86 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon 



I have given what the reader may consider undue space to this one 

 magazine article, until he comes to see its relation to Galton's later views. 

 It is really an epitome of the gi-eut hulk of Galton's work for the rest of his 

 life ; iji fact all his lahoui-s on heredity, anthropometry, psychology and 

 statistical method seem to t^ike their roots in the ideas of this paper. It 

 might ahnost have l)een written iis a r^sum^ of his lalx)Ui-s after tlu>v were 

 com})leted, rather than jus a prologue to the yet to be accomplished. It is 

 not only that Galton here gives us clearly his religious creed — religion has 

 ceased for him to have a supernatural and taken on a purely anthroj)ological 

 value — hut he formulates the work he intends to do, and actually did do in 

 the remaining forty-five years of his life. Few realise that Galton was 

 already in 18()4 a thorough -going eugenist, that here in the prime of his 

 life — in his 42nd yeai- — he stood free of all the old l)eliefs which he implicitly 

 accepted ten years earlier^. He acknowledges that his freedom was due to 

 Darwin. But he does not hint that he had stept out beyond Darwin. For 

 Darwin wrote : 



"You imk wlif^thor I shftll discusH 'man.' I think 1 Miall avoid the subject, as s<>8urroundo<l 

 with prejudiws, though 1 fully admit it is tlio highest and most interesting pnthloni for the 

 naturalist'." 



and Galt^)n said : 



"I shall treat of man and see what the theory of heredity of variations and tiie principle of 

 natural selection mean when applied to man." 



8o he came to sketch out his future work and whither he thought it would 

 lead him in the coui-se of years. Reading this article we see that his re- 

 searches in heredity, in anthi'opometry, in psychometry and statistics were 

 not independent studies, they were all auxiliary to his main object — the 

 improvement in the race of man. Those who, ignoring what Galton and 

 others have done, would cast doubt on the inheritance of the mental and 

 moral characters, at once withdraw the foundation stone of Galton's life- 

 work. That j>rinciple was essential to his views on the past evolution of 

 man, was the mainstay of his religious l>elief, and the rock on which he built 

 his scheme for man's future progress. For him the chief difference l)etween 

 barbarous and civilised man lay not in their physical qualities but in their 

 mental or moral aptitudes, and all recent progress has been made by the 

 action of natural selection on these hereditary clianicteristics. 



It wjis by furthering this work of .selection, by, in a broad sense, the 

 further domestication of man, that Galton hopea to produce supermen. 

 And, however desirable later writers, ignoring Galton, have proclaimed this 

 end to be, they have provided no rational and scientific means, such as he 

 did, of attaining it. Natural, albeit idle curiosity would like to know how 

 Galton's orthodox friends and clerical relations met this Ix^lt from the blue. 

 The oidy letter, however, that hjis reached me from 18G5 is one of May 31st 



' .See my account of his Art of Travel, p. 4. 



» iMIer of Dnrwin to Wallace, 18.'^i7. Between 1857 and 1871 Dur win's views of these 

 prejudice* cbangurl. I venture to think Galton's voice crying in the wilderness ha<l aided in 

 the preparation of public opinion. 



