RACE IMPROVEMENT 313 



am aware, has been attempted before, that mental 

 qualities are equally under control." 



Then follows a discussion of inherited abilities, of 

 the same character as that which was afterwards 

 developed more fully in Hereditary Genius. If I 

 were to re-write the above passage, it would be 

 modified by limiting the power of the breeder to 

 perpetuating and intensifying qualities which have 

 already appeared in the race. The possibility would 

 at the same time be recognised of the unforeseen 

 appearance of "sports" or "mutations" of a kind 

 not hitherto observed, but which for all that may 

 become hereditary. Such in past times may have 

 been the electric organs of certain eels and rays, the 

 illuminating capacity of glow-worms, fire-flies, and 

 inhabitants of deep waters, the venom in certain 

 snakes, and the power of speech in man. 



After some pages of remarks, the latter of them 

 on the physical attributes of very able men, the 

 article continues : 



" Most notabilities have been great eaters and 

 excellent digesters, on literally the same principle that 

 the furnace which can raise more steam than is usual 

 for one of its size must burn more freely and well 

 than is common. Most great men are vigorous 

 animals with exuberant powers and an extreme 

 devotion to a cause. There is no reason to suppose 

 that in breeding for the highest order of intellect 

 we should produce a sterile or a feeble race." 



I should now alter the last sentence to " There 

 is no reason to doubt that a very high order of 



