278 Heredity and Environment 



B. C.) the population gradually became mongrelized and its in- 

 tellectual superiority declined. 



3. Why the Race Has Not Improved. If mankind has made 

 no progress in hereditary characteristics since the time of the 

 Greeks the cause is not far to seek. There have been gifted races 

 and families, doubtless many notable human mutations have oc- 

 curred, but most of these have been diluted, squandered, lost. 

 There has been persistent violation of all principles of good 

 breeding among men. For example, there has been for ages a 

 futile reliance upon good environment to improve heredity. Men 

 do not so improve the races of animals and plants, and thousands 

 of years of human history show that this method is of no avail 

 in improving the human breed. 



But the case is far worse than this ; such efforts though futile 

 are at least well intentioned, but on the part of most men and 

 governments there has been complete disregard of the entire 

 question of the improvement of the human stock. Natural se- 

 lection which has through countless ages eliminated the worst 

 and conserved the best-fitted and thus has led on the whole to 

 the survival of the fit is so far as possible nullified by civilized 

 man; the worst are preserved along with the best and all are 

 given the same chance of reproduction. The mistake has been not 

 in nullifying natural selection by preserving the weak and incom- 

 petent, for civilized men could not well do otherwise, but in fail- 

 ing to substitute intelligent artificial selection for natural selection 

 in the propagation of the race. Instead of this there has been 

 perpetuation of the worst lines through sentimental regard for 

 personal rights, even when opposed to the welfare of society; and 

 both church and state have cheerfully given consent and blessing 

 to the marriage and propagation of idiots and of diseased, defec- 

 tive, insane and vicious persons. Finally there has been extinc- 

 tion of the world's most gifted lines by enforced celibacy in many 

 religious orders and societies of scholars; by almost continuous 

 wars which have taken the very best blood that was left outside of 

 the monastic orders ; by luxury and voluntary sterility ; by vice, 

 disease and consequent infertility. 



