Social Environment 



All our present Institutions are a mixture of 

 old and new. We must not sacrifice the good 

 that was In the old, neither must we allow it to 

 hamper the development of the germ of some- 

 thing better Involved In It. Racial and social 

 experiments are necessarily compromises; time 

 must test their wisdom and value. 



Conservative and radical students of present 

 conditions arrive at very different conclusions. 

 The laws of biological history may be clear, but 

 their application to Individual cases is very dif- 

 ficult. Even the charge to the jury Is tinged by 

 the constitution of the judge. Our practical 

 application must be a mixture of more or less 

 safe scientific Inferences with personal opinion 

 or prejudice. 



Stick as close to fact and truth as we can, 

 error will slip In. There will be much room for 

 difference of opinion. The reader must use 

 freely his own critical judgment. The value of 

 our conclusions must be largely in their sug- 

 gestlveness. If they can lead the reader to adopt 

 the standpoint of the evolutionist as the best 

 from which to judge and estimate present social 

 experiments, they will have served a useful pur- 

 pose. If we can gain a surer confidence in some 



185 



