Heredity and the Law of Evolution. 301 



will at last be with that race which possesses the superior 

 elements.' 



Should the future verify these prognostics, should the white race, 

 after eliminating the two others, restore the cross races to its own 

 type, it will have performed, in its own way, a work of regeneration ; 

 then the question with which we began will be definitely settled, 

 and the mean level of humanity will have been greatly raised, still 

 more perhaps by hereditary transmission than by the external 

 action of education and custom. 



in. 



As we have seen, evolution in living beings, though it generally 

 implies amelioration, progress, transition from worse to better, 

 still, in its scientific sense, implies only the transition from simple 

 to complex, from homogeneous to heterogeneous; and hence, 

 instead of progress, it sometimes leads only to diminution of force 

 and to decay. We have now to consider heredity under this 

 latter aspect, as related to the law of evolution. 



Everything that has life also declines and becomes extinct. It 

 it doubtless because of this too evident truth that the belief in the 

 law of progress appeared so late in man's history. First the indi- 

 vidual disappears, then the family, then the nation ; and just as 

 the individual makes use of many bodies before he finally becomes 

 extinct, so, too, the family makes use of many individuals, the 

 nation many families, the human race many nations. Perhaps 

 humanity itself must disappear at last, made use of by some 

 mightier force. It may be that in the evolution of the universe 

 humanity is but one term in an endless series, one link in an 

 endless chain. 



If we glance at any family that has acted a part in history, we 

 see the following facts. Its origin is so obscure that usually we 

 have to imagine or invent it j it comes into prominence, grows, 

 and attains its climax in one, two, or three generations at most ; it 

 then declines and becomes extinct. Take the second race of 

 Frank kings. It starts with Saint Arnoul, Bishop of Metz, follows 

 an ascending series, Pepin d'Heristal, Charles Martel, Pepin the 



1 Quatrefages, loc. cit. p. 457. 



