70 HEREDITY AND SOCIETY 



marked characteristics. We have shown reason to 

 believe that this differentiation of type into so-called 

 classes, which is found in all successful national evolu- 

 tion, is essential to the maintenance of progress. There 

 is a personality of race, of type and of individual, 

 separate from but interdependent on each other, and 

 taken together constituting a foremost factor in racial 

 evolution. 



But, when we come to consider the birth-rate as at 

 present affecting our social structure, we find that it 

 is highest in those sections of the community which, 

 like the feeble-minded and insane, are devoid of indi- 

 vidual personality, or, like many of the unemployed 

 and casual labourers, seem to be either without ideals 

 or without any method of expressing them. In all 

 the social groups which have hitherto been distinguished 

 for coherence, for industry, for good mental and 

 physical capacity, for power of organization and ad- 

 ministration, the birth-rate has fallen below the figures 

 necessary to maintain the national store of these 

 qualities. Great men are scarce ; the group personality 

 is becoming indistinct and the personality of the race, 

 by which success was attained in the past, is therefore 

 on the wane, while the forces of chaos are once more 

 being manufactured in our midst, ready to break loose 

 and destroy the civilization when the higher types are 

 no longer sufficient in numbers and effectiveness to 

 guide, control or subdue them. 



It is a curious and suggestive coincidence, that while 

 certain of the great nations of the world are losing 

 their cohesion and individuality, and are deliberately 

 attempting to eliminate the distinctive barriers of 



