The Eugenic Marriage, Volume I. (of IV.)

gathered out

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uccess in life, and to be a nation of good anima

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HAVE EVOLVED THE

rhood-Heredity-Environment-Educatio

ears a desire to know something more d

therhood, marriage, heredity, environment, disease, hygiene, sanitation, vice, education, culture,-in short, everything upon which the health of the people depends. If we c

satisfying assertion of the optimist, and most of us seem to be trying to make existence more tolerable and more happy. It is encouraging to know that intelligent men and wome

s to how the science of eugenics proposes to work out its problems. We hope only to excite

fly consider the conditions,-which are known to all of u

in every civilized country, is too high. It is conceded by every authority interested in the subj

. We also know that economic necessity has deprived them of the tutelage essential to social progress and physical health, and has endowed them with temperamental characteristics undesirable in the mothers of the race. Maternity is thrust upon these physically and mentally immature young wives, and they assume the principal r?le in a relationship that is onerous and

in the past, not amenable to any classification. These relate to individual and racial characteristics. We are beginning to learn that we can modify these characteristics by proper selection, by environment, and by education. This process will, to an eminent degree, redound to the permanent advantage of mankind. We may reasonably aspire to

st. We know that the dregs of the human species-the blind, the deaf-mute, the degenerate, the imbecile, the epileptic, the criminal even,-are better protected by organized charity and by the State than are the deserving fit and healthy. We know that in the slums thousands of desirable children waste their vitality in the battle for existence, and we know that, though philanthropy and governmental supervision and protection are afforded the deaf, the dumb, the blind and degenerate child, no helping hand

ge that there is something wrong with the educational system now in vogue. The writer is disposed to believe, however, that the fault is not wholly one of art. The conditions with which education has to contend are essentially hypothetical. It may be that the laws of heredity and psychology, when fixed, will evolve, at least, a more rational and a more ethical hypothesis. So far as eugenics

t of one-third of the race is expended in combating conditions against which no successful effort is possible. Think what this means. The struggle of life is a real struggle, even with success as an incentive and as a possible reward. It becomes a tragedy when we think of

inherently possesses the right to aspire to become an efficient home-maker and a good mother. She gives birth to a child, conceived in love, and during her travail she beseeches her Creator to help her and to help her baby, as all women do at such a time. Her baby is born blind and it is a weak and puny mite. The mother recovers slowly, but she is never the same vigorous and ambitious woman. Later her strength fades away, her enthusiasm falters, the home is blighted and seems a desecrated

e? Why were her prayers not heard? Why, indeed? One might as well ask why seemingly splendid

urvival of the fittest," but rather the survival of the strongest. That the strongest is not always the "fittest" needs no commentary. That the fit should survive is the

acred the weaker, which was frequently the fitter from the standpoint of desirability as progenitors of the

r modus operandi but accomplished the same

social condition of the time was such that they had no refuge elsewhere than in the bosom of the Church. But the Church chose to preach and exact

us and indolent. Neither class practised any domestic virtues, or respected the institution of motherhood. The process of the selection of the fittest for survival for the purpose

l supremacy, and the loquaciousness of our politicians. This, at least, is the criterion upon which the modern statesman estimates the quality of present-day civilization. He is not apparently interested in the story of the ages. The p

prehend that the greatness of a people is not in its past history, but in its ever-existing motherhood; and that its battles, in the future, must be fought, not on battlefields, but in its nurseries. When we judge our national worth a

ably would be the last one, because it would only end in the dominance of one power over all the others. If we concern ourselves only with Britain-from the eugenic standpoint-who would dare compute the ratio of marriageable females ove

have to be self-supporting. The economic problem would, therefore, have a far-reaching influence and even if solved ad

t, we may rightly construe as further proof of it, the widespread effort bei

purpose is frustrated and racial and individual injustice

the past, been elevated to the plane which a true est

aladministration in past generations, the present generation is end

se of inadequate laws, imperfect hygienic and sanita

ed the summit of idealism. The State, as an institution, would have evolved a perfection which would enable it to exist as an independent mechanism, complete and ideal in a

ory, as we have seen, has persistently deprived s

iolable guarantee of the happiness of the home, but human wisd

t the ultimate aim in view, if any, was something other