GALTON'S RESEARCHES 285 



based. For an account of these the reader must be re- 

 ferred to the admirable popular treatises enumerated at 

 the close of the present chapter. In spite of the rather 

 wide divergence of these studies from those with which 

 this book is mainly concerned, the agreement between 

 the conclusions on race-improvement drawn by the 

 students of Genetics, on the one hand, and by those 

 of Biometry, on the other, is a remarkable one, and 

 may perhaps be taken to indicate that both these 

 methods are right in their several directions. 



Consequently we propose attempting a summary 

 of the line of researches and arguments which led 

 Galton to his conclusion that the human race 

 is capable of vast improvements in physique, in 

 beauty, in character, and in intellect. The importance 

 of this conclusion is augmented by the corollary that 

 acquisition of these improvements leads to a keener 

 appreciation of their value, and, incidentally, to the 

 greater happiness of mankind. But the student of 

 Eugenics does not rest satisfied with conclusions. He 

 proposes to utilize the great forces of fashion and 

 public opinion as agents of modification and improve- 

 ment by diverting their influence into the right 

 direction and out of their present remarkably wrong 

 direction. 



The first link in the chain of evidence was forged 

 long ago by Darwin, when he showed how far man 

 had already risen from a simpler and lower type of 

 animal. The evolution of man is now a part of the 

 ordinary intellectual creed of most educated men, and 

 yet few politicians or charitable people pause to apply 



