28 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



plant were grown under the same conditions as its wild 

 ancestors, we may be assured that it would not maintain 

 for long this artificial rate of production ; and the chances 

 would be against its survival in any form. 



That the same result would ensue from any attempt to 

 improve the human race by arts similar to those employed 

 by the breeder of cattle is as nearly certain as anything 

 untried can be. Force would be diverted to channels which 

 engaged the interests of the day, at the expense of other 

 channels, which, though less conspicuous, are equally or, 

 perhaps, more necessary for the preservation of the race. 

 The Greek would breed for beauty, the Red Indian for 

 cruelty, the Italian for craftiness ; but it is not to be 

 expected that any nation would breed for poverty, chastity, 

 and obedience. Even if we were contented with a com 

 bination of the more widely recognized virtues, such as 

 courage, truth, and disinterestedness, with intellectual 

 efficiency, physical strength, and sound bodily health, 

 we should be confronted with a task such as no breeder 

 would willingly undertake. But none of these could be 

 safely neglected, and all together would not be enough to 

 secure safety. The attempt would be beset by innumerable 

 latent dangers, such as the best-informed could never divine, 

 interference with the normal rate of reproduction being 

 among the more likely. If designs for improving the race 

 in respect to its present relations with the environment 

 are fraught with more danger than profit, preparations to 

 meet future changes must be pronounced wholly chimerical. 

 That we have sufficient insight to predict the emergencies 

 that must be provided for, and sufficient skill to produce 

 the adaptations which those will demand, no sober judgement 

 will assert. The elimination of well-defined pathological 

 disorders, such as insanity, is not, of course, to be con 

 founded in the same judgement with the attempt to enforce 

 evolution along particular paths of our own selection ; but 

 even that is not without its dangers. 



The only reasonable explanation of the failure of artificial 

 breeding to produce organisms which are independent of 



