from the Standpoint of Science 31 



additional human beings ; thfere were always 

 charity and the State ready to provide, more 

 or less inefficiently, for the surplus popula- 

 tion. There has been scarcely any check on 

 the multiplication of inferior stock ; only in 

 the middle ranks, among the more sub- 

 stantial workers with the hand and the head, 

 have men regarded the number of their off- 

 spring and made success in life's struggle to 

 some extent a condition of their multiplica- 

 tion. 



Now, surely this is a very dangerous state 

 of affairs for the nation at large. A crisis 

 may come in which we may want all the 

 brain and all the muscle we can possibly lay 

 our hands on, and we may find that there is 

 a dearth of ability and a dearth of physique, 

 because we have allowed inferior stock to 

 multiply at the expense of the better. There 

 are occasions when a nation wants a reserve 

 of strong men, and when it must draw brain 

 and muscle from classes and from forms of 

 work wherein they are not exercised to the 

 full. And in that day woe to the nation 

 which has recruited itself from the weaker 

 and not from the stronger stocks ! If you 



