Taking the men alone, we find that failure to marry may often be
ascribed to one of the following reasons:
1. The cultivation of a taste for sexual variety and a consequent
unwillingness to submit to the restraints of marriage.
2. Pessimism in regard to women from premature or unfortunate sex
experiences.
3. Infection by venereal disease.
4. Deficiency in normal sexual feeling, or perversion.
5. Deficiency of one kind or another, physical or mental, causing
difficulty in getting an acceptable mate.
The persons in groups 4 and 5 certainly and in groups 1, 2, and 3
probably to a less extent, are inferior, and their celibacy is an
advantage to the race, rather than a disadvantage, from a eugenic point
of view. Their inferiority is in part the result of bad environment. But
since innate inferiority is so frequently a large factor, the bad
environment often being experienced only because the nature was inferior
to start with, the average of the group as a whole must be considered
innately inferior.
Then there are among celibate men two other classes, largely superior by
nature:
6. Those who seek some other end so ardently that they will not make the
necessary sacrifice in money and freedom, in order to marry.
Pages:
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405