I PROLEGOMENA. 39 



is very small; and, generally, the hereditary crim- 

 inal and the hereditary pauper have propa- 

 gated their kind before the law affects them. In 

 a large proportion of cases, crime and pauper- 

 ism have nothing to do with heredity; but are 

 the consequence, partly, of circumstances and, 

 partly, of the possession of qualities, which, under 

 different conditions of life, might have excited 

 esteem and even admiration. It was a shrewd 

 man of the world who, in discussing sewage prob- 

 lems, remarked that dirt is riches in the wrong 

 place; and that sound aphorism has moral appli- 

 cations. The benevolence and open-handed gen- 

 erosity which adorn a rich man, may make a pau- 

 per of a poor one; the energy and courage to 

 which the successful soldier owes his rise, the cool 

 and daring subtlety to which the great financier 

 owes his fortune, may very easily, under unfavour- 

 able conditions, lead their possessors to the gal- 

 lows, or to the hulks. Moreover, it is fairly prob- 

 able that the children of a " failure " will receive 

 from their other parent just that little modifica- 

 tion of character which makes all the difference. 

 I sometimes wonder whether people, who talk so 

 freely about extirpating the unfit, ever dispas- 

 sionately consider their own history. Surely, one 

 must be very "fit," indeed, not to know of an 

 occasion, or perhaps two, in one's life, when it 

 would have been only too easy to qualify for a 

 place among the "unfit." 



