CONCLUSION 223 



in recording their pedigrees, marry among themselves, 

 and establish a predominant fertility, they can assure 

 success and position to the majority of their descend- 

 ants in any political future. They can become the 

 guardians and trustees of a sound inborn heritage, 

 which, incorruptible and undefiled, they can preserve 

 in purity and vigour throughout whatever period of 

 ignorance and decay may be in store for the nation 

 at large. Neglect to hand on undimmed the priceless 

 germinal qualities which such families possess, can be 

 regarded only as the betrayal of a sacred trust, given 

 them for the good of the nation and mankind. 



We look then for a day in the near future, when, 

 in some circles at any rate, a comparison of scientific 

 pedigrees will replace, or at all events precede, the 

 discussion of settlements in the preliminaries to a 

 marriage ; when birth and good-breeding (in its wide 

 sense), character and ability will be the qualities most 

 prized in the choice of mates ; when a bad ancestral strain 

 likely to reappear in succeeding generations will suppress 

 an incipient passion as effectually as it is now cured by 

 a deficiency of education or a superfluity of accent. 



Moreover, since the assumption of the responsibility 

 of offspring falls on those of the younger generation, 

 whose financial position, even in the upper classes, is 

 usually not yet secure, it should become an increasing 

 habit for the older generation, where they have it, to 

 distribute a substantial part of their property during 

 their lifetime. Such a distribution should not excite 

 the animosity of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

 Security or affluence often comes too late to make 

 easy the heavy burdens of early maturity, and, when 



