CHAPTER XXI 



RACE IMPROVEMENT 



Eugenics Passages from my early writings Original sin Breeding 

 dogs for intelligence Great extension of my work by Professor Karl 

 Pearson Eugenics laboratory Duty towards race improvement 



THE subject of Race Improvement, or Eugenics, 

 with which I have much occupied myself 

 during the last few years, is a pursuit of no recent 

 interest. I published my views as long ago as 1865, 

 in two articles written in Macmillaris Magazine [20], 

 while preparing materials for my book, Hereditary 

 Genius. But I did not then realise, as now, the 

 powerful influence of Small Causes upon statistical 

 results. 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. 

 Popular feeling was not then ripe to accept even the 

 elementary truths of hereditary talent and character, 

 upon which the possibility of Race Improvement 

 depends. Still less was it prepared to consider dis- 

 passionately any proposals for practical action. So 

 I laid the subject wholly to one side for many years. 

 Now I see my way better, and an appreciative audience 

 is at last to be had, though it be small. 



As in most other cases of novel views, the wrong- 



headedness of objectors to Eugenics has been curious. 



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