SELECTIVE BIRTH-RATE 163 



into animals of such different types as the Clydesdale 

 cart-horse, the thoroughbred racer, and the Shetland 

 pony. The same natural forces, joined to the stress 

 and strain of economic and international conflicts and to 

 the unconscious action of the human race, have differ- 

 entiated families of mankind in a similar way, if out- 

 wardly to a less marked extent. It is impossible to 

 compare the history given on page 97, of a family 

 which produced six generals and admirals in a few 

 generations, the pedigree on page 89, where nine 

 members were received into the Royal Society, and 

 the account of the Bach family on page 87, with 

 the notorious " Jukes " family, and with the family 

 described on page 68, who provided four inmates 

 for the special schools for the mentally defective, 

 without realizing the force of the old saying that 

 " by their fruits ye shall know them." " Do men 

 gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles .'' " Is it 

 likely that we shall find statesmen, generals, inventors, 

 and administrators in the ranks of the thriftless casual 

 labourer and the feeble-minded ? or that our leaders 

 and governors will be as successful if we draw them 

 from the untried and lower sections of the people 

 rather than from the higher and proved fount of 

 national ability and character ? Evidently it requires 

 several generations to ascertain, test, and fix the nature 

 of the capacity latent in any one stock. A nation, 

 having once fallen into arrears, cannot remake itself 

 immediately on demand. There is no doubt that the 

 phenomenon of restricted birth-rate in the successful 

 and talented classes during the past forty years has 

 appreciably, and to a certain extent irretrievably. 



