Each individual is not only figuratively, but in a
very literal sense, the carrier of the heritage of the whole race--of
the whole past, indeed. Each individual is temporarily the custodian of
part of the "stuff of life"; from an evolutionary point of view, he may
be said to have been brought into existence, primarily to pass this
sacred heritage on to the next generation. From Nature's standpoint, he
is of little use in the world, his existence is scarcely justified,
unless he faithfully discharges this trust, passing on to the future
the "Lamp of Life" whose fire he has been created to guard for a short
while.
Immortality, we may point out in passing, is thus no mere _hope_ to the
parent: it is a _real possibility_. The death of the huge agglomeration
of highly specialized body-cells is a matter of little consequence, if
the germ-plasm, with its power to reproduce not only these body-cells,
but the mental traits--indeed, we may in a sense say the very soul--that
inhabited them, has been passed on. The individual continues to live, in
his offspring, just as the past lives in him. To the eugenist, life
everlasting is something more than a figure of speech or a theological
concept--it is as much a reality as the beat of the heart, the growth of
muscles or the activity of the mind.
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