412 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



some way society must influence the race of 

 men at its source. This is the doctrine of 

 eugenics, which Galton defines as follows: 



The science of improving stock, which is by no 

 means confined to questions of judicious mating but 

 which, especially in the case of man, takes cog- 

 nizance of all influences that tend in however remote 

 a degree to give to the more suitable races or strains 

 of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over 

 the less suitable than they otherwise would have had. 

 ("Inquiries into Human Faculty.") 



1. Possible and Impossible Ideals. — What 

 the future evolution of the human race may 

 lead" to is an interesting speculation, but it is 

 and can be only a speculation. There is no 

 present evidence that there will ever be a 

 higher animal than man on the earth, and the 

 only evidence that there may be a higher spe- 

 cies than Homo sapiens is to be found in the 

 fact that there have been lower species of men 

 in the past and that evolution has been on the 

 whole progressive. The idea that by the aid 

 of that infant industry eugenics a new race of 

 supermen is shortly to be produced is an iri- 

 descent dream, and the fantastic demand of 

 some enthusiasts for changes in racial fashions 



