this same lecture {32b} Galton sums up the stages in the development
of eugenics. (1) "It must be made familiar as an academic question."
(2) As a practical subject worthy of serious consideration. (3) It must
be "introduced into the national conscience, like a new religion." He
recapitulates in an eloquent phrase: "It has, indeed, strong claims to
become an orthodox religious tenet of the future, for Eugenics cooperates
with the workings of Nature, by securing that humanity shall be
represented by the fittest races. What Nature does blindly, slowly, and
ruthlessly, man may do providently, quickly, and kindly."

Here we see the future of eugenics marked out for us, and the last
sentence might well serve as a motto for this Society. How are we to
work for the cause?

It is true that our opinions are formed by the daily papers, and our
actions as a nation are determined by political parties which come and go
largely by chance. But however our opinions originate, if they are
strongly and persistently urged by a large majority of Englishmen, great
changes in the manner of human life may be effected. Persistence is the
great thing in all reforms: in the words of my father's favourite
quotation--"It's dogged as does it." Francis Galton has been temperately
persistent in a marked degree. His caution and wisdom are illustrated by
the dates of his writings on eugenics and heredity, which placed in order
suggest a regiment relentlessly advancing, not a bunch of heroes rushing
on a breach:--

Two papers in 'Macmillan's Magazine' 1865
Hereditary Genius 1869
'Fraser's Magazine' 1873
Human Faculty (word 'Eugenics' first employed) 1884
Natural Inheritance 1889
Huxley Lecture 1901
Sociological Society Papers 1905
`Memories 1908

His temperate advance is all the more striking when we remember the fiery
impatience with which in _Hereditary Genius_ he spoke of the harm done by
the Church in ordaining that the intellectuals, the literary, and the
sensitive should be celibates, and of the wholesale slaughter by the Holy
Inquisition of the courageous and clear minded who dared to think for
themselves.

From the first he had the support of Charles Darwin, who never wavered in
his admiration of Galton's purpose, th