176 THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF HEREDITY 



But man has become more and more master of his 

 environment. Whilst still subject to the natural law of 

 the " Survival of the Fittest," he has been able to change 

 his surroundings consciously, to ameliorate, by the com- 

 bined action of his humanitarian sentiments and better 

 hygienic arrangements, the rigour of Natural Selection, so 

 as to allow his weaker brethren to survive and leave progeny. 

 Far from our wishing to put an end to this so-called 

 interference with Natural Selection, we should see in it one 

 of the most welcome signs of advancing civilization, and one 

 which is bound to go on in ever-increasing ratio. For what 

 is civilization more than a constant curbing and mastering 

 of the blind forces of nature ? If this is so, " the suspension 

 of that process of Natural Selection which in an earlier 

 struggle for existence crushed out feeble and degenerate 

 stocks, may be a real danger to society, if society relies 

 solely on changed environment for converting its inherited 

 bad into an inheritable good. If society is to shape its 

 own future — if we are to replace the stern processes of 

 natural law, which have raised us to our present high 

 standard of civilization, by milder methods of eliminating 

 the unfit — then we must be peculiarly cautious that in 

 following our strong social instincts we do not at the same 

 time weaken society by rendering the propagation of bad 

 stock more and more easy " (Pearson). 



What, then, is our final social remedy ? Seeing that no 

 permanent improvement of the race is possible, according 

 to the Lamarckian method, by " Nurture," we have to fall 

 back on the second alternative, the " Nature " of the 

 stock. In other words, as has been so felicitously expressed 

 by D. G. Ritchie, we must supplant " Natural Selection " 

 by " Rational Selection." 



We have already seen that there is a close relationship 

 between the character of parents and that of their children. 

 If we refer to the table on p. 158, we find that the greater 

 the height of the parents the taller are, on the average, the 

 children, and vice versa. Galton has further amplified his 



