118 Life uml Letters of Fraitris Galton 



mass of educated men shall have learnt to appreciate the truth of the ordi- 

 nary (ItKJtrines of lu're<lity. In this paper he begins his long inquiry a.s to the 

 relative influence of nature, or as he here calls it 'race,' and nurture. 



"There is nothing in what I am about to say that shall underrate the sterling value of 

 nurture, including all kinds of sanitary improvenient«; nay I wish to claim thoin as powerful 

 auxiliaries to my cause; nevertlielojis, I look upon race as far more importimt than nurture. 

 Race h«a a doulilo effect, it createji better and nion^ intelligent individuals, and these become 

 more competent than their predecessors to make laws and customs, who.se effects shall favourably 



react on their own health and on the nurture of their childi-en' Constitutional stamina, 



■trength, intelligence, and moral qualities cling to a breed, say of dogs, notwithstanding many 

 generations of careless nurture, while can-ful nurture, unaide<l by selection, can do little more 

 to an inferior breed than eradicate disease and make it good of its kind." (pp. 1 16-7.) 



Galton points out that the mass of the population is never likely to enjoy 

 sanitary conditions as good as are now enjoyed by the wealthy classes, but in 

 these classes we frequently find narrow-chested men, delicate women and 

 sickly children; they are very far from possessing those high physical and 

 mental qualities which are the birthright of a good race. Their physical and 

 mental failures are nuich more frequent than the sickly and misshapen con- 

 tingent which is found in the stock of any of our breeds of domestic animals. 

 The best environment will not free mankind from weaklings, they can only 

 be 'bred out.' Galton considers that the forms of civilisation at present pre- 

 vailing tend to spoil a race, and two of their chief factors are the following: 



"The first is, the free power of bequeathing wealth, which interferes with the salutary action 

 of natural selection, by preserving the wealthy, and bj' encouraging marriage on grounds (juite 

 independent of personal qualities ; and the second is the centralising tendcncj* of our civilisation, 

 which attracts the abler men to towns, where the discouragement to marry is great, and where 

 marriage is comparatively unproductive of descendants who reach adult life." (p. 117.) 



Galton at this time believed strongly in the evil influences of town-life, 

 and we shall shortly discuss a paper by him on the subject. He thought 

 town-life selected those who are able to withstand best zymotic diseases and 

 impure and insufficient food, but such a population is not necessarily fore- 

 most in the qualities which make a nation great. But to this it may be 

 replied that if town-life does attract some abler men, it also attracts the 

 men who can stand behind a counter, or operate a machine, but whose 

 physique is quite inadequate to plough a straight furrow or to collect the 

 sheep from the high moor. The problem cannot really l)e answered by a com- 

 parison of existing factory operatives and rural labourers, unless we know the 

 nature of the town-immigrants at the time of their migration. Galton appears 

 to me on safer grotnid when he turns to the mental charact*!rs and empha.sises 

 his earlier conclusions that the intelligence of men to-day has not kept pace 

 with the growing complexity in trade and profession, nor with the increasingly 

 difficult duties of the citizens of modern large nations. 



"Great nations, instead of being highly organised bodies, are little more than aggregations 

 of men severally intent on self-advancement, who must be cemented into a mass by blind 

 feelings of gregariousness and reverence to mere rank, mere authority, and mere tradition, or 

 they will assuredly fall asunder But the case would be very different in those higher forms of 



' The 'hard cratlle' may be a distinct advantage, us the biognipher has ob.served in visiting 

 the kenncla of wealthy breeders of pet dogs. 



