t improve the
inborn qualities of a race; also with those that develop them to the
utmost advantage.

What is meant by improvement? There is considerable difference between
goodness in the several qualities and in that of the character as a
whole. The character depends largely on the _proportion_ between
qualities whose balance may be much influenced by education. We must
therefore leave morals as far as possible out of the discussion, not
entangling ourselves with the almost hopeless difficulties they raise as
to whether a character as a whole is good or bad. Moreover, the goodness
or badness of character is not absolute, but relative to the current
form of civilisation. A fable will best explain what is meant. Let the
scene be the Zoological Gardens in the quiet hours of the night, and
suppose that, as in old fables, the animals are able to converse, and
that some very wise creature who had easy access to all the cages, say a
philosophic sparrow or rat, was engaged in collecting the opinions of
all sorts of animals with a view of elaborating a system of absolute
morality. It is needless to enlarge on the contrariety of ideals between
the beasts that prey and those they prey upon, between those of the
animals that have to work hard for their food and the sedentary
parasites that cling to their bodies and suck their blood and so forth.
A large number of suffrages in favour of maternal affection would be
obtained, but most species of fish would repudiate it, while among the
voices of birds would be heard the musical protest of the cuckoo. Though
no agreement could be reached as to absolute morality, the essentials of
Eugenics may be easily defined. All creatures would agree that it was
better to be healthy than sick, vigorous than weak, well fitted than ill
fitted for their part in life. In short, that it was better to be good
rather than bad specimens of their kind, whatever that kind might be. So
with men. There are a vast number of conflicting ideals of alternative
characters, of incompatible civilisations; but all are wanted to give
fulness and interest to life. Society would be very dull if every man
resembled the highly estimable Marcus Aurelius or Adam Bede. The aim of
Eugenics is to represent each class or sect by its best specimens; that
done, to leave them to work out their common civilisation in their own
way.

The aim of Eugenics is to bring as many influences as can be reasonably
employed, to cause the use