252 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



itself, namely, the means by which any race can be improved, and these means 

 were for him undoubtedly selective breeding. Accordingly he contributed an 

 article to The Daily Chronicle of July 29, 1903, with the aim of propounding 

 his views in a popular form. The article was headed (probably in the editorial 

 office) "Our National Physique— Prospects of the British Race — Are We 

 Degenerating?" As a matter of fact Galton in this article is more con- 

 cerned with increasing our racial efficiency than with emphasising alarming 

 reports of its deterioration, with regeneration rather than with degeneration. 

 He states that he has no intention of confining his remarks to the wastrels 

 and the slums : 



" The questions I keep before me are whether or no the British race as a whole is, or is 

 not, equal to its Imperial responsibilities, and again how far is it feasible to make it more 

 capable of the high destinies that are within its reach, if it possesses the will and power to 

 pursue them. I wish that each one of us should stand aloof from ourselves as a whole, and 

 should watch the conditions and doings of our race, much as an authority of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society might criticise the stock of his neighbour over the hedge. If we do so we may 

 learn in what ways our own stock and its rearing are open to improvement and we may perhaps 

 ensue it." 



Galton has no doubt that the pick of the British race are as capable 

 human animals as the world at present produces. He holds that their chief 

 defects are to be found in their want of grace and of sympathy, 



" but they are strong in mind and body, truthful and purposive, excellent leaders of the people 

 of lower races. I speak more particularly of those who are selected to go abroad in various 

 high capacities, whether by Government or by firms to carry out large undertakings under 

 circumstances where they have to depend much on themselves." 



The term "lower races" is very unfashionable at the present time, but it 

 is a pleasing and emotional sentiment rather than real anthropological acumen 

 which asserts that all men are of equal value at birth, or that all races are, 

 physically, mentally and socially, of one standard of fitness. The distinctions 

 between man and man, and race and race, are in the main inborn and 

 not "innurtured" — I would say "inbred," but for the double meaning of that 

 word*. 



Of the "lower middle classes" Galton's judgment was very unfavourable. 

 He finds the average holiday-maker and cheap-excursion tourist unpre- 

 possessing as compared with the like section of other European races. We 

 may superficially, perhaps, but nevertheless with some justification, sum them 

 up as mentally and physically litter-scatterers. 



"As regards the physique of Britons, I think we hrag or have bragged more than is right. 

 Moreover we are not as well formed as might be. It is difficult to get opportunities of studying 

 the nude figures of our countrymen in mass, but I have often watched crowds bathe, as in the 

 Serpentine, with a critical eye, and have always come to the conclusion that they were less 

 shapely than many of the dark-coloured people whom I have seen." 



* Few teachers who have had to instruct young men of many races — and usually the best 

 of the " lower races " — would deny that mentally at least they can be graded. Exceptional 

 men may possibly arise in any race, but it is the averages we have to regard. It was greed 

 that introduced the negro into North America; it was lack of insight which did not push him 

 northwards in South Africa. In both cases the "lower race" now forms a grave and almost 

 unsolvable problem for the future. 



