EGOISM IN THE HUMAN RACE 243 



ical diseases that kill such a large proportion of the 

 individuals born. 2. His passions, which give rise to 

 the evils of alcoholism and sensualism, and most of 

 the other evils which weaken and sap the vitality of 

 mankind. Microorganisms and passions are the 

 fundamental cause of the wholesale destruction of 

 children among the poor. 



Selection Among the Higher Classes At the top of 



society a different series of facts tends to check 

 reproductive efficiency. Among the higher classes 

 a greater proportion of the children born are reared, 

 but this is probably more than compensated for by 

 the smaller birth rate. The number of children in 

 the family is commonly limited through artificial 

 factors. The first is custom, for in most commu- 

 nities the higher classes have fallen into the way of 

 having small families. A second factor is the great 

 development of social pleasure in our communities, 

 interfering most fundamentally with the family life, 

 destroying to a great or less degree the family love, 

 making the father almost a stranger to his children, 

 and even causing the mother to have so great interest 

 in social pleasures as to leave her children to the 

 ignorant care of servants. We have too the intensity 

 of commercial life, and the attraction of the club to 

 take the father from his family. All of these tend 

 to destroy the unity and the significance of the 

 family, and to decrease the probability that children 

 will be born and properly reared. Perhaps the most 

 important of all is the fact that in the higher classes 

 there is a tendency for marriages to occur later and 

 later in life. Whereas among the lowest people mar- 

 riages frequently occur at the age of 12 to 14, among 

 the upper classes in civilized communities marriage 



