1 86 HEREDITY AND SOCIETY 



serve or re-create the conditions in which the various 

 functions of government and social organization are 

 entrusted to the persons best fitted by nature to dis- 

 charge them. When a nation begins to be jealous of 

 its best families and to deal spitefully with its great 

 men, we know that a condition favouring social dis- 

 integration is at work. 



Over-production is the first step towards progress ; 

 selection is its necessary corollary. It seems likely 

 that in the future selection will be largely conscious, 

 exercised by society at large. Any abrogation of 

 selection will increase the classes of persons who 

 should be on their way to social extinction, the classes 

 who at present furnish the largest number of social 

 parasites and show infinite capabilities in that direc- 

 tion. Selection exercised against the abler families 

 and more healthy and virile stocks will result in the 

 extermination of those persons who alone can guide the 

 steps of human progress. Selection exercised in their 

 favour will ultimately benefit the whole community. 

 It is true that the discrimination of good from bad is a 

 slow and uncertain process, and that it is easier for 

 society to withdraw a restraining hand than to take the 

 responsibility of decision ; but it is not necessary to 

 pronounce on what is best in order to know good 

 from bad. It is even possible to make mistakes 

 and to recover from them, as long as the intention to 

 follow on the right course remains the predominating 

 determination. 



Let us return to a point we left unanswered in an 

 earlier paragraph and allow ourselves to turn from the 



