SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not buts reserved for review in other forma]
Social Environment and Moral Progress. By Alfred Russell Wallace, O.M. (Cassell and Co. 3s. 6d. net.)—The main theme of the first half of Dr. Wallace's book is to show how little moral progress has been made in the world up to now. The second half is intended to suggest the means by which this progress will be achieved in the future. Holding that acquired characteristics cannot be transmitted, Dr. Wallace is driven to infer that no amount of education of the individual will improve the morals of the race. The only method by which this result can be arrived at is, according to him, the method by which improvements in physical characteristics are made, namely, by some sort of selec- tion. He is, however, strongly opposed to any artificial methods of selection—to race improvement by Act of Parliament. On the contrary he prophesies that this selection will come to be put into force by a natural process akin to what Darwin called "sexual selection" among animals. With the improvement in physical conditions now proceeding, and with the consequent , reduction of infantile mortality, Dr. Wallace anticipates that the excess of females over males will disappear. This, be holds, together with a greater economic independence of women, will give to women "free choice in marriage" and "the power of rejecting all the
lower types of character among their suitors." Women will in this way act as an automatic selective agency, and thus, Dr. Wallace concludes, the moral regeneration of the race will be compassed. We cannot here raise tho many obvious difficulties by which this theory can be met, and must content ourselves with drawing attention to its interest.
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