No More Learning



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BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS
6165
"A pretty plot indeed! It seems hardly credible that a civilized
nation should applaud it. I would sentence Moratin to the gal-
leys, and forbid his writing such coarse stuff as long as he lives.
So you call this a play, Gabrielito? There is no intrigue, no
plot, no surprise, no catastrophe, no illusion, no quid pro quo; no
attempt at disguising a character to make it seem another — not
even the little complication that comes of two men provoking
each other as enemies, and then discovering that they are father
and son.
If Don Diego now, were to catch his nephew and kill
him out of hand in the cellar, and prepare a banquet and have
a dish of the victim's flesh served up to his bride, well disguised
with spice and bay leaves, there would be some spirit in the
thing. "
I could not, in fact, conceal my enjoyment of the scene, which
seemed to me a masterpiece of nature, grace, and interesting
comedy. The poet however called me to order, abusing me for
deserting to the hostile camp.
"I beg your pardon," said I. "It was a mistake. And yet-
does it not strike you, too, that this scene is not altogether bad? "
"How should you be able to judge? a mere novice who never
wrote a line in your life! Pray what is there in this scene in the
least remarkable, or pathetic, or historical ? »
"But it is nature itself. I feel that I have seen in the real
world just what the author has set on the stage. "
"Gaby! simpleton! that is exactly what makes it so bad.
Have you not observed that in Frederick the Second,' in
'Catharine of Russia,' in 'The Slave of Negroponte,' and other
fine works, nothing ever takes place that has the smallest resem-
blance to real life? Is not everything in those plays strange,
startling, exceptional, wonderful, and surprising? That is why
they are so good. The poets of to-day do not choose to imi-
tate those of my time, and hence art has fallen to the lowest
depths. "
――――――――
“And yet, begging your pardon," I said, "I cannot help think-
ing The play is wretched, I quite agree, and when you say so
there must be a good reason for it. But the idea here seems to
me a good one, since I fancy the author has intended to censure
the vicious system of education which young girls get now-
adays. "
"And who asks the author to introduce all this philosophy? "
said the pedant. "What has the theatre to do with moralizing?


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6166
BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS
In the Magician of Astrakhan,' in 'Leon and the Asturias Gave
Heraldry to Spain,' and in the Triumphs of Don Pelayo’—
plays that all the world admires - did you ever find a passage
that describes how girls are to be brought up? "
"I have certainly read or heard somewhere that the theatre
was to serve the purposes of entertainment and instruction. "
Stuff and nonsense! "
Translation of Clara Bell.
DOÑA PERFECTA'S DAUGHTER
From 'Doña Perfecta. ' Copyright 1895, by Harper & Brothers
―
[Pepe Rey, a young engineer, arrives at Orbajosa to marry his cousin
Rosario, the match having been made up between his father and Doña Per-
fecta, the girl's mother, who is warmly attached to the father of Pepe, her
brother, and furthermore under heavy obligations to him for his excellent
management of her large property interests. The landscape is the arid and
poverty-stricken country of central Spain, though the town itself— "seated on
the slope of a hill from the midst of whose closely clustered houses arose many
dark towers, and on the height above it the ruins of a dilapidated castle ».
such a town would probably be more appreciated by a traveler from abroad
and a lover of the picturesque, than by a Spaniard, too familiar with its type.
Orbajosa is a little place, full of narrow prejudices and vanities. Pepe Rey,
with his modern ways, soon finds that he is wounding these prejudices at
every turn. We look on with pained surprise at the difficulties that grow up
around the young man, an excellent and kind-hearted fellow. Lawsuits are
multiplied against him; he is turned out of the cathedral by order of the
bishop for strolling about during service-time to look at some architectural
features; and he is refused the hand of his cousin. Doña Perfecta herself joins
in this hostility, which finally develops into a venomous bitterness that menaces
his life. Such a feeling was not the outgrowth of mere provincial narrow-
ness: we see in the end that it was the result of the plot of Maria Remedios,
a woman of a humble sort, who aspired to secure the heiress Rosario for her
own chubby-faced home-bred son. She influenced the village priest, and he
influenced Doña Perfecta. Early in the day the young engineer would have
abandoned the sinister place but for Rosario, who really loved him. She
conveyed to him, on a scrap from the margin of a newspaper, the message:
"They say you are going away. If you do, I shall die. »
She is a charming picture of girlhood,-lovely, true-hearted, affectionate,
aspiring to be heroic, and yet crippled at last by a filial conscience and the
long habit of clinging dependence. She has agreed to flee at night with her
lover, and he is already in the garden. Her mother, the stern Doña Per-
fecta, ranging uneasily through the house, enters her room about the appointed
time for the escape. ]


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BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS
6167
>>
HY don't you sleep? her mother asked her.
"What time is it? " asked the girl.
"It will soon be midnight. "
"WHY
Rosario was trembling, and everything about her denoted
the keenest anxiety. She lifted her eyes to heaven supplicat-
ingly, and then turned them on her mother with a look of the
utmost terror.
«< Why, what is the matter with you? "
"Did you not say it was midnight? »
"Yes. "
"Then - but is it already midnight? "
«< Something is the matter with you; you have something on
your mind," said her mother, fixing on her daughter her pene-
trating eyes.
"Yes I wanted to tell you," stammered the girl, "I wanted
to say Nothing, nothing; I will go to sleep. "
"Rosario, Rosario! your mother can read your heart like
an open book," exclaimed Doña Perfecta with severity. "You
are agitated. I have already told you that I am willing to
pardon you if you will repent, if you are a good and sensible
girl. "
«< Why, am I not good? Ah, mamma, mamma! I am dying. "
Rosario burst into a flood of bitter and disconsolate tears.
"What are these tears about? " said her mother, embracing
"If they are tears of repentance, blessed be they. "
her.
"I don't repent! I can't repent! " cried the girl, in a burst of
sublime despair. She lifted her head, and in her face was de-
picted a sudden inspired strength. Her hair fell in disorder over
her shoulders. Never was there seen a more beautiful image of
a rebellious angel.
"What is this? Have you lost your senses? " said Doña
Perfecta, laying both hands on her daughter's shoulders.
"I am going away! I am going away! " said the girl with the
exaltation of delirium. And she sprang out of bed.
"Rosario, Rosario-my daughter! For God's sake, what is
―――
this? "
“Ah mamma, señora! " exclaimed the girl, embracing her
mother; "bind me fast! "
"In truth, you would deserve it. What madness is this? "
"Bind me fast! I am going away-I am going away with
him! "


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6168
BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS
"Has he told you to do so? has he counseled you to do that?
has he commanded you to do that? " asked the mother, launching
these words like thunderbolts against her daughter.
"He has counseled me to do it. We have agreed to be mar-
ried. We must be married, mamma, dear mamma. I will love
you I know that I ought to love you-I shall be forever lost if
I do not love you. "
"Rosario, Rosario! " cried Doña Perfecta in a terrible voice,
"rise! "
There was a short pause.
"This man - has he written to you? "
«Yes. "
"Have you seen him again since that night? "
"Yes. "
----
-
"And you have written to him? "
"I have written to him also. O señora! why do you look
at me in that way? You are not my mother. "
Rejoice in the harm you
"Would to God that I were not!
are doing me. You are killing me; you have given me my
death-blow! " cried Doña Perfecta, with indescribable agitation.
"You say that that man - "
"Is my husband- I
You are not a woman!
You make me tremble.
will be his wife, protected by the law.
Why do you look at me in that way ?
Mother, mother, do not condemn me! >>
"You have already condemned yourself - that is enough.
Answer me-when did you
Obey me, and I will forgive you.
receive letters from that man? "
"To-day. "
"What treachery! what infamy! " cried her mother, roaring
rather than speaking. "Had you appointed a meeting? »
"Yes. "
"When? "
"To-night. "
"Where? "
"Here, here! I will confess everything, everything! I know
it is a crime. I am a wretch; but you, my mother, will take me
out of this hell. Give your consent. Say one word to me, only
one word! »
"That man here in my house! " cried Doña Perfecta, spring-
ing back several paces from her daughter.
Rosario followed her on her knees.


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BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS
6169
At the same instant three blows were heard, three crashes,
three explosions. [Maria Remedios had spied upon Pepe Rey,
the lover; shown Caballuco, a brutal servant and ally, how to fol-
low him stealthily into the garden; and had then come to arouse
the house. ] It was the heart of Maria Remedios knocking at the
door through the knocker. The house trembled with an awful
dread. Mother and daughter stood as motionless as statues.
A servant went down-stairs to open the door, and shortly
afterward Maria Remedios, who was not now a woman but a
basilisk enveloped in a mantle, entered Doña Perfecta's room.
Her face, flushed with anxiety, exhaled fire.
"He is there, he is there," she said, as she entered.
« He
got into the garden through the condemned door. " She paused
for breath at every syllable.
"I know already," returned Doña Perfecta, with a sort of
bellow.
Rosario fell senseless to the floor.
"Let us go down-stairs," said Doña Perfecta, without paying
any attention to her daughter's swoon.
The two women glided down-stairs like two snakes. The
maids and the man-servant were in the hall, not knowing what
to do. Doña Perfecta passed through the dining-room into the
garden, followed by Maria Remedios.
"Fortunately we have Ca-Ca-Ca-balluco there," said the canon's
niece.
"Where? "
"In the garden, also. He cli-cli-climbed over the wall. "
Doña Perfecta explored the darkness with her wrathful eyes.
Rage gave them the singular power of seeing in the dark that is.
peculiar to the feline race.
"I see a figure there," she said. "It is going towards the
oleanders. "
"It is he," cried Remedios. "But there comes Ramos-
Ramos! " [Cristóbal Ramos, or "Cabulluco. "]
The colossal figure of the Centaur was plainly distinguishable.
"Towards the oleanders, Ramos! Towards the oleanders! "
Doña Perfecta took a few steps forward. Her hoarse voice,
vibrating with a terrible accent, hissed forth these words:-
"Cristobal, Cristobal,-kill him! "
A shot was heard. Then another.
Translation of Mary J. Serrano.


## p. 6170 (#140) ###########################################

6170
BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS
A FAMILY OF OFFICE-HOLDERS
Don Francisco de Bringas y Caballero had a second-class clerkship in
one of the most ancient of the royal bureaus. He belonged to a family which
had held just such offices for time out of mind. "Government employees were
his parents and his grandparents, and it is believed that his great-grand-
parents, and even the ancestors of these, served in one way and another in
the administration of the two worlds. " His wife Doña Rosalia Pipaon was
equally connected with the official class, and particularly with that which had
to do with the domestic service of the royal abodes. Thus, "on producing
her family tree, this was found to show not so much glorious deeds of war
and statesmanship as those humbler doings belonging to a long and intimate
association with the royal person. Her mother had been lady of the queen's
wardrobe, her uncle a halberdier of the royal guard, her grandfather keeper of
the buttery, other uncles at various removes, equerries, pages, dispatch-bearers,
huntsmen, and managers of the royal farm at Aranjuez, and so forth and so
For this dame there existed two things wholly Divine; namely,
heaven and that almost equally desirable dwelling-place for the elect which
we indicate by the mere laconic word 'the Palace. ' In the Palace were her
family history and her ideal; her aspiration was that Bringas might obtain a
superior post in the royal exchequer, and that then they should go and take
up their abode in one of the apartments of the second story of the great
mansion which were conceded to such tenants. " The above is from Tor-
mento. ' In the next succeeding novel, La de Bringas,' this aspiration is
gratified; the Bringas family are installed in the Palace, in the quarters as-
signed to the employees of the royal household. The efforts of two of their
acquaintances to find them, in the puzzling intricacies of the place, are thus
amusingly described.
on.
ABOVE-STAIRS IN A ROYAL PALACE
From La de Bringas'
TELL, this is about the way it was. We threw ourselves
W bravely into the interminable corridor, a veritable street,
or alley at least, paved with red tiles, feebly lighted with
gas jets, and full of doublings and twistings.
Now and then it
spread out into broad openings like little plazas, inundated with
sunlight which entered through large openings from the main
court-yard. This illumination penetrated lengthwise along the
white walls of the narrow passageways, alleys, or tunnels, or
whatever they may be called, growing ever feebler and more
uncertain as it went, till finally it fainted away entirely at sight
of the fan-shaped yellow gas flames, smoking little circlets upon
their protecting metal disks. There were uncounted paneled
doors with numbers on them, some newly painted and others


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BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS
6171
moldering and weather-stained, but not one displaying the figure
we were seeking. At this one you would see a rich silken bell
cord, some happy find in the royal upholstery shop, while the next
had nothing more than a poor frayed rope's-end; and these were
an indication of what was likely to be found within, as to order
and neatness or disarray and squalor. So, too, the mats or bits
of carpet laid before the doors threw a useful light upon the
character of the lodgings. We came upon vacant apartments
with cobwebs spun across the openings, and the door gratings
thick with dust, and through broken transoms, drew chill drafts
that conveyed the breath of silence and desolation. Even whole
precincts were abandoned, and the vaultings, of unequal height,
returned the sound of our footsteps hollowly to our ears. We
passed up one stairway, then down another, and then, as likely
as not, we would ascend again.
The labyrinthine maze
led us on and ever onward.
"It is useless to come here," at length said Pez, decidedly
losing patience, "without charts and a mariner's compass. I
suppose we are now in the south wing of the palace. The
roofs down there must be those of the Hall of Columns and the
outer stairway, are they not? What a huge mass of a place! "
The roofs of which he spoke were great pyramidal shapes pro-
tected with lead, and they covered in the ceilings on which
Bayeu's frescoed cherubs cut their lively pigeon-wings and pir-
ouettes.
Still going on and on and onward without pause, we found
ourselves shut up in a place without exit, a considerable inclosure
lighted from the top, and we had to turn round and beat a
retreat by the way we had entered. Any one who knows the
palace and its symmetrical grandeur only from without could
never divine all these irregularities that constitute a veritable
small town in its upper regions. In truth, for an entire century
there has been but one continual modifying of the original plan,
a stopping up here and an opening there, a condemning of stair-
cases, a widening of some rooms at the expense of others, a
changing of corridors into living-rooms and of living-rooms into
corridors, and a cutting through of partitions and a shutting up
of windows. You fall in with stairways that begin but never
arrive anywhere, and with balconies that are but the made-over
roof coverings of dwelling-places below. These dove-cotes were
once stately drawing-rooms, and on the other hand, these fine
salons have been made out of the inclosing space of a grand


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6172
BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS
staircase. Then again winding stairs are frequent; but if you
should take them, Heaven knows what would become of you; and
frequent, too, are glazed doors permanently closed, with naught
behind them but silence, dust, and darkness.
"We are looking for the apartment of Don Francisco Bringas. "
"Bringas? yes, yes," said an old woman; "you're close to it.
All you have got to do is, go down the first circular stairway you
come to, and then make a half-turn. Bringas? yes to be sure;
he's sacristan of the chapel. "
"Sacristan,―he? What is the matter with you? He is head
clerk of the Administrative Department. "
"Oh, then he must be lower down, just off the terrace. I
suppose you know your way to the fountain ? »
>>
"No, not we. "
"You know the stairs called the Cáceres Staircase ? "
"No, not that either. "
"At any rate, you know where the Oratory is? "
"We know nothing about it. "
"But the choir of the Oratory? but the dove-cotes? ».
Sum total, we had not the slightest acquaintance with any of
that congeries of winding turns, sudden tricks, and baffling sur-
prises. The architectural arrangement was a mad caprice, a mock-
ing jest at all plan and symmetry. Nevertheless, despite our
notable lack of experience we stuck to our quest, and even
carried our infatuation so far as to reject the services of a boy
who offered himself as our guide.
―
"We are now in the wing facing on the Plaza de Oriente,"
said Pez; "that is to say, at exactly the opposite extreme from
the wing in which our friend resides. " His geographical notions
were delivered with the gravity and conviction of some character
in Jules Verne. "Hence, the problem now demanding our atten-
tion is by what route to get from here to the western wing. In
the first place, the cupola of the chapel and the grand stairway
roof-covering furnish us with a certain basis; we should take our
bearings from them. I assume that, having once arrived in the
western wing, we shall be numskulls indeed if we do not strike
Bringas's abode. All the same, I for one will never return to
these outlandish regions without a pocket compass, and what is
more, without a good supply of provender too, against such
emergencies as this. "
Before striking out on the new stage of our explorations, as
thus projected, we paused to look down from the window. The


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BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS
6173
Plaza de Oriente lay below us in a beautiful panorama, and
beyond it a portion of Madrid crested with at least fifty cupolas,
steeples, and bell towers. The equestrian Philip IV. appeared a
mere toy, and the Royal Theatre a paltry shed.
The
doves had their nests far below where we stood, and we saw
them, by pairs or larger groups, plunge headlong downward into
the dizzy abyss, and then presently come whirling upward again,
with swift and graceful motion, and settle on the carved capitals
and moldings. It is credibly stated that all the political revolu-
tions do not matter a jot to these doves, and there is nothing
either in the ancient pile they inhabit or in the free realms of
air around it, to limit their sway. They remain undisputed mas-
ters of the place.
Away we go once more. Pez begins to put the geographical
notions he has acquired from the books of Jules Verne yet fur-
ther into practice. At every step he stops to say to me, "Now
we are making our way northward. -We shall undoubtedly soon
find a road or trail on our right, leading to the west. - There is
no cause to be alarmed in descending this winding stairway to
the second story. -Good, it is done! Well, bless me! where are
we now? I don't see the main dome any longer, not so much as
a lightning-rod of it. We are in the realms of the feebly flicker-
ing gas once more. Suppose we ascend again by this other
stairway luckily just at hand. What now? Well, here we are
back again in the eastward wing and nothing else, just where we
were before. Are we? no, yes; see, down there in the court the
big dome is still on our right. There's a regular grove of chim-
ney stacks.
You may believe it or not, but this sort of thing
begins to make my head swim; it seems as if the whole place
gave a lurch now and then, like a ship at sea. The fountain
must be over that way, do you see? for the maids are coming
and going from there with their pitchers. -Oh well, I for one
give the whole thing up. We want a guide, and an expert; or
we'll never get out of this. I can't take another step; we've
walked miles and I can't stand on my legs. - Hey, there, halloo!
send us a guide! - Oh for a guide! Get me out of this infernal
tangle quickly! "
―――
―
-
We came at last to Bringas's apartment. When we got there,
we understood how we must have passed it, earlier, without
knowing it, for its number was quite rubbed out and invisible.
Translation of William Henry Bishop.


## p. 6174 (#144) ###########################################

6174
tal.
FRANCIS GALTON
(1822-)
HE modern doctrine of heredity regards man less as an indi-
vidual than as a link in a series, involuntarily inheriting and
transmitting a number of peculiarities, physical and men-
The general acceptance of this doctrine would necessitate a
modification of popular ethical conceptions, and consequently of social
conditions. Except Darwin, probably no one has done so much to
place the doctrine on a scientific basis as Francis Galton, whose brill-
iant researches have sought to establish the hereditary nature of
psychical as well as physical qualities.
Mr. Galton first took up the subject of the transmissibility of intel-
lectual gifts in his 'Hereditary Genius' (1869). An examination of
the relationships of the judges of England for a period of two hun-
dred years, of the statesmen of the time of George III. , of the pre-
miers of the last one hundred years, and of a certain selection of
divines and modern scholars, together with the kindred of the most
illustrious commanders, men of letters and science, poets, painters,
and musicians of all times and nations, resulted in his conclusion that
man's mental abilities are derived by inheritance under exactly the
same limitations as are the forms and features of the whole organic
world. Mr. Galton argued that, as it is practicable to produce a highly
gifted race of men by judicious marriages during several consccu-
tive generations, the State ought to encourage by dowries and other
artificial means such marriages as make for the elevation of the race.
Having set forth the hereditary nature of general intellectual
ability, he attempts to discover what particular qualities commonly
combine to form genius, and whether they also are transmissible.
'English Men of Science: Their Nature and Nurture' (1874) was a
summary of the results obtained from inquiries addressed to the most
eminent scientific men of England, respecting the circumstances of
heredity and environment which might have been influential in direct-
ing them toward their careers. One hundred and eighty persons were
questioned. From the replies it appeared that in the order of their
prevalence, the chief qualities that commonly unite to form scientific
genius are energy both of body and mind; good health; great inde-
pendence of character; tenacity of purpose; practical business habits;
and strong innate tastes for science generally, or for some branch of


## p. 6175 (#145) ###########################################

FRANCIS GALTON
6175
it. The replies indicated the hereditary character of the qualities in
question, showing incidentally that in the matter of heredity the
influence of the father is greater than that of the mother. It would
have been interesting to have had the results of similar inquiries in
the case of other classes of eminent persons,-statesmen, lawyers,
poets, divines, etc. However, it is problematical whether other
classes would have entered so heartily into the spirit of the inquiry,
and given such full and frank replies.
Large variation in individuals from their parents is, he argues, not
only not incompatible with the strict doctrine of heredity, but is a
consequence of it wherever the breed is impure. Likewise, abnormal
attributes of individual parents are less transmissible than the gen-
eral characteristics of the family. Both these influences operate to
deprive the science of heredity of the certainty of prediction in indi-
vidual cases. The latter influence-i. e. , the law of reversion - is
made the subject of a separate inquiry in the volume entitled
'Natural Inheritance' (1889).
In 'Inquiries into the Human Faculty and its Development (1883),
he described a method of accurately measuring mental processes,
such as sensation, volition, the formation of elementary judgments,
and the estimation of numbers; suggested composite photography as
a means of studying the physiognomy of criminal and other classes;
treated the subject of heredity in crime; and discussed the mental
process of visualizing.
'Finger Prints' (1892) is a study from the point of view of he-
redity of the patterns observed in the skin of finger-tips. These
patterns are not only hereditary, but also furnish a certain means of
identification - - an idea improved in Mark Twain's story of Pudd'n-
head Wilson. '
Mr. Galton is himself an example of the heredity of genius, being
a grandson of Erasmus Darwin, the author of 'Zoönomia,' and a
cousin of Charles Darwin. Born near Birmingham in 1822, he studied
some time at Birmingham Hospital and at King's College, London,
with the intention of entering the medical profession; but abandoned
this design, and was graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in
1844. He soon after made two journeys of exploration in Africa, the
latter of which is described in his 'Narrative of an Explorer in South
Africa (1853). An indirect result of these journeys was 'The Art of
Travel; or Shifts and Contrivances in Wild Countries' (1855).
'Meteorographica' (1863) is noteworthy as the first attempt ever
made to represent in charts on a large scale the progress of the
weather, and on account of the theory of anti-cyclones which Mr.
Galton advances in it.
Although strictly scientific in aim and method, Mr. Galton's writ-
ings, particularly those on heredity, appeal to all classes of readers


## p. 6176 (#146) ###########################################

6176
FRANCIS GALTON
and possess a distinct literary value. One may admire in them sim-
plicity and purity of diction, animation of style, fertility in the con-
struction of theory, resourcefulness in the search for proof, and a
fine enthusiasm for the subject under consideration.
THE COMPARATIVE WORTH OF DIFFERENT RACES
From Hereditary Genius
Ε
VERY long-established race has necessarily its peculiar fitness
for the conditions under which it has lived, owing to the
sure operation of Darwin's law of natural selection. How-
ever, I am not much concerned for the present with the greater
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. Intel-
ligence 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 hun-
dreds 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 gener-
ally, 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 justi-
fied in making considerable use of it, as I will do in the esti-
mates I am about to give.


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FRANCIS GALTON
6177
In comparing the worth of different races, I shall make fre-
quent 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 defiance of analogy if the variability of all races
were precisely the same; but on the other hand, there is good
reason to expect that the error introduced by the assumption
cannot sensibly affect the off-hand results for which alone I
propose to employ it; moreover, the rough data I shall adduce
will go far to show the justice of this expectation.
Let us then compare the negro race with the Anglo-Saxon,
with respect to those qualities alone which are capable of produ-
cing judges, statesmen, commanders, men of literature and science,
poets, artists, and divines. If the negro race in America had
been affected by no social disabilities, a comparison of their
achievements with those of the whites in their several branches
of intellectual effort, having regard to the total number of their
respective populations, would give the necessary information. As
matters stand, we must be content with much rougher data.
First, the negro race has occasionally, but very rarely, pro-
duced such men as Toussaint L'Ouverture.
Secondly, the negro race is by no means wholly deficient in
men capable of becoming good factors, thriving merchants, and
otherwise considerably raised above the average of whites.
Thirdly, we may compare, but with much caution, the relative
position of negroes in their native country with that of the trav-
elers who visit them. The latter no doubt bring with them the
knowledge current in civilized lands, but that is an advantage of
less importance than we are apt to suppose. The native chief
has as good an education in the art of ruling men as can be de-
sired; he is continually exercised in personal government, and
usually maintains his place by the ascendency of his character,
shown every day over his subjects and rivals. A traveler in wild
countries also fills to a certain degree the position of a com-
mander, and has to confront native chiefs at every inhabited.
place. The result is familiar enough—the white traveler almost
XI-387


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6178
FRANCIS GALTON
invariably holds his own in their presence.
It is seldom that we
hear of a white traveler meeting with a black chief whom he
feels to be the better man. I have often discussed this subject
with competent persons, and can only recall a few cases of the
inferiority of the white man,- certainly not more than might be
ascribed to an average actual difference of three grades, of which
one may be due to the relative demerits of native education, and
the remaining two to a difference in natural gifts.
Fourthly, the number among the negroes of those whom we
should call half-witted men is very large. Every book alluding
to negro servants in America is full of instances. I was myself
much impressed by this fact during my travels in Africa. The
mistakes the negroes made in their own matters were so childish,
stupid, and simpleton-like as frequently to make me ashamed of
my own species. I do not think it any exaggeration to say that
their is as low as our e, which would be a difference of two
grades, as before. I have no information as to actual idiocy
among the negroes—I mean, of course, of that class of idiocy
which is not due to disease.
The Australian type is at least one grade below the African
negro. I possess a few serviceable data about the natural capa-
city of the Australian, but not sufficient to induce me to invite
the reader to consider them.
The average standard of the Lowland Scotch and the English
North Country men is decidedly a fraction of a grade superior to
that of the ordinary English, because the number of the former
who attain to eminence is far greater than the proportionate
number of their race would have led us to expect. The same
superiority is distinctly shown by a comparison of the well-being
of the masses of the population; for the Scotch laborer is much
less of a drudge than the Englishman of the Midland counties -
he does his work better, and "lives his life" besides.
The peas-
ant women of Northumberland work all day in the fields, and
are not broken down by the work; on contrary, they take a
pride in their effective labor as girls, and when married they
attend well to the comfort of their homes. It is perfectly dis-
tressing to me to witness the draggled, drudged, mean look of
the mass of individuals, especially of the women, that one meets
in the streets of London and other purely English towns. The
conditions of their life seem too hard for their constitutions, and
to be crushing them into degeneracy.


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FRANCIS GALTON
6179
The ablest race of whom history bears record is unquestion-
ably the ancient Greek, partly because their masterpieces in the
principal departments of intellectual activity are still unsur-
passed and in many respects unequaled, and partly because the
population that gave birth to the creators of those masterpieces
was very small. Of the various Greek sub-races, that of Attica
was the ablest, and she was no doubt largely indebted to the fol-
lowing cause for her superiority: Athens opened her arms to
immigrants, but not indiscriminately, for her social life was such
that none but very able men could take any pleasure in it; on the
other hand, she offered attractions such as men of the highest
ability and culture could find in no other city. Thus by a sys-
tem of partly unconscious selection she built up a magnificent
breed of human animals, which in the space of one century-
viz. , between 530 and 430 B. C. -produced the following illus-
trious persons, fourteen in number:-
Statesmen and Commanders. - Themistocles (mother an alien),
Miltiades, Aristides, Cimon (son of Miltiades), Pericles (son of
Xanthippus, the victor at Mycale).
Literary and Scientific Men. — Thucydides, Socrates, Xenophon,
Plato.
Poets. Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes.
Sculptor. - Phidias.
We are able to make a closely approximate estimate of the pop-
ulation that produced these men, because the number of the in-
habitants of Attica has been a matter of frequent inquiry, and
critics appear at length to be quite agreed in the general results.
The average ability of the Athenian race is, on the lowest
possible estimate, very nearly two grades higher than our own—
that is, about as much as our race is above that of the African
negro. This estimate, which may seem prodigious to some, is
confirmed by the quick intelligence and high culture of the Athe-
nian commonalty, before whom literary works were recited, and
works of art exhibited, of a far more severe character than could
possibly be appreciated by the average of our race, the calibre of
whose intellect is easily gauged by a glance at the contents of a
railway book-stall.
We know, and may guess something more, of the reason why
this marvelously gifted race declined. Social morality grew ex-
ceedingly lax; marriage became unfashionable, and was avoided;
many of the
more ambitious and accomplished women were


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6180
FRANCIS GALTON
In a
avowed courtesans and consequently infertile, and the mothers of
the incoming population were of a heterogeneous class.
small sea-bordered country, where emigration and immigration are
constantly going on, and where the manners are as dissolute as
were those of Greece in the period of which I speak, the purity of
a race would necessarily fail. It can be therefore no surprise to
us, though it has been a severe misfortune to humanity, that the
high Athenian breed decayed and disappeared; for if it had main-
tained its excellence, and had multiplied and spread over large
countries, displacing inferior populations (which it well might
have done, for it was exceedingly prolific), it would assuredly
have accomplished results advantageous to human civilization, to
a degree that transcends our powers of imagination.
If we could raise the average standard of our race only one
grade, what vast changes would be produced! The number of men
of natural gifts equal to those of the eminent men of the present
day would be necessarily increased more than tenfold;
but far more important to the progress of civilization would be
the increase in the yet higher orders of intellect. We know how
intimately the course of events is dependent on the thoughts of a
few illustrious men. If the first-rate men in the different groups
had never been born, even if those among them who have a place
in my appendices on account of their hereditary gifts had never
existed, the world would be very different to what it is.
·
It seems to me most essential to the well-being of future
generations, that the average standard of ability of the present
time should be raised. Civilization is a new condition imposed
upon man by the course of events, just as in the history of geo-
logical changes new conditions have continually been imposed on
different races of animals. They have had the effect either of
modifying the nature of the races through the process of natural
selection, whenever the changes were sufficiently slow and the
race sufficiently pliant, or of destroying them altogether, when
the changes were too abrupt or the race unyielding. The num-
ber of the races of mankind that have been entirely destroyed
under the pressure of the requirements of an incoming civiliza-
tion, reads us a terrible lesson. Probably in no former period of
the world has the destruction of the races of any animal what-
ever been effected over such wide areas, and with such startling
rapidity, as in the case of savage man. In the North-American
continent, in the West-Indian islands, in the Cape of Good Hope,


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FRANCIS GALTON
6181
in Australia, New Zealand, and Van Diemen's Land, the human
denizens of vast regions have been entirely swept away in the
short space of three centuries, less by the pressure of a stronger
race than through the influence of a civilization they were inca-
pable of supporting. And we too, the foremost laborers in creat-
ing this civilization, are beginning to show ourselves incapable of
keeping pace with our own work. The needs of centralization,
communication, and culture, call for more brains and mental
stamina than the average of our race possess.