416 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



evolutionary goal to be attained by intelligent 

 attention to principles of good breeding. 



II. Can Human Evolution be Controlled? 



All that man now is he has come to be with- 

 out conscious human guidance. If evolution 

 has progressed from the amoeba to man with- 

 out human interference, if the great progress 

 from ape-like men to the most highly civilized 

 races has taken place without conscious hu- 

 man control, the question may well be asked, 

 Is it possible to improve on the natural method 

 of evolution? It may not be possible to im- 

 prove on the method of evolution and 

 yet by intelligent action it may be possible to 

 facilitate that method. Man cannot change a 

 single law of nature but he can put himself 

 into such relations to natural laws that he can 

 profit by them. 



1. Selective Breeding the only Method of 

 Improving the Race. — It is surely not possible 

 to improve on nature's method of eliminating 

 the worst lines from reproduction. This has 

 been the chief factor in the establishment of 



