114 ANALYSIS OF THE FOUR PRINCIPLES. 



marked by a transference of frequency from families which should lie between 4 

 and 7 to those lying between o and 4. * * * While the theoretical curve will 

 be found to give only 6 to 8 per cent of marriages without issue, we find in modern 

 statistics 11 to 18 per cent of marriages with no issue * * * and this even 

 in countries Uke England and Denmark, where restraint is not usually supposed 

 to be so prevalent as in France.* 



Again, he remarks: "The prudential restraint on marriage and 

 parentage in the more educated members of the community, which 

 we are apt to regard as a social virtue, may after all have its dark 



side."t 



19. Institutional Election, Partition, and Isolation. 



Institutional election arises through the influence of public opinion 

 giving prominence, influence, and success to individuals who conform 

 most fully to the social standards of justice and propriety; and is rein- 

 forced by the law which puts a definite check on individuals whose 

 actions fall so far below these standards that the community will 

 not tolerate the offenders. Again, each community has its language, 

 its industrial methods, its arts and sciences, and its forms of etiquette, 

 which must be transmitted by tradition from generation to generation, 

 for these attainments can not be transmitted by racial heredity, and 

 their continuance in the community depends on example, education, 

 and training on the part of the older generation, and on the part of 

 the younger generation imitation, study, and practice. Now, insti- 

 tutional election includes the superior success and influence of the 

 individuals who attain the most complete equipment in these 

 acquired characters that belong to the community. 



Institutional partition arises when local isolation and partition has 

 resulted in divergence in language, religion, and education, preventing 

 the possibility of association in one community when local isolation 

 and partition has ceased. 



Institutional isolation. — Again, the differences in language, religion, 

 and education, which prevent free association, will also prevent free 

 intermingling of race, and the result is institutional isolation. Exam- 

 ples of institutional partition and isolation are seen in the Mohamme- 

 dan and Christian communities occupying the same regions in Turkey. 



* See Chances of Death and Other Studies in Evolution, pp. 67-69. 

 ^Ibid., p. 102. 



