STERILITY OF THE CAPABLES. 137 



system entails just the reverse. In the animal world, 

 fitness results in life and reproduction, and unfitness 

 in death and sterility ; while amongst men, the 

 capable and successful are rewarded by honour and 

 wealth, but are relatively sterile, and the man that 

 society is inclined to overlook contributes a large 

 percentage to the race of the future. 



It would indeed be difficult to conceive any plan 

 more inimical to the future of a race, or better de- 

 vised to sap and undermine the power of a nation, than 

 that of taking from it in perpetuity those possessed 

 of innate capacity, a result which follows when the 

 best citizens are induced, for the sake of gifts and 

 honours, to relinquish their obligation to the race of 

 being the parents of many children. Such a plan 

 must continually withdraw from the nation those 

 qualities which are most admired, and which, it must 

 be presumed, it is most desirable to preserve. 1 A 

 nation subjected for long to such a treatment can 

 only become, like the mould of a garden from which 

 the produce has been taken for many years, but to 

 which nothing has been added in return, a soil pro- 

 lific enough in weeds and brambles, but incapable of 

 growing any of the choicer plants. 



If, then, we find that our more democratic views of 



i It is here taken for granted that the successful are the best. 

 This is, however, open to question, as was seen in the last 

 chapter. 



