DEGENERATION, 283 
when incentives to individual action are taken away, 
without reduction in security of life, and when the unfit 
are sheltered from the consequences of their folly, 
weakness, or perversity. The increased effectiveness of 
altruism which goes with race progress furnishes a shel- 
ter under which race decay goes on. The growth of 
wisdom makes folly safe. At the same time the growth 
of wisdom works the death of fools when they are 
brought into life-and-death competition with those 
stronger and wiser. 
In the open competition of life the lineage of degen- 
eracy is a short one. Each individual man is a link 
in the chain of life. His intellect is its 
guardian. If the safeguard is weak, the 
link will be broken. Under ordinary 
conditions of freedom, there is no such thing as bad 
heredity. Our ancestors are sound and sane each ina 
fair degree, else we should not have seen the light. 
But with all this the withered branch may occur 
on the.most vigorous trees. Some descendant will show 
defects in nervous system or in balance 
of qualities. He will develop weakness 
or excess in sensitiveness or in motor 
response, or his mental operations will show a lack of 
that accuracy we call common sense. Such conditions, 
if inborn through germ variation, may become heredi- 
tary. A degenerate person may under certain condi- 
tions be parent of a race of degenerates or “ mattoids.” 
The conditions of preservation of a decaying race 
may be considered under seven heads. 
The unfit may be preserved as objects of charity. 
“ Charity,” says a French writer, “causes half the suffer- 
ing she relieves; but she can not relieve half the suffer- 
ing she has caused.” Unwise charity is responsible for 
half the pauperism of the world. That pauperism has 
Lineage of de- 
generacy short. 
Withered 
branches, 
