress which I define as the enhancement of the -survival-value of the psychical as against that of the physical. (Note -the obvious sequence--survival-value, selection-value, marriage-value, -parenthood-value, progress-value.) This proposition and the last might -both be worked out, I believe, in considerable detail and not without -profit. - -Arguing on the same lines, we may agree that even such a small matter, -usually considered wholly domestic, as the length of engagements, -is of eugenic or racial importance. The eugenist, I think, must -welcome long engagements simply because, though they may involve a -reduced marriage-rate and a reduced birth-rate--the latter partly in -consequence of the reduced marriage-rate, and partly because of the -later age at marriage--they tend by the mere operation of time, as -we say, to enhance the importance of the psychical and to reduce the -importance of the physical factors which determine sexual attraction. - -To these three points a fourth, of great importance, must be added. -It is that we should favour, as far as possible, those factors of -choice for marriage which are inherent, and therefore transmissible, -as against those which are acquired, accidental, and therefore not -transmissible, _and therefore_ of no racial or eugenic importance. -This, of course, is the point made by Dr. Wallace in the article -quoted above--or at any rate it is involved in the point he makes. -I simply mean that every time a marriage is brought about by, for -instance, money, the eugenic value of marriage is at least nullified -and may become actually anti-eugenic. Again I say, _if_ Socialism, or -the abolition of (_un_-natural) inheritance, be necessary in order -that selection for marriage shall be determined by the possession of -personal qualities of racial value rather than the power of the purse, -which has always been a racial curse, then the sooner socialism is -established the better. - -=The eugenic value of contemporary marriage.=--The first purpose of -this chapter has been to show that in marriage, wherever, and in so -far as, it is determined by the mutual attractiveness of young people, -there exists a eugenic factor in society to-day; and since the race -is in effect recruited by the married people, this aspect of marriage -deserves the closest study and attention. I commend this subject, _the -eugenic value of contemporary marriage_, to the small but rapidly -increasing number of students who realise that eugenics or race-culture -will be the supreme science of the future, and who are now devoting -themselves to its foundations. No more important and urgent enquiry can -be undertaken at this stage. Which, for instance, is the more eugenic, -the English system or the French? - -The second purpose has been to show that one may believe in and work -for eugenics or race-culture without proposing to overthrow all human -institutions, or to adopt the methods of the stud-farm, or to initiate -a vast campaign of surgery, or sensational and drastic legislation, or -even, yet, the employment of marriage certificates. One or all of these -things may have their place, now or hereafter; or may, on the other -hand, be far worse than futile. But most assuredly it is possible now -for the individual parent of marriageable children, for the clergyman, -the leader of fashion, the doctor, not to start but to strengthen -such by no means impotent eugenic forces as already exist in society, -without outraging sentiment or custom--indeed, without attracting -public attention to their action at all. - -Eugenics has already suffered much at the hands of its so-called -friends. It is to be hoped that a real service may be discharged by -this attempt to show that on the highest, most accurate and scientific -eugenic grounds, we may recognise, claim and welcome every father and -mother who desire that the son or daughter whom they care for shall -marry for psychical and not for physical love. Every such parent is a -eugenist, in effect, though his sole motive may be the welfare of his -individual child. - -At present we interfere with marriage on every imaginable ground, many -utterly trivial, many worse. We encourage or discourage on economic -grounds; we recognize many taboos, of caste, creed, colour. It is not -for us, certainly, acting as we do, to be offended at the suggestion -that we should use our influence to affect marriage on the highest -conceivable ground--the life of mankind to come. What we really need -is not so much the abolition of Mrs. Grundy as her conversion to the -eugenic idea. It is the business of those who believe that eugenics is -the greatest ideal in the world to make a eugenist of Mrs. Grundy, as -we shall some day: and then it will be realised how potent for good -public opinion may become, once it is rightly educated. - -Says Mr. Galton, in his latest contribution to the subject:-- - - "The power of social opinion is apt to be rather under-rated than - over-rated. Like the atmosphere which we breathe and by which we - live, social opinion operates powerfully without our being conscious - of its existence. Everyone knows that governments, manners, and - beliefs which were thought to be right, decorous, and true at one - period have been judged wrong, indecorous, and false at another; and - that views which we have heard expressed by those in authority over - us in our childhood and early manhood tend to become axiomatic and - unchangeable in mature life. - - "Speaking for myself only, I look forward to local eugenic action in - numerous directions, including the accumulation of considerable funds - to start young couples of 'worthy' qualities in their married life, - and to assist them and their families at critical times. The gifts - to those who are the reverse of 'worthy' are enormous in amount; it - is stated that the charitable donations in the year 1907 amounted to - L4,868,050. I am not prepared to say how much of this was judiciously - spent, or in what ways, but merely quote the figures to justify the - inference that many of the thousands of persons who are willing to - give freely at the prompting of a sentiment based upon compassion, - might be persuaded to give largely also in response to a more virile - sentiment, based on the desire of promoting the natural gifts and the - National Efficiency of future generations. - - "In circumscribed communities especially, social approval and - disapproval exert a potent force. Its presence is only too easily - read by every one who is the object of either, in the countenances, - bearing, and manner of those with whom they daily meet and converse. - Is it then, I ask, too much to expect that when a public opinion in - favour of Eugenics has once taken sure hold of such communities and - has been accepted by them as a quasi-religion, the result will be - manifested in sundry and very effective modes of action which are as - yet untried and many of them even unforeseen?" - -="Breach of promise" and race-culture.=--It may be added that perhaps -we shall have to learn to reconsider our ill-judged and stupid -censoriousness, directed against young people who get engaged but then -become tired of one another--as they accurately say, discover that they -are not suited for one another. Not only is it obvious that we are -fools in denouncing this discovery of impermanence in their attraction, -happily made before marriage, whilst we ignore the disasters of -its lamentably _postmature_ discovery, after marriage: but also it -should be obvious that the eugenic end is negatively served whenever -what would have been an unfortunate union is broken off in time. Our -imbecile standard of honour, and the law of breach of promise, which -is outrageously abused, at present condemn the man, for instance, who -finds that he has made a mistake, whilst passively applauding him who, -finding his mistake, thinks it his duty to make it irreparable. Far -better would it be that the man incapable of forming an attachment made -of the non-material ties which last, should not marry at all. The man -who cannot see, or seeing, cannot find it in his heart to love, the -spiritual beauties of womanhood, is just the man who can be safely -omitted in the eugenist's scheme for fatherhood. - -The plea of insanity is, in English law, no protection against a -claim for damages for breach of promise to marry, unless it be proved -insanity at date of contract in the defendant. A valid contract once -made, it is no excuse for non-performance that insanity has been -discovered in the family of the other party. This wicked law must be -altered. - -=The need for further study.=--In his study of this subject the student -will naturally turn to Mr. Havelock Ellis's volume entitled _Sexual -Selection in Man_.[54] This, of course, has its own scientific value -as a statement of facts, notwithstanding its intensely nauseating -character. But anything less relevant to what most of us understand -by psychology it would be difficult to imagine. The book considers -_seriatim_, touch, smell, hearing, and vision as the bases of so-called -love. It thus deals with "sensology," not psychology. Indeed, to the -best of one's recollection, after very close and careful reading, there -is no allusion to the human mind in it anywhere. If men and women were -simply animals, this book would doubtless cover the ground, and perhaps -the word "psychology" would even be justified in connection with it. -From end to end men and women are consistently treated as animals and -no more. Since, however, the human species is possessed of psychical -characters which distinguish it from the lower animals, it is not -unreasonable to suppose that a volume which really dealt with sexual -selection in man would, to say the least of it, recognise the existence -of those characters--even if only to reject them as irrelevant to the -subject under discussion. - -The foregoing remarks do not imply that the purely anatomical and -sensory factors are irrelevant to the selection of parents in any -generation, and for methodological purposes it might be of value to -abstract from the factors of sexual selection in human society such -things as odour and contour. But it would be urgently necessary in -the course of such a study, if it were to be other than extremely -misleading, to observe that this selection of factors was made for -purposes of convenience and that the relation of their importance to -that of other factors was a matter for further and by no means casual -consideration. - -We may certainly agree with Mr. Havelock Ellis that sexual selection -occurs in human society, and may welcome his volume as supporting that -assertion. There follows the extremely interesting and indeed urgent -necessity of ascertaining what the factors of this selection really -are, what is their relative potency, and what is their capacity for -modification. We may further enquire whether they tend to be eugenic. -A contribution to this subject is furnished by Mr. Ellis when he shows -that width of "hips" is a female character commonly admired by men. -Since a wide pelvis is one which can accommodate and safely give birth -to a large foetal head, there is here, as a practically solitary case, -a bearing on the eugenic issue: large heads mean, in general, large -brains, and it would be ill for the white races if men admired hips as -narrow as those of, for instance, the negress, whose pelvis could not -find room for the average head of a purely white baby, and who suffers -terribly in many cases where the father is white, especially if the -child be a boy. - -Meanwhile we must wait for studies of this great question from various -points of view: notably for a study of the economics of sexual -selection as it obtains in human society. Yet further, we require -a detailed study of the influence of legislation, custom and public -opinion upon sexual selection--on the lines of Mr. Galton's paper on -"Restrictions in Marriage." Mr. Havelock Ellis has more than adequately -dealt with the nervous physiology of sexual selection; there remain the -psychology and sociology of it--these latter comprehending, one may -suppose, ninety-nine per cent. of the whole subject. In the preceding -pages allusion has been made to one or two of the more salient aspects -of this matter. - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - - THE RACIAL POISONS: ALCOHOL[55] - - -In the first chapter of our second Part, which deals with the practice -of eugenics, there were introduced, defined, and briefly illustrated, -the terms _positive eugenics_ and _negative eugenics_. Of these the -latter, as the more urgent and the more completely and immediately -practicable, claims our special attention; though the present writer, -notwithstanding that he has devoted to it the greater part of his -eugenic work, is bound to protest that the positive increase of ability -and worth is never to be regarded as of secondary importance. The two -methods are, of course, complementary in practice, as they are one -in principle--to select is to reject, to choose is to refuse. The -preceding chapter, on selection (and rejection) through marriage, has -dealt with the conditions under which both aims are to be pursued. -In the following pages we must discuss a specially urgent and -practicable and indisputable portion of negative eugenic practice: -none the less urgent because of the contemporary emergence and future -world-importance of sober nations, such as Japan and Turkey. The term -_racial poisons_, introduced by the present writer in the year 1907, -is self-explanatory. After dealing with the most important of these -poisons, we shall proceed, in the next chapter, to discuss some others. -The racial poisons constitute a special department of eugenics which -has not hitherto been considered by the pioneers of this subject, but -for which I press the claim of the utmost gravity and moment, and which -I conceive to be certainly a part, and a most important part, of our -manifold yet single subject. - - * * * * * - -The argument of this chapter is that parenthood must be forbidden to -the dipsomaniac, the chronic inebriate or the drunkard, whether male -or female; and this whether Lamarck or Galton and Weismann be right, -or whether, as we may believe with Galton and Weismann themselves, -the controversy between the two parties is wholly irrelevant to the -question in hand. This conclusion, that on no grounds whatever, -theoretical or practical, can we continue to permit parenthood on the -part of the drunkard, is one temperance reform, perhaps the only one, -on which disagreement is absolutely impossible. It is, further, the -most radical that can be named within the sphere of practical politics, -and it is conspicuously practicable. It has hitherto been lamentably -neglected by workers and reformers of all schools. Indeed, at the time -of writing, the London County Council, governing the greatest city in -the world, is pursuing a course of action in this regard, which will be -detailed later, and which, as will appear, is misguided and deplorable -in the last degree. - -=Alcohol and heredity.=--According to Dr. Archdall Reid, "alcohol, -year after year, eliminates from the race a great number of people so -constituted that intoxication affords them keen delight, leaving the -perpetuation of the race in great measure to those on whom intoxication -confers little or no delight.... Now since alcohol weeds out enormous -numbers of people of a particular type, it is a stringent agent of -selection--an agent of selection more stringent than any one disease." -The factor that really makes the drunkard "is certainly inborn, and -therefore as certainly transmissible to offspring. The man who has it -is cursed with the 'alcohol diathesis,' with the 'predisposition to -drunkenness.' Thus most savages are keenly capable of enjoying drink, -and their offspring inherit the capacity." Fere has shown that "it -is one of the characteristics of the degenerate that they are prone -to have recourse to the poisons, like alcohol and morphia, which -hasten their decadence and elimination." Thus, as Dr. W. C. Sullivan -points out, alcohol "might certainly be adjudged a salutary evil if -its incidence were limited to individuals whose extreme inferiority -of organisation renders them wholly undesirable and useless to the -community. _But this is very far from being the case._"[56] - -The whole crux of the question lies in this last sentence. Alcohol -certainly destroys many degenerate stocks, and that is good, though it -would be better to do what we shall do some day--hasten and ameliorate -the process by forbidding parenthood to the degenerate. _But does -alcohol also make degenerates; does it even make more degenerates than -it destroys?_ A somewhat similar difficulty arises in the case of -infant mortality. The causes of infant mortality destroy many children -inherently unfit, diseased or weakly. But we are not justified in -keeping up our infant mortality, if we find, as we do, that for every -diseased child whom they destroy they kill many who were healthy at -birth and damage for life many more. - -A man is born sober--in most cases, but not always,[57] as we shall -see--and any changes produced in his body by alcohol are "acquired." -Therefore, rejecting Lamarck, are we to reject the doctrine that the -effects produced by alcohol on parents are transmitted to offspring? - -The controversy between Lamarck and Weismann has _absolutely nothing -to do with the question_. Let us consider what would be a case of -Lamarckian transmission in the sense which the modern student of -heredity denies. The birth of a child with a scar on its scalp, to a -father who had acquired a similar scar before the child was conceived, -would be such a case: and this does not happen. Or suppose that instead -of a scar on the scalp the father has an inflammatory change, not so -dissimilar to a scar, produced by alcohol in the membranes covering -his brain. Then it would be a case of Lamarckian transmission if the -membranes of his baby's brain were similarly affected; and this does -not happen. Such is the kind of transmission of which exhaustive -experiment and observation fail to find a conclusive instance anywhere. - -But what has such a supposition to do with the theory, as definitely -supported by observation and experiment as the other is not, that if a -man saturates his body with alcohol carried by his blood, he injures -all the tissues which are nourished by that blood, including the racial -elements of his body with the rest: and therefore that his child may be -degenerate? - -What says Weismann himself? In _The Germ-Plasm_, p. 386, under the -heading "The influence of temporary abnormal conditions of the parents -on the child," he writes as follows:-- - - "Although I do not consider that the cases which come under the - above heading have anything to do with heredity, I should not like to - leave them entirely on one side. - - "It has often been supposed that drunkenness of the parents at the - time of conception may have a harmful effect on the nature of the - offspring. The child is said to be born in a weak bodily and mental - condition, and inclined to idiocy, or even to madness, etc., although - the parents may be quite normal both physically and mentally. - - "Cases certainly exist in which drunken parents have given rise to - a completely normal child, although this is not a convincing proof - against the above-named view; and in spite of the fact that most, or - perhaps even all, the statements with regard to the injurious effects - on the offspring will not bear a very close criticism,[58] I am - unwilling to entirely deny the _possibility_ that a harmful influence - may be exerted in such cases. These, however, have nothing to do with - heredity, but are concerned with an _affection of the germ by means - of an external influence_." - -Weismann goes on to quote cases showing how germ-cells may be injured -by various agents, and continues:-- - - "It does not appear to me impossible that an intermixture of alcohol - with the blood of the parents may produce similar effects on the ovum - and sperm cell. According to the relative quantity of alcohol either - an exciting or a depressing influence might be exerted, either of - which would lead to abnormal development.... - - "_New_ predispositions can certainly never arise owing to such - deviations from the normal course of development, and therefore - a modification of the process of heredity itself is out of the - question. It is, however, conceivable that more or less considerable - abnormalities may affect the course of development, and either - cause the death of the embryo, or else produce more or less marked - deformities. The question as to whether such deformities really - result in consequence of the drunken condition of the parents can - only be decided by observation."[59] - -This is all that Weismann has to say on the subject, since, not -referring to functionally-produced modifications,[60] it does not -concern his theory of heredity at all: yet it is upon this theory that -the most palpable facts of the racial influence of alcohol are denied. -Weismann's own remarks are quite open to criticism, as, for instance, -where he denies that new predispositions can arise in the manner -indicated. This is possibly only a question of words, and Weismann is -perhaps merely denying that alcohol can produce progressive variations. -Also his remarkably brief discussion of the subject seems to concern -itself mainly with the influence of alcohol on the germ-cells _just -before their union_. He has not a word to say regarding the influence -on the germinal tissues of years of soaking in alcohol. It suffices, -however, to make the point which is quite clearly made, that the -Weismannians are going absurdly beyond their book in denying what, -indeed, the book of Nature demonstrates. - -Let us turn now to the experimental side of this question. An American -botanist, Dr. T. D. MacDougal, read an address on "Heredity and -Environic Forces" at the Chicago Meeting of the American Association -for the Advancement of Science in 1907. His experiments require -confirmation, but may be provisionally accepted. He has permanently -modified the germ-plasm of plants under the influence of various -chemicals. There is here a vast field for experiment with alcohol. -I quote one paragraph indicating the remarkable results of these -experiments. The reader will see their bearing on our present question, -and will also see that they do not for a moment affect Weismann's -denial of the doctrine that by cutting off rats' tails you can produce -a race of tailless rats, or that by learning a language you can save -your future children the trouble of doing so for themselves:-- - - "It was found that the injection of various solutions into ovaries - of Raimannia was followed by the production of seeds bearing - qualities not exhibited by the parent, wholly irreversible, and fully - transmissible in successive generations. One of the seeds produced - by a plant of _OEnothera biennis_ which had been treated with zinc - sulphate differed so widely from the parental form that it could be - distinguished from it by a novice. This new form has been tested to - the third generation, and transmits all its characteristics fully." - -=Alcohol a proved racial poison.=--But the reader will rightly desire -some kind of experimental proof that alcohol itself can act as a cause -of racial degeneration. We may first refer to the chapter on alcoholism -and human degeneration in Dr. W. C. Sullivan's _Alcoholism, a Chapter -in Social Pathology_,[61] for a recent _resume_ of the subject. -Without actually quoting Weismann, Dr. Sullivan begins by showing -that, as we have seen, the doctrinal objection of Dr. Reid and others -to the theory of alcoholic degeneration is quite irrelevant--"the -effects attributed to parental alcoholism are not in the category of -transmitted acquirements at all; they are the results, expressed in -defect and deviation of development, of a deleterious influence exerted -on the germ-cells, either directly through the alcohol circulating in -the blood, or indirectly, through the deterioration of the parental -organism in which these cells are lodged, and from which they draw -their nutriment." Later Dr. Sullivan points out that the racial effects -of alcoholism in man are similar to those obtained by experimental -intoxication in the lower animals. Combemale, for instance, found -that pups begotten of a healthy bitch by an alcoholised dog were -congenitally feeble and showed a marked degree of asymmetry of the -brain. Recent experiments have shown the same thing as regards other -poisons, and it is especially to be noted that in the experiments -cited the mother was healthy. They prove that _paternal_ alcoholism -alone (all questions of the nourishment of the growing child before -birth, for instance, thus being excluded) can determine degeneration. -Mr. Galton[62] himself long ago quoted the case "of a man who, after -begetting several normal children, became a drunkard and had imbecile -offspring"; and another case has been recorded "of a healthy woman who, -when married to a drunken husband, had five sickly children, dying in -infancy, but in subsequent union with a healthy man, bore normal and -vigorous children." - -Other intoxications show similar results though they are not _yet_ of -grave racial importance. For instance, "a man who had had two healthy -children acquired the cocaine habit, and while suffering from the -symptoms of chronic poisoning engendered two idiots." Brouardel and -others have observed that the expectant mother who is a morphinomaniac -may give birth to a child who shows all the phenomena of the morphia -habit. - -Demme has traced the appalling contrast between the offspring in ten -sober families, and in ten families where one or both parents suffered -from chronic alcoholism. Dr. Sullivan himself, realising the obviously -greater importance of maternal alcoholism, since here we have the -action of poisoned food--the maternal blood--upon the child before -birth, made an enquiry of his own. He found that - - "... of 600 children born of 120 drunken mothers 335 (55.8 per cent.) - died in infancy or were still-born, and that several of the survivors - were mentally defective, and as many as 4.1 per cent. were epileptic. - Many of these women had female relatives, sisters or daughters, - of sober habits and married to sober husbands; on comparing the - death-rate amongst the children of the sober mothers with that - amongst the children of the drunken women of the same stock, the - former was found to be 23.9 per cent., the latter 55.2 per cent., or - nearly two and a half times as much. It was further observed that in - the drunken families there was a progressive rise in the death-rate - from the earlier to the later born children." - -Dr. Sullivan cites as a typical alcoholic family one in which "the -first three children were healthy, the fourth was of defective -intelligence, the fifth was an epileptic idiot, the sixth was -dead-born, and finally the productive career ended with an abortion." -Dr. Claye Shaw told the Interdepartmental Committee on Physical -Deterioration, "we have inebriate mothers, and either abortions or -degenerate children. The teleological[63] relationship between the -two seems to be as certain as any other conditions of cause and -effect." The general rule is that any narcotic substance affects highly -developed tissues sooner and more markedly than simpler tissues, and -so it is in the case of alcohol and the infant. It is the developing -nervous system that is most markedly affected. This leads, of course, -to an increased child mortality, especially by way of convulsions. -This was the cause of sixty per cent. of all the deaths that occurred -amongst the six hundred children in Dr. Sullivan's series. But it has -especially to be remembered that a large number of children whose -nervous systems are injured for life by parental and more especially by -maternal alcoholism do not die either as infants or children. Instead -of dying of convulsions they live as epileptics. Of the children in Dr. -Sullivan's series "219 lived beyond infancy, and of these 9, or 4.1 per -cent., became epileptic, as compared with 0.1 per cent. of the whole -population." Other observers have found epilepsy in 12 per cent. and -even 15 per cent. of the children of alcoholic parents. Of course these -data, as such, do not demonstrate Dr. Sullivan's conclusion that "this -action of alcoholism on the health and vitality of the stock is the -most serious of the evils that intemperance brings on the community." - -Dr. Sullivan's enquiries show a very high rate of still-births and -abortions amongst the children of drunken mothers--quite sufficient -to prove that "the detrimental effect of maternal alcoholism must be -in a large measure due to a direct influence on the germ-cells and -on the developing embryo, and cannot be explained as merely a result -of the neglect and malnutrition from which the children of a drunken -mother are naturally apt to suffer." The point is of some theoretical -importance. Practically it matters little; _in either case the drunken -woman must not become a mother_. - -The same conclusion is reached even though we accord unlimited weight -to the unquestionably valid argument that the drunkard is himself -or herself usually degenerate from the first, and that the children -are therefore degenerate, and would indeed be degenerate even if the -parents had taken no alcohol. Let us, then, erroneously enough, but for -the sake of the argument, assume that solely and always alcoholism is -a symptom of degeneracy. It is, then, an indication of unfitness for -parenthood no less, and the practical issue is the same: one radical -cure for alcoholism, at any rate, is the prohibition of parenthood on -the part of the alcoholic.[64] - -=The most recent evidence.=--The most thorough and comprehensive -enquiry into this matter yet made is also the most recent. We owe it to -Dr. W. A. Potts, of the University of Birmingham, who did valuable work -as Medical Investigator to the Royal Commission on the Care and Control -of the Feeble-minded. His paper, entitled "The Relation of Alcohol to -Feeble-mindedness," is printed in the _British Journal of Inebriety_ -for January, 1909, together with communications from many authorities. -It is quite impossible to summarise here the enormous mass of evidence -which Dr. Potts has accumulated from the literature of the subject, and -to which he has added his own work. I believe that nothing could be -more moderate and assured than the following conclusions, to which he -commits himself after a study of the subject the quality and range of -which can only be appreciated at first hand:-- - - "... the evidence is not clear that alcoholism, by itself, in - the father will produce amentia; but it is quite plain that in - combination with other bad factors it is a most unfavourable element, - while maternal drinking, and drinking continued through more than one - generation, are potent influences in mental degeneracy." - -It is impossible, within the scope of the present volume, to analyse -in detail the Report of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control -of the Feeble-minded. In this present outline of eugenics it is our -business, however, to show main principles, and as the principle -expressed in the phrase "racial poisons" is to my mind absolutely -cardinal for eugenics, it is necessary here to comment, as I have -already done in the _Journal_ above quoted, upon the following most -unfortunate deliverance of the Commissioners: "That both on the grounds -of fact and of theory, there is the highest degree of probability that -feeble-mindedness is usually spontaneous in origin--that is, not due to -influences acting on the parent...." - -The word spontaneous has, of course, no meaning for science, or rather -is a denial of the fundamental axiom of science that causation is -universal. What the Commissioners mean when they say spontaneous is -"sportaneous," like the occasional production of a nectarine by a peach -tree. Apart from this highly suspicious phraseology, there is the still -more unfortunate fact that the Commissioners have lent their authority -to the view that feeble-mindedness is not due to influences acting on -the parent. The modern student of syphilis will be astonished at this -pronouncement, and also the student of lead-poisoning, as we shall see -in the following chapter. - -Every reader of Dr. Potts's admirable paper will realise that this -conclusion of the Commissioners--"not due to influences acting on the -parent"--is directly opposed to an extraordinary mass of evidence -and to the opinion of, I suppose, every authority on the subject, -British, Continental or American. The Commissioners' reference to -"theory," coupled with portions of the evidence given before them by -witnesses who suppose that the alleged influence of alcohol as a cause -of feeble-mindedness controverts the doctrine of the non-transmission -of "acquired characters," makes it necessary to point out for the -hundredth time that, for lack of analysis and criticism of terms, -the most prominent followers of Galton and Weismann persistently -misunderstand their masters' teaching. The modern doctrine of the -individual as the trustee of the germ-cells and of the non-transmission -of acquired characters is Mr. Galton's. Mr. Galton himself does not -question and never has questioned the possibility that alcohol may -cause feeble-mindedness. There is no reason why he should. If we take -the somewhat unusual course of consulting the words of the masters -before we swear by them, we find--as has been shown--that Weismann, who -subsequently stated and has so greatly supported Mr. Galton's view, -has expressly repudiated the Commissioners' idea of his "theory." The -Galton-Weismann doctrine is a doctrine of heredity proper,--the organic -relation of living generations. It does not assert that there are two -unconnected universes--the one made of germ-plasm and the other of the -rest of nature. The "grounds of theory," or rather, our elementary -physiological knowledge of the nutrition of the germ-plasm by the blood -of its host, are in reality precisely the grounds which would lead us -to expect those consequences of parental alcoholism which in fact we -find. - -=Alcoholism as a symptom of degeneracy.=--We have seen that alcohol -may be a cause of degeneracy: we now have to recognize the converse -relation. For an authoritative and radical discussion of the problem, -the reader may be referred to the second Norman Kerr Memorial -Lecture, delivered by Dr. Welsh Branthwaite, H.M. Inspector under the -Inebriates' Act, in 1907.[65] He speaks as "the only man in close touch -with all inebriates under legal detention in England." He reaches most -important conclusions which are generally accepted, as the discussion -shows. He says, "the more I see of habitual drunkards, the more I am -convinced that the real condition we have to study, the trouble we -have to fight, and the source of all the mischief, is ... defect[66] -in mental mechanism, generally congenital, sometimes more or less -acquired.... In the absence of alcohol, the same persons, instead of -meriting the term inebriate would have proved unreliable in many ways; -they would have been called ne'er-do-weels, profligates, persons of -lax morality, excitably or abnormally passionate individuals, persons -of melancholic tendency or eccentric.... It seems to me exceedingly -doubtful whether habitual inebriety ... is ever really acquired in the -strictest sense of the word--_i.e._ in the absence of some measure -of pre-existing defect." Having studied 2,277 inebriates, committed -under the Inebriates Acts, up to December 31st, 1906, Dr. Branthwaite -_finds 62.6 per cent. of these mentally defective_. The remainder he -regards as of average mental capacity, using, however, an exceedingly -low standard of what that capacity is. He concludes that in a large -majority of police-court cases, "mental disease was the condition for -which they were repeatedly imprisoned--mental disease merely masked by -alcoholic indulgence.... The majority of our insane inebriates have -become alcoholic because of their tendency to insanity.... Certain -peculiarities in cranial conformation, general physique, and conduct, -have long been recognised as evidences of congenital defect. Nearly -all the 1,375 cases included in the two defective sections of our -table have given evidence of possessing some of these characteristic -peculiarities, and _it is morally certain that the large majority of -them started life handicapped by imperfect brain development_."[67] -The lecture is accompanied with many photographs clearly showing the -physical marks of congenital defect, and Dr. Branthwaite remarks that -"even the untrained eye should meet with no difficulty in recognising -'something wrong' with all of them." - -Of the proportion of mentally defective inebriates (62.6 per cent. -of the whole) mentioned by Dr. Branthwaite, _all_ are "practically -hopeless from a reformation standpoint." This is a sufficient -comment, if any were needed, upon repeated imprisonment for habitual -drunkenness--which, as Dr. Branthwaite says, "is indefensible and -inhumane." He adds in closing that, in his judgment, habitual -drunkenness, so far as women are concerned, has materially increased, -during the last twenty-five years, "which I have spent entirely amongst -drunkards and drunkenness." The unfortunate people whom he studies -"_are not in the least affected by orthodox temperance efforts; they -continue to propagate drunkenness, and thereby nullify the good results -of temperance energy. Their children, born of defective parents, and -educated by their surroundings, grow up without a chance of decent -life, and constitute the reserve from which the strength of our present -army of habituals is maintained. Truly we have neglected in the past, -and are still neglecting, the main source of drunkard supply--the -drunkard himself; cripple that, and we should soon see some good result -from our work._" - -A foremost authority, Dr. F. W. Mott, F.R.S., has independently -reached the same conclusion as Dr. Branthwaite--that the chronic -inebriate comes as a rule of an inherently tainted stock. (Dr. Mott, -however, reminds us that "if alcohol is a weed killer, preventing the -perpetuation of poor types, it is probably even more effective as a -weed producer.") Professor David Ferrier, F.R.S., the great pioneer -of brain localisation, in reference to these people, speaks of "the -risk of propagation of a race of drunkards and imbeciles." Dr. J. C. -Dunlop, H.M. Inspector under the Inebriates Act, Scotland, states that -his experience leads him to precisely the same conclusion as that of -Dr. Branthwaite. Dr. A. R. Urquhart, an asylum authority, affirms -that chronic inebriety "is largely an affair of heredity ... is a -symptom of mental defect, disorder, or disease." Dr. Fleck, another -authority, says: "It is my strong conviction that a large percentage -of our mentally defective children, including idiots, imbeciles and -epileptics, are the descendants of drunkards." Mr. McAdam Eccles, the -distinguished surgeon, agrees; so does Dr. Langdon Down, Physician to -the National Association for the Welfare of the Feeble-minded; so does -Mr. Thomas Holmes, the Secretary of the Howard Association, who remarks -that "our habitual criminals, equally with our mental inebriates, are -not responsible beings, but victims of mental disease." Finally Miss -Kirby, Secretary of the National Association for the Feeble-minded, -insists upon the obvious conclusion that these people must be detained -permanently. She says, "When one case of a dissolute feeble-minded -woman in America is quoted as the mother of nine feeble-minded -children, we see the cause why inebriate homes, and also reformatories, -penitentiaries, and workhouses are full to overflowing, and society -taxed beyond bearing to keep them there. _Such institutions outnumber -homes for the feeble-minded._"[68] Speaking of the 62.6 per cent. noted -by Dr. Branthwaite, she says, "Would it not have been the more logical -course to have dealt with them in earlier years?" Now what would that -have accomplished? _It would have saved the future._ - -=The inebriate as parent.=--Is it a mere supposition that these women -become mothers? Amongst those committed as criminal inebriates (under -the London County Council) in 1905-6, three hundred and sixty-five of -those admitted to reformatories had two thousand two hundred children. -These are the official figures. As to the quality of these children -there is unfortunately no possibility of question. - -We may quote from Dr. Sullivan a notable enquiry:-- - - "Even more striking results with regard to the several forms of - degeneracy were obtained by Legrain, who investigated the question - from a somewhat different point of view. Selecting from the material - at his disposal all those cases in which ancestral intemperance had - appeared to exercise a causal influence, and working out their family - history, he collected 215 observations of heredo-alcoholism referring - to one generation, 98 referring to two generations, and 7 referring - to three generations. Of the children of the first generation, 508 - in number, 196 were mentally degenerate, the affection of the brain - being shown more particularly by moral and emotional abnormality, - while intellectual defects were less pronounced; 106 were insane, 52 - were epileptic, 16 suffered from hystero-epilepsy, and 3 from chorea; - and 39 had convulsions in infancy. Amongst the children of the second - generation, who numbered 294, the intellectual defects were more - marked, idiocy, imbecility, or debility, being noted in the offspring - of 54 out of the 98 families investigated. In 23 out of the 33 - families in which the children of the second generation had reached - adult age, one or more of them were insane. Epilepsy was found in - 40 families, infantile convulsions in 42, and meningitis in 14. - The third generation in 7 families was represented by 17 children, - all of whom were weak-minded, imbecile, or idiotic; 2 suffered, - moreover, from moral insanity, 2 from hysteria, and 2 from epilepsy; - 3 were scrofulous, and 4 had convulsions in childhood. In the three - generations taken together there were, in addition to the children - referred to above, 174 infants who were dead-born or died shortly - after birth." - -Therefore, the chronic inebriate must not become a parent. Let it be -said that these people are wicked or have no self-control, drink for -fun or love of degradation, then become drunkards, and prejudicially -affect their children. The conclusion is the same. Have any theory of -heredity you please--Lamarckianism, Darwin's pangenesis, Weismannism, -Mendelism; it matters not a straw. Look at the thing from the -uncharitable religious point of view, or from the charitable scientific -view which realizes, in the case of these women, that to know all is to -pardon all--the conclusion is still the same. - -=The present scandal of London's inebriates.=--This, then, being so, -abundance of official evidence having been gathered in addition to all -the unofficial evidence, let us consider the shameful facts which are -in process as I write, and are still so, on revision of these pages a -year later. They are outlined in the reply of Mr. Herbert Gladstone, -the Home Secretary, to a question in the House of Commons. The reply -is printed in full in _The Times_, Feb. 19th, 1908. There was a paltry -squabble between the Government and the London County Council as to the -exact number of shillings that each was to contribute per week for the -maintenance of inebriates. The London County Council was plainly in -the wrong, its ignorance being sufficiently indicated by the letter to -_The Times_, which I will quote. The result of the squabble is that, as -Mr. G. R. Sims said, "We shall have something like five hundred women, -all habitual drunkards, passing in and out of the prisons, a peril to -publicans, a pest to the police, an evil example to the women with whom -they mix, and free to bring children into the world, their little lives -poisoned at the source." We have therefore reverted to the shameful, -brutal, and disastrous system sufficiently indicated by the history of -Jane Cakebread, at whom, when one was a schoolboy as ignorant as those -who now govern us, one used to laugh because she had been convicted -so many hundreds of times.[69] As the present writer said in raising -the matter at a meeting of the Eugenics Education Society, the future -children of these women are not only doomed by the very nature of -their germ-plasm, but they will actually be many times intoxicated not -merely in their cradles but before their birth. There is no wealth but -life, and this future wealth of England is to be fed on poisoned food -and many times made drunken before it sees the light. The meeting of -the Society passed a unanimous resolution--"That this society enters -a protest against the present administration of the Inebriates Act, -whereby through the closing of inebriate homes some hundreds of chronic -inebriate women will be set adrift in London, with an inevitably -deteriorating result to the race."[70] - -For this particular scandal the London County Council was the more to -blame. Let not the reader suppose that a Liberal Government, however, -was likely to remedy the immoderate ignorance of a "Moderate" County -Council on this matter. Mr. Gladstone's reply in Parliament was an -exceptionally long one, but it did not contain a syllable to suggest -that any question of the future is involved, or that a woman may become -a mother. Further, the Licensing Bill introduced just when we were -drawing public attention to this scandal contained nowhere any hint of -the principle that you must attack drunkenness by attacking "the main -source of drunkard supply--the drunkard himself." These, the reader -will remember, are the words of His Majesty's Inspector. There is no -question of party-feeling, then, the reader will understand, in what -has here been said. Whether labelled Liberal, Conservative, Progressive -or Moderate, ignorance is still ignorance, and when in action is still -what Goethe called it, the most dangerous thing in the world. - -Pure ignorance, of course, is one of the things against which the -advocate of race-culture must fight. The lack of imagination, however, -is another. At present we have few homes for the feeble-minded, and -many for what the feeble-minded become: few for prevention, which -is possible and cheap, many for cure, which is impossible and dear. -The average county councillor or politician, of course, is rather -more short-sighted than the average man, simply because you cannot -be far-sighted and a partisan. What his defect of vision requires is -impossible, but it would be effective. It is that the consequences of -unworthy parenthood should be immediate, instead of taking months or -years to develop. Any one, even a politician, can see cause and effect -when they are close enough together. It is the little interval that -the political eye cannot pierce. Nevertheless, we shall one day learn -to think of the next generation, and then there will be an end of the -politician who thinks only of the next election. - -=Ignorance on its defence.=--The state of what has no excuse for being -uninformed opinion was only too well illustrated in a letter from the -Chairman of the Public Control Committee of the London County Council -which appeared in _The Times_ for Feb. 27th, 1908. In defending -the London County Council the writer used the following words: -"Reformation, not mere detention, was its object when it instituted -its reformatory under the Inebriates Acts.... The case of the Public -Control Committee is that the removal and detention of the hopeless -habituals is a matter for the police." The explanation aggravates -the offence. In the face of reiterated expert opinion, which has no -dissentient, as to the practical impossibility of reformation--you -cannot _re_form what has never been formed, viz., a normally developed -brain--here we find a man in this responsible position, a man who has -the power to put his ignorance into action, telling us that the London -County Council aims at the impossible in this respect; whilst, in utter -defiance of the future and of the useless brutality of the police-court -method, he tells us that these "hopeless habituals" are a matter for -the police. Then, by way of making the thing complete, he speaks of -"mere detention." What he calls "mere detention" is everything, for it -saves the future by preventing parenthood on the part of members of the -community who, more certainly than any others that can be named, are -unworthy of it. The adjective "mere" is only too adequate a measure -of the state of opinion which, by such retrograde courses as that -under discussion, promises to destroy the British people ere long--and -therefore, of course, the Empire of which that people is the living and -necessary foundation. - -It may be noted in passing that the word "reformatory," employed in -the Inebriates Act of 1898, is a highly unfortunate one. It suggests -a practically impossible hope, and it ignores what, I submit, must -and will ere long be regarded as the essential purpose, function and -value of the detention of inebriates--the prohibition of parenthood -on their part. In the case of women beyond the child-bearing age, -the whole case is radically altered. If it amuses the legislature to -cherish fantastic hopes, let it speak about the reformation of these -women. If it prefers the futile and disgusting cruelty of the Jane -Cakebread method for such women, when the plan for reformation is found -to fail, that is no affair of ours in the present volume. Such women -have been in effect sterilised by natural processes, and the advocate -of race-culture can afford to ignore them, for they do not concern -him. Let me note, however, that, of 294 female inebriates admitted to -reformatories in the year 1906, 170 were under forty years of age, -92, of whom a considerable proportion would be possible mothers, were -between forty and fifty, and only 32 of the total were over fifty years -of age.[71] It may be said that the lives of these unhappy women tend -to be terminated early. The only pity is that our present blindness -and ignorance in dealing with them are not neutralised, so far as -the future is concerned, by death at much earlier ages. If such a -reflection strikes the reader as cruel, how much more cruel are those -who are responsible for the present case of the women inebriates of -London? - -The _Pall Mall Gazette_, on March 4th, 1908, gave the utmost prominence -to an article of mine on this subject, entitled "An Urgent Public -Scandal, The Case of London's Inebriates." In this article I quoted -_The Times_ letter referred to above, and levelled the most vigorous -indictment I could against the authors of the outrage under discussion. -None of them ventured to reply. In the _Referee_ for March 8th, 1908, -however, a member of the Public Control Committee of the London County -Council made an attempt to defend its action. The curious reader may -refer to that letter as one more instance of that absolute blindness -to the nature of the problem and to any question of the future which -had already been indicated in _The Times_ letter from the Chairman of -the Committee. Taking these two letters together, we may say that never -has a public outrage committed by men in authority been more lamely or -ignorantly defended. - -=Ignorance in action--the present facts.=--Since the beginning of -January, 1908, the brutal course decreed by the London County Council -has been pursued. The wretched and deeply-to-be-pitied women have been -and are being discharged at the rate of some twenty to twenty-five -per month as their terms expire. The wiser sort of magistrates and -the police-court missionaries are at their wits' ends, and no wonder. -This country offers these women at the moment no refuge whatever; -nothing but the degrading and destructive round--police-court, prison, -public-house, pavement; _da capo_. Writing to _The Times_ in relation -to the correspondence there published (April 18th, 1908) between the -London County Council and the Eugenics Education Society, Sir Alfred -Reynolds, Chairman of the State Inebriate Reformatory Visiting Board -and a Visiting Justice of Holloway Prison, said (April 21st, 1908):-- - - "The correspondence published in _The Times_ of April 18, between the - London County Council and the President of the Eugenics Education - Society convinces me more than ever that the dispute between the - London County Council and the Treasury is a scandal and folly of the - worst description. For the sake of 6d. per case per day, the London - County Council (the same body which receives half a million sterling - from the sale of intoxicating liquor) has made it impossible for - the metropolitan magistrates to carry out the Act of 1898, and the - result is that 500 of the worst female inebriates are alternately on - the streets or in prison again, and the former scenes of horror and - drunken violence reappear. Holloway Prison will soon fill up again, - and all the good which has been done during the last few years will - be lost.... I will not trouble you further, except by emphasising - what I have said by adding that since January last year 1,500 women - have been notified to Scotland Yard as always in and out of prison - from the County of London, are qualified for inebriate homes, and - at the present moment there are over 50 of this number in Holloway - Prison serving absolutely useless short terms of imprisonment." - -=The London County Council performs a service for philosophy.=--As -we have seen, there exists or seems to exist a radical antagonism in -certain groups of cases between the interests of the individual and -the interests of the race. You may preserve the quality of the race, -as the Spartans did, by exposing defective infants; you may be kind to -feeble-minded children, as we are, but you will injure the race in the -long run. Darwin saw this more than a generation ago, but instead of -suggesting the prohibition of parenthood to the unfit, he said that we -must bear the ill effects of their multiplication rather than sacrifice -the law of love. Huxley similarly said that moral evolution consisted -in opposing natural evolution. Now it has for some time been evident -that this antagonism need not be radical if, whilst devoting hospitals -and charity and medical science to the care of the unfit, we deny them -the privilege of parenthood. On the other hand, the London County -Council by its present action has performed a service to biological -philosophy by showing that _it is possible to combine the maximum of -brutality to the individual and to the present with the maximum of -injury to the race and to the future_. In his report for 1906 Dr. -Branthwaite cites the history of a girl who, at the age of fifteen -years and nine months, was convicted in 1881 for being drunk and -disorderly. During the next quarter of a century she was sentenced 115 -times, and in January, 1906, was sent to a reformatory. She has twice -attempted to commit suicide. Her case is, of course, now hopeless, and -Dr. Branthwaite predicts that her life will end by suicide. Let any one -read Dr. Branthwaite's Report or Dr. Robert Jones's account of Jane -Cakebread, or let him acquaint himself with instances as they are to -be daily seen, and he will agree that the maximum of brutality is no -excessive phrase to describe the policy of shame at present pursued in -London: if, indeed, seeing that we now have knowledge, it should not be -described as something still worse. - -As for the injury to the future, we already know what the present -policy effects. We may grant, then, to the London County Council -that it has performed a service for philosophy in showing that it is -possible to combine both kinds of evil in one harmonious policy. Nor -let the reader suppose that any partisan feeling infects this protest. -The Government is also to blame. Even had the L.C.C. declined to -contribute anything at all to the cost of the proper policy, no really -educated and honourable Government had any choice but to undertake -all the cost itself--even at the cost of office! Better were--in Mr. -Balfour's words, the wisest he ever uttered--"the barren exchange of -one set of tyrants, or jobbers, for another," than the horrible birth -of thousands of feeble-minded babies. - -=The argument from economy.=--It would be easy to show that the present -policy is not economical even as regards the cost of these women -themselves, and even if it be assumed that gold is wealth. But consider -the remoter cost. During the period when the present writer was making -public protests very nearly every day on this matter without any -immediate effect, and only one month after the London County Council -had attempted to defend itself on the ground of economy when challenged -by the Eugenics Education Society, there was formally opened, with -a flourish of trumpets, the eighty-seventh school for feeble-minded -children established by the London County Council. It accommodates -sixty such children (besides sixty physically defective). This school -cost L6,000 to build alone. The sixty feeble-minded children whom it -accommodates are not a very large proportion of the 7,000 admittedly -feeble-minded school children in London--a number which is probably -not more than a third or a fourth of the real number. It has been -exhaustively proved that feeble-minded children are mainly, at any -given time, the progeny of feeble-minded persons such as constitute -the majority of chronic inebriates. Ignorance is again in action. -On the one hand, the London County Council, quarrelling over pence, -effectively suspends the working of the Inebriates Acts, and thus -ensures that the supply of feeble-minded children shall be kept up. On -the other hand, it takes these children, cares for them until they are -capable of becoming parents, and then turns them upon the world. The -Chairman at the opening ceremony of the school referred to said that -"at the special schools work was being done which would advance the -intelligence of the pupils, and thus benefit the entire race." It would -be difficult to concentrate more ignorance in fewer words or in ten -times as many. - -=A Home Office Committee appointed.=--The almost continuous protest of -two months did, however, bear fruit, the Home Secretary appointing a -Committee to consider the question of the amendment of the Inebriates -Acts. But the legal brutalities described are still being perpetrated, -and the future is being compromised. The London County Council may be -advised to make arrangements for building a few score more schools for -defective children in anticipation of the growing need which it is -assuring. - -Never again, when it is past, must we permit the present abominable -policy. It is for public opinion to effect this, and public opinion has -only to be directed to the case in order to realise its nature. If the -reader pleases he may discount altogether the eugenic argument, though -I believe that in the long run that is more important than any other. -But if he confines his attention solely to the cruelties perpetrated -upon these helpless women, infinitely more sinned against than sinning, -and especially if he considers the testimony of Sir Alfred Reynolds -above quoted, he will surely lend his aid to put an end to a state of -affairs which is a disgrace to our civilisation. We talk of progress, -and we are indeed incalculably indebted to our ancestors, but let any -one consider the case of the poor child, now a wrecked woman, quoted -above, and let him consider what it may be to be an heir of all the -ages in the greatest city of the world to-day. - -It will be sufficiently evident that if any warrant were needed for -the formation of the Eugenics Education Society or for the publication -of the present volume, it would be found only too abundantly in the -outrage upon decency and morality and science and the future which is -at present in perpetration. Further, if any warrant were required for -the incessant reiteration of the principle that there is no wealth -but life, it would be found in the fact that this outrage is being -committed in the name of economy. Yet even if the sane and sober London -ratepayer were saved a few shillings now, as he will not be, his -children will have to pay pounds in the future for the support of these -women's children. Economy, forsooth, when the rates of London benefited -to the extent of L559,000 out of the sale of intoxicating liquors in -1905, and spent L8,000 in the maintenance of committed inebriates! Need -one apologise for declaring again, that we require a new political -economy which teaches that gold is for the purchase of life, and not -life for the purchase of gold. For the public outrage under discussion, -whereby an untold measure of life, present and to come, "breathing and -to be," is to be destroyed and defiled for a squabble over shillings, -one can adequately quote only the words of Romeo to the apothecary: -"There is thy gold; worse poison to men's souls, doing more murders in -this loathsome world, than those poor compounds that thou may'st not -sell." - -=The last touches of art.=--If this protest hurts any one's -feelings, that cannot be helped. When the production of thousands -of feeble-minded children is involved, the self-esteem of what Mr. -George Meredith calls the "accepted imbecile" does not matter. The -question is, How soon do we propose to rectify our present course in -this respect?--a course which is a shame and a disgrace to our age and -nation, and which shall in any case be placed on record in printed -words, as well as in young children stamped with degeneracy--in order -to point for future ages the question "_An nescis, mi fili, quantilla -prudentia regitur orbis?_" "With how little wisdom"--and, whilst -perpetrating this shame, ignoring the _one_ indisputable means by which -legislation can and must check drunkenness, nearly all other measures -having failed since Babylon was an Empire, they were quarrelling -about a temperance measure, so-called, which regarded the question of -transference of money from one pocket to another as vital, and ignored -the one vital question, which is the question of life: a measure -showing scarcely a sign, either in its text or in the words of its -supporters or in the words of its opponents, that the question of the -future race had ever entered into the head of a public man; a measure -which left the protection of children from the public-house to the -discretion of local magistrates; a measure which certainly, whatever -else it might effect, could not have been more carefully drawn if its -object were to promote that secret drinking amongst women[72] which -means the poisoning of the racial life even before it sees the light. -This, then, "_mi fili_," was what was called practical statesmanship -in the year 1908 of the Christian Era: and in order that no last touch -might be wanted from the hand of ignorance and the blasphemous idolatry -which worships gold to the neglect of the only true god, which is -life, they announced just at this time the issue of a Royal Commission -to enquire and report upon the manufacture and variations in the -composition of whiskey. It has been a public joke for years past that -no one can answer the question, "What is whiskey?" Well, then, I will -answer the question, and we may save the labour of such commissions -hereafter. Whiskey is a _racial poison_, and there is nothing else to -know about it worth knowing _for the future_. Those who will never -become, or can no longer become, fathers or mothers, may do as they -please about whiskey, so far as the ideal of eugenics or race-culture -is concerned. They may say, if they like, that their personal habits -are their affair and concern no one else. Under the influence of -whiskey they may, perhaps, even believe this. But for those who are -to be the fathers and mothers of the future, such a plea is idle. The -question is not solely their affair; it is the affair of the unborn, -and we who champion the unborn are bound to say so. - -The time will come when it is recognised that there are two classes -of active mind in society: those who worship and uphold the past, and -will always sacrifice the living to the dead, nay more, the unborn to -the dead. The ultimate fate of these is the fate of her who looked -backwards to the shame and destruction from which she had escaped. -She was turned into a pillar of salt. And there are those who worship -and work for the future, who will, without hesitation, sacrifice the -interests of the dead (who are no longer interested) to those of the -living and the coming race--nay, more, who will even sacrifice the -interests of a few worthless living to those of many yet unborn, _that -they may be worthy_. Let the dead bury their dead; let the worshippers -of the dead and the dying ask themselves whether the life that is and -the life that is to be do not demand their homage and service. Not -until some such principles as these are recognised shall we rightly -deal with the drink problem, amongst many others, and bring to it the -mental and moral enlightenment which makes for life on the higher -plane, just as surely and just as indispensably as the light of the sun -creates all life whatsoever. - -=Mr. Balfour on legislation.=--Surely the moral of this argument is -clear. The most important, the most radical, the most practicable of -all temperance measures is that which attacks the main source of supply -of the drunkard. When a Licensing Bill is brought before the House of -Commons, Mr. Balfour repeats the ancient piece of nonsense that you -cannot make people moral by Act of Parliament--an assertion that any -child can see to be a muddle. We may let that pass for the moment, -but Mr. Balfour is a thinker, a student of biology, and heredity in -especial, and he has lately been lecturing on "Decadence." Might it -not have been expected that such a man would take an opportunity to -say what the humblest serious student of the subject would have said, -and thereby to bring far more damaging criticism against the opposing -party's bill than any he hinted at? He might have said, "Your bill, -even if passed, will accomplish little, or relatively little, at great -cost, because you have no grasp of the principles of the subject. You -have no idea of what drunkenness really is. If your bill were worth a -straw it would seek as a primary principle to safeguard the race by -arresting the supply of potential drunkards. Your endless financial -clauses deal merely with the re-distribution of money, but your bill -has no clause that deals with the only business of governments, the -creation and the economy of the only real wealth, which is human life." -That is what the ex-Premier did not say. He had plenty of passion, -plenty of party-feeling to give fire to his words, but so far as -knowledge is concerned or any conception of what alone is the wealth -of nations, there was nothing to choose between Mr. Balfour and Mr. -Asquith. Passion you must have if you are to do anything, but not -party-passion: whereas if you have passion for life and for children, -not only will it be effective, but, notwithstanding all that the -psychologists tell us as to the vitiation of judgment by emotion, it -will actually teach you the supreme and eternal truths. - -In this book hitherto little has been said as to formal eugenic -legislation. I believe with Etienne that it is opinion which governs -the world: legislation in front of public opinion brings all law into -contempt. But in his first speech opposing the Licensing Bill of -1908, Mr. Balfour, the author of the Licensing Bill of 1904, decried -legislation. "Intemperance," he said, "is a vice": and legislation -can do practically nothing in dealing with a vice. Plainly Mr. -Balfour is ignorant of the nature of intemperance, which largely -depends upon transmitted and inherent brain defect. He therefore -lost his opportunity of pointing out in what fashion you _can_ -actually, notwithstanding the parrots, make people sober by Act of -Parliament--viz., by forbidding parenthood to those whose children -would almost certainly become drunkards. We who are not politicians, -much less ex-Premiers, must make our own proposals then. Last year's -criticism of the London County Council began, I believe, to educate -public opinion to the necessary point. In the name of race-culture and -the New Patriotism, in the name of morality and charity and science, -we must demand, obtain and carry into effect the most stringent and -comprehensive legislation, such as effectively to forbid parenthood -on the part of the chronic inebriate. Ere long, the person who would -have become a chronic inebriate will be cared for and protected during -childhood and thereafter,--with the same result. This solution of the -problem is denounced, says Dr. Archdall Reid, - - "... as horrible, as Malthusian, as immoral, as impracticable.... - The alternative is more horrible and more immoral still. If by any - means we save the inebriates of this generation, but permit them - to have offspring, future generations must deal with an increased - number of inebriates.... The experience of many centuries has - rendered it sufficiently plain, that while there is drink, there - will be drunkards till the race be purged of them. We have therefore - no real choice between Temperance Reform by the abolition of drink, - and Temperance Reform by the elimination of the drunkard.... - Which is the worse; that miserable drunkards shall bear wretched - children to a fate of starvation and neglect and early death, or of - subsequent drunkenness and crime, or that, by our deliberate act, - the procreation of children shall be forbidden them? We are on the - horns of a dilemma from which there is no escape.... But our time has - seen the labours of Darwin. We know now the great secret. Science - has given us knowledge and with it power. We have learnt that if we - labour for the individual alone, we shall surely fail; but that if - we make our sacrifice greater, if we labour for the race as well, we - must succeed. Let us then by all means seek to save the individual - drunkard; with all our power let us endeavour to make and keep him - sober; but let us strive also to eradicate the type; for, as I have - said, if we do it not quickly and with mercy, Nature will do it - slowly and with infinite cruelty." - -=Women and children first.=--The noble cry on a sinking ship is -"women and children first." This perhaps is a plea for the service of -helplessness as such, though it might be equally warranted as a demand -for the sacrifice of the present to the future. And assuredly the cry -for a sinking society must also be "women and children first." It is -well if the cry be raised when the ship of state is not yet sinking, -but only water-logged or alcohol-logged. Temperance legislation and the -agitation for temperance reform are themselves in need of reform. Their -appalling record of failure--for it is such a record--should help even -the fanatic, one thinks, to accept the introduction of the eugenic idea -as a new principle of life for the temperance cause. In the present -state of custom and opinion, the teetotaler cannot force his own wise -habits upon the vast majority who do not agree with him. If he has an -infinite amount of energy and resources, let him spend as much of both -as he pleases upon the sort of propaganda with which we are familiar: -he will, by the hypothesis, still have an infinite amount of both -available for the cause to which the principle of race-culture would -direct him. If, however, his energy and resources are finite,--if, -indeed, they are by no means excessive in proportion to the urgent -task which the ideal of race-culture asks of him, then let him not -fritter away a moment or a penny or a breath until he has achieved the -process of salvage or salvation which is expressed in the phrase "women -and children first." More accurately, perhaps, our cry must be "parents -and possible parents first," and this for present practical purposes is -equivalent to "women and children first." - -It would have been well if the temperance propaganda from the first, -say two generations ago in Great Britain, had adopted this motto. -But its adoption is far more urgent to-day in consequence of the -fact, unfortunately no longer to be questioned, that drinking amongst -women, the mothers of the future, is, and has been for some time, -steadily increasing. Children yet unborn must be protected from the -injury which may be inflicted upon them by those who will be their -mothers. Yet though there is more need for action in this regard than -ever before, and though Mr. G. R. Sims in his books _The Cry of the -Children_ and _The Black Stain_ has lately drawn wide attention to -the subject, we have seen that the principle of women and children -first, a principle derived from the ideal of race-culture, and directly -serving that ideal, was almost wholly ignored in the Licensing Bill of -1908. The motto "Money, not motherhood," is a bad one for the framers -of a temperance measure. If ever we have a temperance measure worthy -the name the motto of its framers will be "Motherhood, not money." -Such a measure will most certainly have to introduce the principle -of indeterminate sentences--or rather, indeterminate _care_--in -the treatment of the chronic inebriate. There is no possibility -of two opinions as to the urgent and indispensable necessity of -such treatment, nor yet as to its scrupulous humanity both for the -unfortunate victim himself or herself and for the unborn. - -The word "reformatory" had better be abolished from official language, -since it leads accredited people to write to _The Times_ such -foolishness as "reformation, not mere detention." - -Further, the expense of dealing with the chronic inebriate in this, the -only humane and economical way, had better fall entirely and directly -upon the state. It must not be possible again for a local authority, -even the London County Council, however ignorant or criminally -careless, to commit a public indecency like that already recorded--but -the full record of which none of us will live to see. - -=An unpunished magistrate.=--Yet again, in this measure there must -be some means of compelling such magistrates as cannot be educated. -At present, even when accommodation is provided, the unfortunate -creature of the Jane Cakebread type, when she is only just beginning -to enter into competition with that horrible record, and when she is -therefore most dangerous as regards the possibility of motherhood, -can be detained only by the magistrate's order. Now it is very much -less trouble for all concerned to say "five shillings or a week" than -to make the necessary enquiries in such cases. Further, in putting -this measure of one's dreams upon the statute book, we shall have to -remember that the idea of protective care and the eugenic idea are, to -say the least, not native in the mind of every magistrate. In Dr. Welsh -Branthwaite's report for 1906, there is quoted a case where a woman had -been habitually drunken for at least thirteen years previous to her -committal to a reformatory. Her known sentences included 27 fines, and -138 terms of imprisonment. She was feeble-minded. On the termination -of her reformatory sentence the discharge certificate described her as -"quite unfit to control her own actions," and "certain to succumb to -the first temptation to drink." The woman was found drunk a few hours -after discharge. Said the magistrate, "this case clearly proves that -it is almost useless trying to reform such women as this.... I think, -after all, the old way is best and therefore I sentence her to one -month with hard labour." I refrain from suggesting a suitable sentence -for the magistrate: doubtless he got off scot-free. - -Surely we might agree, as regards this racial poison, that at least -parenthood and the future must be kept out of its clutches. It may be, -it assuredly is, a deplorable thing that the woman of fifty, to take -an instance, should become alcoholic, but at the worst this is only -the fate of an individual--in the main at any rate. Such principles -as these will some day be the cardinal principles of legislation, and -not only in regard to alcohol. The time will and must come when public -opinion will urge, whether in the name of a New Imperialism or of -common morality or of self-protection, that in our attempts to deal -with alcohol we shall begin by removing its fingers from the throat of -the race: "Women and children first." - -=The Report of the Inebriates Committee.=--In January, 1909, the -Committee which was at last appointed to consider this matter made its -Report.[73] I have not the literary capacity to comment adequately upon -the political wisdom which brings in a Licensing Bill, devotes vast -labour and much time to it and has it rejected by the House of Lords, -while such a Committee as this is at work. The spirit of the politician -who spoke of "those damned professors" still reigns over us, and will -certainly ruin us unless speedily deposed. However, here is the Report, -and its recommendations are earnestly to be commended to the study of -all students. New legislation, as it shows, is urgently required, and -it is pre-eminently the duty of every eugenist to hasten its coming. -This is not a party question, but merely a national one, and will -therefore be dealt with by politicians only under external pressure, -such as produced the Committee itself. The finger of public opinion -must apply that pressure forthwith. - -The recommendations of the Committee are so admirable and thorough and -eugenic in effect as to temper one's disappointment that the Report -contains no definite, overt recognition of the eugenic idea. I had -hoped that the evidence prepared and submitted to the Committee for -the Eugenics Education Society would suffice to ensure the recognition -of the eugenic idea in the Report, for the first time, we may suppose, -in official history. For the present we may merely note that the -suggestions made in preceding pages are confirmed by the Committee's -Report, and that the next legislation bearing on the question of -temperance will undoubtedly have to attack the subject in this radical -manner--by what will be in effect the sterilisation of the habitual -drinker of either sex and any social status. The Committee do not -recognise that that is what their Report involves, much less that that -gives it its real value; but so it is, as the year 1950 will be late -enough to show. - -Much time and trouble were spent in preparing for the Eugenics -Education Society answers to many of the questions submitted to it by -the Committee, and the Society may fairly claim, I think, that its -original services to this matter were well-continued. The present -writer also prepared for the Society a Memorandum (Minutes of Evidence, -p. 189), which perhaps fairly sums up, in the briefest possible space, -the indisputable relations between alcohol and parenthood, and which -may therefore be reprinted here. The reader will notice an omission -in that nothing is said as to the effects of alcohol in injuring -the germ-cells of healthy stock of either sex. The omission was made -in order that nothing possibly disputable might be included. It has -already been argued that on grounds both of fact and of theory there -is every reason to recognise in alcohol, as in syphilis and in lead, -a racial poison, originating racial degeneration which, in accordance -with generally recognised principles, shows itself in the latest, -highest and therefore most delicate portions of the organism. - -The Memorandum is as follows:-- - -"It may be pointed out that the children of the drunkard are on the -average less capable of citizenship on account of - - "(a) The inheritance of nervous defect inherent in the parent. - - "(b) Intra-uterine alcoholic poisoning in cases where the mother is - an inebriate. - - "(c) Neglect, ill-feeding, accidents, blows, etc., which are - responsible on the one hand for much infant mortality, and - combined with the possible causes before mentioned, for the - ultimate production of adults defective both in body and mind. - -"It would appear, then, that the drunkard, if not effectively -restrained, conduces to the production of a defective race, involving a -grave financial burden upon the sober portion of the community, to say -nothing of higher considerations. It therefore seems to the Eugenics -Education Society of extreme importance that some substantial effort -should be made for the reform of existing drunkards, or the permanent -control of the irreformable. - -"Scientific warrant for the foregoing propositions is now to be -found in no small abundance. Reference may be made, for instance, to -the chapter on 'Alcoholism and Human Degeneration,' in Dr. W. C. -Sullivan's recent work _Alcoholism_ (Nisbet, 1906). Dr. Sullivan quotes -the results of more than a dozen observers in this and other countries, -and special attention may be drawn to his own well-known study of the -history of 600 children born of 120 drunken mothers. The works of -Professor Forel of Zurich are widely known in this connection, notably -_Die Sexuel Frage_, and _The Hygiene of Nerves and Mind_ (Translation, -Murray, 1907). Parental alcoholism as a true cause of epilepsy in the -offspring is now generally recognised. For numerous and detailed proofs -from many sources reference may be made to page 210 of the last work -named. - -"It is not necessary, however, to go over the ground which has -doubtless been covered by the Royal Commission on the Care and Control -of the Feeble-minded. - -"The existing laws comply to only a very small and almost negligible -extent with the eugenic requirement. They only deal with (a) the very -minute proportion of inebriates who can be induced to voluntarily sign -away their liberty, and (b) those who are also criminal or all but -hopeless and who have done harm already, either as individuals or in -becoming parents. The third group of inebriates (c) not included in -(a) or (b) constitutes the overwhelming majority of the whole. They -are absolutely untouched by the present law, and further powers are -urgently required to deal with them. - -"Such legislation would be by no means without precedent, and may avail -itself of the experience of several of our own colonies and various -foreign countries. Such methods as compulsory control on petition, -guardianship and so forth are in employment, for instance, in the -Australian Commonwealth and New Zealand, California, Connecticut, -Massachusetts, various cantons in Switzerland, Nova Scotia, etc. - -"To sum up, the Society advocates the retention of the present law so -far as classes (a) and (b) are concerned, but would most strongly urge -the addition of powers to deal with that great majority of inebriates -whom the present law does not touch." - - -=The friends of alcohol.=--Those who defend the alcoholic poisoning -of the race may be easily classified. Some few honestly stand for -liberty. Like Archbishop Magee, they would rather see England free -than England sober, not asking in what sense England drunken could be -called free. Some are merely irritated by the temperance fanatic. Many -fear that their personal comfort may be interfered with. But probably -the overwhelming majority are concerned with their pockets. They live -by this cannibal trade; by selling death and the slaughter of babies, -feeble-mindedness and insanity, consumption and worse diseases, crime -and pauperism, degradation of body and mind in a thousand forms, to the -present generation and therefore to the future, the unconsulted party -to the bargain. Their motto is "Your money and your life." So powerful -are they that most of them are frank. They form associations for their -defence, and hold mass meetings at which they condemn any temperance -measure that is before the country, "whilst ready to welcome any real -temperance reform." They demand adequate compensation: though, if they -disgorged every farthing they possess, and devoted themselves body and -soul for the rest of their lives to the human cause, they could never -compensate us who are alive, let alone the dead or the unborn, for the -human ruin on which they build their success. They build their palaces -before our eyes; one of the largest and newest, not far from Piccadilly -Circus, I often pass; but where most see only fine stone, the student -of infant mortality, the lover of children, he who works and looks -for the life of this world to come, sees the bodies of the children of -men and is tempted to recall the curse of Joshua, "He shall lay the -foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he -set up the gates of it." - -=Alcoholic Imperialism.=--At least let the alcoholic party refrain from -calling themselves Imperialists. Amongst them, for instance, is the -"Imperial bard," the "poet of empire," he who has appealed to the "god -of our fathers," and who warns us lest it shall be said that "all our -pomp of yesterday is one with Nineveh and Tyre": and appeals to deity-- - - "Judge of the Nations, spare us yet, - Lest we forget, lest we forget!" - -This prophet of what some may think a blasphemous Imperialism gives -his name to the association which frankly in this matter of alcohol -stands for gold as against life. We are to beware lest "drunk with -sight of power" we boast as do the "lesser breeds" to whom the "awful -Hand" of God has not granted dominion: nor are we to put our trust in -reeking tube and iron shard. We may freely call ourselves Imperialists, -however, even though we should be numbered amongst those whom Ruskin, -himself the son of a wine merchant, called the "vendors of death." One -wonders whether the "Lord God" exists that he can withhold his "awful -Hand" at such a spectacle as this. If some amongst us are to win gold -by the sale of this racial poison, and if it must be so, let them at -least be consistent, and label themselves _the very littlest of little -Englanders_, which they are. An alcoholic Imperialism is of the kind -which no Empire can long survive. - -Those of us whom such things as these make sick, and who yet, with -true poets like Wordsworth, are proud of "the tongue that Shakespeare -spake," and who with him declare:-- - - "It is not to be thought of that the Flood - Of British freedom, which, to the open sea - Of the world's praise, from dark antiquity - Hath flowed, . . . . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - That this most famous Stream in bogs and sands - Should perish; and to evil and to good - Be lost for ever" - ---those of us who know that the foundations of any empire are living -men and women, and that, _to quote Mr. Kipling_, "when breeds are in -the making everything is worth while," may wonder what process has been -afoot that in three generations English poetry should pass from the -sonnets of Wordsworth to "Duke's son, cook's son," etc.; and may even -at times, especially those of us who know what alcohol costs in life, -feel a momentary recession of our faith that Great Britain need not now -be writing the last page of her great history. Meanwhile, we read the -controversy in Parliament and the press concerning alcohol. We see the -cannibal cause of beer and spirits, which makes many widows and orphans -every day,[74] represented, with an effrontery to which no parallel can -ever be imagined, as the cause of widows and children, and we recall -the lines which Wordsworth wrote rather more than a century ago:-- - - "How piteous, then, that there should be such dearth - Of knowledge; that whole myriads should unite - To work against themselves such fell despite; - Should come in frenzy and in drunken mirth, - Impatient to put out the only light - Of liberty that yet remains on earth!" - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - - THE RACIAL POISONS: LEAD, NARCOTICS, SYPHILIS - - -The term racial poisons teaches us to distinguish, amongst substances -known to be poisonous to the individual, those which injure the -germ-plasm: and amongst substances poisonous to the expectant mother -herself, we must distinguish those which may also poison her unborn -child. Alcohol is pre-eminently _the_ racial poison, thus defined, and -I plead for its recognition as primarily a racial poison, this being -immeasurably the most important aspect of the whole alcohol question. -Readers of Professor Forel will not lightly question this assertion. - -The total number of racial poisons is, of course, very large. Amongst -them must theoretically be included all abortifacient drugs. There -are also various poisons of disease to be included in this category. -Later pages must be devoted to what is by far the most important of -these. But we may observe in passing that such a disease as rheumatic -fever or acute rheumatism has especial significance for the student of -race-culture since, as he knows, its poisons circulating in the blood -of an expectant mother may not only injure her own heart for life but -may pass through the placenta and deform the valves of the child's -heart, with the subsequent result loosely described as "congenital -heart disease." The conditions giving rise to rheumatic fever, then, -are conditions from which the expectant mother, even more than the -ordinary individual, is entitled to be protected. But this is of minor -importance. We may here refer, however, to one or two striking cases, -especially since they bear in some degree upon social and individual -duty. - -=The racial influence of lead.=--In the first place, it is necessary to -draw attention to a really notable racial poison, viz., lead. - -Says Sir Thomas Oliver,[75] "Lead destroys the reproductive powers -of both men and women, but its special influence upon women during -pregnancy is the cause of a great destruction of human life." It may be -said that in a sense the production of miscarriages and still-births, -and also of infant mortality by lead, does not concern the student -of race-culture. Nevertheless some of these children survive. Says -Sir Thomas Oliver: "I have seen both cretinism and imbecility in -infants in whom, as there could have been no possible influence of -alcohol, and presumably none of syphilis, the occupation of one or -other parent as a lead worker must have determined the imperfectly -developed nervous system of the child." Later he says (page 202): -"Salpetriere and Bicetre are large hospitals in Paris set aside for -the reception and treatment of nervous diseases. The experience of the -physicians of these institutions is unrivalled. One of the physicians, -M. Roques, speaking of the degenerates found in these hospitals, says -that slowly induced lead poisoning on the part of both parents or in -one or other of them is not only a cause of repeated abortions, high -percentage of still-births and high death-rate of infants, but is the -cause of convulsions, imbecility, and idiocy in many of the children -who survive the first year of existence. Of nineteen children born -to parents who were lead workers, Rennert found that one child was -still-born and that seventeen were macrocephalic. In his studies upon -hereditary degeneration and idiocy, Bourneville places house-painters -in the unenviable first rank of the occupations followed by parents of -mentally weak children. Out of eighty-seven cases relating to unhealthy -trades, fifty-one were connected with white lead in some form or -another, while syphilis was only responsible for nineteen." - -This racial influence of lead is by no means generally recognised--even -by Royal Commissioners. Its parallelism with the case of alcohol is -striking. We may note, for instance, that paternal lead-poisoning, -like paternal alcoholism, can cause degeneration in the offspring, if -not indeed death before or shortly after birth. To quote Oliver again: -"Taking seven healthy women who were married to lead workers, and in -whom there was a total of thirty-two pregnancies, Lewin tells us that -the results were as follows: eleven miscarriages, one still-birth, -eight children died within the first year after birth, four in the -second year, five in the third, and one subsequent to this, leaving -only two children out of thirty-two pregnancies, as likely to live to -manhood. In cases where women have a series of miscarriages so long as -their husbands worked in lead, a change of industrial occupation on -the part of the husbands restores to the wives normal child-bearing -powers." According to the statistical enquiry of Rennert, the malign -influence of lead is exerted upon the next generation, ninety-four -times out of one hundred when both parents have been working in lead, -ninety-two times when the mother alone is affected, and sixty-three -times when it is the father alone who has worked in lead. Here, then, -as in the case of alcohol, the racial poison may act either through -the father or through the mother, but especially through the mother. -The importance of the demonstration as regards the father in the -case of both poisons is that it means a poisoning of the paternal -germ-cell. The facts may be commended to those extremists, so much more -Weismannian than Weismann, who regard the germ-cells as existing in a -universe of their own, wholly unrelated to the rest of existence. - -Another extremely interesting parallel between these two racial poisons -may be noted. It is found, according to Professor Oliver, that "while -following a healthy occupation these women, after having frequently -miscarried when working in lead factories, would have two or three -living healthy children, but circumstances necessitating the return of -these women to town, and resumption of work in the lead factory, they -in each successive pregnancy again miscarried." He then quotes the -following most remarkable case: "Mrs. K., aged thirty-four, had four -children before going into the factory and two children after. She then -had six miscarriages in succession, when she came under my care in the -Royal Infirmary, having become the victim of plumbism and having lost -the power in her arms and legs. She made a slow but good recovery and -did not return to the lead works. In her next pregnancy she went to -full term and gave birth to a living child." - -We see here that, as is also true in the case of alcoholism, the -germinal tissue itself may escape or at any rate may recover from the -effects of chronic poisoning of the individual who is its host. The -race is more resistant than the individual. If, however, the poisoning -continues whilst a new individual is being formed--that is to say, -during pregnancy--that new individual succumbs, and indeed is far more -gravely affected than its mother. Such a pregnant woman presents three -distinct living objects for our study. Her own body is one: and this -is already developed. It has some measure of resistance to the poison -but is gravely affected. The embryo is the second; it is developing -and because developing is susceptible. It is usually killed before -birth. The third is the germ-plasm or the race, and this, as we have -seen, may withstand the poison so well that when the poisoning is -discontinued healthy children may be produced from it. Undoubtedly -the case is the same as regards alcohol. The race or germ-plasm is -most resistant, the developing individual is least resistant, and the -adult individual--that is to say, the mother--occupies an intermediate -position in this respect. - -This parallelism, which has escaped previous observers, may be pointed -out and its remarkable interest and significance suggested as a -definite advance upon the absurd view that the germ-plasm is incapable -of being poisoned. On the contrary, we know that many poisons will -kill it outright, so that sterility results. But its high degree of -resistance is a fact of great interest. Doubtless Dr. Archdall Reid's -acute explanation of it is correct: namely, that natural selection -would tend to evolve a resistant germ-plasm. Dr. Reid will, I think, be -interested to notice in these remarkable observations on lead-poisoning -a conspicuous illustration of this resistance. - -Our business here, however, is with the practical issue. This -fortunately is plain, nor are there the same difficulties of vested -interests which arise in the case of alcohol. Lead-poisoning must be -ended in the interests of race-culture and the essential wealth of -the nation, or, if it is to be continued, it must at least have its -clutches kept clear of parenthood. - -=The possible racial influence of narcotics.=--Alcohol is of course a -narcotic poison, or, more precisely still, a narcotic-irritant poison, -but here we may briefly refer to the possible racial influence of -certain other poisons. There is, for instance, the case, noted on p. -212, of the disastrous racial consequences of the cocaine habit. The -matter demands only a paragraph, since for the present, at least, it -is of small general importance, and since we must beware of going -beyond the facts; but when once the idea of race-culture has reached -the popular and professional mind--the latter at present frequently -feeding the pregnant woman with alcohol, as we all know--the whole -question of narcomania will have to be looked at from this aspect, and -the measure of danger in particular cases will then be ascertained. It -is probably safe to assume, however, that, on the whole, alcohol will -be found to stand somewhat apart from other narcotics, and for the -reason that it is not a pure narcotic but also an irritant. Thus, to -take the case of opium, it will probably be very difficult and, one may -hope, impossible to show that, shall we say, opium smoking or eating -has an injurious racial influence where it is practised. Here we have a -narcotic which is not an irritant. The individual may recover perfectly -from its abuse, as he may often fail to recover from the abuse of -alcohol, since this poison leaves permanent changes in the brain, and -elsewhere, dependent upon the fact that it is not merely a narcotic but -also a local irritant. The action of a pure narcotic on the germ-plasm -as compared with the action of a narcotic which is also an irritant may -afford a parallel. The abuse of opium by the expectant mother (see p. -212) is not of the same order: it means simply dosing a _very_ small -baby with opium. - -=Tobacco and the race.=--The poisonous compounds absorbed from tobacco -smoke are of interest in this connection. The question as to the -proportion of nicotine included amongst them is immaterial here. -It suffices to know, as we do, that certain substances, doubtless -including some proportion of nicotine, rapidly absorbed into the blood -by the smoker, are poisons to the individual body. The familiar fact of -the acquirement of immunity affects in no degree the statement as to -the toxic character of these substances. - -No one but the fanatic would venture to say that any racial -degeneration can be traced to tobacco-smoking. It would be hard to -prove the existence of any injury thus inflicted upon the children of -the father who is a smoker, though the question of the acquirement of -immunity is not without relevance here. The immunising substances or -anti-toxins which are doubtless produced in the smoker's blood may -protect the germ-plasm which he bears as well as his own body. - -But in the case of the expectant mother there is more warrant for -offering an opinion even in the absence hitherto of definite evidence. -Apart from any opinion as to the propriety of smoking by women in -general, there is a definite issue in the case of the expectant mother. -A very young child is now being exposed to the poisons of tobacco -smoke, and if we are right in passing laws to prevent this poisoning in -the case of the urchin of eight years (who is really, of course, eight -years and nine months old), what shall we say regarding the unborn -child who is only eight months old? I have observed that the expectant -mother may have her liking for tobacco replaced by violent dislike -during pregnancy. - -=The poison of syphilis.=--Brief mention must here be made of syphilis -as a racial poison. Sooner or later the eugenic campaign must and will -face this question, about which a murderous silence is now maintained. -No other disease can rival syphilis in its hideous influence upon -parenthood and the future. But it is no crime for a man to marry, -infect his innocent bride and their children: no crime against the -laws of our little lawgivers, but a heinous outrage against Nature's -decrees. When, at last, our laws are based on Nature's laws, criminal -marriages of this kind may be put an end to. - -The lay reader should acquaint himself with the play of Brieux, _Les -Avaries_. The student may be referred to Forel's _Sexual Question_, -Dr. C. F. Marshall's _Syphilology and Venereal Diseases_, and his -article, "Alcohol and Syphilis" in the _British Journal of Inebriety_, -January, 1908. - - * * * * * - -This chapter and the last do not profess to do more than indicate the -field of eugenics which the term racial poisons suggests. Our business -in the present volume is, if possible, to see eugenics whole: to treat -of this new science adequately is not for one author or one generation. -It is earnestly to be hoped that the medical profession will speedily -take up this question of the racial poisons. Already the profession is -beginning to become the great instrument of _individual hygiene_: and -every year will enhance the importance of this work, as compared with -the cure of disease. Now negative eugenics is substantially _racial -hygiene_: and the next great epoch in the evolution of medicine and the -medical profession will be the enrolment of its knowledge and influence -in the cause of racial hygiene. May this book do a little to hasten -that day. - -The two next chapters are designed to introduce that aspect of our -subject which may be called National Eugenics, and especially with -reference to decadence. Here is a matter which appeals to minds of type -and training often very different from the typical medical mind. But it -is part of one's purpose to show, if possible, that the historian must -become a eugenist, just as the physician must, for eugenics needs and -claims the work and help of both. - - - - - CHAPTER XV - - NATIONAL EUGENICS: RACE-CULTURE AND HISTORY[76] - - -The reader will not expect to be insulted here with any discussion of -the garbage and gossip, records of scoundrels, courts and courtesans, -battles, murder and theft, which we were taught at school, under the -great name of history.[77] If history be, as nearly all historians have -conceived it, and as Gibbon defined it, "little more than the register -of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind," it is an empty and -contemptible study, save for the social pathologist. But if history, -without by any means ignoring great men or underrating their influence, -is, or should be, the record of the past life of mankind, of progress -and decadence, the rise and fall of Empires and civilisations, and -their mutual reactions; if it be the record of the intermittent ascent -of man, "sagging but pertinacious"; if this record be subject to the -law of causation, and therefore susceptible, in theory, at least, of -explanation as well as description; if its factors are at work to-day -and will shape the destiny of all the to-morrows; if it be neither -phantasmagoria nor panorama nor pageant nor procession but _process_, -in short, an organic drama,--then, indeed, it is more than worthy -of all the study and thought of all who ever study or ever think. -Especially must it appeal to us, who boast a tradition greater than the -world has ever yet seen, and kinship with men who represent the utmost -of which the human spirit has yet shown itself capable,--to us who -speak the tongue that Shakespeare spake, but to whom the names of all -our Imperial predecessors, from Babylon to Spain, serve as a perpetual -_memento mori_. Our special question here is whether there are inherent -and necessary reasons why our predecessors' fate must sooner or later -be ours. Must races die?--or, if we are sceptical about races and more -especially about the so-called Anglo-Saxon race, must civilisations, -states, or nations die? What comment does modern biology, or the theory -of organic evolution, make upon the familiar words of Byron in his -address to the ocean?-- - - "Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee-- - Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they? - Thy waters wasted them while they were free - And many a tyrant since: their shores obey - The stranger, slave, or savage." - -And these, a few pages earlier in the same poem:-- - - "There is the moral of all human tales; - 'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, - First Freedom and then Glory--when that fails, - Wealth, vice, corruption--barbarism at last. - And History, with all her volumes vast, - Hath but _one_ page".... - -Nations, races, civilisations rise, we shall all agree, because to -inherent virtue of breed they add sound customs and laws, acquirements -of discipline and knowledge. But, these acquirements made, power -established, and crescent from year to year--why do they _then_ fall? -If they can _make_ a place for themselves, how much easier should it -not be to _maintain_ it? - -Two explanations, each falsely asserting itself to be rooted in -biological fact, have long been cited and are still cited in order to -account for these supreme tragedies of history. - -=The fallacy of racial senility.=--The first may claim Plato and -Aristotle as its founders, and consists of an argument from analogy. -Races may be conceived in similar terms to individuals. There are many -resemblances between a society--a "social organism," to use Herbert -Spencer's phrase--and an individual organism. Just, then, as the -individual is mortal, so is the race. Each has its birth, its period of -youth and growth, its maturity, and, finally, its decadence, senility -and death. So runs the common argument. - -We must reply, however, that biology, so far from confirming it, -declares as the capital fact which contrasts the individual and the -race that, whilst the individual is doomed to die from inherent causes, -the race is naturally immortal. The tendency of life is not to die but -to live. If individuals die, that is doubtless because, as I believe, -more life and fuller is thus attained than if life bodied itself in -immortal forms: but the germ-plasm is immortal; it has no inherent -tendency either to degenerate or to die. Species exist and flourish -now which are millions of years older than mankind. "The individual -withers, the race is more and more." - -It may be added that, in historical instances, civilisations have, on -the one hand, persisted, and, on the other, fallen, despite change, -and even substitution, in the races which created them: and, on the -other hand, the most conspicuously persistent of all races in the -historic epoch, the Jews, have survived one Empire after another of -their oppressors, but have never had an Empire of their own. Thus, so -far as the historian is concerned, it is not races at all that die, -but civilisations and Empires. Plato's argument from the individual to -the race is therefore irrelevant, as well as untrue. The fatalistic -conception to which it tempts us, saying that races must die, just as -individuals must, and that therefore it is idle to repine or oppose, -is utterly unwarrantable and extremely unhealthy. To take our own -case, despite the talk about our own racial decadence, nearly all our -babies still come into the world fit and strong and healthy--the racial -poisons apart. We kill them in scores of thousands every year, but this -infant mortality is not a sign that the race is dying, but a sign that -even the most splendid living material can be killed or damaged if you -try hard enough. The babies do not die because races are mortal, but -because individuals are and we kill them. The babies drink poison, -eat poison, and breathe poison, and in due course die. The theory of -racial senility, inapplicable everywhere because untrue, is most of all -inapplicable here. If a race became sterile, Plato and Aristotle would -be right. There is no such instance in history, apart from well-defined -external, _not inherent_, causes, as in the case of the Tasmanians. -Dismissing this analogy, we may also dismiss, as based upon nothing -better, the idea that the great tragedies of history were necessary -events at all. We must look elsewhere than amongst the inherent and -necessary factors of racial life for the causes which determine these -tragedies; and we shall be entitled to assume as conceivable the -proposition that, notwithstanding the consistent fall of all our -predecessors, the causes are not inevitable, but, being external and -environmental, may possibly be controlled: man being not only creature -but creator also. - -=The Lamarckian explanation of decadence.=--The second of the two false -interpretations of history in terms of biology is still, and always -has been, widely credited. When historians have paid any attention to -the breed of a people as determining its destiny, they have invariably -added to the fallacy of racial senility this no less fecund error. It -is that, in consequence of success, a people become idle, thoughtless, -unenterprising, luxurious, and that these _acquired characters are -transmitted_ to succeeding generations so that, finally, there is -produced a degenerate people unable to bear the burden of Empire--and -then the crash comes. The historian usually introduces the idea -already dismissed by saying that a "young and vigorous race" invaded -the Imperial territories--and so forth. The terms "young" and "old," -applied to human races, usually mean nothing at all. - -The reader will recognise, of course, in this doctrine of the -transmission to children of characters acquired by their parents, the -explanation of organic evolution advanced by Lamarck rather more than -a century ago. It is employed by historians for the explanation of -both the processes they record, progress and retrogression. Thus they -suppose that for many generations a race is disciplined, and so at last -there is produced a race with discipline in its very bone; or for many -generations a nation finds it necessary to make adventure upon the sea, -and so at last there is produced a generation of predestined sailors -with blue water in its blood. And in similar terms moral and physical -retrogression or degeneration are explained. - -Let us consider the contrast between the interpretation which accepts -the Lamarckian theory of the transmission of acquired characters and -that which does not. Consider the babies of a new generation. According -to Lamarck, these have in their blood and brain the consequences of -the habits of their ancestors. If these have been idle and luxurious, -the new babies are predestined to be idle and luxurious too. This, -in short, is a "dying nation." But, if acquired characters are not -transmitted, the new generation is, on the whole, not much better, not -much worse, than its predecessors--so far as this supposed factor of -change is concerned. Each generation makes a fresh start, as we see in -the babies of our slums to-day. It does not begin where the last left -off--whether that means beginning at a higher or at a lower level than -that at which the last started: but it makes a fresh start where the -last did. - -Now, in general, we have seen that Lamarck's theory is discredited. -The view of Mr. Galton is accepted, that acquired characters are not -transmitted, either for good or for evil. If there are no other factors -of racial degeneration or racial advance, then races do not degenerate -or advance, but make a fresh start every generation: and Empires rise -and fall without any relation to the breed of the Imperial people--an -incredible proposition. - -=The racial poisons and decadence.=--Certain apparent, though not -real, exceptions exist to the denial of the Lamarckian theory of the -transmission of acquired characters. These exceptions are furnished by -what I have called the _racial poisons_. Alcohol, for instance, is a -substance, certainly poisonous in all but very small doses, if not in -them, which is carried by the blood to every part of the body and may -and does injure its _racial_ elements. Thus a true racial degeneration -may be caused by its means: and the possibility of this is not to -be ignored. Other poisons, such as those of certain diseases, act -similarly. - -We must therefore note in passing a biological factor of historical -importance, though hitherto entirely unrecognised by historians, and -that is disease. Certain of our diseases, and especially consumption -or tuberculosis, are at present making history by their extermination -of aboriginal races. Minute living creatures, which we call microbes, -are introduced into the new and favourable environment constituted by -the blood and tissues of human races hitherto unacquainted with them: -and the consequences are known to all. But further, it has lately been -suggested as highly probable, by Professor Ross and others, that the -fall of Greece, that incalculable disaster for mankind, was due to -the invasion not of human foes but of the humble living species which -are responsible for the disease miscalled malaria. The evidence for -this view is by no means slight, and the most recent explanation of -an event so abrupt and so disastrous is in all likelihood the correct -one. Malaria, like alcohol, produces true racial degeneration, its -poisons affecting those _racial elements_ of which the individual body, -biologically conceived, is merely the ephemeral host: recalling the -great line of Lucretius, "_et quasi cursores, vitai lampada tradunt_." -To lame the runner is not to injure the torch he bears--acquired -characters are not transmitted; but the racial poison makes dim the -lamp ere the runner passes it on. - -=Selection and racial change.=--But, leaving poisons out of the -question, races of men and animals _do_ undergo change, progressive -and retrogressive, in consequence of the action of another factor than -that advanced by Lamarck: and this is the factor of "natural selection" -or "survival of the fittest." If, of any generation, individuals of a -certain kind are chosen by the environment for survival and parenthood, -the character of the species will change accordingly. If what we call -the best are chosen, their goodness will be transmitted in some degree, -and the race will advance: if what we call the worst are chosen, -their badness will be transmitted in some degree, and the race will -degenerate. - -=The two kinds of progress.=--Now in the case of all species other than -man, the only possible progress is this racial or inherent progress, -dependent upon a choice or selection of parents, and comparable in some -measure, as Darwin showed, with the change similarly produced in the -selective breeding or "artificial selection" of the lower animals by -man. But in the case of man himself, there is a wholly different kind -of progress also attainable, which is not inherent or racial progress -at all, but yet is real progress: and which has the most important -relations to the inherent or racial progress that might be achieved by -the process of natural selection, or the choice of parents. - -It has been laid down that acquired characters are not transmissible -by heredity: but man has learnt--and it is well for him--to circumvent -the laws of heredity by transmitting his spiritual acquirements through -language and art. Even before writing there was tradition, passed on -from mouth to mouth. As long as man was without writing he advanced -little faster than other creatures, we may surmise: we know that he -has an undistinguished past of probably at least six million years: -but with speech _and writing_ came the transmission of acquirements -in this special sense; not that the past education of a mother will -enlarge her baby's brain, but that she can teach her daughter what she -has learnt, and so the child can begin where the parent left off, just -as Lamarck wrongly imagined to be the case with the young giraffe, that -he supposed to profit by the stretching of the parental necks. It is -this transmission of spiritual acquirements--outside the germ-plasm -and in defiance of its laws--that explains the amazing advance of man -in the last ten or twenty thousand years as compared with the almost -speechless ages before them. - -This kind of progress is peculiar to man,[78] it is the gift of -intelligence, and we may call it traditional or acquired progress. It -is an utterly different thing from inherent or racial progress, an -improvement in the breed dependent upon the happy choice of parents. -And it is surely evident, on a moment's consideration, that acquired -progress is compatible with inherent decadence. To use Coleridge's -image, a dwarf may see further than a giant if he sits on the giant's -shoulders: yet he is a dwarf and the other a giant. Any schoolboy now -knows more than Aristotle, and that is true progress of a kind, but the -schoolboy may well be a dwarf compared with Aristotle, and may belong -to a race degenerate when compared with his; _and that is inherent or -racial decadence subsisting with acquired or traditional progress_. - -Now whilst the accumulation of knowledge and art and power -from age to age is real progress, it evidently depends for its -stability and persistence upon the quality of the race.[79] If the -race degenerates--through, say, the selection of the worst for -parenthood--the time will come when its heritage is too much for it. -The pearls of the ancestral art are now cast before swine, and are -trampled on: statues, temples, books are destroyed or burnt or lost. If -an Empire has been built, the degenerate race cannot sustain it. _There -is no wealth but life: and if the quality of the life fails, neither -battleships nor libraries nor symphonies nor anything else will save a -nation._ This we all know, though no one who observed our legislation -or read our Parliamentary debates would suspect that it had ever -entered into our minds. Empires and civilisations, then, have fallen, -despite the strength and magnitude of the superstructure, because the -foundations decayed: and the bigger and heavier the superstructure the -less could it survive their failure. If the Fiji islanders degenerate, -there is little consequence: if the breed of Romans degenerate, all -their vast mass of acquired progress and power crushes them into -dramatic ruin. This image, I believe, truly expresses the relation -between the two wholly distinct kinds of progress, which we have yet -to learn to distinguish. Acquired progress will not compensate for -racial or inherent decadence. If the race is going down, it will not -compensate to add another colony to your Empire: on the contrary, -the bigger the Empire the stronger must be the race: the bigger the -superstructure the stronger the foundations. Acquired progress is real -progress, but it is always dependent for its maintenance upon racial or -inherent progress--or, at least, upon racial maintenance. - -=Nothing fails like success.=--I believe, then, that civilisations -and Empires have succumbed because they represented only acquired -or traditional or educational progress and this availed not at all -when the races that built them up began to degenerate. Now the only -explanation of racial degeneration yet offered by the historians--apart -from the foolish one of racial senility--is the Lamarckian one of -the transmission of habits of luxury and idleness from parent to -child: an explanation which the modern study of heredity empowers us -to repudiate. What theory of this alleged degeneration is there to -offer in its place: and especially what theory which explains racial -degeneration amongst not the conquered but the conquerors: amongst the -successful, the Imperial, the cultured, the leisured, the well-catered -for in all respects, bodily and mental? Why is it that not enslaved but -Imperial peoples degenerate? Why is it that nothing fails like success? - -What I believe to be the true and sufficient answer has been given -by no historian: but the key to it is only fifty years old. The -reason is that no race or species, vegetable or animal or human, -can maintain--much less raise--its organic level unless its best be -selected for parenthood. It is true of a race as of an individual that -it must work for its living--so to speak--if it is not to degenerate. -When the terms are too easy, down you go. The tape-worm has given -up even digesting for its living, and we know its degeneracy--all -hooks and mouth. Society works and hands over its predigested food -to such social parasites amongst ourselves. You must struggle or -you will degenerate--even if only with rhyme or counterpoint, not -necessarily for bread. "Effort is the law," as Ruskin said: whether for -a livelihood or for enjoyment. Living things are the product of the -struggle for existence: we are thus evolved strugglers by constitution: -and directly we cease to struggle we forfeit the possibilities of our -birthright. "Thou, O God," said Leonardo, "hast given all good things -to man at the price of labour." - -The case is the same with races. Directly the conditions become too -easy, selection ceases, and it is as successful to be incompetent or -lazy or vicious as to be worthy. The hard conditions that kept weeding -out the unworthy are now relaxed and the fine race they made goes back -again. Finally there occurs the phenomenon of _reversed selection_, -when it is fitter to be bad than good, cowardly than brave--as when -religious persecution murders all who are true to themselves and spares -hypocrites and apostates: or when healthy children are killed in -factories whilst feeble-minded children or deaf-mutes are carefully -tended until maturity and then sent into the world to reproduce their -maladies. Under reversed selection such results are obtained as a -breeder of race-horses or plants would obtain if he went to work on -similar lines: the race degenerates rapidly: and if it be an Imperial -race its Empire comes crashing down about its ears. All Empires and -civilisations hitherto have involved the partial or complete arrest -or reversal of the process of natural selection: and the racial -degeneration which necessarily ensued has been the cause of their -invariable doom. - -When a primitive race is making its way by force, selection is -stringent. The weak, cowardly, diseased, stupid are expunged from -generation to generation. As civilisation advances, a higher ethical -level is reached: all true civilisation tending to abrogate and -ameliorate the struggle for existence. The diseased and weakly and -feeble-minded are no longer left to pay the penalty sternly exacted -by Nature for unfitness: they are allowed to survive and multiply. A -successful race can apparently afford to permit this, as a race that is -fighting for its existence cannot. But in reality no race can afford -this absolutely fatal process. - -There is thus a real risk involved in the accumulation of acquired, -traditional or educational progress. Not only does it tend to -abrogate or even to reverse selection, but it serves to disguise -the consequences of this abrogation. If a subhuman race degenerates -the fact is evident: but such a nation as our own may quite well -degenerate whilst the accumulation of acquired progress, transmitted -by education, almost completely cloaks the fact _for a time_. We may -be congratulating ourselves upon our progress, upon our knowledge, our -science and art, our institutions, legal and charitable, whilst all -the time the breed is undergoing retrogression. - -We see now, I think, the explanation of the truth expressed by -Gibbon,--"all that is human must retrograde if it do not advance." Why -should this be so? Why should it not be possible merely to maintain -a position gained? The answer is that the civilisation which merely -maintains its position is one in which selection has ceased: if -selection had not ceased, the position would be more than maintained, -there would be advance. But without selection the breed will certainly -degenerate, the lower individuals multiplying more rapidly than higher -ones, in accordance with Spencer's law that the higher the type of the -individual the less rapidly does he multiply; and thus the race which -is not advancing is retrograding, as Gibbon declared. - -Natural selection is the sole factor of efficient and permanent -progress, but the traditional or acquired progress which we call -civilisation tends to thwart or abrogate or even invert this process. I -thus believe that the conditions necessary for the _secure_ ascent of -any race, an ascent secured in its very blood, made stable in its very -bone, have not yet been achieved in history: _and I advance this as the -reason why history records no enduring Empire_. - -=Some historical instances.=--In the face of certain facts of -contemporary history I do not for a moment assert that there are -no other causes of Imperial failure than the arrest or reversal of -selection. But I do assert that if this is not the cause, then, in -the absence of the transmission of acquired characters, the race has -not degenerated, and is capable of reasserting itself. Only by the -arrest or reversal of selection can a race degenerate--apart from the -racial poisons. If, then, a civilisation or Empire has fallen through -causes altogether non-biological--through carelessness, or neglect -of motherhood or alteration of ideals--the changes in character so -produced are not transmitted to the children, and the race is not -degenerate but merely deteriorated in each generation. - -For instance, we have been brought up to believe that there is no -possible future for Spain; it is a dying nation, a senile individual, -a people of degenerates; it has had its day, which can never return. -The historian explains this by the false analogy between a race and -an individual, and by the false Lamarckian theory of heredity. To -these the biologist retorts with comments upon their falsity, and with -the conviction that since Spain, even allowing for the anti-eugenic -labours of the Inquisition, has not been subjected to the only -process which can ensure real degeneration--viz., the consistent and -stringent selection of the worst--she is yet capable of regeneration. -Regeneration is not really the word, because there has been little real -degeneration, but only the successive deterioration of successive and -undegenerate generations. - -If we took an animal species that _has_ degenerated, such as the -intestinal parasites, and endeavoured to regenerate them, we -should begin to realise the magnitude of our task. That is not -the task for Spain, the biologist asserts. Merely the environment -must be altered,--not the mountain ranges and the rivers, Buckle -notwithstanding, but the really potent factors in the environment, the -spiritual and psychical and social factors--and the deterioration of -each new generation, inherently undegenerate, will cease. I am using -these opposed terms with great care and of set purpose. - -And the biologist is right. The facts concerning which so many -historians have shaken their heads, and upon which they have based -so many moralisings and theories of history, the facts which they -have cited in support of their false analogies and misconceptions of -heredity--due, of course, to the errors of former biology--turn out to -be not facts at all, or, at any rate, only facts of the moment. The -"dying nation," as Lord Salisbury called it, has occasion to alter -its psychical environment. It introduces the practice of education; -it begins to shake off the yoke of ecclesiasticism; and what are the -consequences? - -The new generation is found to be potentially little worse and little -better than its predecessors of the sixteenth century. There has been -no national or racial degeneration. The environment is modified for -the better, _i.e._, so as to choose the better, and Spain, as they say -in misleading phrase, "takes on a new lease of life." The historian of -the present day, knowing as a historian what qualities of blood have -been in the Spanish people, and basing his theories upon sound biology, -must confidently assert that that blood, incapable, as he knows, of -degeneration by any Lamarckian process, may still retain its ancient -quality and will yet make history. - -But the historian might well write a volume upon the same thesis -as applied to China and Japan. We know historically what were the -immediate effects in one generation of a total change of environment in -Japan. That change has not yet occurred in China, but must inevitably -occur. Consider for a moment how the historian, made far-sighted -and clear-sighted by biology, must contemplate the history of this -astounding people. The popular belief used to be that China illustrated -the so-called law of nations. It was the decadent, though monstrous, -relic of an ancient civilisation; it had had its day. Inevitable -degeneration, which must befall all peoples, had come upon it. Behold -it in the paralysis which precedes death! - -But in the light of the facts of Japan, the man in the street and the -historian alike have in this case found modern biology superfluous in -enabling them to arrive at sound conclusions. They now believe what -the Darwinian has been compelled to believe for half a century, and -more strongly than ever during the latter part of that period, when the -doctrine of the transmission of modifications was finally discredited. -A clever writer invents the phrase "the yellow peril," and people -discard their old theories. The metaphor must be changed. This is not -paralysis, but merely slumber. Doubtless, it is an unnatural slumber; -doubtless, it is not the slumber which brings renewed strength. It -is suspense or stupor, not recuperation; but assuredly it is not -paralysis. Who now would dare to say that China has had its day, even -if he still clings to the old fictions about Spain? - -=Motherhood and history.=--Here, also, reference must again be made -to another factor of history to which, as I think, the biologist must -attach enormous importance, but which no historian yet has adequately -reckoned with. Our prime assumption from beginning to end is that -"there is no wealth but life," or, if one may venture to improve upon -Ruskin, _there is no wealth but mind_; and in the attempt to suggest -interpretations of history based upon this truth, so little recked of -by the historian, we have considered the life in question from the -point of view of its determination by heredity, and its varying value -according to the inherent and transmissible characters selected in each -generation. But a word must be said as to the other factor which, with -heredity, determines the character of the individual--and that factor -is the environment. I wish merely to note the most important aspect -of the environment of human beings, and to observe that historians -hitherto have wholly ignored it; yet its influence is incalculable. I -refer to motherhood. - -One might have the most perfect system of selection of the finest -and highest individuals for parenthood; but the babies whose -potentialities--heredity gives no more--are so splendid, are always, -will be always, dependent upon motherhood. What was the state of -motherhood during the decline and fall of the Roman Empire? This factor -counts in history; and always will count so long as, three times in -every century, the only wealth of nations is reduced to dust, and is -raised again from helpless infancy. As to Rome we know little, whatever -may be suspected: but we know that here in the heart of the greatest -Empire in history--and it is at the heart that Empires rot--thousands -of mothers go out every day to tend dead machines, whilst their own -flesh and blood, with whom lies the Imperial destiny, are tended anyhow -or not at all. It may yet be said by some enlightened historian of the -future that the living wealth of this people, in the twentieth century, -began to be eaten away by the cancer which we call "married women's -labour," and that, as will be evident to that historian's readers, its -damnation was sure. To-day our historians and politicians think in -terms of regiments and tariffs and "Dreadnoughts": the time will come -when they must think in terms of babies and motherhood. We must think -in such terms too if we wish Great Britain to be much longer great. -Meanwhile some of us see the perennial slaughter of babies in this -land, and the deterioration of many for every one killed outright, the -waste of mothers' travail and tears: and we recall Ruskin's words:-- - - "Nevertheless, it is open, I repeat, to serious question, which - I leave to the reader's pondering, whether, among national - manufactures, that of Souls of a good quality may not at last turn - out a quite leadingly lucrative one? Nay, in some far-away and yet - undreamt-of hour, I can even imagine that England may cast all - thoughts of possessive wealth back to the barbaric nations among whom - they first arose; and that, while the sands of the Indus and adamant - of Golconda may yet stiffen the housings of the charger, and flash - from the turban of the slave, she, as a Christian mother, may at last - attain to the virtues and the treasures of a Heathen one, and be able - to lead forth her Sons, saying:-- - - "These are MY Jewels." - -Had all Roman mothers been Cornelias, would Rome have fallen?[80] -Consider the imitation mothers--no longer mammalia--to be found in -certain classes to-day--mothers who should be ashamed to look any -tabby-cat in the face; consider the ignorant and downtrodden mothers -amongst our lower classes; and ask whether these things are not making -history. - -=The survival of the Jews.=--The principles the discussion of which has -here been attempted had all been set down before it suddenly seemed -clear that they found their warrant and application in the unexampled -riddle of the persistence and success, throughout more than two -thousand years and a thousand vicissitudes, of the Jewish people. It is -true that we have here no exception to the apparent law that Empires -are mortal, for within this period there never was a Jewish Empire: the -Jews were never subject to the risk involved for racial or inherent -progress by the possession of great acquired powers. But just as the -fall of Empires has often _not_ been the fall of races--various races -having at various times carried on the same Imperial tradition--so -the persistence of the Jews, as contrasted with the impermanence of -Empires, _has_ been the persistence of a race. I believe that the -principles already laid down offer us an adequate explanation of this -unique case: and further, that if we had begun with the case of the -Jews, endeavouring, by the investigation of their case, to explain the -contrasted case of other races and of all Empires hitherto, we should -have arrived at the same principles. - -It has been asserted that that race or people decays in which selection -ceases or is reversed; that in the absence of selection of the -worthy for parenthood, no species, vegetable, animal or human, can -prosper--much less progress. Now the Jews, the one human race of which -we know assuredly that it has persisted unimpaired, have been the most -continuously and stringently selected of any race, I suppose, that can -be named. Every measure of persecution and repression practised against -them by the people amongst whom they have lived, has directly tended -towards the very end which those people least desired to compass. -Other peoples found themselves prosperous through the efforts of their -fathers; the struggle for existence abated; it was, so to say, as fit -to be unfit as to be fit--with the inevitable result. But this has -never been the case of the Jews. They have always had to struggle for -life intensely: and their unexampled struggle has been a great source -of their unexampled strength. The Jew who was a weakling or a fool -had no chance at all; the weaklings and the fools being weeded out, -intensity and strength of mind became the common heritage of this -amazing people. - -Secondly, there was everything to favour motherhood. Here religious -precept and ethical tradition joined with stem necessity to the same -end--the end which always meant a new and strong beginning for the next -generation. Even to-day all observers are agreed that infant mortality -is at a minimum amongst the Jews; their children are superior in height -and weight and chest measurement to Gentile children brought up amidst -poverty far less intense in our own great cities; _in a better material -environment, but a far inferior maternal environment_. The Jewish -mother is the mother of children innately superior, on the average, -since they are the fruit of such long ages of stringent parental -selection, and she makes more of them because she fails to nurse them -only in the rarest cases, when she has no choice, and because in -every detail her maternal care is incomparably superior to that of -her Gentile sister. Given a high standard of motherhood in a highly -selected race, what other result than that we daily witness and envy -can we expect? - -Thirdly, the Jews do not abuse alcohol, and thus avoid one of the few -causes of true racial degeneration apart from selection of the worst -for parenthood. - - * * * * * - -If these principles are valid, it is evident that our redemption from -the fate of all our predecessors is to be found only in Eugenics--the -selection of the best for parenthood. In his address to the -Sociological Society in 1904, in which he defined this term, Mr. Galton -named as one of the duties before the Society, "historical enquiry -into the rates with which the various classes of society (classified -according to civic usefulness) have contributed to the population at -various times, in ancient and modern nations." "There is strong reason -for believing," he continued, "that national rise and decline is -closely connected with this influence."[81] - -=What is a good environment?=--Using the word environment in its widest -sense, including, for instance, public opinion--and its use in any -sense less wide is always erroneous and misleading--we may say that it -is our business to provide the environment which selects the best for -parenthood and discourages the parenthood of the worst--say the deaf -and dumb, the feeble-minded, the insane, the epileptic, the inebriate, -those afflicted with hereditary disease of other kinds, and so forth. -Our principles should enable us, also, I think, to define what we -mean by a good environment. Comprehensive and indiscriminate charity -means a good environment for many in a sense, but it may also mean the -selection of the worst for parenthood--_e.g._, the feeble-minded. This -"good" environment _then_ means the degeneration of the race. We must -therefore _appraise environment in terms of its selective action_. -A good environment is that which selects the good, and the best -environment is that which selects the best; discovers them, makes the -utmost of them, and confers upon them the supreme privilege and duty of -parenthood. That and that alone is the best environment, and all other -moral judgments upon environment are fallacious and will be disastrous. - -=The necessary conclusion.=--National Eugenics teaches that the first -duty of all governments and patriots and good citizens is, to quote -Ruskin again, "the production and recognition of human worth, the -detection and extinction of human unworthiness." The idea is not -new-fangled, but was clearly laid down by Plato, and by Theognis two -centuries before him. - -Eugenics is a project of the most elevated and provident morality, -aiming at no object less sublime than the ennoblement of mankind; and -if one may suggest its motto it would be, _The products of progress -are not mechanisms but men_. It is based upon the principle of the -selection or choice of the superior for parenthood, which has been -the essential factor of all progress in the world of life, but which -all civilisations have tended in some degree to abrogate--or even to -reverse, as when the feeble-minded child is cared for till maturity and -sent out into the world to produce its like, whilst healthy children -are daily destroyed by ignorance and neglect. - -"Through Nature only can we ascend"--and the merit of the eugenic -proposal is that it is built upon "the solid ground of nature." - -To the economist, it declares that _the culture of the racial life is -the vital industry of any people_. - -It is to work through marriage, an institution more ancient than -mankind, and supremely valuable in its services to childhood--with -which lies all human destiny. - -Eugenics appeals to the individual, asking for a little imagination, -which will make us realise that the future will one day be the present -and that to serve it is to serve no fiction or phantom, but a reality -as real as the present generation. - -It teaches the responsibility of the noblest and most sacred of all -professions, which is parenthood, and it makes a sober and dignified -claim to be regarded as a constituent of the religion of the future. - -It goes to the root of the matter; where the well-meaning, but -short-sighted, pin their faith on the hospitals, the eugenist seeks -to brand the transmission of hereditary disease as a crime, and thus -literally to extirpate it altogether. - -That its methods are practicable is proved by the fact that it is -practised--as by the northern society for the "_permanent_ care of the -feeble-minded," which serves the present and the future simultaneously -and reconciles the law of love with the earlier law of nature--which -asserts that parenthood must be denied to the unworthy--without blame -or malice, but without exception. It suggests the principles of a New -Imperialism, and offers, I submit, our sole chance of escape from the -fate which has overtaken all previous civilisations. It honours men and -women by declaring that human parenthood is crowned with responsibility -to the unborn, and to all time coming, and that man, the animal in -body, is also a self-conscious being, "looking before and after," who -is human because he is responsible, and to whom the laws of nature have -been revealed, not to satisfy an intellectual curiosity, but for the -highest end conceivable--the elevation of his race. - -Let me quote a fine passage from Wordsworth's "Prelude":-- - - "With settling judgments now of what would last - And what would disappear; prepared to find - Presumption, folly, madness, in the men - Who thrust themselves upon the passive world - As Rulers of the world; to see in these, - Even when the public welfare is their aim, - Plans without thought, or built on theories - Vague and unsound; and having brought the books - Of modern statists to their proper test, - Life, human life, with all its sacred claims - Of sex and age, and heaven-descended rights, - Mortal, or those beyond the reach of death; - And having thus discerned how dire a thing - Is worshipped in that idol proudly named - 'The Wealth of Nations'; where alone that wealth - Is lodged, and how increased; and having gained - A more judicious knowledge of the worth - And dignity of individual man, - No composition of the brain, but man - Of whom we read, the man whom we behold - With our own eyes--I could not but enquire-- - Not with less interest than heretofore, - But greater, though in spirit more subdued-- - Why is this glorious creature to be found - One only in ten thousand? What one is, - Why may not millions be? What bars are thrown - By Nature in the way of such a hope?" - -Consider how far we have come, the base degrees by which we did ascend, -and answer with Shakespeare, "There are many events in the womb of -time which will be delivered." - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - - NATIONAL EUGENICS: MR. BALFOUR ON DECADENCE - - (1) "If the various checks specified in the two last paragraphs, - and perhaps others as yet unknown, do not prevent the reckless, the - vicious, and otherwise inferior members of society from increasing - at a quicker rate than the better class of men, the nation will - retrograde, as has too often occurred in the history of the world. - We must remember that progress is no invariable rule. It is very - difficult to say why one civilised nation rises, becomes more - powerful, and spreads more widely, than another; or why the same - nation progresses more quickly at one time than at another. We can - only say that it depends on an increase in the actual number of the - population, on the number of the men endowed with high intellectual - and moral faculties, as well as on their standard of excellence. - Corporeal structure appears to have little influence, except so far - as vigour of body leads to vigour of mind."--Darwin, _The Descent of - Man_, 1871. - - (2) Referring to "the rates with which the various classes of - society (classified according to civic usefulness) have contributed - to the population at various times, in ancient and modern nations," - Mr. Francis Galton said "there is strong reason for believing - that national rise and decline is closely connected with this - influence."--Galton, _Sociological Papers_, 1904, p. 47. - - (3) "The inexplicable decline and fall of nations following from no - apparent external cause receives instant light from the relative - fertility of the fitter and unfitter elements combined with what we - now know of the laws of inheritance."[82]--Pearson, 1904. - - (4) To the question, What were the causes of the fall of - Rome? Mr. Balfour replies, "I feel disposed to answer, - Decadence."[83]--Balfour, 1908. - - -The lecture of which the previous chapter is the written form was -prepared and delivered before I had an opportunity of seeing Mr. A. J. -Balfour's lecture on "Decadence" delivered a few days before. That has -since been printed, and is well worthy of our attention. In Mr. Balfour -we have a representative political thinker, an experimental statesman -and, furthermore, a former President of the British Association, deeply -interested in, and favourably disposed towards, scientific enquiry and -the scientific method. Further, this lecture has been widely noticed, -though all the criticisms I have seen seem to me to miss the point. -No apology, then, is necessary for a special discussion of this most -suggestive lecture in direct relation with the foregoing theory of its -subject. - -Political and national decadence is Mr. Balfour's theme, and we note -first that here is a contemporary thinker, not unread in recent -biology, including the work of Weismann, who is prepared to make use -of the idea that societies are inherently mortal, as individuals are. -One wonders when we shall be rid of this pernicious instance of the -argument from analogy, which is already much more than two thousand -years old. - -Next it may be noticed that, though Mr. Balfour has deliberately -discussed the idea of natural selection, he has been led wholly -astray from its true relation to the question under discussion by -reason of falling into the common error which Sir E. Ray Lankester -has recently exposed, as Huxley did several decades ago. Mr. Balfour -conceives natural selection to issue from the struggle for existence -between species or societies. It has already been pointed out that the -all-important natural selection is not between species or societies -but within them. The struggle for existence is fought out mainly -between the immature individuals of any species or society. Its issue -determines the survivors for parenthood and the future. Mr. Balfour -must have read Professor Ray Lankester's recent Romanes Lecture in -which all this is so clearly shown, but he has unfortunately retained -the popular conception of natural selection as acting between species -or societies, and has in consequence failed, I will not say to find, -but even to discuss in any adequate measure, the theory of racial -and national decadence, defined in the preceding chapter. He merely -discusses "competition between groups of communities," and rightly -finds it inadequate to account for the great tragedies of history. - -There follows a passage which may be heartily assented to, on the very -grounds on which the entire lecture may be welcomed, namely, that -it suggests the inadequacy of the common explanations of national -decadence advanced by historians. Says Mr. Balfour:-- - - "It is in vain that historians enumerate the public calamities which - preceded, and no doubt contributed to, the final catastrophe. Civil - dissensions, military disasters, pestilences, famines, tyrants, - tax-gatherers, growing burdens, and waning wealth--the gloomy - catalogue is unrolled before our eyes, yet somehow it does not in all - cases wholly satisfy us: we feel that some of these diseases are of a - kind which a vigorous body politic should easily be able to survive, - that others are secondary symptoms of some obscurer malady, and that - in neither case do they supply us with the full explanation of which - we are in search." - -One must heartily thank the author for the abundant demonstration -which follows, well warranting our feeling that these explanations do -not suffice--nor yet, in the case of Rome, diminution of population, -nor the "brutalities of the gladiatorial shows," nor "the gratuitous -distribution of bread to the urban mobs," nor yet slavery, lately -declared, by Mr. W. R. Paterson, in his _Nemesis of Nations_, to be -_the_ cause of the fall of empires. As Mr. Balfour says, "Who can -believe that this immemorial custom could, in its decline, destroy -the civilisation which, in its vigour, it had helped to create?" It -would have been more important, perhaps, to consider, as Mr. Balfour -does not, the latest view, advanced by Professor Ronald Ross, that the -incursion of malaria may have had something to do with the fall of Rome. - -=Mr. Balfour's theory--decadence the cause of decadence.=--Mr. Balfour -then falls back upon "decadence "as the explanation, and to the -critic of this elegant hypothesis that decadence is due to decadence, -replies that it is something to recognise the possibility of "subtle -changes in the social tissues of old communities." One regrets all -the more that he should not have considered anti-eugenic practices -as possibly accounting for these subtle changes. One must, however, -quote the excellent passage in which Mr. Balfour supports his use of -the word decadence, though one utterly disagrees with the suggestion -that the term "old age" might be its equivalent. He says: "The facile -generalisations with which we so often season the study of dry historic -fact; the habits of political discussion which induce us to catalogue -for purposes of debate the outward signs that distinguish (as we are -prone to think) the standing from the falling state, hide the obscurer, -but more potent, forces which silently prepare the fate of empires." - -We may note with interest (and surely with surprise when we consider -Japan and Spain and the China of to-morrow), Mr. Balfour's rejection -of the doctrine that "arrested progress, and even decadence, may be -but the prelude to a new period of vigorous growth. So that even those -races or nations which seem frozen into eternal immobility may base -upon experience their hopes of an awakening spring." It is, I fancy, -Mr. Balfour's fondness for the Platonic idea of senility in the race -as in the individual, that leads him to question what can surely -be no longer denied. Thus a little later we find him saying, "_If -civilisations wear out, and races become effete_, why should we expect -to progress indefinitely, why for us alone is the doom of man to be -reversed?" - -Nowhere in this lecture is there any recognition of what, I confess, -seems to me to be an obvious and necessary truth, the distinction -between the two kinds of progress--racial progress due to the choice -of the best for parenthood, and acquired or traditional progress. It -may be suggested that no one can usefully discuss decadence or progress -until he has seen and perceived this absolutely cardinal distinction, -suggested in my Royal Institution lectures in February, 1907, as one -of the great lessons taught by the study of biology to the student of -progress. - -Mr. Balfour does indeed avoid all those false solutions which depend -upon a Lamarckian belief in the transmission of acquired characters. -This, however, instead of leading him to insist upon the Darwinian -contribution to the study of decadence--the idea of _selection_--causes -him to regard the racial question as unimportant. He notes one or -two of the fashions in which the quality of a race may be modified, -thus influencing national character, and then dismisses this question -(wherein, as I cannot doubt, everything material lies) with the remark, -"But such changes are not likely, I suppose, to be considerable, -except perhaps those due to the mixture of races--and that only in new -countries."--Reaching page 45, the reader finds himself confident that -now at length the writer has put his finger on the crux of the problem. -Yet that is how he dismisses it; adding, indeed, to make it quite -clear, the following words: "The flexible element in any society, that -which is susceptible of progress or decadence, must therefore be looked -for rather in the physical and psychical conditions affecting the life -of its component units, than in their inherited constitution." - -Not a word as to cessation of selection! This omission, which is, -indeed, the omission of _the_ fact of decadence, mainly depends, one -fancies, upon that erroneous conception of natural selection as acting -between species and societies rather than within them, which for so -many decades the biologist has been at pains to correct. One would -indeed have thought that, for a scholar and student like Mr. Balfour, -Wordsworth's great sonnet would have sufficed to set up a train of -thought which, fusing with ordinary biological principles, would have -led him to what I believe to be the truth. Let us for a moment turn to -its consideration:-- - - "When I have borne in memory what has tamed - Great Nations, how ennobling thoughts depart - When men change swords for ledgers...." - -Should not this be enough to suggest to us the real meaning of the -consequence which has followed when men changed swords for ledgers, -and which even those who hate war as a vile blasphemy against life -must recognise? It is that, as we have seen, when a nation is making -its way there is selection of the fittest by the stern arbitrament of -war, in which the battle is to the individually strong and fleet and -brave and quick-witted. Later, "when men change swords for ledgers," -selection ceases; and that is why nothing fails like success. Yet later -still, as France should know, selection by war must take the form of -reversed selection, the flower of a nation's youth being immolated on -the battle-field, whilst its future is determined by the weak and small -and diseased, whom the recruiting sergeant rejects. "You are not good -enough to be a soldier," he says; "stay at home and be a father." That -was what Napoleon did for France. - -But to return--for the relations of war to eugenics would really demand -a volume--it may be noted that, though rejecting the Lamarckian -theory--the theory on which nothing should succeed like success--Mr. -Balfour nowhere emphasises the amazing paradox of history that nothing -fails like success. If we consider this fact with the idea of natural -selection in our minds (not between societies but within them), we -cannot fail to perceive that success involves failure because it -involves failure of selection, and therefore indiscriminate survival; -or indeed, survival of the worst. - -=Politics and domestics.=--It is, perhaps, a noteworthy comment upon -what may be called the political state of mind, that even when the idea -of natural selection has entered it, the bias is towards associating it -with international and not with intra-national or domestic politics. -The time will come, however, when the politician--or shall we say -the statesman?--realises that it is the domestic policy, it is the -internal struggle for survival within a society, that conditions -and fore-ordains all international politics. The history of nations -is determined not on the battlefield but in the nursery, and the -battalions which give lasting victory are battalions of babies. _The -politics of the future will be domestics._ - -Having rejected so many solutions of his problem, and having ignored -the solution which is advanced in this volume, Mr. Balfour is reduced -to such desperate resorts as phrases like this: "The point at which -the energy of advance is exhausted"--a mere meaningless phrase; and -even such an explanation as that through "mere weariness of spirit the -community resigns itself to ... stagnation." One is inclined to throw -up one's hands and ask--Do you, then, who deny the Lamarckian theory, -suppose that the fresh children come into the world with this "mere -weariness of spirit"? Has this been observed in children? Is there -anything conceivable that has been less observed in children, in all -times and all places? And if that be so, what kind of explanation of -decadence is this? - -=Science and industry.=--Lastly, in a series of fine passages, Mr. -Balfour offers us some hope in the help of science. Politics, says our -ex-Premier, too often means "the barren exchange of one set of tyrants -or jobbers, for another": a Daniel come to judgment. We owe the modern -spirit and modern progress, he tells us, neither to politicians nor to -political institutions, nor to theologians nor to philosophers, but -to science, which, he well says, "is the great instrument of social -change, all the greater because its object is not change but knowledge; -and its silent appropriation of this dominant function, amid the -din of political and religious strife, is the most vital of all the -revolutions which have marked the development of modern civilisation." - -And our cause of hope is "a social force, new in magnitude if not in -kind ... the modern alliance between pure science and industry." To -this I answer a thousand times yes, but I must define the kind of -industry. It is the culture of the racial life which is the vital -industry of any nation, and which Mr. Balfour has not even distantly -alluded to. I agree that our hope for the future is to be found in -science: that, as has been said already, perchance our acquired or -traditional progress in knowledge has now reached the point at which we -have sufficient to reveal to us the necessity of racial progress and -the means by which that may be effected. - -"Science and industry,"--yes, indeed! But the industry is to be the -making not of machines but men. _The products of progress are not -mechanisms but men_, and one may now ask, What is the industry whose -products can be named in the same breath with the men and women who -shall yet be produced by the supreme industry of race-culture? - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - - THE PROMISE OF RACE-CULTURE - - "The best is yet to be." - - -In its form of what we have called _negative_ eugenics, the practice -of our principle would assuredly reduce to an incalculable extent the -amount of human defect, mental and physical, which each generation -now exhibits. This alone, as has been said, would be far more than -sufficient to justify us. A world without hereditary disease of mind -and body, and its grave social consequences, would alone warrant the -hint of Ruskin that posterity may some day look back upon us with -"incredulous disdain." Yet, assuming that this could be accomplished, -as it will be accomplished, what more is to be hoped for? Must -race-culture cease merely when it has raised the average of the -community by reducing to a minimum the proportion of those who are -thus grossly defective in mind or body? Such disease apart, are we to -be content, must we be content, with the present level of mediocrity -in respect of intelligence and temper and moral sentiment? Can we -anticipate a London in which the present ratio of musical comedy -to great opera will be reversed, in which the works of Mr. George -Meredith will sell in hundreds of thousands, whilst some of our popular -novelists will have to find other means of earning a living? Can we -make for a critical democracy which no political party can fool, and -which will choose its best to govern it? Yet more, can we undertake, -now or hereafter, to provide every generation with its own Shakespeare -and Beethoven and Tintoretto and Newton? What, in a word, is the -promise of _positive_ eugenics? It is to this aspect of the question -that Mr. Galton has mainly directed himself. Indeed he was led to -formulate the principles and ideals of the new science by his study of -hereditary genius some four decades ago. Let us now attempt to answer -some of these questions. - -=The production of genius.=--And first as to the production of genius. -It is this, perhaps, that has been the main butt of the jesters who -pass for philosophers with some of us to-day. It may be said at once -that neither Mr. Galton nor any other responsible person has ever -asserted that we can produce genius at will. The difficulties in the -way of such a project--at present--are almost innumerable. One or two -may be cited. - -In the first place, there is the cardinal--but by no means -universal--difficulty that the genius is too commonly so occupied with -the development and expansion of his own individuality that he has -little time or energy for the purposes of the race. This, of course, is -an example of Spencer's great generalisation as to the antagonism or -inverse ratio between individuation and genesis. - -Again, there is the generalisation of heredity formulated by Mr. -Galton, and named by him the _law of regression towards mediocrity_. -It asserts that the children of those who are above or below the mean -of a race, tend to return towards that mean. The children of the born -criminal will be probably somewhat less criminal in tendency than he, -though more criminal than the average citizen. The children of the -man of genius, if he has any, will probably be nearer mediocrity than -he, though on the average possessing greater talent than the average -citizen. It is thus not in the nature of sheer genius to reproduce -on its own level. It is only the critics who are wholly ignorant of -the elementary facts of heredity that attribute to the eugenist an -expectation of which no one knows the absurdity so well as he does. - -On the other hand, it is impossible to question that the hereditary -transmission of genius or great talent does occur. One may cite at -random such cases as that of the Bach family, Thomas and Matthew -Arnold, James and John Stuart Mill: and the reader who is inclined -to believe that there is no law or likelihood in this matter, must -certainly make himself acquainted with Mr. Galton's _Hereditary -Genius_, and with such a paper as that which he printed in -_Sociological Papers_, 1904, furnishing an "index to achievements of -near kinsfolk of some of the Fellows of the Royal Society." There is, -of course, the obvious fallacy involved in the possibility that not -heredity but environment was really responsible for many of these -cases. It must have been a great thing to have such a father as James -Mill. But it would be equally idle to imagine that the evidence can -be dismissed with this criticism. A Matthew Arnold, a John Stuart -Mill, could not be manufactured out of any chance material by an ideal -education continued for a thousand years. - -=The transmission of genius.=--One single instance of the transmission -of genius or great talent in a family may be cited. We shall take the -family which produced Charles Darwin, the discoverer of the fundamental -principle of eugenics, and his first cousin, Francis Galton. Darwin's -grandfather was Erasmus Darwin, physician, poet and philosopher, and -independent expounder of the doctrine of organic evolution. Darwin's -father was a distinguished physician, described by his son as "the -wisest man I ever knew." Darwin's maternal grandfather was Josiah -Wedgwood, the famous founder of the pottery works. Amongst his first -cousins is Mr. Francis Galton. He has five living sons, each a man of -great distinction, including Mr. Francis Darwin and Sir George Darwin, -both of them original thinkers, honoured by the presidency of the -British Association. No one will put such a case as this down to pure -chance or to the influence of environment alone. This is evidently, -like many others, a greatly distinguished stock. The worth of such -families to a nation is wholly beyond any one's powers of estimation. -What if Erasmus Darwin had never married! - -No student of human heredity can doubt that, however limited our -immediate hopes, facts such as those alluded to furnish promise of -great things for the future. But let us turn now from genius to what we -usually call talent. - -=The production of talent.=--There can be no question that amongst -the promises of race-culture is the possibility of breeding such -things as talent and the mental energy upon which talent so largely -depends. In his _Inquiries into Human Faculty_, Mr. Galton shows the -remarkable extent to which energy or the capacity for labour underlies -intellectual achievement. He says, of energy-- - - "It is consistent with all the robust virtues, and makes a large - practice of them possible. It is the measure of fulness of life; the - more energy the more abundance of it; no energy at all is death; - idiots are feeble and listless. In the enquiries I made on the - antecedents of men of science no points came out more strongly than - that the leaders of scientific thought were generally gifted with - remarkable energy, and that they had inherited the gift of it from - their parents and grandparents. I have since found the same to be - the case in other careers.... It may be objected that if the race - were too healthy and energetic there would be insufficient call - for the exercise of the pitying and self-denying virtues, and the - character of men would grow harder in consequence. But it does not - seem reasonable to preserve sickly breeds for the sole purpose of - tending them, as the breed of foxes is preserved solely for sport - and its attendant advantages. There is little fear that misery will - ever cease from the land, or that the compassionate will fail to - find objects for their compassion; but at present the supply vastly - exceeds the demand: the land is over-stocked and over-burdened with - the listless and the incapable. In any scheme of eugenics, energy is - the most important quality to favour; it is, as we have seen, the - basis of living action, and it is eminently transmissible by descent." - -Need it be pointed out that any political system which ceases to favour -or actively disfavours energy, making it as profitable to be lazy as to -be active, is anti-eugenic, and must inevitably lead to disaster? That, -however, by the way. Our present point is that eugenics can reasonably -promise, when its principles are recognised, to multiply the human[84] -and diminish the vegetable type in the community. In so doing, it -will greatly further the production of talent, and therefore of that -traditional or acquired progress which men of talent and genius create. -Such a result will also further, though indirectly, the production -of genius itself. For, as Mr. Galton points out, "men of an order of -ability which is now very rare, would become more frequent, because the -level out of which they rose would itself have risen." - -This is by no means the only fashion in which an effective and -practicable race-culture would serve genius, and I shall not be blamed -for considering this matter further by any reader who realises, however -faintly, what the man of genius is worth to the world. If it were shown -possible to establish such social conditions that genius could never -flower in them, we should realise that their establishment would mean -the putting of an end to progress and the blasting of all the highest -hopes of the highest of all ages. - -The immediate need of this age, as of all ages, is perhaps not so much -the birth of babies capable of developing into men and women of genius, -as the full exploitation of the possibilities of genius with which, -as I fancy, every generation on the average is about as well endowed -as any other. There is, of course, the popular doctrine that there are -no mute inglorious Miltons, that "genius will out," and that therefore -if it does not appear, it is not there to appear. In expressing the -compelling power of genius in many cases, this doctrine is not without -truth. Yet history abounds in instances where genius has been destroyed -by environment--and we can only guess how many more instances there -are of which history has no record. To take the single case of musical -genius, it is a lamentable thought that there may be those now living -whose natural endowments, in a favourable environment, would have -enabled them to write symphonies fit to place beside Beethoven's, but -whom some environmental factors--conventional, economic, educational, -or what not--have silenced; or worse, have persuaded to write such -sterile nullities as need not here be instanced. There is surely no -waste in all this wasteful world so lamentable as this waste of genius. - -If, then, anyone could devise for us a means by which the genius, -potentially existing at any time, were realised, he would have -performed in effect a service equivalent to that of which eugenics -repudiates the present possibility--the actual creation of genius. But -if we consider what the conditions are which cause the waste of genius, -we realise at once that they mainly inhere in the level of the human -environment of the priceless potentiality in question. As we noted -elsewhere, in an age like that of Pericles genius springs up on all -hands. It is encouraged and welcomed because the average level of the -human environment in which it finds itself is so high. But if eugenics -can raise the average level of intelligence, in so doing not merely -does it render more likely, as Mr. Galton points out, the production -of men of the highest ability, but it provides those conditions in -which men of genius, now swamped, can swim. We could not undertake -to produce a Shakespeare, but we might reasonably hope to produce a -generation which would not damage or destroy its Shakespeares. And even -if men of genius still found it necessary, as men of genius have found -it necessary, to "play to the gallery," they would play, as Mr. Galton -says of the demagogue in a eugenic age, "to a more sensible gallery -than at present." - -Darwin somewhere points out that it is not the scientific, but the -unscientific man who denies future possibilities. Thus though an -advocate of eugenics may be applauded for his judgment if he declares -that the creation of genius will for ever be impossible, yet I should -not care to assert that the ultimate limitations of eugenics can thus -be defined. We have yet to hear the last of Mendelism. - -=Eugenics and unemployment.=--Let us look now at another aspect of -the promise of race-culture. When the time comes that quality rather -than quantity is the ideal of those who concern themselves with the -population question, it is quite evident that not a few of the social -problems which we now find utterly insoluble will disappear. In -this brief outline, we can only allude to one or two points. Take, -for instance, the question of unemployment. We know that some by no -means small proportion of the unemployed were really destined to be -unemployable from the first, as for instance by reason of hereditary -disease. It were better for them and for us had they never been -born. Many more of the unemployed have been made unemployable by the -influence of over-crowding, to which they were subjected in their -years of development. Is there, can there be, any real and permanent -remedy for over-crowding, but the erection of parenthood into an act of -personal and provident responsibility? - -=Eugenics and woman.=--Take, again, the woman question. No one will -deny that in many of its gravest forms, especially in its economic -form, and the question of the employment of women, wisely or horribly, -this depends (to a degree which few, I think, realise) upon the -fact that there are now, for instance, 1,300,000 women in excess in -this country. Is it then proposed, the reader will say, by means of -race-culture to exterminate the superfluous woman? Indeed, no. But is -the reader aware that Nature is not responsible for the existence of -the superfluous woman? There are more boys than girls born in the ratio -of about 103 or 104 to 100: and Nature means them all to live, boys and -girls alike. If they did so live, we should have merely the problem of -the superfluous man, which would not be an economic problem at all. -But we destroy hosts of all the children that are born, and since male -organisms are in general less resistant than female organisms, we -destroy a disproportionate number of boys, so that the natural balance -of the sexes is inverted. Unlike ancient societies, we largely practise -_male_ infanticide. Can the reader believe that there is any permanent -and final means of arresting this wastage of child-life, with its -singular and far-reaching consequences,--other than the elevation of -parenthood, on the principles which race-culture enjoins, even wholly -apart from the question of the selection of parents? We shall not -succeed in keeping all the children alive (with a trivial number of -exceptions), thereby abolishing the superfluous woman by keeping alive -the boy who should have grown up to be her partner, until we greatly -reduce the birth-rate; as it must and will be reduced when the ideal of -race-culture is realised, and no child comes into the world that is not -already loved and desired in anticipation. - -=Eugenics and cruelty to children.=--This ideal, also, offers us in its -realisation the only complete remedy for the present ghastly cruelty -under which so many children suffer even in Great Britain, even in the -twentieth century. Is the reader aware that the National Society for -the Prevention of Cruelty to Children enquired into the ill-treatment -or cruel neglect of 115,000 children in the year beginning April 1st, -1906? It has been reasonably and carefully estimated that "over half a -million children are involved in the total of the wastage of child-life -and the torture and neglect of child-life in a single year." Surely -Mr. G. R. Sims, to whom I would offer a hearty tribute for his recent -services to childhood, is justified in saying, "Against the guilt of -race-suicide our men of science are everywhere preaching their sermons -to-day. It is against the guilt of race-murder that the cry of the -children should ring through the land." As regards race suicide and the -men of science, I am not so sure as to the assertion. But the truth of -the second sentence quoted is as indisputable as it is horrible. - -Now no legislation conceivable will wholly cure this evil nor avert its -consequences. At bottom it depends upon human nature, and you can cure -it only by curing the defect of human nature. This, in general, is of -course beyond the immediate powers of man, but evidently we should gain -the same end if only we could confine the advent of children to those -parents who desired them--that is to say, those in whom human nature -displayed the first, if not indeed almost the only, requisite for -the happiness of childhood. To this most beneficent and wholly moral -end we shall come, notwithstanding the blind and pitiable guidance -of most of our accredited moral teachers to-day. By no other means -than the realisation of the ideal defined, that every new baby shall -be loved and desired in anticipation--an ideal which is perfectly -practicable--can the black stain of child murder and child torture and -child neglect be removed from our civilisation. - -=Ruskin and race-culture.=--The name of Ruskin, perhaps, would not -occur to the reader as likely to afford support to the fair hopes of -the eugenist. Consider then, these words from _Time and Tide_:-- - - "You leave your marriages to be settled by supply and demand, - instead of wholesome law. And thus, among your youths and maidens, - the improvident, incontinent, selfish, and foolish ones marry, - whether you will or not; and beget families of children necessarily - inheritors in a great degree of these parental dispositions; and - for whom, supposing they had the best dispositions in the world, - you have thus provided, by way of educators, the foolishest fathers - and mothers you could find; (the only rational sentence in their - letters, usually, is the invariable one, in which they declare - themselves 'incapable of providing for their children's education'). - On the other hand, whosoever is wise, patient, unselfish, and pure - among your youth, you keep maid or bachelor; wasting their best days - of natural life in painful sacrifice, forbidding them their best - help and best reward, and carefully excluding their prudence and - tenderness from any offices of parental duty. Is not this a beatific - and beautifully sagacious system for a Celestial Empire, such as that - of these British Isles?" - -Apart from the point as to wholesome law rather than the education of -opinion as the eugenic means, the foregoing passage must win the assent -and respect of every eugenist. It indicates the promise of race-culture -as it appeared to John Ruskin. The passage has been quoted in full not -for the benefit of the ordinary thoughtful reader but for that of the -professional literary man who, in this remarkable age, so far as I can -judge, reads nothing but what he writes, and thus qualifies himself for -dismissing Spencer or Darwin or Galton in any casual phrase--meanwhile -condemning Ruskin, whom he probably professes to adore. - -=Race-culture and human variety.=--Now let us turn to another question. -Let it be asserted most emphatically that, if there is anything in the -world which eugenics or race-culture does _not_ promise or desire, it -is the production of a uniform type of man. This delusion, for which -there has never been any warrant at all, possesses many of the critics -of eugenics, and they have made pretty play with it, just as they do -with their other delusions. Let us note one or two facts which bear -upon this most undesirable ideal. - -In the first place, it is unattainable because of the existence of what -we call variation. No apparatus conceivable would suffice to eliminate -from every generation those who varied from the accepted type. - -In the second place, this uniformity is supremely undesirable from -the purely evolutionary point of view, because its attainment would -mean the arrest of all progress. All organic evolution, as we know, -depends upon the struggle between creatures possessing variations and -the consequent selection of those variations which constitute their -possessors best adapted or fitted to the particular environment. -If there is no variation there can be no evolution. To aim at the -suppression of variation, therefore, on supposed eugenic grounds (which -would be involved in aiming at any uniform type of mankind) would be to -aim at destroying the necessary condition of all racial progress. The -mere fact that the critics of race-culture attribute to evolutionists, -of all people, the desire to suppress variation, is a pathognomic -symptom of their critical quality. - -And, of course, quite independently of the evolutionary function of -variation--though this is cardinal and must never be forgotten by the -politician of any school, since what we call individuality is variation -on the human plane--the value of variation in ordinary life is wholly -incalculable. It is not merely that, as Mr. Galton says, "There are -a vast number of conflicting ideals, of alternative characters, of -incompatible civilisations; but they are wanted to give fulness and -interest to life. Society would be very dull if every man resembled the -highly estimable Marcus Aurelius or Adam Bede." The question is not -merely as to the interest of life. Much more important is the fact that -it takes all sorts to make a world. What is the development of society -but the result of the psychological division of labour in the social -organism? And how could such division of labour be carried out if we -had not various types of labourers? What would be the good of science -if there were no poetry or music to live for? How would poetry and -music help us if we had not men of science to protect our shores from -plague? - -Obviously the existence of men of most various types is a necessity -for any highly organised society. Even if eugenics were capable--as -it is not--of producing a complete and balanced type, fit up to a -point to turn out a satisfactory poem, a satisfactory symphony or a -satisfactory sofa, the utmost could not be expected of such a man in -any of these directions. In a word, as long as their activities are -not anti-social, men cannot be of too various types. We require mystic -and mathematician, poet and pathologist. Only, we want good specimens -of each. "The aim of eugenics," says Mr. Galton, "is to represent -each class or sect by its best specimens; that done, to leave them -to work out their common civilisation in their own way.... Special -aptitudes would be assessed highly by those who possessed them, as the -artistic faculties by artists, fearlessness of enquiry and veracity by -scientists, religious absorption by mystics, and so on. There would be -self-sacrificers, self-tormentors, and other exceptional idealists." -But at least it is better to have good rather than bad specimens of -any kind, whatever that kind may be. Mr. Galton thinks that all except -cranks would agree as to including health, energy, ability, manliness -and courteous disposition amongst qualities uniformly desirable--alike -in poet and pathologist. We should desire also uniformity as to the -absence of the anti-social proclivities of the born criminal. So much -uniformity being granted, let us have with it the utmost conceivable -variety,--more, indeed, than most of us can conceive. - -This point, of course, is cardinal from the point of view of practice. -No progress could be made with eugenics, it would be impossible even -to form a Eugenics Education Society, if each of us were to regard the -particular type he belongs to as the ideal, and were to seek merely to -obtain the best specimens of that type. The doctrine that it takes all -sorts to make a world--a doctrine very hard for youth to learn, yet -unconsciously learnt by all who are capable of learning at all--must be -regarded as a cardinal truth for the eugenist. But he wisely seeks good -specimens rather than bad. Poets certainly, but not poetasters; jesters -certainly, but not clever fools, who stand Truth on her head and then -make street-boy gestures at her. - -=Time and its treasure.=--Taking the modern estimates of the -physicists, we are assured that the total period of past human -existence is very brief compared with what may reasonably be predicted. -Granted, then, practically unlimited time, what inherent limits are -there to the upward development of man as a moral and intellectual -being? Shall we answer this question by a study of the nature of -matter? Plainly not. Shall we answer it by a study of the nature of -mind? Surely not, for the study of existing mind cannot inform us as -to what mind might be. One source of guidance alone we have, and this -is the amazing contrast which exists between the mind of man at its -highest, and mind in its humblest animal forms: or shall we say even -between the highest and lowest manifestations of mind within the human -species? The measureless height of the ascent thus indicated offers -us no warrant for the conclusion that, as we stand on the heights -of our life, our "glimpse of a height that is higher" is only an -hallucination. On the contrary. - -There is no warrant whatever for supposing that the forces which have -brought us thus far are yet exhausted: they have their origin in the -inexhaustible. Who, gazing on the earth of a hundred million years -ago, could have predicted life--could have recognised, in the forces -then at work and the matter in which they were displayed, the promise -and potency of all terrestrial life? Who, contemplating life at a much -later stage, even later mammalian, could have seen in the simian the -prophecy of man? Who, examining the earliest nervous ganglia, could -have foreseen the human cerebrum? The fact that we can imagine nothing -higher than ourselves, that we make even our gods in our own image, -offers no warrant for supposing that nothing higher will ever be, -What ape could have predicted man, what reptile the bird, what amoeba -the bee? "There are many events in the womb of time which will be -delivered," and the fairest of her sons and daughters are yet to be. - -But even grant, for the sake of the argument, that the intelligence of -a Newton, the musical faculty of a Bach, the moral nature of any good -mother anywhere, represent the utmost limits of which the evolution -of the psychical is capable. There is every reason to deny this, but -let us for the moment assume it true. There still remains the thought -of Wordsworth, "What one is, why may not millions be?"--a thought to -which Spencer has also given utterance. What is shown possible for -human nature here and there, he says, is conceivable for human nature -at large. It is possible for a human being, whilst still remaining -human, to be a Shakespeare or a St. Francis: these things are thus -demonstrably within the possibilities of human nature. It is therefore -at the least conceivable that, in the course of almost infinite time -(even assuming, say, that intelligence must ever be limited, as even -Newton's intelligence was limited), some such capacities as his may be -common property amongst men of the scientific type; and so with other -types. We may answer Wordsworth that there is no bar thrown by Nature -in the way of such a hope. - -=What is possible?=--This, of course, is speculation and of no -immediate value. I would merely remind the reader that the doctrine of -optimism, as regards the future of mankind, which the principles of -race-culture assume and which they desire to justify, was definitely -shared by the great pioneers to whom we owe our understanding of those -principles. Notwithstanding grave nervous disorder, such as makes -pessimists of most men, both Darwin and Spencer were compelled by their -study of Nature to this rational optimism as regards man's future. -The doctrine of organic evolution, and of the age-long ascent of man -through the selection of the fittest (who have, _on the whole_, been -the _best_) for parenthood, is one not of despair but of hope. Exactly -half a century ago it struck horror into the minds of our predecessors. -Man, then, is only an erected ape, they thought--as if any historical -doctrine, however true, could shorten the dizzy distance to which man -has climbed since he was simian: and man being an ape, they thought -his high dreams palpably vain. But the measure of the accomplished -hints at the measure of the possible, and the value of the historical -facts lies not in themselves, all facts as such being as dead as are -the individual atoms of the living body, but in the principles which -grow out of them. It is of no importance as such that man has simian -ancestors; it is of immeasurable importance that he should learn by -what processes he has become human, and by what, indeed, they became -simian--which would have been a proud adjective for its own day. The -principles of organic progress matter for us because they are the -principles of race-culture, the only sure means of human progress. Our -looking backwards does not turn us into pillars of salt, but teaches us -that the best is yet to be, and how alone it is to be attained. - -Elsewhere the optimistic argument of Wordsworth is quoted. Hear also -John Ruskin:-- - - "There is as yet no ascertained limit to the nobleness of person and - mind which the human creature may attain, by persevering observance - of the laws of God respecting its birth and training."[85] - -and Herbert Spencer:-- - - "What now characterises the exceptionally high may be expected - eventually to characterise all. For that which the best human nature - is capable of, is within the reach of human nature at large."[86] - -and Francis Galton:-- - - "There is nothing either in the history of domestic animals or in - that of evolution to make us doubt that a race of sane men may be - formed, who shall be as much superior, mentally and morally, to the - modern European, as the modern European is to the lowest of the Negro - races. - - "It is earnestly to be hoped that enquiries will be increasingly - directed into historical facts, with the view of estimating the - possible effects of reasonable political action in the future, in - gradually raising the present miserably low standard of the human - race to one in which the Utopias in the dreamland of philanthropists - may become practical possibilities."[87] - -=Conclusion--Eugenics and Religion.=--In an early chapter it was -attempted to show that eugenics is not merely moral, but is of the -very heart of morality. We saw that it involves taking no life, that, -rather, it desires to make philanthropy more philanthropic, that, at -any rate so far as this eugenist is concerned, it recognises and bows -to the supreme law of love: and claims to serve that law, and the ideal -of social morality, which is the making of human worth. Eugenics may or -may not be practicable, it may or may not be based upon natural truth, -but it is assuredly moral: though I, for one, would proclaim eternal -war between this real morality and the damnable sham which approves the -unbridled transmission of the most hideous diseases, rotting body and -soul, in the interests of good. - -And if religion, whatever its origin and the more questionable chapters -in its past, be now "morality touched with emotion," I claim that -eugenics is religious, is and will ever be a religion. Elsewhere[88] -I have attempted to show that religion has survived and will survive -because of its survival-value--its services to the life of the -societies wherein it flourishes. The religion of the future, it was -sought to argue, will be that which "best serves Nature's unswerving -desire--fulness of life." The Founder of the Christian religion said, -"I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more -abundantly." It is higher and more abundant life that is the eugenic -ideal. Progress I define as the emergence and increasing dominance of -mind. Of progress, thus conceived, man is the highest fruit hitherto. -He is also its appointed agent, and eugenics is his instrument. - -To this end he must use all the powers which have blossomed in him from -the dust. He must claim Art: and indeed in Wagner's great music-drama, -at the moment when the prophetic Bruennhilde tells Sieglinde who has -just lost her mate that she, the expectant mother, may look for the -resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come in the child -Siegfried; and when the heroic theme is pronounced for the first time -and followed by that which signifies redemption by love--then, I think, -the eugenist may thrill not merely to the music, or to the humanity -of the story, but to the spiritual and scientific truth which it -symbolises. - -If the struggle towards individual perfection be religious, so, -assuredly, is the struggle, less egoistic, indeed, towards racial -perfection. If the historic meaning and purport of religion are as I -conceive them, and if its future evolution may thence be inferred, -there can be no doubt in the prophecy that in ages to come those high -aspirations and spiritual visions which astronomy has dishoused from -amongst the stars, and which, at their best, were ever selfish, will -find a place on this human earth of ours. If we have transferred our -hopes from heaven to earth and from ourselves to our children, they are -not less religious. And they that shall be of us shall build the old -waste places; for we shall raise up the foundations of many generations: - - "We feed the high tradition of the world, - And leave our spirits in our children's breasts." - - - - - APPENDIX - - CONCERNING BOOKS TO READ - - -The preceding pages are of course only tentative, preliminary and -introductory. I have merely tried to make a beginning. No better -purpose can be achieved than that the reader should proceed to study -the subject for himself. A few pages may therefore be devoted to the -names of some of the books which will be found useful. This is in no -sense a complete bibliography, nor even a tithe of such a bibliography. -But the reader who makes a beginning with the books here named, or even -with a well-chosen half dozen of them, will thereafter need no one to -tell him that the culture of the human race on scientific principles -will be the supreme science of all the future, the supreme goal of all -statesmen, the object and the final judge of all legislation. - -Where it is thought that useful remarks can be made they will be made, -but neither their presence nor absence nor their length is to be taken -as any index to the writer's opinion of the relative value of the works -in question. - -_Heredity._ (The Progressive Science Series, 1908.) By Professor J. A. -Thomson, M.A. - -This is the most recent and most valuable for general purposes of all -books on the subject of heredity. No layman should express opinions -on heredity or eugenics until he has read it, for it is extremely -improbable that they will be valuable. Professor Thomson covers the -whole ground with extreme lucidity and care and impartiality. The book -is readable, nay more, fascinating from end to end, and it is liberally -and usefully illustrated. It is the first general treatise on heredity -which leads consciously, yet as of necessity, towards eugenics as the -crown and goal of the whole study, and in this respect it undoubtedly -marks an epoch. - -_The Methods and Scope of Genetics._ (1908.) By W. Bateson, M.A., F.R.S. - -This is the inaugural lecture, destined, I have little doubt, to become -historic, which was delivered by Professor Bateson on his appointment -to the new Darwin Chair of Biology at Cambridge. It is purposely -included here for very good reasons. The reader who begins his serious -study of heredity with Professor Thomson's work must be informed that -though the author gives an interesting account of Mendelism, he is not -a Mendelian, and neither his account of Mendelism nor his estimate of -it is at all adequate for the present day. In truth there is the study -of heredity before Mendelism and after, and though eugenics owes its -modern origin to the founder of the school of biometrics, and though -among his followers there are to be found many who decry and oppose the -Mendelians, it is for the eugenist of single purpose to take the truth -wherever it is to be found. It is now idle to deny either the general -truth or the stupendous promise of Mendelism. Many vital phenomena -besides heredity are studied by the statistical method, and are put -down by it to heredity. The Mendelians take seeds of known origin, and -plant them and note the result. They carry out experimental breeding -not only amongst plants but amongst the higher animals, including -mammals who, in all essentials of structure and function, are one with -ourselves. It is not possible, I believe, to over-estimate the supreme -importance of Mendelian enquiry for eugenics. Eugenics is founded -upon heredity, and genetics, which is Professor Bateson's name for -the physiology of heredity and variation, is now working at the very -heart of those natural phenomena upon which eugenics depends. This -lecture of Professor Bateson's is by the far the best introduction -to Mendelism that exists, besides being the most recent and the most -authoritative possible. With the lucidity of the born teacher (whose -faculty, I have no doubt, is a Mendelian unit, not always inherited -by the born observer) the author explains the essence of Mendelism. -The usual expositor has not proceeded far upon his way before he is -encumbering himself and the learner with the phenomena of dominance -and recessiveness, which are not cardinal and are highly involved. -Professor Bateson makes no allusion to them. But he gives an account -of Mendelism which it is impossible to put down without finishing, and -which is elementary in the highest sense of the word. In the later -pages the author preaches eugenics with a vigour and conviction not -unworthy of notice as coming from the leader of a school which is -utterly opposed in principle and in methods, if not in results, to the -school of biometrics founded by the founder of eugenics. I insist upon -this because there is a half-instructed ignorance abroad which has -heard the name of Mendel, and seeks thereby to discredit Darwin and -natural selection, Mr. Galton and eugenics. Hear Professor Bateson:-- - -"If there are societies which refuse to apply the new knowledge, -the fault will not lie with Genetics. I think it needs but little -observation of the newer civilisations to foresee that _they_ will -apply every scrap of scientific knowledge which can help them, or seems -to help them in the struggle, and I am good enough selectionist to know -that in that day the fate of the recalcitrant communities is sealed." - -_Hereditary Genius, An Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences._ By -Francis Galton. - -This is the classical and pioneer enquiry, far beyond my praise -or appraisement. The main text is not long, is easily read and is -extremely interesting. The reader should acquaint himself also with Mr. -Constable's recent criticism, _Poverty and Hereditary Genius_. - -_A Study of British Genius._ (1904.) By Havelock Ellis. - -This is an extremely interesting book, which should be read in -association with the foregoing, to which it is a criticism and -supplement. The greater part of the volume is concerned with the -study of genius from the point of view of heredity--in terms of -nationality and race, and of individual parentage. Very great labour -and scholarship have been expended to very high purpose in this work. - -_Inquiries into Human Faculty._ (1883.) By Francis Galton. - -This is the next in order of Mr. Galton's works, _Hereditary Genius_ -dating from 1869. It has recently been reprinted in Dent's "Everyman's -Library," and can thus be purchased for one shilling. - -_Natural Inheritance._ (1889.) By Francis Galton. - -_Memories of my Life._ (1908.) By Francis Galton. - -This is Mr. Galton's latest book, and apart from its personal -fascination must be read by the serious eugenist if only on account -of its last five chapters, and especially the last two, which deal -with Heredity and Race Improvement. What could be more interesting -and significant, for instance, than to find Mr. Galton in 1908 saying -of himself in 1865, "I was too much disposed to think of marriage -under some regulation, and not enough of the effects of self-interest -and of social and religious sentiment." Mr. Galton comments on the -wrongheadedness of objectors to eugenics. I fancy, however, that the -familiar misrepresentations will soon cease to be possible. The whole -of this brief last chapter must be carefully read and studied. At -least I must quote the following paragraph:-- - -"What I desire is that the importance of eugenic marriages should be -reckoned at its just value, neither too high nor too low, and that -eugenics should form one of the many considerations by which marriages -are promoted or hindered, as they are by social position, adequate -fortune, and similarity of creed. I can believe hereafter that it will -be felt as derogatory to a person of exceptionally good stock to marry -into an inferior one as it is for a person of high Austrian rank to -marry one who has not sixteen heraldic quarterings. I also hope that -social recognition of an appropriate kind will be given to healthy, -capable, and large families, and that social influence will be exerted -towards the encouragement of eugenic marriages." - -This volume, a model for all future autobiographers, ends with the -following splendid statement of the eugenic creed:-- - -"A true philanthropist concerns himself not only with society as a -whole, but also with as many of the individuals who compose it as the -range of his affections can include. If a man devotes himself solely to -the good of a nation as a whole, his tastes must be impersonal and his -conclusions so far heartless, deserving the ill title of 'dismal' with -which Carlyle labelled statistics. If, on the other hand, he attends -only to certain individuals in whom he happens to take an interest, he -becomes guided by favouritism and is oblivious of the rights of others -and of the futurity of the race. Charity refers to the individual; -Statesmanship to the nation; Eugenics cares for both. - -"It is known that a considerable part of the huge stream of British -charity furthers by indirect and unsuspected ways the production of the -Unfit; it is most desirable that money and other attention bestowed -on harmful forms of charity should be diverted to the production and -well-being of the Fit. For clearness of explanation we may divide newly -married couples into three classes, with respect to the probable civic -worth of their offspring. There would be a small class of 'desirables,' -a large class of 'passables,' of whom nothing more will be said here, -and a small class of 'undesirables.' It would clearly be advantageous -to the country if social and moral support as well as timely material -help were extended to the desirables, and not monopolised as it is now -apt to be by the undesirables. - -"I take eugenics very seriously, feeling that its principles ought to -become one of the dominant motives in a civilised nation, much as if -they were one of its religious tenets. I have often expressed myself in -this sense, and will conclude this book by briefly reiterating my views. - -"Individuals appear to me as partial detachments from the infinite -ocean of Being, and this world as a stage on which Evolution takes -place, principally hitherto by means of Natural Selection, which -achieves the good of the whole with scant regard to that of the -individual. - -"Man is gifted with pity and other kindly feelings; he has also the -power of preventing many kinds of suffering. I conceive it to fall well -within his province to replace Natural Selection by other processes -that are more merciful and not less effective. - -"This is precisely the aim of eugenics. Its first object is to check -the birth-rate of the Unfit, instead of allowing them to come into -being, though doomed in large numbers to perish prematurely. The second -object is the improvement of the race by furthering the productivity -of the Fit by early marriages and healthful rearing of their children. -Natural Selection rests upon excessive production and wholesale -destruction; Eugenics on bringing no more individuals into the world -than can be properly cared for, and those only of the best stock." - -_Heredity and Selection in Sociology._ (1907.) By George -Chatterton-Hill. - -This is a useful and interesting work, the nature of which is well -indicated by its title. It contains many purely eugenic chapters, and -cannot be ignored by the student. - -_The Germ-plasm, A Theory of Heredity._ (The Contemporary Science -Series. 1893.) By August Weismann. - -This is Weismann's great work. It should be studied by politicians and -others who still interpret all social phenomena in terms of Lamarckian -theory, and also by modern writers who are so much more Weismannian -than Weismann. - -_The Evolution Theory._ (1904.) Translated by J. Arthur Thomson and M. -R. Thomson. By August Weismann. - -_The Principles of Heredity._ (1905.) By G. Archdall Reid. - -This is a very interesting and extremely Weismannian book which -contains the most recent statement of the author's remarkable enquiries -into the influence of disease as a factor of human selection. - -_Variation in Animals and Plants._ (The International Scientific -Series. 1903.) By H. M. Vernon. - -_Variation, Heredity and Evolution._ (1906.) By R. H. Lock. - -_The Origin of Species._ (1869. Last (sixth) edition. Reprinted 1901.) -By Charles Darwin. - -_The Descent of Man._ (1871. Second edition, 1874. Reprinted 1906.) By -Charles Darwin. - -These classics now cost only half-a-crown apiece. - -The beginner should read _The Descent of Man_ first, I think. Some -of the earlier chapters are of the utmost eugenic value, and would be -found immensely interesting by modern lecturers on decadence, and the -like. - -_Darwinism To-day._ (1907.) By Vernon L. Kellogg. - -An interesting and scholarly recent criticism, containing much matter -strictly relevant to eugenics. - -_The Evolution of Sex._ (The Contemporary Science Series. Revised -edition, 1901. Originally published in 1899.) By Patrick Geddes and J. -Arthur Thomson. - -A famous book, yet to be discovered by most "authorities" on the Woman -Question. - -_A History of Matrimonial Institutions._ (1904.) By G. E. Howard. - -This is a three-volume treatise, extremely comprehensive, and -especially valuable as a guide to the literature of the subject. Only -the professional student can be expected to read it from cover to -cover, but it is invaluable for purposes of reference. - -_The History of Human Marriage._ By E. Westermarck. - -This rightly celebrated and epoch-making work demonstrates in especial -the survival-value of monogamy, and its historical dominance as a -marriage form. - -_The Evolution of Marriage._ (The Contemporary Science Series.) By -Professor Letourneau. - -_The Principles of Population._ By T. R. Malthus. - -The substance of this may be conveniently read in the extracts -published in the _Economic Classics_ by Macmillan (1905). - -_The Principles of Biology._ By Herbert Spencer. - -The last section, "The Laws of Multiplication," _must_ be read as the -expression of the missing half of the truth discovered by Malthus. It -is tiresome, nearly half a century after Spencer's enunciation of his -law, to have to read the remarks of some modern writers who continue -to assume that Malthus expressed not merely the truth but the whole -truth. - -_The Republic of Plato._ - -Apart from the lines of Theognis quoted by Darwin in _The Descent of -Man_, which are some two centuries older than Plato, the fifth book of -the _Republic_ is the earliest discussion in literature of the idea of -eugenics, and utterly wild though we may consider most of the proposals -of Plato--or Socrates--to be, these early thinkers are yet more modern -and more scientific and more fundamental than all their successors, -even including our modern Utopia makers who have come after Darwin, -in recognising that it is the quality of the citizen which will make -a Utopia possible. The following will suffice to show that after more -than two thousand years we can still learn from the fundamental idea of -Plato's fifth chapter:-- - - "It is plain, then, that after this we must make marriages as much - as possible sacred; but the most advantageous should be most sacred. - By all means. How then shall they be most advantageous? Tell me - that, Glauco, for I see in your houses dogs of chace, and a great - many excellent birds. Have you then indeed ever attended at all, - in any respect, to their marriages, and the propagation of their - species? How? said he. First of all, that among these, although they - be excellent themselves, are there not some who are most excellent? - There are. Whether then do you breed from all of them alike? or are - you careful to breed chiefly from the best? From the best. But how? - From the youngest or from the oldest, or from those who are most - in their prime? From those in their prime. And if the breed be not - of this kind, you reckon that the race of birds and dogs greatly - degenerates. I reckon so, replied he. And what think you as to - horses, said I, and other animals? is the case any otherwise with - respect to these? That, said he, were absurd." - -Plato proposed to destroy the family, and to "practise every art that -no mother should know her own child." He also approved of infanticide. -Nevertheless, this fifth book of the _Republic_ is interesting and -valuable reading, and it is especially well to note that this pioneer -of Utopianism and Socialism possessed the idea which almost all living -Socialists, except Dr. A. R. Wallace and Professors Forel and Pearson, -lack, that we must first make the Utopian and Utopia will follow. - -_The Family._ (1906.) By Elsie Clews Parsons. - -This recent, scholarly and lucid book, of which any living man might -well be proud, may follow the reading of the utterly unconcerned and -taken-for-granted fashion in which Socrates and Plato proposed to -destroy the family. Lecture VIII., on "Sexual Choice," is brief, but -the references following it are extremely valuable and complete. It is -evident that one of the books which will have to be written on eugenics -in the near future must deal with the whole question of marriage and -human selection both in its historical and in its contemporary aspects. - -"The Possible Improvement of the Human Breed under Existing Conditions -of Law and Sentiment." _Nature_, 1901, p. 659; _Smithsonian Report_, -Washington, 1901, p. 523. By Francis Galton. - -This was the Huxley Lecture of the Anthropological Institute in 1901, -and the contemporary interest in eugenics may be said to date from it. - -"Eugenics, its Definition, Scope and Aims." (_Sociological Papers._ -1904.) By Francis Galton. - -This remarkable lecture constituted a further introduction of the -subject, and it is somewhat of the nature of an impertinence for -the professional jester, who is not acquainted with a line of it, -to dismiss eugenics with a phrase as if this lecture had never been -written or were unobtainable. Mr. Galton there defined eugenics as -"the science which deals with all influences that improve the inborn -qualities of a race...." The definition given in the _Century -Dictionary_ is unauthoritative, incorrect, and misses the entire point. - -An extremely valuable discussion follows this lecture, and it is -absolutely necessary for the student to acquaint himself with the whole -of these pages (45-99). - -_Restrictions in Marriage: Studies in National Eugenics: Eugenics as a -Factor in Religion._ By Francis Galton. - -These are memoirs communicated to the Sociological Society in 1905, and -published together with the subsequent discussions in _Sociological -Papers_ (1905). The three memoirs are also published separately under -one cover. - -_Probability, the Foundation of Eugenics._ The Herbert Spencer Lecture -of 1907. By Francis Galton. - -This lecture contains a very brief historical outline of the recent -progress of eugenic enquiry and a simple discussion of the mathematical -method of studying heredity. It must, of course, be read by every -serious student. - -_National Life from the Standpoint of Science._ (1905.) By Karl Pearson. - -This is a reprint of a lecture delivered by Professor Pearson in 1900, -together with some other valuable contributions of his to the subject. -There is scarcely a better introduction to eugenics. - -_The Scope and Importance to the State of the Science of National -Eugenics._ The Robert Boyle Lecture, 1907. (Second edition, 1909.) By -Karl Pearson. - -This fine lecture should be carefully read. It gives some index to the -quantity and quality of the work done by Professor Pearson and his -followers since the Francis Galton Eugenics Laboratory was founded. - -_Population and Progress._ (1907.) By Montague Crackanthorpe, K.C. - -Though only published recently, part of this book goes back far. The -first chapter is indeed a reprint of a eugenic article published in the -_Fortnightly Review_ as far back as 1872. Some of us may perhaps be -inclined to forget that more than a generation ago Mr. Crackanthorpe -had grasped the great truths which we are now trying to spread, and -had courageously expressed them in the face of ignorance and prejudice -even greater than those of to-day. This is unquestionably a book which -every student must read, but the press generally, with some notable -exceptions, have fought rather shy of it. It was sent to the present -writer at his request from a leading morning paper which trusts him, -and he wrote a column on it, most careful in diction and moderate in -opinion, which was, nevertheless, not printed. One of the leading -medical papers devoted a long article to the book, written on the -general principle that it is right for a medical paper to differ -from any non-medical person who approaches the closed neighbourhood -of medical enquiry. Another leading medical paper considered Mr. -Crackanthorpe's "ideal" to be "beyond present accomplishment," and -feared it must have "many generations of probation before it could -hope to enter the sphere of practical politics." I venture to say that -_Population and Progress_, dealing, as it does, with a subject that -really matters, contains more fundamental practical politics--in the -true sense of that word--than has been discussed in most of our current -newspapers since they were first established. - -_Race-Culture or Race-Suicide._ (1906.) By R. R. Rentoul. - -This is a second and enlarged edition of a remarkable pamphlet -published by Dr. Rentoul in 1903 under the title _Proposed -Sterilisation of Certain Mental and Physical Degenerates. An Appeal -to Asylum Managers and Others._ Dr. Rentoul's own description of this -pamphlet is as follows:--"In it I called attention to the large -and increasing number of the insane in the United Kingdom; to our -disgraceful system of child-marriages; to the growing suicide rate; -to our disgusting system of inducing certain mentally and physically -diseased persons to marry; and to a slight operation which I was the -first to propose as a means of checking the increase in the number of -the insane, and in preventing innocent offspring from being cursed by -some parental blemish." - -_Education._ (Originally published in 1861. New edition, with the -author's latest corrections, 1906.) By Herbert Spencer. - -This is the classic which marks an epoch in the personal development -of every one who reads it, and which made an epoch in the history of -education: the book was probably of more service to woman, owing to its -liberation of girlhood, than any other of its century. - -_The Study of Sociology._ (International Scientific Series. Originally -published in 1873. Twentieth edition, 1903.) By Herbert Spencer. - -This is, of course, _the_ introduction to sociology, written for that -purpose by a master, and in every respect a masterpiece. It contains -many eugenic references and arguments. As far as the eugenic education -of the adult is concerned, this is rightly the preliminary work. - -Besides _The Evolution of Sex_ and Mrs. Parson's book on _The Family_, -there are many others relevant to the question of woman and eugenics, -of which one or two may be noted here. - -_Sex and Society, Studies in the Social Psychology of Sex._ (1907.) By -W. I. Thomas. - -This is a very readable and recent work, and for the general reader -much the most suitable of any that I know. - -_Man and Woman._ (Contemporary Science Series.) By Havelock Ellis. - -A very clear and readable book. - -_Youth--its Education, Regimen and Hygiene._ (1907.) By Stanley Hall. - -This is a new and abbreviated version of Professor Stanley Hall's two -well-known volumes on _Adolescence_, published in 1904. For the general -reader this much smaller work is very suitable, and especial attention -may be directed to Chapter XI., "The Education of Girls." - -It would have been presumptuous and absurd to attempt, in the course of -a merely introductory volume, to deal, by anything more than allusion -to its existence, with the great question of human parenthood in -relation to race. Most urgently this question, of course, concerns the -negro problem in America. The student who has to trust entirely to -second-hand knowledge had best be silent. Lest, however, the reader -should imagine that the older doctrines of race can be accepted without -reserve, he will do well to study very carefully the latter part of Dr. -Archdall Reid's book, already referred to, and, with extreme caution, -the following:-- - -_Race Prejudice._ (1906.) By Jean Finot. - -This book most of us must believe to be extreme, but it should be read: -it bears on what may be called international eugenics, and the whole -question of inter-racial marriage. - - * * * * * - -On matters of transmissible disease and racial poisons there is much -literature. Only one or two books can be referred to here. - -_The Diseases of Society: The Vice and Crime Problem._ (1904.) By G. F. -Lydston. - -This, of course, is not a pleasant book, and it is open to much -criticism in many respects, but it is well worth reading, especially -in association with Dr. Rentoul's work. - -_Malaria--A Neglected Factor in the History of Greece and Rome._ -(1907.) By W. H. S. Jones, with an introduction by Ronald Ross. - -This is a recent historical study and may be a very substantial -contribution to the study of decadence. - -_Alcoholism._ (1906.) By W. C. Sullivan. - -This little book of Dr. Sullivan's contains a useful and scrupulously -moderate chapter on the relation of alcohol to human degeneration. - -_The Drink Problem._ (1907.) By Fourteen Medical Authorities. - -_The Children of the Nation._ (1906.) By Sir John Gorst. - -_Infant Mortality._ (1906.) By George Newman. - -_The Hygiene of Mind._ (1906.) By T. S. Clouston. - -_Diseases of Occupation._ (1908.) By Sir T. Oliver. - -_The Prevention of Tuberculosis._ (1908.) By A. Newsholme. - -These volumes all deal in part with questions of racial poisoning and -racial hygiene. - -_Alcoholism--A Study in Heredity._ (1901.) By Archdall Reid. - -_Alcohol and the Human Body._ (1907.) By Sir Victor Horsley and Mary D. -Sturge. - -_Hygiene of Nerves and Mind._ (The Progressive Science Series. 1907.) -By August Forel. - -_Inebriety--Its Causation and Control._ (The second Norman Kerr -Memorial Lecture, published in the _British Journal of Inebriety_, -January, 1908.) By R. Welsh Branthwaite. - -_Reports of the Inspector under the Inebriates Acts._ Especially those -for the years 1904, 1905, 1906. - -_The Cry of the Children: The Black Stain._ (1907.) By G. R. Sims. - -The above are especially recommended to politicians. Sooner or later, -as never yet, knowledge will have to be applied to the drink question -as it bears upon the quality of the race. The knowledge exists, and is -not difficult to acquire or understand. The references given are quite -sufficient to enable any one of mediocre intelligence to frame a bill -dealing with alcohol which would be worth all its predecessors put -together, and would arouse far less opposition than any one of them. - -_Reports of the National Conference on Infantile Mortality_ 1906 -and 1908 (P. S. King & Co.). In the 1906 Report note especially Dr. -Ballantyne's paper on the unborn infant, and in the 1908 Report, Miss -Alice Ravenhill's paper on the education of girls. - -It must be repeated that the foregoing names are merely noted as -including, perhaps, the greater number of the books with which the -serious beginner would do well to make a start. That is all. It would -be both unfair and unwise, however, to omit any mention of at least -three wonderful little books of John Ruskin's: _Unto this Last_, -_Munera Pulveris_ and _Time and Tide_, which add to their great -qualities of soul and style some of the most forcible and wisest -things that have ever been written on race-culture and its absolutely -fundamental relation to morality, patriotism and true economics. - -If the reader desires the name of only one book, that is certainly _The -Sexual Question_ (1908), by Professor August Forel. This has no rival -anywhere, and cannot be overpraised. - - - - -Footnotes: - -[1] A tribute is due to the anonymous pioneer of sane and provident -philanthropy who lately gave L20,000 to the London Hospital -for research. Such a thing is a commonplace in New York, it is -unprecedented in London. - -[2] The word is used in the ordinary loose sense, to which there -is no objection provided that there be no misunderstanding of its -exact scientific meaning, as in Spencer's phrase "survival of the -fittest"--_i.e._ not the best, but the best adapted. See p. 43. - -[3] "Degeneration," I think, is the best word for the racial, -"deterioration" for the individual, change. - -[4] That is in the ordinary sense of the words, not in the more exact -sense--as I think--in which a good environment would be defined as that -which selects the good for parenthood. - -[5] Italics mine. - -[6] We have seen that Huxley's assertion of the fundamental opposition -between moral and cosmic evolution is unwarrantable. We do recognise, -however, that in our present practice this opposition exists. Our -ancestors were cruel to the insane, but at least they prevented them -from multiplying. We are blindly kind to them, and therefore in the -long run cruel. But the dilemma, kind to be cruel, or cruel to be kind, -is not necessary. It is quite possible, as we have asserted, to be -at once kind to the individual and protective of the future. On the -other hand, it is also possible to be cruel to both. The London County -Council offers us, at the time of writing, a demonstration of this. -Sending wretched inebriates on the round of police-court, prison and -street, with intermittent gestations, rather than expend a shilling a -day, per individual, in decently detaining them, it serves at least the -philosophic purpose of demonstrating that it is possible to combine the -maximum of brutality to the individual and the present with the maximum -of injury to the race and the future. - -[7] Reprinted in _The Kingdom of Man_ (Constable). - -[8] _Sociological Papers_, 1905, p. 59. - -[9] Whilst allowing due weight to Mr. Wells' opinion, we may also -note that of Charles Darwin who, referring to his own phrase, natural -selection, says, "But the expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer -of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate." (_Origin of Species_, -popular edition, p. 76.) - -[10] _Collected Essays_, vol. i. p. 493. A valuable controversy but -poor sport. Thinker _versus_ politician is scarcely a match. - -[11] This is discussed at length in the writer's paper, "The Obstacles -to Eugenics," read before the Sociological Society, March 8, 1909. - -[12] Spencer introduced the non-moral word evolution in 1857, _in order -to_ avoid the moral connotation of the word progress, which he had -formerly employed. - -[13] In his recent work, _The Origin of Vertebrates_, Dr. W. H. -Gaskell, F.R.S., has adduced much evidence in support of this thesis. -He says, "The law of progress is this: The race is not to the swift nor -to the strong, but to the wise." And again; "As for the individual, -so for the nation; as for the nation, so for the race; the law of -evolution teaches that in all cases brain-power wins. Throughout, from -the dawn of animal life up to the present day, the evidence given in -this book suggests that the same law has always held. In all cases, -upward progress is associated with the development of the central -nervous system. The law for the whole animal kingdom is the same as for -the individual. 'Success in this world depends upon brains.'" - -[14] We may recall the words of Lear:-- - -"Is man no more than this? Consider him well: Thou owest the worm no -silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume:.... -Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a -poor, bare, forked animal as thou art." - -[15] Says Darwin, "So little is this subject understood, that I have -heard surprise repeatedly expressed at such great monsters as the -Mastodon ... having become extinct; as if mere bodily strength gave -victory in the battle of life. Mere size, on the contrary, would in -some cases determine ... quicker extermination from the greater amount -of requisite food." In the Russo-Japanese War, one of the effective -factors was the greater area of the Russian soldier as a target, and -the disparity between the food requirements of the little victors and -the big losers. - -[16] Quoted from a Paper read by Mr. Galton before the Eugenics -Education Society, October 14, 1908, and published in _Nature_, October -22, 1908. - -[17] See the author's paper, "The Psychology of Parenthood," _Eugenics -Review_, April, 1909. - -[18] An authoritative statement on this point has already been quoted -from Sir E. Ray Lankester's Romanes Lecture of 1905, p. 42. - -[19] The exception of one or two large animals, like the elephant, is -not important. In proportion to body weight man's birth-rate is lower -than theirs. And it is to be noted that the "infant" mortality is very -low in this case, where the birth-rate is so low. Says Darwin, of the -young elephant. "None are destroyed by beasts of prey; for even the -tiger in India most rarely dares to attack a young elephant protected -by its dam." The dam has no factory to go to, and no beast of prey to -sell her alcohol. - -[20] "The fulmar petrel lays but one egg, yet it is believed to be -the most numerous bird in the world." (_Origin of Species_, popular -edition, p. 81). - -[21] _The Wheat Problem_, by Sir Wm. Crookes, F.R.S., 2nd edition, -1905. The _Chemical News_ Office, 15, Newcastle St., Farringdon St., -E.C. - -[22] See Chap. iii. of the _Origin of Species_. - -[23] Including even such an exceptional student as Dr. George Newman, -who, in his book on _Infant Mortality_, regards a falling birth-rate -as an essential evil, and actually declares without qualification -that the factors "which lower the birth-rate tend to raise the infant -death-rate." - -[24] It is not necessary to point out again the exception of the -elephant, nor to explain it. - -[25] Mr. Galton believes their number has been exaggerated. - -[26] Quoted from the author's lectures on _Individualism and -Collectivism_ (Williams and Norgate, 1906). - -[27] As is usually the case, except when the mother or the father is -alcoholic or syphilitic. - -[28] If we make a diagram of society, with the social strata labelled, -and then proceed to make a eugenic comment upon it, certainly the -line dividing the sheep from the goats, _as for parenthood_, would -not be horizontal, at any level. Nor would it be vertical--as if the -proportions of worth and unworth were the same in all classes. Some -would draw it diagonally, counting most of the aristocracy good and -most of the lowest strata bad: others would slope it the other way. -I should not venture to draw it at all: there are individuals good -and bad in all classes and races, and their relative proportions are -unknown, at least to me. - -[29] "For words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them; -but they are the money of fools" (Hobbes, _Leviathan_, Pt. I. chap iv.). - -[30] It might be supposed that the words "inherent" and "inherited" -were allied etymologically. This is not so. "Inherit" is derived from -"heir," and this from a verb meaning "to take." In natural inheritance -the heir inherits what is inherent in the germ-cells which make him. -Says Professor Thomson: "The organisation of the fertilised ovum is the -inheritance"--_and the heir_, we may add. - -[31] Unless indeed it be an organism so lowly as only to consist of one -cell throughout. - -[32] The reader will remember the chapter, "A Berry to the Rescue." -"Says Lucy demurely: 'Now you know why I read history, and that sort -of books.... I only read sensible books and talk of serious things ... -because I have heard say ... dear Mrs. Berry! don't you understand -now?'" - -[33] Contrast Mr. Galton, the propounder of the now accepted view:-- - -"As a general rule, with scarcely any exception that cannot be ascribed -to other influences, such as bad nutrition or transmitted microbes, -the injuries or habits of the parents are found to have no effect on -the natural form or faculties of the child." (_Hereditary Genius_, -Prefatory Chapter to the Edition of 1892, p. xv.) - -[34] In the later edition Mr. Galton discusses the question of the -title, and says that if it could now be altered, it should appear as -_Hereditary Ability_. We may note that, as the author says himself, -"The reader will find a studious abstinence throughout the work from -speaking of genius as a special quality." - -[35] The reader may note "A Eugenic Investigation: Index to -Achievements of Near Kinsfolk of some of the Fellows of the Royal -Society," _Sociological Papers_, 1904, pp. 85-99 (Macmillan); also -_Noteworthy Families_ (John Murray, 1906). - -[36] These researches have not yet been published. - -[37] In the later chapters of a former book, "Health, Strength, and -Happiness" (Grant Richards, London; Mitchell Kennerley, New York, -1908), I have discussed various aspects of heredity from the eugenic -point of view more fully than has been possible here. - -[38] See the last sentence of the quotation from Forel on p. 130. - -[39] For definition of these terms see Chap. xi. - -[40] By some such means we may hope that man too may some day become -domesticated without losing his fertility! - -[41] 1 Corinthians xii. 22, 23, 24. - -[42] Quoted from the Author's _Evolution the Master Key_. - -[43] Mr. G. K. Chesterton, one of the most amusing of contemporary -phenomena, has lately said: "The most serious sociologists, the most -stately professors of eugenics, calmly propose that, 'for the good -of the race,' people should be forcibly married to each other by -the police." Readers unacquainted with Mr. Chesterton's standard of -accuracy and methods of criticism might be misled by this gay invention. - -[44] _The Family_, p. 20. - -[45] _Encyclopaedia Medica_, vol. ii., Article "Deaf-Mutism." - -[46] In a lecture, "The Obstacles to Eugenics," delivered before the -Sociological Society, March 8, 1909. - -[47] Since these words were written there has been passed the -"Prevention of Crimes Act," which is the first attempt in this country -to apply the elementary truths of the subject in legislation. As an -essentially eugenic proposal it is to be heartily welcomed. - -[48] Dr. Bulstrode's Lecture to the Royal Institution, May 15, 1908. - -[49] This suggestion, first made by the present writer in March, 1908, -and in the paper referred to on p. 205, is, I believe, to be the -subject of an official enquiry. - -[50] _Sociological Papers_ (Macmillan, 1905), p. 3. - -[51] "In any scheme of eugenics, energy is the most important quality -to favour; it is, as we have seen, the basis of every action, and it is -eminently transmissible by descent."--Galton. - -[52] _Fortnightly Review_, January, 1908. - -[53] "As the German philosopher Schopenhauer remarks, the final aim -of all love intrigues, be they comic or tragic, is really of more -importance than all other ends in human life. What it all turns upon is -nothing less than the composition of the next generation.... It is not -the weal or woe of any one individual, but that of the human race to -come, which is at stake."--Darwin, _Descent of Man_, p. 893. - -[54] _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, vol. iv. (F. A. Davis Co., -Philadelphia, 1905). - -[55] Part of the matter of this chapter was included in papers entitled -"Racial Hygiene or Negative Eugenics, with special reference to the -Extirpation of Alcoholism," read before the Congress of the Royal -Institute of Public Health, at Buxton, 1908, and "Alcoholism and -Eugenics," read before the Society for the Study of Inebriety, April, -1909. - -[56] Italics mine. - -[57] To-day many of the children who make our destiny are born drunk, -owing to maternal intoxication during labour: I have myself attended -the birth of such children, both in Edinburgh and in York. - -[58] This was written in 1892, before the accumulation of the modern -evidence on the subject. - -[59] "Alcohol taken into the stomach can be demonstrated in the -testicle or ovary within a few minutes, and, like any other poison, -may injure the sperm or the germ element therein contained. As a -result of this intoxication of the primary elements, children may be -conceived and born who become idiots, epileptics, or feeble-minded. -Therefore it comes about that even before conception a fault may -be present."--McAdam Eccles, F.R.C.S., in the _British Journal of -Inebriety_, April, 1908. - -[60] See p. 111. - -[61] London: James Nisbet and Co., 1906. - -[62] Will our modern extremists be good enough to remember that Mr. -Galton is the prime author of the doctrine that functionally-produced -modifications are not inherited? - -[63] The use of this word thus is unusual, to say the least of it. Dr. -Claye Shaw simply means _causal relation_. - -[64] The subject of alcoholism and race-culture really demands a -large volume. There is no space here to detail the fashion in which -the drunken mother poisons her child after birth, when she nurses -it, since, as has been chemically proved, alcohol is excreted in her -milk. Says a most distinguished authority, Mrs. Scharlieb, "the child, -then, absolutely receives alcohol as part of his diet, with the worst -effect upon his organs, for alcohol has a greater effect upon cells -in proportion to their immaturity" ("The Drink Problem," in the New -Library of Medicine), and Dr. Sullivan refers to "numerous cases on -record of convulsions and other disorders occurring in infants when -the nurse has taken liquor, and ceasing when she has been put on a -non-alcoholic diet." The reader may be referred to my brief paper, -"Alcohol and Infancy," published in the form of a tract by the Church -of England Temperance Society. - -[65] This is printed in the _British Journal of Inebriety_, January, -1908, under the title "Inebriety, its Causation and Control"--with -comments by numerous authorities. - -[66] The author says "inherent defect." I have omitted the adjective, -as it is obviously misused. _Antecedent_ would have been the better -word, surely. - -[67] Italics mine. - -[68] Italics mine. A thousand pounds for cure--which does not cure--and -twopence for prevention is, of course, the rule with a half-educated -nation always. - -[69] She died in a lunatic asylum. I have not heard that society ever -offered her a public apology for its brutality to her. - -[70] See _Times_ report, February 28, 1908. - -[71] Report of the Inspector under the Inebriates Acts for the year -1906. - -[72] This drinking by women, which means drinking by mothers present, -expectant or possible, is rapidly increasing in Great Britain, though -almost unknown in our Colonies. It is at the heart that Empires rot. - -[73] Cd. 4438. Price 4-1/2d. Volume of evidence Cd. 4439. Price 2s. - -[74] A careful and detailed enquiry by the present writer, published -in the _Westminster Gazette_ (Nov. 21, 1908), _Daily Chronicle_, and -_Manchester Guardian_, and hitherto unchallenged, showed that, on -the most moderate reckoning, alcohol makes 124 widows and orphans in -England and Wales every day, or more than 45,000 per annum. - -[75] _Diseases of Occupation_, by Sir Thomas Oliver. (The New Library -of Medicine, 1908.) - -[76] This chapter contains the substance of the author's Friday evening -discourse, entitled "Biology and History," delivered before the Royal -Institution of Great Britain and Ireland, February 14, 1908. The -substance of two lectures to the Royal Institution, entitled "Biology -and Progress," and delivered in February, 1907, is also included in the -present volume. - -[77] "It is thus everywhere that foolish Rumour babbles not of what -was done, but of what was misdone or undone; and foolish History -(ever, more or less, the written epitomised synopsis of Rumour) -knows so little that were not as well unknown. Attila invasions, -Walter-the-Penniless Crusades, Sicilian Vespers, Thirty-Years' Wars: -mere sin and misery; not work, but hindrance of work! For the Earth, -all this while, was yearly green and yellow with her kind harvests; -the hand of the craftsman, the mind of the thinker rested not: and so, -after all, and in spite of all, we have this so glorious high-domed -blossoming World; concerning which, poor History may well ask, with -wonder, Whence _it_ came? She knows so little of it, knows so much -of what obstructed it, what would have rendered it impossible. Such, -nevertheless, by necessity or foolish choice, is her rule and practice; -whereby that paradox, 'Happy the people whose annals are vacant,' is -not without its true side."--Carlyle, _French Revolution_. - -"In a little while it would come to be felt that the true history of -a nation was indeed not of its wars but of its households."--Ruskin, -_Time and Tide_. - -[78] "Literature, taken in all its bearings, forms the grand line of -demarcation between the human and the animal kingdoms."--William Godwin. - -[79] See the Author's paper, "The Essential Factor of Progress," -published in the _Monthly Review_, April, 1906. - -[80] Gibbon does not enlighten us much on such vital matters: but my -attention has been called to the following passage, not irrelevant -here. It is from the _Attic Nights_ of Aulus Gellius, Book xii., chap. -i., written about A.D. 150--Gibbon's critical epoch. I use the free -translation of Mr. Quintin Waddington:-- - -"Once when I was with the philosopher Favorinus, word was brought to -him that the wife of one of his disciples had just given birth to a son. - -"'Let us go,' said he, 'to enquire after the mother, and to -congratulate the father.' The latter was a noble of Senatorial rank. - -"All of us who were present accompanied him to the house and went in -with him. Meeting the father in the hall, he embraced and congratulated -him, and, sitting down, enquired how his wife had come through the -ordeal. And when he heard that the young mother, overcome with fatigue, -was now sleeping, he began to speak more freely. - -"'Of course,' said he, 'she will suckle the child herself.' And when -the girl's mother said that her daughter must be spared, and nurses -obtained in order that the heavy strain of nursing the child should -not be added to what she had already gone through, 'I beg of you, dear -lady,' said he, 'to allow her to be a whole mother to her child. Is it -not against nature, and being only half a mother, to give birth to a -child, and then at once to send him away? To have nourished with her -own blood and in her own body a something that she had never seen, -and then to refuse it her own milk, now that she sees it living, a -human being, demanding a mother's care? Or are you one of those who -think that nature gave a woman breasts, not that she might feed her -children, but as pretty little hillocks to give her bust a pleasing -contour? Many indeed of our present-day ladies--whom you are far from -resembling--do try to dry up and repress that sacred fount of the body, -the nourisher of the human race, even at the risk they run from turning -back and corrupting their milk, lest it should take off from the charm -of their beauty. In doing this they act with the same folly as those, -who, by the use of drugs and so forth, endeavour to destroy the very -embryo in their bodies, lest a furrow should mar the smoothness of -their skin, and they should spoil their figures in becoming mothers. -If the destruction of a human being in its first inception, whilst it -is being formed, whilst it is yet coming to life, and is still in the -hands of its artificer, Nature, be deserving of public detestation and -horror, is it not nearly as bad to deprive the child of his proper -and congenial nutriment to which he is accustomed, now that he is -perfected, is born into the world, is a child? - -"But it makes no difference--for as they say--so long as the child is -nourished and lives, with whose milk it is done. - -"Why does he who says this, since he is so dull in understanding -nature, think it also of no consequence in whose womb and from whose -blood the child is formed and fashioned? For is there not now in -the breasts the same blood--whitened, it is true, by agration and -heat--which was before in the womb? And is not the wisdom of Nature -to be seen in this, that as soon as the blood has done its work of -forming the body down below, and the time of birth has come, it betakes -itself to the upper parts of the body, and is ready to cherish the -spark of life and light by furnishing to the new-born babe his known -and accustomed food? And so it is not an idle belief, that, just as the -strength and character of the seed have their influence in determining -the likeness of the body and mind, so do the nature and properties of -the milk do their part in effecting the same results. And this has -been noticed, not in man alone, but in cattle as well. For if kids are -brought up on the milk of ewes, or lambs on that of goats, it is agreed -that the latter have stiffer wool, the former softer hair. In the case -of timber and fruit trees, too, the qualities of the water and soil -from which they draw their nourishment have more influence in stunting -or augmenting their growth than those of the seed which is sewn, and -often you may see a vigorous and healthy tree when transplanted into -another place perish owing to the poverty of the soil. - -"Is it then a reasonable thing to corrupt the fine qualities of -the new-born man, well endowed as to both body and mind so far as -parentage is concerned, with the unsuitable nourishment of degenerate -and foreign milk? Especially is this the case, if she whom you get -to supply the milk is a slave or of servile estate, and--as is very -often the case--of a foreign and barbarous race, if she is dishonest, -ugly, unchaste, or _addicted to drink_. For generally any woman who -happens to have milk is called in, without further enquiry as to her -suitability in other respects. Shall we allow this babe of ours to be -tainted by pernicious contagion, and to draw life into his body and -mind from a body and mind debased? - -"This is the reason why we are so often surprised that the children of -chaste mothers resemble their parents neither in body nor character. - -"... And besides these considerations, who can afford to ignore or -belittle the fact that those who desert their offspring and send them -away from themselves, and make them over to others to nurse, cut, or at -least loosen and weaken that chain and connection of mind and affection -by which Nature attaches children to their parents. For when the child, -sent elsewhere, is away from sight, the vigour of maternal solicitude -little by little dies away, and the call of motherly instinct grows -silent, and forgetfulness of a child sent away to nurse is not much -less complete than that of one lost by death. - -"A child's thoughts and the love he is ever ready to give, are -occupied, moreover, with her alone from whom he derives his food, and -soon he has neither feeling nor affection for the mother who bore him. -The foundations of the filial feelings with which we are born being -thus sapped and undermined, whatever affection children thus brought -up may seem to have for father and mother, for the most part is not -natural love, but the result of social convention.'" - -[81] Cf. the similar dicta of Darwin and Pearson (p. 279). - -[82] _National Life from the Standpoint of Science_, p. 99. - -[83] "Decadence," Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture, by the Rt. Hon. -A. J. Balfour, M.P., delivered at Newnham College, January 25, 1908. -(Cambridge University Press.) - -[84] "Restless activity proves the man," as Goethe says. - -[85] _Munera Pulveris_, par. 6. - -[86] _The Data of Ethics_, par. 97. - -[87] _Hereditary Genius_, Prefatory Chapter to Edition of 1902, pp. x. -and xxvii. - -[88] "The Survival-Value of Religion," _Fortnightly Review_, April, -1906. - - - - - INDEX OF SUBJECTS - - - Ability, inheritance of, 114 - - "Acquired characters," defined, 111 - - Acquired characters, Lamarckian theory of the transmission of, 283 - - ---- progress, 262 - - ---- ----, dangers of, 265 - - ---- ---- _versus_ natural selection, 266 - - Acquirements, transmission of, by the art of writing, 261 - - ---- _versus_ inborn characters, 101 - - Acromegaly, 67 - - "Adam Bede", 298 - - "Adolescence," by Prof. Stanley Hall, 318 - - Alcohol, a racial poison, 211, 259 - - ----, an agent of selection, 206 - - ---- and eugenics, 206 - - ----, and heredity, 206 - - ---- and human degeneration, 242 - - ---- and parenthood, 241 - - ----, effects of, on the racial organs, 208, 209 (_note_) - - ----, elimination by, 206 - - ----, the friends of, 243 - - ---- trade, the, and widows and orphans, 245 - - "Alcohol and Infancy," by Dr. Saleeby, 214 - - "Alcohol and the Human Body," by Sir Victor Horsley and Mary D. - Sturge, 319 - - Alcoholic Imperialism, 244 - - Alcoholism and the London County Council, 206 - - ----, both a cause and a symptom of degeneracy, 217 - - ----, parental, its influence on the offspring, 211 - - "Alcoholism, a Chapter in Social Pathology," by Dr. W. C. Sullivan, - 211, 242, 319 - - "Alcoholism, a Study in Heredity," by G. Archdall Reid, 319 - - Ancestral inheritance, the law of, xiv - - Ancestry of men of genius, 152 - - ----, paternal and maternal, of equal importance, 152 - - Animal life and monogamy, 163 - - ---- marriage, 162 - - Animals and promiscuity, 163 - - ----, the higher, and monogamy, 163 - - Army, inferior intelligence of the, to that of the Navy, 98 - - "Atavism," defined, 111 - - "Attic Nights, The," of Aulus Gellius, 271 (_note_) - - Australia, control of drunkards in, 242 - - "Autobiography" of Herbert Spencer, 58, 152 - - "Avaries, Les," by Brieux, 252 - - - Bacteria, domination of, 93 - - ----, rate of increase of, 160 - - Bibliography of eugenics, 305 - - ---- of racial poisons, 318 - - ---- of transmissible diseases, 318 - - Biography, as a guide to heredity, 152 - - ----, neglect of ancestral data in, 152 - - "Biology and History," by Dr. Saleeby, 254 (_note_) - - "Biology, The Principles of," by Herbert Spencer, 312 - - Biometrics, the study of, xiii - - Birth-rate, falling, eugenic aspect of the, 10 - - ---- in China, 78 - - ---- in Japan, 78 - - ---- of man, 72 - - ----, statistics of, 74 - - Births, ratio of, of the sexes, 294 - - "Black Stain, The," by G. R. Sims, 237, 319 - - Body, the necessity of the, 53 - - ----, relation of the, to the mind, 52 - - Brains, breeding for, 54 - - Breeding for brains, 54 - - ---- for energy, 66 - - ---- for intelligence, 147, 150, 153 - - ---- for motherhood, 145, 146 - - - Celibacy, non-eugenic results of, 116 - - Census, the uselessness of the, 6, 94 - - "Century Dictionary, The," on eugenics, 314 - - Characters, inborn, _versus_ acquirements, 101 - - Child-birth, superstition about, 106 - - Children, eugenics and cruelty to, 295 - - ----, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to, 295 - - "Children of the Nation, The," by Sir John Gorst, 319 - - China, the birth-rate in, 78 - - ----, racial state of, 274 - - Church, non-eugenic action of the, 116 - - Civic worth, 68 - - Civilisation, ideal, 117 - - Civilisations, the decay of, 255 - - Cocaine, the racial influence of, 250 - - "Collectivism, Individualism and," by Dr. Saleeby, 101 (_note_) - - Colour-blindness, _see_ Daltonism - - Conception, attitude of eugenics before and after, 30 - - "Congenital" defined, 105, 112 - - "Conscientiousness", 117 - - Crime, eugenics and, 177 - - ----, theories of, 177 - - ----, treatment of, 178 - - Criminality and civic worth, 68 - - "Cry of the Children, The," by G. R. Sims, 237, 319 - - - Daltonism and heredity, 179 - - "Dark ages," caused by the celibacy of the fittest, 116 - - "Darwinism To-day," by Vernon L. Kellogg, 312 - - "Data of Ethics, The," by Spencer, 302 (_note_) - - Deaf-mutism and heredity, 173 - - Death-rate, a low, the cause of the multiplication of man, 73 - - ----, influence of density of population on the, 75 - - ----, limitation of the, 78 - - ----, statistics of the, 74 - - Decadence, National, 279 - - "Decadence," by A. J. Balfour, 279 - - "Degeneration," defined, 25 (_note_) - - Degeneration, human, and alcohol, 217, 242 - - ----, racial, 49 - - "Descent of Man, The," by Charles Darwin, 171, 191, 197, 279, 311 - - "Deterioration," defined, 25 (_note_) - - Diminution of offspring, the eugenic value of, 162 - - Disease, latency of, 108 - - Diseases, transmissible, bibliography of, 318 - - "Diseases of Occupation," by Sir Thomas Oliver, 247 (_note_), 319 - - "Diseases of Society: The Vice and Crime Problem," by G. K. Lydston, - 318 - - Domestics, the politics of the future, 33, 285 - - "Drink Problem, The," by Fourteen Medical Authorities, 319 - - "Drink Problem, The," by Mrs. Scharlieb, 214 - - Drunkard, influence of the, on the race, 241 - - ----, marriage and parentage of the, 220, 235 - - ----, the habitual, control of, in various countries, 242 - - ----, ----, treatment of, by the London County Council, 39 (_note_), - 220-238 - - Drunkenness, habitual, imprisonment as a treatment for, 218 - - ----, increase of, 218 - - - Early Notification of Births Act, 33 - - "Economic Classics", 312 - - Education, age at which to begin, 125 - - ---- and heredity, 128 - - ---- and inequality, 131 - - ---- and race culture, 120 - - ----, eugenic, 139 - - ---- for parenthood, xii, 138 - - ----, higher, of woman, non-eugenic effects of, xiii, 89 - - ---- in the principle of selection, 137 - - ----, modern, the destruction of mind, 120 - - ----, sexual, of children, 139 - - ----, ----, of girls, 318 - - ----, the limits of, 123 - - ----, the provision of an environment, 12, 125 - - ----, the real functions of, 136 - - "Education," by Herbert Spencer, 317 - - Elephant, birth-rate of the, 72 (_note_) - - Emigration, the eugenic evils of, xi - - ----, a remedy for over-population, 84 - - Energetic cost of reproduction, the, 87 - - Energy, breeding for, 66 - - ----, eugenic value of, 291 - - Environment, education the provision of, 12, 125 - - ----, effects of, 103 - - ----, good, defined, 275 - - ---- and heredity, 126 - - ----, of motherhood, the, 270 - - Epilepsy, eugenics and, 176 - - Erect attitude, the, 55 - - "Essential Factor of Progress, The," by Dr. Saleeby, 262 - - Eugenic sense, the creation of a, 144 - - Eugenics and alcohol, 206 - - ----, bibliography of, 305 - - ---- and conception, 30 - - ---- and crime, 177 - - ---- and cruelty to children, 295 - - ---- and Daltonism, 179 - - ---- and haemophilia, 179 - - ---- and insanity, 175 - - ----, defined, viii, 315 - - ----, epilepsy and, 176 - - ----, feeble-minded, the, and, 174 - - ----, higher education of woman, and, 89 - - ---- in Germany, 154 - - ----, infant mortality, and, 20 - - ----, international, xi - - ----, Nietzscheanism and, 28 - - ----, politics and, 118 - - ----, positive and negative, 172 - - ----, present influence of, on marriage, 187 - - ----, religion and, 303 - - ----, the aims of, summarized, 276, 309 - - ----, the classes of society and, 119 - - ----, the length of marriage engagements and, 198 - - ----, the morality of, 303 - - ----, tuberculosis and, 178 - - ----, unemployment and, 293 - - ----, woman and, 294 - - Eugenics Education Society, the, 222, 229, 230, 299 - - ---- ---- ----, the history and objects of, 139 - - ---- ---- ----, the Inebriates Committee and, 240 - - ---- ---- ----, the reform of drunkards and, 241 - - "Eugenics as a Factor in Religion," by F. Galton, 315 - - "Eugenics, Its Definition, Scope, and Aims," by F. Galton, 314 - - "Eugenics, National, Studies in," by F. Galton, 315 - - "Eugenics, National, The Scope and Importance to the State of the - Science of," by Karl Pearson, 315 - - "Eugenics, Probability the Foundation of," by F. Galton, 315 - - "Eugenics, The Obstacles to," by Dr. Saleeby, 175 (_note_) - - Evolution and progress, 48 - - ----, introduction of the term, 48 (_note_) - - "Evolution of Marriage, The," by Prof. Letourneau, 312 - - "Evolution of Sex, The," by Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson, 312 - - "Evolution, the Master Key," by Dr. Saleeby, 147 - - "Evolution Theory, The," by August Weismann, 311 - - Examinations, mental emetics, 121 - - - "Family, The," by Mrs. Elsie Clews Parsons, 161, 314 - - Fatherhood, eugenic, importance of, 154 - - ----, individual, 156 - - Feeble-minded, eugenics and the, 174 - - ----, the London County Council and the, 229 - - ----, the Royal Commission on the, 215, 242 - - "Fittest," defined, 43 - - France, effect of Napoleonic wars on, 284 - - ----, increase of population in, 76 - - Francis Galton Eugenics Laboratory, the, 315 - - "French Revolution, The," by Carlyle, 254 (_note_) - - Fulmar petrel, the multiplication of the, 73 (_note_) - - - Generation, the independence of every, 3 - - Genesis, individuation and, 87 - - "Genetics, the Methods and Scope of," by Prof. W. Bateson, 306 - - Genius, infertility of, 287, 92 - - ----, the production of, 289 - - ----, the transmission of, 289 - - ----, the value of, to the world, 291 - - "Genius, British, A Study of," by Havelock Ellis, 308 - - "Genius, Hereditary," by F. Galton, _see_ Hereditary Genius - - Germany, eugenics in, 158 - - ----, increase of population in, 76, 77 - - "Germinal," defined, 110 - - Germ-plasm, immortality of the, 256 - - "Germ-plasm, A Theory of Heredity, The," by August Weismann, 208, 311 - - Girls, the sexual education of, 318 - - Great Britain, increase of population in, 76 - - Greece, the fall of, 260 - - Gymnasium _versus_ playing fields, 63 - - - Haemophilia and heredity, 179 - - Hampstead, birth-rate of, the lowest in London, 78 - - "Health, Strength and Happiness," by Dr. Saleeby, 119 (_note_) - - "Hereditary Genius," by F. Galton, 107, 114, 289, 302 (_note_), 307, - 308 - - Heredity, alcohol and, 206 - - ----, biography a guide to, 152 - - ----, Daltonism and, 179 - - ----, deaf-mutism and, 173 - - ----, education and, 128 - - ----, environment and, 126, 269 - - ----, haemophilia and, 179 - - ----, obscured by acquired characters, 99 - - ----, race culture and, 99 - - ----, tuberculosis and, 179 - - "Heredity," by Prof. J. A. Thomson, 99, 305 - - "Heredity and Environic Forces," Dr. T. D. MacDougal on, 212 - - "Heredity and Selection in Sociology," by George Chatterton-Hill, 311 - - "Heredity, Alcoholism, A Study in," by G. Archdall Reid, 319 - - "Heredity, The Germ-Plasm, A Theory of," by August Weismann, 311 - - "Heredity, The Principles of," by G. Archdall Reid, 311 - - "History," defined, 254 - - "History of Human Marriage, The," by E., Westermarck, 312 - - "History of Matrimonial Institutions, A," by G. E. Howard, 312 - - "Human Breed, The Possible Improvement of the, etc.," by F. Galton, - 314 - - "Human Faculty, Inquiries into," by F. Galton, 308 - - Humanitarianism, indiscriminate, 27 - - Hygiene, individual and racial, 253 - - ----, school, 65 - - "Hygiene of Mind, The," by T. S. Clouston, 319 - - "Hygiene of Nerves and Mind," by August Forel, 242, 319 - - - Imperialism, alcoholic, 244 - - ----, the old and the new, 33, 34 - - India as a wheat-producing country, 80 - - Individual _versus_ race, 256 - - "Individualism and Collectivism," by Dr. Saleeby, 101 (_note_) - - Individuation and genesis, 87 - - Inebriates, _see_ Drunkards - - ---- Act, the, 222, 224, 225, 230 - - ---- ----, reports of the inspector under, 319 - - ---- Committee, the Report of the, 239 - - Inebriety, _see_ Drunkenness - - "Inebriety, Its Causation and Control," by R. Welsh Branthwaite, 319 - - Infancy, helplessness of, 3, 147, 148 - - ----, the mind of, 124 - - ----, the, of slum children, 102 - - "Infancy, Alcohol and," by Dr. Saleeby, 214 - - Infant mortality, 19, 97, 104, 150, 207, 257, 294 - - ---- ---- among the Jews, 274 - - ---- ----, eugenics and, 20, 29, 31 - - ---- ----, first public mention of, 33 - - ---- ---- in the east, 76 - - ---- ----, polygamy and, 166 - - ---- ----, reports of the 1908 conference on, 320 - - ---- ----, the war against, 21 - - "Infant Mortality," by Dr. George Newman, 86, 319 - - "Inherent," defined, 109 - - Inheritance, pecuniary, non-eugenic influence of, 101 - - ----, _see_ Heredity - - "Inquiries into Human Faculty," by F. Galton, 92, 128, 290, 308 - - Inquisition, anti-eugenic effects of the, 267 - - Insanity, "breach of promise" and, 202 - - ----, eugenics and, 175 - - ----, increase of, 176 - - Instinct, plasticity of, 148, 149 - - Intelligence, breeding for, 147, 150, 153 - - ----, the creation of, 149 - - ----, nature and, 40 - - "Intensity of life," the, 91 - - - "Janus in Modern Life," by Prof. Flinders Petrie, 22 - - Japan, birth-rate in, 78 - - ----, the racial development of, 268 - - Jews, the, alcohol and, 275 - - ---- motherhood and, 274 - - ----, the survival of, 272 - - - "Kingdom of Man, The," by Sir E. Ray Lankester, 41 (_note_) - - - Lamarckian theory of heredity, the, 134, 135, 208, 283 - - ---- ---- of racial degeneration, 258, 261 - - Lead, a racial poison, 247 - - "Leviathan," by Hobbes, 106 (_note_) - - Licensing Bill of 1908, the, 223, 232-237 - - Life, the continuity of, 2 - - London County Council, alcoholism and, 206 - - ---- ---- ----, feeble-minded children and, 229 - - ---- ---- ----, the treatment of inebriates by, 39 (_note_), 220-238 - - ---- Hospital, gift to, 11 (_note_) - - Longevity, marriage and, 191 - - Love, eugenic value of, 70 - - ----, motherhood and, 152 - - ----, survival value of, 51 - - ----, the two stages of, 186 - - - "Making of Character, The," by Prof. MacCunn, 124 - - Malaria, a racial poison, 260 - - "Malaria, A Neglected Factor in the History of Greece and Rome," by - W. H. S. Jones, 260, 282, 319 - - Man, the denudation and defencelessness of, 58 - - ----, the foundation of Empire, 262 - - ----, the future of, 299 - - ----, the latest product of evolution, 55 - - ----, the multiplication of, 71 - - "Man and Woman," by Havelock Ellis, 318 - - Marriage, animal, 162 - - ----, average age at, 90 - - ----, breach of promise of, and race culture, 201 - - ----, ---- ----, the law of, 202 - - ----, childless, 168 - - ----, contemporary, eugenic value of, 198 - - ----, control of, 184, 186 - - ----, defined, 170 - - ----, engagement of, eugenics and the length of, 198 - - ----, eugenic, 309 - - ----, ----, preparation for, 144 - - ----, ----, utility of, 162, 163, 168 - - ----, happiness in, extent of, 195 - - ----, human, 164 - - ----, inter-racial, xi - - ----, longevity and, 191 - - ----, "mixed" games and, 196, 197 - - ---- of cousins, xii, 168 - - ---- of the deaf and dumb, 173 - - ----, present influence of, on eugenics, 187 - - ----, procreation, the paramount function of, 158 - - ----, selection for, 189 - - ----, ----, by woman, 194 - - ----, socialism and, 198 - - ----, survival-value of, 164 - - ---- systems, English and French, 199 - - ----, the ball-room and, 196, 197 - - ----, the field of choice in, 195 - - ----, the Income Tax and, 174 - - ----, the, of inebriates, 235 - - ----, the sanctity of, 313 - - ----, unselfish, 144 - - "Marriage, Human, The History of," by E., Westermarck, 312 - - "Marriage, Restrictions in," by F. Galton, 185, 204, 315 - - "Marriage, The Evolution of," by Prof. Letourneau, 312 - - Married women's labour, 270 - - "Mass _versus_ mind", 95 - - Maternal care, development of, 150 - - ---- impressions, 111 - - Maternalism, the principle of, 169 - - Maternity, _see_ Motherhood - - "Matrimonial Institutions, A History of," by G. E. Howard, 312 - - "Memories of my Life," by F. Galton, vii, 308 - - Mendelism, 108, 118, 293 - - "Methods and Scope of Genetics, The," by Prof. W. Bateson, 306 - - Mind, selection of, 52 - - ----, the ascent of, 300 - - ----, the determinator of leadership, 59 - - ----, the master in war, 97 - - ----, the relation of, to the body, 52 - - ---- _versus_ mass, 95 - - ---- ---- muscle, 65 - - "Mind, The Hygiene of," by T. S. Clouston, 319 - - "Mind, Hygiene of Nerves and," by August Forel, 319 - - Monogamy, eugenic value of, 165, 170 - - ----, survival-value of, 166 - - ---- the ideal condition, 150 - - ---- the rule among higher animals, 163 - - Morality, survival-value of, 51 - - Morphinomania, parental, its influence on the offspring, 212 - - Motherhood, 169 - - ---- and love, 152 - - ----, breeding for, 145, 146 - - ---- carried on by unskilled labour, 151 - - ---- during the decline of Rome, 270, 271 (_note_) - - ----, education for, 151 - - ----, history and, 269 - - ----, Jewish, 274 - - ----, psychical, 151, 153 - - ----, the elevation of, 32 - - ----, the environment provided by, 269 - - ----, the evolution of, 149 - - ----, the safeguarding of, 170 - - ----, the subsidisation of, 151 - - Mothers, school for, 151 - - Multiplication of man, a low death-rate the cause of, 73 - - ---- ----, the laws of, 86 - - ---- ----, the rate of, 90 - - ---- of the unfit, 189, 279 - - "Munera Pulveris," by John Ruskin, 302 (_note_), 320 - - Muscle, right training of, 62 - - ----, the cult of, 60 - - ---- _versus_ Mind, 65 - - Muscles, useless, 61 - - - Narcotics, irritant and non-irritant, 251 - - ----, possible racial influence of, 250 - - "National Life from the Standpoint of Science," by Karl Pearson, 279, - 315 - - "Natural Inheritance," by F. Galton, 308 - - Natural selection, 35 _et seq._ - - ---- ---- and racial degeneration, 260 - - ---- ---- _versus_ acquired progress, 266 - - Nature, the cruelty of, 38 - - "Nature," defined, 110 - - "Nature of Man, The," by Metchinkoff, 90 - - Navy, superior intelligence of the, to that of the Army, 98 - - "Nemesis of Nations, The," by W. R. Paterson, 281 - - New Zealand, control of drunkards in, 242 - - Nicotine, racial influence of, 251 - - Nietzscheanism, eugenics and, 28 - - Nitrogen, the fixation of, 81 - - "Noteworthy Families", 114 (_note_) - - "Nurture," defined, 110 - - - "Obstacles to Eugenics, The," by Dr. Saleeby, 175 (_note_) - - Opinion, individual, power of, 138 - - ----, public, the education of, 14, 15 - - ----, the creation of, 138 - - Opium, possible racial influence of, 251 - - "Ordeal of Richard Feverel, The," by George Meredith, 112 (_note_) - - "Origin of Species, The," by Charles Darwin, vii, 73 (_note_), 311 - - "Origin of Vertebrates, The," by Dr. W. H. Gaskell, 50 (_note_) - - Overcrowding, 20 - - ---- and tuberculosis, 181 - - ---- and unemployment, 293 - - - Parenthood, alcohol and, 241 - - ----, classification of society for, 104 (_note_) - - ----, education for, xii, 138 - - ----, eugenic power of, 199 - - ---- of inebriates, 220 - - ----, selection for, vii, viii - - ----, the elevation of, 293, 294 - - ----, the link of life, 3 - - ----, the most desirable, 91 - - ----, the rise of, 161 - - ----, the sanctity of, 138 - - Parents, selection of, 4 - - ----, proportion of, to population, 4 - - Paris, hospitals in, 247 - - Physique, eugenic, importance of, 69 - - Playing fields _versus_ gymnasia, 63 - - Politics, defined, 286 - - ----, domestics the future, 33, 285 - - ----, eugenics and, 118 - - "Politics," Aristotle's, 167 - - Polygamy and infant mortality, 166 - - ----, significance of, 165 - - Population, density of, influence of the, on the death rate, 75 - - ----, increase of, and the food supply, 79 - - ----, ----, emigration a remedy for, 84 - - ----, ----, safe extent of, 93 - - ----, ----, statistics of, 75, 76 - - ----, quantity _versus_ quality of, 93 - - ----, starvation a controller of, 84 - - ----, statistics of, as data for prophecy, 93 - - ----, survival-value of, 90, 91 - - ----, the test of, 95 - - "Population and Progress," by Montague Crackanthorpe, 315 - - "Population, The Principles of," by T. R. Malthus, 83, 85, 312 - - "Possible Improvement of the Human Breed, etc.," by F. Galton, 314 - - Posterity, our duty to, 10 - - "Poverty and Hereditary Genius," by Constable, 308 - - Prevention of Crimes Act, The, 179 (_note_) - - "Prevention of Tuberculosis, The," by Dr. A. Newsholme, 319 - - "Principles of Biology, The," by Herbert Spencer, 86, 312 - - "Principles of Heredity, The," by G. Archdall Reid, 311 - - "Principles of Population, The," by T. R. Malthus, _see_ "Population, - The Principles of" - - "Probability, the Foundation of Eugenics," by F. Galton, 315 - - Progress, acquired, _see_ Acquired progress - - ---- defined, 50, 303 - - ----, evolution and, 48 - - ---- of achievement, and of the race, 4 - - ----, racial and acquired, 262 - - "Progress, Population and," by Montague Crackanthorpe, 315 - - Promiscuity among animals, 163 - - Public opinion, education of, 14, 15 - - - Quality _versus_ quantity, 293 - - - Race, immortality of, 256 - - ---- _versus_ individual, 256 - - Race-culture and human variety, 297 - - ----, education and, 120 - - ----, socialism and, 133 - - ----, the promise of, 287 - - "Race-Culture or Race Suicide," by R. R. Rentoul, 316 - - "Race Prejudice," by Jean Finot, 318 - - Racial degeneration and natural selection, 260 - - ---- ----, cause of, 263 - - ---- ----, the Lamarckian theory of, 258, 263 - - ---- instinct, education of the, xii - - ---- poisons, the, x, 246 - - ---- ---- and decadence, 259 - - ---- ----, bibliography of, 318 - - "Racial poisons," introduction of the term, 205 - - "Racial Hygiene or Negative Eugenics," by Dr. Saleeby, 205 - - Racial senility, the fallacy of, 256 - - "Reformatory," the word, 238 - - Regression towards mediocrity, the law of, 288 - - Religion, eugenics and, 303 - - ----, the survival-value of, 303 - - "Religion, Eugenics as a Factor in," by F. Galton, 315 - - Religious persecution, non-eugenic results of, 116, 264 - - Reproduction, the cost of, in energy, 87 - - "Republic, The," of Plato, 166, 313 - - "Restrictions in Marriage," by F. Galton, 185, 204, 315 - - Reversed selection, 265 - - ---- ----, the final cause of racial decay, 264, 266 - - ---- ----, war a cause of, 284 - - "Reversion," defined, 111 - - Rome, the decline of, 281 - - ----, motherhood during the decline of, 270 - - Russia, increase of population in, 76 - - ---- as a wheat-producing country, 80, 81 - - - "School hygiene", 65 - - "Scope and Importance to the State of the Science of National - Eugenics, The," by Karl Pearson, 315 - - Selection, alcohol an agent in, 206 - - ---- and racial change, 260 - - ---- by marriage, 189 - - ---- for parentage, vii, viii - - ----, natural, _see_ Natural Selection - - ---- of mind, 52 - - ---- of woman, for marriage, 189 - - ----, reversed, _see_ Reversed Selection - - ----, sexual, 67, 190, 197, 202 - - ----, the principle of, education in, 137 - - "Sex and Society," by W. I. Thomas, 317 - - "Sex, The Evolution of," by Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson, 312 - - "Sexual Choice", 314 - - Sexual education of children, 139 - - ---- ---- of girls, 318 - - ---- selection, 67, 190, 197, 202 - - "Sexual Selection in Man," by Havelock Ellis, 202 - - "Sexuel Frage, Die" (The Sexual Question), by August Forel, 130, 242, - 253, 320 - - Siegfried, the story of, 304 - - "Social Psychology," by Dr. McDougall, 117 - - Socialism and education, 129, 130, 132 - - ---- and marriage, 198 - - ---- and race-culture, 133 - - ---- and selection for marriage, 194 - - Society, the classification of, and eugenics, 119 - - ----, classification of, for parenthood, 104 (_note_) - - "Society, The Diseases of," by G. F. Lydston, 318 - - "Society, Sex and," by W. I. Thomas, 317 - - "Sociological Papers", 41, 114 (_note_), 185 (_note_), 279, 289, 314, - 315 - - Sociological Society, the, 275 - - "Sociology, Heredity and Selection in," by G. Chatterton-Hill, 311 - - "Sociology, The Study of," by Herbert Spencer, 317 - - Soldiers, mistaken muscular training of, 63 - - Spain, the racial condition of, 267, 268 - - "Spontaneous," defined, 215 - - Starvation as a controller of population, 84 - - ----, extent of, in England, 82 - - Stepney, birth-rate of, the highest in London, 78 - - Sterilization of mental and physical degenerates, 316 - - Strength _versus_ skill, 62 - - "Struggle for existence," the, 42, 83, 280 - - "Studies in National Eugenics," by F. Galton, 315 - - "Studies in the Psychology of Sex", 202 - - "Study of British Genius, A," by Havelock Ellis, 308 - - "Study of Sociology, The," by Herbert Spencer, 192, 317 - - "Survival of the fittest," the, 43, 49 - - Survival-value, 46 - - ---- of love, 51 - - ---- of monogamy, 51 - - ---- of population, 90, 91 - - ---- of religion, the, 303 - - ---- of the tape-worm, 47 - - ----, physical _versus_ psychical, 50 - - "Survival-Value of Religion, The," by Dr. Saleeby, 303 - - Syphilis, a racial poison, 252 - - "Syphilology and Venereal Diseases," by Dr. C. F. Marshall, 253 - - - Talent, the production of, 290 - - Tape-worm, survival value of the, 47 - - Tasmanians, racial disappearance of the, 257 - - Taubach, the Driftmen of, 59 - - Temperance legislation, the failure of, 236 - - "Time and Tide," by John Ruskin, 96, 131, 254 (_note_), 296, 320 - - Tobacco and the race, 257 - - ----, influence of, on pregnancy, 252 - - Tuberculosis, eugenics and, 179 - - ----, heredity and, 180 - - ----, overcrowding and, 181 - - ----, racial extermination by, 260 - - "Tuberculosis, The Prevention of," by A. Newsholme, 319 - - - Unemployment, eugenics and, 293 - - ----, overcrowding and, 293 - - United States, control of drunkards in the, 242 - - ---- ----, higher education of woman in the, 89 - - ---- ----, increase of population in the, 76 - - ---- ----, the, a wheat-producing country, 80, 81 - - "Unto this Last," by John Ruskin, 320 - - - Variation, 297 - - "Variation, Heredity and Evolution," by R. H. Lock, 311 - - "Variations in Animals and Plants," by H. M. Vernon, 311 - - Vertebrates, evolution of the, 55 - - Vital economy, the principle of, 17, 19 - - - War, a cause of reversed selection, 284 - - ----, mind the master in, 97 - - Wealth, Ruskin's definition of, 17 - - "Westminster Gazette, The," on the population and the food supply, 79 - - Wheat, improvement in, 82 - - ---- problem, the, 79 - - "Wheat Problem, The," by Sir William Crookes, 80 - - Wheat, Prof. Biffen's, 109 - - Whiskey, defined, 232 - - "Widows and Orphans," and the alcohol trade, 245 - - Woman and eugenics, 193, 294 - - ----, employment of, 294 - - ----, the higher education of, non-eugenic effects of, 89 - - Women, married, and labour, 270 - - ----, secret drinking by, 232 - - ----, selection for marriage by, 194 - - Work, the eugenic necessity of, 264 - - Writing, the art of, as a means of transmission, 261 - - - "Yellow Peril," the, 78, 269 - - "Youth, its Education, Regimen and Hygiene," by Stanley Hall, 318 - - - - - INDEX OF NAMES - - - Aristotle, 262 - - ---- on motherhood, 167 - - ---- on racial decay, 256, 257 - - ----, "Politics," by, 167 - - Arnold, Matthew, 289 - - ----, Thomas, 289 - - Asquith, H. H., 234 - - - Bach, 300 - - ---- family, the, 289 - - Bacon on the command of Nature, 13, 26, 41 - - Balfour, A. J., 228 - - ----, ----, on decadence, 234, 279, 280 - - ----, ----, on intemperance, 235 - - ----, ----, on legislation, 233 - - ----, ----, on Licensing Bill of 1908, 233 - - ----, ----, on politics, 286 - - Ballantyne, Dr., on the unborn infant, 320 - - Barker, Ernest, on the destruction of marriage, 167 - - Bateson, Prof. W., "Methods and Scope of Genetics," by, 306 - - Bateson, Prof. W., on education, 120 - - ----, ----, on Mendelism, 306 - - Beethoven, 127, 146, 289, 292 - - Bertillon, M., on marital longevity, 192 - - Biffen, Prof., and his experiments on wheat, 109 - - Booth, the Rt. Hon. Charles, on the extent of starvation, 82 - - Bouchacourt on the care of motherhood, 145 - - Bourneville, on lead poisoning, 247 - - Branthwaite, Dr. R. Welsh, 228, 238 - - ----, ----, "Inebriety, Its Causation and Control," by, 217 (_note_), - 319 - - ----, ----, on alcoholism as a symptom of degeneracy, 217 - - Brieux, "Les Avaries", 252 - - Brooks, Graham, on the Negro race, xi - - Brouardel, parental morphinomania, 212 - - Browning, Robert, 135 - - Buckle, 267 - - Buddha, 146 - - Bulstrode, Dr., on tuberculosis, 181 (_note_) - - Burchell, 52 - - Burns, the Rt. Hon. John, on motherhood, 32 - - Byron on the decay of nations, 255 - - - Cakebread, Jane, the case of, 222, 225, 228, 238 - - Carlyle, Thomas, 309 - - ----, ----, on history, 254 (_note_) - - ----, ----, "The French Revolution," by, 254 (_note_) - - Chatterton-Hill, George, "Heredity and Selection in Sociology," by, - 311 - - Chesterton, G. K., on eugenics, 158 (_note_) - - Clouston, T. S., "The Hygiene of Mind," by, 319 - - Cobden, Richard, 17 - - Cohn on the multiplication of bacteria, 160 - - Coleridge, 262 - - Combemale, experiments of, in alcoholism, 211 - - Constable, "Poverty and Hereditary Genius," by, 308 - - Copernicus, 180 - - Cottrell, Mr., on the population of London, 76 - - Crackanthorpe, Mr. Montague, on the birth rate, 95 - - ----, ----, "Population and Progress," by, 315 - - Crichton-Browne, Sir James, on education, 125 - - Crookes, Sir William, 85 - - ----, ----, on the wheat supply, 80 - - ----, ----, "The Wheat Problem," by, 80 - - - Darwin, Charles, 42, 236, 296, 301, 307, 313 - - ----, ----, and the effect of music on plants, 127 - - ----, ----, centenary of the birth of, vii - - ----, ----, his talented ancestry and kindred, 289 - - ----, ----, on degeneration, 171 - - ----, ----, on national rise and decline, 275 (_note_) - - ----, ----, on natural selection, 83, 137, 260, 261 - - ----, ----, on sexual selection, 67, 190, 197 - - ----, ----, on the elephant, 72 (_note_) - - ----, ----, on the future, 293 - - ----, ----, on the multiplication of the unfit, 227, 279 - - ----, ----, on the queen bee, 44 - - ----, ----, on vitality and muscularity, 67 (_note_) - - ----, ----, Ruskin on, 95 - - ----, ----, "The Descent of Man," by, 171, 191, 197, 279, 311 - - ----, ----, "The Origin of Species," by, 43, 73 (_note_), 311 - - Darwin, Erasmus, the grandfather of Charles Darwin, 289, 290 - - ----, Francis, 290 - - ----, Sir George, 290 - - Demme and parental alcoholism, 212 - - Disraeli on circumstances, 149 - - Down, Dr. Langdon, on drunkenness and the feeble-minded, 219 - - Dunlop, Dr. A. R., on habitual drunkenness, 219 - - - Eccles, McAdam, on alcohol and the racial organs, 209 - - ----, ----, on drunkenness, 221 - - Ellis, Havelock, "A Study of British Genius," by, 308 - - ----, ----, "Man and Woman," by, 318 - - ----, ----, on drunkenness, 219 - - ----, ----, on sexual selection, 202, 204 - - ----, ----, on socialism and education, 132 - - ----, ----, "Sexual Selection in Man," by, 202 - - Emerson on mass _versus_ mind, 96 - - ---- on the morality of the universe, 37 - - Empedocles on survival value, 46 - - Epictetus on fools, 130 - - Etienne on opinion as ruler, 234 - - - Fere on alcohol, 207 - - Ferrier, Prof. David, on habitual drunkenness, 219 - - Finot, Jean, on the Negro race, xi - - ----, ----, "Race Prejudice," by, 318 - - Fleck, Dr., on drunkenness and the feeble-minded, 219 - - Forel, Prof. August, 17, 137 - - ----, ----, "Die Sexuel Frage," by 130, 242, 253, 320 - - ----, ----, "Hygiene of Nerves and Mind," by, 242, 319 - - ----, ----, on alcohol as a racial poison, 244 - - ----, ----, on alcoholism and heredity, 242 - - ----, ----, on education, 129, 130 - - ----, ----, on our duty to posterity, 35 - - ----, ----, on the future of the race, 171 - - ----, ----, on the nervous system, 53 - - ----, ----, on the sexual education of children, 139 - - - Galton, Francis, vii, 110, 206, 293, 307 - - ----, ----, and acquired characters, the non-transmission of, 114 - (_note_), 216, 259 - - ----, ----, and biometrics, xiii - - ----, ----, and eugenics, positive and negative, 172 - - ----, ----, and G. B. Shaw, 155 - - ----, ----, and the law of regression towards mediocrity, 289 - - ----, ----, "Eugenics as a Factor in Religion," by, 315 - - ----, ----, "Eugenics, its Definition, Scope, and Aims," by, 314 - - ----, ----, "Hereditary Genius," by 107, 114, 289, 302 (_note_), 307, - 308 - - ----, ----, his kinship to Darwin, 289 - - ----, ----, "Inquiries into Human Faculty," by, 92, 128, 290, 308 - - ----, ----, "Memories of my Life," by, vii, 308 - - ----, ----, "Natural Inheritance," by, 308 - - ----, ----, on ancestry, a rational pride in, 144 - - ----, ----, on breeding for ability, 153 - - ----, ----, ---- energy, 67, 153 - - ----, ----, ---- health, 145, 153 - - ----, ----, on civic worth, 68 - - ----, ----, on civilisation, 117 - - ----, ----, on energy, 193 (_note_), 290 - - ----, ----, on eugenics, the meaning and the aims of, 157, 298, 315 - - ----, ----, on functionally produced modifications, the - non-inheritance of, 211 - - ----, ----, on genius, hereditary, 107, 114 - - ----, ----, ----, the quality of, 114 (_note_) - - ----, ----, on human intelligence, 41 - - ----, ----, on human variety, 298 - - ----, ----, on marriage, eugenic, 168 - - ----, ----, ----, late, 92 - - ----, ----, ----, the subsidisation of, 200 - - ----, ----, on motherhood, the subsidisation of, 157 - - ----, ----, on national eugenics, 115 - - ----, ----, on national rise and decline, 279 - - ----, ----, on public opinion, the formation of, 15 - - ----, ----, on society, the eugenic value of the various classes of, - 104 - - ----, ----, on sociology, the duties of, 275 - - ----, ----, on the desirable qualities, 299 - - ----, ----, on the future of man, 302 - - ----, ----, on the production of genius, 288 - - ----, ----, on the production of talent, 292 - - ----, ----, "Probability the Foundation of Eugenics," by, 315 - - ----, ----, "Restrictions in Marriage," by, 185, 204, 315 - - ----, ----, "Studies in National Eugenics," by, 315 - - ----, ----, "The Possible Improvement of the Human Breed, under - existing Conditions of Law and Sentiment," by, 314 - - Gaskell, Dr. W. H., "The Origin of Vertebrates," by, 50 (_note_) - - Geddes, Prof. Patrick, on Government, 122 - - ----, ----, "The Evolution of Sex," by, and Prof. J. A. Thomson, 312 - - Gibbon, 271 (_note_) - - ---- on history, 254 - - ---- on the necessity for advance or retrogression, 266 - - Gladstone, Herbert, and the treatment of chronic inebriates by the - London County Council, 222, 223 - - Godwin, William, on literature, 262 (_note_) - - Goethe on activity, 291 (_note_) - - ---- on fate and chance, 12 - - ---- on ignorance, 223 - - ---- on marriage, 168 - - ---- on the education of race, 136 - - Gorst, Sir John, "The Children of the Nation," by, 319 - - - Hall, Prof. Stanley, "Adolescence," by, 318 - - ----, ----, "Youth, its Education, Regimen and Hygiene," by, 318 - - Helvetius on the influence of education, 128 - - Hobbes, Thomas, on "Words", 106 - - ----, ----, "Leviathan," by, 106 (_note_) - - Holmes, Mr. Thomas, on habitual drunkenness, 220 - - Horsley, Sir Victor, and Mary D. Sturge, "Alcohol and the Human - Body," by, 319 - - Howard, G. E., "A History of Matrimonial Institutions," by, 312 - - Huxley, 29, 40, 58, 280, 281 - - ----, "Evolution and Ethics," by, 26 - - ---- on cosmic nature, 26, 36, 39 (_note_) - - ---- on Pasteur, 94 - - ---- on public opinion, 135 - - ---- on the multiplication of the unfit, 227 - - - Im Thurn, Mr., on marriage customs of Guiana, 184 - - - Jones, Dr. Robert, on the case of Jane Cakebread, 328 - - Jones, W. H. S., "Malaria: a Neglected Factor in the History of - Greece and Rome," by, 319 - - Joubert, 18 - - - Kant, 4, 87 - - ---- on the influence of education, 128 - - Keats, 46, 50 - - Kellogg, Vernon L., "Darwinism To-day," by, 312 - - Kelvin, Lord, his services to life, 95 - - Kipling, Rudyard, and imperialism, 244, 245 - - ----, ----, on breeds in the making, 245 - - ----, ----, on emigration, 9 - - Kirby, Miss, on the feeble-minded, 220 - - Kirkup, Thomas, on Malthusianism, 84 - - Koch and tuberculosis, 180 - - - Lamarck, 36 - - ---- on inheritance of acquired characters, 134, 258, 259, 261 - - ---- _versus_ Weismann, 206, 207, 208 - - Lankester, Sir E. Ray, on man, the controller of nature, 41 - - ----, ----, on the multiplication of man, 9, 71, 72 - - ----, ----, on the struggle for existence, 42, 280 - - ----, ----, "The Kingdom of Man," by, 41 (_note_) - - Legrain on alcoholism and heredity, 220 - - Leonardo da Vinci, 264 - - Letourneau, Prof., "The Evolution of Marriage," by, 312 - - Lewin on lead poisoning, 248 - - Lister, Lord, his services to life, 95 - - Livingstone, Dr., on African marriage customs, 184 - - Lock, R. H., "Variation, Heredity and Evolution," by, 311 - - Lombroso, criminological work of, 177 - - London, Bishop of, on the falling birth-rate, 96 - - Love, Dr., on deaf-mutism, 174 - - Lowell, J. R., on human suffering, 130 - - Lucretius, 12, 260 - - Lydston, G. F., "The Diseases of Society: the Vice and Crime - Problem," by, 318 - - - MacCunn, Prof., on the infant mind, 124 - - ----, ----, "The Making of Character," by, 124 - - MacDougal, Dr. T. D., on "Heredity and Environic Forces", 210 - - McDougall, Dr. W., on infant mortality, 23 - - ----, ----, on transmissible characters, 117 - - ----, ----, "Social Psychology," by, 117 - - Magee, Archbishop, 243 - - Malthus, T. R., 17, 313 - - ----, ----, his theory, 80, 83 - - ----, ----, ignorance as to his essay, 85 - - ----, ----, importance of his doctrine to-day, 85 - - ----, ----, "The Principles of Population," by, 83, 85, 312 - - Marcus Aurelius, 298 - - Marshall, Dr. C. F., on alcohol and syphilis, 253 - - ----, ----, "Syphilology" by, 253 - - Maudsley, Dr., on eugenics, 187 - - Mendel, the theory of, 108, 307 - - Meredith, George, 37, 231, 287 - - ----, ----, "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel," by, 112 (_note_) - - Metchnikoff, on age at marriage, 90 - - ----, "The Nature of Man," by, 90 - - Mill, James, 289 - - ----, John Stuart, 182, 289 - - ----, ----, on nature, 38 - - Milton, 292 - - Morgan, Prof. Lloyd, "Survival Value", 46 - - Mott, Dr. F. W., on habitual drunkenness, 219 - - Mozart, 126 - - - Napoleon, the wars of, cause of reversed selection in France, 284 - - Newman, Dr. George, on the falling birth-rate, 86 (_note_) - - ----, ----, "Infant Mortality," by, 86, 319 - - Newsholme, Dr. A., on tuberculosis, 182 - - ----, ----, "The Prevention of Tuberculosis," by, 319 - - Newton, Sir Isaac, 6, 146, 288, 300, 301 - - ----, saved by motherhood, 150 - - Nietzsche and the Darwinian theory, 51 - - ---- and the super-man theory, 25 - - ---- and "transvaluation," 101 - - ---- on organic evolution, 158 - - - Oliver, Sir Thomas, on lead poisoning, 247, 248, 249 - - ----, ----, "Diseases of Occupation," by, 247 (_note_), 319 - - - Palestrina, 127 - - Palmerston, Lord, 131 - - Parsons, Dr. Elsie Clews, on diminution of offspring, 162 - - ----, ----, on parentage, 161, 162 - - ----, ----, "The Family," by, 314 - - Pascal, 52 - - Pasteur and tuberculosis, 180 - - ----, his value to the French nation, 94 - - ---- on the abolition of disease, 72 - - Paterson, W. R., on slavery, the cause of the fall of empires, 281 - - ----, ----, "The Nemesis of Nations," by, 281 - - Pearson, Prof. Karl, 314 - - ----, ----, and biometrics, xiii - - ----, ----, "National Life from the Standpoint of Science," by, 279, - 315 - - ----, ----, on national rise and decline, 275 (_note_), 279 - - ----, ----, on the multiplication of the yellow races, 78 - - ----, ----, "The Scope and Importance to the State of the Science of - National Eugenics," by, 315 - - Pericles, 292 - - Petrie, Prof. Flinders, "Janus in Modern Life," by, 22 - - ----, ----, on infantile mortality, 22 - - Plato and motherhood, 166 - - ---- and the destruction of the family, 169, 313 - - ---- on the duty of Governments, 276 - - ---- on racial decay, 256, 257 - - ---- on the sanctity of marriage, 313 - - ---- on the State as mother, 313 - - ----, "The Republic," of, 166, 313, 314 - - Pope, on genius and insanity, 176 - - Potts, Dr. W. A., on "The Relation of Alcohol to Feeble-mindedness", - 214, 216 - - - Ranke, Prof., on the mind of man, 59 - - Ravenhill, Miss Alice, on "Education for Motherhood", 32 - - ----, ----, on the education of girls, 320 - - Reid, Dr. Archdall, on alcohol, 206, 211 - - ----, ----, on humanitarianism and deterioration, 24, 25 - - ----, ----, on the marriage of drunkards, 235 - - ----, ----, on the resistance of the germ-plasm, 250 - - ----, ----, "Alcoholism, A Study in Heredity," by, 319 - - ----, ----, "The Principles of Heredity," by, 311 - - Rembrandt, 4 - - Rennert on lead poisoning, 247, 248 - - Rentoul, Dr. R. R., on the sterilisation of mental and physical - degenerates, 316 - - ----, ----, "Race Culture or Race Suicide," by, 316 - - Reynolds, Sir Alfred, on the treatment of inebriates, 226, 230 - - Roche, Sir Boyle, on posterity, 11 - - Roques on lead poisoning, 247 - - Ross, Prof. Ronald, "Malaria, A Neglected Factor in the History of - Greece and Rome," introduced by, 319 - - ----, ----, on malaria as a cause of national decay, 260, 282 - - Rowntree, B. Seebohm, on the extent of starvation, 82 - - Ruskin, John, "Munera Pulveris," by, 302 (_note_), 320 - - ----, "Time and Tide," by, 96, 131, 254 (_note_), 296, 320 - - ----, "Unto this Last," by, 320 - - ---- on Darwin, 95 - - ---- on education and inequality, 131 - - ---- on life the only wealth, 17, 133, 269 - - ---- on marriage, 296 - - ---- on mass _versus_ mind, 96 - - ---- on posterity, 287 - - ---- on the duty of Governments, 18, 276 - - ---- on the future of man, 302 - - ---- on the manufacture of souls, 270 - - ---- on the neglect of children, 145 - - ---- on the neglect of woman, 145 - - ---- on true history, 254 (_note_) - - ---- on work, 264 - - - St. Francis, 301 - - Saleeby, Dr., "Alcohol and Infancy," by, 214 - - ----, ----, and G. B. Shaw, his controversy on marriage with, 157 - - ----, ----, "Evolution, the Master Key," by, 147 - - ----, ----, "Health, Strength and Happiness," by, 119 (_note_) - - ----, ----, "Individualism and Collectivism," by, 101 (_note_) - - ----, ----, "Obstacles to Eugenics," by, 175 (_note_) - - ----, ----, on biology and history, 254 (_note_) - - ----, ----, on London's inebriates, the case of, 226 - - ----, ----, on progress, 262 - - ----, ----, on the survival-value of religion, 303 - - ----, ----, on widows and orphans made by alcohol, 245 - - ----, ----, "The Essential Factor of Progress," by, 262 - - Salisbury, Lord, his attack on evolution, 45 - - ----, ----, on Spain a dying nation, 268 - - Sandow, 135 - - ---- and the development of physique, 64 - - Scharlieb, Mrs., on maternal alcoholism, 214 (_note_) - - ----, ----, "The Drink Problem," by, 214 (_note_) - - Schopenhauer on love intrigue, 197 (_note_) - - Schubert, 46, 50 - - Seton, Ernest Thompson, on animal marriage, 163 - - Shakespeare, 6, 126, 146, 245, 255, 287, 293, 301 - - ----, ancestry of, 107-109 - - ----, quoted, xii, 58 (_note_), 97, 231, 278 - - Shaw, Dr. Claye, on maternal alcoholism, 213 - - ----, George Bernard, 85, 169 - - ----, ----, on eugenics, 155, 156 - - ----, ----, on heredity, 102 - - ----, ----, on marriage, his controversy with Dr. Saleeby, 157 - - ----, ----, on motherhood, 166 - - Shaw, Dr. Claye, on the State as mother, 156 - - Shelley, 131 - - Simpson, Sir James, on the inheritance of acquired characters, 136 - - Sims, G. R., on children, the protection of, 237 - - ----, ----, on habitual drunkards, the treatment of, 222 - - ----, ----, "on the cry of the children", 295 - - ----, ----, "The Black Stain," by, 237, 319 - - ----, ----, "The Cry of the Children," by, 237, 319 - - Smith, Adam, 17 - - Socrates, 313, 314 - - Sombart, Dr., on the population of Germany, 77 - - Sophocles, quoted, 52 - - Spencer, Herbert, 4, 9, 85, 296, 300 - - ----, absence of early education of, 120 - - ---- and evolution, 43, 48 - - ---- and functionally produced modifications, 111 - - ---- and his reply to Lord Salisbury's attack on evolution, 45 - - ---- and Huxley, 26 - - ---- and "social organisms", 256 - - ---- on the cosmic process, 25 - - ---- on the defencelessness of man, 58 - - ---- on education, 131 - - ---- on education for parenthood, 140 - - ---- on human fertility, 89, 90, 91, 92 - - ---- on individuation and genesis, 288 - - ---- on marital longevity, 191, 192 - - ---- on marriage, 164 - - ---- on natural selection, 35 - - ---- on parenthood, 88 - - ---- on the future of man, 301, 302 - - ---- on the laws of multiplication, 86, 87, 266 - - ---- on woman and selection for marriage, 193 - - ----, the ancestry of, 152 - - ----, the "Autobiography" of, 35, 58, 65, 152 - - ----, "The Data of Ethics," by, 302 (_note_) - - ----, "the survival of the fittest", 23 (_note_), 43, 44, 84, 260 - - ----, "Education," by, 317 - - ----, "The Principles of Biology," by, 86, 312 - - ----, "The Study of Sociology," by, 192, 317 - - Spinoza, 46, 50 - - Stark, Dr., on marital longevity, 192 - - Sturge, Mary D., and Sir Victor Horsley, "Alcohol and the Human - Body," by, 319 - - Sullivan, Dr. W. C., "Alcoholism," by, 211, 242, 319 - - ----, ----, on alcohol and alcoholism, 207, 211-213, 220 - - Sutherland on parental care, 162 - - - Theognis on pecuniary inheritance, 101 - - ---- on the duty of Governments, 276 - - Thomas, W. I., "Sex and Society," by, 317 - - Thompson, Francis, 128 - - Thomson, Prof. J. A., "Heredity," by, 99, 305 - - ----, ----, on "inheritance", 110 (_note_) - - ----, ----, on race culture, 99 - - ----, ----, on reversion, 111 - - ----, ----, "The Evolution of Sex," by, and Patrick Geddes, 312 - - ----, ----, translator of Weismann, 311 - - ----, M. R., translator of Weismann, 311 - - Thoreau, quoted, 173 - - Tille on man the wealth of nations, 17 - - Tintoretto, 288 - - Turner, Sir William, on the human foot, 61 - - - Urquhart, Dr. A. R., on habitual drunkenness, 219 - - - Vernon, H. M., "Variations in Animals and Plants," by, 311 - - Villemin and tuberculosis, 180 - - - Waddington, Mr. Quintin, his translation of Aulus Gellius, 271 - (_note_) - - Wagner, "Siegfried", 303 - - Wallace, Alfred Russel, 314 - - ----, ----, on matrimonial choice by women, 194 - - ----, ----, on natural selection, 83 - - Watson, William, the patriotism of, x - - Watts, G. F., 4 - - Wedgwood, Josiah, maternal grandfather of Charles Darwin, 289 - - Weismann, August, 206, 211, 216, 248, 280 - - ----, his controversy with Lamarck, 208 - - ----, on parental alcoholism, 208-210 - - ----, "The Germ-Plasm: a Theory in Heredity," by, 208, 311 - - ----, "The Evolution Theory," by, 311 - - Wellington, Duke of, 128 - - Wells, H. G., on the multiplication of the unfit, 14 - - ---- on Spencer's terminology, 43, 44, 49 - - Westermarck, Dr. E., on marriage, 158, 165 - - ----, ----, on the control of marriage, 184 - - ----, ----, "The History of Human Marriage," by, 312 - - Wordsworth, 4, 244, 301, 302 - - ----, absence of early education of, 120 - - ---- on the decay of nations, 284 - - ----, quoted, 35, 277, 300 - - -Printed by The East of England Printing Works, London and Norwich - - * * * * * - -Transcriber's notes: - -This text was produced using page images of the book available from the -Internet Archive ( http://archive.org/details/parenthoodracec00sale ). -Every effort has been made to convey accurately the original work. - -Three typographical corrections have been made: in "millenium", -"symptons", and "be becomes guided by". - -Quotation marks have been added to balance quotes when missing, -and when supported by other sources; similarly with other cases of -obviously missing punctuation. - -Inconsistent hyphenation has been retained (e.g. "overcrowding" vs. -"over-crowding"). - -Italic text is surrounded by _underscores_. - -Bold text is surrounded by =equal signs=. - -Text in small capitals, such as quote attributions and the table of -contents detail, has been rendered in regular case. - -Index entries that use Roman numerals (referring to the Preface) have -each had two pages added due to obvious errors in the original. - -Footnotes have been numbered and collected at the end of the text but -before the indices. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Parenthood and Race Culture, by -Caleb Williams Saleeby - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE *** - -***** This file should be named 42913.txt or 42913.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/9/1/42913/ - -Produced by Sean/AB, Sandra Eder and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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