ii68 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



more staying power than the disintegrative, and so the quaUty of 

 social receptivity is on the whole desirable. On this theory it cannot 

 be said that each generation has to begin at the beginning again, in 

 taking advantage of schools and churches, of books and art treasures, 

 of traditions and ideals, and so on; for there is in every generation 

 a sifting out of those who are markedly indifferent to the social 

 heritage. The sifting or selection is neither vividly conscious nor 

 rapidly lethal; it works automatically and gently, like many forms 

 of Natural Selection; j^et we believe that it has been the main 

 method of progress. Impressionability to the ideal, which the social 

 heritage always expresses, is the saving grace. Yet this must not 

 merely leave us in a passive culture, like too many even of those 

 who, as Matthew Arnold desired so strongly, are interested in the 

 best that has been, or that is being, thought and done in the world: 

 active participation in this, and contribution towards it, are also 

 needed, even for the development of personal individuality and 

 culture. 



HUMAN ORIGINS 



Important though the specific internal problems of biolog}^ 

 are, throughout its varied fields, the great fact must not be 

 overlooked, as it so often is, that our present eager inquiries, 

 even into the origin of vertebrates, or of flowers, or into the 

 puzzles of cell-division, are not enough; and that the largest 

 question that can and must be asked is — what of Man ? How is he 

 evolving? We are finding out something, as the above pages indicate, 

 of whence and how he came to be as he is ; yet the supreme value of 

 such inquiries is towards enabling us, and as soon as may be, to be 

 finding some reasonable and practical^ suggestive answer to the 

 question — Whither? Since Darwin, evolutionary studies have 

 mainly looked back into the study of origins, and the quest of 

 originative processes; and so far rightly and well. But it is also full 

 time to be more and more considering the evolution of man, as still 

 a going concern. We thus cannot be content with the records of his 

 origins, or even the deepening interpretation of them: it is time to 

 be utilising our knowledge towards the recognition of such evolu- 

 tionary tendencies as he may show, and to the clearer appreciation 

 of them. Are past lines of evolution still in progress? Surely so far; 

 yet may there not need to be choice between them ? Hence the need 

 of artificial selection; since we are no longer in that age of laissez- 

 faire, from which the theory of natural selection dates, and which 

 still over-influences contemporary scientific minds. That artificial 

 selection has its dangers, one cannot but see; and we are as yet 

 making but few pleas for specific applications of it; yet our science 

 must increasingly be getting ready to advise, and as soon as may be 



