120 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



whence we can easily explain why the popular oonceptiou of a great leader 

 of thought is nearly always vacuous, for it lacks that t«rse characterisation of 

 individuality which can spring only frouj first-hand study of a niiin's mind. 



Galton 's thesis is that artificial selection in our race is lowering its type; 

 the 'typical condition' of a nice is that in which there is a moderate amount 

 of healthy natural selection and fair conditions of nurture. He illustrates 

 the lowest quarter of a race by statistics of French conscripts in which 

 30% were rejected in 1859. He estimates that some 5 7o of these may 

 have been rejected owing to injury or accident, but holds that one-quarter of 

 the French youths are naturally and hereditarily unfitted for active life. To 

 illustrate the uppermost quarter he cites the lads of the St Vincent training- 

 ship for seamen of the Royal Navy, where about one boy in four applicants is 

 admitted, and he cites the conditions physical, mental and moral for admission. 



"When I stood among the 750 boys who coiiii)osed the crew, it was clear to nie that they 

 were decidedly superior to the moss of their countrymen. They showed their inborn superiority 

 by the heartiness of their manner, their self-respect, their heathy looks, their musculitr build, 



the interest they took in what was taught them, and the ease with which they learnt it If 



the average English youth of the future could be raisetl by an inipniveiiient in our race to the 

 average of those on IxNird the .St Viticent, which is no preposterous hope, England would become 



far more noble and i)owerful than she now is The present army of inetl'ective.s which clog 



progroBS would disappear, and the deviations of individual gifts towards genius would h*'. no less 

 wide or numerous than they now are; but by starting from a higln^r vantage ground they would 

 reach proportionately farther." (p. 123.) 



I think many of us would now admit not only the advantage but the 

 possibility of such a degree of betterment of our race. But it may he per- 

 missible to doubt whether Galton's solution of 1873 was a feasible one. 



"My object ia to build up, by the mere process of extensive inquiry and publication of 

 reaulta, a sentiment of caste among those who are naturally gifted, and to procure for them, 

 before the system has fairly taken root, such moderate social favour and preference, no more 

 and no less, as would seem reasonable to those who were justly informed of the precise measure 

 of their importance to the nation." (p. 123.) 



The "extensive inquiry and publication of results" were to be undertaken 

 by the organisation of a widely extended "Eugenics liecoids Society," with 

 branches all over the country, which was to collect and digest information 

 as to the physique, mentality and ancestry of individuals. 



"My proposition certainly is not to begin by breaking up old feelings of social status, but 

 to build up a caste xvilhin e^ich of the groups into which rank, wealth and pursuits already 

 divide society, mankind Ijeing quite numerous enough to admit of this sub-classiiication." 

 (p 123.) 



It is abundantly clear that in 1873 Galton had not fully realised how un- 

 prepared the nation was for such a scheme. In the first place had such a 

 society or institution been created, it would have met with an impenetrable 

 barrier of real, if mistaken, opposition to what would have Ijeen looked upon 

 as prying in(juiries. But still more important factors of failure would have 

 been the absence of any properly trained mental, medical and physical anthro- 

 pometricians who could have carried out adetjuate researches of this kind. 

 The work cannot be done by untrained, however enthusiastic, volunteers. 



