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RACE IMPROVEMENT

313

am aware, has been attempted before, that mental qualities are equally under control."

Then follows a discussion of inherited abilities, of the same character as that which was afterwards

developed more fully in Hereditary Genius. If I

were to re-write the above passage, it would be modified by limiting the power of the breeder to perpetuating and intensifying qualities which have already appeared in the race. The possibility would at the same time be recognised of the unforeseen appearance of " sports " or mutations " of a kind not hitherto observed, but which for all that may become hereditary. Such in past times may have been the electric organs of certain eels and rays, the illuminating capacity of glow-worms, fire-flies, and inhabitants of deep waters, the venom in certain snakes, and the power of speech in man.


After some pages of remarks, the latter of them on the physical attributes of very able men, the article continues :

" Most notabilities have been great eaters and excellent digesters, on literally the same principle that the furnace which can raise more steam than is usual for one of its size must burn more freely and well than is common. Most great men are vigorous animals with exuberant powers and an extreme devotion to a cause. There is no reason to suppose that in breeding for the highest order of intellect we should produce a sterile or a feeble race."

I should now alter the last sentence to "There is no reason to doubt that a very high order of