Such
a marriage is in some ways more dangerous to the race, in the long run,
than that of "weakness with weakness." Yet society at present certainly
has no safe grounds for interference, if such a marriage is made. If the
two persons come of superior stock, it seems _probable_ that the gain
will outweigh the loss. In any event, it is at least to be expected that
both man and woman would have a deliberate consciousness of what they
are doing, and that no person with any honor would enter into a
marriage, concealing a defect in his or her ancestry. Love is usually
blind enough to overlook such a thing, but if it chooses not to, it
ought not to be blindfolded.
In short, the mating of strength with strength is certainly the ideal
which society should have and which every individual should have. But
human heredity is so mixed that this ideal is not always practicable;
and if any two persons wish to abandon it, society is hardly justified
in interfering, unless the case be so gross as those which we were
discussing in the first part of this chapter. Progress in this direction
is to be expected mainly from the enlightened action of the individual.
Much more progress in the study of heredity must be made before advice
on marriage matings can be given in any except fairly obvious cases.
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