228 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



than mere physical attraction ? Is there not a 

 mental and spiritual affinity that sometimes irre- 

 sistibly impels lovers into marriages which may 

 be physically imperfect, and even reprehensible ? 

 In the more modern world man's work becomes 

 less and less muscular, more and more mental, 

 and his environment less and less material, more 

 and more spiritual ; and who can say where this 

 will lead, or where it should lead, and who will 

 undertake to rule the appetencies of minds and 

 souls ? Let us check by all means marriages that 

 will result in physical and mental misery ; but let 

 us be careful not too easily to admit impediments 

 to the marriage of true minds. We were not put 

 into the world merely to propagate, merely to give 

 nature material to evolve muscle and bone. Surely 

 the formation of individual and racial character is 

 the final goal of evolution ; and perchance the 

 marriage of a Robert Browning and an invalid 

 poetess is of more value to the world, and to the 

 world to come, than the marriage of a Hebe and 

 Hercules, resulting in twenty stupid and sturdy 

 children. 



The drawing together of male and female has 

 been the mainspring of evolution : it has produced 

 the germinal physical variations that natural en- 

 vironment in the widest sense has perpetuated or 

 rejected. Now, variations for selection are likely 



