CONTROL OF HEREDITY: EUGENICS 455 



have no more children than they can conven- 

 iently rear amid all the comforts of a luxury- 

 loving age. 



The method of evolution in the past has been 

 the production of enormous numbers of indi- 

 viduals and the elimination of the least fit. The 

 modern method of improving domestic races is 

 to select for reproduction the best types from 

 large numbers of individuals. One reason why 

 human evolution has gone on so slowly is to be 

 found in the slow breeding of men. Nature 

 has provided an almost infinite wealth and 

 variety of potential personalities in human 

 germ cells but only an infinitesimal number 

 ever come to development. If this number is 

 still further reduced by artificial means the 

 race will be made the poorer not merely in 

 quantity but also in quality. The optimism of 

 those who believe that supermen may be pro- 

 duced by artificially limiting the number of 

 children is a foolish and fatal optimism. 



Finally for those who are denied the privi- 

 lege of parenthood and upon whom sterility 

 is forced by whatever circumstances there is a 

 lesson of value to be drawn from the social in- 



