22 8 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



birth-rate is wholly, or in greatest part, voluntary is 

 full of hope. Had it been due to a lessened natural 

 fertility of the better elements of the nation, it would 

 have been of overwhelming sinister import to the 

 future of the human race. That is not so. All 

 our evidence goes to show that able and eminent men 

 and women are full of vitality and are naturally fertile. 

 Artificial modes of life — hurry, restlessness, luxury, 

 overfeeding — may have diminished temporarily the 

 power of bearing and rearing children among some 

 women. But such influences are small compared with 

 those under our direct and immediate control, and can 

 be destroyed by a determined and sustained effort. 



We have destroyed natural selection of the old 

 sort, " red in tooth and claw." The race is ceasing 

 to improve, is beginning to deteriorate. But almost 

 simultaneously, while there is yet time, by the blessing 

 of Providence, our eyes have been opened, and we are 

 become like gods, knowing good and evil. The future 

 of our race is placed in our hands to mould as we will. 



We cannot escape our responsibility, even if we 

 would. Occasionally one is met by the idea that all 

 control of agencies for the conscious bettering of the 

 race is immoral and irreligious. As well let us accept 

 the degraded but essentially identical view that the 

 attempt to understand and control pestilence and famine 

 is contrary to the will of God ! Such arguments have 

 been used in old time, are stiU used in the more 

 superstitious and backward nations of the world. We 

 have outgrown them. In all things we have come to 

 know that God helps those who help themselves. 



Again, it is sometimes thought that general recog- 



