SOCIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS 101 



has adduced, that previous to the introduction of 

 more severe tests of endurance on the racecourse, 

 in the year 1899, it was difficult to pick out a good 

 staying horse from his non-staying fellows. At 

 that time not miany races were run of a greater 

 distance than a mile. This difficulty of discrimination 

 did not arise because the good staying horses were 

 not there, but because the selective tests were so 

 easy that most racehorses with no real staying powers 

 could stay them out. It was only when the races 

 were lengthened to a mile and half or more, and the 

 pace throughout had to be run at racing rate, that it 

 became easy to make discriminations between the 

 horses, and to classify them as " stayers " and " non- 

 stayers." 



Now this fact has an important and significant 

 bearing on civilisation as it is manifested in the 

 social life of Western Europe. Just as in the racing 

 period prior to 1899, good " stayers " among racing 

 horses were virtually lost to the racing world because 

 they were submerged in a multitude of " inter- 

 mediates " and " sprinters," so in human life, every 

 step in the direction of softening the environment — 

 such as free education and the like — does not make 

 better men, it only serves to label the inherently 

 vigorous and capable with the same label as the inert 

 and incapable. The difference between the two 

 classes is very soon shown when exceptional circum- 

 stances momentarily raise the selective test. It is 

 not, as a rule, the men who took highest marks in 

 the Army examinations who have proved the most 



