Uganda; The Fijians; Children of Large Families often Superior to those in Small Families; Some Reasons for this;

179   A THEORETICAL BABY. Our First Baby; We had Theories; What Some of Them Were; My Wife's Love for Me; My Sentiments; The Child's Easy Birth; Mother's Rapid Convalescence; The Child's First Bath; Forming Good Habits Early; No Crying at Night; Never Rocked to Sleep; His Bed; Keeping the Stomach and Bowels Right; Colic, Irritability and the Necessity for Diapers Eliminated; Number of Meals Daily; The Infant's Clothing; At One Year Old; Teething Gives Little Trouble; Requires Considerable Water; Learning to Creep, Stand, Walk and Talk by His Own Efforts; Invents His Own Amusements; Companionship With Parents; Mothering; Learning Self-control; Obedience; Playmates; 184   Notes 199

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STIRPICULTURE.

Natural selection, which is the central doctrine of Darwinism, has been explained as the "survival of the fittest." On this process has depended the progress observable throughout organic nature to which the term evolution is applied; for, although there has been from time to time degradation, that is, a retrogression, this has had relation only to particular forms, organic life as a whole evidencing progress towards perfection. When man appeared as the culmination of evolution under terrestrial conditions, natural selection would seem almost to have finished its work, which was taken up, however, by man himself, who was able by "artificial" selection to secure results similar to those which Nature had attained. This is true especially in relation to animals, the domestication of which has always been practiced by man, even while in a state of nature. Domestication is primarily a psychical process, but it is attended with physical changes consequent on confinement and variation in food and habits. This alone would hardly account, however, for the great number of varieties among animals that have been long domesticated, and it is probable that actual "stirpiculture" has been practiced from very early times. This term is derived from the Latin stirpis, a stock or race, and cultus, culture or cultivation, and it means, therefore, the cultivation of a stock or race, although it has come to be used in the sense of the "breeding of offspring," and particularly of human offspring. It is evident, however, that in relation to man this is too restricted a sense, and it must be extended so as to embrace as well the rearing and training as the breeding of children, in fact, cultivation in its widest sense, in which is always implied the idea of improvement.

Stirpiculture in this extended sense was not unknown to the ancients, both in theory and in practice. As to the former, the most noted example is that of Plato, who, in his "Republic," proposed certain arrangements as to marriage and the bringing up of children which he thought would improve the race, and hence be beneficial to the State. The State was to Plato all in all, and he considered that it should form one great family. This idea could not be carried into effect, however, so long as independent families existed, and therefore those arrangements had for one of their chief aims the abolition of what we regard as family life. This Plato thought was the best for the State, and the advantage which was supposed to accrue to it by the absence of separate families is expressed in a marginal note, which says: "There will be no private interests among them, and therefore no lawsuits or trials for assault or violence to elders."

Plato's Restrictions on Parentage.—The end would hardly seem to justify the means, in these days, at least, when violence to elders is an uncommon incident; but how was the community of wives and children by which it was sought to be attained to be brought about? It is said, "The best of either sex should be united with the best as often, and the inferior with the inferior as seldom, as possible." Thus the people were to be classified into "best" and "inferior," and while the former were to be brought together as often as possible, the latter were not to be united at all if it could be avoided. There was no question of marriage in either case. In the one, the union was for the purpose of obtaining children, and in the other for the simple gratification of the passions; for only the offspring of the union between the sexes in the "best" class were to be reared. The children of the inferior class were not to be reared, "if the flock is to be maintained in first-class condition." This infanticide would matter little to the parents, as they had no control over their coming together, nor concern with the rearing of their offspring. Lots were to be drawn by the "less worthy" on each occasion of their being brought together. This was that they might accuse their ill-luck and not the rulers, in case their partners were not to their liking. The State was to provide not only what men and women were to be sexually united, but the ages within which this was to be permitted for the purpose of obtaining offspring. For a woman, the beginning of childbearing for the State was fixed at twenty years of age, and it was to continue until forty. For men, the period of procreation is said to be between twenty-five and fifty-five years of age. After the specified ages men and women were to be allowed to "range at will," except within certain prescribed degrees, but on the understanding that no children born to such unions were to be reared. It is evident that under such a system the actual relationship between the members of the State family could be known only to its rulers; but to provide against the union of persons too nearly related by blood, all those who were "begotten at the time their fathers and mothers came together" were regarded as brothers and sisters. But even brothers and sisters might be united "if the lot favors them, and they receive the sanction of the Pythian oracle." Thus far for the breeding of children laid down in Plato's "Republic." As to the rearing of them, we need only say that the children allowed to live were to be placed in the custody of guardians, to be appointed by the State from among the most worthy of either sex, who were to bring them up in accordance with the principles of virtue.

The idea which formed the basis of the regulations as to marriage in the "Republic" was carried into practice by Lycurgus in his government of Sparta. We are told by Plutarch in his "Lives," that Lycurgus considered children not so much the property of their parents as of the State, "and therefore he could not have them begotten by ordinary persons, but by the best men in it." But he did not attempt to break up the private family, as was proposed by Plato. He sought rather to enlarge its boundaries by allowing the introduction of a fresh paternal element when this could be done with advantage to the State. Thus, he approved of a man in years introducing to his young wife a "handsome and honest" young man, that she might bear a child by him.