THE FUTURE EVOLUTION OF MAN 11? 



flows from the real understanding of the subject 

 under discussion. 



Given that some mental and moral characters 

 are worth more to mankind than others ; given that 

 such characters, good and bad alike, are, in any 

 measure, transmissible by heredity; it follows that 

 the practice of eugenics is no Utopian dream, but is 

 a thing which, however difficult, does not exceed the 

 bounds of possibility. If, in addition to these un- 

 questionable postulates, it be further granted that 

 the object is desirable, our imperative duty is, not to 

 draw ridiculous pictures of eugenic practice and then 

 point to their ridiculous features, but rather to ask 

 ourselves what kinds of eugenic practice are practi- 

 cable, and forthwith to direct the public attention to 

 the answer. 



Immediately, we find that some measure of 

 eugenic practice already obtains amongst us. The 

 man of bright and fertile mind, for instance, is 

 more likely than the dullard to gain the admiration 

 of a fellow-woman, and thus to leave his like 

 behind him. Not only sexual selection but also 

 natural selection thus serves eugenics, even in 

 civilised marriage ; for the intelligent man, or the 

 conscientious man, is more likely than another to gain 

 a post the possession of which gives him the means 

 to marry. I need not multiply parallel instances. 



The negative part of the eugenic proposal is 

 already gaining wide acceptance. It is not good, 

 we are beginning to see, that the idiot, the syphilitic, 

 or the criminal or the "degenerate" in general, 

 should be allowed to injure the coming race. But 

 the negative practice of eugenics does not include 



