v,hap. v. Civilised Nations. 137 



succeed rather better than the less able, and consequently 

 increase in number, if not otherwise prevented. When in 

 any nation the standard of intellect and the number of intel- 

 lectual men have increased, we may expect from the law of 

 the deviation from an average, that prodigies of genius will, as 

 shewn by Mr. Galton, appear somewhat more frequently than 

 before. 



j In regard to the moral qualities, some elimination of the 

 worst dispositions is always in progress even in the most civilised 

 nations. Malefactors are executed, or imprisoned for long 

 periods, so that they cannot freely transmit their bad qualities. 

 Melancholic and insane persons are confined, or commit suicide. 

 Violent and quarrelsome men often come to a bloody end. The 

 restless w^lio will not follow any steady occupation— and this 

 relic of barbarism is a great check to civilisation v — emigrate to 

 newly-settled countries, where they prove useful pioneers. In- 

 temperance is so highly destructive, that the expectation of life 

 of the intemperate, at the age of thirty for instance, is only 13 - 8 

 years ; whilst for the rural labourers of England at the same age 

 it is 40*59 years. 18 Profligate women bear few children, and 

 profligate men rarely marry ; both suffer from disease. In the 

 breeding of domestic animals, the elimination of those individuals, 

 though few in number, which are in any marked manner inferior, 

 is by no means an unimportant element towards success. This 

 especially holds good with injurious characters which tend to 

 reappear through reversion, such as blackness in sheep; and 

 with mankind some of the worst dispositions, which occasionally 

 without any assignable cause make their appearance in families, 

 may perhaps be reversions to a savage state, from which we are 

 not removed by very many generations. This view seems 

 indeed recognised in the common expression that such men are 

 the black sheep of the family. 



With civilised nations, as far as an advanced standard of 

 morality, and an increased number of fairly good men are con- 

 cerned, natural selection apparently effects but little ; though 

 the fundamental social instincts were originally thus gained. 

 But I have already said enough, whilstr treating of the lower 

 races, on the causes which lead to the advance of morality, 

 namely, the approbation of our fellow-men — the strengthening 



17 ' Hereditary Genius,' 1870, p. NersGiTs ' Vital Statistics.' In re- 

 347. gard to profligacy, see Dr. Fan-, 



18 E. Ray Lankester, ' Compara- ' Influence of .Marriage on Mor- 

 tive Longevity,' 1870, p. 115. The tality,' 'Nat. Assoc, for the Promo- 

 ;able of the intemperate is from tion of Social Science,' 1858. 



