140 DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS. 



twenties, and selects in preference to an older woman 

 one of about his own age. The pair are married 

 during nearly the whole of their child-bearing period, 

 and have as many children as they, in the ordinary 

 course of nature, can produce. Much the same sort 

 of statement applies to the lower artisan, factory 

 hand, etc. In these cases perfect accomplishment of 

 the set routine of their especial work can be obtained 

 at a very early age, and for the rest of life no further 

 advance is made. The manual dexterity required in 

 most of these occupations is indeed best acquired 

 during youth, and at twenty or thereabouts the full 

 standard of efficiency is reached, and full wages de- 

 manded in return. Need we wonder at the fertility 

 of these marriages, or at the swarms of children seen 

 in every street where the town labourers and lower 

 artisans reside. Now, rightly or wrongly, the man 

 who dresses fashionably, who drives a pen or serves 

 behind a counter, is held of much more account than 

 one who pursues the more manly occupations of til- 

 ling the ground or of laying drains. How this senti- 

 ment has arisen we need not discuss ; there it is, and 

 it has the effect of drawing from the agricultural and 

 lower artisan classes the more ambitious and capable, 

 and turning them into clerks and shop attendants. 

 The slightly-increased wage is not more than is re- 

 quired in the new position, and is expended on dress 

 and those appearances and pleasures which associate 



