222 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



the innate nature of the race. For, as the authors point out, the 

 struggle for life, incessantly at work in the lower world, affects 

 Man also. Selection will tend to modif)^ the character of a 

 nation as it modifies the flora and fauna of a country. 



Therefore, the first care which we must manifest with regard 

 to every legislative proposal or contemplated social change is : 

 " Will it tend to favour the growth of those elements of the 

 population which already are known to be of national worth ? " 

 " Will it tend to check the reproduction of those who the present 

 fragmentary knowledge already points out as detrimental to the 

 community ? " We have but to ask these questions, and then to 

 look at our legislative machine, our party caucus, to the hungry and 

 penurious portion of our Democracy, and to such of our unscru- 

 pulous pohticians as are working their way to the front, to find 

 a sufficiently clear answer. But when to these agencies, all 

 working for evil, we add the achievements of philanthropists, of 

 hospitals, of infirmaries, of workhouses, of the boarding-out 

 system, and of the socal agitation in part led by certain medical 

 men and in part by Fabians, we have not only an answer but a 

 demonstration. 



But there is another question of very grave importance and 

 without the existence of which that of selection has no national 

 meaning. There is nothing gained by a rigorous selection of the 

 best, imless it is propagated in such numbers that the individuals 

 representing it are passed on to succeeding generations in adequate 

 numbers. There must not only be success in hfe, but also a 

 " dominant fertihty " of those who succeed. It is obviously useless 

 for the best citizens to succeed if they leave the breeding of the 

 race to the worst citizens. Clearly, it is even more disastrous if, 

 by legislation and altered social customs we allow the degenerate 

 types of citizens to both succeed and breed. Yet to us it appears 

 that this is precisely what we are doing in many walks of life. 

 In poHtics, personahties of the type of Thersites flourish, and are 

 raised to positions of eminence : — 



"Loquacious, loud, and turbulent of tongue: 

 Awed by no shame, by no respect controll'd. 

 In scandal busy, in reproaches bold : 

 With witty malice studious to defame, 

 Scorn all his joy, and laughter all his aim : — 

 But chief he gloried with licentious style 

 To lash the great, and monarchs to revile. 

 And much he hated all, but most the best: 

 Long had he lived, the scorn of every Greek, 

 Vex'd when he spoke, yet still they heard him speak. 

 With wrangling talents form'd for foul debate, 

 He's but a factious monster born to vex the State." 



