1 70 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 



society are separating more and more widely, that the success- 

 ful are being split off from the unsuccessful, and that, in gen- 

 eral, human society is differentiating into hereditary classes 

 owing to the tendency of like to mate with like. However, 

 when one considers the world as a whole, rather than a few 

 small social groups, it is plain that any such tendency to form 

 hereditary classes is more than overbalanced by other factors. 

 The permanent stratification of society is prevented by the 

 rising of genius from the lower levels and the sinking of medi- 

 ocrity from the higher, by the boiling of the social melting pot, 

 by new mutations and Mendelian combinations, all of which 

 contribute to cast down the mighty from their seats and to 

 exalt those of low degree. In the past history of mankind 

 there have been many attempts to establish hereditary classes ; 

 where now are the castes of rulers and slaves, statesmen and 

 soldiers, scholars and priests, craftsmen and farmers, of an- 

 cient Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Rome, or even of medieval 

 Europe ? The instincts of the race as a whole are against the 

 establishment of such hereditary classes and in favor of demo- 

 cratic equality of opportunity, with social position dependent 

 upon individual merit rather than upon family name or class 

 privilege, and these instincts are probably sound both socially 

 and biologically. 



Some advocates of eugenics have dreamed of the establish- 

 ment of an intellectual aristocracy by the segregation and 

 intermarriage of the most highly gifted members of society, 

 such as the prize scholars in colleges and universities. No 

 doubt this could be accomplished if some power could bring 

 about such segregation and propagation, but unless these prize 

 scholars combined many excellent physical and social qualities 

 as well as mental ones such segregation would probably lead 

 to very unsatisfactory results. It would seem to be better for 

 prize scholars to marry prize athletes and thus preserve the 



