It is, therefore, quite unreal for us to anticipate any change in the essential nature of man in the next few thousand years. The increase of knowledge and its applications will not alter that nature, or the relation of mind to mind. We shall still desire and admire the same things, and be moved by the same impulses; and we may neglect as ignorant dreams all speculations about any essential changes in the motives or constitution of man. CHAPTER II. PRESENT CHANGES OF CHARACTER. Having now seen how the fluctuations of amendment or deterioration of character, are subject to the same common laws as those of the variation of physical structure, we are in a position to see more clearly the effect of gradual changes around us in England. Emigration has been very active in the past three generations, and immigration has recently become important. The loss of the earliest emigrants who moved for religious and political reasons affected the national character very little; there was plenty of solid character remaining in England, and the removal of the more disputatious elements gave added strength to those who continued at home. The compulsory emigration of convicts was similarly a gain by removing those who were most out of harmony with the majority. Happily those whose characters made it most irksome to them to comply with the legal formulae of life at home, were just those best suited for the type of a new country, less restrained and more varied, with greater scope for enterprise. So far there had been a gain by removal of the two extreme types. But then succeeded a most serious movement of the voluntary selection of persons who thought that their energies would have a better and more remunerative scope in the colonies. This implied a draining away of those who had intelligence to choose a more promising career, energy to break with their present life and start afresh, and who possessed most adaptability, self-reliance, and hopefulness. All of these qualities are greatly needed at home for a prosperous population; and the incessant natural selection from the general mass, and removal of those who had most of such qualities, must have produced a serious effect on the home population. We see in England undoubtedly a lessening of sturdiness as a whole, and the deficiency of the abilities which have been most exported. There is a general outcry about the lack of adaptability in business; and the general want of self-reliance is shown by all the grandmotherly legislation which is sought and granted. At first we succeeded in getting rid of some amount of less desirable stock along with the capable stock; but in later years most countries will not admit any but good stock, and we lose the valuable examples of national character without any compensation. The drain of capacity from the nation is a most serious feature of life in England; and how far the prominence of the "submerged tenth," and the large proportion who live