battle in vain; for there is not another New World to bring new
wealth, new prosperity, and new life and light after another period
of 'Dark Ages.'

"Whether we shall ever apply any such intelligence to the possible
improvement of our own race as we have in the great improvement of
our cattle and corn is, of course, an open question; but to some
extent you will agree that the grafter and the insane, like the
poet, are born and not made. Of course there are, and always will
be, marked variations, mutants, or 'sports,' but, nevertheless,
natural inheritance is the master key to the improvement of every
form of life; and it is an encouraging fact that some of the states,
as Indiana, for example, have already adopted laws looking toward
the reduction of the reproduction of convicted degenerates."






CHAPTER XVI

PAST SELF REDEMPTION





"BUT I have rambled far from the subject assigned me," Percy
continued.