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this, no doubt, is true if we add the words relatively to conditions. 

 I believe that this has happened during the last thirty or forty 

 years to a very remarkable extent. Men born able to live and 

 be fairly vigorous under the comparatively hard conditions that 

 obtained forty years ago, have found themselves living in an 

 easier environment, and are in consequence surpassing their 

 fathers in energy and longevity. Towns have become cleaner : 

 good water is almost everywhere obtainable ; epidemics are 

 nipped in the bud ; more frequent change of air has lightened 

 the strain of life : there has been less excess and more study of 

 the laws of health. Dr Johnson is said to have made his nights 

 miserable and reduced his vitality by excessive potations of tea. 

 Four bottle men were not uncommon in his time and later. In 

 the present day, without being valetudinarians, men take trouble 

 to discover the diet and the general regime which will best fit 

 them for work. Thus, through the advance of science and 

 through the exercise of self-control, they are not only equal to 

 the conditions of life, but have a margin of superiority. But 

 strength due to this cause can only be maintained through a 

 number of generations by a progressive softening of the environ- 

 ment, and this must depend upon the continued advance of 

 science and wealth. Should their advance be arrested, race 

 deterioration will then make itself felt. 



It may be argued that, even then, things will not have reached 

 by any means a deplorable pass, since no race can be absolutely 

 too weak for its conditions, or Natural Selection will soon set 

 matters right. But a superabundance of vigour is what is wanted, 

 and besides this there is an important point which must not be 

 left out of consideration. The most crucial part of the environ- 

 ment of a species of wild animals is the competing species. 

 Similarly whenever a nation is worth robbing there are other 

 nations waiting to seize its inheritance. In this connection we 

 may well think of the Russians, still living under half barbarous 

 conditions, and still possessed of a barbarous physical strength. 

 Captain Younghusband describes Russian officers as "bursting 

 with health." The Russian peasant, on the other hand, under- 

 fed and pinched by cold, does not develop his full strength. 



