Early Anthrojjological Jtenean-fi'x 117 



the fact that tlie nobility are neculiarly subject lo iii>iauuy notwith- 

 staruling that our Liturgy pmys that they may Ik; eiuhied "with grace, wisdom 

 and uniferstamhng," the fact tliat insurance otHces make no differences in the 

 insumnces of pious and profanepersons, or ofships Htte<l out for pious or profane 

 purposes, altliougii they are for ever measuring sliglit chHerences of risk, etc. 

 In his last paragraphs Galton turns to the subjective vahie of prayer: 



"Notliiiij,' that I linve Hjiid imgiitivcH tlio fact that the niitid may Im) relieved by the utt4Tanoe 

 of priiyiT. The itiipulso to pour out thu fwliiigK in houiuI is not peculiar to man. Any mother 

 that ha.s lost her young, and wan<lcrs alMtut moaning; and l(K>kin^ piteuusly fur Hympatiiy, poweMM 

 much of that wliich prompLs men to pniy in articulate words. There i.s a yearning of tlie heart, 

 a cniving for help, it knows not where, certainly from no source it sees." (p. IS.').) 



The paper conchides with a fine statement which at lejist emphasises the 

 rehgious comfort tialton found in his own pantiieistic views and from which 

 freethinkers without those views may still draw consolation: 



"A confident sonso of communion with God must neceesarilj' rejoice and strengthen the 

 heart, and divert it from petty cartas; and it is equally certain that similar benefits are not 

 excluded from those who on conscientious grounds are sceptical as to the reality of a power of 

 communion. These can dwell on tlit^ undoubted fact, that there exists a solidarity between them- 

 selves and what surrounds them, through the endless reactions of physical laws, among which 

 the hereditary intluences are to Ik; included. They know that they are descended from an 

 endless past, that they have a brotherhood with all that is, and have each his own share of 

 responsibility iji the parentage of an endless future. The effort to familiari.se the imagination 

 with this great idea lias much in common with the effort of communing with a God, and its 

 reaction on the mind of the thinker is in many res[)ects the same. It may not equally rejoice 

 the heart, but it is quite as powerful in ennobling the resolves, and it is found to jn^" «er..nity 

 during the trials of life and in the shadow of approaching death." (p. 135.) 



I now turn to the last popular appeal which Galton made for conscious 

 race-betterment for more than 30 years. As he himself has said, the time was 

 not ripe for such a progi'amme as he had in mind, and he did not recur to 

 the topic until 1901. The paper appeared in Fraser's Mayazine in January 

 1873', under the title: "Hereditary Improvement." It opens as follows: 



"It is freely allowed by most authorities on herixlity, that men are just as subject to its l*wa, 

 l)oth in body and mind, as are any other nnimal-s, but it is almost universally doubted, if not 

 denie<l, that an establishment of this fact could ever be of large practical Ixsnefit to humanity. 

 It is objected that, philosophise as you will, men and women will continue to marry, as they 

 have hitherto done, according to their personal likings; that any prospect of improving the raoe 

 of man is absurd and chimerical, and that though iii<|uiries into the laws of human heredity 

 may hv. pursued for the satisfaction of a curious disposition, they can he of no real importance. 

 In opposition to these objections, I maintain, in the present e.ssay, that it is fea.sible to improve 

 the race of man by a system which shall be perfectly in accordance with the moral sense of the 

 present time." (p. IIG.) 



Galton holds that conscious race-betterment must arise as soon as the 



' Vol. VII, New Series, pp. 116-30. I may, perha|>8, be permitted to interpolate here a 

 remark, which is true if pessimistic. The impression which has remained to me from younger days 

 of the relatively high intellectual standard of mid- Victorian magazines has been confirmed by my 

 re-exaniination of them for the purposes of this biography. These old magazines — many of them 

 now dead — are full of gotxl work by the best minds of that age, both literary and scientific; the 

 magazines of to-day-^from big to small — are almost entirely written by profe.ssional journalists 

 to amuse an uncultured public. The writ«n"s bear as a rule names which have made no perma- 

 nent mark on literature, science or politics, and their readers leave these productions to litter 

 the railway carriage or the sea-beach. 



