The Descent of Man

has never long been controlled, either by methodical
or unconscious selection. No race or
body of men has been so completely subjugated
by other men, as that certain individuals
should be preserved, and thus unconsciously
selected, from somehow excelling in utility to
their masters. Nor have certain male and female
individuals been intentionally picked out
and matched, except in the well-known case of
the Prussian grenadiers; and in this case man
obeyed, as might have been expected, the law
of methodical selection; for it is asserted that
many tall men were reared in the villages inhabited
by the grenadiers and their tall wives.
In Sparta, also, a form of selection was followed,
for it was enacted that all children
should be examined shortly after birth; the
well-formed and vigorous being preserved, the
others left to perish. (13. Mitford's 'History of
Greece,' vol. i. p. 282. It appears also from a
passage in Xenophon's 'Memorabilia,' B. ii. 4 (to
which my attention has been called by the Rev.