170 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



nation here occurs, as we daily see rich men, who happen 

 to be fools or profligate, squandering away all their 

 wealth. 



Primogeniture with entailed estates is a more direct 

 evil, though it may formerly have been a great advan- 

 tage by the creation of a dominant class, and any 

 government is better than anarchy. The eldest sons, 

 though they may be weak in body or mind, generally 

 marry, whilst the younger sons, however superior in these 

 respects, do not so generally marry, Nor can worthless 

 eldest sons with entailed estates squander their wealth. 

 But here, as elsewhere, the relations of civilised life are 

 so complex that some compensatory checks intervene. 

 The men who are rich through primogeniture are able 

 to select generation after generation the more beautiful 

 and charming women ; and these must generally be 

 healthy in body and active in mind. The evil con- 

 sequences, such as they may be, of the continued pre- 

 servation of the same line of descent, without any 

 selection, are checked by men of rank always wishing to 

 increase their wealth and power ; and this they effect 

 by marrying heiresses. But the daughters of parents 

 who have produced single children, are themselves, as 

 Mr. Galton has shewn, 12 apt to be sterile ; and thus 

 noble families are continually cut off in the direct line, 

 and their wealth flows into some side channel; but 

 unfortunately this channel is not determined by supe- 

 riority of any kind. 



Although civilisation thus checks in many ways the 

 action of natural selection, it apparently favours, by 

 means of improved food and the freedom from occa- 

 sional hardships, the better development of the body. 

 This may be inferred from civilised men having been 



12 



'Hereditary Genius,' 1S70, p. 132-140. 



