Social Environment and Eugenics 83 



position is based upon a profound faith in ex- 

 treme competition, with a resulting natural 

 selection of nature's fittest. In that struggle, 

 it is thought, real ability must win, since the 

 surest test of ability is success against natural 

 obstacles. The rigid eugenist has, then, no 

 place in his philosophy for "mute inglorious 

 Miltons," and he inclines strongly to the opin- 

 ion, so pleasing to the aristocrat, that the upper 

 classes of society are formed by the sifting 

 out and elevation of the biologically valuable 

 stocks.^ These stocks are thought to breed 

 true, with some Mendelian variation, to their 

 specific abilities, as do the inferior stocks to 

 their disabilities. The practical outcome is a 

 consistent attack in the name of science upon 

 anything in the nature of social legislation, 

 charity, or in fact any measures designed to 

 protect the apparently weaker members of 

 society, and a laudation of competition and 

 aristocracy. 



As a single example to illustrate the bio- 

 logical eugenist's absorption in physiological 



1 Galton, F., Hereditary Genius. Macmillan & Co., 

 London, 1892. Jordan, D. S., The Human Harvest. 

 American Unitarian Association, Boston, 1912. Bateson, 

 W., Biologic Fact and the Structure of Society. Claren- 

 don Press, Oxford, 1912. 



