An Introduction to a Biology 



Eugenics Education Society, which acts the part of a middle 

 man whose function is to exhibit the results of those investi- 

 gations so that they shall be intelligible and palatable to the 

 lay mind. 



The institution of the eugenic movement was evidently 

 regarded by Galton as his life-work, for he concludes his 

 autobiography with a restatement of his views concerning 

 it. "I take Eugenics very seriously, feeling that its prin- 

 ciples ought to become one of the dominant motives in a 

 civilised nation, much as if they were one of its religious 

 tenets." Here is a life-work of which any man might well 

 be proud. 



Galton practised the principles which he preached in 

 his marriage with the daughter of Dr. Butler, for many years 

 Headmaster of Harrow and then Dean of Peterborough. 

 Dr. Butler was not merely an able classicist and mathema- 

 tician himself, but transmitted his qualities in full measure 

 to his children and grandchildren. The remarks whiah 

 follow the reference to his marriage and to his wife's family 

 are perhaps the most interesting, because the raost intimate, 

 of his eugenic pronouncements. 



" . . . The Butler family well deserve study as an 

 instance of hereditary gifts, but this is hardly the place 

 for it. 



" Neither can I enlarge as I could have done on the far 

 greater importance of being married into a family that is 

 good in character, in health and in ability, than into one 

 that is either very wealthy or very noble but lacks these 

 primary qualifications. . . . 



" I protest against the opinions of those sentimental 

 people who think that marriage concerns only the two prin- 

 cipals ; it has in reality the wider effect of an alliance between 

 each of them and a new family." 



It is a happy circumstance that Galton lived long enough 

 to complete that vivid and detailed picture of himself, 

 " Memories of My Life." This is by no means a piece of 



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