PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, 84^ 



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 why 

 were these families long well-to-do ? At last we are brought to the conclusion of 

 the northern farmer, that ' Work man 'a gone to the gittin' whiniver munny was 

 got,' and to his brutal correlative respecting the labourers that 'Them or thir 

 feythers, tha sees, miin 'a bean 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, such 

 as superior physique and superior courage, have been very important elements in 

 the earlier stages. But at all times it is not improbable that the special quality 

 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 by 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 community 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 tlie animal kingdom. One race becomes a master 

 because of its superior physique, courage, brain powei", and morale ; another sinks 

 in the struggle or lags behind owing to its inferiority in the very qualities which 

 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. The 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 atmosphere than the children of the masses. Their ranks are 

 also continually being reinforced by the best of the working 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. Mediajval 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 tiiey 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 medieval 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 pro- 

 vided, 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. Tlie 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 difficult 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 than 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 



