WOMAN THE REGENERATOR.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1902, 10 November 1913, Page 2

WOMAN THE REGENERATOR.

FAMOUS SCIENTIST'S VIEW, Dr.. Alfred Russell Wallace, whose death lias just been recorded by cable, has advanced tho original theory of moral progress through a new form of sexual selection made possible only by tho economic-, and social freedom of women. Free selection .in marriage ruado possible by. her independence is a form of selection far preferable to eugenics, he has stated. There are those- who would. probably object that women could not bo counted upon so te advance the morals of'the race. No one has a right to malM swell a stafcomejit, says Dr. Wallace, without adducing very strong evidence in support. of it! H<> continues: "Wo have for generations degraded womoii in every possible way: but wo now know that such degradation is not hereditary, and therefore* not permanent. The great philosopher' a-ucV seer,. S'wedunborg, declared that!'whereas men loved justice, wisdom anu power for thfiir'owji Sakes, Women loved thorn as Seen in tho characters of men. It is generally admitted that there • is truth.in this observation; but thfire Is surely still moro truth.in i-ho converse, that they do iiot atlmiro those who are palpably unjust, stupid, or weak, and still less those who are distorted, • diseased, or grossly vicious, though under presettb conditions they arO often driven to marry them. It may be taken as ■ certain, therefore, that wh<&n women aro economically and socially free to choose, numbers 'of tho worst ■ men among all classes who caw readily obtain wives will be almost universally rejected," Tlia Weeding Out. . This mode of moral improvement by. elimination of tho less desirable ha® many advantages. Dr. Wallace mainover that tif Securing eugenic marriages of the moro adniifed. "What wo most retire is to improve the. average of our population hy rejecting its lower types rather than by raising tho advanced types a littlo higher. Great and good moil are always produced in sufficient numbers and have always been so produced in every phase of civilisation. We do not nefid moro of these so much as we Want a diminution of the weaker and less advanced types. ■ This weeding-out process lraa been the. method of natural selection, by which the ivliolo_ of the glorious vegetable and animal kingdoms have besr. developed and advanced. The siirviral of tho fittest , is-really tho extinction of tho unfit; and it is the onfe brilliant ray of hope for humanity that, just as we advance in the reform <>f our present cruel and-disastrous-social system, we shall set free a power of solection- in marriage that will -steadily and certainly improve the-character, as weit as the strength and tho beauty, of our race."

Dr. Wallace hopes and believes that the women of the. futuro will prove equal 1 to their high task of human regeneration. Ho writes in 'conclusion: "The' 'cortaiftty that this powerful, soleotivo agency Will come into existence just in proportion as we reform our existing social, system by the abolition of poverty iind the establishment of full equality of opportunity in education and economic position, demonstrates that Nature-—or tlio ■ tJnivorsal Mind—has jio't failed er bunglodvotiri.world .so-com-I>3oto.ly as to require the weak and ignorant efforts of the eugenistit to set it right, while- loaving tho great fundamental cause.s-of,. existing social evils absolutely untouched." . ' .