262 HEREDITY. 



eient to burst social mountains, making them crack 

 open like so much, baked volcanic clay, in revulsion 

 after revulsion ; if jealousy has always been one of 

 the high explosives in human history, you may put 

 this force, too, on the side of monogamy, for there 

 is where God intended that its power should be ex- 

 pended. [Applause.] 



4. The average ability of the race is not equal to 

 its present tasks. 



Galton says that men in modern times are in danger 

 of being drudged into imbecility. There is hardly 

 any class of the advanced intellectual laborers of the 

 world, that does not need a higher grade of ability 

 to meet its tasks. You, sir [turning to the Rev. Dr. 

 R. S. Storrs], were telling us last evening, how to 

 solve the great problem of the government of cities. 

 You were showing us how cities reach all the globe ; 

 and, as some of us listened, we were wishing that we 

 oftener had leadership like yours into these wilder- 

 nesses of iniquity, greed, and pelf, where men are 

 trampled down every day merely because they are 

 not strong enough for their tasks. We want higher 

 ability in every grade of intellectual activity; nor 

 is the physical capacity of the race equal to the 

 demands made upon it by modern civilization. 



5. Whatever light science can throw upon the 

 methods of improving the average ability of the 

 race, consistently with the natural institution of mo- 

 nogamy, is, therefore, needed, and should be diffused. 



We are not so far advanced, I hope, as to despise 

 the social wisdom of the age of chivalry. 



