NEO-DARWINIAN SOCIOLOGISTS 97 



comforts of life but in the interest of efficient citizenship/ and 

 from his National Life, where he shows the importance of educa- 

 tion for adaptability and group success.^ 



3. Passive Spiritual Adaptation. Gal ton points out the in- 

 fluence that customs and rehgion have had on marriage institu- 

 tions and believes that after a time eugenics may so influence 

 public opinion that uneugenic marriages will be tabooed and that 

 this new science may yet receive the sanction of religion.^ If this 

 stage should be reached we would have an example of the opera- 

 tion of passive spiritual adaptation. Pearson emphasizes the 

 value of scientific training to insure social stabiHty.^ 



4. A dive Spiritual A daptation. Eugenics as defined by Gal ton 

 belongs properly to this department of our subject, so that the 

 contributions of these two on the constructive side belong here. 

 The contrast between eugenics and evolution is well iUustrated by 

 these words from the founder of the new science: — 



Eugenics strengthens the sense of social duty in so many important partic- 

 ulars that the conclusions derived from its study ought to find a welcome 

 home in every tolerant religion. It promotes a far-sighted philanthropy, 

 the acceptance of parentage as a serious responsibility, and a higher concep- 

 tion of patriotism. The creed of eugenics is founded upon the idea of evo- 

 lution; not on a passive form of it, but on one that can, to some extent, direct 

 its own course. Purely passive, or what may be styled mechanical evolution 

 displays the awe-inspiring spectacle of a vast eddy of organic turmoil, origi- 

 nating we know not how, and traveling we know not whither. ... Its 

 constituents are always changing, though its shape as a whole hardly varies. 

 Evolution is in any case a grand phantasmagoria, but it assumes an infinitely 

 more interesting aspect under the knowledge that the intelligent action of 

 the human will is, in some small measure, capable of guiding its course. Man 

 has the power of doing this largely so far as the evolution of humanity is con- 

 cerned; he has already affected the quahty and distribution of organic life so 

 widely that the changes on the surface of the earth, merely through his dis- 

 forestings and agriculture, would be recognizable from a distance as great as 

 that of the moon. . . . 



Eugenic belief extends the function of philanthropy to future generations, 

 it renders its action more pervading than hitherto, by deahng with famiUes 

 and societies in their entirety, and it enforces the importance of the marriage 

 covenant by directing serious attention to the probable quality of the future 

 offspring. It sternly forbids all forms of sentimental charity that are harm- 

 ful to the race, while it eagerly seeks opportunity for acts of personal kind- 



1 pp. 7 f. ' Sociological Papers, i, p. 12. 



2 p. 32. * Grammar of Science, p. 9. 



