Chapter XVII 

 Selection in Marriage 



THOSE who marry any one with any serious defect of 

 body, mind, or character are apt to bring trouble on 

 both themselves and their children. This is because such 

 failings are not only immediately harmful, but may be 

 passed on to succeeding generations by natural inheritance 

 or by example. To be careful in the choice made in marriage 

 will, therefore, benefit the nation and the race. 



To spread the view that great forethought ought to be 

 exercised in the selection of a partner for life has, indeed, 

 been held by some authorities to be the most important aim 

 of eugenics. And certainly it is very important. But there 

 are reasons why too much reliance must not be placed on 

 selection in marriage as a racial safeguard. These reasons 

 wiU now be briefly stated. 



Let it be supposed that I have four dogs, two well bred 

 and two ill bred. Of course I wish to mate together the 

 two well-bred animals, so that I shall get puppies as well 

 bred as possible. But how about the ill-bred dogs ? If I 

 take care that they do not breed, nothing more need be said. 

 But if I were to let them mate together, and if they were to 

 have four puppies, whilst my well-bred couple had only two, 

 then my group of puppies would contain twice as many ill- 

 bred as well-bred dogs. This gives a rough illustration of 

 the way in which our own race may now be going down hill. 



This illustration also shows that careful selection in 

 marriage does no good to the breed of the nation as a whole 

 if those who are passed by in the first instance marry as 

 certainly and as quickly as those selected before them. In 

 other words, the exercise of care as to choice in marriage is 

 beneficial to the race only in so far as it delays or hinders 

 the marriages of the worse types. No doubt the silly or 



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