RACE IMPROVEMENT 311 



The most common misrepresentations now are that 

 its methods must be altogether those of compulsory 

 unions, as in breeding animals. It is not so. I think 

 that stern compulsion ought to be exerted to prevent 

 the free propagation of the stock of those who are 

 seriously afflicted by lunacy, feeble - mindedness, 

 habitual criminality, and pauperism, but that is 

 quite different from compulsory marriage. How to 

 restrain ill-omened marriages is a question by itself, 

 whether it should be effected by seclusion, or in other 

 ways yet to be devised that are consistent with a 

 humane and well-informed public opinion. I cannot 

 doubt that our democracy will ultimately refuse consent 

 to that liberty of propagating children which is now 

 allowed to the undesirable classes, but the populace has 

 yet to be taught the true state of these things. A 

 democracy cannot endure unless it be composed of able 

 citizens ; therefore it must in self-defence withstand 

 the free introduction of degenerate stock. 



What I desire is that the importance of eugenic 

 marriages should be reckoned at its just value, neither 

 too high nor too low, and that Eugenics should form 

 one of the many considerations by which marriages 

 are promoted or hindered, as they are by social 

 position, adequate fortune, and similarity of creed. 

 I can believe hereafter that it will be felt as derogatory 

 to a person of exceptionally good stock to marry into 

 an inferior one as it is for a person of high Austrian 

 rank to marry one who has not sixteen heraldic 

 quarterings. I also hope that social recognition of an 

 appropriate kind will be given to healthy, capable, and 

 large families, and that social influence will be exerted 

 towards the encouragement of eugenic marriages. 



