88 DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS. 



want of care, and there was no such thing as the 

 existence of a large section of the community evinc- 

 ing an increase of hereditary weakness. Under these 

 conditions the parents of large families added so 

 much the more to the strength and power of the 

 community, and the production of children came to 

 be regarded as a virtue. This view of the question 

 very naturally survives, and is probably the reason 

 why at the present day marriage with a diseased 

 person is not viewed as a sin against the children that 

 are to be produced, and against the community at 

 large. 



The Necessity for producing Posterity out of our Best 



Types. 



But the end towards which we have to aim is the 

 production in each generation of children from the 

 best and healthiest of the population alone, for it is 

 surely only reasonable that we should as a community 

 pay the same care and attention to our own race 

 propagation that a gardener does to his roses or 

 chrysanthemums, or a dog-fancier to his hounds or 

 terriers, or a cattledealer to his southdowns or short- 

 horns. That there is no means of improving our race so 

 efficaciously as by selection we may be certain, and that 

 there is no other way is highly probable ; our interest 

 in the subject, and the value we place upon changes 



