DECLINE IN THE BIRTH-RATE 183 



whose talents did not lie in the direction of the Church 

 or the Law. Hence, with no feeling of degradation, 

 they became yeomen or farmers, or passed into the 

 trade of some near or distant town. In this way, good 

 county names became common among the farmers, 

 the country labourers, the craftsmen of the town, and 

 their apprentices. As the population of the country 

 seems to have remained almost stationary for several 

 hundred years, while the average number of children 

 born to a family was much greater than at present, 

 natural selection must have been very severe. Only 

 about one-quarter of the children born survived and be- 

 came parents. Any hereditary weakness tended rapidly 

 to be bred out of the people, and the overflow from 

 the stronger stocks easily made room for themselves 

 below. All classes were permeated with good blood, 

 and the country was filled with sound stock to supply 

 the wastage of the weaker strains brought about by 

 hardship, pestilence, or famine. 



During the eighteenth century, the figures we have 

 given in the last chapter show that the majority of the 

 younger sons of the landed aristocracy passed as a 

 matter of course into the Church, the Army, or the 

 Navy. Considerable prizes fell to a successful general 

 or admiral, and the whole of the Services, if not 

 adequately paid, gave a fine adventurous career to a 

 man of high courage and public spirit. With such 

 openings before them, younger sons of good birth 

 ceased to adopt agriculture or trade, which conse- 

 quently dropped in public estimation. 



In any nation it is well that members of those 

 families, who by character, good abilities, honourable 



