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Contents
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Polynesia; ancient Syria. Sacred animals; menageries and shows in
amphitheatres; instances in ancient Egypt; Assyria; Rome; Mexico; Peru;
Syria and Greece. Domestication is only possible when the species has
certain natural faculties, viz.—great hardiness; fondness for man; desire of
comfort; usefulness to man; fertility; being easy to tend. Habitual selection of
the tamest to breed from. Exceptions; summary.
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194
Steady improvement in the birthright of successive generations; our
Ignorance of the origin and purport of all existence; of the outcome of life on
this earth; of the conditions of consciousness; slow progress of evolution and
its system of ruthless routine; man is the heir of long bygone ages; has great
power in expediting the course of evolution; he might render its progress
slow and painful; does not yet understand that it may be his part to do so.
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Difference between the best specimens of a poor race and the mediocre ones
of a high race; typical centres to which races tend to revert; delicacy of
highly-bred animals; their diminished fertility; the misery of rigorous
selection; it is preferable to replace poor races by better ones; strains of
emigrant blood; of exiles.
200
Conquest, migrations, etc; sentiment against extinguishing races; is partly
unreasonable; the so-called “aborigines”; on the variety and number of
different races inhabiting the same country; as in Spain; history of the Moors;
Gypsies; the races in Damara Land; their recent changes; races in Siberia;
Africa; America; West Indies; Australia and New Zealand; wide diffusion of
Arabs and Chinese; power of man to shape future humanity.
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Over-population; Malthus—the danger of applying his prudential check; his
originality; his phrase of misery check is in many cases too severe; decaying
races and the cause of decay.
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Estimate of their relative effects on a population in a few generations;
example.
