226 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



growth of aU noble qualities ; thus the nation may 

 start anew on its road to improvement. 



Our new scientific knowledge of heredity does but 

 emphasize the age-long warning of the Church, that 

 marriage and the procreation of children are not to be 

 " taken in hand unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly, but 

 reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, in the fear of 

 God," and knowledge of His laws. But, while warn- 

 ing from parenthood those not fit for its responsibilities, 

 let us give a new and deeper meaning to the old 

 Bidding Prayer, and ask with all our hearts " that 

 there may never be wanting a supply of persons duly 

 qualified to serve God in Church and State." 



In the course of these pages, we have had to draw 

 a gloomy picture of the tendencies which have shown 

 themselves in the nation during the last forty years. 

 But we must not be understood to think badly of the 

 future. Twice at least in her history, England has re- 

 covered from the effects of a period of wrongly-directed 

 selective birth-rate. The recognition of the causes at 

 work is but the first step towards better things. We 

 believe in the moral soundness of the nation, and feel 

 convinced that, with their eyes open, the best elements 

 of the people will not persevere in their present course 

 of race deterioration. There is plenty of good stock 

 in England, and an appreciation of its value and of its 

 necessity to the nation will force us to find ways of 

 encouraging its reproduction and checking that of the 

 evil strains. 



Then our race once more will improve. What are 

 the limits to that improvement none can say. Though 



