HEREDITY AND HUMAN IMPROVEMENT 387 



smaller families of two or three children are bound to be- 

 come extinct in a few generations. At the present time we 

 are rapidly losing the blood that formerly gave us our schol- 

 ars, legislators and leaders of men. While people of very 

 moderate natural abilities are found in the so-called educa- 

 ted classes, there is little doubt that the latter have an 

 average inheritance above that of the general population. 

 But however this may be, it is the duty of those who have 

 been blest with good hereditary qualities to see that their 

 race does not perish. If such people shirk the responsibili- 

 ties of parenthood, as they are nowadays so prone to do, 

 and leave the perpetuation of the race to inferior strains 

 who tend to be only too prolific, the race cannot fail to 

 deteriorate. Man, to a great extent, has abolished the 

 struggle for existence, and now his future lies largely in 

 his own hands to make or to mar. 



