VIRILE SENTIMENT 97 



the lower classes, and liberty is being restricted for 

 the individuals of the classes above. 



The whole influence of this modern sentiment is 

 trending in the wrong direction. It sets out with the 

 belief that it can effect the salvation of the unfit by 

 improving their environment. It will end by achiev- 

 ing the destruction of the fit, without having even 

 gained the salvation of the unfit. It commenced its 

 operations by creating an army of grand-maternal 

 officials to guide the footsteps of the weak, the stupid, 

 the inane, the imbeciles, and the physical and moral 

 wrecks. It will end — indeed, it has begun to end — 

 by the creation of an army of lower-grade officials who 

 are rapidly degenerating into petty tyrants, who seek 

 to restrict the successes of better citizens that have 

 achieved what they could not, and have excited alike 

 their cupidity and their vanity. And this, it appears 

 to me, is the social aspect which the case of the 

 Metropolitan Asylums Board presents to us. Through- 

 out history every effort to save the unworthy has 

 reacted to the detriment of the worthy. It is time 

 we looked more seriously both at the teachings of 

 History and Biology. 



A popular impression exists that by marriage it 

 it possible to minimise in the next generation the 

 evil qualities of one of the two partners by the good 

 qualities of the other. It is a belief which is based 

 impliedly upon the conception that underlies what 

 is termed blended inheritance. Its faith is rooted in 

 the assumption that the offspring represent a blend of 

 their two parents, and of their more distant ancestry, 



