Eugenics and Euthenics 225 



consciousness of values. He has discovered that Hfe is more 

 than meat, and he has increasingly busied himself with that 

 something which sets him off from all other organisms. This 

 is an important fact. We may recognize it and contemplate 

 it without prejudice as to how man came by this peculiarity. 

 Among other effects, this consciousness of values has led to 

 man's preoccupation with the possibility of influencing the 

 future of the race, not merely in the sense in which social 

 progress may be influenced, but in the sense of improving 

 the race as a living species. 



Eugenics and Euthenics 



Controversies regarding nature and nurture date back 

 to very ancient times. Everybody seems always to have 

 known that there are inborn qualities in people — at least 

 in some of them — that will somehow manifest themselves 

 under a great variety of circumstances. Everybody seems 

 always to have known also that circumstances do matter — 

 at least for ordinary folks. There have been royal person- 

 ages of obscure, not to say lowly, parentage. Scions of roy- 

 alty have not always become kingly personalities. When 

 prince and pauper are transposed in the cradle there is no 

 telling what will happen. It is all very confusing. The con- 

 troversies so far prove only that we cannot agree. 



At the present time a great deal of our surplus energy 

 and wealth and goodwill are directed to improve the con- 

 ditions of living, to educating, Xo spreading culture. The 

 great uplift takes for granted the value of improving condi- 

 tions. A better world will enable children to grow up into 

 better men and women. On the other hand, much effort 

 is directed toward educating us to the folly of relying upon 

 the environment to make a better race. We are told that 

 genius will out. It is not the slums that bring about poor 

 living, it is low down people who create slums. The 

 thing to do is to prevent the breeding of poor people: thus 

 we will eliminate poverty. 



