LIMITATIONS OF EUGENICS 305 



standard in the individual. As individuals, primitive men 

 were probably more than a match for us physically, and at 

 least our equals mentally. As regards the standard of the 

 individual, then, the race has not progressed. Civilization 

 is a matter of collective achievement; it is not a biological 

 inheritance at all, but a cultural one. " AVe are heirs of all 

 the ages " not biologically, but only culturally. Standing on 

 the shoulders of the last generation we see farther because 

 we are higher up, not because we are taller. 



It is of course essential that the racial stock be kept sound 

 and free from taint of disease or racial poison, but granting 

 this, the situation is not so alarming as some persons seem to 

 think. For the normal unperverted instincts of the average 

 man have a distinctly eugenic trend. Cupid is a safer guide 

 in matrimony than a licensing board. The old folks always 

 " make a mess of it " when they interfere in the match- 

 making of the young folks. This is as true in real life as in 

 literature. Of course it is possible for young folks to make 

 mistakes as well as for old ones, and it is necessary that those 

 older persons who have been burned by the fire, or have 

 seen others suffer in like fashion, should see that their chil- 

 dren do not fall into the fire. For example, civilization has 

 brought into being many perils which did not exist in a 

 simpler and more primitive mode of living. Of these the 

 young must be advised. Implicit trust in the guidance of the 

 instincts will in a civilized community lead to endless trouble. 

 Sexual promiscuity has only disastrous consequences among 

 civilized peoples and for a very simple reason, the certainty 

 of contamination sooner or later with venereal disease, in 

 particular with gonorrhoea or syphilis. 



It is probable that Polynesians, before the advent of 

 Europeans, were free from these diseases, and their rather 

 loose sexual relations, as viewed by our standards, had no 

 serious racial consequences. But with the advent of Euro- 

 peans all this has changed. Continued promiscuity means to 

 them now racial extermination, as it does among Europeans. 

 Sexual purity is necessary with us, not merely because social 



