If, then, it be true that we have before us a small but increasing mass of evidence regarding the laws of racial change, is not this evidence worthy of our closest study? Is it not at least as worthy as the study of the politics of the hour which absorbs so much of our best energies; for what are the petty combinations of parties, or even those temporary associations of individuals, which aim at a common or national policy, by the side of the health and the capacity of that race of which we are but passing representatives, a race whose future we can make or mar by the course we now pursue?
[Evolution.]
The belief in our power to modify not only our own but other races is a partial expression of the great fact called “evolution,” accepted now by all who have had time and opportunity to examine the structures of living plants and animals placed side by side with the remains of older forms preserved to us in the earth’s crust. These structures testify without equivocation to that development of type from type which has gradually led to the present condition of plant and animal life, and which, in view of the changes still observable, we are bound to conclude must still be progressing at the present day.
[Modern Philanthropic Effort.]
But over and above the fact that racial modifications can and do occur, something is known about the method by means of which these modifications are brought about. Knowledge on this point is so definite, that we are justified in its acceptance, and must take it into consideration in all discussions relating to our racial well-being. Viewed from the side-light thus thrown upon our actions, it will appear that modern civilisation, with all its care and solicitude for the individual comforts of the race, will be, after all, fatal to our successors, unless we adopt the wise precautions which our present knowledge indicates as essential.
During the last few decades, mankind has learned from Nature many of her secrets, and the knowledge thus obtained has been utilised to free him from those hardships and even diseases which have beset him. This knowledge, and the results of its application, have increased like an avalanche, which adds to itself first by pounds, then by hundredweights, and finally by hundreds of tons. For instance, every climate now contributes to supply us with an infinite variety of foods, to satisfy every necessity and gratify the most dainty palate; and those who lack the power of digestion can be supplied with food artificially digested in the laboratory. The dangers of cold are now minimised by better drainage of the surface soil, by admirable systems of heating, and by the substitution of woollen for cotton underclothing. Excessive toil is prohibited by laws, especially in the case of those occupations in which it is most apt to prove inimical to personal well-being. Education, on the lines most approved by educational departments, is forced by fear of penalty upon the unwilling, and some would even follow the example of certain American states, and make us sober by depriving us of drink. Even disease is being attacked and driven across the border; the microbe is going the way of the great auk and the dodo, and the probability of human life is on the increase. While the advantages of past civilisation fell to the few, our advantages fall, nay, are forced, upon the many.
[Are these conducive to Racial as well as to Individual Well-being?]
But those scientific men who have given much attention to the study of life in its widest manifestations in plants, in animals and in man himself, have, with great show of unanimity, come to a conclusion which appears to indicate that, although we may improve an individual during his or her lifetime, both in physical capacity or mental and moral power, this improvement is not transmitted in appreciable degree to their offspring, who have therefore to begin again in their lives just where the parents began in theirs. This teaching strongly indicates that parents cannot pass on to their offspring in any but a most limited degree the improvements they themselves have made in their own physical or mental condition, in the same way that they can bequeath to them the purses they have filled.
If these conclusions, however, are correct, the action of healthy surroundings will never by itself produce a robust out of a feeble race, nor will the action of the best educational system ever devised develop a race of wise men out of a race of fools. With this non-inheritance of personally-acquired characteristics, the work of individual improvement has to begin again in each generation, for the gained ground is always lost, and racial improvement on these lines must be at best immeasurably slow.
Racial change, improvement, or deterioration, is brought about, so the biologists say, by what is termed selection, that is, by the death or non-productiveness of certain individuals of a race, whereby the others alone remain. If this remnant is organically superior, the next generation inheriting only from them will be themselves organically superior, and racial improvement will be brought about. If this teaching be true, it follows that all our efforts for the good of mankind will be of no avail unless selective agencies are maintained, unless we are prepared to see that each generation of children is the product of the best amongst us in our day. It is quite possible therefore that, even under the present conditions of better hygienic education and moral teaching, the race may be deteriorating, and, indeed, from the biological standpoint, there is every reason to suppose that it is. Our present efforts may therefore be, after all, misplaced, so that it behoves us very carefully to study the whole position. We have first critically to examine the arguments which point to the non-inheritance of acquired character, to understand the operation of selection, at present considered to be by far the greatest factor in the production of race change, and then to study man in his modern surroundings, with a view to determining how far these are conducive to his ultimate good, and how they may with greatest advantage be modified, with a view to his improvement and advance.