Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/521

Rh human nature has at heart changed or ever will change. To the minds of some, civilization is but a gloss and a veneer, politeness and kindliness are maintained while everything runs smoothly, but let danger or necessity arise, and they say man is again thrown back on his brute passions.

For a discussion of the question, 'Is the mean standard of faculty rising?' and the citations from various authors who consider that it is not (Buckle, Bellamy, Ritchie, Gladstone, Benjamin Kidd, et al.), see Lloyd Morgan, 'Habit and Instinct,' where he himself states in his closing paragraph: "Natural selection becomes more and more subordinate in the social evolution of civilized mankind; and it would seem probable with this waning of the influence of natural selection there has been a diminution also of human faculty." Alfred Russel Wallace writes: "In one of my latest conversations with Darwin he expressed himself very gloomily on the future of humanity, on the ground that in our modern civilization natural selection had no play, and the fittest did not survive." Wallace himself insists that there are forces to be counted on for the amelioration of the race, one of which is the process of elimination 'by which vice, violence and recklessness so often bring about the early destruction of those addicted to them.' But it is much more difficult at first sight to see how purely intellectual qualities are to be enhanced through any process of natural selection going on at the present day. Nevertheless, if a mental and a moral correlation can be shown to be a reality the difficulty is overcome.

The following figures, which prove that the morally superior are also the more endowed mentally, were drawn from records of the characteristics of European royalty. They include the entire number who formed the basis of a study of heredity which appeared in The Popular Science Monthly, August, 1902, to April, 1903. These were arranged to the best of the writer's ability, and in consultation with John Fiske and other historians, in ten grades for intellect and ten grades for morality. The latter term is used in its widest meaning and under this head are included all the qualities which may count as virtues. Amiability and kindliness are included, so that only those who have received praise for many good qualities can appear in the higher grades. The highest grade (10) is for those only who have been known as altruists, or reformers, or have devoted their lives to charity or other noble aims for the welfare of their country.

It has been the aim of the writer to take only the opinions of others, following the biographical dictionaries and standard histories as far as possible. If a personal equation may have unconsciously influenced the grading, it can have no possible effect on the results of the present article, because the grading was made with a view to the study of