Perhaps the reader will say that it is incon- 

 ceivable that selection has nothing to do with 

 human improvements. There are several answers 

 to that. One is that selecting an improvement is 

 not making it, and we are interested in the proc- 

 ess of manufacture. Another answer is that 

 Darwin knew his own theory better than anyone 

 else knows it, and in his Origin of Species, 

 (Vol I, p. 282) he says that "no one can solve 

 the problem why, of two races of savages, one 

 has risen higher in the scale of civilization than 

 the other; and this apparently implies brain- 

 power." A third answer is that selection for 

 mental qualities has been carried on in the British 

 peerage for about seven hundred years, and the 

 result is failure. 



Mendel crossed the tall pea on the short pea, 

 the wrinkled pea on the smooth pea, and the pea 

 of one color on the pea of another color, and 

 then he in-bred the progeny. His followers have 

 done the same things with other plants and with 

 various animals, andi have confirmed his results. 

 These results are said to be important in human 

 heredity. 



Perhaps so and perhaps not. Just at present 

 we are not interested in crossing the white race 



vii 



