THE FEEBLE-MINDED 279 



the village like the blind animals in a cave. But dullness 

 is not identical with feeble-mindedness. 



It is maintained that even in towns the multiplication 

 of the hard-working, cautious, and capable section of the 

 community is at a standstill. Its members seek comfort, 

 intellectual exercise, and self-culture ; they refuse to de- 

 prive themselves of these things, which cost money, and 

 to spend that money on bringing up large families. On 

 the other hand, the far more numerous " working-class " 

 has no such ambition as a rule, and no anxiety as to what 

 is to become of its offspring, however numerous. The 

 more children the larger are the earnings of the family, 

 and all in turn shift for themselves at an early age. The 

 rates pay for such education as they require, and their 

 parents have no desire to push them up the social ladder ; 

 but food, lodging, and clothes cost money. The working- 

 man who desires to read, see things for himself, and be 

 more than an animated cog on a wheel, cannot afford 

 to have children and transmit to them that modicum of 

 intelligence above the average which distinguishes him 

 from his fellows, and demands for its cultivation the 

 money with which he might keep a large family. Conse- 

 quently the population is more and more largely replenished 

 by the unenterprising poor and the unenterprising rich; 

 the group which is enterprising and capable, and directs 

 the work and thought of the civilised world, is, by the 

 very qualities which make the increase of its strain desir- 

 able, debarred from contributing its fair proportion to the 

 increase of the population. Is it possible for the com- 

 munity, by any system or by legislation, to overcome or 

 evade this unfortunate tendency ? 



The neglect by both the local and central government 

 to provide any supervision of feeble-minded children has 

 had a special result of a strange and unhappy description. 

 Let me hasten to say that now that we have secured by 



