r6o DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS. 



wanting those who are prepared to sacrifice much in 

 order to champion the cause of those who have no 

 means of establishing the claims they have to our 

 consideration. Already, four years ago, public 

 opinion expressed itself in public rule that a man 

 and woman in begetting a child must take upon 

 themselves the obligation and responsibility of seeing 

 that that child is not subjected to cruelty and hard- 

 ship. 1 It is but one step more to say that a man and 

 woman shall be under obligation not to produce 

 children when it is certain that from their want of 

 physique they will have to undergo suffering, and 

 will keep up but an unequal struggle with their 

 fellows. 



Our Sense of Obligation is Developing. 



But our sense of obligation, just as it has grown in 

 the past, is capable of development in the future, and 

 that this sense will develop is probable from the fact 

 that we are beholden to our fellowmen and ancestry 

 far more than we at present realise. Not only do we 

 owe our existence to others, but we owe to them 

 most of our necessities, all our luxuries, our intel- 

 lectual food, our music, poetry and language. Our 

 possessions and even our ideas we owe to those 



1 An Act for the Prevention of Cruelty to, and the Better 

 Protection of, Children, August 26th, 1889, and previous Acts. 



