44 MAN [Chap. VIII 



Letter 412 the inhabitants of malarious countries owe their degraded and 

 miserable appearance to the bad atmosphere, though this does 

 not kill them, rather than to " economy of structure " ? I 

 do not see that an orthognathous face would cost more than 

 a prognathous face ; or a good morale than a bad one. That 

 is a fine simile (p. 1 19) about the chip of a statue ; : but surely 

 Nature does not more carefully regard races than individuals, 

 as (I believe I have misunderstood what you mean) evidenced 

 by the multitude of races and species which have become 

 extinct. Would it not be truer to say that Nature cares only 

 /for the superior individuals and then makes her new and 

 better races ? But we ought both to shudder in using so 

 freely the word " Nature " 2 after what De Candolle has said. 

 Again let me thank you for the interest received in reading 

 your essay. 



Many thanks about the rabbits ; your letter has been sent 

 to Balfour : 3 he is a very clever young man, and I believe owes 

 his cleverness to Salisbury blood. This letter will not be 

 worth your deciphering. I have almost finished Greg's 

 Enigmas?- It is grand poetry — but too Utopian and too full 

 of faith for me ; so that I have been rather disappointed. 

 What do you think about it ? He must be a delightful man. 



I doubt whether you have made clear how the families on 

 the Register are to be kept pure or superior, and how they 

 are to be in course of time still further improved. 



1 ". . . The life of the individual is treated as of absolutely no 

 importance, while the race is as everything ; Nature being wholly 

 careless of the former except as a contributor to the maintenance and 

 evolution of the latter. Myriads of inchoate lives are produced in what, 

 to our best judgment, seems a wasteful and reckless manner, in order that 

 a few selected specimens may survive, and be the parents of the next 

 generation. It is as though individual lives were of no more consideration 

 than are the senseless chips which fall from the chisel of the artist who 

 is elaborating some ideal form from a rude block " {loc. cit., p. 119). 



2 See Letter 190, Vol. I., p. 269. 



3 Francis Maitland Balfour (1851-82) was Professor of Animal 

 Morphology at Cambridge. (See Life and Letters, III., p. 250.) 



4 The Enigmas of Life, 1872. 



