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diff --git a/22090.txt b/22090.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..85cc421 --- /dev/null +++ b/22090.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12943 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Task of Social Hygiene, by Havelock Ellis + + +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 www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Task of Social Hygiene + + +Author: Havelock Ellis + + + +Release Date: July 17, 2007 [eBook #22090] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TASK OF SOCIAL HYGIENE*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Ross Wilburn, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +THE TASK OF SOCIAL HYGIENE + + + * * * * * + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY + OF SEX. SIX VOLS. + + THE NEW SPIRIT + + AFFIRMATIONS + + MAN AND WOMAN + + THE CRIMINAL + + THE WORLD OF DREAMS + + THE SOUL OF SPAIN + + IMPRESSIONS AND COMMENTS + + ESSAYS IN WAR-TIME. ETC. + + + * * * * * + + +THE TASK OF SOCIAL HYGIENE + +by + +HAVELOCK ELLIS + +Author of "The Soul of Spain"; "The World of Dreams"; etc. + + + + + + + +Boston and New York +Houghton Mifflin Company +1916 + +Printed in Great Britain. + + + + +PREFACE + + +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. + +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. + +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 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 _pari passu_ 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 _The +Winter's Tale_ he set forth a luminous philosophy of social hygiene and +applied it to eugenics, + + + "Nature is made better by no mean + But Nature makes that mean ... + This is an art + Which does mend Nature, change it rather, but + The art itself is Nature." + + +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 +_Studies in the Psychology of Sex_. 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. + +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 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. + +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 +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. + +HAVELOCK ELLIS. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I.--INTRODUCTION + PAGE +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 1 + + +II.--THE CHANGING STATUS OF WOMEN + +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 49 + + +III.--THE NEW ASPECT OF THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT + +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 67 + + +IV.--THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN IN RELATION TO ROMANTIC LOVE + +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 113 + + +V.--THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A FALLING BIRTH-RATE + +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 134 + + +VI.--EUGENICS AND LOVE + +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. 193 + + +VII.--RELIGION AND THE CHILD + +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 217 + + +VIII.--THE PROBLEM OF SEXUAL HYGIENE + +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 244 + + +IX.--IMMORALITY AND THE LAW + +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--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 258 + + +X.--THE WAR AGAINST WAR + +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 311 + + +XI.--THE PROBLEM OF AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE + +Early Attempts to construct an International Language--The Urgent Need +of an Auxiliary Language To-day--Volapuek--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 349 + + +XII.--INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM + +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 381 + + +INDEX 407 + + + + +THE TASK OF SOCIAL HYGIENE + + + + +I + +INTRODUCTION + + 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. + + +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 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. + +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 _Lettres sur les Anglais_, 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 in their gaols to die of starvation. "The great cruelty of +the English," Muralt remarks, "lies in permitting evil rather than in +doing it."[1] 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. + +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 _laissez-faire_, 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 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. + +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 _Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great +Britain_, 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. + +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 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;[2] 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 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. + +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 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. + +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.[3] + +The care of the infant has indeed now become a new applied science, the +science of puericulture. Professor 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 Depots, where pure milk is supplied at a low price or freely. +Infant Consultations and Milk Depots 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 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. + +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 depots +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.[4] 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 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. + +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.[5] + +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.[6] + +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.[7] 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. + +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. + +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, 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." + +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 growth of civilization, +the more stupendous and overwhelming the task becomes. + +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.[8] 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. + +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 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. + +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.[9] Recklessness was +giving place to foresight and self-control. Such foresight and +self-control are of the essence of civilization.[10] + +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. + +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. + +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.[11] + +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."[12] + +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.[13] + +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.[14] 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. + +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 _Sursum corda_ easily overwhelms the dying autumnal wails +of the _Dies Irae_. + +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.[15] This is, for instance, the result which +Fahlbeck has reached in his valuable demographic study of the Swedish +nobility, _Der Adel Schwedens_. "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 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 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."[16] 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.[17] + +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.[18] It means that +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.[19] 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.[20] 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. + +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 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."[21] The progress of +civilization, with the self-control it involves, has made it possible to +accept this suggestion seriously.[22] 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. + +Three centuries ago an inspired monk set forth his ideal of an ennobled +world in _The City of the Sun_. 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 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.[23] 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 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. + +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. Galton continued to develop his conceptions +slowly and cautiously, and in 1883, in his _Inquiries into Human +Faculty_, he abandoned the term "Stirpiculture" and devised the term +"Eugenics," which is now generally adopted to signify Good Breeding. + +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.[24] 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 voluntarily +accepted.[25] 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. + +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. + +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 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.[26] 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. + +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.[27] + +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.[28] + +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 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,[29] +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.[30] +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 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.[31] + +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, 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.[32] + +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. + +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 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.[33] + +It is not only in themselves that the feeble-minded are a burden on the +present generation and a menace 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 +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.[34] + +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 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.[35] + +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, 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. + +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, +and have been a constant danger and burden to society.[36] 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.[37] + +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. +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,[38] 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 kingdom of Italy. To realize this truth in the future of +civilization is one of the first tasks of Social Hygiene.[39] + +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."[40] We cannot, +indeed, desire any compulsory elimination of the unfit or any centrally +regulated breeding of the fit.[41] 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 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.[42] And if he finds 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.[43] 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.[44] + +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 +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. + +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 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. + +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. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Muralt, _Lettres sur les Anglais_. Lettre V. + +[2] 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 (_Geschichte der Sozialen Hygiene im Mittelalter_, at a +meeting of the Gesellschaft fuer 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 _Codici +Sanitarii_; 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. + +[3] 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 _pari passu_ +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. + +[4] Mrs. Bertrand Russell, "The Ghent School for Mothers," _Nineteenth +Century_, December, 1906. + +[5] 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. (W.H. Allen, "Sanitation and Social Progress," _American +Journal of Sociology_, March, 1903.) + +[6] Dr. F. Bushee has pointed out ("Science and Social Progress," +_Popular Science Monthly_, 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." + +[7] 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. + +[8] 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 _The Nationalization of Health_, 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. + +[9] 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. + +[10] "Foresight and self-control is, and always must be, the ground and +medium of all Moral Socialism," says Bosanquet (_The Civilization of +Christendom_, 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. + +[11] 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," _Drapers' Company Research Memoirs_, No. I, 1906). As, however, +Newsholme and Stevenson point out (_Journal Royal Statistical Society_, +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. + +[12] _Sociological Papers_ of the Sociological Society, 1904, p. 35. + +[13] 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. + +[14] 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 (_Lehrbuch der +Genealogie_, p. 135) has shown that when a peasant family reaches an +upper social class it dies out in a few generations. + +[15] See, on this point, Reibmayr, _Entwicklungsgeschichte des Talentes +und Genies_, Vol. I, ch. VII. + +[16] Fahlbeck, _op. cit._, p. 168. + +[17] 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 (_Die +Entwicklungsgeschichte des Talentes und Genies_, 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, _Handbuch der Hygiene_, Supplement, Bd. +IV, pp. 746 _et seq._; _Politisch-Anthropologische Revue_, 1905, pp. 145 +_et seq._) 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," +_Politisch-Anthropologische Revue_, April, 1903, p. 50). + +[18] 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. + +[19] Nystroem (_La Vie Sexuelle_, 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." + +[20] 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," _Eugenics Review_, 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. + +[21] _Tatler_, Vol. II, No. 175, 1709. + +[22] "Write Man for Primula, and the stage of the world for that of the +greenhouse," says Professor Bateson (_Biological Fact and the Structure +of Society_, 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. + +[23] E. Solmi, _La Citta del Sole di Campanella_, 1904, p. xxxiv. + +[24] Only a year before his death Galton wrote (Preface to _Essays in +Eugenics_): "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." + +[25] 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, _Studies in the Psychology +of Sex_, Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society," chap. XII. + +[26] 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: +_feeble-mindedness_, in which with care and supervision it is possible +to work and earn a livelihood; _imbecility_, in which the subject is +barely able to look after himself, and sometimes only has enough +intelligence to be mischievous (the moral imbecile); and _idiocy_, 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. + +[27] Mott (_Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry_, 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. + +[28] "Whether germinal variations," remarked Dr. R.J. Ryle at a +Conference on Feeble-mindedness (_British Medical Journal_, 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. + +[29] See, for instance, A.F. Tredgold, _Mental Deficiency_, 1908. + +[30] 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. + +[31] Godden, _Eugenics Review_, April, 1911. + +[32] 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 +(_Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease_, November, 1911), who have for +the first time succeeded in obtaining a large number of really thorough +and precise pedigrees of such cases. + +[33] 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 _Pensees Diverses_: "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! + +[34] The Superintendent of a large State School for delinquent girls in +America (as quoted in the Chicago Vice Commission's Report on _The +Social Evil in Chicago_, 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." + +[35] See e.g. Havelock Ellis, _The Criminal_, 4th ed., 1910, chap IV. + +[36] R.L. Dugdale, _The Jukes_, 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. + +[37] Joerger, _Archiv fuer Rassen-und Gesellschafts-Biologie_, 1905, p. +294. Criminal families are also recorded by Aubry, _La Contagion du +Meutre_. + +[38] 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. + +[39] I have set forth these considerations more fully in a popular form +in _The Problem of the Regeneration of the Race_, the first of a series +of "New Tracts for the Times," issued under the auspices of the National +Council of Public Morals. + +[40] C.B. Davenport, "Euthenics and Eugenics," _Popular Science Monthly_, +January, 1911. + +[41] 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 (_Essays in Eugenics_, 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." + +[42] Dr. Toulouse has devoted a whole volume to the results of a minute +personal examination of Zola, the novelist, and another to Poincare, 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. + +[43] 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. + +[44] 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. + + + + +II + +THE CHANGING STATUS OF WOMEN[45] + + 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. + + +I + +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 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. + +The famous and little-read _Vindication of the Rights of Women_, +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. + +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, as she sat before him in +silence rolling her cigarette, "Je ne dis rien parceque je suis bete," +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 _bonne +bourgeoise_, 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. + +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, wrote, under the inspiration of a woman (a Mrs. Wheeler), +and published in 1825, an _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_. It is a thorough +and logical, almost eloquent, demand for the absolute social equality of +the sexes.[46] + +Forty years later, Mill, also inspired by a woman, published his +_Subjection of Women_. 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 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. + + +II + +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 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.[47] + +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, 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. + +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 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 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. + +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. + +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 already had, and others would shortly have," objected, and so it +fell through. Perhaps the _mulierculae_ 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. + + +III + +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 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. + +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 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.[48] 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. + +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 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. + +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.[49] + +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 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-_regulated_ and State-_registered_ +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.[50] + +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 a +male; there are few exceptions.[51] 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 +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 can give. That unquestionably is +the claim of natural and reasonable living in the social state towards +which we are moving. + +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 _Democratic Vistas_, "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. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[45] This chapter was written so long ago as 1888, and published in the +_Westminster Review_ 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, _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, +Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society," chap. X). 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. + +[46] The following passage summarizes this _Appeal_: "The simple and +modest request is, that they may be permitted equal enjoyments with men, +_provided they can, by the free and equal development and exercise of +their faculties, procure for themselves such enjoyments_. 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 _all_ 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." + +[47] 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. + +[48] See the very interesting work of Alfred Espinas, _Des Societes +Animales_, which contains many fruitful suggestions for the student of +human sociology. + +[49] 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 _Ideen zu einen +Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu bestimmen_, 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." + +[50] 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. + +[51] As among geese, and, occasionally, it is said, among elephants. + + + + +III + +THE NEW ASPECT OF THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT + + 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. + + +I + +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 _Encyclopedie_, +and the idea was definitely formulated by some of the finest minds of +the age, notably by Condorcet,[52] 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. 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.[53] She owes the position more +especially to her little pamphlet, issued in 1791, entitled _Declaration +des Droits de la Femme_. It is this _Declaration_ 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 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 Stael.[54] + +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 _Declaration des Droits de la Femme_, Mary +Wollstonecraft--it is possible to some extent inspired by the brief +_Declaration_--published her _Vindication of the Rights of Women_. It +was not a shrill outcry, nor an attack on men--in that indeed +resembling the _Declaration_--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.[55] 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 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 _Subjection of Women_, 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 _Woman_--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. + +The movement for the education of women and their introduction into +careers previously monopolized by men inevitably encouraged the movement +for extending 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 _Subjection of +Women_ 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. + +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 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.[56] 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, 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." + +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. + +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 covered the rashness of their new and rather ignorant +enthusiasm. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 women +who vote will be in some measure legislating for women generally, and it +is therefore necessary that women generally should participate. + +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 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. + +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,[57] 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 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. It is merely an act of justice and a reasonable +condition of social hygiene. + +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 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."[58] 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. + + +II + +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. + +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 +_Hausfrau_ the supreme ideal 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.[59] 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. + +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, _Die Frau_, 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 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. + +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 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 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. Moebius, published a book on the "physiological +weak-mindedness of women." + +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.[60] 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 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 _Anthropophyteia_ are +diligently exploring the rich and fruitful field of sexual folk-lore. +The large volumes of the _Jahrbuch fuer Sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, 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 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, _Die Sexuelle Frage_, 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, _Das Sexualleben Unserer Zeit_, 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.[61] Still more recently (1912) Dr. +Albert Moll, with characteristic scientific thoroughness, has edited, +and largely himself written, a truly encyclopaedic _Handbuch der +Sexualwissenschaften_. The eminence 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 _Sexual-Probleme_, +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. + +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 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.[62] + +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. + +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 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. + +The basis of the movement is significantly indicated by the title, +_Mutterschutz_--the protection of the mother--originally borne by "a +Journal for the reform of sexual morals," established in 1905, edited by +Dr. Helene Stoecker, of Berlin, and now called _Die Neue Generation_. 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. + +This journal was originally the organ of the association for the +protection of mothers, more especially unmarried mothers, called the +_Bund fuer Mutterschutz_. There are many agencies for dealing with +illegitimate children, but the founders of this association started from +the conviction 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.[63] It is the aim of the _Bund fuer Mutterschutz_ 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 +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. + +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. + +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 _Die Neue Generation_ 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 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. + +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 the +sphere of practical politics.[64] 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. + +Ellen Key's views are mainly contained in three books, _Love and +Marriage_, _The Century of the Child_, and _The Women's Movement_, 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: 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. + +The aim of love, as understood by Ellen Key, is always marriage and the +child, and as soon as the child comes 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 +aesthetic 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 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. + +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 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.[65] + +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."[66] That earlier movement 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. + +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 _The Women's Movement_, +"which will be a synthesis growing out of the nature of man and the +nature 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." + +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 _Love and Ethics_, 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 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." + +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.[67] The need of such reform is pressing, and there are many +signs that it is being 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. + +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. + +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 "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. + +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,[68] 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 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 +_Vindication of the Rights of Women_, 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 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." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[52] In 1787 Condorcet declared (_Lettres d'un Bourgeois de New Haven_, +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 Cite," published in the _Journal +de la Societe de 1789_. 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. + +[53] Leopold Lacour has given a full and reliable account of Olympe de +Gouges (who was born at Montauban in 1755) in his _Trois Femmes de la +Revolution_, 1900. + +[54] 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, _L'Hygiene_, September, +1911.) + +[55] Concerning the rise and progress of this movement in England much +information is sympathetically and vivaciously set forth in W. Lyon +Blease's _Emancipation of English Women_ (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. + +[56] 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. + +[57] 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. + +[58] _Revue de l'Ecole d'Anthropologie_, February, 1909, p. 50. + +[59] O. Schrader, _Reallexicon_, 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, _Studies in the +Psychology of Sex_, Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society," pp. 382-4.) + +[60] Thus Kaan, anticipating Krafft-Ebing, published a _Psychopathia +Sexualis_, 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. + +[61] 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. + +[62] This attitude is plainly reflected even in many books written by +men; I may mention, for instance, Frenssen's well-known novel +_Hilligenlei_ (_Holyland_). + +[63] 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 Gruenspan in the _Berliner Tagblatt_ for +January 6, 1911, reproduced in _Die Neue Generation_, 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. Gruenspan +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. + +[64] I have discussed this point in _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, +Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society," chap. XII. + +[65] It is remarkable that in early times in Spain the laws recognized +concubinage (_barragania_) 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 _barragana_. _Barragania_, however, was not +real marriage, and in many regions it could be contracted by married men +(R. Altamira, _Historia de Espana y de la Civilazacion Espanola_, Vol. +I, pp. 644 et seq.). + +[66] "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 Stael to undertake this role, but she +failed to respond. When George Sand published her first novels, one +Gueroult was commissioned to ascertain if the author of _Lelia_ 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 _Histoire de ma Vie_, 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 +_Abu-l-dhunieh_, the Father of the World. (This account of the movement +is based on that given by Maxime du Camp, in his _Souvenirs +Litteraires_) + +[67] _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to +Society," chap. X. + +[68] 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, _Egalite des Hommes et des Femmes_, was written +in 1622. See e.g. M. Schiff, _La Fille d'Alliance de Montaigne_. + + + + +IV + +THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN IN RELATION TO ROMANTIC LOVE + + 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. + + +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. + +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 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.[69] + +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 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.[70] 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. + +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.[71] + +The development of modern romantic love in connection with marriage +seems to be found in the late Greek world under the Roman Empire.[72] +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.[73] The State indeed was dissolving, but the +individual was evolving. The age which produced a Plutarch--for fifteen +hundred years one of the great 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. + +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 even within the +marriage bond.[74] 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. + +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.[75] In its extreme forms, +however, this romantic love was a rare, localized, and short-lived +manifestation. The dominant attitude of the chivalrous age towards +women, as Leon 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.[76] + +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 Meray 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[77] 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, 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.[78] Yet +in some degree the ideals which had been thus embodied still persisted. +As the Goncourts pointed out in their invaluable book, _La Femme au +Dix-huitieme Siecle_ (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 +_Commonwealth of England_, writing of the high position of women in +England, remarked that they possessed "almost as much liberty as in +France." + +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 _Minnedienst_. 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 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 _cavaliere servente_. 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. + +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 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 _donna angelicata_ 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.[79] 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. + +The re-discovery of classic literature, the movements of Humanism and +the Renaissance, swept away what was left of the almost religious +idealization of the young virgin. The ethereal maiden, thin, pale, +anaemic, 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.[80] 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.[81] The people of the Italian +Renaissance placed women on the same level as men, and to call a woman a +_virago_ implied unalloyed praise.[82] + +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 +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.[83] 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. + +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 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. + +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[84]--no longer 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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,[85] 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. + +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[86]--we need not +grieve overmuch if one form of this reverence, the first, and that which +Goethe regarded as the earliest and crudest, 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. + +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 +_David Copperfield_ 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 Ibanez 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 that is of worth.[87] 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, _Die +Sexuelle Krise_, 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."[88] 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 _Love and Marriage_, 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 _Woman and Labour_ 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. + +Nor is it alone from the feminine side that these 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 _Letters_, "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. + +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 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,[89] 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. + +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 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 _all_ music has been written, but that no _music_ 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 _love_! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[69] See especially Sidney Lee, "Ovid and Shakespeare's Sonnets," +_Quarterly Review_, April, 1909. + +[70] Montaigne, _Essais_, Book III, chap. V. + +[71] See e.g. Mrs. Fraser, _World's Work and Play_, December, 1906. + +[72] 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 _Antimachus of +Colophon and the Position of Women in Greek Poetry_, 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 B.C. 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, _Lyde_, "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. + +[73] As I have elsewhere pointed out (_Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, +Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society," chap. IX), most modern +authorities--Friedlaender, 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. + +[74] I have discussed this phase of early Christianity in the sixth +volume of _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, "Sex in Relation to +Society," chap. V. + +[75] 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 (_Wahrheit und Dichtung in +Ulrich von Lichtenstein's Frauendienst_, 1888) considers that, though +much exaggerated, it is in substance true. + +[76] Leon Gautier, _La Chevalerie_, pp. 236-8, 348-50. + +[77] The chief source of information on these Courts is Andre le +Chapelain's _De Arte Amatoria_. Boccaccio made use of this work, though +without mentioning the author's name, in his own _Dialogo d' Amore_. + +[78] A. Meray, _La Vie au Temps des Cours d'Amour_, 1876. + +[79] Remy de Gourmont, _Dante, Beatrice et la Poesie Amoureuse_, 1907, p. +32. + +[80] Niphus (born about 1473), a physician and philosopher of the Papal +Court, wrote in his _De Pulchro_, sometimes considered the first modern +treatise on aesthetics, 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 _Dialogo delle Bellezze +delle Donne_, was published in 1548. It has been translated into English +by Clara Bell under the title _On the Beauty of Women_. + +[81] See, for example, Edith Coulson James, _Bologna: Its History, +Antiquities and Art_, 1911. + +[82] See, for an interesting account of the position of women in the +Italian Renaissance, Burckhardt, _Die Kultur der Renaissance_, Part V, +ch. VI. + +[83] 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. + +[84] _Ante_, p. 58. + +[85] "Women then were queens," as Taine writes (_L'Ancien Regime_, Vol. +I, p. 219), and he gives references to illustrate the point. + +[86] Goethe, _Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre_, Book II, ch. I. + +[87] Havelock Ellis, _The Soul of Spain_, chap. III, "The Women of +Spain." + +[88] Grete Meisel-Hess, _Die Sexuelle Krise_, 1909, pp. 148, 168. + +[89] "La Morale Sexuelle," _Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle_, +January, 1907. + + + + +V + +THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A FALLING BIRTH-RATE + + 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. + + +I + +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.[90] This expansion coincided with that +development of industrial and commercial activity 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. + +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 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.[91] 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 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.[92] + +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,[93] 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. + +Thus while forty years ago it was usual for both the English and the +Germans to contemplate, perhaps with 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.[94] +Moreover, as Flux has shown,[95] 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.[96] So that a 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.[97] +There has, however, been a 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. + +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. + +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, 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 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. + +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 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. + +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.[98] 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 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. +Prevost, 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'Hygiene, 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."[99] + +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. + +From Australia comes the same story of the decline of Anglo-Saxon +fertility. In nearly all the Australian colonies 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.[100] It +should be added 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +There is an intimate connection between a high birth-rate 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 found no such marked contrast +between the net product of large families as compared to small +families.[101] + +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. + +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.[102] 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.[103] + +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.[104] 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."[105] 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. + +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. + +"The greater the number of children," as Hamburger puts it, "the greater +the cost of each survivor to the family and to the State." + +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.[106] + +Thus Russia has the highest birth-rate and at the 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. + +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.[107] It is obvious that such a +tendency, if continued, will furnish a serious problem to Japanese +social reformers, and at the same time make it impossible for Western +alarmists to regard the rise of Japan as a menace to the world. + +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.[108] 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, and quite +legal, to procure abortion. Infants brought up by hand are fed on +rice-flour and water, and consequently they nearly all die.[109] + +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.[110] 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.[111] + +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. + +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. + + +II + +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 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. + +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,[112] 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.[113] +In France, the campaign against the 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 Arsene 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 gynaecologist, 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."[114] + +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.[115] +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 +that it was "due mainly to natural causes." [116] 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 of living children increases the +intervals between childbearing. As we have seen, there is a tendency, +though not a rigid and invariable necessity,[117] 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. + +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 +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.[118] 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. + +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. + +The delay in marriage, as studied in England, is so far apparently +slight; the mean age of marriage for 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.[119] This is illustrated by the specially elaborate statistics +of Scotland for 1855;[120] 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 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.[121] 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.[122] + +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. + +We begin to obtain a truer insight into the meaning 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.[123] 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. + +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.[124] 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. 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. + +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.[125] + +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.[126] + +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 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 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. + +Arsene 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.[127] + +When we thus interpret the crude facts of the falling 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.[128] 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.[129] This is now +becoming recognized by nearly all calm and sagacious inquirers.[130] 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.[131] + +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 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.[132] Udny +Yule, however, in an expertly statistical study of the matter,[133] 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 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 with the same rapidity, and then a new +factor, he thought, became important, viz. the increased intelligence of +the people."[134] 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.[135] + +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."[136] We thus see one reason why it is that, in an advanced stage +of civilization, a high marriage-rate 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. + +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. + +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 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 +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.[137] 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.[138] 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 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[139] +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 every country which +is using up its rural population and becoming a land of cities. + +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. + +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. + + +III + +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 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.[140] 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 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." + +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 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 +_Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain_, 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. + +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 +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. + +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.[141] 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 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.[142] + +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 Naecke 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.[143] + +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 +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. + +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, 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[144] 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." + +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 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. + + +IV + +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. + +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 aesthetic life, for 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 aesthetic perceptions, +its insight into the most delicate secrets of the soul.[145] 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 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,"[146] 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[90] 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. + +[91] The decline of the French birth-rate has been investigated in a +Lyons thesis by Salvat, _La Depopulation de la France_, 1903. + +[92] The latest figures are given in the Annual Reports of the +Registrar-General for England and Wales. + +[93] Newsholme and Stevenson, "Decline of Human Fertility as shown by +corrected Birth-rates," _Journal of the Royal Statistical Society_, +1906. + +[94] Werner Sombart, _International Magazine_, December, 1907. + +[95] A.W. Flux, "Urban Vital Statistics in England and Germany," _Journ. +Statist. Soc._, March, 1910. + +[96] German infantile mortality, Boehmert states ("Die +Saeuglingssterblichkeit in Deutschland und ihre Ursachen," _Die Neue +Generation_, 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 (_Mutterschutz_, 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. + +[97] 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," _Journal of the +Statistical Society_, 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. + +[98] _Medicine_, February, 1904. + +[99] Davidson, "The Growth of the French-Canadian Race," _Annals of the +American Academy_, September, 1896. + +[100] T.A. Coghlan, _The Decline of the Birth-rate of New South Wales_, +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. + +[101] C. Hamburger, "Kinderzahl und Kindersterblichkeit," _Die Neue +Generation_, August, 1909. + +[102] 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. + +[103] Johannsen, _Janus_, 1905. + +[104] Rubin, "A Measure of Civilization," _Journal of the Royal +Statistical Society_, 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. + +[105] Baines, "The Recent Growth of Population in Western Europe," +_Journal of the Royal Statistical Society_, December, 1909. + +[106] Various facts and references are given by Havelock Ellis, _The +Nationalization of Health_, chap. XIV. + +[107] These are the figures given by the chief Japanese authority, +Professor Takano, _Journal of the Royal Statistical Society_, July, +1910, p. 738. + +[108] E.A. Ross, "The Race Fibre of the Chinese," _Popular Science +Monthly_, 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. + +[109] J.J. Matignon, "La Mere et l'Enfant en Chine," _Archives +d'Anthropologie Criminelle_, October to November, 1909. + +[110] Arsene Dumont, for instance, points out (_Depopulation et +Civilization_, 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. + +[111] 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 (_The Conflict of Colour_, 1911), has been justly +criticized by Professor Weatherley (_Popular Science Monthly_, November, +1911). + +[112] 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. + +[113] 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. + +[114] J.G. Engelmann, "Decreasing Fecundity," _Philadelphia Medical +Journal_, January 18, 1902. + +[115] 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 +(_Depopulation et Civilisation_, chap. XVIII) 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, _Studies in the +Psychology of Sex_, 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. + +[116] McLean, "The Declining Birth-rate in Australia," _International +Medical Journal of Australasia_, 1904. + +[117] 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. + +[118] Sidney Webb, _Times_, October 11 and 16, 1906; also _Popular Science +Monthly_, 1906, p. 526. + +[119] 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. + +[120] They have been worked out by C.J. Lewis and J. Norman Lewis, +_Natality and Fecundity_, 1905. + +[121] Newsholme and Stevenson, _op. cit._; Rubin and Westergaard, +_Statistik der Ehen_, 1890, p. 95. + +[122] D. Heron, "On the Relation of Fertility in Man to Social Status," +_Drapers' Company Research Memoirs_, No. 1, 1906. + +[123] 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, _Hoeherentwicklung und Menschenoekonomie_, Vol. +I, 1911. + +[124] In a paper read at the Brunswick Meeting of the German +Anthropological Society (_Correspondenzblatt_ 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, _Das Weib_, Vol I, chap. XXIV. + +[125] 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. + +[126] 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. + +[127] Arsene Dumont, _Depopulation et Civilisation_, 1890, chap. VI. The +nature of the restraint on fertility has been well set forth by Dr. +Bushee ("The Declining Birth-rate and its Causes," _Popular Science +Monthly_, August, 1903), mainly in the terms of Dumont's "social +capillarity" theory. + +[128] Even Dr. Newsholme, usually so cautious and reliable an investigator +in this field, has been betrayed into a reference in this connection +(_The Declining Birth-rate_, 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. + +[129] 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," _Eugenics +Review_, 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. + +[130] For instance, Goldscheid, in _Hoeherentwicklung und +Menschenoekonomie_; it is also, on the whole, the conclusion of +Newsholme, though expressed in an exceedingly temperate manner, in his +_Declining Birth-rate_. + +[131] 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. + +[132] J. Holt Schooling, "The English Marriage Rate," _Fortnightly +Review_, June, 1901. + +[133] G. Udny Yule, "Changes in the Marriage-and Birth-rate in England," +_Journal of the Royal Statistical Society_, March, 1906. + +[134] At an earlier period Hooker had investigated the same subject +without coming to any very decisive conclusions ("Correlation of the +Marriage-rate with Trade," _Journ. Statistical Soc._, 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. + +[135] 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 (_op. cit._) 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." + +[136] Ploss, _Das Weib_, Vol. I, chap. XX. + +[137] 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. + +[138] Havelock Ellis, _A Study of British Genius_, pp. 22, 43. + +[139] "National Health: a Soldier's Study," _Contemporary Review_, +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. + +[140] 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," +_Journal of Mental Science_, 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. + +[141] 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 +(_British Medical Journal_, 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." + +[142] "The accumulations of racial experience tend to show," remarks Woods +Hutchinson ("Animal Marriage," _Contemporary Review_, 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." + +[143] Toulouse, _Causes de la Folie_, p. 91; Magri, _Archivio di +Psichiatria_, 1896, fasc. vi-vii; Havelock Ellis, _A Study of British +Genius_, pp. 106 et seq. + +[144] Emile Macquart, "Mortalite, Natalite, Depopulation," _Bulletin de la +Societe d'Anthropologie_, 1902. + +[145] 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 _Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation_, 1904, ch. +XXI, 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 _Open Court_, June, 1907). + +[146] _Athenaeum_, October 7, 1911. + + + + +VI + +EUGENICS AND LOVE + + 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 + + +I + +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 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.[147] + +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. + + +II + +Under these circumstances it was to be expected that a new ideal should +begin to flash before men's eyes. If the ideal of _quantity_ is lost to +us, why not seek the ideal of _quality_? 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? + +Thus has come about the recent expansion of that conception of +_Eugenics_, or the science and art of Good Breeding in the human race, +which a group of workers, pioneered by Francis Galton[148]--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 possess before. Instead of +being a benevolent scientific fad it begins to present itself as the +goal to which we are inevitably moving. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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. + + +III + +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 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.[149] 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 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. + +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.[150] + +In this way we shall, in time, be able to obtain a clear 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. + +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.[151] 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 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. + +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.[152] If it 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 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.[153] 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. + + +IV + +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 +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 +Mannhardt[154]--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 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. + +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. + +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.[155] That, however, 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.[156] 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 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. + +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.[157] 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.[158] + +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 +community, whether or not like a kind of new religion,[159] 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. + +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 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. + +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 _conseil de +revision_ 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 another union, for the chief danger in many +cases comes from the conjunction of convergent morbid tendencies.[160] 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.[161] In time, no 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.[162] 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. + +NOTE ON THE LIFE-HISTORY RECORD + +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 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." + +It is not necessary that the Galtonian type of Album should be rigidly +preserved, and I am indebted to "Henry Hamill," the author of _The Truth +We Owe to Youth_, for the following suggestions as to the way in which +such a record may be carried out: + +"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 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. + +"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, 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. + +"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: + +"'If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred' (Whitman). + +"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 _arcanum_--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. +_But as eugenics spread, concealment of taint will become almost +impracticable_, 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. + +"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 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. + +"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 _Utopia_, 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 _Utopia_. But the lovers might communicate their +life-histories to each other as a preliminary. + +"The whole plan would, of course, finally have to be over-hauled by the +so-called 'man of the world.'" + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[147] Dr. Scott Nearing, "Race Suicide _versus_ Over-Population," _Popular +Science Monthly_, January, 1911. And from the biological side Professor +Bateson concludes (_Biological Fact and the Structure of Society_, p. +23) that "it is in a decline in the birth-rate that the most promising +omen exists for the happiness of future generations." + +[148] 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 +_Memories of My Life_.) On his death, the editor of the _Popular Science +Monthly_ 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" +(_Popular Science Monthly_, _March_, 1911.) Probably most of those who +were brought, however slightly, in contact with these two fine +personalities will subscribe to this conclusion. + +[149] Galton chiefly studied the families to which men of intellectual +ability belong, especially in his _Hereditary Genius_ and _English Men +of Science_; various kinds of pathological families have since been +investigated by Karl Pearson and his co-workers (see the series of +_Biometrika_); 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. +_Eugenics Review_, April, 1911, and _Journal of Nervous and Mental +Disease_, November, 1911). + +[150] "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 _The Family +and the Nation_, 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." + +[151] The importance of such biographical records of aptitude and +character are so great that some, like Schallmayer (_Vererbung und +Auslese_, 2nd ed., 1910, p. 389) believe that they must be made +universally obligatory. This proposal, however, seems premature. + +[152] 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" +(_British Medical Journal_, November 18, 1911). + +[153] 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 _Nineteenth Century and After_ (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. + +[154] Mannhardt, _Wald-und Feldkulte_, 1875, Vol. I, pp. 422 _et seq._ I +have discussed seasonal erotic festivals in a study of "The Phenomena of +Sexual Periodicity," _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, Vol. I. + +[155] 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. + +[156] 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 _Studies in the +Psychology of Sex_, Vol. IV, "Sexual Selection in Man." + +[157] In other words, the process of tumescence is gradual and complex. +See Havelock Ellis, _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, Vol. III, "The +Analysis of the Sexual Impulse." + +[158] As Roswell Johnson remarks ("The Evolution of Man and its Control," +_Popular Science Monthly_, 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." + +[159] Galton looked upon eugenics as fitted to become a factor in religion +(_Essays in Eugenics_, 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 _Socialism and Eugenics_, "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 _The New Spirit_). + +[160] J. Grasset, in Dr. A. Marie's _Traite International de Psychologie +Pathologique_, 1910, Vol. I, p. 25. Grasset proceeds to discuss the +principles which must guide the physician in such consultations. + +[161] This has been clearly realized by the German Society of Eugenics or +"Racial Hygiene," as it is usually termed in Germany (Internationale +Gesellschaft fuer 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 _Eugenics +Review_) has done much to stimulate an intelligent interest in +eugenics. + +[162] 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. Belbeze, +who knows it thoroughly, writes (_La Neurasthenie Rurale_, 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." + + + + +VII + +RELIGION AND THE CHILD + + 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. + + +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. + +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 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. + +The mind of the child is at once logical and extravagant, matter-of-fact +and poetic or rather mytho-poeic. 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. + +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 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;[163] they are not infrequently subject to +colour-hearing and other synaesthetic 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. + +Of 48 Boston children, says Stanley Hall,[164] 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 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. + +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. + +Miss Miriam Levy once investigated the opinions of 560 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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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 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.[165] 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."[166] The child who grows devout and becomes anxious about the state +of his soul is a morbid 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. + +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 _want_ to believe +this and to learn it, but you've _got_ to." + +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. + +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.[167] 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.[168] 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. + +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 _a +priori_ 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 instruction they are not yet ready to receive is to deaden +their sensibilities to the whole subject of religion.[169] 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. + +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," 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. + +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 _La Nouvelle Heloise_, +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."[170] + +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 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 _authoritative_ 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."[171] + +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 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. + +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."[172] 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 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. + +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.[173] 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 +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."[174] 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. + +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 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 _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological +Expedition to Torres Straits_, and Dr. Haddon makes the comment: "It is +not easy to conceive of more effectual means for a rapid training." + +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 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. + +In how far the Christian sacraments were consciously moulded after the +model of the Greek mysteries is still a disputed point;[175] 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 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. + +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. + +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 taking place in all civilized countries.[176] The support which +the Secular Education League has found in the most various quarters is +without doubt a fact of impressive significance.[177] 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. + +It must, of course, be remembered that, so far as England is concerned, +we live in an empire in which there are 337 millions of people who are +not even nominally Christians,[178] 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 has not met +with so enormous and enthusiastic a reception as the languor and +formalism of the churches seemed to render possible. + +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.[179] The savage sees the 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 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. + +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. 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 _Dramatic Method of +Instruction_: "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."[180] + +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. + +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. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[163] De Quincey in his _Confessions of an Opium Eater_ 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 +(_Pedagogical Seminary_, 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, _The World of Dreams_, chap. II. + +[164] G. Stanley Hall, "The Contents of Children's Minds on Entering +School," _Pedagogical Seminary_, June, 1891. + +[165] "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, _Pedagogical +Seminary_, June, 1891, p. 199). + +[166] J. Morse, _American Journal of Religious Psychology_, 1911, p. 247. + +[167] Lobsien, "Kinderideale," _Zeitschrift fuer Paed. Psychologie_, 1903. + +[168] Mr. Edmond Holmes, formerly Chief Inspector of Elementary Education +in England, has an instructive remark bearing on this point in his +suggestive book, _What Is and What Might be_ (1911, p. 88): "The first +forty minutes of the morning session are given in almost every +elementary school to what is called _Religious Instruction_. 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 (_The +Dramatic Method of Teaching_, 1911, p. 170) with equal disapproval of +the notion that any moral value attaches to the ordinary school +examinations in "Scripture." + +[169] 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 (_op. cit._, 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." + +[170] _La Nouvelle Heloise_, Part V, Letter 3. In more recent times Ellen +Key remarks in a suggestive chapter on "Religions Education" in her +_Century of the Child_: "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." + +[171] J.S. Mill, _Letters_, Vol. II, p. 135. + +[172] Lancaster found ("The Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence," +_Pedagogical Seminary_, 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. + +[173] Professor Starbuck, in his _Psychology of Religion_, 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," _American +Journal of Psychology_, 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. + +[174] G. Stanley Hall, "The Moral and Religious Training of Children and +Adolescents," _Pedagogical Seminary_, 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 (_Independent +Review_, 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. + +[175] The varying opinions on this point have been fairly and clearly +presented by Cheetham in his Hulsean lectures on the _Mysteries Pagan +and Christian_. + +[176] 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. + +[177] See e.g. an article by Halley Stewart, President of the Secular +Education League, on "The Policy of Secular Education," _Nineteenth +Century_, April, 1911. + +[178] So far as numbers go, the dominant religion of the British Empire, +the religion of the majority, is Hinduism; Mohammedanism comes next. + +[179] "Not long ago," says Dr. L. Guthrie (_Clinical Journal_, 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." + +[180] In his interesting study of comparative education (_The Making of +Citizens_, 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 (_op. +cit._, p. 276) insists that the teaching of patriotism and citizenship +must be informal and indirect. + + + + +VIII + +THE PROBLEM OF SEXUAL HYGIENE + + 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. + + +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.[181] 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.[182] A few years ago, when the German Duerer 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.[183] We may +say that during the past ten years more has been done to influence +popular feeling on this question than during the whole of the preceding +century. + +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. + +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.[184] But in our own +traditions scarcely even a relic of any such custom is preserved. On the +contrary, we tacitly maintain 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.[185] 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 chastity, but in +ignorance of nearly everything that marriage signifies and involves, +alike for the individual and the coming race. + +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 _tabus_; we see it in the _tabus_ 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! + +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 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.[186] 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. + +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 +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 +formulae 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 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 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. + +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. + +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 education, to be real and +effective, must begin at an early age in the parents' life.[187] + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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.[188] + +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. + +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 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.[189] 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. + +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 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. + +"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."[190] We cannot too often +meditate on these wise words. + +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 nothing. It will modify our social +conventions, enter our family life, transform our moral outlook, perhaps +re-inspire our religion and our philosophy. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[181] For a full discussion of the movement, see Havelock Ellis, _Studies +in the Psychology of Sex_, Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society," chaps. +II and III. + +[182] 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, _La Reforme de l'Education +en Allemagne au Dix-huitieme Siecle_. + +[183] The best of these papers have been printed in a volume entitled _Am +Lebensquell_. + +[184] 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, _Reports of the Anthropological +Expedition to Torres Straits_, Vol. V, chaps. VII and XII. + +[185] Moll in his wise and comprehensive work, _The Sexual Life of the +Child_ (German ed., p. 225), lays it down emphatically that "_we must +clearly realize at the outset that the complete exclusion of sexual +stimuli in the education of children is impossible_." 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. + +[186] See Frau Maria Lischnewska's excellent pamphlet, _Geschlechtliche +Belehrung der Kinder_, first published in _Mutterschutz_, 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." + +[187] "We parents of to-day," as Henriette Fuerth truly says ("Erotik und +Elternpflicht," _Am Lebensquell_, 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." + +[188] 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. + +[189] Many flagrant cases in point are set forth from the legal point of +view by Theodore Schroeder, _"Obscene" Literature and Constitutional +Law_, New York, 1911, chap. IV. + +[190] Chamfort, _OEuvres Choisies_, ed. by Lescure, Vol. I, p. 33. + + + + +IX + +IMMORALITY AND THE LAW + + 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. + + +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 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. + +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."[191] As a community increases in size and in +cultivation, growing more heterogeneous, it adheres 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. + +This is why the vestigial relics of the ancient ecclesiastical view of +adultery as a "crime" are no longer supported by public opinion;[192] 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 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."[193] 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. + +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 +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.[194] 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." + +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 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.[195] 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.[196] 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 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. + +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, or less +effective, than the method of leaving it to social reaction. + +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 the other countries which have +constructed their codes on the French model have shown similar +tendencies. + +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."[197] 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 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 +_fiance_ to stay overnight in his house with her is liable to be dragged +before the police court and sent to prison for procuring immorality;[198] +to a Frenchman this is a shocking and inconceivable insult to private +rights.[199] So also with the German legal attitude towards sexual +inversion. The German method of 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.[200] 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." + +The question naturally arises: Which method is the more effective? +Wilhelm finds that these differences in 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." + +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. + +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.[201] We see this clearly in the fact 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. + +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, 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. + +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 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. + +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.[202] 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.[203] 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 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 +condemnation of a particular vicious act as a crime."[204] 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.[205] Its deadening 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. + +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.[206] In England the easier and more +usual plan is adopted of heavily 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. + +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.[207] + +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 +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 +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 Caesar +the things which are God's must always end thus. + +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. 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. + +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 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. + +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 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.[208] + +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 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.[209] + +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. + +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 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.[210] No more fortunate were +more recent municipal attempts in England and America (Portsmouth, +Pittsburgh, New York, etc.) to suppress prostitution off-hand; for the +most part they collapsed even in a few days. + +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 Napoleon was introduced homosexual acts, _per se_, 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.[211] + +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 +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. + +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 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" 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. + +These objections are not of a purely abstract or theoretical character. +They are based on the practical outcome 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, 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. + +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 a measure would introduce +intolerable social conditions, organized resistance and prevented the +acceptance of the Bill. + +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. + +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 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."[212] + +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. + +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 Sunday drinking; what they have really done +is to place a premium on prostitution[213]. + +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 +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."[214] 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. + +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, 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 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. + +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 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 _Dialogues des Amateurs_: "Quand la morale triomphe +il se passe des choses tres vilaines." + +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, 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.[215] + +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. + +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 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.[216] + +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 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. + +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 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,[217] 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 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. + +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.[218] +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 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. + +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 progress of civilisation, +and, indirectly, therefore, for the progress of morals.[219] 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. + +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 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." + +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, +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."[220] 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. + +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, 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. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[191] Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, Vol. I, p. +160; see also chapter on sexual morality in Havelock Ellis, _Studies in +the Psychology of Sex_, Vol. VI, "Sex in Relation to Society," chap. IX. + +[192] 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, _Precedents and Proceedings in Criminal Causes_ +(1847), which is, as the author states, "a History of the Moral Police +of the Church." + +[193] _The Social Evil in New York City_, p. 100. + +[194] This has been emphasized in an able and lucid discussion of this +question by Dr. Hans Hagen, "Sittliche Werturteile," _Mutterschutz_, +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. + +[195] Grabowsky, in criticizing Hiller's book, _Das Recht ueber sich Selbst_ +(_Archiv fuer Kriminalanthropologie und Kriminalistik_, 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. + +[196] 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. + +[197] I quote from a valuable and interesting study by Dr. Eugen Wilhelm, +"Die Volkspsychologischen Unterschiede in der franzoesischen und +deustchen Sittlichkeits-Gesetzgebung und Rechtsprechung," +_Sexual-Probleme_, 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, _Cornhill_, August, 1910. + +[198] 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 Strafwuerdig?" +_Die Neue Generation_, 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. + +[199] 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. + +[200] 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. + +[201] 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. + +[202] E.F. Fuld, Ph.D., _Police Administration_, 1909. + +[203] Ex-Police Commissioner Bingham, of New York, estimated (_Hampton's +Magazine_, 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 _The Social Evil in New York City_, p. 34. + +[204] Fuld, _op. cit._, pp. 373 _et seq._ This last opinion by no means +stands alone. Thus it is asserted by the Committee of Fourteen in their +Report on The _Social Evil in New York City_ (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." + +[205] 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! + +[206] 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. + +[207] Jacques Bertillon, in a paper read to the Academie des Sciences +Morales et Politiques, 30th September, 1911. + +[208] 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," _Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle_, April, +1911.) + +[209] 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. + +[210] J. Schrank, _Die Prostitution in Wien_, Bd. I, pp. 152-206. + +[211] The history of this movement in Germany may be followed in the +_Vierteljahrsberichte des Wissenschaftlich-humanitaeren Komitees_, edited +by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a great authority on the matter. + +[212] Report on _The Social Evil in New York City_, p. 38; see also Rev +Dr. J.P. Peters, "Suppression of the 'Raines Law Hotels,'" _American +Academy of Political and Social Science_, November, 1908. + +[213] 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. + +[214] _The Social Evil in Chicago_, p. 112. + +[215] 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, _Cornhill_, August, +1910), there are more disorderly houses in Geneva, in proportion to the +population, than in any other town in Europe. + +[216] See e.g. P. Hausmeister, "Zur Analyse der Prostitution," _Geschlect +und Gesellschaft_, 1907, p. 294. + +[217] Theodore Schroeder, _"Obscene" Literature and Constitutional Law_, +New York, 1911. + +[218] Thus Sir Samuel Dill (_Roman Society_, 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 (_The Church in the Roman Empire_, 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." Bouche-Leclercq (_L'Intolerance Religieuse et le +Politique_, 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. + +[219] 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 aesthetic and the +least vexatious religion in the world, in which all our science, all our +civilization, would have been free to progress" (Tarde, _La Logique +Sociale_, 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. + +[220] Nietzsche, _Beyond Good and Evil_, chap. II. A century earlier +Godwin had written in his _Political Justice_ (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." + + + + +X + +THE WAR AGAINST WAR + + 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. + + +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 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.[221] 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.[222] + +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.[223] 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 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: _Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?_ + +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 _Pax +Romana_, 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. + +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, 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.[224] + +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 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 +_History of Politics_, "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 +France, to submit international disputes, without reservation, to an +impartial tribunal represent an advance of peculiar significance. + +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. + +(1) _Growth of International Opinion._ 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 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, 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. + +(2) _International Financial Development._ 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 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. + +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 guaranteed +against war. Such points as these have of late been ably argued by +Norman Angell in his remarkable book, _The Great Illusion_, and for the +most part convincingly illustrated.[225] As was long since said, the +ancients cried, _Vae victis_! We have learnt to cry, _Vae victoribus_! + +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,[226] 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 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. + +(3) _The Decreasing Pressure of Population._ 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, 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. + +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 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. + +(4) _The Natural Exhaustion of the Warlike Spirit._ 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[227]--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 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. + +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.[228] Spain 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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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 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. + +(5) _The Growth of the Anti-Military Spirit._ 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. + +Among the leading nations, it is in France that the spirit of +anti-militarism has taken the deepest hold of the people, though in +some smaller lands, notably among the obstinately peaceable inhabitants +of Holland, the same spirit also flourishes. Herve, who is a leader of +the insurrectional socialists, as they are commonly called in opposition +to the purely parliamentary socialists led by Jaures,--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 Confederation Generale du +Travail as their central organization, are not usually anxious to +imitate what they consider the unduly timid methods of English trade +unionists;[229] 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 utility of a general strike +in preventing war."[230] 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.[231] + +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; 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.[232] + +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 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. + +(6) _The Over-growth of Armaments._ 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 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 _Diary_ 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. + +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 possible +limit to this process and its constantly increasing acceleration. + +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. + +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? + +(7) _The Dominance of Social Reform._ The final factor 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +Two centuries ago the Abbe 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 Abbe 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.[233] In this 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 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. + +[1] The Abbe de Saint-Pierre (1658-1743), a churchman without vocation, +was a Norman of noble family, and first published his _Memoires pour +rendre la Paix Perpetuelle a l'Europe_ in 1722. As Siegler-Pascal well +shows (_Les Projets de l'Abbe de Saint-Pierre_, 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 _The Project of +Perpetual Peace_" concludes Prof. Pierre Robert in a sympathetic summary +of his career (Petit de Julleville, _Histoire de la Langue et de la +Litterature Francaise_, 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. + +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 _Essay Towards the Present and +Future Peace of Europe by the Establishment of a European Diet, +Parliament or Estate_, proposed that if any imperial 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 _in abstracto_ 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."[234] 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. + +[1] Jules de Gaultier, "Comment Naissent les Dogmes," _Mercure de +France_, 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. + +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, "A 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 _Maine_. 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 other country has looked on its madness with the mocking calm of +clear-sighted intelligence, and perhaps with a pharisaical air of +virtuous indignation. + +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 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. + +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 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 Guerard, 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."[235] + +But, as we have seen, and as Guerard 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 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 Guerard 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. + +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 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. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[221] 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, _A History of Politics_. Steinmetz, who argues in favour of the +preservation of the method of war, in his book _Die Philosophie des +Krieges_ (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, _Nineteenth Century_, 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. + +[222] 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 _De la Solution +Juridique des Conflits Internationaux_ (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. + +[223] 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. + +[224] 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 +Cruce 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 Cruce have lately been studied by Prof. +Vesnitch, _Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique_, January, 1911). The history +of the various peace projects generally has been summarily related by +Lagorgette in _Le Role de la Guerre_, 1906, Part IV, chap. VI. + +[225] 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 (_Pall Mall +Gazette_, 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." + +[226] 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. + +[227] D. Starr Jordan, The Human Harvest, 1907; J. Novikov, La Guerre et +ses Pretendus Bienfaits, 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. + +[228] "The most demoralizing features in French military life," says +Professor Guerard, 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. + +[229] 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. + +[230] 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 (_Peace and War in the Balance_, 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." + +[231] J. Novikov, _Le Federation de l'Europe_, chap. iv. Olive Schreiner, +_Woman and Labour_, chap. IV. 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 (_Philosophie des Krieges_, 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. + +[232] 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. + +[233] The Abbe de Saint-Pierre (1658-1743), a churchman without vocation, +was a Norman of noble family, and first published his Memoires pour +rendre la Paix Perpetuelle a l'Europe in 1722. As Siegler-Pascal well +shows (Les Projets de l'Abbe de Saint-Pierre, 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 The Project of +Perpetual Peace" concludes Prof. Pierre Robert in a sympathetic summary +of his career (Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la Langue et de la +Litterature Francaise, 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. + +[234] Jules de Gaultier, "Comment Naissent les Dogmes," Mercure de +France, 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. + +[235] A.L. Guerard, "Impressions of Military Life in France," _Popular +Science Monthly_, April, 1911. + + + + +XI + +THE PROBLEM OF AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE + + Early Attempts to Construct an International Language--The Urgent + Need of an Auxiliary Language To-day--Volapuek--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. + + +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 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, Ampere, Jacob Grimm--have sought or +desired a solution to this problem.[236] None of these great men, however, +succeeded even in beginning an attempt to solve the problem they were +concerned with. + +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 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. + +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. The most famous of these was undoubtedly +Volapuek, 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. Volapuek 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 +Volapuek Congress was held, it was at the height of its success, but +thereafter dissension arose, and its reputation suddenly collapsed. No +one now speaks Volapuek; 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. + +The collapse of Volapuek 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 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. + +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. + +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 Romance tongues.[237] It is, moreover, spoken by a +vast number of people in South America and elsewhere. + +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. + +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.[238] It +is undoubtedly an admirable language, expressive, concentrated, precise. +But the objections are serious. The 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. + +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. + +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 +tend to replace all other peoples, both the people and the language +being regarded as the fittest to survive.[239] 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. + +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 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 +_pensee_ writers show, most easily lends itself to effects that are +meant for speech, as in Bossuet, or that recall speech, as in Mme de +Sevigne 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, 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 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. + +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, _boeuf_ and _mouton_ and _veau_ and _porc_ 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, 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. + +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 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,"[240] 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. + +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 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 +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 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. + +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. + +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.[241] At that time +France 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 +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. + +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 for other than commercial purposes, +English is nowhere. + +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.[242] + +The collapse of Volapuek 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.[243] + +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. + +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:[244] + +"_First_, 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 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: + +"_Second_, 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: + +"_Third_, 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. + +"_Fourth_, 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. + +"_Fifth_, it must be capable of being, not merely a literary +language,[245] 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. + +"_Finally_, 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, and hitherto conversant with no language but their own." + +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; Volapuek was then at the +zenith of its career, and when it fell, its fall discredited all +attempts at an artificial language. But, like Volapuek, 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 Volapuek. +Many years ago Max Mueller, 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. + +It is generally recognized that Esperanto represents a great advance on +Volapuek. Yet there are already signs that Esperanto is approaching the +climax of its reputation, and that possibly its inventor may share the +fate of the inventor of Volapuek 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 Delegation 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 Delegation +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 Delegation 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 conclusion that Esperanto contained a sufficient +number of good qualities to furnish a basis on which to work.[246] + +The general programme of the Delegation 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 Delegation.[247] + +The Delegation 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. + +The whole question seems thus to have been placed on a sounder basis +than hitherto. The international language 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. + +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. + +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. +Perhaps it is a chief factor in the comparative failure of such +congresses hitherto. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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. 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. + + +THE QUESTION ON INTERNATIONAL COINAGE + +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," _Popular +Science Monthly_, March, 1910) T.F. van Wagenen writes; "Each in its +way, the great 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 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." + +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. + +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. Rene de +Saussure (writing in the _Journal de Geneve_, 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[236] The history of the efforts to attain a universal language has been +written by Couturat and Leau, _Histoire de la Langue Universelle_, 1903. + +[237] 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." + +[238] 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 (_Lancet_, 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. + +[239] Thus in one article on the growing extension of the English language +throughout the world (_Macmillan's Magazine_, 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. + +[240] 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. + + "I'm taught p-l-o-u-g-h + Shall be pronounced 'plow,' + 'Zat's easy when you know,' I say, + 'Mon Anglais I'll get through.' + + "My teacher say zat in zat case + O-u-g-h is 'oo,' + And zen I laugh and say to him + 'Zees Anglais make me cough.' + + "He say, 'Not coo, but in zat word + O-u-g-h is "off,"' + Oh, _sacre bleu_! such varied sounds + Of words make me hiccough! + + "He say, 'Again, mon friend ees wrong! + O-u-g-h is "up," + In hiccough,' Zen I cry, 'No more, + You make my throat feel rough,' + + "'Non! non!' he cry, 'you are not right-- + O-u-g-h is "uff."' + I say, 'I try to speak your words, + I can't prononz zem though,' + + "'In time you'll learn, but now you're wrong, + O-u-g-h is "owe."' + 'I'll try no more. I sall go mad, + I'll drown me in ze lough!' + + "'But ere you drown yourself,' said he, + 'O-u-g-h is "ock."' + He taught no more! I held him fast, + And killed him wiz a rough!" + +[241] 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 Meray (_La Vie aux +Temps des Cours d'Amour_, 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 _Romance_ 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!" + +[242] I was at one time (_Progressive Review_, 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. + +[243] I may refer to three able papers which have appeared in recent years +in the _Popular Science Monthly_: Anna Monsch Roberts, "The Problem of +International Speech" (February, 1908); Ivy Kellerman, "The Necessity +for an International Language," (September, 1909); Albert Leon Guerard, +"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. + +[244] A.M. Roberts, _op. cit._ + +[245] 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. + +[246] See _International Language and Science_, 1910, by Couturat, +Jespersen, Lorenz, Ostwald, Pfaundler, and Donnan, five professors +living in five different countries. + +[247] The progress of the movement is recorded in its official journal, +_Progreso_, edited by Couturat, and in De Beaufront's journal, _La +Langue Auxiliaire_. + + + + +XII + +INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM + + 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. + + +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. + +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 becoming more and more transformed +into questions of social hygiene itself ensures the continuance of such +an opposition. + +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. + +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 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. + +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,[248] the +party of function is Individualism.[249] 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 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. + +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. + +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.[250] If, however, we keep +strictly to our immediate mammalian traditions it may be said that the +earliest socialist community 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. + +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. + +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 _un +egoisme a trois_. 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 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. + +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. + +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 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 +Schaeffle, Lilienfeld, and Rene 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.[251] 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.[252] + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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.[253] 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 man, as Ibsen argued in his _Enemy of the +People_, is the man who stands most alone. "He will be the greatest," +says Nietzsche in _Beyond Good and Evil_, "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. + +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 _Social +Contract_: "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 +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. + +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;[254] 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 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.[255] + +It so happens, however, that the capacity of the human brain is limited, +and a single brain is not made to hold 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. + +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 _via media_. 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. + +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. 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. + +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 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. + +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 it is a very difficult problem how to hold +them separate and allow each its due value.[256] + +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 Caesar the things that be +Caesar's, and unto God the things that be God's." But is education among +the things that belong to Caesar, 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 _education_ +means[257]--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. + +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 only lead to an +overburdened social organization which will speedily fall by its own +weight. + +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 +_laissez-faire_ school.[258] + +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. + +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. + +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,[259] 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 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.[260] + +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 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,[261] 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! + +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 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 ideal." 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[248] 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 _The +Civilization of Christendom_), "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. + +[249] The term "Individualism," like the term "Socialism," is used in +varying senses, and is not, therefore, satisfactory to everyone. Thus +E.F.B. Fell (_The Foundations of Liberty_, 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." + +[250] 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. + +[251] This idea was elaborated by Eimer in an appendix to his _Organic +Evolution_ on the idea of the individual in the animal kingdom. + +[252] 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. + +[253] 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. + +[254] Max Stirner wrote his work, _Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum_ (_The +Ego and His Own_, in the English translation of Byington), in 1845. His +life has been written by John Henry Mackay (_Max Stirner: Sein Leben und +Sein Werk_), and an interesting study of Max Stirner (whose real name +was Schmidt) will be found in James Huneker's _Egoists_. + +[255] In the introduction to my earliest book, _The New Spirit_ (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 +_Evolution of Capital_: "The _very raison d'etre_ 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 _Soul of Man_, "simply because it will lead +to Individualism." "Socialism denies economic Individualism for any," +says Karl Noetzel ("Zur Ethischen Begrundung des Sozialismus," +_Sozialistische Monatshefte_, 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 +_Contemporary Review_ in 1879. + +[256] An instructive illustration is furnished by the question of the +relation of the sexes, and elsewhere (_Studies in the Psychology of +Sex_, 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. + +[257] See, for instance, the opinion of the former Chief Inspector of +Elementary Schools in England, Mr. Edmond Holmes, _What Is and What +Might Be_ (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. + +[258] The phrase _Laissez faire_ 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, +_Le Mouvement Physiocratique en France_, 1910, Vol. II, p. 17). Properly +understood, it is not a maxim which any party need be ashamed to own. + +[259] I would again repeat that I do not regard legislation as a channel +of true eugenic reform. As Bateson well says (_op. cit._ 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." + +[260] "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, +_Greek Thinkers_, Eng. Trans., Vol. III, p. 13). + +[261] _Convito_, IV, 27. + + +THE END + + + + +INDEX + +(_Names of Authors quoted are italicized._) + + +Abortion, facultative, 99 + +Age of consent, 288 _et seq._ + +Aggeneration, 24 + +Alcohol, legislative control of, 277 _et seq._, 295 _et seq._ + +Alcoholism, 33, 41 + +_Allen, Grant_, 394 + +_Allen, W.H._, 11 + +Ancestry, the study of, 2 + +_Angell, Norman_, 321 + +_Anthony, Susan_, 111 + +Antimachus of Colophon, 117 + +Anti-militarism, 328 + +_Aristotle_, 403 + +_Ashby_, 33 + +_Asnurof_, 283 + +_Aubry_, 42 + +_Augustine_, St., 5 + +Australia, birth-rate in, 146 _et seq._, 162; + moral legislation in, 291 + +_Azoulay_, 188 + + +Bachofen, 91 + +_Baines, Sir J.A._, 153 + +_Barnes, Earl_, 223 + +_Basedow_, 244 + +_Bateson_, 27, 194, 402 + +Beatrice, Dante's, 122 + +Beaufront, L. de, 372, 373 + +Bebel, 71, 88 + +_Becker, R._, 118 + +_Belbeze_, 211 + +_Benecke, E.F.M._, 117 + +Bergsonian philosophy, 31 + +_Bertillon, G._, 63 + +_Bertillon, J._, 278 + +_Beveridge_, 171 + +Bible in religious education, 230, 240 + +_Billroth_, 353 + +_Bingham_, 274 + +Birth-rate, in France, 17, 136, 188; + in England, 17, 137; + in Germany, 17, 138; + in Russia, 25; + in United States, 141; + in Canada, 144; + in Australasia, 146, 162; + in Japan, 155; + in China, 156; + among savages, 167; + significance of a falling, 134 _et seq._; + in relation to death-rate, 7, 150 + +_Blease, W. Lyon_, 70 + +_Bloch, Iwan_, 93 + +_Boccaccio_, 119, 123 + +_Bodey_, 43, 201 + +_Boehmert_, 138 + +_Bonhoeffer_, 38 + +_Booth, C._, 177, 184 + +_Bosanquet_, 18, 383, 394 + +_Bouche-Leclercq_, 306 + +_Branthwaite_, 41 + +_Braun, Lily_, 139 + +_Brinton_, 351 + +Budin, 8 + +Bund fuer Mutterschutz, 96 + +_Burckhardt_, 123 + +_Burnham_, 221 + +_Bushee, F._, 11, 171 + +_Byington_, 393 + + +Camp, Maxime du, 50 + +Campanella, 27 + +Campbell, Harry, 179 + +Canada, birth-rate in, 144 _et seq._; + sexual hygiene in, 253 + +_Cantlie_, 179 + +_Carpenter, Edward_, 397 + +_Casper_, 91 + +Certificates, eugenic, 30, 44, 202 + +_Chadwick, Sir E._, 4, 184 + +_Chamfort_, 256 + +Chastity of German women, 88 + +_Cheetham_, 235 + +Chicago Vice Commission, 277, 295, 300 + +Child, psychology of, 218 + +Children, religious education of, 217 + +China, birth-rate in, 156 + +Christianity in relation to romantic love, 117 + +Chivalrous attitude towards women, 124 + +Civilization, what it consists in, 18 + +_Clayton_, 180 + +_Cobbe, F.P._, 50 + +Co-education, 58 + +_Coghlan, T.A._, 147, 161, 165, 166 + +Coinage, international, 378 + +Concubinage, legalized, 104 + +_Condorcet_, 50, 67 + +Confirmation, rite of, 236 + +Consent, age of, 288 _et seq._ + +Courts of Love, 119 + +_Couturat_, 350, 374 + +_Creed, J.M._, 291 + +Criminality and feeble-mindedness, 38 + +Cruce, Emeric, 315 + + +_Dante_, 122, 132 + +_Dareste_, 387, 396 + +_Davenport_, 35, 36, 44, 198 + +Death-rate in relation to birth-rate, 7, 150 + +Degenerate families, 41 _et seq._ + +Degeneration of race, alleged, 19 _et seq._, 37 + +_De Quincey_, 219 + +Descartes, 349 + +_Dickens_, 129 + +_Dill, Sir S._, 305 + +Disinfection, origin of, 5 + +Divorce, 62, 109 + +_Donkin, Sir H.B._, 39 + +_Donnan_, 374 + +Drunkenness, decrease of, 18 + +Dubois, P., 315 + +_Dugdale_, 42 + +_Dumont, Arsene_, 157, 160, 171 + + +Economic aspect of woman's movement, 52, 63 _et seq._ + +Education, 6, 47, 57, 71, 201, 217 _et seq._, 398 + +_Ehrenfels_, 25 + +_Eichholz_, 36 + +_Eimer_, 387 + +_Ellis, Havelock_, 15, 31, 40, 44, 49, 88, 100, 108, + 118, 130, 154, 161, 179, 186, 204, 206, 207, 220, 244, + 259, 369, 394 + +Enfantin, Prosper, 104 + +_Engelmann_, 142, 160, 165 + +English, characteristics of the, 2; + attitude towards immorality, 270; + language for international purposes, 355 _et seq._ + +Esperanto, 372 + +_Espinas_, 60 + +Eugenics, 12, 26 _et seq._, 107, 195 _et seq._, 399 _et seq._ + +Euthenics, 12 + +_Ewart, R.J._, 26, 172 + + +Factory legislation, 5 + +_Fahlbeck_, 22 + +Fairy tales in education, 239 + +Family, limitation of, 16, 26 + +Family in relation to degeneracy, 41; + size of, 35 + +Feeble-minded, problem of the, 31 _et seq._ + +_Fell, E.F.B._, 383 + +Ferrer, 318 + +Fertility in relation to prosperity, 169 _et seq._ + +_Fiedler_, 229 + +_Finlay-Johnson, H._, 227, 242 + +_Firenzuola_, 123 + +"Fit," the term, 44 + +_Flux_, 138 + +_Forel_, 93 + +France, birth-rate in, 17, 136, 188; + women and love in, 119; + legal attitude towards immorality in, 265; + regulation of alcohol in, 278 + +_Franklin, B._, 142, 327 + +_Fraser, Mrs._, 115 + +French language for international purposes, 364 _et seq._ + +Frenssen, 95 + +_Freud_, S., 92 + +_Fuld, E.F._, 274, 276 + +_Fuerch, Henriette_, 252 + + +_Galton, Sir F._, 28, 29, 44, 45, 107, 195, 197, 198, 200, 203, 208, 402 + +_Gaultier, J. de_, 342 + +_Gautier, Leon_, 119 + +_Gavin, H._, 184 + +_Gayley, Julia_, 420 + +Germany, sex questions in, 87 _et seq._; + illegitimacy in, 97; + sexual hygiene in, 94; + legal attitude towards immorality in, 265, 301 + +_Giddings_, 46 + +_Godden_, 35, 198 + +_Godwin, W._, 309 + +_Goethe_, 128, 131 + +_Goldscheid_, 167, 173 + +_Gomperz_, 403 + +_Goncourt_, 120 + +Gouges, Olympe de, 68 + +_Gourmont, Remy de_, 122, 299, 317 + +_Gournay, Marie de_, 110 + +_Grabowsky_, 263 + +_Grasset_, 209 + +_Gruenspan_, 97 + +_Guerard_, 325, 346, 369 + +_Guthrie, L._, 239 + + +_Haddon, A.C._, 234, 245 + +_Hagen_, 262 + +_Hale, Horatio_, 351 + +_Hales, W.W._, 260 + +_Hall, G. Stanley_, 220, 224, 232, 233, 303 + +_Hamburger, C._, 151 + +_Hamill, Henry_, 213 + +_Hausmeister, P._, 302 + +_Hayllar, F._, 233 + +Health, nationalization of, 15 + +Health visitors, 7 + +_Hearn, Lafcadio_, 191 + +_Henry, W.O._, 252 + +Heredity of feeble-mindedness, 34; + as the hope of the race, 44; + study of, 198 + +_Heron_, 19, 166 + +_Herve_, 329 + +_Hiller_, 263, 267 + +_Hinton, James_, 133 + +_Hirschfeld, Magnus_, 92, 286 + +_Hobbes_, 313 + +Holland, moral legislation in, 291 + +_Holmes, Edmond_, 227, 228 + +Homosexuality and the law, 283, 286 + +_Hookey, N.A._, 174 + +_Hughes, R.E._, 242 + +_Humboldt, W. von_, 61, 106 + +_Huneker_, 393 + +Hungary, birth-rate and death-rate in, 169 + +_Hutchinson, Woods_, 186 + +Hygiene, in medieval and modern times, 5; + of sex, 244 _et seq._ + + +Idiocy, 32 _et seq._ + +Ido, 373 + +Illegitimacy, and feeble-mindedness, 37; + in Germany, 97 + +Imbecility, 32 _et seq._ + +Individualism, 3, 381 _et seq._ + +Industrialism, modern, 2 + +Inebriety and feeble-mindedness, 41 + +Infant consultations, 8 + +Infantile mortality, 7, 13, 25, 138, 150 _et seq._ + +Initiation of youth, 234 + +Insurance, national, 15 + +International language of the future, 349 _et seq._ + + +_James, E.C._, 123 + +James, William, 195 + +Japan, romantic love in, 115; + birth-rate and death-rate in, 155; + changed conditions in, 191, 322 + +_Jenks, E._, 312, 316 + +_Johannsen_, 152 + +_Johnson, Roswell_, 207 + +_Jordan, D.S._, 324 + +_Joerger_, 42 + +Jukes family, 41 + + +_Kaan_, 91 + +_Kellerman, Ivy_, 369 + +_Key, Ellen_, 100 _et seq._, 130, 229, 394 + +_Kirkup_, 384 + +_Krafft-Ebing_, 92 + +_Krauss, F.S._, 92 + +_Kuczynski_, 142 + + +Labour movement and war, 329 + +_La Chapelle, E.P._, 145 + +_Lacour, L._, 68 + +_Lagorgette_, 315 + +Laissez-faire, the maxim of, 3, 400 + +_Lancaster_, 231 + +Language, international, 349 _et seq._ + +Latin as an international language, 354 + +_Lavelege, E. de_, 321 + +Law, in relation to eugenics, 30, 45; + to morals, 48; + the sphere of, 312 + +_Lea_, 88 + +_Leau_, 350 + +_Leibnitz_, 350 + +_Levy, Miriam_, 221 + +_Lewis, C.J. and J.N._, 165 + +Lichtenstein, Ulrich von, 118 + +Life-history albums, 199, 212 _et seq._ + +_Lischnewska, Maria_, 248 + +_Lobsien_, 226 + +_Loomis, C.B._, 361 + +_Lorenz_, 21, 373 + +Love, and the woman's question, 59, 101, 113 _et seq._; + and eugenics, 203 _et seq._ + +Luther, 94, 228, 306 + + +Mackay, J.H., 393 + +_Macnamara, N.C._, 179 + +_Macquart_, 188 + +Maine, prohibition in, 279 + +_Mannhardt_, 204 + +_Manouvrier_, 86 + +_Marcuse, Max_, 94 + +Marriage, certificates for, 30, 44, 45, 209; + economics and, 61; + natural selection and, 204; + State regulation of, 61 _et seq._; + the ideal of, 101; + in classic times, 114 + +Marriage-rate, 139, 164, 173 + +_Matignon_, 156 + +Matriarchal theory, 49 + +_Maurice, Sir F._, 180 + +_McLean_, 161 + +_Meisel-Hess, Grete_, 109, 130 + +_Meray_, 119, 365 + +_Mercier_, C., 20 + +Meredith, George, 129 + +Miele, 9 + +_Miers_, 354 + +Milk Depots, 8 + +_Mill_, J.S., 52, 71 + +_Moll_, 92, 93, 246 + +_Montaigne_, 115 + +_Montesquieu_, 37 + +_Moore, B._, 15, 185 + +Morals in relation to law, 48, 258 _et seq._ + +More, Sir T., 29 + +_Morgan, L._, 66 + +_Morse, J._, 224 + +Mortality of infants, 7, 13, 25, 138, 150 _et seq._ + +Motherhood in relation to eugenics, 46 + +Mothers, schools for, 9 + +_Mougins-Roquefort_, 312 + +Municipal authorities to instruct in limitation of offspring, duty of, 26 + +_Muralt_, 2 + +Mysteries, Pagan and Christian, 235 + + +_Naecke_, 186 + +Napoleon, 69, 265 + +_Nars, L._, 69 + +National Insurance, 15 + +Nationalization of health, 15 + +Natural selection and social reform, 13 + +_Nearing, Scott_, 194 + +Neo-Malthusianism, 16, 26, 102, 159 _et seq._ + +_Nevinson, H.W._, 330 + +_Newsholme_, 7, 19, 137, 166, 172 + +New Zealand, birth-rate in, 148 + +_Nietzsche_, 190, 309, 334, 392 + +_Niphus_, 123 + +Norway, infantile mortality in, 14 + +_Noetzel_, R., 394 + +_Novikov_, 324, 330, 342 + +Noys, H., 29 + +_Nystroem_, 26 + + +Obscenity, 255, 304 + +Oneida, 29 + +Ovid, 114, 132 + +Owen, Robert, 51 + + +Pankhurst, Mrs., 85 + +_Partridge, G.L._, 219 + +_Paul, Eden_, 208 + +_Pearson, Karl_, 198 + +_Penn, W._, 341 + +_Perrycoste, F.H._, 212 + +_Peters, J.P._, 293 + +_Pfaundler_, 371 + +Pinard, J., 252 + +_Pinloche_, 244 + +_Plate_, 185 + +_Ploetz_, 210 + +_Ploss_, 167, 176 + +Police systems, 274 + +Post Office, inquisition at the, 276 + +Prohibition of alcohol in Maine, 279 + +Prosperity in relation to fertility, 169 _et seq._ + +Prostitution, and feeble-mindedness, 38; + and sexual selection, 60; + varying legal attitude towards, 285, 296 + +Puberty, psychic influence of, 231 _et seq._ + +Puericulture, 7 + + +Quakers, 270 + +Quarantine, origin of, 5 + + +Race, alleged degeneration of, 19 _et seq._, 37 + +Raines Law hotels, 293 _et seq._ + +_Ramsay, Sir W.M._, 305 + +_Ranke, Karl_, 169 + +_Raschke, Marie_, 99 + +Reform, Social hygiene as distinct from sexual, 1; + four stages of social, 4 _et seq._ + +_Reibmayr_, 22 + +Religion, and eugenics, 208; + and the child, 217 _et seq._ + +Reproduction, control of, 17 + +_Richards, Ellen_, 12 + +_Richardson, Sir B.W._, 65 + +_Robert, P._, 340 + +_Roberts, A.M._, 369, 370 + +Roman Catholics and Neo-Malthusianism, 161 + +Roseville, 173 + +_Ross, E.A._, 156 + +_Rousseau_, 229 + +_Rubin_, 153, 166 + +_Ruediger_, 232 + +Rural life, influence of, 177 _et seq._ + +_Russell, Mrs. B._, 9 + +Russia, infantile mortality in, 14, 154, 168; + moral legislation in, 282 + +_Ryle, R.J._, 33 + + +Sacraments, origin of Christian, 235 + +Saint-Pierre, Abbe de, 339 + +Saint-Simon, 51, 104 + +St. Valentine and eugenics, 203 + +Sand, George, 50, 105 + +Sanitation as an element of social reform, 4 + +_Saussure, R. de_, 380 + +_Sayer, E._, 35 + +_Schallmayer_, 200 + +_Schiff, M._, 110 + +Schleyer, 352 + +_Schooling, J.H._, 174 + +Schools for mothers, 9 + +_Schrader, O._, 88 + +_Schreiner, Olive_, 130, 330 + +_Schroeder, T._, 255, 304 + +Science and social reform, 11 + +_Sellers, E._, 266, 301 + +Sex questions in Germany, 87 _et seq._ + +Sexual hygiene, 244 _et seq._, 309 + +Sexual selection, 59, 203 _et seq._ + +Shaftesbury, Earl of, 6 + +_Sherwell, A._, 280 + +_Shrank, J._, 285 + +_Siegler-Pascal_, 339 + +_Sitwell, Sir G._, 327 + +_Smith, Sir T._, 120 + +_Smith, T.P._, 180 + +Social reform as distinct from social hygiene, 1; + its four stages, 4 _et seq._ + +Socialism, 18, 208, 381 _et seq._ + +Society of the future, 55 + +_Sollier_, 354 + +_Solmi_, 28 + +_Sombart_, 138 + +Spain, legalized concubinage in, 104; + women in, 129 + +Spanish as an international language, 353 + +_Stanton, E.C._, 85 + +_Starbuck_, 232 + +_Steinmetz_, 312, 331 + +_Steele_, 27 + +Sterilization, 30, 44, 46 + +Sterility and the birth-rate, 164 + +_Stevenson_, 19 + +_Stewart, A._, 237 + +_Stewart, R.S._, 182 + +_Stirner, Max_, 393 + +Stirpiculture, 29 + +_Stoecker, H._, 96 + +_Streitberg, Countess von_, 99 + +Suffrage, woman's, 50, 57, 71 _et seq._ + +Sully, 315, 340 + +Sun, City of the, 27 + +_Sutherland, A._, 312 + +_Sykes_, 9 + +Syndicalism, 329 + +Syphilis, 32 + + +_Taine_, 128, 313 + +_Takano_, 155 + +_Tarde_, 132, 307 + +_Thompson, W._, 51 + +_Toulouse_, 45, 186 + +Tramps and feeble-mindedness, 41 + +_Tredgold_, 34 + + +United States, birth-rate in, 140 _et seq._; + sexual hygiene in, 254; + attitude towards immorality in, 273 _et seq._ + +Urban life, influence of, 177 _et seq._ + + +Vasectomy, 31 + +Venereal disease and sexual hygiene, 254 + +_Vesnitch_, 315 + +Vineland, 34 + +Volapuek, 352 + + +_Wagenen, W.F. van_, 378 + +War against war, 311 _et seq._ + +Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 76 + +_Weale, B.L. Putnam_, 157 + +_Weatherby_, 157 + +_Webb, Sidney_, 156, 163 + +_Weeks_, 35, 36 + +_Weinberg, S._, 99 + +_Wentworth, S._, 173 + +_Westergaard_, 166 + +_Westermarck_, 559 + +_Weuleresse_, 400 + +Wheeler, Mrs., 52 + +White slave trade, 288 + +_Whetham, W.C.D. and Mrs._, 199 + +_Whitman, Walt_, 66, 403 + +_Wilcox, W.F._, 141 + +_Wilde, O._, 394 + +_Wilhelm, C._, 266 + +_Wollstonecraft, Mary_, 50, 69, 70, 111 + +Woman, and eugenics, 46; + movement, 49 _et seq._; + economics, 63 _et seq._; + eighteenth century, 69, 128; + and the suffrage, 50, 57, 71 _et seq._; + of the Italian Renaissance, 123; + in Spanish literature, 129; + and war, 330 + + +_Yule, G. Udny_, 139, 174 + + +Zamenhof, 372 + +Zero family, 42 + +_Ziller_, 240 + + + WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD. + PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH + + + + * * * * * + + + +Transcriber's notes: + + With the following exceptions spelling and punctuation of the + original text have been maintained: + + 1. Obvious typographical errors and punctuation inconsistencies. + 2. Chapter V, Par 16 "high death-rate" has been changed to + "high birth-rate". + 3. Chapter VII Par 16 "precocious sexual" has been changed to "precocious + scriptural". + 4. Ligatured words "mytho-poeic", "OEuvres", and "boef" have been left + unligatured. + 5. Italicized words have been surrounded with underline "_". + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TASK OF SOCIAL HYGIENE*** + + +******* This file should be named 22090.txt or 22090.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/0/9/22090 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +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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