86 WHAT IS EUGENICS? 



impossible to force high ideals into low minds. A person 

 who is markedly inferior in mind will generally prefer to 

 marry another person of like inferiority. Amongst such as 

 these we can do little towards preventing parenthood, 

 either by example or precept. Definite steps, such as those 

 described in Chapter XIV, ought to be taken to reduce the 

 size of the families of those of inferior stock. If this is not 

 done, merely to preach care in marriage will do little towards 

 saving the race. 



Turning to a different point, when a person has grounds 

 for fearing that insanity, for example, may appear in his 

 children, he is often advised to avoid marriage with any one 

 similarly threatened. Now, it is true that the child who gets 

 a double dose, so to speak, of harmful heredity, one from the 

 father and one from the mother, is more than twice as likely 

 in consequence to be cursed with the threatened evil. It is, 

 therefore, worldly wisdom to avoid a marriage with a person 

 similarly threatened. But let there be no mistake as to 

 what is being done. A harmful inheritance is not destroyed 

 by marriage with good stock. It is in consequence merely 

 more often concealed and made to become more widely 

 scattered. If it does not show itself, it wiU nevertheless lie 

 hidden, but ready to come out in any future generation. 



The same principle applies to the marriages of cousins. 

 They are only harmful if the stock common to both parents 

 is bad. When both stocks are good, children of such 

 marriages will have a double chance of turning out well. If 

 the stock on both sides is bad, the children of cousin 

 marriages will be likely to show the evil quahties common to 

 the ancestors on both sides. This is true even if neither of 

 the parents shows any visible defects ; for such defects may 

 lie completely hidden. Marriages between cousins are, 

 therefore, open to objection as regards immediate results. 

 As regards the effects on the race, to marry a cousin is no 

 worse than marrying anyone else. It would not increase the 

 evil inheritance, though it might bring it to light, and conse- 

 quently make it more easily stamped out. The immediate 

 effects of cousin marriages may be very harmful, whilst the 



