82 Life ami Letters of FraneiM Galtoii 



aUuid upon any Hcientific basis with which wo arc acquainted. It is impossible it should be true 

 unless there exixts »onie projierty or quality in man that is not traiisuiisHible by descent. But 

 the terms talent and rharaeirr an- exhaustive; tiiey include the wliulo of man's spiritual nature 

 so far as we are able to understand it. No other clasM of qualities is known to exist, that we 

 might suppose to have Ix-en interpolated from on high. Moreover the idea is improlwble from 

 A f>riori cut; ms, Ufausc there is no other instance in which creative power oj)enite8 



under our o" \ ation at the present day, except it may be in the frwdom in action of our 



own wills. Wherever else we turn our eyes, we see nothing but law and order, and effect following 

 cause." (pp. 322-3.) 



The reader will now grasp how necessary it is to appreciate that the 

 inheritance of mental and moral characters in man was the fundamental 

 concept in Galton's life and work. It led him to all his later quantitative 

 investigations on heredity ; it led him to liis conception of the ' stirp,' or as 

 it was later termed the principle of the continuity of the germ plasm, but it 

 led him also to his rejection of the doctrine of an implanted 'soul' — 

 " talent and character are exhaustive ; they include the whole of man's 

 spiritual nature so far as we are able to understand it." Galton's free thought 

 was the pro<luct of his views on heredity, and Darwin's Ongin of Sjtecies 

 had led Galton directly to the study of heredity in man. This is very 

 obvious in the present paper. He admits variation between the embryos 

 due to the same parents, although we know not the how of that variation. 

 He applies selection directly to man. It is Nature's 



"fiat that the natural tendencies of animals should never disaccord long and widely with the 

 conditions under which they are placed. Every animal before it is of an age to bear offspring 

 has to undergo frequent stem examination before the board of Nature, under the law of natural 

 ■election; where to be 'plucketi' is not necessarily disgrace, but is certainly death." (p. 323.) 



Then Galton proceeds to question whether the moral character is not 

 also selected in words which Hu.xley wotdd liave done well to ponder on 

 before he gave many years later his niucii lui.sguided — for so I must venture 

 to characterise it — ^Romanes Lecture. 



"In strength, iigilitv, and other physical qualitii-s, Darwin's law of natural selection acts 

 with iminij)a.s.sione«l merciless .severity, the weakly die in the battle; for life; the stronger and 

 more capable individuals are alone permitU'd to survive, and to lH'(|ueHth their constitutional 

 vigour to futurt! generations. Is there any corresponding rule in respect lo moral characterl 

 I Ijelieve there is, and I have alreatly hinted at it when speaking of the American Indians. I 

 am prepared to maintain that its action, by insuring a certain fundamental unity in the quality 

 of the affections, enables men and the higher order of animals to .sympathise in some degree with 

 each other, and also that this law forms the brotid basis of our religious sentiments'." (p. 323.) 



Galton then goes on to point out that animal hfe in all but the lowest 

 classes depends on at least one and more commonly on all of the following 

 types of affection : sexual, parentid, filial and social. 



"The al>sence of any one would l>e a serious hindrance if not a bar to the continuance of 

 any race. Those who possess all of them, in the strongest measure, wouUl. s]>euking generally, 

 have an a<lvaiitage in the struggh; for existence. Without sexual affection, there would Ixj no 

 marriages, and no children; without |)arental affection, the childn^n wouhl IxuilMindoned; with- 

 out filial affection, they would stray and perish; and without social, each individual would be 



' I think Oalton is here applying the word 'religious' in its corre<-t philological sense to the 

 sentimental which unite society or bind men together; the theistic sentiment (p. 324) is hardly 

 known to sarages; religion in the earliest development is a social or tribal bond. 



