r 



152 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



inals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the 

 irace of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or 

 /care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domes- 

 tic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly 

 any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to 

 breed. 



The aid which we feel impelled to give to the helpless is 

 mainly an incidental result of th^in stinct of sympath y, 

 which wa s originally acquired as partS' the social instincts , 

 but subsequently rendered, in the manner previously indi- 

 cated, more tender and more widely diffused. No r could 

 we che ^k ^"^' "yrnpjltbY even at the urging of hamreason, 

 t ^f^tfrinn^ti ^n in th^ noblest p art of our nature, 

 'The surgeon may Uaraen liimseli while periorming an oper- 

 ation, for he knows that he is acting for the good of his 

 patient; but if we were intentionally to neglect the weak 

 and helpless, it could only be for a contingent benefit, with 

 an overwhelming present evil, ^f We must therefore bear the 

 undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving and propa- 

 gating their kind; but there appears to be at least one check 

 in steady action, namely, that the weaker and inferior 

 members of society do not marry so freely as the sound; and 

 this check might be indefinitely increased by the weak in 

 body or mind refraining from marriage, though this is more 

 to be hoped for than expected. 



In every country in which a large standing army is kept 

 up, the finest young men are taken by the conscription or 

 are enlisted. They are thus exposed to early death during 

 war, are often tempted into vice, and are prevented from 

 marrying during the prime of life. On the other hand, the 

 shorter and feebler men, with poor constitutions, are left at 

 home, and consequently have a much better chance of 

 marrying and propagating their kind.* 



Man accumulates property and bequeaths it to his chil- 

 dren, so that the children of the rich have an advantage 

 over the poor in the race for success, independently of 

 bodily or mental superiority. On the other hand, the 

 children of parents who are short-lived, and are therefore 

 on an average deficient in health and vigor, come into their 

 property sooner than other children, and will be likely 



*Prof. H. Fick (" Einfluss der Naturwissenscliaft aiif das Recht," 

 Jane, 1872) lias some good remai'ks on this head, and on other snch 

 points. 



