120 ORGANIC EVOLUTION" 



acters which — as no reason can be alleged for denying 

 — may be as superior to those he now possesses as 

 they are to the psychical characters of the ape. 1 



CHAPTER XV 



SHOULD THESE THINGS BE TAUGHT TO OUR 



CHILDREN ? 



It is impossible to close the present discussion 

 of organic evolution without raising and most 

 positively answering a question of some moment : 

 Ought we to teach the main facts of organic 

 evolution to our children ? 



We have here a great generalisation from all the 

 facts of biology : a discovered principle which gives 

 them a new meaning. That the generalisation is true 

 no competent student can now be found to deny. We 

 have seen that to any one acquainted with all the 

 known facts of biology and geology, it would appear 

 a truth as obvious as gravitation to the astronomer. 



The first essential of any statement taught to a 

 child is surely that it be true ; the next perhaps 

 that it be intelligible, else time and labour are spent 

 in vain. No one will deny that the assertion of 

 organic evolution is intelligible to the mind of the 

 average child of, say, fourteen. 



1 It has been possible here only very briefly to introduce this 

 great subject. I have been concerned merely to demonstrate the 

 rational grounds for its study. The interested reader will find in 

 the volume of "Sociological Papers" already named many pages 

 of Mr. Galton, and a long and, in most cases, most important series 

 of criticisms by students of many nations, some speaking as 

 physicians, others as sociologists proper, biologists, statisticians, 

 psychologists, and so forth. To these are added remarks by those 

 who speak as professional jesters. 



