260 GENETICS 



One of the darkest features of the dark ages from 

 a eugenic standpoint was the enforced celibacy of 

 the priesthood, since this resulted, as a rule, in with- 

 drawing into monasteries and nunneries much of 

 the best blood of the times, and this uneugenic cus- 

 tom still obtains in many quarters to-day. 



6. WHO SHALL SIT IN JUDGMENT ? 



In the practical application of a program of eu- 

 genics there are many difficulties, for who is quali- 

 fied to sit in judgment and separate the fit from the 

 unfit ? 



There are certain strongly marked characteristics 

 in mankind which are plainly good or bad, but the 

 principle of the independence of unit characters 

 demonstrates that no person is wholly good or wholly 

 bad. Shall we then throw away the whole bundle 

 of sticks because it contains a few poor or crooked 

 ones ? 



The list of weakling babies, for instance, who were 

 apparently physically unfit and hardly worth raising 

 upon first judgment, but who afterwards became 

 powerful factors in the world's progress, is a notable 

 one and includes the names of Calvin, Newton, 

 Heine, Voltaire, Herbert Spencer and Robert Louis 

 Stevenson. 



Or, take another example. Elizabeth Tuttle, the 

 grandmother of Jonathan Edwards whose remarkable 

 progeny was referred to in a preceding chapter, is 

 described as "a woman of great beauty, of tall and 

 commanding appearance, striking carriage, of strong 



