SPENCER 178 



left is of very modest dimensions, and Spencer's dealing 

 with the residue is remarkable. 



In dealing with domesticated animals he fails to grasp 

 the fact that the condition of the animal at the time of 

 copulation is the decisive factor. The infertility of wild 

 animals when highly fed in captivity is dismissed in a 

 footnote with the suggestion that it may be due to im- 

 proper feeding. The infertility of wild plants when 

 cultivated in gardens and hothouses is not mentioned. 

 The relative infertility of the wealthier and more highly 

 fed classes in human society is flimsily attributed to 

 their " high pressure education " and the " overtaxing 

 of their brains." The enormous fecundity of the poor 

 populations of Russia, China, Japan and India is not 

 even mentioned, though in itself a conclusive refutation 

 of Spencer's theory. The current assumption that the 

 lowest races contrive, in some miraculous fashion, to 

 combine an enormous deathrate with an exceptionally 

 low birthrate is accepted without question. The French- 

 Canadians are represented as living in a country where 

 the necessaries of life are easily obtained, the truth 

 being that they are an ignorant and backward race of 

 peasant farmers living in a country which is covered 

 with snow for some five months in the year, paying tithes 

 to a tyrannical priesthood, having a standard of living 

 "lower than that of the Irish or Italians," and earning 

 their living like peasant farmers the world over, by hard 

 physical toil, in which, no doubt, their wives take a sub- 

 stantial share. Lastly, the Irish are represented as 

 receiving an exceptionally large return for a moderate 

 expenditure of labour. Rack-renting and similar details 

 are not noticed. Yet one of the characters in John Bull's 

 Other Island declares that " an Irish peasant's industry 

 is not human : it's worse than the industry of a coral 

 insect. An Englishman has some sense about work : 



