78 Life and Letters of FrancU Gallon 



and finds that only one-third of them have been married and had children. 

 After drawing attention to the ages which thought it quite natural that the 

 strongest lance should win the tairest lady in tlie tournament, Galton con- 

 cludes the first part of his lecture half humorously, half earnestly as follows: 



"I^t us, then, give reins to our fancy and imagine a Utopia -or a Laputa if you will — iu 

 which a syst^em of ooinpetitive examination for girls, as well as for youths, had In-en so developed 

 M U) emhrace every im|>ortant quiility of mind and Ixxly, and where a fon.siderable sum was 

 yearly allotteil to the endowment of such marriages a« promised to yield cliiUln'n who would 

 grow into eminent servants of the State. We may picture to ours«'lves an annual ceremony in 

 that Utopia or I^puta, in which the Senior Trusti'e of the Endowment Fund would address ton 

 deeplylilushing young men, all twenty-five years old, in the following t<'rms : 'Gentlemen, I have 

 to announce the results of a public examination, conducted on established principles; which 

 show that you occupy the foremost places in your year, in resj)ect to those qualities of talent, 

 character, and bodily vigour, which are proved, on the whole, to do most honour and best service 

 to our race. An examination has also been conduct«d on established principl(>s among all the 

 young ladice of this country who are now of the age of twenty-one, and I need hardly remind 

 you, that this examination t«ke8 note of grace, beauty, health, g<xxl temper, accomplishtkl house- 

 wifery and disengage*! aflfections, in addition to noble qualities of heart and brain. By a careful 

 investigation of the marks you have .severally obtained, and a con\parison of them, always on 

 establishtvl principle.s, with those obtiune<l by the most distingui.shed among the young ladies, 

 we have l>een able to st^lect ten of their names with special reference to your individual qualities. 

 It ap{>ears that marriages between you and these ten ladies, according to the list I hold in my 

 hand, would offer the prol)ability of unusual happiness to yourwlves, and what is of paramount 

 interest to the State, would prolwibly result in an extraordinarily talented issue. Under these 

 circumstances if any or all of these marriages shoidd be agreed upon the Sovereign herself will 

 give away the brides, at a high and solemn festival six months hence in Westminster Abbey. 

 We on our part are prepare<l, in each case, to assign 5,000L as a wedding present, and to defray 

 the cost of maintaining and educating your children, out of the ample funds entrusted to our 

 disfmBal by the State.' 



If a twentieth part of the cost and pains were spent in measures for the improvement of the 

 human race that are sj>ent in the improvement of the breed of horses and cattle, what a galaxy 

 of genius might we not createl We might intixxluce prophets and high priests of civilisation 

 into the world, as surely as we can propagate idiots by mating crelitm. Men and women of the 

 present day are, to those w-e might ho]>e to bring into existence, what the pariah dogs of the 

 streets of an Eastern town are to our own highly-bred varieties. 



Tlie feeble nations of the world are necessarily g[iving way before the nobler varieties of 

 mankind; and even the l>cst of these, so far as we know them, seem unequal to their work. 

 The average culture of mankind is become so much higher than it was, and the branches of 

 knowledge and history so various and extended, that few are capable even of comprehending 

 the exigencies of our modern civilisation; much less of fulfilling them. We are living in a sort 

 of intellectual anarchy, for the want of master-minds. The general intellectual caj)acity of our 

 leaders requires to be rai8e<l, and also to be differentiated. We want abler commanders, 8tat«s- 

 men, thinkers, inventors, and artists. The natural qualiKcations of our race are no greater than 

 they used to be in semi-barliai-ous times, though the conditions amid which we are born are 

 vastly more complex than of old. The foremost minds of the present day seem to stagger and 

 halt under an intellectual load too heavy for their powers." (pp. 165-6.) 



Here was Galton fifty years ago calling out for the 'superman,' much as 

 the younger men of to-day are doing. But he differed from them in that he 

 saw a reasoned way of producing the superman, while they do not seem to 

 get further than devoutly hoping that either by a lucky 'sport' or an 

 adequate exercise of will power he will one day appear! 



One point — possibly the tragedy of his own life — Galton overlooked : 

 you may l^e a man of wide intelligence, of a gifted stock with fertile parents, 



I 



