One might feel some surprise at the low valuation placed on "character," but it is really covered by other points. On the whole, one can not be dissatisfied with these specifications aside from its slight concern about mental ability.
Such wholesome ideals are probably rather widespread in the less sophisticated part of the population. In other strata, social and financial criteria of selection hold much importance. As a family ascends in economic position, its standards of sexual selection are likely to change. And in large sections of the population, there is a fluctuation in the standards from generation to generation. There is reason to suspect that the standards of sexual selection among educated young women in the United States to-day are higher than they were a quarter of a century, or even a decade, ago. They are demanding a higher degree of physical fitness and morality in their suitors. Men, in turn, are beginning to demand that the girls they marry shall be fitted for the duties of home-maker, wife and mother,—qualifications which were essential in the colonial period but little insisted on in the immediate past.
(b) It is evident, then, that the standards of sexual selection do change; there is therefore reason to suppose that they can change still further. This is an important point, for it is often alleged as an objection to eugenics that human affections are capricious and can not be influenced by rational considerations. Such an objection will be seen, on reflection, to be ill-founded.
As to the extent of change possible, the psychologist must have the final word. The ingenious Mr. Diffloth,3 who reduced love to a series of algebraical formulæ and geometrical curves, and proposed that every young man should find a girl whose curve was congruent to his own, and at once lead her to the altar, is not likely to gain many adherents. But the