CONTROL OF HEREDITY: EUGENICS 407 



ibly drawn. It was good immigration as well 

 as good heredity that made Athens famous. 

 Galton concludes that the average ability of 

 the Athenian race of that period was, on the 

 lowest possible estimate, as much greater than 

 that of the English race of the present day as 

 the latter is above that of the African negro. 



But this marvellously gifted race declined, 

 as all such races have in time declined : 



Social morality grew exceedingly lax, marriage be- 

 came unfashionable and was avoided, many of the 

 more ambitious and accomplished women were 

 avowed courtesans and consequently infertile, and 

 the mothers of the incoming population were of a 

 heterogeneous class. ... It can be therefore no sur- 

 prise to us, though it has been a severe misfortune 

 to humanity, that the high Athenian breed decayed 

 and disappeared, for if it had maintained its excel- 

 lence and had multiplied and spread over large 

 countries, displacing inferior populations (which it 

 well might have done, for it was naturally very pro- 

 lific), it would assuredly have accomplished results 

 advantageous to human civilization, to a degree that 

 transcends our powers of imagination. (Galton, 

 "Hereditary Genius," page 331.) 



3. Why the Race has not Improved. If 

 the race has made no progress in hereditary 



