Chap. V. CIVILISED NATIONS. 171 



found, wherever compared, to be physically stronger than 

 savages. They appear also to have equal powers of 

 endurance, as has been proved in many adventurous 

 expeditions. Even the great luxury of the rich can be 

 but little detrimental ; for the expectation of life of our 

 aristocracy, at all ages and of both sexes, is very little 

 inferior to that of healthy English lives in the lower 

 classes. 13 



We will now look to the intellectual faculties alone. 

 If in each grade of society the members were divided 

 into two equal bodies, the one including the intel- 

 lectually superior and the other the inferior, there can 

 be little doubt that the former would succeed best in 

 all occupations and rear a greater number of children. 

 Even in the lowest walks of life, skill and ability must 

 be of some advantage, though in many occupations, 

 owing to the great division of labour, a very small 

 one. Hence in civilised nations there will be some 

 tendency to an increase both in the number and in 

 the standard of the intellectually able. But I do not 

 wish to assert that this tendency may not be more than 

 counterbalanced in other ways, as by the multiplication 

 of the reckless and improvident ; but even to such as 

 these, ability must be some advantage. 



It has often been objected to views like the fore- 

 going, that the most eminent men who have ever lived 

 have left no offspring to inherit their great intellect. 

 Mr. Gal ton says, 14 " I regret I am unable to solve the 

 " simple question whether, and how far, men and women 

 " who are prodigies of genius are infertile. I have, how- 

 " ever, shewn that men of eminence are by no means so." 



13 See the fifth and sixth columns, compiled from good authorities, 

 in the table given in Mr. E. K. Lankester's ' Comparative Longevity,' 

 1870 r p. 115. 



14 'Hereditary Genius,' 1870, p. 330. 



