THE DESCENT OB, ORIGIN OF MAN 183 



vene. The men who are rich through primogeniture are 

 able to select generation after generation the more beautiful 

 and charming women; and these must generally be healthy 

 in body and active in mind. The evil consequences, such 

 as they may be, of the continued preservation of the same 

 line of descent, without any selection, are checked by men 

 of rank always wishing to increase their wealth and power; 

 and this they effect by marrying heiresses. But the daugh- 

 ters of parents who have produced single children are them- 

 selves, as Mr. Galton" has shown, apt to be sterile; and thus 

 noble families are continually cut off in the direct line, and 

 their -wealth flows into some side channel; but, unfortu- 

 nately, this channel is not determined by superiority of any 

 kind. 



Although civilization thus checks in many ways the 

 action of natural selection, it apparently favors the better 

 development of the body, by means of good food and the 

 freedom from occasional hardships. This may be inferred 

 from civilized men having been found, wherever compared, 

 to be physically stronger than savages." They appear also 

 to have equal powers of endurance, as has been proved in 

 many adventurous expeditions. Even the great luxury of 

 the rich can be but little detrimental, for the expectation 

 of life of our aristocracy, at all ages and of both sexes, is 

 very little inferior to that of healthy English lives in the 

 lower classes. " 



We will now look to the intellectual faculties. If in each 

 grade of society the members were divided into two equal 

 bodies, the one including the intellectually superior and the 

 other the inferior, there can be little doubt that the former 

 would succeed best in all occupations, and rear a greater 

 number of children. Even in the lowest walks of life, skill 

 and ability must be of some advantage; though in many oc- 



■2 "Hereditary Genius," 1S10, pp. 132-140. 



" Quatrefages, "Revue dea Cours Scientiflques," 186'?-68, p. 659. 

 5< See the fifth and sixth columns, compiled from good authorities, in the 

 table given in Mr. E. R. Lankester's "Comparative Longevity," 1870, p. 115. 



