i8 DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 



undoubted pre-eminence of a few great indi- 

 viduals and even of a few famous families any 

 sound argument in favour of a hereditary 

 aristocratic caste. Darwin, as we have already 

 seen, admits that the nobility in this country 

 have a certain advantage in beine able to 

 select their wives more freely than most other 

 men : yet, allowing their superiority in this 

 matter to the nobilities of other countries and 

 rejoicing that the institution of the peerage 

 has saved us from the worse calamity of a 

 " nobility " in the proper sense, we may be 

 permitted to regret that these highly privileged 

 persons, the peers and the peers' eldest sons, 

 do not always think sufficiently of their re- 

 sponsibility to the future in the selection of 

 their mates. Darwin, as we have also seen, 

 inveighs against the folly of primogeniture : so 

 that, after all, even the English nobility do 

 not get much countenance from the theory of 

 natural selection. It is strange to find the 

 doctrine of heredity invoked by the defenders 

 of the House of Lords : one would suspect 

 that they have never looked into Mr. Galton's 

 interesting book. It is instructive to notice 

 the way in which half-understood scientific 



