140 The Descent of Man. Part I, 



tion, ill health, or any great infirmity in body or mind, will often 

 not wish to marry, or will be rejected. Dr. Stark seems to have 

 come to the conclusion that marriage in itself is a main cause of 

 prolonged life, from finding that aged married men still have a 

 considerable advantage in this respect over the unmarried of the 

 same advanced age ; but every one must have known instances 

 of men, who with weak health during youth did not marry, and 

 yet have survived to old age, though remaining weak, and there- 

 fore always with a lessened chance of life or of marrying. There 

 is another remarkable circumstance which seems to support Dr. 

 Stark's conclusion, namely, that widows and widowers in France 

 suffer in comparison with the married a very heavy rate of mor- 

 tality ; but Dr. Farr attributes this to the poverty and evil habits 

 consequent on the disruption of the family, and to grief. On 

 the whole we may conclude with Dr. Farr that the lesser mortality 

 of married than of unmarried men, which seems to be a general 

 law, "is mainly due to the constant elimination of imperfect 

 " types, and to the skilful selection of the finest individuals out 

 of each successive generation ;" the selection relating only to 

 the marriage state, and acting on all corporeal, intellectual, and 

 moral qualities. 25 We may, therefore, infer that sound and 

 good men who out of prudence remain for a time unmarried, do 

 not suffer a high rate of mortality. 



If the various checks specified in the two last paragraphs, and 

 perhaps others as yet unknown, do not prevent the reckless, the 

 vicious and otherwise inferior members of society from increas- 

 ing at a quicker rate than the better class of men, the nation will 

 retrograde, as has too often occurred in the history of the world. 

 We must remember that progress is no invariable rule. It is 

 very difficult to say why one civilised nation rises, becomes more 

 powerful, and spreads more widely, than another; or why the 

 same nation progresses more quickly at one time than at another. 

 We can only say that it depends on an increase in the actual 

 number of the population, on the number of the men endowed 

 with high intellectual and moral faculties, as well as on their 

 standard of excellence. Corporeal structure appears to have 

 little influence, except so far as vigour of body leads to vigour of 

 mind. 



It has been urged by several writers that as high intellectual 

 powers are advantageous to a nation, the old Greeks, who stood 

 some grades higher in intellect than any race that has ever 



25 Dr. Duncan remarks (' Fecund- " from the unmarried side to the 



ity, Fertility,' &c, 1871, p. 334) on " married, leaving the unmarried 



this subject; "At every age the "columns crowded with the sickly 



" healthy and beautiful go over " and unfortunate.' 



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