/'sf/r/iolo(/ic(d /notsiujatioiis 263 



iuliuits that llu' slow [jiogivHS «)f evolution is due to antfcr.lcnm and in- 

 heivnt conditions of wliicli we have not yet the sliglitcHt concej)tion, he 

 throws out an idea which foreshadows in a startling way Einstein, and in 

 itself predicts how his doctrine may modify man's religious views. T have 

 not seen this strange jmssuge (|Uotcd, nor do I know what (ialton's readei-s 

 may have made of it in pre-relativity days. It runs: 



"It is ditVicult to witliHUkiid a suspicion that the tlirt>e diinensions of spice and the 

 fourth diniciisioii of time may hi' four iiuie|>eiideiit variables of a syst^-iii which is neither 

 space nor time, but something else wholly unconceive<l by us. Our present enigma as to 

 how a First Cause could itself have Uhmi brought into existence — how the tortoise of the 

 fable that boars the elephant, that iK'ars the world, is itself support<xl,— may be wholly 

 due Ut our nooossary mislran.slation of the four or more variables of the universe, limited by 

 inherent conditions, into the threes unlimited variables of space and the one of Time." (p. 302). 



An obsciu-e passage, indeed, which one of us ought to have askeil Galton to 

 inter{)ret, but which now we can only place aganist Clifford's concept that 

 "matter is a wrinkle in space." Both men might have tauglit us to tlnnk had 

 our minds then been receptive. 



Putting these high theories and suggestions on one side, Galton notes 

 two great and indisputable facts: 



(i) That the whole of the living world moves steadily and continuously 

 towards the evolution of races that are progressively more and more adapted 

 to their complicated nmtual needs and to tlieir external circumstances. 



(ii) That this process of evolution has been hitherto carried on with 

 what men from then- standpoint nnist reckon ivs great waste of oj)portunity 

 and life, and with little if any consideration for individual mischance. 



Measured by man's criterion of intelligence and mercy, 



"the process of evolution on this earth has l>een carriwl out neither with intelligence nor 

 nith, but entirely through the routine of various sciiuences, commonly calleil 'laws,' established 

 or necessitated we know not how." (p. 30.3.) 



Intelligent man has now been evolved. He has enormously modified the 

 surface of the earth and altered its distribution of plants and animals. This 

 new animal, man, endowed with a little power and some intelligence, ought, 

 Galton holds, to assume a deliberate and conscious part in furthering the great 

 work of evolution. 



"He may infer the course it is bound to pursue, from his observation of that which it has 

 already followed, and he might devote his nuKlicum of power, int«'lligeiice and kindly feeling to 

 render its future progress less slow and painful. Man has already furthered evolution very 

 considerably, Imlf unconsciously, and for his own personal advantages, but he has risen to the 

 conviction that it is his religious duty to do so deliberately and systematically." (p. 304.) 



Thus was the Darwinian d(x;trine raised by Galton to a religious creed. 



The next section of the book, entitled Selection ami Race, needs, I 

 venture to think, some modification. Galton, having only dealt with the 

 correlation of two variates, misunderstood, as 1 shall show later, the phe- 

 nomena of regression. His statement here that the stringent selection of 

 the best s})ecmiens of a race to rear and breed from can never lead to 

 any permanent result, is, I feel siu-e, erroneous, and due to a wrong inter- 

 pretation of multiple regression. Further, I doubt his assumption of the 



