CHAPTER IV 



SOCIAL SELECTION AND INVERSE SELECTION 



We have so far examined the question of selection in sociology 

 with regard to three factors — suicide, insanity, and syphilis. On 

 each of these three points our examination led us to the same 

 result — that what is chiefly lacking in our social institutions of 

 to-day is integration and coherence. Let us now glance at the 

 condition of social selection from other points of view ; and we 

 shall see that this further examination will but confirm our pre- 

 visions as to the insufficiency of our present phase of social 

 evolution to maintain the level of biological efficiency, which it 

 is essential that the social structure should possess if it is to 

 continue to ensure the eugenic progress of the race. We shall 

 find that social evolution has not, up to the present, been con- 

 ducive to race progress ; and that in some cases it has been 

 antagonistic to this progress. 



This affirmation may appear paradoxical to those who are 

 accustomed to accept the theory of social progress as a dogma ; 

 and who, without examining the facts of the case, imagine 

 Western civilisation, as we know it to-day, to be the ultimate 

 goal of progress. It is important, when considering the question 

 of social progress, to distinguish carefully between eugenic and 

 traditional progress : eugenic progress is the biological progress 

 of a race ; traditional progress is the progress of a race in the 

 domain of sociology proper, in that of institutions, of traditions, 

 of intellectual culture in general. We are far from denying the 

 traditional progress effected by the advance of civilisation ; but 



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