58 JORDAN— THE HUMAN HARVEST. [April i8, 



dull of wit, the coarse of limb, became each year the mothers of the 

 colts. The horses who were chosen for the race-course he trained 

 with every care, and every stroke of discipline showed itself in the 

 flashing eyes and straining muscles, such were the best horses. 

 But the other horses were the horses who were left. From their 

 loins came the next generation and with these then was less fire and 

 less speed than the first horses possessed in such large measure. 

 But still the rush went on — whip and spur made good the lack of 

 native movement. The racers still pushed on the course, while in 

 the stalls and paddocks at home, the dull and common horses bore 

 their dull and common colts. Variation was still at work with 

 these as patiently as ever. Heredity followed, repeating faithfully 

 whatever was left to her. Segregation, always conservative, 

 guarded her own, but could not make good the deficiencies. Selec- 

 tion, forced to act perversely, chose for the future the worst and 

 not the best, as was her usual fashion. So the current of life ran 

 steadily downward. The herd was degenerating because it was 

 each year an inferior herd which bred. Each generation yielded 

 w^eaker colts, rougher, duller, clumsier colts, and no amount of 

 training or lash or whip or spur made any permanent difference for 

 the better. The Iwrsc-harvest was bad. Thoroughbred and race- 

 horse gave place to common beasts, for in the removal of the noble 

 the ignoble always finds its opportunity. It is always the horse 

 that remains which determines the future of the stud. 



In like fashion from the man who is left flows the current of 

 human history. 



This tale then is a parable, a story of what never was. but which 

 is always trying to become true. 



Once there was a great king — and the nation over which he bore 

 rule lay on the flanks of a mountain range, spreading across fair 

 hills and valleys green and fertile across to the Mediterranean Sea. 

 And the men of his race, fair and strong, self-reliant and self- 

 confident, men of courage and men of action, wxre men " who 

 knew no want they could not fill for themselves." They knew none 

 on whom they looked down, and none to whom they regarded them- 

 selves inferior. And for all things which men could accomplish, 



