156 DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS. 



that, by selection, England in a hundred years might 

 have its average man and woman as well endowed in 

 body and mind as are the best of us to-day. This is 

 not much to claim, for this potent agent selection 

 has formed the higher animals and man himself 

 from lower forms, and has evolved the multitudinous 

 varieties of structure and form we see around us. 

 What we may more reasonably doubt is whether our 

 countrymen will have intelligence and unselfishness 

 enough to bring this about, to sow where others will 

 reap, to distract their thoughts from the pursuit of 

 self-interest and turn their attention to a course of 

 action which will produce its results when their indi- 

 vidual lives have passed away. 



Rights of the Individual, and Obligations to the 

 Community. 



But even here the outlook seems hopeful, for no 

 historical fact is more striking than the gradual sub- 

 ordination of individual interests to those of the 

 community, which for many years has been going 

 on. The clamorous appeals for personal rights are 

 giving way to a growing sense of obligation and a 

 desire to further the interests of others. At a time 

 when the labouring classes had too little power of 

 establishing their claims to just treatment and proper 

 consideration, the sense of public obligation was 



