52o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



training. Each community is but a microcosm of the whole human 

 race, which, as I have endeavored to show, is bound by the same laws 

 as the rest of the animal kingdom. One race becomes a master because 

 of its superior physique, courage, brain power and morale; another 

 sinks in the struggle or lags behind owing to its inferiority in the very 

 qualities which have given the mastery to its rival. What is true of 

 master races in relation to inferior races is equally true of the indi- 

 viduals in each community. The middle and upper classes are in the 

 main sprung from ancestors with better physique, courage and morale, 

 and who have generation after generation been brought up in a better 

 moral atmosphere than the children of the masses. Their ranks are 

 also continually being reinforced by the best of the working classes. 

 But this is not due to any educational ladder provided in modern times, 

 for the process has always been at work, though of course its action has 

 been distinctly aided by modern legislation. Medieval history supplies 

 many examples of those who, though sprung from the humblest parents, 

 rose to high place in church and state. This was not due to any legis- 

 lative enactments, but rather to a principle well known in the whole 

 field of nature. Every one knows that the superior varieties of flowers 

 and vegetables are commonly the " sports," as they are termed, from 

 inferior species. The skillful gardener watches carefully for good 

 " sports," for they may become very valuable additions to his repertoire 

 of useful plants. So, too, the legislator must watch carefully for good 

 human " sports," not for those with criminal propensities. In the 

 medieval world the church provided a ladder by which the son of the 

 peasant could rise to be the counsellor of kings and princes. In modern 

 times the state provides an educational ladder by which the child of the 

 humblest parents may rise, if it has the capacity, to the highest posi- 

 tions in the community. It is right — nay, essential — that such a 

 ladder should be provided, but this ladder is not for the mass of chil- 

 dren. The vast majority can never climb beyond its lowest rung, owing 

 to their heredity, and in a less degree to their home environment. The 

 ladder is for the good " sports," who by its aid are thus continually 

 reinforcing with fresh blood the ranks of the middle and upper classes. 

 It may be said that I underrate the number of the good " sports." 

 Of course it is very difficult to get any exact statistics on so complex a 

 subject; but according to information which I have obtained from one 

 of our great industrial centers, where the educational ladder enables any 

 child who passes the fourth standard in the primary schools before it is 

 eleven to rise into the secondary schools, it is probable that no more 

 than 5 or 6 per cent, of the children of the working classes have at the 

 age of sixteen the same amount of brain power as the average children 

 of the middle classes at the same age. But even all this 5 or 6 per 

 cent, of " sports " can not be credited to parents of the working class 



