274 THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 



Thus, whereas in a savage community the inferior physical 

 types stand little chance of rearing offspring, in civilized 

 countries the sickly individual, possessing, as he unfortunately 

 does, the power of procreation, can, practically, always gratify 

 his desire for offspring, for there is little difficulty in securing 

 a wife. Many women have assuredly highly crude notions 

 concerning physical fitness, so much so that a sickly man is 

 often voted ' ' interesting ; " and although one can scarcely go 

 so far as Thackeray, who tells us any man can marry any 

 woman, yet I think it will be generally allowed that there are 

 few men desiring matrimony who cannot gratify their wish. 

 All may not succeed in the first instance, but he must indeed 

 be a very bad specimen of humanity who meets with universal 

 failure. 



Men are, moreover, actuated by other considerations than 

 those of physical fitness. There is a beauty of mind as well as 

 of body. A noble mind is an irresistible force, and it is well 

 that it is, for so the superior mental type tends to be propa- 

 gated. Hence we may fittingly speak of a" mental fitness ; " 

 and are not many mentally unfit to marry, some because inca- 

 pable of acting up to the full morality of married life, others 

 because possessing minds too degraded to be transmitted to 

 posterity ? 



And here I would ask — Does the thought often occur to 

 those who desire to marry and to have children, " Am I worthy 

 to be represented in posterity ? Have I myself been such a 

 success that I should wish to leave another like me ? " I doubt 

 not that, as regards physical ineptitude, the question does very 

 frequently arise, and that the answer is usually — "A r o/ ; ' But 

 what of mental ineptitude ? Life has pain and troubles for all. 

 Some are so constructed, are so buoyed up with animal spirits — 

 and a precious heritage they are — that they ride safely through 

 the storm and tempest of life — the pains and sorrows of to-day 

 melting into the ocean of the past to-morrow, and forgotten. 

 This is physiological. But there are others — and they are 

 many — who are keenly alive to the pains and trials which all 

 must suffer, who are apt to brood unduly over the mysteries 

 of life, for ever seeking to gaze into ,the unfathomable. Ought 

 such to marry ? I think not. The hypochondriac is often 



