in physique will cause much less excitement.

They will /talk/ about improving the race--they will talk about
everything--but they won't use their chances to /do/ it. Whenever
a new discovery makes life less hard, for example, these heedless
beings will seldom preserve this advantage, or use their new wealth
to take more time thereafter for thought, or to gain health and
strength or do anything else to make the race better. Instead, they
will use the new ease just to increase in numbers; and they will keep
on at this until misery once more has checked them. Life will then
be as hard as ever, naturally, and the chance will be gone.

They will have a proverb, "The poor ye have always with you,"--said
by one who knew simians.

Their ingenious minds will have an answer to this. They will argue
it is well that life should be Spartan and hard, because of the
discipline and its strengthening effects on the character. But
the good effects of this sort of discipline will be mixed with sad
wreckage. And only creatures incapable of disciplining themselves
could thus argue. It is an odd expedient to get yourself into
trouble just for discipline's sake.

The fact is, however, the argument won't be sincere. When their
nations grow so over-populous and their families so large it means
misery, that will not be a sign of their having felt ready for
discipline. It will be a sign of their not having practised it
in their sexual lives.