Excerpt from The Cultivation of Man, According to the Teachings of Common-Sense Being a Treatise on the Application to Man of the Laws That He Applies to All Other Creatures When a person ventures to express Opinions contrary to current notions, he is generally subjected to persecution; and if, owing to his mode of earning a livelihood, he be especially vulnerable in this respect, he may expect some what painful experiences, both for himself and for those dependent on him. But if he feel convinced that he is contending for what is true and good, he will bear all with fortitude, knowing, though life itself be threatened, that he has tried to help man to gain a greater knowledge of Nature's truths. And his children, when they shall have arrived at years of discretion, will rejoice that their father was bold to speak, and patient to suffer, for the eternal cause of right. And they, like him, may be strong to endure in silence. This book is contrary to some current notions - contrary to the Opinions of many whose goodwill I dearly value. It suggests that the cultivation of the human race, like that of any other species, should proceed on natural lines; that the stock from which the future members of the community are to be born should be carefully selected; that the strong should not be childless; and that defective children should be eliminated very early in life. But the argument is claimed to be founded on natural facts; and, if so, it may well be a sound one - in which case many of our currently accepted notions must be wrong. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.