226 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



might seem dysgenic under modern conditions 

 of society, since no amount of natural advantages 

 will remedy the disadvantages of poverty, and 

 since the very advantages money can bestow will 

 result in the survival and marriage of an excess 

 of unfits. But happily this is not so ; the force 

 that brought us from the fire-mist will not abort 

 us now in the womb of wealth. The same lack of 

 courage, and love, and wisdom that makes men 

 and women slave for money and marry for money 

 will make them bad fathers and mothers, and in 

 the majority of instances will mean that their 

 children, brought up in an ignoble and selfish 

 atmosphere, will lack the moral stamina to survive 

 through many generations. Indeed, it is notorious 

 how many rich men's sons "go to the dogs " even 

 in the first generation. Further, heirs and heir- 

 esses are very often the final representatives of a 

 dying stock, and they rarely have large families. 



Given, then, equal numbers of love-marriages 

 and money-marriages, the likelihood is that the 

 seed of the former will possess the earth. 



Even in face of the present preponderance of 

 money-marriages there is no need for alarm ; the 

 worship of Mammon is merely a passing stupidity, 

 due partially to social and economic conditions 

 that cannot last ; and evolution is certainly not 

 likely to be much hampered and hindered by any 



