i PROLEGOMENA. 39 



is very small; and, generally, the hereditary crim- 

 inal and the hereditary pauper have propa- 

 gated their kind before the law affects them. In 

 a large proportion of cases, crime and pauper- 

 ism have nothing to do with heredity; but are 

 the consequence, partly, of circumstances and, 

 partly, of the possession of qualities, which, under 

 different conditions of life, might have excited 

 esteem and even admiration. It was a shrewd 

 man of the world who, in discussing sewage prob- 

 lems, remarked that dirt is riches in the wrong 

 place; and that sound aphorism has moral appli- 

 cations. The benevolence and open-handed gen- 

 erosity which adorn a rich man, may make a pau- 

 per of a poor one; the energy and courage to 

 which the successful soldier owes his rise, the cool 

 and daring subtlety to which the great financier 

 owes his fortune, may very easily, under unfavour- 

 able conditions, lead their possessors to the gal- 

 lows, or to the hulks. Moreover, it is fairly prob- 

 able that the children of a " failure " will receive 

 from their other parent just that little modifica- 

 tion of character which makes all the difference. 

 I sometimes wonder whether people, who talk so 

 freely about extirpating the unfit, ever dispas- 

 sionately consider their own history. Surely, one 

 must be very " fit," indeed, not to know of an 

 occasion, or perhaps two, in one's life, when it 

 would have been only too easy to qualify for a 

 place among the " unfit." 



