Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/40

 24 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

suggestions in the present embryonic condition of eugenic study would be timely, and might prove very helpful to students.

III. EUGENICS AS A FACTOR IN RELIGION"

Eugenics strengthens the sense of social duty in so many important particulars that the conclusions derived from its study ought to find a welcome home in every tolerant religion. It promotes a far-sighted philanthropy, the acceptance of parentage as a serious responsibility, and a higher conception of patriotism. The creed of eugenics is founded upon the idea of evolution; not on a passive form of it, but on one that can to some extent direct its own course. Purely passive, or what may be styled mechanical, evolution displays the awe-inspiring spectacle of a vast eddy of organic turmoil, originating we know not how, and traveling we know not whither. It forms a continuous whole from first to last, reaching backward beyond our earliest knowl- edge, and stretching fonvard as far as we think we can foresee. But it is molded by blind and wasteful processes, namely by an extravagant production of raw material and the ruthless rejec- tion of all that is superfluous, through the blundering steps of trial and error. The condition at each successive moment of this huge system, as it issues from the already quiet past and is about to invade the still undisturbed future, is one of violent internal commotion. Its elements are in constant flux and change, though its general form alters but slowly. In this respect it resembles the curious stream of cloud that sometimes seems attached to a mountain top during the continuance of a strong breeze; its constituents are always changing, though its shape as a whole hardly varies. Evolution is in any case a grand phantasmagoria, but it assumes an infinitely more interesting aspect under the knowledge that the intelligent action of the human will is in some small measure capable of guiding its course. Man could do this largely so far as the evolution of humanity is concerned, and he has already affected the quality and distribution of organic

to three papers, viz. : " Eugenics : Its Definition, Scope, and Aims " (vide American Journal of Sociology, Vol. X, pp. 1-25), and the first two sections of this article.
 * This section was communicated to the Sociological Society in supplement