CHAPTER VII. 



PARENTAL ADAPTATION. 



In this chapter we shall study the laws of selec- 

 tion and parental adaptation and see what mental 

 and temperamental combinations are most favor- 

 able to domestic happiness and the heredity of off- 

 spring. 



Marriage is natural. It is essential to civiliza- Marriage is 

 tion and the highest development of the indi- 

 vidual. No life is, or can be, complete without 

 its mate. No man or woman can accomplish in 

 the highest degree the true aims of life without 

 the association and mental co-operation 6f his or 

 her soul mate. Moreover the possibility of giv- 

 ing a good inheritance to offspring is determined 

 not alone by the mental and temperamental at- 

 tributes of the parents, but largely by their adapt- 

 ability to each other. A husband and wife, who 



are each splendidly endowed physically and The Importance 



, r F 1 of Adaptation, 



mentally, if unadapted may parent, even when 



ether conditions are favorable, very inferior chil- 

 dren; while a couple not so favorably endowed, 

 but perfectly adapted, frequently parent children 

 that are highly superior. This being true, the 

 study of parental adaptation becomes an import- 

 ant one, not simply to the student of heredity, but 

 to all thoughtful persons who contemplate mar- 

 riage and parentage. 



