HUMAN SELECTION. 101 



venience and real well-being of the younger members, and with a 

 recognition of their essential independence. As in a family, the 

 same comforts and enjoyments are secured to all, and the very 

 idea of making any difference in this respect to those who from 

 mental or physical disability are unable to do so much as others, 

 never occurs to any one, since it is opposed to the essential prin- 

 ciples on which a true society is held to rest. As regards educa- 

 tion all have the same advantages, and all receive the fullest and 

 best training, both intellectual and physical ; every one is encour- 

 aged to follow out those studies or pursuits for which they are 

 best fitted, or for which they exhibit the strongest inclination. 

 This education, the complete and thorough training for a life of 

 usefulness and enjoyment, continues in both sexes till the age of 

 twenty-one (or thereabouts), when all alike, men and women, take 

 their place in the ranks of the industrial army in which they serve 

 for three years. During the latter years of their education, and 

 during the succeeding three years of industrial service, every op- 

 portunity is given them to see and understand every kind of work 

 that is carried on by the community, so that at the end of the term 

 of probation they can choose what department of the public serv- 

 ice they prefer to enter. As every one men, women, and chil- 

 dren alike receive the same amount of public credit their equal 

 share of the products of the labor of the community, the attract- 

 iveness of various pursuits is equalized by differences in the hours 

 of labor, in holidays, or in special privileges attached to the more 

 disagreeable kinds of necessary work, and these are so modified 

 from time to time that the volunteers for every occupation are 

 always about equal to its requirements. The only other essential 

 feature that it is necessary to notice for our present purpose is 

 the system of grades, by which good conduct, industry, and intel- 

 ligence in every department of industry and occupation are fully 

 recognized, and lead to appointments as overseers, superintend- 

 ents, or general managers, and ultimately to the highest offices of 

 the state. Every one of these grades and appointments is made 

 public ; and as they constitute the only honors and the only dif- 

 ferences of rank, with corresponding insignia and privileges, in 

 an otherwise equal body of citizens, they are highly esteemed, 

 and serve as ample inducements to industry and zeal in the pub- 

 lic service. 



At first sight it may appear that in any state of society whose 

 essential features were at all like those here briefly outlined, all 

 the usual restraints to early marriage as they now exist would be 

 removed, and that a rate of increase of the population unexam- 

 pled in any previous era would be the result, leading in a few 

 generations to a difficulty in obtaining subsistence, which Mai thus 

 has shown to be the inevitable result of the normal rate of in- 



