Eugenics as a Creed and the Last Decade of Gallon's Life 227 



The topic, he stated, had not hitherto been approached along the path 

 that recent knowledge has laid open, and as a result the subject had 

 not held as dignified a position in scientific estimation as it ought to 

 do. "It is smiled at as most desirable in itself and possibly worthy of 

 academic discussion, but absolutely out of the question as a practical 

 problem " (p. 523*). The object of the lecture was to show cause for a 

 different opinion. 



" Indeed I hope to induce anthropologists to regard human improvement as a subject that 

 should be kept openly and squarely in view, not only on account of its transcendent importance, 

 but also because it affords excellent but neglected fields for investigation. I shall show that 

 our knowledge is already sufficient to justify the pursuit of this, perhaps the grandest of all 

 objects, but that we know less of the conditions upon which success depends than we might 

 and ought to ascertain. The limits of our knowledge and of our ignorance will become clearer 

 as we proceed." (p. 523.) 



Thus Galton attempted to introduce the science of Eugenics to anthro- 

 pologists, cautiously screening the label on his draught ! 



He first pointed out that the natural characters and faculties of human 

 beings differ at least as widely as those of domesticated animals, such as 

 dogs and horses : 



"In disposition some are gentle and good-tempered, others surly and vicious; some are 

 courageous, others timid; some are eager, others sluggish; some have large powers of endurance, 

 others are quickly fatigued ; some are muscular and powerful, others are weak ; some are 

 intelligent, others stupid ; some have tenacious memories of places and persons, others frequently 

 stray and are slow at recognizing. The number and variety of aptitudes, especially in dogs, is 

 truly remarkable ; among the most notable being the tendency to herd sheep, to point and to 

 retrieve. So it is with the various natural qualities which go towards the making of the civic 

 worth in man. Whether it be in character, disposition, energy, intellect or physical power, 

 we each receive at our birth a definite endowment, allegorized by the parable related in 

 St Matthew, some receiving many talents, others few." (p. 524.) 



It is to be noted how artfully Galton chose the very characteristics 

 of the dog which correspond to those of man, and led up his artless listeners 

 without direct statement to the inference that what you can certainly 

 breed for in the dog, you might equally well breed for in man ! Galton 

 realised to the full that the best method of making converts is to 

 allow the average man an opportunity of independently discovering your 

 truth. In the pride of himself finding a nugget (conveniently placed), 

 he is far less inclined to assert without examination that the whole field 

 is non-auriferous. 



Pushing the parable of the talents further, Galton, rather quaintly, 

 proceeds to put it into numbers, taking the quartile deviation ("probable 

 error ") to represent one talent, and using the normal frequency distribution 

 to express the frequency of the various grades of qualities in a nation. He 

 justifies the use of the normal distribution on the ground that experience 

 has shown that it is a fair approximation in the case of a number of qualities. 



* My references are to the pages of the Smithsonian Report. 



29—2 



