6 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



The results of improvement are there more visible and 

 more immediate. They are of incalculable value, and to 

 them the progress of the past century is largely due. But 

 the changes in the innate qualities of the race, though 

 slower in action, are of even more profound importance 

 than alterations of the external conditions of human 

 existence. Man does not live by bread alone. His 

 inborn qualities of body, mind, and soul are of more 

 worth than physical comfort and convenience. Those 

 qualities depend on heredity, and the form they take in 

 any nation can be modified only by the slow process of 

 selective parenthood. But, " though the mills of God 

 grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small," and a 

 wrongly directed selection destroys a race more utterly 

 and irrevocably than any failure to take advantage of 

 improved physical conditions of life. 



A knowledge of the importance of heredity, instead 

 of weakening the sense of responsibility, shows how 

 much wider and deeper our responsibility is than had 

 been suspected. We come to understand that on our 

 personal and collective action depend not only the 

 present environment of the people, but also the innate 

 qualities of future generations. Blind acquiescence in 

 evil, ignorance of the issues at stake, may result in 

 irremediable injury to unborn millions. Not only 

 are we our brother's keeper, but the guardian of the 

 physical, mental, and moral character of his remotest 

 descendants. 



These ideas, once grasped, change profoundly the 

 outlook on sociological and political problems. If once 

 we come to look on all questions of investigation, 

 legislation, and administration from this point of view, 



