Eugenics as a Creed and the Last Decade of Galton's Life 293 



5. Evidence will be required of a somewhat higher* order of achievement than that to 

 which the certificate testifies, lest undue weight should be assigned to success due to especial 

 aptitude rather than to all-round ability, or to a success won under exceptionally favourable 

 circumstances. The hardship of a certificate being sometimes withheld from a deserving man 

 through want of convincing evidence is a lesser evil than the occasional grant of them to 

 the undeserving. In the first case, an individual fails of his due; in the latter case, the credit 

 of the certificates is shaken. 



6. The ignorance of particulars concerning a man's ancestry is usually so great that 

 inquiries concerning hereditary gifts must perforce be limited to his nearest kindred, namely 

 to (1) his (whole) brothers and sisters, (2) his father and the father's (whole) brothers and 

 sisters, (3) his mother and the mother's (whole) brothers and sisters, all of whom are usually 

 within the scope of information easily procurable by persons aged 23 to 30. Half brothers and 

 sisters are not taken into account. (The questions concerning the kinsfolk of the applicant, 

 while they are framed to extract really useful replies, have to be much less detailed than those 

 which concern the applicant himself.) 



QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED BY EACH APPLICANT 

 FOR THE EUGENIC CERTIFICATE. 



1. Your name in full, place and date of your birth, your address, your occupation. Maiden 

 surname of your mother ; full name and address of your father, his occupation. 



2. Have you undergone a physical examination as to fitness instituted by any branch of 

 the public service ? If so, state particulars and date. 



3. Can you refer to any physical competition of which records are accessible, in which you 

 were ranked distinctly higher than the average of your competitors ? If so, give not more than 

 three of the most notable instances. 



4. Have you performed any physical feats that were distinctly beyond the powers of men 

 of the same age and of equal training to yourself? Give particulars of not more than three of 

 the most notable instances. 



5. Have you been classified in any important literary examination, whether at school or 

 college, for a public service or otherwise? Give particulars of the three instances in which you 

 were especially successful and mention the number of competitors in each case ; if they be not 

 known with exactness, give limits within which their numbers certainly lie. 



G. Have you been awarded prizes or other distinctions at any large college, school, or 

 university, or by any literary or scientific body? If so, state the particulars of not more than 

 three of the most noteworthy ones. 



7f. Have you been elected to any coveted post of trust, paid or unpaid, in any school or 

 college or in any association, whether it be athletic, scholastic or other? State particulars of 

 not more than three of the most important of these as evidence of the trust placed in you 

 by your comrades. 



8. Have you received any and what appointments ? If so, do not mention more than two 

 or three of the principal ones. 



9. State anything else that you may think favourable to the conclusion to which a certificate I 

 testifies. 



Note. "Weight will be given by the Judges to the general character of your replies, which 

 should be appropriate and satisfactory, but brief. 



It will be observed that an accumulation of small instances is reckoned superfluous, when 

 a few prominent facts suffice to carry the desired conviction. 



Nothing whatever is to be written that cannot be quoted and cannot be verified. 



* The greatest successes are due to more than the average powers as the greatest failures 

 are duo to less. F. G. 



t Can any further good, test of character be suggested ? F. G. 



