THE TREND OF EVOLUTION 173 



birth control : ( I ) it may cause depopulation and ultimately 

 extinction of the human race; (2) it may reduce the repro- 

 duction of the prudent, intelligent, and ambitious, leaving the 

 imprudent and unintelligent; (3) it may cut off the strain of 

 the silly and selfish, the weak and inefficient. There is little 

 if any likelihood that the first of these possibilities will ever 

 be realized; depopulation may result in certain countries but it 

 will never become universal through birth control. The second 

 possibility is already an actuality so far as the reduction of the 

 birth-rate among the most progressive people is concerned. 

 It does not seem probable that the third possibility can greatly 

 benefit the race before much damage has been done by the 

 second. Of course if those who preach and practice birth 

 control are, when measured by the highest standards, silly, 

 selfish, weak, or inefficient to a greater degree than others, 

 then, and then only, is it working for the betterment of the 

 race. It seems incredible that people of good hereditary traits 

 should think that they can improve the human breed by com- 

 mitting racial suicide. "There be those which have made 

 themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake," but 

 when before in the history of the world have sane men made 

 themselves eunuchs in order to win the kingdom of the earth? 

 Those feminists who declare that they would rather die than 

 have children have made their choice between the only alter- 

 natives possible, death to their lines and to their participa- 

 tion in the future of the race, or children. 



But while the more progressive lines are, as a whole, dying 

 out, the general population of this country and of the world 

 is more than maintaining itself, and the less intelligent, inde- 

 pendent, and aggressive portions of the population are prob- 

 ably increasing most rapidly of all. Thus the Scriptures are 

 being fulfilled that "the meek shall inherit the earth." It is 

 often said that a high birth-rate among the lower classes is 



