268 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Similarly, from a state in which family groups were alone recognized, 

 and individuals ignored, we are moving toward an opposite state, in 

 which ignoring of the family and. recognition of the individual go 

 to the extreme of making not only the mature individual the social 

 unit, hut also the immature individual ; from which extreme we may 

 expect a recoil toward that medium state in which has been finally 

 lost the compound family group, while there is a reinstitution, and 

 even further integration, of the family group proper, composed of 

 parents and offspring. 



And here we come in sight of a truth on which politicians and 

 philanthropists would do well to ponder. The salvation of every 

 society, as of every species, depends on the maintenance of an abso- 

 lute opposition between the regime of the family and the regime of 

 the state. 



To survive, every species of creature must fulfill two conflicting 

 requirements. During a certain period each member must receive 

 benefits in proportion to its incapacity. After that period, it must 

 receive benefits in proportion to its capacity. Observe the bird fos- 

 tering its young, or the mammal rearing its litter, and you see that 

 imperfection and inability are rew^ai'ded ; and that, as ability increases, 

 the aid given in food and warmth becomes less. Obviously this law, 

 that the least worthy shall receive most, is essential as a law for the 

 immature : the sj^ecies would disappear in a generation did not par- 

 ents conform to it. Now mark what is, contrariwise, the laAv for the 

 mature. Here individuals gain rewards proportionate to their merits. 

 The strong, the swift, the keen-sighted, the sagacious, profit by their 

 respective superiorities catch prey or escape enemies, as the case 

 may be. The less capable thrive less, and on the average of cases 

 rear fewer offspring. The least capable disappear by failure to get 

 prey, or from inability to escape. And by this process is maintained 

 that average quality of the species which enables it to survive in the 

 struggle for existence with other species. There is thus, during ma- 

 ture life, an absolute reversal of the principle that ruled during im- 

 mature life. 



Already we have seen that a society stands to its citizens in the 

 same relation as a species to its members ; and the truth which 

 we have just seen holds of the one holds of the other. The law for 

 the undeveloped is that there shall be most aid where there is least 

 merit. The helpless, useless infant, extremely exigeant, must from 

 hour to liour be fed, kept warm, amused, exercised ; as during child- 

 hood and boyhood the powers of self-preservation increase, the atten- 

 tions required and given become less perpetual, but still need to be 

 great ; and only with approach to maturity, when some value and 

 efficiency have been required, is this policy considerably qualified. 

 But when the young man enters into the battle of life he is dealt with 



