xxxiii] LITERARY WORK, ETC., 1 887-1905 209 



reviews, wrote many notices of books, with letters to Nature 

 on various matters of scientific interest. A short account of 

 the more important of these will show that I was not alto- 

 gether inactive as regards literary work. 



In the spring of 1890 I lectured at Sheffield and at Liver- 

 pool, and have since declined all invitations to lecture, partly 

 from disinclination and considerations of health, but also 

 because I believed that I could do more good with my pen 

 than with my voice. During the year I prepared a new 

 edition of my " Malay Archipelago," bringing the parts deal- 

 ing with natural history up to date. 



In the same year I contributed to the Fortnightly Review 

 an article on "Human Selection," which is, I consider, though 

 very short, the most important contribution I have made to 

 the science of sociology and the cause of human progress. 

 The article was written with two objects in view. The first 

 and most important was to show that the various proposals 

 of Grant Allen, Mr. Francis Galton, and some American 

 writers, to attempt the direct improvement of the human 

 race by forms of artificial elimination and selection, are both 

 unscientific and unnecessary ; I also wished to show that the 

 great bugbear of the opponents of social reform — too rapid 

 increase of population — is entirely imaginary, and that the 

 very same agencies which, under improved social conditions, 

 will bring about a real and effective selection of the physically, 

 mentally, and morally best, will also tend towards a diminu- 

 tion of the rate of increase of the population. The facts and 

 arguments I adduce are, I believe, conclusive against the two 

 classes of writers here referred to. 



A year later I contributed a paper to the Boston Arena, 

 dealing more especially with the laws of heredity and the 

 influence of education as determining human progress, show- 

 ing that such progress is at present very slow, and is due 

 almost entirely to one mode of action of natural selection, 

 which still eliminates some of the most unfit. And I pointed 

 out that a more real and effective progress will only be made 

 when the social environment is so greatly improved as to 

 give to women a real choice in marriage, and thus lead both 



VOL. II. P 



