146 DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS. 



fertile ; they more frequently marry, and they marry 

 at earlier and more fertile ages. 



On the other hand it must at once be admitted 

 that they manage to rear a smaller percentage of 

 their off-spring. The mortality amongst the infants 

 and children is often alarmingly great through 

 ignorance and neglect on the parent's part. 



While, therefore, the lower classes are undoubtedly 

 the most fertile, it is not certain how far this is 

 counterbalanced by the lower mortality which exists 

 among the children and youth of the upper 

 classes. 



Artificial Restriction of the Family. 



That the counterbalance is not complete is gener- 

 ally believed, and we must view with dismay any 

 agencies which tend still more to make the middle 

 and upper classes sterile relatively to the lower. 

 There can be little doubt that this has recently, and 

 to an increasing extent, been brought about by the 

 wilful avoidance, on the part of the parents of the 

 middle and upper classes, of the full duties of parent- 

 hood. It can no doubt be urged that whereas, in 

 many instances, the care of one or two children can 

 be undertaken in such a manner as to insure their 

 careful upbringing and education, the rearing of a 

 large family would be quite beyond the power of the 



