9 8 



NA TURE 



[Afaysi, 1883 



mark, easily to be measured by the present method of 

 comparison." 



The essay which follows on the " Domestication of 

 Animals" is not so interesting, because not so original, 

 as the rest of the book ; all its points are obvious to any 

 one who has thought about the subject at all. 



A consideration of the Possibilities of Theocratic 

 Intervention next leads the way to a reappearance of the 

 author's paper on the Objective Efficacy of Prayer. Here 

 the logic is unexceptionable as far as it goes, but it is not 

 such as to leave no loophole of escape for orthodox belief. 

 The argument is that if prayer is of any avail in an objec- 

 tive sense, it ought to admit of being shown by the 

 statistical method to be so. But, as the present writer 

 pointed out nine years ago when considering this essay, 

 the statistical method applied to such a case is of doubtful 

 validity. To show this we may quote one paragraph from 

 our previous criticism : — 



" What, then, is the whole state of the case? To illus- 

 trate it most fairly, we shall take the strongest of the 

 examples supplied by Mr. Galton, viz. that of the Clergy. 

 As Mr. Galton truly observes, in no other class are we so 

 likely to obtain men of Prayer. Suppose, then, for the 

 sake of calculation, that one-half of the clergy are suffi- 

 ciently prayerful to admit of their petitions influencing 

 the course of physical phenomena. Next, let us suppose 

 that one-half of their successful petitions for physical 

 benefits are offered on behalf of individuals other than 

 themselves : this is equivalent to reducing the number of 

 the prayerful clergy to one-fourth. Here we ought to add 

 that in whatever degree this section of successful prayers 

 may influence the prayerless classes of the community, 

 in that degree is the comparison still further vitiated. 

 Neglecting this point, however, let us lastly suppose that 

 one-half of the petitions for physical benefits offered on 

 the petitioner's own behoof are answered by physical 

 benefits of some other kind ; . . . this is equivalent to 

 reducing the original number to one-eighth. Now I do 

 not think any of these suppositions are extravagant. Let 

 us see the result of applying them to Mr. Galton' s tables. 

 According to these tables, the clergy as a class live, on 

 an average, two years longer than men of any of the other 

 classes quoted, notwithstanding we are repeatedly told 

 that, as a class, they are the most poorly constitutioned 

 of all. Now, neglecting the last-mentioned point, and 

 also the fact that all clergymen do not pray for long lives; 

 still, even on the above data, an average of two additional 

 years over all the clergy allows, when concentrated into 

 one-eighth of their number, an average of sixteen additional 

 years of life to every pious divine. Of course this illus- 

 tration is not adduced in order to prove that prayer has 

 in this case been observably effectual. The greater 

 length of life enjoyed by the clergy may be conceded due 

 to the cause assigned by Mr. Galton — viz. the repose of 

 a country life — or to any other cause, without in any way 

 affecting the present argument. All we are engaged in 

 showing is that the statistical method is not a trustworthy 

 instrument wherewith to gauge the physical efficacy of 

 prayer ; and the above illustration has been adduced to 

 show that even if the petitions of the pious clergy for 

 lengthened days were somewhat more effectual than those 

 of Hezekiah, statistics would still be so far unable to take 

 cognisance of the fact that the observable average in- 

 crease of two years over the entire body of the clergy 

 might reasonably be attributed to other causes. Yet 

 length of days is perhaps the most conspicuous, and 

 therefore the most easily tabulated, of all physical benefits 

 for which it is possible to pray." ' 



After some well considered remarks on Enthusiasm, or 



1 Bumey Prize Essay on " Christian Prayer and General Laws," pp. 265-6 

 (Macmillan and Co., 1873), where other and more important considerations 



" to what degree the strong subjective views of the pious 

 are trustworthy," the book begins to draw towards its 

 final object, which is virtually that of marking out the 

 lines of what may appropriately be called a new religion. 

 We have of late had so many manufactures of this kind 

 that the market is somewhat glutted, and therefore it 

 is very doubtful how far this new supply will meet 

 with an appropriate demand ; but we can safely recom- 

 mend Mr. Galton's wares to all who deal in such com- 

 modities as the best which have hitherto been turned out. 

 They are the best because the materials of their composi- 

 tion are honesty and common sense, without admixture 

 with folly or metaphor. He says : " We may not un- 

 reasonably profess faith in a common and mysterious 

 whole, and of the laborious advance, under many 

 restrictions, of that infinitely small part of it which falls 

 under our observation, but which is in itself enormously 

 large, and behind which lies the awful mystery of all 

 existence." Having, then, this faith in the seen, and 

 observing that, whatever the far-off divine event may be 

 to which the whole creation moves, the whole creation is 

 certainly moving in an upward course of evolution, Mr. 

 Galton submits that man has now reached a level of 

 intelligence which should enable him, not merely to know 

 these things, but to do them. He ought to "awake to a 

 fuller knowledge of his relatively great position," and 

 begin to regard it as his high prerogative to cooperate 

 with the unknown Worker in promoting the great work. 

 He may infer the course that evolution is bound to 

 pursue, and might therefore " devote his modicum of 

 power, intelligence, and kindly feeling to render its future 

 progress less slow and painful. Man has already furthered 

 evolution very considerably, half unconsciously and for 

 his own personal advantages ; but he has not yet risen to 

 the conviction that it is his religious duty to do so 

 deliberately and systematically." 



Several directions in which such assistance might be 

 yielded are pointed out in the concluding pages of the 

 book, especially in the way of "eugenics"; and there 

 can be no question that, if the idea of promoting evolution 

 could become generally, or even largely, invested with a 

 feeling of obligation, the prospects of the race would be 

 greatly brightened. The most important field of human 

 activity under such circumstances would obviously be 

 that of improving the race by selection, and Mr. Galton 

 throws out several well considered suggestions as to the 

 way in which this might be done without violating so 

 precious a product of evolution as the moral sense, or 

 seriously interfering in any other particular with the 

 ordinary usages of civilised life. 



We have said enough to show that in respect of its 

 matter " Human Faculty " is an unusually interesting 

 work ; but we should not do it justice were we to conclude 

 this brief notice without alluding also to its manner or 

 style. There is a strand of humour woven through the 

 serious texture of the whole, which, together with the 

 ingenious cast of thought and the ingenuous cast of 

 feeling, affords a most pleasing and instructive study, 

 unconsciously presented, of the nature and nurture of an 

 English man of science. George J. Romanes 



against this application of the statistical method are given. [I may observe 

 that this essay was written on a thesis which was set by the Vice-chancellor 

 of Cambridge, and I still think that, upon it; given basis of Christian belief, 

 all the more important of its arguments ihold. both as regards prayer and 

 miracles.-G. J. R] 



