102 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



competent commanders of men and the most intrepid 

 of soldiers. And at the other end of the social scale, 

 one chooses one's domestic servants not because the 

 London County Council gave them Domestic Scholar- 

 ships and had the poor girls lectured to on subjects 

 they never understood, but because they have muscle, 

 good temper, capacity to work, honesty, and a power 

 of happy adaptation. We are aware that there 

 are but few servants with these desirable qualifications, 

 but the moment the environment is softened and 

 conditions are rendered so easy that scholarships are 

 not only given away in thousands, but are accom- 

 panied with a prayer to the recipients to be kind 

 enough to accept them,* we submerge our really 

 vigorous and competent girls beneath the army of 

 " slackers," who only accept scholarships because 

 the life it confers upon them is easier than the life of 

 the world. 



Another fact of social significance in Mr. Robert- 

 son's article is that every horse has his course, beyond 

 which he cannot stay. It is not training that makes 

 a " stayer." Whether a horse is able to win over a 

 long or short course is determined by bodily qualities 

 brought into his constitution by the gametic factors 

 of his parents. This is a fact equally true of human 

 life. No sane person with adequate knowledge of 

 the facts doubts it, but every politician and senti- 

 mentalist and social reformer systematically ignore 



* I have had many occasions to see a good deal of this scholarship 

 system as undertaken by the London County Council, and my statement 

 is virtually correct and there is ver\' little exaggeration in the metaphorical 

 allusion to prayers made to the recipients. 



