LUTHER BURBANK 



who seeks to better the environment of the race 

 takes on a quite different aspect. The physical 

 weakling that is saved from an early demise only 

 by a pampering environment may prove an intel- 

 lectual giant a Newton, a Darwin, a Spencer of 

 greater benefit to the world than any conceivable 

 number of physical giants. 



In a word, the fact that man is essentially an 

 intellectual animal must be borne in mind at all 

 stages of consideration of the problems of the 

 eugenist. 



Yet the fact remains that the intellect of man 

 is bound up with his physical organization; and 

 it would be absurd to deny that the problem of 

 the eugenist is primarily a physical one, even 

 though it deals also with the mental organization. 

 The ideal man must be sound of body as well as 

 sound of mind; and the ultimate problem of the 

 eugenist is, how to give us a race of human beings 

 which shall combine in the fullest measure phys- 

 ical vigor and mental vigor. ' t A sound mind in a 

 sound body," was the familiar maxim of the 

 ancient Greeks ; and it represents no less fully the 

 ideal of the eugenist of to-day. 



If the work of the euthenist preserves a cer- 

 tain number of weaklings who might perhaps, in 

 a coldly critical view, be regarded as undesirables, 

 it preserves also thousands of children who will 

 grow into robust and vigorous adults. We have 

 already suggested that even those who remained 

 physical weaklings may have mental qualities that 

 far outbalance their physical defects. Such phys- 



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