64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



should be added the interference with sexual selection brought about 

 by a standing army and navy, through which a large proportion of 

 picked men are, for the best period of their lives, placed in an environ- 

 ment where immorality thrives and marriage is discouraged, if not 

 absolutely excluded. The movement toward universal disarmament 

 thus comes into eugenic favor, and, even at present, some reform 

 might be effected by the abandonment of the practise of isolation of 

 troops and the permission of soldiers to reside out of barracks, re- 

 sponding to roll-call at definite hours. 



Among the many evils that follow in the train of sexual immorality 

 may be mentioned the hindrance to sexual selection of the highest sort 

 brought about by the corruption of the emotional nature, by which a 

 man's choice when he eventually marries is likely to be far inferior 

 to that which otherwise might have been possible for him. Here, once 

 more, therefore, eugenics gives its hearty support to all movements for 

 the raising of public morality. 



A change in social values as to reputability and honor is greatly 

 needed for the better working of sexual selection. The conspicuous 

 waste and leisure that Veblen points out as our chief criterion of re- 

 putability have no necessary connection with mental or moral quali- 

 ties, and, in the present somewhat illogical inequality of distribution, 

 do not always bear a direct ratio even to the traits that make for genuine 

 economic progress. On the other hand, the fact that the insignia of 

 success are too often awarded to trickery, callousness and luck does not 

 argue the abolishing of these signs altogether in favor of a " dead 

 level " of egalitarianism. Distinctions, if rightly awarded, are an aid, 

 rather than a hindrance, to selection, and effort should be directed no 

 less to the proper recognition of true superiority than to the modera- 

 tion of our excessive social differences. 



Galton has devised a definite, if matter-of-fact method of establish- 

 ing a better standard of social esteem. This is a plan of issuing cer- 

 tificates to such young persons as would voluntarily present themselves 

 for examination and decimal evaluation, those reaching a higher stand- 

 ard to form a social elite naturally sought after as desirable husbands or 

 wives. Though this scheme would be far from infallible, owing to the 

 elusive nature of many characteristics, the difficulty of allowance for 

 growth, and our ignorance of the exact laws of heredity, such a true 

 aristocracy, would certainly possess great advantages over the present 

 classifications of The Four Hundred, Daughters of the Revolution, 

 hereditary nobility and social cliques. Even its somewhat humorous 

 deficiency in romanticism arises largely from its novelty, since idyllic 

 love seems to have survived the equally unpoetic institutions of the 

 dowry, the license and the divorce regulations. 



Valuable as are these suggestions, however, no mere device can ever 



