DEGENERATION. 



283 



when incentives to individual action are taken away, 

 without reduction in security of life, and when the unfit 

 are sheltered from the consequences of their folly, 

 weakness, or perversity. The increased effectiveness of 

 altruism which goes with race progress furnishes a shel- 

 ter under which race decay goes on. The growth of 

 wisdom makes folly safe. At the same time the growth 

 of wisdom works the death of fools when they are 

 brought into life-and-death competition with those 

 stronger and wiser. 



In the open competition of life the lineage of degen- 

 eracy is a short one. Each individual man is a link 



in the chain of life. His intellect is its 

 Lineage of de- guardian If the safeguard is weak, the 

 generacy short. ~ , - , T j 



link will be broken. Under ordinary 



conditions of freedom, there is no such thing as bad 

 heredity. Our ancestors are sound and sane each in a 

 fair degree, else we should not have seen the light. 



But with all this the withered branch may occur 

 on the most vigorous trees. Some descendant will show 



defects in nervous system or in balance 

 Withered of qualities> He will develop weakness 



branches. . . . . 



or excess in sensitiveness or in motor 



response, or his mental operations will show a lack of 

 that accuracy we call common sense. Such conditions, 

 if inborn through germ variation, may become heredi- 

 tary. A degenerate person may under certain condi- 

 tions be parent of a race of degenerates or " mattoids." 



The conditions of preservation of a decaying race 

 may be considered under seven heads. 



The unfit may be preserved as objects of charity. 

 " Charity," says a French writer, "causes half the suffer- 

 ing she relieves; but she can not relieve half the suffer- 

 ing she has caused." Unwise charity is responsible for 

 half the pauperism of the world. That pauperism has 



