628 THE CONTROL OF LIFE 



development; it may re-impress desirable modifications on succes- 

 sive generations; it determines in part the sort of reception a new 

 variation meets with. In mankind ' nurture ' includes the ' social 

 heritage \ 



The third determinant of life is selection, and this is of peculiar 

 importance in mankind, where natural sifting is largely in abey- 

 ance, where the sifting is in great part deliberate, rational, social. 

 The relaxation of natural selection is the inevitable result of the 

 increase of solidarity and sympathy; the difficulty is to find a 

 sufficiently stern substitute. It should be noted that humane inter- 

 ference with indiscriminate elimination (which thins without sifting) 

 cannot harm the race; that drastic social surgery is impossible in 

 the present state of science and social sentiment; and that proposals 

 which are sound biologically may be disruptive socially. 



A study of animate evolution points to the conclusion that secure 

 progress implies a correlation of organismal, functional, and envi- 

 ronmental improvements. This is even more true as regards progress 

 in the kingdom of man. 



The hard-won conclusions that in Animate Nature the category 

 ' mechanism ' requires to be supplemented by the category ' or- 

 ganism ', and that among the higher animals at least this requires 

 to be supplemented by the conception of ( mind-body ' (and in 

 mankind by that of social personality), afford a test for practical 

 projects. The error of materialism (namely, false simplicity) is 

 often repeated at a higher level in biologism and theromorphism. 

 The error is not in theory only, but shows itself in practice when 

 the problem is to get the most or the best out of the creature. 



It is very interesting to consider the extent to which animal life 

 rises beyond a struggle around the platter of subsistence, and illus- 

 trates the raw material, at least, of domestic and social virtues. In 

 the strict sense it may be true that the ethical note is not sounded, 

 but there is often an ethical undertone. Nature has stamped this 

 with her approval, Huxley notwithstanding. 



