CIVILIZED NATIONS. 155 



founders of beneficent religions, great philosophers and dis- 

 coverers in science, aid the progress of mankind in a far 

 higher degree by their works than by leaving a numerous 

 progeny. In the case of corporeal structures, it is the 

 selection of the slightly better-endowed and the elimination 

 of the slightly less well-endowed individuals, and not 

 the preservation of strongly-marked and rare anomalies, 

 that leads to the advancement of a species.* So it will be 

 with the intellectual faculties, since the somewhat abler 

 men in each grade of society succeed rather better than the 

 less able, and consequently increase in number, if not other- 

 wise prevented. When in any nation the standard of intel- 

 lect and the number of intellectual men have increased, we 

 may expect from the law of the deviation from an average, 

 that prodigies of genius will, as shown by Mr. Galton, 

 appear somewhat more frequently than before. 



In regard to the moral qualities, some elimination of the 

 worst dispositions is always in progress even in the most 

 civilized nations. Malefactors are executed, or imprisoned 

 for long periods, so that they cannot freely transmit their 

 bad qualities. Melancholic and insane persons are confined 

 or commit suicide. Violent and quarrelsome men often 

 come to a bloody end. The restless who will not follow 

 any steady occupation and this relic of barbarism is a 

 great check to civilizationf emigrate to newly-settled 

 countries, where they prove useful pioneers. Intemperance 

 is so highly destructive that the expectation of life of the 

 intemperate at the age of thirty for instance, is only 13.8 

 years; while for the rural laborers of England at the same 

 age it is 40.59 years. { Profligate women bear few children, 

 and profligate men rarely marry; both suifer from disease. 

 In the breeding of domestic animals, the elimination of 

 those individuals, though few in number, which are in any 

 marked manner inferior, is by no means an unimportant 

 element toward success. This especially holds good with > 

 injurious characters which tend to reappear through rever- 

 sion, such as blackness in sheep; and with mankind some 



* " Origin of Species" (fifth edition, 1869), p. 104. 



f " Hereditary Genius," 1870, p. 347. 



t E. Ray Lankester, " Comparative Longevity," 1870, p. 115. The 

 table of the intemperate is from Neison's "'Vital Statistics." In 

 jvgard to profligacy, see Dr. Farr, " Influence of Marriage on Mor- 

 tality," "Nat. Assoc. for the Promotion of Social Science/' 1858, 



