476 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



CIVILIZATION AS A SELECTIVE AGENCY 



By ROLAND HUGINS 



COKNELL UNIVERSITY 



WRITERS of recent years appear to agree that there has been little 

 or no improvement of civilized man through selection. Since 

 the dawn of history, it is recognized that many selective forces, some 

 favorable, some deleterious, have acted on the human breed; but it is 

 denied that any constant and effective agency which would bring about a 

 marked advance in moral and intellectual quality has been in operation. 

 August Weismann expressed himself on this score clearly, though with 

 scientific reserve. He said : x 



But as a mere suggestion, without any pretense to exactness, I will state 

 that the people of "antiquity," viz., the ancient civilized nations of the Medi- 

 terranean, had already, at the very dawn of their history, attained the highest 

 level of intellectual development. If any further growth has occurred since in 

 European states, it certainly has been so imperceptibly small that it could cause 

 no sensible difference in the susceptibility of the human soul to music. The 

 times which produced such legislators as Moses and Solon, poets like Homer 

 and Sophocles, philosophers and men of science like Aristotle, Plato and Archim- 

 edes — times which created the Egyptian temples and pyramids and the statues 

 of the Greek gods, most undoubtedly display the achievements of the human in- 

 tellect at its best. And an age which produced the gentle and forgiving Chris- 

 tian philosophy shows us that, as regards character and feeling, the human mind 

 had attained the highest development. 



This view has come, indeed, to be orthodox. Except among think- 

 ers who still cling to the Lamarckian doctrine, it is generally accepted. 

 It is taken over without reservation in many books on social theory. 2 

 According to this principle our inheritance is primitive inheritance. 

 The growth of the social heritage, rather than changes in the racial 

 heritage, has wrought civilization for us and bridged the gap between 

 aboriginal Teuton and modern German. Mankind may have progressed, 

 certainly has altered, but for cause we must look to " those contrivances 

 which enable human beings to advance independently of heredity." 3 



Among writers of authority possibly no one has given more emphasis 

 to this conception that Alfred Russel Wallace, codiscoverer with Dar- 

 win of natural selection. In his latest book 4 Wallace reiterates the 

 conclusion : 



i ' ' Thoughts Upon the Musical Sense in Animals and Man. ' ' 

 2 For example, see Simon N. Patten, "The New Basis of Civilization 

 p. 169. 



3D. G. Ritchie, "Darwinism and Politics," p. 101. 

 4 " Social Environment and Moral Progress," p. 102. 



j t 



