612 THE CONTROL OF LIFE: 



Therefore in Man's formative periods the common-sense view 

 is surely this. We cannot be quite sure what we have in 

 our inheritance, therefore let us give every chance to such 

 qualities as are liberated by ameliorative nurture. We can- 

 not be quite sure what may not be in our inheritance, there- 

 fore we take no chances ; let us avoid the kind of nurture that 

 arouses sleeping dogs. The theory of the control of life is 

 here quite plain : the practice, we admit, is no easier than be- 

 fore, save that we understand the issues better. . 



§ 4. Selection the Third Determinant of Life, 



The third determinant of life is Selection, and this is 

 of peculiar importance in the human sphere, where Natural 

 Selection is largely in abeyance and the sifting is in great 

 part rational and social. We call it rational and social 

 because it is more or less deliberate and thought-out and 

 because it is effected by social sieves; unfortunately this 

 does not mean that it may not be terribly mistaken. In 

 early days mankind was much in the sieve of Natural Selec- 

 tion — the meshes being wild beasts, changes of climate, 

 scarcity of food, unchecked disease, and so on, and we are 

 the better for that sifting to-day. But, as every one knows, 

 the whole trend of human evolution since civilisation began 

 has been to throw off the yoke of natural selection. Some 

 of its thraldom remains, as in cases of differential death- 

 rate, where the inherently weaker succumb in larger num- 

 bers, but we are continually interfering — necessarily and 

 rightly — with the sifting operations of disease, hard times, 

 and the like. This interference has been in great part 

 prompted by the strengthening and diffusion of the humaner 

 sentiments and a realisation of our solidarity ; but it involves, 

 as every one recognises more or less clearly, the terrible danger 



