CONCLUSION.—Seven different subjects have now been touched upon. They
are monogamy, endogamy, exogamy, Australian marriages, taboo, prohibited
degrees and celibacy. It has been shown under each of these heads how
powerful are the various combinations of immaterial motives upon
marriage selection, how they may all become hallowed by religion,
accepted as custom and enforced by law. Persons who are born under their
various rules live under them without any objection. They are
unconscious of their restrictions, as we are unaware of the tension of
the atmosphere. The subservience of civilised races to their several
religious superstitions, customs, authority, and the rest, is frequently
as abject as that of barbarians. The same classes of motives that direct
other races, direct ours, so a knowledge of their customs helps us to
realise the wide range of what we may ourselves hereafter adopt, for
reasons that will be as satisfactory to us in those future times, as
theirs are or were to them, at the time when they prevailed.
Reference has frequently been made to the probability of Eugenics
hereafter receiving the sanction of religion. It may be asked, “how can
it be shown that Eugenics fall within the purview of our own.” It
cannot, any more than the duty of making provision for the future needs
of oneself and family, which is a cardinal feature of modern
civilization, can be deduced from the Sermon on the Mount. Religious
precepts, founded on the ethics and practice of olden days, require to
be reinterpreted to make them conform to the needs of progressive
nations. Ours are already so far behind modern requirements that much of
our practice and our profession cannot be reconciled without
illegitimate casuistry. It seems to me that few things are more needed
by us in England than a revision of our religion, to adapt it to the
intelligence and needs of the present time. A form of it is wanted that
shall be founded on reasonable bases and enforced by reasonable hopes
and fears, and that preaches honest morals in unambiguous language,
which good men who take their part in the work of the world, and who
know the dangers of sentimentalism, may pursue without reservation.
STUDIES IN NATIONAL EUGENICS[5]
It was stated in the _Times_, January, 26, 1905, that at a meeting of
the Senate of the University of London, Mr. Edgar Schuster, M.A., of New
College, Oxford, was appointed to the Francis Galton Research Fellowship
in National Eugenics. “Mr. Schuster will in particular carry out
investigations into the history of classes and families, and deliver
lectures and publish memoirs on the subjects of his investigations.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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