MENTAL AND MORAL QUALITIES. 525 



amount seems as much as the same number of millions to one 

 whose friends all have as much. There are plenty of temptations 

 within the reach of all classes of society and many demoralizing amuse- 

 ments come cheap. Besides, if this view of the evil effects of great 

 wealth were true, royalty, who are among the richest of the world's 

 favored few, should make a poor showing from the general standpoint 

 of morality. Although we may think at first sight that this is the case, 

 I have been able to show in some former articles in this magazine that 

 the bad characters practically always come as close relations of others of 

 the same stamp, and due to heredity with perhaps some influence from 

 environment. They can not at any rate be explained on the ground of 

 riches, as here all are rich. Furthermore, royalty does not make a bad 

 showing when taken as a great group. From the intellectual side they 

 are distinctly above the average and this six hundred contains more great 

 names than probably any other collection of related people that could be 

 gathered together, certainly more than the general run of Europeans. 

 Even the greatest leaders among them were born in all cases to extremely 

 high positions. An idea of their moral standard may best be gained 

 by looking at their mean or (5) and (6) grades. Among the more 

 modern and best known in these grades are the late Humbert, King 

 of Italy, William I., Emperor of Germany, Frederick William IV. of 

 Prussia, Louis Philippe and Francis Prince de Joinville, his son; 

 doubtless men with faults, but at the same time men with certain 

 decidedly praiseworthy traits and in most instances men who led active 

 lives. 



Wallace relies much on sexual selection to play an important part 

 in the future, as a causative force in human evolution, and has written 

 some good arguments to this effect. Eoyal matches, as is well known, 

 are largely determined by reasons of state policy. Nevertheless, even 

 here, in a class of society where any force of sexual selection must be 

 relatively at its lowest, we see the largest number of children on the 

 average belonging to the higher grades. There is also a pretty definite 

 elimination of the worst. 



Conclusions. — There is a very distinct correlation in royalty be- 

 tween mental and moral qualities. If this is true among them, there 

 is no reason why it should not be true in every class of mankind. 

 Among society in general it is easy to see how the vicious and depraved 

 are more likely to be eliminated than the domestic and unselfish. 

 Arguments, then, which prove that an improvement is going on in the 

 general morality of any class or race must at the same time prove an 

 increase in the standard of mental faculty. The probability is that 

 forces of natural selection are at work, the value of which we know 

 little of as yet, such that setting aside all influences of environment, 

 whether we will or not, the natural quality of humanity must progress. 



