150 THE PROBABLE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN RACE. 



any time there should be more intelligeut, and consequently more prov- 

 ident, men than now, there would also be among them, or in association 

 with them, others less intelligent and less provident, who would appro- 

 priate their goods and disregard their rights. Optimism is very seductive, 

 since it has power to mislead even the uiost practical of men,* but it is not 

 in conformity with the facts of the past nor the probable facts of the future. 

 If we judge only from known and credible conditions, selection in a good 

 sense affects the human race in a very doubtful, temporary, and slow 

 way. It would then be a fallacy to construct, upon the basis of the 

 modern ideas of naturalists, the theory of indefinite imjirovement, 

 adopted by certain French philosophers of the last century. An atten- 

 tive study of the works of Mr. Darwin allows no conclusion in this direc- 

 tion, and the opinion of certain writers should be guarded against,t that 

 the often-to-be-regretted tendency of the human species is an objection 

 to the law of selection. 



*See the Utopia with which Mr. Biiehner ends his fourth lecture, (trad, pauc, p. 178.) 

 t In Fraser's Magazine for September, 18G8, there is an article, not signed, but the 

 author of which has been indicated by Mr. Darwin, (Descent of Man, I, p. 167,) entitled 

 "Failure of natural selection in the case of man." The facts given by the author are, 

 on the contrary, an exact and extended application of the law of selection. Mr. Dar- 

 win has never believed that moral progress must be the necessary result of selection. 

 (See Descent of Man, I, pp. 1G6, 177, and elsewhere.) 



