CIVILIZED NATIONS. 137 



sound and good men who out of prudence remain for a time un- 

 married, do not suffer a high rate of mortality. 



If the various checljs specified in the two last paragraphs, and 

 perhaps others as yet unknown, do not prevent the reckless, the 

 vicious and otherwise inferior members of society from increas- 

 ing at a quicker rate than the better class of men, the nation will 

 retrograde, as has too often occurred in the history of the world. 

 We must remember that progress is no invariable rule. It is 

 very difficult to say why one civilized nation rises, becomes more 

 powerful, and spreads more widely, than another; or why the 

 same nation progresses more quickly at one time than at another. 

 We can only say that it depends on an increase in the actual num- 

 ber of the population on the number of the men endowed with 

 high intellectual and moral faculties, as well as on their standard 

 of excellence. Corporeal structure appears to have little influence, 

 except so far as vigor of body leads to vigor of mind. 



It has been urged by several writers that as high intellectual 

 powers are advantageous to a nation, the old Greeks, who stood 

 some grades higher in intellect than any race that has ever 

 existed,^" ought, if the power of natural selection were real, to 

 have risen still higher in the scale, increased in number, and 

 stocked the whole of Europe. Here we have the tacit assumption, 

 so often made with respect to corporeal structures, that there is 

 some innate tendency towards continued development in mind and 

 body. But development of all kinds depends on many concur- 

 rent favorable circumstances. Natural selection acts only tenta- 

 tively. Individuals and races may have acquired certain indis- 

 putable advantages, and yet have perished from failing in other 

 characters. The Greeks may have retrograded from a want of 

 coherence between the many small states, from the small size of 

 their whole country, from the practice of slavery, or from extreme 

 sensuality; for they did not succumb until "they were enervated 

 "and corrupt to the very core."" The western nations of Europe, 

 who now so immeasurably surpass their former savage progeni- 

 tors, and stand at the summit of civilization, owe little or none 

 of their superiority to direct inheritance from the old Greeks, 

 though they owe much to the written works of that wonderful 

 people. 



Who can positively say why the Spanish nation, so dominant at 

 one time, has been distanced in the race. The awakening of the 

 nations of Europe from the dark ages is a still more perplexing 

 problem. At that early period, as Mr. Galton has remarked, al- 

 most all the men of a gentle nature, those given to meditation or 



'^ See the ingenious and original argument on this subject by Mr. Gal- 

 ton, 'Hereditary Genius,' pp. 340-342. 

 ^ Mr. Greg 'Fraser's Magazine,' Sept. 1868, p. 357. 



