The Management of Life 89 



new combinations, are diverse from all former ones, 

 having new sets of characteristics — structural, func- 

 tional, mental. This has been fully demonstrated 

 through the modern study of genetics. "Reproduc- 

 tion" is not reproduction alone; it is reproduction 

 with a difference. The new individual produced by a 

 given pair of parents may be superior or inferior to 

 one or both of his parents. What the characteristics 

 of the new individuals shall be, the fulness and ade- 

 quacy of the life that they present, depends on what 

 individuals of the previous generation have united 

 to produce them ; as well as on what particular ones 

 of the infinite variety of germ cells that each pro- 

 duces have come together. If one or both of the two 

 individuals that mate represent a full and adequate 

 life, and particularly if the two parents supplement 

 one another in their characteristics and powers, they 

 may give rise to a new individual that shows marked 

 superiority. A genius may thus arise, a man that 

 carries life to new heights. The importance of mat- 

 ing, of the decision as to what mate shall be taken, has 

 come to be instinctively recognized ; it is the concern 

 which most deeply affects the wishes and emotions of 

 man. It alters for better or worse both his own life 

 and that of his successors. In his Metaphysics of the 

 Love between the Sexes, Schopenhauer long ago pre- 

 sented admirably many of the relations of this matter 

 to the advancement of life. As a result of mating 

 there may be produced lower from higher or higher 

 from lower, depending on what matings are made. 

 Through it, if rightly carried out, progress may be 



