No family can maintain its
eugenic rank merely by the power of inertia. Every marriage that a
member of the family makes is a matter of vital concern to the future of
the family: and this is one of the lessons which a broad science of
genealogy should inculcate in every youth.
Is it practicable to direct genealogy on this slightly different line?
As to that, the genealogist must decide. These are the qualifications
which old Professor William Chauncey Fowler laid down as essential for a
successful genealogist:
Love of kindred.
Love of investigation.
Active imagination.
Sound and disciplined judgment.
Conscientious regard to truth.
A pleasing style as a writer.
With such qualifications, one can go far, and it would seem that one who
possesses them has only to fix his attention upon the biological aspect
of genealogy, to become convinced that his science is only part of a
science, as long as it ignores eugenics. After all, nothing more is
necessary than a slight change in the point of view; and if genealogists
can adopt this new point of view, can add to their equipment some
familiarity with the fundamental principles of biology as they apply to
man and are laid down in the science of eugenics, the value of the
science of genealogy to the world ought to increase at least five-fold
within a generation.
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