part of those aptitudes, but only
with such as are available in some form or other of high civilization.
We may reckon upon the advent of a time when civilization, which is
now sparse and feeble and far more superficial than it is vaunted to
be, shall overspread the globe. Ultimately it is sure to do so,
because civilization is the necessary fruit of high intelligence when
found in a social animal, and there is no plainer lesson to be read
off the face of Nature than that the result of the operation of her
laws is to evoke intelligence in connection with sociability.
Intelligence is as much an advantage to an animal as physical strength
or any other natural gift; and therefore, out of two varieties of any
race of animal who are equally endowed in other respects, the most
intelligent variety is sure to prevail in the battle of life.
Similarly, among animals as intelligent as man, the most social race
is sure to prevail, other qualities being equal.

Under even a very moderate form of material civilization, a vast
number of aptitudes acquired through the "survivorship of the fittest"
and the unsparing destruction of the unfit, for hundreds of
generations, have become as obsolete as the old mail-coach habits and
customs since the establishment of railroads, and there is not the
slightest use in attempting to preserve them; they are hindrances, and
not gains, to civilization. I shall refer to some of these a little
further on, but I will first speak of the qualities needed in
civilized society. They are, speaking generally, such as will enable a
race to supply a large contingent to the various groups of eminent men
of whom I have treated in my several chapters. Without going so far as
to say that this very convenient test is perfectly fair, we are at all
events justified in making considerable use of it, as I will do in the
estimates I am about to give.

In comparing the worth of different races, I shall make frequent use
of the law of deviation from an average, to which I have already been
much beholden; and to save the reader's time and patience, I propose
to act upon an assumption that would require a good deal of discussion
to limit, and to which the reader may at first demur, but which cannot
lead to any error of importance in a rough provisional inquiry. I
shall assume that the _intervals_ between the grades of ability are
the _same_ in all the races.... I know this cannot be strictly true,
for it would be in defia