534 IMPROVEMENT OF THE HUMAN BREED. 



Let me add that I think its neglect by the vast army of highly educated 

 persons who are connected with the present huge system of competi- 

 tive examinations to be gross and unpardonable. Neither schoolmas- 

 ters, tutors, officials of the universities, nor of the State department of 

 education, have ever to my knowledge taken any serious step to solve 

 this important problem, though the value of the present elaborate sys- 

 tem of examinations can not be rightly estimated until it is solved. 

 When the value of the correlation between youthful promise and adult 

 performance shall have been determined, the figures given in the table 

 of descent will have to be reconsidered. 



AUGMENTATION OF FAVORED STOCK. 



The possibility of improving the race of a nation depends on the 

 power of increasing the productivity of the best stock. This is far 

 more important than that of repressing the productivity of the worst. 

 They both raise the average, the latter by reducing the undesirables, the 

 former by increasing those who will become the lights of the nation. 

 It is therefore all important to prove that favor to selected individuals 

 might so increase their productivity as to warrant the expenditure in 

 money and care that would be necessitated. An enthusiasm to improve 

 the race would probably express itself by granting diplomas to a select 

 class of young men and women, by encouraging their intermarriages, 

 by hastening the time of marriage of women of that high class, and by 

 provision for rearing children healthily. The means that might be 

 employed to compass these ends are dowries, especially for those to 

 whom moderate sums are important, assured help in emergencies dur- 

 ing the early years of married life, healthy homes, the pressure of 

 public opinion, honors, and above all the introduction of motives of 

 religious or quasi-religious character. Indeed, an enthusiasm to improve 

 the race is so noble in its aim that it might well give rise to the sense 

 of a religious obligation. In other lands there are abundant instances 

 in which religious motives make early marriages a matter of custom 

 and continued celibacy to be regarded as a disgrace, if not a crime. 

 The customs of the Hindoos, also of the .lews, especially in ancient 

 times, bear this out. In all costly civilizations there is a tendency to 

 shrink from marriage on prudential grounds. It would, however, be 

 possible so to alter the conditions of life that the most prudent course 

 for an X-elass person should lie exactly opposite to its present direc- 

 tion, for he or she might find that there were advantages and not dis- 

 advantages in early marriage, and that the most prudent course was 

 to follow their natural instincts. 



We have now to consider the probable gain in the number and worth 

 of adult offspring to these favored couples. First, as regards the effect 

 of reducing the age at marriage. There is unquestionably a tendency 

 among cultured women to delay or even to abstain from marriage; they 



