EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



and in relation to the theory of heredity which 

 we owe to the long-neglected work of the Austrian 

 abbot Gregor Mendel. 



The eugenic proposal is that it will be well if 

 the best of each generation contribute more 

 much more than their share to the making of the 

 next. It is obvious that there are positive and 

 negative aspects to this intention. Let us for a 

 moment look at the latter. 



Objectors declare that love, which notoriously 

 "makes the world go round," will laugh at eu- 

 genics as at locksmiths; we need not fancy that 

 people will tolerate any interference with their 

 matrimonial intentions. Mr. Galton has made an 

 extended answer to this objection in a recent 

 paper which must be summarized here. Already 

 we know that, in our own day, public opinion is a 

 potent restriction upon marriages between, for 

 instance, first cousins, and persons very disparate 

 in social status. If it can control these, why not 

 also the marriage of the epileptic, the "border- 

 land" insane, the consumptive, and the criminal? 

 But Mr. Galton has invoked history and anthro- 

 pology in this paper, most inappropriately read 

 before the Sociological Society on St. Valentine's 

 day. Already man, who is not a monogamous 

 animal by nature, has submitted to the monogam- 

 ic restriction. The Greeks, the Romans, and the 

 modern Hindu have submitted to the custom of 

 endogamy, which forbids marriage outside the 

 caste or tribe or the patrician or Hellenic group. 

 148 



