laughter, and moulds those it does not kill into
sodden and forlorn creatures, uncouth, degraded
and wretched below the beasts of the field.

As to the manner in which this is done, I have
in previous chapters described at length; here let
Professor Huxley describe in brief: " Any one who
is acquainted with the state of the population of
all great industrial centres, whether in this or other
countries, is aware that amidst a large and increas
ing body of that population there reigns supreme
...that condition which the French call la misere,
a word for which I do not think there is any exact
English equivalent. It is a condition in which the
food, warmth, and clothing which are necessary for
the mere maintenance of the functions of the body
in their normal state cannot be obtained; in which
men, women, and children are forced to crowd
into dens wherein decency is abolished, and the
most ordinary conditions of healthful existence are
impossible of attainment; in which the pleasures
within reach are reduced to brutality and drunk
enness; in which the pains accumulate at compound
interest in the shape of starvation, disease, stunted
development, and moral degradation; in which the
prospect of even steady and honest industry is a
life of unsuccessful battling with hunger, rounded
by a pauper s grave."

In such conditions, the outlook for children is

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v?