SELECTION: ORGANIC AND SOCIAL 226 



historians of the downfall of the ancient world, 

 says that it was due mainly to " the rooting out of 

 the best." " Only cowards remained, and from 

 their brood came forward the new generations." 

 " Wars are not paid for in war times," Franklin 

 said; "the bill comes later." "The Roman 

 Empire," says Seeley, " perished for want of men." 

 There were plenty of people — " people with too 

 much guano in their composition," as Emerson 

 said ; but even Julius Csesar noted that men were, 

 becoming terribly scarce. Prof. Bury writes : " The 

 effect of the wars was that the ranks of the small 

 farmers were decimated, while the number of 

 slaves who did not serve in the army multiplied." 

 The German historian goes on : " Out of every 

 hundred thousand stsong men, eighty thousand 

 were slain. Out of every hundred thousand 

 weaklings, ninety to ninety-five thousand were 

 left to survive." 



But all that was long ago. So we take up 

 Jordan's " Human Harvest " again, and turn to 

 France — to France, ever young and splendid in 

 spirit. But the birth-rate continues steadily to 

 fall ; iAie average stature is lower by two inches 

 than it was a century ago ; and, as with ourselves, 

 there are other disquieting symptoms. These are 

 doubtless due to a variety of co-operating causes, 

 but can we exclude what one of themselves has 

 said, that " it will take long periods of peace and 

 plenty before France can recover the tall statures 

 mowed down in the wars of the repubhc and the 

 first empire " ? ^ 



Year after year Napoleon seized the youth of 

 good stature, and left their bones in great heaps 

 throughout Europe^ " You can always fill the 



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