Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/135

Rh Let the lines $$L_{1}H_{1}$$ and $$L_{2}H_{2}$$ in Chart 5 be identical scales for the original capacity for intellect, or virtue, or any desirable human trait. Let the surface above line $$L_{1}H_{1}$$ represent the distribution of this original capacity amongst men to-day. There is every reason to believe that wise selective breeding could change the present state of affairs, at least to that shown above $$L_{2}H_{2}$$, within relatively few generations. Perhaps it could do even more. There is every reason also to believe that each step of improvement in the original nature of man would, in and of itself, improve the environmental conditions in which he lives and learns.

So much for the general possibility of eugenics in the case of intellect, morals and skill—for what should soon be in every primer of psychology, sociology and education, and be accepted as a basis of practise by every wise family, church and state.

The next question concerns the extrinsic effects of selective breeding for intellect or for morals, the possibility of injuring the race indirectly by a change in, say, intellect which in and of itself is desirable. If we breed horses for speed, they are likely to lose in strength and vigor; do we run such risks in breeding men for intellect, or for morals, or for skill? This question has been neglected by the hortatory type of enthusiasts for eugenics. It has also not received the attention which it deserves from the real workers for racial improvement, probably because the psychological investigations which answer it are little known. They do, however, give a clear and important answer—that there is practically no chance whatever of injury from selective breeding within a race for intellect, or for morality, or for mental health and balance, or for energy, or for constructive ingenuity and skill—no risk that the improvement of any one of these will cause injury to any other of them, or to physical health or happiness. The investigations have found that, within one racial group, the correlations between the divergences of an individual from the average in different desirable traits are positive, that the man who is above the average of his race in intellect is above rather than below it in decency, sanity, even in bodily health. Chart 6 shows, for example, the average intellect of each of the groups, when individuals are graded 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., up to 10 on a scale for morality, according to Woods's measurements of royal families. I may add that the effect of chance inaccuracies in Woods's ratings, whereby one individual is rated as 8 or 10 when he should have been rated 9, or is rated 4 or 8 when he should have been rated 6, is to make this obtained and shown relation of intellect to morals less close than it really is.

Nature does not balance feeble-mindedness by great manual dexterity, nor semi-insane eccentricities by great courage and kindliness. Correlation of divergences up or down from mediocrity is the rule, not compensation. The child of good reasoning powers has better, not