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four centuries ago, of entrusting education to celibate priests, forbade
Fellows of Colleges to marry, under the penalty of losing their
fellowships. It is as though the winning horses at races were rendered
ineligible to become sires, which I need hardly say is the exact reverse of
the practice. Races were established and endowed by “Queen’s plates”
and otherwise at vast expense, for the purpose of discovering the swiftest
horses, who are thence-forward exempted from labour and reserved for
the sole purpose of propagating their species. The horses who do not win
races, or who are not otherwise specially selected for their natural gifts,
are prevented from becoming sires. Similarly, the mares who win races as
fillies, are not allowed to waste their strength in being ridden or driven,
but are tended under sanatory conditions for the sole., purpose of bearing
offspring. It is better economy, in the long-run, to use the best mares as
breeders than as workers, the loss through their withdrawal from active
service being more than recouped in the next generation through what is
gained by their progeny.
The college statutes to which I referred were very recently relaxed at
Oxford, and have been just reformed at Cambridge. I am told that
numerous marriages have ensued in consequence, or are ensuing. In
Hereditary Genius I showed that scholastic success runs strongly in
families; therefore, in all seriousness, I have no doubt, that the number of
Englishmen naturally endowed with high scholastic faculties, will be
sensibly increased in future generations by the repeal of these ancient
statutes.
The English race has yet to be explored and their now unknown wealth
of hereditary gifts recorded, that those who possess such a patrimony
should know of it. The natural impulses of mankind would then be
sufficient to ensure that such wealth should no more continue to be
neglected than the existence of any other possession suddenly made
known to a man. Aristocracies seldom make alliances out of their order,
except to gain wealth. Is it less to be expected that those who become
aware that they are endowed with the power of transmitting valuable
hereditary gifts should abstain from squandering their future children’s
patrimony by
