290 EUGENICS 
This means, if one takes into consideration the fact 
that members of the first group probably marry several 
years earlier, on the average, than members of the 
second group, that the mentally defective class is 
reproducing itself about twice as rapidly as the intel- 
lectual class. There can be no doubt as to what the 
result of such a proportion as this must be. Let us 
quote Prof. Pearson’s own conclusion : ‘ The progress 
of the race inevitably demands a dominant fertility 
in the fitter stocks. If that principle be not recognized 
as axiomatic by the mentally and bodily fit themselves, 
if the statesman do not accept it as a guide in social 
legislation, then the race will degenerate until, sinking 
into barbarism, it may rise again through the toilsome 
stages of purification by crude natural selection.’ Or, 
it may be added, until it be annihilated by a more 
efficient neighbour. 
With regard to the cause of these differences in the 
birth-rate of different sections of the community, there 
can be very little doubt that they are largely due to 
deliberate restraint on the part of the more prudent 
and intelligent classes. When a person has attained 
by his own industry to a certain standard of comfort, 
and even luxury, he naturally desires to give his 
children a fair start, and to insure for them an equal 
degree of ease and security ; and if he finds that this is 
more easily done when the number of his family is 
limited, it is difficult to blame him for taking’advantage 
of the fact. If this class of men had more children 
on the average than are produced by people in in- 
ferior stations, it would mean that the children of the 
