Social Environment and Moral Progress

by Alfred Russel Wallace

But he also includes under sexual selection another mode of rivalry by the display of the special male ornaments of many birds, and the choice of the more ornamental by the females. To this latter phase he devotes nearly half his volume on The Descent of Man, and on Selection in Relation to Sex. Selection by the fighting of males has led to the development of the

stag's antlers, the boar's tusks, and the lion's mane serving as a shield. These combats rarely lead to the death of the vanquished, but to a larger number of offspring for the victor; and this leads to the improvement of the race by keeping up its strength, vigour, and fighting power.

The other form of selection, by the display of ornaments by male birds and the supposed continuous development of those ornaments by the appreciative choice of the females, I believe to be imaginary. I have discussed this subject in many of my books, and my views are now generally adopted by evolutionists. The fact that the colours of male insects, especially butterflies, are almost exactly parallel to those of birds, first led me to this conclusion, because we can hardly suppose insects to be endowed with any æsthetic sense, even if they really see colour at all, which, in my last book, I have given strong reasons for doubting.

But in the human race the conditions are altogether different; for while, as I have shown in [Chapter XIV.], the kind of natural selection which through all the ages had moulded the infinitely varied animal forms into harmony with their environment, ceased to act upon man's body and only

for a limited time upon his lower mental faculties, sexual selection tended to act if at all prejudicially, through polygamy, prostitution, and slavery, though it possesses the potentiality of acting in the future so as to ensure Intellectual and Moral Progress, and thus elevate the race to whatever degree of civilisation and well-being it is capable of reaching in earth-life.

Eugenics, or Race Improvement through Marriage

The total cessation of the action of natural selection as a cause of improvement in our race, either physical or mental, led to the proposal of the late Sir F. Galton to establish a new science, which he termed Eugenics. A society has been formed, and much is being written about checking degeneration and elevating the race to a higher level by its means. Sir F. Galton's own proposals were limited to giving prizes or endowments for the marriage of persons of high character, both physical, mental, and moral, to be determined by some form of inquiry or examination. This may, perhaps, not do much harm, but it would certainly do very little good. Its range of

action would be extremely limited, and so far as it induced any couples to marry each other for the pecuniary reward, it would be absolutely immoral in its nature, and probably result in no perceptible improvement of the race.

But there is great danger in such a process of artificial selection by experts, who would certainly soon adopt methods very different from those of the founder. We have already had proposals made for the "segregation of the Feeble-Minded," while the "sterilization of the unfit" and of some classes of criminals is already being discussed. This might soon be extended to the destruction of deformed infants, as was actually proposed by the late Grant Allen; while Mr. Hiram M. Stanley, in a work on Our Civilisation and the Marriage Problem, proposed more far-reaching measures. He says: "The drunkard, the criminal, the diseased, the morally weak, should never come into society. Not reform, but prevention should be the cry." And he hints at the methods he would adopt, in the following passages: "In the true golden age, which lies not behind but before us, the privilege of parentage will be esteemed

an honour for the comparatively few, and no child will be born who is not only sound in body and mind, but also above the average as to natural ability and moral force." And he concludes: "The most important matter in society, the inherent quality of the members of which it is composed, should be regulated by trained specialists."