250 WHAT IS LIFE? 



is found in the most wretched artisan passing from door 

 to door seeking for the employment he cannot obtain. 



But with the views we are now reaching, that is, a 

 knowledge of regeneration, and our adapting ourselves 

 to this fundamental idea, there are given to our poli- 

 tical, religious, social, and domestic actions, as also to 

 international actions, new and higher impulses. At 

 the present moment we are doing our best to develop a 

 rickety, a degenerated population at the expense of the 

 waning energies of the healthy. 1 The consequent strain 



1 " The whole history of nations, or what is called ' Universal 

 History,' must therefore be explicable by means of natural selection 

 must be a physico-chemical process, depending upon the interaction 

 of Adaptation and Inheritance in the struggle for life. And this is 

 actually the case. And yet not only natural selection, but artificial 

 selection as well, is variously active in the history of the world. 



" A remarkable instance of artificial selection in man, on a great 

 scale, is furnished by the ancient Spartans, among' whom, in 

 obedience to a special law, all newly- born children were subject to a 

 careful examination and selection. All those that were weak, sickly, 

 or affected with any bodily infirmity, were killed. Only the per- 

 fectly healthy and strong children were allowed to live, and they 

 alone afterwards propagated the race. By this means, the Spartan 

 race was not only continually preserved in excellent strength and 

 vigour, but the perfection of their bodies increased with every 

 generation. No doubt the Spartans owed their rare degree of 

 masculine strength and rough heroic valour (for which they are 

 eminent in ancient history) in a great measure to this artificial 

 selection. 



" Many tribes also among the Red Indians of North America (who 

 at present are succumbing in the struggle for life to the superior 

 numbers of the white intruders, in spite of a most heroic and 

 courageous resistance) owe their rare degree of bodily strength and 

 warlike bravery to a similar careful selection of the newly-born 

 children. Among them, also, all children that are weak or affected 

 with any infirmity are immediately killed, and only the perfectly 

 strong individuals remain in life, and propagate the race. That the 

 race becomes greatly strengthened, in the course of very many 



