EVOLUTION FN POSSE 231 



recklessness, love as lust. There are only thin 

 partitions, after all, between a virtue and a vice. 

 Moreover, even if character could be bred as 

 speed is bred in horses, who shall say what 

 character it is best to produce ? The best is the 

 fittest for its environment ; and while the character 

 of a Kitchener may do very well in Khartoum, it 

 might not do so well in the City Temple ; and 

 while the character of a bishop may look very well 

 in gaiters, it might not look so well in gold- 

 braided uniform. Again, ideals of character vary 

 with race : the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon ideals are 

 very different, — each no doubt, like other things, 

 the result of germinal variation and of natural 

 selection. 



On the whole, then, it will be best to leave the 

 evolution of character in the hands of sex. 



But can we not perceive in a general way what 

 type of character is likely to be evolved — what 

 type of character has survival-value ? Only very 

 vaguely. The mutual choice of male and female 

 has evolved the animal world, but hitherto it 

 has worked mainly through physical attraction ; 

 character^ as a dominant determinant, is a compara- 

 tively new factor ; and the material with which it 

 has to work is so infinitely various and variable 

 that it is almost impossible to discover either the 

 rules that regulate the choice or the result of the 



