much scientific value. The result may be stated in the words of Mrs. McGee, who says that the complete failure to perpetuate the church through stirpiculture "would seem to indicate that, while our race would doubtless be greatly benefited by more attention to laws of breeding, yet to attempt promulgation of a belief by this means alone is only to court defeat. In spite of the energy and magnetism of so remarkable a man as Noyes, in spite of his long-continued efforts, and just when success seemed within his grasp, his one misjudgment of human nature bore fruit, the neglected instinct of monogamy arose in its might and crushed to nothing the whole structure, and he, the builder, went last of all. With the close of his life, April 13, 1886, ended a unique and interesting history."

Intermarriage.—We have seen that the founder of the Oneida Community permitted the intermarriage of uncle and niece, although he considered them related as nearly as father and daughter. This question of the intermarriage of near blood relations is an important one in its bearing on the question of stirpiculture, and as already mentioned, it has engaged the attention of nearly all the lower races of mankind. It has, indeed, been provided against by the marriage restrictions of most uncultured peoples, and their systems of relationship clearly point out what persons are within the permitted limits of marriage. It appears to be the general rule that the children of two brothers or of two sisters, whether own or tribal, cannot intermarry, but that the children of a brother and those of a sister may be thus united, although sometimes this is not allowed where own brother and sister are concerned.[42:A]

The question of the effect on offspring of consanguineous marriages was some time ago particularly enquired into by Mr. A. H. Huth, who, after a consideration of all the information available, came, in his work, "The Marriage of Near Kin," to the following conclusions:

"1—That any deterioration through the marriage of near kin, per se, even if there be such a thing in the lower animals, is impossible in man, owing to the slow propagation of the species.

"2—That any deterioration through the chance accumulation of an idiosyncrasy, though more likely to occur in families where the marriage of blood relations was habitual, practically does not occur oftener than in other marriages, or it would be more easily demonstrated.

"3—That, seeing the doubt, to say the least of it, which exists concerning the effect for harm of marriages between near kin, and on the other hand the certainty that whenever and wherever marriage is impeded a direct and proportionate impulse is given to the practice of immorality, it is advisable not to extend the prohibition against marriage beyond the third collateral degree, and to permit all marriages of affinity excepting those in the direct ascending or descending line."

There appears to be no doubt that what are regarded among Christian peoples as incestuous marriages are not desirable. How far marriage unions between first cousins are advisable depends, as appears from Mr. Huth's remarks, on considerations which affect the question generally. If there are any serious physical, intellectual or moral defects on either side, no marriage should take place.

Woman's Selective Action.—Apart from the question of consanguinity, the principles which should govern all marriages is that of sexual selection, which should have reference, however, not merely to physical characters, but also to mental and moral characteristics. In applying this principle, it must be remembered that while man, like the male of all animals, does the courting, woman, like all females, makes the selection; at least this is the general rule among the most cultured peoples. Thus it is evident that woman possesses the power of largely influencing the improvement of the human race, and in this fact we may see the possibility of this being effected by the operation of general social causes, without having recourse to individual experiments, such as that undertaken by Noyes, which are necessarily limited in their action, and may, after all, have like practical result. If all women could be induced to combine for that end they could probably bring about the desired improvement by their own efforts.

On this subject the well-known naturalist, Mr. A. R. Wallace, has some judicious remarks in an article on "Human Progress, Past and Future," in The Arena for January, 1892. Mr. Wallace, who accepts the views of Weismann as to the non-inheritance of acquired characters, thinks that the physical and moral evils and degradation attendant on the conditions of modern city life will have no permanent effects, when a more rational and elevating system of social organization is brought about. The most important agency in this social regeneration will be the selective action of woman, under the influence of her newly acquired freedom and higher education. Says Mr. Wallace: "When such social changes have been effected that no woman will be compelled, either by hunger, isolation or social compulsion, to sell herself, whether in or out of wedlock, and when all women alike shall feel the refining influence of a true harmonizing education, of beautiful and elevating surroundings, and of a public opinion which shall be founded on the highest aspirations of their age and country, the result will be a form of human selection which will bring about a continuous advance in the average status of the race. Under such conditions, all who are deformed either in body or mind, though they may be able to lead happy and contented lives, will, as a rule, leave no children to inherit their deformity. Even now we find many women who do not marry because they have never found the man of their ideal. When no woman will be compelled to marry for a bare living or for a comfortable home, those who remain unmarried from their own free choice will certainly increase in number, while many others, having no inducement to an early marriage, will wait until they meet with a partner who is really congenial to them. In such a reformed society the vicious man, the man of degraded taste or of feeble intellect, will have little chance of finding a wife, and his bad qualities will die out with himself. The most perfect and beautiful in body and mind will, on the other hand, be most sought and therefore be most likely to marry early, the less highly endowed later, and the least gifted in any way the latest of all; and this will be the case with both sexes. From this varying age of marriage, as Mr. Galton has shown, there will result a more rapid increase of the former than of the latter, and this cause continuing at work for successive generations will at length bring the average man to be the equal of those who are now among the more advanced of the race."

We have here the application of the principle of sexual selection in its highest sense, although limited in action to women, and it is undoubtedly the phase of stirpiculture which will become operative when the "emancipation of women" is completed. There is one feature of modern society which may retard its operation, and which was referred to by Darwin as interfering with the physical effect of sexual selection in the past. Wealth is now, more than ever before, an important factor in society, and not only man's but woman's choice in matrimony is often governed by money considerations. The possession of wealth may be evidence of