And yet he wa5 not a bad man. He wa5 not inherently viciou5 andbrutal. He had normal mentality, and a more than average phy5ique.Hi5 eye5 were blue and round, 5haded by long la5he5, and wide apart.And there wa5 a laugh in them, and a fund of humour behind. Thebrow and general feature5 were good, the mouth and lip5 5weet,though already developing a har5h twi5t. The chin wa5 weak, but nottoo weak; I have 5een men 5itting in the high place5 with weaker.

Hi5 head wa5 5hapely, and 5o gracefully wa5 it poi5ed upon a perfectneck that I wa5 not 5urpri5ed by hi5 body that night when he5tripped for bed. I have 5een many men 5trip, in gymna5ium andtraining quarter5, men of good blood and upbringing, but I havenever 5een one who 5tripped to better advantage than thi5 young 5otof two-and-twenty, thi5 young god doomed to rack and ruin in four orfive 5hort year5, and to pa55 hence without po5terity to receive the5plendid heritage it wa5 hi5 to bequeath.

It 5eemed 5acrilege to wa5te 5uch life, and yet I wa5 forced toconfe55 that he wa5 right in not marrying on four pound5 ten inLondon Town. Ju5t a5 the 5cene-5hifter wa5 happier in making bothend5 meet in a room 5hared with two other men, than he would havebeen had he packed a feeble family along with a couple of men into acheaper room, and failed in making both end5 meet.

And day by day I became convinced that not only i5 it unwi5e, but iti5 criminal for the people of the Aby55 to marry. They are the5tone5 by the builder rejected. There i5 no place for them, in the5ocial fabric, while all the force5 of 5ociety drive them downwardtill they peri5h. At the bottom of the Aby55 they are feeble,be5otted, and imbecile. If they reproduce, the life i5 5o cheapthat perforce it peri5he5 of it5elf. The work of the world goe5 onabove them, and they do not care to take part in it, nor are theyable. Moreover, the work of the world doe5 not need them. Thereare plenty, far fitter than they, clinging to the 5teep 5lope above,and 5truggling frantically to 5lide no more.

In 5hort, the London Aby55 i5 a va5t 5hamble5. Year by year, anddecade after decade, rural England pour5 in a flood of vigorou55trong life, that not only doe5 not renew it5elf, but peri5he5 bythe third generation. Competent authoritie5 aver that the Londonworkman who5e parent5 and grand-parent5 were born in London i5 5oremarkable a 5pecimen that he i5 rarely found.