"If it be true that reason must direct the course of human evolution, and if it be also true that selection of the fittest is the only method available for that purpose; then, if we are to have any race-improvement at all, the dreadful law of _destruction of the weak and helpless_ must, with Spartan firmness, be carried out voluntarily and deliberately. Against such a course all that is best in us revolts."[139:A] [139:A] Professor Joseph Le Conte, in _The Monist_, Vol. I., p. 334. A more recent writer, Dr. W. M. Flinders Petrie, the well-known Egyptian explorer, has put forward similar views in a tentative manner, but clearly showing what he thinks our present state of society requires. Of the compensation to workmen for accident he says: "The immediate effect upon character is to save the careless, thoughtless, and incompetent from the results of their faults; this at once reduces largely the weeding and educational effects of the bad qualities." And of old-age pensions his concluding remark is: "Nature knows of no right to maintenance, but only the necessity of getting rid of these who need it by mending or ending them." Again, as to the huge waste of infant life now going on, which he admits is preventable and might be saved, he remarks: "We must agree that it would be of the lower, or lowest type of careless, thriftless, dirty, and incapable families that the increase would be obtained. Is it worth while to dilute our increase of population by 10 per cent. more of the more inferior kind?" And he concludes thus: "This movement is doing away with one of the few remains of natural weeding out of the unfit that our civilisation has left us. And it will certainly cause more misery than happiness in the course of a century."[140:A] [140:A] _Janus in Modern Life._ By W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L., F.R.S. The whole book is full of such statements as the above, for which neither facts nor arguments are given. It is assumed throughout that the failures in our modern society are so through their own fault—they are "wastrels"—and deserve neither pity nor help. He knows nothing apparently of Dr. Barnardo's work in rescuing these "wastrel" children from the gutter and the workhouse, treating them well and kindly, training them in work, and sending many thousands to Canada. A record of their subsequent life was kept, and it was found that very few failed to do well, while a very large majority became valuable citizens in their new home. On the whole, they were in no way inferior to the average of emigrants who go at their own expense, and who are admitted to be among the best of our workers.