and masters of the earth " can prove an alibi 

 when accused of the fashioning of the terri- 

 ble shape of this primitive man. And men 

 of this shape persist to-day in regions never 

 invaded by our social or political tyranny, 

 and their kind is older than any existing 

 social order. 



That he is "chained to the wheel of labor" 

 is the result, not the cause, of his impotence. 

 In dealing with him, therefore, we are far 

 from the " labor problem " of to-day, far 

 from the workman brutalized by premature 

 strain and by unequal competition with ma- 

 chinery, and from all the wrongs of the poor 

 as set forth in the conventional literature of 

 sympathy. 



In our discussion of national decadence 

 through reversed selection we turn to 

 France simply as a convenient illustration. 

 Her sins have not been always greater than 

 those of other lands, nor is the penalty more 

 significant. Her case rises to our hand to 

 illustrate a principle which applies to all 

 human history and to all groups of plants 

 and animals as well as to man. Our picture, 

 such as it is, must be painted with a broad 



The 



Human 



Harvest 



The sift- 

 ing of men 

 in France 



[53] 



