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Eugenics strengthen the sense of social duty in so many important
particulars that the conclusions derived from its study ought to find a
welcome home in every tolerant religion. It promotes a far-sighted
philanthropy, the acceptance of parentage as a serious responsibility,
and a higher conception of patriotism. The creed of eugenics is founded
upon the idea of evolution; not on a passive form of it, but on one that
can, to some extent, direct its own course.

Purely passive, or what may be styled mechanical evolution displays the
awe-inspiring spectacle of a vast eddy of organic turmoil, originating
we know not how, and travelling we know not whither. It forms a
continuous whole, but it is moulded by blind and wasteful
processes--namely, by an extravagant production of raw material and the
ruthless rejection of all that is superfluous, through the blundering
steps of trial and error.

The condition at each successive moment of this huge system, as it
issues from the already quiet past and is about to invade the still
undisturbed future, is one of violent internal commotion. Its elements
are in constant flux and change.

Evolution is in any case a grand phantasmagoria, but it assumes an
infinitely more interesting aspect under the knowledge that the
intelligent action of the human will is, in some small measure, capable
of guiding its course. Man has the power of doing this largely so far as
the evolution of humanity is concerned; he has already affected the
quality and distribution of organic life so widely that the changes on
the surface of the earth, merely through his disforestings and
agriculture, would be recognisable from a distance as great as that of
the moon.

As regards the practical side of eugenics, we need not linger to reopen
the unending argument whether man possesses any creative power of will
at all, or whether his will is not also predetermined by blind forces or
by intelligent agencies behind the veil, and whether the belief that man
can act independently is more than a mere illusion.

Eugenic belief extends the function of philanthropy to future
generations; it renders its action more pervading than hitherto, by
dealing with families and societies in their entirety, and it enforces
the importance of the marriage covenant by directing serious attention
to the probable quality of the future offspring. It sternly forbids all
forms of sentimental charity that are harmful to the race, while it