Some students insist that the level of intellectual capacity has been raised, yet Galton, after a careful survey of the field, concludes in his _Hereditary Genius_ that the average citizen of Athens was at least two degrees higher in the scale of intellectual attainment than the average Englishman; Carl Snyder[4] boldly maintains that the intellectual ability of scientific men is less to-day than it was in past centuries; while Mrs. Martin,[5] in a study more novel than scientific, insists that the genius of the modern world is on a level distinctly below that of the genius of Greece.
Perhaps American commercial aggressiveness is equal to the military aggressiveness of the Romans, the early Germans, and the followers of Attila. We have concentrated most of our efforts upon industry, yet even here, our concentration is no greater than that of the poets of the Elizabethan era, or the religious zealots of the Middle Ages. Our sympathy with beauty is at so low an ebb that we fail even to approach the standard of past ages. Neither in art, in sculpture, nor in poetry do our achievements compare with those of the earlier Mediterranean civilizations; while our knowledge of men as revealed in our literature is not above that of the Romans or the Athenians. As for vision, we still accept and strive to fulfill the commandments of the Prophet of Nazareth. In all of these fields, twentieth century America is equaled, if not outdone by the past.
Thus the distinctive qualities of the Super Man appear in the past with an intensity equal if not superior to that of the present. History records the transmutation of vegetable and animal species, the revolution of industry, the modification of social institutions, and the transformation of governmental systems; but in all historic time, it affirms no perceptible improvement in the qualities of man. "We must replace the man by the Super Man," writes G. Bernard Shaw.[6] "It is frightful for the citizen, as the years pass him, to see his own contemporaries so exactly reproduced by the younger generation."
Nevertheless, the possibility of race improvement exists. "What now characterizes the exceptionally high may be expected eventually to characterize all, for that which the best human nature is capable of is within the reach of human nature at large."[7] After years of intensive study, Spencer thus confidently expressed himself. Since he ceased to work, each bit of scientific data along eugenic lines serves to confirm his opinion. Armed with such a belief and with the assurance which scientific research has afforded, we are preparing in this eleventh hour to fulfill Spencer's predictions.