CHAPTER V 



THE BIRTH-RATE 



IT is now clear that we must regard a nation or race 

 subject to natural selection not as fixed and unchange- 

 able in its hereditary qualities, but as subject to continual 

 modification and adjustment. Its innate qualities are 

 constantly altering and tending to fit themselves to the 

 existing environment. It is constantly in a state of 

 flux. By changes in the environment, we alter the 

 goal at which natural selection is aiming, and thus 

 alter the direction in which it moves. 



But, broadly, certain qualities will, in any probable 

 contingencies, always possess selective value, and tend 

 to spread in the race. Strength of general constitution 

 will tend to survival in almost all circumstances. 

 Ability of mind must, one dare say, almost always be 

 an advantage. It would be a poor-spirited race in 

 which beauty of person and mind did not exercise a 

 strong attraction in the choice of mates. As long as 

 natural selection works unhampered, these qualities 

 will tend to come to the front. 



But all this assumes as a universal postulate that 

 natural selection has full play ; that each section of the 

 people reproduce themselves at a rate natural in their 



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