THE NEED FOR EUGENIC REFORM CHAPTER I EVOLUTION THE doctrine of evolution, and indeed all science, is based on a principle which educated people accept every day of their lives without thought or question; and this is the principle or belief that what has happened to-day will happen again to-morrow if the circumstances are exactly similar. If the kettle does not boil, no one now believes that it is because an evil spirit has come as a visitor from another sphere to plague us, but simply because the fire is not hot enough. We know that water always boils at a certain temperature, and science, when applied to human affairs, is based on generalizations such as this, some very simple when arising out of our everyday experiences, and some very complex when only discovered by long research. These generalizations, which enable us to prophesy what will happen under certain conditions, are often described as laws of nature, though this is perhaps not a very suitable title. The further our scientific investigations are pushed, the more reliable are these laws of nature found to be in enabling us to foretell the consequences of given acts or causes; so that it has become a cardinal principle of physical science that, although we are still grossly ignorant on many subjects, yet we may assume that there does not exist any force which ever interferes with the sequence of physical events in an arbitrary way, or in a way which could never be foretold however great our knowledge might become. Certainly it is in this spirit that all questions in every field of science are now being investigated, and the accept ance of the general principle of evolution implies an adherence to this belief. For evolution means the gradual building up, in accordance with the laws of nature, of the world as we now find it from some unknown beginning. Science not only aids us in looking into the future, but in like manner it assists us in building up the history of the past. The broad principle that like previous conditions are always followed by like subsequent events is a bond which helps to link together a known present with both an unknown future and a past of which we have no records; a bond which is strengthened by every increase in our knowledge of the laws of nature. We have thus learnt how to ascertain the dates when unrecorded eclipses of the sun took place in bygone centuries, and to know within a fraction of a second at what o'clock at night in the future a certain star will again be seen on the meridian. We can form a shrewd guess where coal was deposited millions of years ago, and where it will now be found by the miner if he digs deep enough. We have some knowledge of the climatic conditions which existed in this country during the glacial periods, and we are beginning to make more and more accurate forecasts of the weather. Every branch of science is helping us to look both backwards and forwards, and we all feel that, not only is there nothing impious in utilizing our belief in the uniformity of natural processes, but that it would be utter folly not to call physical science to our aid in our attempts both to increase our knowledge of the past and to ascertain what future is likely to be in store for us. Mistakes in our forecasts are inevitable, but that it is wise thus to rely on our knowledge of the sequel of physical events, that is on the principle of evolution as affecting inanimate objects, is now never denied in any civilized society. The idea of evolution was well known to the ancient Greeks, and the chief modern development of this idea has been its application to living things. The belief that all existing animals and plants are the descendants of one or more primitive types of organisms, from which they have been evolved by some slow natural process, ORGANIC EVOLUTION 3 is now firmly established in the world of science. As to the arguments on which this belief is based, they must be sought for in scientific treatises on evolution; and here all that need be said is that the proof depends on the fact that a vast number of facts concerning organisms can only be rendered intelligible on the assumption of their descent from some common ancestor. We have been, as it were, building up a jigsaw picture of nature as we now see it; we have continually found that the unfitted pieces only drop into their places without difficulty if we assume that there exists such an evolutionary relationship between existing organisms; and we have become more and more convinced that it is only on this assumption that the remaining pieces can be fitted in so as to complete the picture of the world of nature. The records of organic life handed down to us in the form of fossils, the way in which living things are distributed over the face of the earth, the great likeness between all animals before birth, the changes that take place during their growth, the existence of useless parts in our bodies, the wonderful adaptation of organisms to their surroundings-all these remain as a chaos of unrelated facts until we begin to study what would be likely to have occurred when organisms were being produced from a common ancestry by some slow process of modification, that is, until we accept the principle of organic evolution. It will be a long time before we shall be able to speak with complete confidence as to the way in which living things have been evolved; but not only is the broad principle of evolution as applied to living things now widely accepted, but our descent from some ape-like ancestor will in time come to be as universally acknowledged as is the fact that the earth goes round the sun. A belief in organic evolution has often been attacked on the ground that it is materialistic; but to me it does not seem to be necessarily more materialistic than a belief that water will always boil at a given temperature. Organic evolution merely brings one more set of facts under the domain of natural laws; and natural laws only deal with this world. No doubt certain philosophical problems in regard to life and morals have to be faced in this connexion, some of which appear to me as yet quite insoluble; but the discussion of these intensely difficult questions had better be postponed to a subsequent chapter. For the moment it will perhaps suffice to give the following extracts from the last paragraph of The Origin of Species, the book that has certainly had more effect than any other in spreading a belief in the animal origin of man : It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect on these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. . . . There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved. Our present theme is, however, the actual utilization of the principle of evolution. We have seen that in physical matters the benefits conferred by science consist largely in the power thus given to us of looking into the future; and the same is equally true of science as applied to the problems of life. If it is folly not to utilize those laws of nature which are derived from a study of the physical world in order to ascertain what steps we should take to secure for ourselves and for our descendants the best attainable surroundings in the future, it is worse than folly, so it seems to me, not to utilize such laws as may be derived from a study of living things in order to promote the progress of our race. This is the lesson of eugenics, which this whole book is intended to emphasize; for eugenics consists in making all the use we can of the powers of prophecy conferred upon us by biological research with the object of promoting the welfare of mankind in the future. In time it will come to be recog RISKS MUST BE RUN 5 nized that it is in this way that science can confer her greatest benefits on the human race. Those who would set out on the path of eugenic reform would do well in the first instance to realize that the acceptance of the principle of organic evolution constitutes a revolution in thought, a revolution of such a nature as inevitably to be accompanied by changes in social customs. It is a revolution in thought because it makes us realize as never before that the universe is in a state of flux, and that, whatever may be possible, it is certainly impossible to call a halt at the point at which we happen now to have arrived. It is a revolution of thought because it opens out before our eyes the possibility of making use of the laws of nature so as to affect beneficially the very nature of man in the future in ways never contemplated in the past. In fact we have only recently learnt that the fate of our nation in the future lies largely in our own hands; a doctrine which can hardly be condemned as necessarily pessimistic. But, it will be asked, in what direction are we now to proceed to secure the desired results? This is a question which will be answered as far as possible in subsequent chapters; but here it is as well to confess, or rather to assert, that whilst the laws of nature are being slowly and gradually ascertained, the ground over which we can advance without undue danger must remain greatly limited in certain directions, though it will undoubtedly keep widening out as our knowledge increases. One of the commonest criticisms levelled against eugenists still is, no doubt, that we are yet very ignorant of the way in which racial progress has been produced in the past, and consequently that our scanty knowledge forms but a poor foundation on which to build an enduring eugenic policy. It will be seen, however, that our knowledge is by no means scanty; but here may I suggest that there exist strong reasons why we must not allow our confessed ignorance to delay us too much. When marching in the dusk we instinctively stand still if we get any kind of warning that there are pitfalls in our path; for we feel comparatively safe when motionless, whilst we know that movement might be dangerous. |