:)6' 



NA TURE 



[September 24, 1908 



the same tale. When Pytheas of Marseilles travelled in 

 these regions, about 350 B.C., he found the people making 

 "wine from barley," and, though he does not explicitly 

 say so, we need not doubt that it was meant for home 

 Lunsumption. In view of these facts we must regard this 

 tendency as essentially climatic. This view derives 

 additional support from the well-authenticated fact that 

 one of the chief characteristics of the descendants of British 

 settlers in Australia is their strong teetotalism. This 

 cannot be set down to their having a higher moral 

 standard than their ancestors, but rather, as in the case 

 of Spaniards and Italians, to the circumstance that they 

 live in a country much warmer and drier than the British 

 Isles. We must therefore, no matter how reluctantly, 

 come to the conclusion that no attempt to eradicate this 

 tendency to alcohol in these latitudes can be successful, 

 for the most that can be done by the philanthropist and 

 the legislator is to modify and control it, but especially 

 by moral means. 



I have spoken of the principles at work in the differentia- 

 tion of one race from another. It may be that the same 

 principles or others closely allied may be at work within 

 each community, for each community is but the whole 

 world writ small. Within the United Kingdom itself 

 there are not only different physical tvpes, but very 

 different ideas respecting marriage and divorce embodied 

 in the laws regulating those fundamental institutions in 

 England, Scotland, and Ireland. If such fundamental 

 differences €xist in that most important of social institu- 

 tions, we may well expect that the natural laws which 

 differentiate one race from another mav be at work within 

 every community in the United Kingdom. 



Vet though the world has been ringing with the doctrine 

 of natural selection and the survival of the fittest for 

 nearly half a century, no statesman ever dreams of taking 

 these great principles into consideration w'hen devising any 

 scfieme of education or social reform. On the contrary, 

 it is a fundamental assumption in all our educational and 

 social reforms that all men are born with equal capacities ; 

 that there is no difference in this respect between the 

 average child of the labourer, sprung from many genera- 

 tions of labourers, and one born of manv generations of 

 middle or upper-class progenitors; and 'it is held that 

 all that is necessary to make the children of the working 

 classes equal, if not superior, to the children of the bour- 

 geois is the same food, the same clothing, and the same 

 educational advantages. On that account we have devised 

 the so-called educational ladder. Yet if we ask any social 

 reformer why are there middle classes, the answ'er will 

 probably be that thev are better off. But whv are they 

 better off? We are told that their fathers and mothers 

 were better off, and that they thus got a better chance 

 than the poor labourer. But why were the parents of 

 these middle-class folks better off? Oh! they came of 

 families that had been long well-to-do. But ' w-hy were 

 these families long well-to-do? At last we are brought to 

 the conclusion of the northern farmer, that " Work mun 

 'a gone to the gittin' whiniver munny was got," and to 

 his brutal correlative respecting the labourers that " Them 

 or thir feythers, tha sees, mun 'a beiin a laazy lot." 



Work no doubt has been a main factor in' the evolution 

 of the middle and upper classes, especially in later times, 

 though undoubtedly other qualities, siich as superior 

 physique and superior courage, have been very important 

 elements in the earlier stages. But at all tim'es it is not 

 improbable that the special qualitv which led to their rise 

 was a superior self-restraint, that enabled them to resist 

 the vices which are too often attendant on prosperity. 

 This superior morale acts in turn upon the offspring bv 

 setting up a better standard of life in the home, which 

 of itself gives children brought up in such an environment 

 an advantage at the outset of life denied to the children 

 of inferior parents. It needs no elaborate induction to 

 prove that the middle classes are not the outcome of 

 chance, but of a long process of natural selection and the 

 survival of the fittest in the struggle for life, the two 

 main factors in this evolution being, in the language of 

 .Aristotle, heredity and training. Each communitv is but 

 a microcosm of the whole human race, which, as I have 

 endeavoured to show, is bound by the same laws as the 

 rest of the animal kingdom. One race becomes a master 



NO. 2030, VOL. 78] 



because of its superior physique, courage, brain power, and 

 morale ; another sinks in the struggle or lags behind 

 owing to its inferiority in the very qualities wnich have 

 given the mastery to its rival. What is true of master 

 races, in relation to inferior races is equally true of the 

 individuals in each community. Tiie middle and upper 

 classes are in the main sprung from ancestors with better 

 physique, courage, and morale, and who have generation 

 after generation been brought up in a better moral atmo- 

 sphere than the children of the masses. Their ranks are 

 also continually being reinforced by the best of the work- 

 ing classes. But this is not due to any educational ladder 

 provided in modern times, for the process has always been 

 at work, though of course its action has been distinctly 

 aided by modern legislation. Mediceval history supplies 

 many examples of those who, though sprung from the 

 humblest parents, rose to high place in Church and State. 

 This was not due to any legislative enactments, but rather 

 to a principle well known in the whole field of Nature. 

 Everyone knows that the superior varieties of flowers and 

 vegetables are commonly the "sports," as they are 

 termed, from inferior species. The skilful gardener , 

 watches carefully for good *' sports," for they may become 

 very valuable additions to his repertoire of useful plants. 

 So, too, the legislator must watch carefully for good 

 human " sports," not for those with criminal propensities. 

 In the media'val world the Church provided a ladder by 

 which the son of the peasant could rise to be the counsellor 

 of kings and princes. In modern times the State provides 

 an educational ladder by which the child of the humblest 

 parents may rise, if it has the capacity, to the highest 

 positions in the community. It is right — nay, essential — 

 that such a ladder should be provided, but this ladder is 

 not for the mass of children. The vast majority can 

 never climb beyond its lowest rung owing to their 

 heredity, and in a less degree to their home environment. 

 The ladder is for the good "sports," who by its aid are 

 thus continually reinforcing with fresh blood the ranks of 

 the middle and upper classes. 



It may be said that I underrate the number of the 

 good "sports." Of course it is very diflicult to get any 

 exact statistics on so complex a subject ; but according to 

 information which I have obtained from one of our great 

 industrial centres, where the educational ladder enables 

 any child who passes the fourth standard in the primary 

 schools before it is eleven to rise into the secondary schools, 

 it is probable that no more tTian 5 or 6 per cent, of the 

 children of the working classes have at the age of sixteen 

 the same amount of brain power as the average children 

 of the middle classes at the same age. But even all this 

 5 or 6 per cent, of " sports " cannot be credited to parents 

 of the working class alone, for it may be that a certain 

 proportion of them must be ascribed to middle- or upper- 

 class parents. Of course these rude statistics must be 

 corrected by others collected on a large scale all over the 

 country before we can form a final judgment ; but I believe 

 that the evidence already to hand makes it improbable 

 that more than a very limited percentage of the children 

 of the working classes have the same ability as the average 

 child of the middle classes. 



In ancient days the chief end of the legislator was to 

 produce a stalwart brood of citizens capable of bearing 

 arms in defence of their country and advancing her 

 material prosperity. Still more ought this to be the aim 

 of our legislators to-day, for under modern conditions great 

 masses of population are huddled together in a manner 

 hardly known to ancient cities. To accomplish this great 

 end, the legislator must not merely look to improved 

 housing of the poor and the development of the physique 

 of city populations. He must, so far as possible, conform 

 to the principles of the stockbreeder, whose object is to 

 rear the finest horses, cattle, or sheep. .Amongst wild 

 animals Nature selects the fittest for continuing the race, 

 and the wise breeder simply aids Nature by selecting still 

 more carefully the best animals. The legislator, on his 

 part, ought similarly to foster the increase of the best 

 element in the State, and on the other hand discourage 

 the multiplication of the worst. Yet in our community 

 statesmen of both parties have adopted the very opposite 

 policy. The children of the working classes are educated 

 at the cost of the State, the offspring of the wastrels are 



