THE DANGERS OF SOCIALISTIC LEGISLATION 463 



is remarkably peaceful. I do not mean that there are no stupid 

 Jews but that on the average they rise higher in intellectual 

 pursuits, including the acquisition of riches, than do their 

 Gentile neighbours. 



Now to apply all this to the consideration of socialistic 

 views and socialistic legislation. It is clear that the racial 

 standard of any character, mental or physical, must depend 

 entirely upon the stringency of selection to which the bulk of 

 the individuals of the race are subjected with regard to the 

 character. The race which can maintain itself with the least 

 effort will be the least industrious ; that which has never been 

 subjected to infection by a certain disease will be incomparably 

 more susceptible to it, if the infection be introduced into its 

 environment, than will a race that has been subjected to 

 infection during many generations. The characters of a race are 

 dependent entirely upon the existing environment and that 

 which has existed in the past, for the environment determines 

 the selection of those variations which give their possessors 

 an advantage over their fellows. In a civilised community, 

 mental qualities are sometimes of greater importance to the 

 individual than physical, within certain very obvious limits. 

 In this country the social conditions, during a long time past, 

 have been such that there has been a constant interchange 

 between the various classes. Unfavourable variations among 

 individuals of a higher class must cause a fall into a lower 

 class, which can only be checked by the occurrence of 

 favourable variations among the offspring ; the occurrence of 

 favourable variations will result in the individuals " bettering 

 themselves " and if these favourable variations are inherited 

 by the children, they in their turn will either maintain the 

 position gained by their parents or improve it if the favourable 

 variation have been increased. In cases where property and 

 position are by law inherited entirely or in overwhelming 

 proportion by the eldest son, the process of falling into a lower 

 class, in the case of the occurrence of unfavourable variations, 

 may be to some extent checked but the extent to which this 

 can happen and the number of individuals involved cannot 

 possibly be sufficient to produce an appreciable effect upon 

 the mean of the mental and physical characters of the race. 

 A cursory examination of the family histories of the present 

 members of the House of Peers, the class most protected in 



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