AIM'KNDIX 307 



(jlaltori has shown liow the Catholic chiircli hrutalixed tho breed 

 of our forefathers Ity first eondeiniiing {.'eutk' natures to celibacy 

 and then making- "anotlier sweep of her huj^e nets, this time 

 fishiny: in stirring waters, to catch those who were the most fear- 

 less, truth-seekinjj:, aiul intelli.Lrent in their modes of thcjuf^ht, and 

 therefore the most suital)le parents of a hifrh civilization . . . put 

 a strong check, if not a direct stop, to their progeny." ■*' 



Social selection is also slow in attaining its adaptation. It 

 takes ages of bloodshed aeeompanied l)y sanguinary waste to se- 

 cure tlie tame and tractable type. IMoreover, when its work is 

 done and the race has been purged of antisocial strains, it is adap- 

 tation to past conditions that is achieved. In tlie mcaiitiuie a new 

 social order has, like as not, arisen and sweeping changes in 

 the criteria of selection have appeared. In short, "We must 

 not," as Ross says, "overlook the fact that selection adapts men 

 to yesterday's conditions, not to to-day's."** Humanitarians 

 iiave always perceived the cruelt}', inefficiency, and waste of social 

 selection and have striven to hasten the evolutionary tendency 

 away from social selection to a milder form of the weeding-out 

 j)rocess. The historical trend toward gentler penalties for of- 

 fensive conduct is known to all. Let us consider, therefore, the 

 type of adaptation achieved by selection that -works on the psychic 

 ])lane. 



Societal selection attains its adaptation by coercing and re- 

 straining the offender and modifies his conduct or ideas while 

 living. It works on habit, weeding out the misfit act, and achieves 

 a superficial surface adaptation that may not endure without 

 the restraining pressure of social ascendancy. Spin loose the 

 l)inding-screw of the social presses, custom and convention, and 

 primitive human nature flares out in savage impulse. Robert 

 Owen thought that he could establish an ideal community by do- 

 ing away with the existing institutions of marriage, private prop- 

 erty, and religion, yet the disastrous failure of this New Har- 

 mony experiment seemed to prove the instability of man's social 

 nature without these balance wheels of social order. ^^ 



i- llrrcilitaii/ Ccnius ( \c\v V.)rk. 1S!)-2K pp. :;4:! 44. 

 ■•"< l^ocidl Coutrol, p. 0. 



^!' Cliapin. note 42. p. :'04, autr; also "Moral Piolmcs^,"' I'npvJnr f^ctmrr 

 Monthhf. May, 1015. 



