612 THE DESCENT OP MAN. 



Man scans with scrupulous care the character and pedigree 

 of his horses, cattle and dogs before he matches them; but 

 when he comes to his own marriage he rarely, or never, takes 

 any such care. He is impelled by nearly the same motives as 

 the lower animals, when they are left to their own free choice, 

 though he is in so far superior to them that he highly values 

 mental charms and virtues. On the other hand he is strongly 

 attracted by mere wealth or rank. Yet he might by selection do 

 something not only for the bodily constitution and frame of his 

 offspring, but for their intellectual and moral qualities. Both 

 sexes ought to refrain from marriage if they are in any marked 

 degree inferior in body or mind; but such hopes are Utopian and 

 will never be even partially realized until the laws of inheritance 

 are thoroughly known. Everyone does good service, who aids 

 towards this end. When the principles of breeding and inheri- 

 tance are better understood, we shall not hear ignorant members 

 of our legislature rejecting with scorn a plan for ascertaining 

 whether or not consanguineous marriages are injurious to man. 



The advancement of the welfare of mankind is a most intricate 

 problem: all ought to refrain from marriage who cannot avoid 

 abject poverty for their children; for poverty is not only a great 

 evil, but tends to its own increase by leading to recklessness in 

 marriage. On the other hand, as Mr. Galton has remarked, if 

 the prudent avoid marriage, whilst the reckless marry, the in- 

 ferior members tend to supplant the better members of society. 

 Man, like every other animal, has no doubt advanced to his pres- 

 ent high condition through a struggle for existence consequent 

 on his rapid multiplication; and if he is to advance still higher, 

 it is to be feared that he must remain subject to a severe struggle. 

 Otherwise he would sink into indolence, and the more gifted 

 men would not be more successful in the battle of life than the 

 less gifted. Hence our natural rate of increase, though leading 

 to many and obvious evils, must not be greatly diminished by 

 any means. There should be open competition for all men; and 

 the most able should not be prevented by laws or customs from 

 succeeding best and rearing the largest number of offspring. Im- 

 portant as the struggle for existence has been and even still is, 

 yet as far as the highest part of man's nature is concerned there 

 are other agencies more important. For the moral qualities are 

 advanced, either directly or indirectly, much more through the 

 effects of habit, the reasoning powers, instruction, religion, &c., 

 than through natural selection; though to this latter agency may 

 be safely attributed the social instincts, which afforded the basis 

 for the development of the moral sense. 



The main conclusioti arrived at in this work, namely that 

 taan is descended from some lowly organized form, will, I regret 



