RATIONAL LIFE 301 



generation in tribes now existing; if evidence of 

 degeneration is spread so very widely over the world 

 as these references imply, there does not seem solid 

 basis for an argument against degeneration in the 

 history of the race as a whole, unless there be some 

 law to prevent this calamity becoming general ; and 

 it does not seem alleged that there is such a law. 



The hypothesis that degeneration has not touched 

 the whole race lives in hazardous surroundings. It 

 may, however, escape atrophy, it may even thrive, 

 by fighting for existence. The dangers are serious, 

 however. If we consider how the great Oriental 

 monarchies of prse-Christian times have gone; how 

 Rome degenerated when possessed of the riches of 

 the ancient world; how the immediate forefathers 

 of our civilisation, the ancient Greeks, disappeared 

 from the place of eminence, the hypothesis of a 

 favoured portion of the race having escaped a disaster 

 so common, does not seem to have a large reserved 

 force to bring up. Professor Lankester wisely aims 

 at giving his countrymen warning of danger. Hence 

 he says, it is well to remember that we are subject to 

 the general laws of evolution, and are as likely to 

 degenerate as to progress. 1 Does this not seem to 

 suggest that all are exposed to the risk, and that it is 

 therefore possible, under natural law, that all may 

 have suffered ? Suppose, then, that we turn in the 

 other direction. Things do not look much better 

 here. For if degeneration has a very large share in 

 the explanation of the condition of the most barbarous 

 races, is it probable that in very ancient times, there 

 may have been races worse than these ? If this seem 



1 Advancement of Science, p. 48. 



