XIII 

 EUGENICS THE FUTURE OP MAN 



IF this present generation suddenly became 

 self-conscious as a whole, and asked itself how it 

 came to be, the answer would refer its genesis to 

 the marriage of certain members of the last gen- 

 eration. Now, among our predecessors were num- 

 bered men of character and men of none, saints and 

 criminals, athletes and weaklings, lovers of beau- 

 ty and Philistines, Cornelias and Messalinas. Of 

 these our amour propre would lead us to choose 

 some rather than others, could we decide, and this 

 inclination may surely be regarded as evidence of a 

 popular, if not an explicit, belief in heredity. We 

 feel that we are not to be regarded as entirely 

 independent of our ancestry. Similarly, if heredity 

 be a fact, it is evident that all future history, that 

 human destiny on this not yet moribund earth, is 

 bound up with the selection, conscious or other, of 

 present individuals whose blood shall visit men's 

 sad or happy hearts in all time coming. 



Now this chapter is written with the object of 

 introducing, to the grave consideration of such 

 persons as can induce that mental state, the study 

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