NEO-DARWINIAN SOCIOLOGISTS IOI 



crobes, and insects which have destroyed the largest and best 

 armed species. 1 He sees no evidence of purpose or plan in the 

 evolutionary process, nor any guarantee for the future of hu- 

 manity. Utopias, he holds, are mere phantasies of the brain. 



Lapouge sees one glimmering ray of hope, — systematic selec- 

 tion, or what Galton and Pearson are pleased to call national 

 eugenics. He sets forth facetiously the possibilities of zootech- 

 nic and scientific reproduction 2 concluding that the triumph of 

 statecraft would be in the breeding of a society of optimists who 

 would always be content with everything. In this we are re- 

 minded of the ultimate stoical super-man of Nietzsche evolved by 

 natural, however, rather than by artificial selection. 



Lapouge's eugenic program is as follows: — 



(i) To establish a natural aristocracy in some selected social 

 group; (2) to establish special, distinct castes; (3) to transform 

 the group as a whole to a fixed point; (4) to create a race that 

 shall dominate everywhere; (5) to recast humanity completely 

 by the aid of perfect local types; (6) to substitute for humanity 

 as it now is a single perfect race; etc. 3 



This program is to be carried out in a two-fold way: by the 

 elimination of unserviceable elements and second, by the breed- 

 ing of superior elements. He realizes the difficulties in the 

 accomplishment of the plan but looks first to the enlightenment 

 of the people and the formation of public opinion, and then 

 expects that some sort of socialistic regime will be necessary for 

 its consummation. 



In view of the dispute among biologists as to the place natural 

 selection plays in biological evolution, all social philosophies 

 based on this theory by deduction have an uncertain foundation 

 but this foundation becomes still more unreliable when we consider 

 that in social evolution intelligence adds a new and disturbing 



1 Selectiones Sociales, p. 457. 2 Ibid., pp. 472 f- 



3 (1) De constituer une aristocratie naturelle chez un people d£termin6; (2) de 

 constituer des castes specialises et separ£es; (3) de transformer integralement un 

 peuple a un degrg determine; (4) de cre>r une race dominante ubiquiste; (5) de 

 refondre entierement l'humanite' a. l'aide des types locaux les parfaits; (6) de sub- 

 stituer a l'humanite' actuelle une race unique et parfaite; etc," p. 484. 



