the result they obtain is
exactly the opposite of what they intend.

Among the North Americans and New Zealanders, with whom
neo-malthusianism is very prevalent, the number of births among the
intelligent classes is diminishing to an alarming extent, while the
Chinese and negroes multiply exceedingly. In France, the practice of
neo-malthusianism is chiefly due to reasons of economy.

=Rational Selection.=--These two extremes, which are equally absurd,
should be replaced by rational selection. Neo-malthusianism should be
confined to the unfit of all kinds, and to the lower races. On the
contrary, the fit should be urged to multiply as much as possible. By
this means we obtain an indirect factor of the first order for a
rational political economy; I even maintain that it is the most
important of all. No doubt its action is extremely slow, and it would
take centuries to obtain a definite result. But if the principle of
proper human selection ever prevails, we may confidently hope for a
good future for our descendants.

A time will come when the human population of the earth will become
more or less stationary. If, in the meantime, human nature has
succeeded in appreciably improving its quality, and in gradually
suppressing the physical and mental proletariat with its poverty,
hunger and brutality, which now infests the world--then only will the
dogmas of our modern neo-malthusianists acquire a certain object for
the whole world.

If humanity does not soon begin to degenerate by brutish accumulation,
but finds in time the means to gradually elevate its quality, our
future descendants will take care not to abandon rational selection. A
capable and active man gives to society much more than he receives,
and thus forms an economic asset. A person who is unfit in body or
mind, receives more than he gives, and thus constitutes an economic
deficit.

=Contrary Selection.=--We have seen in Chapter VI how certain customs
of essentially human origin ended by becoming part of religion.
Unfortunately for humanity, religion and politics have at all times
generally combined to do wrong. The celibacy of priests (to say
nothing of the Inquisition, religious wars, and the fatalism of Islam)
which is based on a kind of religious politics, has largely resulted
in sterilizing the more intelligent among Catholic races.

The prohibition of inquiry into paternity is another abominable custom
of the same kind introduced by Napoleon. Laws o