138 The Descent of Man. Part 1 



of our sympathies by habit — example and imitation-— reason — 

 experience, and even self-interest — instruction during youth, and 

 religious feelings. 



A most important obstacle in civilised countries to an increase 

 in the number of men of a superior class has been strongly insisted 

 on by Mr. Greg and Mr. Galton, 19 namely, the fact that the very 

 poor and reckless, who are often degraded by vice, almost invari- 

 ably marry early, whilst the careful and frugal, who are generally 

 otherwise virtuous, marry late in life, so that they may be able 

 to support themselves and their children in comfort. Those who 

 marry early produce within a given period not only a greater 

 number of generations, but, as shewn by Dr. Duncan, 20 they pro- 

 duce many more children. The children, moreover, that are 

 born by mothers during the prime of life are heavier and larger, 

 and therefore probably more vigorous, than those born at other 

 periods. Thus the reckless, degraded, and often vicious members 

 of society, tend to increase at a quicker rate than the provident 

 and generally virtuous members. Or as Mr. Greg puts the case : 

 " The careless, squalid, unaspiring Irishman multiplies like 

 " rabbits : the frugal, foreseeing, self-respecting, ambitious Scot, 

 "stern in his morality, spiritual in his faith, sagacious and dis- 

 " ciplined in his intelligence, passes his best years in struggle 

 " and in celibacy, marries late, and leaves few behind him. 

 " Given a land originally peopled by a thousand Saxons and a 

 " thousand Celts — and in a dozen generations five-sixths of the 

 " population would be Celts, but five-sixths of the property, of 

 " the power, of the intellect, would belong to the one-sixth of 

 " Saxons that remained. In the eternal ' struggle for existence/ 

 " it would be the inferior and less favoured race that had pre- 

 '•' vailed — and prevailed by virtue not of its good qualities but of 

 " its faults." 



There are, however, some checks to this downward tendency. 

 We have seen that the intemperate suffer from a high rate of 

 mortality, and the extremely profligate leave few offspring. The 

 poorest classes crowd into towns, and it has been proved by Dr. 

 Stark from the statistics of ten years in Scotland, 21 that at all 



19 ' Fraser's Magazine,' Sept. title of ' Fecundity, Fertility, and 



1868, p. 353. 'Macmillan's Mag'a- Sterility,' 1871. " See, also, Mr. 



ziue, Aug. 1865, p. 318. The Rev. Galton, 'Hereditary Genius,' pp. 



F. \V. Farrar (' Fraser's Mag.' Aug. 352-357, for observations to the 



1870, p. 264) \akes a different view. above eflect. 



80 ' On the Laws of the Fertility 21 'Tenth Annual Report of 



of Women,' in ' Transact. Royal Births, Deaths, &c, in Scotland,' 



Soc' Edinburgh, vol. xxiv. p. 287 ; ' 867, p. xxix. 

 now published separately under the 



