THE ARBITER OF ETHICS 251 



the simplest attributes of a good citizen to be con- 

 sidered. 



So far eugenics has limited itself to a trite formula 

 that only the fit should be permitted to have children. 

 This battle-cry has been sung loudly and it has gath- 

 ered together a motley band who would interfere with 

 the laws of nature and reform civilization overnight. 

 They have no clear idea who are the fit or how the unfit 

 are to be restrained. They busy themselves collecting 

 statistics, but for the most part these are undigested, 

 or are drawn from questionnaires scattered broadcast 

 and inviting inaccuracy, and frequently they are not 

 even honest. Books also are written and as an exposi- 

 tion of an ethical system they give the impression that 

 the writers' loftiest aim is to turn the human race 

 into a stock-breeding farm. The chief argument and 

 the complaint is that men can breed cattle, dogs, and 

 plants eugenically but not themselves. But what an 

 absurd attitude this is ! The breeder of dogs and cattle 

 stands in a relation to them much as a god would to 

 us. Dogs and cattle are bred to bring into prominence 

 some trait which will suit the purpose or pleasure of 

 their master, not of their own. No one supposes that 

 the monstrous nose of the pug dog or the inflamed liver 

 of the Strassburg goose was developed with any regard 

 to those unfortunate animals. The whole point has 

 been missed. Man cannot be bred like animals be- 

 cause he has no apparent master. If we could be 



