Chap. V. Civilised Nations. 135 



and will be likely to marry earlier, and leave a larger number of 

 offspring to inherit their inferior constitutions. But the in- 

 heritance of property by itself is very far from an evil ; for 

 without the accumulation of capital the arts could not progress ; 

 and it is chiefly through their power that the civilised races have 

 extended, and are now everywhere extending their range, so as 

 to take the place of the lower races. Nor does the moderate 

 accumulation of wealth interfere with the process of selection. 

 When a poor man becomes moderately rich, his children enter 

 trades or professions in which there is struggle enough, so that 

 the able in body and mind succeed best. The presence of a body 

 of well-instructed men, who have not to labour for their daily 

 bread, is important to a degree which cannot be over-estimated ; 

 as all high intellectual work is carried on by them, and on such 

 work, material progress of all kinds mainly depends, not to 

 mention other and higher advantages. No doubt wealth when 

 very great tends to convert men into useless drones, but their 

 number is never large; and some degree of elimination here 

 occurs, for we daily see rich men, who happen to be fools or 

 profligate, squandering away their wealth. 



Primogeniture with entailed estates is a more direct evil, 

 though it may formerly have been a great advantage by the 

 creation of a dominant class, and any government is better 

 than none. Most eldest sons, though they may be weak in body 

 or mind, marry, whilst the younger sons, however superior 

 in these respects, do not so generally marry. Nor can worth- 

 less 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 genera- 

 tion after generation the more beautiful and charming women ; 

 and these must generally be healthy in body and active in 

 mind. The evil consequences, such as they may be, of the 

 continued preservation 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. Gallon 12 has shewn, 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 superiority of 

 my kind. 



Although civilisation thus checks in many ways the action oi 



»2 < Hereditary Genius,' ] 870, pp. 132-140. 



