536 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF BIOLOGICAL RESULTS 



Is there any consolation in the thought that quahty is always 

 safe against quantity, that eagles need never fear the frogs who 

 spawn, that an inheritance may persist socially even when a 

 lineage becomes extinct biologically ? Is there any warrant 

 for supposing that the race can continue producing from new 

 soil crop after crop of highly individuated types, each in its 

 turn destined to die out as a penalty for its own efficiency ? 

 Is there any truth in the inference that failure in reproductive 

 power is an expression of nature's verdict against dis-social 

 isolation of privileged classes, against every self-contradictory 

 denial of the solidarity of the social organism ? In any case, is 

 there not need for getting rid of a prudery of selfishness which 

 keeps some of the fitter types from recognising that they have 

 another contribution to make to the race besides their work ? 



It should be borne in mind that precise thinking on the subject 

 of fertility is still very uncommon, that there is no general 

 awareness that the details of our dwindling birth-rate are sug- 

 gestive of disaster, and that very few have what may be called 

 an awakened conscience on the subject. The most common- 

 sense precautions are quite disregarded. Falling in love is out 

 of fashion, and almost non-mammalian types grow commoner. 

 In a sense, though it is a pity, it may be just as well that they 

 should die out. And who, for instance, ever thinks of the wise 

 Frenchman's saying, " My father was a farmer, I am a Professor, 

 my son must be a farmer again " ? But, apart from the slow 

 diffusion of an interest in eugenics, perhaps the most promiseful 

 line of activity is that of trying to promote social (including of 

 course ethical) variations which may bring about more whole- 

 some biological conditions. 



Isolation. — The only other directive evolution-factor that 

 biologists are at all agreed about besides selection, is isolation — a 

 general term for all the varied ways in which the radius of 

 possible inter-crossing is narrowed. As expounded by Wagner, 

 Weismann, Romanes, Gulick, and others, isolation takes many 



