from the Standpoint of Science 27 



progress ; there will be nothing to check the 

 fertility of inferior stock ; the relentless law 

 of heredity will not be controlled and guided 

 by natural selection. Man will stagnate ; 

 and unless he ceases to multiply, the catas- 

 trophe will come again ; famine and pesti- 

 lence, as we see them in the East, physical 

 selection instead of the struggle of race 

 against race, will do the work more relent- 

 lessly, and, to judge from India and China, 

 far less efficiently than of old. 



Let us face this question of increasing 

 population boldly. We cannot escape it. 

 Sooner or later it must and will make itself 

 felt in every progressive nation ; for what I 

 have said of the struggle of race against race 

 makes itself again felt within every commu- 

 nity. A nation like the French can largely 

 limit the number of its offspring, but how 

 shall we be sure that these offspring are from 

 the better and not from the inferior stock ? If 

 they come equally from both stocks and there 

 be no wastage, then the nation has ceased to 

 progress ; it stagnates. I feel sure that a 

 certain amount of wastage is almost neces- 

 sary for a progressive nation ; you want 



