THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 203 



has suffered since natural selection has been interfered with by 

 the course of European history. His mental side has suffered 

 too. As Mr. Galton remarks, u all the finest intellects, and 

 the most modest and gentle natures, fled to the convent from 

 the disturbed and terrible world," which thus underwent double 

 loss, its best and noblest withdrawn from it, its basest and 

 most ignoble left to raise up the future generations. 



It is clear that in modern civilized life the elimination of the 

 healthy from the diseased is not of the rigorous primordial 

 kind. Very many sickly and diseased people, who in a wild 

 state of nature would be rapidly weeded out, survive the pro- 

 creative period, and leave offspring, who tend to inherit the 

 same diseases. This new order of things is the outcome of 

 morality, which has evolved pari passu with the development 

 of society ; for morality is a necessary concomitant of social 

 development. Civilized man, as at present constituted, would 

 never suffer natural selection to run its merciless course wholly 

 unchecked. In a litter of pigs, the weakest is destroyed, but 

 in the young human family does not the sickly, crippled child 

 absorb an extra share of the mothers love ? 



" His mother, too, no doubt above 

 Her other children him did love ; 

 For, was she here, or was she there, 

 She thought of him with constant care, 

 And more than mother's love." — Woedswoktii. 



Morality cries out against oppression of the weaker; far from 

 crushing them under foot, it bids us help them, it kindles our 

 sympathy for them, and thus asylums are founded where many 

 live on, who, otherwise, must needs die. The well-ordered 

 mind shrinks from the thought of taking human life, or of 

 suffering a fellow-creature to die without help ; such store, 

 indeed, do we set on life, that we exhaust every effort to pro- 

 long it, even though it be but one long agony. Nay, when 

 certain death is near at hand, we still strive to delay the fatal 

 moment, if only for a few seconds. 



Let us now consider the effect of natural selection on the 

 mental side of man. We may broadly say that in his case 

 natural selection operates chiefly on this side. We must 

 remember that in man the strength of intellect far transcends 



