Are We a Declining Race ? 



not actually starve. The same man would most 

 likely go under in savage life. Civilisation does 

 away with the law of " the survival of the 

 fittest " in its crudest form, and the unfit are 

 allowed to live. 



From the humane standpoint, this is one of 

 the noblest results of civilisation ; the protec- 

 tion of the weak from the oppression of the 

 strong. 



From a utilitarian standpoint, it might be 

 objected that we not only protect the weak from 

 the oppression of the strong, but we go farther, 

 and allow the unfit free scope in the propagation 

 of their inferior species. 



In savage communities, they are generally 

 more careful in this matter, and do not allow 

 any but the fit to marry. This does not apply 

 to the more degraded savage, such as we find in 

 some of the semi -civilised countries, but to the 

 nobler class, such as Mr. Lewis Morgan, in his 

 " Ancient Society," describes as the " grand 

 barbarians." Few are left now, but they might 

 have been found not many years ago, in some of 

 the Kaffir tribes, the Fijians, Iroquois Indians, etc. 

 Of one thing we may be tolerably certain, viz., 

 that physically, we are at the present time very 

 much their inferiors. We find more disease, 

 more pain and suffering to-day, in civilised 

 communities, than they could possibly have had 

 in their lives of action and exposure. 



The struggle for existence is perhaps keener 

 with us than with them. This may seem strange 

 when we consider that the savage is often exposed 

 to the danger of dying a violent death, either by 



34 



