Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/502

488 trials and dangers of childbirth, sterility, incapacity, and nervous disorders, are the coming events which cast their shadows "in the depths of folly and degeneracy." Mr. Galton regrets that he is unable to decide how far men and women who are prodigies of genius are infertile. It would seem, in answer, that where parents have undermined their vitality and their health, by mental or physical overwork, where their activities and powers have been attained at the expense of their physical system, like the most highly cultivated types of vegetable growths, they will beget no germinating seed.

The arguments brought by M. Fouillée against the second part of Mr. Spencer's proposition are of two kinds—the one proposing an altruistic test for benevolent action, the other holding that the law of mental and moral heredity is much "more vague and loose than the law of physical heredity." Let us examine, briefly, the first objection and see what it is worth. Suppose, for example, a man commits a crime, or violates any established law of society; he is punished, either lightly or severely, according to the nature of his act. Conversely, when the intemperate are well aware that hard drinking will cause suffering, and the blasé wight knows that his profligacy will produce sickness and disorders, these trangressions are treated with excessive leniency. Paradoxical, then, is the doctrine, held overtly, that the individual who hurts others shall be treated rigorously, but that the individual who hurts himself shall be treated forbearingly. Hence the best specific for vice and crime is the sharp suffering which flows inevitably from vice and crime. Take, also, that distribution of money, "prompted," says Mr. Spencer, "by misinterpretation of the saying that charity covers a multitude of sins." The ignoble action of Evagrius, a Pagan, when he gave his three hundred pieces of gold to the bishop, must be condemned, for he demanded and received a promissory note to be paid in the other world. Take, again, those ostentatious donations by which the donor invites not only present approbation, but bids for posthumous fame and honor; and it is not strange that many eleemosynary institutions intended to perpetuate the bounty of their founders are admired as monuments to personal pride. The elaborate study of Mr. Bain has shown that the love of applause, the feeling of praise, the desire to win the respect of our fellows, even the fear to merit their condemnation, spring from the instinct of sympathy. Indeed, sympathy itself is founded upon the instinct of self-preservation; seen alike in that feeling which impels the members of a community to band together for protection, or in that altruism which prompts the strong to help the weak in their burdens. At an early day clover and stramonium were scattered in the fields; and our modern knowledge of poisons, even the invention of dynamite, is due primarily to the instinct of sympathy, though often strangely distorted by fear, malice, or love.

The second part of M. Fouillée's objection is directed toward