Chap. Y. 
CIVILISED NATIONS. 
179 
and this could hardly fail to have had a deteriorating 
influence on each successive generation. During this 
same period the Holy Inquisition selected with extreme 
care the freest and boldest men in order to burn or 
imprison them. In Spain alone some of the best men — - 
those who doubted .and questioned, and without doubting 
there can be no progress— were eliminated during three 
centuries at the rate of a thousand a year. The evil 
which the Catholic Church has thus effected, though 
no doubt counterbalanced to a certain, perhaps large 
extent in other ways, is incalculable ; nevertheless, 
Europe has progressed at an unparalleled rate. 
The remarkable success of the English as colonists 
over other European nations, which is well illustrated by 
comparing the progress of the Canadians of English and 
French extraction, has been ascribed to their “ daring 
“ and persistent energy ; ” but who can say how the 
English gained their energy. There is apparently 
much truth in the belief that the wonderful progress 
of the United States, as well as the character of the 
people, are the results of natural selection ; the more 
energetic, restless, and courageous men from all parts 
of Europe having emigrated during the last ten or 
twelve generations to that great country, and having there 
succeeded best . 27 Looking to the distant future, I [do 
not think that the Rev. Mr. Zincke takes an exaggerated 
view when he says : 28 “ All other series of events — -as 
that which resulted in the culture of mind in Greece, 
“ and that which resulted in the empire of Rome— only 
“ appear to have purpose and value when viewed in 
“ connection with, or rather as subsidiary to ... . the 
“ great stream of Anglo-Saxon emigration to the west .’ 5 
27 Mr. Galton, ‘'Macmillan’s Magazine,’ August, 1865, p. 325. See, 
•also, ‘ Nature,’ “ On Darwinism and National Life,” Dec. 1869, p. 184. 
28 ‘ Last Winter in the United States,’ 1868, p. 29. 
N 2 
