Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-21

kind It will naturally be said that
the only way Of controlling all such
characteristics Is controlling all Sucn
parents.
The idea is already being talked of
everywhere, exactly as other coerclve
ideas were talked of before they became
law And it would be a hitting illus
tration of the clarity and consistency
of these scientific fashions II the mod
ern movement which began by talking
of free love should end by establishing
forced marriage.
Now. let us take this one example OF
heredity for the sake of argument
There are half dozen totally 1ncom-
patible theories Of heredity. ara each IN
turn. or possibly all at once. would be
the basis of the laws of eugenics. Some
years ago Mr.. Blatchford conducted
propaganda of popular science based on
the conjectures Of Haeckel. There he
redity was simplified by the simile that
the father was like jar full OF RED
beads and the mother jar full OF
white beads and the children were little
Jars full Of mingled red beads and white.
This was something OF an oversimplin-
cation. for a baby does not generally
have papa and mamma scattered all
over him in separate spots, like q sort
of leopard. Even by this theory the
qualities must surely be merged. and it
would be truer to call the baby q jar
full Of pink beads.
But there is another and later theory
of heredity which denies that the colors
are merged at all. or even that the beads
are mixed at all. According to this
theory, one of the little jars will have
practically nothing but red beads, while
another will have practically nothing
but white. In other words, this newer
hypothesis holds that black cat and
white cat will produce some black
kittens and some white kittens, ana
practically no gray kittens.
Now, it is impossible to imagine any
thing more practical, anything less
purely scientific and academic, than
the difference between the first he
redity theory and the second heredity
theory, or whatever may be the third
heredity theory that will be propounded
next. It is wildly obvious that it in
wolves the whole question Of what will
be the probable result Of any doubtful
or disputed marriage. It makes all the
difference in the world whether two
differing partners will modify each other
or merely reproduce each other. By the
time we have the whole complex new
society constructed and working on the
first eugenics theory the whole scientific
world will be full Of the second eugenic
GneOIY ana WI1cu dll SOClcby Alo&S 0CCh
strapped and replaced both will be ex-
ploded by the third theory.
Always Entirely Wrong.
How any human being can trust his
reason to something that Is at once
always infallible and always found out,
cannot for the life Of me imagine. BY
this view we are always entirely wrong
when we are making anything and only
relatively right when we unmake all
that we have made. A Phillip who Is
eternally drunk Is always vainly appeal
ing to q Philip who will never be sober.
The conclusion OF common sense Is
that whatever else 1t may be founded on,
a civilization ought not to be founded
on science. It would be truer stu 70
say that civilization cannot be found
ed on science any more than city can
be founded on the sea. This is not to
say that the sea Is not, in its place,
bracing and beautiful and fascinating
thing. The real fascination OF science,
as science, actually consists In this mu-
liability which makes 1t sterile 1or tne
purpose of morality.
THE abstract adventure Of science, the
purely intellectual passion Of putting
two and two together without knowing
what will come next, for picking up
clues, for splitting hairs, for finding the
fine shades and seeing suggestion grow
and change with touch after touch OF
modification-all this Is certainly great
and glorious thing, If it be only great
and glorious game. In this sense, In
deed, science ought to have freedom:
nay. science ought to have sort OF
frivolity.
Science, like art, is one Of the noblest
Of the toys that preserve the childhood
of the world. Science, like art can be
perfect in its very uselessness. But
when we wish to build. we must build
upon much deeper and more enduring
foundations, and ultimately upon invisi-
BILE foundations. And this is what they
meant who said of old time that unless
the Lord build their city their labor is
but lost that built 1t: for their labor
consists chiefly of pulling it down again.