Eugenics as a Creed and the Last Decade of Galton's Life 355 



has given me an occasional feeling that there are no realities corresponding to Past, Present 

 and Future, but that the entire Cosmos is one perpetual Now. Philosophers have often held this 

 creed intellectually, but I suspect that few have felt the possible truth of it so vividly as it has 

 occasionally appeared to my imagination through dwelling on these 'Memories.'" (pp. 277-8.) 



In Galton's last chapter, entitled Race Improvement, he summarises 

 what he has hoped for and what he has done for Eugenics. He writes : 



" Skilful and cautious statistical treatment is needed in most of the many inquiries upon 

 whose results the methods of Eugenics will rest. A full account of the inquiries is necessarily 

 technical and dry, but the results are not, and a 'Eugenics Education Society' has been recently 

 established to popularise those results. At the request of its Committee I have lately joined it 

 as Hon. President, and hope to aid its work so far as the small powers that an advanced age 

 still leaves intact may permit." (p. 321.) 



The last paragraphs of the Memories reiterate the teaching of 1865*, 

 expressing it, perhaps, more effectively and concisely. It is probably very 

 rare for a man at 86 to gain wide acceptance for a creed which he failed 

 to impress on his contemporaries when at 42 he had the vigour and energy 

 of early manhood. Galton was clearly 40 to 50 years ahead of his own 

 generation. He thus concludes his autobiography : 



"I take Eugenics very seriously, feeling that its principles ought to become one of the 

 dominant motives in a civilised nation, much as if they were one of its religious tenets. I have 

 often expressed myself in this sense, and will conclude this book by briefly reiterating my 

 views. 



" Individuals appear to me as partial detachments from the infinite ocean of Being, and this 

 world as a stage on which Evolution takes place, principally hitherto by means of Natural 

 Selection, which achieves the good of the whole with scant regard to that of the individual. 



"Man is gifted with pity and other kindly feelings ; he has also the power of preventing many 

 kinds of suffering. I conceive it to fall well within his province to replace Natural Selection 

 by other processes that are more merciful and not less effective. 



"This is precisely the aim of Eugenics. Its first object is to check the birth-rate of the Unfit, 

 instead of allowing them to come into being, thougb doomed in large numbers to perish pre- 

 maturely. The second object is the improvement of the race by furthering the productivity of 

 the Fit by early marriages and healthful rearing of their children. Natural Selection rests upon 

 excessive production and wholesale destruction; Eugenics on bringing no more individuals into 

 the world than can be properly cared for, and those only of the best stock." (pp. 322-3.) 



" I shall treat," said Galton in his 42nd year, " of man and see what the 

 theory of heredity of variations and the principle of natural selection mean 

 when applied to manf," and his treatment only ended with his life. 



7, Well Road, Hampstead, N.W. November 5, 1908. 



My dear Francis Galton, I cannot refrain from sending you a line now that I have 

 finished the Memories to thank you for the very kind things you say about my work. I have 

 read the book with great interest and it has been helpful in more ways than you will realise. 

 It was nice to find you also knew and appreciated Croom-Robertson. What a wonderful width 

 of interests you have had, and how delightful that you had not to wedge them in between other 

 things and carry out your work in haste ! I spoke to Heron yesterday about work and his appoint- 

 ment and I must look into the original terms of his nomination before discussing it further. 

 I certainly thought it came ipso facto to an end in February, but he seems to think it was as 

 in Schuster's case for three years. I do not know that we could get a harder worker at present. 



* See Vol. ii, pp. 71-78. 

 t See Vol. ii, p. 86. 



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