HUMAN POPULATION IN THE FUTURE. 533 



number of children, or in imperfect rearing of children: the 

 bad are fostered and the good are repressed. 



It does not follow that the struggle for life and the sur- 

 vival of the fittest must be left to work out their effects 

 without mitigation. It is contended only that there shall 

 not be a forcible burdening of the superior for the support 

 of the inferior. Such aid to the inferior as the superior 

 voluntarily yield, kept as it will be within mo derate limit s, 

 may be given with benefit to both — relief to the one, moral 

 culture to the other. And aid willingly given (little to the 

 least worthy and more to the most worthy) will usually be 

 so given as not to further the increase of the unworthy. 

 For in proportion as the emotional nature becomes more 

 evolved, and there grows up a higher sense of parental re- 

 sponsibility, the begetting of children that cannot be properly 

 reared will be universally held intolerable. If, as we see, 

 public opinion in many places and times becomes coercive 

 enough to force men to fight duels, we can scarcely doubt that 

 at a higher stage of evolution it may become so coercive as to 

 prevent men from marrying improvidently. If the frowns 

 of their fellows can make men commit immoral acts, surely 

 they may make men refrain from immoral acts — especially 

 when the actors themselves feel that the threatened frowns 

 would be justified. Hence with a higher moral nature will 

 come a restriction on the multiplication of the inferior. 



In brief, the sole requirement is that there shall be no 

 extensive suspension of that natural relation between merit 

 and benefit which constitutes justice. Holding, then, that 

 this all-essential condition will itself come to be recognized 

 and enforced by a more evolved humanity, let us consider 

 what is the goal towards which the restraint on genesis by 

 individuation progresses. 



§ 375a. Supposing the Sun's light and heat, on which all 

 terrestrial life depends, to continue abundant for a period 

 long enough to allow the entire evolution we are contem- 



