ESSAYS
IN
@ EUGENICS. &
BY
SIR FRANCIS GALTON, F.RS.
London:
THE EUGENICS EDUCATION SOCIETY.
1909.PREFACE.
The following Essays are re-printed in
the chronological order of their delivery.
They will, therefore, help to show something
of the progress of Eugenics during the last
few years, and to explain my own views upon
its aims and methods, which often have been,
and still sometimes are, absurdly misrepre-
sented. The practice of Eugenics has already
obtained a considerable hold on popular
estimation, and is steadily acquiring the status
of a practical question, and not that of a
mere vision in Utopia.
The power by which Eugenic reform
must chiefly be effected, is that of Popular
Opinion, which is amply strong enough for
that purpose whenever it shall be. roused.
Public Opinion has done as much as this on
many past occasions and in various countries,
of which much evidence is given in the Essay
on Restrictions in Marriage. It is now order-
ing our acts more intimately than we are apt
to suspect, because the dictates of Public
Opinion become so thoroughly assimilated
that they seem to be original and individualPREFACE.
to those who are guided by them. By com-
paring the current ideas at widely different
epochs and under widely different civilizations
we are able to ascertain what part of our con-
victions is really innate and permanent, and
what part has been acquired and is transient.
It is above all things needful for the
successful progress of Eugenics that its
advocates should move discreetly and claim
no more efficacy on its behalf than the future
will confirm ; otherwise a re-action will be
invited. A great deal of investigation is
still needed to shew the limit of practical
Eugenics, yet enough has been already
determined to justify large efforts to instruct
the public in an authoritative way, as to the
results hitherto obtained by sound reasoning,
applied to the undoubted facts of social
experience.
My best thanks are due to the Editor of
Nature, to the Council of the Sociological
Society, and to the Clarendon Press of
Oxford, for permission to reprint those among
the following essays that first appeared in
their Publications.
Francis Gatton.