Chap. V. 
CIVILISED NATIONS. 
171 
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 . 13 
We will now look to the intellectual faculties alone. 
If in each grade of society the members were divided 
into two equal bodies, the one including the intel- 
iectually 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 occupations, 
owing to the great division of labour, a very small 
one. Hence in civilised nations there will be some 
tendency to an increase both in the number and in 
the standard of the intellectually able. But I do not 
wish to assert that this tendency may not be more than 
counterbalanced in other ways, as by the multiplication 
of the reckless and improvident ; but even to such as 
these, ability must be some advantage. 
It has often been objected to views like the fore- 
going, that the most eminent men who have ever lived 
have left no offspring to inherit their great intellect. 
Mr. Galton says , 14 “ I regret I am unable to solve the 
simple question whether, and how far, men and women 
“ who are prodigies of genius are infertile. I have, how- 
“ ever, shewn that men of eminence are by no means so.” 
13 See the fifth and sixth columns, compiled from good authorities, 
in the fable given in Mr. E. E. Lankester’s ‘ Comparative Longevity/ 
1870, p. 115. 
14 ‘ Hereditary Genius/ 1870, p. 330. 
