CHAPTER XII 



EDUCATION AND THE FUTUKE OF THE RACE 



IT is self-evident that whatever may be the moral 

 or intellectual aspirations of a nation or race these 

 can be achieved and secured only by maintaining a 

 reasonable level of physical vigor. In special cases 

 a considerable degree of mental power is compatible 

 with a feeble body, but, in general, the old obser- 

 vation "mens sana in corpore sano" holds good. 

 At present the bodily state of the Anglo-Saxon race 

 is being influenced strongly in two opposite direc- 

 tions by a condition incidental to modern civiliza- 

 tion. On the one hand, the science of living has 

 improved so much as to make it possible for those 

 with knowledge and self-control to better their 

 chances of keeping vigorous bodies; on the other 

 hand, competition is increasingly fierce in business, 

 and a larger proportion of population is all the time 

 accumulating in the large cities under conditions 

 that make out-of-door life more and more difficult to 

 obtain. If we judge by studying the death rates and 

 the expectation of life at different ages, it is unde- 

 niable that in the past fifty years there has been a 

 growing tendency to prolong life. Prolongation of life 

 perhaps means increased vigor, but not necessarily, 



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