THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM 167 



System, etc., is, in effect, a scheme for the pro- 

 motion of drunkenness. 



Must we then fold helpless hands, and, watching 

 the work of Natural Selection, lift not a finger to 

 save the victims, among whom may be the most 

 gifted of the race, and perhaps even our best 

 beloved ? Is there no way by which we, of our 

 own efforts, can render the race more temperate 

 except at the expense of posterity. There is a 

 way ; but not in our time will it be followed. It 

 is in our power to aid most actively ; but,- as yet, 

 the "moral" sense of this half-civilised community 

 forbids. Nevertheless, in the overcrowded world, 

 which looms in the immediate future, our descen- 

 dants, if spared by temperance reformers, will surely 

 adopt it, and, breeding only from the best, solve 

 this and other kindred problems. It is in our 

 power by copying Nature, by eliminating not 

 drink but the excessive drinker, by substituting 

 Artificial for Natural Selection, to obviate much 

 of the misery incident with the latter, and thus 

 speedily to evolve a sober race. 



The difficulties we should then have to face 

 are not imposed by Nature, but by Man, by what 

 we are pleased to call our "moral" system. We 

 cannot alter human nature by laws or moral codes, 

 but we can alter it by careful selection. How shall 

 we eliminate drunkards ? By what method ? By 



