The belief in our power to modify not only our own but other races is a partial expression of the great fact called “evolution,” accepted now by all who have had time and opportunity to examine the structures of living plants and animals placed side by side with the remains of older forms preserved to us in the earth’s crust. These structures testify without equivocation to that development of type from type which has gradually led to the present condition of plant and animal life, and which, in view of the changes still observable, we are bound to conclude must still be progressing at the present day.
But over and above the fact that racial modifications can and do occur, something is known about the method by means of which these modifications are brought about. Knowledge on this point is so definite, that we are justified in its acceptance, and must take it into consideration in all discussions relating to our racial well-being. Viewed from the side-light thus thrown upon our actions, it will appear that modern civilisation, with all its care and solicitude for the individual comforts of the race, will be, after all, fatal to our successors, unless we adopt the wise precautions which our present knowledge indicates as essential.
During the last few decades, mankind has learned from Nature many of her secrets, and the knowledge thus obtained has been utilised to free him from those hardships and even diseases which have beset him. This knowledge, and the results of its application, have increased like an avalanche, which adds to itself first by pounds, then by hundredweights, and finally by hundreds of tons. For instance, every climate now contributes to supply us with an infinite variety of foods, to satisfy every necessity and gratify the most dainty palate; and those who lack the power of digestion can be supplied with food artificially digested in the laboratory. The dangers of cold are now minimised by better drainage of the surface soil, by admirable systems of heating, and by the substitution of woollen for cotton underclothing. Excessive toil is prohibited by laws, especially in the case of those occupations in which it is most apt to prove inimical to personal well-being. Education, on the lines most approved by educational departments, is forced by fear of penalty upon the unwilling, and some would even follow the example of certain American states, and make us sober by depriving us of drink. Even disease is being attacked and driven across the border; the microbe is going the way of the great auk and the dodo, and the probability of human life is on the increase. While the advantages of past civilisation fell to the few, our advantages fall, nay, are forced, upon the many.