Darwinism and Race Progress

by John Berry Haycraft

We are not, however, bound to assume from these two examples that, bar political catastrophe, a race will always progress, or even continue to possess its original characteristics.

In the case of Spain, a country which at one period of history took a distinct lead amongst European nations, and explored and conquered large areas in America and elsewhere, we find that to this activity followed a period of lethargy and want of initiative. But even here it would be wrong to assume a condition of national senility, for old age in the individual is, in the millions of cases under observation, an inevitable necessity, while the decline of Spain was due to causes which might have been avoided, and the ill effects of which might have been readily removed.

The Spaniards, unlike the English and the French, mix freely with lower races, and in the Spanish colonies the race diluted its blood, and thus influenced the home country. Not only was this so, but there can be little doubt that much of that which possessed intelligence and independence was taken out of the race during the days of the Inquisition. When we remember that, from 1481–1808, no less than 340,000 persons were punished, of whom 32,000 were burnt alive, and that thousands who represented the nation’s capacity and moral backbone left the country, we need hardly wonder at the inevitable result. If this be a true reading of history, we have here a case of organic race deterioration, but it must be noted that it was brought about by conditions which were under control, and, unlike causes of true senility, were not universally operative.[1]

[Our Power to ensure our own Racial Progress.]

We may conclude, I venture to think, from these examples in history, that a race may continue to preserve its racial character for long periods of time without deterioration, but it is suggested to us that there are distinct dangers to be understood and avoided. If, therefore, we ask ourselves, “Is our own preservation as a race possible?” the answer comes to us that, guided by the historical knowledge we possess, and with our better acquaintance with man himself, and the laws of his growth and well-being, we have an advantage over all who have gone before us, so that, if misadventure should befall us, it will be most assuredly because of our own indifference, and because we wilfully shut our eyes to the light of truth.

It would be well once more to emphasise the difference between what is meant by racial preservation and the preservation of political organisation. It would be quite possible for our empire to crumble away from us. It is a political organisation depending upon ties of mutual advantage and sentiment, and likewise upon the tolerance and weakness of other nations. But we may lose our colonies, and be stripped of our prestige, and yet remain, man for man, as fine individually as when we gained them; for bones, muscle and brains are one thing, whilst the political union that binds us together is another.

[The Knowledge we possess regarding the Laws of Racial Change.]

A knowledge of the individual must be obtained before we can fitly study the facts observable when individual succeeds individual, making the generations to follow each other, and thereby building up the history of a race of men. The facts of individual development, both in the case of man and of the lower animals, have already been minutely studied. We know much of the life-histories of many species, and can say what conditions are favourable and what are inimical to healthy and active individual existence. Much of this information has been turned to practical uses, and preventive medicine has arisen as a noble art, which, by its application, permits of a successful war against disease and even against death itself. We have also learned much of that longer history which traces out the life of a species, generation after generation, and noted those changes for the better or for the worse which occur in the characteristics of groups of the individuals of those species as they succeed each other. We have of late years accumulated in government returns vast quantities of exact statistical information, so that by comparing the facts obtained at one decade with those of another we can observe many racial changes as they take place.

These more exact inquiries are, however, but slowly accumulating, for man is a long-lived animal, and our impatience is great. We must wait often for many generations, before small, though no doubt important, changes are revealed by our methods of research. For this reason much attention has been given to the race histories of the lower animals, for in their case we may in a few years have many generations under observation, and we can follow out their histories in a comparatively short period of time. We are justified in making use of the facts so obtained and of utilising them cautiously for the interpretation of human race history, for we constantly and in every day life assume points of similarity between man and the lower animals. The blow or the spear thrust which injures us we know will also injure them, and we infer that the contortions which follow their application are symptoms of the pain that we, too, should feel. We know,—and scientific inquiry has vastly extended our knowledge,—that animals have all of them many points of structural similarity, and that their life and race histories are in many ways strikingly like our own. The chief muscles and nerves in man may be recognised in the dog; the main lines of development are in both cases the same, and the action of food and poison produces results in which there are few points of difference. Of course, when we infer from the facts observable in the study of animal life that similar facts will be observable in human life as well, we have to exercise due caution. It is here that the acumen of a scientific mind is exercised to the fullest degree; we are liable to error, and our results are perhaps tentative, and must be viewed as such, but no one can doubt the suggestiveness and consequent utility of these studies. Just as our knowledge of comparative anatomy and physiology has been essential to a proper understanding of human anatomy and physiology, so the few facts we at present possess concerning human racial development receive significance when examined by the side of a similar but far more extended array of facts drawn from a study of animal racial development.