WAR AND MANHOOD 99 



It is claimed that by the law of probabilities as developed by Quet- 

 elet, there will appear in each generation the same number of potential 

 poets; artists, investigators, patriots, athletes and superior men of each 

 degree. But this law has no real validity. Its pertinence involves the 

 theory of continuity of paternity, that in each generation a percentage, 

 practically equal of men of superior force or superior mentality should 

 survive to take the responsibilities of parenthood. Otherwise Quetelef s 

 law becomes subject to the operation of another law, the operation of 

 reversed selection, or the biological " law of diminishing returns." In 

 other words, breeding from an inferior stock is the sole agency in race 

 degeneration, as selection natural or artificial along one line or another 

 is the sole agency in race progress. 



And all laws of probabilities and of averages are subject to a still 

 higher law, the primal law of biology, which no oross-current of life 

 can overrule or modify: Like the seed is the harvest. 



And because this is true, arises the final and bitter truth : " Wars 

 are not paid for in war time. The bill comes later ! " 



