“Man is gifted with pity and other kindly feelings; he has also the power of preventing many kinds of suffering. I conceive it to fall well within his province to replace Natural Selection by other processes that are more merciful and not less effective. “This is precisely the aim of eugenics. Its first object is to check the birth-rate of the Unfit, instead of allowing them to come into being, though doomed in large numbers to perish prematurely. The second object is the improvement of the race by furthering the productivity of the Fit by early marriages and healthful rearing of their children. Natural Selection rests upon excessive production and wholesale destruction; Eugenics on bringing no more individuals into the world than can be properly cared for, and those only of the best stock.” _Heredity and Selection in Sociology._ (1907.) By George Chatterton-Hill. This is a useful and interesting work, the nature of which is well indicated by its title. It contains many purely eugenic chapters, and cannot be ignored by the student. _The Germ-plasm, A Theory of Heredity._ (The Contemporary Science Series. 1893.) By August Weismann. This is Weismann's great work. It should be studied by politicians and others who still interpret all social phenomena in terms of Lamarckian theory, and also by modern writers who are so much more Weismannian than Weismann. _The Evolution Theory._ (1904.) Translated by J. Arthur Thomson and M. R. Thomson. By August Weismann. _The Principles of Heredity._ (1905.) By G. Archdall Reid. This is a very interesting and extremely Weismannian book which contains the most recent statement of the author's remarkable enquiries into the influence of disease as a factor of human selection. _Variation in Animals and Plants._ (The International Scientific Series. 1903.) By H. M. Vernon. _Variation, Heredity and Evolution._ (1906.) By R. H. Lock. _The Origin of Species._ (1869. Last (sixth) edition. Reprinted 1901.) By Charles Darwin. _The Descent of Man._ (1871. Second edition, 1874. Reprinted 1906.) By Charles Darwin. These classics now cost only half-a-crown apiece. The beginner should read _The Descent of Man_ first, I think. Some of the earlier chapters are of the utmost eugenic value, and would be found immensely interesting by modern lecturers on decadence, and the like. _Darwinism To-day._ (1907.) By Vernon L. Kellogg. An interesting and scholarly recent criticism, containing much matter strictly relevant to eugenics. _The Evolution of Sex._ (The Contemporary Science Series. Revised edition, 1901. Originally published in 1899.) By Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson. A famous book, yet to be discovered by most “authorities” on the Woman Question. _A History of Matrimonial Institutions._ (1904.) By G. E. Howard.