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.
_Modern Philanthropic Effort._
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.
_Are these conducive to Racial as well as to Individual Well-being?_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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