THE KINGDOM OF MAN 247 



by inborn fecklessness and irresponsibility, bave to fall 

 back on the State for support, should be looked after, 

 but permanently and without opportunity for multiplica- 

 tion. 



(d) The fourth suggestion is that we must work out 

 our salvation by the substitution of rational or social 

 selection for natural selection. This is already pro- 

 ceeding along many lines. Thus there is the well-known 

 agency called by economists the " criticism of consump- 

 tion " or " criticism of expenditure." If we have a 

 margin to spend for super-necessaries (which are more 

 necessary sometimes than the necessaries), and if we 

 consistently spend that in what promotes, let us say, a 

 healthy occupation (like gardening) and things of beauty, 

 then we are indubitably selecting in the line of progress. 

 Few will boast that they have gone as far as they could 

 along this line. 



There is great selective power in what may be called 

 efficiency requirements. Thus in certain occupations, 

 a standard of reliability is exacted. No matter how 

 desirable a man may be, it is necessary to get rid of 

 him if he proves unrehable. This does not necessarily 

 improve matters socially, for the man may slide into 

 an easy job at a lower level and have a large family ; 

 but on the whole it is for good. It works against 

 " arrangements which tend to make it as well to be 

 inferior as to be superior," as Spencer put it. 



