THE TREND OF EVOLUTION 163 



time but the general intelligence of the citizens was probably 

 higher than in any modern nation. 



Undoubtedly popular education brings to light many per- 

 sons of marked intellectual capacity who in former years might 

 have remained "mute, inglorious Miltons"; there are many 

 more opportunities to-day for discovering the inherited capaci- 

 ties of men than there were in ancient times, but anyone who 

 thinks that intellectual capacity is undergoing rapid evolution 

 needs to consider seriously the widespread emotionalism, irra- 

 tionalism, and superstition of this twentieth century of en- 

 lightenment as compared with the golden age of Greece in the 

 fourth or fifth century B. c. Indeed, since the times of the 

 Cro-Magnon race, probably twenty thousand years ago, there 

 has been no marked increase in man's cranial capacity, and 

 probably little or no increase in his inherent intellectual ability. 

 There are better opportunities to-day than ever before for the 

 development of the individual but the intellectual evolution 

 of the race, no less than the physical, has slowed down until it 

 has practically stopped. 



In human society, however, tremendous changes are taking 

 place and many of these are in the direction of progress. The 

 great advances in our knowledge of and control over nature, 

 which are such a distinctive feature of our present civilization, 

 are the results of cooperative effort. The developments of 

 science, literature, and art, of agriculture, industry, and com- 

 merce, of education, government, and religion, are the products 

 of increased specialization and cooperation of society. The 

 fact that social change is going on so much more rapidly than 

 either physical or mental evolution is due to the fact that past 

 experiences and acquired characters are handed down through 

 "social inheritance," but not through the germ-plasm. If we 

 consider those social changes only which are due to modifica- 

 tions of the germ-plasm, such as inherited instincts and capaci- 

 ties, we find that evolution is probably no more rapid in 



