Eugenics as a Creed and the Last Decade of Galtoris Life 415 



much the same as a whole share to two*. This process may continue indefinitely in a growing 

 population like their own, so his or her influence on the race may increase in geometric 

 proportion as the generations go on. A person is therefore more important as a probable 

 progenitor of many others more or less like to him in constitution than as a mere individual.' 

 I learnt that the object of the first examination was to give a Pass certificate for ' Genetic ' 

 qualities. By ' genetic ' is meant all that is transmissible by heredity, whether it be of 

 ancestral origin or a personal sport or mutation. The refusal to grant a Pass certificate is 

 equivalent to an assertion that the person is unfit to have any offspring at all. By a second- 

 class certificate that permission is granted, but with reservations, of which more will be said 

 later. 



" In reply to my expression of diffidence as regards my own success, I was emphatically 

 reassured by my late scrutineers as to my personal capabilities, which Tom was pleased to rate 

 at ' 30 at least,' — a term which will be explained later. But what my ancestral claims might 

 be valued at, was another matter. They assured me that my sponsor, Mr Allfancy, had already 

 submitted an outline of them to the examiners, in as favourable terms as the information 

 warranted, and that he was quite satisfied with them for pass purposes, but was sure that they 

 were insufficiently authenticated to receive adequate credence from the examiners for honours. 

 Consequently far fewer marks might be awarded me for my ancestry than I probably deserved. 

 They all expressed surprise at foreigners knowing so little with exactness about their grand- 

 parents and other ancestors, saying, that everyone in Kantsaywhere knew their own as well 

 almost as if they had been their playmates and comrades, and that they all possessed an 

 abundance of well authenticated facts about themf.... 



" I was told on inquiry that those who were placed high in the list, as Miss Augusta was, 

 were justified in expecting numerous advantages on their marriage, that as many of them as 

 there were vacancies in the College — there were ten in the present year — were elected 

 Probationers, and therefore future recipients of those advantages if their husbands were 

 adequately diplomaed, but not otherwise. What the girls most thought, of, as Tom afterwards 

 told me, was a marriage between two probationers whose joint marks exceeded 200 and who 

 had at least two stars, of which more will be said later. It gave the right of having the 

 marriage conducted with special ceremony $, and of its being known and recorded as a 'College 

 marriage.' The offspring of such marriages are reckoned foster children of the College during 

 their childhood, and they and their ' College parents ' are helped in many important ways. 

 But Tom added that his sister, in order to obtain one, must marry a man with at least 

 107 marks and one star, and that very few of such unmarried men are available. I took full 

 notes of what Tom told me of the advantages attached to a College wedding, and to others 

 which were a little short of having a 'joint 200 marks and two stars,' but I must get them 

 verified before putting the results into my Journal." 



We now reach Chapter V of the work, entitled : Pass and Honours 

 Examinations. I have reproduced above all that remains of the first four 

 chapters of the work ; the bulk of the extracts given are certainly from 

 Chapter IV, but some possibly from Chapter III. I do not know even the title 

 headings of the first four chapters of the story. On March 21st Tom Allfancy 

 takes the stranger to the Examination Hall for the Pass Examination, where, 

 he tells us : 



" I went through physical tests, which I need not describe particularly, as they were similar 

 to those which all Englishmen undergo before admission into the Army, Navy, Indian Civil 

 Service§, etc. But the examination was more strict and minute and in the medical part it was 



* A " share " in this sentence must be taken of course to comprise all that an individual's 

 germ-plasm involves, not merely his apparent characteristics. 



t Galton was undoubtedly thinking here of his books the Record of Family Faculties (1884) 

 and the Life-History Album (1884); see our Vol. II, pp. 362-370. 



X This idea, as well as others in " Kantsaywhere," closely resembles that of Galton's first 

 paper on Eugenics, that of 1864 ; see our Vol. n, p. 78. 



§ See our pp. 231-2 above. 



