524 IMPROVEMENT OF THE HUMAN BREED. 



HUMAN VARIETY. 



The natural character and faculties of human beings differ at least 

 as widely as those of the domesticated animals, such as dogs and horses, 

 with whom we are familiar. In disposition some are gentle and good- 

 tempered, others surly and vicious; some are courageous, others timid; 

 some are eager, others sluggish; some have large powers of endur- 

 ance, others are quickly fatigued; some are muscular and powerful, 

 •others are weak; some are intelligent, others stupid; some have tena- 

 cious memories of places and persons, others frequently stray and are 

 slow at recognizing. The number and variety of aptitudes, especially 

 in dogs, is truly remarkable; among the most notable being the tend- 

 ency to herd sheep, to point, and to retrieve. So it is with the various 

 natural qualities that go toward the making of civic worth in man. 

 Whether it be in character, disposition, energy, intellect, or physical 

 power, we each receive at our birth a definite endowment, allegorized 

 by the parable related in St. Matthew, some receiving many talents, 

 others few; but each person being responsible for the profitable use 

 of that which has been intrusted to him. 



DISTRIBUTION OF QUALITIES IN A NATION. 



Experience shows that while talents are distributed in endless differ- 

 ent degrees, the frequency of those different degrees follows certain 

 statistical laws, of which the best known is the normal law of frequency. 

 This is the result whenever variations are due to the combined action 

 of many small and different causes, whatever may be the causes and 

 whatever the object in which the variations occur, just as twice 2 

 always makes 4, whatever the objects may be. It therefore holds true 

 with approximate precision for variables of totally different sorts, as, 

 for instance, stature of man, errors made by astronomers in judging 

 minute intervals of time, bullet marks around the bull's-eye in target 

 practice, and differences of marks gained by candidates at competitive 

 examinations. There is no mystery about the fundamental principles 

 of this abstract law; it rests on such simple fundamental conceptions 

 as, that if we toss '1 pence in the air they will, in the long run, come 

 down one head and one tail twice as often as both heads or both tails. 

 I will assume, then, that the talents, so to speak, that go to the forma- 

 tion of civic worth are distributed with rough approximation according 

 to this familiar law. In doing so, I in no way disregard the admirable 

 work of Prof. Karl Pearson on the distribution of qualities, for 

 which he was adjudged the Darwin medal of the Royal Society a few 

 years ago. He has amply proved that we must not blindly trust the 

 normal law T of frequency; in fact, that when variations are minutely 

 studied theyrarely fall into that perfect symmetry about the mean value, 

 which is one of its consequences. Nevertheless, my conscience is clear 



