420- HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



favor. He suggested a social policy which 

 would delay the age of marriage among the 

 weak and hasten it among the vigorous, 

 whereas present social agencies act in the op- 

 posite direction. He showed by statistics that 

 on the average marriage at the age of 22 would 

 produce at the end of one century four times 

 as many offspring as marriage at 33 and at 

 the end of two centuries ten times as many. 

 He particularly emphasized the great harm 

 which would be done by an application of the 

 theory of Malthus among the better classes. 

 For the prudent to put off marriage and to 

 limit offspring while the imprudent continue 

 to reproduce at the present rate would be to 

 give the world to the imprudent within a few 

 centuries at most. 



His suggestions, which were at first received 

 with indifference or ridicule, were much less 

 radical than the legal requirements in many 

 of our States to-day. Public sentiment has 

 been greatly aroused on this question; the 

 alarming increase in the number of defectives 

 and criminals has seemed to call for radical 

 action and a flood of hasty but well intentioned 



