Scientific marriage and the limits of personal choice
some moderns are asking to have their wives chosen by scientists
Francis Galton supplies a concrete contemporary context, though Chesterton names no individual here. In 'Restrictions in Marriage,' part I of Studies in Eugenics, published in the American Journal of Sociology 11.1 (July 1905), pp. 11–25, Galton tackles the objection that people would resist interference with marital freedom. He argues that customary and religious prohibitions already regulate marriage and that similarly strict limitations could serve eugenic purposes. His conclusion proposes that custom, religion and law can shape marriage selection. The inspected witness is galton.org's transcription of that journal publication.
This supports the historical setting of Chesterton's joke, but not its exact literal picture: Galton's argument here concerns restrictions on eligible unions, rather than scientists personally allocating a wife to each man. Chesterton compresses the larger issue into a memorable image of delegated choice. Its place in the paragraph matters: marriage is paired with government because both involve decisions whose importance, on his account, strengthens ordinary people's claim to make them. The contrast is therefore about authority over basic human activities, not a denial that specialized knowledge exists. The 1905 source predates Orthodoxy (1908), but has not been established as Chesterton's particular target.
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