536 IMPROVEMENT OF THE III' MAN RREED. 



considering the large families of colonists, and of those in many rural 

 districts; but it is a high estimate. Perhaps the fairest approximation 

 may be that these influences would cause the X women to bring into 

 the world an average of one adult son and one adult daughter in addi- 

 tion to what they would otherwise have produced. The table of descent 

 applies t<> one son or to one daughter per couple; it may now be read 

 as specifying the net gain and showing its distribution. Should this 

 estimate be thought too high, the results may be diminished accordingly. 

 It is no absurd idea that outside influences should hasten the age of 

 marrying and make it customary for the best to marry the best. A 

 superficial objection is sure to be urged that the fancies of young peo- 

 ple are so incalculable and so irresistible that they can not be guided. 

 No doubt they are so in some exceptional cases. I lately heard from a 

 lady who belonged to a count} T family of position that a great aunt of 

 hers had scandalized her own domestic circle two generations ago by 

 falling in love with the undertaker at her father's funeral and insisting 

 on marrying him. Strange vagaries occur, but considerations of social 

 position and of fortune, with frequent opportunities of intercourse, 

 tell much more in the long run than sudden fancies that want roots. 

 In a community deeply impressed with the desire of encouraging mar- 

 riages between persons of equally high ability the social pressure 

 directed to produce the desired end would be so great as to insure a 

 notable amount of success. 



PROFIT AND LOSS. 



The problem to be solved now assumes a clear shape. A child of 

 the X class (whatever X signifies) would have been worth so and so 

 at its birth, and one of each of the other grades, respectively, would 

 have been worth so and so; lot) X parentages can be made to produce 

 a net gain of 100 adult sons and 100 adult daughters who will be dis- 

 ributed among the classes according to the standard table of descent. 

 The total value of the prospective produce of the 100 parentages can 

 then be estimated by an actuary, and consequently the sum that it is 

 legitimate to spend in favoring an X parentage. The clear and dis- 

 tinct statement of a problem is often more than halfway toward its 

 solution. There seems no reason why this one should not be solved 

 between limiting values that are not too wdde apart to be useful. 



EXISTING ACTIVITIES. 



Leaving aside profitable expenditure from a purely mone} r point of 

 view, the existence should be borne in mind of immense voluntary 

 activities that have nobler aims. The annual voluntary contributions 

 in the British Isles to public charities alone amount, on the lowest 

 computation, to X' 14,000,000, a sum which Sir H. Burdett asserts on 

 good grounds is by no means the maximum obtainable. (Hospitals 

 and Charities, 1898, p. 85.) 



