CONTROL OF HEREDITY: EUGENICS 419 



Sophocles, Aristophanes; among philosophers 

 and men of science Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, 

 Demetrius, Theophrastus ; among architects 

 and artists Ictinus, Phidias, Praxiteles, Poly- 

 gnotus; among historians Thucydides and 

 Xenophon; among orators iEschines, Demos- 

 thenes, Isocrates, Lysias. In this small coun- 

 try in the space of two centuries there 

 appeared such a galaxy of illustrious men as 

 has never been found on the whole earth in 

 any two centuries since that time. 



These illustrious men came from a remark- 

 able race composed of individuals drawn 

 together from all the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean by a process of unconscious but severe 

 selection. Athens was the intellectual and so- 

 cial capital of the world and to it the most 

 ambitious and most capable men were irresist- 

 ibly drawn. It was good immigration as well 

 as good native stock that made Athens famous. 

 Galton concludes that the average ability of 

 the Athenian race of that period was, on the 

 lowest possible estimate, as much greater than 

 that of the English race of the present day as 

 the latter is above that of the African negro. 



