Western civilization, a good unthinking creature, has insisted bravely on the development of the individual man, while largely overlooking the existence of the individual woman; yet the studies of heredity show very clearly that at least as many qualities are inherited from the female as from the male. Nay, further, since the female is less specialized, the distinctive race qualities are inherited from her, rather than from the more specialized male. In short, the Super Man will have a mother as well as a father.
The fact that the average man has as many female as he had male ancestors is very frequently overlooked. Yet it is a fact that inevitably carries with it the imputation, that if his ancestors were thus equally apportioned, he must have inherited his qualities from both sexes. Therefore, in the production of the Super Man, the qualities of the woman are of equal importance with the qualities of the man.
The individual is the goal and Education the means, since Education is the science of individual development. Through Education, we shall enable the individual to live completely. But what is complete life? How shall we compass or define it?
Two laws are laid down as fundamental in nature—the laws of self preservation and of self perpetuation. With the development of society, and social relations, the individual must recognize himself, not as an individual only, but likewise as a unit in a social group. Hence, for him, self preservation and self perpetuation necessarily involve group preservation and group perpetuation. His code of life must therefore formulate itself in this wise—
THE OBJECTS OF ENDEAVOR
| Immediate | Ultimate | |||
| Individual | Self Expression | Super Man | ||
| Social | { | Eugenics Social Adjustment Education | Super Race |
The individual, for self preservation, demands self expression; for self perpetuation he demands that the standard of his children be higher than his own. As a member of the social group, he looks to Eugenics, Social Adjustment, and Education as the immediate means of raising social standards, and the ultimate means of providing a Super Race.
Such are the abstract ideals—how may they be practically applied? How shall the individual express, through Eugenics, Social Adjustment, and Education his desire for the development of a Super Race?
Do you, sir, enjoy living in the neighborhood of vandals and thieves? Well, hardly. One could not be expected to take so frivolous a view of life, therefore you will in self defense take every possible precaution to suppress vandalism and thievery? Never, my dear sir, never! You must take every possible precaution to reduce the spirit of vandalism and of thievery. The acts are in themselves unconsequential—they are but the product of a diseased mind or an indifferent training. The spirit, here as elsewhere, is all important.
Are you a scientist? Do you admire Pasteur and Herbert Spencer? You are a “practical” man—see what Edison has done for you. As a statesman, you revere Lincoln and Daniel Webster. You cannot, as an artist, overlook the portraits of Rembrandt or the water scenes of Ruysdael. You must agree with me that these and a thousand others that I might mention—men called geniuses by their contemporaries or their descendants—have contributed untold worth to the society of which they were a part. They chose rightly. They are looked upon, and justly, as the salt of the earth. You admit the value of geniuses, in civilization, and you would, of course, do anything to increase their number? Then, let me say to you that the first thing for you to decide is that your own children shall be neither vandals nor thieves. The second thing for you to decide is that they shall, in so far as you are able to determine the matter, possess all of your good qualities, coupled with the good qualities which you lack, supplied by an able mate. In short, you must choose your life partner with a view to the elimination of anti-social tendencies, on the one hand, and on the other to the development of the qualities which distinguish the Super Man.