394 THE INFLUENCE OF THE DARWINIAN THEORY. 



or the physically infeiior or infected types, and allow only the fit 

 type to propagate their species. Sympathy, it is said, may be 

 carried too far, so far, that the multitude on whom it is expended 

 may become a drag" and an encumbrance on the nation which has 

 to bear the added burden imposed by the presence in society of a 

 relatively large number of weaklings and incapables who are 

 allowed to propagate as they please. We are told by Mr. Sidney 

 Webb that the average number of offspring amongst English intel- 

 lectuals is only 1.5. In the criminal, depraved and imbecile classes 

 it ranges between 6 and 7 per family. Leaving the moral point on 

 one side for a moment, it may be pointed out that the poLcy of 

 segregation is already carried out to a certain extent. We segre- 

 gate imbeciles, lunatics and criminals. To what extent the same 

 pclicy should be adopted with regard to chronic physical and here- 

 ditary diseases is a matter of opinion, and opinion is strongly 

 growing in this direction. Whether public opinion on this matter 

 should crystallise into law is a question which I cannot now stop 

 to discuss. But I may point out on the other side that society 

 has not yet taken sufficiently active steps in the direction of elimi- 

 nating disease bv sanitation ; the provision of healthy environment 

 and healthy conditions of labour ; education, physical, mental, and 

 moral ; and the provision of means of pure and cleanly living, to 

 justify it in going far in the direction of a policy for the compulsory 

 segregation of the physically unfit. As showing what may be 

 accomplished by a purer and healthier environment. Pro. Henry 

 Jones points out that the Poor Law Inspector of Glasgow sends 

 every year into the country districts of Scotland numbers of little 

 children found in the streets, " picked up selling newspapers be- 

 tween the knees of drunkards in publ c-houses. " These children 

 are " born invariably of the worst parents," but on being placed 

 in proper homes and good surroundings, they usually turn out all 

 right. They are kept under close observation for years, and out 

 of 630 children so sent out and brought up only 23 turned out 

 badly — " A smaller proportion," the Inspector playfully added, 

 " than if they had been the sons of ministers or professors." 



We must also bear in mind that many persons who might by 

 some have been regarded as mentally and physicallv unfit — the 

 Apostle Paul, for example — were men who reached the topmost 

 heights of personality. Genius is often near allied to madness. 

 We must remember also that the policy of segregation (and the 

 more drastic policy advocated by some eugenists, if carried too 

 far, though it might appear to promise obvious and immediate 

 advantages would have less obvious but none the less certain and 

 serious dangers which would more than neutralise any advantages 

 it might bring. The moment we begin to tamper with the roots of 

 human sympathy that moment are we on a dangerous incline which 

 might lead us to a worse than Pagan cruelty, selfishness and 

 slavery. We might find that the discouragement of the growth of 

 human sympathy, leading to the segregation or the extinction of 

 our unfortunate fellow-creatures, might so affect our civilisation 

 that its very root and basis would begin to canker and decay. And 

 here let me say that I am not one of those who look unon charity, 

 as it is usually understood, as one of the highest of virtues. There 



