DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 49 



spiritual air we breathe, than in the blood that 

 runs in our veins. 1 



Mr. Galton's investigations on heredity do 

 not appear to commit him to the Lamarckian 

 or Spe ncerian view that (^#//?>r^nt ellectual 

 or mora l characteri stic^ nrf> i nherited ; and, as 

 we have already seen, he in some cases fully 

 recognises how much the environment of the 

 individual in early years affects his course in life. 

 But it cannot be denied that Mr. Galton seems 

 to lend countenance to a sort of fatalism about 

 the influence of race, and to a too contented 

 acquiescence in existing social arrangements. 

 I say advisedly "seems," because I do not 

 think Mr. Galton's book is quite as comforting 

 to the opponents of change, if they come to 

 read it carefully, instead of merely claiming its 

 authority on their side. Let us consider a {qxv 

 passages in detail. " It is in the most un- 

 qualified manner that I object to pretensions 

 of natural equality. ... I acknowledge 

 freely the great power of education and social 

 influences in developing the active powers of 



1 Cp< Lewes, The Study of Psychology, pp. 78-80, where 

 it is urged that the operation of " the social factor " consti- 

 tutes the difference between man and the lower animals. 



D. P. E 



