ABSTRACT
Thoresby contends that Britons have been focused too much on ‘the masculine attribute of brutal strength’, the Darwinian struggle to survive, while ignoring the feminine traits of care. Children grow up without food and sunlight, but also without moral guidance, and they degenerate. This degenerate population was increasing and growing the numbers of unemployed. Thoresby puts the vagrants, who refuse to work and rely on charity. In the fifth class are the ‘criminals and lunatics’, but Thoresby believes this class would eventually disappear if children were reared correctly with air, light, and food. The consequence is that either mentally, morally, or physically, or all three, because any one deficient direction often creates the other two, they are much below the average standard, and practically never get constant work. They therefore start handicapped, and remain handicapped even through lack of the steady income which would mean regular food.
