Ethics and some modern world problems / by Willam McDougall.

  • McDougall, William, 1871-1938.
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Ethics and some modern world problems / by Willam McDougall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of democracy, rendering possible a return to the practical recognition of an elected and responsi¬ ble aristocracy. But it should be further used in the service of a purpose no less, perhaps even more important, namely, the preservation and possibly the improvement of the native qualities of the full citizens. Consider now how this great end may be served by the institution of the two classes of citizens. We have seen how, under present conditions, there obtains in all civilized nations a tendency to deterioration of the population, owing to the relative infertility of the better endowed, the inverse correlation of fertility with degrees of natural endowment. Under the present order of society, the rapidly multiplying lower strata are constantly infiltrating into, and substituting themselves for, the higher strata; so that the general tendency in each new generation must be a lowering of the average level of endowment throughout the whole population. Now suppose that intermarriage between the A and the C classes were strictly prohibited. We should then have a system under which the A class would constantly be purified, namely, by shedding off into the C class, first, all those of its