In the present volume we are proceeding upon the
true assumption, and therefore in the study of womanhood we must now
proceed, in defiance of conventional assumptions, to study the
responsibility and duties of motherhood _as they exist for maidenhood_.
To this end, it will be necessary that we remind ourselves of certain
great biological facts which are of immense significance for mankind,
and are doubtless indeed more important in their bearing upon ourselves
than upon any other living species.
The first of these is the fact of heredity; the second the fact that
hereditary endowment, whether for good or for evil, or, as is the rule,
both for good and for evil, goes vastly further than any one has until
lately realized, in determining individual destiny. These are amongst
the first principles of Eugenics or race culture, and as they have been
discussed at length elsewhere, one may here take them for granted.
Scarcely less important is the fact that the conditions of mating in the
sub-human world--conditions which beyond dispute make for the
continuance, the vigour, the efficiency, and therefore the happiness of
the species--are largely modified amongst ourselves in consequence of
certain human facts which have no sub-human parallel. The parallels and
the divergences between the two cases are both alike of the utmost
significance, and cannot be too carefully studied.
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