A REJOINDER 146 



crooked ? " or sought an answer to the question : 

 " Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard 

 his spots ? " 



Another phrase of Miss Wodehouse's that is liable 

 to give a misimpression of my attitude is that in 

 her footnote on page 132. She says that I have 

 pleaded the unfit ought to be killed off. It is strange 

 how almost universally an author's passive attitude 

 is converted into a positive one by his critics. 

 The phrase " killed off " is not mine. It was 

 urged that the multiplication of the unfit should 

 cease. Essentially, the view I advocate in nearly 

 all social questions is that, after justice, and the 

 army and navy have been adequately provided for, 

 the rest should be left to voluntary co-operation and 

 to laisser faire. In this I simply follow Herbert 

 Spencer, whose prophecies are being rapidly fulfilled. 

 We cannot escape the obvious conclusion, that 

 a fit nation can only be so if it is composed of 

 self-reliant and self-supporting individuals. The 

 nation must necessarily weaken as the number of its 

 weak, helpless, and unreliant citizens increase, while 

 those of antithetic qualities decrease. The France 

 of to-day is a standing warning of the danger that 

 faces the England of to-morrow. A strong nation 

 will essentially be one which has adopted as a 

 guiding principle the maxim of " letting those 

 live who can," and those who cannot shall find 

 an abode elsewhere. Of course, I urge nothing 

 against the altruism of the family nor of that of 

 friends. That is not likely, in the long run, to be 



