IMPROVEMENT OF THE HUMAN BREED. 229 



The correlation between youthful promise and performance in 

 mature life has never been properly investigated. Its measurement 

 presents no greater difficulty, so far as I can foresee, than in other prob- 

 lems which have been successfully attacked. It is one of those alluded 

 to in the beginning of this lecture as bearing on race-improvement, and 

 being on its own merits suitable for anthropological inquiry. Let me 

 add that I think its neglect by the vast army of highly educated persons 

 who are connected with the present huge system of competitive examina- 

 tions to be gross and unpardonable. Neither schoolmasters, tutors, 

 officials of the universities, nor of the State department of education, 

 have ever to my knowledge taken any serious step to solve this impor- 

 tant problem, though the value of the present elaborate system of ex- 

 aminations cannot be rightly estimated until it is solved. When the 

 value of the correlation between youthful promise and adult perform- 

 ance shall have been determined, the figures given in the table of descent 

 will have to be reconsidered. 



Augmentaiion of Favored Stock. 



The possibility of improving the race of a nation depends on the 

 power of increasing the productivity of the best stock. This is far 

 more important than that of repressing the productivity of the worst. 

 They both raise the average, the latter by reducing the undesirables, the 

 former by increasing those who will become the lights of the nation. It 

 is therefore all important to prove that favor to selected individuals 

 might so increase their productivity as to warrant the expenditure in 

 money and care that would be necessitated. An enthusiasm to improve 

 the race would probably express itself by granting diplomas to a select 

 class of young men and women, by encouraging their intermarriages, 

 by hastening the time of marriage of women of that high class, and by 

 provision for rearing children healthily. The means that might be 

 employed to compass these ends are dowries, especially for those to 

 whom moderate sums are important, assured help in emergencies dur- 

 ing the early years of married life, healthy homes, the pressure of public 

 opinion, honors, and above all the introduction of motives of religious 

 or quasi-religious character. Indeed, an enthusiasm to improve the race 

 is so noble in its aim that it might well give rise to the sense of a 

 religious obligation. In other lands there are abundant instances in 

 which religious motives make early marriages a matter of custom, and 

 continued celibacy to be regarded as a disgrace, if not a crime. The 

 customs of the Hindoos, also of the Jews, especially in ancient times, 

 bear this out. In all costly civilizations there is a tendency to shrink 

 from marriage on prudential grounds. It would, however, be possible 

 so to alter the conditions of life that the most prudent course for an 

 X class person should lie exactly opposite to its present direction, for 



