XVII 



MAN 211 



more vigorous in mind and body, more free from 

 congenital physical defect and feeble mentality, better 

 able to assimilate and act upon the stores of know- 

 ledge which have been accumulated through the 

 centuries, then it is the gamete that we must con- 

 sult. The saving grace is with the gamete, and 

 with the gamete alone. 



People generally look upon the human species as 

 having two kinds of individuals, males and females, 

 and it is for them that the sociologists and legislators 

 frame their schemes. This, however, is but an im- 

 perfect view to take of ourselves. In reality we are 

 of four kinds, male zygotes and female zygotes, large 

 gametes and small gametes, and heredity is the link 

 that binds us together. If our lives were like those 

 of the starfish or the sea-urchin, we should probably 

 have realised this sooner. For the gametes of these 

 animals live freely, and contract their marriages in 

 the waters of the sea. With us it is different, 

 because half of us must live within the other half or 

 perish. Parasites upon the rest, levying a daily toll 

 of nutriment upon their hosts, they are yet in some 

 measure the arbiters of the destiny of those within 

 whom they dwell. At the moment of union of tw^o 

 gametes -is decided the character of another zygote, 

 as well as the nature of the population of gametes 

 which must make its home within him. The union 

 once effected the inevitable sequence takes its course, 

 and whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we, the 

 zygotes, have no longer power to alter it. We are in 

 the hands of the gamete ; yet not entirely. For 

 though we cannot influence their behaviour we can 

 nevertheless control their unions if we choose to do 



