234 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



In the past, the environment that evolved man 

 was wild beasts, then intertribal and international 

 wars. In future it will be chiefly character in its 

 relationship to marriage ; and since women are in 

 the majority, it will be chiefly man's sexual predilec- 

 tions with respect of womanly character that will 

 determine the race. Where sexual selection is in 

 abeyance — where, for instance, the community is 

 small, or where matrimony is due merely to house- 

 keeping considerations, or where the men out- 

 number the women — racial degeneration frequently 

 follows. The larger the proportion of unmarried 

 women, the more stringent the selection and the 

 more rapid the evolution. 



The difficulty in foreseeing the intellectual and 

 social future of the race is greatly increased by the 

 fact that many unforeseen psychical variations may 

 arise, and by the fact that even actual variations 

 are not always at once manifest. The mental and 

 moral difference between man and man is very 

 much greater than any physical difference, and may 

 be infinitely deepened by a very small physical 

 variation. The bodily difference between a 

 Hottentot and a Tennyson is small, the difference 

 in character and intellect very great. Moreover, 

 the mental difference is probably much greater 

 than it appears. We know that a few cells in the 

 third left frontal convolution give man his great 



