312 PROBLEMS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION 



defective moral character takes place. The prison, the hang- 

 man, suicide, starvation, disease, alcohol, sexual selection are 

 all at work. We are driven, therefore, to the conclusion that 

 the evolution of the race is tending mainly to morality. Among 

 those who have the necessary minimum of physique it is moral 

 character, more than brain power, which settles the question 

 of survival or non-survival. I am quite aware that the whole of 

 the moral improvement that has passed over England of recent 

 years is not to be accounted for by elimination of the bad. That 

 is a process which builds a very firm foundation, but it works 

 very slowly. There have been forces at work which are quite 

 distinct from evolution, but which co-operating with it strengthen 

 and advance morality. To the consideration of these forces the 

 next section will be devoted. 



VI 



THE EVOLUTION AND THE PROGRESS OF MORALITY 



Moral evolution is brought about by the elimination of those 

 in whom anti-moral tendencies are strong. But moral advance 

 in a nation is due only partly to this, though Mr A. Sutherland 

 traces it to this source and no other. The advance made 

 depends very largely on the atmosphere of thought in which 

 the people live, and what this atmosphere is, depends to a great 

 extent on human effort, not on any automatic process of evolu- 

 tion. The enlightened minority of the population are able to 

 make an environment which fosters good tendencies and re- 

 presses bad ones. This influence is a growing one. Societies 

 dealing with particular evils are able, in ways that, till recently, 

 were impossible, to make themselves heard throughout the 

 length and breadth of the land. The tone of the better minority 

 sets in motion a wave that presses into squalid corners, even the 

 most out-of-the-way. 



The drink question brings out clearly the distinction between 

 progress and evolution. Drink is combated vigorously by 



