132 fH3E DESCENT OF MAN. 



the able in body and mind succeed best. The presence of a body 

 oi -well-instructed men, who have not to labor for their daily 

 bread, is important to a degree which cannot be over-estimatea; 

 as all high intellectual work is carried on by them, and on such 

 work, material progress of all kinds mainly depends, not to 

 mention other and higher advantages. No doubt wealth when 

 very great tends to convert men into useless drones, but their 

 number is never large; and some degree of elimination here 

 occurs, for we daily see rich men, who happen to be fools or 

 profligate, squandering away their wealth. 



Primogeniture with entailed estates is a more direct evil, 

 though it may formerly have been a great advantage by the 

 creation of a dominant class, and any government is better than 

 none. Most eldest sons, though they may be weak in body or 

 mind, marry, whilst the younger sons, however superior in these 

 respects, do not so generally marry. Nor can worthless eldest sons 

 with entailed estates squander their wealth. But here, as else- 

 where, the relations of civilized life are so complex that some 

 compensatory checks intervene. The men who are rich through 

 primogeniture are able to select generation after generation the 

 more beautiful and charming women; and these must generally 

 be healthy in body and active in mind. The evil consequences, 

 such as they may be, of the continued preservation of the same 

 line of descent, without any selection, are checked by men of 

 rank always wishing to increase their wealth and power; and 

 this they effect by marrying heiresses. But the daughters of 

 parents who have produced single children, are themselves, as 

 Mr. Galton'- has shown, apt to be sterile; and thus noble families 

 are continually cut off in the direct line, and their wealth flows 

 into some side channel; but unfortunately this channel is not 

 determined by superiority of any kind. 



Although civilization thus checks in many ways the action of 

 natural selection, it apparently favors the better development 

 of the body, by means of good food and the freedom from occa- 

 sional hardships. This may be inferred from civilized men hav- 

 ing been found, wherever compared, to be physically stronger 

 than savages.'' They appear also to have equal powers of en- 

 durance, as has been proved in many adventurous expeditions. 

 Even the great luxury of the rich can be but little detrimental, 

 for the expectation of life of our aristocracy, at all ages and of 

 both sexes, is very little inferior to that of healthy English lives 

 In the lower classes." 



12 'Hereditary Genius,' 1870, pp. 132-140. 



" Quatrefages, 'Revue Aes Cours Scientiflques,' 1867-68, p. 659. 



" See the flftli and sixtli columns, compiled from good authorities, in 

 the table given in Mr. B. R. Lankester's 'Comparative Longevity,' 1870, 

 p. 115. 



