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diff --git a/22090-h/22090-h.htm b/22090-h/22090-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cd64dbc --- /dev/null +++ b/22090-h/22090-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,16611 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Task of Social Hygiene, by Havelock Ellis</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body {margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i12 {display: block; margin-left: 12em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + ul {list-style-type:none;} + div.index > ul {margin-left:20%; } + div.index li {margin-left:0em; } + table.az {width: 70%; + text-align:center; + margin-bottom: 2em; + border-collapse: collapse;} + table.az td {text-align:center;} + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 75%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Task of Social Hygiene, by Havelock Ellis</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Task of Social Hygiene</p> +<p>Author: Havelock Ellis</p> +<p>Release Date: July 17, 2007 [eBook #22090]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TASK OF SOCIAL HYGIENE***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Ross Wilburn,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>THE TASK OF SOCIAL HYGIENE</h1> + + +<h4>BY THE SAME AUTHOR +<br /><br /> +STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY +OF SEX. <span class="smcap">Six Vols</span>. +<br /> +THE NEW SPIRIT +<br /> +AFFIRMATIONS +<br /> +MAN AND WOMAN +<br /> +THE CRIMINAL +<br /> +THE WORLD OF DREAMS +<br /> +THE SOUL OF SPAIN +<br /> +IMPRESSIONS AND COMMENTS +<br /> +ESSAYS IN WAR-TIME. <span class="smcap">Etc</span>.</h4> + + +<h1>THE TASK OF +SOCIAL HYGIENE</h1> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>HAVELOCK ELLIS</h3> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF<br /> +"THE SOUL OF SPAIN"; "THE WORLD OF DREAMS"; ETC.</h4> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 151px;"> +<img src="images/logo.jpg" width="151" height="192" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h4>BOSTON AND NEW YORK<br /> +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br /> +1916</h4> + + +<h4><i>Printed in Great Britain.</i></h4> +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + +<h3>PREFACE</h3> + + +<p>The study of social hygiene means the study of +those things which concern the welfare of human +beings living in societies. There can, therefore, +be no study more widely important or more generally interesting. +I fear, however, that by many persons social +hygiene is vaguely regarded either as a mere extension +of sanitary science, or else as an effort to set up an intolerable +bureaucracy to oversee every action of our +lives, and perhaps even to breed us as cattle are bred.</p> + +<p>That is certainly not the point of view from which this +book has been written. Plato and Rabelais, Campanella +and More, have been among those who announced +the principles of social hygiene here set forth. There +must be a social order, all these great pioneers recognized, +but the health of society, like the health of the body, +is marked by expansion as much as by restriction, and, +the striving for order is only justified because without +order there can be no freedom. If it were not the mission +of social hygiene to bring a new joy and a new freedom +into life I should not have concerned myself with the +writing of this book.</p> + +<p>When we thus contemplate the process of social +hygiene, we are no longer in danger of looking upon it as +an artificial interference with Nature. It is in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span> +Book of Nature, as Campanella put it, that the laws of +life and of government are to be read. Or, as Quesnel +said two centuries ago, more precisely for our present +purpose, "Nature is universal hygiene." All animals are +scrupulous in hygiene; the elaboration of hygiene moves +<i>pari passu</i> with the rank of a species in intelligence. +Even the cockroach, which lives on what we call filth, +spends the greater part of its time in the cultivation of +personal cleanliness. And all social hygiene, in its fullest +sense, is but an increasingly complex and extended +method of purification—the purification of the conditions +of life by sound legislation, the purification of our own +minds by better knowledge, the purification of our +hearts by a growing sense of responsibility, the purification +of the race itself by an enlightened eugenics, consciously +aiding Nature in her manifest effort to embody +new ideals of life. It was not Man, but Nature, who +realized the daring and splendid idea—risky as it was—of +placing the higher anthropoids on their hind limbs +and so liberating their fore-limbs in the service of their +nimble and aspiring brains. We may humbly follow +in the same path, liberating latent forces of life and +suppressing those which no longer serve the present ends +of life. For, as Shakespeare said, when in <i>The Winter's +Tale</i> he set forth a luminous philosophy of social hygiene +and applied it to eugenics,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Nature is made better by no mean</span> +<span class="i0">But Nature makes that mean ...</span> +<span class="i12">This is an art</span> +<span class="i0">Which does mend Nature, change it rather, but</span> +<span class="i0">The art itself is Nature."</span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span> +In whatever way it may be understood, however, +social hygiene is now very much to the front of people's +minds. The present volume, I wish to make clear, +has not been hastily written to meet any real or supposed +demand. It has slowly grown during a period of nearly +twenty-five years, and it expresses an attitude which is +implicit or explicit in the whole of my work. By some +readers, doubtless, it will be seen to constitute an extension +in various directions of the arguments developed in +the larger work on "Sex in Relation to Society," which +is the final volume of my <i>Studies in the Psychology of +Sex</i>. The book I now bring forward may, however, +be more properly regarded as a presentation of the wider +scheme of social reform out of which the more special +sex studies have developed. We are faced to-day by the +need for vast and complex changes in social organization. +In these changes the welfare of individuals and the +welfare of communities are alike concerned. Moreover, +they are matters which are not confined to the affairs +of this nation or of that nation, but of the whole family +of nations participating in the fraternity of modern +progress.</p> + +<p>The word "progress," indeed, which falls so easily +from our lips is not a word which any serious writer +should use without precaution. The conception of +"progress" is a useful conception in so far as it binds +together those who are working for common ends, and +stimulates that perpetual slight movement in which life +consists. But there is no general progress in Nature, +nor any unqualified progress; that is to say, that there +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> +is no progress for all groups along the line, and that even +those groups which progress pay the price of their +progress. It was so even when our anthropoid ancestors +rose to the erect position; that was "progress," and it +gained us the use of hands. But it lost us our tails, +and much else that is more regrettable than we are +always able to realize. There is no general and ever-increasing +evolution towards perfection. "Existence +is realized in its perfection under whatever aspect it is +manifested," says Jules de Gaultier. Or, as Whitman +put it, "There will never be any more perfection than +there is now." We cannot expect an increased power of +growth and realization in existence, as a whole, leading +to any general perfection; we can only expect to see +the triumph of individuals, or of groups of individuals, +carrying out their own conceptions along special lines, +every perfection so attained involving, on its reverse side, +the acquirement of an imperfection. It is in this sense, +and in this sense only, that progress is possible. We need +not fear that we shall ever achieve the stagnant immobility +of a general perfection.</p> + +<p>The problems of progress we are here concerned with +are such as the civilized world, as represented by some +of its foremost individuals or groups of individuals, is +just now waking up to grapple with. No doubt other +problems might be added, and the addition give a greater +semblance of completion to this book. I have selected +those which seem to me very essential, very fundamental. +The questions of social hygiene, as here understood, go +to the heart of life. It is the task of this hygiene not +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span> +only to make sewers, but to re-make love, and to do both +in the same large spirit of human fellowship, to ensure +finer individual development and a larger social organization. +At the one end social hygiene may be regarded +as simply the extension of an elementary sanitary code; +at the other end it seems to some to have in it the glorious +freedom of a new religion. The majority of people, +probably, will be content to admit that we have here a +scheme of serious social reform which every man and +woman will soon be called upon to take some share in.</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">Havelock Ellis</span>.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'><a href="#Introduction">I.—<span class="smcap">Introduction</span></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td align='right'>PAGE</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><blockquote><p>The aim of Social Hygiene—Social Reform—The Rise of Social +Reform out of English Industrialism—The Four Stages of Social +Reform—(1) The Stage of Sanitation—(2) Factory Legislation—(3) +The Extension of the Scope of Education—(4) Puericulture—The +Scientific Evolution corresponding to these Stages—Social +Reform only Touched the Conditions of Life—Yet Social Reform +Remains highly Necessary—The Question of Infantile +Mortality and the Quality of the Race—The Better Organization +of Life Involved by Social Hygiene—Its Insistence on the +Quality rather than on the Conditions of Life—The Control of +Reproduction—The Fall of the Birth-rate in Relation to the +Quality of the Population—The Rejuvenation of a Society—The +Influence of Culture and Refinement on a Race—Eugenics—The +Regeneration of the Race—The Problem of Feeble-mindedness—The +Methods of Eugenics—Some of the Problems +which Face us</p></blockquote></td><td align="right" valign="bottom">1</td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'><a href="#CHAPII">II.—<span class="smcap">The Changing Status of Women</span></a></td></tr> + + +<tr><td align='left'><blockquote><p>The Origin of the Woman Movement—Mary Wollstonecraft—George +Sand—Robert Owen—William Thompson—John Stuart +Mill—The Modern Growth of Social Cohesion—The Growth of +Industrialism—Its Influence in Woman's Sphere of Work—The +Education of Women—Co-education—The Woman Question +and Sexual Selection—Significance of Economic Independence—The +State Regulation of Marriage—The Future of Marriage—Wilhelm +von Humboldt—Social Equality of Women—The +Reproduction of the Race as a Function of Society—Women +and the Future of Civilization</p></blockquote></td><td align="right" valign="bottom">49</td></tr> + + +<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'><a href="#CHAPIII">III.—<span class="smcap">The New Aspect of the Woman's Movement</span></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><blockquote><p>Eighteenth-Century France—Pioneers of the Woman's Movement—The +Growth of the Woman's Suffrage Movement—The Militant +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span> +Activities of the Suffragettes—Their Services and Disservices +to the Cause—Advantages of Women's Suffrage—Sex +Questions in Germany—Bebel—The Woman's Rights Movement +in Germany—The Development of Sexual Science in Germany—The +Movement for the Protection of Motherhood—Ellen +Key—The Question of Illegitimacy—Eugenics—Women as Law-makers +in the Home</p></blockquote></td><td align="right" valign="bottom">67</td></tr> + + +<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'><a href="#CHAPIV">IV.—<span class="smcap">The Emancipation of Women in Relation +to Romantic Love</span></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><blockquote><p>The Absence of Romantic Love in Classic Civilization—Marriage as +a Duty—The Rise of Romantic Love in the Roman Empire—The +Influence of Christianity—The Attitude of Chivalry—The +Troubadours—The Courts of Love—The Influence of the Renaissance—Conventional +Chivalry and Modern Civilization—The +Woman Movement—The Modern Woman's Equality of +Rights and Responsibilities excludes Chivalry—New Forms of +Romantic Love still remain possible—Love as the Inspiration +of Social Hygiene</p></blockquote></td><td align="right" valign="bottom">113</td></tr> + + +<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'><a href="#CHAPV">V.—<span class="smcap">The Significance of a Falling Birth-rate</span></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><blockquote><p>The Fall of the Birth-rate in Europe generally—In England—In +Germany—In the United States—In Canada—In Australasia—"Crude" +Birth-rate and "Corrected" Birth-rate—The Connection +between High Birth-rate and High Death-rate—"Natural +Increase" measured by Excess of Births over Deaths—The +Measure of National Well-being—The Example of +Russia—Japan—China—The Necessity of viewing the Question +from a wide Standpoint—The Prevalence of Neo-Malthusian +Methods—Influence of the Roman Catholic Church—Other +Influences lowering the Birth-rate—Influence of Postponement +of Marriage—Relation of the Birth-rate to Commercial and +Industrial Activity—Illustrated by Russia, Hungary, and Australia—The +Relation of Prosperity to Fertility—The Social +Capillarity Theory—Divergence of the Birth-rate and the Marriage-rate—Marriage-rate +and the Movement of Prices—Prosperity +and Civilization—Fertility among Savages—The lesser +fertility of Urban Populations—Effect of Urbanization on Physical +Development—Why Prosperity fails permanently to increase +Fertility—Prosperity creates Restraints on Fertility—The process +of Civilization involves Decreased Fertility—In this Respect +it is a Continuation of Zoological Evolution—Large Families as +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span> +a Stigma of Degeneration—The Decreased Fertility of Civilization +a General Historical Fact—The Ideals of Civilization to-day—The +East and the West</p></blockquote></td><td align="right" valign="bottom">134</td></tr> + + +<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'><a href="#CHAPVI">VI.—<span class="smcap">Eugenics and Love</span></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><blockquote><p>Eugenics and the Decline of the Birth-rate—Quantity and Quality +in the Production of Children—Eugenic Sexual Selection—The +Value of Pedigrees—Their Scientific Significance—The Systematic +Record of Personal Data—The Proposal for Eugenic Certificates—St. +Valentine's Day and Sexual Selection—Love and +Reason—Love Ruled by Natural Law—Eugenic Selection not +opposed to Love—No Need for Legal Compulsion—Medicine in +Relation to Marriage.</p></blockquote></td><td align="right" valign="bottom">193</td></tr> + + +<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'><a href="#CHAPVII">VII.—<span class="smcap">Religion and the Child</span></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><blockquote><p>Religious Education in Relation to Social Hygiene and to Psychology—The +Psychology of the Child—The Contents of +Children's Minds—The Imagination of Children—How far may +Religion be assimilated by Children?—Unfortunate Results of +Early Religious Instruction—Puberty the Age for Religious +Education—Religion as an Initiation into a Mystery—Initiation +among Savages—The Christian Sacraments—The Modern +Tendency as regards Religious Instruction—Its Advantages—Children +and Fairy Tales—The Bible of Childhood—Moral +Training</p></blockquote></td><td align="right" valign="bottom">217</td></tr> + + +<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'><a href="#CHAPVIII">VIII.—<span class="smcap">The Problem of Sexual Hygiene</span></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><blockquote><p>The New Movement for giving Sexual Instruction to Children—The +Need of such a Movement—Contradictions involved by the +Ancient Policy of Silence—Errors of the New Policy—The Need +of Teaching the Teacher—The Need of Training the Parents—And +of Scientifically equipping the Physician—Sexual Hygiene +and Society—The far-reaching Effects of Sexual Hygiene</p></blockquote></td><td align="right" valign="bottom">244</td></tr> + + +<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'><a href="#CHAPIX">IX.—<span class="smcap">Immorality and the Law</span></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><blockquote><p>Social Hygiene and Legal Compulsion—The Binding Force of +Custom among Savages—The Dissolving Influence of Civilization—The +Distinction between Immorality and Criminality—Adultery +as a Crime—The Tests of Criminality—National +Differences in laying down the Boundary between Criminal +and Immoral Acts—France—Germany—England—The United +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span> +States—Police Administration—Police Methods in the United +States—National Differences in the Regulation of the Trade in +Alcohol—Prohibition in the United States—Origin of the American +Method of Dealing with Immorality—Russia—Historical +Fluctuations in Methods of Dealing with Immorality and Prostitution—Homosexuality—Holland—The +Age of Consent—Moral +Legislation in England—In the United States—The Raines Law—America +Attempts to Suppress Prostitution—Their Futility—German +Methods of Regulating Prostitution—The Sound +Method of Approaching Immorality—Training in Sexual +Hygiene—Education in Personal and Social Responsibility</p></blockquote></td><td align="right" valign="bottom">258</td></tr> + + +<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'><a href="#CHAPX">X.—<span class="smcap">The War against War</span></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><blockquote><p>Why the Problem of War is specially urgent To-day—The Beneficial +Effects of War in Barbarous Ages—Civilization renders +the Ultimate Disappearance of War Inevitable—The Introduction +of Law in disputes between Individuals involves the Introduction +of Law in disputes between Nations—But there must be +Force behind Law—Henry IV's Attempt to Confederate Europe—Every +International Tribunal of Arbitration must be able to +Enforce its decisions—The Influences making for the Abolition +of Warfare—(1) Growth of International Opinion—(2) International +Financial Development—(3) The Decreasing Pressure +of Population—(4) The Natural Exhaustion of the Warlike Spirit—(5) +The Spread of Anti-military Doctrines—(6) The Over-growth +of Armaments—(7) The Dominance of Social Reform—War +Incompatible with an Advanced Civilization—Nations as +Trustees for Humanity—The Impossibility of Disarmament—The +Necessity of Force to ensure Peace—The Federated State +of the Future—The Decay of War still leaves the Possibilities +of Daring and Heroism</p></blockquote></td><td align="right" valign="bottom">311</td></tr> + + +<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'><a href="#CHAPXI">XI.—<span class="smcap"> +The Problem of an International Language</span></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><blockquote><p>Early Attempts to construct an International Language—The +Urgent Need of an Auxiliary Language To-day—Volapük—The +Claims of Spanish—Latin—The Claims of English—Its Disadvantages—The +Claims of French—Its Disadvantages—The +Modern Growth of National Feeling opposed to Selection of a +Natural Language—Advantages of an Artificial Language—Demands +it must Fulfil—Esperanto—Its Threatened Disruption—The +International Association for the Adoption of an Auxiliary +International Language—The First Step to Take</p></blockquote></td><td align='right' valign="bottom">349</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span></td></tr> + + +<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'><a href="#CHAPXII">XII.—<span class="smcap">Individualism and Socialism</span></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><blockquote><p>Social Hygiene in Relation to the Alleged Opposition between +Socialism and Individualism—The Two Parties in Politics—The +Relation of Conservatism and Radicalism to Socialism +and Individualism—The Basis of Socialism—The Basis of Individualism—The +seeming Opposition between Socialism and +Individualism merely a Division of Labour—Both Socialism and +Individualism equally Necessary—Not only Necessary, but +Indispensable to each other—The Conflict between the Advocates +of Environment and Heredity—A New Embodiment +of the supposed Conflict between Socialism and Individualism—The +place of Eugenics—Social Hygiene ultimately one with +the Hygiene of the Soul—The Function of Utopias</p></blockquote></td><td align="right" valign="bottom">381</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#INDEX"><span class="smcap">Index</span></a></td><td align='right'>407</td></tr> +</table> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE TASK +OF SOCIAL HYGIENE</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<h3>I</h3> + +<h3><a name="Introduction" id="Introduction"></a>INTRODUCTION</h3> + +<blockquote><p>The Aim of Social Hygiene—Social Reform—The Rise of Social Reform +out of English Industrialism—The Four Stages of Social Reform—(1) +The Stage of Sanitation—(2) Factory Legislation—(3) The Extension +of the Scope of Education—(4) Puericulture—The Scientific +Evolution corresponding to these Stages—Social Reform only +Touched the Conditions of Life—Yet Social Reform Remains highly +Necessary—The Question of Infantile Mortality and the Quality of the +Race—The Better Organization of Life Involved by Social Hygiene—Its +Insistence on the Quality rather than on the Conditions of +Life—The Control of Reproduction—The Fall of the Birth-rate in +Relation to the Quality of the Population—The Rejuvenation of +a Society—The Influence of Culture and Refinement on a +Race—Eugenics—The Regeneration of the Race—The Problem of +Feeble-Mindedness—The Methods of Eugenics—Some of the Problems +which Face us.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Social Hygiene, as it will be here understood, +may be said to be a development, and even a +transformation, of what was formerly known as +Social Reform. In that transformation it has undergone +two fundamental changes. In the first place, it is +no longer merely an attempt to deal with the conditions +under which life is lived, seeking to treat bad conditions +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +as they occur, without going to their source, but +it aims at prevention. It ceases to be simply a reforming +of forms, and approaches in a comprehensive +manner not only the conditions of life, but life itself. In +the second place, its method is no longer haphazard, +but organized and systematic, being based on a growing +knowledge of those biological sciences which were +scarcely in their infancy when the era of social reform +began. Thus social hygiene is at once more radical and +more scientific than the old conception of social reform. +It is the inevitable method by which at a certain stage +civilization is compelled to continue its own course, and +to preserve, perhaps to elevate, the race.</p> + +<p>The era of social reform followed on the rise of modern +industrialism, and, no doubt largely on this account, +although an international movement, it first became +definite and self-conscious in England. There were +perhaps other reasons why it should have been in the +first place specially prominent in England. When at +the end of the seventeenth century, Muralt, a highly +intelligent Swiss gentleman, visited England, and wrote +his by no means unsympathetic <i>Lettres sur les Anglais</i>, +he was struck by a curious contradiction in the English +character. They are a good-natured people, he observed, +very rich, so well-nourished that sometimes +they die of obesity, and they detest cruelty so much +that by royal proclamation it is ordained that the fish +and the ducks of the ponds should be duly and properly +fed. Yet he found that this good-natured, rich, +cruelty-hating nation systematically allowed the prisoners +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +in their gaols to die of starvation. "The great cruelty +of the English," Muralt remarks, "lies in permitting +evil rather than in doing it."<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The root of the apparent +contradiction lay clearly in a somewhat excessive independence +and devotion to liberty. We give a man +full liberty, they seem to have said, to work, to become +rich, to grow fat. But if he will not work, let him starve. +In that point of view there were involved certain fallacies, +which became clearer during the course of social evolution.</p> + +<p>It was obvious, indeed, that such an attitude, while +highly favourable to individual vigour and independence, +and not incompatible with fairly healthy social life +under the conditions which prevailed at the time, became +disastrous in the era of industrialism. The conditions +of industrial life tore up the individual from the +roots by which he normally received strength, and +crowded the workers together in masses, thus generating +a confusion which no individual activity could grapple +with. So it was that the very spirit which, under the +earlier conditions, made for good now made for evil. +To stand by and applaud the efforts of the individual +who was perhaps slowly sinking deeper and deeper into +a miry slough of degradation began to seem an even +diabolical attitude. The maxim of <i>laissez-faire</i>, which +had once stood for the whole unfettered action of natural +activities in life, began to be viewed with horror and +contempt. It was realized that there must be an intelligent +superintendence of social conditions, humane +regulation, systematic organization. The very intensity +of the evils which the English spirit produced led to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +a reaction by which that spirit, while doubtless remaining +the same at heart, took on a different form, and manifested +its energy in a new direction.</p> + +<p>The modern industrial era, replacing domestic industry +by collective work carried out by "hands" in +factories, began in the eighteenth century. The era +of social reform was delayed until the second quarter +of the nineteenth century. It has proceeded by four +successively progressive stages, each stage supplementing, +rather than supplanting, the stage that preceded it. +In 1842 Sir Edwin Chadwick wrote an official Report +on the <i>Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population +of Great Britain</i>, in which was clearly presented for the +first time a vivid, comprehensive, and authoritative +picture of the incredibly filthy conditions under which +the English labouring classes lived. The times were +ripe for this Report. It attracted public attention, +and exerted an important influence. Its appearance +marks the first stage of social reform, which was mainly +a sanitary effort to clear away the gross filth from our +cities, to look after the cleansing, lighting, and policing +of the streets, to create a drainage system, to improve +dwellings, and in these ways to combat disease and to +lower the very high death-rate.</p> + +<p>At an early stage, however, it began to be seen that +this process of sanitation, necessary as it had become, +was far too crude and elementary to achieve the ends +sought. It was not enough to improve the streets, +or even to regulate the building of dwellings. It was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +clearly necessary to regulate also the conditions of +work of the people who lived in those streets and dwellings. +Thus it was that the scheme of factory legislation was +initiated. Rules were made as to the hours of labour, +more especially as regards women and children, for whom, +moreover, certain specially dangerous or unhealthy +occupations were forbidden, and an increasingly large +number of avocations were brought under Government +inspection. This second stage of social reform encountered +a much more strenuous opposition than +the first stage. The regulation of the order and cleanliness +of the streets was obviously necessary, and it had +indeed been more or less enforced even in medieval +times;<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> but the regulation of the conditions of work +in the interests of the worker was a more novel proceeding, +and it appeared to clash both with the interests of the +employers and the ancient principles of English freedom +and independence, behind which the employers consequently +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +sheltered themselves. The early attempts +to legislate on these lines were thus fruitless. It was +not until a distinguished aristocratic philanthropist +of great influence, the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, +took up the question, that factory legislation began to +be accepted. It continues to develop even to-day, +ever enlarging the sphere of its action, and now meeting +with no opposition. But, in England, at all events, +its acceptance marks a memorable stage in the growth +of the national spirit. It was no longer easy and natural +for the Englishmen to look on at suffering without +interference. It began to be recognized that it was +perfectly legitimate, and even necessary, to put a curb +on the freedom and independence which involved suffering +to others.</p> + +<p>But as the era of factory legislation became established, +a further advance was seen to be necessary. Factory +legislation had forbidden the child to work. But the +duty of the community towards the child, the citizen of +the future, was evidently by no means covered by this +purely negative step. The child must be prepared to +take his future part in life, in the first place by education. +The nationalization of education in England dates from +1870. But during the subsequent half century "education" +has come to mean much more than mere instruction; +it now covers a certain amount of provision for meals when +necessary, the enforcement of cleanliness, the care of +defective conditions, inborn or acquired, with special +treatment for mentally defective children, an ever-increasing +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +amount of medical inspection and supervision, +while it is beginning to include arrangements for placing +the child in work suited to his capacities when he leaves +school.</p> + +<p>During the past ten years the movement of social +reform has entered a fourth stage. The care of the +child during his school-days was seen to be insufficient; +it began too late, when probably the child's fate for +life was already decided. It was necessary to push the +process further back, to birth and even to the stage +before birth, by directing social care to the infant, +and by taking thought of the mother. This consideration +has led to a whole series of highly important and fruitful +measures which are only beginning to develop, although +they have already proved very beneficial. The immediate +notification to the authorities of a child's birth, and the +institution of Health Visitors to ascertain what is being +done for the infant's well-being, and to aid the mother +with advice, have certainly been a large factor in the +recent reduction in the infantile death-rate in England. +<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> +</p> + +<p>The care of the infant has indeed now become a new +applied science, the science of puericulture. Professor +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +Budin of Paris may fairly be regarded as the founder +of puericulture by the establishment in Paris, in 1892, +of Infant Consultations, to which mothers were encouraged +to bring their babies to be weighed and examined, +any necessary advice being given regarding +the care of the baby. The mothers are persuaded to +suckle their infants if possible, and if their own health +permits. For the cases in which suckling is undesirable +or impossible, Budin established Milk Depôts, where +pure milk is supplied at a low price or freely. Infant +Consultations and Milk Depôts are now becoming common +everywhere. A little later than Budin, another distinguished +French physician, Pinard, carried puericulture +a step further back, but a very important step, +by initiating a movement for the care of the pregnant +woman. Pinard and his pupils have shown by a number +of detailed investigations that the children born to +working mothers who rest during the last three months +of pregnancy, are to a marked extent larger and finer +than the children of those mothers who enjoy no such +period of rest, even though the mothers themselves +may be equally robust and healthy in both cases. Moreover, +it is found that premature birth, one of the +commonest accidents of modern life, tends to be prevented +by such rest. The children of mothers who +rest enjoy on the average three weeks longer development +in the womb than the children of the mothers +who do not rest, and this prolonged ante-natal development +cannot fail to be a benefit for the whole of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +child's subsequent life. The movement started by +Pinard, though strictly a continuation of the great +movement for the improvement of the conditions of +life, takes us as far back as we are able to go on these +lines, and has in it the promise of an immense benefit +to human efficiency.</p> +<p>In connection with the movement of puericulture +initiated by Budin and Pinard must be mentioned +the institution of Schools for Mothers, for it is closely +associated with the aims of puericulture. The School +for Mothers arose in Belgium, a little later than the +activities of Budin and Pinard commenced. About +1900 a young Socialist doctor of Ghent, Dr. Miele, +started the first school of this kind, with girls of from +twelve to sixteen years of age as students and assistants. +The School eventually included as many as twelve +different services, among these being dispensaries for +mothers, a mothers' friendly society, milk depôts both +for babies and nursing mothers, health talks to mothers +with demonstrations, courses on puericulture (including +anatomy, physiology, preparation of foods, weighing, +etc.) to girls between fourteen and eighteen, who afterwards +become eligible for appointment as paid assistants. +<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> +In 1907 Schools for Mothers were introduced into England, +at first under the auspices of Dr. Sykes, Medical Officer +of Health for St. Pancras, London. Such Schools are +now spreading everywhere. In the end they will probably +be considered necessary centres for any national system +of puericulture. Every girl at the end of her school life +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +should be expected to pass through a certain course of +training at a School for Mothers. It would be the technical +school for the working-class mother, while such a course +would be invaluable for any girl, whatever her social +class, even if she is never called to be a mother herself +or to have the care of children. +</p> + +<p>The great movement of social reform during the +nineteenth century, we thus see, has moved in four +stages, each of which has reinforced rather than replaced +that which went before: (1) the effort to cleanse +the gross filth of cities and to remedy obvious disorder +by systematic attention to scavenging, drainage, the +supply of water and of artificial light, as well as by +improved policing; (2) the great system of factory +legislation for regulating the conditions of work, and +to some extent restraining the work of women and +of children; (3) the introduction of national systems of +education, and the gradual extension of the idea of +education to cover far more than mere instruction; +and (4), most fundamental of all and last to appear, +the effort to guard the child before the school age, even +at birth, even before birth, by bestowing due care on +the future mother.<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> +</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +It may be pointed out that this movement of practical +social reform has been accompanied, stimulated, and +guided by a corresponding movement in the sciences +which in their application are indispensable to the +progress of civilized social reform. There has been +a process of mutual action and reaction between science +and practice. The social movement has stimulated the +development of abstract science, and the new progress in +science has enabled further advances to be made in +social practice. The era of expansion in sanitation +was the era of development in chemistry and physics, +which alone enabled a sound system of sanitation to be +developed. The fight against disease would have been +impossible but for bacteriology. The new care for +human life, and for the protection of its source, is associated +with fresh developments of biological science. +Sociological observations and speculation, including +economics, are intimately connected with the efforts of +social reform to attain a broad, sound, and truly democratic +basis.<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +When we survey this movement as a whole, we have +to recognize that it is exclusively concerned with the +improvement of the conditions of life. It makes no +attempt to influence either the quantity or the quality +of life.<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +It may sometimes have been carried out with +the assumption that to improve the conditions of life +is, in some way or other, to improve the quality of life +itself. But it accepted the stream of life as it found +it, and while working to cleanse the banks of the stream +it made no attempt to purify the stream itself.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +It must, however, be remembered that the arguments +which, especially nowadays, are brought against the +social reform of the condition of life, will not bear serious +examination. It is said, for instance, or at all events +implied, that we need bestow very little care on the +conditions of life because such care can have no permanently +beneficial effect on the race, since acquired characters, +for the most part, are not transmitted to descendants. +But to assume that social reform is unnecessary because +it is not inherited is altogether absurd. The people +who make this assumption would certainly not argue +that it is useless for them to satisfy their own hunger +and thirst, because their children will not thereby be +safeguarded from experiencing hunger and thirst. Yet +the needs which the movement of organized social reform +seeks to satisfy are precisely on a level with, and indeed +to some extent identical with, the needs of hunger and +thirst. The impulse and the duty which move every +civilized community to elaborate and gratify its own +social needs to the utmost are altogether independent +of the race, and would not cease to exist even in a community +vowed to celibacy or the most absolute Neo-Malthusianism. +Nor, again, must it be said that social +reform destroys the beneficial results of natural selection.</p> + +<p>Here, indeed, we encounter a disputed point, and +it may be admitted that the precise data for absolute +demonstration in one direction or the other cannot +yet be found. Whenever human beings breed in reckless +and unrestrained profusion—as is the case under some +conditions before a free and self-conscious civilization +is attained—there is an immense infantile mortality. +It is claimed, on the one hand, that this is beneficial, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +and need not be interfered with. The weak are killed +off, it is said, and the strong survive; there is a process +of natural survival of the fittest. That is true. But +it is equally true, as has also been clearly seen on the +other hand, that though the relatively strongest survive, +their relative strength has been impaired by the very +influences which have proved altogether fatal to their +weaker brethren. There is an immense infantile mortality +in Russia. Yet, notwithstanding any resulting "survival +of the fittest," Russia is far more ravaged by disease +than Norway, where infantile mortality is low. "A high +infantile mortality," as George Carpenter, a great +authority on the diseases of childhood, remarks, "denotes +a far higher infantile deterioration rate"; or, +as another doctor puts it, "the dead baby is next of +kin to the diseased baby," The protection of the weak, +so frequently condemned by some Neo-Darwinians, +is thus in reality, as Goldscheid terms it, "the protection +of the strong from degeneration."</p> + +<p>There is, however, more to be said. Not only must +an undue struggle with unfavourable conditions enfeeble +the strong as well as kill the feeble; it also imposes +an intolerable burden upon these enfeebled survivors. +The process of destruction is not sudden, it is gradual. +It is a long-drawn-out process. It involves the multiplication +of the diseased, the maimed, the feeble-minded, +of paupers and lunatics and criminals. Even natural +selection thus includes the need for protecting the feeble, +and so renders urgent the task of social reform, while +the more thoroughly this task is carried out with the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +growth of civilization, the more stupendous and overwhelming +the task becomes.</p> + +<p>It is thus that civilization, at a certain point in its +course, renders inevitable the appearance of that wider +and deeper organization of life which in the present +volume we are concerned with under the name of Social +Hygiene. That movement is far from being an abrupt +or revolutionary manifestation in the ordinary progress +of social growth. As we have seen, social reform during +the past eighty years may be said to have proceeded +in four successive stages, each of which has involved +a nearer approach to the sources of life. The fourth +stage, which in its beginnings dates only from the last +years of the nineteenth century, takes us to the period +before birth, and is concerned with the care of the child +in the mother's womb. The next stage cannot fail +to take us to the very source of life itself, lifting us +beyond the task of purifying the conditions, and laying +on us the further task of regulating the quantity and +raising the quality of life at its very source. The duty +of purifying, ordering, and consolidating the banks of the +stream must still remain.<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> But when we are able to +control the stream at its source we are able to some +extent to prevent the contamination of that stream by +filth, and ensure that its muddy floods shall not sweep away +the results of our laborious work on the banks. Our sense +of social responsibility is developing into a sense of racial +responsibility, and that development is expressed in the +nature of the tasks of Social Hygiene which now lie before us.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +It is the control of the reproduction of the race which +renders possible the new conception of Social Hygiene. +We have seen that the gradual process of social reform +during the first three quarters of the nineteenth century, +by successive stages of movement towards the sources +of life, finally reached the moment of conception. The +first result of reform at this point was that procreation +became a deliberate act. Up till then the method of +propagating the race was the same as that which savages +have carried on during thousands of years, the chief +difference being that whereas savages have frequently +sought to compensate their recklessness by destroying +their inferior offspring, we had accepted all the offspring, +good, bad, and indifferent, produced by our indiscriminate +recklessness, shielding ourselves by a false theology. +Children "came," and their parents disclaimed all +responsibility for their coming. The children were +"sent by God," and if they all turned out to be idiots, +the responsibility was God's. But when it became +generally realized that it was possible to limit offspring +without interfering with conjugal life a step of immense +importance was achieved. It became clear to all that +the Divine force works through us, and that we are not +entitled to cast the burden of our evil actions on any +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +Higher Power. Marriage no longer fatally involved +an endless procession of children who, in so far as they +survived at all, were in a large number of cases doomed +to disease, neglect, misery, and ignorance. The new +Social Hygiene was for the first time rendered possible.</p> + +<p>It was in France during the first half of the nineteenth +century that the control of reproduction first began to +become a social habit. In Sweden and in Denmark, +the fall in the birth-rate, though it has been irregular, +may be said to have begun in 1860. It was not until +about the year 1876 that, in so far as we may judge by +the arrest of the birth-rate, the movement began to +spread to Europe generally. In England it is usual +to associate this change with a famous prosecution +which brought a knowledge of the means of preventing +conception to the whole population of Great Britain. +Undoubtedly this prosecution was an important factor +in the movement, but we cannot doubt that, even if the +prosecution had not taken place, the course of social +progress must still have pursued the same course. It +is noteworthy that it was about this same period, in +various European countries, that the tide turned, and +the excessively high birth-rate began to fall. +<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Recklessness +was giving place to foresight and self-control. +Such foresight and self-control are of the essence of +civilization.<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +It cannot be disputed that the transformation by +which the propagation of the race became deliberate +and voluntary has not been established in social custom +without a certain amount of protestation from various +sides. No social change, however beneficial, ever is +established without such protestation, which may, +therefore, be regarded as an inevitable and probably +a salutary part of social change. Even some would-be +scientific persons, with a display of elaborate statistics, +set forth various alarmistic doctrines. If, said these +persons, this new movement goes on at the present +pace, and if all other conditions remain unchanged, +then all sorts of terrible results will ensue. But the +alarming conclusion failed to ensue, and for a very +sufficient reason. The assumed premises of the argument +were unsound. Nothing ever goes on at the same pace, +nor do all other conditions ever remain unchanged. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +The world is a living fire, as Heraclitus long ago put it. +All things are in perpetual flux. Life is a process of +perpetual movement. It is idle to bid the world stand +still, and then to argue about the consequences. The +world will not stand still, it is for ever revolving, for +ever revealing some new facet that had not been allowed +for in the neatly arranged mechanism of the statistician.</p> + +<p>It is perhaps unnecessary to dwell on a point which +is now at last, one may hope, becoming clear to most +intelligent persons. But I may perhaps be allowed +to refer in passing to an argument that has been brought +forward with the wearisome iteration which always +marks the progress of those who are feeble in argument. +The good stocks of upper social class are decreasing in +fertility, it is said; the bad stocks of lower social class +are not decreasing; therefore the bad stocks are tending +to replace the good stocks.<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +It must, however, be pointed out that, even assuming +that the facts are as stated; it is a hazardous assumption +that the best stocks are necessarily the stocks of high +social class. In the main no doubt this is so, but good +stocks are nevertheless so widely spread through all +classes—such good stocks in the lower social classes +being probably the most resistent to adverse conditions—that +we are not entitled to regard even a slightly greater +net increase of the lower social classes as an unmitigated +evil. It may be that, as Mercier has expressed it, "we +have to regard a civilized community somewhat in the +light of a lamp, which burns at the top and is replenished +from the bottom."<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>The soundness of a stock, and its aptitude for performing +efficiently the functions of its own social sphere, +cannot, indeed, be accurately measured by any tendency +to rise into a higher social sphere. On the whole, from +generation to generation, the men of a good stock remain +within their own social sphere, whether high or low, +adequately performing their functions in that sphere, +from generation to generation. They remain, we may +say, in that social stratum of which the specific gravity +is best suited for their existence.<a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +Yet, undoubtedly, from time to time, there is a slight +upward social tendency, due in most cases to the exceptional +energy and ability of some individual who +succeeds in permanently lifting his family into a slightly +higher social stratum.<a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Such a process has always +taken place, in the past even more conspicuously than +in the present. The Normans who came over to England +with William the Conqueror and constituted the proud +English nobility were simply a miscellaneous set of +adventurers, professional fighting men, of unknown, +and no doubt for the most part undistinguished, lineage. +William the Conqueror himself was the son of a woman +of the people. The Catholic Church founded no families, +but its democratic constitution opened a career to men of +all classes, and the most brilliant sons of the Church +were often of the lowliest social rank. We should not, +therefore, say that the bad stocks are replacing the good +stocks. There is not the slightest evidence for any such +theory. All that we are entitled to say is that when +in the upward progression of a community the vanishing +point of culture and refinement is attained the bearers +of that culture and refinement die off as naturally and +inevitably as flowers in autumn, and from their roots +spring up new and more vigorous shoots to replace +them and to pass in their turn through the same stages, +with that perpetual slight novelty in which lies the secret +of life, as well as of art. An aristocracy which is merely +an aristocracy because it is "old"—whether it is an +aristocracy of families, or of races, or of species—has +already ceased to be an aristocracy in any sound meaning +of the term. We need not regret its disappearance.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +Do not, therefore, let us waste our time in crying +over the dead roses of the summer that is past. There +is something morbid in the perpetual groaning over +that inevitable decay which is itself a part of all life. +Such a perpetual narrow insistence on one aspect of +life is scarcely sane. One suspects that these people +are themselves of those stocks over whose fate they +grieve. Let us, therefore, mercifully leave them to +manure their dead roses in peace. They will soon be +forgotten. The world is for ever dying. The world is +also for ever bursting with life. The spring song of <i>Sursum +corda</i> easily overwhelms the dying autumnal wails of +the <i>Dies Iræ</i>.</p> + +<p>It would thus appear that, even apart from any +deliberate restraint from procreation, as a family attains +the highest culture and refinement which civilization +can yield, that family tends to die out, at all events +in the male line.<a name="FNanchor_15" id="FNanchor_15"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> +This is, for instance, the result which +Fahlbeck has reached in his valuable demographic +study of the Swedish nobility, <i>Der Adel Schwedens</i>. +"Apparently," says Fahlbeck, "the greater demands +on nervous and intellectual force which the culture and +refinement of the upper classes produce are chiefly +responsible for this. For these are the two personal +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +factors by which those classes are distinguished from the +lower classes: high education and refinement in tastes +and habits. The first involves predominant activity +of the brain, the last a heightened sensitiveness in all +departments of nervous life. In both respects, therefore, +there is increased work for the nervous system, +and this is compensated in the other vital functions, +especially reproduction. Man cannot achieve everything; +what he gains on one side he loses on the other." We +should do well to hold these wise words in mind when +we encounter those sciolists who in the presence of the +finest and rarest manifestations of civilizations, can +only talk of race "decay." A female salmon, it is +estimated, lays about nine hundred eggs for every pound +of her own weight, and she may weigh fifty pounds. +The progeny of Shakespeare and Goethe, such as it was, +disappeared in the very centuries in which these great +men themselves died. At the present stage of civilization +we are somewhat nearer to Shakespeare and Goethe than +to the salmon. We must set our ideals towards a very +different direction from that which commends itself to +our Salmonidian sciolists. "Increase and multiply" +was the legendary injunction uttered on the threshold +of an empty world. It is singularly out of place in an +age in which the earth and the sea, if not indeed +the very air, swarm with countless myriads of undistinguished +and indistinguishable human creatures, until +the beauty of the world is befouled and the glory of the +Heavens bedimmed. To stem back that tide is the task +now imposed on our heroism, to elevate and purify and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +refine the race, to introduce the ideal of quality in place +of the ideal of quantity which has run riot so long, +with the results we see. "As the Northern Saga tells +that Odin must sacrifice his eye to attain the higher +wisdom," concludes Fahlbeck, "so Man also, in order +to win the treasures of culture and refinement, must +give not only his eye but his life, if not his own life that +of his posterity."<a name="FNanchor_16" id="FNanchor_16"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> +The vulgar aim of reckless racial +fertility is no longer within our reach and no longer +commends itself as worthy. It is not consonant with +the stage of civilization we are at the moment passing +through. The higher task is now ours of the regeneration +of the race, or, if we wish to express that betterment +less questionably, the aggeneration of the race. +<a name="FNanchor_17" id="FNanchor_17"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> +</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +The control of reproduction, we see, essential as it +is, cannot by itself carry far the betterment of the race, +because it involves no direct selection of stocks. Yet +we have to remember that though this control, with +the limitation of offspring it involves, fails to answer +all the demands which Social Hygiene to-day makes +of us, it yet achieves much. It may not improve what +we abstractly term the "race," but it immensely improves +the individuals of which the race is made up. +Thus the limitation of the family renders it possible +to avoid the production of undesired children. That +in itself is an immense social gain, because it tends to +abolish excessive infantile mortality.<a name="FNanchor_18" id="FNanchor_18"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> It means that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +adequate care will be expended upon the children that +are produced, and that no children will be produced +unless the parents are in a position to provide for them. +<a name="FNanchor_19" id="FNanchor_19"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> +Even the mere spacing out of the children in a family, +the larger interval between child-births, is a very great +advantage. The mother is no longer exhausted by +perpetually bearing, suckling, and tending babies, while +the babies themselves are on the average of better +quality.<a name="FNanchor_20" id="FNanchor_20"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> +Thus the limitation of offspring, far from being +an egoistic measure, as some have foolishly supposed, +is imperatively demanded in the altruistic interests of +the individuals composing the race.</p> + +<p>But the control of reproduction, enormously beneficial +as it is even in its most elementary shapes, mainly concerns +us here because it furnishes the essential condition +for the development of Social Hygiene. The control +of reproduction renders possible, and leads on to, a wise +selection in reproduction. It is only by such selection +of children to be born that we can balance our indiscriminate +care in the preservation of all children that are +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +born, a care which otherwise would become an intolerable +burden. It is only by such selection that we can work +towards the elimination of those stocks which fail to +help us in the tasks of our civilization to-day. It is +only by such selection that we can hope to fortify the +stocks that are fitted for these tasks. More than two +centuries ago Steele playfully suggested that "one might +wear any passion out of a family by culture, as skilful +gardeners blot a colour out of a tulip that hurts its +beauty."<a name="FNanchor_21" id="FNanchor_21"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> +The progress of civilization, with the self-control +it involves, has made it possible to accept this +suggestion seriously.<a name="FNanchor_22" id="FNanchor_22"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> +The difference is that whereas +the flowers of our gardens are bettered only by the +control of an arbitrary external will and intelligence, +our human flowers may be bettered by an intelligence +and will, a finer sense of responsibility, developed within +themselves. Thus it is that human culture renders +possible Social Hygiene.</p> + + + +<p>Three centuries ago an inspired monk set forth his +ideal of an ennobled world in <i>The City of the Sun</i>. Campanella +wrote that prophetic book in prison. But his +spirit was unfettered, and his conception of human +society, though in daring it outruns all the visions +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +we may compare it with, is yet on the lines along which +our civilization lies. In the City of the Sun not only +was the nobility of work, even mechanical work,—which +Plato rejected and More was scarcely conscious of,—for +the first time recognized, but the supreme impulse +of procreation was regarded as a sacred function, to be +exercised in the light of scientific knowledge. It was a +public rather than a private duty, because it concerned +the interests of the race; only valorous and high-spirited +men ought to procreate, and it was held that the father +should bear the punishments inflicted on the son for +faults due to his failure by defects in generation. +<a name="FNanchor_23" id="FNanchor_23"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> Moreover, +while unions not for the end of procreation were +in the City of the Sun left to the judgment of the individuals +alone concerned, it was not so with unions +for the end of procreation. These were arranged by +the "great Master," a physician, aided by the chief +matrons, and the public exercises of the youths and +maidens, performed in a state of nakedness, were of +assistance in enabling unions to be fittingly made. No +eugenist under modern conditions of life proposes that +unions should be arranged by a supreme medical public +official, though he might possibly regard such an official, +if divested of any compulsory powers, a kind of public +trustee for the race, as a useful institution. But it is +easy to see that the luminous conception of racial +betterment which, since Galton rendered it practicable, +is now inspiring social progress, was already burning +brightly three centuries ago in the brain of this imprisoned +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +Italian monk. Just as Thomas More has been called +the father of modern Socialism, so Campanella may be +said to be the prophet of modern Eugenics.</p> + +<p>By "Eugenics" is meant the scientific study of +all the agencies by which the human race may be improved, +and the effort to give practical effect to +those agencies by conscious and deliberate action in +favour of better breeding. Even among savages eugenics +may be said to exist, if only in the crude and unscientific +practice of destroying feeble, deformed, and abnormal +infants at birth. In civilized ages elaborate and more +or less scientific attempts are made by breeders of animals +to improve the stocks they breed, and their efforts have +been crowned with much success. The study of the +same methods in their bearing on man proceeded out +of the Darwinian school of biology, and is especially +associated with the great name of Sir Francis Galton, +the cousin of Darwin. Galton first proposed to call +this study "Stirpiculture." Under that name it inspired +Noyes, the founder of the Oneida Community, +with the impulse to carry it into practice with a thoroughness +and daring—indeed a similarity of method—which +caused Oneida almost to rival the City of the Sun. +But the scheme of Noyes, excellent as in some respects it +was as an experiment, outran both scientific knowledge +and the spirit of the times. It was not countenanced +by Galton, who never had any wish to offend general +sentiment, but sought to win it over to his side, and +before 1880 the Oneida Community was brought to +an end in consequence of the antagonism it aroused. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +Galton continued to develop his conceptions slowly +and cautiously, and in 1883, in his <i>Inquiries into Human +Faculty</i>, he abandoned the term "Stirpiculture" and +devised the term "Eugenics," which is now generally +adopted to signify Good Breeding.</p> + +<p>Galton was quite well aware that the improved breeding +of men is a very different matter from the improved +breeding of animals, requiring a different knowledge +and a different method, so that the ridicule which has +sometimes been ignorantly flung at Eugenics failed to +touch him. It would be clearly undesirable to breed +men, as animals are bred, for single points at the sacrifice +of other points, even if we were in a position to breed +men from outside. Human breeding must proceed from +impulses that arise, voluntarily, in human brains and +wills, and are carried out with a human sense of personal +responsibility. Galton believed that the first need was the +need of knowledge in these matters. He was not anxious +to invoke legislation.<a name="FNanchor_24" id="FNanchor_24"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> The compulsory presentation of +certificates of health and good breeding as a preliminary +to marriage forms no part of Eugenics, nor is compulsory +sterilization a demand made by any reasonable eugenist. +Certainly the custom of securing certificates of health +and ability is excellent, not only as a preliminary to +marriage, but as a general custom. Certainly, also, +there are cases in which sterilization is desirable, if +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +voluntarily accepted.<a name="FNanchor_25" id="FNanchor_25"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> +But neither certification nor +sterilization should be compulsory. They only have +their value if they are intelligent and deliberate, springing +out of a widened and enlightened sense of personal +responsibility to society and to the race.</p> + +<p>Eugenics constitutes the link between the Social +Reform of the past, painfully struggling to improve the +conditions of life, and the Social Hygiene of the future, +which is authorized to deal adequately with the conditions +of life because it has its hands on the sources +of life. On this plane we are able to concentrate our +energies on the finer ends of life, because we may reasonably +expect to be no longer hampered by the ever-increasing +burdens which were placed upon us by the +failure to control life; while the more we succeed in +our efforts to purify and strengthen life, the more magnificent +become the tasks we may reasonably hope to +attempt and compass.</p> + +<p>A problem which is often and justly cited as one to +be settled by Eugenics is that presented by the existence +among us of the large class of the feeble-minded. No +doubt there are some who would regret the disappearance +of the feeble-minded from our midst. The philosophies +of the Bergsonian type, which to-day prevail so widely, +place intuition above reason, and the "pure fool" has +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +sometimes been enshrined and idolized. But we may +remember that Eugenics can never prevent absolutely +the occurrence of feeble-minded persons, even in the +extreme degree of the imbecile and the idiot. +<a name="FNanchor_26" id="FNanchor_26"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> They +come within the range of variation, by the same right +as genius so comes. We cannot, it may be, prevent the +occurrence of such persons, but we can prevent them +from being the founders of families tending to resemble +themselves. And in so doing, it will be agreed by most +people, we shall be effecting a task of immense benefit +to society and the race.</p> + +<p>Feeble-mindedness is largely handed on by heredity. +It was formerly supposed that idiocy and feeble-mindedness +are mainly due to environmental conditions, to +the drink, depravity, general disease, or lack of nutrition +of the parents, and there is no doubt an element of truth +in that view. But serious and frequent as are the results +of bad environment and acquired disease in the parentage +of the feeble-minded, they do not form the fundamental +factor in the production of the feeble-minded. +<a name="FNanchor_27" id="FNanchor_27"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +Feeble-mindedness is essentially a germinal variation, +belonging to the same large class as all other biological +variations, occurring, for the most part, in the first +place spontaneously, but strongly tending to be inherited. +It thus resembles congenital cataract, deaf-mutism, +the susceptibility to tuberculous infection, etc. +<a name="FNanchor_28" id="FNanchor_28"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p>Exact investigation is now showing that feeble-mindedness +is passed on from parent to child to an +enormous extent. Some years ago Ashby, speaking +from a large experience in the North of England, estimated +that at least seventy-five per cent of feeble-minded +children are born with an inherited tendency +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +to mental defect. More precise investigation has since +shown that this estimate was under the mark. Tredgold, +who in England has most carefully studied the +heredity of the feeble-minded, +<a name="FNanchor_29" id="FNanchor_29"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> +found that in over +eighty-two per cent cases there is a bad nervous inheritance. +In a large number of cases the bad heredity +was associated with alcoholism or consumption in the +parentage, but only in a small proportion of cases (about +seven per cent) was it probable that alcoholism and +consumption alone, and usually combined, had sufficed +to produce the defective condition of the children, +while environmental conditions only produced mental +defect in ten per cent cases. +<a name="FNanchor_30" id="FNanchor_30"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> +Heredity is the chief +cause of feeble-mindedness, and a normal child is never +born of two feeble-minded parents. The very thorough +investigation of the heredity of the feeble-minded which +is now being carried on at the institution for their care +at Vineland, New Jersey, shows even more decisive +results. By making careful pedigrees of the families +to which the inmates at Vineland belong it is seen that +in a large proportion of cases feeble-mindedness is handed +on from generation to generation, and is traceable +through three generations, though it sometimes skips +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +a generation. In one family of three hundred and nineteen +persons, one hundred and nineteen were known to +be feeble-minded, and only forty-two known to be normal. +The families tended to be large, sometimes very large, +most of them in many cases dying in infancy or growing +up weak-minded. +<a name="FNanchor_31" id="FNanchor_31"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<p>Not only is feeble-mindedness inherited, and to a +much greater degree than has hitherto been suspected +even by expert authorities, but the feeble-minded +thus tend (though, as Davenport and Weeks have found, +not invariably) to have a larger number of children than +normal people. That indeed, we might expect, apart +altogether from the question of any innate fertility. The +feeble-minded have no forethought and no self-restraint. +They are not adequately capable of resisting their +own impulses or the solicitations of others, and they are +unable to understand adequately the motives which guide +the conduct of ordinary people. The average number +of children of feeble-minded people seems to be frequently +about one-third more than in normal families, and is +sometimes much greater. Dr. Ettie Sayer, when investigating +for the London County Council the family +histories of one hundred normal families and one hundred +families in which mentally defective children had been +found, ascertained that the families of the latter averaged +7.6 children, while in the normal families they averaged 5. +Tredgold, specially investigating 150 feeble-minded cases, +found that they belonged to families in which 1269 +children had been born, that is to say 7.3 per family, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +or, counting still-born children, 8.4. Nearly two-thirds +of these abnormally large families were mentally defective, +many showing a tendency to disease, pauperism, criminality, +or else to early death.<a name="FNanchor_32" id="FNanchor_32"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> +</p> + +<p>Here, indeed, we have a counterbalancing influence, +for, in the large families of the feeble-minded, there is a +correspondingly large infantile mortality. A considerable +proportion of Tredgold's group of children were born dead, +and a very large number died early. Eichholz, again, +found that, in one group of defective families, about +sixty per cent of the children died young. That is +probably an unusually high proportion, and in Eichholz's +cases it seems to have been associated with very unusually +large families, but the infant mortality is always +very high.</p> + +<p>This large early mortality of the offspring of the +feeble-minded is, however, very far from settling the +question of the disposal of the mentally defective, or +we should not find families of them propagated from +generation to generation. The large number who die +early merely serves, roughly speaking, to reduce the +size of the abnormal family to the size of a normal +family, and some authorities consider that it scarcely +suffices to do this, for we must remember that there +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +is a considerable mortality even in the so-called +normal family during early life. Even when there +is no abnormal fertility in the defective family +we may still have to recognize that, as Davenport +and Weeks argue, their defectiveness is intensified by +heredity. Moreover, we have to consider the social +disorder and the heavy expense which accompany +the large infantile mortality. Illegitimacy is frequently +the result of feeble-mindedness, since feeble-minded +women are peculiarly unable to resist temptation. A +great number of such women are continually coming +into the workhouses and giving birth to illegitimate +children whom they are unable to support, and who +often never become capable of supporting themselves, +but in their turn tend to produce a new feeble-minded +generation, more especially since the men who are +attracted to these feeble-minded women are themselves—according +to the generally recognized tendency of the +abnormal to be attracted to the abnormal—feeble-minded +or otherwise mentally defective. There is thus +generated not only a heavy financial burden, but also +a perpetual danger to society, and, it may well be, a +serious depreciation in the quality of the community. +<a name="FNanchor_33" id="FNanchor_33"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p>It is not only in themselves that the feeble-minded +are a burden on the present generation and a menace +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +to future generations. In large measure they form +the reservoir from which the predatory classes are +recruited. This is, for instance, the case as regards +prostitutes. Feeble-minded girls, of fairly high grade, +may often be said to be predestined to prostitution +if left to themselves, not because they are vicious, but +because they are weak and have little power of resistance. +They cannot properly weigh their actions against the +results of their actions, and even if they are intelligent +enough to do that, they are still too weak to regulate +their actions accordingly. Moreover, even when, as +often happens among the high-grade feeble-minded, +they are quite able and willing to work, after they have +lost their "respectability" by having a child, the opportunities +for work become more restricted, and they drift +into prostitution. It has been found that of nearly +15,000 women who passed through Magdalen Homes +in England, over 2500, or more than sixteen per cent—and +this is probably an under-estimate—were definitely +feeble-minded. The women belonging to this feeble-minded +group were known to have added 1000 illegitimate +children to the population. In Germany Bonhoeffer +found among 190 prostitutes who passed through a +prison that 102 were hereditarily degenerate and 53 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +feeble-minded. This would be an over-estimate as +regards average prostitutes, though the offences were +no doubt usually trivial, but in any case the association +between prostitution and feeble-mindedness is intimate. +Everywhere, there can be no doubt, the ranks of prostitution +contain a considerable proportion of women who +were, at the very outset, in some slight degree feeble-minded, +mentally and morally a little blunted through +some taint of inheritance.<a name="FNanchor_34" id="FNanchor_34"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + + +<p>Criminality, again, is associated with feeble-mindedness +in the most intimate way. Not only do criminals +tend to belong to large families, but the families that +produce feeble-minded offspring also produce criminals, +while a certain degree of feeble-mindedness is extremely +common among criminals, and the most hopeless and +typical, though fortunately rare, kind of criminal, +frequently termed a "moral imbecile," is nothing more +than a feeble-minded person whose defect is shown not +so much in his intelligence as in his feelings and his +conduct. Sir H.B. Donkin, who speaks with authority +on this matter, estimates that, though it is difficult +to obtain the early history of the criminals who enter +English prisons, about twenty per cent of them are +of primarily defective mental capacity. This would +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +mean that every year some 35,000 feeble-minded persons +are sent to English prisons as "criminals." The tendency +of criminals to belong to the feeble-minded class is +indeed every day becoming more clearly recognized. +At Pentonville, putting aside prisoners who were too +mentally affected to be fit for prison discipline, eighteen +per cent of the adult prisoners and forty per cent of the +juvenile offenders were found to be feeble-minded. This +includes only those whose defect is fairly obvious, and +is not the result of methodical investigation. It is +certain that such methodical inquiry would reveal +a very large proportion of cases of less obvious mental +defect. Thus the systematic examination of a number +of delinquent children in an Industrial School showed +that in seventy-five per cent cases they were defective +as compared to normal children, and that their defectiveness +was probably inborn. Even the possession of a +considerable degree of cunning is no evidence against +mental defect, but may rather be said to be a sign of it, +for it shows an intelligence unable to grasp the wider +relations of life, and concentrated on the gratification +of petty and immediate desires. Thus it happens that +the cunning of criminals is frequently associated with +almost inconceivable stupidity. +<a name="FNanchor_35" id="FNanchor_35"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + + +<p>Closely related to the great feeble-minded class, +and from time to time falling into crime, are the inmates +of workhouses, tramps, and the unemployable. The +so-called "able-bodied" inmates of the workhouses +are frequently found, on medical examination, to be, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +in more than fifty per cent cases, mentally defective, +equally so whether they are men or women. Tramps, +by nature and profession, who overlap the workhouse +population, and are estimated to number 20,000 to 30,000 +in England and Wales, when the genuine unemployed +are eliminated, are everywhere found to be a very degenerate +class, among whom the most mischievous kinds +of feeble-mindedness and mental perversion prevail. +Inebriates, the people who are chronically and helplessly +given to drink, largely belong to the same great family, +and do not so much become feeble-minded because +they drink, but possess the tendency to drink because +they have a strain of feeble-mindedness from birth. +Branthwaite, the chief English authority on this question, +finds that of the inebriates who come to his notice, +putting aside altogether the group of actually insane +persons, about sixty-three per cent are mentally defective, +and scarcely more than a third of the whole number of +average mental capacity. It is evident that these people, +even if restored to sobriety, would still retain their more +or less inborn defectiveness, and would remain equally, +unfit to become the parents of the coming generation.</p> + +<p>These are the kind of people—tramps, prostitutes, +paupers, criminals, inebriates, all tending to be born +a little defective—who largely make up the great degenerate +families whose histories are from time to time +recorded. Such a family was that of the Jukes in America, +who, in the course of five generations, by constantly +intermarrying with bad stocks, produced 709 known +descendants who were on the whole unfit for society, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +and have been a constant danger and burden to society. +<a name="FNanchor_36" id="FNanchor_36"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> +A still larger family of the same kind, more recently +studied in Germany, consisted of 834 known persons, +all descended from a drunken vagabond woman, probably +somewhat feeble-minded but physically vigorous. The +great majority of these descendants were prostitutes, +tramps, paupers, and criminals (some of them murderers), +and the direct cost in money to the Prussian State +for the keep and care of this woman and her family +has been a quarter of a million pounds. Yet another +such family is that of the "Zeros." Three centuries +ago they were highly respectable people, living in a +Swiss valley. But they intermarried with an insane +stock, and subsequently married other women of an +unbalanced nature. In recent times 310 members of +this family have been studied, and it is found that +vagrancy, feeble-mindedness, mental troubles, criminality, +pauperism, immorality are, as it may be termed, their +patrimony.<a name="FNanchor_37" id="FNanchor_37"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + +<p>These classes, with their tendency to weak-mindedness, +their inborn laziness, lack of vitality, and unfitness +for organized activity, contain the people who +complain that they are starving for want of work, though +they will never perform any work that is given them. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +Feeble-mindedness is an absolute dead-weight on the +race. It is an evil that is unmitigated. The heavy +and complicated social burdens and injuries it inflicts +on the present generation are without compensation, +while the unquestionable fact that in any degree it is +highly inheritable renders it a deteriorating poison +to the race; it depreciates the quality of a people. +The task of Social Hygiene which lies before us cannot +be attempted by this feeble folk. Not only can they +not share it, but they impede it; their clumsy hands +are for ever becoming entangled in the delicate mechanism +of our modern civilization. Their very existence is +itself an impediment. Apart altogether from the gross +and obvious burden in money and social machinery +which the protection they need, and the protection we +need against them, casts upon the community, +<a name="FNanchor_38" id="FNanchor_38"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> they +dilute the spiritual quality of the community to a degree +which makes it an inapt medium for any high achievement. +It matters little how small a city or a nation +is, provided the spirit of its people is great. It is the +smallest communities that have most powerfully and +most immortally raised the level of civilization, and +surrounded the human species (in its own eyes) with +a halo of glory which belongs to no other species. Only +a handful of people, hemmed in on every side, created +the eternal radiance of Athens, and the fame of the +little city of Florence may outlive that of the whole +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +kingdom of Italy. To realize this truth in the future +of civilization is one of the first tasks of Social Hygiene. +<a name="FNanchor_39" id="FNanchor_39"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>It is here that the ideals of Eugenics may be expected +to work fruitfully. To insist upon the power of heredity +was once considered to indicate a fatalistic pessimism. +It wears a very different aspect nowadays, in the light +of Eugenics. "To the eugenist," as Davenport observes, +"heredity stands as the one great hope of the human +race: its saviour from imbecility, poverty, disease, immorality." +<a name="FNanchor_40" id="FNanchor_40"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> +We cannot, indeed, desire any compulsory +elimination of the unfit or any centrally regulated breeding +of the fit.<a name="FNanchor_41" id="FNanchor_41"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> +Such notions are idle, and even the mere fact +that unbalanced brains may air them abroad tends to +impair the legitimate authority of eugenic ideals. The +two measures which are now commonly put forward +for the attainment of eugenic ends—health certificates +as a legal preliminary to marriage and the sterilization +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +of the unfit—are excellent when wisely +applied, but they become mischievous, if not ridiculous, +in the hands of fanatics who would employ them by +force. Domestic animals may be highly bred from outside, +compulsorily. Man can only be bred upwards from +within through the medium of his intelligence and will, +working together under the control of a high sense of +responsibility. The infinite cunning of men and women +is fully equal to the defeat of any attempt to touch life +at this intimate point against the wish of those to whom +the creation of life is entrusted. The laws of marriage +even among savages have often been complex and +strenuous in the highest degree. But it has been easy +to bear them, for they have been part of the sacred +and inviolable traditions of the race; religion lay behind +them. And Galton, who recognized the futility of mere +legislation in the elevation of the race, believed that the +hope of the future lies in rendering eugenics a part of +religion. The only compulsion we can apply in eugenics +is the compulsion that comes from within. All those in +whom any fine sense of social and racial responsibility +is developed will desire, before marriage, to give, and to +receive, the fullest information on all the matters that +concern ancestral inheritance, while the registration +of such information, it is probable, will become ever +simpler and more a matter of course. +<a name="FNanchor_42" id="FNanchor_42"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> And if he finds +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +that he is not justified in aiding to carry on the race, +the eugenist will be content to make himself, in the +words of Jesus, "a eunuch for the kingdom of Heaven's +sake," whether, under modern conditions, that means +abstention in marriage from procreation, or voluntary +sterilization by operative methods.<a name="FNanchor_43" id="FNanchor_43"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> For, as Giddings +has put it, the goal of the race lies, not in the ruthless +exaltation of a super-man, but in the evolution of a super-mankind. +Such a goal can only be reached by resolute +selection and elimination.<a name="FNanchor_44" id="FNanchor_44"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> + +<p>The breeding of men lies largely in the hands of women. +That is why the question of Eugenics is to a great extent +one with the woman question. The realization of eugenics +in our social life can only be attained with the realization +of the woman movement in its latest and completest +phase as an enlightened culture of motherhood, in all +that motherhood involves alike on the physical and the +psychic sides. Motherhood on the eugenic basis is a +deliberate and selective process, calling for the highest +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +intelligence as well as the finest emotional and moral +aptitudes, so that all the best energies of a long evolution +of womanhood in the paths of modern culture here find +their final outlet. The breeding of children further +involves the training of children, and since the expansion +of Social Hygiene renders education a far larger and +more delicate task than it has ever been before, the +responsibilities laid upon women by the evolution of +civilization become correspondingly great.</p> + +<p>For the men who have been thus born and taught +the tasks imposed by Social Hygiene are in no degree +lighter. They demand all the best qualities of a selectively +bred race from which the mentally and physically weak +have, so far as possible, been bred out. The substitution +of law for war alike in the relations of class to class, +and of nation to nation, and the organization of international +methods of social intercourse between peoples +of different tongues and unlike traditions, are but two +typical examples of the tasks, difficult but imperative, +which Social Hygiene presents and the course of modern +civilization renders insistent. Again, the adequate +adjustment of the claims of the individual and the +claims of the community, each carried to its farthest +point, can but prove an exquisite test of the quality +of any well-bred and well-trained race. It is exactly +in that balancing of apparent opposites, the necessity of +pushing to extremes both opposites, and the consequent +need of cultivating that quality of temperance the Greeks +estimated so highly, that the supreme difficulties of +modern civilization lie. We see these difficulties again +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +in relation to the extension of law. It is desirable and +inevitable that the sphere of law should be extended, +and that the disputes which are still decided by brutal +and unreasoning force should be decided by humane +and reasoning force, that is to say, by law. But, side +by side with this extension of law, it is necessary to wage +a constant war with the law-making tendency, to cherish +an undying resolve to maintain unsullied those sacred +and intimate impulses, all the finest activities of the +moral sphere, which the generalizing hand of law can +only injure and stain.</p> + +<p>It is these fascinating and impassioning problems, +every day becoming of more urgent practical importance, +which it is the task of Social Hygiene to solve, having +first created the men and women who are fit to solve +them. It is such problems as these that we are to-day +called upon to illuminate, as far as we may—it may +not yet be very far—by the dry light of science.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> + Muralt, <i>Lettres sur les Anglais</i>. Lettre V.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +In the reign of Richard II (1388) an Act was passed for "the +punishment of those which cause corruption near a city or great town +to corrupt the air." A century later (in Henry VII's time) an Act was +passed to prevent butchers killing beasts in walled towns, the preamble +to this Act declaring that no noble town in Christendom should contain +slaughter-houses lest sickness be thus engendered. In Charles II's +time, after the great fire of London, the law provided for the better +paving and cleansing of the streets and sewers. It was, however, in +Italy, as Weyl points out (<i>Geschichte der Sozialen Hygiene im Mittelalter</i>, +at a meeting of the Gesellschaft für Soziale Medizin, May 25, 1905), +that the modern movement of organized sanitation began. In the +thirteenth century the great Italian cities (like Florence and Pistoja) +possessed <i>Codici Sanitarii</i>; but they were not carried out, and when +the Black Death reached Florence in 1348, it found the city altogether +unprepared. It was Venice which, in the same year, first initiated +vigorous State sanitation. Disinfection was first ordained by Gian +Visconti, in Milan, in 1399. The first quarantine station of which we +hear was established in Venice in 1403.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +The rate of infant mortality in England and Wales has decreased +from 149 per 1000 births in 1871-80 to 127 per 1000 births in 1910. +In reference to this remarkable fall which has taken place <i>pari passu</i> +with the fall in the birth-rate, Newsholme, the medical officer to the +Local Government Board, writes: "There can be no reasonable doubt +that much of the reduction has been caused by that 'concentration' +on the mother and the child which has been a striking feature of the +last few years. Had the experience of 1896-1900 held good there would +have been 45,120 more deaths of infants in 1910 than actually occurred." +In some parts of the country, however, where the women go out to +work in factories (as in Lancashire and parts of Staffordshire) the infantile +mortality remains very high.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> +Mrs. Bertrand Russell, "The Ghent School for Mothers," <i>Nineteenth +Century</i>, December, 1906.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> +It is scarcely necessary to say that other classifications of social +reform on its more hygienic side may be put forward. Thus W.H. +Allen, looking more narrowly at the sanitary side of the matter, but +without confining his consideration to the nineteenth century, finds +that there are always seven stages: (1) that of racial tutelage, when +sanitation becomes conscious and receives the sanction of law; (2) the +introduction of sanitary comfort, well-paved streets, public sewers, +extensive waterworks; (3) the period of commercial sanitation, +when the mercantile classes insist upon such measures as quarantine +and street-cleaning to check the immense ravages of epidemics; (4) the +introduction of legislation against nuisances and the tendency to +extend the definition of nuisance, which for Bracton, in the fourteenth +century, meant an obstruction, and for Blackstone, in the eighteenth, +included things otherwise obnoxious, such as offensive trades and foul +watercourses; (5) the stage of precaution against the dangers incidental +to the slums that are fostered by modern conditions of industry; +(6) the stage of philanthropy, erecting hospitals, model tenements, +schools, etc.; (7) the stage of socialistic sanitation, when the community +as a whole actively seeks its own sanitary welfare, and devotes public +funds to this end.<br /> (W.H. Allen, "Sanitation and Social Progress," +<i>American Journal of Sociology</i>, March, 1903.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> +Dr. F. Bushee has pointed out ("Science and Social Progress," +<i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, September, 1911) that there is a kind of related +progression between science and practice in this matter: "The natural +sciences developed first, because man was first interested in the conquest +of nature, and the simpler physical laws could be grasped at +an early period. This period brought an increase of wealth, but it +was wasteful of human life. The desire to save life led the way +to the study of biology. Knowledge of the physical environment +and of life, however, did not prevent social disease from flourishing, +and did not greatly improve the social condition of a large part of +society. To overcome these defects the social sciences within recent +years have been cultivated with great seriousness. Interest in the +social sciences has had to wait for the enlarged sympathies and the +sense of solidarity which has appeared with the growing interdependence +of dense populations, and these conditions have been dependent +upon the advance of the other sciences. With the cultivation of the +social sciences, the chain of knowledge will be complete, at least so +far as the needs which have already appeared are concerned. For +each group of sciences will solve one or more of the great problems +which man has encountered in the process of development. The +physical sciences will solve the problems of environment, the biological +sciences the problems of life, and the social sciences the problems of +society."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> +This exclusive pre-occupation with the improvement of the environment +has been termed Euthenics by Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, who has +written a book with this title, advocating euthenics in opposition to +eugenics.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> +Not one of the four stages of social reform already summarized +can be neglected. On the contrary, they all need to be still further +consolidated in a completely national organization of health. I may +perhaps refer to the little book on <i>The Nationalization of Health</i>, in +which, many years ago, I foreshadowed this movement, as well +as to the recent work of Professor Benjamin Moore on the same +subject. The gigantic efforts of Germany, and later of England, to +establish National Insurance systems, bear noble witness to the ardour +with which these two countries, at all events, are moving towards the +desired goal.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> +In some countries, however, the decline, although traceable about +1876, only began to be pronounced somewhat later, in Austria in 1883, +in the German Empire, Hungary and Italy in 1885, and in Prussia +in 1886. Most of these countries, though late in following the +modern movement of civilization initiated by France, are rapidly +making their way in the same direction. Thus the birth-rate in Berlin +is already as low as that of Paris ten years ago, although the French +decline began at a very early period. In Norway, again, the decline +was not marked until 1900, but the birth-rate has nevertheless already +fallen as low as that of Sweden, where the fall began very much earlier.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> +"Foresight and self-control is, and always must be, the ground +and medium of all Moral Socialism," says Bosanquet (<i>The Civilization +of Christendom</i>, p. 336), using the term "Socialism" in the wide and not +in the economic sense. We see the same civilized growth of foresight +and self-control in the decrease of drunkenness. Thus in England the +number of convictions for drunkenness, while varying greatly in different +parts of the country, is decreasing for the whole country at the +rapid rate of 5000 to 8000 a year, notwithstanding the constant growth +of the population. It is incorrect to suppose that this decrease has any +connection with decreased opportunities for drinking; thus in London +County and in Cardiff the proportion of premises licensed for drinking +is the same, yet while the convictions for drunkenness in 1910 were +in London 83 per 10,000 inhabitants, in Cardiff they were under 6 +per 10,000.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> +Thus Heron finds that in London during the past fifty years there +has been 100 per cent increase in the intensity of the relation between +low social birth and high birth-rate, and that the high birth-rate of +the lower social classes is not fully compensated by their high death-rate +(D. Heron, "On the Relation of Fertility in Man to Social +Status," <i>Drapers' Company Research Memoirs</i>, No. I, 1906). As, +however, Newsholme and Stevenson point out (<i>Journal Royal Statistical +Society</i>, April, 1906, p. 74), the net addition to the population +made by the best social classes is at so very slightly lower a rate than +that made by the poorest class that, even if we consent to let the +question rest on this ground, there is still no urgent need for the +wailings of Cassandra.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i> +Sociological Papers</i> of the Sociological Society, 1904, p. 35.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> +There is a certain profit in studying one's own ancestry. It has +been somewhat astonishing to me to find how very slight are the social +oscillations traceable in a middle-class family and the families it +intermarries with through several centuries. A professional family +tends to form a caste marrying within that caste. An ambitious member +of the family may marry a baronet's daughter, and another, less +pretentious, a village tradesman's daughter; but the general level is +maintained without rising or falling. Occasionally, it happens that the +ambitious and energetic son of a prosperous master-craftsman becomes +a professional man, marries into the professional caste, and +founds a professional family; such a family seems to flourish for some +three generations, and then suddenly fails and dies out in the male +line, while the vigour of the female line is not impaired.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> +The new social adjustment of a family, it is probable, is always +difficult, and if the change is sudden or extreme, the new environment +may rapidly prove fatal to the family. Lorenz (<i>Lehrbuch der Genealogie</i>, +p. 135) has shown that when a peasant family reaches an upper social +class it dies out in a few generations.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15" id="Footnote_15"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> +See, on this point, Reibmayr, <i>Entwicklungsgeschichte des Talentes +und Genies</i>, Vol. I, ch. <span class="smcap">vii</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16" id="Footnote_16"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> +Fahlbeck, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 168.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17" id="Footnote_17"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> +Regeneration implies that there has been degeneration, and it +cannot be positively affirmed that such degeneration has, on the whole, +occurred in such a manner as to affect the race. Reibmayr (<i>Die +Entwicklungsgeschichte des Talentes und Genies</i>, Bd. I, p. 400) regards +degeneration as a process setting in with urbanization and the tendency +to diminished population; if so, it is but another name for civilization, +and can only be condemned by condemning civilization, whether or +not physical deterioration occurs. The Inter-departmental Commission +on Physical Deterioration held in 1904, in London, concluded that +there are no sufficient statistical or other data to prove that the physique +of the people in the present, as compared with the past, has undergone +any change; and this conclusion was confirmed by the Director-General +of the Army Medical Service. There is certainly good reason +to believe that urban populations (and especially industrial workers in +factories) are inferior in height and weight and general development +to rural populations, and less fit for military or similar service. The +stunted development of factory workers in the East End of London +was noted nearly a century ago, and German military experience +distinctly shows the inferiority of the town-dweller to the country-dweller. +(See e.g. Weyl, <i>Handbuch der Hygiene</i>, Supplement, Bd. IV, +pp. 746 <i>et seq.</i>; <i>Politisch-Anthropologische Revue</i>, +1905, pp. 145 <i>et seq.</i>) +The proportion of German youths fit for military service slowly decreases +every year; in 1909 it was 53.6 per cent, in 1910 only 53 per +cent; of those born in the country and engaged in agricultural or +forest work 58.2 were found fit; of those born in the country and +engaged in other industries, 55.1 per cent; of those born in towns, +but engaged in agricultural or forest work, 56.2 per cent; of those +born in towns and engaged in other industries 47.9 per cent. It is +fairly clear that this deterioration under urban and industrial conditions +cannot properly be termed a racial degeneration. It is, moreover, +greatly improved even by a few months' training, and there is an immense +difference between the undeveloped, feeble, half-starved +recruit from the slums and the robust, broad-shouldered veteran when +he leaves the army. The term "aggeneration"—not beyond criticism, +though it is free from the objection to "regeneration"—was proposed +by Prof. Christian von Ehrenfels ("Die Aufsteigende Entwicklung +des Menschen," <i>Politisch-Anthropologische Revue</i>, April, 1903, p. 50).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18" id="Footnote_18"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> +It is unnecessary to touch here on the question of infant mortality, +which has already been referred to, and will again come in for consideration +in a later chapter. It need only be said that a high birth-rate +is inextricably combined with a high death-rate. The European countries +with the highest birth-rates are, in descending order: Russia, +Bulgaria, Roumania, Servia, and Hungary. The European countries +with the highest death-rates are, in descending order, almost the same: +Russia, Hungary, Spain, Bulgaria, and Servia, It is the same outside +Europe. Thus Chile, with a birth-rate which comes next after Roumania, +has a death-rate that is only second to Russia.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19" id="Footnote_19"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> +Nyström (<i>La Vie Sexuelle</i>, 1910, p. 248) believes that "the time +is coming when it will be considered the duty of municipal authorities, +if they have found by experience or have reason to suspect that children +will be thrown upon the parish, to instruct parents in methods of +preventive conception."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20" id="Footnote_20"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> +The directly unfavourable influences on the child of too short an +interval between its birth and that of the previous child has been shown, +for instance, by Dr. R.J. Ewart ("The Influence of Parental Age on +Offspring," <i>Eugenics Review</i>, October, 1911). He has found at Middlesbrough +that children born at an interval of less than two years after +the birth of the previous child still show at the age of six a notable +deficiency in height, weight, and intelligence, when compared with +children born after a longer interval, or with first-born children.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21" id="Footnote_21"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> +<i>Tatler</i>, Vol. II, No. 175, 1709.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22" id="Footnote_22"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> +"Write Man for Primula, and the stage of the world for that +of the greenhouse," says Professor Bateson (<i>Biological Fact and the +Structure of Society</i>, 1912, p. 9), "and I believe that with a few generations +of experimental breeding we should acquire the power similarly +to determine how the varieties of men should be represented in the +generations that succeed." But Bateson proceeds to point out that our +knowledge is still very inadequate, and he is opposed to eugenics +by Act of Parliament.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23" id="Footnote_23"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> +E. Solmi, <i>La Città del Sole di Campanella</i>, 1904, p. xxxiv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24" id="Footnote_24"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> +Only a year before his death Galton wrote (Preface to <i>Essays in +Eugenics</i>): "The power by which Eugenic reform must chiefly be +effected is that of Popular Opinion, which is amply strong enough for +that purpose whenever it shall be roused."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25" id="Footnote_25"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> +It may perhaps be necessary to remark that by sterilization is here +meant, not castration, but, in the male vasectomy (and a corresponding +operation in the female), a simple and harmless operation which involves +no real mutilation and no loss of power beyond that of +procreation. See on this and related points, Havelock Ellis, <i>Studies in +the Psychology of Sex</i>, Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society," chap. +<span class="smcap">xii</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26" id="Footnote_26"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> + The term "feeble-minded" may be used generally to cover all +degrees of mental weakness. In speaking a little more precisely, however, +we have to recognize three main degrees of congenital mental +weakness: <i>feeble-mindedness</i>, in which with care and supervision it is +possible to work and earn a livelihood; <i>imbecility</i>, in which the subject +is barely able to look after himself, and sometimes only has enough +intelligence to be mischievous (the moral imbecile); and <i>idiocy</i>, the +lowest depth of all, in which the subject has no intelligence and no +ability to look after himself. More elaborate classifications are sometimes +proposed. The method of Binet and Simon renders possible +a fairly exact measurement of feeble-mindedness.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27" id="Footnote_27"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> +Mott (<i>Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry</i>, Vol. V, 1911) accepts +the view that in some cases feeble-mindedness is simply a form of +congenital syphilis, but he points out that feeble-mindedness abounds +in many rural districts where syphilis, as well as alcoholism, is very +rare, and concludes by emphasizing the influence of heredity; the +prevalence of feeble-mindedness in these rural districts is thus due +to the fact that the mentally and physically fit have emigrated to the +great industrial centres, leaving the unfit to procreate the race.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28" id="Footnote_28"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> +"Whether germinal variations," remarked Dr. R.J. Ryle at a +Conference on Feeble-mindedness (<i>British Medical Journal</i>, October 3, +1911), "be expressed by cleft palate, cataract, or cerebral deficiency of +the pyramidal cells in the brain cortex, they may be produced, and, +when once produced, they are reproduced as readily as the perfected +structure of the face or eye or brain, if the gametes which contain these +potentialities unite to form the ovum. But Nature is not only the +producer. Given a fair field and no favour, natural selection would +leave no problem of the unfit to perplex the mind of man who looks +before and after. This we know cannot be, and we know, too, that +we have no longer the excuse of ignorance to cover the neglect of the +new duties which belong to the present epoch of civilization. We know +now that we have to deal with a growing group in our community +who demand permanent care and control as well for their own sakes +as for the welfare of the community. All are now agreed on the general +principle of segregation, but it is true that something more than this +should be forthcoming. The difficulties of theory are clearing up as +our wider view obtains a firmer grasp of our material, but the difficulties +of practice are still before us." These remarks correspond with the +general results reached by the Royal Commission on the Feeble-minded, +which issued its voluminous facts and conclusions in 1908.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29" id="Footnote_29"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_29"> +<span class="label">[29]</span></a> See, for instance, A.F. Tredgold, +<i>Mental Deficiency</i>, 1908.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30" id="Footnote_30"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> +The investigation of Bezzola showing that the maxima in the conception +of idiots occur at carnival time, and especially at the vintage, +has been held (especially by Forel) to indicate that alcoholism of the +parents at conception causes idiocy in the offspring. It may be so. +But it may also be that the licence of these periods enables the defective +members of the community to secure an amount of sexual activity +which they would be debarred from under normal conditions. In that +case the alcoholism would merely liberate, and not create, the idiocy-producing +mechanism.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31" id="Footnote_31"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Godden, +<i>Eugenics Review</i>, April, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32" id="Footnote_32"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> +Feeble-mindedness and the other allied variations are not always +exactly repeated in inheritance. They may be transmuted in passing +from father to son, an epileptic father, for instance, having a feeble-minded +child. These relationships of feeble-mindedness have been +clearly brought out in an important investigation by Davenport and +Weeks (<i>Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease</i>, November, 1911), +who have for the first time succeeded in obtaining a large number +of really thorough and precise pedigrees of such cases.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33" id="Footnote_33"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> +It may be as well to point out once more that the possibility of such +limited depreciation must not be construed into the statement that there +has been any general "degeneration of the race." It maybe added that +the notion that the golden age lay in the past, and that our own age is degenerate +is not confined to a few biometricians of to-day; it has commended +itself to uncritical minds in all ages, even the greatest, as far back +as we can go. Montesquieu referred to this common notion (and attempted +to explain it) in his <i>Pensées Diverses</i>: "Men have such a bad opinion +of themselves," he adds, "that they have believed not only that their +minds and souls were degenerate, but even their bodies, and that they +were not so tall as the men of previous ages." It is thus quite logically +that we arrive at the belief that when mankind first appeared, "there +were giants on the earth in those days," and that Adam lived to the +age of nine hundred and thirty. Evidently no syndromes of degenerescence +there!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34" id="Footnote_34"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> +The Superintendent of a large State School for delinquent girls in +America (as quoted in the Chicago Vice Commission's Report on <i>The +Social Evil in Chicago</i>, p. 229) says: "The girls who come to us possessed +of normal brain power, or not infected with venereal disease, +we look upon as a prize indeed, and we seldom fail to make a woman +worth while of a really normal girl, whatever her environment has been. +But we have failed in numberless cases where the environment has been +all right, but the girl was born wrong."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35" id="Footnote_35"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> +See e.g. Havelock Ellis, <i>The Criminal</i>, 4th ed., 1910, chap +<span class="smcap">IV</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36" id="Footnote_36"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> +R.L. Dugdale, <i>The Jukes</i>, 4th ed., 1910. It is noteworthy that +Dugdale, who wrote nearly forty years ago, was concerned to prove +the influence of bad environment rather than of bad heredity. At that +time the significance of heredity was scarcely yet conceived. It remains +true, however, that bad heredity and bad environment constantly +work together for evil.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37" id="Footnote_37"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> + Jörger, <i>Archiv für Rassen-und Gesellschafts-Biologie</i>, 1905, p. 294. +Criminal families are also recorded by Aubry, +<i>La Contagion du Meutre</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38" id="Footnote_38"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> + Even during school life this burden is serious. Mr. Bodey, Inspector +of Schools, states that the defective school child costs three +times as much as the ordinary school child.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39" id="Footnote_39"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> +I have set forth these considerations more fully in a popular form in +<i>The Problem of the Regeneration of the Race</i>, the first of a series of "New +Tracts for the Times," issued under the auspices of the National Council +of Public Morals.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40" id="Footnote_40"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> +C.B. Davenport, "Euthenics and Eugenics," <i>Popular Science +Monthly</i>, January, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41" id="Footnote_41"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> +The use of the terms "fit" and "unfit" in a eugenic sense has +been criticized. It is said, for instance, that in a bad environment +it may be precisely the defective classes who are most "fit" to survive. +It is quite true that these terms are not well adapted to resist hyper-critical +attack. The persistence with which they are employed seems, +however, to indicate a certain "survival of the fittest." The terms +"worthy" and "unworthy," which some would prefer to substitute, +are unsatisfactory, for they have moral associations which are misleading. +Galton spoke of "civic worth" in this connection, and very +occasionally used the term "worthy" (with inverted commas), but +he was careful to point out (<i>Essays in Eugenics</i>, p. 35) that in eugenics +"we must leave morals as far as possible out of the discussion, not +entangling ourselves with the almost hopeless difficulties they raise +as to whether a character as a whole is good or bad."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42" id="Footnote_42"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> +Dr. Toulouse has devoted a whole volume to the results of a minute +personal examination of Zola, the novelist, and another to Poincaré, the +mathematician. Such minute investigations are at present confined +to men of genius, but some day, perhaps, we shall consider that from +the eugenic standpoint all men are men of genius.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43" id="Footnote_43"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> +Sterilization for social ends was introduced in Switzerland a few +years ago, in order to enable some persons with impaired self-control +to be set at liberty and resume work without the risk of adding to the +population defective members who would probably be a burden on the +community. It was performed with the consent of the subjects (in +some cases at their urgent request) and their relations, so requiring +no special legislation, and the results are said to be satisfactory. In +some American States sterilization for some classes of defective persons +has been established by statute, but it is difficult to obtain reliable +information as regards the working and the results of such legislation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44" id="Footnote_44"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> +When Professor Giddings speaks of the "goal of mankind," it +must, of course, be remembered, he is using a bold metaphor in order +to make his meaning clearer. Strictly speaking, mankind has no +"goals," nor are there any ends in Nature which are not means to +further ends.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPII" id="CHAPII">II</a></h3> + +<h3>THE CHANGING STATUS OF WOMEN +<a name="FNanchor_45" id="FNanchor_45"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></h3> + +<blockquote><p>The Origin of the Woman Movement—Mary Wollstonecraft—George +Sand—Robert Owen—William Thompson—John Stuart Mill—The +Modern Growth of Social Cohesion—The Growth of Industrialism—Its +Influence in Woman's Sphere of Work—The Education of +Women—Co-education—The Woman Question and Sexual Selection—Significance +of Economic Independence—The State Regulation of +Marriage—The Future of Marriage—Wilhelm von Humboldt—Social +Equality of Women—The Reproduction of the Race as a +Function of Society—Women and the Future of Civilization.</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>It was in the eighteenth century, the seed-time of +modern ideas, that our great-grandfathers became +conscious of a discordant break in the traditional +conceptions of women's status. The vague cries of +Justice, Freedom, Equality, which were then hurled +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +about the world, were here and there energetically +applied to women—notably in France by Condorcet—and +a new movement began to grow self-conscious +and coherent. Mary Wollstonecraft, after Aphra Behn +the first really noteworthy Englishwoman of letters, +gave voice to this movement in England.</p> + +<p>The famous and little-read <i>Vindication of the Rights +of Women</i>, careless and fragmentary as it is, and by no +means so startling to us as to her contemporaries, shows +Mary Wollstonecraft as a woman of genuine insight, +who saw the questions of woman's social condition +in their essential bearings. Her intuitions need little +modification, even though a century of progress has +intervened. The modern advocates of woman's suffrage +have little to add to her brief statement. She is far, +indeed, from the monstrous notion of Miss Cobbe, that +woman's suffrage is the "crown and completion" of +all progress so far as women's movements are concerned. +She looks upon it rather as one of the reasonable conditions +of progress. It is pleasant to turn from the +eccentric energy of so many of the advocates of women's +causes to-day, all engaged in crying up their own particular +nostrum, to the genial many-sided wisdom of +Mary Wollstonecraft, touching all subjects with equal +frankness and delicacy.</p> + +<p>The most brilliant and successful exponent of the +new revolutionary ideas—making Corinne and her +prototype seem dim and ineffectual—was undoubtedly +George Sand. The badly-dressed woman who earned +her living by scribbling novels, and said to M. du Camp, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +as she sat before him in silence rolling her cigarette, +"Je ne dis rien parceque je suis bête," has exercised +a profound influence throughout Europe, an influence +which, in the Sclavonic countries especially, has helped +to give impetus to the resolution we are now considering. +And this not so much from any definite doctrines that +underlie her work—for George Sand's views on such +matters varied as much as her political views—as from +her whole temper and attitude. Her large and rich +nature, as sometimes happens in genius of a high order, +was twofold; on the one hand, she possessed a solid +serenity, a quiet sense of power, the qualities of a <i>bonne +bourgeoise</i>, which found expression in her imperturbable +calm, her gentle look and low voice. And with this was +associated a massive, almost Rabelaisian temperament +(one may catch glimpses of it in her correspondence), +a sane exuberant earthliness which delighted in every +manifestation of the actual world. On the other hand, +she bore within her a volcanic element of revolt, an +immense disgust of law and custom. Throughout her +life George Sand developed her strong and splendid +individuality, not perhaps as harmoniously, but as +courageously and as sincerely as even Goethe.</p> + +<p>Robert Owen, who, like Saint-Simon in France, +gave so extraordinary an impulse to all efforts at social +reorganization, and who planted the seed of many +modern movements, could not fail to extend his influence +to the region of sex. A disciple of his, William +Thompson, who still holds a distinguished position in +the history of the economic doctrines of Socialism, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +wrote, under the inspiration of a woman (a Mrs. Wheeler), +and published in 1825, an <i>Appeal of One Half of the Human +Race, Women, against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, +to retain them in Political, and thence in Civil and Domestic +Slavery</i>. It is a thorough and logical, almost eloquent, +demand for the absolute social equality of the sexes. +<a name="FNanchor_46" id="FNanchor_46"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p> + + +<p>Forty years later, Mill, also inspired by a woman, +published his <i>Subjection of Women</i>. However partial +and inadequate it may seem to us, this was at that +day a notable book. Mill's clear vision and feminine +sensibilities gave freshness to his observations regarding +the condition and capacity of women, while his reputation +imparted gravity and resonance to his utterances. +Since then the signs in literature of the breaking up of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +the status of women have become far too numerous +to be chronicled even in a volume. It is enough to have +mentioned here some typical initiatory names. Now, +the movement may be seen at work anywhere, from +Norway to Italy, from Russia to California. The status +which women are now entering places them, not, as in +the old communism, in large measure practically above +men, nor, as in the subsequent period, both practically +and theoretically in subordination to men. It places +them side by side, with like rights and like duties in relation +to society.</p> + + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>Condorcet, Mary Wollstonecraft, George Sand, Owen, +Mill—these were feathers on the stream. They indicated +the forces that had their source at the centre of social +life. That historical movement which produced mother-law +probably owed its rise, as well as its fall, to demands +of subsistence and property—that is, to economic causes. +The decay of the subsequent family system, in which +the whole power is concentrated in the male head, +is being produced by similar causes. The early +communism, and the modes of action and sentiment +which it had produced, still practically persisted long +after the new system had arisen. In the patriarchal +family the woman still had a recognized sphere of work +and a recognized right to subsistence. It was not, +indeed, until the sudden development of the industrial +system, and the purely individualistic economics with +which it was associated, at the beginning of the nineteenth +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +century, that women in England were forced to realize +that their household industries were gone, and that they +must join in that game of competition in which the field +and the rules had alike been chosen with reference to +men alone. The commercial and industrial system, +and the general diffusion of education that has +accompanied it, and which also has its roots in economic +causes, has been the chief motive force in revolutionizing +the status of women; and the epoch of unrestricted +competition on masculine lines has been a necessary +period of transition.<a name="FNanchor_47" id="FNanchor_47"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p>At the present time two great tendencies are visible +in our social organization. On the one hand, the threads +of social life are growing closer, and organization, as +regards the simple and common means of subsistence, +is increasing. On the other hand, as regards the things +that most closely concern the individual person, the +sphere of freedom is being perpetually enlarged. Instead +of every man digging a well for his own use and at his +own free pleasure, perhaps in a graveyard or a cesspool, +we consent to the distribution of water by a central +executive. We have carried social methods so far that, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +instead of producing our own bread and butter, we +prefer to go to a common bakery and dairy. The same +centralizing methods are extending to all those things +of which all have equal need. On the other hand, we +exercise a very considerable freedom of individual +thought. We claim a larger and larger freedom of +individual speech and criticism. We worship any god +we choose, after any fashion we choose. The same +individual freedom is beginning to invade the sexual +relationships. It is extending to all those things in +regard to which civilized men have become so variously +differentiated that they have no equal common needs. +These two tendencies, so far from being antagonistic, +cannot even be carried out under modern conditions +of life except together. It is only by social co-operation +in regard to what is commonly called the physical side +of life that it becomes possible for the individual to +develop his own peculiar nature. The society of the +future is a reasonable anarchy founded on a broad basis +of Collectivism.</p> + +<p>It is not our object here to point out how widely +these tendencies affect men, but it is worth while to +indicate some of their bearings on the condition of +women. While genuine productive industries have +been taken out of the hands of women who work under +the old conditions, an increasingly burdensome weight +of unnecessary duties has been laid upon them. Under +the old communistic system, when a large number of +families lived together in one great house, the women +combined to perform their household duties, the cooking +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +being done at a common fire. They had grown up together +from childhood, and combination could be effected +without friction. It is the result of the later system +that the woman has to perform all the necessary household +duties in the most wasteful manner, with least +division of labour; while she has, in addition, to perform +a great amount of unnecessary work, in obedience to +traditional or conventional habits, which make it impossible +even to perform the simple act of dusting the +rooms of a small house in less than perhaps an hour +and a half. She has probably also to accomplish, if +she happens to belong to the middle or upper classes, +an idle round of so-called "social duties." She tries +to escape, when she can afford it, by adopting the apparently +simple expedient of paying other people to +perform these necessary and unnecessary household +duties, but this expedient fails; the "social duties" +increase in the same ratio as the servants increase +and the task of overseeing these latter itself proves +formidable. It is quite impossible for any person under +these conditions to lead a reasonable and wholesome +human life. A healthy life is more difficult to attain +for the woman of the ordinary household than for the +worker in a mine, for he at least, when the work of his +set is over, has two-thirds of the twenty-four hours +to himself. The woman is bound by a thousand Lilliputian +threads from which there seems no escape. She +often makes frantic efforts to escape, but the combined +strength of the threads generally proves too strong. +There can be no doubt that the present household +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +system is doomed; the higher standard of intelligence +demanded from women, the growth of interest in the +problems of domestic economy, the movement for +association of labour, the revolt against the survivals +of barbaric complication in living—all these, which +are symptoms of a great economic revolution, indicate, +the approach of a new period.</p> + +<p>The education of women is an essential part of the +great movement we are considering. Women will shortly +be voters, and women, at all events in England, are +in a majority. We have to educate our mistresses +as we once had to educate our masters. And the word +"education" is here used by no means in the narrow +sense. A woman may be acquainted with Greek and the +higher mathematics, and be as uneducated in the wider +relationships of life as a man in the like case. How +much women suffer from this lack of education may be +seen to-day even among those who are counted as leaders.</p> + +<p>There are extravagances in every period of transition. +Undoubtedly a potent factor in bringing about a saner +attitude will be the education of boys and girls together. +The lack of early fellowship fosters an unnatural divergence +of aims and ideals, and a consequent lack of +sympathy. It makes possible those abundant foolish +generalizations by men concerning "women," by women +concerning "men." St. Augustine, at an early period +of his ardent career, conceived with certain friends +the notion of forming a community having goods in +common; the scheme was almost effected when it +was discovered that "those little wives, which some +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[48]</a></span> +already had, and others would shortly have," objected, +and so it fell through. Perhaps the <i>mulierculæ</i> were +right. It is simply a rather remote instance of a fundamental +divergence amply illustrated before our eyes. +If men and women are to understand each other, to enter +into each other's natures with mutual sympathy, and +to become capable of genuine comradeship, the foundation +must be laid in youth. Another wholesome reform, +promoted by co-education, is the physical education +of women. In the case of boys special attention has +generally been given to physical education, and the lack +of it is one among several artificial causes of that chronic +ill-health which so often handicaps women. Women +must have the same education as men, Miss Faithfull +shrewdly observes, because that is sure to be the best. +The present education of boys cannot, however, be +counted a model, and the gradual introduction of co-education +will produce many wholesome reforms. If +the intimate association of the sexes destroys what +remnant may linger of the unhealthy ideal of chivalry—according +to which a woman was treated as a cross between +an angel and an idiot—that is matter for rejoicing. +Wherever men and women stand in each other's presence +the sexual instinct will always ensure an adequate ideal +halo.</p> + + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>The chief question that we have to ask when we +consider the changing status of women is: How will +it affect the reproduction of the race? Hunger and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +love are the two great motor impulses, the ultimate +source, probably, of all other impulses. Hunger—that +is to say, what we call "economic causes"—has, because +it is the more widespread and constant, though +not necessarily the more imperious instinct, produced +nearly all the great zoological revolutions, including, +as we have seen, the rise and fall of that phase of human +evolution dominated by mother-law. Yet love has, +in the form of sexual selection, even before we reach +the vertebrates, moulded races to the ideal of the female; +and reproduction is always the chief end of nutrition +which hunger waits on, the supreme aim of life everywhere.</p> + +<p>If we place on the one side man, as we know him +during the historical period, and on the other, nearly +every highly organized member of the animal family, +there appears, speaking roughly and generally, a distinct +difference in the relation which these two motor impulses +bear to each other. Among animals generally, +economics are comparatively so simple that it is possible +to satisfy the nutritive instinct without putting any +hard pressure on the spontaneous play of the reproductive +instinct. And nearly everywhere it is the female +who has the chief voice in the establishment of sexual +relationships. The males compete for the favour of +the female by the fascination of their odour, or brilliant +colour, or song, or grace, or strength, as revealed in what +are usually mock-combats. The female is, in these +respects, comparatively unaccomplished and comparatively +passive. With her rests the final decision, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +only after long hesitation, influenced, it seems, by a +vaguely felt ideal resulting from her contemplation +of the rivals, she calls the male of her choice. +<a name="FNanchor_48" id="FNanchor_48"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> A dim +instinct seems to warn her of the pains and cares of +maternity, so that only the largest promises of pleasure +can induce her to undertake the function of reproduction. +In civilized man, on the other hand, as we know him, +the situation is to some extent reversed; it is the woman +who, by the display of her attractions, competes for the +favour of the man. The final invitation does not come, +as among animals generally, from the female; the decision +rests with the man. It would be a mistake to +suppose that this change reveals the evolution of a +superior method; although it has developed the beauty +of women, it has clearly had its origin in economic +causes. The demands of nutrition have overridden +those of reproduction; sexual selection has, to a large +extent, given place to natural selection, a process clearly +not for the advantage of the race. The changing status +of women, in bestowing economic independence, will +certainly tend to restore to sexual selection its due weight +in human development.</p> + +<p>In so doing it will certainly tend also to destroy +prostitution, which is simply one of the forms in which +the merging of sexual selection in natural selection +has shown itself. Wherever sexual selection has free +play, unhampered by economic considerations, prostitution +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +is impossible. The dominant type of marriage +is, like prostitution, founded on economic considerations; +the woman often marries chiefly to earn her living; +here, too, we may certainly expect profound modifications. +We have long sought to preserve our social +balance by placing an unreasonable licence in the one +scale, an equally unreasonable abstinence in the other; +the economic independence of women, tending to render +both extremes unnecessary, can alone place the sexual +relationships on a sound and free basis.</p> + +<p>The State regulation of marriage has undoubtedly +played a large and important part in the evolution of +society. At the present time the advantages of this +artificial control no longer appear so obvious (even +when the evidence of the law courts is put aside); they +will vanish altogether when women have attained +complete economic independence. With the disappearance +of the artificial barriers in the way of friendship +between the sexes and of the economic motive to sexual +relationships—perhaps the two chief forces which now +tend to produce promiscuous sexual intercourse, whether +dignified or not with the name of marriage—men and +women will be free to engage, unhampered, in the search, +so complicated in a highly civilized condition of society, +for a fitting mate.<a name="FNanchor_49" id="FNanchor_49"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +It is probable that this inevitable change will be +brought about partly by the voluntary action of individuals, +and in greater measure by the gradual and +awkward method of shifting and ever freer divorce +laws. The slow disintegration of State-regulated marriage +from the latter cause may be observed now throughout the +United States, where there is, on the whole, a developing +tendency to frequency and facility of divorce. It is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +clear, however, that on this line marriage will not cease +to be a concern to the State, and it may be as well to +point out at once the important distinction between +State-<i>regulated</i> and State-<i>registered</i> marriage. Sexual +relationships, so long as they do not result in the production +of children, are matters in which the community +has, as a community, little or no concern, but as soon +as a sexual relationship results in the pregnancy of the +woman the community is at once interested. At this +point it is clearly the duty of the State to register the +relationship.<a name="FNanchor_50" id="FNanchor_50"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> + +<p>It is necessary to remember that the kind of equality +of the sexes towards which this change of status is leading, +is social equality—that is, equality of freedom. +It is not an intellectual equality, still less is it likeness. +Men and women can only be alike mentally when they +are alike in physical configuration and physiological +function. Even complete economic equality is not +attainable. Among animals which live in herds under +the guidance of a leader, this leader is nearly always +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +a male; there are few exceptions.<a name="FNanchor_51" id="FNanchor_51"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> In woman, the long +period of pregnancy and lactation, and the prolonged +helplessness of her child, render her for a considerable +period of her life economically dependent. On whom +shall she be dependent? This is a question of considerable +moment. According to the old conception of the +family, all the members were slaves producing for the +benefit of the owner, and it was natural that the wife +should be supported by the husband when she is producing +slaves for his service. But this conception is, +as we have seen, no longer possible. It is clearly unfair +also to compel the mother to depend on her own previous +exertions. The reproduction of the race is a social +function, and we are compelled to conclude that it is +the duty of the community, as a community, to provide +for the child-bearer when in the exercise of her social +function she is unable to provide for herself. The woman +engaged in producing a new member, who may be a +source of incalculable profit or danger to the whole +community, cannot fail to be a source of the liveliest +solicitude to everyone in the community, and it was +a sane and beautiful instinct that found expression +of old in the permission accorded to a pregnant woman +to enter gardens and orchards, and freely help herself. +Whether this instinct will ever again be embodied in +a new form, and the reproduction of the race be recognized +as truly a social function, is a question which even yet +lacks actuality. The care of the child-bearer and her +child will at present continue to be a matter for individual +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +arrangement. That it will be arranged much better +than at present we may reasonably hope. On the one +hand, the reckless multiplication of children will probably +be checked; on the other hand, a large body of women +will no longer be shut out from maternity. That the +state should undertake the regulation of the birth-rate +we can scarcely either desire or anticipate. Undoubtedly +the community has an abstract right to limit the number +of its members. It may be pointed out, however, that +under rational conditions of life the process would probably +be self-regulating; in the human races, and also +among animals generally, fertility diminishes as the +organism becomes highly developed. And, without +falling back on any natural law, it may be said that +the extravagant procreation of children, leading to +suffering both to parents and offspring, carried on under +existing social conditions, is largely the result of ignorance, +largely of religious or other superstition. A more developed +social state would not be possible at all unless +the social instincts were strong enough to check the +reckless multiplication of offspring. Richardson and +others appear to advocate the special cultivation of +a class of non-childbearing women. Certainly no woman +who freely chose should be debarred from belonging to +such a class. But reproduction is the end and aim of all +life everywhere, and in order to live a humanly complete +life, every healthy woman should have, not sexual +relationships only, but the exercise at least once in her +life of the supreme function of maternity, and the +possession of those experiences which only maternity +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +can give. That unquestionably is the claim of natural +and reasonable living in the social state towards which +we are moving.</p> + +<p>To deal with the social organization of the future +would be to pass beyond the limits that I have here +set myself, and to touch on matters of which it is impossible +to speak with certainty. The new culture +of women, in the light and the open air, will doubtless +solve many matters which now are dark to us. Morgan +supposed that it was in some measure the failure of the +Greeks and Romans to develop their womanhood which +brought the speedy downfall of classic civilization. +The women of the future will help to renew art and +science as well as life. They will do more even than this, +for the destiny of the race rests with women. "I have +sometimes thought," Whitman wrote in his <i>Democratic +Vistas</i>, "that the sole avenue and means to a reconstructed +society depended primarily on a new birth, +elevation, expansion, invigoration of women." That +intuition is not without a sound basis, and if a great +historical movement called for justification here would +be enough.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45" id="Footnote_45"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> +This chapter was written so long ago as 1888, and published in the +<i>Westminster Review</i> in the following year. I have pleasure in here +including it exactly as it was originally written, not only because it +has its proper place in the present volume, but because it may be +regarded as a programme which I have since elaborated in numerous +volumes. The original first section has, however, been omitted, as it +embodied a statement of the matriarchal theory which, in view of the +difficulty of the subject and the wide differences of opinion about it, I +now consider necessary to express more guardedly (see, for a more recent +statement, Havelock Ellis, <i>Studies in the Psychology of Sex</i>, Vol. VI, +"Sex in Relation to Society," chap. <span class="smcap">x</span>). +With this exception, and the deletion of two insignificant footnotes, no +changes have been made. After the lapse of a quarter of a century I find +nothing that I seriously wish to withdraw and much that I now wish to +emphasize.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46" id="Footnote_46"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> +The following passage summarizes this <i>Appeal</i>: "The simple +and modest request is, that they may be permitted equal enjoyments +with men, <i>provided they can, by the free and equal development and +exercise of their faculties, procure for themselves such enjoyments</i>. They +ask the same means that men possess of acquiring every species of +knowledge, of unfolding every one of their faculties of mind and body +that can be made tributary to their happiness. They ask every facility +of access to every art, occupation, profession, from the highest to the +lowest, without one exception, to which their inclinations and talents +may direct and may fit them to occupy. They ask the removal of <i>all</i> +restraints and exclusions not applicable to men of equal capacities. +They ask for perfectly equal political, civil, and domestic rights. They +ask for equal obligations and equal punishments from the law with men +in case of infraction of the same law by either party. They ask for +an equal system of morals, founded on utility instead of caprice and +unreasoning despotism, in which the same action, attended with the +same consequences, whether done by man or woman, should be attended +with the same portion of approbation or disapprobation; in which +every pleasure, accompanied or followed by no preponderant evil, +should be equally permitted to women and to men; in which every +pleasure accompanied or followed by preponderant evil should be +equally censured in women and in men."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47" id="Footnote_47"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> +A period of transition not the less necessary although it is certainly +disastrous and tends to produce an unwholesome tension between the +sexes so long as men and women do not receive equal payment for equal +work. "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever," as a working man in +Blackburn lately put it, "but when the thing of beauty takes to doing +the work for 16s. a week that you have been paid 22s. for, you do not +feel as if you cannot live without possessing that thing of beauty all to +yourself, or that you are willing to lay your life and your fortune +(when you have one) at its feet." On the other hand, the working girl +in the same town often complains that a man will not look at a girl +unless she is a "four-loom weaver," earning, that is, perhaps, 20s. or +25s. a week.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48" id="Footnote_48"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> +See the very interesting work of Alfred Espinas, <i>Des Sociétés +Animales</i>, which contains many fruitful suggestions for the student of +human sociology.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49" id="Footnote_49"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> +The subtle and complex character of the sexual relationships in a +high civilization, and the unhappy results of their State regulation, +was well expressed by Wilhehm von Humboldt in his <i>Ideen zu einen +Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu bestimmen</i>, so long +ago as 1792: "A union so closely allied with the very nature of the +respective individuals must be attended with the most hurtful consequences +when the State attempts to regulate it by law, or, through +the force of its institutions, to make it repose on anything save simple +inclination. When we remember, moreover, that the State can only +contemplate the final results of such regulations on the race, we shall +be still more ready to admit the justice of this conclusion. It may +reasonably be argued that a solicitude for the race only conducts to the +same results as the highest solicitude for the most beautiful development +of the inner man. For after careful observation it has been found +that the uninterrupted union of one man with one woman is most +beneficial to the race, and it is likewise undeniable that no other union +springs from true, natural, harmonious love. And further, it may be +observed that such love leads to the same results as those very relations +which law and custom tend to establish. The radical error seems to be +that the law commands; whereas such a relation cannot mould itself +according to external arrangements, but depends wholly on inclination; +and wherever coercion or guidance comes into collision with inclination, +they divert it still farther from the proper path. Wherefore it appears +to me that the State should not only loosen the bonds in this instance, +and leave ampler freedom to the citizen, but that it should entirely +withdraw its active solicitude from the institution of marriage, and both +generally and in its particular modifications, should rather leave it +wholly to the free choice of the individuals, and the various contracts +they may enter into with respect to it. I should not be deterred from +the adoption of this principle by the fear that all family relations +might be disturbed, for although such a fear might be justified by +considerations of particular circumstances and localities, it could not +fairly be entertained in an inquiry into the nature of men and States +in general. For experience frequently convinces us that just where +law has imposed no fetters, morality most surely binds; the idea of +external coercion is one entirely foreign to an institution which, like +marriage, reposes only on inclination and an inward sense of duty; and +the results of such coercive institutions do not at all correspond to +the intentions in which they originate."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50" id="Footnote_50"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> +Such register should, as Bertillon rightly insisted, be of the most +complete description—setting forth all the anthropological traits of +the contracting parties—so that the characteristics of a human group +at any time and place may be studied and compared. Registration +of this kind would, beside its more obvious convenience, form an almost +indispensable guide to the higher evolution of the race. I may here add +that I have assumed, perhaps too rashly, that the natural tendency +among civilized men and women is towards a monogamic and more or +less permanent union; preceded, it may be in most individuals, by a +more restless period of experiment. Undoubtedly, many variations +will arise in the future, leading to more complex relationships. Such +variations cannot be foreseen, and when they arise they will still have +to prove their stability and their advantage to the race.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51" id="Footnote_51"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> +As among geese, and, occasionally, it is said, among elephants.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +<a name="CHAPIII" id="CHAPIII"></a></p><h3>III</h3> + +<h3>THE NEW ASPECT OF THE WOMAN'S +MOVEMENT</h3> + +<blockquote><p>Eighteenth-Century France—Pioneers of the Woman's Movement—The +Growth of the Woman's Suffrage Movement—The Militant +Activities of the Suffragettes—Their Services and Disservices to +the Cause—Advantages of Women's Suffrage—Sex Questions in +Germany—Bebel—The Woman's Rights Movement in Germany—The +Development of Sexual Science in Germany—the Movement for +the Protection of Motherhood—Ellen Key—The Question of +Illegitimacy—Eugenics—Women as Law-makers in the Home.</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>The modern conception of the political equality +of women with men, we have seen, arose in +France in the second half of the eighteenth +century. Its way was prepared by the philosophic +thinkers of the <i>Encyclopédie</i>, and the idea was definitely +formulated by some of the finest minds of the age, +notably by Condorcet,<a name="FNanchor_52" id="FNanchor_52"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> as part of the great new programme +of social and political reform which was to +some small degree realized in the upheaval of the Revolution. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +The political emancipation of women constituted +no part of the Revolution. It has indeed been +maintained, and perhaps with reason, that the normal +development of the revolutionary spirit would probably +have ended in vanquishing the claim of masculine predominance +if war had not diverted the movement of +revolution by transforming it into the Terror. Even +as it was, the rights of women were not without their +champions even at this period. We ought specially +to remember Olympe de Gouges, whose name is sometimes +dismissed too contemptuously. With all her +defects of character and education and literary style, +Olympe de Gouges, as is now becoming recognized, +was, in her biographer's words, "one of the loftiest and +most generous souls of the epoch," in some respects +superior to Madame Roland. She was the first woman +to demand of the Revolution that it should be logical +by proclaiming the rights of woman side by side with +those of her equal, man, and in so doing she became the +great pioneer of the feminist movement of to-day. +<a name="FNanchor_53" id="FNanchor_53"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> She +owes the position more especially to her little pamphlet, +issued in 1791, entitled <i>Déclaration des Droits de la Femme</i>. +It is this <i>Déclaration</i> which contains the oft-quoted +(or misquoted) saying: "Women have the right to ascend +the scaffold; they must also have the right to ascend +the tribune." Two years later she had herself ascended +the scaffold, but the other right she claimed is only now +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +beginning to be granted to women. At that time there +were too many more pressing matters to be dealt with, +and the only women who had been taught to demand +the rights of their sex were precisely those whom the +Revolution was guillotining or exiling. Even had it +been otherwise, we may be quite sure that Napoleon, +the heir of the Revolution and the final arbiter of what +was to be permanent in its achievements, would have +sternly repressed any political freedom accorded to +women. The only freedom he cared to grant to women +was the freedom to produce food for cannon, and so +far as lay in his power he sought to crush the political +activities of women even in literature, as we see in his +treatment of Mme de Staël.<a name="FNanchor_54" id="FNanchor_54"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p> + +<p>An Englishwoman of genius was in Paris at the time +of the Revolution, with as broad a conception of the +place of woman side by side with man as Olympe de +Gouges, while for the most part she was Olympe's superior. +In 1792, a year after the <i>Déclaration des Droits de la +Femme</i>, Mary Wollstonecraft—it is possible to some extent +inspired by the brief <i>Déclaration</i>—published her <i>Vindication +of the Rights of Women</i>. It was not a shrill outcry, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +nor an attack on men—in that indeed resembling +the <i>Déclaration</i>—but just the book of a woman, a wise +and sensible woman, who discusses many women's +questions from a woman's point of view, and desires +civil and political rights, not as a panacea for all evils, +but simply because, as she argues, humanity cannot +progress as a whole while one half of it is semi-educated +and only half free. There can be little doubt that if +the later advocates of woman's suffrage could have +preserved more of Mary Wollstonecraft's sanity, moderation, +and breadth of outlook, they would have diminished +the difficulties that beset the task of convincing the +community generally. Mary Wollstonecraft was, however, +the inspired pioneer of a great movement which +slowly gained force and volume.<a name="FNanchor_55" id="FNanchor_55"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> During the long +Victorian period the practical aims of this movement +went chiefly into the direction of improving +the education of girls so as to make it, so far as possible, +like that of boys. In this matter an immense revolution +was slowly accomplished, involving the entrance of +women into various professions and employments hitherto +reserved to men. That was a very necessary preliminary +to the extension of the franchise to women. The suffrage +propaganda could not, moreover, fail to benefit by +the better education of women and their increased +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +activity in public life. It was their activity, indeed, +far more than the skill of the women who fought +for the franchise, which made the political emancipation +of women inevitable, and the noble and brilliant women +who through the middle of the nineteenth century recreated +the educational system for women, and so prepared +them to play their proper part in life, were the +best women workers the cause of women's enfranchisement +ever had. There was, however, one distinguished +friend of the emancipation of women whose advocacy +of the cause at this period was of immense value. It +is now nearly half a century since John Stuart Mill—inspired, +like Thompson, by a woman—wrote his <i>Subjection +of Women</i>, and it may undoubtedly be said +that since that date no book on this subject published +in any country—with the single exception of Bebel's +<i>Woman</i>—has been so widely read or so influential. +The support of this distinguished and authoritative +thinker gave to the woman's movement a stamp of +aristocratic intellectuality very valuable in a land +where even the finest minds are apt to be afflicted by +the disease of timidity, and was doubtless a leading +cause of the cordial reception which in England the +idea of women's political emancipation has long received +among politicians. Bebel's book, speedily translated +into English, furnished the plebeian complement +to Mill's.</p> + +<p>The movement for the education of women and their +introduction into careers previously monopolized by +men inevitably encouraged the movement for extending +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +the franchise to women. This political reform was remarkably +successful in winning over the politicians, and +not those of one party only. In England, since Mill published +his <i>Subjection of Women</i> in 1869, there have always +been eminent statesmen convinced of the desirability of +granting the franchise to women, and among the rank +and file of Members of Parliament, irrespective of party, +a very large proportion have pledged themselves to +the same cause. The difficulty, therefore, in introducing +woman's suffrage into England has not been primarily +in Parliament. The one point, at which political party +feeling has caused obstruction—and it is certainly a +difficult and important point—is the method by which +woman's suffrage should be introduced. Each party—Conservative, +Liberal, Labour—naturally enough desires +that this great new voting force should first be +applied at a point which would not be likely to injure +its own party interests. It is probable that in each +party the majority of the leaders are of opinion that +the admission of female voters is inevitable and perhaps +desirable; the dispute is as to the extent to which the +floodgates should in the first place be opened. In accordance +with English tradition, some kind of compromise, +however illogical, suggests itself as the safest first step, +but the dispute remains as to the exact class of women +who should be first admitted and the exact extent to +which entrance should be granted to them.</p> + +<p>The dispute of the gate-keepers would, however, +be easily overcome if the pressure behind the gate were +sufficiently strong. But it is not. However large a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +proportion of the voters in Great Britain may be in +favour of women's franchise, it is certain that only +a very minute percentage regard this as a question +having precedency over all other questions. And the +reason why men have only taken a very temperate +interest in woman's suffrage is that women themselves, +in the mass, have taken an equally temperate interest +in the matter when they have not been actually hostile +to the movement. It may indeed be said, even at the +present time, that whenever an impartial poll is taken +of a large miscellaneous group of women, only a minority +are found to be in favour of woman's suffrage. +<a name="FNanchor_56" id="FNanchor_56"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> No +significant event has occurred to stimulate general +interest in the matter, and no supremely eloquent or +influential voice has artificially stirred it. There has +been no woman of Mary Wollstonecraft's genius and +breadth of mind who has devoted herself to the cause, +and since Mill the men who have made up their minds +on this side have been content to leave the matter to +the women's associations formed for securing the success +of the cause. These associations have, however, been +led by women of a past generation, who, while of unquestionable +intellectual power and high moral character, +have viewed the woman question in a somewhat narrow, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +old-fashioned spirit, and have not possessed the gift +of inspiring enthusiasm. Thus the growth of the movement, +however steady it may have been, has been slow. +John Stuart Mill's remark, in a letter to Bain in 1869, +remains true to-day: "The most important thing +women have to do is to stir up the zeal of women themselves."</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile in some other countries where, +except in the United States, it was of much more recent +growth, the woman's suffrage movement has achieved +success, with no great expenditure of energy. It has +been introduced into several American States and Territories. +It is established throughout Australasia. It +is also established in Norway. In Finland women may +not only vote, but also sit in Parliament.</p> + +<p>It was in these conditions that the Women's Social +and Political Union was formed in London. It was +not an offshoot from any existing woman's suffrage +society, but represented a crystallization of new elements. +For the most part, even its leaders had not previously +taken any active part in the movement for woman's +suffrage. The suffrage movement had need of exactly +such an infusion of fresh and ardent blood; so that the +new society was warmly welcomed, and met with immediate +success, finding recruits alike among the rich +and the poor. Its unconventional methods, its eager +and militant spirit, were felt to supply a lacking element, +and the first picturesque and dashing exploits of the +Union were on the whole well received. The obvious +sincerity and earnestness of these very fresh recruits +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +covered the rashness of their new and rather ignorant +enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>But a hasty excess of ardour only befits a first uncalculated +outburst of youthfulness. It is quite another +matter when it is deliberately hardened into a rigid +routine, and becomes an organized method of creating +disorder for the purpose of advertising a grievance +in season and out of season. Since, moreover, the attack +was directed chiefly against politicians, precisely that +class of the community most inclined to be favourable to +woman's suffrage, the wrong-headedness of the movement +becomes as striking as its offensiveness.</p> + +<p>The effect on the early friends of the new movement +was inevitable. Some, who had hailed it with enthusiasm +and proclaimed its pioneers as new Joans of Arc, changed +their tone to expostulation and protest, and finally +relapsed into silence. Other friends of the movement, +even among its former leaders, were less silent. They +have revealed to the world, too unkindly, some of the +influences which slowly corrupt such a movement from +the inside when it hardens into sectarianism: the narrowing +of aim, the increase of conventionality, the jealousy +of rivals, the tendency to morbid emotionalism.</p> + +<p>It is easy to exaggerate the misdeeds and the weaknesses +of the suffragettes. It is undoubtedly true that +they have alienated, in an increasing degree, the sympathies +of the women of highest character and best +abilities among the advocates of woman's suffrage. +Nearly all Englishwomen to-day who stand well above +the average in mental distinction are in favour of woman's +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +suffrage, though they may not always be inclined to +take an active part in securing it. Perhaps the only +prominent exception is Mrs. Humphry Ward. Yet +they rarely associate themselves with the methods +of the suffragettes. They do not, indeed, protest, for +they feel there would be a kind of disloyalty in fighting +against the Extreme Left of a movement to which they +themselves belong; but they stand aloof. The women +who are chiefly attracted to the ranks of the suffragettes +belong to three classes: (1) Those of the well-to-do +class with no outlet for their activities, who eagerly +embrace an exciting occupation which has become, +not only highly respectable, but even, in a sense, fashionable; +they have no natural tendency to excess, but are +easily moved by their social environment; some of +these are rich, and the great principle—once formulated +in an unhappy moment concerning a rich lady interested +in social reform—"We must not kill the goose that +lays the golden eggs," has never been despised by the +suffragette leaders; (2) the rowdy element among women +which is not so much moved to adopt the methods for +the sake of the cause as to adopt the cause for the sake +of the methods, so that in the case of their special +emotional temperament it may be said, reversing an +ancient phrase, that the means justify the end; this +element of noisy explosiveness, always found in a certain +proportion of women, though latent under ordinary +circumstances, is easily aroused by stimulation, and in +every popular revolt the wildest excesses are the acts +of women. (3) In this small but important group we find +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +women of rare and beautiful character who, hypnotized +by the enthralling influence of an idea, and often having +no great intellectual power of their own, are even unconscious +of the vulgarity that accompanies them, +and gladly sacrifice themselves to a cause that seems +to be sacred; these are the saints and martyrs of every +movement.</p> + +<p>When we thus analyse the suffragette outburst we +see that it is really compounded out of quite varied +elements: a conventionally respectable element, a +rowdy element, and an ennobling element. It is, therefore, +equally unreasonable to denounce its vices or to +idealize its virtues. It is more profitable to attempt +to balance its services and its disservices to the cause +of women's suffrage.</p> + +<p>Looked at dispassionately, the two main disadvantages +of the suffragette agitation—and they certainly seem +at the first glance very comprehensive objections—lie +in its direction and in its methods. There are two +vast bodies of people who require to be persuaded in +order to secure woman's suffrage: first women themselves, +and secondly their men-folk, who at present +monopolize the franchise. Until the majority of both +men and women are educated to understand the justice +and reasonableness of this step, and until men are persuaded +that the time has come for practical action, +the most violent personal assaults on cabinet ministers—supposing +such political methods to be otherwise +unobjectionable—are beside the mark. They are aimed +in the wrong direction. This is so even when we leave +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +aside the fact that politicians are sufficiently converted +already. The primary task of women suffragists is +to convert their own sex. Indeed it may be said that +that is their whole task. Whenever the majority of +women are persuaded that they ought to possess the +vote, we may be quite sure that they will communicate +that persuasion to their men-folk who are able to give +them the vote. The conversion of the majority of women +to a belief in women's suffrage is essential to its attainment +because it is only by the influence of the women +who belong to him, whom he knows and loves and respects, +that the average man is likely to realize that, +as Ellen Key puts it, "a ballot paper in itself no more +injures the delicacy of a woman's hand than a cooking +recipe." The antics of women in the street, however +earnest those women may be, only leave him indifferent, +even hostile, at most, amused.</p> + +<p>It may be added that in any case it would be undesirable, +even if possible, to bestow the suffrage on +women so long as only a minority have the wish to exercise +it. It would be contrary to sound public policy. +It would not only discredit political rights, but it would +tend to give the woman's vote too narrow and one-sided +a character. To grant women the right to vote +is a different matter from granting women the right to +enter a profession. In order to give women the right +to be doctors or lawyers it is not necessary that women +generally should be convinced of the advantage of such +a step. The matter chiefly concerns the very small +number of women who desire the privilege. But the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +women who vote will be in some measure legislating +for women generally, and it is therefore necessary that +women generally should participate.</p> + +<p>But even if it is admitted—although, as we have +seen, there is a twofold reason for not making such +an admission—that the suffragettes are justified in +regarding politicians as the obstacles in the way of +their demands, there still remains the question of the +disadvantage of their method. This method is by +some euphemistically described as the introduction +of "nagging" into politics; but even at this mild estimate +of its character the question may still be asked +whether the method is calculated to attain the desired +end. One hears women suffragettes declare that this +is the only kind of argument men understand. There +is, however, in the masculine mind—and by no means +least when it is British—an element which strongly +objects to be worried and bullied even into a good course +of action. The suffragettes have done their best to +stimulate that element of obstinacy. Even among +men who viewed the matter from an unprejudiced +standpoint many felt that, necessary as woman's suffrage +is, the policy of the suffragettes rendered the moment +unfavourable for its adoption. It is a significant fact +that in the countries which have so far granted women +the franchise no methods in the slightest degree resembling +those of the suffragettes have ever been practised. +It is not easy to imagine Australia tolerating such +methods, and in Finland full Parliamentary rights +were freely granted, as is generally recognized, precisely +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +as a mark of gratitude for women's helpfulness +in standing side by side with their men in a great political +struggle. The policy of obstruction adopted by the +English suffragettes, with its "tactics" of opposing at +election times the candidates of the very party whose +leaders they are imploring to grant them the franchise, +was so foolish that it is little wonder that many doubted +whether women at all understand the methods of politics, +or are yet fitted to take a responsible part in political +life.</p> + +<p>The suffragette method of persuading public men +seems to be, on the whole, futile, even if it were directed +at the proper quarter, and even if it were in itself a +justifiable method. But it would be possible to grant +these "ifs" and still to feel that a serious injury is done +to the cause of woman's suffrage when the method of +violence is adopted by women. Some suffragettes +have argued, in this matter, that in political crises +men also have acted just as badly or worse. But, +even if we assume that this is the case, +<a name="FNanchor_57" id="FNanchor_57"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> it has +been one of the chief arguments hitherto for the +admission of women into political life that they exercise +an elevating and refining influence, so that their entrance +into this field will serve to purify politics. That, no +doubt, is an argument mostly brought forward by men, +and may be regarded as, in some measure, an amiable +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +masculine delusion, since most of the refining and +elevating elements in civilization probably owe their origin +not to women but to men. But it is not altogether a +delusion. In the virtues of force—however humbly +those virtues are to be classed—women, as a sex, can +never be the rivals of men, and when women attempt +to gain their ends by the demonstration of brute force +they can only place themselves at a disadvantage. +They are laying down the weapons they know best +how to use, and adopting weapons so unsuitable that +they only injure the users.</p> + +<p>Many women, speaking on behalf of the suffragettes, +protest against the idea that women must always be +"charming." And if "charm" is to be understood +in so narrow and conventionalized a sense that it means +something which is incompatible with the developed +natural activities, whether of the soul or of the body, +then such a protest is amply justified. But in the larger +sense, "charm"—which means the power to effect +work without employing brute force—is indispensable +to women. Charm is a woman's strength just as strength +is a man's charm. And the justification for women in +this matter is that herein they represent the progress +of civilization. All civilization involves the substitution +in this respect of the woman's method for the man's. +In the last resort a savage can only assert his rights +by brute force. But with the growth of civilization +the wronged man, instead of knocking down his opponent, +employs "charm"; in other words he engages an +advocate, who, by the exercise of sweet reasonableness, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +persuades twelve men in a box that his wrongs must +be righted, and the matter is then finally settled, not +by man's weapon, the fist, but by woman's weapon, +the tongue. Nowadays the same method of "charm" +is being substituted for brute force in international +wrongs, and with the complete substitution of arbitration +for war the woman's method of charm will have +replaced the man's method of brute force along the +whole line of legitimate human activity. If we realize +this we can understand why it is that a group of women +who, even in the effort to support a good cause, revert +to the crude method of violence are committing a double +wrong. They are wronging their own sex by proving +false to its best traditions, and they are wronging civilization +by attempting to revive methods of savagery +which it is civilization's mission to repress. Therefore +it may fairly be held that even if the methods of +the suffragettes were really adequate to secure women's +suffrage, the attainment of the franchise by those +methods would be a misfortune. The ultimate loss +would be greater than the gain.</p> + +<p>If we hold the foregoing considerations in mind it +is difficult to avoid the conclusion that neither in their +direction nor in their nature are the methods of the +suffragettes fitted to attain the end desired. We have +still, however, to consider the other side of the question.</p> + +<p>Whenever an old movement receives a strong infusion +of new blood, whatever excesses or mistakes +may arise, it is very unlikely that all the results will +be on the same side. It is certainly not so in this case. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +Even the opposition to woman's suffrage which the +suffragettes are responsible for, and the Anti-Suffrage +societies which they have called into active existence, +are not an unmitigated disadvantage. Every movement +of progress requires a vigorous movement of opposition +to stimulate its progress, and the clash of discussion +can only be beneficial in the end to the progressive +cause.</p> + +<p>But the immense advantage of the activity of the +suffragettes has been indirect. It has enabled the great +mass of ordinary sensible women who neither join +Suffrage societies nor Anti-Suffrage societies to think +for themselves on this question. Until a few years ago, +while most educated women were vaguely aware of +the existence of a movement for giving women the +vote, they only knew of it as something rather unpractical +and remote; its reality had never been brought +home to them. When women witnessed the eruption +into the streets of a band of women—most of them +apparently women much like themselves—who were +so convinced that the franchise must be granted to women, +here and now, that they were prepared to face publicity, +ridicule, and even imprisonment, then "votes for women" +became to them, for the first time, a real and living issue. +In a great many cases, certainly, they realized that +they intensely disliked the people who behaved in this +way and any cause that was so preached. But in a +great many other cases they realized, for the first time +definitely, that the demand of votes for women was +a reasonable demand, and that they were themselves +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +suffragists, though they had no wish to take an active +part in the movement, and no real sympathy with its +more "militant" methods. There can be no doubt +that in this way the suffragettes have performed an +immense service for the cause of women's suffrage. +It has been for the most part an indirect and undesigned +service, but in the end it will perhaps more than serve +to counterbalance the disadvantages attached to their +more conscious methods and their more deliberate +aims.</p> + +<p>If, as we may trust, this service will be the main outcome +of the suffragette phase of the women's movement, +it is an outcome to be thankful for; we may then remember +with gratitude the ardent enthusiasm of the +suffragettes and forget the foolish and futile ways in +which it was manifested. There has never been any +doubt as to the ultimate adoption of women's suffrage; +its gradual extension among the more progressive +countries of the world sufficiently indicates that it will +ultimately reach even to the most backward countries. +Its accomplishment in England has been gradual, +although it is here so long since the first steps were taken, +not because there has been some special and malignant +opposition to it on the part of men in general and +politicians in particular, but simply because England +is an old and conservative country, with a very ancient +constitutional machinery which effectually guards against +the hasty realization of any scheme of reform. This +particular reform, however, is not an isolated or +independent scheme; it is an essential part of a great +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +movement in the social equalization of the sexes which +has been going on for centuries in our civilization, a +movement such as may be correspondingly traced +in the later stages of the civilizations of antiquity. +Such a movement we may by our efforts help forward, +we may for a while retard, but it is a part of civilization, +and it would be idle to imagine that we can affect the +ultimate issue.</p> + +<p>That the issue of women's suffrage may be reached +in England within a reasonable period is much to be +desired for the sake of the woman's movement in the +larger sense, which has nothing to do with politics, +and is now impeded by this struggle. The enfranchisement +of women, Miss Frances Cobbe declared thirty +years ago, is "the crown and completion" of all progress +in women's movement. "Votes for women," +exclaims, more youthfully but not less unreasonably, +Miss Christabel Pankhurst, "means a new Heaven and +a new Earth." But women's suffrage no more means +a new Heaven or even a new Earth than it means, +as other people fear, a new Purgatory and a new Hell. +We may see this quite plainly in Australasia. Women's +votes aid in furthering social legislation and contribute +to the passing of acts which have their good side, and, +no doubt, like everything else, their bad side. As Elizabeth +Cady Stanton, who devoted her life to the political +enfranchisement of women, declared, the ballot is, +at most, only the vestibule to women's emancipation. +Man's suffrage has not introduced the millennium, +and it is foolish to suppose that woman's suffrage can. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +It is merely an act of justice and a reasonable condition +of social hygiene.</p> + +<p>The attainment of the suffrage, if it is a beginning +and not an end, will thus have a real and positive value +in liberating the woman's movement from a narrow and +sterilizing phase of its course. In England, especially, +the woman's movement has in the past largely confined +itself to imitating men and to obtaining the same work +and the same rights as men. Putting the matter more +broadly, it may be said that it has been the aim of the +woman's movement to secure woman's claims as a +human being rather than as woman. But that is only +half the task of the woman's movement, and perhaps +not the most essential half. Women can never be like +men, any more than men can be like women. It is +their unlikeness which renders them indispensable to +each other, and which also makes it imperative that +each sex should have its due share in moulding the +conditions of life. Woman's function in life can never +be the same as man's, if only because women are the +mothers of the race. That is the point, the only point, +at which women have an uncontested supremacy over +men. The most vital problem before our civilization +to-day is the problem of motherhood, the question +of creating the human beings best fitted for modern +life, the practical realization of a sound eugenics. Manouvrier, +the distinguished anthropologist, who carries +feminism to its extreme point in the scientific sphere, +yet recognizes the fundamental fact that "a woman's +part is to make children." But he clearly perceives +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +also that "in all its extent and all its consequences +that part is not surpassed in importance, in difficulty, +or in dignity, by the man's part." On the contrary +it is a part which needs "an amount of intelligence +incontestably superior, and by far, to that required by +most masculine occupations."<a name="FNanchor_58" id="FNanchor_58"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> We are here at the core +of the woman's movement. And the full fruition of +that movement means that women, by virtue of their +supremacy in this matter, shall take their proper share +in legislation for life, not as mere sexless human beings, +but as women, and in accordance with the essential +laws of their own nature as women.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>There is a further question. Is it possible to discern +the actual embodiment of this new phase of the woman +movement? I think it is.</p> + +<p>To those who are accustomed to watch the emotional +pulse of mankind, nothing has seemed so remarkable +during recent years as the eruption of sex questions +in Germany. We had always been given to understand +that the sphere of women and the laws of marriage +had been definitely prescribed and fixed in Germany +for at least two thousand years, since the days of Tacitus, +in fact, and with the best possible results. Germans +assured the world in stentorian tones that only in Germany +could young womanhood be seen in all its purity, +and that in the German <i>Hausfrau</i> the supreme ideal +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +had been reached, the woman whose great mission is +to keep alive the perennial fire of the ancient German +hearth. Here and there, indeed, the quiet voice of science +was heard in Germany; thus Schrader, the distinguished +investigator of Teutonic origins, in commenting on the +oft-quoted testimony of Tacitus to the chastity of the +German women, has appositely referred to the detailed +evidences furnished by the Committee of pastors of +the Evangelical Church as to the extreme prevalence +of unchastity among the women of rural Germany, +and argued that these widespread customs must be +very ancient and deep-rooted.<a name="FNanchor_59" id="FNanchor_59"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> But Germans in general +refused to admit that Tacitus had only used the idea +of German virtue as a stick to beat his own fellow-countrywomen +with.</p> + +<p>The Social-Democratic movement, which has so largely +overspread industrial and even intellectual Germany, +prepared the way for a less traditional and idealistic +way of feeling in regard to these questions. The publication +by Bebel of a book, <i>Die Frau</i>, in which the leader +of the German Social-Democratic party set forth the +Socialist doctrine of the position of women in society, +marked the first stage in the new movement. This +book exercised a wide influence, more especially on +uncritical readers. It is, indeed, from a scientific point +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +of view a worthless book—if a book in which genuine +emotions are brought to the cause of human freedom +and social righteousness may ever be so termed—but +it struck a rude blow at the traditions of Teutonic sentiment. +With something of the rough tone and temper +of the great peasant who initiated the German Reformation, +a man who had himself sprung from the people, +and who knew of what he was speaking, here set down +in downright fashion the actual facts as to the position +of women in Germany, as well as what he conceived +to be the claims of justice in regard to that position, +slashing with equal vigour alike at the absurdities of +conventional marriage and of prostitution, the obverse +and the reverse, he declared, of a false society. The +emotional renaissance with which we are here concerned +seems to have no special and certainly no exclusive +association with the Social-Democratic movement, +but it can scarcely be doubted that the permeation +of a great mass of the German people by the socialistic +conceptions which in their bearing on women have been +rendered so familiar by Bebel's exposition has furnished, +as it were, a ready-made sounding-board which has +given resonance and effect to voices which might otherwise +have been quickly lost in vacuity.</p> + +<p>There is another movement which counts for something +in the renaissance we are here concerned with, +though for considerably less than one might be led to +expect. What is specifically known as the "woman's +rights' movement" is in no degree native to Germany, +though Hippel is one of the pioneers of the woman's +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +movement, and it is only within recent years that it +has reached Germany. It is alien to the Teutonic feminine +mind, because in Germany the spheres of men and women +are so far apart and so unlike that the ideal of imitating +men fails to present itself to a German woman's mind. +The delay, moreover, in the arrival of the woman's +movement in Germany had given time for a clearer +view of that movement and a criticism of its defects to +form even in the lands of its origin, so that the German +woman can no longer be caught unawares by the cry +for woman's rights. Still, however qualified a view +might be taken of its benefits, it had to be recognized, +even in Germany, that it was an inevitable movement, +and to some extent at all events indispensable from the +woman's point of view. The same right to education +as men, the same rights of public meeting and discussion, +the same liberty to enter the liberal professions, these +are claims which during recent years have been widely +made by German women and to some extent secured, +while—as is even more significant—they are for the +most part no longer very energetically disputed. The +International Congress of Women which met in Berlin +in 1904 was a revelation to the citizens of Berlin of the +skill and dignity with which women could organize +a congress and conduct business meetings. It was +notable, moreover, in that, though under the auspices +of an International Council, it showed the large number +of German women who are already entitled to take a +leading part in the movements for women's welfare. +Both directly and indirectly, indeed, such a movement +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +cannot be otherwise than specially beneficial in Germany. +The Teutonic reverence for woman, the assertion of +the "aliquid divinum," has sometimes been accompanied +by the openly expressed conviction that she is a fool. +Outside Germany it would not be easy to find the representative +philosophers of a nation putting forward +so contemptuous a view of women as is set forth by +Schopenhauer or by Nietzsche, while even within recent +years a German physician of some ability, the late +Dr. Möbius, published a book on the "physiological +weak-mindedness of women."</p> + +<p>The new feminine movement in Germany has received +highly important support from the recent development +of German science. The German intellect, exceedingly +comprehensive in its outlook, ploddingly thorough, +and imperturbably serious, has always taken the leading +and pioneering part in the investigation of sexual +problems, whether from the standpoint of history, +biology, or pathology. Early in the nineteenth century, +when even more courage and resolution were needed +to face the scientific study of such questions than is +now the case, German physicians, unsupported by any +co-operation in other countries, were the pioneers in +exploring the paths of sexual pathology. +<a name="FNanchor_60" id="FNanchor_60"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> From the +antiquarian side, Bachofen, more than half a century +ago, put forth his conception of the exalted position +of the primitive mother which, although it has been +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +considerably battered by subsequent research, has +been by no means without its value, and is of special +significance from the present standpoint, because it +sprang from precisely the same view of life as that +animating the German women who are to-day inaugurating +the movement we are here concerned with. +From the medical side the late Professor Krafft-Ebing +of Vienna and Dr. Albert Moll of Berlin are recognized +throughout the world as leading authorities on sexual +pathology, and in recent times many other German +physicians of the first authority can be named in this +field; while in Austria Dr. F.S. Krauss and his coadjutors +in the annual volumes of <i>Anthropophyteia</i> are diligently +exploring the rich and fruitful field of sexual folk-lore. +The large volumes of the <i>Jahrbuch für Sexuelle Zwischenstufen</i>, +edited by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld of Berlin, have +presented discussions of the commonest of sexual aberrations +with a scientific and scholarly thoroughness, +a practical competence, as well as admirable tone, which +we may seek in vain in other countries. In Vienna, +moreover, Professor Freud, with his bold and original +views on the sexual causation of many abnormal mental +and nervous conditions, and his psycho-analytic method +of investigating and treating them, although his doctrines +are by no means universally accepted, is yet exerting +a revolutionary influence all over the world. During +the last ten years, indeed, the amount of German scientific +and semi-scientific literature, dealing with every aspect +of the sexual question, and from every point of view, +is altogether unparalleled. It need scarcely be said +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +that much of this literature is superficial or worthless. +But much of it is sound, and it would seem that on the +whole it is this portion of it which is most popular. +Thus Dr. August Forel, formerly professor of psychiatry +at Zurich and a physician of world-wide reputation, +published a few years ago at Munich a book on the +sexual question, <i>Die Sexuelle Frage</i>, in which all the +questions of the sexual life, biological, medical, and social, +are seriously discussed with no undue appeal to an +ignorant public; it had an immediate success and a large +sale. Dr. Forel had not entered this field before; he +had merely come to the conclusion that every man +at the end of his life ought to set forth his observations +and conclusions regarding the most vital of questions. +Again, at about the same time, Dr. Iwan Bloch, of Berlin, +published his many-sided work on the sexual life of +our time, <i>Das Sexualleben Unserer Zeit</i>, a work less remarkable +than Forel's for the weight of the personal +authority expressed, but more remarkable by the range +of its learning and the sympathetic attitude it displayed +towards the best movements of the day; this book +also met with great success.<a name="FNanchor_61" id="FNanchor_61"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> Still more recently (1912) +Dr. Albert Moll, with characteristic scientific thoroughness, +has edited, and largely himself written, a truly encyclopædic +<i>Handbuch der Sexualwissenschaften</i>. The eminence +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +of the writers of these books and the mental calibre +needed to read them suffice to show that we are not +concerned, as a careless observer might suppose, with +a matter of supply and demand in prurient literature, +but with the serious and widespread appreciation of +serious investigations. This same appreciation is shown +not only by several bio-sociological periodicals of high +scientific quality, but by the existence of a journal like +<i>Sexual-Probleme</i>, edited by Dr. Max Marcuse, a journal +with many distinguished contributors, and undoubtedly +the best periodical in this field to be found in any language.</p> + + +<p>At the same time the new movement of German +women, however it may arise from or be supported +by political or scientific movements, is fundamentally +emotional in its character. If we think of it, every great +movement of the Teutonic soul has been rooted in emotion. +The German literary renaissance of the eighteenth +century was emotional in its origin and received its +chief stimulus from the contagion of the new irruption +of sentiment in France. Even German science is often +influenced, and not always to its advantage, by German +sentiment. The Reformation is an example on a huge +scale of the emotional force which underlies German +movements. Luther, for good and for evil, is the most +typical of Germans, and the Luther who made his mark +in the world—the shrewd, coarse, superstitious peasant +who blossomed into genius—was an avalanche of emotion, +a great mass of natural human instincts irresistible in +their impetuosity. When we bear in mind this general +tendency to emotional expansiveness in the manifestations +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +of the Teutonic soul we need feel no surprise that the +present movement among German women should be, +to a much greater extent than the corresponding movements +in other countries, an emotional renaissance. +It is not, first and last, a cry for political rights, but +for emotional rights, and for the reasonable regulation +of all those social functions which are founded on the +emotions.<a name="FNanchor_62" id="FNanchor_62"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a></p> + +<p>This movement, although it may properly be said +to be German, since its manifestations are mainly exhibited +in the great German Empire, is yet essentially +a Teutonic movement in the broader sense of the word. +Germans of Austria, Germans of Switzerland, Dutch +women, Scandinavians, have all been drawn into this +movement. But it is in Germany proper that they all +find the chief field of their activities.</p> + +<p>If we attempt to define in a single sentence the specific +object of this agitation we may best describe it as based +on the demands of woman the mother, and as directed +to the end of securing for her the right to control and +regulate the personal and social relations which spring +from her nature as mother or possible mother. Therein +we see at once both the intimately emotional and practical +nature of this new claim and its decisive unlikeness to +the earlier woman movement. That was definitely +a demand for emancipation; political enfranchisement +was its goal; its perpetual assertion was that women +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +must be allowed to do everything that men do. But +the new Teutonic woman's movement, so far from making +as its ideal the imitation of men, bases itself on that +which most essentially marks the woman as unlike the +man.</p> + +<p>The basis of the movement is significantly indicated +by the title, <i>Mutterschutz</i>—the protection of the mother—originally +borne by "a Journal for the reform of sexual +morals," established in 1905, edited by Dr. Helene +Stöcker, of Berlin, and now called <i>Die Neue Generation</i>. +All the questions that radiate outwards from the maternal +function are here discussed: the ethics of love, prostitution +ancient and modern, the position of illegitimate +mothers and illegitimate children, sexual hygiene, the +sexual instruction of the young, etc. It must not be +supposed that these matters are dealt with from the +standpoint of a vigilance society for combating vice. +The demand throughout is for the regulation of life, for +reform, but for reform quite as much in the direction +of expansion as of restraint. On many matters of detail, +indeed, there is no agreement among these writers, +some of whom approach the problems from the social +and practical side, some from the psychological and +philosophic side, others from the medical, legal, or historical +sides.</p> + +<p>This journal was originally the organ of the association +for the protection of mothers, more especially unmarried +mothers, called the <i>Bund für Mutterschutz</i>. There are +many agencies for dealing with illegitimate children, +but the founders of this association started from the conviction +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +that it is only through the mother that the +child can be adequately cared for. As nearly a tenth +of the children born in Germany are illegitimate, and the +conditions of life into which such children are thrown +are in the highest degree unfavourable, the question +has its actuality.<a name="FNanchor_63" id="FNanchor_63"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> +It is the aim of the <i>Bund für Mutterschutz</i> +to rehabilitate the unmarried mother, to secure +for her the conditions of economic independence—whatever +social class she may belong to—and ultimately +to effect a change in the legal status of illegitimate +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +mothers and children alike. The Bund, which is directed +by a committee in which social, medical, and legal +interests are alike represented, already possesses numerous +branches, in addition to its head-quarters in Berlin, +and is beginning to initiate practical measures on the +lines of its programme, notably Homes for Mothers, +of which it has established nearly a dozen in different +parts of Germany.</p> + +<p>In 1911 the first International Congress for the Protection +of Mothers and for Sexual Reform was held +at Dresden, in connection with the great Exhibition +of Hygiene. As a result of this Congress, an International +Union was constituted, representing Germany, Austria, +Italy, Sweden, and Holland, which may probably be +taken to be the countries which have so far manifested +greatest interest in the programme of sexual reform +based on recognition of the supreme importance of +motherhood. This movement may, therefore, be said +to have overcome the initial difficulties, the antagonism, +the misunderstanding, and the opprobrium, which every +movement in the field of sexual reform inevitably encounters, +and often succumbs to.</p> + +<p>It would be a mistake to regard this Association as +a merely philanthropic movement. It claims to be +"An Association for the Reform of Sexual Ethics," +and <i>Die Neue Generation</i> deals with social and ethical +rather than with philanthropic questions. In these +respects it reflects the present attitude of many thoughtful +German women, though the older school of women's +rights advocates still holds aloof. We may here, for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +instance, find a statement of the recent discussion +concerning the right of the mother to destroy her offspring +before birth. This has been boldly claimed for +women by Countess Gisela von Streitberg, who advocates +a return to the older moral view which prevailed not +only in classic antiquity, but even, under certain conditions, +in Christian practice, until Canon law, asserting +that the embryo had from the first an independent life, +pronounced abortion under all circumstances a crime. +Countess von Streitberg takes the standpoint that +as the chief risks and responsibilities must necessarily +rest upon the woman, it is for her to decide whether +she will permit the embryo she bears to develop. Dr. +Marie Raschke, taking up the discussion from the legal +side, is unable to agree that abortion should cease to +be a punishable offence, though she advocates considerable +modifications in the law on this matter. Dr. Siegfried +Weinberg, summarizing this discussion, again from +the legal standpoint, considers that there is considerable +right on the Countess's side, because from the modern +juridical standpoint a criminal enactment is only justified +because it protects a right, and in law the embryo +possesses no rights which can be injured. From the +moral standpoint, also, it is argued, its destruction +often becomes justifiable in the interests of the community.</p> + +<p>This debatable question, while instructive as an +example of the radical manner in which German women +are now beginning to face moral questions, deals only +with an isolated point which has hardly yet reached +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +the sphere of practical politics.<a name="FNanchor_64" id="FNanchor_64"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> It is more interesting +to consider the general conceptions which underlie +this movement, and we can hardly do this better than by +studying the writings of Ellen Key, who is not only one +of its recognized leaders, but may be said to present +its aims and ideals in a broader and more convinced +manner than any other writer.</p> + +<p>Ellen Key's views are mainly contained in three +books, <i>Love and Marriage</i>, <i>The Century of the Child</i>, and +<i>The Women's Movement</i>, in which form they enjoy a large +circulation, and are now becoming well known, through +translations, in England and America. She carefully +distinguishes her aims from what she regards as the +American conception of progress in woman's movements, +that is to say the tendency for women to seek to capture +the activities which may be much more adequately +fulfilled by the other sex, while at the same time +neglecting the far weightier matters that concern +their own sex. Man and woman are not natural +enemies who need to waste their energies in fighting +over their respective rights and privileges; in spiritual as +in physical life they are only fruitful together. Women, +indeed, need free scope for their activities—and the earlier +aspirations of feminism are thus justified—but they +need it, not to wrest away any tasks that men may be +better fitted to perform, but to play their part in that +field of creative life which is peculiarly their own. Ellen +Key would say that the highest human unit is triune: +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +father, mother, and child. Marriage, therefore, instead +of being, as it is to-day, the last thing to be thought of +in education, becomes the central point of life. In +Ellen Key's conception, "those who love each other +are man and wife," and by love she means not a temporary +inclination, but "a synthesis of desire and friendship," +just as the air is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen. It +must be this for both sexes alike, and Ellen Key sees a +real progress in what seems to her the modern tendency +for men to realize that the soul has its erotic side, and +for women to realize that the senses have. She has no +special sympathy with the cry for purity in masculine +candidates for marriage put forward by some women +of the present day. She observes that many men who +have painfully struggled to maintain this ideal meet +with disillusion, for it is not the masculine lamb, but +much more the spotted leopard, who fascinates women. +The notion that women have higher moral instincts +than men Ellen Key regards as absurd. The majority +of Frenchwomen, she remarks, were against Dreyfus, +and the majority of Englishwomen approved the South +African war. The really fundamental difference between +man and woman is that he can usually give his best as +a creator, and she as a lover, that his value is according +to his work and hers according to her love. And in love +the demand for each sex alike must not be primarily +for a mere anatomical purity, but for passion and for +sincerity.</p> + +<p>The aim of love, as understood by Ellen Key, is always +marriage and the child, and as soon as the child comes +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +into question society and the State are concerned. Before +fruition, love is a matter for the lovers alone, and the +espionage, ceremony, and routine now permitted or +enjoined are both ridiculous and offensive. "The +flower of love belongs to the lovers, and should remain +their secret; it is the fruit of love which brings them +into relation to society." The dominating importance +of the child, the parent of the race to be, alone makes +the immense social importance of sexual union. It +is not marriage which sanctifies generation, but generation +which sanctifies marriage. From the point of view of +"the sanctity of generation" and the welfare of the +race, Ellen Key looks forward to a time when it will +be impossible for a man and woman to become parents +when they are unlikely to produce a healthy child, +though she is opposed to Neo-Malthusian methods, +partly on æsthetic grounds and partly on the more +dubious grounds of doubt as to their practical efficiency; +it is from this point of view also that she favours sexual +equality in matters of divorce, the legal assimilation +of legitimate and illegitimate children, the recognition +of unions outside marriage,—a recognition already legally +established under certain circumstances in Sweden, +in such a way as to confer the rights of legitimacy on +the child,—and she is even prepared to advise women +under some conditions to become mothers outside +marriage, though only when there are obstacles to legal +marriage, and as the outcome of deliberate will and +resolution. In these and many similar proposals in +detail, set forth in her earlier books, it is clear that Ellen +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +Key has sometimes gone beyond the mandate of her +central conviction, that love is the first condition for +increasing the vitality alike of the race and of the individuality, +and that the question of love, properly considered, +is the question of creating the future man. +As she herself has elsewhere quite truly pointed out, +practice must precede, and precede by a very long time, +the establishment of definite rules in matters of detail.</p> + +<p>It will be noticed that a point with which Ellen Key +and the leaders of the new German woman's movement +specially concern themselves is the affectional needs +of the "supernumerary" woman and the legitimation +of her children. There is an excess of women over men, +in Germany as in most other countries. That excess, +it is said, is balanced by the large number of women +who do not wish to marry. But that is too cheap a +solution of the question. Many women may wish to +remain unmarried, but no woman wishes to be forced +to remain unmarried. Every woman, these advocates +of the rights of women claim, has a right to motherhood, +and in exercising the right under sound conditions +she is benefiting society. But our marriage system, +in the rigid form which it has long since assumed, has +not now the elasticity necessary to answer these demands. +It presents a solution which is often impossible, always +difficult, and perhaps in a large proportion of cases +undesirable. But for a woman who is shut out from +marriage to grasp at the vital facts of love and motherhood +which she perhaps regards, unreasonably or not, +as the supreme things in the world, must often be under +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +such conditions a disastrous step, while it is always +accompanied by certain risks. Therefore, it is asked, +why should there not be, as of old there was, a relationship +established which while of less dignity than marriage, +and less exclusive in its demands, should yet permit a +woman to enter into an honourable, open, and legally +recognized relationship with a man? Such a relationship +a woman could proclaim to the whole world, if +necessary, without reflecting any disesteem upon herself +or her child, while it would give her a legal claim on her +child's father. Such a relationship would be substantially +the same as the ancient concubinate, which persisted +even in Christendom up to the sixteenth century. Its +establishment in Sweden has apparently been satisfactory, +and it is now sought to extend it to other +countries.<a name="FNanchor_65" id="FNanchor_65"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></p> + +<p>It is interesting to compare, or to contrast, the movement +of which Ellen Key has been a conspicuous champion +with the futile movement initiated nearly a century ago +by the school of Saint-Simon and Prosper Enfantin, +in favour of "la femme libre."<a name="FNanchor_66" id="FNanchor_66"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> That earlier movement +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +had no doubt its bright and ideal side, but +it was not supported by a sound and scientific +view of life; it was rooted in sand and soon withered +up. The kind of freedom which Ellen Key advocates +is not a freedom to dispense with law and order, but +rather a freedom to recognize and follow true law; +it is the freedom which in morals as well as in politics +is essential for the development of real responsibility.</p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +People talk, Ellen Key remarks, as though reform in +sexual morality meant the breaking up of a beautiful +idyll, while the idyll is impossible as long as the only +alternative offered to so many young men and women +at the threshold of life is between becoming "the slave +of duty or the slave of lust." In these matters we already +possess licence, and the only sound reform lies in a kind +of "freedom" which will correct that licence by obedience +to the most fundamental natural instincts acting in +harmony with the claims of the race, which claims, +it must be added, cannot be out of harmony with the +best traditions of the race. Ellen Key would agree +with a great German, Wilhelm von Humboldt, who +wrote more than a century ago that "a solicitude for +the race conducts to the same results as the highest +solicitude for the most beautiful development of the +inner man." The modern revolt against fossilized +laws is inevitable; it is already in progress, and we +have to see to it that the laws written upon tables of +stone in their inevitable decay only give place to the +mightier laws written upon tables of flesh and blood. +Life is far too rich and manifold, Ellen Key says again, +to be confined in a single formula, even the best; if +our ideal has its worth for ourselves, if we are prepared +to live for it and to die for it, that is enough; we are +not entitled to impose it on others. The conception +of duty still remains, duty to love and duty to the race. +"I believe in a new ethics," Ellen Key declares at +the end of <i>The Women's Movement</i>, "which will be a +synthesis growing out of the nature of man and the nature +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +of woman, out of the demands of the individual and the +demands of society, out of the pagan and the Christian +points of view, out of the resolve to mould the future +and out of piety towards the past."</p> + +<p>No reader of Ellen Key's books can fail to be impressed +by the remarkable harmony between her sexual ethics +and the conception that underlies Sir Francis Galton's +scientific eugenics. In setting forth the latest aspects +of his view of eugenics before the Sociological Society, +Galton asserted that the improvement of the race, +in harmony with scientific knowledge, would come about +by a new religious movement, and he gave reasons to +show why such an expectation is not unreasonable; +in the past men have obeyed the most difficult marriage +rules in response to what they believed to be supernatural +commands, and there is no ground for supposing that +the real demands of the welfare of the race, founded on +exact knowledge, will prove less effective in calling out +an inspiring religious emotion. Writing probably at +the same time, Ellen Key, in her essay entitled <i>Love +and Ethics</i>, set forth precisely the same conception, +though not from the scientific but from the emotional +standpoint. From the outset she places the sexual +question on a basis which brings it into line with Galton's +eugenics. The problem used to be concerned, she remarks, +with the insistence of society on a rigid marriage form, +in conflict with the demand of the individual to gratify +his desires in any manner that seemed good to him, +while now it becomes a question of harmonizing the +claims of the improvement of the race with the claims +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +of the individual to happiness in love. She points +out that on this aspect real harmony becomes more +possible. Regard for the ennoblement of the race serves +as a bridge from a chaos of conflicting tendencies to a +truer conception of love, and "love must become on +a higher plane what it was in primitive days—a religion." +She compares the growth of the conception of the vital +value of love to the modern growth of the conception +of the value of health as against the medieval indifference +to hygiene. It is inevitable that Ellen Key, approaching +the question from the emotional side, should lay less +stress than Galton on the importance of scientific investigation +in heredity, and insist mainly on the value +of sound instincts, unfettered by false and artificial +constraints, and taught to realize that the physical and +the psychic aspects of life are alike "divine."</p> + +<p>It would obviously be premature to express either +approval or disapproval of the conceptions of sexual +morality which Ellen Key has developed with such +fervour and insight. It scarcely seems probable that +the methods of sexual union, put forward as an alternative +to celibacy by some of the adherents of the new movement, +are likely to become widely popular, even if +legalized in an increasing number of countries. I have +elsewhere given reasons to believe that the path of progress +lies mainly in the direction of a reform of the +present institution of marriage.<a name="FNanchor_67" id="FNanchor_67"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> The need of such reform +is pressing, and there are many signs that it is being +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +recognized. We can scarcely doubt that the advocates +of these alternative methods of sexual union will do +good by stimulating the champions of marriage to increased +activity in the reform of that institution. In +such matters a certain amount of competition sometimes +has a remarkably vivifying effect.</p> + + +<p>We may be sure that women, whose interests are +so much at stake in this matter, and who tend to look +at it in a practical rather than in a legal and theological +spirit, will exert a powerful influence when they have +acquired the ability to enforce that influence by the +vote. This is significantly indicated by an inquiry +held in England during 1910 by the Women's Co-operative +Guild. A number of women who had held official positions +in the Guild were asked (among other questions) whether +or not they were in favour of divorce by mutual consent. +Of 94 representative women conversant with affairs +who were thus consulted, as many as 82 deliberately +recorded their opinion in favour of divorce by mutual +consent, and only 12 were against that highly important +marriage reform.</p> + +<p>It is probably unnecessary to discuss the opinions +of other leaders in this movement, though there are +several, such as Frau Grete Meisel-Hess, whose views +deserve study. It will be sufficiently clear in what +way this Teutonic movement differs from that Anglo-Saxon +woman's rights' movement with which we have +long been familiar. These German women fully recognize +that women are entitled to the same human rights +as men, and that until such rights are attained +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +"feminism" still has a proper task to achieve. But +women must use their strength in the sphere for which +their own nature fits them. Even though millions of +women are enabled to do the work which men could do +better the gain for mankind is nil. To put women to +do men's work is (Ellen Key has declared) as foolish +as to set a Beethoven or a Wagner to do engine-driving.</p> + +<p>It has probably excited surprise in the minds of some +who have been impressed by the magnitude and vitality +of this movement that it should have manifested itself +in Germany rather than in England, which is the original +home of movements for women's emancipation, or in +America, where they have reached their fullest developments. +This, however, ceases to be surprising when we +realize the special qualities of the Anglo-Saxon and +Teutonic temperaments and the special conditions +under which the two movements arose. The Anglo-Saxon +movement was a special application to women +of the general French movement for the logical assertion +of abstract human rights. That special application +was not ardently taken up in France itself, though first +proclaimed by French pioneers,<a name="FNanchor_68" id="FNanchor_68"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> partly perhaps because +such one-sided applications make little appeal to the +French mind, and mainly, no doubt, because women +throughout the eighteenth century enjoyed such high +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +social consideration and exerted so much influence +that they were not impelled to rise in any rebellious +protest. But when the seed was brought over to England, +especially in the representative form of Mary Wollstonecraft's +<i>Vindication of the Rights of Women</i>, it fell in virgin +soil which proved highly favourable to its development. +This special application escaped the general condemnation +which the Revolution had brought upon French ideas. +Women in England were beginning to awaken to ideas,—as +women in Germany are now,—and the more energetic +and intelligent among them eagerly seized upon conceptions +which furnished food for their activities. In +large measure they have achieved their aims, and even +woman's suffrage has been secured here and there, +without producing any notable revolution in human +affairs. The Anglo-Saxon conception of feminine progress—beneficial +as it has undoubtedly been in many +respects—makes little impression in Germany, partly +because it fails to appeal to the emotional Teutonic +temperament, and partly because the established type +of German life and civilization offers very small scope +for its development. When Miss Susan Anthony, the +veteran pioneer of woman's movements in the United +States, was presented to the German Empress she expressed +a hope that the Emperor would soon confer +the suffrage on German women; it is recorded that the +Empress smiled, and probably most German women +smiled with her. At the present time, however, there is +an extraordinary amount of intellectual activity in +Germany, a widespread and massive activity. For the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +first time, moreover, it has reached women, who are +taking it up with characteristic Teutonic thoroughness. +But they are not imitating the methods of their Anglo-Saxon +sisters; they are going to work their own way. +They are spending very little energy in waving the red +flag before the fortresses of male monopoly. They are +following an emotional influence which, strangely enough, +it may seem to some, finds more support from the biological +and medical side than the Anglo-Saxon movement +has always been able to win. From the time of Aristophanes +downwards, whenever they have demonstrated +before the masculine citadels, women have always been +roughly bidden to go home. And now, here in Germany, +where of all countries that advice has been most freely +and persistently given, women are adopting new tactics: +they have gone home. "Yes, it is true," they say in +effect, "the home is our sphere. Love and marriage, the +bearing and the training of children—that is our world. +And we intend to lay down the laws of our world."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52" id="Footnote_52"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> +In 1787 Condorcet declared (<i>Lettres d'un Bourgeois de New Haven</i>, +Lettre II) that women ought to have absolutely the same rights as men, +and he repeated the same statement emphatically in 1790, in an article +"Sur l'Admission des Femmes au Droit de Cité," published in the +<i>Journal de la Société de 1789</i>. It must be added that Condorcet was +not a democrat, and neither to men nor to women would he grant the +vote unless they were proprietors.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53" id="Footnote_53"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> +Léopold Lacour has given a full and reliable account of Olympe de +Gouges (who was born at Montauban in 1755) in his <i>Trois Femmes de la +Révolution</i>, 1900.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54" id="Footnote_54"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> +It is noteworthy that the Empire had even a depressing effect +on the physical activities of women. The eighteenth-century woman +in France, although she was not athletic in the modern sense, enjoyed +a free life in the open air and was fond of physical exercises. During +the Directoire this tendency became very pronounced; women wore +the scantiest of garments, were out of doors in all weathers, cultivated +healthy appetites, and enjoyed the best of health. But with the establishment +of the Empire these wholesome fashions were discarded, +and women cultivated new ideals of fragile refinement indoors. (This +evolution has been traced by Dr. Lucien Nars, <i>L'Hygiène</i>, September, +1911.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55" id="Footnote_55"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> +Concerning the rise and progress of this movement in England +much information is sympathetically and vivaciously set forth in +W. Lyon Blease's <i>Emancipation of English Women</i> (1910), a book, +however, which makes no claim to be judicial or impartial; the author +regards "unregulated male egoism" as the source of the difficulties +in the way of women's suffrage.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56" id="Footnote_56"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> +Thus, in 1911 the National League for Opposing Women's Suffrage +took an impartial poll of the women voters on the municipal register in +several large constituencies, by sending a reply-paid postcard to ask +whether or not they favoured the extension to women of the Parliamentary +franchise. Only 5579 were in favour of it; 18,850 were +against; 12,621 did not take the trouble to answer, and it was claimed, +probably with reason, that a majority of these were not in favour of +the vote.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57" id="Footnote_57"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> +It must not be too hastily assumed. Unless we go back to +ancient plots of the Guy Fawkes type (now only imitated by self-styled +anarchists), the leaders of movements of political reform have rarely, +if ever, organized outbursts of violence; such violence, when it +occurred, has been the spontaneous and unpremeditated act of a mob.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58" id="Footnote_58"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> +<i>Revue de l'Ecole d'Anthropologie</i>, February, 1909, p. 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59" id="Footnote_59"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> +O. Schrader, <i>Reallexicon</i>, Art. "Keuschheit." He considers that +Tacitus merely shows that German women were usually chaste after +marriage. A few centuries later, Lea points out, Salvianus, while +praising the barbarians generally for their chastity, makes an exception +in the case of the Alemanni. (See also Havelock Ellis, <i>Studies in the +Psychology of Sex</i>, Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society," pp. 382-4.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60" id="Footnote_60"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> +Thus Kaan, anticipating Krafft-Ebing, published a <i>Psychopathia +Sexualis</i>, in 1844, and Casper, in 1852, was the first medical authority +to point out that sexual inversion is sometimes due to a congenital +psychic condition.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61" id="Footnote_61"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> +Both Forel's and Bloch's books have become well known through +translations in England and America. Dr. Bloch is also the author of +an extremely erudite and thorough history of syphilis, which has gone +far to demonstrate that this disease was introduced into Europe from +America on the first discovery of the New World at the end of the +fifteenth century.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62" id="Footnote_62"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> +This attitude is plainly reflected even in many books written by +men; I may mention, for instance, Frenssen's well-known novel +<i>Hilligenlei</i> (<i>Holyland</i>).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63" id="Footnote_63"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> +In most countries illegitimacy is decreasing; in Germany it is +steadily increasing, alike in rural and urban districts. Illegitimate births +are, however, more numerous in the cities than in the country. Of the +constituent states of the German Empire, the illegitimate birth-rate +is lowest in Prussia, highest in Saxony and Bavaria. In Munich 27 per +cent of the births are illegitimate. (The facts are clearly brought +out in an article by Dr. Arthur Grünspan in the <i>Berliner Tagblatt</i> +for January 6, 1911, reproduced in <i>Die Neue Generation</i>, July, 1911.) +Thus, in Prussia, while the total births between 1903 and 1908, +notwithstanding a great increase in the population, have only increased +2.6 per cent, the illegitimate births have increased as much +as 11.1 per cent. The increase is marked in nearly all the German +States. It is specially marked in Saxony; here the proportion of +illegitimate births to the total number of births was, in 1903, 12.51 per +cent, and in 1908 it had already risen to 14.40 per cent. In Berlin +it is most marked; here it began in 1891, when there were nearly +47,000 legitimate births; by 1909, however, the legitimate births had +fallen to 38,000, a decrease of 19.4 per cent. But illegitimate births rose +during the same period from nearly 7000 to over 9000, an increase of +35 per cent. The proportion of illegitimate births to the total births is +now over 20 per cent, so that to every four legitimate children there +is rather more than one illegitimate child. It may be said that this is +merely due to an increasing proportion of unmarried women. That, +however, is not the case. The marriage-rate is on the whole rising, +and the average age of women at marriage is becoming lower rather +than higher. Grünspan considers that this increase in illegitimacy +is likely to continue, and he is inclined to attribute it less to economic +than to social-psychological causes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64" id="Footnote_64"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> +I have discussed this point in <i>Studies in the Psychology of Sex</i>, +Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society," chap. +<span class="smcap">xii</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65" id="Footnote_65"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> +It is remarkable that in early times in Spain the laws recognized +concubinage (<i>barragania</i>) as almost equal to marriage, and as conferring +equal rights on the child, even on the sons of the clergy, who could thus +inherit from their fathers by right of the privileges accorded to the +concubine or <i>barragana</i>. <i>Barragania</i>, however, was not real marriage, +and in many regions it could be contracted by married men (R. Altamira, +<i>Historia de España y de la Civilazacion Española</i>, Vol. I, pp. 644 +et seq.).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66" id="Footnote_66"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> +"La femme libre," in quest of whom the young Saint-Simonians +preached a crusade, must be a woman of reflection and intellect who, +having meditated on the fate of her "sisters," knowing the wants of +women, and having sounded those feminine capacities which man has +never completely penetrated, shall give forth the confession of her sex, +without restriction or reserve, in such a manner as to furnish the indispensable +elements for formulating the rights and duties of woman. +Saint Simon had asked Madame de Staël to undertake this rôle, but she +failed to respond. When George Sand published her first novels, one +Guéroult was commissioned to ascertain if the author of <i>Lélia</i> would +undertake this important service. He found a badly dressed woman +who was using her talents to gain a living, but was by no means anxious +to become the high priestess of a new religion. Even after his disappointment +Enfantin looked eagerly forward to the publication of +George Sand's <i>Histoire de ma Vie</i>, hoping that at last the great revelation +was coming, and he was again disillusioned. But before this +Emile Barrault had arisen and declared that in the East, in the solitude +of the harem, "la femme libre" would be found in the person of some +odalisque. The "mission of the mother" was formed, and with +Barrault at the head it set out for Constantinople. All were dressed +in white as an indication of the vow of chastity they had taken before +leaving Paris, and on the road they begged in the name of the Mother. +They arrived at Constantinople and preached the faith of Saint-Simon +to the Turks in French. But "la femme libre" seemed as far off as +ever, and they resolved to go to Rotourma in Oceana, there to establish +the religion of Saint-Simon and a perfect Government which might serve +as a model to the States of Europe. First, however, they felt it a duty +to make certain that the Mother was not hiding somewhere in Russia, +and they went therefore to Odessa, but the Governor, who was wanting +in sympathy, speedily turned them out, and having realized that +Rotourma was some distance off, the mission broke up, most of the +members going to Egypt to rejoin Enfantin, whom the Arabs, struck +by his beauty, had called <i>Abu-l-dhunieh</i>, the Father of the World. +(This account of the movement is based on that given by Maxime du +Camp, in his <i>Souvenirs Littéraires</i>)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67" id="Footnote_67"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> +<i>Studies in the Psychology of Sex</i>, Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to +Society," chap. <span class="smcap">x</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68" id="Footnote_68"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> +It is worth noting that a Frenchwoman has been called "the +mother of modern feminism." Marie de Gournay, who died in 1645 at +the age of eighty, is best known as the adopted daughter of Montaigne, +for whom she cherished an enthusiastic reverence, becoming the first +editor of his essays. Her short essay, <i>Egalité +des Hommes et des Femmes</i>, was written in 1622. See e.g. M. Schiff, +<i>La Fille d'Alliance de Montaigne</i>.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +<a name="CHAPIV" id="CHAPIV"></a></p><h3>IV</h3> + +<h3>THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN IN RELATION +TO ROMANTIC LOVE</h3> + +<blockquote><p>The Absence of Romantic Love in Classic Civilization—Marriage as +a Duty—The Rise of Romantic Love in the Roman Empire—The +Influence of Christianity—The Attitude of Chivalry—The Troubadours—The +Courts of Love—The Influence of the Renaissance—Conventional +Chivalry and Modern Civilization—The Woman +Movement—The Modern Woman's Equality of Rights and Responsibilities +excludes Chivalry—New Forms of Romantic Love +still remain possible—Love as the Inspiration of Social Hygiene.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>What will be the ultimate effect of the woman's +movement, now slowly but surely taking +place among us, upon romantic love? +That is really a serious question, and it is much more +complex than many of those who are prepared to answer +it off-hand may be willing to admit.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered that romantic love has not +been a constant accompaniment of human relationships, +even in civilization. It is true that various peoples +very low down in the scale possess romantic love-songs, +often, it appears, written by the women. But the classic +civilizations of Greece and Rome in their most robust +and brilliant periods knew little or nothing of romantic +love in connection with normal sexual relationships +culminating in marriage. Classic antiquity reveals +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +a high degree of conjugal devotion, and of domestic +affection, at all events in Rome, but the right of the +woman to follow the inspirations of her own heart, +and the idealization and worship of the woman by the +man, were not only scarcely known but, so far as they +were known, reprehended or condemned. Ovid, in +the opinion of some, represents a new movement in +Rome. We are apt to regard Ovid as, in erotic matters, +the representative of a set of immoral Roman voluptuaries. +That view probably requires considerable +modification. Ovid was not indeed a champion of +morality, but there is no good reason to suppose that, +before he appeared, the rather stern Roman mind had +yet conceived those refinements and courtesies which +he set forth in such charming detail. If we take a wide +survey of his work, we may perhaps regard Ovid as the +pioneer of a chivalrous attitude towards women and of +a romantic conception of love not only new in Rome +but of significance for Europe generally. Ovid was +a powerful factor in the Renaissance movement, and +not least in England, where his influence on Shakespeare +and some others of the Elizabethans cannot easily be +overrated.<a name="FNanchor_69" id="FNanchor_69"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> + +<p>For the ordinary classic mind, Greek or Roman, +marriage was intended for the end of building up the +family, and the family was consecrated to the State. +The fulfilment of so exalted a function involved a certain +austere dignity which excluded wayward inclination +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +or passionate emotion. These might indeed occur +between a man and a woman outside marriage, but +putting aside the very limited phenomena of Athenian +hetairism, they were too shameful to be idealized. +Some trace of this classic attitude may be said to persist +even to-day among the so-called Latin nations, notably +in the French tradition (now dying out) of treating +marriage as a relationship to be arranged, not by the +two parties themselves, but by their parents and +guardians; Montaigne, attached as he was to maxims +of Roman antiquity, was not very alien from the ordinary +French attitude of his time when he declared that, +since we do not marry so much for our own sakes as for +the sake of posterity and the race, marriage is too sacred +a process to be mixed with amorous extravagance. +<a name="FNanchor_70" id="FNanchor_70"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> +There is something to be said for that point of view +which is nowadays too often forgotten, but it certainly +fails to cover the whole of the ground.</p> + +<p>It is not only in the West that a contemptuous attitude +towards the romantic and erotic side of life has prevailed +at some of the most vigorous moments of civilization. +It is also found in the East. In Japan, for instance, +even at the present day, romantic love, as a reputable +element of ordinary life, is unknown or disapproved; +its existence is not recognized in the schools, and the +European novels that celebrate it are scarcely understood. +<a name="FNanchor_71" id="FNanchor_71"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p> + +<p>The development of modern romantic love in connection +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +with marriage seems to be found in the late +Greek world under the Roman Empire.<a name="FNanchor_72" id="FNanchor_72"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> That is commonly +called a period of decadence. In a certain limited +sense it was. Greece had become subjugated to Rome. +Rome herself had lost her military spirit and was losing +her political power. But the fighting instinct, and even +the ruling spirit, are not synonymous with civilization. +The "decline and fall" of empires by no means necessarily +involves the decay of civilization. It is now generally +realized that the later Roman Empire was not, +as was once thought, an age of social and moral degeneration. +<a name="FNanchor_73" id="FNanchor_73"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> +The State indeed was dissolving, but the +individual was evolving. The age which produced +a Plutarch—for fifteen hundred years one of the great +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +inspiring forces of the world—was the reverse of a corrupt +age. The life of the home and the life of the soul were +alike developing. The home was becoming more complex, +more intimate, more elevated. The soul was being turned +in on itself to discover new and joyous secrets: the secret +of the love of Nature, the secret of mystic religion, and, +not least, the secret of romantic love. When Christianity +finally conquered the Roman world its task very largely +lay in taking over and developing those three secrets +already discovered by Paganism.</p> + +<p>It was inevitable, however, that in developing these +new forms of the emotional life, the ascetic bent of +Christianity should make itself felt. It was not possible +for Christianity to cast its halo around the natural +sexual life, but it was possible to refine and exalt that +life, to lift it into a spiritual sphere. Neither woman +the sweetheart nor woman the mother were in ordinary +life glorified by the Church; they were only tolerated. +But on a higher than natural plane they were surrounded +by a halo and raised to the highest pedestal of reverence +and even worship. The Virgin was exalted, Bride and +Bridegroom became terms of mystical import, and the +Holy Mother received the adoring love of all Christendom. +Even in the actual relations of men and women, quite +early in the history of Christianity, we sometimes find +men and women cultivating relationships which excluded +that earthly union the Church looked down on, but yet +involved the most tender and intimate physical affection. +Many charming stories of such relationships are found +in the lives of the saints, and sometimes they existed +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +even within the marriage bond.<a name="FNanchor_74" id="FNanchor_74"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> Christianity led to +the use of ideas and terms borrowed from earthly love +in a different and symbolic sense. But the undesigned +result was that a new force and beauty were added +to those ideas and terms, however applied, and also +that many emotions were thus cultivated which became +capable of re-inforcing earthly human love. In this way +it happened that, though Christianity rejected the ideal +of romantic love in its natural associations, it indirectly +prepared the way for a loftier and deeper realization of +that love.</p> + + +<p>There can be no doubt that the emotional training +and refining of the fleshly instincts by Christianity +was the chief cause of the rise of that conception of +romantic love which we associate with the institution +of chivalry. Exalted and sanctified by contact with +the central dogmas of religion, the emotion of love was +brought down from this spiritual atmosphere by the +knightly lover, with something of its ethereal halo +still clinging to it, and directed towards an earthly +mistress. The most extravagant phase of romantic +love which has ever been seen was then brought about, +and in many cases, certainly, it was a real erotomania +which passed beyond the bounds of sanity. +<a name="FNanchor_75" id="FNanchor_75"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> In its +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +extreme forms, however, this romantic love was a rare, +localized, and short-lived manifestation. The dominant +attitude of the chivalrous age towards women, as Léon +Gautier has shown in his monumental work on chivalry, +was one of indifference, or even contempt. The knight's +thoughts were more of war than of women, and he +cherished his horse more than his mistress. +<a name="FNanchor_76" id="FNanchor_76"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p> + +<p>But women, above all in France, reacted against +this attitude, and with splendid success. Their husbands +treated them with indifference or left them at home +while they sought adventure in the world. The neglected +wives proceeded to lay down the laws of society, and +took upon themselves the part of rulers in the domain of +morals. In the eleventh, the twelfth, the thirteenth +centuries, says Méray in a charming book on life in the +days of the Courts of Love, we find women "with infinite +skill and an adorable refinement seizing the moral direction +of French society." They did so, he remarks, in a +spirit so Utopian, so ideally poetic, that historians have +hesitated to take them seriously. The laws of the Courts +of Love<a name="FNanchor_77" id="FNanchor_77"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> +may sometimes seem to us immoral and licentious, +but in reality they served to restrain the worst immoralities +and licences of the time. They banished violence, they +allowed no venality, and they inculcated moderation +in passion. The task of the Courts of Love was facilitated +by the relative degree of peace which then reigned, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +especially by the fact that the Normans, holding both +coasts of the Channel, formed a link between France +and England. When the murderous activities of French +kings and English kings destroyed that link, the Courts +of Love were swept away in the general disorder and +the progress of civilization indefinitely retarded. +<a name="FNanchor_78" id="FNanchor_78"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> Yet +in some degree the ideals which had been thus embodied +still persisted. As the Goncourts pointed out in their +invaluable book, <i>La Femme au Dix-huitième Siècle</i> (Chap. +v), from the days of chivalry even on into the eighteenth +century, when on the surface at all events it apparently +disappeared, an exalted ideal of love continued to be +cherished in France. This conception remained associated, +throughout, with the great social influence and authority +which had been enjoyed by women in France even from +medieval times. That influence had become pronounced +during the seventeenth century, and at that time Sir +Thomas Smith in his <i>Commonwealth of England</i>, writing +of the high position of women in England, remarked that +they possessed "almost as much liberty as in France."</p> + +<p>There were at least two forms of medieval romantic +love. The first arose in Provence and northern Italy +during the twelfth century, and spread to Germany +as <i>Minnedienst</i>. In this form the young knights directed +their respectful and adoring devotion to a high-born +married woman who chose one of them as her own cavalier, +to do her service and reverence, the two vowing devotion +to each other until death. It was a part of this amorous +code that there could not be love between husband and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +wife, and it was counted a mark of low breeding for a +husband to challenge his wife's right to her young knight's +services, though sometimes we are told the husband +risked this reproach, occasionally with tragic results. +This mode of love, after being eloquently sung and +practised by the troubadours—usually, it appears, +younger sons of noble houses—died out in the place of +its origin, but it had been introduced into Spain, and +the Spaniards reintroduced it into Italy when they +acquired the kingdom of Naples; in Italy it was conventionalized +into the firmly rooted institution of the +<i>cavaliere servente</i>. From the standpoint of a strict +morality, the institution was obviously open to question. +But we can scarcely fail to see that at its origin it possessed, +even if unconsciously, a quasi-religious warrant in the +worship of the Holy Mother, and we have to recognize +that, notwithstanding its questionable shape, it was +really an effort to attain a purer and more ideal relationship +than was possible in a rough and warlike age which +placed the wife in subordination to her husband. A +tender devotion that inspired poetry, an unalloyed +respect that approached reverence, vows that were +based on equal freedom and independence on both sides—these +were possibilities which the men and women of +that age felt to be incompatible with marriage as they +knew it.</p> + +<p>The second form of medieval romantic love was +more ethereal than the first, and much more definitely +and consciously based on a religious attitude. It was +really the worship of the Virgin transferred to a young +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +earthly maiden, yet retaining the purity and ideality +of religious worship. To so high a degree is this the case +that it is sometimes difficult to be sure whether we are +concerned with a real maiden of flesh and blood or only +a poetic symbol of womanhood. This doubt has been +raised, notably by Bartoli, concerning Dante's Beatrice, +the supreme type of this ethereal love, which arose +in the thirteenth century, and was chiefly cultivated +in Florence. The poets of this movement were themselves +aware of the religious character of their devotion +to the <i>donna angelicata</i> to whom they even apply, as they +would to the Queen of Heaven, the appellation Stella +Maris. That there was an element of flesh and blood +in these figures is believed by Remy de Gourmont, +but when we gaze at them, he remarks, we see at first, +"in place of a body only two eyes with angel's wings +behind them, on the background of an azure sky sown +with golden stars"; the lover is on his knees and his +love has become a prayer.<a name="FNanchor_79" id="FNanchor_79"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> This phase of romantic +love was brief, and perhaps mostly the possession of the +poets, but it represented a really important moment +in the evolution of modern romantic love. It was a step +towards the realization of the genuinely human charm +of young womanhood in real human relationships, of +which we already have a foretaste in the delicious early +French story of Aucassin and Nicolette.</p> + + +<p>The re-discovery of classic literature, the movements +of Humanism and the Renaissance, swept away what +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +was left of the almost religious idealization of the young +virgin. The ethereal maiden, thin, pale, anæmic, +disappeared alike from literature and from art, and was +no longer an ideal in actual life. She gave place to a +new woman, conscious of her own fully developed womanhood +and all its needs, radiantly beautiful and finely +shaped in every limb. She lacked the spirituality of her +predecessors, but she had gained in intellect. She +appears first in the pages of Boccaccio. After a long +interval Titian immortalized her rich and mature beauty; +she is Flora, she is Ariadne, she is alike the Earthly +Love and the Heavenly Love. Every curve of her body +was adoringly and minutely described by Niphus and +Firenzuola.<a name="FNanchor_80" id="FNanchor_80"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> She was, moreover, the courtesan whose +imperial charm and adroitness enabled her to trample +under foot the medieval conception of lust as sin, +even in the courts of popes. At the great academic +centre of Bologna, finally, she chastely taught learning +and science.<a name="FNanchor_81" id="FNanchor_81"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> The people of the Italian Renaissance +placed women on the same level as men, and to call +a woman a <i>virago</i> implied unalloyed praise. +<a name="FNanchor_82" id="FNanchor_82"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +The very mixed conditions of what we have been +accustomed to consider the modern world then began +for women. They were no longer cloistered—whether +in convents or the home—but neither were they +any longer worshipped. They began to be treated +as human beings, and when men idealized them in figures +of romantic charm or pathos—figures like Shakespeare's +Rosalind or Marivaux's Sylvia or Richardson's Clarissa—this +humanity was henceforth the common ground +out of which the vision arose. But, one notes, in nearly +all the great poets and novelists up to the middle of +the last century, it was usually in the weakness of +humanity that the artist sought the charm and pathos +of his feminine figures. From Shakespeare's Ophelia +to Thackeray's Amelia this is the rule, more emphatically +expressed in the literature of England than of any +other country. There had been no actual emancipation +of women; though now they had entered the world of +men, they were not yet, socially and legally, of that +world. Even the medieval traditions still lived on +in subtly conventionalized forms. The "chivalrous" +attitude towards women was, as the word itself suggests, +a medieval survival. It belonged to a period of barbarism +when brutal force ruled and when the man who magnanimously +placed his force at the disposition of a woman +was really doing her a service and granting her a privilege. +But civilization means the building up of an orderly +society in which individual rights are respected, and +force no longer dominates. So that as civilization +advances the occasions on which women require the aid +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +of masculine force become ever fewer and more unimportant. +The conventionalized chivalry of men then +tends to become an offer of services which it would be +better for women to do for themselves and a bestowal +of privileges to which they are nowise entitled. +<a name="FNanchor_83" id="FNanchor_83"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> Moreover, +this same chivalry is, under these conditions, +apt to take on a character which is the reverse of its +face value. It becomes the assertion of a power over +women instead of a power on their behalf; and it carries +with it a tinge of contempt in place of respect. Theoretically, +a thousand chivalrous swords should leap +from their scabbards to succour the distressed woman. +In practice this may only mean that the thousand +owners of these metaphorical weapons are on the alert +to take advantage of the distressed woman.</p> + +<p>Thus the romantic emotions based on medieval +ideals gradually lost their worth. They were not in +relation to the altered facts of life; they had become +an empty convention which could be turned to very +unromantic uses. The movement for the emancipation +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +of women was not consciously or directly a movement +of revolt against an antiquated chivalry. It was rather +a part of the development of civilization which rendered +chivalry antique. Medieval romantic love implied in +women a weakness in the soil of which only a spiritual +force could flourish. The betterment of social conditions, +the subordination of violence to order, the growing +respect for individual rights, took away the reasons for +consecrating weakness in women, and created an ever +larger field in which women could freely seek to rival +men, because it is a field in which knowledge and skill +are of far more importance than muscular strength. +The emancipation of women has simply been the later +and more conscious phase of the process by which women +have entered into this field and sought their share of its +rights and its responsibilities.</p> + +<p>The woman movement of modern times, properly +understood, has thus been the effort of women to adapt +themselves to the conditions of an orderly and peaceful +civilization. Education, under the changed conditions, +can effect what before needed force of arms; responsibility +is now demanded where before only tutelage +was possible. A civilized society in which women are +ignorant and irresponsible is an anachronism, and, +however great the wrench with the past might be, +it was necessary that women should be adjusted to the +changing times. The ideal of the weak, ignorant, inexperienced +woman—the cross between an angel and +an idiot, as I have elsewhere described her +<a name="FNanchor_84" id="FNanchor_84"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a>—no longer +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +fulfilled any useful purpose. Civilized society furnishes +the conditions under which all adult persons are socially +equal and all are free to give to society the best they are +capable of.</p> + + +<p>It was inevitable, but unfortunate, that this movement +should have sometimes tended to take the form of an +attempt on the part of women to secure, not merely +equality with men, but actual imitation of men. These +women said that since men had attained mastery in life, +captured all the best things, and adopted the most +successful methods of living, it was necessary for women +to copy them at every point. That was a specious +plea which even had in it a certain element of truth. +But the fact remained that women and men are different, +that the difference is based in fundamental natural +functions, and that to place one sex in exactly the same +position as the other sex is to deform its outlines and to +hamper its activities.</p> + +<p>From the present point of view we are only concerned +with the influence of the woman's movement on love. +On the traditional conception of romantic love inherited +from medieval days there can be no doubt that this +influence has been highly dissolvent. Medieval romantic +love, in its original form, had been part of a conception +of womanhood made up of opposites, and all the opposites +balanced each other. The medieval man laid his homage +at the feet of the great lady in the castle hall, but he +himself lorded it over the wife who drudged in his own +home. On his knees he gazed up in devotion at the +ethereal virgin, but when she ceased to be a virgin, he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +asserted himself by cursing her as a demon sent from +hell to seduce and torment him. All this was possible +because the woman was outside the orbit of the man's +life, never on the same plane, necessarily higher or +lower. It became difficult if woman was man's equal, +absurdly impossible if she was of identical nature with +him.</p> + +<p>The medieval romantic tradition has come down to +us so laden with beauty and mystery that we are apt to +think, as we see it melt away, that human achievements +are being permanently depreciated. That illusion occurs +in every age of transition. It was notably so in the +eighteenth century, which represented a highly important +stage in the emancipation of women. To some that +century seems to have been given up to empty gallantry +and facile pleasure. Yet it was not only the age in which +women for the first time succeeded in openly attaining +their supreme social influence,<a name="FNanchor_85" id="FNanchor_85"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> it was an age of romantic +love, and the noble or poignant love-stories which have +reached us from the records of that period surpass those +of any other age.</p> + +<p>If we believe with Goethe that the religion of the +future consists in a triple reverence—the reverence for +what is above us, the reverence for what is below us, +and the reverence for our equals<a name="FNanchor_86" id="FNanchor_86"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a>—we need not grieve +overmuch if one form of this reverence, the first, and +that which Goethe regarded as the earliest and crudest, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +has lost its exclusive claim. Reverence is essential +to all romantic love. To bring down the Madonna and +the Virgin from their pedestals to share with men the +common responsibilities and duties of life is not to divest +them of the claim to reverence. It is merely the sign of +a change in the form of that reverence, a change which +heralds a new romantic love.</p> + +<p>It would be premature to attempt to define the exact +outline of the new forms of romantic love, or the precise +lineaments of the beings who will most ardently evoke +that love. In literature, indeed, the ideals of life cast +their shadow before, and we may surely trace a change +in the erotic ideals mirrored in literature. The woman +whom Dickens idealized in <i>David Copperfield</i> is unlike +indeed to the series of women of a new type introduced +by George Meredith, and the modern heroine generally +exhibits more of the robust, open-eyed and spontaneous +qualities of that later type than the blind and clinging +nature of the amiable simpletons of the older type. +That the changed conditions of civilization should produce +new types of womanhood and of love is not surprising, +if we realize that, even within the ancient chivalrous +forms it was possible to produce similar robust types +when the qualities of a race were favourable to them. +Spain furnishes a notable illustration. Spanish literature +from Cervantes and Tirso to Valera and Blasco Ibañez +reflects a type of woman who stands on the same ground +as man and is his equal and often his superior on that +ground, alike in vigour of body and of spirit, acquiring +all that she cares to of virility, while losing nothing feminine +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +that is of worth.<a name="FNanchor_87" id="FNanchor_87"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> In more than one respect the +ideal woman of Spain is the ideal woman our civilization +now renders necessary. The women of the future, Grete +Meisel-Hess declares in her femininely clever and frank +discussion of present-day conditions, <i>Die Sexuelle Krise</i>, +will be full, strong, elementary natures, devoid alike +of the impulse to destroy or the aptitude to be destroyed. +She considers, moreover, that so far from romantic +love being a thing of the past, "love as a form of worship +is reserved for the future."<a name="FNanchor_88" id="FNanchor_88"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> In the past it has only been +found among a few rare souls; in the future world, +fostered by the finer selection of a conscious eugenics, +and a new reverence and care for motherhood, we may +reasonably hope for a truly efficient humanity, the +bearers and conservers of the highest human emotions. +It is in this sense, indeed, that the voices of the greatest +and most typical leaders of the woman's movement +of emancipation to-day are heard. Ellen Key, in her +<i>Love and Marriage</i>, seeks to conciliate the cultivation +of a free and sacred sexual relationship with the worship +of the child, as the embodiment of the future race, +while Olive Schreiner proclaims in her <i>Woman and Labour</i> +that the woman of the future will walk side by side with +man in a higher and deeper relationship than has ever +been possible before because it will involve a new community +in activity and insight.</p> + +<p>Nor is it alone from the feminine side that these +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +forecasts are made. Certainly for the most part love +has been cultivated more by women than by men. +Primacy in the genius of intellect belongs incontestably +to men, but in the genius of love it has doubtless oftener +been achieved by women. They have usually understood +better than men that in this matter, as Goethe insisted, +it is the lover and not the beloved who reaps the chief +fruits of love. "It is better to love, even violently," +wrote the forsaken Portuguese nun, in her immortal +<i>Letters</i>, "than merely to be loved." He who loses his +life here saves it, for it is only in so far as he becomes +a crucified god that Love wins the sacrifice of human +hearts. Of late years, by an inevitable reaction, women +have sometimes forgotten this eternal verity. The women +of the twentieth century in their anxiety for self-possession +and their rightful eagerness to gain positions they feel +they have been too long excluded from, have perhaps +yet failed to realize that the women of the eighteenth +century, who exerted a sway over life that the women +of no age before or since have possessed, were, above +all women, great and heroic lovers, and that those two +fundamental facts cannot be cut asunder. But this +failure, temporary as it is doubtless destined to be, +will work for good if it is the point of departure for a +revival among men of the art of love.</p> + +<p>Men indeed have here fallen behind women. The +old saying, so tediously often quoted, concerning love +as a "thing apart" in the lives of men would scarcely +have occurred to a medieval poet of Provence or Florence. +It is not enough for women to proclaim a new avatar +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +of love if men are not ready and eager to learn its art +and to practise its discipline. In a profoundly suggestive +fragment on love, left incomplete at his death by the +distinguished sociologist Tarde,<a name="FNanchor_89" id="FNanchor_89"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> he suggests that when +masculine energy dies down in the fields of political +ambition and commercial gain, as it already has in the +field of warfare, the energy liberated by greater social +organization and cohesion may find scope once more in +love. For too long a period love, like war and politics +and commerce, has been chiefly monopolized by the +predatory type of man, in this field symbolized by the +figure of Don Juan. In the future, Tarde suggests, +the Don Juan type of lover may fall into disrepute, +giving place to the Virgilian type, for whom love is not +a thing apart but a form of life embodying its best +and highest activities.</p> + +<p>When we come upon utterances of this kind we are +tempted to think that they represent merely the poetic +dreams of individuals, standing too far ahead of their +fellows to possess any significance for men and women +in general. But it is probable that Ovid, and certain +that Dante, set forth erotic conceptions that were unintelligible +to most of their contemporaries, yet they have +been immensely influential over the ideas and emotions +of men in later ages. The poets and prophets of one +generation are engaged in moulding ideals which will +be realized in the lives of a subsequent generation; +in expressing their own most intimate emotions, as it +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +has been truly said, they become the leaders in a long +file of men and women. Whatever may yet be uncertain +and undefined, we may assuredly believe that the emotion +of love is far too deeply rooted in the depth of man's +organism and woman's organism ever to be torn out or +ever to be thrust into a subordinate place. And we may +also believe that there is no measurable limit to its power +of putting forth ever new and miraculous flowers. It +is recorded that once, in James Hinton's presence, the +conversation turned on music, and it was suggested +that, owing to the limited number of musical combinations +and the unlimited number of musical compositions, +a time would come when all music would only be a +repetition of exhausted harmonies. Hinton remarked +that then would come a man so inspired by a new spirit +that his feeling would be, not that <i>all</i> music has been +written, but that no <i>music</i> has yet been written. It +was a memorable saying. In every field that is the +perpetual proclamation of genius: Behold! I create +all things new. And in this field of love we can conceive +of no age in which to the inspired seer it will not be +possible to feel: There has yet been no <i>love</i>!</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69" id="Footnote_69"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> +See especially Sidney Lee, "Ovid and Shakespeare's Sonnets," +<i>Quarterly Review</i>, April, 1909.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70" id="Footnote_70"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> +Montaigne, <i>Essais</i>, Book III, chap. <span class="smcap">V</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71" id="Footnote_71"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> +See e.g. Mrs. Fraser, <i>World's Work and Play</i>, December, 1906.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72" id="Footnote_72"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> +A more modern feeling for love and marriage begins to emerge, +however, at a much earlier period, with Menander and the New Comedy. +E.F.M. Benecke, in his interesting little book on <i>Antimachus of +Colophon and the Position of Women in Greek Poetry</i>, believes that the +romantic idea (that is to say, the idea that a woman is a worthy object +for a man's love, and that such love may well be the chief, if not the +only, aim of a man's life) had originally been propounded by Antimachus +at the end of the fifth century <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> Antimachus, said to have +been the friend of Plato, had been united to a woman of Lydia (where +women, we know, occupied a very high position) and her death inspired +him to write a long poem, <i>Lyde</i>, "the first love poem ever addressed +by a Greek to his wife after death." Only a few lines of this poem +survive. But Antimachus seems to have greatly influenced Philetas +(whom Croiset calls "the first of the Alexandrians") and Asclepiades +of Samos, tender and exquisite poets whom also we only know by a few +fragments. Benecke's arguments, therefore, however probable, cannot +be satisfactorily substantiated.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73" id="Footnote_73"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> +As I have elsewhere pointed out (<i>Studies in the Psychology of Sex</i>, +Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society," chap. <span class="smcap">ix</span>), most modern +authorities—Friedländer, Dill, Donaldson, etc.—consider that there was +no real moral decline in the later Roman Empire; we must not accept +the pictures presented by satirists, pagan or Christian, as of general application.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74" id="Footnote_74"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> +I have discussed this phase of early Christianity in the sixth volume +of <i>Studies in the Psychology of Sex</i>, "Sex in Relation to Society," +chap. <span class="smcap">V</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75" id="Footnote_75"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> +Ulrich von Lichtenstein, in the thirteenth century, is the typical +example of this chivalrous erotomania. His account of his own adventures +has been questioned, but Reinhold Becker (<i>Wahrheit und Dichtung +in Ulrich von Lichtenstein's Frauendienst</i>, 1888) considers that, though +much exaggerated, it is in substance true.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76" id="Footnote_76"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> +Léon Gautier, <i>La Chevalerie</i>, pp. 236-8, 348-50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77" id="Footnote_77"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> +The chief source of information on these Courts is André le +Chapelain's <i>De Arte Amatoria</i>. Boccaccio made use of this work, +though without mentioning the author's name, in his own <i>Dialogo +d' Amore</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78" id="Footnote_78"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> +A. Méray, <i>La Vie au Temps des Cours d'Amour</i>, 1876.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79" id="Footnote_79"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> +Remy de Gourmont, <i>Dante, Béatrice et la Poésie Amoureuse</i>, 1907, +p. 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80" id="Footnote_80"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> + Niphus (born about 1473), a physician and philosopher of the Papal +Court, wrote in his <i>De Pulchro</i>, sometimes considered the first modern +treatise on æsthetics, a minute description of Joan of Aragon, whose +portrait, traditionally ascribed to Raphael, is in the Louvre. The +famous work of Firenzuola (born 1493) entitled <i>Dialogo delle Bellezze +delle Donne</i>, was published in 1548. It has been translated into English +by Clara Bell under the title <i>On the Beauty of Women</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81" id="Footnote_81"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> +See, for example, Edith Coulson James, <i>Bologna: Its History, +Antiquities and Art</i>, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82" id="Footnote_82"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> +See, for an interesting account of the position of women in the +Italian Renaissance, Burckhardt, <i>Die Kultur der Renaissance</i>, Part V, +ch. <span class="smcap">vi</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83" id="Footnote_83"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> +I may quote the following remarks from a communication I have +received from a University man: "I am prepared to show women, +and to expect from them, precisely the same amount of consideration as +I show to or expect from other men, but I rather resent being expected +to make a preferential difference. For example, in a crowded tram I see +no more adequate reason for giving up my seat to a young and healthy +girl than for expecting her to give up hers to me; I would do so cheerfully +for an old person of either sex on the ground that I am probably +better fit to stand the fatigue of 'strap-hanging,' and because I recognize +that some respect is due to age; but if persons get into over-full +vehicles they should not expect first-comers to turn out of their seats +merely because they happen to be men." This writer acknowledges, +indeed, that he is not very sensitive to the erotic attraction of women, +but it is probable that the changing status of women will render the +attitude he expresses more and more common among men.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84" id="Footnote_84"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> +<i>Ante</i>, p. 58.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85" id="Footnote_85"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> +"Women then were queens," as Taine writes (<i>L'Ancien Régime</i>, +Vol. I, p. 219), and he gives references to illustrate the point.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86" id="Footnote_86"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> +Goethe, <i>Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre</i>, Book II, ch. +<span class="smcap">i</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87" id="Footnote_87"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> +Havelock Ellis, <i>The Soul of Spain</i>, chap. +<span class="smcap">III</span>, "The Women of Spain."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88" id="Footnote_88"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> +Grete Meisel-Hess, <i>Die Sexuelle Krise</i>, 1909, pp. 148, 168.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89" id="Footnote_89"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> +"La Morale Sexuelle," <i>Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle</i>, January, +1907.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +<a name="CHAPV" id="CHAPV"></a></p><h3>V</h3> + +<h3>THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A FALLING +BIRTH-RATE</h3> + +<blockquote><p>The Fall of the Birth-rate in Europe generally—In England—In +Germany—In the United States—In Canada—In Australasia—"Crude" +Birth-rate and "Corrected" Birth-rate—The Connection +between High Birth-rate and High Death-rate—"Natural Increase" +measured by Excess of Births over Deaths—The Measure of +National Well-being—The Example of Russia—Japan—China—The +Necessity of viewing the Question from a wide Standpoint—The +Prevalence of Neo-Malthusian Methods—Influence of the Roman +Catholic Church—Other Influences lowering the Birth-rate—Influence +of Postponement of Marriage—Relation of the Birth-rate +to Commercial and Industrial Activity—Illustrated by Russia, +Hungary, and Australia—The Relation of Prosperity to Fertility—The +Social Capillarity Theory—Divergence of the Birth-rate and +the Marriage-rate—Marriage-rate and the Movement of Prices—Prosperity +and Civilization—Fertility among Savages—The lesser +Fertility of Urban Populations—Effect of Urbanization on Physical +Development—Why Prosperity fails permanently to increase +Fertility—Prosperity creates Restraints on Fertility—The Process +of Civilization involves Decreased Fertility—In this Respect it is +a Continuation of Zoological Evolution—Large Families as a Stigma +of Degeneration—The Decreased Fertility of Civilization a General +Historical Fact—The Ideals of Civilization to-day—The East and +the West.</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>One of the most interesting phenomena of the +early part of the nineteenth century was the +immense expansion of the people of the so-called +"Anglo-Saxon" race.<a name="FNanchor_90" id="FNanchor_90"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> This expansion coincided with +that development of industrial and commercial activity +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +which made the English people, who had previously impressed +foreigners as somewhat lazy and drunken, into +"a nation of shopkeepers." It also coincided with the +end of the supremacy of France in Europe; France had +succeeded to Spain as the leading power in Europe, and +had on the whole maintained a supremacy which Napoleon +brought to a climax, and, in doing so, crushed. The +growing prosperity of England represented an entirely +new wave of influence, mainly economic in character, +but not less forceful than that of Spain and of France +had been; and this prosperity was reflected in the +growth of the nation. The greater part of the Victorian +period was marked by this expansion of population, +which reached its highest point in the early years of the +second half of that period. While the population of +England was thus increasing with ever greater rapidity +at home, at the same time the English-speaking peoples +overspread the whole of North America, and colonized +the fertile fringe of Australia. It was, on a still larger +scale, a phenomenon similar to that which had occurred +three hundred years earlier, when Spain covered the +world and founded an empire upon which, as Spaniards +proudly boasted, the sun never set.</p> + + +<p>When now, a century later, we survey the situation, +not only has industrial and commercial activity ceased +to be a special attribute of the Anglo-Saxons—since the +Germans have here shown themselves to possess qualities +of the highest order, and other countries are rapidly +rivalling them—but within the limits of the English-speaking +world itself the English have found formidable +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +rivals in the Americans. Underlying, however, even these +great changes there is a still more fundamental fact to +be considered, a fact which affects all branches of the +race; and that is, that the Anglo-Saxons have passed +their great epoch of expansion and that their birth-rate +is rapidly falling to a normal level, that is to say, to the +average level of the world in general. Disregarding the +extremely important point of the death-rate in its bearing +on the birth-rate, England is seen to possess a medium +birth-rate among European countries, not among the +countries with a high birth-rate, like Russia, Roumania, +or Bulgaria, nor among those with a low birth-rate, like +Sweden, Belgium, and France. It was in this last country +that the movement of decline in the European birth-rate +began, and though the rate of decline has in France now +become very gradual the long period through which it +has extended has placed France in the lowest place, so +far as Europe is concerned. In 1908 out of a total of +over 11,000,000 French families, in nearly 2,000,000 +there were no children, and in nearly 3,000,000 there was +only one child.<a name="FNanchor_91" id="FNanchor_91"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> +The general decline in the European +birth-rate, during the years 1901-1905, was only slight +in Switzerland, Ireland and Spain, while it was large not +only in France, but in Italy, Servia, England and Wales, +and especially in Hungary (while, outside Europe, it was +largest of all in South Australia). Since 1905 there has +been a further general decline throughout Europe, only +excepting Ireland, Bulgaria, and Roumania. In Prussia +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +in 1881-1885 the birth-rate was 37.4; in 1909 it was +only 31.8; while in the German Empire as a whole it +is throughout lower than in Prussia, though somewhat +higher than in England. In Austria and Spain alone of +European countries during the twenty years between +1881 and 1901 was there any tendency for the fertility +of wives to increase. In all other countries there was a +decrease, greatest in Belgium, next greatest in France, +then in England.<a name="FNanchor_92" id="FNanchor_92"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a></p> + +<p>If we consider the question, not on the basis of the +crude birth-rate, but of the "corrected" birth-rate, with +more exact reference to the child-producing elements in +the population, as is done by Newsholme and Stevenson, +<a name="FNanchor_93" id="FNanchor_93"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> +we find that the greatest decline has taken place in New +South Wales, then in Victoria, Belgium, and Saxony, +followed by New Zealand. But France, the German +Empire generally, England, and Denmark all show a +considerable fall; while Sweden and Norway show a +fall, which, especially in Norway, is slight. Norway +illustrates the difference between the "crude" and the +"corrected" birth-rate; the crude birth-rate is lower +than that of Saxony, but the corrected birth-rate is +higher. Ireland, again, has a very low crude birth-rate, +but the population of child-bearing age has a high birth-rate, +considerably higher than that of England.</p> + + +<p>Thus while forty years ago it was usual for both the +English and the Germans to contemplate, perhaps with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +some complacency, the spectacle of the falling birth-rate +in France as compared with the high birth-rate in England +and Germany, we are now seen to be all marching along +the same road. In 1876 the English birth-rate reached +its maximum of 36.3 per thousand; while in France the +birth-rate now appears almost to have reached its lowest +level. Germany, like England, now also has a falling +birth-rate, though it will take some time to sink to the +English level. The birth-rate for Germany generally is +still much higher than for England generally, but urbanization +in Germany seems to have a greater influence +than in England in lowering the birth-rate, and for many +years past the birth-rate of Berlin has been lower than +that of London. The birth-rate in Germany has long +been steadily falling, and the increase in the population +of Germany is due to a concomitant steady fall in the +death-rate, a fall to which there are inevitable natural +limits.<a name="FNanchor_94" id="FNanchor_94"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> Moreover, as Flux has shown, +<a name="FNanchor_95" id="FNanchor_95"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> urbanization is +going on at a greater speed in Germany than in England, +and practically the entire natural increase of the German +population for a quarter of a century has drifted into the +towns. But the death-rate of the young in German +towns is far higher than in English towns, and the first +five years of life in Germany produce as much mortality +as the first twenty-five years in England. +<a name="FNanchor_96" id="FNanchor_96"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> So that a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +thousand children born in England add far more to the +population than a thousand children born in Germany. +The average number of children per family in German +towns is less than in English towns of the same size. +These results, reached by Flux, suggest that in a few +years' time the rate of increase in the German population +will be lower than it is at present in England. In England, +since 1876, the decline has been so rapid as to be equal +to 20 per cent within a generation, and in some of +the large towns to 40 per cent. Against this there has, +indeed, to be set the general tendency during recent years +for the death-rate to fall also. But this saving of life +has until lately been effected mainly at the higher ages; +there has been but little saving of the lives of infants, +upon whom the death-rate falls most heavily. Accompanying +this falling off in the number of children produced +there has often been, as we might expect, a fall +in the marriage-rate; but this has been less regular, and +of late the marriage-rate has sometimes been high when +the birth-rate was low.<a name="FNanchor_97" id="FNanchor_97"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> There has, however, been a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +steady postponement of the average age at which marriage +takes place. On the whole, the main fact that +emerges is, that nowadays in England we marry less and +have fewer children.</p> + +<p>This is now a familiar fact, and perhaps it should not +excite very great surprise. England is an old and fairly +stable country, and it may be said that it would be unreasonable +to expect its population to retain indefinitely +a high degree of fertility. Whether this is so or not, +there is the further consideration to be borne in mind +that, during nearly the whole of the Victorian period, +emigration of the most vigorous stocks took place to a +very marked extent. It is not difficult to see the influence +of such emigration in connection with the greatly +diminished population of Ireland, as compared with +Scotland; and we may reasonably infer that it has had +its part in the decreased fertility of the United Kingdom +generally.</p> + +<p>But we encounter the remarkable fact that this decreased +fertility of the Anglo-Saxon populations is not +confined to the United Kingdom. It is even more pronounced +in those very lands to which so many thousand +shiploads of our best people have been taken. In the +United States the question has attracted much attention, +and there is little disagreement among careful observers +as to the main facts of the situation. The question is, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +indeed, somewhat difficult for two reasons: the registration +of births is not generally compulsory in the +United States, and, even when general facts are ascertained, +it is still necessary to distinguish between the +different classes of the population. Our conclusions must +therefore be based, not on the course of a general birth-rate, +but on the most reliable calculations, based on the +census returns and on the average size of the family at +different periods, and among different classes of the +population. A bulletin of the Census Bureau of the +United States since 1860 was prepared a few years ago +by Walter F. Wilcox, of Cornell University. It determines +from the data in the census office the proportion +of children to the number of women of child-bearing age +in the country at different periods, and shows that there +has been, on the whole, a fall from the beginning to the +end of the last century. Children under ten years of age +constituted one-third of the population at the beginning +of the century, and at the end less than one-fourth of the +total population. Between 1850 and 1860 the proportion +of children to women between fifteen and forty-nine +years of age increased, but since 1860 it has constantly +decreased. In 1860 the number of children under five +years of age to one thousand women between fifteen and +forty-nine years of age was 634; in 1900 it was only 474. +The proportion of children to potential mothers in 1900 +was only three-fourths as large as in 1860. In the north +and west of the United States the decline has been +regular, while in the south the change has been less +regular and the decline less marked. A comparison is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +made between the proportion of children in the foreign-born +population and in the American. The former was +710 to the latter's 462. In the coloured population the +proportion of children is greater than in the corresponding +white population.</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt whatever that, from the eighteenth +century to the twentieth, there has been a steady +decrease in the size of the American family. Franklin, +in the eighteenth century, estimated that the average +number of children to a married couple was eight; genealogical +records show that, while in the seventeenth century +it was nearly seven, it was over six at the end of the +eighteenth century. Since then, as Engelmann and others +have shown, there has been a steady decrease in the size +of the family; in the earlier years of the nineteenth +century there were between four and five children to +each marriage, while by the end of the century the +number of children had fallen to between four and but +little over one. Engelmann finds that there is but a very +trifling difference in this respect between the upper and +the lower social classes; the average for the labouring +classes at St. Louis he finds to be about two, and for the +higher classes a little less. It is among the foreign-born +population, and among those of foreign parents, that the +larger families are found; thus Kuczynski, by analysing +the census, finds that in Massachusetts the average +number of children to each married woman among the +American-born of all social classes is 2.7, while among +the foreign-born of all social classes it is 4.5. Moreover, +sterility is much more frequent among American women +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +than among foreign women in America. Among various +groups in Boston, St. Louis, and elsewhere it varies between +20 and 23 per cent, and in some smaller groups +is even considerably higher, while among the foreign-born +it is only 13 per cent. The net result is that the +general natality of the United States at the present day +is about equal to that of France, but that, when we +analyse the facts, the fertility of the old native-born +American population of mainly Anglo-Saxon origin is +found to be lower than that of France. This element, +therefore, is rapidly dwindling away in the United States. +The general level of the birth-rate is maintained by the +foreign immigrants, who in many States (as in New York, +Massachusetts, Michigan, and Minnesota) constitute the +majority of the population, and altogether number considerably +over ten millions. Among these immigrants +the Anglo-Saxon element is now very small. Indeed, the +whole North European contingent among the American +immigrants, which was formerly nearly 90 per cent of the +whole, has since 1890 steadily sunk, and the majority +of the immigrants now belong to the Central, Southern, +and Eastern European stocks. The racial, and, it is +probable, the psychological characteristics of the people +of the United States are thus beginning to undergo, not +merely modification, but, it may almost be said, a revolution. +If, as we may well believe, the influence of the +original North-European racial elements—Anglo-Saxon, +Dutch, and French—still continues to persist in the +United States, it can only be the influence of a small +aristocracy, maintained by intellect and character.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +When we turn to Canada, a land that is imposing, less +by the actual size of the population than by the vast +tracts it possesses for its development, the question has +not yet been fully investigated; but such facts and official +publications as I have been able to obtain all indicate +that, in this matter, the English Canadians approximate +to the native Americans. In the United States it is the +European immigrants who maintain the general population +at a productive level, and thus indirectly oust the +Anglo-Saxon element. In Canada the chief dividing line +is between the Anglo-Saxon element and the old French +element in the population; and here it is the French +Canadians who are gaining ground on the English elements +in the population. Engelmann ascertained that +an examination of one thousand families in the records +of Quebec Life Assurance companies shows 9.2 children +on the average to the French Canadian child-bearing +woman. It is found also from the records of the French +Canadian Society for Artisans that 500 families from +town districts, taken at random, show 9.06 children per +family, and 500 families from country districts show +9.33 children per family.<a name="FNanchor_98" id="FNanchor_98"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> It must be remembered that +this average, which is even higher than that found in +Russia, the most prolific of European countries, is not +quite the same as the number of children per marriage; +but it indicates very great fertility, while it may be +noted also that sterile marriages are comparatively rare +among French Canadians, although among English +Canadians the proportion of childless families is found +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +to be almost exactly the same (nearly 20 per cent) as +among the infertile Americans of Massachusetts. The +annual Reports of the Registrar-General of Ontario, a +province which is predominantly of Anglo-Saxon origin, +show that the average birth-rate during the decade 1899-1908 +has been 22.3 per 1000; it must be noted, however, +that there has been a gradual rise from a rate of +19.4 in 1899 to one of 25.6 in 1908. The report of Mr. +Prévost, the recorder of vital statistics for the predominantly +French province of Quebec, shows much higher +rates. The general birth-rate for the province for the +year 1901 is high, being 35.2, much higher than that of +England, and nearly as high as that of Germany. If, +however, we consider the thirty-five counties of the +province in which the population is almost exclusively +French Canadian, we find that 35 represents almost the +lowest average; as many as twenty-two of these counties +show a rate of over forty, and one (Yamaska) reached +51.52. It is very evident that, in order to pull down these +high birth-rates to the general level of 35.2, we have to +assume a much lower birth-rate among the counties in +which the English element is considerable. It must be +remembered, however, that infant mortality is high +among the French Canadians. The French Canadian +Catholic, it has been said, would shrink in horror from +such an unnatural crime as limiting his family before +birth, but he sees nothing repugnant to God or man in +allowing the surplus excess of children to die after birth. +In this he is at one with the Chinese. Dr. E.P. La Chapelle, +the President of the Provincial Conseil d'Hygiène, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +wrote some years ago to Professor Davidson, in answer +to inquiries: "I do not believe it would be correct to +ascribe the phenomenon to any single cause, and I am +convinced it is the result of several factors. For one, the +first cause of the heavy infant mortality among the +French Canadians is their very heavy natality, each +family being composed of an average of twelve children, +and instances of families of fifteen, eighteen, and even +twenty-four children being not uncommon. The super-abundance +of children renders, I think, parents less +careful about them."<a name="FNanchor_99" id="FNanchor_99"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p> + +<p>The net result is a slight increase on the part of the +French Canadians, as compared with the English element +in the province, as becomes clear when we compare the +proportion of the population of English, Scotch, Irish, +and all other nationalities with the total population of the +province, now and thirty years ago. In 1871 it was +21 per cent; in 1901 it was only 19 per cent. The decrease +of the Anglo-Saxons may here appear to be small, +though it must be remembered that thirty years is but a +short period in the history of a nation; but it is significant +when we bear in mind that the English element has +here been constantly reinforced by immigrants (who, as +the experience of the United States shows, are by no +means an infertile class), and that such reinforcement +cannot be expected to continue in the future.</p> + +<p>From Australia comes the same story of the decline of +Anglo-Saxon fertility. In nearly all the Australian colonies +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +the highest birth-rate was reached some twenty or +thirty years ago. Since then there has been a more or +less steady fall, accompanied by a marked decrease in +the number of marriages, and a tendency to postpone +the age of marriage. One colony, Western Australia, has +a birth-rate which sometimes fluctuates above that of +England; but it is the youngest of the colonies, and, at +present, that with the smallest population, largely composed +of recent immigrants. We may be quite sure that +its comparatively high birth-rate is merely a temporary +phenomenon. A very notable fact about the Australian +birth-rate is the extreme rapidity with which the fall has +taken place; thus Queensland, in 1890, had a birth-rate +of 37, but by 1899 the rate had steadily fallen to 27, and +the Victorian rate during the same period fell from 33 to +26 per thousand. In New South Wales, the state of things +has been carefully studied by Mr. Coghlan, formerly +Government statistician of New South Wales, who comes +to the conclusion that the proportion of fertile marriages +is declining, and that (as in the United States) it is +the recent European immigrants only who show a comparatively +high birth-rate. Until 1880, Coghlan states, the +Australasian birth-rate was about 38 per thousand, and +the average number of children to the family about 5.4. +In 1901 the birth-rate had already fallen to 27.6 and the +size of the family to 3.6 children. +<a name="FNanchor_100" id="FNanchor_100"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> It should be added +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +that in all the Australasian colonies the birth-rate +reached its lowest point some years ago, and may now +be regarded as in a state of normal equipoise with a +slight tendency to rise. The case of New Zealand is +specially interesting. New Zealand once had the highest +birth-rate of all the Australasian colonies; it is without +doubt the most advanced of all in social and legislative +matters; a variety of social reforms, which other countries +are struggling for, are, in New Zealand, firmly +established. Its prosperity is shown by the fact that it +has the lowest death-rate of any country in the world, +only 10.2 per thousand, as against 24 in Austria and 22 +in France; it cannot even be said that the marriage-rate +is very low, for it is scarcely lower than that of Austria, +where the birth-rate is high. Yet the birth-rate in New +Zealand fell as the social prosperity of the country rose, +reaching its lowest point in 1899.</p> + +<p>We thus find that from the three great Anglo-Saxon +centres of the world—north, west, and south—the +same story comes. We need not consider the case of +South Africa, for it is well recognized that there the +English constitute a comparatively infertile fringe, +mostly confined to the towns, while the earlier Dutch +element is far more prolific and firmly rooted in the soil. +The position of the Dutch there is much the same as +that of the French in Canada.</p> + +<p>Thus we find that among highly civilized races +generally, and not least among the English-speaking +peoples who were once regarded as peculiarly prolific, +a great diminution of reproductive activity has taken +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +place during the past forty years, and is in some countries +still taking place. But before we proceed to consider +its significance it may be well to look a little more closely +at our facts.</p> + +<p>We have seen that the "crude" birth-rate is not +an altogether reliable index of the reproductive energy +of a nation. Various circumstances may cause an excess +or a defect of persons of reproductive age in a community, +and unless we allow for these variations, we cannot +estimate whether that community is exercising its +reproductive powers in a fairly normal manner. But +there is another and still more important consideration +always to be borne in mind before we can attach any +far-reaching significance even to the corrected birth-rate. +We have, that is, to bear in mind that a high or a +low birth-rate has no meaning, so far as the growth of +a nation is concerned, unless it is considered in relation +to the death-rate. The natural increase of a nation +is not the result of its birth-rate, but of its birth-rate +minus its death-rate. A low birth-rate with a low death-rate +(as in Australasia) produces a far greater natural +increase than a low birth-rate with a rather high death-rate +(as in France), and may even produce as great an +increase as a very high birth-rate with a very high death-rate +(as in Russia). Many worthy people might have +been spared the utterance of foolish and mischievous +jeremiads, if, instead of being content with a hasty +glance at the crude birth-rate, they had paused to consider +this fairly obvious fact.</p> + +<p>There is an intimate connection between a high birth-rate +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +and a high death-rate, between a low birth-rate +and a low death-rate. It may not, indeed, be an absolutely +necessary connection, and is not the outcome of +any mysterious "law." But it usually exists, and the +reasons are fairly obvious. We have already encountered +the statement from an official Canadian source that +the large infantile mortality of French Canadian families +is due to parental carelessness, consequent, no doubt, +not only on the dimly felt consciousness that children +are cheap, but much more on inability to cope with the +manifold cares involved by a large family. Among +the English working class every doctor knows the +thinly veiled indifference or even repulsion with which +women view the seemingly endless stream of babies +they give birth to. Among the Berlin working class, +also, Hamburger's important investigation has indicated +how serious a cause of infantile mortality this may be. +By taking 374 working-class women, who had been +married twenty years and conceived 3183 times, he +found that the net result in surviving children was +relatively more than twice as great among the women +who had only had one child when compared to the women +who had had fifteen children. The women with only +one child brought 76.47 per cent of these children to +maturity; the women who had produced fifteen children +could only bring 30.66 of them to maturity; the intermediate +groups showed a gradual fall to this low level, +the only exception being that the mothers of three +children were somewhat more successful than the mothers +of two children. Among well-to-do mothers Hamburger +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +found no such marked contrast between the +net product of large families as compared to small +families.<a name="FNanchor_101" id="FNanchor_101"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></p> + +<p>It we look at the matter from a wider standpoint +we can have no difficulty in realizing that a community +which is reproducing itself rapidly must always be in +an unstable state of disorganization highly unfavourable +to the welfare of its members, and especially of the new-comers; +a community which is reproducing itself slowly +is in a stable and organized condition which permits +it to undertake adequately the guardianship of its new +members. The high infantile mortality of the community +with a high birth-rate merely means that that community +is unconsciously making a violent and murderous effort +to attain to the more stable and organized level of the +country with a low birth-rate.</p> + +<p>The English Registrar-General in 1907 estimated +the natural increase by excess of births over deaths as +exceptionally high (higher than that of England) in +several Australian Colonies, in the Balkan States, in +Russia, the Netherlands, the German Empire, Denmark, +and Norway, though in the majority of these +lands the birth-rate is very low. On the other hand, +the natural increase by excess of births over deaths +is below the English rate in Austria, in Hungary, +in Japan, in Italy, in Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, +Belgium, and Ontario, though in the majority of +these lands the birth-rate is high, and in some very +high.<a name="FNanchor_102" id="FNanchor_102"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +In most cases it is the high death-rate in infancy and +childhood which exercises the counterbalancing influence +against a high birth-rate; the death-rate in adult life may +be quite moderate. And with few exceptions we find +that a high infantile mortality accompanies a high +birth-rate, while a low infantile mortality accompanies a +low birth-rate. It is evident, however, that even an +extremely high infantile mortality is no impediment +to a large natural increase provided the birth-rate is +extremely high to a more than corresponding extent. +But a natural increase thus achieved seems to be accompanied +by far more disastrous social conditions +than when an equally large increase is achieved by +a low infantile death-rate working in association with +a low birth-rate. Thus in Norway on one side of the +world and in Australasia on the opposite side we see +a large natural increase effected not by a profuse expenditure +of mostly wasted births but by an economy +in deaths, and the increase thus effected is accompanied +by highly favourable social conditions, and great national +vigour. Norway appears to have the lowest infantile +death-rate in Europe.<a name="FNanchor_103" id="FNanchor_103"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +Rubin has suggested that the fairest measure of +a country's well-being, as regards its actual vitality—without +direct regard, of course, to the country's economic +prosperity—is the square of the death-rate divided by +the birth-rate.<a name="FNanchor_104" id="FNanchor_104"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> Sir J.A. Baines, who accepts this test, +states that Argentina with its high birth-rate and low +death-rate stands even above Norway, and Australia +still higher, while the climax for the world is attained +by New Zealand, which has attained "the nearest +approach to immortality yet on record." +<a name="FNanchor_105" id="FNanchor_105"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> The order +of descending well-being in Europe is thus represented +(at the year 1900) by Norway, Sweden, Denmark, +Holland, England, Scotland, Finland, Belgium, Switzerland, +Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Austria, France, +and Spain.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, in all the countries, probably +without exception, in which a large natural increase +is effected by the efforts of an immense birth-rate to +overcome an enormous death-rate the end is only effected +with much friction and misery, and the process is accompanied +by a general retardation of civilization. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +"The greater the number of children," as Hamburger +puts it, "the greater the cost of each survivor to the +family and to the State."</p> + +<p>Russia presents not only the most typical but the +most stupendous and appalling example of this process. +Thirty years ago the mortality of infants under one +year was three times that of Norway, nearly double +that of England. More recently (1896-1900) the infantile +mortality in Russia has fallen from 313 to 261, +but as that of the other countries has also fallen it still +preserves nearly the same relative position, remaining +the highest in Europe, while if we compare it with +countries outside Europe we find it is considerably +more than four times greater than that of South Australia. +In one town in the government of Perm, some years +ago if not still, the mortality of infants under one year +regularly reached 45 per cent, and the deaths of children +under five years constituted half the total mortality. +This is abnormally high even for Russia, but for all +Russia it was found that of the boys born in a single +year during the second half of the last century only +50 per cent reached their twenty-first year, and even of +these only 37.6 per cent were fit for military service. +It is estimated that there die in Russia 15 per thousand +more individuals than among the same number +in England; this excess mortality represents a loss of +1,650,000 lives to the State every year. +<a name="FNanchor_106" id="FNanchor_106"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p> + +<p>Thus Russia has the highest birth-rate and at the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +same time the highest death-rate. The large countries +which, after Russia, have the highest infantile mortality +are Austria, Hungary, Prussia, Spain, Italy, and Japan; +all these, as we should expect, have a somewhat high +birth-rate.</p> + +<p>The case of Japan is interesting as that of a vigorous +young Eastern nation, which has assimilated Western +ways and is encountering the evils which come of those +ways. Japan is certainly worthy of all our admiration +for the skill and vigour with which it has affirmed its +young nationality along Western lines. But when +the vital statistics of Japan are vaguely referred to +either as a model for our imitation or as a threatening +peril to us, we may do well to look into the matter a +little more closely. The infantile mortality of Japan +(1908) is 157, a very high figure, 50 per cent higher +than that of England, much more than double that +of New Zealand, or South Australia. Moreover, it has +rapidly risen during the last ten years. The birth-rate +of Japan in 1901-2 was high (36), though it has +since fallen to the level of ten years ago. But the death-rate +has risen concomitantly (to over 24 per 1000), and +has continued to rise notwithstanding the slight decline +in the birth-rate. We see here a tendency to the sinister +combination of a falling birth-rate with a rising death-rate. +<a name="FNanchor_107" id="FNanchor_107"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> +It is obvious that such a tendency, if continued, +will furnish a serious problem to Japanese social reformers, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +and at the same time make it impossible for Western +alarmists to regard the rise of Japan as a menace to the +world.</p> + +<p>It is behind China that these alarmists, when driven +from every other position, finally entrench themselves. +"The ultimate future of these islands may be to the +Chinese," incautiously exclaims Mr. Sidney Webb, +who on many subjects, unconnected with China, speaks +with authority. The knowledge of the vital statistics +of China possessed by our alarmists is vague to the +most extreme degree, but as the knowledge of all of +us is scarcely less vague, they assume that their position +is fairly safe. That, however, is an altogether questionable +assumption. It seems to be quite true—though +in the absence of exact statistics it may not be certain—that +the birth-rate in China is very high. But it is +quite certain that the infantile death-rate is extremely +high. "Out of ten children born among us, three, +normally the weakest three, will fail to grow up: out +of ten children born in China these weakest three will +die, and probably five more besides," writes Professor +Ross, who is intimately acquainted with Chinese conditions, +and has closely questioned thirty-three physicians +practising in various parts of China. +<a name="FNanchor_108" id="FNanchor_108"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> Matignon, a French +physician familiar with China, states that it is the custom +for a woman to suckle her child for at least three years; +should pregnancy occur during this period, it is usual, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +and quite legal, to procure abortion. Infants brought +up by hand are fed on rice-flour and water, and consequently +they nearly all die.<a name="FNanchor_109" id="FNanchor_109"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a></p> + +<p>Putting aside altogether the question of infanticide, +such a state of things is far from incredible when we +remember the extremely insanitary state of China, +the superstitions that flourish unchecked, and the famines, +floods, and pestilences that devastate the country. +It would appear probable that when vital statistics are +introduced into China they will reveal a condition of +things very similar to that we find in Russia, but in +a more marked degree. No doubt it is a state of things +which will be remedied. It is a not unreasonable assumption, +supported by many indications, that China +will follow Japan in the adoption of Western methods +of civilization.<a name="FNanchor_110" id="FNanchor_110"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> These methods, as we know, involve +in the end a low birth-rate with a general tendency to +a lower death-rate. Neither in the near nor in the remote +future, under present conditions or under probable +future conditions, is there any reason for imagining +that the Chinese are likely to replace the Europeans +in Europe.<a name="FNanchor_111" id="FNanchor_111"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +This preliminary survey of the ground may enable +us to realize that not only must we be cautious in attaching +importance to the crude birth-rate until it is corrected, +but that even as usually corrected the birth-rate +can give us no clue at all to natural increase because +there is a marked tendency for the birth-rate and the +infantile death-rate to rise or sink together. Moreover, +it is evident that we have also to realize that from the +point of view of society and civilization there is a vast +difference between the natural increase which is achieved +by the effort of an enormously high birth-rate to overcome +an almost correspondingly high death-rate and +the natural increase which is attained by the dominance +of a low birth-rate over a still lower death-rate.</p> + +<p>Having thus cleared the ground, we may proceed to +attempt the interpretation of the declining birth-rate +which marks civilization, and to discuss its significance.</p> + + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>It must be admitted that it is not usual to consider +the question of the declining birth-rate from a broad +or scientific standpoint. As we have seen, no attempt +is usually made to correct the crude birth-rate; still +more rarely is it pointed out that we cannot consider +the significance of a falling birth-rate apart from the +question of the death-rate, and that the net increase +or decrease in a nation can only be judged by taking +both these factors into account. It is scarcely necessary +to add, in view of so superficial a way of looking at +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +the problem, that we hardly ever find any attempt to +deal with the more fundamental question of the meaning +of a low birth-rate, and the problematical character +of the advantages of rapid multiplication. The whole +question is usually left to the ignorant preachers of the +gospel of brute force, would-be patriots who desire +their own country to increase at the cost of all other +countries, not merely in ignorance of the fact that the +crude birth-rate is not the index of increase, but reckless +of the effect their desire, if fulfilled, would have upon +all the higher and finer ends of living.</p> + +<p>When the question is thus narrowly and ignorantly +considered, it is usual to account for the decreased +birth-rate, the smaller average families, and the tendency +to postpone the age of marriage, as due mainly +to a love of luxury and vice, combined with a newly +acquired acquaintance with Neo-Malthusian methods, +<a name="FNanchor_112" id="FNanchor_112"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> +which must be combated, and may successfully be +combated, by inculcating, as a moral and patriotic +duty, the necessity of marrying early and procreating +large families.<a name="FNanchor_113" id="FNanchor_113"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> +In France, the campaign against the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +religious Orders in their educational capacity, while +doubtless largely directed against educational inefficiency, +was also supported by the feeling that such education +is not on the side of family life; and Arsène Dumont, +one of the most vigorous champions of a strenuously +active policy for increasing the birth-rate, openly protested +against allowing any place as teachers to priests, +monks, and nuns, whose direct and indirect influence +must degrade the conception of sex and its +duties while exalting the place of celibacy. In the +United States, also, Engelmann, who, as a gynæcologist, +was able to see this process from behind the scenes, +urged his fellow-countrymen "to stay the dangerous +and criminal practices which are the main determining +factors of decreasing fecundity, and which deprive +women of health, the family of its highest blessings, +and the nation of its staunchest support." +<a name="FNanchor_114" id="FNanchor_114"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a></p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +We must, however, look at these phenomena a little +more broadly, and bring them into relation with other +series of phenomena. It is almost beyond dispute that +a voluntary restriction of the number of offspring by +Neo-Malthusian practices is at least one of the chief +methods by which the birth-rate has been lowered. +It may not indeed be—and probably, as we shall see, +is not—the only method. It has even been denied +that the prevalence of Neo-Malthusian practices counts +at all.<a name="FNanchor_115" id="FNanchor_115"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> +Thus while Coghlan, the Government Statistician +of New South Wales, concludes that the decline in the +birth-rate in the Australian Commonwealth was due +to "the art of applying artificial checks to conception," +McLean, the Government Statistician of Victoria, concludes +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +that it was "due mainly to natural causes." +<a name="FNanchor_116" id="FNanchor_116"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> +He points out that when the birth-rate in Australia, +half a century ago, was nearly 43 per 1000, the population +consisted chiefly of men and women at the reproductive +period of life, and that since then the proportion +of persons at these ages has declined, leading +necessarily to a decline in the crude birth-rate. If we +compare the birth-rate of communities among women +of the same age-periods, McLean argues, we may obtain +results quite different from the crude birth-rate. Thus +the crude birth-rate of Buda-Pesth is much higher +than that of New South Wales, but if we ascertain the +birth-rate of married women at different age-periods +(15 to 20, 20 to 25, etc.) the New South Wales birth-rate +is higher for every age-period than that of Buda-Pesth. +McLean considers that in young communities with many +vigorous immigrants the population is normally more +prolific than in older and more settled communities, +and that hardships and financial depression still more +depress the birth-rate. He further emphasizes the +important relationship, which we must never lose sight +of in this connection, between a high birth-rate and a +high death-rate, especially a high infantile death-rate, +and he believes, indeed, that "the solution of the problem +of the general decline in the birth-rate throughout +all civilized communities lies in the preservation of +human life." The mechanism of the connection would +be, he maintains, that prolonged suckling in the case +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +of living children increases the intervals between childbearing. +As we have seen, there is a tendency, though +not a rigid and invariable necessity, +<a name="FNanchor_117" id="FNanchor_117"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> for a high birth-rate +to be associated with a high infantile death-rate, and +a low birth-rate with a low infantile death-rate. Thus +in Victoria, we have the striking fact that while the birth-rate +has declined 24 per cent the infantile death-rate +has declined approximately to the still greater extent +of 27 per cent.</p> + +<p>No doubt the chief cause of the reduction of the +birth-rate has been its voluntary restriction by preventive +methods due to the growth of intelligence, +knowledge, and foresight. In all the countries where +a marked decline in the birth-rate has occurred there +is good reason to believe that Neo-Malthusian methods +are generally known and practised. So far as England +is concerned this is certainly the case. A few years +ago Mr. Sidney Webb made inquiries among middle-class +people in all parts of the country, and found that +in 316 marriages 242 were thus limited and only 74 +unlimited, while for the ten years 1890-9 out of 120 +marriages 107 were limited and only 13 unlimited, +but as five of these 13 were childless there were only +8 unlimited fertile marriages out of 120. As to the +causes assigned for limiting the number of children, in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +73 out of 128 cases in which particulars were given +under this head the poverty of the parents in relation +to their standard of comfort was a factor; sexual ill-health—that +is, generally, the disturbing effect of child-bearing—in +24; and other forms of ill-health of the parents +in 38 cases; in 24 cases the disinclination of the wife +was a factor, and the death of a parent had in 8 cases +terminated the marriage.<a name="FNanchor_118" id="FNanchor_118"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> In the skilled artisan class +there is also good reason to believe that the voluntary +limitation of families is constantly becoming more +usual, and the statistics of benefit societies show a marked +decline in the fertility of superior working-class people +during recent years; thus it is stated by Sidney Webb +that the Hearts of Oak Friendly Society paid benefits +on child-birth to 2472 per 10,000 members in 1880; +by 1904 the proportion had fallen to 1165 per 10,000, +a much greater fall than occurred in England generally.</p> + +<p>The voluntary adoption of preventive precautions +may not be, however, the only method by which the +birth-rate has declined; we may have also to recognize +a concomitant physiological sterility, induced by delayed +marriage and its various consequences; we have +also to recognize pathological sterility due to the impaired +vitality and greater liability to venereal disease of +an increasingly urban life; and we may have to recognize +that stocks differ from one another in fertility.</p> + +<p>The delay in marriage, as studied in England, is so +far apparently slight; the mean age of marriage for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +all husbands in England has increased from 28.43 in +1896 to 28.88 in 1909, and the mean age of all wives +from 26.21 in 1896 to 26.69 in 1909. This seems a very +trifling rate of progression. If, however, we look at +the matter in another way we find that there has been +an extremely serious reduction in the number of marriages +between 15 to 20, normally the most fecund of all age-periods. +Between 1876 and 1880 (according to the +Registrar-General's Report for 1909) the proportion +of minors in 1000 marriages in England and Wales +was 77.8 husbands and 217.0 wives. In 1909 it had fallen +to only 39.8 husbands and 137.7 wives. It has been +held that this has not greatly affected the decline in +the birth-rate. Its tendency, however, must be in +that direction. It is true that Engelmann argued that +delayed marriages had no effect at all on the birth-rate. +But it has been clearly shown that as the age of marriage +increases fecundity distinctly diminishes. +<a name="FNanchor_119" id="FNanchor_119"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> This is +illustrated by the specially elaborate statistics of Scotland +for 1855;<a name="FNanchor_120" id="FNanchor_120"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> +the number of women having children, +that is, the fecundity, was higher in the years 15 to 19, +than at any subsequent age-period, except 20 to 24, +and the fact that the earliest age-group is not absolutely +highest is due to the presence of a number of immature +women. In New South Wales, Coghlan has shown that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +if the average number of children is 3.6, then a woman +marrying at 20 may expect to have five children, a woman +marrying at 28 three children, at 32 two children, and at +37 one child. Newsholme and Stevenson, again, conclude +that the general law of decline of fertility with +advancing age of the mother is shown in various countries, +and that in nearly all countries the mothers aged +15 to 20 have the largest number of children; the chief +exception is in the case of some northern countries like +Norway and Finland, where women develop late, and +there it is the mothers of 20 to 25 who have the largest +number of children.<a name="FNanchor_121" id="FNanchor_121"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> +The postponement in the age of +marriage during recent years is, however, so slight that +it can only account for a small part of the decline in the +birth-rate; Coghlan calculates that of unborn possible +children in New South Wales the loss of only about one-sixth +is to be attributed to this cause. In London, however, +Heron considers that the recognized connection between +a low birth-rate and a high social standing might +have been entirely accounted for sixty years ago by +postponement of marriage, and that such postponement +may still account for 50 per cent of it. +<a name="FNanchor_122" id="FNanchor_122"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a></p> + + +<p>It is not enough, however, to consider the mechanism +by which the birth-rate declines; to realize the significance +of the decline we must consider the causes which +set the mechanism in action.</p> + +<p>We begin to obtain a truer insight into the meaning +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +of the curve of a country's birth-rate when we realize +that it is in relation with the industrial and commercial +activity of the country.<a name="FNanchor_123" id="FNanchor_123"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> +It is sometimes stated that a +high birth-rate goes with a high degree of national prosperity. +That, however, is scarcely the case; we have to +look into the matter a little more closely. And, when +we do so, we find that, not only is the statement of a +supposed connection between a high birth-rate and a +high degree of prosperity an imperfect statement; it is +altogether misleading.</p> + +<p>If, in the first place, we attempt to consider the state +of things among savages, we find, indeed, great variations, +and the birth-rate is not infrequently low. But, on the +whole, it would appear, the marriage-rate, the birth-rate, +and, it may be added, the death-rate are all alike high. +Karl Ranke has investigated the question with considerable +care among the Trumai and Nahuqua Indians of +Central Brazil.<a name="FNanchor_124" id="FNanchor_124"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> +These tribes are yet totally uncontaminated +by contact with European influences; consumption +and syphilis are alike unknown. In the two villages +he investigated in detail, Ranke found that every man +over twenty-five years of age was married, and that the +only unmarried woman he discovered was feeble-minded. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +The average size of the families of those women who were +over forty years of age was between five and six children, +while, on the other hand, the mortality among children +was great, and a relatively small proportion of the population +reached old age. We see therefore that, among +these fairly typical savages, living under simple natural +conditions, the fertility of the women is as high as it is +among all but the most prolific of European peoples; +while, in striking contrast with European peoples, among +whom a large percentage of the population never marry, +and of those who do, many have no children, practically +every man and woman both marries and produces +children.</p> + +<p>If we leave savages out of the question and return to +Europe, it is still instructive to find that among those +peoples who live under the most primitive conditions +much the same state of things may be found as among +savages. This is notably the case as regards Russia. In +no other great European country do the bulk of the +women marry at so early an age, and in no other is the +average size of the family so large. And, concomitantly +with a very high marriage-rate and a very high birth-rate, +we find in Russia, in an equally high degree, the prevalence +among the masses of infantile and general mortality, +disease (epidemical and other), starvation, misery. +<a name="FNanchor_125" id="FNanchor_125"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +So far we scarcely see any marked connection between +high fertility and prosperity. It is more nearly indicated +in the high birth-rate of Hungary—only second +to that of Russia, and also accompanied by a high +mortality—which is associated with the rapid and +notable development of a young nationality. The case +of Hungary is, indeed, typical. In so far as high fertility +is associated with prosperity, it is with the prosperity of +a young and unstable community, which has experienced +a sudden increase of wealth and a sudden expansion. +The case of Western Australia illustrates the same point. +Thirty years ago the marriage-rate and the birth-rate of +this colony were on the same level as those of the other +Australian colonies; but a sudden industrial expansion +occurred, both rates rose, and in 1899 the fertility of +Western Australia was higher than that of any other +English-speaking community.<a name="FNanchor_126" id="FNanchor_126"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a></p> + +<p>If now we put together the facts observed in savage +life and the facts observed in civilized life, we shall begin +to see the real nature of the factors that operate to raise +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +or lower the fertility of a community. It is far, indeed, +from being prosperity which produces a high fertility, +for the most wretched communities are the most prolific, +but, on the other hand, it is by no means the mere absence +of prosperity which produces fertility, for we constantly +observe that the on-coming of a wave of prosperity +elevates the birth-rate. In both cases alike it is the +absence of social-economic restraints which conduces to +high fertility. In the simple, primitive community of +savages, serfs, or slaves, there is no restraint on either +nutritive or reproductive enjoyments; there is no +adequate motive for restraint; there are no claims of +future wants to inhibit the gratification of present wants; +there are no high standards, no ideals. Supposing, +again, that such restraints have been established by a +certain amount of forethought as regards the future, or +a certain calculation as to social advantages to be gained +by limiting the number of children, a check on natural +fertility is established. But a sudden accession of prosperity—a +sudden excess of work and wages and food—sweeps +away this check by apparently rendering it unnecessary; +the natural reproductive impulse is liberated +by this rising wave, and we here see whatever truth +there is in the statement that prosperity means a high +birth-rate. In reality, however, prosperity in such a +case merely increases fertility because its sudden affluence +reduces a community to the same careless indifference +in regard to the future, the same hasty snatching at the +pleasures of the moment, as we find among the most +hopeless and least prosperous communities. It is a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +significant fact, as shown by Beveridge, that the years +when the people of Great Britain marry most are the +years when they drink most. It is in the absence of +social-economic restraints—the absence of the perception +of such restraints, or the absence of the ability to act in accordance +with such perception—that the birth-rate is high.</p> + +<p>Arsène Dumont seems to have been one of the first +who observed this significance of the oscillation of the +birth-rate, though he expressed it in a somewhat peculiar +way, as the social capillarity theory. It is the natural +and universal tendency of mankind to ascend, he declared; +a high birth-rate and a strong ascensional impulse are +mutually contradictory. Large families are only possible +when there is no progress, and no expectation of it can +be cherished; small families become possible when the +way has been opened to progress. "One might say," +Dumont puts it, "that invisible valves, like those which +direct the circulation of the blood, have been placed by +Nature to direct the current of human aspiration in the +upward path it has prescribed." As the proletariat is +enabled to enjoy the prospect of rising it comes under +the action of this law of social capillarity, and the birth-rate +falls. It is the effort towards an indefinite perfection, +Dumont declares, which justifies Nature and +Man, consoles us for our griefs, and constitutes our +sovereign safeguard against the philosophy of despair. +<a name="FNanchor_127" id="FNanchor_127"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a></p> + + +<p>When we thus interpret the crude facts of the falling +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +birth-rate, viewing them widely and calmly in connection +with the other social facts with which they are +intimately related, we are able to see how foolish has +been the outcry against a falling birth-rate, and how +false the supposition that it is due to a new selfishness +replacing an ancient altruism.<a name="FNanchor_128" id="FNanchor_128"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> On the contrary, the +excessive birth-rate of the early industrial period was +directly stimulated by selfishness. There were no laws +against child-labour; children were produced that they +might be sent out, when little more than babies, to the +factories and the mines to increase their parents' income. +The fundamental instincts of men and women do not +change, but their direction can be changed. In this field +the change is towards a higher transformation, introducing +a finer economy into life, diminishing death, disease, and +misery, making possible the finer ends of living, and at the +same time indirectly and even directly improving the +quality of the future race.<a name="FNanchor_129" id="FNanchor_129"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a> This is now becoming recognized +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +by nearly all calm and sagacious inquirers. +<a name="FNanchor_130" id="FNanchor_130"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> The wild +outcry of many unbalanced persons to-day, that a falling +birth-rate means degeneration and disaster, is so altogether +removed from the sphere of reason that we +ought perhaps to regard it as comparable to those manias +which, in former centuries, have assumed other forms +more attractive to the neurotic temperament of those +days; fortunately, it is a mania which, in the nature of +things, is powerless to realize itself, and we need not +anticipate that the outcry against small families will +have the same results as the ancient outcry against +witches.<a name="FNanchor_131" id="FNanchor_131"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a></p> + +<p>It may be proper at this stage to point out that while, +in the foregoing statement, a high birth-rate and a high +marriage-rate have been regarded as practically the +same thing, we need to make a distinction. The true +relation of the two rates may be realized when it is +stated that, the more primitive a community is, the +more closely the two rates vary together. As a community +becomes more civilized and more complex, the +two rates tend to diverge; the restraints on child-production +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +are deeper and more complex than those on +marriage, so that the removal of the restraint on marriage +by no means removes the restraint on fertility. They +tend to diverge in opposite directions. Farr considered +the marriage-rate among civilized peoples as a barometer +of national prosperity. In former years, when corn was +a great national product, the marriage-rate in England +rose regularly as the price of wheat fell. Of recent years +it has become very difficult to estimate exactly what +economic factors affect the marriage-rate. It is believed +by some that the marriage-rate rises or falls with the +value of exports.<a name="FNanchor_132" id="FNanchor_132"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> Udny Yule, however, in an expertly +statistical study of the matter,<a name="FNanchor_133" id="FNanchor_133"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> finds (in agreement +with Hooker) that neither exports nor imports tally +with the marriage-rate. He concludes that the movement +of prices is a predominant—though by no means +the sole—factor in the change of marriage-rates, a fall +in prices producing a fall in the marriage-rates and also +in the birth-rates, though he also thinks that pressure +on the labour market has forced both rates lower than +the course of prices would lead one to expect. In so far +as these causes are concerned, Udny Yule states, the fall +is quite normal and pessimistic views are misplaced. +Udny Yule, however, appears to be by no means confident +that his explanation covers a large part of the +causation, and he admits that he cannot understand +the rationale of the connection between marriage-rates +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +and prices. The curves of the marriage-rates in many +countries indicate a maximum about or shortly before, +1875, when the birth-rate also tended to reach a +maximum, and another rise towards 1900, thus making +the intermediate curve concave. There was, however, +a large rise in money wages between 1860 and 1875, and +the rise in the consuming power of the population has +been continuous since 1850. Thus the factors favourable +to a high marriage-rate must have risen from 1850 +to a maximum about 1870-1875, and since then have +fallen continuously. This statement, which Mr. Udny +Yule emphasizes, certainly seems highly significant from +our present point of view. It falls into line with the +view here accepted, that the first result of a sudden +access of prosperity is to produce a general orgy, a reckless +and improvident haste to take advantage of the new +prosperity, but that, as the effects of the orgy wear off, +it necessarily gives place to new ideals, and to higher +standards of life which lead to caution and prudence. +Mr. N.A. Hooker seems to have perceived this, and in +the discussion which followed the reading of Udny Yule's +paper he set forth what (though it was not accepted by +Udny Yule) may perhaps fairly be regarded as the sound +view of the matter. "During the great expansion of +trade prior to 1870," he remarked, "the means of satisfying +the desired standard of comfort were increasing much +more rapidly than the rise in the standard; hence a +decreasing age of marriage and a marriage-rate above +the normal. After about 1873, however, the means of +satisfying the standard of comfort no longer increased +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> +with the same rapidity, and then a new factor, he thought, +became important, viz. the increased intelligence of the +people."<a name="FNanchor_134" id="FNanchor_134"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a> +This seems to be precisely the same view of +the matter as I have here sought to set forth; prosperity +is not civilization, its first tendency is to produce +a reckless abandonment to the satisfaction of the crudest +impulses. But as prosperity develops it begins to engender +more complex ideals and higher standards; the +inevitable result is a greater forethought and restraint. +<a name="FNanchor_135" id="FNanchor_135"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a></p> + +<p>If we consider, not the marriage-rate, but the average +age at marriage, and especially the age of the woman, +which varies less than that of the man, the results, +though harmonious, would not be quite the same. The +general tendency as regards the age of girls at marriage +is summed up by Ploss and Bartels, in their monumental +work on Woman, in the statement: "It may be said +in general that the age of girls at marriage is lower, +the lower the stage of civilization is in the community to +which they belong."<a name="FNanchor_136" id="FNanchor_136"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> We thus see one reason why it is +that, in an advanced stage of civilization, a high marriage-rate +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +is not necessarily associated with a high birth-rate. +A large number of women who marry late may have +fewer children than a smaller number who marry early.</p> + + +<p>We may see the real character of the restraints on +fertility very well illustrated by the varying birth-rate +of the upper and lower social classes belonging to the same +community. If a high birth-rate were a mark of prosperity +or of advanced civilization, we should expect to +find it among the better social class of a community. +But the reverse is the case; it is everywhere the least +prosperous and the least cultured classes of a community +which show the highest birth-rate. As we go from the +very poor to the very rich quarters of a great city—whether +Paris, Berlin, or Vienna—the average number +of children to the family diminishes regularly. The +difference is found in the country as well as in the towns. +In Holland, for instance, whether in town or country, +there are 5.19 children per marriage among the poor, +and only 4.50 among the rich. In London it is notorious +that the same difference appears; thus Charles Booth, +the greatest authority on the social conditions of London, +in the concluding volume of his vast survey, sums up +the condition of things in the statement that "the lower +the class the earlier the period of marriage and the +greater the number of children born to each marriage." +The same phenomenon is everywhere found, and it is +one of great significance.</p> + +<p>The significance becomes clearer when we realize +that an urban population must always be regarded as +more "civilized" than a rural population, and that, in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +accordance with that fact, an urban population tends to +be less prolific than a rural population. The town birth-rate +is nearly always lower than the country birth-rate. +In Germany this is very marked, and the rapidly growing +urbanization of Germany is accompanied by a great +fall of the birth-rate in the large cities, but not in the +rural districts. In England the fall is more widespread, +and though the birth-rate is much higher in the country +than in the towns the decline in the rural birth-rate is +now proceeding more rapidly than that in the urban +birth-rate. England, which once contained a largely +rural population, now possesses a mainly urban population. +Every year it becomes more urban; while the +town population grows, the rural population remains +stationary; so that, at the present time, for every +inhabitant of the country in England, there are more +than three town-dwellers. As the country-dweller is +more prolific than the town-dweller, this means that +the rural population is constantly being poured into +the towns. The larger our great cities grow, the more +irresistible becomes the attraction which they exert on +the children of the country, who are fascinated by them, +as the birds are fascinated by the lighthouse or the moths +by the candle. And the results are not altogether unlike +those which this analogy suggests. At the present time, +one-third of the population of London is made up of +immigrants from the country. Yet, notwithstanding +this immense and constant stream of new and vigorous +blood, it never suffices to raise the urban population to +the same level of physical and nervous stability which +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +the rural population possesses. More alert, more vivacious, +more intelligent, even more urbane in the finer sense, +as the urban population becomes,—not perhaps at first, +but in the end,—it inevitably loses its stamina, its reserves +of vital energy. Dr. Cantlie very properly defines a +Londoner as a person whose grandparents all belonged +to London—and he could not find any. Dr. Harry +Campbell has found a few who could claim London +grandparents; they were poor specimens of humanity. +<a name="FNanchor_137" id="FNanchor_137"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> +Even on the intellectual side there are no great Londoners. +It is well known that a number of eminent men have +been born in London; but, in the course of a somewhat +elaborate study of the origins of British men of genius, I +have not been able to find that any were genuinely +Londoners by descent.<a name="FNanchor_138" id="FNanchor_138"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> An urban life saps that calm +and stolid strength which is necessary for all great effort +and stress, physical or intellectual. The finest body of +men in London, as a class, are the London police, and +Charles Booth states that only 17 per cent of the London +police are born in London, a smaller proportion than any +other class of the London population except the army +and navy. As Mr. N.C. Macnamara has pointed out, +it is found that London men do not possess the necessary +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +nervous stability and self-possession for police work; +they are too excitable and nervous, lacking the equanimity, +courage, and self-reliance of the rural men. Just +in the same way, in Spain, the bull-fighters, a body of +men admirable for their graceful strength, their modesty, +courage, and skill, nearly always come from country +districts, although it is in the towns that the enthusiasm +for bull-fighting is centred. Therefore, it would appear +that until urban conditions of life are greatly improved, +the more largely urban a population becomes, the more +is its standard of vital and physical efficiency likely to +be lowered. This became clearly visible during the +South African War; it was found at Manchester (as +stated by Dr. T.P. Smith and confirmed by Dr. Clayton) +that among 11,000 young men who volunteered for +enlistment, scarcely more than 10 per cent could pass +the surgeon's examination, although the standard of +physique demanded was extremely low, while Major-General +Sir F. Maurice has stated<a name="FNanchor_139" id="FNanchor_139"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> that, even when all +these rejections have been made, of those who actually +are enlisted, at the end of two years only two effective +soldiers are found for every five who enlist. It is not +difficult to see a bearing of these facts on the birth-rate. +The civilized world is becoming a world of towns, and, +while the diminished birth-rate of towns is certainly +not mainly the result of impaired vitality, these phenomena +are correlative facts of the first importance for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +every country which is using up its rural population and +becoming a land of cities.</p> + +<p>From our present point of view it is thus a very significant +fact that the equipoise between country-dwellers +and town-dwellers has been lost, that the towns are +gaining at the expense of the country whose surplus +population they absorb and destroy. The town population +is not only disinclined to propagate; it is probably +in some measure unfit to propagate.</p> + +<p>At the same time, we must not too strongly emphasize +this aspect of the matter; such over-emphasis of a +single aspect of highly complex phenomena constantly +distorts our vision of great social processes. We have +already seen that it is inaccurate to assert any connection +between a high birth-rate and a high degree of +national prosperity, except in so far as at special periods +in the history of a country a sudden wave of prosperity +may temporarily remove the restraints on natural +fertility. Prosperity is only one of the causes that tend +to remove the restraint on the birth-rate; and it is a +cause that is never permanently effective.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>To get to the bottom of the matter, we thus find +it is necessary to look into it more closely than is +usually attempted. When we ask ourselves why +prosperity fails permanently to remove the restraints +on fertility the answer is, that it speedily creates +new restraints. Prosperity and civilization are far +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +from being synonymous terms. The savage who is +able to glut himself with the whale that has just been +stranded on his coast, is more prosperous than he was +the day before, but he is not more civilized, perhaps a +trifle less so. The working community that is suddenly +glutted by an afflux of work and wages is in exactly the +same position as the savage who is suddenly enabled to +fill himself with a rich mass of decaying blubber. It is +prosperity; it is not civilization. +<a name="FNanchor_140" id="FNanchor_140"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> But, while prosperity +leads at first to the reckless and unrestrained gratification +of the simplest animal instincts of nutrition and reproduction, +it tends, when it is prolonged, to evolve more +complex instincts. Aspirations become less crude, the +needs and appetites engendered by prosperity take on a +more social character, and are sharpened by social +rivalries. In place of the earlier easy and reckless gratification +of animal impulses, a peaceful and organized +struggle is established for securing in ever fuller degree +the gratification of increasingly insistent and increasingly +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +complex desires. Such a struggle involves a deliberate +calculation and forethought, which, sooner or later, +cannot fail to be applied to the question of offspring. +Thus it is that affluence, in the long run, itself imposes a +check on reproduction. Prosperity, under the stress of +the urban conditions with which it tends to be associated, +has been transformed into that calculated forethought, +that deliberate self-restraint for the attainment of ever +more manifold ends, which in its outcome we term +"civilization."</p> + +<p>It is frequently assumed, as we have seen, that the +process by which civilization is thus evolved is a selfish +and immoral process. To procreate large families, it is +said, is unselfish and moral, as well as a patriotic, even +a religious duty. This assumption, we now find, +is a little too hasty and is even the reverse of the +truth; it is necessary to take into consideration the +totality of the social phenomena accompanying a +high birth-rate, more especially under the conditions +of town life. A community in which children are born +rapidly is necessarily in an unstable position; it is +growing so quickly that there is insufficient time for +the conditions of life to be equalized. The state of ill-adjustment +is chronic; the pressure is lifted from off the +natural impulse of procreation, but is increased on all +the conditions under which the impulse is exerted. +There is increased overcrowding, increased filth, increased +disease, increased death. It can never happen, in modern +times, that the readjustment of the conditions of life +can be made to keep pace with a high birth-rate. It is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +sufficient if we consider the case of English towns, of +London in particular, during the period when British +prosperity was most rapidly increasing, and the birth-rate +nearing its maximum, in the middle of the great +Victorian epoch, of which Englishmen are, for many +reasons, so proud. It was certainly not an age lacking in +either energy or philanthropy; yet, when we read the +memorable report which Chadwick wrote in 1842, on the +<i>Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great +Britain</i>, or the minute study of Bethnal Green which +Gavin published in 1848 as a type of the conditions +prevailing in English towns, we realize that the magnificence +of this epoch was built up over circles of Hell to +which the imagination of Dante never attained.</p> + +<p>As reproductive activity dies down, social conditions +become more stable, a comparatively balanced state of +adjustment tends to be established, insanitary surroundings +can be bettered, disease diminished, and the death-rate +lowered. How much may thus be accomplished we +realize when we compare the admirably precise and +balanced pages in which Charles Booth, in the concluding +volumes of his great work, has summarized his survey +of London, with the picture presented by Chadwick and +Gavin half a century earlier. Ugly and painful as are many +of the features of this modern London, the vision which +is, on the whole, evoked is that of a community which +has attained self-consciousness, which is growing into +some faint degree of harmony with its environment, and +is seeking to gain the full amount of the satisfaction +which an organized urban life can yield. Booth, who +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +appears to have realized the significance of a decreased +fertility in the attainment of this progress, hopes for a +still greater fall in the birth-rate; and those who seek +to restore the birth-rate of half a century ago are engaged +on a task which would be criminal if it were not based on +ignorance, and which is, in any case, fatuous.</p> + +<p>The whole course of zoological evolution reveals a +constantly diminishing reproductive activity and a +constantly increasing expenditure of care on the offspring +thus diminished in number.<a name="FNanchor_141" id="FNanchor_141"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> Fish spawn their +ova by the million, and it is a happy chance if they +become fertilized, a highly unlikely chance that more +than a very small proportion will ever attain maturity. +Among the mammals, however, the female may produce +but half a dozen or fewer offspring at a time, but she +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +lavishes so much care upon them that they have a very +fair chance of all reaching maturity. In man, in so far +as he refrains from returning to the beast and is true to +the impulse which in him becomes a conscious process +of civilization, the same movement is carried forward. +He even seeks to decrease still further the number of +his offspring by voluntary effort, and at the same time +to increase their quality and magnify their importance. +<a name="FNanchor_142" id="FNanchor_142"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a></p> + +<p>When in human families, especially under civilized +conditions, we see large families we are in the presence +of a reversion to the tendencies that prevail among lower +organisms. Such large families may probably be regarded, +as Näcke suggests, as constituting a symptom of degeneration. +It is noteworthy that they usually occur in +the pathological and abnormal classes, among the +insane, the feeble-minded, the criminal, the consumptive, +the alcoholic, etc.<a name="FNanchor_143" id="FNanchor_143"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a></p> + + +<p>This tendency of the birth-rate to fall with the growth +of social stability is thus a tendency which is of the +very essence of civilization. It represents an impulse +which, however deliberate it may be in the individual, +may, in the community, be looked upon as an instinctive +effort to gain more complete control of the conditions of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> +life, and to grapple more efficiently with the problems +of misery and disease and death. It is not only, as is +sometimes supposed, during the past century that the +phenomena may be studied. We have a remarkable +example some centuries earlier, an example which very +clearly illustrates the real nature of the phenomena. +The city of Geneva, perhaps first of European cities, +began to register its births, deaths, and marriages from +the middle of the sixteenth century. This alone indicates +a high degree of civilization; and at that time, and for +some succeeding centuries, Geneva was undoubtedly a +very highly civilized city. Its inhabitants really were +the "elect," morally and intellectually, of French +Protestantism. In many respects it was a model city, +as Gray noted when he reached it in the course of his +travels in the middle of the eighteenth century. These +registers of Geneva show, in a most illuminating manner, +how extreme fertility at the outset, gradually gave +place, as civilization progressed, to a very low fertility, +with fewer and later marriages, a very low death-rate, +and a state of general well-being in which the births +barely replaced the deaths.</p> + +<p>After Protestant Geneva had lost her pioneering place +in civilization, it was in France, the land which above +all others may in modern times claim to represent the +social aspects of civilization, that the same tendency +most conspicuously appeared. But all Europe, as well +as all the English-speaking lands outside Europe, is now +following the lead of France. In a paper read before +the Paris Society of Anthropology a few years ago, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +Emile Macquart showed clearly, by a series of ingenious +diagrams, that whereas, fifty years ago, the condition +of the birth-rate in France diverged widely from that +prevailing in the other chief countries of Europe, the +other countries are now rapidly following in the same +road along which France has for a century been proceeding +slowly, and are constantly coming closer to her, +England closest of all. In the past, proposals have from +time to time been made in France to interfere with the +progress of this downward movement of the birth-rate—proposals +that were sufficiently foolish, for neither in +France nor elsewhere will the individual allow the statistician +to interfere officiously in a matter which he regards +as purely intimate and private. But the real character +of this tendency of the birth-rate, as an essential phenomenon +of civilization, with which neither moralist nor +politician can successfully hope to interfere, is beginning +to be realized in France. Azoulay, in summing up the +discussion after Macquart's paper<a name="FNanchor_144" id="FNanchor_144"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> had been read at +the Society of Anthropology, pointed out that "nations +must inevitably follow the same course as social classes, +and the more the mass of these social classes becomes +civilized, the more the nation's birth-rate falls; therefore +there is nothing to be done legally and administratively." +And another member added: "Except to applaud."</p> + +<p>It is probably too much to hope that so sagacious a +view will at once be universally adopted. The United +States and the great English colonies, for instance, find +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +it difficult to realize that they are not really new countries, +but branches of old countries, and already nearing +maturity when they began their separate lives. They +are not at the beginning of two thousand years of slow +development, such as we have passed through, but at +the end of it, with us, and sometimes even a little ahead +of us. It is therefore natural and inevitable that, in a +matter in which we are moving rapidly, Massachusetts +and Ontario and New South Wales and New Zealand +should have moved still more rapidly, so rapidly indeed, +that they have themselves failed to perceive that their +real natural increase and the manner in which it is +attained place them in this matter at the van of civilization. +These things are, however, only learnt slowly. We +may be sure that the fundamental and complex character +of the phenomena will never be obvious to our fussy +little politicians, so apt to advocate panaceas which +have effects quite opposite to those they desire. But, +whatever politicians may wish to do or to leave undone, +it is well to remember that, of the various ideals the +world holds, there are some that lie on the path of our +social progress, and others that do not there lie. We may +properly exercise such wisdom as we possess by utilizing +the ideals which are before us, serenely neglecting many +others which however precious they may once have +seemed, no longer form part of the stage of civilization +we are now moving towards.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +What are the ideals of the stage of civilization we of +the Western world are now moving towards? We have +here pushed as far as need be the analysis of that declining +birth-rate which has caused so much anxiety to +those amongst us who can only see narrowly and see +superficially. We have found that, properly understood, +there is nothing in it to evoke our pessimism. On the +contrary, we have seen that, in the opinion of the most +distinguished authorities, the energy with which we +move in our present direction, through the exercise of an +ever finer economy in life, may be regarded as a "measure +of civilization" in the important sphere of vital statistics. +As we now leave the question, some may ask themselves +whether this concomitant decline in birth-rates and +death-rates may not possibly have a still wider and more +fundamental meaning as a measure of civilization.</p> + +<p>We have long been accustomed to regard the East as a +spiritual world in which the finer ends of living were +counted supreme, and the merely materialistic aspects +of life, dissociated from the aims of religion and of art, +were trodden under foot. Our own Western world we +have humbly regarded as mainly absorbed in a feverish +race for the attainment, by industry and war, of the +satisfaction of the impulses of reproduction and nutrition, +and the crudely material aggrandizement of which those +impulses are the symbol. A certain outward idleness, +a semi-idleness, as Nietzsche said, is the necessary condition +for a real religious life, for a real æsthetic life, for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +any life on the spiritual plane. The noisy, laborious, +pushing, "progressive" life we traditionally associate +with the West is essentially alien to the higher ends of +living, as has been intuitively recognized and acted on +by all those among us who have sought to pursue the +higher ends of living. It was so that the nineteenth-century +philosophers of Europe, of whom Schopenhauer +was in this matter the extreme type, viewed the matter. +But when we seek to measure the tendency of the chief +countries of the West, led by France, England, and +Germany, and the countries of the East led by Japan, +in the light of this strictly measurable test of vital +statistics, may we not, perhaps, trace the approach of a +revolutionary transposition? Japan, entering on the +road we have nearly passed through, in which the perpetual +clash of a high birth-rate and a high death-rate +involves social disorder and misery, has flung to the +winds the loftier ideals it once pursued so successfully +and has lost its fine æsthetic perceptions, its insight into +the most delicate secrets of the soul. +<a name="FNanchor_145" id="FNanchor_145"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a> And while Japan, +certainly to-day voicing the aspirations of the East, is +concerned to become a great military and industrial +power, we in the West are growing weary of war, and +are coming to look upon commerce as a necessary routine +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +no longer adequate to satisfy the best energies of human +beings. We are here moving towards the fine quiescence +involved by a delicate equipoise of life and of death; +and this economy sets free an energy we are seeking to +expend in a juster social organization, and in the realization +of ideals which until now have seemed but the +imagination of idle dreamers. Asia, as an anonymous +writer has recently put it, is growing crude, vulgar, and +materialistic; Europe, on the other hand, is growing to +loathe its own past grossness. "London may yet be +the spiritual capital of the world, while Asia—rich in all +that gold can buy and guns can give, lord of lands and +bodies, builder of railways and promulgator of police +regulations, glorious in all material glories—postures, +complacent and obtuse, before a Europe content in the +possession of all that matters,"<a name="FNanchor_146" id="FNanchor_146"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> Certainly, we are not +there yet, but the old Earth has seen many stranger and +more revolutionary changes than this. England, as +this writer reminds us, was once a tropical forest.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90" id="Footnote_90"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> +It must be understood that, from the present point of view, the +term "Anglo-Saxon" covers the peoples of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, +as well as of England.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91" id="Footnote_91"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> +The decline of the French birth-rate has been investigated in a +Lyons thesis by Salvat, <i>La Dépopulation de la France</i>, 1903.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92" id="Footnote_92"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> +The latest figures are given in the Annual Reports of the Registrar-General +for England and Wales.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93" id="Footnote_93"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> +Newsholme and Stevenson, "Decline of Human Fertility as shown +by corrected Birth-rates," <i>Journal of the Royal Statistical Society</i>, +1906.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94" id="Footnote_94"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> +Werner Sombart, <i>International Magazine</i>, December, 1907.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95" id="Footnote_95"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> +A.W. Flux, "Urban Vital Statistics in England and Germany," +<i>Journ. Statist. Soc.</i>, March, 1910.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96" id="Footnote_96"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> +German infantile mortality, Böhmert states ("Die Säuglingssterblichkeit +in Deutschland und ihre Ursachen," <i>Die Neue Generation</i>, +March, 1908), is greater than in any European country, except Russia and +Hungary, about 50 per cent greater than in England, France, Belgium, +or Holland. The infantile mortality has increased in Germany, as +usually happens, with the increased employment of women, and, largely +from this cause, has nearly doubled in Berlin in the course of four years, +states Lily Braun (<i>Mutterschutz</i>, 1906, Heft I, p. 21); but even on +this basis it is only 22 per cent in the English textile industries, as against +38 per cent in the German textile industries.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97" id="Footnote_97"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> +In England the marriage-rate fell rather sharply in 1875, and +showed a slight tendency to rise about 1900 (G. Udny Yule, "On the +Changes in the Marriage-and Birth-rates in England and Wales," +<i>Journal of the Statistical Society</i>, March, 1906). On the whole there has +been a real though slight decline. The decline has been widespread, +and is most marked in Australia, especially South Australia. There +has, however, been a rise in the marriage-rate in Ireland, France, +Austria, Switzerland, Germany, and especially Belgium. The movement +for decreased child-production would naturally in the first place +involve decreased marriage, but it is easy to understand that when it +is realized the marriage is not necessarily followed by conception +this motive for avoiding marriage loses its force, and the marriage-rate +rises.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98" id="Footnote_98"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> +<i>Medicine</i>, February, 1904.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99" id="Footnote_99"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> +Davidson, "The Growth of the French-Canadian Race," <i>Annals +of the American Academy</i>, September, 1896.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100" id="Footnote_100"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> +T.A. Coghlan, <i>The Decline of the Birth-rate of New South Wales</i>, +1903. The New South Wales statistics are specially valuable as the +records contain many particulars (such as age of parents, period since +marriage, and number of children) not given in English or most other +records.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101" id="Footnote_101"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> +C. Hamburger, "Kinderzahl und Kindersterblichkeit," <i>Die Neue +Generation</i>, August, 1909.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102" id="Footnote_102"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> +Looked at in another way, it may be said that if a natural increase, +as ascertained by subtracting the death-rate from the birth-rate, of +10 to 15 per cent be regarded as normal, then, taking so far as possible +the figures for 1909, the natural increase of England and Scotland, of +Germany, of Italy, of Austria and Hungary, of Belgium, is normal; +the natural increase of New South Wales, of Victoria, of South Australia, +of New Zealand, is abnormally high (though in new countries such +increase may not be undesirable) while the natural increase of France, +of Spain, and of Ireland is abnormally low. Such a method of estimation, +of course, entirely leaves out of account the question of the social +desirability of the process by which the normal increase is secured.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103" id="Footnote_103"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_103"><span class="label">103]</span></a> +Johannsen, <i>Janus</i>, 1905.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104" id="Footnote_104"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> +Rubin, "A Measure of Civilization," <i>Journal of the Royal Statistical +Society</i>, March, 1897. "The lowest stage of civilization," he points out, +"is to go forward blindly, which in this connection means to bring into +the world a great number of children which must, in great proportion, +sink into the grave. The next stage of civilization is to see the danger +and to keep clear of it. The highest stage of civilization is to see the +danger and overcome it." Europe in the past and various countries +in the present illustrate the first stage; France illustrates the second +stage; the third stage is that towards which we are striving to move +to-day.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105" id="Footnote_105"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> +Baines, "The Recent Growth of Population in Western Europe," +<i>Journal of the Royal Statistical Society</i>, December, 1909.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106" id="Footnote_106"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> +Various facts and references are given by Havelock Ellis, <i>The +Nationalization of Health</i>, chap. <span class="smcap">XIV</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107" id="Footnote_107"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> +These are the figures given by the chief Japanese authority, +Professor Takano, <i>Journal of the Royal Statistical Society</i>, July, 1910, +p. 738.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108" id="Footnote_108"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> +E.A. Ross, "The Race Fibre of the Chinese," <i>Popular Science +Monthly</i>, October, 1911. According to another competent and fairly +concordant estimate, the infantile death-rate of China is 90 per cent. +Of the female infants, probably about 1 in 10 is intentionally destroyed.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109" id="Footnote_109"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> +J.J. Matignon, "La Mère et l'Enfant en Chine," <i>Archives +d'Anthropologie Criminelle</i>, October to November, 1909.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110" id="Footnote_110"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> +Arsène Dumont, for instance, points out +(<i>Dépopulation et Civilization</i>, +p. 116) that the very early marriages and the reckless fertility of +the Chinese cannot fail to cease as soon as the people adopt European +ways.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111" id="Footnote_111"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> +The confident estimates of the future population of the world +which are from time to time put forward on the basis of the present +birth-rate are quite worthless. A brilliantly insubstantial fabric of +this kind, by B.L. Putnam Weale (<i>The Conflict of Colour</i>, 1911), has +been justly criticized by Professor Weatherley (<i>Popular Science +Monthly</i>, November, 1911).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112" id="Footnote_112"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> +It is sometimes convenient to use the term "Neo-Malthusianism" +to indicate the voluntary limitation of the family, but it must always be +remembered that Malthus would not have approved of Neo-Malthusianism, +and that Neo-Malthusian practices have nothing to do with the +theory of Malthus. They would not be affected could that theory +be conclusively proved or conclusively disproved.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113" id="Footnote_113"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> +We even find the demand that bachelors and spinsters shall be +taxed. This proposal has been actually accepted (1911) by the Landtag +of the little Principality of Reuss, which proposes to tax bachelors +and spinsters over thirty years of age. Putting aside the arguable +questions as to whether a State is entitled to place such pressure on its +citizens, it must be pointed out that it is not marriage but the child +which concerns the State. It is possible to have children without +marriage, and marriage does not ensure the procreation of children. +Therefore it would be more to the point to tax the childless. In that +case, it would be necessary to remit the tax in the case of unmarried +people with children, and to levy it in the case of married people without +children. But it has further to be remembered that not all persons +are fitted to have sound children, and as unsound children are a burden +and not a benefit to the State, the State ought to reward rather than +to fine those conscientious persons who refrain from procreation when +they are too poor, or with too defective a heredity, to be likely to produce, +or to bring up, sound children. Moreover, some persons are sterile, +and thorough medical investigation would be required before they +could fairly be taxed. As soon as we begin to analyse such a proposal +we cannot fail to see that, even granting that the aim of such legislation +is legitimate and desirable, the method of attaining it is thoroughly +mischievous and unjustifiable.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114" id="Footnote_114"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> +J.G. Engelmann, "Decreasing Fecundity," <i>Philadelphia Medical +Journal</i>, January 18, 1902.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115" id="Footnote_115"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> +It has, further, been frequently denied that Neo-Malthusian practices +can affect Roman Catholic countries, since the Church is precluded +from approving of them. That is true. But it is also true that, as +Lagneau long since pointed out, the Protestants of Europe have increased +at more than double the annual rate of the Catholics, though this relationship +has now ceased to be exact. Dumont states (<i>Dépopulation et +Civilisation</i>, chap. <span class="smcap">XVIII</span>) +that there is not the slightest reason to +suppose that (apart from the question of poverty) the faithful have +more children than the irreligious; moreover, in dealing with its more +educated members, it is not the policy of the Church to make indiscreet +inquiries (see Havelock Ellis, <i>Studies in the Psychology of Sex</i>, Vol. VI, +"Sex in Relation to Society," p. 590). A Catholic bishop is reported +to have warned his clergy against referring in their Lent sermons +to the voluntary restriction of conception, remarking that an excess +of rigour in this matter would cause the Church to lose half her flock. +The fall in the birth-rate is as marked in Catholic as in Protestant +countries; the Catholic communities in which this is not the case +are few, and placed in exceptional circumstances. It must be remembered, +moreover, that the Church enjoins celibacy on its clergy, and +that celibacy is practically a Malthusian method. It is not easy while +preaching practical Malthusianism to the clergy to spend much fervour +in preaching against practical Neo-Malthusianism to the laity.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116" id="Footnote_116"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> +McLean, "The Declining Birth-rate in Australia," <i>International +Medical Journal of Australasia</i>, 1904.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117" id="Footnote_117"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> +Thus in France the low birth-rate is associated with a high infantile +death-rate, which has not yet been appreciably influenced by the +movement of puericulture in France. In England also, at the end of +the last century, the declining birth-rate was accompanied by a rising +infantile death-rate, which is now, however, declining under the +influence of greater care of child-life.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118" id="Footnote_118"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> +Sidney Webb, <i>Times</i>, October 11 and 16, 1906; also <i>Popular +Science Monthly</i>, 1906, p. 526.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119" id="Footnote_119"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> +It is important to remember the distinction between "fecundity" +and "fertility." A woman who has one child has proved that she is +fecund, but has not proved that she is fertile. A woman with six +children has proved that she is not only fecund but fertile.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120" id="Footnote_120"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> +They have been worked out by C.J. Lewis and J. Norman Lewis, +<i>Natality and Fecundity</i>, 1905.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121" id="Footnote_121"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> +Newsholme and Stevenson, <i>op. cit.</i>; Rubin and Westergaard, +<i>Statistik der Ehen</i>, 1890, p. 95.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122" id="Footnote_122"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> +D. Heron, "On the Relation of Fertility in Man to Social Status," +<i>Drapers' Company Research Memoirs</i>, No. 1, 1906.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123" id="Footnote_123"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> +The recognition of this relationship must not be regarded as an +attempt unduly to narrow down the causation of changes in the birth-rate. +The great complexity of the causes influencing the birth-rate +is now fairly well recognized, and has, for instance, been pointed out by +Goldscheid, <i>Höherentwicklung und Menschenökonomie</i>, +Vol. I, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124" id="Footnote_124"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> +In a paper read at the Brunswick Meeting of the German Anthropological +Society (<i>Correspondenzblatt</i> of the Society, November, 1898); +a great many facts concerning the fecundity of women among savages +in various parts of the world are brought together by Ploss and Bartels, +<i>Das Weib</i>, Vol I, chap. <span class="smcap">XXIV</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125" id="Footnote_125"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> +The proportion of doctors to the population is very small, and the +people still have great confidence in their quacks and witch-doctors. +The elementary rules of sanitation are generally neglected, water +supplies are polluted, filth is piled up in the streets and the courtyards, +as it was in England and Western Europe generally until a century ago, +and the framing of regulations or the incursions of the police have +little effect on the habits of the people. Neglect of the ordinary +precautions of cleanliness is responsible for the wide extension of +syphilis by the use of drinking vessels, towels, etc., in common. Not +only is typhoid prevalent in nearly every province of Russia, but +typhus, which is peculiarly the disease of filth, overcrowding, and +starvation, and has long been practically extinct in England, still +flourishes and causes an immense mortality. The workers often have +no homes and sleep in the factories amidst the machinery, men and +women together; their food is insufficient, and the hours of labour +may vary from twelve to fourteen. When famine occurs these conditions +are exaggerated, and various epidemics ravage the population.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126" id="Footnote_126"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> +It must, however, be remembered that in small and unstable +communities a considerable margin for error must be allowed, as the +crude birth-rate is unduly raised by an afflux of immigrants at the +reproductive age.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127" id="Footnote_127"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> +Arsène Dumont, <i>Dépopulation et Civilisation</i>, 1890, chap. +<span class="smcap">VI</span>. The +nature of the restraint on fertility has been well set forth by Dr. Bushee +("The Declining Birth-rate and its Causes," <i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, +August, 1903), mainly in the terms of Dumont's "social capillarity" +theory.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128" id="Footnote_128"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> +Even Dr. Newsholme, usually so cautious and reliable an investigator +in this field, has been betrayed into a reference in this connection +(<i>The Declining Birth-rate</i>, 1911, p. 41) to the "increasing rarity of +altruism," though in almost the next paragraph he points out that the +large families of the past were connected with the fact that the child +was a profitable asset, and could be sent to work when little more than +an infant. The "altruism" which results in crushing the minds and +bodies of others in order to increase one's own earnings is not an +"altruism" which we need desire to perpetuate. The beneficial effect +of legislation against child-labour in reducing an unduly high birth-rate +has often been pointed out.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129" id="Footnote_129"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> +It may suffice to take a single point. Large families involve the +birth of children at very short intervals. It has been clearly shown +by Dr. R.J. Ewart ("The Influence of Parental Age on Offspring," +<i>Eugenics Review</i>, October, 1911) that children born at an interval of +less than two years after the birth of the previous child, remain, even +when they have reached their sixth year, three inches shorter and three +pounds lighter than first-born children.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130" id="Footnote_130"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> +For instance, Goldscheid, in <i>Höherentwicklung und Menschenökonomie</i>; +it is also, on the whole, the conclusion of Newsholme, though +expressed in an exceedingly temperate manner, in his +<i>Declining Birth-rate</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131" id="Footnote_131"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> +If, however, our birth-rate fanatics should hear of the results +obtained at the experimental farm at Roseville, California, by Professor +Silas Wentworth, who has found that by placing ewes in a field under +the power wires of an electric wire company, the average production +of lambs is more than doubled, we may anticipate trouble in many +hitherto small families. Their predecessors insisted, in the cause of +religion and morals, on burning witches; we must not be surprised if +our modern fanatics, in the same holy cause, clamour for a law compelling +all childless women to live under electric wires.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132" id="Footnote_132"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> +J. Holt Schooling, "The English Marriage Rate," <i>Fortnightly +Review</i>, June, 1901.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133" id="Footnote_133"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> +G. Udny Yule, "Changes in the Marriage-and Birth-rate in +England," <i>Journal of the Royal Statistical Society</i>, March, 1906.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134" id="Footnote_134"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> +At an earlier period Hooker had investigated the same subject +without coming to any very decisive conclusions ("Correlation of the +Marriage-rate with Trade," <i>Journ. Statistical Soc.</i>, September, 1901). +Minor fluctuations in marriage and in trade per head, he found, tend +to be in close correspondence, but on the whole trade has risen and the +marriage-rate has fallen, probably, Hooker believed, as the result +of the gradual deferment of marriage.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135" id="Footnote_135"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> +The higher standard need not be, among the mass of the population, +of a very exalted character, although it marks a real progress. Newsholme +and Stevenson (<i>op. cit.</i>) term it a higher "standard of comfort." +The decline of the birth-rate, they say, "is associated with a general +raising of the standard of comfort, and is an expression of the determination +of the people to secure this greater comfort."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136" id="Footnote_136"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> +Ploss, <i>Das Weib</i>, Vol. I, chap. <span class="smcap">XX</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_137" id="Footnote_137"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> +It must not, however, be assumed that the rural immigrants +are in the mass better suited to urban life than the urban natives. +It is probable that, notwithstanding their energy and robustness, +the immigrants are less suited to urban conditions than the natives. +Consequently a process of selection takes place among the immigrants, +and the survivors become, as it were, immunized to the poisons of +urban life. But this immunization is by no means necessarily associated +with any high degree of nervous vigour or general physical development.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_138" id="Footnote_138"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> +Havelock Ellis, <i>A Study of British Genius</i>, pp. 22, 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139" id="Footnote_139"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> +"National Health: a Soldier's Study," <i>Contemporary Review</i>, +January, 1903. The Reports of the Inspector-General of Recruiting +are said to show that the recruits are every year smaller, lighter, and +narrower-chested.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140" id="Footnote_140"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> +This has been well illustrated during the past forty years in the +flourishing county of Glamorgan in Wales, as is shown by Dr. R.S. +Stewart ("The Relationship of Wages, Lunacy, and Crime in South +Wales," <i>Journal of Mental Science</i>, January, 1904). The staple industry +here is coal, 17 per cent of the population being directly employed in +coal-mining, and wages are determined by the sliding scale as it is +called, according to which the selling price of coal regulates the wages. +This leads to many fluctuations and sudden accesses of prosperity. +It is found that whenever wages rise there is a concomitant increase +of insanity and at the same time a diminished output of coal due to +slacking of work when earnings are greater; there is also an increase +of drunkenness and of crime. Stewart concludes that it is doubtful +whether increased material prosperity is conducive to improvement +in physical and mental status. It must, however, be pointed out +that it is a sudden and unstable prosperity, not necessarily a gradual +and stable prosperity, which is hereby shown to be pernicious.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141" id="Footnote_141"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> +The relationship is sometimes expressed by saying that the +more highly differentiated the organism the fewer the offspring. +According to Plate we ought to say that, the greater the capacity +for parental care the fewer the offspring. This, however, comes +to the same thing, since it is the higher organisms which possess +the increased capacity for parental care. Putting it in the most +generalized zoological way, diminished offspring is the response +to improved environment. Thus in Man the decline of the birth-rate, +as Professor Benjamin Moore remarks (<i>British Medical Journal</i>, +August 20, 1910, p. 454), is "the simple biological reply to good +economic conditions. It is a well-known biological law that even a +micro-organism, when placed in unfavourable conditions as to food and +environment, passes into a reproductive phase, and by sporulation +or some special type produces new individuals very rapidly. The same +condition of affairs in the human race was shown even by the fact that +one-half of the births come from the least favourably situated one-quarter +of the population. Hence, over-rapid birth-rate indicates +unfavourable conditions of life, so that (so long as the population was +on the increase) a lower birth-rate was a valuable indication of a better +social condition of affairs, and a matter on which we should congratulate +the country rather than proceed to condolences."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142" id="Footnote_142"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> +"The accumulations of racial experience tend to show," remarks +Woods Hutchinson ("Animal Marriage," <i>Contemporary Review</i>, +October, 1904), "that by the production of a smaller and smaller +number of offspring, and the expenditure upon those of a greater +amount of parental care, better results can be obtained in efficiency +and capacity for survival."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143" id="Footnote_143"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> +Toulouse, <i>Causes de la Folie</i>, p. 91; Magri, <i>Archivio di Psichiatria</i>, +1896, fasc. vi-vii; Havelock Ellis, <i>A Study of British Genius</i>, pp. 106 +et seq.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144" id="Footnote_144"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> +Emile Macquart, "Mortalité, Natalité, Dépopulation," <i>Bulletin +de la Société d'Anthropologie</i>, 1902.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145" id="Footnote_145"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> +It is interesting to observe how Lafcadio Hearn, during the last +years of his life, was compelled, however unwillingly, to recognize +this change. See e.g. his <i>Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation</i>, 1904, +ch. <span class="smcap">XXI</span>, on "Industrial Dangers." The Japanese themselves have +recognized it, and it is the feeling of the decay of their ancient ideals +which has given so great an impetus to new ethical movements, such as +that, described as a kind of elevated materialism, established by +Yukichi Fukuzawa (see <i>Open Court</i>, June, 1907).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_146" id="Footnote_146"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> +<i>Athenæum</i>, October 7, 1911.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +<a name="CHAPVI" id="CHAPVI"></a></p><h3>VI</h3> + +<h3>EUGENICS AND LOVE</h3> + +<blockquote><p>Eugenics and the Decline of the Birth-rate—Quantity and Quality +in the Production of Children—Eugenic Sexual Selection—The +Value of Pedigrees—Their Scientific Significance—The Systematic +Record of Personal Data—The Proposal for Eugenic Certificates—St. +Valentine's Day and Sexual Selection—Love and Reason—Love +Ruled by Natural Law—Eugenic Selection not opposed to Love—No +Need for Legal Compulsion—Medicine in Relation to Marriage</p></blockquote> + + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>During recent years the question of the future +of the human race has been brought before us +in a way it has never been brought before. The +great expansive movement in civilized countries is over. +Whereas, fifty years ago, France seemed to present a +striking contrast to other countries in her low and +gradually falling birth-rate, to-day, though she has +herself now almost reached a stationary position, France +is seen merely to have been the leader in a movement +which is common to all the more highly civilized nations. +They are all now moving rapidly in the direction in +which she moved slowly. It was inevitable that this +movement, world-wide as it is, should call forth energetic +protests, for there is no condition of things so bad but it +finds some to advocate its perpetuation. There has, +therefore, been much vigorous preaching against "race +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +suicide" by people who were deaf to the small voice of +reason, who failed to understand that this matter could +not be settled by mere consideration of the crude birth-rates, +and that, even if it could, we should have still to +realize that, as an economist remarks, it is to the decline of +the birth-rate only that we probably owe it that the modern +civilized world has been saved from economic disaster. +<a name="FNanchor_147" id="FNanchor_147"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a></p> + +<p>But whatever the causes of the declining birth-rate it +is certain that even when they are within our control +they are of far too intimate a character for the public +moralist to be permitted to touch them, even though we +consider them to be in a disastrous state. It has to be +recognized that we are here in the presence, not of a +merely local or temporary tendency which might be +shaken off with an effort, but of a great fundamental +law of civilization; and the fact that we encounter it in +our own race merely means that we are reaching a fairly +high stage of civilization. It is far from the first time, +in the history of the world, that the same phenomenon +has been witnessed. It was seen in Imperial Rome; it +was seen, again, in the "Protestant Rome," Geneva. +Wherever are gathered together an exceedingly fine race +of people, the flower of the race, individuals of the highest +mental and moral distinction, there the birth-rate falls +steadily. Vice or virtue alike avails nothing in this field; +with high civilization fertility inevitably diminishes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>Under these circumstances it was to be expected that +a new ideal should begin to flash before men's eyes. If +the ideal of <i>quantity</i> is lost to us, why not seek the ideal +of <i>quality</i>? We know that the old rule: "Increase and +multiply" meant a vast amount of infant mortality, +of starvation, of chronic disease, of widespread misery. +In abandoning that rule, as we have been forced to do, +are we not left free to seek that our children, though few, +should be at all events fit, the finest, alike in physical and +psychical constitution, that the world has seen?</p> + +<p>Thus has come about the recent expansion of that +conception of <i>Eugenics</i>, or the science and art of Good +Breeding in the human race, which a group of workers, +pioneered by Francis Galton<a name="FNanchor_148" id="FNanchor_148"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a>—at first in England and +later in America, Germany and elsewhere—have been +developing for some years past. Eugenics is beginning +to be felt to possess a living actuality which it failed to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +possess before. Instead of being a benevolent scientific +fad it begins to present itself as the goal to which we are +inevitably moving.</p> + +<p>The cause of Eugenics has sometimes been prejudiced +in the public mind by a comparison with the artificial +breeding of domestic animals. In reality the two things +are altogether different. In breeding animals a higher +race of beings manipulates a lower race with the object +of securing definite points that are of no use whatever +to the animals themselves, but of considerable value to +the breeders. In our own race, on the other hand, the +problem of breeding is presented in an entirely different +shape. There is as yet no race of super-men who are +prepared to breed man for their own special ends. As +things are, even if we had the ability and the power, we +should surely hesitate before we bred men and women +as we breed dogs or fowls. We may, therefore, quite put +aside all discussion of eugenics as a sort of higher cattle-breeding. +It would be undesirable, even if it were not +impracticable.</p> + +<p>But there is another aspect of Eugenics. Human +eugenics need not be, and is not likely to be, a cold-blooded +selection of partners by some outside scientific +authority. But it may be, and is very likely to be, a +slowly growing conviction—first among the more intelligent +members of the community and then by imitation +and fashion among the less intelligent members—that +our children, the future race, the torch-bearers of +civilization for succeeding ages, are not the mere result +of chance or Providence, but that, in a very real sense, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +it is within our power to mould them, that the salvation +or damnation of many future generations lies in our +hands since it depends on our wise and sane choice of a +mate. The results of the breeding of those persons who +ought never to be parents is well known; the notorious +case of the Jukes family is but one among many instances. +We could scarcely expect in any community that individuals +like the Jukes would take the initiative in +movements for the eugenic development of the race, +but it makes much difference whether such families +exist in an environment like our own which is indifferent +to the future of the race, or whether they are surrounded +by influences of a more wholesome character which can +scarcely fail to some extent to affect, and even to control, +the reckless and anti-social elements in the community.</p> + +<p>In considering this question, therefore, we are justified +in putting aside not only any kind of human breeding +resembling the artificial breeding of animals, but also, +at all events for the present, every compulsory prohibition +on marriage or procreation. We must be +content to concern ourselves with ideals, and with the +endeavour to exert our personal influence in the realization +of these ideals.</p> + + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>Such ideals cannot, however, be left in the air; if +they depend on individual caprice nothing but fruitless +confusion can come of them. They must be firmly +grounded on a scientific basis of ascertained fact. This +was always emphasized by Galton. He not only initiated +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +schemes for obtaining, but actually to some extent +obtained, a large amount of scientific knowledge concerning +the special characteristics and aptitudes of +families, and his efforts in this direction have since been +largely extended and elaborated.<a name="FNanchor_149" id="FNanchor_149"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a> The feverish activities +of modern life, and the constant vicissitudes and +accidents that overtake families to-day, have led to an +extraordinary indifference to family history and tradition. +Our forefathers, from generation to generation, carefully +entered births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths in +the fly-leaf of the Family Bible. It is largely owing to +these precious entries that many are able to carry their +family history several centuries further back than they +otherwise could. But nowadays the Family Bible has +for the most part ceased to exist, and nothing else has +taken its place. If a man wishes to know what sort of +stocks he has come from, unless he is himself an antiquarian, +or in a position to employ an antiquarian to +assist him, he can learn little, and in the most favourable +position he is helpless without clues; though with such +clues he might often learn much that would be of the +greatest interest to him. The entries in the Family +Bible, however, whatever their value as clues and even +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +as actual data, do not furnish adequate information to +serve as a guide to the different qualities of stocks; we +need far more detailed and varied information in order +to realize the respective values of families from the point +of view of eugenics. Here, again, Galton had already +realized the need for supplying a great defect in our +knowledge, and his Life-history Albums showed how the +necessary information may be conveniently registered.</p> + +<p>The accumulated histories of individual families, it is +evident, will in time furnish a foundation on which to +base scientific generalizations, and eventually, perhaps, +to justify practical action. Moreover, a vast amount of +valuable information on which it is possible to build up +a knowledge of the correlated characteristics of families, +already lies at present unused in the great insurance +offices and elsewhere. When it is possible to obtain a +large collection of accurate pedigrees for scientific purposes, +and to throw them into a properly tabulated +form, we shall certainly be in a position to know more of +the qualities of stocks, of their good and bad characteristics, +and of the degree in which they are correlated. +<a name="FNanchor_150" id="FNanchor_150"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a></p> + +<p>In this way we shall, in time, be able to obtain a clear +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +picture of the probable results on the offspring of unions +between any kind of people. From personal and ancestral +data we shall be able to reckon the probable +quality of the offspring of a married couple. Given a +man and woman of known personal qualities and of +known ancestors, what are likely to be the personal +qualities, physical, mental and moral, of the children? +That is a question of immense importance both for the +beings themselves whom we bring into the world, for the +community generally, and for the future race.</p> + +<p>Eventually, it seems evident, a general system, whether +private or public, whereby all personal facts, biological +and mental, normal and morbid, are duly and systematically +registered, must become inevitable if we are to have +a real guide as to those persons who are most fit, or most +unfit, to carry on the race.<a name="FNanchor_151" id="FNanchor_151"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a> Unless they are full and +frank such records are useless. But it is obvious that +for a long time to come such a system of registration +must be private. According to the belief which is still +deeply rooted in most of us, we regard as most private +those facts of our lives which are most intimately connected +with the life of the race, and most fateful for the +future of humanity. The feeling is no doubt inevitable; +it has a certain rightness and justification. As, however, +our knowledge increases we shall learn that we are, +on the one hand, a little more responsible for future +generations than we are accustomed to think, and, on +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +the other hand, a little less responsible for our own good +or bad qualities. Our fiat makes the future man, but, +in the same way, we are ourselves made by a choice and +a will not our own. A man may indeed, within limits, +mould himself, but the materials he can alone use were +handed on to him by his parents, and whether he becomes +a man of genius, a criminal, a drunkard, an +epileptic, or an ordinarily healthy, well-conducted, and +intelligent citizen, must depend at least as much on his +parents as on his own effort or lack of effort, since even +the aptitude for effective effort is largely inborn. As we +learn to look on the facts from the only sound standpoint +of heredity, our anger or contempt for a failing and +erring individual has to give way to the kindly but firm +control of a weakling. If the children's teeth have been +set on edge it is because the parents have eaten sour +grapes.</p> + +<p>If, however, we certainly cannot bring legal or even +moral force to compel everyone to maintain such detailed +registers of himself, his ancestral stocks, and his offspring—to +say nothing of inducing him to make them +public—there is something that we can do. We can +make it to his interest to keep such a record. +<a name="FNanchor_152" id="FNanchor_152"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a>If it +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +became an advantage in life to a man to possess good +ancestors, and to be himself a good specimen of humanity +in mind, character, and physique, we may be sure that +those who are above the average in these matters will be +glad to make use of that superiority. Insurance offices +already make an inquisition into these matters, to which +no one objects, because a man only submits to it for his +own advantage; while for military and some other +services similar inquiries are compulsory. Eugenic +certificates, according to Galton's proposal, would be +issued by a suitably constituted authority to those +candidates who chose to apply for them and were able +to pass the necessary tests. Such certificates would +imply an inquiry and examination into the ancestry of +the candidate as well as into his own constitution, +health, intelligence and character; and the possession +of such a certificate would involve a superiority to the +average in all these respects. No one would be compelled +to offer himself for such examination, just as no +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +one is compelled to seek a university degree. But its +possession would often be an advantage. There is +nothing to prevent the establishment of a board of +examiners of this kind to-morrow, and we may be sure +that, once established, many candidates would hasten +to present themselves.<a name="FNanchor_153" id="FNanchor_153"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a> There are obviously many +positions in life wherein a certificate of this kind of +superiority would be helpful. But its chief distinction +would be that its possession would be a kind of patent of +natural nobility; the man or woman who held it would +be one of Nature's aristocrats, to whom the future of the +race might be safely left without further question.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>By happy inspiration, or by chance, Galton made +public his programme of eugenic research, in a paper +read before the Sociological Society, on February 14, +the festival of St. Valentine. Although the ancient +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +observances of that day have now died out, St. Valentine +was for many centuries the patron saint of sexual +selection, more especially in England. It can scarcely +be said that any credit in this matter belongs to the +venerable saint himself; it was by an accident that he +achieved his conspicuous position in the world. He was +simply a pious Christian who was beheaded for his faith +in Rome under Claudius. But it so happened that his +festival fell at that period in early spring when birds +were believed to pair, and when youths and maidens +were accustomed to select partners for themselves or +for others. This custom—which has been studied together +with many allied primitive practices by Mannhard +<a name="FNanchor_154" id="FNanchor_154"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a>—was +not always carried out on February 14, +sometimes it took place a little later. In England, +where it was strictly associated with St. Valentine's +Day, the custom was referred to by Lydgate, and by +Charles of Orleans in the rondeaus and ballades he wrote +during his long imprisonment in England. The name +Valentins or Valentines was also introduced into France +(where the custom had long existed) to designate the +young couples thus constituted. This method of sexual +selection, half playful, half serious, flourished especially +in the region between England, the Moselle, and the +Tyrol. The essential part of the custom lay in the public +choice of a fitting mate for marriageable girls. Sometimes +the question of fitness resolved itself into one of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +good looks; occasionally the matter was settled by lot. +There was no compulsion about these unions; they +were often little more than a game, though at times they +involved a degree of immorality which caused the +authorities to oppose them. But very frequently the +sexual selection thus exerted led to weddings, and these +playful Valentine unions were held to be a specially +favourable prelude to a happy marriage.</p> + +<p>It is scarcely necessary to show how the ancient +customs associated with St. Valentine's Day are taken +up again and placed on a higher plane by the great +movement which is now beginning to shape itself among +us. The old Valentine unions were made by a process of +caprice tempered more or less by sound instincts and +good sense. In the sexual selection of the future the +same results will be attained by more or less deliberate +and conscious recognition of the great laws and tendencies +which investigation is slowly bringing to light. The new St. +Valentine will be a saint of science rather than of folk-lore.</p> + +<p>Whenever such statements as these are made it is +always retorted that love laughs at science, and that the +winds of passion blow where they list. +<a name="FNanchor_155" id="FNanchor_155"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a> That, however, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +is by no means altogether true, and in any case it is far +from covering the whole of the ground. It is hard to +fight against human nature, but human nature itself is +opposed to indiscriminate choice of mates. It is not +true that any one tends to love anybody, and that +mutual attraction is entirely a matter of chance. The +investigations which have lately been carried out show +that there are certain definite tendencies in this matter, +that certain kinds of people tend to be attracted to +certain kinds, especially that like are attracted to like +rather than unlike to unlike, and that, again, while some +kinds of people tend to be married with special frequency +other kinds tend to be left unmarried. +<a name="FNanchor_156" id="FNanchor_156"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a> Sexual selection, +even when left to random influences, is still not left to +chance; it follows definite and ascertainable laws. In +that way the play of love, however free it may appear, +is really limited in a number of directions. People do +not tend to fall in love with those who are in racial +respects a contrast to themselves; they do not tend to +fall in love with foreigners; they do not tend to be +attracted to the ugly, the diseased, the deformed. All +these things may happen, but they are the exception +and not the rule. These limitations to the roving impulses +of love, while very real, to some extent vary at +different periods in accordance with the ideals which +happen to be fashionable. In more remote ages they +have been still more profoundly modified by religious +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +and social ideas; polygamy and polyandry, the custom +of marrying only inside one's own caste, or only outside +it, all these various and contradictory plans have been +easily accepted at some place and some time, and have +offered no more conscious obstacle to the free play of +love than among ourselves is offered by the prohibition +against marriage between near relations.</p> + +<p>Those simple-minded people who talk about the blind +and irresistible force of passion are themselves blind to +very ordinary psychological facts. Passion—when it +occurs—requires in normal persons cumulative and prolonged +forces to impart to it full momentum. +<a name="FNanchor_157" id="FNanchor_157"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a> In its +early stages it is under the control of many influences, +including influences of reason. If it were not so there +could be no sexual selection, nor any social organization. +<a name="FNanchor_158" id="FNanchor_158"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a></p> + + +<p>The eugenic ideal which is now developing is thus not +an artificial product, but the reasoned manifestation of a +natural instinct, which has often been far more severely +strained by the arbitrary prohibitions of the past than +it is ever likely to be by any eugenic ideals of the future. +The new ideal will be absorbed into the conscience of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +community, whether or not like a kind of new religion, +<a name="FNanchor_159" id="FNanchor_159"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a> +and will instinctively and unconsciously influence the +impulses of men and women. It will do all this the more +surely since, unlike the taboos of savage societies, the +eugenic ideal will lead men and women to reject as +partners only the men and women who are naturally +unfit—the diseased, the abnormal, the weaklings—and +conscience will thus be on the side of impulse.</p> + +<p>It may indeed be pointed out that those who advocate +a higher and more scientific conscience in matters of +mating are by no means plotting against love, which is +for the most part on their side, but rather against the +influences that do violence to love: on the one hand, +the reckless and thoughtless yielding to mere momentary +desire, and, on the other hand, the still more fatal influences +of wealth and position and worldly convenience +which give a factitious value to persons who would never +appear attractive partners in life were love and eugenic +ideals left to go hand in hand. It is such unions, and +not those inspired by the wholesome instincts of wholesome +lovers, which lead, if not to the abstract "deterioration +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +of the race," at all events in numberless cases to the +abiding unhappiness of persons who choose a mate without +realizing how that mate is likely to develop, nor +what sort of children may probably be expected from +the union. The eugenic ideal will have to struggle with +the criminal and still more resolutely with the rich; it +will have few serious quarrels with normal and well +constituted lovers.</p> + +<p>It will now perhaps be clear how it is that the eugenic +conception of the improvement of the race embodies a +new ideal. We are familiar with legislative projects for +compulsory certificates as a condition of marriage. But +even apart from all the other considerations which +make such schemes both illusory and undesirable, these +externally imposed regulations fail to go to the root of +the matter. If they are voluntary, if they spring out of +a fine eugenic aspiration, it is another matter. Under +these conditions the method may be carried out at once. +Professor Grasset has pointed out one way in which +this may be effected. We cannot, he remarks, follow +the procedure of a military <i>conseil de revision</i> and compulsorily +reject the candidate for a definite defect. But +it would be possible for the two families concerned to +call a conference of their two family doctors, after +examination of the would-be bride and bridegroom, +permitting the doctors to discuss freely the medical +aspects of the proposed union, and undertaking to +accept their decision, without asking for the revelation of +any secrets, the families thus remaining ignorant of the +defect which prevented this union but might not prevent +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +another union, for the chief danger in many cases comes +from the conjunction of convergent morbid tendencies. +<a name="FNanchor_160" id="FNanchor_160"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a> +In France, where much power remains with the respective +families, this method might be operative, provided +complete confidence was felt in the doctors concerned. +In some countries, such as England, the +prospective couple might prefer to take the matter into +their own hands, to discuss it frankly, and to seek +medical advice on their own account; this is now much +more frequently done than was formerly the case. But +all compulsory projects of this kind, and indeed any mere +legislation, cannot go to the root of the matter. For in +the first place, what we need is a great body of facts, and +a careful attention to the record and registration and +statistical tabulation of personal and family histories. +In the second place, we need that sound ideals and a +high sense of responsibility should permeate the whole +community, first its finer and more distinguished members +and then, by the usual contagion that rules in such +matters, the whole body of its members. +<a name="FNanchor_161" id="FNanchor_161"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a> In time, no +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +doubt, this would lead to concerted social action. We +may reasonably expect that a time will come when if, +for instance, an epileptic woman conceals her condition +from the man she is marrying it would generally be felt +that an offence has been committed serious enough to +invalidate the marriage. We must not suppose that +lovers would be either willing or competent to investigate +each other's family and medical histories. But it +would be at least as easy and as simple to choose a +partner from those persons who had successfully passed +the eugenic test—more especially since such persons +would certainly be the most attractive group in the +community—as it is for an Australian aborigine to +select a conjugal partner from one social group rather +than from any other.<a name="FNanchor_162" id="FNanchor_162"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a> It is a matter of accepting an +ideal and of exerting our personal and social influence in +the direction of that ideal. If we really seek to raise the +level of humanity we may in this way begin to do so +to-day.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p> +<h4>NOTE ON THE LIFE-HISTORY RECORD</h4> + +<p>The extreme interest of a Life-History Record is obvious, +even apart from its eventual scientific value. Most of us +would have reason to congratulate ourselves had such records +been customary when we were ourselves children. It is +probable that this is becoming more generally realized, +though until recently only the pioneers have here been active. +"I started a Life-History Album for each of my children," +writes Mr. F.H. Perrycoste in a private letter, "as soon as +they were born; and by the time they arrive at man's and +woman's estate they will have valuable records of their own +physical, mental, and moral development, which should be +of great service to them when they come to have children of +their own, whilst the physical—in which are included, of +course, medical—records may at any time be of great value +to their own medical advisers in later life. I have reason +to regret that some such Albums were not kept for my wife +and myself, for they would have afforded the necessary +data by which to 'size up' the abilities and conduct of our +children. I know, for instance, pretty well what was my own +Galtonian rank as a schoolboy, and I am constantly asking +myself whether my boy will do as well, better, or worse. +Now fortunately I do happen to remember roughly what +stages I had reached at one or two transition periods of +school-life; but if only such an Album had been kept for +me, I could turn it up and check my boy against myself +in each subject at each yearly stage. You will gather from +this that I consider it of great importance that ample details +of school-work and intellectual development should be entered +in the Album. I find the space at my disposal for these +entries insufficient, and consequently I summarize in the +Album and insert a reference to sheets of fuller details which +I keep; but it might be well, when another edition of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> +Album comes to be published, to agitate for the insertion of +extra blank pages after the age of eight or nine, in order to +allow of the transcription of full school-reports. However, +the great thing is to induce people to keep an Album +that will form the nucleus round which any number of fuller +records can cluster."</p> + +<p>It is not necessary that the Galtonian type of Album +should be rigidly preserved, and I am indebted to "Henry +Hamill," the author of <i>The Truth We Owe to Youth</i>, for the +following suggestions as to the way in which such a record +may be carried out:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"The book should not be a mere dry rigmarole, but include +a certain appeal to sentiment. The subject should begin +to make the entries himself when old enough to do so properly, +i.e. so that the book will not be disfigured—though indeed +the naivity of juvenile phrasing, etc., may be of a particular +interest. From a graphological point of view, the evolution +of the handwriting will be of interest; and if for no other +reason, specimens of handwriting ought to appear in it from +year to year, while the parent is still writing the other entries. +There may now be a certain sacramental character in the life-history. +The subject should be led to regard the book as +a witness, and to perceive in it an additional reason for avoiding +every act the mention of which would be a disfigurement of +the history. At the same time, the nature of the witness +may be made to correct the wrong notions prevailing as to +the worthiness of acts, and to sanctify certain of them that +have been foolishly degraded. Thus there may be left several +leaves blank before the pages of forms for filling in anthropometric +and physiological data, and the headings may be +made to suggest a worthier way of viewing these things. +For instance, there may be the indication 'Place and time of +conception,' and a specimen entry may be of service to lead +commonplace minds into a more reverent and poetical view +than is now usual—such as the one I culled from the life-history +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +of an American child: 'Our second child M—— +was conceived on Midsummer Day, under the shade of a +friendly sycamore, beneath the cloudless blue of Southern +California.' Or, instead of restricting the reference to the +particular episode, it may refer to the whole chapter of +Love which that episode adorned, more especially in the case +of a first child, when a poetical history of the mating of the +parents may precede. The presence of the idea that the +book would some day be read by others than the intimate +circle, would restrain the tendency of some persons to inordinate +self-revelation and 'gush.' Such books as these would +form the dearest heirlooms of a family, helping to knit its +bonds firmer, and giving an insight into individual character +which would supplement the more tangible data for the +pedigree in a most valuable way. The photographs taken +every three months or so ought to be as largely as possible +nude. The gradual transition from childhood would help +to prevent an abrupt feeling arising, and the practice would +be a valuable aid to the rehabilitation of the nude, and of +genuineness in our daily life, no matter in what respect. +This leads to the difficult question of how far moral aspects +should be entertained. 'To-day Johnnie told his first fib; +we pretended to disbelieve everything else he said, and he +began to see that lying was bad policy.' 'Chastised Johnnie +for the first time for pulling the wings off a fly; he wanted +to know why we might kill flies outright, but not mutilate +them,' and so on. For in this way parents would train themselves +in the psychology of education and character-building, +though books by specially gifted parents would soon appear +for their guidance.</p> + +<p>"Of course, whatever relevant circumstances were available +about the ante-natal period or the mother's condition would +be noted (but who would expect a mother to note that she +laced tight up to such and such a month? Perhaps the +keeping of a log like this might act as a deterrent). Similarly, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +under diet and regimen, year by year, the assumption of +breast-feeding—provision of columns for the various incidents +of it—weight before and after feeding, etc., would have a +great suggestive value.</p> + +<p>"The provision under diet and regimen of columns for +'drug habits, if any'—tea, coffee, alcohol, nicotine, morphia, +etc.—would have a suggestive value and operate in the +direction of the simple life and a reverence for the body. +Some good aphorisms might be strewed in, such as:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i-4">"'If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred' (Whitman).<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"As young people circulate their 'Books of Likes and +Dislikes,' etc., and thus in an entertaining way provide each +other with insight into mutual character, so the Life-History +need not be an <i>arcanum</i>—at least where people have nothing +to be ashamed of. It would be a very trying ordeal, no doubt, +to admit even intimate friends to this confidence. <i>But as +eugenics spread, concealment of taint will become almost impracticable</i>, +and the facts may as well be confessed. But +even then there will be limitations. There might be an +esoteric book for the individual's own account of himself. +Such important items as the incidence of puberty (though +notorious in some communities) could not well be included in +a book open even to the family circle, for generations to come. +The quiescence of the genital sense, the sedatives naturally +occurring, important as these are, and occupying the consciousness +in so large a degree, would find no place; nevertheless, +a private journal of the facts would help to steady +the individual, and prove a check against disrespect to his +body.</p> + +<p>"As the facts of individual evolution would be noted, so +likewise would those of dissolution. The first signs of decay—the +teeth, the elasticity of body and mind—would provide +a valuable sphere for all who are disposed to the diary-habit. +The journals of individuals with a gift for introspection would +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +furnish valuable material for psychologists in the future. +Life would be cleansed in many ways. Journals would not +have to be bowdlerized, like Marie Bashkirtseff's, for the +morbidity that gloats on the forbidden would have a lesser +scope, much that is now regarded as disgraceful being then +accepted as natural and right.</p> + +<p>"The book might have several volumes, and that for the +periods of infancy and childhood might need to be less private +than the one for puberty. More, in his <i>Utopia</i>, demands that +lovers shall learn to know each other as they really are, +i.e. naked. That is now the most Utopian thing in More's +<i>Utopia</i>. But the lovers might communicate their life-histories +to each other as a preliminary.</p> + +<p>"The whole plan would, of course, finally have to be over-hauled +by the so-called 'man of the world.'"</p></blockquote> + +<p>Not everyone may agree with this conception of the Life-History +Album and its uses. Some will prefer a severely dry +and bald record of measurements. At the present time, +however, there is room for very various types of such documents. +The important point is to realize that, in some form +or another, a record of this kind from birth or earlier is practicable, +and constitutes a record which is highly desirable +alike on personal, social, and scientific grounds.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_147" id="Footnote_147"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> +Dr. Scott Nearing, "Race Suicide <i>versus</i> Over-Population," +<i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, January, 1911. And from the biological side +Professor Bateson concludes (<i>Biological Fact and the Structure of Society</i>, +p. 23) that "it is in a decline in the birth-rate that the most promising +omen exists for the happiness of future generations."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_148" id="Footnote_148"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> +Galton himself, the grandson of Erasmus Darwin, and the half-cousin +of Charles Darwin, may be said to furnish a noble illustration +of an unconscious process of eugenics. (He has set forth his ancestry +in <i>Memories of My Life</i>.) On his death, the editor of the <i>Popular +Science Monthly</i> wrote, referring to the fact that Galton was nominated +to succeed William James in the honorary membership of an Academy +of Science: "These two men are the greatest whom he has known. +James possessed the more complicated personality; but they had +certain common traits—a combination of perfect aristocracy with +complete democracy, directness, kindliness, generosity, and nobility +beyond all measure. It has been said that eugenics is futile because it +cannot define its end. The answer is simple—we want men like William +James and Francis Galton" (<i>Popular Science Monthly, March</i>, 1911.) +Probably most of those who were brought, however slightly, in contact +with these two fine personalities will subscribe to this conclusion.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_149" id="Footnote_149"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> +Galton chiefly studied the families to which men of intellectual +ability belong, especially in his <i>Hereditary Genius</i> and <i>English Men of +Science</i>; various kinds of pathological families have since been investigated +by Karl Pearson and his co-workers (see the series of +<i>Biometrika</i>); the pedigrees of the defective classes (especially the +feeble-minded and epileptic) are now being accurately worked out, +as by Godden, at Vineland, New Jersey, and Davenport, in New York +(see e.g. <i>Eugenics Review</i>, April, 1911, and <i>Journal of Nervous and +Mental Disease</i>, November, 1911).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_150" id="Footnote_150"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> +"When once more the importance of good birth comes to be +recognized in a new sense," wrote W.C.D. Whetham and Mrs. Whetham +(in <i>The Family and the Nation</i>, p. 222), "when the innate physical and +mental qualities of different families are recorded in the central +sociological department or scientifically reformed College of Arms, +the pedigrees of all will be known to be of supreme interest. It would +be understood to be more important to marry into a family with a +good hereditary record of physical and mental and moral qualities +than it ever has been considered to be allied to one with sixteen +quarterings."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_151" id="Footnote_151"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> +The importance of such biographical records of aptitude and +character are so great that some, like Schallmayer (<i>Vererbung und +Auslese</i>, 2nd ed., 1910, p. 389) believe that they must be made universally +obligatory. This proposal, however, seems premature.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_152" id="Footnote_152"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> +In many undesigned and unforeseen ways these registers may be +of immense value. They may even prove the means of overthrowing +our pernicious and destructive system of so-called "education." A step +in this direction has been suggested by Mr. R.T. Bodey, Inspector +of Elementary Schools, at a meeting of the Liverpool branch of the +Eugenics Education Society: "Education facilities should be carefully +distributed with regard to the scientific likelihood of their utilization to +the maximum of national advantage, and this not for economic reasons +only, but because it was cruel to drag children from their own to a +different sphere of life, and cruel to the class they deserted. Since the +activities of the nation and the powers of the children were alike +varied in kind and degree, the most natural plan would be to sort +them both out, and then design a school system expressly in order to +fit one to the other. At present there was no fixed purpose, but a perpetual +riot of changes, resulting in distraction of mind, discontinuity +of purpose, and increase of cost, while happiness decayed because +desires grew faster than possessions or the sense of achievement. The +only really scientific basis for a national system of education would be +a full knowledge of the family history of each child. With more perfect +classification of family talent the need of scholarships of transplantation +would become less, for each of them was the confession of an initial error +in placing the child. Then there would be more money to be spared +for industrial research, travelling and art studentships, and other aids +to those who had the rare gift of original thought" (<i>British Medical +Journal</i>, November 18, 1911).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_153" id="Footnote_153"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> +I should add that there is one obstacle, viz. expense. When the present +chapter was first published in its preliminary form as an article in +the <i>Nineteenth Century and After</i> (May, 1906), Galton, always alive to +everything bearing on the study of Eugenics, wrote to me that he had +been impressed by the generally sympathetic reception my paper had +received, and that he felt encouraged to consider whether it was +possible to begin giving such certificates at once. He asked for my +views, among others, as to the ground which should be covered by such +certificates. The programme I set forth was somewhat extensive, +as I considered that the applicant must not only bring evidence +of a sound ancestry, but also submit to anthropological, psychological, +and medical examination. Galton eventually came to the conclusion +that the expenses involved by the scheme rendered it for the present +impracticable. My opinion was, and is, that though the charge for +such a certificate might in the first place be prohibitive for most people, +a few persons might find it desirable to seek, and advantageous to +possess, such certificates, and that it is worth while at all events to +make a beginning.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_154" id="Footnote_154"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> +Mannhardt, <i>Wald-und Feldkulte</i>, 1875, Vol. I, pp. 422 <i>et seq.</i> +I have discussed seasonal erotic festivals in a study of "The Phenomena +of Sexual Periodicity," <i>Studies in the Psychology of Sex</i>, Vol. I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_155" id="Footnote_155"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> +Thus we read in a small popular periodical: "I am prepared to +back human nature against all the cranks in Christendom. Human +nature will endure a faddist so long as he does not interfere with things +it prizes. One of these things is the right to select its partner for life. +If a man loves a girl he is not going to give her up because she happens +to have an aunt in a lunatic asylum or an uncle who has epileptic +fits," etc. In the same way it may be said that a man will allow nothing +to interfere with his right to eat such food as he chooses, and is not +going to give up a dish he likes because it happens to be peppered with +arsenic. It may be so, let us grant, among savages. The growth of +civilization lies in ever-extended self-control guided by foresight.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_156" id="Footnote_156"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> +I have summarized some of the evidence on these points, especially +that showing that sexual attraction tends to be towards like persons +and not, as was formerly supposed, towards the unlike, in <i>Studies in the +Psychology of Sex</i>, Vol. IV, "Sexual Selection in Man."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_157" id="Footnote_157"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> +In other words, the process of tumescence is gradual and complex. +See Havelock Ellis, <i>Studies in the Psychology of Sex</i>, Vol. III, "The +Analysis of the Sexual Impulse."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_158" id="Footnote_158"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> +As Roswell Johnson remarks ("The Evolution of Man and its +Control," <i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, January, 1910): "While it is +undeniable that love when once established defies rational considerations, +yet we must remark that sexual selection proceeds usually through +two stages, the first being one of mere mutual attraction and interest. +It is in this stage that the will and reason are operative, and here alone +that any considerable elevation of standard may be effective."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_159" id="Footnote_159"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> +Galton looked upon eugenics as fitted to become a factor in religion +(<i>Essays in Eugenics</i>, p. 68). It may, however, be questioned whether +this consummation is either probable or desirable. The same religious +claim has been made for socialism. But, as Dr. Eden Paul remarks +in a recent pamphlet on <i>Socialism and Eugenics</i>, "Whereas both +Socialism and Eugenics are concerned solely with the application of +the knowledge gained by experience to the amelioration of the human +lot, it seems preferable to dispense with religious terminology, and to +regard the two doctrines as complementary parts of the great modern +movement known by the name of Humanism." Personally, I do not +consider that either Socialism or Eugenics can be regarded as coming +within the legitimate sphere of religion, which I have elsewhere attempted +to define (Conclusion to <i>The New Spirit</i>).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_160" id="Footnote_160"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> +J. Grasset, in Dr. A. Marie's <i>Traité International de Psychologie +Pathologique</i>, 1910, Vol. I, p. 25. Grasset proceeds to discuss the +principles which must guide the physician in such consultations.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_161" id="Footnote_161"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> +This has been clearly realized by the German Society of Eugenics +or "Racial Hygiene," as it is usually termed in Germany (Internationale +Gesellschaft für Rassen-Hygiene), founded by Dr. Alfred +Ploetz, with the co-operation of many distinguished physicians and +men of science, "to further the theory and practice of racial hygiene." +It is a chief aim of this Society to encourage the registration by the +members of the biological and other physical and psychic characteristics +of themselves and their families, in order to obtain a body of data on +which conclusions may eventually be based; the members undertake +not to enter on a marriage except they are assured by medical +investigation of both parties that the union is not likely to cause +disaster to either partner or to the offspring. The Society also admits +associates who only occupy themselves with the scientific aspects of +its work and with propaganda. In England the Eugenics Education +Society (with its organ the <i>Eugenics Review</i>) has done much to stimulate +an intelligent interest in eugenics.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_162" id="Footnote_162"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> +How influential public opinion may be in the selection of mates +is indicated by the influence it already exerts—in less than a century—in +the limitation of offspring. This is well marked in some parts of +France. Thus, concerning a rural district near the Garonne, Dr. +Belbèze, who knows it thoroughly, writes (<i>La Neurasthénie Rurale</i>, +1911): "Public opinion does not at present approve of multiple +procreation. Large families, there can be no doubt, are treated with +contempt. Couples who produce a numerous progeny are looked on, +with a wink, as 'maladroits,' which in this region is perhaps the supreme +term of abuse.... Public opinion is all-powerful, and alone suffices +to produce restraint, when foresight is not adequate for this purpose."</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> + +<a name="CHAPVII" id="CHAPVII"></a></p><h3>VII</h3> + +<h3>RELIGION AND THE CHILD</h3> + +<blockquote><p>Religious Education in Relation to Social Hygiene and to Psychology—The +Psychology of the Child—The Contents of Children's Minds—The +Imagination of Children—How far may Religion be assimilated +by Children?—Unfortunate Results of Early Religious Instruction—Puberty +the Age for Religious Education—Religion as +an Initiation into a Mystery—Initiation among Savages—The Christian +Sacraments—The Modern Tendency as regards Religious +Instruction—Its Advantages—Children and Fairy Tales—The +Bible of Childhood—Moral Training.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>It is a fact as strange as it is unfortunate that the +much-debated question of the religious education +of children is almost exclusively considered from +the points of view of the sectarian and the secularist. In +a discussion of this question we are almost certain to be +invited to take part in an unedifying wrangle between +Church and Chapel, between religion and secularism. +That is the strange part of it, that it should seem impossible +to get away from this sectarian dispute as to the +abstract claims of varying religious bodies. The unfortunate +part of it is that in this quarrel the interests +of the community, the interests of the child, even the +interests of religion are alike disregarded.</p> + +<p>If we really desire to reach a sound conclusion on a +matter which is unquestionably of great moment, both +for the child and for the community of which he will one +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +day become a citizen, we must resolutely put into the +background, as of secondary importance, the cries of +contending sects, religious or irreligious. The first place +here belongs to the psychologist, who is building up the +already extensive edifice of knowledge concerning the +real nature of the child and the contents and growth of +the youthful mind, and to the practical teacher who is +in touch with that knowledge and can bring it to the +test of actual experience. Before considering what +drugs are to be administered we must consider the +nature of the organism they are to be thrust into.</p> + +<p>The mind of the child is at once logical and extravagant, +matter-of-fact and poetic or rather mytho-p[oe]ic. This +combination of apparent opposites, though it often +seems almost incomprehensible to the adult, is the +inevitable outcome of the fact that the child's dawning +intelligence is working, as it were, in a vacuum. In +other words, the child has not acquired the two endowments +which chiefly give character to the whole body of +the adult's beliefs and feelings. He is without the +pubertal expansion which fills out the mind with new +personal and altruistic impulses and transforms it with +emotion that is often dazzling and sometimes distorting; +and he has not yet absorbed, or even gained the power +of absorbing, all those beliefs, opinions, and mental +attitudes which the race has slowly acquired and transmitted +as the traditional outcome of its experiences.</p> + +<p>The intellectual processes of children, the attitude and +contents of the child's mind, have been explored during +recent years with a care and detail that have never been +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +brought to that study before. This is not a matter of +which the adult can be said to possess any instinctive +or matter-of-course knowledge. Adults usually have a +strange aptitude to forget entirely the facts of their +lives as children, and children are usually, like peoples +of primitive race, very cautious in the deliberate communication +of their mental operations, their emotions, +and their ideas. That is to say that the child is equally +without the internally acquired complex emotional +nature which has its kernel in the sexual impulse, and +without the externally acquired mental equipment which +may be summed up in the word tradition. But he +possesses the vivid activities founded on the exercise of +his senses and appetites, and he is able to reason with a +relentless severity from which the traditionalized and +complexly emotional adult shrinks back with horror. +The child creates the world for himself, and he creates +it in his own image and the images of the persons he is +familiar with. Nothing is sacred to him, and he pushes +to the most daring extremities—as it seems to the adult—the +arguments derived from his own personal experiences. +He is unable to see any distinction between the +natural and the supernatural, and he is justified in this +conviction because, as a matter of fact, he himself lives +in what for most adults would be a supernatural atmosphere; +most children see visions with closed and sometimes +with open eyes;<a name="FNanchor_163" id="FNanchor_163"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> they are not infrequently subject +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +to colour-hearing and other synæsthetic sensations; +and they occasionally hear hallucinatory voices. It is +possible, indeed, that this is the case with all children in +some slight degree, although the faculty dies out early +and is easily forgotten because its extraordinary character +was never recognized.</p> + +<p>Of 48 Boston children, says Stanley Hall, +<a name="FNanchor_164" id="FNanchor_164"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> 20 believed +the sun, moon, and stars to live, 16 thought flowers +could feel, and 15 that dolls would feel pain if burnt. +The sky was found the chief field in which the children +exercise their philosophic minds. About three-quarters +of them thought the world a plain with the sky like a +bowl turned over it, sometimes believing that it was of +such thin texture that one could easily break through, +though so large that much floor-sweeping was necessary +in Heaven. The sun may enter the ground when it +sets, but half the children thought that at night it rolls +or flies away, or is blown or walks, or God pulls it higher +up out of sight, taking it up into Heaven, according to +some putting it to bed, and even taking off its clothes and +putting them on again in the morning, or again, it is +believed to lie under the trees at night and the angels +mind it. God, of whom the children always hear so +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +much, plays a very large part in these conceptions, and +is made directly responsible for all cosmic phenomena. +Thus thunder to these American children was God +groaning or kicking or rolling barrels about, or turning +a big handle, or grinding snow, or breaking something, +or rattling a big hammer; while the lightning is due to +God putting his finger out, or turning the gas on quick, +or striking matches, or setting paper on fire. According +to Boston children, God is a big, perhaps a blue, man, +to be seen in the sky, on the clouds, in church, or even +in the streets. They declare that God comes to see them +sometimes, and they have seen him enter the gate. He +makes lamps, babies, dogs, trees, money, etc., and the +angels work for him. He looks like a priest, or a teacher, +or papa, and the children like to look at him; a few +would themselves like to be God. His house in the sky +may be made of stone or brick; birds, children, and +Santa Claus live with God.</p> + +<p>Birds and beasts, their food and their furniture, as +Burnham points out, all talk to children; when the dew +is on the grass "the grass is crying," the stars are candles +or lamps, perhaps cinders from God's stove, butterflies +are flying pansies, icicles are Christmas candy. Children +have imaginary play-brothers and sisters and friends, +with whom they talk. Sometimes God talks with them. +Even the prosiest things are vivified; the tracks of +dirty feet on the floor are flowers; a creaking chair +talks; the shoemaker's nails are children whom he is +driving to school; a pedlar is Santa Claus.</p> + + +<p>Miss Miriam Levy once investigated the opinions of 560 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +children, boys and girls, between the ages of 4 and 14, as +to how the man in the moon got there. Only 5 were unable +to offer a serious explanation; 48 thought there +was no man there at all; 50 offered a scientific explanation +of the phenomena; but all the rest, the great majority, +presented imaginative solutions which could be grouped +into seventeen different classes.</p> + +<p>Such facts as these—which can easily be multiplied +and are indeed familiar to all, though their significance +is not usually realized—indicate the special tendencies +of the child in the religious sphere. He is unable to +follow the distinctions which the adult is pleased to make +between "real," "spiritual" and "imaginary" beings. +To him such distinctions do not exist. He may, if he so +pleases, adopt the names or such characteristics as he +chooses, of the beings he is told about, but he puts them +into his own world, on a footing of more or less equality, +and he decides himself what their fate is to be. The +adult's supreme beings by no means always survive in +the struggle for existence which takes place in the child's +imaginative world. It was found among many thousand +children entering the city schools of Berlin that Red +Riding Hood was better known than God, and Cinderella +than Christ. That is the result of the child's freedom +from the burden of tradition.</p> + +<p>Yet at the same time the opposite though allied +peculiarity of childhood—the absence of the emotional +developments of puberty which deepen and often cloud +the mind a few years later—is also making itself felt. +Extravagant as his beliefs may appear, the child is an +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +uncompromising rationalist and realist. His supposed +imaginativeness is indeed merely the result of his logical +insistence that all the new phenomena presented to him +shall be thought of in terms of himself and his own +environment. His wildest notions are based on precise, +concrete, and personal facts of his own experience. That +is why he is so keen a questioner of grown-up people's +ideas, and a critic who may sometimes be as dangerous +and destructive as Bishop Colenso's Zulus. Most children +before the age of thirteen, as Earl Barnes states, are +inquirers, if not sceptics.</p> + +<p>If we clearly realize these characteristics of the childish +mind, we cannot fail to understand the impression made +on it by religious instruction. The statements and stories +that are repeated to him are easily accepted by the +child in so far, and in so far only, as they answer to his +needs; and when accepted they are assimilated, which +means that they are compelled to obey the laws of his +own mental world. In so far as the statements and +stories presented to him are not acceptable or cannot be +assimilated, it happens either that they pass by him +unnoticed, or else that he subjects them to a cold and +matter-of-fact logic which exerts a dissolving influence +upon them.</p> + +<p>Now a few of the ideas of religion are assimilable by +the child, and notably the idea of a God as the direct +agent in cosmic phenomena; some of the childish notions +I have quoted illustrate the facility with which the child +adopts this idea. He adopts, that is, what may be called +the hard precise skeleton of the idea, and imagines a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +colossal magician, of anthropomorphic (if not paidomorphic) +nature, whose operations are curious, though +they altogether fail to arouse any mysterious reverence +or awe for the agent. Even this is not very satisfactory, +and Stanley Hall, in the spirit of Froebel, considers that +the best result is attained when the child knows no God +but his own mother.<a name="FNanchor_165" id="FNanchor_165"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a> But for the most part the ideas +of religion cannot be accepted or assimilated by children +at all; they were not made by children or for children, +but represent the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of +men, and sometimes even of very exceptional and abnormal +men. "The child," it has been said, "no doubt +has the psychical elements out of which the religious +experience is evolved, just as the seed has the promise +of the fruit which will come in the fullness of time. But +to say, therefore, that the average child is religious, or +capable of receiving the usual advanced religious instruction, +is equivalent to saying that the seed is the +fruit or capable of being converted into fruit before the +fullness of time."<a name="FNanchor_166" id="FNanchor_166"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> The child who grows devout and +becomes anxious about the state of his soul is a morbid +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +and unwholesome child; if he prefers praying for the +conversion of his play-fellows to joining them in their +games he is not so much an example of piety as a pathological +case whose future must be viewed with anxiety; +and to preach religious duties to children is exactly the +same, it has been well said, as to exhort them to imagine +themselves married people and to inculcate on them the +duties of that relation. Fortunately the normal child +is usually able to resist these influences. It is the healthy +child's impulse either to let them fall with indifference +or to apply to them the instrument of his unmerciful +logic.</p> + + +<p>Naturally, the adult, in self-defence, is compelled to +react against this indifferent or aggressive attitude of +the child. He may be no match for the child in logic, and +even unspeakably shocked by his daring inquiries, like +an amiable old clergyman I knew when a Public School +teacher in Australia; he went to a school to give +Bible lessons, and was one day explaining how King +David was a man after God's own heart, when a small +voice was heard making inquiries about Uriah's wife; +the small boy was hushed down by the shocked clergyman, +and the cause of religion was not furthered in that +school. But the adult knows that he has on his side +tradition which has not yet been acquired by the child, +and the inner emotional expansion which still remains +unliberated in the child. The adult, therefore, fortified +by this superiority, feels justified in falling back on the +weapon of authority: "You may not <i>want</i> to believe +this and to learn it, but you've <i>got</i> to."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +It is in this way that the adult wins the battle of +religious education. In the deeper and more far-seeing +sense he has lost it. Religion has become, not a charming +privilege, but a lesson, a lesson about unbelievable +things, a meaningless task to be learnt by heart, a +drudgery. It may be said that even if that is so, religious +lessons merely share the inevitable fate of all subjects +which become school tasks. But that is not the case. +Every other subject which is likely to become a school +task is apt to become intelligible and attractive to some +considerable section of the scholars because it is within +the range of childish intelligence. But, for the two very +definite reasons I have pointed out, this is only to an +extremely limited degree true as regards the subject of +religion, because the young organism is an instrument +not as yet fitted with the notes which religion is most +apt to strike.</p> + +<p>Of all the school subjects religion thus tends to be the +least attractive. Lobsien, at Kiel, found a few years +since, in the course of a psychological investigation, that +when five hundred children (boys and girls in equal +numbers), between the ages of nine and fourteen, were +asked which was their favourite lesson hour, only twelve +(ten girls and two boys) named the religious lesson. +<a name="FNanchor_167" id="FNanchor_167"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a> +In other words, nearly 98 per cent children (and nearly +all the boys) find that religion is either an indifferent or +a repugnant subject. I have no reports at hand as +regards English children, but there is little reason +to suppose that the result would be widely +different.<a name="FNanchor_168" id="FNanchor_168"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +Here and there a specially skilful teacher might +bring about a result more favourable to religious +teaching, but that could only be done by depriving the +subject of its most characteristic elements.</p> + +<p>This is, however, not by any means the whole of the +mischief which, from the religious point of view, is thus +perpetrated. It might, on <i>a priori</i> grounds, be plausibly +argued that even if there is among healthy young children +a certain amount of indifference or even repugnance to +religious instruction, that is of very little consequence: +they cannot be too early grounded in the principles of +the faith they will later be called on to profess; and +however incapable they may now be of understanding +the teaching that is being inculcated in the school, they +will realize its importance when their knowledge and +experience increase. But however plausible this may +seem, practically it is not what usually happens. The +usual effect of constantly imparting to children an +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +instruction they are not yet ready to receive is to deaden +their sensibilities to the whole subject of religion. +<a name="FNanchor_169" id="FNanchor_169"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a> The +premature familiarity with religious influences—putting +aside the rare cases where it leads to a morbid pre-occupation +with religion—induces a reaction of routine +which becomes so habitual that it successfully withstands +the later influences which on more virgin soil would have +evoked vigorous and living response. So far from preparing +the way for a more genuine development of +religious impulse later on, this precocious scriptural instruction +is just adequate to act as an inoculation against +deeper and more serious religious interests. The commonplace +child in later life accepts the religion it has been +inured to so early as part of the conventional routine of +life. The more vigorous and original child for the same +reason shakes it off, perhaps for ever.</p> + +<p>Luther, feeling the need to gain converts to Protestantism +as early as possible, was a strong advocate for the +religious training of children, and has doubtless had +much influence in this matter on the Protestant churches. +"The study of religion, of the Bible and the Catechism," +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +says Fiedler, "of course comes first and foremost in his +scheme of instruction." He was also quite prepared to +adapt it to the childish mind. "Let children be taught," +he writes, "that our dear Lord sits in Heaven on a +golden throne, that He has a long grey beard and a +crown of gold." But Luther quite failed to realize the +inevitable psychological reaction in later life against such +fairy-tales.</p> + +<p>At a later date, Rousseau, who, like Luther, was on +the side of religion, realized, as Luther failed to realize, +the disastrous results of attempting to teach it to children. +In <i>La Nouvelle Héloïse</i>, Saint-Preux writes that Julie +had explained to him how she sought to surround her +children with good influences without forcing any religious +instruction on them: "As to the Catechism, +they don't so much as know what it is." "What! Julie, +your children don't learn their Catechism?" "No, +my friend, my children don't learn their Catechism." +"So pious a mother!" I exclaimed; "I can't understand. +And why don't your children learn their Catechism?" +"In order that they may one day believe it. +I wish to make Christians of them." +<a name="FNanchor_170" id="FNanchor_170"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a></p> + +<p>Since Rousseau's day this may be said to be the general +attitude of nearly all thinkers who have given attention +to the question, even though they may not have viewed +it psychologically. It is an attitude by no means confined +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +to those who are anxious that children should +grow up to be genuine Christians, but is common to all +who consider that the main point is that children should +grow up to be, at all events, genuine men and women. "I +do not think," writes John Stuart Mill, in 1868, "there +should be any <i>authoritative</i> teaching at all on such subjects. +I think parents ought to point out to their children, +when the children begin to question them or to make +observations of their own, the various opinions on such +subjects, and what the parents themselves think the +most powerful reasons for and against. Then, if the +parents show a strong feeling of the importance of truth, +and also of the difficulty of attaining it, it seems to me +that young people's minds will be sufficiently prepared +to regard popular opinion or the opinion of those about +them with respectful tolerance, and may be safely left +to form definite conclusions in the course of mature +life."<a name="FNanchor_171" id="FNanchor_171"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a></p> + +<p>There are few among us who have not suffered from +too early familiarity with the Bible and the conceptions +of religion. Even for a man of really strong and independent +intellect it may be many years before the precociously +dulled feelings become fresh again, before the +fetters of routine fall off, and he is enabled at last to +approach the Bible with fresh receptivity and to realize, +for the first time in his life, the treasures of art and +beauty and divine wisdom it contains. But for most that +moment never comes round. For the majority the +religious education of the school as effectually seals the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +Bible for life as the classical education of the college +seals the great authors of Greece and Rome for life; +no man opens his school books again when he has once +left school. Those who read Greek and Latin for love +have not usually come out of universities, and there is +surely a certain significance in the fact that the children +of one's secularist friends are so often found to become +devout church-goers, while, according to the frequent +observation, devout parents often have most irreligious +offspring, just as the bad boys at school and college are +frequently sons of the clergy.</p> + +<p>At puberty and during adolescence everything begins +to be changed. The change, it is important to remember, +is a natural change, and tends to come about spontaneously; +"where no set forms have been urged, the +religious emotion," as Lancaster puts it, "comes forth +as naturally as the sun rises."<a name="FNanchor_172" id="FNanchor_172"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a> That period, really and +psychologically, marks a "new birth." Emotions +which are of fundamental importance, not only for the +individual's personal life but for his social and even +cosmic relationships, are for the first time born. Not +only is the child's body remoulded in the form of a man +or a woman, but the child-soul becomes a man-soul or a +woman-soul, and nothing can possibly be as it has been +before. The daringly sceptical logician has gone, and so +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +has the imaginative dreamer for whom the world was +the automatic magnifying mirror of his own childish +form and environment. It has been revealed to him that +there are independent personal and impersonal forces +outside himself, forces with which he may come into +a conscious and fascinatingly exciting relationship. It +is a revelation of supreme importance, and with it comes +not only the complexly emotional and intellectual realization +of personality, but the aptitude to enter into and +assimilate the traditions of the race.</p> + +<p>It cannot be too strongly emphasized that this is the +moment, and the earliest moment, when it becomes +desirable to initiate the boy or girl into the mysteries of +religion. That it is the best moment is indicated by the +well-recognized fact that the immediately post-pubertal +period of adolescence is the period during which, even +spontaneously, the most marked religious phenomena +tend to occur.<a name="FNanchor_173" id="FNanchor_173"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a> + Stanley Hall seems to think that twelve +is the age at which the cultivation of the religious consciousness +may begin; "the age, signalized by the +ancient Greeks as that at which the study of what was +comprehensively called music should begin, the age at +which Roman guardianship ended, at which boys are +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +confirmed in the modern Greek, Catholic, Lutheran and +Episcopal Churches, and at which the Child Jesus entered +the Temple, is as early as any child ought consciously to +go about his Heavenly Father's business." +<a name="FNanchor_174" id="FNanchor_174"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_174" class="fnanchor">174]</a> But I +doubt whether we can fix the age definitely by years, +nor is it indeed quite accurate to assert that so early an +age as twelve is generally accepted as the age of initiation; +the Anglican Church, for example, usually confirms +at the age of fifteen. It is not age with which we +ought to be concerned, but a biological epoch of psychic +evolution. It is unwise to insist on any particular age, +because development takes place within a considerably +wide limit of years.</p> + +<p>I have spoken of the introduction to religion at puberty +as the initiation into a mystery. The phrase was deliberately +chosen, for it seems to me to be not a metaphor, +but the expression of a truth which has always been +understood whenever religion has been a reality and not +a mere convention. Among savages in nearly all parts +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +of the world the boy or girl at puberty is initiated into +the mystery of manhood or of womanhood, into the +duties and the privileges of the adult members of the +tribe. The youth is taken into a solitary place, for a +month or more, he is made to suffer pain and hardship, +to learn self-restraint, he is taught the lore of the tribe +as well as the elementary rules of morality and justice; +he is shown the secret things of the tribe and their meaning +and significance, which no stranger may know. He is, +in short, enabled to find his soul, and he emerges from +this discipline a trained and responsible member of his +tribe. The girl receives a corresponding training, suited +to her sex, also in solitude, at the hands of the older +women. A clear and full description of a typical savage +initiation into manhood at puberty is presented by Dr. +Haddon in the fifth volume of the <i>Reports of the Cambridge +Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits</i>, and Dr. +Haddon makes the comment: "It is not easy to conceive +of more effectual means for a rapid training."</p> + +<p>The ideas of remote savages concerning the proper +manner of initiating youth in the religious and other +mysteries of life may seem of little personal assistance +to superiorly civilized people like ourselves. But let us +turn, therefore, to the Greeks. They also had preserved +the idea and the practice of initiation into sacred mysteries, +though in a somewhat modified form because +religion had ceased to be so intimately blended with all +the activities of life. The Eleusinian and other mysteries +were initiations into sacred knowledge and insight +which, as is now recognized, involved no revelation of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +obscure secrets, but were mysteries in the sense that all +intimate experiences of the soul, the experiences of love +quite as much as those of religion, are mysteries, not to +be lightly or publicly spoken of. In that feeling the +Greek was at one with the Papuan, and it is interesting +to observe that the procedure of initiation into the Greek +mysteries, as described by Theon of Smyrna and other +writers, followed the same course as the pubertal initiations +of savages; there was the same preliminary purification +by water, the same element of doctrinal teaching, +the same ceremonial and symbolic rubbing with sand or +charcoal or clay, the same conclusion in a joyous feast, +even the same custom of wearing wreaths.</p> + +<p>In how far the Christian sacraments were consciously +moulded after the model of the Greek mysteries is still +a disputed point;<a name="FNanchor_175" id="FNanchor_175"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a> +but the first Christians were seeking +the same spiritual initiation, and they necessarily adopted, +consciously or unconsciously, methods of procedure +which, in essentials, were fundamentally the same as +those they were already familiar with. The early Christian +Church adopted the rite of Baptism not merely as a +symbol of initiation, but as an actual component part +of a process of initiation; the purifying ceremony was +preceded by long preparation, and when at last completed +the baptized were sometimes crowned with +garlands. When at a later period in the history of the +Church the physical part of the initiation was divorced +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +from the spiritual part, and baptism was performed in +infancy and confirmation at puberty, a fatal mistake +was made, and each part of the rite largely lost its real +significance.</p> + +<p>But it still remains true that Christianity embodied in +its practical system the ancient custom of initiating the +young at puberty, and that the custom exists in an +attenuated form in all the more ancient Christian +Churches. The rite of Confirmation has, however, been +devitalized, and its immense significance has been +almost wholly lost. Instead of being regarded as a real +initiation into the privileges and the responsibilities of a +religious communion, of an active fellowship for the +realization of a divine life on earth, it has become a +mere mechanical corollary of the precedent rite of +baptism, a formal condition of participation in the +Sacrament of Holy Communion. The splendid and +many-sided discipline by which the child of the savage +was initiated into the secrets of his own emotional +nature and the sacred tradition of his people has been +degraded into the learning of a catechism and a few +hours' perfunctory instruction in the schoolroom or in +the parlour of the curate's lodgings. The vital kernel of +the rite is decayed and only the dead shell is left, while +some of the Christian Churches have lost even the +shell.</p> + +<p>It is extremely probable that in no remote future the +State in England will reject as insoluble the problem of +imparting religious instruction to the young in its schools, +in accordance with a movement of opinion which is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +taking place in all civilized countries. +<a name="FNanchor_176" id="FNanchor_176"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a> The support +which the Secular Education League has found in the +most various quarters is without doubt a fact of impressive +significance.<a name="FNanchor_177" id="FNanchor_177"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a> It is well known also that the +working classes—the people chiefly concerned in the +matter—are distinctly opposed to religious teaching in +State schools. There can be little doubt that before +many years have passed, in England as elsewhere, the +Churches will have to face the question of the best +methods of themselves undertaking that task of religious +training which they have sought to foist upon the State. +If they are to fulfil this duty in a wise and effectual +manner they must follow the guidance of biological +psychology at the point where it is at one with the +teaching of their own most ancient traditions, and +develop the merely formal rite of confirmation into a +true initiation of the new-born soul at puberty into the +deepest secrets of life and the highest mysteries of +religion.</p> + +<p>It must, of course, be remembered that, so far as +England is concerned, we live in an empire in which +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> +there are 337 millions of people who are not even +nominally Christians,<a name="FNanchor_178" id="FNanchor_178"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a> and that even among the comparatively +small proportion (about 14 per cent) who call +themselves "Christians," a very large proportion are +practically Secularists, and a considerable number +avowedly so. If, however, we assume the Secularist's +position, the considerations here brought forward still +retain their validity. In the first place, the undoubtedly +frequent hostility of the Freethinker to Christianity is +not so much directed against vital religion as against a +dead Church. The Freethinker is prepared to respect +the Christian who by free choice and the exercise of +thought has attained the position of a Christian, but he +resents the so-called Christian who is merely in the +Church because he finds himself there, without any effort +of his will or his intelligence. The convinced secularist +feels respect for the sincere Christian, even though it +may only be in the sense that the real saint feels tenderness +for the hopeless sinner. And in the second place, as I +have sought to point out, the facts we are here concerned +with are far too fundamental to concern the Christian +alone. They equally concern the secularist, who also is +called upon to satisfy the spiritual hunger of the adolescent +youth, to furnish him with a discipline for his entry into +life, and a satisfying vision of the universe. And if +secularists have not always grasped this necessity, we may +perhaps find therein one main reason why secularism +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +has not met with so enormous and enthusiastic a reception +as the languor and formalism of the churches seemed +to render possible.</p> + +<p>If the view here set forth is sound,—a view more and +more widely held by educationists and by psychologists +trained in biology,—the first twelve years must be left +untouched by all conceptions of life and the world which +transcend immediate experience, for the child whose +spiritual virginity has been prematurely tainted will never +be able to awake afresh to the full significance of those +conceptions when the age of religion at last arrives. But +are we, it may be asked, to leave the child's restless, +inquisitive, imaginative brain without any food during +all those early years? By no means. Even admitting +that, as it has been said, at the early stage religious +training is the supreme art of standing out of Nature's way, +it is still not hard to find what, in this matter, the way of +Nature is. The life of the individual recapitulates +the life of the race, and there can be no better imaginative +food for the child than that which was found good in the +childhood of the race. The child who is deprived of fairy +tales invents them for himself,—for he must have them +for the needs of his psychic growth just as there is reason +to believe he must have sugar for his metabolic growth,—but +he usually invents them badly.<a name="FNanchor_179" id="FNanchor_179"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a> The savage sees the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +world almost exactly as the civilized child sees it, as the +magnified image of himself and his own environment; +but he sees it with an added poetic charm, a delightful +and accomplished inventiveness which the child is incapable +of. The myths and legends of primitive peoples—for +instance, those of the British Columbian Indians, +so carefully reproduced by Boas in German and Hill Tout +in English—are one in their precision and their extravagance +with the stories of children, but with a finer inventiveness. +It was, I believe, many years ago pointed +out by Ziller that fairy-tales ought to play a very important +part in the education of young children, and since +then B. Hartmann, Stanley Hall and many others of the +most conspicuous educational authorities have emphasized +the same point. Fairy tales are but the final and transformed +versions of primitive myths, creative legends, +stories of old gods. In purer and less transformed +versions the myths and legends of primitive peoples +are often scarcely less adapted to the child's mind. +Julia Gayley argues that the legends of early Greek +civilization, the most perfect of all dreams, should above +all be revealed to children; the early traditions of the +East and of America yield material that is scarcely less +fitted for the child's imaginative uses. Portions of the +Bible, especially of Genesis, are in the strict sense fairy +tales, that is legends of early gods and their deeds which +have become stories. In the opinion of many these +portions of the Bible may suitably be given to children +(though it is curious to observe that a Welsh Education +Committee a few years ago prohibited the reading in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +schools of precisely the most legendary part of Genesis); +but it must always be remembered, from the Christian +point of view, that nothing should be given at this +early age which is to be regarded as essential at a later +age, for the youth turns against the tales of his childhood +as he turns against its milk-foods. Some day, perhaps, +it may be thought worth while to compile a Bible for +childhood, not a mere miscellaneous assortment of +stories, but a collection of books as various in origin and +nature as are the books of the Hebraic-Christian Bible, +so that every kind of child in all his moods and stages of +growth might here find fit pasture. Children would not +then be left wholly to the mercy of the thin and frothy +literature which the contemporary press pours upon them +so copiously; they would possess at least one great and +essential book which, however fantastic and extravagant +it might often be, would yet have sprung from the deepest +instincts of the primitive soul, and furnish answers to the +most insistent demands of primitive hearts. Such a +book, even when finally dropped from the youth's or +girl's hands, would still leave its vague perfume behind.</p> + +<p>It may be pointed out, finally, that the fact that it is +impossible to teach children even the elements of adult +religion and philosophy, as well as unwise to attempt it, +by no means proves that all serious teaching is impossible +in childhood. On the imaginative and spiritual side, it is +true, the child is re-born and transformed during adolescence, +but on the practical and concrete side his life +and thought are for the most part but the regular and +orderly development of the habits he has already acquired. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +The elements of ethics on the one hand, as well as of +natural science on the other, may alike be taught to +children, and indeed they become a necessary part of +early education, if the imaginative side of training is to +be duly balanced and complemented. The child as much +as the adult can be taught, and is indeed apt to learn, +the meaning and value of truth and honesty, of justice +and pity, of kindness and courtesy; we have wrangled +and worried for so long concerning the teaching of +religion in schools that we have failed altogether to +realize that these fundamental notions of morality +are a far more essential part of school training. It must, +however, always be remembered that they cannot be +adequately treated merely as an isolated subject of +instruction, and possibly ought not to be so treated at +all. As Harriet Finlay-Johnson wisely says in her +<i>Dramatic Method of Instruction</i>: "It is impossible to +shut away moral teaching into a compartment of the +mind. It should be firmly and openly diffused throughout +the thoughts, to 'leaven the whole of the lump.'" She +adds the fruitful suggestion: "There is real need for +some lessons in which the emotions shall not be ignored. +Nature study, properly treated, can touch both senses +and emotions."<a name="FNanchor_180" id="FNanchor_180"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +The child is indeed quite apt to acquire a precise +knowledge of the natural objects around him, of flowers +and plants and to some extent of animals, objects which +to the savage also are of absorbing interest. In this way, +under wise guidance, the caprices of his imagination +may be indirectly restrained and the lessons of life taught, +while at the same time he is thus being directly prepared +for the serious studies which must occupy so much of his +later youth.</p> + +<p>The child, we thus have to realize, is, from the educational +point of view of social hygiene, a being of dual +nature, who needs ministering to on both sides. On +the one hand he demands the key to an imaginative +paradise which one day he must leave, bearing away +with him, at the best, only a dim and haunting memory +of its beauty. On the other hand he possesses eager +aptitudes on which may be built up concrete knowledge +and the sense of human relationships, to serve as a firm +foundation when the period of adolescent development +and discipline at length arrives.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_163" id="Footnote_163"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> + De Quincey in his <i>Confessions of an Opium Eater</i> referred to +the power that many, perhaps most, children possess of seeing visions +in the dark. The phenomenon has been carefully studied by G.L. +Partridge (<i>Pedagogical Seminary</i>, April, 1898) in over 800 children. +He found that 58.5 of them aged between thirteen and sixteen could +see visions or images at night with closed eyes before falling asleep; +of those aged six the proportion was higher. There seemed to be a +maximum at the age of ten, and probably another maximum at a +much earlier age. Among adults this tendency is rudimentary, and +only found in a marked form in neurasthenic subjects or at moments +of nervous exhaustion. See also Havelock Ellis, <i>The World of Dreams</i>, +chap. <span class="smcap">II</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_164" id="Footnote_164"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> +G. Stanley Hall, "The Contents of Children's Minds on Entering +School," <i>Pedagogical Seminary</i>, June, 1891.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_165" id="Footnote_165"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> +"The mother's face and voice are the first conscious objects as +the infant soul unfolds, and she soon comes to stand in the very place +of God to her child. All the religion of which the child is capable +during this by no means brief stage of its development consists of +these sentiments—gratitude, trust, dependence, love, etc.—now felt +only for her, which are later directed towards God. The less these are +now cultivated towards the mother, who is now their only fitting if +not their only possible object, the more feebly they will later be felt +towards God. This, too, adds greatly to the sacredness of the responsibilities +of motherhood." (G. Stanley Hall, <i>Pedagogical Seminary</i>, June, +1891, p. 199).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_166" id="Footnote_166"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> +J. Morse, <i>American Journal of Religious Psychology</i>, 1911, p. 247.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_167" id="Footnote_167"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> +Lobsien, "Kinderideale," <i>Zeitschrift für Päd. Psychologie</i>, 1903.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_168" id="Footnote_168"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> +Mr. Edmond Holmes, formerly Chief Inspector of Elementary +Education in England, has an instructive remark bearing on this point +in his suggestive book, <i>What Is and What Might be</i> (1911, p. 88): +"The first forty minutes of the morning session are given in almost +every elementary school to what is called <i>Religious Instruction</i>. This +goes on, morning after morning, and week after week. The fact +that the English parent, who must himself have attended from 1500 +to 2000 Scripture lessons in his schooldays, is not under any circumstance +to be trusted to give religious instruction to his own children, +shows that those who control the religious education of the youthful +'masses' have but little confidence in the effects of their system on +the religious life and faith of the English people." Miss Harriet +Finlay-Johnson, a highly original and successful elementary school +teacher, speaks (<i>The Dramatic Method of Teaching</i>, 1911, p. 170) with +equal disapproval of the notion that any moral value attaches to the +ordinary school examinations in "Scripture."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_169" id="Footnote_169"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> +If it were not so, England, after sixty years of National Schools, +ought to be a devout nation of good Church people. Most of the +criminals and outcasts have been taught in Church Schools. A clergyman, +who points this out to me, adds: "I am heartily thankful that +religion was never forced on me as a child. I do not think I had any +religion, in the ethical sense, until puberty, or any conscious realization +of religion, indeed, until nineteen." "The boy," remarks Holmes +(<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 100), "who, having attended two thousand Scripture lessons, +says to himself when he leaves school: 'If this is religion I will have +no more of it,' is acting in obedience to a healthy instinct. He is to +be honoured rather than blamed for having realized at last that the +chaff on which he has so long been fed is not the life-giving grain +which, unknown to himself, his inmost soul demands."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_170" id="Footnote_170"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> <i> +La Nouvelle Héloïse</i>, Part V, Letter 3. In more recent times +Ellen Key remarks in a suggestive chapter on "Religions Education" +in her <i>Century of the Child</i>: "Nothing better shows how deeply +rooted religion is in human nature than the fact that 'religious education' +has not been able to tear it out."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_171" id="Footnote_171"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> +J.S. Mill, <i>Letters</i>, Vol. II, p. 135.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_172" id="Footnote_172"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> +Lancaster found ("The Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence," +<i>Pedagogical Seminary</i>, July, 1897) that among 598 individuals +of both sexes in the United States, as many as 518 experienced new +religious emotions between the ages of 12 and 20, only 80 having no +such emotions at this period, so that more than 5 out of 6 have this +experience; it is really even more frequent, for it has no necessary +tendency to fall into conventional religious moulds.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_173" id="Footnote_173"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> +Professor Starbuck, in his <i>Psychology of Religion</i>, has well brought +together and clearly presented much of the evidence showing this +intimate association between adolescence and religious manifestations. +He finds (Chap. III) that in females there are two tidal waves of religious +awakening, one at about 13, the other at 16, with a less significant +period at 18; for males, after a wavelet at 12, the great tidal wave is +at 16, followed by another at 18 or 19. Ruediger's results are fairly +concordant ("The Period of Mental Reconstruction," <i>American +Journal of Psychology</i>, July, 1907); he finds that in women the average +age of conversion is 14, in men it is at 13 or 14, and again at 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_174" id="Footnote_174"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> +G. Stanley Hall, "The Moral and Religious Training of Children +and Adolescents," <i>Pedagogical Seminary</i>, June, 1891, p. 207. From +the more narrowly religious side the undesirability of attempting to +teach religion to children is well set forth by Florence Hayllar (<i>Independent +Review</i>, Oct., 1906). She considers that thirteen is quite early +enough to begin teaching children the lessons of the Gospels, for a +child who acted in accordance with the Gospels would be "aggravating," +and would generally be regarded as "an insufferable prig." +Moreover, she points out, it is dangerous to teach young children the +Christian virtues of charity, humility, and self-denial. It is far better +that they should first be taught the virtues of justice and courage and +self-mastery, and the more Christian virtues later. She also believes +that in the case of the clergy who are brought in contact with children +a preliminary course of child-study, with the necessary physiology +and psychology, should be compulsory.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_175" id="Footnote_175"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> +The varying opinions on this point have been fairly and clearly +presented by Cheetham in his Hulsean lectures on the <i>Mysteries +Pagan and Christian</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_176" id="Footnote_176"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> + Thus at the first Congress of Italian Women held at Rome in 1908—a +very representative Congress, by no means made up of "feminists" +or anti-clericals, and marked by great moderation and good sense—a +resolution was passed against religious teaching in primary schools, +though a subsequent resolution declared by a very large majority in +favour of teaching the history of religions in secondary schools. These +resolutions caused much surprise at the time to those persons who +still cherish the superstition that in matters of religion women are +blindly prejudiced and unable to think for themselves.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_177" id="Footnote_177"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> +See e.g. an article by Halley Stewart, President of the Secular +Education League, on "The Policy of Secular Education," <i>Nineteenth +Century</i>, April, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_178" id="Footnote_178"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> +So far as numbers go, the dominant religion of the British Empire, +the religion of the majority, is Hinduism; Mohammedanism comes +next.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_179" id="Footnote_179"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> +"Not long ago," says Dr. L. Guthrie (<i>Clinical Journal</i>, 7th June, +1899), "I heard of a lady who, in her desire that her children should +learn nothing but what was true, banished fairy tales from her nursery. +But the children evolved from their own imagination fictions which +were so appalling that she was glad to divert them with Jack-the-Giant-Killer."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_180" id="Footnote_180"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> +In his interesting study of comparative education (<i>The Making +of Citizens</i>, 1902, p. 194), Mr. R.E. Hughes, a school inspector, after +discussing the methods of settling the difficulties of religious education +in England, America, Germany, and France, reasonably concludes: +"The solution of the religious problem of the schools of these four +peoples lies in the future, but we believe it will be found not to be +beyond human ingenuity to devise a scheme of moral and ethical +training for little children which will be suitable. It is the moral +principles underlying all conduct which the school should teach. +Indeed, the school, to justify its existence, dare not neglect them. +It will teach them, not dogmatically or by precept, but by example, +and by the creation of a noble atmosphere around the child." Holmes +also (<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 276) insists that the teaching of patriotism and citizenship +must be informal and indirect.</p></div> + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPVIII" id="CHAPVIII"></a>VIII</h3> + +<h3>THE PROBLEM OF SEXUAL HYGIENE</h3> + +<blockquote><p>The New Movement for giving Sexual Instruction to Children—The +Need of such a Movement—Contradictions involved by the Ancient +Policy of Silence—Errors of the New Policy—The Need of Teaching +the Teacher—The Need of Training the Parents—And of Scientifically +equipping the Physician—Sexual Hygiene and Society—The +far-reaching Effects of Sexual Hygiene.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>It is impossible to doubt the vitality and the vigour +of the new movement of sexual hygiene, especially +that branch of it concerned with the instruction +of children in the essential facts of life. +<a name="FNanchor_181" id="FNanchor_181"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a> In the eighteenth +century the great educationist, Basedow, was almost +alone when, by practice and by precept, he sought to +establish this branch of instruction in schools. +<a name="FNanchor_182" id="FNanchor_182"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a> A few +years ago, when the German Dürer Bund offered prizes +for the best essays on the training of the young in matters +of sex, as many as five hundred papers were sent in. +<a name="FNanchor_183" id="FNanchor_183"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a> +We may say that during the past ten years more has been +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +done to influence popular feeling on this question than +during the whole of the preceding century.</p> + +<p>Whenever we witness a sudden impulse of zeal and +enthusiasm to rush into a new channel, however admirable +the impulse may be, we must be prepared for many risks +and perhaps even a certain amount of damage. This is, +indeed, especially the case when we are concerned with a +new activity in the sphere of sex. The sexual relationships +of life are so ancient and so wide, their roots ramify +so complexly and run so deep, that any sudden disturbance +in this soil, however well-intentioned, is certain +to have many results which were not anticipated by +those responsible for it. Any movement here runs the +risk of defeating its own ends, or else, in gaining them, to +render impossible other ends which are of not less value.</p> + +<p>In this matter of sexual hygiene we are faced at the +outset by the fact that the very recognition of any +such branch of knowledge as "sexual hygiene" involves +not merely a new departure, but the reversal of a policy +which has been accepted, almost without question, for +centuries. Among many primitive peoples, indeed, we +know that the boy and girl at puberty are initiated with +solemnity, and even a not unwholesome hardship, into +the responsibilities of adult life, including those which +have reference to the duties and privileges of sex. +<a name="FNanchor_184" id="FNanchor_184"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> But +in our own traditions scarcely even a relic of any such +custom is preserved. On the contrary, we tacitly maintain +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +a custom, and even a policy, of silent obscurantism. +Parents and teachers have considered it a duty to say +nothing and have felt justified in telling lies, or "fairy +tales," in order to maintain their attitude. The oncoming +of puberty, with its alarming manifestations, especially +in the girl, has often left them unmoved and still silent. +They have taken care that our elementary textbooks +of anatomy and physiology, even when written by so +independent and fearless a pioneer as Huxley, should +describe the human body absolutely as though the +organs and functions of reproduction had no existence. +The instinct was not thus suppressed; all the inevitable +stimulations which life furnishes to the youthful +sexual impulse have continued in operation. +<a name="FNanchor_185" id="FNanchor_185"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> Sexual +activities were just as liable to break out. They were +all the more liable to break out, indeed, because fostered +by ignorance, often unconscious of themselves, and not +held in check by the restraints which knowledge and teaching +might have furnished. This, however, has seemed a +matter of no concern to the guardians of youth. They +have congratulated themselves if they could pilot the +youths, and especially the maidens, under their guardianship +into the haven of matrimony not only in apparent +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +chastity, but in ignorance of nearly everything that +marriage signifies and involves, alike for the individual +and the coming race.</p> + +<p>This policy has been so firmly established that the +theory of it has never been clearly argued out. So +far as it exists at all, it is a theory that walks on two +feet pointing opposite ways: sex things must not be +talked about because they are "dirty"; sex things +must not be talked about because they are "sacred." +We must leave sex things alone, they say, because God will +see to it that they manifest themselves aright and work +for good; we must leave sex things alone, they also say, +because there is no department in life in which the +activity of the Devil is so specially exhibited. The very +same person may be guilty of this contradiction, when +varying circumstances render it convenient. Such a +confusion is, indeed, a fate liable to befall all ancient +and deeply rooted <i>tabus</i>; we see it in the <i>tabus</i> against +certain animals as foods (as the Mosaic prohibition of +pork); at first the animal was too sacred to eat, but in +time people came to think that it is too disgusting to eat. +They begin the practice for one reason, they continue it +for a totally opposed reason. Reasons are such a superficial +part of our lives!</p> + +<p>Thus every movement of sexual hygiene necessarily +clashes against an established convention which is itself +an inharmonious clash of contradictory notions. This is +especially the case if sexual hygiene is introduced by +way of the school. It is very widely held by many who +accept the arguments so ably set forth by Frau Maria +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +Lischnewska, that the school is not only the best way of +introducing sexual hygiene, but the only possible way, +since through this channel alone is it possible to employ +an antidote to the evil influences of the home and the +world.<a name="FNanchor_186" id="FNanchor_186"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a> +Yet to teach children what some of their parents +consider as too sacred to be taught, and others as too +disgusting, and to begin this teaching at an age when +the children, having already imbibed these parental +notions, are old enough to be morbidly curious and +prurient, is to open the way to a complicated series of +social reactions which demand great skill to adjust.</p> + +<p>Largely, no doubt, from anxiety to counterbalance +these dangers, there has been a tendency to emphasize, +or rather to over-emphasize, the moral aspects of sexual +hygiene. Rightly considered, indeed, it is not easy to +over-value its moral significance. But in the actual +teaching of such hygiene it is quite easy, and the error is +often found, to make statements and to affirm doctrines—all +in the interests of good morals and with the object +of exhibiting to the utmost the beneficial tendencies of +this teaching—which are dubious at the best and often at +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +variance with actual experience. In such cases we seem +to see that the sexual hygienist has indeed broken with +the conventional conspiracy of silence in these matters, +but he has not broken with the conventional morality +which grew out of that ignorant silence. With the best +intention in the world he sets forth, dogmatically and +without qualification, ancient half-truths which to become +truly moral need to be squarely faced with their complementary +half-truths. The inevitable danger is that the +pupil sooner or later grasps the one-sided exaggeration +of this teaching, and the credit of the sexual hygienist is +gone. Life is an art, and love, which lies at the heart of +life, is an art; they are not science; they cannot be +converted into clear-cut formulæ and taught as the +multiplication table is taught. Example here counts +for more than precept, and practice teaches more than +either, provided it is carried on in the light of precept and +example. The rash and unqualified statements concerning +the immense benefits of continence, or the awful +results of self-abuse, etc., frequently found in books for +young people will occur to every one. Stated with +wise moderation they would have been helpful. Pushed +to harsh extravagance they are not only useless to aid +the young in their practical difficulties, but become mischievous +by the injury they inflict on over-sensitive +consciences, fearful of falling short of high-strung ideals. +This consideration brings us, indeed, to what is perhaps +the chief danger in the introduction of any teaching of +sexual hygiene: the fact that our teachers are themselves +untaught. Sexual hygiene in the full sense—in so far as +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +it concerns individual action and not the regulative +or legislative action of communities—is the art of imparting +such knowledge as is needed at successive stages +by the child, the youth and maiden, the young man and +woman, in order to enable them to deal rightly, and so +far as possible without injury either to themselves or to +others, with all those sexual events to which every one +is naturally liable. To fulfil his functions adequately +the master in the art of teaching sexual hygiene must +answer to three requirements: (1) he must have a sufficing +knowledge of the facts of sexual psychology, sexual +physiology, and sexual pathology, knowledge which, in +many important respects, hardly existed at all until +recently, and is only now beginning to become generally +accessible; (2) he must have a wise and broad moral +outlook, with a sane idealism which refrains from demanding +impossibilities, and resolutely thrusts aside +not only the vulgar platitudes of worldliness, but the +equally mischievous platitudes of an outworn and insincere +asceticism, for the wise sexual hygienist knows, with +Pascal, that "he who tries to be an angel becomes a +beast," and is less anxious to make his pupils ineffective +angels than effective men and women, content to say with +Browning, "I may put forth angels' pinions, once +unmanned, but not before"; (3) in addition to sound +knowledge and a wise moral outlook, the sexual hygienist +must possess, finally, a genuine sympathy with the young, +an insight into their sensitive shyness, a comprehension +of their personal difficulties, and the skill to speak to +them simply, frankly, and humanly. If we ask ourselves +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> +how many of the apostles of sexual hygiene combine +these three essential qualities, we shall probably not be +able to name many, while we may suspect that some do +not even possess one of the three qualifications. If we +further consider that the work of sexual hygiene, to be +carried out on a really national scale, demands the more +or less active co-operation of parents, teachers, and +doctors, and that parents, teachers, and doctors are +in these matters at present all alike untrained, and usually +prejudiced, we shall realize some of the dangers through +which sexual hygiene must at first pass.</p> + +<p>It is, I hope, unnecessary for me to say that, in thus +pointing out some of the difficulties and the risks which +must assail every attempt to introduce an element of +effective sexual hygiene into life, I am far from wishing +to argue that it is better to leave things as they are. +That is impossible, not only because we are realizing +that our system of incomplete silence is mischievous, but +because it is based on a confusion which contains within +itself the elements of disruption. We have to remember, +however, that the creation of a new tradition cannot be +effected in a day. Before we begin to teach sexual hygiene +the teachers must themselves be taught.</p> + +<p>There are many who have insisted, and not without +reason, on the right of the parent to control the education +of the child. Sexual hygiene introduces us to another +right, the right of the child to control the education of +the parents. For few parents to-day are fitted to exercise +the duty of training and guiding the child in the difficult +field of sex without preliminary education, and such +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> +education, to be real and effective, must begin at an +early age in the parents' life. +<a name="FNanchor_187" id="FNanchor_187"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a></p> + +<p>The school teacher, again, on whom so many rely +for the initial stage in sexual hygiene, is at present often +in almost exactly the same stage of ignorance or prejudice +in these matters as his or her pupils. The teacher has +seldom been trained to impart even the most elementary +scientific knowledge of the facts of sex, of reproduction, +and of sexual hygiene, and is more often than not without +that personal experience of life in its various aspects +which is required in order to teach wisely in such a difficult +field as that of sex, even if the principle is admitted +that the teacher in class, equally whether addressing one +sex or both sexes, is not called upon to go beyond the +scientific, abstract, and objective aspects of sex.</p> + +<p>This difficulty of the lack of suitable teachers is not, +indeed, insuperable. It would be largely settled, no doubt, +if a wise and thorough course of sexual hygiene and puericulture +formed part of the training of all school teachers, as, +in France, Pinard has proposed for the Normal schools for +young women. Dr. W.O. Henry, in a paper read before +the Nebraska State Medical Association in May, 1911, put +forward the proposal: "Let each State have one or more +competent physicians whose duty it shall be to teach +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> +these things to the children in all the public schools +of the State from the time they are eight years of age. +The boys and girls should be given the instruction +separately by means of charts, pictures, and stereopticon +views, beginning with the lower forms of life, flowers, +plants, and then closing with the organs in man. These +lectures and illustrations should be given every year to +all the boys and girls separately, having those from eight +to ten together at one time, and those from ten to twelve, +and those from over twelve to sixteen." Dr. Henry was +evidently not aware that the principle of a special teacher +appointed by Government to give special instruction in +matters of sex in all State schools had already been adopted +in Canada, in the province of Ontario; the teacher thus +appointed goes from school to school and teaches the +elements of sexual physiology and anatomy, and the +duty of treating sexual matters with reverence, to +classes of boys and of girls from the age of ten. The +course is not compulsory, but any School Board may +call upon the special teacher to deliver the lectures. +This appointment has met with so much approval that +it is proposed to appoint further teachers on the same +lines, women as well as men.</p> + +<p>It is not necessary that the school teacher of sex +should be a physician. For personal and particular advice +on the concrete difficulties of sex, however, as well as for +the more special and detailed hygiene of the sexual +relationship and the precautions demanded by eugenics, +we must call in the physician. Yet none of these things +so far enter the curriculum through which the physician +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> +passes to reach his profession; he is often only a layman +in relation to them. Even if we are assured that these +subjects form part of his scientific equipment, that fact +by no means guarantees his tact, sympathy, and insight +in addressing the young, whether by general lectures or +individual interviews, both these being forms of imparting +sexual hygiene for which we may properly call upon +the physician, especially towards the end of the school +or college course, and at the outset of any career in the +world.<a name="FNanchor_188" id="FNanchor_188"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a></p> + +<p>Undoubtedly we have amongst us many mothers, +teachers, and physicians who are admirably equipped +to fulfil their respective parts—elementary, secondary, +and advanced—in the work of sexual hygiene. But so +long as they are few and far apart their influence is +negatived, if it is not even rendered harmful.</p> + +<p>It must often be useless for a mother to instil into her +little boy respect for his own body, reverence for the +channel of motherhood through which he entered the +world, any sense of the purity of natural functions +or the beauty of natural organs, if outside his home +the little boy finds that all other little boys and girls +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +regard these things as only an occasion for sniggering. +It is idle for the teacher to describe plainly the scientific +facts of sex as a marvellous culmination in the natural +unfolding of the world if, outside the schoolroom, the +pupil finds that, in the newspapers and in the general +conversation of adults, this sacred temple is treated as a +common sewer, too filthy to be spoken of, and that the +books which contain even the most necessary descriptions +of it are liable to be condemned as "obscene" in the law +courts.<a name="FNanchor_189" id="FNanchor_189"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a> +It is vain for the physician to explain to young +men and women the subtle and terrible nature of venereal +poisons, to declare the right and the duty of both partners +in marriage to know, authoritatively and beforehand, the +state of each other's health, or to warn them that a +proper sense of responsibility towards the race must +prevent some ill-born persons from marrying, or at all +events from procreating, if the young man and woman +find, on leaving the physician, that their acquaintances +are prepared to accept all these risks, light-heartedly, in +the dark, in a heedless dream from which they somehow +hope there will be no awful awakening.</p> + +<p>The moral to which these observations point is fairly +clear. Sex penetrates the whole of life. It is not a +branch of mathematics, or a period of ancient history, +which we can elect to teach, or not to teach, as may seem +best to us, which if we teach we may teach as we choose, +and if we neglect to teach it will never trouble us. Love +and Hunger are the foundations of life, and the impulse +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +of sex is just as fundamental as the impulse of nutrition. +It will not remain absent because we refuse to call for its +presence, it will not depart because we find its presence +inconvenient. At the most it will only change its shape, +and mock at us from beneath masks so degraded, and +sometimes so exalted, that we are no longer able to +recognize it.</p> + +<p>"People are always writing about education," said +Chamfort more than a century ago, "and their writings +have led to some valuable methods. But what is the +use, unless side by side with the introduction of such +methods, corresponding reforms are not introduced in +legislation, in religion, in public opinion? The only +object of education is to conform the child's reason +to that of the community. But if there is no corresponding +reform in the community, by training the child to +reason you are merely training him to see the absurdity +of opinions and customs consecrated by the seal of +sacred authority, public or legislative, and you are +inspiring him with contempt of them." +<a name="FNanchor_190" id="FNanchor_190"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> We cannot too +often meditate on these wise words.</p> + +<p>It is useless to attempt to introduce sexual hygiene as a +subject apart, and in some respects it may be dangerous. +When we touch sex we are touching sensitive fibres which +thrill through the whole of our social organism, just as the +touch of love thrills through the whole of the bodily +organism. Any vital reform here, any true introduction +of sexual hygiene to replace our traditional policy +of confused silence, affects the whole of life or it affects +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +nothing. It will modify our social conventions, enter our +family life, transform our moral outlook, perhaps re-inspire +our religion and our philosophy.</p> + +<p>That conclusion need by no means render us pessimistic +concerning the future of sexual hygiene, nor unduly +anxious to cling to the policy of the past. But it may +induce us to be content to move slowly, to prepare +our movements widely and firmly, and not to expect +too much at the outset. By introducing sexual hygiene +we are breaking with the tradition of the past which +professed to leave the process by which the race is carried +on to Nature, to God, especially to the devil. We are +claiming that it is a matter for individual personal +responsibility, deliberately exercised in the light of +precise knowledge which every young man and woman +has a right, or rather a duty, to possess. That conception +of personal responsibility thus extended to the sphere of +sex in the reproduction of the race may well transform +life and alter the course of civilization. It is not merely +a reform in the class-room, it is a reform in the home, +in the church, in the law courts, in the legislature. If +sexual hygiene means that, it means something great, +though something which can only come slowly, with +difficulty, with much searching of hearts. If, on the +other hand, sexual hygiene means nothing but the introduction +of a new formal catechism, and an occasional +goody-goody perfunctory exhortation, it may be introduced +at once, quite easily, without hurting anyone's +feelings. But, really, it will not be worth worrying about, +one way or the other.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_181" id="Footnote_181"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> +For a full discussion of the movement, see Havelock Ellis, <i>Studies +in the Psychology of Sex</i>, Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society," chaps. +<span class="smcap">II</span> and <span class="smcap">III</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182" id="Footnote_182"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> +Basedow (born at Hamburg 1723, died 1790) set forth his views +on sexual education—which will seem to many somewhat radical and +advanced even to-day—in his great treatise Elementarwerk (1774). +His practical educational work is dealt with by Pinloche, <i>La Réforme +de l'Education en Allemagne au Dix-huitième Siècle</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_183" id="Footnote_183"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> +The best of these papers have been printed in a volume entitled +<i>Am Lebensquell</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_184" id="Footnote_184"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_184"><span class="label">[841]</span></a> +The elaborate and admirable initiation of boys among the natives +of Torres Straits furnishes a good example of this education, and has +been fully described by Dr. A.C. Haddon, <i>Reports of the Anthropological +Expedition to Torres Straits</i>, Vol. V, chaps. <span class="smcap">VII</span> +and <span class="smcap">XII</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_185" id="Footnote_185"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> +Moll in his wise and comprehensive work, <i>The Sexual Life of the +Child</i> (German ed., p. 225), lays it down emphatically that "<i>we must +clearly realize at the outset that the complete exclusion of sexual stimuli +in the education of children is impossible</i>." He adds that the demands +made by some "fanatics of hygiene" would be dangerous even if they +were practicable. Games and physical exercises induce in many +cases a considerable degree of sexual stimulation. But this need not +cause us undue alarm, nor must we thereby be persuaded to change +our policy of recommending such games and exercises.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_186" id="Footnote_186"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> +See Frau Maria Lischnewska's excellent pamphlet, <i>Geschlechtliche +Belehrung der Kinder</i>, first published in <i>Mutterschutz</i>, 1905, Heft 4 +and 5. This is perhaps the ablest statement of the argument in favour +of giving the chief place in sexual hygiene to the teacher. Frau Lischnewska +recognizes three factors in the movement for freeing the +sexual activities from degradation: (1) medical, (2) economic, and +(3) rational. But it is the last—in the broadest sense as a comprehensive +process of enlightenment—which she regards as the chief. +"The views and sentiments of people must be changed," she says. +"The civilized man must learn to gaze at this piece of Nature with +pure eyes; reverence towards it must early sink into his soul. In the +absence of this fundamental renovation, medical and social measures +will merely produce refined animals."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_187" id="Footnote_187"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> +"We parents of to-day," as Henriette Fürth truly says ("Erotik +und Elternpflicht," <i>Am Lebensquell</i>, p. 11), "have not yet attained +that beautiful naturalness out of which in these matters simplicity +and freedom grow. And however willing we may be to learn afresh, +most of us have so far lost our inward freedom from prejudice—the +standpoint of the pure to whom all things are pure—that we cannot +acquire it again. We parents of to-day have been altogether wrongly +brought up. The inoculated feeling of shame still remains even after +we have recognized that shame in this connection is false."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_188" id="Footnote_188"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> +The method of imparting a knowledge of sexual hygiene (especially +in relation to venereal diseases) at the outset of adult life has +most actively been carried out in Germany and the United States. +In Germany lectures by doctors to students and others on these matters +are frequently given. In the United States information and advice +are spread abroad chiefly by the aid of societies. The American +Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, with which the name of +Dr. Morrow is specially connected, was organized in 1905. The Chicago +Society of Social Hygiene was established in 1906. Since then many +other similar societies have sprung up under medical auspices in various +American cities and states.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_189" id="Footnote_189"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> +Many flagrant cases in point are set forth from the legal point of +view by Theodore Schroeder, <i>"Obscene" Literature and Constitutional +Law</i>, New York, 1911, chap. <span class="smcap">IV</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_190" id="Footnote_190"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> +Chamfort, <i>[OE]uvres Choisies</i>, ed. by Lescure, Vol. I, p. 33.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPIX" id="CHAPIX"></a>IX</h3> + +<h3>IMMORALITY AND THE LAW</h3> + +<blockquote><p>Social Hygiene and Legal Compulsion—The Binding Force of Custom +among Savages—The Dissolving Influence of Civilization—The +Distinction between Immorality and Criminality—Adultery as a +Crime—The Tests of Criminality—National Differences in laying +down the Boundary between Criminal and Immoral Acts—France—Germany—England—The +United States—Police Administration—Police +Methods in the United States—National Differences in +the Regulation of the Trade in Alcohol—Prohibition in the United +States—Origin of the American Method of Dealing with Immorality—Russia—Historical +Fluctuations in Methods of dealing with +Immorality and Prostitution—Homosexuality—Holland—The Age +of Consent—Moral Legislation in England—In the United States—The +Raines Law—American Attempts to Suppress Prostitution—Their +Futility—German Methods of Regulating Prostitution—The +Sound Method of Approaching Immorality—Training in +Sexual Hygiene—Education in Personal and Social Responsibility.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>The modern development of Social Hygiene in +matters of Eugenics has already sufficed to +show that there are certain people in the +community, anxious to take quick cuts to the millennium, +who think that Eugenics can be promoted by hasty +legislation. That method of attempting to further +social progress is not new. It has been practised with +signal lack of success for several thousand years. Therefore, +if Social Hygiene is really to progress among us on +sane and fundamental lines, it is necessary for us to +realize clearly the mistakes of the past. Again and again +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> +the blind haste of over-zealous reformers has led not to +progress, but to retrogression. The excellent intentions +of such social reformers have been defeated, not so +much by the evils they have sought to overcome, as +by their own excesses of ignorant zeal. As our knowledge +of history and of psychology increases, we learn +that, in dealing with human nature, what seems the +longest way round is sometimes the shortest way home.</p> + +<p>Among savages, and no doubt in primitive societies +generally, the social reaction against injurious or even +unusual acts on the part of individuals is regulated by +the binding force of custom. The ruling opinion is the +opinion of all, the ruling custom is the duty for all. +The dictates of custom, even of ritual and etiquette, +are stringent dictates of morality binding upon all, and +the breach of any is equivalent to what we should consider +a crime. The savage man is held in the path of +duty by a much more united force of public opinion +than is the civilized man. But, as Westermarck points +out, in a suggestive chapter on customs and laws as +the expression of moral ideas, "custom never covers the +whole field of morality, and the uncovered space grows +larger in proportion as the moral consciousness develops.... +The rule of custom is the rule of duty at early +stages of development. Only progress in culture lessens +its sway."<a name="FNanchor_191" id="FNanchor_191"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a> +As a community increases in size and in +cultivation, growing more heterogeneous, it adheres +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +rigidly to fundamental conceptions of right and wrong, +but in less fundamental matters its moral ideas become +both more subjective and more various. If a man +kills another man out of love to that man's wife, all +civilized society is of opinion that the homicide is a +"crime" to be severely punished; but if the man should +make love to the wife without killing the husband, then, +although in some savage societies the act would still +have been a "crime," in a civilized society it would +usually be regarded as more properly a case for civil +action, not for criminal action; while should it come to be +known that the wife had from the first been in love with +the man, and was married by compulsion to a husband +who had brutally ill-used her, then a very considerable +section of the civilized community would actually transfer +their sympathies to the offending couple and look upon +the husband as the real offender.</p> + +<p>This is why the vestigial relics of the ancient ecclesiastical +view of adultery as a "crime" are no longer +supported by public opinion;<a name="FNanchor_192" id="FNanchor_192"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> they are no longer enforced, +or else the penalty is reduced to ridiculous dimensions +(as in France, where a fine of a few francs may be +imposed), and there is a general inclination to abolish +them altogether. Penalties for adultery are not nowadays +enacted afresh, except in the United States, where +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> +medieval regulations are enabled to survive through the +strength of the Puritan tradition. Thus in the State +of New York a law was passed in 1907 rendering any +person guilty of adultery punishable by six months' +imprisonment, or a heavy fine, or both. The law was +largely due to agitation by the National Christian League +for the Promotion of Purity; it was supposed the law +would act to prevent adultery. Less than three months +after the Act became law, lawyers reached the conclusion +that it was a dead letter. During the two years after +its enactment, notwithstanding the large number of +divorces, only three persons were sent to prison, for a +few days, under this Act, and only four fined a small sum. +The Committee of Fourteen state that it is "of practically +no effect," and add: "The preventive values of this +statute cannot be determined, but, judging from the +prosecutions, it has proved an ineffective weapon against +immorality, and has practically no effect upon commercialized +vice."<a name="FNanchor_193" id="FNanchor_193"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a> When such laws remain on the +Statute Book as relics of practically medieval days they +deserve a certain respect, even if it is impossible to enforce +them; to re-enact them in modern times is a +gratuitous method of bringing law into contempt.</p> + +<p>It is clear that all such cases affecting morals are not +only altered by circumstances, and by consideration of +the psychic state of the individual, but that in regard to +them different sections of the community hold widely +different views. The sanctions of the criminal law to be +firm and unshakeable must be capable of literal interpretation +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> +and of unfailing execution, and in that interpretation +and execution be accepted as just by the +whole community. But as soon as law enters the sphere +of morals this becomes impossible; law loses all its +certainty and all the reverence that rightly belongs to it. +It no longer voices the conscience of the whole community; +it tends to be merely an expression of the feelings +of a small upper-class social circle; the feelings and the +habits and the necessities of the mass of the population +are altogether ignored.<a name="FNanchor_194" id="FNanchor_194"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a> Nor are such legislative incursions +into the sphere of morals any more satisfactory +from the point of view of the class which is responsible +for them. It very soon begins to be felt that, as Hagen +puts it, "the formulas of penal law are stiff and clumsy +instruments which can only in the rarest instance serve +to disentangle the delicate and manifoldly interwoven +threads of the human soul, and decide what is just and +what unjust. Formulas are adopted for simple, uncomplicated, +rough everyday cases. Only in such cases +do they achieve the conquest of justice over injustice."</p> + +<p>It is true that no sharp line divides criminal acts +from merely immoral acts, and the latter tend to +be indirectly, even when not directly, anti-social. It +would be highly convenient if we could draw a sharp +distinction between major anti-social acts, which may +properly be described as "crime," and justly be pursued +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +with the full rigour of the law, and minor anti-social +acts, which may be left to the varying reaction of the +social environments since they cannot properly be +visited by the criminal law.<a name="FNanchor_195" id="FNanchor_195"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a> Such a distinction exists, +but it cannot be made sharply because there are a large +number of intermediate anti-social acts which some +sections of the community regard as major, while others +regard them as minor, or even, in some cases, as not anti-social +at all. The only convenient test we can apply is +the strength of the social reaction—provided we are +dealing with an act which is definitely anti-social, injuring +recognized rights, and not merely an unusual or disgusting +act.<a name="FNanchor_196" id="FNanchor_196"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a> +When an anti-social act meets with a reaction +of social indignation which is fairly universal and +permanent, it may be regarded as a crime coming under +the jurisdiction of the law. If opinion varies, if a considerable +section of the community revolt against the +punishment of the alleged anti-social act, then we are not +entitled to dignify it with the appellation of "crime." +This is not an altogether sure or satisfactory criterion +because there are frequently times and places, especially +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +under the stimulation of some particular occurrence +evoking an outburst of increased public emotion, when +a section of the community succeeds by its noisy vigour in +creating the impression that it voices the universal will. +But, on the whole, it works out justly. Ethical standards +differ in different places at different times. They are, +indeed, always changing. Therefore, in regard to all +matters which belong to the sphere of what we commonly +call morals, there are in every community some who +approve of a given act, others who disapprove of it, yet +others who regard it with indifference. In such a shifting +sphere we cannot legislate with the certainty of carrying +the whole community with us, nor can we properly +introduce the word "crime," which ought to indicate +only an action of so gravely anti-social nature that +there can be no possibility of doubt about it.</p> + +<p>It is, however, important to understand the marked +national differences in the reaction to these slightly or +dubiously anti-social acts, for such differences rest +on ancient tradition, and are to some extent the expression +of the genius of a people, though they are not +the absolutely immutable product of racial constitution, +and, within limits, they undergo transformation. It +thus happens that acts which in some countries are +pursued by the law and punished as crime, are in other +countries untouched by the law, and left to the social +reaction of the community. It becomes, therefore, of +some importance to compare national differences in the +attitude towards immorality, to find out whether the +attempt to repress it directly, by law, is more effective, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> +or less effective, than the method of leaving it to social +reaction.</p> + +<p>In many respects France and Germany present a +remarkable contrast in their respective methods of +dealing with immorality. The contrast has only existed +since the sweeping legal reforms which followed the +Revolution in France. In old France the laws against +sexual and religious offences were extremely severe, +involving in some cases death at the stake, and even +during the eighteenth century this extreme penalty of +the law was sometimes carried out. The police were +active, their methods of investigation elaborate and +thorough, yet the rigour of the law and the energy of the +police signally failed to suppress irreligion and immorality +in eighteenth-century France. The Revolution, by +popularizing the opinions of the more enlightened men +of the time, and by giving to the popular voice an +authority it had never possessed before, remoulded the +antiquated ecclesiastical laws in accordance with the +ideas of the average modern man. In 1791 nearly all +the ancient laws against immorality, which had proved +so ineffectual, were flung away, and when in 1810 Napoleon +established the great penal code which bears his +name, he was careful to limit to a minimum the moral +offences of which the law was empowered to take cognisances, +and—acting certainly in accordance with +deeply rooted instincts of the French people—he avoided +any useless or dangerous interference with private life +and the freedom of the individual. The penal code in +France remains substantially the same to-day, while +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> +the other countries which have constructed their codes +on the French model have shown similar tendencies.</p> + +<p>In Germany, and more especially in Prussia, which +now dominates German opinion, a very different tendency +prevails. The German feels nothing of that sensitive +jealousy with which the French seek to guard private +life and the rights of the individual. He tolerates a +police system which, as Fuld has pointed out, is the +most military police system in the world, and he makes +little complaint of the indiscriminating thoroughness, +even harshness, with which it exercises its functions. +"The North German," as a German lawyer puts it, +"gazes with sacred respect on every State authority, +and on every official, especially on executive and police +functionaries; he complacently accepts police inquisition +into his private life, and the regulation of his behaviour +by law and police affects his impulse of freedom in a +relatively slight manner. Hence the law-maker's interference +with his private life seems to him a customary +and not too injurious encroachment on his individuality." +<a name="FNanchor_197" id="FNanchor_197"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a> +It thus comes about that a great many acts, of for the +most part unquestioned immoral character—such as +incest, the procuring of women for immoral purposes, +and acts of a homosexual character—which, when adults +are alone concerned, the French leave to be dealt with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +by the social reaction, are in Germany directly dealt +with by the law. These things and the like are viewed +in France with fully as much detestation as in Germany, +but while the German considers that that detestation is +itself a reason for inflicting a legal penalty on the detested +act, the Frenchman considers that to inflict a punishment +upon such acts by law is an inadmissible interference +of the State in private affairs, and an unnecessary interference +since the social reaction is quite adequate. In +Germany, Dr. Wilhelm points out, a man who allows +his daughter's <i>fiancé</i> to stay overnight in his house +with her is liable to be dragged before the police court +and sent to prison for procuring immorality; +<a name="FNanchor_198" id="FNanchor_198"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> to a +Frenchman this is a shocking and inconceivable insult to +private rights.<a name="FNanchor_199" id="FNanchor_199"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> So also with the German legal attitude +towards sexual inversion. The German method of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +dragging private scandals into the glare of day and +investigating them at interminable length in the law +courts is a perpetual source of astonishment to Frenchmen. +They point out that not only does this method defeat its +own end by concentrating attention on the abnormal +practices it attacks, but it adds dignity to them; a +certain small section of the community justifies and +upholds these practices, but while in France this section +has no reason to come prominently before the public since +it has no grievances demanding redress, in Germany the +existence of a cause to advocate in the name of justice +has produced a serious and imposing body of literature +which has no parallel in France.<a name="FNanchor_200" id="FNanchor_200"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a> Thus, as Wilhelm points +out, we find exactly opposite methods adopted in Germany +and France to obtain the same ends: "In Germany, +punishment on account of alleged injury to general +interests; in France absence of punishment in order to +avoid injury to general interests; in Germany the police +baton is called for in order to ward off threatened injury, +while in France it is feared that the use of the police +baton will itself cause the injury."</p> + + +<p>The question naturally arises: Which method is the +more effective? Wilhelm finds that these differences in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +national attitude towards immorality have not by any +means rendered immorality more prevalent in France +than in Germany; on the contrary, though extra-conjugal +intercourse is in Germany almost a crime, sexual +offences against children are far more prevalent than in +France, while family life is at least as stable in France as +in Germany, and more intimate. "The freer way of +regarding sexual matters and its results in legislation +have, as compared to Germany, in no respect led to more +immoral conditions, while, on the other hand, it has +been the reason why the vigorous agitation which we +find in Germany for certain legal reforms in respect to +sexuality are quite unknown."</p> + +<p>It is forgotten, in Germany and in some other countries, +sometimes even in France, that to bring immorality +within reach of the arm of the law is not necessarily by +any means to make the actual penalty, in the largest +sense of the term, more severe. So long as he retains the +good opinion of his fellows, imprisonment is no injury to a +man; it has happened to some of our most distinguished +and respected public men. The bad opinion of his +fellows, even when the law is powerless to touch him, is +often an irretrievable injury to a man. We do not +fortify the social reaction, in most matters, when we +attempt to give it a legal sanction; we do not even need +to fortify it, for it is sometimes harsher and more severe +than the law, overlooking or not knowing all the extenuating +circumstances. In France, as in England, the force +of social opinion, independently of the law, is exceedingly +and perhaps excessively strong.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> +In England, however, we see an attitude towards +immorality which differs alike from the French attitude +and the German attitude, though it has points of contact +with both. The distinctive feature of the Englishman's +attitude is his spirit of extreme individualism (which +distinguishes him from the German) combined with the +religious nature of his moral fervour (which distinguishes +him from the Frenchman), both being veiled by a shy +prudery (which distinguishes him alike from the Frenchman +and the German). The Englishman's reverence for +the individual's rights goes beyond the Frenchman's, for +in France there is a tendency to subordinate the individual +to the family, and in England the interests of the individual +predominate. But while in France the laws have +been re-moulded to the national temperament, this has +not been the case to anything like the same extent in +England, where in modern times no great revolution has +occurred to shake off laws which still by their antiquity, +rather than by their reasonableness, retain the reverence +of the people. Thus it comes about that, on the legal side +the English attitude towards immorality in many respects +resembles the German attitude. Yet undoubtedly the +most fundamental element in the English attitude is the +instinct for personal freedom, and even the religious +fervour of the moral impulse has strengthened the +individualistic element.<a name="FNanchor_201" id="FNanchor_201"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a> We see this clearly in the fact +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> +that England has even gone beyond France in rejecting +the control of prostitutes. The French are striving to +abolish such control, but in England where it was never +extensively established it has long been abolished, leaving +only a few faint traces behind. It is abhorrent to the +English mind that even the most degraded specimens of +humanity should be compulsorily deprived of rights over +their own persons, even when it is claimed that the +deprivation of such rights might be for the benefit of the +community. In no country, perhaps, is the prostitute so +free to parade the streets in the exercise of her profession +as in England, and in no country is public opinion so +intolerant of even the suspicion of a mistake by the +police in the exercise of that very limited control over +prostitutes which they possess. The freedom of the +prostitute in England is further guaranteed by the very +fervour of English religious feeling; for active interference +with prostitutes involves regulation of prostitution, +and that implies a national recognition of prostitution +which to a very large section of the English people would +be altogether repellant. Thus English love of freedom +and English love of God combine to protect the prostitute. +It has to be added that this result is by no means, as some +have imagined, hostile to morality. It is the opinion of +many foreign observers that in this matter London, for +all its freedom, compares favourably with many other +large cities where prostitution is severely regulated by +the police and so far as possible concealed. For the +police can never become the agents of any morality of +the heart, and all the repression in the world can only +touch the surface of life.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> +The English attitude, again, is characteristically seen +in the method of dealing with homosexual practices and +other similar sexual aberrations. Here, legally, England +is closer to Germany than to modern France. No country +in the world, it is often said, has preserved by tradition and +even maintained by recent accretion such severe penalties +against homosexual offences as England. Yet, unlike the +Germans, the English do not actively prosecute in these +cases and are usually content to leave the law in abeyance, +so long as public order and decency are reasonably +maintained. English people, like the French people, +are by no means impressed by the advantages of the +German system by which purely private scandals are +made public scandals, to be set forth day after day +in all their details before the court, and discussed +excitedly by the whole population. Yet the English law +in this matter is still very widely upheld. There are very +many English people who think that the fact that homosexuality +is disgusting to most people is a reason for +punishing it with extreme severity. Yet disgust is a +matter of taste, we cannot properly impart it into our +laws; a disgusting person is not necessarily a criminal +person, or we shall have to enact that many inmates of +our hospitals and lunatic asylums be hanged. There is +thus a fundamental inconsistency in the English method of +dealing with immorality; it is made up of opposite views, +some of them extreme in contrary directions. But by +virtue of the national tendency to compromise, these +conflicting tendencies work in a fairly harmonious manner. +The result is that the general state of English morality—notwithstanding, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> +and perhaps partly by reason of, its +prudish anxiety to leave unpleasant matters alone—is at +least as satisfactory as that of countries where much more +logical and thorough methods are in favour.</p> + +<p>In the United States we see yet another attitude +towards immorality. It is, indeed, related to the English +attitude, necessarily so, since the most ancient and +fundamental element of it was carried over to America +by the English Puritans, who cherished in the extreme +form alike the English passion for individualism and the +English fervour of religious idealism. These germs have +been too potent for destruction even under all the new +influences of American life. But they are not altogether +in harmony with those influences, and the result has +been that the American attitude towards immorality has +sometimes looked rather like a caricature of the English +method. The influx of a vast and racially confused +population with the over-rapid development of urbanization +which has necessarily followed, opens an immense +field for idealistic individualism to attempt reforms. +But this individualism has not been held in check by +the English spirit of compromise, which is not a part of +Puritanism, and it has thus tended alike to excess and to +impotence. This result is brought about partly by +facilities for individualistic legislation not voicing the +tendencies of the whole population, and therefore fatally +condemned to sterility, and partly by the fact that in a +new and rapidly developed civilization it is impossible +to secure an army of functionaries who may be trusted to +deal with the regulation of delicate and complex moral +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +questions in regard to which the community is not really +agreed. The American police are generally admitted +to be open with special frequency to the charge of ineffectiveness +and venality. It is not so often realized that +these defects are fostered by the impossible nature of the +tasks which are imposed on the American police.</p> + +<p>This aspect of the matter has been very clearly set +forth by Dr. Fuld, of Columbia University, in his able and +thorough book on police administration. +<a name="FNanchor_202" id="FNanchor_202"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a> He shows +that, though the American police system as a system +has defects which need to be remedied, it is not true that +the individual members of the American police forces are +inferior to those of other countries; on the contrary, +they are, in some respects, superior; it is not a large +proportion which sells the right to break the law. +<a name="FNanchor_203" id="FNanchor_203"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a> Their +most serious defects are due to the impracticable laws and +regulations made by inexperienced legislators. These +laws and ordinances in many cases cannot possibly be +enforced, and the weak police officers accept money from +the citizen for not enforcing rules which in any case they +could not enforce. "The American police forces," says +Fuld, "have been corrupted almost solely by the statutes.... +The real blame attaches not to the policeman who +accepts a bribe temptingly offered him, nor to the bribe-giver +who seeks by giving a bribe to make the best +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +possible business arrangement, but rather to the law, +which by giving the police a large and uncontrolled +discretion in the enforcement of the law places a premium +upon bribe-giving and bribe-taking." This state of things +is rendered possible by the fact that the duties of the +police are not confined to matters affecting crime and +public order—matters which the whole community +consider essential, and in regard to which any police +negligence is counted a serious charge—but are extended +to unessential matters which a considerable section of the +community, including many of the police themselves, +view with complete indifference. It is impossible to +regard seriously a conspiracy to defeat laws which a large +proportion of citizens regard as unnecessary or even +foolish. It thus unfortunately comes about that the +charge brought against the American police that "it +sells the right to break the law" has not the same grave +significance which it would have in most countries, for the +rights purchased in America may in most countries be +obtained without purchase. "An act ought to be made +criminal," as Fuld rightly lays down, "only when it is +socially expedient to punish its criminality.... The American +people, or at least the American legislators, do not +make this clear distinction between vice and crime. There +seems to be a feeling in America that unless a vice is made +a crime, the State countenances the vice and becomes a +party to its commission. There are unfortunately a +large number of men in the community who believe that +they have satisfied the demands made upon them to lead +a virtuous life by incorporating into some statute the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> +condemnation of a particular vicious act as a crime." +<a name="FNanchor_204" id="FNanchor_204"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a> +This special characteristic of American laws, with its +failure to distinguish between vice and crime, is clearly a +legacy of the early Puritans. The Puritans carried over +to New England independent autonomous laws of +morality, and were contemptuous of external law. The +sturdy pioneers of the first generation were faithful to +that attitude, and were not even guilty of punishing +witches. But, when the opportunity came, their descendants +could not resist the temptation to erect an external +law of morals, and, like the Calvinists of Geneva, they +set up an inquisition backed by the secular arm. It was +not until the days of Emerson that American Puritanism +regained autonomous freedom and moved in the same air +as Milton. But in the meantime the mischief had been +done. Even to-day an inquisition of the mails has been +established in the United States. It is said to be unconstitutional, +and one can well believe that that is so, +but none the less it flourishes under the protection of +what a famous American has called "the never-ending +audacity of elected persons." But to allow subordinate +officials to masquerade in the Postal Department as +familiars of the inquisition, in the supposed interests of +public morals, is a dangerous policy. +<a name="FNanchor_205" id="FNanchor_205"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a> Its deadening +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> +influence on national life cannot fail sooner or later to be +realized by Americans. To moralize by statute is idle +and unsatisfactory enough; but it is worse to attempt to +moralize by the arbitrary dicta of minor government +officials.</p> + + +<p>It is interesting to observe the methods which find +favour in some parts of the United States for dealing with +the trade in alcoholic liquors. Alcohol is, on the one hand, +a poison; on the other hand, it is the basis of the national +drinks of every civilized country. Every state has felt +called upon to regulate its sale to more or less extent, in +such a way that (1) in the interests of public health +alcohol may not be too easily or too cheaply obtainable, +that (2) the restraints on its sale may be a source of +revenue to the State, and that (3) at the same time this +regulation of the sale may not be a vexatious and useless +attempt to interfere unduly with national customs. +States have sought to attain these ends in various ways. +The sale of alcohol may be made a State monopoly, as in +Russia, or, again, it may be carried on under disinterested +municipal or other control, as by the Gothenburg system +of Sweden or the Samlag system of Norway. +<a name="FNanchor_206" id="FNanchor_206"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a> In England +the easier and more usual plan is adopted of heavily +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> +taxing the sale, with, in addition, various minor methods +for restraining the sale of alcoholic drinks and attempting +to improve the conditions under which they are sold.</p> + + +<p>In France an ingenious method of influencing the sale +of alcohol has lately been adopted, in the interests of +public health, which has proved completely successful. +The French national drink is light wine, which may be +procured in abundance, of excellent and wholesome +quality and very cheaply, provided it is not heavily taxed. +But of recent years there has been a tendency in France +to consume in large quantity the heavy alcoholic spirits, +often of a specially deleterious kind. The plan has been +adopted of placing a very high duty on distilled beverages +and reducing the duty on the light wines, as well as beer, +so that a wholesome and genuine wine can be supplied to +the consumer at as low a price as beer. As a result the +French consumer has shown a preference for the cheap +and wholesome wine which is really his national drink, and +there is an enormous fall in the consumption of spirits. +Whereas formerly the consumption of brandy in French +towns amounted to seven or eight litres of absolute +alcohol per head, it has now fallen in the large towns to +4.23 litres.<a name="FNanchor_207" id="FNanchor_207"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a></p> + +<p>In America, however, there is a tendency to deal with +the sale of alcohol totally opposed to that which nearly +everywhere prevails in Europe. When in Europe a man +abandons the use of alcohol he makes no demand on his +fellow men to follow his example, or, if he does, he is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> +usually content to employ moral suasion to gain this end. +But in the United States, where there is no single national +drink, a large number of people have abandoned the use +of alcohol, and have persuaded themselves that its use by +other people is a vice, for it is not universally recognized +that—"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it +is asking others to live as one wishes to live." Moreover, +as in the United States the medieval confusion between +vice and crime still subsists among a section of the +population, being a part of the national tradition, it +became easy to regard the drinking of alcohol as a crime +and to make it punishable. Hence we have "Prohibition," +which has prevailed in various States of the Union +and is especially associated with Maine, where it was +established in a crude form so long ago as 1846 and +(except for a brief interval between 1856 and 1858) +has prevailed until to-day. The law has never been +effective. It has been made more and more stringent; +the wildest excuses of arbitrary administration have been +committed; scandals have constantly occurred; officials +of iron will and determination have perished in the faith +that if only they put enough energy into the task the law +might, after all, be at last enforced. It was all in vain. +It has always been easy in the cities of Maine for those to +obtain alcohol who wished to obtain it. Finally, in 1911, +by a direct Referendum, the majority by which the people +of Maine are maintaining Prohibition has been brought +down to 700 in a total poll of 120,000, while all the large +towns have voted for the repeal of Prohibition by enormous +majorities. The people of Maine are evidently +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +becoming dimly conscious that it is worse than useless to +make laws which no human power can enforce. "The +result of the vote," writes Mr. Arthur Sherwell, an +English social Reformer, not himself opposed to temperance +legislation, "from every point of view, and not +least from the point of view of temperance, is eminently +unsatisfactory, and it unquestionably creates a position +of great difficulty and embarrassment for the authorities. +A majority of 700 in a total poll of 120,000 is clearly +not a sufficient mandate for a drastic law which previous +experience has conclusively shown cannot be enforced +successfully in the urban districts of the State." Successful +enforcement of prohibition on a State basis would +appear to be hopeless. The history of Prohibition in +Maine will for ever form an eloquent proof of the mischief +which comes when the ancient ecclesiastical failure +to distinguish between the sphere of morals and the +sphere of law is perpetuated under the conditions of +modern life. The attempt to force men to render unto +Cæsar the things which are God's must always end thus.</p> + +<p>In these matters we witness in America the survival of +an ancient tradition. The early Puritans were individualists, +it is true, but their individualism took a +theocratic form, and, in the name of God, they looked +upon crimes and vices equally and indistinguishably as +sins. We see exactly the same point of view in the +Penitentials of the ninth century, which were ecclesiastical +codes dealing, exactly in the same spirit and in the same +way, with crime and with vice, recognizing nothing but a +certain difference in degree between murder and masturbation. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +In the ninth century, and even much later, in +Calvin's Geneva and Cotton Mather's New England, it was +possible to carry into practice this theocratic conception +of the unity of vices and crimes and the punishment as +sins of both alike, for the community generally accepted +that point of view. But that is very far from being the +case in the United States of to-day. The result is that in +America in this respect we find a condition of things +analogous to that which existed in France, before the +Revolution remoulded the laws in accordance with the +temperament of the nation. Laws and regulations of the +medieval kind, for the moral ordering of the smallest +details of life, are still enacted in America, but they are +regarded with growing contempt by the community and +even by the administrators of the laws. It is realized +that such minute inquisition into the citizen's private life +can only be effectively carried out where the citizen +himself recognizes the divine right of the inquisitor. But +the theocratic conception of life no longer corresponds to +American ideas or American customs; this minute moral +legislation rests on a basis which in the course of centuries +has become rotten. Thus it has come about that nowhere +in the world is there so great an anxiety to place the +moral regulation of social affairs in the hands of the police; +nowhere are the police more incapable of carrying out +such regulation.</p> + +<p>When we thus bear in mind the historical aspect of the +matter we can understand how it has come about that +the individualistic idealist in America has been much more +resolute than in England to effect reforms, much more +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> +determined that they shall be very thorough and extreme +reforms, and, especially, much more eager to embody his +moral aspirations in legal statutes. But his tasks are +bigger than in England, because of the vast, unstable, +heterogeneous and crude population he has to deal with, +and because, at the same time, he has no firmly established +centralized and reliable police instrument whereby to +effect his reforms. The fiery American moral idealist is +determined to set out for the Kingdom of Heaven at once, +but every steed he mounts proves broken-winded, and +speedily drops down by the wayside. Don Quixote sets +the lance at rest and digs his spurs into Rosinante's +flanks, but he fails to realize that, in our modern world, +he will never bear him anywhere near the foe.</p> + +<p>If we wish to see a totally different national method of +regarding immorality we may turn to Russia. Here also +we find idealism at work, but it is not the same kind of +idealism, since, far from desiring to express itself by force, +its essential basis is an absolute disbelief in force. Russia, +like France, has inherited from an ancient ecclesiastical +domination an extremely severe code of regulations +against immorality and all sexual aberrations, but, unlike +France, it has not cast them off in order to mould the +laws in accordance with national temperament. The +essence of the Russian attitude in these matters is a +sympathy with the individual which is stronger than any +antipathy aroused by his immoral acts; his act is a +misfortune rather than a sin or a crime. We may observe +this attitude in the kindly and helpful fashion in which the +Russian assists along the streets his fellow-man who has +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +drunk too much vodka, and, on a higher plane, we see the +same spirit of forgiving human tenderness in the Russian +novelists, most clearly in the greatest and most typically +national, in Dostoieffsky and in Tolstoy. The harsh rigidity +of the old Russian laws had not the slightest influence, +either in changing this national attitude or in diminishing +the prevalence, at the very least as great as elsewhere, +of sexual laxity or sexual aberration. Nowadays, as +Russia attains national self-consciousness, these laws +against immorality are being slowly remoulded in accordance +with the national temperament, and in some +respects—as in its attitude towards homosexuality and +the introduction in 1907 of what is practically divorce by +mutual consent—they allow a freedom and latitude +scarcely equalled in any other country. +<a name="FNanchor_208" id="FNanchor_208"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a></p> + +<p>Undoubtedly there is, within certain limits, mutual +action and reaction in these matters among nations. +Thus the influence of France has led to the abolition of +the penalty against homosexual practices in many +countries, notably Holland, Spain, Portugal, and, more +recently, Italy, while even in Germany there is a strong +and influential party, among legal as well as medical +authorities, in favour of taking the same step. On the +other hand, France has in some matters of detail departed +from her general principle in these matters, and has, for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> +instance—without doubt in an altogether justifiable +manner—taken part in the international movement +against what is called the white slave trade. This mutual +reaction of nations is well recognized by the more alert and +progressive minds in every country, jealous of any undue +interference with liberty. When, for instance, a Bill is +introduced in the English Parliament for promoting +inquisitorial and vexatious interference with matters +that are not within the sphere of legislation it is eagerly +discussed in Germany before even its existence is known +to most people in England, not so much out of interest in +English Affairs as from a sensitive dread that English +example may affect German legislation. +<a name="FNanchor_209" id="FNanchor_209"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a></p> + +<p>Not only, indeed, have we to recognize the existence of +these clearly marked and profound differences in legislative +reaction to immorality. We have also to realize that +at different periods there are general movements, to some +extent overpassing national bounds, of rise and of fall in +this reaction.</p> + +<p>A sudden impulse seizes on a community, and spreads +to other communities, to attempt to suppress some form +of immorality by law. Such attempts, as we know, have +always ended in failure or worse than failure, for laws +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> +against immorality are either not carried out, or, if they +are carried out, it is at once realized that new evils are +created worse than the original evils, and the laws +speedily fall into abeyance or are repealed. That has +been repeatedly seen, and is well illustrated by the history +of prostitution, a sexual manifestation which for two +thousand years all sorts of persons in authority have +sought to suppress off-hand by law or by administrative +fiat. From the time when Christianity gained full +political power, prostitution has again and again been +prohibited, under the severest penalties, but always in +vain. The mightiest emperors—Theodosius, Valentinian, +Justinian, Karl the Great, St. Louis, Frederick Barbarossa—all +had occasion to discover that might was here +in vain, and worse than in vain, that they could not always +obey their own moral ordinances, still less coerce their +subjects into doing so, and that even so far as, on the +surface, they were successful they produced results more +pernicious than the evils they sought to suppress. The +best known and one of the most vigorous of these attempts +was that of the Empress Maria Theresa in Vienna; but +all the cruelty and injustice of that energetic effort, and +all the stringent, ridiculous, and brutal regulations it +involved—its prohibition of short dresses, its inspection of +billiard-rooms, its handcuffing of waitresses, its whippings +and its tortures—proved useless and worse than useless, +and were soon quietly dropped.<a name="FNanchor_210" id="FNanchor_210"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a> No more fortunate +were more recent municipal attempts in England and +America (Portsmouth, Pittsburgh, New York, etc.) to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +suppress prostitution off-hand; for the most part they +collapsed even in a few days.</p> + +<p>The history of the legal attempts to suppress homosexuality +shows the same results. It may even be said to +show more, for when the laws against homosexuality are +relaxed or abolished, homosexuality becomes, not perhaps +less prevalent (in so far as it is a congenital anomaly +we cannot expect its prevalence to be influenced by law), +but certainly less conspicuous and ostentatious. In +France, under the Bourbons, the sexual invert was a +sacrilegious criminal who could legally be burnt at the +stake, but homosexuality flourished openly in the highest +circles, and some of the kings were themselves notoriously +inverted. Since the Code Napoléon was introduced homosexual +acts, <i>per se</i>, have never been an offence, yet instead +of flourishing more vigorously, homosexuality has so far +receded into the background that some observers regard +it as very rare in France. In Germany and England, on +the other hand, where the antiquated laws against this +perversion still prevail, homosexuality is extremely +prominent, and its right to exist is vigorously championed. +The law cannot suppress these impulses and passions; +it can only sting them into active rebellion. +<a name="FNanchor_211" id="FNanchor_211"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a></p> + +<p>But although it has invariably been seen that all +attempts to make men moral by law are doomed to disappointment, +spasmodic attempts to do so are continually +being made afresh. No doubt those who make these +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> +attempts are but a small minority, people whose good +intentions are not accompanied by knowledge either of +history or of the world. But though a minority they +can often gain a free field for their activities. The reason +is plain. No public man likes to take up a position which +his enemies may interpret as favourable to vice and +probably due to an anxiety to secure legal opportunities +for his own enjoyment of vice. This consideration especially +applies to professional politicians. A Member of +Parliament, who must cultivate an immaculately pure +reputation, feels that he is also bound to record by his vote +how anxious he is to suppress other people's immorality. +Thus the philistine and the hypocrite join hands +with the simple-minded idealist. Very few are left to +point out that, however desirable it is to prevent immorality, +that end can never be attained by law.</p> + +<p>During the past ten years one of these waves of +enthusiasm for the moralization of the public by law +has been sweeping across Europe and America. Its +energy is scarcely yet exhausted, and it may therefore be +worthwhile to call attention to it. The movement has +shown special activity in Germany, in Holland, in England, +in the United States, and is traceable in a minor +degree in many other countries. In Germany the Lex +Heintze in 1900 was an indication of the appearance of +this movement, while various scandals have had the +result of attracting an exaggerated amount of attention +to questions of immorality and of tightening the rigour +of the law, though as Germany already holds moral +matters in a very complex web of regulations it can scarcely +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +be said that the new movement has here found any large +field of activity. In Holland it is different. Holland is +one of the traditional lands of freedom; it was the home +of independent intellect, of free religion, of autonomous +morals, when every other country in Europe was closed +to these manifestations of the spirit, and something of the +same tradition has always inspired its habits of thought, +even when they have been largely Puritanic. So that +there was here a clear field for the movement to work in, +and it has found expression, of a very thorough character +indeed, in the new so-called "Morals Law" which was +passed in 1911 after several weeks' discussion. Undoubtedly +this law contains excellent features; thus the +agents of the "white slave trade," who have hitherto been +especially active in Holland, are now threatened with five +years' imprisonment. Here we are concerned with what +may fairly be regarded as crime and rightly punishable as +such. But excellent provisions like these are lost to sight +in a great number of other paragraphs which are at best +useless and ridiculous, and at worst vexatious and mischievous +in their attempts to limit the free play of civilization. +Thus we find that a year's imprisonment, or a heavy +fine, threatens any one who exposes any object or writing +which "offends decency," a provision which enabled a +policeman to enter an art-pottery shop in Amsterdam and +remove a piece of porcelain on which he detected an insufficiently +clothed human figure. Yet this paragraph of +the law had been passed with scarcely any opposition. +Another provision of this law deals extensively with the +difficult and complicated question of the "age of consent" +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +for girls, which it raises to the age of twenty-one, +making intercourse with a girl under twenty-one an +offence punishable by four years' imprisonment. It is +generally regarded as desirable that chastity should be +preserved until adult age is well established. But as soon +as sexual maturity is attained—which is long before what +we conventionally regard as the adult age, and earlier in +girls than in boys—it is impossible to dismiss the question +of personal responsibility. A girl over sixteen, and still +more when she is over twenty, is a developed human being +on the sexual side; she is capable of seducing as well as of +being seduced; she is often more mature than the youth +of corresponding age; to instruct her in sexual hygiene, +to train her to responsibility, is the proper task of morals. +But to treat her as an irresponsible child, and to regard +the act of interfering with her chastity when her consent +has been given, as on a level with an assault on an +innocent child merely introduces confusion. It must often +be unjust to the male partner in the act; it is always +demoralizing and degrading to the girl whom it aims at +"protecting"; above all, it reduces what ought to be an +extremely serious crime to the level of a merely nominal +offence when it punishes one of two practically mature persons +for engaging with full knowledge and deliberation in +an act which, however undesirable, is altogether according +to Nature. There is here a fatal confusion between +a crime and an action which is at the worst morally reprehensible +and only properly combated by moral methods.</p> + +<p>These objections are not of a purely abstract or theoretical +character. They are based on the practical outcome +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +of such enactments. Thus in the State of New York +the "age of consent" was in former days thirteen years. +It was advanced to fourteen and afterwards to sixteen. +This is the extreme limit to which it may prudently be +raised, and the New York Society for the Prevention of +Cruelty to Children, which had taken the chief part in +obtaining these changes in the law, was content to stop at +this point. But without seeking the approval of this +Society, another body, the White Cross and Social Purity +League, took the matter in hand, and succeeded in +passing an amendment to the law which raised the age of +consent to eighteen. What has been the result? The +Committee of Fourteen, who are not witnesses hostile to +moral legislation, state that "since the amendment went +into effect making the age of consent eighteen years there +have been few successful prosecutions. The laws are +practically inoperative so far as the age clause is concerned." +Juries naturally require clear evidence that a +rape has been committed when the case concerns a grown-up +girl in the full possession of her faculties, possibly even +a clandestine prostitute. Moreover, as rape in the first +degree involves the punishment of imprisonment for +twenty years, there is a disinclination to convict a man +unless the case is a very bad one. One judge, indeed, has +asserted that he will not give any man the full penalty +under the present law, so long as he is on the bench. The +natural result of stretching the law to undue limits is to +weaken it. Instead of being, as it should be, an extremely +serious crime, rape loses in a large proportion of cases the +opprobrium which rightly belongs to it. It is, therefore, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +a matter for regret that in some English dominions there +is a tendency to raise the "age of consent" to an unduly +high limit. In New South Wales the Girls' Protection Act +has placed the age of consent at sixteen, and in the case +of offences by guardians, schoolmasters, or employers at +seventeen years, notwithstanding the vigorous opposition +of a distinguished medical member of the Legislative +Council (the Hon. J.M. Creed), who presented the arguments +against so high an age. Not a single prosecution +has so far occurred under this Act.</p> + +<p>In England the force of the moral legislation wave has +been felt, but it has been largely broken against the conservative +traditions of the country, which make all legislation, +good or bad, very difficult. A lengthy, elaborate +and high-strung Prevention of Immorality Bill was +introduced in the House of Commons by a group of +Nonconformists mainly on the Liberal side. This Bill +was very largely on the lines of the Dutch law already +mentioned; it proposed to raise the age of consent to +nineteen; making intercourse with a girl under that age +felony, punishable by five years' penal servitude, and +any attempt at such intercourse by two years' imprisonment. +Such a measure would be, it may be noted, +peculiarly illogical and inconsistent in England and Scotland, +in both of which countries (though their laws in +these matters are independent) even a girl of twelve is +legally regarded as sufficiently mature and responsible to +take to herself a husband. At one moment the Bill seemed +to have a chance of becoming law, but a group of enlightened +and independent Liberals, realizing that such +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +a measure would introduce intolerable social conditions, +organized resistance and prevented the acceptance of the +Bill.</p> + +<p>The chief organization in England at the present time +for the promotion of public morality is the National +Council of Public Morals, which is a very influential body, +with many able and distinguished supporters. Law-enforced +morality, however, constitutes but a very small +part of the reforms advocated by this organization, which +is far more concerned with the home, the school, the +Church, and the influences which operate in those spheres. +It has lately to a considerable extent joined hands with +the workers in the eugenic movement, advocating sexual +hygiene and racial betterment, thus allying itself with +one of the most hopeful movements of our day. Certainly +there may be some amount of zeal not according to knowledge +in the activities of the National Council of Public +Morals, but there is also very much that is genuinely +enlightened, and the very fact that the Council includes +representatives from so many fields of action and so many +schools of thought largely saves it from running into +practical excesses. Its influence on the whole is beneficial, +because, although it may not be altogether averse +to moral legislation, it recognizes that the policeman is a +very feeble guide in these matters, and that the fundamental +and essential way of bettering the public morality +is by enlightening the private conscience.</p> + +<p>In the United States conditions have been very favourable, +as we have seen, for the attempt to achieve social +reform by moral legislation, and nowhere else in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +world has it been so clearly demonstrated that such +attempts not only fail to cure the evils they are aimed at, +but tend to further evils far worse than those aimed at. +A famous example is furnished by the so-called "Raines +Law" of New York. This Act was passed in 1896, and +was intended to regulate the sale of alcoholic liquor in all +its phases throughout the State. The grounds for bringing +it forward were that the number of drinking saloons was +excessive, that there was no fixed licensing fee, that too +much discretionary power was allowed to the local commissioner; +while, above all, the would-be Puritanic legislators +wished so far as possible to suppress the drinking +of alcoholic liquors on Sunday. To achieve these objects +the licensing fee was raised to four times its usual amount +previously to this enactment; heavy penalties, including +the forfeiture of a large surety-bond, were established, +and more surely to prevent Sunday drinking only hotels, +not ordinary drinking bars, were allowed, with many +stringent restrictions, to sell drink on that day. In order +that there should be no mistake, it was set forth in the +Act that the hotel must be a real hotel with at least ten +properly furnished bedrooms. The legislators clearly +thought that they had done a fine piece of work. "Seldom," +wrote the Committee of Fourteen, who are by no +means out of sympathy with the aims of this legislation, +"has a law intended to regulate one evil resulted in so +aggravated a phase of another evil directly traceable to +its provisions."<a name="FNanchor_212" id="FNanchor_212"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> +In the first place, the passing of this law alarmed the +saloon keepers; they realized that it had them in a very +tight grip, and they suspected that it might be strictly +enforced. They came to the conclusion, therefore, that +their best policy would be to accept the law and to conform +themselves to its provisions by converting their +drinking bars into real hotels, with ten properly furnished +bedrooms, kitchen, and dining-room. The immediate +result was the preparation of ten thousand bedrooms, for +which there was of course no real demand, and by 1905 +there were 1407 certificated hotels in Manhattan and the +Bronx alone, about 1150 of these hotels having probably +been created by the Raines Law.</p> + +<p>But something had to be done with all these bedrooms, +properly furnished according to law, for it was necessary +to meet the heavy expenses incurred under the new +conditions created by the law. The remedy was fairly +obvious. These bedrooms were excellently adapted to +serve as places of assignation and houses of prostitution. +Many hotel proprietors became practically brothel +keepers, the women in some cases becoming boarders in +the hotels; and saloons and hotels have entered into a +kind of alliance for their mutual benefit, and are sometimes +indeed under the same management. When a hotel +is thus run in the interests of prostitution it has what may +be regarded as a staff of women in the neighbouring +streets. In some districts of New York it is found that +practically all the prostitutes on the street are connected +with some Raines Law hotel. These wise moral legislators +of New York thought they were placing a penalty on +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> +Sunday drinking; what they have really done is to place +a premium on prostitution<a name="FNanchor_213" id="FNanchor_213"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a>.</p> + +<p>An attempt of a different kind to strike a blow at once +at alcohol and at prostitution has been made in Chicago, +with equally unsatisfactory results. Drink and prostitution +are connected, so intimately connected, indeed, that +no attempt to separate them can ever be more than +superficially successful even with the most minute inquisition +by the police, least of all by police officers, who, in +Chicago, we are officially told, are themselves sometimes +found, when in uniform and on duty, drinking among +prostitutes in "saloons." On May 1, 1910, the Chicago +General Superintendent of Police made a rule prohibiting +the sale of liquor in houses of prostitution. On the surface +this rule has in most cases been observed (though only on +the surface, as the field-workers of the Chicago Vice +Commission easily discovered), and a blow was thus +dealt to those houses which derive a large profit from the +sale of drinks on account of the high price at which they +retail them. Yet even so far as the rule has been obeyed, +and not evaded, has it effected any good? On this point +we may trust the evidence of the Vice Commissioners of +Chicago, a municipal body appointed by the Mayor and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +City Council, and not anxious to discredit the actions of +their Police Superintendent. "As to the benefits derived +from this order, either to the inmates or the public, +opinions differ," they write. "It is undoubtedly true +that the result of the order has been to scatter the prostitutes +over a wide territory and to transfer the sale of +liquor carried on heretofore in houses to the near-by +saloon-keepers, and to flats and residential sections, but +it is an open question whether it has resulted in the +lessening of either of the two evils of prostitution and +drink."<a name="FNanchor_214" id="FNanchor_214"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a> +That is a mild statement of the results. It may +be noted that there are over seven thousand drinking +saloons in Chicago, so that the transfer is not difficult, +while the migration to flats—of which an enormous +number have been taken for purposes of prostitution +(five hundred in one district alone) since this rule came +into force—may indeed enable the prostitute to live a +freer and more humanizing life, but in no faintest degree +diminishes the prevalence of prostitution. From the +narrow police standpoint, indeed, the change is a disadvantage, +for it shelters the prostitute from observation, +and involves an entirely new readjustment to new conditions.</p> + +<p>It cannot be said that either the State of New York or +the city of Chicago has been in any degree more fortunate +in its attempts at moral legislation against prostitution +than against drinking. As we should expect, the laws of +New York regard prostitution and the prostitute with an +eye of extreme severity. Every prostitute in New York, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +by virtue of the mere fact that she is a prostitute, is +technically termed a "vagrant." As such she is liable +to be committed to the workhouse for a term not exceeding +six months; the owner of houses where she lives +may be heavily fined, as she herself may be for living in +them, and the keeper of a disorderly house may be +imprisoned and the disorderly house suppressed. It is +not clear that the large number of prostitutes in New +York have been diminished by so much as a single unit, +but from time to time attempts are made in some district +or another by an unusually energetic official to put the +laws into execution, and it is then possible to study the +results. When disorderly houses are suppressed on a +large scale, there are naturally a great number of prostitutes +who have to find homes elsewhere in order to carry +on their business. On one occasion, under the auspices +of District-Attorney Jerome, it is stated by the Committee +of Fourteen that eight hundred women were reported to be +turned out into the street in a single night. For many +there are the Raines Law hotels. A great many others +take refuge in tenement houses. Such houses in congested +districts are crowded with families, and with these the +prostitute is necessarily brought into close contact. +Consequently the seeds of physical and mental disorder +which she may bear about her are disseminated in a much +more fruitful soil than they were before. Moreover, she +is compelled by the laws to exert very great energy in the +pursuit of her profession. As it is an offence to harbour +her she has to pay twice as high a rent as other people +would have to pay for the same rooms. She may have +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +to pay the police to refrain from molesting her, as well as +others to protect her from molestation. She is surrounded +by people whom the law encourages to prey upon her. +She is compelled to exert her energies at highest tension +to earn the very large sums which are necessary, not to +gain profits for herself, but to feed all the sharks who are +eager to grab what is given to her. The blind or perverse +zeal of the moral legislators not only intensifies the evils +it aims at curing, but it introduces a whole crop of new +evils.</p> + +<p>How large these sums are we may estimate by the +investigation made by the Vice Commissioners of Chicago. +They conclude after careful inquiry that the annual +profits of prostitution in the city of Chicago alone amount +to between fifteen to sixteen million dollars, and they +regard this as "an ultra-conservative estimate." It is +true that not all this actually passes through the women's +hands and it includes the sales of drinks. If we confine +ourselves strictly to the earnings of the girls themselves +it is found to work out at an average for each girl of +thirteen hundred dollars per annum. This is more than +four times as much as the ordinary shop-girl can earn in +Chicago by her brains, virtue, and other good qualities. +But it is not too much for the prostitute's needs; she is +compelled to earn so large an income because the active +hostility of society, the law, and the police facilitates the +task of all those persons—and they are many—who +desire to prey upon her. Thus society, the law, and the +police gain nothing for morals by their hostility to the +prostitute. On the contrary, they give strength and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +stability to the very vice they nominally profess to fight +against. This is shown in the vital matter of the high +rents which it is possible to obtain where prostitution is +concerned. These high rents are the direct result of legal +and police enactments against the prostitute. Remove +these enactments and the rents would automatically fall. +The enactments maintain the high rents and so ensure +that the mighty protection of capital is on the side of +prostitution; the property brings in an exorbitant rate +of interest on the capital invested, and all the forces of +sound business are concerned in maintaining rents. So +gross is the ignorance of the would-be moral legislators—or, +some may think, so skilful their duplicity—that the +methods by which they profess to fight against immorality +are the surest methods for enabling immorality not +merely to exist—which it would in any case—but to +flourish. A vigorous campaign is initiated against immorality. +On the surface it is successful. Morality +triumphs. But, it may be, in the end we are reminded +of the saying of M. Desmaisons in one of Remy de +Gourmont's witty and profound <i>Dialogues des Amateurs</i>: +"Quand la morale triomphe il se passe des choses très +vilaines."</p> + +<p>The reason why the "triumphs" of legislative and +administrative morality are really such ignominious +failures must now be clear, but may again be repeated. +It is because on matters of morals there is no unanimity +of opinion as there is in regard to crime. There is always +a large section of the community which feels tolerant +towards, and even practises, acts which another section, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +it may be quite reasonably, stigmatizes as "immoral." +Such conditions are highly favourable for the exercise +of moral influence; they are quite unsuitable for legislative +action, which cannot possibly be brought to bear +against a large minority, perhaps even majority, of otherwise +law-abiding citizens. In the matter of prostitution, +for instance, the Vice Commissioners of Chicago state +emphatically the need for "constant and persistent +repression" leading on to "absolute annihilation of +prostitution." They recommend the appointment of a +"Morals Commission" to suppress disorderly houses, and +to prosecute their keepers, their inmates, and their +patrons; they further recommend the establishment of a +"Morals Court" of vaguely large scope. Among the +other recommendations of the Commissioners—and there +are ninety-seven such recommendations—we find the +establishment of a municipal farm, to which prostitutes +can be "committed on an indeterminate sentence"; a +"special morals police squad"; instructions to the +police to send home all unattended boys and girls under +sixteen at 9 p.m.; no seats in the parks to be in shade; +searchlights to be set up at night to enable the police to +see what the public are doing, and so on. The scheme, +it will be seen, combines the methods of Calvin in Geneva +with those of Maria Theresa in Vienna. +<a name="FNanchor_215" id="FNanchor_215"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +The reason why any such high-handed repression of +immorality by force is as impracticable in Chicago as +elsewhere is revealed in the excellent picture of the +conditions furnished by the Vice Commissioners themselves. +They estimate that the prostitutes in disorderly +houses known to the police—leaving out of account all +prostitutes in flats, rooms, hotels and houses of assignation, +and also taking no note of clandestine prostitutes—receive +15,180 visits from men daily, or 5,540,700 per +annum. They consider further that the men in question +may be one-fourth of the adult male population (800,000 +in the city itself, leaving the surrounding district out of +the reckoning), and they rightly insist that this estimate +cannot possibly cover all the facts. Yet it never occurs +to the Vice Commissioners that in thus proposing to brand +one-third or even only one quarter of the adult male +population as criminals, and as such to prosecute them +actively, is to propose an absurd impossibility.</p> + +<p>It is not by any means only in the United States that +an object lesson in the foolishness of attempting to make +people moral by force is set up before the world. It has +often been set up before, and at the present day it is +illustrated in exactly the same way in Germany. Unlike +as are the police systems and the national temperaments +of Germany and the United States, in this matter social +reformers tell exactly the same story. They report that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +the German laws and ordinances against immorality +increase and support the very evil they profess to attack. +Thus by making it criminal to shelter, even though not +for purposes of gain, unmarried lovers, even when they +intend to marry, the respectable girl is forced into the +position of the prostitute, and as such she becomes subject +to an endless amount of police regulation and police +control. Landlords are encouraged to live on her activities, +charging very high rates to indemnify themselves for +the risks they run by harbouring her. She, in her turn, +to meet the exorbitant demands which the law and the +police encourage the whole environment to make upon +her, is forced to exercise her profession with the greatest +activity, and to acquire the maximum of profit. Law and +the police have forged the same vicious circle. +<a name="FNanchor_216" id="FNanchor_216"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a></p> + +<p>The illustrations thus furnished by Germany, Holland, +England, and the United States, will probably suffice to +show that there really is at the present time a wave of +feeling in favour of the notion that it is possible to promote +public morals by force of law. It only remains to observe +that the recognition of the futility of such attempts by no +means necessarily involves a pessimistic conservatism. +To point out that prostitution never has been, and never +can be, abolished by law, is by no means to affirm that it +is an evil which must endure for ever and that no influence +can affect it. But we have to realize, in the first place, +that prostitution belongs to that sphere of human impulses +in which mere external police ordinances count for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> +comparatively little, and that, in the second place, even +in the more potent field of true morals, which has nothing +to do with moral legislation, prostitution is so subtly and +deeply rooted that it can only be affected by influences +which bear on all our methods of thought and feeling +and all our social custom. It is far from being an isolated +manifestation; it is, for instance, closely related to +marriage; any reforms in prostitution, therefore, can +only follow a reform in our marriage system. But prostitution +is also related to economics, and when it is realized +how much has to be altogether changed in our whole +social system to secure even an approximate abolition of +prostitution it becomes doubtful whether many people +are willing to pay the price of removing the "social +evil" they find it so easy to deplore. They are prepared +to appoint Commissions; they have no objection to +offer up a prayer; they are willing to pass laws and issue +police regulations which are known to be useless. At +that point their ardour ends.</p> + +<p>If it is impossible to guard the community by statute +against the central evil of prostitution, still more hopeless +is it to attempt the legal suppression of all the multitudinous +minor provocations of the sexual impulse offered +by civilization. Let it be assumed that only by such +suppression, and not by frankly meeting and fighting +temptations, can character be formed, yet it would be +absolutely impossible to suppress more than a fraction +of the things that would need to be suppressed. "There +is almost no feature, article of dress, attitude, act," Dr. +Stanley Hall has truly remarked, "or even animal, or +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +perhaps object in nature, that may not have to some +morbid soul specialized erogenic and erethic power." +If, therefore, we wish to suppress the sexually suggestive +and the possibly obscene we are bound to suppress the +whole world, beginning with the human race, for if we +once enter on that path there is no definite point at which +we can logically stop. The truth is, as Mr. Theodore +Schroeder has so repeatedly insisted, +<a name="FNanchor_217" id="FNanchor_217"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> that "obscenity" +is subjective; it cannot reside in an object, but only in +the impure mind which is influenced by the object. In +this matter Mr. Schroeder is simply the follower, at an +interval, of St. Paul. We must work not on the object, +but on the impure mind affected by the object. If the +impure heart is not suppressed it is useless to suppress the +impure object, while if the heart is renewed the whole +task is achieved. Certainly there are books, pictures, and +other things in life so unclean that they can never be +pure even to the purest, but these things by their loathsomeness +are harmless to all healthy minds; they can +only corrupt minds which are corrupt already. Unfortunately, +when ignorant police officials and custom-house +officers are entrusted with the task of searching for the +obscene, it is not to these things that their attention is +exclusively directed. Such persons, it seems, cannot +distinguish between these things and the noblest productions +of human art and intellect, and the law has +proved powerless to set them right; in all civilized +countries the list is indeed formidable of the splendid and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> +inspiring productions, from the Bible downwards, which +officials or the law courts have been pleased to declare +"obscene." So that while the task of moralizing the +community by force must absolutely fail of its object, it +may at the same time suffice to effect much mischief.</p> + +<p>It is one of the ironies of history that the passion for +extinguishing immorality by law and administration +should have arisen in what used to be called Christendom. +For Christianity is precisely the most brilliant proof +the world has ever seen of the truth that immorality +cannot so be suppressed. From the standpoint of classic +Rome Christianity was an aggressive attack on Roman +morality from every side. It was not so only in appearance, +but in reality, as modern historians fully recognize. +<a name="FNanchor_218" id="FNanchor_218"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a> +Merely as a new religion Christianity would have been +received with calm indifference, even with a certain +welcome, as other new religions were received. But +Christianity denied the supremacy of the State, carried on +an anti-military propaganda in the army, openly flouted +established social conventions, loosened family life, +preached and practised asceticism to an age that was +already painfully aware that, above all things, it needed +men. The fatal though doubtless inevitable step was +taken of attempting to suppress the potent poison of this +manifold immorality by force. The triumph of Christianity +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> +was largely due to the fine qualities which were +brought out by that annealing process, and the splendid +prestige which the process itself assured. Yet the method +of warfare which it had so brilliantly proved to be worthless +was speedily adopted by Christianity itself, and is +even yet, at intervals, spasmodically applied.</p> + +<p>That these attempts should have such results as we see +is not surprising when we remember that even movements, +at the outset, mainly inspired by moral energy, +rather than by faith in moral legislation, when that energy +becomes reckless, violent and intolerant, lead in the end +to results altogether opposed to the aims of those who +initiated them. It was thus that Luther has permanently +fortified the position of the Popes whom he assailed, and +that the Reformation produced the Counter-Reformation, +a movement as formidable and as enduring as that which +it countered. When Luther appeared all that was rigid +and inhuman in the Church was slowly dissolving, certainly +not without an inevitable sediment of immorality, +yet the solution was in the highest degree favourable to +the development of the freer and larger conceptions of life, +the expansion of science and art and philosophy, which +at that moment was pre-eminently necessary for the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> +progress of civilisation, and, indirectly, therefore, for the +progress of morals.<a name="FNanchor_219" id="FNanchor_219"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a> The violence of the Reformation +not only resulted in a new tyranny for its own adherents—calling +in turn for fresh reformations by Puritans, +Quakers, Deists, and Freethinkers—but it re-established, +and even to-day continues to support, that very tyranny +of the old Church against which it was a protest.</p> + +<p>When we try to regulate the morals of men on the same +uniform pattern we have to remember that we are +touching the most subtle, intimate, and incalculable +springs of action. It is useless to apply the crude methods +of "suppression" and "annihilation" to these complex +and indestructible forces. When Charles V retired in +weariness from the greatest throne in the world to the +solitude of the monastery at Yuste, he occupied his leisure +for some weeks in trying to regulate two clocks. It proved +very difficult. One day, it is recorded, he turned to his +assistant and said: "To think that I attempted to force +the reason and conscience of thousands of men into one +mould, and I cannot make two clocks agree!" Wisdom +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> +comes to the rulers of men, sometimes, usually when they +have ceased to be rulers. It comes to the moral legislators +not otherwise than it comes to the immoral persons they +legislate against. "I act first," the French thief said; +"then I think."</p> + +<p>It seems to some people almost a paradox to assert +that immorality should not be encountered by physical +force. The same people would willingly admit that +it is hopeless to rout a modern army with bows and +arrows, even with the support of a fanfare of trumpets. +Yet that metaphor, as we have seen, altogether fails to +represent the inadequacy of law in the face of immorality. +We are concerned with a method of fighting which is not +merely inadequate, but, as has been demonstrated many +times during the last two thousand years, actually fortifies +and even dignifies the foe it professes to attack. But the +failure of physical force to suppress the spiritual evil of +immorality by no means indicates that a like failure +would attend the more rational tactics of opposing a +spiritual force by spiritual force. The virility of our +morals is not proved by any weak attempt to call in the +aid of the secular arm of law or the ecclesiastical arm of +theology. If a morality cannot by its own proper virtue +hold its opposing immorality in check then there is +something wrong with that morality. It runs the risk of +encountering a fresh and more vigorous movement of +morality. Men begin to think that, if not the whole +truth, there is yet a real element of truth in the assertion +of Nietzsche: "We believe that severity, violence, +slavery, danger in the street and in the heart, secrecy, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> +stoicism, tempter's art and devilry of every kind, everything +wicked, tyrannical, predatory and serpentine in +man, serves as well for the elevation of the human species +as its opposite."<a name="FNanchor_220" id="FNanchor_220"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a> +To ignore altogether the affirmation of +that opposing morality, it may be, would be to breed a +race of weaklings, fatally doomed to succumb helplessly +to the first breath of temptation.</p> + +<p>Although we are passing through a wave of moral +legislation, there are yet indications that a sounder +movement is coming into action. The demand for the +teaching of sexual hygiene which parents, teachers, and +physicians in Germany, the United States and elsewhere, +are now striving to formulate and to supply will, if it is +wisely carried out, effect far more for public morals than +all the legislation in the world. Inconsistently enough, +some of those who clamour for moral legislation also +advocate the teaching of sexual hygiene. But there is +no room for compromise or combination here. A training +in sexual hygiene has no meaning if it is not a training, +for men and women alike, in personal and social responsibility, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +in the right to know and to discriminate, and in so +doing to attain self-conquest. A generation thus trained +to self-respect and to respect for others has no use for a +web of official regulations to protect its feeble and cloistered +virtues from possible visions of evil, and an army of +police to conduct it homewards at 9 p.m. Nor, on the +other hand, can any reliable sense of social responsibility +ever be developed in such an unwholesome atmosphere +of petty moral officialdom. The two methods of moralization +are radically antagonistic. There can be no doubt +which of them we ought to pursue if we really desire to +breed a firmly-fibred, clean-minded, and self-reliant race +of manly men and womanly women.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_191" id="Footnote_191"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> +Westermarck, <i>Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas</i>, Vol. I, +p. 160; see also chapter on sexual morality in Havelock Ellis, <i>Studies +in the Psychology of Sex</i>, Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society," chap. +<span class="smcap">IX</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_192" id="Footnote_192"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> +It must be remembered that in medieval days not only adultery +but the smallest infraction of what the Church regarded as morality +could be punished in the Archdeacon's court; this continued to be the +case in England even after the Reformation. See Archdeacon W.W. +Hales' interesting work, <i>Precedents and Proceedings in Criminal +Causes</i> (1847), which is, as the author states, "a History of the Moral +Police of the Church."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_193" id="Footnote_193"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_193"><span class="label">[193]</span></a> +<i>The Social Evil in New York City</i>, p. 100.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_194" id="Footnote_194"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_194"><span class="label">[194]</span></a> + This has been emphasized in an able and lucid discussion of this +question by Dr. Hans Hagen, "Sittliche Werturteile," <i>Mutterschutz</i>, +Heft I and II, 1906. Such recognition of popular morals, he justly +remarks, is needed not only for the sake of the people, but for the sake +of law itself.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_195" id="Footnote_195"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_195"><span class="label">[195]</span></a> +Grabowsky, in criticizing Hiller's book, <i>Das Recht über sich Selbst +(Archiv für Kriminalanthropologie und Kriminalistik</i>, Bd. 36, 1809), +argues that in some cases immorality injures rights which need legal +protection, but he admits it is difficult to decide when this is the case. +He does not think that the law should interfere with homosexuality +in adults, but he does consider it should interfere with incest, on the +ground that in-breeding is not good for the race. But it is the view of +most authorities nowadays that in-breeding is only injurious to the +race in the case of an unsound stock, when the defect being in both +partners of the same kind would probably be intensified by heredity.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_196" id="Footnote_196"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_196"><span class="label">[196]</span></a> +The occurrence of, for instance, incestuous, bestial, and homosexual +acts—which are generally abhorrent, but not necessarily anti-social—makes +it necessary to exercise some caution here.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_197" id="Footnote_197"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_197"><span class="label">[197]</span></a> +I quote from a valuable and interesting study by Dr. Eugen +Wilhelm, "Die Volkspsychologischen Unterschiede in der französischen +und deustchen Sittlichkeits-Gesetzgebung und Rechtsprechung," +<i>Sexual-Probleme</i>, October, 1911. It may be added that in +Switzerland, also, the tyranny of the police is carried to an extreme. +Edith Sellers gives some extraordinary examples, <i>Cornhill</i>, August, +1910.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_198" id="Footnote_198"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_198"><span class="label">[198]</span></a> +The absurdities and injustice of the German law, and its interference +with purely private interests in these matters, have often been +pointed out, as by Dr. Kurt Hiller ("Ist Kuppelei Strafwürdig?" +<i>Die Neue Generation</i>, November, 1910). As to what is possible under +German law by judicial decision since 1882, Hagen takes the case of a +widow who has living with her a daughter, aged twenty-five or thirty, +engaged to marry an artisan now living at a distance for the sake of +his work; he comes to see her when he can; she is already pregnant; +they will marry soon; one evening, with the consent of the widow, +who looks on the couple as practically married, he stays over-night, +sharing his betrothed's room, the only room available. Result: +the old woman becomes liable to four years' penal servitude, a fine +of six thousand marks, loss of civil rights, and police supervision.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_199" id="Footnote_199"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_199"><span class="label">[199]</span></a> +In another respect the French code carries private rights to an +excess by forbidding the unmarried mother to make any claim on the +father of her child. In most countries such a prohibition is regarded as +unreasonable and unjust. There is even a tendency (as by a recent +Dutch law) to compel the father to provide for his illegitimate child not +on the scale of the mother's social position but on the scale of his own +social position. This is, possibly, an undue assertion of the superiority +of man.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_200" id="Footnote_200"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_200"><span class="label">[200]</span></a> +The same point has lately been illustrated in Holland, where a +recent modification in the law is held to press harshly on homosexual +persons. At once a vigorous propaganda on behalf of the homosexual +has sprung into existence. We see here the difference between moral +enactments and criminal enactments. Supposing that a change in +the law had placed, for instance, increased difficulties in the way of +burglary. We should not witness any outburst of literary activity on +behalf of burglars, because the community, as a whole, is thoroughly +convinced that burglary ought to be penalized.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_201" id="Footnote_201"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_201"><span class="label">[201]</span></a> +Apart from the attitude towards immorality, we have an illustration +of the peculiarly English tendency to unite religious fervour with +individualism in Quakerism. In no other European country has any +similar movement—that is, a popular movement of individualistic +mysticism—ever appeared on the same scale.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_202" id="Footnote_202"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_202"><span class="label">[202]</span></a> +E.F. Fuld, Ph.D., <i>Police Administration</i>, 1909.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_203" id="Footnote_203"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_203"><span class="label">[203]</span></a> +Ex-Police Commissioner Bingham, of New York, estimated +(<i>Hampton's Magazine</i>, September, 1909) that "fifteen per cent. or +from 1500 to 2000 members of the police force are unscrupulous +'grafters' whose hands are always out for easy money." See also +Report of the Committee of Fourteen on <i>The Social Evil in New +York City</i>, p. 34.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_204" id="Footnote_204"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_204"><span class="label">[204]</span></a> +Fuld, <i>op. cit.</i>, pp. 373 <i>et seq.</i> This last opinion by no means stands +alone. Thus it is asserted by the Committee of Fourteen in their +Report on The <i>Social Evil in New York City</i> (1910, p. xxxiv) that +"some laws exist to-day because an unintelligent, cowardly public +puts unenforceable statutes on the book, being content with registering +their hypocrisy."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_205" id="Footnote_205"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_205"><span class="label">[205]</span></a> +It is also a blundering policy. Its blind anathema is as likely as +not to fall on its own allies. Thus the Report of the municipally appointed +and municipally financed Vice Commission of Chicago is +not only an official but a highly moral document, advocating increased +suppression of immoral literature, and erring, if it errs, on the side of +over-severity. It has been suppressed by the United States Post Office!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_206" id="Footnote_206"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_206"><span class="label">[206]</span></a> +This system applies only to spirits, not to beer and wine, but +it has proved very effective in diminishing drunkenness, as is admitted +by those who are opposed to the system. A somewhat similar system +exists in England under the name of the Trust system, but its extension +appears unfortunately to be much impeded by English laws and customs.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_207" id="Footnote_207"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_207"><span class="label">[207]</span></a> +Jacques Bertillon, in a paper read to the Académie des Sciences +Morales et Politiques, 30th September, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_208" id="Footnote_208"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_208"><span class="label">[208]</span></a> +During the present century a great wave of immorality and sexual +crime has been passing over Russia. This is not attributable to the +laws, old or new, but is due in part to the Russo-Japanese War, and +in part to the relaxed tension consequent on the collapse of the movement +for political reform. (See an article by Professor Asnurof, "La +Crise Sexuelle en Russie," <i>Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle</i>, April, +1911.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_209" id="Footnote_209"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_209"><span class="label">[209]</span></a> +It was by this indirect influence that I was induced to write the +present chapter. The editor of a prominent German review wrote to +me for my opinion regarding a Bill dealing with the prevention of +immorality which had been introduced into the English Parliament +and had aroused much interest and anxiety in Germany, where it had +been discussed in all its details. But I had never so much as heard of +the Bill, nor could I find any one else who had heard of it, until I +consulted a Member of Parliament who happened to have been instrumental +in causing its rejection.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_210" id="Footnote_210"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_210"><span class="label">[210]</span></a> +J. Schrank, <i>Die Prostitution in Wien</i>, Bd. I, pp. 152-206.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_211" id="Footnote_211"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_211"><span class="label">[211]</span></a> +The history of this movement in Germany may be followed in the +<i>Vierteljahrsberichte des Wissenschaftlich-humanitären Komitees</i>, edited +by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a great authority on the matter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_212" id="Footnote_212"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_212"><span class="label">[212]</span></a> +Report on <i>The Social Evil in New York City</i>, p. 38; see also Rev +Dr. J.P. Peters, "Suppression of the 'Raines Law Hotels,'" <i>American +Academy of Political and Social Science</i>, November, 1908.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_213" id="Footnote_213"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_213"><span class="label">[213]</span></a> +It is probably needless to add that the specific object of the Act—the +Puritanic observance of Sunday—was by no means attained. On +Sunday, the 8th December, 1907, the police made a desperate attempt +to enforce the law; every place of amusement was shut up; lectures, +religious concerts, even the social meetings of the Young Men's Christian +Association, were rigorously put a stop to. There was, of course, great +popular indignation and uproar, and the impromptu performances got +up in the streets, while the police looked on sympathetically, are said +to have been far more outrageous than any entertainment indoors +could possibly have been.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_214" id="Footnote_214"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_214"><span class="label">[214]</span></a> +<i>The Social Evil in Chicago</i>, p. 112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_215" id="Footnote_215"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_215"><span class="label">[215]</span></a> +The methods of Maria Theresa never had any success; the methods +of Calvin at Geneva had, however, a certain superficial success, because +the right conditions existed for their exercise. That is to say, that a +theocratic basis of society was generally accepted, and that the suppression +of immorality was regarded by the great mass of the population, +including in most cases, no doubt, even the offenders themselves, +as a religious duty. It is, however, interesting to note that, even at +Geneva, these "triumphs of morality" have met the usual fate. At +the present day, it appears (Edith Sellers, <i>Cornhill</i>, August, 1910), there +are more disorderly houses in Geneva, in proportion to the population, +than in any other town in Europe.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_216" id="Footnote_216"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_216"><span class="label">[216]</span></a> +See e.g. P. Hausmeister, "Zur Analyse der Prostitution," <i>Geschlect +und Gesellschaft</i>, 1907, p. 294.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_217" id="Footnote_217"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_217"><span class="label">[217]</span></a> +Theodore Schroeder, <i>"Obscene" Literature and Constitutional Law</i>, +New York, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_218" id="Footnote_218"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_218"><span class="label">[218]</span></a> +Thus Sir Samuel Dill (<i>Roman Society</i>, p. 11) calls attention to the +letter of St. Paulinus who, when the Empire was threatened by barbarians, +wrote to a Roman soldier that Christianity is incompatible +with family life, with citizenship, with patriotism, and that soldiers +are doomed to eternal torment. Christians frequently showed no +respect for law or its representatives. "Many Christian confessors," +says Sir W.M. Ramsay (<i>The Church in the Roman Empire</i>, chap. +xv), "went to extremes in showing their contempt and hatred for +their judges. Their answers to plain questions were evasive and +indirect; they lectured Roman dignitaries as if the latter were the +criminals and they themselves the judges; and they even used violent +reproaches and coarse, insulting gestures." Bouché-Leclercq (<i>L'Intolérance +Religieuse et le Politique</i>, 1911, especially chap. X) shows how the +early Christians insisted on being persecuted. We see much the same +attitude to-day among anarchists of the lower class (and also, it may +be added, sometimes among suffragettes), who may be regarded as the +modern analogues of the early Christians.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_219" id="Footnote_219"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_219"><span class="label">[219]</span></a> +It may well be, indeed, that in all ages the actual sum of immorality, +broadly considered—in public and in private, in thought and in act—undergoes +but slight oscillations. But in the nature of its manifestations +and in the nature of the manifestations that accompany it, +there may be immense fluctuations. Tarde, the distinguished thinker, +referring to the "delicious Catholicism" of the days before Luther, +asks: "If that amiable Christian evolution had peacefully continued +to our days, should we be still more immoral than we are? It is doubtful, +but in all probability we should be enjoying the most æsthetic +and the least vexatious religion in the world, in which all our science, +all our civilization, would have been free to progress" (Tarde, <i>La +Logique Sociale</i>, p. 198). As has often been pointed out, it was along +the lines indicated by Erasmus, rather than along the lines pursued by +Luther, that the progress of civilization lay.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_220" id="Footnote_220"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_220"><span class="label">[220]</span></a> +Nietzsche, <i>Beyond Good and Evil</i>, chap. II. A century earlier +Godwin had written in his <i>Political Justice</i> (Book VII, chap. VIII): +"Men are weak at present because they have always been told they are +weak and must not be trusted with themselves. Take them out of their +shackles, bid them enquire, reason, and judge, and you will soon find +them very different beings. Tell them that they have passions, are +occasionally hasty, intemperate, and injurious, but that they must +be trusted with themselves. Tell them that the mountains of parchment +in which they have been hitherto entrenched, are fit only to +impose upon ages of superstition and ignorance, that henceforth we +will have no dependence but upon their spontaneous justice; that, if +their passions be gigantic, they must rise with gigantic energy to subdue +them; that if their decrees be iniquitous, the iniquity shall be all their +own."</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="CHAPX" id="CHAPX"></a>X</h3> + +<h3>THE WAR AGAINST WAR</h3> + +<blockquote><p>Why the Problem of War is specially urgent To-day—The Beneficial +Effects of War in Barbarous Ages—Civilization renders the Ultimate +Disappearance of War Inevitable—The Introduction of Law +in disputes between Individuals involves the Introduction of Law +in disputes between Nations—But there must be Force behind +Law—Henry IV's Attempt to Confederate Europe—Every International +Tribunal of Arbitration must be able to enforce its Decisions—The +Influences making for the Abolition of Warfare—(1) +Growth of International Opinion—(2) International Financial +Development—(3) The Decreasing Pressure of Population—(4) +The Natural Exhaustion of the Warlike Spirit—(5) The Spread +of Anti-military Doctrines—(6) The overgrowth of Armaments—(7) +The Dominance of Social Reform—War Incompatible with an +Advanced Civilization—Nations as Trustees for Humanity—The +Impossibility of Disarmament—The Necessity of Force to ensure +Peace—The Federated State of the Future—The Decay of War +still leaves the Possibilities of Daring and Heroism.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>There are, no doubt, special reasons why at +the present time war and the armaments of +war should appear an intolerable burden which +must be thrown off as soon as possible if the task of social +hygiene is not to be seriously impeded. But the abolition +of the ancient method of settling international disputes +by warfare is not a problem which depends for its solution +on the conditions of the moment. It is implicit in the +natural development of the process of civilization. At +one stage, no doubt, warfare plays an important part in +constituting states and so, indirectly, in promoting +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> +civilization. But civilization tends slowly but surely to +substitute for war in the later stages of this process the +methods of law, or, in any case, methods which, while +not always unobjectionable, avoid the necessity for any +breach of the peace.<a name="FNanchor_221" id="FNanchor_221"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a> As soon, indeed, as in primitive +society two individuals engage in a dispute which they +are compelled to settle not by physical force but by a +resort to an impartial tribunal, the thin end of the wedge +is introduced, and the ultimate destruction of war becomes +merely a matter of time. If it is unreasonable for +two individuals to fight it is unreasonable for two groups +of individuals to fight.<a name="FNanchor_222" id="FNanchor_222"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a></p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> +The difficulty has been that while it is quite easy for +an ordered society to compel two individuals to settle +their differences before a tribunal, in accordance with +abstractly determined principles of law and reason, it is a +vastly more difficult matter to compel two groups of +individuals so to settle their differences. A large part of +the history of all the great European countries has consisted +in the progressive conquest and pacification of +small but often bellicose states outside, and even inside, +their own borders.<a name="FNanchor_223" id="FNanchor_223"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> This is the case even within a +community. Hobbes, writing in the midst of a civil war, +went so far as to lay down that the "final cause" of a +commonwealth is nothing else but the abolition of "that +miserable condition of war which is necessarily consequent +to the natural passions of men when there is no visible +power to keep them in awe." Yet we see to-day that even +within our highly civilized communities there is not always +any adequately awful power to prevent employers and +employed from engaging in what is little better than a +civil war, nor even to bind them to accept the decision of +an impartial tribunal they may have been persuaded +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> +to appeal to. The smallest state can compel its individual +citizens to keep the peace; a large state can compel a +small state to do so; but hitherto there has been no +guarantee possible that large states, or even large compact +groups within the state, should themselves keep the +peace. They commit what injustice they please, for there +is no visible power to keep them in awe. We have attained +a condition in which a state is able to enforce a legal and +peaceful attitude in its own individual citizens towards +each other. The state is the guardian of its citizens' +peace, but the old problem recurs: <i>Quis custodiet ipsos +custodes?</i></p> + +<p>It is obvious that this difficulty increases as the size of +states increases. To compel a small state to keep the +peace by absorbing it if it fails to do so is always an easy +and even tempting process to a neighbouring larger state. +This process was once carried out on a complete scale, +when practically the whole known world was brought under +the sway of Rome. "War has ceased," Plutarch was able +to declare in the days of the Roman Empire, and, though +himself an enthusiastic Greek, he was unbounded in his +admiration of the beneficence of the majestic <i>Pax Romana</i>, +and never tempted by any narrow spirit of patriotism to +desire the restoration of his own country's glories. But +the Roman organization broke up, and no single state +will ever be strong enough to restore it.</p> + +<p>Any attempt to establish orderly legal relationships +between states must, therefore, be carried out by the +harmonious co-operation of those states. At the end of +the sixteenth century a great French statesman, Sully, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> +inspired Henry IV with a scheme of a Council of Confederated +European Christian States; each of these +states, fifteen in number, was to send four representatives +to the Council, which was to sit at Metz or Cologne and +regulate the differences between the constituent states of +the Confederation. The army of the Confederation was to +be maintained in common, and used chiefly to keep the +peace, to prevent one sovereign from interfering with any +other, and also, if necessary, to repel invasion of barbarians +from without. The scheme was arranged in +concert with Queen Elizabeth, and twelve of the fifteen +Powers had already promised their active co-operation +when the assassination of Henry destroyed the whole +plan. Such a Confederation was easier to arrange then +than it is now, but probably it was more difficult to maintain, +and it can scarcely be said that at that date the +times were ripe for so advanced a scheme. +<a name="FNanchor_224" id="FNanchor_224"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a></p> + +<p>To-day the interests of small states are so closely +identified with peace that it is seldom difficult to exert +pressure on them to maintain it. It is quite another +matter with the large states. The fact that during the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +past half century so much has been done by the larger +states to aid the cause of international arbitration, and +to submit disputes to international tribunals, shows how +powerful the motives for avoiding war are nowadays +becoming. But the fact, also, that no country hitherto +has abandoned its liberty of withdrawing from peaceful +arbitration any question involving "national honour" +shows that there is no constituted power strong enough +to control large states. For the reservation of questions +of national honour from the sphere of law is as absurd +as would be any corresponding limitation by individuals +of their liability for their acts before the law; it is as +though a man were to say: "If I commit a theft I am +willing to appear before the court, and will probably pay +the penalty demanded; but if it is a question of murder, +then my vital interests are at stake, and I deny altogether +the right of the court to intervene." It is a reservation +fatal to peace, and could not be accepted if pleaded at +the bar of any international tribunal with the power to +enforce its decisions. "Imagine," says Edward Jenks, +in his <i>History of Politics</i>, "a modern judge 'persuading' +Mr. William Sikes to 'make it up' with the relatives of +his victim, and, on his remaining obdurate, leaving the +two families to fight the matter out." Yet that is what +was in some degree done in England until medieval times +as regards individual crimes, and it is what is still done +as regards national crimes, in so far as the appeal to +arbitration is limited and voluntary. The proposals, +therefore—though not yet accepted by any Government—lately +mooted in the United States, in England, and in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +France, to submit international disputes, without reservation, +to an impartial tribunal represent an advance +of peculiar significance.</p> + +<p>The abolition of collective fighting is so desirable an +extension of the abolition of individual fighting, and its +introduction has waited so long the establishment of +some high compelling power—for the influence of the +Religion of Peace has in this matter been less than nil—that +it is evident that only the coincidence of very +powerful and peculiar factors could have brought the +question into the region of practical politics in our own +time. There are several such factors, most of which have +been developing during a long period, but none have been +clearly recognized until recent years. It may be worth +while to indicate the great forces now warring against war.</p> + +<p>(1) <i>Growth of International Opinion.</i> There can be no +doubt whatever that during recent years, and especially +in the more democratic countries, an international consensus +of public opinion has gradually grown up, making +itself the voice, like a Greek chorus, of an abstract justice. +It is quite true that of this justice, as of justice generally, +it may be said that it has wide limits. Renan declared +once, in a famous allocution, that "what is called indulgence +is, most often, only justice," and, at the other +extreme, Remy de Gourmont has said that "injustice is +sometimes a part of justice;" in other words, there are +varying circumstances in which justice may properly +be tempered either with mercy or with severity. In any +case, and however it may be qualified; a popular international +voice generously pronouncing itself in favour of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> +justice, and resonantly condemning any Government +which clashes against justice, is now a factor of the international +situation. It is, moreover, tending to become a +factor having a certain influence on affairs. This was the +case during the South African War, when England, by +offending this international sense of justice, fell into a +discredit which had many actual unpleasant results and +narrowly escaped, there is some reason to believe, proving +still more serious. The same voice was heard with +dramatically sudden and startling effect when Ferrer +was shot at Barcelona. Ferrer was a person absolutely +unknown to the man in the street; he was indeed little +more than a name even to those who knew Spain; few +could be sure, except by a kind of intuition, that he was +the innocent victim of a judicial murder, for it is only now +that the fact is being slowly placed beyond dispute. Yet +immediately after Ferrer was shot within the walls of +Monjuich a great shout of indignation was raised, with +almost magical suddenness and harmony, throughout the +civilized world, from Italy to Belgium, from England to +Argentina. Moreover, this voice was so decisive and so +loud that it acted like those legendary trumpet-blasts +which shattered the walls of Jericho; in a few days the +Spanish Government, with a powerful minister at its +head, had fallen. The significance of this event we cannot +easily overestimate. For the first time in history, the +voice of international public opinion, unsupported by +pressure, political, social, or diplomatic, proved potent +enough to avenge an act of injustice by destroying a +Government. A new force has appeared in the world, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> +and it tends to operate against those countries which are +guilty of injustice, whether that injustice is exerted +against a State or even only against a single obscure +individual. The modern developments of telegraphy +and the Press—unfavourable as the Press is in many +respects to the cause of international harmony—have +placed in the hands of peace this new weapon against war.</p> + +<p>(2) <i>International Financial Development.</i> There is +another international force which expresses itself in the +same sense. The voice of abstract justice raised against +war is fortified by the voice of concrete self-interest. The +interests of the propertied classes, and therefore of the +masses dependent upon them, are to-day so widely distributed +throughout the world that whenever any +country is plunged into a disastrous war there arises in +every other country, especially in rich and prosperous +lands with most at stake, a voice of self-interest in +harmony with the voice of justice. It is sometimes said +that wars are in the interest of capital, and of capital +alone, and that they are engineered by capitalists masquerading +under imposing humanitarian disguises. That +is doubtless true to the extent that every war cannot fail +to benefit some section of the capitalistic world, which +will therefore favour it, but it is true to that extent only. +The old notion that war and the acquisition of territories +encouraged trade by opening up new markets has proved +fallacious. The extension of trade is a matter of tariffs +rather than of war, and in any case the trade of a country +with its own acquisitions by conquest is a comparatively +insignificant portion of its total trade. But even if the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> +financial advantages of war were much greater than they +are, they would be more than compensated by the disadvantages +which nowadays attend war. International +financial relationships have come to constitute a network +of interests so vast, so complicated, so sensitive, that the +whole thrills responsively to any disturbing touch, and +no one can say beforehand what widespread damage may +not be done by shock even at a single point. When a +country is at war its commerce is at once disorganized, +that is to say that its shipping, and the shipping of all +the countries that carry its freights, is thrown out of gear +to a degree that often cannot fail to be internationally +disastrous. Foreign countries cannot send in the imports +that lie on their wharves for the belligerent country, nor +can they get out of it the exports they need for their own +maintenance or luxury. Moreover, all the foreign money +invested in the belligerent country is depreciated and +imperilled. The international voice of trade and finance +is, therefore, to-day mainly on the side of peace.</p> + +<p>It must be added that this voice is not, as it might +seem, a selfish voice only. It is justifiable not only in +immediate international interests, but even in the ultimate +interests of the belligerent country, and not less so +if that country should prove victorious. So far as business +and money are concerned, a country gains nothing by a +successful war, even though that war involves the acquisition +of immense new provinces; after a great war +a conquered country may possess more financial stability +than its conqueror, and both may stand lower in this +respect than some other country which is internationally +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> +guaranteed against war. Such points as these have of +late been ably argued by Norman Angell in his remarkable +book, <i>The Great Illusion</i>, and for the most part convincingly +illustrated.<a name="FNanchor_225" id="FNanchor_225"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a> +As was long since said, the ancients +cried, <i>Væ victis</i>! We have learnt to cry, <i>Væ + victoribus</i>!</p> + +<p>It may, indeed, be added that the general tendency of +war—putting aside peoples altogether lacking in stamina—is +to moralize the conquered and to demoralise the +conquerors. This effect is seen alike on the material and +the spiritual sides. Conquest brings self-conceit and +intolerance, the reckless inflation and dissipation of +energies. Defeat brings prudence and concentration; +it ennobles and fortifies. All the glorious victories of the +first Napoleon achieved less for France than the crushing +defeat of the third Napoleon. The triumphs left enfeeblement; +the defeat acted as a strong tonic which is +still working beneficently to-day. The corresponding +reverse process has been at work in Germany: the +German soil that Napoleon ploughed yielded a Moltke +and a Bismarck,<a name="FNanchor_226" id="FNanchor_226"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a> while to-day, +however mistakenly, the German Press is crying out that only another +war—it ought in honesty to say an unsuccessful war—can restore +the nation's flaccid muscle. It is yet too early to see the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> +results of the Russo-Japanese War, but already there are +signs that by industrial overstrain and the repression of +individual thought Japan is threatening to enfeeble the +physique and to destroy the high spirit of the indomitable +men to whom she owed her triumph.</p> + +<p>(3) <i>The Decreasing Pressure of Population.</i> It was at +one time commonly said, and is still sometimes repeated, +that the pressure of over-population is the chief cause of +wars. That is a statement which requires a very great deal +of qualification. It is, indeed, possible that the great +hordes of warlike barbarians from the North and the East +which invaded Europe in early times, sometimes more +or less overwhelming the civilized world, were the result +of a rise in the birth-rate and an excess of population +beyond the means of subsistence. But this is far from +certain, for we know absolutely nothing concerning the +birth-rate of these invading peoples either before or +during the period of their incursions. Again, it is certain +that, in modern times, a high and rising birth-rate presents +a favourable condition for war. A war distracts +attention from the domestic disturbances and economic +wretchedness which a too rapid growth of population +necessarily produces, while at the same time tending to +draw away and destroy the surplus population which +causes this disturbance and wretchedness. Yet there are +other ways of meeting this over-population beside the +crude method of war. Social reform and emigration +furnish equally effective and much more humane methods +of counteracting such pressure. No doubt the over-population +resulting from an excessively high birth-rate, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span> +when not met, as it tends to be, by a correspondingly high +death-rate from disease, may be regarded as a predisposing +cause of war, but to assert that it is the pre-eminent +cause is to go far beyond the evidence at present +available.</p> + +<p>To whatever degree, however, it may have been potent +in causing war in the past, it is certain that the pressure +of population as a cause of war will be eliminated in the +future. The only nations nowadays that can afford to +make war on the grand scale are the wealthy and civilized +nations. But civilization excludes a high birth-rate: +there has never been any exception to that law, nor can we +conceive any exceptions, for it is more than a social law; +it is a biological law. Russia, a still imperfectly civilized +country, stands apart in having a very high birth-rate, +but it also has a very high death-rate, and even should it +happen that in Russia improved social conditions lower +the death-rate before affecting the birth-rate, there is +still ample room within Russian territory for the consequent +increase of population. Among all the other nations +which are considered to threaten the world's peace, the +birth-rate is rapidly falling. This is so, for instance, +as regards England and Germany. Germany, especially, +it was once thought—though in actual fact Germany has +not fought for over forty years—had an interest in going to +war in order to find an outlet for her surplus population, +compelled, in the absence of suitable German colonies, +to sacrifice its patriotism and lose its nationality by +emigrating to foreign countries. But the German birth-rate +is falling, German emigration is decreasing, and the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span> +immense growth of German industry is easily able to +absorb the new generation. Thus the declining birth-rate +of civilized lands will alone largely serve in the end to +eliminate warfare, partly by removing one of its causes, +partly because the increased value of human life will make +war too costly.</p> + +<p>(4) <i>The Natural Exhaustion of the Warlike Spirit.</i> +It is a remarkable tendency of the warlike spirit—frequently +emphasized in recent years by the distinguished +zoologist, President D.S. Jordan, who here follows +Novikov<a name="FNanchor_227" id="FNanchor_227"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a>—that +it tends to exterminate itself. Fighting +stocks, and peoples largely made up of fighting stocks, are +naturally killed out, and the field is left to the unwarlike. +It is only the prudent, those who fight and run away, +who live to fight another day; and they transmit their +prudence to their offspring. Great Britain is a conspicuous +example of a land which, being an island, was necessarily +peopled by predatory and piratical invaders. A +long series of warlike and adventurous peoples—Celts, +Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Normans—built up England +and imparted to it their spirit. The English were, it +was said, "a people for whom pain and death are nothing, +and who only fear hunger and boredom." But for over +eight hundred years they have never been reinforced by +new invaders, and the inevitable consequences have +followed. There has been a gradual killing out of the +warlike stocks, a process immensely accelerated during the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> +nineteenth century by a vast emigration of the more +adventurous elements in the population, pressed out of +the overcrowded country by the reckless and unchecked +increase of the population which occurred during the first +three-quarters of that century. The result is that the +English (except sometimes when they happen to be +journalists) cannot now be described as a warlike people. +Old legends tell of British heroes who, when their legs +were hacked away, still fought upon the stumps. Modern +poets feel that to picture a British warrior of to-day in +this attitude would be somewhat far-fetched. The +historian of the South African War points out, again and +again, that the British leaders showed a singular lack of +the fighting spirit. During that war English generals +seldom cared to engage the enemy's forces except when +their own forces greatly outnumbered them, and on many +occasions they surrendered immediately they realized +that they were themselves outnumbered. Those reckless +Englishmen who boldly sailed out from their little island +to face the Spanish Armada were long ago exterminated; +an admirably prudent and cautious race has been left +alive.</p> + +<p>It is the same story elsewhere. The French long +cherished the tradition of military glory, and no country +has fought so much. We see the result to-day. In no +country is the attitude of the intellectual classes so calm +and so reasonable on the subject of war, and nowhere is +the popular hostility to war so strongly marked. +<a name="FNanchor_228" id="FNanchor_228"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a> Spain +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> +furnishes another instance which is even still more decisive. +The Spanish were of old a pre-eminently warlike +people, capable of enduring all hardships, never fearing +to face death. Their aggressively warlike and adventurous +spirit sent them to death all over the world. It cannot +be said, even to-day, that the Spaniards have lost their +old tenacity and hardness of fibre, but their passion for +war and adventure was killed out three centuries ago.</p> + +<p>In all these and the like cases there has been a +process of selective breeding, eliminating the soldierly +stocks and leaving the others to breed the race. The +men who so loved fighting that they fought till they died +had few chances of propagating their own warlike impulses. +The men who fought and ran away, the men who +never fought at all, were the men who created the new +generation and transmitted to it their own traditions.</p> + +<p>This selective process, moreover, has not merely acted +automatically; it has been furthered by social opinion +and social pressure, sometimes very drastically expressed. +Thus in the England of the Plantagenets there grew up a +class called "gentlemen"—not, as has sometimes been +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> +supposed, a definitely defined class, though they were +originally of good birth—whose chief characteristic +was that they were good fighting men, and sought +fortune by fighting. The "premier gentleman" of +England, according to Sir George Sitwell, and an entirely +typical representative of his class, was a certain +glorious hero who fought with Talbot at Agincourt, and +also, as the unearthing of obscure documents shows, at +other times indulged in housebreaking, and in wounding +with intent to kill, and in "procuring the murder of one +Thomas Page, who was cut to pieces while on his knees +begging for his life." There, evidently, was a state of +society highly favourable to the warlike man, highly +unfavourable to the unwarlike man whom he slew in his +wrath. Nowadays, however, there has been a revaluation +of these old values. The cowardly and no doubt plebeian +Thomas Page, multiplied by the million, has succeeded +in hoisting himself into the saddle, and he revenges himself +by discrediting, hunting into the slums, and finally +hanging, every descendant he can find of the premier +gentleman of Agincourt.</p> + +<p>It must be added that the advocates of the advantages +of war are not entitled to claim this process of selective +breeding as one of the advantages of war. It is quite true +that war is incompatible with a high civilization, and must +in the end be superseded. But this method of suppressing +it is too thorough. It involves not merely the extermination +of the fighting spirit, but of many excellent +qualities, physical and moral, which are associated with +the fighting spirit. Benjamin Franklin seems to have +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> +been the first to point out that "a standing army diminishes +the size and breed of the human species." Almost +in Franklin's lifetime that was demonstrated on a +wholesale scale, for there seems little reason to doubt +that the size and stature of the French nation have been +permanently diminished by the constant levies of young +recruits, the flower of the population, whom Napoleon +sent out to death in their first manhood and still childless. +Fine physical breed involves also fine qualities of virility +and daring which are needed for other purposes than +fighting. In so far as the selective breeding of war kills +these out, its results are imperfect, and could be better +attained by less radical methods.</p> + +<p>(5) <i>The Growth of the Anti-Military Spirit.</i> The decay +of the warlike spirit by the breeding out of fighting +stocks has in recent years been reinforced by a more acute +influence of which in the near future we shall certainly +hear more. This is the spirit of anti-militarism. This +spirit is an inevitable result of the decay of the fighting +spirit. In a certain sense it is also complementary to it. +The survival of non-fighting stocks by the destruction +of the fighting stocks works most effectually in countries +having a professional army. The anti-military spirit, on +the contrary, works effectually in countries having a +national army in which it is compulsory for all young +citizens to serve, for it is only in such countries that the +anti-militarist can, by refusing to serve, take an influential +position as a martyr in the cause of peace.</p> + +<p>Among the leading nations, it is in France that the +spirit of anti-militarism has taken the deepest hold of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> +the people, though in some smaller lands, notably among +the obstinately peaceable inhabitants of Holland, the same +spirit also flourishes. Hervé, who is a leader of the +insurrectional socialists, as they are commonly called +in opposition to the purely parliamentary socialists led +by Jaurès,—though the insurrectional socialists also use +parliamentary methods,—may be regarded as the most +conspicuous champion of anti-militarism, and many of +his followers have suffered imprisonment as the penalty +of their convictions. In France the peasant proprietors +in the country and the organized workers in the town are +alike sympathetic to anti-militarism. The syndicalists, +or labour unionists with the Confédération Générale du +Travail as their central organization, are not usually +anxious to imitate what they consider the unduly timid +methods of English trade unionists; +<a name="FNanchor_229" id="FNanchor_229"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a> they tend to be +revolutionary and anti-military. The Congress of delegates +of French Trade Unions, held at Toulouse in 1910, passed +the significant resolution that "a declaration of war +should be followed by the declaration of a general revolutionary +strike." The same tendency, though in a less +radical form, is becoming international, and the great +International Socialist Congress at Copenhagen has passed +a resolution instructing the International Bureau to "take +the opinion of the organized workers of the world on the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> +utility of a general strike in preventing war." +<a name="FNanchor_230" id="FNanchor_230"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a> Even the +English working classes are slowly coming into line. At +a Conference of Labour Delegates, held at Leicester in +1911, to consider the Copenhagen resolution, the policy +of the anti-military general strike was defeated by only +a narrow majority, on the ground that it required further +consideration, and might be detrimental to political +action; but as most of the leaders are in favour of the +strike policy there can be no doubt that this method of +combating war will shortly be the accepted policy of the +English Labour movement. In carrying out such a +policy the Labour Party expects much help from the +growing social and political power of women. The most +influential literary advocate of the Peace movement, and +one of the earliest, has been a woman, the Baroness +Bertha von Suttner, and it is held to be incredible that +the wives and mothers of the people will use their power +to support an institution which represents the most +brutal method of destroying their husbands and sons. +"The cause of woman," says Novikov, "is the cause of +peace." "We pay the first cost on all human life," says +Olive Schreiner.<a name="FNanchor_231" id="FNanchor_231"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> +The anti-militarist, as things are at present, exposes +himself not only to the penalty of imprisonment, but also +to obloquy. He has virtually refused to take up arms in +defence of his country; he has sinned against patriotism. +This accusation has led to a counter-accusation directed +against the very idea of patriotism. Here the writings of +Tolstoy, with their poignant and searching appeals for +the cause of humanity as against the cause of patriotism, +have undoubtedly served the anti-militarists well, and +wherever the war against war is being urged, even so far +as Japan, Tolstoy has furnished some of its keenest +weapons. Moreover, in so far as anti-militarism is advocated +by the workers, they claim that international +interests have already effaced and superseded the narrower +interests of patriotism. In refusing to fight, the workers +of a country are simply declaring their loyalty to fellow-workers +on the other side of the frontier, a loyalty which +has stronger claims on them, they hold, than any patriotism +which simply means loyalty to capitalists; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> +geographical frontiers are giving place to economic +frontiers, which now alone serve to separate enemies. +And if, as seems probable, when the next attempt is made +at a great European war, the order for mobilization is +immediately followed in both countries by the declaration +of a general strike, there will be nothing to say against +such a declaration even from the standpoint of the +narrowest patriotism, although there may be much to say +on other grounds against the policy of the general strike. +<a name="FNanchor_232" id="FNanchor_232"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a></p> + +<p>If we realize what is going on around us, it is easy to +see that the anti-militarist movement is rapidly reaching +a stage when it will be easily able, even unaided, to +paralyse any war immediately and automatically. The +pioneers in the movement have played the same part as +was played in the seventeenth century by the Quakers. +In the name of the Bible and their own consciences, the +Quakers refused to recognize the right of any secular +authority to compel them to worship or to fight; they +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> +gained what they struggled for, and now all men honour +their memories. In the name of justice and human +fraternity, the anti-militarists are to-day taking the like +course and suffering the like penalties. To-morrow, they +also will be revered as heroes and martyrs.</p> + +<p>(6) <i>The Over-growth of Armaments.</i> The hostile forces +so far enumerated have converged slowly on to war from +such various directions that they may be said to have +surrounded and isolated it; its ultimate surrender can only +be a matter of time. Of late, however, a new factor has +appeared, of so urgent a character that it is fast rendering +the question of the abolition of war acute: the over-growth +of armaments. This is, practically, a modern factor in +the situation, and while it is, on the surface, a luxury due +to the large surplus of wealth in great modern states, it +is also, if we look a little deeper, intimately connected +with that decay of the warlike spirit due to selective +breeding. It is the weak and timid woman who looks +nervously under the bed for the burglar who is the last +person she really desires to meet, and it is old, rich, and +unwarlike nations which take the lead in laboriously +protecting themselves against enemies of whom there is no +sign in any quarter. Within the last half-century only +have the nations of the world begun to compete with each +other in this timorous and costly rivalry. In the warlike +days of old, armaments in time of peace consisted in little +more than solid walls for defence, a supply of weapons +stored away here and there, sometimes in a room attached +to the parish church, and occasional martial exercises +with the sword or the bow, which were little more than +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> +an amusement. The true fighting man trusted to his own +strong right arm rather than to armaments, and considered +that he was himself a match for any half-dozen +of the enemy. Even in actual time of war it was often +difficult to find either zeal or money to supply the munitions +of war. The <i>Diary</i> of the industrious Pepys, who +achieved so much for the English navy, shows that the +care of the country's ships mainly depended on a few +unimportant officials who had the greatest trouble in the +world to secure attention to the most urgent and immediate +needs.</p> + +<p>A very difficult state of things prevails to-day. The +existence of a party having for its watchword the cry for +retrenchment and economy is scarcely possible in a +modern state. All the leading political parties in every +great state—if we leave aside the party of Labour—are +equally eager to pile up the expenditure on armaments. +It is the boast of each party, not that it spends less, but +more, than its rivals on this source of expenditure, now +the chief in every large state. Moreover, every new step +in expenditure involves a still further step; each new +improvement in attack or defence must immediately be +answered by corresponding or better improvements on +the part of rival powers, if they are not to be outclassed. +Every year these moves and counter-moves necessarily +become more extensive, more complex, more costly; +while each counter-move involves the obsolescence of the +improvements achieved by the previous move, so that the +waste of energy and money keeps pace with the expenditure. +It is well recognized that there is absolutely no +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> +possible limit to this process and its constantly increasing +acceleration.</p> + +<p>There is no need to illustrate this point, for it is familiar +to all. Any newspaper will furnish facts and figures +vividly exemplifying some aspect of the matter. For +while only a handful of persons in any country are sincerely +anxious under present conditions to reduce the +colossal sums every year wasted on the unproductive +work of armament; an increasing interest in the matter +testifies to a vague alarm and anxiety concerning the +ultimate issue. For it is felt that an inevitable crisis lies +at the end of the path down which the nations are now +moving.</p> + +<p>Thus, from this point of view, the end of war is being +attained by a process radically opposite to that by which +in the social as well as in the physical organism ancient +structures and functions are outgrown. The usual +process is a gradual recession to a merely vestigial state. +But here what may perhaps be the same ultimate result +is being reached by the more alarming method of over-inflation +and threatening collapse. It is an alarming +process because those huge and heavily armed monsters +of primeval days who furnish the zoological types corresponding +to our modern over-armed states, themselves died +out from the world when their unwieldy armament had +reached its final point of expansion. Will our own modern +states, one wonders, more fortunately succeed in escaping +from the tough hides that ever more closely constrict +them, and finally save their souls alive?</p> + +<p>(7) <i>The Dominance of Social Reform.</i> The final factor +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> +in the situation is the growing dominance of the process +of social reform. On the one hand, the increasing complexity +of social organisation renders necessary a correspondingly +increasing expenditure of money in diminishing +its friction and aiding its elaboration; on the other +hand, the still more rapidly increasing demands of armament +render it ever more difficult to devote money to such +social purposes. Everywhere even the most elementary +provision for the finer breeding and higher well-being of +a country's citizens is postponed to the clamour for ever +new armaments. The situation thus created is rapidly +becoming intolerable.</p> + +<p>It is not alone the future of civilization which is for +ever menaced by the possibility of war; the past of +civilization, with all the precious embodiments of its +traditions, is even more fatally imperilled. As the world +grows older and the ages recede, the richer, the more +precious, the more fragile, become the ancient heirlooms +of humanity. They constitute the final symbols of human +glory; they cannot be too carefully guarded, too highly +valued. But all the other dangers that threaten their +integrity and safety, if put together, do not equal war. +No land that has ever been a cradle of civilization but +bears witness to this sad truth. All the sacred citadels, +the glories of humanity,—Jerusalem and Athens, Rome +and Constantinople,—have been ravaged by war, and, in +every case, their ruin has been a disaster that can never +be repaired. If we turn to the minor glories of more +modern ages, the special treasure of England has been +its parish churches, a treasure of unique charm in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> +world and the embodiment of the people's spirit: to-day +in their battered and irreparable condition they are the +monuments of a Civil War waged all over the country +with ruthless religious ferocity. Spain, again, was a land +which had stored up, during long centuries, nearly the +whole of its accumulated possessions in every art, sacred +and secular, of fabulous value, within the walls of its +great fortress-like cathedrals; Napoleon's soldiers over-ran +the land, and brought with them rapine and destruction; +so that in many a shrine, as at Montserrat, we still +can see how in a few days they turned a Paradise into a +desert. It is not only the West that has suffered. In +China the rarest and loveliest wares and fabrics that the +hand of man has wrought were stored in the Imperial +Palace of Pekin; the savage military hordes of the West +broke in less than a century ago and recklessly trampled +down and fired all that they could not loot. In every such +case the loss is final; the exquisite incarnation of some +stage in the soul of man that is for ever gone is permanently +diminished, deformed, or annihilated.</p> + +<p>At the present time all civilized countries are becoming +keenly aware of the value of their embodied artistic +possessions. This is shown, in the most decisive manner +possible, by the enormous prices placed upon them. Their +pecuniary value enables even the stupidest and most +unimaginative to realize the crime that is committed +when they are ruthlessly and wantonly destroyed. Nor +is it only the products of ancient art which have to-day +become so peculiarly valuable. The products of modern +science are only less valuable. So highly complex and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> +elaborate is the mechanism now required to ensure +progress in some of the sciences that enormous sums of +money, the most delicate skill, long periods of time, are +necessary to produce it. Galileo could replace his telescope +with but little trouble; the destruction of a single +modern observatory would be almost a calamity to the +human race.</p> + +<p>Such considerations as these are, indeed, at last recognized +in all civilized countries. The engines of destruction +now placed at the service of war are vastly more potent +than any used in the wars of the past. On the other hand, +the value of the products they can destroy is raised in a +correspondingly high degree. But a third factor is now +intervening. And if the museums of Paris or the +laboratories of Berlin were threatened by a hostile army +it would certainly be felt that an international power, +if it existed, should be empowered to intervene, at +whatever cost to national susceptibilities, in order to +keep the peace. Civilization, we now realize, is wrought +out of inspirations and discoveries which are for ever +passed and repassed from land to land; it cannot be +claimed by any individual land. A nation's art-products +and its scientific activities are not mere national property; +they are international possessions, for the joy and service +of the whole world. The nations hold them in trust for +humanity. The international force which will inspire +respect for that truth it is our business to create.</p> + +<p>The only question that remains—and it is a question +the future alone will solve—is the particular point at +which this ancient and overgrown stronghold of war, now +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> +being invested so vigorously from so many sides, will +finally be overthrown, whether from within or from +without, whether by its own inherent weakness, by the +persuasive reasonableness of developing civilization, by +the self-interest of the commercial and financial classes, +or by the ruthless indignation of the proletariat. That is a +problem still insoluble, but it is not impossible that some +already living may witness its solution.</p> + +<p>Two centuries ago the Abbé de Saint-Pierre set forth +his scheme for a federation of the States of Europe, +which meant, at that time, a federation of all the civilised +states of the world. It was the age of great ideas, scattered +abroad to germinate in more practical ages to come. +The amiable Abbé enjoyed all the credit of his large and +philanthropic conceptions. But no one dreamed of +realizing them, and the forces which alone could realize +them had not yet appeared above the horizon. +<a name="FNanchor_233" id="FNanchor_233"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a> In this +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> +matter, at all events, the world has progressed, and a +federation of the States of the world is no longer the mere +conception of a philosophic dreamer. The first step will +be taken when two of the leading countries of the world—and +it would be most reasonable for the states having +the closest community of origin and language to take the +initiative—resolve to submit all their differences without +reserve to arbitration. As soon as a third power of +magnitude joined this federation the nucleus would be +constituted of a world state. Such a state would be able +to impose peace on even the most recalcitrant outside +states, for it would furnish that "visible power to keep +them in awe," which Hobbes rightly declared to be +indispensable; it could even, in the last resort, if necessary, +enforce peace by war. Thus there might still be +war in the world. But there would be no wars that were +not Holy Wars. There are other methods than war of enforcing +peace, and these such a federation of great states +would be easily able to bring to bear on even the most +warlike of states, but the necessity of a mighty armed +international force would remain for a long time to come. +To suppose, as some seem to suppose, that the establishment +of arbitration in place of war means immediate +disarmament is an idle dream. At Conferences of the +English Labour Party on this question, the most active +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> +opposition to the proposed strike method for rendering +war impossible comes from the delegates representing the +workers in arsenals and dockyards. But there is no +likelihood of arsenals and dockyards closing in the lifetime +of the present workers, and though the establishment +of peaceful methods of settling international disputes +cannot fail to diminish the number of the workers who +live by armament, it will be long before they can be +dispensed with altogether.</p> + +<p>It is, indeed, so common to regard the person who points +out the inevitable bankruptcy of war under highly +civilized conditions as a mere Utopian dreamer, that it +becomes necessary to repeat, with all the emphasis +necessary, that the settlement of international disputes +by law cannot be achieved by disarmament, or by any +method not involving force. All law, even the law that +settles the disputes of individuals, has force behind it, +and the law that is to settle the disputes between nations +cannot possibly be effective unless it has behind it a +mighty force. I have assumed this from the outset in +quoting the dictum of Hobbes, but the point seems to be +so easily overlooked by the loose thinker that it is +necessary to reiterate it. The necessity of force behind +the law ordering international relations has, indeed, never +been disputed by any sagacious person who has occupied +himself with the matter. Even William Penn, who, +though a Quaker, was a practical man of affairs, when in +1693 he put forward his <i>Essay Towards the Present and +Future Peace of Europe by the Establishment of a European +Diet, Parliament or Estate</i>, proposed that if any imperial +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> +state refused to submit its pretensions to the sovereign +assembly and to abide by its decisions, or took up arms +on its own behalf, "all the other sovereignties, united as +one strength, shall compel the submission and performance +of the sentence, with damages to the suffering +party, and charges to the sovereignties that obliged their +submission." In repudiating some injudicious and +hazardous pacificist considerations put forth by Novikov, +the distinguished French philosopher, Jules de Gaultier, +points out that law has no rights against war save in +force, on which war itself bases its rights. "Force <i>in +abstracto</i> creates right. It is quite unimaginable that a +right should exist which has not been affirmed at some +moment as a reality, that is to say a force.... What we +glorify under the name of right is only a more intense and +habitual state of force which we oppose to a less frequent +form of force."<a name="FNanchor_234" id="FNanchor_234"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a> +The old Quaker and the modern philosopher +are thus at one with the practical man in rejecting +any form of pacification which rests on a mere appeal to +reason and justice.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> +It cannot be said that the progress of civilization has +so far had any tendency to render unnecessary the point of +view adopted by Penn and Jules de Gaultier. The acts +of states to-day are apt to be just as wantonly aggressive +as they ever were, as reckless of reason and of justice. +There is no country, however high it may stand in the +comity of nations, which is not sometimes carried away +by the blind fever of war. France, the land of reason, +echoed, only forty years ago, with the mad cry, "À +Berlin!" England, the friend of the small nationalities, +jubilantly, with even an air of heroism, crushed under foot +the little South African Republics, and hounded down +every Englishman who withstood the madness of the +crowd. The great, free intelligent people of the United +States went to war against Spain with a childlike faith in +the preposterous legend of the blowing up of the <i>Maine</i>. +There is no country which has not some such shameful +page in its history, the record of some moment when its +moral and intellectual prestige was besmirched in the +eyes of the whole world. It pays for its momentary madness, +it may valiantly strive to atone for its injustice, but +the damaging record remains. The supersession of war +is needed not merely in the interests of the victims of +aggression; it is needed fully as much in the interests of +the aggressors, driven by their own momentary passions, +or by the ambitious follies of their rulers, towards crimes +for which a terrible penalty is exacted. There has never +been any country at every moment so virtuous and so wise +that it has not sometimes needed to be saved from itself. +For every country has sometimes gone mad, while every +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> +other country has looked on its madness with the mocking +calm of clear-sighted intelligence, and perhaps with a +pharisaical air of virtuous indignation.</p> + +<p>During the single year of 1911 the process was unrolled +in its most complete form. The first bad move—though +it was a relatively small and inoffensive move—was made +by France. The Powers, after much deliberation, had +come to certain conclusions concerning Morocco, and +while giving France a predominant influence in that +country, had carefully limited her power of action. But +France, anxious to increase her hold on the land, sent out, +with the usual pretexts, an unnecessary expedition to Fez. +Had an international tribunal with an adequate force +behind it been in existence, France would have been +called upon to justify her action, and whether she succeeded +or failed in such justification, no further evils +would have occurred. But there was no force able or +willing to call France to account, and the other Powers +found it a simpler plan to follow her example than to +check it. In pursuance of this policy, Germany sent a +warship to the Moroccan port of Agadir, using the same +pretext as the French, with even less justification. When +the supreme military power of the world wags even a +finger the whole world is thrown into a state of consternation. +That happened on the present occasion, though, +as a matter of fact, giants are not given to reckless violence, +and Germany, far from intending to break the +world's peace, merely used her power to take advantage +of France's bad move. She agreed to condone France's +mistake, and to resign to her the Moroccan rights to which +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span> +neither country had the slightest legitimate claim, in +return for an enormous tract of land in another part of +Africa. Now, so far, the game had been played in accordance +with rules which, though by no means those of +abstract justice, were fairly in accordance with the +recognized practices of nations. But now another Power +was moved to far more openly unscrupulous action. It +has long been recognized that if there must be a partition +of North Africa, Italy's share is certainly Tripoli. The +action of France and of Germany stirred up in Italy the +feeling that now or never was the moment for action, and +with brutal recklessness, and the usual pretexts, now +flimsier than ever, Italy made war on Turkey, without +offer of mediation, in flagrant violation of her own undertakings +at the Hague Peace Convention of 1899. There +was now only one Mohammedan country left to attack, +and it was Russia's turn to make the attack. +Northern Persia—the most civilized and fruitful half +of Persia—had been placed under the protection of +Russia, and Russia, after cynically doing her best to +make good government in Persia impossible, seized on +the pretext of the bad government to invade the country. +If the Powers of Europe had wished to demonstrate the +necessity for a great international tribunal, with a +mighty force behind it to ensure the observance of its +decisions, they could not have devised a more effective +demonstration.</p> + +<p>Thus it is that there can be no question of disarmament +at present, and that there can be no effective international +tribunal unless it has behind it an effective army. A +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> +great army must continue to exist apart altogether from +the question as to whether the army in itself is a school +of virtue or of vice. Both these views of its influence have +been held in extreme forms, and both seem to be without +any great justification. On this point we may perhaps +accept the conclusion of Professor Guérard, who can view +the matter from a fairly impartial standpoint, having +served in the French army, closely studied the life of the +people in London, and occupied a professorial chair in +California. He denies that an army is a school of all the +vices, but he is also unable to see that it exercises an +elevating influence on any but the lowest: "A regiment +is not much worse than a big factory. Factory life in +Europe is bad enough; military service extends its evils +to agricultural labourers, and also to men who would +otherwise have escaped these lowering influences. As for +traces of moral uplift in the army, I have totally failed +to notice any. War may be a stern school of virtue; +barrack life is not. Honour, duty, patriotism, are feelings +instilled at school; they do not develop, but often deteriorate, +during the term of compulsory service." +<a name="FNanchor_235" id="FNanchor_235"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a></p> + +<p>But, as we have seen, and as Guérard admits, it is +probable that wars will be abolished generations before +armies are suppressed. The question arises what we are +to do with our armies. There seem to be at least two +ways in which armies may be utilized, as we may already +see in France, and perhaps to some slight extent in +England. In the first place, the army may be made a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> +great educational agency, an academy of arts and sciences, +a school of citizenship. In the second place, armies are +tending to become, as William James pointed out, the +reserve force of peace, great organized unemployed bodies +of men which can be brought into use during sudden +emergencies and national disasters. Thus the French +army performed admirable service during the great Seine +floods a few years ago, and both in France and in England +the army has been called upon to help to carry on public +duties indispensable to the welfare of the nation during +great strikes, though here it would be unfortunate if the +army came to be regarded as a mere strike-breaking +corps. Along these main lines, however, there are, as +Guérard has pointed out, signs of a transformation which, +while preserving armies for international use, yet point to +a compromise between the army and modern democracy.</p> + +<p>It is feared by some that the reign of universal peace +will deprive them of the opportunity of exhibiting daring +and heroism. Without inquiring too carefully what use +has been made of their present opportunities by those +who express this fear, it must be said that such a fear is +altogether groundless. There are an infinite number of +positions in life in which courage is needed, as much as on +a battlefield, though, for the most part, with less risk of +that total annihilation which in the past has done so +much to breed out the courageous stocks. Moreover, +the certain establishment of peace will immensely enlarge +the scope for daring and adventure in the social sphere. +There are departments in the higher breeding and social +evolution of the race—some perhaps even involving +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> +questions of life and death—where the highest courage is +needed. It would be premature to discuss them, for they +can scarcely enter the field of practical politics until war +has been abolished. But those persons who are burning +to display heroism may rest assured that the course of +social evolution will offer them every opportunity.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_221" id="Footnote_221"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_221"><span class="label">[221]</span></a> +The respective parts of war and law in the constitution of states +are clearly and concisely set forth by Edward Jenks in his little primer, +<i>A History of Politics</i>. Steinmetz, who argues in favour of the preservation +of the method of war, in his book <i>Die Philosophie des Krieges</i> +(p. 303) states that "not a single element of the warlike spirit, not one of +the psychic conditions of war, is lacking to the civilized European +peoples of to-day." That may well be, although there is much reason to +believe that they have all very considerably diminished. Such warlike +spirit as exists to-day must be considerably discounted by the fact +that those who manifest it are not usually the people who would +actually have to do the fighting. It is more important to point out +(as is done in a historical sketch of warfare by A. Sutherland, <i>Nineteenth +Century</i>, April, 1899) that, as a matter of fact, war is becoming +both less frequent and less ferocious. In England, for instance, where +at one period the population spent a great part of their time in fighting, +there has practically been no war for two and a half centuries. When +the ancient Germans swept through Spain (as Procopius, who was an eye-witness, +tells) they slew every human being they met, including women +and children, until millions had perished. The laws of war, though not +always observed, are constantly growing more humane, and Sutherland +estimates that warfare is now less than one-hundredth part as destructive +as it was in the early Middle Ages.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_222" id="Footnote_222"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_222"><span class="label">[222]</span></a> + This inevitable extension of the sphere of law from the settlement +of disputes between individuals to disputes between individual states has +been pointed out before, and is fairly obvious. Thus Mougins-Roquefort, +a French lawyer, in his book <i>De la Solution Juridique des Conflits</i> +<i>Internationaux</i> (1889), observes that in the days of the Roman Empire, +when there was only one civilized state, any system of international +relationships was impossible, but that as soon as we have a number of +states forming units of international society there at once arises the +necessity for a system of international relationships, just as some +system of social order is necessary to regulate the relations of any +community of individuals.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_223" id="Footnote_223"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_223"><span class="label">[223]</span></a> +In England, a small and compact country, this process was +completed at a comparatively early date. In France it was not until +the days of Louis XV (in 1756) that the "last feudal brigand," as +Taine calls the Marquis de Pleumartin in Poitou, was captured and +beheaded.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_224" id="Footnote_224"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_224"><span class="label">[224]</span></a> +France, notwithstanding her military aptitude, has always +taken the pioneering part in the pacific movement of civilization. +Even at the beginning of the fourteenth century France produced an +advocate of international arbitration, Pierre Dubois (Petrus de Bosco), +the Norman lawyer, a pupil of Thomas Aquinas. In the seventeenth +century Emeric Crucé proposed, for the first time, to admit all peoples, +without distinction of colour or religion, to be represented at some +central city where every state would have its perpetual ambassador, +these representatives forming an assembly to adjudicate on international +differences (Dubois and Crucé have lately been studied by +Prof. Vesnitch, <i>Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique</i>, January, 1911). The +history of the various peace projects generally has been summarily +related by Lagorgette in <i>Le Rôle de la Guerre</i>, 1906, Part IV, chap. +<span class="smcap">VI</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_225" id="Footnote_225"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_225"><span class="label">[225]</span></a> +The same points had previously been brought forward by others, +although not so vigorously enforced. Thus the well-known Belgian +economist and publicist, Emile de Laveleye, pointed out (<i>Pall Mall +Gazette</i>, 4th August, 1888) that "the happiest countries are incontestably +the smallest: Switzerland, Norway, Luxembourg, and still +more the Republics of San Marino and Val d'Andorre"; and that "countries +in general, even when victorious, do not profit by their conquests."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_226" id="Footnote_226"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_226"><span class="label">[226]</span></a> +Bismarck himself declared that without the deep shame of the +German defeat at Jena in 1806 the revival of German national feeling +would have been impossible.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_227" id="Footnote_227"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_227"><span class="label">[227]</span></a> +D. Starr Jordan, <i>The Human Harvest</i>, 1907; J. Novikov, <i>La +Guerre et ses Prétendus Bienfaits</i>, 1894, chap. IV; Novikov here argued +that the selection of war eliminates not the feeble but the strong, and +tends to produce, therefore, a survival of the unfittest.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_228" id="Footnote_228"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_228"><span class="label">[228]</span></a> +"The most demoralizing features in French military life," says +Professor Guérard, a highly intelligent observer, "are due to an +incontestable progress in the French mind—its gradual loss of faith +and interest in military glory. Henceforth the army is considered as +useless, dangerous, a burden without a compensation. Authors of +school books may be censured for daring to print such opinions, but +the great majority of the French hold them in their hearts. Nay, +there is a prevailing suspicion among working men that the military +establishment is kept up for the sole benefit of the capitalists, and the +reckless use of troops in case of labour conflicts gives colour to the +contention." It has often happened that what the French think to-day +the world generally thinks to-morrow. There is probably a world-wide +significance in the fact that French experience is held to show +that progress in intelligence means the demoralization of the army.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_229" id="Footnote_229"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_229"><span class="label">[229]</span></a> +The influence of Syndicalism has, however, already reached the +English Labour Movement, and an ill-advised prosecution by the +English Government must have immensely aided in extending and +fortifying that influence.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_230" id="Footnote_230"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_230"><span class="label">[230]</span></a> +Some small beginnings have already been made. "The greatest +gain ever yet won for the cause of peace," writes Mr. H.W. Nevinson, +the well-known war correspondent (<i>Peace and War in the Balance</i>, +p. 47), "was the refusal of the Catalonian reservists to serve in the war +against the Riff mountaineers of Morocco in July, 1909.... So +Barcelona flared to heaven, and for nearly a week the people held the +vast city. I have seen many noble, as well as many terrible, events, +but none more noble or of finer promise than the sudden uprising of +the Catalan working people against a dastardly and inglorious war, +waged for the benefit of a few speculators in Paris and Madrid."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_231" id="Footnote_231"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_231"><span class="label">[231]</span></a> +J. Novikov, <i>Le Fédération de l'Europe</i>, chap. iv. Olive Schreiner, +<i>Woman and Labour</i>, chap. <span class="smcap">IV</span>. +While this is the fundamental fact, +we must remember that we cannot generalize about the ideas or +the feelings of a whole sex, and that the biological traditions of +women have been associated with a primitive period when they were +the delighted spectators of combats. "Woman," thought Nietzsche, +"is essentially unpeaceable, like the cat, however well she may +have assumed the peaceable demeanour." Steinmetz (<i>Philosophie +des Krieges</i>, p. 314), remarking that women are opposed to war in +the abstract, adds: "In practice, however, it happens that women +regard a particular war—and all wars are particular wars—with special +favour"; he remarks that the majority of Englishwomen fully shared +the war fever against the Boers, and that, on the other side, he knew +Dutch ladies in Holland, very opposed to war, who would yet have +danced with joy at that time on the news of a declaration of war +against England.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_232" id="Footnote_232"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_232"><span class="label">[232]</span></a> +The general strike, which has been especially developed by the +syndicalist Labour movement, and is now tending to spread to various +countries, is a highly powerful weapon, so powerful that its results are +not less serious than those of war. To use it against war seems to be to +cast out Beelzebub by Beelzebub. Even in Labour disputes the modern +strike threatens to become as serious and, indeed, almost as sanguinary +as the civil wars of ancient times. The tendency is, therefore, in +progressive countries, as we see in Australia, to supersede strikes by +conciliation and arbitration, just as war is tending to be superseded +by international tribunals. These two aims are, however, absolutely +distinct, and the introduction of law into the disputes between nations +can have no direct effect on the disputes between social classes. It is +quite possible, however, that it may have an indirect effect, and that +when disputes between nations are settled in an orderly manner, +social feeling will forbid disputes between classes to be settled in a +disorderly manner.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_233" id="Footnote_233"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_233"><span class="label">[233]</span></a> +The Abbé de Saint-Pierre (1658-1743), a churchman without +vocation, was a Norman of noble family, and first published his <i>Mémoires +pour rendre la Paix Perpetuelle à l'Europe</i> in 1722. As Siégler-Pascal +well shows (<i>Les Projets de l'Abbé dé Saint-Pierre</i>, 1900) he was +not a mere visionary Utopian, but an acute and far-seeing thinker, practical +in his methods, a close observer, an experimentalist, and one of +the first to attempt the employment of statistics. He was secretary to +the French plenipotentiaries who negotiated the Treaty of Utrecht, and +was thus probably put on the track of his scheme. He proposed that +the various European states should name plenipotentiaries to form a +permanent tribunal of compulsory arbitration for the settlement of +all differences. If any state took up arms against one of the allies, +the whole confederation would conjointly enter the field, at their +conjoint expense, against the offending state. He was opposed to +absolute disarmament, an army being necessary to ensure peace, +but it must be a joint army composed of contingents from each Power +in the confederation. Saint-Pierre, it will be seen, had clearly grasped +the essential facts of the situation as we see them to-day. "The author +of <i>The Project of Perpetual Peace</i>" concludes Prof. Pierre Robert in a +sympathetic summary of his career (Petit de Julleville, <i>Histoire de la +Langue et de la Littérature Française</i>, Vol. VI), "is the precursor of +the twentieth century." His statue, we cannot doubt, will be a conspicuous +object, beside Sully's, on the future Palace of any international +tribunal.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_234" id="Footnote_234"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_234"><span class="label">[234]</span></a> +Jules de Gaultier, "Comment Naissent les Dogmes," <i>Mercure +de France</i>, 1st Sept., 1911. Jules de Gaultier also observes that "conflict +is the law and condition of all existence." That may be admitted, +but it ceases to be true if we assume, as the same thinker assumes, +that "conflict" necessarily involves "war." The establishment of +law to regulate the disputes between individuals by no means suppresses +conflict, but it suppresses fighting, and it ensures that if any +fighting occur the aggressor shall not profit by his aggression. In the +same way the existence of a tribunal to regulate the disputes between +national communities of individuals can by no means suppress conflict; +but unless it suppresses fighting, and unless it ensures that if +fighting occurs the aggressor shall not profit by his aggression, it will +have effected nothing.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_235" id="Footnote_235"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_235"><span class="label">[235]</span></a> +A.L. Guérard, "Impressions of Military Life in France," <i>Popular +Science Monthly</i>, April, 1911.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPXI" id="CHAPXI"></a>XI</h3> + +<h3>THE PROBLEM OF AN INTERNATIONAL +LANGUAGE</h3> + +<blockquote><p>Early Attempts to Construct an International Language—The Urgent +Need of an Auxiliary Language To-day—Volapük—The Claims of +Spanish—Latin—The Claims of English—Its Disadvantages—The +Claims of French—Its Disadvantages—The Modern Growth of +National Feeling opposed to Selection of a Natural Language—Advantages +of an Artificial Language—Demands it must fulfil—Esperanto—Its +Threatened Disruption—The International Association +for the adoption of an Auxiliary International Language—The +First Step to Take.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Ever since the decay of Latin as the universal +language of educated people, there have been +attempts to replace it by some other medium +of international communication. That decay was inevitable; +it was the outward manifestation of a movement +of individualism which developed national languages +and national literatures, and burst through the restraining +envelope of an authoritarian system expounded in an +official language. This individualism has had the freest +play, and we are not likely to lose all that it has given us. +Yet as soon as it was achieved the more distinguished +spirits in every country began to feel the need of counterbalancing +it. The history of the movement may be said +to begin with Descartes, who in 1629 wrote to his friend +Mersenne that it would be possible to construct an artificial +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> +language which could be used as an international +medium of communication. Leibnitz, though he had +solved the question for himself, writing some of his works +in Latin and others in French, was yet all his life more or +less occupied with the question of a universal language. +Other men of the highest distinction—Pascal, Condillac, +Voltaire, Diderot, Ampère, Jacob Grimm—have sought +or desired a solution to this problem.<a name="FNanchor_236" id="FNanchor_236"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a> None of these +great men, however, succeeded even in beginning an +attempt to solve the problem they were concerned +with.</p> + +<p>Some forty years ago, however, the difficulty began +again to be felt, this time much more keenly and more +widely than before. The spread of commerce, the +facility of travel, the ramifications of the postal service, +the development of new nationalities and new literatures, +have laid upon civilized peoples a sense of burden and +restriction which could never have been felt by their +forefathers in the previous century. Added to this, a +new sense of solidarity had been growing up in the world; +the financial and commercial solidarity, by which any +disaster or disturbance in one country causes a wave of +disaster or disturbance to pass over the whole civilized +globe, was being supplemented by a sense of spiritual +solidarity. Men began to realize that the tasks of civilization +cannot be carried out except by mutual understanding +and mutual sympathy among the more civilized +nations, that every nation has something to learn from +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> +other nations, and that the bonds of international intercourse +must thus be drawn closer. This feeling of the +need of an international language led in America to +several serious attempts to obtain a consensus of opinion +among scientific men regarding an international language. +Thus in 1888 the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, +the oldest of American learned societies, unanimously +resolved, on the initiative of Brinton, to address a letter +to learned societies throughout the world, asking for +their co-operation in perfecting a language for commercial +and learned purposes, based on the Aryan vocabulary and +grammar in their simplest forms, and to that end proposing +an international congress, the first meeting of +which should be held in Paris or London. In the same +year Horatio Hale read a paper on the same subject +before the American Association for the Advancement of +Science. A little later, in 1890, it was again proposed at +a meeting of the same Association that, in order to consider +the question of the construction and adoption of a +symmetrical and scientific language, a congress should +be held, delegates being in proportion to the number +of persons speaking each language.</p> + +<p>These excellent proposals seem, however, to have borne +little fruit. It is always an exceedingly difficult matter to +produce combined action among scientific societies even +of the same nation. Thus the way has been left open for +individuals to adopt the easier but far less decisive or +satisfactory method of inventing a new language by their +own unaided exertions. Certainly over a hundred such +languages have been proposed during the past century. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span> +The most famous of these was undoubtedly Volapük, +which was invented in 1880 by Schleyer, a German-Swiss +priest who knew many languages and had long pondered +over this problem, but who was not a scientific philologist; +the actual inception of the language occurred in a +dream. Volapük was almost the first real attempt at an +organic language capable of being used for the oral transmission +of thought. On this account, no doubt, it met +with great and widespread success; it was actively taken +up by a professor at Paris, societies were formed for its +propagation, journals and hundreds of books were +published in it; its adherents were estimated at a million. +But its success, though brilliant, was short-lived. In +1889, when the third Volapük Congress was held, it was +at the height of its success, but thereafter dissension +arose, and its reputation suddenly collapsed. No one +now speaks Volapük; it is regarded as a hideous monstrosity, +even by those who have the most lively faith in +artificial languages. Its inventor has outlived his language, +and, like it, has been forgotten by the world, +though his achievement was a real step towards the +solution of the problem.</p> + +<p>The collapse of Volapük discouraged thoughtful persons +from expecting any solution of the problem in an artificial +language. It seemed extremely improbable that any +invented language, least of all the unaided product of a +single mind, could ever be generally accepted, or be +worthy of general acceptance, as an international mode +of communication. Such a language failed to carry the +prestige necessary to overcome the immense inertia +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> +which any attempt to adopt it would meet with. Invented +languages, the visionary schemes of idealists, +apparently received no support from practical men of +affairs. It seemed to be among actual languages, living +or dead, that we might most reasonably expect to find +a medium of communication likely to receive wide support. +The difficulty then lay in deciding which language should +be selected.</p> + +<p>Russian had sometimes been advocated as the universal +language for international purposes, and it is possible to +point to the enormous territory of Russia, its growing +power and the fact that Russian is the real or official +language of a larger number of people than any other +language except English. But Russian is so unlike the +Latin and Teutonic tongues, used by the majority of +European peoples; it is so complicated, so difficult to +acquire, and, moreover, so lacking in concision that it has +never had many enthusiastic advocates.</p> + +<p>The virtues and defects of Spanish, which has found +many enthusiastic supporters, are of an opposite character. +It is an admirably vigorous and euphonious +language, on a sound phonetic basis, every letter always +standing for a definite sound; the grammar is simple +and exceptionally free from irregularities, and it is the +key to a great literature. Billroth, the distinguished +Austrian surgeon, advocated the adoption of Spanish; +he regarded English as really more suitable, but, he +pointed out, it is so difficult for the Latin races to speak +non-Latin tongues that a Romance language is essential, +and Spanish is the simplest and most logical of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> +Romance tongues.<a name="FNanchor_237" id="FNanchor_237"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a> It is, moreover, spoken by a vast +number of people in South America and elsewhere.</p> + +<p>A few enthusiasts have advocated Greek, and have +supported their claim with the argument that it is still a +living language. But although Greek is the key to a small +but precious literature, and is one of the sources of latter-day +speech and scientific terminology, it is difficult, it is +without special adaptation to modern uses, and there are +no adequate reasons why it should be made an international +language.</p> + +<p>Latin cannot be dismissed quite so hastily. It has in +its favour the powerful argument that it has once already +been found adequate to serve as the universal language. +There is a widespread opinion to-day among the medical +profession—the profession most actively interested +in the establishment of a universal language—that Latin +should be adopted, and before the International Medical +Congress at Rome in 1894, a petition to this effect was +presented by some eight hundred doctors in India. +<a name="FNanchor_238" id="FNanchor_238"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a> It is +undoubtedly an admirable language, expressive, concentrated, +precise. But the objections are serious. The +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> +relative importance of Latin to-day is very far from what +it was a thousand years ago, for conditions have wholly +changed. There is now no great influence, such as the +Catholic Church was of old, to enforce Latin, even if it +possessed greater advantages. And the advantages are +very mixed. Latin is a wholly dead tongue, and except in +a degenerate form not by any means an easy one to learn, +for its genius is wholly opposed to the genius even of +those modern languages which are most closely allied to +it. The world never returns on its own path. Although +the prestige of Latin is still enormous, a language could +only be brought from death to life by some widespread +motor force; such a force no longer exists behind Latin.</p> + +<p>There remain English and French, and these are undoubtedly +the two natural languages most often put +forward—even outside England and France—as possessing +the best claims for adoption as auxiliary international +mediums of communication.</p> + +<p>English, especially, was claimed by many, some +twenty years ago, to be not merely the auxiliary language +of the future, but the universal language which must +spread all over the world and supersede and drive out all +others by a kind of survival of the fittest. This notion +of a universal language is now everywhere regarded as a +delusion, but at that time there was still thought by +many to be a kind of special procreative activity in the +communities of Anglo-Saxon origin which would naturally +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> +tend to replace all other peoples, both the people and the +language being regarded as the fittest to survive. +<a name="FNanchor_239" id="FNanchor_239"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a> English +was, however, rightly felt to be a language with very +great force behind it, being spoken by vast communities +possessing a peculiarly energetic and progressive temperament, +and with much power of peaceful penetration in +other lands. It is generally acknowledged also that +English fully deserves to be ranked as one of the first of +languages by its fine aptitude for powerful expression, +while at the same time it is equally fitted for routine +commercial purposes. The wide extension of English +and its fine qualities have often been emphasized, and it +is unnecessary to dwell on them here. The decision of +the scientific societies of the world to use English for +bibliographical purposes is not entirely a tribute to +English energy in organization, but to the quality of the +language. One finds, indeed, that these facts are widely +recognized abroad, in France and elsewhere, though I have +noted that those who foretell the conquest of English, +even when they are men of intellectual distinction and +able to read English, are often quite unable to speak it or +to understand it when spoken.</p> + +<p>That brings us to a point which is overlooked by those +who triumphantly pointed to the natural settlement of +this question by the swamping of other tongues in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> +overflowing tide of English speech. English is the most +concise and laconic of the great languages. Greek, French +and German are all more expansive, more syllabically +copious. Latin alone may be said to equal, or surpass +English in concentration, because, although Latin words +are longer on the average, by their greater inflection they +cover a larger number of English words. This power of +English to attain expression with a minimum expenditure +of energy in written speech is one of its chief claims to +succeed Latin as the auxiliary international language. +But it furnishes no claim to preference for actual speaking, +in which this economy of energy ceases to be a +supreme virtue, since here we have also to admit the +virtues of easy intelligibility and of persuasiveness. +Greek largely owed its admirable fitness for speech to the +natural richness and prolongation of its euphonious +words, which allowed the speaker to attain the legitimate +utterance of his thought without pauses or superfluous +repetition. French, again, while by no means inapt for +concentration, as the <i>pensée</i> writers show, most easily +lends itself to effects that are meant for speech, as in +Bossuet, or that recall speech, as in Mme de Sevigné in +one order of literature, or Renan in another. But at +Rome, we feel, the spoken tongue had a difficulty to +overcome, and the mellifluously prolonged rhetoric of +Cicero, delightful as it may be, scarcely seems to reveal +to us the genius of the Latin tongue. The inaptitude of +English for the purposes of speech is even more conspicuous, +and is again well illustrated in our oratory. +Gladstone was an orator of acknowledged eloquence, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> +but the extreme looseness and redundancy into which +his language was apt to fall in the effort to attain the +verbose richness required for the ends of spoken speech, +reveals too clearly the poverty of English from this point +of view. The same tendency is also illustrated by the +vain re-iterations of ordinary speakers. The English +intellect, with all its fine qualities, is not sufficiently +nimble for either speaker or hearer to keep up with the +swift brevity of the English tongue. It is a curious fact +that Great Britain takes the lead in Europe in the prevalence +of stuttering; the language is probably a factor +in this evil pre-eminence, for it appears that the Chinese, +whose language is powerfully rhythmic, never stutter. +One authority has declared that "no nation in the +civilized world speaks its language so abominably as the +English." We can scarcely admit that this English +difficulty of speech is the result of some organic defect +in English nervous systems; the language itself must be a +factor in the matter. I have found, when discussing the +point with scientific men and others abroad, that the +opinion prevails that it is usually difficult to follow a +speaker in English. This experience may, indeed, be +considered general. While an admirably strong and concise +language, English is by no means so adequate in +actual speech; it is not one of the languages which can be +heard at a long distance, and, moreover, it lends itself +in speaking to so many contractions that are not used in +writing—so many "can'ts" and "won'ts" and "don'ts," +which suit English taciturnity, but slur and ruin English +speech—that English, as spoken, is almost a different +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> +language from that which excites admiration when +written. So that the exclusive use of English for international +purposes would not be the survival of the fittest +so far as a language for speaking purposes is concerned.</p> + +<p>Moreover, it must be remembered that English is not a +democratic language. It is not, like the chief Romance +languages and the chief Teutonic languages, practically +homogeneous, made out of one block. It is formed by the +mixture of two utterly unlike elements, one aristocratic, +the other plebeian. Ever since the Norman lord came +over to England a profound social inequality has become +rooted in the very language. In French, <i>b[oe]uf</i> and <i>mouton</i> +and <i>veau</i> and <i>porc</i> have always been the same for master +and for man, in the field and on the table; the animal has +never changed its plebeian name for an aristocratic name +as it passed through the cook's hands. That example is +typical of the curious mark which the Norman Conquest +left on our speech, rendering it so much more difficult for +us than for the French to attain equality of social intercourse. +Inequality is stamped indelibly into our language +as into no other great language. Of course, from the +literary point of view, that is all gain, and has been of incomparable +aid to our poets in helping them to reach their +most magnificent effects, as we may see conspicuously in +Shakespeare's enormous vocabulary. But from the point +of view of equal social intercourse, this wealth of language +is worse than lost, it is disastrous. The old feudal distinctions +are still perpetuated; the "man" still speaks +his "plain Anglo-Saxon," and the "gentleman" still +speaks his refined Latinized speech. In every language, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> +it is true, there are social distinctions in speech, and every +language has its slang. But in English these distinctions +are perpetuated in the very structure of the language. +Elsewhere the working-class speak—with a little difference +in the quality—a language needing no substantial +transformation to become the language of society, which +differs from it in quality rather than in kind. But +the English working man feels the need to translate +his common Anglo-Saxon speech into foreign words of +Latin origin. It is difficult for the educated person in +England to understand the struggle which the uneducated +person goes through to speak the language of the educated, +although the unsatisfactory result is sufficiently conspicuous. +But we can trace the operation of a similar +cause in the hesitancy of the educated man himself when +he attempts to speak in public and is embarrassed by the +search for the set of words most suited for dignified +purposes.</p> + +<p>Most of those who regarded English as the coming +world-language admitted that it would require improvement +for general use. The extensive and fundamental +character of the necessary changes is not, however, +realized. The difficulties of English are of four kinds: +(1) its special sounds, very troublesome for foreigners to +learn to pronounce, and the uncertainty of its accentuation; +(2) its illogical and chaotic spelling, inevitably +leading to confusions in pronunciation; (3) the grammatical +irregularities in its verbs and plural nouns; and +(4) the great number of widely different words which +are almost or quite similar in pronunciation. A vast +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> +number of absurd pitfalls are thus prepared for the unwary +user of English. He must remember that the plural +of "mouse" is "mice," but that the plural of "house" +is not "hice," that he may speak of his two "sons," +but not of his two "childs"; he will indistinguishably +refer to "sheeps" and "ships"; and like the preacher +a little unfamiliar with English who had chosen a well-known +text to preach on, he will not remember whether +"plough" is pronounced "pluff" or "plo," +<a name="FNanchor_240" id="FNanchor_240"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a> and even +a phonetic spelling system would render still more +confusing the confusion between such a series of words as +"hair," "hare," "heir," "are," "ere" and "eyre." +Many of these irregularities are deeply rooted in the +structure of the language; it would be an extremely +difficult as well as extensive task to remove them, and +when the task was achieved the language would have +lost much of its character and savour; it would clash +painfully with literary English.</p> + +<p>Thus even if we admitted that English ought to be the +international language of the future, the result is not so +satisfactory from a British point of view as is usually +taken for granted. All other civilized nations would be +bilingual; they would possess the key not only to their +own literature, but to a great foreign literature with all +the new horizons that a foreign literature opens out. +The English-speaking countries alone would be furnished +with only one language, and would have no stimulus to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> +acquire any other language, for no other language would +be of any practical use to them. All foreigners would be +in a position to bring to the English-speaking man whatever +information they considered good for him. At first +sight this seems a gain for the English-speaking peoples, +because they would thus be spared a certain expenditure +of energy; but a very little reflection shows that such a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> +saving of energy is like that effected by the intestinal +parasitic worm who has digested food brought ready to +his mouth. It leads to degeneracy. Not the people +whose language is learnt, but the people who learn a +language reap the benefit, spiritual and material. It is +now admitted in the commercial world that the ardour +of the Germans in learning English has brought more +advantage to the Germans than to the English. Moreover, +the high intellectual level of small nations at the +present time is due largely to the fact that all their +educated members must be familiar with one or two +languages besides their own. The great defect of the +English mind is insularity; the virtue of its boisterous +energy is accompanied by lack of insight into the differing +virtues of other peoples. If the natural course of events +led to the exclusive use of English for international +communication, this defect would be still more accentuated. +The immense value of becoming acquainted +with a foreign language is that we are thereby led into a +new world of tradition and thought and feeling. Before +we know a new language truly, we have to realize that +the words which at first seem equivalent to words in our +own language often have a totally different atmosphere, a +different rank or dignity from that which they occupy in +our own language. It is in learning this difference in the +moral connotation of a language and its expression in +literature that we reap the real benefit of knowing a +foreign tongue. There is no other way—not even residence +in a foreign land if we are ignorant of the language—to +take us out of the customary circle of our own +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +traditions. It imparts a mental flexibility and emotional +sympathy which no other discipline can yield. To ordain +that all non-English-speaking peoples should learn +English in addition to their mother tongue, and to render +it practically unnecessary for English-speakers (except +the small class of students) to learn any other language, +would be to confer an immense boon on the first group of +peoples, doubling their mental and emotional capacity; +it is to render the second group hidebound.</p> + +<p>When we take a broad and impartial survey of the +question we thus see that there is reason to believe that, +while English is an admirable literary language (this is +the ground that its eulogists always take), and sufficiently +concise for commercial purposes, it is by no means an +adequate international tongue, especially for purposes +of oral speech, and, moreover, its exclusive use for this +purpose would be a misfortune for the nations already +using it, since they would be deprived of that mental +flexibility and emotional sympathy which no discipline +can give so well as knowledge of a living foreign tongue.</p> + +<p>Many who realized these difficulties put forward French +as the auxiliary international language. It is quite +true that the power behind French is now relatively +less than it was two centuries ago. +<a name="FNanchor_241" id="FNanchor_241"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a> At that time France +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span> +by its relatively large population, the tradition of its +military greatness, and its influential political position, +was able to exert an immense influence; French was the +language of intellect and society in Germany, in England, +in Russia, everywhere in fact. During the eighteenth +century internal maladministration, the cataclysm of the +Revolution, and finally the fatal influence of Napoleon +alienated foreign sympathy, and France lost her commanding +position. Yet it was reasonably felt that, if a +natural language is to be used for international purposes, +after English there is no practicable alternative to French.</p> + +<p>French is the language not indeed in any special +sense of science or of commerce, but of the finest human +culture. It is a well-organized tongue, capable of the +finest shades of expression, and it is the key to a great +literature. In most respects it is the best favoured child +of Latin; it commends itself to all who speak Romance +languages, and, as Alphonse de Candolle has remarked, +a Spaniard and an Italian know three-quarters of French +beforehand, and every one who has learnt Latin knows +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> +half of French already. It is more admirably adapted +for speaking purposes than perhaps any other language +which has any claim to be used for international purposes, +as we should expect of the tongue spoken by a people +who have excelled in oratory, who possess such widely +diffused dramatic ability, and who have carried the arts +of social intercourse to the highest point.</p> + +<p>Paris remains for most people the intellectual capital +of Europe; French is still very generally used for purposes +of intercommunication throughout Europe, while +the difficulty experienced by all but Germans and Russians +in learning English is well known. Li Hung Chang +is reported to have said that, while for commercial reasons +English is far more widely used in China than French, +the Chinese find French a much easier language to learn +to speak, and the preferences of the Chinese may one day +count for a good deal—in one direction or another—in +the world's progress. One frequently hears that the use +of French for international purposes is decaying; this +is a delusion probably due to the relatively slow growth +of the French-speaking races and to various temporary +political causes. It is only necessary to look at the large +International Medical Congresses. Thus at one such +Congress at Rome, at which I was present, over six +thousand members came from forty-two countries of the +globe, and over two thousand of them took part in the +proceedings. Four languages (Italian, French, German +and English) were used at this Congress. Going over the +seven large volumes of Transactions, I find that fifty-nine +communications were presented in English, one hundred +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> +and seventy-one in German, three hundred and one in +French, the rest in Italian. The proportion of English +communications to German is thus a little more than one +to three, and the proportion of English to French less +than one to six. Moreover, the English-speaking members +invariably (I believe) used their own language, so +that these fifty-nine communications represent the whole +contribution of the English-speaking world. And they +represent nothing more than that; notwithstanding the +enormous spread of English, of which we hear so much, +not a single non-English speaker seems to have used +English. It might be supposed that this preponderance +of French was due to a preponderance of the French +element, but this was by no means the case; the members +of English-speaking race greatly exceeded those of French-speaking +race. But, while the English communications +represented the English-speaking countries only, and the +German communications were chiefly by German speakers, +French was spoken not only by members belonging to +the smaller nations of Europe, from the north and from +the south, by the Russians, by most of the Turkish and +Asiatic members, but also by all the Mexicans and South +Americans. These figures may not be absolutely free +from fallacy, due to temporary causes of fluctuation. +But that they are fairly exact is shown by the results of +the following Congress, held at Moscow. If I take up the +programme for the department of psychiatry and nervous +disease, in which I was myself chiefly interested, I find +that of 131 communications, 80 were in French, 37 in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span> +German and 14 in English. This shows that French, +German and English bear almost exactly the same relation +to one another as at Rome. In other words, 61 per cent +of the speakers used French, 28 per cent German, and +only 11 per cent English.</p> + +<p>If we come down to one of the most recent International +Medical Congresses, that of Lisbon in 1906, we find that +the supremacy of French, far from weakening, is more +emphatically affirmed. The language of the country in +which the Congress was held was ruled out, and I find +that of 666 contributions to the proceedings of the Congress, +over 84 per cent were in French, scarcely more than +8 per cent in English, and less than 7 per cent in German. +At the subsequent Congress at Budapesth in 1909, +the French contributions were to the English as three to +one. Similar results are shown by other International +Congresses. Thus at the third International Congress of +Psychology, held at Munich, there were four official +languages, and on grounds of locality the majority of +communications were in German; French followed with +29, Italian with 12, and English brought up the rear with +11. Dr. Westermarck, who is the stock example of the +spread of English for international purposes, spoke in +German. It is clearly futile to point to figures showing +the prolific qualities of English races; the moral quality +of a race and its language counts, as well as mere physical +capacity for breeding, and the moral influence of French +to-day is immensely greater than that of English. That +is, indeed, scarcely a fair statement of the matter in view +of the typical cases just quoted; one should rather say +that, as a means of spoken international communication +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> +for other than commercial purposes, English is nowhere.</p> + +<p>There is one other point which serves to give prestige to +French: its literary supremacy in the modern world. +While some would claim for the English the supreme +poetic literature, there can be no doubt that the French +own the supreme prose literature of modern Europe. It +was felt by those who advocated the adoption of English +or French that it would surely be a gain for human +progress if the auxiliary international languages of the +future should be one, if not both, of two that possess +great literatures, and which embody cultures in some +respects allied, but in most respects admirably supplementing +each other.<a name="FNanchor_242" id="FNanchor_242"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a></p> + +<p>The collapse of Volapük stimulated the energy of those +who believed that the solution of the question lay in the +adoption of a natural language. To-day, however, there +are few persons who, after carefully considering the +matter, regard this solution as probable or practicable. +<a name="FNanchor_243" id="FNanchor_243"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> +Considerations of two orders seem now to be decisive +in rejecting the claims of English and French, or, indeed, +any other natural language, to be accepted as an international +language: (1) The vast number of peculiarities, +difficulties, and irregularities, rendering necessary so +revolutionary a change for international purposes that +the language would be almost transformed into an artificial +language, and perhaps not even then an entirely +satisfactory one. (2) The extraordinary development +during recent years of the minor national languages, and +the jealousy of foreign languages which this revival has +caused. This latter factor is probably alone fatal to the +adoption of any living language. It can scarcely be +disputed that neither English nor French occupies to-day +so relatively influential a position as it once occupied. +The movement against the use of French in Roumania, +as detrimental to the national language, is significant of +a widespread feeling, while, as regards English, the +introduction by the Germans into commerce of the +method of approaching customers in their own tongue, +has rendered impossible the previous English custom of +treating English as the general language of commerce.</p> + +<p>The natural languages, it became realized, fail to +answer to the requirements which must be made of an +auxiliary international language. The conditions which +have to be fulfilled are thus formulated by Anna Roberts: +<a name="FNanchor_244" id="FNanchor_244"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a></p> + +<blockquote><p>"<i>First</i>, a vocabulary having a maximum of internationality +in its root-words for at least the Indo-European +races, living or bordering on the confines of the old Roman +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> +Empire, whose vocabularies are already saturated with +Greek and Latin roots, absorbed during the long centuries +of contact with Greek and Roman civilization. As the +centre of gravity of the world's civilization now stands, +this seems the most rational beginning. Such a language +shall then have:</p> + +<p>"<i>Second</i>, a grammatical structure stripped of all the +irregularities found in every existing tongue, and that +shall be simpler than any of them. It shall have:</p> + +<p>"<i>Third</i>, a single, unalterable sound for each letter, no +silent letters, no difficult, complex, shaded sounds, but +simple primary sounds, capable of being combined into +harmonious words, which latter shall have but a single +stress accent that never shifts.</p> + +<p>"<i>Fourth</i>, mobility of structure, aptness for the expression +of complex ideas, but in ways that are grammatically +simple, and by means of words that can easily be +analysed without a dictionary.</p> + +<p>"<i>Fifth</i>, it must be capable of being, not merely a +literary language,<a name="FNanchor_245" id="FNanchor_245"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a> +but a spoken tongue, having a pronunciation +that can be perfectly mastered by adults +through the use of manuals, and in the absence of oral +teachers.</p> + +<p>"<i>Finally</i>, and as a necessary corollary and complement +to all of the above, this international auxiliary language +must, to be of general utility, be exceedingly easy of +acquisition by persons of but moderate education, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> +and hitherto conversant with no language but their +own."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Thus the way was prepared for the favourable reception +of a new artificial language, which had in the meanwhile +been elaborated. Dr. Zamenhof, a Russian physician +living at Warsaw, had been from youth occupied with the +project of an international language, and in 1887 he put +forth in French his scheme for a new language to be +called Esperanto. The scheme attracted little notice; +Volapük was then at the zenith of its career, and when it +fell, its fall discredited all attempts at an artificial language. +But, like Volapük, Esperanto found its great +apostle in France. M. Louis de Beaufront brought his +high ability and immense enthusiasm to the work of +propaganda, and the success of Esperanto in the world is +attributed in large measure to him. The extension of +Esperanto is now threatening to rival that of Volapük. +Many years ago Max Müller, and subsequently Skeat, +notwithstanding the philologist's prejudice in favour of +natural languages, expressed their approval of Esperanto, +and many persons of distinction, moving in such widely +remote spheres as Tolstoy and Sir William Ramsay, have +since signified their acceptance and their sympathy. +Esperanto Congresses are regularly held, Esperanto +Societies and Esperanto Consulates are established in +many parts of the world, a great number of books and +journals are published in Esperanto, and some of the +world's classics have been translated into it.</p> + +<p>It is generally recognized that Esperanto represents a +great advance on Volapük. Yet there are already signs +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> +that Esperanto is approaching the climax of its reputation, +and that possibly its inventor may share the fate of the +inventor of Volapük and outlive his own language. The +most serious attack on Esperanto has come from within. +The most intelligent Esperantists have realized the +weakness and defects of their language (in some measure +due to the inevitable Slavonic prepossessions of its +inventor) and demand radical reforms, which the conservative +party resist. Even M. de Beaufront, to whom +its success was largely due, has abandoned primitive +Esperanto, and various scientific men of high distinction +in several countries now advocate the supersession of +Esperanto by an improved language based upon it and +called Ido. Professor Lorenz, who is among the advocates +of Ido, admits that Esperanto has shown the possibility +of a synthetic language, but states definitely that +"according to the concordant testimony of all unbiased +opinions" Esperanto in no wise represents the final +solution of the problem. This new movement is embodied +in the Délégation pour l'Adoption d'une Langue Auxiliaire +Internationale, founded in Paris during the International +Exhibition in 1900 by various eminent literary and +scientific men, and having its head-quarters in Paris. +The Délégation consider that the problem demands a +purely scientific and technical solution, and it is claimed +that 40 per cent of the stems of Ido are common to six +languages: German, English, French, Italian, Russian +and Spanish. The Délégation appear to have approached +the question with a fairly open mind, and it was only +after study of the subject that they finally reached the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> +conclusion that Esperanto contained a sufficient number +of good qualities to furnish a basis on which to work. +<a name="FNanchor_246" id="FNanchor_246"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a></p> + +<p>The general programme of the Délégation is that (1) +an auxiliary international language is required, adapted +to written and oral language between persons of different +mother tongues; (2) such language must be capable of +serving the needs of science, daily life, commerce, and +general intercourse, and must be of such a character that +it may easily be learnt by persons of average elementary +education, especially those of civilized European nationality; +(3) the decision to rest with the International +Association of Academies, and, in case of their refusal, +with the Committee of the Délégation. +<a name="FNanchor_247" id="FNanchor_247"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a></p> + +<p>The Délégation is seeking to bring about an official +international Congress which would either itself or +through properly appointed experts establish an internationally +and officially recognized auxiliary language. +The chief step made in this direction has been the formation +at Berne in 1911 of an international association +whose object is to take immediate steps towards bringing +the question before the Governments of Europe. The +Association is pledged to observe a strict neutrality in +regard to the language to be chosen.</p> + +<p>The whole question seems thus to have been placed on +a sounder basis than hitherto. The international language +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> +of the future cannot be, and ought not to be, +settled by a single individual seeking to impose his own +invention on the world. This is not a matter for zealous +propaganda of an almost religious character. The hasty +and premature adoption of some privately invented +language merely retards progress. No individual can +settle the question by himself. What we need is calm +study and deliberation between the nations and the classes +chiefly concerned, acting through the accredited representatives +of their Governments and other professional +bodies. Nothing effective can be done until the pressure +of popular opinion has awakened Governments and +scientific societies to the need for action. The question of +international arbitration has become practical; the +question of the international language ought to go hand +in hand with that of international arbitration. They are +closely allied and both equally necessary.</p> + +<p>While the educational, commercial, and official advantages +of an auxiliary international language are obvious, +it seems to me that from the standpoint of social hygiene +there are at least three interests which are especially and +deeply concerned in the settlement of this question.</p> + +<p>The first and chief is that of international democracy +in its efforts to attain an understanding on labour questions. +There can be no solution of this question until a +simpler mode of personal communication has become +widely prevalent. This matter has from time to time +already been brought before international labour congresses, +and those who attend such congresses have +doubtless had occasion to realize how essential it is. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> +Perhaps it is a chief factor in the comparative failure of +such congresses hitherto.</p> + +<p>Science represents the second great interest which has +shown an active concern in the settlement of this question. +To follow up any line of scientific research is already a +sufficiently gigantic work, on account of the absence of +proper bibliographical organization; it becomes almost +overwhelming now that the search has to extend over at +least half a dozen languages, and still leaves the searcher +a stranger to the important investigations which are +appearing in Russian and in Japanese, and will before long +appear in other languages. Sir Michael Foster once drew +a humorous picture of the woes of the physiologist owing +to these causes. In other fields—especially in the numerous +branches of anthropological research, as I can myself +bear witness—the worker is even worse off than the +physiologist. Just now science is concentrating its +energies on the organization of bibliography, but much +attention has been given to this question of an international +language from time to time, and it is likely before +long to come pressingly to the front.</p> + +<p>The medical profession is also practically concerned in +this question; hitherto it has, indeed, taken a more +lively interest in the effort to secure an international +language than has pure science. It is of the first importance +that new discoveries and methods in medicine and +hygiene should be rendered immediately accessible; +while the now enormously extended domain of medicine +is full of great questions which can only be solved by +international co-operation on an international basis. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span> +The responsibility of advocating a number of measures +affecting the well-being of communities lies, in the first +place, with the medical profession; but no general agreement +is possible without full facilities for discussion in +international session. This has been generally recognized; +hence the numerous attempts to urge a single +language on the organizers of the international medical +congresses. I have already observed how large and +active these congresses were. Yet it cannot be said that +any results are achieved commensurate with the world-wide +character of such congresses. Partly this is due to +the fact that the organizers of international congresses +have not yet learnt what should be the scope of such +conferences, and what they may legitimately hope to perform; +but very largely because there is no international +method of communication; and, except for a few +seasoned cosmopolitans, no truly international exchange +of opinions takes place. This can only be possible when +we have a really common and familiar method of intercommunication.</p> + +<p>These three interests—democratic, scientific, medical—seem +at present those chiefly concerned in the task of +putting this matter on a definite basis, and it is much to +be desired that they should come to some common agreement. +They represent three immensely important +modes of social and intellectual activity, and the progress +of every nation is bound up with an international progress +of which they are now the natural pioneers. It cannot be +too often repeated that the day has gone by when any +progress worthy of the name can be purely national. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> +All the most vital questions of national progress tend to +merge themselves into international questions. But +before any question of international progress can result +in anything but noisy confusion, we need a recognized +mode of international intelligence and communication. +That is why the question of the auxiliary international +language is of actual and vital interest to all who are +concerned with the tasks of social hygiene.</p> + + +<h4>THE QUESTION ON INTERNATIONAL COINAGE</h4> + +<p>It must be remembered that the international auxiliary +language is an organic part of a larger internationalization +which must inevitably be effected, and is indeed already +coming into being. Two related measures of intercommunication +are an international system of postage stamps, and an +international coinage, to which may be added an international +system of weights and measures, which seems to be already +in course of settlement by the increasingly general adoption +of the metric system. The introduction of the exchangeable +international stamp coupon represents the beginning of a +truly international postal system; but it is only a beginning. +If a completely developed international postal system were +incidentally to deliver some nations, and especially the English, +from the depressingly ugly postage stamps they are +now condemned to use, this reform would possess a further +advantage almost as great as its practical utility. An international +coinage is, again, a prime necessity, which would +possess immense commercial advantages in addition to the +great saving of trouble it would effect. The progress of +civilization is already working towards an international +coinage. In an interesting paper on this subject ("International +Coinage," <i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, March, 1910) +T.F. van Wagenen writes; "Each in its way, the great +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span> +commercial nations of the day are unconsciously engaged in +the task. The English shilling is working northwards from +the Cape of Good Hope, has already come in touch with the +German mark and the Portuguese peseta which have been +introduced on both the east and west sides of the Continent, +and will in due time meet the French franc and Italian +lira coming south from the shores of the Mediterranean. +In Asia, the Indian rupee, the Russian rouble, the Japanese +yen, and the American-Philippine coins are already competing +for the patronage of the Malay and the Chinaman. In South +America neither American nor European coins have any foot-hold, +the Latin-American nations being well supplied by +systems of their own, all related more or less closely to the +coinage of Mexico or Portugal. Thus the plainly evolutionary +task of pushing civilization into the uneducated parts of the +world through commerce is as badly hampered by the different +coins offered to the barbarian as are the efforts of the evangelists +to introduce Christianity by the existence of the various +denominations and creeds. The Church is beginning to appreciate +the wastage in its efforts, and is trying to minimize +it by combinations among the denominations having for their +object to standardize Christianity, so to speak, by reducing +tenet and dogma to the lowest possible terms. Commerce +must do the same. The white man's coins must be standardized +and simplified.... The international coin will +come in a comparatively short time, just as will arrive the +international postage stamp, which, by the way, is very +badly needed. For the upper classes of all countries, the people +who travel, and have to stand the nuisance and loss of changing +their money at every frontier, the bankers and international +merchants who have to cumber their accounts with the +fluctuating item of exchange between commercial centres +will insist upon it. All the European nations, with the +exception of Russia and Turkey, are ready for the change, +and when these reach the stage of real constitutionalism in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span> +their progress upward, they will be compelled to follow, being +already deeply in debt to the French, English, and Germans. +Japan may be counted upon to acquiesce instantly in any +unit agreed upon by the rest of the civilized world."</p> + +<p>This writer points out that the opening out of the uncivilized +parts of the world to commerce will alone serve to make an +international coinage absolutely indispensable.</p> + +<p>Without, however, introducing a really new system, an +auxiliary international money system (corresponding to an +auxiliary international language) could be introduced as a +medium of exchange without interfering with the existing +coinages of the various nations. Réné de Saussure (writing +in the <i>Journal de Genève</i>, in 1907) has insisted on the immense +benefit such a system of "monnaie de compte" would be +in removing the burden imposed upon all international +financial relations by the diversity of money values. He +argues that the best point of union would be a gold piece of +eight grammes—almost exactly equivalent to one pound, +twenty marks, five dollars, and twenty-five francs—being, +in fact, but one-third of a penny different from the value of +a pound sterling. For the subdivisions the point of union +must be decimally divided, and M. de Saussure would give +the name of speso to a ten-thousandth part of the gold coin.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_236" id="Footnote_236"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_236"><span class="label">[236]</span></a> +The history of the efforts to attain a universal language has been +written by Couturat and Leau, <i>Histoire de la Langue Universelle</i>, 1903.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_237" id="Footnote_237"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_237"><span class="label">[237]</span></a> +The distinguished French physician, Dr. Sollier, also, in an address +to the Lisbon International Medical Congress, on "La Question de la +Langue Auxiliaire Internationale," in 1906, advocating the adoption of +one of the existing Romance tongues, said: "Spanish is the simplest +of all and the easiest, and if it were chosen for this purpose I should +be the first to accept it."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_238" id="Footnote_238"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_238"><span class="label">[238]</span></a> +It has even been stated by a distinguished English man of science +that Latin is sometimes easier for the English to use than is their own +language. "I have known Englishmen who could be trusted to write +a more intelligible treatise, possibly even to make a more lucid speech, +in Latin than in English," says Dr. Miers, the Principal of London +University (<i>Lancet</i>, 7th October, 1911), and he adds: "Quite seriously, +I think some part of the cause is to be sought in the difficulty of our +language, and many educated persons get lost in its intricacies, just +as they get lost in its spelling." Without questioning the fact, however, +I would venture to question this explanation of it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_239" id="Footnote_239"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_239"><span class="label">[239]</span></a> +Thus in one article on the growing extension of the English language +throughout the world (<i>Macmillan's Magazine</i>, March, 1892) we read: +"English is practically certain to become the language of the world.... +The speech of Shakespeare and Milton, of Dryden and Swift, +of Byron and Wordsworth, will be, in a sense in which no other language +has been, the speech of the whole world." We do not nowadays meet +with these wild statements.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_240" id="Footnote_240"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_240"><span class="label">[240]</span></a> +The stumbling-stones for the foreigner presented by English words +in "ough" have often been referred to, and are clearly set forth in +the verses in which Mr. C.B. Loomis has sought to represent a French +learner's experiences—and the same time to show the criminal impulses +which these irregularities arouse in the pupil.</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I'm taught p-l-o-u-g-h</span> +<span class="i0">Shall be pronouncèd 'plow,'</span> +<span class="i0">'Zat's easy when you know,' I say,</span> +<span class="i0">'Mon Anglais I'll get through.'</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"My teacher say zat in zat case</span> +<span class="i0">O-u-g-h is 'oo,'</span> +<span class="i0">And zen I laugh and say to him</span> +<span class="i0">'Zees Anglais make me cough.'</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"He say, 'Not coo, but in zat word</span> +<span class="i0">O-u-g-h is "off,"'</span> +<span class="i0">Oh, <i>sacre bleu</i>! such varied sounds</span> +<span class="i0">Of words make me hiccough!</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"He say, 'Again, mon friend ees wrong!</span> +<span class="i0">O-u-g-h is "up,"</span> +<span class="i0">In hiccough,' Zen I cry, 'No more,</span> +<span class="i0">You make my throat feel rough,'</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Non! non!' he cry, 'you are not right—</span> +<span class="i0">O-u-g-h is "uff."'</span> +<span class="i0">I say, 'I try to speak your words,</span> +<span class="i0">I can't prononz zem though,'</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'In time you'll learn, but now you're wrong,</span> +<span class="i0">O-u-g-h is "owe."'</span> +<span class="i0">'I'll try no more. I sall go mad,</span> +<span class="i0">I'll drown me in ze lough!'</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'But ere you drown yourself,' said he,</span> +<span class="i0">'O-u-g-h is "ock."'</span> +<span class="i0">He taught no more! I held him fast,</span> +<span class="i0">And killed him wiz a rough!"</span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_241" id="Footnote_241"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_241"><span class="label">[241]</span></a> +It is interesting to remember that at one period in European +history, French seemed likely to absorb English, and thus to acquire, +in addition to its own motor force, all the motor force which now +lies behind English. When the Normans—a vigorous people of +Scandinavian origin, speaking a Romance tongue, and therefore well +fitted to accomplish a harmonizing task of this kind—occupied both +sides of the English Channel, it seemed probable that they would +dominate the speech of England as well as of France. "At that time," +says Méray (<i>La Vie aux Temps des Cours d'Amour</i>, p. 367), who puts +forward this view, "the people of the two coasts of the Channel were +closer in customs and in speech than were for a long time the French on +the opposite banks of the Loire.... The influential part of the English +nation and all the people of its southern regions spoke the <i>Romance</i> +of the north of France. In the Crusades the Knights of the two peoples +often mixed, and were greeted as Franks wherever their adventurous +spirit led them. If Edward III, with the object of envenoming an +antagonism which served his own ends, had not broken this link of +language, the two peoples would perhaps have been united to-day in +the same efforts of progress and of liberty.... Of what a fine instrument +of culture and of progress has not that fatal decree of Edward +III deprived civilization!"</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_242" id="Footnote_242"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_242"><span class="label">[242]</span></a> +I was at one time (<i>Progressive Review</i>, April, 1897) inclined to think +that the adoption of both English and French, as joint auxiliary +international languages—the first for writing and the second +for speaking—might solve the problem. I have since recognized that +such a solution, however advantageous it might be for human culture, would +present many difficulties, and is quite impracticable.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_243" id="Footnote_243"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_243"><span class="label">[243]</span></a> +I may refer to three able papers which have appeared in recent +years in the <i>Popular Science Monthly</i>: Anna Monsch Roberts, "The +Problem of International Speech" (February, 1908); Ivy Kellerman, +"The Necessity for an International Language," (September, 1909); +Albert Léon Guérard, "English as an International Language" +(October, 1911). All these writers reject as impracticable the adoption +of either English or French as the auxiliary international language, +and view with more favour the adoption of an artificial language such +as Esperanto.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_244" id="Footnote_244"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_244"><span class="label">[244]</span></a> +A.M. Roberts, <i>op. cit.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_245" id="Footnote_245"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_245"><span class="label">[245]</span></a> +It should be added, however, that the auxiliary language need not +be used as a medium for literary art, and it is a mistake, as Pfaundler +points out, to translate poems into such a language.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_246" id="Footnote_246"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_246"><span class="label">[246]</span></a> +See <i>International Language and Science</i>, 1910, by Couturat, Jespersen, +Lorenz, Ostwald, Pfaundler, and Donnan, five professors living in +five different countries.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_247" id="Footnote_247"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_247"><span class="label">[247]</span></a> +The progress of the movement is recorded in its official journal, +<i>Progreso</i>, edited by Couturat, and in De Beaufront's journal, <i>La Langue +Auxiliaire</i>.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPXII" id="CHAPXII"></a>XII</h3> + +<h3>INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM</h3> + +<blockquote><p>Social Hygiene in Relation to the Alleged Opposition between Socialism +and Individualism—The Two Parties in Politics—The Relation +of Conservatism and Radicalism to Socialism and Individualism—The +Basis of Socialism—The Basis of Individualism—The seeming +Opposition between Socialism and Individualism merely a Division +of Labour—Both Socialism and Individualism equally Necessary—Not +only Necessary but Indispensable to each other—The Conflict +between the Advocates of Environment and Heredity—A New +Embodiment of the supposed Conflict between Socialism and +Individualism—The Place of Eugenics—Social Hygiene ultimately +one with the Hygiene of the Soul—The Function of Utopias.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The controversy between Individualism and +Socialism, the claim of the personal unit as +against the claim of the collective community, +is of ancient date. Yet it is ever new and constantly +presented afresh. It even seems to become more acute as +civilization progresses. Every scheme of social reform, +every powerful manifestation of individual energy, raise +anew a problem that is never out of date.</p> + +<p>It is inevitable, indeed, that with the development +of social hygiene during the past hundred years there +should also develop a radical opposition of opinion as to +the methods by which such hygiene ought to be accomplished. +There has always been this opposition in the +political sphere; it is natural to find it also in the social +sphere. The very fact that old-fashioned politics are +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span> +becoming more and more transformed into questions of +social hygiene itself ensures the continuance of such an +opposition.</p> + +<p>In politics, and especially in the politics of constitutional +countries of which England is the type, there are +normally two parties. There is the party that holds by +tradition, by established order and solidarity, the maintenance +of the ancient hierarchical constitution of society, +and in general distinguishes itself by a preference for the +old over the new. There is, on the other side, the party +that insists on progress, on freedom, on the reasonable +demands of the individual, on the adaptation of the +accepted order to changing conditions, and in general +distinguishes itself by a preference for the new over the +old. The first may be called the party of structure, and +the second the party of function. In England we know +the adherents of one party as Conservatives and those of +the other party as Liberals or Radicals.</p> + +<p>In time, it is true, these normal distinctions between +the party of structure and the party of function tend to +become somewhat confused; and it is precisely the +transition of politics into the social sphere which tends +to introduce confusion. With a political system which +proceeds ultimately out of a society with a feudalistic +basis, the normal attitude of political parties is long +maintained. The party of structure, the Conservative +party, holds by the ancient feudalistic ideals which are +really, in the large sense, socialistic, though a socialism +based on a foundation of established inequality, and so +altogether unlike the democratic socialism promulgated +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> +to-day. The party of function, the Liberal party, insists +on the break-up of this structural socialism to meet the +new needs of progressive civilization. But when feudalism +has been left far behind, and many of the changes introduced +by Liberalism have become part of the social +structure, they fall under the protection of Conservatives +who are fighting against new Liberal innovations. Thus +the lines of delimitation tend to become indistinct.</p> + +<p>In the politics of social hygiene there are the same two +factors: the party of structure and the party of function. +In their nature and in their opposition to each other +they correspond to the two parties in the old political field. +But they have changed their character and their names: +the party of structure is here Socialism or Collectivism, +<a name="FNanchor_248" id="FNanchor_248"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a> +the party of function is Individualism. +<a name="FNanchor_249" id="FNanchor_249"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> And while the +Tory, the Conservative of early days, was allied to +Collectivism, and the Whig, the Liberal of early days, to +Individualism, that correspondence has ceased to be +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> +invariable owing to the confused manner in which the old +political parties have nowadays shifted their ground. +We may thus see a Liberal who is a Collectivist when a +Collectivist measure may involve that innovation to +secure adjustment to new needs which is of the essence of +Liberalism, and we may see a Conservative who is an +Individualist when Individualism involves that maintenance +of the existing order which is of the essence of +Conservatism. Whether a man is a Conservative or a +Liberal, he may incline either to Socialism or to Individualism +without breaking with his political tradition. +It is, therefore, impossible to import any political animus +into the fundamental antagonism between Individualism +and Socialism, which prevails in the sphere of social +hygiene.</p> + +<p>We cannot hope to see clearly the grave problems +involved by the fundamental antagonism between +Socialism and Individualism unless we understand what +each is founded on and what it is aiming at.</p> + +<p>When we seek to inquire how it is that the Socialist +ideal exerts so powerful an attraction on the human mind, +and why it is ever seeking new modes of practical realization, +we cannot fail to perceive that it ultimately proceeds +from the primitive need of mutual help, a need +which was felt long before the appearance of humanity. +<a name="FNanchor_250" id="FNanchor_250"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a> +If, however, we keep strictly to our immediate mammalian +traditions it may be said that the earliest socialist community +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span> +is the family, with its trinity of father, mother, and +child. The primitive family constitutes a group which is +conditioned by the needs of each member. Each individual +is subordinated to the whole. The infant needs +the mother and the mother needs the infant; they both +need the father and the father needs both for the complete +satisfaction of his own activities. Socially and +economically this primitive group is a unit, and if broken +up into its individual parts these would be liable to perish.</p> + +<p>However we may multiply our social unit, however we +may enlarge and elaborate it, however we may juggle +with the results, we cannot disguise the essential fact. +At the centre of every social agglomeration, however vast, +however small, lies the social unit of the family of which +each individual is by himself either unable to live or +unable to reproduce, unable, that is to say, to gratify the +two fundamental needs of hunger and love.</p> + +<p>There are many people who, while willing to admit +that the family is, in a sense, a composite social unit to +which each part has need of the other parts, so that all +are mutually bound together, seek to draw a firm line of +distinction between the family and society. Family life, +they declare, is not irreconcilable with individualism; it +is merely <i>un égoïsme à trois</i>. It is, however, difficult to +see how such a distinction can be maintained, whether we +look at the matter theoretically or practically. In a small +country like Great Britain, for instance, every Englishman +(excluding new immigrants) is related by blood to every +other Englishman, as would become clearer if every man +possessed his pedigree for a thousand years back. When +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> +we remember, further, also, that every nation has been +overlaid by invasions, warlike or peaceful, from neighbouring +lands, and has, indeed, been originally formed in +this way since no people has sprung up out of the soil of +its own land, we must further admit that the nations +themselves form one family related by blood.</p> + +<p>Our genealogical relation to our fellows is too remote +and extensive to concern us much practically and sentimentally, +though it is well that we should realize it. If +we put it aside, we have still to remember that our actual +need of our fellows is not definitely to be distinguished +from the mutual needs of the members of the smallest +social unit, the family.</p> + +<p>In practice the individual is helpless. Of all animals, +indeed, man is the most helpless when left to himself. +He must be cared for by others at every moment during +his long infancy. He is dependent on the exertions of +others for shelter and clothes, while others are occupied +in preparing his food and conveying it from the ends of +the world. Even if we confine ourselves to the most +elementary needs of a moderately civilized existence, or +even if our requirements are only those of an idiot in an +asylum, yet, for every one of us, there are literally millions +of people spending the best of their lives from morning to +night and perhaps receiving but little in return. The very +elementary need of the individual in an urban civilization +for pure water to drink can only be attained by organized +social effort. The gigantic aqueducts constructed by the +Romans are early monuments of social activity typical of +all the rest. The primary needs of the individual can only +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> +be supplied by an immense and highly organized social +effort. The more complex civilization becomes, and the +more numerous individual needs become, so much the +more elaborate and highly organized becomes the social +response to those needs. The individual is so dependent +on society that he needs not only the active work of +others, but even their mere passive good opinion, and if he +loses that he is a failure, bankrupt, a pauper, a lunatic, a +criminal, and the social reaction against him may suffice +to isolate him, even to put him out of life altogether. So +dependent indeed on society is the individual that there +has always been a certain plausibility in the old idea of +the Stoics, countenanced by St. Paul, and so often revived +in later days (as by Schäffle, Lilienfeld, and René Worms), +that society is an organism in which the individuals are +merely cells depending for their significance on the whole +to which they belong. Just as the animal is, as Hegel, +the metaphysician, called it, a "nation," and Dareste, +the physiologist, a "city," made up of cells which are +individuals having a common ancestor, so the actual +nation, the real city, is an animal made up of individuals +which are cells having a common ancestor, or, as Oken +long ago put it, individuals are the organs of the whole. +<a name="FNanchor_251" id="FNanchor_251"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a> +Man is a social animal in constant action and reaction with +all his fellows of the same group—a group which becomes +ever greater as civilization advances—and socialism is +merely the formal statement of this ultimate social fact. +<a name="FNanchor_252" id="FNanchor_252"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> +There is a divinity that hedges certain words. A +sacred terror warns the profane off them as off something +that might blast the beholder's sight. In fact it is so, +and even a clear-sighted person may be blinded by such +a word. Of these words none is more typical than the +word "socialism." Not so very long ago a prominent +public man, of high intelligence, but evidently susceptible +to the terror-striking influence of words, went to Glasgow +to deliver an address on Social Reform. He warned his +hearers against Socialism, and told them that, though so +much talked about, it had not made one inch of progress; +of practical Socialism or Collectivism there were no signs +at all. Yet, as some of his hearers pointed out, he gave +his address in a municipally owned hall, illuminated by +municipal lights, to an audience which had largely +arrived in municipal tramcars travelling through streets +owned, maintained, and guarded by the municipality. +This audience was largely educated in State schools, in +which their children nowadays can receive not only free +education and free books, but, if necessary, free food and +free medical inspection and treatment. Moreover, the +members of this same audience thus assured of the non-existence +of Socialism, are entitled to free treatment in +the municipal hospital, should an infective disease overtake +them; the municipality provides them freely with +concerts and picture galleries, golf courses and swimming +ponds; and in old age, finally, if duly qualified, they +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span> +receive a State pension. Now all these measures are +socialistic, and Socialism is nothing more or less than a +complicated web of such measures; the socialistic State, +as some have put it, is simply a great national co-operative +association of which the Government is the board of +managers.</p> + +<p>It is said by some who disclaim any tendency to +Socialism, that what they desire is not the State-ownership +of the means of production, but State-regulation. +Let the State, in the interests of the community, keep a +firm control over the individualistic exploitation of +capital, let it tax capital as far as may be desirable in the +interests of the community. But beyond this, capital, +as well as land, is sacred. The distinction thus assumed +is not, however, valid. The very people who make this +distinction are often enthusiastic advocates of an enlarged +navy and a more powerful army. Yet these can only be +provided by taxation, and every tax in a democratic +State is a socialistic measure, and involves collective +ownership of the proceeds, whether they are applied to +making guns or swimming-baths. Every step in the +regulation of industry assumes the rights of society over +individualistic production, and is therefore socialistic. +It is a question of less or more, but except along those two +lines, there is no socialism at all to be reckoned with in the +practical affairs of the world. That revolutionary socialism +of the dogmatically systematic school of Karl Marx +which desired to transfer society at a single stroke by +taking over and centralizing all the means of production +may now be regarded as a dream. It never at any time +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span> +took root in the English-speaking lands, though it was +advocated with unwearying patience by men of such +force of intellect and of character as Mr. Hyndman and +William Morris. Even in Germany, the land of its origin, +nearly all its old irreconcilable leaders are dead, and it is +now slowly but steadily losing influence, to give place +to a more modern and practical socialism.</p> + +<p>As we are concerned with it to-day and in the future, +Socialism is not a rigid economic theory, nor is it the +creed of a narrow sect. In its wide sense it is a name that +covers all the activities—first instinctive, then organized—which +arise out of the fundamental fact that man is a +social animal. In its more precise sense it indicates the +various orderly measures that are taken by groups of +individuals—whether States or municipalities—to provide +collectively for the definite needs of the individuals composing +the group. So much for Socialism.</p> + +<p>The individualist has a very different story to tell. +From the point of view of Individualism, however elaborate +the structure of the society you erect, it can only, +after all, be built up of individuals, and its whole worth +must depend on the quality of those individuals. If they +are not fully developed and finely tempered by high +responsibilities and perpetual struggles, all social effort +is fruitless, it will merely degrade the individual to the +helpless position of a parasite. The individual is born +alone; he must die alone; his deepest passions, his most +exquisite tastes, are personal; in this world, or in any +other world, all the activities of society cannot suffice to +save his soul. Thus it is that the individual must bear +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> +his own burdens, for it is only in so doing that the muscles +of his body grow strong and that the energies of his spirit +become keen. It is by the qualities of the individual +alone that work is sound and that initiative is possible. +All trade and commerce, every practical affair of life, +depend for success on the personal ability of individuals. +<a name="FNanchor_253" id="FNanchor_253"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a> +It is not only so in the everyday affairs of life, +it is even more so on the highest planes of intellectual +and spiritual life. The supreme great men of the race +were termed by Carlyle its "heroes," by Emerson its +"representative men," but, equally by the less and by +the more democratic term, they are always individuals +standing apart from society, often in violent opposition +to it, though they have always conquered in the end. +When any great person has stood alone against the world +it has always been the world that lost. The strongest +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> +man, as Ibsen argued in his <i>Enemy of the People</i>, is the +man who stands most alone. "He will be the greatest," +says Nietzsche in <i>Beyond Good and Evil</i>, "who can be +the most solitary, the most concealed, the most divergent." +Every great and vitally organized person is +hostile to the rigid and narrow routine of social conventions, +whether established by law or by opinion; they +must ever be broken to suit his vital needs. Therefore +the more we multiply these social routines, the more +strands we weave into the social web, the more closely we +draw them, by so much the more we are discouraging the +production of great and vitally organized persons, and by +so much the more we are exposing society to destruction +at the hands of such persons.</p> + +<p>Beneath Socialism lies the assertion that society came +first and that individuals are indefinitely apt for education +into their place in society. Socialism has inherited the +maxim, which Rousseau, the uncompromising Individualist, +placed at the front of his <i>Social Contract</i>: "Man +is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." There is +nothing to be done but to strike off the chains and +organize society on a social basis. Men are not this or +that; they are what they have been made. Make the +social conditions right, says the thorough-going Socialist, +and individuals will be all that we could desire them to be. +Not poverty alone, but disease, lunacy, prostitution, +criminality are all the results of bad social and economic +conditions. Create the right environment and you have +done all that is necessary. To some extent that is clearly +true. But the individualist insists that there are definite +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span> +limits to its truth. Even in the most favourable environment +nearly every ill that the Socialist seeks to remove +is found. Inevitably, the Individualist declares, because +we do not spring out of our environment, but out of our +ancestral stocks. Against the stress on environment, the +Individualist lays the stress on the ascertained facts of +heredity. It is the individual that counts, and for good or +for ill the individual brought his fate with him at birth. +Ensure the production of sound individuals, and you may +set at naught the environment. You will, indeed, secure +results incomparably better than even the most anxious +care expended on environment alone can ever hope to +secure.</p> + +<p>Such are the respective attitudes of Socialism and +Individualism. So far as I can see, they are both absolutely +right. Nor is it even clear that they are really +opposed; for, as happens in every field, while the affirmations +of each are sound, their denials are unsound. Certainly, +along each line we may be carried to absurdity. +The Individualism of Max Stirner is not far from the +ultimate frontier of sanity, and possibly even on the +other side of it;<a name="FNanchor_254" id="FNanchor_254"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a> while the Socialism of the Oneida +Community involved a self-subordination which it would +be idle to expect from the majority of men and women. +But there is a perfect division of labour between Socialism +and Individualism. We cannot have too much of either +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span> +of them. We have only to remember that the field of each +is distinct. No one needs Individualism in his water +supply, and no one needs Socialism in his religion. All +human affairs sort themselves out as coming within the +province of Socialism or of Individualism, and each may +be pushed to its furthest extreme.<a name="FNanchor_255" id="FNanchor_255"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a></p> + + +<p>It so happens, however, that the capacity of the human +brain is limited, and a single brain is not made to hold +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span> +together the idea of Socialism and the idea of Individualism. +Ordinary people have, it is true, no practical +difficulty whatever in acting concurrently in accordance +with the ideas of Socialism and of Individualism. But it +is different with the men of ideas; they must either be +Socialists or Individualists; they cannot be both. The +tendency in one or the other direction is probably inborn +in these men of ideas.</p> + +<p>We need not regret this inevitable division of labour. +On the contrary, it is difficult to see how the right result +could otherwise be brought about. People without ideas +experience no difficulty in harmonizing the two tendencies. +But if the ideas of Socialism and Individualism tended to +appear in the same brain they would neutralize each other +or lead action into an unprofitable <i>via media</i>. The +separate initiative and promulgation of the two tendencies +encourages a much more effective action, and best promotes +that final harmony of the two extremes which the +finest human development needs.</p> + +<p>There is more to be said. Not only are both alike +indispensable, and both too profoundly rooted in human +nature to be abolished or abridged, but each is indispensable +to the other. There can be no Socialism without +Individualism; there can be no Individualism without +Socialism. Only a very fine development of personal +character and individual responsibility can bear up any +highly elaborated social organization, which is why small +Socialist communities have only attained success by +enlisting finely selected persons; only a highly organized +social structure can afford scope for the play of individuality. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span> +The enlightened Socialist nowadays often +realizes something of the relationship of Socialism to +Individualism, and the Individualist—if he were not in +recent times, for all his excellent qualities, sometimes +lacking in mental flexibility and alertness—would be +prepared to admit his own relationship to Socialism. +"The organization of the whole is dominated by the +necessities of cellular life," as Dareste says. That truth +is well recognized by the physiologists since the days of +Claude Bernard. It is absolutely true of the physiology +of society. Social organization is not for the purpose of +subordinating the individual to society; it is as much +for the purpose of subordinating society to the individual.</p> + +<p>Between individuals, even the greatest, and society +there is perpetual action and reaction. While the individual +powerfully acts on society, he can only so act +in so far as he is himself the instrument and organ of +society. The individual leads society, but only in that +direction whither society wishes to go. Every man of +science merely carries knowledge or invention one further +step, a needed and desired step, beyond the stage reached +by his immediate predecessors. Every poet and artist is +only giving expression to the secret feelings and impulses +of his fellows. He has the courage to utter for the first +time the intimate emotion and aspiration which he finds +in the depth of his own soul, and he has the skill to express +them in forms of radiant beauty. But all these secret +feelings and desires are in the hearts of other men, who +have not the boldness to tell them nor the ability to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span> +embody them exquisitely. In the life of man, as in +nature generally, there is a perpetual process of exfoliation, +as Edward Carpenter calls it, whereby a latent but +striving desire is revealed, and the man of genius is the +stimulus and the incarnation of this exfoliating movement. +That is why every great poet and artist when once +his message becomes intelligible, is acclaimed and adored +by the crowd for whom he would only have been an +object of idle wonderment if he had not expressed and +glorified themselves. When the man of genius is too far +ahead of his time, he is rejected, however great his genius +may be, because he represents the individual out of vital +relation to his time. A Roger Bacon, for all his stupendous +intellect, is deprived of pen and paper and shut up +in a monastery, because he is undertaking to answer +questions which will not be asked until five centuries +after his death. Perhaps the supreme man of genius is he +who, like Virgil, Leonardo, or Shakespeare, has a message +for his own time and a message for all times, a message +which is for ever renewed for every new generation.</p> + +<p>The need for insisting on the intimate relations between +Socialism and Individualism has become the more urgent +to-day because we are reaching a stage of civilization in +which each tendency is inevitably so pushed to its full +development that a clash is only prevented by the +realization that here we have truly a harmony. Sometimes +a matter that belongs to one sphere is so closely +intertwined with a matter that belongs to the other that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span> +it is a very difficult problem how to hold them separate +and allow each its due value.<a name="FNanchor_256" id="FNanchor_256"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a></p> + +<p>At times, indeed, it is really very difficult to determine +to which sphere a particular kind of human activity +belongs. This is notably the case as regards education. +"Render unto Cæsar the things that be Cæsar's, and unto +God the things that be God's." But is education among +the things that belong to Cæsar, to social organization, +or among the things that belong to God, to the province +of the individual's soul? There is much to be said on +both sides. Of late the Socialist tendency prevails here, +and there is a disposition to standardize rigidly an education +so superficial, so platitudinous, so uniform, so unprofitable—so +fatally oblivious of what even the word +<i>education</i> means<a name="FNanchor_257" id="FNanchor_257"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a>—that some day, +perhaps, the revolted Individualist spirit will arise in irresistible might +to sweep away the whole worthless structure from top to bottom, +with even such possibilities of good as it may conceal. +The educationalists of to-day may do well to remember +that it is wise to be generous to your enemies even in +the interests of your own preservation.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span> +In every age the question of Individualism and Socialism +takes on a different form. In our own age it has +become acute under the form of a conflict between the +advocates of good heredity and the advocates of good +environment. On the one hand there is the desire to +breed the individual to a high degree of efficiency by +eugenic selection, favouring good stocks and making the +procreation of bad stocks more difficult. On the other +hand there is the effort so to organize the environment +by collectivist methods that life for all may become easy +and wholesome. As usual, those who insist on the importance +of good environment are inclined to consider +that the question of heredity may be left to itself, and +those who insist on the importance of good heredity are +indifferent to environment. As usual, also, there is a real +underlying harmony of those two demands. There is, +however, here more than this. In this most modern of +their embodiments, Socialism and Individualism are not +merely harmonious, each is the key to the other, which +remains unattainable without it. However carefully we +improve our breed, however anxiously we guard the +entrance to life, our labour will be in vain if we neglect +to adapt the environment to the fine race we are breeding. +The best individuals are not the toughest, any more than +the highest species are the toughest, but rather, indeed, +the reverse, and no creature needs so much and so prolonged +an environing care as man, to ensure his survival. +On the other hand, an elaborate attention to the environment, +combined with a reckless inattention to the quality +of the individuals born to live in that environment can +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span> +only lead to an overburdened social organization which +will speedily fall by its own weight.</p> + +<p>During the past century the Socialists of the school for +bettering the environment have for the most part had the +game in their own hands. They founded themselves on +the very reasonable basis of sympathy, a basis which +the eighteenth-century moralists had prepared, which +Schopenhauer had formulated, which George Eliot had +passionately preached, which had around its operations +the immense prestige of the gospel of Jesus. The environmental +Socialists—always quite reasonably—set +themselves to improve the conditions of labour; they +provided local relief for the poor; they built hospitals +for the free treatment of the sick. They are proceeding to +feed school children, to segregate and protect the feeble-minded, +to insure the unemployed, to give State pensions +to the aged, and they are even asked to guarantee work +for all. Now these things, and the likes of them, are not +only in accordance with natural human impulses, but +for the most part they are reasonable, and in protecting +the weak the strong are, in a certain sense, protecting +themselves. No one nowadays wants the hungry to +hunger or the suffering to suffer. Indeed, in that sense, +there never has been any <i>laissez-faire</i> school. +<a name="FNanchor_258" id="FNanchor_258"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span> +But as the movement of environmental Socialism +realizes itself, it becomes increasingly clear that it is itself +multiplying the work which it sets itself to do. In enabling +the weak, the incompetent, and the defective to live and +to live comfortably, it makes it easier for those on the +borderland of these classes to fall into them, and it furnishes +the conditions which enable them to propagate +their like, and to do this, moreover, without that prudent +limitation which is now becoming universal in all classes +above those of the weak, the incompetent, and the defective. +Thus unchecked environmental Socialism, obeying +natural impulses and seeking legitimate ends, would be +drawn into courses at the end of which only social enfeeblement, +perhaps even dissolution, could be seen.</p> + +<p>The key to the situation, it is now beginning to be +more and more widely felt, is to be found in the counterbalancing +tendency of Individualism, and the eugenic +guardianship of the race. Not, rightly understood, as a +method of arresting environmental Socialism, nor even +as a counterblast to its gospel of sympathy. Nietzsche, +indeed, has made a famous assault on sympathy, as he +has on conventional morality generally, but his "immoralism" +in general and his "hardness" in particular +are but new and finer manifestations of those faded +virtues he was really seeking to revive. The superficially +sympathetic man flings a coin to the beggar; the more +deeply sympathetic man builds an almshouse for him so +that he need no longer beg; but perhaps the most +radically sympathetic of all is the man who arranges that +the beggar shall not be born.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span> +So it is that the question of breed, the production of fine +individuals, the elevation of the ideal of quality in human +production over that of mere quantity, begins to be seen, +not merely as a noble ideal in itself, but as the only +method by which Socialism can be enabled to continue on +its present path. If the entry into life is conceded more +freely to the weak, the incompetent, and the defective +than to the strong, the efficient, and the sane, then a +Sisyphean task is imposed on society; for every burden +lifted two more burdens appear. But as individual +responsibility becomes developed, as we approach the +time to which Galton looked forward, when the eugenic +care for the race may become a religion, then social control +over the facts of life becomes possible. Through the +slow growth of knowledge concerning hereditary conditions, +by voluntary self-restraint, by the final disappearance +of the lingering prejudice against the control of +procreation, by sterilization in special cases, by methods +of pressure which need not amount to actual compulsion, +<a name="FNanchor_259" id="FNanchor_259"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> +it will be possible to attain an increasingly firm grip on +the evil elements of heredity. Not until such measures as +these, under the controlling influence of a sense of personal +responsibility extending to every member of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span> +community, have long been put into practice, can we hope +to see man on the earth risen to his full stature, healthy +in body, noble in spirit, beautiful in both alike, moving +spaciously and harmoniously among his fellows in the +great world of Nature, to which he is so subtly adapted +because he has himself sprung out of it and is its most +exquisite flower. At this final point social hygiene +becomes one with the hygiene of the soul. +<a name="FNanchor_260" id="FNanchor_260"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a></p> + +<p>Poets and prophets, from Jesus and Paul to Novalis +and Whitman, have seen the divine possibilities of Man. +There is no temple in the world, they seem to say, so great +as the human body; he comes in contact with Heaven, +they declare, who touches a human person. But these +human things, made to be gods, have spawned like frogs +over all the earth. Everywhere they have beslimed its +purity and befouled its beauty, darkening the very sunshine. +Heaped upon one another in evil masses, preying +upon one another as no other creature has ever preyed +upon its kind, they have become a festering heap which +all the oceans in vain lave with their antiseptic waters, +and all the winds of heaven cannot purify. It is only +in the unextinguished spark of reason within him that +salvation for man may ever be found, in the realization +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span> +that he is his own star, and carries in his hands his own +fate. The impulses of Individualism and of Socialism +alike prompt us to gain self-control and to learn the vast +extent of our responsibility. The whole of humanity is +working for each of us; each of us must live worthy of +that great responsibility to humanity. By how fine a flash +of insight Jesus declared that few could enter the Kingdom +of Heaven! Not until the earth is purified of untold +millions of its population will it ever become the Heaven +of old dreamers, in which the elect walk spaciously and +nobly, loving one another. Only in such spacious and +pure air is it possible for the individual to perfect himself, +as a rose becomes perfect, according to Dante's beautiful +simile,<a name="FNanchor_261" id="FNanchor_261"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a> +in order that he may spread abroad for others the +fragrance that has been generated within him. If one +thinks of it, that seems a truism, yet, even in this +twentieth century, how few, how very few, there are +who know it!</p> + +<p>This is why we cannot have too much Individualism, +we cannot have too much Socialism. They play into each +other's hands. To strengthen one is to give force to the +other. The greater the vigour of both, the more vitally +a society is progressing. "I can no more call myself an +Individualist or a Socialist," said Henry George, "than +one who considers the forces by which the planets are held +to their orbits could call himself a centrifugalist or a +centripetalist." To attain a society in which Individualism +and Socialism are each carried to its extreme +point would be to attain to the society that lived in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span> +Abbey of Thelema, in the City of the Sun, in Utopia, in +the land of Zarathustra, in the Garden of Eden, in the +Kingdom of Heaven. It is a kingdom, no doubt, that is, +as Diderot expressed it, "diablement idéal." But to-day +we hold in our hands more certainly than ever before the +clues that were imperfectly foreshadowed by Plato, and +what our fathers sought ignorantly we may attempt by +methods according to knowledge. No Utopia was ever +realized; and the ideal is a mirage that must ever elude +us or it would cease to be ideal. Yet all our progress, if +progress there be, can only lie in setting our faces towards +that goal to which Utopias and ideals point.</p> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_248" id="Footnote_248"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_248"><span class="label">[248]</span></a> +In the narrow sense Socialism is identical with the definite economic +doctrine of the Collectivistic organization of the productive and +distributive work of society. It also possesses, as Bosanquet remarks +(in an essay on "Individualism and Socialism," in <i>The Civilization of +Christendom</i>), "a deeper meaning as a name for a human tendency +that is operative throughout history." Every Collectivist is a Socialist, +but not every Socialist would admit that he is a Collectivist. "Moral +Socialism," however, though not identical with "Economic Socialism," +tends to involve it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_249" id="Footnote_249"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_249"><span class="label">[249]</span></a> +The term "Individualism," like the term "Socialism," is used +in varying senses, and is not, therefore, satisfactory to everyone. Thus +E.F.B. Fell (<i>The Foundations of Liberty</i>, 1908), regarding "Individualism," +as a merely negative term, prefers the term "Personalism," +to denote a more positive ideal. There is, however, by no +means as any necessity to consider "Individualism," a more negative +term than "Socialism."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_250" id="Footnote_250"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_250"><span class="label">[250]</span></a> +The inspiring appeal of Socialism to ardent minds is no doubt +ethical. "The ethics of Socialism," says Kirkup, "are closely akin to +the ethics of Christianity, if not identical with them." That, perhaps, +is why Socialism is so attractive to some minds, so repugnant to others.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_251" id="Footnote_251"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_251"><span class="label">[251]</span></a> +This idea was elaborated by Eimer in an appendix to his <i>Organic +Evolution</i> on the idea of the individual in the animal kingdom.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_252" id="Footnote_252"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_252"><span class="label">[252]</span></a> +The term "socialism" is said to date from about the year 1835. +Leroux claimed that he invented it, in opposition to the term "individualism," +but at that period it had become so necessary and so +obvious a term that it is difficult to say positively by whom it was +first used.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_253" id="Footnote_253"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_253"><span class="label">[253]</span></a> +An important point which the Individualist may fairly bring forward +in this connection is the tendency of Socialism to repress the energy +of the best worker among its officials at the expense of the public. Alike in +government offices at Whitehall and in municipal offices in the town halls +there is a certain proportion of workers who find pleasure in putting +forth their best energies at high pressure. But the majority take care +that work shall be carried on at low pressure, and that the output shall +not exceed a certain understood minimum. They ensure this by making +things uncomfortable for the workers who exceed that minimum. +The gravity of this evil is scarcely yet realized. It could probably be +counteracted by so organizing promotion that the higher posts really +went to the officials distinguished by the quantity and the quality of +their work. Pensions should also be affected by the same consideration. +In any case, the evil is serious, and is becoming more so since the number +of public officials is constantly increasing. The Council of the Law +Society found some years ago that the cost of civil administration in +England had increased between the years 1894 and 1904 from 19 +millions to 25 millions, and, excluding the Revenue Departments, +it is now said to have gone up to 42 millions. It is an evil that will +have to be dealt with sooner or later.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_254" id="Footnote_254"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_254"><span class="label">[254]</span></a> +Max Stirner wrote his work, <i>Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum</i> (<i>The +Ego and His Own</i>, in the English translation of Byington), in 1845. +His life has been written by John Henry Mackay (<i>Max Stirner: Sein +Leben und Sein Werk</i>), and an interesting study of Max Stirner (whose +real name was Schmidt) will be found in James Huneker's <i>Egoists</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_255" id="Footnote_255"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_255"><span class="label">[255]</span></a> +In the introduction to my earliest book, <i>The New Spirit</i> (1889), +I set forth this position, from which I have never departed: "While +we are socializing all those things of which all have equal common need, +we are more and more tending to leave to the individual the control +of those things which in our complex civilization constitute individuality. +We socialize what we call our physical life in order that we may +attain greater freedom for what we call our spiritual life." No doubt +such a point of view was implicit in Ruskin and other previous writers, +just as it has subsequently been set forth by Ellen Key and others, +while from the economic side it has been well formulated by Mr. J.A. +Hobson in his <i>Evolution of Capital</i>: "The <i>very raison +d'être</i> of increased social cohesiveness is to economize and enrich +the individual life, and to enable the play of individual energy to assume +higher forms out of which more individual satisfaction may accrue." "Socialism will +be of value," thought Oscar Wilde in his <i>Soul of Man</i>, "simply +because it will lead to Individualism." "Socialism denies economic +Individualism for any," says Karl Nötzel ("Zur Ethischen Begrundung +des Sozialismus," <i>Sozialistische Monatshefte</i>, 1910, Heft 23), "in order +to make moral intellectual Individualism possible for all." And as it +has been seen that Socialism leads to Individualism, so it has also been +seen that Individualism, even on the ethical plane, leads to Socialism. +"You must let the individual make his will a reality in the conduct of +his life," Bosanquet remarks in an essay already quoted, "in order that +it may be possible for him consciously to entertain the social purpose +as a constituent of his will. Without these conditions there is no +social organism and no moral Socialism.... Each unit of the social +organism has to embody his relations with the whole in his own particular +work and will; and in order to do this the individual must have +a strength and depth in himself proportional to and consisting of the +relations which he has to embody." Grant Allen long since clearly +set forth the harmony between Individualism and Socialism in an +article published in the <i>Contemporary Review</i> in 1879.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_256" id="Footnote_256"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_256"><span class="label">[256]</span></a> +An instructive illustration is furnished by the question of the +relation of the sexes, and elsewhere (<i>Studies in the Psychology of Sex</i>, +Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society") I have sought to show that +we must distinguish between marriage, which is directly the affair of +the individuals primarily concerned, and procreation, which is mainly +the concern of society.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_257" id="Footnote_257"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_257"><span class="label">[257]</span></a> +See, for instance, the opinion of the former Chief Inspector of +Elementary Schools in England, Mr. Edmond Holmes, <i>What Is and +What Might Be</i> (1911). He points out that true education must be +"self-realization," and that the present system of "education" is +entirely opposed to self-realization. Sir John Gorst, again, has repeatedly +attacked the errors of the English State system of education.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_258" id="Footnote_258"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_258"><span class="label">[258]</span></a> +The phrase <i>Laissez faire</i> is sometimes used as though it were the +watchword of a party which graciously accorded a free hand to the +Devil to do his worst. As a matter of fact, it was simply a phrase +adopted by the French economists of the eighteenth century to summarize +the conclusion of their arguments against the antiquated +restrictions which were then stifling the trade and commerce of France +(see G. Weuleresse, <i>Le Mouvement Physiocratique en France</i>, 1910, +Vol. II, p. 17). Properly understood, it is not a maxim which any +party need be ashamed to own.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_259" id="Footnote_259"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_259"><span class="label">[259]</span></a> +I would again repeat that I do not regard legislation as a channel +of true eugenic reform. As Bateson well says (<i>op. cit.</i> p. 15); "It is +not the tyrannical and capricious interference of a half-informed +majority which can safely mould or purify a population, but rather +that simplification of instinct for which we ever hope, which fuller knowledge +alone can make possible." Even the subsidising of unexceptionable +parents, as the same writer remarks, cannot be viewed with enthusiasm. +"If we picture to ourselves the kind of persons who would infallibly +be chosen as examples of 'civic worth' the prospect is not very +attractive."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_260" id="Footnote_260"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_260"><span class="label">[260]</span></a> +"Aristotle, herein the organ and exponent of the Greek national +mind," remarks Gomperz, "understood by the hygiene of the soul +the avoidance of all extremes, the equilibrium of the powers, the +harmonious development of aptitudes, none of which is allowed to +starve or paralyse the others." Gomperz points out that this individual +morality corresponded to the characteristics of the Greek +national religion—its inclusiveness and spaciousness, its freedom and +serenity, its ennoblement alike of energetic action and passive enjoyment +(Gomperz, <i>Greek Thinkers</i>, Eng. Trans., Vol. III, p. 13).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_261" id="Footnote_261"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_261"><span class="label">[261]</span></a> +<i>Convito</i>, IV, 27.</p></div> + +<h4>THE END</h4> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> + +<p>(<i>Names of Authors quoted are italicized.</i>)</p> +<table class="az" border="1" summary="Alphabetic jump-table for the index"> + <tr> + <td><a href="#IX_A">A</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_B">B</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_C">C</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_D">D</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_E">E</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_F">F</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_G">G</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_H">H</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_I">I</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_J">J</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_K">K</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_L">L</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_M">M</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><a href="#IX_N">N</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_O">O</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_P">P</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_Q">Q</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_R">R</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_S">S</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_T">T</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_U">U</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_V">V</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_W">W</a></td> + <td><a href="#IX_X">X</a></td> + <td>Y</td> + <td><a href="#IX_Z">Z</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<div class="index"> +<ul> +<li><a name="IX_A" id="IX_A"></a>Abortion, facultative, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> + +<li>Age of consent, <a href="#Page_288">288</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Aggeneration, <a href="#Page_24"></a>24</li> + +<li>Alcohol, legislative control of, <a href="#Page_277">277</a> <i>et seq.</i>, +<a href="#Page_295">295</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Alcoholism, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> + +<li><i>Allen, Grant</i>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></li> + +<li><i>Allen, W.H.</i>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li> + +<li>Ancestry, the study of, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> + +<li><i>Angell, Norman</i>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a></li> + +<li><i>Anthony, Susan</i>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> + +<li>Antimachus of Colophon, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li>Anti-militarism, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li> + +<li><i>Aristotle</i>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></li> + +<li><i>Ashby</i>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> + +<li><i>Asnurof</i>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> + +<li><i>Aubry</i>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> + +<li><i>Augustine</i>, St., <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + +<li>Australia, birth-rate in, <a href="#Page_146">146</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">moral legislation in, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></span></li> + +<li><i>Azoulay</i>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_B" id="IX_B"></a><br />Bachofen, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> + +<li><i>Baines, Sir J.A.</i>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li> + +<li><i>Barnes, Earl</i>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> + +<li><i>Basedow</i>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li> + +<li><i>Bateson</i>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></li> + +<li>Beatrice, Dante's, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li>Beaufront, L. de, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a></li> + +<li>Bebel, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li><i>Becker, R.</i>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> + +<li><i>Belbèze</i>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li> + +<li><i>Benecke, E.F.M.</i>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li>Bergsonian philosophy, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> + +<li><i>Bertillon, G.</i>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> + +<li><i>Bertillon, J.</i>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li> + +<li><i>Beveridge</i>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li> + +<li>Bible in religious education, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li> + +<li><i>Billroth</i>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></li> + +<li><i>Bingham</i>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li> + +<li>Birth-rate, in France, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in England, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Germany, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Russia, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in United States, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Canada, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Australasia, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Japan, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in China, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">among savages, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">significance of a falling, <a href="#Page_134">134</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in relation to death-rate, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></span></li> + +<li><i>Blease, W. Lyon</i>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li> + +<li><i>Bloch, Iwan</i>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> + +<li><i>Boccaccio</i>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + +<li><i>Bodey</i>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li> + +<li><i>Böhmert</i>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li> + +<li><i>Bonhoeffer</i>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + +<li><i>Booth, C.</i>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li> + +<li><i>Bosanquet</i>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></li> + +<li><i>Bouché-Leclercq</i>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li> + +<li><i>Branthwaite</i>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> + +<li><i>Braun, Lily</i>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> + +<li><i>Brinton</i>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a></li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span></li> +<li>Budin, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> + +<li>Bund für Mutterschutz, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> + +<li><i>Burckhardt</i>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + +<li><i>Burnham</i>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> + +<li><i>Bushee, F.</i>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li> + +<li><i>Byington</i>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_C" id="IX_C"></a><br />Camp, Maxime du, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> + +<li>Campanella, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> + +<li>Campbell, Harry, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li> + +<li>Canada, birth-rate in, <a href="#Page_144">144</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">sexual hygiene in, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></span></li> + +<li><i>Cantlie</i>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li> + +<li><i>Carpenter, Edward</i>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></li> + +<li><i>Casper</i>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> + +<li>Certificates, eugenic, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> + +<li><i>Chadwick, Sir E.</i>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li> + +<li><i>Chamfort</i>, <a href="#Page_256">X</a>256</li> + +<li>Chastity of German women, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li><i>Cheetham</i>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li> + +<li>Chicago Vice Commission, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li> + +<li>Child, psychology of, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> + +<li>Children, religious education of, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li> + +<li>China, birth-rate in, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li> + +<li>Christianity in relation to romantic love, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li>Chivalrous attitude towards women, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li>Civilization, what it consists in, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> + +<li><i>Clayton</i>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> + +<li><i>Cobbe, F.P.</i>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> + +<li>Co-education, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> + +<li><i>Coghlan, T.A.</i>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li> + +<li>Coinage, international, <a href="#Page_378">378</a></li> + +<li>Concubinage, legalized, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li><i>Condorcet</i>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> + +<li>Confirmation, rite of, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li> + +<li>Consent, age of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Courts of Love, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> + +<li><i>Couturat</i>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></li> + +<li><i>Creed, J.M.</i>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> + +<li>Criminality and feeble-mindedness, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + +<li>Crucé, Emeric, <a href="#Page_315">316</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_D" id="IX_D"></a><br /><i>Dante</i>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> + +<li><i>Dareste</i>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></li> + +<li><i>Davenport</i>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li> + +<li>Death-rate in relation to birth-rate, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li> + +<li>Degenerate families, <a href="#Page_41">41</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Degeneration of race, alleged, <a href="#Page_19">19</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> + +<li><i>De Quincey</i>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li> + +<li>Descartes, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></li> + +<li><i>Dickens</i>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> + +<li><i>Dill, Sir S.</i>, <a href="#Page_303">305</a></li> + +<li>Disinfection, origin of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + +<li>Divorce, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> + +<li><i>Donkin, Sir H.B.</i>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li> + +<li><i>Donnan</i>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></li> + +<li>Drunkenness, decrease of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> + +<li>Dubois, P., <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li> + +<li><i>Dugdale</i>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> + +<li><i>Dumont, Arsène</i>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_E" id="IX_E"></a><br />Economic aspect of woman's movement, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Education, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></li> + +<li><i>Ehrenfels</i>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li><i>Eichholz</i>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> + +<li><i>Eimer</i>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></li> + +<li><i>Ellis, Havelock</i>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, +<a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, +<a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></li> + +<li>Enfantin, Prosper, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li><i>Engelmann</i>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li> + +<li>English, characteristics of the, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude towards immorality, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">language for international purposes, <a href="#Page_355">355</a> <i>et seq.</i></span></li> + +<li>Esperanto, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></li> + +<li><i>Espinas</i>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li> + +<li>Eugenics, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Euthenics, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> + +<li><i>Ewart, R.J.</i>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_F" id="IX_F"></a><br />Factory legislation, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + +<li><i>Fahlbeck</i>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li> + +<li>Fairy tales in education, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li> + +<li>Family, limitation of, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> + +<li>Family in relation to degeneracy, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">size of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></span></li> + +<li>Feeble-minded, problem of the, <a href="#Page_31">31</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li><i>Fell, E.F.B.</i>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></li> + +<li>Ferrer, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li> + +<li>Fertility in relation to prosperity, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li><i>Fiedler</i>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li> + +<li><i>Finlay-Johnson, H.</i>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li> + +<li><i>Firenzuola</i>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + +<li>"Fit," the term, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> + +<li><i>Flux</i>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li> + +<li><i>Forel</i>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> + +<li>France, birth-rate in, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>. <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">women and love in, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">legal attitude towards immorality in, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">regulation of alcohol in, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></span></li> + +<li><i>Franklin, B.</i>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li> + +<li><i>Fraser, Mrs.</i>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li> + +<li>French language for international purposes, <a href="#Page_364">364</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Frenssen, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + +<li><i>Freud</i>, S, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> + +<li><i>Fuld, E.F.</i>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> + +<li><i>Fürch, Henriette</i>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_G" id="IX_G"></a><br /><i>Galton, Sir F.</i>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, +<a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, +<a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></li> + +<li><i>Gaultier, J. de</i>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li> + +<li><i>Gautier, Léon</i>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> + +<li><i>Gavin, H.</i>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li> + +<li><i>Gayley, Julia</i>, 420</li> + +<li>Germany, sex questions in, <a href="#Page_87">87</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">illegitimacy in, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">sexual hygiene in, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">legal attitude towards immorality in, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></span></li> + +<li><i>Giddings</i>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li> + +<li><i>Godden</i>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li> + +<li><i>Godwin, W.</i>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li> + +<li><i>Goethe</i>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li> + +<li><i>Goldscheid</i>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li><i>Gomperz</i>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></li> + +<li><i>Goncourt</i>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> + +<li>Gouges, Olympe de, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li> + +<li><i>Gourmont, Remy de</i>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li> + +<li><i>Gournay, Marie de</i>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li> + +<li><i>Grabowsky</i>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li> + +<li><i>Grasset</i>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li> + +<li><i>Grünspan</i>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> + +<li><i>Guérard</i>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></li> + +<li><i>Guthrie, L.</i>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_H" id="IX_H"></a><br /><i>Haddon, A.C.</i>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> + +<li><i>Hagen</i>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li> + +<li><i>Hale, Horatio</i>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a></li> + +<li><i>Hales, W.W.</i>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li> + +<li><i>Hall, G. Stanley</i>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li> + +<li><i>Hamburger, C.</i>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li> + +<li><i>Hamill, Henry</i>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li> + +<li><i>Hausmeister, P.</i>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> + +<li><i>Hayllar, F.</i>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li>Health, nationalization of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> + +<li>Health visitors, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + +<li><i>Hearn, Lafcadio</i>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> + +<li><i>Henry, W.O.</i>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span></li> +<li>Heredity of feeble-mindedness, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">as the hope of the race, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">study of, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></span></li> + +<li><i>Heron</i>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li> + +<li><i>Hervé</i>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li> + +<li><i>Hiller</i>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li> + +<li><i>Hinton, James</i>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> + +<li><i>Hirschfeld, Magnus</i>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li><i>Hobbes</i>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> + +<li>Holland, moral legislation in, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> + +<li><i>Holmes, Edmond</i>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li>Homosexuality and the law, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li><i>Hookey, N.A.</i>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> + +<li><i>Hughes, R.E.</i>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li> + +<li><i>Humboldt, W. von</i>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li> + +<li><i>Huneker</i>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></li> + +<li>Hungary, birth-rate and death-rate in, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li> + +<li><i>Hutchinson, Woods</i>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li> + +<li>Hygiene, in medieval and modern times, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">of sex, <a href="#Page_244">244</a> <i>et seq.</i></span></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_I" id="IX_I"></a><br />Idiocy, <a href="#Page_32">32</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Ido, <a href="#Page_373">373</a></li> + +<li>Illegitimacy, and feeble-mindedness, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Germany, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></span></li> + +<li>Imbecility, <a href="#Page_32">32</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Individualism, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Industrialism, modern, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> + +<li>Inebriety and feeble-mindedness, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> + +<li>Infant consultations, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> + +<li>Infantile mortality, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Initiation of youth, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li> + +<li>Insurance, national, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> + +<li>International language of the future, <a href="#Page_349">349</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_J" id="IX_J"></a><br /><i>James, E.C.</i>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + +<li>James, William, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></li> + +<li>Japan, romantic love in, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">birth-rate and death-rate in, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">changed conditions in, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></span></li> + +<li><i>Jenks, E.</i>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li> + +<li><i>Johannsen</i>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> + +<li><i>Johnson, Roswell</i>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li> + +<li><i>Jordan, D.S.</i>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></li> + +<li><i>Jörger</i>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> + +<li>Jukes family, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_K" id="IX_K"></a><br /><i>Kaan</i>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> + +<li><i>Kellerman, Ivy</i>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></li> + +<li><i>Key, Ellen</i>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></li> + +<li><i>Kirkup</i>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a></li> + +<li><i>Krafft-Ebing</i>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> + +<li><i>Krauss, F.S.</i>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> + +<li><i>Kuczynski</i>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_L" id="IX_L"></a><br />Labour movement and war, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li> + +<li><i>La Chapelle, E.P.</i>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> + +<li><i>Lacour, L.</i>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li> + +<li><i>Lagorgette</i>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li> + +<li>Laissez-faire, the maxim of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></li> + +<li><i>Lancaster</i>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li> + +<li>Language, international, <a href="#Page_349">349</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Latin as an international language, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></li> + +<li><i>Lavelege, E. de</i>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a></li> + +<li>Law, in relation to eugenics, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">to morals, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">the sphere of, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></span></li> + +<li><i>Lea</i>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li><i>Leau</i>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li> + +<li><i>Leibnitz</i>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li> + +<li><i>Levy, Miriam</i>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> + +<li><i>Lewis, C.J. and J.N.</i>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li> + +<li>Lichtenstein, Ulrich von, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> + +<li>Life-history albums, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span></li> +<li><i>Lischnewska, Maria</i>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li> + +<li><i>Lobsien</i>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li> + +<li><i>Loomis, C.B.</i>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a></li> + +<li><i>Lorenz</i>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a></li> + +<li>Love, and the woman's question, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">and eugenics, <a href="#Page_203">203</a> <i>et seq.</i></span></li> + +<li>Luther, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_M" id="IX_M"></a><br />Mackay, J.H., <a href="#Page_393">393</a></li> + +<li><i>Macnamara, N.C.</i>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li> + +<li><i>Macquart</i>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> + +<li>Maine, prohibition in, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> + +<li><i>Mannhardt</i>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li> + +<li><i>Manouvrier</i>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> + +<li><i>Marcuse, Max</i>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> + +<li>Marriage, certificates for, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">economics and, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">natural selection and, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">State regulation of, <a href="#Page_61">61</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">the ideal of, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in classic times, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></span></li> + +<li>Marriage-rate, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li><i>Matignon</i>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li> + +<li>Matriarchal theory, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> + +<li><i>Maurice, Sir F.</i>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> + +<li><i>McLean</i>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li> + +<li><i>Meisel-Hess, Grete</i>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li> + +<li><i>Méray</i>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a></li> + +<li><i>Mercier</i>, C., <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li> + +<li>Meredith, George, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> + +<li>Miele, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li><i>Miers</i>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></li> + +<li>Milk Depôts, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> + +<li><i>Mill</i>, J.S., <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li> + +<li><i>Moll</i>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li> + +<li><i>Montaigne</i>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li> + +<li><i>Montesquieu</i>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> + +<li><i>Moore, B.</i>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></li> + +<li>Morals in relation to law, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>More, Sir T., <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + +<li><i>Morgan, L.</i>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li><i>Morse, J.</i>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> + +<li>Mortality of infants, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Motherhood in relation to eugenics, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li> + +<li>Mothers, schools for, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li><i>Mougins-Roquefort</i>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li> + +<li>Municipal authorities to instruct in limitation of offspring, duty of, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> + +<li><i>Muralt</i>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> + +<li>Mysteries, Pagan and Christian, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_N" id="IX_N"></a><i><br />Näcke</i>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li> + +<li>Napoleon, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li> + +<li><i>Nars, L.</i>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li> + +<li>National Insurance, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> + +<li>Nationalization of health, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> + +<li>Natural selection and social reform, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> + +<li><i>Nearing, Scott</i>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li> + +<li>Neo-Malthusianism, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li><i>Nevinson, H.W.</i>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> + +<li><i>Newsholme</i>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li> + +<li>New Zealand, birth-rate in, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li> + +<li><i>Nietzsche</i>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></li> + +<li><i>Niphus</i>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + +<li>Norway, infantile mortality in, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> + +<li><i>Nötzel</i>, R., <a href="#Page_394">394</a></li> + +<li><i>Novikov</i>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li> + +<li>Noys, H., <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + +<li><i>Nyström</i>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_O" id="IX_O"></a><br />Obscenity, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> + +<li>Oneida, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + +<li>Ovid, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> + +<li>Owen, Robert, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_P" id="IX_P"></a><br />Pankhurst, Mrs., <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span></li> +<li><i>Partridge, G.L.</i>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li> + +<li><i>Paul, Eden</i>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></li> + +<li><i>Pearson, Karl</i>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li> + +<li><i>Penn, W.</i>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li> + +<li><i>Perrycoste, F.H.</i>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li> + +<li><i>Peters, J.P.</i>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> + +<li><i>Pfaundler</i>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a></li> + +<li>Pinard, J., <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li> + +<li><i>Pinloche</i>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li> + +<li><i>Plate</i>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></li> + +<li><i>Ploetz</i>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></li> + +<li><i>Ploss</i>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></li> + +<li>Police systems, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li> + +<li>Post Office, inquisition at the, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> + +<li>Prohibition of alcohol in Maine, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> + +<li>Prosperity in relation to fertility, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Prostitution, and feeble-mindedness, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">and sexual selection, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">varying legal attitude towards, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></span></li> + +<li>Puberty, psychic influence of, <a href="#Page_231">231</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Puericulture, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_Q" id="IX_Q"></a><br />Quakers, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></li> + +<li>Quarantine, origin of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_R" id="IX_R"></a><br />Race, alleged degeneration of, <a href="#Page_19">19</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> + +<li>Raines Law hotels, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li><i>Ramsay, Sir W.M.</i>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li> + +<li><i>Ranke, Karl</i>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li> + +<li><i>Raschke, Marie</i>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> + +<li>Reform, Social hygiene as distinct from sexual, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">four stages of social, <a href="#Page_4">4</a> <i>et seq.</i></span></li> + +<li><i>Reibmayr</i>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li> + +<li>Religion, and eugenics, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the child, <a href="#Page_217">217</a> <i>et seq.</i></span></li> + +<li>Reproduction, control of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> + +<li><i>Richards, Ellen</i>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> + +<li><i>Richardson, Sir B.W.</i>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> + +<li><i>Robert, P.</i>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li> + +<li><i>Roberts, A.M.</i>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a></li> + +<li>Roman Catholics and Neo-Malthusianism, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li> + +<li>Roseville, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li><i>Ross, E.A.</i>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li> + +<li><i>Rousseau</i>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li> + +<li><i>Rubin</i>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li> + +<li><i>Ruediger</i>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> + +<li>Rural life, influence of, <a href="#Page_177">177</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li><i>Russell, Mrs. B.</i>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li>Russia, infantile mortality in, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">moral legislation in, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></span></li> + +<li><i>Ryle, R.J.</i>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_S" id="IX_S"></a><br />Sacraments, origin of Christian, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li> + +<li>Saint-Pierre, Abbé de, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li> + +<li>Saint-Simon, <a href="#Page_51">1</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li>St. Valentine and eugenics, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> + +<li>Sand, George, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li>Sanitation as an element of social reform, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li> + +<li><i>Saussure, R. de</i>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></li> + +<li><i>Sayer, E.</i>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> + +<li><i>Schallmayer</i>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li> + +<li><i>Schiff, M.</i>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li> + +<li>Schleyer, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></li> + +<li><i>Schooling, J.H.</i>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> + +<li>Schools for mothers, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li><i>Schrader, O.</i>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li><i>Schreiner, Olive</i>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> + +<li><i>Schroeder, T.</i>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> + +<li>Science and social reform, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li> + +<li><i>Sellers, E.</i>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li> + +<li>Sex questions in Germany, <a href="#Page_87">87</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Sexual hygiene, <a href="#Page_244">244</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li> + +<li>Sexual selection, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span></li> +<li>Shaftesbury, Earl of, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> + +<li><i>Sherwell, A.</i>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li> + +<li><i>Shrank, J.</i>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> + +<li><i>Siégler-Pascal</i>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li> + +<li><i>Sitwell, Sir G.</i>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li> + +<li><i>Smith, Sir T.</i>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> + +<li><i>Smith, T.P.</i>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> + +<li>Social reform as distinct from social hygiene, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">its four stages, <a href="#Page_4">4</a> <i>et seq.</i></span></li> + +<li>Socialism, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Society of the future, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> + +<li><i>Sollier</i>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></li> + +<li><i>Solmi</i>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> + +<li><i>Sombart</i>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li> + +<li>Spain, legalized concubinage in, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">women in, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></span></li> + +<li>Spanish as an international language, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></li> + +<li><i>Stanton, E.C.</i>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> + +<li><i>Starbuck</i>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> + +<li><i>Steinmetz</i>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li> + +<li><i>Steele</i>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> + +<li>Sterilization, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li> + +<li>Sterility and the birth-rate, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> + +<li><i>Stevenson</i>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li> + +<li><i>Stewart, A.</i>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li> + +<li><i>Stewart, R.S.</i>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> + +<li><i>Stirner, Max</i>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></li> + +<li>Stirpiculture, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + +<li><i>Stöcker, H.</i>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> + +<li><i>Streitberg, Countess von</i>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> + +<li>Suffrage, woman's, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Sully, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li> + +<li>Sun, City of the, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> + +<li><i>Sutherland, A.</i>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li> + +<li><i>Sykes</i>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li>Syndicalism, <a href="#Page_32">329</a></li> + +<li>Syphilis, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_T" id="IX_T"></a><br /><i>Taine</i>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_31">313</a></li> + +<li><i>Takano</i>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li> + +<li><i>Tarde</i>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li> + +<li><i>Thompson, W.</i>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> + +<li><i>Toulouse</i>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li> + +<li>Tramps and feeble-mindedness, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> + +<li><i>Tredgold</i>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_U" id="IX_U"></a><br />United States, birth-rate in, <a href="#Page_140">140</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">sexual hygiene in, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude towards immorality in, <a href="#Page_273">273</a> <i>et seq.</i></span></li> + +<li>Urban life, influence of, <a href="#Page_177">177</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_V" id="IX_V"></a><br />Vasectomy, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> + +<li>Venereal disease and sexual hygiene, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li> + +<li><i>Vesnitch</i>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li> + +<li>Vineland, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> + +<li>Volapük, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_W" id="IX_W"></a><i><br />Wagenen, W.F. van</i>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a></li> + +<li>War against war, <a href="#Page_311">311</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> + +<li>Ward, Mrs. Humphry, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + +<li><i>Weale, B.L. Putnam</i>, <a href="#Page_15">157</a></li> + +<li><i>Weatherby</i>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></li> + +<li><i>Webb, Sidney</i>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_16">163</a></li> + +<li><i>Weeks</i>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> + +<li><i>Weinberg, S.</i>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> + +<li><i>Wentworth, S.</i>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li><i>Westergaard</i>, <a href="#Page_16">166</a></li> + +<li><i>Westermarck</i>,559</li> + +<li><i>Weuleresse</i>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></li> + +<li>Wheeler, Mrs., <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li> + +<li>White slave trade, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li> + +<li><i>Whetham, W.C.D. and Mrs.</i>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li> + +<li><i>Whitman, Walt</i>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></li> + +<li><i>Wilcox, W.F.</i>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> + +<li><i>Wilde, O.</i>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></li> + +<li><i>Wilhelm, C.</i>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></li> +<li><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span></p></li> +<li><i>Wollstonecraft, Mary</i>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> + +<li>Woman, and eugenics, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">movement, <a href="#Page_49">49</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">economics, <a href="#Page_63">63</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the suffrage, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the Italian Renaissance, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Spanish literature, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 1em;">and war, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></span></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_X" id="IX_X"></a><br /><i>Yule, G. Udny</i>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> + + +<li><a name="IX_Z" id="IX_Z"></a><br />Zamenhof, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></li> + +<li>Zero family, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> + +<li><i>Ziller</i>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li> +</ul> +</div> + + +<h4> +WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD.<br /> +PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH +</h4> + +<p> </p> +<hr /> + +<p>Transciber's notes:<br /> +<br /> +With the following exceptions spelling and punctuation of the +original text have been maintained:</p> + +<ol> +<li>Obvious typographical errors and punctuation inconsistencies.</li> +<li>Chapter V, Par 16 "high death-rate" has been changed to "high birth-rate".</li> +<li>Chapter VII Par 16 "precocious sexual" has been changed +to "precocious scriptural".</li> +</ol> + +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TASK OF SOCIAL HYGIENE***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 22090-h.txt or 22090-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/0/9/22090">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/0/9/22090</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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