174 PERFECTIBILITY OF MAX. 



debasement of his being. We recognise these as the 

 causes which, in their operation through ages, have dis- 

 severed mankind into races and nations, as well as into 

 the subordinate communities and classes civilised, 

 semi-civilised, or savage which cover the globe. 



Eecurring to the main question, a special enquiry 

 first presents itself. We see how much has been done 

 by a system of selection and interbreeding in variously 

 modifying and improving the breeds of many other 

 animals, giving new power as well as direction to their 

 original faculties. 1 Can similar methods be applied to 

 man with any similar result ? This, with a few partial 

 and insignificant exceptions, has never yet been at- 

 tempted, and the social and sexual relations, even among 

 the least civilised people, make it very unlikely that it 

 should ever fairly be carried into effect. Plato, in his 

 Eepublic, propounds a scheme for giving the state 

 control and direction of marriages as a means of social 

 advancement ; and the austere laws of Sparta, by their 

 ypa^rj /ca/coya/^ov, and ypa<f>rj 6i/fiyajnov, assumed a 

 right to the practical use of this power. But any such 

 theories or enactments, based on the narrow scale of 

 Greek republics, are of little present import. We 

 might, indeed, in pure speculation suppose the experi- 

 ment of grouping marriages (excluding close consan- 



1 Thoroughbred racers furnish an instance iu point. The vrinners 

 descended from Eclipse were reckoned at 334. From other famous horses 

 a still greater number. 



On this subject of congenital propensities we are bound to take large 

 numerical views, illustrations, and averages, such as Humboldt applied 

 to physical geography, and Liebig to other physical phenomena. The 

 average amount of insanity, for instance, ns far as it can be derived from 

 authentic documents, &c. 



