RACE IMPROVEMENT 319 



We hear constantly of prodigies of dogs, whose very 

 intelligence makes them of little value as slaves. 

 When they are wanted, they are apt to be absent on 

 their own errands. They are too critical of their 

 master's conduct. For instance, an intelligent dog 

 shows marked contempt for an unsuccessful sports- 

 man. He will follow nobody along a road that leads 

 to a well-known tedious errand. He does not readily 

 forgive a man who wounds his self-esteem. He is 

 often a dexterous thief and a sad hypocrite. For 

 these reasons an over-intelligent dog is not an object 

 of particular desire, and therefore I suppose no one 

 has ever thought of encouraging a breed of wise dogs. 

 But it would be a most interesting occupation for a 

 country philosopher to pick up the cleverest dogs he 

 could hear of, and mate them together, generation after 

 generation breeding purely for intellectual power, and 

 disregarding shape, size, and every other quality." 



The phrase "regardless of every other quality" 

 is too strong, some regard should be paid to the 

 physique and to the character of the dogs. 



Perhaps twenty females, ten males, and a fluctu- 

 ating population of puppies would be enough for an 

 experiment. The cost of this would not be very 

 great, and would be sensibly diminished in time by 

 money derived from the sale of pups. 



The idea of the improvement of the human race 

 was again mooted in 1884, and the term Eugenics 

 was then first applied to it in my Human Faculty. 

 Afterwards it was strongly emphasised in my " Huxley 

 Lecture" before the Anthropological Institute in 1901 

 [161], on the "Possible Improvement of the Human 



