I PROLEGOMENA 23 



work in this direction than any single tyrant, puffed 

 up with the same ilhision, has ever achieved. 

 But intelHgence is another affair. The fact that 

 " saviours of society " take to that trade is evidence 

 enough that they have none to spare. And 

 such as they possess is generally sold to the 

 capitalists of physical force on whose resources 

 they depend. However, I doubt whether even 

 the keenest judge of character, if he had before 

 him a hundred boys and girls under fourteen, could 

 pick out, with the least chance of success, those 

 who should be kept, as certain to be serviceable 

 members of the polity, and those who should be 

 chloroformed, as equally sure to be stupid, idle, or 

 vicious. The "points" of a good or of a bad citi- 

 zen are really far harder to discern than those of 

 a puppy or a short-horn calf ; many do not show 

 themselves before the practical difficulties of life 

 stimulate manhood to full exertion. And by that 

 time the mischief is done. The evil stock, if it be 

 one, has had time to multiply, and selection is 

 nullified. 



IX 



I have other reasons for fearing that this 

 logical ideal of evolutionary regimentation — this 

 pigeon-fanciers' polity — is unattainable. In the 

 absence of any such a severely scientific adminis- 

 trator as we have been dreaming of, human society 



