CIVILIZED NATIONS. 153 



to marry earlier, and leave a larger number of offspring to 

 inherit their inferior constitutions. But the inheritance of 

 property by itself is very far from an evil; for without the 

 accumulation of capital the arts could not progress; and it 

 is chiefly through their power that the civilized races have 

 extended, and are now everywhere extending their range, 

 so as to take the place of the lower races. Nor does the 

 moderate accumulation of wealth interfere with the process 

 of selection. When a poor man becomes moderately rich, 

 his children enter trades or professions in which there is 

 struggle enough, so that the able in body and mind succeed 

 best. The presence of a body of well-instructed men, who 

 have not to labor for their daily bread, is important to a 

 degree which cannot be overestimated; as all high intel- 

 lectual work is carried on by them, and on such work, 

 material progress of all kinds mainly depends, not to men- 

 tion other and higher advantages. No doubt wealth when 

 very great tends to convert men into useless drones, but 

 their number is never large; and some degree of elimina- 

 tion here occurs, for we daily see rich men, who happen to 

 be fools or profligates, squandering away their wealth. 



Primogeniture with entailed estates is a more direct evil, 

 though it may formerly have been a great advantage by the 

 creation of a dominant class, and any government is better 

 than none. Most eldest sons, though they may be weak in 

 body or mind, marry, while the younger sons, however 

 superior in these respects, do not so generally marry. Nor 

 can worthless eldest sons with entailed estates squander 

 their wealth. But here, as elsewhere, the relations of 

 civilized life are so complex that some compensatory checks 

 intervene. The men who are rich through primogeniture 

 are able to select generation after generation the more 

 beautiful and charming women; and these must generally 

 be healthy in body and active in mind. The evil conse- 

 quences, such as they may be, of the continued preserva- 

 tion of the same line of descent, without any selection, are 

 checked by men of rank always wishing to increase their 

 wealth and power ; and this they effect by marrying 

 heiresses. But the daughters of parents who have produced 

 single children, are themselves, as Mr. Galton * has shown, 

 apt to be sterile; and thus noble families are continually 



* " Hereditary Genius/' 1870, pj>, 133-140. 



