“For instance, when the suggestion has been made that the law should step in and prevent unfit individuals from contracting marriage, the objection has at once been raised that any such measure would be impracticable. Now we find that many savages have tried the experiment and succeeded. Mr. Im Thurn tells us that among the wild Indians of Guiana, a man, before he is allowed to choose a wife, must prove that he can do a man's work and is able to support himself and his family. In various Bechuana and Kaffir tribes, according to Livingstone, a youth is prohibited from marrying until he has killed a rhinoceros. Among the Dyaks of Borneo no one can marry until he has in his possession a certain number of human skulls. Among the Arabs of Upper Egypt a man must undergo an ordeal of whipping by the relatives of his bride, in order to test his courage; and if he wishes to be considered worth having, he must receive the chastisement, which is sometimes exceedingly severe, with an expression of enjoyment. “I do not say that these particular methods are worthy of slavish imitation, but the principle underlying them is certainly excellent, and especially the fact that they are recognised and enforced by custom shows that it has been quite possible among many people to prohibit certain unfit individuals from marrying. The question naturally arises whether, after all, something of the same kind may not be possible among ourselves.” =Mr. Galton's evidence.=--But Mr. Galton himself, with his characteristic thoroughness, and in full recognition of the fact that this young science must meet ignorant as well as other objections, read before the Sociological Society[50] a paper entitled “Restrictions in Marriage,” with special reference to the objection “that human nature would never brook interference with the freedom of marriage.... How far have marriage restrictions proved effective, when sanctified by the religion of the time, by custom and by law? I appeal from armchair criticism to historical facts.” Mr. Galton then proceeds to quote seven forms of restriction in marriage which have actually been practised--monogamy, endogamy, exogamy, Australian marriages, taboo, prohibited degrees and celibacy. He shows how powerful under each of these heads is the influence of “immaterial motives” upon marriage selection, how they may all become hallowed by religion, accepted as custom and enforced by law. “Persons who are born under their various rules, live under them without any objection. They are unconscious of their restrictions as we are unaware of the tension of the atmosphere.” In many cases the establishment of monogamy and the prohibition of polygamy “has been due not to any natural instinct against the practice, but to consideration of social well-being.” “It was penal for a Greek to marry a barbarian, for a Roman patrician to marry a plebeian, for a Hindoo of one caste to marry one of another caste,