NA TURE 



[October 31, 1901 



be employed to compass these ends are dowries, especially for 

 those to whom moderate sums are important, assured help in 

 emergencies during the early years of married life, healthy 

 homes, the pressure of pulilic opinion, honours, and above all 

 the introduction of motives of religious or quasi-religious 

 character. Indeed, an enthusiasm to improve the race is so 

 noble in its aim that it might well give rise to the sense of a 

 religious obligation. In other lands there are abundant in- 

 stances in which religious motives make early marriages a matter 

 of custom, and continued celibacy to be regarded as a disgrace, 

 if not a crime. The customs of the Hindoos, also of the Jews, 

 especially in ancient times, bear this out. In all costly civilisa- 

 tions there is a tendency to shrink from marriage on prudential 

 grounds. It would, however, be possible so to alter the condi- 

 tions of life that the most prudent course for an X class person 

 should lie exactly opposite to its present direction, for he or she 

 might find that there were advantages and not disadvantages in 

 early marriage, and that the most prudent course was to follow 

 their natural instincts. 



We Mve now to consider the probable gain in the number 

 and wbrth of adult offspring to these favoured couples. First 

 as regards the effect of reducing the age at marriage. There is 

 unquestionably a tendency among cultured women to delay or 

 even to abstain from marriage ; they dislike the sacrifice of 

 freedom and leisure, of opporlunities for study and of cultured 

 companionship. This has to be reckoned with. I heard of the 

 reply of a lady official of a College for Women to a visitor who 

 inquired as to the after life of the students. .She answered that 

 one-third profited by it, another third gained little good, and a 

 third were failures. " But what becomes of the failures?" "Oh, 

 hey marry." 



There appears to be a considerable difference between the 

 earliest age at which it is physiologically desirable that a woman 

 should marry and that at which the ablest, or at least the most 

 cultured, women usually do. Acceleration in the time of mar- 

 riage, often amounting to 7 years, as from 2S or 29 to 21 or 22, 

 under influences such as tho.se mentioned above, is by no means 

 improbable. What would be its effect on productivity? It 

 might be expected to act in two ways : — 



(1) By shortening each generation by an amount roughly 

 proportionate to the diminution in age at which marriage occurs. 

 Suppose the span of each generation to be shortened by one- 

 si.xth, so that six take the place of five, and that the pro- 

 ductivity of each marriage is unaltered, it follows that one- 

 sixth more children will be brought into the world during the 

 same time, which is, roughly, equivalent to increasing the pro- 

 ductivity of an unshortened generation by that amount. 



(2) By saving from certain barrenness the earlier part of the 

 child-bearing period of the woman. Authorities differ so much 

 as 10 the direct gain of fertility due to early marriage that it 

 is dangerous to express an opinion. The large and thriving 

 families that I have known were the offspring of mothers who 

 married very young. 



The next influence to be considered is that of healthy homes. 

 These and a simple life certainly conduce to fertility. They 

 also act indirectly by preserving lives that would otherwise 

 fail to reach adult age. It is not necessarily the weakest who 

 perish in this way, for instance, zymotic disease falls indis- 

 criminately on the weak and the strong. ' 



Again, the children would be healthier and therefore more 

 likely in their turn to become parents of a healthy stock. The 

 great danger to high civilisations, and remarkably so to our own, 

 is theexhaustive drain upon the rural districts to supply large towns. 

 Those who come up to the towns may produce large famiUes, 

 but there is much reason to believe that these dwindle away in 

 subsequent generations. In short, the towns sterilise rural 

 vigour. 



As one of the reasons for choosing the selected class would be 

 that of hereditary fertility, it follows that the selected class would 

 respond more than other classes to the above influences. 



I do not attempt to appraise the strength of the combined six 

 influences just described. If each added one-sixth to the pro- 

 duce the number of offspring would be doubled. This does not 

 seem impossible considering the large families of colonists, and 

 of those in many rural districts ; but it is a high estimate. Per- 

 haps the fairest approximation may be that these influences 

 would cause the X women to bring into the world an average of 

 one adult son and one adult daughter in addition to what they 

 would otherwise have produced. The table of descent applies 

 to one son or to one daughter per couple ; it may now be read as 



NO 1670, VOL. 64] 



specifying the net gain and showing its distribution. Should 

 this estimate be thought too high, the results may be diminished 

 accordingly. 



It is no absurd idea that outside influences should hasten the 

 age of marrying and make it customary for the best to marry 

 the best. A superficial objection is sure to be urged that the 

 fancies of young people are so incalculable and so irresistible 

 that they cannot be guided. No doubt they are so in some ex- 

 ceptional cases. I lately heard from a lady who belonged to a 

 county family of position that a great aunt of hers had scandal- 

 ised her own domestic circle two generations ago by falling in 

 love with the undertaker at her father's funeral and insisting on 

 marrying him. Strange vagaries occur, but considerations of 

 social position and of fortune, with frequent opportunities of 

 intercourse, tell much more in the long run than sudden fancies 

 that want roots. In a community deeply impressed with the 

 desire of encouraging marriages between persons of equally high 

 ability, the social pressure directed to produce the desired end 

 would be so great as to ensure a notable amount of success. 



Profit and Loss. — The problem to be solved now assumes a 

 clear shape. A child of the X class (whatever X signifies) would 

 have been worth so and so at its birth, and one of each of the 

 other grades respectively would have been worth so and so ; 100 . 

 X parentages can be made to produce a net gain of 100 adult 

 sons and too adult daughters who will be distributed among the 

 classes according to the standard table of descent. The total 

 value of the prospective produce of the 100 parentages can then 

 be estimated by an actuary, and consequently the sum that it is 

 legitimate to spend in favouring an X parentage. The clear and 

 distinct statement of a problem is often more than half way 

 towards its solution. There seems no reason why this one should 

 not be solved between limiting values that are not too wide apar 

 to be useful. 



Existing Activities. — Leaving aside profitable expenditure 

 from a purely money point of view, the existence should be 

 borne in mind of immense voluntary activities that have nobler 

 aims. The annual voluntary contributions in the British Isles 

 to public charities alone amount, on the lowest computation, to 

 fourteen million pounds, a sum which Sir H. Burdett asserts on 

 good grounds is by no means the maximum obtainable. 

 (" Hospitals and Charities," 1898, p. 85.) 



There are other activities long since existing which might well 

 be extended. I will not dwell, as I am tempted to do, on the 

 endowments of scholarships and the like, which aim at finding 

 and educating the fittest youths for the work of the nation ; but 

 I will refer to that wholesome practice during all ages of wealthy 

 persons interesting themselves in and befriending poor but 

 promising lads. The number of men who have owed their 

 start in a successful life to help of this kind must have struck 

 every reader of biographies. This relationship of befriender 

 and befriended is hardly to be expressed in English by a simple 

 word that does not connote more than is intended. The word 

 "patron" is odious. Recollecting Dr. Johnson's abhorrence 

 of the patrons of his day, I turned to an early edition of his 

 dictionary in hope of deriving some amusement as well as in- 

 struction from his definition of the word, and I was not dis- 

 appointed. He defines " patron " as " a wretch who supports 

 with insolence and is repaid with flattery." That is totally 

 opposed to what I would advocate, namely a kindly and honour- 

 able relation between a wealthy man who has made his position 

 in the world and a youth who is avowedly his equal in natural 

 gifts, but who has yet to make it. It is one in which each party 

 may well take pride, and I feel sure that if its value were more 

 widely understood it would become commoner than it is. 



Many degrees may be imagined that lie between mere be- 

 friendment and actual adoption, and which would be more or 

 less efi'ective in freeing capable youths from the hindrances of 

 narrow circumstances ; in enabling girls to marry early and 

 suitably, and in securing favour to their subsequent offspring. 

 Something in this direction is commonly but half unconsciouly 

 done by many great landowners whose employments for man 

 and wife, together with good cottages, are given to exceptionally 

 deserving couples. The advantage of being connected with a 

 great and liberally managed estate being widely appreciated, 

 there are usually more applicants than vacancies, so selection 

 can be exercised. The consequence is that the class of men 

 found upon these properties is markedly superior to those in 

 similar positions elsewhere. It might well become a point of 

 honour, and as much an avowed object, for noble families to 

 gather fine specimens of Immanity around them, as it is to 



