158 



HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



stitute but a mere local treatment of symptoms. 

 They are like the rubbing of a superficial bodily 

 irritation when the seat of the difficulty is 

 within ; though there is a temporary soothing 

 of the trouble, the inflammation is really in- 

 creased. So the more one relieves pauperism 

 by indiscriminate giving, the more it is aggra- 

 vated. The real questions to be considered are 

 two : (i) How may an industrious and virtuous 

 stock be substituted for that which breeds pau- 

 pers ? (2) How may the conditions of living be 

 so improved that the pauper class shall no longer 

 be recruited from the ranks of the frugal and in- 

 dustrious .'' Speaking again in general terms, the 

 reply is, that there is one and the same answer for 

 both questions. Without ignoring the possibilities 

 of appeal to the personality of the very poor, the 

 chief way in which a hard-working and frugal stock 

 can be secured is by a change in the existing 

 environment ; and the way offering the greatest 

 promise that the pauper class will no more be 

 augmented from other classes, is that of secur- 

 ing such conditions as shall make men unwill- 

 ing, even for selfish reasons, to sink to lower 

 levels. 



Let us now note a few principles which are 

 well established by scientific investigation. 



