332 BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN PROBLEMS 



first practical aim in paving the way for real better- 

 ment must be the intelligent limitation of population 

 through the curbing of procreation. Laws can prob- 

 ably never be relied upon to effect this ; but what law 

 cannot command, the human will may perhaps accom- 

 plish. Intelligence may in time act as a powerful 

 impulse to limit families to a number that can be 

 reared with care and opportunity. This cannot 

 happen in a country short of labor, owing to the 

 possession of extended undeveloped natural re- 

 sources, but it may happen when the constant 

 demand for rapid extension has slackened. Then, 

 and only then, will the ideal of quality take prece- 

 dence over the ideal of quantity in human affairs. 



It is certain that under no plan of social organiza- 

 tion can there be a disappearance of that stratifica- 

 tion which has its basis in inherited and acquired 

 biological advantages possessed by some individuals. 

 Certain types of intelligence and character will al- 

 ways play a leading part in the life of a community 

 and will constitute a plastic and changing aristocracy, 

 and not necessarily a rigid one. On the other hand, 

 the rough work of the world will always have to be 

 done. There must be laborers on the farm, in the 

 factory, and perhaps in the mines, and these will be 

 recruited from the robust members of the least highly 

 educated classes, though this deficiency in education 

 may be much less pronounced than now and only 

 relatively poor. But if the distinction between the 

 aristocratic and protelarian classes cannot be wiped 



