THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN RACE 27 



light on the subject in the near future. The realization of such an 

 ideal involves selective mating ; but this again is nothing new, all mating 

 among civilized people is selective, with a wide range of reasons for the 

 selection. To these will now be added a new one, or rather an old one 

 in a somewhat new light. 



Professor J. Arthur Thomson well says: 



As to the diffusion of disease by the intermarriage of badly tainted with 

 relatively healthy families, we have this in our own hands, and we need not 

 whine over it. The basis of preferential mating is not unalterable, in fact we 

 know that it sways hither and thither from age to age. Possible marriages are 

 every day prohibited or refrained from for the absurdest of reasons: there is 

 no reason why they should not be prohibited or refrained from for the best of 

 reasons— the welfare of our race. 



On the other hand, we have to consider the means of increasing and 

 continuing good qualities. The economic burden of raising a family 

 is at present such as to discourage many whose qualities should be 

 continued to other generations, and there can be no doubt that it would 

 pay society to furnish ample means for the industry of child raising to 

 those who are especially fitted to engage in it. Mr. Francis Galton has 

 tried to calculate the value of different classes of individuals: 



The worth of a +X -class baby would be reckoned in thousands of pounds. 

 Some such " talented " folk fail, but most succeed, and may succeed greatly. 

 They found industries, establish vast undertakings, increase the wealth of mul- 

 titudes, and amass large fortunes for themselves. Others, whether they be rich 

 or poor, are the guides and lights of the nation, raising its tone, enlighting its 

 difficulties, and improving its ideals. The great gain that England received 

 through the immigration of the Huguenots would be insignificant to what she 

 would derive from an annual addition of a few hundred children of the classes 

 + w and + #• 



