524 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



among royalty where large families are always desired, maximum fer- 

 tility does on the whole run hand in hand with general superiority. 

 Nearly all the figures which have been heretofore compiled upon the 

 question deal only with the number born and not with the number 

 reaching adult years and are consequently of absolutely no significance. 

 It is a well-known biological principle that the lower the species the 

 greater the number of offspring, but among the different members of 

 any social scale, our foreign immigrants for instance, very likely it 

 would be found on close inquiry that, inter se, the relatively superior 

 are the ones who are parents of the greater number of children whom 

 they are successful in bringing to mature years. There are many 

 reasons, both medical and economic, why the children of the more 

 vicious and depraved should die in the greater numbers. This, in the 

 long run, must raise the moral average, and as mental qualities are 

 correlated with the moral, the intellectual level must at the same time 

 be raised. 



Besides these problems touching upon natural selection there is 

 another question upon which I wish to say a few words. I refer to 

 the opinion so generally entertained regarding the psychological effect 

 of the inheritance of great financial wealth. Wallace in his 'Studies 

 Scientific and Social,' Vol. II., p. 519, in a paragraph headed 'Heredi- 

 tary Wealth Bad for its Recipients,' writes: 



There is yet another consideration which leads to the same conclusion as 

 to the evil of hereditary or unearned wealth — its injurious effects to those who 

 receive it, and through them to the whole community. It is only the strongest 

 and most evenly balanced natures that can pass unscathed through the ordeal 

 of knowing that enormous wealth is to be theirs on the death of a parent or 

 relative. The worst vices of our rotten civilization are fostered by this class 

 of prodigals, surrounded by a crowd of gamblers and other parasites who assist 

 in their debaucheries and seek every opportunity of obtaining a share of the 

 plunder. Tliis class of evils is too well known and comes too frequently and 

 too prominently before the public to need dwelling upon here; but it serves to 

 complete the proof of the evil effects of private inheritance, and to demonstrate 

 in a practical way the need for the adoption of the just principle of equality 

 of opportunity. 



That instances of this sort do come too frequently before the public 

 I do not deny. The vices of the aristocracy are always made the 

 most of by the polychrome daily press, but if Mr. Wallace or any one 

 else has any data to show that vices among the rich are proportionally 

 more frequent than among people in general, I have never seen such 

 a proof. It is an assertion entirely unwarranted by any facts. It is 

 merely a popular fallacy which will probably be entirely abandoned as 

 soon as sociology has properly collected data bearing on modern life. 

 In the first place, it is unlikely on a priori grounds. Wealth, like most 

 things in life, is essentially relative. To the young man who is to 

 inherit a few thousand dollars, if he belongs in the middle classes, the 



