1 62 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



have prospered or failed, can be studied in the historical 

 records of the nations involved. 



Every nation requires a constant succession of men 

 of ability of every description to carry on the work of 

 government, the industrial and economic life, the 

 literary, artistic, and scientific development, in a 

 manner appropriate to its special form of civilization, 

 to its traditions in the past, and to its aspirations for 

 the future. Moreover, such men are required in 

 increasing and not in decreasing numbers, as the 

 responsibilities and complications of government, 

 whether imperial or local, develop. Undoubtedly in 

 England there is ability of some sort latent in almost 

 every class of the community, except in the very lowest 

 and among the mentally defective ; but equally surely 

 the various forms of ability have been sorted out during 

 the past centuries by the action of natural selection, of 

 like -to -like mating, of direct inheritance, and exist 

 ready in certain strains in an intensified form. By the 

 cultivation of a due sense of moral responsibility, by 

 an appeal to the patriotism and foresight of the nation, 

 by a proper adjustment of economic burdens, by a 

 well-considered scheme of deterrent legislation, a 

 nation can control its future composition and history 

 to a much larger extent than has been suspected, and, 

 whether it will or no, is always rising or falling as 

 regards its inherent qualities. Good fortune and pros- 

 perity will attend on those communities who are the 

 first to take advantage of and to apply the new know- 

 ledge. Natural selection, natural inheritance, and the 

 conscious action of men, have divided the equine breed 



