he race. The companionship of two
persons between whom true love exists, is beyond all question the
highest happiness possible, and one which society should desire and
strive to give its every member. On that point there will be no
difference of opinion, but when it is asked whether there can be a
separation between the comradeship aspect and the reproduction aspect,
in marriage, whether any interest of the race can justifiably divorce
these two phases, often considered inseparable, protests are at once
aroused. In these protests, there is some justice. We would be the last
ones to deny that a marriage has failed to achieve its goal, has failed
to realize for its participants the greatest possible happiness, unless
it has resulted in sound offspring.

That word "sound" is the key to the distinction which must be made. The
interests of the race demand sound offspring from every couple in a
position to furnish them--not only in the interests of that
couple,--interests the importance of which it is not easy to
underestimate--but in the interests of the future of the race, whose
welfare far transcends in importance the welfare of any one individual,
or any pair of individuals. As surely as the race needs a constant
supply of children of sound character, so surely is it harmed by a
supply of children of inherently unsound character, physically or
mentally, who may contribute others like themselves to the next
generation. A recollection of the facts of heredity, and of the fact
that the offspring of any individual tend to increase in geometric
ratio, will supply adequate grounds for holding this conviction:--that
from a biological point of view, every child of congenitally inferior
character is a racial misfortune. The Spartans and other peoples of
antiquity fully realized this fact, and acted on it by exposing deformed
infants. Christianity properly revolted as such an action; but in
repudiating the action, it lost sight of the principle back of the
action. The principle should have been regarded, and civilized races are
now coming back to a realization of that fact--are, indeed, realizing
its weight far more fully than any other people has ever done, because
of the growing realization of the importance of heredity. No one is
likely seriously to argue again that deformed infants (whether their
deformity be physical or mental) should be exposed to perish; but the
argument that in the interests of the future of the race _they