individuals been intentionally picked out and matched, except in the
well-known case of the Prussian grenadiers; and in this case man
obeyed, as might have been expected, the law of methodical selection;
for it is asserted that many tall men were reared in the villages
inhabited by the grenadiers and their tall wives. In Sparta, also, a
form of selection was followed, for it was enacted that all children
should be examined shortly after birth; the well-formed and vigorous
being preserved, the others left to perish. (13. Mitford s History of
Greece, vol. i. p. 282. It appears also from a passage in Xenophon s
Memorabilia, B. ii. 4 (to which my attention has been called by the
Rev. J.N. Hoare), that it was a well recognised principle with the
Greeks, that men ought to select their wives with a view to the health
and vigour of their children. The Grecian poet, Theognis, who lived 550
B.C., clearly saw how important selection, if carefully applied, would
be for the improvement of mankind. He saw, likewise, that wealth often
checks the proper action of sexual selection. He thus writes:
With kine and horses, Kurnus! we proceed
By reasonable rules, and choose a breed
For profit and increase, at any price:
Of a sound stock, without defect or vice.
But, in the daily matches that we make,
The price is everything: for money s sake,
Men marry: women are in marriage given
The churl or ruffian, that in wealth has thriven,
May match his offspring with the proudest race:
Thus everything is mix d, noble and base!
If then in outward manner, form, and mind,
You find us a degraded, motley kind,
Wonder no more, my friend! the cause is plain,
And to lament the consequence is vain.
(The Works of J. Hookham Frere, vol. ii. 1872, p. 334.))
If we consider all the races of man as forming a single species, his
range is enormous; but some separate races, as the Americans and
Polynesians, have very wide ranges. It is a well-known law that
widely-ranging species are much more variable than species with
restricted ranges; and the variability of man may with more truth be
compared with that of widely-ranging species, than with that of
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