FOOTNOTES

FOOTNOTES[27]It is here taken for granted that the successful are the best. This is, however, open to question, as was seen in the last chapter.[28]“Labour and Life of the People,”p.472, by Miss Collett.[29]“Fecundity, Fertility, and Sterility,” second edition, chapter xiv.[30]For the sake of simplicity the ages at which the men marry have been omitted; their inclusion would make the case even stronger.[31]See a most instructive paper byDr.Ogle in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, June, 1890.CHAPTER VIII.OBLIGATION IN PARENTHOOD.Ourconclusion, based on the evidence detailed in the preceding chapters, has been that our race, viewed from a physiological standpoint, is not on the way towards improvement.I do not feel that this is an alarmist view of the question, even though it points in the direction of both the physical and intellectual degeneration of our countrymen. It is a view based upon facts, and forced upon us by the knowledge of our surroundings gained impartially in other fields. Still, all social problems are of extreme complexity, and one must not lay too much stress upon any individual effort to gauge them. It will be sufficient for all practical purposes if attention has been drawn to these questions, and a serious inquiry started.It may be urged that, after all, the fears expressed are groundless in view of other facts not understood, and that humanity, if left to itself, will continue for another few thousand years making no important change in its innate racial qualities. But even ifthis is so, there is one point which stands out clearly in this discussion; and about this point there need be no shadow of doubt, for of its truth, humanity has had wide experience. It is, that we can improve our race by adopting the one and only adequate expedient, that of carrying on the race through our best and most worthy strains. We can be as certain of our result as the gardener who hoes away the weeds and plants good seed, and who knows that he can produce the plants he wants by his care in the selection of the seed. The human animal varies as much or more than the dog or pigeon, and there can be no doubt that just as by selection, all the varieties of dogs and pigeons have been bred from one or two original stocks, so races of men could be produced as different from ourselves as the tumbler from the wood pigeon, or the bulldog from the old Sussex hound.Are we prepared to carry out Selective Methods?So much for the extreme possibilities of the future, which we need hardly consider; for the present, humanity would be glad enough to be represented by men and women of our best types, sound in lung and limb and brain, full of bodily vigour and capable of enjoying exercise both of body and of mind. One cannot for a moment doubtthat, by selection, England in a hundred years might have its average man and woman as well endowed in body and mind as are the best of us to-day. This is not much to claim, for this potent agent selection has formed the higher animals and man himself from lower forms, and has evolved the multitudinous varieties of structure and form we see around us. What we may more reasonably doubt is whether our countrymen will have intelligence and unselfishness enough to bring this about, to sow where others will reap, to distract their thoughts from the pursuit of self-interest and turn their attention to a course of action which will produce its results when their individual lives have passed away.Rights of the Individual, and Obligations to the Community.But even here the outlook seems hopeful, for no historical fact is more striking than the gradual subordination of individual interests to those of the community, which for many years has been going on. The clamorous appeals for personal rights are giving way to a growing sense of obligation and a desire to further the interests of others. At a time when the labouring classes had too little power of establishing their claims to just treatment and proper consideration, the sense of public obligation wasnaturally not so strong. Men and women were struggling, and very rightly, for what unjustly was withheld from them; for though men had united in communities for self-interest and self-defence, wealth and its transmission had set up barriers between those who felt their equality as men, and who resented social disqualifications due probably to the ill fortune of their ancestors; under these circumstances men thought and talked more about their rights than about their obligations.Long ago, when the family or clan formed a unit, the right of the father over the children and the women was a part of a very necessary discipline upon which probably the existence of all depended. These ideas have very naturally survived, for custom clings with wonderful pertinacity, and we have had the strange spectacle of the house divided against itself, the father clinging to his old rights, the wife and children clamouring for their new ones. As an instance which illustrates how long the woman continued to be viewed as part of the property of her husband, it is but necessary to recall the fact that only since the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1858 was it rendered impossible for a husband after deserting his wife to return to her andlawfullypossess himself of all the property she had herself acquired during the time of his desertion. So too with our old ideas regarding parental rights, which were so tenacious asurvival that until as late as 1891 a father could not forfeit these either by contract or neglect. Before the Act to amend the law relating to the custody of children passed in March, 1891, a man who had deserted his children could afterwards insist on their returning to him, and, although a reprobate in every way, he could claim them from the parish or custodian who had been responsible for their upbringing. These and many other injustices have been and are being removed, and it must be remembered that this has been done not by a forcible adjustment gained by strength of numbers, but by the force of public opinion and the sense of justice of all classes and of both sexes. The rights have been given, they have not been taken; the poor have had rich men on their side, and the promoters of women’s independence and advancement have in large numbers been the men themselves. It is true that much unnecessary inequality remains, and that we treat certain sections of the community in a most undesirable fashion—witness the herding of the profligate with the unfortunate or aged pauper—but the very fact that justice has come as the result of claims put forward and recognised as just, rather than at the point of the sword in open rebellion of the many against the few, shows that as a nation we are instinct with the feeling of obligation. There is a feeling that whatever is right will ultimately be done, that so-called injusticesare survivals of past ages from which emancipation must take place, and that all we have to encounter is that right and necessary conservatism which adapts itself slowly and cautiously to changing conditions of things, clinging to that which is because the present is the best to which we have yet achieved, yet willing to change this for what we have reason to believe will be really better. With this modern development of the sense of obligation, we may anticipate that all those who are really dependent upon their own actions will be seriously considered, and have their welfare fully assured.Rights of Children and our Obligation to them.Political agitation has in the past been one of the most potent forces by the movement of which men and women have obtained redress from their disabilities, and have put forward their own views and enlisted sympathy in their own troubles. But infants and children, although provided with most effectual means of calling attention to certain of their personal wants, are unable even to formulate grievances of which they are not conscious, and posterity has naturally no voice in determining the course of our present actions although its very existence depends upon these.This is already partly realised, and there are notwanting those who are prepared to sacrifice much in order to champion the cause of those who have no means of establishing the claims they have to our consideration. Already, four years ago, public opinion expressed itself in public rule that a man and woman in begetting a child must take upon themselves the obligation and responsibility of seeing that that child is not subjected to cruelty and hardship.[32]It is but one step more to say that a man and woman shall be under obligation not to produce children when it is certain that from their want of physique they will have to undergo suffering, and will keep up but an unequal struggle with their fellows.Our Sense of Obligation is Developing.But our sense of obligation, just as it has grown in the past, is capable of development in the future, and that this sense will develop is probable from the fact that we are beholden to our fellowmen and ancestry far more than we at present realise. Not only do we owe our existence to others, but we owe to them most of our necessities, all our luxuries, our intellectual food, our music, poetry and language. Our possessions and even our ideas we owe to thosemillions who have for numberless generations toiled in their own behalf and ours. Alone we might obtain subsistence from roots and shell-fish, but as citizens of an organised State we have food and clothing for an easy expenditure of energy, and can obtain for the trying much of that which may be termed luxury, but which in reality is that which makes life worth living.This debt that we owe to those who have gone before us we can only repay to those who come after us, and the sense of obligation will grow as we become better educated in the broad facts of life and history. We shall increasingly be prepared to forego our pleasures, and to undertake that which may be personally disagreeable for the sake of others. The good of others has been, and will increasingly be, that to which our energies will turn, and the most fundamental good that we can achieve is that which will add to the organic excellence of the race.Can we doubt for a moment that men will hesitate about fulfilling these obligations, or draw a line beyond which in their disinterestedness they will not eventually be prepared to go? History shows that mankind is ever ready to sacrifice itself if cause be shown; that men and women will go far beyond the lengths of their devotion to self-interest, in their devotion to a cause, a hero, a religion, an ideal. If then it be shown that by sacrifice of the individualso great a thing as racial reconstruction can be accomplished on certain well-understood lines, then from what we know of the stuff that is in humanity this racial reconstruction most assuredly will becarried out.Social Philosophers and Social Reformers.There are two classes of persons—Social Philosophers and Social Reformers; the former discuss what might be done, the latter endeavour to bring about that which it is possible to do. Nothing would be easier than to frame a set of suggestions which, when followed out, would lead to the desired ends; but as reformers (not philosophers) we have only to discuss those suggestions which the public would be prepared to view with an open mind and eventually to act upon. It is true that this will take us but one step towards the end, but the futility of discussing further steps, for which people are not prepared, has often enough been demonstrated in matters social. After all we have not to argue these questions in the abstract; they are associated in their very essence with the qualities and nature of the average citizen, and we have to think of what will best appeal to him. He sits as the judge of the case; he has to be instructed; his sentiments, and probably his vanity,enlisted; if we go too far he will dismiss the case, and it may be long before it can be taken up again.Segregation is Not yet Practicable.No one in their senses would at the present moment venture to bring in a Bill for the segregation of criminals and vagrants, for we are not prepared for such a measure. A certain number would, no doubt, be strongly in its favour, but they would be in a small minority. At present the community at large have hardly even discussed their obligations as race producers, and the enforcement of these obligations could only follow a strong growth of public feeling and public practice. Long, too, before the question can be discussed in a practical form, the criminals and vagrants must be separated from the deserving poor; it is probable that this step would commend itself to all, indeed in all probability the present system continues to exist solely on account of a widespread ignorance of the real state of things. Our workhouses and institutions for the relief of the poor have never elicited much personal interest; they are rarely visited by the public, who have never realised the scandalous herding together of the very scum of humanity with the respectable but unfortunate and aged of the labouring class which is nowadays prevalent. Once this state of things were ended,once the public could see the inveterate criminal and vagrant class by itself, it would be able to deal with it on rational lines. It would view it as a hopelessly inferior class, having no place among the workers of the State; a class to be cared for and controlled, but whose perpetuation, on the score of pity for the offspring, must in duty be prevented.Segregation no New Idea, and Ultimately a Necessary Practice.The idea of segregation is no new one, for at the call of religion man and woman have in most countries, and in all times, separated themselves from their fellows. They have denied themselves the pleasures of love, and of the table; they have foregone worldly ambition, and have lived lives often of utter solitude, and of miserable privation, in order to fulfil what they considered to be a higher duty. Believing in the advent of some sudden change, of the destruction of the present condition of things, they naturally thought and cared little for the preservation of a race, destined soon to have spiritual existence alone. Thus, it came about that millions of the most thoughtful and noble-minded men and women have in the past committed the fatal mistake of leaving the rest of humanity to carry on the race. Theirs was a voluntary segregation which must havehad the most direful results upon the race. That which we speak of is an enforced segregation which would eliminate from it some of its worst qualities.Were this segregation proposed, it would be impossible to oppose it except by prejudice and that inertia which every change has to encounter. If our pity is enlisted on the side of suffering, it must be used to prevent the production of those who are bound to suffer. Parents on an average produce from four to five children, and the criminals and incapables are reckless as to the condition of their offspring. The “ins and outs” of our workhouses take refuge there; they live on the organised charity of the land; they have not the physical and moral power to support themselves; they can leave at any moment and return mothers and fathers of children, who, like themselves, must be clothed and fed by the toil of others. Those who cannot support themselves, from poverty of physique, disease, or mental or moral incapacity, are yet permitted by the community to exercise the functions of parenthood, which, in its nature and essence, implies an excess of power over and above that which is required for the individual’s own self-preservation.The Masses must be Taught the Main Facts of Heredity and Evolution.In addition to our attempts to separate the deserving poor from the criminal and vagrant classes, which should be done on the grounds of common decency, every endeavour may with advantage be made to further a clear understanding of the action of selection in general evolution, and in this undertaking we shall have the assistance of the workers in most sciences; for everywhere the thoughtful man is regarding the facts in his own department under this new light.By pointing out the marked racial change resulting from the action of selection, which shows itself every ten years in the production of some new variety of dog or pigeon, and every year in the production of many varieties of flowering plants, we can convince the uninstructed by ocular demonstration which they cannot deny. They must learn to look upon mankind as organically related to other animals, and it must be pointed out to them that the facts of human evolution are in the main similar to, and form but a section of, the facts of general evolution. It must be pointed out that in many families there are perhaps one or two of the children, bred under conditions like the rest, who are delicate, of ungovernable temper, orhave some deformity. They will know by experience that these children will in their turn have children like themselves, and the wonderful benefit to the race which would result from the selection of the strongest in mind and body as race producers will of necessity follow. It would then be possible to develop a strong public feeling against any marriages contracted by obviously sickly people, for the suffering which may be inflicted by producing sickly offspring may reasonably be urged against those who would otherwise be willing to gratify their convenience or personal predilection, and perhaps eventually this might lead to prohibition of such marriages. It should be pointed out that temperaments, and moral and mental qualities, are transmitted just as surely as physical traits; that all, in fact, of the qualities of the future race will depend upon those which are blended together to-day in parenthood. It follows, therefore, that the greatest of all responsibilities is taken by the assumption of parenthood, and everyone may well ask himself or herself, before undertaking it, Will the world be better for any moreof me?The End and Aim of Marriage.To-day we are apt to be cautious before marriage; we are very keen to be assured on the question of dowry, and one hears of private inquiry as to moneymatters through the family solicitor. We have pride in so-called “birth,” which is of very fictitious biological value, and think much of an alliance with one of good family. Men and women have already, therefore, learned to tread with caution on the pathway which leads towards the altar, and for the most part no longer give full play to vanity and passion pure and simple. We are prepared, therefore, to look before we leap, but we look in the wrong direction, we avoid inconvenience and plunge into catastrophe. The reason for this is that we are but partially educated in the real ends and aims of life, and do not know the course which leads to ultimate success provided wefollow it.Our False Ideas regarding Marriage.We have instincts, right perhaps in the main, but these have been followed blindly. Pride in illustrious ancestry is most reasonable, and the wish to carry on the family name is allied to that praiseworthy egotism which makes every cat prefer her own kittens to any others. These natural instincts have, however, up to the present led us to desire wealth and position for our offspring rather than robust constitutions and mental activity. We have avoided in many cases, by what we term suitable marriages, poverty and inconvenience, yet in contracting these marriageswe have sacrificed the organic possibilities of our children.The Stream of Life.The most superficial consideration of the question will convince us that the organic stream of life is that which is of all things the most permanent. We are so apt to lose sight of the ephemeral nature of rank and wealth. We forget that the gold and silver is constantly changing hands, the houses are being rebuilt, the old landmarks destroyed. Our individual thoughts and passions are, and are then no more; whole families, even races, disappear. Yet man is here to-day, he has come down from remote posterity, and some of us will give our blood in large measure to mankind as he will be found in future ages. In this stream of life the shepherd who weds a healthy, thrifty wife is of more account than an emperor who destroys the chances of his posterity by marriage with a sickly princess. Life is brain and muscle, wealth and position are apart and accessory. In marriage we must bear in mind its end and aim, for the individual lives only till he has reproduced himself; each generation lives only to produce the next. If these facts are once widely understood there can be little doubt that they will influence men’s actions in respect to marriage, and with a growing sense ofobligation to others, the ratio of sickly and feeble-minded children may be diminished.With the judicious selection of parents to be the race-producers, we need have no fear as to the care that modern civilisation and preventive medicine bestow upon the individuals. If the community undertakes its own selection we can dispense with the selecting influence of the micro-organism of whooping-cough, scarlet fever, or tubercle. Our remedies and our digested foods may be used with advantage to help the members of a robust and energetic stock through those dangers which must at all times beset them.FOOTNOTE[32]An Act for the Prevention of Cruelty to, and the Better Protection of, Children, August 26th, 1889, and previous Acts.APPENDIX.InChapter II.we saw that many of the valuable and carefully reasoned results which Weismann had obtained are accompanied by much detailed speculation based upon an extremely limited fact basis. In his later writings especially, the reader who searches for the facts and reasoning which refer to such questions as the non-transmission of acquired characters will find everywhere an abundant commingling with speculations concerning the mechanical process of heredity. I have ventured in the appendix to sketch shortly this speculation of Weismann’s, and to give my own estimation of its value.Weismann was not the first to speculate or found a mechanical theory of heredity; Darwin himself published a theory of “pangenesis,” and this was, I believe, the only piece of speculation of which Darwin was ever guilty. That he might picture to himself, by means of material particles, the views that he held of heredity, Darwin supposed that during their lifetime every cell of the parent disengages small living particles—gemmules—which find their way to and are stored up in the generative cells, ready to develop in the next generation into cells similar to those from which they came. This theory was actually framed to support those cases where Darwin supposed that acquired characters are transmitted, for he says inone of his replies to Huxley’sletters:[33]“I do not doubt your judgment is perfectly just, and I will try to persuade myself not to publish. The whole affair is much too speculative; yet I think some such view will have to be adopted when I call to mind such facts as the inherited effects of use and disuse,”etc.In the theory of pangenesis the gemmules residing in the body or somatic cells will be subject to such influences as affect the cells, and will naturally transmit any change to which they have been subjected to the offspring that they eventually build up. Darwin’s view may be graphically represented byFig.2. SinceDarwin’s time most biologists have come to doubt whether there is any evidence that acquired characters are transmitted at all, and incline rather to view racial change as altogether due to inborn variations, some of which variations have an advantage over others; Darwin himself, as Huxley pointedout,[34]laid less weight on the influence of acquired habits in his later than in his earlier writings. Modern biologists tend, therefore, to be more Darwinian than Darwin in respect to their thoroughgoing adherence to the action of selective influence; but of necessity they discard his theory of pangenesis, which was a pictorial expression of Darwin’s lingering Lamarckian tendencies. Let me give some idea of what the Neo-Darwinians picture to themselves as the “process of heredity.” It has been known now for many years that every cell in the body, including the sperm cells and ova, are descended from a fertilised ovum. Of these cells of the body all obviously die except those sperm cells and ova which give rise to the next generation, and so on. We have, therefore, a continuing chain of actual organic matter linking every living form with those that are most ancestral and remote, and from these chains all the so-called living individuals that have ever existed have, as it were, been thrown off. Many have emphasised this point, Owen, Haeckel and others; but perhaps Francis Galton must be given much of the credit of clearly stating it as a fact to be remarked, though similar views have more recently been popularised amongbiologists by the delightful pen of Weismann. The “continuity of the germ plasm,” the title by which this view is generally known, expresses the fact that germ substance continues in an unbroken line from generation to generation; a man is similar to his parents because he develops out of a similar plasm. The continuity of germ plasm (stirpof Galton), like Darwin’s selection, is a fact, not a theory.Fig.2.Diagram to illustrate:A, Darwin’s theory of pangenesis;B, the continuity of the germ plasm.A. An ovum above, full of gemmules (only three of which are represented) develops into an individual made up of cells, three of which are shown. These cells give off gemmules, which collect and form the substance of the ovum of the next generation. One can see how the gemmules formed by the body cells will be influenced by any change in these.B. An ovum gives rise on the one hand to body cells, and on the other hand to the substance of the ovum of the next generation. A change in the somatic cells does not influence the ovum.Now while Darwin’s fancy regarding pangenesis compels one to believe that the effects of use and disuse, the action of disease and mutilation, must be transmitted, the continuity of the germ plasm in the isolated reproductive cells of the parents renders this extremely doubtful. The anatomical conditions actually found are fully reconcilable with the observed non-transmission of acquired characters.This fact was shortly and precisely stated by Galton in 1875, and by Weismann in his “Studies in the Theory of Descent,” published in English in 1882. In 1883, in his essay upon Life andDeath,[35]Weismann looked upon the germ plasm as the substance of the germinal or reproductive cells, and onp.148 he defines “germ” as follows: “I should propose to include under this term every cell, cytode, or group of cells which, while not possessing the structure of the mature individual of the species, possess the power of developing into it under certain circumstances.” So far Weismann was a fact man, and gave to the facts observed their true and full significance. Since that time, however, he has speculatedupon the nature of the germ plasm. To him it consists of ultimate living particles, to which he assigns various and specific purposes, and groups them at will, group within group, like nests of Chinese boxes. The biophores (his conceived units) have the capacity of growth and reproduction—a generous concession indeed. They are groups of chemical molecules, far beyond the highest powers of the microscope, and cannot therefore be investigated by our senses; they are conceptions, not perceptions. These biophores are arranged in groups, called determinants, one for every part of the adult which is capable of variation; groups of determinants are termed “ids,” and groups of ids are termed “idants,” the last being visible in the ovum as a brightly-stained rod of unclear matter. By the multiplication, differentiation, and disintegration of these various groups, the adult body is formed, and Weismann is prepared to explain every step.Speaking in 1883[36]of Darwin’s theory of pangenesis, Weismann remarks: “We become lost in unfounded hypotheses.” I think this is a true and allowable criticism, but I also think that it applies in far greater measure to the theory of the germ plasm developed by Weismann himself. It may be pointed out that Darwin placed little store upon his theory, and apologised for its speculative nature, not only in the letters already referred to, but in his work upon “The Variations of Plants and Animals under Domestication,” where it appears in a single chapterat the end of a large work of 800 pages. Darwin here says (vol.ii.,p.349): “I am aware that my view is merely a provisional hypothesis or speculation; but until a better one be advanced, it will serve to bring together a multitude of facts which are at present left disconnected by any efficient cause.” Weismann’s speculations, equally unfounded on fact, are nevertheless viewed by him as being of sufficient importance to demand the most detailed elaboration. Do not suppose for an instant that I am decrying the use of fancy or provisional hypotheses; the world advances upon the steps, generally the ruined steps, of hypotheses. The value of an hypothesis depends, however, entirely upon whether we can put it to the test of experiment. If it is intangible, then it remains an hypothesis, while the great body of fact workers go on building their sciences, and in the completion of these it has no part. Darwin’s pangenesis has no value as an hypothesis, it seems to me, apart from its being a pictorial way of illustrating how use and disuse might be inherited. This latter is a question which can be solved experimentally; pangenesis was a mental picture present to Darwin’s mind, and he threw it out for what it was worth. In this picture the gemmules were supposed to pass from the cells of the body through the blood into the reproductive cells, and the experiments which Galton, and subsequently Romanes, undertook to disprove pangenesis by showing that certain samples of blood did not contain gemmules, and that therefore pangenesis did not occur, appear to me to show a wantof appreciation of the fact that Darwin intended this theory merely as a temporary mental picture, and nothing more.But Weismann puts forward his views in most sober earnest, elaborates the details of his theory, and remodifies his conceptions so that his story may fit in with the fresh discoveries in embryology and comparative anatomy as these are made. Our criticism is simply this, that the hypothesis, being nothing more than a personal conception of the author’s, is not to be tested by experiment, and that the author could always escape from the clutch of refutation. We are left, moreover, in the same difficulty with which we started, for by giving his living units the functions of growth and reproduction, which must involve heredity itself, Weismann shunts back the question from animal and plant, which we can see and handle, to particles quite beyond our ken. We may also point out that there is no reason to assume that living matter is made up of little parts, or persons, molecules or groups of molecules; experiment, in fact, strongly contradicts this assumption. Let us see how humanity first obtained the idea that matter is made up of little bits, how we obtained the idea of molecule or atom. The idea is an ancient one, and it is easy to see how it occurred to thinkers even in primitive times. Most solids, such as chalk, sand, and rock, and fluids too and gases, are, when broken or divided, of obviously similar parts. If we break a piece of writing chalk across, each fragment of it is chalk—that is, it appears to us to be white and hard, it will write uponthe board,etc.If we continue to break it we shall always have smaller particles of chalk, never anything else. Thus men generalised from their commoner experiences, and got the idea that all things are built up of small parts or molecules. Anaxagoras (70th Olympiad), from experiences such as those just described, in all probability arrived at his theory of elements (homœomeriæ), viewing all things as built up of elementary things of the same nature, flesh and blood of elements of flesh and blood,etc.Similar views are held to the present day, and are an expression of the fact that you can break most things into similar but smaller parts. Quoting from Tait’s “Properties of Matter,” 1885,p.21, we find: “But the really extraordinary fact, already known in this part of our subject, is the apparently perfect similarity and equality of any two particles of the same kind of gas, probably of each individual species of matter, when it is reduced to a state of vapour. Of such parts, therefore, whether they be further divisible or not, each species of solid or liquid must be looked upon as built up.” It will be noted that the moderns would make a distinction which the ancients did not; a modern will speak of a molecule of a gas or of incandescent iron, but he hesitates before speaking of a molecule of an ordinary solid at ordinary temperature, and would certainly, if an exact thinker, never dream of speaking of a molecule of wood or flesh or bone. If we carefully prepare as perfect a cylinder of wood as we may wish, and divide it into two equal parts, these (unlike the piece of chalk or iron) will not bethe same; the graining will show a difference to the naked eye. The microscope will show that the wood is not uniform in its smallest parts; it is what we may term “organised,” the structure being different as we shift the eye along the smallest distance of the thinnest section. The same applies to bone and muscle; in fact, to all parts of the bodies of all animals and plants. The idea, then, of molecule is a conception of an ultimate bit of a substance towards which our experimental breaking has in actual experience partially reduced it, and would never have occurred to the ancients had the commonest objects of nature been, like variegated marble or granite, of obvious heterogeneous structure. When, therefore, we translate this idea to the realm of biology, where bodies are not made up of similar parts, it is obvious that we do this without warrant, in face of our biological experience, and that we are thoughtlessly accepting a physical theory of gases and incandescent solids without appreciating the foundation upon which this theory rests. The fact of the matter is, we are in utter ignorance as to the ultimate constitution of any living matter; but so far as microscopic investigation goes, we learn that it has unlike—not like—parts. Our experience, therefore, rather contradicts the belief that it will be found to consist of ultimate parts, each part having the function of living protoplasm, biophores, or whatever name may be attached to them; and we recall Clifford’s rule that we may believe what goes beyond our experience onlywhen it is inferred from that experience by the assumption that what we do not know is like what weknow.[37]THE END.FOOTNOTES[33]“Life and Letters,” first edition,vol.iii.,p.44.[34]“Life and Letters,”vol.ii.,p.14.[35]Essay to be found invol.i.; English translation, 1889.[36]Lecture on Heredity,op. cit.,p.77.[37]“Lectures and Essays,”vol.ii.,p.210.Printed by Cowan &Co., Limited, Perth.SOCIAL SCIENCE SERIES.SCARLET CLOTH, EACH2s. 6d.1.Work and Wages.Prof.J. E. 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Ritchie,M.A.(Oxon.).New Edition, with two additional Essays onHuman Evolution.“One of the most suggestive books we have met with.”—Literary World.5.Religion of Socialism.E. Belfort Bax.6.Ethics of Socialism.E. Belfort Bax.“Mr.Bax is by far the ablest of the English exponents of Socialism.”—Westminster Review.7.The Drink Question.Dr.Kate Mitchell.“Plenty of interesting matter for reflection.”—Graphic.8.Promotion of General Happiness.Prof.M. Macmillan.“A reasoned account of the most advanced and most enlightened utilitarian doctrine in a clear and readable form.”—Scotsman.9.England’s Ideal,&c.Edward Carpenter.“The literary power is unmistakable, their freshness of style, their humour, and their enthusiasm.”—Pall Mall Gazette.10.Socialism in England.Sidney Webb,LL.B.“The best general view of the subject from the modern Socialist side.”—Athenæum.11.Prince Bismarck and State Socialism.W. H. Dawson.“A succinct, well-digested review of German social and economic legislation since 1870.”—Saturday Review.12.Godwin’s Political Justice (On Property).Edited byH. S. Salt.“Shows Godwin at his best; with an interesting and informing introduction.”—Glasgow Herald.13.The Story of the French Revolution.E. Belfort Bax.“A trustworthy outline.”—Scotsman.14.The Co-Operative Commonwealth.Laurence Gronlund.“An independent exposition of the Socialism of the Marx school.”—Contemporary Review.15.Essays and Addresses.Bernard Bosanquet,M.A.(Oxon.).“Ought to be in the hands of every student of the Nineteenth Century spirit.”—Echo.“No one can complain of not being able to understand whatMr.Bosanquet means.”—Pall Mall Gazette.16.Charity Organisation.C. S. Loch, Secretary to Charity Organisation Society.“A perfect little manual.”—Athenæum.“Deserves a wide circulation.”—Scotsman.17.Thoreau’s Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers.Edited byH. S. Salt.“An interesting collection of essays.”—Literary World.18.Self-Help a Hundred Years Ago.G. J. Holyoake.“Will be studied with much benefit by all who are interested in the amelioration of the condition of the poor.”—Morning Post.19.The New York State Reformatory at Elmira.Alexander Winter. With Preface byHavelock Ellis.“A valuable contribution to the literature of penology.”—Black and White.20.Common Sense about Women.T. W. Higginson.“An admirable collection of papers, advocating in the most liberal spirit the emancipation of women.”—Woman’s Herald.21.The Unearned Increment.W. H. Dawson.“A concise but comprehensive volume.”—Echo.22.Our Destiny.Laurence Gronlund.“A very vigorous little book, dealing with the influence of Socialism on morals and religion.”—Daily Chronicle.23.The Working-Class Movement in America.Dr.EdwardandE. Marx Aveling.“Will give a good idea of the condition of the working classes in America, and of the various organisations which they have formed.”—Scots Leader.24.Luxury.Prof.Emile de Laveleye.“An eloquent plea on moral and economical grounds for simplicity of life.”—Academy.25.The Land and the Labourers.Rev.C. W. Stubbs,M.A.“This admirable book should be circulated in every village in the country.”—Manchester Guardian.26.The Evolution of Property.Paul Lafargue.“Will prove interesting and profitable to all students of economic history.”—Scotsman.27.Crime and its Causes.W. Douglas Morrison.“Can hardly fail to suggest to all readers several new and pregnant reflections on the subject.”—Anti-Jacobin.28.Principles of State Interference.D. G. Ritchie,M.A.“An interesting contribution to the controversy on the functions of the State.”—Glasgow Herald.29.German Socialism andF. Lassalle.W. H. Dawson.“As a biographical history of German Socialistic movements during this century it may be accepted as complete.”—British Weekly.30.The Purse and the Conscience.H. M. Thompson,B.A.(Cantab.).“Shows common sense and fairness in his arguments.”—Scotsman.31.Origin of Property in Land.Fustel de Coulanges. Edited, with anIntroductory Chapter on the English Manor, byProf.W. J. Ashley,M.A.“His views are clearly stated, and are worth reading.”—Saturday Review.32.The English Republic.W. J. Linton. Edited byKineton Parkes.“Characterised by that vigorous intellectuality which has marked his long life of literary and artistic activity.”—Glasgow Herald.33.The Co-Operative Movement.Beatrice Potter.“Without doubt the ablest and most philosophical analysis of the Co-Operative Movement which has yet been produced.”—Speaker.34.Neighbourhood Guilds.Dr.Stanton Coit.“A most suggestive little book to anyone interested in the social question.”—Pall Mall Gazette.35.Modern Humanists.J. M. Robertson.“Mr.Robertson’s style is excellent—nay, even brilliant—and his purely literary criticisms bear the mark of much acumen.”—Times.36.Outlooks from the New Standpoint.E. Belfort Bax.“Mr.Bax is a very acute and accomplished student of history and economics.”—Daily Chronicle.37.Distributing Co-Operative Societies.Dr.Luigi Pizzamiglio. Edited byF. J. Snell.“Dr.Pizzamigliohas gathered together and grouped a wide array of facts and statistics, and they speak for themselves.”—Speaker.38.Collectivism and Socialism.ByA. Nacquet. Edited byW. Heaford.“An admirable criticism by a well-known French politician of the New Socialism of Marx andLassalle.”—Daily Chronicle.39.The London Programme.Sidney Webb,LL.B.“Brimful of excellent ideas.”—Anti-Jacobin.40.The Modern State.Paul Leroy Beaulieu.“A most interesting book; well worth a place in the library of every social inquirer.”—N. B.Economist.41.The Condition of Labour.Henry George.“Written with striking ability, and sure to attract attention.”—Newcastle Chronicle.42.The Revolutionary Spirit preceding the French Revolution.Felix Rocquain. With a Preface by ProfessorHuxley.“The student of the French Revolution will find in it an excellent introduction to the study of that catastrophe.”—Scotsman.43.The Student’s Marx.Edward Aveling,D.Sc.“One of the most practically useful of any in the Series.”—Glasgow Herald.44.A Short History of Parliament.B. C. Skottowe,M.A.(Oxon.).“Deals very carefully and completely with this side of constitutional history.”—Spectator.45.Poverty: Its Genesis and Exodus.J. G. Godard.“He states the problems with great force and clearness.”—N. B.Economist.46.The Trade Policy of Imperial Federation.Maurice H. Hervey.“An interesting contribution to the discussion.”—Publishers’ Circular.47.The Dawn of Radicalism.J. Bowles Daly,LL.D.“Forms an admirable picture of an epoch more pregnant, perhaps, with political instruction than any other in the world’s history.”—Daily Telegraph.48.The Destitute Alien in Great Britain.Arnold White;Montague Crackanthorpe,Q.C.;W. A. M’Arthur,M.P.;W. H. Wilkins,&c.“Much valuable information concerning a burning question of the day.”—Times.49.Illegitimacy and the Influence of Seasons on Conduct.Albert Leffingwell,M.D.“We have not often seen a work based on statistics which is more continuously interesting.”—Westminster Review.50.Commercial Crises of the Nineteenth Century.H. M. Hyndman.“One of the best and most permanently useful volumes of the Series.”—Literary Opinion.51.The State and Pensions in Old Age.J. A. SpenderandArthur Acland,M.P.“A careful and cautious examination of the question.”—Times.52.The Fallacy of Saving.John M. Robertson.“A plea for the reorganisation of our social and industrial system.”—Speaker.53.The Irish Peasant.Anon.“A real contribution to the Irish Problem by a close, patient and dispassionate investigator.”—Daily Chronicle.54.The Effects of Machinery on Wages.Prof.J. S. Nicholson,D.Sc.“Ably reasoned, clearly stated, impartially written.”—Literary World.55.The Social Horizon.Anon.“A really admirable little book, bright, clear, and unconventional.”—Daily Chronicle.56.Socialism, Utopian and Scientific.Frederick Engels.“The body of the book is still fresh and striking.”—Daily Chronicle.57.Land Nationalisation.A. R. Wallace.“The most instructive and convincing of the popular works on the subject.”—National Reformer.58.The Ethic of Usury and Interest.Rev.W. Blissard.“The work is marked by genuine ability.”—North British Agriculturalist.59.The Emancipation of Women.Adele Crepaz.“By far the most comprehensive, luminous, and penetrating work on this question that I have yet met with.”—Extract fromMr.Gladstone’sPreface.60.The Eight Hours’ Question.John M. Robertson.“A very cogent and sustained argument on what is at present the unpopular side.”—Times.61.Drunkenness.George R. Wilson,M.B.“Well written, carefully reasoned, free from cant, and full of sound sense.”—National Observer.62.The New Reformation.Ramsden Balmforth.“A striking presentation of the nascent religion, how best to realize the personal and social ideal.”—Westminster Review.63.The Agricultural Labourer.T. E. Kebbel.“A short summary of his position, with appendices on wages, education, allotments,etc.,etc.”64.Ferdinand Lassalleas a Social Reformer.E. Bernstein.“A worthy addition to the Social Science Series.”—North British Economist.65.England’s Foreign Trade in XIXth Century.A. L. Bowley.“Full of valuable information, carefully compiled.”—Times.66.Theory and Policy of Labour Protection.Dr.Schäffle.“An attempt to systematize a conservative programme of reform.”—Man. Guard.67.History of Rochdale Pioneers.G. J. Holyoake.“Brought down from 1844 to the Rochdale Congress of 1892.”—Co-Op.News.68.Rights of Women.M.Ostrogorski.“An admirable storehouse of precedents, conveniently arranged.”—DailyChron.69.Dwellings of the People.Locke Worthington.“A valuable contribution to one of the most pressing problems of the day.”—Daily Chronicle.70.Hours, Wages, and Production.Dr.Brentano.“Characterised by all Professor Brentano’s clearness of style.”—Economic Review.71.Rise of Modern Democracy.Ch.Borgeaud.“A very useful little volume, characterised by exact research.”—Daily Chronicle.72.Land Systems of Australasia.Wm.Epps.“Exceedingly valuable at the present time of depression and difficulty.”—Scots Mag.73.The Tyranny of Socialism.Yves Guyot.Pref.byJ. H. Levy.“M.Guyotis smart, lively, trenchant, and interesting.”—Daily Chronicle.74.Population and the Social System.Dr.Nith.“A very valuable work of an Italian economist.”—West. Rev.75.The Labour Question.T. G. Spyers.“Will be found extremely useful.”—Times.76.British Freewomen.C. C. Stopes.“The most complete study of the Women’s Suffrage question.”—English Wom. Rev.77.SuicideandInsanity.Dr.J. K. Strahan.“Aninterestingmonograph dealing exhaustively with the subject.”—Times.78.A History of Tithes.Rev.H. W. Clarke.“May be recommended to all who desire an accurate idea of the subject.”—D. Chron.79.Three Months in a Workshop.P. Gohre, withPref.byProf.Ely.“A vivid picture of the state of mind of German workmen.”—Manch. Guard.80.Darwinism and Race Progress.Prof.J. B. Haycraft.“An interesting subject treated in an attractive fashion.”—Glasgow Herald.81.Local Taxation and Finance.G. H. Blunden.82.Perils to British Trade.E. Burgis.83.The Social Contract.J. J. Rousseau. Edited byH. J. Tozer.84.Labour upon the Land.Edited byJ. A. Hobson,M.A.85.Moral Pathology.Arthur E. Giles,M.D.,B.Sc.86.Parasitism, Organic and Social.MassartandVandervelde.87.Allotments and Small Holdings.J. L. Green.88.Money and its Relations to Prices.L. L. Price.89.Sober by Act of Parliament.F. A. Mackenzie.90.Workers on their Industries.F. W. Galton.91.Revolution and Counter-Revolution.Karl Marx.92.Over-Production and Crises.K. Rodbertus.93.Local Government and State Aid.S. J. Chapman.94.Anglo-American Trade.S. J. Chapman.

[27]It is here taken for granted that the successful are the best. This is, however, open to question, as was seen in the last chapter.

[28]“Labour and Life of the People,”p.472, by Miss Collett.

[29]“Fecundity, Fertility, and Sterility,” second edition, chapter xiv.

[30]For the sake of simplicity the ages at which the men marry have been omitted; their inclusion would make the case even stronger.

[31]See a most instructive paper byDr.Ogle in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, June, 1890.

Ourconclusion, based on the evidence detailed in the preceding chapters, has been that our race, viewed from a physiological standpoint, is not on the way towards improvement.

I do not feel that this is an alarmist view of the question, even though it points in the direction of both the physical and intellectual degeneration of our countrymen. It is a view based upon facts, and forced upon us by the knowledge of our surroundings gained impartially in other fields. Still, all social problems are of extreme complexity, and one must not lay too much stress upon any individual effort to gauge them. It will be sufficient for all practical purposes if attention has been drawn to these questions, and a serious inquiry started.

It may be urged that, after all, the fears expressed are groundless in view of other facts not understood, and that humanity, if left to itself, will continue for another few thousand years making no important change in its innate racial qualities. But even ifthis is so, there is one point which stands out clearly in this discussion; and about this point there need be no shadow of doubt, for of its truth, humanity has had wide experience. It is, that we can improve our race by adopting the one and only adequate expedient, that of carrying on the race through our best and most worthy strains. We can be as certain of our result as the gardener who hoes away the weeds and plants good seed, and who knows that he can produce the plants he wants by his care in the selection of the seed. The human animal varies as much or more than the dog or pigeon, and there can be no doubt that just as by selection, all the varieties of dogs and pigeons have been bred from one or two original stocks, so races of men could be produced as different from ourselves as the tumbler from the wood pigeon, or the bulldog from the old Sussex hound.

So much for the extreme possibilities of the future, which we need hardly consider; for the present, humanity would be glad enough to be represented by men and women of our best types, sound in lung and limb and brain, full of bodily vigour and capable of enjoying exercise both of body and of mind. One cannot for a moment doubtthat, by selection, England in a hundred years might have its average man and woman as well endowed in body and mind as are the best of us to-day. This is not much to claim, for this potent agent selection has formed the higher animals and man himself from lower forms, and has evolved the multitudinous varieties of structure and form we see around us. What we may more reasonably doubt is whether our countrymen will have intelligence and unselfishness enough to bring this about, to sow where others will reap, to distract their thoughts from the pursuit of self-interest and turn their attention to a course of action which will produce its results when their individual lives have passed away.

But even here the outlook seems hopeful, for no historical fact is more striking than the gradual subordination of individual interests to those of the community, which for many years has been going on. The clamorous appeals for personal rights are giving way to a growing sense of obligation and a desire to further the interests of others. At a time when the labouring classes had too little power of establishing their claims to just treatment and proper consideration, the sense of public obligation wasnaturally not so strong. Men and women were struggling, and very rightly, for what unjustly was withheld from them; for though men had united in communities for self-interest and self-defence, wealth and its transmission had set up barriers between those who felt their equality as men, and who resented social disqualifications due probably to the ill fortune of their ancestors; under these circumstances men thought and talked more about their rights than about their obligations.

Long ago, when the family or clan formed a unit, the right of the father over the children and the women was a part of a very necessary discipline upon which probably the existence of all depended. These ideas have very naturally survived, for custom clings with wonderful pertinacity, and we have had the strange spectacle of the house divided against itself, the father clinging to his old rights, the wife and children clamouring for their new ones. As an instance which illustrates how long the woman continued to be viewed as part of the property of her husband, it is but necessary to recall the fact that only since the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1858 was it rendered impossible for a husband after deserting his wife to return to her andlawfullypossess himself of all the property she had herself acquired during the time of his desertion. So too with our old ideas regarding parental rights, which were so tenacious asurvival that until as late as 1891 a father could not forfeit these either by contract or neglect. Before the Act to amend the law relating to the custody of children passed in March, 1891, a man who had deserted his children could afterwards insist on their returning to him, and, although a reprobate in every way, he could claim them from the parish or custodian who had been responsible for their upbringing. These and many other injustices have been and are being removed, and it must be remembered that this has been done not by a forcible adjustment gained by strength of numbers, but by the force of public opinion and the sense of justice of all classes and of both sexes. The rights have been given, they have not been taken; the poor have had rich men on their side, and the promoters of women’s independence and advancement have in large numbers been the men themselves. It is true that much unnecessary inequality remains, and that we treat certain sections of the community in a most undesirable fashion—witness the herding of the profligate with the unfortunate or aged pauper—but the very fact that justice has come as the result of claims put forward and recognised as just, rather than at the point of the sword in open rebellion of the many against the few, shows that as a nation we are instinct with the feeling of obligation. There is a feeling that whatever is right will ultimately be done, that so-called injusticesare survivals of past ages from which emancipation must take place, and that all we have to encounter is that right and necessary conservatism which adapts itself slowly and cautiously to changing conditions of things, clinging to that which is because the present is the best to which we have yet achieved, yet willing to change this for what we have reason to believe will be really better. With this modern development of the sense of obligation, we may anticipate that all those who are really dependent upon their own actions will be seriously considered, and have their welfare fully assured.

Political agitation has in the past been one of the most potent forces by the movement of which men and women have obtained redress from their disabilities, and have put forward their own views and enlisted sympathy in their own troubles. But infants and children, although provided with most effectual means of calling attention to certain of their personal wants, are unable even to formulate grievances of which they are not conscious, and posterity has naturally no voice in determining the course of our present actions although its very existence depends upon these.

This is already partly realised, and there are notwanting those who are prepared to sacrifice much in order to champion the cause of those who have no means of establishing the claims they have to our consideration. Already, four years ago, public opinion expressed itself in public rule that a man and woman in begetting a child must take upon themselves the obligation and responsibility of seeing that that child is not subjected to cruelty and hardship.[32]It is but one step more to say that a man and woman shall be under obligation not to produce children when it is certain that from their want of physique they will have to undergo suffering, and will keep up but an unequal struggle with their fellows.

But our sense of obligation, just as it has grown in the past, is capable of development in the future, and that this sense will develop is probable from the fact that we are beholden to our fellowmen and ancestry far more than we at present realise. Not only do we owe our existence to others, but we owe to them most of our necessities, all our luxuries, our intellectual food, our music, poetry and language. Our possessions and even our ideas we owe to thosemillions who have for numberless generations toiled in their own behalf and ours. Alone we might obtain subsistence from roots and shell-fish, but as citizens of an organised State we have food and clothing for an easy expenditure of energy, and can obtain for the trying much of that which may be termed luxury, but which in reality is that which makes life worth living.

This debt that we owe to those who have gone before us we can only repay to those who come after us, and the sense of obligation will grow as we become better educated in the broad facts of life and history. We shall increasingly be prepared to forego our pleasures, and to undertake that which may be personally disagreeable for the sake of others. The good of others has been, and will increasingly be, that to which our energies will turn, and the most fundamental good that we can achieve is that which will add to the organic excellence of the race.

Can we doubt for a moment that men will hesitate about fulfilling these obligations, or draw a line beyond which in their disinterestedness they will not eventually be prepared to go? History shows that mankind is ever ready to sacrifice itself if cause be shown; that men and women will go far beyond the lengths of their devotion to self-interest, in their devotion to a cause, a hero, a religion, an ideal. If then it be shown that by sacrifice of the individualso great a thing as racial reconstruction can be accomplished on certain well-understood lines, then from what we know of the stuff that is in humanity this racial reconstruction most assuredly will becarried out.

There are two classes of persons—Social Philosophers and Social Reformers; the former discuss what might be done, the latter endeavour to bring about that which it is possible to do. Nothing would be easier than to frame a set of suggestions which, when followed out, would lead to the desired ends; but as reformers (not philosophers) we have only to discuss those suggestions which the public would be prepared to view with an open mind and eventually to act upon. It is true that this will take us but one step towards the end, but the futility of discussing further steps, for which people are not prepared, has often enough been demonstrated in matters social. After all we have not to argue these questions in the abstract; they are associated in their very essence with the qualities and nature of the average citizen, and we have to think of what will best appeal to him. He sits as the judge of the case; he has to be instructed; his sentiments, and probably his vanity,enlisted; if we go too far he will dismiss the case, and it may be long before it can be taken up again.

No one in their senses would at the present moment venture to bring in a Bill for the segregation of criminals and vagrants, for we are not prepared for such a measure. A certain number would, no doubt, be strongly in its favour, but they would be in a small minority. At present the community at large have hardly even discussed their obligations as race producers, and the enforcement of these obligations could only follow a strong growth of public feeling and public practice. Long, too, before the question can be discussed in a practical form, the criminals and vagrants must be separated from the deserving poor; it is probable that this step would commend itself to all, indeed in all probability the present system continues to exist solely on account of a widespread ignorance of the real state of things. Our workhouses and institutions for the relief of the poor have never elicited much personal interest; they are rarely visited by the public, who have never realised the scandalous herding together of the very scum of humanity with the respectable but unfortunate and aged of the labouring class which is nowadays prevalent. Once this state of things were ended,once the public could see the inveterate criminal and vagrant class by itself, it would be able to deal with it on rational lines. It would view it as a hopelessly inferior class, having no place among the workers of the State; a class to be cared for and controlled, but whose perpetuation, on the score of pity for the offspring, must in duty be prevented.

The idea of segregation is no new one, for at the call of religion man and woman have in most countries, and in all times, separated themselves from their fellows. They have denied themselves the pleasures of love, and of the table; they have foregone worldly ambition, and have lived lives often of utter solitude, and of miserable privation, in order to fulfil what they considered to be a higher duty. Believing in the advent of some sudden change, of the destruction of the present condition of things, they naturally thought and cared little for the preservation of a race, destined soon to have spiritual existence alone. Thus, it came about that millions of the most thoughtful and noble-minded men and women have in the past committed the fatal mistake of leaving the rest of humanity to carry on the race. Theirs was a voluntary segregation which must havehad the most direful results upon the race. That which we speak of is an enforced segregation which would eliminate from it some of its worst qualities.

Were this segregation proposed, it would be impossible to oppose it except by prejudice and that inertia which every change has to encounter. If our pity is enlisted on the side of suffering, it must be used to prevent the production of those who are bound to suffer. Parents on an average produce from four to five children, and the criminals and incapables are reckless as to the condition of their offspring. The “ins and outs” of our workhouses take refuge there; they live on the organised charity of the land; they have not the physical and moral power to support themselves; they can leave at any moment and return mothers and fathers of children, who, like themselves, must be clothed and fed by the toil of others. Those who cannot support themselves, from poverty of physique, disease, or mental or moral incapacity, are yet permitted by the community to exercise the functions of parenthood, which, in its nature and essence, implies an excess of power over and above that which is required for the individual’s own self-preservation.

In addition to our attempts to separate the deserving poor from the criminal and vagrant classes, which should be done on the grounds of common decency, every endeavour may with advantage be made to further a clear understanding of the action of selection in general evolution, and in this undertaking we shall have the assistance of the workers in most sciences; for everywhere the thoughtful man is regarding the facts in his own department under this new light.

By pointing out the marked racial change resulting from the action of selection, which shows itself every ten years in the production of some new variety of dog or pigeon, and every year in the production of many varieties of flowering plants, we can convince the uninstructed by ocular demonstration which they cannot deny. They must learn to look upon mankind as organically related to other animals, and it must be pointed out to them that the facts of human evolution are in the main similar to, and form but a section of, the facts of general evolution. It must be pointed out that in many families there are perhaps one or two of the children, bred under conditions like the rest, who are delicate, of ungovernable temper, orhave some deformity. They will know by experience that these children will in their turn have children like themselves, and the wonderful benefit to the race which would result from the selection of the strongest in mind and body as race producers will of necessity follow. It would then be possible to develop a strong public feeling against any marriages contracted by obviously sickly people, for the suffering which may be inflicted by producing sickly offspring may reasonably be urged against those who would otherwise be willing to gratify their convenience or personal predilection, and perhaps eventually this might lead to prohibition of such marriages. It should be pointed out that temperaments, and moral and mental qualities, are transmitted just as surely as physical traits; that all, in fact, of the qualities of the future race will depend upon those which are blended together to-day in parenthood. It follows, therefore, that the greatest of all responsibilities is taken by the assumption of parenthood, and everyone may well ask himself or herself, before undertaking it, Will the world be better for any moreof me?

To-day we are apt to be cautious before marriage; we are very keen to be assured on the question of dowry, and one hears of private inquiry as to moneymatters through the family solicitor. We have pride in so-called “birth,” which is of very fictitious biological value, and think much of an alliance with one of good family. Men and women have already, therefore, learned to tread with caution on the pathway which leads towards the altar, and for the most part no longer give full play to vanity and passion pure and simple. We are prepared, therefore, to look before we leap, but we look in the wrong direction, we avoid inconvenience and plunge into catastrophe. The reason for this is that we are but partially educated in the real ends and aims of life, and do not know the course which leads to ultimate success provided wefollow it.

We have instincts, right perhaps in the main, but these have been followed blindly. Pride in illustrious ancestry is most reasonable, and the wish to carry on the family name is allied to that praiseworthy egotism which makes every cat prefer her own kittens to any others. These natural instincts have, however, up to the present led us to desire wealth and position for our offspring rather than robust constitutions and mental activity. We have avoided in many cases, by what we term suitable marriages, poverty and inconvenience, yet in contracting these marriageswe have sacrificed the organic possibilities of our children.

The most superficial consideration of the question will convince us that the organic stream of life is that which is of all things the most permanent. We are so apt to lose sight of the ephemeral nature of rank and wealth. We forget that the gold and silver is constantly changing hands, the houses are being rebuilt, the old landmarks destroyed. Our individual thoughts and passions are, and are then no more; whole families, even races, disappear. Yet man is here to-day, he has come down from remote posterity, and some of us will give our blood in large measure to mankind as he will be found in future ages. In this stream of life the shepherd who weds a healthy, thrifty wife is of more account than an emperor who destroys the chances of his posterity by marriage with a sickly princess. Life is brain and muscle, wealth and position are apart and accessory. In marriage we must bear in mind its end and aim, for the individual lives only till he has reproduced himself; each generation lives only to produce the next. If these facts are once widely understood there can be little doubt that they will influence men’s actions in respect to marriage, and with a growing sense ofobligation to others, the ratio of sickly and feeble-minded children may be diminished.

With the judicious selection of parents to be the race-producers, we need have no fear as to the care that modern civilisation and preventive medicine bestow upon the individuals. If the community undertakes its own selection we can dispense with the selecting influence of the micro-organism of whooping-cough, scarlet fever, or tubercle. Our remedies and our digested foods may be used with advantage to help the members of a robust and energetic stock through those dangers which must at all times beset them.

[32]An Act for the Prevention of Cruelty to, and the Better Protection of, Children, August 26th, 1889, and previous Acts.

InChapter II.we saw that many of the valuable and carefully reasoned results which Weismann had obtained are accompanied by much detailed speculation based upon an extremely limited fact basis. In his later writings especially, the reader who searches for the facts and reasoning which refer to such questions as the non-transmission of acquired characters will find everywhere an abundant commingling with speculations concerning the mechanical process of heredity. I have ventured in the appendix to sketch shortly this speculation of Weismann’s, and to give my own estimation of its value.

Weismann was not the first to speculate or found a mechanical theory of heredity; Darwin himself published a theory of “pangenesis,” and this was, I believe, the only piece of speculation of which Darwin was ever guilty. That he might picture to himself, by means of material particles, the views that he held of heredity, Darwin supposed that during their lifetime every cell of the parent disengages small living particles—gemmules—which find their way to and are stored up in the generative cells, ready to develop in the next generation into cells similar to those from which they came. This theory was actually framed to support those cases where Darwin supposed that acquired characters are transmitted, for he says inone of his replies to Huxley’sletters:[33]“I do not doubt your judgment is perfectly just, and I will try to persuade myself not to publish. The whole affair is much too speculative; yet I think some such view will have to be adopted when I call to mind such facts as the inherited effects of use and disuse,”etc.In the theory of pangenesis the gemmules residing in the body or somatic cells will be subject to such influences as affect the cells, and will naturally transmit any change to which they have been subjected to the offspring that they eventually build up. Darwin’s view may be graphically represented byFig.2. SinceDarwin’s time most biologists have come to doubt whether there is any evidence that acquired characters are transmitted at all, and incline rather to view racial change as altogether due to inborn variations, some of which variations have an advantage over others; Darwin himself, as Huxley pointedout,[34]laid less weight on the influence of acquired habits in his later than in his earlier writings. Modern biologists tend, therefore, to be more Darwinian than Darwin in respect to their thoroughgoing adherence to the action of selective influence; but of necessity they discard his theory of pangenesis, which was a pictorial expression of Darwin’s lingering Lamarckian tendencies. Let me give some idea of what the Neo-Darwinians picture to themselves as the “process of heredity.” It has been known now for many years that every cell in the body, including the sperm cells and ova, are descended from a fertilised ovum. Of these cells of the body all obviously die except those sperm cells and ova which give rise to the next generation, and so on. We have, therefore, a continuing chain of actual organic matter linking every living form with those that are most ancestral and remote, and from these chains all the so-called living individuals that have ever existed have, as it were, been thrown off. Many have emphasised this point, Owen, Haeckel and others; but perhaps Francis Galton must be given much of the credit of clearly stating it as a fact to be remarked, though similar views have more recently been popularised amongbiologists by the delightful pen of Weismann. The “continuity of the germ plasm,” the title by which this view is generally known, expresses the fact that germ substance continues in an unbroken line from generation to generation; a man is similar to his parents because he develops out of a similar plasm. The continuity of germ plasm (stirpof Galton), like Darwin’s selection, is a fact, not a theory.

Fig.2.Diagram to illustrate:A, Darwin’s theory of pangenesis;B, the continuity of the germ plasm.A. An ovum above, full of gemmules (only three of which are represented) develops into an individual made up of cells, three of which are shown. These cells give off gemmules, which collect and form the substance of the ovum of the next generation. One can see how the gemmules formed by the body cells will be influenced by any change in these.B. An ovum gives rise on the one hand to body cells, and on the other hand to the substance of the ovum of the next generation. A change in the somatic cells does not influence the ovum.

Fig.2.

Fig.2.

Diagram to illustrate:A, Darwin’s theory of pangenesis;B, the continuity of the germ plasm.A. An ovum above, full of gemmules (only three of which are represented) develops into an individual made up of cells, three of which are shown. These cells give off gemmules, which collect and form the substance of the ovum of the next generation. One can see how the gemmules formed by the body cells will be influenced by any change in these.B. An ovum gives rise on the one hand to body cells, and on the other hand to the substance of the ovum of the next generation. A change in the somatic cells does not influence the ovum.

Now while Darwin’s fancy regarding pangenesis compels one to believe that the effects of use and disuse, the action of disease and mutilation, must be transmitted, the continuity of the germ plasm in the isolated reproductive cells of the parents renders this extremely doubtful. The anatomical conditions actually found are fully reconcilable with the observed non-transmission of acquired characters.

This fact was shortly and precisely stated by Galton in 1875, and by Weismann in his “Studies in the Theory of Descent,” published in English in 1882. In 1883, in his essay upon Life andDeath,[35]Weismann looked upon the germ plasm as the substance of the germinal or reproductive cells, and onp.148 he defines “germ” as follows: “I should propose to include under this term every cell, cytode, or group of cells which, while not possessing the structure of the mature individual of the species, possess the power of developing into it under certain circumstances.” So far Weismann was a fact man, and gave to the facts observed their true and full significance. Since that time, however, he has speculatedupon the nature of the germ plasm. To him it consists of ultimate living particles, to which he assigns various and specific purposes, and groups them at will, group within group, like nests of Chinese boxes. The biophores (his conceived units) have the capacity of growth and reproduction—a generous concession indeed. They are groups of chemical molecules, far beyond the highest powers of the microscope, and cannot therefore be investigated by our senses; they are conceptions, not perceptions. These biophores are arranged in groups, called determinants, one for every part of the adult which is capable of variation; groups of determinants are termed “ids,” and groups of ids are termed “idants,” the last being visible in the ovum as a brightly-stained rod of unclear matter. By the multiplication, differentiation, and disintegration of these various groups, the adult body is formed, and Weismann is prepared to explain every step.

Speaking in 1883[36]of Darwin’s theory of pangenesis, Weismann remarks: “We become lost in unfounded hypotheses.” I think this is a true and allowable criticism, but I also think that it applies in far greater measure to the theory of the germ plasm developed by Weismann himself. It may be pointed out that Darwin placed little store upon his theory, and apologised for its speculative nature, not only in the letters already referred to, but in his work upon “The Variations of Plants and Animals under Domestication,” where it appears in a single chapterat the end of a large work of 800 pages. Darwin here says (vol.ii.,p.349): “I am aware that my view is merely a provisional hypothesis or speculation; but until a better one be advanced, it will serve to bring together a multitude of facts which are at present left disconnected by any efficient cause.” Weismann’s speculations, equally unfounded on fact, are nevertheless viewed by him as being of sufficient importance to demand the most detailed elaboration. Do not suppose for an instant that I am decrying the use of fancy or provisional hypotheses; the world advances upon the steps, generally the ruined steps, of hypotheses. The value of an hypothesis depends, however, entirely upon whether we can put it to the test of experiment. If it is intangible, then it remains an hypothesis, while the great body of fact workers go on building their sciences, and in the completion of these it has no part. Darwin’s pangenesis has no value as an hypothesis, it seems to me, apart from its being a pictorial way of illustrating how use and disuse might be inherited. This latter is a question which can be solved experimentally; pangenesis was a mental picture present to Darwin’s mind, and he threw it out for what it was worth. In this picture the gemmules were supposed to pass from the cells of the body through the blood into the reproductive cells, and the experiments which Galton, and subsequently Romanes, undertook to disprove pangenesis by showing that certain samples of blood did not contain gemmules, and that therefore pangenesis did not occur, appear to me to show a wantof appreciation of the fact that Darwin intended this theory merely as a temporary mental picture, and nothing more.

But Weismann puts forward his views in most sober earnest, elaborates the details of his theory, and remodifies his conceptions so that his story may fit in with the fresh discoveries in embryology and comparative anatomy as these are made. Our criticism is simply this, that the hypothesis, being nothing more than a personal conception of the author’s, is not to be tested by experiment, and that the author could always escape from the clutch of refutation. We are left, moreover, in the same difficulty with which we started, for by giving his living units the functions of growth and reproduction, which must involve heredity itself, Weismann shunts back the question from animal and plant, which we can see and handle, to particles quite beyond our ken. We may also point out that there is no reason to assume that living matter is made up of little parts, or persons, molecules or groups of molecules; experiment, in fact, strongly contradicts this assumption. Let us see how humanity first obtained the idea that matter is made up of little bits, how we obtained the idea of molecule or atom. The idea is an ancient one, and it is easy to see how it occurred to thinkers even in primitive times. Most solids, such as chalk, sand, and rock, and fluids too and gases, are, when broken or divided, of obviously similar parts. If we break a piece of writing chalk across, each fragment of it is chalk—that is, it appears to us to be white and hard, it will write uponthe board,etc.If we continue to break it we shall always have smaller particles of chalk, never anything else. Thus men generalised from their commoner experiences, and got the idea that all things are built up of small parts or molecules. Anaxagoras (70th Olympiad), from experiences such as those just described, in all probability arrived at his theory of elements (homœomeriæ), viewing all things as built up of elementary things of the same nature, flesh and blood of elements of flesh and blood,etc.Similar views are held to the present day, and are an expression of the fact that you can break most things into similar but smaller parts. Quoting from Tait’s “Properties of Matter,” 1885,p.21, we find: “But the really extraordinary fact, already known in this part of our subject, is the apparently perfect similarity and equality of any two particles of the same kind of gas, probably of each individual species of matter, when it is reduced to a state of vapour. Of such parts, therefore, whether they be further divisible or not, each species of solid or liquid must be looked upon as built up.” It will be noted that the moderns would make a distinction which the ancients did not; a modern will speak of a molecule of a gas or of incandescent iron, but he hesitates before speaking of a molecule of an ordinary solid at ordinary temperature, and would certainly, if an exact thinker, never dream of speaking of a molecule of wood or flesh or bone. If we carefully prepare as perfect a cylinder of wood as we may wish, and divide it into two equal parts, these (unlike the piece of chalk or iron) will not bethe same; the graining will show a difference to the naked eye. The microscope will show that the wood is not uniform in its smallest parts; it is what we may term “organised,” the structure being different as we shift the eye along the smallest distance of the thinnest section. The same applies to bone and muscle; in fact, to all parts of the bodies of all animals and plants. The idea, then, of molecule is a conception of an ultimate bit of a substance towards which our experimental breaking has in actual experience partially reduced it, and would never have occurred to the ancients had the commonest objects of nature been, like variegated marble or granite, of obvious heterogeneous structure. When, therefore, we translate this idea to the realm of biology, where bodies are not made up of similar parts, it is obvious that we do this without warrant, in face of our biological experience, and that we are thoughtlessly accepting a physical theory of gases and incandescent solids without appreciating the foundation upon which this theory rests. The fact of the matter is, we are in utter ignorance as to the ultimate constitution of any living matter; but so far as microscopic investigation goes, we learn that it has unlike—not like—parts. Our experience, therefore, rather contradicts the belief that it will be found to consist of ultimate parts, each part having the function of living protoplasm, biophores, or whatever name may be attached to them; and we recall Clifford’s rule that we may believe what goes beyond our experience onlywhen it is inferred from that experience by the assumption that what we do not know is like what weknow.[37]

THE END.

[33]“Life and Letters,” first edition,vol.iii.,p.44.

[34]“Life and Letters,”vol.ii.,p.14.

[35]Essay to be found invol.i.; English translation, 1889.

[36]Lecture on Heredity,op. cit.,p.77.

[37]“Lectures and Essays,”vol.ii.,p.210.

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“Mr.Robertson’s style is excellent—nay, even brilliant—and his purely literary criticisms bear the mark of much acumen.”—Times.

36.Outlooks from the New Standpoint.E. Belfort Bax.

“Mr.Bax is a very acute and accomplished student of history and economics.”—Daily Chronicle.

37.Distributing Co-Operative Societies.Dr.Luigi Pizzamiglio. Edited byF. J. Snell.

“Dr.Pizzamigliohas gathered together and grouped a wide array of facts and statistics, and they speak for themselves.”—Speaker.

38.Collectivism and Socialism.ByA. Nacquet. Edited byW. Heaford.

“An admirable criticism by a well-known French politician of the New Socialism of Marx andLassalle.”—Daily Chronicle.

39.The London Programme.Sidney Webb,LL.B.

“Brimful of excellent ideas.”—Anti-Jacobin.

40.The Modern State.Paul Leroy Beaulieu.

“A most interesting book; well worth a place in the library of every social inquirer.”—N. B.Economist.

41.The Condition of Labour.Henry George.

“Written with striking ability, and sure to attract attention.”—Newcastle Chronicle.

42.The Revolutionary Spirit preceding the French Revolution.Felix Rocquain. With a Preface by ProfessorHuxley.

“The student of the French Revolution will find in it an excellent introduction to the study of that catastrophe.”—Scotsman.

43.The Student’s Marx.Edward Aveling,D.Sc.

“One of the most practically useful of any in the Series.”—Glasgow Herald.

44.A Short History of Parliament.B. C. Skottowe,M.A.(Oxon.).

“Deals very carefully and completely with this side of constitutional history.”—Spectator.

45.Poverty: Its Genesis and Exodus.J. G. Godard.

“He states the problems with great force and clearness.”—N. B.Economist.

46.The Trade Policy of Imperial Federation.Maurice H. Hervey.

“An interesting contribution to the discussion.”—Publishers’ Circular.

47.The Dawn of Radicalism.J. Bowles Daly,LL.D.

“Forms an admirable picture of an epoch more pregnant, perhaps, with political instruction than any other in the world’s history.”—Daily Telegraph.

48.The Destitute Alien in Great Britain.Arnold White;Montague Crackanthorpe,Q.C.;W. A. M’Arthur,M.P.;W. H. Wilkins,&c.

“Much valuable information concerning a burning question of the day.”—Times.

49.Illegitimacy and the Influence of Seasons on Conduct.Albert Leffingwell,M.D.

“We have not often seen a work based on statistics which is more continuously interesting.”—Westminster Review.

50.Commercial Crises of the Nineteenth Century.H. M. Hyndman.

“One of the best and most permanently useful volumes of the Series.”—Literary Opinion.

51.The State and Pensions in Old Age.J. A. SpenderandArthur Acland,M.P.

“A careful and cautious examination of the question.”—Times.

52.The Fallacy of Saving.John M. Robertson.

“A plea for the reorganisation of our social and industrial system.”—Speaker.

53.The Irish Peasant.Anon.

“A real contribution to the Irish Problem by a close, patient and dispassionate investigator.”—Daily Chronicle.

54.The Effects of Machinery on Wages.Prof.J. S. Nicholson,D.Sc.

“Ably reasoned, clearly stated, impartially written.”—Literary World.

55.The Social Horizon.Anon.

“A really admirable little book, bright, clear, and unconventional.”—Daily Chronicle.

56.Socialism, Utopian and Scientific.Frederick Engels.

“The body of the book is still fresh and striking.”—Daily Chronicle.

57.Land Nationalisation.A. R. Wallace.

“The most instructive and convincing of the popular works on the subject.”—National Reformer.

58.The Ethic of Usury and Interest.Rev.W. Blissard.

“The work is marked by genuine ability.”—North British Agriculturalist.

59.The Emancipation of Women.Adele Crepaz.

“By far the most comprehensive, luminous, and penetrating work on this question that I have yet met with.”—Extract fromMr.Gladstone’sPreface.

60.The Eight Hours’ Question.John M. Robertson.

“A very cogent and sustained argument on what is at present the unpopular side.”—Times.

61.Drunkenness.George R. Wilson,M.B.

“Well written, carefully reasoned, free from cant, and full of sound sense.”—National Observer.

62.The New Reformation.Ramsden Balmforth.

“A striking presentation of the nascent religion, how best to realize the personal and social ideal.”—Westminster Review.

63.The Agricultural Labourer.T. E. Kebbel.

“A short summary of his position, with appendices on wages, education, allotments,etc.,etc.”

64.Ferdinand Lassalleas a Social Reformer.E. Bernstein.

“A worthy addition to the Social Science Series.”—North British Economist.

65.England’s Foreign Trade in XIXth Century.A. L. Bowley.

“Full of valuable information, carefully compiled.”—Times.

66.Theory and Policy of Labour Protection.Dr.Schäffle.

“An attempt to systematize a conservative programme of reform.”—Man. Guard.

67.History of Rochdale Pioneers.G. J. Holyoake.

“Brought down from 1844 to the Rochdale Congress of 1892.”—Co-Op.News.

68.Rights of Women.M.Ostrogorski.

“An admirable storehouse of precedents, conveniently arranged.”—DailyChron.

69.Dwellings of the People.Locke Worthington.

“A valuable contribution to one of the most pressing problems of the day.”—Daily Chronicle.

70.Hours, Wages, and Production.Dr.Brentano.

“Characterised by all Professor Brentano’s clearness of style.”—Economic Review.

71.Rise of Modern Democracy.Ch.Borgeaud.

“A very useful little volume, characterised by exact research.”—Daily Chronicle.

72.Land Systems of Australasia.Wm.Epps.

“Exceedingly valuable at the present time of depression and difficulty.”—Scots Mag.

73.The Tyranny of Socialism.Yves Guyot.Pref.byJ. H. Levy.

“M.Guyotis smart, lively, trenchant, and interesting.”—Daily Chronicle.

74.Population and the Social System.Dr.Nith.

“A very valuable work of an Italian economist.”—West. Rev.

75.The Labour Question.T. G. Spyers.

“Will be found extremely useful.”—Times.

76.British Freewomen.C. C. Stopes.

“The most complete study of the Women’s Suffrage question.”—English Wom. Rev.

77.SuicideandInsanity.Dr.J. K. Strahan.

“Aninterestingmonograph dealing exhaustively with the subject.”—Times.

78.A History of Tithes.Rev.H. W. Clarke.

“May be recommended to all who desire an accurate idea of the subject.”—D. Chron.

79.Three Months in a Workshop.P. Gohre, withPref.byProf.Ely.

“A vivid picture of the state of mind of German workmen.”—Manch. Guard.

80.Darwinism and Race Progress.Prof.J. B. Haycraft.

“An interesting subject treated in an attractive fashion.”—Glasgow Herald.

81.Local Taxation and Finance.G. H. Blunden.

82.Perils to British Trade.E. Burgis.

83.The Social Contract.J. J. Rousseau. Edited byH. J. Tozer.

84.Labour upon the Land.Edited byJ. A. Hobson,M.A.

85.Moral Pathology.Arthur E. Giles,M.D.,B.Sc.

86.Parasitism, Organic and Social.MassartandVandervelde.

87.Allotments and Small Holdings.J. L. Green.

88.Money and its Relations to Prices.L. L. Price.

89.Sober by Act of Parliament.F. A. Mackenzie.

90.Workers on their Industries.F. W. Galton.

91.Revolution and Counter-Revolution.Karl Marx.

92.Over-Production and Crises.K. Rodbertus.

93.Local Government and State Aid.S. J. Chapman.

94.Anglo-American Trade.S. J. Chapman.

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