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Show 172 THE DESCENT OF l't'IAN. PanT L Great lawgivers, tho founders of beneficent religions, great philosophers and discoverers in science, aid t~e progress of mankind in a far higher degree by tbe1r works than by leaving a numerous progeny. In the case of corporeal structures, it is the selection of the slightly better-endowed and the elimination of t.he slightly less well-endowed individuals, and not the preservation of strongly-marked and rare anomalies, that leads to the ad van cement of a speciesY' So it will be with the intellectual faculties, namely from the some-· what more able men in each grade of society succeeding rather better than the less able, and consequently increasing in number, if not otherwise prevented. When in any nation the standard of intellect and the num her of intellectual men haye increased, we may expect from the law of the deviation from an average, as shewn by Mr. Galton, that prodigies of genius will appear somewhat more frequently than before. In regard to the moral qualities, some elimination of the worst dispositions is always in progress even in the most civilised nations. Malefactors are executed, or imprisoned for long periods, so that they cannot freely transmit their bad qualities. Melancholic and insane persons are confined, or commit suicide. Violent and quarrelsome men often come to a bloody end. Restless men who will not follow any steady occupation-and this relic of barbarism is a great check to civilisation 16- emigrate to newly-settled countries, where they proveuseful pioneers. Intemperance is so highly destructive, that the expectation of life of the intemperate, at the· age, for instance, of thirty, is only 13·8 years; whilst for the rural labourers of England at the same age it is. 15 'Origin of Species' (fifth edition, 1869), p. 104. 16 'Hereditary Genius,' 1870, p. 347. tD IIAP. V. CIVILISED NATIONS. 173 40·59 years.17 Profligate women bear few children, and profligate men rarely marry; both suffer from disease. In the breeding of domestic animals, the elimination of those individuals, though few in number, which are in .any marked manner inferior, is by no means an unimportant element towards success. This especially holds good with injurious characters which tend to reappear through reversion, such as blackness in sheep ; and with mankind some of the worst dispositions, which ·occasionally without any assignable cause make their .appearance in families, may perhaps be reversions to a savage state, from which we are not removed by very many generations. This view seems indeed recognised. in the common expression that such men are the black sheep of the family. \Vith civilised nations, as far as an advanced standard of morality, and an increased number of fairly well-endowed men are concerned, natural selection apparently effects but little; though the fundamental ::;ocial instincts were originally thus gained. But I have already said enough, whilst treatinO' of the lower .races, on the causes which lead to th~ advance of morality, namely, the approbation of our fellow-men- the s~r~ngt_hening of our sympathies by haLit-example and ImitatiOn-reason-experience and even self-interest- instruction during youth, and religious feelings. A most important obstacle in civilised countries to .an increase in the number of men of a superior class has been strongly urged by Mr. Greg and 1\Ir. Galton,1s 17 E. Ray Lankester, 'Comparative Longevity,' 1870, p. 115. TJ1o table o~ the intemperate is from Neison's 'Vital Statistics.' In re~ard to profligacy, see Dr. Fan, ''Influence of l\farriage on Mortalitv," • Nat. Assoc. for the Promotion of Social Science,' 1858. · 18 'Fraser's Mngnzine,' Sept. 1868, p. 353. 'Macmillan's Magazine' Aug. 1865, p. 318. The Rev. F. W . .Farrar(' Fraser's Ma"'. 'Auo-. 1870 l>· 261) takes a different view. 0 ' 0 ' |