MAir 237 



until he and his descendants suffer, and the family be- 

 comes extinct. 



The young men of the nobility of wealth, birth, and 

 fashion usually marry heiresses, if they can. But only 

 in families of enormous wealth can there be more than 

 one or two heiresses in the same generation. She 

 has very probably inherited a portion of her wealth 

 from one or more extinct branches of the family. 

 Moreover, not to speak of other factors, the labor and 

 anxiety which have been essential to the accumulation 

 and preservation of these great fortunes, or the mode 

 of life which has accompanied their use or abuse, tend 

 to diminish the number of children. Heiresses to very 

 large fortunes usually therefore belong to families 

 which are tending to sterility. And this has very prob- 

 ably been no unimportant factor in the extinction of 

 "noble " famiKes. 



A sound body contains many organs, all of which 

 must be sound. And in a sound miad there is an 

 even greater number of faculties, all of which must be 

 kept at a high grade of efficiency. Man is a marvel- 

 lously complex being, and more in danger of a narrow 

 and one-sided development than any lower animal. 

 And it is very easy for a certain grade or class of so- 

 ciety, or for a whole race, to become so specialized, by 

 the cultivation of only one set of faculties as to alto- 

 gether prevent its giving birth to a complete humanity. 

 Along certain broad Hnes the Greeks and Eomans at- 

 tained results never since equalled. But their neglect 

 of other, even more important, powers and attain- 

 ments, especially the moral and religious, doomed 

 them to a speedy decay. The rude northern races 

 were on the whole better and nobler, and became heirs 



