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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19848-8.txt b/19848-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..934e5df --- /dev/null +++ b/19848-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10964 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman and Womanhood, by C. W. Saleeby + +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: Woman and Womanhood + A Search for Principles + +Author: C. W. Saleeby + +Release Date: November 17, 2006 [EBook #19848] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +BY DR. C. W. SALEEBY + +WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD +HEALTH, STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS +THE CYCLE OF LIFE +EVOLUTION: THE MASTER KEY +WORRY: THE DISEASE OF THE AGE +THE CONQUEST OF CANCER: A PLAN OF CAMPAIGN +PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD + +A SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES + +by +C. W. SALEEBY +M.D., F.R.S.E., Ch.B., F.Z.S. + +Fellow of the Obstetrical Society of Edinburgh and formerly +Resident Physician Edinburgh Maternity Hospital; +Vice-President Divorce Law Reform Union; Member of the +Royal Institution and of Council of the Sociological Society. + +MITCHELL KENNERLEY +NEW YORK AND LONDON +MCMXI + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Copyright 1911 by +Mitchell Kennerley + +Press of J. J. Little & Ives Co. +East Twenty-fourth Street +New York + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + CONTENTS + + PAGE + I. FIRST PRINCIPLES 1 + II. THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME 34 + III. THE PURPOSE OF WOMANHOOD 52 + IV. THE LAW OF CONSERVATION 64 + V. THE DETERMINATION OF SEX 72 + VI. MENDELISM AND WOMANHOOD 81 + VII. BEFORE WOMANHOOD 92 + VIII. THE PHYSICAL TRAINING OF GIRLS 99 + IX. THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 128 + X. THE PRICE OF PRUDERY 132 + XI. EDUCATION FOR MOTHERHOOD 151 + XII. THE MATERNAL INSTINCT 163 + XIII. CHOOSING THE FATHERS OF THE FUTURE 193 + XIV. THE MARRIAGE AGE FOR GIRLS 197 + XV. THE FIRST NECESSITY 219 + XVI. ON CHOOSING A HUSBAND 234 + XVII. THE CONDITIONS OF MARRIAGE 258 + XVIII. THE CONDITIONS OF DIVORCE 291 + XIX. THE RIGHTS OF MOTHERS 296 + XX. WOMEN AND ECONOMICS 327 + XXI. THE CHIEF ENEMY OF WOMEN 348 + XXII. CONCLUSION 386 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FIRST PRINCIPLES + + +We are often and rightly reminded that woman is half the human race. It +is truer even than it appears. Not only is woman half of the present +generation, but present woman is half of all the generations of men and +women to come. The argument of this book, which will be regarded as +reactionary by many women called "advanced"--presumably as doctors say +that a case of consumption is "advanced"--involves nothing other than +adequate recognition of the importance of woman in the most important of +all matters. It is true that my primary concern has been to furnish, for +the individual woman and for those in charge of girlhood, a guide of +life based upon the known physiology of sex. But it is a poor guide of +life which considers only the transient individual, and poorest of all +in this very case. + +If it were true that woman is merely the vessel and custodian of the +future lives of men and women, entrusted to her ante-natal care by their +fathers, as many creeds have supposed, then indeed it would be a +question of relatively small moment how the mothers of the future were +chosen. Our ingenious devices for ensuring the supremacy of man lend +colour to this idea. We name children after their fathers, and the fact +that they are also to some extent of the maternal stock is obscured. + +But when we ask to what extent they are also of maternal stock, we find +that there is a rigorous equality between the sexes in this matter. It +is a fact which has been ignored or inadequately recognized by every +feminist and by every eugenist from Plato until the present time. +Salient qualities, whether good or ill, are more commonly displayed by +men than by women. Great strength or physical courage or endurance, +great ability or genius, together with a variety of abnormalities, are +much more commonly found in men than in women, and the eugenic emphasis +has therefore always been laid upon the choice of fathers rather than of +mothers. Not so long ago, the scion of a noble race must marry, not at +all necessarily the daughter of another noble race, but rather any young +healthy woman who promised to be able to bear children easily and suckle +them long. But directly we observe, under the microscope, the facts of +development, we discover that each parent contributes an exactly equal +share to the making of the new individual, and all the ancient and +modern ideas of the superior value of well-selected fatherhood fall to +the ground. Woman is indeed half the race. In virtue of expectant +motherhood and her ante-natal nurture of us all, she might well claim +to be more, but she is half at least. + +And thus it matters for the future at least as much how the mothers are +chosen as how the fathers are. This remains true, notwithstanding that +the differences between men, commending them for selection or rejection, +seem so much more conspicuous and important than in the case of women. + +For, in the first place, the differences between women are much greater +than appear when, for instance, we read history as history is at present +understood, or when we observe and compare the world and his wife. +Uniformity or comparative uniformity of environment is a factor of +obvious importance in tending to repress the natural differences between +women. Reverse the occupations and surroundings of the sexes, and it +might be found that men were "much of a muchness," and women various and +individualized, to a surprising extent. + +But, even allowing for this, it is difficult to question that men as +individuals do differ, for good and for evil, more than women as +individuals. Such a malady as hæmophilia, for instance, sharply +distinguishes a certain number of men from the rest of their sex, +whereas women, not subject to the disease, are not thus distinguished, +as individuals. + +But the very case here cited serves to illustrate the fallacy of +studying the individual as an individual only, and teaches that there is +a second reason why the selection of women for motherhood is more +important than is so commonly supposed. In the matter of, for instance, +hæmophilia, men appear sharply contrasted among themselves and women all +similar. Yet the truth is that men and women differ equally in this very +respect. Women do not suffer from hæmophilia, but they convey it. Just +as definitely as one man is hæmophilic and another is not, so one woman +will convey hæmophilia and another will not. The abnormality is present +in her, but it is latent; or, as we shall see the Mendelians would say, +"recessive" instead of "dominant." + +Now I am well assured that if we could study not only the patencies but +also the latencies of individuals of both sexes, we should find that +they vary equally. Women, as individuals, appear more similar than men, +but as individuals conveying latent or "recessive" characters which will +appear in their children, especially their male children, they are just +as various as men are. The instance of hæmophilia is conclusive, for two +women, each equally free from it, will respectively bear normal and +hæmophilic children; but this is probably only one among many far more +important cases. I incline to believe that certain nervous qualities, +many of great value to humanity, tend to be latent in women, just as +hæmophilia does. Two women may appear very similar in mind and capacity, +but one may come of a distinguished stock, and the other of an +undistinguished. In the first woman, herself unremarkable, high ability +may be latent, and her sons may demonstrate it. It is therefore every +whit as important that the daughters of able and distinguished stock +shall marry as that the sons shall. It remains true even though the +sons may themselves be obviously distinguished and the daughters may +not. + +The conclusion of this matter is that scientific inquiry completely +demonstrates the equal importance of the selection of fathers and of +mothers. If our modern knowledge of heredity is to be admitted at all, +it follows that the choice of women for motherhood is of the utmost +moment for the future of mankind. Woman is half the race; and the +leaders of the woman's movement must recognize the importance of their +sex in this fundamental question of eugenics. At present they do not do +so; indeed, no one does. But the fact remains. As before all things a +Eugenist, and responsible, indeed, for that name, I cannot ignore it in +the following pages. There is not only to-day to think of, but +to-morrow. The eugenics which ignores the natural differences between +women as individuals, and their still greater natural differences as +potential parents, is only half eugenics; the leading women who in any +way countenance such measures as deprive the blood of the future of its +due contribution from the best women of the present, are leading not +only one sex but the race as a whole to ruin. + +If women were not so important as Nature has made them, none of this +would matter. To insist upon it is only to insist upon the importance of +the sex. The remarkable fact, which seems to me to make this protest and +the forthcoming pages so necessary, is that the leading feminists do not +recognize the all-importance of their sex in this regard. They must be +accused of neglecting it and of not knowing how important they are. They +consider the present only, and not the composition of the future. Like +the rest of the world, I read their papers and manifestoes, their +speeches and books, and have done so, and have subscribed to them, for +years; but no one can refer me to a single passage in any of these where +any feminist or suffragist, in Great Britain, at least, militant or +non-militant, has set forth the principle, beside which all others are +trivial, that _the best women must be the mothers of the future_. + +Yet this which is thus ignored matters so much that other things matter +only in so far as they affect it. As I have elsewhere maintained, the +eugenic criterion is the first and last of every measure of reform or +reaction that can be proposed or imagined. Will it make a better race? +Will the consequence be that more of the better stocks, _of both sexes_, +contribute to the composition of future generations? In other words, the +very first thing that the feminist movement must prove is that it is +eugenic. If it be so, its claims are unchallengeable; if it be what may +contrariwise be called _dysgenic_, no arguments in its favour are of any +avail. Yet the present champions of the woman's cause are apparently +unaware that this question exists. They do not know how important their +sex is. + +Thinkers in the past have known, and many critics in the present, though +unaware of the eugenic idea, do perceive, that woman can scarcely be +better employed than in the home. Herbert Spencer, notably, argued that +we must not include, in the estimate of a nation's assets, those +activities of woman the development of which is incompatible with +motherhood. To-day, the natural differences between individuals of both +sexes, and the importance of their right selection for the transmission +of their characters to the future, are clearly before the minds of those +who think at all on these subjects. On various occasions I have raised +this issue between Feminism and Eugenics, suggesting that there are +varieties of feminism, making various demands for women which are +utterly to be condemned because they not merely ignore eugenics, but are +opposed to it, and would, if successful, be therefore ruinous to the +race. + +Ignored though it be by the feminist leaders, this is the first of +questions; and in so far as any clear opinion on it is emerging from the +welter of prejudices, that opinion is hitherto inimical to the feminist +claims. Most notably is this the case in America, where the dysgenic +consequences of the _so-called_ higher education of women have been +clearly demonstrated. + +The mark of the following pages is that they assume the principle of +what we may call Eugenic Feminism, and that they endeavour to formulate +its working-out. It is my business to acquaint myself with the +literature of both eugenics and feminism, and I know that hitherto the +eugenists have inclined to oppose the claims of feminism, Sir Francis +Galton, for instance, having lent his name to the anti-suffrage side; +whilst the feminists, one and all, so far as Anglo-Saxondom is +concerned--for Ellen Key must be excepted--are either unaware of the +meaning of eugenics at all, or are up in arms at once when the +eugenist--or at any rate this eugenist, who is a male person--mildly +inquires: But what about motherhood? and to what sort of women are you +relegating it by default? + +I claim, therefore, that there is immediate need for the presentation of +a case which is, from first to last, and at whatever cost, eugenic; but +which also--or, rather, therefore--makes the highest claims on behalf of +woman and womanhood, so that indeed, in striving to demonstrate the vast +importance of the woman question for the composition of the coming race, +I may claim to be much more feminist than the feminists. + +The problem is not easily to be solved; otherwise we should not have +paired off into insane parties, as on my view we have done. Nor will the +solution please the feminists without reserve, whilst it will grossly +offend that abnormal section of the feminists who are distinguished by +being so much less than feminine, and who little realize what a poor +substitute feminism is for feminity. + +There is possible no Eugenic Feminism which shall satisfy those whose +simple argument is that woman must have what she wants, just as man +must. I do not for a moment admit that either men or women or children +of a smaller growth are entitled to everything they want. "The divine +right of kings," said Carlyle, "is the right to be kingly men"; and I +would add that the divine right of women is the right to be queenly +women. Until this present time, it was never yet alleged as a final +principle of justice that whatever people wanted they were entitled to, +yet that is the simple feminist demand in a very large number of cases. +It is a demand to be denied, whilst at the same time we grant the right +of every man and of every woman to opportunities for the best +development of the self; whatever that self may be--including even the +aberrant and epicene self of those imperfectly constituted women whose +adherence to the woman's cause so seriously handicaps it. + +But it is one thing to say people should have what is best for them, and +another that whatever they want is best for them. If it is not best for +them it is not right, any more than if they were children asking for +more green apples. Women have great needs of which they are at present +unjustly deprived; and they are fully entitled to ask for everything +which is needed for the satisfaction of those needs; but nothing is more +certain than that, at present, many of them do not know what they should +ask for. Not to know what is good for us is a common human failing; to +have it pointed out is always tiresome, and to have this pointed out to +women by any man is intolerable. But the question is not whether a man +points it out, presuming to tell women what is good for them, but +whether in this matter he is right--in common with the overwhelming +multitude of the dead of both sexes. + +As has been hinted, the issue is much more momentous than any could have +realized even so late as fifty years ago. It is only in our own time +that we are learning the measure of the natural differences between +individuals, it is only lately that we have come to see that races +cannot rise by the transmission of acquired characters from parents to +offspring, since such transmission does not occur, and it is only within +the last few years that the relative potency of heredity over education, +of nature over nurture, has been demonstrated. Not one in thousands +knows how cogent this demonstration is, nor how absolutely conclusive is +the case for the eugenic principle in the light of our modern knowledge. +At whatever cost, we see, who have ascertained the facts, that we must +be eugenic. + +This argument was set forth in full in the predecessors of this book, +which in its turn is devoted to the interests of women as individuals. +But before we proceed, it is plainly necessary to answer the critic who +might urge that the separate questions of the individual and the race +cannot be discussed in this mixed fashion. The argument may be that if +we are to discuss the character and development and rights of women as +individuals, we must stick to our last. Any woman may question the +eugenic criterion or say that it has nothing to do with her case. She +claims certain rights and has certain needs; she is not so sure, +perhaps, about the facts of heredity, and in any case she is sure that +individuals--such as herself, for instance--are ends in themselves. She +neither desires to be sacrificed to the race, nor does she admit that +any individual should be so sacrificed. She is tired of hearing that +women must make sacrifices for the sake of the community and its +future; and the statement of this proposition in its new eugenic form, +which asserts that, at all costs, the finest women must be mothers, and +the mothers must be the finest women, is no more satisfactory to her +than the crude creed of the Kaiser that children, cooking and church are +the proper concerns of women. She claims to be an individual, as much as +any man is, as much as any individual of either sex whom we hope to +produce in the future by our eugenics, and she has the same personal +claim to be an end in and for herself as they will have whom we seek to +create. Her sex has always been sacrificed to the present or to the +immediate needs of the future as represented by infancy and childhood; +and there is no special attractiveness in the prospect of exchanging a +military tyranny for a eugenic tyranny: "_plus ça change, plus c'est la +même chose._" + +One cannot say whether this will be accepted as a fair statement of the +woman's case at the present time, but I have endeavoured to state it +fairly and would reply to it that its claims are unquestionable and that +we must grant unreservedly the equal right of every woman to the same +consideration and recognition and opportunity as an individual, an end +in and for herself, whatever the future may ask for, as we grant to men. + +But I seek to show in the following pages that, in reality, there is no +antagonism between the claims of the future and the present, the race +and the individual. On philosophic analysis we must see that, indeed, no +living race could come into being, much less endure, in which the +interests of individuals as individuals, and the interest of the race, +were opposed. If we imagine any such race we must imagine its +disappearance in one generation, or in a few generations if the clash of +interests were less than complete. Living Nature is not so fiendishly +contrived as has sometimes appeared to the casual eye. On the contrary, +the natural rule which we see illustrated in all species, animal or +vegetable, high or low, throughout the living world, is that the +individual is so constructed that his or her personal fulfilment of his +or her natural destiny as an individual, is precisely that which best +serves the race. Once we learn that individuals were all evolved by +Nature for the sake of the race, we shall understand why they have been +so evolved in their personal characteristics that in living their own +lives and fulfilling themselves they best fulfil Nature's remoter +purpose. + +To this universal and necessary law, without which life could not +persist anywhere in any of its forms, woman is no exception; and therein +is the reply to those who fear a statement in new terms of the old +proposition that women must give themselves up for the sake of the +community and its future. Here it is true that whosoever will give her +life shall save it. Women must indeed give themselves up for the +community and the future; and so must men. Since women differ from men, +their sacrifice takes a somewhat different form, but in their case, as +in men's, the right fulfilment of Nature's purpose is one with the right +fulfilment of their own destiny. There is no antinomy. On the contrary, +the following pages are written in the belief and the fear that women +are threatening to injure themselves as individuals--and therefore the +race, of course--just because they wrongly suppose that a monstrous +antinomy exists where none could possibly exist. "No," they say, "we +have endured this too long; henceforth we must be free to be ourselves +and live our own lives." And then, forsooth, they proceed to try to be +other than themselves and live other than the lives for which their real +selves, in nine cases out of ten, were constructed. It works for a time, +and even for life in the case of incomplete and aberrant women. For the +others, it often spells liberty and interest and heightened +consciousness of self for some years; but the time comes when outraged +Nature exacts her vengeance, when middle age abbreviates the youth that +was really misspent, and is itself as prematurely followed by a period +of decadence grateful neither to its victim nor to anyone else. +Meanwhile the women who have chosen to be and to remain women realize +the promise of Wordsworth to the girl who preferred walks in the country +to algebra and symbolic logic:-- + + Thou, while thy babes around thee cling, + Shalt show us how divine a thing + A woman may be made. + Thy thoughts and feelings shall not die, + Nor leave thee, when grey hairs are nigh, + A melancholy slave; + But an old age serene and bright + And lovely as a Lapland night, + Shall lead thee to thy grave. + +Where is the woman, recognizable as such, who will question that the +brother of Dorothy Wordsworth was right? + +In the following pages, it is sought to show that, women being +constructed by Nature, as individuals, for her racial ends, they best +realize themselves, are happier and more beautiful, live longer and more +useful lives, when they follow, as mothers or foster-mothers in the wide +and scarcely metaphorical sense of that word, the career suggested in +Wordsworth's lovely lines. + +It remains to state the most valuable end which this book might possibly +achieve--an end which, by one means or another, must be achieved. It is +that the best women, those favoured by Nature in physique and +intelligence, in character and their emotional nature, the women who are +increasingly to be found enlisted in the ranks of Feminism, and fighting +the great fight for the Women's Cause, shall be convinced by the +unchangeable and beneficent facts of biology, seen in the bodies and +minds of women, and shall direct their efforts accordingly; so that they +and those of their sisters who are of the same natural rank, instead of +increasingly deserting the ranks of motherhood and leaving the blood of +inferior women to constitute half of all future generations, shall on +the contrary furnish an ever-increasing proportion of our wives and +mothers, to the great gain of themselves, and of men, and of the future. + +For in some of its forms to-day the Woman's Cause is _not_ man's, nor +the future's, nor even, as I shall try to show, woman's. But a Eugenic +Feminism, for which I try to show the warrant in the study of woman's +nature, would indeed be the cause of man, and should enlist the whole +heart and head of every man who has them to offer. For here is a +principle which benefits men to the whole immeasurable extent involved +in decreeing that the best women must be the wives. "The best women for +our wives!" is not a bad demand from men's point of view, and it is +assuredly the best possible for the sake of the future. + +It is claimed, then, for the teaching of this book that, being based +upon the evident and unquestionable indications of Nature, it is +calculated to serve her end, which is the welfare of the race as a +whole, including both sexes. No one will question that the position and +happiness and self-realization of women in the modern world would be +vastly enhanced by the reforms for which I plead, though some men will +not think that game worth the candle. But I have argued that men also +will profit; nor can there be any question as to the advantage for +children. It is just because our scheme and our objects are natural that +they require no support from and lend no warrant to that accursed spirit +of sex-antagonism which many well-meaning women now display--doubtless +by a natural reflex, because it is the spirit of the worst men +everywhere. It is primarily men's desire for sex-dominance that +engenders a sex-resentment in women; but the spirit is lamentable, +whatever its origin and wherever it be found. It is most lamentable in +the bully, the drunkard, the cad, the Mammonist, the satyr, who are +everywhere to be found opposing woman and her claims. There is no +variety of male blackguardism and bestiality, of vileness and +selfishness, of lust and greed, whose representatives' names should not +be added to those of the illustrious pro-consuls and elegant peeresses +and their following who form Anti-Suffrage Societies. Before we +criticise sex-antagonism in women, let us be honest about it in men; and +before we sneer at the type of women who most display it, let us realize +fully the worthlessness of the types of men who display it. But if this +be granted--and I have never heard it granted by the men who deplore +sex-antagonism as if only women displayed it--we must none the less +recognize that this spirit injures both sexes, and that it is +necessarily false, since none can question that Nature devised the sexes +for mutual aid to her end. By this first principle sex-antagonism is +therefore condemned. This book, written by a man in behalf of +womanhood--and therefore in behalf of manhood and childhood--is +consistently opposed to all notions of sex-antagonism, or sex-dominance, +male or female, or of competing claims between the sexes. Man and woman +are complementary halves of the highest thing we know, and just as the +men who seek to maintain male dominance are the enemies of mankind, so +the women who preach enmity to men, and refusal of wise and humane +legislation in their interests because men have framed it, are the +enemies of womankind. At the beginning of the "Suffragette" movement in +England, I had the pleasure of taking luncheon with the brilliant young +lady whose name has been so prominent in this connection; and my +lifelong enthusiasm for the "Vote" has been chastened ever since by the +recollection of the resentment which she exhibited at every suggestion +of or allusion to any legislation in favour of women--notably with +reference to infant mortality and to alcoholism--whilst the suffrage was +withheld. Substitute "destroyed" or "reversed" for "chastened," and you +have a more typical result in quite well-meaning men of sex-antagonism +as many "advanced" women now display it. + +Further, this book may be regarded as an appeal to those women who are +responsible for forming the ideals of girls. The idea of womanhood here +set forth on natural grounds is not always represented in the ideals +which are now set before the youthful aspirant for work in the woman's +cause. It is not argued that the principles of eugenics are to be +expounded to the beginner, nor that she is to be re-directed to the +nursery. It is not necessarily argued, by any means, that marriage and +motherhood are to be set forth as the goal at which _every_ girl is to +aim; such a woman as Miss Florence Nightingale was a Foster-Mother of +countless thousands, and was only the greatest exemplar in our time of a +function which is essentially womanly, but does not involve marriage. I +desire nothing less than that girls should be taught that they must +marry--any man better than none. I want no more men chosen for +fatherhood than are fit for it, and if the standard is to be raised, +selection must be more rigorous and exclusive, as it could not be if +every girl were taught that, unmarried, she fails of her destiny. The +higher the standard which, on eugenic principles, natural or acquired, +women exact of the men they marry, the more certainly will many women +remain unmarried. + +But I believe that the principles here set forth are able to show us how +such women may remain feminine, and may discharge characteristically +feminine functions in society, even though physical motherhood be denied +them. The _racial_ importance of physical motherhood cannot be +exaggerated, because it determines, as we have seen, not less than half +the natural composition of future generations. But its _individual_ +importance can easily be over-estimated, and that is an error which I +have specially sought to avoid in this book, which is certainly an +attempt to call or recall women to motherhood. It is not as if physical +motherhood were the whole of human motherhood. Racially, it is the +substantial whole; individually, it is but a part of the whole, and a +smaller fraction in our species than in any humbler form of life. +Everyone knows maiden aunts who are better, more valuable, completer +mothers in every non-physical way than the actual mothers of their +nephews and nieces. This is woman's wonderful prerogative, that, in +virtue of her _psyche_, she can realize herself, and serve others, on +feminine lines, and without a pang of regret or a hint anywhere of +failure, even though she forego physical motherhood. This book, +therefore, is a plea not only for Motherhood but for +Foster-Motherhood--that is, Motherhood all-but-physical. In time to come +the great professions of nursing and teaching will more and more engage +and satisfy the lives and the powers of Virgin-Mothers without number. +Let no woman prove herself so ignorant or contemptuous of great things +as to suggest that these are functions beneath the dignity of her +complete womanhood. + +But many a young girl, passing from her finishing-school--which has +perhaps not quite succeeded, despite its best efforts, in finishing her +womanhood--and coming under the influence of some of our modern +champions of womanhood, might well be excused for throwing such a book +as this from her, scorning to admit the glorious conditions which +declare that woman is more for the Future than for the Present, and that +if the Future is to be safeguarded, or even to be, they must not be +transgressed. I have watched young girls, wearing the beautiful colours +which have been captured by one section of the suffrage movement, asking +their way to headquarters for instructions as to procedure, and I have +wondered whether, in twenty years, they will look back wholly with +content at the consequences. Some time ago the illustrated papers +provided us with photographs of a person, originally female, "born to be +love visible," as Ruskin says, who had mastered jiu-jitsu for +suffragette purposes, and was to be seen throwing various hapless men +about a room. And only the day before I write, the papers have given us +a realistic account of a demonstration by an ardent advocate of woman, +the chief item of which was that, on the approach of a burly policeman +to seize her, she--if the pronouns be not too definite in their +sex--fell upon her back and adroitly received the constabulary "wind" +upon her upraised foot, thereby working much havoc. No one would assert +that the woman's movement is responsible for the production of such +people; no reasonable person would assert that their adherence condemns +it; but we are rightly entitled to be concerned lest the rising +generation of womanhood be misled by such disgusting examples. + +Nothing will be said which militates for a moment against the +possibility that a woman may be womanly and yet in her later years, when +so many women combine their best health and vigour with experience and +wisdom, might replace many hundredweight of male legislators upon the +benches of the House of Commons, to the immense advantage of the nation. +If our present purpose were medical in the ordinary sense, the reader +would come to a chapter on the climacteric, dealing with the nervous and +other risks and disabilities of that period, and notably including a +warning as to the importance of attending promptly to certain local +symptoms which may possibly herald grave disease. An abundance of books +on such subjects is to be had, and my purpose is not to add to their +number. Yet the climacteric has a special interest for us because the +special case of those women who have passed it is constantly ignored in +our discussions of the woman question--which is not exclusively +concerned with the destiny of girls and the claims of feminine +adolescence to the vote. The work of Lord Lister, and the advances of +obstetrics and gynecology, largely dependent thereon, are increasing the +naturally large number of women at these later ages--naturally large +because women live longer than men. At this stage the whole case is +changed. The eugenic criterion no longer applies. But though the woman +is past motherhood, she is still a woman, and by no means past +foster-motherhood. Though her psychological characters are somewhat +modified, it is recorded by my old friend and teacher, Dr. Clouston, +that never yet has he found the climacteric to damage a woman's natural +love for children: the maternal instinct will not be destroyed. See, +then, what a valuable being we have here; none the less so because, as +has been said, she now begins to enjoy, in many cases, the best health +of her life. Whatever activities she adopts, there is now no question of +depriving the race of her qualities: if they are good qualities, it is +to be hoped they are already represented in members of the rising +generation. The scope of womanhood is now extended. The principles to be +laid down later still apply, but they are entirely compatible with, for +instance, the discharge of legislative functions. The nation does not +yet value its old or elderly women aright. We use as a term of contempt +that which should be a term of respect. Savage peoples are wiser. We +need the wisdom of our older women. It would be well for us to have Mrs. +Fawcett and Mrs. Humphry Ward in Parliament. The distinguished lady who +approves of woman's vote in municipal affairs, and fights hard for her +son's candidature in Parliament, but objects to woman suffrage on the +ground that women should not interfere in politics, could doubtless find +a good reason why women should sit in Parliament; and though she would +scarcely be heeded on matters of political theory, her splendid +championship of Vacation Schools and Play Centres would be more +effective than ever in the House, and might instruct some of her male +_confrères_ as to what politics really is. + +The prefatory point here made is, in a word, that the following +doctrines are perhaps less reactionary than the ardent suffragette might +suppose, compatible as they are with an earnest belief in the fitness +and the urgent desirability of women of later ages even as Members of +Parliament. It may be added that, on this very point, there is a +ridiculous argument against woman suffrage--that it is the precursor of +a demand to enter Parliament, which would mean (it is assumed), women +being numerically in the majority, that the House would be filled with +girls of twenty-two and three. Men of a sort would be likelier than +women, it could be argued, to vote for such girls; but the wise of both +sexes might well vote for the elderly women whose existence is somehow +forgotten in this connection. + +No chapter will be found devoted to the question of the vote. The +omission is not due to reasons of space, nor to my ever having heard a +good argument against the vote--even the argument that women do not want +it. That women did not want the vote would only show--if it were the +case--how much they needed it. Nor is the omission due to any +lukewarmness in a cause for which I am constantly speaking and writing. +My faith in the justice and political expediency of woman suffrage has +survived the worst follies, in speech and deed, of its injudicious +advocates: I would as soon allow the vagaries of Mrs. Carrie Nation to +make me an advocate of free whiskey. Causes must be judged by their +merits, not by their worst advocates, or where are the chances of +religion or patriotism or decency? + +The omission is due to the belief that votes for women or anybody else +are far less important than their advocates or their opponents assume. +The biologist cannot escape the habit of thinking of political matters +in vital terms; and if these lead him to regard such questions as the +vote with an interest which is only secondary and conditional, it is by +no means certain that the verdict of history would not justify him. The +present concentration of feminism in England upon the vote, sometimes +involving the refusal of a good end--such as wise legislation--because +it was not attained by the means they desire, and arousing all manner of +enmity between the sexes, may be an unhappy necessity so long as men +refuse to grant what they will assuredly grant before long. But now, and +then, the vital matters are the nature of womanhood; the extent of our +compliance with Nature's laws in the care of girlhood, whether or not +women share in making the transitory laws of man; and the extent to +which womanhood discharges its great functions of dedicating and +preparing its best for the mothers, and choosing and preparing the best +of men for the fathers, of the future. The vote, or any other thing, is +good or bad in so far as it serves or hurts these great and everlasting +needs. I believe in the vote because I believe it will be eugenic, will +reform the conditions of marriage and divorce in the eugenic sense, and +will serve the cause of what I have elsewhere called "preventive +eugenics," which strives to protect healthy stocks from the "racial +poisons," such as venereal disease, alcohol, and, in a relatively +infinitesimal degree, lead. These are ends good and necessary in +themselves, whether attained by a special dispensation from on high, or +by decree of an earthly autocrat or a democracy of either sex or both. +For these ends we must work, and for all the means whereby to attain +them; but never for the means in despite of the ends. + +This first chapter is perhaps unduly long, but it is necessary to state +my eugenic faith, since there is neither room nor need for me to +reiterate the principles of eugenics in later chapters, and since it was +necessary to show that, though this book is written in the interests of +individual womanhood, it is consistent with the principles of the divine +cause of race-culture, to which, for me, all others are subordinate, and +by which, I know, all others will in the last resort be judged. + + * * * * * + +The whole teaching of this book, from social generalizations to the +details of the wise management of girlhood, is based upon a single and +simple principle, often referred to and always assumed in former +writings from this pen, and in public speaking from many and various +platforms. If this principle be invalid, the whole of the practice which +is sought to be based upon it falls to the ground; but if it be valid, +it is of supreme importance as the sole foundation upon which can be +erected any structure of truth regarding woman and womanhood. Our first +concern, therefore, must be to state this principle, and the evidence +therefor. This will occupy not a small space: and the remainder will be +amply filled with the details of its application to woman as girl and +mother and grandmother, as wife and widow, as individual and citizen. + +Woman is Nature's supreme organ of the future, and it is as such that +she will here be regarded. The purpose of adding yet another to the many +books on various aspects of womanhood is to propound and, if possible, +establish this conception of womanhood, and to find in it a +never-failing guide to the right living of the individual life, an +infallible criterion of right and wrong in all proposals for the future +of womanhood, whether economic, political, educational, whether +regarding marriage or divorce, or any other subject that concerns +womanhood. A principle for which so much is claimed demands clear +definition and inexpugnable foundation in the "solid ground of Nature." +Cogent in some measure though the argument would be, we must appeal in +the first place neither to the poets, nor to our own naturally implanted +preferences in womanhood, nor to any teaching that claims extra-natural +authority. Our first question must be--Do Nature and Life, the facts and +laws of the continuance and maintenance of living creatures, lend +countenance to this idea; can it be translated from general terms, +essentially poetic and therefore suspect by many, into precise, hard, +scientific language; is it a fact, like the atomic weight of oxygen or +the laws of motion, that woman is Nature's supreme instrument of the +future? If the answer to these questions be affirmative, the evidence of +the poets, of our own preferences, of religions ancient and modern, is +of merely secondary concern as corroborative, and as serving curiosity +to observe how far the teachings of passionless science have been +divined or denied by past ages and by other modes of perception and +inquiry. Therefore this is to be in its basis none other than a +biological treatise; for the laws of reproduction, the newly gained +knowledge regarding the nature of sex, and the facts of physiology, +afford the evidence of the essentially biological truth which has been +so often expressed by the present writer in the quasi-poetic terms +already set forth. Let us, then, first remind ourselves how the +individual, whether male or female, is to be looked upon in the light of +the work of Weismann in especial, and how this great truth, discovered +by modern biology and especially by the students of heredity, affects +our understanding of the difference between man and woman. Setting forth +these earlier pages in the year of the Darwin centenary, and the jubilee +of the "Origin of Species," a writer would have some courage who +proposed to discuss man and woman as if they were unique, rather than +the highest and latest examples of male and female: their nature to be +rightly understood only by due study of their ancestral forms, ancient +and modern. The biological problem of sex is our concern, and we may +have to traverse many past ages of "æonian evolution," and even to +consider certain quite humble organisms, before we rightly see woman as +an evolutionary product of the laws of life. + +But, first, as to the individual, of whatever sex. Observing the +familiar facts of our own lives and of the higher forms of life, both +animal and vegetable, with which we are acquainted, we must naturally at +first incline to regard as worse than paradoxical the modern biological +concept of the individual as existing for the race, of the body as +merely a transient host or trustee of the immortal germ-plasm. Since +life has its worth and value only in individuals, and since, therefore, +the race exists for the production of individuals, in any sense that we +human beings, at any rate, can accept, we must be reasonable in +expressing the apparently contrary but not less true view that the +individual exists for the race. After all, that does not mean that +individuals exist and are worth Nature's while merely in order to see +the germ-plasm on its way. To say that the individual exists for the +race is to say that he, and, as we shall see, pre-eminently she, exist +for future individuals; and that is not a destiny to be despised of any. +Let us attempt to state simply but accurately what biologists mean in +regarding the individual as primarily the host and servant of something +called the germ-plasm. + +When the processes of development and of reproduction are closely +scrutinized, we find evidence which, together with the conclusions based +thereon, was first effectively stated by August Weismann, of Freiburg, +in his famous little book, "The Germ-Plasm."[1] The marvellous cells +from which new individuals are formed must no longer be regarded, at any +rate in the higher animals and plants, as formerly parts of the parent +individuals. On the contrary, we have to accept, at least in general and +as substantially revealing to us the true nature of the individual, the +doctrine of the "continuity of the germ-plasm," which teaches that the +race proper is a potentially immortal sequence of living germ-cells, +from which at intervals there are developed bodies or individuals, the +business and _raison d'être_ of which, whatever such individuals as +ourselves may come to suppose, is primarily to provide a shelter for the +germ-plasm, and nourishment and air, until such time as it shall produce +another individual for itself, to serve the same function. This is +another way of saying what will often be said in the following +pages--that the individual is meant by Nature to be a parent. + +We shall later see that this great truth by no means involves the +condemnation of spinsterhood, but since it determines not only the +physiology, but also the psychology, of the individual, and especially +of woman, it will guide us to a right appreciation of the dangers and +the right direction of spinsterhood, and the means whereby it may be +made a blessing to self and to others. This must be said lest the reader +should be deterred by the unquestionably true assertion that the +individual is meant by Nature to be a parent, and has no excuse for +existence in Nature's eyes except as a parent. If we are to regard the +body as a trustee of the germ-plasm, it is evident that the body which +carries the germ-plasm with itself to the grave--the "immortality of the +germ-plasm" being only conditional and at the mercy of the acts of +individuals--has stultified Nature's end; and it will be a serious +concern of ours in the present work to show how, amongst human beings, +at any rate, this stultification may be averted, many childless persons +of both sexes having served the race for evermore in the highest degree. +We must ask in what directions especially may woman, most profitably for +herself or for others, seek to express herself apart from motherhood. It +will appear, if our leading principle be valid, that it affords us a +sure guide in the welter of controversy and baseless assertion of every +kind, in which this vastly important question is at present involved. + +This conception of the individual as something meant to be a parent will +not be questioned by anyone who will do himself or herself the justice +to look at it soberly and reverently, without a trace of that tendency +to levity or to something worse which here invariably betrays the vulgar +mind, whether in a princess or a prostitute. For it needs little +reflection to perceive that the most familiar facts of our experience +and observation never fail to confirm the doctrine based by Weismann +upon the revelations of the microscope when applied to the developmental +processes of certain simple animal and vegetable forms. The doctrine +that the individual body was evolved by the forces of life, acted on and +directed by natural selection, as guardian and transmitter of the +germ-plasm, assumes a less paradoxical character when we perceive with +what unfailing art Nature has constructed and devised the body and the +mind for their function. We flatter ourselves hugely if we suppose that +even our most enjoyable and apparently most personal attributes and +appetites were designed by Nature for us. Not at all. It is the race for +which she is concerned. It is not the individual as individual, but the +individual as potential parent, that is her concern, nor does she +hesitate to leave very much to the mercy of time and chance the +individual from whom the possibility of parenthood has passed away, or +the individual in whom it has never appeared. Our appetites for food and +drink, well devised by Nature to be pleasant in their satisfaction--lest +otherwise we should fail to satisfy them and a possible parent should be +lost to her purposes--are immediately rendered of no account when there +stirs within us, whether in its crude or transmuted forms, the appetite +for the exercise of which these others, and we ourselves, exist, since +in Nature's eyes and scheme we are but vessels of the future. In later +chapters we shall have much occasion, because of their great practical +importance in the conduct of woman's life from girlhood onwards, to +discuss the physiological and psychological facts which demonstrate +overwhelmingly the truth of the view that the individual was evolved by +Nature for the care of the germ-plasm, or, in other words, was and is +constructed primarily and ultimately for parenthood. + +Nor is this argument, as I see it and will present it, invalidated in +any degree by the case of such individuals as the sterile worker-bee; +any more than the argument, rightly considered, is invalidated by any +instance of a worthy, valuable, happy life, eminently a success in the +highest and in the lower senses, lived amongst mankind by a non-parent +of either sex. On the contrary, it is in such cases as that of the +worker-bee that we find the warrant--in apparent contradiction--for our +notion of the meaning of the individual, and also the key to the problem +placed before us amongst ourselves by the case of inevitable +spinsterhood. Here, it must be granted, is an individual of a very high +and definite and individually complete type, no accident or sport, but, +in fact, essential for the type and continuance of the species to which +she belongs, and yet, though highly individualized and worthy to +represent individuality at its best and highest, the worker-bee, so far +from being designed for parenthood, is sterile, and her distinctive +characters and utilities are conditional upon her sterility. But when we +come to ask what are her distinctive characters and utilities we find +that they are all designed for the future of the race. She is, in fact, +the ideal foster-mother, made for that service, complete in her +incompleteness, satisfied with the vicarious fulfilment of the whole of +motherhood except its merely physical part. The doctrine, therefore, +that the individual is designed by Nature for parenthood, the +individual being primarily devised for the race, finds no exception, +but rather a striking and immensely significant illustration in the case +of the worker-bee, nor will it find itself in difficulties with the case +of any forms of individual, however sterile, that can be quoted from +either the animal or the vegetable world. Natural selection, of which +the continuance of the race is the first and never neglected concern, +invariably sees to it that no individuals are allowed to be produced by +any species unless they have survival-value, a phrase which always +means, in the upshot, value for the survival of the race--whether as +parents, or foster-parents, protectors of the parents, feeders or slaves +thereof. Our primary purpose throughout being practical, it is +impossible to devote unlimited time and space to proceeding formally +through the known forms of life in order to marshal all the proofs or a +tithe of them, that all individuals are invented and tolerated by Nature +for parenthood or its service. + +We shall in due course consider the peculiar significance of this +proposition for the case of woman--a significance so radical for our +present argument, even to its _minutiæ_ of practical living, that it +cannot be too early or too thoroughly insisted upon. But before we +proceed to the special case of woman it is well that we should clearly +perceive as a general guiding truth, which will never fail us, either in +interpretation, prediction, or instruction, the unfailing gaze of +Nature, as manifested in the world of life, towards the future. There is +no truth more significant for our interpretation of the meaning of the +Universe, or at least of our planetary life: there is none more relevant +to the fate of empires, and therefore to the interests of the +enlightened patriot: there is none more worthy to be taken to heart by +the individual of either sex and of any age, adolescent or centenarian, +as the secret of life's happiness, endurance, and worth. It may be +permitted, then, briefly to survey the main truths, and, therefore, the +main teachings of the past, as they may be read by those who seek in the +facts of life the key to its meaning and its use. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME + + +When we survey the past of the earth as science has revealed it to us, +we gain some conceptions which will help us in our judgments as to what +this phenomenon of human life may signify in the future. We are +accustomed to look upon the earth as aged, but these terms are only +relative; and if we compare our own planet with its neighbours in the +solar system, we shall have good reason to suppose that, though the past +of the earth is very prolonged, its future will probably be far more so. +As for life--and we must think not only of human life, but of life as a +planetary phenomenon--that is necessarily much more recent than the +formation even of the earth's crust, the existence of water in the +liquid state being necessary for life in any of its forms. And human +life itself, though the extent of its past duration is seen to be +greater the more deeply we study the records, is yet a relatively recent +thing. The utmost, it appears, that we can assign to our past would be +perhaps six million years, taking our species back to mid-Miocene times. +Doubtless this is a mighty age as compared with the few thousand years +allotted to us in bygone chronologies; but, looked at _sub specie +æternitatis_, and with an eye which is prepared to look forward also, +and especially with relation to what we know and can predict regarding +the sun, these past six million years may reasonably be held to comprise +only the infantine period of man's life. + +It is very true that on such estimates as those of Lord Kelvin, and +according to what astronomers and geologists believed not more than +twelve or even eight years ago, regarding the secular cooling of earth +and sun--that, according to these, the time is by no means "unending +long," and we may foresee, not so remotely, the end of the solar heat +and light of which we are the beneficiaries. But the discovery of radium +and the phenomena of radio-activity have profoundly modified these +estimates, justifying, indeed, the acumen of Lord Kelvin, who always +left the way open for reconsideration should a new source of heat and +energy in general be discovered. We know now that, to consider the earth +first, its crust is not self-cooling, or at any rate not self-cooling +only, for it is certainly self-heating. There is an almost embarrassing +amount of radium in the earth's crust, so far as we have examined it; a +quantity, that is to say, so great that if the same proportion were +maintained at deeper levels as at those which we can investigate, the +earth would have to be far hotter than it is. Similar reasoning applies +to the sun. Definite, immediate proof of the presence of radium there is +not forthcoming yet, but that presence is far more than probable, +especially since the existence of solar uranium, the known ancestor of +radium, has been demonstrated. The reckonings of Helmholtz and others, +based upon the supposition that the solar energy is entirely derived +from its gravitational contraction, must be superseded. It would require +but a very small proportion of radium in the solar constitution to +account for all the energy which the centre of our system produces; and, +as we have already seen, the earth is to no small extent its own +sun--its own source of heat. The prospect thus opened out by modern +physical inquiry supports more strongly than ever the conviction that +the life of this world to come will be very prolonged. It is true that +there is always the possibility of accident. Encountering another globe, +our sun would doubtless produce so much heat as to incinerate all +planetary life. But the excessive remoteness of the sun from the nearest +fixed star suggests that the constitution of the stellar universe is +such that an accident of this kind is extremely improbable. As for +comets, the earth's atmosphere has already encountered a comet, even +during the brief period of astronomical observation. This thick overcoat +of ours protects us from the danger of such chances. + +What, then, is the record? We are told that the belief in progress is a +malady of youth, which experience and the riper mind will dissipate. +Some such argument from the lips of the disillusioned or the +disidealized has been possible, perhaps, with some measure of +probability, until within our own times. They must now forever hold +their peace. We know as surely as we know the elementary phenomena of +physics or chemistry, that the record of life upon our planet, though +not only a record of progress by any means, has nevertheless included +that to which the name of progress cannot be denied in any possible +definition of the word. For myself, I understand by progress _the +emergence of mind, and its increasing dominance over matter_. Such +categories are, no doubt, unphilosophical in the ultimate sense, but +they are proximately convenient and significant. Now, if progress be +thus defined, we can see for ourselves that life has truly advanced, not +merely in terms of anatomical or physiological--_i. e._ mechanical or +chemical--complexity, but in terms of mind. The facts of nutrition teach +us that the first life upon the earth was vegetable; and though the +vegetable world displays great complexity, and that which, on some +definitions, would be called progress, yet we cannot say that there is +any more mind, any greater differentiation or development of sentience, +in the oak than in the alga. When we turn, however, to the animal +world--which is parasitic, indeed, upon the vegetable world--we find +that in what we may call the main line of ascent there has been, along +with increasing anatomical complexity, the far greater emergence of +mind. In its earliest manifestations, sentience, consciousness, the +psychical in general, and the capacity for it, must be regarded merely +as phenomena of the physical organism; the capacity to feel, as no more +than a property of the living body; and such mind as there is exists for +the body. But, as we may see it, there has been a gradual but infinitely +real turning of the tables, so that, even in a dog, as the lover of that +dog would grant, the loss of limbs and tail, or, indeed, of any portion +of the body not necessary to life, does not mean the loss of the +essential dog--not the loss of that which the lover of the dog loves. +Already, that which is not to be seen or handled has become the more +real. In ourselves, it is a capital truth, which asceticism, old or new, +perverted or sane, has always recognized, that the mind is the man, and +must be master, and the body the servant. Yet, historically, this +creature, who by the self means not the body, but, as he thinks, its +inhabitant, is historically and lineally developed--is also, indeed, +developed as an individual--from an organism in which anything to be +called psychical is but an apparently accidental attribute, to be +discerned only on close examination. This emergence of mind is progress; +and this, notwithstanding the sneers of those who do not love the word +or the light, has occurred. Its history is written indelibly in the +rocks. And, as we shall argue, this is the supreme lesson of +evolution--that progress is possible, because progress has occurred. + +Assuredly we should never use this word "progress" without reminding +ourselves of the cardinal distinction that exists between two forms that +it may manifest. There is a progress which consists in and depends upon +an advance in the constitution of the living individual; and, so far as +we are more mental and less physical than the men who have left us such +relics as the Neanderthal skull, in so far we exemplify this kind of +progress. But, on the other hand, we can claim progress as compared with +even the Greeks in some respects, though there is no evidence whatever +that, so far as the individual is concerned, there is any natural, +inherent, organic progress. But we know more. Our school-boys know more +than Aristotle. We stand upon Greek shoulders. This is traditional +progress--something outside the germ-plasm; a thing dependent upon our +great human faculty of speech. + +That, surely, is why the word infantine was rightly used in our first +paragraph. For we may ask why, if man be millions of years old, any +record of progress should be a matter of only a few thousand +years--perhaps not more than fifteen or twenty. The answer, I believe, +is that traditional progress depends upon the possibility of tradition. +Now speech, apart from writing, involves the possibility of tradition +from generation to generation, and I am very sure that "Man before +speech" is a myth; the more we learn of the anthropoid apes the surer we +may be of that. But, after all, the possibilities of progress dependent +upon aural memory are sadly limited; not only because it is easy to +forget, but because it is also conspicuously easy to distort, as a +familiar round-game testifies. The greatest of all the epochs in human +history was that which saw the genesis of written speech. I believe that +hundreds of thousands, nay millions, of preceding years were +substantially sterile just because the educational acquirements of +individuals could be transmitted to their children neither in the +germ-plasm (for we know such transmission to be impossible), nor outside +the germ-plasm, by means of writing. The invention of written language +accounts, then, we may suppose, for the otherwise incomprehensible +disparity between the blank record of long ages, and the great +achievement of recent history--an achievement none the less striking if +we remember that the historical epoch includes a thousand years of +darkness. Thus, as was said at the Royal Institution in 1907, when +discussing the nature of progress, we may argue in a new sense that the +historians have made history: it is the possibility of recording that +has given us something to record. + +Now, it is in terms of this latter kind of progress that our duty to the +past, as we conceive it, may be defined. And in its terms also must we +define the grounds of our veneration for the past. None of us invented +language, spoken or written; nor yet numbers, nor the wheel, nor much +else. We see further than our ancestors because we stand upon their +shoulders, and, as Coleridge hinted, this may be so even though we be +dwarfs and they were giants. Some of us see this. How can we fail to do +so? And the past becomes in our eyes a very real thing, to which we are +so greatly indebted that we should even live for it. But there is a +great danger, dependent upon a great error, here. Let us consider what +is our right attitude towards the past. We are its children and its +heirs. We are infinitely indebted to it. We must love and venerate that +which was lovable and venerable in it. But are we to live for it? + +If we could imagine ourselves coming from afar and contemplating the +sequence of universal phenomena now for the first time, we should +realize that the past, though real, because it was once real, is yet a +fleeting aspect of change, and, in a very real sense also, _is_ not. +Nor, indeed, _is_ the future; but it will be. We cannot alter, we cannot +benefit, we cannot serve the past, because it is not and will not be. +Our besetting tendency as individuals is to live for our own pasts, more +especially as we grow old; to become retrospective, to cease to look +forward, even to dedicate what remains to us of life to the service of +what is not at all. In this respect, as in so many others, we are less +wise than children. We will not let the dead bury its dead. This is also +the tendency of all institutions. Even if there were founded an +Institute of the Future, dedicated to the life of this world to come, +after only one generation its administrators would be consulting the +interests of the past, turning to the service of the name and the memory +of their founder, though it was for the future that he lived. Throughout +all our social institutions we can perceive this same worship of what no +longer is at the cost of the most real of all real things, which is the +life of the generation that is and the generations that are to be. + +Everywhere the price for this idolatry is exacted. The perpetual image +of it is Lot's wife, who, looking backwards upon that from which she had +escaped, was turned into a pillar of salt. Nature may or may not have a +purpose, and exhibit designs for that purpose; she may or may not, in +philosophical language, be teleological. Man is and must be +teleological. We must live for the morrow, for what will be, whether as +individuals or as a nation, or our ways are the ways of death. This is +looked upon as a human failing--that man never is, but always to be +blest; that man is never satisfied, that he will not rest content with +present achievement. + +Well, it is stated of our first cousin, once removed, the orang-outang, +that in the adult state he is aroused only for the snatching of food, +and then "relapses into repose." His reach does not exceed his grasp, +and one need not preach contentment to him. But we, the latest and +highest products of the struggle for existence, we are strugglers by +constitution; and when we relapse into repose we degenerate. Only on +condition of living for the morrow can we remain human. Put a sound limb +on crutches and you paralyze it; wear smoked glasses and your eyes +become intolerant of light, or wear glasses that make the muscle of +accommodation superfluous and it atrophies; take pepsin and hydrochloric +acid and the stomach will become incapable of producing them; cease to +chew and your teeth decay; let the newspaper prepare your mental food as +the cook cuts up your physical food, and you will become incapable of +thought--that is, of mental mastication and digestion. It is above all +things imperative to strive, to have a goal, to seek it on our own legs, +to cry for the moon rather than for nothing at all. And Nature teaches +us unequivocally that our purpose is ever onward-- + + To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths + Of all the western stars, until we die. + +It is to go, and not to get, that is the glory. To be content is to have +no ideal beyond the real; we were better dead and nourishing grass. It +is part of the whole structure of life, as we can read it, whether in +the animal or in the vegetable world, but pre-eminently in ourselves, +that the very body of the individual is constructed as for purpose; nay +more, as for the purposes of the future. Every little baby girl that is +born into the world bears upon her soft surface signs and portents--not +merely promise, but the promise of provision--for the life of the world +to come. At her very birth she teaches us that she is not created for +self alone, but for what will be. Running through the whole body--and +this the more markedly the higher the type of life--we find organs, +tissues, functions, co-ordinations existing not for the present, but for +the life of the world to come. When, some day, the social organism is as +rightly constructed as the body of any woman, or even, in some measure, +of any man, when it is similarly dedicated to the real future, and as +resolutely turned away from any worship of what no longer is, then +heaven will be nearer to earth. + +It is quite clear that the supreme choice for any individual or +institution or nation is between unborn to-morrow and dead yesterday. No +one who concerns himself in the current political controversies, as, for +instance, that thing of unspeakable shame which is called the "education +question," will doubt that the present and the future are constantly +being sacrificed to the past. It may be that the spirit of a trust is +being grossly violated; but, rather than infringe the letter of it, the +life of to-day and to-morrow must suffer: thus do the worshippers of +dead yesterday--the most lethal idol before which fond humanity ever +prostrated itself. + +If it be our duty to do--not "as though to breathe were life"--and if +nature indicates the future as that which we are to serve, what evidence +have we, or what likelihood, that such service is worth our while? Of +course, such a question as this may be answered in some such terms as +those of the further question, What has posterity done for us? And it is +interesting, perhaps, to consider that, so far as we can judge the +attitude of our ancestors towards ourselves, their chief interest in us +seems to have been as to what we should think of them--"What will +posterity say?" They left their records, as we leave our records, for +posterity to discover. With singular lack of judgment, as I think, we +bury examples of our newspapers for posterity to discover: these are +amongst the things which I should rather not have posterity discover. +But this is no right outlook upon the future. It is not a question of +what posterity can do for us. Posterity is here within us. The life of +the world to come is in our keeping. We carry it about with us in all +our goings and comings. It is at the mercy of what we eat and drink, at +the mercy of the diseases we contract. Its fate is involved when we fall +in love with each other, or out of love with each other; it is we +ourselves. Just as the father who perhaps is losing his own hair may +like to see how pleasantly his children's hair is growing, and finds +consolation therein; just as, indeed, all the hopes of the parent +become gradually transferred from self to that further self, those +further selves, which his children are, so we are to look upon the +future as our continuing self. To ask, What has posterity done for us? +should be looked upon as if one should say, What have my children done +for me? The parallel is indeed a very close one: and it is pointed out +by the fine sentence from Herbert Spencer, which should be known to all +of us--"A transfigured sentiment of parenthood regards with solicitude +not child and grandchild only, but the generations to come +hereafter--fathers of the future, creating and providing for their +remote children." + +We may grant that there is no money in posterity. The germ-plasm has +infinite possibilities; but, so long as it remains germ-plasm, it can +write no cheques in our favour. If you serve the present, the present +will pay; posterity does not pay. If you write a "Merry Widow," the +present will pay; if you write an "Unfinished Symphony," you will be +dust ere it is performed. If you create that which will last forever, +but which makes no appeal to the transient tastes of the moment, you may +starve and die and rot, because the future, for which you work, cannot +reward you. Life is so constructed that only in our own day, and not +always now, is the mother--even Nature's own supreme organ of the +future--rewarded for her maternal sacrifice. Nature does not trouble +about the fate of the present, because she is always pressing on and +pressing on towards something more, higher, better. The present, the +individual, are but the organs of her purpose. We are to look upon +ourselves as ends in ourselves; but we are also means towards ends which +we can only dimly conceive, but towards which we may rightly work, and +the service of which, though by no means freedom in the ordinary sense, +is yet of that higher kind, that perfect freedom, which consists in the +development of all the higher attributes of our nature. For it is in our +nature to work and to feel and to live for the life that will be. That, +as I say, is because living creatures are so constructed. + +Huxley said that if the present level of human life were to show no +rising in the future, he should welcome the kindly comet that should +sweep the whole thing away. None of us is content with things as they +are. If we are, better were it for us to be nourishing the grass and +serving the things that will be in that way, if we cannot in any other. +What promise, then, have we that things as they will be are worth +working for? We live now in an age to which there has been revealed the +fact of organic evolution. From the fire-mist, from the mud, from the +merely brutal, there have been evolved--such is the worth of Nature's +womb--there have been evolved intelligence and love, sacrifice, ideals; +splendours which no splendour to come can utterly dim. These things are +in the power of Nature. This is what "dead matter" can mother. So much +the worse for our contemptible conceptions of matter, and That of which +matter is the manifestation. But if it be that from the slime, by +natural processes, there can grow a St. Francis, surely our dim notions +of the potencies of Nature must be exalted. The forces that have +erected us from the worm, are they necessarily exhausted or exhaustible? +Who will dare to set limits to the promise of Nature's womb? I mean, in +a word, that the history of evolution is a warrant for the idea that we +ourselves, even erected men and women, are but stages to what may be +higher. We look with contempt upon the apes, but time must have been +when "simian" would have been as proud an adjective as "human" is +to-day: and human may become superhuman. + +Many passages might be quoted to show that our expectation of future +progress is well based, and I will content myself with a single excerpt +from the final page of the masterpiece of which all the civilized world +was lately celebrating the jubilee. Says Darwin: "Hence we may look with +some confidence to a secure future of great length. And as natural +selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal +and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection." + +The quotation will suffice to remind us that, if we are to serve the +life of the world to come in the surest way, we must become Eugenists, +accepting and applying to human life Nature's great principle of the +selection of worth for parenthood and the rejection of unworth. We must +modify and adapt our conceptions of education thereto. We must make +parenthood the most responsible thing in life. We must teach the +girl--aye, and the boy too--that the body is holy, for it is the temple +of life to come. We must perceive in our most imperious instincts +Nature's care for the future, and must humanize and sanctify them by +conscious recognition of their purpose, and by provident co-operation +with Nature towards her supreme end. We could spare from education, +perhaps, those fictions concerning the past which are sometimes called +history, were they replaced by a knowledge of our own nature and +constitution as instruments of the future. + +Let us grant even, for the argument, that nothing more is possible than +mankind has yet achieved. There remains the hope that that which human +nature at its best has been capable of may be realized by human nature +at large. In their great moments the great men have seen this. That last +sentence is, indeed, a paraphrase from a remark at the end of Herbert +Spencer's "Ethics." Ruskin--to choose the polar antithesis of the +Spencerian mind--declares that "there are no known limits to the +nobleness of person or mind which the human creature may attain if we +wisely attend to the laws of its birth and training." Wordsworth asks +whether Nature throws any bars across the hope that what one is millions +may be. Take it, then, that nothing more is conceivable in the way of +mathematics than a Newton, or of drama than an Æschylus or a +Shakespeare, or of sacrifice than a Christ. These, then, are types of +what will be. They demonstrate what human nature is capable of. What one +is, why may not millions be? Here is an ideal to work for. Here is +something real to worship, to dedicate a life to. It is not merely that +we can make smoother the paths of future generations--which George +Meredith declared to be the great purpose and duty of our lives--but +that, as Ruskin suggests in the foregoing quotation, we may raise the +inherent quality of those future generations, so that they can make +their own ways smooth and straight and high. It is our business, I +repeat, to conceive of parenthood as the most responsible and sacred +thing in life. True, it now follows, according to physiological law, +upon the satisfaction of certain tendencies of our nature, which in +themselves may be gratified, and even worthily gratified, without +reference to anything but the present; yet these tendencies, commonly +reviled and regarded with contempt--at least overt contempt--exist, like +most of our attributes, for the life of the world to come. And that in +which they may result, the bringing of new human life into the world, is +the most tremendous, as it is the most mysterious, of our possibilities. + +The laws of life are such that at any given moment the entire future is +absolutely at the mercy of the present. The laws of life, indeed; one +might have said the law of universal causation. But so it is. There is +no conceivable limit to our responsibility. We act for the moment, we +act for self; but there will be no end to the consequences. When the +stuff of which our bodies are made has passed through a thousand cycles, +the consequences of our brief moments will still be felt. This +dependence of the future upon the present in the world of life is an +almost unrealizable thing. Life could not have persisted upon such +conditions had not Nature from the first, and increasingly up to our own +day (for it is the human infant that is the most helpless, and the +longest helpless), had not Nature, I say, persistently constructed the +individual, in all his or her attributes, as a being whose warrant and +purpose lay yet beyond. We are organs of the race, whether we will or +no. We are made for the future, whether we will, whether we care, or no. +We are only obeying Nature, and therefore in a position to command her, +in dedicating ourselves and our purposes, our customs, our social +structures, to the life of the world to come. We shall be there. Our +purposes and hopes, the flesh and blood of many of us, will be there. +Posterity will be what we make it, as we, alas! are what our ancestors +have made us. + +To this increasing purpose there will come, I suppose, an end--an +inscrutable end. Yearly the evidence makes it more probable that in a +sister world we are gazing upon the splendid efforts of purposeful, +intelligent, co-ordinated life to battle against planetary conditions +which threaten it with death by thirst. How long intelligence has +existed upon Mars, if intelligence there be, no one can say; nor yet +what its future will be. It would seem probable that our own fate must +be similar, but it is far removed. And though the Whole may seem wanton, +purposeless, stupid, we are very little folk; we see very dimly; we see +only what we have the capacity to see; and there are more things in +heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the philosophy of the wisest of +us. So also there are many events in the womb of time which will be +delivered. We are the shapers, the creators, the parents of those +events. The still, small voice of the unborn declares our +responsibility. There may be no reward. What does reward mean? Who +rewards the sun, or the rain, or the oak, or the tigress? But there is +the doing of one's work in the world, the serving of the highest and +most real purpose that may be revealed to us. That is to be oneself, to +fulfil one's destiny, to be a part of the universe, and worthy to be +such a part. And though it be even unworthy for us to suggest that at +least posterity will be grateful to us, such a thought may perhaps +console us a little. At any rate, to those who worship and live for the +past, we may offer this alternative: let them work for what will be. +Perhaps the reward will be as real as any that the worship of what is +not can offer. And, reward or no reward, it is something to have an +ideal, something to believe that earth may become heavenly, and that, in +some real sense which we can dimly perceive, we may be part--must be +part, indeed--of that great day which is in our keeping, and which it is +our privilege to have some share in shaping. Thus we may repeat, and +thrill to repeat, with new meaning, the old but still living words, +_Expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi sæculi_--"I look for +the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE PURPOSE OF WOMANHOOD + + +In due course we shall have to discuss the little that is yet known and +to discuss the much that is asserted by both sides, for this or that +end, regarding the differences between men and women. By this we mean, +of course, the natural as distinguished from the nurtural +differences--to use the antithetic terms so usefully adapted by Sir +Francis Galton from Shakespeare. Our task, we shall soon discover, is +not an easy one: because it is rarely easy to disentangle the effects of +nature from those of nurture, all the phenomena, physical and psychical, +of all living creatures being not the sum but the product of these two +factors. The sharp allotment of this or that feature to nature or to +nurture alone is therefore always wholly wrong: and the nice estimation +of the relative importance of the natural as compared with the nurtural +factors must necessarily be difficult, especially for the case of +mankind, where critical observation, on a large scale, and with due +control, of the effects of environment upon natural potentialities is +still lacking. + +But here, at least, we may unhesitatingly declare and insist upon, and +shall hereafter invariably argue from, _the_ one indisputable and +all-important distinction between man and woman. We must not commit the +error of regarding this distinction as qualitative so much as +quantitative: by which is meant that it really is neither more nor less +than a difference in the proportions of two kinds of vital expenditure. +Nor must we commit the still graver error of asserting, without +qualification, that such and such, and that only, is the ideal of +womanhood, and that all women who do not conform to this type are +morbid, or, at least, abnormal. It takes all sorts to make a world, we +must remember. Further, the more we learn, especially thanks to the +modern experimental study of heredity, regarding the constitution of the +individual of either sex, the more we perceive how immensely complex and +how infinitely variable that constitution is. Nay more, the evidence +regarding both the higher animals and the higher plants inclines us to +the view, not unsupported by the belief of ages, that woman is even more +complex in constitution than man, and therefore no less liable to vary +within wide limits. On what one may term organic analysis, comparable to +the chemist's analysis of a compound, woman may be found to be more +complex, composed of even more numerous and more various elementary +atoms, so to say, than man. + +And if these new observations upon the nature of femaleness were not +enough to warn the writer who should rashly propose, after the fashion +of the unwise, who on every hand lay down the law on this matter, to +state once and for all exactly what, and what only, every woman should +be, we find that another long-held belief as to the relative variety of +men and women has lately been found baseless. It was long held, and is +still generally believed--in consequence of that universal confusion +between the effects of nature and of nurture to which we have already +referred--that women are less variable than men, that they vary within +much narrower limits, and that the bias towards the typical, or mean, or +average, is markedly greater in the case of women than of men. A vast +amount of idle evidence is quoted in favour of a proposition which seems +to have some _a priori_ plausibility. It is said--of course, without any +allusion to nurture, education, environment, opportunity--that such +extreme variations as we call genius are much commoner amongst men than +women: and then that the male sex also furnishes an undue proportion of +the insane--as if there were no unequal incidence of alcohol and +syphilis, the great factors of insanity, upon the two sexes. +Nevertheless, observant members of either sex will either contradict one +another on this point according to their particular opportunities, or +will, on further inquiry, agree that women vary surely no less generally +than men, at any rate within considerable limits, whatever may be the +facts of colossal genius. Indeed, we begin to perceive that differences +in external appearance, which no one supposes to be less general among +women than among men, merely reflect internal differences; and that, as +our faces differ, so do ourselves, every individual of either sex being, +in fact, not merely a peculiar variety, but the solitary example of that +variety--in short, unique. The analysis of the individual now being made +by experimental biology lends abundant support to this view of the +higher forms of life--the more abundant, the higher the form. So vast, +as yet quite incalculably vast, is the number of factors of the +individual, and such are the laws of their transmission in the +germ-cells, that the mere mathematical chances of a second identical +throw, so to speak, resulting in a second individual like any other, are +practically infinitely small. The greater physiological complexity of +woman, as compared with man, lends especial force to the argument in her +case. The remarkable phenomena of "identical twins," who alone of human +beings are substantially identical, lend great support to this +proposition of the uniqueness of every individual: for we find that this +unexampled identity depends upon the fact that the single cell from +which every individual is developed, having divided into two, was at +that stage actually separated into two independent cells, thus producing +two complete individuals of absolutely identical germinal constitution. +In no other case can this be asserted; and thus this unique identity +confirms the doctrine that otherwise all individuals are indeed unique. + +It is necessary to state this point clearly in the forefront of our +argument, both lest the reader should suppose that some foolish ideal of +feminine uniformity is to be argued for, and also in the interests of +the argument as it proceeds, lest we should be ourselves tempted to +forget the inevitable necessity--and, as will appear, the eminent +desirability--of feminine, no less than of masculine, variety. + +Nevertheless, there remains the fact that, in the variety which is +normally included within the female sex, there is yet a certain +character, or combination of characters, upon which, indeed, distinctive +femaleness depends. It may in due course be our business to discuss the +subordinate and relatively trivial differences between the sexes, +whether native or acquired; but we shall encounter nothing of any moment +compared with the distinction now to be insisted upon. + +One may well suggest that insistence is necessary, for never, it may be +supposed, in the history of civilization was there so widespread or so +effective a tendency to declare that, in point of fact, there are no +differences between men and women except that, as Plato declared, woman +is in all respects simply a weaker and inferior kind of man. Great +writer though Plato was, what he did not know of biology was eminently +worth knowing, and his teaching regarding womanhood and the conditions +of motherhood in the ideal city is more fantastically and ludicrously +absurd than anything that can be quoted, I verily believe, from any +writer of equal eminence. If, indeed, the teaching of Plato were +correct, there would be no purpose in this book. If a girl is +practically a boy, we are right in bringing up our girls to be boys. If +a woman is only a weaker and inferior kind of man, those +women--themselves, as a rule, the nearest approach to any evidence for +this view--who deny the weakness and inferiority and insist upon the +identity, are justified. Their error and that of their supporters is +twofold. + +In the first place, they err because, being themselves, as we shall +afterwards have reason to see, of an aberrant type, they judge women and +womanhood by themselves, and especially by their abnormal psychological +tendencies--notably the tendency to look upon motherhood much as the +lower type of man looks upon fatherhood. It requires closer and more +intimate study of this type than we can spare space for--more, even, +than the state of our knowledge yet permits--in order to demonstrate how +absurd is the claim of women thus peculiarly constituted to speak for +their sex as a whole. + +But, secondly, those women and men who assert the doctrine of the +identity of the sexes are led to err, not because it can really be +hidden from the most casual observer that there is a profound +distinction between the sexes, apart from the case of the defeminized +woman--but because, by a surprising fallacy, they confuse the doctrine +of sex-equality with that of sex-identity; or, rather, they believe that +only by demonstrating the doctrine that the sexes are substantially +identical, can they make good their plea that the sexes should be +regarded as equal. The fallacy is evident, and would not need to detain +us but for the fact that, as has been said, the whole tendency of the +time is towards accepting it--the recent biological proof of the +fundamental and absolute difference between the sexes being unknown as +yet to the laity. Yet surely, even were the facts less salient, or even +were they other than they are, it is a pitiable failure of logic to +suppose, as is daily supposed, that in order to prove woman man's equal +one must prove her to be really identical in all essentials, given, of +course, equal conditions. Controversialists on both sides, and even some +of the first rank, are content to accept this absurd position. + +The one party seeks to prove that woman is man's equal because Rosa +Bonheur and Lady Butler have painted, Sappho and George Eliot have +written, and so forth; in other words, that woman is man's equal because +she can do what he can do: any capacities of hers which he does not +share being tacitly regarded as beside the point or insubstantial. + +The other party has little difficulty in showing that, in point of fact, +men do things admittedly worth doing of which women are on the whole +incapable; and then triumphantly, but with logic of the order which this +party would probably call "feminine," it is assumed that woman is not +man's equal because she cannot do the things he does. That she does +things vastly better and infinitely more important which he cannot do at +all, is not a point to be considered; the baseless basis of the whole +silly controversy being the exquisite assumption, to which the women's +party have the folly to assent, that only the things which are common in +some degree to both sexes shall be taken into account, and those +peculiar to one shall be ignored. + +It is my most solemn conviction that the cause of woman, which is the +cause of man, and the cause of the unborn, is by nothing more gravely +and unnecessarily prejudiced and delayed than by this doctrine of +sex-identity. It might serve some turn for a time, as many another +error has done, were it not so palpably and egregiously false. Advocated +as it is mainly by either masculine women or unmanly men, its advocates, +though in their own persons offering some sort of evidence for it, are +of a kind which is highly repugnant to less abnormal individuals of both +sexes. Hosts of women of the highest type, who are doing the silent work +of the world, which is nothing less than the creation of the life of the +world to come, are not merely dissuaded from any support of the women's +cause by the spectacle of these palpably aberrant and unfeminine women, +but are further dissuaded by the profound conviction arising out of +their woman's nature, that the doctrine of sex-identity is absurd. Many +of them would rather accept their existing status of social inferiority, +with its thousand disabilities and injustices, than have anything to do +with women who preach "Rouse yourselves, women, and be men!" and who +themselves illustrate only too fearsomely the consequences of this +doctrine. + +Certainly not less disastrous, as a consequence of this most unfortunate +error of fact and of logic, is the alienation from the woman's cause of +not a few men whose support is exceptionally worth having. There are men +who desire nothing in the world so much as the exaltation of womanhood, +and who would devote their lives to this cause, but would vastly rather +have things as they are than aid the movement of "Woman in +Transition"--if it be transition from womanhood to something which is +certainly not womanhood and at best a very poor parody of manhood except +in cases almost infinitely rare. I have in my mind a case of a +well-known writer, a man of the highest type in every respect, well +worth enlisting in the army that fights for womanhood to-day, whose +organic repugnance to the defeminized woman is so intense, and whose +perception of the distinctive characters of real womanhood and of their +supreme excellence is so acute that, so far from aiding the cause of, +for instance, woman's suffrage, he is one of its most bitter and +unremitting enemies. There must be many such--to whom the doctrine of +sex-identity, involving the repudiation of the excellences, distinctive +and precious, of women, is an offence which they can never forgive. + +One may be permitted a little longer to delay the discussion of the +distinctive purpose and character of womanhood, because the foregoing +has already stated in outline the teaching which biology and physiology +so abundantly warrant. For here we must briefly refer to the work of a +very remarkable woman, scarcely known at all to the reading public, +either in Great Britain or in America, and never alluded to by the +feminist leaders in those countries, though her works are very widely +known on the Continent of Europe, and, with the whole weight of +biological fact behind them, are bound to become more widely known and +more effective as the years go on. I refer to the Swedish writer, Ellen +Key, one of whose works, though by no means her best, has at last been +translated into English. All her books are translated into German from +the Swedish, and are very widely read and deeply influential in +determining the course of the woman's movement in Germany. At this +early stage in our argument I earnestly commend the reader of any age or +sex to study Ellen Key's "Century of the Child." It is necessary and +right to draw particular attention to the teaching of this woman since +it is urgently needed in Anglo-Saxon countries at this very time, and +almost wholly unknown, but for this minor work of hers and an occasional +allusion--as in an article contributed by Dr. Havelock Ellis to the +_Fortnightly Review_ some few years ago. Especial importance attaches to +such teaching as hers when it proceeds from a woman whose fidelity to +the highest interests, even to the unchallenged autonomy, of her sex +cannot be questioned, attested as it is by a lifetime of splendid work. +The present controversy in Great Britain would be profoundly modified in +its course and in its character if either party were aware of Ellen +Key's work. The most questionable doctrines of the English feminists +would be already abandoned by themselves if either the wisest among +them, or their opponents, were able to cite the evidence of this great +Swedish feminist, who is certainly at this moment the most powerful and +the wisest living protagonist of her sex. From a single chapter of the +book, to which it may be hoped that the reader will refer, there may be +quoted a few sentences which will suffice to indicate the reasons why +Ellen Key dissociated herself some ten years ago from the general +feminist movement, and will also serve as an introduction from the +practical and instinctive point of view to the scientific argument +regarding the nature and purpose of womanhood, which must next concern +us. Hear Ellen Key:-- + + "Doing away with an unjust paragraph in a law which concerns woman, + turning a hundred women into a field of work where only ten were + occupied before, giving one woman work where formerly not one was + employed--these are the mile-stones in the line of progress of the + woman's rights movement. It is a line pursued without consideration + of feminine capacities, nature and environment. + + "The exclamation of a woman's rights champion when another woman + had become a butcher, 'Go thou and do likewise,' and an American + young lady working as an executioner, are, in this connection, + characteristic phenomena. + + "In our programme of civilization, we must start out with the + conviction that motherhood is something essential to the nature of + woman, and the way in which she carries out this profession is of + value for society. On this basis we must alter the conditions which + more and more are robbing woman of the happiness of motherhood and + are robbing children of the care of a mother. + + "I am in favour of real freedom for woman; that is, I wish her to + follow her own nature, whether she be an exceptional or an ordinary + woman ... I recognize fully the right of the feminine individual to + go her own way, to choose her own fortune or misfortune. I have + always spoken of women collectively and of society collectively. + + "From this general, not from the individual, standpoint, I am + trying to convince women that vengeance is being exacted on the + individual, on the race, when woman gradually destroys the deepest + vital source of her physical and psychical being, the power of + motherhood. + + "But present-day woman is not adapted to motherhood; she will only + be fitted for it when she has trained herself for motherhood and + man is trained for fatherhood. Then man and woman can begin + together to bring up the new generation out of which some day + society will be formed. In it the completed man--the superman--will + be bathed in that sunshine whose distant rays but colour the + horizon of to-day." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LAW OF CONSERVATION + + +Students of the physical sciences discovered in the nineteenth century a +universal law of Nature, always believed by the wisest since the time of +Thales, but never before proven, which is now commonly known as the law +of the conservation of energy. When we say to a child, "You cannot eat +your cake and have it," we are expressing the law of the conservation of +matter, which is really a more or less accurate part-expression of the +law of the conservation of energy. The law that from nothing nothing is +made--and further, though here this concerns us less, that nothing is +ever destroyed--is the only firm foundation for any work or any theory +whether in science or philosophy. The chemist who otherwise bases his +account of a reaction is wrong; the sociologist who denies it Nature +will deny. It was the sure foundation upon which Herbert Spencer erected +the philosophy of evolution; and every page of this book depends upon +the certainty that this law applies to woman and to womanhood as it does +to the rest of the universe. Further, it may be shown that certain less +universal but most important generalizations made by two or three +biologists are indeed special cases of the universal law. There is, +first, the law of Herbert Spencer, which states that for every +individual there is an inevitable issue between the demands of +parenthood and the demands of self; and there is, secondly, the law of +Professors Geddes and Thomson, which asserts that this issue specially +concerns the female as compared with the male sex, the distinguishing +character of femaleness being that in it a higher proportion of the +vital energy is expended upon or conserved for the future and therefore, +necessarily, a smaller proportion for the purposes of the individual. It +is of service to one's thinking, perhaps, to regard Geddes and Thomson's +law as a special case of Spencer's, and Spencer's as a special case of +the law of the conservation of energy. First, then, somewhat of detail +regarding the law of balance between expenditure on the self and +expenditure upon the race; and then to the all-important application of +this to the case of womanhood--for upon this application the whole of +the subsequent argument depends. + +When he set forth, with great daring, to write the "Principles of +Biology," Spencer was already at an advantage compared with the accepted +writers upon the subject, not merely because of his stupendous +intellectual endowment, but also because the idea of the conservation of +energy was a permanent guiding factor in all his thought. Thus it was, +one supposes, that this bold young amateur, for he was little more, +perceived in the light of the evolutionary idea of which he was one of +the original promulgators, a simple truth which had been unperceived by +all previous writers upon biology, from Aristotle onwards. It is in the +last section of his book that Spencer propounds his "law of +multiplication," depending upon what he calls the "antagonism between +individuation and genesis." As I have observed elsewhere, the word +antagonism is perhaps too harsh, and may certainly be misleading, for it +may induce us to suppose that there is no possible reconciliation of the +claims and demands of the race and the individual, the future and the +present. I believe most devoutly that there is such a reconciliation, as +indeed Spencer himself pointed out, and a central thesis of this book is +indeed that in the right expression of motherhood or foster-motherhood, +woman may and increasingly will achieve the highest, happiest, and +richest self-development. Thus one may be inclined to abandon the word +antagonism, and to say merely that there is a necessary inverse ratio +between "individuation" and "genesis," to use the original Spencerian +terms. This principle has immense consequences--most notably that as +life ascends the birth-rate falls, more of the vital energy being used +for the enrichment and development of the individual life, and less for +mere physical parenthood. We shall argue that, in the case of mankind, +and pre-eminently in the case of woman, this enrichment and development +of the individual life is best and most surely attained by parenthood or +foster-parenthood, made self-conscious and provident, and magnificently +transmuted by its extension and amplification upon the psychical plane +in the education of children and, indeed, the care and ennoblement of +human life in all its stages. + +This law of Spencer's has been discussed at length by the present writer +in a previous volume,[2] and we may therefore now proceed to its notable +illustration in the case of womanhood and the female sex in general, as +made by Geddes and Thomson now more than twenty years ago. It is +surprising that the distinguished authors do not seem to have recognized +that their law is a special case of Spencer's; but one of them granted +this relation in a discussion upon the present writer's first eugenic +lecture to the Sociological Society.[3] + +We must therefore now briefly but adequately consider the argument of +the remarkable book published by the Scottish biologists in 1889, and +presented in a new edition in 1900. The latter date is of interest, +because it coincides with the re-discovery of the work of Mendel, +published in 1865, to which we must afterwards more than once refer; and +the work of the Mendelians during the subsequent decade very +substantially modifies much of the authors' teaching upon the +determination of sex, and the intimate nature of the physiological +differences between the sexes. We have learnt more about the nature of +sex in the decade or so since the publication of the new edition of the +"Evolution of Sex" than in all preceding time. Such, at least, is the +well-grounded opinion of all who have acquainted themselves with the +work of the Mendelians, as we shall see: and therefore that book is by +no means commended to the reader's attention as the last word upon the +subject. The rather would one particularly direct him to the following +prophetic and admirable passage in the preface of 1900:-- + + "Our hope is that the growing strength of the still young school of + experimental evolutionists may before many years yield results + which will involve not merely a revision, but a recasting of our + book." + +--a passage which may well content the authors to-day, when its +fulfilment is so signal. + +Yet assuredly the main thesis of the volume stands, and profoundly +concerns every student of womanhood in any of its aspects. It will +continue to stand when the brilliant foolishness of such writers as poor +Weininger, the author of that evidently insane product "Sex and +Character," is rightly estimated as interesting to the student of mental +pathology alone. There has lately been a kind of epidemic citation from +Weininger, whose book is obviously rich in characters that make it +attractive to the ignorant and the many; and it is high time that we +should concern ourselves less with the product of a suicidal and +much-to-be-pitied boy, and more with the sober and scientific work for +which daily verification is always at hand. + +We cannot do better than have before us at the outset the authors' +statement of their main proposition, in the preface to the new edition +of their work:-- + + "In all living creatures there are two great lines of variation, + primarily determined by the very nature of protoplasmic change + (metabolism); for the ratio of the constructive (anabolic) changes + to the disruptive (katabolic) ones, that is of income to outlay, + of gains to losses, is a variable one. In one sex, the female, the + balance of debtor and creditor is the more favourable one; the + anabolic processes tend to preponderate, and this profit may be at + first devoted to growth, but later towards offspring, of which she + hence can afford to bear the larger share. To put it more + precisely, the life-ratio of anabolic to katabolic changes, A/K, in + the female is normally greater than the corresponding life-ratio, + a/k, in the male. This for us, is the fundamental, the + physiological, the constitutional difference between the sexes; and + it becomes expressed from the very outset in the contrast between + their essential reproductive elements, and may be traced on into + the more superficial sexual characters." + +A little further on (p. 17), the authors say:-- + + "Without multiplying instances, a review of the animal kingdom, or + a perusal of Darwin's pages, will amply confirm the conclusion that + on an average the females incline to passivity, the males to + activity. In higher animals, it is true that the contrast shows + itself rather in many little ways than in any one striking + difference of habit, but even in the human species the difference + is recognized. Every one will admit that strenuous spasmodic bursts + of activity characterize men, especially in youth, and among the + less civilized races; while patient continuance, with less violent + expenditure of energy, is as generally associated with the work of + women." + +We must shortly proceed to study the origin and determination of sex, +and more especially of femaleness, in the individual, and here we shall +be entirely concerned with the new knowledge commonly called Mendelism, +to which there is no allusion in our authors' pages. Meanwhile it must +be insisted that the reader who will either read their pages for a +survey of the evidence in detail, or who will for a moment consider the +evident necessities imposed by the facts of parenthood, cannot possibly +fail to satisfy himself that the main contention, as stated in the +foregoing quotations, is correct. A further point of the greatest +importance to us requires to be made. + +It is that, owing to profound but intelligible causes, the contrast +which necessarily obtains between the sexes in respect of their vital +expenditure is most marked in the case of our own species. It is one of +the conditions of progress that the young of the higher species make +more demands upon their mothers than do the young of humbler forms. In +other words, progress in the world of life has always leant upon and +been conditioned by motherhood. Thus, as one has so frequently asserted +in reference to the modern campaign against infant mortality, the young +of the human species are nurtured within the sacred person--the +_therefore_ sacred person--of the mother for a longer period in +proportion to the body weight than in the case of any other species; and +the natural period of maternal feeding is also the longest known. On the +other hand, the physical demands made by parenthood upon the male sex +are no greater in our case than in that of lower forms; though upon the +psychical plane the great fact of increasing paternal care in the right +line of progress may never be forgotten. But thus it follows that the +law of conservation, asserting that what is spent for self cannot be +kept for the race, and that if the demands of the future are to be met +the present must be subordinated, not merely applies to woman, but +applies to her in unique degree. There are grounds, also, for believing +that what is demonstrably and obviously true on the physical plane has +its counterpart in the psychical plane; and that, if woman is to remain +distinctively woman in mind, character, and temperament, and if, just +because she remains or becomes what she was meant to be, she is to find +her greatest happiness, she must orient her life towards Life Orient, +towards the future and the life of this world to come. Some such +doctrines may help us at a later stage to decide whether it be better +that a woman should become a mother or a soldier, a nurse or an +executioner. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE DETERMINATION OF SEX + + +We must regard life as essentially female, since there is no choice but +to look upon living forms which have no sex as female, and since we know +that in many of the lower forms of life there is possible what is called +parthenogenesis or virgin-birth. It has, indeed, been ingeniously argued +by a distinguished American writer, Professor Lester Ward,[4] that the +male sex is to be looked upon as an afterthought, an ancillary +contrivance, devised primarily for the advantages of having a second +sex--whatever those advantages may exactly be; and secondarily, one +would add, becoming useful in adding fatherhood to motherhood upon the +psychical plane of post-natal care and education as well. + +But whatever was the historical or evolutionary origin of sex, we may +here be excused for attaching more importance--for it is of great +practical consequence--to the origin or determination of sex in the +individual. At what stage and under what influences did the child that +is born a girl become female? To what extent can we control the +determination of sex? Why are the numbers of the sexes approximately so +equal? What determines the curious disproportions observed in many +families, which may be composed only of girls or only of boys; and, as +is asserted, also observed after wars and epidemics or during sieges, +when an abnormally high proportion of boys is said to be born? These are +some of the deeply interesting questions which men have always attempted +to answer--with the beginnings of substantial success during the present +century at last. + +In general it is true that, the more we learn of the characters and +histories of living beings, the more importance we attach to nature or +birth and the less to nurture or environment, vastly important though +the latter be. Thus to the student of heredity nothing could well seem +more improbable, at any rate amongst the higher animals, than that +characters so profound as those of sex should be determined by nurture. +He simply cannot but believe that the sex of the individual is as inborn +as his backbone, and as incapable of being created by varying conditions +of nurture. The causation of sex is therefore really a problem in +heredity; and we may most confidently assert, in the first place, that +the sex of every human being is already determined at the moment of +conception when, indeed, the new individual is created: determined then +by the nature and constitution of the living cells--or of one of +them--which combine to form the new being. Subsequent attempts to affect +the sex, as by means of the mother's diet and the like, are palpably +hopeless from the outset and always will be. This is by no means to say +that conditions affecting the mother--as, for instance, the +semi-starvation of a prolonged siege--may not affect the construction of +the germ-cells which she houses, and which are constantly being formed +within her from the mother germ-cells, as they are called. But any given +final germ-cell, such as will combine with another from an individual of +the opposite sex to form a new being, is already determined, once for +all, to be of one sex or the other. We naturally ask, then, how the two +parents are concerned in this matter; and the first remarkable answer +returned by the Mendelian workers during the last three or four years is +that it is the mother who determines the sex of her children in the case +of all the higher animals. Her contribution to the new being is called +the ovum, and it is believed that ova are of two kinds, or, we are quite +right in saying, of two sexes. + +Those who are now working at these problems experimentally, actually +seeing what happens in given cases, and whom we may for convenience call +Mendelians after the master who gave them their method and their key, +have latterly obtained results the main tenour of which must be stated +here, as they indicate the lines of a portion of the succeeding +argument. The task was to attack experimentally the determination of +sex--a fascinating problem for which so many solutions that failed to +hold water have been found, but hitherto no others. In finding the +answer to it, as they appear certainly to have done so far as the higher +animals are concerned, the Mendelians are also beginning to ascertain, +as we shall see, certain basal facts as to the composition or +constitution of the individual; and to us, who wish to know exactly +what a woman is, and what she is as distinguished from a man, this +discovery is of the most vital importance. The experimental facts are +not yet numerous, and if they were not consonant with facts of other +orders, it would be rash to proceed; but it will be evident, in the +sequel, that common experience is well in accord with the experimental +evidence. + +It appears that, amongst at any rate the higher animals, the sex of +offspring is determined by the nature of the mother's contribution. The +cell derived from the father is always male--as goes without saying, we +might add, if we knew little of the subject. But the ovum, the cell +derived from the mother, may carry either femaleness or maleness. When +an ovum bearing maleness meets the invariably maleness-bearing sperm, +the resultant individual is a male, of course, and he is male all +through. But when an ovum bearing femaleness meets a sperm, the +resulting individual is female, femaleness being a Mendelian "dominant" +to maleness; if both be present, femaleness appears. The female, +however, is not female all through as the male is male all through. So +far as sex is concerned, he is made of maleness _plus_ maleness; but she +is made of femaleness _plus_ maleness. In Mendelian language the male is +homozygous, so-called "pure" as regards this character. But the female +is heterozygous, "impure" in the sense that her femaleness depends upon +the dominance of the factor for femaleness over the factor for maleness, +which also is present in her. In the Mendelian terminology, she is an +instance of impure dominance. The observed practical equality in the +numbers of the two sexes is in exact accord with this interpretation of +the facts, this proportion being the expected and observed one in many +other cases which doubtless depend upon parallel conditions of the +reproductive cells. + +Surely there is great enlightenment here: for the discovery of the +factors determining sex is a very small affair compared with the +suggestive inference as to the constitution of womanhood. Let us compare +man and woman on the basis of this assumption. + +In the man there is nothing but maleness. This is not to deny that he +may possess the protective instinct and the tender emotion which is its +correlate, even though these were undoubtedly feminine in origin. But it +is to deny that any injury to, or arrested development of, the male can +reveal in him characters distinctively female. He may fail to become a +man and may remain a boy; or, having been a man, he may perhaps return, +under certain conditions, to a more youthful state; but he will never, +can never, display anything distinctive of the woman. + +Not such, however, must be the woman's case. If anything should +interfere with the development and dominance of the femaleness factor in +her, there is not another "dose" of femaleness, so to speak, to fall +back upon; but a dose of maleness. We may be right in thus seeking to +explain certain familiar phenomena, observed in women under various +conditions--as, for instance, the growth of hair upon the face in +elderly women, the assumption of a masculine voice and aspect, and so +forth. Such facts are frequently to be observed after the climacteric or +"change of life," which probably denotes the termination of the +dominance of the femaleness factor. They are also to be observed as a +consequence of operations much more commonly and irresponsibly performed +a few years ago than now, which abruptly deprived the organism of the +internal secretion through which, as we may surmise, the femaleness +factor in the germ makes its presence effective. + +If these propositions are valid, they are certainly important. Our +attitude towards them will depend upon our estimates of the worth of +distinctive womanhood. We may regard it as a loss to society that what +might have been a woman should become only a sort of man of rather less +than average efficiency. Or we may hail with delight the possibility +that, after all, we may be able, by judicious education, to make men of +our daughters. But, whatever our estimates, certainly it is of great +interest to inquire how far and in what directions education may affect +the development of what was given in the germ. We cannot yet answer this +question. In a thousand matters it is all-important to know in what +degree education can control nature, but until we know what the nature +of the individual is we cannot decide. Professor Bateson has clearly +shown that we shall be able duly to estimate environment only when +Mendelian analysis has gone much further, and has instructed us in +detail as to the nature of the material upon which environment is to +act. + +For instance, there is the well-established fact that women who have +undergone "higher education" show a low marriage-rate, and produce very +few children. However considered, the fact is of great importance. But +the right interpretation of it is not certain. There are women of a type +approaching the masculine, who are evidently so by nature. Is it these +women, already predestined for something other than distinctive +womanhood, that offer themselves for "higher education"? In other words, +is there a selective process at work, the results of which in choosing a +certain type of woman we attribute to the education undergone? If we +answer this question wrongly, and act upon our erroneous interpretation, +we shall certainly do grave injury to individuals and society. + +Thus, we might roundly condemn the higher education of women _in toto_, +and hold up the "domestic woman" as the sole type to which every woman +can and must be made to conform. Or, on the other hand, we may argue +that it is well to provide suitable opportunities of self-development +for those women whose nature practically unfits them for the ordinary +career of a woman. + +I do not think that any one who has had opportunities of first-hand +observation will question the presence in university and college +class-rooms of girls of the anomalous type. Each generation produces a +certain number of such. Probably no education will alter their nature in +any radical or effective way. On every ground, personal and social, we +must be right in providing for them, as for their brothers, all the +opportunities they may desire. But I am convinced that their relative +number is not large. + +The great majority of those girls who are nowadays subjected to what we +call "higher education" are of the normal type; and this is none the +less true because the proportion of the anomalous is doubtless higher +here than in the feminine community at large. The ordinary observation +of those teachers who year by year see young girls at the beginning of +their higher education will certainly confirm the statement that by far +the greater number of them are of the ordinary feminine type. If this be +so, the necessary inference is that education _has_ a potent influence, +and that it must be held accountable for the observed facts of later +years, whether those facts please or displease us. + +The human being is the most adaptable--that is to say, educable--of all +living creatures. This is true of women as well as men. The response of +girls to ideas, ideals, suggestion, the spirit of the group, is an +unquestioned thing. Further, there are basal facts of physiology, +ultimately dependent on the law of the conservation of energy, and the +circumstance that you cannot eat your cake and have it, which work +hand-in-hand, on their own effective plane, with the psychological +influences already referred to. All physiology and psychology lead us to +expect those results of "higher education" upon its subjects or victims +which, in fact, we find, and which, in the main, are indeed its results +and not dependent upon the exceptional natures of those subjected to it. +The more general higher education becomes, and the less selection is +exercised upon the candidates for it, the more evident, I believe, will +it appear that woman responds in high degree to the total circumstances +of her life; and that if we do not like the fruits of our labour it is +we indeed that are to blame. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MENDELISM AND WOMANHOOD + + +We are accustomed to think of Mendelism as simply a theory of heredity, +by which term we should properly understand the relation between living +generations. Now Mendelism is certainly this, but I believe that it is +vastly more. Already the claim has been made, though not, perhaps, in +adequate measure, by the Mendelians, and I am convinced that their title +to it will be upheld. Mendelism has already effected a really +epoch-making advance in our knowledge of heredity--the relations between +parents and offspring; but we shall learn ere long that it has yet more +to teach us regarding the very constitution of living beings. As modern +chemistry can analyse a highly complex molecule into its constituent +elementary atoms, so the Mendelians promise ere long to enable us to +effect an _organic analysis_ of living creatures. For many decades past +theory has perceived that, in the germ-cells whence we and the higher +animals and plants are developed, there must exist--somewhere +intermediate between the chemical molecule and the vital unit, the cell +itself--units which Herbert Spencer, the first and greatest of their +students, called physiological or constitutional units. Since his day +they have been re-discovered--or rather re-named--by a host of students, +including Haeckel, Weismann, and many of scarcely less distinction. The +Mendelian "factors," as I maintain must be clear to any student of the +idea, are Spencer's physiological units. Of course neither Spencer nor +any one else, until the re-discovery of Mendel's work, had any notion at +all of the remarkable fashion in which these units are treated in the +process whereby germ-cells are prepared for their great destiny. The +rule, as we now know, is that one germ-cell contains any given unit, +while another does not. The process of cell-division, whereby the +germ-cells or gametes[5] are made, is called gameto-genesis. Somewhere +in its course there occurs the capital fact discovered by Mendel and +called by him segregation. A cell divides into two--which are the final +gametes. One of these will definitely contain the Mendelian factor, and +the other will be as definitely without it. Definite consequences follow +in the constitution of the offspring; and such is the Mendelian +contribution to heredity. But we must see that these inquiries cannot be +far pursued without telling us vastly more than we ever knew before of +not only the relation between individuals of successive generations, but +the very structure of the individuals themselves. It is by the study of +heredity that we shall learn to understand the individual. For instance, +experimental breeding of the fowl reveals the existence of the brooding +instinct as a definite unit, which enters, or does not enter, into the +composition of the individual, and which is quite distinct from the +capacity to produce eggs. Here is a definite distinction suggested, for +the case of the fowl, between two really distinct things which, for +several years past, I have called respectively physical and psychical +motherhood. The analysis will doubtless go far further, but already the +facts of experiment help us to realize the composition of the individual +mother--for instance, the number of possible variants, and the +non-necessity of a connection between the capacity to produce children +and the parental instinct upon which the care of them depends, and +without which entire and perfect motherhood cannot be. + +The Mendelians are teaching us, too, that their "factors," the units of +which we are made, are often intertangled or mutually repellent. If +such-and-such goes into the germ-cell, so must something else; or if the +one, then never the other. There may thus be naturally determined +conditions of entire womanhood; just as one may be externally a woman, +yet lack certain of the fractional constituents which are necessary for +the perfect being. Complete womanhood, like genius--rarer though not +more valuable--depends upon the co-existence of _many_ factors, some of +which may be coupled and segregated together in gameto-genesis, while +others may be quite independent, only chance determining the throw of +them. And the question of incompatibility or mutual repulsion of factors +is of the gravest concern; as, for instance, if it were the case--and +the illustration is perhaps none too far-fetched--that the factor for +the brooding instinct and the factor for intellect can scarcely be +allotted together to a single cell. + +This question of compatibilities is illustrated very strikingly by the +case of the worker-bee. There is as yet no purely Mendelian +interpretation of this case, Mendel's own laborious work upon heredity +in bees having been entirely lost, and practically nothing having been +done since. Yet, as will be evident, the main argument of Geddes and +Thomson leads us to a similar interpretation of this case in terms of +compatibility. + +The worker-bee is an individual of a most remarkable and admirable kind, +from whom mankind have yet a thousand truths to learn. She is +distinguished primarily by the rare and high development of her nervous +apparatus. In terms of brain and mind, using these words in a general +sense, the worker-bee is almost the paragon of animals. The ancients +supposed that the queen-bee was indeed the queen and ruler of the hive. +Here, they thought, was the organizing genius, the forethought, the +exquisite skill in little things and great, upon which the welfare of +the hive and the future of the race depend. But, in point of fact, the +queen-bee is a fool. Her brain and mind are of the humblest order. She +never organizes anything, and does not rule even herself, but does what +she is told. She is entirely specialized for motherhood; but the +thinking, and the determination of the conditions of her motherhood, are +in the hands of other females, also highly specialized, and certainly +the least selfish of living things--_yet themselves sterile, incapable +of motherhood_. + +Observe, further, that these wonderful workers, so highly endowed in +terms of brain, are amongst the children of the queen, herself a fool; +and that it was the conditions of nourishment, the conditions of +environment or education, which determined whether the young creatures +should develop into queens or workers, fertile fools or sterile wits. We +have here an absolute demonstration that environment or nurture can +determine the production of these two antithetic and radically opposed +types of femaleness. + +Now, amongst the bees, this high degree of specialization works very +well. How old bee-societies are we cannot say. We do know, at any rate, +that bees are invertebrate animals, and therefore of immeasurable +antiquity compared with man. No one can for a moment question the +eminent success of the bee-hive; and that success depends upon the +extreme specialization of the female, so as in effect to create a third +sex. Further, we know that nurture alone accounts for this remarkable +splitting of one sex into two contrasted varieties. + +I have little doubt that a process which is, at the very least, +analogous, is possible amongst ourselves; nay more, that such a process +is already afoot. In Japan they have actually been talking of a +deliberate differentiation between workers and breeders; such +differentiation, though indeliberate, is to be seen to-day in all highly +civilized communities. Is it likely to be as good for us as for the +bee-hive? And, granted its value as a social structure, is it, even +then, to be worth while? + +No one can answer these questions, though I venture to believe that it +is something to ask them. So far as the last is concerned, we must not +admit the smallest infringement of the supreme principles that every +human being is an end in himself or herself, and that the worth of a +society is to be found in the worth and happiness of the individuals who +compose it. + +Can we, as human beings, regard a human society as admirable because it +is successful, stable, numerous? + +The question is a fundamental one, for it matters at what we aim. As it +becomes increasingly possible for man to realize his ideals, it becomes +increasingly important that they shall be right ones; and there is a +risk to-day that the growth of knowledge shall be too rapid for wisdom +to keep pace with. We are reaching towards, and will soon attain in very +large and effective measure, nothing less than a _control of life_, +present and to come. It may well be that a remodelling of human society +upon the lines of the bee-hive is feasible. It was his study of bees +that made a Socialist of Professor Forel, certainly one of the greatest +of living thinkers; and his assumption is that in the bee-hive we have +an example largely worthy of imitation. But he would be the first to +admit that, as the ordinary Socialist has yet to learn, the nature of +the society is ultimately determined by the nature of the individuals +composing it. It follows that the bee-society can be completely, or, at +all events substantially, imitated only by remodelling human nature on +the lines of the individual bee. This is very far from impossible; there +is a plethora of human drones already, and we see the emergence of the +sterile female worker. But is such a change--or any change at all of +that kind--to be desired? + +_The Terms of Specialization._--It surely cannot be denied that there +may be a grave antagonism between the interests of the society and those +of the individual. It is a question of the terms of specialization or +differentiation. In the study of the individual organism and its history +we discern specialization of the cell as a capital fact. Organic +evolution has largely depended upon what Milne-Edwards called the +"physiological division of labour." In so far as organic evolution has +been progressive, it has entirely coincided with this process of +cell-differentiation. That is the clear lesson which the student of +progress learns from the study of living Nature. Let him hold hard by +this truth, and by it let him judge that other specialization which +human society presents. + +For this primary and physiological division of labour has its analogue +in a much later thing, the division of labour in human society, upon +which, indeed, the possibility of what we call human society depends. +And it is plain that the time has come when we must determine the price +that may rightly be paid for this specialization. Assuredly it is not to +be had for nothing. Dr. Minot considers that death, as a biological +fact, is the price paid for cell-differentiation. Now surely the death +of individuality is the price paid for such specialization as that of +the workman who spends his life supervising the machine which effects a +single process in the making of a pin, and has never even seen any +other but that stage in the process of making that one among all the +"number of things" of which the world is full. Here, as in a thousand +other cases, it has cost a man to make an expert. + +How far we are entitled to go we shall determine only when we know what +it is that we want to attain. + +If we desire an efficient, durable, numerous society, there are probably +no limits whatever that we need observe in the process of +specialization. Pins are cheaper for the sacrifice of the individual in +their making. In general, the professional must do better than the +amateur; the lover of chamber music knows that a Joachim or Brussels +Quartet is not to be found everywhere. Specialization we must have for +progress, or even for the maintenance of what the past has achieved for +us; but we shall pay the right price only by remembering the principle +that all progress in the world of life has depended on +cell-differentiation. If we prejudice that we are prejudicing progress. + +Now nothing can be more evident than that, in some of our +specializations of the individual for the sake of society, we are +_opposing_ that specialization within the individual which, it has been +laid down, we must never sacrifice. And so we reach the basal principle +to which the preceding argument has been guiding us. It is that the +specialization of the individual for the sake of society may rightly +proceed to any point short of reversing or aborting the process of +differentiation within himself. Every individual is an end in himself; +there are no other ends for society; and that society is the best which +best provides for the most complete development and self-expression of +the individuals composing it. + +But how, then, is the division of labour necessary for society to be +effected, the reader may ask? The answer is that the human species, like +all others, displays what biologists call variation--men and women +naturally differ within limits so wide that, when we consider the case +of genius, we must call them incalculable, illimitable. The difference +of our faces or our voices is a mere symbol of differences no less +universal but vastly more important. It is these differences, in +reality, that are the cause of the development of human society and of +that division of labour upon which it depends. In providing for the best +development of all these various individuals we at the same time provide +for the division of labour that we need; nor can we in any other fashion +provide so well. Thus we shall attain a society which, if less certainly +stable than that of the bees, is what that is not--progressive, and not +merely static; and a society which is worth while, justified by the +lives and minds of the individuals composing it. + +We are not, then, to make a factitious differentiation of set purpose in +the interests of society and to the detriment of individuals. We are not +to take a being in whom Nature has differentiated a thousand parts, and, +in effect, reduce him, in the interests of others, to one or two +constituents and powers, thus nullifying the evolutionary course. But we +shall frame a society such as the past never witnessed, and we shall +achieve a rate of progress equally without parallel, by consistently +regarding society as existing for the individual, and not the individual +for society, and by thus realizing to the full his characteristic powers +_for himself and for society_. + +In so far as all this is true it is true of woman. It has long been +asserted that woman is less variable than man; but the certainty of that +statement has lately lost its edge. It is probably untrue. There is no +real reason to suppose that woman is less complex or less variable than +man. She has the same title as he has to those conditions in which her +particular characters, whatever they be, shall find their most complete +and fruitful development. There is no more a single ideal type of woman +than there is a single ideal type of man. It takes all sorts even to +make a sex. It has been in the past, and always must be, a piece of +gross presumption on man's part to say to woman, "Thus shalt thou be, +and no other." Whom Nature has made different, man has no business to +make or even to desire similar. The world wants all the powers of all +the individuals of either sex. On the other hand, no good can come of +the attempt to distort the development of those powers or to seek +conformity to any type. Much of the evil of the past has arisen from the +limitation of woman to practically one profession. Even should it be +incomparably the best, in general, it is by no means necessarily the +best, or even good at all, for every individual. Men are to be heard +saying, "A woman ought to be a wife and mother." It is, perhaps, the +main argument of this book that, for most women, this is the sphere in +which their characteristic potencies will find best and most useful +expression both for self and others; but that is very different from +saying that every woman ought to be a mother, or that no woman ought to +be a surgeon. We may prefer the maternal to the surgical type, and there +may be good reason for our preference; but the surgeon may be very +useful, and, useful or not, the question is not one of ought. Thoughtful +people should know better than to make this constant confusion between +what ought to be and what is. Let us hold to our ideals, let us by all +means have our scale of values; but the first question in such a case as +this is as to what _is_. In point of fact all women are not of the same +type; and our expression of what ought to be is none other than the +passing of a censure upon Nature for her deeds. We may know better than +she, or, as has happened, we may know worse. + + + + +VII + +BEFORE WOMANHOOD + + +We have seen that the sex of the individual is already determined as +early as any other of his or her characters, though the realization of +the potentialities of that sex may be much modified by nurture, as in +the contrasted cases of the queen bee and the worker bee. Children, +then, are already of one sex or other, and though our business in the +present volume is not childhood of either sex, a few points are worth +noting before we take up the consideration of the individual at the +period when the distinctive characteristics of sex make their effective +appearance. + +Despite the abundance of the material and the opportunities for +observation, we are at present without decisive evidence as to the +distinctiveness of sex in any effective way during childhood. Here, as +elsewhere, we have to guard ourselves against the influences of nurture +in the widest sense of the word; as when, to take an extreme case, we +distinguish between the boy and the girl because the hair of the one is +cut and of the other is not. The natural, as distinguished from the +nurtural, distinctions at this period are probably much fewer than is +supposed. It is asserted--to take physical characters first--that the +girl of ten gives out in breathing considerably less carbonic acid than +her brother of the same age, thus foreshadowing the difference between +the sexes which is recognized in later years. If this fact be critically +established it is of very great interest, showing that the sex +distinction effectively makes its presence felt in the most essential +processes of the body. But we should require to be satisfied that the +observations were sufficiently numerous, and were made under absolutely +equal conditions, and with due allowance for difference in body-weight. +They would be the more credible if it were also shown that the number of +the red blood corpuscles were smaller in girls than in boys in parallel +with the difference between the sexes in later years. + +Children of both sexes have fewer red blood corpuscles in a given +quantity of blood and a smaller proportion of the red colouring matter, +or hæmoglobin, than adults. Women have very definitely fewer red blood +corpuscles than men, and a smaller proportion of hæmoglobin, and their +blood is more watery. According to one authority this difference in the +hæmoglobin can be observed from the ages of eleven to fifty, but not +before. The specific gravity of the blood is found to be the same in +both sexes before the fifteenth year. Thereafter, that of the boy's +blood rises, and between seventeen and forty-five is definitely higher +than in women of the corresponding age. It thus seems quite clear that, +as we should expect, these differences in the blood, which are +certainly, as Dr. Havelock Ellis says, fundamental, make their +appearance definitely at puberty--a fact which supports the view that +fundamental differences of practical importance between the two sexes +before that age are not to be found. Careful comparative study of the +pulse of children is hitherto somewhat inconclusive, though it is well +known that the pulse is more rapid in women than in men. + +On the other hand, it seems clear as regards respiration that as early +as the age of twelve there are definite differences between the sexes. +Several thousands of American school children were examined, and between +the ages of six and nineteen the boys were throughout superior in lung +capacity. The girls had almost reached their maximum capacity at the age +of twelve, and thereafter the difference, till then slight, rapidly +increased.[6] It appears that from eight to fifteen years of age a boy +burns more carbon than a girl, the difference, however, being not great. +But at puberty the boy proceeds to consume very nearly twice as much +carbon per hour as his sister. + +Perhaps the matter need not be pursued further. It is sufficient for us +to recognize that puberty is really the critical time, and that in the +consideration of womanhood we may, on the whole, be justified in looking +upon the problem of the girl before that age as almost identical with +her brother's. Yet we must be reasonably cautious, since our knowledge +is small, and there is some by no means negligible evidence of +fundamental physiological differences between the sexes before puberty, +relatively slight though these may be. Therefore, though on the whole +we need make few distinctions between the girl and her brother, and +though we are doubtless wrong in the magnitude of the practical +distinctions which we have often made hitherto, yet we must remember +that these are going to be different beings, and that the main +principles which determine our nurture of womanhood may be recalled when +we are doubtful as to practice in the care of the girl child. + +Physiological distinctions, we have seen, probably exist during these +early years, but are of less importance than we sometimes have attached +to them, and of no importance at all compared with what is to come. +Psychological distinctions, we may believe, are still more dubious. For +instance, it is generally believed that the parental instinct shows +itself much more markedly in girls than in boys, and the commonly +observed history of the liking for dolls is quoted in this connection. +As this instinct bears so profoundly upon the later life of the +individual, and as we may reasonably suppose the child to be the mother +of the woman as well as the father of the man, the matter is worth +looking at a little further. + +But, in the first place, it has been asserted that the doll instinct has +really nothing whatever to do with the parental instinct in either sex. +Psychologists, whom one suspects of being bachelors, tell us that what +we really observe here is the instinct of acquisition: it really does +not matter what we give the child, though it so happens that we very +commonly present it with dolls; it is the lust of possession that we +satisfy, and in point of fact one thing will satisfy it as well as +another. + +The evidence against this view is quite overwhelming. We might quote the +universal distribution of dolls in place and in time as revealed by +anthropology. Wherever there is mankind there are dolls, whether in +Mayfair or in Whitechapel, Japan, the South Sea Islands, Ancient Egypt +or Mexico. Further, there is the observed behaviour of the child, +opportunities for which have presumably been denied to the psychologists +whose opinion has been quoted. The only objection to the theory that the +child will be content with the possession of anything else as well as of +a doll is the circumstance that the child is not so content, but asks +for a doll for choice, and will lavish upon any doll, however +diagrammatic, an amount of love and care which no other toy will ever +obtain. Further, if the child has opportunities for playing with a real +baby, it will be perfectly evident, even to the bachelor psychologist, +that the doll was the vicarious substitute for the real thing. + +But now, what as to the comparative strength of this instinct in the two +sexes? Here we must not be deceived by the effects of nurture, +environment, or education. Though finding, as we do, that the little boy +enjoys playing with his dolls as his sister does, we refrain from buying +dolls for him, and may indeed, underestimating the importance of human +fatherhood, declare that dolls are beneath the dignity of a boy though +good enough for his sister. He, destined rather for the business of +destroying life, so much more glorious than saving it, must learn to +play with soldiers. In this fashion we at least deprive ourselves of +any opportunity of critically comparing the strength and the history of +the instinct in the two sexes. + +There is good reason to suppose that the distinction between the +psychology of the boy and that of the girl in these early years is very +small. If boys are not discouraged they will play with dolls for choice, +just as their sisters do, and may be just as charming with younger +brothers or sisters. Nor is it by any means certain that this misleading +of ourselves is the worst consequence of the common practice. It is +possible that we lose opportunities for the inculcation of ideals which +are of the highest value to the individual and the race. I am reminded +of the true story of a small boy, well brought up, who, being jeered at +in the street by bigger boys because he was carrying a doll, turned upon +his critics with the admirable retort--slightly wanting in charity, let +us hope, but none the less pertinent--"None of you will ever be a good +father." + +Thus, on the whole, one is inclined to suppose that the general +resemblance in facial appearance, bodily contour, and interests which we +observe in children of the two sexes, indicates that deeper distinctions +are latent rather than active. This is much more than an academic +question, for if our subject in the present volume were the care of +childhood, it is plain that we should have to base upon our answer to +this question our treatment of boy and girl respectively. Probably we +are on the whole correct in instituting no deep distinction of any kind +in the nurture, either physical or mental, of children during their +early years. Nor can there be any doubt, at least so far, as to the +rightness of educating them together, and allowing them to compete, in +so far as we allow competition at all, freely both in work and in games. + +However this may be, there comes at an age which varies somewhat in +different races and individuals, a period critical to both sexes, in +which the factors of sex differentiation, hitherto more or less latent, +begin conspicuously to assert themselves. Here, plainly, is the dawn of +womanhood, and here, in our consideration of woman the individual, we +must make a start. If we recall the tentative Mendelian analysis already +referred to, we may suppose that the "factor" for womanhood begins to +assert itself, at any rate in effective degree, at this period of +puberty, when a girl becomes a woman; and that its most effective reign +is over at the much later crisis which we call the change of life or +climacteric. In other words, though sex is determined from the first, +and though certain of its distinctive characters remain to the end, we +may say that our study of womanhood is practically concerned with the +years between twelve or thirteen, and forty-five or fifty. Before this +period, as we have suggested, the distinction between the sexes is of no +practical importance so far as _regimen_ and education are concerned. +After this period also it is probable that the difference between the +two sexes is diminished, and would be still more evidently diminished +were it not for the effects which different experience has permanently +wrought in the memory. We begin our practical study, then, of woman the +individual, with the young girl at the age of puberty; and we must +concern ourselves first with the care of her body. + + + + +VIII + +THE PHYSICAL TRAINING OF GIRLS + + +We shall certainly not reach right conclusions about the physical +training of girls unless we rightly understand what physical training +does and does not effect, and what we desire it should effect. This +applies to all education--that our aim be defined, that we shall know +"what it is we are after," and it applies pre-eminently to the +education, both physical and mental, of girls. + +Now it will be granted, in the first place, that by physical +training--whether in the form of gymnastics or games or what not--we +desire to produce a healthier and more perfectly developed body. Some +will add a stronger body, but as this term has two meanings constantly +confused, it really contains the crux of the question. Stronger may mean +stronger in the sense of resistance to disease or fatigue or strain of +any kind, or it may mean stronger in the sense of the capacity to +perform feats of strength. It being commonly assumed that vitality and +muscularity are identical, this distinction is, on that assumption, +merely academic and trivial. But as muscularity and vitality are not +identical, and have indeed very little to do with each other, and as +muscularity may even in certain conditions prejudice vitality, the +distinction is not academic but all-important. I freely assert that it +is substantially ignored by those who concern themselves with physical +training, whether of boys or girls or recruits, all the world over. + +Though a woman is naturally less muscular than a man, her vitality is +higher. This seems to be a general truth of all female organisms. The +evidence is of many orders. Thus, to begin with, women live longer, on +the average, than men do. In the light of our modern knowledge of +alcohol, however, we cannot regard this fact by itself as conclusive, +since the average age attained by men is undoubtedly considerably +lowered by alcohol, and of course to a much greater extent than obtains +in the case of women. But women recover better from poisoning, such as +occurs in infectious disease, and they are far more tolerant of loss of +blood, as indeed they have to be. The same applies to loss of sleep or +food, and to injurious influences generally. These indisputable proofs +of superior vitality co-exist with much inferior muscularity, and are +conclusive on the point. If men would make observations among themselves +and think for a moment, they would soon perceive how foolish they are in +crediting the assumptions of the strong men who so successfully persuade +the public that the great thing is for a man to have big muscles. Men, +muscular by nature, and still more so by nurture, are often in point of +fact really weak compared with much less muscular men who, though they +cannot put forth so much mechanical energy at a given moment, can yet +endure fifty times the fatigue or stress or poisoning of any order. +From the point of view of any sound physiology there is no comparison at +all between the absurd strong man and the slight Marathon runner of +small muscles but splendid vitality. If we are to test vitality in +muscular terms at all--that in itself being a quite indefensible +assumption--we must do so in terms of endurance, and not in terms of +horse power or ass power, at any given moment. + +If, then, vitality be our aim in physical training, and not muscularity +as such, nor in any degree except in so far as it serves vitality, it is +plain that we shall to some extent reconsider our methods. + +Pre-eminently will this apply to the girl. Just because she is now +becoming a woman, her vital energies are in no small degree pledged for +special purposes of the highest importance, from which we cannot +possibly divert them if we desire that she shall indeed become a woman. +Thus, though muscular exercise of any kind is certainly not to be +condemned, we must be cautious; for, in the first place, muscular +exercise is no end in itself; in the second, the production of big +muscles by exercise is no end in itself; and in the third place, all +muscular exercise is expenditure of energy in those outward directions +which are not characteristic of womanhood, and which must always be +subordinated to those interests that are. + +At this period of which we are speaking there are constructions of the +most important kind going on in the girl's body, compared with which the +construction of additional muscular tissue is of much less than no +importance. These building-up processes are, we know, characteristic of +the woman. Their right inception is a matter of the greatest importance. +They involve the actual accumulation of food material and the building +up of it into gland cells and other highly organized tissues upon which +complete womanhood depends. These all-important concerns are prejudiced +by excessive external expenditure, and thus the care necessary for the +boy at puberty is a thousandfold more necessary for the girl, though the +obvious changes in her appearance and her voice may be much less marked. +Greater and more costly constructions are afoot in her case than her +brother's, grossly though these facts are at present ignored in what we +are pleased to call education, both physical and mental. + +If we are to decide what kinds of physical exercise will be most +desirable, we must come to some conclusion as to what is the object of +our labours, it being granted that muscular activity and the making of +big muscles are not ends in themselves. The answer to this question is +to be found in what I have elsewhere called the new asceticism. + +In tracing the history of animal progress, we find that it coincides +with and has consisted in the emergence of the psychical and its +predominance over the physical. The history of progress is the history +of the evolving nervous system. Muscles are the servants of the nervous +system. In man progress has reached its highest phase in that the +nervous system, which at first was merely a servant of the body, has +become the essential thing, so that the brain is the man. The old +asceticism was at least right in regarding the soul as all-important, +though it was utterly wrong in considering the interests of soul and +body to be entirely antagonistic, and in teaching that for the elevation +of the soul we must outrage, mutilate, and deny the body. The new +asceticism accepts the first principle of the old, but bases its +practice on a truer conception of the relations between mind and body. +The greater part of the body is composed of muscles, and it is with +muscles that physical training is concerned. On our principles, then, +any system of physical training worth a straw must have primary +reference to the brain, since the body, including the muscles, is only +the servant of the ego or self which resides in the brain. For this +reason, if for no other, the development of muscle as an end in itself +is beneath human dignity; the value of a muscle lies not in its size or +strength, but in its capacity to be a useful and skilful agent of the +brain. + +The exceptions to this rule are furnished by precisely those muscles +which the usual forms of physical training and gymnastics ignore and +subordinate to the development of the muscles of the limbs. It does +matter very much that man or woman shall have the heart, which is the +most important muscle in the body, and the muscles of respiration in +good order. These muscles are directly necessary for life, and are +therefore servants of the brain, even though they are not in any +appreciable degree the direct agents of its purposes. Any kind of +physical exercise then which, while developing the muscles of the arm, +for instance, throws undue strain upon the heart or involves the +fixation of the chest for a considerable period--as occurs in various +feats of strength, whether with weights or upon bars or the like--is +_ipso facto_ to be condemned. It is now recognized that in the training +of soldiers much harm is often done in this way to the essential +muscles, while others, more conspicuous but of relatively no importance, +are being developed. + +But before we consider in detail what kinds of exercise and with what +accompaniment may be permitted for the muscles of the limbs, it is well +that we should agree upon some method of deciding as to the quantity of +such exercise. We cannot go by such measures as hours per week, for +individuals vary. We must find some criterion which will guide us for +each individual. The pendulum has swung in this regard from one extreme +to another. Both extremes were adopted and permitted because in our +guidance of girlhood we ignored facts of physiology, and, notably, +because educators had not a clear conception of what it was that they +desired to attain. By the consent of all who have given any attention to +the subject, the great educational reformer of the nineteenth century +was Herbert Spencer, and not the least of his services was his +liberation of girls from the extraordinary _regimen_ of fifty years ago. +There needs no excuse for a long quotation from the volume in which, +just short of half a century ago, Herbert Spencer discussed this matter. +Thereafter we may observe how the pendulum has swung to the other +extreme:-- + + "To the importance of bodily exercise most people are in some + degree awake. Perhaps less needs saying on this requisite of + physical education than on most others; at any rate, in so far as + boys are concerned. Public schools and private schools alike + furnish tolerably adequate play-grounds; and there is usually a + fair share of time for out-door games, and a recognition of them as + needful. In this, if in no other direction, it seems admitted that + the promptings of boyish instinct may advantageously be followed; + and, indeed, in the modern practice of breaking the prolonged + morning's and afternoon's lessons by a few minutes' open-air + recreation, we see an increasing tendency to conform + school-regulations to the bodily sensations of the pupils. Here, + then, little need be said in the way of expostulation or + suggestion. + + "But we have been obliged to qualify this admission by inserting + the clause in so far as boys are concerned. Unfortunately, the fact + is quite otherwise with girls. It chances, somewhat strangely, that + we have daily opportunity of drawing a comparison. We have both a + boys' school and a girls' school within view; and the contrast + between them is remarkable. In the one case nearly the whole of a + large garden is turned into an open, gravelled space, affording + ample scope for games, and supplied with poles and horizontal bars + for gymnastic exercises. Every day before breakfast, again towards + eleven o'clock, again at mid-day, again in the afternoon, and once + more after school is over, the neighbourhood is awakened by a + chorus of shouts and laughter as the boys rush out to play; and for + as long as they remain, both eyes and ears give proof that they are + absorbed in that enjoyable activity which makes the pulse bound and + ensures the healthful activity of every organ. How unlike is the + picture offered by the Establishment for Young Ladies! Until the + fact was pointed out, we actually did not know that we had a girls' + school as close to us as the school for boys. The garden, equally + large with the other, affords no sign whatever of any provision for + juvenile recreation; but is entirely laid out with prim + grass-plots, gravel-walks, shrubs, and flowers, after the usual + suburban style. During five months we have not once had our + attention drawn to the premises by a shout or a laugh. Occasionally + girls may be observed sauntering along the paths with their + lesson-books in their hands, or else walking arm-in-arm. Once, + indeed, we saw one chase another round the garden; but, with this + exception, nothing like vigorous exertion has been visible. + + "Why this astonishing difference? Is it that the constitution of a + girl differs so entirely from that of a boy as not to need these + active exercises? Is it that a girl has none of the promptings to + vociferous play by which boys are impelled? Or is it that, while in + boys these promptings are to be regarded as stimuli to a bodily + activity without which there cannot be adequate development, to + their sisters Nature has given them for no purpose whatever--unless + it be for the vexation of schoolmistresses? Perhaps, however, we + mistake the aim of those who train the gentler sex. We have a vague + suspicion that to produce a robust physique is thought undesirable; + that rude health and abundant vigour are considered somewhat + plebeian; that a certain delicacy, a strength not competent to more + than a mile or two's walk, an appetite fastidious and easily + satisfied, joined with that timidity which commonly accompanies + feebleness, are held more lady-like. We do not expect that any + would distinctly avow this; but we fancy the governess-mind is + haunted by an ideal young lady bearing not a little resemblance to + this type. If so, it must be admitted that the established system + is admirably calculated to realize this ideal. But to suppose that + such is the ideal of the opposite sex is a profound mistake. That + men are not commonly drawn towards masculine women is doubtless + true. That such relative weakness as asks the protection of + superior strength is an element of attraction we quite admit. But + the difference thus responded to by the feelings of men is the + natural, pre-established difference, which will assert itself + without artificial appliances. And when, by artificial appliances, + the degree of this difference is increased, it becomes an element + of repulsion rather than of attraction. + + "'Then girls should be allowed to run wild--to become as rude as + boys, and grow up into romps and hoydens!' exclaims some defender + of the proprieties. This, we presume, is the ever-present dread of + schoolmistresses. It appears, on inquiry, that at Establishments + for Young Ladies noisy play like that daily indulged in by boys is + a punishable offence; and we infer that it is forbidden, lest + unladylike habits should be formed. The fear is quite groundless, + however. For if the sportive activity allowed to boys does not + prevent them from growing up into gentlemen, why should a like + sportive activity prevent girls from growing up into ladies? Rough + as may have been their play-ground frolics, youths who have left + school do not indulge in leap-frog in the street, or marbles in the + drawing-room. Abandoning their jackets, they abandon at the same + time boyish games, and display an anxiety--often a ludicrous + anxiety--to avoid whatever is not manly. If now, on arriving at the + due age, this feeling of masculine dignity puts so efficient a + restraint on the sports of boyhood, will not the feeling of + feminine modesty, gradually strengthening as maturity is + approached, put an efficient restraint on the like sports of + girlhood? Have not women even a greater regard for appearances than + men? and will there not consequently arise in them even a stronger + check to whatever is rough or boisterous? How absurd is the + supposition that the womanly instincts would not assert themselves + but for the rigorous discipline of schoolmistresses! + + "In this, as in other cases, to remedy the evils of one + artificiality, another artificiality has been introduced. The + natural, spontaneous exercise having been forbidden, and the bad + consequences of no exercise having become conspicuous, there has + been adopted a system of factitious exercise--gymnastics. That this + is better than nothing we admit, but that it is an adequate + substitute for play we deny." + +The pendulum has indeed swung across from those days to these of the +hockey-girl, not to mention the girl who throws a cricket-ball and bowls +very creditably overhand. There can be no doubt that this state of +things is vastly better than that was, yet, as one has endeavoured to +insist, this also has its risks. Apart from the question as to the +particular game or form of exercise, we must be guided in each case by +the first signs of anything approaching undue strain. We must look out +for lack of energy, for a lessening of joy in the exercise and of +spontaneous desire therefor. Fatigue that interferes with appetite, +digestion, or sleep is utterly to be condemned. + +_The Specific Criterion._--Such criteria apply, of course, equally to +either sex, though it is more important to be on the look-out for them +in the case of the developing girl. But in her case there is another +criterion, which is of special importance, because it concerns not only +her development as an individual, but her development as a woman. That +criterion is furnished us by the menstrual function. It may safely be +said that that exercise is excessive and must be immediately curtailed +which leads to the diminution of this function, much more to its +disappearance. I would, indeed, urge this as a test of the highest +importance, always applicable to whatever circumstances. Defect in this +respect should never be looked upon lightly; it may, indeed, be a +conservative process, as in cases of anæmia, but the cause which +produces such an effect is always to be combated. + +_The Kinds of Exercise._--Given, then, this most important test as to +the quantity of exercise of whatever kind--a test which indeed applies +no less to mental exercise--we may pass on to consider the kinds of +exercise best suited for the girl, it being premised that any one of +them, however good in itself and in moderation, is capable of being +pursued to excess, and that the danger of this is specially noticeable +in the case of the girl, because, as we have seen, the effects of excess +are more serious in her case, and also because girls are very apt to +take things up with immense keenness, and sometimes, in even greater +degree than their brothers, to devote themselves too much to the +competitive aspect of things. The girl should certainly be content to +play a game for the joy of it, and be scarcely less happy to lose than +to win if her side has played the game and made a good fight of it. The +competitive element is excessive in almost all sports to-day, and it is +especially to be deplored in the games of girls, who are so liable to +overstrain and so apt to take trifles to heart. + +In what has been already said and in the end of our quotation from +Herbert Spencer, it will be evident that purposeful games rather than +exercises are to be commended. There is indeed no comparison for a +moment possible between Nature's method of exercise, which is obtained +through play, and the ridiculous and empty parodies of it which men +invent. The truth is that Nature is aiming at one thing, and man at +another. Man's aim, for reasons already exploded, is the acquirement of +strength; Nature's is the acquirement of skill. It is really nervous +development that Nature is interested in when she appears to be +persuading the young thing to exercise its muscles. Man notices only the +muscular contractions involved, thinks he can improve upon Nature, and +invents absurdities like dumb-bells. + +It is the nervous system by which we human beings live. Our voluntary +muscles are agents of the will, agents of purpose; and while strength is +a trifle, skill is always everything. We know now that it is impossible +to carry out any human purpose by the contraction of one muscle or even +one group of muscles. Even when we merely bend the arm we are doing +things with the muscles which extend it, and when we raise it sideways +we are modifying the whole trunk in order to preserve the balance. We +have only to watch the clumsiness of an infant or a small child to +realize how much skill the nervous system has to acquire. This skill may +be mainly expressed as co-ordination, the balanced use of many muscles +for a purpose and, as a rule, their co-ordinated use with one of the +senses, more especially vision, but also touch and hearing. + +This is the first of the physiological reasons why games and play of all +sorts are so incomparably superior to the use of dumb-bells and +developers, where movement and increase of muscular strength are made +ends in themselves; whereas in play we are making relations with the +outside world, responding to stimuli, educating our nerve muscular +apparatus as an instrument of human purpose. + +It is in part true to suppose that the play of children expresses an +overflow of superfluous energy, but a still deeper and much more +important conception of play is that which recognizes in it Nature's +method of nervous development, the attainment of control and +co-ordination, the capacity of quick and accurate response to +circumstances and obedience to the will. Compare, for instance, the girl +who has played games, avoiding danger as she crosses the road, with +another whose youth has been made dreary by dumb-bells. It may freely be +laid down, then, that systems of physical training are good in +proportion as they approximate to play, and bad in proportion as they +depart from it; and, further, that the very best of them ever devised is +worthless in comparison with a good game. This evidently does not refer +to, say, special exercises for a curved back. + +However, systems of physical training we shall still have with us for a +long time to come, and perhaps the mere difficulty of finding room for +games makes them necessary, though it may be noted in passing that the +last touch of absurdity is accorded to our frequent preference for +exercises over games when we conduct the exercises in foul air and +prefer them to games in the open air. If exercises we are to have, then +they must at least be modelled so as to come as near as possible to play +in the two essentials. The first of these has already been +mentioned--the preference of skill to strength as an object. + +The second, though less obvious, is no less important. What is the most +palpable fact of the child's play? It is enjoyment. We have done for +ever with the elegant morality which grown-up people, very particular +about their own meals, used to impose upon children, and which was based +upon the idea that everything which a child enjoys is therefore bad for +it. We are learning the elements of the physiology of joy. We find that +pleasure and boredom have distinct effects upon the body and the mind, +notably in the matter of fatigue. Careful study of fatigue in school +children has shown that the hour devoted to physical exercise of the +dreary kind under a strict disciplinarian may, instead of being a +recreation, actually induce more fatigue than an hour of mathematics. +If, then, we cannot allow the girl to play, but must give her some kind +of formal exercise, we must at least make it as enjoyable as possible. +There are Continental systems of gymnastics which do not believe in the +use of music because, forsooth, they find that the music diminishes the +disciplinary effect! Such an argument dismisses those who adduce it from +the category of those entitled to have anything to do with young people. +They should devote themselves to training the rhinoceros, these +martinets; the human spirit is not for their mauling. In point of fact +one of the redeeming features of physical training is the use of music, +which goes far to supply the pleasure that accrues from the natural +exercise of games, and greatly reduces the fatigue of which the risk is +otherwise by no means inconsiderable. We leave this subject, then, for +the nonce, having arrived at the conclusion that the objects of +physical training are skill and pleasure rather than strength and +discipline; that the system is best which is nearest to play; and that +the use of music is specially to be commended. + +But, as we have said, artificial physical training at its best is not to +be compared with the real thing; more especially if, as is usually the +case, the real thing has the advantage of being practised in pure air. +We must ask ourselves, then, what sort of games are suitable for girls, +and to what extent, if at all, mixed games are desirable. We must first +remind ourselves of the proviso that any game may be played to excess, +whether physical excess or mental excess, the risk of both of these +being involved when the competitive element is made too conspicuous. If +this risk be avoided there is no objection, perhaps, to even such a +vigorous game as hockey in moderation for girls. The present writer has +observed mixed hockey for many years, and finds it impossible to believe +that the game should be condemned for girls, but he has always seen it +under conditions where the game was simply played for the fun of the +thing, and that makes a great difference. + +It is certainly open to argument whether, in such a game as hockey, it +is not better, on the whole, that girls shall play by themselves, but, +as has been urged elsewhere, there is a good deal to be said for the +meeting of the sexes elsewhere than in the artificial conditions of the +ball-room, since these mixed games widen the field of choice for +marriage and provide far more natural and desirable conditions under +which the choice may be made. There can be no question that an epoch has +been created by the freedom of the modern girl to play games, and to +enjoy the movements of a ball, as her brother does. The very fact of her +pleasure in games indicates, to those who do not believe that the body +is constructed on essentially vicious principles, that they must be good +for her. The mere exercise is the least of the good they do. The open +air counts for more, as does the development of skill, and the girl's +opportunity of sharing in that moral education which all good games +involve and which there is no need to insist upon here. Amongst the many +things alleged against woman as natural defects by those who have never +for a moment troubled to distinguish between nature and nurture, are an +incapacity to combine with her sisters, petty dishonour in small things, +a blindness to the meaning of "playing the game." It is similarly +alleged by such persons against the lower classes that they also do not +know how to "play the game," and do not understand the spirit of true +sportsmanship, preferring to win anyhow rather than not at all. But +those who conduct the Children's Vacation Schools in London--that +remarkable arrangement by which children are damaged in school time and +educated in holidays--are aware that in a short time children of any +class can be taught to "play the game," if only they can be made to see +it from that point of view. So also women can learn to combine, to be +unselfish, to avoid petty deceits even in games, to obey a captain and +to accept the umpire's decision, when they are taught, as we all have +to be taught, that that is playing the game. + +These immense virtues of the new departure must by no means be forgotten +in the course of the reaction which is bound to occur, and is indeed +necessary, against the contemporary practice of trying to demonstrate +that boys and girls are substantially identical. He who pleads for the +golden mean is always abused by extremists of both parties, but is +always justified in the long run, and this is a case where the golden +mean is eminently desirable, being indeed vital, which is much more than +golden. Safety is to be found in our recognition of elementary +physiological principles, assuming from the first that though it is not +difficult to turn a girl into something like a boy, it is not desirable; +and especially in attending carefully, in the case of each individual, +to the indications furnished by that characteristic physiological +function, interference with which necessarily imperils womanhood. + +The organism is a whole; it reacts not only to physical strain but to +mental strain. There are parts of the world, including a country no less +distinguished as a pioneer of education than Scotland, where serious +mental strain is now being imposed upon girls at this very period of the +dawn of womanhood, when strain of any kind is especially to be deplored. +Utterly ignoring the facts of physiology, the laws and approximate dates +of human development, official regulations demand that at just such ages +as thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen large numbers of girls--and picked +girls--shall devote themselves to the strain of preparing for various +examinations, upon which much depends. Worry combines to work its +effects with those of excessive mental application, excessive use of the +eyes at short distances, and defective open-air amusement. The whole +examination system is of course to be condemned, but most especially +when its details are so devised as to press thus hardly upon girlhood at +this critical and most to be protected period. Many years ago Herbert +Spencer protested that we must acquaint ourselves with the laws of life, +since these underlie all the activities of living beings. The time is +now at hand when we shall discover that education is a problem in +applied biology, and that the so-called educator, whether he works +destruction from some Board of Education or elsewhere, who knows and +cares nothing about the laws of the life of the being with whom he +deals, is simply an ignorant and dangerous quack. + +What has been said about the reaction against excess in the physical +education of girls applies very forcibly to excess in their mental +education. We are undoubtedly coming upon a period when more and more +will be heard of the injurious consequences of such ill-timed +preparation for stupid examinations as has been referred to; and there +will be not a few to sigh for the return to the bad old days which a +certain type of mind always calls good. Here, again, we must find the +golden mean, recognizing that the danger lies in excess, and especially +in ill-timed excess. We shall further discover that if we desire a girl +to become a woman, and not an indescribable, we must provide for her a +kind of higher education which shall take into account the object at +which we aim. It will be found that there are womanly concerns, of +profound importance to a girl and therefore to an empire, which demand +no less of the highest mental and moral qualities than any of the +subjects in a man's curriculum, and the pursuit of which in reason does +not compromise womanhood, but only ratifies and empowers it. + +_Muscles worth Developing._--When men and women are carefully compared, +it is found that women, muscularly weaker as a whole, are most notably +so as regards the arms, the muscles of respiration, and the muscles of +the back. The muscles of the legs, and especially of the thighs, are +relatively stronger. In these facts we can find some practical guidance. +The muscles of all the limbs may be left comparatively out of account; +whether naturally weak or naturally strong they are of subordinate +importance. On the other hand, it is always worth while to cultivate the +muscles of respiration, as it is always worth while to keep the heart in +good order. Again, the weakness of the muscles of the back, and more +especially in the case of the growing girl, is not a thing to be +accepted as readily as the weakness of the biceps and the forearm +muscles. Various observers find a proportion of between 85 per cent. and +90 per cent. of those suffering from lateral curvature of the spine to +be girls, the great majority of these cases occurring between the ages +of ten and fifteen. Everywhere it is our duty to prevent such cases, and +everywhere physical training will find only too abundant opportunities +for endeavouring to correct them. It may be doubted perhaps whether we +may rightly follow Havelock Ellis in attributing woman's liability to +backache to the relative weakness of the muscles of the back, for we +know how often this symptom depends upon not muscular but internal +causes peculiar to woman. On the other hand, we may certainly follow +Havelock Ellis when he says, regarding this lateral curvature of the +spine, from which so many girls and women suffer: "There can be no doubt +that defective muscular development of the back, occurring at the age of +maximum development, and due to the conventional restraints on exercises +involving the body, and also to the use of stays, which hamper the +freedom of such movements, is here a factor of very great importance." +We shall not here concern ourselves with the details of practice, but +the principle is to be laid down that perhaps second only in importance +to the right development of the heart and the muscles of respiration is +that of the muscles of the back. + +Always, however, we are apt to judge by the obvious and to value it +unduly. Nature makes the biceps and the muscles of the forearm naturally +the weakest in woman compared with man, but it is just the bending of +the elbow that makes a good show on a horizontal bar or rope; and so we +devote too much time to the training of these muscles in our girls, with +the results which make such creditable exhibitions at the end of the +session, while we forget the muscles of the back, the right development +of which is far more valuable, but does not lend itself to display. + +In this connection it is to be added last, but not least, that special +importance attaches in woman to those muscles which one may perhaps call +the muscles of motherhood. It is common experience amongst physicians to +find the appropriate muscularity defective at childbirth in women the +muscles of whose limbs may have been very highly developed. Thus Dr. +Havelock Ellis, amongst other evidence, quotes that of a physician, who +says: "In regard to this interesting and suggestive question, it does +seem a fact that women who exercise all their muscles persistently meet +with increased difficulties in parturition. It would certainly seem that +excessive development of the muscular system is unfavourable to +maternity. I hear from instructors in physical training, both in the +United States and in England, of excessively tedious and painful +confinements among their fellows--two or three cases in each instance +only, but this within the knowledge of a single individual among his +friends. I have also several such reports from the circus--perhaps +exceptions. I look upon this as a not impossible result of muscular +exertion in women, the development of muscle, muscular attachments, and +bony frame leading to approximation to the male." + +In his lectures ten years ago, the distinguished obstetrician, Sir +Halliday Croom, now professor of Midwifery in the University of +Edinburgh, used to criticise cycling on this score, not as regards its +development of the muscles of the lower limbs, but as tending towards +local rigidity unfavourable to childbirth. It may be doubted, perhaps, +whether longer and wider experience of cycling by women warrants this +criticism, but it is probably worth noting. + +On the other hand, while exercise of certain muscles may interfere +obscurely or mechanically with motherhood, we are to remember that the +muscles of the abdomen are indeed the accessory muscles of motherhood, +and therefore specially to be considered. According to Mosso of Turin, +it is only in modern times that civilized woman shows the comparative +weakness of these muscles which is indeed commonly to be found. There is +verily no sign of it in the Venus of Milo, as any one can see. That +statue represents very highly developed abdominal muscles in a woman +less notably muscular elsewhere. The muscles lie near the skin, the +disposition of fat being very small, yet the woman is distinctively +maternal in type, and every kind of æsthetic praise that may be showered +upon the statue may be supplemented by the encomiums of the physiologist +and the worshipper of motherhood. It is highly desirable that, in +physical training to-day, attention should be paid to the development of +the abdominal muscles. Holding the abdomen together by means of a corset +may serve its own purpose, but does less than nothing in the crisis of +motherhood. The corset indeed conduces to the atrophy of the most +important of all the voluntary muscles for the most important crisis of +a woman's life. "Some of the slower Spanish dances" are commended for +the development of the abdominal muscles, but one would rather recommend +swimming, the abandonment of the corset, and, if the gymnasium is to be +used, some of the various exercises which serve these muscles, however +little they may serve to exploit the apparatus of the gymnasium when +visitors are invited. + +There is no occasion in the present volume to discuss in detail any such +thing as a course of physical exercises, but it is a pleasure, and, for +the English reader, a convenience to direct attention to the Syllabus of +Physical Exercises for Public Elementary Schools, issued by the English +Board of Education in 1909.[7] After nearly forty years of folly, the +dawn is breaking in our schools. It is evident that the Board of +Education has followed the best medical advice. Indeed, now that medical +knowledge is actually represented upon the Board, and represented as it +is, there is no need to go far. The principles which have been laid down +in previous pages are abundantly recognized in this admirable syllabus. +The exercises recommended for the nation's children are based upon the +Swedish system of educational gymnastics. But it is fortunately +recognized that that system requires modification, since "freedom of +movement and a certain degree of exhilaration are essentials of all true +physical education. Hence it has been thought well not only to modify +some of the usual Swedish combinations in order to make the work less +exacting, but to introduce games and dancing steps into many of the +lessons." "The Board desire that all lessons in physical exercises in +public elementary schools should be thoroughly enjoyed by the children." +"Enjoyment is one of the most necessary factors in nearly everything +which concerns the welfare of the body, and if exercise is distasteful +and wearisome, its physical as well as its mental value is greatly +diminished." An interesting paragraph on music recognizes its value in +avoiding fatigue, but underestimates, perhaps, the desirability of +including music for use at later years as well as for infant classes. + +The syllabus contains admirably illustrated exercises in detail. They +are earnestly to be commended to the reader who is responsible for +girlhood, and notably to those who are interested in the formation and +conducting of girls' clubs. The syllabus is excellent in the attention +paid to games, in the commendation of skipping and of dancing. The +following quotation well illustrates the spirit of wisdom which is at +last beginning to illuminate our national education:--"The value of +introducing dancing steps into any scheme of physical training as an +additional exercise especially for girls, or even in some cases for +boys, is becoming widely recognized. Dancing, if properly taught, is one +of the most useful means of promoting a graceful carriage, with free, +easy movements, and is far more suited to girls than many of the +exercises and games borrowed from boys. As in other balance exercises, +the nervous system acquires a more perfect control of the muscles, and +in this way a further development of various brain centres is brought +about.... Dancing steps add very greatly to the interest and recreative +effect of the lesson, the movements are less methodical and exact, and +are more natural; if suitably chosen they appeal strongly to the +imagination, and act as a decided mental and physical stimulus, and +exhilarate in a wholesome manner both body and mind." + +Plainly, our educators have begun to be educated since 1870. + +Of course, there is dancing and dancing. The real thing bears the same +relation to dancing as it is understood in Mayfair, as the music of +Schubert does to that of Sousa. The ideal dancing for girls is such as +that illustrated by the children trained by Miss Isadora Duncan. Some of +these girls were seen for a short time at the Duke of York's Theatre in +London not long ago, and the American reader, rightly proud of Miss +Duncan, should not require to be told what she has achieved. Just as we +are learning the importance of games and play, so that a syllabus issued +by the Board of Education instructs one how to stand when "giving a +back" at leap-frog, so also we shall learn again from Nature that +dancing of the natural and exquisite kind, never to be forgotten or +confused with imitations by any one who has seen Miss Duncan's children, +must be recognized as a great educative measure--educative alike of +mind, body, ear, and eye, and better worth while for any girl of any +rank than volumes of fictitious history concocted by fools concerning +knaves. + +_Girls' Clubs._--Allusion has been made to girls' clubs, and one may be +fortunate enough to have some readers who may feel inclined to partake +in the splendid work which may be done by this means. It requires high +qualities and a certain amount of expert knowledge. Much of the latter +can be obtained from the little book recommended above. For the rest, it +is worth while briefly to point out what the girls' club may effect, and +why it is so much needed. + +It has been insisted that puberty is a critical age because it means the +dawn of womanhood. It is critical in both sexes, not only for the body +but also for the mind. It is now that the intellect awakes; it is now +that the real formation of character begins. We often talk about spoilt +children at three or four, but any kind of making or marring of +character at such ages can be undone in a few weeks or less--that is, in +so far as it is an effect of training and not of nature that we are +dealing with. The real spoiling or making is at that birth of the adult +which we call puberty. During adolescence the adult is being made, and +everything matters for ever. This is true of physique, of mind, and of +character. The importance of this period is recognized by modern +churches in their rite of Confirmation, and it was recognized by ancient +religions, by Greeks and by Romans. Our national appreciation of it is +expressed by our devotion of vast amounts of money and labour to the +child, until the all-important epoch is reached, when we wash our hands +of it. We educate away, for all we are worth, when what is mainly +required is plenty of good food and open air; and we have done with the +matter when the age for real education arrives. In time to come our +neglect of adolescence in both sexes, more especially in girls, will be +marvelled at, and many of the evils from which we suffer will cease to +exist because the fatal and costly economy of the practical man is +dismissed as a delusion and a sham, and it is perceived that whether for +the saving of life or for the saving of money, adolescence must be cared +for. + +Meanwhile, it behoves private people who care about these things to do +what they can. If they rightly influence but ten girls, it was well +worth doing. The girls' club is a very inexpensive mode of social +activity. Practically the only substantial item of expenditure is the +hire of a gymnasium, say for two evenings in a week. The girls' dresses +can be made at home at quite a trivial cost. The primary attraction +would be the gymnasium. It must, of course, contain a piano, not +necessarily one on which Pachmann would play, but a piano nevertheless. +There is also required a pianist, not necessarily a Pachmann. Two girls +are better than one to run such a club. They will not find it difficult +to obtain material to work upon. They must acquire at a Polytechnic, or +perhaps they have acquired themselves at school, some knowledge of how +to conduct the work and play of the gymnasium. It will depend upon the +conductors of the club how far its virtues extend. Much elementary +hygiene may be taught as well as practised, and if it confine itself +only to matters of ventilation, clothing, care of the teeth and feet, it +is abundantly worth while. It is often possible to get medical men or +women to come and talk to the girls, and in the best of these clubs +there will be some more or less conscious and overt preparation in one +way and another for matters no less momentous alike for the individual +and the race than marriage and motherhood. + +_Girls' Clothing._--There is little good to be said about much of the +clothing of girls and women. All clothing should of course be loose, on +grounds which have been fully gone into in the previous volume on +personal hygiene. A woman's headgear is perhaps too often the only +article of her dress which conforms to this rule. It is good that the +stimulant effect of air, and air in motion, upon the skin should be as +widely extended as is compatible with sufficient warmth and decency. +Thus most women wear far too many clothes, apart from the question of +tightness. A woman handicaps herself seriously as compared with a man, +in that, while she is much less muscular, her clothes are often so much +heavier. All this applies with great force to girls. The following +quotation from the syllabus referred to above is worth making:-- + + "_A Suitable Dress for Girls._--A simple dress for girls suitable + for taking physical exercises or games consists of a tunic, a + jersey or blouse, and knickers. The tunic and knickers may be made + of blue serge, and, if a blouse is worn, it should be made of some + washing material. + + The tunic, which requires two widths of serge, may be gathered or, + preferably, pleated into a small yoke with straps passing over the + shoulders. The dress easily slips on over the head, and the + shoulder straps are then fastened. It should be worn with a loose + belt or girdle. In no case should any form of stiff corset be used. + + The knickers, with their detachable washing linen, should replace + all petticoats. They should not be too ample, and should not be + visible below the tunic. They are warmer than petticoats and allow + greater freedom of movement. + + Any plain blouse may be worn with the tunic, or a woollen jersey + may be substituted in cold weather. + + With regard to the cost of such a dress, serge may be procured for + 1s. 6d. to 2s. per yard. For the tunic some 2 to 2-1/2 yards are + usually required, and for the knickers about 1-1/2 to 2 yards. It + may be found possible in some schools to provide patterns, or to + show girls how to make such articles for themselves. Such a dress, + though primarily designed for physical exercises, is entirely + suitable for ordinary school use. + + Though it is, of course, not practicable to introduce this dress + into all Public Elementary Schools, or in the case of all girls, + yet in many schools there are children whose parents are both + willing and able to provide them with appropriate clothing. The + adoption of a dress of this kind, which is at the same time useful + and becoming, tends to encourage that love of neatness and + simplicity which every teacher should endeavour to cultivate among + the girls. And as it allows free scope for all movements of the + body and limbs, it cannot fail to promote healthy physical + development." + + + + +IX + +THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN + + +In the last chapter brief reference was made to the effects of ill-timed +mental strain. Our principles have already led us to the conclusion that +there are special risks for girls involved in educational strain, and +that is, of course, equally true whatever the curriculum. But that being +granted, it is necessary to draw very special attention to a new +movement in the higher education of women which is based upon the +principle that a woman is not the same as a man; that she has special +interests and duties which require no less knowledge and skill than +those with which men are concerned. A tentative experiment in this +direction has already, we are assured, altered the whole attitude +towards life of those girls who partook in it, and there is no question +that we now see the beginning of a new epoch in the higher education of +women upon properly differentiated lines such as have been utterly +ignored in the past. I refer to the "Special Courses for the Higher +Education of Women in Home Science and Household Economics," which now +form part of the activities of the University of London at King's +College. "The main object of these courses," we are told, "is to +provide a thoroughly scientific education in the principles underlying +the whole organization of 'Home Life,' the conduct of Institutions, and +other spheres of civic and social work in which these principles are +applicable." The lecturers are mainly highly qualified women, and the +courses are extremely thorough and comprehensive. The following are the +subjects which are dealt with: economics and ethics, psychology, +biology, business matters, physiology, bacteriology, chemistry, domestic +arts, sanitary science and hygiene, applied chemistry and physics.[8] + +It will be seen that there is no underrating here of the capacities of +women. The courses are not limited merely to cooking and washing, though +these are most carefully gone into. It is a far cry from them to +psychology and ethics or "A Sketch of the Historical Development of the +Household in England." One can imagine the joy with which girls, largely +nourished on the husks which constitute most of the educational +curricula of boys, will turn to a series of lectures on Child +Psychology, that deal with the general course of mental development in +the child, with interest and attention, the processes of learning, +mental fatigue and adolescence. The highest capacities of the mind in +women are not ignored when we find included a course of which the +special text-book is Spencer's "Data of Ethics." One can imagine also +that the course on the elements of general economics, with its study of +wealth and value and price, the laws of production and distribution, +may bring into being a kind of housewife who, whether or not eligible +for Parliament, would certainly be a much more desirable member thereof +than nine-tenths of the prosperous gentlemen who daily record their +opinions there upon matters they know not of. All who care at all for +womanhood or for England must rejoice in the beginnings of this revised +version of higher education for women which, for once in a way, finds +London a pioneer. We must have such courses all over the country. Every +father who can afford it must give his girls the incalculable benefit of +such opportunities. The girl thus educated will glory in her womanhood, +and will help to gain for it its right estimation and position in the +state. + +But it is to be pointed out that such courses as these, admirable though +they be, are yet not everything. The influence of our great national +deity, which is Mrs. Grundy, is apparent still. It is not specifically +recognized that the highest destiny of a woman is motherhood, though in +such courses as this motherhood will doubtless be served directly and +indirectly in many ways. There is, nevertheless, required something +more--something indeed no less than conscious, purposeful education for +parenthood. The chief obstacle in the way of this ideal is Anglo-Saxon +prudery, and, perhaps, the reader will not be persuaded that education +for parenthood is our greatest educational need to-day, more especially +for girls, until he or she has been persuaded of the magnitude of the +preventable evils which flow from our present neglect of this matter. In +the following chapter, therefore, one may point out what prudery costs +us at present, and indeed, the reader may then be persuaded that +education for parenthood, or, as it may be called, eugenic education, +is, perhaps, the most important subject that can be discussed to-day in +any book on womanhood. + + + + +X + +THE PRICE OF PRUDERY + + +Just after we had succeeded in getting the Notification of Births Act +put upon the Statute Book, the present writer occupied himself in +various parts of the country in the efforts which were necessary to +persuade local authorities to adopt the provisions of that Act. +Addressing a meeting of the clergy of Islington, he endeavoured to trace +back to the beginning the main cause of infant mortality, and +endeavoured to show that that lay in the natural ignorance of the human +mother, about which more must later be said. In the discussion which +followed, an elderly clergyman insisted that the causes had not been +traced far enough back, maternal ignorance being itself permitted in +consequence of our national prudery. + +Ever since that day one has come to see more and more clearly that the +criticism was just. Maternal ignorance, as we shall see later, is a +natural fact of human kind, and destroys infant life everywhere, though +prudery be or be not a local phenomenon. But where vast organizations +exist for the remedying of ignorance, prudery indeed is responsible for +the neglect of ignorance on the most important of all subjects. Let it +not be supposed for a moment that in this protest one desires, even for +the highest ends, to impart such knowledge as would involve sullying the +bloom of girlhood. It is not necessary to destroy the charm of innocence +in order to remedy certain kinds of ignorance; nor are prudery and +modesty identical. Whatever prudery may be when analyzed, it seems +perfectly fair to charge it as the substantial cause of the ignorance in +which the young generation grows up, as to matters which vitally concern +its health and that of future generations. Let us now observe in brief +the price of prudery thus arraigned. + +There is, first, that large proportion of infant mortality which is due +to maternal ignorance, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter. At +present we may briefly remind ourselves that the nation has had the +young mother at school for many years; much devotion and money have been +spent upon her. Yet it is necessary to pass an Act insuring, if +possible, that when she is confronted with the great business of her +life--which is the care of a baby--within thirty-six hours the fact +shall be made known to some one who, racing for life against time, may +haply reach her soon enough to remedy the ignorance which would +otherwise very likely bury her baby. Prudery has decreed that while at +school she should learn nothing of such matters. For the matter of that +she may even have attended a three-year course in science or technology, +and be a miracle of information on the keeping of accounts, the testing +of drains, and the principles of child psychology, but it has not been +thought suitable to discuss with her the care of a baby. How could any +nice-minded teacher care to put such ideas into a girl's head? Never +having noticed a child with a doll, we have somehow failed to realize +that Nature, her Ancient Mother and ours, is not above putting into her +head, when she can scarcely toddle, the ideas at which we pretend to +blush. Prudery on this topic, and with such consequences, is not much +less than blasphemy against life and the most splendid purposes towards +which the individual, "but a wave of the wild sea," can be consecrated. + +This question of the care of babies offers us much less excuse for its +neglect than do questions concerned with the circumstances antecedent to +the babies' appearance. Yet we are blameworthy, and disastrously so, +here also. Prudery here insists that boys and girls shall be left to +learn anyhow. That is not what it says, but that is what it does. It +feebly supposes not merely that ignorance and innocence are identical, +but that, failing the parent, the doctor, the teacher, and the +clergyman--and probably all these do fail--ignorance will remain +ignorant. There are others, however, who always lie in wait, whether by +word of mouth or the printed word, and since youth will in any case +learn--except in the case of a few rare and pure souls--we have to ask +ourselves whether we prefer that these matters shall be associated in +its mind with the cad round the corner or the groom or the chauffeur who +instructs the boy, the domestic servant who instructs the girl, and with +all those notions of guilty secrecy and of misplaced levity which are +entailed; or with the idea that it is right and wise to understand +these matters in due measure because their concerns are the greatest in +human life. + +After puberty, and during early adolescence, when a certain amount of +knowledge has been acquired, we leave youth free to learn lies from +advertisements, carefully calculated to foster the tendency to +hypochondria, which is often associated with such matters. Of this, +however, no more need now be said, since it scarcely concerns the girl. + +It is the ignorance conditioned by prudery that is responsible later on +for many criminal marriages; contracted, it may be, with the blind +blessing of Church and State, which, however, the laws of heredity and +infection rudely ignore. Parents cannot bring themselves to inquire into +matters which profoundly concern the welfare of the daughter for whom +they propose to make what appears to be a good marriage. They desire, of +course, that her children shall be healthy and whole-minded; they do not +desire that marriage should be for her the beginning of disease, from +the disastrous effects of which she may never recover. But these are +delicate matters, and prudery forbids that they should be inquired into; +yet every father who permits his daughter to marry without having +satisfied himself on these points is guilty, at the least, of grave +delinquency of duty, and may, in effect, be conniving at disasters and +desolations of which he will not live to see the end. + +Young people often grow fond of each other and become engaged, and then, +if the engagement be prolonged--as all engagements ought to be, as a +general rule--they may find that, after all, they do not wish to marry. +Yet the girl's mother, an imprudent prude, may often in this and other +cases do her utmost to bring the marriage about, not because she is +convinced that it means her daughter's highest welfare and happiness, +but because prudery dictates that her daughter must marry the man with +whom she has been so frequently seen; hence very likely lifelong +unhappiness, and worse. + +Society, from the highest to the lowest of its strata, is afflicted with +certain forms of understood and eminently preventable disease, about +which not a word has been spoken in Parliament for twenty years, and any +public mention of which by mouth or pen involves serious risk of various +kinds. Here it is perhaps not necessary for us to consider the case of +the outcast, and of the diseases with which, poor creature, she is first +infected, and which she then distributes into our homes. Our present +concern is simply to point out that prudery, again, is largely +responsible for the continuance of these evils at a time when we have so +much precise knowledge regarding their nature and the possibility of +their prevention. Medical science cannot make distinctions between one +disease and another, nor between one sin and another, as prudery does. +Prudery says that such and such is vice, that its consequences in the +form of disease are the penalties imposed by its abominable god upon the +guilty and the innocent, the living and the unborn alike, and that +therefore our ordinary attitude towards disease cannot here be +maintained. Physiological science, however, knowing what it knows +regarding food and alcohol, and air and exercise and diet, can readily +demonstrate that the gout from which Mrs. Grundy suffers is also a +penalty for sin; none the less because it is not so hideously +disproportionate, in its measure and in its incidence, to the gravity of +the offence. These moral distinctions between one disease and another +have little or no meaning for medical science, and are more often than +not immoral. + +It would be none too easy to show that the medical profession in any +country has yet used its tremendous power in this direction. +Professions, of course, do not move as a whole, and we must not expect +the universal laws of institutions to find an exception here. But though +they do not move, they can be moved. It is when the public has been +educated in the elements of these matters, and has been taught to see +what the consequences of prudery are, that the necessary forces will be +brought into action. Meanwhile, what we call the social evil is almost +entirely left to the efforts made in Rescue Homes and the like. Despite +the judgment of a popular novelist and playwright, it is much more than +doubtful whether Rescue Homes--the only method which Mrs. Grundy will +tolerate--are the best way of dealing with this matter, even if the +people who worked in them had the right kind of outlook upon the matter, +and even if their numbers were indefinitely multiplied. Every one who +has devoted a moment's thought to the matter knows perfectly well that +this is merely beginning at the end, and therefore all but futile. I +mention the matter here to make the point that the one measure which +prudery permits--so that indeed it may even be mentioned upon our highly +moral stage, and passed by the censor, who would probably be hurried +into eternity if M. Brieux's _Les Avariés_ were submitted to him, and +who found "Mrs. Warren's Profession" intolerable--is just the most +useless, ill-devised, and literally preposterous with which this +tremendous problem can be mocked. + +This leads us to another point. It is that the means of our education, +other than the schools, are also prejudiced by prudery. Upon the stage +there is permitted almost any indecency of word, or innuendo, or +gesture, or situation, provided only that the treatment be not serious. +Almost anything is tolerable if it be frivolously dealt with, but so +soon as these intensely serious matters are dealt with seriously, +prudery protests. The consequence is that a great educative influence, +like the theatre, where a few playwrights like M. Brieux, and Mr. +Bernard Shaw, and Mr. Granville Barker, and Mr. John Galsworthy, might +effect the greatest things, is relegated by Mrs. Grundy to the plays +produced by Mr. George Edwardes and other earnest upholders of the +censorship. + +Publishers also, while accepting novels which would have staggered the +Restoration Dramatists, can scarcely be found, even with great labour, +for the publication of books dealing with the sex question from the most +responsible medical or social standpoints. + +It is just because public opinion is so potent, and, like all other +powers, so potent either for good or for evil, that its present +disastrous workings are the more deplorable. It is not unimaginable +that prudery might undergo a sort of transmutation. As I have said +before, we might make a eugenist of Mrs. Grundy, so that she might be as +much affronted by a criminal marriage as she is now by the spectacle of +a healthy and well-developed baby appearing unduly soon after its +parents' marriage. The power is there, and it means well, though it does +disastrously ill. Public opinion ought to be decided upon these matters; +it ought to be powerful and effective. We shall never come out into the +daylight until it is; we shall not be saved by laws, nor by medical +knowledge, nor by the admonitions of the Churches. Our salvation lies +only in a healthy public opinion, not less effective and not more +well-meaning than public opinion is at present, but informed where it is +now ignorant, and profoundly impressed with the importance of realities +as it now is with the importance of appearances. + +So much having been said, what can one suggest in the direction of +remedy? First, surely it is something that we merely recognize the price +of prudery. Personally, I find that it has made all the difference to my +calculations to have had the thing pointed out by the clerical critic +whose eye these words may possibly meet. It is something to recognize in +prudery an enemy that must be attacked, and to realize the measure of +its enmity. In the light of some little experience, perhaps a few +suggestions may be made to those who would in any way join in the +campaign for the education and transmutation of public opinion on these +matters. + +First, we must compose ourselves with fundamental seriousness--with +that absolute gravity which imperils the publication of a book and +entirely prohibits the production of a play on such matters. There is +something in human nature beyond my explaining which leads towards +jesting in these directions. An instinct, I know, is an instinct; of +which a main character is that its exercise shall be independent of any +knowledge as to its purpose. We eat because we like eating, rather than +because we have reckoned that so many calories are required for a body +of such and such a weight, in such and such conditions of temperature +and pressure. It is not natural, so to say, just because man is in a +sense rather more than natural, that we should be provident and serious, +self-conscious, and philosophic, in dealing with our fundamental +instincts. But it is necessary, if we are to be human: and only in so +far as, "looking before and after," we transcend the usual conditions of +instinct, are we human at all. + +The special risk run by those who would deal with these matters +seriously--or rather one of the risks--is that they will be suspected, +and may indeed be guilty, of a tendency to priggishness and cant. Youth +is very likely not far wrong in suspecting those who would discuss these +matters, for youth has too often been told that they are of the earth +earthy, that these are the low parts of our nature which we must learn +to despise and trample on, and youth knows in its heart that whatever +else may or may not be cant, this certainly is. So any one who proposes +to speak gravely on the subject is a suspect. + +Meetings confined to persons of one sex offer excellent opportunities. +Much can be done, if the suspicion of cant be avoided, by men addressing +the meetings of men only which gather in many churches on Sunday +afternoons, and which have a healthy interest in the life of this world +and of this world to come, as well as in matters less immediate. It +seems to me that women doctors ought to be able to do excellent work in +addressing meetings of girls and women, provided always that the speaker +be genuinely a woman, rightly aware of the supremacy of motherhood. + +Most of us know that it is possible to read a medical work on sex, say +in French, without any offence to the æsthetic sense, though a +translation into one's native tongue is scarcely tolerable. This +contrasted influence of different names for the same thing is another of +those problems in the psychology of prudery which I do not undertake to +analyze, but which must be recognized by the practical enemy of prudery. +It is unquestionably possible to address a mixed audience, large or +small, of any social status, on these matters without offence and to +good purpose. But certain terms must be avoided and synonyms used +instead. There are at least three special cases, the recognition of +which may make the practical difference between shocking an audience and +producing the effect one desires. + +Reproduction is a good word from every point of view, but its +associations are purely physiological, and it is better to employ a word +which renders the use of the other superfluous and which has a special +virtue of its own. This is the term parenthood, a hybrid no doubt, but +not perhaps much the worse for that. One may notice a teacher of +zoology, say, accustomed to address medical students, offend an audience +by the use of the word reproduction, where parenthood would have served +his turn. It has a more human sound--though there is some sub-human +parenthood which puts much of ours to shame--and the fact that it is +less obviously physiological is a virtue, for human parenthood is only +half physiological, being made of two complementary and equally +essential factors for its perfection--the one physical and the other +psychical. Thus it is possible to speak of physical parenthood and of +psychical parenthood, and thus not only to avoid the term reproduction, +but to get better value out of its substitutes. One may be able to show, +perhaps, that in the case of other synonyms also a hunt for a term that +shall save the face of prudery may be more than justified by the +recovery of one which has a richer content. Terms are really very good +servants, if they are good terms and we retain our mastery of them. Let +any one without any previous practice start to write or speak on "human +reproduction," and on "human parenthood, physical and psychical," and he +will find that, though naming often saves a lot of thinking, as George +Meredith said, wise naming may be of great service to thought. + +In these matters there is to be faced the fact of pregnancy. Here, +again, is a good word, as every one knows who has felt its force or that +of the corresponding adjective when judiciously used in the +metaphorical sense. The present writer's rule, when speaking, is to use +these terms only in their metaphorical sense, and to employ another term +for the literal sense. I should be personally indebted to any reader who +can inform me as to the first employment of the admirable phrase, "the +expectant mother." The name of its inventor should be remembered. In any +audience whatever--perhaps almost including an audience of children, but +certainly in any adult audience, whether mixed or not, medical or +fashionable, serious or sham serious--it is possible to speak with +perfect freedom on many aspects of pregnancy, as for instance the use of +alcohol, exposure to lead poisoning, the due protection at such a +period, by simply using the phrase "the expectant mother," with all its +pregnancy of beautiful suggestion. Here, again, our success depends upon +recognizing the psychical factor in that which to the vulgar eye is +purely physiological--not that there is anything vulgar about physiology +except to the vulgar eye. + +For myself, the phrase "the expectant mother" is much more than useful, +though in speaking it has made all the difference scores of times. It is +beautiful because it suggests the ideal of every pregnancy--that the +expectant mother shall indeed _expect_, look forward to the life which +is to be. Her motto in the ideal world or even in the world at the +foundations of which we are painfully working, will be those words of +the Nicene creed which the very term must recall to the mind--_Expecto +resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venturi sæculi_. + +Let any one who fancies that these pre-occupations with mere language +are trivial or misplaced here take the opportunity of addressing two +drawing-rooms under similar conditions, on some such subject as the care +of pregnancy from the national point of view. Let him in the one case +speak of the pregnant woman, and so forth, and in the other of the +expectant mother. He will be singularly insensitive to his audience if +he does not discover that sometimes a rose by any other name is somehow +the less a rose. The more fools we perhaps, but there it is, and in the +most important of all contemporary propaganda, which is that of the +re-establishment of parenthood in that place of supreme honour which is +its due, even such "literary" debates as these are not out of place. + +Sex is a great and wonderful thing. The further down we go in the scale +of life, whether animal or vegetable, the more do we perceive the +importance of the evolution of sex. The correctly formed adjective from +this word is sexual, but the term is practically taboo with Mrs. Grundy. +Only with caution and anxiety, indeed, may one venture before a lay +audience to use Darwin's phrase, "sexual selection." The fact is utterly +absurd, but there it is. One of the devices for avoiding its +consequences is the use of sex itself as an adjective, as when we speak +of sex problems; but the special importance of this case is in regard to +the sexual instinct, or, if the term offends the reader, let us say the +sex instinct. Here prudery is greatly concerned, and our silence here +involves much of the price of prudery. Now since the word sexual has +become sinister, we cannot speak to the growing boy or girl about the +sexual instinct, but we may do much better. + +For what is this sexual instinct? True, it manifests itself in +connection with the fact of sex, but essentially that is only because +sex is a condition of human reproduction or parenthood. It is this with +which the sexual instinct is really concerned, and perhaps we shall +never learn to look upon it rightly or deal with it rightly until we +indeed perceive what the business of this instinct is, and regard as +somewhat less than worthy of mankind any other attitude towards it. Of +course there are men who live to eat, yet the instincts concerned with +eating exist not for the titillation of the palate but for the +sustenance of life; and, likewise, though there are those who live to +gratify this instinct, it exists not for sensory gratification, but for +the life of this world to come. Can we not find a term which shall +express this truth, shall be inoffensive and so doubly suitable for the +purposes of our cause? + +The term reproductive instinct is often employed. It is vastly superior +to sexual instinct, because it does refer to that for which the instinct +exists; but it hints at reproduction, and though Mrs. Grundy can +tolerate the idea of parenthood, reproduction she cannot away with. We +cannot speak of it as the parental instinct, because that term is +already in employment to express the best thing and the source of all +other good things in us. Further, the sexual instinct and the parental +instinct are quite distinct, and it would be disastrous to run the +possibility of confusing them--one the source of all the good, and the +other the source of much of the evil, though the necessary condition of +all the good and evil, in the world. + +For some years past, in writing and speaking, I have employed and +counselled the employment of the term "the racial instinct." This seems +to meet all the needs. It avoids the tabooed adjective, and if it fails +to allude at all to the fact of sex, who needs reminding thereof? It is +formed from the term race, which prudery permits, and it expresses once +and for all that for which the instinct exists--not the individual at +all, but the race which is to come after him. Doubtless its satisfaction +may be satisfactory for him or her, but that does not testify to +Nature's interest in individuals, but rather to her skill in insuring +that her supreme concern shall not be ignored, even by those who least +consciously concern themselves with it. + +These are perhaps the three most important instances of the verbal, or +perhaps more than verbal, issues that arise in the fight with prudery. +One has tried to show that they are not really in the nature of +concessions to Mrs. Grundy, but that the terms commended are in point of +fact of more intrinsic worth than those to which she objects. Other +instances will occur to the reader, especially if he or she becomes in +any way a soldier in this war, whether publicly or as a parent +instructing children, or on any other of the many fields where the fight +rages. + +It is not the purpose of the present chapter to deal with that which +must be said, notwithstanding prudery, and in order that the price of +prudery shall no longer be paid. But one final principle may be laid +down which is indeed perhaps merely an expression of the spirit +underlying the foregoing remarks upon our terminology. It is that we are +to fly our flag high. We may consult Mrs. Grundy's prejudices if we find +that in doing so we may directly serve our own thinking, and therefore +our cause. This is very different from any kind of apologizing to her. +All such I utterly deplore. We must not begin by granting Mrs. Grundy's +case in any degree. Somewhere in that chaos of prejudices which she +calls her mind, she nourishes the notion, common to all the false forms +of religion, ancient or modern, that there is something about sex and +parenthood which is inherently base and unclean. The origin of this +notion is of interest, and the anthropologists have devoted much +attention to it. It is to be found intermingled with a by no means +contemptible hygiene in the Mosaic legislation, is to be traced in the +beliefs and customs of extant primitive peoples, and has formed and +forms an element in most religions. But it is not really pertinent to +our present discussion to weigh the good and evil consequences of this +belief. Without following the modern fashion, prevalent in some +surprising quarters, of ecstatically exaggerating the practical value of +false beliefs in past and present times, we may admit that the cause of +morality in the humblest sense of that term may sometimes have been +served by the religious condemnation of all these matters as unclean, +and of parenthood as, at the best, a second best. + +But for our own day and days yet unborn this notion of sex and its +consequences as unclean or the worser part is to be condemned as not +merely a lie and a palpably blasphemous one, grossly irreligious on the +face of it, but as a pernicious lie, and to be so recognized even by +those who most joyfully cherish evidence of the practical value of lies. +Whatever may have been the case in the past or among present peoples in +other states of culture than our own, no impartial person can question +that during the Christian Era what may be called the Pauline or ascetic +attitude on this matter has been disastrous; and that if the present +forms of religion are not completely to outlive their usefulness, it is +high time to restore mother and child worship to the honour which it +held in the religion of Ancient Egypt and in many another. If the mother +and child worship which is to be found in the more modern religions, +such as Christianity, is to be worth anything to the coming world it +must cease to have reference to one mother and one child only; it must +hail every mother everywhere as a Madonna, and every child as in some +measure deity incarnate. By no Church will such teaching be questioned +to-day; but if it be granted the Churches must cease to uphold those +conceptions of the superiority of celibacy and virginity which, besides +involving grossly materialistic conceptions of those states, are +palpably incompatible with that worship of parenthood to which the +Churches must and shall now be made to return. + +All this will involve many a shock to prudery; to take only the instance +of what we call illegitimate motherhood, our eyes askance must learn +that there are other legitimacies and illegitimacies than those which +depend upon the little laws of men, and that if our doctrine of the +worth of parenthood be a right one it is our business in every such case +to say, "Here also, then, in so far as it lies in our power, we must +make motherhood as good and perfect as may be." + +These principles also will lead us to understand how differently, were +we wise, we should look upon the outward appearances of expectant +motherhood. In his masterpiece, Forel--of all living thinkers the most +valuable--has a passage with which Mrs. Grundy may here be challenged. +It is too simple to need translating from the author's own French:[9]-- + + "La fausse honte qu'out les femmes de laisser voir leur grossesse + et tout ce qui a rapport à l'accouchement, les plaisanteries dont + on use souvent à l'égard des femmes enceintes, sont un triste signe + de la dégénérescence et même de la corruption de notre civilization + raffinée. Les femmes enceintes ne devraient pas ce cacher, ni + jamais avoir honte de porter un enfant dans leur ventre; elles + devraient au contraire en être fières. Pareille fierté serait + certes bien plus justifiée que celle des beaux officiers paradant + sous leur uniforme. Les signes extérieurs de la formation de + l'humanité font plus d'honneur à leurs porteurs que les symboles de + sa destruction. Que les femmes s'imprègnent de plus en plus de + cette profonde vérité! Elles cesseront alors de cacher leur + grossesse et d'en avoir honte. Conscientes de la grandeur de leur + tâche sexuelle et sociale, elles tiendront haut l'étendard de notre + descendance, qui est celui de la véritable vie à venir de l'homme, + tout en combattant pour l'émancipation de leur sexe." + +This passage recalls one of Ruskin's, which is to be found in "Unto This +Last":-- + + "Nearly all labour may be shortly divided into positive and + negative labour--positive, that which produces life; negative, that + which produces death; the most directly negative labour being + murder, and the most directly positive the bearing and rearing of + children; so that in the precise degree in which murder is hateful + on the negative side of idleness, in that exact degree + child-rearing is admirable, on the positive side of idleness." + +Here is the right comment upon the swaggering display of the means of +death and the hiding as if shameful of the signs of life to come. What +has Mrs. Grundy to say to this? Will she consider the propriety of +urging in future that it is murder and the means of murder, and the +organized forces of capital and politics making for murder, that must +not be mentioned before children, and must be hidden as shameful from +the eyes of men; and while a woman may still glory in her hair, +according to that spiritual precept of St. Paul: "But if a woman have +long hair it is a glory to her; for her hair is given her for a +covering," perhaps she may be permitted even to glory in her motherhood, +contemptible as such a notion would doubtless have seemed to the Apostle +of the Gentiles. + + + + +XI + +EDUCATION FOR MOTHERHOOD + + +It is our first principle in this discussion that the individual exists +for parenthood, being a natural invention for that purpose and no other. +It has been shown further that this is more pre-eminently true of woman +than of man, she being the more essential--if such a phrase can be +used--for the continuance of the race. If these principles are valid +they must indeed determine our course in the education of girls. Some +incidental reference has already been made to this subject, but the +matter must be more carefully gone into here. We have seen that there +are right and wrong ways of conducting the physical training of girls, +according as whether we are aiming at muscularity or motherhood. We have +seen also that there is a thing called the higher education of women, +apparently laudable and desirable in itself, which may yet have +disastrous consequences for the individual and the race. + +In a book devoted to womanhood, and written at the end of the first +decade of the twentieth century, the reader might well expect that what +we call the higher education of women would be a subject treated at +great length and with great respect. Such a reader, turning to the +chapter that professedly deals with the subject, might well be offended +by its brevity. It might be asked whether the writer was really aware of +the importance of the subject--of its remarkable history, its extremely +rapid growth, and its conspicuous success (in proving that women can be +men if they please--but this is my comment, not the reader's). Nor can +any one question that the so-called higher education of women is a very +large and increasingly large fact in the history of womanhood during the +last half century in the countries which lead the world--whither it were +perhaps not too curious to consider. Further, this kind of education +does in fact achieve what it aims at. Women are capable of profiting by +the opportunities which it offers, as we say. This is itself a deeply +interesting fact in natural history, refuting as it does the assertions +of those who declared and still declare that women are incapable of +"higher education," except in rare instances. It is important to know +that women can become very good equivalents of men, if they please. + +Further, this higher education of women--and we may be content to accept +the adjective without qualification, since it is after all only a +comparative, and leaves us free to employ the superlative--may be and +often is of very real value in certain cases and because of certain +local conditions, such as the great numerical inequality of the sexes in +nearly all civilized countries. It is valuable for that proportion of +women, whatever it be, who, through some throw of the physiological +dice, seem to be without the distinctive factor for psychical +womanhood, the existence of which one has tentatively ventured to +assume. These individuals, like all others, are entitled to the fullest +and freest development of their lives, and it is well that there shall +be open to them, as to the brothers they so closely resemble, +opportunities for intellectual satisfaction and self-development. +Therefore, surely, by far the most satisfactory function of higher +education for women is that which it discharges in reference to these +women. Their destiny being determined by their nature, and irrevocable +by nurture, it is well that, though we cannot regard it as the highest, +we should make the utmost of it by means of the appropriate education. + +Only because sometimes we must put up with second bests can we approve +of higher education for women other than those of the anomalous +semi-feminine type to which we have referred. At present we must accept +it as an unfortunate necessity imposed upon us by economic conditions. +So long as society is based economically, or rather uneconomically, upon +the disastrous principles which so constantly mean the sacrifice of the +future to the present, so long, I suppose, will it be impossible that +every fully feminine woman shall find a livelihood without some +sacrifice of her womanhood. This is a subject to which we must return in +a later chapter. Meanwhile it is referred to only because its +consideration shows us some sort of excuse, if not warrant, for the +higher education of woman, even though in the process of thus endowing +her with economic independence, we disendow her of her distinctive +womanhood, or at the very least imperil it; even though, more serious +still, we deprive the race of her services as physical and psychical +mother. + +We have seen that there is just afoot a new tendency in the higher +education of women, and it is indeed a privilege to be able to do +anything in the way of directing public attention to this new trend. In +reference thereto, it was hinted that though this newer form of higher +education for woman is a great advance upon the old, and is so just +because it implies some recognition of woman's place in the world, yet +for one reason or another it falls short of what this present student of +womanhood, at any rate, demands. As has been hinted further, probably +those responsible for the new trend are by no means unaware that, though +their line is nearer to the right one, the direct line to the "happy +isles" has not quite been taken. But great is Mrs. Grundy of the +English, and those who devised the new scheme--one is willing to hazard +the guess--had to be content with an approximation to what they knew to +be the ideal. That is why we devoted the last chapter to the question of +prudery, inserting that between a discussion of the "higher education" +of women and the present discussion, which is concerned with the +_highest education_ of women. + +Words are only symbols, but, like other symbols, they are capable of +assuming much empire over the mind. Man, indeed, as Stevenson said, +lives principally by catchwords, and though woman, beside a cot, is less +likely to be caught blowing bubbles and clutching at them, she also is +in some degree at the mercy of words. The higher education of women is +a good phrase. It appeals, just because of the fine word higher, to +those who wish women well, and to those who are not satisfied that woman +should remain for ever a domestic drudge. The phrase has had a long run, +so to say, but I propose that henceforth we should set it to compete +with another--the highest education of women. Whether this phrase will +ever gain the vogue of the other even a biased and admiring father may +well question. But if there is anything certain, having the whole weight +of Nature behind it, and only the transient aberrations of men opposed +thereto, it is that what I call the highest education of women will be +and will remain the most central and capital of society's functions, +when what is now called the higher education of women has gone its +appointed way with nine-tenths of all present-day education, and exists +only in the memory of historians who seek to interpret the fantastic +vagaries of the bad old days. + +Perhaps it is well that we should begin by freeing the word education +from the incrustations of mortal nonsense that have very nearly obscured +its vitality altogether. Before we can educate for motherhood, we must +know what education is, and what it is not. We must have a definition of +it and its object; in general as well as in this particular case, +otherwise we shall certainly go wrong. Perhaps it may here be permitted +to quote a paragraph from a lecture on "The Child and the State," in +which some few years ago I attempted to express the first principles of +this matter:-- + +"Now, as a student of biology, I will venture to propose a definition +of education which is new, so far as I know, and which I hope and +believe to be true and important. Comprehensively, so as to include +everything that must be included, and yet without undue vagueness, I +would define education as _the provision of an environment_. We may +amplify this proposition, and say that it is the provision of a fit +environment for the young and foolish by the elderly and wise. It has +really scarcely anything in the world to do with my trying to make you +pay for the teaching to my children of dogmas which I believe, and you +deny. It neither begins nor ends with the three R's; and it does not +isolate, from that whole which we call a human being, the one attribute +which may be defined as the intellectual faculty. It is the provision of +an environment, physical, mental, and moral, for the whole child, +physical, mental, and moral. That is my _definition_ of education. Now, +what are we to say of the _object_ of education? In providing the +environment--from its mother's milk to moral maxims--for our child, what +do we seek? Some may say, to make him a worthy citizen, to make him able +to support himself; some may say, to make him fit to bear arms for his +king and country; but I will give you the object of education as defined +by the author of the most profound and wisest treatise which has ever +been written upon the subject--Plato, Locke, and Milton not forgotten. +'To prepare us for complete living,' says Herbert Spencer, 'is the +function which education has to discharge.' The great thing needed for +us to learn is how to live, how rightly to rule conduct in all +directions under all circumstances; and it is to that end that we must +direct ourselves in providing an environment for the child. _Education +is the provision of an environment, the function of which is to prepare +for complete living._" + +Perhaps the only necessary qualification of the foregoing is that, +though it refers specially to the child, yet the need of education does +not end with childhood, becoming indeed pre-eminent when childhood ends. +So we may apply what has been said in the case of the girl, and we shall +find it a sure guide to the highest education of women. + +First, education being the provision of an environment in the widest +sense of that very wide word, always misused when it is used less +widely, we must be sure that in our scheme we avoid the errors of past +or passing schemes which concern themselves only with some aspect of the +environment, and so in effect prepare for something much less than +complete living. It is not sufficient to provide an environment which +regards the girl as simply a muscular machine, as is the tendency, if +not actually the case, in some of the "best" girls' schools to-day; it +is not sufficient to provide an environment which looks upon the girl as +merely an intellectual machine, as in the higher education of women; it +is not sufficient to provide an environment which looks upon the girl as +a sideboard ornament, in Ruskin's phrase, such as was provided in the +earlier Victorian days. In all these cases we are providing only part of +the environment, and providing it in excess. None of them, therefore, +satisfies our definition of education, which conceives of environment +as the sum-total of all the influences to which the whole organism is +subjected--influences dietetic, dogmatic, material, maternal, and all +other.[10] + +Who will question that, according to this conception of education, such +a thing as the higher education of women must be condemned as +inadequate? No more than a man is woman a mere intellect incarnate. Her +emotional nature is all-important; it is indeed the highest thing in the +Universe so far as we know. The scheme of education which ignores its +existence, and much more than fails to provide the best environment for +it, is condemnable. But the scheme of education which derides and +despises the emotional nature of woman, looking upon it as a weakness +and seeking to suppress it, is damnable, and has led to the +damnation--or loss, if the reader prefers the English term--of this most +precious of all precious things in countless cases. + +The only right education of women must be that which rightly provides +the whole environment. The simpler our conception of woman, the more we +underrate her complexity and the manifoldness of her needs, the more +certainly shall we repeat in one form or another the errors of our +predecessors. + +Complete living is a great phrase; perhaps not for a lizard or a +mushroom, but assuredly for men and women. Perhaps it involves more for +women even than for men; indeed it must do so if we are to adhere to our +conception of women as more complex than men, having all the +possibilities of men in less or greater measure, and also certain +supreme possibilities of their own. Whatever complete living may mean +for men, it cannot mean for women anything less than all that is implied +in Wordsworth's great line-- + + "Wisdom doth live with children round her knees." + +That line was written in reference to the unwisdom of a man, Napoleon, +the greatest murderer in recorded time, and I believe it to be true of +men, but it is pre-eminently true of women. There needs no excuse for +quoting from Herbert Spencer, since we have already accepted his +definition of the subject of education, a notable passage which is +perhaps at the present time the most needed of all the wisdom with which +that great thinker's book on education is filled:-- + + "The greatest defect in our programmes of education is entirely + overlooked. While much is being done in the detailed improvement of + our systems in respect both of matter and manner, the most pressing + desideratum, to prepare the young for the duties of life, is + tacitly admitted to be the end which parents and schoolmasters + should have in view; and, happily, the value of the things taught, + and the goodness of the methods followed in teaching them, are now + ostensibly judged by their fitness to this end. The propriety of + substituting for an exclusively classical training, a training in + which the modern languages shall have a share, is argued on this + ground. The necessity of increasing the amount of science is urged + for like reasons. But though some care is taken to fit youth of + both sexes for society and citizenship, no care whatever is taken + to fit them for the position of parents. While it is seen that, for + the purpose of gaining a livelihood, an elaborate preparation is + needed, it appears to be thought that for the bringing up of + children no preparation whatever is needed. While many years are + spent by a boy in gaining knowledge of which the chief value is + that it constitutes the education of a gentleman; and while many + years are spent by a girl in those decorative acquirements which + fit her for evening parties, not an hour is spent by either in + preparation for that gravest of all responsibilities--the + management of a family. Is it that the discharge of it is but a + remote contingency? On the contrary, it is sure to devolve on nine + out of ten. Is it that the discharge of it is easy? Certainly not; + of all functions which the adult has to fulfil, this is the most + difficult. Is it that each may be trusted by self-instruction to + fit himself, or herself, for the office of parent? No; not only is + the need for such self-instruction unrecognized, but the complexity + of the subject renders it the one of all others in which + self-instruction is least likely to succeed." + +If we were wise enough, therefore, we should recognize all education, in +the great sense of that word, to be _as for parenthood_. That ideal will +yet be recognized and followed for both sexes, as it has for long been +followed, consciously as well as unconsciously, by that astonishing race +which has survived all its oppressors, and is in the van of civilization +to-day as it was when it produced the Mosaic legislation. The time is +not yet when one could accept with a light heart an invitation to +lecture on fatherhood to the boys at Eton. Boys to-day are taught by +each other, and by those who give them what they call "smut jaws," that +what exists for fatherhood, and thus for the whole destiny of mankind, +is "smut." When such blasphemies pass for the best pedagogic wisdom, to +preach parenthood as the goal of all worthy education is to run the risk +of being looked upon as ridiculous. But the time will come when the +hideous Empire-wrecking Imperialisms of the present are forgotten, and +when we have a new Patriotism--which suggests, first and foremost, as +that word well may, the duty of fatherhood; and then, perhaps, "smut +jaws" will not be the phrase at Eton for discussion of those instincts +which determine the future of mankind. + +But girls are our present concern, and we may indeed hope that, though +the day is still far when the motto of Eton will be education as for +fatherhood, yet the ideal of education as for motherhood may yet triumph +wherever girls are taught within even a few years to come. On all sides +to-day we see the aberrations of womanhood in a hundred forms, and the +consequences thereof. Wrong education is partly, beyond a doubt, to be +indicted for this state of things, and the right direction is so clearly +indicated by nature and by the deepest intuitions of both sexes that we +cannot much longer delay to take it. + +Perhaps the reader will have patience whilst for a little we discuss the +facts upon which right education for motherhood must be based. Some may +suppose that by education for womanhood is meant simply one form or +other of instruction; say, for instance, in the certainly important +matter of infant feeding. At present, however, I am not thinking of +instruction at all, but of education--the leading forth, that is to say, +in right proportion and in right direction of the natural constituents +of the girl. If we are to be right in our methods we must have some +clear understanding of what those constituents are, and we must +therefore address ourselves now to getting, if possible, clear and +accurate notions of the material with which we have to deal; in other +words, we must discuss the psychology of parenthood. We shall perhaps +realize then that though the instruction of mothers in being is very +necessary and very important, that comes in at the end of our duty, and +that we shall never achieve what we might achieve unless we begin at the +beginning. + + + + +XII + +THE MATERNAL INSTINCT + + +The deeds of men and women proceed from certain radical elements of +their nature, some evidently noble, others, when looked at askew, +apparently ignoble. These elements are classed as instinctive. We are +less intelligent than we think. Reason may occupy the throne, but the +foundations upon which that throne is based are not of her making. To +change the image, reason is the pilot, not the gale or the engine. She +does not determine the goal, but only the course to that goal. We are +what our nature makes us; our likes and our dislikes determine our acts, +and we are guided to our self-determined ends by means of our +intelligence. More often, indeed, we use our intelligence merely to +justify to ourselves the likes and dislikes, the action and the +inaction, which our instinctive tendencies have determined. + +Many of our natural instincts, impulses, and emotions bear only remotely +upon our present inquiry; as, for instance, the instinct of flight and +the emotion of fear, the instinct of curiosity and the emotion of +wonder, the instinct of pugnacity and the emotion of anger. Certain +others, however, are not merely radical and permanent parts of our +nature, but determine human existence, the greater part of its failures +and successes, its folly and wisdom, its history and its destiny. Two of +these--the parental and racial instincts--we must carefully consider +here, and also, very briefly, a supposed third, the filial instinct. I +am inclined to question whether such a specific entity as the filial +instinct exists at all; it is rather, I believe, a product, by +transmutation, of the parental instinct which, in its various forms and +potencies and through the tender emotion which is its counterpart in the +affective realm of our natures, is the noblest, finest, and most +promising ingredient of our constitution. + +_Instinct and Emotion._--We must be sure, in the first place, that we +have a sound idea of what we mean by the word "instinct." It is absurd, +for instance, to speak of "acquiring a political instinct"--or any +other. That is the most erroneous possible use of the word. An instinct +is eminently something which cannot be "acquired"; it is native if +anything is native; as native as the nose or the backbone. Instincts may +be developed or repressed; it is the great mark of man that in him they +may even be transmuted--but _acquired_ never. + +When we come to examine the laws of activity we find that, on the +application of certain kinds of stimulus, there are certain very +definite responses, and these we call instinctive. If the arm or the leg +of a sleeper be stroked or touched, or a cold breath of air blows +thereon, it will be withdrawn, and such withdrawal is what we call a +reflex action. Now, an instinctive action, as Herbert Spencer saw long +ago, is a "complex reflex action." It differs from a simple reflex, a +mere twitch, such as winking, but it is a complicated, and possibly +prolonged, action, which is, at bottom, of the nature of a reflex. One +may instance the instinct of flight, which is correlated with fear. In +crossing the street we hear "toot, toot," and we run. We do not +ratiocinate, we run. All the primary instincts of mankind act similarly. +Take, for contrast, the instinct of curiosity. Consider a child watching +a mechanical toy; the impulse of this instinct of curiosity is such that +he goes to the thing and examines it. By means of the transmutation, +which it is the prerogative of man to effect, this instinct may work out +into a lifetime devoted to the study of Nature. There is an unbroken +sequence from the interest in the unknown which we see in a kitten or a +child up to that which triumphs in a Newton or a Darwin. + +Thus we begin to learn that human nature is largely a collection of +instincts, more or less correlated, and that at bottom we act on our +instincts--in accordance with certain innate predilections, likings, and +dislikings with which we were born, and which we have inherited from our +ancestors. Indissolubly associated therewith is what we call emotion. +For instance, in the exercise of the instinct of curiosity we feel a +certain emotion, which we call wonder. There is an ignoble wonder and +there is a noble wonder; but whether it be an astronomer watching the +stars, or the crowd at a cinematograph show, there exists an association +between the emotion of wonder and the instinct of curiosity. Dr. +McDougall, of Oxford, elaborated some few years ago, and has now +established, an extremely important theory of the relation between +instinct and emotion. He has shown that our emotions are correlated with +our instincts; that the emotion is the inward or subjective side of the +working of the instinct. Thus an instinct is more than a "complex reflex +action"; it is more than merely that, on hearing something, or seeing +something, certain muscles are thrown into action, because along with +the action there is emotion, and this is a natural and necessary +correlation. We should do well to carry about with us, as part of our +mental furniture, this idea of the correlation between instinct and +emotion. + +Now, if it be true that man is not primarily a rational animal, if he be +rather, _au fond_, a bundle, an assemblage, _an organism of instincts_, +it behoves us to recognize in ourselves and in others the primary +instincts, because from them flows all that goes to make up human +nature, whether it be good or evil. Amongst these, certainly, is the +parental instinct. + +Let us first consider its development in the individual, for this bears +on the question when to begin education for motherhood. We find it very +early indeed. It is commonly asserted that the doll instinct is the +precursor, the infantile and childish form, of the parental instinct. +Some psychologists, as we have already noted, assure us that this is +wrong, that a small child will be just as content to play with anything +else as with a doll; that the child gets fond of its possession, and +that what we are really witnessing is the instinct of acquisitiveness. +The rest may reason and welcome, but those who are fathers know. We +have only to watch a child to learn that it very soon differentiates its +doll, or rather, the shapeless mass it calls its doll, from other +things. Try with your own children and see if you can get them to like +anything else as well as they like a doll. They will not. There are few +settled questions as yet in psychology, but we may certainly be sure +that the parental instinct and its associated emotion may be +unmistakably displayed as the master-passion in a child who is not yet +two years old. In a case where the possibility of imitation was excluded +I have seen a little girl adore a small baby, stroke its hands, whisper +quasi-maternal sweet nothings to it--"mother it," in short--as plainly +as I have seen the sun at noon; and there is no reason to suppose that +this deeply impressive spectacle was exceptional. + +The parental instinct is connected subtly with the racial instinct; and +it is undisputed that, except in utterly degraded persons, the object of +the feelings which are associated with the racial instinct becomes the +object of the feelings which are associated with the parental instinct. +The object of the emotion of sex becomes also the object of tender +emotion. Thus "love," in its lower sense, becomes exalted by Love in the +noble sense. + +There is also in us an instinct of pugnacity, which especially appears +when the working of any other instinct is thwarted. We know that the +parental instinct when thwarted, as in the tigress robbed of her whelps, +shows itself in pugnacity--even in the female, which commonly has no +pugnacity; and in the emotion of anger. It is a reasonable supposition +that the fine anger, the passion for justice, the passion against, say, +slavery or cruelty to children--that these indignations which move the +world are at bottom traceable to the workings of the outraged parental +instinct. When we have tender emotion towards a child, or towards an +animal, whatever it be, this is really the subjective side of the +working of the parental instinct. Now, tender emotion is what has made +and makes everything that is good in the individual, and in human +society. It is the basis of all morality--all morality that is real +morality--everything that permits us to hold up our heads at all, or to +hope for the future of the race. That is why the study of the parental +instinct, its correlate or source, is as important and serious as any +that can be imagined. + +Let us begin by a quotation from Dr. McDougall, author of the best and +most searching account of this instinct yet written:-- + + "The maternal instinct, which impels the mother to protect and + cherish her young, is common to almost all the higher species of + animals. Among the lower animals the perpetuation of the species is + generally provided for by the production of an immense number of + eggs or young (in some species of fish a single adult produces more + than a million eggs), which are left entirely unprotected, and are + so preyed upon by other creatures that on the average but one or + two attain maturity. As we pass higher up the animal scale, we find + the number of eggs or young more and more reduced, and the + diminution of their number compensated for by parental protection. + At the lowest stage this protection may consist in the provision of + some merely physical shelter, as in the case of those animals that + carry their eggs attached in some way to their bodies. But, except + at this lowest stage, the protection afforded to the young always + involves some instinctive adaptation of the parent's behaviour. We + may see this even among the fishes, some of which deposit their + eggs in rude nests and watch over them, driving away creatures that + might prey upon them. From this stage onwards protection of + offspring becomes increasingly psychical in character, involves + more profound modification of the parent's behaviour, and a more + prolonged period of more effective guardianship. The highest stage + is reached by those species in which each female produces at a + birth but one or two young, and protects them so efficiently that + most of the young born reach maturity; the maintenance of the + species thus becomes in the main the work of the parental instinct. + In such species the protection and cherishing of the young is the + constant and all-absorbing occupation of the mother, to which she + devotes all her energies, and in the course of which she will at + any time undergo privation, pain, and death. The instinct becomes + more powerful than any other, and can override any other, even fear + itself; for it works directly in the service of the species, while + the other instincts work primarily in the service of the individual + life, for which Nature cares little.... When we follow up the + evolution of this instinct to the highest animal level, we find + among the apes the most remarkable examples of its operation. Thus + in one species the mother is said to carry her young one clasped in + one arm uninterruptedly for several months, never letting go of it + in all her wanderings. This instinct is no less strong in many + human mothers, in whom, of course, it becomes more or less + intellectualized and organized as the most essential constituent of + the sentiment of parental love. Like other species, the human + species is dependent upon this instinct for its continual + existence and welfare. It is true that reason, working in the + service of the egotistic impulses and sentiments, often circumvents + the ends of this instinct and sets up habits which are incompatible + with it. But when that occurs on a large scale in any society, that + society is doomed to rapid decay. But the instinct itself can never + die out save with the disappearance of the human species itself; it + is kept strong and effective just because those families and races + and nations in which it weakens become rapidly supplanted by those + in which it is strong. + + "It is impossible to believe that the operation of this, the most + powerful of the instincts, is not accompanied by a strong and + definite emotion; one may see the emotion expressed unmistakably by + almost any mother among the higher animals, especially the birds + and the mammals--by the cat, for example, and by most of the + domestic animals; and it is impossible to doubt that this emotion + has in all cases the peculiar quality of the tender emotion + provoked in the human parent by the spectacle of her helpless + offspring. This primary emotion has been very generally ignored by + the philosophers and psychologists; that is, perhaps, to be + explained by the fact that this instinct and its emotion are in the + main decidedly weaker in men than women, and in some men, perhaps, + altogether lacking. We may even surmise that the philosophers as a + class are men among whom this defect of native endowment is + relatively common." + +Dr. McDougall goes on to show how from this emotion and its impulse to +cherish and protect spring generosity, gratitude, love, true +benevolence, and altruistic conduct of every kind; in it they have their +main and absolutely essential root without which they would not be. He +argues that the intimate alliance between tender emotion and anger is +of great importance for the social life of man, for "the anger invoked +in this way is the germ of all moral indignation, and on moral +indignation justice and the greater part of public law are in the main +founded."[11] + +The reader may be earnestly counselled to acquaint himself with Dr. +McDougall's book, which, in the judgment of those best qualified, +definitely advances the science of psychology in its deepest and most +important aspects. + +_The Transmutation of Instinct._--The last thing here meant by the +transmutation of instinct is that by any political alchemy it is +possible--to quote Herbert Spencer's celebrated aphorism--to get golden +conduct out of leaden instincts. But it is the mark of man, the +intelligent being, that in him the instincts are plastic, and even +capable of amazing transmutations. In the lower animals there is +instinct, but that instinct is an almost completely fixed, rigid, and +final thing. In ourselves there is a limitless capacity for the +development, the humanization of instinct along many lines, as when the +primitive infantile curiosity works out into the speculations of a +thinker. In other words, _we_ are educable, the lower animals are not, +or only within very narrow limits. + +Yet in one respect the lower animals have the advantage over us. Their +instincts are often perfect. We cannot teach a cat anything about how to +look after a kitten; but parallel instincts amongst ourselves, though +not less numerous or potent, are not perfected, not sharp-cut. In the +cat there is no need for education; in woman there is eminent need for +it. Indeed it is the lack of education that is largely responsible for +our large infant mortality; not that woman is inferior to the cat, but +that, being not instinctive but intelligent, she requires education in +motherhood. + +Human instincts in general are capable of modification; sometimes they +may take bizarre forms, and so we find that there are people without +children of their own--more commonly women--who will have twenty cats in +the house and look after them, or who will devote their whole lives to +the cause of the rat or the rabbit, or whatever it may be, while the +children of men are dying around them. These things are indications of +the parental instinct centred on unworthy objects. It is a common thing +to laugh at these aberrations--thoughtlessly, may we not say? While +orphans are to be found, we should do better if we try to bring together +the woman who needs to "mother" and the child who needs to be +"mothered." + +Conduct is at least three-fourths of life, and the great business of +education is the direction of conduct. We have seen how modern +psychology illuminates what has been so long dark, by directing us to +our instincts as the sources of our needs, and by showing us that it is +the possibility of the education of instinct which essentially +distinguishes us from the lower animals. + +We must therefore distinguish between education for motherhood and +education or instruction in motherhood. It is very important that a +woman should know the elements of infant feeding, but it is more +important that, in the first place, her whole life before she becomes a +mother--nay, even before she chooses her child's father--shall centre in +the education of her instincts for motherhood. Finding good evidence, as +we do, of the maternal instinct at a very early age, and recognizing its +importance in conduct and in the formation of ideals long before the +marriage age, we are justified in discussing the maternal instinct here +instead of postponing it, as some might argue, until after we have +discussed marriage. There is nothing which I wish to assert more +strongly than that we are radically wrong in this postponement, which is +indeed our customary practice. Partly because we are blind, partly +because of our most imprudent prudery, we ignore and pervert the due +sequence of development, but here I deliberately prefer to follow the +indications of nature, and to discuss the maternal instinct now because, +in the matter of the education of girls, this is precisely the most +important subject that can be named. + +Let us now note some popular misconceptions which cumber our minds and +often interfere with the work of the reformer. + +To begin with what is perhaps the oldest of these, though indeed +scarcely entitled to the appellation of popular, let us assure ourselves +once and for all that we are talking about a fact natural, innate, not +acquired. The modern criticism of ancient notions of human nature, such +as those expressed in the theologians' conception of "conscience," has +inclined some to the view that our best feelings are indeed not at all +innate. No one can for a moment analyze conscience without observing the +immense disparity between the facts and the theologians' theory. And +thus we are apt to fall into the opposite error of supposing that our +impulses towards good action are entirely the products of education, +training, public opinion, and so forth. Let the reader refer, for +instance, to such a celebrated work as John Stuart Mill's +"Utilitarianism," and it will be seen how wide of the mark it was +possible for even a great thinker to go, when his ideas of mind were +unguided by the light of evolution. Even in the greatest writer of that +time not a syllable do we find as to the parental instinct. "As is my +own belief," says Mill, "the moral feelings are not innate but +acquired." Yet we have seen convincing evidence which teaches us that +the moral feelings spring essentially from the root of the parental +instinct, without which mankind could not continue for another +generation, and than which there is nothing more fundamental and +essential in any type of human nature that can persist. + +The importance of noting this can be clearly stated. We are here dealing +with something which is not for us to implant, but which is already part +of the plant, so to speak, and which it is for us to tend. Like other +innate features of mankind, its transmission from generation to +generation is notably independent of the effects of education, the +effects of use and disuse. This is a difficult thing of which to +persuade people, but it is the fact. Education, environment, training, +opportunity, habit, public opinion, social prejudice--all these and +such other influences may and do affect the maternal instinct in the +individual for good or for evil. No fact is more certain or important, +and that is precisely why we must study this instinct. But the effect +upon the individual does not involve any effect upon the native +constitution of the individual's children. From age to age the general +facts and features of the human backbone persist. We do not expect to +find notable differences between the generations in such a radical +feature of our constitution, no matter what particular habits of +posture, play, and the like we adopt. The maternal instinct is scarcely +less fundamental; it is certainly no whit less essential for the +species. It is the very backbone of our psychological constitution. Thus +it is nonsense to assert that, for instance, women are becoming less +motherly, if by this is meant that the maternal instinct is failing. +That bad education may affect it for evil no one can question, but we +must distinguish between nature and nurture. We may be perfectly +confident that so far as the _natural_ material of girl-childhood and +girlhood is concerned, there is no falling off; there will not, for +there cannot, be any falling off either in the quality or in the +quantity of the maternal instinct. On the contrary, it can, and will +later be shown that through the action of heredity this instinct will be +strengthened in the future, just in so far as motherhood becomes more +and more a special privilege of those women in whom this instinct is +strong, and who become mothers for the _only good reason_--that they +love to have children of their own. + +I protest, then, against many critics, especially those who used to +raise their now silent voices in opposition to the beginnings of the +infant mortality campaign a few years ago, that we who criticize modern +motherhood and find in its defects the causes of many and great evils, +as we do, are asserting nothing whatever against the women of this day +as compared with the women of former days, so far as their natural +constitution is concerned; and if we criticize the results of bad +education, that is mainly criticism of the blindness, the stupidity, and +the carelessness of men, who are responsible for the parodies of +education and the misdirection of ideals which have so grossly +afflicted, and still afflict, childhood and girlhood in all civilized +communities. + +Yet, again, there is another misconception of the maternal instinct as +it exists in our own species, which is still more serious in its +results. The argument is that, not only does the maternal instinct +exist, but it is a sure guide to its possessor, who therefore requires +no instruction--least of all at the hands of men. A woman being a woman +knows all about babies, a man being a man knows nothing. Against this +error the present writer has endeavoured to inveigh for many years past, +and it is always retorted that insistence upon the ignorance of mothers +is a very unwarrantable piece of discourtesy. It is nothing of the sort. +Native ignorance is the mark of intelligence. It is just because +instinct in us has not the perfection of detail which it has in, say, +the insects, that it is capable of that limitless modification which +shows itself in educated intelligence, and all that educated +intelligence has achieved and will yet achieve. It may be permitted to +quote from a former statement of this point:--[12] + +"The mother has only the maternal instinct in its essence. That could +not be permitted to lapse by natural selection, since humanity could +never have been evolved at all if women did not love babies. But of all +details she is bereft. She has instead an immeasurably greater thing, +intelligence, but whilst intelligence can learn everything it has +everything to learn. Subhuman instinct can learn nothing, but is perfect +from the first within its impassable limits. It is this lapse of +instinctive aptitude that constitutes the cardinal difficulty against +which we are assembled. The mother cat not merely has a far less +helpless young creature to succour, but she has a far superior inherent +or instinctive equipment; she knows the best food for her kitten, she +does not give it 'the same as we had ourselves'--as the human mother +tells the coroner--but her own breast invariably. None of us can teach +her anything as to washing her kitten, or keeping it warm. She can even +play with it and so educate it, in so far as it needs education. There +are mothers in all classes of the community who should be ashamed to +look a tabby cat in the face." + +The human mother has instinctive love and the uninstructed intelligence +which is the form, at once weak and incalculably strong, that instinct +so largely assumes in mankind. This cardinal distinction between the +human and all sub-human mothers is habitually ignored, it being assumed +that the mother, as a mother, knows what is best for her child. But +experience concurs with comparative psychology in showing that the human +mother, just because she is human, intelligent, which means more than +instinctive, does not know. This is the theory upon which all our +practice is to be based, and upon which the need for it mainly depends. +We must never forget the cardinal peculiarity of human motherhood, its +absolute dependence upon education, needless for the cat, needed by the +human mother in every particular, small and great, since she relies upon +intelligence alone, which is only a potentiality and a possibility until +it be educated. Educate it, and the product transcends the cat, and not +only the cat, but all other living things. As Coleridge said-- + + "A mother is a mother still, + The holiest thing alive." + +Perhaps the foregoing will make it clear that to insist upon the natural +ignorance of the human mother and upon the necessity for adding +instruction to the maternal instinct, and even to make comparisons with +the cat (which are, in point of fact, quite worth making, even though +some women resent them) is in no way to depreciate or decry womanhood, +but simply to demonstrate that it is human and not animal, suffering +from the disabilities or necessities which are involved in the +possession of the limitless possibilities of mankind. + +What, then, is it in our power to do; and how are we to do it? It may be +argued that if the maternal instinct is a thing which cannot be made or +acquired, our study of it has little relation to practice. But indeed it +is eminently practical. + +For, in the first place, this priceless possession, this parental +instinct and tenderness, is inheritable. We know by observation amongst +ourselves that hardness and tenderness are to be found running through +families--are things which are transmissible. Let us, then, make +parenthood the most responsible, the most deliberate, the most +self-conscious thing in life, so that there shall be children born to +those who love children, and only to those who love children, to those +who have the parental instinct naturally strong, and who will, on the +average, transmit a high measure of it to their offspring. In a +generation bred on these principles--a generation consisting only of +babies who were loved before they were born--there would be a proportion +of sympathy, of tender feeling, and of all those great, abstract, +world-creating passions which are evolved from the tender emotion, such +as no age hitherto has seen. + +It was necessary to insert this eugenic paragraph because it expresses +the central principle of all real reform, as fundamental and +all-important as it is unknown to all political parties, and I fear to +nearly all philanthropists as well. But, for the present, our immediate +concern is the application, if such be possible, of our knowledge of the +parental instinct to the education of girls. Being indeed an instinct it +can be neither made nor acquired, but, like every other factor of +humanity that is given by inheritance, it depends upon the conditions in +which it finds itself. Education being the provision of an environment, +there is no higher task for the educator than to provide the right +environment for the maternal instinct in adolescence. We are to look +upon it as at once delicate and ineradicable. These are adjectives which +may seem incompatible, yet they may both be verified. Any one will +testify that, in a given environment, say that of high school or +university or that of the worst types of what is called society, the +maternal instinct may then and there, and for that period, become a +nonentity in many a girl. Hence we are entitled to say that it is +delicate; much more delicate, for instance, than what we have agreed to +call the racial instinct, which is far more imperious and by no means so +easily to be suppressed. + +But, on the other hand, just because this is an instinct, part of the +fundamental constitution, and not a something planted from without, it +is ineradicable. I doubt whether even in the most abandoned female +drunkard it would not be possible to find, when the right environment +was provided, that the maternal instinct was still undestroyed. One is, +of course, not speaking of that rare and aberrant variety of women in +whom the instinct is naturally weak--naturally weak as distinguished +from the atrophy induced by improper nurture. + +Our business, then, having recognized, so to speak, the natural history +of this instinct, and further, having come to realize its stupendous +importance for the individual and the race, is to tend it assiduously +as the very highest and most precious thing in the girls for whom we +care. As educators we must seek to provide the environment in which this +instinct can flourish. It is a good thing to be an elder sister, not +merely because the girl has opportunities of learning the ways of babies +and the details of their needs, but for a far deeper reason. Babies do +have very detailed and urgent needs, but these can be learnt without +much difficulty, and, if necessary, at very short notice. More important +is it for the whole development of the character and for the making of +the worthiest womanhood that an elder sister is provided with an +environment in which her maternal instinct can grow and grow in grace. + +Much might be said on this head as to some of our present educational +practices. The kind of educationist with whom no one would trust a +poodle for half an hour may and does constantly assume, on a scale +involving millions of children, from year to year, that all is well if +the girl be taken from home and put into a school and made to learn by +heart, or at any rate by rote, the rubbish with which our youth is fed +even yet in the great name of education: though perchance whilst she is +thus being injured in body and mind and character, she might at home be +playing the little mother, helping to make the home a home, serving the +highest interests of her parents, her younger brothers and sisters and +herself at the same time--not to mention the unborn. Such a protest as +this, however, will be little heeded. There is no political party which +cares about education or even wants to know in what it consists. The +most persistent and clever and resourceful of those parties--of which, I +fear, the Fabian Society is far too good to be representative--only half +believes in the family, and is daily, and ever with more lamentable +success, seeking to substitute for the home some collective device or +other precisely as rational as that scheme of Plato's whereby the babies +were to be shuffled so that no mother should recognize her own baby, +while the fathers, need it be said, were to be as gloriously +irresponsible as under the schemes for the endowment of motherhood. +"Socialism intervenes between the children and the parents.... Socialism +in fact is the State family. The old family of the private individual +must vanish before it, just as the old waterworks of private enterprise, +or the old gas company. They are incompatible with it." Thus Mr. H. G. +Wells. + +Whilst this sort of thing passes for thinking, it is a task that has +little promise in it to demand a return to the study of human nature, +and insist that only by obeying it can we command it, as Bacon said of +Nature at large. Meanwhile the madness proceeds apace; nursery-schools, +wretched parody of the nursery, are advocated at length in even Fabian +tracts, and the writer who suggests that an elder sister may be +receiving the highest kind of education in staying at home and helping +her mother, would sound almost to himself like an echo from the dead +past did he not know that neither a Plato nor a million tons of moderns +can walk through human nature or any other fact as if it were not +there. + +Whatever be our duty to the girl of the working-classes, no man can deny +the importance of performing it aright. She will become the wife of the +working-man. From her thus flows most of the birth-rate. If our +education of her is wrong, it is a very great wrong for millions of +individuals and for the whole of society. But let us look at the case of +her more fortunate sister. + +The girl of the more fortunate classes is certain to be well cared for +in the matter of air and food and light and exercise. We have already +seen how this matter of exercise requires to be qualified and determined +as for motherhood--that is, unless we desire most suicidally to educate +all the most promising stocks of the nation out of existence. But now +what do we owe to her in the matter of providing the right kind of +intellectual, moral, spiritual, psychical environment? It is a pity to +flounder with so many adjectives, but nearly all the available ones are +forsworn and fail to express my meaning. Let us, however, speak of the +spiritual environment, seeking to free that word from all its lamentable +associations of superstition and cant, and to associate it rather with a +humanized kind of religion that deals with humanity as made by, living +upon, and destined for, this earth, whatever unseen worlds there may or +may not be to conquer. + +It is our business, then, to provide the spiritual environment in which +the maternal instinct is favoured and seen to be supremely honourable. +If in the "best" girls' schools ideas of marriage and babies are +ridiculed, the sooner these schools be rubbed down again into the soil, +the better. There is no need to substitute one form of cant for +another, but it is possible--possible even though the head-mistress +should be a spinster, for whom physical motherhood has not been and +never will be--to incorporate in the very spirit of the school, as part +of its public opinion, no less potent though its power be not +consciously felt, the ideals of real and complete womanhood, which mean +nothing less than the consecration of the individual to the future, and +the belief that such consecration serves not only the future but also +the highest satisfaction of her best self. + +If it were our present task to define and specify the details of a +school in which girls should be educated for womanhood, for motherhood, +and the future, it would not be difficult, I think, to show how the +services of painting and sculpture, of poetry and prose, should be +enlisted. A word or two of outline may be permitted. + +There is, for instance, a noble Madonna of Botticelli which is supremely +great, not because of the skill of the painter's hand, nor yet the +delicacy of his eye, but because of the spirit which they express. +Botticelli speaks across the centuries, and is none other than an +earlier voice uttering the words of Coleridge, teaching that a mother is +the holiest thing alive. The master may or may not have perceived that +the Madonna was a symbol; that what he believed of one holy mother was +worth believing just in so far as it serves to make all motherhood holy +and all men servants thereof. The painter can scarcely have looked at +his model and appreciated her fitness for his purpose without realizing +that he was concerned with depicting a truth not local and unique, but +universal and commonplace. Whether or not the painter saw this, we have +no excuse for not seeing it. Copies of such a painting as this should be +found in every girls' school throughout the world. + +Girls learn drawing and painting at school, and these are amongst the +numerous subjects on which the present writer is entitled to no +technical or critical opinion. But he sometimes supposes that a painting +is not necessarily the worse because it represents a noble thing, and +that it may even be a worthier human occupation to portray the visage of +a living man or woman than the play of light upon a dead wall or a dead +partridge. It might even be argued by the wholly inexpert that if the +business of art is with beauty, the art is higher, other things being +equal, in proportion as the beauty it portrays is of a higher order. +Thus in the painting of women, the ignorant commentator sometimes asks +himself in what supreme sense it was worth while for an artist to expend +his powers upon the portrait of some society fool who could pay him +twelve hundred pounds therefor; or in what supreme sense a painter can +be called an artist who prefers such a task, and the flesh-pots, to the +portrayal of womanhood at its highest. There are attributes of womanhood +which directly serve human life, present and to come--attributes of +vitality and faithfulness, attributes of body and bosom, of mind and of +feeling, which it is within the power of the great artist to portray; +and it is in worthily portraying the greatest things, and in this +alone, that he transcends the status of the decorator. + +It is worth while also to refer here to sculpture; something can be +taught by its means. The Venus of Milo is not only a great work of art; +it is also a representation of the physiological ideal. Its model was a +woman eminently capable of motherhood. The corset is beyond question +undesirable from every point of view, and it may be of service by means +of such a statue as this to teach the girl's eye what are the right +proportions of the body. She is constantly being faced with gross and +preposterous perversions of the female figure as they are to be seen in +the fashion plates of every feminine journal. It is as well that she +should have opportunities of occasionally seeing something better. + +A note upon the corset may not be out of place here. We know that its +use is of no small antiquity. We have lately come to learn that +civilization stepped across to Europe from Asia, using Crete as a +stepping-stone; and in frescoes found in the palace of Minos, at +Knossos, by Dr. Arthur Evans, we find that the corset was employed to +distort the female figure nearly four thousand years ago, as it is +to-day. There must be some clue deep in human nature to the persistence +of a custom which is in itself so absurd. Those who have studied the +work of such writers as Westermarck, and who cannot but agree that on +the whole he is right in the contention that each sex desires to +accentuate the features of its sex, will be prepared to accept Dr. +Havelock Ellis's interpretation of the corset. By constricting the +waist it accentuates the salience of the bosom and hips. This may simply +be an expression of the desire to emphasize sex, but it may with still +more insight be looked upon, as the latter writer has suggested, as the +insertion of a claim to capacity for motherhood. This claim is of course +unconscious, but Nature does not always make us aware of the purposes +which she exercises through us. Now, though the corset serves to draw +attention to certain factors of motherhood, in point of fact it is +injurious to that end, and is on that highest of all grounds to be +condemned. I return to the point that possibly the direct and formal +condemnation of the corset may be in some cases less effective than the +method, which must have some value for every girl, of placing before her +eyes representations of the female figure, showing beauty and capacity +for motherhood as completely fused because they are indeed one. +Constrain the girl to admit that that is as beautiful as can be, and +then ask her what she thinks the corset applied to such a figure could +possibly accomplish. + +Surely the same principle applies to what the girl reads. Some of us +become more and more convinced that youth, being naturally more +intelligent than maturity, prefers and requires more subtlety in its +teaching. In addressing a meeting of men, say upon politics, a speaker's +first business is to be crude. He has no chance whatever unless he is +direct, unqualified, allowing nothing at all for any kind of +intelligence or self-constructive faculty in the minds of his hearers. +Let any one recall the catchwords, styled watchwords, of politics +during the last ten or twenty years, and he will see how men are to be +convinced. + +But it is all very well to treat men as fools, provided that you do not +say so--the case is different with young people, and certainly not less +with girls than with boys. Mr. Kipling, in one of those earlier moments +of insight that sometimes almost persuade us to pardon the brutality +which year by year becomes more than ever the dominant note of his +teaching, once told us of the discomfiture of a member of Parliament, or +person of that kind, who went to a boys' school to lecture about +Patriotism, and who unfurled a Union Jack amid the dead silence of the +disgusted boys. He forgot that, for once, he was speaking to an +intelligent audience, which demands something a little less crude than +the kind of thing which wins elections and makes and unmakes governments +and policies. + +There is certainly a lesson here for those who are entrusted with the +supreme responsibility, so immeasurably more political than politics, of +forming the girl's mind for her future destiny. Suggestion is one of the +most powerful things in the world, but we must not forget that inverted +form of it which has been called contra-suggestion. We all know how the +first shoots of religion are destroyed on all sides in young minds by +contra-suggestion. Crude, ill-timed, unsympathetic, excessive, religious +teaching and religious exercises achieve, as scarcely anything else +could, exactly the opposite of that which they seek to attain. Thus it +is not here proposed that we should take any course at home or at +school which should have the result of making motherhood as nauseous to +the girl's mind through contra-suggestion, as it easily could be made if +we did not set to work upon judicious lines. + +If we are in any measure to gain, by means of books, our end of forming +right ideals in the girl's mind, I am certain that we must not expect to +accomplish much with the help of any but very great writers. We may very +well doubt the substantial value for the purpose of anything written for +the purpose. Such books may be of value for the teacher; they may +possibly be of value in disposing of curiosity that has become +overweening or even morbid, but their value as preachments I much +question. The kind of writing upon which the young girl's mind will be +nourished in years to come is best represented by the lecture on +"Queens' Gardens" in Ruskin's "Sesame and Lilies," though in that +magnificent and immortal piece of literature there is nowhere any direct +allusion to motherhood as the natural ideal for girlhood. Yet if only +one girl in a hundred who read that lecture can be persuaded, in the +beautiful phrase to be found there, that she was "born to be love +visible," how excellent is the work that we shall have accomplished! A +chapter might well be devoted entirely to the teaching of Wordsworth +regarding womanhood. We need scarcely remind ourselves that this great +poet owed an immeasurable debt to his sister, and in lesser, though very +substantial, degree to his wife and daughters. He has left an abundance +of poetry which testifies directly and indirectly to these influences. +This poetry is not only utterly lovely as poetry; at once sane and +passionate, steadying and thrilling, but it is also not to be surpassed, +I cannot but believe, as a means for rightly forming the ideals of +girlhood. Every year sees an inundation of new collections of poetry. +The anthologist might do worse than collect from Wordsworth a small, but +precious and quintessential volume under some such title as "Wordsworth +and Womanhood." One would do it oneself but that literary people of a +certain school regard it as an impertinence that any one who believes in +knowledge should intrude into their sphere. Wordsworth, it is true, said +that "poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the +impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all Science." But +most literary people are so busy writing that they have no time to read, +and they forget these sayings of the immortal dead. Yet that is just a +saying which directly bears upon the present contention. We must be very +careful lest we insult and outrage girlhood with our physiology, not +that physiology is either insolent or outrageous, but that girlhood is +girlhood. It is the "breath and finer spirit" of our knowledge of sex +and parenthood that we must seek to impart to her. Poetry is its +vehicle, and the time will come when we shall consciously use it for +that great purpose. + +But we cannot expect the adolescent girl to be content even with Ruskin +and Wordsworth. She must, of course, have fiction, and under this +heading there is more or less accessible to her every possibility in the +gamut of morality, from the teaching of such a book as "Richard +Feverel" down to the excrement and sewage that defile the railway +book-stalls to-day under the guise of "bold, reverent, and fearless +handling of the great sex problems." The present writer is one of those +old-fashioned enough to believe that it matters a great deal what young +people read. We are all hygienists nowadays, and very particular as to +what enters our children's mouths. But what is the value of these +precautions if we relax our care as to what enters their minds? + +It is my misfortune to be scarcely acquainted at all with fiction, and I +can presume to offer no detailed guidance in this matter. The name of +Mr. Eden Phillpotts must certainly be mentioned as foremost among those +living writers who care for these things. In the Eugenics Education +Society it was at one time hoped to see the formation of a branch of +fiction in the library which might form the nucleus of a catalogue, well +worth disseminating if only it could be compiled, of fiction worthy the +consumption of girlhood. Perhaps it would hardly be necessary for the +present writer to protest that the didactic, the unnaturally good, the +well-meaning, the entirely amateur types of fiction, including those +which ignore the facts of human nature, and, above all, those which +decry instead of seeking to deify the natural, would find no place in +this catalogue. It is possible, though I much doubt it, that there may +be many books unknown to me of the order and quality of "Richard +Feverel." At any rate, that represents in its perfection--save, perhaps, +for the unnecessary tragedy of its close, which the illustrious author +himself in conversation did not find it quite possible to defend--the +type of novel whose teaching the Eugenist and the Maternalist must +recommend for the nourishment of youth of both sexes. + +As has been already hinted, discourses on how to wash a baby are less in +place here; and in the following chapter the argument will be set forth +in detail that the sequence of the common schemes for the education of +girlhood and womanhood is, in one essential respect, logically and +practically erroneous. + + + + +XIII + +CHOOSING THE FATHERS OF THE FUTURE + + +We live in a social chaos of which the evolution into anything like a +cosmos is scarcely more than incipient. In such a case the reformer has +to do the best he may; in the only possible sense in which that phrase +can be defended, he has to take the world as he finds it. Heartless +heads will of course be found to comment upon the logical error of his +ways, to which his only reply is that, while they stand and comment, +what can be done he now will do. + +In this whole matter of the care and culture of motherhood--which is, +verily, the prime condition, too often forgotten, of the care and +culture of childhood--we have to do what we can, when and as we can. We +live in a society where mankind, held individually responsible for all +other acts whatsoever, is held entirely irresponsible for the act of +parenthood which, being more momentous than any other, ought to be held +more responsible than any other. Marriage, the precedent condition of +most parenthood, is thus regarded as the concern of the individuals and +the present. Individuals and the present therefore decide what marriages +shall occur; but by some obscure fatality which no one had thought of, +the future appears upon the scene: and when it is actually present, or +rather not only present but visible, the responsibility for it is +recognized. We have not yet gone so far as to see that a girl may be a +good mother, in the highest sense, in her choice of a mate. But as +things are, it is agreed that we are to act like blind automata, as +improvident and irresponsible as the lower fishes, until the actual +birth of the future. The philosophic truth that the future is nascent in +the present--a truth so genuinely philosophic that it is also +practical--is still hidden from us, and thus we are faced, in town and +country alike, with ignorant motherhood, set to the most difficult, +responsible, and expert of tasks--the right nurture of babyhood; +babyhood, a ridiculous subject for grown men, yet somehow the condition +of them and all their doings. + +In this state of affairs, those who began the modern campaign against +infant mortality, or rather that small section of them who were not to +be beguiled by secondaries, such as poverty, alcoholism, and the like, +set to work to remedy maternal ignorance. Having been engaged in this +campaign for many years, one is not likely to decry it now, nor is there +any occasion to do so. The movement for the instruction of motherhood +and for the instruction even of girls in the duties of actual +motherhood, is now not only started but making real progress, and will +assuredly prosper. + +But here our business is to think a little in front of action done and +doing, and we shall very soon discover that there is more for public +opinion yet to learn, while we may be very certain that this last lesson +will be less easily learnt than the former was, for it is based upon +evidence much less obvious. I have long maintained that the movement +against infant mortality must precede in logic and in practice movements +for the physical training of boys and girls, for the medical inspection +and treatment of school children, and so forth. Relatively to these I +have always asserted that the right care of babies has the immense +superiority that it means beginning at the beginning, but I have always +denied that it means beginning at the absolute beginning, if such a +phrase be permitted. + +Given the world as it is, the conditions of marriage as they are, the +economic position of woman, the power of prudery, and the conventional +supposition that babies occur by providential dispensation, we must act +as if we really made the assumption that human parenthood, until the +moment of birth, is as irresponsible as any sequence of events in the +atmosphere or the world of electrons. But we who are thinking in front +for humanity must make no such assumption. We must look forward to and +hasten the time when we can act upon the _true_ assumption, which is +that the more the knowledge the greater the responsibility, and more +especially that our knowledge of heredity, so far from abolishing human +responsibility--as the enemies of knowledge declare--immeasurably +extends and deepens it. In the present volume we are proceeding upon the +true assumption, and therefore in the study of womanhood we must now +proceed, in defiance of conventional assumptions, to study the +responsibility and duties of motherhood _as they exist for maidenhood_. +To this end, it will be necessary that we remind ourselves of certain +great biological facts which are of immense significance for mankind, +and are doubtless indeed more important in their bearing upon ourselves +than upon any other living species. + +The first of these is the fact of heredity; the second the fact that +hereditary endowment, whether for good or for evil, or, as is the rule, +both for good and for evil, goes vastly further than any one has until +lately realized, in determining individual destiny. These are amongst +the first principles of Eugenics or race culture, and as they have been +discussed at length elsewhere, one may here take them for granted. +Scarcely less important is the fact that the conditions of mating in the +sub-human world--conditions which beyond dispute make for the +continuance, the vigour, the efficiency, and therefore the happiness of +the species--are largely modified amongst ourselves in consequence of +certain human facts which have no sub-human parallel. The parallels and +the divergences between the two cases are both alike of the utmost +significance, and cannot be too carefully studied. It will here be +possible, of course, merely to look at them as briefly as is compatible +with the making of a right approach to the subject now before us, which +is the girl's choice of a husband. + +But in right priority to the question of choice, we may for convenience +discuss first the marriage age. The choice at one age may not be the +choice at another, and in any case the question of the marriage age is +so important for the individual woman, and so immensely effective in +determining the composition of any society, that we cannot study it too +carefully. + + + + +XIV + +THE MARRIAGE AGE FOR GIRLS + + +Let us clearly understand, in the first place, that in this chapter we +discuss principles and averages, and that, supposing our conclusions be +accepted as true, they cannot for a moment be quoted as decisive in +their bearing upon special cases. The impartial reader will not suppose +that such folly is contemplated, but those who discuss and advocate new +views very soon learn that many readers are not impartial, and that for +one cause or another they do not fail of misrepresentation. This is not +a case, then, of "science laying down the law," and ordering this +individual to marry at this age, and that not to marry at another; and +yet though this rigorous individual application of our principles is +absurd, they are none the less worth formulating, if it be possible. + +The question before us is very far from simple: it is not in the nature +of human problems to be simple, the individual and society being so +immeasurably complex. We have to consider far more points than occur on +first inspection. We have to ascertain when the average woman becomes +fit for marriage. But we must remember that we are dealing with marriage +under the conditions imposed by law and public opinion. Therefore, fit +for mating and fit for marriage are not synonymous, and to ascertain the +age of physiological fitness for mating, though an important +contribution to our problem, is not the solution of it. We have further +to consider how the taste and inclination of the individual vary in the +course of her development. We have to ask ourselves at what age in +general she is likely to make that choice which her maturity and middle +age will ratify rather than for ever regret. We have to consider the +relations of different ages to motherhood, both as regards the quality +of the children born, and as regards their probable number under natural +conditions. These are questions which certainly affect the individual's +happiness profoundly, and yet that is the least of their significance. +Again, we have to observe how the constitution of society varies as +regards the age of its members, according as marriage be early or late. +In the former case more generations are alive at the same time, and in +the latter case fewer. The increasing age at marriage would have more +conspicuous results in this respect if it were not for the great +increase in longevity; so that, though the generations are becoming more +spread out, we may have as many representatives of different generations +alive at the same time as there used to be; but of course there is the +great difference that society is older as a whole. This is a fact which +in itself must affect the doings and the prospects of civilization. An +assemblage of people in the twenties will not behave in the same way as +those in the forties. The probable effect must be towards conservatism, +and increasing rigidity. It is a question to be asked by the historian +of civilization how far these considerations bear upon the history of +past empires. + +Another and most notable result of the modified relation between the +generations which ensues from increasing the age at marriage, is that +the parents, under the newer conditions, must necessarily be, on the +average, psychologically further from their children. The man who first +becomes a father at twenty-five, shall we say, may well expect still to +have something of the boy in him at thirty, especially as children keep +us young. He is thus a companion for his child and his child for him. +The same is true of women. It is good that a woman who still has +something of girlhood in her should become a mother. When the marriage +age is much delayed, people of both sexes tend to grow old more quickly +than if they had children to keep them young, and then when the children +come the psychological disparity is greater than it ought to be--greater +than is best either for parents or children. + +Before we consider the question of individual development, let us note +the general trend of the marriage age. There is no doubt that this is +progressively towards a delay in marriage. We have only to study the +facts amongst primitive races, and in low forms of civilization, to see +that increase in civilization involves, amongst other things, increasing +age at marriage. In his book, "The Nature of Man," Professor Metchnikoff +quotes some statistics, now very nearly fifty years old, showing the age +at first marriage in various European countries. The figure for England +was nearly 26 for males and 24.6 for females; in France, Norway, +Holland, and Belgium the figures for both sexes were considerably +higher, the average age in Belgium being very nearly 30 for men and more +than 28 for women. In England the age has been rising for many years +past, and probably stands now at about 28 for men and 26 for women. It +need hardly be pointed out that this increase in the age of marriage is +one of the factors in the fall of the birth-rate, which is general +throughout the leading countries of the world, proceeding now with great +rapidity even in Germany. + +On the whole, it is further true that the marriage age rises as we +ascend from lower to higher classes within a given civilization, though +a very select class among the wealthy offer an exception to this. + +Now nothing is more familiar to us all than that there is a disharmony, +as Professor Metchnikoff puts it, between these ages for marriage and +the age at which the development of the racial instinct is unmistakable +and parenthood is indeed possible. The tendency of civilization is to +increase this disharmony, and it is impossible to believe that this +tendency can be healthy either for the civilization or for the +individual. + +Still concerning ourselves with the more general aspects of the +question, let it be observed that, as regards men, this unnatural delay +of marriage very frequently brings consequences which, bearing hardly on +themselves, later bear not less hardly on hapless womanhood. The later +the age to which marriage is delayed, the more are men handicapped in +their constant struggle to control the racial instinct under the +unnatural conditions in which they find themselves. The great majority +of men fail in this unequal fight, and of those who fail an enormous +number become infected by disease, with which, when they marry, they +infect their wives, sometimes killing them, often causing them lifelong +illness, often destroying for ever their chances of motherhood, or +making motherhood a horror by the production of children that are an +offence against the sun. These are facts known to all who have looked +into the matter, but there is no such thing as decent public opinion on +the subject, and the author or speaker who dares to allude to them takes +his means of living, if not his life, into his hands. + +No doubt men are largely responsible themselves for the rising marriage +age, but women are also responsible in some measure. This must mean on +the whole an injury to themselves as individuals, to their sex, and to +society. Both sexes demand a higher standard of living; the man spends +enough in alcohol and tobacco, as a rule, to support one or two +children, and then says he is too poor to marry. There is everything to +be said for the doctrine that people should be provident, and should +bring no more children into the world than they are able to support; but +before we accept this plea in any particular case, we should first +inquire how the available income is being spent. At present, every +indication goes to show that we are following in the track of all our +predecessors, spending upon individual indulgence that which ought to be +dedicated to the future, and thereby compromising the worth or the +possibility of any future at all. + +In the light of these considerations and many more, some of which we +shall later consider, I deplore and protest against with all my heart, +as blind, ignorant, and destructive, the counsel of those women, some of +them conspicuous advocates of the cause of woman's suffrage--in which I +nevertheless believe--who advise women to delay in marriage, or who +publish opinions throwing contempt upon marriage altogether. Later, we +must deal in detail with marriage; here we are only concerned with the +marriage age. It will then be argued that the conditions of marriage +must sooner or later be modified in so far as they are at present +inacceptable to a certain number of women of the highest type. This may +be granted without in any degree accepting the deplorable teaching of +such writers as Miss Cicely Hamilton, in her book entitled "Marriage as +a Trade." Every individual case requires individual consideration, and +no less than any individual case ever yet received. But in general those +women who counsel the delay of the marriage age are opposing the facts +of feminine development and psychology. They are indirectly encouraging +male immorality and female prostitution, with their appalling +consequences for those directly concerned, for hosts of absolutely +innocent women, and for the unborn. Further, those who suppose that the +granting of the vote is going to effect radical and fundamental changes +in the facts of biology, the development of instinct, and its +significance in human action, are fools of the very blindest kind. Some +of us find that it needs constant self-chastening and bracing up of the +judgment to retain our belief in the cause of woman's suffrage, of the +justice and desirability of which we are convinced, assaulted as we +almost daily are by the unnatural, unfeminine, almost inhuman blindness +of many of its advocates. + +We have constantly to remind ourselves that our immediate concern and +duty are not with the world as it might be, or ought to be, or will be, +but with the world as it is. There are many good arguments, admirably +adapted to an imaginary world, why the marriage age should be increased. +But these forget the possible, nay the inevitable, consequences, if such +an increase show itself in one nation and not in another, in one class +of society and not in another. It is a good thing, and it is the ideal +of the eugenist, as I ventured to formulate some years ago, that every +child who comes into the world should be desired, designed, and loved in +anticipation. But if in France, shall we say, such a tendency begins to +obtain a generation earlier than it does in Germany, there will come to +be a disparity of population which, continuing, must inevitably mean +sooner or later the disappearance of France. + +Or again, difference in the marriage age in different classes within a +given community has very notable consequences, as Sir Francis Galton +showed in his book, "Hereditary Genius," and later, in more detail, in +his "Inquiries into Human Faculty." He shows that, other things being +equal, the earlier marrying class or group will in a few generations +breed down the others and completely supplant them. If the natural +quality of the one class differ from that of the other, the ultimate +consequences will be tremendous. It has been proved up to the hilt that +in Great Britain these differences in marriage in different classes +exist, and that, on the whole, the marriage age varies directly as the +means of support for the children, to say nothing of natural and +transmissible differences in different classes. One can only, therefore, +repeat what was said some time ago in contribution to a public +discussion on this subject that, "considering the present distribution +of the birth-rate, nothing strikes a more direct blow at the future of +England than that which tends to increase the marriage age of the +responsible, careful, and provident amongst us whilst the improvident +and careless multiply as they do." + +Let us now consider another possible factor in this question, and then +we must proceed to look at the individual woman as the question of the +marriage age affects her. + +_The Marriage Age and the Quality of the Children._--Both from the point +of view of the race and from that of the individual who desires happy +parenthood it is necessary to learn, if possible, how the age of the +parents affects the quality of their offspring. If motherhood is to be a +joy and a blessing, the children must be such as bring joy and blessing. +My provisional judgment on this matter is that we are at present without +anything like conclusive evidence proving that the age of the parents +affects the quality of their children. + +Let us look at some of the arguments which have been advanced. The +school of biometricians, represented most conspicuously in latter years +by Professor Karl Pearson, have desired us to accept certain conclusions +which are singularly incompatible with the opinion of their illustrious +founder, Sir Francis Galton, in favour of early marriages among those of +sound stock. By their special procedure, as rigorously critical in the +statistical treatment of _data_ as it is sweetly simple in its innocent +assumption that all _data_ are of equal value, they have proposed to +show that the elder members of a family are further removed from the +normal, average, or mean type than the younger members. This, according +to them, may sometimes work out in the production of great ability or +genius in the eldest or elder members, but oftener still shows itself in +highly undesirable characters, whether of mind or of body, the latter +often leading to premature decease. There is hence inferred a powerful +argument against the limitation of families, which means a +disproportionate increase amongst the aberrant members of the +population. + +This argument really offers as good an example as can be desired of the +almost unimaginable ease with which these skilful mathematicians allow +themselves to be confused. Their inquiry has ignored the age of the +parents at marriage--or, better still, at the births of their respective +children--and has assumed that the number of the family was the +all-important point: a good example of that idolatry of number as number +which is the "freak religion" of the biometrician. Supposing that the +conclusion reached by this method be a true one--which it would need +more credulity than I possess to assert--we must conclude that, somehow, +primogeniture, as such, affects the quality of the offspring, and, on +the other hand, that to be born fifth or tenth or fifteenth involves +certain personal consequences of a special kind. Evidently we here +approach less sophisticated forms of number-worship, as that which +attached a superstitious meaning to the seventh son of a seventh son. + +It seems, therefore, necessary to point out--surprising though the +necessity be--that, if the biometrical conclusion be valid, what it +demonstrates must surely be not the occult working of certain changes in +the germ-plasm, for instance, of a father, because a certain number of +his germ-cells, after separation from his body, have gone to form new +individuals (changes which would not have occurred if those germ-cells +had perished!), but rather a correlation between the _age_ of the +parents and the quality of their offspring. How cleverly the +biometricians have involved one muddle within another will be evident +not only from considering the evident absurdity of supposing--as their +argument, analyzed, necessarily supposes--that a man's body can be +affected by the diverse fates of germ-cells that have left it, but also +when we observe that one of the commonest and most obvious causes of the +reduction in the size of families is the increasing age at marriage of +both sexes. Two persons may thus marry and become parents at the age of +say thirty, their child ranking as first-born, of course, in the +biometricians' tables; but had they married ten years sooner, a child +born when the parents were thirty might rank as the tenth child, and +would be so reckoned by the biometricians. One does not need to be a +biologist to perceive that conclusions based upon assumptions so +uncritical are worth nothing at all, and it is tempting to suggest that +the biometricians are so called, on a principle long famous, because +they measure everything but life. + +It is plainly unnecessary, therefore, for us to trouble about collecting +the innumerable instances where children late in the family sequence +have turned out to be illustrious, or have proved to be idiots. It is +unnecessary because the most obvious criticism of the contention before +us disposes of the proof upon which it is sought to be based. +Nevertheless, of course, though the particular contention about the size +of the family must necessarily be meaningless, unless, as is so very +improbable, it should be shown some day that the bearing of children +affects the maternal organism in some way so as to cause subsequent +children to approximate ever nearer to the type of the race; yet it is +quite conceivable, though quite unproved, that the age of the parents +involves changes in the body which affect, for good or for evil, either +the construction or the general vigour of the germ-cells. As to this +nothing is known, but a great weight of evidence suggests that little +importance, if any, can be attached to this question. Women marrying at +forty or more may give birth to splendid specimens of humanity or to +indifferent ones, and the same may be said of the girl of seventeen, +though as to this more must be said. Similarly, also, it is impossible +to make any general contrasts between the offspring of fathers of +eighteen or fathers of eighty. Correlations may exist, but we know +nothing of them yet. + +Our conclusion then is that, with regard to the quality of the children +of any given mother, we cannot say that she should marry at any +particular age, within limits, rather than another. On the other hand, +it is evident that if she be highly worthy of motherhood we shall desire +her to have a large family, and therefore must encourage her early +marriage, as the late Sir Francis Galton so long maintained. + +_Physical Fitness for Marriage._--We must carefully distinguish between +the question we have just been discussing and that of the marriage age +from the mother's point of view. We shall find that the best age for +marriage, so far as this question is concerned, is neither puberty, on +the one hand, nor the average marriage age amongst civilized women, on +the other hand. + +If things were as we should like them to be, there would be a harmony +between the occurrence of puberty and fitness for marriage. But there +can be no question that the goal of evolution, which is perfect +adaptation, has not yet been attained by mankind, and indeed reason can +be given to show that the goal recedes as we advance towards it. The +practice of lower races, amongst whom the girls often marry at puberty +or before it, is much less injurious to the individual and the race than +we might suppose; but the harmony between the maternal body and the +maternal function is much less imperfect in lower races of mankind than +it is among ourselves. Just as we find that, among the lower animals, +the phenomena of motherhood are simple, easy, and almost painless, so we +find that, though owing to the erect attitude, as much cannot be said +for human beings anywhere, yet these phenomena are far less severe among +the lower races of mankind than among ourselves. The reason is to be +found in the astonishing progressive increase in the size of the human +head in the higher races. The large size of the head in adult life is +foreshadowed in its size at birth, and this it is which constitutes the +_crux_ of motherhood among the higher races. It is undoubtedly true that +the maternal body, by a process of natural selection, has been evolved +in the direction of better correspondence with, and capacity for, that +enlarged head of which civilization is the product. But at the present +stage in evolution the great function of giving birth to a human being +of high race--more especially to a boy of such a race--is graver, more +prolonged, and more hazardous than the maternal function has ever been +before. The gravity of the process has increased proportionately with +the worth of the product. + +There are yet further consequences of the development which will +convince us how important it is that we should come to right conclusions +regarding the physical fitness of girls for marriage. Even to-day, when +the work of Lord Lister has been done, and when maternity hospitals--far +more dangerous than a battlefield less than two generations ago--can +show records from year to year without the loss of a single mother, the +fact remains that several thousands of women in Great Britain alone lose +their lives every year in the discharge of their supreme duty. It is +also the case that large numbers of infants lose their lives during, or +shortly after, birth, owing to causes inherent in the conditions of +birth, and practically beyond any but the most expert control. In many +cases no skill will save the child. A considerable preponderance of the +victims are of the male sex, so that there is thus early begun that +process of higher male mortality, which is the chief cause of the female +preponderance that is so injurious to womanhood and to society. There +are thus many and weighty reasons, individual and social--reasons in the +present generation and in the next--which conduce to the importance of +discovering the best age for marriage from the physical point of view. + +We may probably accept the long-standing figures of Dr. Matthews Duncan, +one of Edinburgh's many famous obstetricians, who found that the +mortality rate in childbirth, or as a consequence of it, was lowest +among women from twenty to twenty-four years of age. Therefore it may +safely be said that, on the average, and looking at the question, for +the present, solely from this point of view, a girl of twenty-one to +twenty-two is by no means too young to marry. Of course it would be +monstrously absurd to take such a statement as this and regard it as +conclusive, even had it been communicated from on high, for any +particular case; but as an average statement it may be confidently put +forward. At this age, the all-important bones of the pelvis have reached +all the development of which they are capable. This may be accepted, +notwithstanding the fact that, especially in men, the growth of the long +bones of the limbs continues to a considerably later age. Women reach +maturity sooner than men, and the pelvis reaches its full capacity at +the age stated. Obstetricians know further that if motherhood be begun +at a considerably later date, there is less local adaptability than when +the bones and ligaments are younger. The point lies in the date of the +beginning of motherhood, for this is in general a conspicuous instance +of the adage that the first step is the most costly.[13] + +_Psychical Fitness for Marriage._--At the beginning of this chapter it +was insisted that we must carefully distinguish between physical or +physiological fitness for mating and complete fitness for +marriage--which, though it includes mating, is vastly more. Few will +question the proposition that physical fitness for marriage is reached +only some years after puberty; so complete psychical fitness for +marriage may well be later still. We should thus have a second +disharmony superposed upon the first. But, instead, when we look round +us, we may often be inclined to ask whether, for many girls and women, +the age of psychical fitness for marriage is ever reached at all; and we +have to ask ourselves how far this delay or indefinite postponement of +such fitness is due to natural conditions, or how far it is due to the +fact that we bring up our girls to be, for instance, sideboard +ornaments, as Ruskin said a generation ago. + +I believe that this disparity between the age of physical fitness for +marriage and the attainment of that outlook upon life and its duties, +without which marriage must be so perilous, is one of the most important +practical problems of our time, and that its solution is to be found in +the principle of education for parenthood, which we have already +considered at such length. It is a most serious matter that marriage +should be delayed as it is beyond the best age for the commencement of +motherhood; it is injurious to the individual and her motherhood, and +whether delay occurs, as it does, disproportionately in different cases, +or disproportionately within a nation, in the different classes of which +it is composed, the consequences, as we have seen, are of the most +stupendous possible kind. + +Yet observe what a difficulty we are faced with. Perceiving the +injurious consequences of delay in marriage--consequences which, as we +have seen, if considered only as they show themselves in the most +horrible department of pathology, would be sufficient to demand the most +urgent consideration--we may almost feel inclined to agree with the +utterly blind and deplorable doctrine too common amongst parents and +schoolmistresses, who should know so much better, that it is good to see +the young things falling in love, and that the sooner they are married +the better. Every one whose eyes are open knows how often the +consequences of such teaching and practice are disastrous; and if there +is anything which we should discourage in our present study, it is that +marriage in haste and repentance at leisure to which these blind guides +so often lead their blind victims. + +Very different, however, will the case be when the victims are no longer +blind. The condemnation of their blind guides at the present time is not +that they regard it as right and healthy that young people should mate +in their early twenties, but it is that by every means in their power, +positive and negative, these blind guides have striven to prevent the +light from reaching their victim's eyes. The day is coming, however, +when the principles of education for parenthood--for which, if for +anything, this book is a plea--will be accepted and practised, and then +the case will be very different. + +Convinced though I certainly am of the vast importance of nature or +heredity in the human constitution, I am not one of those eugenists who, +to the grave injury of their cause, declare that there are no such +things as nurture and education, in that they effect nothing; nor do I +believe it in any way inherently necessary that perhaps ten years after +puberty a girl should still be irresponsible in those matters which, +incomparably beyond all others, demand responsibility; or incapable, +with wise help or even without it, of guiding her course aright. It is +we, as I repeat for the thousandth time, who are to blame, for our +deliberate, systematic, and disastrous folly in scrupulously excluding +from her education that for which the whole of education, of any other +kind, should be regarded as the preparation. + +No one can attach more than its due importance to woman's function of +choosing the fathers of the future; rejecting the unworthy and selecting +the worthy for this greatest of human duties. It would be a most serious +difficulty for those who hold such a creed if it were that a girl's +taste and judgment could be trusted, if at all, only some years after +she had reached physical maturity for motherhood. It may be that in the +present conditions of girls' education, such right direction of this +choice as occurs, is just as likely to occur at the earlier age as at +any later one, when indeed it may happen that considerations more +worldly and prudential, less generally natural and eugenic, may come to +have greater weight. One can, therefore, only leave it to the reader's +consideration whether it is not high time that we should so seek to +prepare the girl's mind, that when her body Is ready for marriage her +mind may, if possible, be ready also to guide her towards a worthy +choice which the whole of her future life may ratify, and the life of +her descendants thereafter. + +It must be insisted again that this question has many ramifications, and +that not the least important of them are those which concern themselves +with the kinds of disease already referred to. Some enemy of God and man +once invented a phrase about the desirability of young men sowing their +wild oats, and subsequent enemies of life and the good and progress, or +perhaps mere fools, animated gramophones of a cheap pattern, have +repeated and still propagate that doctrine. It is poisonous to its core; +it never did any one any good, and has done incalculable harm. It has +blinded the eyes of hundreds of thousands of babies; it has brought +hundreds of thousands more rotten into the world. Hosts of dead men, +women, and children are its victims. It is indeed good that a man should +be a man, and not a worm on stilts; it is indeed good that women should +prefer men to be men, and that as soon as possible they should cease to +accept in marriage the feeble, the cowardly, the echoers, and the sheep. +But this is a very different thing from asserting that it is good for +young men, before marriage, to adopt a standard of morality which would +be thought shameful beyond words in their sisters, and which has all the +horrible consequences that have been alluded to, and many more. Now, +vicious though the wild oats doctrine be in itself and in its +consequences, we have to grant that there is little need of it, for +young manhood needs the insertion of no doctrines from without to +encourage it towards the satisfaction of what are in themselves natural +and healthy tendencies. Our right procedure therefore should +be--notwithstanding the unhealthy tendency of high civilization in this +respect, and notwithstanding the terrible folly, traitorous to their +sex, of those women who decry marriage, and seek to delay it--to prepare +girlhood and public opinion, and even to modify, so far as may be +necessary, economic conditions, in order that the girls who are worthy +to marry at all shall do so at the right age, and shall join themselves +for life with rightly chosen men. + +One more point may be conveniently considered here, though it is not +strictly a matter of the marriage age for girls. The point is as to the +most generally desirable age relation between husband and wife. Here, +again, we must remind ourselves that it is impossible to lay down the +law for any case, and that that is not what we are now attempting to do. + +As every one knows, there is an average disparity of some few years in +the ages of husband and wife. This may be referred probably to economic +conditions in part, and also to the fact that girlhood becomes womanhood +at a somewhat earlier age than boyhood becomes manhood. The girl is more +precocious. Thus though she be twenty and her husband twenty-three, she +is as mature. + +It is probable that the economic tendencies of the day are in the +direction of increasing this disparity, since more is demanded of the +man in the material sense, and he therefore must delay. Some authorities +consider that seniority of six or eight years on the part of the husband +constitutes the desirable average. But there are considerations commonly +ignored that should qualify this opinion in my judgment. + +It is not that science has any information regarding the consequence +upon the sex or quality of offspring of any one age ratio in marriage +rather than another. On subjects like this wild statements are +incessantly being made, and we are often told that certain consequences +in offspring follow when the husband is older than the wife, and others +when he is younger, and so forth. As to this, nothing is known, and it +is improbable that there is anything to know. But it has usually been +forgotten, so far as I am aware, that the disparity of age has a very +marked and real consequence, which is, in its turn, the cause of many +more consequences. + +We have seen that the male death-rate is higher than the female +death-rate. At all ages, whether before birth or after it, the male +expectation of life is less than the female. This is more conspicuously +true than ever now that the work of Lord Lister, based upon that of +Pasteur, has so enormously lowered the mortality in childbirth. Even +now that mortality is falling, and will rapidly fall for some time to +come, still further increasing the female advantage in expectation of +life; the more especially this applies to married women. If now, this +being the natural fact, we have most husbands older than their wives, +it follows that in a great preponderance of cases the husband will die +first; and so we have produced the phenomenon of widowhood. The greater +the seniority of the husband, the more widowhood will there be in a +society. Every economic tendency, every demand for a higher standard of +life, every aggravation for the struggle for existence, every increment +of the burden of the defective-minded, tending to increase the man's age +at marriage, which, on the whole, involves also increasing his +seniority--contributes to the amount of widowhood in a nation. + +We therefore see that, as might have been expected, this question of the +age ratio in marriage, though first to be considered from the average +point of view of the girl, has a far wider social significance. First, +for herself, the greater her husband's seniority, the greater are her +chances of widowhood, which is in any case the destiny of an enormous +preponderance of married women. But further, the existence of widowhood +is a fact of great social importance because it so often means unaided +motherhood, and because, even when it does not, the abominable economic +position of woman in modern society bears hardly upon her. It is not +necessary to pursue this subject further at the present time. But it is +well to insist that this seniority of the husband has remoter +consequences far too important to be so commonly overlooked. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FIRST NECESSITY + + +At this stage in our discussion it is necessary to consider a subject +which ought rightly to come foremost in the provident study of the facts +that precede marriage--a subject which craven fear and ignorance combine +to keep out of sight, yet which must now see the light of day. For the +writer would be false to his task, and guilty of a mere amateur trifling +with the subject, who should spend page after page in discussing the +choice of marriage, the best age for marriage, and so forth, without +declaring that as an absolutely essential preliminary it is necessary +that the girl who mates shall at least, whatever else be or be not +possible, mate with a man who is free from gross and foul disease. + +The two forms of disease to which we must refer are appalling in their +consequences, both for the individual and the future. In technical +language they are called contagious; meaning that the infection is +conveyed not through the air as, say, in the case of measles or +small-pox, but by means of contact with some infected surface--it may be +a lip in the act of kissing, a cup in drinking, a towel in washing, and +so forth. Of both these terrible diseases this is true. They therefore +rank, like leprosy, as amongst the most eminently preventable diseases. +Leprosy has in consequence been completely exterminated in England, but +though venereal disease--the name of the two contagions considered +together--diminishes, it is still abundant everywhere and in all classes +of society. Here regarding it only from the point of view of the girl +who is about to mate, I declare with all the force of which I am capable +that, many and daily as are the abominations for which posterity will +hold us up to execration, there is none more abominable in its immediate +and remote consequences, none less capable of apology than the daily +destruction of healthy and happy womanhood, whether in marriage or +outside it, by means of these diseases. At all times this is horrible, +and it is more especially horrible when the helpless victim is destroyed +with the blessing of the Church and the State, parents and friends; +everyone of whom should ever after go in sackcloth and ashes for being +privy to such a deed. + +The present writer, for one, being a private individual, the servant of +the public, and responsible to no body smaller than the public, has long +declined and will continue to decline to join the hateful conspiracy of +silence, in virtue of which these daily horrors lie at the door of the +most honoured and respected individuals and professions in the +community. More especially at the doors of the Church and the medical +profession there lies the burden of shame that, as great organized +bodies having vast power, they should concern themselves, as they daily +do, with their own interests and honour, without realizing that where +things like these are permitted by their silence, their honour is +smirched beyond repair in whatever Eyes there be that regard. + +I propose therefore to say in this chapter that which at the least +cannot but have the effect of saving at any rate a few girls somewhere +throughout the English-speaking world from one or other or both of these +diseases, and their consequences. Let those only who have ever saved a +single human being from either syphilis or gonorrh[oe]a dare to utter a +word against the plain speaking which may save one woman now. + +The task may be much lightened by referring the reader to a play by the +bravest and wisest of modern dramatists, M. Brieux, more especially +because the reader of "Les Avariés" will be enabled to see the sequence +of causation in its entirety. When first our attention is called to +these evils, we are apt to blame the individuals concerned. The parents +of youths, finding their sons infected, will blame neither their guilty +selves nor their sons, but those who tempted them. It is constantly +forgotten that the unfortunate woman who infected the boy was herself +first infected by a man. Either she was betrayed by an individual +blackguard, or our appalling carelessness regarding girlhood, and the +economic conditions which, for the glory of God and man, simultaneously +maintain Park Lane and prostitution, forced her into the circumstances +which brought infection. But she was once as harmless and innocent as +the girl child of any reader of this book; and it was man who first +destroyed her and made her the instrument of further destruction. + +Ask how this came to be so, and the answer is that he in his turn was +infected by some woman. + +It is time, then, that we ceased to blame youth of either sex, and laid +the onus where it lies--upon the shoulders of older people, and more +especially upon those who by education and profession, or by the +functions they have undertaken, such as parenthood, ought to know the +facts and ought to act upon their knowledge. It is necessary to proceed, +therefore: though perfectly aware that in many ways this chapter will +have to be paid for by the writer: that he has yet to meet the eye of +his publisher; that there will be abundance of abuse from those "whose +sails were never to the tempest given": but aware also that in time to +come those few who dared speak and take their chance in this matter, +whether remembered or not, will have been the pioneers in reforming an +abuse which daily makes daylight hideous. He who does betray the future +for fear of the present should tread timidly upon his Mother Earth lest +he awake her to gape and bury her treacherous son. + +Something is known by the general public of the individual consequences +of syphilis. It is known by many, also, that there is such a thing as +hereditary syphilis--babies being born alive but rotted through for +life. Further, it is not at all generally known, though the fact is +established, that of the comparatively few survivors to adult life from +amongst such babies, some may transmit the disease even to the third +generation. There is a school of so-called moralists who regard all this +as the legitimate and providential punishment for vice, even though ten +innocent be destroyed for one guilty. Such moralists, more loathsome +than syphilis itself, may be left in the gathering gloom to the company +of their ghastly creed. Love and man and woman are going forward to the +dawn, and if they inherit from the past no God that is fit to be their +companion, they and the Divine within them will not lose heart. + +The public knowledge of syphilis, though far short of the truth, is not +merely so inadequate as that of gonorrh[oe]a. + +"No worse than a bad cold" is the kind of lie with which youth is +fooled. The disease may sometimes be little worse than a bad cold in +men, though very often it is far more serious; it may kill, may cause +lasting damage to the coverings of the heart and to the joints, and +often may prevent all possibility of future fatherhood. + +These evils sink almost into insignificance when compared with the far +graver consequences of gonorrh[oe]a in woman. Our knowledge of this +subject is comparatively recent, being necessarily based upon the +discovery of the microbe that causes the disease. Now that it can be +identified, we learn that a vast proportion of the illnesses and +disorders peculiar to women have this cause, and it constantly leads to +the operations, now daily carried out in all parts of the world, which +involve opening the body, and all that that may entail. Curable in its +early stages in men, gonorrh[oe]a is scarcely curable in women except +by means of a grave abdominal operation, involving much risk to life and +only to be undertaken after much suffering has failed to be met by less +drastic means. The various consequences of gonorrh[oe]a in other parts +of the body may and do occur in women as in men. Perhaps the most +characteristic consequence of the disease in both sexes is sterility; +this being much more conspicuously the case in women, and being the more +cruel in their case. + +Of course large numbers of women are infected with these diseases before +marriage and apart from it, but one or both of them constitute the most +important of the bridegroom's wedding presents, in countless cases every +year, all over the world. The unfortunate bride falls ill after +marriage; she may be speedily cured; very often she is ill for life, +though major surgery may relieve her; and in a large number of cases she +goes forever without children. One need scarcely refer to the remoter +consequences of syphilis to the nervous system, including such diseases +as locomotor ataxia, and general paralysis of the insane; the latter of +which is known to be increasing amongst women. Even in these few words, +which convey to the layman no idea whatever of the pains and horrors, +the shocking erosion of beauty, the deformities, the insanities, +incurable blindness of infants, and so forth, that follow these +diseases, enough will yet have been said to indicate the importance of +what is to follow. Medical works abound in every civilized language +which, especially as illustrated either by large masses of figures or by +photographs of cases, will far more than justify to the reader +everything that has been said. + +And now for the whole point of this chapter. We are not here concerned +to deal with prostitution or its possible control. We are dealing with +girlhood before marriage and in relation to marriage, and the plea is +Goethe's--for _more light_. There is no need to horrify or scandalize or +disgust young womanhood, but it is perfectly possible in the right way +and at the right time to give instruction as to certain facts, and +whilst quite admitting that there are hosts of other things which we +must desire to teach, I maintain that this also must we do and not leave +the others undone. It is untrue that it is necessary to excite morbid +curiosity, that there is the slightest occasion to give nauseous or +suggestive details, or that the most scrupulous reticence in handling +the matter is incompatible with complete efficiency. Such assertions +will certainly be made by those who have done nothing, never will do +anything, and desire that nothing shall be done; they are nothing, let +them be treated as nothing. + +It is supposed by some that instruction in these matters must be useless +because, in point of fact, imperious instincts will have their way. It +is nonsense. Here, as in so many other cases, the words of Burke are +true--Fear is the mother of safety. It is always the tempter's business +to suggest to his victim that there is no danger. Often and often, if +convinced there is danger, and danger of another kind than any he refers +to, she will be saved. This may be less true of young men. In them the +racial instinct is stronger, and perhaps a smaller number will be +protected by fear, but no one can seriously doubt that the fear born of +knowledge would certainly protect many young women. + +There is also the possible criticism, made by a school of moralists for +whom I have nothing but contempt so entire that I will not attempt to +disguise it, who maintain that these are unworthy motives to which to +appeal, and that the good act or the refraining from an evil one, +effected by means of fear, is of no value to God. In the same breath, +however, these moralists will preach the doctrine of hell. We reply that +we merely substitute for their doctrine of hell--which used to be +somewhere under the earth, but is now who knows where--the doctrine of a +hell upon the earth, which we wish youth of both sexes to fear; and that +if the life of this world, both present and to come, be thereby served, +we bow the knee to no deity whom that service does not please. + +How then should we proceed? + +It seems to me that instruction in this matter may well be delayed until +the danger is near at hand. This is not really education for parenthood +in the more general sense. That, on the principles of this book, can +scarcely begin too soon; it is, further, something vastly more than mere +instruction, though instruction is one of its instruments. But here what +we require is simply definite instruction to a definite end and in +relation to a definite danger. At some stage or other, before emerging +into danger, youth of both sexes must learn the elements of the +physiology of sex, and must be made acquainted with the existence and +the possible results of venereal disease. A father or a teacher may +very likely find it almost impossible to speak to a boy; even though he +has screwed his courage up almost to the sticking place, the boy's +bright and innocent eyes disarm him. Unfortunately boys are often less +innocent than they look. There exists far more information among youth +of both sexes than we suppose; only it is all coloured by pernicious and +dangerous elements, the fruit of our cowardice and neglect. Let us +confine ourselves to the case of the girl. + +Before a girl of the more fortunate classes goes out into society, she +must be protected in some way or another. If she be, for instance, +convent bred, or if she come from an ideal home, it may very well be and +often is that she needs no instruction whatever, because she is in fact +already made unapproachable by the tempter. Fortunate indeed is such a +girl. But those forming this well-guarded class are few, and parents and +guardians may often be deceived and assume more than they are entitled +to. At any rate, for the vast majority of girls some positive +instruction is necessary. It is the mother who must undertake this +responsible and difficult task before she admits the girl to the perils +of the world. Further, by some means or other, instruction must be +afforded for the ever-increasing army of girls who go out to business. +It is to me a never ceasing marvel that loving parents, devoted to their +daughters' welfare, should fail in this cardinal and critical point of +duty, so constantly as they do. + +Many employers of female labour nowadays show a genuine and effective +interest in the welfare of their employees. As one might expect, this +is notably the case with the Quaker manufacturers of chocolate and +cocoa. I have visited the works of one of these firms, and can testify +to the splendidly intelligent and scrupulous care which is taken of the +girls' general health, their eye-sight, their reading, and many aspects +of their moral welfare. Yet there still remains something to be done in +regard to protection from venereal disease, and surely the suggestion +that conscientious employers should have instruction given in these +matters is one which is well worthy of consideration. + +It is known by all observers--but it is a very meagre "all"--of the +realities of politics that in Great Britain, at any rate, there is an +increase of drinking amongst women and girls. This is doubtless in +considerable measure due to the increase of work in factories, and the +greater liberty enjoyed by adolescence--liberty too often to become +enslaved. This bears directly upon our present subject. In a very large +number of cases, the first lapse from self-restraint in young people of +both sexes occurs under the influence of alcohol, the most pre-eminent +character of whose action upon the nervous system is the paralysis of +inhibition or control. Not only is alcohol responsible in this way, but +also in any given case it renders infection more probable for more +reasons than one. This abominable thing--in itself the immediate cause +of many evils and, except as a fuel for lifeless machines and for +industrial purposes, of no good--is thus the direct ally of the venereal +diseases as of consumption and many more. We must return to this +important subject later: meanwhile let it be noted that the influence +of alcohol upon youth of both sexes greatly favours not only immorality +but also venereal disease. The girl, therefore, who would protect +herself directly will avoid this thing, and the girl who desires that +neither she nor her children shall be destroyed after marriage, will +exact from the man she chooses the highest possible standard of conduct +in this matter. A friendly critic has told me that my books would be all +very well, but that I have alcohol on the brain, and I am inclined to +reply, Better on the brain than in the brain. But a subject so serious +demands more serious treatment, and the due reply is that there is no +human prospect for which I care, no public advantage to be advocated, no +good I know, of which alcohol is not the enemy; no abomination, +physical, mental or moral, individual or social, of which it is not the +friend. Further, words like these will stand on record, and may be +remembered when there has been achieved that slow but irresistible +education of public opinion, to which some few have devoted themselves, +and of which the triumph is as certain as the triumph of all truth was +in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. To the many charges against +alcohol made by the champions of life in the past, let there be added +that on which all students of venereal diseases are agreed--that it is +the most potent ally of the most loathsome evils that afflict mankind. + +This chapter is not yet complete. In many cases it may be read not by +the girl who is contemplating marriage, but by one or both of her +parents. If the reader be such an one I here charge him or her with the +solemn responsibility which is theirs whether they realize it or not. +You desire your daughter's welfare; you wish her to be healthy and happy +in her married life; perhaps your heart rejoices at the thought of +grand-children; you concern yourself with your prospective son-in-law's +character, with his income and prospects; you wish him to be steady and +sober; you would rather that he came of a family not conspicuous for +morbid tendencies. All this is well and as it should be; yet there is +that to be considered which, whilst it is only negative, and should not +have to be considered at all, yet takes precedence of all these other +questions. If the man in question is tainted with either or both of +these diseases, he is to be _summarily rejected_ at any rate until +responsible and, one may suggest, at least duplicated medical opinion +has pronounced him cured. Microscopic examination of the blood or +otherwise can now pronounce on this matter with much more definiteness +than used to be possible. But even so, there are possibilities of error, +for experts are more and more coming to recognize the existence and the +importance of latent gonorrh[oe]a, devoid of characteristic symptoms but +yet liable to wake in the individual and always dangerous from the point +of view of infection. No combination of advantages is worth the dust in +the balance when weighed against either of these diseases in a +prospective son-in-law: infection is not a matter of chance but of +certainty or little short of it. Everything may seem fair and full of +promise, yet there may be that in the case which will wreck all in the +present; not to mention destroying the chance of motherhood or bringing +rotten or permanently blinded children into the world. + +It follows, therefore, that parents or guardians are guilty of a grave +dereliction of duty if they neglect to satisfy themselves in time on +this point. Doubtless, in the great majority of cases no harm will be +done. But in the rest irreparable harm is often done, and the innocent, +ignorant girl who has been betrayed by father and mother and husband +alike, may turn upon you all, perhaps on her death-bed, perhaps with the +blasted future in her arms, and say "This is _your_ doing: behold your +deed." + + "_But if ye could and would not_, oh, what plea, + Think ye, shall stead you at your trial, when + The thunder-cloud of witnesses shall loom, + With Ravished Childhood on the seat of doom + At the Assizes of Eternity?" + +These pages may disgust or offend nine hundred and ninety-nine readers +out of a thousand. They may yet save one girl, and will have justified +themselves. + +One final word may be added on the relation of this subject to Eugenics, +to which this pen and voice have been for many years devoted. The +subject of venereal disease is one of which we Eugenists, like the rest +of the world, fight shy; yet just because the rest of the world does so, +we should not. Nevertheless I mean to see to it that this subject +becomes part of the Eugenic campaign which will yet dominate and mould +the future. For surely the present spectacle has elements in it which +would be utterly farcical if they were not so tragic. Here we have life +present and life to come being destroyed for lack of knowledge. These +horrible diseases, ravaging the guilty and the innocent, equally and +indifferently, are at present allowed to do so with scarcely a voice +raised against them. Every day husbands infect their wives, who have no +kind of protection or remedy, and the wicked, grinning face of the law +looks on, and says "She is his wife; all is well." If we had courage +instead of cowardice--the capital mark of an age that has no organ voice +but many steam whistles--we could accelerate incalculably the gradual +decrease of these diseases. The body of eugenic opinion which is being +made and multiplied might succeed in allying the Church and Medicine and +the Law, with splendid and lasting effect. But we spend thousands of +pounds in estimating correlations between hair colour and +conscientiousness, fertility and longevity, stature and the number of +domestic servants, and so forth, meanwhile protesting against too hasty +attempts to guide public opinion on these refined matters; and this +tremendous eugenic reform, which awaits the emergence of some courage +somewhere, is left altogether out of account. There was no allusion to +the existence of venereal disease, far and away the most appalling of +what I have called dysgenic forces, in any official eugenic publication +until April, 1909, when in the Eugenics Review we dared to make a +cautious and half-ashamed beginning; half-ashamed to stand up against +syphilis and gonorrh[oe]a. When one thinks of the things that we are not +ashamed to do, as individuals or as nations, it is to reflect that +perhaps we have "let the tiger die" too utterly, and that just as woman +is ceasing to be a mammal, man is perhaps ceasing to be even a +vertebrate. Is there no Archbishop or Principal of a University or Chief +Justice or popular novelist or preacher or omnipotent editor, boasting a +backbone still, who will serve not only his day and generation but all +future days and generations, by devoting himself and his powers to this +long-delayed campaign wherein, if it be but undertaken, success is +certain, and reward so glorious?[14] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ON CHOOSING A HUSBAND + + +Brief reference was made in a previous chapter to woman's great function +of choosing the fathers of the future. Here we must discuss, at due +length, her choice of a companion for life. It is repeatedly argued, by +critics of any new idea, that the eugenist, in his concern for the race, +is blind to the natural interests and needs of the individual; that "we +are all to be married to each other by the police," as an irresponsible +jester has declared; that the sanctities of love are to be profaned or +its imperatives defied. Even serious and responsible persons assume that +there is here a necessary antagonism between the interests of the race +and those of the individual,--that the girl would, presumably, choose +one man to be her love and companion and partner for life, but another +man as the father of her children. There are those whom it always +rejoices to discover what they regard as antinomies and contradictions +in Nature, and they verily prefer to suppose that there is in things +this inherent viciousness, which sets eternal war between one set of +obligations, one set of ideals, and another. But Nature is not made +according to the pattern of our misunderstandings. + +We have seen that all individuals are constructed by Nature for the +future. We are certainly right to regard them as also ends in +themselves, but Nature conceived and fashioned them with reference to +the future. In so far as marriage has a natural sanction and +foundation--than which nothing is more certain--we may therefore expect +to discover that the interests of the individual and of the race are +indeed one. In a word, the man who is most worthy to be chosen as a +father of the future is always the most worthy and, in the overwhelming +majority of cases, is also the most individually suitable, to be chosen +as a partner and companion for life. Let the girl choose wisely and well +for her own sake and in her own interests. If, indeed, she does so, the +future will be almost invariably safeguarded. + +Of course it is to be understood that we are here discussing general +principles. Everyone knows that cases exist, and must continue to exist, +where an opposition between the interests of the race and those of the +individual cannot be denied. Some utterly unsuspected hereditary strain +of insanity, for instance, may show itself or be discovered in the +ancestry of an individual to whom a member of the opposite sex has +already become devoted. I fully admit the existence of such exceptions, +but it must be insisted that they are exceptions, and that they do not +at all invalidate the general truth that if a girl really chooses the +best man, she is choosing the best father for her children. + +It is when the girl chooses for something other than natural quality +that the future is liable to be betrayed. But the point to be insisted +upon is that it is far more worth her while to choose for natural +quality than for any other considerations. The argument of this chapter +is that it will not in the long run be worth the girl's while to be +beguiled by a man's money, his position or his prospects, since all of +these, without the one thing needful, will ultimately fail her. + +The truth is that very few girls realize how intimate and urgent and +inevitable and unintermittent are the conditions of married life. It +requires imagination, of course, to understand these things without +experience. A girl observes a friend who has made what is called "a good +marriage"; she goes to the friend's house, and sees her the triumphant +mistress of a large establishment; she sees her friend at the theatre, +meets her escorted by her husband at this place and that; hears of her +holidays abroad, covets her jewelry, and she thinks how delightful it +must be. She knows nothing at all of the realities; she sees only +externals, and she is misled. Whenever thus misled she is beguiled into +marrying a man for any other reason than that his personal qualities +compel her love, it is her seniors who are to blame for not having +enlightened her. Such a girl shall be enlightened if her eyes fall on +these pages. + +Happiness does not consist in external things at all. This is not to +deny that external things may largely contribute to happiness if its +primal conditions be first satisfied. Failing those primal conditions, +externals are a mockery and a burden. In the case of the vast majority +of married people we see only what they choose that we shall see. +Almost everyone is concerned with keeping up appearances. Things may be +and very often are what they appear, but very often they are not. Any +woman of nice feeling is very much concerned to keep up appearances in +the matter of her marriage. A few or none may guess her secret, but +whatever we see, it is what we do not see--no matter how close our +friendship may be--that determines the success or failure of marriage. +The moments that really count are just those which we do not witness, +and such moments are many in married life, or should be. If the marriage +is what it ought to be, there is a vital communion, grave and gay, which +occupies every available part of life. Only the persons immediately +concerned really know how much of this they have or, if they have it +not, what they have in its place. But we may be well assured that, as +every married person knows, it is the personal qualities that matter +everything in this most intimate sphere of life, and naught else matters +at all. When the girl marries so as to become possessed of any and every +kind of external advantage, but there is that in the man which is +unlovely or which she, at any rate, cannot love, her marriage will +assuredly be a failure. As we have occasion to observe every day, she +will be glad to jump at any chance of sacrificing all externals, where +essentials thus fail her. + +This is only to preach once again the simple doctrine that a girl is to +marry a man not for what he has but for what he is. If, as a eugenist, I +am thinking at this time as much of the future as of the present, the +advice is none the less trustworthy. It is certain that this advice is +no less necessary than it ever was. Everyone knows how the standard of +luxury has risen during the last few decades, both in England and in the +United States. All history lies if this be not an evil omen for any +civilization. It means, among other things, that more effectively than +ever the forces of suggestion and imitation and social pressure are +being brought to bear, to vitiate the young girl's natural judgment, +deceiving her into the supposition that these things which seem to make +other people so happy are the first that must be sought by her. If only +she had the merest inkling of what the doctor and the lawyer and the +priest could tell her about the inner life of many of the owners of +these well-groomed and massaged faces! We hear much of the failure of +marriage, but surely the amazing thing is its measure of success under +our careless and irresponsible methods. For happily married people do +not require intrigues nor divorces, nor do they furnish subject matter +for scandal. It is because people do not marry for their personal +qualities, but for things which, personal qualities failing, will soon +turn to dust and ashes in their mouths, that their disappointed lives +seek satisfaction in all these unsatisfactory and imperfect ways. As we +all know, social practice differs in say, France and England, in such +matters as this; and there are those who tell us that the method whereby +natural inclinations are ignored is highly successful, and has just as +much to be said for it as has the more specially Anglo-Saxon method of +allowing the young people to choose each other. It is incomprehensible +how any observer of contemporary France, its divorce rate and its +birth-rate, can uphold such a contention. On the contrary, we may be +more and more convinced that Nature knows her business, and that +marriage, which is a natural institution, should be based, in each case, +upon her indications. + +There is need here for a reform which is more radical and fundamental +than any that can be named, just because it deals with our central +social institution, and concerns the natural composition and qualities +of the next generation. I mean that reform in education which will +direct itself towards rightly moulding and favouring the worthy choice +of each other by young people, and especially the worthy choice of men +by women. It will further come to be seen that everything which vitiates +this choice--as, for instance, the economic dependence of women, great +excess of women in a community, the inheritance of large fortunes--is +ultimately to be condemned on that final ground, if on no other. + +But whilst these sociological propositions may be laid down, let us see +what can be said in the present state of things by way of advice to the +girl into whose hands this book may fall. Perhaps it may be permitted to +use the more direct form of address. + +You may have been told that where poverty comes in at the door, love +flies out at the window.[15] You may have heard it said that so and so +has made a good marriage because her husband has a large income. You may +be inclined to judge the success of marriage by what you see. I warn you +solemnly that the worth or unworth of your marriage, the success or +failure of your life will depend, far more than upon all other things +put together, upon the personal qualities of the man you choose. + +If these be not good in themselves, your marriage will fail, certainly; +even if they be good in themselves your marriage will fail, probably, +unless they also be nicely adapted to your own character and tastes and +temperament and needs. There are thus two distinct requirements; the +first absolutely cardinal, the second very nearly so. You are utterly +wrong if you suppose that the first of these can be ignored: if your +husband is not a worthy man, you are doomed. And you are almost +certainly wrong if you suppose that lack of community in tastes and in +interests, in objects of admiration and adoration does not matter. But +let us consider what are the factors of the man for which a girl _does_ +choose. + +For what, if it comes to that, does a man choose? Here is Herbert +Spencer's reply to that question:--"The truth is that out of the many +elements uniting in various proportions, to produce in a man's breast +the complex emotion we call love, the strongest are those produced by +physical attractions; the next in order of strength are those produced +by moral attractions; the weakest are those produced by intellectual +attractions; and even these are dependent less on acquired knowledge +than on natural faculty--quickness, wit, insight." It will probably be +agreed that, on the whole, this analysis, which is certainly true in the +direction it refers to, is also true in the converse direction. The girl +admires a man for physical qualities, including what may be called the +physical virtues, like energy and courage. She rates highly certain +moral attractions, such as unselfishness and chivalry, but perhaps she +attaches far more value to intellectual attractions than the man does in +her case, doubtless because they are more distinctively masculine. + +No doubt, in this order of importance both sexes are consulting the +eugenic end if they knew it, as Spencer, indeed, pointed out nearly half +a century ago. The passage from which we have quoted he thus +continues:-- + + "If any think the assertion a derogatory one, and inveigh against + the masculine character for being thus swayed, we reply that they + little know what they say when they thus call in question the + Divine ordinations. Even were there no obvious meaning in the + arrangement, we may be sure that some important end was subserved. + But the meaning is quite obvious to those who examine. When we + remember that one of Nature's ends, or rather her supreme end, is + the welfare of posterity; further that, in so far as posterity are + concerned, a cultivated intelligence based on a bad physique is of + little worth, since its descendants will die out in a generation or + two: and conversely that a good _physique_, however poor the + accompanying mental endowments, is worth preserving, because, + throughout future generations, the mental endowments may be + indefinitely developed; we perceive how important is the balance of + instincts above described." + +But here it will be well to consider and meet a possible criticism. This +is none the less necessary because there is a very common type of mind +which listens to the enunciation of principles not in order to grasp +them, but in order to point out exceptions. Such people forget that +before one can profitably observe exceptions to a principle or a natural +law it is necessary first of all to know rightly and wholly what the +principle is. Now in this particular case our principle is that the +cause of the future must not be betrayed, and the essential argument of +this chapter is that faithfulness to the cause of the future does not +involve, as is commonly supposed, any denial of the interests of the +present, since, as I maintain, he who is best worth choosing as a +partner for life is in general best worth choosing as a father of the +future. + +Now what one must here reckon with is the existence of individual +cases,--much commoner doubtless in the imagination of critics than in +reality, but nevertheless worthy of study--where a man may gain a +woman's love of the real kind and may return it, and yet may be unfit +for parenthood. The converse case is equally likely, but here we are +concerned especially with the interests of the woman. She is, shall we +say, a nurse in a sanatorium for consumptives or, to suppose a case more +critical and complicated still, she may herself be a patient in such a +sanatorium. There she meets another patient with whom she falls in love. +Now these two may be well fitted to make each other happy for so long as +fate permits, but if the interests of the future are to be considered +they should not become parents. I must not be taken as here assenting +to the old view, dating from a time when nothing was known of the +disease, which regards consumption as hereditary. It is evident that +quite apart from that question the couple of whom we are thinking should +not become parents. It is possible that the disease may be completely +cured, and the situation will then be altered. But only too often the +patient's life will be much shortened and children will be left +fatherless; they also in certain circumstances will run a grave risk of +being infected by living with consumptive parents. If in the case we are +supposing the woman be also consumptive, it is extremely probable that +motherhood on her part would aggravate and hasten the course of the +disease, it being well-known that pregnancy has an extremely +unfavourable influence on consumption in the majority of cases. + +Many other parallel cases may be imagined. Woman's love, based perhaps +mainly upon the maternal instinct of tenderness, may be called forth by +a man who suffers from, shall we say, hæmophilia or the bleeding +disease. He may be in every way the best of men, worthy to make any +woman happy; but if he becomes the father of a son, it will probably be +to inflict great cruelty upon his child. + +What, in a word, are we to say of such cases as these? There is here a +real opposition, as it would appear, between the interests of the +present and the interests of the future. But the answer is that, just +because, and just in so far as, human beings are provident and +responsible and worthy of the name of human beings, the opposition can +be practically solved. Not for anything must we betray the cause of the +unborn, but marriage does not necessarily involve parenthood, and the +right course--the profoundly right and deeply moral course--in such +cases as these, is marriage without parenthood. + +On every hand in the civilized world we now see childless marriages, the +number of which incessantly increases; they are an ominous symptom of +excessive luxury and other factors of decadence, if history is to be +trusted. But it is not permissible for us, without special knowledge, to +condemn individuals, whatever we may think of the phenomenon as a whole. +Yet convention and prejudice are curious things, and people who are +themselves married and deliberately childless, others of both sexes who +are unmarried, people who have never raised their voices against +themselves or their friends who, though married, are childless, because +they have little courage or because they permit compliance with +fashion's demands to stifle the best parts of their nature--such people, +I say, will actually be found to protest, with the sort of canting +righteousness which does its best to smirch the Right, against this +doctrine, _Marry, but do not have children_, as the rule of life in the +cases under discussion. Nevertheless, this is the moral doctrine; this +is the right fruit of knowledge, and knowledge will more and more be +applied to this high end, the service alike of the present and the +future. We must not allow our minds to be bullied out of just reasoning +because the possibility of marriage without parenthood is often abused. +All forms of knowledge, like all other forms of power, may be used or +may be abused. Knowledge has no moral sign attached to it, but neither +has it any immoral sign attached to it. The power to control parenthood +is neither good nor evil, but like any other power may serve either good +or evil. Dynamite may cause an explosion which buries a hundred men in a +living grave, or it may blast the rock which buries them and set them +free. The man of science is false to his creed and his cause if he +declares that there is any order of knowledge or any kind of power which +were better unknown or unavailable. For many years past we have been +told that the power to control parenthood is wicked, flying in the face +of providence, interfering with the order of Nature--as if every act +worthy of the human name were not an interference with the order of +Nature, as Nature is conceived by fools; and even to-day the churches, +violently differing from each other in the region of incomprehensibles, +are at least agreed in anathematizing the knowledge and the power to +control parenthood. The reply to them is the demonstration, here made, +of the fact that this knowledge may be used for no less splendid a +purpose than to make possible the happiness and mutual ennoblement of +individual lives in cases where otherwise such a consummation would have +been impossible without betrayal of the life of this world to come. + +There is another class of cases to which convenient reference may here +be made. The solution to be found in childless marriage, for many cases, +does not apply to those in which there is present disease due to living +organisms, microbes or protozoa which, by the mere act of drinking from +an infected cup, by kissing and so forth, may be passed from the sick to +the sound. So far as these modes of infection are concerned, such a +supposed case as that of the nurse and the consumptive patient who fall +in love with each other comes into this category. But infection of that +kind is preventable. In the case, however, of the terrible diseases to +which reference has been made in a previous chapter, we must clearly +understand that it is not only the future which is in danger, and that +therefore the solution of childless marriage does not apply. Here the +danger is irremovable from the physical _essentia_ of the marriage +itself, and in such a case, no matter how high the personal qualities of +the man who may, for instance, have been infected by accident in the +course of his duty as a doctor, even childless marriage other than the +_mariage blanc_ must be, at any rate, postponed until the disease has +been cured. + +It is to be hoped that the reader will not regard these last two points, +which have had to be dealt with at some length, as irrelevant. They are +not strictly part of the general proposition that a girl should marry a +man for his personal qualities, but they are surely necessary as +practical comments upon that proposition as it will work out in real +life. We may now return to our main contention. + +In our quotation from Herbert Spencer we may notice the significant +assertion that amongst intellectual attractions it is natural faculty, +quickness, wit and insight, rather than acquired knowledge, that a man +admires in a woman. In considering that point the somewhat hazardous +assertion was ventured upon that the woman rates intellectual +attractions in the man higher than he does in her. One has indeed heard +it stated that a man marries for beauty and a woman for brains. A +statement so brief cannot be accurate in such a case. But we may insist +upon the contrast between acquired knowledge and natural faculty. +Spencer was no doubt right in believing that man values the natural +faculty rather than the acquired knowledge. A woman no doubt does so +too. If she admires a man for being an encyclopædia, it is only, one +hopes, because she admires the natural qualities of studiousness, +perseverance and memory which his knowledge involves. Nor would she be +long in finding out whether his knowledge is digested, and the capacity +to digest it, remember, is a natural faculty. + +The reader who remembers our principle that the individual exists for +the future will not fail to see what we are driving at. Directly we +study in any critical way the causes of attraction among the sexes, we +see that under healthy conditions, unvitiated by convention or money, it +is always the inborn rather than the acquired that counts. If Spencer +had cared to pursue his point half a century ago, he had the key to it +in his hands. Youth prefers the natural to the acquired qualities. + +Nature, greatest of match-makers, has so constructed youth because she +is a Eugenist, and because she knows that it is the natural qualities +and not the acquired ones which are transmitted to offspring. + +And now it may be shown that this fact wholly consorts with our +contention that there is no antinomy between the happiness of the +individual and the happiness of the race in the marriage choice. For the +race it is only the natural qualities of its future parents that matter, +for only these are transmissible. From the strictly eugenic point of +view, therefore, the girl should be counselled to choose her mate, not +merely on the ground of his personal qualities but, more strictly still, +on the ground of those personal qualities which are natural and not +acquired. And my last point is that these qualities, which are alone of +lasting consequence to the race, alone will be of lasting consequence to +her during her married life. Veneers, acquirements, technical +facilities, knowledge of languages, encyclopædic information, elegance +of speech and even of conventional manners--all the things which, in our +rough classification, we may call acquired, may attract or please or +impress her for a time, but when the ultimate reckoning is made she will +find that they are less than the dust in the balance. I do not know how +and where to find for my words the emphasis with which it would be so +easy to endow them if, instead of addressing an unseen and strange +audience, one were counselling one's own daughter. I should say to her, +for instance, "My dear, be not deceived. He dresses elegantly, I know, +and makes himself quite nice to look at. Yet it is not his clothes that +you will have to live with, but himself; and the question is what do his +clothes mean? It is his nature that you will have to live with. What +fact of his nature do they stand for? Is it that he is vain and +selfish, preferring to spend his money upon himself and upon the +exterior of his person rather than upon others and upon the adornment of +his mind; or is it that he has fine natural taste, a sense of beauty and +harmony and quiet dignity in external things?" The answer to these +questions involves his wife's happiness. How strange that though no girl +will marry a man because she is attracted by the elegance of his false +teeth, yet she will often be deceived into admiring other things which +are just as much acquired and just as little likely to afford her +permanent satisfaction as the products of his dentist's work-room! If +only she realized that these other things, though nice to look at, are +no more himself than a well-fitting dental plate. + +Or again: "You like his talk; he strikes you as well versed in human +affairs; his knowledge of men and things impresses you; he has travelled +and can talk easily of what he has seen, and his voice is elegant and +can be heard in many tongues. But if he is going to say bitter things to +you, will the facility of his diction make them less bitter? If he is a +fool in his heart--and indeed the heart alone is the residence of folly +or wisdom--do you think that he will be a fool the less for venting his +folly in seven languages rather than in one? I quite understand your +admiring his cleverness; people who study the subject tell us, you know, +that a woman admires in a man things which are more characteristic of +men than of women, and that men's admiration of women is based upon the +same good principle. But in this bargain men have the best of it because +the most characteristic thing in woman is tenderness, and the most +characteristic thing in man is cleverness; and which do you think is the +better to live with? What is the virtue in cleverness coupled with, for +instance, a malicious tongue? What is the virtue in clever things if he +says them at your expense? The vital thing for you is, what are the uses +to which he puts his knowledge and capacities? That he knows the ways of +the world may impress you, but does he know them to admire them? And if +so, where does he stand compared with another, who is less versed and +versatile, but who, as your heart tells you, would hate the ways of the +world if he did know them?" ... + +Indeed, I seem to see that one cannot adequately write a book on +Womanhood without including in it somewhere a statement of what manhood +is and ought to be. Surely one of our duties to girlhood is to teach it +the elemental truths of manhood. Such teaching must recognize the facts +which modern psychology perceives more clearly every day, and it must +combine that knowledge with the eternal truths of morality, which are so +intensely real and practical in the great issues of life, such as this. +The great fact which modern psychology has discovered is that intellect +is less important, and emotion more important than we used to suppose; +that knowledge, as we lately observed, is non-moral, and may be for good +or for evil; that cleverness is merely cleverness, and may serve God or +mammon; that it is the nature of the man or the woman which determines +the influence and the uses of education. A girl should know something of +what I have elsewhere called the transmutation of sex as it shows itself +in the higher as distinguished from the lower types of manhood: she +should know that it is good for a youth to spend his energy in visible +ways and in the light of day; there is the less likelihood that it is +being spent otherwise. She should prefer the man who is visibly active +and who keeps his mind and body moving; she should know, as the school +boy should know, that the capacity to smoke and drink really proves +nothing as regards manhood. Doubtless there is some courage required in +learning to smoke, and so much, but it is not much, is to the smoker's +credit; but for the rest, smoking and drinking are simply forms of +self-indulgence, and though they are doubtless very excusable and are +often practised by splendid men, they are of no virtue in themselves. +Further, they are open to the fundamental objection that they lessen the +measure of a man's self-mastery. Women should set a high standard in +such matters as these. + +To take the case of smoking, very few smokers realize, in the first +place, how much money they expend. It is money which, if not spent, +would appreciably contribute to the cost of house-keeping in not a few +cases. Many a man who says he cannot afford to marry spends on tobacco +and alcohol a sum quite sufficient to turn the scale. It will be argued +that the smoking brings rest and peace, that it soothes, aids digestion, +and so forth. But the non-smoker is not in need of these assistances: +it is only the smoker who requires to smoke for these purposes. On this +point I have said, in the volume of personal hygiene which this present +work is meant to succeed, all that really requires to be said. It was +there pointed out that nicotine doubtless produces secondary products in +the blood which require a further dose of the nicotine as an antidote to +them. Thus there is initiated a vicious circle, the details of which +have been fully worked out in the case of opium, or rather, morphia. All +the good results which are obtained from smoking are essentially of the +nature of neutralizing the secondary effects of previous smoking. Here, +then, is the scientific argument for the girl's hand if she proposes to +deal with her lover on this point. + +It may be added that the writer can now quote personal experience in +favour of his advice. He smoked incessantly for fourteen years--from +seventeen to thirty-one--his quantum being five ounces in all per +week--of the strongest Egyptian cigarettes and the strongest pipe +tobacco procurable. The practice did him no observable harm whatever. +When he wrote the paragraph on "How to control one's smoking," in the +book referred to, he was only wishing that he could control his own. At +last he got disgusted with himself and stopped altogether. Personally he +is neither better nor worse, but he is buying books in proportion to the +money formerly wasted on tobacco, and perhaps the change is worth while. +The girl who reads this book may tell her lover with confidence that it +is quite possible to stop smoking, and that after a little while the +craving wholly disappears. If he has been a really confirmed, systematic +smoker, he may have a very uncomfortable three weeks after he stops, but +soon after that the time will come when he can stay in a room where +others are smoking and not even desire to join them, which he could +never have done before. He will have the advantage that he is definitely +less likely to die of cancer of the mouth, more especially cancer of the +tongue. That is a point which will affect his wife as well as himself. +He will save a quite remarkable sum of money, and since object lessons +are very valuable, he may follow the suggestion to lay it out in the +form of books, as time goes on, though perhaps my reader can give him +better advice from the point of view of the future housekeeper. + +Of course there is the point of view expressed in a poem of Mr. +Kipling's: + + "A woman is only a woman, + But a good cigar is a smoke." + +If a man takes that point of view he is not good enough for a woman, I +think; she may remember Dogberry, Take no note of him but let him go ... +and thank God she is rid of a ---- fool. + +Certainly, I am not saying anything which will be grateful to all ears, +but while we are at it, and since this book is written in the interests +of women, I must say what I believe. I counsel the girl to stop her +lover's smoking; a thousandfold more strongly would I counsel her to +stop his drinking. In a former volume on eugenics, some of the effects +of parental drinking have been dealt with at length, and that subject +need not be returned to here. But also from the point of view of the +individual, a girl may be counselled to stop her lover's drinking. An +excellent eugenic motto for a girl, as my friend Canon Horsley pointed +out in discussing my paper on this subject read before the Society for +the Study of Inebriety in 1909, is "the lips that touch liquor shall +never touch mine." + +There are always plenty of people to sneer at the teetotaler; people who +make money out of drink naturally do so; people who drink themselves +naturally do so; the unmarried girl may do so, thinking that the +teetotaler is a prig and not quite a man. _But there is one great class +of the community, the most important of all, which does not sneer at +teetotalers, and that is the wives._ They know better, nay, they know +best, and their verdict stands and will remain against that of all +others. I am now addressing the girl who may become a wife, and I tell +her most solemnly that from her point of view she cannot afford to laugh +at the teetotaler; and if she can stop her lover's drinking, whether he +drinks much or little, she will do well for him and herself. She should +know what the effect of alcohol is upon a man, and she should have +imagination enough to realize that his hot breath, coming unwelcome, +will not be more palatable in the future for its flavouring of whisky. +It may be admitted that in saying all this the interests of the future +are perhaps paramount in my mind. I am trying to do a service to the +principle, "Protect parenthood from alcohol," which I advocate as the +first and most urgent motto for the real temperance reformer. Yet the +question of parenthood may be entirely left out of consideration, and +even so the advice here given to the girl about to choose a +husband--alas, that only a small proportion of maidenhood can be in that +fortunate state, which is yet the right and natural one!--is warranted +and more than warranted. We may go so far as to declare that it is a +great duty, laid upon the young womanhood of civilization, to protect +itself and the future, and to serve its own contemporary manhood, by +taking up this attitude towards alcohol. Would that this great +missionary enterprise were now unanimously undertaken by these most +effective and cogent of missionaries, whose own happiness so largely +depends upon its success! + +Of course it should not be necessary for any man to set forth, for the +instruction of girlhood, the qualities which it should value in men. All +who train and teach girlhood and form its ideals should devote +themselves scarcely less to this than to the inculcation of high ideals +for girlhood itself; yet it is not done. We do not yet recognize the +supreme importance of the marriage choice for the present and for the +future. + +Fortunately, if Nature alone gets a fair chance, she teaches the girl +that a man should "play the game," and should not be afraid of "having a +go," that of the two classes into which, as one used to tell a little +girl, people are divided--those who "stick to it," and those who do +not--the former are the worthy for her. But Nature is specially +handicapped by stupid convention, not least in Anglo-Saxon countries, as +regards a woman's estimation of _tenderness_ in a man. The parental +instinct with its correlate emotion of tenderness, is the highest of +existing things, and though it is less characteristic of men than of +women, it is none the less supreme when men exhibit it. In days to come, +when women can choose, as they should be able to choose to-day, they may +well be counselled to use as a touchstone of their suitor's quality that +line of Wordsworth, "Wisdom doth live with children round her knees." A +man who thinks that "rot" _is_ rot, or soon will be. + +But in the minds of men and women there is a half implicit assumption +that tenderness is incompatible with manliness. "Let not women's +weapons, water-drops, stain my man's cheeks," says Lear. But it is quite +possible for a man to be manly and yet tender, and to the highest type +of women it is the combination of strength and tenderness in a man that +appeals beyond aught else. + +It has always seemed to the present writer that the followers of Christ +have done him far less than justice in insisting upon one aspect of his +character disproportionately with another. They speak of him as the +"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild "; they tend to describe him as almost or +wholly effeminate; and the representations of him in art, with small, +feminine and conspicuously un-Jewish features, with long feminine hair +and the hands of a consumptive woman, join with sacred poetry in +furthering this impression. Nothing can be truer than that he was +tender, and that he had a passion for childhood and realized, as we may +dare to say, its divinity, as only the very few in any age have done. +But this "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild," was also he whose blazing words +against established iniquity and hypocrisy constitute him the supreme +exemplar not only of love but of moral indignation, and of a sublime +invective which has been equalled not even by Dante at his highest. We +forget, perhaps, when we use such a phrase as "whited sepulchre," that +we are quoting the untamable fierceness, the courage, fatal and vital, +of the "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild," who was murdered not for loving +children, but for hating established wickedness. Why have Christians not +recognized that it is this perhaps unexampled combination of strength +and tenderness which makes their Founder worthy for all time to be +regarded as the Highest of Mankind? + +One more counsel to the girl who can choose. It is contained in the +saying of Marcus Aurelius that the worth of a man may be measured by the +worth of the things to which he devotes his life. + +We must now pass to consider the sociological fact that, under present +conditions, the sole use of this chapter for a very large proportion of +women can merely consist in suggesting to them that they are better +unmarried than married without love. It is not possible for them to +exercise the great function of choice which is theirs by natural right. +Evil and ominous of more evil are whatever facts deprive woman of this +her birthright. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE CONDITIONS OF MARRIAGE + + +In my volume introductory to Eugenics I have dealt at length with +marriage from that point of view. Here our concern is with the +individual woman, and though neither in theory nor in practice can we +entirely dissociate the question of the future from that of the +individual's needs, it is necessary here to discuss the present +conditions of marriage in the civilized world, from the woman's point of +view. We have to ask ourselves how these conditions act in selecting +women from the ranks of the unmarried; whether the transition proceeds +from random chance, or whether there is a selection in certain definite +directions, and if so, what directions? We have to ask whether different +women would pass into the ranks of the married if the conditions of +marriage were other than they are; and we shall assuredly arrive at the +principle that whatever changes are necessary in the conditions of +marriage, so that the best women shall become the mothers of the future, +must be and will be effected. + +One has elsewhere argued at length that monogamy is the marriage form +which has prevailed and will be maintained because of its superior +survival-value--in other words, because it best serves the interests of +the future. But what of the individual in a country where there are +thirteen hundred thousand adult women in excess of men, which is the +case of Great Britain? Plainly, there is need for very serious criticism +of such an institution in such circumstances. Let the reader briefly be +reminded, then, that, as I have previously argued, Nature makes no +arrangement for such a disproportion between the sexes. More boys than +girls are indeed born, but from our infantile mortality, which is +largely a male infanticide, onwards, morbid influences are at work which +result in the disproportion already named. + +Two excellent reasons may be adduced why any disproportion in the +numbers of the sexes should be the opposite of that which now obtains. +The ideal condition, no doubt, is that of numerical equality. Failing +that, the evils of a male preponderance, though very real, are +comparatively small. For one thing, celibacy affects a woman more than a +man: men, on the whole, suffer less from being unmarried. It is a more +serious deprivation for the woman than for the man, in general, to be +debarred from parenthood. This is a proposition which we need not labour +here, for no reader will dispute its importance and its relevance. + +No less important is the economic question. Specially consecrated as she +is to the future, woman as distinctive woman is necessarily handicapped +in relation to the present. She is at an economic disadvantage. One's +blood boils at the cruel effrontery of men who protest against women's +efforts to gain an honest living, but who have never a word or a deed +against prostitution or against the causes which produce the numerical +preponderance of women. But here again our proposition, though +unfamiliar, and indeed so far as I know never yet stated, needs no +labouring--that owing to the economic opportunities of the sexes, it is, +at any rate, on that ground, of no significance that men shall be in +excess in a community, but it is of very grave significance that women +shall be in excess. It is pitiable, and indeed revolting, in this +country where the excess of women is so marked, to hear from year to +year the comments of men upon the supposed degeneration of women, upon +their unnatural selfishness, their desire to invade spheres which do not +belong to them, and so forth and so forth _ad nauseam_; whilst these +commentators are themselves hand in hand with drink, with war and with +Mammon, destroying male children of all ages in disproportionate excess, +sending our manhood to be slain in war, and sending it also in the cause +of industry--that is to say, in the cause of gold--to our colonies, as +if the culture of the racial life were not the vital industry of any +people. + +A third very important reason why a numerical preponderance of women is +more injurious to a country than a numerical preponderance of men is +that, though the duty and responsibility of selection for parenthood +devolves upon both sexes, it is normally discharged with greater +efficiency by women than by men; and a numerical preponderance of women +gravely interferes with their performance of this great function. It may +obviously be argued that such a preponderance leaves a greater choice +to the men. But I believe that men do not exercise their choice so well. +In a word, women are more fastidious; the racial instinct is weaker in +them, less rampant and less roving. In the exercise of this function +women are therefore, on the whole, naturally more capable, more +responsible, less liable to be turned aside by the demands of the +moment. In his "Pure Sociology," Professor Lester Ward has very clearly +and forcibly discussed the comparative behaviour of the two sexes in +this matter, and he shows how the great feminine sentiment, not confined +merely to the human species, is to choose the best. The principle is +also a factor in masculine action, but much less markedly so. What we +call, then, the greater fastidiousness of the female sex is a definite +sex character, and has a definite racial value, raising the standard of +fatherhood where it is allowed free play. But in a nation which contains +a great excess of women, under economic conditions which are greatly to +their disadvantage, the value of this natural fastidiousness is +practically lost. Such are the conditions in Great Britain at present +that practically any man, of however low a type, however diseased, +however unworthy for parenthood, may become a father, if he pleases. + +The natural condition suitable to monogamy being a numerical equality of +the sexes, the suggestion may obviously be made that where there is a +great excess of women, monogamy should yield to polygamy; and indeed +where there is such excess monogamy is more apparent than real--an ideal +rather than a practice. Thus we have one or two modern authors who have +installed themselves in sociology by the royal road of romance--though +even to this branch of learning, as to mathematics, there is no short +cut whatsoever, even for those whose pens are naturally skilful--authors +who tell us that, given this numerical preponderance of women, some kind +of polygamous modification of the present marriage system should +certainly be adopted. To one aspect of this contention we shall later +return. Meanwhile, the answer is that, rather than abolish monogamy, we +should strive to alter the conditions which produce such an excess of +women. If such an aim were necessarily impracticable, we might well feel +inclined to vote for polygamy rather than the present state of things. +It is a very decent alternative to prostitution. But in point of fact +our aim of equalizing the numbers of the sexes, which I assert as a +canon of fundamental politics, is eminently practicable; and here we may +briefly outline, as very relevant to the problems of womanhood, the +methods by which that aim is to be realized for the good of both sexes +in the present and the future. + +Nature gives us more than a fair start, almost as if she knew that the +wastage of male life is apt to be higher at all ages even under the best +conditions. She sends more male children into the world, as if to +secure, on the whole, an equality of the sexes in adult life. That ideal +is realizable, even allowing for a considerable excess of male deaths. +One of our duties, then, is to control that part of the male death-rate, +if any, which is controllable. To begin at the beginning, we find that +infant mortality claims our attention at once. For years past in the +campaign against infant mortality I have urged this as an apparently +somewhat remote, yet very real and important issue. Infant mortality +bears heaviest upon male babies. It is largely, as I have so often said, +a male infanticide, notably contrasting with the practice of deliberate +female infanticide which is known in so many times and places. In +lowering the infant mortality we shall reduce this disproportion of male +deaths, and shall make for the survival of a larger number of men. Bring +down the infant mortality to proper limits and we shall have in adult +life possible male partners for a large number of women who are now +without such because of the male infanticide of twenty and thirty years +ago. + +It is characteristic of the fashion in which the surface gains our +attention while the substance evades it, that the question of the +disproportion of the sexes should have been brought to the public notice +in regard to a subject which, though not unimportant, is quite secondary +compared with those which we are now discussing. Only three or four +years ago people were startled and incredulous when one told them by the +pen or in lectures that there was a very great excess of women in these +islands. Nowadays everybody knows it. This is not because people have +suddenly come to realize the fundamental importance for the State of +such matters, but simply because the fact provides an argument regarding +Woman Suffrage. This immensely important fact of female preponderance, +with its gigantic consequences, which affect every aspect of the +national life, was totally ignored by the public until, forsooth, it +became an argument against Woman Suffrage; and then the foolish people +whose voices are allowed to be heard on these complicated matters, but +who would be laughed out of court if they expressed their opinions on +other subjects equally outside their competence, told us that woman's +suffrage would mean government by women, they being in the majority. For +all other consequences of this gigantic fact they have no concern; not +even the mental capacity to grasp that it must have consequences. But +this, which happens not to be a consequence of it, they are loud to +insist upon. At any rate, they have done this service until the public +at last is acquainted with the demographic fact; and one of the +suffragist leaders some time ago publicly expressed an old argument of +the present writer's that in point of fact this grave supposed +consequence of woman's suffrage need not be feared if only for the +reason that Woman Suffrage would certainly mean increased attention to +infant mortality, and therefore increased control of the morbid causes +which at present account for female preponderance. + +It might indeed be added also that, in so far as Woman Suffrage operated +against war, it would contribute in another way to the correction of +this numerical disparity. Not the least of the many evils which have +flowed from the last hideous war in which Great Britain engaged--evils +which glass-eyed politicians have since been exploiting in the interests +of their own charlatanry--is the loss to scores of thousands of women in +this country of the complemental manhood which was destroyed by wounds +and more especially by disease in South Africa. The wickedness with +which that war was entered upon, and the criminal ignorance with which +it was mismanaged, and the elementary principles of hygiene defied, have +their consequences to-day in much of the unmated and handicapped +womanhood of Great Britain. It may be noted that polygamy as a +historical phenomenon has commonly and necessarily been associated with +militarism. Large destruction of manhood by war leads to a numerical +excess of women, and polygamy is a consequence. If the consequences in +our modern civilization are less decent than polygamy, which would +affront the beautiful minds that are unconcerned for Regent Street, +surely our duty is more strenuously than ever to combat the causes +which, as we see, are quite definitely traceable and controllable. + +The increased attention paid to the conditions of child life is of +direct service to the nation, and to womanhood in especial, by tending +to interfere with the excessive and unnecessary mortality of boys. As we +have elsewhere observed, the male organism has less vitality than the +female organism. When both sexes at any age are subjected to the same +injurious influences, more males than females die. Thus all our work +with such a measure as the Children Act, keeping children out of +public-houses, and so forth, directly serves the womanhood of the not +distant future by preserving a certain amount of manhood to keep it +company. Accepting the truth of the dictum that it is not good for man +to be alone, we have to learn the still more general and profound truth +that it is not good for woman to be alone, and, as we now learn, the +modern movement for the care of childhood has this notable consequence, +which I have been pointing out for many years and now insist upon once +again, that it makes for the greater numerical equality of the sexes in +adult life, and therefore for the relief of the many evils near and +remote which flow from the numerical excess of women. Answering the +question, "Whither are we tending?" in Christmas, 1909, Mr. G. K. +Chesterton referred to our liability to "float feebly towards every +sociological fad or novelty until we believe in some plain, cold, crude +insanity, such as keeping children out of public-houses."[16] +Considering the authority, I think this is fairly good testimony toward +the wisdom of the achievement to which some of us devoted the greater +part of three strenuous years; and if the question is to be asked +"whither are we tending," part of the answer will be that by such +measures as this for the care of child life, which means in practice +especially for the keeping alive of boys, we are tending toward the +correction of one of the gravest, though least recognized, evils of the +present day. + +Our business in the present volume is not with childhood. It is not +possible to go fully into the statistical details of the comparative +death-rate of the sexes, but the data can readily be obtained by any +interested reader.[17] + +It may be argued that the questions now under consideration are foreign +to a chapter entitled "The Conditions of Marriage," but the excess of +women in a community is one of the most fundamental conditions of +marriage therein, and the question is not the less necessary to be dealt +with because, so far as one can ascertain, its consequences have escaped +the notice of previous students. + +Having dealt with the waste of male life in infancy, in childhood and in +war, we must pass on to a totally different factor of our problem, and +that is the emigration to our colonies and elsewhere of a greatly +disproportionate number of men. One does not assert for a moment that +the men should not go, but merely that if they do, so should women also. +As everyone knows they go for many reasons and purposes. These are +largely industrial and imperial. The Civil Service claims a large +number. These bachelors go in the cause of Empire, whether as actual +servants of the State or in the interests of commerce. They are largely +picked men, capable of discipline and initiative and of withstanding +hardships; and also in large degree intellectually able. It is certainly +not good for them to be alone, and it is worse for the women whom they +leave behind. All this may seem right and the only practicable thing for +the day, but it is fundamentally wrong because it is wrong for the +morrow. + +If other needs were not so pressing, one might well devote an entire +volume, not inappropriately in these days of fiscal controversy, to the +question of vital imports and exports. Year after year passes, and +politicians in Great Britain grow more and more voracious and, if +possible, less and less veracious on the subject of what they +misunderstand by imports and exports. The subject is really one for +knowledge, not for politicians. With great ceremony at intervals, they +go through the highly superfluous performance of calling each other +liars, as who should say that Queen Anne is dead: and while this +tragical farce continues the question of vital imports and exports is +ignored. Within it there lies the key to the Irish question, for +instance, since no nation can be saved which persistently exports the +best of its life. And in this question also lies the key to a great part +of the woman question and to a great part of the colonial question. +Politicians who have not even discovered yet that trade is a process of +exchange, and who assume that in every bargain someone is being worsted, +pay no heed to the questions what sort of people leave our shores, and +what sort of people enter them. Or rather, as if in order to emphasize +their blindness to fundamentals, they make a point about passing an act +against alien immigration, which merely serves to throw into prominence +our national neglect of this great issue. This is not the time and the +place in which I can deal with it in its entirety, but it must be +referred to in so far as it bears on the proportion of the sexes. Toward +the end of 1909 there was a long correspondence in the _Times_ on the +subject of "Unmarried Daughters." One may print in the text the +admirable letter in which a finger is put upon the heart of the +question. We are told about the incompetence of women to deal with +national affairs, but here we find a woman writing to the _Times_ on a +fundamental matter for the Imperialist, though no member of our Houses +of Parliament has yet given any attention to it. + + SIR: Only two of your numerous correspondents on this subject have + really reached the root of the matter. + + For more than thirty years the young men of the British Isles have + found it increasingly difficult to make a living in their native + land. Therefore there has been--and still is--a steady exodus of + our male population to our Colonies, where they are unhampered by + the many disadvantages prevailing here. Unfortunately they are + obliged to leave the corresponding proportion of women behind. The + result is a surplus of 1,000,000 women in Great Britain; but let me + hasten to add (lest the mistake be laid upon Nature when it is not + hers) that there is a proportionate shortage of 1,000,000 women in + our colonies. I have recently been on a tour throughout Canada and + the States, and was most struck by the scarcity of women in Western + Canada--there are about eight men to one woman. And in America the + saddest sight of all is the appalling number of half-castes, a blot + on the civilization of the States, but a blot for which Europeans + are responsible. The absence of white women is answerable for the + worst type of population, so that in reality this is a very + pressing Imperial question; and all those interested in the growth + and future of Canada should turn their attention to it. For, unless + we can induce the right sort of British women to emigrate we shall + not have the Colonies peopled with our own race or speaking our own + mother tongue. + + Canada wants unmarried women, her cry is for our marriageable + daughters, and each one would find her vocation out there. + + Canadian men are one of the finest types of manhood possible, but + they are too hard working to be able to return here in search of a + wife. How gladly they would welcome the possibility of sharing + their homes with a sister or a wife can only be guessed by those + who have been there. + + I am so greatly impressed with the advisability of encouraging + English women to go out there that I strongly urge every suitable, + healthy, and useful woman between the age of twenty-five and + thirty-five to depart (if she has nothing to prevent her), and, + through the British Emigration Society, Imperial Institute, I shall + hope to do all that I can to assist them financially. + + I am, sir, + Yours faithfully, + SOPHIE K. BEVAN. + + (_Times_, Dec. 24, 1909.) + +It was of interest for the student of opinion and practice to compare +this letter with another which appeared in the _Times_ within a few days +of it. This was an official letter from another Emigration Society and +advocated the object, worthy in itself, of sending boys to Australasia. +The letter ended with the following assertion regarding such boys: "They +are the pioneers of Empire, they will be the founders of nations to +come." + +But the point exactly is that at present the nations to come in our +Colonies are not coming: much more likely as nations to come in +Australasia, as things go at present, are the Chinese and Japanese. +Before nations can be founded, the co-operation of women is +indispensable. We complain of the birth-rate in our Colonies, or at +least those few persons do who know that parenthood is the key to +national destiny. But we should complain of our own folly in so +interfering with the natural balance of the sexes as to create pressing +problems, wholly insoluble, alike at home and in our Colonies. At all +times "England wants men," but wherever it wants men it wants +women,--even in war we are now beginning to realize the importance of +the trained nurse. There can be no future for our Colonies if they are +to be inhabited by a bachelor generation, and the excess of women at +home prejudices the stability of the heart of empire. Either we must +cease exporting our boys and young manhood--which I certainly do not +advocate--or our girlhood must go also--which I certainly do advocate. +This is only one aspect of the question of vital imports and exports, +upon which a book of vital importance for any nation, and above all, for +England, might well be written. + +Once again let us remind ourselves how cogently this question concerns +the conditions of marriage. It means that the conditions are now such +that in our Colonies a woman can exercise her rightful function of +choosing the best man to be her husband and a father of the future, +while at home this is possible only for the very few, and for vast +numbers marriage is wholly impossible. I return, then, to the original +proposition: are we to follow the advice of our gay, irresponsible +sociologists so-called, who advise us to abolish monogamy in the +circumstances, or are we to alter the alterable conditions which so +disastrously prejudice and complicate that great institution in the +heart of our empire to-day? Surely there can be but one answer to this +question when we realize that all the causes of the present +disproportion between the sexes at home--causes such as infant +mortality, child mortality, war, and the exportation of one sex in great +excess to the Colonies--are evil in themselves quite apart from their +influence upon the practice of monogamy. Unfortunately, it is a modern +custom in this age of transition for clever people to criticize on +abstract, patriotic, sociological, quasi-ethical, and such like grounds, +institutions and practices which irk them personally. Unfortunately, +also, sociology is in the position, at present and yet for a little +while inevitable, of shall we say medicine in its earliest stages, when +anyone may be accepted as qualified who simply asserts that he is. +Lastly, sociology is the most complicated of all the sciences because +the chain of causation is longer; and very few of those who write or +read about it have the patience to go back through psychology to biology +and the laws of life in their analyses. An institution like marriage is +criticized by those who think that it is an ecclesiastical invention of +yesterday, and that what hands have made, hands can destroy, though +marriage is æons older even than the mammalian order. They take +transient, artificial conditions, lasting not for a second in the +history of mankind seen as a whole, and simply accepting these +conditions as part of the order of nature, they ask us to overthrow an +institution which is immeasurable ages older than man himself. The odds +are somewhat against them, one may surmise, but they may do considerable +injury to their own age notwithstanding. + +After having dealt with this fundamental biological condition of +marriage, we must next turn to a psychological question which is +scarcely less important. The human being is immensely complex both in +composition and in needs, and the institution of monogamy does not +become easier of maintenance as human complexity increases. Amongst the +lower animals or even amongst the lower races of mankind, the relations +between the sexes are mostly confined to one sphere, but amongst +ourselves the problem is to mate for life complex individuals whose +needs are many, ranging from the purely physical to the purely +psychical. Thus it is a matter of common experience that whilst one +woman meets one part of a man's needs, another meets another, and this +of course with grave prejudice to monogamy. Some of the modern writers +to whom allusion has been made suggest that these different needs want +sorting out; that one woman is to be the intellectual companion of a +man, and another the mother of his children. But though men and women +are multiple and complex, they are in the last resort unities. These +absolute distinctions between one need and another do not work out in +practice. Anything which tends toward splitting up the human personality +must be a disservice to it. Nor do we desire that women of the higher +type, best fitted to be the intellectual companions of men, shall be +those who do not contribute to the future of the race. From the eugenic +point of view the mother is every whit as important as the father. I do +not believe for a moment that these more or less definite proposals of +Mr. Shaw and Mr. Wells are soundly based, and perhaps indeed it is not +necessary to argue against them at greater length. Of more value is it +to ask ourselves whether feminine nature may not prove itself quite +equal to the task of meeting all the needs of masculine nature. + +It seems to me that the right answer, in many cases at any rate, to the +wife's question, how is she to retain the whole of her husband's +interest, is hinted at in Mr. Somerset Maugham's recent play +"Penelope"--she must be many women to him herself. And this the wise and +happy woman is, though I do not think the phrase "many women" at all +covers the variety of feeling to which the ideal woman can appeal. + +The ideal love is that in which the whole nature is joined, in all its +parts, upon one object which appeals alike to every fundamental instinct +in our composition. The ideal woman does not require to be "many women" +to a man of the right kind in the sense suggested in Mr. Maugham's play. +She requires rather to be in herself at one and the same time or at +different times, mother, wife and daughter. This condition satisfied, +behold the ideal marriage. + +It is probably fair to say that the three strongest and most important +needs of a man's nature are those which are satisfied by mother, wife, +and daughter. Primarily, perhaps, his wife must be to him his wife, his +contemporary and partner, and there must be a physical bond between +them. (Doubtless there are many happy marriages where this primary +condition is not satisfied, this primitive form of affection being +substantially absent, and its presence being proved non-essential: but +such must be a state of unstable equilibrium at best, though the +concession must be made.) Now the problem for the wife is to unite in +her person and in her personality those other feelings which are part of +normal human nature. Every man likes to be mothered at times, and it is +for his wife to see that she performs that function better than any +other; better even than his own mother. Where he finds merely physical +satisfaction, he also finds, happy man, sympathy and comfort, protection +and solace, balm for wounded self-esteem--everything that the hurt or +slighted child knows he will find in his mother's arms. + +Yet again, a man likes not only to be mothered but he likes to play the +father. Let his wife be a daughter to him; let her be capable of +shrinking, so to say, into small space, becoming little and confident +and appealing and calling forth every protective impulse of her +husband's nature. + +To one who knew nothing of human nature it might sound as if we were +asking more of womanhood than is within its capacity. But many a man and +many a woman will know better. The right kind of woman can be and is +mother, wife and daughter to her husband; and in every one of these +capacities she strengthens her hold in the other two. Let the happily +married examine their happiness, and they will discover that the +Preacher was right when he said: "and a threefold cord is not quickly +broken." + +What has here been said is perhaps far more fundamental, just because it +is based upon the primary instincts of humanity, than much of the +ordinary talk about intellectual companionship and the like. What a man +wants is sympathy, not intellectual companionship as such; what a man +wants from another man, indeed, is sympathy, and not merely intellectual +parity as such. The man who annoys us is not he who is incapable of +appreciating our arguments, or he who does not share our knowledge, but +he who is out of sympathy with us, and we find far more happiness with +the rawest youth who, though entirely ignorant, is at least on our +side--caring for the things for which we care. Capacity to share the +same intellectual work may be a very pleasant addition to marriage, but +it is no essential. What a man wants is that his wife shall be on his +side in his pursuits. A boy does not require that his mother shall be +able to play football with him, but he does require that she shall care +whether his side wins or loses. The wife who is a true mother to her +husband, in this sense, need not be concerned because she cannot, let us +say, follow his working out of a geometrical proposition. Let her be on +his side whether he fails or succeeds, thus playing the mother; and for +the rest, if she asks him what those funny marks mean, she can play the +daughter too, and hold his heart with both hands at once. + +It is to be hoped that such arguments as these will persuade the reader +to assent to our rejection of the psychological grounds on which it is +proposed to abolish monogamy. We extend all the sympathy in the world to +those whose fortune has been unfortunate, and we admit that the ideal +does not always coincide with the real, but we deny that the supposed +argument against monogamy is based upon a sound understanding of human +nature, its needs and its unity in multiplicity. + +If we are to stand by monogamy it behoves us to examine very carefully +certain of its present conditions which militate against the full +realization of its value for the individual and for the race. The +disproportion of the sexes we have already discussed, and it may here be +assumed that that grave obstacle to the success of monogamy is removed. +There remains the fact, probably on the whole a quite new fact of our +day, that under modern conditions a large proportion of women, whose +quality we must consider, are declining monogamy as at present +constituted. + +Let it be granted that a certain number of these women are cranks, +aberrant in various directions, unfitted for any kind of marriage, +undesirable from the eugenic standpoint, and perhaps less often +declining to be married than failing of the opportunity. There remains +the fact that a large and probably increasing number of women are +nowadays being educated up to such a standard of ideals that, even +though their decision involves the sacrifice of motherhood, they cannot +consent to marriage under present conditions. It is not that they are +without opportunity, for many of them during ten or fifteen years of +their lives may refuse one proposal after another, and spend the +intervals in avoiding the onset of such attentions. It is not +necessarily that the men who propose are of an inferior type. Such women +may refuse many men who come well up to or far surpass the modern male +standard. It is not that they are by any means without capacity for +affection; nor can one be at all certain that in many cases they would +not do better to marry, after all, heavy though the price may be. + +What we have to recognize is that this is a phenomenon in every way +evil. There must be something wrong with any institution which does not +appeal to many members of the highest types of womanhood. Perhaps in +certain of its details this institution must be an anachronism, a +survival from times to which it may have been well suited when the +development of womanhood was habitually stunted, but inadequate to +satisfy the demands of fully developed womanhood in our own days. Now +from the eugenic point of view it is of course the finest kind of women +that we desire to be the mothers of the future--the more and not the +less fastidious, those who are capable of the highest development, those +who hold themselves in the highest honour, those who are least willing +to renounce their possession of themselves. + +Men are to be heard who say that this is all nonsense; that it is +natural for women to surrender themselves, that motherhood is a splendid +reward, and that they are handsomely paid as well in material things. +But how many men would be willing to marry on the conditions with which +marriage is offered to a woman? How many men would be willing to +surrender their possession of themselves to an owner for life, so that +at no future hour can they have the right to privacy? Of course if the +conditions for marriage were for a man what they are for a woman, +scarcely any men would marry, and men would very soon see to it that +these conditions were utterly altered. They are conditions imposed in a +past age by the stronger sex upon the weaker, and no moral defence of +them is possible. It may be argued, and might long have been argued, +that a practical defence of them is possible, but that is undermined in +our own time when we find that under these conditions marriage is +declined by a large number of the best women. The practical argument is +now the other way. In the interests of elementary justice, of marriage, +of the individual and of the race, the conditions of marriage must be so +modified that they shall be equal for both sexes, and that the best +members of both sexes shall find them acceptable. This last is of course +the fundamental eugenic requirement. + +The initial criticism of some will be, no doubt, that many men who now +marry will decline the bargain. But surely we need not care at all--if +the right kind of men accept it. As for the others, in the coming time, +when we take more care of our womanhood, and when they are deprived of +the economic weapon, they may go whither they will, their +non-representation in the future of the race being precisely what we +desire. + +Women, then, are entitled to demand that the conditions of marriage be +so modified as, above all things, to allow them the possession of +themselves as the married man has possession of himself. The imposition +of motherhood upon a married woman in absolute despite of her health and +of the interests of the children is none the less an iniquity because it +has at present the approval of Church and State. It is woman who bears +the great burden of parenthood, and with her the decision must rest. It +is idle to reply that this is impossible, for it is possible, as there +are not a few happy wives throughout the civilized world to bear +testimony. Every new life that comes into being is to be regarded as +sacred from the first. The accident of birth at a particular stage in +its development does not in the slightest degree affect this ethical +principle, as even the law, for a wonder, recognizes. The full +acceptance of the principle that woman must decide is, I am convinced, +the only right and effective way in which to abolish altogether the +dangers at present run by the life which is at once unborn and unwanted. +The decision must be made once and for all _before_ the new life is +called into initial being, and the last word must lie with her who is to +bear it. I am strengthened in the enunciation of this principle by the +reflection that it would be ridiculed and condemned by the vote of every +public-house and music-hall throughout the civilized world. + +Let it be observed that in thus allowing the wife the possession of her +own person, we are giving her only what her husband possesses, and that +her possession of herself is of vastly more moment to her than his own +liberty to him. Nothing more than sheer equality is being claimed for +her, and the claim in her case has a double strength, since it is made +valid not only by her own interests but by those of the future. The +future must be protected, and therefore she who is its vessel must be +protected. This is no more than the sub-human mother everywhere has as +her birthright, and however much this teaching may offend the common +male assumption that a wife is a form of property, the future certainly +holds within itself the establishment of this principle. + +The question of divorce is so important that we must defer it to the +next chapter. + +We have briefly alluded to the question of the wife's possession of +herself. We must now refer to the question, scarcely less important, of +her possession of her own property and her claims upon her husband's. It +is difficult for the present generation to realize that very few decades +have passed since the time when everything which a woman possessed +became, when she married, the property of her husband. That is now a +question which there is no need to discuss, but there remains a very +great issue, lately become prominent, and suggested by the popular +phrase, the endowment of motherhood. + +We should obviously be false to our first principles if we did not +assent with all our hearts to the _fundamental_ principle expressed by +this phrase. If it is necessary that the wife be protected as a wife, it +is even more necessary that she be protected as a mother. There are +twelve hundred thousand widows in this country at the present time, and +of these a large number stand in unaided parental relation to a great +multitude of children. I showed some years ago that, as we shall see in +more detail in a later chapter, alcohol makes not less than forty-five +thousand widows and orphans every year in England and Wales. Nothing +can be more certain than that, in the interests of all except the +worthless type of man, the economic protection of motherhood is an +urgent need, less open to criticism perhaps than any other economic +reconstruction proposed by the reformer. Some will argue, of course, +that the State is to look after children directly, but I, for one, as a +biologist, have no choice but to believe that the way to save children +is to safeguard parenthood, and I cannot question that our duty is to +provide the mother with the necessary means for performing her supreme +function, whether she has a living husband or is a widow or is +unmarried. + +The question remains, how is this to be done, and whence is the money to +be obtained? + +Here we join issue with those Socialist writers who advocate the +endowment of motherhood and give it their own meaning; and that is why +in a preceding paragraph the word fundamental has been emphasized, since +in the endowment of motherhood as understood by socialists there are two +principles, one which I call fundamental, and a second--that the +endowment shall be by the State--which now falls to be considered. I do +not see how any one can challenge the following sentences from Mr. H. G. +Wells: + + "So the monstrous injustice of the present time which makes a + mother dependent upon the economic accidents of her man, which + plunges the best of wives and the most admirable of children into + abject poverty if he happens to die, which visits his sins of waste + and carelessness upon them far more than upon himself, will + disappear. So too the still more monstrous absurdity of women + discharging their supreme social function, bearing and rearing + children in their spare time, as it were, while they earn their + living by contributing some half mechanical element to some trivial + industrial product, will disappear."[18] + +But the remarkable circumstance is that Mr. Wells proposes to remedy +these consequences of, for instance, "sins of waste and carelessness," +not by dealing with those sins but by the simple method that "a woman +with healthy and successful offspring will draw a wage for each one of +them from the State so long as they go on well. It will be her wage. +Under the State she will control her child's upbringing. How far her +husband will share in the power of direction is a matter of detail upon +which opinion may vary--and does vary widely amongst Socialists." How +far a father is to share in directing his children's upbringing is "a +matter of detail," we are told. The phrase suffices to show that +whatever we are dealing with here is either sheer fantasy or else +thinking of so crude a kind as to be unworthy of the name. Since early +in the history of the fishes paternal responsibility has been a factor +of ascending evolution. It has ever been a more and more responsible +thing to be a father. It is now proposed to reduce fatherhood to the +purely physiological act--as amongst, shall we say, the simpler worms; +and the proposal is only "a matter of detail." + +Probably we had better go our own way, and waste no more time upon this +kind of thing. There remains to answer our question, how is motherhood +to be endowed; and the answer I propose is _by fatherhood_. Motherhood +is already so endowed in many a happy case. There are quite a number of +men to be found who take such a remarkable pride and interest in their +own children that their "share in the power of direction" is a real one, +and would never occur to them to be "a matter of detail." They regard +their earnings, these unprogressive fathers, as in large measure a trust +for their wives and children, and expend them accordingly. They are not +guilty of "sins and waste and carelessness"; and some of them are even +inclined to question whether they should pay for the results of such +sins on the part of other men: and since those who believe in the +"fetish of parental responsibility," to quote the favourite Socialist +_cliché_, can show that this is not a fetish but a tutelary deity of +Society, whose power has been increasing since backbones were invented, +they may be well assured that the last word will be with them. + +What we require is the application of the principle of insurance; we +must compel a husband and father to do his duty, as many husbands and +fathers do their duty now without compulsion. We must regard him as +responsible in this supremely important sphere, as we do in every other. +Doubtless, this will often mean some interference with his "sins of +waste and carelessness"; and so much the better for everybody. Those who +prefer to be wasteful and careless had best remain in the ranks of +bachelorhood. We have no desire for any representation of their moral +characteristics in future generations, but if they do marry they must +be controlled. Meanwhile our champions of paternal irresponsibility are +having things all their own way. Every year more children are being fed +at the expense of the State, and there is no one to challenge the father +who smokes and drinks away any proportion of his income that he pleases. + + * * * * * + +Perhaps we may now attempt to sum up the suggestion of this chapter. It +is based upon a belief in the principle of monogamy--without, as some +would assert, a credulous acceptance of all the present conditions of +that institution. The principle underlying it may be right and +impossible of improvement, but our practice may be hampered by any +number of superstitions, traditions, injustices, economic and other +difficulties, which nevertheless do not invalidate our ideal. + +Therefore, instead of proposing to abolish monogamy or that great +principle of common parental care of children, the support of motherhood +by fatherhood, which is perfectly expressed in monogamy alone, let us +seek rather, in the interests of the future--which will mean proximately +in the interests of woman, the great organ of the future--to make the +conditions of marriage such that it best serves the highest interests. +We need not cavil at those who look upon marriage as a symbol of the +union between Christ and His Church, but we must look upon it also as a +human institution which exists to serve mankind and must be treated +accordingly. We are quite prepared to accept in its place any other +institution which will serve mankind better, and we adhere to monogamy +only because such an alternative cannot be named. + +We are to regard any disproportion in the number of the sexes as +inimical to monogamy. We know that in the past, when there has been a +great excess of women, as owing to chronic militarism, polygamy has been +the natural consequence; and we must recognize that such an excess of +women at the present day is a predisposing cause, if not of polygamy, of +something immeasurably worse. The causes of that excess of women have +therefore been examined in some degree, and our duty of opposing them is +laid down as a fundamental political proposition. + +We then discussed and criticized a second argument for polygamy, based +upon the assumption that a man requires more from women than one woman +can afford him. The answer to that argument is that many women exist who +meet all their husbands' needs and satisfy all their instincts, and that +for this end the intensive education of woman's intellect is not a +necessary condition. It may be added that if the race is to rise, the +highest type of women as well as the highest type of men must be its +parents, the mothers being exactly as important as the fathers on the +score of heredity. Any attempt, therefore, to split up womanhood, so +that the lower types shall become the mothers, and the higher the +companions of men, is a directly dysgenic proposal, opposing the great +eugenic principle that the best of both sexes must be the parents of the +future. + +When we find, therefore, that marriage under present conditions does +not satisfy many of the highest kinds of women, we must ask whether +their dissatisfaction is warranted, and if, as we do, we find it based +upon the fact that the present conditions are grossly unjust to women, +we must modify those conditions so that, at the very least, the wife and +mother shall not have the worst of them. + +Finally, whatever we may fail to achieve because, for instance, of some +fundamental facts of human nature against which it is vain to legislate, +at least we have economic conditions under our control, and control them +we must, so that, whoever shall be in a position of economic insecurity, +at least it shall not be the mothers of the future. Our first concern +must be to safeguard them, whosoever else is inconvenienced. In deciding +how this is effected we are to be guided by that great fact of +increasing paternal responsibility which is demonstrated by the history +of animal evolution since the appearance of the earliest vertebrates, +and of which marriage, in all its forms, is at bottom the human and +social expression. We are to recognize that if sub-human fathers are in +any degree held by nature responsible with their mates for the care of +their offspring, much more should this be true of man, "made with such +large discourse, looking before and after," who is to be held +responsible for all his acts, and most of all for those most charged +with consequence. The man who brings children into the world is +responsible to their mother and through her to society at large, which +must see to it that that responsibility is not evaded. At present in +England the working man spends on the average not less than one-sixth +of his entire income on alcoholic drinks, whilst society yearly pays for +the feeding of more of his children. But it is not good enough that the +father shall swallow the interests of the future in this fashion. As the +State in Germany takes a percentage of his earnings in order to protect +him against the risks of the future, so we must see to it that the +necessary proportion of his earnings is devoted towards discharging the +responsibilities which he has incurred. + +A notable consequence must follow from many such reforms as this chapter +suggests. The marriage rate must fall, and the birth-rate, already +falling, must fall much further; and so assuredly in any case they will; +nor need anyone be alarmed at such a prospect. Even from the point of +view of quantity, the future supply of "food for powder," and so forth, +the question is not how many babies are born, as people persist in +thinking, but how many babies survive. For seven years past I have been +preaching, in season and out of season, that our Bishops and popular +vaticinators in general are utterly wrong in bewailing the falling +birth-rate, whilst the unnecessary slaughter of babies and children +stares them in the face. How dare they ask for more babies to be +similarly slain! It may be permitted to quote a passage written several +years ago. "My own opinion regarding the birth-rate is that so long as +we continue to slay, during the first year of life alone, one in six or +seven of all children born (the unspeakably beneficent law of the +non-transmission of acquired characters permitting these children to be +born amazingly fit and well, city life notwithstanding), the fall in the +birth-rate should be a matter of humanitarian satisfaction. Let us learn +how to take care of the fine babies that are born, and when we have +shown that we can succeed in this, as we have hitherto most horribly +failed, we may begin to suggest that perhaps, if the number were +increased, we might reasonably expect to take care of that number also. +Babies are the national wealth, and in reality the only national wealth; +and just as a sensible father will satisfy himself that his son can take +care of his pocket-money, before he listens to a demand for its +augmentation, so, as a people, we are surely responsible to the Higher +Powers, or our own ideals, for the production of proof that we can take +care of the young helpless lives which are daily entrusted to us, before +we cry for more. It would be easy to quote episcopal denouncements +regarding the birth-rate, but I am at a loss for references to similarly +influential opinions about the slaughter of the babies that are born--a +matter which surely should take precedence. May I, in all deference, +commend for consideration a parable which always comes to my mind when I +read clerical comments on the birth-rate, without reference to the +infant-mortality? It was figured by the Supreme Lover of Children that a +wicked servant, entrusted with a portion of his master's wealth to turn +to good account, went and hid it in the earth. He was not rewarded by +the charge of more such wealth. We, as a people, are entrusted with +living wealth, and, whilst we demand more, we go and bury much of it in +the earth--whence, alas! it cannot be recovered. Not an increase of +opportunity, thus wasted, was the reward of the unprofitable servant, +but to be cast into outer darkness. Is there no moral here?" + +Very distinguished recent authority may be quoted in favour of this +principle. At the Annual Public Meeting of the Academy of Sciences, held +in Paris in December, 1909, Professor Bouchard discussed the question of +the population of France, and came to the conclusion that the birth-rate +"depended upon social conditions which it was difficult if not +altogether impossible to modify, and in these circumstances the +alternative remedy was to reduce the number of deaths." + +It must surely be plain that those reforms in the conditions of marriage +which have been advocated in this chapter will meet this need, and are +not necessarily to be feared even by those who, in this matter, devote +their solicitude entirely to the question of numbers, quality apart. For +the eugenist who is primarily concerned with quality these reforms are +surely unchallengeable. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE CONDITIONS OF DIVORCE + + +A brief chapter must be devoted to the question of the conditions of +divorce, which are really part of the conditions of marriage. Here, as +in every other case, we must apply the universal and unchallengeable +eugenic criterion: the conditions of divorce, like the conditions of +marriage itself, must be such as best serve the future of the race. This +will mean that, in the first place, in entering upon marriage--which of +necessity means so much more to a woman than it does to a man--the woman +must have the assurance that when the conditions of the contract are +broken she will be liberated. The law must bear equally upon the two +sexes. This condition of safety, once established, may determine toward +marriage a certain number of women at present deterred by what they know +of the manner in which our unjust laws now work. + +Secondly, Divorce Law Reform in the right interests of women and the +future must involve the complete protection of both from, for instance, +the drunken husband. The male inebriate is on all grounds unfitted to be +a father, and the laws of divorce must ensure that if he be married, his +wife and therefore the future shall be protected from him. Those of us +who believe in the movement for Women Suffrage will be grievously +disappointed if, when that movement at last succeeds, such fundamental +and urgent reforms as these are not promptly effected. + +A Royal Commission is now sitting in England upon this subject of +Divorce Law Reform, and I wish to repeat here with all the emphasis +possible what has been already said in indirect contribution to the +evidence laid before that Commission. It is that the first principle of +judgment in all such matters is the Eugenic one. Primarily marriage is +an invention for serving the future by buttressing motherhood with +fatherhood. The judgment of all our methods of marriage and divorce lies +with their products. "By their fruits ye shall know them." If there were +any antagonism between the interests of the individual and those of the +race we should indeed be in a quandary, but as I have shown a hundred +times there is no such antagonism. The man or woman from whom a divorce +ought to be obtained is _ipso facto_ the man or woman who ought not to +be a parent. + +When it is a question of life or gold, we in England are consistent +Mammon worshippers. Woe to the poacher, but the wife beater has only +strained a right and may be leniently dealt with; woe to the destroyer +of pheasants, but the destruction of peasants is a detail. Thus it is +that the great fundamental questions which, because they determine the +destiny of peoples, are the great Imperial questions, are unknown even +by repute to our professed Imperialists. Every kind of industry except +the culture of the racial life interests them profoundly--if there is +money in it. The whole nation can go wild over a budget or the proposal +to revive protection, but the conditions under which the race is +recruited are the concern of but a few, who are looked upon as cranks. +In the case of such a question as our Divorce Laws the public is +substantially unaware that we are hundreds of years behind the rest of +the civilized world; that our practice is utterly unthought out, and +that the supposed compromise of Separation Orders is insane in principle +and hideous in result. The present law bears very hardly upon both sexes +in a thousand cases, but more especially upon women, toward whom it is +grossly unjust. All honour is due to the Divorce Law Reform Union,[19] +which for many years has devoted itself to this important subject, and +has at last succeeded in obtaining the formation of a Royal Commission, +the upshot of which, we may hope, will be to reform our law on moral, +humane, and eugenic lines. The following is a striking quotation from a +pamphlet written on behalf of this Union by Mr. E. S. P. Haynes, a +distinguished expert. + + "But our law of divorce is only one example among many of our + hide-bound attachment to ancient abuses. It is of the utmost + importance to realize that Divorce Law Reform will merely bring our + jurisprudence up to the level of the modern enlightened State. It + involves no revolutionary disturbance of anything but our crusted + ignorance of how modern civilization works outside England. It sets + out to place the family on a firmer basis, to regulate the marriage + contract on equitable lines, and to improve the chances of the + future generation in a country where deserted wives fill the + work-houses and forty thousand illegitimate children are born every + year." + +In Germany, which we are always being asked to imitate in non-essentials +by the more stupid kind of Imperialist--the kind which only very strong +empires can survive--the law of divorce is vastly superior to ours. +There is no such thing as judicial separation, which "is rightly +condemned as being contrary to public policy." Further, as Mr. Haynes +points out, "In Germany a male cannot marry under twenty-one or a female +under eighteen, whether parental consent is available or not. In England +a man may and not infrequently does cut his wife and family out of his +will; in Germany the rights of wife and children are properly +safeguarded by limiting this liberty of disposition. In England a father +need not do more for his children than keep them out of the work-house +unless he has brought himself under Divorce Jurisdiction; in Germany he +is obliged to maintain them in a suitable manner. In England a +spendthrift or dipsomaniac can only be controlled when he has spent all +his money. In Germany such persons are protected from themselves by the +family council. In England an illegitimate child can never be +legitimated by the subsequent marriage of the parents. In Germany this +humane and reasonable opportunity of making reparation to the child +exists as a matter of course." + +Here in England we have one law for the rich and another for the poor, +for the average cost of a decree is about £100; and a case was recently +reported in which a woman had saved up for twenty years in order to +obtain a divorce. What an absolutely abominable scandal; how hideously +beneath the level of practice amongst what we are pleased to call savage +peoples. As everyone knows, the present law directly encourages +immorality, pronouncing separation _without_ the power of +re-marriage--that is to say, the greater punishment, for lesser +offences, and divorce _with_ the power of re-marriage, that is to say, +the lesser punishment, for greater offences. + +Further, the law totally ignores the interests of the future in +conspicuous cases where one or other possible parent is hopelessly unfit +for such a function. In the interests not only of the individual but the +future it would be advisable to grant divorce to a person whose partner +had been confined in a lunatic asylum for, say five years, and who could +be certified as likely to remain insane permanently, or whose partner +had been confined in an Inebriates' Home for, say, two terms of one +year, or who could be proved and certified to be an incurable drunkard. + +We must abolish these atrocious Separation Orders, with their direct +promotion of every kind of immorality, illegitimacy and cruelty to +women. But perhaps this chapter may be brought to a close since in +England the matter is now before a Royal Commission, and since our +stupidities are of no direct interest to the American reader. It was +necessary, however, to deal with the subject because of its immediate +and urgent bearing upon many of the problems of Womanhood. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE RIGHTS OF MOTHERS + + +We reach here a central question which must be approached from the right +point of view or we shall certainly fail to solve it. That point of view +is the child's. There is a school of thought which approaches the +question otherwise--on abstract principles of justice and individual +independence. The only objection to them is that, if upheld on modern +conditions, these principles would soon leave us without anyone to +uphold them. The relation of the mother to the State is central and +fundamental, however considered, and the principles on which it must be +settled must, above all, be principles which are compatible with the +fundamental conditions on which States can endure. + +Those principles, surely, are two. The first is that in a State we are +members one of another, and that those who need help must be helped. +This will be indignantly repudiated by a stern school of thought, but +what if it applies, everywhere, always and above all, to children? They +are members of the community who need help and they must be helped. The +second principle is indeed only a special case of the first. It is that +if the State is to continue, it must rear children. + +We take it then, first, that the moral and social law is perfectly final +as to the right of every child to existence. There are no principles of +national welfare which can divorce us from the simple truth that we must +regard every human individual as sacred from the moment of its coming +into existence--and that is a long time before birth. A familiar medical +dogma is, "Keep everything alive." There may be exceptions to it, but it +is dangerous to discuss them with the unprepared. The only safe +principle is to maintain, as long as possible, the life of all--the +centenarian or the embryo conceived since the sun set. At times the +State deliberately takes life on behalf of life. The sentence of +execution passed upon the murderer may be warrantably passed by the +State of the future or its officers upon a monstrous birth, a baby +riddled with congenital syphilis or some such horrible fruit of our +present carelessness and wickedness in such matters. The State may +regard such children or their survival as illegitimate, since the laws +of nature as we see them at work throughout the living world do not +approve the survival of such. Apart from these cases, all children are +legitimate, and all children are natural. Whatever the history of the +reader's parents, he or she was assuredly both a legitimate child and a +natural child--a paradox which may be left to the solution of the +curious. Directly a new human being has been conceived, its right to +existence and survival may be conceded. Vast numbers of human beings are +conceived every year whose conception is a sin against themselves and +the State. That is a question on which the present writer has written +and spoken incessantly for years, and which no one can accuse him of +neglecting. But here we have to deal with the facts of the world as they +are and as they will be for some time to come. + +All children are to be cared for. No child should die; there should be +no infant mortality; the children that are not fit to live should not be +conceived, and those that are fit to live should be allowed to live; all +children are legitimate. If the State has any kind of business at all, +this is its business. + +Our subject here, the reader may say, is not children, but woman and +womanhood. The reply is that unless we have our principles rightly +formulated, we cannot solve this question of the rights of women as +mothers. Failing our principles, we shall be reduced to the prejudices +which serve as principles for our political parties. We shall have +individualist and socialist at loggerheads, the friends of marriage and +its enemies, and many other opposing parties who cannot solve the +question for us because they have not waited first to discover its +fundamentals. The rights of mothers can be approached only from the +point of view of the rights of children. We may happen to believe, as +the present writer certainly does, that parents should be responsible +for their children. He once lectured for, and published the lectures in +association with, a body called the British Constitution Association, +which holds the same belief, but when he found as he did that protests +were raised against any suggestion to help children whose parents do not +do their duty, it became plain that principles which were right in a +merely secondary and conditional way were being made absolute and +fundamental. The fundamental is that the child shall be cared for; the +conditional and secondary principle is that this is best effected +through the parents. To say that if the parents will not do it, the +child must be left to starve, is immoral and indecent. Worse words than +those, if such exist, would be required to describe our neglect of +illegitimate infancy; our cruelty toward widows and orphans; our utterly +careless maintenance of the conditions which produce these hapless +beings in such vast numbers. + +If every child is sacred, every mother is sacred. If every child is to +be cared for, every mother must be cared for. It is true that we may +make experiment with devices for superseding the mother. Man has +impudent assurance enough for anything, and if Nature has been working +at the perfection of an instrument for her purpose during a few score +million years--an instrument such as the mammalian mother, for +instance--man is quite prepared to invent social devices, such as the +incubator, the _crèche_, the infant milk _dépôt_, and so forth; not +merely to make the best of a bad case when the mother fails, but to +supersede the mother altogether directly the baby is born. Such cases, +except in the last resort, are more foolish than words can say. We have +to save our children; we can only do so effectively through the +naturally appointed means for saving children, which is motherhood. The +rights of mothers follow as a necessary consequence from our first +principle, which was the rights of children. Because every child must +be protected, every mother must be protected, if not in one way, in +another. + +The State may not be able to afford this. The necessities of existence +may be so difficult to obtain, not to mention for a moment such luxuries +as alcohol and motor-cars and warships and fine clothes and art, and so +forth, that no arrangements for the support of motherhood can be made. +If we lay down the proposition that no mother should work because she is +already doing the supreme work, it may be replied that this is +economically impossible; the thing cannot be done. The only reply to +this is that the State which cannot afford to provide rightly for the +means of its continuance had better discontinue, and must in any case +soon do so. Motherhood is rapidly declining as a numerical fact in +civilized communities generally. Not merely does the birth-rate fall +persistently and without the slightest regard to the commentators +thereon, but it will continue to do so for many years to come. In the +light of this fact the great argument of presidents and bishops, +politicians and journalists, moralists and social censors generally is +that somehow or other this decline must be arrested. To all of which one +replies, for the thousand and first time, that, whatever it ought to be, +it will not be arrested; that the really moral policy, the really human +one, and the only possible one, is to take care of the children that are +born. Then when we have abolished our infant and child mortality and +have solved the substantial problem of finding room for all new-comers, +having ceased to far more than decimate them, we may begin cautiously +to suggest that perhaps if the birth-rate were slightly to rise we might +be able to cope with the product. At present the disgraceful fact is not +the birth-rate, but what we do with the birth-rate; though more +disgraceful perhaps are the blindness and ignorance and assurance of the +host of commentators in high places who waste their time and ours in +animadverting upon a fact--the falling birth-rate--which is a necessary +condition and consequence of organic progress, whilst the motherhood we +have is so urgently in need of protection and idealization in the minds +of the people. + +We have reached the conclusion that all motherhood is to be protected. +This means that from some source or other the money shall be forthcoming +for the maintenance of the mother and her children. For, in the first +place, the children are not to work because, if they do, they will not +be able to work as they should in the future. The State cannot afford to +let them work. Further, the proper care of childhood is so continuous +and exacting a task, and of such supreme moment, that it is the highest +and foremost work that can be named; and therefore, in the second place, +she whose business it is must not be hampered by having to do anything +else. If any labourer is worthy of his hire, she is. Her economic +security must be absolute. She must be as safe as the Bank of England, +because England and its banks stand or fall with her. In the rightly +constituted State, if there be any one at all whose provision and +maintenance are absolutely secure, it will be the mothers. Whoever else +has financial anxiety, they shall have none. Any State that can afford +to exist can afford to see to this. No economist can inform me what +proportion of the labour and resources of England are at this moment +devoted to the means of life, and what proportion to superfluities, +luxuries and the means of death. But it is a very simple matter with +which the reader, who is doubtless a better arithmetician than I am, may +amuse himself, to estimate the number of married women of reproductive +age in the community, and allowing anything in reason for illegitimate +motherhood and nothing at all for infertile wives, to satisfy himself +that the total cost which would be involved in the adequate care of +motherhood, is a mere fraction of the national expenditure. Few of us +realize how extraordinary and how unprecedented is the margin of +security for existence which modern civilization affords. A savage +community may have scarcely any margin at all. The same may be true of +many primitive communities which cannot be called savage. They maintain +life under such conditions, whether in Greenland or in a thousand other +parts of the world, that they cannot afford to labour for anything which +is not bread. The primary necessities of existence take all their +getting. Some transient accident of weather or the balance of Nature in +the sea or in the fields imperils the existence of the whole community. +They, at any rate, are wise enough to take good care of their women and +children. But in civilization we have an enormous margin of security. +Not only are we dependent on no local crop or harvest, but the getting +of necessities has become so effective and secure that we are able to +spend a vast amount of our time and energy on the production of luxuries +and evils. How little, then, is our excuse if we fail to provide the +first conditions for continuance and progress! + +Our first principles of the value of the child and therefore of +motherhood are unchallengeable, nor will anyone nowadays be found to +question that neither children nor mothers should work in the ordinary +sense of that word, since the proper work of children who are to work +well when they grow up is play, and since the mother's natural work is +the most important that she can perform. It remains, then, for us to +determine by whom mothers and children in the modern and future State +are to be provided for. + +The conditions of mothers are various, and we shall best approach the +problem by the consideration of different cases. + +The simplest is that of the widowed mother who is without means. It is +only too common a case, and we have already seen certain causes which +contribute to the enormous number of widows in the community. Men do not +live as long as women, and men are older when they marry. These natural +causes of widowhood, as they may be called, are greatly aggravated by +the destructive influence of alcohol upon fatherhood, as will be shown +in the chapter dealing with alcohol and womanhood. + +On the individualistic theory of the State, a theory so brutal and so +impracticable that no one consistently upholds it, the widow's +misfortune is her private affair, but does not really concern us. Her +husband should have provided for her. Indeed she should, and indeed we +should have seen that he did. But if he and we failed in our duty to +her, the consequences must be met. The hour is at hand when the State +will discover that children are its most precious possessions, more +precious as they grow scarcer, and efficient support will then be +forthcoming, as a matter of course, for the widowed mother and her +children. The feature which will distinguish this support from any past +or present provision will be that it recognizes the natural sanctity and +the natural economy of the relation between mother and children. It will +be agreed not merely that the children must be provided for, but that +they must be provided for through her. The current device is to divorce +mother and children. "Whom God hath joined together, let no man put +asunder," is quoted by many against the divorce of a married pair whom, +as is plain, not God but the devil has joined together; but the +principle of that quotation verily applies to the natural and divine +association of mother and children. + +If, then, the State is to provide in future for all widowed mothers and +their children, husbands need no longer trouble to insure or make +provision for them. Such is the proper criticism. The reply to it is +that the State will have to see to it that, in future, husbands _do_ +take this trouble. To this we shall return. + +Next we may consider the case of the unmarried mother and her +"illegitimate" child or children. Here, again, the child must be cared +for, and the care of the child is the work which has been imposed upon +the mother. We must enable her to do it, nor must we countenance the +monstrous and unnatural folly, injurious to both and therefore to us, of +separating them. Napoleon, desirous of food for powder, forbade the +search for the father in such a case, though the French are now seeking +to abrogate that abominable decree. Our law recognizes that the father +is responsible, and under it he may be made to pay toward the upkeep of +the child. Some contemporary writers on the endowment of motherhood are +advocating changes which would make this law absurd, for they are +seeking to free the married father from any responsibility for his +children, and could scarcely impose it upon the unmarried father. Such +proposals, however, are palpable reversions to something much lower and +æons older in the history of life than mere barbarism, and I have no +fear of their success. Assuredly the unmarried father must be held +responsible; and no less certainly must we see to it that, with or +without his help, the unmarried mother and her children are adequately +provided for. The present death-rate amongst illegitimate children is a +scandal of the first order and must be ended. If we are wise, our +provision will involve protecting ourselves against the need for new +provision, especially where the mother is feeble-minded or otherwise +defective, as is so often the case: but provision there must be. + +Finally, we come to the central problem of the mother who has a living +husband in employment. It is the case of the working classes that really +concerns us, not least because the greater part of the birth-rate comes +therefrom. It is the contemporary settling-down of the birth-rate in +this class, combined with the novel consequences of modern +industrialism, especially in the form of married women's labour, that +makes the question so important. Before we go any further, the +proposition may be laid down that married women's labour, as it commonly +exists, is an intolerable evil, condemned already by our first +principles. It need scarcely be said that one is not here referring to +the labours of the married woman who writes novels or designs +fashion-plates. There is no condemnation of any kind of labour, in the +home or outside it, if the condition be complied with, that it does not +prejudice the inalienable first charge upon the mother's time and +energy. Her children are that first charge. It may perfectly well be, +and often is, chiefly though not exclusively in the more fortunate +classes, that the mother may earn money by other work without prejudice +to her motherhood. Such cases do not concern us, but we are urgently +concerned with married women's labour in the ordinary sense of the term, +which means that the mother goes out to tend some lifeless machine, +whilst her children are left at home to be cared far anyhow or not at +all. No student of infant mortality or the conditions of child life and +child survival in general has any choice but to condemn this whole +practice as evil, root and branch. And from the national and economic +point of view it may be said that whatever the mother makes in the +factory is of less value than the children who consequently die at home. +The culture of the racial life is the vital industry of any people, and +any industry that involves its destruction and needs the conditions +which make up that destruction, is one which the country cannot afford, +whatever its merely monetary balance-sheet. A complete balance-sheet, +with its record of children slain, would only too readily demonstrate +this. + +Our right attitude toward married women's labour must depend upon a +right understanding of the social meaning of marriage. This was a +question which had to be dealt with at length in a previous volume and I +can only state here in a word, what was the conclusion come to. It was +that marriage is a device for supporting and buttressing motherhood by +fatherhood. Its mark is that it provides for _common parental care of +offspring_. A more prosaic way of stating the case would be that +marriage is a device for making the father responsible. If we go far +back in the history of the animal world, we find mating but not +marriage. The father's function is purely physiological, transient and +wholly irresponsible. The whole burden of caring for offspring, when +first there comes to be need for that care, in the history of organic +progress, falls upon the mother. But even amongst the fishes we find +that sometimes, as in the case of the stickleback, the father helps the +mother to build a sort of nest, and does "sentry-go" outside it to keep +off marauders. In this common care of the young we see what is in all +essentials marriage, though some may prefer to dignify the word by +confining it to those human associations which have been blessed by +Church and State, even though the father throws the baby at the mother, +or sends her into the streets to earn her bread and his beer. + +If some of our modern reformers knew any biology, or even happened to +visit a music-hall where the biograph was showing scenes of bird-life, +they would learn that the human arrangement whereby the father goes out +and forages for mother and children has roots in hoary antiquity. The +pity is that there is no one to point the moral to the crowd when the +father-bird is seen returning with delicacies for the mother, who tends +her nest and its occupants. + +The reader will already have anticipated the conclusion, to which, as I +see it, the study of the fundamental laws of life must lead the +sociologist in this case. It is that the duty of the father is to +support the mother and children, and that the duty of the State is to +see that he does this. + +Thus, if asked whether I believe in the endowment of motherhood, I +reply, yes, indeed, I believe in the endowment of motherhood by the +corresponding fatherhood. If our first principles are sound, we must +believe that the mother must be endowed or provided for; there can be no +difference of opinion so far. Often, as we have seen, there is no +corresponding fatherhood, for the mother may be a widow, or unmarried +and unable to find the father. But where the corresponding fatherhood +exists, we fly directly in the face of Nature, we deny the consistent +teaching of evolution as the study of sub-human life reveals it to us, +if we do not turn to the father and say, this is your act, for which you +are responsible. + +At all times the community has been entitled to say this to the father. +It is even more entitled to say so now, when, as everyone knows, +parenthood has come so entirely under the sway of human volition. The +more knowledge and power the more responsibility. The more important the +deed, the more responsible must we hold the doer. The time has come when +fatherhood, whether within marriage or without it, must be reckoned a +deliberate, provident, foreseen, all-important, responsible act, for +which the father must always be held to account. + +On a recent public occasion, having endeavoured to show that the history +of animal evolution teaches us the increasing importance and dignity of +fatherhood, I was asked whether I had any argument in favour of parental +responsibility. To this the fitting reply seemed to be that, primarily, +I believe in parental responsibility because I believe in human +responsibility. It need hardly be said that the questioner belonged to +that important political party which loathes the idea of paternal +responsibility and styles it a "fetish." Without it none of us would be +here. Yet the Socialists are less likely than any other party to abandon +the idea of human responsibility. They propose to hold men responsible +for the remoter effects of their acts--upon the present--as no other +party does. The maker of money is held to account for his deeds and +their effect upon the life around him. I agree with the principle: but I +maintain that the maker of men is also to be held to account for his +deeds and their effect upon the future and the life of this world to +come. No Socialist can afford to question the practical political +principle that men are to be held responsible for their deeds: and no +Socialist can explain the sudden and unexplained abandonment of this +principle when we come to the most important of all a man's deeds. To be +consistent, the Socialist should uphold the doctrine of a man's +responsibility for the remoter consequences of his acts in this supreme +sphere, more earnestly and thoughtfully and providently than any of his +opponents. + +The position of those who would free the father from responsibility is +even less defensible when, as we commonly find, they are prepared to +make the mother's responsibility more extensive and less avoidable than +ever. Why this distinction? And if parental responsibility is a "fetish" +when it refers to a father, why is it not the same when it refers to a +mother? In the schemes of Mr. H. G. Wells, kaleidoscopic in their +glitter and inconsistency, there remains from year to year this one +permanent element, that while the mother must attend to her business, it +is no business of the father. This is the essential feature, the one +novelty of his scheme. Already the married mother--he proposes nothing +for the unmarried mother--is legally entitled to some measure of +support. His endowment of motherhood is essentially a _discharge of +fatherhood_, and should be so called. There can be no compromise, +nothing but a fight to the finish, between the principle of endowing +motherhood by making fatherhood less responsible, and the principle here +fought for, of endowing motherhood by making fatherhood more +responsible. As Nature has been doing so, in the main line of progress +for many millions of years,--a statement not of interpretation or theory +but of observed fact--I have no fear of the ultimate issue. But it +might well be that any portion of mankind, perhaps a portion ill to be +spared, should destroy itself by an attempt to run counter to the great +principle of progress here stated. There is an abundance of men who will +be very happy to side with Mr. Wells. Men have never been wanting, in +any time or place, who were happy to gratify their instincts without +having to answer for the consequences; and it has always been the first +issue of any society that was to endure, to see that they did not have +their way: hence human marriage. The "endowment of motherhood" sounds as +if it were a scheme greatly for the benefit of women. Let them beware. +Let them begin to think of, not the remoter, but the immediate and +obvious consequences of any such schemes as are proffered by the overt +or covert enemies of marriage, and they will quickly perceive that _the +last way in which to secure the rights of women is to abrogate the +duties of men_. The support allotted to such schemes as these is not +feminine but masculine. That is the impression I derive from discussions +following lectures on the subject; and that is what I should expect, +judging from the natural tendencies of men, and the profound intuition +of women in such matters. And, conversely, the opposition to such +principles as are expressed here, and embodied in the "Women's Charter," +will be masculine. But woman has been civilizing man from the beginning, +and she will have her way here also--for, in the last resort, not merely +youth, but the Unborn must be served. + +Before we consider the alternative suggestions that some are making, +and proceed to indicate how the paternal endowment of motherhood can be +enforced in every class, as public opinion practically enforces it in +the upper and middle classes, let us meet the objection that, if +fatherhood is to be made so serious an act, and if so much +self-sacrifice is to be exacted from those who undertake it, the +marriage-rate and the birth-rate will fall more rapidly. And as regards +the marriage-rate, the answer is that marriage and parenthood are not +inseparable, a proposition which might be much amplified if a writer who +wishes to be heard could afford to have the courage of everybody's +convictions. But already, in the middle classes, men limit their +families to the number they can support. They simply practise +responsible fatherhood, and the mothers and children are protected. On +what moral grounds this is to be condemned, no one has yet told us. + +And as regards the effect of more stringent responsibility for +fatherhood upon the birth-rate, it must be replied, for the thousandth +time in this connection, that the question for a nation is not how many +babies are born, but how many survive. The idea of a baby is that it +shall grow up and become a citizen; if babies remained babies people +would soon cease to complain about the fall in the birth-rate. But, in +point of fact, a vast number of babies and children are unnecessarily +slain, and if we could suddenly arrest the whole of this slaughter, the +increase of population would become so formidable that everyone would +deplore the unmanageable height of the birth-rate. Its present fall is +quite incapable of arrest, and is perfectly compatible with as rapid an +increase of population as any one could desire. We must arrest the +destruction of so much of the present birth-rate, so that it means +nought for the future. By nothing else will this arrest be so +accelerated as by those very measures for making fatherhood more +responsible for the care of motherhood, which are here advocated. Let it +be freely granted that these measures will lower the birth-rate. Much +more will they lower the infant mortality and child death-rate, and +diminish the permanent damaging of vast multitudes of children who +escape actual destruction. + +And now we can turn to those proposals which have lately been revived by +one or two popular writers in England, for the endowment of motherhood +by the State, leaving the fathers in peace to spend their earnings as +they please, whilst others support their children. Detailed criticism is +not needed, for the details to criticize are not forthcoming, and the +opinions on principles and on details of these imaginative writers are +never twice the same. It suffices that proposals such as these, apart +from their vagueness and their obvious impracticability in any form, are +directly condemned by the fundamental principle that a man shall be +responsible for his acts. The endowment of motherhood, as Mr. Wells +means it, is simply a phrase for making men responsible for their +neighbours' acts and for striking hard and true at the root principle of +all marriage, human or sub-human, which is the common parental care of +offspring. Reference is made to this proposal here, not that it really +needs criticism, but in order that one may be clearly excluded from any +participation in such proposals. + +The difference between such schemes for the endowment of motherhood and +the proposal here advocated is that those seek to endow the mother by +making the father less responsible--or, rather, wholly +irresponsible--while this seeks to endow her by making the father more +responsible. The whole verdict of the ages is, as we have seen, on the +side of this principle. It has been practised for æons, and it is the +aim of sound legislation and practice everywhere to-day. + +As has been admitted, the more we express this principle, the lower will +fall, not necessarily the marriage-rate, but the parent-rate; fewer men +will become fathers, _but they will be fitter_. There will be fewer +children born, but they will be children planned, desired and loved in +anticipation, as every child should be, and will be in the golden +future. These children will not die, but survive; nor will their +development be injured by early malnutrition and neglect. The believer +in births as births will not be gratified, but there will be abundance +of gratification for the believer in births as means to ends. + +The practical working-out of our principle is no more difficult than +might be expected if it be remembered that we are counselling nothing +revolutionary nor even novel. The demand simply is that the practice +which obtains among the more fortunate classes shall be made universal, +and that the State shall see that all fathers who can, do their duty. +The State will be quite busy and well employed in this task, which may +legitimately be allotted to it even on the strictly individualist and +Spencerian principles, that the maintenance of justice is alone the +State's province. We allot a great function to the State, but deny that +it can rightly or safely set the father aside and perform his duty for +him. + +The kind of means whereby the rights of mothers may be granted them is +indicated in the Women's Charter which has lately been formulated and +advocated by Lady Maclaren. The principle there recognized is that the +husband's wages are not solely his own earnings, but are in part handed +to him to be passed on to his wife. Directly children are concerned, the +State should be. + +Whatever the answer to the crudely-stated question, "Should Wives have +Wages?" it is certain that mothers should and must have wages or their +equivalent. + +To many of the well-wishers of women it is disappointing that the +Women's Charter is not more keenly supported by women themselves. +Unfortunately the suffrage has become a fetish, the mere means has +become an end, preferred even to the offer of the real ends, such as +would be attained in very large measure by this Charter. We see here, it +is to be feared, the same spirit which protests against the wisest and +most humane legislation in the interests of women and children because +"men have no business to lay down the law for women." + +In general terms, one would argue that the principle of insurance must +be applied to this case, as it is now voluntarily applied by thousands +of provident fathers. Here the State may guarantee and help, even by +the expenditure of money. It should help those who help themselves. This +is a principle which may apply to many forms of insurance or provision, +whether for old age or against invalidity; just as non-contributory +old-age provisions are fundamentally wrong in principle, and have never +been defended on any but party-political grounds of expedience, even by +their advocates, so the "endowment of motherhood" which meant the +complete liberation of fatherhood from its responsibilities would be +wrong in principle. But in both of these cases the State might rightly +undertake to help those who help themselves. + +Fatherhood of the new order will not be so wholly irksome and unrewarded +as might at first appear to the critic who does not reckon children as +rewards themselves. It may involve some momentary sacrifices, but it +needs very little critical study of the ordinary man's expenditure to +discover that, on the whole, these sacrifices will be more apparent than +real. It is, for instance, a very great sacrifice indeed for the smoker +to give up tobacco; but once he has done so, he is as happy as he was, +and suffers nothing at all for the gain of his pocket. Both as regards +alcohol and tobacco, the common expenditure which would so amply provide +milk and the rest for children, is necessitated by an acquired habit +which, like all acquired habits, can be discarded. The non-smoker and +non-drinker does _not_ suffer the discomfort of the smoker and drinker +who is deprived of his need. These things cease to be needs at all, soon +after they are dispensed with, or if the habit of taking them is never +begun. They are luxuries only to those who use them. To those who do not +they are nothing, and the lack of them is nothing. The sheer waste they +entail is gigantic, and the expenditure on them in such a country as +England would endow all its motherhood and provide good conditions for +all its children. The father who, in the future, is compelled to yield +the rights of mothers and children, may sometimes be compelled to +practise what at first looks like great self-restraint in these +respects. The point I wish to make is that the sacrifice and the need +for restraint are transient, and that thereafter there is simply more +liberty and the promise of longer life for the wise. + +The working-out will be that the legislation of the future will benefit +the right kind of husband and father, but will restrain and irk the +wrong kind. But that is precisely what good legislation should do. Thus +the right kind of father, who in any case will do his best to care for +his wife and children, will be helped in the future by the State. It +will insist that he does the duty which in any case he means to do, but +it will make the doing easier. We see admirably working parallels to +this in the German insurance laws and their provision for death, disease +and old age. They benefit those whom they appear to harass. Insurance +against fatherhood will work in the same way. The State will not be +antagonistic to the father, but will be his best friend, knowing that +_its_ best friends are good fathers and mothers. There will be far less +worry and anxiety for well-meaning parents, especially for mothers, but +also for fathers. Nor do I, for one, much mind how substantial may be +the State's contribution to the father's efforts, provided only that +those efforts are demanded and obtained. + +Nothing is more certain than that we are about to free ourselves from +the crass blindness of the nineteenth century in its great delusion that +the wealth of a nation consists in the number of things it makes and +possesses. Parenthood and childhood will shortly come to be recognized +as the first concern of the State that is to continue, and whilst the +birth-rate continues to fall, the honour paid to fathers and mothers +will continue to rise. We shall become as wise in time as the Jews have +been ever since we have record of them. We shall estimate the relative +value of these things as well as if we were the kinds of people we call +"Savages." Fatherhood will not be such an uncompensated sacrifice in +those days, even apart from its inherent rewards. + +The point I am trying to make is that the legislation and the social +changes here advocated as necessary in the interests of women, and +indeed asserted to be their rights, do not involve any injury to men. +This common delusion is a mere instance of the poisonous principle of +politicians, notably fiscal politicians, and of many business men. Their +belief is that what benefits Germany must hurt England, that what hurts +Germany must benefit England, that all trade is a question of somebody +scoring off another or being scored off. The idea that there are great +games in which both sides stand to win, if they "play the game," is +meaningless to them. That German prosperity can favour English +prosperity, that true commerce is a mutual exchange for mutual +benefit--these are notions obviously absurd to people who think on this +horrible assumption which reigns unchallenged in a thousand columns of +fiscal controversy every morning. And when these people turn to the +question of legislation as between the sexes, they naturally assume that +anything which promises to benefit women will injure men. The vote is +thus regarded as a means of injuring men--necessarily, because it +advantages women--and assuredly such people will suppose that any +measures in the direction of granting what I here prefer to call the +"rights of mothers" (leaving to one side the "rights of women"), +necessarily involve a proportionate disadvantage to men. I deny it +utterly: + + The woman's cause is man's: they rise or sink + Together, dwarfed or God-like, bond or free. + +The rights of mothers, we have seen, are fundamental for any society, +and to satisfy them is to meet the most clearly primary of social needs. +But there will be some readers of this book, perhaps, who miss any +discussion of the "rights of women." I do not care for the phrase, +because I do not think that we often see it usefully employed. For me +the propositions are self-evident that men and women, being human +beings, have the rights of human beings. Each of us has the right to the +conditions of the most complete self-development and expression that is +compatible with the granting of the same right to others. It is true +that women have been largely debarred from these conditions as a sex, +and in so far there is some meaning in the phrase "Women's rights." But +otherwise we all agree that men and women alike have the right which has +just been stated in terms that are a paraphrase of Herbert Spencer's +definition of liberty. Men's rights and women's rights are the rights to +"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." If any one disputes the +application of this principle to women as unreservedly as to men, I will +not argue with him. I write for decent people. + +At this stage in the development of civilization, our business is to +see, first, that our social proceedings and reconstructions of +enterprises are compatible with the nature of the human individual, male +and female. It is always necessary for us to be reminded of the facts of +the individual, for in the last resort they will determine the failure +or the success of all our schemes. And then we must see where our +existing social structure fails to satisfy the needs of individual +development and of individual duty. In seeking to rectify what may here +be wrong, of course we must take first things first--we must set the +case right for the most important people before we go on to the others. + +Now it is the simple, obvious truth,--so obvious and unchallengeable +that somehow it has never been stated--that in any human society the +parents are the most important people. The division is not between +education and the lack of it, or wealth and the lack of it, or breeding +and the lack of it. It is not the aristocracy that matters supremely; +nor the "great middle-class"; nor the masses; nor the teachers; nor the +doctors; nor the servants of modern industrialism. The classification is +a biological one--into parents and non-parents. The non-parents may be +invaluable in their way, if only they beget something that is valuable. +Heaven forbid that I should undervalue the children of the mind. But if +we are to classify any nation, the first and last classification of any +moment is none of those in which we always indulge and which all our +customs and traditions and prejudices are ever seeking to perpetuate; +but the classification into those who will die childless and those who +create the future race. That is why, for me at any rate, the subject of +women's rights is jejune and sterile compared with the subject of this +chapter. First let us ascertain the rights of mothers and grant them, to +the very uttermost; then let us do the same for the fathers. Let us +exact of each the corresponding duties; and the next generation, brought +into being under such conditions, will solve all our problems. But +whilst we neglect the first things we shall permanently solve no problem +at all. We may seem to do so, but if we dishonour parenthood, if we +leave the inferior women to mother the future, the degenerate race that +must ensue will find itself in difficulties compared with which ours are +trivial, and our solutions of them impotent. + +That is why I seek to draw attention to the rights not of women as +women,--for neither men nor women have any peculiar rights as men or +women--nor yet to the rights of wives as wives, but to the rights of +mothers as mothers, whether married or unmarried, whether husbanded or +widowed. The rights of women are the rights of human beings, and no +special concern of a writer on woman and womanhood, paradoxical as the +assertion may be. The rights of wives are often discussed, but I +question whether the discussion ever helped a wife yet, except solely in +the matter of her monetary claims upon her husband. Discussion and +public opinion and consequent legislation can effect, and have effected, +something for wives as wives in this matter. In other matters, much more +vital to their happiness, each case is unique because all individuals +are unique; and the discussion of the questions can amount to no more +than futile and obvious platitude. + +But when motherhood is concerned the monetary question becomes worthy of +the adjective economic, so often prostituted, for the making of future +life depends upon the provision of adequate means. The whole essence of +motherhood is that it is a dedication of the present to the future. +Every mother is in the position of the inventor or the poet or the +musician for whose work the present makes no demand and no payment. The +future is being served, but the future is not there to pay. The rights +of mothers are the rights of the future, and its claims upon the +present. + +It can be abundantly shown that increasing prevision or provision marks +the ascent of organic Nature; that as life ascends the present is more +and more dedicated to the future. The completeness of this dedication is +the most exemplary fact of the many which the bee-hive provides for our +instruction and following. Consider the dedication of the hive to the +queen. Realize that she is not in any way the ruler of the hive, but she +is _the only mother in it_. She is the parent, and, on our principles, +she is therefore the most important person in the hive. No one else has +any rights but to serve her, for the future absolutely depends upon her. +So does the future of our society depend upon its mothers. In our +species there are many and not one, as in the bee-hive. If there were +just one individual who was to be the mother of the next generation, +even our politicians would perceive that she was the most important +person in the community, and that her rights were supreme. But the +principle stands, though, as it happens, human mothers are not one in +each generation, but many. They are in our society what the queen bee is +in the hive, and the future will transcend the present and the past just +in so far as they are well-chosen, and well cared for. + +To the best of my belief this principle has not yet been recognized by +any one. The rights of women and the rights of wives are often +discussed, but the rights of mothers is a term expressing a principle +which is not to be called new, only because in the bee-hive, for +instance, we see it expressed and inerrably served. + +Perhaps it may be permitted to close with a personal reminiscence which, +at any rate, bears on the genesis of this chapter. Some nine years ago +when I was resident-surgeon to the Edinburgh Maternity Hospital, I +proposed to get up a concert for the patients on Boxing Day, and on +asking permission of the distinguished obstetrician who was in supreme +charge, was met with the question, "Do they deserve it?" After several +seconds there slowly dawned the fact which I knew but had long +forgotten, that the mothers in the large ward where the music was +proposed, were all unmarried, and finally I answered, "I don't know." +Nor do I know to this day, and though the answer was given in weakness +and in a disconcerted voice, I doubt whether any wiser one could be +framed. We all know what desert means, and merit and credit, until we +begin to think and study: and we end by discovering that we do not know +what, in the last analysis, these terms mean. But, at any rate, these +women,--one of them, I remember, was a child of fourteen--were mothers, +and whatever favoured their convalescence unquestionably made for the +survival of their babies. It might have been argued that if the patients +did not deserve music, they did not deserve the air and light and food +and skill and kindness with which they were being restored to health. +But it is not a question of deserts. These women were mothers. If they +should not have been, they should not have been, and if the blame was +theirs, they were blameworthy. But mothers they were, with the duties +of mothers to perform, and therefore with the rights of mothers. They +got their concert and were all the better for the remarkably indifferent +music of which it consisted, as such concerts commonly do; and I am only +very sorry if any of them argued therefrom that she had nothing in the +past to regret. + +But the spiritual attitude revealed in the question, "Do they deserve +it?" is one which must speedily go to its own place. Let us strive to +dignify marriage, to educate the young of both sexes for parenthood, to +reduce illegitimacy, to reward virtue. But where there is motherhood in +being, whether expectant or achieved, we have a duty which is the +highest and most sacred of all because it is the Future that we are +called upon to serve, and upon us it wholly depends. + +As Mr. John Burns said to our first Infant Mortality Conference in Great +Britain in 1907, "Let us dignify, purify and glorify motherhood by every +means in our power." Evidently this can only be done through marriage, +which is in its very essence an institution for the dignifying of +motherhood. But a biological writer cannot distinguish as a theologian +can between legal and extra-legal motherhood. He may declare that +motherhood is hideously illegitimate when it is forced upon a wife +married to an inebriate degenerate. He may accept marriage with all his +heart as an institution which for him has natural sanctions millions of +years older than any Church or State or mankind itself. But for him as a +student of life all motherhood must be guarded as such--even if it be +guarded in such a fashion that it can never recur, which is our duty to +the feeble-minded mother. + +If there be any reader who is unacquainted with M. Maeterlinck's "Life +of the Bee," let him or her study that instructive book. Let him ask why +the queen is the End of the hive, why all is for her. Let him ask +whether the natural law upon which this depends--the law that all +individuals are mortal--does not apply to all races, even our own, and +perhaps he will come to agree that the rights of mothers are the oldest +and deepest and most necessary of any rights that can be named. + +And the recognition and granting of them--as they must necessarily be +recognized and granted in every living race that depends upon +motherhood--is even more imperative in our case than in any other, since +human motherhood makes more demands upon the individual than any other. +By our constitution we human beings must devote more of our energies to +the Future than any other race. But it is a Future better worth working +for than any of theirs. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +WOMEN AND ECONOMICS + + +It will be evident that the writer of the foregoing chapter must have +something to say on the question of women and economics, but though what +must be said seems to me to be very important, it can be stated at no +great length. + +If we turn to the most widely-read and applauded of the feminist books +on this subject, _Women and Economics_, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we +are by no means encouraged to find it stated in the first chapter that +woman's present economic inferiority to man is not due to "any inherent +disability of sex." Wherever Mrs. Gilman may be right, here the +biologist knows that she is wrong. The argument has been fully stated in +earlier pages, and need not here be restated. But we shall not be +surprised if a premise which denies any natural economic disadvantage of +women leads to more than dubious conclusions. + +Only a few pages later, Mrs. Gilman refers to the argument that the +economic dependence of women upon their husbands is defensible on the +ground that they perform the duties of motherhood, and the following is +her comment thereon: + + "The claim of motherhood as a factor in economic exchange is false + to-day. But suppose it were true. Are we willing to hold this + ground, even in theory? Are we willing to consider motherhood as a + business, a form of commercial exchange? Are the cares and duties + of the mother, her travail and her love, commodities to be + exchanged for bread? + + "It is revolting so to consider them; and if we dare face our own + thoughts, and force them to their logical conclusion, we shall see + that nothing could be more repugnant to human feeling, or more + socially and individually injurious, than to make motherhood a + trade." + +Surely this is special pleading and not very plausible at that. It may +be replied, "Is not the labourer worthy of his hire?"--however noble the +labour. If we choose to call society's or a husband's support of +motherhood "a form of commercial exchange," it is indeed "revolting" so +to see it; let us then look at the case as it is. We applaud the "cares +and duties of the mother, her travail and her love"; but the more +assiduous her maternity, and the more admirable, the more certainly will +she require to be fed. If she cannot simultaneously feed her child and +forage for herself, somebody must forage for her; and to say that +therefore the cares and duties of the mother, her travail and her love, +become commodities to be exchanged for bread, is simply to cloud a clear +case with question-begging epithets. Always, everywhere, if motherhood +is to be performed at its highest, the mother must be supported. It is +not a question of commercial exchange, but of obvious natural necessity. +The foregoing chapter with its argument for the rights of mothers as a +great and neglected social principle, may be unsound throughout, but it +will certainly not be refuted by sentences such as these. + +Briefly, Mrs. Gilman proposes to "do away with the family kitchen and +dining-room, to transform all domestic service from the incapable, +hand-to-mouth standard of untrained amateurs to that of professional +experts, to raise the work of child nursing and rearing to a scientific +and skilled basis, to secure the self-support of the wife and mother +through skilled labour, so that she may be economically independent of +her husband." + +But if her child nursing and rearing are to be scientific and skilled, +and she is simultaneously to support herself through skilled labour, she +clearly requires to be two women or one woman in two places at the same +time. This, in effect, is what Mrs. Gilman expects. We have seen that +Mr. H. G. Wells's proposed help for motherhood consists in discharging +fatherhood from its duties: Mrs. Gilman's idea is to double the mother's +work. Both come to much the same thing. + +All women, mothers or other, are to become economically independent, +instead of being "parasitic on the male," our author's unpleasing way of +recognizing that fatherhood has reached high and responsible estate +amongst mankind. Now if Mrs. Gilman's solution be feasible, we must +return to our fundamentals and see whether they are compatible with it. +She has no doubt of it. Thus:-- + + "If it could be shown that the women of to-day were growing beards, + were changing as to pelvic bones, were developing bass voices, or + that in their new activities they were manifesting the destructive + energy, the brutal combative instinct, or the intense sex-vanity of + the male, then there would be cause for alarm. But the one thing + that has been shown in what study we have been able to make of + women in industry is that they are women still, and this seems to + be a surprise to many worthy souls ... 'the new woman' will be no + less female than the 'old' woman ... she will be, with it all, more + feminine. + + "The more freely the human mother mingles in the natural industries + of a human creature, as in the case of the savage woman, the + peasant woman, the working-woman everywhere who is not overworked, + the more rightly she fulfils these functions."[20] + +We may not be so sure that there is not some evidence for "growing +beards," "developing bass voices," and "manifesting the destructive +energy, the brutal combative instinct, or the intense sex-vanity of the +male"; and in our brief attempt to make a first study of womanhood in +the light of Mendelism, we have seen good reason to understand why +masculine characters may come to the surface in the female whose +femininity has worn thin. Several of the lower animals definitely show +us the possibilities. + +But we need not accept the issue on the grounds of such superficial +manifestations as these, for there are others, more subtle and vastly +more important, on which must be fought the question whether women in +industry are women still, and whether the "new woman" is more feminine +than the old. Let us dismiss the extremes in both directions. We need +not adduce the members of the Pioneer Club, who show their increasing +femininity by donning male attire; nor need we question that large +numbers of women in industry continue to remain feminine still. The +practical question which we must determine, if possible, is the average +effect of industrial conditions and the assumption of the functions +commonly supposed to be more suitably masculine, upon women in general. +Here we definitely join issue with Mrs. Gilman. + +It is impossible to discuss, as we might well do, the available evidence +as to the effect of external activities upon that wonderful function of +womanhood which, in its correspondence with the rhythm of the tides, +hints, like many other of our attributes, at our distant origin in the +Sea--the mother of all living. Reference was made in an earlier chapter +to this function, and its use as, in most cases at any rate, a criterion +of womanhood and a gauge of the effect of physical exercise or mental +exercise thereupon. The writer of "Women and Economics" has nothing to +say on this subject--less, if possible, than on the subject of +lactation. The menstrual function would admirably and fundamentally +illustrate the present contention, but it will be better to take the +great maternal and mammalian function of nursing as a criterion of +womanhood, and as a test of the contention that the more freely the +mother works as do the savage woman and the peasant woman, the more +rightly she fulfils the "primal physical functions of maternity." + +Before we consider the actual evidence (and Mrs. Gilman does not deal at +all in evidence on these fundamentals to her argument) let us meet the +argument about the "savage woman," who works as hard as men do,--though +much less hard than early observers of savage life supposed--and who is +nevertheless a successful mother. It is completely forgotten that, just +as parenthood, both fatherhood and motherhood, demands more of the +individual as we rise in the scale of animal evolution, so, within our +own species, the same holds good. In general, the mothers of civilized +races are the mothers of babies whose heads are larger at birth (as they +will be in adult life), than those of savage babies. It is true that the +civilized woman has, on the average, a considerably larger pelvis than +that of, for instance, the negress. There must be a feasible, +practicable ratio between the two sets of measurements if babies are to +enter the world at all. But the increasing size of the human head is a +great practical problem for women. No one can say how many millions have +perished in the past because their pelves were too narrow for the +increasing demands thus made upon them, and doubtless the greater +capacity of the female pelvis in higher races is mainly due to this +terrible but racially beneficent process of selection, by which women +with pelves nearer (e. g.) to negro type, have been rejected, and women +with wider pelves have survived, to transmit their breadth of pelvis to +their daughters and carry on the larger-headed races. But even now +obstetricians are well aware that the practical mechanical problem for +the civilized woman is much more serious than for her savage sister; and +the argument that civilized women would discharge maternal functions as +well as savage women if they worked as hard is therefore worthless. + +Let us return now to the question of nursing capacity. "Bass voices" +and "beards" are doubtless unlovely in woman, but their extensive +appearance would be of no consequence at all compared with the +disappearance or weakening of the mammalian function which, as everyone +knows or should know, is the dominating factor in the survival or death +of infancy. Now it may be briefly asserted that civilized woman, and +more especially industrial woman, threatens to cease to be a mammal. If +this assertion can be substantiated, and if the "economic independence +of women" necessarily involves it, no biologist, no medical man, no +first-hand student of life, will hesitate to condemn finally the ideal +toward which Mrs. Gilman and those who think with her would have us go. +Things may be bad, things _are_ very bad: the lot of woman must be +raised immensely, because the race must be raised, and cannot be raised +otherwise; but progress is going forward and not backward, Mr. +Chesterton notwithstanding. Woman will not become more than a mammal by +becoming less, and going back on that great achievement of ascending +life. Individuals may do so, and are doing so, lamentably misdirected as +many of them now are; but that is the end of them and their kind. It is +quite easy to stamp out motherhood and its inevitable economic +dependence, but with it you stamp out the future. + +It is generally admitted that our women nurse their babies less than +they used to do. It is as generally admitted that this is often +deliberate choice, and we all know that it is often economic necessity: +the human mother "mingles in the natural industries of a human +creature," such as the factory affords, and cannot simultaneously stay +at home to nurse her baby, making men--for which, as a "natural +industry" of women, even as against making, say, lead-glaze for china, +there may be something to be said. + +But whilst popular preachers and castigators of the sins of society +fulminate against the fine lady who asks for belladonna and refuses to +do her duty, we must enquire to what extent, if any, women no longer +nurse their babies because they cannot, try they never so patiently and +strenuously. It is the general belief amongst those whose daily work +qualifies them for an opinion, that women are tending to lose the power +of nursing. Professor von Bunge, whose name is honoured by all students +of the action of drugs, has satisfied himself that alcoholism in the +father is a great cause of incapacity to nurse in daughters. However +that interpretation may be, the fact seems clear; and the change in this +direction is evidently much more rapid than might be accounted for by +the improvement in artificial feeding of infants leading to the survival +of daughters of mothers unable to nurse, and transmitting their +inability to their children. Mrs. Gilman--having ignored menstruation +altogether--makes only one allusion to this vastly important subject, +and we shall see to what extent her sanguine assumption is justified. +According to her, "A healthy, happy, rightly occupied motherhood should +be able to keep up this function (of nursing) longer than is now +customary--to the child's great gain." There can be no question about +the child's great gain; but what is the evidence for supposing that a +mother earning her own living in free competition with men--which is +what a "healthy, happy, rightly occupied motherhood" means in this +connection--can thus spend her energies twice over, unlike any other +source of energy known? + +According to official statistics, maternal lactation is steadily +decreasing in several German cities, notably in Berlin, where only 56.2 +per cent. of infants under one month were suckled by their mothers in +1905, as against 65.6 per cent. in 1895, and 74.3 per cent. in 1885. At +nine months of age 22.4 per cent. were suckled in 1905, 34.6 per cent. +in 1895, 49 per cent. in 1885. Other towns show more favourable results; +a general decrease, however, is marked. These facts cannot be ascribed, +according to the author,[21] to a growing disinclination to +breast-feeding, nor to the employment of mothers (in Prussia only 5 per +cent. of the married women are employed in manufacture). The question +whether the decrease in breast-feeding is due to the industrial +employment of women before marriage, or to (inherited) degeneration, +remains to be determined. + +According to a recent statement by Professor von Bunge, the conditions +are very similar now in Switzerland, where only about one mother in five +can nurse her children. + +Similar evidence could be cited from other sources, and the fact being +admitted must evidently be reckoned with. + +That the modern development of infant feeding will serve to replace +natural lactation, must be denied, and this without prejudice to the +magnificent work of the late Professor Budin of Paris and Professor +Morgan Rotch of Harvard. These pioneers and their followers have devised +some admirable second bests--admirable, that is, relatively to some of +the pitiable methods which they have superseded, but relatively to the +mother's breast not admirable at all. At the beginning of the campaign +against infant mortality, the crèche and the sterilized milk dépôt and +the fractional analysis of cow's milk and its recomposition in suitable +proportions of proteid, fat, etc., as devised by Rotch, were rightly +acclaimed and admitted to save vast numbers of infant lives. All this is +mere stop-gap, wonderfully effective, no doubt, but only stop-gap +nevertheless. In France they are going ahead, and public opinion in +London is being slowly persuaded to follow along the more recent French +lines. The modern principle upon which we should act is Nature's +principle--saving the children through their mothers. Expectant +motherhood must be taken care of; we must feed, not the child, but the +nursing mother, and the child through her. If we rightly take care of +her, she will construct a perfect food for the child. There is no other +path of racial safety. It is not our present concern to deal with the +problems of infancy and childhood as they require, and surely we need +not wait to prove that nursing motherhood cannot safely be superseded, +but must be retained and safeguarded. + +If this postulate be granted, we have to determine how it comes about +that the German figures, for instance, are showing this extraordinarily +rapid decline in maternal lactation. As has already been noted in +passing, we must reject the suggestion that the natural type of women is +changing. Such a change of natural type in any living race can occur +only through selection for parenthood, and such selection in the case in +question can scarcely be imagined to occur in the direction of choosing +women who are naturally less capable of nursing. On the contrary, the +tendency of the selective principle must always be toward the greater +survival of infants whose mothers can nurse them, and who in their turn, +if they are to be women, will be more likely to be able to nurse their +children. Further, the action of selection cannot demonstrate itself +more quickly than is permitted by the length of human generations. It +must therefore be rejected as any interpretation of this case. If women +are ceasing to be able to nurse their babies, and if this change is +occurring with such extraordinary rapidity as the German figures +indicate, plainly the explanation must be found in the action of some +recent and novel condition or conditions upon womanhood. + +Perhaps it need scarcely be insisted that the distinction here sought to +be made is of the utmost importance. If the natural type of womanhood +were actually changing, we could scarcely do more than observe and +despair, but if it be merely that the capacities of this generation of +women are being modified by the particular conditions to which they are +subjected, plainly we who have made those conditions can modify +them--"What man has made, man can destroy." + +If we come to ask ourselves what these recent and novel conditions are, +the answer is only too ready at hand. The principles which will guide us +toward discovering it have been set forth at length in the earlier +chapters of this book. Let us recur to our Geddes and Thomson, and at +once we have the key. The production of milk is an act of anabolism or +building-up, such as we have seen to be characteristic of the female +sex, involving the accumulation and storage of quantities of energy so +large that if they were stated in the units of the physicist they would +astonish us. If we consider what the child achieves in the way of +movement and development and growth, and if we realize that at the most +rapid period of development and growth, all the energy therefor has been +gathered, prepared, and is dispensed by the nursing mother, we shall +begin to realize what an astonishing feat that is which she performs. It +is in reality, of course, the same feat which is performed by the +expectant mother, only that it is slightly less arduous, since after +birth the child can breathe and digest for itself. + +Perhaps the reader will begin to realize what Mrs. Gilman and those who +think with her are asking us to believe when they say that the primal +physical functions of maternity will be best fulfilled by the mother who +"mingles in the natural industries of a human creature." This statement +is either ridiculously false or can be rendered true by rendering it as +a truism. The primal physical functions of maternity _are_ the natural +industries of the particular human creature we call a mother; and the +better she fulfils them, the better she fulfils them, certainly. But the +so-called natural industries in which the modern mother is desired to +be engaged whilst she is bearing or nursing her children are as +unnatural as anything can be. As at present practised, they are morbid +products of civilization which it will require to cast off if it is to +survive. + +It is the student of life and its laws who must have the last word in +these matters. If he utters it wrongly or is unheeded, Nature is not +mocked, but will be avenged. The writer who can lay down a new principle +on which our life is to be based, without paying any more attention to +lactation than is to be found in the argument we have been considering, +has left out the beginning, has omitted the foundations. No measure of +earnestness or literary skill can save her case. + +Of course the reply will be that the biological criticism is simply the +ancient and oriental idea of woman as a helpless dependent, reasserted +for male advantage in our own day. One cannot believe that it is +necessary to rebut that accusation. It is necessary, however, to examine +somewhat the words "economic dependence" and "economic independence" +which are employed with such naïve antithesis in this controversy. + +When we examine Mrs. Gilman's proposal for the salvation of woman, we +find it to mean that in future mothers are to do double work. The +glorious consummation is to be that woman is no longer "parasitic on the +male," which is Mrs. Gilman's way of expressing the great truth that the +mother for whom the father works, represents the future supported by the +present. + +But the future is always supported by the present. Woman, we began by +saying, is Nature's supreme organ of the future, and the present must +live for her and die for her. When we say the future, we mean childhood. +If childhood is to appear and to survive, womanhood must be dedicated to +it, and manhood, which stands for the present, must supply its own link +in the chain. The following paragraph from an unsigned article which +appeared some years ago in the _Morning Post_ states the case in a form +which may convince the reader. It was headed "Repairs and Renewals of +the People," and ran as follows:-- + + "It is, indeed, seldom sufficiently realized how much a nation, so + to speak, lives always in and for the future. Broadly speaking, of + every ten persons living in the United Kingdom now, four are less + than twenty years of age, while three of the rest are women (two of + them married women)--that is to say, people also mainly concerned, + through the care of children, with the future rather than with the + present. Upon the remaining three men, one of whom be it noted is + over fifty-five, falls the bulk of the work of providing for + immediate needs and so releasing the others to provide for the + continuance of the race. A definite large share of all the present + activities of a people is required and, as it were, pledged to + provide for its renewal. If it fails to allow sufficient, it may, + just like a company or a municipal concern with an inadequate + depreciation fund, show large profits and great prosperity for a + time; it cannot be regarded as a sound concern." + +The reader must decide whether there is more light and leading in the +interpretation that upon men falls the bulk of the work of providing for +immediate needs, and so enabling women to provide for the continuance +of the race, or, in Mrs. Gilman's version that woman is parasitic upon +the male. The future, if she likes to state it in that way, is parasitic +upon the present, always has been and always will be. The case which she +imagines to be unique and morbid, peculiar to civilized mankind, is +precisely the case of the hen bird who sits upon her eggs, incubating +the future, whilst the male goes and forages for her. She is parasitic +upon the male, as Mrs. Gilman would put it. + +The truth is that, like many other women dominated by sex +antagonism--which glares ferociously from such paragraphs as that which +was quoted regarding "the brutal combative instinct or the intense +sex-vanity of the male"--Mrs. Gilman, in seeking to further the +interests of her sex, proposes to dispense with the help of its best +friend, which is the other sex. It is not easy to speak with patience of +those who thus seek to set the house of mankind against itself, to the +injury of men, women and children alike. + +No doubt it is true that Mrs. Gilman's attitude is engendered by sex +antagonism as we see it everywhere in men--though for some obscure +reason it is only so labelled when displayed by women. No doubt, also, a +much better case can be made out for Mrs. Gilman's proposals, up to a +point, than could be made out for corresponding proposals on the other +side. No one who thinks for a moment can question that all proposals +whatsoever to make either sex independent of the other are stark +madness; yet there is a certain short-lived plausibility in the argument +that women are to be independent of men, and this depends upon the fact +which we have already attempted to demonstrate and interpret by means of +Mendelism, that women are more than men, and that womanhood includes +latent manhood. If, therefore, we are careful with the argument and +boldly rush past the really crucial places, such as the conditions and +needs of expectant and nursing motherhood, we can make out what looks +like a case for the economic dependence of women. Each sex is to work +for itself, and then there need be no more quarrelling. + +But we could not go even so far with any theory for making men +independent of women without seeing that we were no less wrong on that +side than Mrs. Gilman is on the other. Man's apparent economic +independence of women is as complete a myth as women's projected +economic independence of men. In the last resort, when we come down to +realities, and remember that both men and women are mortal, and that +unless they are replaced, everything ends, we see that the introduction +of the word economic into this question simply serves to confuse +thought, just as the older political economy confused thought and laid +itself open to the mercilessly magnificent attacks of Ruskin. Economy is +literally the law of the house or the home--where life begins. Of all +economies, life is the last judge, because there is no wealth but life. +_In the last resort the economic dependence of the sexes means nothing +because the sexes cannot independently reproduce themselves._ + +If Mrs. Gilman is to be arraigned for her error let us see to it most +carefully that we do not fail to arraign the men who, with not +one-thousandth part of her excuse and with no iota of her ability, fall +into the corresponding error on their side. When Women's Suffrage is +being debated, there never fails a supply of men who write to the papers +to say that men must vote and not women because men and not women "made +the State." How much simpler our problems would be if there were some +means of distinguishing children who will grow up into men of this type, +and carefully refraining from teaching them to read or write! Make the +State, indeed!--they can make nothing but fools of themselves, and +without women's assistance could not even reproduce their folly. Of +course the retort to all this nonsense is that neither sex ever yet +created anything without the other. Every human act and achievement is +the product of both sexes. When some friend of the past assures us that +women should not vote because they cannot bear arms, he is of course +reminded that women bear the soldiers. It is true and it is +unanswerable. In just the same way, when Mrs. Gilman wishes women to be +economically independent of men, whom she considers as animals +distinguished by their destructive energy, brutality and intense sex +vanity, she is simply ignoring half the truth. Let either sex try to run +the earth alone till Halley's comet returns, and what would be left for +it to see? Of all follies uttered on this subject, and they are many, +the cry, each sex for itself, is the wickedest and worst. + +The reader may well declare that such criticism is easy, but of little +worth unless it be accompanied by some kind of constructive proposals +for the amelioration of present conditions. Nothing is destroyed until +it is replaced. If the present economic conditions of women involve the +most hideous wickedness and cruelty and injure the entire progress of +mankind, as they assuredly do, and if they therefore must be destroyed, +we must have something to replace them with; and if Mrs. Gilman's +proposals would simply make the difficulty a thousand times worse by +depriving women of men's help, what proposals are there to offer +instead? + +The reply is that we must go back to first principles. We must drop all +our phrases about economic independence or dependence. They have urgent +and real meanings for each one of us at any given time, but when applied +to the problems of the reconstruction of society as a whole, they mean +nothing because they are based upon no vital truths whatever. A man may +be economically secure when he is producing absinthe or whisky, or he +may die of starvation because he is producing the songs of Schubert. +Economic independence and dependence mean very much to the prosperous +distiller whom men pay for poison, and to the immortal composer whom men +do not pay at all, but who yet produces that which nourishes the life of +all the future. The maker of death may live, and the maker of life may +die; we see it every day and history is the continuous record of it. +These economic dependences and independences consist only in the +relations of one man or woman to the others. They have nothing to do +with the real issue, which is the relation of mankind as a whole to +Nature. These economic questions are simply concerned with money--the +means whereby one man has more or less claim upon another: society may +have to be reconstructed in such a fashion that economic independence +and dependence, as at present understood, would have no meaning +whatever. Yet all the real economic questions would remain, even though +money or private property were abolished. The real economy is the making +and preserving of life and the means of life. We live in a chaos where +the elementary conditions of human existence are constantly forgotten. +The real politics, the real economy, the real political economy, are the +questions of the birth-rate and the wheat supply--the relations not +between man and man, or class and class, or sex and sex, but mankind, +living and dying and being born, and the world in which he has to live. +The time is near at hand when the first conditions of national life will +be recognized as they have never been since the dawn of modern +industrialism. The products of men's labour and women's labour will be +appraised and paid for in proportion to their _real_ value, their +strength or availableness for life. + +In "Unto This Last" and "Munera Pulveris," Ruskin has laid down, on what +are really unchallengeable biological grounds, the foundations of the +political economy of the future. We are going to have done with the +industries which eat up men. We cannot much longer afford to grow whisky +where we might grow wheat, for there are ever more mouths to be fed, and +wheat is running short. Cheap and dear mean nothing when we get down to +realities. Is a thing vital or is it mortal?--that is the only +question. It may be vital and costless, like air, or mortal and dear, +like alcohol. The question is not how much money can you get from +another man for your product, but how much life can mankind get from +Nature for it. Thus we shall return to a sane appreciation of the +primary importance of agriculture as against manufacture, of food as +against anything else,--for unless one is fed, of what use is anything +else? And as nations gradually begin to discover that the means of life +are the really valuable things, they will go on to learn, what primitive +races, hard-pressed races, races making their way in the world against +heavy odds, have always known--that at all costs the insatiable +destructiveness of Death must be compensated for by Birth. If the means +of life are the real wealth, the life itself is more real still, and +unless we abolish death, the makers and bearers and nourishers of life +are at all times and everywhere the producers, the manufacturers, the +workers of the community above and beyond all others. And these are the +women in their great functions as mothers and foster-mothers, nurses, +teachers. + +The economics of the future will be based upon these elemental and +perdurable truths. No writer in his senses will then be guilty of such +immeasurable folly as to place the "natural industries of a human +creature" _in antithesis_ to "the primal physical functions of +maternity." The sex which came first and remains first in the immediacy +and indispensableness of its relations to the coming life will base its +economic claims--in the vulgar and narrow sense of that term--upon the +worth of those relations. The society which cannot afford to pay +for--that is, to sustain--the characteristic functions of womanhood, +cannot continue; and societies have continued and will continue in +proportion as they hold hard by these first conditions of their lives. +The case of Jewish womanhood is the supreme illustration of a thesis +which requires no experimental demonstration, but is necessarily true. + +Here, then, is the solution, as the future will prove, of the problem of +the economic status of woman. At present, though Ellen Key is the only +feminist writer who recognizes it, women can compete successfully with +men only at the cost of complete womanhood,--and that is a price which +society as a whole cannot afford to pay, if it wishes to continue. +Therefore we must, in effect, pay women in advance for their work, the +actual realization of the value of which is always necessarily deferred. +The case is parallel to that of expenditure upon forestry. In the +planting of trees or the nurture of babies the State will get value for +its money in the long run, but it must be prepared to wait. States are +slowly becoming more provident, and already we are coming to see this +about trees. Soon we shall see it about babies, and the problem of the +economic status of woman will then be solved in practice as it is +assuredly soluble in principle. + +Mankind must first learn to renounce Mammon and set up Life as its God; +but to that also we shall come--or perish, for Life is a jealous God and +visits the sins of the fathers upon the third and fourth generation. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE CHIEF ENEMY OF WOMEN + + +If we believe that the sexes are mutually dependent and, in the long +run, can neither be injured nor befriended apart, we shall be prepared +to expect that the chief enemy of civilized mankind is no less inimical +to women than to men. So long as it was supposed that drinking merely +injured the drinker, and so long as the drinkers were almost entirely +men, it could be argued by persons sufficiently foolish that indulgence +in alcohol was a male vice or delight which really did not concern women +at all--if men choose to drink or to smoke or to bet or to play games, +what business is that of women? It is an argument which would not appeal +to the mind of the primitive law-giver, and can be accepted by no one who +thinks to-day. + +For the least effects of drink are those which are seen in the drinker. +The question of alcoholism is not one of the abuse of a good thing, here +and there injuring those who take it to excess, but is a national +question which affects the entire community, abstainers, and drinkers, +men, women and children, present and to come. No one who has seriously +studied the action of alcohol on civilization can question that it is +our chief external enemy. We must use the word external for the best of +good reasons, since we know that always and everywhere man's chief foes +are those of his own household--his own proneness to injure himself and +others. And alcohol, indeed, would not be our chief external enemy were +it not for the very fact that its malign power is chiefly exerted by a +degradation of the man within. It is a material thing and no part of our +psychological nature. So long as it is kept outside us it has the most +admirable uses, which are yearly becoming more various and important; +but, taken within, it alters the human constitution, and hereby achieves +its title as our worst enemy. + +People who estimate the influence of alcohol by means of the alcoholic +death-rate or by the rate of convictions for drunkenness will not +readily accept the doctrine that alcohol is a greater enemy of women +than of men. Yet assuredly this is true. It is an axiomatic and first +principle that whatever injures one sex injures the other, and whilst +drinking on the part of women at present injures men as a whole in +comparatively small degree, the consumption of alcohol by men works +enormous injury upon women indirectly, in addition to that direct injury +which civilized women are yearly inflicting more gravely upon +themselves, at any rate in Great Britain. + +Woman, we have argued, is Nature's supreme organ of the future, and just +as she is mediate between men and the future, so men are mediate between +her and the present. For the individual woman and the present, the +quality of the manhood which constitutes her human environment is more +important than anything else. If the manhood is withdrawn and she is +thrown upon her own resources, there is disaster; if the manhood be +damaged or degenerate, so much the worse for the woman; if the manhood +be of the best, there and only there are the best conditions provided +for the highest womanhood. + +First, then, let us observe how alcohol injures women by its +contribution to the male death-rate. Allusion has already been made to a +simple statistical enquiry which I made a few years ago in regard to the +influence of alcohol as a maker of widows and orphans. The results of +that enquiry may here be quoted, having only appeared in the daily press +hitherto. They will suffice to show that alcohol on this ground alone is +a great enemy of women, and especially of wives. The following is the +conclusion published in several papers in England in November, 1908:-- + + "Some time ago we heard a good deal, both in and out of Parliament, + about the debenture widow whose little all is invested in brewery + securities. There is, on the other hand, the widow so made by + alcohol. I am not aware that anyone has attempted to estimate the + approximate number of each of these two classes. The following is + merely a rude approximation. + + It has been stated that there are half a million persons who have + invested money in the licensed trade. Let us allow that half of + these are men. The death-rate of all males, above fifteen years of + age, is slightly over sixteen per 1,000. At the census of 1901, 536 + in each 1,000 males aged fifteen years and upwards were found to be + married. Ignoring the differential death-rate of the married as + compared with bachelors and widows, it follows that about 4,100 + male investors in the licensed trade die each year, of whom some + 2,197 will be married men, leaving behind them the same number of + widows entirely or partly dependent on these investments. + + The widows made by drink are nearly six times as many. + + Numerous inquiries at home and abroad agree somewhat closely in + stating _14 per cent_. of the entire death-rate to be due to + alcohol. The proportion of one in seven is accepted by Dr. Archdall + Eeid, who considers that all efforts to restrain drinking increase + drunkenness. I do not think the justness of this figure can be + disputed at all, except as an under-estimate. We are here dealing + with male deaths only, and I will do my contention the obvious + injustice of supposing that the proportion of deaths due wholly or + in part to alcohol is no higher amongst men than amongst women. If + one could allow for the existing difference, the result would be + even more terrible. + + Taking the figures for 1906 for England and Wales alone, we have + 167,307 deaths of males over fifteen; 23,422 of these wholly or + partly due to alcohol, and of this number 12,554 were married men + (i. e., 536 per 1,000). The average size of a family in England and + Wales is 4.62, according to Whitaker. If we multiply the number of + widows, 12,554, by 3.62, we shall have an approximation to the + number of widows and orphans made by alcohol in 1906. There were + 45,445, or over 124 widows and orphans made by alcohol every day in + the year. + + We may now note some further data helping us to compare the 12,554 + alcohol-made widows with the 2,197 whose husbands' fortunes were + wholly or in part bound up with the welfare of the licensed trade. + (Of these latter, also, of course, a large proportion would be + alcohol-made.) + + Dr. Tatham's recently published letter on occupational mortality in + the three years, 1900, 1901, 1902, informs us as to twenty-one + occupations in which the alcoholic death-rate is grossly excessive. + In these twenty-one occupations selected by Dr. Tatham as having an + alcohol mortality which exceeds the standard by at least 50 per + cent., we can work out the alcohol factor and find that it amounts + to 24.5 per cent. The table would take up too much space for me to + ask you to print it, but it is ready on demand, public or private. + The figures work out to show that 5,092 married men in these + twenty-one trades died in each year from alcohol. (I have taken + 24.5 per cent, of the whole number of deaths in the three years, + and reckoned the married proportion of these.) + + The calculation shows that in these twenty-one occupations the + comparative alcohol mortality is 24.5 per cent., as against only 12 + per cent. in all other occupations. + + Amongst the occupations in Dr. Tatham's table may be noted + coalheaver, coach, cab, etc., service, groom, butcher, messenger, + tobacconist, general labourer, general shopkeeper, brewer, chimney + sweep, dock labourer, hawker, publican, inn and hotel servants. A + glance at the table will show that in most cases the men who are + dying are "industrial drinkers," who frequent public-houses in the + districts where the reduction in the number of the licenses under + the present Bill will occur. Often nowadays the widows are heavy + drinkers, and the lives of their children centre round the + public-house. + + If the only wealth of a nation is its life, and history teaches no + more certain truth--and if, since individuals are mortal, the + quantity and quality of parenthood--or of childhood, according to + the point of view--are the supreme factors in the destiny of + nations, do not the foregoing figures warrant the contention that + he who at this date is for alcohol is against England?" + +It has been shown that the effect of alcohol upon the brain persists for +not less than thirty hours after the last dose. But more than two years +have now passed since the foregoing was printed, leaving ample time for +any member of the alcoholic party to "pull himself together" and +demolish it. One is therefore entitled to assume that it cannot be +demolished; on the contrary, it could easily be shown that the foregoing +figures very considerably underrate the actual number of widows and +orphans who must be made by alcohol in this country every year. + +All students of modern life, however greatly they differ in their +methods and objects, are agreed that the question of the economic +position of women is one of the gravest of our time. While this is so, +it may be added that only the Eugenist can adequately realize the +importance of this question, since he knows that with it is involved the +all-important matter of the selection amongst present women for the +motherhood of the future. Unfortunately, as we have seen, the modern +trend is quite definitely in the direction of those of our guides, whom +most of us follow, knowingly or unknowingly, because they have the +brains and we have not, in favouring the economic position of women at +the expense of male responsibility. Meanwhile we have the economic basis +of society as it is, and there is no more serious indictment against +alcohol than this which I have attempted to formulate against it on the +ground of its destruction of fatherhood. Whatever the rest of the +community may incline to, it assuredly seems that the wives, from palace +to hovel, ought to be enemies of this great enemy of theirs. The time +will certainly come when the woman who is bringing up children will be +placed in a position of economic security, and when indeed all other +persons will be less secure than she because the sane State of the +future will guarantee, and regard as the first charge upon itself, the +maintenance of the conditions necessary for the production of the next +generation. But in the chaos in which we welter, widows and orphans have +to take their chance. Who will say a good word for the substance which +makes them by tens of thousands in England and Wales alone every year? + +At least one economic aspect of this question may, however, be dealt +with here. In a rightly constituted society people are held responsible +for their deeds. Parenthood is a deed; in a very true sense it is a more +deliberate, a more active, more self-determined deed, on the part of the +father than on the part of the mother. At present the only act for which +men are held irresponsible--for our practice amounts to that--is the act +for which, above all others, they should be held responsible. A large +amount of the money now spent by men on alcohol and tobacco, and other +things which shorten their lives, and are needed only because they +create a need for themselves, is really required for the interests of +the race. Such is the double destruction worked by the alcoholic form of +this waste that if the average sum, say six shillings a week, expended +in the working-class family on alcohol, were invested on behalf of the +possible widows and orphans, not only would they be provided for, but +the fathers would be saved, and they would not become widows and +orphans. In days to come it will be discovered that such matters as +these are the real political economy, the absence or presence of +tariffs, the incidence of taxation and the like, being matters of no +consequence or significance whatever compared with the question, +fundamental in all times and places for every nation and for every +individual: For what are you spending: for bread or a stone, for life or +for death? + +The foregoing has been chosen for the forefront of this chapter because +of its bearing on a central economic problem of the time, and also +because, for some reason or other, this alcoholic destruction of +fatherhood, though it is of the utmost importance, has hitherto escaped +the attention of sociological students. We pass now to a second point, +of a wholly different character, which particularly well illustrates +certain of the general principles with which we began. The supreme +importance of alcohol or of anything else for human happiness is +attained only through its influence on the selves of men and women. It +is upon these that our happiness depends--upon the nature and the +nurture, from hour to hour, of our selves and the selves with which we +have to deal. Above all, do women as individuals depend for their +happiness upon the selves of men, as we have suggested. + +Now if there be anything certain about the action of alcohol upon the +brain, it is that it degrades the quality of the self. Much of the +cruder pathology of alcohol is open to doubt. A great many of the +supposed degenerative changes in nerve-cells, which were attributed to +it and thought to be irrevocable, are now interpreted otherwise. Chronic +alcoholism is looked upon by such foremost students as Dr. F. W. Mott, +less as a disease due to organic changes produced in the brain than as a +chronic functional derangement due to the continued action of a poison. +This newer interpretation of chronic alcoholism has the very important +practical corollary of encouraging us to the belief, which is frequently +justifiable, that if the chronic intoxication ceases, the individual may +completely or all but completely recover, as would not be the case if +the fine structure of his brain had been actually destroyed. The recent +modification of our views on this subject has, however, only served to +render clearer our understanding of the mental symptoms of alcoholism. +Here is a drug which poisons the organ of the mind. The action of a +single dose persists for a far longer period than used to be supposed, +and thus we now know that in the great majority of civilized men +everywhere, the nervous system, which is the home of the self, is +continuously under the influence of alcohol. + +That influence, as we have said, consistently shows itself in a +degradation of the quality of the self. The poison deranges first the +latest and highest products of evolution; it beheads a man, as we may +say, in thin slices from above downwards. Beginning as it does with the +most human, and only at the very last attacking the most animal part of +our nervous constitution, it is essentially the bestializer, save only +that the alcoholized human being is much lower than the beast, on the +general principle, _Corruptio optimi pessima_--the corruption of the +best is the worst. + +Now wherever alcohol is consumed women have to pay the penalty for its +daily deterioration in the human scale of the men with whom they live; +nor need any reader of even the smallest experience require any writer's +assurance that in vast numbers of such cases the woman suffers more than +the man. He has its moments of compensation, inadequate though they be; +she has none. + +Whilst women suffer in every respect from the influence of alcohol as a +degrader of their men, most of all do they and the race suffer through +the action of alcohol upon the racial instinct. In my book on personal +hygiene was sought an interpretation of the difference between low and +high types of mankind largely in terms of their success or failure in +achieving what may be called the "transmutation" of the racial instinct. +In less metaphorical language this transmutation depends upon the +measure of self-control and deference of present desire to future +purpose. These are supremely human characteristics, and there are none +which alcohol more surely and early attacks. Men are not so constituted +that they are at all likely to profit by any substance which keeps their +racial instinct on its original and less than human plane, and certainly +women suffer in many ways, and with them necessarily the future suffers, +just because of this action of alcohol upon men. + +The argument need not be elaborated, but it may be added that the +disastrous action upon young womanhood of the consumption of alcohol by +young manhood is greatly increased when we find, as we do, that the +young women start drinking too. In these modern days, when the +controlling influence of religion and especially of religious fear is +steadily relaxing, the young woman's best protection is to be found in +her own judgment and self-control and prevision of the future. But these +are the very defences which alcohol in her nervous system saps. Every +social worker is familiar with the daily truth that young womanhood +connives at its own ruin under the influence of alcohol, where otherwise +it need not have fallen. + +This last consideration leads us to the study of a phenomenon which in +many respects is new and unprecedented, while none could be of worse +omen. + +It has for long been alleged that the amount of drinking amongst women +is increasing. When writing an academic thesis on the consequences of +city life, I attempted to discover definite evidence on this point. +Nothing that could be called precise was forthcoming, though the +evidence was abundant that the general assertion is correct. Drinking +amongst women means, of course, drinking amongst mothers. It means +drinking by unborn children. No one concerned with the fundamentals of +national well-being can ignore anything so minatory. Within the last few +years, much attention has been directed to the subject, and the Church +of England Temperance Society, for instance, sent out a form of inquiry +to the medical profession as to their experience in this matter. It may +now be stated, without any fear of contradiction, that drinking has +greatly increased amongst women of all classes during the last twenty +years, and especially, it seems probable, during the latter half of that +period. Along with it has gone an increase in the amount of +drug-taking; some, at any rate, of the drugs being not dissimilar to +alcohol in their action upon mind and body. + +It is here necessary not so much to discuss the causes of this fact as +to insist upon its consequences and indicate some possible remedies. So +far as one can judge there seem to be three principal causes for this +increase of drinking amongst women, and quite briefly they may be named +in order to guide the subsequent discussion, though it is not necessary +to occupy space here in discussing all the evidence for this diagnosis. + +A cause of some importance at work amongst women of the middle and upper +classes would seem to be the general tendency to revolt against sex +restrictions and limitations. In order to prove themselves the equals of +men, women proceed to demonstrate that they are capable of imitating +men's vices and indulgences. The trainer of chimpanzees for the +music-hall acts on the same principle. Directly the animals can smoke +and drink, they are such good imitations of men, in his judgment and +that of his patrons, as to be worthy of exhibition. Any ape, any boy, +any man, can learn to smoke and drink. It may be taken for granted that +any woman can do likewise, but the actual demonstration is worse than +superfluous. + +Much more important as a cause of the increased drinking amongst women +of the lower classes are the modern conditions of factory and industrial +life which so largely take women out of the home; the making of life +being neglected in order to serve some industry or other which, if it +costs the loss of the coming life, is a national cancer, however +grateful its expansion may appear to the capitalist or the Chancellor of +the Exchequer. As the nation cares nothing for its girlhood nor for +directing employment and education for the supreme business of +motherhood, upon which the national existence is always staked, vast +numbers of women in early adolescence are now exposed to the very +conditions of temptation outside the home to which so many of their +brothers have succumbed. The factory girl learns to drink, and when she +marries she takes her drinking habits with her into her home. Modern +industrialism, therefore, is to be cited as one of the causes for the +increase in drinking amongst women. It may be noted that, in Italy, the +temperate race which, according to one elegant but baseless theory, has +been evolved through ages of past drinking, is proving itself +intemperate when its members are exposed in towns to the industrial +conditions which look like national success and the continuance of which +would mean national ruin. + +A third cause of this increase is to be found in the greatly enhanced +facility with which alcoholic drinks can now be obtained by women, not +merely outside the home, but within it. So far as Great Britain is +concerned we must trace disastrous consequences to the "heaven-born +finance" of a former illustrious Chancellor of the Exchequer, who made a +little money for the State by selling to grocers permission to sell +alcoholic liquors. That was a great blow at womanhood and especially +motherhood; not to mention its lamentable effect in raising the +death-rate amongst grocers in that intensely obvious and inevitable +manner, the increase of temptation, which nothing can persuade the +enemies of temperance reform to understand. + +It is bad enough that women should be able to obtain alcohol as they do +by means of devices which may often prevent their habits from being +discovered at all until irreparable mischief has been done. Here the +cunning and the greed of commercialism have set to work to fool the +public and poison it by a systematic practice which is injurious to all +sections of the community, but especially to women, and which cannot be +too widely reprobated and exposed. All honour is due to the _British +Medical Journal_, the official organ of the British Medical Association, +for its recent attention to this subject. No one can challenge it when +it makes the following assertion regarding meat-wines and other +specifics containing alcohol, which are now so widely advertised and +consumed:--"It may be pointed out that by the use of these meat-wines +the alcoholic habit may be encouraged and established, and that it is a +mistake to suppose that they possess any high nutritive qualities." The +following are analyses to which everyone ought to be able to have +reference, and further information regarding which may be found in the +_British Medical Journal_ for March 27 and May 29, 1909. Let the reader +first note what proportions of alcohol are contained in the accepted +wines, the danger of which is admitted by all, and then let him compare +those figures with the figures which follow:-- + + ALCOHOL IN ORDINARY WINES + + Port 20 per cent. or 3-1/4} + Sherry 20 " " " 3-1/4}Fluid drachms + Champagne 10/15 " " " 1-3/4}in a wineglassful. + Hock 10 " " " 1-1/2} + Claret 9 " " " 1-1/2} + + ALCOHOL IN MEAT WINES + + Bendle's 20.3 per cent. or 3-1/4} + Bivo 19.2 " " " 3 } + Bovril 20.15 " " " 3-1/4}Fluid drachms + Glendenning's 20.8 " " " 3-1/3}in a wineglassful. + Lemco 17.26 " " " 2-3/4} + Vin Regno 16.05 " " " 2-1/2} + Wincarnis 19.6 " " " 3 } + + ALCOHOL IN TONIC WINES + + Armbrecht's Coca Wine 15.05% + Bugeaud's Wine 14.80% + Baudon's Wine 12.75% + Busart's Wine 16.85% + Christy's Kola Wine 18.85% + Hall's Wine 17.85% + Mariani's Coca Wine 16.40% + Marza Wine 17.48% + Nourry's Iodinated Wine 11.50% + Quina Laroche 16.90% + St. Raphael Quinquina Wine 16.89% + St. Raphael Tannin Wine 14.65% + Savar's Coca Wine 23.40% + Serravallo's Bark and Iron 17.26% + Vana 19.20% + Vibrona 19.30% + +In order to complete our reference to this subject, the following may be +quoted from an excellent little pamphlet which is published by the +National Temperance League. The United States Government Laboratory +affords striking evidence of the large percentages of alcohol contained +in specifics which are stated to be largely used by persons who profess +to be total abstainers. Of these the following are given as examples:-- + + Paine's Celery Compound 21.00% + Peruna 23.00% + Brown's Blood Purifier 23.00% + Brown's Vervain Restorer 25.75% + Hostetter's Bitters 44.30% + +But indeed we are far from having covered the ground in Great Britain +alone. There are many well-known preparations which consist almost +entirely of alcohol and water, together with small quantities of +flavouring matter nominally medicinal. Thus we find, for instance, the +following proportions of alcohol in-- + + Powell's Balsam of Aniseed 40.0% + Dill's Diabetic Mixture 35.0% + Congreve's Balsamic Elixir 25.5% + Steven's Consumption Cure 21.3% + Hood's Sarsaparilla 19.6% + +There are also other compounds such as Crosby's Balsamic Cough Elixir, +Townsend's American Sarsaparilla, and Warner's Safe Cure, which contain +from 8 to 10-1/2 per cent. of alcohol. As the _British Medical Journal_ +justly points out, in a mixture of which a table-spoonful is to be taken +five or six times a day a proportion of 10 per cent. of alcohol is by no +means negligible. + +Let it be noted further that though most malt extracts are free from +alcohol, that which is called "bynin" contains 8.3 per cent, and +"standard liquid" 5 per cent. The _British Medical Journal_ has also +shown that there is at least one "inebriety cure" in Great Britain which +consists of a liquid containing just under 30 per cent. of alcohol. + +On this whole subject it is impossible to speak too strongly, more +especially when one is concerned with the interests of woman and +womanhood. It is true that in consequence of the labours of those few +keen workers whom the impotent and the meaningless and the selfish call +fanatics, we are making a beginning in the matter of education on +Temperance. But apart from that, which amounts only to very little as +yet, it is the lamentable truth that the State does absolutely nothing +whatever to protect the community and especially its women from the +manifold evils which are involved in such figures as those here quoted. +The State wants money, and life is a trifle. Anything that can pay toll +to the State may therefore go without further question. A tax has been +paid on all the alcohol in these things. In many cases, also, a further +tax has been paid for the government stamp on patent medicines. That the +medicine may be dangerous, that it may be a cruel swindle, that it may +take from consumptives and others money which is sorely needed for air +and food, and give them in return what is worse than nothing--all these +things are nothing to the State if the tax is paid. + +Preparations such as those which have been mentioned above have no place +or status whatever in scientific medicine. Their constituents are known +and their action is known. The public pays for sarsaparilla, for +instance, and simply gets a 20 per cent. solution of flavoured alcohol, +and there is no one to inform it that sarsaparilla has been exhaustively +studied by pharmacologists, employing every means of observation and +experiment in their power, and that none of them have yet been able to +detect its capacity to modify the body or any function of the body in +any degree at all whether in health or disease. This is only one of many +instances that might be named; every preparation of which the +composition is not stated is suspect. Men are paying for these things at +this moment under the impression that they are buying valuable tonics +which will save their wives from the consequences of the drink craving +and help to avert it. Large numbers of women are ruining themselves in +purse and in body quite secretly under cover of these scandalous abuses +which are allowed to go on from year to year, and which are undoubtedly +doing more injury to the feminine--that is to say, to the more +important--half of the community in each succeeding year. At least let +the facts be known. Let liberty be believed in and encouraged; but if +these things are to be made and sold and bought, let their composition +be stated on the bottles. The composition of milk is supervised by the +State; margarine, which is harmless and an excellent food, may not be +sold as butter; alcohol, which is noxious, may be sold under any lying +name, but so long as the State gets its percentage, it is well pleased. +The official organ of the medical profession in this country has done +well to draw renewed attention to this subject. Surely it ought to be +possible for the profession and the advocates of temperance to join +hands for the promotion of legislation in a direction where reform +cannot otherwise be obtained. Something, one hopes and believes, can be +done by merely writing on the subject. A certain number of women who +read this book will be deterred from buying these things on finding that +they are simply "masked alcohol" and that their medicinal virtues are +less than _nil_. But though all that is to the good, only legislation +can meet the real need. These preparations offer insidious means of +teaching women to drink, and when the habit is established, nothing can +be accomplished by revealing to the victim the history of its origin. +The minimum demand for legislation should be, at the very least, that +all preparations of this kind should have their composition stated with +every portion of them that is vended to the public. Assuredly the +champions of womanhood will have to take this matter up soon, and the +sooner the better. There is no need to be a fanatic, there is no need +even to be a teetotaler, in order to satisfy oneself that here is a +crying abuse which is ruining the unwarned and the unprotected up and +down the land, and which is quite definitely and obviously within the +capacity of legislation to control effectively and finally. + +Let us turn now to the general question of the organic or physiological +relations between womanhood and alcohol. Both sexes of human beings are +identical in a vast majority of their characters, and the various +reactions to alcohol come within this number. There is no need to repeat +here any of the facts and conclusions which have been set forth at +length elsewhere. What was said there applies to women as to men. That +is true so far as the individual is concerned and it is also true that, +so far as the race is concerned, the germ-plasm or germ-cells in both +sexes alike may be injured by the continued consumption of large +quantities of alcohol. + +There remains the important fact, which it is the present writer's +constant effort to bring to the notice of Eugenists, that alcohol has +special relations to motherhood, to which there can necessarily be no +correspondence in the case of the other sex, and though motherhood, as +such, is not the subject of this book, yet it would be most pedantically +to limit the usefulness which one hopes it may possess if we were to +omit the discussion, as brief as possible, of the effect of alcohol upon +womanhood at the time when womanhood is expressing itself in its supreme +function. + +In my book on Eugenics there is merely the briefest allusion in a +foot-note to this subject, and I confess myself now ashamed of having +dealt with it in that utterly inadequate fashion. In practical +eugenics,--though sooth to say when eugenics begins to become practical +many professing eugenists seem to think that it is wandering from the +point--the great fact of expectant motherhood must be reckoned with. To +decline to do so is in effect to declare that we are greatly concerned +with bringing the right germ-cells together, but have nothing to do with +what may or may not happen to the product of their union. We desire, +however, not merely conjugated germ-cells, but worthy men and women, and +expectant motherhood is therefore part of the eugenic province. +Unfortunately it is easier to invent terms and categories and get people +to accept them than to control their use of one's terms thereafter. +Otherwise, I should forbid the use of the term Eugenist at all by anyone +who is unprepared to move a finger or utter a word on behalf of the care +and the protection of expectant motherhood. + +It is quite true that the question of expectant motherhood has nothing +to do with heredity in the proper sense of that term. We are dealing now +with "nurture," not with "nature," but we are dealing with a department +of nurture which can only be understood when we realize that human +beings begin their lives nine months or so before they are born, and +that the first stage of their nurture is coincident with what we call +expectant motherhood, whilst the second stage of their nurture, normally +and properly, ought to be coincident with what we may call nursing +motherhood. + +Let us then acquaint ourselves with the fact, fully established by +experimental and chemical observation, that alcohol given to the +expectant mother finds its way into the organism of the child. Thus, as +we should expect, alcohol can readily be demonstrated in a newborn child +when the drug has been given to the mother just before its birth. + +It must be understood that the circulation of the mother and of her +child are each complete and self-contained. They come into relation in +the double organ called the placenta, and it has been exhaustively +proved that this organ is so constituted as in large measure to protect +the child from injurious influences acting upon and in the mother. We +may therefore speak of the placenta as a filter. Its protective action +explains the facts, so familiar to medical men and philanthropic +workers, that healthy and undamaged children are often born to mothers +who are stricken with mortal disease--most notably, perhaps, in the case +of consumption. It becomes a most important matter to ascertain the +limits of the placental power, and by observation upon human beings and +experiment upon the lower animals this matter has been very thoroughly +elucidated of late years. There are many kinds of poison, and many +varieties of those living poisons that we call microbes, which the +placenta does not allow to pass through from the mother's blood-vessels +into those of the child, and which are unable, fortunately for the +child, to break down the placental resistance. On the other hand, there +are certain microbes and certain poisons which readily pass through the +placenta. Conspicuous amongst these are alcohol, lead and arsenic, and +it is especially important to realize that alcohol injures the child not +merely by its own passage through the placenta, but by injuring that +organ, so that its efficiency as a filter is impaired. On the whole +subject of expectant motherhood and the morbid influences which may act +upon it, the greatest living authority is my friend and teacher, Dr. J. +W. Ballantyne of Edinburgh. He contributed an important paper on this +subject to our first National Conference on Infantile Mortality held in +1906.[22] I only wish it were possible to reproduce in full here Dr. +Ballantyne's paper on the Ante-Natal Causes of Infantile Mortality. The +unread critic who is so ready with the word fanatic whenever alcohol is +attacked might begin to derive from it some faint idea of the quality +and massiveness of the evidence upon which our case is based. Here it +must suffice merely to quote the verdict at which Dr. Ballantyne arrives +after surveying all the evidence on the subject that had been obtained +up to the year 1906. He summarizes as follows:-- + + "It must then be concluded that parental and especially maternal + alcoholism of the kind to which the name of chronic drunkenness or + persistent soaking is applied, is the source of both ante-natal and + post-natal mortality. It acts in all the three ways in which I + indicated that ante-natal causes can be shown to act in relation to + the increase of infantile mortality, viz.,.by causing abortions., + by predisposing to premature labours, and by weakening the infant + by disease or deformity so that it more readily succumbs to + ordinary morbid influences at and after birth. By causing diseases + of the kidneys and of the placenta it also leads to that failure of + the filter to which I have already referred; the placenta being + damaged, not only does the alcohol more readily pass through it + itself, but it is also possible for other poisons, germs, and + toxins to cross over into the fatal economy. So it comes about that + the most disastrous consequences are entailed upon the unborn + infant in connection with syphilis, lead-poisoning, fevers, and + the like in the intemperate mother." + +The foregoing was written as long ago as 1906, and various workers have +helped to confirm it since that date. + +We must further learn that alcohol taken by the mother who nurses her +child has an organic relation to the child after birth. It is true, +indeed, that according to a celebrated observer, Professor von Bunge, +the influence of alcoholism in preceding generations is such that the +daughters of such a stock are mostly unable to nurse their children. It +is not quite certain that Professor von Bunge has proved his case, but +it is definitely proved that even if alcoholism in the maternal +grandparent has not altogether prevented a child from being fed in the +natural fashion, it may yet suffer gravely in consequence of receiving +alcohol in its mother's milk. In the case of the nursing mother, there +is one fresh avenue of excretion which the organism can employ for +ridding itself of the poison, and to the efforts of the lungs and the +kidneys are added those of the breasts. Alcohol can be readily traced in +the mother's milk within twenty minutes of its entry into her stomach, +and may be detected in it for as long as eight hours after a large dose. +Many cases are on record where infants at the breast have thus become +the subjects of both acute and chronic alcoholic poisoning. We have +numerous reports of convulsions and other disorders occurring in infants +when the nurse has taken liquor, and ceasing when she has been put on a +non-alcoholic diet. A most distinguished lady, Dr. Mary Scharlieb, may +be quoted in this connection, or the reader may indeed refer to the +chapter, "Alcoholism in Relation to Women and Children," contributed by +her to the volume "The Drink Problem" in my New Library of Medicine. She +says, "The child, then, absolutely receives alcohol as part of his diet +with the worst effect upon his organs, for alcohol has a greater effect +upon cells in proportion to their immaturity." Further, as she points +out, "the milk of the alcoholic mother not only contains alcohol, but it +is otherwise unsuitable for the infant's nourishment; it does not +contain the proper proportions of proteid, sugar, fat, etc., and it is +therefore not suited for the building up of a healthy body." + +It is plain that here we cannot avoid criticism of an almost universal +medical practice. Our concern in the present volume is not with children +but women; and in dealing with the effects of maternal alcoholism upon +childhood, the main intention is being kept in view. As regards the +giving of alcohol to the nursing mother, there is no doubt that the +child is more seriously in danger than she is. There is no doubt also +that, as one has often pointed out, the Children Act which forbids the +giving of alcohol to children under five years old is being broken when +the nursing mother takes alcohol. I refer to this subject here because +only thus can we come to a decision on the question whether the nursing +mother owes the taking of alcohol as a duty to her child. She may be a +teetotaler; she may fear to take alcohol; and she may be authoritatively +told that it is her duty to do so because the quality of her milk will +be improved. In such a case she may yield, though often with a wry face; +and thus we have the frequent beginning of disasters to which there is +no end. + +The truth is that the medical profession has long erred in this respect. +Judgment has gone by superficials. Undoubtedly there is a greater bulk +of milk when stout and porter are taken. But everyone knows that +ordinary household milk may come from the cow or from the pump. The +question is not how much bulk is there, but what does the bulk consist +of? Definite chemical evidence, which may be repeated a thousand times, +and which is allowed to go unchallenged by the vast host of doctors who +are prescribing alcohol for nursing mothers all over the world, shows us +that its influence is to increase the bulk of the milk while reducing +the amount of its nutritive constituents, and adding to them one which +is poisonous. The increase of bulk is easy to explain. Alcohol is +exceedingly avid of water. Thus the common experience that alcoholic +liquors tend to increase the desire for liquid can readily be explained. +Alcohol, leaving the blood, tends to withdraw with itself, if it can, a +quantity of water. These two, in the milk, between them maintain the +added bulk on account of which alcoholic liquors are so widely ordered +for and drunk by nursing mothers throughout the civilized world. The +infant mortality is thus contributed to, and many women are urged and +deceived by their love for their children into a practice which achieves +their own ruin. Doctors look back a hundred years or so and observe the +amazing practices of their predecessors. They have record of +prescriptions and treatments which were ridiculous or disgusting or +trivial or painful; they have abundant record of practices which were +deadly, and for which any medical man at the present day might be called +upon to pay heavy damages or indicted for manslaughter. Yet in the +matter of the indiscriminate and ignorant employment of alcohol, in +defiance of overwhelmingly proved facts which will not be challenged by +any of those whom this criticism hits and who will virulently resent it +and decry its author, doctors of the present day are assuredly earning +the astonished contempt of their successors in times by no means remote. +A certain number of women who nurse or will nurse will read this book. +Of these not a few will be ordered various alcoholic beverages by their +medical attendant in order to aid this function. Let them obey his +orders when he has satisfactorily answered the following questions: Are +you aware that part of the alcohol will pass unchanged through my breast +into my baby's body? Are you aware that if my milk is analyzed it will +be found to contain less food for the baby with more bulk than if I were +to do without the alcohol? Are you aware that careful enquiry and +observation have shown that the best foods for the making of milk are +those which contain the constituents of milk--as seems not +unreasonable--like milk itself and bread and butter and meat? Can you +begin to explain any imaginable process by which either the animal or +the vegetable body could build up a molecule composed as the molecule of +alcohol is into any of the nutritive ingredients in milk? That catechism +is quite short, but it will suffice. + +A serious error which has long been made by temperance workers consists +in supposing that the problem of alcoholism is the problem of +drunkenness. They speak of "the sin of intemperance," and by that term +they mean only such intemperance as produces what should properly be +called acute alcoholic intoxication. The friends of alcohol eagerly +accept an error which suits their case so admirably. Nothing can suit +them better than to assume that alcohol does no ill apart from causing +drunkenness. Better still, they are able to quote the case of the +incurable drunkard, suffering from an uncontrollable craving, and to +point out quite truly that he will get drunk in any case no matter how +many public-houses, for instance, we close. + +It was always a gross error to suppose that drunkenness was the whole of +the evil done by alcohol; if, indeed, it be one per cent. of it, which +we may doubt. This is not a point which one need trouble to argue here, +except in so far as our right understanding of it is necessary if we are +to see the meaning of current changes in the drinking habits of the +people. That women are drinking more, everyone grants. That this is evil +not merely for the women of the present but for both sexes in the +future, I am constantly asserting. But it will not do at all to use mere +drunkenness as our measure of what is happening amongst women. We know +that in either sex a single bout of drinking, say once a week on +Saturday night, may leave the individual little worse, may injure health +quite inappreciably, if at all; it may not interfere with his work, and +may even be of small economic importance. In such a coal-mining county +as Durham, for instance, where alcohol cannot be drunk in association +with work because the workman and his fellows know that the safety of +their lives will not permit it, we find a huge proportion of arrests for +drunkenness, and it might be supposed that in this most drunken county +in England we should find the highest proportion of permanent +consequences of alcoholism. On the contrary, as Dr. Sullivan says, +"owing to their relative freedom from industrial drinking coal-miners +show a remarkably low rate of alcoholic mortality, ranking in fact with +the agriculturists and below all the other industrial groups." Here is a +simple statistical fact which continues true year by year, and the +significance of which must be insisted upon. + +In the case of women, the very obvious and natural tendency is for the +proportion of drunkenness to the alcohol consumed to be much lower than +in the case of men. Drunkenness is commonly the result of convivial +drinking. A company of men get together, and they help each other to get +drunk. Women are not subjected to so many temptations in this respect. +Their drinking is industrial drinking,--above all, at the supreme +industry, which is the culture of the racial life. Like other industrial +drinking, it is less conspicuous than convivial drinking; it leads to +few arrests for drunkenness, but it has far graver effects on the +individual, and it shows its consequences in the industrial product with +which in this case no other industrial product can compare. Now unless +we disabuse ourselves once and for all of the notion that the drink +question is merely the drunkenness question, we shall never succeed in +rightly approaching and dealing with this most ominous development of +modern civilization, to which I have done such imperfect justice in the +present chapter. + +Dr. Sullivan[23] has some important remarks on this subject from which +one cannot do better than freely quote. As a distinguished and +experienced Medical Officer in H. M. Prison Service, notably at +Holloway, where so many women have been under his care, Dr. Sullivan has +very special credentials, even if the internal evidence of his book did +not convince us. He says that:-- + + "The domestic occupations which are the chief field of women's + activities obviously allow ample opportunity for the continuance of + alcoholic habits formed prior to marriage. This is a matter of much + importance. For the ordinary existence of the working man's wife, + with its succession of pregnancies and sucklings, and the + management of a brood of children in cramped surroundings, will of + itself be very likely to promote tippling; and if a knowledge of + the effect of alcohol as an industrial excitant has been acquired + by the factory girl, it is pretty sure of further development in + the married woman. Instances of this sort, in which the discomforts + of the first pregnancy stimulate the growth of a rudimentary habit + of industrial drinking to confirmed intemperance, are tolerably + common in any wide experience of the alcoholic." + +The following paragraph must also be quoted for its clear indication of +a matter which is of prime importance, which no one denies, and yet of +which no statesman or politician has begun to take cognizance:-- + + "The employment of women in the ordinary industrial occupations not + only involves a disorganization of their domestic duties if they + are married, but it also interferes with the acquisition of + housewifely knowledge during girlhood. The result is that appalling + ignorance of everything connected with cookery, with cleanliness, + with the management of children, which make the average wife and + mother in the lower working class in this country one of the most + helpless and thriftless of beings, and which therefore impels the + workman, whose comfort depends on her, not only to spend his free + time in the public-house, but also tends to make him look to + alcohol as a necessary condiment with his tasteless and + indigestible diet. Both directly and indirectly, therefore, the + employments that withdraw women from domestic pursuits are likely + to increase alcoholism, and, it may be added, to increase its + greatest potency for evil, namely its influence on the health of + the stock." + +Elsewhere I have endeavoured to deal with the general physiology of +alcohol and its relations to race-culture. Here our special concern has +been woman, and not woman as mother, but rather woman as individual. We +have had specially to refer, however, to expectant and nursing +motherhood because each of these offers special temptations and +opportunities for the beginning of the alcoholic habit or strengthening +its hold in a deadly fashion, and it is certainly necessary for us to +know that the supposed advantages to the child, which constitute a new +argument for alcohol at these times, are not advantages but injuries +which may be grave and often fatal. The utterly incomprehensible thing +is how anyone can suppose or ever could suppose otherwise. + +It is necessary to add a few words to the foregoing since there has +recently appeared what purports to be a contribution to some of the +problems that have concerned us. Part of the foregoing argument has +rested upon the fact, only too definitely, variously and frequently +proved, that alcoholism in women prejudices the performance of their +supreme functions. Complicated as the maternal relation to the future +is, the relations of alcohol to the problem are correspondingly so, and +in any discussion that is to be of value we must draw the necessary +distinctions. In many scientific contributions to the subject this has +already been done. We have identified certain degenerate stocks who +display the symptoms of alcoholism. The alcohol may aggravate their +degeneracy but it is not the prime cause of it in them, though it may +have been so in their ancestors. The children of such persons are +degenerate also, and as the class is numerous and fertile there is here +a social problem which is not primarily a problem in alcohol, but is +accidentally connected therewith simply because the proneness to +alcoholism is a symptom of the degeneracy. + +Quite distinct from the foregoing there is the influence of alcohol upon +mothers and motherhood that would otherwise have been healthy. Alcohol, +like lead, as has been shown elsewhere, may injure the racial elements +in the mother before even expectant motherhood occurs. Later, it may +prejudice both expectant motherhood and nursing motherhood; further it +is often the primary cause of over-laying and of chronic cruelty and +neglect. Until quite lately there was also the action of the +public-house upon the children to be reckoned with, where the mother +visited it and was allowed to take them with her. That, however, has +been at last put a stop to in England, following the example of +civilization elsewhere. + +But it will be clear that the problem is a complicated one. It has been +confidently attacked by Professor Karl Pearson in a Report upon "the +influence of parental alcoholism upon the offspring," and the +conclusions of that Report have been widely circulated and are being +circulated almost wherever the monetary interest of alcohol has power. +Briefly, Professor Pearson came to the conclusion that the children of +drunken parents are, on the average, superior to those of sober parents +in physique and in intelligence, in sight and in freedom from epilepsy +and other diseases. This, of course, as everybody knows, is obvious +nonsense, and the only problem remaining is how to account for its +assertion. I have dealt with that question at length elsewhere,[24] and +here need only note in a word that Professor Pearson's Report includes +no comparison between the children of abstainers and drinkers, since the +number of abstainers was too few to be treated separately; that +Professor Pearson attaches no strict meaning to the term alcoholism, by +which he means anything from what the word really means down to a +general suspicion that the parents were drinking more than was good for +themselves or their home; and finally that in studying the influence of +alcohol upon offspring Professor Pearson has omitted to enquire in a +single case whether the alcoholism or the offspring came first. The +Report has no scientific basis whatever and has been riddled with +criticism by expert students of every kind, including not merely +students of alcoholism but also Professor Alfred Marshall of Cambridge, +the greatest English-speaking economist of the time, who has shown that +there are no grounds for the assumptions made by Professor Pearson in +that part of his argument which is based upon the economic efficiency of +drinking and non-drinking parents. The publication of this Report merely +hastens the rapid decadence of "biometry," the foundations of which have +already been sapped by the re-discovery of Mendelism in 1900; but it was +necessary to refer to the matter here, since in the advertisements and +the other printed matter paid for by the alcoholic party, the public is +being informed that the children of alcoholic parents have been proved +to be, on the whole, superior to those of non-alcoholic parents. This +question has been exhaustively studied, yet again, in London by Dr. +Sullivan, in Helsingfors by Professor Laitinen, and also in New York in +an enquiry which actually embraced no less than fifty-five thousand +school children. The elementary fallacies entertained by Professor +Pearson were of course avoided and the uniform result in these and in a +host of other enquiries that might be named is the only result which +could be imagined in a universe where causes have effects. + +The particular causes under consideration have been having their effects +for a very long time. It begins to be more and more clear that they have +played a great part in the history of mankind. As the "history" we +learnt at school is more and more discredited, there is slowly coming +into being a real kind of history which deals with the essentials of +national life and death, and is based upon the principles of organic +evolution. This is a thesis which one has attempted to justify in a +previous book, but one aspect of it must be recurred to here. Our modern +study of various diseases and poisons is throwing a light on the life of +nations. Take for instance the modern theories as to the influence of +malarial poison upon Greece. In the case of alcohol, we now have +evidence which is real and unchallengeable. The properties which it +displays when we study it to-day have always been and always will be its +properties. We find that it has certain actions on living protoplasm in +the twentieth century; we know enough of the uniformity of nature to +realize that it had those actions in the tenth century, and will have +them in the thirtieth. As we study under the microscope the influence of +alcohol upon the racial tissues in the individual,[25] and therein find +confirmation of experimental study and observation by all the other +means available to science, we begin to see that the greatest facts of +history are those of which historians have no word, and not least +amongst these has ever been the influence of alcohol upon parenthood. It +is possible to adduce arguments in favour of the view that the +practically complete immunity of their parenthood from alcohol is one of +the great factors that explain the all but unexampled persistence of +the Jews and their present status in the van of the world's thought and +work. For history it is the parents that matter as against the +non-parents, and of the parents it is the mothers even more than the +fathers. The freedom of the Jews as a whole from alcoholism is more +marked than ever in the case of their women; that is to say, in the case +of their mothers. + +We see the part-results of this in our own time when we compare the +infant mortality amongst the Jews with that of their Gentile neighbours +in a great city such as London or Leeds. As everyone should know, there +is a huge disparity between the figures in the two cases, and in some +records it has been found that under equal conditions two Gentile babies +will die for each Jewish baby. The conditions are of course not equal, +because the Jewish babies have Jewish motherhood, splendidly backed up +as it usually is by Jewish fatherhood; whereas the Gentile babies have a +very inferior parental care. Now if it were that infant mortality, as +most people suppose, simply meant the death of a certain number of +babies, the foregoing facts would have no particular bearing upon the +questions of racial survival, except in so far as those questions depend +upon mere numbers. But the advocates of the great campaign against +infant mortality have always maintained that the actual mortality is +only one effect of the causes which produce it. When people have said +that the loss of a certain number of babies mattered little, we have +always replied that for every baby killed many were damaged. This +contention has now been proved up to the hilt in the remarkable +official enquiry, the first of its kind, made by Dr. Newsholme, now +Chief Medical Officer of the Local Government Board.[26] He studied +infant mortality in relation to the mortality of children and young +people at all subsequent ages, and he proved, once and for all, that +infant mortality is what we have always maintained it to be, not merely +a disaster in itself but an evidence of causes which injure the health +and vigour of the survivors at all ages. Wherever infant mortality is +highest, there child mortality is highest, and the mortality of boys and +girls at puberty and during the early years of adolescence when the body +is preparing for and becoming capable of parenthood. The evil conditions +that cause infant mortality are thus proved to be far-reaching and much +wider in their effects than any but the students of the subject have yet +realized. + +This chapter must be brought to a close, but it may be added that the +emergence of sober nations, such as Japan and Turkey, into contemporary +history, and the possibilities latent in China,--to mention none other +of the "dying nations," so very much alive, at whom glass-eyed +politicians used to sneer--constitutes one of the major facts of +contemporary history. No one can yet say whether these nations will have +the wisdom to retain their ancient habits or whether they will accept +our whisky along with our parliamentary institutions and motor-cars. +Much future history rests upon this issue. + +But I have little doubt that whatever happens in the case of Japan and +Turkey, Jewish parenthood will retain the quality which has long ago +become fixed as a racial characteristic, and that the race which has +survived so much oppression and so many of its oppressors will survive +contemporary abuse and the abusers. Its women nurse their own babies and +have retained the power to do so. Neither before birth nor after do they +feed the life that is to be on alcohol; they lay rightly the foundations +of the future, where alone those foundations can be durably laid. The +reader is not necessarily asked to admire them or to like them or to +speak well of them, but if he desires the strength and continuance of +whatever race or nation he belongs to, he will do well to imitate them. + +It seems necessary to believe in the yellow peril, though not, of +course, in its absurd form of a military nightmare. The pressure of +population is the irresistible force of history. It depends, of course, +upon parenthood, and more especially upon motherhood and therefore upon +womanhood. At present the motherhood of the yellow races is sober. If it +remains so, and if the motherhood of Western races takes the course +which motherhood has taken for many years past in England, it is very +sure that in the Armageddon of the future, those ancient races, Semitic +and Mongol, which had achieved civilization when Europe was in the Stone +Age, will be in a position of immense advantage as against our own race, +which is threatening, at any rate in England, to follow the example of +many races of which little record, or none, now remains, and drink +itself to death. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +CONCLUSION + + +The plan of this book has now been satisfied. The reader may be very far +from satisfied, but not, it is to be hoped, on the ground that many +subjects have been omitted which might quite well have been included +under the title of Woman and Womanhood. It was better to confine our +search to principles. + +For it seems evident that civilization is at the parting of the ways in +these fundamental matters. The invention of aeroplanes and submarine and +wireless telegraphy and the like is of no more moment than the fly on +the chariot wheel, compared with the vital reconstructions which are now +proceeding or imminent. The business of the thoughtful at this juncture +is to determine principles, for principles there are in these matters, +if they can be discovered, as certain, as all-important as those on +which any other kind of science proceeds. Just as the physicist must +hold hard by his principles of motion and thermodynamics and radiation +and the like, so the sociologist must hold hard by the organic +principles which determine the life and continuance of living things. +Unless we base our projects for mankind upon the laws of life, they will +come to naught, as such projects have come to naught not once but a +thousand times in the past. + +None will dare dispute these assertions, yet what do we see at the +present time? On what grounds is the woman question fought, and by what +kind of disputants? It is fought, as everyone knows, on the grounds of +what women want, or rather, what a particular section of half-instructed +women, in some particular time and place, think they want,--or do not +want--under the influence of suggestion, imitation and the other +influences which determine public opinion. It is fought on the grounds +of precedent: women are not to have votes in England because women have +never had votes in England, or they are to have votes in England because +they have them in New Zealand. It is fought on party political grounds, +none the less potent because they are not honestly acknowledged: the +Liberal and the Conservative parties favour or disfavour this or that +Suffrage Bill, or whatever it may be, according to what they expect to +be its effect upon their voting strength. It is fought upon financial +grounds, as when we see the entire force of the alcoholic party arrayed +against the claims of women, as in the nature of things it always has +been and always will be. It is fought on theological grounds by clerics +who quote the first chapter of Genesis; and on anti-theological grounds +by half-instructed rationalists who attack marriage because they suppose +it was invented by the Church. + +And whose voices never fail among the disputants? Loudest of all are +those of youth of both sexes, who know nothing and want to know nothing +and who have no idea that there is anything to know in attempting to +decide such questions as this. It is argued in the House of Gramophones +and such places, by common politicians of the type the many-headed +choose, who would do better to confine themselves to the soiled +questions of tariffs and the like, in which they find a native joy. It +is argued by vast numbers of men who hate or fear women, and women who +hate or fear men, as if any imaginable wisdom on this question or any +other could possibly be born of such emotions. + +Yet all the while we are dealing with a problem in biology, with living +beings, obeying and determined by the laws of life, and with a species +exhibiting those fundamental facts of heredity, variation, bi-parental +reproduction, sexual selection, instinct and the like, which are mere +meaningless names to nine out of ten of the disputants, and yet which +determine them and their disputes and the issues thereof. + +If these contentions be correct, there is plainly much need for an +attempt, however imperfect, to set forth the first principles of woman +and womanhood. Evidently the time for discussion of detailed questions +has not yet come, since, to take a single instance, there is not yet to +be heard on either side of the controversy a single voice asserting the +fundamental eugenic necessity that, at whatever cost, the best women +must be selected for motherhood, and the contribution of their +superiority to the future stock. + +Let us briefly sum up the substance of the foregoing pages. + +First, we have stated the eugenic postulate, failing to grant which we +and our schemes, our votes and our hopes, will assuredly disappear or +decay, as must all living races which are not recruited from their +best, Secondly, we have proceeded to analyze the nature of womanhood, +its capacities and conditions, assuming that we can scarcely discover +whither it should go unless we know what it is. To the party politician, +hungry for the prizes that suit his soul or stomach, such an assumption +is mere foolish pedantry; and the ardent suffragist will have little +more to say to it. That, however, cannot be helped. It is to be hoped +that all parties, _as parties_, will unite in banning the views herein +expressed, and then one may take heart of grace and dare to hope that +there is something in them. + +They may be crystallized in the dictum that woman is Nature's supreme +organ of the future. This is not a theory, but a statement of evident +truth. It is an essential canon of what one might call the philosophy of +biology, and applies to the female sex throughout living nature. Birth +is of the female alone. No sub-human male, nor even man himself, can +directly achieve the future; the greatest statesman or law-giver or +founder of nations can only work, if he knew it, through womanhood. The +greatest of these, and their name is very far from legion, was evidently +Moses, as history shows, and he acted on this principle. On the other +hand, those who have sought to achieve the future, as Napoleon did, +failed because they defiled and flouted womanhood. The best men died on +the battlefield and the worst were left to aid the women in that supreme +work of parenthood by which alone, and only through the co-operation of +men and women, the future is made. + +Thirdly, we have seen it to follow from this dedication of the greater +and vastly more valuable part of woman's energies to the future that, +just in proportion as she serves it and devotes herself thereto, she +needs present support. Biology teaches us that the male sex was invented +for this purpose; doubtless one should say for this "increasing +purpose," since it is scarcely more than foreshadowed at first in the +history of the male sex. The study of life has clearly proved that the +male sex is secondary and adjuvant, and that its essentially auxiliary +functions for the race have been increasing from the beginning until we +find them in perfection wherever two parents join in common consecration +and devotion to their supreme task, upon which all else depends and +without which nothing else could be. + +And just as woman is mediate between man and the future, so man is +mediate between woman and the present. Woman is the more immediate +environment, the special providence, so to say, of childhood; and man, +in a rightly constituted society, is the special providence, the more +immediate environment of woman, standing between her and inanimate +Nature, guarding her, taking thought for her, feeding her, using his +special masculine qualities for her--that is to say, in the long run, +for the future of the race; this indeed being the purpose for which +Nature has contrived all individuals of both sexes. If we prefer such +phrases, we may say that the future or the children are parasitic upon +woman, and that woman is "parasitic upon the male," which is one woman's +way of putting it. Or we may say that these are the natural and +therefore divine relations of the various forms in which human life is +cast, and that our business is to make them more effective, more +provident and freer from the factors which in all ages have tended to +injure them. + +Fourthly, we have everywhere seen cause to condemn sex-antagonism, and +it is my hope that no page or line or word of this book can be accused +of illustrating or justifying or inciting to or even attempting to +palliate either form of this wholly abominable spirit of the pit. If +such places there be, there assuredly is misdirection and falsity. This +spirit is one of the great enemies of mankind. As aroused in women +against men, it has done and is doing no little harm; as exhibited by +men against the righteous claims of women, it is one of the supremely +malign forces of history. Wherever and however displayed, it is false to +the first and most essential facts of life, from the moment of the +evolution of sex, hundreds of millions of years ago, until our own time. +All who display it, however excellent their intentions, are enemies of +mankind; all who work upon it for their own ends, political and +personal, without feeling it, are beneath disgust. These are things true +and necessary to be said, though they should not deter us from +sympathizing with the unhappy individuals, not a few, whose lives have +been blasted by individuals of the other sex, and who show the natural +but tragic tendency to make their private injury cause for resentment +against one-half of mankind. Surveying the pages that are past, I am +almost inclined to regret that, the plan of the book notwithstanding, a +special chapter was not devoted to Sex-Antagonism and to a demonstration +on biological grounds of its wickedness and pestilence wherever it be +found, and whatever plausible case for it may anywhere be made. + +If the sound of hope is not heard as the ground-tone of these chapters, +let it ring through all else at the end. I am an optimist because I am +an evolutionist, and because I believe, as every one of those whom I +call Eugenists must, that the best is yet to be. The dawn is breaking +for womanhood, and therefore for all mankind. If we are asked to express +in one phrase the reason why this hope is justified, it is because the +long struggle between two antithetic conceptions of human society is +reaching a definite issue. + +These radically opposed ideas may for convenience be called the +_organic_ and the _internecine_. The internecine conception of society +forever sets nation against nation, race against race, class against +class, sex against sex, individual against individual, on the ground +that the interest of one must be the injury of the other. It is false. +Nay, more, for man living his life on this earth as he must and will, it +is the Great Lie. + +And it is being found out. Even international trade and commerce, from +which such a service could scarcely have been expected, are here +contributing to philosophy. Our fathers talked of the comity of nations; +we are beginning to discover their interdependence. The coming of that +discovery is one of the few really new things under the sun. Not so very +long ago, when mankind was far less numerous, such interdependence of +nations did not exist; they were self-sufficient, just as the +patriarchal family was self-sufficient still further ago. + +But the interdependence of the sexes is so far from being a new fact +that it is as old as the evolution of sex, and the decadence and +disappearance of parthenogenesis or reproduction from the female sex +alone. Once bi-parental reproduction becomes necessary for the +continuance of the race, both sexes sink with either, and neither can +swim but with both. Yet so far are we from realizing this most ancient +of facts to-day that, on both sides of the woman question, wonderful to +relate, are to be found controversialists who are seeking to deny this +continuous lesson of so many million ages. The reader may take his +choice of folly between them. On the one hand, there are the feminists +who seek to do without man,--except for the minimum physiological +purpose. The women are to sustain the present and create the future +simultaneously, and man is to be reduced, apparently, to the function of +the drone. Thus Mrs. Gilman in "Women and Economics." Over against her +and those who think with her are to be set the men, and women too, who +tell us that "men made the State,"--a sufficiently shameful +admission--and that women have no business with these things. Do not +their mothers blush for such; to have travailed so much, and to have +achieved so little? + +Fortunately, however, the greater number of those who think and +determine the deeds of the mass are beginning, though the dawn is yet +very faint, to perceive that this truth of the interdependence of the +sexes, which is part of the greater truth that mankind is an organic +whole, is not only much truer than ever to-day, but is vital to our +salvation; and save us it will. In so far as we are keeping women +inferior to men, we must raise them; in so far as we are keeping men, in +other and certainly no less important respects, inferior to women, we +must raise them. The future needs and will obtain the utmost of the +highest of both sexes. Thus and thus only "springs the crowning race of +human kind": wherein, as we hasten to the dust, living for a day, yet +for ever, our eyes prophetic may behold the sure and certain hope of a +glorious resurrection. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +INDEX OF SUBJECTS + + +Adolescence, 124 + ---- and advertisements, 135 + ---- and alcohol, 228 + +Alcohol, 54, 100 + ---- accessibility of, 360 + ---- and expectant motherhood, 367 + ---- and breast-feeding, 371 + ---- and industrialism, 360, 377 + ---- and tobacco _versus_ children, 201, 251, 354 + ---- widows and orphans, 350 + ---- and womanhood, 348 _et seq._ + +Alcoholism and lead poisoning, 379 + ---- and offspring, 380 + ---- and Jewish survival, 382 _et seq._ + +Anti-Suffrage societies, 16 + +Asceticism, old and new, 102 + +Bees, arguments from, 31, 84, 322 + +Birth-rate, fall of, 288 _et seq._ + ---- and infant mortality, 301 + ---- and marriage-rate, 312 + +Board of Education Syllabus, 121 + +Breast feeding, 333 _et seq._ + ---- and alcohol, 371 + +"British Medical Journal" on meat, wines, etc., 361 _et seq._ + +Brooding instinct in fowls, 82 + +Canada's need of women, 269 + +Childless marriage, 244 + +Children Act, 265, 372 + +Climacteric, 21, 77, 98 + +Confirmation and adolescence, 124 + +Conservation of energy, 64 + ---- and higher education, 79 + +Contagious diseases, 219 + +Corset, 120, 186 _et seq._ + +Cycling for women, 119 + +Dancing, 120, 122 + +Degeneracy and inaction, 42 + +Determination of sex, 72 _et seq._ + +Divorce, conditions of, 291 _et seq._ + ---- _versus_ separation, 293 + ---- in Germany, 293 + ---- Law Reform Union, 293 + +Dolls and their significance, 95, 166 + +Education, definition of, 156 + ---- and instruction, 161, 172 + ---- for motherhood, 151, 158 _et seq._ + +Educational question, 43 + +Endowment of motherhood, 282 _et seq._, 308 + +Engagements, length of, 135 + +Eugenic feminism, 7 + +Eugenics, _passim_. + +"Evolution of Sex," 67 + +Exercise in girls' schools, Herbert Spencer on, 104 _et seq._ + +Expectant mother, 143, 367 + +Fabian Society, 182 + +Femaleness, constitution of, 76 + +Games _versus_ dumb-bells, 110 + ---- mixed, 113 + +Gameto-genesis, 82 + +Germ cells and germ plasm, 27, 28, 81, 206, 367 + ---- its immortality, 29 + ---- and sex inheritance, 74 + +Girls' clubs, 123 + ---- clothing, 125 + +Gonorrh[oe]a, 223 _et seq._ + +Gymnastics _versus_ play, 109 + +Hæmophilia, 3 + +Happiness in marriage, 236 + +Heredity and responsibility, 195 + +Heredity of sex, 73 + +Higher education, 151 + ---- in London, 128 + ---- and marriage rate, 78 + ---- and conservation of energy, 79 + +Highest education, 154 + +Identical twins, 55 + +Illegitimacy, 148, 304, 336, 384 + +Infant mortality, 70, 172, 177, 194, 259, 325 + +Infant mortality and alcohol, 370 + +Insanity, 54, 225 + +Instinct and emotion, 164 + +Instinct, Spencer's definition of, 164 + +Insurance for motherhood, 315 + +Joy, physiological value of, 112 + +Kaiser's creed, 11 + +Knossos, 186 + +Law of multiplication, 66 + +Leprosy, 220 + +Maleness, constitution of, 76 + +"Man before speech," 39 + +Marriage age, 196 + ---- Metchnikoff on, 199 + ---- and quality of children, 204 + ---- conditions of, 258 + ---- and the "superfluous woman," 259 _et seq._ + +"Marriage as a Trade," 202 + +Marriage, social function of, 307 + +Married women's labour, 306 + +Mars, the parallel from, 50 + +Maternal instinct, 163 _et seq._ + ---- McDougall on, 168 _et seq._ + ---- in the cat, 171, 177 + ---- alleged decadence of, 174 _et seq._ + +Mendelism, 4, 67, 74, 75, 81 _et seq._, 330 + +Menstrual function, 108 + +Monogamy and its critics, 272 + +Monogamy and polygamy, 261 + +"Morning Post," quotation from, 340 + +Mortality in childbirth, 217 + +Mosaic legislation, 147 + +Mother and child worship, 148 + +Motherhood, endowment of, 282 + ---- physical and psychical, 83 + +Motherhood insurance, 315 + +"Mrs. Warren's Profession," 138 + +Muscles, relative value of, for women, 117 + +Muscularity and vitality, 99 + +Natural selection, 32 + +Nature and nurture, 52, 214 + +Neanderthal skull, 38 + +Notification of Births Act, 132 + +Organic analysis by Mendelism, 81 + +Parental instinct, 95 + +Parthenogenesis, 72 + +Patent medicines and alcohol, 361 _et seq._ + +Physical fitness for marriage, 208 + +Physical training of girls, 99 + +Physiological division of labour, 87 + +Play centres, 22 + +Preventive eugenics, 24 + +Progress and the nervous system, 102 + ---- definition of, 37 + ---- the two kinds of, 38 + +Prudery, 130, 132 _et seq._ + +Psychical fitness for marriage, 211 + +Puberty, 98, 124 + +Racial instinct, 167, 180, 225 + +Racial poisons, 24, 382 + +Radium, 35 + +"Reproduction" and "parenthood," 141 + +Rescue homes, 137 + +"Richard Feverel," 191 + +Rights of mothers, 293 _et seq._ + ---- of women, 319 + +Scotland, educational strain at puberty, 115 + +Separation _versus_ divorce, 293 + +"Sex and Character," 68 + +Sex equality and sex identity, 56 _et seq._ + +Sex and breathing, 93, 94 + +Sex and the blood, 93 + +Sex in childhood, 92 + +Sex antagonism, 391 + +"Sexual instinct" and "racial instinct," 144 _et seq._ + +Sexual attraction, Spencer on, 240 _et seq._ + +Sexual selection, 144 + +Skipping, 122 + +Socialism, 182 + ---- and motherhood, 282 + +Socialism and responsibility, 309 + +Swedish gymnastics, 121 + +Swimming, 120 + +Syphilis, 54, 222 _et seq._ + +Terms of specialization, 87 + +Transmutation of instinct, 171 + ---- of sex, 251 + +Vacation schools, 22, 114 + +Variation within a sex, 89 + ---- amongst women, 90 + +Venereal diseases, 219 _et seq._ + +Venus of Milo, 120, 186 + +Vital imports and exports, 267 + +Vitality superior in women, 99 + +Widowhood, causes of, 217 + ---- and motherhood, 303 + +Women and colonization, 268 _et seq._ + +"Women's Charter," 311, 315 + +Women and economics, 327 _et seq._ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +INDEX OF NAMES + + +Aristotle, 39 + +Aurelius, Marcus, 257 + +Bacon, 182 + +Ballantyne, Dr. J. W., 370 + +Bateson, 77 + +Bonheur, Rosa, 58 + +Botticelli, 184 + +Bouchard, 290 + +Brieux, 138, 221 + +Budin, Prof., 336 + +Bunge, Prof. von, 334, 371 + +Burke, 225 + +Burns, John, 325 + +Butler, Lady, 58 + +Carlyle, 8 + +Chesterton, G. K., 266, 333 + +Clouston, 21 + +Coleridge, 40, 178, 184 + +Croom, Sir Halliday, 119 + +Darwin, 26, 47 + +Duncan, Miss Isadora, 123 + +Duncan, Dr. Matthews, 210 + +Ehrlich, 233 + +Eliot, George, 58 + +Ellis, Dr. Havelock, 61, 93, 118, 119, 186 + +Evans, Dr. Arthur, 186 + +Fawcett, Mrs., 21 + +Forel, 86, 149 + +Galton, 7, 52, 203, 205, 208, 211 + +Geddes and Thomson, 65, 84 + +Gilman, Mrs. C. P., 327, 393 + +Goethe, 225 + +Haeckel, 82 + +Hamilton, Miss Cicely, 202 + +Haynes, E. S. P., 293 + +Helmholtz, 36 + +Horsley, 254 + +Huxley, 46 + +Kelvin, 35 + +Key, Ellen, 8, 59, 347 + +Kipling, 188 + +Laitinen, Prof. Taav, 381 + +Lamarck, 158 + +Lister, 20, 209 + +Maclaren, Lady, 315 + +Maeterlinck, Maurice, 325 + +Marshall, Prof. Alfred, 381 + +McDougall, Dr. W., 165 + +Meredith, 48, 142 + +Metchnikoff, 199 + +Mill, J. S., 174 + +Milne-Edwards, 87 + +Minot, 87 + +Mosso, 120 + +Mott, Dr. F. W., 356 + +Napoleon, 305 + +Nation, Carrie, 23 + +Newman, Sir George, 121 + +Newsholme, Dr. A., 384 + +Nightingale, Florence, 17 + +Pasteur, 217 + +Pearson, Karl, 205, 380 + +Phillpotts, Eden, 191 + +Plato, 2, 56, 182 + +Rotch, Prof. Morgan, 336 + +Ruskin, 19, 48, 150, 157, 189, 345 + +Sappho, 58 + +Scharlieb, Dr. Mary, 371 + +Shakespeare, 52 + +Spencer, Herbert, 6, 45, 48, 64, 81, 104, 129, 156, 159, 171, 240, 320 + +St. Francis, 46 + +St. Paul, 150 + +Stevenson, 154 + +Sullivan, Dr. W. C., 376, 381 + +Thales, 64 + +Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 21 + +Ward, Lester, 72, 261 + +Weininger, 68 + +Weismann, 26, 28, 82 + +Wells, H. G., 182, 282, 310, 313 + +Westermarck, 186 + +Wordsworth, Dorothy, 14 + +Wordsworth, 13, 48, 159, 189, 256 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] "The Germ-Plasm." English translation in Contemporary Science +Series, London: New York. + +[2] "Parenthood and Race-Culture: An Outline of Eugenics." + +[3] "The Obstacles to Eugenics," published in the _Sociological Review_, +July 1909. + +[4] See his "Pure Sociology." + +[5] _I. e._ marrying cells. + +[6] Here, as in many other cases, I am indebted to that invaluable +repertory of facts, Dr. Havelock Ellis's "Man and Woman." + +[7] This may be obtained from any bookseller at the price of 9d. + +[8] Further particulars may be obtained from the Vice-Principal, King's +College (Women's Department), 13 Kensington Square, London, W. + +[9] From _La Question Sexuelle_, French edition, p. 62. The author wrote +the book first in German and then in French. + +[10] The modern use of the word environment really dates from Lamarck's +original phrase. In his discussion of the characters of living beings, +he spoke of the _milieu environnant_. The higher the type of organism +the more comprehensive must the term become, not only quantitatively but +qualitatively. + +[11] "An Introduction to Social Psychology," by William McDougall, M.A., +M.B., M.Sc., Wilde Reader in Mental Philosophy in the University of +Oxford. + +[12] From the writer's paper, "The Human Mother," in the Report of the +Proceedings of the National Conference on Infantile Mortality, 1908, p. +30. + +[13] It it well to quote here the most recent comment of the late Sir +Francis Galton upon this subject. It is to be found in his celebrated +Huxley lecture, now published by the Eugenics Education Society, +together with much of the illustrious author's other work, under the +title, "Essays in Eugenics." The passage relevant to our discussion runs +as follows:-- + +"There appears to be a considerable difference between the earliest age +at which it is physiologically desirable that a woman should marry and +that at which the ablest, or at least the most cultured, women usually +do. Acceleration in the time of marriage, often amounting to seven +years, as from twenty-eight or twenty-nine to twenty-one or twenty-two, +under influences such as those mentioned above, is by no means +improbable. What would be its effect on productivity? It might be +expected to act in two ways:-- + +"(1) By shortening each generation by an amount equally proportionate to +the diminution in age at which marriage occurs. Suppose the span of each +generation to be shortened by one-sixth, so that six take the place of +five, and that the productivity of each marriage is unaltered, it +follows that one-sixth more children will be brought into the world +during the same time, which is roughly equivalent to increasing the +productivity of an unshortened generation by that amount. + +"(2) By saving from certain barrenness the earlier part of the +child-bearing period of the woman. Authorities differ so much as to the +direct gain of fertility due to early marriage that it is dangerous to +express an opinion. The large and thriving families that I have known +were the offspring of mothers who married very young." + +[14] An unavoidable delay in the publication of this book makes possible +reference to Professor Ehrlich's synthetic compound of arsenic, known as +"606," the anti-syphilitic potency of which will render even less +excusable the cowardice and neglect against which the foregoing is a +protest. + +[15] This is a libel upon poor people everywhere. There has been some +confusion between drink and poverty. + +[16] "T. P.'s Weekly," Christmas Number, 1909. + +[17] The first treatise on Infant Mortality in English, written by Sir +George Newman at the present writer's request, and published in his New +Library of Medicine in 1906, gives abundant and trustworthy information +as to the initial incidence of this disproportionate mortality. + +[18] "Socialism and the Family," Sixpenny Edition, p. 59. + +[19] The address of this Union is 20, Copthall Avenue, London, E. C. + +[20] "The primal physical functions of maternity." + +[21] W. Claassen in the Archiv für Rassen-und-Gesellschafts-Biologie, +Nov.--Dec., 1909. See the Eugenics Review, July, 1910, p. 154. + +[22] We decided to reprint the Report of that Conference, and a few +copies of the reprint are still obtainable. + +[23] In his "Alcoholism." 1906. + +[24] In the articles, "Racial Poisons: Alcohol," Eugenics Review, April, +1910, and "Professor Karl Pearson on Alcoholism and Offspring," British +Journal of Inebriety, Oct., 1910. + +[25] This study has only just begun, but remarkable results have already +been obtained. The interested reader should refer to the Proceedings of +the Twelfth International Congress on Alcoholism held in London in 1909. + +[26] This Report, published in 1910, can readily be obtained through any +bookseller. Its number is Cd. 5263, and the price only 1s. 3d. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Transcriber's Notes: + +1. Original chapter titles were inconsistently named. For example + "CHAPTER VI" was followed by simply "VII" without the "CHAPTER" + designation. The original printing has been retained. + +2. p. 269: word omitted in original ("on") has been added: + "I have recently been on a tour throughout Canada...." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman and Womanhood, by C. W. 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W. Saleeby. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ + <!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + p.titleblock {margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent: 0; text-align: center;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {display: inline; font-size: x-small; text-align: right; + position: absolute; right: 2%; border:1px solid white; + padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; + font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration: none; + color: #444; background-color: #EEE;} + .blockquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + td.pr {padding-right:10px;} + hr.full {width:100%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.major {width:75%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.minor {width:30%; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 90%;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: 80%; text-decoration: none;} + a {text-decoration: none;} + th {font-weight:normal; font-size: 80%;} + td.c {text-align:center;} + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; font-size: 90%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman and Womanhood, by C. W. Saleeby + +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: Woman and Womanhood + A Search for Principles + +Author: C. W. Saleeby + +Release Date: November 17, 2006 [EBook #19848] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h2>WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD</h2> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div style='border: solid 1px; margin: auto; font-size: 90%; width: 300px; + padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;'> +<p class='center'><i>BY DR. C. W. SALEEBY</i></p> +<p>WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD</p> +<p>HEALTH, STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS</p> +<p>THE CYCLE OF LIFE</p> +<p>EVOLUTION: THE MASTER KEY</p> +<p>WORRY: THE DISEASE OF THE AGE</p> +<p>THE CONQUEST OF CANCER: A PLAN OF CAMPAIGN</p> +<p>PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE</p> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<table width='450' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='' border='1'><tr><td> +<p class='titleblock' style=' font-size: 200%; margin-top: 60px;'> WOMAN</p> +<p class='titleblock' style=' font-size: 200%; margin-bottom: 50px;'> AND WOMANHOOD</p> +<p class='titleblock' style=' font-size: 120%; font-variant: small-caps; margin-bottom: 100px;'> A Search for Principles</p> +<p class='titleblock'> By</p> +<p class='titleblock' style=' font-size: 160%;'> C. W. SALEEBY</p> +<p class='titleblock' style=' font-size: 80%; font-family: italic;'> M.D., F.R.S.E., Ch.B., F.Z.S.</p> +<p class='titleblock' style=' font-size: 80%; font-family: italic;'> Fellow of the Obstetrical Society of Edinburgh and formerly</p> +<p class='titleblock' style=' font-size: 80%; font-family: italic;'> Resident Physician Edinburgh Maternity</p> +<p class='titleblock' style=' font-size: 80%; font-family: italic;'> Hospital; Vice-President Divorce Law</p> +<p class='titleblock' style=' font-size: 80%; font-family: italic;'> Reform Union; Member of the</p> +<p class='titleblock' style=' font-size: 80%; font-family: italic;'> Royal Institution and of</p> +<p class='titleblock' style=' font-size: 80%; font-family: italic;'> Council of the Socio-</p> +<p class='titleblock' style=' font-size: 80%; margin-bottom: 120px; font-family: italic;'> logical Society.</p> +<p class='titleblock' style=' font-size: 120%;'> MITCHELL KENNERLEY</p> +<p class='titleblock'> NEW YORK AND LONDON</p> +<p class='titleblock' style=' margin-bottom: 60px;'> MCMXI</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<p class='center'> +<i>Copyright 1911 by<br /> +Mitchell Kennerley</i><br /> +<br /> +<i>Press of J. J. Little & Ives Co.<br /> +East Twenty-fourth Street<br /> +New York</i><br /> +</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents</h2> +<div class="smcap"> +<table border="0" width="500" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<col style="width:20%;" /> +<col style="width:70%;" /> +<col style="width:10%;" /> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">I</td> + <td align="left">FIRST PRINCIPLES</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">II</td> + <td align="left">THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">34</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">III</td> + <td align="left">THE PURPOSE OF WOMANHOOD</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">52</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">IV</td> + <td align="left">THE LAW OF CONSERVATION</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">64</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">V</td> + <td align="left">THE DETERMINATION OF SEX</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">72</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">VI</td> + <td align="left">MENDELISM AND WOMANHOOD</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">81</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">VII</td> + <td align="left">BEFORE WOMANHOOD</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#VII">92</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">VIII</td> + <td align="left">THE PHYSICAL TRAINING OF GIRLS</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#VIII">99</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">IX</td> + <td align="left">THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#IX">128</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">X</td> + <td align="left">THE PRICE OF PRUDERY</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#X">132</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">XI</td> + <td align="left">EDUCATION FOR MOTHERHOOD</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XI">151</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">XII</td> + <td align="left">THE MATERNAL INSTINCT</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XII">163</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">XIII</td> + <td align="left">CHOOSING THE FATHERS OF THE FUTURE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XIII">193</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">XIV</td> + <td align="left">THE MARRIAGE AGE FOR GIRLS</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XIV">197</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">XV</td> + <td align="left">THE FIRST NECESSITY</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">219</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">XVI</td> + <td align="left">ON CHOOSING A HUSBAND</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">234</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">XVII</td> + <td align="left">THE CONDITIONS OF MARRIAGE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">258</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">XVIII</td> + <td align="left">THE CONDITIONS OF DIVORCE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">291</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">XIX</td> + <td align="left">THE RIGHTS OF MOTHERS</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">296</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">XX</td> + <td align="left">WOMEN AND ECONOMICS</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">327</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">XXI</td> + <td align="left">THE CHIEF ENEMY OF WOMEN</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">348</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="pr" align="right">XXII</td> + <td align="left">CONCLUSION</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">386</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2><h3>FIRST PRINCIPLES</h3> +</div> + +<p>We are often and rightly reminded that woman is half the human race. It +is truer even than it appears. Not only is woman half of the present +generation, but present woman is half of all the generations of men and +women to come. The argument of this book, which will be regarded as +reactionary by many women called "advanced"—presumably as doctors say +that a case of consumption is "advanced"—involves nothing other than +adequate recognition of the importance of woman in the most important of +all matters. It is true that my primary concern has been to furnish, for +the individual woman and for those in charge of girlhood, a guide of +life based upon the known physiology of sex. But it is a poor guide of +life which considers only the transient individual, and poorest of all +in this very case.</p> + +<p>If it were true that woman is merely the vessel and custodian of the +future lives of men and women, entrusted to her ante-natal care by their +fathers, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span> many creeds have supposed, then indeed it would be a +question of relatively small moment how the mothers of the future were +chosen. Our ingenious devices for ensuring the supremacy of man lend +colour to this idea. We name children after their fathers, and the fact +that they are also to some extent of the maternal stock is obscured.</p> + +<p>But when we ask to what extent they are also of maternal stock, we find +that there is a rigorous equality between the sexes in this matter. It +is a fact which has been ignored or inadequately recognized by every +feminist and by every eugenist from Plato until the present time. +Salient qualities, whether good or ill, are more commonly displayed by +men than by women. Great strength or physical courage or endurance, +great ability or genius, together with a variety of abnormalities, are +much more commonly found in men than in women, and the eugenic emphasis +has therefore always been laid upon the choice of fathers rather than of +mothers. Not so long ago, the scion of a noble race must marry, not at +all necessarily the daughter of another noble race, but rather any young +healthy woman who promised to be able to bear children easily and suckle +them long. But directly we observe, under the microscope, the facts of +development, we discover that each parent contributes an exactly equal +share to the making of the new individual, and all the ancient and +modern ideas of the superior value of well-selected fatherhood fall to +the ground. Woman is indeed half the race. In virtue of expectant +motherhood and her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span> ante-natal nurture of us all, she might well claim +to be more, but she is half at least.</p> + +<p>And thus it matters for the future at least as much how the mothers are +chosen as how the fathers are. This remains true, notwithstanding that +the differences between men, commending them for selection or rejection, +seem so much more conspicuous and important than in the case of women.</p> + +<p>For, in the first place, the differences between women are much greater +than appear when, for instance, we read history as history is at present +understood, or when we observe and compare the world and his wife. +Uniformity or comparative uniformity of environment is a factor of +obvious importance in tending to repress the natural differences between +women. Reverse the occupations and surroundings of the sexes, and it +might be found that men were "much of a muchness," and women various and +individualized, to a surprising extent.</p> + +<p>But, even allowing for this, it is difficult to question that men as +individuals do differ, for good and for evil, more than women as +individuals. Such a malady as hæmophilia, for instance, sharply +distinguishes a certain number of men from the rest of their sex, +whereas women, not subject to the disease, are not thus distinguished, +as individuals.</p> + +<p>But the very case here cited serves to illustrate the fallacy of +studying the individual as an individual only, and teaches that there is +a second reason why the selection of women for motherhood is more +important than is so commonly supposed. In the matter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span> of, for instance, +hæmophilia, men appear sharply contrasted among themselves and women all +similar. Yet the truth is that men and women differ equally in this very +respect. Women do not suffer from hæmophilia, but they convey it. Just +as definitely as one man is hæmophilic and another is not, so one woman +will convey hæmophilia and another will not. The abnormality is present +in her, but it is latent; or, as we shall see the Mendelians would say, +"recessive" instead of "dominant."</p> + +<p>Now I am well assured that if we could study not only the patencies but +also the latencies of individuals of both sexes, we should find that +they vary equally. Women, as individuals, appear more similar than men, +but as individuals conveying latent or "recessive" characters which will +appear in their children, especially their male children, they are just +as various as men are. The instance of hæmophilia is conclusive, for two +women, each equally free from it, will respectively bear normal and +hæmophilic children; but this is probably only one among many far more +important cases. I incline to believe that certain nervous qualities, +many of great value to humanity, tend to be latent in women, just as +hæmophilia does. Two women may appear very similar in mind and capacity, +but one may come of a distinguished stock, and the other of an +undistinguished. In the first woman, herself unremarkable, high ability +may be latent, and her sons may demonstrate it. It is therefore every +whit as important that the daughters of able and distinguished stock +shall marry as that the sons shall.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span> It remains true even though the +sons may themselves be obviously distinguished and the daughters may +not.</p> + +<p>The conclusion of this matter is that scientific inquiry completely +demonstrates the equal importance of the selection of fathers and of +mothers. If our modern knowledge of heredity is to be admitted at all, +it follows that the choice of women for motherhood is of the utmost +moment for the future of mankind. Woman is half the race; and the +leaders of the woman's movement must recognize the importance of their +sex in this fundamental question of eugenics. At present they do not do +so; indeed, no one does. But the fact remains. As before all things a +Eugenist, and responsible, indeed, for that name, I cannot ignore it in +the following pages. There is not only to-day to think of, but +to-morrow. The eugenics which ignores the natural differences between +women as individuals, and their still greater natural differences as +potential parents, is only half eugenics; the leading women who in any +way countenance such measures as deprive the blood of the future of its +due contribution from the best women of the present, are leading not +only one sex but the race as a whole to ruin.</p> + +<p>If women were not so important as Nature has made them, none of this +would matter. To insist upon it is only to insist upon the importance of +the sex. The remarkable fact, which seems to me to make this protest and +the forthcoming pages so necessary, is that the leading feminists do not +recognize the all-importance of their sex in this regard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> They must be +accused of neglecting it and of not knowing how important they are. They +consider the present only, and not the composition of the future. Like +the rest of the world, I read their papers and manifestoes, their +speeches and books, and have done so, and have subscribed to them, for +years; but no one can refer me to a single passage in any of these where +any feminist or suffragist, in Great Britain, at least, militant or +non-militant, has set forth the principle, beside which all others are +trivial, that <i>the best women must be the mothers of the future</i>.</p> + +<p>Yet this which is thus ignored matters so much that other things matter +only in so far as they affect it. As I have elsewhere maintained, the +eugenic criterion is the first and last of every measure of reform or +reaction that can be proposed or imagined. Will it make a better race? +Will the consequence be that more of the better stocks, <i>of both sexes</i>, +contribute to the composition of future generations? In other words, the +very first thing that the feminist movement must prove is that it is +eugenic. If it be so, its claims are unchallengeable; if it be what may +contrariwise be called <i>dysgenic</i>, no arguments in its favour are of any +avail. Yet the present champions of the woman's cause are apparently +unaware that this question exists. They do not know how important their +sex is.</p> + +<p>Thinkers in the past have known, and many critics in the present, though +unaware of the eugenic idea, do perceive, that woman can scarcely be +better employed than in the home. Herbert Spencer, notably, argued<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span> that +we must not include, in the estimate of a nation's assets, those +activities of woman the development of which is incompatible with +motherhood. To-day, the natural differences between individuals of both +sexes, and the importance of their right selection for the transmission +of their characters to the future, are clearly before the minds of those +who think at all on these subjects. On various occasions I have raised +this issue between Feminism and Eugenics, suggesting that there are +varieties of feminism, making various demands for women which are +utterly to be condemned because they not merely ignore eugenics, but are +opposed to it, and would, if successful, be therefore ruinous to the +race.</p> + +<p>Ignored though it be by the feminist leaders, this is the first of +questions; and in so far as any clear opinion on it is emerging from the +welter of prejudices, that opinion is hitherto inimical to the feminist +claims. Most notably is this the case in America, where the dysgenic +consequences of the <i>so-called</i> higher education of women have been +clearly demonstrated.</p> + +<p>The mark of the following pages is that they assume the principle of +what we may call Eugenic Feminism, and that they endeavour to formulate +its working-out. It is my business to acquaint myself with the +literature of both eugenics and feminism, and I know that hitherto the +eugenists have inclined to oppose the claims of feminism, Sir Francis +Galton, for instance, having lent his name to the anti-suffrage side; +whilst the feminists, one and all, so far as Anglo-Saxondom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span> is +concerned—for Ellen Key must be excepted—are either unaware of the +meaning of eugenics at all, or are up in arms at once when the +eugenist—or at any rate this eugenist, who is a male person—mildly +inquires: But what about motherhood? and to what sort of women are you +relegating it by default?</p> + +<p>I claim, therefore, that there is immediate need for the presentation of +a case which is, from first to last, and at whatever cost, eugenic; but +which also—or, rather, therefore—makes the highest claims on behalf of +woman and womanhood, so that indeed, in striving to demonstrate the vast +importance of the woman question for the composition of the coming race, +I may claim to be much more feminist than the feminists.</p> + +<p>The problem is not easily to be solved; otherwise we should not have +paired off into insane parties, as on my view we have done. Nor will the +solution please the feminists without reserve, whilst it will grossly +offend that abnormal section of the feminists who are distinguished by +being so much less than feminine, and who little realize what a poor +substitute feminism is for feminity.</p> + +<p>There is possible no Eugenic Feminism which shall satisfy those whose +simple argument is that woman must have what she wants, just as man +must. I do not for a moment admit that either men or women or children +of a smaller growth are entitled to everything they want. "The divine +right of kings," said Carlyle, "is the right to be kingly men"; and I +would add that the divine right of women is the right to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> queenly +women. Until this present time, it was never yet alleged as a final +principle of justice that whatever people wanted they were entitled to, +yet that is the simple feminist demand in a very large number of cases. +It is a demand to be denied, whilst at the same time we grant the right +of every man and of every woman to opportunities for the best +development of the self; whatever that self may be—including even the +aberrant and epicene self of those imperfectly constituted women whose +adherence to the woman's cause so seriously handicaps it.</p> + +<p>But it is one thing to say people should have what is best for them, and +another that whatever they want is best for them. If it is not best for +them it is not right, any more than if they were children asking for +more green apples. Women have great needs of which they are at present +unjustly deprived; and they are fully entitled to ask for everything +which is needed for the satisfaction of those needs; but nothing is more +certain than that, at present, many of them do not know what they should +ask for. Not to know what is good for us is a common human failing; to +have it pointed out is always tiresome, and to have this pointed out to +women by any man is intolerable. But the question is not whether a man +points it out, presuming to tell women what is good for them, but +whether in this matter he is right—in common with the overwhelming +multitude of the dead of both sexes.</p> + +<p>As has been hinted, the issue is much more momentous than any could have +realized even so late as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span> fifty years ago. It is only in our own time +that we are learning the measure of the natural differences between +individuals, it is only lately that we have come to see that races +cannot rise by the transmission of acquired characters from parents to +offspring, since such transmission does not occur, and it is only within +the last few years that the relative potency of heredity over education, +of nature over nurture, has been demonstrated. Not one in thousands +knows how cogent this demonstration is, nor how absolutely conclusive is +the case for the eugenic principle in the light of our modern knowledge. +At whatever cost, we see, who have ascertained the facts, that we must +be eugenic.</p> + +<p>This argument was set forth in full in the predecessors of this book, +which in its turn is devoted to the interests of women as individuals. +But before we proceed, it is plainly necessary to answer the critic who +might urge that the separate questions of the individual and the race +cannot be discussed in this mixed fashion. The argument may be that if +we are to discuss the character and development and rights of women as +individuals, we must stick to our last. Any woman may question the +eugenic criterion or say that it has nothing to do with her case. She +claims certain rights and has certain needs; she is not so sure, +perhaps, about the facts of heredity, and in any case she is sure that +individuals—such as herself, for instance—are ends in themselves. She +neither desires to be sacrificed to the race, nor does she admit that +any individual should be so sacrificed. She is tired of hearing that +women must make sacrifices for the sake of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> the community and its +future; and the statement of this proposition in its new eugenic form, +which asserts that, at all costs, the finest women must be mothers, and +the mothers must be the finest women, is no more satisfactory to her +than the crude creed of the Kaiser that children, cooking and church are +the proper concerns of women. She claims to be an individual, as much as +any man is, as much as any individual of either sex whom we hope to +produce in the future by our eugenics, and she has the same personal +claim to be an end in and for herself as they will have whom we seek to +create. Her sex has always been sacrificed to the present or to the +immediate needs of the future as represented by infancy and childhood; +and there is no special attractiveness in the prospect of exchanging a +military tyranny for a eugenic tyranny: "<i>plus ça change, plus c'est la +même chose.</i>"</p> + +<p>One cannot say whether this will be accepted as a fair statement of the +woman's case at the present time, but I have endeavoured to state it +fairly and would reply to it that its claims are unquestionable and that +we must grant unreservedly the equal right of every woman to the same +consideration and recognition and opportunity as an individual, an end +in and for herself, whatever the future may ask for, as we grant to men.</p> + +<p>But I seek to show in the following pages that, in reality, there is no +antagonism between the claims of the future and the present, the race +and the individual. On philosophic analysis we must see that, indeed, no +living race could come into being, much less endure, in which the +interests of individuals as individuals,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> and the interest of the race, +were opposed. If we imagine any such race we must imagine its +disappearance in one generation, or in a few generations if the clash of +interests were less than complete. Living Nature is not so fiendishly +contrived as has sometimes appeared to the casual eye. On the contrary, +the natural rule which we see illustrated in all species, animal or +vegetable, high or low, throughout the living world, is that the +individual is so constructed that his or her personal fulfilment of his +or her natural destiny as an individual, is precisely that which best +serves the race. Once we learn that individuals were all evolved by +Nature for the sake of the race, we shall understand why they have been +so evolved in their personal characteristics that in living their own +lives and fulfilling themselves they best fulfil Nature's remoter +purpose.</p> + +<p>To this universal and necessary law, without which life could not +persist anywhere in any of its forms, woman is no exception; and therein +is the reply to those who fear a statement in new terms of the old +proposition that women must give themselves up for the sake of the +community and its future. Here it is true that whosoever will give her +life shall save it. Women must indeed give themselves up for the +community and the future; and so must men. Since women differ from men, +their sacrifice takes a somewhat different form, but in their case, as +in men's, the right fulfilment of Nature's purpose is one with the right +fulfilment of their own destiny. There is no antinomy. On the contrary, +the following pages are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> written in the belief and the fear that women +are threatening to injure themselves as individuals—and therefore the +race, of course—just because they wrongly suppose that a monstrous +antinomy exists where none could possibly exist. "No," they say, "we +have endured this too long; henceforth we must be free to be ourselves +and live our own lives." And then, forsooth, they proceed to try to be +other than themselves and live other than the lives for which their real +selves, in nine cases out of ten, were constructed. It works for a time, +and even for life in the case of incomplete and aberrant women. For the +others, it often spells liberty and interest and heightened +consciousness of self for some years; but the time comes when outraged +Nature exacts her vengeance, when middle age abbreviates the youth that +was really misspent, and is itself as prematurely followed by a period +of decadence grateful neither to its victim nor to anyone else. +Meanwhile the women who have chosen to be and to remain women realize +the promise of Wordsworth to the girl who preferred walks in the country +to algebra and symbolic logic:—</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2.5em;"> +Thou, while thy babes around thee cling,<br /> +Shalt show us how divine a thing<br /> +A woman may be made.<br /> +Thy thoughts and feelings shall not die,<br /> +Nor leave thee, when grey hairs are nigh,<br /> +A melancholy slave;<br /> +But an old age serene and bright<br /> +And lovely as a Lapland night,<br /> +Shall lead thee to thy grave.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span></p> + +<p>Where is the woman, recognizable as such, who will question that the +brother of Dorothy Wordsworth was right?</p> + +<p>In the following pages, it is sought to show that, women being +constructed by Nature, as individuals, for her racial ends, they best +realize themselves, are happier and more beautiful, live longer and more +useful lives, when they follow, as mothers or foster-mothers in the wide +and scarcely metaphorical sense of that word, the career suggested in +Wordsworth's lovely lines.</p> + +<p>It remains to state the most valuable end which this book might possibly +achieve—an end which, by one means or another, must be achieved. It is +that the best women, those favoured by Nature in physique and +intelligence, in character and their emotional nature, the women who are +increasingly to be found enlisted in the ranks of Feminism, and fighting +the great fight for the Women's Cause, shall be convinced by the +unchangeable and beneficent facts of biology, seen in the bodies and +minds of women, and shall direct their efforts accordingly; so that they +and those of their sisters who are of the same natural rank, instead of +increasingly deserting the ranks of motherhood and leaving the blood of +inferior women to constitute half of all future generations, shall on +the contrary furnish an ever-increasing proportion of our wives and +mothers, to the great gain of themselves, and of men, and of the future.</p> + +<p>For in some of its forms to-day the Woman's Cause is <i>not</i> man's, nor +the future's, nor even, as I shall try<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> to show, woman's. But a Eugenic +Feminism, for which I try to show the warrant in the study of woman's +nature, would indeed be the cause of man, and should enlist the whole +heart and head of every man who has them to offer. For here is a +principle which benefits men to the whole immeasurable extent involved +in decreeing that the best women must be the wives. "The best women for +our wives!" is not a bad demand from men's point of view, and it is +assuredly the best possible for the sake of the future.</p> + +<p>It is claimed, then, for the teaching of this book that, being based +upon the evident and unquestionable indications of Nature, it is +calculated to serve her end, which is the welfare of the race as a +whole, including both sexes. No one will question that the position and +happiness and self-realization of women in the modern world would be +vastly enhanced by the reforms for which I plead, though some men will +not think that game worth the candle. But I have argued that men also +will profit; nor can there be any question as to the advantage for +children. It is just because our scheme and our objects are natural that +they require no support from and lend no warrant to that accursed spirit +of sex-antagonism which many well-meaning women now display—doubtless +by a natural reflex, because it is the spirit of the worst men +everywhere. It is primarily men's desire for sex-dominance that +engenders a sex-resentment in women; but the spirit is lamentable, +whatever its origin and wherever it be found. It is most lamentable in +the bully, the drunkard, the cad, the Mammonist, the satyr, who are +everywhere<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> to be found opposing woman and her claims. There is no +variety of male blackguardism and bestiality, of vileness and +selfishness, of lust and greed, whose representatives' names should not +be added to those of the illustrious pro-consuls and elegant peeresses +and their following who form Anti-Suffrage Societies. Before we +criticise sex-antagonism in women, let us be honest about it in men; and +before we sneer at the type of women who most display it, let us realize +fully the worthlessness of the types of men who display it. But if this +be granted—and I have never heard it granted by the men who deplore +sex-antagonism as if only women displayed it—we must none the less +recognize that this spirit injures both sexes, and that it is +necessarily false, since none can question that Nature devised the sexes +for mutual aid to her end. By this first principle sex-antagonism is +therefore condemned. This book, written by a man in behalf of +womanhood—and therefore in behalf of manhood and childhood—is +consistently opposed to all notions of sex-antagonism, or sex-dominance, +male or female, or of competing claims between the sexes. Man and woman +are complementary halves of the highest thing we know, and just as the +men who seek to maintain male dominance are the enemies of mankind, so +the women who preach enmity to men, and refusal of wise and humane +legislation in their interests because men have framed it, are the +enemies of womankind. At the beginning of the "Suffragette" movement in +England, I had the pleasure of taking luncheon with the brilliant young +lady whose name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> has been so prominent in this connection; and my +lifelong enthusiasm for the "Vote" has been chastened ever since by the +recollection of the resentment which she exhibited at every suggestion +of or allusion to any legislation in favour of women—notably with +reference to infant mortality and to alcoholism—whilst the suffrage was +withheld. Substitute "destroyed" or "reversed" for "chastened," and you +have a more typical result in quite well-meaning men of sex-antagonism +as many "advanced" women now display it.</p> + +<p>Further, this book may be regarded as an appeal to those women who are +responsible for forming the ideals of girls. The idea of womanhood here +set forth on natural grounds is not always represented in the ideals +which are now set before the youthful aspirant for work in the woman's +cause. It is not argued that the principles of eugenics are to be +expounded to the beginner, nor that she is to be re-directed to the +nursery. It is not necessarily argued, by any means, that marriage and +motherhood are to be set forth as the goal at which <i>every</i> girl is to +aim; such a woman as Miss Florence Nightingale was a Foster-Mother of +countless thousands, and was only the greatest exemplar in our time of a +function which is essentially womanly, but does not involve marriage. I +desire nothing less than that girls should be taught that they must +marry—any man better than none. I want no more men chosen for +fatherhood than are fit for it, and if the standard is to be raised, +selection must be more rigorous and exclusive, as it could not be if +every girl were taught that, unmarried, she fails<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> of her destiny. The +higher the standard which, on eugenic principles, natural or acquired, +women exact of the men they marry, the more certainly will many women +remain unmarried.</p> + +<p>But I believe that the principles here set forth are able to show us how +such women may remain feminine, and may discharge characteristically +feminine functions in society, even though physical motherhood be denied +them. The <i>racial</i> importance of physical motherhood cannot be +exaggerated, because it determines, as we have seen, not less than half +the natural composition of future generations. But its <i>individual</i> +importance can easily be over-estimated, and that is an error which I +have specially sought to avoid in this book, which is certainly an +attempt to call or recall women to motherhood. It is not as if physical +motherhood were the whole of human motherhood. Racially, it is the +substantial whole; individually, it is but a part of the whole, and a +smaller fraction in our species than in any humbler form of life. +Everyone knows maiden aunts who are better, more valuable, completer +mothers in every non-physical way than the actual mothers of their +nephews and nieces. This is woman's wonderful prerogative, that, in +virtue of her <i>psyche</i>, she can realize herself, and serve others, on +feminine lines, and without a pang of regret or a hint anywhere of +failure, even though she forego physical motherhood. This book, +therefore, is a plea not only for Motherhood but for +Foster-Motherhood—that is, Motherhood all-but-physical. In time to come +the great professions of nursing and teaching will more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> and more engage +and satisfy the lives and the powers of Virgin-Mothers without number. +Let no woman prove herself so ignorant or contemptuous of great things +as to suggest that these are functions beneath the dignity of her +complete womanhood.</p> + +<p>But many a young girl, passing from her finishing-school—which has +perhaps not quite succeeded, despite its best efforts, in finishing her +womanhood—and coming under the influence of some of our modern +champions of womanhood, might well be excused for throwing such a book +as this from her, scorning to admit the glorious conditions which +declare that woman is more for the Future than for the Present, and that +if the Future is to be safeguarded, or even to be, they must not be +transgressed. I have watched young girls, wearing the beautiful colours +which have been captured by one section of the suffrage movement, asking +their way to headquarters for instructions as to procedure, and I have +wondered whether, in twenty years, they will look back wholly with +content at the consequences. Some time ago the illustrated papers +provided us with photographs of a person, originally female, "born to be +love visible," as Ruskin says, who had mastered jiu-jitsu for +suffragette purposes, and was to be seen throwing various hapless men +about a room. And only the day before I write, the papers have given us +a realistic account of a demonstration by an ardent advocate of woman, +the chief item of which was that, on the approach of a burly policeman +to seize her, she—if the pronouns be not too definite in their +sex—fell upon her back and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> adroitly received the constabulary "wind" +upon her upraised foot, thereby working much havoc. No one would assert +that the woman's movement is responsible for the production of such +people; no reasonable person would assert that their adherence condemns +it; but we are rightly entitled to be concerned lest the rising +generation of womanhood be misled by such disgusting examples.</p> + +<p>Nothing will be said which militates for a moment against the +possibility that a woman may be womanly and yet in her later years, when +so many women combine their best health and vigour with experience and +wisdom, might replace many hundredweight of male legislators upon the +benches of the House of Commons, to the immense advantage of the nation. +If our present purpose were medical in the ordinary sense, the reader +would come to a chapter on the climacteric, dealing with the nervous and +other risks and disabilities of that period, and notably including a +warning as to the importance of attending promptly to certain local +symptoms which may possibly herald grave disease. An abundance of books +on such subjects is to be had, and my purpose is not to add to their +number. Yet the climacteric has a special interest for us because the +special case of those women who have passed it is constantly ignored in +our discussions of the woman question—which is not exclusively +concerned with the destiny of girls and the claims of feminine +adolescence to the vote. The work of Lord Lister, and the advances of +obstetrics and gynecology, largely dependent thereon, are increasing the +naturally large number<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span> of women at these later ages—naturally large +because women live longer than men. At this stage the whole case is +changed. The eugenic criterion no longer applies. But though the woman +is past motherhood, she is still a woman, and by no means past +foster-motherhood. Though her psychological characters are somewhat +modified, it is recorded by my old friend and teacher, Dr. Clouston, +that never yet has he found the climacteric to damage a woman's natural +love for children: the maternal instinct will not be destroyed. See, +then, what a valuable being we have here; none the less so because, as +has been said, she now begins to enjoy, in many cases, the best health +of her life. Whatever activities she adopts, there is now no question of +depriving the race of her qualities: if they are good qualities, it is +to be hoped they are already represented in members of the rising +generation. The scope of womanhood is now extended. The principles to be +laid down later still apply, but they are entirely compatible with, for +instance, the discharge of legislative functions. The nation does not +yet value its old or elderly women aright. We use as a term of contempt +that which should be a term of respect. Savage peoples are wiser. We +need the wisdom of our older women. It would be well for us to have Mrs. +Fawcett and Mrs. Humphry Ward in Parliament. The distinguished lady who +approves of woman's vote in municipal affairs, and fights hard for her +son's candidature in Parliament, but objects to woman suffrage on the +ground that women should not interfere in politics, could doubtless find +a good reason why<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> women should sit in Parliament; and though she would +scarcely be heeded on matters of political theory, her splendid +championship of Vacation Schools and Play Centres would be more +effective than ever in the House, and might instruct some of her male +<i>confrères</i> as to what politics really is.</p> + +<p>The prefatory point here made is, in a word, that the following +doctrines are perhaps less reactionary than the ardent suffragette might +suppose, compatible as they are with an earnest belief in the fitness +and the urgent desirability of women of later ages even as Members of +Parliament. It may be added that, on this very point, there is a +ridiculous argument against woman suffrage—that it is the precursor of +a demand to enter Parliament, which would mean (it is assumed), women +being numerically in the majority, that the House would be filled with +girls of twenty-two and three. Men of a sort would be likelier than +women, it could be argued, to vote for such girls; but the wise of both +sexes might well vote for the elderly women whose existence is somehow +forgotten in this connection.</p> + +<p>No chapter will be found devoted to the question of the vote. The +omission is not due to reasons of space, nor to my ever having heard a +good argument against the vote—even the argument that women do not want +it. That women did not want the vote would only show—if it were the +case—how much they needed it. Nor is the omission due to any +lukewarmness in a cause for which I am constantly speaking and writing. +My faith in the justice and political expediency<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span> of woman suffrage has +survived the worst follies, in speech and deed, of its injudicious +advocates: I would as soon allow the vagaries of Mrs. Carrie Nation to +make me an advocate of free whiskey. Causes must be judged by their +merits, not by their worst advocates, or where are the chances of +religion or patriotism or decency?</p> + +<p>The omission is due to the belief that votes for women or anybody else +are far less important than their advocates or their opponents assume. +The biologist cannot escape the habit of thinking of political matters +in vital terms; and if these lead him to regard such questions as the +vote with an interest which is only secondary and conditional, it is by +no means certain that the verdict of history would not justify him. The +present concentration of feminism in England upon the vote, sometimes +involving the refusal of a good end—such as wise legislation—because +it was not attained by the means they desire, and arousing all manner of +enmity between the sexes, may be an unhappy necessity so long as men +refuse to grant what they will assuredly grant before long. But now, and +then, the vital matters are the nature of womanhood; the extent of our +compliance with Nature's laws in the care of girlhood, whether or not +women share in making the transitory laws of man; and the extent to +which womanhood discharges its great functions of dedicating and +preparing its best for the mothers, and choosing and preparing the best +of men for the fathers, of the future. The vote, or any other thing, is +good or bad in so far as it serves or hurts these great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span> and everlasting +needs. I believe in the vote because I believe it will be eugenic, will +reform the conditions of marriage and divorce in the eugenic sense, and +will serve the cause of what I have elsewhere called "preventive +eugenics," which strives to protect healthy stocks from the "racial +poisons," such as venereal disease, alcohol, and, in a relatively +infinitesimal degree, lead. These are ends good and necessary in +themselves, whether attained by a special dispensation from on high, or +by decree of an earthly autocrat or a democracy of either sex or both. +For these ends we must work, and for all the means whereby to attain +them; but never for the means in despite of the ends.</p> + +<p>This first chapter is perhaps unduly long, but it is necessary to state +my eugenic faith, since there is neither room nor need for me to +reiterate the principles of eugenics in later chapters, and since it was +necessary to show that, though this book is written in the interests of +individual womanhood, it is consistent with the principles of the divine +cause of race-culture, to which, for me, all others are subordinate, and +by which, I know, all others will in the last resort be judged.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The whole teaching of this book, from social generalizations to the +details of the wise management of girlhood, is based upon a single and +simple principle, often referred to and always assumed in former +writings from this pen, and in public speaking from many and various +platforms. If this principle be invalid, the whole of the practice which +is sought to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> be based upon it falls to the ground; but if it be valid, +it is of supreme importance as the sole foundation upon which can be +erected any structure of truth regarding woman and womanhood. Our first +concern, therefore, must be to state this principle, and the evidence +therefor. This will occupy not a small space: and the remainder will be +amply filled with the details of its application to woman as girl and +mother and grandmother, as wife and widow, as individual and citizen.</p> + +<p>Woman is Nature's supreme organ of the future, and it is as such that +she will here be regarded. The purpose of adding yet another to the many +books on various aspects of womanhood is to propound and, if possible, +establish this conception of womanhood, and to find in it a +never-failing guide to the right living of the individual life, an +infallible criterion of right and wrong in all proposals for the future +of womanhood, whether economic, political, educational, whether +regarding marriage or divorce, or any other subject that concerns +womanhood. A principle for which so much is claimed demands clear +definition and inexpugnable foundation in the "solid ground of Nature." +Cogent in some measure though the argument would be, we must appeal in +the first place neither to the poets, nor to our own naturally implanted +preferences in womanhood, nor to any teaching that claims extra-natural +authority. Our first question must be—Do Nature and Life, the facts and +laws of the continuance and maintenance of living creatures, lend +countenance to this idea; can it be translated from general terms,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> +essentially poetic and therefore suspect by many, into precise, hard, +scientific language; is it a fact, like the atomic weight of oxygen or +the laws of motion, that woman is Nature's supreme instrument of the +future? If the answer to these questions be affirmative, the evidence of +the poets, of our own preferences, of religions ancient and modern, is +of merely secondary concern as corroborative, and as serving curiosity +to observe how far the teachings of passionless science have been +divined or denied by past ages and by other modes of perception and +inquiry. Therefore this is to be in its basis none other than a +biological treatise; for the laws of reproduction, the newly gained +knowledge regarding the nature of sex, and the facts of physiology, +afford the evidence of the essentially biological truth which has been +so often expressed by the present writer in the quasi-poetic terms +already set forth. Let us, then, first remind ourselves how the +individual, whether male or female, is to be looked upon in the light of +the work of Weismann in especial, and how this great truth, discovered +by modern biology and especially by the students of heredity, affects +our understanding of the difference between man and woman. Setting forth +these earlier pages in the year of the Darwin centenary, and the jubilee +of the "Origin of Species," a writer would have some courage who +proposed to discuss man and woman as if they were unique, rather than +the highest and latest examples of male and female: their nature to be +rightly understood only by due study of their ancestral forms, ancient +and modern. The biological<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span> problem of sex is our concern, and we may +have to traverse many past ages of "æonian evolution," and even to +consider certain quite humble organisms, before we rightly see woman as +an evolutionary product of the laws of life.</p> + +<p>But, first, as to the individual, of whatever sex. Observing the +familiar facts of our own lives and of the higher forms of life, both +animal and vegetable, with which we are acquainted, we must naturally at +first incline to regard as worse than paradoxical the modern biological +concept of the individual as existing for the race, of the body as +merely a transient host or trustee of the immortal germ-plasm. Since +life has its worth and value only in individuals, and since, therefore, +the race exists for the production of individuals, in any sense that we +human beings, at any rate, can accept, we must be reasonable in +expressing the apparently contrary but not less true view that the +individual exists for the race. After all, that does not mean that +individuals exist and are worth Nature's while merely in order to see +the germ-plasm on its way. To say that the individual exists for the +race is to say that he, and, as we shall see, pre-eminently she, exist +for future individuals; and that is not a destiny to be despised of any. +Let us attempt to state simply but accurately what biologists mean in +regarding the individual as primarily the host and servant of something +called the germ-plasm.</p> + +<p>When the processes of development and of reproduction are closely +scrutinized, we find evidence which, together with the conclusions based +thereon, was first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span> effectively stated by August Weismann, of Freiburg, +in his famous little book, "The Germ-Plasm."<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The marvellous cells +from which new individuals are formed must no longer be regarded, at any +rate in the higher animals and plants, as formerly parts of the parent +individuals. On the contrary, we have to accept, at least in general and +as substantially revealing to us the true nature of the individual, the +doctrine of the "continuity of the germ-plasm," which teaches that the +race proper is a potentially immortal sequence of living germ-cells, +from which at intervals there are developed bodies or individuals, the +business and <i>raison d'être</i> of which, whatever such individuals as +ourselves may come to suppose, is primarily to provide a shelter for the +germ-plasm, and nourishment and air, until such time as it shall produce +another individual for itself, to serve the same function. This is +another way of saying what will often be said in the following +pages—that the individual is meant by Nature to be a parent.</p> + +<p>We shall later see that this great truth by no means involves the +condemnation of spinsterhood, but since it determines not only the +physiology, but also the psychology, of the individual, and especially +of woman, it will guide us to a right appreciation of the dangers and +the right direction of spinsterhood, and the means whereby it may be +made a blessing to self and to others. This must be said lest the reader +should be deterred by the unquestionably true assertion that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> the +individual is meant by Nature to be a parent, and has no excuse for +existence in Nature's eyes except as a parent. If we are to regard the +body as a trustee of the germ-plasm, it is evident that the body which +carries the germ-plasm with itself to the grave—the "immortality of the +germ-plasm" being only conditional and at the mercy of the acts of +individuals—has stultified Nature's end; and it will be a serious +concern of ours in the present work to show how, amongst human beings, +at any rate, this stultification may be averted, many childless persons +of both sexes having served the race for evermore in the highest degree. +We must ask in what directions especially may woman, most profitably for +herself or for others, seek to express herself apart from motherhood. It +will appear, if our leading principle be valid, that it affords us a +sure guide in the welter of controversy and baseless assertion of every +kind, in which this vastly important question is at present involved.</p> + +<p>This conception of the individual as something meant to be a parent will +not be questioned by anyone who will do himself or herself the justice +to look at it soberly and reverently, without a trace of that tendency +to levity or to something worse which here invariably betrays the vulgar +mind, whether in a princess or a prostitute. For it needs little +reflection to perceive that the most familiar facts of our experience +and observation never fail to confirm the doctrine based by Weismann +upon the revelations of the microscope when applied to the developmental +processes of certain simple animal and vegetable forms. The doctrine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> +that the individual body was evolved by the forces of life, acted on and +directed by natural selection, as guardian and transmitter of the +germ-plasm, assumes a less paradoxical character when we perceive with +what unfailing art Nature has constructed and devised the body and the +mind for their function. We flatter ourselves hugely if we suppose that +even our most enjoyable and apparently most personal attributes and +appetites were designed by Nature for us. Not at all. It is the race for +which she is concerned. It is not the individual as individual, but the +individual as potential parent, that is her concern, nor does she +hesitate to leave very much to the mercy of time and chance the +individual from whom the possibility of parenthood has passed away, or +the individual in whom it has never appeared. Our appetites for food and +drink, well devised by Nature to be pleasant in their satisfaction—lest +otherwise we should fail to satisfy them and a possible parent should be +lost to her purposes—are immediately rendered of no account when there +stirs within us, whether in its crude or transmuted forms, the appetite +for the exercise of which these others, and we ourselves, exist, since +in Nature's eyes and scheme we are but vessels of the future. In later +chapters we shall have much occasion, because of their great practical +importance in the conduct of woman's life from girlhood onwards, to +discuss the physiological and psychological facts which demonstrate +overwhelmingly the truth of the view that the individual was evolved by +Nature for the care of the germ-plasm, or, in other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> words, was and is +constructed primarily and ultimately for parenthood.</p> + +<p>Nor is this argument, as I see it and will present it, invalidated in +any degree by the case of such individuals as the sterile worker-bee; +any more than the argument, rightly considered, is invalidated by any +instance of a worthy, valuable, happy life, eminently a success in the +highest and in the lower senses, lived amongst mankind by a non-parent +of either sex. On the contrary, it is in such cases as that of the +worker-bee that we find the warrant—in apparent contradiction—for our +notion of the meaning of the individual, and also the key to the problem +placed before us amongst ourselves by the case of inevitable +spinsterhood. Here, it must be granted, is an individual of a very high +and definite and individually complete type, no accident or sport, but, +in fact, essential for the type and continuance of the species to which +she belongs, and yet, though highly individualized and worthy to +represent individuality at its best and highest, the worker-bee, so far +from being designed for parenthood, is sterile, and her distinctive +characters and utilities are conditional upon her sterility. But when we +come to ask what are her distinctive characters and utilities we find +that they are all designed for the future of the race. She is, in fact, +the ideal foster-mother, made for that service, complete in her +incompleteness, satisfied with the vicarious fulfilment of the whole of +motherhood except its merely physical part. The doctrine, therefore, +that the individual is designed by Nature for parenthood, the +individual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> being primarily devised for the race, finds no exception, +but rather a striking and immensely significant illustration in the case +of the worker-bee, nor will it find itself in difficulties with the case +of any forms of individual, however sterile, that can be quoted from +either the animal or the vegetable world. Natural selection, of which +the continuance of the race is the first and never neglected concern, +invariably sees to it that no individuals are allowed to be produced by +any species unless they have survival-value, a phrase which always +means, in the upshot, value for the survival of the race—whether as +parents, or foster-parents, protectors of the parents, feeders or slaves +thereof. Our primary purpose throughout being practical, it is +impossible to devote unlimited time and space to proceeding formally +through the known forms of life in order to marshal all the proofs or a +tithe of them, that all individuals are invented and tolerated by Nature +for parenthood or its service.</p> + +<p>We shall in due course consider the peculiar significance of this +proposition for the case of woman—a significance so radical for our +present argument, even to its <i>minutiæ</i> of practical living, that it +cannot be too early or too thoroughly insisted upon. But before we +proceed to the special case of woman it is well that we should clearly +perceive as a general guiding truth, which will never fail us, either in +interpretation, prediction, or instruction, the unfailing gaze of +Nature, as manifested in the world of life, towards the future. There is +no truth more significant for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span> our interpretation of the meaning of the +Universe, or at least of our planetary life: there is none more relevant +to the fate of empires, and therefore to the interests of the +enlightened patriot: there is none more worthy to be taken to heart by +the individual of either sex and of any age, adolescent or centenarian, +as the secret of life's happiness, endurance, and worth. It may be +permitted, then, briefly to survey the main truths, and, therefore, the +main teachings of the past, as they may be read by those who seek in the +facts of life the key to its meaning and its use.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2><h3>THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME</h3> +</div> + +<p>When we survey the past of the earth as science has revealed it to us, +we gain some conceptions which will help us in our judgments as to what +this phenomenon of human life may signify in the future. We are +accustomed to look upon the earth as aged, but these terms are only +relative; and if we compare our own planet with its neighbours in the +solar system, we shall have good reason to suppose that, though the past +of the earth is very prolonged, its future will probably be far more so. +As for life—and we must think not only of human life, but of life as a +planetary phenomenon—that is necessarily much more recent than the +formation even of the earth's crust, the existence of water in the +liquid state being necessary for life in any of its forms. And human +life itself, though the extent of its past duration is seen to be +greater the more deeply we study the records, is yet a relatively recent +thing. The utmost, it appears, that we can assign to our past would be +perhaps six million years, taking our species back to mid-Miocene times. +Doubtless this is a mighty age as compared with the few thousand years +allotted to us in bygone chronologies; but, looked at <i>sub specie +æternitatis</i>, and with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> an eye which is prepared to look forward also, +and especially with relation to what we know and can predict regarding +the sun, these past six million years may reasonably be held to comprise +only the infantine period of man's life.</p> + +<p>It is very true that on such estimates as those of Lord Kelvin, and +according to what astronomers and geologists believed not more than +twelve or even eight years ago, regarding the secular cooling of earth +and sun—that, according to these, the time is by no means "unending +long," and we may foresee, not so remotely, the end of the solar heat +and light of which we are the beneficiaries. But the discovery of radium +and the phenomena of radio-activity have profoundly modified these +estimates, justifying, indeed, the acumen of Lord Kelvin, who always +left the way open for reconsideration should a new source of heat and +energy in general be discovered. We know now that, to consider the earth +first, its crust is not self-cooling, or at any rate not self-cooling +only, for it is certainly self-heating. There is an almost embarrassing +amount of radium in the earth's crust, so far as we have examined it; a +quantity, that is to say, so great that if the same proportion were +maintained at deeper levels as at those which we can investigate, the +earth would have to be far hotter than it is. Similar reasoning applies +to the sun. Definite, immediate proof of the presence of radium there is +not forthcoming yet, but that presence is far more than probable, +especially since the existence of solar uranium, the known ancestor of +radium, has been demonstrated. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span> reckonings of Helmholtz and others, +based upon the supposition that the solar energy is entirely derived +from its gravitational contraction, must be superseded. It would require +but a very small proportion of radium in the solar constitution to +account for all the energy which the centre of our system produces; and, +as we have already seen, the earth is to no small extent its own +sun—its own source of heat. The prospect thus opened out by modern +physical inquiry supports more strongly than ever the conviction that +the life of this world to come will be very prolonged. It is true that +there is always the possibility of accident. Encountering another globe, +our sun would doubtless produce so much heat as to incinerate all +planetary life. But the excessive remoteness of the sun from the nearest +fixed star suggests that the constitution of the stellar universe is +such that an accident of this kind is extremely improbable. As for +comets, the earth's atmosphere has already encountered a comet, even +during the brief period of astronomical observation. This thick overcoat +of ours protects us from the danger of such chances.</p> + +<p>What, then, is the record? We are told that the belief in progress is a +malady of youth, which experience and the riper mind will dissipate. +Some such argument from the lips of the disillusioned or the +disidealized has been possible, perhaps, with some measure of +probability, until within our own times. They must now forever hold +their peace. We know as surely as we know the elementary phenomena of +physics or chemistry, that the record of life upon our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> planet, though +not only a record of progress by any means, has nevertheless included +that to which the name of progress cannot be denied in any possible +definition of the word. For myself, I understand by progress <i>the +emergence of mind, and its increasing dominance over matter</i>. Such +categories are, no doubt, unphilosophical in the ultimate sense, but +they are proximately convenient and significant. Now, if progress be +thus defined, we can see for ourselves that life has truly advanced, not +merely in terms of anatomical or physiological—<i>i. e.</i> mechanical or +chemical—complexity, but in terms of mind. The facts of nutrition teach +us that the first life upon the earth was vegetable; and though the +vegetable world displays great complexity, and that which, on some +definitions, would be called progress, yet we cannot say that there is +any more mind, any greater differentiation or development of sentience, +in the oak than in the alga. When we turn, however, to the animal +world—which is parasitic, indeed, upon the vegetable world—we find +that in what we may call the main line of ascent there has been, along +with increasing anatomical complexity, the far greater emergence of +mind. In its earliest manifestations, sentience, consciousness, the +psychical in general, and the capacity for it, must be regarded merely +as phenomena of the physical organism; the capacity to feel, as no more +than a property of the living body; and such mind as there is exists for +the body. But, as we may see it, there has been a gradual but infinitely +real turning of the tables, so that, even in a dog, as the lover of that +dog would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> grant, the loss of limbs and tail, or, indeed, of any portion +of the body not necessary to life, does not mean the loss of the +essential dog—not the loss of that which the lover of the dog loves. +Already, that which is not to be seen or handled has become the more +real. In ourselves, it is a capital truth, which asceticism, old or new, +perverted or sane, has always recognized, that the mind is the man, and +must be master, and the body the servant. Yet, historically, this +creature, who by the self means not the body, but, as he thinks, its +inhabitant, is historically and lineally developed—is also, indeed, +developed as an individual—from an organism in which anything to be +called psychical is but an apparently accidental attribute, to be +discerned only on close examination. This emergence of mind is progress; +and this, notwithstanding the sneers of those who do not love the word +or the light, has occurred. Its history is written indelibly in the +rocks. And, as we shall argue, this is the supreme lesson of +evolution—that progress is possible, because progress has occurred.</p> + +<p>Assuredly we should never use this word "progress" without reminding +ourselves of the cardinal distinction that exists between two forms that +it may manifest. There is a progress which consists in and depends upon +an advance in the constitution of the living individual; and, so far as +we are more mental and less physical than the men who have left us such +relics as the Neanderthal skull, in so far we exemplify this kind of +progress. But, on the other hand, we can claim progress as compared with +even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> the Greeks in some respects, though there is no evidence whatever +that, so far as the individual is concerned, there is any natural, +inherent, organic progress. But we know more. Our school-boys know more +than Aristotle. We stand upon Greek shoulders. This is traditional +progress—something outside the germ-plasm; a thing dependent upon our +great human faculty of speech.</p> + +<p>That, surely, is why the word infantine was rightly used in our first +paragraph. For we may ask why, if man be millions of years old, any +record of progress should be a matter of only a few thousand +years—perhaps not more than fifteen or twenty. The answer, I believe, +is that traditional progress depends upon the possibility of tradition. +Now speech, apart from writing, involves the possibility of tradition +from generation to generation, and I am very sure that "Man before +speech" is a myth; the more we learn of the anthropoid apes the surer we +may be of that. But, after all, the possibilities of progress dependent +upon aural memory are sadly limited; not only because it is easy to +forget, but because it is also conspicuously easy to distort, as a +familiar round-game testifies. The greatest of all the epochs in human +history was that which saw the genesis of written speech. I believe that +hundreds of thousands, nay millions, of preceding years were +substantially sterile just because the educational acquirements of +individuals could be transmitted to their children neither in the +germ-plasm (for we know such transmission to be impossible), nor outside +the germ-plasm, by means<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> of writing. The invention of written language +accounts, then, we may suppose, for the otherwise incomprehensible +disparity between the blank record of long ages, and the great +achievement of recent history—an achievement none the less striking if +we remember that the historical epoch includes a thousand years of +darkness. Thus, as was said at the Royal Institution in 1907, when +discussing the nature of progress, we may argue in a new sense that the +historians have made history: it is the possibility of recording that +has given us something to record.</p> + +<p>Now, it is in terms of this latter kind of progress that our duty to the +past, as we conceive it, may be defined. And in its terms also must we +define the grounds of our veneration for the past. None of us invented +language, spoken or written; nor yet numbers, nor the wheel, nor much +else. We see further than our ancestors because we stand upon their +shoulders, and, as Coleridge hinted, this may be so even though we be +dwarfs and they were giants. Some of us see this. How can we fail to do +so? And the past becomes in our eyes a very real thing, to which we are +so greatly indebted that we should even live for it. But there is a +great danger, dependent upon a great error, here. Let us consider what +is our right attitude towards the past. We are its children and its +heirs. We are infinitely indebted to it. We must love and venerate that +which was lovable and venerable in it. But are we to live for it?</p> + +<p>If we could imagine ourselves coming from afar and contemplating the +sequence of universal phenomena<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span> now for the first time, we should +realize that the past, though real, because it was once real, is yet a +fleeting aspect of change, and, in a very real sense also, <i>is</i> not. +Nor, indeed, <i>is</i> the future; but it will be. We cannot alter, we cannot +benefit, we cannot serve the past, because it is not and will not be. +Our besetting tendency as individuals is to live for our own pasts, more +especially as we grow old; to become retrospective, to cease to look +forward, even to dedicate what remains to us of life to the service of +what is not at all. In this respect, as in so many others, we are less +wise than children. We will not let the dead bury its dead. This is also +the tendency of all institutions. Even if there were founded an +Institute of the Future, dedicated to the life of this world to come, +after only one generation its administrators would be consulting the +interests of the past, turning to the service of the name and the memory +of their founder, though it was for the future that he lived. Throughout +all our social institutions we can perceive this same worship of what no +longer is at the cost of the most real of all real things, which is the +life of the generation that is and the generations that are to be.</p> + +<p>Everywhere the price for this idolatry is exacted. The perpetual image +of it is Lot's wife, who, looking backwards upon that from which she had +escaped, was turned into a pillar of salt. Nature may or may not have a +purpose, and exhibit designs for that purpose; she may or may not, in +philosophical language, be teleological. Man is and must be +teleological. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span> must live for the morrow, for what will be, whether as +individuals or as a nation, or our ways are the ways of death. This is +looked upon as a human failing—that man never is, but always to be +blest; that man is never satisfied, that he will not rest content with +present achievement.</p> + +<p>Well, it is stated of our first cousin, once removed, the orang-outang, +that in the adult state he is aroused only for the snatching of food, +and then "relapses into repose." His reach does not exceed his grasp, +and one need not preach contentment to him. But we, the latest and +highest products of the struggle for existence, we are strugglers by +constitution; and when we relapse into repose we degenerate. Only on +condition of living for the morrow can we remain human. Put a sound limb +on crutches and you paralyze it; wear smoked glasses and your eyes +become intolerant of light, or wear glasses that make the muscle of +accommodation superfluous and it atrophies; take pepsin and hydrochloric +acid and the stomach will become incapable of producing them; cease to +chew and your teeth decay; let the newspaper prepare your mental food as +the cook cuts up your physical food, and you will become incapable of +thought—that is, of mental mastication and digestion. It is above all +things imperative to strive, to have a goal, to seek it on our own legs, +to cry for the moon rather than for nothing at all. And Nature teaches +us unequivocally that our purpose is ever onward—</p> + +<p> +To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths<br /> +Of all the western stars, until we die.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span></p> + +<p>It is to go, and not to get, that is the glory. To be content is to have +no ideal beyond the real; we were better dead and nourishing grass. It +is part of the whole structure of life, as we can read it, whether in +the animal or in the vegetable world, but pre-eminently in ourselves, +that the very body of the individual is constructed as for purpose; nay +more, as for the purposes of the future. Every little baby girl that is +born into the world bears upon her soft surface signs and portents—not +merely promise, but the promise of provision—for the life of the world +to come. At her very birth she teaches us that she is not created for +self alone, but for what will be. Running through the whole body—and +this the more markedly the higher the type of life—we find organs, +tissues, functions, co-ordinations existing not for the present, but for +the life of the world to come. When, some day, the social organism is as +rightly constructed as the body of any woman, or even, in some measure, +of any man, when it is similarly dedicated to the real future, and as +resolutely turned away from any worship of what no longer is, then +heaven will be nearer to earth.</p> + +<p>It is quite clear that the supreme choice for any individual or +institution or nation is between unborn to-morrow and dead yesterday. No +one who concerns himself in the current political controversies, as, for +instance, that thing of unspeakable shame which is called the "education +question," will doubt that the present and the future are constantly +being sacrificed to the past. It may be that the spirit of a trust is +being grossly violated; but, rather than infringe the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span> letter of it, the +life of to-day and to-morrow must suffer: thus do the worshippers of +dead yesterday—the most lethal idol before which fond humanity ever +prostrated itself.</p> + +<p>If it be our duty to do—not "as though to breathe were life"—and if +nature indicates the future as that which we are to serve, what evidence +have we, or what likelihood, that such service is worth our while? Of +course, such a question as this may be answered in some such terms as +those of the further question, What has posterity done for us? And it is +interesting, perhaps, to consider that, so far as we can judge the +attitude of our ancestors towards ourselves, their chief interest in us +seems to have been as to what we should think of them—"What will +posterity say?" They left their records, as we leave our records, for +posterity to discover. With singular lack of judgment, as I think, we +bury examples of our newspapers for posterity to discover: these are +amongst the things which I should rather not have posterity discover. +But this is no right outlook upon the future. It is not a question of +what posterity can do for us. Posterity is here within us. The life of +the world to come is in our keeping. We carry it about with us in all +our goings and comings. It is at the mercy of what we eat and drink, at +the mercy of the diseases we contract. Its fate is involved when we fall +in love with each other, or out of love with each other; it is we +ourselves. Just as the father who perhaps is losing his own hair may +like to see how pleasantly his children's hair is growing, and finds +consolation therein; just as,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span> indeed, all the hopes of the parent +become gradually transferred from self to that further self, those +further selves, which his children are, so we are to look upon the +future as our continuing self. To ask, What has posterity done for us? +should be looked upon as if one should say, What have my children done +for me? The parallel is indeed a very close one: and it is pointed out +by the fine sentence from Herbert Spencer, which should be known to all +of us—"A transfigured sentiment of parenthood regards with solicitude +not child and grandchild only, but the generations to come +hereafter—fathers of the future, creating and providing for their +remote children."</p> + +<p>We may grant that there is no money in posterity. The germ-plasm has +infinite possibilities; but, so long as it remains germ-plasm, it can +write no cheques in our favour. If you serve the present, the present +will pay; posterity does not pay. If you write a "Merry Widow," the +present will pay; if you write an "Unfinished Symphony," you will be +dust ere it is performed. If you create that which will last forever, +but which makes no appeal to the transient tastes of the moment, you may +starve and die and rot, because the future, for which you work, cannot +reward you. Life is so constructed that only in our own day, and not +always now, is the mother—even Nature's own supreme organ of the +future—rewarded for her maternal sacrifice. Nature does not trouble +about the fate of the present, because she is always pressing on and +pressing on towards something more, higher, better. The present, the +individual, are but the organs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> of her purpose. We are to look upon +ourselves as ends in ourselves; but we are also means towards ends which +we can only dimly conceive, but towards which we may rightly work, and +the service of which, though by no means freedom in the ordinary sense, +is yet of that higher kind, that perfect freedom, which consists in the +development of all the higher attributes of our nature. For it is in our +nature to work and to feel and to live for the life that will be. That, +as I say, is because living creatures are so constructed.</p> + +<p>Huxley said that if the present level of human life were to show no +rising in the future, he should welcome the kindly comet that should +sweep the whole thing away. None of us is content with things as they +are. If we are, better were it for us to be nourishing the grass and +serving the things that will be in that way, if we cannot in any other. +What promise, then, have we that things as they will be are worth +working for? We live now in an age to which there has been revealed the +fact of organic evolution. From the fire-mist, from the mud, from the +merely brutal, there have been evolved—such is the worth of Nature's +womb—there have been evolved intelligence and love, sacrifice, ideals; +splendours which no splendour to come can utterly dim. These things are +in the power of Nature. This is what "dead matter" can mother. So much +the worse for our contemptible conceptions of matter, and That of which +matter is the manifestation. But if it be that from the slime, by +natural processes, there can grow a St. Francis, surely our dim notions +of the potencies of Nature must be exalted. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> forces that have +erected us from the worm, are they necessarily exhausted or exhaustible? +Who will dare to set limits to the promise of Nature's womb? I mean, in +a word, that the history of evolution is a warrant for the idea that we +ourselves, even erected men and women, are but stages to what may be +higher. We look with contempt upon the apes, but time must have been +when "simian" would have been as proud an adjective as "human" is +to-day: and human may become superhuman.</p> + +<p>Many passages might be quoted to show that our expectation of future +progress is well based, and I will content myself with a single excerpt +from the final page of the masterpiece of which all the civilized world +was lately celebrating the jubilee. Says Darwin: "Hence we may look with +some confidence to a secure future of great length. And as natural +selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal +and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection."</p> + +<p>The quotation will suffice to remind us that, if we are to serve the +life of the world to come in the surest way, we must become Eugenists, +accepting and applying to human life Nature's great principle of the +selection of worth for parenthood and the rejection of unworth. We must +modify and adapt our conceptions of education thereto. We must make +parenthood the most responsible thing in life. We must teach the +girl—aye, and the boy too—that the body is holy, for it is the temple +of life to come. We must perceive in our most imperious instincts +Nature's care for the future,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> and must humanize and sanctify them by +conscious recognition of their purpose, and by provident co-operation +with Nature towards her supreme end. We could spare from education, +perhaps, those fictions concerning the past which are sometimes called +history, were they replaced by a knowledge of our own nature and +constitution as instruments of the future.</p> + +<p>Let us grant even, for the argument, that nothing more is possible than +mankind has yet achieved. There remains the hope that that which human +nature at its best has been capable of may be realized by human nature +at large. In their great moments the great men have seen this. That last +sentence is, indeed, a paraphrase from a remark at the end of Herbert +Spencer's "Ethics." Ruskin—to choose the polar antithesis of the +Spencerian mind—declares that "there are no known limits to the +nobleness of person or mind which the human creature may attain if we +wisely attend to the laws of its birth and training." Wordsworth asks +whether Nature throws any bars across the hope that what one is millions +may be. Take it, then, that nothing more is conceivable in the way of +mathematics than a Newton, or of drama than an Æschylus or a +Shakespeare, or of sacrifice than a Christ. These, then, are types of +what will be. They demonstrate what human nature is capable of. What one +is, why may not millions be? Here is an ideal to work for. Here is +something real to worship, to dedicate a life to. It is not merely that +we can make smoother the paths of future generations—which George +Meredith declared to be the great purpose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> and duty of our lives—but +that, as Ruskin suggests in the foregoing quotation, we may raise the +inherent quality of those future generations, so that they can make +their own ways smooth and straight and high. It is our business, I +repeat, to conceive of parenthood as the most responsible and sacred +thing in life. True, it now follows, according to physiological law, +upon the satisfaction of certain tendencies of our nature, which in +themselves may be gratified, and even worthily gratified, without +reference to anything but the present; yet these tendencies, commonly +reviled and regarded with contempt—at least overt contempt—exist, like +most of our attributes, for the life of the world to come. And that in +which they may result, the bringing of new human life into the world, is +the most tremendous, as it is the most mysterious, of our possibilities.</p> + +<p>The laws of life are such that at any given moment the entire future is +absolutely at the mercy of the present. The laws of life, indeed; one +might have said the law of universal causation. But so it is. There is +no conceivable limit to our responsibility. We act for the moment, we +act for self; but there will be no end to the consequences. When the +stuff of which our bodies are made has passed through a thousand cycles, +the consequences of our brief moments will still be felt. This +dependence of the future upon the present in the world of life is an +almost unrealizable thing. Life could not have persisted upon such +conditions had not Nature from the first, and increasingly up to our own +day (for it is the human infant that is the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> helpless, and the +longest helpless), had not Nature, I say, persistently constructed the +individual, in all his or her attributes, as a being whose warrant and +purpose lay yet beyond. We are organs of the race, whether we will or +no. We are made for the future, whether we will, whether we care, or no. +We are only obeying Nature, and therefore in a position to command her, +in dedicating ourselves and our purposes, our customs, our social +structures, to the life of the world to come. We shall be there. Our +purposes and hopes, the flesh and blood of many of us, will be there. +Posterity will be what we make it, as we, alas! are what our ancestors +have made us.</p> + +<p>To this increasing purpose there will come, I suppose, an end—an +inscrutable end. Yearly the evidence makes it more probable that in a +sister world we are gazing upon the splendid efforts of purposeful, +intelligent, co-ordinated life to battle against planetary conditions +which threaten it with death by thirst. How long intelligence has +existed upon Mars, if intelligence there be, no one can say; nor yet +what its future will be. It would seem probable that our own fate must +be similar, but it is far removed. And though the Whole may seem wanton, +purposeless, stupid, we are very little folk; we see very dimly; we see +only what we have the capacity to see; and there are more things in +heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the philosophy of the wisest of +us. So also there are many events in the womb of time which will be +delivered. We are the shapers, the creators, the parents of those +events. The still, small voice of the unborn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span> declares our +responsibility. There may be no reward. What does reward mean? Who +rewards the sun, or the rain, or the oak, or the tigress? But there is +the doing of one's work in the world, the serving of the highest and +most real purpose that may be revealed to us. That is to be oneself, to +fulfil one's destiny, to be a part of the universe, and worthy to be +such a part. And though it be even unworthy for us to suggest that at +least posterity will be grateful to us, such a thought may perhaps +console us a little. At any rate, to those who worship and live for the +past, we may offer this alternative: let them work for what will be. +Perhaps the reward will be as real as any that the worship of what is +not can offer. And, reward or no reward, it is something to have an +ideal, something to believe that earth may become heavenly, and that, in +some real sense which we can dimly perceive, we may be part—must be +part, indeed—of that great day which is in our keeping, and which it is +our privilege to have some share in shaping. Thus we may repeat, and +thrill to repeat, with new meaning, the old but still living words, +<i>Expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi sæculi</i>—"I look for +the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2><h3>THE PURPOSE OF WOMANHOOD</h3> +</div> + +<p>In due course we shall have to discuss the little that is yet known and +to discuss the much that is asserted by both sides, for this or that +end, regarding the differences between men and women. By this we mean, +of course, the natural as distinguished from the nurtural +differences—to use the antithetic terms so usefully adapted by Sir +Francis Galton from Shakespeare. Our task, we shall soon discover, is +not an easy one: because it is rarely easy to disentangle the effects of +nature from those of nurture, all the phenomena, physical and psychical, +of all living creatures being not the sum but the product of these two +factors. The sharp allotment of this or that feature to nature or to +nurture alone is therefore always wholly wrong: and the nice estimation +of the relative importance of the natural as compared with the nurtural +factors must necessarily be difficult, especially for the case of +mankind, where critical observation, on a large scale, and with due +control, of the effects of environment upon natural potentialities is +still lacking.</p> + +<p>But here, at least, we may unhesitatingly declare and insist upon, and +shall hereafter invariably argue from, <i>the</i> one indisputable and +all-important distinction between man and woman. We must not commit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> the +error of regarding this distinction as qualitative so much as +quantitative: by which is meant that it really is neither more nor less +than a difference in the proportions of two kinds of vital expenditure. +Nor must we commit the still graver error of asserting, without +qualification, that such and such, and that only, is the ideal of +womanhood, and that all women who do not conform to this type are +morbid, or, at least, abnormal. It takes all sorts to make a world, we +must remember. Further, the more we learn, especially thanks to the +modern experimental study of heredity, regarding the constitution of the +individual of either sex, the more we perceive how immensely complex and +how infinitely variable that constitution is. Nay more, the evidence +regarding both the higher animals and the higher plants inclines us to +the view, not unsupported by the belief of ages, that woman is even more +complex in constitution than man, and therefore no less liable to vary +within wide limits. On what one may term organic analysis, comparable to +the chemist's analysis of a compound, woman may be found to be more +complex, composed of even more numerous and more various elementary +atoms, so to say, than man.</p> + +<p>And if these new observations upon the nature of femaleness were not +enough to warn the writer who should rashly propose, after the fashion +of the unwise, who on every hand lay down the law on this matter, to +state once and for all exactly what, and what only, every woman should +be, we find that another long-held belief as to the relative variety of +men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> and women has lately been found baseless. It was long held, and is +still generally believed—in consequence of that universal confusion +between the effects of nature and of nurture to which we have already +referred—that women are less variable than men, that they vary within +much narrower limits, and that the bias towards the typical, or mean, or +average, is markedly greater in the case of women than of men. A vast +amount of idle evidence is quoted in favour of a proposition which seems +to have some <i>a priori</i> plausibility. It is said—of course, without any +allusion to nurture, education, environment, opportunity—that such +extreme variations as we call genius are much commoner amongst men than +women: and then that the male sex also furnishes an undue proportion of +the insane—as if there were no unequal incidence of alcohol and +syphilis, the great factors of insanity, upon the two sexes. +Nevertheless, observant members of either sex will either contradict one +another on this point according to their particular opportunities, or +will, on further inquiry, agree that women vary surely no less generally +than men, at any rate within considerable limits, whatever may be the +facts of colossal genius. Indeed, we begin to perceive that differences +in external appearance, which no one supposes to be less general among +women than among men, merely reflect internal differences; and that, as +our faces differ, so do ourselves, every individual of either sex being, +in fact, not merely a peculiar variety, but the solitary example of that +variety—in short, unique. The analysis of the individual now being made +by experimental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> biology lends abundant support to this view of the +higher forms of life—the more abundant, the higher the form. So vast, +as yet quite incalculably vast, is the number of factors of the +individual, and such are the laws of their transmission in the +germ-cells, that the mere mathematical chances of a second identical +throw, so to speak, resulting in a second individual like any other, are +practically infinitely small. The greater physiological complexity of +woman, as compared with man, lends especial force to the argument in her +case. The remarkable phenomena of "identical twins," who alone of human +beings are substantially identical, lend great support to this +proposition of the uniqueness of every individual: for we find that this +unexampled identity depends upon the fact that the single cell from +which every individual is developed, having divided into two, was at +that stage actually separated into two independent cells, thus producing +two complete individuals of absolutely identical germinal constitution. +In no other case can this be asserted; and thus this unique identity +confirms the doctrine that otherwise all individuals are indeed unique.</p> + +<p>It is necessary to state this point clearly in the forefront of our +argument, both lest the reader should suppose that some foolish ideal of +feminine uniformity is to be argued for, and also in the interests of +the argument as it proceeds, lest we should be ourselves tempted to +forget the inevitable necessity—and, as will appear, the eminent +desirability—of feminine, no less than of masculine, variety.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span></p> + +<p>Nevertheless, there remains the fact that, in the variety which is +normally included within the female sex, there is yet a certain +character, or combination of characters, upon which, indeed, distinctive +femaleness depends. It may in due course be our business to discuss the +subordinate and relatively trivial differences between the sexes, +whether native or acquired; but we shall encounter nothing of any moment +compared with the distinction now to be insisted upon.</p> + +<p>One may well suggest that insistence is necessary, for never, it may be +supposed, in the history of civilization was there so widespread or so +effective a tendency to declare that, in point of fact, there are no +differences between men and women except that, as Plato declared, woman +is in all respects simply a weaker and inferior kind of man. Great +writer though Plato was, what he did not know of biology was eminently +worth knowing, and his teaching regarding womanhood and the conditions +of motherhood in the ideal city is more fantastically and ludicrously +absurd than anything that can be quoted, I verily believe, from any +writer of equal eminence. If, indeed, the teaching of Plato were +correct, there would be no purpose in this book. If a girl is +practically a boy, we are right in bringing up our girls to be boys. If +a woman is only a weaker and inferior kind of man, those +women—themselves, as a rule, the nearest approach to any evidence for +this view—who deny the weakness and inferiority and insist upon the +identity, are justified. Their error and that of their supporters is +twofold.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span></p> + +<p>In the first place, they err because, being themselves, as we shall +afterwards have reason to see, of an aberrant type, they judge women and +womanhood by themselves, and especially by their abnormal psychological +tendencies—notably the tendency to look upon motherhood much as the +lower type of man looks upon fatherhood. It requires closer and more +intimate study of this type than we can spare space for—more, even, +than the state of our knowledge yet permits—in order to demonstrate how +absurd is the claim of women thus peculiarly constituted to speak for +their sex as a whole.</p> + +<p>But, secondly, those women and men who assert the doctrine of the +identity of the sexes are led to err, not because it can really be +hidden from the most casual observer that there is a profound +distinction between the sexes, apart from the case of the defeminized +woman—but because, by a surprising fallacy, they confuse the doctrine +of sex-equality with that of sex-identity; or, rather, they believe that +only by demonstrating the doctrine that the sexes are substantially +identical, can they make good their plea that the sexes should be +regarded as equal. The fallacy is evident, and would not need to detain +us but for the fact that, as has been said, the whole tendency of the +time is towards accepting it—the recent biological proof of the +fundamental and absolute difference between the sexes being unknown as +yet to the laity. Yet surely, even were the facts less salient, or even +were they other than they are, it is a pitiable failure of logic to +suppose, as is daily supposed, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> in order to prove woman man's equal +one must prove her to be really identical in all essentials, given, of +course, equal conditions. Controversialists on both sides, and even some +of the first rank, are content to accept this absurd position.</p> + +<p>The one party seeks to prove that woman is man's equal because Rosa +Bonheur and Lady Butler have painted, Sappho and George Eliot have +written, and so forth; in other words, that woman is man's equal because +she can do what he can do: any capacities of hers which he does not +share being tacitly regarded as beside the point or insubstantial.</p> + +<p>The other party has little difficulty in showing that, in point of fact, +men do things admittedly worth doing of which women are on the whole +incapable; and then triumphantly, but with logic of the order which this +party would probably call "feminine," it is assumed that woman is not +man's equal because she cannot do the things he does. That she does +things vastly better and infinitely more important which he cannot do at +all, is not a point to be considered; the baseless basis of the whole +silly controversy being the exquisite assumption, to which the women's +party have the folly to assent, that only the things which are common in +some degree to both sexes shall be taken into account, and those +peculiar to one shall be ignored.</p> + +<p>It is my most solemn conviction that the cause of woman, which is the +cause of man, and the cause of the unborn, is by nothing more gravely +and unnecessarily prejudiced and delayed than by this doctrine of +sex-identity. It might serve some turn for a time, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span> many another +error has done, were it not so palpably and egregiously false. Advocated +as it is mainly by either masculine women or unmanly men, its advocates, +though in their own persons offering some sort of evidence for it, are +of a kind which is highly repugnant to less abnormal individuals of both +sexes. Hosts of women of the highest type, who are doing the silent work +of the world, which is nothing less than the creation of the life of the +world to come, are not merely dissuaded from any support of the women's +cause by the spectacle of these palpably aberrant and unfeminine women, +but are further dissuaded by the profound conviction arising out of +their woman's nature, that the doctrine of sex-identity is absurd. Many +of them would rather accept their existing status of social inferiority, +with its thousand disabilities and injustices, than have anything to do +with women who preach "Rouse yourselves, women, and be men!" and who +themselves illustrate only too fearsomely the consequences of this +doctrine.</p> + +<p>Certainly not less disastrous, as a consequence of this most unfortunate +error of fact and of logic, is the alienation from the woman's cause of +not a few men whose support is exceptionally worth having. There are men +who desire nothing in the world so much as the exaltation of womanhood, +and who would devote their lives to this cause, but would vastly rather +have things as they are than aid the movement of "Woman in +Transition"—if it be transition from womanhood to something which is +certainly not womanhood and at best a very poor parody of manhood except +in cases<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span> almost infinitely rare. I have in my mind a case of a +well-known writer, a man of the highest type in every respect, well +worth enlisting in the army that fights for womanhood to-day, whose +organic repugnance to the defeminized woman is so intense, and whose +perception of the distinctive characters of real womanhood and of their +supreme excellence is so acute that, so far from aiding the cause of, +for instance, woman's suffrage, he is one of its most bitter and +unremitting enemies. There must be many such—to whom the doctrine of +sex-identity, involving the repudiation of the excellences, distinctive +and precious, of women, is an offence which they can never forgive.</p> + +<p>One may be permitted a little longer to delay the discussion of the +distinctive purpose and character of womanhood, because the foregoing +has already stated in outline the teaching which biology and physiology +so abundantly warrant. For here we must briefly refer to the work of a +very remarkable woman, scarcely known at all to the reading public, +either in Great Britain or in America, and never alluded to by the +feminist leaders in those countries, though her works are very widely +known on the Continent of Europe, and, with the whole weight of +biological fact behind them, are bound to become more widely known and +more effective as the years go on. I refer to the Swedish writer, Ellen +Key, one of whose works, though by no means her best, has at last been +translated into English. All her books are translated into German from +the Swedish, and are very widely read and deeply influential in +determining the course of the woman's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span> movement in Germany. At this +early stage in our argument I earnestly commend the reader of any age or +sex to study Ellen Key's "Century of the Child." It is necessary and +right to draw particular attention to the teaching of this woman since +it is urgently needed in Anglo-Saxon countries at this very time, and +almost wholly unknown, but for this minor work of hers and an occasional +allusion—as in an article contributed by Dr. Havelock Ellis to the +<i>Fortnightly Review</i> some few years ago. Especial importance attaches to +such teaching as hers when it proceeds from a woman whose fidelity to +the highest interests, even to the unchallenged autonomy, of her sex +cannot be questioned, attested as it is by a lifetime of splendid work. +The present controversy in Great Britain would be profoundly modified in +its course and in its character if either party were aware of Ellen +Key's work. The most questionable doctrines of the English feminists +would be already abandoned by themselves if either the wisest among +them, or their opponents, were able to cite the evidence of this great +Swedish feminist, who is certainly at this moment the most powerful and +the wisest living protagonist of her sex. From a single chapter of the +book, to which it may be hoped that the reader will refer, there may be +quoted a few sentences which will suffice to indicate the reasons why +Ellen Key dissociated herself some ten years ago from the general +feminist movement, and will also serve as an introduction from the +practical and instinctive point of view to the scientific argument +regarding the nature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span> and purpose of womanhood, which must next concern +us. Hear Ellen Key:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Doing away with an unjust paragraph in a law which concerns woman, +turning a hundred women into a field of work where only ten were +occupied before, giving one woman work where formerly not one was +employed—these are the mile-stones in the line of progress of the +woman's rights movement. It is a line pursued without consideration +of feminine capacities, nature and environment.</p> + +<p>"The exclamation of a woman's rights champion when another woman +had become a butcher, 'Go thou and do likewise,' and an American +young lady working as an executioner, are, in this connection, +characteristic phenomena.</p> + +<p>"In our programme of civilization, we must start out with the +conviction that motherhood is something essential to the nature of +woman, and the way in which she carries out this profession is of +value for society. On this basis we must alter the conditions which +more and more are robbing woman of the happiness of motherhood and +are robbing children of the care of a mother.</p> + +<p>"I am in favour of real freedom for woman; that is, I wish her to +follow her own nature, whether she be an exceptional or an ordinary +woman ... I recognize fully the right of the feminine individual to +go her own way, to choose her own fortune or misfortune. I have +always spoken of women collectively and of society collectively.</p> + +<p>"From this general, not from the individual, standpoint, I am +trying to convince women that vengeance is being exacted on the +individual, on the race, when woman gradually destroys the deepest +vital source of her physical and psychical being, the power of +motherhood.</p> + +<p>"But present-day woman is not adapted to motherhood; she will only +be fitted for it when she has trained herself for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> motherhood and +man is trained for fatherhood. Then man and woman can begin +together to bring up the new generation out of which some day +society will be formed. In it the completed man—the superman—will +be bathed in that sunshine whose distant rays but colour the +horizon of to-day."</p></div> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2><h3>THE LAW OF CONSERVATION</h3> +</div> + +<p>Students of the physical sciences discovered in the nineteenth century a +universal law of Nature, always believed by the wisest since the time of +Thales, but never before proven, which is now commonly known as the law +of the conservation of energy. When we say to a child, "You cannot eat +your cake and have it," we are expressing the law of the conservation of +matter, which is really a more or less accurate part-expression of the +law of the conservation of energy. The law that from nothing nothing is +made—and further, though here this concerns us less, that nothing is +ever destroyed—is the only firm foundation for any work or any theory +whether in science or philosophy. The chemist who otherwise bases his +account of a reaction is wrong; the sociologist who denies it Nature +will deny. It was the sure foundation upon which Herbert Spencer erected +the philosophy of evolution; and every page of this book depends upon +the certainty that this law applies to woman and to womanhood as it does +to the rest of the universe. Further, it may be shown that certain less +universal but most important generalizations made by two or three +biologists are indeed special cases of the universal law. There is, +first, the law of Herbert Spencer, which states that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> for every +individual there is an inevitable issue between the demands of +parenthood and the demands of self; and there is, secondly, the law of +Professors Geddes and Thomson, which asserts that this issue specially +concerns the female as compared with the male sex, the distinguishing +character of femaleness being that in it a higher proportion of the +vital energy is expended upon or conserved for the future and therefore, +necessarily, a smaller proportion for the purposes of the individual. It +is of service to one's thinking, perhaps, to regard Geddes and Thomson's +law as a special case of Spencer's, and Spencer's as a special case of +the law of the conservation of energy. First, then, somewhat of detail +regarding the law of balance between expenditure on the self and +expenditure upon the race; and then to the all-important application of +this to the case of womanhood—for upon this application the whole of +the subsequent argument depends.</p> + +<p>When he set forth, with great daring, to write the "Principles of +Biology," Spencer was already at an advantage compared with the accepted +writers upon the subject, not merely because of his stupendous +intellectual endowment, but also because the idea of the conservation of +energy was a permanent guiding factor in all his thought. Thus it was, +one supposes, that this bold young amateur, for he was little more, +perceived in the light of the evolutionary idea of which he was one of +the original promulgators, a simple truth which had been unperceived by +all previous writers upon biology, from Aristotle onwards.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span> It is in the +last section of his book that Spencer propounds his "law of +multiplication," depending upon what he calls the "antagonism between +individuation and genesis." As I have observed elsewhere, the word +antagonism is perhaps too harsh, and may certainly be misleading, for it +may induce us to suppose that there is no possible reconciliation of the +claims and demands of the race and the individual, the future and the +present. I believe most devoutly that there is such a reconciliation, as +indeed Spencer himself pointed out, and a central thesis of this book is +indeed that in the right expression of motherhood or foster-motherhood, +woman may and increasingly will achieve the highest, happiest, and +richest self-development. Thus one may be inclined to abandon the word +antagonism, and to say merely that there is a necessary inverse ratio +between "individuation" and "genesis," to use the original Spencerian +terms. This principle has immense consequences—most notably that as +life ascends the birth-rate falls, more of the vital energy being used +for the enrichment and development of the individual life, and less for +mere physical parenthood. We shall argue that, in the case of mankind, +and pre-eminently in the case of woman, this enrichment and development +of the individual life is best and most surely attained by parenthood or +foster-parenthood, made self-conscious and provident, and magnificently +transmuted by its extension and amplification upon the psychical plane +in the education of children and, indeed, the care and ennoblement of +human life in all its stages.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span></p> + +<p>This law of Spencer's has been discussed at length by the present writer +in a previous volume,<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and we may therefore now proceed to its notable +illustration in the case of womanhood and the female sex in general, as +made by Geddes and Thomson now more than twenty years ago. It is +surprising that the distinguished authors do not seem to have recognized +that their law is a special case of Spencer's; but one of them granted +this relation in a discussion upon the present writer's first eugenic +lecture to the Sociological Society.<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>We must therefore now briefly but adequately consider the argument of +the remarkable book published by the Scottish biologists in 1889, and +presented in a new edition in 1900. The latter date is of interest, +because it coincides with the re-discovery of the work of Mendel, +published in 1865, to which we must afterwards more than once refer; and +the work of the Mendelians during the subsequent decade very +substantially modifies much of the authors' teaching upon the +determination of sex, and the intimate nature of the physiological +differences between the sexes. We have learnt more about the nature of +sex in the decade or so since the publication of the new edition of the +"Evolution of Sex" than in all preceding time. Such, at least, is the +well-grounded opinion of all who have acquainted themselves with the +work of the Mendelians, as we shall see: and therefore that book is by +no means commended to the reader's attention as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> the last word upon the +subject. The rather would one particularly direct him to the following +prophetic and admirable passage in the preface of 1900:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Our hope is that the growing strength of the still young school of +experimental evolutionists may before many years yield results +which will involve not merely a revision, but a recasting of our +book."</p></div> + +<p>—a passage which may well content the authors to-day, when its +fulfilment is so signal.</p> + +<p>Yet assuredly the main thesis of the volume stands, and profoundly +concerns every student of womanhood in any of its aspects. It will +continue to stand when the brilliant foolishness of such writers as poor +Weininger, the author of that evidently insane product "Sex and +Character," is rightly estimated as interesting to the student of mental +pathology alone. There has lately been a kind of epidemic citation from +Weininger, whose book is obviously rich in characters that make it +attractive to the ignorant and the many; and it is high time that we +should concern ourselves less with the product of a suicidal and +much-to-be-pitied boy, and more with the sober and scientific work for +which daily verification is always at hand.</p> + +<p>We cannot do better than have before us at the outset the authors' +statement of their main proposition, in the preface to the new edition +of their work:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In all living creatures there are two great lines of variation, +primarily determined by the very nature of protoplasmic change +(metabolism); for the ratio of the constructive (anabolic) changes +to the disruptive (katabolic) ones, that is of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> income to outlay, +of gains to losses, is a variable one. In one sex, the female, the +balance of debtor and creditor is the more favourable one; the +anabolic processes tend to preponderate, and this profit may be at +first devoted to growth, but later towards offspring, of which she +hence can afford to bear the larger share. To put it more +precisely, the life-ratio of anabolic to katabolic changes, A/K, in +the female is normally greater than the corresponding life-ratio, +a/k, in the male. This for us, is the fundamental, the +physiological, the constitutional difference between the sexes; and +it becomes expressed from the very outset in the contrast between +their essential reproductive elements, and may be traced on into +the more superficial sexual characters."</p></div> + +<p>A little further on (p. 17), the authors say:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Without multiplying instances, a review of the animal kingdom, or +a perusal of Darwin's pages, will amply confirm the conclusion that +on an average the females incline to passivity, the males to +activity. In higher animals, it is true that the contrast shows +itself rather in many little ways than in any one striking +difference of habit, but even in the human species the difference +is recognized. Every one will admit that strenuous spasmodic bursts +of activity characterize men, especially in youth, and among the +less civilized races; while patient continuance, with less violent +expenditure of energy, is as generally associated with the work of +women."</p></div> + +<p>We must shortly proceed to study the origin and determination of sex, +and more especially of femaleness, in the individual, and here we shall +be entirely concerned with the new knowledge commonly called Mendelism, +to which there is no allusion in our authors' pages. Meanwhile it must +be insisted that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> reader who will either read their pages for a +survey of the evidence in detail, or who will for a moment consider the +evident necessities imposed by the facts of parenthood, cannot possibly +fail to satisfy himself that the main contention, as stated in the +foregoing quotations, is correct. A further point of the greatest +importance to us requires to be made.</p> + +<p>It is that, owing to profound but intelligible causes, the contrast +which necessarily obtains between the sexes in respect of their vital +expenditure is most marked in the case of our own species. It is one of +the conditions of progress that the young of the higher species make +more demands upon their mothers than do the young of humbler forms. In +other words, progress in the world of life has always leant upon and +been conditioned by motherhood. Thus, as one has so frequently asserted +in reference to the modern campaign against infant mortality, the young +of the human species are nurtured within the sacred person—the +<i>therefore</i> sacred person—of the mother for a longer period in +proportion to the body weight than in the case of any other species; and +the natural period of maternal feeding is also the longest known. On the +other hand, the physical demands made by parenthood upon the male sex +are no greater in our case than in that of lower forms; though upon the +psychical plane the great fact of increasing paternal care in the right +line of progress may never be forgotten. But thus it follows that the +law of conservation, asserting that what is spent for self cannot be +kept for the race, and that if the demands of the future<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> are to be met +the present must be subordinated, not merely applies to woman, but +applies to her in unique degree. There are grounds, also, for believing +that what is demonstrably and obviously true on the physical plane has +its counterpart in the psychical plane; and that, if woman is to remain +distinctively woman in mind, character, and temperament, and if, just +because she remains or becomes what she was meant to be, she is to find +her greatest happiness, she must orient her life towards Life Orient, +towards the future and the life of this world to come. Some such +doctrines may help us at a later stage to decide whether it be better +that a woman should become a mother or a soldier, a nurse or an +executioner.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2><h3>THE DETERMINATION OF SEX</h3> +</div> + +<p>We must regard life as essentially female, since there is no choice but +to look upon living forms which have no sex as female, and since we know +that in many of the lower forms of life there is possible what is called +parthenogenesis or virgin-birth. It has, indeed, been ingeniously argued +by a distinguished American writer, Professor Lester Ward,<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> that the +male sex is to be looked upon as an afterthought, an ancillary +contrivance, devised primarily for the advantages of having a second +sex—whatever those advantages may exactly be; and secondarily, one +would add, becoming useful in adding fatherhood to motherhood upon the +psychical plane of post-natal care and education as well.</p> + +<p>But whatever was the historical or evolutionary origin of sex, we may +here be excused for attaching more importance—for it is of great +practical consequence—to the origin or determination of sex in the +individual. At what stage and under what influences did the child that +is born a girl become female? To what extent can we control the +determination of sex? Why are the numbers of the sexes approximately so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> +equal? What determines the curious disproportions observed in many +families, which may be composed only of girls or only of boys; and, as +is asserted, also observed after wars and epidemics or during sieges, +when an abnormally high proportion of boys is said to be born? These are +some of the deeply interesting questions which men have always attempted +to answer—with the beginnings of substantial success during the present +century at last.</p> + +<p>In general it is true that, the more we learn of the characters and +histories of living beings, the more importance we attach to nature or +birth and the less to nurture or environment, vastly important though +the latter be. Thus to the student of heredity nothing could well seem +more improbable, at any rate amongst the higher animals, than that +characters so profound as those of sex should be determined by nurture. +He simply cannot but believe that the sex of the individual is as inborn +as his backbone, and as incapable of being created by varying conditions +of nurture. The causation of sex is therefore really a problem in +heredity; and we may most confidently assert, in the first place, that +the sex of every human being is already determined at the moment of +conception when, indeed, the new individual is created: determined then +by the nature and constitution of the living cells—or of one of +them—which combine to form the new being. Subsequent attempts to affect +the sex, as by means of the mother's diet and the like, are palpably +hopeless from the outset and always will be. This is by no means to say +that conditions affecting the mother—as, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span> instance, the +semi-starvation of a prolonged siege—may not affect the construction of +the germ-cells which she houses, and which are constantly being formed +within her from the mother germ-cells, as they are called. But any given +final germ-cell, such as will combine with another from an individual of +the opposite sex to form a new being, is already determined, once for +all, to be of one sex or the other. We naturally ask, then, how the two +parents are concerned in this matter; and the first remarkable answer +returned by the Mendelian workers during the last three or four years is +that it is the mother who determines the sex of her children in the case +of all the higher animals. Her contribution to the new being is called +the ovum, and it is believed that ova are of two kinds, or, we are quite +right in saying, of two sexes.</p> + +<p>Those who are now working at these problems experimentally, actually +seeing what happens in given cases, and whom we may for convenience call +Mendelians after the master who gave them their method and their key, +have latterly obtained results the main tenour of which must be stated +here, as they indicate the lines of a portion of the succeeding +argument. The task was to attack experimentally the determination of +sex—a fascinating problem for which so many solutions that failed to +hold water have been found, but hitherto no others. In finding the +answer to it, as they appear certainly to have done so far as the higher +animals are concerned, the Mendelians are also beginning to ascertain, +as we shall see, certain basal facts as to the composition or +constitution of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> the individual; and to us, who wish to know exactly +what a woman is, and what she is as distinguished from a man, this +discovery is of the most vital importance. The experimental facts are +not yet numerous, and if they were not consonant with facts of other +orders, it would be rash to proceed; but it will be evident, in the +sequel, that common experience is well in accord with the experimental +evidence.</p> + +<p>It appears that, amongst at any rate the higher animals, the sex of +offspring is determined by the nature of the mother's contribution. The +cell derived from the father is always male—as goes without saying, we +might add, if we knew little of the subject. But the ovum, the cell +derived from the mother, may carry either femaleness or maleness. When +an ovum bearing maleness meets the invariably maleness-bearing sperm, +the resultant individual is a male, of course, and he is male all +through. But when an ovum bearing femaleness meets a sperm, the +resulting individual is female, femaleness being a Mendelian "dominant" +to maleness; if both be present, femaleness appears. The female, +however, is not female all through as the male is male all through. So +far as sex is concerned, he is made of maleness <i>plus</i> maleness; but she +is made of femaleness <i>plus</i> maleness. In Mendelian language the male is +homozygous, so-called "pure" as regards this character. But the female +is heterozygous, "impure" in the sense that her femaleness depends upon +the dominance of the factor for femaleness over the factor for maleness, +which also is present in her. In the Mendelian terminology, she is an +instance of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> impure dominance. The observed practical equality in the +numbers of the two sexes is in exact accord with this interpretation of +the facts, this proportion being the expected and observed one in many +other cases which doubtless depend upon parallel conditions of the +reproductive cells.</p> + +<p>Surely there is great enlightenment here: for the discovery of the +factors determining sex is a very small affair compared with the +suggestive inference as to the constitution of womanhood. Let us compare +man and woman on the basis of this assumption.</p> + +<p>In the man there is nothing but maleness. This is not to deny that he +may possess the protective instinct and the tender emotion which is its +correlate, even though these were undoubtedly feminine in origin. But it +is to deny that any injury to, or arrested development of, the male can +reveal in him characters distinctively female. He may fail to become a +man and may remain a boy; or, having been a man, he may perhaps return, +under certain conditions, to a more youthful state; but he will never, +can never, display anything distinctive of the woman.</p> + +<p>Not such, however, must be the woman's case. If anything should +interfere with the development and dominance of the femaleness factor in +her, there is not another "dose" of femaleness, so to speak, to fall +back upon; but a dose of maleness. We may be right in thus seeking to +explain certain familiar phenomena, observed in women under various +conditions—as, for instance, the growth of hair upon the face in +elderly women, the assumption of a masculine voice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> and aspect, and so +forth. Such facts are frequently to be observed after the climacteric or +"change of life," which probably denotes the termination of the +dominance of the femaleness factor. They are also to be observed as a +consequence of operations much more commonly and irresponsibly performed +a few years ago than now, which abruptly deprived the organism of the +internal secretion through which, as we may surmise, the femaleness +factor in the germ makes its presence effective.</p> + +<p>If these propositions are valid, they are certainly important. Our +attitude towards them will depend upon our estimates of the worth of +distinctive womanhood. We may regard it as a loss to society that what +might have been a woman should become only a sort of man of rather less +than average efficiency. Or we may hail with delight the possibility +that, after all, we may be able, by judicious education, to make men of +our daughters. But, whatever our estimates, certainly it is of great +interest to inquire how far and in what directions education may affect +the development of what was given in the germ. We cannot yet answer this +question. In a thousand matters it is all-important to know in what +degree education can control nature, but until we know what the nature +of the individual is we cannot decide. Professor Bateson has clearly +shown that we shall be able duly to estimate environment only when +Mendelian analysis has gone much further, and has instructed us in +detail as to the nature of the material upon which environment is to +act.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span></p> + +<p>For instance, there is the well-established fact that women who have +undergone "higher education" show a low marriage-rate, and produce very +few children. However considered, the fact is of great importance. But +the right interpretation of it is not certain. There are women of a type +approaching the masculine, who are evidently so by nature. Is it these +women, already predestined for something other than distinctive +womanhood, that offer themselves for "higher education"? In other words, +is there a selective process at work, the results of which in choosing a +certain type of woman we attribute to the education undergone? If we +answer this question wrongly, and act upon our erroneous interpretation, +we shall certainly do grave injury to individuals and society.</p> + +<p>Thus, we might roundly condemn the higher education of women <i>in toto</i>, +and hold up the "domestic woman" as the sole type to which every woman +can and must be made to conform. Or, on the other hand, we may argue +that it is well to provide suitable opportunities of self-development +for those women whose nature practically unfits them for the ordinary +career of a woman.</p> + +<p>I do not think that any one who has had opportunities of first-hand +observation will question the presence in university and college +class-rooms of girls of the anomalous type. Each generation produces a +certain number of such. Probably no education will alter their nature in +any radical or effective way. On every ground, personal and social, we +must be right in providing for them, as for their brothers, all the +opportunities<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> they may desire. But I am convinced that their relative +number is not large.</p> + +<p>The great majority of those girls who are nowadays subjected to what we +call "higher education" are of the normal type; and this is none the +less true because the proportion of the anomalous is doubtless higher +here than in the feminine community at large. The ordinary observation +of those teachers who year by year see young girls at the beginning of +their higher education will certainly confirm the statement that by far +the greater number of them are of the ordinary feminine type. If this be +so, the necessary inference is that education <i>has</i> a potent influence, +and that it must be held accountable for the observed facts of later +years, whether those facts please or displease us.</p> + +<p>The human being is the most adaptable—that is to say, educable—of all +living creatures. This is true of women as well as men. The response of +girls to ideas, ideals, suggestion, the spirit of the group, is an +unquestioned thing. Further, there are basal facts of physiology, +ultimately dependent on the law of the conservation of energy, and the +circumstance that you cannot eat your cake and have it, which work +hand-in-hand, on their own effective plane, with the psychological +influences already referred to. All physiology and psychology lead us to +expect those results of "higher education" upon its subjects or victims +which, in fact, we find, and which, in the main, are indeed its results +and not dependent upon the exceptional natures of those subjected to it. +The more general higher education becomes, and the less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> selection is +exercised upon the candidates for it, the more evident, I believe, will +it appear that woman responds in high degree to the total circumstances +of her life; and that if we do not like the fruits of our labour it is +we indeed that are to blame.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2><h3>MENDELISM AND WOMANHOOD</h3> +</div> + +<p>We are accustomed to think of Mendelism as simply a theory of heredity, +by which term we should properly understand the relation between living +generations. Now Mendelism is certainly this, but I believe that it is +vastly more. Already the claim has been made, though not, perhaps, in +adequate measure, by the Mendelians, and I am convinced that their title +to it will be upheld. Mendelism has already effected a really +epoch-making advance in our knowledge of heredity—the relations between +parents and offspring; but we shall learn ere long that it has yet more +to teach us regarding the very constitution of living beings. As modern +chemistry can analyse a highly complex molecule into its constituent +elementary atoms, so the Mendelians promise ere long to enable us to +effect an <i>organic analysis</i> of living creatures. For many decades past +theory has perceived that, in the germ-cells whence we and the higher +animals and plants are developed, there must exist—somewhere +intermediate between the chemical molecule and the vital unit, the cell +itself—units which Herbert Spencer, the first and greatest of their +students, called physiological or constitutional units. Since his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> day +they have been re-discovered—or rather re-named—by a host of students, +including Haeckel, Weismann, and many of scarcely less distinction. The +Mendelian "factors," as I maintain must be clear to any student of the +idea, are Spencer's physiological units. Of course neither Spencer nor +any one else, until the re-discovery of Mendel's work, had any notion at +all of the remarkable fashion in which these units are treated in the +process whereby germ-cells are prepared for their great destiny. The +rule, as we now know, is that one germ-cell contains any given unit, +while another does not. The process of cell-division, whereby the +germ-cells or gametes<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> are made, is called gameto-genesis. Somewhere +in its course there occurs the capital fact discovered by Mendel and +called by him segregation. A cell divides into two—which are the final +gametes. One of these will definitely contain the Mendelian factor, and +the other will be as definitely without it. Definite consequences follow +in the constitution of the offspring; and such is the Mendelian +contribution to heredity. But we must see that these inquiries cannot be +far pursued without telling us vastly more than we ever knew before of +not only the relation between individuals of successive generations, but +the very structure of the individuals themselves. It is by the study of +heredity that we shall learn to understand the individual. For instance, +experimental breeding of the fowl reveals the existence of the brooding +instinct as a definite unit, which enters, or does not enter, into the +composition of the individual,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> and which is quite distinct from the +capacity to produce eggs. Here is a definite distinction suggested, for +the case of the fowl, between two really distinct things which, for +several years past, I have called respectively physical and psychical +motherhood. The analysis will doubtless go far further, but already the +facts of experiment help us to realize the composition of the individual +mother—for instance, the number of possible variants, and the +non-necessity of a connection between the capacity to produce children +and the parental instinct upon which the care of them depends, and +without which entire and perfect motherhood cannot be.</p> + +<p>The Mendelians are teaching us, too, that their "factors," the units of +which we are made, are often intertangled or mutually repellent. If +such-and-such goes into the germ-cell, so must something else; or if the +one, then never the other. There may thus be naturally determined +conditions of entire womanhood; just as one may be externally a woman, +yet lack certain of the fractional constituents which are necessary for +the perfect being. Complete womanhood, like genius—rarer though not +more valuable—depends upon the co-existence of <i>many</i> factors, some of +which may be coupled and segregated together in gameto-genesis, while +others may be quite independent, only chance determining the throw of +them. And the question of incompatibility or mutual repulsion of factors +is of the gravest concern; as, for instance, if it were the case—and +the illustration is perhaps none too far-fetched—that the factor for +the brooding instinct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> and the factor for intellect can scarcely be +allotted together to a single cell.</p> + +<p>This question of compatibilities is illustrated very strikingly by the +case of the worker-bee. There is as yet no purely Mendelian +interpretation of this case, Mendel's own laborious work upon heredity +in bees having been entirely lost, and practically nothing having been +done since. Yet, as will be evident, the main argument of Geddes and +Thomson leads us to a similar interpretation of this case in terms of +compatibility.</p> + +<p>The worker-bee is an individual of a most remarkable and admirable kind, +from whom mankind have yet a thousand truths to learn. She is +distinguished primarily by the rare and high development of her nervous +apparatus. In terms of brain and mind, using these words in a general +sense, the worker-bee is almost the paragon of animals. The ancients +supposed that the queen-bee was indeed the queen and ruler of the hive. +Here, they thought, was the organizing genius, the forethought, the +exquisite skill in little things and great, upon which the welfare of +the hive and the future of the race depend. But, in point of fact, the +queen-bee is a fool. Her brain and mind are of the humblest order. She +never organizes anything, and does not rule even herself, but does what +she is told. She is entirely specialized for motherhood; but the +thinking, and the determination of the conditions of her motherhood, are +in the hands of other females, also highly specialized, and certainly +the least selfish of living things—<i>yet themselves sterile, incapable +of motherhood</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span></p> + +<p>Observe, further, that these wonderful workers, so highly endowed in +terms of brain, are amongst the children of the queen, herself a fool; +and that it was the conditions of nourishment, the conditions of +environment or education, which determined whether the young creatures +should develop into queens or workers, fertile fools or sterile wits. We +have here an absolute demonstration that environment or nurture can +determine the production of these two antithetic and radically opposed +types of femaleness.</p> + +<p>Now, amongst the bees, this high degree of specialization works very +well. How old bee-societies are we cannot say. We do know, at any rate, +that bees are invertebrate animals, and therefore of immeasurable +antiquity compared with man. No one can for a moment question the +eminent success of the bee-hive; and that success depends upon the +extreme specialization of the female, so as in effect to create a third +sex. Further, we know that nurture alone accounts for this remarkable +splitting of one sex into two contrasted varieties.</p> + +<p>I have little doubt that a process which is, at the very least, +analogous, is possible amongst ourselves; nay more, that such a process +is already afoot. In Japan they have actually been talking of a +deliberate differentiation between workers and breeders; such +differentiation, though indeliberate, is to be seen to-day in all highly +civilized communities. Is it likely to be as good for us as for the +bee-hive? And, granted its value as a social structure, is it, even +then, to be worth while?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span></p> + +<p>No one can answer these questions, though I venture to believe that it +is something to ask them. So far as the last is concerned, we must not +admit the smallest infringement of the supreme principles that every +human being is an end in himself or herself, and that the worth of a +society is to be found in the worth and happiness of the individuals who +compose it.</p> + +<p>Can we, as human beings, regard a human society as admirable because it +is successful, stable, numerous?</p> + +<p>The question is a fundamental one, for it matters at what we aim. As it +becomes increasingly possible for man to realize his ideals, it becomes +increasingly important that they shall be right ones; and there is a +risk to-day that the growth of knowledge shall be too rapid for wisdom +to keep pace with. We are reaching towards, and will soon attain in very +large and effective measure, nothing less than a <i>control of life</i>, +present and to come. It may well be that a remodelling of human society +upon the lines of the bee-hive is feasible. It was his study of bees +that made a Socialist of Professor Forel, certainly one of the greatest +of living thinkers; and his assumption is that in the bee-hive we have +an example largely worthy of imitation. But he would be the first to +admit that, as the ordinary Socialist has yet to learn, the nature of +the society is ultimately determined by the nature of the individuals +composing it. It follows that the bee-society can be completely, or, at +all events substantially, imitated only by remodelling human nature on +the lines of the individual bee. This is very far from impossible; there +is a plethora of human drones already, and we see the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> emergence of the +sterile female worker. But is such a change—or any change at all of +that kind—to be desired?</p> + +<p><i>The Terms of Specialization.</i>—It surely cannot be denied that there +may be a grave antagonism between the interests of the society and those +of the individual. It is a question of the terms of specialization or +differentiation. In the study of the individual organism and its history +we discern specialization of the cell as a capital fact. Organic +evolution has largely depended upon what Milne-Edwards called the +"physiological division of labour." In so far as organic evolution has +been progressive, it has entirely coincided with this process of +cell-differentiation. That is the clear lesson which the student of +progress learns from the study of living Nature. Let him hold hard by +this truth, and by it let him judge that other specialization which +human society presents.</p> + +<p>For this primary and physiological division of labour has its analogue +in a much later thing, the division of labour in human society, upon +which, indeed, the possibility of what we call human society depends. +And it is plain that the time has come when we must determine the price +that may rightly be paid for this specialization. Assuredly it is not to +be had for nothing. Dr. Minot considers that death, as a biological +fact, is the price paid for cell-differentiation. Now surely the death +of individuality is the price paid for such specialization as that of +the workman who spends his life supervising the machine which effects a +single process in the making of a pin, and has never even seen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> any +other but that stage in the process of making that one among all the +"number of things" of which the world is full. Here, as in a thousand +other cases, it has cost a man to make an expert.</p> + +<p>How far we are entitled to go we shall determine only when we know what +it is that we want to attain.</p> + +<p>If we desire an efficient, durable, numerous society, there are probably +no limits whatever that we need observe in the process of +specialization. Pins are cheaper for the sacrifice of the individual in +their making. In general, the professional must do better than the +amateur; the lover of chamber music knows that a Joachim or Brussels +Quartet is not to be found everywhere. Specialization we must have for +progress, or even for the maintenance of what the past has achieved for +us; but we shall pay the right price only by remembering the principle +that all progress in the world of life has depended on +cell-differentiation. If we prejudice that we are prejudicing progress.</p> + +<p>Now nothing can be more evident than that, in some of our +specializations of the individual for the sake of society, we are +<i>opposing</i> that specialization within the individual which, it has been +laid down, we must never sacrifice. And so we reach the basal principle +to which the preceding argument has been guiding us. It is that the +specialization of the individual for the sake of society may rightly +proceed to any point short of reversing or aborting the process of +differentiation within himself. Every individual is an end in himself; +there are no other ends for society; and that society is the best which +best provides for the most complete development<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span> and self-expression of +the individuals composing it.</p> + +<p>But how, then, is the division of labour necessary for society to be +effected, the reader may ask? The answer is that the human species, like +all others, displays what biologists call variation—men and women +naturally differ within limits so wide that, when we consider the case +of genius, we must call them incalculable, illimitable. The difference +of our faces or our voices is a mere symbol of differences no less +universal but vastly more important. It is these differences, in +reality, that are the cause of the development of human society and of +that division of labour upon which it depends. In providing for the best +development of all these various individuals we at the same time provide +for the division of labour that we need; nor can we in any other fashion +provide so well. Thus we shall attain a society which, if less certainly +stable than that of the bees, is what that is not—progressive, and not +merely static; and a society which is worth while, justified by the +lives and minds of the individuals composing it.</p> + +<p>We are not, then, to make a factitious differentiation of set purpose in +the interests of society and to the detriment of individuals. We are not +to take a being in whom Nature has differentiated a thousand parts, and, +in effect, reduce him, in the interests of others, to one or two +constituents and powers, thus nullifying the evolutionary course. But we +shall frame a society such as the past never witnessed, and we shall +achieve a rate of progress equally without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> parallel, by consistently +regarding society as existing for the individual, and not the individual +for society, and by thus realizing to the full his characteristic powers +<i>for himself and for society</i>.</p> + +<p>In so far as all this is true it is true of woman. It has long been +asserted that woman is less variable than man; but the certainty of that +statement has lately lost its edge. It is probably untrue. There is no +real reason to suppose that woman is less complex or less variable than +man. She has the same title as he has to those conditions in which her +particular characters, whatever they be, shall find their most complete +and fruitful development. There is no more a single ideal type of woman +than there is a single ideal type of man. It takes all sorts even to +make a sex. It has been in the past, and always must be, a piece of +gross presumption on man's part to say to woman, "Thus shalt thou be, +and no other." Whom Nature has made different, man has no business to +make or even to desire similar. The world wants all the powers of all +the individuals of either sex. On the other hand, no good can come of +the attempt to distort the development of those powers or to seek +conformity to any type. Much of the evil of the past has arisen from the +limitation of woman to practically one profession. Even should it be +incomparably the best, in general, it is by no means necessarily the +best, or even good at all, for every individual. Men are to be heard +saying, "A woman ought to be a wife and mother." It is, perhaps, the +main argument of this book that, for most women, this is the sphere in +which their characteristic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span> potencies will find best and most useful +expression both for self and others; but that is very different from +saying that every woman ought to be a mother, or that no woman ought to +be a surgeon. We may prefer the maternal to the surgical type, and there +may be good reason for our preference; but the surgeon may be very +useful, and, useful or not, the question is not one of ought. Thoughtful +people should know better than to make this constant confusion between +what ought to be and what is. Let us hold to our ideals, let us by all +means have our scale of values; but the first question in such a case as +this is as to what <i>is</i>. In point of fact all women are not of the same +type; and our expression of what ought to be is none other than the +passing of a censure upon Nature for her deeds. We may know better than +she, or, as has happened, we may know worse.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="VII" id="VII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span> +<h2>VII</h2><h3>BEFORE WOMANHOOD</h3> +</div> + +<p>We have seen that the sex of the individual is already determined as +early as any other of his or her characters, though the realization of +the potentialities of that sex may be much modified by nurture, as in +the contrasted cases of the queen bee and the worker bee. Children, +then, are already of one sex or other, and though our business in the +present volume is not childhood of either sex, a few points are worth +noting before we take up the consideration of the individual at the +period when the distinctive characteristics of sex make their effective +appearance.</p> + +<p>Despite the abundance of the material and the opportunities for +observation, we are at present without decisive evidence as to the +distinctiveness of sex in any effective way during childhood. Here, as +elsewhere, we have to guard ourselves against the influences of nurture +in the widest sense of the word; as when, to take an extreme case, we +distinguish between the boy and the girl because the hair of the one is +cut and of the other is not. The natural, as distinguished from the +nurtural, distinctions at this period are probably much fewer than is +supposed. It is asserted—to take physical characters first—that the +girl of ten gives<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span> out in breathing considerably less carbonic acid than +her brother of the same age, thus foreshadowing the difference between +the sexes which is recognized in later years. If this fact be critically +established it is of very great interest, showing that the sex +distinction effectively makes its presence felt in the most essential +processes of the body. But we should require to be satisfied that the +observations were sufficiently numerous, and were made under absolutely +equal conditions, and with due allowance for difference in body-weight. +They would be the more credible if it were also shown that the number of +the red blood corpuscles were smaller in girls than in boys in parallel +with the difference between the sexes in later years.</p> + +<p>Children of both sexes have fewer red blood corpuscles in a given +quantity of blood and a smaller proportion of the red colouring matter, +or hæmoglobin, than adults. Women have very definitely fewer red blood +corpuscles than men, and a smaller proportion of hæmoglobin, and their +blood is more watery. According to one authority this difference in the +hæmoglobin can be observed from the ages of eleven to fifty, but not +before. The specific gravity of the blood is found to be the same in +both sexes before the fifteenth year. Thereafter, that of the boy's +blood rises, and between seventeen and forty-five is definitely higher +than in women of the corresponding age. It thus seems quite clear that, +as we should expect, these differences in the blood, which are +certainly, as Dr. Havelock Ellis says, fundamental, make their +appearance definitely at puberty—a fact which supports the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span> view that +fundamental differences of practical importance between the two sexes +before that age are not to be found. Careful comparative study of the +pulse of children is hitherto somewhat inconclusive, though it is well +known that the pulse is more rapid in women than in men.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, it seems clear as regards respiration that as early +as the age of twelve there are definite differences between the sexes. +Several thousands of American school children were examined, and between +the ages of six and nineteen the boys were throughout superior in lung +capacity. The girls had almost reached their maximum capacity at the age +of twelve, and thereafter the difference, till then slight, rapidly +increased.<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> It appears that from eight to fifteen years of age a boy +burns more carbon than a girl, the difference, however, being not great. +But at puberty the boy proceeds to consume very nearly twice as much +carbon per hour as his sister.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the matter need not be pursued further. It is sufficient for us +to recognize that puberty is really the critical time, and that in the +consideration of womanhood we may, on the whole, be justified in looking +upon the problem of the girl before that age as almost identical with +her brother's. Yet we must be reasonably cautious, since our knowledge +is small, and there is some by no means negligible evidence of +fundamental physiological differences between the sexes before puberty, +relatively slight though these may be.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span> Therefore, though on the whole +we need make few distinctions between the girl and her brother, and +though we are doubtless wrong in the magnitude of the practical +distinctions which we have often made hitherto, yet we must remember +that these are going to be different beings, and that the main +principles which determine our nurture of womanhood may be recalled when +we are doubtful as to practice in the care of the girl child.</p> + +<p>Physiological distinctions, we have seen, probably exist during these +early years, but are of less importance than we sometimes have attached +to them, and of no importance at all compared with what is to come. +Psychological distinctions, we may believe, are still more dubious. For +instance, it is generally believed that the parental instinct shows +itself much more markedly in girls than in boys, and the commonly +observed history of the liking for dolls is quoted in this connection. +As this instinct bears so profoundly upon the later life of the +individual, and as we may reasonably suppose the child to be the mother +of the woman as well as the father of the man, the matter is worth +looking at a little further.</p> + +<p>But, in the first place, it has been asserted that the doll instinct has +really nothing whatever to do with the parental instinct in either sex. +Psychologists, whom one suspects of being bachelors, tell us that what +we really observe here is the instinct of acquisition: it really does +not matter what we give the child, though it so happens that we very +commonly present it with dolls; it is the lust of possession that we +satisfy, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> in point of fact one thing will satisfy it as well as +another.</p> + +<p>The evidence against this view is quite overwhelming. We might quote the +universal distribution of dolls in place and in time as revealed by +anthropology. Wherever there is mankind there are dolls, whether in +Mayfair or in Whitechapel, Japan, the South Sea Islands, Ancient Egypt +or Mexico. Further, there is the observed behaviour of the child, +opportunities for which have presumably been denied to the psychologists +whose opinion has been quoted. The only objection to the theory that the +child will be content with the possession of anything else as well as of +a doll is the circumstance that the child is not so content, but asks +for a doll for choice, and will lavish upon any doll, however +diagrammatic, an amount of love and care which no other toy will ever +obtain. Further, if the child has opportunities for playing with a real +baby, it will be perfectly evident, even to the bachelor psychologist, +that the doll was the vicarious substitute for the real thing.</p> + +<p>But now, what as to the comparative strength of this instinct in the two +sexes? Here we must not be deceived by the effects of nurture, +environment, or education. Though finding, as we do, that the little boy +enjoys playing with his dolls as his sister does, we refrain from buying +dolls for him, and may indeed, underestimating the importance of human +fatherhood, declare that dolls are beneath the dignity of a boy though +good enough for his sister. He, destined rather for the business of +destroying life, so much more glorious than saving it, must learn to +play with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span> soldiers. In this fashion we at least deprive ourselves of +any opportunity of critically comparing the strength and the history of +the instinct in the two sexes.</p> + +<p>There is good reason to suppose that the distinction between the +psychology of the boy and that of the girl in these early years is very +small. If boys are not discouraged they will play with dolls for choice, +just as their sisters do, and may be just as charming with younger +brothers or sisters. Nor is it by any means certain that this misleading +of ourselves is the worst consequence of the common practice. It is +possible that we lose opportunities for the inculcation of ideals which +are of the highest value to the individual and the race. I am reminded +of the true story of a small boy, well brought up, who, being jeered at +in the street by bigger boys because he was carrying a doll, turned upon +his critics with the admirable retort—slightly wanting in charity, let +us hope, but none the less pertinent—"None of you will ever be a good +father."</p> + +<p>Thus, on the whole, one is inclined to suppose that the general +resemblance in facial appearance, bodily contour, and interests which we +observe in children of the two sexes, indicates that deeper distinctions +are latent rather than active. This is much more than an academic +question, for if our subject in the present volume were the care of +childhood, it is plain that we should have to base upon our answer to +this question our treatment of boy and girl respectively. Probably we +are on the whole correct in instituting no deep distinction of any kind +in the nurture, either physical or mental, of children during their +early years. Nor can there be any doubt, at least so far, as to the +rightness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span> of educating them together, and allowing them to compete, in +so far as we allow competition at all, freely both in work and in games.</p> + +<p>However this may be, there comes at an age which varies somewhat in +different races and individuals, a period critical to both sexes, in +which the factors of sex differentiation, hitherto more or less latent, +begin conspicuously to assert themselves. Here, plainly, is the dawn of +womanhood, and here, in our consideration of woman the individual, we +must make a start. If we recall the tentative Mendelian analysis already +referred to, we may suppose that the "factor" for womanhood begins to +assert itself, at any rate in effective degree, at this period of +puberty, when a girl becomes a woman; and that its most effective reign +is over at the much later crisis which we call the change of life or +climacteric. In other words, though sex is determined from the first, +and though certain of its distinctive characters remain to the end, we +may say that our study of womanhood is practically concerned with the +years between twelve or thirteen, and forty-five or fifty. Before this +period, as we have suggested, the distinction between the sexes is of no +practical importance so far as <i>regimen</i> and education are concerned. +After this period also it is probable that the difference between the +two sexes is diminished, and would be still more evidently diminished +were it not for the effects which different experience has permanently +wrought in the memory. We begin our practical study, then, of woman the +individual, with the young girl at the age of puberty; and we must +concern ourselves first with the care of her body.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span> +<h2>VIII</h2><h3>THE PHYSICAL TRAINING OF GIRLS</h3> +</div> + +<p>We shall certainly not reach right conclusions about the physical +training of girls unless we rightly understand what physical training +does and does not effect, and what we desire it should effect. This +applies to all education—that our aim be defined, that we shall know +"what it is we are after," and it applies pre-eminently to the +education, both physical and mental, of girls.</p> + +<p>Now it will be granted, in the first place, that by physical +training—whether in the form of gymnastics or games or what not—we +desire to produce a healthier and more perfectly developed body. Some +will add a stronger body, but as this term has two meanings constantly +confused, it really contains the crux of the question. Stronger may mean +stronger in the sense of resistance to disease or fatigue or strain of +any kind, or it may mean stronger in the sense of the capacity to +perform feats of strength. It being commonly assumed that vitality and +muscularity are identical, this distinction is, on that assumption, +merely academic and trivial. But as muscularity and vitality are not +identical, and have indeed very little to do with each other, and as +muscularity may even in certain conditions prejudice vitality, the +distinction is not academic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> but all-important. I freely assert that it +is substantially ignored by those who concern themselves with physical +training, whether of boys or girls or recruits, all the world over.</p> + +<p>Though a woman is naturally less muscular than a man, her vitality is +higher. This seems to be a general truth of all female organisms. The +evidence is of many orders. Thus, to begin with, women live longer, on +the average, than men do. In the light of our modern knowledge of +alcohol, however, we cannot regard this fact by itself as conclusive, +since the average age attained by men is undoubtedly considerably +lowered by alcohol, and of course to a much greater extent than obtains +in the case of women. But women recover better from poisoning, such as +occurs in infectious disease, and they are far more tolerant of loss of +blood, as indeed they have to be. The same applies to loss of sleep or +food, and to injurious influences generally. These indisputable proofs +of superior vitality co-exist with much inferior muscularity, and are +conclusive on the point. If men would make observations among themselves +and think for a moment, they would soon perceive how foolish they are in +crediting the assumptions of the strong men who so successfully persuade +the public that the great thing is for a man to have big muscles. Men, +muscular by nature, and still more so by nurture, are often in point of +fact really weak compared with much less muscular men who, though they +cannot put forth so much mechanical energy at a given moment, can yet +endure fifty times the fatigue or stress or poisoning of any order.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> +From the point of view of any sound physiology there is no comparison at +all between the absurd strong man and the slight Marathon runner of +small muscles but splendid vitality. If we are to test vitality in +muscular terms at all—that in itself being a quite indefensible +assumption—we must do so in terms of endurance, and not in terms of +horse power or ass power, at any given moment.</p> + +<p>If, then, vitality be our aim in physical training, and not muscularity +as such, nor in any degree except in so far as it serves vitality, it is +plain that we shall to some extent reconsider our methods.</p> + +<p>Pre-eminently will this apply to the girl. Just because she is now +becoming a woman, her vital energies are in no small degree pledged for +special purposes of the highest importance, from which we cannot +possibly divert them if we desire that she shall indeed become a woman. +Thus, though muscular exercise of any kind is certainly not to be +condemned, we must be cautious; for, in the first place, muscular +exercise is no end in itself; in the second, the production of big +muscles by exercise is no end in itself; and in the third place, all +muscular exercise is expenditure of energy in those outward directions +which are not characteristic of womanhood, and which must always be +subordinated to those interests that are.</p> + +<p>At this period of which we are speaking there are constructions of the +most important kind going on in the girl's body, compared with which the +construction of additional muscular tissue is of much less than no +importance. These building-up processes are, we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> know, characteristic of +the woman. Their right inception is a matter of the greatest importance. +They involve the actual accumulation of food material and the building +up of it into gland cells and other highly organized tissues upon which +complete womanhood depends. These all-important concerns are prejudiced +by excessive external expenditure, and thus the care necessary for the +boy at puberty is a thousandfold more necessary for the girl, though the +obvious changes in her appearance and her voice may be much less marked. +Greater and more costly constructions are afoot in her case than her +brother's, grossly though these facts are at present ignored in what we +are pleased to call education, both physical and mental.</p> + +<p>If we are to decide what kinds of physical exercise will be most +desirable, we must come to some conclusion as to what is the object of +our labours, it being granted that muscular activity and the making of +big muscles are not ends in themselves. The answer to this question is +to be found in what I have elsewhere called the new asceticism.</p> + +<p>In tracing the history of animal progress, we find that it coincides +with and has consisted in the emergence of the psychical and its +predominance over the physical. The history of progress is the history +of the evolving nervous system. Muscles are the servants of the nervous +system. In man progress has reached its highest phase in that the +nervous system, which at first was merely a servant of the body, has +become the essential thing, so that the brain is the man. The old +asceticism was at least right in regarding the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> soul as all-important, +though it was utterly wrong in considering the interests of soul and +body to be entirely antagonistic, and in teaching that for the elevation +of the soul we must outrage, mutilate, and deny the body. The new +asceticism accepts the first principle of the old, but bases its +practice on a truer conception of the relations between mind and body. +The greater part of the body is composed of muscles, and it is with +muscles that physical training is concerned. On our principles, then, +any system of physical training worth a straw must have primary +reference to the brain, since the body, including the muscles, is only +the servant of the ego or self which resides in the brain. For this +reason, if for no other, the development of muscle as an end in itself +is beneath human dignity; the value of a muscle lies not in its size or +strength, but in its capacity to be a useful and skilful agent of the +brain.</p> + +<p>The exceptions to this rule are furnished by precisely those muscles +which the usual forms of physical training and gymnastics ignore and +subordinate to the development of the muscles of the limbs. It does +matter very much that man or woman shall have the heart, which is the +most important muscle in the body, and the muscles of respiration in +good order. These muscles are directly necessary for life, and are +therefore servants of the brain, even though they are not in any +appreciable degree the direct agents of its purposes. Any kind of +physical exercise then which, while developing the muscles of the arm, +for instance, throws undue strain upon the heart or involves the +fixation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span> of the chest for a considerable period—as occurs in various +feats of strength, whether with weights or upon bars or the like—is +<i>ipso facto</i> to be condemned. It is now recognized that in the training +of soldiers much harm is often done in this way to the essential +muscles, while others, more conspicuous but of relatively no importance, +are being developed.</p> + +<p>But before we consider in detail what kinds of exercise and with what +accompaniment may be permitted for the muscles of the limbs, it is well +that we should agree upon some method of deciding as to the quantity of +such exercise. We cannot go by such measures as hours per week, for +individuals vary. We must find some criterion which will guide us for +each individual. The pendulum has swung in this regard from one extreme +to another. Both extremes were adopted and permitted because in our +guidance of girlhood we ignored facts of physiology, and, notably, +because educators had not a clear conception of what it was that they +desired to attain. By the consent of all who have given any attention to +the subject, the great educational reformer of the nineteenth century +was Herbert Spencer, and not the least of his services was his +liberation of girls from the extraordinary <i>regimen</i> of fifty years ago. +There needs no excuse for a long quotation from the volume in which, +just short of half a century ago, Herbert Spencer discussed this matter. +Thereafter we may observe how the pendulum has swung to the other +extreme:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"To the importance of bodily exercise most people are in some +degree awake. Perhaps less needs saying on this requisite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> of +physical education than on most others; at any rate, in so far as +boys are concerned. Public schools and private schools alike +furnish tolerably adequate play-grounds; and there is usually a +fair share of time for out-door games, and a recognition of them as +needful. In this, if in no other direction, it seems admitted that +the promptings of boyish instinct may advantageously be followed; +and, indeed, in the modern practice of breaking the prolonged +morning's and afternoon's lessons by a few minutes' open-air +recreation, we see an increasing tendency to conform +school-regulations to the bodily sensations of the pupils. Here, +then, little need be said in the way of expostulation or +suggestion.</p> + +<p>"But we have been obliged to qualify this admission by inserting +the clause in so far as boys are concerned. Unfortunately, the fact +is quite otherwise with girls. It chances, somewhat strangely, that +we have daily opportunity of drawing a comparison. We have both a +boys' school and a girls' school within view; and the contrast +between them is remarkable. In the one case nearly the whole of a +large garden is turned into an open, gravelled space, affording +ample scope for games, and supplied with poles and horizontal bars +for gymnastic exercises. Every day before breakfast, again towards +eleven o'clock, again at mid-day, again in the afternoon, and once +more after school is over, the neighbourhood is awakened by a +chorus of shouts and laughter as the boys rush out to play; and for +as long as they remain, both eyes and ears give proof that they are +absorbed in that enjoyable activity which makes the pulse bound and +ensures the healthful activity of every organ. How unlike is the +picture offered by the Establishment for Young Ladies! Until the +fact was pointed out, we actually did not know that we had a girls' +school as close to us as the school for boys. The garden, equally +large with the other, affords no sign whatever of any provision for +juvenile recreation; but is entirely laid out with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> prim +grass-plots, gravel-walks, shrubs, and flowers, after the usual +suburban style. During five months we have not once had our +attention drawn to the premises by a shout or a laugh. Occasionally +girls may be observed sauntering along the paths with their +lesson-books in their hands, or else walking arm-in-arm. Once, +indeed, we saw one chase another round the garden; but, with this +exception, nothing like vigorous exertion has been visible.</p> + +<p>"Why this astonishing difference? Is it that the constitution of a +girl differs so entirely from that of a boy as not to need these +active exercises? Is it that a girl has none of the promptings to +vociferous play by which boys are impelled? Or is it that, while in +boys these promptings are to be regarded as stimuli to a bodily +activity without which there cannot be adequate development, to +their sisters Nature has given them for no purpose whatever—unless +it be for the vexation of schoolmistresses? Perhaps, however, we +mistake the aim of those who train the gentler sex. We have a vague +suspicion that to produce a robust physique is thought undesirable; +that rude health and abundant vigour are considered somewhat +plebeian; that a certain delicacy, a strength not competent to more +than a mile or two's walk, an appetite fastidious and easily +satisfied, joined with that timidity which commonly accompanies +feebleness, are held more lady-like. We do not expect that any +would distinctly avow this; but we fancy the governess-mind is +haunted by an ideal young lady bearing not a little resemblance to +this type. If so, it must be admitted that the established system +is admirably calculated to realize this ideal. But to suppose that +such is the ideal of the opposite sex is a profound mistake. That +men are not commonly drawn towards masculine women is doubtless +true. That such relative weakness as asks the protection of +superior strength is an element of attraction we quite admit. But +the difference thus responded to by the feelings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> of men is the +natural, pre-established difference, which will assert itself +without artificial appliances. And when, by artificial appliances, +the degree of this difference is increased, it becomes an element +of repulsion rather than of attraction.</p> + +<p>"'Then girls should be allowed to run wild—to become as rude as +boys, and grow up into romps and hoydens!' exclaims some defender +of the proprieties. This, we presume, is the ever-present dread of +schoolmistresses. It appears, on inquiry, that at Establishments +for Young Ladies noisy play like that daily indulged in by boys is +a punishable offence; and we infer that it is forbidden, lest +unladylike habits should be formed. The fear is quite groundless, +however. For if the sportive activity allowed to boys does not +prevent them from growing up into gentlemen, why should a like +sportive activity prevent girls from growing up into ladies? Rough +as may have been their play-ground frolics, youths who have left +school do not indulge in leap-frog in the street, or marbles in the +drawing-room. Abandoning their jackets, they abandon at the same +time boyish games, and display an anxiety—often a ludicrous +anxiety—to avoid whatever is not manly. If now, on arriving at the +due age, this feeling of masculine dignity puts so efficient a +restraint on the sports of boyhood, will not the feeling of +feminine modesty, gradually strengthening as maturity is +approached, put an efficient restraint on the like sports of +girlhood? Have not women even a greater regard for appearances than +men? and will there not consequently arise in them even a stronger +check to whatever is rough or boisterous? How absurd is the +supposition that the womanly instincts would not assert themselves +but for the rigorous discipline of schoolmistresses!</p> + +<p>"In this, as in other cases, to remedy the evils of one +artificiality, another artificiality has been introduced. The +natural, spontaneous exercise having been forbidden, and the bad +consequences of no exercise having become conspicuous,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> there has +been adopted a system of factitious exercise—gymnastics. That this +is better than nothing we admit, but that it is an adequate +substitute for play we deny."</p></div> + +<p>The pendulum has indeed swung across from those days to these of the +hockey-girl, not to mention the girl who throws a cricket-ball and bowls +very creditably overhand. There can be no doubt that this state of +things is vastly better than that was, yet, as one has endeavoured to +insist, this also has its risks. Apart from the question as to the +particular game or form of exercise, we must be guided in each case by +the first signs of anything approaching undue strain. We must look out +for lack of energy, for a lessening of joy in the exercise and of +spontaneous desire therefor. Fatigue that interferes with appetite, +digestion, or sleep is utterly to be condemned.</p> + +<p><i>The Specific Criterion.</i>—Such criteria apply, of course, equally to +either sex, though it is more important to be on the look-out for them +in the case of the developing girl. But in her case there is another +criterion, which is of special importance, because it concerns not only +her development as an individual, but her development as a woman. That +criterion is furnished us by the menstrual function. It may safely be +said that that exercise is excessive and must be immediately curtailed +which leads to the diminution of this function, much more to its +disappearance. I would, indeed, urge this as a test of the highest +importance, always applicable to whatever circumstances. Defect in this +respect should never be looked upon lightly; it may, indeed, be a +conservative process, as in cases of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> anæmia, but the cause which +produces such an effect is always to be combated.</p> + +<p><i>The Kinds of Exercise.</i>—Given, then, this most important test as to +the quantity of exercise of whatever kind—a test which indeed applies +no less to mental exercise—we may pass on to consider the kinds of +exercise best suited for the girl, it being premised that any one of +them, however good in itself and in moderation, is capable of being +pursued to excess, and that the danger of this is specially noticeable +in the case of the girl, because, as we have seen, the effects of excess +are more serious in her case, and also because girls are very apt to +take things up with immense keenness, and sometimes, in even greater +degree than their brothers, to devote themselves too much to the +competitive aspect of things. The girl should certainly be content to +play a game for the joy of it, and be scarcely less happy to lose than +to win if her side has played the game and made a good fight of it. The +competitive element is excessive in almost all sports to-day, and it is +especially to be deplored in the games of girls, who are so liable to +overstrain and so apt to take trifles to heart.</p> + +<p>In what has been already said and in the end of our quotation from +Herbert Spencer, it will be evident that purposeful games rather than +exercises are to be commended. There is indeed no comparison for a +moment possible between Nature's method of exercise, which is obtained +through play, and the ridiculous and empty parodies of it which men +invent. The truth is that Nature is aiming at one thing, and man at +another.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> Man's aim, for reasons already exploded, is the acquirement of +strength; Nature's is the acquirement of skill. It is really nervous +development that Nature is interested in when she appears to be +persuading the young thing to exercise its muscles. Man notices only the +muscular contractions involved, thinks he can improve upon Nature, and +invents absurdities like dumb-bells.</p> + +<p>It is the nervous system by which we human beings live. Our voluntary +muscles are agents of the will, agents of purpose; and while strength is +a trifle, skill is always everything. We know now that it is impossible +to carry out any human purpose by the contraction of one muscle or even +one group of muscles. Even when we merely bend the arm we are doing +things with the muscles which extend it, and when we raise it sideways +we are modifying the whole trunk in order to preserve the balance. We +have only to watch the clumsiness of an infant or a small child to +realize how much skill the nervous system has to acquire. This skill may +be mainly expressed as co-ordination, the balanced use of many muscles +for a purpose and, as a rule, their co-ordinated use with one of the +senses, more especially vision, but also touch and hearing.</p> + +<p>This is the first of the physiological reasons why games and play of all +sorts are so incomparably superior to the use of dumb-bells and +developers, where movement and increase of muscular strength are made +ends in themselves; whereas in play we are making relations with the +outside world, responding to stimuli,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> educating our nerve muscular +apparatus as an instrument of human purpose.</p> + +<p>It is in part true to suppose that the play of children expresses an +overflow of superfluous energy, but a still deeper and much more +important conception of play is that which recognizes in it Nature's +method of nervous development, the attainment of control and +co-ordination, the capacity of quick and accurate response to +circumstances and obedience to the will. Compare, for instance, the girl +who has played games, avoiding danger as she crosses the road, with +another whose youth has been made dreary by dumb-bells. It may freely be +laid down, then, that systems of physical training are good in +proportion as they approximate to play, and bad in proportion as they +depart from it; and, further, that the very best of them ever devised is +worthless in comparison with a good game. This evidently does not refer +to, say, special exercises for a curved back.</p> + +<p>However, systems of physical training we shall still have with us for a +long time to come, and perhaps the mere difficulty of finding room for +games makes them necessary, though it may be noted in passing that the +last touch of absurdity is accorded to our frequent preference for +exercises over games when we conduct the exercises in foul air and +prefer them to games in the open air. If exercises we are to have, then +they must at least be modelled so as to come as near as possible to play +in the two essentials. The first of these has already been +mentioned—the preference of skill to strength as an object.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span></p> + +<p>The second, though less obvious, is no less important. What is the most +palpable fact of the child's play? It is enjoyment. We have done for +ever with the elegant morality which grown-up people, very particular +about their own meals, used to impose upon children, and which was based +upon the idea that everything which a child enjoys is therefore bad for +it. We are learning the elements of the physiology of joy. We find that +pleasure and boredom have distinct effects upon the body and the mind, +notably in the matter of fatigue. Careful study of fatigue in school +children has shown that the hour devoted to physical exercise of the +dreary kind under a strict disciplinarian may, instead of being a +recreation, actually induce more fatigue than an hour of mathematics. +If, then, we cannot allow the girl to play, but must give her some kind +of formal exercise, we must at least make it as enjoyable as possible. +There are Continental systems of gymnastics which do not believe in the +use of music because, forsooth, they find that the music diminishes the +disciplinary effect! Such an argument dismisses those who adduce it from +the category of those entitled to have anything to do with young people. +They should devote themselves to training the rhinoceros, these +martinets; the human spirit is not for their mauling. In point of fact +one of the redeeming features of physical training is the use of music, +which goes far to supply the pleasure that accrues from the natural +exercise of games, and greatly reduces the fatigue of which the risk is +otherwise by no means inconsiderable. We leave this subject, then, for +the nonce,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> having arrived at the conclusion that the objects of +physical training are skill and pleasure rather than strength and +discipline; that the system is best which is nearest to play; and that +the use of music is specially to be commended.</p> + +<p>But, as we have said, artificial physical training at its best is not to +be compared with the real thing; more especially if, as is usually the +case, the real thing has the advantage of being practised in pure air. +We must ask ourselves, then, what sort of games are suitable for girls, +and to what extent, if at all, mixed games are desirable. We must first +remind ourselves of the proviso that any game may be played to excess, +whether physical excess or mental excess, the risk of both of these +being involved when the competitive element is made too conspicuous. If +this risk be avoided there is no objection, perhaps, to even such a +vigorous game as hockey in moderation for girls. The present writer has +observed mixed hockey for many years, and finds it impossible to believe +that the game should be condemned for girls, but he has always seen it +under conditions where the game was simply played for the fun of the +thing, and that makes a great difference.</p> + +<p>It is certainly open to argument whether, in such a game as hockey, it +is not better, on the whole, that girls shall play by themselves, but, +as has been urged elsewhere, there is a good deal to be said for the +meeting of the sexes elsewhere than in the artificial conditions of the +ball-room, since these mixed games widen the field of choice for +marriage and provide far more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> natural and desirable conditions under +which the choice may be made. There can be no question that an epoch has +been created by the freedom of the modern girl to play games, and to +enjoy the movements of a ball, as her brother does. The very fact of her +pleasure in games indicates, to those who do not believe that the body +is constructed on essentially vicious principles, that they must be good +for her. The mere exercise is the least of the good they do. The open +air counts for more, as does the development of skill, and the girl's +opportunity of sharing in that moral education which all good games +involve and which there is no need to insist upon here. Amongst the many +things alleged against woman as natural defects by those who have never +for a moment troubled to distinguish between nature and nurture, are an +incapacity to combine with her sisters, petty dishonour in small things, +a blindness to the meaning of "playing the game." It is similarly +alleged by such persons against the lower classes that they also do not +know how to "play the game," and do not understand the spirit of true +sportsmanship, preferring to win anyhow rather than not at all. But +those who conduct the Children's Vacation Schools in London—that +remarkable arrangement by which children are damaged in school time and +educated in holidays—are aware that in a short time children of any +class can be taught to "play the game," if only they can be made to see +it from that point of view. So also women can learn to combine, to be +unselfish, to avoid petty deceits even in games, to obey a captain and +to accept the umpire's decision,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span> when they are taught, as we all have +to be taught, that that is playing the game.</p> + +<p>These immense virtues of the new departure must by no means be forgotten +in the course of the reaction which is bound to occur, and is indeed +necessary, against the contemporary practice of trying to demonstrate +that boys and girls are substantially identical. He who pleads for the +golden mean is always abused by extremists of both parties, but is +always justified in the long run, and this is a case where the golden +mean is eminently desirable, being indeed vital, which is much more than +golden. Safety is to be found in our recognition of elementary +physiological principles, assuming from the first that though it is not +difficult to turn a girl into something like a boy, it is not desirable; +and especially in attending carefully, in the case of each individual, +to the indications furnished by that characteristic physiological +function, interference with which necessarily imperils womanhood.</p> + +<p>The organism is a whole; it reacts not only to physical strain but to +mental strain. There are parts of the world, including a country no less +distinguished as a pioneer of education than Scotland, where serious +mental strain is now being imposed upon girls at this very period of the +dawn of womanhood, when strain of any kind is especially to be deplored. +Utterly ignoring the facts of physiology, the laws and approximate dates +of human development, official regulations demand that at just such ages +as thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen large numbers of girls—and picked +girls—shall devote themselves to the strain of preparing for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> various +examinations, upon which much depends. Worry combines to work its +effects with those of excessive mental application, excessive use of the +eyes at short distances, and defective open-air amusement. The whole +examination system is of course to be condemned, but most especially +when its details are so devised as to press thus hardly upon girlhood at +this critical and most to be protected period. Many years ago Herbert +Spencer protested that we must acquaint ourselves with the laws of life, +since these underlie all the activities of living beings. The time is +now at hand when we shall discover that education is a problem in +applied biology, and that the so-called educator, whether he works +destruction from some Board of Education or elsewhere, who knows and +cares nothing about the laws of the life of the being with whom he +deals, is simply an ignorant and dangerous quack.</p> + +<p>What has been said about the reaction against excess in the physical +education of girls applies very forcibly to excess in their mental +education. We are undoubtedly coming upon a period when more and more +will be heard of the injurious consequences of such ill-timed +preparation for stupid examinations as has been referred to; and there +will be not a few to sigh for the return to the bad old days which a +certain type of mind always calls good. Here, again, we must find the +golden mean, recognizing that the danger lies in excess, and especially +in ill-timed excess. We shall further discover that if we desire a girl +to become a woman, and not an indescribable, we must provide for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> her a +kind of higher education which shall take into account the object at +which we aim. It will be found that there are womanly concerns, of +profound importance to a girl and therefore to an empire, which demand +no less of the highest mental and moral qualities than any of the +subjects in a man's curriculum, and the pursuit of which in reason does +not compromise womanhood, but only ratifies and empowers it.</p> + +<p><i>Muscles worth Developing.</i>—When men and women are carefully compared, +it is found that women, muscularly weaker as a whole, are most notably +so as regards the arms, the muscles of respiration, and the muscles of +the back. The muscles of the legs, and especially of the thighs, are +relatively stronger. In these facts we can find some practical guidance. +The muscles of all the limbs may be left comparatively out of account; +whether naturally weak or naturally strong they are of subordinate +importance. On the other hand, it is always worth while to cultivate the +muscles of respiration, as it is always worth while to keep the heart in +good order. Again, the weakness of the muscles of the back, and more +especially in the case of the growing girl, is not a thing to be +accepted as readily as the weakness of the biceps and the forearm +muscles. Various observers find a proportion of between 85 per cent. and +90 per cent. of those suffering from lateral curvature of the spine to +be girls, the great majority of these cases occurring between the ages +of ten and fifteen. Everywhere it is our duty to prevent such cases, and +everywhere physical training will find only too abundant opportunities +for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span> endeavouring to correct them. It may be doubted perhaps whether we +may rightly follow Havelock Ellis in attributing woman's liability to +backache to the relative weakness of the muscles of the back, for we +know how often this symptom depends upon not muscular but internal +causes peculiar to woman. On the other hand, we may certainly follow +Havelock Ellis when he says, regarding this lateral curvature of the +spine, from which so many girls and women suffer: "There can be no doubt +that defective muscular development of the back, occurring at the age of +maximum development, and due to the conventional restraints on exercises +involving the body, and also to the use of stays, which hamper the +freedom of such movements, is here a factor of very great importance." +We shall not here concern ourselves with the details of practice, but +the principle is to be laid down that perhaps second only in importance +to the right development of the heart and the muscles of respiration is +that of the muscles of the back.</p> + +<p>Always, however, we are apt to judge by the obvious and to value it +unduly. Nature makes the biceps and the muscles of the forearm naturally +the weakest in woman compared with man, but it is just the bending of +the elbow that makes a good show on a horizontal bar or rope; and so we +devote too much time to the training of these muscles in our girls, with +the results which make such creditable exhibitions at the end of the +session, while we forget the muscles of the back, the right development +of which is far more valuable, but does not lend itself to display.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span></p> + +<p>In this connection it is to be added last, but not least, that special +importance attaches in woman to those muscles which one may perhaps call +the muscles of motherhood. It is common experience amongst physicians to +find the appropriate muscularity defective at childbirth in women the +muscles of whose limbs may have been very highly developed. Thus Dr. +Havelock Ellis, amongst other evidence, quotes that of a physician, who +says: "In regard to this interesting and suggestive question, it does +seem a fact that women who exercise all their muscles persistently meet +with increased difficulties in parturition. It would certainly seem that +excessive development of the muscular system is unfavourable to +maternity. I hear from instructors in physical training, both in the +United States and in England, of excessively tedious and painful +confinements among their fellows—two or three cases in each instance +only, but this within the knowledge of a single individual among his +friends. I have also several such reports from the circus—perhaps +exceptions. I look upon this as a not impossible result of muscular +exertion in women, the development of muscle, muscular attachments, and +bony frame leading to approximation to the male."</p> + +<p>In his lectures ten years ago, the distinguished obstetrician, Sir +Halliday Croom, now professor of Midwifery in the University of +Edinburgh, used to criticise cycling on this score, not as regards its +development of the muscles of the lower limbs, but as tending towards +local rigidity unfavourable to childbirth. It may be doubted, perhaps, +whether longer and wider<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span> experience of cycling by women warrants this +criticism, but it is probably worth noting.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, while exercise of certain muscles may interfere +obscurely or mechanically with motherhood, we are to remember that the +muscles of the abdomen are indeed the accessory muscles of motherhood, +and therefore specially to be considered. According to Mosso of Turin, +it is only in modern times that civilized woman shows the comparative +weakness of these muscles which is indeed commonly to be found. There is +verily no sign of it in the Venus of Milo, as any one can see. That +statue represents very highly developed abdominal muscles in a woman +less notably muscular elsewhere. The muscles lie near the skin, the +disposition of fat being very small, yet the woman is distinctively +maternal in type, and every kind of æsthetic praise that may be showered +upon the statue may be supplemented by the encomiums of the physiologist +and the worshipper of motherhood. It is highly desirable that, in +physical training to-day, attention should be paid to the development of +the abdominal muscles. Holding the abdomen together by means of a corset +may serve its own purpose, but does less than nothing in the crisis of +motherhood. The corset indeed conduces to the atrophy of the most +important of all the voluntary muscles for the most important crisis of +a woman's life. "Some of the slower Spanish dances" are commended for +the development of the abdominal muscles, but one would rather recommend +swimming, the abandonment of the corset, and, if the gymnasium is to be +used, some of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> the various exercises which serve these muscles, however +little they may serve to exploit the apparatus of the gymnasium when +visitors are invited.</p> + +<p>There is no occasion in the present volume to discuss in detail any such +thing as a course of physical exercises, but it is a pleasure, and, for +the English reader, a convenience to direct attention to the Syllabus of +Physical Exercises for Public Elementary Schools, issued by the English +Board of Education in 1909.<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> After nearly forty years of folly, the +dawn is breaking in our schools. It is evident that the Board of +Education has followed the best medical advice. Indeed, now that medical +knowledge is actually represented upon the Board, and represented as it +is, there is no need to go far. The principles which have been laid down +in previous pages are abundantly recognized in this admirable syllabus. +The exercises recommended for the nation's children are based upon the +Swedish system of educational gymnastics. But it is fortunately +recognized that that system requires modification, since "freedom of +movement and a certain degree of exhilaration are essentials of all true +physical education. Hence it has been thought well not only to modify +some of the usual Swedish combinations in order to make the work less +exacting, but to introduce games and dancing steps into many of the +lessons." "The Board desire that all lessons in physical exercises in +public elementary schools should be thoroughly enjoyed by the children." +"Enjoyment is one of the most necessary factors in nearly everything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span> +which concerns the welfare of the body, and if exercise is distasteful +and wearisome, its physical as well as its mental value is greatly +diminished." An interesting paragraph on music recognizes its value in +avoiding fatigue, but underestimates, perhaps, the desirability of +including music for use at later years as well as for infant classes.</p> + +<p>The syllabus contains admirably illustrated exercises in detail. They +are earnestly to be commended to the reader who is responsible for +girlhood, and notably to those who are interested in the formation and +conducting of girls' clubs. The syllabus is excellent in the attention +paid to games, in the commendation of skipping and of dancing. The +following quotation well illustrates the spirit of wisdom which is at +last beginning to illuminate our national education:—"The value of +introducing dancing steps into any scheme of physical training as an +additional exercise especially for girls, or even in some cases for +boys, is becoming widely recognized. Dancing, if properly taught, is one +of the most useful means of promoting a graceful carriage, with free, +easy movements, and is far more suited to girls than many of the +exercises and games borrowed from boys. As in other balance exercises, +the nervous system acquires a more perfect control of the muscles, and +in this way a further development of various brain centres is brought +about.... Dancing steps add very greatly to the interest and recreative +effect of the lesson, the movements are less methodical and exact, and +are more natural; if suitably chosen they appeal strongly to the +imagination,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> and act as a decided mental and physical stimulus, and +exhilarate in a wholesome manner both body and mind."</p> + +<p>Plainly, our educators have begun to be educated since 1870.</p> + +<p>Of course, there is dancing and dancing. The real thing bears the same +relation to dancing as it is understood in Mayfair, as the music of +Schubert does to that of Sousa. The ideal dancing for girls is such as +that illustrated by the children trained by Miss Isadora Duncan. Some of +these girls were seen for a short time at the Duke of York's Theatre in +London not long ago, and the American reader, rightly proud of Miss +Duncan, should not require to be told what she has achieved. Just as we +are learning the importance of games and play, so that a syllabus issued +by the Board of Education instructs one how to stand when "giving a +back" at leap-frog, so also we shall learn again from Nature that +dancing of the natural and exquisite kind, never to be forgotten or +confused with imitations by any one who has seen Miss Duncan's children, +must be recognized as a great educative measure—educative alike of +mind, body, ear, and eye, and better worth while for any girl of any +rank than volumes of fictitious history concocted by fools concerning +knaves.</p> + +<p><i>Girls' Clubs.</i>—Allusion has been made to girls' clubs, and one may be +fortunate enough to have some readers who may feel inclined to partake +in the splendid work which may be done by this means. It requires high +qualities and a certain amount of expert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> knowledge. Much of the latter +can be obtained from the little book recommended above. For the rest, it +is worth while briefly to point out what the girls' club may effect, and +why it is so much needed.</p> + +<p>It has been insisted that puberty is a critical age because it means the +dawn of womanhood. It is critical in both sexes, not only for the body +but also for the mind. It is now that the intellect awakes; it is now +that the real formation of character begins. We often talk about spoilt +children at three or four, but any kind of making or marring of +character at such ages can be undone in a few weeks or less—that is, in +so far as it is an effect of training and not of nature that we are +dealing with. The real spoiling or making is at that birth of the adult +which we call puberty. During adolescence the adult is being made, and +everything matters for ever. This is true of physique, of mind, and of +character. The importance of this period is recognized by modern +churches in their rite of Confirmation, and it was recognized by ancient +religions, by Greeks and by Romans. Our national appreciation of it is +expressed by our devotion of vast amounts of money and labour to the +child, until the all-important epoch is reached, when we wash our hands +of it. We educate away, for all we are worth, when what is mainly +required is plenty of good food and open air; and we have done with the +matter when the age for real education arrives. In time to come our +neglect of adolescence in both sexes, more especially in girls, will be +marvelled at, and many of the evils from which we suffer will cease to +exist because the fatal and costly economy of the practical man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> is +dismissed as a delusion and a sham, and it is perceived that whether for +the saving of life or for the saving of money, adolescence must be cared +for.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, it behoves private people who care about these things to do +what they can. If they rightly influence but ten girls, it was well +worth doing. The girls' club is a very inexpensive mode of social +activity. Practically the only substantial item of expenditure is the +hire of a gymnasium, say for two evenings in a week. The girls' dresses +can be made at home at quite a trivial cost. The primary attraction +would be the gymnasium. It must, of course, contain a piano, not +necessarily one on which Pachmann would play, but a piano nevertheless. +There is also required a pianist, not necessarily a Pachmann. Two girls +are better than one to run such a club. They will not find it difficult +to obtain material to work upon. They must acquire at a Polytechnic, or +perhaps they have acquired themselves at school, some knowledge of how +to conduct the work and play of the gymnasium. It will depend upon the +conductors of the club how far its virtues extend. Much elementary +hygiene may be taught as well as practised, and if it confine itself +only to matters of ventilation, clothing, care of the teeth and feet, it +is abundantly worth while. It is often possible to get medical men or +women to come and talk to the girls, and in the best of these clubs +there will be some more or less conscious and overt preparation in one +way and another for matters no less momentous alike for the individual +and the race than marriage and motherhood.</p> + +<p><i>Girls' Clothing.</i>—There is little good to be said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> about much of the +clothing of girls and women. All clothing should of course be loose, on +grounds which have been fully gone into in the previous volume on +personal hygiene. A woman's headgear is perhaps too often the only +article of her dress which conforms to this rule. It is good that the +stimulant effect of air, and air in motion, upon the skin should be as +widely extended as is compatible with sufficient warmth and decency. +Thus most women wear far too many clothes, apart from the question of +tightness. A woman handicaps herself seriously as compared with a man, +in that, while she is much less muscular, her clothes are often so much +heavier. All this applies with great force to girls. The following +quotation from the syllabus referred to above is worth making:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>A Suitable Dress for Girls.</i>—A simple dress for girls suitable +for taking physical exercises or games consists of a tunic, a +jersey or blouse, and knickers. The tunic and knickers may be made +of blue serge, and, if a blouse is worn, it should be made of some +washing material.</p> + +<p>The tunic, which requires two widths of serge, may be gathered or, +preferably, pleated into a small yoke with straps passing over the +shoulders. The dress easily slips on over the head, and the +shoulder straps are then fastened. It should be worn with a loose +belt or girdle. In no case should any form of stiff corset be used.</p> + +<p>The knickers, with their detachable washing linen, should replace +all petticoats. They should not be too ample, and should not be +visible below the tunic. They are warmer than petticoats and allow +greater freedom of movement.</p> + +<p>Any plain blouse may be worn with the tunic, or a woollen jersey +may be substituted in cold weather.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span></p> + +<p>With regard to the cost of such a dress, serge may be procured for +1s. 6d. to 2s. per yard. For the tunic some 2 to 2-1/2 yards are +usually required, and for the knickers about 1-1/2 to 2 yards. It +may be found possible in some schools to provide patterns, or to +show girls how to make such articles for themselves. Such a dress, +though primarily designed for physical exercises, is entirely +suitable for ordinary school use.</p> + +<p>Though it is, of course, not practicable to introduce this dress +into all Public Elementary Schools, or in the case of all girls, +yet in many schools there are children whose parents are both +willing and able to provide them with appropriate clothing. The +adoption of a dress of this kind, which is at the same time useful +and becoming, tends to encourage that love of neatness and +simplicity which every teacher should endeavour to cultivate among +the girls. And as it allows free scope for all movements of the +body and limbs, it cannot fail to promote healthy physical +development."</p></div> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="IX" id="IX"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> +<h2>IX</h2><h3>THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN</h3> +</div> + +<p>In the last chapter brief reference was made to the effects of ill-timed +mental strain. Our principles have already led us to the conclusion that +there are special risks for girls involved in educational strain, and +that is, of course, equally true whatever the curriculum. But that being +granted, it is necessary to draw very special attention to a new +movement in the higher education of women which is based upon the +principle that a woman is not the same as a man; that she has special +interests and duties which require no less knowledge and skill than +those with which men are concerned. A tentative experiment in this +direction has already, we are assured, altered the whole attitude +towards life of those girls who partook in it, and there is no question +that we now see the beginning of a new epoch in the higher education of +women upon properly differentiated lines such as have been utterly +ignored in the past. I refer to the "Special Courses for the Higher +Education of Women in Home Science and Household Economics," which now +form part of the activities of the University of London at King's +College. "The main object of these courses," we are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span> told, "is to +provide a thoroughly scientific education in the principles underlying +the whole organization of 'Home Life,' the conduct of Institutions, and +other spheres of civic and social work in which these principles are +applicable." The lecturers are mainly highly qualified women, and the +courses are extremely thorough and comprehensive. The following are the +subjects which are dealt with: economics and ethics, psychology, +biology, business matters, physiology, bacteriology, chemistry, domestic +arts, sanitary science and hygiene, applied chemistry and physics.<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>It will be seen that there is no underrating here of the capacities of +women. The courses are not limited merely to cooking and washing, though +these are most carefully gone into. It is a far cry from them to +psychology and ethics or "A Sketch of the Historical Development of the +Household in England." One can imagine the joy with which girls, largely +nourished on the husks which constitute most of the educational +curricula of boys, will turn to a series of lectures on Child +Psychology, that deal with the general course of mental development in +the child, with interest and attention, the processes of learning, +mental fatigue and adolescence. The highest capacities of the mind in +women are not ignored when we find included a course of which the +special text-book is Spencer's "Data of Ethics." One can imagine also +that the course on the elements of general economics, with its study of +wealth and value and price, the laws of production and distribution,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> +may bring into being a kind of housewife who, whether or not eligible +for Parliament, would certainly be a much more desirable member thereof +than nine-tenths of the prosperous gentlemen who daily record their +opinions there upon matters they know not of. All who care at all for +womanhood or for England must rejoice in the beginnings of this revised +version of higher education for women which, for once in a way, finds +London a pioneer. We must have such courses all over the country. Every +father who can afford it must give his girls the incalculable benefit of +such opportunities. The girl thus educated will glory in her womanhood, +and will help to gain for it its right estimation and position in the +state.</p> + +<p>But it is to be pointed out that such courses as these, admirable though +they be, are yet not everything. The influence of our great national +deity, which is Mrs. Grundy, is apparent still. It is not specifically +recognized that the highest destiny of a woman is motherhood, though in +such courses as this motherhood will doubtless be served directly and +indirectly in many ways. There is, nevertheless, required something +more—something indeed no less than conscious, purposeful education for +parenthood. The chief obstacle in the way of this ideal is Anglo-Saxon +prudery, and, perhaps, the reader will not be persuaded that education +for parenthood is our greatest educational need to-day, more especially +for girls, until he or she has been persuaded of the magnitude of the +preventable evils which flow from our present neglect of this matter. In +the following chapter, therefore, one may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span> point out what prudery costs +us at present, and indeed, the reader may then be persuaded that +education for parenthood, or, as it may be called, eugenic education, +is, perhaps, the most important subject that can be discussed to-day in +any book on womanhood.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="X" id="X"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span> +<h2>X</h2><h3>THE PRICE OF PRUDERY</h3> +</div> + +<p>Just after we had succeeded in getting the Notification of Births Act +put upon the Statute Book, the present writer occupied himself in +various parts of the country in the efforts which were necessary to +persuade local authorities to adopt the provisions of that Act. +Addressing a meeting of the clergy of Islington, he endeavoured to trace +back to the beginning the main cause of infant mortality, and +endeavoured to show that that lay in the natural ignorance of the human +mother, about which more must later be said. In the discussion which +followed, an elderly clergyman insisted that the causes had not been +traced far enough back, maternal ignorance being itself permitted in +consequence of our national prudery.</p> + +<p>Ever since that day one has come to see more and more clearly that the +criticism was just. Maternal ignorance, as we shall see later, is a +natural fact of human kind, and destroys infant life everywhere, though +prudery be or be not a local phenomenon. But where vast organizations +exist for the remedying of ignorance, prudery indeed is responsible for +the neglect of ignorance on the most important of all subjects. Let it +not be supposed for a moment that in this protest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> one desires, even for +the highest ends, to impart such knowledge as would involve sullying the +bloom of girlhood. It is not necessary to destroy the charm of innocence +in order to remedy certain kinds of ignorance; nor are prudery and +modesty identical. Whatever prudery may be when analyzed, it seems +perfectly fair to charge it as the substantial cause of the ignorance in +which the young generation grows up, as to matters which vitally concern +its health and that of future generations. Let us now observe in brief +the price of prudery thus arraigned.</p> + +<p>There is, first, that large proportion of infant mortality which is due +to maternal ignorance, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter. At +present we may briefly remind ourselves that the nation has had the +young mother at school for many years; much devotion and money have been +spent upon her. Yet it is necessary to pass an Act insuring, if +possible, that when she is confronted with the great business of her +life—which is the care of a baby—within thirty-six hours the fact +shall be made known to some one who, racing for life against time, may +haply reach her soon enough to remedy the ignorance which would +otherwise very likely bury her baby. Prudery has decreed that while at +school she should learn nothing of such matters. For the matter of that +she may even have attended a three-year course in science or technology, +and be a miracle of information on the keeping of accounts, the testing +of drains, and the principles of child psychology, but it has not been +thought suitable to discuss with her the care of a baby. How could any +nice-minded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> teacher care to put such ideas into a girl's head? Never +having noticed a child with a doll, we have somehow failed to realize +that Nature, her Ancient Mother and ours, is not above putting into her +head, when she can scarcely toddle, the ideas at which we pretend to +blush. Prudery on this topic, and with such consequences, is not much +less than blasphemy against life and the most splendid purposes towards +which the individual, "but a wave of the wild sea," can be consecrated.</p> + +<p>This question of the care of babies offers us much less excuse for its +neglect than do questions concerned with the circumstances antecedent to +the babies' appearance. Yet we are blameworthy, and disastrously so, +here also. Prudery here insists that boys and girls shall be left to +learn anyhow. That is not what it says, but that is what it does. It +feebly supposes not merely that ignorance and innocence are identical, +but that, failing the parent, the doctor, the teacher, and the +clergyman—and probably all these do fail—ignorance will remain +ignorant. There are others, however, who always lie in wait, whether by +word of mouth or the printed word, and since youth will in any case +learn—except in the case of a few rare and pure souls—we have to ask +ourselves whether we prefer that these matters shall be associated in +its mind with the cad round the corner or the groom or the chauffeur who +instructs the boy, the domestic servant who instructs the girl, and with +all those notions of guilty secrecy and of misplaced levity which are +entailed; or with the idea that it is right and wise to understand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span> +these matters in due measure because their concerns are the greatest in +human life.</p> + +<p>After puberty, and during early adolescence, when a certain amount of +knowledge has been acquired, we leave youth free to learn lies from +advertisements, carefully calculated to foster the tendency to +hypochondria, which is often associated with such matters. Of this, +however, no more need now be said, since it scarcely concerns the girl.</p> + +<p>It is the ignorance conditioned by prudery that is responsible later on +for many criminal marriages; contracted, it may be, with the blind +blessing of Church and State, which, however, the laws of heredity and +infection rudely ignore. Parents cannot bring themselves to inquire into +matters which profoundly concern the welfare of the daughter for whom +they propose to make what appears to be a good marriage. They desire, of +course, that her children shall be healthy and whole-minded; they do not +desire that marriage should be for her the beginning of disease, from +the disastrous effects of which she may never recover. But these are +delicate matters, and prudery forbids that they should be inquired into; +yet every father who permits his daughter to marry without having +satisfied himself on these points is guilty, at the least, of grave +delinquency of duty, and may, in effect, be conniving at disasters and +desolations of which he will not live to see the end.</p> + +<p>Young people often grow fond of each other and become engaged, and then, +if the engagement be prolonged—as all engagements ought to be, as a +general<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> rule—they may find that, after all, they do not wish to marry. +Yet the girl's mother, an imprudent prude, may often in this and other +cases do her utmost to bring the marriage about, not because she is +convinced that it means her daughter's highest welfare and happiness, +but because prudery dictates that her daughter must marry the man with +whom she has been so frequently seen; hence very likely lifelong +unhappiness, and worse.</p> + +<p>Society, from the highest to the lowest of its strata, is afflicted with +certain forms of understood and eminently preventable disease, about +which not a word has been spoken in Parliament for twenty years, and any +public mention of which by mouth or pen involves serious risk of various +kinds. Here it is perhaps not necessary for us to consider the case of +the outcast, and of the diseases with which, poor creature, she is first +infected, and which she then distributes into our homes. Our present +concern is simply to point out that prudery, again, is largely +responsible for the continuance of these evils at a time when we have so +much precise knowledge regarding their nature and the possibility of +their prevention. Medical science cannot make distinctions between one +disease and another, nor between one sin and another, as prudery does. +Prudery says that such and such is vice, that its consequences in the +form of disease are the penalties imposed by its abominable god upon the +guilty and the innocent, the living and the unborn alike, and that +therefore our ordinary attitude towards disease cannot here be +maintained. Physiological science, however,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> knowing what it knows +regarding food and alcohol, and air and exercise and diet, can readily +demonstrate that the gout from which Mrs. Grundy suffers is also a +penalty for sin; none the less because it is not so hideously +disproportionate, in its measure and in its incidence, to the gravity of +the offence. These moral distinctions between one disease and another +have little or no meaning for medical science, and are more often than +not immoral.</p> + +<p>It would be none too easy to show that the medical profession in any +country has yet used its tremendous power in this direction. +Professions, of course, do not move as a whole, and we must not expect +the universal laws of institutions to find an exception here. But though +they do not move, they can be moved. It is when the public has been +educated in the elements of these matters, and has been taught to see +what the consequences of prudery are, that the necessary forces will be +brought into action. Meanwhile, what we call the social evil is almost +entirely left to the efforts made in Rescue Homes and the like. Despite +the judgment of a popular novelist and playwright, it is much more than +doubtful whether Rescue Homes—the only method which Mrs. Grundy will +tolerate—are the best way of dealing with this matter, even if the +people who worked in them had the right kind of outlook upon the matter, +and even if their numbers were indefinitely multiplied. Every one who +has devoted a moment's thought to the matter knows perfectly well that +this is merely beginning at the end, and therefore all but futile. I +mention the matter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> here to make the point that the one measure which +prudery permits—so that indeed it may even be mentioned upon our highly +moral stage, and passed by the censor, who would probably be hurried +into eternity if M. Brieux's <i>Les Avariés</i> were submitted to him, and +who found "Mrs. Warren's Profession" intolerable—is just the most +useless, ill-devised, and literally preposterous with which this +tremendous problem can be mocked.</p> + +<p>This leads us to another point. It is that the means of our education, +other than the schools, are also prejudiced by prudery. Upon the stage +there is permitted almost any indecency of word, or innuendo, or +gesture, or situation, provided only that the treatment be not serious. +Almost anything is tolerable if it be frivolously dealt with, but so +soon as these intensely serious matters are dealt with seriously, +prudery protests. The consequence is that a great educative influence, +like the theatre, where a few playwrights like M. Brieux, and Mr. +Bernard Shaw, and Mr. Granville Barker, and Mr. John Galsworthy, might +effect the greatest things, is relegated by Mrs. Grundy to the plays +produced by Mr. George Edwardes and other earnest upholders of the +censorship.</p> + +<p>Publishers also, while accepting novels which would have staggered the +Restoration Dramatists, can scarcely be found, even with great labour, +for the publication of books dealing with the sex question from the most +responsible medical or social standpoints.</p> + +<p>It is just because public opinion is so potent, and, like all other +powers, so potent either for good or for evil, that its present +disastrous workings are the more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> deplorable. It is not unimaginable +that prudery might undergo a sort of transmutation. As I have said +before, we might make a eugenist of Mrs. Grundy, so that she might be as +much affronted by a criminal marriage as she is now by the spectacle of +a healthy and well-developed baby appearing unduly soon after its +parents' marriage. The power is there, and it means well, though it does +disastrously ill. Public opinion ought to be decided upon these matters; +it ought to be powerful and effective. We shall never come out into the +daylight until it is; we shall not be saved by laws, nor by medical +knowledge, nor by the admonitions of the Churches. Our salvation lies +only in a healthy public opinion, not less effective and not more +well-meaning than public opinion is at present, but informed where it is +now ignorant, and profoundly impressed with the importance of realities +as it now is with the importance of appearances.</p> + +<p>So much having been said, what can one suggest in the direction of +remedy? First, surely it is something that we merely recognize the price +of prudery. Personally, I find that it has made all the difference to my +calculations to have had the thing pointed out by the clerical critic +whose eye these words may possibly meet. It is something to recognize in +prudery an enemy that must be attacked, and to realize the measure of +its enmity. In the light of some little experience, perhaps a few +suggestions may be made to those who would in any way join in the +campaign for the education and transmutation of public opinion on these +matters.</p> + +<p>First, we must compose ourselves with fundamental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> seriousness—with +that absolute gravity which imperils the publication of a book and +entirely prohibits the production of a play on such matters. There is +something in human nature beyond my explaining which leads towards +jesting in these directions. An instinct, I know, is an instinct; of +which a main character is that its exercise shall be independent of any +knowledge as to its purpose. We eat because we like eating, rather than +because we have reckoned that so many calories are required for a body +of such and such a weight, in such and such conditions of temperature +and pressure. It is not natural, so to say, just because man is in a +sense rather more than natural, that we should be provident and serious, +self-conscious, and philosophic, in dealing with our fundamental +instincts. But it is necessary, if we are to be human: and only in so +far as, "looking before and after," we transcend the usual conditions of +instinct, are we human at all.</p> + +<p>The special risk run by those who would deal with these matters +seriously—or rather one of the risks—is that they will be suspected, +and may indeed be guilty, of a tendency to priggishness and cant. Youth +is very likely not far wrong in suspecting those who would discuss these +matters, for youth has too often been told that they are of the earth +earthy, that these are the low parts of our nature which we must learn +to despise and trample on, and youth knows in its heart that whatever +else may or may not be cant, this certainly is. So any one who proposes +to speak gravely on the subject is a suspect.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span></p> + +<p>Meetings confined to persons of one sex offer excellent opportunities. +Much can be done, if the suspicion of cant be avoided, by men addressing +the meetings of men only which gather in many churches on Sunday +afternoons, and which have a healthy interest in the life of this world +and of this world to come, as well as in matters less immediate. It +seems to me that women doctors ought to be able to do excellent work in +addressing meetings of girls and women, provided always that the speaker +be genuinely a woman, rightly aware of the supremacy of motherhood.</p> + +<p>Most of us know that it is possible to read a medical work on sex, say +in French, without any offence to the æsthetic sense, though a +translation into one's native tongue is scarcely tolerable. This +contrasted influence of different names for the same thing is another of +those problems in the psychology of prudery which I do not undertake to +analyze, but which must be recognized by the practical enemy of prudery. +It is unquestionably possible to address a mixed audience, large or +small, of any social status, on these matters without offence and to +good purpose. But certain terms must be avoided and synonyms used +instead. There are at least three special cases, the recognition of +which may make the practical difference between shocking an audience and +producing the effect one desires.</p> + +<p>Reproduction is a good word from every point of view, but its +associations are purely physiological, and it is better to employ a word +which renders the use of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span> the other superfluous and which has a special +virtue of its own. This is the term parenthood, a hybrid no doubt, but +not perhaps much the worse for that. One may notice a teacher of +zoology, say, accustomed to address medical students, offend an audience +by the use of the word reproduction, where parenthood would have served +his turn. It has a more human sound—though there is some sub-human +parenthood which puts much of ours to shame—and the fact that it is +less obviously physiological is a virtue, for human parenthood is only +half physiological, being made of two complementary and equally +essential factors for its perfection—the one physical and the other +psychical. Thus it is possible to speak of physical parenthood and of +psychical parenthood, and thus not only to avoid the term reproduction, +but to get better value out of its substitutes. One may be able to show, +perhaps, that in the case of other synonyms also a hunt for a term that +shall save the face of prudery may be more than justified by the +recovery of one which has a richer content. Terms are really very good +servants, if they are good terms and we retain our mastery of them. Let +any one without any previous practice start to write or speak on "human +reproduction," and on "human parenthood, physical and psychical," and he +will find that, though naming often saves a lot of thinking, as George +Meredith said, wise naming may be of great service to thought.</p> + +<p>In these matters there is to be faced the fact of pregnancy. Here, +again, is a good word, as every one knows who has felt its force or that +of the corresponding adjective when judiciously used in the +metaphorical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> sense. The present writer's rule, when speaking, is to use +these terms only in their metaphorical sense, and to employ another term +for the literal sense. I should be personally indebted to any reader who +can inform me as to the first employment of the admirable phrase, "the +expectant mother." The name of its inventor should be remembered. In any +audience whatever—perhaps almost including an audience of children, but +certainly in any adult audience, whether mixed or not, medical or +fashionable, serious or sham serious—it is possible to speak with +perfect freedom on many aspects of pregnancy, as for instance the use of +alcohol, exposure to lead poisoning, the due protection at such a +period, by simply using the phrase "the expectant mother," with all its +pregnancy of beautiful suggestion. Here, again, our success depends upon +recognizing the psychical factor in that which to the vulgar eye is +purely physiological—not that there is anything vulgar about physiology +except to the vulgar eye.</p> + +<p>For myself, the phrase "the expectant mother" is much more than useful, +though in speaking it has made all the difference scores of times. It is +beautiful because it suggests the ideal of every pregnancy—that the +expectant mother shall indeed <i>expect</i>, look forward to the life which +is to be. Her motto in the ideal world or even in the world at the +foundations of which we are painfully working, will be those words of +the Nicene creed which the very term must recall to the mind—<i>Expecto +resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venturi sæculi</i>.</p> + +<p>Let any one who fancies that these pre-occupations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> with mere language +are trivial or misplaced here take the opportunity of addressing two +drawing-rooms under similar conditions, on some such subject as the care +of pregnancy from the national point of view. Let him in the one case +speak of the pregnant woman, and so forth, and in the other of the +expectant mother. He will be singularly insensitive to his audience if +he does not discover that sometimes a rose by any other name is somehow +the less a rose. The more fools we perhaps, but there it is, and in the +most important of all contemporary propaganda, which is that of the +re-establishment of parenthood in that place of supreme honour which is +its due, even such "literary" debates as these are not out of place.</p> + +<p>Sex is a great and wonderful thing. The further down we go in the scale +of life, whether animal or vegetable, the more do we perceive the +importance of the evolution of sex. The correctly formed adjective from +this word is sexual, but the term is practically taboo with Mrs. Grundy. +Only with caution and anxiety, indeed, may one venture before a lay +audience to use Darwin's phrase, "sexual selection." The fact is utterly +absurd, but there it is. One of the devices for avoiding its +consequences is the use of sex itself as an adjective, as when we speak +of sex problems; but the special importance of this case is in regard to +the sexual instinct, or, if the term offends the reader, let us say the +sex instinct. Here prudery is greatly concerned, and our silence here +involves much of the price of prudery. Now since the word sexual has +become sinister, we cannot speak to the growing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span> boy or girl about the +sexual instinct, but we may do much better.</p> + +<p>For what is this sexual instinct? True, it manifests itself in +connection with the fact of sex, but essentially that is only because +sex is a condition of human reproduction or parenthood. It is this with +which the sexual instinct is really concerned, and perhaps we shall +never learn to look upon it rightly or deal with it rightly until we +indeed perceive what the business of this instinct is, and regard as +somewhat less than worthy of mankind any other attitude towards it. Of +course there are men who live to eat, yet the instincts concerned with +eating exist not for the titillation of the palate but for the +sustenance of life; and, likewise, though there are those who live to +gratify this instinct, it exists not for sensory gratification, but for +the life of this world to come. Can we not find a term which shall +express this truth, shall be inoffensive and so doubly suitable for the +purposes of our cause?</p> + +<p>The term reproductive instinct is often employed. It is vastly superior +to sexual instinct, because it does refer to that for which the instinct +exists; but it hints at reproduction, and though Mrs. Grundy can +tolerate the idea of parenthood, reproduction she cannot away with. We +cannot speak of it as the parental instinct, because that term is +already in employment to express the best thing and the source of all +other good things in us. Further, the sexual instinct and the parental +instinct are quite distinct, and it would be disastrous to run the +possibility of confusing them—one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> the source of all the good, and the +other the source of much of the evil, though the necessary condition of +all the good and evil, in the world.</p> + +<p>For some years past, in writing and speaking, I have employed and +counselled the employment of the term "the racial instinct." This seems +to meet all the needs. It avoids the tabooed adjective, and if it fails +to allude at all to the fact of sex, who needs reminding thereof? It is +formed from the term race, which prudery permits, and it expresses once +and for all that for which the instinct exists—not the individual at +all, but the race which is to come after him. Doubtless its satisfaction +may be satisfactory for him or her, but that does not testify to +Nature's interest in individuals, but rather to her skill in insuring +that her supreme concern shall not be ignored, even by those who least +consciously concern themselves with it.</p> + +<p>These are perhaps the three most important instances of the verbal, or +perhaps more than verbal, issues that arise in the fight with prudery. +One has tried to show that they are not really in the nature of +concessions to Mrs. Grundy, but that the terms commended are in point of +fact of more intrinsic worth than those to which she objects. Other +instances will occur to the reader, especially if he or she becomes in +any way a soldier in this war, whether publicly or as a parent +instructing children, or on any other of the many fields where the fight +rages.</p> + +<p>It is not the purpose of the present chapter to deal with that which +must be said, notwithstanding prudery, and in order that the price of +prudery shall no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span> longer be paid. But one final principle may be laid +down which is indeed perhaps merely an expression of the spirit +underlying the foregoing remarks upon our terminology. It is that we are +to fly our flag high. We may consult Mrs. Grundy's prejudices if we find +that in doing so we may directly serve our own thinking, and therefore +our cause. This is very different from any kind of apologizing to her. +All such I utterly deplore. We must not begin by granting Mrs. Grundy's +case in any degree. Somewhere in that chaos of prejudices which she +calls her mind, she nourishes the notion, common to all the false forms +of religion, ancient or modern, that there is something about sex and +parenthood which is inherently base and unclean. The origin of this +notion is of interest, and the anthropologists have devoted much +attention to it. It is to be found intermingled with a by no means +contemptible hygiene in the Mosaic legislation, is to be traced in the +beliefs and customs of extant primitive peoples, and has formed and +forms an element in most religions. But it is not really pertinent to +our present discussion to weigh the good and evil consequences of this +belief. Without following the modern fashion, prevalent in some +surprising quarters, of ecstatically exaggerating the practical value of +false beliefs in past and present times, we may admit that the cause of +morality in the humblest sense of that term may sometimes have been +served by the religious condemnation of all these matters as unclean, +and of parenthood as, at the best, a second best.</p> + +<p>But for our own day and days yet unborn this notion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> of sex and its +consequences as unclean or the worser part is to be condemned as not +merely a lie and a palpably blasphemous one, grossly irreligious on the +face of it, but as a pernicious lie, and to be so recognized even by +those who most joyfully cherish evidence of the practical value of lies. +Whatever may have been the case in the past or among present peoples in +other states of culture than our own, no impartial person can question +that during the Christian Era what may be called the Pauline or ascetic +attitude on this matter has been disastrous; and that if the present +forms of religion are not completely to outlive their usefulness, it is +high time to restore mother and child worship to the honour which it +held in the religion of Ancient Egypt and in many another. If the mother +and child worship which is to be found in the more modern religions, +such as Christianity, is to be worth anything to the coming world it +must cease to have reference to one mother and one child only; it must +hail every mother everywhere as a Madonna, and every child as in some +measure deity incarnate. By no Church will such teaching be questioned +to-day; but if it be granted the Churches must cease to uphold those +conceptions of the superiority of celibacy and virginity which, besides +involving grossly materialistic conceptions of those states, are +palpably incompatible with that worship of parenthood to which the +Churches must and shall now be made to return.</p> + +<p>All this will involve many a shock to prudery; to take only the instance +of what we call illegitimate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> motherhood, our eyes askance must learn +that there are other legitimacies and illegitimacies than those which +depend upon the little laws of men, and that if our doctrine of the +worth of parenthood be a right one it is our business in every such case +to say, "Here also, then, in so far as it lies in our power, we must +make motherhood as good and perfect as may be."</p> + +<p>These principles also will lead us to understand how differently, were +we wise, we should look upon the outward appearances of expectant +motherhood. In his masterpiece, Forel—of all living thinkers the most +valuable—has a passage with which Mrs. Grundy may here be challenged. +It is too simple to need translating from the author's own French:<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"La fausse honte qu'out les femmes de laisser voir leur grossesse +et tout ce qui a rapport à l'accouchement, les plaisanteries dont +on use souvent à l'égard des femmes enceintes, sont un triste signe +de la dégénérescence et même de la corruption de notre civilization +raffinée. Les femmes enceintes ne devraient pas ce cacher, ni +jamais avoir honte de porter un enfant dans leur ventre; elles +devraient au contraire en être fières. Pareille fierté serait +certes bien plus justifiée que celle des beaux officiers paradant +sous leur uniforme. Les signes extérieurs de la formation de +l'humanité font plus d'honneur à leurs porteurs que les symboles de +sa destruction. Que les femmes s'imprègnent de plus en plus de +cette profonde vérité! Elles cesseront alors de cacher leur +grossesse et d'en avoir honte. Conscientes de la grandeur de leur +tâche sexuelle et sociale, elles tiendront haut l'étendard de notre +descendance,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> qui est celui de la véritable vie à venir de l'homme, +tout en combattant pour l'émancipation de leur sexe."</p></div> + +<p>This passage recalls one of Ruskin's, which is to be found in "Unto This +Last":—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Nearly all labour may be shortly divided into positive and +negative labour—positive, that which produces life; negative, that +which produces death; the most directly negative labour being +murder, and the most directly positive the bearing and rearing of +children; so that in the precise degree in which murder is hateful +on the negative side of idleness, in that exact degree +child-rearing is admirable, on the positive side of idleness."</p></div> + +<p>Here is the right comment upon the swaggering display of the means of +death and the hiding as if shameful of the signs of life to come. What +has Mrs. Grundy to say to this? Will she consider the propriety of +urging in future that it is murder and the means of murder, and the +organized forces of capital and politics making for murder, that must +not be mentioned before children, and must be hidden as shameful from +the eyes of men; and while a woman may still glory in her hair, +according to that spiritual precept of St. Paul: "But if a woman have +long hair it is a glory to her; for her hair is given her for a +covering," perhaps she may be permitted even to glory in her motherhood, +contemptible as such a notion would doubtless have seemed to the Apostle +of the Gentiles.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XI" id="XI"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> +<h2>XI</h2><h3>EDUCATION FOR MOTHERHOOD</h3> +</div> + +<p>It is our first principle in this discussion that the individual exists +for parenthood, being a natural invention for that purpose and no other. +It has been shown further that this is more pre-eminently true of woman +than of man, she being the more essential—if such a phrase can be +used—for the continuance of the race. If these principles are valid +they must indeed determine our course in the education of girls. Some +incidental reference has already been made to this subject, but the +matter must be more carefully gone into here. We have seen that there +are right and wrong ways of conducting the physical training of girls, +according as whether we are aiming at muscularity or motherhood. We have +seen also that there is a thing called the higher education of women, +apparently laudable and desirable in itself, which may yet have +disastrous consequences for the individual and the race.</p> + +<p>In a book devoted to womanhood, and written at the end of the first +decade of the twentieth century, the reader might well expect that what +we call the higher education of women would be a subject treated at +great length and with great respect. Such a reader,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span> turning to the +chapter that professedly deals with the subject, might well be offended +by its brevity. It might be asked whether the writer was really aware of +the importance of the subject—of its remarkable history, its extremely +rapid growth, and its conspicuous success (in proving that women can be +men if they please—but this is my comment, not the reader's). Nor can +any one question that the so-called higher education of women is a very +large and increasingly large fact in the history of womanhood during the +last half century in the countries which lead the world—whither it were +perhaps not too curious to consider. Further, this kind of education +does in fact achieve what it aims at. Women are capable of profiting by +the opportunities which it offers, as we say. This is itself a deeply +interesting fact in natural history, refuting as it does the assertions +of those who declared and still declare that women are incapable of +"higher education," except in rare instances. It is important to know +that women can become very good equivalents of men, if they please.</p> + +<p>Further, this higher education of women—and we may be content to accept +the adjective without qualification, since it is after all only a +comparative, and leaves us free to employ the superlative—may be and +often is of very real value in certain cases and because of certain +local conditions, such as the great numerical inequality of the sexes in +nearly all civilized countries. It is valuable for that proportion of +women, whatever it be, who, through some throw of the physiological +dice, seem to be without the distinctive factor for psychical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span> +womanhood, the existence of which one has tentatively ventured to +assume. These individuals, like all others, are entitled to the fullest +and freest development of their lives, and it is well that there shall +be open to them, as to the brothers they so closely resemble, +opportunities for intellectual satisfaction and self-development. +Therefore, surely, by far the most satisfactory function of higher +education for women is that which it discharges in reference to these +women. Their destiny being determined by their nature, and irrevocable +by nurture, it is well that, though we cannot regard it as the highest, +we should make the utmost of it by means of the appropriate education.</p> + +<p>Only because sometimes we must put up with second bests can we approve +of higher education for women other than those of the anomalous +semi-feminine type to which we have referred. At present we must accept +it as an unfortunate necessity imposed upon us by economic conditions. +So long as society is based economically, or rather uneconomically, upon +the disastrous principles which so constantly mean the sacrifice of the +future to the present, so long, I suppose, will it be impossible that +every fully feminine woman shall find a livelihood without some +sacrifice of her womanhood. This is a subject to which we must return in +a later chapter. Meanwhile it is referred to only because its +consideration shows us some sort of excuse, if not warrant, for the +higher education of woman, even though in the process of thus endowing +her with economic independence, we disendow her of her distinctive +womanhood, or at the very least imperil it; even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span> though, more serious +still, we deprive the race of her services as physical and psychical +mother.</p> + +<p>We have seen that there is just afoot a new tendency in the higher +education of women, and it is indeed a privilege to be able to do +anything in the way of directing public attention to this new trend. In +reference thereto, it was hinted that though this newer form of higher +education for woman is a great advance upon the old, and is so just +because it implies some recognition of woman's place in the world, yet +for one reason or another it falls short of what this present student of +womanhood, at any rate, demands. As has been hinted further, probably +those responsible for the new trend are by no means unaware that, though +their line is nearer to the right one, the direct line to the "happy +isles" has not quite been taken. But great is Mrs. Grundy of the +English, and those who devised the new scheme—one is willing to hazard +the guess—had to be content with an approximation to what they knew to +be the ideal. That is why we devoted the last chapter to the question of +prudery, inserting that between a discussion of the "higher education" +of women and the present discussion, which is concerned with the +<i>highest education</i> of women.</p> + +<p>Words are only symbols, but, like other symbols, they are capable of +assuming much empire over the mind. Man, indeed, as Stevenson said, +lives principally by catchwords, and though woman, beside a cot, is less +likely to be caught blowing bubbles and clutching at them, she also is +in some degree at the mercy of words. The higher education of women is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span> +a good phrase. It appeals, just because of the fine word higher, to +those who wish women well, and to those who are not satisfied that woman +should remain for ever a domestic drudge. The phrase has had a long run, +so to say, but I propose that henceforth we should set it to compete +with another—the highest education of women. Whether this phrase will +ever gain the vogue of the other even a biased and admiring father may +well question. But if there is anything certain, having the whole weight +of Nature behind it, and only the transient aberrations of men opposed +thereto, it is that what I call the highest education of women will be +and will remain the most central and capital of society's functions, +when what is now called the higher education of women has gone its +appointed way with nine-tenths of all present-day education, and exists +only in the memory of historians who seek to interpret the fantastic +vagaries of the bad old days.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it is well that we should begin by freeing the word education +from the incrustations of mortal nonsense that have very nearly obscured +its vitality altogether. Before we can educate for motherhood, we must +know what education is, and what it is not. We must have a definition of +it and its object; in general as well as in this particular case, +otherwise we shall certainly go wrong. Perhaps it may here be permitted +to quote a paragraph from a lecture on "The Child and the State," in +which some few years ago I attempted to express the first principles of +this matter:—</p> + +<p>"Now, as a student of biology, I will venture to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span> propose a definition +of education which is new, so far as I know, and which I hope and +believe to be true and important. Comprehensively, so as to include +everything that must be included, and yet without undue vagueness, I +would define education as <i>the provision of an environment</i>. We may +amplify this proposition, and say that it is the provision of a fit +environment for the young and foolish by the elderly and wise. It has +really scarcely anything in the world to do with my trying to make you +pay for the teaching to my children of dogmas which I believe, and you +deny. It neither begins nor ends with the three R's; and it does not +isolate, from that whole which we call a human being, the one attribute +which may be defined as the intellectual faculty. It is the provision of +an environment, physical, mental, and moral, for the whole child, +physical, mental, and moral. That is my <i>definition</i> of education. Now, +what are we to say of the <i>object</i> of education? In providing the +environment—from its mother's milk to moral maxims—for our child, what +do we seek? Some may say, to make him a worthy citizen, to make him able +to support himself; some may say, to make him fit to bear arms for his +king and country; but I will give you the object of education as defined +by the author of the most profound and wisest treatise which has ever +been written upon the subject—Plato, Locke, and Milton not forgotten. +'To prepare us for complete living,' says Herbert Spencer, 'is the +function which education has to discharge.' The great thing needed for +us to learn is how to live, how rightly to rule conduct in all +directions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span> under all circumstances; and it is to that end that we must +direct ourselves in providing an environment for the child. <i>Education +is the provision of an environment, the function of which is to prepare +for complete living.</i>"</p> + +<p>Perhaps the only necessary qualification of the foregoing is that, +though it refers specially to the child, yet the need of education does +not end with childhood, becoming indeed pre-eminent when childhood ends. +So we may apply what has been said in the case of the girl, and we shall +find it a sure guide to the highest education of women.</p> + +<p>First, education being the provision of an environment in the widest +sense of that very wide word, always misused when it is used less +widely, we must be sure that in our scheme we avoid the errors of past +or passing schemes which concern themselves only with some aspect of the +environment, and so in effect prepare for something much less than +complete living. It is not sufficient to provide an environment which +regards the girl as simply a muscular machine, as is the tendency, if +not actually the case, in some of the "best" girls' schools to-day; it +is not sufficient to provide an environment which looks upon the girl as +merely an intellectual machine, as in the higher education of women; it +is not sufficient to provide an environment which looks upon the girl as +a sideboard ornament, in Ruskin's phrase, such as was provided in the +earlier Victorian days. In all these cases we are providing only part of +the environment, and providing it in excess. None of them, therefore, +satisfies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span> our definition of education, which conceives of environment +as the sum-total of all the influences to which the whole organism is +subjected—influences dietetic, dogmatic, material, maternal, and all +other.<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>Who will question that, according to this conception of education, such +a thing as the higher education of women must be condemned as +inadequate? No more than a man is woman a mere intellect incarnate. Her +emotional nature is all-important; it is indeed the highest thing in the +Universe so far as we know. The scheme of education which ignores its +existence, and much more than fails to provide the best environment for +it, is condemnable. But the scheme of education which derides and +despises the emotional nature of woman, looking upon it as a weakness +and seeking to suppress it, is damnable, and has led to the +damnation—or loss, if the reader prefers the English term—of this most +precious of all precious things in countless cases.</p> + +<p>The only right education of women must be that which rightly provides +the whole environment. The simpler our conception of woman, the more we +underrate her complexity and the manifoldness of her needs, the more +certainly shall we repeat in one form or another the errors of our +predecessors.</p> + +<p>Complete living is a great phrase; perhaps not for a lizard or a +mushroom, but assuredly for men and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span> women. Perhaps it involves more for +women even than for men; indeed it must do so if we are to adhere to our +conception of women as more complex than men, having all the +possibilities of men in less or greater measure, and also certain +supreme possibilities of their own. Whatever complete living may mean +for men, it cannot mean for women anything less than all that is implied +in Wordsworth's great line—</p> + +<p> +"Wisdom doth live with children round her knees."<br /> +</p> + +<p>That line was written in reference to the unwisdom of a man, Napoleon, +the greatest murderer in recorded time, and I believe it to be true of +men, but it is pre-eminently true of women. There needs no excuse for +quoting from Herbert Spencer, since we have already accepted his +definition of the subject of education, a notable passage which is +perhaps at the present time the most needed of all the wisdom with which +that great thinker's book on education is filled:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The greatest defect in our programmes of education is entirely +overlooked. While much is being done in the detailed improvement of +our systems in respect both of matter and manner, the most pressing +desideratum, to prepare the young for the duties of life, is +tacitly admitted to be the end which parents and schoolmasters +should have in view; and, happily, the value of the things taught, +and the goodness of the methods followed in teaching them, are now +ostensibly judged by their fitness to this end. The propriety of +substituting for an exclusively classical training, a training in +which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span> the modern languages shall have a share, is argued on this +ground. The necessity of increasing the amount of science is urged +for like reasons. But though some care is taken to fit youth of +both sexes for society and citizenship, no care whatever is taken +to fit them for the position of parents. While it is seen that, for +the purpose of gaining a livelihood, an elaborate preparation is +needed, it appears to be thought that for the bringing up of +children no preparation whatever is needed. While many years are +spent by a boy in gaining knowledge of which the chief value is +that it constitutes the education of a gentleman; and while many +years are spent by a girl in those decorative acquirements which +fit her for evening parties, not an hour is spent by either in +preparation for that gravest of all responsibilities—the +management of a family. Is it that the discharge of it is but a +remote contingency? On the contrary, it is sure to devolve on nine +out of ten. Is it that the discharge of it is easy? Certainly not; +of all functions which the adult has to fulfil, this is the most +difficult. Is it that each may be trusted by self-instruction to +fit himself, or herself, for the office of parent? No; not only is +the need for such self-instruction unrecognized, but the complexity +of the subject renders it the one of all others in which +self-instruction is least likely to succeed."</p></div> + +<p>If we were wise enough, therefore, we should recognize all education, in +the great sense of that word, to be <i>as for parenthood</i>. That ideal will +yet be recognized and followed for both sexes, as it has for long been +followed, consciously as well as unconsciously, by that astonishing race +which has survived all its oppressors, and is in the van of civilization +to-day as it was when it produced the Mosaic legislation. The time is +not yet when one could accept with a light heart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> an invitation to +lecture on fatherhood to the boys at Eton. Boys to-day are taught by +each other, and by those who give them what they call "smut jaws," that +what exists for fatherhood, and thus for the whole destiny of mankind, +is "smut." When such blasphemies pass for the best pedagogic wisdom, to +preach parenthood as the goal of all worthy education is to run the risk +of being looked upon as ridiculous. But the time will come when the +hideous Empire-wrecking Imperialisms of the present are forgotten, and +when we have a new Patriotism—which suggests, first and foremost, as +that word well may, the duty of fatherhood; and then, perhaps, "smut +jaws" will not be the phrase at Eton for discussion of those instincts +which determine the future of mankind.</p> + +<p>But girls are our present concern, and we may indeed hope that, though +the day is still far when the motto of Eton will be education as for +fatherhood, yet the ideal of education as for motherhood may yet triumph +wherever girls are taught within even a few years to come. On all sides +to-day we see the aberrations of womanhood in a hundred forms, and the +consequences thereof. Wrong education is partly, beyond a doubt, to be +indicted for this state of things, and the right direction is so clearly +indicated by nature and by the deepest intuitions of both sexes that we +cannot much longer delay to take it.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the reader will have patience whilst for a little we discuss the +facts upon which right education for motherhood must be based. Some may +suppose that by education for womanhood is meant simply one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span> form or +other of instruction; say, for instance, in the certainly important +matter of infant feeding. At present, however, I am not thinking of +instruction at all, but of education—the leading forth, that is to say, +in right proportion and in right direction of the natural constituents +of the girl. If we are to be right in our methods we must have some +clear understanding of what those constituents are, and we must +therefore address ourselves now to getting, if possible, clear and +accurate notions of the material with which we have to deal; in other +words, we must discuss the psychology of parenthood. We shall perhaps +realize then that though the instruction of mothers in being is very +necessary and very important, that comes in at the end of our duty, and +that we shall never achieve what we might achieve unless we begin at the +beginning.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XII" id="XII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span> +<h2>XII</h2><h3>THE MATERNAL INSTINCT</h3> +</div> + +<p>The deeds of men and women proceed from certain radical elements of +their nature, some evidently noble, others, when looked at askew, +apparently ignoble. These elements are classed as instinctive. We are +less intelligent than we think. Reason may occupy the throne, but the +foundations upon which that throne is based are not of her making. To +change the image, reason is the pilot, not the gale or the engine. She +does not determine the goal, but only the course to that goal. We are +what our nature makes us; our likes and our dislikes determine our acts, +and we are guided to our self-determined ends by means of our +intelligence. More often, indeed, we use our intelligence merely to +justify to ourselves the likes and dislikes, the action and the +inaction, which our instinctive tendencies have determined.</p> + +<p>Many of our natural instincts, impulses, and emotions bear only remotely +upon our present inquiry; as, for instance, the instinct of flight and +the emotion of fear, the instinct of curiosity and the emotion of +wonder, the instinct of pugnacity and the emotion of anger. Certain +others, however, are not merely radical and permanent parts of our +nature, but determine human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span> existence, the greater part of its failures +and successes, its folly and wisdom, its history and its destiny. Two of +these—the parental and racial instincts—we must carefully consider +here, and also, very briefly, a supposed third, the filial instinct. I +am inclined to question whether such a specific entity as the filial +instinct exists at all; it is rather, I believe, a product, by +transmutation, of the parental instinct which, in its various forms and +potencies and through the tender emotion which is its counterpart in the +affective realm of our natures, is the noblest, finest, and most +promising ingredient of our constitution.</p> + +<p><i>Instinct and Emotion.</i>—We must be sure, in the first place, that we +have a sound idea of what we mean by the word "instinct." It is absurd, +for instance, to speak of "acquiring a political instinct"—or any +other. That is the most erroneous possible use of the word. An instinct +is eminently something which cannot be "acquired"; it is native if +anything is native; as native as the nose or the backbone. Instincts may +be developed or repressed; it is the great mark of man that in him they +may even be transmuted—but <i>acquired</i> never.</p> + +<p>When we come to examine the laws of activity we find that, on the +application of certain kinds of stimulus, there are certain very +definite responses, and these we call instinctive. If the arm or the leg +of a sleeper be stroked or touched, or a cold breath of air blows +thereon, it will be withdrawn, and such withdrawal is what we call a +reflex action. Now, an instinctive action, as Herbert Spencer saw long +ago, is a "complex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span> reflex action." It differs from a simple reflex, a +mere twitch, such as winking, but it is a complicated, and possibly +prolonged, action, which is, at bottom, of the nature of a reflex. One +may instance the instinct of flight, which is correlated with fear. In +crossing the street we hear "toot, toot," and we run. We do not +ratiocinate, we run. All the primary instincts of mankind act similarly. +Take, for contrast, the instinct of curiosity. Consider a child watching +a mechanical toy; the impulse of this instinct of curiosity is such that +he goes to the thing and examines it. By means of the transmutation, +which it is the prerogative of man to effect, this instinct may work out +into a lifetime devoted to the study of Nature. There is an unbroken +sequence from the interest in the unknown which we see in a kitten or a +child up to that which triumphs in a Newton or a Darwin.</p> + +<p>Thus we begin to learn that human nature is largely a collection of +instincts, more or less correlated, and that at bottom we act on our +instincts—in accordance with certain innate predilections, likings, and +dislikings with which we were born, and which we have inherited from our +ancestors. Indissolubly associated therewith is what we call emotion. +For instance, in the exercise of the instinct of curiosity we feel a +certain emotion, which we call wonder. There is an ignoble wonder and +there is a noble wonder; but whether it be an astronomer watching the +stars, or the crowd at a cinematograph show, there exists an association +between the emotion of wonder and the instinct of curiosity. Dr. +McDougall, of Oxford, elaborated some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> few years ago, and has now +established, an extremely important theory of the relation between +instinct and emotion. He has shown that our emotions are correlated with +our instincts; that the emotion is the inward or subjective side of the +working of the instinct. Thus an instinct is more than a "complex reflex +action"; it is more than merely that, on hearing something, or seeing +something, certain muscles are thrown into action, because along with +the action there is emotion, and this is a natural and necessary +correlation. We should do well to carry about with us, as part of our +mental furniture, this idea of the correlation between instinct and +emotion.</p> + +<p>Now, if it be true that man is not primarily a rational animal, if he be +rather, <i>au fond</i>, a bundle, an assemblage, <i>an organism of instincts</i>, +it behoves us to recognize in ourselves and in others the primary +instincts, because from them flows all that goes to make up human +nature, whether it be good or evil. Amongst these, certainly, is the +parental instinct.</p> + +<p>Let us first consider its development in the individual, for this bears +on the question when to begin education for motherhood. We find it very +early indeed. It is commonly asserted that the doll instinct is the +precursor, the infantile and childish form, of the parental instinct. +Some psychologists, as we have already noted, assure us that this is +wrong, that a small child will be just as content to play with anything +else as with a doll; that the child gets fond of its possession, and +that what we are really witnessing is the instinct of acquisitiveness. +The rest may reason and welcome,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span> but those who are fathers know. We +have only to watch a child to learn that it very soon differentiates its +doll, or rather, the shapeless mass it calls its doll, from other +things. Try with your own children and see if you can get them to like +anything else as well as they like a doll. They will not. There are few +settled questions as yet in psychology, but we may certainly be sure +that the parental instinct and its associated emotion may be +unmistakably displayed as the master-passion in a child who is not yet +two years old. In a case where the possibility of imitation was excluded +I have seen a little girl adore a small baby, stroke its hands, whisper +quasi-maternal sweet nothings to it—"mother it," in short—as plainly +as I have seen the sun at noon; and there is no reason to suppose that +this deeply impressive spectacle was exceptional.</p> + +<p>The parental instinct is connected subtly with the racial instinct; and +it is undisputed that, except in utterly degraded persons, the object of +the feelings which are associated with the racial instinct becomes the +object of the feelings which are associated with the parental instinct. +The object of the emotion of sex becomes also the object of tender +emotion. Thus "love," in its lower sense, becomes exalted by Love in the +noble sense.</p> + +<p>There is also in us an instinct of pugnacity, which especially appears +when the working of any other instinct is thwarted. We know that the +parental instinct when thwarted, as in the tigress robbed of her whelps, +shows itself in pugnacity—even in the female,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span> which commonly has no +pugnacity; and in the emotion of anger. It is a reasonable supposition +that the fine anger, the passion for justice, the passion against, say, +slavery or cruelty to children—that these indignations which move the +world are at bottom traceable to the workings of the outraged parental +instinct. When we have tender emotion towards a child, or towards an +animal, whatever it be, this is really the subjective side of the +working of the parental instinct. Now, tender emotion is what has made +and makes everything that is good in the individual, and in human +society. It is the basis of all morality—all morality that is real +morality—everything that permits us to hold up our heads at all, or to +hope for the future of the race. That is why the study of the parental +instinct, its correlate or source, is as important and serious as any +that can be imagined.</p> + +<p>Let us begin by a quotation from Dr. McDougall, author of the best and +most searching account of this instinct yet written:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The maternal instinct, which impels the mother to protect and +cherish her young, is common to almost all the higher species of +animals. Among the lower animals the perpetuation of the species is +generally provided for by the production of an immense number of +eggs or young (in some species of fish a single adult produces more +than a million eggs), which are left entirely unprotected, and are +so preyed upon by other creatures that on the average but one or +two attain maturity. As we pass higher up the animal scale, we find +the number of eggs or young more and more reduced, and the +diminution of their number compensated for by parental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span> protection. +At the lowest stage this protection may consist in the provision of +some merely physical shelter, as in the case of those animals that +carry their eggs attached in some way to their bodies. But, except +at this lowest stage, the protection afforded to the young always +involves some instinctive adaptation of the parent's behaviour. We +may see this even among the fishes, some of which deposit their +eggs in rude nests and watch over them, driving away creatures that +might prey upon them. From this stage onwards protection of +offspring becomes increasingly psychical in character, involves +more profound modification of the parent's behaviour, and a more +prolonged period of more effective guardianship. The highest stage +is reached by those species in which each female produces at a +birth but one or two young, and protects them so efficiently that +most of the young born reach maturity; the maintenance of the +species thus becomes in the main the work of the parental instinct. +In such species the protection and cherishing of the young is the +constant and all-absorbing occupation of the mother, to which she +devotes all her energies, and in the course of which she will at +any time undergo privation, pain, and death. The instinct becomes +more powerful than any other, and can override any other, even fear +itself; for it works directly in the service of the species, while +the other instincts work primarily in the service of the individual +life, for which Nature cares little.... When we follow up the +evolution of this instinct to the highest animal level, we find +among the apes the most remarkable examples of its operation. Thus +in one species the mother is said to carry her young one clasped in +one arm uninterruptedly for several months, never letting go of it +in all her wanderings. This instinct is no less strong in many +human mothers, in whom, of course, it becomes more or less +intellectualized and organized as the most essential constituent of +the sentiment of parental love. Like other species, the human +species is dependent upon this instinct for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span> its continual +existence and welfare. It is true that reason, working in the +service of the egotistic impulses and sentiments, often circumvents +the ends of this instinct and sets up habits which are incompatible +with it. But when that occurs on a large scale in any society, that +society is doomed to rapid decay. But the instinct itself can never +die out save with the disappearance of the human species itself; it +is kept strong and effective just because those families and races +and nations in which it weakens become rapidly supplanted by those +in which it is strong.</p> + +<p>"It is impossible to believe that the operation of this, the most +powerful of the instincts, is not accompanied by a strong and +definite emotion; one may see the emotion expressed unmistakably by +almost any mother among the higher animals, especially the birds +and the mammals—by the cat, for example, and by most of the +domestic animals; and it is impossible to doubt that this emotion +has in all cases the peculiar quality of the tender emotion +provoked in the human parent by the spectacle of her helpless +offspring. This primary emotion has been very generally ignored by +the philosophers and psychologists; that is, perhaps, to be +explained by the fact that this instinct and its emotion are in the +main decidedly weaker in men than women, and in some men, perhaps, +altogether lacking. We may even surmise that the philosophers as a +class are men among whom this defect of native endowment is +relatively common."</p></div> + +<p>Dr. McDougall goes on to show how from this emotion and its impulse to +cherish and protect spring generosity, gratitude, love, true +benevolence, and altruistic conduct of every kind; in it they have their +main and absolutely essential root without which they would not be. He +argues that the intimate alliance between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span> tender emotion and anger is +of great importance for the social life of man, for "the anger invoked +in this way is the germ of all moral indignation, and on moral +indignation justice and the greater part of public law are in the main +founded."<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>The reader may be earnestly counselled to acquaint himself with Dr. +McDougall's book, which, in the judgment of those best qualified, +definitely advances the science of psychology in its deepest and most +important aspects.</p> + +<p><i>The Transmutation of Instinct.</i>—The last thing here meant by the +transmutation of instinct is that by any political alchemy it is +possible—to quote Herbert Spencer's celebrated aphorism—to get golden +conduct out of leaden instincts. But it is the mark of man, the +intelligent being, that in him the instincts are plastic, and even +capable of amazing transmutations. In the lower animals there is +instinct, but that instinct is an almost completely fixed, rigid, and +final thing. In ourselves there is a limitless capacity for the +development, the humanization of instinct along many lines, as when the +primitive infantile curiosity works out into the speculations of a +thinker. In other words, <i>we</i> are educable, the lower animals are not, +or only within very narrow limits.</p> + +<p>Yet in one respect the lower animals have the advantage over us. Their +instincts are often perfect. We cannot teach a cat anything about how to +look after a kitten; but parallel instincts amongst ourselves,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span> though +not less numerous or potent, are not perfected, not sharp-cut. In the +cat there is no need for education; in woman there is eminent need for +it. Indeed it is the lack of education that is largely responsible for +our large infant mortality; not that woman is inferior to the cat, but +that, being not instinctive but intelligent, she requires education in +motherhood.</p> + +<p>Human instincts in general are capable of modification; sometimes they +may take bizarre forms, and so we find that there are people without +children of their own—more commonly women—who will have twenty cats in +the house and look after them, or who will devote their whole lives to +the cause of the rat or the rabbit, or whatever it may be, while the +children of men are dying around them. These things are indications of +the parental instinct centred on unworthy objects. It is a common thing +to laugh at these aberrations—thoughtlessly, may we not say? While +orphans are to be found, we should do better if we try to bring together +the woman who needs to "mother" and the child who needs to be +"mothered."</p> + +<p>Conduct is at least three-fourths of life, and the great business of +education is the direction of conduct. We have seen how modern +psychology illuminates what has been so long dark, by directing us to +our instincts as the sources of our needs, and by showing us that it is +the possibility of the education of instinct which essentially +distinguishes us from the lower animals.</p> + +<p>We must therefore distinguish between education for motherhood and +education or instruction in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span> motherhood. It is very important that a +woman should know the elements of infant feeding, but it is more +important that, in the first place, her whole life before she becomes a +mother—nay, even before she chooses her child's father—shall centre in +the education of her instincts for motherhood. Finding good evidence, as +we do, of the maternal instinct at a very early age, and recognizing its +importance in conduct and in the formation of ideals long before the +marriage age, we are justified in discussing the maternal instinct here +instead of postponing it, as some might argue, until after we have +discussed marriage. There is nothing which I wish to assert more +strongly than that we are radically wrong in this postponement, which is +indeed our customary practice. Partly because we are blind, partly +because of our most imprudent prudery, we ignore and pervert the due +sequence of development, but here I deliberately prefer to follow the +indications of nature, and to discuss the maternal instinct now because, +in the matter of the education of girls, this is precisely the most +important subject that can be named.</p> + +<p>Let us now note some popular misconceptions which cumber our minds and +often interfere with the work of the reformer.</p> + +<p>To begin with what is perhaps the oldest of these, though indeed +scarcely entitled to the appellation of popular, let us assure ourselves +once and for all that we are talking about a fact natural, innate, not +acquired. The modern criticism of ancient notions of human nature, such +as those expressed in the theologians' conception of "conscience," has +inclined some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> to the view that our best feelings are indeed not at all +innate. No one can for a moment analyze conscience without observing the +immense disparity between the facts and the theologians' theory. And +thus we are apt to fall into the opposite error of supposing that our +impulses towards good action are entirely the products of education, +training, public opinion, and so forth. Let the reader refer, for +instance, to such a celebrated work as John Stuart Mill's +"Utilitarianism," and it will be seen how wide of the mark it was +possible for even a great thinker to go, when his ideas of mind were +unguided by the light of evolution. Even in the greatest writer of that +time not a syllable do we find as to the parental instinct. "As is my +own belief," says Mill, "the moral feelings are not innate but +acquired." Yet we have seen convincing evidence which teaches us that +the moral feelings spring essentially from the root of the parental +instinct, without which mankind could not continue for another +generation, and than which there is nothing more fundamental and +essential in any type of human nature that can persist.</p> + +<p>The importance of noting this can be clearly stated. We are here dealing +with something which is not for us to implant, but which is already part +of the plant, so to speak, and which it is for us to tend. Like other +innate features of mankind, its transmission from generation to +generation is notably independent of the effects of education, the +effects of use and disuse. This is a difficult thing of which to +persuade people, but it is the fact. Education, environment, training, +opportunity, habit, public opinion, social prejudice—all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span> these and +such other influences may and do affect the maternal instinct in the +individual for good or for evil. No fact is more certain or important, +and that is precisely why we must study this instinct. But the effect +upon the individual does not involve any effect upon the native +constitution of the individual's children. From age to age the general +facts and features of the human backbone persist. We do not expect to +find notable differences between the generations in such a radical +feature of our constitution, no matter what particular habits of +posture, play, and the like we adopt. The maternal instinct is scarcely +less fundamental; it is certainly no whit less essential for the +species. It is the very backbone of our psychological constitution. Thus +it is nonsense to assert that, for instance, women are becoming less +motherly, if by this is meant that the maternal instinct is failing. +That bad education may affect it for evil no one can question, but we +must distinguish between nature and nurture. We may be perfectly +confident that so far as the <i>natural</i> material of girl-childhood and +girlhood is concerned, there is no falling off; there will not, for +there cannot, be any falling off either in the quality or in the +quantity of the maternal instinct. On the contrary, it can, and will +later be shown that through the action of heredity this instinct will be +strengthened in the future, just in so far as motherhood becomes more +and more a special privilege of those women in whom this instinct is +strong, and who become mothers for the <i>only good reason</i>—that they +love to have children of their own.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span></p> + +<p>I protest, then, against many critics, especially those who used to +raise their now silent voices in opposition to the beginnings of the +infant mortality campaign a few years ago, that we who criticize modern +motherhood and find in its defects the causes of many and great evils, +as we do, are asserting nothing whatever against the women of this day +as compared with the women of former days, so far as their natural +constitution is concerned; and if we criticize the results of bad +education, that is mainly criticism of the blindness, the stupidity, and +the carelessness of men, who are responsible for the parodies of +education and the misdirection of ideals which have so grossly +afflicted, and still afflict, childhood and girlhood in all civilized +communities.</p> + +<p>Yet, again, there is another misconception of the maternal instinct as +it exists in our own species, which is still more serious in its +results. The argument is that, not only does the maternal instinct +exist, but it is a sure guide to its possessor, who therefore requires +no instruction—least of all at the hands of men. A woman being a woman +knows all about babies, a man being a man knows nothing. Against this +error the present writer has endeavoured to inveigh for many years past, +and it is always retorted that insistence upon the ignorance of mothers +is a very unwarrantable piece of discourtesy. It is nothing of the sort. +Native ignorance is the mark of intelligence. It is just because +instinct in us has not the perfection of detail which it has in, say, +the insects, that it is capable of that limitless modification which +shows itself in educated intelligence,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span> and all that educated +intelligence has achieved and will yet achieve. It may be permitted to +quote from a former statement of this point:—<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>"The mother has only the maternal instinct in its essence. That could +not be permitted to lapse by natural selection, since humanity could +never have been evolved at all if women did not love babies. But of all +details she is bereft. She has instead an immeasurably greater thing, +intelligence, but whilst intelligence can learn everything it has +everything to learn. Subhuman instinct can learn nothing, but is perfect +from the first within its impassable limits. It is this lapse of +instinctive aptitude that constitutes the cardinal difficulty against +which we are assembled. The mother cat not merely has a far less +helpless young creature to succour, but she has a far superior inherent +or instinctive equipment; she knows the best food for her kitten, she +does not give it 'the same as we had ourselves'—as the human mother +tells the coroner—but her own breast invariably. None of us can teach +her anything as to washing her kitten, or keeping it warm. She can even +play with it and so educate it, in so far as it needs education. There +are mothers in all classes of the community who should be ashamed to +look a tabby cat in the face."</p> + +<p>The human mother has instinctive love and the uninstructed intelligence +which is the form, at once weak and incalculably strong, that instinct +so largely assumes in mankind. This cardinal distinction between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span> the +human and all sub-human mothers is habitually ignored, it being assumed +that the mother, as a mother, knows what is best for her child. But +experience concurs with comparative psychology in showing that the human +mother, just because she is human, intelligent, which means more than +instinctive, does not know. This is the theory upon which all our +practice is to be based, and upon which the need for it mainly depends. +We must never forget the cardinal peculiarity of human motherhood, its +absolute dependence upon education, needless for the cat, needed by the +human mother in every particular, small and great, since she relies upon +intelligence alone, which is only a potentiality and a possibility until +it be educated. Educate it, and the product transcends the cat, and not +only the cat, but all other living things. As Coleridge said—</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2.5em;"> +"A mother is a mother still,<br /> +The holiest thing alive."<br /> +</p> + +<p>Perhaps the foregoing will make it clear that to insist upon the natural +ignorance of the human mother and upon the necessity for adding +instruction to the maternal instinct, and even to make comparisons with +the cat (which are, in point of fact, quite worth making, even though +some women resent them) is in no way to depreciate or decry womanhood, +but simply to demonstrate that it is human and not animal, suffering +from the disabilities or necessities which are involved in the +possession of the limitless possibilities of mankind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span></p> + +<p>What, then, is it in our power to do; and how are we to do it? It may be +argued that if the maternal instinct is a thing which cannot be made or +acquired, our study of it has little relation to practice. But indeed it +is eminently practical.</p> + +<p>For, in the first place, this priceless possession, this parental +instinct and tenderness, is inheritable. We know by observation amongst +ourselves that hardness and tenderness are to be found running through +families—are things which are transmissible. Let us, then, make +parenthood the most responsible, the most deliberate, the most +self-conscious thing in life, so that there shall be children born to +those who love children, and only to those who love children, to those +who have the parental instinct naturally strong, and who will, on the +average, transmit a high measure of it to their offspring. In a +generation bred on these principles—a generation consisting only of +babies who were loved before they were born—there would be a proportion +of sympathy, of tender feeling, and of all those great, abstract, +world-creating passions which are evolved from the tender emotion, such +as no age hitherto has seen.</p> + +<p>It was necessary to insert this eugenic paragraph because it expresses +the central principle of all real reform, as fundamental and +all-important as it is unknown to all political parties, and I fear to +nearly all philanthropists as well. But, for the present, our immediate +concern is the application, if such be possible, of our knowledge of the +parental instinct to the education of girls. Being indeed an instinct it +can be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span> neither made nor acquired, but, like every other factor of +humanity that is given by inheritance, it depends upon the conditions in +which it finds itself. Education being the provision of an environment, +there is no higher task for the educator than to provide the right +environment for the maternal instinct in adolescence. We are to look +upon it as at once delicate and ineradicable. These are adjectives which +may seem incompatible, yet they may both be verified. Any one will +testify that, in a given environment, say that of high school or +university or that of the worst types of what is called society, the +maternal instinct may then and there, and for that period, become a +nonentity in many a girl. Hence we are entitled to say that it is +delicate; much more delicate, for instance, than what we have agreed to +call the racial instinct, which is far more imperious and by no means so +easily to be suppressed.</p> + +<p>But, on the other hand, just because this is an instinct, part of the +fundamental constitution, and not a something planted from without, it +is ineradicable. I doubt whether even in the most abandoned female +drunkard it would not be possible to find, when the right environment +was provided, that the maternal instinct was still undestroyed. One is, +of course, not speaking of that rare and aberrant variety of women in +whom the instinct is naturally weak—naturally weak as distinguished +from the atrophy induced by improper nurture.</p> + +<p>Our business, then, having recognized, so to speak, the natural history +of this instinct, and further, having come to realize its stupendous +importance for the individual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span> and the race, is to tend it assiduously +as the very highest and most precious thing in the girls for whom we +care. As educators we must seek to provide the environment in which this +instinct can flourish. It is a good thing to be an elder sister, not +merely because the girl has opportunities of learning the ways of babies +and the details of their needs, but for a far deeper reason. Babies do +have very detailed and urgent needs, but these can be learnt without +much difficulty, and, if necessary, at very short notice. More important +is it for the whole development of the character and for the making of +the worthiest womanhood that an elder sister is provided with an +environment in which her maternal instinct can grow and grow in grace.</p> + +<p>Much might be said on this head as to some of our present educational +practices. The kind of educationist with whom no one would trust a +poodle for half an hour may and does constantly assume, on a scale +involving millions of children, from year to year, that all is well if +the girl be taken from home and put into a school and made to learn by +heart, or at any rate by rote, the rubbish with which our youth is fed +even yet in the great name of education: though perchance whilst she is +thus being injured in body and mind and character, she might at home be +playing the little mother, helping to make the home a home, serving the +highest interests of her parents, her younger brothers and sisters and +herself at the same time—not to mention the unborn. Such a protest as +this, however, will be little heeded. There is no political party which +cares about education or even wants to know in what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span> it consists. The +most persistent and clever and resourceful of those parties—of which, I +fear, the Fabian Society is far too good to be representative—only half +believes in the family, and is daily, and ever with more lamentable +success, seeking to substitute for the home some collective device or +other precisely as rational as that scheme of Plato's whereby the babies +were to be shuffled so that no mother should recognize her own baby, +while the fathers, need it be said, were to be as gloriously +irresponsible as under the schemes for the endowment of motherhood. +"Socialism intervenes between the children and the parents.... Socialism +in fact is the State family. The old family of the private individual +must vanish before it, just as the old waterworks of private enterprise, +or the old gas company. They are incompatible with it." Thus Mr. H. G. +Wells.</p> + +<p>Whilst this sort of thing passes for thinking, it is a task that has +little promise in it to demand a return to the study of human nature, +and insist that only by obeying it can we command it, as Bacon said of +Nature at large. Meanwhile the madness proceeds apace; nursery-schools, +wretched parody of the nursery, are advocated at length in even Fabian +tracts, and the writer who suggests that an elder sister may be +receiving the highest kind of education in staying at home and helping +her mother, would sound almost to himself like an echo from the dead +past did he not know that neither a Plato nor a million tons of moderns +can walk through human nature or any other fact as if it were not +there.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span></p> + +<p>Whatever be our duty to the girl of the working-classes, no man can deny +the importance of performing it aright. She will become the wife of the +working-man. From her thus flows most of the birth-rate. If our +education of her is wrong, it is a very great wrong for millions of +individuals and for the whole of society. But let us look at the case of +her more fortunate sister.</p> + +<p>The girl of the more fortunate classes is certain to be well cared for +in the matter of air and food and light and exercise. We have already +seen how this matter of exercise requires to be qualified and determined +as for motherhood—that is, unless we desire most suicidally to educate +all the most promising stocks of the nation out of existence. But now +what do we owe to her in the matter of providing the right kind of +intellectual, moral, spiritual, psychical environment? It is a pity to +flounder with so many adjectives, but nearly all the available ones are +forsworn and fail to express my meaning. Let us, however, speak of the +spiritual environment, seeking to free that word from all its lamentable +associations of superstition and cant, and to associate it rather with a +humanized kind of religion that deals with humanity as made by, living +upon, and destined for, this earth, whatever unseen worlds there may or +may not be to conquer.</p> + +<p>It is our business, then, to provide the spiritual environment in which +the maternal instinct is favoured and seen to be supremely honourable. +If in the "best" girls' schools ideas of marriage and babies are +ridiculed, the sooner these schools be rubbed down again into the soil, +the better. There is no need to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> substitute one form of cant for +another, but it is possible—possible even though the head-mistress +should be a spinster, for whom physical motherhood has not been and +never will be—to incorporate in the very spirit of the school, as part +of its public opinion, no less potent though its power be not +consciously felt, the ideals of real and complete womanhood, which mean +nothing less than the consecration of the individual to the future, and +the belief that such consecration serves not only the future but also +the highest satisfaction of her best self.</p> + +<p>If it were our present task to define and specify the details of a +school in which girls should be educated for womanhood, for motherhood, +and the future, it would not be difficult, I think, to show how the +services of painting and sculpture, of poetry and prose, should be +enlisted. A word or two of outline may be permitted.</p> + +<p>There is, for instance, a noble Madonna of Botticelli which is supremely +great, not because of the skill of the painter's hand, nor yet the +delicacy of his eye, but because of the spirit which they express. +Botticelli speaks across the centuries, and is none other than an +earlier voice uttering the words of Coleridge, teaching that a mother is +the holiest thing alive. The master may or may not have perceived that +the Madonna was a symbol; that what he believed of one holy mother was +worth believing just in so far as it serves to make all motherhood holy +and all men servants thereof. The painter can scarcely have looked at +his model and appreciated her fitness for his purpose without realizing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span> +that he was concerned with depicting a truth not local and unique, but +universal and commonplace. Whether or not the painter saw this, we have +no excuse for not seeing it. Copies of such a painting as this should be +found in every girls' school throughout the world.</p> + +<p>Girls learn drawing and painting at school, and these are amongst the +numerous subjects on which the present writer is entitled to no +technical or critical opinion. But he sometimes supposes that a painting +is not necessarily the worse because it represents a noble thing, and +that it may even be a worthier human occupation to portray the visage of +a living man or woman than the play of light upon a dead wall or a dead +partridge. It might even be argued by the wholly inexpert that if the +business of art is with beauty, the art is higher, other things being +equal, in proportion as the beauty it portrays is of a higher order. +Thus in the painting of women, the ignorant commentator sometimes asks +himself in what supreme sense it was worth while for an artist to expend +his powers upon the portrait of some society fool who could pay him +twelve hundred pounds therefor; or in what supreme sense a painter can +be called an artist who prefers such a task, and the flesh-pots, to the +portrayal of womanhood at its highest. There are attributes of womanhood +which directly serve human life, present and to come—attributes of +vitality and faithfulness, attributes of body and bosom, of mind and of +feeling, which it is within the power of the great artist to portray; +and it is in worthily portraying the greatest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span> things, and in this +alone, that he transcends the status of the decorator.</p> + +<p>It is worth while also to refer here to sculpture; something can be +taught by its means. The Venus of Milo is not only a great work of art; +it is also a representation of the physiological ideal. Its model was a +woman eminently capable of motherhood. The corset is beyond question +undesirable from every point of view, and it may be of service by means +of such a statue as this to teach the girl's eye what are the right +proportions of the body. She is constantly being faced with gross and +preposterous perversions of the female figure as they are to be seen in +the fashion plates of every feminine journal. It is as well that she +should have opportunities of occasionally seeing something better.</p> + +<p>A note upon the corset may not be out of place here. We know that its +use is of no small antiquity. We have lately come to learn that +civilization stepped across to Europe from Asia, using Crete as a +stepping-stone; and in frescoes found in the palace of Minos, at +Knossos, by Dr. Arthur Evans, we find that the corset was employed to +distort the female figure nearly four thousand years ago, as it is +to-day. There must be some clue deep in human nature to the persistence +of a custom which is in itself so absurd. Those who have studied the +work of such writers as Westermarck, and who cannot but agree that on +the whole he is right in the contention that each sex desires to +accentuate the features of its sex, will be prepared to accept Dr. +Havelock Ellis's interpretation of the corset. By constricting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span> the +waist it accentuates the salience of the bosom and hips. This may simply +be an expression of the desire to emphasize sex, but it may with still +more insight be looked upon, as the latter writer has suggested, as the +insertion of a claim to capacity for motherhood. This claim is of course +unconscious, but Nature does not always make us aware of the purposes +which she exercises through us. Now, though the corset serves to draw +attention to certain factors of motherhood, in point of fact it is +injurious to that end, and is on that highest of all grounds to be +condemned. I return to the point that possibly the direct and formal +condemnation of the corset may be in some cases less effective than the +method, which must have some value for every girl, of placing before her +eyes representations of the female figure, showing beauty and capacity +for motherhood as completely fused because they are indeed one. +Constrain the girl to admit that that is as beautiful as can be, and +then ask her what she thinks the corset applied to such a figure could +possibly accomplish.</p> + +<p>Surely the same principle applies to what the girl reads. Some of us +become more and more convinced that youth, being naturally more +intelligent than maturity, prefers and requires more subtlety in its +teaching. In addressing a meeting of men, say upon politics, a speaker's +first business is to be crude. He has no chance whatever unless he is +direct, unqualified, allowing nothing at all for any kind of +intelligence or self-constructive faculty in the minds of his hearers. +Let any one recall the catchwords, styled watchwords,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span> of politics +during the last ten or twenty years, and he will see how men are to be +convinced.</p> + +<p>But it is all very well to treat men as fools, provided that you do not +say so—the case is different with young people, and certainly not less +with girls than with boys. Mr. Kipling, in one of those earlier moments +of insight that sometimes almost persuade us to pardon the brutality +which year by year becomes more than ever the dominant note of his +teaching, once told us of the discomfiture of a member of Parliament, or +person of that kind, who went to a boys' school to lecture about +Patriotism, and who unfurled a Union Jack amid the dead silence of the +disgusted boys. He forgot that, for once, he was speaking to an +intelligent audience, which demands something a little less crude than +the kind of thing which wins elections and makes and unmakes governments +and policies.</p> + +<p>There is certainly a lesson here for those who are entrusted with the +supreme responsibility, so immeasurably more political than politics, of +forming the girl's mind for her future destiny. Suggestion is one of the +most powerful things in the world, but we must not forget that inverted +form of it which has been called contra-suggestion. We all know how the +first shoots of religion are destroyed on all sides in young minds by +contra-suggestion. Crude, ill-timed, unsympathetic, excessive, religious +teaching and religious exercises achieve, as scarcely anything else +could, exactly the opposite of that which they seek to attain. Thus it +is not here proposed that we should take any course<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> at home or at +school which should have the result of making motherhood as nauseous to +the girl's mind through contra-suggestion, as it easily could be made if +we did not set to work upon judicious lines.</p> + +<p>If we are in any measure to gain, by means of books, our end of forming +right ideals in the girl's mind, I am certain that we must not expect to +accomplish much with the help of any but very great writers. We may very +well doubt the substantial value for the purpose of anything written for +the purpose. Such books may be of value for the teacher; they may +possibly be of value in disposing of curiosity that has become +overweening or even morbid, but their value as preachments I much +question. The kind of writing upon which the young girl's mind will be +nourished in years to come is best represented by the lecture on +"Queens' Gardens" in Ruskin's "Sesame and Lilies," though in that +magnificent and immortal piece of literature there is nowhere any direct +allusion to motherhood as the natural ideal for girlhood. Yet if only +one girl in a hundred who read that lecture can be persuaded, in the +beautiful phrase to be found there, that she was "born to be love +visible," how excellent is the work that we shall have accomplished! A +chapter might well be devoted entirely to the teaching of Wordsworth +regarding womanhood. We need scarcely remind ourselves that this great +poet owed an immeasurable debt to his sister, and in lesser, though very +substantial, degree to his wife and daughters. He has left an abundance +of poetry which testifies directly and indirectly to these influences. +This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> poetry is not only utterly lovely as poetry; at once sane and +passionate, steadying and thrilling, but it is also not to be surpassed, +I cannot but believe, as a means for rightly forming the ideals of +girlhood. Every year sees an inundation of new collections of poetry. +The anthologist might do worse than collect from Wordsworth a small, but +precious and quintessential volume under some such title as "Wordsworth +and Womanhood." One would do it oneself but that literary people of a +certain school regard it as an impertinence that any one who believes in +knowledge should intrude into their sphere. Wordsworth, it is true, said +that "poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the +impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all Science." But +most literary people are so busy writing that they have no time to read, +and they forget these sayings of the immortal dead. Yet that is just a +saying which directly bears upon the present contention. We must be very +careful lest we insult and outrage girlhood with our physiology, not +that physiology is either insolent or outrageous, but that girlhood is +girlhood. It is the "breath and finer spirit" of our knowledge of sex +and parenthood that we must seek to impart to her. Poetry is its +vehicle, and the time will come when we shall consciously use it for +that great purpose.</p> + +<p>But we cannot expect the adolescent girl to be content even with Ruskin +and Wordsworth. She must, of course, have fiction, and under this +heading there is more or less accessible to her every possibility in the +gamut of morality, from the teaching of such a book<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span> as "Richard +Feverel" down to the excrement and sewage that defile the railway +book-stalls to-day under the guise of "bold, reverent, and fearless +handling of the great sex problems." The present writer is one of those +old-fashioned enough to believe that it matters a great deal what young +people read. We are all hygienists nowadays, and very particular as to +what enters our children's mouths. But what is the value of these +precautions if we relax our care as to what enters their minds?</p> + +<p>It is my misfortune to be scarcely acquainted at all with fiction, and I +can presume to offer no detailed guidance in this matter. The name of +Mr. Eden Phillpotts must certainly be mentioned as foremost among those +living writers who care for these things. In the Eugenics Education +Society it was at one time hoped to see the formation of a branch of +fiction in the library which might form the nucleus of a catalogue, well +worth disseminating if only it could be compiled, of fiction worthy the +consumption of girlhood. Perhaps it would hardly be necessary for the +present writer to protest that the didactic, the unnaturally good, the +well-meaning, the entirely amateur types of fiction, including those +which ignore the facts of human nature, and, above all, those which +decry instead of seeking to deify the natural, would find no place in +this catalogue. It is possible, though I much doubt it, that there may +be many books unknown to me of the order and quality of "Richard +Feverel." At any rate, that represents in its perfection—save, perhaps, +for the unnecessary tragedy of its close, which the illustrious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span> author +himself in conversation did not find it quite possible to defend—the +type of novel whose teaching the Eugenist and the Maternalist must +recommend for the nourishment of youth of both sexes.</p> + +<p>As has been already hinted, discourses on how to wash a baby are less in +place here; and in the following chapter the argument will be set forth +in detail that the sequence of the common schemes for the education of +girlhood and womanhood is, in one essential respect, logically and +practically erroneous.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span> +<h2>XIII</h2><h3>CHOOSING THE FATHERS OF THE FUTURE</h3> +</div> + +<p>We live in a social chaos of which the evolution into anything like a +cosmos is scarcely more than incipient. In such a case the reformer has +to do the best he may; in the only possible sense in which that phrase +can be defended, he has to take the world as he finds it. Heartless +heads will of course be found to comment upon the logical error of his +ways, to which his only reply is that, while they stand and comment, +what can be done he now will do.</p> + +<p>In this whole matter of the care and culture of motherhood—which is, +verily, the prime condition, too often forgotten, of the care and +culture of childhood—we have to do what we can, when and as we can. We +live in a society where mankind, held individually responsible for all +other acts whatsoever, is held entirely irresponsible for the act of +parenthood which, being more momentous than any other, ought to be held +more responsible than any other. Marriage, the precedent condition of +most parenthood, is thus regarded as the concern of the individuals and +the present. Individuals and the present therefore decide what marriages +shall occur; but by some obscure fatality which no one had thought of, +the future appears upon the scene: and when it is actually present, or +rather not only present but visible, the responsibility<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> for it is +recognized. We have not yet gone so far as to see that a girl may be a +good mother, in the highest sense, in her choice of a mate. But as +things are, it is agreed that we are to act like blind automata, as +improvident and irresponsible as the lower fishes, until the actual +birth of the future. The philosophic truth that the future is nascent in +the present—a truth so genuinely philosophic that it is also +practical—is still hidden from us, and thus we are faced, in town and +country alike, with ignorant motherhood, set to the most difficult, +responsible, and expert of tasks—the right nurture of babyhood; +babyhood, a ridiculous subject for grown men, yet somehow the condition +of them and all their doings.</p> + +<p>In this state of affairs, those who began the modern campaign against +infant mortality, or rather that small section of them who were not to +be beguiled by secondaries, such as poverty, alcoholism, and the like, +set to work to remedy maternal ignorance. Having been engaged in this +campaign for many years, one is not likely to decry it now, nor is there +any occasion to do so. The movement for the instruction of motherhood +and for the instruction even of girls in the duties of actual +motherhood, is now not only started but making real progress, and will +assuredly prosper.</p> + +<p>But here our business is to think a little in front of action done and +doing, and we shall very soon discover that there is more for public +opinion yet to learn, while we may be very certain that this last lesson +will be less easily learnt than the former was, for it is based upon +evidence much less obvious. I have long maintained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span> that the movement +against infant mortality must precede in logic and in practice movements +for the physical training of boys and girls, for the medical inspection +and treatment of school children, and so forth. Relatively to these I +have always asserted that the right care of babies has the immense +superiority that it means beginning at the beginning, but I have always +denied that it means beginning at the absolute beginning, if such a +phrase be permitted.</p> + +<p>Given the world as it is, the conditions of marriage as they are, the +economic position of woman, the power of prudery, and the conventional +supposition that babies occur by providential dispensation, we must act +as if we really made the assumption that human parenthood, until the +moment of birth, is as irresponsible as any sequence of events in the +atmosphere or the world of electrons. But we who are thinking in front +for humanity must make no such assumption. We must look forward to and +hasten the time when we can act upon the <i>true</i> assumption, which is +that the more the knowledge the greater the responsibility, and more +especially that our knowledge of heredity, so far from abolishing human +responsibility—as the enemies of knowledge declare—immeasurably +extends and deepens it. In the present volume we are proceeding upon the +true assumption, and therefore in the study of womanhood we must now +proceed, in defiance of conventional assumptions, to study the +responsibility and duties of motherhood <i>as they exist for maidenhood</i>. +To this end, it will be necessary that we remind ourselves of certain +great biological facts which are of immense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span> significance for mankind, +and are doubtless indeed more important in their bearing upon ourselves +than upon any other living species.</p> + +<p>The first of these is the fact of heredity; the second the fact that +hereditary endowment, whether for good or for evil, or, as is the rule, +both for good and for evil, goes vastly further than any one has until +lately realized, in determining individual destiny. These are amongst +the first principles of Eugenics or race culture, and as they have been +discussed at length elsewhere, one may here take them for granted. +Scarcely less important is the fact that the conditions of mating in the +sub-human world—conditions which beyond dispute make for the +continuance, the vigour, the efficiency, and therefore the happiness of +the species—are largely modified amongst ourselves in consequence of +certain human facts which have no sub-human parallel. The parallels and +the divergences between the two cases are both alike of the utmost +significance, and cannot be too carefully studied. It will here be +possible, of course, merely to look at them as briefly as is compatible +with the making of a right approach to the subject now before us, which +is the girl's choice of a husband.</p> + +<p>But in right priority to the question of choice, we may for convenience +discuss first the marriage age. The choice at one age may not be the +choice at another, and in any case the question of the marriage age is +so important for the individual woman, and so immensely effective in +determining the composition of any society, that we cannot study it too +carefully.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span> +<h2>XIV</h2><h3>THE MARRIAGE AGE FOR GIRLS</h3> +</div> + +<p>Let us clearly understand, in the first place, that in this chapter we +discuss principles and averages, and that, supposing our conclusions be +accepted as true, they cannot for a moment be quoted as decisive in +their bearing upon special cases. The impartial reader will not suppose +that such folly is contemplated, but those who discuss and advocate new +views very soon learn that many readers are not impartial, and that for +one cause or another they do not fail of misrepresentation. This is not +a case, then, of "science laying down the law," and ordering this +individual to marry at this age, and that not to marry at another; and +yet though this rigorous individual application of our principles is +absurd, they are none the less worth formulating, if it be possible.</p> + +<p>The question before us is very far from simple: it is not in the nature +of human problems to be simple, the individual and society being so +immeasurably complex. We have to consider far more points than occur on +first inspection. We have to ascertain when the average woman becomes +fit for marriage. But we must remember that we are dealing with marriage +under the conditions imposed by law and public opinion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span> Therefore, fit +for mating and fit for marriage are not synonymous, and to ascertain the +age of physiological fitness for mating, though an important +contribution to our problem, is not the solution of it. We have further +to consider how the taste and inclination of the individual vary in the +course of her development. We have to ask ourselves at what age in +general she is likely to make that choice which her maturity and middle +age will ratify rather than for ever regret. We have to consider the +relations of different ages to motherhood, both as regards the quality +of the children born, and as regards their probable number under natural +conditions. These are questions which certainly affect the individual's +happiness profoundly, and yet that is the least of their significance. +Again, we have to observe how the constitution of society varies as +regards the age of its members, according as marriage be early or late. +In the former case more generations are alive at the same time, and in +the latter case fewer. The increasing age at marriage would have more +conspicuous results in this respect if it were not for the great +increase in longevity; so that, though the generations are becoming more +spread out, we may have as many representatives of different generations +alive at the same time as there used to be; but of course there is the +great difference that society is older as a whole. This is a fact which +in itself must affect the doings and the prospects of civilization. An +assemblage of people in the twenties will not behave in the same way as +those in the forties. The probable effect must be towards conservatism, +and increasing rigidity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> It is a question to be asked by the historian +of civilization how far these considerations bear upon the history of +past empires.</p> + +<p>Another and most notable result of the modified relation between the +generations which ensues from increasing the age at marriage, is that +the parents, under the newer conditions, must necessarily be, on the +average, psychologically further from their children. The man who first +becomes a father at twenty-five, shall we say, may well expect still to +have something of the boy in him at thirty, especially as children keep +us young. He is thus a companion for his child and his child for him. +The same is true of women. It is good that a woman who still has +something of girlhood in her should become a mother. When the marriage +age is much delayed, people of both sexes tend to grow old more quickly +than if they had children to keep them young, and then when the children +come the psychological disparity is greater than it ought to be—greater +than is best either for parents or children.</p> + +<p>Before we consider the question of individual development, let us note +the general trend of the marriage age. There is no doubt that this is +progressively towards a delay in marriage. We have only to study the +facts amongst primitive races, and in low forms of civilization, to see +that increase in civilization involves, amongst other things, increasing +age at marriage. In his book, "The Nature of Man," Professor Metchnikoff +quotes some statistics, now very nearly fifty years old, showing the age +at first marriage in various European countries. The figure for England<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span> +was nearly 26 for males and 24.6 for females; in France, Norway, +Holland, and Belgium the figures for both sexes were considerably +higher, the average age in Belgium being very nearly 30 for men and more +than 28 for women. In England the age has been rising for many years +past, and probably stands now at about 28 for men and 26 for women. It +need hardly be pointed out that this increase in the age of marriage is +one of the factors in the fall of the birth-rate, which is general +throughout the leading countries of the world, proceeding now with great +rapidity even in Germany.</p> + +<p>On the whole, it is further true that the marriage age rises as we +ascend from lower to higher classes within a given civilization, though +a very select class among the wealthy offer an exception to this.</p> + +<p>Now nothing is more familiar to us all than that there is a disharmony, +as Professor Metchnikoff puts it, between these ages for marriage and +the age at which the development of the racial instinct is unmistakable +and parenthood is indeed possible. The tendency of civilization is to +increase this disharmony, and it is impossible to believe that this +tendency can be healthy either for the civilization or for the +individual.</p> + +<p>Still concerning ourselves with the more general aspects of the +question, let it be observed that, as regards men, this unnatural delay +of marriage very frequently brings consequences which, bearing hardly on +themselves, later bear not less hardly on hapless womanhood. The later +the age to which marriage is delayed, the more are men handicapped in +their constant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span> struggle to control the racial instinct under the +unnatural conditions in which they find themselves. The great majority +of men fail in this unequal fight, and of those who fail an enormous +number become infected by disease, with which, when they marry, they +infect their wives, sometimes killing them, often causing them lifelong +illness, often destroying for ever their chances of motherhood, or +making motherhood a horror by the production of children that are an +offence against the sun. These are facts known to all who have looked +into the matter, but there is no such thing as decent public opinion on +the subject, and the author or speaker who dares to allude to them takes +his means of living, if not his life, into his hands.</p> + +<p>No doubt men are largely responsible themselves for the rising marriage +age, but women are also responsible in some measure. This must mean on +the whole an injury to themselves as individuals, to their sex, and to +society. Both sexes demand a higher standard of living; the man spends +enough in alcohol and tobacco, as a rule, to support one or two +children, and then says he is too poor to marry. There is everything to +be said for the doctrine that people should be provident, and should +bring no more children into the world than they are able to support; but +before we accept this plea in any particular case, we should first +inquire how the available income is being spent. At present, every +indication goes to show that we are following in the track of all our +predecessors, spending upon individual indulgence that which ought to be +dedicated to the future, and thereby<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span> compromising the worth or the +possibility of any future at all.</p> + +<p>In the light of these considerations and many more, some of which we +shall later consider, I deplore and protest against with all my heart, +as blind, ignorant, and destructive, the counsel of those women, some of +them conspicuous advocates of the cause of woman's suffrage—in which I +nevertheless believe—who advise women to delay in marriage, or who +publish opinions throwing contempt upon marriage altogether. Later, we +must deal in detail with marriage; here we are only concerned with the +marriage age. It will then be argued that the conditions of marriage +must sooner or later be modified in so far as they are at present +inacceptable to a certain number of women of the highest type. This may +be granted without in any degree accepting the deplorable teaching of +such writers as Miss Cicely Hamilton, in her book entitled "Marriage as +a Trade." Every individual case requires individual consideration, and +no less than any individual case ever yet received. But in general those +women who counsel the delay of the marriage age are opposing the facts +of feminine development and psychology. They are indirectly encouraging +male immorality and female prostitution, with their appalling +consequences for those directly concerned, for hosts of absolutely +innocent women, and for the unborn. Further, those who suppose that the +granting of the vote is going to effect radical and fundamental changes +in the facts of biology, the development of instinct, and its +significance in human action, are fools of the very blindest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span> kind. Some +of us find that it needs constant self-chastening and bracing up of the +judgment to retain our belief in the cause of woman's suffrage, of the +justice and desirability of which we are convinced, assaulted as we +almost daily are by the unnatural, unfeminine, almost inhuman blindness +of many of its advocates.</p> + +<p>We have constantly to remind ourselves that our immediate concern and +duty are not with the world as it might be, or ought to be, or will be, +but with the world as it is. There are many good arguments, admirably +adapted to an imaginary world, why the marriage age should be increased. +But these forget the possible, nay the inevitable, consequences, if such +an increase show itself in one nation and not in another, in one class +of society and not in another. It is a good thing, and it is the ideal +of the eugenist, as I ventured to formulate some years ago, that every +child who comes into the world should be desired, designed, and loved in +anticipation. But if in France, shall we say, such a tendency begins to +obtain a generation earlier than it does in Germany, there will come to +be a disparity of population which, continuing, must inevitably mean +sooner or later the disappearance of France.</p> + +<p>Or again, difference in the marriage age in different classes within a +given community has very notable consequences, as Sir Francis Galton +showed in his book, "Hereditary Genius," and later, in more detail, in +his "Inquiries into Human Faculty." He shows that, other things being +equal, the earlier marrying class or group will in a few generations +breed down the others and completely supplant them. If the natural +quality<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span> of the one class differ from that of the other, the ultimate +consequences will be tremendous. It has been proved up to the hilt that +in Great Britain these differences in marriage in different classes +exist, and that, on the whole, the marriage age varies directly as the +means of support for the children, to say nothing of natural and +transmissible differences in different classes. One can only, therefore, +repeat what was said some time ago in contribution to a public +discussion on this subject that, "considering the present distribution +of the birth-rate, nothing strikes a more direct blow at the future of +England than that which tends to increase the marriage age of the +responsible, careful, and provident amongst us whilst the improvident +and careless multiply as they do."</p> + +<p>Let us now consider another possible factor in this question, and then +we must proceed to look at the individual woman as the question of the +marriage age affects her.</p> + +<p><i>The Marriage Age and the Quality of the Children.</i>—Both from the point +of view of the race and from that of the individual who desires happy +parenthood it is necessary to learn, if possible, how the age of the +parents affects the quality of their offspring. If motherhood is to be a +joy and a blessing, the children must be such as bring joy and blessing. +My provisional judgment on this matter is that we are at present without +anything like conclusive evidence proving that the age of the parents +affects the quality of their children.</p> + +<p>Let us look at some of the arguments which have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span> been advanced. The +school of biometricians, represented most conspicuously in latter years +by Professor Karl Pearson, have desired us to accept certain conclusions +which are singularly incompatible with the opinion of their illustrious +founder, Sir Francis Galton, in favour of early marriages among those of +sound stock. By their special procedure, as rigorously critical in the +statistical treatment of <i>data</i> as it is sweetly simple in its innocent +assumption that all <i>data</i> are of equal value, they have proposed to +show that the elder members of a family are further removed from the +normal, average, or mean type than the younger members. This, according +to them, may sometimes work out in the production of great ability or +genius in the eldest or elder members, but oftener still shows itself in +highly undesirable characters, whether of mind or of body, the latter +often leading to premature decease. There is hence inferred a powerful +argument against the limitation of families, which means a +disproportionate increase amongst the aberrant members of the +population.</p> + +<p>This argument really offers as good an example as can be desired of the +almost unimaginable ease with which these skilful mathematicians allow +themselves to be confused. Their inquiry has ignored the age of the +parents at marriage—or, better still, at the births of their respective +children—and has assumed that the number of the family was the +all-important point: a good example of that idolatry of number as number +which is the "freak religion" of the biometrician. Supposing that the +conclusion reached by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span> this method be a true one—which it would need +more credulity than I possess to assert—we must conclude that, somehow, +primogeniture, as such, affects the quality of the offspring, and, on +the other hand, that to be born fifth or tenth or fifteenth involves +certain personal consequences of a special kind. Evidently we here +approach less sophisticated forms of number-worship, as that which +attached a superstitious meaning to the seventh son of a seventh son.</p> + +<p>It seems, therefore, necessary to point out—surprising though the +necessity be—that, if the biometrical conclusion be valid, what it +demonstrates must surely be not the occult working of certain changes in +the germ-plasm, for instance, of a father, because a certain number of +his germ-cells, after separation from his body, have gone to form new +individuals (changes which would not have occurred if those germ-cells +had perished!), but rather a correlation between the <i>age</i> of the +parents and the quality of their offspring. How cleverly the +biometricians have involved one muddle within another will be evident +not only from considering the evident absurdity of supposing—as their +argument, analyzed, necessarily supposes—that a man's body can be +affected by the diverse fates of germ-cells that have left it, but also +when we observe that one of the commonest and most obvious causes of the +reduction in the size of families is the increasing age at marriage of +both sexes. Two persons may thus marry and become parents at the age of +say thirty, their child ranking as first-born, of course, in the +biometricians' tables; but had they married ten years sooner, a child<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span> +born when the parents were thirty might rank as the tenth child, and +would be so reckoned by the biometricians. One does not need to be a +biologist to perceive that conclusions based upon assumptions so +uncritical are worth nothing at all, and it is tempting to suggest that +the biometricians are so called, on a principle long famous, because +they measure everything but life.</p> + +<p>It is plainly unnecessary, therefore, for us to trouble about collecting +the innumerable instances where children late in the family sequence +have turned out to be illustrious, or have proved to be idiots. It is +unnecessary because the most obvious criticism of the contention before +us disposes of the proof upon which it is sought to be based. +Nevertheless, of course, though the particular contention about the size +of the family must necessarily be meaningless, unless, as is so very +improbable, it should be shown some day that the bearing of children +affects the maternal organism in some way so as to cause subsequent +children to approximate ever nearer to the type of the race; yet it is +quite conceivable, though quite unproved, that the age of the parents +involves changes in the body which affect, for good or for evil, either +the construction or the general vigour of the germ-cells. As to this +nothing is known, but a great weight of evidence suggests that little +importance, if any, can be attached to this question. Women marrying at +forty or more may give birth to splendid specimens of humanity or to +indifferent ones, and the same may be said of the girl of seventeen, +though as to this more must be said. Similarly, also, it is impossible +to make any general contrasts between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span> the offspring of fathers of +eighteen or fathers of eighty. Correlations may exist, but we know +nothing of them yet.</p> + +<p>Our conclusion then is that, with regard to the quality of the children +of any given mother, we cannot say that she should marry at any +particular age, within limits, rather than another. On the other hand, +it is evident that if she be highly worthy of motherhood we shall desire +her to have a large family, and therefore must encourage her early +marriage, as the late Sir Francis Galton so long maintained.</p> + +<p><i>Physical Fitness for Marriage.</i>—We must carefully distinguish between +the question we have just been discussing and that of the marriage age +from the mother's point of view. We shall find that the best age for +marriage, so far as this question is concerned, is neither puberty, on +the one hand, nor the average marriage age amongst civilized women, on +the other hand.</p> + +<p>If things were as we should like them to be, there would be a harmony +between the occurrence of puberty and fitness for marriage. But there +can be no question that the goal of evolution, which is perfect +adaptation, has not yet been attained by mankind, and indeed reason can +be given to show that the goal recedes as we advance towards it. The +practice of lower races, amongst whom the girls often marry at puberty +or before it, is much less injurious to the individual and the race than +we might suppose; but the harmony between the maternal body and the +maternal function is much less imperfect in lower races of mankind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span> than +it is among ourselves. Just as we find that, among the lower animals, +the phenomena of motherhood are simple, easy, and almost painless, so we +find that, though owing to the erect attitude, as much cannot be said +for human beings anywhere, yet these phenomena are far less severe among +the lower races of mankind than among ourselves. The reason is to be +found in the astonishing progressive increase in the size of the human +head in the higher races. The large size of the head in adult life is +foreshadowed in its size at birth, and this it is which constitutes the +<i>crux</i> of motherhood among the higher races. It is undoubtedly true that +the maternal body, by a process of natural selection, has been evolved +in the direction of better correspondence with, and capacity for, that +enlarged head of which civilization is the product. But at the present +stage in evolution the great function of giving birth to a human being +of high race—more especially to a boy of such a race—is graver, more +prolonged, and more hazardous than the maternal function has ever been +before. The gravity of the process has increased proportionately with +the worth of the product.</p> + +<p>There are yet further consequences of the development which will +convince us how important it is that we should come to right conclusions +regarding the physical fitness of girls for marriage. Even to-day, when +the work of Lord Lister has been done, and when maternity hospitals—far +more dangerous than a battlefield less than two generations ago—can +show records from year to year without the loss of a single mother,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span> the +fact remains that several thousands of women in Great Britain alone lose +their lives every year in the discharge of their supreme duty. It is +also the case that large numbers of infants lose their lives during, or +shortly after, birth, owing to causes inherent in the conditions of +birth, and practically beyond any but the most expert control. In many +cases no skill will save the child. A considerable preponderance of the +victims are of the male sex, so that there is thus early begun that +process of higher male mortality, which is the chief cause of the female +preponderance that is so injurious to womanhood and to society. There +are thus many and weighty reasons, individual and social—reasons in the +present generation and in the next—which conduce to the importance of +discovering the best age for marriage from the physical point of view.</p> + +<p>We may probably accept the long-standing figures of Dr. Matthews Duncan, +one of Edinburgh's many famous obstetricians, who found that the +mortality rate in childbirth, or as a consequence of it, was lowest +among women from twenty to twenty-four years of age. Therefore it may +safely be said that, on the average, and looking at the question, for +the present, solely from this point of view, a girl of twenty-one to +twenty-two is by no means too young to marry. Of course it would be +monstrously absurd to take such a statement as this and regard it as +conclusive, even had it been communicated from on high, for any +particular case; but as an average statement it may be confidently put +forward. At this age, the all-important bones of the pelvis have reached +all the development of which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span> they are capable. This may be accepted, +notwithstanding the fact that, especially in men, the growth of the long +bones of the limbs continues to a considerably later age. Women reach +maturity sooner than men, and the pelvis reaches its full capacity at +the age stated. Obstetricians know further that if motherhood be begun +at a considerably later date, there is less local adaptability than when +the bones and ligaments are younger. The point lies in the date of the +beginning of motherhood, for this is in general a conspicuous instance +of the adage that the first step is the most costly.<a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p><i>Psychical Fitness for Marriage.</i>—At the beginning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span> of this chapter it +was insisted that we must carefully distinguish between physical or +physiological fitness for mating and complete fitness for +marriage—which, though it includes mating, is vastly more. Few will +question the proposition that physical fitness for marriage is reached +only some years after puberty; so complete psychical fitness for +marriage may well be later still. We should thus have a second +disharmony superposed upon the first. But, instead, when we look round +us, we may often be inclined to ask whether, for many girls and women, +the age of psychical fitness for marriage is ever reached at all; and we +have to ask ourselves how far this delay or indefinite postponement of +such fitness is due to natural conditions, or how far it is due to the +fact that we bring up our girls to be, for instance, sideboard +ornaments, as Ruskin said a generation ago.</p> + +<p>I believe that this disparity between the age of physical fitness for +marriage and the attainment of that outlook upon life and its duties, +without which marriage must be so perilous, is one of the most important +practical problems of our time, and that its solution is to be found in +the principle of education for parenthood, which we have already +considered at such length. It is a most serious matter that marriage +should be delayed as it is beyond the best age for the commencement of +motherhood; it is injurious to the individual and her motherhood, and +whether delay occurs, as it does, disproportionately in different cases, +or disproportionately within a nation, in the different classes of which +it is composed, the consequences, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span> we have seen, are of the most +stupendous possible kind.</p> + +<p>Yet observe what a difficulty we are faced with. Perceiving the +injurious consequences of delay in marriage—consequences which, as we +have seen, if considered only as they show themselves in the most +horrible department of pathology, would be sufficient to demand the most +urgent consideration—we may almost feel inclined to agree with the +utterly blind and deplorable doctrine too common amongst parents and +schoolmistresses, who should know so much better, that it is good to see +the young things falling in love, and that the sooner they are married +the better. Every one whose eyes are open knows how often the +consequences of such teaching and practice are disastrous; and if there +is anything which we should discourage in our present study, it is that +marriage in haste and repentance at leisure to which these blind guides +so often lead their blind victims.</p> + +<p>Very different, however, will the case be when the victims are no longer +blind. The condemnation of their blind guides at the present time is not +that they regard it as right and healthy that young people should mate +in their early twenties, but it is that by every means in their power, +positive and negative, these blind guides have striven to prevent the +light from reaching their victim's eyes. The day is coming, however, +when the principles of education for parenthood—for which, if for +anything, this book is a plea—will be accepted and practised, and then +the case will be very different.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span></p> + +<p>Convinced though I certainly am of the vast importance of nature or +heredity in the human constitution, I am not one of those eugenists who, +to the grave injury of their cause, declare that there are no such +things as nurture and education, in that they effect nothing; nor do I +believe it in any way inherently necessary that perhaps ten years after +puberty a girl should still be irresponsible in those matters which, +incomparably beyond all others, demand responsibility; or incapable, +with wise help or even without it, of guiding her course aright. It is +we, as I repeat for the thousandth time, who are to blame, for our +deliberate, systematic, and disastrous folly in scrupulously excluding +from her education that for which the whole of education, of any other +kind, should be regarded as the preparation.</p> + +<p>No one can attach more than its due importance to woman's function of +choosing the fathers of the future; rejecting the unworthy and selecting +the worthy for this greatest of human duties. It would be a most serious +difficulty for those who hold such a creed if it were that a girl's +taste and judgment could be trusted, if at all, only some years after +she had reached physical maturity for motherhood. It may be that in the +present conditions of girls' education, such right direction of this +choice as occurs, is just as likely to occur at the earlier age as at +any later one, when indeed it may happen that considerations more +worldly and prudential, less generally natural and eugenic, may come to +have greater weight. One can, therefore, only leave it to the reader's +consideration whether it is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span> high time that we should so seek to +prepare the girl's mind, that when her body Is ready for marriage her +mind may, if possible, be ready also to guide her towards a worthy +choice which the whole of her future life may ratify, and the life of +her descendants thereafter.</p> + +<p>It must be insisted again that this question has many ramifications, and +that not the least important of them are those which concern themselves +with the kinds of disease already referred to. Some enemy of God and man +once invented a phrase about the desirability of young men sowing their +wild oats, and subsequent enemies of life and the good and progress, or +perhaps mere fools, animated gramophones of a cheap pattern, have +repeated and still propagate that doctrine. It is poisonous to its core; +it never did any one any good, and has done incalculable harm. It has +blinded the eyes of hundreds of thousands of babies; it has brought +hundreds of thousands more rotten into the world. Hosts of dead men, +women, and children are its victims. It is indeed good that a man should +be a man, and not a worm on stilts; it is indeed good that women should +prefer men to be men, and that as soon as possible they should cease to +accept in marriage the feeble, the cowardly, the echoers, and the sheep. +But this is a very different thing from asserting that it is good for +young men, before marriage, to adopt a standard of morality which would +be thought shameful beyond words in their sisters, and which has all the +horrible consequences that have been alluded to, and many more. Now, +vicious though the wild oats doctrine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span> be in itself and in its +consequences, we have to grant that there is little need of it, for +young manhood needs the insertion of no doctrines from without to +encourage it towards the satisfaction of what are in themselves natural +and healthy tendencies. Our right procedure therefore should +be—notwithstanding the unhealthy tendency of high civilization in this +respect, and notwithstanding the terrible folly, traitorous to their +sex, of those women who decry marriage, and seek to delay it—to prepare +girlhood and public opinion, and even to modify, so far as may be +necessary, economic conditions, in order that the girls who are worthy +to marry at all shall do so at the right age, and shall join themselves +for life with rightly chosen men.</p> + +<p>One more point may be conveniently considered here, though it is not +strictly a matter of the marriage age for girls. The point is as to the +most generally desirable age relation between husband and wife. Here, +again, we must remind ourselves that it is impossible to lay down the +law for any case, and that that is not what we are now attempting to do.</p> + +<p>As every one knows, there is an average disparity of some few years in +the ages of husband and wife. This may be referred probably to economic +conditions in part, and also to the fact that girlhood becomes womanhood +at a somewhat earlier age than boyhood becomes manhood. The girl is more +precocious. Thus though she be twenty and her husband twenty-three, she +is as mature.</p> + +<p>It is probable that the economic tendencies of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span> day are in the +direction of increasing this disparity, since more is demanded of the +man in the material sense, and he therefore must delay. Some authorities +consider that seniority of six or eight years on the part of the husband +constitutes the desirable average. But there are considerations commonly +ignored that should qualify this opinion in my judgment.</p> + +<p>It is not that science has any information regarding the consequence +upon the sex or quality of offspring of any one age ratio in marriage +rather than another. On subjects like this wild statements are +incessantly being made, and we are often told that certain consequences +in offspring follow when the husband is older than the wife, and others +when he is younger, and so forth. As to this, nothing is known, and it +is improbable that there is anything to know. But it has usually been +forgotten, so far as I am aware, that the disparity of age has a very +marked and real consequence, which is, in its turn, the cause of many +more consequences.</p> + +<p>We have seen that the male death-rate is higher than the female +death-rate. At all ages, whether before birth or after it, the male +expectation of life is less than the female. This is more conspicuously +true than ever now that the work of Lord Lister, based upon that of +Pasteur, has so enormously lowered the mortality in childbirth. Even +now that mortality is falling, and will rapidly fall for some time to +come, still further increasing the female advantage in expectation of +life; the more especially this applies to married women. If now, this +being the natural fact, we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span> have most husbands older than their wives, +it follows that in a great preponderance of cases the husband will die +first; and so we have produced the phenomenon of widowhood. The greater +the seniority of the husband, the more widowhood will there be in a +society. Every economic tendency, every demand for a higher standard of +life, every aggravation for the struggle for existence, every increment +of the burden of the defective-minded, tending to increase the man's age +at marriage, which, on the whole, involves also increasing his +seniority—contributes to the amount of widowhood in a nation.</p> + +<p>We therefore see that, as might have been expected, this question of the +age ratio in marriage, though first to be considered from the average +point of view of the girl, has a far wider social significance. First, +for herself, the greater her husband's seniority, the greater are her +chances of widowhood, which is in any case the destiny of an enormous +preponderance of married women. But further, the existence of widowhood +is a fact of great social importance because it so often means unaided +motherhood, and because, even when it does not, the abominable economic +position of woman in modern society bears hardly upon her. It is not +necessary to pursue this subject further at the present time. But it is +well to insist that this seniority of the husband has remoter +consequences far too important to be so commonly overlooked.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2><h3>THE FIRST NECESSITY</h3> +</div> + +<p>At this stage in our discussion it is necessary to consider a subject +which ought rightly to come foremost in the provident study of the facts +that precede marriage—a subject which craven fear and ignorance combine +to keep out of sight, yet which must now see the light of day. For the +writer would be false to his task, and guilty of a mere amateur trifling +with the subject, who should spend page after page in discussing the +choice of marriage, the best age for marriage, and so forth, without +declaring that as an absolutely essential preliminary it is necessary +that the girl who mates shall at least, whatever else be or be not +possible, mate with a man who is free from gross and foul disease.</p> + +<p>The two forms of disease to which we must refer are appalling in their +consequences, both for the individual and the future. In technical +language they are called contagious; meaning that the infection is +conveyed not through the air as, say, in the case of measles or +small-pox, but by means of contact with some infected surface—it may be +a lip in the act of kissing, a cup in drinking, a towel in washing, and +so forth. Of both these terrible diseases this is true.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span> They therefore +rank, like leprosy, as amongst the most eminently preventable diseases. +Leprosy has in consequence been completely exterminated in England, but +though venereal disease—the name of the two contagions considered +together—diminishes, it is still abundant everywhere and in all classes +of society. Here regarding it only from the point of view of the girl +who is about to mate, I declare with all the force of which I am capable +that, many and daily as are the abominations for which posterity will +hold us up to execration, there is none more abominable in its immediate +and remote consequences, none less capable of apology than the daily +destruction of healthy and happy womanhood, whether in marriage or +outside it, by means of these diseases. At all times this is horrible, +and it is more especially horrible when the helpless victim is destroyed +with the blessing of the Church and the State, parents and friends; +everyone of whom should ever after go in sackcloth and ashes for being +privy to such a deed.</p> + +<p>The present writer, for one, being a private individual, the servant of +the public, and responsible to no body smaller than the public, has long +declined and will continue to decline to join the hateful conspiracy of +silence, in virtue of which these daily horrors lie at the door of the +most honoured and respected individuals and professions in the +community. More especially at the doors of the Church and the medical +profession there lies the burden of shame that, as great organized +bodies having vast power, they should concern themselves, as they daily +do, with their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span> own interests and honour, without realizing that where +things like these are permitted by their silence, their honour is +smirched beyond repair in whatever Eyes there be that regard.</p> + +<p>I propose therefore to say in this chapter that which at the least +cannot but have the effect of saving at any rate a few girls somewhere +throughout the English-speaking world from one or other or both of these +diseases, and their consequences. Let those only who have ever saved a +single human being from either syphilis or gonorrhœa dare to utter a +word against the plain speaking which may save one woman now.</p> + +<p>The task may be much lightened by referring the reader to a play by the +bravest and wisest of modern dramatists, M. Brieux, more especially +because the reader of "Les Avariés" will be enabled to see the sequence +of causation in its entirety. When first our attention is called to +these evils, we are apt to blame the individuals concerned. The parents +of youths, finding their sons infected, will blame neither their guilty +selves nor their sons, but those who tempted them. It is constantly +forgotten that the unfortunate woman who infected the boy was herself +first infected by a man. Either she was betrayed by an individual +blackguard, or our appalling carelessness regarding girlhood, and the +economic conditions which, for the glory of God and man, simultaneously +maintain Park Lane and prostitution, forced her into the circumstances +which brought infection. But she was once as harmless and innocent as +the girl child of any reader<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span> of this book; and it was man who first +destroyed her and made her the instrument of further destruction.</p> + +<p>Ask how this came to be so, and the answer is that he in his turn was +infected by some woman.</p> + +<p>It is time, then, that we ceased to blame youth of either sex, and laid +the onus where it lies—upon the shoulders of older people, and more +especially upon those who by education and profession, or by the +functions they have undertaken, such as parenthood, ought to know the +facts and ought to act upon their knowledge. It is necessary to proceed, +therefore: though perfectly aware that in many ways this chapter will +have to be paid for by the writer: that he has yet to meet the eye of +his publisher; that there will be abundance of abuse from those "whose +sails were never to the tempest given": but aware also that in time to +come those few who dared speak and take their chance in this matter, +whether remembered or not, will have been the pioneers in reforming an +abuse which daily makes daylight hideous. He who does betray the future +for fear of the present should tread timidly upon his Mother Earth lest +he awake her to gape and bury her treacherous son.</p> + +<p>Something is known by the general public of the individual consequences +of syphilis. It is known by many, also, that there is such a thing as +hereditary syphilis—babies being born alive but rotted through for +life. Further, it is not at all generally known, though the fact is +established, that of the comparatively few survivors to adult life from +amongst such babies, some may transmit the disease even to the third<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span> +generation. There is a school of so-called moralists who regard all this +as the legitimate and providential punishment for vice, even though ten +innocent be destroyed for one guilty. Such moralists, more loathsome +than syphilis itself, may be left in the gathering gloom to the company +of their ghastly creed. Love and man and woman are going forward to the +dawn, and if they inherit from the past no God that is fit to be their +companion, they and the Divine within them will not lose heart.</p> + +<p>The public knowledge of syphilis, though far short of the truth, is not +merely so inadequate as that of gonorrhœa.</p> + +<p>"No worse than a bad cold" is the kind of lie with which youth is +fooled. The disease may sometimes be little worse than a bad cold in +men, though very often it is far more serious; it may kill, may cause +lasting damage to the coverings of the heart and to the joints, and +often may prevent all possibility of future fatherhood.</p> + +<p>These evils sink almost into insignificance when compared with the far +graver consequences of gonorrhœa in woman. Our knowledge of this +subject is comparatively recent, being necessarily based upon the +discovery of the microbe that causes the disease. Now that it can be +identified, we learn that a vast proportion of the illnesses and +disorders peculiar to women have this cause, and it constantly leads to +the operations, now daily carried out in all parts of the world, which +involve opening the body, and all that that may entail. Curable in its +early stages in men, gonorrhœa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span> is scarcely curable in women except +by means of a grave abdominal operation, involving much risk to life and +only to be undertaken after much suffering has failed to be met by less +drastic means. The various consequences of gonorrhœa in other parts +of the body may and do occur in women as in men. Perhaps the most +characteristic consequence of the disease in both sexes is sterility; +this being much more conspicuously the case in women, and being the more +cruel in their case.</p> + +<p>Of course large numbers of women are infected with these diseases before +marriage and apart from it, but one or both of them constitute the most +important of the bridegroom's wedding presents, in countless cases every +year, all over the world. The unfortunate bride falls ill after +marriage; she may be speedily cured; very often she is ill for life, +though major surgery may relieve her; and in a large number of cases she +goes forever without children. One need scarcely refer to the remoter +consequences of syphilis to the nervous system, including such diseases +as locomotor ataxia, and general paralysis of the insane; the latter of +which is known to be increasing amongst women. Even in these few words, +which convey to the layman no idea whatever of the pains and horrors, +the shocking erosion of beauty, the deformities, the insanities, +incurable blindness of infants, and so forth, that follow these +diseases, enough will yet have been said to indicate the importance of +what is to follow. Medical works abound in every civilized language +which, especially as illustrated either by large masses of figures or by +photographs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span> of cases, will far more than justify to the reader +everything that has been said.</p> + +<p>And now for the whole point of this chapter. We are not here concerned +to deal with prostitution or its possible control. We are dealing with +girlhood before marriage and in relation to marriage, and the plea is +Goethe's—for <i>more light</i>. There is no need to horrify or scandalize or +disgust young womanhood, but it is perfectly possible in the right way +and at the right time to give instruction as to certain facts, and +whilst quite admitting that there are hosts of other things which we +must desire to teach, I maintain that this also must we do and not leave +the others undone. It is untrue that it is necessary to excite morbid +curiosity, that there is the slightest occasion to give nauseous or +suggestive details, or that the most scrupulous reticence in handling +the matter is incompatible with complete efficiency. Such assertions +will certainly be made by those who have done nothing, never will do +anything, and desire that nothing shall be done; they are nothing, let +them be treated as nothing.</p> + +<p>It is supposed by some that instruction in these matters must be useless +because, in point of fact, imperious instincts will have their way. It +is nonsense. Here, as in so many other cases, the words of Burke are +true—Fear is the mother of safety. It is always the tempter's business +to suggest to his victim that there is no danger. Often and often, if +convinced there is danger, and danger of another kind than any he refers +to, she will be saved. This may be less true of young men. In them the +racial instinct is stronger, and perhaps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span> a smaller number will be +protected by fear, but no one can seriously doubt that the fear born of +knowledge would certainly protect many young women.</p> + +<p>There is also the possible criticism, made by a school of moralists for +whom I have nothing but contempt so entire that I will not attempt to +disguise it, who maintain that these are unworthy motives to which to +appeal, and that the good act or the refraining from an evil one, +effected by means of fear, is of no value to God. In the same breath, +however, these moralists will preach the doctrine of hell. We reply that +we merely substitute for their doctrine of hell—which used to be +somewhere under the earth, but is now who knows where—the doctrine of a +hell upon the earth, which we wish youth of both sexes to fear; and that +if the life of this world, both present and to come, be thereby served, +we bow the knee to no deity whom that service does not please.</p> + +<p>How then should we proceed?</p> + +<p>It seems to me that instruction in this matter may well be delayed until +the danger is near at hand. This is not really education for parenthood +in the more general sense. That, on the principles of this book, can +scarcely begin too soon; it is, further, something vastly more than mere +instruction, though instruction is one of its instruments. But here what +we require is simply definite instruction to a definite end and in +relation to a definite danger. At some stage or other, before emerging +into danger, youth of both sexes must learn the elements of the +physiology of sex, and must be made acquainted with the existence and +the possible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span> results of venereal disease. A father or a teacher may +very likely find it almost impossible to speak to a boy; even though he +has screwed his courage up almost to the sticking place, the boy's +bright and innocent eyes disarm him. Unfortunately boys are often less +innocent than they look. There exists far more information among youth +of both sexes than we suppose; only it is all coloured by pernicious and +dangerous elements, the fruit of our cowardice and neglect. Let us +confine ourselves to the case of the girl.</p> + +<p>Before a girl of the more fortunate classes goes out into society, she +must be protected in some way or another. If she be, for instance, +convent bred, or if she come from an ideal home, it may very well be and +often is that she needs no instruction whatever, because she is in fact +already made unapproachable by the tempter. Fortunate indeed is such a +girl. But those forming this well-guarded class are few, and parents and +guardians may often be deceived and assume more than they are entitled +to. At any rate, for the vast majority of girls some positive +instruction is necessary. It is the mother who must undertake this +responsible and difficult task before she admits the girl to the perils +of the world. Further, by some means or other, instruction must be +afforded for the ever-increasing army of girls who go out to business. +It is to me a never ceasing marvel that loving parents, devoted to their +daughters' welfare, should fail in this cardinal and critical point of +duty, so constantly as they do.</p> + +<p>Many employers of female labour nowadays show a genuine and effective +interest in the welfare of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span> employees. As one might expect, this +is notably the case with the Quaker manufacturers of chocolate and +cocoa. I have visited the works of one of these firms, and can testify +to the splendidly intelligent and scrupulous care which is taken of the +girls' general health, their eye-sight, their reading, and many aspects +of their moral welfare. Yet there still remains something to be done in +regard to protection from venereal disease, and surely the suggestion +that conscientious employers should have instruction given in these +matters is one which is well worthy of consideration.</p> + +<p>It is known by all observers—but it is a very meagre "all"—of the +realities of politics that in Great Britain, at any rate, there is an +increase of drinking amongst women and girls. This is doubtless in +considerable measure due to the increase of work in factories, and the +greater liberty enjoyed by adolescence—liberty too often to become +enslaved. This bears directly upon our present subject. In a very large +number of cases, the first lapse from self-restraint in young people of +both sexes occurs under the influence of alcohol, the most pre-eminent +character of whose action upon the nervous system is the paralysis of +inhibition or control. Not only is alcohol responsible in this way, but +also in any given case it renders infection more probable for more +reasons than one. This abominable thing—in itself the immediate cause +of many evils and, except as a fuel for lifeless machines and for +industrial purposes, of no good—is thus the direct ally of the venereal +diseases as of consumption and many more. We must return to this +important<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span> subject later: meanwhile let it be noted that the influence +of alcohol upon youth of both sexes greatly favours not only immorality +but also venereal disease. The girl, therefore, who would protect +herself directly will avoid this thing, and the girl who desires that +neither she nor her children shall be destroyed after marriage, will +exact from the man she chooses the highest possible standard of conduct +in this matter. A friendly critic has told me that my books would be all +very well, but that I have alcohol on the brain, and I am inclined to +reply, Better on the brain than in the brain. But a subject so serious +demands more serious treatment, and the due reply is that there is no +human prospect for which I care, no public advantage to be advocated, no +good I know, of which alcohol is not the enemy; no abomination, +physical, mental or moral, individual or social, of which it is not the +friend. Further, words like these will stand on record, and may be +remembered when there has been achieved that slow but irresistible +education of public opinion, to which some few have devoted themselves, +and of which the triumph is as certain as the triumph of all truth was +in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. To the many charges against +alcohol made by the champions of life in the past, let there be added +that on which all students of venereal diseases are agreed—that it is +the most potent ally of the most loathsome evils that afflict mankind.</p> + +<p>This chapter is not yet complete. In many cases it may be read not by +the girl who is contemplating marriage, but by one or both of her +parents. If the reader<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span> be such an one I here charge him or her with the +solemn responsibility which is theirs whether they realize it or not. +You desire your daughter's welfare; you wish her to be healthy and happy +in her married life; perhaps your heart rejoices at the thought of +grand-children; you concern yourself with your prospective son-in-law's +character, with his income and prospects; you wish him to be steady and +sober; you would rather that he came of a family not conspicuous for +morbid tendencies. All this is well and as it should be; yet there is +that to be considered which, whilst it is only negative, and should not +have to be considered at all, yet takes precedence of all these other +questions. If the man in question is tainted with either or both of +these diseases, he is to be <i>summarily rejected</i> at any rate until +responsible and, one may suggest, at least duplicated medical opinion +has pronounced him cured. Microscopic examination of the blood or +otherwise can now pronounce on this matter with much more definiteness +than used to be possible. But even so, there are possibilities of error, +for experts are more and more coming to recognize the existence and the +importance of latent gonorrhœa, devoid of characteristic symptoms but +yet liable to wake in the individual and always dangerous from the point +of view of infection. No combination of advantages is worth the dust in +the balance when weighed against either of these diseases in a +prospective son-in-law: infection is not a matter of chance but of +certainty or little short of it. Everything may seem fair and full of +promise, yet there may be that in the case which will wreck all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span> in the +present; not to mention destroying the chance of motherhood or bringing +rotten or permanently blinded children into the world.</p> + +<p>It follows, therefore, that parents or guardians are guilty of a grave +dereliction of duty if they neglect to satisfy themselves in time on +this point. Doubtless, in the great majority of cases no harm will be +done. But in the rest irreparable harm is often done, and the innocent, +ignorant girl who has been betrayed by father and mother and husband +alike, may turn upon you all, perhaps on her death-bed, perhaps with the +blasted future in her arms, and say "This is <i>your</i> doing: behold your +deed."</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2.5em;"> +"<i>But if ye could and would not</i>, oh, what plea,<br /> +Think ye, shall stead you at your trial, when<br /> +The thunder-cloud of witnesses shall loom,<br /> +With Ravished Childhood on the seat of doom<br /> +At the Assizes of Eternity?"<br /> +</p> + +<p>These pages may disgust or offend nine hundred and ninety-nine readers +out of a thousand. They may yet save one girl, and will have justified +themselves.</p> + +<p>One final word may be added on the relation of this subject to Eugenics, +to which this pen and voice have been for many years devoted. The +subject of venereal disease is one of which we Eugenists, like the rest +of the world, fight shy; yet just because the rest of the world does so, +we should not. Nevertheless I mean to see to it that this subject +becomes part of the Eugenic campaign which will yet dominate and mould +the future. For surely the present spectacle has elements<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span> in it which +would be utterly farcical if they were not so tragic. Here we have life +present and life to come being destroyed for lack of knowledge. These +horrible diseases, ravaging the guilty and the innocent, equally and +indifferently, are at present allowed to do so with scarcely a voice +raised against them. Every day husbands infect their wives, who have no +kind of protection or remedy, and the wicked, grinning face of the law +looks on, and says "She is his wife; all is well." If we had courage +instead of cowardice—the capital mark of an age that has no organ voice +but many steam whistles—we could accelerate incalculably the gradual +decrease of these diseases. The body of eugenic opinion which is being +made and multiplied might succeed in allying the Church and Medicine and +the Law, with splendid and lasting effect. But we spend thousands of +pounds in estimating correlations between hair colour and +conscientiousness, fertility and longevity, stature and the number of +domestic servants, and so forth, meanwhile protesting against too hasty +attempts to guide public opinion on these refined matters; and this +tremendous eugenic reform, which awaits the emergence of some courage +somewhere, is left altogether out of account. There was no allusion to +the existence of venereal disease, far and away the most appalling of +what I have called dysgenic forces, in any official eugenic publication +until April, 1909, when in the Eugenics Review we dared to make a +cautious and half-ashamed beginning; half-ashamed to stand up against +syphilis and gonorrhœa. When one thinks of the things that we are not +ashamed to do, as individuals<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span> or as nations, it is to reflect that +perhaps we have "let the tiger die" too utterly, and that just as woman +is ceasing to be a mammal, man is perhaps ceasing to be even a +vertebrate. Is there no Archbishop or Principal of a University or Chief +Justice or popular novelist or preacher or omnipotent editor, boasting a +backbone still, who will serve not only his day and generation but all +future days and generations, by devoting himself and his powers to this +long-delayed campaign wherein, if it be but undertaken, success is +certain, and reward so glorious?<a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2><h3>ON CHOOSING A HUSBAND</h3> +</div> + +<p>Brief reference was made in a previous chapter to woman's great function +of choosing the fathers of the future. Here we must discuss, at due +length, her choice of a companion for life. It is repeatedly argued, by +critics of any new idea, that the eugenist, in his concern for the race, +is blind to the natural interests and needs of the individual; that "we +are all to be married to each other by the police," as an irresponsible +jester has declared; that the sanctities of love are to be profaned or +its imperatives defied. Even serious and responsible persons assume that +there is here a necessary antagonism between the interests of the race +and those of the individual,—that the girl would, presumably, choose +one man to be her love and companion and partner for life, but another +man as the father of her children. There are those whom it always +rejoices to discover what they regard as antinomies and contradictions +in Nature, and they verily prefer to suppose that there is in things +this inherent viciousness, which sets eternal war between one set of +obligations, one set of ideals, and another. But Nature is not made +according to the pattern of our misunderstandings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span></p> + +<p>We have seen that all individuals are constructed by Nature for the +future. We are certainly right to regard them as also ends in +themselves, but Nature conceived and fashioned them with reference to +the future. In so far as marriage has a natural sanction and +foundation—than which nothing is more certain—we may therefore expect +to discover that the interests of the individual and of the race are +indeed one. In a word, the man who is most worthy to be chosen as a +father of the future is always the most worthy and, in the overwhelming +majority of cases, is also the most individually suitable, to be chosen +as a partner and companion for life. Let the girl choose wisely and well +for her own sake and in her own interests. If, indeed, she does so, the +future will be almost invariably safeguarded.</p> + +<p>Of course it is to be understood that we are here discussing general +principles. Everyone knows that cases exist, and must continue to exist, +where an opposition between the interests of the race and those of the +individual cannot be denied. Some utterly unsuspected hereditary strain +of insanity, for instance, may show itself or be discovered in the +ancestry of an individual to whom a member of the opposite sex has +already become devoted. I fully admit the existence of such exceptions, +but it must be insisted that they are exceptions, and that they do not +at all invalidate the general truth that if a girl really chooses the +best man, she is choosing the best father for her children.</p> + +<p>It is when the girl chooses for something other than natural quality +that the future is liable to be betrayed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span> But the point to be insisted +upon is that it is far more worth her while to choose for natural +quality than for any other considerations. The argument of this chapter +is that it will not in the long run be worth the girl's while to be +beguiled by a man's money, his position or his prospects, since all of +these, without the one thing needful, will ultimately fail her.</p> + +<p>The truth is that very few girls realize how intimate and urgent and +inevitable and unintermittent are the conditions of married life. It +requires imagination, of course, to understand these things without +experience. A girl observes a friend who has made what is called "a good +marriage"; she goes to the friend's house, and sees her the triumphant +mistress of a large establishment; she sees her friend at the theatre, +meets her escorted by her husband at this place and that; hears of her +holidays abroad, covets her jewelry, and she thinks how delightful it +must be. She knows nothing at all of the realities; she sees only +externals, and she is misled. Whenever thus misled she is beguiled into +marrying a man for any other reason than that his personal qualities +compel her love, it is her seniors who are to blame for not having +enlightened her. Such a girl shall be enlightened if her eyes fall on +these pages.</p> + +<p>Happiness does not consist in external things at all. This is not to +deny that external things may largely contribute to happiness if its +primal conditions be first satisfied. Failing those primal conditions, +externals are a mockery and a burden. In the case of the vast majority +of married people we see only what they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span> choose that we shall see. +Almost everyone is concerned with keeping up appearances. Things may be +and very often are what they appear, but very often they are not. Any +woman of nice feeling is very much concerned to keep up appearances in +the matter of her marriage. A few or none may guess her secret, but +whatever we see, it is what we do not see—no matter how close our +friendship may be—that determines the success or failure of marriage. +The moments that really count are just those which we do not witness, +and such moments are many in married life, or should be. If the marriage +is what it ought to be, there is a vital communion, grave and gay, which +occupies every available part of life. Only the persons immediately +concerned really know how much of this they have or, if they have it +not, what they have in its place. But we may be well assured that, as +every married person knows, it is the personal qualities that matter +everything in this most intimate sphere of life, and naught else matters +at all. When the girl marries so as to become possessed of any and every +kind of external advantage, but there is that in the man which is +unlovely or which she, at any rate, cannot love, her marriage will +assuredly be a failure. As we have occasion to observe every day, she +will be glad to jump at any chance of sacrificing all externals, where +essentials thus fail her.</p> + +<p>This is only to preach once again the simple doctrine that a girl is to +marry a man not for what he has but for what he is. If, as a eugenist, I +am thinking at this time as much of the future as of the present, the +advice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span> is none the less trustworthy. It is certain that this advice is +no less necessary than it ever was. Everyone knows how the standard of +luxury has risen during the last few decades, both in England and in the +United States. All history lies if this be not an evil omen for any +civilization. It means, among other things, that more effectively than +ever the forces of suggestion and imitation and social pressure are +being brought to bear, to vitiate the young girl's natural judgment, +deceiving her into the supposition that these things which seem to make +other people so happy are the first that must be sought by her. If only +she had the merest inkling of what the doctor and the lawyer and the +priest could tell her about the inner life of many of the owners of +these well-groomed and massaged faces! We hear much of the failure of +marriage, but surely the amazing thing is its measure of success under +our careless and irresponsible methods. For happily married people do +not require intrigues nor divorces, nor do they furnish subject matter +for scandal. It is because people do not marry for their personal +qualities, but for things which, personal qualities failing, will soon +turn to dust and ashes in their mouths, that their disappointed lives +seek satisfaction in all these unsatisfactory and imperfect ways. As we +all know, social practice differs in say, France and England, in such +matters as this; and there are those who tell us that the method whereby +natural inclinations are ignored is highly successful, and has just as +much to be said for it as has the more specially Anglo-Saxon method of +allowing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span> the young people to choose each other. It is incomprehensible +how any observer of contemporary France, its divorce rate and its +birth-rate, can uphold such a contention. On the contrary, we may be +more and more convinced that Nature knows her business, and that +marriage, which is a natural institution, should be based, in each case, +upon her indications.</p> + +<p>There is need here for a reform which is more radical and fundamental +than any that can be named, just because it deals with our central +social institution, and concerns the natural composition and qualities +of the next generation. I mean that reform in education which will +direct itself towards rightly moulding and favouring the worthy choice +of each other by young people, and especially the worthy choice of men +by women. It will further come to be seen that everything which vitiates +this choice—as, for instance, the economic dependence of women, great +excess of women in a community, the inheritance of large fortunes—is +ultimately to be condemned on that final ground, if on no other.</p> + +<p>But whilst these sociological propositions may be laid down, let us see +what can be said in the present state of things by way of advice to the +girl into whose hands this book may fall. Perhaps it may be permitted to +use the more direct form of address.</p> + +<p>You may have been told that where poverty comes in at the door, love +flies out at the window.<a name="FNanchor_15" id="FNanchor_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span> may have heard it said that so and so +has made a good marriage because her husband has a large income. You may +be inclined to judge the success of marriage by what you see. I warn you +solemnly that the worth or unworth of your marriage, the success or +failure of your life will depend, far more than upon all other things +put together, upon the personal qualities of the man you choose.</p> + +<p>If these be not good in themselves, your marriage will fail, certainly; +even if they be good in themselves your marriage will fail, probably, +unless they also be nicely adapted to your own character and tastes and +temperament and needs. There are thus two distinct requirements; the +first absolutely cardinal, the second very nearly so. You are utterly +wrong if you suppose that the first of these can be ignored: if your +husband is not a worthy man, you are doomed. And you are almost +certainly wrong if you suppose that lack of community in tastes and in +interests, in objects of admiration and adoration does not matter. But +let us consider what are the factors of the man for which a girl <i>does</i> +choose.</p> + +<p>For what, if it comes to that, does a man choose? Here is Herbert +Spencer's reply to that question:—"The truth is that out of the many +elements uniting in various proportions, to produce in a man's breast +the complex emotion we call love, the strongest are those produced by +physical attractions; the next in order of strength are those produced +by moral attractions; the weakest are those produced by intellectual +attractions; and even these are dependent less on acquired<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span> knowledge +than on natural faculty—quickness, wit, insight." It will probably be +agreed that, on the whole, this analysis, which is certainly true in the +direction it refers to, is also true in the converse direction. The girl +admires a man for physical qualities, including what may be called the +physical virtues, like energy and courage. She rates highly certain +moral attractions, such as unselfishness and chivalry, but perhaps she +attaches far more value to intellectual attractions than the man does in +her case, doubtless because they are more distinctively masculine.</p> + +<p>No doubt, in this order of importance both sexes are consulting the +eugenic end if they knew it, as Spencer, indeed, pointed out nearly half +a century ago. The passage from which we have quoted he thus +continues:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"If any think the assertion a derogatory one, and inveigh against +the masculine character for being thus swayed, we reply that they +little know what they say when they thus call in question the +Divine ordinations. Even were there no obvious meaning in the +arrangement, we may be sure that some important end was subserved. +But the meaning is quite obvious to those who examine. When we +remember that one of Nature's ends, or rather her supreme end, is +the welfare of posterity; further that, in so far as posterity are +concerned, a cultivated intelligence based on a bad physique is of +little worth, since its descendants will die out in a generation or +two: and conversely that a good <i>physique</i>, however poor the +accompanying mental endowments, is worth preserving, because, +throughout future generations, the mental endowments may be +indefinitely developed; we perceive how important is the balance of +instincts above described."</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span></p> + +<p>But here it will be well to consider and meet a possible criticism. This +is none the less necessary because there is a very common type of mind +which listens to the enunciation of principles not in order to grasp +them, but in order to point out exceptions. Such people forget that +before one can profitably observe exceptions to a principle or a natural +law it is necessary first of all to know rightly and wholly what the +principle is. Now in this particular case our principle is that the +cause of the future must not be betrayed, and the essential argument of +this chapter is that faithfulness to the cause of the future does not +involve, as is commonly supposed, any denial of the interests of the +present, since, as I maintain, he who is best worth choosing as a +partner for life is in general best worth choosing as a father of the +future.</p> + +<p>Now what one must here reckon with is the existence of individual +cases,—much commoner doubtless in the imagination of critics than in +reality, but nevertheless worthy of study—where a man may gain a +woman's love of the real kind and may return it, and yet may be unfit +for parenthood. The converse case is equally likely, but here we are +concerned especially with the interests of the woman. She is, shall we +say, a nurse in a sanatorium for consumptives or, to suppose a case more +critical and complicated still, she may herself be a patient in such a +sanatorium. There she meets another patient with whom she falls in love. +Now these two may be well fitted to make each other happy for so long as +fate permits, but if the interests of the future are to be considered +they should not become<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span> parents. I must not be taken as here assenting +to the old view, dating from a time when nothing was known of the +disease, which regards consumption as hereditary. It is evident that +quite apart from that question the couple of whom we are thinking should +not become parents. It is possible that the disease may be completely +cured, and the situation will then be altered. But only too often the +patient's life will be much shortened and children will be left +fatherless; they also in certain circumstances will run a grave risk of +being infected by living with consumptive parents. If in the case we are +supposing the woman be also consumptive, it is extremely probable that +motherhood on her part would aggravate and hasten the course of the +disease, it being well-known that pregnancy has an extremely +unfavourable influence on consumption in the majority of cases.</p> + +<p>Many other parallel cases may be imagined. Woman's love, based perhaps +mainly upon the maternal instinct of tenderness, may be called forth by +a man who suffers from, shall we say, hæmophilia or the bleeding +disease. He may be in every way the best of men, worthy to make any +woman happy; but if he becomes the father of a son, it will probably be +to inflict great cruelty upon his child.</p> + +<p>What, in a word, are we to say of such cases as these? There is here a +real opposition, as it would appear, between the interests of the +present and the interests of the future. But the answer is that, just +because, and just in so far as, human beings are provident and +responsible and worthy of the name of human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span> beings, the opposition can +be practically solved. Not for anything must we betray the cause of the +unborn, but marriage does not necessarily involve parenthood, and the +right course—the profoundly right and deeply moral course—in such +cases as these, is marriage without parenthood.</p> + +<p>On every hand in the civilized world we now see childless marriages, the +number of which incessantly increases; they are an ominous symptom of +excessive luxury and other factors of decadence, if history is to be +trusted. But it is not permissible for us, without special knowledge, to +condemn individuals, whatever we may think of the phenomenon as a whole. +Yet convention and prejudice are curious things, and people who are +themselves married and deliberately childless, others of both sexes who +are unmarried, people who have never raised their voices against +themselves or their friends who, though married, are childless, because +they have little courage or because they permit compliance with +fashion's demands to stifle the best parts of their nature—such people, +I say, will actually be found to protest, with the sort of canting +righteousness which does its best to smirch the Right, against this +doctrine, <i>Marry, but do not have children</i>, as the rule of life in the +cases under discussion. Nevertheless, this is the moral doctrine; this +is the right fruit of knowledge, and knowledge will more and more be +applied to this high end, the service alike of the present and the +future. We must not allow our minds to be bullied out of just reasoning +because the possibility of marriage without parenthood is often abused.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span> +All forms of knowledge, like all other forms of power, may be used or +may be abused. Knowledge has no moral sign attached to it, but neither +has it any immoral sign attached to it. The power to control parenthood +is neither good nor evil, but like any other power may serve either good +or evil. Dynamite may cause an explosion which buries a hundred men in a +living grave, or it may blast the rock which buries them and set them +free. The man of science is false to his creed and his cause if he +declares that there is any order of knowledge or any kind of power which +were better unknown or unavailable. For many years past we have been +told that the power to control parenthood is wicked, flying in the face +of providence, interfering with the order of Nature—as if every act +worthy of the human name were not an interference with the order of +Nature, as Nature is conceived by fools; and even to-day the churches, +violently differing from each other in the region of incomprehensibles, +are at least agreed in anathematizing the knowledge and the power to +control parenthood. The reply to them is the demonstration, here made, +of the fact that this knowledge may be used for no less splendid a +purpose than to make possible the happiness and mutual ennoblement of +individual lives in cases where otherwise such a consummation would have +been impossible without betrayal of the life of this world to come.</p> + +<p>There is another class of cases to which convenient reference may here +be made. The solution to be found in childless marriage, for many cases, +does not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span> apply to those in which there is present disease due to living +organisms, microbes or protozoa which, by the mere act of drinking from +an infected cup, by kissing and so forth, may be passed from the sick to +the sound. So far as these modes of infection are concerned, such a +supposed case as that of the nurse and the consumptive patient who fall +in love with each other comes into this category. But infection of that +kind is preventable. In the case, however, of the terrible diseases to +which reference has been made in a previous chapter, we must clearly +understand that it is not only the future which is in danger, and that +therefore the solution of childless marriage does not apply. Here the +danger is irremovable from the physical <i>essentia</i> of the marriage +itself, and in such a case, no matter how high the personal qualities of +the man who may, for instance, have been infected by accident in the +course of his duty as a doctor, even childless marriage other than the +<i>mariage blanc</i> must be, at any rate, postponed until the disease has +been cured.</p> + +<p>It is to be hoped that the reader will not regard these last two points, +which have had to be dealt with at some length, as irrelevant. They are +not strictly part of the general proposition that a girl should marry a +man for his personal qualities, but they are surely necessary as +practical comments upon that proposition as it will work out in real +life. We may now return to our main contention.</p> + +<p>In our quotation from Herbert Spencer we may notice the significant +assertion that amongst intellectual attractions it is natural faculty, +quickness, wit and insight, rather than acquired knowledge, that a man +admires<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span> in a woman. In considering that point the somewhat hazardous +assertion was ventured upon that the woman rates intellectual +attractions in the man higher than he does in her. One has indeed heard +it stated that a man marries for beauty and a woman for brains. A +statement so brief cannot be accurate in such a case. But we may insist +upon the contrast between acquired knowledge and natural faculty. +Spencer was no doubt right in believing that man values the natural +faculty rather than the acquired knowledge. A woman no doubt does so +too. If she admires a man for being an encyclopædia, it is only, one +hopes, because she admires the natural qualities of studiousness, +perseverance and memory which his knowledge involves. Nor would she be +long in finding out whether his knowledge is digested, and the capacity +to digest it, remember, is a natural faculty.</p> + +<p>The reader who remembers our principle that the individual exists for +the future will not fail to see what we are driving at. Directly we +study in any critical way the causes of attraction among the sexes, we +see that under healthy conditions, unvitiated by convention or money, it +is always the inborn rather than the acquired that counts. If Spencer +had cared to pursue his point half a century ago, he had the key to it +in his hands. Youth prefers the natural to the acquired qualities.</p> + +<p>Nature, greatest of match-makers, has so constructed youth because she +is a Eugenist, and because she knows that it is the natural qualities +and not the acquired ones which are transmitted to offspring.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span></p> + +<p>And now it may be shown that this fact wholly consorts with our +contention that there is no antinomy between the happiness of the +individual and the happiness of the race in the marriage choice. For the +race it is only the natural qualities of its future parents that matter, +for only these are transmissible. From the strictly eugenic point of +view, therefore, the girl should be counselled to choose her mate, not +merely on the ground of his personal qualities but, more strictly still, +on the ground of those personal qualities which are natural and not +acquired. And my last point is that these qualities, which are alone of +lasting consequence to the race, alone will be of lasting consequence to +her during her married life. Veneers, acquirements, technical +facilities, knowledge of languages, encyclopædic information, elegance +of speech and even of conventional manners—all the things which, in our +rough classification, we may call acquired, may attract or please or +impress her for a time, but when the ultimate reckoning is made she will +find that they are less than the dust in the balance. I do not know how +and where to find for my words the emphasis with which it would be so +easy to endow them if, instead of addressing an unseen and strange +audience, one were counselling one's own daughter. I should say to her, +for instance, "My dear, be not deceived. He dresses elegantly, I know, +and makes himself quite nice to look at. Yet it is not his clothes that +you will have to live with, but himself; and the question is what do his +clothes mean? It is his nature that you will have to live with. What +fact of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span> his nature do they stand for? Is it that he is vain and +selfish, preferring to spend his money upon himself and upon the +exterior of his person rather than upon others and upon the adornment of +his mind; or is it that he has fine natural taste, a sense of beauty and +harmony and quiet dignity in external things?" The answer to these +questions involves his wife's happiness. How strange that though no girl +will marry a man because she is attracted by the elegance of his false +teeth, yet she will often be deceived into admiring other things which +are just as much acquired and just as little likely to afford her +permanent satisfaction as the products of his dentist's work-room! If +only she realized that these other things, though nice to look at, are +no more himself than a well-fitting dental plate.</p> + +<p>Or again: "You like his talk; he strikes you as well versed in human +affairs; his knowledge of men and things impresses you; he has travelled +and can talk easily of what he has seen, and his voice is elegant and +can be heard in many tongues. But if he is going to say bitter things to +you, will the facility of his diction make them less bitter? If he is a +fool in his heart—and indeed the heart alone is the residence of folly +or wisdom—do you think that he will be a fool the less for venting his +folly in seven languages rather than in one? I quite understand your +admiring his cleverness; people who study the subject tell us, you know, +that a woman admires in a man things which are more characteristic of +men than of women, and that men's admiration of women is based upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span> +same good principle. But in this bargain men have the best of it because +the most characteristic thing in woman is tenderness, and the most +characteristic thing in man is cleverness; and which do you think is the +better to live with? What is the virtue in cleverness coupled with, for +instance, a malicious tongue? What is the virtue in clever things if he +says them at your expense? The vital thing for you is, what are the uses +to which he puts his knowledge and capacities? That he knows the ways of +the world may impress you, but does he know them to admire them? And if +so, where does he stand compared with another, who is less versed and +versatile, but who, as your heart tells you, would hate the ways of the +world if he did know them?" ...</p> + +<p>Indeed, I seem to see that one cannot adequately write a book on +Womanhood without including in it somewhere a statement of what manhood +is and ought to be. Surely one of our duties to girlhood is to teach it +the elemental truths of manhood. Such teaching must recognize the facts +which modern psychology perceives more clearly every day, and it must +combine that knowledge with the eternal truths of morality, which are so +intensely real and practical in the great issues of life, such as this. +The great fact which modern psychology has discovered is that intellect +is less important, and emotion more important than we used to suppose; +that knowledge, as we lately observed, is non-moral, and may be for good +or for evil; that cleverness is merely cleverness, and may serve God or +mammon; that it is the nature of the man or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span> the woman which determines +the influence and the uses of education. A girl should know something of +what I have elsewhere called the transmutation of sex as it shows itself +in the higher as distinguished from the lower types of manhood: she +should know that it is good for a youth to spend his energy in visible +ways and in the light of day; there is the less likelihood that it is +being spent otherwise. She should prefer the man who is visibly active +and who keeps his mind and body moving; she should know, as the school +boy should know, that the capacity to smoke and drink really proves +nothing as regards manhood. Doubtless there is some courage required in +learning to smoke, and so much, but it is not much, is to the smoker's +credit; but for the rest, smoking and drinking are simply forms of +self-indulgence, and though they are doubtless very excusable and are +often practised by splendid men, they are of no virtue in themselves. +Further, they are open to the fundamental objection that they lessen the +measure of a man's self-mastery. Women should set a high standard in +such matters as these.</p> + +<p>To take the case of smoking, very few smokers realize, in the first +place, how much money they expend. It is money which, if not spent, +would appreciably contribute to the cost of house-keeping in not a few +cases. Many a man who says he cannot afford to marry spends on tobacco +and alcohol a sum quite sufficient to turn the scale. It will be argued +that the smoking brings rest and peace, that it soothes, aids digestion, +and so forth. But the non-smoker is not in need of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span> these assistances: +it is only the smoker who requires to smoke for these purposes. On this +point I have said, in the volume of personal hygiene which this present +work is meant to succeed, all that really requires to be said. It was +there pointed out that nicotine doubtless produces secondary products in +the blood which require a further dose of the nicotine as an antidote to +them. Thus there is initiated a vicious circle, the details of which +have been fully worked out in the case of opium, or rather, morphia. All +the good results which are obtained from smoking are essentially of the +nature of neutralizing the secondary effects of previous smoking. Here, +then, is the scientific argument for the girl's hand if she proposes to +deal with her lover on this point.</p> + +<p>It may be added that the writer can now quote personal experience in +favour of his advice. He smoked incessantly for fourteen years—from +seventeen to thirty-one—his quantum being five ounces in all per +week—of the strongest Egyptian cigarettes and the strongest pipe +tobacco procurable. The practice did him no observable harm whatever. +When he wrote the paragraph on "How to control one's smoking," in the +book referred to, he was only wishing that he could control his own. At +last he got disgusted with himself and stopped altogether. Personally he +is neither better nor worse, but he is buying books in proportion to the +money formerly wasted on tobacco, and perhaps the change is worth while. +The girl who reads this book may tell her lover with confidence that it +is quite possible to stop smoking, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span> that after a little while the +craving wholly disappears. If he has been a really confirmed, systematic +smoker, he may have a very uncomfortable three weeks after he stops, but +soon after that the time will come when he can stay in a room where +others are smoking and not even desire to join them, which he could +never have done before. He will have the advantage that he is definitely +less likely to die of cancer of the mouth, more especially cancer of the +tongue. That is a point which will affect his wife as well as himself. +He will save a quite remarkable sum of money, and since object lessons +are very valuable, he may follow the suggestion to lay it out in the +form of books, as time goes on, though perhaps my reader can give him +better advice from the point of view of the future housekeeper.</p> + +<p>Of course there is the point of view expressed in a poem of Mr. +Kipling's:</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2.5em;"> +"A woman is only a woman,<br /> +But a good cigar is a smoke."<br /> +</p> + +<p>If a man takes that point of view he is not good enough for a woman, I +think; she may remember Dogberry, Take no note of him but let him go ... +and thank God she is rid of a—— fool.</p> + +<p>Certainly, I am not saying anything which will be grateful to all ears, +but while we are at it, and since this book is written in the interests +of women, I must say what I believe. I counsel the girl to stop her +lover's smoking; a thousandfold more strongly would I counsel her to +stop his drinking. In a former volume on eugenics, some of the effects +of parental drinking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span> have been dealt with at length, and that subject +need not be returned to here. But also from the point of view of the +individual, a girl may be counselled to stop her lover's drinking. An +excellent eugenic motto for a girl, as my friend Canon Horsley pointed +out in discussing my paper on this subject read before the Society for +the Study of Inebriety in 1909, is "the lips that touch liquor shall +never touch mine."</p> + +<p>There are always plenty of people to sneer at the teetotaler; people who +make money out of drink naturally do so; people who drink themselves +naturally do so; the unmarried girl may do so, thinking that the +teetotaler is a prig and not quite a man. <i>But there is one great class +of the community, the most important of all, which does not sneer at +teetotalers, and that is the wives.</i> They know better, nay, they know +best, and their verdict stands and will remain against that of all +others. I am now addressing the girl who may become a wife, and I tell +her most solemnly that from her point of view she cannot afford to laugh +at the teetotaler; and if she can stop her lover's drinking, whether he +drinks much or little, she will do well for him and herself. She should +know what the effect of alcohol is upon a man, and she should have +imagination enough to realize that his hot breath, coming unwelcome, +will not be more palatable in the future for its flavouring of whisky. +It may be admitted that in saying all this the interests of the future +are perhaps paramount in my mind. I am trying to do a service to the +principle, "Protect parenthood from alcohol," which I advocate as the +first and most urgent motto<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span> for the real temperance reformer. Yet the +question of parenthood may be entirely left out of consideration, and +even so the advice here given to the girl about to choose a +husband—alas, that only a small proportion of maidenhood can be in that +fortunate state, which is yet the right and natural one!—is warranted +and more than warranted. We may go so far as to declare that it is a +great duty, laid upon the young womanhood of civilization, to protect +itself and the future, and to serve its own contemporary manhood, by +taking up this attitude towards alcohol. Would that this great +missionary enterprise were now unanimously undertaken by these most +effective and cogent of missionaries, whose own happiness so largely +depends upon its success!</p> + +<p>Of course it should not be necessary for any man to set forth, for the +instruction of girlhood, the qualities which it should value in men. All +who train and teach girlhood and form its ideals should devote +themselves scarcely less to this than to the inculcation of high ideals +for girlhood itself; yet it is not done. We do not yet recognize the +supreme importance of the marriage choice for the present and for the +future.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, if Nature alone gets a fair chance, she teaches the girl +that a man should "play the game," and should not be afraid of "having a +go," that of the two classes into which, as one used to tell a little +girl, people are divided—those who "stick to it," and those who do +not—the former are the worthy for her. But Nature is specially +handicapped by stupid convention, not least in Anglo-Saxon countries, as +regards a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span> woman's estimation of <i>tenderness</i> in a man. The parental +instinct with its correlate emotion of tenderness, is the highest of +existing things, and though it is less characteristic of men than of +women, it is none the less supreme when men exhibit it. In days to come, +when women can choose, as they should be able to choose to-day, they may +well be counselled to use as a touchstone of their suitor's quality that +line of Wordsworth, "Wisdom doth live with children round her knees." A +man who thinks that "rot" <i>is</i> rot, or soon will be.</p> + +<p>But in the minds of men and women there is a half implicit assumption +that tenderness is incompatible with manliness. "Let not women's +weapons, water-drops, stain my man's cheeks," says Lear. But it is quite +possible for a man to be manly and yet tender, and to the highest type +of women it is the combination of strength and tenderness in a man that +appeals beyond aught else.</p> + +<p>It has always seemed to the present writer that the followers of Christ +have done him far less than justice in insisting upon one aspect of his +character disproportionately with another. They speak of him as the +"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild "; they tend to describe him as almost or +wholly effeminate; and the representations of him in art, with small, +feminine and conspicuously un-Jewish features, with long feminine hair +and the hands of a consumptive woman, join with sacred poetry in +furthering this impression. Nothing can be truer than that he was +tender, and that he had a passion for childhood and realized, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span> we may +dare to say, its divinity, as only the very few in any age have done. +But this "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild," was also he whose blazing words +against established iniquity and hypocrisy constitute him the supreme +exemplar not only of love but of moral indignation, and of a sublime +invective which has been equalled not even by Dante at his highest. We +forget, perhaps, when we use such a phrase as "whited sepulchre," that +we are quoting the untamable fierceness, the courage, fatal and vital, +of the "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild," who was murdered not for loving +children, but for hating established wickedness. Why have Christians not +recognized that it is this perhaps unexampled combination of strength +and tenderness which makes their Founder worthy for all time to be +regarded as the Highest of Mankind?</p> + +<p>One more counsel to the girl who can choose. It is contained in the +saying of Marcus Aurelius that the worth of a man may be measured by the +worth of the things to which he devotes his life.</p> + +<p>We must now pass to consider the sociological fact that, under present +conditions, the sole use of this chapter for a very large proportion of +women can merely consist in suggesting to them that they are better +unmarried than married without love. It is not possible for them to +exercise the great function of choice which is theirs by natural right. +Evil and ominous of more evil are whatever facts deprive woman of this +her birthright.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2><h3>THE CONDITIONS OF MARRIAGE</h3> +</div> + +<p>In my volume introductory to Eugenics I have dealt at length with +marriage from that point of view. Here our concern is with the +individual woman, and though neither in theory nor in practice can we +entirely dissociate the question of the future from that of the +individual's needs, it is necessary here to discuss the present +conditions of marriage in the civilized world, from the woman's point of +view. We have to ask ourselves how these conditions act in selecting +women from the ranks of the unmarried; whether the transition proceeds +from random chance, or whether there is a selection in certain definite +directions, and if so, what directions? We have to ask whether different +women would pass into the ranks of the married if the conditions of +marriage were other than they are; and we shall assuredly arrive at the +principle that whatever changes are necessary in the conditions of +marriage, so that the best women shall become the mothers of the future, +must be and will be effected.</p> + +<p>One has elsewhere argued at length that monogamy is the marriage form +which has prevailed and will be maintained because of its superior +survival-value—in other words, because it best serves the interests of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span> +the future. But what of the individual in a country where there are +thirteen hundred thousand adult women in excess of men, which is the +case of Great Britain? Plainly, there is need for very serious criticism +of such an institution in such circumstances. Let the reader briefly be +reminded, then, that, as I have previously argued, Nature makes no +arrangement for such a disproportion between the sexes. More boys than +girls are indeed born, but from our infantile mortality, which is +largely a male infanticide, onwards, morbid influences are at work which +result in the disproportion already named.</p> + +<p>Two excellent reasons may be adduced why any disproportion in the +numbers of the sexes should be the opposite of that which now obtains. +The ideal condition, no doubt, is that of numerical equality. Failing +that, the evils of a male preponderance, though very real, are +comparatively small. For one thing, celibacy affects a woman more than a +man: men, on the whole, suffer less from being unmarried. It is a more +serious deprivation for the woman than for the man, in general, to be +debarred from parenthood. This is a proposition which we need not labour +here, for no reader will dispute its importance and its relevance.</p> + +<p>No less important is the economic question. Specially consecrated as she +is to the future, woman as distinctive woman is necessarily handicapped +in relation to the present. She is at an economic disadvantage. One's +blood boils at the cruel effrontery of men who protest against women's +efforts to gain an honest living,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span> but who have never a word or a deed +against prostitution or against the causes which produce the numerical +preponderance of women. But here again our proposition, though +unfamiliar, and indeed so far as I know never yet stated, needs no +labouring—that owing to the economic opportunities of the sexes, it is, +at any rate, on that ground, of no significance that men shall be in +excess in a community, but it is of very grave significance that women +shall be in excess. It is pitiable, and indeed revolting, in this +country where the excess of women is so marked, to hear from year to +year the comments of men upon the supposed degeneration of women, upon +their unnatural selfishness, their desire to invade spheres which do not +belong to them, and so forth and so forth <i>ad nauseam</i>; whilst these +commentators are themselves hand in hand with drink, with war and with +Mammon, destroying male children of all ages in disproportionate excess, +sending our manhood to be slain in war, and sending it also in the cause +of industry—that is to say, in the cause of gold—to our colonies, as +if the culture of the racial life were not the vital industry of any +people.</p> + +<p>A third very important reason why a numerical preponderance of women is +more injurious to a country than a numerical preponderance of men is +that, though the duty and responsibility of selection for parenthood +devolves upon both sexes, it is normally discharged with greater +efficiency by women than by men; and a numerical preponderance of women +gravely interferes with their performance of this great function. It may +obviously be argued that such a preponderance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span> leaves a greater choice +to the men. But I believe that men do not exercise their choice so well. +In a word, women are more fastidious; the racial instinct is weaker in +them, less rampant and less roving. In the exercise of this function +women are therefore, on the whole, naturally more capable, more +responsible, less liable to be turned aside by the demands of the +moment. In his "Pure Sociology," Professor Lester Ward has very clearly +and forcibly discussed the comparative behaviour of the two sexes in +this matter, and he shows how the great feminine sentiment, not confined +merely to the human species, is to choose the best. The principle is +also a factor in masculine action, but much less markedly so. What we +call, then, the greater fastidiousness of the female sex is a definite +sex character, and has a definite racial value, raising the standard of +fatherhood where it is allowed free play. But in a nation which contains +a great excess of women, under economic conditions which are greatly to +their disadvantage, the value of this natural fastidiousness is +practically lost. Such are the conditions in Great Britain at present +that practically any man, of however low a type, however diseased, +however unworthy for parenthood, may become a father, if he pleases.</p> + +<p>The natural condition suitable to monogamy being a numerical equality of +the sexes, the suggestion may obviously be made that where there is a +great excess of women, monogamy should yield to polygamy; and indeed +where there is such excess monogamy is more apparent than real—an ideal +rather than a practice. Thus we have one or two modern authors who have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span> +installed themselves in sociology by the royal road of romance—though +even to this branch of learning, as to mathematics, there is no short +cut whatsoever, even for those whose pens are naturally skilful—authors +who tell us that, given this numerical preponderance of women, some kind +of polygamous modification of the present marriage system should +certainly be adopted. To one aspect of this contention we shall later +return. Meanwhile, the answer is that, rather than abolish monogamy, we +should strive to alter the conditions which produce such an excess of +women. If such an aim were necessarily impracticable, we might well feel +inclined to vote for polygamy rather than the present state of things. +It is a very decent alternative to prostitution. But in point of fact +our aim of equalizing the numbers of the sexes, which I assert as a +canon of fundamental politics, is eminently practicable; and here we may +briefly outline, as very relevant to the problems of womanhood, the +methods by which that aim is to be realized for the good of both sexes +in the present and the future.</p> + +<p>Nature gives us more than a fair start, almost as if she knew that the +wastage of male life is apt to be higher at all ages even under the best +conditions. She sends more male children into the world, as if to +secure, on the whole, an equality of the sexes in adult life. That ideal +is realizable, even allowing for a considerable excess of male deaths. +One of our duties, then, is to control that part of the male death-rate, +if any, which is controllable. To begin at the beginning, we find that +infant mortality claims our attention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span> at once. For years past in the +campaign against infant mortality I have urged this as an apparently +somewhat remote, yet very real and important issue. Infant mortality +bears heaviest upon male babies. It is largely, as I have so often said, +a male infanticide, notably contrasting with the practice of deliberate +female infanticide which is known in so many times and places. In +lowering the infant mortality we shall reduce this disproportion of male +deaths, and shall make for the survival of a larger number of men. Bring +down the infant mortality to proper limits and we shall have in adult +life possible male partners for a large number of women who are now +without such because of the male infanticide of twenty and thirty years +ago.</p> + +<p>It is characteristic of the fashion in which the surface gains our +attention while the substance evades it, that the question of the +disproportion of the sexes should have been brought to the public notice +in regard to a subject which, though not unimportant, is quite secondary +compared with those which we are now discussing. Only three or four +years ago people were startled and incredulous when one told them by the +pen or in lectures that there was a very great excess of women in these +islands. Nowadays everybody knows it. This is not because people have +suddenly come to realize the fundamental importance for the State of +such matters, but simply because the fact provides an argument regarding +Woman Suffrage. This immensely important fact of female preponderance, +with its gigantic consequences, which affect every aspect of the +national life, was totally ignored by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span> public until, forsooth, it +became an argument against Woman Suffrage; and then the foolish people +whose voices are allowed to be heard on these complicated matters, but +who would be laughed out of court if they expressed their opinions on +other subjects equally outside their competence, told us that woman's +suffrage would mean government by women, they being in the majority. For +all other consequences of this gigantic fact they have no concern; not +even the mental capacity to grasp that it must have consequences. But +this, which happens not to be a consequence of it, they are loud to +insist upon. At any rate, they have done this service until the public +at last is acquainted with the demographic fact; and one of the +suffragist leaders some time ago publicly expressed an old argument of +the present writer's that in point of fact this grave supposed +consequence of woman's suffrage need not be feared if only for the +reason that Woman Suffrage would certainly mean increased attention to +infant mortality, and therefore increased control of the morbid causes +which at present account for female preponderance.</p> + +<p>It might indeed be added also that, in so far as Woman Suffrage operated +against war, it would contribute in another way to the correction of +this numerical disparity. Not the least of the many evils which have +flowed from the last hideous war in which Great Britain engaged—evils +which glass-eyed politicians have since been exploiting in the interests +of their own charlatanry—is the loss to scores of thousands of women in +this country of the complemental manhood which was destroyed by wounds +and more especially<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span> by disease in South Africa. The wickedness with +which that war was entered upon, and the criminal ignorance with which +it was mismanaged, and the elementary principles of hygiene defied, have +their consequences to-day in much of the unmated and handicapped +womanhood of Great Britain. It may be noted that polygamy as a +historical phenomenon has commonly and necessarily been associated with +militarism. Large destruction of manhood by war leads to a numerical +excess of women, and polygamy is a consequence. If the consequences in +our modern civilization are less decent than polygamy, which would +affront the beautiful minds that are unconcerned for Regent Street, +surely our duty is more strenuously than ever to combat the causes +which, as we see, are quite definitely traceable and controllable.</p> + +<p>The increased attention paid to the conditions of child life is of +direct service to the nation, and to womanhood in especial, by tending +to interfere with the excessive and unnecessary mortality of boys. As we +have elsewhere observed, the male organism has less vitality than the +female organism. When both sexes at any age are subjected to the same +injurious influences, more males than females die. Thus all our work +with such a measure as the Children Act, keeping children out of +public-houses, and so forth, directly serves the womanhood of the not +distant future by preserving a certain amount of manhood to keep it +company. Accepting the truth of the dictum that it is not good for man +to be alone, we have to learn the still more general and profound truth +that it is not good for woman to be alone, and, as we now learn, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span> +modern movement for the care of childhood has this notable consequence, +which I have been pointing out for many years and now insist upon once +again, that it makes for the greater numerical equality of the sexes in +adult life, and therefore for the relief of the many evils near and +remote which flow from the numerical excess of women. Answering the +question, "Whither are we tending?" in Christmas, 1909, Mr. G. K. +Chesterton referred to our liability to "float feebly towards every +sociological fad or novelty until we believe in some plain, cold, crude +insanity, such as keeping children out of public-houses."<a name="FNanchor_16" id="FNanchor_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> +Considering the authority, I think this is fairly good testimony toward +the wisdom of the achievement to which some of us devoted the greater +part of three strenuous years; and if the question is to be asked +"whither are we tending," part of the answer will be that by such +measures as this for the care of child life, which means in practice +especially for the keeping alive of boys, we are tending toward the +correction of one of the gravest, though least recognized, evils of the +present day.</p> + +<p>Our business in the present volume is not with childhood. It is not +possible to go fully into the statistical details of the comparative +death-rate of the sexes, but the data can readily be obtained by any +interested reader.<a name="FNanchor_17" id="FNanchor_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>It may be argued that the questions now under consideration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span> are foreign +to a chapter entitled "The Conditions of Marriage," but the excess of +women in a community is one of the most fundamental conditions of +marriage therein, and the question is not the less necessary to be dealt +with because, so far as one can ascertain, its consequences have escaped +the notice of previous students.</p> + +<p>Having dealt with the waste of male life in infancy, in childhood and in +war, we must pass on to a totally different factor of our problem, and +that is the emigration to our colonies and elsewhere of a greatly +disproportionate number of men. One does not assert for a moment that +the men should not go, but merely that if they do, so should women also. +As everyone knows they go for many reasons and purposes. These are +largely industrial and imperial. The Civil Service claims a large +number. These bachelors go in the cause of Empire, whether as actual +servants of the State or in the interests of commerce. They are largely +picked men, capable of discipline and initiative and of withstanding +hardships; and also in large degree intellectually able. It is certainly +not good for them to be alone, and it is worse for the women whom they +leave behind. All this may seem right and the only practicable thing for +the day, but it is fundamentally wrong because it is wrong for the +morrow.</p> + +<p>If other needs were not so pressing, one might well devote an entire +volume, not inappropriately in these days of fiscal controversy, to the +question of vital imports and exports. Year after year passes, and +politicians in Great Britain grow more and more voracious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span> and, if +possible, less and less veracious on the subject of what they +misunderstand by imports and exports. The subject is really one for +knowledge, not for politicians. With great ceremony at intervals, they +go through the highly superfluous performance of calling each other +liars, as who should say that Queen Anne is dead: and while this +tragical farce continues the question of vital imports and exports is +ignored. Within it there lies the key to the Irish question, for +instance, since no nation can be saved which persistently exports the +best of its life. And in this question also lies the key to a great part +of the woman question and to a great part of the colonial question. +Politicians who have not even discovered yet that trade is a process of +exchange, and who assume that in every bargain someone is being worsted, +pay no heed to the questions what sort of people leave our shores, and +what sort of people enter them. Or rather, as if in order to emphasize +their blindness to fundamentals, they make a point about passing an act +against alien immigration, which merely serves to throw into prominence +our national neglect of this great issue. This is not the time and the +place in which I can deal with it in its entirety, but it must be +referred to in so far as it bears on the proportion of the sexes. Toward +the end of 1909 there was a long correspondence in the <i>Times</i> on the +subject of "Unmarried Daughters." One may print in the text the +admirable letter in which a finger is put upon the heart of the +question. We are told about the incompetence of women to deal with +national affairs, but here we find a woman writing to the <i>Times</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span> on a +fundamental matter for the Imperialist, though no member of our Houses +of Parliament has yet given any attention to it.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>: Only two of your numerous correspondents on this subject have +really reached the root of the matter.</p> + +<p>For more than thirty years the young men of the British Isles have +found it increasingly difficult to make a living in their native +land. Therefore there has been—and still is—a steady exodus of +our male population to our Colonies, where they are unhampered by +the many disadvantages prevailing here. Unfortunately they are +obliged to leave the corresponding proportion of women behind. The +result is a surplus of 1,000,000 women in Great Britain; but let me +hasten to add (lest the mistake be laid upon Nature when it is not +hers) that there is a proportionate shortage of 1,000,000 women in +our colonies. I have recently been on a tour throughout Canada and +the States, and was most struck by the scarcity of women in Western +Canada—there are about eight men to one woman. And in America the +saddest sight of all is the appalling number of half-castes, a blot +on the civilization of the States, but a blot for which Europeans +are responsible. The absence of white women is answerable for the +worst type of population, so that in reality this is a very +pressing Imperial question; and all those interested in the growth +and future of Canada should turn their attention to it. For, unless +we can induce the right sort of British women to emigrate we shall +not have the Colonies peopled with our own race or speaking our own +mother tongue.</p> + +<p>Canada wants unmarried women, her cry is for our marriageable +daughters, and each one would find her vocation out there.</p> + +<p>Canadian men are one of the finest types of manhood possible, but +they are too hard working to be able to return here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span> in search of a +wife. How gladly they would welcome the possibility of sharing +their homes with a sister or a wife can only be guessed by those +who have been there.</p> + +<p>I am so greatly impressed with the advisability of encouraging +English women to go out there that I strongly urge every suitable, +healthy, and useful woman between the age of twenty-five and +thirty-five to depart (if she has nothing to prevent her), and, +through the British Emigration Society, Imperial Institute, I shall +hope to do all that I can to assist them financially.</p> + +<p>I am, sir,</p> +<p style='margin-left: 60%; margin-bottom: 0;'>Yours faithfully,</p> +<p class="smcap" style='text-align: right; margin-top: 0;'>Sophie K. Bevan.</p> + +<p>(<i>Times</i>, Dec. 24, 1909.)</p></div> + +<p>It was of interest for the student of opinion and practice to compare +this letter with another which appeared in the <i>Times</i> within a few days +of it. This was an official letter from another Emigration Society and +advocated the object, worthy in itself, of sending boys to Australasia. +The letter ended with the following assertion regarding such boys: "They +are the pioneers of Empire, they will be the founders of nations to +come."</p> + +<p>But the point exactly is that at present the nations to come in our +Colonies are not coming: much more likely as nations to come in +Australasia, as things go at present, are the Chinese and Japanese. +Before nations can be founded, the co-operation of women is +indispensable. We complain of the birth-rate in our Colonies, or at +least those few persons do who know that parenthood is the key to +national destiny. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span> we should complain of our own folly in so +interfering with the natural balance of the sexes as to create pressing +problems, wholly insoluble, alike at home and in our Colonies. At all +times "England wants men," but wherever it wants men it wants +women,—even in war we are now beginning to realize the importance of +the trained nurse. There can be no future for our Colonies if they are +to be inhabited by a bachelor generation, and the excess of women at +home prejudices the stability of the heart of empire. Either we must +cease exporting our boys and young manhood—which I certainly do not +advocate—or our girlhood must go also—which I certainly do advocate. +This is only one aspect of the question of vital imports and exports, +upon which a book of vital importance for any nation, and above all, for +England, might well be written.</p> + +<p>Once again let us remind ourselves how cogently this question concerns +the conditions of marriage. It means that the conditions are now such +that in our Colonies a woman can exercise her rightful function of +choosing the best man to be her husband and a father of the future, +while at home this is possible only for the very few, and for vast +numbers marriage is wholly impossible. I return, then, to the original +proposition: are we to follow the advice of our gay, irresponsible +sociologists so-called, who advise us to abolish monogamy in the +circumstances, or are we to alter the alterable conditions which so +disastrously prejudice and complicate that great institution in the +heart of our empire to-day? Surely there can be but one answer to this +question when we realize that all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span> the causes of the present +disproportion between the sexes at home—causes such as infant +mortality, child mortality, war, and the exportation of one sex in great +excess to the Colonies—are evil in themselves quite apart from their +influence upon the practice of monogamy. Unfortunately, it is a modern +custom in this age of transition for clever people to criticize on +abstract, patriotic, sociological, quasi-ethical, and such like grounds, +institutions and practices which irk them personally. Unfortunately, +also, sociology is in the position, at present and yet for a little +while inevitable, of shall we say medicine in its earliest stages, when +anyone may be accepted as qualified who simply asserts that he is. +Lastly, sociology is the most complicated of all the sciences because +the chain of causation is longer; and very few of those who write or +read about it have the patience to go back through psychology to biology +and the laws of life in their analyses. An institution like marriage is +criticized by those who think that it is an ecclesiastical invention of +yesterday, and that what hands have made, hands can destroy, though +marriage is æons older even than the mammalian order. They take +transient, artificial conditions, lasting not for a second in the +history of mankind seen as a whole, and simply accepting these +conditions as part of the order of nature, they ask us to overthrow an +institution which is immeasurable ages older than man himself. The odds +are somewhat against them, one may surmise, but they may do considerable +injury to their own age notwithstanding.</p> + +<p>After having dealt with this fundamental biological<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span> condition of +marriage, we must next turn to a psychological question which is +scarcely less important. The human being is immensely complex both in +composition and in needs, and the institution of monogamy does not +become easier of maintenance as human complexity increases. Amongst the +lower animals or even amongst the lower races of mankind, the relations +between the sexes are mostly confined to one sphere, but amongst +ourselves the problem is to mate for life complex individuals whose +needs are many, ranging from the purely physical to the purely +psychical. Thus it is a matter of common experience that whilst one +woman meets one part of a man's needs, another meets another, and this +of course with grave prejudice to monogamy. Some of the modern writers +to whom allusion has been made suggest that these different needs want +sorting out; that one woman is to be the intellectual companion of a +man, and another the mother of his children. But though men and women +are multiple and complex, they are in the last resort unities. These +absolute distinctions between one need and another do not work out in +practice. Anything which tends toward splitting up the human personality +must be a disservice to it. Nor do we desire that women of the higher +type, best fitted to be the intellectual companions of men, shall be +those who do not contribute to the future of the race. From the eugenic +point of view the mother is every whit as important as the father. I do +not believe for a moment that these more or less definite proposals of +Mr. Shaw and Mr. Wells are soundly based, and perhaps indeed it is not +necessary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span> to argue against them at greater length. Of more value is it +to ask ourselves whether feminine nature may not prove itself quite +equal to the task of meeting all the needs of masculine nature.</p> + +<p>It seems to me that the right answer, in many cases at any rate, to the +wife's question, how is she to retain the whole of her husband's +interest, is hinted at in Mr. Somerset Maugham's recent play +"Penelope"—she must be many women to him herself. And this the wise and +happy woman is, though I do not think the phrase "many women" at all +covers the variety of feeling to which the ideal woman can appeal.</p> + +<p>The ideal love is that in which the whole nature is joined, in all its +parts, upon one object which appeals alike to every fundamental instinct +in our composition. The ideal woman does not require to be "many women" +to a man of the right kind in the sense suggested in Mr. Maugham's play. +She requires rather to be in herself at one and the same time or at +different times, mother, wife and daughter. This condition satisfied, +behold the ideal marriage.</p> + +<p>It is probably fair to say that the three strongest and most important +needs of a man's nature are those which are satisfied by mother, wife, +and daughter. Primarily, perhaps, his wife must be to him his wife, his +contemporary and partner, and there must be a physical bond between +them. (Doubtless there are many happy marriages where this primary +condition is not satisfied, this primitive form of affection being +substantially absent, and its presence being proved non-essential: but +such must be a state of unstable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span> equilibrium at best, though the +concession must be made.) Now the problem for the wife is to unite in +her person and in her personality those other feelings which are part of +normal human nature. Every man likes to be mothered at times, and it is +for his wife to see that she performs that function better than any +other; better even than his own mother. Where he finds merely physical +satisfaction, he also finds, happy man, sympathy and comfort, protection +and solace, balm for wounded self-esteem—everything that the hurt or +slighted child knows he will find in his mother's arms.</p> + +<p>Yet again, a man likes not only to be mothered but he likes to play the +father. Let his wife be a daughter to him; let her be capable of +shrinking, so to say, into small space, becoming little and confident +and appealing and calling forth every protective impulse of her +husband's nature.</p> + +<p>To one who knew nothing of human nature it might sound as if we were +asking more of womanhood than is within its capacity. But many a man and +many a woman will know better. The right kind of woman can be and is +mother, wife and daughter to her husband; and in every one of these +capacities she strengthens her hold in the other two. Let the happily +married examine their happiness, and they will discover that the +Preacher was right when he said: "and a threefold cord is not quickly +broken."</p> + +<p>What has here been said is perhaps far more fundamental, just because it +is based upon the primary instincts of humanity, than much of the +ordinary talk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span> about intellectual companionship and the like. What a man +wants is sympathy, not intellectual companionship as such; what a man +wants from another man, indeed, is sympathy, and not merely intellectual +parity as such. The man who annoys us is not he who is incapable of +appreciating our arguments, or he who does not share our knowledge, but +he who is out of sympathy with us, and we find far more happiness with +the rawest youth who, though entirely ignorant, is at least on our +side—caring for the things for which we care. Capacity to share the +same intellectual work may be a very pleasant addition to marriage, but +it is no essential. What a man wants is that his wife shall be on his +side in his pursuits. A boy does not require that his mother shall be +able to play football with him, but he does require that she shall care +whether his side wins or loses. The wife who is a true mother to her +husband, in this sense, need not be concerned because she cannot, let us +say, follow his working out of a geometrical proposition. Let her be on +his side whether he fails or succeeds, thus playing the mother; and for +the rest, if she asks him what those funny marks mean, she can play the +daughter too, and hold his heart with both hands at once.</p> + +<p>It is to be hoped that such arguments as these will persuade the reader +to assent to our rejection of the psychological grounds on which it is +proposed to abolish monogamy. We extend all the sympathy in the world to +those whose fortune has been unfortunate, and we admit that the ideal +does not always coincide with the real, but we deny that the supposed +argument<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span> against monogamy is based upon a sound understanding of human +nature, its needs and its unity in multiplicity.</p> + +<p>If we are to stand by monogamy it behoves us to examine very carefully +certain of its present conditions which militate against the full +realization of its value for the individual and for the race. The +disproportion of the sexes we have already discussed, and it may here be +assumed that that grave obstacle to the success of monogamy is removed. +There remains the fact, probably on the whole a quite new fact of our +day, that under modern conditions a large proportion of women, whose +quality we must consider, are declining monogamy as at present +constituted.</p> + +<p>Let it be granted that a certain number of these women are cranks, +aberrant in various directions, unfitted for any kind of marriage, +undesirable from the eugenic standpoint, and perhaps less often +declining to be married than failing of the opportunity. There remains +the fact that a large and probably increasing number of women are +nowadays being educated up to such a standard of ideals that, even +though their decision involves the sacrifice of motherhood, they cannot +consent to marriage under present conditions. It is not that they are +without opportunity, for many of them during ten or fifteen years of +their lives may refuse one proposal after another, and spend the +intervals in avoiding the onset of such attentions. It is not +necessarily that the men who propose are of an inferior type. Such women +may refuse many men who come well up to or far surpass the modern male +standard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span> It is not that they are by any means without capacity for +affection; nor can one be at all certain that in many cases they would +not do better to marry, after all, heavy though the price may be.</p> + +<p>What we have to recognize is that this is a phenomenon in every way +evil. There must be something wrong with any institution which does not +appeal to many members of the highest types of womanhood. Perhaps in +certain of its details this institution must be an anachronism, a +survival from times to which it may have been well suited when the +development of womanhood was habitually stunted, but inadequate to +satisfy the demands of fully developed womanhood in our own days. Now +from the eugenic point of view it is of course the finest kind of women +that we desire to be the mothers of the future—the more and not the +less fastidious, those who are capable of the highest development, those +who hold themselves in the highest honour, those who are least willing +to renounce their possession of themselves.</p> + +<p>Men are to be heard who say that this is all nonsense; that it is +natural for women to surrender themselves, that motherhood is a splendid +reward, and that they are handsomely paid as well in material things. +But how many men would be willing to marry on the conditions with which +marriage is offered to a woman? How many men would be willing to +surrender their possession of themselves to an owner for life, so that +at no future hour can they have the right to privacy? Of course if the +conditions for marriage were for a man what they are for a woman, +scarcely any men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span> would marry, and men would very soon see to it that +these conditions were utterly altered. They are conditions imposed in a +past age by the stronger sex upon the weaker, and no moral defence of +them is possible. It may be argued, and might long have been argued, +that a practical defence of them is possible, but that is undermined in +our own time when we find that under these conditions marriage is +declined by a large number of the best women. The practical argument is +now the other way. In the interests of elementary justice, of marriage, +of the individual and of the race, the conditions of marriage must be so +modified that they shall be equal for both sexes, and that the best +members of both sexes shall find them acceptable. This last is of course +the fundamental eugenic requirement.</p> + +<p>The initial criticism of some will be, no doubt, that many men who now +marry will decline the bargain. But surely we need not care at all—if +the right kind of men accept it. As for the others, in the coming time, +when we take more care of our womanhood, and when they are deprived of +the economic weapon, they may go whither they will, their +non-representation in the future of the race being precisely what we +desire.</p> + +<p>Women, then, are entitled to demand that the conditions of marriage be +so modified as, above all things, to allow them the possession of +themselves as the married man has possession of himself. The imposition +of motherhood upon a married woman in absolute despite of her health and +of the interests of the children is none the less an iniquity because it +has at present<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span> the approval of Church and State. It is woman who bears +the great burden of parenthood, and with her the decision must rest. It +is idle to reply that this is impossible, for it is possible, as there +are not a few happy wives throughout the civilized world to bear +testimony. Every new life that comes into being is to be regarded as +sacred from the first. The accident of birth at a particular stage in +its development does not in the slightest degree affect this ethical +principle, as even the law, for a wonder, recognizes. The full +acceptance of the principle that woman must decide is, I am convinced, +the only right and effective way in which to abolish altogether the +dangers at present run by the life which is at once unborn and unwanted. +The decision must be made once and for all <i>before</i> the new life is +called into initial being, and the last word must lie with her who is to +bear it. I am strengthened in the enunciation of this principle by the +reflection that it would be ridiculed and condemned by the vote of every +public-house and music-hall throughout the civilized world.</p> + +<p>Let it be observed that in thus allowing the wife the possession of her +own person, we are giving her only what her husband possesses, and that +her possession of herself is of vastly more moment to her than his own +liberty to him. Nothing more than sheer equality is being claimed for +her, and the claim in her case has a double strength, since it is made +valid not only by her own interests but by those of the future. The +future must be protected, and therefore she who is its vessel must be +protected. This is no more than the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span> sub-human mother everywhere has as +her birthright, and however much this teaching may offend the common +male assumption that a wife is a form of property, the future certainly +holds within itself the establishment of this principle.</p> + +<p>The question of divorce is so important that we must defer it to the +next chapter.</p> + +<p>We have briefly alluded to the question of the wife's possession of +herself. We must now refer to the question, scarcely less important, of +her possession of her own property and her claims upon her husband's. It +is difficult for the present generation to realize that very few decades +have passed since the time when everything which a woman possessed +became, when she married, the property of her husband. That is now a +question which there is no need to discuss, but there remains a very +great issue, lately become prominent, and suggested by the popular +phrase, the endowment of motherhood.</p> + +<p>We should obviously be false to our first principles if we did not +assent with all our hearts to the <i>fundamental</i> principle expressed by +this phrase. If it is necessary that the wife be protected as a wife, it +is even more necessary that she be protected as a mother. There are +twelve hundred thousand widows in this country at the present time, and +of these a large number stand in unaided parental relation to a great +multitude of children. I showed some years ago that, as we shall see in +more detail in a later chapter, alcohol makes not less than forty-five +thousand widows and orphans every year in England and Wales. Nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span> +can be more certain than that, in the interests of all except the +worthless type of man, the economic protection of motherhood is an +urgent need, less open to criticism perhaps than any other economic +reconstruction proposed by the reformer. Some will argue, of course, +that the State is to look after children directly, but I, for one, as a +biologist, have no choice but to believe that the way to save children +is to safeguard parenthood, and I cannot question that our duty is to +provide the mother with the necessary means for performing her supreme +function, whether she has a living husband or is a widow or is +unmarried.</p> + +<p>The question remains, how is this to be done, and whence is the money to +be obtained?</p> + +<p>Here we join issue with those Socialist writers who advocate the +endowment of motherhood and give it their own meaning; and that is why +in a preceding paragraph the word fundamental has been emphasized, since +in the endowment of motherhood as understood by socialists there are two +principles, one which I call fundamental, and a second—that the +endowment shall be by the State—which now falls to be considered. I do +not see how any one can challenge the following sentences from Mr. H. G. +Wells:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"So the monstrous injustice of the present time which makes a +mother dependent upon the economic accidents of her man, which +plunges the best of wives and the most admirable of children into +abject poverty if he happens to die, which visits his sins of waste +and carelessness upon them far more than upon himself, will +disappear. So too the still more monstrous absurdity of women +discharging their supreme social<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span> function, bearing and rearing +children in their spare time, as it were, while they earn their +living by contributing some half mechanical element to some trivial +industrial product, will disappear."<a name="FNanchor_18" id="FNanchor_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p></div> + +<p>But the remarkable circumstance is that Mr. Wells proposes to remedy +these consequences of, for instance, "sins of waste and carelessness," +not by dealing with those sins but by the simple method that "a woman +with healthy and successful offspring will draw a wage for each one of +them from the State so long as they go on well. It will be her wage. +Under the State she will control her child's upbringing. How far her +husband will share in the power of direction is a matter of detail upon +which opinion may vary—and does vary widely amongst Socialists." How +far a father is to share in directing his children's upbringing is "a +matter of detail," we are told. The phrase suffices to show that +whatever we are dealing with here is either sheer fantasy or else +thinking of so crude a kind as to be unworthy of the name. Since early +in the history of the fishes paternal responsibility has been a factor +of ascending evolution. It has ever been a more and more responsible +thing to be a father. It is now proposed to reduce fatherhood to the +purely physiological act—as amongst, shall we say, the simpler worms; +and the proposal is only "a matter of detail."</p> + +<p>Probably we had better go our own way, and waste no more time upon this +kind of thing. There remains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span> to answer our question, how is motherhood +to be endowed; and the answer I propose is <i>by fatherhood</i>. Motherhood +is already so endowed in many a happy case. There are quite a number of +men to be found who take such a remarkable pride and interest in their +own children that their "share in the power of direction" is a real one, +and would never occur to them to be "a matter of detail." They regard +their earnings, these unprogressive fathers, as in large measure a trust +for their wives and children, and expend them accordingly. They are not +guilty of "sins and waste and carelessness"; and some of them are even +inclined to question whether they should pay for the results of such +sins on the part of other men: and since those who believe in the +"fetish of parental responsibility," to quote the favourite Socialist +<i>cliché</i>, can show that this is not a fetish but a tutelary deity of +Society, whose power has been increasing since backbones were invented, +they may be well assured that the last word will be with them.</p> + +<p>What we require is the application of the principle of insurance; we +must compel a husband and father to do his duty, as many husbands and +fathers do their duty now without compulsion. We must regard him as +responsible in this supremely important sphere, as we do in every other. +Doubtless, this will often mean some interference with his "sins of +waste and carelessness"; and so much the better for everybody. Those who +prefer to be wasteful and careless had best remain in the ranks of +bachelorhood. We have no desire for any representation of their moral +characteristics<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span> in future generations, but if they do marry they must +be controlled. Meanwhile our champions of paternal irresponsibility are +having things all their own way. Every year more children are being fed +at the expense of the State, and there is no one to challenge the father +who smokes and drinks away any proportion of his income that he pleases.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Perhaps we may now attempt to sum up the suggestion of this chapter. It +is based upon a belief in the principle of monogamy—without, as some +would assert, a credulous acceptance of all the present conditions of +that institution. The principle underlying it may be right and +impossible of improvement, but our practice may be hampered by any +number of superstitions, traditions, injustices, economic and other +difficulties, which nevertheless do not invalidate our ideal.</p> + +<p>Therefore, instead of proposing to abolish monogamy or that great +principle of common parental care of children, the support of motherhood +by fatherhood, which is perfectly expressed in monogamy alone, let us +seek rather, in the interests of the future—which will mean proximately +in the interests of woman, the great organ of the future—to make the +conditions of marriage such that it best serves the highest interests. +We need not cavil at those who look upon marriage as a symbol of the +union between Christ and His Church, but we must look upon it also as a +human institution which exists to serve mankind and must be treated +accordingly. We are quite prepared to accept in its place any other +institution which will serve mankind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span> better, and we adhere to monogamy +only because such an alternative cannot be named.</p> + +<p>We are to regard any disproportion in the number of the sexes as +inimical to monogamy. We know that in the past, when there has been a +great excess of women, as owing to chronic militarism, polygamy has been +the natural consequence; and we must recognize that such an excess of +women at the present day is a predisposing cause, if not of polygamy, of +something immeasurably worse. The causes of that excess of women have +therefore been examined in some degree, and our duty of opposing them is +laid down as a fundamental political proposition.</p> + +<p>We then discussed and criticized a second argument for polygamy, based +upon the assumption that a man requires more from women than one woman +can afford him. The answer to that argument is that many women exist who +meet all their husbands' needs and satisfy all their instincts, and that +for this end the intensive education of woman's intellect is not a +necessary condition. It may be added that if the race is to rise, the +highest type of women as well as the highest type of men must be its +parents, the mothers being exactly as important as the fathers on the +score of heredity. Any attempt, therefore, to split up womanhood, so +that the lower types shall become the mothers, and the higher the +companions of men, is a directly dysgenic proposal, opposing the great +eugenic principle that the best of both sexes must be the parents of the +future.</p> + +<p>When we find, therefore, that marriage under present<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span> conditions does +not satisfy many of the highest kinds of women, we must ask whether +their dissatisfaction is warranted, and if, as we do, we find it based +upon the fact that the present conditions are grossly unjust to women, +we must modify those conditions so that, at the very least, the wife and +mother shall not have the worst of them.</p> + +<p>Finally, whatever we may fail to achieve because, for instance, of some +fundamental facts of human nature against which it is vain to legislate, +at least we have economic conditions under our control, and control them +we must, so that, whoever shall be in a position of economic insecurity, +at least it shall not be the mothers of the future. Our first concern +must be to safeguard them, whosoever else is inconvenienced. In deciding +how this is effected we are to be guided by that great fact of +increasing paternal responsibility which is demonstrated by the history +of animal evolution since the appearance of the earliest vertebrates, +and of which marriage, in all its forms, is at bottom the human and +social expression. We are to recognize that if sub-human fathers are in +any degree held by nature responsible with their mates for the care of +their offspring, much more should this be true of man, "made with such +large discourse, looking before and after," who is to be held +responsible for all his acts, and most of all for those most charged +with consequence. The man who brings children into the world is +responsible to their mother and through her to society at large, which +must see to it that that responsibility is not evaded. At present in +England the working<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span> man spends on the average not less than one-sixth +of his entire income on alcoholic drinks, whilst society yearly pays for +the feeding of more of his children. But it is not good enough that the +father shall swallow the interests of the future in this fashion. As the +State in Germany takes a percentage of his earnings in order to protect +him against the risks of the future, so we must see to it that the +necessary proportion of his earnings is devoted towards discharging the +responsibilities which he has incurred.</p> + +<p>A notable consequence must follow from many such reforms as this chapter +suggests. The marriage rate must fall, and the birth-rate, already +falling, must fall much further; and so assuredly in any case they will; +nor need anyone be alarmed at such a prospect. Even from the point of +view of quantity, the future supply of "food for powder," and so forth, +the question is not how many babies are born, as people persist in +thinking, but how many babies survive. For seven years past I have been +preaching, in season and out of season, that our Bishops and popular +vaticinators in general are utterly wrong in bewailing the falling +birth-rate, whilst the unnecessary slaughter of babies and children +stares them in the face. How dare they ask for more babies to be +similarly slain! It may be permitted to quote a passage written several +years ago. "My own opinion regarding the birth-rate is that so long as +we continue to slay, during the first year of life alone, one in six or +seven of all children born (the unspeakably beneficent law of the +non-transmission of acquired characters permitting these children to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span> +born amazingly fit and well, city life notwithstanding), the fall in the +birth-rate should be a matter of humanitarian satisfaction. Let us learn +how to take care of the fine babies that are born, and when we have +shown that we can succeed in this, as we have hitherto most horribly +failed, we may begin to suggest that perhaps, if the number were +increased, we might reasonably expect to take care of that number also. +Babies are the national wealth, and in reality the only national wealth; +and just as a sensible father will satisfy himself that his son can take +care of his pocket-money, before he listens to a demand for its +augmentation, so, as a people, we are surely responsible to the Higher +Powers, or our own ideals, for the production of proof that we can take +care of the young helpless lives which are daily entrusted to us, before +we cry for more. It would be easy to quote episcopal denouncements +regarding the birth-rate, but I am at a loss for references to similarly +influential opinions about the slaughter of the babies that are born—a +matter which surely should take precedence. May I, in all deference, +commend for consideration a parable which always comes to my mind when I +read clerical comments on the birth-rate, without reference to the +infant-mortality? It was figured by the Supreme Lover of Children that a +wicked servant, entrusted with a portion of his master's wealth to turn +to good account, went and hid it in the earth. He was not rewarded by +the charge of more such wealth. We, as a people, are entrusted with +living wealth, and, whilst we demand more, we go and bury much of it in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span> +the earth—whence, alas! it cannot be recovered. Not an increase of +opportunity, thus wasted, was the reward of the unprofitable servant, +but to be cast into outer darkness. Is there no moral here?"</p> + +<p>Very distinguished recent authority may be quoted in favour of this +principle. At the Annual Public Meeting of the Academy of Sciences, held +in Paris in December, 1909, Professor Bouchard discussed the question of +the population of France, and came to the conclusion that the birth-rate +"depended upon social conditions which it was difficult if not +altogether impossible to modify, and in these circumstances the +alternative remedy was to reduce the number of deaths."</p> + +<p>It must surely be plain that those reforms in the conditions of marriage +which have been advocated in this chapter will meet this need, and are +not necessarily to be feared even by those who, in this matter, devote +their solicitude entirely to the question of numbers, quality apart. For +the eugenist who is primarily concerned with quality these reforms are +surely unchallengeable.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2><h3>THE CONDITIONS OF DIVORCE</h3> +</div> + +<p>A brief chapter must be devoted to the question of the conditions of +divorce, which are really part of the conditions of marriage. Here, as +in every other case, we must apply the universal and unchallengeable +eugenic criterion: the conditions of divorce, like the conditions of +marriage itself, must be such as best serve the future of the race. This +will mean that, in the first place, in entering upon marriage—which of +necessity means so much more to a woman than it does to a man—the woman +must have the assurance that when the conditions of the contract are +broken she will be liberated. The law must bear equally upon the two +sexes. This condition of safety, once established, may determine toward +marriage a certain number of women at present deterred by what they know +of the manner in which our unjust laws now work.</p> + +<p>Secondly, Divorce Law Reform in the right interests of women and the +future must involve the complete protection of both from, for instance, +the drunken husband. The male inebriate is on all grounds unfitted to be +a father, and the laws of divorce must ensure that if he be married, his +wife and therefore the future shall be protected from him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span> Those of us +who believe in the movement for Women Suffrage will be grievously +disappointed if, when that movement at last succeeds, such fundamental +and urgent reforms as these are not promptly effected.</p> + +<p>A Royal Commission is now sitting in England upon this subject of +Divorce Law Reform, and I wish to repeat here with all the emphasis +possible what has been already said in indirect contribution to the +evidence laid before that Commission. It is that the first principle of +judgment in all such matters is the Eugenic one. Primarily marriage is +an invention for serving the future by buttressing motherhood with +fatherhood. The judgment of all our methods of marriage and divorce lies +with their products. "By their fruits ye shall know them." If there were +any antagonism between the interests of the individual and those of the +race we should indeed be in a quandary, but as I have shown a hundred +times there is no such antagonism. The man or woman from whom a divorce +ought to be obtained is <i>ipso facto</i> the man or woman who ought not to +be a parent.</p> + +<p>When it is a question of life or gold, we in England are consistent +Mammon worshippers. Woe to the poacher, but the wife beater has only +strained a right and may be leniently dealt with; woe to the destroyer +of pheasants, but the destruction of peasants is a detail. Thus it is +that the great fundamental questions which, because they determine the +destiny of peoples, are the great Imperial questions, are unknown even +by repute to our professed Imperialists. Every kind of industry except +the culture of the racial life interests<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span> them profoundly—if there is +money in it. The whole nation can go wild over a budget or the proposal +to revive protection, but the conditions under which the race is +recruited are the concern of but a few, who are looked upon as cranks. +In the case of such a question as our Divorce Laws the public is +substantially unaware that we are hundreds of years behind the rest of +the civilized world; that our practice is utterly unthought out, and +that the supposed compromise of Separation Orders is insane in principle +and hideous in result. The present law bears very hardly upon both sexes +in a thousand cases, but more especially upon women, toward whom it is +grossly unjust. All honour is due to the Divorce Law Reform Union,<a name="FNanchor_19" id="FNanchor_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> +which for many years has devoted itself to this important subject, and +has at last succeeded in obtaining the formation of a Royal Commission, +the upshot of which, we may hope, will be to reform our law on moral, +humane, and eugenic lines. The following is a striking quotation from a +pamphlet written on behalf of this Union by Mr. E. S. P. Haynes, a +distinguished expert.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"But our law of divorce is only one example among many of our +hide-bound attachment to ancient abuses. It is of the utmost +importance to realize that Divorce Law Reform will merely bring our +jurisprudence up to the level of the modern enlightened State. It +involves no revolutionary disturbance of anything but our crusted +ignorance of how modern civilization works outside England. It sets +out to place the family on a firmer basis, to regulate the marriage +contract on equitable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span> lines, and to improve the chances of the +future generation in a country where deserted wives fill the +work-houses and forty thousand illegitimate children are born every +year."</p></div> + +<p>In Germany, which we are always being asked to imitate in non-essentials +by the more stupid kind of Imperialist—the kind which only very strong +empires can survive—the law of divorce is vastly superior to ours. +There is no such thing as judicial separation, which "is rightly +condemned as being contrary to public policy." Further, as Mr. Haynes +points out, "In Germany a male cannot marry under twenty-one or a female +under eighteen, whether parental consent is available or not. In England +a man may and not infrequently does cut his wife and family out of his +will; in Germany the rights of wife and children are properly +safeguarded by limiting this liberty of disposition. In England a father +need not do more for his children than keep them out of the work-house +unless he has brought himself under Divorce Jurisdiction; in Germany he +is obliged to maintain them in a suitable manner. In England a +spendthrift or dipsomaniac can only be controlled when he has spent all +his money. In Germany such persons are protected from themselves by the +family council. In England an illegitimate child can never be +legitimated by the subsequent marriage of the parents. In Germany this +humane and reasonable opportunity of making reparation to the child +exists as a matter of course."</p> + +<p>Here in England we have one law for the rich and another for the poor, +for the average cost of a decree is about £100; and a case was recently +reported in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span> which a woman had saved up for twenty years in order to +obtain a divorce. What an absolutely abominable scandal; how hideously +beneath the level of practice amongst what we are pleased to call savage +peoples. As everyone knows, the present law directly encourages +immorality, pronouncing separation <i>without</i> the power of +re-marriage—that is to say, the greater punishment, for lesser +offences, and divorce <i>with</i> the power of re-marriage, that is to say, +the lesser punishment, for greater offences.</p> + +<p>Further, the law totally ignores the interests of the future in +conspicuous cases where one or other possible parent is hopelessly unfit +for such a function. In the interests not only of the individual but the +future it would be advisable to grant divorce to a person whose partner +had been confined in a lunatic asylum for, say five years, and who could +be certified as likely to remain insane permanently, or whose partner +had been confined in an Inebriates' Home for, say, two terms of one +year, or who could be proved and certified to be an incurable drunkard.</p> + +<p>We must abolish these atrocious Separation Orders, with their direct +promotion of every kind of immorality, illegitimacy and cruelty to +women. But perhaps this chapter may be brought to a close since in +England the matter is now before a Royal Commission, and since our +stupidities are of no direct interest to the American reader. It was +necessary, however, to deal with the subject because of its immediate +and urgent bearing upon many of the problems of Womanhood.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">296</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2><h3>THE RIGHTS OF MOTHERS</h3> +</div> + +<p>We reach here a central question which must be approached from the right +point of view or we shall certainly fail to solve it. That point of view +is the child's. There is a school of thought which approaches the +question otherwise—on abstract principles of justice and individual +independence. The only objection to them is that, if upheld on modern +conditions, these principles would soon leave us without anyone to +uphold them. The relation of the mother to the State is central and +fundamental, however considered, and the principles on which it must be +settled must, above all, be principles which are compatible with the +fundamental conditions on which States can endure.</p> + +<p>Those principles, surely, are two. The first is that in a State we are +members one of another, and that those who need help must be helped. +This will be indignantly repudiated by a stern school of thought, but +what if it applies, everywhere, always and above all, to children? They +are members of the community who need help and they must be helped. The +second principle is indeed only a special case of the first. It is that +if the State is to continue, it must rear children.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span></p> + +<p>We take it then, first, that the moral and social law is perfectly final +as to the right of every child to existence. There are no principles of +national welfare which can divorce us from the simple truth that we must +regard every human individual as sacred from the moment of its coming +into existence—and that is a long time before birth. A familiar medical +dogma is, "Keep everything alive." There may be exceptions to it, but it +is dangerous to discuss them with the unprepared. The only safe +principle is to maintain, as long as possible, the life of all—the +centenarian or the embryo conceived since the sun set. At times the +State deliberately takes life on behalf of life. The sentence of +execution passed upon the murderer may be warrantably passed by the +State of the future or its officers upon a monstrous birth, a baby +riddled with congenital syphilis or some such horrible fruit of our +present carelessness and wickedness in such matters. The State may +regard such children or their survival as illegitimate, since the laws +of nature as we see them at work throughout the living world do not +approve the survival of such. Apart from these cases, all children are +legitimate, and all children are natural. Whatever the history of the +reader's parents, he or she was assuredly both a legitimate child and a +natural child—a paradox which may be left to the solution of the +curious. Directly a new human being has been conceived, its right to +existence and survival may be conceded. Vast numbers of human beings are +conceived every year whose conception is a sin against themselves and +the State. That is a question on which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span> the present writer has written +and spoken incessantly for years, and which no one can accuse him of +neglecting. But here we have to deal with the facts of the world as they +are and as they will be for some time to come.</p> + +<p>All children are to be cared for. No child should die; there should be +no infant mortality; the children that are not fit to live should not be +conceived, and those that are fit to live should be allowed to live; all +children are legitimate. If the State has any kind of business at all, +this is its business.</p> + +<p>Our subject here, the reader may say, is not children, but woman and +womanhood. The reply is that unless we have our principles rightly +formulated, we cannot solve this question of the rights of women as +mothers. Failing our principles, we shall be reduced to the prejudices +which serve as principles for our political parties. We shall have +individualist and socialist at loggerheads, the friends of marriage and +its enemies, and many other opposing parties who cannot solve the +question for us because they have not waited first to discover its +fundamentals. The rights of mothers can be approached only from the +point of view of the rights of children. We may happen to believe, as +the present writer certainly does, that parents should be responsible +for their children. He once lectured for, and published the lectures in +association with, a body called the British Constitution Association, +which holds the same belief, but when he found as he did that protests +were raised against any suggestion to help children whose parents do not +do their duty, it became<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span> plain that principles which were right in a +merely secondary and conditional way were being made absolute and +fundamental. The fundamental is that the child shall be cared for; the +conditional and secondary principle is that this is best effected +through the parents. To say that if the parents will not do it, the +child must be left to starve, is immoral and indecent. Worse words than +those, if such exist, would be required to describe our neglect of +illegitimate infancy; our cruelty toward widows and orphans; our utterly +careless maintenance of the conditions which produce these hapless +beings in such vast numbers.</p> + +<p>If every child is sacred, every mother is sacred. If every child is to +be cared for, every mother must be cared for. It is true that we may +make experiment with devices for superseding the mother. Man has +impudent assurance enough for anything, and if Nature has been working +at the perfection of an instrument for her purpose during a few score +million years—an instrument such as the mammalian mother, for +instance—man is quite prepared to invent social devices, such as the +incubator, the <i>crèche</i>, the infant milk <i>dépôt</i>, and so forth; not +merely to make the best of a bad case when the mother fails, but to +supersede the mother altogether directly the baby is born. Such cases, +except in the last resort, are more foolish than words can say. We have +to save our children; we can only do so effectively through the +naturally appointed means for saving children, which is motherhood. The +rights of mothers follow as a necessary consequence from our first +principle, which was the rights of children. Because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span> every child must +be protected, every mother must be protected, if not in one way, in +another.</p> + +<p>The State may not be able to afford this. The necessities of existence +may be so difficult to obtain, not to mention for a moment such luxuries +as alcohol and motor-cars and warships and fine clothes and art, and so +forth, that no arrangements for the support of motherhood can be made. +If we lay down the proposition that no mother should work because she is +already doing the supreme work, it may be replied that this is +economically impossible; the thing cannot be done. The only reply to +this is that the State which cannot afford to provide rightly for the +means of its continuance had better discontinue, and must in any case +soon do so. Motherhood is rapidly declining as a numerical fact in +civilized communities generally. Not merely does the birth-rate fall +persistently and without the slightest regard to the commentators +thereon, but it will continue to do so for many years to come. In the +light of this fact the great argument of presidents and bishops, +politicians and journalists, moralists and social censors generally is +that somehow or other this decline must be arrested. To all of which one +replies, for the thousand and first time, that, whatever it ought to be, +it will not be arrested; that the really moral policy, the really human +one, and the only possible one, is to take care of the children that are +born. Then when we have abolished our infant and child mortality and +have solved the substantial problem of finding room for all new-comers, +having ceased to far more than decimate them, we may begin cautiously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">301</a></span> +to suggest that perhaps if the birth-rate were slightly to rise we might +be able to cope with the product. At present the disgraceful fact is not +the birth-rate, but what we do with the birth-rate; though more +disgraceful perhaps are the blindness and ignorance and assurance of the +host of commentators in high places who waste their time and ours in +animadverting upon a fact—the falling birth-rate—which is a necessary +condition and consequence of organic progress, whilst the motherhood we +have is so urgently in need of protection and idealization in the minds +of the people.</p> + +<p>We have reached the conclusion that all motherhood is to be protected. +This means that from some source or other the money shall be forthcoming +for the maintenance of the mother and her children. For, in the first +place, the children are not to work because, if they do, they will not +be able to work as they should in the future. The State cannot afford to +let them work. Further, the proper care of childhood is so continuous +and exacting a task, and of such supreme moment, that it is the highest +and foremost work that can be named; and therefore, in the second place, +she whose business it is must not be hampered by having to do anything +else. If any labourer is worthy of his hire, she is. Her economic +security must be absolute. She must be as safe as the Bank of England, +because England and its banks stand or fall with her. In the rightly +constituted State, if there be any one at all whose provision and +maintenance are absolutely secure, it will be the mothers. Whoever else +has financial anxiety, they shall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span> have none. Any State that can afford +to exist can afford to see to this. No economist can inform me what +proportion of the labour and resources of England are at this moment +devoted to the means of life, and what proportion to superfluities, +luxuries and the means of death. But it is a very simple matter with +which the reader, who is doubtless a better arithmetician than I am, may +amuse himself, to estimate the number of married women of reproductive +age in the community, and allowing anything in reason for illegitimate +motherhood and nothing at all for infertile wives, to satisfy himself +that the total cost which would be involved in the adequate care of +motherhood, is a mere fraction of the national expenditure. Few of us +realize how extraordinary and how unprecedented is the margin of +security for existence which modern civilization affords. A savage +community may have scarcely any margin at all. The same may be true of +many primitive communities which cannot be called savage. They maintain +life under such conditions, whether in Greenland or in a thousand other +parts of the world, that they cannot afford to labour for anything which +is not bread. The primary necessities of existence take all their +getting. Some transient accident of weather or the balance of Nature in +the sea or in the fields imperils the existence of the whole community. +They, at any rate, are wise enough to take good care of their women and +children. But in civilization we have an enormous margin of security. +Not only are we dependent on no local crop or harvest, but the getting +of necessities has become so effective and secure that we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span> are able to +spend a vast amount of our time and energy on the production of luxuries +and evils. How little, then, is our excuse if we fail to provide the +first conditions for continuance and progress!</p> + +<p>Our first principles of the value of the child and therefore of +motherhood are unchallengeable, nor will anyone nowadays be found to +question that neither children nor mothers should work in the ordinary +sense of that word, since the proper work of children who are to work +well when they grow up is play, and since the mother's natural work is +the most important that she can perform. It remains, then, for us to +determine by whom mothers and children in the modern and future State +are to be provided for.</p> + +<p>The conditions of mothers are various, and we shall best approach the +problem by the consideration of different cases.</p> + +<p>The simplest is that of the widowed mother who is without means. It is +only too common a case, and we have already seen certain causes which +contribute to the enormous number of widows in the community. Men do not +live as long as women, and men are older when they marry. These natural +causes of widowhood, as they may be called, are greatly aggravated by +the destructive influence of alcohol upon fatherhood, as will be shown +in the chapter dealing with alcohol and womanhood.</p> + +<p>On the individualistic theory of the State, a theory so brutal and so +impracticable that no one consistently upholds it, the widow's +misfortune is her private affair, but does not really concern us. Her +husband<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">304</a></span> should have provided for her. Indeed she should, and indeed we +should have seen that he did. But if he and we failed in our duty to +her, the consequences must be met. The hour is at hand when the State +will discover that children are its most precious possessions, more +precious as they grow scarcer, and efficient support will then be +forthcoming, as a matter of course, for the widowed mother and her +children. The feature which will distinguish this support from any past +or present provision will be that it recognizes the natural sanctity and +the natural economy of the relation between mother and children. It will +be agreed not merely that the children must be provided for, but that +they must be provided for through her. The current device is to divorce +mother and children. "Whom God hath joined together, let no man put +asunder," is quoted by many against the divorce of a married pair whom, +as is plain, not God but the devil has joined together; but the +principle of that quotation verily applies to the natural and divine +association of mother and children.</p> + +<p>If, then, the State is to provide in future for all widowed mothers and +their children, husbands need no longer trouble to insure or make +provision for them. Such is the proper criticism. The reply to it is +that the State will have to see to it that, in future, husbands <i>do</i> +take this trouble. To this we shall return.</p> + +<p>Next we may consider the case of the unmarried mother and her +"illegitimate" child or children. Here, again, the child must be cared +for, and the care of the child is the work which has been imposed upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span> +the mother. We must enable her to do it, nor must we countenance the +monstrous and unnatural folly, injurious to both and therefore to us, of +separating them. Napoleon, desirous of food for powder, forbade the +search for the father in such a case, though the French are now seeking +to abrogate that abominable decree. Our law recognizes that the father +is responsible, and under it he may be made to pay toward the upkeep of +the child. Some contemporary writers on the endowment of motherhood are +advocating changes which would make this law absurd, for they are +seeking to free the married father from any responsibility for his +children, and could scarcely impose it upon the unmarried father. Such +proposals, however, are palpable reversions to something much lower and +æons older in the history of life than mere barbarism, and I have no +fear of their success. Assuredly the unmarried father must be held +responsible; and no less certainly must we see to it that, with or +without his help, the unmarried mother and her children are adequately +provided for. The present death-rate amongst illegitimate children is a +scandal of the first order and must be ended. If we are wise, our +provision will involve protecting ourselves against the need for new +provision, especially where the mother is feeble-minded or otherwise +defective, as is so often the case: but provision there must be.</p> + +<p>Finally, we come to the central problem of the mother who has a living +husband in employment. It is the case of the working classes that really +concerns us, not least because the greater part of the birth-rate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span> comes +therefrom. It is the contemporary settling-down of the birth-rate in +this class, combined with the novel consequences of modern +industrialism, especially in the form of married women's labour, that +makes the question so important. Before we go any further, the +proposition may be laid down that married women's labour, as it commonly +exists, is an intolerable evil, condemned already by our first +principles. It need scarcely be said that one is not here referring to +the labours of the married woman who writes novels or designs +fashion-plates. There is no condemnation of any kind of labour, in the +home or outside it, if the condition be complied with, that it does not +prejudice the inalienable first charge upon the mother's time and +energy. Her children are that first charge. It may perfectly well be, +and often is, chiefly though not exclusively in the more fortunate +classes, that the mother may earn money by other work without prejudice +to her motherhood. Such cases do not concern us, but we are urgently +concerned with married women's labour in the ordinary sense of the term, +which means that the mother goes out to tend some lifeless machine, +whilst her children are left at home to be cared far anyhow or not at +all. No student of infant mortality or the conditions of child life and +child survival in general has any choice but to condemn this whole +practice as evil, root and branch. And from the national and economic +point of view it may be said that whatever the mother makes in the +factory is of less value than the children who consequently die at home. +The culture of the racial life is the vital industry of any people, and +any industry that involves its destruction and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">307</a></span> needs the conditions +which make up that destruction, is one which the country cannot afford, +whatever its merely monetary balance-sheet. A complete balance-sheet, +with its record of children slain, would only too readily demonstrate +this.</p> + +<p>Our right attitude toward married women's labour must depend upon a +right understanding of the social meaning of marriage. This was a +question which had to be dealt with at length in a previous volume and I +can only state here in a word, what was the conclusion come to. It was +that marriage is a device for supporting and buttressing motherhood by +fatherhood. Its mark is that it provides for <i>common parental care of +offspring</i>. A more prosaic way of stating the case would be that +marriage is a device for making the father responsible. If we go far +back in the history of the animal world, we find mating but not +marriage. The father's function is purely physiological, transient and +wholly irresponsible. The whole burden of caring for offspring, when +first there comes to be need for that care, in the history of organic +progress, falls upon the mother. But even amongst the fishes we find +that sometimes, as in the case of the stickleback, the father helps the +mother to build a sort of nest, and does "sentry-go" outside it to keep +off marauders. In this common care of the young we see what is in all +essentials marriage, though some may prefer to dignify the word by +confining it to those human associations which have been blessed by +Church and State, even though the father throws the baby at the mother, +or sends her into the streets to earn her bread and his beer.</p> + +<p>If some of our modern reformers knew any biology,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">308</a></span> or even happened to +visit a music-hall where the biograph was showing scenes of bird-life, +they would learn that the human arrangement whereby the father goes out +and forages for mother and children has roots in hoary antiquity. The +pity is that there is no one to point the moral to the crowd when the +father-bird is seen returning with delicacies for the mother, who tends +her nest and its occupants.</p> + +<p>The reader will already have anticipated the conclusion, to which, as I +see it, the study of the fundamental laws of life must lead the +sociologist in this case. It is that the duty of the father is to +support the mother and children, and that the duty of the State is to +see that he does this.</p> + +<p>Thus, if asked whether I believe in the endowment of motherhood, I +reply, yes, indeed, I believe in the endowment of motherhood by the +corresponding fatherhood. If our first principles are sound, we must +believe that the mother must be endowed or provided for; there can be no +difference of opinion so far. Often, as we have seen, there is no +corresponding fatherhood, for the mother may be a widow, or unmarried +and unable to find the father. But where the corresponding fatherhood +exists, we fly directly in the face of Nature, we deny the consistent +teaching of evolution as the study of sub-human life reveals it to us, +if we do not turn to the father and say, this is your act, for which you +are responsible.</p> + +<p>At all times the community has been entitled to say this to the father. +It is even more entitled to say so now, when, as everyone knows, +parenthood has come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">309</a></span> so entirely under the sway of human volition. The +more knowledge and power the more responsibility. The more important the +deed, the more responsible must we hold the doer. The time has come when +fatherhood, whether within marriage or without it, must be reckoned a +deliberate, provident, foreseen, all-important, responsible act, for +which the father must always be held to account.</p> + +<p>On a recent public occasion, having endeavoured to show that the history +of animal evolution teaches us the increasing importance and dignity of +fatherhood, I was asked whether I had any argument in favour of parental +responsibility. To this the fitting reply seemed to be that, primarily, +I believe in parental responsibility because I believe in human +responsibility. It need hardly be said that the questioner belonged to +that important political party which loathes the idea of paternal +responsibility and styles it a "fetish." Without it none of us would be +here. Yet the Socialists are less likely than any other party to abandon +the idea of human responsibility. They propose to hold men responsible +for the remoter effects of their acts—upon the present—as no other +party does. The maker of money is held to account for his deeds and +their effect upon the life around him. I agree with the principle: but I +maintain that the maker of men is also to be held to account for his +deeds and their effect upon the future and the life of this world to +come. No Socialist can afford to question the practical political +principle that men are to be held responsible for their deeds: and no +Socialist can explain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span> the sudden and unexplained abandonment of this +principle when we come to the most important of all a man's deeds. To be +consistent, the Socialist should uphold the doctrine of a man's +responsibility for the remoter consequences of his acts in this supreme +sphere, more earnestly and thoughtfully and providently than any of his +opponents.</p> + +<p>The position of those who would free the father from responsibility is +even less defensible when, as we commonly find, they are prepared to +make the mother's responsibility more extensive and less avoidable than +ever. Why this distinction? And if parental responsibility is a "fetish" +when it refers to a father, why is it not the same when it refers to a +mother? In the schemes of Mr. H. G. Wells, kaleidoscopic in their +glitter and inconsistency, there remains from year to year this one +permanent element, that while the mother must attend to her business, it +is no business of the father. This is the essential feature, the one +novelty of his scheme. Already the married mother—he proposes nothing +for the unmarried mother—is legally entitled to some measure of +support. His endowment of motherhood is essentially a <i>discharge of +fatherhood</i>, and should be so called. There can be no compromise, +nothing but a fight to the finish, between the principle of endowing +motherhood by making fatherhood less responsible, and the principle here +fought for, of endowing motherhood by making fatherhood more +responsible. As Nature has been doing so, in the main line of progress +for many millions of years,—a statement not of interpretation or theory +but of observed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span> fact—I have no fear of the ultimate issue. But it +might well be that any portion of mankind, perhaps a portion ill to be +spared, should destroy itself by an attempt to run counter to the great +principle of progress here stated. There is an abundance of men who will +be very happy to side with Mr. Wells. Men have never been wanting, in +any time or place, who were happy to gratify their instincts without +having to answer for the consequences; and it has always been the first +issue of any society that was to endure, to see that they did not have +their way: hence human marriage. The "endowment of motherhood" sounds as +if it were a scheme greatly for the benefit of women. Let them beware. +Let them begin to think of, not the remoter, but the immediate and +obvious consequences of any such schemes as are proffered by the overt +or covert enemies of marriage, and they will quickly perceive that <i>the +last way in which to secure the rights of women is to abrogate the +duties of men</i>. The support allotted to such schemes as these is not +feminine but masculine. That is the impression I derive from discussions +following lectures on the subject; and that is what I should expect, +judging from the natural tendencies of men, and the profound intuition +of women in such matters. And, conversely, the opposition to such +principles as are expressed here, and embodied in the "Women's Charter," +will be masculine. But woman has been civilizing man from the beginning, +and she will have her way here also—for, in the last resort, not merely +youth, but the Unborn must be served.</p> + +<p>Before we consider the alternative suggestions that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">312</a></span> some are making, +and proceed to indicate how the paternal endowment of motherhood can be +enforced in every class, as public opinion practically enforces it in +the upper and middle classes, let us meet the objection that, if +fatherhood is to be made so serious an act, and if so much +self-sacrifice is to be exacted from those who undertake it, the +marriage-rate and the birth-rate will fall more rapidly. And as regards +the marriage-rate, the answer is that marriage and parenthood are not +inseparable, a proposition which might be much amplified if a writer who +wishes to be heard could afford to have the courage of everybody's +convictions. But already, in the middle classes, men limit their +families to the number they can support. They simply practise +responsible fatherhood, and the mothers and children are protected. On +what moral grounds this is to be condemned, no one has yet told us.</p> + +<p>And as regards the effect of more stringent responsibility for +fatherhood upon the birth-rate, it must be replied, for the thousandth +time in this connection, that the question for a nation is not how many +babies are born, but how many survive. The idea of a baby is that it +shall grow up and become a citizen; if babies remained babies people +would soon cease to complain about the fall in the birth-rate. But, in +point of fact, a vast number of babies and children are unnecessarily +slain, and if we could suddenly arrest the whole of this slaughter, the +increase of population would become so formidable that everyone would +deplore the unmanageable height of the birth-rate. Its present fall is +quite incapable of arrest, and is perfectly compatible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span> with as rapid an +increase of population as any one could desire. We must arrest the +destruction of so much of the present birth-rate, so that it means +nought for the future. By nothing else will this arrest be so +accelerated as by those very measures for making fatherhood more +responsible for the care of motherhood, which are here advocated. Let it +be freely granted that these measures will lower the birth-rate. Much +more will they lower the infant mortality and child death-rate, and +diminish the permanent damaging of vast multitudes of children who +escape actual destruction.</p> + +<p>And now we can turn to those proposals which have lately been revived by +one or two popular writers in England, for the endowment of motherhood +by the State, leaving the fathers in peace to spend their earnings as +they please, whilst others support their children. Detailed criticism is +not needed, for the details to criticize are not forthcoming, and the +opinions on principles and on details of these imaginative writers are +never twice the same. It suffices that proposals such as these, apart +from their vagueness and their obvious impracticability in any form, are +directly condemned by the fundamental principle that a man shall be +responsible for his acts. The endowment of motherhood, as Mr. Wells +means it, is simply a phrase for making men responsible for their +neighbours' acts and for striking hard and true at the root principle of +all marriage, human or sub-human, which is the common parental care of +offspring. Reference is made to this proposal here, not that it really +needs criticism, but in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span> order that one may be clearly excluded from any +participation in such proposals.</p> + +<p>The difference between such schemes for the endowment of motherhood and +the proposal here advocated is that those seek to endow the mother by +making the father less responsible—or, rather, wholly +irresponsible—while this seeks to endow her by making the father more +responsible. The whole verdict of the ages is, as we have seen, on the +side of this principle. It has been practised for æons, and it is the +aim of sound legislation and practice everywhere to-day.</p> + +<p>As has been admitted, the more we express this principle, the lower will +fall, not necessarily the marriage-rate, but the parent-rate; fewer men +will become fathers, <i>but they will be fitter</i>. There will be fewer +children born, but they will be children planned, desired and loved in +anticipation, as every child should be, and will be in the golden +future. These children will not die, but survive; nor will their +development be injured by early malnutrition and neglect. The believer +in births as births will not be gratified, but there will be abundance +of gratification for the believer in births as means to ends.</p> + +<p>The practical working-out of our principle is no more difficult than +might be expected if it be remembered that we are counselling nothing +revolutionary nor even novel. The demand simply is that the practice +which obtains among the more fortunate classes shall be made universal, +and that the State shall see that all fathers who can, do their duty. +The State will be quite busy and well employed in this task, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">315</a></span> may +legitimately be allotted to it even on the strictly individualist and +Spencerian principles, that the maintenance of justice is alone the +State's province. We allot a great function to the State, but deny that +it can rightly or safely set the father aside and perform his duty for +him.</p> + +<p>The kind of means whereby the rights of mothers may be granted them is +indicated in the Women's Charter which has lately been formulated and +advocated by Lady Maclaren. The principle there recognized is that the +husband's wages are not solely his own earnings, but are in part handed +to him to be passed on to his wife. Directly children are concerned, the +State should be.</p> + +<p>Whatever the answer to the crudely-stated question, "Should Wives have +Wages?" it is certain that mothers should and must have wages or their +equivalent.</p> + +<p>To many of the well-wishers of women it is disappointing that the +Women's Charter is not more keenly supported by women themselves. +Unfortunately the suffrage has become a fetish, the mere means has +become an end, preferred even to the offer of the real ends, such as +would be attained in very large measure by this Charter. We see here, it +is to be feared, the same spirit which protests against the wisest and +most humane legislation in the interests of women and children because +"men have no business to lay down the law for women."</p> + +<p>In general terms, one would argue that the principle of insurance must +be applied to this case, as it is now voluntarily applied by thousands +of provident fathers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span> Here the State may guarantee and help, even by +the expenditure of money. It should help those who help themselves. This +is a principle which may apply to many forms of insurance or provision, +whether for old age or against invalidity; just as non-contributory +old-age provisions are fundamentally wrong in principle, and have never +been defended on any but party-political grounds of expedience, even by +their advocates, so the "endowment of motherhood" which meant the +complete liberation of fatherhood from its responsibilities would be +wrong in principle. But in both of these cases the State might rightly +undertake to help those who help themselves.</p> + +<p>Fatherhood of the new order will not be so wholly irksome and unrewarded +as might at first appear to the critic who does not reckon children as +rewards themselves. It may involve some momentary sacrifices, but it +needs very little critical study of the ordinary man's expenditure to +discover that, on the whole, these sacrifices will be more apparent than +real. It is, for instance, a very great sacrifice indeed for the smoker +to give up tobacco; but once he has done so, he is as happy as he was, +and suffers nothing at all for the gain of his pocket. Both as regards +alcohol and tobacco, the common expenditure which would so amply provide +milk and the rest for children, is necessitated by an acquired habit +which, like all acquired habits, can be discarded. The non-smoker and +non-drinker does <i>not</i> suffer the discomfort of the smoker and drinker +who is deprived of his need. These things cease to be needs at all, soon +after they are dispensed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span> with, or if the habit of taking them is never +begun. They are luxuries only to those who use them. To those who do not +they are nothing, and the lack of them is nothing. The sheer waste they +entail is gigantic, and the expenditure on them in such a country as +England would endow all its motherhood and provide good conditions for +all its children. The father who, in the future, is compelled to yield +the rights of mothers and children, may sometimes be compelled to +practise what at first looks like great self-restraint in these +respects. The point I wish to make is that the sacrifice and the need +for restraint are transient, and that thereafter there is simply more +liberty and the promise of longer life for the wise.</p> + +<p>The working-out will be that the legislation of the future will benefit +the right kind of husband and father, but will restrain and irk the +wrong kind. But that is precisely what good legislation should do. Thus +the right kind of father, who in any case will do his best to care for +his wife and children, will be helped in the future by the State. It +will insist that he does the duty which in any case he means to do, but +it will make the doing easier. We see admirably working parallels to +this in the German insurance laws and their provision for death, disease +and old age. They benefit those whom they appear to harass. Insurance +against fatherhood will work in the same way. The State will not be +antagonistic to the father, but will be his best friend, knowing that +<i>its</i> best friends are good fathers and mothers. There will be far less +worry and anxiety for well-meaning parents, especially for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">318</a></span> mothers, but +also for fathers. Nor do I, for one, much mind how substantial may be +the State's contribution to the father's efforts, provided only that +those efforts are demanded and obtained.</p> + +<p>Nothing is more certain than that we are about to free ourselves from +the crass blindness of the nineteenth century in its great delusion that +the wealth of a nation consists in the number of things it makes and +possesses. Parenthood and childhood will shortly come to be recognized +as the first concern of the State that is to continue, and whilst the +birth-rate continues to fall, the honour paid to fathers and mothers +will continue to rise. We shall become as wise in time as the Jews have +been ever since we have record of them. We shall estimate the relative +value of these things as well as if we were the kinds of people we call +"Savages." Fatherhood will not be such an uncompensated sacrifice in +those days, even apart from its inherent rewards.</p> + +<p>The point I am trying to make is that the legislation and the social +changes here advocated as necessary in the interests of women, and +indeed asserted to be their rights, do not involve any injury to men. +This common delusion is a mere instance of the poisonous principle of +politicians, notably fiscal politicians, and of many business men. Their +belief is that what benefits Germany must hurt England, that what hurts +Germany must benefit England, that all trade is a question of somebody +scoring off another or being scored off. The idea that there are great +games in which both sides stand to win, if they "play the game," is +meaningless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">319</a></span> to them. That German prosperity can favour English +prosperity, that true commerce is a mutual exchange for mutual +benefit—these are notions obviously absurd to people who think on this +horrible assumption which reigns unchallenged in a thousand columns of +fiscal controversy every morning. And when these people turn to the +question of legislation as between the sexes, they naturally assume that +anything which promises to benefit women will injure men. The vote is +thus regarded as a means of injuring men—necessarily, because it +advantages women—and assuredly such people will suppose that any +measures in the direction of granting what I here prefer to call the +"rights of mothers" (leaving to one side the "rights of women"), +necessarily involve a proportionate disadvantage to men. I deny it +utterly:</p> + +<p> +The woman's cause is man's: they rise or sink<br /> +Together, dwarfed or God-like, bond or free.<br /> +</p> + +<p>The rights of mothers, we have seen, are fundamental for any society, +and to satisfy them is to meet the most clearly primary of social needs. +But there will be some readers of this book, perhaps, who miss any +discussion of the "rights of women." I do not care for the phrase, +because I do not think that we often see it usefully employed. For me +the propositions are self-evident that men and women, being human +beings, have the rights of human beings. Each of us has the right to the +conditions of the most complete self-development and expression that is +compatible with the granting of the same right to others. It is true +that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">320</a></span> women have been largely debarred from these conditions as a sex, +and in so far there is some meaning in the phrase "Women's rights." But +otherwise we all agree that men and women alike have the right which has +just been stated in terms that are a paraphrase of Herbert Spencer's +definition of liberty. Men's rights and women's rights are the rights to +"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." If any one disputes the +application of this principle to women as unreservedly as to men, I will +not argue with him. I write for decent people.</p> + +<p>At this stage in the development of civilization, our business is to +see, first, that our social proceedings and reconstructions of +enterprises are compatible with the nature of the human individual, male +and female. It is always necessary for us to be reminded of the facts of +the individual, for in the last resort they will determine the failure +or the success of all our schemes. And then we must see where our +existing social structure fails to satisfy the needs of individual +development and of individual duty. In seeking to rectify what may here +be wrong, of course we must take first things first—we must set the +case right for the most important people before we go on to the others.</p> + +<p>Now it is the simple, obvious truth,—so obvious and unchallengeable +that somehow it has never been stated—that in any human society the +parents are the most important people. The division is not between +education and the lack of it, or wealth and the lack of it, or breeding +and the lack of it. It is not the aristocracy that matters supremely; +nor the "great middle-class";<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span> nor the masses; nor the teachers; nor the +doctors; nor the servants of modern industrialism. The classification is +a biological one—into parents and non-parents. The non-parents may be +invaluable in their way, if only they beget something that is valuable. +Heaven forbid that I should undervalue the children of the mind. But if +we are to classify any nation, the first and last classification of any +moment is none of those in which we always indulge and which all our +customs and traditions and prejudices are ever seeking to perpetuate; +but the classification into those who will die childless and those who +create the future race. That is why, for me at any rate, the subject of +women's rights is jejune and sterile compared with the subject of this +chapter. First let us ascertain the rights of mothers and grant them, to +the very uttermost; then let us do the same for the fathers. Let us +exact of each the corresponding duties; and the next generation, brought +into being under such conditions, will solve all our problems. But +whilst we neglect the first things we shall permanently solve no problem +at all. We may seem to do so, but if we dishonour parenthood, if we +leave the inferior women to mother the future, the degenerate race that +must ensue will find itself in difficulties compared with which ours are +trivial, and our solutions of them impotent.</p> + +<p>That is why I seek to draw attention to the rights not of women as +women,—for neither men nor women have any peculiar rights as men or +women—nor yet to the rights of wives as wives, but to the rights of +mothers as mothers, whether married or unmarried,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">322</a></span> whether husbanded or +widowed. The rights of women are the rights of human beings, and no +special concern of a writer on woman and womanhood, paradoxical as the +assertion may be. The rights of wives are often discussed, but I +question whether the discussion ever helped a wife yet, except solely in +the matter of her monetary claims upon her husband. Discussion and +public opinion and consequent legislation can effect, and have effected, +something for wives as wives in this matter. In other matters, much more +vital to their happiness, each case is unique because all individuals +are unique; and the discussion of the questions can amount to no more +than futile and obvious platitude.</p> + +<p>But when motherhood is concerned the monetary question becomes worthy of +the adjective economic, so often prostituted, for the making of future +life depends upon the provision of adequate means. The whole essence of +motherhood is that it is a dedication of the present to the future. +Every mother is in the position of the inventor or the poet or the +musician for whose work the present makes no demand and no payment. The +future is being served, but the future is not there to pay. The rights +of mothers are the rights of the future, and its claims upon the +present.</p> + +<p>It can be abundantly shown that increasing prevision or provision marks +the ascent of organic Nature; that as life ascends the present is more +and more dedicated to the future. The completeness of this dedication is +the most exemplary fact of the many which the bee-hive provides for our +instruction and following. Consider<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">323</a></span> the dedication of the hive to the +queen. Realize that she is not in any way the ruler of the hive, but she +is <i>the only mother in it</i>. She is the parent, and, on our principles, +she is therefore the most important person in the hive. No one else has +any rights but to serve her, for the future absolutely depends upon her. +So does the future of our society depend upon its mothers. In our +species there are many and not one, as in the bee-hive. If there were +just one individual who was to be the mother of the next generation, +even our politicians would perceive that she was the most important +person in the community, and that her rights were supreme. But the +principle stands, though, as it happens, human mothers are not one in +each generation, but many. They are in our society what the queen bee is +in the hive, and the future will transcend the present and the past just +in so far as they are well-chosen, and well cared for.</p> + +<p>To the best of my belief this principle has not yet been recognized by +any one. The rights of women and the rights of wives are often +discussed, but the rights of mothers is a term expressing a principle +which is not to be called new, only because in the bee-hive, for +instance, we see it expressed and inerrably served.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it may be permitted to close with a personal reminiscence which, +at any rate, bears on the genesis of this chapter. Some nine years ago +when I was resident-surgeon to the Edinburgh Maternity Hospital, I +proposed to get up a concert for the patients on Boxing Day, and on +asking permission of the distinguished obstetrician who was in supreme +charge, was met with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">324</a></span> the question, "Do they deserve it?" After several +seconds there slowly dawned the fact which I knew but had long +forgotten, that the mothers in the large ward where the music was +proposed, were all unmarried, and finally I answered, "I don't know." +Nor do I know to this day, and though the answer was given in weakness +and in a disconcerted voice, I doubt whether any wiser one could be +framed. We all know what desert means, and merit and credit, until we +begin to think and study: and we end by discovering that we do not know +what, in the last analysis, these terms mean. But, at any rate, these +women,—one of them, I remember, was a child of fourteen—were mothers, +and whatever favoured their convalescence unquestionably made for the +survival of their babies. It might have been argued that if the patients +did not deserve music, they did not deserve the air and light and food +and skill and kindness with which they were being restored to health. +But it is not a question of deserts. These women were mothers. If they +should not have been, they should not have been, and if the blame was +theirs, they were blameworthy. But mothers they were, with the duties +of mothers to perform, and therefore with the rights of mothers. They +got their concert and were all the better for the remarkably indifferent +music of which it consisted, as such concerts commonly do; and I am only +very sorry if any of them argued therefrom that she had nothing in the +past to regret.</p> + +<p>But the spiritual attitude revealed in the question, "Do they deserve +it?" is one which must speedily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span> go to its own place. Let us strive to +dignify marriage, to educate the young of both sexes for parenthood, to +reduce illegitimacy, to reward virtue. But where there is motherhood in +being, whether expectant or achieved, we have a duty which is the +highest and most sacred of all because it is the Future that we are +called upon to serve, and upon us it wholly depends.</p> + +<p>As Mr. John Burns said to our first Infant Mortality Conference in Great +Britain in 1907, "Let us dignify, purify and glorify motherhood by every +means in our power." Evidently this can only be done through marriage, +which is in its very essence an institution for the dignifying of +motherhood. But a biological writer cannot distinguish as a theologian +can between legal and extra-legal motherhood. He may declare that +motherhood is hideously illegitimate when it is forced upon a wife +married to an inebriate degenerate. He may accept marriage with all his +heart as an institution which for him has natural sanctions millions of +years older than any Church or State or mankind itself. But for him as a +student of life all motherhood must be guarded as such—even if it be +guarded in such a fashion that it can never recur, which is our duty to +the feeble-minded mother.</p> + +<p>If there be any reader who is unacquainted with M. Maeterlinck's "Life +of the Bee," let him or her study that instructive book. Let him ask why +the queen is the End of the hive, why all is for her. Let him ask +whether the natural law upon which this depends—the law that all +individuals are mortal—does not apply to all races, even our own, and +perhaps he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">326</a></span> will come to agree that the rights of mothers are the oldest +and deepest and most necessary of any rights that can be named.</p> + +<p>And the recognition and granting of them—as they must necessarily be +recognized and granted in every living race that depends upon +motherhood—is even more imperative in our case than in any other, since +human motherhood makes more demands upon the individual than any other. +By our constitution we human beings must devote more of our energies to +the Future than any other race. But it is a Future better worth working +for than any of theirs.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">327</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2><h3>WOMEN AND ECONOMICS</h3> +</div> + +<p>It will be evident that the writer of the foregoing chapter must have +something to say on the question of women and economics, but though what +must be said seems to me to be very important, it can be stated at no +great length.</p> + +<p>If we turn to the most widely-read and applauded of the feminist books +on this subject, <i>Women and Economics</i>, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we +are by no means encouraged to find it stated in the first chapter that +woman's present economic inferiority to man is not due to "any inherent +disability of sex." Wherever Mrs. Gilman may be right, here the +biologist knows that she is wrong. The argument has been fully stated in +earlier pages, and need not here be restated. But we shall not be +surprised if a premise which denies any natural economic disadvantage of +women leads to more than dubious conclusions.</p> + +<p>Only a few pages later, Mrs. Gilman refers to the argument that the +economic dependence of women upon their husbands is defensible on the +ground that they perform the duties of motherhood, and the following is +her comment thereon:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The claim of motherhood as a factor in economic exchange is false +to-day. But suppose it were true. Are we willing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span> to hold this +ground, even in theory? Are we willing to consider motherhood as a +business, a form of commercial exchange? Are the cares and duties +of the mother, her travail and her love, commodities to be +exchanged for bread?</p> + +<p>"It is revolting so to consider them; and if we dare face our own +thoughts, and force them to their logical conclusion, we shall see +that nothing could be more repugnant to human feeling, or more +socially and individually injurious, than to make motherhood a +trade."</p></div> + +<p>Surely this is special pleading and not very plausible at that. It may +be replied, "Is not the labourer worthy of his hire?"—however noble the +labour. If we choose to call society's or a husband's support of +motherhood "a form of commercial exchange," it is indeed "revolting" so +to see it; let us then look at the case as it is. We applaud the "cares +and duties of the mother, her travail and her love"; but the more +assiduous her maternity, and the more admirable, the more certainly will +she require to be fed. If she cannot simultaneously feed her child and +forage for herself, somebody must forage for her; and to say that +therefore the cares and duties of the mother, her travail and her love, +become commodities to be exchanged for bread, is simply to cloud a clear +case with question-begging epithets. Always, everywhere, if motherhood +is to be performed at its highest, the mother must be supported. It is +not a question of commercial exchange, but of obvious natural necessity. +The foregoing chapter with its argument for the rights of mothers as a +great and neglected social principle, may be unsound throughout, but it +will certainly not be refuted by sentences such as these.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span></p> + +<p>Briefly, Mrs. Gilman proposes to "do away with the family kitchen and +dining-room, to transform all domestic service from the incapable, +hand-to-mouth standard of untrained amateurs to that of professional +experts, to raise the work of child nursing and rearing to a scientific +and skilled basis, to secure the self-support of the wife and mother +through skilled labour, so that she may be economically independent of +her husband."</p> + +<p>But if her child nursing and rearing are to be scientific and skilled, +and she is simultaneously to support herself through skilled labour, she +clearly requires to be two women or one woman in two places at the same +time. This, in effect, is what Mrs. Gilman expects. We have seen that +Mr. H. G. Wells's proposed help for motherhood consists in discharging +fatherhood from its duties: Mrs. Gilman's idea is to double the mother's +work. Both come to much the same thing.</p> + +<p>All women, mothers or other, are to become economically independent, +instead of being "parasitic on the male," our author's unpleasing way of +recognizing that fatherhood has reached high and responsible estate +amongst mankind. Now if Mrs. Gilman's solution be feasible, we must +return to our fundamentals and see whether they are compatible with it. +She has no doubt of it. Thus:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"If it could be shown that the women of to-day were growing beards, +were changing as to pelvic bones, were developing bass voices, or +that in their new activities they were manifesting the destructive +energy, the brutal combative instinct, or the intense sex-vanity of +the male, then there would be cause for alarm. But the one thing +that has been shown in what study<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">330</a></span> we have been able to make of +women in industry is that they are women still, and this seems to +be a surprise to many worthy souls ... 'the new woman' will be no +less female than the 'old' woman ... she will be, with it all, more +feminine.</p> + +<p>"The more freely the human mother mingles in the natural industries +of a human creature, as in the case of the savage woman, the +peasant woman, the working-woman everywhere who is not overworked, +the more rightly she fulfils these functions."<a name="FNanchor_20" id="FNanchor_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p></div> + +<p>We may not be so sure that there is not some evidence for "growing +beards," "developing bass voices," and "manifesting the destructive +energy, the brutal combative instinct, or the intense sex-vanity of the +male"; and in our brief attempt to make a first study of womanhood in +the light of Mendelism, we have seen good reason to understand why +masculine characters may come to the surface in the female whose +femininity has worn thin. Several of the lower animals definitely show +us the possibilities.</p> + +<p>But we need not accept the issue on the grounds of such superficial +manifestations as these, for there are others, more subtle and vastly +more important, on which must be fought the question whether women in +industry are women still, and whether the "new woman" is more feminine +than the old. Let us dismiss the extremes in both directions. We need +not adduce the members of the Pioneer Club, who show their increasing +femininity by donning male attire; nor need we question that large +numbers of women in industry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span> continue to remain feminine still. The +practical question which we must determine, if possible, is the average +effect of industrial conditions and the assumption of the functions +commonly supposed to be more suitably masculine, upon women in general. +Here we definitely join issue with Mrs. Gilman.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to discuss, as we might well do, the available evidence +as to the effect of external activities upon that wonderful function of +womanhood which, in its correspondence with the rhythm of the tides, +hints, like many other of our attributes, at our distant origin in the +Sea—the mother of all living. Reference was made in an earlier chapter +to this function, and its use as, in most cases at any rate, a criterion +of womanhood and a gauge of the effect of physical exercise or mental +exercise thereupon. The writer of "Women and Economics" has nothing to +say on this subject—less, if possible, than on the subject of +lactation. The menstrual function would admirably and fundamentally +illustrate the present contention, but it will be better to take the +great maternal and mammalian function of nursing as a criterion of +womanhood, and as a test of the contention that the more freely the +mother works as do the savage woman and the peasant woman, the more +rightly she fulfils the "primal physical functions of maternity."</p> + +<p>Before we consider the actual evidence (and Mrs. Gilman does not deal at +all in evidence on these fundamentals to her argument) let us meet the +argument about the "savage woman," who works as hard as men do,—though +much less hard than early observers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">332</a></span> of savage life supposed—and who is +nevertheless a successful mother. It is completely forgotten that, just +as parenthood, both fatherhood and motherhood, demands more of the +individual as we rise in the scale of animal evolution, so, within our +own species, the same holds good. In general, the mothers of civilized +races are the mothers of babies whose heads are larger at birth (as they +will be in adult life), than those of savage babies. It is true that the +civilized woman has, on the average, a considerably larger pelvis than +that of, for instance, the negress. There must be a feasible, +practicable ratio between the two sets of measurements if babies are to +enter the world at all. But the increasing size of the human head is a +great practical problem for women. No one can say how many millions have +perished in the past because their pelves were too narrow for the +increasing demands thus made upon them, and doubtless the greater +capacity of the female pelvis in higher races is mainly due to this +terrible but racially beneficent process of selection, by which women +with pelves nearer (e. g.) to negro type, have been rejected, and women +with wider pelves have survived, to transmit their breadth of pelvis to +their daughters and carry on the larger-headed races. But even now +obstetricians are well aware that the practical mechanical problem for +the civilized woman is much more serious than for her savage sister; and +the argument that civilized women would discharge maternal functions as +well as savage women if they worked as hard is therefore worthless.</p> + +<p>Let us return now to the question of nursing capacity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">333</a></span> "Bass voices" +and "beards" are doubtless unlovely in woman, but their extensive +appearance would be of no consequence at all compared with the +disappearance or weakening of the mammalian function which, as everyone +knows or should know, is the dominating factor in the survival or death +of infancy. Now it may be briefly asserted that civilized woman, and +more especially industrial woman, threatens to cease to be a mammal. If +this assertion can be substantiated, and if the "economic independence +of women" necessarily involves it, no biologist, no medical man, no +first-hand student of life, will hesitate to condemn finally the ideal +toward which Mrs. Gilman and those who think with her would have us go. +Things may be bad, things <i>are</i> very bad: the lot of woman must be +raised immensely, because the race must be raised, and cannot be raised +otherwise; but progress is going forward and not backward, Mr. +Chesterton notwithstanding. Woman will not become more than a mammal by +becoming less, and going back on that great achievement of ascending +life. Individuals may do so, and are doing so, lamentably misdirected as +many of them now are; but that is the end of them and their kind. It is +quite easy to stamp out motherhood and its inevitable economic +dependence, but with it you stamp out the future.</p> + +<p>It is generally admitted that our women nurse their babies less than +they used to do. It is as generally admitted that this is often +deliberate choice, and we all know that it is often economic necessity: +the human mother "mingles in the natural industries of a human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">334</a></span> +creature," such as the factory affords, and cannot simultaneously stay +at home to nurse her baby, making men—for which, as a "natural +industry" of women, even as against making, say, lead-glaze for china, +there may be something to be said.</p> + +<p>But whilst popular preachers and castigators of the sins of society +fulminate against the fine lady who asks for belladonna and refuses to +do her duty, we must enquire to what extent, if any, women no longer +nurse their babies because they cannot, try they never so patiently and +strenuously. It is the general belief amongst those whose daily work +qualifies them for an opinion, that women are tending to lose the power +of nursing. Professor von Bunge, whose name is honoured by all students +of the action of drugs, has satisfied himself that alcoholism in the +father is a great cause of incapacity to nurse in daughters. However +that interpretation may be, the fact seems clear; and the change in this +direction is evidently much more rapid than might be accounted for by +the improvement in artificial feeding of infants leading to the survival +of daughters of mothers unable to nurse, and transmitting their +inability to their children. Mrs. Gilman—having ignored menstruation +altogether—makes only one allusion to this vastly important subject, +and we shall see to what extent her sanguine assumption is justified. +According to her, "A healthy, happy, rightly occupied motherhood should +be able to keep up this function (of nursing) longer than is now +customary—to the child's great gain." There can be no question about +the child's great gain; but what is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">335</a></span> evidence for supposing that a +mother earning her own living in free competition with men—which is +what a "healthy, happy, rightly occupied motherhood" means in this +connection—can thus spend her energies twice over, unlike any other +source of energy known?</p> + +<p>According to official statistics, maternal lactation is steadily +decreasing in several German cities, notably in Berlin, where only 56.2 +per cent. of infants under one month were suckled by their mothers in +1905, as against 65.6 per cent. in 1895, and 74.3 per cent. in 1885. At +nine months of age 22.4 per cent. were suckled in 1905, 34.6 per cent. +in 1895, 49 per cent. in 1885. Other towns show more favourable results; +a general decrease, however, is marked. These facts cannot be ascribed, +according to the author,<a name="FNanchor_21" id="FNanchor_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> to a growing disinclination to +breast-feeding, nor to the employment of mothers (in Prussia only 5 per +cent. of the married women are employed in manufacture). The question +whether the decrease in breast-feeding is due to the industrial +employment of women before marriage, or to (inherited) degeneration, +remains to be determined.</p> + +<p>According to a recent statement by Professor von Bunge, the conditions +are very similar now in Switzerland, where only about one mother in five +can nurse her children.</p> + +<p>Similar evidence could be cited from other sources, and the fact being +admitted must evidently be reckoned with.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">336</a></span></p> + +<p>That the modern development of infant feeding will serve to replace +natural lactation, must be denied, and this without prejudice to the +magnificent work of the late Professor Budin of Paris and Professor +Morgan Rotch of Harvard. These pioneers and their followers have devised +some admirable second bests—admirable, that is, relatively to some of +the pitiable methods which they have superseded, but relatively to the +mother's breast not admirable at all. At the beginning of the campaign +against infant mortality, the crèche and the sterilized milk dépôt and +the fractional analysis of cow's milk and its recomposition in suitable +proportions of proteid, fat, etc., as devised by Rotch, were rightly +acclaimed and admitted to save vast numbers of infant lives. All this is +mere stop-gap, wonderfully effective, no doubt, but only stop-gap +nevertheless. In France they are going ahead, and public opinion in +London is being slowly persuaded to follow along the more recent French +lines. The modern principle upon which we should act is Nature's +principle—saving the children through their mothers. Expectant +motherhood must be taken care of; we must feed, not the child, but the +nursing mother, and the child through her. If we rightly take care of +her, she will construct a perfect food for the child. There is no other +path of racial safety. It is not our present concern to deal with the +problems of infancy and childhood as they require, and surely we need +not wait to prove that nursing motherhood cannot safely be superseded, +but must be retained and safeguarded.</p> + +<p>If this postulate be granted, we have to determine how it comes about +that the German figures, for instance,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">337</a></span> are showing this extraordinarily +rapid decline in maternal lactation. As has already been noted in +passing, we must reject the suggestion that the natural type of women is +changing. Such a change of natural type in any living race can occur +only through selection for parenthood, and such selection in the case in +question can scarcely be imagined to occur in the direction of choosing +women who are naturally less capable of nursing. On the contrary, the +tendency of the selective principle must always be toward the greater +survival of infants whose mothers can nurse them, and who in their turn, +if they are to be women, will be more likely to be able to nurse their +children. Further, the action of selection cannot demonstrate itself +more quickly than is permitted by the length of human generations. It +must therefore be rejected as any interpretation of this case. If women +are ceasing to be able to nurse their babies, and if this change is +occurring with such extraordinary rapidity as the German figures +indicate, plainly the explanation must be found in the action of some +recent and novel condition or conditions upon womanhood.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it need scarcely be insisted that the distinction here sought to +be made is of the utmost importance. If the natural type of womanhood +were actually changing, we could scarcely do more than observe and +despair, but if it be merely that the capacities of this generation of +women are being modified by the particular conditions to which they are +subjected, plainly we who have made those conditions can modify +them—"What man has made, man can destroy."</p> + +<p>If we come to ask ourselves what these recent and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">338</a></span> novel conditions are, +the answer is only too ready at hand. The principles which will guide us +toward discovering it have been set forth at length in the earlier +chapters of this book. Let us recur to our Geddes and Thomson, and at +once we have the key. The production of milk is an act of anabolism or +building-up, such as we have seen to be characteristic of the female +sex, involving the accumulation and storage of quantities of energy so +large that if they were stated in the units of the physicist they would +astonish us. If we consider what the child achieves in the way of +movement and development and growth, and if we realize that at the most +rapid period of development and growth, all the energy therefor has been +gathered, prepared, and is dispensed by the nursing mother, we shall +begin to realize what an astonishing feat that is which she performs. It +is in reality, of course, the same feat which is performed by the +expectant mother, only that it is slightly less arduous, since after +birth the child can breathe and digest for itself.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the reader will begin to realize what Mrs. Gilman and those who +think with her are asking us to believe when they say that the primal +physical functions of maternity will be best fulfilled by the mother who +"mingles in the natural industries of a human creature." This statement +is either ridiculously false or can be rendered true by rendering it as +a truism. The primal physical functions of maternity <i>are</i> the natural +industries of the particular human creature we call a mother; and the +better she fulfils them, the better she fulfils them, certainly. But the +so-called natural industries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">339</a></span> in which the modern mother is desired to +be engaged whilst she is bearing or nursing her children are as +unnatural as anything can be. As at present practised, they are morbid +products of civilization which it will require to cast off if it is to +survive.</p> + +<p>It is the student of life and its laws who must have the last word in +these matters. If he utters it wrongly or is unheeded, Nature is not +mocked, but will be avenged. The writer who can lay down a new principle +on which our life is to be based, without paying any more attention to +lactation than is to be found in the argument we have been considering, +has left out the beginning, has omitted the foundations. No measure of +earnestness or literary skill can save her case.</p> + +<p>Of course the reply will be that the biological criticism is simply the +ancient and oriental idea of woman as a helpless dependent, reasserted +for male advantage in our own day. One cannot believe that it is +necessary to rebut that accusation. It is necessary, however, to examine +somewhat the words "economic dependence" and "economic independence" +which are employed with such naïve antithesis in this controversy.</p> + +<p>When we examine Mrs. Gilman's proposal for the salvation of woman, we +find it to mean that in future mothers are to do double work. The +glorious consummation is to be that woman is no longer "parasitic on the +male," which is Mrs. Gilman's way of expressing the great truth that the +mother for whom the father works, represents the future supported by the +present.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">340</a></span></p> + +<p>But the future is always supported by the present. Woman, we began by +saying, is Nature's supreme organ of the future, and the present must +live for her and die for her. When we say the future, we mean childhood. +If childhood is to appear and to survive, womanhood must be dedicated to +it, and manhood, which stands for the present, must supply its own link +in the chain. The following paragraph from an unsigned article which +appeared some years ago in the <i>Morning Post</i> states the case in a form +which may convince the reader. It was headed "Repairs and Renewals of +the People," and ran as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It is, indeed, seldom sufficiently realized how much a nation, so +to speak, lives always in and for the future. Broadly speaking, of +every ten persons living in the United Kingdom now, four are less +than twenty years of age, while three of the rest are women (two of +them married women)—that is to say, people also mainly concerned, +through the care of children, with the future rather than with the +present. Upon the remaining three men, one of whom be it noted is +over fifty-five, falls the bulk of the work of providing for +immediate needs and so releasing the others to provide for the +continuance of the race. A definite large share of all the present +activities of a people is required and, as it were, pledged to +provide for its renewal. If it fails to allow sufficient, it may, +just like a company or a municipal concern with an inadequate +depreciation fund, show large profits and great prosperity for a +time; it cannot be regarded as a sound concern."</p></div> + +<p>The reader must decide whether there is more light and leading in the +interpretation that upon men falls the bulk of the work of providing for +immediate needs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">341</a></span> and so enabling women to provide for the continuance +of the race, or, in Mrs. Gilman's version that woman is parasitic upon +the male. The future, if she likes to state it in that way, is parasitic +upon the present, always has been and always will be. The case which she +imagines to be unique and morbid, peculiar to civilized mankind, is +precisely the case of the hen bird who sits upon her eggs, incubating +the future, whilst the male goes and forages for her. She is parasitic +upon the male, as Mrs. Gilman would put it.</p> + +<p>The truth is that, like many other women dominated by sex +antagonism—which glares ferociously from such paragraphs as that which +was quoted regarding "the brutal combative instinct or the intense +sex-vanity of the male"—Mrs. Gilman, in seeking to further the +interests of her sex, proposes to dispense with the help of its best +friend, which is the other sex. It is not easy to speak with patience of +those who thus seek to set the house of mankind against itself, to the +injury of men, women and children alike.</p> + +<p>No doubt it is true that Mrs. Gilman's attitude is engendered by sex +antagonism as we see it everywhere in men—though for some obscure +reason it is only so labelled when displayed by women. No doubt, also, a +much better case can be made out for Mrs. Gilman's proposals, up to a +point, than could be made out for corresponding proposals on the other +side. No one who thinks for a moment can question that all proposals +whatsoever to make either sex independent of the other are stark +madness; yet there is a certain short-lived plausibility in the argument +that women are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">342</a></span> to be independent of men, and this depends upon the fact +which we have already attempted to demonstrate and interpret by means of +Mendelism, that women are more than men, and that womanhood includes +latent manhood. If, therefore, we are careful with the argument and +boldly rush past the really crucial places, such as the conditions and +needs of expectant and nursing motherhood, we can make out what looks +like a case for the economic dependence of women. Each sex is to work +for itself, and then there need be no more quarrelling.</p> + +<p>But we could not go even so far with any theory for making men +independent of women without seeing that we were no less wrong on that +side than Mrs. Gilman is on the other. Man's apparent economic +independence of women is as complete a myth as women's projected +economic independence of men. In the last resort, when we come down to +realities, and remember that both men and women are mortal, and that +unless they are replaced, everything ends, we see that the introduction +of the word economic into this question simply serves to confuse +thought, just as the older political economy confused thought and laid +itself open to the mercilessly magnificent attacks of Ruskin. Economy is +literally the law of the house or the home—where life begins. Of all +economies, life is the last judge, because there is no wealth but life. +<i>In the last resort the economic dependence of the sexes means nothing +because the sexes cannot independently reproduce themselves.</i></p> + +<p>If Mrs. Gilman is to be arraigned for her error let<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span> us see to it most +carefully that we do not fail to arraign the men who, with not +one-thousandth part of her excuse and with no iota of her ability, fall +into the corresponding error on their side. When Women's Suffrage is +being debated, there never fails a supply of men who write to the papers +to say that men must vote and not women because men and not women "made +the State." How much simpler our problems would be if there were some +means of distinguishing children who will grow up into men of this type, +and carefully refraining from teaching them to read or write! Make the +State, indeed!—they can make nothing but fools of themselves, and +without women's assistance could not even reproduce their folly. Of +course the retort to all this nonsense is that neither sex ever yet +created anything without the other. Every human act and achievement is +the product of both sexes. When some friend of the past assures us that +women should not vote because they cannot bear arms, he is of course +reminded that women bear the soldiers. It is true and it is +unanswerable. In just the same way, when Mrs. Gilman wishes women to be +economically independent of men, whom she considers as animals +distinguished by their destructive energy, brutality and intense sex +vanity, she is simply ignoring half the truth. Let either sex try to run +the earth alone till Halley's comet returns, and what would be left for +it to see? Of all follies uttered on this subject, and they are many, +the cry, each sex for itself, is the wickedest and worst.</p> + +<p>The reader may well declare that such criticism is easy, but of little +worth unless it be accompanied by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">344</a></span> some kind of constructive proposals +for the amelioration of present conditions. Nothing is destroyed until +it is replaced. If the present economic conditions of women involve the +most hideous wickedness and cruelty and injure the entire progress of +mankind, as they assuredly do, and if they therefore must be destroyed, +we must have something to replace them with; and if Mrs. Gilman's +proposals would simply make the difficulty a thousand times worse by +depriving women of men's help, what proposals are there to offer +instead?</p> + +<p>The reply is that we must go back to first principles. We must drop all +our phrases about economic independence or dependence. They have urgent +and real meanings for each one of us at any given time, but when applied +to the problems of the reconstruction of society as a whole, they mean +nothing because they are based upon no vital truths whatever. A man may +be economically secure when he is producing absinthe or whisky, or he +may die of starvation because he is producing the songs of Schubert. +Economic independence and dependence mean very much to the prosperous +distiller whom men pay for poison, and to the immortal composer whom men +do not pay at all, but who yet produces that which nourishes the life of +all the future. The maker of death may live, and the maker of life may +die; we see it every day and history is the continuous record of it. +These economic dependences and independences consist only in the +relations of one man or woman to the others. They have nothing to do +with the real issue, which is the relation of mankind as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">345</a></span> whole to +Nature. These economic questions are simply concerned with money—the +means whereby one man has more or less claim upon another: society may +have to be reconstructed in such a fashion that economic independence +and dependence, as at present understood, would have no meaning +whatever. Yet all the real economic questions would remain, even though +money or private property were abolished. The real economy is the making +and preserving of life and the means of life. We live in a chaos where +the elementary conditions of human existence are constantly forgotten. +The real politics, the real economy, the real political economy, are the +questions of the birth-rate and the wheat supply—the relations not +between man and man, or class and class, or sex and sex, but mankind, +living and dying and being born, and the world in which he has to live. +The time is near at hand when the first conditions of national life will +be recognized as they have never been since the dawn of modern +industrialism. The products of men's labour and women's labour will be +appraised and paid for in proportion to their <i>real</i> value, their +strength or availableness for life.</p> + +<p>In "Unto This Last" and "Munera Pulveris," Ruskin has laid down, on what +are really unchallengeable biological grounds, the foundations of the +political economy of the future. We are going to have done with the +industries which eat up men. We cannot much longer afford to grow whisky +where we might grow wheat, for there are ever more mouths to be fed, and +wheat is running short. Cheap and dear mean nothing when we get down to +realities. Is a thing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">346</a></span> vital or is it mortal?—that is the only +question. It may be vital and costless, like air, or mortal and dear, +like alcohol. The question is not how much money can you get from +another man for your product, but how much life can mankind get from +Nature for it. Thus we shall return to a sane appreciation of the +primary importance of agriculture as against manufacture, of food as +against anything else,—for unless one is fed, of what use is anything +else? And as nations gradually begin to discover that the means of life +are the really valuable things, they will go on to learn, what primitive +races, hard-pressed races, races making their way in the world against +heavy odds, have always known—that at all costs the insatiable +destructiveness of Death must be compensated for by Birth. If the means +of life are the real wealth, the life itself is more real still, and +unless we abolish death, the makers and bearers and nourishers of life +are at all times and everywhere the producers, the manufacturers, the +workers of the community above and beyond all others. And these are the +women in their great functions as mothers and foster-mothers, nurses, +teachers.</p> + +<p>The economics of the future will be based upon these elemental and +perdurable truths. No writer in his senses will then be guilty of such +immeasurable folly as to place the "natural industries of a human +creature" <i>in antithesis</i> to "the primal physical functions of +maternity." The sex which came first and remains first in the immediacy +and indispensableness of its relations to the coming life will base its +economic claims—in the vulgar and narrow sense of that term—upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">347</a></span> the +worth of those relations. The society which cannot afford to pay +for—that is, to sustain—the characteristic functions of womanhood, +cannot continue; and societies have continued and will continue in +proportion as they hold hard by these first conditions of their lives. +The case of Jewish womanhood is the supreme illustration of a thesis +which requires no experimental demonstration, but is necessarily true.</p> + +<p>Here, then, is the solution, as the future will prove, of the problem of +the economic status of woman. At present, though Ellen Key is the only +feminist writer who recognizes it, women can compete successfully with +men only at the cost of complete womanhood,—and that is a price which +society as a whole cannot afford to pay, if it wishes to continue. +Therefore we must, in effect, pay women in advance for their work, the +actual realization of the value of which is always necessarily deferred. +The case is parallel to that of expenditure upon forestry. In the +planting of trees or the nurture of babies the State will get value for +its money in the long run, but it must be prepared to wait. States are +slowly becoming more provident, and already we are coming to see this +about trees. Soon we shall see it about babies, and the problem of the +economic status of woman will then be solved in practice as it is +assuredly soluble in principle.</p> + +<p>Mankind must first learn to renounce Mammon and set up Life as its God; +but to that also we shall come—or perish, for Life is a jealous God and +visits the sins of the fathers upon the third and fourth generation.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">348</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2><h3>THE CHIEF ENEMY OF WOMEN</h3> +</div> + +<p>If we believe that the sexes are mutually dependent and, in the long +run, can neither be injured nor befriended apart, we shall be prepared +to expect that the chief enemy of civilized mankind is no less inimical +to women than to men. So long as it was supposed that drinking merely +injured the drinker, and so long as the drinkers were almost entirely +men, it could be argued by persons sufficiently foolish that indulgence +in alcohol was a male vice or delight which really did not concern women +at all—if men choose to drink or to smoke or to bet or to play games, +what business is that of women? It is an argument which would not appeal +to the mind of the primitive law-giver, and can be accepted by no one who +thinks to-day.</p> + +<p>For the least effects of drink are those which are seen in the drinker. +The question of alcoholism is not one of the abuse of a good thing, here +and there injuring those who take it to excess, but is a national +question which affects the entire community, abstainers, and drinkers, +men, women and children, present and to come. No one who has seriously +studied the action of alcohol on civilization can question that it is +our chief external enemy. We must use the word external for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">349</a></span> the best of +good reasons, since we know that always and everywhere man's chief foes +are those of his own household—his own proneness to injure himself and +others. And alcohol, indeed, would not be our chief external enemy were +it not for the very fact that its malign power is chiefly exerted by a +degradation of the man within. It is a material thing and no part of our +psychological nature. So long as it is kept outside us it has the most +admirable uses, which are yearly becoming more various and important; +but, taken within, it alters the human constitution, and hereby achieves +its title as our worst enemy.</p> + +<p>People who estimate the influence of alcohol by means of the alcoholic +death-rate or by the rate of convictions for drunkenness will not +readily accept the doctrine that alcohol is a greater enemy of women +than of men. Yet assuredly this is true. It is an axiomatic and first +principle that whatever injures one sex injures the other, and whilst +drinking on the part of women at present injures men as a whole in +comparatively small degree, the consumption of alcohol by men works +enormous injury upon women indirectly, in addition to that direct injury +which civilized women are yearly inflicting more gravely upon +themselves, at any rate in Great Britain.</p> + +<p>Woman, we have argued, is Nature's supreme organ of the future, and just +as she is mediate between men and the future, so men are mediate between +her and the present. For the individual woman and the present, the +quality of the manhood which constitutes her human environment is more +important than anything else.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">350</a></span> If the manhood is withdrawn and she is +thrown upon her own resources, there is disaster; if the manhood be +damaged or degenerate, so much the worse for the woman; if the manhood +be of the best, there and only there are the best conditions provided +for the highest womanhood.</p> + +<p>First, then, let us observe how alcohol injures women by its +contribution to the male death-rate. Allusion has already been made to a +simple statistical enquiry which I made a few years ago in regard to the +influence of alcohol as a maker of widows and orphans. The results of +that enquiry may here be quoted, having only appeared in the daily press +hitherto. They will suffice to show that alcohol on this ground alone is +a great enemy of women, and especially of wives. The following is the +conclusion published in several papers in England in November, 1908:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Some time ago we heard a good deal, both in and out of Parliament, +about the debenture widow whose little all is invested in brewery +securities. There is, on the other hand, the widow so made by +alcohol. I am not aware that anyone has attempted to estimate the +approximate number of each of these two classes. The following is +merely a rude approximation.</p> + +<p>It has been stated that there are half a million persons who have +invested money in the licensed trade. Let us allow that half of +these are men. The death-rate of all males, above fifteen years of +age, is slightly over sixteen per 1,000. At the census of 1901, 536 +in each 1,000 males aged fifteen years and upwards were found to be +married. Ignoring the differential death-rate of the married as +compared with bachelors and widows, it follows that about 4,100 +male investors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">351</a></span> in the licensed trade die each year, of whom some +2,197 will be married men, leaving behind them the same number of +widows entirely or partly dependent on these investments.</p> + +<p>The widows made by drink are nearly six times as many.</p> + +<p>Numerous inquiries at home and abroad agree somewhat closely in +stating <i>14 per cent</i>. of the entire death-rate to be due to +alcohol. The proportion of one in seven is accepted by Dr. Archdall +Eeid, who considers that all efforts to restrain drinking increase +drunkenness. I do not think the justness of this figure can be +disputed at all, except as an under-estimate. We are here dealing +with male deaths only, and I will do my contention the obvious +injustice of supposing that the proportion of deaths due wholly or +in part to alcohol is no higher amongst men than amongst women. If +one could allow for the existing difference, the result would be +even more terrible.</p> + +<p>Taking the figures for 1906 for England and Wales alone, we have +167,307 deaths of males over fifteen; 23,422 of these wholly or +partly due to alcohol, and of this number 12,554 were married men +(i. e., 536 per 1,000). The average size of a family in England and +Wales is 4.62, according to Whitaker. If we multiply the number of +widows, 12,554, by 3.62, we shall have an approximation to the +number of widows and orphans made by alcohol in 1906. There were +45,445, or over 124 widows and orphans made by alcohol every day in +the year.</p> + +<p>We may now note some further data helping us to compare the 12,554 +alcohol-made widows with the 2,197 whose husbands' fortunes were +wholly or in part bound up with the welfare of the licensed trade. +(Of these latter, also, of course, a large proportion would be +alcohol-made.)</p> + +<p>Dr. Tatham's recently published letter on occupational mortality in +the three years, 1900, 1901, 1902, informs us as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">352</a></span> to twenty-one +occupations in which the alcoholic death-rate is grossly excessive. +In these twenty-one occupations selected by Dr. Tatham as having an +alcohol mortality which exceeds the standard by at least 50 per +cent., we can work out the alcohol factor and find that it amounts +to 24.5 per cent. The table would take up too much space for me to +ask you to print it, but it is ready on demand, public or private. +The figures work out to show that 5,092 married men in these +twenty-one trades died in each year from alcohol. (I have taken +24.5 per cent, of the whole number of deaths in the three years, +and reckoned the married proportion of these.)</p> + +<p>The calculation shows that in these twenty-one occupations the +comparative alcohol mortality is 24.5 per cent., as against only 12 +per cent. in all other occupations.</p> + +<p>Amongst the occupations in Dr. Tatham's table may be noted +coalheaver, coach, cab, etc., service, groom, butcher, messenger, +tobacconist, general labourer, general shopkeeper, brewer, chimney +sweep, dock labourer, hawker, publican, inn and hotel servants. A +glance at the table will show that in most cases the men who are +dying are "industrial drinkers," who frequent public-houses in the +districts where the reduction in the number of the licenses under +the present Bill will occur. Often nowadays the widows are heavy +drinkers, and the lives of their children centre round the +public-house.</p> + +<p>If the only wealth of a nation is its life, and history teaches no +more certain truth—and if, since individuals are mortal, the +quantity and quality of parenthood—or of childhood, according to +the point of view—are the supreme factors in the destiny of +nations, do not the foregoing figures warrant the contention that +he who at this date is for alcohol is against England?"</p></div> + +<p>It has been shown that the effect of alcohol upon the brain persists for +not less than thirty hours after the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">353</a></span> last dose. But more than two years +have now passed since the foregoing was printed, leaving ample time for +any member of the alcoholic party to "pull himself together" and +demolish it. One is therefore entitled to assume that it cannot be +demolished; on the contrary, it could easily be shown that the foregoing +figures very considerably underrate the actual number of widows and +orphans who must be made by alcohol in this country every year.</p> + +<p>All students of modern life, however greatly they differ in their +methods and objects, are agreed that the question of the economic +position of women is one of the gravest of our time. While this is so, +it may be added that only the Eugenist can adequately realize the +importance of this question, since he knows that with it is involved the +all-important matter of the selection amongst present women for the +motherhood of the future. Unfortunately, as we have seen, the modern +trend is quite definitely in the direction of those of our guides, whom +most of us follow, knowingly or unknowingly, because they have the +brains and we have not, in favouring the economic position of women at +the expense of male responsibility. Meanwhile we have the economic basis +of society as it is, and there is no more serious indictment against +alcohol than this which I have attempted to formulate against it on the +ground of its destruction of fatherhood. Whatever the rest of the +community may incline to, it assuredly seems that the wives, from palace +to hovel, ought to be enemies of this great enemy of theirs. The time +will certainly come when the woman who is bringing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">354</a></span> up children will be +placed in a position of economic security, and when indeed all other +persons will be less secure than she because the sane State of the +future will guarantee, and regard as the first charge upon itself, the +maintenance of the conditions necessary for the production of the next +generation. But in the chaos in which we welter, widows and orphans have +to take their chance. Who will say a good word for the substance which +makes them by tens of thousands in England and Wales alone every year?</p> + +<p>At least one economic aspect of this question may, however, be dealt +with here. In a rightly constituted society people are held responsible +for their deeds. Parenthood is a deed; in a very true sense it is a more +deliberate, a more active, more self-determined deed, on the part of the +father than on the part of the mother. At present the only act for which +men are held irresponsible—for our practice amounts to that—is the act +for which, above all others, they should be held responsible. A large +amount of the money now spent by men on alcohol and tobacco, and other +things which shorten their lives, and are needed only because they +create a need for themselves, is really required for the interests of +the race. Such is the double destruction worked by the alcoholic form of +this waste that if the average sum, say six shillings a week, expended +in the working-class family on alcohol, were invested on behalf of the +possible widows and orphans, not only would they be provided for, but +the fathers would be saved, and they would not become widows and +orphans. In days to come it will be discovered that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">355</a></span> such matters as +these are the real political economy, the absence or presence of +tariffs, the incidence of taxation and the like, being matters of no +consequence or significance whatever compared with the question, +fundamental in all times and places for every nation and for every +individual: For what are you spending: for bread or a stone, for life or +for death?</p> + +<p>The foregoing has been chosen for the forefront of this chapter because +of its bearing on a central economic problem of the time, and also +because, for some reason or other, this alcoholic destruction of +fatherhood, though it is of the utmost importance, has hitherto escaped +the attention of sociological students. We pass now to a second point, +of a wholly different character, which particularly well illustrates +certain of the general principles with which we began. The supreme +importance of alcohol or of anything else for human happiness is +attained only through its influence on the selves of men and women. It +is upon these that our happiness depends—upon the nature and the +nurture, from hour to hour, of our selves and the selves with which we +have to deal. Above all, do women as individuals depend for their +happiness upon the selves of men, as we have suggested.</p> + +<p>Now if there be anything certain about the action of alcohol upon the +brain, it is that it degrades the quality of the self. Much of the +cruder pathology of alcohol is open to doubt. A great many of the +supposed degenerative changes in nerve-cells, which were attributed to +it and thought to be irrevocable, are now interpreted otherwise. Chronic +alcoholism is looked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">356</a></span> upon by such foremost students as Dr. F. W. Mott, +less as a disease due to organic changes produced in the brain than as a +chronic functional derangement due to the continued action of a poison. +This newer interpretation of chronic alcoholism has the very important +practical corollary of encouraging us to the belief, which is frequently +justifiable, that if the chronic intoxication ceases, the individual may +completely or all but completely recover, as would not be the case if +the fine structure of his brain had been actually destroyed. The recent +modification of our views on this subject has, however, only served to +render clearer our understanding of the mental symptoms of alcoholism. +Here is a drug which poisons the organ of the mind. The action of a +single dose persists for a far longer period than used to be supposed, +and thus we now know that in the great majority of civilized men +everywhere, the nervous system, which is the home of the self, is +continuously under the influence of alcohol.</p> + +<p>That influence, as we have said, consistently shows itself in a +degradation of the quality of the self. The poison deranges first the +latest and highest products of evolution; it beheads a man, as we may +say, in thin slices from above downwards. Beginning as it does with the +most human, and only at the very last attacking the most animal part of +our nervous constitution, it is essentially the bestializer, save only +that the alcoholized human being is much lower than the beast, on the +general principle, <i>Corruptio optimi pessima</i>—the corruption of the +best is the worst.</p> + +<p>Now wherever alcohol is consumed women have to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">357</a></span> pay the penalty for its +daily deterioration in the human scale of the men with whom they live; +nor need any reader of even the smallest experience require any writer's +assurance that in vast numbers of such cases the woman suffers more than +the man. He has its moments of compensation, inadequate though they be; +she has none.</p> + +<p>Whilst women suffer in every respect from the influence of alcohol as a +degrader of their men, most of all do they and the race suffer through +the action of alcohol upon the racial instinct. In my book on personal +hygiene was sought an interpretation of the difference between low and +high types of mankind largely in terms of their success or failure in +achieving what may be called the "transmutation" of the racial instinct. +In less metaphorical language this transmutation depends upon the +measure of self-control and deference of present desire to future +purpose. These are supremely human characteristics, and there are none +which alcohol more surely and early attacks. Men are not so constituted +that they are at all likely to profit by any substance which keeps their +racial instinct on its original and less than human plane, and certainly +women suffer in many ways, and with them necessarily the future suffers, +just because of this action of alcohol upon men.</p> + +<p>The argument need not be elaborated, but it may be added that the +disastrous action upon young womanhood of the consumption of alcohol by +young manhood is greatly increased when we find, as we do, that the +young women start drinking too. In these modern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">358</a></span> days, when the +controlling influence of religion and especially of religious fear is +steadily relaxing, the young woman's best protection is to be found in +her own judgment and self-control and prevision of the future. But these +are the very defences which alcohol in her nervous system saps. Every +social worker is familiar with the daily truth that young womanhood +connives at its own ruin under the influence of alcohol, where otherwise +it need not have fallen.</p> + +<p>This last consideration leads us to the study of a phenomenon which in +many respects is new and unprecedented, while none could be of worse +omen.</p> + +<p>It has for long been alleged that the amount of drinking amongst women +is increasing. When writing an academic thesis on the consequences of +city life, I attempted to discover definite evidence on this point. +Nothing that could be called precise was forthcoming, though the +evidence was abundant that the general assertion is correct. Drinking +amongst women means, of course, drinking amongst mothers. It means +drinking by unborn children. No one concerned with the fundamentals of +national well-being can ignore anything so minatory. Within the last few +years, much attention has been directed to the subject, and the Church +of England Temperance Society, for instance, sent out a form of inquiry +to the medical profession as to their experience in this matter. It may +now be stated, without any fear of contradiction, that drinking has +greatly increased amongst women of all classes during the last twenty +years, and especially, it seems probable, during the latter half of that +period. Along with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">359</a></span> it has gone an increase in the amount of +drug-taking; some, at any rate, of the drugs being not dissimilar to +alcohol in their action upon mind and body.</p> + +<p>It is here necessary not so much to discuss the causes of this fact as +to insist upon its consequences and indicate some possible remedies. So +far as one can judge there seem to be three principal causes for this +increase of drinking amongst women, and quite briefly they may be named +in order to guide the subsequent discussion, though it is not necessary +to occupy space here in discussing all the evidence for this diagnosis.</p> + +<p>A cause of some importance at work amongst women of the middle and upper +classes would seem to be the general tendency to revolt against sex +restrictions and limitations. In order to prove themselves the equals of +men, women proceed to demonstrate that they are capable of imitating +men's vices and indulgences. The trainer of chimpanzees for the +music-hall acts on the same principle. Directly the animals can smoke +and drink, they are such good imitations of men, in his judgment and +that of his patrons, as to be worthy of exhibition. Any ape, any boy, +any man, can learn to smoke and drink. It may be taken for granted that +any woman can do likewise, but the actual demonstration is worse than +superfluous.</p> + +<p>Much more important as a cause of the increased drinking amongst women +of the lower classes are the modern conditions of factory and industrial +life which so largely take women out of the home; the making of life +being neglected in order to serve some industry or other which, if it +costs the loss of the coming life, is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">360</a></span> national cancer, however +grateful its expansion may appear to the capitalist or the Chancellor of +the Exchequer. As the nation cares nothing for its girlhood nor for +directing employment and education for the supreme business of +motherhood, upon which the national existence is always staked, vast +numbers of women in early adolescence are now exposed to the very +conditions of temptation outside the home to which so many of their +brothers have succumbed. The factory girl learns to drink, and when she +marries she takes her drinking habits with her into her home. Modern +industrialism, therefore, is to be cited as one of the causes for the +increase in drinking amongst women. It may be noted that, in Italy, the +temperate race which, according to one elegant but baseless theory, has +been evolved through ages of past drinking, is proving itself +intemperate when its members are exposed in towns to the industrial +conditions which look like national success and the continuance of which +would mean national ruin.</p> + +<p>A third cause of this increase is to be found in the greatly enhanced +facility with which alcoholic drinks can now be obtained by women, not +merely outside the home, but within it. So far as Great Britain is +concerned we must trace disastrous consequences to the "heaven-born +finance" of a former illustrious Chancellor of the Exchequer, who made a +little money for the State by selling to grocers permission to sell +alcoholic liquors. That was a great blow at womanhood and especially +motherhood; not to mention its lamentable effect in raising the +death-rate amongst<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">361</a></span> grocers in that intensely obvious and inevitable +manner, the increase of temptation, which nothing can persuade the +enemies of temperance reform to understand.</p> + +<p>It is bad enough that women should be able to obtain alcohol as they do +by means of devices which may often prevent their habits from being +discovered at all until irreparable mischief has been done. Here the +cunning and the greed of commercialism have set to work to fool the +public and poison it by a systematic practice which is injurious to all +sections of the community, but especially to women, and which cannot be +too widely reprobated and exposed. All honour is due to the <i>British +Medical Journal</i>, the official organ of the British Medical Association, +for its recent attention to this subject. No one can challenge it when +it makes the following assertion regarding meat-wines and other +specifics containing alcohol, which are now so widely advertised and +consumed:—"It may be pointed out that by the use of these meat-wines +the alcoholic habit may be encouraged and established, and that it is a +mistake to suppose that they possess any high nutritive qualities." The +following are analyses to which everyone ought to be able to have +reference, and further information regarding which may be found in the +<i>British Medical Journal</i> for March 27 and May 29, 1909. Let the reader +first note what proportions of alcohol are contained in the accepted +wines, the danger of which is admitted by all, and then let him compare +those figures with the figures which follow:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">362</a></span>—</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom: 0;'>ALCOHOL IN ORDINARY WINES</p> +<table width='300' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='ALCOHOL IN ORDINARY WINES'> + <col style="width:40%;" /> + <col style="width:40%;" /> + <col style="width:20%;" /> + <tr> + <th></th> + <th>per cent.</th> + <th>Fluid drachms in a wineglassful.</th> + </tr> + <tr><td>Port</td><td class='c'>20</td><td class='c'>3¼</td></tr> + <tr><td>Sherry</td><td class='c'>20</td><td class='c'>3¼</td></tr> + <tr><td>Champagne</td><td class='c'>10/15</td><td class='c'>1¾</td></tr> + <tr><td>Hock</td><td class='c'>10</td><td class='c'>1½</td></tr> + <tr><td>Claret</td><td class='c'>9</td><td class='c'>1½</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom: 0;'>ALCOHOL IN MEAT WINES</p> +<table width='300' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='ALCOHOL IN MEAT WINES'> + <col style="width:40%;" /> + <col style="width:40%;" /> + <col style="width:20%;" /> + <tr> + <th></th> + <th>per cent.</th> + <th>Fluid drachms in a wineglassful.</th> + </tr> + <tr><td>Bendle's</td><td class='c'>20.3</td><td class='c'>3¼</td></tr> + <tr><td>Bivo</td><td class='c'>19.2</td><td class='c'>3</td></tr> + <tr><td>Bovril</td><td class='c'>20.15</td><td class='c'>3¼</td></tr> + <tr><td>Glendenning's</td><td class='c'>20.8</td><td class='c'>3<sup>1</sup>/<small>3</small></td></tr> + <tr><td>Lemco</td><td class='c'>17.26</td><td class='c'>2¾</td></tr> + <tr><td>Vin Regno</td><td class='c'>16.05</td><td class='c'>2½</td></tr> + <tr><td>Wincarnis</td><td class='c'>19.6</td><td class='c'>3</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom: .5em;'>ALCOHOL IN TONIC WINES</p> +<table width='300' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='ALCOHOL IN TONIC WINES'> +<tr><td>Armbrecht's Coca Wine </td><td>15.05%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Bugeaud's Wine </td><td>14.80%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Baudon's Wine </td><td>12.75%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Busart's Wine </td><td>16.85%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Christy's Kola Wine </td><td>18.85%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Hall's Wine </td><td>17.85%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Mariani's Coca Wine </td><td>16.40%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Marza Wine </td><td>17.48%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Nourry's Iodinated Wine </td><td>11.50%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Quina Laroche </td><td>16.90%</td></tr> +<tr><td>St. Raphael Quinquina Wine </td><td>16.89%</td></tr> +<tr><td>St. Raphael Tannin Wine </td><td>14.65%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Savar's Coca Wine </td><td>23.40%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Serravallo's Bark and Iron </td><td>17.26%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Vana </td><td>19.20%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Vibrona </td><td>19.30%</td></tr> +</table> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">363</a></span>In order to complete our reference to this subject, the following may be +quoted from an excellent little pamphlet which is published by the +National Temperance League. The United States Government Laboratory +affords striking evidence of the large percentages of alcohol contained +in specifics which are stated to be largely used by persons who profess +to be total abstainers. Of these the following are given as examples:—</p> + +<table width='300' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='alcohol content 1'> +<tr><td>Paine's Celery Compound </td><td>21.00%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Peruna </td><td>23.00%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Brown's Blood Purifier </td><td>23.00%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Brown's Vervain Restorer </td><td>25.75%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Hostetter's Bitters </td><td>44.30%</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>But indeed we are far from having covered the ground in Great Britain +alone. There are many well-known preparations which consist almost +entirely of alcohol and water, together with small quantities of +flavouring matter nominally medicinal. Thus we find, for instance, the +following proportions of alcohol in—</p> + +<table width='300' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='alcohol content 2'> +<tr><td>Powell's Balsam of Aniseed </td><td> 40.0%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Dill's Diabetic Mixture </td><td> 35.0%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Congreve's Balsamic Elixir </td><td> 25.5%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Steven's Consumption Cure </td><td> 21.3%</td></tr> +<tr><td>Hood's Sarsaparilla </td><td> 19.6%</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>There are also other compounds such as Crosby's Balsamic Cough Elixir, +Townsend's American Sarsaparilla, and Warner's Safe Cure, which contain +from 8 to 10-1/2 per cent. of alcohol. As the <i>British Medical Journal</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">364</a></span> +justly points out, in a mixture of which a table-spoonful is to be taken +five or six times a day a proportion of 10 per cent. of alcohol is by no +means negligible.</p> + +<p>Let it be noted further that though most malt extracts are free from +alcohol, that which is called "bynin" contains 8.3 per cent, and +"standard liquid" 5 per cent. The <i>British Medical Journal</i> has also +shown that there is at least one "inebriety cure" in Great Britain which +consists of a liquid containing just under 30 per cent. of alcohol.</p> + +<p>On this whole subject it is impossible to speak too strongly, more +especially when one is concerned with the interests of woman and +womanhood. It is true that in consequence of the labours of those few +keen workers whom the impotent and the meaningless and the selfish call +fanatics, we are making a beginning in the matter of education on +Temperance. But apart from that, which amounts only to very little as +yet, it is the lamentable truth that the State does absolutely nothing +whatever to protect the community and especially its women from the +manifold evils which are involved in such figures as those here quoted. +The State wants money, and life is a trifle. Anything that can pay toll +to the State may therefore go without further question. A tax has been +paid on all the alcohol in these things. In many cases, also, a further +tax has been paid for the government stamp on patent medicines. That the +medicine may be dangerous, that it may be a cruel swindle, that it may +take from consumptives and others money which is sorely needed for air<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">365</a></span> +and food, and give them in return what is worse than nothing—all these +things are nothing to the State if the tax is paid.</p> + +<p>Preparations such as those which have been mentioned above have no place +or status whatever in scientific medicine. Their constituents are known +and their action is known. The public pays for sarsaparilla, for +instance, and simply gets a 20 per cent. solution of flavoured alcohol, +and there is no one to inform it that sarsaparilla has been exhaustively +studied by pharmacologists, employing every means of observation and +experiment in their power, and that none of them have yet been able to +detect its capacity to modify the body or any function of the body in +any degree at all whether in health or disease. This is only one of many +instances that might be named; every preparation of which the +composition is not stated is suspect. Men are paying for these things at +this moment under the impression that they are buying valuable tonics +which will save their wives from the consequences of the drink craving +and help to avert it. Large numbers of women are ruining themselves in +purse and in body quite secretly under cover of these scandalous abuses +which are allowed to go on from year to year, and which are undoubtedly +doing more injury to the feminine—that is to say, to the more +important—half of the community in each succeeding year. At least let +the facts be known. Let liberty be believed in and encouraged; but if +these things are to be made and sold and bought, let their composition +be stated on the bottles. The composition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">366</a></span> of milk is supervised by the +State; margarine, which is harmless and an excellent food, may not be +sold as butter; alcohol, which is noxious, may be sold under any lying +name, but so long as the State gets its percentage, it is well pleased. +The official organ of the medical profession in this country has done +well to draw renewed attention to this subject. Surely it ought to be +possible for the profession and the advocates of temperance to join +hands for the promotion of legislation in a direction where reform +cannot otherwise be obtained. Something, one hopes and believes, can be +done by merely writing on the subject. A certain number of women who +read this book will be deterred from buying these things on finding that +they are simply "masked alcohol" and that their medicinal virtues are +less than <i>nil</i>. But though all that is to the good, only legislation +can meet the real need. These preparations offer insidious means of +teaching women to drink, and when the habit is established, nothing can +be accomplished by revealing to the victim the history of its origin. +The minimum demand for legislation should be, at the very least, that +all preparations of this kind should have their composition stated with +every portion of them that is vended to the public. Assuredly the +champions of womanhood will have to take this matter up soon, and the +sooner the better. There is no need to be a fanatic, there is no need +even to be a teetotaler, in order to satisfy oneself that here is a +crying abuse which is ruining the unwarned and the unprotected up and +down the land, and which is quite definitely and obviously within the +capacity of legislation to control effectively and finally.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">367</a></span></p> + +<p>Let us turn now to the general question of the organic or physiological +relations between womanhood and alcohol. Both sexes of human beings are +identical in a vast majority of their characters, and the various +reactions to alcohol come within this number. There is no need to repeat +here any of the facts and conclusions which have been set forth at +length elsewhere. What was said there applies to women as to men. That +is true so far as the individual is concerned and it is also true that, +so far as the race is concerned, the germ-plasm or germ-cells in both +sexes alike may be injured by the continued consumption of large +quantities of alcohol.</p> + +<p>There remains the important fact, which it is the present writer's +constant effort to bring to the notice of Eugenists, that alcohol has +special relations to motherhood, to which there can necessarily be no +correspondence in the case of the other sex, and though motherhood, as +such, is not the subject of this book, yet it would be most pedantically +to limit the usefulness which one hopes it may possess if we were to +omit the discussion, as brief as possible, of the effect of alcohol upon +womanhood at the time when womanhood is expressing itself in its supreme +function.</p> + +<p>In my book on Eugenics there is merely the briefest allusion in a +foot-note to this subject, and I confess myself now ashamed of having +dealt with it in that utterly inadequate fashion. In practical +eugenics,—though sooth to say when eugenics begins to become practical +many professing eugenists seem to think that it is wandering from the +point—the great fact of expectant motherhood must be reckoned with. To +decline to do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">368</a></span> so is in effect to declare that we are greatly concerned +with bringing the right germ-cells together, but have nothing to do with +what may or may not happen to the product of their union. We desire, +however, not merely conjugated germ-cells, but worthy men and women, and +expectant motherhood is therefore part of the eugenic province. +Unfortunately it is easier to invent terms and categories and get people +to accept them than to control their use of one's terms thereafter. +Otherwise, I should forbid the use of the term Eugenist at all by anyone +who is unprepared to move a finger or utter a word on behalf of the care +and the protection of expectant motherhood.</p> + +<p>It is quite true that the question of expectant motherhood has nothing +to do with heredity in the proper sense of that term. We are dealing now +with "nurture," not with "nature," but we are dealing with a department +of nurture which can only be understood when we realize that human +beings begin their lives nine months or so before they are born, and +that the first stage of their nurture is coincident with what we call +expectant motherhood, whilst the second stage of their nurture, normally +and properly, ought to be coincident with what we may call nursing +motherhood.</p> + +<p>Let us then acquaint ourselves with the fact, fully established by +experimental and chemical observation, that alcohol given to the +expectant mother finds its way into the organism of the child. Thus, as +we should expect, alcohol can readily be demonstrated in a newborn child +when the drug has been given to the mother just before its birth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">369</a></span></p> + +<p>It must be understood that the circulation of the mother and of her +child are each complete and self-contained. They come into relation in +the double organ called the placenta, and it has been exhaustively +proved that this organ is so constituted as in large measure to protect +the child from injurious influences acting upon and in the mother. We +may therefore speak of the placenta as a filter. Its protective action +explains the facts, so familiar to medical men and philanthropic +workers, that healthy and undamaged children are often born to mothers +who are stricken with mortal disease—most notably, perhaps, in the case +of consumption. It becomes a most important matter to ascertain the +limits of the placental power, and by observation upon human beings and +experiment upon the lower animals this matter has been very thoroughly +elucidated of late years. There are many kinds of poison, and many +varieties of those living poisons that we call microbes, which the +placenta does not allow to pass through from the mother's blood-vessels +into those of the child, and which are unable, fortunately for the +child, to break down the placental resistance. On the other hand, there +are certain microbes and certain poisons which readily pass through the +placenta. Conspicuous amongst these are alcohol, lead and arsenic, and +it is especially important to realize that alcohol injures the child not +merely by its own passage through the placenta, but by injuring that +organ, so that its efficiency as a filter is impaired. On the whole +subject of expectant motherhood and the morbid influences which may act +upon it, the greatest living authority<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">370</a></span> is my friend and teacher, Dr. J. +W. Ballantyne of Edinburgh. He contributed an important paper on this +subject to our first National Conference on Infantile Mortality held in +1906.<a name="FNanchor_22" id="FNanchor_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> I only wish it were possible to reproduce in full here Dr. +Ballantyne's paper on the Ante-Natal Causes of Infantile Mortality. The +unread critic who is so ready with the word fanatic whenever alcohol is +attacked might begin to derive from it some faint idea of the quality +and massiveness of the evidence upon which our case is based. Here it +must suffice merely to quote the verdict at which Dr. Ballantyne arrives +after surveying all the evidence on the subject that had been obtained +up to the year 1906. He summarizes as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It must then be concluded that parental and especially maternal +alcoholism of the kind to which the name of chronic drunkenness or +persistent soaking is applied, is the source of both ante-natal and +post-natal mortality. It acts in all the three ways in which I +indicated that ante-natal causes can be shown to act in relation to +the increase of infantile mortality, viz.,.by causing abortions., +by predisposing to premature labours, and by weakening the infant +by disease or deformity so that it more readily succumbs to +ordinary morbid influences at and after birth. By causing diseases +of the kidneys and of the placenta it also leads to that failure of +the filter to which I have already referred; the placenta being +damaged, not only does the alcohol more readily pass through it +itself, but it is also possible for other poisons, germs, and +toxins to cross over into the fatal economy. So it comes about that +the most disastrous consequences are entailed upon the unborn +infant in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">371</a></span> connection with syphilis, lead-poisoning, fevers, and +the like in the intemperate mother."</p></div> + +<p>The foregoing was written as long ago as 1906, and various workers have +helped to confirm it since that date.</p> + +<p>We must further learn that alcohol taken by the mother who nurses her +child has an organic relation to the child after birth. It is true, +indeed, that according to a celebrated observer, Professor von Bunge, +the influence of alcoholism in preceding generations is such that the +daughters of such a stock are mostly unable to nurse their children. It +is not quite certain that Professor von Bunge has proved his case, but +it is definitely proved that even if alcoholism in the maternal +grandparent has not altogether prevented a child from being fed in the +natural fashion, it may yet suffer gravely in consequence of receiving +alcohol in its mother's milk. In the case of the nursing mother, there +is one fresh avenue of excretion which the organism can employ for +ridding itself of the poison, and to the efforts of the lungs and the +kidneys are added those of the breasts. Alcohol can be readily traced in +the mother's milk within twenty minutes of its entry into her stomach, +and may be detected in it for as long as eight hours after a large dose. +Many cases are on record where infants at the breast have thus become +the subjects of both acute and chronic alcoholic poisoning. We have +numerous reports of convulsions and other disorders occurring in infants +when the nurse has taken liquor, and ceasing when she has been put on a +non-alcoholic diet. A most distinguished lady, Dr. Mary Scharlieb,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">372</a></span> may +be quoted in this connection, or the reader may indeed refer to the +chapter, "Alcoholism in Relation to Women and Children," contributed by +her to the volume "The Drink Problem" in my New Library of Medicine. She +says, "The child, then, absolutely receives alcohol as part of his diet +with the worst effect upon his organs, for alcohol has a greater effect +upon cells in proportion to their immaturity." Further, as she points +out, "the milk of the alcoholic mother not only contains alcohol, but it +is otherwise unsuitable for the infant's nourishment; it does not +contain the proper proportions of proteid, sugar, fat, etc., and it is +therefore not suited for the building up of a healthy body."</p> + +<p>It is plain that here we cannot avoid criticism of an almost universal +medical practice. Our concern in the present volume is not with children +but women; and in dealing with the effects of maternal alcoholism upon +childhood, the main intention is being kept in view. As regards the +giving of alcohol to the nursing mother, there is no doubt that the +child is more seriously in danger than she is. There is no doubt also +that, as one has often pointed out, the Children Act which forbids the +giving of alcohol to children under five years old is being broken when +the nursing mother takes alcohol. I refer to this subject here because +only thus can we come to a decision on the question whether the nursing +mother owes the taking of alcohol as a duty to her child. She may be a +teetotaler; she may fear to take alcohol; and she may be authoritatively +told that it is her duty to do so because the quality of her milk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">373</a></span> will +be improved. In such a case she may yield, though often with a wry face; +and thus we have the frequent beginning of disasters to which there is +no end.</p> + +<p>The truth is that the medical profession has long erred in this respect. +Judgment has gone by superficials. Undoubtedly there is a greater bulk +of milk when stout and porter are taken. But everyone knows that +ordinary household milk may come from the cow or from the pump. The +question is not how much bulk is there, but what does the bulk consist +of? Definite chemical evidence, which may be repeated a thousand times, +and which is allowed to go unchallenged by the vast host of doctors who +are prescribing alcohol for nursing mothers all over the world, shows us +that its influence is to increase the bulk of the milk while reducing +the amount of its nutritive constituents, and adding to them one which +is poisonous. The increase of bulk is easy to explain. Alcohol is +exceedingly avid of water. Thus the common experience that alcoholic +liquors tend to increase the desire for liquid can readily be explained. +Alcohol, leaving the blood, tends to withdraw with itself, if it can, a +quantity of water. These two, in the milk, between them maintain the +added bulk on account of which alcoholic liquors are so widely ordered +for and drunk by nursing mothers throughout the civilized world. The +infant mortality is thus contributed to, and many women are urged and +deceived by their love for their children into a practice which achieves +their own ruin. Doctors look back a hundred years or so and observe the +amazing practices of their predecessors. They have record of +prescriptions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">374</a></span> and treatments which were ridiculous or disgusting or +trivial or painful; they have abundant record of practices which were +deadly, and for which any medical man at the present day might be called +upon to pay heavy damages or indicted for manslaughter. Yet in the +matter of the indiscriminate and ignorant employment of alcohol, in +defiance of overwhelmingly proved facts which will not be challenged by +any of those whom this criticism hits and who will virulently resent it +and decry its author, doctors of the present day are assuredly earning +the astonished contempt of their successors in times by no means remote. +A certain number of women who nurse or will nurse will read this book. +Of these not a few will be ordered various alcoholic beverages by their +medical attendant in order to aid this function. Let them obey his +orders when he has satisfactorily answered the following questions: Are +you aware that part of the alcohol will pass unchanged through my breast +into my baby's body? Are you aware that if my milk is analyzed it will +be found to contain less food for the baby with more bulk than if I were +to do without the alcohol? Are you aware that careful enquiry and +observation have shown that the best foods for the making of milk are +those which contain the constituents of milk—as seems not +unreasonable—like milk itself and bread and butter and meat? Can you +begin to explain any imaginable process by which either the animal or +the vegetable body could build up a molecule composed as the molecule of +alcohol is into any of the nutritive ingredients in milk? That catechism +is quite short, but it will suffice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">375</a></span></p> + +<p>A serious error which has long been made by temperance workers consists +in supposing that the problem of alcoholism is the problem of +drunkenness. They speak of "the sin of intemperance," and by that term +they mean only such intemperance as produces what should properly be +called acute alcoholic intoxication. The friends of alcohol eagerly +accept an error which suits their case so admirably. Nothing can suit +them better than to assume that alcohol does no ill apart from causing +drunkenness. Better still, they are able to quote the case of the +incurable drunkard, suffering from an uncontrollable craving, and to +point out quite truly that he will get drunk in any case no matter how +many public-houses, for instance, we close.</p> + +<p>It was always a gross error to suppose that drunkenness was the whole of +the evil done by alcohol; if, indeed, it be one per cent. of it, which +we may doubt. This is not a point which one need trouble to argue here, +except in so far as our right understanding of it is necessary if we are +to see the meaning of current changes in the drinking habits of the +people. That women are drinking more, everyone grants. That this is evil +not merely for the women of the present but for both sexes in the +future, I am constantly asserting. But it will not do at all to use mere +drunkenness as our measure of what is happening amongst women. We know +that in either sex a single bout of drinking, say once a week on +Saturday night, may leave the individual little worse, may injure health +quite inappreciably, if at all; it may not interfere with his work, and +may even be of small economic importance. In such a coal-mining county +as Durham, for instance,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">376</a></span> where alcohol cannot be drunk in association +with work because the workman and his fellows know that the safety of +their lives will not permit it, we find a huge proportion of arrests for +drunkenness, and it might be supposed that in this most drunken county +in England we should find the highest proportion of permanent +consequences of alcoholism. On the contrary, as Dr. Sullivan says, +"owing to their relative freedom from industrial drinking coal-miners +show a remarkably low rate of alcoholic mortality, ranking in fact with +the agriculturists and below all the other industrial groups." Here is a +simple statistical fact which continues true year by year, and the +significance of which must be insisted upon.</p> + +<p>In the case of women, the very obvious and natural tendency is for the +proportion of drunkenness to the alcohol consumed to be much lower than +in the case of men. Drunkenness is commonly the result of convivial +drinking. A company of men get together, and they help each other to get +drunk. Women are not subjected to so many temptations in this respect. +Their drinking is industrial drinking,—above all, at the supreme +industry, which is the culture of the racial life. Like other industrial +drinking, it is less conspicuous than convivial drinking; it leads to +few arrests for drunkenness, but it has far graver effects on the +individual, and it shows its consequences in the industrial product with +which in this case no other industrial product can compare. Now unless +we disabuse ourselves once and for all of the notion that the drink +question is merely the drunkenness question, we shall never succeed in +rightly approaching and dealing with this most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">377</a></span> ominous development of +modern civilization, to which I have done such imperfect justice in the +present chapter.</p> + +<p>Dr. Sullivan<a name="FNanchor_23" id="FNanchor_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> has some important remarks on this subject from which +one cannot do better than freely quote. As a distinguished and +experienced Medical Officer in H. M. Prison Service, notably at +Holloway, where so many women have been under his care, Dr. Sullivan has +very special credentials, even if the internal evidence of his book did +not convince us. He says that:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The domestic occupations which are the chief field of women's +activities obviously allow ample opportunity for the continuance of +alcoholic habits formed prior to marriage. This is a matter of much +importance. For the ordinary existence of the working man's wife, +with its succession of pregnancies and sucklings, and the +management of a brood of children in cramped surroundings, will of +itself be very likely to promote tippling; and if a knowledge of +the effect of alcohol as an industrial excitant has been acquired +by the factory girl, it is pretty sure of further development in +the married woman. Instances of this sort, in which the discomforts +of the first pregnancy stimulate the growth of a rudimentary habit +of industrial drinking to confirmed intemperance, are tolerably +common in any wide experience of the alcoholic."</p></div> + +<p>The following paragraph must also be quoted for its clear indication of +a matter which is of prime importance, which no one denies, and yet of +which no statesman or politician has begun to take cognizance:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The employment of women in the ordinary industrial occupations not +only involves a disorganization of their domestic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">378</a></span> duties if they +are married, but it also interferes with the acquisition of +housewifely knowledge during girlhood. The result is that appalling +ignorance of everything connected with cookery, with cleanliness, +with the management of children, which make the average wife and +mother in the lower working class in this country one of the most +helpless and thriftless of beings, and which therefore impels the +workman, whose comfort depends on her, not only to spend his free +time in the public-house, but also tends to make him look to +alcohol as a necessary condiment with his tasteless and +indigestible diet. Both directly and indirectly, therefore, the +employments that withdraw women from domestic pursuits are likely +to increase alcoholism, and, it may be added, to increase its +greatest potency for evil, namely its influence on the health of +the stock."</p></div> + +<p>Elsewhere I have endeavoured to deal with the general physiology of +alcohol and its relations to race-culture. Here our special concern has +been woman, and not woman as mother, but rather woman as individual. We +have had specially to refer, however, to expectant and nursing +motherhood because each of these offers special temptations and +opportunities for the beginning of the alcoholic habit or strengthening +its hold in a deadly fashion, and it is certainly necessary for us to +know that the supposed advantages to the child, which constitute a new +argument for alcohol at these times, are not advantages but injuries +which may be grave and often fatal. The utterly incomprehensible thing +is how anyone can suppose or ever could suppose otherwise.</p> + +<p>It is necessary to add a few words to the foregoing since there has +recently appeared what purports to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">379</a></span> a contribution to some of the +problems that have concerned us. Part of the foregoing argument has +rested upon the fact, only too definitely, variously and frequently +proved, that alcoholism in women prejudices the performance of their +supreme functions. Complicated as the maternal relation to the future +is, the relations of alcohol to the problem are correspondingly so, and +in any discussion that is to be of value we must draw the necessary +distinctions. In many scientific contributions to the subject this has +already been done. We have identified certain degenerate stocks who +display the symptoms of alcoholism. The alcohol may aggravate their +degeneracy but it is not the prime cause of it in them, though it may +have been so in their ancestors. The children of such persons are +degenerate also, and as the class is numerous and fertile there is here +a social problem which is not primarily a problem in alcohol, but is +accidentally connected therewith simply because the proneness to +alcoholism is a symptom of the degeneracy.</p> + +<p>Quite distinct from the foregoing there is the influence of alcohol upon +mothers and motherhood that would otherwise have been healthy. Alcohol, +like lead, as has been shown elsewhere, may injure the racial elements +in the mother before even expectant motherhood occurs. Later, it may +prejudice both expectant motherhood and nursing motherhood; further it +is often the primary cause of over-laying and of chronic cruelty and +neglect. Until quite lately there was also the action of the +public-house upon the children to be reckoned with, where the mother +visited it and was allowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">380</a></span> to take them with her. That, however, has +been at last put a stop to in England, following the example of +civilization elsewhere.</p> + +<p>But it will be clear that the problem is a complicated one. It has been +confidently attacked by Professor Karl Pearson in a Report upon "the +influence of parental alcoholism upon the offspring," and the +conclusions of that Report have been widely circulated and are being +circulated almost wherever the monetary interest of alcohol has power. +Briefly, Professor Pearson came to the conclusion that the children of +drunken parents are, on the average, superior to those of sober parents +in physique and in intelligence, in sight and in freedom from epilepsy +and other diseases. This, of course, as everybody knows, is obvious +nonsense, and the only problem remaining is how to account for its +assertion. I have dealt with that question at length elsewhere,<a name="FNanchor_24" id="FNanchor_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> and +here need only note in a word that Professor Pearson's Report includes +no comparison between the children of abstainers and drinkers, since the +number of abstainers was too few to be treated separately; that +Professor Pearson attaches no strict meaning to the term alcoholism, by +which he means anything from what the word really means down to a +general suspicion that the parents were drinking more than was good for +themselves or their home; and finally that in studying the influence of +alcohol upon offspring Professor Pearson has omitted to enquire in a +single case whether the alcoholism or the offspring came first.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">381</a></span> The +Report has no scientific basis whatever and has been riddled with +criticism by expert students of every kind, including not merely +students of alcoholism but also Professor Alfred Marshall of Cambridge, +the greatest English-speaking economist of the time, who has shown that +there are no grounds for the assumptions made by Professor Pearson in +that part of his argument which is based upon the economic efficiency of +drinking and non-drinking parents. The publication of this Report merely +hastens the rapid decadence of "biometry," the foundations of which have +already been sapped by the re-discovery of Mendelism in 1900; but it was +necessary to refer to the matter here, since in the advertisements and +the other printed matter paid for by the alcoholic party, the public is +being informed that the children of alcoholic parents have been proved +to be, on the whole, superior to those of non-alcoholic parents. This +question has been exhaustively studied, yet again, in London by Dr. +Sullivan, in Helsingfors by Professor Laitinen, and also in New York in +an enquiry which actually embraced no less than fifty-five thousand +school children. The elementary fallacies entertained by Professor +Pearson were of course avoided and the uniform result in these and in a +host of other enquiries that might be named is the only result which +could be imagined in a universe where causes have effects.</p> + +<p>The particular causes under consideration have been having their effects +for a very long time. It begins to be more and more clear that they have +played a great part in the history of mankind. As the "history" we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">382</a></span> +learnt at school is more and more discredited, there is slowly coming +into being a real kind of history which deals with the essentials of +national life and death, and is based upon the principles of organic +evolution. This is a thesis which one has attempted to justify in a +previous book, but one aspect of it must be recurred to here. Our modern +study of various diseases and poisons is throwing a light on the life of +nations. Take for instance the modern theories as to the influence of +malarial poison upon Greece. In the case of alcohol, we now have +evidence which is real and unchallengeable. The properties which it +displays when we study it to-day have always been and always will be its +properties. We find that it has certain actions on living protoplasm in +the twentieth century; we know enough of the uniformity of nature to +realize that it had those actions in the tenth century, and will have +them in the thirtieth. As we study under the microscope the influence of +alcohol upon the racial tissues in the individual,<a name="FNanchor_25" id="FNanchor_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> and therein find +confirmation of experimental study and observation by all the other +means available to science, we begin to see that the greatest facts of +history are those of which historians have no word, and not least +amongst these has ever been the influence of alcohol upon parenthood. It +is possible to adduce arguments in favour of the view that the +practically complete immunity of their parenthood from alcohol is one of +the great factors that explain the all but unexampled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">383</a></span> persistence of +the Jews and their present status in the van of the world's thought and +work. For history it is the parents that matter as against the +non-parents, and of the parents it is the mothers even more than the +fathers. The freedom of the Jews as a whole from alcoholism is more +marked than ever in the case of their women; that is to say, in the case +of their mothers.</p> + +<p>We see the part-results of this in our own time when we compare the +infant mortality amongst the Jews with that of their Gentile neighbours +in a great city such as London or Leeds. As everyone should know, there +is a huge disparity between the figures in the two cases, and in some +records it has been found that under equal conditions two Gentile babies +will die for each Jewish baby. The conditions are of course not equal, +because the Jewish babies have Jewish motherhood, splendidly backed up +as it usually is by Jewish fatherhood; whereas the Gentile babies have a +very inferior parental care. Now if it were that infant mortality, as +most people suppose, simply meant the death of a certain number of +babies, the foregoing facts would have no particular bearing upon the +questions of racial survival, except in so far as those questions depend +upon mere numbers. But the advocates of the great campaign against +infant mortality have always maintained that the actual mortality is +only one effect of the causes which produce it. When people have said +that the loss of a certain number of babies mattered little, we have +always replied that for every baby killed many were damaged. This +contention has now been proved up to the hilt in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">384</a></span> remarkable +official enquiry, the first of its kind, made by Dr. Newsholme, now +Chief Medical Officer of the Local Government Board.<a name="FNanchor_26" id="FNanchor_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> He studied +infant mortality in relation to the mortality of children and young +people at all subsequent ages, and he proved, once and for all, that +infant mortality is what we have always maintained it to be, not merely +a disaster in itself but an evidence of causes which injure the health +and vigour of the survivors at all ages. Wherever infant mortality is +highest, there child mortality is highest, and the mortality of boys and +girls at puberty and during the early years of adolescence when the body +is preparing for and becoming capable of parenthood. The evil conditions +that cause infant mortality are thus proved to be far-reaching and much +wider in their effects than any but the students of the subject have yet +realized.</p> + +<p>This chapter must be brought to a close, but it may be added that the +emergence of sober nations, such as Japan and Turkey, into contemporary +history, and the possibilities latent in China,—to mention none other +of the "dying nations," so very much alive, at whom glass-eyed +politicians used to sneer—constitutes one of the major facts of +contemporary history. No one can yet say whether these nations will have +the wisdom to retain their ancient habits or whether they will accept +our whisky along with our parliamentary institutions and motor-cars. +Much future history rests upon this issue.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">385</a></span></p> + +<p>But I have little doubt that whatever happens in the case of Japan and +Turkey, Jewish parenthood will retain the quality which has long ago +become fixed as a racial characteristic, and that the race which has +survived so much oppression and so many of its oppressors will survive +contemporary abuse and the abusers. Its women nurse their own babies and +have retained the power to do so. Neither before birth nor after do they +feed the life that is to be on alcohol; they lay rightly the foundations +of the future, where alone those foundations can be durably laid. The +reader is not necessarily asked to admire them or to like them or to +speak well of them, but if he desires the strength and continuance of +whatever race or nation he belongs to, he will do well to imitate them.</p> + +<p>It seems necessary to believe in the yellow peril, though not, of +course, in its absurd form of a military nightmare. The pressure of +population is the irresistible force of history. It depends, of course, +upon parenthood, and more especially upon motherhood and therefore upon +womanhood. At present the motherhood of the yellow races is sober. If it +remains so, and if the motherhood of Western races takes the course +which motherhood has taken for many years past in England, it is very +sure that in the Armageddon of the future, those ancient races, Semitic +and Mongol, which had achieved civilization when Europe was in the Stone +Age, will be in a position of immense advantage as against our own race, +which is threatening, at any rate in England, to follow the example of +many races of which little record, or none, now remains, and drink +itself to death.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">386</a></span> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2><h3>CONCLUSION</h3> +</div> + +<p>The plan of this book has now been satisfied. The reader may be very far +from satisfied, but not, it is to be hoped, on the ground that many +subjects have been omitted which might quite well have been included +under the title of Woman and Womanhood. It was better to confine our +search to principles.</p> + +<p>For it seems evident that civilization is at the parting of the ways in +these fundamental matters. The invention of aeroplanes and submarine and +wireless telegraphy and the like is of no more moment than the fly on +the chariot wheel, compared with the vital reconstructions which are now +proceeding or imminent. The business of the thoughtful at this juncture +is to determine principles, for principles there are in these matters, +if they can be discovered, as certain, as all-important as those on +which any other kind of science proceeds. Just as the physicist must +hold hard by his principles of motion and thermodynamics and radiation +and the like, so the sociologist must hold hard by the organic +principles which determine the life and continuance of living things. +Unless we base our projects for mankind upon the laws of life, they will +come to naught, as such projects have come to naught not once but a +thousand times in the past.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">387</a></span></p> + +<p>None will dare dispute these assertions, yet what do we see at the +present time? On what grounds is the woman question fought, and by what +kind of disputants? It is fought, as everyone knows, on the grounds of +what women want, or rather, what a particular section of half-instructed +women, in some particular time and place, think they want,—or do not +want—under the influence of suggestion, imitation and the other +influences which determine public opinion. It is fought on the grounds +of precedent: women are not to have votes in England because women have +never had votes in England, or they are to have votes in England because +they have them in New Zealand. It is fought on party political grounds, +none the less potent because they are not honestly acknowledged: the +Liberal and the Conservative parties favour or disfavour this or that +Suffrage Bill, or whatever it may be, according to what they expect to +be its effect upon their voting strength. It is fought upon financial +grounds, as when we see the entire force of the alcoholic party arrayed +against the claims of women, as in the nature of things it always has +been and always will be. It is fought on theological grounds by clerics +who quote the first chapter of Genesis; and on anti-theological grounds +by half-instructed rationalists who attack marriage because they suppose +it was invented by the Church.</p> + +<p>And whose voices never fail among the disputants? Loudest of all are +those of youth of both sexes, who know nothing and want to know nothing +and who have no idea that there is anything to know in attempting to +decide such questions as this. It is argued in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">388</a></span> House of Gramophones +and such places, by common politicians of the type the many-headed +choose, who would do better to confine themselves to the soiled +questions of tariffs and the like, in which they find a native joy. It +is argued by vast numbers of men who hate or fear women, and women who +hate or fear men, as if any imaginable wisdom on this question or any +other could possibly be born of such emotions.</p> + +<p>Yet all the while we are dealing with a problem in biology, with living +beings, obeying and determined by the laws of life, and with a species +exhibiting those fundamental facts of heredity, variation, bi-parental +reproduction, sexual selection, instinct and the like, which are mere +meaningless names to nine out of ten of the disputants, and yet which +determine them and their disputes and the issues thereof.</p> + +<p>If these contentions be correct, there is plainly much need for an +attempt, however imperfect, to set forth the first principles of woman +and womanhood. Evidently the time for discussion of detailed questions +has not yet come, since, to take a single instance, there is not yet to +be heard on either side of the controversy a single voice asserting the +fundamental eugenic necessity that, at whatever cost, the best women +must be selected for motherhood, and the contribution of their +superiority to the future stock.</p> + +<p>Let us briefly sum up the substance of the foregoing pages.</p> + +<p>First, we have stated the eugenic postulate, failing to grant which we +and our schemes, our votes and our hopes, will assuredly disappear or +decay, as must all living races which are not recruited from their +best,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">389</a></span> Secondly, we have proceeded to analyze the nature of womanhood, +its capacities and conditions, assuming that we can scarcely discover +whither it should go unless we know what it is. To the party politician, +hungry for the prizes that suit his soul or stomach, such an assumption +is mere foolish pedantry; and the ardent suffragist will have little +more to say to it. That, however, cannot be helped. It is to be hoped +that all parties, <i>as parties</i>, will unite in banning the views herein +expressed, and then one may take heart of grace and dare to hope that +there is something in them.</p> + +<p>They may be crystallized in the dictum that woman is Nature's supreme +organ of the future. This is not a theory, but a statement of evident +truth. It is an essential canon of what one might call the philosophy of +biology, and applies to the female sex throughout living nature. Birth +is of the female alone. No sub-human male, nor even man himself, can +directly achieve the future; the greatest statesman or law-giver or +founder of nations can only work, if he knew it, through womanhood. The +greatest of these, and their name is very far from legion, was evidently +Moses, as history shows, and he acted on this principle. On the other +hand, those who have sought to achieve the future, as Napoleon did, +failed because they defiled and flouted womanhood. The best men died on +the battlefield and the worst were left to aid the women in that supreme +work of parenthood by which alone, and only through the co-operation of +men and women, the future is made.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, we have seen it to follow from this dedication of the greater +and vastly more valuable part of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">390</a></span> woman's energies to the future that, +just in proportion as she serves it and devotes herself thereto, she +needs present support. Biology teaches us that the male sex was invented +for this purpose; doubtless one should say for this "increasing +purpose," since it is scarcely more than foreshadowed at first in the +history of the male sex. The study of life has clearly proved that the +male sex is secondary and adjuvant, and that its essentially auxiliary +functions for the race have been increasing from the beginning until we +find them in perfection wherever two parents join in common consecration +and devotion to their supreme task, upon which all else depends and +without which nothing else could be.</p> + +<p>And just as woman is mediate between man and the future, so man is +mediate between woman and the present. Woman is the more immediate +environment, the special providence, so to say, of childhood; and man, +in a rightly constituted society, is the special providence, the more +immediate environment of woman, standing between her and inanimate +Nature, guarding her, taking thought for her, feeding her, using his +special masculine qualities for her—that is to say, in the long run, +for the future of the race; this indeed being the purpose for which +Nature has contrived all individuals of both sexes. If we prefer such +phrases, we may say that the future or the children are parasitic upon +woman, and that woman is "parasitic upon the male," which is one woman's +way of putting it. Or we may say that these are the natural and +therefore divine relations of the various forms in which human life is +cast,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">391</a></span> and that our business is to make them more effective, more +provident and freer from the factors which in all ages have tended to +injure them.</p> + +<p>Fourthly, we have everywhere seen cause to condemn sex-antagonism, and +it is my hope that no page or line or word of this book can be accused +of illustrating or justifying or inciting to or even attempting to +palliate either form of this wholly abominable spirit of the pit. If +such places there be, there assuredly is misdirection and falsity. This +spirit is one of the great enemies of mankind. As aroused in women +against men, it has done and is doing no little harm; as exhibited by +men against the righteous claims of women, it is one of the supremely +malign forces of history. Wherever and however displayed, it is false to +the first and most essential facts of life, from the moment of the +evolution of sex, hundreds of millions of years ago, until our own time. +All who display it, however excellent their intentions, are enemies of +mankind; all who work upon it for their own ends, political and +personal, without feeling it, are beneath disgust. These are things true +and necessary to be said, though they should not deter us from +sympathizing with the unhappy individuals, not a few, whose lives have +been blasted by individuals of the other sex, and who show the natural +but tragic tendency to make their private injury cause for resentment +against one-half of mankind. Surveying the pages that are past, I am +almost inclined to regret that, the plan of the book notwithstanding, a +special chapter was not devoted to Sex-Antagonism and to a demonstration +on biological grounds of its wickedness and pestilence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">392</a></span> wherever it be +found, and whatever plausible case for it may anywhere be made.</p> + +<p>If the sound of hope is not heard as the ground-tone of these chapters, +let it ring through all else at the end. I am an optimist because I am +an evolutionist, and because I believe, as every one of those whom I +call Eugenists must, that the best is yet to be. The dawn is breaking +for womanhood, and therefore for all mankind. If we are asked to express +in one phrase the reason why this hope is justified, it is because the +long struggle between two antithetic conceptions of human society is +reaching a definite issue.</p> + +<p>These radically opposed ideas may for convenience be called the +<i>organic</i> and the <i>internecine</i>. The internecine conception of society +forever sets nation against nation, race against race, class against +class, sex against sex, individual against individual, on the ground +that the interest of one must be the injury of the other. It is false. +Nay, more, for man living his life on this earth as he must and will, it +is the Great Lie.</p> + +<p>And it is being found out. Even international trade and commerce, from +which such a service could scarcely have been expected, are here +contributing to philosophy. Our fathers talked of the comity of nations; +we are beginning to discover their interdependence. The coming of that +discovery is one of the few really new things under the sun. Not so very +long ago, when mankind was far less numerous, such interdependence of +nations did not exist; they were self-sufficient, just as the +patriarchal family was self-sufficient still further ago.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">393</a></span></p> + +<p>But the interdependence of the sexes is so far from being a new fact +that it is as old as the evolution of sex, and the decadence and +disappearance of parthenogenesis or reproduction from the female sex +alone. Once bi-parental reproduction becomes necessary for the +continuance of the race, both sexes sink with either, and neither can +swim but with both. Yet so far are we from realizing this most ancient +of facts to-day that, on both sides of the woman question, wonderful to +relate, are to be found controversialists who are seeking to deny this +continuous lesson of so many million ages. The reader may take his +choice of folly between them. On the one hand, there are the feminists +who seek to do without man,—except for the minimum physiological +purpose. The women are to sustain the present and create the future +simultaneously, and man is to be reduced, apparently, to the function of +the drone. Thus Mrs. Gilman in "Women and Economics." Over against her +and those who think with her are to be set the men, and women too, who +tell us that "men made the State,"—a sufficiently shameful +admission—and that women have no business with these things. Do not +their mothers blush for such; to have travailed so much, and to have +achieved so little?</p> + +<p>Fortunately, however, the greater number of those who think and +determine the deeds of the mass are beginning, though the dawn is yet +very faint, to perceive that this truth of the interdependence of the +sexes, which is part of the greater truth that mankind is an organic +whole, is not only much truer than ever to-day, but is vital to our +salvation; and save us it will. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">394</a></span> so far as we are keeping women +inferior to men, we must raise them; in so far as we are keeping men, in +other and certainly no less important respects, inferior to women, we +must raise them. The future needs and will obtain the utmost of the +highest of both sexes. Thus and thus only "springs the crowning race of +human kind": wherein, as we hasten to the dust, living for a day, yet +for ever, our eyes prophetic may behold the sure and certain hope of a +glorious resurrection.</p> + +<hr class='full' /> + +<h2><a name="INDEX_OF_SUBJECTS" id="INDEX_OF_SUBJECTS"></a>INDEX OF SUBJECTS</h2> + +<p> +Adolescence, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and advertisements, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and alcohol, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></span><br /> +Alcohol, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— accessibility of, <a href="#Page_360">360</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and expectant motherhood, <a href="#Page_367">367</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and breast-feeding, <a href="#Page_371">371</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and industrialism, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and tobacco <i>versus</i> children, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— widows and orphans, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and womanhood, <a href="#Page_348">348</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +Alcoholism and lead poisoning, <a href="#Page_379">379</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and offspring, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and Jewish survival, <a href="#Page_382">382</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +Anti-Suffrage societies, <a href="#Page_16">16</a><br /> +Asceticism, old and new, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br /> +Bees, arguments from, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a><br /> +Birth-rate, fall of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and infant mortality, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and marriage-rate, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></span><br /> +Board of Education Syllabus, <a href="#Page_121">121</a><br /> +Breast feeding, <a href="#Page_333">333</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and alcohol, <a href="#Page_371">371</a></span><br /> +"British Medical Journal" on meat, wines, etc., <a href="#Page_361">361</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +Brooding instinct in fowls, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br /> +Canada's need of women, <a href="#Page_269">269</a><br /> +Childless marriage, <a href="#Page_244">244</a><br /> +Children Act, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a><br /> +Climacteric, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br /> +Confirmation and adolescence, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br /> +Conservation of energy, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and higher education, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> +Contagious diseases, <a href="#Page_219">219</a><br /> +Corset, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +Cycling for women, <a href="#Page_119">119</a><br /> +Dancing, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a><br /> +Degeneracy and inaction, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br /> +Determination of sex, <a href="#Page_72">72</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +Divorce, conditions of, <a href="#Page_291">291</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— <i>versus</i> separation, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— in Germany, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— Law Reform Union, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></span><br /> +Dolls and their significance, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a><br /> +Education, definition of, <a href="#Page_156">156</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and instruction, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— for motherhood, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +Educational question, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br /> +Endowment of motherhood, <a href="#Page_282">282</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a><br /> +Engagements, length of, <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br /> +Eugenic feminism, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br /> +Eugenics, <i>passim</i>.<br /> +"Evolution of Sex," <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br /> +Exercise in girls' schools, Herbert Spencer on, <a href="#Page_104">104</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +Expectant mother, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a><br /> +Fabian Society, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br /> +Femaleness, constitution of, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br /> +Games <i>versus</i> dumb-bells, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— mixed, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></span><br /> +Gameto-genesis, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br /> +Germ cells and germ plasm, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— its immortality, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and sex inheritance, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></span><br /> +Girls' clubs, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— clothing, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></span><br /> +Gonorrhœa, <a href="#Page_223">223</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +Gymnastics <i>versus</i> play, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br /> +Hæmophilia, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br /> +Happiness in marriage, <a href="#Page_236">236</a><br /> +Heredity and responsibility, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br /> +Heredity of sex, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br /> +Higher education, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— in London, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and marriage rate, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and conservation of energy, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> +Highest education, <a href="#Page_154">154</a><br /> +Identical twins, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br /> +Illegitimacy, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a><br /> +Infant mortality, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a><br /> +Infant mortality and alcohol, <a href="#Page_370">370</a><br /> +Insanity, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a><br /> +Instinct and emotion, <a href="#Page_164">164</a><br /> +Instinct, Spencer's definition of, <a href="#Page_164">164</a><br /> +Insurance for motherhood, <a href="#Page_315">315</a><br /> +Joy, physiological value of, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br /> +Kaiser's creed, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br /> +Knossos, <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br /> +Law of multiplication, <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br /> +Leprosy, <a href="#Page_220">220</a><br /> +Maleness, constitution of, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br /> +"Man before speech," <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br /> +Marriage age, <a href="#Page_196">196</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— Metchnikoff on, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and quality of children, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— conditions of, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and the "superfluous woman," <a href="#Page_259">259</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +"Marriage as a Trade," <a href="#Page_202">202</a><br /> +Marriage, social function of, <a href="#Page_307">307</a><br /> +Married women's labour, <a href="#Page_306">306</a><br /> +Mars, the parallel from, <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br /> +Maternal instinct, <a href="#Page_163">163</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— McDougall on, <a href="#Page_168">168</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— in the cat, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— alleged decadence of, <a href="#Page_174">174</a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +Mendelism, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a><br /> +Menstrual function, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +Monogamy and its critics, <a href="#Page_272">272</a><br /> +Monogamy and polygamy, <a href="#Page_261">261</a><br /> +"Morning Post," quotation from, <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br /> +Mortality in childbirth, <a href="#Page_217">217</a><br /> +Mosaic legislation, <a href="#Page_147">147</a><br /> +Mother and child worship, <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br /> +Motherhood, endowment of, <a href="#Page_282">282</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— physical and psychical, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></span><br /> +Motherhood insurance, <a href="#Page_315">315</a><br /> +"Mrs. Warren's Profession," <a href="#Page_138">138</a><br /> +Muscles, relative value of, for women, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br /> +Muscularity and vitality, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br /> +Natural selection, <a href="#Page_32">32</a><br /> +Nature and nurture, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br /> +Neanderthal skull, <a href="#Page_38">38</a><br /> +Notification of Births Act, <a href="#Page_132">132</a><br /> +Organic analysis by Mendelism, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br /> +Parental instinct, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br /> +Parthenogenesis, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +Patent medicines and alcohol, <a href="#Page_361">361</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +Physical fitness for marriage, <a href="#Page_208">208</a><br /> +Physical training of girls, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br /> +Physiological division of labour, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +Play centres, <a href="#Page_22">22</a><br /> +Preventive eugenics, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br /> +Progress and the nervous system, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— definition of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— the two kinds of, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></span><br /> +Prudery, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +Psychical fitness for marriage, <a href="#Page_211">211</a><br /> +Puberty, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br /> +Racial instinct, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a><br /> +Racial poisons, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a><br /> +Radium, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br /> +"Reproduction" and "parenthood," <a href="#Page_141">141</a><br /> +Rescue homes, <a href="#Page_137">137</a><br /> +"Richard Feverel," <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br /> +Rights of mothers, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— of women, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></span><br /> +Scotland, educational strain at puberty, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br /> +Separation <i>versus</i> divorce, <a href="#Page_293">293</a><br /> +"Sex and Character," <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br /> +Sex equality and sex identity, <a href="#Page_56">56</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +Sex and breathing, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a><br /> +Sex and the blood, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br /> +Sex in childhood, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br /> +Sex antagonism, <a href="#Page_391">391</a><br /> +"Sexual instinct" and "racial instinct," <a href="#Page_144">144</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +Sexual attraction, Spencer on, <a href="#Page_240">240</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +Sexual selection, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br /> +Skipping, <a href="#Page_122">122</a><br /> +Socialism, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and motherhood, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></span><br /> +Socialism and responsibility, <a href="#Page_309">309</a><br /> +Swedish gymnastics, <a href="#Page_121">121</a><br /> +Swimming, <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br /> +Syphilis, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +Terms of specialization, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +Transmutation of instinct, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— of sex, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></span><br /> +Vacation schools, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br /> +Variation within a sex, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— amongst women, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></span><br /> +Venereal diseases, <a href="#Page_219">219</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +Venus of Milo, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br /> +Vital imports and exports, <a href="#Page_267">267</a><br /> +Vitality superior in women, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br /> +Widowhood, causes of, <a href="#Page_217">217</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">—— and motherhood, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></span><br /> +Women and colonization, <a href="#Page_268">268</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +"Women's Charter," <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a><br /> +Women and economics, <a href="#Page_327">327</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<h3>INDEX OF NAMES</h3> + +<p> +Aristotle, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br /> +Aurelius, Marcus, <a href="#Page_257">257</a><br /> +Bacon, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br /> +Ballantyne, Dr. J. W., <a href="#Page_370">370</a><br /> +Bateson, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br /> +Bonheur, Rosa, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br /> +Botticelli, <a href="#Page_184">184</a><br /> +Bouchard, <a href="#Page_290">290</a><br /> +Brieux, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a><br /> +Budin, Prof., <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br /> +Bunge, Prof. von, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a><br /> +Burke, <a href="#Page_225">225</a><br /> +Burns, John, <a href="#Page_325">325</a><br /> +Butler, Lady, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br /> +Carlyle, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br /> +Chesterton, G. K., <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a><br /> +Clouston, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br /> +Coleridge, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a><br /> +Croom, Sir Halliday, <a href="#Page_119">119</a><br /> +Darwin, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br /> +Duncan, Miss Isadora, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br /> +Duncan, Dr. Matthews, <a href="#Page_210">210</a><br /> +Ehrlich, <a href="#Page_233">233</a><br /> +Eliot, George, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br /> +Ellis, Dr. Havelock, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br /> +Evans, Dr. Arthur, <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br /> +Fawcett, Mrs., <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br /> +Forel, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a><br /> +Galton, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a><br /> +Geddes and Thomson, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a><br /> +Gilman, Mrs. C. P., <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a><br /> +Goethe, <a href="#Page_225">225</a><br /> +Haeckel, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br /> +Hamilton, Miss Cicely, <a href="#Page_202">202</a><br /> +Haynes, E. S. P., <a href="#Page_293">293</a><br /> +Helmholtz, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br /> +Horsley, <a href="#Page_254">254</a><br /> +Huxley, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br /> +Kelvin, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br /> +Key, Ellen, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a><br /> +Kipling, <a href="#Page_188">188</a><br /> +Laitinen, Prof. Taav, <a href="#Page_381">381</a><br /> +Lamarck, <a href="#Page_158">158</a><br /> +Lister, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br /> +Maclaren, Lady, <a href="#Page_315">315</a><br /> +Maeterlinck, Maurice, <a href="#Page_325">325</a><br /> +Marshall, Prof. Alfred, <a href="#Page_381">381</a><br /> +McDougall, Dr. W., <a href="#Page_165">165</a><br /> +Meredith, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br /> +Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br /> +Mill, J. S., <a href="#Page_174">174</a><br /> +Milne-Edwards, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +Minot, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +Mosso, <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br /> +Mott, Dr. F. W., <a href="#Page_356">356</a><br /> +Napoleon, <a href="#Page_305">305</a><br /> +Nation, Carrie, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br /> +Newman, Sir George, <a href="#Page_121">121</a><br /> +Newsholme, Dr. A., <a href="#Page_384">384</a><br /> +Nightingale, Florence, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br /> +Pasteur, <a href="#Page_217">217</a><br /> +Pearson, Karl, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a><br /> +Phillpotts, Eden, <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br /> +Plato, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br /> +Rotch, Prof. Morgan, <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br /> +Ruskin, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br /> +Sappho, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br /> +Scharlieb, Dr. Mary, <a href="#Page_371">371</a><br /> +Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_52">52</a><br /> +Spencer, Herbert, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a><br /> +St. Francis, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br /> +St. Paul, <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br /> +Stevenson, <a href="#Page_154">154</a><br /> +Sullivan, Dr. W. C., <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a><br /> +Thales, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br /> +Ward, Mrs. Humphry, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br /> +Ward, Lester, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a><br /> +Weininger, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br /> +Weismann, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br /> +Wells, H. G., <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a><br /> +Westermarck, <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br /> +Wordsworth, Dorothy, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br /> +Wordsworth, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a><br /> +</p> + +<hr class='full' /> + +<h2><a name="FOOTNOTES" id="FOOTNOTES"></a>FOOTNOTES:</h2> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> + "The Germ-Plasm." English translation in Contemporary Science +Series, London: New York.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> + "Parenthood and Race-Culture: An Outline of Eugenics."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> + "The Obstacles to Eugenics," published in the <i>Sociological Review</i>, July 1909.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> + See his "Pure Sociology."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> + <i>I. e.</i> marrying cells.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> + Here, as in many other cases, I am indebted to that invaluable +repertory of facts, Dr. Havelock Ellis's "Man and Woman."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> + <i>This may be obtained from any bookseller at the price of 9d.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> + Further particulars may be obtained from the Vice-Principal, King's +College (Women's Department), 13 Kensington Square, London, W.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> + From <i>La Question Sexuelle</i>, French edition, p. 62. The author wrote +the book first in German and then in French.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> + The modern use of the word environment really dates from Lamarck's +original phrase. In his discussion of the characters of living beings, +he spoke of the <i>milieu environnant</i>. The higher the type of organism +the more comprehensive must the term become, not only quantitatively but +qualitatively.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> + "An Introduction to Social Psychology," by William McDougall, M.A., +M.B., M.Sc., Wilde Reader in Mental Philosophy in the University of +Oxford.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> + From the writer's paper, "The Human Mother," in the Report of the +Proceedings of the National Conference on Infantile Mortality, 1908, p. +30.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> + It it well to quote here the most recent comment of the late Sir +Francis Galton upon this subject. It is to be found in his celebrated +Huxley lecture, now published by the Eugenics Education Society, +together with much of the illustrious author's other work, under the +title, "Essays in Eugenics." The passage relevant to our discussion runs +as follows:—</p> + +<p>"There appears to be a considerable difference between the earliest age +at which it is physiologically desirable that a woman should marry and +that at which the ablest, or at least the most cultured, women usually +do. Acceleration in the time of marriage, often amounting to seven +years, as from twenty-eight or twenty-nine to twenty-one or twenty-two, +under influences such as those mentioned above, is by no means +improbable. What would be its effect on productivity? It might be +expected to act in two ways:—</p> + +<p>"(1) By shortening each generation by an amount equally proportionate to +the diminution in age at which marriage occurs. Suppose the span of each +generation to be shortened by one-sixth, so that six take the place of +five, and that the productivity of each marriage is unaltered, it +follows that one-sixth more children will be brought into the world +during the same time, which is roughly equivalent to increasing the +productivity of an unshortened generation by that amount.</p> + +<p>"(2) By saving from certain barrenness the earlier part of the +child-bearing period of the woman. Authorities differ so much as to the +direct gain of fertility due to early marriage that it is dangerous to +express an opinion. The large and thriving families that I have known +were the offspring of mothers who married very young."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> + An unavoidable delay in the publication of this book makes possible +reference to Professor Ehrlich's synthetic compound of arsenic, known as +"606," the anti-syphilitic potency of which will render even less +excusable the cowardice and neglect against which the foregoing is a +protest.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_15" id="Footnote_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> + This is a libel upon poor people everywhere. There has been some +confusion between drink and poverty.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_16" id="Footnote_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> + "T. P.'s Weekly," Christmas Number, 1909.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_17" id="Footnote_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> + The first treatise on Infant Mortality in English, written by Sir +George Newman at the present writer's request, and published in his New +Library of Medicine in 1906, gives abundant and trustworthy information +as to the initial incidence of this disproportionate mortality.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_18" id="Footnote_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> + "Socialism and the Family," Sixpenny Edition, p. 59.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_19" id="Footnote_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> + The address of this Union is 20, Copthall Avenue, London, E. C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_20" id="Footnote_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> + "The primal physical functions of maternity."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_21" id="Footnote_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> + W. Claassen in the Archiv für Rassen-und-Gesellschafts-Biologie, +Nov.—Dec., 1909. See the Eugenics Review, July, 1910, p. 154.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_22" id="Footnote_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> + We decided to reprint the Report of that Conference, and a few +copies of the reprint are still obtainable.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_23" id="Footnote_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> + In his "Alcoholism." 1906.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_24" id="Footnote_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> + In the articles, "Racial Poisons: Alcohol," Eugenics Review, April, +1910, and "Professor Karl Pearson on Alcoholism and Offspring," British +Journal of Inebriety, Oct., 1910.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_25" id="Footnote_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> + This study has only just begun, but remarkable results have already +been obtained. The interested reader should refer to the Proceedings of +the Twelfth International Congress on Alcoholism held in London in 1909.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_26" id="Footnote_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> + This Report, published in 1910, can readily be obtained through any +bookseller. Its number is Cd. 5263, and the price only 1s. 3d.</p> +</div> + +<hr class='full' /> + +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3> +<ol> +<li>Original chapter titles were inconsistently named. For example, "CHAPTER VI" was followed +by simply "VII" without the "CHAPTER" designation. The original printing has been retained.</li> +<li>p. 269: word omitted in original ("on") has been added:<br /> +"I have recently been on a tour throughout Canada...."</li> +</ol> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman and Womanhood, by C. W. 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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: Woman and Womanhood + A Search for Principles + +Author: C. W. Saleeby + +Release Date: November 17, 2006 [EBook #19848] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +BY DR. C. W. SALEEBY + +WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD +HEALTH, STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS +THE CYCLE OF LIFE +EVOLUTION: THE MASTER KEY +WORRY: THE DISEASE OF THE AGE +THE CONQUEST OF CANCER: A PLAN OF CAMPAIGN +PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD + +A SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES + +by +C. W. SALEEBY +M.D., F.R.S.E., Ch.B., F.Z.S. + +Fellow of the Obstetrical Society of Edinburgh and formerly +Resident Physician Edinburgh Maternity Hospital; +Vice-President Divorce Law Reform Union; Member of the +Royal Institution and of Council of the Sociological Society. + +MITCHELL KENNERLEY +NEW YORK AND LONDON +MCMXI + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Copyright 1911 by +Mitchell Kennerley + +Press of J. J. Little & Ives Co. +East Twenty-fourth Street +New York + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + CONTENTS + + PAGE + I. FIRST PRINCIPLES 1 + II. THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME 34 + III. THE PURPOSE OF WOMANHOOD 52 + IV. THE LAW OF CONSERVATION 64 + V. THE DETERMINATION OF SEX 72 + VI. MENDELISM AND WOMANHOOD 81 + VII. BEFORE WOMANHOOD 92 + VIII. THE PHYSICAL TRAINING OF GIRLS 99 + IX. THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 128 + X. THE PRICE OF PRUDERY 132 + XI. EDUCATION FOR MOTHERHOOD 151 + XII. THE MATERNAL INSTINCT 163 + XIII. CHOOSING THE FATHERS OF THE FUTURE 193 + XIV. THE MARRIAGE AGE FOR GIRLS 197 + XV. THE FIRST NECESSITY 219 + XVI. ON CHOOSING A HUSBAND 234 + XVII. THE CONDITIONS OF MARRIAGE 258 + XVIII. THE CONDITIONS OF DIVORCE 291 + XIX. THE RIGHTS OF MOTHERS 296 + XX. WOMEN AND ECONOMICS 327 + XXI. THE CHIEF ENEMY OF WOMEN 348 + XXII. CONCLUSION 386 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FIRST PRINCIPLES + + +We are often and rightly reminded that woman is half the human race. It +is truer even than it appears. Not only is woman half of the present +generation, but present woman is half of all the generations of men and +women to come. The argument of this book, which will be regarded as +reactionary by many women called "advanced"--presumably as doctors say +that a case of consumption is "advanced"--involves nothing other than +adequate recognition of the importance of woman in the most important of +all matters. It is true that my primary concern has been to furnish, for +the individual woman and for those in charge of girlhood, a guide of +life based upon the known physiology of sex. But it is a poor guide of +life which considers only the transient individual, and poorest of all +in this very case. + +If it were true that woman is merely the vessel and custodian of the +future lives of men and women, entrusted to her ante-natal care by their +fathers, as many creeds have supposed, then indeed it would be a +question of relatively small moment how the mothers of the future were +chosen. Our ingenious devices for ensuring the supremacy of man lend +colour to this idea. We name children after their fathers, and the fact +that they are also to some extent of the maternal stock is obscured. + +But when we ask to what extent they are also of maternal stock, we find +that there is a rigorous equality between the sexes in this matter. It +is a fact which has been ignored or inadequately recognized by every +feminist and by every eugenist from Plato until the present time. +Salient qualities, whether good or ill, are more commonly displayed by +men than by women. Great strength or physical courage or endurance, +great ability or genius, together with a variety of abnormalities, are +much more commonly found in men than in women, and the eugenic emphasis +has therefore always been laid upon the choice of fathers rather than of +mothers. Not so long ago, the scion of a noble race must marry, not at +all necessarily the daughter of another noble race, but rather any young +healthy woman who promised to be able to bear children easily and suckle +them long. But directly we observe, under the microscope, the facts of +development, we discover that each parent contributes an exactly equal +share to the making of the new individual, and all the ancient and +modern ideas of the superior value of well-selected fatherhood fall to +the ground. Woman is indeed half the race. In virtue of expectant +motherhood and her ante-natal nurture of us all, she might well claim +to be more, but she is half at least. + +And thus it matters for the future at least as much how the mothers are +chosen as how the fathers are. This remains true, notwithstanding that +the differences between men, commending them for selection or rejection, +seem so much more conspicuous and important than in the case of women. + +For, in the first place, the differences between women are much greater +than appear when, for instance, we read history as history is at present +understood, or when we observe and compare the world and his wife. +Uniformity or comparative uniformity of environment is a factor of +obvious importance in tending to repress the natural differences between +women. Reverse the occupations and surroundings of the sexes, and it +might be found that men were "much of a muchness," and women various and +individualized, to a surprising extent. + +But, even allowing for this, it is difficult to question that men as +individuals do differ, for good and for evil, more than women as +individuals. Such a malady as haemophilia, for instance, sharply +distinguishes a certain number of men from the rest of their sex, +whereas women, not subject to the disease, are not thus distinguished, +as individuals. + +But the very case here cited serves to illustrate the fallacy of +studying the individual as an individual only, and teaches that there is +a second reason why the selection of women for motherhood is more +important than is so commonly supposed. In the matter of, for instance, +haemophilia, men appear sharply contrasted among themselves and women all +similar. Yet the truth is that men and women differ equally in this very +respect. Women do not suffer from haemophilia, but they convey it. Just +as definitely as one man is haemophilic and another is not, so one woman +will convey haemophilia and another will not. The abnormality is present +in her, but it is latent; or, as we shall see the Mendelians would say, +"recessive" instead of "dominant." + +Now I am well assured that if we could study not only the patencies but +also the latencies of individuals of both sexes, we should find that +they vary equally. Women, as individuals, appear more similar than men, +but as individuals conveying latent or "recessive" characters which will +appear in their children, especially their male children, they are just +as various as men are. The instance of haemophilia is conclusive, for two +women, each equally free from it, will respectively bear normal and +haemophilic children; but this is probably only one among many far more +important cases. I incline to believe that certain nervous qualities, +many of great value to humanity, tend to be latent in women, just as +haemophilia does. Two women may appear very similar in mind and capacity, +but one may come of a distinguished stock, and the other of an +undistinguished. In the first woman, herself unremarkable, high ability +may be latent, and her sons may demonstrate it. It is therefore every +whit as important that the daughters of able and distinguished stock +shall marry as that the sons shall. It remains true even though the +sons may themselves be obviously distinguished and the daughters may +not. + +The conclusion of this matter is that scientific inquiry completely +demonstrates the equal importance of the selection of fathers and of +mothers. If our modern knowledge of heredity is to be admitted at all, +it follows that the choice of women for motherhood is of the utmost +moment for the future of mankind. Woman is half the race; and the +leaders of the woman's movement must recognize the importance of their +sex in this fundamental question of eugenics. At present they do not do +so; indeed, no one does. But the fact remains. As before all things a +Eugenist, and responsible, indeed, for that name, I cannot ignore it in +the following pages. There is not only to-day to think of, but +to-morrow. The eugenics which ignores the natural differences between +women as individuals, and their still greater natural differences as +potential parents, is only half eugenics; the leading women who in any +way countenance such measures as deprive the blood of the future of its +due contribution from the best women of the present, are leading not +only one sex but the race as a whole to ruin. + +If women were not so important as Nature has made them, none of this +would matter. To insist upon it is only to insist upon the importance of +the sex. The remarkable fact, which seems to me to make this protest and +the forthcoming pages so necessary, is that the leading feminists do not +recognize the all-importance of their sex in this regard. They must be +accused of neglecting it and of not knowing how important they are. They +consider the present only, and not the composition of the future. Like +the rest of the world, I read their papers and manifestoes, their +speeches and books, and have done so, and have subscribed to them, for +years; but no one can refer me to a single passage in any of these where +any feminist or suffragist, in Great Britain, at least, militant or +non-militant, has set forth the principle, beside which all others are +trivial, that _the best women must be the mothers of the future_. + +Yet this which is thus ignored matters so much that other things matter +only in so far as they affect it. As I have elsewhere maintained, the +eugenic criterion is the first and last of every measure of reform or +reaction that can be proposed or imagined. Will it make a better race? +Will the consequence be that more of the better stocks, _of both sexes_, +contribute to the composition of future generations? In other words, the +very first thing that the feminist movement must prove is that it is +eugenic. If it be so, its claims are unchallengeable; if it be what may +contrariwise be called _dysgenic_, no arguments in its favour are of any +avail. Yet the present champions of the woman's cause are apparently +unaware that this question exists. They do not know how important their +sex is. + +Thinkers in the past have known, and many critics in the present, though +unaware of the eugenic idea, do perceive, that woman can scarcely be +better employed than in the home. Herbert Spencer, notably, argued that +we must not include, in the estimate of a nation's assets, those +activities of woman the development of which is incompatible with +motherhood. To-day, the natural differences between individuals of both +sexes, and the importance of their right selection for the transmission +of their characters to the future, are clearly before the minds of those +who think at all on these subjects. On various occasions I have raised +this issue between Feminism and Eugenics, suggesting that there are +varieties of feminism, making various demands for women which are +utterly to be condemned because they not merely ignore eugenics, but are +opposed to it, and would, if successful, be therefore ruinous to the +race. + +Ignored though it be by the feminist leaders, this is the first of +questions; and in so far as any clear opinion on it is emerging from the +welter of prejudices, that opinion is hitherto inimical to the feminist +claims. Most notably is this the case in America, where the dysgenic +consequences of the _so-called_ higher education of women have been +clearly demonstrated. + +The mark of the following pages is that they assume the principle of +what we may call Eugenic Feminism, and that they endeavour to formulate +its working-out. It is my business to acquaint myself with the +literature of both eugenics and feminism, and I know that hitherto the +eugenists have inclined to oppose the claims of feminism, Sir Francis +Galton, for instance, having lent his name to the anti-suffrage side; +whilst the feminists, one and all, so far as Anglo-Saxondom is +concerned--for Ellen Key must be excepted--are either unaware of the +meaning of eugenics at all, or are up in arms at once when the +eugenist--or at any rate this eugenist, who is a male person--mildly +inquires: But what about motherhood? and to what sort of women are you +relegating it by default? + +I claim, therefore, that there is immediate need for the presentation of +a case which is, from first to last, and at whatever cost, eugenic; but +which also--or, rather, therefore--makes the highest claims on behalf of +woman and womanhood, so that indeed, in striving to demonstrate the vast +importance of the woman question for the composition of the coming race, +I may claim to be much more feminist than the feminists. + +The problem is not easily to be solved; otherwise we should not have +paired off into insane parties, as on my view we have done. Nor will the +solution please the feminists without reserve, whilst it will grossly +offend that abnormal section of the feminists who are distinguished by +being so much less than feminine, and who little realize what a poor +substitute feminism is for feminity. + +There is possible no Eugenic Feminism which shall satisfy those whose +simple argument is that woman must have what she wants, just as man +must. I do not for a moment admit that either men or women or children +of a smaller growth are entitled to everything they want. "The divine +right of kings," said Carlyle, "is the right to be kingly men"; and I +would add that the divine right of women is the right to be queenly +women. Until this present time, it was never yet alleged as a final +principle of justice that whatever people wanted they were entitled to, +yet that is the simple feminist demand in a very large number of cases. +It is a demand to be denied, whilst at the same time we grant the right +of every man and of every woman to opportunities for the best +development of the self; whatever that self may be--including even the +aberrant and epicene self of those imperfectly constituted women whose +adherence to the woman's cause so seriously handicaps it. + +But it is one thing to say people should have what is best for them, and +another that whatever they want is best for them. If it is not best for +them it is not right, any more than if they were children asking for +more green apples. Women have great needs of which they are at present +unjustly deprived; and they are fully entitled to ask for everything +which is needed for the satisfaction of those needs; but nothing is more +certain than that, at present, many of them do not know what they should +ask for. Not to know what is good for us is a common human failing; to +have it pointed out is always tiresome, and to have this pointed out to +women by any man is intolerable. But the question is not whether a man +points it out, presuming to tell women what is good for them, but +whether in this matter he is right--in common with the overwhelming +multitude of the dead of both sexes. + +As has been hinted, the issue is much more momentous than any could have +realized even so late as fifty years ago. It is only in our own time +that we are learning the measure of the natural differences between +individuals, it is only lately that we have come to see that races +cannot rise by the transmission of acquired characters from parents to +offspring, since such transmission does not occur, and it is only within +the last few years that the relative potency of heredity over education, +of nature over nurture, has been demonstrated. Not one in thousands +knows how cogent this demonstration is, nor how absolutely conclusive is +the case for the eugenic principle in the light of our modern knowledge. +At whatever cost, we see, who have ascertained the facts, that we must +be eugenic. + +This argument was set forth in full in the predecessors of this book, +which in its turn is devoted to the interests of women as individuals. +But before we proceed, it is plainly necessary to answer the critic who +might urge that the separate questions of the individual and the race +cannot be discussed in this mixed fashion. The argument may be that if +we are to discuss the character and development and rights of women as +individuals, we must stick to our last. Any woman may question the +eugenic criterion or say that it has nothing to do with her case. She +claims certain rights and has certain needs; she is not so sure, +perhaps, about the facts of heredity, and in any case she is sure that +individuals--such as herself, for instance--are ends in themselves. She +neither desires to be sacrificed to the race, nor does she admit that +any individual should be so sacrificed. She is tired of hearing that +women must make sacrifices for the sake of the community and its +future; and the statement of this proposition in its new eugenic form, +which asserts that, at all costs, the finest women must be mothers, and +the mothers must be the finest women, is no more satisfactory to her +than the crude creed of the Kaiser that children, cooking and church are +the proper concerns of women. She claims to be an individual, as much as +any man is, as much as any individual of either sex whom we hope to +produce in the future by our eugenics, and she has the same personal +claim to be an end in and for herself as they will have whom we seek to +create. Her sex has always been sacrificed to the present or to the +immediate needs of the future as represented by infancy and childhood; +and there is no special attractiveness in the prospect of exchanging a +military tyranny for a eugenic tyranny: "_plus ca change, plus c'est la +meme chose._" + +One cannot say whether this will be accepted as a fair statement of the +woman's case at the present time, but I have endeavoured to state it +fairly and would reply to it that its claims are unquestionable and that +we must grant unreservedly the equal right of every woman to the same +consideration and recognition and opportunity as an individual, an end +in and for herself, whatever the future may ask for, as we grant to men. + +But I seek to show in the following pages that, in reality, there is no +antagonism between the claims of the future and the present, the race +and the individual. On philosophic analysis we must see that, indeed, no +living race could come into being, much less endure, in which the +interests of individuals as individuals, and the interest of the race, +were opposed. If we imagine any such race we must imagine its +disappearance in one generation, or in a few generations if the clash of +interests were less than complete. Living Nature is not so fiendishly +contrived as has sometimes appeared to the casual eye. On the contrary, +the natural rule which we see illustrated in all species, animal or +vegetable, high or low, throughout the living world, is that the +individual is so constructed that his or her personal fulfilment of his +or her natural destiny as an individual, is precisely that which best +serves the race. Once we learn that individuals were all evolved by +Nature for the sake of the race, we shall understand why they have been +so evolved in their personal characteristics that in living their own +lives and fulfilling themselves they best fulfil Nature's remoter +purpose. + +To this universal and necessary law, without which life could not +persist anywhere in any of its forms, woman is no exception; and therein +is the reply to those who fear a statement in new terms of the old +proposition that women must give themselves up for the sake of the +community and its future. Here it is true that whosoever will give her +life shall save it. Women must indeed give themselves up for the +community and the future; and so must men. Since women differ from men, +their sacrifice takes a somewhat different form, but in their case, as +in men's, the right fulfilment of Nature's purpose is one with the right +fulfilment of their own destiny. There is no antinomy. On the contrary, +the following pages are written in the belief and the fear that women +are threatening to injure themselves as individuals--and therefore the +race, of course--just because they wrongly suppose that a monstrous +antinomy exists where none could possibly exist. "No," they say, "we +have endured this too long; henceforth we must be free to be ourselves +and live our own lives." And then, forsooth, they proceed to try to be +other than themselves and live other than the lives for which their real +selves, in nine cases out of ten, were constructed. It works for a time, +and even for life in the case of incomplete and aberrant women. For the +others, it often spells liberty and interest and heightened +consciousness of self for some years; but the time comes when outraged +Nature exacts her vengeance, when middle age abbreviates the youth that +was really misspent, and is itself as prematurely followed by a period +of decadence grateful neither to its victim nor to anyone else. +Meanwhile the women who have chosen to be and to remain women realize +the promise of Wordsworth to the girl who preferred walks in the country +to algebra and symbolic logic:-- + + Thou, while thy babes around thee cling, + Shalt show us how divine a thing + A woman may be made. + Thy thoughts and feelings shall not die, + Nor leave thee, when grey hairs are nigh, + A melancholy slave; + But an old age serene and bright + And lovely as a Lapland night, + Shall lead thee to thy grave. + +Where is the woman, recognizable as such, who will question that the +brother of Dorothy Wordsworth was right? + +In the following pages, it is sought to show that, women being +constructed by Nature, as individuals, for her racial ends, they best +realize themselves, are happier and more beautiful, live longer and more +useful lives, when they follow, as mothers or foster-mothers in the wide +and scarcely metaphorical sense of that word, the career suggested in +Wordsworth's lovely lines. + +It remains to state the most valuable end which this book might possibly +achieve--an end which, by one means or another, must be achieved. It is +that the best women, those favoured by Nature in physique and +intelligence, in character and their emotional nature, the women who are +increasingly to be found enlisted in the ranks of Feminism, and fighting +the great fight for the Women's Cause, shall be convinced by the +unchangeable and beneficent facts of biology, seen in the bodies and +minds of women, and shall direct their efforts accordingly; so that they +and those of their sisters who are of the same natural rank, instead of +increasingly deserting the ranks of motherhood and leaving the blood of +inferior women to constitute half of all future generations, shall on +the contrary furnish an ever-increasing proportion of our wives and +mothers, to the great gain of themselves, and of men, and of the future. + +For in some of its forms to-day the Woman's Cause is _not_ man's, nor +the future's, nor even, as I shall try to show, woman's. But a Eugenic +Feminism, for which I try to show the warrant in the study of woman's +nature, would indeed be the cause of man, and should enlist the whole +heart and head of every man who has them to offer. For here is a +principle which benefits men to the whole immeasurable extent involved +in decreeing that the best women must be the wives. "The best women for +our wives!" is not a bad demand from men's point of view, and it is +assuredly the best possible for the sake of the future. + +It is claimed, then, for the teaching of this book that, being based +upon the evident and unquestionable indications of Nature, it is +calculated to serve her end, which is the welfare of the race as a +whole, including both sexes. No one will question that the position and +happiness and self-realization of women in the modern world would be +vastly enhanced by the reforms for which I plead, though some men will +not think that game worth the candle. But I have argued that men also +will profit; nor can there be any question as to the advantage for +children. It is just because our scheme and our objects are natural that +they require no support from and lend no warrant to that accursed spirit +of sex-antagonism which many well-meaning women now display--doubtless +by a natural reflex, because it is the spirit of the worst men +everywhere. It is primarily men's desire for sex-dominance that +engenders a sex-resentment in women; but the spirit is lamentable, +whatever its origin and wherever it be found. It is most lamentable in +the bully, the drunkard, the cad, the Mammonist, the satyr, who are +everywhere to be found opposing woman and her claims. There is no +variety of male blackguardism and bestiality, of vileness and +selfishness, of lust and greed, whose representatives' names should not +be added to those of the illustrious pro-consuls and elegant peeresses +and their following who form Anti-Suffrage Societies. Before we +criticise sex-antagonism in women, let us be honest about it in men; and +before we sneer at the type of women who most display it, let us realize +fully the worthlessness of the types of men who display it. But if this +be granted--and I have never heard it granted by the men who deplore +sex-antagonism as if only women displayed it--we must none the less +recognize that this spirit injures both sexes, and that it is +necessarily false, since none can question that Nature devised the sexes +for mutual aid to her end. By this first principle sex-antagonism is +therefore condemned. This book, written by a man in behalf of +womanhood--and therefore in behalf of manhood and childhood--is +consistently opposed to all notions of sex-antagonism, or sex-dominance, +male or female, or of competing claims between the sexes. Man and woman +are complementary halves of the highest thing we know, and just as the +men who seek to maintain male dominance are the enemies of mankind, so +the women who preach enmity to men, and refusal of wise and humane +legislation in their interests because men have framed it, are the +enemies of womankind. At the beginning of the "Suffragette" movement in +England, I had the pleasure of taking luncheon with the brilliant young +lady whose name has been so prominent in this connection; and my +lifelong enthusiasm for the "Vote" has been chastened ever since by the +recollection of the resentment which she exhibited at every suggestion +of or allusion to any legislation in favour of women--notably with +reference to infant mortality and to alcoholism--whilst the suffrage was +withheld. Substitute "destroyed" or "reversed" for "chastened," and you +have a more typical result in quite well-meaning men of sex-antagonism +as many "advanced" women now display it. + +Further, this book may be regarded as an appeal to those women who are +responsible for forming the ideals of girls. The idea of womanhood here +set forth on natural grounds is not always represented in the ideals +which are now set before the youthful aspirant for work in the woman's +cause. It is not argued that the principles of eugenics are to be +expounded to the beginner, nor that she is to be re-directed to the +nursery. It is not necessarily argued, by any means, that marriage and +motherhood are to be set forth as the goal at which _every_ girl is to +aim; such a woman as Miss Florence Nightingale was a Foster-Mother of +countless thousands, and was only the greatest exemplar in our time of a +function which is essentially womanly, but does not involve marriage. I +desire nothing less than that girls should be taught that they must +marry--any man better than none. I want no more men chosen for +fatherhood than are fit for it, and if the standard is to be raised, +selection must be more rigorous and exclusive, as it could not be if +every girl were taught that, unmarried, she fails of her destiny. The +higher the standard which, on eugenic principles, natural or acquired, +women exact of the men they marry, the more certainly will many women +remain unmarried. + +But I believe that the principles here set forth are able to show us how +such women may remain feminine, and may discharge characteristically +feminine functions in society, even though physical motherhood be denied +them. The _racial_ importance of physical motherhood cannot be +exaggerated, because it determines, as we have seen, not less than half +the natural composition of future generations. But its _individual_ +importance can easily be over-estimated, and that is an error which I +have specially sought to avoid in this book, which is certainly an +attempt to call or recall women to motherhood. It is not as if physical +motherhood were the whole of human motherhood. Racially, it is the +substantial whole; individually, it is but a part of the whole, and a +smaller fraction in our species than in any humbler form of life. +Everyone knows maiden aunts who are better, more valuable, completer +mothers in every non-physical way than the actual mothers of their +nephews and nieces. This is woman's wonderful prerogative, that, in +virtue of her _psyche_, she can realize herself, and serve others, on +feminine lines, and without a pang of regret or a hint anywhere of +failure, even though she forego physical motherhood. This book, +therefore, is a plea not only for Motherhood but for +Foster-Motherhood--that is, Motherhood all-but-physical. In time to come +the great professions of nursing and teaching will more and more engage +and satisfy the lives and the powers of Virgin-Mothers without number. +Let no woman prove herself so ignorant or contemptuous of great things +as to suggest that these are functions beneath the dignity of her +complete womanhood. + +But many a young girl, passing from her finishing-school--which has +perhaps not quite succeeded, despite its best efforts, in finishing her +womanhood--and coming under the influence of some of our modern +champions of womanhood, might well be excused for throwing such a book +as this from her, scorning to admit the glorious conditions which +declare that woman is more for the Future than for the Present, and that +if the Future is to be safeguarded, or even to be, they must not be +transgressed. I have watched young girls, wearing the beautiful colours +which have been captured by one section of the suffrage movement, asking +their way to headquarters for instructions as to procedure, and I have +wondered whether, in twenty years, they will look back wholly with +content at the consequences. Some time ago the illustrated papers +provided us with photographs of a person, originally female, "born to be +love visible," as Ruskin says, who had mastered jiu-jitsu for +suffragette purposes, and was to be seen throwing various hapless men +about a room. And only the day before I write, the papers have given us +a realistic account of a demonstration by an ardent advocate of woman, +the chief item of which was that, on the approach of a burly policeman +to seize her, she--if the pronouns be not too definite in their +sex--fell upon her back and adroitly received the constabulary "wind" +upon her upraised foot, thereby working much havoc. No one would assert +that the woman's movement is responsible for the production of such +people; no reasonable person would assert that their adherence condemns +it; but we are rightly entitled to be concerned lest the rising +generation of womanhood be misled by such disgusting examples. + +Nothing will be said which militates for a moment against the +possibility that a woman may be womanly and yet in her later years, when +so many women combine their best health and vigour with experience and +wisdom, might replace many hundredweight of male legislators upon the +benches of the House of Commons, to the immense advantage of the nation. +If our present purpose were medical in the ordinary sense, the reader +would come to a chapter on the climacteric, dealing with the nervous and +other risks and disabilities of that period, and notably including a +warning as to the importance of attending promptly to certain local +symptoms which may possibly herald grave disease. An abundance of books +on such subjects is to be had, and my purpose is not to add to their +number. Yet the climacteric has a special interest for us because the +special case of those women who have passed it is constantly ignored in +our discussions of the woman question--which is not exclusively +concerned with the destiny of girls and the claims of feminine +adolescence to the vote. The work of Lord Lister, and the advances of +obstetrics and gynecology, largely dependent thereon, are increasing the +naturally large number of women at these later ages--naturally large +because women live longer than men. At this stage the whole case is +changed. The eugenic criterion no longer applies. But though the woman +is past motherhood, she is still a woman, and by no means past +foster-motherhood. Though her psychological characters are somewhat +modified, it is recorded by my old friend and teacher, Dr. Clouston, +that never yet has he found the climacteric to damage a woman's natural +love for children: the maternal instinct will not be destroyed. See, +then, what a valuable being we have here; none the less so because, as +has been said, she now begins to enjoy, in many cases, the best health +of her life. Whatever activities she adopts, there is now no question of +depriving the race of her qualities: if they are good qualities, it is +to be hoped they are already represented in members of the rising +generation. The scope of womanhood is now extended. The principles to be +laid down later still apply, but they are entirely compatible with, for +instance, the discharge of legislative functions. The nation does not +yet value its old or elderly women aright. We use as a term of contempt +that which should be a term of respect. Savage peoples are wiser. We +need the wisdom of our older women. It would be well for us to have Mrs. +Fawcett and Mrs. Humphry Ward in Parliament. The distinguished lady who +approves of woman's vote in municipal affairs, and fights hard for her +son's candidature in Parliament, but objects to woman suffrage on the +ground that women should not interfere in politics, could doubtless find +a good reason why women should sit in Parliament; and though she would +scarcely be heeded on matters of political theory, her splendid +championship of Vacation Schools and Play Centres would be more +effective than ever in the House, and might instruct some of her male +_confreres_ as to what politics really is. + +The prefatory point here made is, in a word, that the following +doctrines are perhaps less reactionary than the ardent suffragette might +suppose, compatible as they are with an earnest belief in the fitness +and the urgent desirability of women of later ages even as Members of +Parliament. It may be added that, on this very point, there is a +ridiculous argument against woman suffrage--that it is the precursor of +a demand to enter Parliament, which would mean (it is assumed), women +being numerically in the majority, that the House would be filled with +girls of twenty-two and three. Men of a sort would be likelier than +women, it could be argued, to vote for such girls; but the wise of both +sexes might well vote for the elderly women whose existence is somehow +forgotten in this connection. + +No chapter will be found devoted to the question of the vote. The +omission is not due to reasons of space, nor to my ever having heard a +good argument against the vote--even the argument that women do not want +it. That women did not want the vote would only show--if it were the +case--how much they needed it. Nor is the omission due to any +lukewarmness in a cause for which I am constantly speaking and writing. +My faith in the justice and political expediency of woman suffrage has +survived the worst follies, in speech and deed, of its injudicious +advocates: I would as soon allow the vagaries of Mrs. Carrie Nation to +make me an advocate of free whiskey. Causes must be judged by their +merits, not by their worst advocates, or where are the chances of +religion or patriotism or decency? + +The omission is due to the belief that votes for women or anybody else +are far less important than their advocates or their opponents assume. +The biologist cannot escape the habit of thinking of political matters +in vital terms; and if these lead him to regard such questions as the +vote with an interest which is only secondary and conditional, it is by +no means certain that the verdict of history would not justify him. The +present concentration of feminism in England upon the vote, sometimes +involving the refusal of a good end--such as wise legislation--because +it was not attained by the means they desire, and arousing all manner of +enmity between the sexes, may be an unhappy necessity so long as men +refuse to grant what they will assuredly grant before long. But now, and +then, the vital matters are the nature of womanhood; the extent of our +compliance with Nature's laws in the care of girlhood, whether or not +women share in making the transitory laws of man; and the extent to +which womanhood discharges its great functions of dedicating and +preparing its best for the mothers, and choosing and preparing the best +of men for the fathers, of the future. The vote, or any other thing, is +good or bad in so far as it serves or hurts these great and everlasting +needs. I believe in the vote because I believe it will be eugenic, will +reform the conditions of marriage and divorce in the eugenic sense, and +will serve the cause of what I have elsewhere called "preventive +eugenics," which strives to protect healthy stocks from the "racial +poisons," such as venereal disease, alcohol, and, in a relatively +infinitesimal degree, lead. These are ends good and necessary in +themselves, whether attained by a special dispensation from on high, or +by decree of an earthly autocrat or a democracy of either sex or both. +For these ends we must work, and for all the means whereby to attain +them; but never for the means in despite of the ends. + +This first chapter is perhaps unduly long, but it is necessary to state +my eugenic faith, since there is neither room nor need for me to +reiterate the principles of eugenics in later chapters, and since it was +necessary to show that, though this book is written in the interests of +individual womanhood, it is consistent with the principles of the divine +cause of race-culture, to which, for me, all others are subordinate, and +by which, I know, all others will in the last resort be judged. + + * * * * * + +The whole teaching of this book, from social generalizations to the +details of the wise management of girlhood, is based upon a single and +simple principle, often referred to and always assumed in former +writings from this pen, and in public speaking from many and various +platforms. If this principle be invalid, the whole of the practice which +is sought to be based upon it falls to the ground; but if it be valid, +it is of supreme importance as the sole foundation upon which can be +erected any structure of truth regarding woman and womanhood. Our first +concern, therefore, must be to state this principle, and the evidence +therefor. This will occupy not a small space: and the remainder will be +amply filled with the details of its application to woman as girl and +mother and grandmother, as wife and widow, as individual and citizen. + +Woman is Nature's supreme organ of the future, and it is as such that +she will here be regarded. The purpose of adding yet another to the many +books on various aspects of womanhood is to propound and, if possible, +establish this conception of womanhood, and to find in it a +never-failing guide to the right living of the individual life, an +infallible criterion of right and wrong in all proposals for the future +of womanhood, whether economic, political, educational, whether +regarding marriage or divorce, or any other subject that concerns +womanhood. A principle for which so much is claimed demands clear +definition and inexpugnable foundation in the "solid ground of Nature." +Cogent in some measure though the argument would be, we must appeal in +the first place neither to the poets, nor to our own naturally implanted +preferences in womanhood, nor to any teaching that claims extra-natural +authority. Our first question must be--Do Nature and Life, the facts and +laws of the continuance and maintenance of living creatures, lend +countenance to this idea; can it be translated from general terms, +essentially poetic and therefore suspect by many, into precise, hard, +scientific language; is it a fact, like the atomic weight of oxygen or +the laws of motion, that woman is Nature's supreme instrument of the +future? If the answer to these questions be affirmative, the evidence of +the poets, of our own preferences, of religions ancient and modern, is +of merely secondary concern as corroborative, and as serving curiosity +to observe how far the teachings of passionless science have been +divined or denied by past ages and by other modes of perception and +inquiry. Therefore this is to be in its basis none other than a +biological treatise; for the laws of reproduction, the newly gained +knowledge regarding the nature of sex, and the facts of physiology, +afford the evidence of the essentially biological truth which has been +so often expressed by the present writer in the quasi-poetic terms +already set forth. Let us, then, first remind ourselves how the +individual, whether male or female, is to be looked upon in the light of +the work of Weismann in especial, and how this great truth, discovered +by modern biology and especially by the students of heredity, affects +our understanding of the difference between man and woman. Setting forth +these earlier pages in the year of the Darwin centenary, and the jubilee +of the "Origin of Species," a writer would have some courage who +proposed to discuss man and woman as if they were unique, rather than +the highest and latest examples of male and female: their nature to be +rightly understood only by due study of their ancestral forms, ancient +and modern. The biological problem of sex is our concern, and we may +have to traverse many past ages of "aeonian evolution," and even to +consider certain quite humble organisms, before we rightly see woman as +an evolutionary product of the laws of life. + +But, first, as to the individual, of whatever sex. Observing the +familiar facts of our own lives and of the higher forms of life, both +animal and vegetable, with which we are acquainted, we must naturally at +first incline to regard as worse than paradoxical the modern biological +concept of the individual as existing for the race, of the body as +merely a transient host or trustee of the immortal germ-plasm. Since +life has its worth and value only in individuals, and since, therefore, +the race exists for the production of individuals, in any sense that we +human beings, at any rate, can accept, we must be reasonable in +expressing the apparently contrary but not less true view that the +individual exists for the race. After all, that does not mean that +individuals exist and are worth Nature's while merely in order to see +the germ-plasm on its way. To say that the individual exists for the +race is to say that he, and, as we shall see, pre-eminently she, exist +for future individuals; and that is not a destiny to be despised of any. +Let us attempt to state simply but accurately what biologists mean in +regarding the individual as primarily the host and servant of something +called the germ-plasm. + +When the processes of development and of reproduction are closely +scrutinized, we find evidence which, together with the conclusions based +thereon, was first effectively stated by August Weismann, of Freiburg, +in his famous little book, "The Germ-Plasm."[1] The marvellous cells +from which new individuals are formed must no longer be regarded, at any +rate in the higher animals and plants, as formerly parts of the parent +individuals. On the contrary, we have to accept, at least in general and +as substantially revealing to us the true nature of the individual, the +doctrine of the "continuity of the germ-plasm," which teaches that the +race proper is a potentially immortal sequence of living germ-cells, +from which at intervals there are developed bodies or individuals, the +business and _raison d'etre_ of which, whatever such individuals as +ourselves may come to suppose, is primarily to provide a shelter for the +germ-plasm, and nourishment and air, until such time as it shall produce +another individual for itself, to serve the same function. This is +another way of saying what will often be said in the following +pages--that the individual is meant by Nature to be a parent. + +We shall later see that this great truth by no means involves the +condemnation of spinsterhood, but since it determines not only the +physiology, but also the psychology, of the individual, and especially +of woman, it will guide us to a right appreciation of the dangers and +the right direction of spinsterhood, and the means whereby it may be +made a blessing to self and to others. This must be said lest the reader +should be deterred by the unquestionably true assertion that the +individual is meant by Nature to be a parent, and has no excuse for +existence in Nature's eyes except as a parent. If we are to regard the +body as a trustee of the germ-plasm, it is evident that the body which +carries the germ-plasm with itself to the grave--the "immortality of the +germ-plasm" being only conditional and at the mercy of the acts of +individuals--has stultified Nature's end; and it will be a serious +concern of ours in the present work to show how, amongst human beings, +at any rate, this stultification may be averted, many childless persons +of both sexes having served the race for evermore in the highest degree. +We must ask in what directions especially may woman, most profitably for +herself or for others, seek to express herself apart from motherhood. It +will appear, if our leading principle be valid, that it affords us a +sure guide in the welter of controversy and baseless assertion of every +kind, in which this vastly important question is at present involved. + +This conception of the individual as something meant to be a parent will +not be questioned by anyone who will do himself or herself the justice +to look at it soberly and reverently, without a trace of that tendency +to levity or to something worse which here invariably betrays the vulgar +mind, whether in a princess or a prostitute. For it needs little +reflection to perceive that the most familiar facts of our experience +and observation never fail to confirm the doctrine based by Weismann +upon the revelations of the microscope when applied to the developmental +processes of certain simple animal and vegetable forms. The doctrine +that the individual body was evolved by the forces of life, acted on and +directed by natural selection, as guardian and transmitter of the +germ-plasm, assumes a less paradoxical character when we perceive with +what unfailing art Nature has constructed and devised the body and the +mind for their function. We flatter ourselves hugely if we suppose that +even our most enjoyable and apparently most personal attributes and +appetites were designed by Nature for us. Not at all. It is the race for +which she is concerned. It is not the individual as individual, but the +individual as potential parent, that is her concern, nor does she +hesitate to leave very much to the mercy of time and chance the +individual from whom the possibility of parenthood has passed away, or +the individual in whom it has never appeared. Our appetites for food and +drink, well devised by Nature to be pleasant in their satisfaction--lest +otherwise we should fail to satisfy them and a possible parent should be +lost to her purposes--are immediately rendered of no account when there +stirs within us, whether in its crude or transmuted forms, the appetite +for the exercise of which these others, and we ourselves, exist, since +in Nature's eyes and scheme we are but vessels of the future. In later +chapters we shall have much occasion, because of their great practical +importance in the conduct of woman's life from girlhood onwards, to +discuss the physiological and psychological facts which demonstrate +overwhelmingly the truth of the view that the individual was evolved by +Nature for the care of the germ-plasm, or, in other words, was and is +constructed primarily and ultimately for parenthood. + +Nor is this argument, as I see it and will present it, invalidated in +any degree by the case of such individuals as the sterile worker-bee; +any more than the argument, rightly considered, is invalidated by any +instance of a worthy, valuable, happy life, eminently a success in the +highest and in the lower senses, lived amongst mankind by a non-parent +of either sex. On the contrary, it is in such cases as that of the +worker-bee that we find the warrant--in apparent contradiction--for our +notion of the meaning of the individual, and also the key to the problem +placed before us amongst ourselves by the case of inevitable +spinsterhood. Here, it must be granted, is an individual of a very high +and definite and individually complete type, no accident or sport, but, +in fact, essential for the type and continuance of the species to which +she belongs, and yet, though highly individualized and worthy to +represent individuality at its best and highest, the worker-bee, so far +from being designed for parenthood, is sterile, and her distinctive +characters and utilities are conditional upon her sterility. But when we +come to ask what are her distinctive characters and utilities we find +that they are all designed for the future of the race. She is, in fact, +the ideal foster-mother, made for that service, complete in her +incompleteness, satisfied with the vicarious fulfilment of the whole of +motherhood except its merely physical part. The doctrine, therefore, +that the individual is designed by Nature for parenthood, the +individual being primarily devised for the race, finds no exception, +but rather a striking and immensely significant illustration in the case +of the worker-bee, nor will it find itself in difficulties with the case +of any forms of individual, however sterile, that can be quoted from +either the animal or the vegetable world. Natural selection, of which +the continuance of the race is the first and never neglected concern, +invariably sees to it that no individuals are allowed to be produced by +any species unless they have survival-value, a phrase which always +means, in the upshot, value for the survival of the race--whether as +parents, or foster-parents, protectors of the parents, feeders or slaves +thereof. Our primary purpose throughout being practical, it is +impossible to devote unlimited time and space to proceeding formally +through the known forms of life in order to marshal all the proofs or a +tithe of them, that all individuals are invented and tolerated by Nature +for parenthood or its service. + +We shall in due course consider the peculiar significance of this +proposition for the case of woman--a significance so radical for our +present argument, even to its _minutiae_ of practical living, that it +cannot be too early or too thoroughly insisted upon. But before we +proceed to the special case of woman it is well that we should clearly +perceive as a general guiding truth, which will never fail us, either in +interpretation, prediction, or instruction, the unfailing gaze of +Nature, as manifested in the world of life, towards the future. There is +no truth more significant for our interpretation of the meaning of the +Universe, or at least of our planetary life: there is none more relevant +to the fate of empires, and therefore to the interests of the +enlightened patriot: there is none more worthy to be taken to heart by +the individual of either sex and of any age, adolescent or centenarian, +as the secret of life's happiness, endurance, and worth. It may be +permitted, then, briefly to survey the main truths, and, therefore, the +main teachings of the past, as they may be read by those who seek in the +facts of life the key to its meaning and its use. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME + + +When we survey the past of the earth as science has revealed it to us, +we gain some conceptions which will help us in our judgments as to what +this phenomenon of human life may signify in the future. We are +accustomed to look upon the earth as aged, but these terms are only +relative; and if we compare our own planet with its neighbours in the +solar system, we shall have good reason to suppose that, though the past +of the earth is very prolonged, its future will probably be far more so. +As for life--and we must think not only of human life, but of life as a +planetary phenomenon--that is necessarily much more recent than the +formation even of the earth's crust, the existence of water in the +liquid state being necessary for life in any of its forms. And human +life itself, though the extent of its past duration is seen to be +greater the more deeply we study the records, is yet a relatively recent +thing. The utmost, it appears, that we can assign to our past would be +perhaps six million years, taking our species back to mid-Miocene times. +Doubtless this is a mighty age as compared with the few thousand years +allotted to us in bygone chronologies; but, looked at _sub specie +aeternitatis_, and with an eye which is prepared to look forward also, +and especially with relation to what we know and can predict regarding +the sun, these past six million years may reasonably be held to comprise +only the infantine period of man's life. + +It is very true that on such estimates as those of Lord Kelvin, and +according to what astronomers and geologists believed not more than +twelve or even eight years ago, regarding the secular cooling of earth +and sun--that, according to these, the time is by no means "unending +long," and we may foresee, not so remotely, the end of the solar heat +and light of which we are the beneficiaries. But the discovery of radium +and the phenomena of radio-activity have profoundly modified these +estimates, justifying, indeed, the acumen of Lord Kelvin, who always +left the way open for reconsideration should a new source of heat and +energy in general be discovered. We know now that, to consider the earth +first, its crust is not self-cooling, or at any rate not self-cooling +only, for it is certainly self-heating. There is an almost embarrassing +amount of radium in the earth's crust, so far as we have examined it; a +quantity, that is to say, so great that if the same proportion were +maintained at deeper levels as at those which we can investigate, the +earth would have to be far hotter than it is. Similar reasoning applies +to the sun. Definite, immediate proof of the presence of radium there is +not forthcoming yet, but that presence is far more than probable, +especially since the existence of solar uranium, the known ancestor of +radium, has been demonstrated. The reckonings of Helmholtz and others, +based upon the supposition that the solar energy is entirely derived +from its gravitational contraction, must be superseded. It would require +but a very small proportion of radium in the solar constitution to +account for all the energy which the centre of our system produces; and, +as we have already seen, the earth is to no small extent its own +sun--its own source of heat. The prospect thus opened out by modern +physical inquiry supports more strongly than ever the conviction that +the life of this world to come will be very prolonged. It is true that +there is always the possibility of accident. Encountering another globe, +our sun would doubtless produce so much heat as to incinerate all +planetary life. But the excessive remoteness of the sun from the nearest +fixed star suggests that the constitution of the stellar universe is +such that an accident of this kind is extremely improbable. As for +comets, the earth's atmosphere has already encountered a comet, even +during the brief period of astronomical observation. This thick overcoat +of ours protects us from the danger of such chances. + +What, then, is the record? We are told that the belief in progress is a +malady of youth, which experience and the riper mind will dissipate. +Some such argument from the lips of the disillusioned or the +disidealized has been possible, perhaps, with some measure of +probability, until within our own times. They must now forever hold +their peace. We know as surely as we know the elementary phenomena of +physics or chemistry, that the record of life upon our planet, though +not only a record of progress by any means, has nevertheless included +that to which the name of progress cannot be denied in any possible +definition of the word. For myself, I understand by progress _the +emergence of mind, and its increasing dominance over matter_. Such +categories are, no doubt, unphilosophical in the ultimate sense, but +they are proximately convenient and significant. Now, if progress be +thus defined, we can see for ourselves that life has truly advanced, not +merely in terms of anatomical or physiological--_i. e._ mechanical or +chemical--complexity, but in terms of mind. The facts of nutrition teach +us that the first life upon the earth was vegetable; and though the +vegetable world displays great complexity, and that which, on some +definitions, would be called progress, yet we cannot say that there is +any more mind, any greater differentiation or development of sentience, +in the oak than in the alga. When we turn, however, to the animal +world--which is parasitic, indeed, upon the vegetable world--we find +that in what we may call the main line of ascent there has been, along +with increasing anatomical complexity, the far greater emergence of +mind. In its earliest manifestations, sentience, consciousness, the +psychical in general, and the capacity for it, must be regarded merely +as phenomena of the physical organism; the capacity to feel, as no more +than a property of the living body; and such mind as there is exists for +the body. But, as we may see it, there has been a gradual but infinitely +real turning of the tables, so that, even in a dog, as the lover of that +dog would grant, the loss of limbs and tail, or, indeed, of any portion +of the body not necessary to life, does not mean the loss of the +essential dog--not the loss of that which the lover of the dog loves. +Already, that which is not to be seen or handled has become the more +real. In ourselves, it is a capital truth, which asceticism, old or new, +perverted or sane, has always recognized, that the mind is the man, and +must be master, and the body the servant. Yet, historically, this +creature, who by the self means not the body, but, as he thinks, its +inhabitant, is historically and lineally developed--is also, indeed, +developed as an individual--from an organism in which anything to be +called psychical is but an apparently accidental attribute, to be +discerned only on close examination. This emergence of mind is progress; +and this, notwithstanding the sneers of those who do not love the word +or the light, has occurred. Its history is written indelibly in the +rocks. And, as we shall argue, this is the supreme lesson of +evolution--that progress is possible, because progress has occurred. + +Assuredly we should never use this word "progress" without reminding +ourselves of the cardinal distinction that exists between two forms that +it may manifest. There is a progress which consists in and depends upon +an advance in the constitution of the living individual; and, so far as +we are more mental and less physical than the men who have left us such +relics as the Neanderthal skull, in so far we exemplify this kind of +progress. But, on the other hand, we can claim progress as compared with +even the Greeks in some respects, though there is no evidence whatever +that, so far as the individual is concerned, there is any natural, +inherent, organic progress. But we know more. Our school-boys know more +than Aristotle. We stand upon Greek shoulders. This is traditional +progress--something outside the germ-plasm; a thing dependent upon our +great human faculty of speech. + +That, surely, is why the word infantine was rightly used in our first +paragraph. For we may ask why, if man be millions of years old, any +record of progress should be a matter of only a few thousand +years--perhaps not more than fifteen or twenty. The answer, I believe, +is that traditional progress depends upon the possibility of tradition. +Now speech, apart from writing, involves the possibility of tradition +from generation to generation, and I am very sure that "Man before +speech" is a myth; the more we learn of the anthropoid apes the surer we +may be of that. But, after all, the possibilities of progress dependent +upon aural memory are sadly limited; not only because it is easy to +forget, but because it is also conspicuously easy to distort, as a +familiar round-game testifies. The greatest of all the epochs in human +history was that which saw the genesis of written speech. I believe that +hundreds of thousands, nay millions, of preceding years were +substantially sterile just because the educational acquirements of +individuals could be transmitted to their children neither in the +germ-plasm (for we know such transmission to be impossible), nor outside +the germ-plasm, by means of writing. The invention of written language +accounts, then, we may suppose, for the otherwise incomprehensible +disparity between the blank record of long ages, and the great +achievement of recent history--an achievement none the less striking if +we remember that the historical epoch includes a thousand years of +darkness. Thus, as was said at the Royal Institution in 1907, when +discussing the nature of progress, we may argue in a new sense that the +historians have made history: it is the possibility of recording that +has given us something to record. + +Now, it is in terms of this latter kind of progress that our duty to the +past, as we conceive it, may be defined. And in its terms also must we +define the grounds of our veneration for the past. None of us invented +language, spoken or written; nor yet numbers, nor the wheel, nor much +else. We see further than our ancestors because we stand upon their +shoulders, and, as Coleridge hinted, this may be so even though we be +dwarfs and they were giants. Some of us see this. How can we fail to do +so? And the past becomes in our eyes a very real thing, to which we are +so greatly indebted that we should even live for it. But there is a +great danger, dependent upon a great error, here. Let us consider what +is our right attitude towards the past. We are its children and its +heirs. We are infinitely indebted to it. We must love and venerate that +which was lovable and venerable in it. But are we to live for it? + +If we could imagine ourselves coming from afar and contemplating the +sequence of universal phenomena now for the first time, we should +realize that the past, though real, because it was once real, is yet a +fleeting aspect of change, and, in a very real sense also, _is_ not. +Nor, indeed, _is_ the future; but it will be. We cannot alter, we cannot +benefit, we cannot serve the past, because it is not and will not be. +Our besetting tendency as individuals is to live for our own pasts, more +especially as we grow old; to become retrospective, to cease to look +forward, even to dedicate what remains to us of life to the service of +what is not at all. In this respect, as in so many others, we are less +wise than children. We will not let the dead bury its dead. This is also +the tendency of all institutions. Even if there were founded an +Institute of the Future, dedicated to the life of this world to come, +after only one generation its administrators would be consulting the +interests of the past, turning to the service of the name and the memory +of their founder, though it was for the future that he lived. Throughout +all our social institutions we can perceive this same worship of what no +longer is at the cost of the most real of all real things, which is the +life of the generation that is and the generations that are to be. + +Everywhere the price for this idolatry is exacted. The perpetual image +of it is Lot's wife, who, looking backwards upon that from which she had +escaped, was turned into a pillar of salt. Nature may or may not have a +purpose, and exhibit designs for that purpose; she may or may not, in +philosophical language, be teleological. Man is and must be +teleological. We must live for the morrow, for what will be, whether as +individuals or as a nation, or our ways are the ways of death. This is +looked upon as a human failing--that man never is, but always to be +blest; that man is never satisfied, that he will not rest content with +present achievement. + +Well, it is stated of our first cousin, once removed, the orang-outang, +that in the adult state he is aroused only for the snatching of food, +and then "relapses into repose." His reach does not exceed his grasp, +and one need not preach contentment to him. But we, the latest and +highest products of the struggle for existence, we are strugglers by +constitution; and when we relapse into repose we degenerate. Only on +condition of living for the morrow can we remain human. Put a sound limb +on crutches and you paralyze it; wear smoked glasses and your eyes +become intolerant of light, or wear glasses that make the muscle of +accommodation superfluous and it atrophies; take pepsin and hydrochloric +acid and the stomach will become incapable of producing them; cease to +chew and your teeth decay; let the newspaper prepare your mental food as +the cook cuts up your physical food, and you will become incapable of +thought--that is, of mental mastication and digestion. It is above all +things imperative to strive, to have a goal, to seek it on our own legs, +to cry for the moon rather than for nothing at all. And Nature teaches +us unequivocally that our purpose is ever onward-- + + To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths + Of all the western stars, until we die. + +It is to go, and not to get, that is the glory. To be content is to have +no ideal beyond the real; we were better dead and nourishing grass. It +is part of the whole structure of life, as we can read it, whether in +the animal or in the vegetable world, but pre-eminently in ourselves, +that the very body of the individual is constructed as for purpose; nay +more, as for the purposes of the future. Every little baby girl that is +born into the world bears upon her soft surface signs and portents--not +merely promise, but the promise of provision--for the life of the world +to come. At her very birth she teaches us that she is not created for +self alone, but for what will be. Running through the whole body--and +this the more markedly the higher the type of life--we find organs, +tissues, functions, co-ordinations existing not for the present, but for +the life of the world to come. When, some day, the social organism is as +rightly constructed as the body of any woman, or even, in some measure, +of any man, when it is similarly dedicated to the real future, and as +resolutely turned away from any worship of what no longer is, then +heaven will be nearer to earth. + +It is quite clear that the supreme choice for any individual or +institution or nation is between unborn to-morrow and dead yesterday. No +one who concerns himself in the current political controversies, as, for +instance, that thing of unspeakable shame which is called the "education +question," will doubt that the present and the future are constantly +being sacrificed to the past. It may be that the spirit of a trust is +being grossly violated; but, rather than infringe the letter of it, the +life of to-day and to-morrow must suffer: thus do the worshippers of +dead yesterday--the most lethal idol before which fond humanity ever +prostrated itself. + +If it be our duty to do--not "as though to breathe were life"--and if +nature indicates the future as that which we are to serve, what evidence +have we, or what likelihood, that such service is worth our while? Of +course, such a question as this may be answered in some such terms as +those of the further question, What has posterity done for us? And it is +interesting, perhaps, to consider that, so far as we can judge the +attitude of our ancestors towards ourselves, their chief interest in us +seems to have been as to what we should think of them--"What will +posterity say?" They left their records, as we leave our records, for +posterity to discover. With singular lack of judgment, as I think, we +bury examples of our newspapers for posterity to discover: these are +amongst the things which I should rather not have posterity discover. +But this is no right outlook upon the future. It is not a question of +what posterity can do for us. Posterity is here within us. The life of +the world to come is in our keeping. We carry it about with us in all +our goings and comings. It is at the mercy of what we eat and drink, at +the mercy of the diseases we contract. Its fate is involved when we fall +in love with each other, or out of love with each other; it is we +ourselves. Just as the father who perhaps is losing his own hair may +like to see how pleasantly his children's hair is growing, and finds +consolation therein; just as, indeed, all the hopes of the parent +become gradually transferred from self to that further self, those +further selves, which his children are, so we are to look upon the +future as our continuing self. To ask, What has posterity done for us? +should be looked upon as if one should say, What have my children done +for me? The parallel is indeed a very close one: and it is pointed out +by the fine sentence from Herbert Spencer, which should be known to all +of us--"A transfigured sentiment of parenthood regards with solicitude +not child and grandchild only, but the generations to come +hereafter--fathers of the future, creating and providing for their +remote children." + +We may grant that there is no money in posterity. The germ-plasm has +infinite possibilities; but, so long as it remains germ-plasm, it can +write no cheques in our favour. If you serve the present, the present +will pay; posterity does not pay. If you write a "Merry Widow," the +present will pay; if you write an "Unfinished Symphony," you will be +dust ere it is performed. If you create that which will last forever, +but which makes no appeal to the transient tastes of the moment, you may +starve and die and rot, because the future, for which you work, cannot +reward you. Life is so constructed that only in our own day, and not +always now, is the mother--even Nature's own supreme organ of the +future--rewarded for her maternal sacrifice. Nature does not trouble +about the fate of the present, because she is always pressing on and +pressing on towards something more, higher, better. The present, the +individual, are but the organs of her purpose. We are to look upon +ourselves as ends in ourselves; but we are also means towards ends which +we can only dimly conceive, but towards which we may rightly work, and +the service of which, though by no means freedom in the ordinary sense, +is yet of that higher kind, that perfect freedom, which consists in the +development of all the higher attributes of our nature. For it is in our +nature to work and to feel and to live for the life that will be. That, +as I say, is because living creatures are so constructed. + +Huxley said that if the present level of human life were to show no +rising in the future, he should welcome the kindly comet that should +sweep the whole thing away. None of us is content with things as they +are. If we are, better were it for us to be nourishing the grass and +serving the things that will be in that way, if we cannot in any other. +What promise, then, have we that things as they will be are worth +working for? We live now in an age to which there has been revealed the +fact of organic evolution. From the fire-mist, from the mud, from the +merely brutal, there have been evolved--such is the worth of Nature's +womb--there have been evolved intelligence and love, sacrifice, ideals; +splendours which no splendour to come can utterly dim. These things are +in the power of Nature. This is what "dead matter" can mother. So much +the worse for our contemptible conceptions of matter, and That of which +matter is the manifestation. But if it be that from the slime, by +natural processes, there can grow a St. Francis, surely our dim notions +of the potencies of Nature must be exalted. The forces that have +erected us from the worm, are they necessarily exhausted or exhaustible? +Who will dare to set limits to the promise of Nature's womb? I mean, in +a word, that the history of evolution is a warrant for the idea that we +ourselves, even erected men and women, are but stages to what may be +higher. We look with contempt upon the apes, but time must have been +when "simian" would have been as proud an adjective as "human" is +to-day: and human may become superhuman. + +Many passages might be quoted to show that our expectation of future +progress is well based, and I will content myself with a single excerpt +from the final page of the masterpiece of which all the civilized world +was lately celebrating the jubilee. Says Darwin: "Hence we may look with +some confidence to a secure future of great length. And as natural +selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal +and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection." + +The quotation will suffice to remind us that, if we are to serve the +life of the world to come in the surest way, we must become Eugenists, +accepting and applying to human life Nature's great principle of the +selection of worth for parenthood and the rejection of unworth. We must +modify and adapt our conceptions of education thereto. We must make +parenthood the most responsible thing in life. We must teach the +girl--aye, and the boy too--that the body is holy, for it is the temple +of life to come. We must perceive in our most imperious instincts +Nature's care for the future, and must humanize and sanctify them by +conscious recognition of their purpose, and by provident co-operation +with Nature towards her supreme end. We could spare from education, +perhaps, those fictions concerning the past which are sometimes called +history, were they replaced by a knowledge of our own nature and +constitution as instruments of the future. + +Let us grant even, for the argument, that nothing more is possible than +mankind has yet achieved. There remains the hope that that which human +nature at its best has been capable of may be realized by human nature +at large. In their great moments the great men have seen this. That last +sentence is, indeed, a paraphrase from a remark at the end of Herbert +Spencer's "Ethics." Ruskin--to choose the polar antithesis of the +Spencerian mind--declares that "there are no known limits to the +nobleness of person or mind which the human creature may attain if we +wisely attend to the laws of its birth and training." Wordsworth asks +whether Nature throws any bars across the hope that what one is millions +may be. Take it, then, that nothing more is conceivable in the way of +mathematics than a Newton, or of drama than an AEschylus or a +Shakespeare, or of sacrifice than a Christ. These, then, are types of +what will be. They demonstrate what human nature is capable of. What one +is, why may not millions be? Here is an ideal to work for. Here is +something real to worship, to dedicate a life to. It is not merely that +we can make smoother the paths of future generations--which George +Meredith declared to be the great purpose and duty of our lives--but +that, as Ruskin suggests in the foregoing quotation, we may raise the +inherent quality of those future generations, so that they can make +their own ways smooth and straight and high. It is our business, I +repeat, to conceive of parenthood as the most responsible and sacred +thing in life. True, it now follows, according to physiological law, +upon the satisfaction of certain tendencies of our nature, which in +themselves may be gratified, and even worthily gratified, without +reference to anything but the present; yet these tendencies, commonly +reviled and regarded with contempt--at least overt contempt--exist, like +most of our attributes, for the life of the world to come. And that in +which they may result, the bringing of new human life into the world, is +the most tremendous, as it is the most mysterious, of our possibilities. + +The laws of life are such that at any given moment the entire future is +absolutely at the mercy of the present. The laws of life, indeed; one +might have said the law of universal causation. But so it is. There is +no conceivable limit to our responsibility. We act for the moment, we +act for self; but there will be no end to the consequences. When the +stuff of which our bodies are made has passed through a thousand cycles, +the consequences of our brief moments will still be felt. This +dependence of the future upon the present in the world of life is an +almost unrealizable thing. Life could not have persisted upon such +conditions had not Nature from the first, and increasingly up to our own +day (for it is the human infant that is the most helpless, and the +longest helpless), had not Nature, I say, persistently constructed the +individual, in all his or her attributes, as a being whose warrant and +purpose lay yet beyond. We are organs of the race, whether we will or +no. We are made for the future, whether we will, whether we care, or no. +We are only obeying Nature, and therefore in a position to command her, +in dedicating ourselves and our purposes, our customs, our social +structures, to the life of the world to come. We shall be there. Our +purposes and hopes, the flesh and blood of many of us, will be there. +Posterity will be what we make it, as we, alas! are what our ancestors +have made us. + +To this increasing purpose there will come, I suppose, an end--an +inscrutable end. Yearly the evidence makes it more probable that in a +sister world we are gazing upon the splendid efforts of purposeful, +intelligent, co-ordinated life to battle against planetary conditions +which threaten it with death by thirst. How long intelligence has +existed upon Mars, if intelligence there be, no one can say; nor yet +what its future will be. It would seem probable that our own fate must +be similar, but it is far removed. And though the Whole may seem wanton, +purposeless, stupid, we are very little folk; we see very dimly; we see +only what we have the capacity to see; and there are more things in +heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the philosophy of the wisest of +us. So also there are many events in the womb of time which will be +delivered. We are the shapers, the creators, the parents of those +events. The still, small voice of the unborn declares our +responsibility. There may be no reward. What does reward mean? Who +rewards the sun, or the rain, or the oak, or the tigress? But there is +the doing of one's work in the world, the serving of the highest and +most real purpose that may be revealed to us. That is to be oneself, to +fulfil one's destiny, to be a part of the universe, and worthy to be +such a part. And though it be even unworthy for us to suggest that at +least posterity will be grateful to us, such a thought may perhaps +console us a little. At any rate, to those who worship and live for the +past, we may offer this alternative: let them work for what will be. +Perhaps the reward will be as real as any that the worship of what is +not can offer. And, reward or no reward, it is something to have an +ideal, something to believe that earth may become heavenly, and that, in +some real sense which we can dimly perceive, we may be part--must be +part, indeed--of that great day which is in our keeping, and which it is +our privilege to have some share in shaping. Thus we may repeat, and +thrill to repeat, with new meaning, the old but still living words, +_Expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi saeculi_--"I look for +the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE PURPOSE OF WOMANHOOD + + +In due course we shall have to discuss the little that is yet known and +to discuss the much that is asserted by both sides, for this or that +end, regarding the differences between men and women. By this we mean, +of course, the natural as distinguished from the nurtural +differences--to use the antithetic terms so usefully adapted by Sir +Francis Galton from Shakespeare. Our task, we shall soon discover, is +not an easy one: because it is rarely easy to disentangle the effects of +nature from those of nurture, all the phenomena, physical and psychical, +of all living creatures being not the sum but the product of these two +factors. The sharp allotment of this or that feature to nature or to +nurture alone is therefore always wholly wrong: and the nice estimation +of the relative importance of the natural as compared with the nurtural +factors must necessarily be difficult, especially for the case of +mankind, where critical observation, on a large scale, and with due +control, of the effects of environment upon natural potentialities is +still lacking. + +But here, at least, we may unhesitatingly declare and insist upon, and +shall hereafter invariably argue from, _the_ one indisputable and +all-important distinction between man and woman. We must not commit the +error of regarding this distinction as qualitative so much as +quantitative: by which is meant that it really is neither more nor less +than a difference in the proportions of two kinds of vital expenditure. +Nor must we commit the still graver error of asserting, without +qualification, that such and such, and that only, is the ideal of +womanhood, and that all women who do not conform to this type are +morbid, or, at least, abnormal. It takes all sorts to make a world, we +must remember. Further, the more we learn, especially thanks to the +modern experimental study of heredity, regarding the constitution of the +individual of either sex, the more we perceive how immensely complex and +how infinitely variable that constitution is. Nay more, the evidence +regarding both the higher animals and the higher plants inclines us to +the view, not unsupported by the belief of ages, that woman is even more +complex in constitution than man, and therefore no less liable to vary +within wide limits. On what one may term organic analysis, comparable to +the chemist's analysis of a compound, woman may be found to be more +complex, composed of even more numerous and more various elementary +atoms, so to say, than man. + +And if these new observations upon the nature of femaleness were not +enough to warn the writer who should rashly propose, after the fashion +of the unwise, who on every hand lay down the law on this matter, to +state once and for all exactly what, and what only, every woman should +be, we find that another long-held belief as to the relative variety of +men and women has lately been found baseless. It was long held, and is +still generally believed--in consequence of that universal confusion +between the effects of nature and of nurture to which we have already +referred--that women are less variable than men, that they vary within +much narrower limits, and that the bias towards the typical, or mean, or +average, is markedly greater in the case of women than of men. A vast +amount of idle evidence is quoted in favour of a proposition which seems +to have some _a priori_ plausibility. It is said--of course, without any +allusion to nurture, education, environment, opportunity--that such +extreme variations as we call genius are much commoner amongst men than +women: and then that the male sex also furnishes an undue proportion of +the insane--as if there were no unequal incidence of alcohol and +syphilis, the great factors of insanity, upon the two sexes. +Nevertheless, observant members of either sex will either contradict one +another on this point according to their particular opportunities, or +will, on further inquiry, agree that women vary surely no less generally +than men, at any rate within considerable limits, whatever may be the +facts of colossal genius. Indeed, we begin to perceive that differences +in external appearance, which no one supposes to be less general among +women than among men, merely reflect internal differences; and that, as +our faces differ, so do ourselves, every individual of either sex being, +in fact, not merely a peculiar variety, but the solitary example of that +variety--in short, unique. The analysis of the individual now being made +by experimental biology lends abundant support to this view of the +higher forms of life--the more abundant, the higher the form. So vast, +as yet quite incalculably vast, is the number of factors of the +individual, and such are the laws of their transmission in the +germ-cells, that the mere mathematical chances of a second identical +throw, so to speak, resulting in a second individual like any other, are +practically infinitely small. The greater physiological complexity of +woman, as compared with man, lends especial force to the argument in her +case. The remarkable phenomena of "identical twins," who alone of human +beings are substantially identical, lend great support to this +proposition of the uniqueness of every individual: for we find that this +unexampled identity depends upon the fact that the single cell from +which every individual is developed, having divided into two, was at +that stage actually separated into two independent cells, thus producing +two complete individuals of absolutely identical germinal constitution. +In no other case can this be asserted; and thus this unique identity +confirms the doctrine that otherwise all individuals are indeed unique. + +It is necessary to state this point clearly in the forefront of our +argument, both lest the reader should suppose that some foolish ideal of +feminine uniformity is to be argued for, and also in the interests of +the argument as it proceeds, lest we should be ourselves tempted to +forget the inevitable necessity--and, as will appear, the eminent +desirability--of feminine, no less than of masculine, variety. + +Nevertheless, there remains the fact that, in the variety which is +normally included within the female sex, there is yet a certain +character, or combination of characters, upon which, indeed, distinctive +femaleness depends. It may in due course be our business to discuss the +subordinate and relatively trivial differences between the sexes, +whether native or acquired; but we shall encounter nothing of any moment +compared with the distinction now to be insisted upon. + +One may well suggest that insistence is necessary, for never, it may be +supposed, in the history of civilization was there so widespread or so +effective a tendency to declare that, in point of fact, there are no +differences between men and women except that, as Plato declared, woman +is in all respects simply a weaker and inferior kind of man. Great +writer though Plato was, what he did not know of biology was eminently +worth knowing, and his teaching regarding womanhood and the conditions +of motherhood in the ideal city is more fantastically and ludicrously +absurd than anything that can be quoted, I verily believe, from any +writer of equal eminence. If, indeed, the teaching of Plato were +correct, there would be no purpose in this book. If a girl is +practically a boy, we are right in bringing up our girls to be boys. If +a woman is only a weaker and inferior kind of man, those +women--themselves, as a rule, the nearest approach to any evidence for +this view--who deny the weakness and inferiority and insist upon the +identity, are justified. Their error and that of their supporters is +twofold. + +In the first place, they err because, being themselves, as we shall +afterwards have reason to see, of an aberrant type, they judge women and +womanhood by themselves, and especially by their abnormal psychological +tendencies--notably the tendency to look upon motherhood much as the +lower type of man looks upon fatherhood. It requires closer and more +intimate study of this type than we can spare space for--more, even, +than the state of our knowledge yet permits--in order to demonstrate how +absurd is the claim of women thus peculiarly constituted to speak for +their sex as a whole. + +But, secondly, those women and men who assert the doctrine of the +identity of the sexes are led to err, not because it can really be +hidden from the most casual observer that there is a profound +distinction between the sexes, apart from the case of the defeminized +woman--but because, by a surprising fallacy, they confuse the doctrine +of sex-equality with that of sex-identity; or, rather, they believe that +only by demonstrating the doctrine that the sexes are substantially +identical, can they make good their plea that the sexes should be +regarded as equal. The fallacy is evident, and would not need to detain +us but for the fact that, as has been said, the whole tendency of the +time is towards accepting it--the recent biological proof of the +fundamental and absolute difference between the sexes being unknown as +yet to the laity. Yet surely, even were the facts less salient, or even +were they other than they are, it is a pitiable failure of logic to +suppose, as is daily supposed, that in order to prove woman man's equal +one must prove her to be really identical in all essentials, given, of +course, equal conditions. Controversialists on both sides, and even some +of the first rank, are content to accept this absurd position. + +The one party seeks to prove that woman is man's equal because Rosa +Bonheur and Lady Butler have painted, Sappho and George Eliot have +written, and so forth; in other words, that woman is man's equal because +she can do what he can do: any capacities of hers which he does not +share being tacitly regarded as beside the point or insubstantial. + +The other party has little difficulty in showing that, in point of fact, +men do things admittedly worth doing of which women are on the whole +incapable; and then triumphantly, but with logic of the order which this +party would probably call "feminine," it is assumed that woman is not +man's equal because she cannot do the things he does. That she does +things vastly better and infinitely more important which he cannot do at +all, is not a point to be considered; the baseless basis of the whole +silly controversy being the exquisite assumption, to which the women's +party have the folly to assent, that only the things which are common in +some degree to both sexes shall be taken into account, and those +peculiar to one shall be ignored. + +It is my most solemn conviction that the cause of woman, which is the +cause of man, and the cause of the unborn, is by nothing more gravely +and unnecessarily prejudiced and delayed than by this doctrine of +sex-identity. It might serve some turn for a time, as many another +error has done, were it not so palpably and egregiously false. Advocated +as it is mainly by either masculine women or unmanly men, its advocates, +though in their own persons offering some sort of evidence for it, are +of a kind which is highly repugnant to less abnormal individuals of both +sexes. Hosts of women of the highest type, who are doing the silent work +of the world, which is nothing less than the creation of the life of the +world to come, are not merely dissuaded from any support of the women's +cause by the spectacle of these palpably aberrant and unfeminine women, +but are further dissuaded by the profound conviction arising out of +their woman's nature, that the doctrine of sex-identity is absurd. Many +of them would rather accept their existing status of social inferiority, +with its thousand disabilities and injustices, than have anything to do +with women who preach "Rouse yourselves, women, and be men!" and who +themselves illustrate only too fearsomely the consequences of this +doctrine. + +Certainly not less disastrous, as a consequence of this most unfortunate +error of fact and of logic, is the alienation from the woman's cause of +not a few men whose support is exceptionally worth having. There are men +who desire nothing in the world so much as the exaltation of womanhood, +and who would devote their lives to this cause, but would vastly rather +have things as they are than aid the movement of "Woman in +Transition"--if it be transition from womanhood to something which is +certainly not womanhood and at best a very poor parody of manhood except +in cases almost infinitely rare. I have in my mind a case of a +well-known writer, a man of the highest type in every respect, well +worth enlisting in the army that fights for womanhood to-day, whose +organic repugnance to the defeminized woman is so intense, and whose +perception of the distinctive characters of real womanhood and of their +supreme excellence is so acute that, so far from aiding the cause of, +for instance, woman's suffrage, he is one of its most bitter and +unremitting enemies. There must be many such--to whom the doctrine of +sex-identity, involving the repudiation of the excellences, distinctive +and precious, of women, is an offence which they can never forgive. + +One may be permitted a little longer to delay the discussion of the +distinctive purpose and character of womanhood, because the foregoing +has already stated in outline the teaching which biology and physiology +so abundantly warrant. For here we must briefly refer to the work of a +very remarkable woman, scarcely known at all to the reading public, +either in Great Britain or in America, and never alluded to by the +feminist leaders in those countries, though her works are very widely +known on the Continent of Europe, and, with the whole weight of +biological fact behind them, are bound to become more widely known and +more effective as the years go on. I refer to the Swedish writer, Ellen +Key, one of whose works, though by no means her best, has at last been +translated into English. All her books are translated into German from +the Swedish, and are very widely read and deeply influential in +determining the course of the woman's movement in Germany. At this +early stage in our argument I earnestly commend the reader of any age or +sex to study Ellen Key's "Century of the Child." It is necessary and +right to draw particular attention to the teaching of this woman since +it is urgently needed in Anglo-Saxon countries at this very time, and +almost wholly unknown, but for this minor work of hers and an occasional +allusion--as in an article contributed by Dr. Havelock Ellis to the +_Fortnightly Review_ some few years ago. Especial importance attaches to +such teaching as hers when it proceeds from a woman whose fidelity to +the highest interests, even to the unchallenged autonomy, of her sex +cannot be questioned, attested as it is by a lifetime of splendid work. +The present controversy in Great Britain would be profoundly modified in +its course and in its character if either party were aware of Ellen +Key's work. The most questionable doctrines of the English feminists +would be already abandoned by themselves if either the wisest among +them, or their opponents, were able to cite the evidence of this great +Swedish feminist, who is certainly at this moment the most powerful and +the wisest living protagonist of her sex. From a single chapter of the +book, to which it may be hoped that the reader will refer, there may be +quoted a few sentences which will suffice to indicate the reasons why +Ellen Key dissociated herself some ten years ago from the general +feminist movement, and will also serve as an introduction from the +practical and instinctive point of view to the scientific argument +regarding the nature and purpose of womanhood, which must next concern +us. Hear Ellen Key:-- + + "Doing away with an unjust paragraph in a law which concerns woman, + turning a hundred women into a field of work where only ten were + occupied before, giving one woman work where formerly not one was + employed--these are the mile-stones in the line of progress of the + woman's rights movement. It is a line pursued without consideration + of feminine capacities, nature and environment. + + "The exclamation of a woman's rights champion when another woman + had become a butcher, 'Go thou and do likewise,' and an American + young lady working as an executioner, are, in this connection, + characteristic phenomena. + + "In our programme of civilization, we must start out with the + conviction that motherhood is something essential to the nature of + woman, and the way in which she carries out this profession is of + value for society. On this basis we must alter the conditions which + more and more are robbing woman of the happiness of motherhood and + are robbing children of the care of a mother. + + "I am in favour of real freedom for woman; that is, I wish her to + follow her own nature, whether she be an exceptional or an ordinary + woman ... I recognize fully the right of the feminine individual to + go her own way, to choose her own fortune or misfortune. I have + always spoken of women collectively and of society collectively. + + "From this general, not from the individual, standpoint, I am + trying to convince women that vengeance is being exacted on the + individual, on the race, when woman gradually destroys the deepest + vital source of her physical and psychical being, the power of + motherhood. + + "But present-day woman is not adapted to motherhood; she will only + be fitted for it when she has trained herself for motherhood and + man is trained for fatherhood. Then man and woman can begin + together to bring up the new generation out of which some day + society will be formed. In it the completed man--the superman--will + be bathed in that sunshine whose distant rays but colour the + horizon of to-day." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LAW OF CONSERVATION + + +Students of the physical sciences discovered in the nineteenth century a +universal law of Nature, always believed by the wisest since the time of +Thales, but never before proven, which is now commonly known as the law +of the conservation of energy. When we say to a child, "You cannot eat +your cake and have it," we are expressing the law of the conservation of +matter, which is really a more or less accurate part-expression of the +law of the conservation of energy. The law that from nothing nothing is +made--and further, though here this concerns us less, that nothing is +ever destroyed--is the only firm foundation for any work or any theory +whether in science or philosophy. The chemist who otherwise bases his +account of a reaction is wrong; the sociologist who denies it Nature +will deny. It was the sure foundation upon which Herbert Spencer erected +the philosophy of evolution; and every page of this book depends upon +the certainty that this law applies to woman and to womanhood as it does +to the rest of the universe. Further, it may be shown that certain less +universal but most important generalizations made by two or three +biologists are indeed special cases of the universal law. There is, +first, the law of Herbert Spencer, which states that for every +individual there is an inevitable issue between the demands of +parenthood and the demands of self; and there is, secondly, the law of +Professors Geddes and Thomson, which asserts that this issue specially +concerns the female as compared with the male sex, the distinguishing +character of femaleness being that in it a higher proportion of the +vital energy is expended upon or conserved for the future and therefore, +necessarily, a smaller proportion for the purposes of the individual. It +is of service to one's thinking, perhaps, to regard Geddes and Thomson's +law as a special case of Spencer's, and Spencer's as a special case of +the law of the conservation of energy. First, then, somewhat of detail +regarding the law of balance between expenditure on the self and +expenditure upon the race; and then to the all-important application of +this to the case of womanhood--for upon this application the whole of +the subsequent argument depends. + +When he set forth, with great daring, to write the "Principles of +Biology," Spencer was already at an advantage compared with the accepted +writers upon the subject, not merely because of his stupendous +intellectual endowment, but also because the idea of the conservation of +energy was a permanent guiding factor in all his thought. Thus it was, +one supposes, that this bold young amateur, for he was little more, +perceived in the light of the evolutionary idea of which he was one of +the original promulgators, a simple truth which had been unperceived by +all previous writers upon biology, from Aristotle onwards. It is in the +last section of his book that Spencer propounds his "law of +multiplication," depending upon what he calls the "antagonism between +individuation and genesis." As I have observed elsewhere, the word +antagonism is perhaps too harsh, and may certainly be misleading, for it +may induce us to suppose that there is no possible reconciliation of the +claims and demands of the race and the individual, the future and the +present. I believe most devoutly that there is such a reconciliation, as +indeed Spencer himself pointed out, and a central thesis of this book is +indeed that in the right expression of motherhood or foster-motherhood, +woman may and increasingly will achieve the highest, happiest, and +richest self-development. Thus one may be inclined to abandon the word +antagonism, and to say merely that there is a necessary inverse ratio +between "individuation" and "genesis," to use the original Spencerian +terms. This principle has immense consequences--most notably that as +life ascends the birth-rate falls, more of the vital energy being used +for the enrichment and development of the individual life, and less for +mere physical parenthood. We shall argue that, in the case of mankind, +and pre-eminently in the case of woman, this enrichment and development +of the individual life is best and most surely attained by parenthood or +foster-parenthood, made self-conscious and provident, and magnificently +transmuted by its extension and amplification upon the psychical plane +in the education of children and, indeed, the care and ennoblement of +human life in all its stages. + +This law of Spencer's has been discussed at length by the present writer +in a previous volume,[2] and we may therefore now proceed to its notable +illustration in the case of womanhood and the female sex in general, as +made by Geddes and Thomson now more than twenty years ago. It is +surprising that the distinguished authors do not seem to have recognized +that their law is a special case of Spencer's; but one of them granted +this relation in a discussion upon the present writer's first eugenic +lecture to the Sociological Society.[3] + +We must therefore now briefly but adequately consider the argument of +the remarkable book published by the Scottish biologists in 1889, and +presented in a new edition in 1900. The latter date is of interest, +because it coincides with the re-discovery of the work of Mendel, +published in 1865, to which we must afterwards more than once refer; and +the work of the Mendelians during the subsequent decade very +substantially modifies much of the authors' teaching upon the +determination of sex, and the intimate nature of the physiological +differences between the sexes. We have learnt more about the nature of +sex in the decade or so since the publication of the new edition of the +"Evolution of Sex" than in all preceding time. Such, at least, is the +well-grounded opinion of all who have acquainted themselves with the +work of the Mendelians, as we shall see: and therefore that book is by +no means commended to the reader's attention as the last word upon the +subject. The rather would one particularly direct him to the following +prophetic and admirable passage in the preface of 1900:-- + + "Our hope is that the growing strength of the still young school of + experimental evolutionists may before many years yield results + which will involve not merely a revision, but a recasting of our + book." + +--a passage which may well content the authors to-day, when its +fulfilment is so signal. + +Yet assuredly the main thesis of the volume stands, and profoundly +concerns every student of womanhood in any of its aspects. It will +continue to stand when the brilliant foolishness of such writers as poor +Weininger, the author of that evidently insane product "Sex and +Character," is rightly estimated as interesting to the student of mental +pathology alone. There has lately been a kind of epidemic citation from +Weininger, whose book is obviously rich in characters that make it +attractive to the ignorant and the many; and it is high time that we +should concern ourselves less with the product of a suicidal and +much-to-be-pitied boy, and more with the sober and scientific work for +which daily verification is always at hand. + +We cannot do better than have before us at the outset the authors' +statement of their main proposition, in the preface to the new edition +of their work:-- + + "In all living creatures there are two great lines of variation, + primarily determined by the very nature of protoplasmic change + (metabolism); for the ratio of the constructive (anabolic) changes + to the disruptive (katabolic) ones, that is of income to outlay, + of gains to losses, is a variable one. In one sex, the female, the + balance of debtor and creditor is the more favourable one; the + anabolic processes tend to preponderate, and this profit may be at + first devoted to growth, but later towards offspring, of which she + hence can afford to bear the larger share. To put it more + precisely, the life-ratio of anabolic to katabolic changes, A/K, in + the female is normally greater than the corresponding life-ratio, + a/k, in the male. This for us, is the fundamental, the + physiological, the constitutional difference between the sexes; and + it becomes expressed from the very outset in the contrast between + their essential reproductive elements, and may be traced on into + the more superficial sexual characters." + +A little further on (p. 17), the authors say:-- + + "Without multiplying instances, a review of the animal kingdom, or + a perusal of Darwin's pages, will amply confirm the conclusion that + on an average the females incline to passivity, the males to + activity. In higher animals, it is true that the contrast shows + itself rather in many little ways than in any one striking + difference of habit, but even in the human species the difference + is recognized. Every one will admit that strenuous spasmodic bursts + of activity characterize men, especially in youth, and among the + less civilized races; while patient continuance, with less violent + expenditure of energy, is as generally associated with the work of + women." + +We must shortly proceed to study the origin and determination of sex, +and more especially of femaleness, in the individual, and here we shall +be entirely concerned with the new knowledge commonly called Mendelism, +to which there is no allusion in our authors' pages. Meanwhile it must +be insisted that the reader who will either read their pages for a +survey of the evidence in detail, or who will for a moment consider the +evident necessities imposed by the facts of parenthood, cannot possibly +fail to satisfy himself that the main contention, as stated in the +foregoing quotations, is correct. A further point of the greatest +importance to us requires to be made. + +It is that, owing to profound but intelligible causes, the contrast +which necessarily obtains between the sexes in respect of their vital +expenditure is most marked in the case of our own species. It is one of +the conditions of progress that the young of the higher species make +more demands upon their mothers than do the young of humbler forms. In +other words, progress in the world of life has always leant upon and +been conditioned by motherhood. Thus, as one has so frequently asserted +in reference to the modern campaign against infant mortality, the young +of the human species are nurtured within the sacred person--the +_therefore_ sacred person--of the mother for a longer period in +proportion to the body weight than in the case of any other species; and +the natural period of maternal feeding is also the longest known. On the +other hand, the physical demands made by parenthood upon the male sex +are no greater in our case than in that of lower forms; though upon the +psychical plane the great fact of increasing paternal care in the right +line of progress may never be forgotten. But thus it follows that the +law of conservation, asserting that what is spent for self cannot be +kept for the race, and that if the demands of the future are to be met +the present must be subordinated, not merely applies to woman, but +applies to her in unique degree. There are grounds, also, for believing +that what is demonstrably and obviously true on the physical plane has +its counterpart in the psychical plane; and that, if woman is to remain +distinctively woman in mind, character, and temperament, and if, just +because she remains or becomes what she was meant to be, she is to find +her greatest happiness, she must orient her life towards Life Orient, +towards the future and the life of this world to come. Some such +doctrines may help us at a later stage to decide whether it be better +that a woman should become a mother or a soldier, a nurse or an +executioner. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE DETERMINATION OF SEX + + +We must regard life as essentially female, since there is no choice but +to look upon living forms which have no sex as female, and since we know +that in many of the lower forms of life there is possible what is called +parthenogenesis or virgin-birth. It has, indeed, been ingeniously argued +by a distinguished American writer, Professor Lester Ward,[4] that the +male sex is to be looked upon as an afterthought, an ancillary +contrivance, devised primarily for the advantages of having a second +sex--whatever those advantages may exactly be; and secondarily, one +would add, becoming useful in adding fatherhood to motherhood upon the +psychical plane of post-natal care and education as well. + +But whatever was the historical or evolutionary origin of sex, we may +here be excused for attaching more importance--for it is of great +practical consequence--to the origin or determination of sex in the +individual. At what stage and under what influences did the child that +is born a girl become female? To what extent can we control the +determination of sex? Why are the numbers of the sexes approximately so +equal? What determines the curious disproportions observed in many +families, which may be composed only of girls or only of boys; and, as +is asserted, also observed after wars and epidemics or during sieges, +when an abnormally high proportion of boys is said to be born? These are +some of the deeply interesting questions which men have always attempted +to answer--with the beginnings of substantial success during the present +century at last. + +In general it is true that, the more we learn of the characters and +histories of living beings, the more importance we attach to nature or +birth and the less to nurture or environment, vastly important though +the latter be. Thus to the student of heredity nothing could well seem +more improbable, at any rate amongst the higher animals, than that +characters so profound as those of sex should be determined by nurture. +He simply cannot but believe that the sex of the individual is as inborn +as his backbone, and as incapable of being created by varying conditions +of nurture. The causation of sex is therefore really a problem in +heredity; and we may most confidently assert, in the first place, that +the sex of every human being is already determined at the moment of +conception when, indeed, the new individual is created: determined then +by the nature and constitution of the living cells--or of one of +them--which combine to form the new being. Subsequent attempts to affect +the sex, as by means of the mother's diet and the like, are palpably +hopeless from the outset and always will be. This is by no means to say +that conditions affecting the mother--as, for instance, the +semi-starvation of a prolonged siege--may not affect the construction of +the germ-cells which she houses, and which are constantly being formed +within her from the mother germ-cells, as they are called. But any given +final germ-cell, such as will combine with another from an individual of +the opposite sex to form a new being, is already determined, once for +all, to be of one sex or the other. We naturally ask, then, how the two +parents are concerned in this matter; and the first remarkable answer +returned by the Mendelian workers during the last three or four years is +that it is the mother who determines the sex of her children in the case +of all the higher animals. Her contribution to the new being is called +the ovum, and it is believed that ova are of two kinds, or, we are quite +right in saying, of two sexes. + +Those who are now working at these problems experimentally, actually +seeing what happens in given cases, and whom we may for convenience call +Mendelians after the master who gave them their method and their key, +have latterly obtained results the main tenour of which must be stated +here, as they indicate the lines of a portion of the succeeding +argument. The task was to attack experimentally the determination of +sex--a fascinating problem for which so many solutions that failed to +hold water have been found, but hitherto no others. In finding the +answer to it, as they appear certainly to have done so far as the higher +animals are concerned, the Mendelians are also beginning to ascertain, +as we shall see, certain basal facts as to the composition or +constitution of the individual; and to us, who wish to know exactly +what a woman is, and what she is as distinguished from a man, this +discovery is of the most vital importance. The experimental facts are +not yet numerous, and if they were not consonant with facts of other +orders, it would be rash to proceed; but it will be evident, in the +sequel, that common experience is well in accord with the experimental +evidence. + +It appears that, amongst at any rate the higher animals, the sex of +offspring is determined by the nature of the mother's contribution. The +cell derived from the father is always male--as goes without saying, we +might add, if we knew little of the subject. But the ovum, the cell +derived from the mother, may carry either femaleness or maleness. When +an ovum bearing maleness meets the invariably maleness-bearing sperm, +the resultant individual is a male, of course, and he is male all +through. But when an ovum bearing femaleness meets a sperm, the +resulting individual is female, femaleness being a Mendelian "dominant" +to maleness; if both be present, femaleness appears. The female, +however, is not female all through as the male is male all through. So +far as sex is concerned, he is made of maleness _plus_ maleness; but she +is made of femaleness _plus_ maleness. In Mendelian language the male is +homozygous, so-called "pure" as regards this character. But the female +is heterozygous, "impure" in the sense that her femaleness depends upon +the dominance of the factor for femaleness over the factor for maleness, +which also is present in her. In the Mendelian terminology, she is an +instance of impure dominance. The observed practical equality in the +numbers of the two sexes is in exact accord with this interpretation of +the facts, this proportion being the expected and observed one in many +other cases which doubtless depend upon parallel conditions of the +reproductive cells. + +Surely there is great enlightenment here: for the discovery of the +factors determining sex is a very small affair compared with the +suggestive inference as to the constitution of womanhood. Let us compare +man and woman on the basis of this assumption. + +In the man there is nothing but maleness. This is not to deny that he +may possess the protective instinct and the tender emotion which is its +correlate, even though these were undoubtedly feminine in origin. But it +is to deny that any injury to, or arrested development of, the male can +reveal in him characters distinctively female. He may fail to become a +man and may remain a boy; or, having been a man, he may perhaps return, +under certain conditions, to a more youthful state; but he will never, +can never, display anything distinctive of the woman. + +Not such, however, must be the woman's case. If anything should +interfere with the development and dominance of the femaleness factor in +her, there is not another "dose" of femaleness, so to speak, to fall +back upon; but a dose of maleness. We may be right in thus seeking to +explain certain familiar phenomena, observed in women under various +conditions--as, for instance, the growth of hair upon the face in +elderly women, the assumption of a masculine voice and aspect, and so +forth. Such facts are frequently to be observed after the climacteric or +"change of life," which probably denotes the termination of the +dominance of the femaleness factor. They are also to be observed as a +consequence of operations much more commonly and irresponsibly performed +a few years ago than now, which abruptly deprived the organism of the +internal secretion through which, as we may surmise, the femaleness +factor in the germ makes its presence effective. + +If these propositions are valid, they are certainly important. Our +attitude towards them will depend upon our estimates of the worth of +distinctive womanhood. We may regard it as a loss to society that what +might have been a woman should become only a sort of man of rather less +than average efficiency. Or we may hail with delight the possibility +that, after all, we may be able, by judicious education, to make men of +our daughters. But, whatever our estimates, certainly it is of great +interest to inquire how far and in what directions education may affect +the development of what was given in the germ. We cannot yet answer this +question. In a thousand matters it is all-important to know in what +degree education can control nature, but until we know what the nature +of the individual is we cannot decide. Professor Bateson has clearly +shown that we shall be able duly to estimate environment only when +Mendelian analysis has gone much further, and has instructed us in +detail as to the nature of the material upon which environment is to +act. + +For instance, there is the well-established fact that women who have +undergone "higher education" show a low marriage-rate, and produce very +few children. However considered, the fact is of great importance. But +the right interpretation of it is not certain. There are women of a type +approaching the masculine, who are evidently so by nature. Is it these +women, already predestined for something other than distinctive +womanhood, that offer themselves for "higher education"? In other words, +is there a selective process at work, the results of which in choosing a +certain type of woman we attribute to the education undergone? If we +answer this question wrongly, and act upon our erroneous interpretation, +we shall certainly do grave injury to individuals and society. + +Thus, we might roundly condemn the higher education of women _in toto_, +and hold up the "domestic woman" as the sole type to which every woman +can and must be made to conform. Or, on the other hand, we may argue +that it is well to provide suitable opportunities of self-development +for those women whose nature practically unfits them for the ordinary +career of a woman. + +I do not think that any one who has had opportunities of first-hand +observation will question the presence in university and college +class-rooms of girls of the anomalous type. Each generation produces a +certain number of such. Probably no education will alter their nature in +any radical or effective way. On every ground, personal and social, we +must be right in providing for them, as for their brothers, all the +opportunities they may desire. But I am convinced that their relative +number is not large. + +The great majority of those girls who are nowadays subjected to what we +call "higher education" are of the normal type; and this is none the +less true because the proportion of the anomalous is doubtless higher +here than in the feminine community at large. The ordinary observation +of those teachers who year by year see young girls at the beginning of +their higher education will certainly confirm the statement that by far +the greater number of them are of the ordinary feminine type. If this be +so, the necessary inference is that education _has_ a potent influence, +and that it must be held accountable for the observed facts of later +years, whether those facts please or displease us. + +The human being is the most adaptable--that is to say, educable--of all +living creatures. This is true of women as well as men. The response of +girls to ideas, ideals, suggestion, the spirit of the group, is an +unquestioned thing. Further, there are basal facts of physiology, +ultimately dependent on the law of the conservation of energy, and the +circumstance that you cannot eat your cake and have it, which work +hand-in-hand, on their own effective plane, with the psychological +influences already referred to. All physiology and psychology lead us to +expect those results of "higher education" upon its subjects or victims +which, in fact, we find, and which, in the main, are indeed its results +and not dependent upon the exceptional natures of those subjected to it. +The more general higher education becomes, and the less selection is +exercised upon the candidates for it, the more evident, I believe, will +it appear that woman responds in high degree to the total circumstances +of her life; and that if we do not like the fruits of our labour it is +we indeed that are to blame. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MENDELISM AND WOMANHOOD + + +We are accustomed to think of Mendelism as simply a theory of heredity, +by which term we should properly understand the relation between living +generations. Now Mendelism is certainly this, but I believe that it is +vastly more. Already the claim has been made, though not, perhaps, in +adequate measure, by the Mendelians, and I am convinced that their title +to it will be upheld. Mendelism has already effected a really +epoch-making advance in our knowledge of heredity--the relations between +parents and offspring; but we shall learn ere long that it has yet more +to teach us regarding the very constitution of living beings. As modern +chemistry can analyse a highly complex molecule into its constituent +elementary atoms, so the Mendelians promise ere long to enable us to +effect an _organic analysis_ of living creatures. For many decades past +theory has perceived that, in the germ-cells whence we and the higher +animals and plants are developed, there must exist--somewhere +intermediate between the chemical molecule and the vital unit, the cell +itself--units which Herbert Spencer, the first and greatest of their +students, called physiological or constitutional units. Since his day +they have been re-discovered--or rather re-named--by a host of students, +including Haeckel, Weismann, and many of scarcely less distinction. The +Mendelian "factors," as I maintain must be clear to any student of the +idea, are Spencer's physiological units. Of course neither Spencer nor +any one else, until the re-discovery of Mendel's work, had any notion at +all of the remarkable fashion in which these units are treated in the +process whereby germ-cells are prepared for their great destiny. The +rule, as we now know, is that one germ-cell contains any given unit, +while another does not. The process of cell-division, whereby the +germ-cells or gametes[5] are made, is called gameto-genesis. Somewhere +in its course there occurs the capital fact discovered by Mendel and +called by him segregation. A cell divides into two--which are the final +gametes. One of these will definitely contain the Mendelian factor, and +the other will be as definitely without it. Definite consequences follow +in the constitution of the offspring; and such is the Mendelian +contribution to heredity. But we must see that these inquiries cannot be +far pursued without telling us vastly more than we ever knew before of +not only the relation between individuals of successive generations, but +the very structure of the individuals themselves. It is by the study of +heredity that we shall learn to understand the individual. For instance, +experimental breeding of the fowl reveals the existence of the brooding +instinct as a definite unit, which enters, or does not enter, into the +composition of the individual, and which is quite distinct from the +capacity to produce eggs. Here is a definite distinction suggested, for +the case of the fowl, between two really distinct things which, for +several years past, I have called respectively physical and psychical +motherhood. The analysis will doubtless go far further, but already the +facts of experiment help us to realize the composition of the individual +mother--for instance, the number of possible variants, and the +non-necessity of a connection between the capacity to produce children +and the parental instinct upon which the care of them depends, and +without which entire and perfect motherhood cannot be. + +The Mendelians are teaching us, too, that their "factors," the units of +which we are made, are often intertangled or mutually repellent. If +such-and-such goes into the germ-cell, so must something else; or if the +one, then never the other. There may thus be naturally determined +conditions of entire womanhood; just as one may be externally a woman, +yet lack certain of the fractional constituents which are necessary for +the perfect being. Complete womanhood, like genius--rarer though not +more valuable--depends upon the co-existence of _many_ factors, some of +which may be coupled and segregated together in gameto-genesis, while +others may be quite independent, only chance determining the throw of +them. And the question of incompatibility or mutual repulsion of factors +is of the gravest concern; as, for instance, if it were the case--and +the illustration is perhaps none too far-fetched--that the factor for +the brooding instinct and the factor for intellect can scarcely be +allotted together to a single cell. + +This question of compatibilities is illustrated very strikingly by the +case of the worker-bee. There is as yet no purely Mendelian +interpretation of this case, Mendel's own laborious work upon heredity +in bees having been entirely lost, and practically nothing having been +done since. Yet, as will be evident, the main argument of Geddes and +Thomson leads us to a similar interpretation of this case in terms of +compatibility. + +The worker-bee is an individual of a most remarkable and admirable kind, +from whom mankind have yet a thousand truths to learn. She is +distinguished primarily by the rare and high development of her nervous +apparatus. In terms of brain and mind, using these words in a general +sense, the worker-bee is almost the paragon of animals. The ancients +supposed that the queen-bee was indeed the queen and ruler of the hive. +Here, they thought, was the organizing genius, the forethought, the +exquisite skill in little things and great, upon which the welfare of +the hive and the future of the race depend. But, in point of fact, the +queen-bee is a fool. Her brain and mind are of the humblest order. She +never organizes anything, and does not rule even herself, but does what +she is told. She is entirely specialized for motherhood; but the +thinking, and the determination of the conditions of her motherhood, are +in the hands of other females, also highly specialized, and certainly +the least selfish of living things--_yet themselves sterile, incapable +of motherhood_. + +Observe, further, that these wonderful workers, so highly endowed in +terms of brain, are amongst the children of the queen, herself a fool; +and that it was the conditions of nourishment, the conditions of +environment or education, which determined whether the young creatures +should develop into queens or workers, fertile fools or sterile wits. We +have here an absolute demonstration that environment or nurture can +determine the production of these two antithetic and radically opposed +types of femaleness. + +Now, amongst the bees, this high degree of specialization works very +well. How old bee-societies are we cannot say. We do know, at any rate, +that bees are invertebrate animals, and therefore of immeasurable +antiquity compared with man. No one can for a moment question the +eminent success of the bee-hive; and that success depends upon the +extreme specialization of the female, so as in effect to create a third +sex. Further, we know that nurture alone accounts for this remarkable +splitting of one sex into two contrasted varieties. + +I have little doubt that a process which is, at the very least, +analogous, is possible amongst ourselves; nay more, that such a process +is already afoot. In Japan they have actually been talking of a +deliberate differentiation between workers and breeders; such +differentiation, though indeliberate, is to be seen to-day in all highly +civilized communities. Is it likely to be as good for us as for the +bee-hive? And, granted its value as a social structure, is it, even +then, to be worth while? + +No one can answer these questions, though I venture to believe that it +is something to ask them. So far as the last is concerned, we must not +admit the smallest infringement of the supreme principles that every +human being is an end in himself or herself, and that the worth of a +society is to be found in the worth and happiness of the individuals who +compose it. + +Can we, as human beings, regard a human society as admirable because it +is successful, stable, numerous? + +The question is a fundamental one, for it matters at what we aim. As it +becomes increasingly possible for man to realize his ideals, it becomes +increasingly important that they shall be right ones; and there is a +risk to-day that the growth of knowledge shall be too rapid for wisdom +to keep pace with. We are reaching towards, and will soon attain in very +large and effective measure, nothing less than a _control of life_, +present and to come. It may well be that a remodelling of human society +upon the lines of the bee-hive is feasible. It was his study of bees +that made a Socialist of Professor Forel, certainly one of the greatest +of living thinkers; and his assumption is that in the bee-hive we have +an example largely worthy of imitation. But he would be the first to +admit that, as the ordinary Socialist has yet to learn, the nature of +the society is ultimately determined by the nature of the individuals +composing it. It follows that the bee-society can be completely, or, at +all events substantially, imitated only by remodelling human nature on +the lines of the individual bee. This is very far from impossible; there +is a plethora of human drones already, and we see the emergence of the +sterile female worker. But is such a change--or any change at all of +that kind--to be desired? + +_The Terms of Specialization._--It surely cannot be denied that there +may be a grave antagonism between the interests of the society and those +of the individual. It is a question of the terms of specialization or +differentiation. In the study of the individual organism and its history +we discern specialization of the cell as a capital fact. Organic +evolution has largely depended upon what Milne-Edwards called the +"physiological division of labour." In so far as organic evolution has +been progressive, it has entirely coincided with this process of +cell-differentiation. That is the clear lesson which the student of +progress learns from the study of living Nature. Let him hold hard by +this truth, and by it let him judge that other specialization which +human society presents. + +For this primary and physiological division of labour has its analogue +in a much later thing, the division of labour in human society, upon +which, indeed, the possibility of what we call human society depends. +And it is plain that the time has come when we must determine the price +that may rightly be paid for this specialization. Assuredly it is not to +be had for nothing. Dr. Minot considers that death, as a biological +fact, is the price paid for cell-differentiation. Now surely the death +of individuality is the price paid for such specialization as that of +the workman who spends his life supervising the machine which effects a +single process in the making of a pin, and has never even seen any +other but that stage in the process of making that one among all the +"number of things" of which the world is full. Here, as in a thousand +other cases, it has cost a man to make an expert. + +How far we are entitled to go we shall determine only when we know what +it is that we want to attain. + +If we desire an efficient, durable, numerous society, there are probably +no limits whatever that we need observe in the process of +specialization. Pins are cheaper for the sacrifice of the individual in +their making. In general, the professional must do better than the +amateur; the lover of chamber music knows that a Joachim or Brussels +Quartet is not to be found everywhere. Specialization we must have for +progress, or even for the maintenance of what the past has achieved for +us; but we shall pay the right price only by remembering the principle +that all progress in the world of life has depended on +cell-differentiation. If we prejudice that we are prejudicing progress. + +Now nothing can be more evident than that, in some of our +specializations of the individual for the sake of society, we are +_opposing_ that specialization within the individual which, it has been +laid down, we must never sacrifice. And so we reach the basal principle +to which the preceding argument has been guiding us. It is that the +specialization of the individual for the sake of society may rightly +proceed to any point short of reversing or aborting the process of +differentiation within himself. Every individual is an end in himself; +there are no other ends for society; and that society is the best which +best provides for the most complete development and self-expression of +the individuals composing it. + +But how, then, is the division of labour necessary for society to be +effected, the reader may ask? The answer is that the human species, like +all others, displays what biologists call variation--men and women +naturally differ within limits so wide that, when we consider the case +of genius, we must call them incalculable, illimitable. The difference +of our faces or our voices is a mere symbol of differences no less +universal but vastly more important. It is these differences, in +reality, that are the cause of the development of human society and of +that division of labour upon which it depends. In providing for the best +development of all these various individuals we at the same time provide +for the division of labour that we need; nor can we in any other fashion +provide so well. Thus we shall attain a society which, if less certainly +stable than that of the bees, is what that is not--progressive, and not +merely static; and a society which is worth while, justified by the +lives and minds of the individuals composing it. + +We are not, then, to make a factitious differentiation of set purpose in +the interests of society and to the detriment of individuals. We are not +to take a being in whom Nature has differentiated a thousand parts, and, +in effect, reduce him, in the interests of others, to one or two +constituents and powers, thus nullifying the evolutionary course. But we +shall frame a society such as the past never witnessed, and we shall +achieve a rate of progress equally without parallel, by consistently +regarding society as existing for the individual, and not the individual +for society, and by thus realizing to the full his characteristic powers +_for himself and for society_. + +In so far as all this is true it is true of woman. It has long been +asserted that woman is less variable than man; but the certainty of that +statement has lately lost its edge. It is probably untrue. There is no +real reason to suppose that woman is less complex or less variable than +man. She has the same title as he has to those conditions in which her +particular characters, whatever they be, shall find their most complete +and fruitful development. There is no more a single ideal type of woman +than there is a single ideal type of man. It takes all sorts even to +make a sex. It has been in the past, and always must be, a piece of +gross presumption on man's part to say to woman, "Thus shalt thou be, +and no other." Whom Nature has made different, man has no business to +make or even to desire similar. The world wants all the powers of all +the individuals of either sex. On the other hand, no good can come of +the attempt to distort the development of those powers or to seek +conformity to any type. Much of the evil of the past has arisen from the +limitation of woman to practically one profession. Even should it be +incomparably the best, in general, it is by no means necessarily the +best, or even good at all, for every individual. Men are to be heard +saying, "A woman ought to be a wife and mother." It is, perhaps, the +main argument of this book that, for most women, this is the sphere in +which their characteristic potencies will find best and most useful +expression both for self and others; but that is very different from +saying that every woman ought to be a mother, or that no woman ought to +be a surgeon. We may prefer the maternal to the surgical type, and there +may be good reason for our preference; but the surgeon may be very +useful, and, useful or not, the question is not one of ought. Thoughtful +people should know better than to make this constant confusion between +what ought to be and what is. Let us hold to our ideals, let us by all +means have our scale of values; but the first question in such a case as +this is as to what _is_. In point of fact all women are not of the same +type; and our expression of what ought to be is none other than the +passing of a censure upon Nature for her deeds. We may know better than +she, or, as has happened, we may know worse. + + + + +VII + +BEFORE WOMANHOOD + + +We have seen that the sex of the individual is already determined as +early as any other of his or her characters, though the realization of +the potentialities of that sex may be much modified by nurture, as in +the contrasted cases of the queen bee and the worker bee. Children, +then, are already of one sex or other, and though our business in the +present volume is not childhood of either sex, a few points are worth +noting before we take up the consideration of the individual at the +period when the distinctive characteristics of sex make their effective +appearance. + +Despite the abundance of the material and the opportunities for +observation, we are at present without decisive evidence as to the +distinctiveness of sex in any effective way during childhood. Here, as +elsewhere, we have to guard ourselves against the influences of nurture +in the widest sense of the word; as when, to take an extreme case, we +distinguish between the boy and the girl because the hair of the one is +cut and of the other is not. The natural, as distinguished from the +nurtural, distinctions at this period are probably much fewer than is +supposed. It is asserted--to take physical characters first--that the +girl of ten gives out in breathing considerably less carbonic acid than +her brother of the same age, thus foreshadowing the difference between +the sexes which is recognized in later years. If this fact be critically +established it is of very great interest, showing that the sex +distinction effectively makes its presence felt in the most essential +processes of the body. But we should require to be satisfied that the +observations were sufficiently numerous, and were made under absolutely +equal conditions, and with due allowance for difference in body-weight. +They would be the more credible if it were also shown that the number of +the red blood corpuscles were smaller in girls than in boys in parallel +with the difference between the sexes in later years. + +Children of both sexes have fewer red blood corpuscles in a given +quantity of blood and a smaller proportion of the red colouring matter, +or haemoglobin, than adults. Women have very definitely fewer red blood +corpuscles than men, and a smaller proportion of haemoglobin, and their +blood is more watery. According to one authority this difference in the +haemoglobin can be observed from the ages of eleven to fifty, but not +before. The specific gravity of the blood is found to be the same in +both sexes before the fifteenth year. Thereafter, that of the boy's +blood rises, and between seventeen and forty-five is definitely higher +than in women of the corresponding age. It thus seems quite clear that, +as we should expect, these differences in the blood, which are +certainly, as Dr. Havelock Ellis says, fundamental, make their +appearance definitely at puberty--a fact which supports the view that +fundamental differences of practical importance between the two sexes +before that age are not to be found. Careful comparative study of the +pulse of children is hitherto somewhat inconclusive, though it is well +known that the pulse is more rapid in women than in men. + +On the other hand, it seems clear as regards respiration that as early +as the age of twelve there are definite differences between the sexes. +Several thousands of American school children were examined, and between +the ages of six and nineteen the boys were throughout superior in lung +capacity. The girls had almost reached their maximum capacity at the age +of twelve, and thereafter the difference, till then slight, rapidly +increased.[6] It appears that from eight to fifteen years of age a boy +burns more carbon than a girl, the difference, however, being not great. +But at puberty the boy proceeds to consume very nearly twice as much +carbon per hour as his sister. + +Perhaps the matter need not be pursued further. It is sufficient for us +to recognize that puberty is really the critical time, and that in the +consideration of womanhood we may, on the whole, be justified in looking +upon the problem of the girl before that age as almost identical with +her brother's. Yet we must be reasonably cautious, since our knowledge +is small, and there is some by no means negligible evidence of +fundamental physiological differences between the sexes before puberty, +relatively slight though these may be. Therefore, though on the whole +we need make few distinctions between the girl and her brother, and +though we are doubtless wrong in the magnitude of the practical +distinctions which we have often made hitherto, yet we must remember +that these are going to be different beings, and that the main +principles which determine our nurture of womanhood may be recalled when +we are doubtful as to practice in the care of the girl child. + +Physiological distinctions, we have seen, probably exist during these +early years, but are of less importance than we sometimes have attached +to them, and of no importance at all compared with what is to come. +Psychological distinctions, we may believe, are still more dubious. For +instance, it is generally believed that the parental instinct shows +itself much more markedly in girls than in boys, and the commonly +observed history of the liking for dolls is quoted in this connection. +As this instinct bears so profoundly upon the later life of the +individual, and as we may reasonably suppose the child to be the mother +of the woman as well as the father of the man, the matter is worth +looking at a little further. + +But, in the first place, it has been asserted that the doll instinct has +really nothing whatever to do with the parental instinct in either sex. +Psychologists, whom one suspects of being bachelors, tell us that what +we really observe here is the instinct of acquisition: it really does +not matter what we give the child, though it so happens that we very +commonly present it with dolls; it is the lust of possession that we +satisfy, and in point of fact one thing will satisfy it as well as +another. + +The evidence against this view is quite overwhelming. We might quote the +universal distribution of dolls in place and in time as revealed by +anthropology. Wherever there is mankind there are dolls, whether in +Mayfair or in Whitechapel, Japan, the South Sea Islands, Ancient Egypt +or Mexico. Further, there is the observed behaviour of the child, +opportunities for which have presumably been denied to the psychologists +whose opinion has been quoted. The only objection to the theory that the +child will be content with the possession of anything else as well as of +a doll is the circumstance that the child is not so content, but asks +for a doll for choice, and will lavish upon any doll, however +diagrammatic, an amount of love and care which no other toy will ever +obtain. Further, if the child has opportunities for playing with a real +baby, it will be perfectly evident, even to the bachelor psychologist, +that the doll was the vicarious substitute for the real thing. + +But now, what as to the comparative strength of this instinct in the two +sexes? Here we must not be deceived by the effects of nurture, +environment, or education. Though finding, as we do, that the little boy +enjoys playing with his dolls as his sister does, we refrain from buying +dolls for him, and may indeed, underestimating the importance of human +fatherhood, declare that dolls are beneath the dignity of a boy though +good enough for his sister. He, destined rather for the business of +destroying life, so much more glorious than saving it, must learn to +play with soldiers. In this fashion we at least deprive ourselves of +any opportunity of critically comparing the strength and the history of +the instinct in the two sexes. + +There is good reason to suppose that the distinction between the +psychology of the boy and that of the girl in these early years is very +small. If boys are not discouraged they will play with dolls for choice, +just as their sisters do, and may be just as charming with younger +brothers or sisters. Nor is it by any means certain that this misleading +of ourselves is the worst consequence of the common practice. It is +possible that we lose opportunities for the inculcation of ideals which +are of the highest value to the individual and the race. I am reminded +of the true story of a small boy, well brought up, who, being jeered at +in the street by bigger boys because he was carrying a doll, turned upon +his critics with the admirable retort--slightly wanting in charity, let +us hope, but none the less pertinent--"None of you will ever be a good +father." + +Thus, on the whole, one is inclined to suppose that the general +resemblance in facial appearance, bodily contour, and interests which we +observe in children of the two sexes, indicates that deeper distinctions +are latent rather than active. This is much more than an academic +question, for if our subject in the present volume were the care of +childhood, it is plain that we should have to base upon our answer to +this question our treatment of boy and girl respectively. Probably we +are on the whole correct in instituting no deep distinction of any kind +in the nurture, either physical or mental, of children during their +early years. Nor can there be any doubt, at least so far, as to the +rightness of educating them together, and allowing them to compete, in +so far as we allow competition at all, freely both in work and in games. + +However this may be, there comes at an age which varies somewhat in +different races and individuals, a period critical to both sexes, in +which the factors of sex differentiation, hitherto more or less latent, +begin conspicuously to assert themselves. Here, plainly, is the dawn of +womanhood, and here, in our consideration of woman the individual, we +must make a start. If we recall the tentative Mendelian analysis already +referred to, we may suppose that the "factor" for womanhood begins to +assert itself, at any rate in effective degree, at this period of +puberty, when a girl becomes a woman; and that its most effective reign +is over at the much later crisis which we call the change of life or +climacteric. In other words, though sex is determined from the first, +and though certain of its distinctive characters remain to the end, we +may say that our study of womanhood is practically concerned with the +years between twelve or thirteen, and forty-five or fifty. Before this +period, as we have suggested, the distinction between the sexes is of no +practical importance so far as _regimen_ and education are concerned. +After this period also it is probable that the difference between the +two sexes is diminished, and would be still more evidently diminished +were it not for the effects which different experience has permanently +wrought in the memory. We begin our practical study, then, of woman the +individual, with the young girl at the age of puberty; and we must +concern ourselves first with the care of her body. + + + + +VIII + +THE PHYSICAL TRAINING OF GIRLS + + +We shall certainly not reach right conclusions about the physical +training of girls unless we rightly understand what physical training +does and does not effect, and what we desire it should effect. This +applies to all education--that our aim be defined, that we shall know +"what it is we are after," and it applies pre-eminently to the +education, both physical and mental, of girls. + +Now it will be granted, in the first place, that by physical +training--whether in the form of gymnastics or games or what not--we +desire to produce a healthier and more perfectly developed body. Some +will add a stronger body, but as this term has two meanings constantly +confused, it really contains the crux of the question. Stronger may mean +stronger in the sense of resistance to disease or fatigue or strain of +any kind, or it may mean stronger in the sense of the capacity to +perform feats of strength. It being commonly assumed that vitality and +muscularity are identical, this distinction is, on that assumption, +merely academic and trivial. But as muscularity and vitality are not +identical, and have indeed very little to do with each other, and as +muscularity may even in certain conditions prejudice vitality, the +distinction is not academic but all-important. I freely assert that it +is substantially ignored by those who concern themselves with physical +training, whether of boys or girls or recruits, all the world over. + +Though a woman is naturally less muscular than a man, her vitality is +higher. This seems to be a general truth of all female organisms. The +evidence is of many orders. Thus, to begin with, women live longer, on +the average, than men do. In the light of our modern knowledge of +alcohol, however, we cannot regard this fact by itself as conclusive, +since the average age attained by men is undoubtedly considerably +lowered by alcohol, and of course to a much greater extent than obtains +in the case of women. But women recover better from poisoning, such as +occurs in infectious disease, and they are far more tolerant of loss of +blood, as indeed they have to be. The same applies to loss of sleep or +food, and to injurious influences generally. These indisputable proofs +of superior vitality co-exist with much inferior muscularity, and are +conclusive on the point. If men would make observations among themselves +and think for a moment, they would soon perceive how foolish they are in +crediting the assumptions of the strong men who so successfully persuade +the public that the great thing is for a man to have big muscles. Men, +muscular by nature, and still more so by nurture, are often in point of +fact really weak compared with much less muscular men who, though they +cannot put forth so much mechanical energy at a given moment, can yet +endure fifty times the fatigue or stress or poisoning of any order. +From the point of view of any sound physiology there is no comparison at +all between the absurd strong man and the slight Marathon runner of +small muscles but splendid vitality. If we are to test vitality in +muscular terms at all--that in itself being a quite indefensible +assumption--we must do so in terms of endurance, and not in terms of +horse power or ass power, at any given moment. + +If, then, vitality be our aim in physical training, and not muscularity +as such, nor in any degree except in so far as it serves vitality, it is +plain that we shall to some extent reconsider our methods. + +Pre-eminently will this apply to the girl. Just because she is now +becoming a woman, her vital energies are in no small degree pledged for +special purposes of the highest importance, from which we cannot +possibly divert them if we desire that she shall indeed become a woman. +Thus, though muscular exercise of any kind is certainly not to be +condemned, we must be cautious; for, in the first place, muscular +exercise is no end in itself; in the second, the production of big +muscles by exercise is no end in itself; and in the third place, all +muscular exercise is expenditure of energy in those outward directions +which are not characteristic of womanhood, and which must always be +subordinated to those interests that are. + +At this period of which we are speaking there are constructions of the +most important kind going on in the girl's body, compared with which the +construction of additional muscular tissue is of much less than no +importance. These building-up processes are, we know, characteristic of +the woman. Their right inception is a matter of the greatest importance. +They involve the actual accumulation of food material and the building +up of it into gland cells and other highly organized tissues upon which +complete womanhood depends. These all-important concerns are prejudiced +by excessive external expenditure, and thus the care necessary for the +boy at puberty is a thousandfold more necessary for the girl, though the +obvious changes in her appearance and her voice may be much less marked. +Greater and more costly constructions are afoot in her case than her +brother's, grossly though these facts are at present ignored in what we +are pleased to call education, both physical and mental. + +If we are to decide what kinds of physical exercise will be most +desirable, we must come to some conclusion as to what is the object of +our labours, it being granted that muscular activity and the making of +big muscles are not ends in themselves. The answer to this question is +to be found in what I have elsewhere called the new asceticism. + +In tracing the history of animal progress, we find that it coincides +with and has consisted in the emergence of the psychical and its +predominance over the physical. The history of progress is the history +of the evolving nervous system. Muscles are the servants of the nervous +system. In man progress has reached its highest phase in that the +nervous system, which at first was merely a servant of the body, has +become the essential thing, so that the brain is the man. The old +asceticism was at least right in regarding the soul as all-important, +though it was utterly wrong in considering the interests of soul and +body to be entirely antagonistic, and in teaching that for the elevation +of the soul we must outrage, mutilate, and deny the body. The new +asceticism accepts the first principle of the old, but bases its +practice on a truer conception of the relations between mind and body. +The greater part of the body is composed of muscles, and it is with +muscles that physical training is concerned. On our principles, then, +any system of physical training worth a straw must have primary +reference to the brain, since the body, including the muscles, is only +the servant of the ego or self which resides in the brain. For this +reason, if for no other, the development of muscle as an end in itself +is beneath human dignity; the value of a muscle lies not in its size or +strength, but in its capacity to be a useful and skilful agent of the +brain. + +The exceptions to this rule are furnished by precisely those muscles +which the usual forms of physical training and gymnastics ignore and +subordinate to the development of the muscles of the limbs. It does +matter very much that man or woman shall have the heart, which is the +most important muscle in the body, and the muscles of respiration in +good order. These muscles are directly necessary for life, and are +therefore servants of the brain, even though they are not in any +appreciable degree the direct agents of its purposes. Any kind of +physical exercise then which, while developing the muscles of the arm, +for instance, throws undue strain upon the heart or involves the +fixation of the chest for a considerable period--as occurs in various +feats of strength, whether with weights or upon bars or the like--is +_ipso facto_ to be condemned. It is now recognized that in the training +of soldiers much harm is often done in this way to the essential +muscles, while others, more conspicuous but of relatively no importance, +are being developed. + +But before we consider in detail what kinds of exercise and with what +accompaniment may be permitted for the muscles of the limbs, it is well +that we should agree upon some method of deciding as to the quantity of +such exercise. We cannot go by such measures as hours per week, for +individuals vary. We must find some criterion which will guide us for +each individual. The pendulum has swung in this regard from one extreme +to another. Both extremes were adopted and permitted because in our +guidance of girlhood we ignored facts of physiology, and, notably, +because educators had not a clear conception of what it was that they +desired to attain. By the consent of all who have given any attention to +the subject, the great educational reformer of the nineteenth century +was Herbert Spencer, and not the least of his services was his +liberation of girls from the extraordinary _regimen_ of fifty years ago. +There needs no excuse for a long quotation from the volume in which, +just short of half a century ago, Herbert Spencer discussed this matter. +Thereafter we may observe how the pendulum has swung to the other +extreme:-- + + "To the importance of bodily exercise most people are in some + degree awake. Perhaps less needs saying on this requisite of + physical education than on most others; at any rate, in so far as + boys are concerned. Public schools and private schools alike + furnish tolerably adequate play-grounds; and there is usually a + fair share of time for out-door games, and a recognition of them as + needful. In this, if in no other direction, it seems admitted that + the promptings of boyish instinct may advantageously be followed; + and, indeed, in the modern practice of breaking the prolonged + morning's and afternoon's lessons by a few minutes' open-air + recreation, we see an increasing tendency to conform + school-regulations to the bodily sensations of the pupils. Here, + then, little need be said in the way of expostulation or + suggestion. + + "But we have been obliged to qualify this admission by inserting + the clause in so far as boys are concerned. Unfortunately, the fact + is quite otherwise with girls. It chances, somewhat strangely, that + we have daily opportunity of drawing a comparison. We have both a + boys' school and a girls' school within view; and the contrast + between them is remarkable. In the one case nearly the whole of a + large garden is turned into an open, gravelled space, affording + ample scope for games, and supplied with poles and horizontal bars + for gymnastic exercises. Every day before breakfast, again towards + eleven o'clock, again at mid-day, again in the afternoon, and once + more after school is over, the neighbourhood is awakened by a + chorus of shouts and laughter as the boys rush out to play; and for + as long as they remain, both eyes and ears give proof that they are + absorbed in that enjoyable activity which makes the pulse bound and + ensures the healthful activity of every organ. How unlike is the + picture offered by the Establishment for Young Ladies! Until the + fact was pointed out, we actually did not know that we had a girls' + school as close to us as the school for boys. The garden, equally + large with the other, affords no sign whatever of any provision for + juvenile recreation; but is entirely laid out with prim + grass-plots, gravel-walks, shrubs, and flowers, after the usual + suburban style. During five months we have not once had our + attention drawn to the premises by a shout or a laugh. Occasionally + girls may be observed sauntering along the paths with their + lesson-books in their hands, or else walking arm-in-arm. Once, + indeed, we saw one chase another round the garden; but, with this + exception, nothing like vigorous exertion has been visible. + + "Why this astonishing difference? Is it that the constitution of a + girl differs so entirely from that of a boy as not to need these + active exercises? Is it that a girl has none of the promptings to + vociferous play by which boys are impelled? Or is it that, while in + boys these promptings are to be regarded as stimuli to a bodily + activity without which there cannot be adequate development, to + their sisters Nature has given them for no purpose whatever--unless + it be for the vexation of schoolmistresses? Perhaps, however, we + mistake the aim of those who train the gentler sex. We have a vague + suspicion that to produce a robust physique is thought undesirable; + that rude health and abundant vigour are considered somewhat + plebeian; that a certain delicacy, a strength not competent to more + than a mile or two's walk, an appetite fastidious and easily + satisfied, joined with that timidity which commonly accompanies + feebleness, are held more lady-like. We do not expect that any + would distinctly avow this; but we fancy the governess-mind is + haunted by an ideal young lady bearing not a little resemblance to + this type. If so, it must be admitted that the established system + is admirably calculated to realize this ideal. But to suppose that + such is the ideal of the opposite sex is a profound mistake. That + men are not commonly drawn towards masculine women is doubtless + true. That such relative weakness as asks the protection of + superior strength is an element of attraction we quite admit. But + the difference thus responded to by the feelings of men is the + natural, pre-established difference, which will assert itself + without artificial appliances. And when, by artificial appliances, + the degree of this difference is increased, it becomes an element + of repulsion rather than of attraction. + + "'Then girls should be allowed to run wild--to become as rude as + boys, and grow up into romps and hoydens!' exclaims some defender + of the proprieties. This, we presume, is the ever-present dread of + schoolmistresses. It appears, on inquiry, that at Establishments + for Young Ladies noisy play like that daily indulged in by boys is + a punishable offence; and we infer that it is forbidden, lest + unladylike habits should be formed. The fear is quite groundless, + however. For if the sportive activity allowed to boys does not + prevent them from growing up into gentlemen, why should a like + sportive activity prevent girls from growing up into ladies? Rough + as may have been their play-ground frolics, youths who have left + school do not indulge in leap-frog in the street, or marbles in the + drawing-room. Abandoning their jackets, they abandon at the same + time boyish games, and display an anxiety--often a ludicrous + anxiety--to avoid whatever is not manly. If now, on arriving at the + due age, this feeling of masculine dignity puts so efficient a + restraint on the sports of boyhood, will not the feeling of + feminine modesty, gradually strengthening as maturity is + approached, put an efficient restraint on the like sports of + girlhood? Have not women even a greater regard for appearances than + men? and will there not consequently arise in them even a stronger + check to whatever is rough or boisterous? How absurd is the + supposition that the womanly instincts would not assert themselves + but for the rigorous discipline of schoolmistresses! + + "In this, as in other cases, to remedy the evils of one + artificiality, another artificiality has been introduced. The + natural, spontaneous exercise having been forbidden, and the bad + consequences of no exercise having become conspicuous, there has + been adopted a system of factitious exercise--gymnastics. That this + is better than nothing we admit, but that it is an adequate + substitute for play we deny." + +The pendulum has indeed swung across from those days to these of the +hockey-girl, not to mention the girl who throws a cricket-ball and bowls +very creditably overhand. There can be no doubt that this state of +things is vastly better than that was, yet, as one has endeavoured to +insist, this also has its risks. Apart from the question as to the +particular game or form of exercise, we must be guided in each case by +the first signs of anything approaching undue strain. We must look out +for lack of energy, for a lessening of joy in the exercise and of +spontaneous desire therefor. Fatigue that interferes with appetite, +digestion, or sleep is utterly to be condemned. + +_The Specific Criterion._--Such criteria apply, of course, equally to +either sex, though it is more important to be on the look-out for them +in the case of the developing girl. But in her case there is another +criterion, which is of special importance, because it concerns not only +her development as an individual, but her development as a woman. That +criterion is furnished us by the menstrual function. It may safely be +said that that exercise is excessive and must be immediately curtailed +which leads to the diminution of this function, much more to its +disappearance. I would, indeed, urge this as a test of the highest +importance, always applicable to whatever circumstances. Defect in this +respect should never be looked upon lightly; it may, indeed, be a +conservative process, as in cases of anaemia, but the cause which +produces such an effect is always to be combated. + +_The Kinds of Exercise._--Given, then, this most important test as to +the quantity of exercise of whatever kind--a test which indeed applies +no less to mental exercise--we may pass on to consider the kinds of +exercise best suited for the girl, it being premised that any one of +them, however good in itself and in moderation, is capable of being +pursued to excess, and that the danger of this is specially noticeable +in the case of the girl, because, as we have seen, the effects of excess +are more serious in her case, and also because girls are very apt to +take things up with immense keenness, and sometimes, in even greater +degree than their brothers, to devote themselves too much to the +competitive aspect of things. The girl should certainly be content to +play a game for the joy of it, and be scarcely less happy to lose than +to win if her side has played the game and made a good fight of it. The +competitive element is excessive in almost all sports to-day, and it is +especially to be deplored in the games of girls, who are so liable to +overstrain and so apt to take trifles to heart. + +In what has been already said and in the end of our quotation from +Herbert Spencer, it will be evident that purposeful games rather than +exercises are to be commended. There is indeed no comparison for a +moment possible between Nature's method of exercise, which is obtained +through play, and the ridiculous and empty parodies of it which men +invent. The truth is that Nature is aiming at one thing, and man at +another. Man's aim, for reasons already exploded, is the acquirement of +strength; Nature's is the acquirement of skill. It is really nervous +development that Nature is interested in when she appears to be +persuading the young thing to exercise its muscles. Man notices only the +muscular contractions involved, thinks he can improve upon Nature, and +invents absurdities like dumb-bells. + +It is the nervous system by which we human beings live. Our voluntary +muscles are agents of the will, agents of purpose; and while strength is +a trifle, skill is always everything. We know now that it is impossible +to carry out any human purpose by the contraction of one muscle or even +one group of muscles. Even when we merely bend the arm we are doing +things with the muscles which extend it, and when we raise it sideways +we are modifying the whole trunk in order to preserve the balance. We +have only to watch the clumsiness of an infant or a small child to +realize how much skill the nervous system has to acquire. This skill may +be mainly expressed as co-ordination, the balanced use of many muscles +for a purpose and, as a rule, their co-ordinated use with one of the +senses, more especially vision, but also touch and hearing. + +This is the first of the physiological reasons why games and play of all +sorts are so incomparably superior to the use of dumb-bells and +developers, where movement and increase of muscular strength are made +ends in themselves; whereas in play we are making relations with the +outside world, responding to stimuli, educating our nerve muscular +apparatus as an instrument of human purpose. + +It is in part true to suppose that the play of children expresses an +overflow of superfluous energy, but a still deeper and much more +important conception of play is that which recognizes in it Nature's +method of nervous development, the attainment of control and +co-ordination, the capacity of quick and accurate response to +circumstances and obedience to the will. Compare, for instance, the girl +who has played games, avoiding danger as she crosses the road, with +another whose youth has been made dreary by dumb-bells. It may freely be +laid down, then, that systems of physical training are good in +proportion as they approximate to play, and bad in proportion as they +depart from it; and, further, that the very best of them ever devised is +worthless in comparison with a good game. This evidently does not refer +to, say, special exercises for a curved back. + +However, systems of physical training we shall still have with us for a +long time to come, and perhaps the mere difficulty of finding room for +games makes them necessary, though it may be noted in passing that the +last touch of absurdity is accorded to our frequent preference for +exercises over games when we conduct the exercises in foul air and +prefer them to games in the open air. If exercises we are to have, then +they must at least be modelled so as to come as near as possible to play +in the two essentials. The first of these has already been +mentioned--the preference of skill to strength as an object. + +The second, though less obvious, is no less important. What is the most +palpable fact of the child's play? It is enjoyment. We have done for +ever with the elegant morality which grown-up people, very particular +about their own meals, used to impose upon children, and which was based +upon the idea that everything which a child enjoys is therefore bad for +it. We are learning the elements of the physiology of joy. We find that +pleasure and boredom have distinct effects upon the body and the mind, +notably in the matter of fatigue. Careful study of fatigue in school +children has shown that the hour devoted to physical exercise of the +dreary kind under a strict disciplinarian may, instead of being a +recreation, actually induce more fatigue than an hour of mathematics. +If, then, we cannot allow the girl to play, but must give her some kind +of formal exercise, we must at least make it as enjoyable as possible. +There are Continental systems of gymnastics which do not believe in the +use of music because, forsooth, they find that the music diminishes the +disciplinary effect! Such an argument dismisses those who adduce it from +the category of those entitled to have anything to do with young people. +They should devote themselves to training the rhinoceros, these +martinets; the human spirit is not for their mauling. In point of fact +one of the redeeming features of physical training is the use of music, +which goes far to supply the pleasure that accrues from the natural +exercise of games, and greatly reduces the fatigue of which the risk is +otherwise by no means inconsiderable. We leave this subject, then, for +the nonce, having arrived at the conclusion that the objects of +physical training are skill and pleasure rather than strength and +discipline; that the system is best which is nearest to play; and that +the use of music is specially to be commended. + +But, as we have said, artificial physical training at its best is not to +be compared with the real thing; more especially if, as is usually the +case, the real thing has the advantage of being practised in pure air. +We must ask ourselves, then, what sort of games are suitable for girls, +and to what extent, if at all, mixed games are desirable. We must first +remind ourselves of the proviso that any game may be played to excess, +whether physical excess or mental excess, the risk of both of these +being involved when the competitive element is made too conspicuous. If +this risk be avoided there is no objection, perhaps, to even such a +vigorous game as hockey in moderation for girls. The present writer has +observed mixed hockey for many years, and finds it impossible to believe +that the game should be condemned for girls, but he has always seen it +under conditions where the game was simply played for the fun of the +thing, and that makes a great difference. + +It is certainly open to argument whether, in such a game as hockey, it +is not better, on the whole, that girls shall play by themselves, but, +as has been urged elsewhere, there is a good deal to be said for the +meeting of the sexes elsewhere than in the artificial conditions of the +ball-room, since these mixed games widen the field of choice for +marriage and provide far more natural and desirable conditions under +which the choice may be made. There can be no question that an epoch has +been created by the freedom of the modern girl to play games, and to +enjoy the movements of a ball, as her brother does. The very fact of her +pleasure in games indicates, to those who do not believe that the body +is constructed on essentially vicious principles, that they must be good +for her. The mere exercise is the least of the good they do. The open +air counts for more, as does the development of skill, and the girl's +opportunity of sharing in that moral education which all good games +involve and which there is no need to insist upon here. Amongst the many +things alleged against woman as natural defects by those who have never +for a moment troubled to distinguish between nature and nurture, are an +incapacity to combine with her sisters, petty dishonour in small things, +a blindness to the meaning of "playing the game." It is similarly +alleged by such persons against the lower classes that they also do not +know how to "play the game," and do not understand the spirit of true +sportsmanship, preferring to win anyhow rather than not at all. But +those who conduct the Children's Vacation Schools in London--that +remarkable arrangement by which children are damaged in school time and +educated in holidays--are aware that in a short time children of any +class can be taught to "play the game," if only they can be made to see +it from that point of view. So also women can learn to combine, to be +unselfish, to avoid petty deceits even in games, to obey a captain and +to accept the umpire's decision, when they are taught, as we all have +to be taught, that that is playing the game. + +These immense virtues of the new departure must by no means be forgotten +in the course of the reaction which is bound to occur, and is indeed +necessary, against the contemporary practice of trying to demonstrate +that boys and girls are substantially identical. He who pleads for the +golden mean is always abused by extremists of both parties, but is +always justified in the long run, and this is a case where the golden +mean is eminently desirable, being indeed vital, which is much more than +golden. Safety is to be found in our recognition of elementary +physiological principles, assuming from the first that though it is not +difficult to turn a girl into something like a boy, it is not desirable; +and especially in attending carefully, in the case of each individual, +to the indications furnished by that characteristic physiological +function, interference with which necessarily imperils womanhood. + +The organism is a whole; it reacts not only to physical strain but to +mental strain. There are parts of the world, including a country no less +distinguished as a pioneer of education than Scotland, where serious +mental strain is now being imposed upon girls at this very period of the +dawn of womanhood, when strain of any kind is especially to be deplored. +Utterly ignoring the facts of physiology, the laws and approximate dates +of human development, official regulations demand that at just such ages +as thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen large numbers of girls--and picked +girls--shall devote themselves to the strain of preparing for various +examinations, upon which much depends. Worry combines to work its +effects with those of excessive mental application, excessive use of the +eyes at short distances, and defective open-air amusement. The whole +examination system is of course to be condemned, but most especially +when its details are so devised as to press thus hardly upon girlhood at +this critical and most to be protected period. Many years ago Herbert +Spencer protested that we must acquaint ourselves with the laws of life, +since these underlie all the activities of living beings. The time is +now at hand when we shall discover that education is a problem in +applied biology, and that the so-called educator, whether he works +destruction from some Board of Education or elsewhere, who knows and +cares nothing about the laws of the life of the being with whom he +deals, is simply an ignorant and dangerous quack. + +What has been said about the reaction against excess in the physical +education of girls applies very forcibly to excess in their mental +education. We are undoubtedly coming upon a period when more and more +will be heard of the injurious consequences of such ill-timed +preparation for stupid examinations as has been referred to; and there +will be not a few to sigh for the return to the bad old days which a +certain type of mind always calls good. Here, again, we must find the +golden mean, recognizing that the danger lies in excess, and especially +in ill-timed excess. We shall further discover that if we desire a girl +to become a woman, and not an indescribable, we must provide for her a +kind of higher education which shall take into account the object at +which we aim. It will be found that there are womanly concerns, of +profound importance to a girl and therefore to an empire, which demand +no less of the highest mental and moral qualities than any of the +subjects in a man's curriculum, and the pursuit of which in reason does +not compromise womanhood, but only ratifies and empowers it. + +_Muscles worth Developing._--When men and women are carefully compared, +it is found that women, muscularly weaker as a whole, are most notably +so as regards the arms, the muscles of respiration, and the muscles of +the back. The muscles of the legs, and especially of the thighs, are +relatively stronger. In these facts we can find some practical guidance. +The muscles of all the limbs may be left comparatively out of account; +whether naturally weak or naturally strong they are of subordinate +importance. On the other hand, it is always worth while to cultivate the +muscles of respiration, as it is always worth while to keep the heart in +good order. Again, the weakness of the muscles of the back, and more +especially in the case of the growing girl, is not a thing to be +accepted as readily as the weakness of the biceps and the forearm +muscles. Various observers find a proportion of between 85 per cent. and +90 per cent. of those suffering from lateral curvature of the spine to +be girls, the great majority of these cases occurring between the ages +of ten and fifteen. Everywhere it is our duty to prevent such cases, and +everywhere physical training will find only too abundant opportunities +for endeavouring to correct them. It may be doubted perhaps whether we +may rightly follow Havelock Ellis in attributing woman's liability to +backache to the relative weakness of the muscles of the back, for we +know how often this symptom depends upon not muscular but internal +causes peculiar to woman. On the other hand, we may certainly follow +Havelock Ellis when he says, regarding this lateral curvature of the +spine, from which so many girls and women suffer: "There can be no doubt +that defective muscular development of the back, occurring at the age of +maximum development, and due to the conventional restraints on exercises +involving the body, and also to the use of stays, which hamper the +freedom of such movements, is here a factor of very great importance." +We shall not here concern ourselves with the details of practice, but +the principle is to be laid down that perhaps second only in importance +to the right development of the heart and the muscles of respiration is +that of the muscles of the back. + +Always, however, we are apt to judge by the obvious and to value it +unduly. Nature makes the biceps and the muscles of the forearm naturally +the weakest in woman compared with man, but it is just the bending of +the elbow that makes a good show on a horizontal bar or rope; and so we +devote too much time to the training of these muscles in our girls, with +the results which make such creditable exhibitions at the end of the +session, while we forget the muscles of the back, the right development +of which is far more valuable, but does not lend itself to display. + +In this connection it is to be added last, but not least, that special +importance attaches in woman to those muscles which one may perhaps call +the muscles of motherhood. It is common experience amongst physicians to +find the appropriate muscularity defective at childbirth in women the +muscles of whose limbs may have been very highly developed. Thus Dr. +Havelock Ellis, amongst other evidence, quotes that of a physician, who +says: "In regard to this interesting and suggestive question, it does +seem a fact that women who exercise all their muscles persistently meet +with increased difficulties in parturition. It would certainly seem that +excessive development of the muscular system is unfavourable to +maternity. I hear from instructors in physical training, both in the +United States and in England, of excessively tedious and painful +confinements among their fellows--two or three cases in each instance +only, but this within the knowledge of a single individual among his +friends. I have also several such reports from the circus--perhaps +exceptions. I look upon this as a not impossible result of muscular +exertion in women, the development of muscle, muscular attachments, and +bony frame leading to approximation to the male." + +In his lectures ten years ago, the distinguished obstetrician, Sir +Halliday Croom, now professor of Midwifery in the University of +Edinburgh, used to criticise cycling on this score, not as regards its +development of the muscles of the lower limbs, but as tending towards +local rigidity unfavourable to childbirth. It may be doubted, perhaps, +whether longer and wider experience of cycling by women warrants this +criticism, but it is probably worth noting. + +On the other hand, while exercise of certain muscles may interfere +obscurely or mechanically with motherhood, we are to remember that the +muscles of the abdomen are indeed the accessory muscles of motherhood, +and therefore specially to be considered. According to Mosso of Turin, +it is only in modern times that civilized woman shows the comparative +weakness of these muscles which is indeed commonly to be found. There is +verily no sign of it in the Venus of Milo, as any one can see. That +statue represents very highly developed abdominal muscles in a woman +less notably muscular elsewhere. The muscles lie near the skin, the +disposition of fat being very small, yet the woman is distinctively +maternal in type, and every kind of aesthetic praise that may be showered +upon the statue may be supplemented by the encomiums of the physiologist +and the worshipper of motherhood. It is highly desirable that, in +physical training to-day, attention should be paid to the development of +the abdominal muscles. Holding the abdomen together by means of a corset +may serve its own purpose, but does less than nothing in the crisis of +motherhood. The corset indeed conduces to the atrophy of the most +important of all the voluntary muscles for the most important crisis of +a woman's life. "Some of the slower Spanish dances" are commended for +the development of the abdominal muscles, but one would rather recommend +swimming, the abandonment of the corset, and, if the gymnasium is to be +used, some of the various exercises which serve these muscles, however +little they may serve to exploit the apparatus of the gymnasium when +visitors are invited. + +There is no occasion in the present volume to discuss in detail any such +thing as a course of physical exercises, but it is a pleasure, and, for +the English reader, a convenience to direct attention to the Syllabus of +Physical Exercises for Public Elementary Schools, issued by the English +Board of Education in 1909.[7] After nearly forty years of folly, the +dawn is breaking in our schools. It is evident that the Board of +Education has followed the best medical advice. Indeed, now that medical +knowledge is actually represented upon the Board, and represented as it +is, there is no need to go far. The principles which have been laid down +in previous pages are abundantly recognized in this admirable syllabus. +The exercises recommended for the nation's children are based upon the +Swedish system of educational gymnastics. But it is fortunately +recognized that that system requires modification, since "freedom of +movement and a certain degree of exhilaration are essentials of all true +physical education. Hence it has been thought well not only to modify +some of the usual Swedish combinations in order to make the work less +exacting, but to introduce games and dancing steps into many of the +lessons." "The Board desire that all lessons in physical exercises in +public elementary schools should be thoroughly enjoyed by the children." +"Enjoyment is one of the most necessary factors in nearly everything +which concerns the welfare of the body, and if exercise is distasteful +and wearisome, its physical as well as its mental value is greatly +diminished." An interesting paragraph on music recognizes its value in +avoiding fatigue, but underestimates, perhaps, the desirability of +including music for use at later years as well as for infant classes. + +The syllabus contains admirably illustrated exercises in detail. They +are earnestly to be commended to the reader who is responsible for +girlhood, and notably to those who are interested in the formation and +conducting of girls' clubs. The syllabus is excellent in the attention +paid to games, in the commendation of skipping and of dancing. The +following quotation well illustrates the spirit of wisdom which is at +last beginning to illuminate our national education:--"The value of +introducing dancing steps into any scheme of physical training as an +additional exercise especially for girls, or even in some cases for +boys, is becoming widely recognized. Dancing, if properly taught, is one +of the most useful means of promoting a graceful carriage, with free, +easy movements, and is far more suited to girls than many of the +exercises and games borrowed from boys. As in other balance exercises, +the nervous system acquires a more perfect control of the muscles, and +in this way a further development of various brain centres is brought +about.... Dancing steps add very greatly to the interest and recreative +effect of the lesson, the movements are less methodical and exact, and +are more natural; if suitably chosen they appeal strongly to the +imagination, and act as a decided mental and physical stimulus, and +exhilarate in a wholesome manner both body and mind." + +Plainly, our educators have begun to be educated since 1870. + +Of course, there is dancing and dancing. The real thing bears the same +relation to dancing as it is understood in Mayfair, as the music of +Schubert does to that of Sousa. The ideal dancing for girls is such as +that illustrated by the children trained by Miss Isadora Duncan. Some of +these girls were seen for a short time at the Duke of York's Theatre in +London not long ago, and the American reader, rightly proud of Miss +Duncan, should not require to be told what she has achieved. Just as we +are learning the importance of games and play, so that a syllabus issued +by the Board of Education instructs one how to stand when "giving a +back" at leap-frog, so also we shall learn again from Nature that +dancing of the natural and exquisite kind, never to be forgotten or +confused with imitations by any one who has seen Miss Duncan's children, +must be recognized as a great educative measure--educative alike of +mind, body, ear, and eye, and better worth while for any girl of any +rank than volumes of fictitious history concocted by fools concerning +knaves. + +_Girls' Clubs._--Allusion has been made to girls' clubs, and one may be +fortunate enough to have some readers who may feel inclined to partake +in the splendid work which may be done by this means. It requires high +qualities and a certain amount of expert knowledge. Much of the latter +can be obtained from the little book recommended above. For the rest, it +is worth while briefly to point out what the girls' club may effect, and +why it is so much needed. + +It has been insisted that puberty is a critical age because it means the +dawn of womanhood. It is critical in both sexes, not only for the body +but also for the mind. It is now that the intellect awakes; it is now +that the real formation of character begins. We often talk about spoilt +children at three or four, but any kind of making or marring of +character at such ages can be undone in a few weeks or less--that is, in +so far as it is an effect of training and not of nature that we are +dealing with. The real spoiling or making is at that birth of the adult +which we call puberty. During adolescence the adult is being made, and +everything matters for ever. This is true of physique, of mind, and of +character. The importance of this period is recognized by modern +churches in their rite of Confirmation, and it was recognized by ancient +religions, by Greeks and by Romans. Our national appreciation of it is +expressed by our devotion of vast amounts of money and labour to the +child, until the all-important epoch is reached, when we wash our hands +of it. We educate away, for all we are worth, when what is mainly +required is plenty of good food and open air; and we have done with the +matter when the age for real education arrives. In time to come our +neglect of adolescence in both sexes, more especially in girls, will be +marvelled at, and many of the evils from which we suffer will cease to +exist because the fatal and costly economy of the practical man is +dismissed as a delusion and a sham, and it is perceived that whether for +the saving of life or for the saving of money, adolescence must be cared +for. + +Meanwhile, it behoves private people who care about these things to do +what they can. If they rightly influence but ten girls, it was well +worth doing. The girls' club is a very inexpensive mode of social +activity. Practically the only substantial item of expenditure is the +hire of a gymnasium, say for two evenings in a week. The girls' dresses +can be made at home at quite a trivial cost. The primary attraction +would be the gymnasium. It must, of course, contain a piano, not +necessarily one on which Pachmann would play, but a piano nevertheless. +There is also required a pianist, not necessarily a Pachmann. Two girls +are better than one to run such a club. They will not find it difficult +to obtain material to work upon. They must acquire at a Polytechnic, or +perhaps they have acquired themselves at school, some knowledge of how +to conduct the work and play of the gymnasium. It will depend upon the +conductors of the club how far its virtues extend. Much elementary +hygiene may be taught as well as practised, and if it confine itself +only to matters of ventilation, clothing, care of the teeth and feet, it +is abundantly worth while. It is often possible to get medical men or +women to come and talk to the girls, and in the best of these clubs +there will be some more or less conscious and overt preparation in one +way and another for matters no less momentous alike for the individual +and the race than marriage and motherhood. + +_Girls' Clothing._--There is little good to be said about much of the +clothing of girls and women. All clothing should of course be loose, on +grounds which have been fully gone into in the previous volume on +personal hygiene. A woman's headgear is perhaps too often the only +article of her dress which conforms to this rule. It is good that the +stimulant effect of air, and air in motion, upon the skin should be as +widely extended as is compatible with sufficient warmth and decency. +Thus most women wear far too many clothes, apart from the question of +tightness. A woman handicaps herself seriously as compared with a man, +in that, while she is much less muscular, her clothes are often so much +heavier. All this applies with great force to girls. The following +quotation from the syllabus referred to above is worth making:-- + + "_A Suitable Dress for Girls._--A simple dress for girls suitable + for taking physical exercises or games consists of a tunic, a + jersey or blouse, and knickers. The tunic and knickers may be made + of blue serge, and, if a blouse is worn, it should be made of some + washing material. + + The tunic, which requires two widths of serge, may be gathered or, + preferably, pleated into a small yoke with straps passing over the + shoulders. The dress easily slips on over the head, and the + shoulder straps are then fastened. It should be worn with a loose + belt or girdle. In no case should any form of stiff corset be used. + + The knickers, with their detachable washing linen, should replace + all petticoats. They should not be too ample, and should not be + visible below the tunic. They are warmer than petticoats and allow + greater freedom of movement. + + Any plain blouse may be worn with the tunic, or a woollen jersey + may be substituted in cold weather. + + With regard to the cost of such a dress, serge may be procured for + 1s. 6d. to 2s. per yard. For the tunic some 2 to 2-1/2 yards are + usually required, and for the knickers about 1-1/2 to 2 yards. It + may be found possible in some schools to provide patterns, or to + show girls how to make such articles for themselves. Such a dress, + though primarily designed for physical exercises, is entirely + suitable for ordinary school use. + + Though it is, of course, not practicable to introduce this dress + into all Public Elementary Schools, or in the case of all girls, + yet in many schools there are children whose parents are both + willing and able to provide them with appropriate clothing. The + adoption of a dress of this kind, which is at the same time useful + and becoming, tends to encourage that love of neatness and + simplicity which every teacher should endeavour to cultivate among + the girls. And as it allows free scope for all movements of the + body and limbs, it cannot fail to promote healthy physical + development." + + + + +IX + +THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN + + +In the last chapter brief reference was made to the effects of ill-timed +mental strain. Our principles have already led us to the conclusion that +there are special risks for girls involved in educational strain, and +that is, of course, equally true whatever the curriculum. But that being +granted, it is necessary to draw very special attention to a new +movement in the higher education of women which is based upon the +principle that a woman is not the same as a man; that she has special +interests and duties which require no less knowledge and skill than +those with which men are concerned. A tentative experiment in this +direction has already, we are assured, altered the whole attitude +towards life of those girls who partook in it, and there is no question +that we now see the beginning of a new epoch in the higher education of +women upon properly differentiated lines such as have been utterly +ignored in the past. I refer to the "Special Courses for the Higher +Education of Women in Home Science and Household Economics," which now +form part of the activities of the University of London at King's +College. "The main object of these courses," we are told, "is to +provide a thoroughly scientific education in the principles underlying +the whole organization of 'Home Life,' the conduct of Institutions, and +other spheres of civic and social work in which these principles are +applicable." The lecturers are mainly highly qualified women, and the +courses are extremely thorough and comprehensive. The following are the +subjects which are dealt with: economics and ethics, psychology, +biology, business matters, physiology, bacteriology, chemistry, domestic +arts, sanitary science and hygiene, applied chemistry and physics.[8] + +It will be seen that there is no underrating here of the capacities of +women. The courses are not limited merely to cooking and washing, though +these are most carefully gone into. It is a far cry from them to +psychology and ethics or "A Sketch of the Historical Development of the +Household in England." One can imagine the joy with which girls, largely +nourished on the husks which constitute most of the educational +curricula of boys, will turn to a series of lectures on Child +Psychology, that deal with the general course of mental development in +the child, with interest and attention, the processes of learning, +mental fatigue and adolescence. The highest capacities of the mind in +women are not ignored when we find included a course of which the +special text-book is Spencer's "Data of Ethics." One can imagine also +that the course on the elements of general economics, with its study of +wealth and value and price, the laws of production and distribution, +may bring into being a kind of housewife who, whether or not eligible +for Parliament, would certainly be a much more desirable member thereof +than nine-tenths of the prosperous gentlemen who daily record their +opinions there upon matters they know not of. All who care at all for +womanhood or for England must rejoice in the beginnings of this revised +version of higher education for women which, for once in a way, finds +London a pioneer. We must have such courses all over the country. Every +father who can afford it must give his girls the incalculable benefit of +such opportunities. The girl thus educated will glory in her womanhood, +and will help to gain for it its right estimation and position in the +state. + +But it is to be pointed out that such courses as these, admirable though +they be, are yet not everything. The influence of our great national +deity, which is Mrs. Grundy, is apparent still. It is not specifically +recognized that the highest destiny of a woman is motherhood, though in +such courses as this motherhood will doubtless be served directly and +indirectly in many ways. There is, nevertheless, required something +more--something indeed no less than conscious, purposeful education for +parenthood. The chief obstacle in the way of this ideal is Anglo-Saxon +prudery, and, perhaps, the reader will not be persuaded that education +for parenthood is our greatest educational need to-day, more especially +for girls, until he or she has been persuaded of the magnitude of the +preventable evils which flow from our present neglect of this matter. In +the following chapter, therefore, one may point out what prudery costs +us at present, and indeed, the reader may then be persuaded that +education for parenthood, or, as it may be called, eugenic education, +is, perhaps, the most important subject that can be discussed to-day in +any book on womanhood. + + + + +X + +THE PRICE OF PRUDERY + + +Just after we had succeeded in getting the Notification of Births Act +put upon the Statute Book, the present writer occupied himself in +various parts of the country in the efforts which were necessary to +persuade local authorities to adopt the provisions of that Act. +Addressing a meeting of the clergy of Islington, he endeavoured to trace +back to the beginning the main cause of infant mortality, and +endeavoured to show that that lay in the natural ignorance of the human +mother, about which more must later be said. In the discussion which +followed, an elderly clergyman insisted that the causes had not been +traced far enough back, maternal ignorance being itself permitted in +consequence of our national prudery. + +Ever since that day one has come to see more and more clearly that the +criticism was just. Maternal ignorance, as we shall see later, is a +natural fact of human kind, and destroys infant life everywhere, though +prudery be or be not a local phenomenon. But where vast organizations +exist for the remedying of ignorance, prudery indeed is responsible for +the neglect of ignorance on the most important of all subjects. Let it +not be supposed for a moment that in this protest one desires, even for +the highest ends, to impart such knowledge as would involve sullying the +bloom of girlhood. It is not necessary to destroy the charm of innocence +in order to remedy certain kinds of ignorance; nor are prudery and +modesty identical. Whatever prudery may be when analyzed, it seems +perfectly fair to charge it as the substantial cause of the ignorance in +which the young generation grows up, as to matters which vitally concern +its health and that of future generations. Let us now observe in brief +the price of prudery thus arraigned. + +There is, first, that large proportion of infant mortality which is due +to maternal ignorance, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter. At +present we may briefly remind ourselves that the nation has had the +young mother at school for many years; much devotion and money have been +spent upon her. Yet it is necessary to pass an Act insuring, if +possible, that when she is confronted with the great business of her +life--which is the care of a baby--within thirty-six hours the fact +shall be made known to some one who, racing for life against time, may +haply reach her soon enough to remedy the ignorance which would +otherwise very likely bury her baby. Prudery has decreed that while at +school she should learn nothing of such matters. For the matter of that +she may even have attended a three-year course in science or technology, +and be a miracle of information on the keeping of accounts, the testing +of drains, and the principles of child psychology, but it has not been +thought suitable to discuss with her the care of a baby. How could any +nice-minded teacher care to put such ideas into a girl's head? Never +having noticed a child with a doll, we have somehow failed to realize +that Nature, her Ancient Mother and ours, is not above putting into her +head, when she can scarcely toddle, the ideas at which we pretend to +blush. Prudery on this topic, and with such consequences, is not much +less than blasphemy against life and the most splendid purposes towards +which the individual, "but a wave of the wild sea," can be consecrated. + +This question of the care of babies offers us much less excuse for its +neglect than do questions concerned with the circumstances antecedent to +the babies' appearance. Yet we are blameworthy, and disastrously so, +here also. Prudery here insists that boys and girls shall be left to +learn anyhow. That is not what it says, but that is what it does. It +feebly supposes not merely that ignorance and innocence are identical, +but that, failing the parent, the doctor, the teacher, and the +clergyman--and probably all these do fail--ignorance will remain +ignorant. There are others, however, who always lie in wait, whether by +word of mouth or the printed word, and since youth will in any case +learn--except in the case of a few rare and pure souls--we have to ask +ourselves whether we prefer that these matters shall be associated in +its mind with the cad round the corner or the groom or the chauffeur who +instructs the boy, the domestic servant who instructs the girl, and with +all those notions of guilty secrecy and of misplaced levity which are +entailed; or with the idea that it is right and wise to understand +these matters in due measure because their concerns are the greatest in +human life. + +After puberty, and during early adolescence, when a certain amount of +knowledge has been acquired, we leave youth free to learn lies from +advertisements, carefully calculated to foster the tendency to +hypochondria, which is often associated with such matters. Of this, +however, no more need now be said, since it scarcely concerns the girl. + +It is the ignorance conditioned by prudery that is responsible later on +for many criminal marriages; contracted, it may be, with the blind +blessing of Church and State, which, however, the laws of heredity and +infection rudely ignore. Parents cannot bring themselves to inquire into +matters which profoundly concern the welfare of the daughter for whom +they propose to make what appears to be a good marriage. They desire, of +course, that her children shall be healthy and whole-minded; they do not +desire that marriage should be for her the beginning of disease, from +the disastrous effects of which she may never recover. But these are +delicate matters, and prudery forbids that they should be inquired into; +yet every father who permits his daughter to marry without having +satisfied himself on these points is guilty, at the least, of grave +delinquency of duty, and may, in effect, be conniving at disasters and +desolations of which he will not live to see the end. + +Young people often grow fond of each other and become engaged, and then, +if the engagement be prolonged--as all engagements ought to be, as a +general rule--they may find that, after all, they do not wish to marry. +Yet the girl's mother, an imprudent prude, may often in this and other +cases do her utmost to bring the marriage about, not because she is +convinced that it means her daughter's highest welfare and happiness, +but because prudery dictates that her daughter must marry the man with +whom she has been so frequently seen; hence very likely lifelong +unhappiness, and worse. + +Society, from the highest to the lowest of its strata, is afflicted with +certain forms of understood and eminently preventable disease, about +which not a word has been spoken in Parliament for twenty years, and any +public mention of which by mouth or pen involves serious risk of various +kinds. Here it is perhaps not necessary for us to consider the case of +the outcast, and of the diseases with which, poor creature, she is first +infected, and which she then distributes into our homes. Our present +concern is simply to point out that prudery, again, is largely +responsible for the continuance of these evils at a time when we have so +much precise knowledge regarding their nature and the possibility of +their prevention. Medical science cannot make distinctions between one +disease and another, nor between one sin and another, as prudery does. +Prudery says that such and such is vice, that its consequences in the +form of disease are the penalties imposed by its abominable god upon the +guilty and the innocent, the living and the unborn alike, and that +therefore our ordinary attitude towards disease cannot here be +maintained. Physiological science, however, knowing what it knows +regarding food and alcohol, and air and exercise and diet, can readily +demonstrate that the gout from which Mrs. Grundy suffers is also a +penalty for sin; none the less because it is not so hideously +disproportionate, in its measure and in its incidence, to the gravity of +the offence. These moral distinctions between one disease and another +have little or no meaning for medical science, and are more often than +not immoral. + +It would be none too easy to show that the medical profession in any +country has yet used its tremendous power in this direction. +Professions, of course, do not move as a whole, and we must not expect +the universal laws of institutions to find an exception here. But though +they do not move, they can be moved. It is when the public has been +educated in the elements of these matters, and has been taught to see +what the consequences of prudery are, that the necessary forces will be +brought into action. Meanwhile, what we call the social evil is almost +entirely left to the efforts made in Rescue Homes and the like. Despite +the judgment of a popular novelist and playwright, it is much more than +doubtful whether Rescue Homes--the only method which Mrs. Grundy will +tolerate--are the best way of dealing with this matter, even if the +people who worked in them had the right kind of outlook upon the matter, +and even if their numbers were indefinitely multiplied. Every one who +has devoted a moment's thought to the matter knows perfectly well that +this is merely beginning at the end, and therefore all but futile. I +mention the matter here to make the point that the one measure which +prudery permits--so that indeed it may even be mentioned upon our highly +moral stage, and passed by the censor, who would probably be hurried +into eternity if M. Brieux's _Les Avaries_ were submitted to him, and +who found "Mrs. Warren's Profession" intolerable--is just the most +useless, ill-devised, and literally preposterous with which this +tremendous problem can be mocked. + +This leads us to another point. It is that the means of our education, +other than the schools, are also prejudiced by prudery. Upon the stage +there is permitted almost any indecency of word, or innuendo, or +gesture, or situation, provided only that the treatment be not serious. +Almost anything is tolerable if it be frivolously dealt with, but so +soon as these intensely serious matters are dealt with seriously, +prudery protests. The consequence is that a great educative influence, +like the theatre, where a few playwrights like M. Brieux, and Mr. +Bernard Shaw, and Mr. Granville Barker, and Mr. John Galsworthy, might +effect the greatest things, is relegated by Mrs. Grundy to the plays +produced by Mr. George Edwardes and other earnest upholders of the +censorship. + +Publishers also, while accepting novels which would have staggered the +Restoration Dramatists, can scarcely be found, even with great labour, +for the publication of books dealing with the sex question from the most +responsible medical or social standpoints. + +It is just because public opinion is so potent, and, like all other +powers, so potent either for good or for evil, that its present +disastrous workings are the more deplorable. It is not unimaginable +that prudery might undergo a sort of transmutation. As I have said +before, we might make a eugenist of Mrs. Grundy, so that she might be as +much affronted by a criminal marriage as she is now by the spectacle of +a healthy and well-developed baby appearing unduly soon after its +parents' marriage. The power is there, and it means well, though it does +disastrously ill. Public opinion ought to be decided upon these matters; +it ought to be powerful and effective. We shall never come out into the +daylight until it is; we shall not be saved by laws, nor by medical +knowledge, nor by the admonitions of the Churches. Our salvation lies +only in a healthy public opinion, not less effective and not more +well-meaning than public opinion is at present, but informed where it is +now ignorant, and profoundly impressed with the importance of realities +as it now is with the importance of appearances. + +So much having been said, what can one suggest in the direction of +remedy? First, surely it is something that we merely recognize the price +of prudery. Personally, I find that it has made all the difference to my +calculations to have had the thing pointed out by the clerical critic +whose eye these words may possibly meet. It is something to recognize in +prudery an enemy that must be attacked, and to realize the measure of +its enmity. In the light of some little experience, perhaps a few +suggestions may be made to those who would in any way join in the +campaign for the education and transmutation of public opinion on these +matters. + +First, we must compose ourselves with fundamental seriousness--with +that absolute gravity which imperils the publication of a book and +entirely prohibits the production of a play on such matters. There is +something in human nature beyond my explaining which leads towards +jesting in these directions. An instinct, I know, is an instinct; of +which a main character is that its exercise shall be independent of any +knowledge as to its purpose. We eat because we like eating, rather than +because we have reckoned that so many calories are required for a body +of such and such a weight, in such and such conditions of temperature +and pressure. It is not natural, so to say, just because man is in a +sense rather more than natural, that we should be provident and serious, +self-conscious, and philosophic, in dealing with our fundamental +instincts. But it is necessary, if we are to be human: and only in so +far as, "looking before and after," we transcend the usual conditions of +instinct, are we human at all. + +The special risk run by those who would deal with these matters +seriously--or rather one of the risks--is that they will be suspected, +and may indeed be guilty, of a tendency to priggishness and cant. Youth +is very likely not far wrong in suspecting those who would discuss these +matters, for youth has too often been told that they are of the earth +earthy, that these are the low parts of our nature which we must learn +to despise and trample on, and youth knows in its heart that whatever +else may or may not be cant, this certainly is. So any one who proposes +to speak gravely on the subject is a suspect. + +Meetings confined to persons of one sex offer excellent opportunities. +Much can be done, if the suspicion of cant be avoided, by men addressing +the meetings of men only which gather in many churches on Sunday +afternoons, and which have a healthy interest in the life of this world +and of this world to come, as well as in matters less immediate. It +seems to me that women doctors ought to be able to do excellent work in +addressing meetings of girls and women, provided always that the speaker +be genuinely a woman, rightly aware of the supremacy of motherhood. + +Most of us know that it is possible to read a medical work on sex, say +in French, without any offence to the aesthetic sense, though a +translation into one's native tongue is scarcely tolerable. This +contrasted influence of different names for the same thing is another of +those problems in the psychology of prudery which I do not undertake to +analyze, but which must be recognized by the practical enemy of prudery. +It is unquestionably possible to address a mixed audience, large or +small, of any social status, on these matters without offence and to +good purpose. But certain terms must be avoided and synonyms used +instead. There are at least three special cases, the recognition of +which may make the practical difference between shocking an audience and +producing the effect one desires. + +Reproduction is a good word from every point of view, but its +associations are purely physiological, and it is better to employ a word +which renders the use of the other superfluous and which has a special +virtue of its own. This is the term parenthood, a hybrid no doubt, but +not perhaps much the worse for that. One may notice a teacher of +zoology, say, accustomed to address medical students, offend an audience +by the use of the word reproduction, where parenthood would have served +his turn. It has a more human sound--though there is some sub-human +parenthood which puts much of ours to shame--and the fact that it is +less obviously physiological is a virtue, for human parenthood is only +half physiological, being made of two complementary and equally +essential factors for its perfection--the one physical and the other +psychical. Thus it is possible to speak of physical parenthood and of +psychical parenthood, and thus not only to avoid the term reproduction, +but to get better value out of its substitutes. One may be able to show, +perhaps, that in the case of other synonyms also a hunt for a term that +shall save the face of prudery may be more than justified by the +recovery of one which has a richer content. Terms are really very good +servants, if they are good terms and we retain our mastery of them. Let +any one without any previous practice start to write or speak on "human +reproduction," and on "human parenthood, physical and psychical," and he +will find that, though naming often saves a lot of thinking, as George +Meredith said, wise naming may be of great service to thought. + +In these matters there is to be faced the fact of pregnancy. Here, +again, is a good word, as every one knows who has felt its force or that +of the corresponding adjective when judiciously used in the +metaphorical sense. The present writer's rule, when speaking, is to use +these terms only in their metaphorical sense, and to employ another term +for the literal sense. I should be personally indebted to any reader who +can inform me as to the first employment of the admirable phrase, "the +expectant mother." The name of its inventor should be remembered. In any +audience whatever--perhaps almost including an audience of children, but +certainly in any adult audience, whether mixed or not, medical or +fashionable, serious or sham serious--it is possible to speak with +perfect freedom on many aspects of pregnancy, as for instance the use of +alcohol, exposure to lead poisoning, the due protection at such a +period, by simply using the phrase "the expectant mother," with all its +pregnancy of beautiful suggestion. Here, again, our success depends upon +recognizing the psychical factor in that which to the vulgar eye is +purely physiological--not that there is anything vulgar about physiology +except to the vulgar eye. + +For myself, the phrase "the expectant mother" is much more than useful, +though in speaking it has made all the difference scores of times. It is +beautiful because it suggests the ideal of every pregnancy--that the +expectant mother shall indeed _expect_, look forward to the life which +is to be. Her motto in the ideal world or even in the world at the +foundations of which we are painfully working, will be those words of +the Nicene creed which the very term must recall to the mind--_Expecto +resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venturi saeculi_. + +Let any one who fancies that these pre-occupations with mere language +are trivial or misplaced here take the opportunity of addressing two +drawing-rooms under similar conditions, on some such subject as the care +of pregnancy from the national point of view. Let him in the one case +speak of the pregnant woman, and so forth, and in the other of the +expectant mother. He will be singularly insensitive to his audience if +he does not discover that sometimes a rose by any other name is somehow +the less a rose. The more fools we perhaps, but there it is, and in the +most important of all contemporary propaganda, which is that of the +re-establishment of parenthood in that place of supreme honour which is +its due, even such "literary" debates as these are not out of place. + +Sex is a great and wonderful thing. The further down we go in the scale +of life, whether animal or vegetable, the more do we perceive the +importance of the evolution of sex. The correctly formed adjective from +this word is sexual, but the term is practically taboo with Mrs. Grundy. +Only with caution and anxiety, indeed, may one venture before a lay +audience to use Darwin's phrase, "sexual selection." The fact is utterly +absurd, but there it is. One of the devices for avoiding its +consequences is the use of sex itself as an adjective, as when we speak +of sex problems; but the special importance of this case is in regard to +the sexual instinct, or, if the term offends the reader, let us say the +sex instinct. Here prudery is greatly concerned, and our silence here +involves much of the price of prudery. Now since the word sexual has +become sinister, we cannot speak to the growing boy or girl about the +sexual instinct, but we may do much better. + +For what is this sexual instinct? True, it manifests itself in +connection with the fact of sex, but essentially that is only because +sex is a condition of human reproduction or parenthood. It is this with +which the sexual instinct is really concerned, and perhaps we shall +never learn to look upon it rightly or deal with it rightly until we +indeed perceive what the business of this instinct is, and regard as +somewhat less than worthy of mankind any other attitude towards it. Of +course there are men who live to eat, yet the instincts concerned with +eating exist not for the titillation of the palate but for the +sustenance of life; and, likewise, though there are those who live to +gratify this instinct, it exists not for sensory gratification, but for +the life of this world to come. Can we not find a term which shall +express this truth, shall be inoffensive and so doubly suitable for the +purposes of our cause? + +The term reproductive instinct is often employed. It is vastly superior +to sexual instinct, because it does refer to that for which the instinct +exists; but it hints at reproduction, and though Mrs. Grundy can +tolerate the idea of parenthood, reproduction she cannot away with. We +cannot speak of it as the parental instinct, because that term is +already in employment to express the best thing and the source of all +other good things in us. Further, the sexual instinct and the parental +instinct are quite distinct, and it would be disastrous to run the +possibility of confusing them--one the source of all the good, and the +other the source of much of the evil, though the necessary condition of +all the good and evil, in the world. + +For some years past, in writing and speaking, I have employed and +counselled the employment of the term "the racial instinct." This seems +to meet all the needs. It avoids the tabooed adjective, and if it fails +to allude at all to the fact of sex, who needs reminding thereof? It is +formed from the term race, which prudery permits, and it expresses once +and for all that for which the instinct exists--not the individual at +all, but the race which is to come after him. Doubtless its satisfaction +may be satisfactory for him or her, but that does not testify to +Nature's interest in individuals, but rather to her skill in insuring +that her supreme concern shall not be ignored, even by those who least +consciously concern themselves with it. + +These are perhaps the three most important instances of the verbal, or +perhaps more than verbal, issues that arise in the fight with prudery. +One has tried to show that they are not really in the nature of +concessions to Mrs. Grundy, but that the terms commended are in point of +fact of more intrinsic worth than those to which she objects. Other +instances will occur to the reader, especially if he or she becomes in +any way a soldier in this war, whether publicly or as a parent +instructing children, or on any other of the many fields where the fight +rages. + +It is not the purpose of the present chapter to deal with that which +must be said, notwithstanding prudery, and in order that the price of +prudery shall no longer be paid. But one final principle may be laid +down which is indeed perhaps merely an expression of the spirit +underlying the foregoing remarks upon our terminology. It is that we are +to fly our flag high. We may consult Mrs. Grundy's prejudices if we find +that in doing so we may directly serve our own thinking, and therefore +our cause. This is very different from any kind of apologizing to her. +All such I utterly deplore. We must not begin by granting Mrs. Grundy's +case in any degree. Somewhere in that chaos of prejudices which she +calls her mind, she nourishes the notion, common to all the false forms +of religion, ancient or modern, that there is something about sex and +parenthood which is inherently base and unclean. The origin of this +notion is of interest, and the anthropologists have devoted much +attention to it. It is to be found intermingled with a by no means +contemptible hygiene in the Mosaic legislation, is to be traced in the +beliefs and customs of extant primitive peoples, and has formed and +forms an element in most religions. But it is not really pertinent to +our present discussion to weigh the good and evil consequences of this +belief. Without following the modern fashion, prevalent in some +surprising quarters, of ecstatically exaggerating the practical value of +false beliefs in past and present times, we may admit that the cause of +morality in the humblest sense of that term may sometimes have been +served by the religious condemnation of all these matters as unclean, +and of parenthood as, at the best, a second best. + +But for our own day and days yet unborn this notion of sex and its +consequences as unclean or the worser part is to be condemned as not +merely a lie and a palpably blasphemous one, grossly irreligious on the +face of it, but as a pernicious lie, and to be so recognized even by +those who most joyfully cherish evidence of the practical value of lies. +Whatever may have been the case in the past or among present peoples in +other states of culture than our own, no impartial person can question +that during the Christian Era what may be called the Pauline or ascetic +attitude on this matter has been disastrous; and that if the present +forms of religion are not completely to outlive their usefulness, it is +high time to restore mother and child worship to the honour which it +held in the religion of Ancient Egypt and in many another. If the mother +and child worship which is to be found in the more modern religions, +such as Christianity, is to be worth anything to the coming world it +must cease to have reference to one mother and one child only; it must +hail every mother everywhere as a Madonna, and every child as in some +measure deity incarnate. By no Church will such teaching be questioned +to-day; but if it be granted the Churches must cease to uphold those +conceptions of the superiority of celibacy and virginity which, besides +involving grossly materialistic conceptions of those states, are +palpably incompatible with that worship of parenthood to which the +Churches must and shall now be made to return. + +All this will involve many a shock to prudery; to take only the instance +of what we call illegitimate motherhood, our eyes askance must learn +that there are other legitimacies and illegitimacies than those which +depend upon the little laws of men, and that if our doctrine of the +worth of parenthood be a right one it is our business in every such case +to say, "Here also, then, in so far as it lies in our power, we must +make motherhood as good and perfect as may be." + +These principles also will lead us to understand how differently, were +we wise, we should look upon the outward appearances of expectant +motherhood. In his masterpiece, Forel--of all living thinkers the most +valuable--has a passage with which Mrs. Grundy may here be challenged. +It is too simple to need translating from the author's own French:[9]-- + + "La fausse honte qu'out les femmes de laisser voir leur grossesse + et tout ce qui a rapport a l'accouchement, les plaisanteries dont + on use souvent a l'egard des femmes enceintes, sont un triste signe + de la degenerescence et meme de la corruption de notre civilization + raffinee. Les femmes enceintes ne devraient pas ce cacher, ni + jamais avoir honte de porter un enfant dans leur ventre; elles + devraient au contraire en etre fieres. Pareille fierte serait + certes bien plus justifiee que celle des beaux officiers paradant + sous leur uniforme. Les signes exterieurs de la formation de + l'humanite font plus d'honneur a leurs porteurs que les symboles de + sa destruction. Que les femmes s'impregnent de plus en plus de + cette profonde verite! Elles cesseront alors de cacher leur + grossesse et d'en avoir honte. Conscientes de la grandeur de leur + tache sexuelle et sociale, elles tiendront haut l'etendard de notre + descendance, qui est celui de la veritable vie a venir de l'homme, + tout en combattant pour l'emancipation de leur sexe." + +This passage recalls one of Ruskin's, which is to be found in "Unto This +Last":-- + + "Nearly all labour may be shortly divided into positive and + negative labour--positive, that which produces life; negative, that + which produces death; the most directly negative labour being + murder, and the most directly positive the bearing and rearing of + children; so that in the precise degree in which murder is hateful + on the negative side of idleness, in that exact degree + child-rearing is admirable, on the positive side of idleness." + +Here is the right comment upon the swaggering display of the means of +death and the hiding as if shameful of the signs of life to come. What +has Mrs. Grundy to say to this? Will she consider the propriety of +urging in future that it is murder and the means of murder, and the +organized forces of capital and politics making for murder, that must +not be mentioned before children, and must be hidden as shameful from +the eyes of men; and while a woman may still glory in her hair, +according to that spiritual precept of St. Paul: "But if a woman have +long hair it is a glory to her; for her hair is given her for a +covering," perhaps she may be permitted even to glory in her motherhood, +contemptible as such a notion would doubtless have seemed to the Apostle +of the Gentiles. + + + + +XI + +EDUCATION FOR MOTHERHOOD + + +It is our first principle in this discussion that the individual exists +for parenthood, being a natural invention for that purpose and no other. +It has been shown further that this is more pre-eminently true of woman +than of man, she being the more essential--if such a phrase can be +used--for the continuance of the race. If these principles are valid +they must indeed determine our course in the education of girls. Some +incidental reference has already been made to this subject, but the +matter must be more carefully gone into here. We have seen that there +are right and wrong ways of conducting the physical training of girls, +according as whether we are aiming at muscularity or motherhood. We have +seen also that there is a thing called the higher education of women, +apparently laudable and desirable in itself, which may yet have +disastrous consequences for the individual and the race. + +In a book devoted to womanhood, and written at the end of the first +decade of the twentieth century, the reader might well expect that what +we call the higher education of women would be a subject treated at +great length and with great respect. Such a reader, turning to the +chapter that professedly deals with the subject, might well be offended +by its brevity. It might be asked whether the writer was really aware of +the importance of the subject--of its remarkable history, its extremely +rapid growth, and its conspicuous success (in proving that women can be +men if they please--but this is my comment, not the reader's). Nor can +any one question that the so-called higher education of women is a very +large and increasingly large fact in the history of womanhood during the +last half century in the countries which lead the world--whither it were +perhaps not too curious to consider. Further, this kind of education +does in fact achieve what it aims at. Women are capable of profiting by +the opportunities which it offers, as we say. This is itself a deeply +interesting fact in natural history, refuting as it does the assertions +of those who declared and still declare that women are incapable of +"higher education," except in rare instances. It is important to know +that women can become very good equivalents of men, if they please. + +Further, this higher education of women--and we may be content to accept +the adjective without qualification, since it is after all only a +comparative, and leaves us free to employ the superlative--may be and +often is of very real value in certain cases and because of certain +local conditions, such as the great numerical inequality of the sexes in +nearly all civilized countries. It is valuable for that proportion of +women, whatever it be, who, through some throw of the physiological +dice, seem to be without the distinctive factor for psychical +womanhood, the existence of which one has tentatively ventured to +assume. These individuals, like all others, are entitled to the fullest +and freest development of their lives, and it is well that there shall +be open to them, as to the brothers they so closely resemble, +opportunities for intellectual satisfaction and self-development. +Therefore, surely, by far the most satisfactory function of higher +education for women is that which it discharges in reference to these +women. Their destiny being determined by their nature, and irrevocable +by nurture, it is well that, though we cannot regard it as the highest, +we should make the utmost of it by means of the appropriate education. + +Only because sometimes we must put up with second bests can we approve +of higher education for women other than those of the anomalous +semi-feminine type to which we have referred. At present we must accept +it as an unfortunate necessity imposed upon us by economic conditions. +So long as society is based economically, or rather uneconomically, upon +the disastrous principles which so constantly mean the sacrifice of the +future to the present, so long, I suppose, will it be impossible that +every fully feminine woman shall find a livelihood without some +sacrifice of her womanhood. This is a subject to which we must return in +a later chapter. Meanwhile it is referred to only because its +consideration shows us some sort of excuse, if not warrant, for the +higher education of woman, even though in the process of thus endowing +her with economic independence, we disendow her of her distinctive +womanhood, or at the very least imperil it; even though, more serious +still, we deprive the race of her services as physical and psychical +mother. + +We have seen that there is just afoot a new tendency in the higher +education of women, and it is indeed a privilege to be able to do +anything in the way of directing public attention to this new trend. In +reference thereto, it was hinted that though this newer form of higher +education for woman is a great advance upon the old, and is so just +because it implies some recognition of woman's place in the world, yet +for one reason or another it falls short of what this present student of +womanhood, at any rate, demands. As has been hinted further, probably +those responsible for the new trend are by no means unaware that, though +their line is nearer to the right one, the direct line to the "happy +isles" has not quite been taken. But great is Mrs. Grundy of the +English, and those who devised the new scheme--one is willing to hazard +the guess--had to be content with an approximation to what they knew to +be the ideal. That is why we devoted the last chapter to the question of +prudery, inserting that between a discussion of the "higher education" +of women and the present discussion, which is concerned with the +_highest education_ of women. + +Words are only symbols, but, like other symbols, they are capable of +assuming much empire over the mind. Man, indeed, as Stevenson said, +lives principally by catchwords, and though woman, beside a cot, is less +likely to be caught blowing bubbles and clutching at them, she also is +in some degree at the mercy of words. The higher education of women is +a good phrase. It appeals, just because of the fine word higher, to +those who wish women well, and to those who are not satisfied that woman +should remain for ever a domestic drudge. The phrase has had a long run, +so to say, but I propose that henceforth we should set it to compete +with another--the highest education of women. Whether this phrase will +ever gain the vogue of the other even a biased and admiring father may +well question. But if there is anything certain, having the whole weight +of Nature behind it, and only the transient aberrations of men opposed +thereto, it is that what I call the highest education of women will be +and will remain the most central and capital of society's functions, +when what is now called the higher education of women has gone its +appointed way with nine-tenths of all present-day education, and exists +only in the memory of historians who seek to interpret the fantastic +vagaries of the bad old days. + +Perhaps it is well that we should begin by freeing the word education +from the incrustations of mortal nonsense that have very nearly obscured +its vitality altogether. Before we can educate for motherhood, we must +know what education is, and what it is not. We must have a definition of +it and its object; in general as well as in this particular case, +otherwise we shall certainly go wrong. Perhaps it may here be permitted +to quote a paragraph from a lecture on "The Child and the State," in +which some few years ago I attempted to express the first principles of +this matter:-- + +"Now, as a student of biology, I will venture to propose a definition +of education which is new, so far as I know, and which I hope and +believe to be true and important. Comprehensively, so as to include +everything that must be included, and yet without undue vagueness, I +would define education as _the provision of an environment_. We may +amplify this proposition, and say that it is the provision of a fit +environment for the young and foolish by the elderly and wise. It has +really scarcely anything in the world to do with my trying to make you +pay for the teaching to my children of dogmas which I believe, and you +deny. It neither begins nor ends with the three R's; and it does not +isolate, from that whole which we call a human being, the one attribute +which may be defined as the intellectual faculty. It is the provision of +an environment, physical, mental, and moral, for the whole child, +physical, mental, and moral. That is my _definition_ of education. Now, +what are we to say of the _object_ of education? In providing the +environment--from its mother's milk to moral maxims--for our child, what +do we seek? Some may say, to make him a worthy citizen, to make him able +to support himself; some may say, to make him fit to bear arms for his +king and country; but I will give you the object of education as defined +by the author of the most profound and wisest treatise which has ever +been written upon the subject--Plato, Locke, and Milton not forgotten. +'To prepare us for complete living,' says Herbert Spencer, 'is the +function which education has to discharge.' The great thing needed for +us to learn is how to live, how rightly to rule conduct in all +directions under all circumstances; and it is to that end that we must +direct ourselves in providing an environment for the child. _Education +is the provision of an environment, the function of which is to prepare +for complete living._" + +Perhaps the only necessary qualification of the foregoing is that, +though it refers specially to the child, yet the need of education does +not end with childhood, becoming indeed pre-eminent when childhood ends. +So we may apply what has been said in the case of the girl, and we shall +find it a sure guide to the highest education of women. + +First, education being the provision of an environment in the widest +sense of that very wide word, always misused when it is used less +widely, we must be sure that in our scheme we avoid the errors of past +or passing schemes which concern themselves only with some aspect of the +environment, and so in effect prepare for something much less than +complete living. It is not sufficient to provide an environment which +regards the girl as simply a muscular machine, as is the tendency, if +not actually the case, in some of the "best" girls' schools to-day; it +is not sufficient to provide an environment which looks upon the girl as +merely an intellectual machine, as in the higher education of women; it +is not sufficient to provide an environment which looks upon the girl as +a sideboard ornament, in Ruskin's phrase, such as was provided in the +earlier Victorian days. In all these cases we are providing only part of +the environment, and providing it in excess. None of them, therefore, +satisfies our definition of education, which conceives of environment +as the sum-total of all the influences to which the whole organism is +subjected--influences dietetic, dogmatic, material, maternal, and all +other.[10] + +Who will question that, according to this conception of education, such +a thing as the higher education of women must be condemned as +inadequate? No more than a man is woman a mere intellect incarnate. Her +emotional nature is all-important; it is indeed the highest thing in the +Universe so far as we know. The scheme of education which ignores its +existence, and much more than fails to provide the best environment for +it, is condemnable. But the scheme of education which derides and +despises the emotional nature of woman, looking upon it as a weakness +and seeking to suppress it, is damnable, and has led to the +damnation--or loss, if the reader prefers the English term--of this most +precious of all precious things in countless cases. + +The only right education of women must be that which rightly provides +the whole environment. The simpler our conception of woman, the more we +underrate her complexity and the manifoldness of her needs, the more +certainly shall we repeat in one form or another the errors of our +predecessors. + +Complete living is a great phrase; perhaps not for a lizard or a +mushroom, but assuredly for men and women. Perhaps it involves more for +women even than for men; indeed it must do so if we are to adhere to our +conception of women as more complex than men, having all the +possibilities of men in less or greater measure, and also certain +supreme possibilities of their own. Whatever complete living may mean +for men, it cannot mean for women anything less than all that is implied +in Wordsworth's great line-- + + "Wisdom doth live with children round her knees." + +That line was written in reference to the unwisdom of a man, Napoleon, +the greatest murderer in recorded time, and I believe it to be true of +men, but it is pre-eminently true of women. There needs no excuse for +quoting from Herbert Spencer, since we have already accepted his +definition of the subject of education, a notable passage which is +perhaps at the present time the most needed of all the wisdom with which +that great thinker's book on education is filled:-- + + "The greatest defect in our programmes of education is entirely + overlooked. While much is being done in the detailed improvement of + our systems in respect both of matter and manner, the most pressing + desideratum, to prepare the young for the duties of life, is + tacitly admitted to be the end which parents and schoolmasters + should have in view; and, happily, the value of the things taught, + and the goodness of the methods followed in teaching them, are now + ostensibly judged by their fitness to this end. The propriety of + substituting for an exclusively classical training, a training in + which the modern languages shall have a share, is argued on this + ground. The necessity of increasing the amount of science is urged + for like reasons. But though some care is taken to fit youth of + both sexes for society and citizenship, no care whatever is taken + to fit them for the position of parents. While it is seen that, for + the purpose of gaining a livelihood, an elaborate preparation is + needed, it appears to be thought that for the bringing up of + children no preparation whatever is needed. While many years are + spent by a boy in gaining knowledge of which the chief value is + that it constitutes the education of a gentleman; and while many + years are spent by a girl in those decorative acquirements which + fit her for evening parties, not an hour is spent by either in + preparation for that gravest of all responsibilities--the + management of a family. Is it that the discharge of it is but a + remote contingency? On the contrary, it is sure to devolve on nine + out of ten. Is it that the discharge of it is easy? Certainly not; + of all functions which the adult has to fulfil, this is the most + difficult. Is it that each may be trusted by self-instruction to + fit himself, or herself, for the office of parent? No; not only is + the need for such self-instruction unrecognized, but the complexity + of the subject renders it the one of all others in which + self-instruction is least likely to succeed." + +If we were wise enough, therefore, we should recognize all education, in +the great sense of that word, to be _as for parenthood_. That ideal will +yet be recognized and followed for both sexes, as it has for long been +followed, consciously as well as unconsciously, by that astonishing race +which has survived all its oppressors, and is in the van of civilization +to-day as it was when it produced the Mosaic legislation. The time is +not yet when one could accept with a light heart an invitation to +lecture on fatherhood to the boys at Eton. Boys to-day are taught by +each other, and by those who give them what they call "smut jaws," that +what exists for fatherhood, and thus for the whole destiny of mankind, +is "smut." When such blasphemies pass for the best pedagogic wisdom, to +preach parenthood as the goal of all worthy education is to run the risk +of being looked upon as ridiculous. But the time will come when the +hideous Empire-wrecking Imperialisms of the present are forgotten, and +when we have a new Patriotism--which suggests, first and foremost, as +that word well may, the duty of fatherhood; and then, perhaps, "smut +jaws" will not be the phrase at Eton for discussion of those instincts +which determine the future of mankind. + +But girls are our present concern, and we may indeed hope that, though +the day is still far when the motto of Eton will be education as for +fatherhood, yet the ideal of education as for motherhood may yet triumph +wherever girls are taught within even a few years to come. On all sides +to-day we see the aberrations of womanhood in a hundred forms, and the +consequences thereof. Wrong education is partly, beyond a doubt, to be +indicted for this state of things, and the right direction is so clearly +indicated by nature and by the deepest intuitions of both sexes that we +cannot much longer delay to take it. + +Perhaps the reader will have patience whilst for a little we discuss the +facts upon which right education for motherhood must be based. Some may +suppose that by education for womanhood is meant simply one form or +other of instruction; say, for instance, in the certainly important +matter of infant feeding. At present, however, I am not thinking of +instruction at all, but of education--the leading forth, that is to say, +in right proportion and in right direction of the natural constituents +of the girl. If we are to be right in our methods we must have some +clear understanding of what those constituents are, and we must +therefore address ourselves now to getting, if possible, clear and +accurate notions of the material with which we have to deal; in other +words, we must discuss the psychology of parenthood. We shall perhaps +realize then that though the instruction of mothers in being is very +necessary and very important, that comes in at the end of our duty, and +that we shall never achieve what we might achieve unless we begin at the +beginning. + + + + +XII + +THE MATERNAL INSTINCT + + +The deeds of men and women proceed from certain radical elements of +their nature, some evidently noble, others, when looked at askew, +apparently ignoble. These elements are classed as instinctive. We are +less intelligent than we think. Reason may occupy the throne, but the +foundations upon which that throne is based are not of her making. To +change the image, reason is the pilot, not the gale or the engine. She +does not determine the goal, but only the course to that goal. We are +what our nature makes us; our likes and our dislikes determine our acts, +and we are guided to our self-determined ends by means of our +intelligence. More often, indeed, we use our intelligence merely to +justify to ourselves the likes and dislikes, the action and the +inaction, which our instinctive tendencies have determined. + +Many of our natural instincts, impulses, and emotions bear only remotely +upon our present inquiry; as, for instance, the instinct of flight and +the emotion of fear, the instinct of curiosity and the emotion of +wonder, the instinct of pugnacity and the emotion of anger. Certain +others, however, are not merely radical and permanent parts of our +nature, but determine human existence, the greater part of its failures +and successes, its folly and wisdom, its history and its destiny. Two of +these--the parental and racial instincts--we must carefully consider +here, and also, very briefly, a supposed third, the filial instinct. I +am inclined to question whether such a specific entity as the filial +instinct exists at all; it is rather, I believe, a product, by +transmutation, of the parental instinct which, in its various forms and +potencies and through the tender emotion which is its counterpart in the +affective realm of our natures, is the noblest, finest, and most +promising ingredient of our constitution. + +_Instinct and Emotion._--We must be sure, in the first place, that we +have a sound idea of what we mean by the word "instinct." It is absurd, +for instance, to speak of "acquiring a political instinct"--or any +other. That is the most erroneous possible use of the word. An instinct +is eminently something which cannot be "acquired"; it is native if +anything is native; as native as the nose or the backbone. Instincts may +be developed or repressed; it is the great mark of man that in him they +may even be transmuted--but _acquired_ never. + +When we come to examine the laws of activity we find that, on the +application of certain kinds of stimulus, there are certain very +definite responses, and these we call instinctive. If the arm or the leg +of a sleeper be stroked or touched, or a cold breath of air blows +thereon, it will be withdrawn, and such withdrawal is what we call a +reflex action. Now, an instinctive action, as Herbert Spencer saw long +ago, is a "complex reflex action." It differs from a simple reflex, a +mere twitch, such as winking, but it is a complicated, and possibly +prolonged, action, which is, at bottom, of the nature of a reflex. One +may instance the instinct of flight, which is correlated with fear. In +crossing the street we hear "toot, toot," and we run. We do not +ratiocinate, we run. All the primary instincts of mankind act similarly. +Take, for contrast, the instinct of curiosity. Consider a child watching +a mechanical toy; the impulse of this instinct of curiosity is such that +he goes to the thing and examines it. By means of the transmutation, +which it is the prerogative of man to effect, this instinct may work out +into a lifetime devoted to the study of Nature. There is an unbroken +sequence from the interest in the unknown which we see in a kitten or a +child up to that which triumphs in a Newton or a Darwin. + +Thus we begin to learn that human nature is largely a collection of +instincts, more or less correlated, and that at bottom we act on our +instincts--in accordance with certain innate predilections, likings, and +dislikings with which we were born, and which we have inherited from our +ancestors. Indissolubly associated therewith is what we call emotion. +For instance, in the exercise of the instinct of curiosity we feel a +certain emotion, which we call wonder. There is an ignoble wonder and +there is a noble wonder; but whether it be an astronomer watching the +stars, or the crowd at a cinematograph show, there exists an association +between the emotion of wonder and the instinct of curiosity. Dr. +McDougall, of Oxford, elaborated some few years ago, and has now +established, an extremely important theory of the relation between +instinct and emotion. He has shown that our emotions are correlated with +our instincts; that the emotion is the inward or subjective side of the +working of the instinct. Thus an instinct is more than a "complex reflex +action"; it is more than merely that, on hearing something, or seeing +something, certain muscles are thrown into action, because along with +the action there is emotion, and this is a natural and necessary +correlation. We should do well to carry about with us, as part of our +mental furniture, this idea of the correlation between instinct and +emotion. + +Now, if it be true that man is not primarily a rational animal, if he be +rather, _au fond_, a bundle, an assemblage, _an organism of instincts_, +it behoves us to recognize in ourselves and in others the primary +instincts, because from them flows all that goes to make up human +nature, whether it be good or evil. Amongst these, certainly, is the +parental instinct. + +Let us first consider its development in the individual, for this bears +on the question when to begin education for motherhood. We find it very +early indeed. It is commonly asserted that the doll instinct is the +precursor, the infantile and childish form, of the parental instinct. +Some psychologists, as we have already noted, assure us that this is +wrong, that a small child will be just as content to play with anything +else as with a doll; that the child gets fond of its possession, and +that what we are really witnessing is the instinct of acquisitiveness. +The rest may reason and welcome, but those who are fathers know. We +have only to watch a child to learn that it very soon differentiates its +doll, or rather, the shapeless mass it calls its doll, from other +things. Try with your own children and see if you can get them to like +anything else as well as they like a doll. They will not. There are few +settled questions as yet in psychology, but we may certainly be sure +that the parental instinct and its associated emotion may be +unmistakably displayed as the master-passion in a child who is not yet +two years old. In a case where the possibility of imitation was excluded +I have seen a little girl adore a small baby, stroke its hands, whisper +quasi-maternal sweet nothings to it--"mother it," in short--as plainly +as I have seen the sun at noon; and there is no reason to suppose that +this deeply impressive spectacle was exceptional. + +The parental instinct is connected subtly with the racial instinct; and +it is undisputed that, except in utterly degraded persons, the object of +the feelings which are associated with the racial instinct becomes the +object of the feelings which are associated with the parental instinct. +The object of the emotion of sex becomes also the object of tender +emotion. Thus "love," in its lower sense, becomes exalted by Love in the +noble sense. + +There is also in us an instinct of pugnacity, which especially appears +when the working of any other instinct is thwarted. We know that the +parental instinct when thwarted, as in the tigress robbed of her whelps, +shows itself in pugnacity--even in the female, which commonly has no +pugnacity; and in the emotion of anger. It is a reasonable supposition +that the fine anger, the passion for justice, the passion against, say, +slavery or cruelty to children--that these indignations which move the +world are at bottom traceable to the workings of the outraged parental +instinct. When we have tender emotion towards a child, or towards an +animal, whatever it be, this is really the subjective side of the +working of the parental instinct. Now, tender emotion is what has made +and makes everything that is good in the individual, and in human +society. It is the basis of all morality--all morality that is real +morality--everything that permits us to hold up our heads at all, or to +hope for the future of the race. That is why the study of the parental +instinct, its correlate or source, is as important and serious as any +that can be imagined. + +Let us begin by a quotation from Dr. McDougall, author of the best and +most searching account of this instinct yet written:-- + + "The maternal instinct, which impels the mother to protect and + cherish her young, is common to almost all the higher species of + animals. Among the lower animals the perpetuation of the species is + generally provided for by the production of an immense number of + eggs or young (in some species of fish a single adult produces more + than a million eggs), which are left entirely unprotected, and are + so preyed upon by other creatures that on the average but one or + two attain maturity. As we pass higher up the animal scale, we find + the number of eggs or young more and more reduced, and the + diminution of their number compensated for by parental protection. + At the lowest stage this protection may consist in the provision of + some merely physical shelter, as in the case of those animals that + carry their eggs attached in some way to their bodies. But, except + at this lowest stage, the protection afforded to the young always + involves some instinctive adaptation of the parent's behaviour. We + may see this even among the fishes, some of which deposit their + eggs in rude nests and watch over them, driving away creatures that + might prey upon them. From this stage onwards protection of + offspring becomes increasingly psychical in character, involves + more profound modification of the parent's behaviour, and a more + prolonged period of more effective guardianship. The highest stage + is reached by those species in which each female produces at a + birth but one or two young, and protects them so efficiently that + most of the young born reach maturity; the maintenance of the + species thus becomes in the main the work of the parental instinct. + In such species the protection and cherishing of the young is the + constant and all-absorbing occupation of the mother, to which she + devotes all her energies, and in the course of which she will at + any time undergo privation, pain, and death. The instinct becomes + more powerful than any other, and can override any other, even fear + itself; for it works directly in the service of the species, while + the other instincts work primarily in the service of the individual + life, for which Nature cares little.... When we follow up the + evolution of this instinct to the highest animal level, we find + among the apes the most remarkable examples of its operation. Thus + in one species the mother is said to carry her young one clasped in + one arm uninterruptedly for several months, never letting go of it + in all her wanderings. This instinct is no less strong in many + human mothers, in whom, of course, it becomes more or less + intellectualized and organized as the most essential constituent of + the sentiment of parental love. Like other species, the human + species is dependent upon this instinct for its continual + existence and welfare. It is true that reason, working in the + service of the egotistic impulses and sentiments, often circumvents + the ends of this instinct and sets up habits which are incompatible + with it. But when that occurs on a large scale in any society, that + society is doomed to rapid decay. But the instinct itself can never + die out save with the disappearance of the human species itself; it + is kept strong and effective just because those families and races + and nations in which it weakens become rapidly supplanted by those + in which it is strong. + + "It is impossible to believe that the operation of this, the most + powerful of the instincts, is not accompanied by a strong and + definite emotion; one may see the emotion expressed unmistakably by + almost any mother among the higher animals, especially the birds + and the mammals--by the cat, for example, and by most of the + domestic animals; and it is impossible to doubt that this emotion + has in all cases the peculiar quality of the tender emotion + provoked in the human parent by the spectacle of her helpless + offspring. This primary emotion has been very generally ignored by + the philosophers and psychologists; that is, perhaps, to be + explained by the fact that this instinct and its emotion are in the + main decidedly weaker in men than women, and in some men, perhaps, + altogether lacking. We may even surmise that the philosophers as a + class are men among whom this defect of native endowment is + relatively common." + +Dr. McDougall goes on to show how from this emotion and its impulse to +cherish and protect spring generosity, gratitude, love, true +benevolence, and altruistic conduct of every kind; in it they have their +main and absolutely essential root without which they would not be. He +argues that the intimate alliance between tender emotion and anger is +of great importance for the social life of man, for "the anger invoked +in this way is the germ of all moral indignation, and on moral +indignation justice and the greater part of public law are in the main +founded."[11] + +The reader may be earnestly counselled to acquaint himself with Dr. +McDougall's book, which, in the judgment of those best qualified, +definitely advances the science of psychology in its deepest and most +important aspects. + +_The Transmutation of Instinct._--The last thing here meant by the +transmutation of instinct is that by any political alchemy it is +possible--to quote Herbert Spencer's celebrated aphorism--to get golden +conduct out of leaden instincts. But it is the mark of man, the +intelligent being, that in him the instincts are plastic, and even +capable of amazing transmutations. In the lower animals there is +instinct, but that instinct is an almost completely fixed, rigid, and +final thing. In ourselves there is a limitless capacity for the +development, the humanization of instinct along many lines, as when the +primitive infantile curiosity works out into the speculations of a +thinker. In other words, _we_ are educable, the lower animals are not, +or only within very narrow limits. + +Yet in one respect the lower animals have the advantage over us. Their +instincts are often perfect. We cannot teach a cat anything about how to +look after a kitten; but parallel instincts amongst ourselves, though +not less numerous or potent, are not perfected, not sharp-cut. In the +cat there is no need for education; in woman there is eminent need for +it. Indeed it is the lack of education that is largely responsible for +our large infant mortality; not that woman is inferior to the cat, but +that, being not instinctive but intelligent, she requires education in +motherhood. + +Human instincts in general are capable of modification; sometimes they +may take bizarre forms, and so we find that there are people without +children of their own--more commonly women--who will have twenty cats in +the house and look after them, or who will devote their whole lives to +the cause of the rat or the rabbit, or whatever it may be, while the +children of men are dying around them. These things are indications of +the parental instinct centred on unworthy objects. It is a common thing +to laugh at these aberrations--thoughtlessly, may we not say? While +orphans are to be found, we should do better if we try to bring together +the woman who needs to "mother" and the child who needs to be +"mothered." + +Conduct is at least three-fourths of life, and the great business of +education is the direction of conduct. We have seen how modern +psychology illuminates what has been so long dark, by directing us to +our instincts as the sources of our needs, and by showing us that it is +the possibility of the education of instinct which essentially +distinguishes us from the lower animals. + +We must therefore distinguish between education for motherhood and +education or instruction in motherhood. It is very important that a +woman should know the elements of infant feeding, but it is more +important that, in the first place, her whole life before she becomes a +mother--nay, even before she chooses her child's father--shall centre in +the education of her instincts for motherhood. Finding good evidence, as +we do, of the maternal instinct at a very early age, and recognizing its +importance in conduct and in the formation of ideals long before the +marriage age, we are justified in discussing the maternal instinct here +instead of postponing it, as some might argue, until after we have +discussed marriage. There is nothing which I wish to assert more +strongly than that we are radically wrong in this postponement, which is +indeed our customary practice. Partly because we are blind, partly +because of our most imprudent prudery, we ignore and pervert the due +sequence of development, but here I deliberately prefer to follow the +indications of nature, and to discuss the maternal instinct now because, +in the matter of the education of girls, this is precisely the most +important subject that can be named. + +Let us now note some popular misconceptions which cumber our minds and +often interfere with the work of the reformer. + +To begin with what is perhaps the oldest of these, though indeed +scarcely entitled to the appellation of popular, let us assure ourselves +once and for all that we are talking about a fact natural, innate, not +acquired. The modern criticism of ancient notions of human nature, such +as those expressed in the theologians' conception of "conscience," has +inclined some to the view that our best feelings are indeed not at all +innate. No one can for a moment analyze conscience without observing the +immense disparity between the facts and the theologians' theory. And +thus we are apt to fall into the opposite error of supposing that our +impulses towards good action are entirely the products of education, +training, public opinion, and so forth. Let the reader refer, for +instance, to such a celebrated work as John Stuart Mill's +"Utilitarianism," and it will be seen how wide of the mark it was +possible for even a great thinker to go, when his ideas of mind were +unguided by the light of evolution. Even in the greatest writer of that +time not a syllable do we find as to the parental instinct. "As is my +own belief," says Mill, "the moral feelings are not innate but +acquired." Yet we have seen convincing evidence which teaches us that +the moral feelings spring essentially from the root of the parental +instinct, without which mankind could not continue for another +generation, and than which there is nothing more fundamental and +essential in any type of human nature that can persist. + +The importance of noting this can be clearly stated. We are here dealing +with something which is not for us to implant, but which is already part +of the plant, so to speak, and which it is for us to tend. Like other +innate features of mankind, its transmission from generation to +generation is notably independent of the effects of education, the +effects of use and disuse. This is a difficult thing of which to +persuade people, but it is the fact. Education, environment, training, +opportunity, habit, public opinion, social prejudice--all these and +such other influences may and do affect the maternal instinct in the +individual for good or for evil. No fact is more certain or important, +and that is precisely why we must study this instinct. But the effect +upon the individual does not involve any effect upon the native +constitution of the individual's children. From age to age the general +facts and features of the human backbone persist. We do not expect to +find notable differences between the generations in such a radical +feature of our constitution, no matter what particular habits of +posture, play, and the like we adopt. The maternal instinct is scarcely +less fundamental; it is certainly no whit less essential for the +species. It is the very backbone of our psychological constitution. Thus +it is nonsense to assert that, for instance, women are becoming less +motherly, if by this is meant that the maternal instinct is failing. +That bad education may affect it for evil no one can question, but we +must distinguish between nature and nurture. We may be perfectly +confident that so far as the _natural_ material of girl-childhood and +girlhood is concerned, there is no falling off; there will not, for +there cannot, be any falling off either in the quality or in the +quantity of the maternal instinct. On the contrary, it can, and will +later be shown that through the action of heredity this instinct will be +strengthened in the future, just in so far as motherhood becomes more +and more a special privilege of those women in whom this instinct is +strong, and who become mothers for the _only good reason_--that they +love to have children of their own. + +I protest, then, against many critics, especially those who used to +raise their now silent voices in opposition to the beginnings of the +infant mortality campaign a few years ago, that we who criticize modern +motherhood and find in its defects the causes of many and great evils, +as we do, are asserting nothing whatever against the women of this day +as compared with the women of former days, so far as their natural +constitution is concerned; and if we criticize the results of bad +education, that is mainly criticism of the blindness, the stupidity, and +the carelessness of men, who are responsible for the parodies of +education and the misdirection of ideals which have so grossly +afflicted, and still afflict, childhood and girlhood in all civilized +communities. + +Yet, again, there is another misconception of the maternal instinct as +it exists in our own species, which is still more serious in its +results. The argument is that, not only does the maternal instinct +exist, but it is a sure guide to its possessor, who therefore requires +no instruction--least of all at the hands of men. A woman being a woman +knows all about babies, a man being a man knows nothing. Against this +error the present writer has endeavoured to inveigh for many years past, +and it is always retorted that insistence upon the ignorance of mothers +is a very unwarrantable piece of discourtesy. It is nothing of the sort. +Native ignorance is the mark of intelligence. It is just because +instinct in us has not the perfection of detail which it has in, say, +the insects, that it is capable of that limitless modification which +shows itself in educated intelligence, and all that educated +intelligence has achieved and will yet achieve. It may be permitted to +quote from a former statement of this point:--[12] + +"The mother has only the maternal instinct in its essence. That could +not be permitted to lapse by natural selection, since humanity could +never have been evolved at all if women did not love babies. But of all +details she is bereft. She has instead an immeasurably greater thing, +intelligence, but whilst intelligence can learn everything it has +everything to learn. Subhuman instinct can learn nothing, but is perfect +from the first within its impassable limits. It is this lapse of +instinctive aptitude that constitutes the cardinal difficulty against +which we are assembled. The mother cat not merely has a far less +helpless young creature to succour, but she has a far superior inherent +or instinctive equipment; she knows the best food for her kitten, she +does not give it 'the same as we had ourselves'--as the human mother +tells the coroner--but her own breast invariably. None of us can teach +her anything as to washing her kitten, or keeping it warm. She can even +play with it and so educate it, in so far as it needs education. There +are mothers in all classes of the community who should be ashamed to +look a tabby cat in the face." + +The human mother has instinctive love and the uninstructed intelligence +which is the form, at once weak and incalculably strong, that instinct +so largely assumes in mankind. This cardinal distinction between the +human and all sub-human mothers is habitually ignored, it being assumed +that the mother, as a mother, knows what is best for her child. But +experience concurs with comparative psychology in showing that the human +mother, just because she is human, intelligent, which means more than +instinctive, does not know. This is the theory upon which all our +practice is to be based, and upon which the need for it mainly depends. +We must never forget the cardinal peculiarity of human motherhood, its +absolute dependence upon education, needless for the cat, needed by the +human mother in every particular, small and great, since she relies upon +intelligence alone, which is only a potentiality and a possibility until +it be educated. Educate it, and the product transcends the cat, and not +only the cat, but all other living things. As Coleridge said-- + + "A mother is a mother still, + The holiest thing alive." + +Perhaps the foregoing will make it clear that to insist upon the natural +ignorance of the human mother and upon the necessity for adding +instruction to the maternal instinct, and even to make comparisons with +the cat (which are, in point of fact, quite worth making, even though +some women resent them) is in no way to depreciate or decry womanhood, +but simply to demonstrate that it is human and not animal, suffering +from the disabilities or necessities which are involved in the +possession of the limitless possibilities of mankind. + +What, then, is it in our power to do; and how are we to do it? It may be +argued that if the maternal instinct is a thing which cannot be made or +acquired, our study of it has little relation to practice. But indeed it +is eminently practical. + +For, in the first place, this priceless possession, this parental +instinct and tenderness, is inheritable. We know by observation amongst +ourselves that hardness and tenderness are to be found running through +families--are things which are transmissible. Let us, then, make +parenthood the most responsible, the most deliberate, the most +self-conscious thing in life, so that there shall be children born to +those who love children, and only to those who love children, to those +who have the parental instinct naturally strong, and who will, on the +average, transmit a high measure of it to their offspring. In a +generation bred on these principles--a generation consisting only of +babies who were loved before they were born--there would be a proportion +of sympathy, of tender feeling, and of all those great, abstract, +world-creating passions which are evolved from the tender emotion, such +as no age hitherto has seen. + +It was necessary to insert this eugenic paragraph because it expresses +the central principle of all real reform, as fundamental and +all-important as it is unknown to all political parties, and I fear to +nearly all philanthropists as well. But, for the present, our immediate +concern is the application, if such be possible, of our knowledge of the +parental instinct to the education of girls. Being indeed an instinct it +can be neither made nor acquired, but, like every other factor of +humanity that is given by inheritance, it depends upon the conditions in +which it finds itself. Education being the provision of an environment, +there is no higher task for the educator than to provide the right +environment for the maternal instinct in adolescence. We are to look +upon it as at once delicate and ineradicable. These are adjectives which +may seem incompatible, yet they may both be verified. Any one will +testify that, in a given environment, say that of high school or +university or that of the worst types of what is called society, the +maternal instinct may then and there, and for that period, become a +nonentity in many a girl. Hence we are entitled to say that it is +delicate; much more delicate, for instance, than what we have agreed to +call the racial instinct, which is far more imperious and by no means so +easily to be suppressed. + +But, on the other hand, just because this is an instinct, part of the +fundamental constitution, and not a something planted from without, it +is ineradicable. I doubt whether even in the most abandoned female +drunkard it would not be possible to find, when the right environment +was provided, that the maternal instinct was still undestroyed. One is, +of course, not speaking of that rare and aberrant variety of women in +whom the instinct is naturally weak--naturally weak as distinguished +from the atrophy induced by improper nurture. + +Our business, then, having recognized, so to speak, the natural history +of this instinct, and further, having come to realize its stupendous +importance for the individual and the race, is to tend it assiduously +as the very highest and most precious thing in the girls for whom we +care. As educators we must seek to provide the environment in which this +instinct can flourish. It is a good thing to be an elder sister, not +merely because the girl has opportunities of learning the ways of babies +and the details of their needs, but for a far deeper reason. Babies do +have very detailed and urgent needs, but these can be learnt without +much difficulty, and, if necessary, at very short notice. More important +is it for the whole development of the character and for the making of +the worthiest womanhood that an elder sister is provided with an +environment in which her maternal instinct can grow and grow in grace. + +Much might be said on this head as to some of our present educational +practices. The kind of educationist with whom no one would trust a +poodle for half an hour may and does constantly assume, on a scale +involving millions of children, from year to year, that all is well if +the girl be taken from home and put into a school and made to learn by +heart, or at any rate by rote, the rubbish with which our youth is fed +even yet in the great name of education: though perchance whilst she is +thus being injured in body and mind and character, she might at home be +playing the little mother, helping to make the home a home, serving the +highest interests of her parents, her younger brothers and sisters and +herself at the same time--not to mention the unborn. Such a protest as +this, however, will be little heeded. There is no political party which +cares about education or even wants to know in what it consists. The +most persistent and clever and resourceful of those parties--of which, I +fear, the Fabian Society is far too good to be representative--only half +believes in the family, and is daily, and ever with more lamentable +success, seeking to substitute for the home some collective device or +other precisely as rational as that scheme of Plato's whereby the babies +were to be shuffled so that no mother should recognize her own baby, +while the fathers, need it be said, were to be as gloriously +irresponsible as under the schemes for the endowment of motherhood. +"Socialism intervenes between the children and the parents.... Socialism +in fact is the State family. The old family of the private individual +must vanish before it, just as the old waterworks of private enterprise, +or the old gas company. They are incompatible with it." Thus Mr. H. G. +Wells. + +Whilst this sort of thing passes for thinking, it is a task that has +little promise in it to demand a return to the study of human nature, +and insist that only by obeying it can we command it, as Bacon said of +Nature at large. Meanwhile the madness proceeds apace; nursery-schools, +wretched parody of the nursery, are advocated at length in even Fabian +tracts, and the writer who suggests that an elder sister may be +receiving the highest kind of education in staying at home and helping +her mother, would sound almost to himself like an echo from the dead +past did he not know that neither a Plato nor a million tons of moderns +can walk through human nature or any other fact as if it were not +there. + +Whatever be our duty to the girl of the working-classes, no man can deny +the importance of performing it aright. She will become the wife of the +working-man. From her thus flows most of the birth-rate. If our +education of her is wrong, it is a very great wrong for millions of +individuals and for the whole of society. But let us look at the case of +her more fortunate sister. + +The girl of the more fortunate classes is certain to be well cared for +in the matter of air and food and light and exercise. We have already +seen how this matter of exercise requires to be qualified and determined +as for motherhood--that is, unless we desire most suicidally to educate +all the most promising stocks of the nation out of existence. But now +what do we owe to her in the matter of providing the right kind of +intellectual, moral, spiritual, psychical environment? It is a pity to +flounder with so many adjectives, but nearly all the available ones are +forsworn and fail to express my meaning. Let us, however, speak of the +spiritual environment, seeking to free that word from all its lamentable +associations of superstition and cant, and to associate it rather with a +humanized kind of religion that deals with humanity as made by, living +upon, and destined for, this earth, whatever unseen worlds there may or +may not be to conquer. + +It is our business, then, to provide the spiritual environment in which +the maternal instinct is favoured and seen to be supremely honourable. +If in the "best" girls' schools ideas of marriage and babies are +ridiculed, the sooner these schools be rubbed down again into the soil, +the better. There is no need to substitute one form of cant for +another, but it is possible--possible even though the head-mistress +should be a spinster, for whom physical motherhood has not been and +never will be--to incorporate in the very spirit of the school, as part +of its public opinion, no less potent though its power be not +consciously felt, the ideals of real and complete womanhood, which mean +nothing less than the consecration of the individual to the future, and +the belief that such consecration serves not only the future but also +the highest satisfaction of her best self. + +If it were our present task to define and specify the details of a +school in which girls should be educated for womanhood, for motherhood, +and the future, it would not be difficult, I think, to show how the +services of painting and sculpture, of poetry and prose, should be +enlisted. A word or two of outline may be permitted. + +There is, for instance, a noble Madonna of Botticelli which is supremely +great, not because of the skill of the painter's hand, nor yet the +delicacy of his eye, but because of the spirit which they express. +Botticelli speaks across the centuries, and is none other than an +earlier voice uttering the words of Coleridge, teaching that a mother is +the holiest thing alive. The master may or may not have perceived that +the Madonna was a symbol; that what he believed of one holy mother was +worth believing just in so far as it serves to make all motherhood holy +and all men servants thereof. The painter can scarcely have looked at +his model and appreciated her fitness for his purpose without realizing +that he was concerned with depicting a truth not local and unique, but +universal and commonplace. Whether or not the painter saw this, we have +no excuse for not seeing it. Copies of such a painting as this should be +found in every girls' school throughout the world. + +Girls learn drawing and painting at school, and these are amongst the +numerous subjects on which the present writer is entitled to no +technical or critical opinion. But he sometimes supposes that a painting +is not necessarily the worse because it represents a noble thing, and +that it may even be a worthier human occupation to portray the visage of +a living man or woman than the play of light upon a dead wall or a dead +partridge. It might even be argued by the wholly inexpert that if the +business of art is with beauty, the art is higher, other things being +equal, in proportion as the beauty it portrays is of a higher order. +Thus in the painting of women, the ignorant commentator sometimes asks +himself in what supreme sense it was worth while for an artist to expend +his powers upon the portrait of some society fool who could pay him +twelve hundred pounds therefor; or in what supreme sense a painter can +be called an artist who prefers such a task, and the flesh-pots, to the +portrayal of womanhood at its highest. There are attributes of womanhood +which directly serve human life, present and to come--attributes of +vitality and faithfulness, attributes of body and bosom, of mind and of +feeling, which it is within the power of the great artist to portray; +and it is in worthily portraying the greatest things, and in this +alone, that he transcends the status of the decorator. + +It is worth while also to refer here to sculpture; something can be +taught by its means. The Venus of Milo is not only a great work of art; +it is also a representation of the physiological ideal. Its model was a +woman eminently capable of motherhood. The corset is beyond question +undesirable from every point of view, and it may be of service by means +of such a statue as this to teach the girl's eye what are the right +proportions of the body. She is constantly being faced with gross and +preposterous perversions of the female figure as they are to be seen in +the fashion plates of every feminine journal. It is as well that she +should have opportunities of occasionally seeing something better. + +A note upon the corset may not be out of place here. We know that its +use is of no small antiquity. We have lately come to learn that +civilization stepped across to Europe from Asia, using Crete as a +stepping-stone; and in frescoes found in the palace of Minos, at +Knossos, by Dr. Arthur Evans, we find that the corset was employed to +distort the female figure nearly four thousand years ago, as it is +to-day. There must be some clue deep in human nature to the persistence +of a custom which is in itself so absurd. Those who have studied the +work of such writers as Westermarck, and who cannot but agree that on +the whole he is right in the contention that each sex desires to +accentuate the features of its sex, will be prepared to accept Dr. +Havelock Ellis's interpretation of the corset. By constricting the +waist it accentuates the salience of the bosom and hips. This may simply +be an expression of the desire to emphasize sex, but it may with still +more insight be looked upon, as the latter writer has suggested, as the +insertion of a claim to capacity for motherhood. This claim is of course +unconscious, but Nature does not always make us aware of the purposes +which she exercises through us. Now, though the corset serves to draw +attention to certain factors of motherhood, in point of fact it is +injurious to that end, and is on that highest of all grounds to be +condemned. I return to the point that possibly the direct and formal +condemnation of the corset may be in some cases less effective than the +method, which must have some value for every girl, of placing before her +eyes representations of the female figure, showing beauty and capacity +for motherhood as completely fused because they are indeed one. +Constrain the girl to admit that that is as beautiful as can be, and +then ask her what she thinks the corset applied to such a figure could +possibly accomplish. + +Surely the same principle applies to what the girl reads. Some of us +become more and more convinced that youth, being naturally more +intelligent than maturity, prefers and requires more subtlety in its +teaching. In addressing a meeting of men, say upon politics, a speaker's +first business is to be crude. He has no chance whatever unless he is +direct, unqualified, allowing nothing at all for any kind of +intelligence or self-constructive faculty in the minds of his hearers. +Let any one recall the catchwords, styled watchwords, of politics +during the last ten or twenty years, and he will see how men are to be +convinced. + +But it is all very well to treat men as fools, provided that you do not +say so--the case is different with young people, and certainly not less +with girls than with boys. Mr. Kipling, in one of those earlier moments +of insight that sometimes almost persuade us to pardon the brutality +which year by year becomes more than ever the dominant note of his +teaching, once told us of the discomfiture of a member of Parliament, or +person of that kind, who went to a boys' school to lecture about +Patriotism, and who unfurled a Union Jack amid the dead silence of the +disgusted boys. He forgot that, for once, he was speaking to an +intelligent audience, which demands something a little less crude than +the kind of thing which wins elections and makes and unmakes governments +and policies. + +There is certainly a lesson here for those who are entrusted with the +supreme responsibility, so immeasurably more political than politics, of +forming the girl's mind for her future destiny. Suggestion is one of the +most powerful things in the world, but we must not forget that inverted +form of it which has been called contra-suggestion. We all know how the +first shoots of religion are destroyed on all sides in young minds by +contra-suggestion. Crude, ill-timed, unsympathetic, excessive, religious +teaching and religious exercises achieve, as scarcely anything else +could, exactly the opposite of that which they seek to attain. Thus it +is not here proposed that we should take any course at home or at +school which should have the result of making motherhood as nauseous to +the girl's mind through contra-suggestion, as it easily could be made if +we did not set to work upon judicious lines. + +If we are in any measure to gain, by means of books, our end of forming +right ideals in the girl's mind, I am certain that we must not expect to +accomplish much with the help of any but very great writers. We may very +well doubt the substantial value for the purpose of anything written for +the purpose. Such books may be of value for the teacher; they may +possibly be of value in disposing of curiosity that has become +overweening or even morbid, but their value as preachments I much +question. The kind of writing upon which the young girl's mind will be +nourished in years to come is best represented by the lecture on +"Queens' Gardens" in Ruskin's "Sesame and Lilies," though in that +magnificent and immortal piece of literature there is nowhere any direct +allusion to motherhood as the natural ideal for girlhood. Yet if only +one girl in a hundred who read that lecture can be persuaded, in the +beautiful phrase to be found there, that she was "born to be love +visible," how excellent is the work that we shall have accomplished! A +chapter might well be devoted entirely to the teaching of Wordsworth +regarding womanhood. We need scarcely remind ourselves that this great +poet owed an immeasurable debt to his sister, and in lesser, though very +substantial, degree to his wife and daughters. He has left an abundance +of poetry which testifies directly and indirectly to these influences. +This poetry is not only utterly lovely as poetry; at once sane and +passionate, steadying and thrilling, but it is also not to be surpassed, +I cannot but believe, as a means for rightly forming the ideals of +girlhood. Every year sees an inundation of new collections of poetry. +The anthologist might do worse than collect from Wordsworth a small, but +precious and quintessential volume under some such title as "Wordsworth +and Womanhood." One would do it oneself but that literary people of a +certain school regard it as an impertinence that any one who believes in +knowledge should intrude into their sphere. Wordsworth, it is true, said +that "poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the +impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all Science." But +most literary people are so busy writing that they have no time to read, +and they forget these sayings of the immortal dead. Yet that is just a +saying which directly bears upon the present contention. We must be very +careful lest we insult and outrage girlhood with our physiology, not +that physiology is either insolent or outrageous, but that girlhood is +girlhood. It is the "breath and finer spirit" of our knowledge of sex +and parenthood that we must seek to impart to her. Poetry is its +vehicle, and the time will come when we shall consciously use it for +that great purpose. + +But we cannot expect the adolescent girl to be content even with Ruskin +and Wordsworth. She must, of course, have fiction, and under this +heading there is more or less accessible to her every possibility in the +gamut of morality, from the teaching of such a book as "Richard +Feverel" down to the excrement and sewage that defile the railway +book-stalls to-day under the guise of "bold, reverent, and fearless +handling of the great sex problems." The present writer is one of those +old-fashioned enough to believe that it matters a great deal what young +people read. We are all hygienists nowadays, and very particular as to +what enters our children's mouths. But what is the value of these +precautions if we relax our care as to what enters their minds? + +It is my misfortune to be scarcely acquainted at all with fiction, and I +can presume to offer no detailed guidance in this matter. The name of +Mr. Eden Phillpotts must certainly be mentioned as foremost among those +living writers who care for these things. In the Eugenics Education +Society it was at one time hoped to see the formation of a branch of +fiction in the library which might form the nucleus of a catalogue, well +worth disseminating if only it could be compiled, of fiction worthy the +consumption of girlhood. Perhaps it would hardly be necessary for the +present writer to protest that the didactic, the unnaturally good, the +well-meaning, the entirely amateur types of fiction, including those +which ignore the facts of human nature, and, above all, those which +decry instead of seeking to deify the natural, would find no place in +this catalogue. It is possible, though I much doubt it, that there may +be many books unknown to me of the order and quality of "Richard +Feverel." At any rate, that represents in its perfection--save, perhaps, +for the unnecessary tragedy of its close, which the illustrious author +himself in conversation did not find it quite possible to defend--the +type of novel whose teaching the Eugenist and the Maternalist must +recommend for the nourishment of youth of both sexes. + +As has been already hinted, discourses on how to wash a baby are less in +place here; and in the following chapter the argument will be set forth +in detail that the sequence of the common schemes for the education of +girlhood and womanhood is, in one essential respect, logically and +practically erroneous. + + + + +XIII + +CHOOSING THE FATHERS OF THE FUTURE + + +We live in a social chaos of which the evolution into anything like a +cosmos is scarcely more than incipient. In such a case the reformer has +to do the best he may; in the only possible sense in which that phrase +can be defended, he has to take the world as he finds it. Heartless +heads will of course be found to comment upon the logical error of his +ways, to which his only reply is that, while they stand and comment, +what can be done he now will do. + +In this whole matter of the care and culture of motherhood--which is, +verily, the prime condition, too often forgotten, of the care and +culture of childhood--we have to do what we can, when and as we can. We +live in a society where mankind, held individually responsible for all +other acts whatsoever, is held entirely irresponsible for the act of +parenthood which, being more momentous than any other, ought to be held +more responsible than any other. Marriage, the precedent condition of +most parenthood, is thus regarded as the concern of the individuals and +the present. Individuals and the present therefore decide what marriages +shall occur; but by some obscure fatality which no one had thought of, +the future appears upon the scene: and when it is actually present, or +rather not only present but visible, the responsibility for it is +recognized. We have not yet gone so far as to see that a girl may be a +good mother, in the highest sense, in her choice of a mate. But as +things are, it is agreed that we are to act like blind automata, as +improvident and irresponsible as the lower fishes, until the actual +birth of the future. The philosophic truth that the future is nascent in +the present--a truth so genuinely philosophic that it is also +practical--is still hidden from us, and thus we are faced, in town and +country alike, with ignorant motherhood, set to the most difficult, +responsible, and expert of tasks--the right nurture of babyhood; +babyhood, a ridiculous subject for grown men, yet somehow the condition +of them and all their doings. + +In this state of affairs, those who began the modern campaign against +infant mortality, or rather that small section of them who were not to +be beguiled by secondaries, such as poverty, alcoholism, and the like, +set to work to remedy maternal ignorance. Having been engaged in this +campaign for many years, one is not likely to decry it now, nor is there +any occasion to do so. The movement for the instruction of motherhood +and for the instruction even of girls in the duties of actual +motherhood, is now not only started but making real progress, and will +assuredly prosper. + +But here our business is to think a little in front of action done and +doing, and we shall very soon discover that there is more for public +opinion yet to learn, while we may be very certain that this last lesson +will be less easily learnt than the former was, for it is based upon +evidence much less obvious. I have long maintained that the movement +against infant mortality must precede in logic and in practice movements +for the physical training of boys and girls, for the medical inspection +and treatment of school children, and so forth. Relatively to these I +have always asserted that the right care of babies has the immense +superiority that it means beginning at the beginning, but I have always +denied that it means beginning at the absolute beginning, if such a +phrase be permitted. + +Given the world as it is, the conditions of marriage as they are, the +economic position of woman, the power of prudery, and the conventional +supposition that babies occur by providential dispensation, we must act +as if we really made the assumption that human parenthood, until the +moment of birth, is as irresponsible as any sequence of events in the +atmosphere or the world of electrons. But we who are thinking in front +for humanity must make no such assumption. We must look forward to and +hasten the time when we can act upon the _true_ assumption, which is +that the more the knowledge the greater the responsibility, and more +especially that our knowledge of heredity, so far from abolishing human +responsibility--as the enemies of knowledge declare--immeasurably +extends and deepens it. In the present volume we are proceeding upon the +true assumption, and therefore in the study of womanhood we must now +proceed, in defiance of conventional assumptions, to study the +responsibility and duties of motherhood _as they exist for maidenhood_. +To this end, it will be necessary that we remind ourselves of certain +great biological facts which are of immense significance for mankind, +and are doubtless indeed more important in their bearing upon ourselves +than upon any other living species. + +The first of these is the fact of heredity; the second the fact that +hereditary endowment, whether for good or for evil, or, as is the rule, +both for good and for evil, goes vastly further than any one has until +lately realized, in determining individual destiny. These are amongst +the first principles of Eugenics or race culture, and as they have been +discussed at length elsewhere, one may here take them for granted. +Scarcely less important is the fact that the conditions of mating in the +sub-human world--conditions which beyond dispute make for the +continuance, the vigour, the efficiency, and therefore the happiness of +the species--are largely modified amongst ourselves in consequence of +certain human facts which have no sub-human parallel. The parallels and +the divergences between the two cases are both alike of the utmost +significance, and cannot be too carefully studied. It will here be +possible, of course, merely to look at them as briefly as is compatible +with the making of a right approach to the subject now before us, which +is the girl's choice of a husband. + +But in right priority to the question of choice, we may for convenience +discuss first the marriage age. The choice at one age may not be the +choice at another, and in any case the question of the marriage age is +so important for the individual woman, and so immensely effective in +determining the composition of any society, that we cannot study it too +carefully. + + + + +XIV + +THE MARRIAGE AGE FOR GIRLS + + +Let us clearly understand, in the first place, that in this chapter we +discuss principles and averages, and that, supposing our conclusions be +accepted as true, they cannot for a moment be quoted as decisive in +their bearing upon special cases. The impartial reader will not suppose +that such folly is contemplated, but those who discuss and advocate new +views very soon learn that many readers are not impartial, and that for +one cause or another they do not fail of misrepresentation. This is not +a case, then, of "science laying down the law," and ordering this +individual to marry at this age, and that not to marry at another; and +yet though this rigorous individual application of our principles is +absurd, they are none the less worth formulating, if it be possible. + +The question before us is very far from simple: it is not in the nature +of human problems to be simple, the individual and society being so +immeasurably complex. We have to consider far more points than occur on +first inspection. We have to ascertain when the average woman becomes +fit for marriage. But we must remember that we are dealing with marriage +under the conditions imposed by law and public opinion. Therefore, fit +for mating and fit for marriage are not synonymous, and to ascertain the +age of physiological fitness for mating, though an important +contribution to our problem, is not the solution of it. We have further +to consider how the taste and inclination of the individual vary in the +course of her development. We have to ask ourselves at what age in +general she is likely to make that choice which her maturity and middle +age will ratify rather than for ever regret. We have to consider the +relations of different ages to motherhood, both as regards the quality +of the children born, and as regards their probable number under natural +conditions. These are questions which certainly affect the individual's +happiness profoundly, and yet that is the least of their significance. +Again, we have to observe how the constitution of society varies as +regards the age of its members, according as marriage be early or late. +In the former case more generations are alive at the same time, and in +the latter case fewer. The increasing age at marriage would have more +conspicuous results in this respect if it were not for the great +increase in longevity; so that, though the generations are becoming more +spread out, we may have as many representatives of different generations +alive at the same time as there used to be; but of course there is the +great difference that society is older as a whole. This is a fact which +in itself must affect the doings and the prospects of civilization. An +assemblage of people in the twenties will not behave in the same way as +those in the forties. The probable effect must be towards conservatism, +and increasing rigidity. It is a question to be asked by the historian +of civilization how far these considerations bear upon the history of +past empires. + +Another and most notable result of the modified relation between the +generations which ensues from increasing the age at marriage, is that +the parents, under the newer conditions, must necessarily be, on the +average, psychologically further from their children. The man who first +becomes a father at twenty-five, shall we say, may well expect still to +have something of the boy in him at thirty, especially as children keep +us young. He is thus a companion for his child and his child for him. +The same is true of women. It is good that a woman who still has +something of girlhood in her should become a mother. When the marriage +age is much delayed, people of both sexes tend to grow old more quickly +than if they had children to keep them young, and then when the children +come the psychological disparity is greater than it ought to be--greater +than is best either for parents or children. + +Before we consider the question of individual development, let us note +the general trend of the marriage age. There is no doubt that this is +progressively towards a delay in marriage. We have only to study the +facts amongst primitive races, and in low forms of civilization, to see +that increase in civilization involves, amongst other things, increasing +age at marriage. In his book, "The Nature of Man," Professor Metchnikoff +quotes some statistics, now very nearly fifty years old, showing the age +at first marriage in various European countries. The figure for England +was nearly 26 for males and 24.6 for females; in France, Norway, +Holland, and Belgium the figures for both sexes were considerably +higher, the average age in Belgium being very nearly 30 for men and more +than 28 for women. In England the age has been rising for many years +past, and probably stands now at about 28 for men and 26 for women. It +need hardly be pointed out that this increase in the age of marriage is +one of the factors in the fall of the birth-rate, which is general +throughout the leading countries of the world, proceeding now with great +rapidity even in Germany. + +On the whole, it is further true that the marriage age rises as we +ascend from lower to higher classes within a given civilization, though +a very select class among the wealthy offer an exception to this. + +Now nothing is more familiar to us all than that there is a disharmony, +as Professor Metchnikoff puts it, between these ages for marriage and +the age at which the development of the racial instinct is unmistakable +and parenthood is indeed possible. The tendency of civilization is to +increase this disharmony, and it is impossible to believe that this +tendency can be healthy either for the civilization or for the +individual. + +Still concerning ourselves with the more general aspects of the +question, let it be observed that, as regards men, this unnatural delay +of marriage very frequently brings consequences which, bearing hardly on +themselves, later bear not less hardly on hapless womanhood. The later +the age to which marriage is delayed, the more are men handicapped in +their constant struggle to control the racial instinct under the +unnatural conditions in which they find themselves. The great majority +of men fail in this unequal fight, and of those who fail an enormous +number become infected by disease, with which, when they marry, they +infect their wives, sometimes killing them, often causing them lifelong +illness, often destroying for ever their chances of motherhood, or +making motherhood a horror by the production of children that are an +offence against the sun. These are facts known to all who have looked +into the matter, but there is no such thing as decent public opinion on +the subject, and the author or speaker who dares to allude to them takes +his means of living, if not his life, into his hands. + +No doubt men are largely responsible themselves for the rising marriage +age, but women are also responsible in some measure. This must mean on +the whole an injury to themselves as individuals, to their sex, and to +society. Both sexes demand a higher standard of living; the man spends +enough in alcohol and tobacco, as a rule, to support one or two +children, and then says he is too poor to marry. There is everything to +be said for the doctrine that people should be provident, and should +bring no more children into the world than they are able to support; but +before we accept this plea in any particular case, we should first +inquire how the available income is being spent. At present, every +indication goes to show that we are following in the track of all our +predecessors, spending upon individual indulgence that which ought to be +dedicated to the future, and thereby compromising the worth or the +possibility of any future at all. + +In the light of these considerations and many more, some of which we +shall later consider, I deplore and protest against with all my heart, +as blind, ignorant, and destructive, the counsel of those women, some of +them conspicuous advocates of the cause of woman's suffrage--in which I +nevertheless believe--who advise women to delay in marriage, or who +publish opinions throwing contempt upon marriage altogether. Later, we +must deal in detail with marriage; here we are only concerned with the +marriage age. It will then be argued that the conditions of marriage +must sooner or later be modified in so far as they are at present +inacceptable to a certain number of women of the highest type. This may +be granted without in any degree accepting the deplorable teaching of +such writers as Miss Cicely Hamilton, in her book entitled "Marriage as +a Trade." Every individual case requires individual consideration, and +no less than any individual case ever yet received. But in general those +women who counsel the delay of the marriage age are opposing the facts +of feminine development and psychology. They are indirectly encouraging +male immorality and female prostitution, with their appalling +consequences for those directly concerned, for hosts of absolutely +innocent women, and for the unborn. Further, those who suppose that the +granting of the vote is going to effect radical and fundamental changes +in the facts of biology, the development of instinct, and its +significance in human action, are fools of the very blindest kind. Some +of us find that it needs constant self-chastening and bracing up of the +judgment to retain our belief in the cause of woman's suffrage, of the +justice and desirability of which we are convinced, assaulted as we +almost daily are by the unnatural, unfeminine, almost inhuman blindness +of many of its advocates. + +We have constantly to remind ourselves that our immediate concern and +duty are not with the world as it might be, or ought to be, or will be, +but with the world as it is. There are many good arguments, admirably +adapted to an imaginary world, why the marriage age should be increased. +But these forget the possible, nay the inevitable, consequences, if such +an increase show itself in one nation and not in another, in one class +of society and not in another. It is a good thing, and it is the ideal +of the eugenist, as I ventured to formulate some years ago, that every +child who comes into the world should be desired, designed, and loved in +anticipation. But if in France, shall we say, such a tendency begins to +obtain a generation earlier than it does in Germany, there will come to +be a disparity of population which, continuing, must inevitably mean +sooner or later the disappearance of France. + +Or again, difference in the marriage age in different classes within a +given community has very notable consequences, as Sir Francis Galton +showed in his book, "Hereditary Genius," and later, in more detail, in +his "Inquiries into Human Faculty." He shows that, other things being +equal, the earlier marrying class or group will in a few generations +breed down the others and completely supplant them. If the natural +quality of the one class differ from that of the other, the ultimate +consequences will be tremendous. It has been proved up to the hilt that +in Great Britain these differences in marriage in different classes +exist, and that, on the whole, the marriage age varies directly as the +means of support for the children, to say nothing of natural and +transmissible differences in different classes. One can only, therefore, +repeat what was said some time ago in contribution to a public +discussion on this subject that, "considering the present distribution +of the birth-rate, nothing strikes a more direct blow at the future of +England than that which tends to increase the marriage age of the +responsible, careful, and provident amongst us whilst the improvident +and careless multiply as they do." + +Let us now consider another possible factor in this question, and then +we must proceed to look at the individual woman as the question of the +marriage age affects her. + +_The Marriage Age and the Quality of the Children._--Both from the point +of view of the race and from that of the individual who desires happy +parenthood it is necessary to learn, if possible, how the age of the +parents affects the quality of their offspring. If motherhood is to be a +joy and a blessing, the children must be such as bring joy and blessing. +My provisional judgment on this matter is that we are at present without +anything like conclusive evidence proving that the age of the parents +affects the quality of their children. + +Let us look at some of the arguments which have been advanced. The +school of biometricians, represented most conspicuously in latter years +by Professor Karl Pearson, have desired us to accept certain conclusions +which are singularly incompatible with the opinion of their illustrious +founder, Sir Francis Galton, in favour of early marriages among those of +sound stock. By their special procedure, as rigorously critical in the +statistical treatment of _data_ as it is sweetly simple in its innocent +assumption that all _data_ are of equal value, they have proposed to +show that the elder members of a family are further removed from the +normal, average, or mean type than the younger members. This, according +to them, may sometimes work out in the production of great ability or +genius in the eldest or elder members, but oftener still shows itself in +highly undesirable characters, whether of mind or of body, the latter +often leading to premature decease. There is hence inferred a powerful +argument against the limitation of families, which means a +disproportionate increase amongst the aberrant members of the +population. + +This argument really offers as good an example as can be desired of the +almost unimaginable ease with which these skilful mathematicians allow +themselves to be confused. Their inquiry has ignored the age of the +parents at marriage--or, better still, at the births of their respective +children--and has assumed that the number of the family was the +all-important point: a good example of that idolatry of number as number +which is the "freak religion" of the biometrician. Supposing that the +conclusion reached by this method be a true one--which it would need +more credulity than I possess to assert--we must conclude that, somehow, +primogeniture, as such, affects the quality of the offspring, and, on +the other hand, that to be born fifth or tenth or fifteenth involves +certain personal consequences of a special kind. Evidently we here +approach less sophisticated forms of number-worship, as that which +attached a superstitious meaning to the seventh son of a seventh son. + +It seems, therefore, necessary to point out--surprising though the +necessity be--that, if the biometrical conclusion be valid, what it +demonstrates must surely be not the occult working of certain changes in +the germ-plasm, for instance, of a father, because a certain number of +his germ-cells, after separation from his body, have gone to form new +individuals (changes which would not have occurred if those germ-cells +had perished!), but rather a correlation between the _age_ of the +parents and the quality of their offspring. How cleverly the +biometricians have involved one muddle within another will be evident +not only from considering the evident absurdity of supposing--as their +argument, analyzed, necessarily supposes--that a man's body can be +affected by the diverse fates of germ-cells that have left it, but also +when we observe that one of the commonest and most obvious causes of the +reduction in the size of families is the increasing age at marriage of +both sexes. Two persons may thus marry and become parents at the age of +say thirty, their child ranking as first-born, of course, in the +biometricians' tables; but had they married ten years sooner, a child +born when the parents were thirty might rank as the tenth child, and +would be so reckoned by the biometricians. One does not need to be a +biologist to perceive that conclusions based upon assumptions so +uncritical are worth nothing at all, and it is tempting to suggest that +the biometricians are so called, on a principle long famous, because +they measure everything but life. + +It is plainly unnecessary, therefore, for us to trouble about collecting +the innumerable instances where children late in the family sequence +have turned out to be illustrious, or have proved to be idiots. It is +unnecessary because the most obvious criticism of the contention before +us disposes of the proof upon which it is sought to be based. +Nevertheless, of course, though the particular contention about the size +of the family must necessarily be meaningless, unless, as is so very +improbable, it should be shown some day that the bearing of children +affects the maternal organism in some way so as to cause subsequent +children to approximate ever nearer to the type of the race; yet it is +quite conceivable, though quite unproved, that the age of the parents +involves changes in the body which affect, for good or for evil, either +the construction or the general vigour of the germ-cells. As to this +nothing is known, but a great weight of evidence suggests that little +importance, if any, can be attached to this question. Women marrying at +forty or more may give birth to splendid specimens of humanity or to +indifferent ones, and the same may be said of the girl of seventeen, +though as to this more must be said. Similarly, also, it is impossible +to make any general contrasts between the offspring of fathers of +eighteen or fathers of eighty. Correlations may exist, but we know +nothing of them yet. + +Our conclusion then is that, with regard to the quality of the children +of any given mother, we cannot say that she should marry at any +particular age, within limits, rather than another. On the other hand, +it is evident that if she be highly worthy of motherhood we shall desire +her to have a large family, and therefore must encourage her early +marriage, as the late Sir Francis Galton so long maintained. + +_Physical Fitness for Marriage._--We must carefully distinguish between +the question we have just been discussing and that of the marriage age +from the mother's point of view. We shall find that the best age for +marriage, so far as this question is concerned, is neither puberty, on +the one hand, nor the average marriage age amongst civilized women, on +the other hand. + +If things were as we should like them to be, there would be a harmony +between the occurrence of puberty and fitness for marriage. But there +can be no question that the goal of evolution, which is perfect +adaptation, has not yet been attained by mankind, and indeed reason can +be given to show that the goal recedes as we advance towards it. The +practice of lower races, amongst whom the girls often marry at puberty +or before it, is much less injurious to the individual and the race than +we might suppose; but the harmony between the maternal body and the +maternal function is much less imperfect in lower races of mankind than +it is among ourselves. Just as we find that, among the lower animals, +the phenomena of motherhood are simple, easy, and almost painless, so we +find that, though owing to the erect attitude, as much cannot be said +for human beings anywhere, yet these phenomena are far less severe among +the lower races of mankind than among ourselves. The reason is to be +found in the astonishing progressive increase in the size of the human +head in the higher races. The large size of the head in adult life is +foreshadowed in its size at birth, and this it is which constitutes the +_crux_ of motherhood among the higher races. It is undoubtedly true that +the maternal body, by a process of natural selection, has been evolved +in the direction of better correspondence with, and capacity for, that +enlarged head of which civilization is the product. But at the present +stage in evolution the great function of giving birth to a human being +of high race--more especially to a boy of such a race--is graver, more +prolonged, and more hazardous than the maternal function has ever been +before. The gravity of the process has increased proportionately with +the worth of the product. + +There are yet further consequences of the development which will +convince us how important it is that we should come to right conclusions +regarding the physical fitness of girls for marriage. Even to-day, when +the work of Lord Lister has been done, and when maternity hospitals--far +more dangerous than a battlefield less than two generations ago--can +show records from year to year without the loss of a single mother, the +fact remains that several thousands of women in Great Britain alone lose +their lives every year in the discharge of their supreme duty. It is +also the case that large numbers of infants lose their lives during, or +shortly after, birth, owing to causes inherent in the conditions of +birth, and practically beyond any but the most expert control. In many +cases no skill will save the child. A considerable preponderance of the +victims are of the male sex, so that there is thus early begun that +process of higher male mortality, which is the chief cause of the female +preponderance that is so injurious to womanhood and to society. There +are thus many and weighty reasons, individual and social--reasons in the +present generation and in the next--which conduce to the importance of +discovering the best age for marriage from the physical point of view. + +We may probably accept the long-standing figures of Dr. Matthews Duncan, +one of Edinburgh's many famous obstetricians, who found that the +mortality rate in childbirth, or as a consequence of it, was lowest +among women from twenty to twenty-four years of age. Therefore it may +safely be said that, on the average, and looking at the question, for +the present, solely from this point of view, a girl of twenty-one to +twenty-two is by no means too young to marry. Of course it would be +monstrously absurd to take such a statement as this and regard it as +conclusive, even had it been communicated from on high, for any +particular case; but as an average statement it may be confidently put +forward. At this age, the all-important bones of the pelvis have reached +all the development of which they are capable. This may be accepted, +notwithstanding the fact that, especially in men, the growth of the long +bones of the limbs continues to a considerably later age. Women reach +maturity sooner than men, and the pelvis reaches its full capacity at +the age stated. Obstetricians know further that if motherhood be begun +at a considerably later date, there is less local adaptability than when +the bones and ligaments are younger. The point lies in the date of the +beginning of motherhood, for this is in general a conspicuous instance +of the adage that the first step is the most costly.[13] + +_Psychical Fitness for Marriage._--At the beginning of this chapter it +was insisted that we must carefully distinguish between physical or +physiological fitness for mating and complete fitness for +marriage--which, though it includes mating, is vastly more. Few will +question the proposition that physical fitness for marriage is reached +only some years after puberty; so complete psychical fitness for +marriage may well be later still. We should thus have a second +disharmony superposed upon the first. But, instead, when we look round +us, we may often be inclined to ask whether, for many girls and women, +the age of psychical fitness for marriage is ever reached at all; and we +have to ask ourselves how far this delay or indefinite postponement of +such fitness is due to natural conditions, or how far it is due to the +fact that we bring up our girls to be, for instance, sideboard +ornaments, as Ruskin said a generation ago. + +I believe that this disparity between the age of physical fitness for +marriage and the attainment of that outlook upon life and its duties, +without which marriage must be so perilous, is one of the most important +practical problems of our time, and that its solution is to be found in +the principle of education for parenthood, which we have already +considered at such length. It is a most serious matter that marriage +should be delayed as it is beyond the best age for the commencement of +motherhood; it is injurious to the individual and her motherhood, and +whether delay occurs, as it does, disproportionately in different cases, +or disproportionately within a nation, in the different classes of which +it is composed, the consequences, as we have seen, are of the most +stupendous possible kind. + +Yet observe what a difficulty we are faced with. Perceiving the +injurious consequences of delay in marriage--consequences which, as we +have seen, if considered only as they show themselves in the most +horrible department of pathology, would be sufficient to demand the most +urgent consideration--we may almost feel inclined to agree with the +utterly blind and deplorable doctrine too common amongst parents and +schoolmistresses, who should know so much better, that it is good to see +the young things falling in love, and that the sooner they are married +the better. Every one whose eyes are open knows how often the +consequences of such teaching and practice are disastrous; and if there +is anything which we should discourage in our present study, it is that +marriage in haste and repentance at leisure to which these blind guides +so often lead their blind victims. + +Very different, however, will the case be when the victims are no longer +blind. The condemnation of their blind guides at the present time is not +that they regard it as right and healthy that young people should mate +in their early twenties, but it is that by every means in their power, +positive and negative, these blind guides have striven to prevent the +light from reaching their victim's eyes. The day is coming, however, +when the principles of education for parenthood--for which, if for +anything, this book is a plea--will be accepted and practised, and then +the case will be very different. + +Convinced though I certainly am of the vast importance of nature or +heredity in the human constitution, I am not one of those eugenists who, +to the grave injury of their cause, declare that there are no such +things as nurture and education, in that they effect nothing; nor do I +believe it in any way inherently necessary that perhaps ten years after +puberty a girl should still be irresponsible in those matters which, +incomparably beyond all others, demand responsibility; or incapable, +with wise help or even without it, of guiding her course aright. It is +we, as I repeat for the thousandth time, who are to blame, for our +deliberate, systematic, and disastrous folly in scrupulously excluding +from her education that for which the whole of education, of any other +kind, should be regarded as the preparation. + +No one can attach more than its due importance to woman's function of +choosing the fathers of the future; rejecting the unworthy and selecting +the worthy for this greatest of human duties. It would be a most serious +difficulty for those who hold such a creed if it were that a girl's +taste and judgment could be trusted, if at all, only some years after +she had reached physical maturity for motherhood. It may be that in the +present conditions of girls' education, such right direction of this +choice as occurs, is just as likely to occur at the earlier age as at +any later one, when indeed it may happen that considerations more +worldly and prudential, less generally natural and eugenic, may come to +have greater weight. One can, therefore, only leave it to the reader's +consideration whether it is not high time that we should so seek to +prepare the girl's mind, that when her body Is ready for marriage her +mind may, if possible, be ready also to guide her towards a worthy +choice which the whole of her future life may ratify, and the life of +her descendants thereafter. + +It must be insisted again that this question has many ramifications, and +that not the least important of them are those which concern themselves +with the kinds of disease already referred to. Some enemy of God and man +once invented a phrase about the desirability of young men sowing their +wild oats, and subsequent enemies of life and the good and progress, or +perhaps mere fools, animated gramophones of a cheap pattern, have +repeated and still propagate that doctrine. It is poisonous to its core; +it never did any one any good, and has done incalculable harm. It has +blinded the eyes of hundreds of thousands of babies; it has brought +hundreds of thousands more rotten into the world. Hosts of dead men, +women, and children are its victims. It is indeed good that a man should +be a man, and not a worm on stilts; it is indeed good that women should +prefer men to be men, and that as soon as possible they should cease to +accept in marriage the feeble, the cowardly, the echoers, and the sheep. +But this is a very different thing from asserting that it is good for +young men, before marriage, to adopt a standard of morality which would +be thought shameful beyond words in their sisters, and which has all the +horrible consequences that have been alluded to, and many more. Now, +vicious though the wild oats doctrine be in itself and in its +consequences, we have to grant that there is little need of it, for +young manhood needs the insertion of no doctrines from without to +encourage it towards the satisfaction of what are in themselves natural +and healthy tendencies. Our right procedure therefore should +be--notwithstanding the unhealthy tendency of high civilization in this +respect, and notwithstanding the terrible folly, traitorous to their +sex, of those women who decry marriage, and seek to delay it--to prepare +girlhood and public opinion, and even to modify, so far as may be +necessary, economic conditions, in order that the girls who are worthy +to marry at all shall do so at the right age, and shall join themselves +for life with rightly chosen men. + +One more point may be conveniently considered here, though it is not +strictly a matter of the marriage age for girls. The point is as to the +most generally desirable age relation between husband and wife. Here, +again, we must remind ourselves that it is impossible to lay down the +law for any case, and that that is not what we are now attempting to do. + +As every one knows, there is an average disparity of some few years in +the ages of husband and wife. This may be referred probably to economic +conditions in part, and also to the fact that girlhood becomes womanhood +at a somewhat earlier age than boyhood becomes manhood. The girl is more +precocious. Thus though she be twenty and her husband twenty-three, she +is as mature. + +It is probable that the economic tendencies of the day are in the +direction of increasing this disparity, since more is demanded of the +man in the material sense, and he therefore must delay. Some authorities +consider that seniority of six or eight years on the part of the husband +constitutes the desirable average. But there are considerations commonly +ignored that should qualify this opinion in my judgment. + +It is not that science has any information regarding the consequence +upon the sex or quality of offspring of any one age ratio in marriage +rather than another. On subjects like this wild statements are +incessantly being made, and we are often told that certain consequences +in offspring follow when the husband is older than the wife, and others +when he is younger, and so forth. As to this, nothing is known, and it +is improbable that there is anything to know. But it has usually been +forgotten, so far as I am aware, that the disparity of age has a very +marked and real consequence, which is, in its turn, the cause of many +more consequences. + +We have seen that the male death-rate is higher than the female +death-rate. At all ages, whether before birth or after it, the male +expectation of life is less than the female. This is more conspicuously +true than ever now that the work of Lord Lister, based upon that of +Pasteur, has so enormously lowered the mortality in childbirth. Even +now that mortality is falling, and will rapidly fall for some time to +come, still further increasing the female advantage in expectation of +life; the more especially this applies to married women. If now, this +being the natural fact, we have most husbands older than their wives, +it follows that in a great preponderance of cases the husband will die +first; and so we have produced the phenomenon of widowhood. The greater +the seniority of the husband, the more widowhood will there be in a +society. Every economic tendency, every demand for a higher standard of +life, every aggravation for the struggle for existence, every increment +of the burden of the defective-minded, tending to increase the man's age +at marriage, which, on the whole, involves also increasing his +seniority--contributes to the amount of widowhood in a nation. + +We therefore see that, as might have been expected, this question of the +age ratio in marriage, though first to be considered from the average +point of view of the girl, has a far wider social significance. First, +for herself, the greater her husband's seniority, the greater are her +chances of widowhood, which is in any case the destiny of an enormous +preponderance of married women. But further, the existence of widowhood +is a fact of great social importance because it so often means unaided +motherhood, and because, even when it does not, the abominable economic +position of woman in modern society bears hardly upon her. It is not +necessary to pursue this subject further at the present time. But it is +well to insist that this seniority of the husband has remoter +consequences far too important to be so commonly overlooked. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FIRST NECESSITY + + +At this stage in our discussion it is necessary to consider a subject +which ought rightly to come foremost in the provident study of the facts +that precede marriage--a subject which craven fear and ignorance combine +to keep out of sight, yet which must now see the light of day. For the +writer would be false to his task, and guilty of a mere amateur trifling +with the subject, who should spend page after page in discussing the +choice of marriage, the best age for marriage, and so forth, without +declaring that as an absolutely essential preliminary it is necessary +that the girl who mates shall at least, whatever else be or be not +possible, mate with a man who is free from gross and foul disease. + +The two forms of disease to which we must refer are appalling in their +consequences, both for the individual and the future. In technical +language they are called contagious; meaning that the infection is +conveyed not through the air as, say, in the case of measles or +small-pox, but by means of contact with some infected surface--it may be +a lip in the act of kissing, a cup in drinking, a towel in washing, and +so forth. Of both these terrible diseases this is true. They therefore +rank, like leprosy, as amongst the most eminently preventable diseases. +Leprosy has in consequence been completely exterminated in England, but +though venereal disease--the name of the two contagions considered +together--diminishes, it is still abundant everywhere and in all classes +of society. Here regarding it only from the point of view of the girl +who is about to mate, I declare with all the force of which I am capable +that, many and daily as are the abominations for which posterity will +hold us up to execration, there is none more abominable in its immediate +and remote consequences, none less capable of apology than the daily +destruction of healthy and happy womanhood, whether in marriage or +outside it, by means of these diseases. At all times this is horrible, +and it is more especially horrible when the helpless victim is destroyed +with the blessing of the Church and the State, parents and friends; +everyone of whom should ever after go in sackcloth and ashes for being +privy to such a deed. + +The present writer, for one, being a private individual, the servant of +the public, and responsible to no body smaller than the public, has long +declined and will continue to decline to join the hateful conspiracy of +silence, in virtue of which these daily horrors lie at the door of the +most honoured and respected individuals and professions in the +community. More especially at the doors of the Church and the medical +profession there lies the burden of shame that, as great organized +bodies having vast power, they should concern themselves, as they daily +do, with their own interests and honour, without realizing that where +things like these are permitted by their silence, their honour is +smirched beyond repair in whatever Eyes there be that regard. + +I propose therefore to say in this chapter that which at the least +cannot but have the effect of saving at any rate a few girls somewhere +throughout the English-speaking world from one or other or both of these +diseases, and their consequences. Let those only who have ever saved a +single human being from either syphilis or gonorrh[oe]a dare to utter a +word against the plain speaking which may save one woman now. + +The task may be much lightened by referring the reader to a play by the +bravest and wisest of modern dramatists, M. Brieux, more especially +because the reader of "Les Avaries" will be enabled to see the sequence +of causation in its entirety. When first our attention is called to +these evils, we are apt to blame the individuals concerned. The parents +of youths, finding their sons infected, will blame neither their guilty +selves nor their sons, but those who tempted them. It is constantly +forgotten that the unfortunate woman who infected the boy was herself +first infected by a man. Either she was betrayed by an individual +blackguard, or our appalling carelessness regarding girlhood, and the +economic conditions which, for the glory of God and man, simultaneously +maintain Park Lane and prostitution, forced her into the circumstances +which brought infection. But she was once as harmless and innocent as +the girl child of any reader of this book; and it was man who first +destroyed her and made her the instrument of further destruction. + +Ask how this came to be so, and the answer is that he in his turn was +infected by some woman. + +It is time, then, that we ceased to blame youth of either sex, and laid +the onus where it lies--upon the shoulders of older people, and more +especially upon those who by education and profession, or by the +functions they have undertaken, such as parenthood, ought to know the +facts and ought to act upon their knowledge. It is necessary to proceed, +therefore: though perfectly aware that in many ways this chapter will +have to be paid for by the writer: that he has yet to meet the eye of +his publisher; that there will be abundance of abuse from those "whose +sails were never to the tempest given": but aware also that in time to +come those few who dared speak and take their chance in this matter, +whether remembered or not, will have been the pioneers in reforming an +abuse which daily makes daylight hideous. He who does betray the future +for fear of the present should tread timidly upon his Mother Earth lest +he awake her to gape and bury her treacherous son. + +Something is known by the general public of the individual consequences +of syphilis. It is known by many, also, that there is such a thing as +hereditary syphilis--babies being born alive but rotted through for +life. Further, it is not at all generally known, though the fact is +established, that of the comparatively few survivors to adult life from +amongst such babies, some may transmit the disease even to the third +generation. There is a school of so-called moralists who regard all this +as the legitimate and providential punishment for vice, even though ten +innocent be destroyed for one guilty. Such moralists, more loathsome +than syphilis itself, may be left in the gathering gloom to the company +of their ghastly creed. Love and man and woman are going forward to the +dawn, and if they inherit from the past no God that is fit to be their +companion, they and the Divine within them will not lose heart. + +The public knowledge of syphilis, though far short of the truth, is not +merely so inadequate as that of gonorrh[oe]a. + +"No worse than a bad cold" is the kind of lie with which youth is +fooled. The disease may sometimes be little worse than a bad cold in +men, though very often it is far more serious; it may kill, may cause +lasting damage to the coverings of the heart and to the joints, and +often may prevent all possibility of future fatherhood. + +These evils sink almost into insignificance when compared with the far +graver consequences of gonorrh[oe]a in woman. Our knowledge of this +subject is comparatively recent, being necessarily based upon the +discovery of the microbe that causes the disease. Now that it can be +identified, we learn that a vast proportion of the illnesses and +disorders peculiar to women have this cause, and it constantly leads to +the operations, now daily carried out in all parts of the world, which +involve opening the body, and all that that may entail. Curable in its +early stages in men, gonorrh[oe]a is scarcely curable in women except +by means of a grave abdominal operation, involving much risk to life and +only to be undertaken after much suffering has failed to be met by less +drastic means. The various consequences of gonorrh[oe]a in other parts +of the body may and do occur in women as in men. Perhaps the most +characteristic consequence of the disease in both sexes is sterility; +this being much more conspicuously the case in women, and being the more +cruel in their case. + +Of course large numbers of women are infected with these diseases before +marriage and apart from it, but one or both of them constitute the most +important of the bridegroom's wedding presents, in countless cases every +year, all over the world. The unfortunate bride falls ill after +marriage; she may be speedily cured; very often she is ill for life, +though major surgery may relieve her; and in a large number of cases she +goes forever without children. One need scarcely refer to the remoter +consequences of syphilis to the nervous system, including such diseases +as locomotor ataxia, and general paralysis of the insane; the latter of +which is known to be increasing amongst women. Even in these few words, +which convey to the layman no idea whatever of the pains and horrors, +the shocking erosion of beauty, the deformities, the insanities, +incurable blindness of infants, and so forth, that follow these +diseases, enough will yet have been said to indicate the importance of +what is to follow. Medical works abound in every civilized language +which, especially as illustrated either by large masses of figures or by +photographs of cases, will far more than justify to the reader +everything that has been said. + +And now for the whole point of this chapter. We are not here concerned +to deal with prostitution or its possible control. We are dealing with +girlhood before marriage and in relation to marriage, and the plea is +Goethe's--for _more light_. There is no need to horrify or scandalize or +disgust young womanhood, but it is perfectly possible in the right way +and at the right time to give instruction as to certain facts, and +whilst quite admitting that there are hosts of other things which we +must desire to teach, I maintain that this also must we do and not leave +the others undone. It is untrue that it is necessary to excite morbid +curiosity, that there is the slightest occasion to give nauseous or +suggestive details, or that the most scrupulous reticence in handling +the matter is incompatible with complete efficiency. Such assertions +will certainly be made by those who have done nothing, never will do +anything, and desire that nothing shall be done; they are nothing, let +them be treated as nothing. + +It is supposed by some that instruction in these matters must be useless +because, in point of fact, imperious instincts will have their way. It +is nonsense. Here, as in so many other cases, the words of Burke are +true--Fear is the mother of safety. It is always the tempter's business +to suggest to his victim that there is no danger. Often and often, if +convinced there is danger, and danger of another kind than any he refers +to, she will be saved. This may be less true of young men. In them the +racial instinct is stronger, and perhaps a smaller number will be +protected by fear, but no one can seriously doubt that the fear born of +knowledge would certainly protect many young women. + +There is also the possible criticism, made by a school of moralists for +whom I have nothing but contempt so entire that I will not attempt to +disguise it, who maintain that these are unworthy motives to which to +appeal, and that the good act or the refraining from an evil one, +effected by means of fear, is of no value to God. In the same breath, +however, these moralists will preach the doctrine of hell. We reply that +we merely substitute for their doctrine of hell--which used to be +somewhere under the earth, but is now who knows where--the doctrine of a +hell upon the earth, which we wish youth of both sexes to fear; and that +if the life of this world, both present and to come, be thereby served, +we bow the knee to no deity whom that service does not please. + +How then should we proceed? + +It seems to me that instruction in this matter may well be delayed until +the danger is near at hand. This is not really education for parenthood +in the more general sense. That, on the principles of this book, can +scarcely begin too soon; it is, further, something vastly more than mere +instruction, though instruction is one of its instruments. But here what +we require is simply definite instruction to a definite end and in +relation to a definite danger. At some stage or other, before emerging +into danger, youth of both sexes must learn the elements of the +physiology of sex, and must be made acquainted with the existence and +the possible results of venereal disease. A father or a teacher may +very likely find it almost impossible to speak to a boy; even though he +has screwed his courage up almost to the sticking place, the boy's +bright and innocent eyes disarm him. Unfortunately boys are often less +innocent than they look. There exists far more information among youth +of both sexes than we suppose; only it is all coloured by pernicious and +dangerous elements, the fruit of our cowardice and neglect. Let us +confine ourselves to the case of the girl. + +Before a girl of the more fortunate classes goes out into society, she +must be protected in some way or another. If she be, for instance, +convent bred, or if she come from an ideal home, it may very well be and +often is that she needs no instruction whatever, because she is in fact +already made unapproachable by the tempter. Fortunate indeed is such a +girl. But those forming this well-guarded class are few, and parents and +guardians may often be deceived and assume more than they are entitled +to. At any rate, for the vast majority of girls some positive +instruction is necessary. It is the mother who must undertake this +responsible and difficult task before she admits the girl to the perils +of the world. Further, by some means or other, instruction must be +afforded for the ever-increasing army of girls who go out to business. +It is to me a never ceasing marvel that loving parents, devoted to their +daughters' welfare, should fail in this cardinal and critical point of +duty, so constantly as they do. + +Many employers of female labour nowadays show a genuine and effective +interest in the welfare of their employees. As one might expect, this +is notably the case with the Quaker manufacturers of chocolate and +cocoa. I have visited the works of one of these firms, and can testify +to the splendidly intelligent and scrupulous care which is taken of the +girls' general health, their eye-sight, their reading, and many aspects +of their moral welfare. Yet there still remains something to be done in +regard to protection from venereal disease, and surely the suggestion +that conscientious employers should have instruction given in these +matters is one which is well worthy of consideration. + +It is known by all observers--but it is a very meagre "all"--of the +realities of politics that in Great Britain, at any rate, there is an +increase of drinking amongst women and girls. This is doubtless in +considerable measure due to the increase of work in factories, and the +greater liberty enjoyed by adolescence--liberty too often to become +enslaved. This bears directly upon our present subject. In a very large +number of cases, the first lapse from self-restraint in young people of +both sexes occurs under the influence of alcohol, the most pre-eminent +character of whose action upon the nervous system is the paralysis of +inhibition or control. Not only is alcohol responsible in this way, but +also in any given case it renders infection more probable for more +reasons than one. This abominable thing--in itself the immediate cause +of many evils and, except as a fuel for lifeless machines and for +industrial purposes, of no good--is thus the direct ally of the venereal +diseases as of consumption and many more. We must return to this +important subject later: meanwhile let it be noted that the influence +of alcohol upon youth of both sexes greatly favours not only immorality +but also venereal disease. The girl, therefore, who would protect +herself directly will avoid this thing, and the girl who desires that +neither she nor her children shall be destroyed after marriage, will +exact from the man she chooses the highest possible standard of conduct +in this matter. A friendly critic has told me that my books would be all +very well, but that I have alcohol on the brain, and I am inclined to +reply, Better on the brain than in the brain. But a subject so serious +demands more serious treatment, and the due reply is that there is no +human prospect for which I care, no public advantage to be advocated, no +good I know, of which alcohol is not the enemy; no abomination, +physical, mental or moral, individual or social, of which it is not the +friend. Further, words like these will stand on record, and may be +remembered when there has been achieved that slow but irresistible +education of public opinion, to which some few have devoted themselves, +and of which the triumph is as certain as the triumph of all truth was +in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. To the many charges against +alcohol made by the champions of life in the past, let there be added +that on which all students of venereal diseases are agreed--that it is +the most potent ally of the most loathsome evils that afflict mankind. + +This chapter is not yet complete. In many cases it may be read not by +the girl who is contemplating marriage, but by one or both of her +parents. If the reader be such an one I here charge him or her with the +solemn responsibility which is theirs whether they realize it or not. +You desire your daughter's welfare; you wish her to be healthy and happy +in her married life; perhaps your heart rejoices at the thought of +grand-children; you concern yourself with your prospective son-in-law's +character, with his income and prospects; you wish him to be steady and +sober; you would rather that he came of a family not conspicuous for +morbid tendencies. All this is well and as it should be; yet there is +that to be considered which, whilst it is only negative, and should not +have to be considered at all, yet takes precedence of all these other +questions. If the man in question is tainted with either or both of +these diseases, he is to be _summarily rejected_ at any rate until +responsible and, one may suggest, at least duplicated medical opinion +has pronounced him cured. Microscopic examination of the blood or +otherwise can now pronounce on this matter with much more definiteness +than used to be possible. But even so, there are possibilities of error, +for experts are more and more coming to recognize the existence and the +importance of latent gonorrh[oe]a, devoid of characteristic symptoms but +yet liable to wake in the individual and always dangerous from the point +of view of infection. No combination of advantages is worth the dust in +the balance when weighed against either of these diseases in a +prospective son-in-law: infection is not a matter of chance but of +certainty or little short of it. Everything may seem fair and full of +promise, yet there may be that in the case which will wreck all in the +present; not to mention destroying the chance of motherhood or bringing +rotten or permanently blinded children into the world. + +It follows, therefore, that parents or guardians are guilty of a grave +dereliction of duty if they neglect to satisfy themselves in time on +this point. Doubtless, in the great majority of cases no harm will be +done. But in the rest irreparable harm is often done, and the innocent, +ignorant girl who has been betrayed by father and mother and husband +alike, may turn upon you all, perhaps on her death-bed, perhaps with the +blasted future in her arms, and say "This is _your_ doing: behold your +deed." + + "_But if ye could and would not_, oh, what plea, + Think ye, shall stead you at your trial, when + The thunder-cloud of witnesses shall loom, + With Ravished Childhood on the seat of doom + At the Assizes of Eternity?" + +These pages may disgust or offend nine hundred and ninety-nine readers +out of a thousand. They may yet save one girl, and will have justified +themselves. + +One final word may be added on the relation of this subject to Eugenics, +to which this pen and voice have been for many years devoted. The +subject of venereal disease is one of which we Eugenists, like the rest +of the world, fight shy; yet just because the rest of the world does so, +we should not. Nevertheless I mean to see to it that this subject +becomes part of the Eugenic campaign which will yet dominate and mould +the future. For surely the present spectacle has elements in it which +would be utterly farcical if they were not so tragic. Here we have life +present and life to come being destroyed for lack of knowledge. These +horrible diseases, ravaging the guilty and the innocent, equally and +indifferently, are at present allowed to do so with scarcely a voice +raised against them. Every day husbands infect their wives, who have no +kind of protection or remedy, and the wicked, grinning face of the law +looks on, and says "She is his wife; all is well." If we had courage +instead of cowardice--the capital mark of an age that has no organ voice +but many steam whistles--we could accelerate incalculably the gradual +decrease of these diseases. The body of eugenic opinion which is being +made and multiplied might succeed in allying the Church and Medicine and +the Law, with splendid and lasting effect. But we spend thousands of +pounds in estimating correlations between hair colour and +conscientiousness, fertility and longevity, stature and the number of +domestic servants, and so forth, meanwhile protesting against too hasty +attempts to guide public opinion on these refined matters; and this +tremendous eugenic reform, which awaits the emergence of some courage +somewhere, is left altogether out of account. There was no allusion to +the existence of venereal disease, far and away the most appalling of +what I have called dysgenic forces, in any official eugenic publication +until April, 1909, when in the Eugenics Review we dared to make a +cautious and half-ashamed beginning; half-ashamed to stand up against +syphilis and gonorrh[oe]a. When one thinks of the things that we are not +ashamed to do, as individuals or as nations, it is to reflect that +perhaps we have "let the tiger die" too utterly, and that just as woman +is ceasing to be a mammal, man is perhaps ceasing to be even a +vertebrate. Is there no Archbishop or Principal of a University or Chief +Justice or popular novelist or preacher or omnipotent editor, boasting a +backbone still, who will serve not only his day and generation but all +future days and generations, by devoting himself and his powers to this +long-delayed campaign wherein, if it be but undertaken, success is +certain, and reward so glorious?[14] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ON CHOOSING A HUSBAND + + +Brief reference was made in a previous chapter to woman's great function +of choosing the fathers of the future. Here we must discuss, at due +length, her choice of a companion for life. It is repeatedly argued, by +critics of any new idea, that the eugenist, in his concern for the race, +is blind to the natural interests and needs of the individual; that "we +are all to be married to each other by the police," as an irresponsible +jester has declared; that the sanctities of love are to be profaned or +its imperatives defied. Even serious and responsible persons assume that +there is here a necessary antagonism between the interests of the race +and those of the individual,--that the girl would, presumably, choose +one man to be her love and companion and partner for life, but another +man as the father of her children. There are those whom it always +rejoices to discover what they regard as antinomies and contradictions +in Nature, and they verily prefer to suppose that there is in things +this inherent viciousness, which sets eternal war between one set of +obligations, one set of ideals, and another. But Nature is not made +according to the pattern of our misunderstandings. + +We have seen that all individuals are constructed by Nature for the +future. We are certainly right to regard them as also ends in +themselves, but Nature conceived and fashioned them with reference to +the future. In so far as marriage has a natural sanction and +foundation--than which nothing is more certain--we may therefore expect +to discover that the interests of the individual and of the race are +indeed one. In a word, the man who is most worthy to be chosen as a +father of the future is always the most worthy and, in the overwhelming +majority of cases, is also the most individually suitable, to be chosen +as a partner and companion for life. Let the girl choose wisely and well +for her own sake and in her own interests. If, indeed, she does so, the +future will be almost invariably safeguarded. + +Of course it is to be understood that we are here discussing general +principles. Everyone knows that cases exist, and must continue to exist, +where an opposition between the interests of the race and those of the +individual cannot be denied. Some utterly unsuspected hereditary strain +of insanity, for instance, may show itself or be discovered in the +ancestry of an individual to whom a member of the opposite sex has +already become devoted. I fully admit the existence of such exceptions, +but it must be insisted that they are exceptions, and that they do not +at all invalidate the general truth that if a girl really chooses the +best man, she is choosing the best father for her children. + +It is when the girl chooses for something other than natural quality +that the future is liable to be betrayed. But the point to be insisted +upon is that it is far more worth her while to choose for natural +quality than for any other considerations. The argument of this chapter +is that it will not in the long run be worth the girl's while to be +beguiled by a man's money, his position or his prospects, since all of +these, without the one thing needful, will ultimately fail her. + +The truth is that very few girls realize how intimate and urgent and +inevitable and unintermittent are the conditions of married life. It +requires imagination, of course, to understand these things without +experience. A girl observes a friend who has made what is called "a good +marriage"; she goes to the friend's house, and sees her the triumphant +mistress of a large establishment; she sees her friend at the theatre, +meets her escorted by her husband at this place and that; hears of her +holidays abroad, covets her jewelry, and she thinks how delightful it +must be. She knows nothing at all of the realities; she sees only +externals, and she is misled. Whenever thus misled she is beguiled into +marrying a man for any other reason than that his personal qualities +compel her love, it is her seniors who are to blame for not having +enlightened her. Such a girl shall be enlightened if her eyes fall on +these pages. + +Happiness does not consist in external things at all. This is not to +deny that external things may largely contribute to happiness if its +primal conditions be first satisfied. Failing those primal conditions, +externals are a mockery and a burden. In the case of the vast majority +of married people we see only what they choose that we shall see. +Almost everyone is concerned with keeping up appearances. Things may be +and very often are what they appear, but very often they are not. Any +woman of nice feeling is very much concerned to keep up appearances in +the matter of her marriage. A few or none may guess her secret, but +whatever we see, it is what we do not see--no matter how close our +friendship may be--that determines the success or failure of marriage. +The moments that really count are just those which we do not witness, +and such moments are many in married life, or should be. If the marriage +is what it ought to be, there is a vital communion, grave and gay, which +occupies every available part of life. Only the persons immediately +concerned really know how much of this they have or, if they have it +not, what they have in its place. But we may be well assured that, as +every married person knows, it is the personal qualities that matter +everything in this most intimate sphere of life, and naught else matters +at all. When the girl marries so as to become possessed of any and every +kind of external advantage, but there is that in the man which is +unlovely or which she, at any rate, cannot love, her marriage will +assuredly be a failure. As we have occasion to observe every day, she +will be glad to jump at any chance of sacrificing all externals, where +essentials thus fail her. + +This is only to preach once again the simple doctrine that a girl is to +marry a man not for what he has but for what he is. If, as a eugenist, I +am thinking at this time as much of the future as of the present, the +advice is none the less trustworthy. It is certain that this advice is +no less necessary than it ever was. Everyone knows how the standard of +luxury has risen during the last few decades, both in England and in the +United States. All history lies if this be not an evil omen for any +civilization. It means, among other things, that more effectively than +ever the forces of suggestion and imitation and social pressure are +being brought to bear, to vitiate the young girl's natural judgment, +deceiving her into the supposition that these things which seem to make +other people so happy are the first that must be sought by her. If only +she had the merest inkling of what the doctor and the lawyer and the +priest could tell her about the inner life of many of the owners of +these well-groomed and massaged faces! We hear much of the failure of +marriage, but surely the amazing thing is its measure of success under +our careless and irresponsible methods. For happily married people do +not require intrigues nor divorces, nor do they furnish subject matter +for scandal. It is because people do not marry for their personal +qualities, but for things which, personal qualities failing, will soon +turn to dust and ashes in their mouths, that their disappointed lives +seek satisfaction in all these unsatisfactory and imperfect ways. As we +all know, social practice differs in say, France and England, in such +matters as this; and there are those who tell us that the method whereby +natural inclinations are ignored is highly successful, and has just as +much to be said for it as has the more specially Anglo-Saxon method of +allowing the young people to choose each other. It is incomprehensible +how any observer of contemporary France, its divorce rate and its +birth-rate, can uphold such a contention. On the contrary, we may be +more and more convinced that Nature knows her business, and that +marriage, which is a natural institution, should be based, in each case, +upon her indications. + +There is need here for a reform which is more radical and fundamental +than any that can be named, just because it deals with our central +social institution, and concerns the natural composition and qualities +of the next generation. I mean that reform in education which will +direct itself towards rightly moulding and favouring the worthy choice +of each other by young people, and especially the worthy choice of men +by women. It will further come to be seen that everything which vitiates +this choice--as, for instance, the economic dependence of women, great +excess of women in a community, the inheritance of large fortunes--is +ultimately to be condemned on that final ground, if on no other. + +But whilst these sociological propositions may be laid down, let us see +what can be said in the present state of things by way of advice to the +girl into whose hands this book may fall. Perhaps it may be permitted to +use the more direct form of address. + +You may have been told that where poverty comes in at the door, love +flies out at the window.[15] You may have heard it said that so and so +has made a good marriage because her husband has a large income. You may +be inclined to judge the success of marriage by what you see. I warn you +solemnly that the worth or unworth of your marriage, the success or +failure of your life will depend, far more than upon all other things +put together, upon the personal qualities of the man you choose. + +If these be not good in themselves, your marriage will fail, certainly; +even if they be good in themselves your marriage will fail, probably, +unless they also be nicely adapted to your own character and tastes and +temperament and needs. There are thus two distinct requirements; the +first absolutely cardinal, the second very nearly so. You are utterly +wrong if you suppose that the first of these can be ignored: if your +husband is not a worthy man, you are doomed. And you are almost +certainly wrong if you suppose that lack of community in tastes and in +interests, in objects of admiration and adoration does not matter. But +let us consider what are the factors of the man for which a girl _does_ +choose. + +For what, if it comes to that, does a man choose? Here is Herbert +Spencer's reply to that question:--"The truth is that out of the many +elements uniting in various proportions, to produce in a man's breast +the complex emotion we call love, the strongest are those produced by +physical attractions; the next in order of strength are those produced +by moral attractions; the weakest are those produced by intellectual +attractions; and even these are dependent less on acquired knowledge +than on natural faculty--quickness, wit, insight." It will probably be +agreed that, on the whole, this analysis, which is certainly true in the +direction it refers to, is also true in the converse direction. The girl +admires a man for physical qualities, including what may be called the +physical virtues, like energy and courage. She rates highly certain +moral attractions, such as unselfishness and chivalry, but perhaps she +attaches far more value to intellectual attractions than the man does in +her case, doubtless because they are more distinctively masculine. + +No doubt, in this order of importance both sexes are consulting the +eugenic end if they knew it, as Spencer, indeed, pointed out nearly half +a century ago. The passage from which we have quoted he thus +continues:-- + + "If any think the assertion a derogatory one, and inveigh against + the masculine character for being thus swayed, we reply that they + little know what they say when they thus call in question the + Divine ordinations. Even were there no obvious meaning in the + arrangement, we may be sure that some important end was subserved. + But the meaning is quite obvious to those who examine. When we + remember that one of Nature's ends, or rather her supreme end, is + the welfare of posterity; further that, in so far as posterity are + concerned, a cultivated intelligence based on a bad physique is of + little worth, since its descendants will die out in a generation or + two: and conversely that a good _physique_, however poor the + accompanying mental endowments, is worth preserving, because, + throughout future generations, the mental endowments may be + indefinitely developed; we perceive how important is the balance of + instincts above described." + +But here it will be well to consider and meet a possible criticism. This +is none the less necessary because there is a very common type of mind +which listens to the enunciation of principles not in order to grasp +them, but in order to point out exceptions. Such people forget that +before one can profitably observe exceptions to a principle or a natural +law it is necessary first of all to know rightly and wholly what the +principle is. Now in this particular case our principle is that the +cause of the future must not be betrayed, and the essential argument of +this chapter is that faithfulness to the cause of the future does not +involve, as is commonly supposed, any denial of the interests of the +present, since, as I maintain, he who is best worth choosing as a +partner for life is in general best worth choosing as a father of the +future. + +Now what one must here reckon with is the existence of individual +cases,--much commoner doubtless in the imagination of critics than in +reality, but nevertheless worthy of study--where a man may gain a +woman's love of the real kind and may return it, and yet may be unfit +for parenthood. The converse case is equally likely, but here we are +concerned especially with the interests of the woman. She is, shall we +say, a nurse in a sanatorium for consumptives or, to suppose a case more +critical and complicated still, she may herself be a patient in such a +sanatorium. There she meets another patient with whom she falls in love. +Now these two may be well fitted to make each other happy for so long as +fate permits, but if the interests of the future are to be considered +they should not become parents. I must not be taken as here assenting +to the old view, dating from a time when nothing was known of the +disease, which regards consumption as hereditary. It is evident that +quite apart from that question the couple of whom we are thinking should +not become parents. It is possible that the disease may be completely +cured, and the situation will then be altered. But only too often the +patient's life will be much shortened and children will be left +fatherless; they also in certain circumstances will run a grave risk of +being infected by living with consumptive parents. If in the case we are +supposing the woman be also consumptive, it is extremely probable that +motherhood on her part would aggravate and hasten the course of the +disease, it being well-known that pregnancy has an extremely +unfavourable influence on consumption in the majority of cases. + +Many other parallel cases may be imagined. Woman's love, based perhaps +mainly upon the maternal instinct of tenderness, may be called forth by +a man who suffers from, shall we say, haemophilia or the bleeding +disease. He may be in every way the best of men, worthy to make any +woman happy; but if he becomes the father of a son, it will probably be +to inflict great cruelty upon his child. + +What, in a word, are we to say of such cases as these? There is here a +real opposition, as it would appear, between the interests of the +present and the interests of the future. But the answer is that, just +because, and just in so far as, human beings are provident and +responsible and worthy of the name of human beings, the opposition can +be practically solved. Not for anything must we betray the cause of the +unborn, but marriage does not necessarily involve parenthood, and the +right course--the profoundly right and deeply moral course--in such +cases as these, is marriage without parenthood. + +On every hand in the civilized world we now see childless marriages, the +number of which incessantly increases; they are an ominous symptom of +excessive luxury and other factors of decadence, if history is to be +trusted. But it is not permissible for us, without special knowledge, to +condemn individuals, whatever we may think of the phenomenon as a whole. +Yet convention and prejudice are curious things, and people who are +themselves married and deliberately childless, others of both sexes who +are unmarried, people who have never raised their voices against +themselves or their friends who, though married, are childless, because +they have little courage or because they permit compliance with +fashion's demands to stifle the best parts of their nature--such people, +I say, will actually be found to protest, with the sort of canting +righteousness which does its best to smirch the Right, against this +doctrine, _Marry, but do not have children_, as the rule of life in the +cases under discussion. Nevertheless, this is the moral doctrine; this +is the right fruit of knowledge, and knowledge will more and more be +applied to this high end, the service alike of the present and the +future. We must not allow our minds to be bullied out of just reasoning +because the possibility of marriage without parenthood is often abused. +All forms of knowledge, like all other forms of power, may be used or +may be abused. Knowledge has no moral sign attached to it, but neither +has it any immoral sign attached to it. The power to control parenthood +is neither good nor evil, but like any other power may serve either good +or evil. Dynamite may cause an explosion which buries a hundred men in a +living grave, or it may blast the rock which buries them and set them +free. The man of science is false to his creed and his cause if he +declares that there is any order of knowledge or any kind of power which +were better unknown or unavailable. For many years past we have been +told that the power to control parenthood is wicked, flying in the face +of providence, interfering with the order of Nature--as if every act +worthy of the human name were not an interference with the order of +Nature, as Nature is conceived by fools; and even to-day the churches, +violently differing from each other in the region of incomprehensibles, +are at least agreed in anathematizing the knowledge and the power to +control parenthood. The reply to them is the demonstration, here made, +of the fact that this knowledge may be used for no less splendid a +purpose than to make possible the happiness and mutual ennoblement of +individual lives in cases where otherwise such a consummation would have +been impossible without betrayal of the life of this world to come. + +There is another class of cases to which convenient reference may here +be made. The solution to be found in childless marriage, for many cases, +does not apply to those in which there is present disease due to living +organisms, microbes or protozoa which, by the mere act of drinking from +an infected cup, by kissing and so forth, may be passed from the sick to +the sound. So far as these modes of infection are concerned, such a +supposed case as that of the nurse and the consumptive patient who fall +in love with each other comes into this category. But infection of that +kind is preventable. In the case, however, of the terrible diseases to +which reference has been made in a previous chapter, we must clearly +understand that it is not only the future which is in danger, and that +therefore the solution of childless marriage does not apply. Here the +danger is irremovable from the physical _essentia_ of the marriage +itself, and in such a case, no matter how high the personal qualities of +the man who may, for instance, have been infected by accident in the +course of his duty as a doctor, even childless marriage other than the +_mariage blanc_ must be, at any rate, postponed until the disease has +been cured. + +It is to be hoped that the reader will not regard these last two points, +which have had to be dealt with at some length, as irrelevant. They are +not strictly part of the general proposition that a girl should marry a +man for his personal qualities, but they are surely necessary as +practical comments upon that proposition as it will work out in real +life. We may now return to our main contention. + +In our quotation from Herbert Spencer we may notice the significant +assertion that amongst intellectual attractions it is natural faculty, +quickness, wit and insight, rather than acquired knowledge, that a man +admires in a woman. In considering that point the somewhat hazardous +assertion was ventured upon that the woman rates intellectual +attractions in the man higher than he does in her. One has indeed heard +it stated that a man marries for beauty and a woman for brains. A +statement so brief cannot be accurate in such a case. But we may insist +upon the contrast between acquired knowledge and natural faculty. +Spencer was no doubt right in believing that man values the natural +faculty rather than the acquired knowledge. A woman no doubt does so +too. If she admires a man for being an encyclopaedia, it is only, one +hopes, because she admires the natural qualities of studiousness, +perseverance and memory which his knowledge involves. Nor would she be +long in finding out whether his knowledge is digested, and the capacity +to digest it, remember, is a natural faculty. + +The reader who remembers our principle that the individual exists for +the future will not fail to see what we are driving at. Directly we +study in any critical way the causes of attraction among the sexes, we +see that under healthy conditions, unvitiated by convention or money, it +is always the inborn rather than the acquired that counts. If Spencer +had cared to pursue his point half a century ago, he had the key to it +in his hands. Youth prefers the natural to the acquired qualities. + +Nature, greatest of match-makers, has so constructed youth because she +is a Eugenist, and because she knows that it is the natural qualities +and not the acquired ones which are transmitted to offspring. + +And now it may be shown that this fact wholly consorts with our +contention that there is no antinomy between the happiness of the +individual and the happiness of the race in the marriage choice. For the +race it is only the natural qualities of its future parents that matter, +for only these are transmissible. From the strictly eugenic point of +view, therefore, the girl should be counselled to choose her mate, not +merely on the ground of his personal qualities but, more strictly still, +on the ground of those personal qualities which are natural and not +acquired. And my last point is that these qualities, which are alone of +lasting consequence to the race, alone will be of lasting consequence to +her during her married life. Veneers, acquirements, technical +facilities, knowledge of languages, encyclopaedic information, elegance +of speech and even of conventional manners--all the things which, in our +rough classification, we may call acquired, may attract or please or +impress her for a time, but when the ultimate reckoning is made she will +find that they are less than the dust in the balance. I do not know how +and where to find for my words the emphasis with which it would be so +easy to endow them if, instead of addressing an unseen and strange +audience, one were counselling one's own daughter. I should say to her, +for instance, "My dear, be not deceived. He dresses elegantly, I know, +and makes himself quite nice to look at. Yet it is not his clothes that +you will have to live with, but himself; and the question is what do his +clothes mean? It is his nature that you will have to live with. What +fact of his nature do they stand for? Is it that he is vain and +selfish, preferring to spend his money upon himself and upon the +exterior of his person rather than upon others and upon the adornment of +his mind; or is it that he has fine natural taste, a sense of beauty and +harmony and quiet dignity in external things?" The answer to these +questions involves his wife's happiness. How strange that though no girl +will marry a man because she is attracted by the elegance of his false +teeth, yet she will often be deceived into admiring other things which +are just as much acquired and just as little likely to afford her +permanent satisfaction as the products of his dentist's work-room! If +only she realized that these other things, though nice to look at, are +no more himself than a well-fitting dental plate. + +Or again: "You like his talk; he strikes you as well versed in human +affairs; his knowledge of men and things impresses you; he has travelled +and can talk easily of what he has seen, and his voice is elegant and +can be heard in many tongues. But if he is going to say bitter things to +you, will the facility of his diction make them less bitter? If he is a +fool in his heart--and indeed the heart alone is the residence of folly +or wisdom--do you think that he will be a fool the less for venting his +folly in seven languages rather than in one? I quite understand your +admiring his cleverness; people who study the subject tell us, you know, +that a woman admires in a man things which are more characteristic of +men than of women, and that men's admiration of women is based upon the +same good principle. But in this bargain men have the best of it because +the most characteristic thing in woman is tenderness, and the most +characteristic thing in man is cleverness; and which do you think is the +better to live with? What is the virtue in cleverness coupled with, for +instance, a malicious tongue? What is the virtue in clever things if he +says them at your expense? The vital thing for you is, what are the uses +to which he puts his knowledge and capacities? That he knows the ways of +the world may impress you, but does he know them to admire them? And if +so, where does he stand compared with another, who is less versed and +versatile, but who, as your heart tells you, would hate the ways of the +world if he did know them?" ... + +Indeed, I seem to see that one cannot adequately write a book on +Womanhood without including in it somewhere a statement of what manhood +is and ought to be. Surely one of our duties to girlhood is to teach it +the elemental truths of manhood. Such teaching must recognize the facts +which modern psychology perceives more clearly every day, and it must +combine that knowledge with the eternal truths of morality, which are so +intensely real and practical in the great issues of life, such as this. +The great fact which modern psychology has discovered is that intellect +is less important, and emotion more important than we used to suppose; +that knowledge, as we lately observed, is non-moral, and may be for good +or for evil; that cleverness is merely cleverness, and may serve God or +mammon; that it is the nature of the man or the woman which determines +the influence and the uses of education. A girl should know something of +what I have elsewhere called the transmutation of sex as it shows itself +in the higher as distinguished from the lower types of manhood: she +should know that it is good for a youth to spend his energy in visible +ways and in the light of day; there is the less likelihood that it is +being spent otherwise. She should prefer the man who is visibly active +and who keeps his mind and body moving; she should know, as the school +boy should know, that the capacity to smoke and drink really proves +nothing as regards manhood. Doubtless there is some courage required in +learning to smoke, and so much, but it is not much, is to the smoker's +credit; but for the rest, smoking and drinking are simply forms of +self-indulgence, and though they are doubtless very excusable and are +often practised by splendid men, they are of no virtue in themselves. +Further, they are open to the fundamental objection that they lessen the +measure of a man's self-mastery. Women should set a high standard in +such matters as these. + +To take the case of smoking, very few smokers realize, in the first +place, how much money they expend. It is money which, if not spent, +would appreciably contribute to the cost of house-keeping in not a few +cases. Many a man who says he cannot afford to marry spends on tobacco +and alcohol a sum quite sufficient to turn the scale. It will be argued +that the smoking brings rest and peace, that it soothes, aids digestion, +and so forth. But the non-smoker is not in need of these assistances: +it is only the smoker who requires to smoke for these purposes. On this +point I have said, in the volume of personal hygiene which this present +work is meant to succeed, all that really requires to be said. It was +there pointed out that nicotine doubtless produces secondary products in +the blood which require a further dose of the nicotine as an antidote to +them. Thus there is initiated a vicious circle, the details of which +have been fully worked out in the case of opium, or rather, morphia. All +the good results which are obtained from smoking are essentially of the +nature of neutralizing the secondary effects of previous smoking. Here, +then, is the scientific argument for the girl's hand if she proposes to +deal with her lover on this point. + +It may be added that the writer can now quote personal experience in +favour of his advice. He smoked incessantly for fourteen years--from +seventeen to thirty-one--his quantum being five ounces in all per +week--of the strongest Egyptian cigarettes and the strongest pipe +tobacco procurable. The practice did him no observable harm whatever. +When he wrote the paragraph on "How to control one's smoking," in the +book referred to, he was only wishing that he could control his own. At +last he got disgusted with himself and stopped altogether. Personally he +is neither better nor worse, but he is buying books in proportion to the +money formerly wasted on tobacco, and perhaps the change is worth while. +The girl who reads this book may tell her lover with confidence that it +is quite possible to stop smoking, and that after a little while the +craving wholly disappears. If he has been a really confirmed, systematic +smoker, he may have a very uncomfortable three weeks after he stops, but +soon after that the time will come when he can stay in a room where +others are smoking and not even desire to join them, which he could +never have done before. He will have the advantage that he is definitely +less likely to die of cancer of the mouth, more especially cancer of the +tongue. That is a point which will affect his wife as well as himself. +He will save a quite remarkable sum of money, and since object lessons +are very valuable, he may follow the suggestion to lay it out in the +form of books, as time goes on, though perhaps my reader can give him +better advice from the point of view of the future housekeeper. + +Of course there is the point of view expressed in a poem of Mr. +Kipling's: + + "A woman is only a woman, + But a good cigar is a smoke." + +If a man takes that point of view he is not good enough for a woman, I +think; she may remember Dogberry, Take no note of him but let him go ... +and thank God she is rid of a ---- fool. + +Certainly, I am not saying anything which will be grateful to all ears, +but while we are at it, and since this book is written in the interests +of women, I must say what I believe. I counsel the girl to stop her +lover's smoking; a thousandfold more strongly would I counsel her to +stop his drinking. In a former volume on eugenics, some of the effects +of parental drinking have been dealt with at length, and that subject +need not be returned to here. But also from the point of view of the +individual, a girl may be counselled to stop her lover's drinking. An +excellent eugenic motto for a girl, as my friend Canon Horsley pointed +out in discussing my paper on this subject read before the Society for +the Study of Inebriety in 1909, is "the lips that touch liquor shall +never touch mine." + +There are always plenty of people to sneer at the teetotaler; people who +make money out of drink naturally do so; people who drink themselves +naturally do so; the unmarried girl may do so, thinking that the +teetotaler is a prig and not quite a man. _But there is one great class +of the community, the most important of all, which does not sneer at +teetotalers, and that is the wives._ They know better, nay, they know +best, and their verdict stands and will remain against that of all +others. I am now addressing the girl who may become a wife, and I tell +her most solemnly that from her point of view she cannot afford to laugh +at the teetotaler; and if she can stop her lover's drinking, whether he +drinks much or little, she will do well for him and herself. She should +know what the effect of alcohol is upon a man, and she should have +imagination enough to realize that his hot breath, coming unwelcome, +will not be more palatable in the future for its flavouring of whisky. +It may be admitted that in saying all this the interests of the future +are perhaps paramount in my mind. I am trying to do a service to the +principle, "Protect parenthood from alcohol," which I advocate as the +first and most urgent motto for the real temperance reformer. Yet the +question of parenthood may be entirely left out of consideration, and +even so the advice here given to the girl about to choose a +husband--alas, that only a small proportion of maidenhood can be in that +fortunate state, which is yet the right and natural one!--is warranted +and more than warranted. We may go so far as to declare that it is a +great duty, laid upon the young womanhood of civilization, to protect +itself and the future, and to serve its own contemporary manhood, by +taking up this attitude towards alcohol. Would that this great +missionary enterprise were now unanimously undertaken by these most +effective and cogent of missionaries, whose own happiness so largely +depends upon its success! + +Of course it should not be necessary for any man to set forth, for the +instruction of girlhood, the qualities which it should value in men. All +who train and teach girlhood and form its ideals should devote +themselves scarcely less to this than to the inculcation of high ideals +for girlhood itself; yet it is not done. We do not yet recognize the +supreme importance of the marriage choice for the present and for the +future. + +Fortunately, if Nature alone gets a fair chance, she teaches the girl +that a man should "play the game," and should not be afraid of "having a +go," that of the two classes into which, as one used to tell a little +girl, people are divided--those who "stick to it," and those who do +not--the former are the worthy for her. But Nature is specially +handicapped by stupid convention, not least in Anglo-Saxon countries, as +regards a woman's estimation of _tenderness_ in a man. The parental +instinct with its correlate emotion of tenderness, is the highest of +existing things, and though it is less characteristic of men than of +women, it is none the less supreme when men exhibit it. In days to come, +when women can choose, as they should be able to choose to-day, they may +well be counselled to use as a touchstone of their suitor's quality that +line of Wordsworth, "Wisdom doth live with children round her knees." A +man who thinks that "rot" _is_ rot, or soon will be. + +But in the minds of men and women there is a half implicit assumption +that tenderness is incompatible with manliness. "Let not women's +weapons, water-drops, stain my man's cheeks," says Lear. But it is quite +possible for a man to be manly and yet tender, and to the highest type +of women it is the combination of strength and tenderness in a man that +appeals beyond aught else. + +It has always seemed to the present writer that the followers of Christ +have done him far less than justice in insisting upon one aspect of his +character disproportionately with another. They speak of him as the +"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild "; they tend to describe him as almost or +wholly effeminate; and the representations of him in art, with small, +feminine and conspicuously un-Jewish features, with long feminine hair +and the hands of a consumptive woman, join with sacred poetry in +furthering this impression. Nothing can be truer than that he was +tender, and that he had a passion for childhood and realized, as we may +dare to say, its divinity, as only the very few in any age have done. +But this "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild," was also he whose blazing words +against established iniquity and hypocrisy constitute him the supreme +exemplar not only of love but of moral indignation, and of a sublime +invective which has been equalled not even by Dante at his highest. We +forget, perhaps, when we use such a phrase as "whited sepulchre," that +we are quoting the untamable fierceness, the courage, fatal and vital, +of the "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild," who was murdered not for loving +children, but for hating established wickedness. Why have Christians not +recognized that it is this perhaps unexampled combination of strength +and tenderness which makes their Founder worthy for all time to be +regarded as the Highest of Mankind? + +One more counsel to the girl who can choose. It is contained in the +saying of Marcus Aurelius that the worth of a man may be measured by the +worth of the things to which he devotes his life. + +We must now pass to consider the sociological fact that, under present +conditions, the sole use of this chapter for a very large proportion of +women can merely consist in suggesting to them that they are better +unmarried than married without love. It is not possible for them to +exercise the great function of choice which is theirs by natural right. +Evil and ominous of more evil are whatever facts deprive woman of this +her birthright. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE CONDITIONS OF MARRIAGE + + +In my volume introductory to Eugenics I have dealt at length with +marriage from that point of view. Here our concern is with the +individual woman, and though neither in theory nor in practice can we +entirely dissociate the question of the future from that of the +individual's needs, it is necessary here to discuss the present +conditions of marriage in the civilized world, from the woman's point of +view. We have to ask ourselves how these conditions act in selecting +women from the ranks of the unmarried; whether the transition proceeds +from random chance, or whether there is a selection in certain definite +directions, and if so, what directions? We have to ask whether different +women would pass into the ranks of the married if the conditions of +marriage were other than they are; and we shall assuredly arrive at the +principle that whatever changes are necessary in the conditions of +marriage, so that the best women shall become the mothers of the future, +must be and will be effected. + +One has elsewhere argued at length that monogamy is the marriage form +which has prevailed and will be maintained because of its superior +survival-value--in other words, because it best serves the interests of +the future. But what of the individual in a country where there are +thirteen hundred thousand adult women in excess of men, which is the +case of Great Britain? Plainly, there is need for very serious criticism +of such an institution in such circumstances. Let the reader briefly be +reminded, then, that, as I have previously argued, Nature makes no +arrangement for such a disproportion between the sexes. More boys than +girls are indeed born, but from our infantile mortality, which is +largely a male infanticide, onwards, morbid influences are at work which +result in the disproportion already named. + +Two excellent reasons may be adduced why any disproportion in the +numbers of the sexes should be the opposite of that which now obtains. +The ideal condition, no doubt, is that of numerical equality. Failing +that, the evils of a male preponderance, though very real, are +comparatively small. For one thing, celibacy affects a woman more than a +man: men, on the whole, suffer less from being unmarried. It is a more +serious deprivation for the woman than for the man, in general, to be +debarred from parenthood. This is a proposition which we need not labour +here, for no reader will dispute its importance and its relevance. + +No less important is the economic question. Specially consecrated as she +is to the future, woman as distinctive woman is necessarily handicapped +in relation to the present. She is at an economic disadvantage. One's +blood boils at the cruel effrontery of men who protest against women's +efforts to gain an honest living, but who have never a word or a deed +against prostitution or against the causes which produce the numerical +preponderance of women. But here again our proposition, though +unfamiliar, and indeed so far as I know never yet stated, needs no +labouring--that owing to the economic opportunities of the sexes, it is, +at any rate, on that ground, of no significance that men shall be in +excess in a community, but it is of very grave significance that women +shall be in excess. It is pitiable, and indeed revolting, in this +country where the excess of women is so marked, to hear from year to +year the comments of men upon the supposed degeneration of women, upon +their unnatural selfishness, their desire to invade spheres which do not +belong to them, and so forth and so forth _ad nauseam_; whilst these +commentators are themselves hand in hand with drink, with war and with +Mammon, destroying male children of all ages in disproportionate excess, +sending our manhood to be slain in war, and sending it also in the cause +of industry--that is to say, in the cause of gold--to our colonies, as +if the culture of the racial life were not the vital industry of any +people. + +A third very important reason why a numerical preponderance of women is +more injurious to a country than a numerical preponderance of men is +that, though the duty and responsibility of selection for parenthood +devolves upon both sexes, it is normally discharged with greater +efficiency by women than by men; and a numerical preponderance of women +gravely interferes with their performance of this great function. It may +obviously be argued that such a preponderance leaves a greater choice +to the men. But I believe that men do not exercise their choice so well. +In a word, women are more fastidious; the racial instinct is weaker in +them, less rampant and less roving. In the exercise of this function +women are therefore, on the whole, naturally more capable, more +responsible, less liable to be turned aside by the demands of the +moment. In his "Pure Sociology," Professor Lester Ward has very clearly +and forcibly discussed the comparative behaviour of the two sexes in +this matter, and he shows how the great feminine sentiment, not confined +merely to the human species, is to choose the best. The principle is +also a factor in masculine action, but much less markedly so. What we +call, then, the greater fastidiousness of the female sex is a definite +sex character, and has a definite racial value, raising the standard of +fatherhood where it is allowed free play. But in a nation which contains +a great excess of women, under economic conditions which are greatly to +their disadvantage, the value of this natural fastidiousness is +practically lost. Such are the conditions in Great Britain at present +that practically any man, of however low a type, however diseased, +however unworthy for parenthood, may become a father, if he pleases. + +The natural condition suitable to monogamy being a numerical equality of +the sexes, the suggestion may obviously be made that where there is a +great excess of women, monogamy should yield to polygamy; and indeed +where there is such excess monogamy is more apparent than real--an ideal +rather than a practice. Thus we have one or two modern authors who have +installed themselves in sociology by the royal road of romance--though +even to this branch of learning, as to mathematics, there is no short +cut whatsoever, even for those whose pens are naturally skilful--authors +who tell us that, given this numerical preponderance of women, some kind +of polygamous modification of the present marriage system should +certainly be adopted. To one aspect of this contention we shall later +return. Meanwhile, the answer is that, rather than abolish monogamy, we +should strive to alter the conditions which produce such an excess of +women. If such an aim were necessarily impracticable, we might well feel +inclined to vote for polygamy rather than the present state of things. +It is a very decent alternative to prostitution. But in point of fact +our aim of equalizing the numbers of the sexes, which I assert as a +canon of fundamental politics, is eminently practicable; and here we may +briefly outline, as very relevant to the problems of womanhood, the +methods by which that aim is to be realized for the good of both sexes +in the present and the future. + +Nature gives us more than a fair start, almost as if she knew that the +wastage of male life is apt to be higher at all ages even under the best +conditions. She sends more male children into the world, as if to +secure, on the whole, an equality of the sexes in adult life. That ideal +is realizable, even allowing for a considerable excess of male deaths. +One of our duties, then, is to control that part of the male death-rate, +if any, which is controllable. To begin at the beginning, we find that +infant mortality claims our attention at once. For years past in the +campaign against infant mortality I have urged this as an apparently +somewhat remote, yet very real and important issue. Infant mortality +bears heaviest upon male babies. It is largely, as I have so often said, +a male infanticide, notably contrasting with the practice of deliberate +female infanticide which is known in so many times and places. In +lowering the infant mortality we shall reduce this disproportion of male +deaths, and shall make for the survival of a larger number of men. Bring +down the infant mortality to proper limits and we shall have in adult +life possible male partners for a large number of women who are now +without such because of the male infanticide of twenty and thirty years +ago. + +It is characteristic of the fashion in which the surface gains our +attention while the substance evades it, that the question of the +disproportion of the sexes should have been brought to the public notice +in regard to a subject which, though not unimportant, is quite secondary +compared with those which we are now discussing. Only three or four +years ago people were startled and incredulous when one told them by the +pen or in lectures that there was a very great excess of women in these +islands. Nowadays everybody knows it. This is not because people have +suddenly come to realize the fundamental importance for the State of +such matters, but simply because the fact provides an argument regarding +Woman Suffrage. This immensely important fact of female preponderance, +with its gigantic consequences, which affect every aspect of the +national life, was totally ignored by the public until, forsooth, it +became an argument against Woman Suffrage; and then the foolish people +whose voices are allowed to be heard on these complicated matters, but +who would be laughed out of court if they expressed their opinions on +other subjects equally outside their competence, told us that woman's +suffrage would mean government by women, they being in the majority. For +all other consequences of this gigantic fact they have no concern; not +even the mental capacity to grasp that it must have consequences. But +this, which happens not to be a consequence of it, they are loud to +insist upon. At any rate, they have done this service until the public +at last is acquainted with the demographic fact; and one of the +suffragist leaders some time ago publicly expressed an old argument of +the present writer's that in point of fact this grave supposed +consequence of woman's suffrage need not be feared if only for the +reason that Woman Suffrage would certainly mean increased attention to +infant mortality, and therefore increased control of the morbid causes +which at present account for female preponderance. + +It might indeed be added also that, in so far as Woman Suffrage operated +against war, it would contribute in another way to the correction of +this numerical disparity. Not the least of the many evils which have +flowed from the last hideous war in which Great Britain engaged--evils +which glass-eyed politicians have since been exploiting in the interests +of their own charlatanry--is the loss to scores of thousands of women in +this country of the complemental manhood which was destroyed by wounds +and more especially by disease in South Africa. The wickedness with +which that war was entered upon, and the criminal ignorance with which +it was mismanaged, and the elementary principles of hygiene defied, have +their consequences to-day in much of the unmated and handicapped +womanhood of Great Britain. It may be noted that polygamy as a +historical phenomenon has commonly and necessarily been associated with +militarism. Large destruction of manhood by war leads to a numerical +excess of women, and polygamy is a consequence. If the consequences in +our modern civilization are less decent than polygamy, which would +affront the beautiful minds that are unconcerned for Regent Street, +surely our duty is more strenuously than ever to combat the causes +which, as we see, are quite definitely traceable and controllable. + +The increased attention paid to the conditions of child life is of +direct service to the nation, and to womanhood in especial, by tending +to interfere with the excessive and unnecessary mortality of boys. As we +have elsewhere observed, the male organism has less vitality than the +female organism. When both sexes at any age are subjected to the same +injurious influences, more males than females die. Thus all our work +with such a measure as the Children Act, keeping children out of +public-houses, and so forth, directly serves the womanhood of the not +distant future by preserving a certain amount of manhood to keep it +company. Accepting the truth of the dictum that it is not good for man +to be alone, we have to learn the still more general and profound truth +that it is not good for woman to be alone, and, as we now learn, the +modern movement for the care of childhood has this notable consequence, +which I have been pointing out for many years and now insist upon once +again, that it makes for the greater numerical equality of the sexes in +adult life, and therefore for the relief of the many evils near and +remote which flow from the numerical excess of women. Answering the +question, "Whither are we tending?" in Christmas, 1909, Mr. G. K. +Chesterton referred to our liability to "float feebly towards every +sociological fad or novelty until we believe in some plain, cold, crude +insanity, such as keeping children out of public-houses."[16] +Considering the authority, I think this is fairly good testimony toward +the wisdom of the achievement to which some of us devoted the greater +part of three strenuous years; and if the question is to be asked +"whither are we tending," part of the answer will be that by such +measures as this for the care of child life, which means in practice +especially for the keeping alive of boys, we are tending toward the +correction of one of the gravest, though least recognized, evils of the +present day. + +Our business in the present volume is not with childhood. It is not +possible to go fully into the statistical details of the comparative +death-rate of the sexes, but the data can readily be obtained by any +interested reader.[17] + +It may be argued that the questions now under consideration are foreign +to a chapter entitled "The Conditions of Marriage," but the excess of +women in a community is one of the most fundamental conditions of +marriage therein, and the question is not the less necessary to be dealt +with because, so far as one can ascertain, its consequences have escaped +the notice of previous students. + +Having dealt with the waste of male life in infancy, in childhood and in +war, we must pass on to a totally different factor of our problem, and +that is the emigration to our colonies and elsewhere of a greatly +disproportionate number of men. One does not assert for a moment that +the men should not go, but merely that if they do, so should women also. +As everyone knows they go for many reasons and purposes. These are +largely industrial and imperial. The Civil Service claims a large +number. These bachelors go in the cause of Empire, whether as actual +servants of the State or in the interests of commerce. They are largely +picked men, capable of discipline and initiative and of withstanding +hardships; and also in large degree intellectually able. It is certainly +not good for them to be alone, and it is worse for the women whom they +leave behind. All this may seem right and the only practicable thing for +the day, but it is fundamentally wrong because it is wrong for the +morrow. + +If other needs were not so pressing, one might well devote an entire +volume, not inappropriately in these days of fiscal controversy, to the +question of vital imports and exports. Year after year passes, and +politicians in Great Britain grow more and more voracious and, if +possible, less and less veracious on the subject of what they +misunderstand by imports and exports. The subject is really one for +knowledge, not for politicians. With great ceremony at intervals, they +go through the highly superfluous performance of calling each other +liars, as who should say that Queen Anne is dead: and while this +tragical farce continues the question of vital imports and exports is +ignored. Within it there lies the key to the Irish question, for +instance, since no nation can be saved which persistently exports the +best of its life. And in this question also lies the key to a great part +of the woman question and to a great part of the colonial question. +Politicians who have not even discovered yet that trade is a process of +exchange, and who assume that in every bargain someone is being worsted, +pay no heed to the questions what sort of people leave our shores, and +what sort of people enter them. Or rather, as if in order to emphasize +their blindness to fundamentals, they make a point about passing an act +against alien immigration, which merely serves to throw into prominence +our national neglect of this great issue. This is not the time and the +place in which I can deal with it in its entirety, but it must be +referred to in so far as it bears on the proportion of the sexes. Toward +the end of 1909 there was a long correspondence in the _Times_ on the +subject of "Unmarried Daughters." One may print in the text the +admirable letter in which a finger is put upon the heart of the +question. We are told about the incompetence of women to deal with +national affairs, but here we find a woman writing to the _Times_ on a +fundamental matter for the Imperialist, though no member of our Houses +of Parliament has yet given any attention to it. + + SIR: Only two of your numerous correspondents on this subject have + really reached the root of the matter. + + For more than thirty years the young men of the British Isles have + found it increasingly difficult to make a living in their native + land. Therefore there has been--and still is--a steady exodus of + our male population to our Colonies, where they are unhampered by + the many disadvantages prevailing here. Unfortunately they are + obliged to leave the corresponding proportion of women behind. The + result is a surplus of 1,000,000 women in Great Britain; but let me + hasten to add (lest the mistake be laid upon Nature when it is not + hers) that there is a proportionate shortage of 1,000,000 women in + our colonies. I have recently been on a tour throughout Canada and + the States, and was most struck by the scarcity of women in Western + Canada--there are about eight men to one woman. And in America the + saddest sight of all is the appalling number of half-castes, a blot + on the civilization of the States, but a blot for which Europeans + are responsible. The absence of white women is answerable for the + worst type of population, so that in reality this is a very + pressing Imperial question; and all those interested in the growth + and future of Canada should turn their attention to it. For, unless + we can induce the right sort of British women to emigrate we shall + not have the Colonies peopled with our own race or speaking our own + mother tongue. + + Canada wants unmarried women, her cry is for our marriageable + daughters, and each one would find her vocation out there. + + Canadian men are one of the finest types of manhood possible, but + they are too hard working to be able to return here in search of a + wife. How gladly they would welcome the possibility of sharing + their homes with a sister or a wife can only be guessed by those + who have been there. + + I am so greatly impressed with the advisability of encouraging + English women to go out there that I strongly urge every suitable, + healthy, and useful woman between the age of twenty-five and + thirty-five to depart (if she has nothing to prevent her), and, + through the British Emigration Society, Imperial Institute, I shall + hope to do all that I can to assist them financially. + + I am, sir, + Yours faithfully, + SOPHIE K. BEVAN. + + (_Times_, Dec. 24, 1909.) + +It was of interest for the student of opinion and practice to compare +this letter with another which appeared in the _Times_ within a few days +of it. This was an official letter from another Emigration Society and +advocated the object, worthy in itself, of sending boys to Australasia. +The letter ended with the following assertion regarding such boys: "They +are the pioneers of Empire, they will be the founders of nations to +come." + +But the point exactly is that at present the nations to come in our +Colonies are not coming: much more likely as nations to come in +Australasia, as things go at present, are the Chinese and Japanese. +Before nations can be founded, the co-operation of women is +indispensable. We complain of the birth-rate in our Colonies, or at +least those few persons do who know that parenthood is the key to +national destiny. But we should complain of our own folly in so +interfering with the natural balance of the sexes as to create pressing +problems, wholly insoluble, alike at home and in our Colonies. At all +times "England wants men," but wherever it wants men it wants +women,--even in war we are now beginning to realize the importance of +the trained nurse. There can be no future for our Colonies if they are +to be inhabited by a bachelor generation, and the excess of women at +home prejudices the stability of the heart of empire. Either we must +cease exporting our boys and young manhood--which I certainly do not +advocate--or our girlhood must go also--which I certainly do advocate. +This is only one aspect of the question of vital imports and exports, +upon which a book of vital importance for any nation, and above all, for +England, might well be written. + +Once again let us remind ourselves how cogently this question concerns +the conditions of marriage. It means that the conditions are now such +that in our Colonies a woman can exercise her rightful function of +choosing the best man to be her husband and a father of the future, +while at home this is possible only for the very few, and for vast +numbers marriage is wholly impossible. I return, then, to the original +proposition: are we to follow the advice of our gay, irresponsible +sociologists so-called, who advise us to abolish monogamy in the +circumstances, or are we to alter the alterable conditions which so +disastrously prejudice and complicate that great institution in the +heart of our empire to-day? Surely there can be but one answer to this +question when we realize that all the causes of the present +disproportion between the sexes at home--causes such as infant +mortality, child mortality, war, and the exportation of one sex in great +excess to the Colonies--are evil in themselves quite apart from their +influence upon the practice of monogamy. Unfortunately, it is a modern +custom in this age of transition for clever people to criticize on +abstract, patriotic, sociological, quasi-ethical, and such like grounds, +institutions and practices which irk them personally. Unfortunately, +also, sociology is in the position, at present and yet for a little +while inevitable, of shall we say medicine in its earliest stages, when +anyone may be accepted as qualified who simply asserts that he is. +Lastly, sociology is the most complicated of all the sciences because +the chain of causation is longer; and very few of those who write or +read about it have the patience to go back through psychology to biology +and the laws of life in their analyses. An institution like marriage is +criticized by those who think that it is an ecclesiastical invention of +yesterday, and that what hands have made, hands can destroy, though +marriage is aeons older even than the mammalian order. They take +transient, artificial conditions, lasting not for a second in the +history of mankind seen as a whole, and simply accepting these +conditions as part of the order of nature, they ask us to overthrow an +institution which is immeasurable ages older than man himself. The odds +are somewhat against them, one may surmise, but they may do considerable +injury to their own age notwithstanding. + +After having dealt with this fundamental biological condition of +marriage, we must next turn to a psychological question which is +scarcely less important. The human being is immensely complex both in +composition and in needs, and the institution of monogamy does not +become easier of maintenance as human complexity increases. Amongst the +lower animals or even amongst the lower races of mankind, the relations +between the sexes are mostly confined to one sphere, but amongst +ourselves the problem is to mate for life complex individuals whose +needs are many, ranging from the purely physical to the purely +psychical. Thus it is a matter of common experience that whilst one +woman meets one part of a man's needs, another meets another, and this +of course with grave prejudice to monogamy. Some of the modern writers +to whom allusion has been made suggest that these different needs want +sorting out; that one woman is to be the intellectual companion of a +man, and another the mother of his children. But though men and women +are multiple and complex, they are in the last resort unities. These +absolute distinctions between one need and another do not work out in +practice. Anything which tends toward splitting up the human personality +must be a disservice to it. Nor do we desire that women of the higher +type, best fitted to be the intellectual companions of men, shall be +those who do not contribute to the future of the race. From the eugenic +point of view the mother is every whit as important as the father. I do +not believe for a moment that these more or less definite proposals of +Mr. Shaw and Mr. Wells are soundly based, and perhaps indeed it is not +necessary to argue against them at greater length. Of more value is it +to ask ourselves whether feminine nature may not prove itself quite +equal to the task of meeting all the needs of masculine nature. + +It seems to me that the right answer, in many cases at any rate, to the +wife's question, how is she to retain the whole of her husband's +interest, is hinted at in Mr. Somerset Maugham's recent play +"Penelope"--she must be many women to him herself. And this the wise and +happy woman is, though I do not think the phrase "many women" at all +covers the variety of feeling to which the ideal woman can appeal. + +The ideal love is that in which the whole nature is joined, in all its +parts, upon one object which appeals alike to every fundamental instinct +in our composition. The ideal woman does not require to be "many women" +to a man of the right kind in the sense suggested in Mr. Maugham's play. +She requires rather to be in herself at one and the same time or at +different times, mother, wife and daughter. This condition satisfied, +behold the ideal marriage. + +It is probably fair to say that the three strongest and most important +needs of a man's nature are those which are satisfied by mother, wife, +and daughter. Primarily, perhaps, his wife must be to him his wife, his +contemporary and partner, and there must be a physical bond between +them. (Doubtless there are many happy marriages where this primary +condition is not satisfied, this primitive form of affection being +substantially absent, and its presence being proved non-essential: but +such must be a state of unstable equilibrium at best, though the +concession must be made.) Now the problem for the wife is to unite in +her person and in her personality those other feelings which are part of +normal human nature. Every man likes to be mothered at times, and it is +for his wife to see that she performs that function better than any +other; better even than his own mother. Where he finds merely physical +satisfaction, he also finds, happy man, sympathy and comfort, protection +and solace, balm for wounded self-esteem--everything that the hurt or +slighted child knows he will find in his mother's arms. + +Yet again, a man likes not only to be mothered but he likes to play the +father. Let his wife be a daughter to him; let her be capable of +shrinking, so to say, into small space, becoming little and confident +and appealing and calling forth every protective impulse of her +husband's nature. + +To one who knew nothing of human nature it might sound as if we were +asking more of womanhood than is within its capacity. But many a man and +many a woman will know better. The right kind of woman can be and is +mother, wife and daughter to her husband; and in every one of these +capacities she strengthens her hold in the other two. Let the happily +married examine their happiness, and they will discover that the +Preacher was right when he said: "and a threefold cord is not quickly +broken." + +What has here been said is perhaps far more fundamental, just because it +is based upon the primary instincts of humanity, than much of the +ordinary talk about intellectual companionship and the like. What a man +wants is sympathy, not intellectual companionship as such; what a man +wants from another man, indeed, is sympathy, and not merely intellectual +parity as such. The man who annoys us is not he who is incapable of +appreciating our arguments, or he who does not share our knowledge, but +he who is out of sympathy with us, and we find far more happiness with +the rawest youth who, though entirely ignorant, is at least on our +side--caring for the things for which we care. Capacity to share the +same intellectual work may be a very pleasant addition to marriage, but +it is no essential. What a man wants is that his wife shall be on his +side in his pursuits. A boy does not require that his mother shall be +able to play football with him, but he does require that she shall care +whether his side wins or loses. The wife who is a true mother to her +husband, in this sense, need not be concerned because she cannot, let us +say, follow his working out of a geometrical proposition. Let her be on +his side whether he fails or succeeds, thus playing the mother; and for +the rest, if she asks him what those funny marks mean, she can play the +daughter too, and hold his heart with both hands at once. + +It is to be hoped that such arguments as these will persuade the reader +to assent to our rejection of the psychological grounds on which it is +proposed to abolish monogamy. We extend all the sympathy in the world to +those whose fortune has been unfortunate, and we admit that the ideal +does not always coincide with the real, but we deny that the supposed +argument against monogamy is based upon a sound understanding of human +nature, its needs and its unity in multiplicity. + +If we are to stand by monogamy it behoves us to examine very carefully +certain of its present conditions which militate against the full +realization of its value for the individual and for the race. The +disproportion of the sexes we have already discussed, and it may here be +assumed that that grave obstacle to the success of monogamy is removed. +There remains the fact, probably on the whole a quite new fact of our +day, that under modern conditions a large proportion of women, whose +quality we must consider, are declining monogamy as at present +constituted. + +Let it be granted that a certain number of these women are cranks, +aberrant in various directions, unfitted for any kind of marriage, +undesirable from the eugenic standpoint, and perhaps less often +declining to be married than failing of the opportunity. There remains +the fact that a large and probably increasing number of women are +nowadays being educated up to such a standard of ideals that, even +though their decision involves the sacrifice of motherhood, they cannot +consent to marriage under present conditions. It is not that they are +without opportunity, for many of them during ten or fifteen years of +their lives may refuse one proposal after another, and spend the +intervals in avoiding the onset of such attentions. It is not +necessarily that the men who propose are of an inferior type. Such women +may refuse many men who come well up to or far surpass the modern male +standard. It is not that they are by any means without capacity for +affection; nor can one be at all certain that in many cases they would +not do better to marry, after all, heavy though the price may be. + +What we have to recognize is that this is a phenomenon in every way +evil. There must be something wrong with any institution which does not +appeal to many members of the highest types of womanhood. Perhaps in +certain of its details this institution must be an anachronism, a +survival from times to which it may have been well suited when the +development of womanhood was habitually stunted, but inadequate to +satisfy the demands of fully developed womanhood in our own days. Now +from the eugenic point of view it is of course the finest kind of women +that we desire to be the mothers of the future--the more and not the +less fastidious, those who are capable of the highest development, those +who hold themselves in the highest honour, those who are least willing +to renounce their possession of themselves. + +Men are to be heard who say that this is all nonsense; that it is +natural for women to surrender themselves, that motherhood is a splendid +reward, and that they are handsomely paid as well in material things. +But how many men would be willing to marry on the conditions with which +marriage is offered to a woman? How many men would be willing to +surrender their possession of themselves to an owner for life, so that +at no future hour can they have the right to privacy? Of course if the +conditions for marriage were for a man what they are for a woman, +scarcely any men would marry, and men would very soon see to it that +these conditions were utterly altered. They are conditions imposed in a +past age by the stronger sex upon the weaker, and no moral defence of +them is possible. It may be argued, and might long have been argued, +that a practical defence of them is possible, but that is undermined in +our own time when we find that under these conditions marriage is +declined by a large number of the best women. The practical argument is +now the other way. In the interests of elementary justice, of marriage, +of the individual and of the race, the conditions of marriage must be so +modified that they shall be equal for both sexes, and that the best +members of both sexes shall find them acceptable. This last is of course +the fundamental eugenic requirement. + +The initial criticism of some will be, no doubt, that many men who now +marry will decline the bargain. But surely we need not care at all--if +the right kind of men accept it. As for the others, in the coming time, +when we take more care of our womanhood, and when they are deprived of +the economic weapon, they may go whither they will, their +non-representation in the future of the race being precisely what we +desire. + +Women, then, are entitled to demand that the conditions of marriage be +so modified as, above all things, to allow them the possession of +themselves as the married man has possession of himself. The imposition +of motherhood upon a married woman in absolute despite of her health and +of the interests of the children is none the less an iniquity because it +has at present the approval of Church and State. It is woman who bears +the great burden of parenthood, and with her the decision must rest. It +is idle to reply that this is impossible, for it is possible, as there +are not a few happy wives throughout the civilized world to bear +testimony. Every new life that comes into being is to be regarded as +sacred from the first. The accident of birth at a particular stage in +its development does not in the slightest degree affect this ethical +principle, as even the law, for a wonder, recognizes. The full +acceptance of the principle that woman must decide is, I am convinced, +the only right and effective way in which to abolish altogether the +dangers at present run by the life which is at once unborn and unwanted. +The decision must be made once and for all _before_ the new life is +called into initial being, and the last word must lie with her who is to +bear it. I am strengthened in the enunciation of this principle by the +reflection that it would be ridiculed and condemned by the vote of every +public-house and music-hall throughout the civilized world. + +Let it be observed that in thus allowing the wife the possession of her +own person, we are giving her only what her husband possesses, and that +her possession of herself is of vastly more moment to her than his own +liberty to him. Nothing more than sheer equality is being claimed for +her, and the claim in her case has a double strength, since it is made +valid not only by her own interests but by those of the future. The +future must be protected, and therefore she who is its vessel must be +protected. This is no more than the sub-human mother everywhere has as +her birthright, and however much this teaching may offend the common +male assumption that a wife is a form of property, the future certainly +holds within itself the establishment of this principle. + +The question of divorce is so important that we must defer it to the +next chapter. + +We have briefly alluded to the question of the wife's possession of +herself. We must now refer to the question, scarcely less important, of +her possession of her own property and her claims upon her husband's. It +is difficult for the present generation to realize that very few decades +have passed since the time when everything which a woman possessed +became, when she married, the property of her husband. That is now a +question which there is no need to discuss, but there remains a very +great issue, lately become prominent, and suggested by the popular +phrase, the endowment of motherhood. + +We should obviously be false to our first principles if we did not +assent with all our hearts to the _fundamental_ principle expressed by +this phrase. If it is necessary that the wife be protected as a wife, it +is even more necessary that she be protected as a mother. There are +twelve hundred thousand widows in this country at the present time, and +of these a large number stand in unaided parental relation to a great +multitude of children. I showed some years ago that, as we shall see in +more detail in a later chapter, alcohol makes not less than forty-five +thousand widows and orphans every year in England and Wales. Nothing +can be more certain than that, in the interests of all except the +worthless type of man, the economic protection of motherhood is an +urgent need, less open to criticism perhaps than any other economic +reconstruction proposed by the reformer. Some will argue, of course, +that the State is to look after children directly, but I, for one, as a +biologist, have no choice but to believe that the way to save children +is to safeguard parenthood, and I cannot question that our duty is to +provide the mother with the necessary means for performing her supreme +function, whether she has a living husband or is a widow or is +unmarried. + +The question remains, how is this to be done, and whence is the money to +be obtained? + +Here we join issue with those Socialist writers who advocate the +endowment of motherhood and give it their own meaning; and that is why +in a preceding paragraph the word fundamental has been emphasized, since +in the endowment of motherhood as understood by socialists there are two +principles, one which I call fundamental, and a second--that the +endowment shall be by the State--which now falls to be considered. I do +not see how any one can challenge the following sentences from Mr. H. G. +Wells: + + "So the monstrous injustice of the present time which makes a + mother dependent upon the economic accidents of her man, which + plunges the best of wives and the most admirable of children into + abject poverty if he happens to die, which visits his sins of waste + and carelessness upon them far more than upon himself, will + disappear. So too the still more monstrous absurdity of women + discharging their supreme social function, bearing and rearing + children in their spare time, as it were, while they earn their + living by contributing some half mechanical element to some trivial + industrial product, will disappear."[18] + +But the remarkable circumstance is that Mr. Wells proposes to remedy +these consequences of, for instance, "sins of waste and carelessness," +not by dealing with those sins but by the simple method that "a woman +with healthy and successful offspring will draw a wage for each one of +them from the State so long as they go on well. It will be her wage. +Under the State she will control her child's upbringing. How far her +husband will share in the power of direction is a matter of detail upon +which opinion may vary--and does vary widely amongst Socialists." How +far a father is to share in directing his children's upbringing is "a +matter of detail," we are told. The phrase suffices to show that +whatever we are dealing with here is either sheer fantasy or else +thinking of so crude a kind as to be unworthy of the name. Since early +in the history of the fishes paternal responsibility has been a factor +of ascending evolution. It has ever been a more and more responsible +thing to be a father. It is now proposed to reduce fatherhood to the +purely physiological act--as amongst, shall we say, the simpler worms; +and the proposal is only "a matter of detail." + +Probably we had better go our own way, and waste no more time upon this +kind of thing. There remains to answer our question, how is motherhood +to be endowed; and the answer I propose is _by fatherhood_. Motherhood +is already so endowed in many a happy case. There are quite a number of +men to be found who take such a remarkable pride and interest in their +own children that their "share in the power of direction" is a real one, +and would never occur to them to be "a matter of detail." They regard +their earnings, these unprogressive fathers, as in large measure a trust +for their wives and children, and expend them accordingly. They are not +guilty of "sins and waste and carelessness"; and some of them are even +inclined to question whether they should pay for the results of such +sins on the part of other men: and since those who believe in the +"fetish of parental responsibility," to quote the favourite Socialist +_cliche_, can show that this is not a fetish but a tutelary deity of +Society, whose power has been increasing since backbones were invented, +they may be well assured that the last word will be with them. + +What we require is the application of the principle of insurance; we +must compel a husband and father to do his duty, as many husbands and +fathers do their duty now without compulsion. We must regard him as +responsible in this supremely important sphere, as we do in every other. +Doubtless, this will often mean some interference with his "sins of +waste and carelessness"; and so much the better for everybody. Those who +prefer to be wasteful and careless had best remain in the ranks of +bachelorhood. We have no desire for any representation of their moral +characteristics in future generations, but if they do marry they must +be controlled. Meanwhile our champions of paternal irresponsibility are +having things all their own way. Every year more children are being fed +at the expense of the State, and there is no one to challenge the father +who smokes and drinks away any proportion of his income that he pleases. + + * * * * * + +Perhaps we may now attempt to sum up the suggestion of this chapter. It +is based upon a belief in the principle of monogamy--without, as some +would assert, a credulous acceptance of all the present conditions of +that institution. The principle underlying it may be right and +impossible of improvement, but our practice may be hampered by any +number of superstitions, traditions, injustices, economic and other +difficulties, which nevertheless do not invalidate our ideal. + +Therefore, instead of proposing to abolish monogamy or that great +principle of common parental care of children, the support of motherhood +by fatherhood, which is perfectly expressed in monogamy alone, let us +seek rather, in the interests of the future--which will mean proximately +in the interests of woman, the great organ of the future--to make the +conditions of marriage such that it best serves the highest interests. +We need not cavil at those who look upon marriage as a symbol of the +union between Christ and His Church, but we must look upon it also as a +human institution which exists to serve mankind and must be treated +accordingly. We are quite prepared to accept in its place any other +institution which will serve mankind better, and we adhere to monogamy +only because such an alternative cannot be named. + +We are to regard any disproportion in the number of the sexes as +inimical to monogamy. We know that in the past, when there has been a +great excess of women, as owing to chronic militarism, polygamy has been +the natural consequence; and we must recognize that such an excess of +women at the present day is a predisposing cause, if not of polygamy, of +something immeasurably worse. The causes of that excess of women have +therefore been examined in some degree, and our duty of opposing them is +laid down as a fundamental political proposition. + +We then discussed and criticized a second argument for polygamy, based +upon the assumption that a man requires more from women than one woman +can afford him. The answer to that argument is that many women exist who +meet all their husbands' needs and satisfy all their instincts, and that +for this end the intensive education of woman's intellect is not a +necessary condition. It may be added that if the race is to rise, the +highest type of women as well as the highest type of men must be its +parents, the mothers being exactly as important as the fathers on the +score of heredity. Any attempt, therefore, to split up womanhood, so +that the lower types shall become the mothers, and the higher the +companions of men, is a directly dysgenic proposal, opposing the great +eugenic principle that the best of both sexes must be the parents of the +future. + +When we find, therefore, that marriage under present conditions does +not satisfy many of the highest kinds of women, we must ask whether +their dissatisfaction is warranted, and if, as we do, we find it based +upon the fact that the present conditions are grossly unjust to women, +we must modify those conditions so that, at the very least, the wife and +mother shall not have the worst of them. + +Finally, whatever we may fail to achieve because, for instance, of some +fundamental facts of human nature against which it is vain to legislate, +at least we have economic conditions under our control, and control them +we must, so that, whoever shall be in a position of economic insecurity, +at least it shall not be the mothers of the future. Our first concern +must be to safeguard them, whosoever else is inconvenienced. In deciding +how this is effected we are to be guided by that great fact of +increasing paternal responsibility which is demonstrated by the history +of animal evolution since the appearance of the earliest vertebrates, +and of which marriage, in all its forms, is at bottom the human and +social expression. We are to recognize that if sub-human fathers are in +any degree held by nature responsible with their mates for the care of +their offspring, much more should this be true of man, "made with such +large discourse, looking before and after," who is to be held +responsible for all his acts, and most of all for those most charged +with consequence. The man who brings children into the world is +responsible to their mother and through her to society at large, which +must see to it that that responsibility is not evaded. At present in +England the working man spends on the average not less than one-sixth +of his entire income on alcoholic drinks, whilst society yearly pays for +the feeding of more of his children. But it is not good enough that the +father shall swallow the interests of the future in this fashion. As the +State in Germany takes a percentage of his earnings in order to protect +him against the risks of the future, so we must see to it that the +necessary proportion of his earnings is devoted towards discharging the +responsibilities which he has incurred. + +A notable consequence must follow from many such reforms as this chapter +suggests. The marriage rate must fall, and the birth-rate, already +falling, must fall much further; and so assuredly in any case they will; +nor need anyone be alarmed at such a prospect. Even from the point of +view of quantity, the future supply of "food for powder," and so forth, +the question is not how many babies are born, as people persist in +thinking, but how many babies survive. For seven years past I have been +preaching, in season and out of season, that our Bishops and popular +vaticinators in general are utterly wrong in bewailing the falling +birth-rate, whilst the unnecessary slaughter of babies and children +stares them in the face. How dare they ask for more babies to be +similarly slain! It may be permitted to quote a passage written several +years ago. "My own opinion regarding the birth-rate is that so long as +we continue to slay, during the first year of life alone, one in six or +seven of all children born (the unspeakably beneficent law of the +non-transmission of acquired characters permitting these children to be +born amazingly fit and well, city life notwithstanding), the fall in the +birth-rate should be a matter of humanitarian satisfaction. Let us learn +how to take care of the fine babies that are born, and when we have +shown that we can succeed in this, as we have hitherto most horribly +failed, we may begin to suggest that perhaps, if the number were +increased, we might reasonably expect to take care of that number also. +Babies are the national wealth, and in reality the only national wealth; +and just as a sensible father will satisfy himself that his son can take +care of his pocket-money, before he listens to a demand for its +augmentation, so, as a people, we are surely responsible to the Higher +Powers, or our own ideals, for the production of proof that we can take +care of the young helpless lives which are daily entrusted to us, before +we cry for more. It would be easy to quote episcopal denouncements +regarding the birth-rate, but I am at a loss for references to similarly +influential opinions about the slaughter of the babies that are born--a +matter which surely should take precedence. May I, in all deference, +commend for consideration a parable which always comes to my mind when I +read clerical comments on the birth-rate, without reference to the +infant-mortality? It was figured by the Supreme Lover of Children that a +wicked servant, entrusted with a portion of his master's wealth to turn +to good account, went and hid it in the earth. He was not rewarded by +the charge of more such wealth. We, as a people, are entrusted with +living wealth, and, whilst we demand more, we go and bury much of it in +the earth--whence, alas! it cannot be recovered. Not an increase of +opportunity, thus wasted, was the reward of the unprofitable servant, +but to be cast into outer darkness. Is there no moral here?" + +Very distinguished recent authority may be quoted in favour of this +principle. At the Annual Public Meeting of the Academy of Sciences, held +in Paris in December, 1909, Professor Bouchard discussed the question of +the population of France, and came to the conclusion that the birth-rate +"depended upon social conditions which it was difficult if not +altogether impossible to modify, and in these circumstances the +alternative remedy was to reduce the number of deaths." + +It must surely be plain that those reforms in the conditions of marriage +which have been advocated in this chapter will meet this need, and are +not necessarily to be feared even by those who, in this matter, devote +their solicitude entirely to the question of numbers, quality apart. For +the eugenist who is primarily concerned with quality these reforms are +surely unchallengeable. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE CONDITIONS OF DIVORCE + + +A brief chapter must be devoted to the question of the conditions of +divorce, which are really part of the conditions of marriage. Here, as +in every other case, we must apply the universal and unchallengeable +eugenic criterion: the conditions of divorce, like the conditions of +marriage itself, must be such as best serve the future of the race. This +will mean that, in the first place, in entering upon marriage--which of +necessity means so much more to a woman than it does to a man--the woman +must have the assurance that when the conditions of the contract are +broken she will be liberated. The law must bear equally upon the two +sexes. This condition of safety, once established, may determine toward +marriage a certain number of women at present deterred by what they know +of the manner in which our unjust laws now work. + +Secondly, Divorce Law Reform in the right interests of women and the +future must involve the complete protection of both from, for instance, +the drunken husband. The male inebriate is on all grounds unfitted to be +a father, and the laws of divorce must ensure that if he be married, his +wife and therefore the future shall be protected from him. Those of us +who believe in the movement for Women Suffrage will be grievously +disappointed if, when that movement at last succeeds, such fundamental +and urgent reforms as these are not promptly effected. + +A Royal Commission is now sitting in England upon this subject of +Divorce Law Reform, and I wish to repeat here with all the emphasis +possible what has been already said in indirect contribution to the +evidence laid before that Commission. It is that the first principle of +judgment in all such matters is the Eugenic one. Primarily marriage is +an invention for serving the future by buttressing motherhood with +fatherhood. The judgment of all our methods of marriage and divorce lies +with their products. "By their fruits ye shall know them." If there were +any antagonism between the interests of the individual and those of the +race we should indeed be in a quandary, but as I have shown a hundred +times there is no such antagonism. The man or woman from whom a divorce +ought to be obtained is _ipso facto_ the man or woman who ought not to +be a parent. + +When it is a question of life or gold, we in England are consistent +Mammon worshippers. Woe to the poacher, but the wife beater has only +strained a right and may be leniently dealt with; woe to the destroyer +of pheasants, but the destruction of peasants is a detail. Thus it is +that the great fundamental questions which, because they determine the +destiny of peoples, are the great Imperial questions, are unknown even +by repute to our professed Imperialists. Every kind of industry except +the culture of the racial life interests them profoundly--if there is +money in it. The whole nation can go wild over a budget or the proposal +to revive protection, but the conditions under which the race is +recruited are the concern of but a few, who are looked upon as cranks. +In the case of such a question as our Divorce Laws the public is +substantially unaware that we are hundreds of years behind the rest of +the civilized world; that our practice is utterly unthought out, and +that the supposed compromise of Separation Orders is insane in principle +and hideous in result. The present law bears very hardly upon both sexes +in a thousand cases, but more especially upon women, toward whom it is +grossly unjust. All honour is due to the Divorce Law Reform Union,[19] +which for many years has devoted itself to this important subject, and +has at last succeeded in obtaining the formation of a Royal Commission, +the upshot of which, we may hope, will be to reform our law on moral, +humane, and eugenic lines. The following is a striking quotation from a +pamphlet written on behalf of this Union by Mr. E. S. P. Haynes, a +distinguished expert. + + "But our law of divorce is only one example among many of our + hide-bound attachment to ancient abuses. It is of the utmost + importance to realize that Divorce Law Reform will merely bring our + jurisprudence up to the level of the modern enlightened State. It + involves no revolutionary disturbance of anything but our crusted + ignorance of how modern civilization works outside England. It sets + out to place the family on a firmer basis, to regulate the marriage + contract on equitable lines, and to improve the chances of the + future generation in a country where deserted wives fill the + work-houses and forty thousand illegitimate children are born every + year." + +In Germany, which we are always being asked to imitate in non-essentials +by the more stupid kind of Imperialist--the kind which only very strong +empires can survive--the law of divorce is vastly superior to ours. +There is no such thing as judicial separation, which "is rightly +condemned as being contrary to public policy." Further, as Mr. Haynes +points out, "In Germany a male cannot marry under twenty-one or a female +under eighteen, whether parental consent is available or not. In England +a man may and not infrequently does cut his wife and family out of his +will; in Germany the rights of wife and children are properly +safeguarded by limiting this liberty of disposition. In England a father +need not do more for his children than keep them out of the work-house +unless he has brought himself under Divorce Jurisdiction; in Germany he +is obliged to maintain them in a suitable manner. In England a +spendthrift or dipsomaniac can only be controlled when he has spent all +his money. In Germany such persons are protected from themselves by the +family council. In England an illegitimate child can never be +legitimated by the subsequent marriage of the parents. In Germany this +humane and reasonable opportunity of making reparation to the child +exists as a matter of course." + +Here in England we have one law for the rich and another for the poor, +for the average cost of a decree is about L100; and a case was recently +reported in which a woman had saved up for twenty years in order to +obtain a divorce. What an absolutely abominable scandal; how hideously +beneath the level of practice amongst what we are pleased to call savage +peoples. As everyone knows, the present law directly encourages +immorality, pronouncing separation _without_ the power of +re-marriage--that is to say, the greater punishment, for lesser +offences, and divorce _with_ the power of re-marriage, that is to say, +the lesser punishment, for greater offences. + +Further, the law totally ignores the interests of the future in +conspicuous cases where one or other possible parent is hopelessly unfit +for such a function. In the interests not only of the individual but the +future it would be advisable to grant divorce to a person whose partner +had been confined in a lunatic asylum for, say five years, and who could +be certified as likely to remain insane permanently, or whose partner +had been confined in an Inebriates' Home for, say, two terms of one +year, or who could be proved and certified to be an incurable drunkard. + +We must abolish these atrocious Separation Orders, with their direct +promotion of every kind of immorality, illegitimacy and cruelty to +women. But perhaps this chapter may be brought to a close since in +England the matter is now before a Royal Commission, and since our +stupidities are of no direct interest to the American reader. It was +necessary, however, to deal with the subject because of its immediate +and urgent bearing upon many of the problems of Womanhood. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE RIGHTS OF MOTHERS + + +We reach here a central question which must be approached from the right +point of view or we shall certainly fail to solve it. That point of view +is the child's. There is a school of thought which approaches the +question otherwise--on abstract principles of justice and individual +independence. The only objection to them is that, if upheld on modern +conditions, these principles would soon leave us without anyone to +uphold them. The relation of the mother to the State is central and +fundamental, however considered, and the principles on which it must be +settled must, above all, be principles which are compatible with the +fundamental conditions on which States can endure. + +Those principles, surely, are two. The first is that in a State we are +members one of another, and that those who need help must be helped. +This will be indignantly repudiated by a stern school of thought, but +what if it applies, everywhere, always and above all, to children? They +are members of the community who need help and they must be helped. The +second principle is indeed only a special case of the first. It is that +if the State is to continue, it must rear children. + +We take it then, first, that the moral and social law is perfectly final +as to the right of every child to existence. There are no principles of +national welfare which can divorce us from the simple truth that we must +regard every human individual as sacred from the moment of its coming +into existence--and that is a long time before birth. A familiar medical +dogma is, "Keep everything alive." There may be exceptions to it, but it +is dangerous to discuss them with the unprepared. The only safe +principle is to maintain, as long as possible, the life of all--the +centenarian or the embryo conceived since the sun set. At times the +State deliberately takes life on behalf of life. The sentence of +execution passed upon the murderer may be warrantably passed by the +State of the future or its officers upon a monstrous birth, a baby +riddled with congenital syphilis or some such horrible fruit of our +present carelessness and wickedness in such matters. The State may +regard such children or their survival as illegitimate, since the laws +of nature as we see them at work throughout the living world do not +approve the survival of such. Apart from these cases, all children are +legitimate, and all children are natural. Whatever the history of the +reader's parents, he or she was assuredly both a legitimate child and a +natural child--a paradox which may be left to the solution of the +curious. Directly a new human being has been conceived, its right to +existence and survival may be conceded. Vast numbers of human beings are +conceived every year whose conception is a sin against themselves and +the State. That is a question on which the present writer has written +and spoken incessantly for years, and which no one can accuse him of +neglecting. But here we have to deal with the facts of the world as they +are and as they will be for some time to come. + +All children are to be cared for. No child should die; there should be +no infant mortality; the children that are not fit to live should not be +conceived, and those that are fit to live should be allowed to live; all +children are legitimate. If the State has any kind of business at all, +this is its business. + +Our subject here, the reader may say, is not children, but woman and +womanhood. The reply is that unless we have our principles rightly +formulated, we cannot solve this question of the rights of women as +mothers. Failing our principles, we shall be reduced to the prejudices +which serve as principles for our political parties. We shall have +individualist and socialist at loggerheads, the friends of marriage and +its enemies, and many other opposing parties who cannot solve the +question for us because they have not waited first to discover its +fundamentals. The rights of mothers can be approached only from the +point of view of the rights of children. We may happen to believe, as +the present writer certainly does, that parents should be responsible +for their children. He once lectured for, and published the lectures in +association with, a body called the British Constitution Association, +which holds the same belief, but when he found as he did that protests +were raised against any suggestion to help children whose parents do not +do their duty, it became plain that principles which were right in a +merely secondary and conditional way were being made absolute and +fundamental. The fundamental is that the child shall be cared for; the +conditional and secondary principle is that this is best effected +through the parents. To say that if the parents will not do it, the +child must be left to starve, is immoral and indecent. Worse words than +those, if such exist, would be required to describe our neglect of +illegitimate infancy; our cruelty toward widows and orphans; our utterly +careless maintenance of the conditions which produce these hapless +beings in such vast numbers. + +If every child is sacred, every mother is sacred. If every child is to +be cared for, every mother must be cared for. It is true that we may +make experiment with devices for superseding the mother. Man has +impudent assurance enough for anything, and if Nature has been working +at the perfection of an instrument for her purpose during a few score +million years--an instrument such as the mammalian mother, for +instance--man is quite prepared to invent social devices, such as the +incubator, the _creche_, the infant milk _depot_, and so forth; not +merely to make the best of a bad case when the mother fails, but to +supersede the mother altogether directly the baby is born. Such cases, +except in the last resort, are more foolish than words can say. We have +to save our children; we can only do so effectively through the +naturally appointed means for saving children, which is motherhood. The +rights of mothers follow as a necessary consequence from our first +principle, which was the rights of children. Because every child must +be protected, every mother must be protected, if not in one way, in +another. + +The State may not be able to afford this. The necessities of existence +may be so difficult to obtain, not to mention for a moment such luxuries +as alcohol and motor-cars and warships and fine clothes and art, and so +forth, that no arrangements for the support of motherhood can be made. +If we lay down the proposition that no mother should work because she is +already doing the supreme work, it may be replied that this is +economically impossible; the thing cannot be done. The only reply to +this is that the State which cannot afford to provide rightly for the +means of its continuance had better discontinue, and must in any case +soon do so. Motherhood is rapidly declining as a numerical fact in +civilized communities generally. Not merely does the birth-rate fall +persistently and without the slightest regard to the commentators +thereon, but it will continue to do so for many years to come. In the +light of this fact the great argument of presidents and bishops, +politicians and journalists, moralists and social censors generally is +that somehow or other this decline must be arrested. To all of which one +replies, for the thousand and first time, that, whatever it ought to be, +it will not be arrested; that the really moral policy, the really human +one, and the only possible one, is to take care of the children that are +born. Then when we have abolished our infant and child mortality and +have solved the substantial problem of finding room for all new-comers, +having ceased to far more than decimate them, we may begin cautiously +to suggest that perhaps if the birth-rate were slightly to rise we might +be able to cope with the product. At present the disgraceful fact is not +the birth-rate, but what we do with the birth-rate; though more +disgraceful perhaps are the blindness and ignorance and assurance of the +host of commentators in high places who waste their time and ours in +animadverting upon a fact--the falling birth-rate--which is a necessary +condition and consequence of organic progress, whilst the motherhood we +have is so urgently in need of protection and idealization in the minds +of the people. + +We have reached the conclusion that all motherhood is to be protected. +This means that from some source or other the money shall be forthcoming +for the maintenance of the mother and her children. For, in the first +place, the children are not to work because, if they do, they will not +be able to work as they should in the future. The State cannot afford to +let them work. Further, the proper care of childhood is so continuous +and exacting a task, and of such supreme moment, that it is the highest +and foremost work that can be named; and therefore, in the second place, +she whose business it is must not be hampered by having to do anything +else. If any labourer is worthy of his hire, she is. Her economic +security must be absolute. She must be as safe as the Bank of England, +because England and its banks stand or fall with her. In the rightly +constituted State, if there be any one at all whose provision and +maintenance are absolutely secure, it will be the mothers. Whoever else +has financial anxiety, they shall have none. Any State that can afford +to exist can afford to see to this. No economist can inform me what +proportion of the labour and resources of England are at this moment +devoted to the means of life, and what proportion to superfluities, +luxuries and the means of death. But it is a very simple matter with +which the reader, who is doubtless a better arithmetician than I am, may +amuse himself, to estimate the number of married women of reproductive +age in the community, and allowing anything in reason for illegitimate +motherhood and nothing at all for infertile wives, to satisfy himself +that the total cost which would be involved in the adequate care of +motherhood, is a mere fraction of the national expenditure. Few of us +realize how extraordinary and how unprecedented is the margin of +security for existence which modern civilization affords. A savage +community may have scarcely any margin at all. The same may be true of +many primitive communities which cannot be called savage. They maintain +life under such conditions, whether in Greenland or in a thousand other +parts of the world, that they cannot afford to labour for anything which +is not bread. The primary necessities of existence take all their +getting. Some transient accident of weather or the balance of Nature in +the sea or in the fields imperils the existence of the whole community. +They, at any rate, are wise enough to take good care of their women and +children. But in civilization we have an enormous margin of security. +Not only are we dependent on no local crop or harvest, but the getting +of necessities has become so effective and secure that we are able to +spend a vast amount of our time and energy on the production of luxuries +and evils. How little, then, is our excuse if we fail to provide the +first conditions for continuance and progress! + +Our first principles of the value of the child and therefore of +motherhood are unchallengeable, nor will anyone nowadays be found to +question that neither children nor mothers should work in the ordinary +sense of that word, since the proper work of children who are to work +well when they grow up is play, and since the mother's natural work is +the most important that she can perform. It remains, then, for us to +determine by whom mothers and children in the modern and future State +are to be provided for. + +The conditions of mothers are various, and we shall best approach the +problem by the consideration of different cases. + +The simplest is that of the widowed mother who is without means. It is +only too common a case, and we have already seen certain causes which +contribute to the enormous number of widows in the community. Men do not +live as long as women, and men are older when they marry. These natural +causes of widowhood, as they may be called, are greatly aggravated by +the destructive influence of alcohol upon fatherhood, as will be shown +in the chapter dealing with alcohol and womanhood. + +On the individualistic theory of the State, a theory so brutal and so +impracticable that no one consistently upholds it, the widow's +misfortune is her private affair, but does not really concern us. Her +husband should have provided for her. Indeed she should, and indeed we +should have seen that he did. But if he and we failed in our duty to +her, the consequences must be met. The hour is at hand when the State +will discover that children are its most precious possessions, more +precious as they grow scarcer, and efficient support will then be +forthcoming, as a matter of course, for the widowed mother and her +children. The feature which will distinguish this support from any past +or present provision will be that it recognizes the natural sanctity and +the natural economy of the relation between mother and children. It will +be agreed not merely that the children must be provided for, but that +they must be provided for through her. The current device is to divorce +mother and children. "Whom God hath joined together, let no man put +asunder," is quoted by many against the divorce of a married pair whom, +as is plain, not God but the devil has joined together; but the +principle of that quotation verily applies to the natural and divine +association of mother and children. + +If, then, the State is to provide in future for all widowed mothers and +their children, husbands need no longer trouble to insure or make +provision for them. Such is the proper criticism. The reply to it is +that the State will have to see to it that, in future, husbands _do_ +take this trouble. To this we shall return. + +Next we may consider the case of the unmarried mother and her +"illegitimate" child or children. Here, again, the child must be cared +for, and the care of the child is the work which has been imposed upon +the mother. We must enable her to do it, nor must we countenance the +monstrous and unnatural folly, injurious to both and therefore to us, of +separating them. Napoleon, desirous of food for powder, forbade the +search for the father in such a case, though the French are now seeking +to abrogate that abominable decree. Our law recognizes that the father +is responsible, and under it he may be made to pay toward the upkeep of +the child. Some contemporary writers on the endowment of motherhood are +advocating changes which would make this law absurd, for they are +seeking to free the married father from any responsibility for his +children, and could scarcely impose it upon the unmarried father. Such +proposals, however, are palpable reversions to something much lower and +aeons older in the history of life than mere barbarism, and I have no +fear of their success. Assuredly the unmarried father must be held +responsible; and no less certainly must we see to it that, with or +without his help, the unmarried mother and her children are adequately +provided for. The present death-rate amongst illegitimate children is a +scandal of the first order and must be ended. If we are wise, our +provision will involve protecting ourselves against the need for new +provision, especially where the mother is feeble-minded or otherwise +defective, as is so often the case: but provision there must be. + +Finally, we come to the central problem of the mother who has a living +husband in employment. It is the case of the working classes that really +concerns us, not least because the greater part of the birth-rate comes +therefrom. It is the contemporary settling-down of the birth-rate in +this class, combined with the novel consequences of modern +industrialism, especially in the form of married women's labour, that +makes the question so important. Before we go any further, the +proposition may be laid down that married women's labour, as it commonly +exists, is an intolerable evil, condemned already by our first +principles. It need scarcely be said that one is not here referring to +the labours of the married woman who writes novels or designs +fashion-plates. There is no condemnation of any kind of labour, in the +home or outside it, if the condition be complied with, that it does not +prejudice the inalienable first charge upon the mother's time and +energy. Her children are that first charge. It may perfectly well be, +and often is, chiefly though not exclusively in the more fortunate +classes, that the mother may earn money by other work without prejudice +to her motherhood. Such cases do not concern us, but we are urgently +concerned with married women's labour in the ordinary sense of the term, +which means that the mother goes out to tend some lifeless machine, +whilst her children are left at home to be cared far anyhow or not at +all. No student of infant mortality or the conditions of child life and +child survival in general has any choice but to condemn this whole +practice as evil, root and branch. And from the national and economic +point of view it may be said that whatever the mother makes in the +factory is of less value than the children who consequently die at home. +The culture of the racial life is the vital industry of any people, and +any industry that involves its destruction and needs the conditions +which make up that destruction, is one which the country cannot afford, +whatever its merely monetary balance-sheet. A complete balance-sheet, +with its record of children slain, would only too readily demonstrate +this. + +Our right attitude toward married women's labour must depend upon a +right understanding of the social meaning of marriage. This was a +question which had to be dealt with at length in a previous volume and I +can only state here in a word, what was the conclusion come to. It was +that marriage is a device for supporting and buttressing motherhood by +fatherhood. Its mark is that it provides for _common parental care of +offspring_. A more prosaic way of stating the case would be that +marriage is a device for making the father responsible. If we go far +back in the history of the animal world, we find mating but not +marriage. The father's function is purely physiological, transient and +wholly irresponsible. The whole burden of caring for offspring, when +first there comes to be need for that care, in the history of organic +progress, falls upon the mother. But even amongst the fishes we find +that sometimes, as in the case of the stickleback, the father helps the +mother to build a sort of nest, and does "sentry-go" outside it to keep +off marauders. In this common care of the young we see what is in all +essentials marriage, though some may prefer to dignify the word by +confining it to those human associations which have been blessed by +Church and State, even though the father throws the baby at the mother, +or sends her into the streets to earn her bread and his beer. + +If some of our modern reformers knew any biology, or even happened to +visit a music-hall where the biograph was showing scenes of bird-life, +they would learn that the human arrangement whereby the father goes out +and forages for mother and children has roots in hoary antiquity. The +pity is that there is no one to point the moral to the crowd when the +father-bird is seen returning with delicacies for the mother, who tends +her nest and its occupants. + +The reader will already have anticipated the conclusion, to which, as I +see it, the study of the fundamental laws of life must lead the +sociologist in this case. It is that the duty of the father is to +support the mother and children, and that the duty of the State is to +see that he does this. + +Thus, if asked whether I believe in the endowment of motherhood, I +reply, yes, indeed, I believe in the endowment of motherhood by the +corresponding fatherhood. If our first principles are sound, we must +believe that the mother must be endowed or provided for; there can be no +difference of opinion so far. Often, as we have seen, there is no +corresponding fatherhood, for the mother may be a widow, or unmarried +and unable to find the father. But where the corresponding fatherhood +exists, we fly directly in the face of Nature, we deny the consistent +teaching of evolution as the study of sub-human life reveals it to us, +if we do not turn to the father and say, this is your act, for which you +are responsible. + +At all times the community has been entitled to say this to the father. +It is even more entitled to say so now, when, as everyone knows, +parenthood has come so entirely under the sway of human volition. The +more knowledge and power the more responsibility. The more important the +deed, the more responsible must we hold the doer. The time has come when +fatherhood, whether within marriage or without it, must be reckoned a +deliberate, provident, foreseen, all-important, responsible act, for +which the father must always be held to account. + +On a recent public occasion, having endeavoured to show that the history +of animal evolution teaches us the increasing importance and dignity of +fatherhood, I was asked whether I had any argument in favour of parental +responsibility. To this the fitting reply seemed to be that, primarily, +I believe in parental responsibility because I believe in human +responsibility. It need hardly be said that the questioner belonged to +that important political party which loathes the idea of paternal +responsibility and styles it a "fetish." Without it none of us would be +here. Yet the Socialists are less likely than any other party to abandon +the idea of human responsibility. They propose to hold men responsible +for the remoter effects of their acts--upon the present--as no other +party does. The maker of money is held to account for his deeds and +their effect upon the life around him. I agree with the principle: but I +maintain that the maker of men is also to be held to account for his +deeds and their effect upon the future and the life of this world to +come. No Socialist can afford to question the practical political +principle that men are to be held responsible for their deeds: and no +Socialist can explain the sudden and unexplained abandonment of this +principle when we come to the most important of all a man's deeds. To be +consistent, the Socialist should uphold the doctrine of a man's +responsibility for the remoter consequences of his acts in this supreme +sphere, more earnestly and thoughtfully and providently than any of his +opponents. + +The position of those who would free the father from responsibility is +even less defensible when, as we commonly find, they are prepared to +make the mother's responsibility more extensive and less avoidable than +ever. Why this distinction? And if parental responsibility is a "fetish" +when it refers to a father, why is it not the same when it refers to a +mother? In the schemes of Mr. H. G. Wells, kaleidoscopic in their +glitter and inconsistency, there remains from year to year this one +permanent element, that while the mother must attend to her business, it +is no business of the father. This is the essential feature, the one +novelty of his scheme. Already the married mother--he proposes nothing +for the unmarried mother--is legally entitled to some measure of +support. His endowment of motherhood is essentially a _discharge of +fatherhood_, and should be so called. There can be no compromise, +nothing but a fight to the finish, between the principle of endowing +motherhood by making fatherhood less responsible, and the principle here +fought for, of endowing motherhood by making fatherhood more +responsible. As Nature has been doing so, in the main line of progress +for many millions of years,--a statement not of interpretation or theory +but of observed fact--I have no fear of the ultimate issue. But it +might well be that any portion of mankind, perhaps a portion ill to be +spared, should destroy itself by an attempt to run counter to the great +principle of progress here stated. There is an abundance of men who will +be very happy to side with Mr. Wells. Men have never been wanting, in +any time or place, who were happy to gratify their instincts without +having to answer for the consequences; and it has always been the first +issue of any society that was to endure, to see that they did not have +their way: hence human marriage. The "endowment of motherhood" sounds as +if it were a scheme greatly for the benefit of women. Let them beware. +Let them begin to think of, not the remoter, but the immediate and +obvious consequences of any such schemes as are proffered by the overt +or covert enemies of marriage, and they will quickly perceive that _the +last way in which to secure the rights of women is to abrogate the +duties of men_. The support allotted to such schemes as these is not +feminine but masculine. That is the impression I derive from discussions +following lectures on the subject; and that is what I should expect, +judging from the natural tendencies of men, and the profound intuition +of women in such matters. And, conversely, the opposition to such +principles as are expressed here, and embodied in the "Women's Charter," +will be masculine. But woman has been civilizing man from the beginning, +and she will have her way here also--for, in the last resort, not merely +youth, but the Unborn must be served. + +Before we consider the alternative suggestions that some are making, +and proceed to indicate how the paternal endowment of motherhood can be +enforced in every class, as public opinion practically enforces it in +the upper and middle classes, let us meet the objection that, if +fatherhood is to be made so serious an act, and if so much +self-sacrifice is to be exacted from those who undertake it, the +marriage-rate and the birth-rate will fall more rapidly. And as regards +the marriage-rate, the answer is that marriage and parenthood are not +inseparable, a proposition which might be much amplified if a writer who +wishes to be heard could afford to have the courage of everybody's +convictions. But already, in the middle classes, men limit their +families to the number they can support. They simply practise +responsible fatherhood, and the mothers and children are protected. On +what moral grounds this is to be condemned, no one has yet told us. + +And as regards the effect of more stringent responsibility for +fatherhood upon the birth-rate, it must be replied, for the thousandth +time in this connection, that the question for a nation is not how many +babies are born, but how many survive. The idea of a baby is that it +shall grow up and become a citizen; if babies remained babies people +would soon cease to complain about the fall in the birth-rate. But, in +point of fact, a vast number of babies and children are unnecessarily +slain, and if we could suddenly arrest the whole of this slaughter, the +increase of population would become so formidable that everyone would +deplore the unmanageable height of the birth-rate. Its present fall is +quite incapable of arrest, and is perfectly compatible with as rapid an +increase of population as any one could desire. We must arrest the +destruction of so much of the present birth-rate, so that it means +nought for the future. By nothing else will this arrest be so +accelerated as by those very measures for making fatherhood more +responsible for the care of motherhood, which are here advocated. Let it +be freely granted that these measures will lower the birth-rate. Much +more will they lower the infant mortality and child death-rate, and +diminish the permanent damaging of vast multitudes of children who +escape actual destruction. + +And now we can turn to those proposals which have lately been revived by +one or two popular writers in England, for the endowment of motherhood +by the State, leaving the fathers in peace to spend their earnings as +they please, whilst others support their children. Detailed criticism is +not needed, for the details to criticize are not forthcoming, and the +opinions on principles and on details of these imaginative writers are +never twice the same. It suffices that proposals such as these, apart +from their vagueness and their obvious impracticability in any form, are +directly condemned by the fundamental principle that a man shall be +responsible for his acts. The endowment of motherhood, as Mr. Wells +means it, is simply a phrase for making men responsible for their +neighbours' acts and for striking hard and true at the root principle of +all marriage, human or sub-human, which is the common parental care of +offspring. Reference is made to this proposal here, not that it really +needs criticism, but in order that one may be clearly excluded from any +participation in such proposals. + +The difference between such schemes for the endowment of motherhood and +the proposal here advocated is that those seek to endow the mother by +making the father less responsible--or, rather, wholly +irresponsible--while this seeks to endow her by making the father more +responsible. The whole verdict of the ages is, as we have seen, on the +side of this principle. It has been practised for aeons, and it is the +aim of sound legislation and practice everywhere to-day. + +As has been admitted, the more we express this principle, the lower will +fall, not necessarily the marriage-rate, but the parent-rate; fewer men +will become fathers, _but they will be fitter_. There will be fewer +children born, but they will be children planned, desired and loved in +anticipation, as every child should be, and will be in the golden +future. These children will not die, but survive; nor will their +development be injured by early malnutrition and neglect. The believer +in births as births will not be gratified, but there will be abundance +of gratification for the believer in births as means to ends. + +The practical working-out of our principle is no more difficult than +might be expected if it be remembered that we are counselling nothing +revolutionary nor even novel. The demand simply is that the practice +which obtains among the more fortunate classes shall be made universal, +and that the State shall see that all fathers who can, do their duty. +The State will be quite busy and well employed in this task, which may +legitimately be allotted to it even on the strictly individualist and +Spencerian principles, that the maintenance of justice is alone the +State's province. We allot a great function to the State, but deny that +it can rightly or safely set the father aside and perform his duty for +him. + +The kind of means whereby the rights of mothers may be granted them is +indicated in the Women's Charter which has lately been formulated and +advocated by Lady Maclaren. The principle there recognized is that the +husband's wages are not solely his own earnings, but are in part handed +to him to be passed on to his wife. Directly children are concerned, the +State should be. + +Whatever the answer to the crudely-stated question, "Should Wives have +Wages?" it is certain that mothers should and must have wages or their +equivalent. + +To many of the well-wishers of women it is disappointing that the +Women's Charter is not more keenly supported by women themselves. +Unfortunately the suffrage has become a fetish, the mere means has +become an end, preferred even to the offer of the real ends, such as +would be attained in very large measure by this Charter. We see here, it +is to be feared, the same spirit which protests against the wisest and +most humane legislation in the interests of women and children because +"men have no business to lay down the law for women." + +In general terms, one would argue that the principle of insurance must +be applied to this case, as it is now voluntarily applied by thousands +of provident fathers. Here the State may guarantee and help, even by +the expenditure of money. It should help those who help themselves. This +is a principle which may apply to many forms of insurance or provision, +whether for old age or against invalidity; just as non-contributory +old-age provisions are fundamentally wrong in principle, and have never +been defended on any but party-political grounds of expedience, even by +their advocates, so the "endowment of motherhood" which meant the +complete liberation of fatherhood from its responsibilities would be +wrong in principle. But in both of these cases the State might rightly +undertake to help those who help themselves. + +Fatherhood of the new order will not be so wholly irksome and unrewarded +as might at first appear to the critic who does not reckon children as +rewards themselves. It may involve some momentary sacrifices, but it +needs very little critical study of the ordinary man's expenditure to +discover that, on the whole, these sacrifices will be more apparent than +real. It is, for instance, a very great sacrifice indeed for the smoker +to give up tobacco; but once he has done so, he is as happy as he was, +and suffers nothing at all for the gain of his pocket. Both as regards +alcohol and tobacco, the common expenditure which would so amply provide +milk and the rest for children, is necessitated by an acquired habit +which, like all acquired habits, can be discarded. The non-smoker and +non-drinker does _not_ suffer the discomfort of the smoker and drinker +who is deprived of his need. These things cease to be needs at all, soon +after they are dispensed with, or if the habit of taking them is never +begun. They are luxuries only to those who use them. To those who do not +they are nothing, and the lack of them is nothing. The sheer waste they +entail is gigantic, and the expenditure on them in such a country as +England would endow all its motherhood and provide good conditions for +all its children. The father who, in the future, is compelled to yield +the rights of mothers and children, may sometimes be compelled to +practise what at first looks like great self-restraint in these +respects. The point I wish to make is that the sacrifice and the need +for restraint are transient, and that thereafter there is simply more +liberty and the promise of longer life for the wise. + +The working-out will be that the legislation of the future will benefit +the right kind of husband and father, but will restrain and irk the +wrong kind. But that is precisely what good legislation should do. Thus +the right kind of father, who in any case will do his best to care for +his wife and children, will be helped in the future by the State. It +will insist that he does the duty which in any case he means to do, but +it will make the doing easier. We see admirably working parallels to +this in the German insurance laws and their provision for death, disease +and old age. They benefit those whom they appear to harass. Insurance +against fatherhood will work in the same way. The State will not be +antagonistic to the father, but will be his best friend, knowing that +_its_ best friends are good fathers and mothers. There will be far less +worry and anxiety for well-meaning parents, especially for mothers, but +also for fathers. Nor do I, for one, much mind how substantial may be +the State's contribution to the father's efforts, provided only that +those efforts are demanded and obtained. + +Nothing is more certain than that we are about to free ourselves from +the crass blindness of the nineteenth century in its great delusion that +the wealth of a nation consists in the number of things it makes and +possesses. Parenthood and childhood will shortly come to be recognized +as the first concern of the State that is to continue, and whilst the +birth-rate continues to fall, the honour paid to fathers and mothers +will continue to rise. We shall become as wise in time as the Jews have +been ever since we have record of them. We shall estimate the relative +value of these things as well as if we were the kinds of people we call +"Savages." Fatherhood will not be such an uncompensated sacrifice in +those days, even apart from its inherent rewards. + +The point I am trying to make is that the legislation and the social +changes here advocated as necessary in the interests of women, and +indeed asserted to be their rights, do not involve any injury to men. +This common delusion is a mere instance of the poisonous principle of +politicians, notably fiscal politicians, and of many business men. Their +belief is that what benefits Germany must hurt England, that what hurts +Germany must benefit England, that all trade is a question of somebody +scoring off another or being scored off. The idea that there are great +games in which both sides stand to win, if they "play the game," is +meaningless to them. That German prosperity can favour English +prosperity, that true commerce is a mutual exchange for mutual +benefit--these are notions obviously absurd to people who think on this +horrible assumption which reigns unchallenged in a thousand columns of +fiscal controversy every morning. And when these people turn to the +question of legislation as between the sexes, they naturally assume that +anything which promises to benefit women will injure men. The vote is +thus regarded as a means of injuring men--necessarily, because it +advantages women--and assuredly such people will suppose that any +measures in the direction of granting what I here prefer to call the +"rights of mothers" (leaving to one side the "rights of women"), +necessarily involve a proportionate disadvantage to men. I deny it +utterly: + + The woman's cause is man's: they rise or sink + Together, dwarfed or God-like, bond or free. + +The rights of mothers, we have seen, are fundamental for any society, +and to satisfy them is to meet the most clearly primary of social needs. +But there will be some readers of this book, perhaps, who miss any +discussion of the "rights of women." I do not care for the phrase, +because I do not think that we often see it usefully employed. For me +the propositions are self-evident that men and women, being human +beings, have the rights of human beings. Each of us has the right to the +conditions of the most complete self-development and expression that is +compatible with the granting of the same right to others. It is true +that women have been largely debarred from these conditions as a sex, +and in so far there is some meaning in the phrase "Women's rights." But +otherwise we all agree that men and women alike have the right which has +just been stated in terms that are a paraphrase of Herbert Spencer's +definition of liberty. Men's rights and women's rights are the rights to +"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." If any one disputes the +application of this principle to women as unreservedly as to men, I will +not argue with him. I write for decent people. + +At this stage in the development of civilization, our business is to +see, first, that our social proceedings and reconstructions of +enterprises are compatible with the nature of the human individual, male +and female. It is always necessary for us to be reminded of the facts of +the individual, for in the last resort they will determine the failure +or the success of all our schemes. And then we must see where our +existing social structure fails to satisfy the needs of individual +development and of individual duty. In seeking to rectify what may here +be wrong, of course we must take first things first--we must set the +case right for the most important people before we go on to the others. + +Now it is the simple, obvious truth,--so obvious and unchallengeable +that somehow it has never been stated--that in any human society the +parents are the most important people. The division is not between +education and the lack of it, or wealth and the lack of it, or breeding +and the lack of it. It is not the aristocracy that matters supremely; +nor the "great middle-class"; nor the masses; nor the teachers; nor the +doctors; nor the servants of modern industrialism. The classification is +a biological one--into parents and non-parents. The non-parents may be +invaluable in their way, if only they beget something that is valuable. +Heaven forbid that I should undervalue the children of the mind. But if +we are to classify any nation, the first and last classification of any +moment is none of those in which we always indulge and which all our +customs and traditions and prejudices are ever seeking to perpetuate; +but the classification into those who will die childless and those who +create the future race. That is why, for me at any rate, the subject of +women's rights is jejune and sterile compared with the subject of this +chapter. First let us ascertain the rights of mothers and grant them, to +the very uttermost; then let us do the same for the fathers. Let us +exact of each the corresponding duties; and the next generation, brought +into being under such conditions, will solve all our problems. But +whilst we neglect the first things we shall permanently solve no problem +at all. We may seem to do so, but if we dishonour parenthood, if we +leave the inferior women to mother the future, the degenerate race that +must ensue will find itself in difficulties compared with which ours are +trivial, and our solutions of them impotent. + +That is why I seek to draw attention to the rights not of women as +women,--for neither men nor women have any peculiar rights as men or +women--nor yet to the rights of wives as wives, but to the rights of +mothers as mothers, whether married or unmarried, whether husbanded or +widowed. The rights of women are the rights of human beings, and no +special concern of a writer on woman and womanhood, paradoxical as the +assertion may be. The rights of wives are often discussed, but I +question whether the discussion ever helped a wife yet, except solely in +the matter of her monetary claims upon her husband. Discussion and +public opinion and consequent legislation can effect, and have effected, +something for wives as wives in this matter. In other matters, much more +vital to their happiness, each case is unique because all individuals +are unique; and the discussion of the questions can amount to no more +than futile and obvious platitude. + +But when motherhood is concerned the monetary question becomes worthy of +the adjective economic, so often prostituted, for the making of future +life depends upon the provision of adequate means. The whole essence of +motherhood is that it is a dedication of the present to the future. +Every mother is in the position of the inventor or the poet or the +musician for whose work the present makes no demand and no payment. The +future is being served, but the future is not there to pay. The rights +of mothers are the rights of the future, and its claims upon the +present. + +It can be abundantly shown that increasing prevision or provision marks +the ascent of organic Nature; that as life ascends the present is more +and more dedicated to the future. The completeness of this dedication is +the most exemplary fact of the many which the bee-hive provides for our +instruction and following. Consider the dedication of the hive to the +queen. Realize that she is not in any way the ruler of the hive, but she +is _the only mother in it_. She is the parent, and, on our principles, +she is therefore the most important person in the hive. No one else has +any rights but to serve her, for the future absolutely depends upon her. +So does the future of our society depend upon its mothers. In our +species there are many and not one, as in the bee-hive. If there were +just one individual who was to be the mother of the next generation, +even our politicians would perceive that she was the most important +person in the community, and that her rights were supreme. But the +principle stands, though, as it happens, human mothers are not one in +each generation, but many. They are in our society what the queen bee is +in the hive, and the future will transcend the present and the past just +in so far as they are well-chosen, and well cared for. + +To the best of my belief this principle has not yet been recognized by +any one. The rights of women and the rights of wives are often +discussed, but the rights of mothers is a term expressing a principle +which is not to be called new, only because in the bee-hive, for +instance, we see it expressed and inerrably served. + +Perhaps it may be permitted to close with a personal reminiscence which, +at any rate, bears on the genesis of this chapter. Some nine years ago +when I was resident-surgeon to the Edinburgh Maternity Hospital, I +proposed to get up a concert for the patients on Boxing Day, and on +asking permission of the distinguished obstetrician who was in supreme +charge, was met with the question, "Do they deserve it?" After several +seconds there slowly dawned the fact which I knew but had long +forgotten, that the mothers in the large ward where the music was +proposed, were all unmarried, and finally I answered, "I don't know." +Nor do I know to this day, and though the answer was given in weakness +and in a disconcerted voice, I doubt whether any wiser one could be +framed. We all know what desert means, and merit and credit, until we +begin to think and study: and we end by discovering that we do not know +what, in the last analysis, these terms mean. But, at any rate, these +women,--one of them, I remember, was a child of fourteen--were mothers, +and whatever favoured their convalescence unquestionably made for the +survival of their babies. It might have been argued that if the patients +did not deserve music, they did not deserve the air and light and food +and skill and kindness with which they were being restored to health. +But it is not a question of deserts. These women were mothers. If they +should not have been, they should not have been, and if the blame was +theirs, they were blameworthy. But mothers they were, with the duties +of mothers to perform, and therefore with the rights of mothers. They +got their concert and were all the better for the remarkably indifferent +music of which it consisted, as such concerts commonly do; and I am only +very sorry if any of them argued therefrom that she had nothing in the +past to regret. + +But the spiritual attitude revealed in the question, "Do they deserve +it?" is one which must speedily go to its own place. Let us strive to +dignify marriage, to educate the young of both sexes for parenthood, to +reduce illegitimacy, to reward virtue. But where there is motherhood in +being, whether expectant or achieved, we have a duty which is the +highest and most sacred of all because it is the Future that we are +called upon to serve, and upon us it wholly depends. + +As Mr. John Burns said to our first Infant Mortality Conference in Great +Britain in 1907, "Let us dignify, purify and glorify motherhood by every +means in our power." Evidently this can only be done through marriage, +which is in its very essence an institution for the dignifying of +motherhood. But a biological writer cannot distinguish as a theologian +can between legal and extra-legal motherhood. He may declare that +motherhood is hideously illegitimate when it is forced upon a wife +married to an inebriate degenerate. He may accept marriage with all his +heart as an institution which for him has natural sanctions millions of +years older than any Church or State or mankind itself. But for him as a +student of life all motherhood must be guarded as such--even if it be +guarded in such a fashion that it can never recur, which is our duty to +the feeble-minded mother. + +If there be any reader who is unacquainted with M. Maeterlinck's "Life +of the Bee," let him or her study that instructive book. Let him ask why +the queen is the End of the hive, why all is for her. Let him ask +whether the natural law upon which this depends--the law that all +individuals are mortal--does not apply to all races, even our own, and +perhaps he will come to agree that the rights of mothers are the oldest +and deepest and most necessary of any rights that can be named. + +And the recognition and granting of them--as they must necessarily be +recognized and granted in every living race that depends upon +motherhood--is even more imperative in our case than in any other, since +human motherhood makes more demands upon the individual than any other. +By our constitution we human beings must devote more of our energies to +the Future than any other race. But it is a Future better worth working +for than any of theirs. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +WOMEN AND ECONOMICS + + +It will be evident that the writer of the foregoing chapter must have +something to say on the question of women and economics, but though what +must be said seems to me to be very important, it can be stated at no +great length. + +If we turn to the most widely-read and applauded of the feminist books +on this subject, _Women and Economics_, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we +are by no means encouraged to find it stated in the first chapter that +woman's present economic inferiority to man is not due to "any inherent +disability of sex." Wherever Mrs. Gilman may be right, here the +biologist knows that she is wrong. The argument has been fully stated in +earlier pages, and need not here be restated. But we shall not be +surprised if a premise which denies any natural economic disadvantage of +women leads to more than dubious conclusions. + +Only a few pages later, Mrs. Gilman refers to the argument that the +economic dependence of women upon their husbands is defensible on the +ground that they perform the duties of motherhood, and the following is +her comment thereon: + + "The claim of motherhood as a factor in economic exchange is false + to-day. But suppose it were true. Are we willing to hold this + ground, even in theory? Are we willing to consider motherhood as a + business, a form of commercial exchange? Are the cares and duties + of the mother, her travail and her love, commodities to be + exchanged for bread? + + "It is revolting so to consider them; and if we dare face our own + thoughts, and force them to their logical conclusion, we shall see + that nothing could be more repugnant to human feeling, or more + socially and individually injurious, than to make motherhood a + trade." + +Surely this is special pleading and not very plausible at that. It may +be replied, "Is not the labourer worthy of his hire?"--however noble the +labour. If we choose to call society's or a husband's support of +motherhood "a form of commercial exchange," it is indeed "revolting" so +to see it; let us then look at the case as it is. We applaud the "cares +and duties of the mother, her travail and her love"; but the more +assiduous her maternity, and the more admirable, the more certainly will +she require to be fed. If she cannot simultaneously feed her child and +forage for herself, somebody must forage for her; and to say that +therefore the cares and duties of the mother, her travail and her love, +become commodities to be exchanged for bread, is simply to cloud a clear +case with question-begging epithets. Always, everywhere, if motherhood +is to be performed at its highest, the mother must be supported. It is +not a question of commercial exchange, but of obvious natural necessity. +The foregoing chapter with its argument for the rights of mothers as a +great and neglected social principle, may be unsound throughout, but it +will certainly not be refuted by sentences such as these. + +Briefly, Mrs. Gilman proposes to "do away with the family kitchen and +dining-room, to transform all domestic service from the incapable, +hand-to-mouth standard of untrained amateurs to that of professional +experts, to raise the work of child nursing and rearing to a scientific +and skilled basis, to secure the self-support of the wife and mother +through skilled labour, so that she may be economically independent of +her husband." + +But if her child nursing and rearing are to be scientific and skilled, +and she is simultaneously to support herself through skilled labour, she +clearly requires to be two women or one woman in two places at the same +time. This, in effect, is what Mrs. Gilman expects. We have seen that +Mr. H. G. Wells's proposed help for motherhood consists in discharging +fatherhood from its duties: Mrs. Gilman's idea is to double the mother's +work. Both come to much the same thing. + +All women, mothers or other, are to become economically independent, +instead of being "parasitic on the male," our author's unpleasing way of +recognizing that fatherhood has reached high and responsible estate +amongst mankind. Now if Mrs. Gilman's solution be feasible, we must +return to our fundamentals and see whether they are compatible with it. +She has no doubt of it. Thus:-- + + "If it could be shown that the women of to-day were growing beards, + were changing as to pelvic bones, were developing bass voices, or + that in their new activities they were manifesting the destructive + energy, the brutal combative instinct, or the intense sex-vanity of + the male, then there would be cause for alarm. But the one thing + that has been shown in what study we have been able to make of + women in industry is that they are women still, and this seems to + be a surprise to many worthy souls ... 'the new woman' will be no + less female than the 'old' woman ... she will be, with it all, more + feminine. + + "The more freely the human mother mingles in the natural industries + of a human creature, as in the case of the savage woman, the + peasant woman, the working-woman everywhere who is not overworked, + the more rightly she fulfils these functions."[20] + +We may not be so sure that there is not some evidence for "growing +beards," "developing bass voices," and "manifesting the destructive +energy, the brutal combative instinct, or the intense sex-vanity of the +male"; and in our brief attempt to make a first study of womanhood in +the light of Mendelism, we have seen good reason to understand why +masculine characters may come to the surface in the female whose +femininity has worn thin. Several of the lower animals definitely show +us the possibilities. + +But we need not accept the issue on the grounds of such superficial +manifestations as these, for there are others, more subtle and vastly +more important, on which must be fought the question whether women in +industry are women still, and whether the "new woman" is more feminine +than the old. Let us dismiss the extremes in both directions. We need +not adduce the members of the Pioneer Club, who show their increasing +femininity by donning male attire; nor need we question that large +numbers of women in industry continue to remain feminine still. The +practical question which we must determine, if possible, is the average +effect of industrial conditions and the assumption of the functions +commonly supposed to be more suitably masculine, upon women in general. +Here we definitely join issue with Mrs. Gilman. + +It is impossible to discuss, as we might well do, the available evidence +as to the effect of external activities upon that wonderful function of +womanhood which, in its correspondence with the rhythm of the tides, +hints, like many other of our attributes, at our distant origin in the +Sea--the mother of all living. Reference was made in an earlier chapter +to this function, and its use as, in most cases at any rate, a criterion +of womanhood and a gauge of the effect of physical exercise or mental +exercise thereupon. The writer of "Women and Economics" has nothing to +say on this subject--less, if possible, than on the subject of +lactation. The menstrual function would admirably and fundamentally +illustrate the present contention, but it will be better to take the +great maternal and mammalian function of nursing as a criterion of +womanhood, and as a test of the contention that the more freely the +mother works as do the savage woman and the peasant woman, the more +rightly she fulfils the "primal physical functions of maternity." + +Before we consider the actual evidence (and Mrs. Gilman does not deal at +all in evidence on these fundamentals to her argument) let us meet the +argument about the "savage woman," who works as hard as men do,--though +much less hard than early observers of savage life supposed--and who is +nevertheless a successful mother. It is completely forgotten that, just +as parenthood, both fatherhood and motherhood, demands more of the +individual as we rise in the scale of animal evolution, so, within our +own species, the same holds good. In general, the mothers of civilized +races are the mothers of babies whose heads are larger at birth (as they +will be in adult life), than those of savage babies. It is true that the +civilized woman has, on the average, a considerably larger pelvis than +that of, for instance, the negress. There must be a feasible, +practicable ratio between the two sets of measurements if babies are to +enter the world at all. But the increasing size of the human head is a +great practical problem for women. No one can say how many millions have +perished in the past because their pelves were too narrow for the +increasing demands thus made upon them, and doubtless the greater +capacity of the female pelvis in higher races is mainly due to this +terrible but racially beneficent process of selection, by which women +with pelves nearer (e. g.) to negro type, have been rejected, and women +with wider pelves have survived, to transmit their breadth of pelvis to +their daughters and carry on the larger-headed races. But even now +obstetricians are well aware that the practical mechanical problem for +the civilized woman is much more serious than for her savage sister; and +the argument that civilized women would discharge maternal functions as +well as savage women if they worked as hard is therefore worthless. + +Let us return now to the question of nursing capacity. "Bass voices" +and "beards" are doubtless unlovely in woman, but their extensive +appearance would be of no consequence at all compared with the +disappearance or weakening of the mammalian function which, as everyone +knows or should know, is the dominating factor in the survival or death +of infancy. Now it may be briefly asserted that civilized woman, and +more especially industrial woman, threatens to cease to be a mammal. If +this assertion can be substantiated, and if the "economic independence +of women" necessarily involves it, no biologist, no medical man, no +first-hand student of life, will hesitate to condemn finally the ideal +toward which Mrs. Gilman and those who think with her would have us go. +Things may be bad, things _are_ very bad: the lot of woman must be +raised immensely, because the race must be raised, and cannot be raised +otherwise; but progress is going forward and not backward, Mr. +Chesterton notwithstanding. Woman will not become more than a mammal by +becoming less, and going back on that great achievement of ascending +life. Individuals may do so, and are doing so, lamentably misdirected as +many of them now are; but that is the end of them and their kind. It is +quite easy to stamp out motherhood and its inevitable economic +dependence, but with it you stamp out the future. + +It is generally admitted that our women nurse their babies less than +they used to do. It is as generally admitted that this is often +deliberate choice, and we all know that it is often economic necessity: +the human mother "mingles in the natural industries of a human +creature," such as the factory affords, and cannot simultaneously stay +at home to nurse her baby, making men--for which, as a "natural +industry" of women, even as against making, say, lead-glaze for china, +there may be something to be said. + +But whilst popular preachers and castigators of the sins of society +fulminate against the fine lady who asks for belladonna and refuses to +do her duty, we must enquire to what extent, if any, women no longer +nurse their babies because they cannot, try they never so patiently and +strenuously. It is the general belief amongst those whose daily work +qualifies them for an opinion, that women are tending to lose the power +of nursing. Professor von Bunge, whose name is honoured by all students +of the action of drugs, has satisfied himself that alcoholism in the +father is a great cause of incapacity to nurse in daughters. However +that interpretation may be, the fact seems clear; and the change in this +direction is evidently much more rapid than might be accounted for by +the improvement in artificial feeding of infants leading to the survival +of daughters of mothers unable to nurse, and transmitting their +inability to their children. Mrs. Gilman--having ignored menstruation +altogether--makes only one allusion to this vastly important subject, +and we shall see to what extent her sanguine assumption is justified. +According to her, "A healthy, happy, rightly occupied motherhood should +be able to keep up this function (of nursing) longer than is now +customary--to the child's great gain." There can be no question about +the child's great gain; but what is the evidence for supposing that a +mother earning her own living in free competition with men--which is +what a "healthy, happy, rightly occupied motherhood" means in this +connection--can thus spend her energies twice over, unlike any other +source of energy known? + +According to official statistics, maternal lactation is steadily +decreasing in several German cities, notably in Berlin, where only 56.2 +per cent. of infants under one month were suckled by their mothers in +1905, as against 65.6 per cent. in 1895, and 74.3 per cent. in 1885. At +nine months of age 22.4 per cent. were suckled in 1905, 34.6 per cent. +in 1895, 49 per cent. in 1885. Other towns show more favourable results; +a general decrease, however, is marked. These facts cannot be ascribed, +according to the author,[21] to a growing disinclination to +breast-feeding, nor to the employment of mothers (in Prussia only 5 per +cent. of the married women are employed in manufacture). The question +whether the decrease in breast-feeding is due to the industrial +employment of women before marriage, or to (inherited) degeneration, +remains to be determined. + +According to a recent statement by Professor von Bunge, the conditions +are very similar now in Switzerland, where only about one mother in five +can nurse her children. + +Similar evidence could be cited from other sources, and the fact being +admitted must evidently be reckoned with. + +That the modern development of infant feeding will serve to replace +natural lactation, must be denied, and this without prejudice to the +magnificent work of the late Professor Budin of Paris and Professor +Morgan Rotch of Harvard. These pioneers and their followers have devised +some admirable second bests--admirable, that is, relatively to some of +the pitiable methods which they have superseded, but relatively to the +mother's breast not admirable at all. At the beginning of the campaign +against infant mortality, the creche and the sterilized milk depot and +the fractional analysis of cow's milk and its recomposition in suitable +proportions of proteid, fat, etc., as devised by Rotch, were rightly +acclaimed and admitted to save vast numbers of infant lives. All this is +mere stop-gap, wonderfully effective, no doubt, but only stop-gap +nevertheless. In France they are going ahead, and public opinion in +London is being slowly persuaded to follow along the more recent French +lines. The modern principle upon which we should act is Nature's +principle--saving the children through their mothers. Expectant +motherhood must be taken care of; we must feed, not the child, but the +nursing mother, and the child through her. If we rightly take care of +her, she will construct a perfect food for the child. There is no other +path of racial safety. It is not our present concern to deal with the +problems of infancy and childhood as they require, and surely we need +not wait to prove that nursing motherhood cannot safely be superseded, +but must be retained and safeguarded. + +If this postulate be granted, we have to determine how it comes about +that the German figures, for instance, are showing this extraordinarily +rapid decline in maternal lactation. As has already been noted in +passing, we must reject the suggestion that the natural type of women is +changing. Such a change of natural type in any living race can occur +only through selection for parenthood, and such selection in the case in +question can scarcely be imagined to occur in the direction of choosing +women who are naturally less capable of nursing. On the contrary, the +tendency of the selective principle must always be toward the greater +survival of infants whose mothers can nurse them, and who in their turn, +if they are to be women, will be more likely to be able to nurse their +children. Further, the action of selection cannot demonstrate itself +more quickly than is permitted by the length of human generations. It +must therefore be rejected as any interpretation of this case. If women +are ceasing to be able to nurse their babies, and if this change is +occurring with such extraordinary rapidity as the German figures +indicate, plainly the explanation must be found in the action of some +recent and novel condition or conditions upon womanhood. + +Perhaps it need scarcely be insisted that the distinction here sought to +be made is of the utmost importance. If the natural type of womanhood +were actually changing, we could scarcely do more than observe and +despair, but if it be merely that the capacities of this generation of +women are being modified by the particular conditions to which they are +subjected, plainly we who have made those conditions can modify +them--"What man has made, man can destroy." + +If we come to ask ourselves what these recent and novel conditions are, +the answer is only too ready at hand. The principles which will guide us +toward discovering it have been set forth at length in the earlier +chapters of this book. Let us recur to our Geddes and Thomson, and at +once we have the key. The production of milk is an act of anabolism or +building-up, such as we have seen to be characteristic of the female +sex, involving the accumulation and storage of quantities of energy so +large that if they were stated in the units of the physicist they would +astonish us. If we consider what the child achieves in the way of +movement and development and growth, and if we realize that at the most +rapid period of development and growth, all the energy therefor has been +gathered, prepared, and is dispensed by the nursing mother, we shall +begin to realize what an astonishing feat that is which she performs. It +is in reality, of course, the same feat which is performed by the +expectant mother, only that it is slightly less arduous, since after +birth the child can breathe and digest for itself. + +Perhaps the reader will begin to realize what Mrs. Gilman and those who +think with her are asking us to believe when they say that the primal +physical functions of maternity will be best fulfilled by the mother who +"mingles in the natural industries of a human creature." This statement +is either ridiculously false or can be rendered true by rendering it as +a truism. The primal physical functions of maternity _are_ the natural +industries of the particular human creature we call a mother; and the +better she fulfils them, the better she fulfils them, certainly. But the +so-called natural industries in which the modern mother is desired to +be engaged whilst she is bearing or nursing her children are as +unnatural as anything can be. As at present practised, they are morbid +products of civilization which it will require to cast off if it is to +survive. + +It is the student of life and its laws who must have the last word in +these matters. If he utters it wrongly or is unheeded, Nature is not +mocked, but will be avenged. The writer who can lay down a new principle +on which our life is to be based, without paying any more attention to +lactation than is to be found in the argument we have been considering, +has left out the beginning, has omitted the foundations. No measure of +earnestness or literary skill can save her case. + +Of course the reply will be that the biological criticism is simply the +ancient and oriental idea of woman as a helpless dependent, reasserted +for male advantage in our own day. One cannot believe that it is +necessary to rebut that accusation. It is necessary, however, to examine +somewhat the words "economic dependence" and "economic independence" +which are employed with such naive antithesis in this controversy. + +When we examine Mrs. Gilman's proposal for the salvation of woman, we +find it to mean that in future mothers are to do double work. The +glorious consummation is to be that woman is no longer "parasitic on the +male," which is Mrs. Gilman's way of expressing the great truth that the +mother for whom the father works, represents the future supported by the +present. + +But the future is always supported by the present. Woman, we began by +saying, is Nature's supreme organ of the future, and the present must +live for her and die for her. When we say the future, we mean childhood. +If childhood is to appear and to survive, womanhood must be dedicated to +it, and manhood, which stands for the present, must supply its own link +in the chain. The following paragraph from an unsigned article which +appeared some years ago in the _Morning Post_ states the case in a form +which may convince the reader. It was headed "Repairs and Renewals of +the People," and ran as follows:-- + + "It is, indeed, seldom sufficiently realized how much a nation, so + to speak, lives always in and for the future. Broadly speaking, of + every ten persons living in the United Kingdom now, four are less + than twenty years of age, while three of the rest are women (two of + them married women)--that is to say, people also mainly concerned, + through the care of children, with the future rather than with the + present. Upon the remaining three men, one of whom be it noted is + over fifty-five, falls the bulk of the work of providing for + immediate needs and so releasing the others to provide for the + continuance of the race. A definite large share of all the present + activities of a people is required and, as it were, pledged to + provide for its renewal. If it fails to allow sufficient, it may, + just like a company or a municipal concern with an inadequate + depreciation fund, show large profits and great prosperity for a + time; it cannot be regarded as a sound concern." + +The reader must decide whether there is more light and leading in the +interpretation that upon men falls the bulk of the work of providing for +immediate needs, and so enabling women to provide for the continuance +of the race, or, in Mrs. Gilman's version that woman is parasitic upon +the male. The future, if she likes to state it in that way, is parasitic +upon the present, always has been and always will be. The case which she +imagines to be unique and morbid, peculiar to civilized mankind, is +precisely the case of the hen bird who sits upon her eggs, incubating +the future, whilst the male goes and forages for her. She is parasitic +upon the male, as Mrs. Gilman would put it. + +The truth is that, like many other women dominated by sex +antagonism--which glares ferociously from such paragraphs as that which +was quoted regarding "the brutal combative instinct or the intense +sex-vanity of the male"--Mrs. Gilman, in seeking to further the +interests of her sex, proposes to dispense with the help of its best +friend, which is the other sex. It is not easy to speak with patience of +those who thus seek to set the house of mankind against itself, to the +injury of men, women and children alike. + +No doubt it is true that Mrs. Gilman's attitude is engendered by sex +antagonism as we see it everywhere in men--though for some obscure +reason it is only so labelled when displayed by women. No doubt, also, a +much better case can be made out for Mrs. Gilman's proposals, up to a +point, than could be made out for corresponding proposals on the other +side. No one who thinks for a moment can question that all proposals +whatsoever to make either sex independent of the other are stark +madness; yet there is a certain short-lived plausibility in the argument +that women are to be independent of men, and this depends upon the fact +which we have already attempted to demonstrate and interpret by means of +Mendelism, that women are more than men, and that womanhood includes +latent manhood. If, therefore, we are careful with the argument and +boldly rush past the really crucial places, such as the conditions and +needs of expectant and nursing motherhood, we can make out what looks +like a case for the economic dependence of women. Each sex is to work +for itself, and then there need be no more quarrelling. + +But we could not go even so far with any theory for making men +independent of women without seeing that we were no less wrong on that +side than Mrs. Gilman is on the other. Man's apparent economic +independence of women is as complete a myth as women's projected +economic independence of men. In the last resort, when we come down to +realities, and remember that both men and women are mortal, and that +unless they are replaced, everything ends, we see that the introduction +of the word economic into this question simply serves to confuse +thought, just as the older political economy confused thought and laid +itself open to the mercilessly magnificent attacks of Ruskin. Economy is +literally the law of the house or the home--where life begins. Of all +economies, life is the last judge, because there is no wealth but life. +_In the last resort the economic dependence of the sexes means nothing +because the sexes cannot independently reproduce themselves._ + +If Mrs. Gilman is to be arraigned for her error let us see to it most +carefully that we do not fail to arraign the men who, with not +one-thousandth part of her excuse and with no iota of her ability, fall +into the corresponding error on their side. When Women's Suffrage is +being debated, there never fails a supply of men who write to the papers +to say that men must vote and not women because men and not women "made +the State." How much simpler our problems would be if there were some +means of distinguishing children who will grow up into men of this type, +and carefully refraining from teaching them to read or write! Make the +State, indeed!--they can make nothing but fools of themselves, and +without women's assistance could not even reproduce their folly. Of +course the retort to all this nonsense is that neither sex ever yet +created anything without the other. Every human act and achievement is +the product of both sexes. When some friend of the past assures us that +women should not vote because they cannot bear arms, he is of course +reminded that women bear the soldiers. It is true and it is +unanswerable. In just the same way, when Mrs. Gilman wishes women to be +economically independent of men, whom she considers as animals +distinguished by their destructive energy, brutality and intense sex +vanity, she is simply ignoring half the truth. Let either sex try to run +the earth alone till Halley's comet returns, and what would be left for +it to see? Of all follies uttered on this subject, and they are many, +the cry, each sex for itself, is the wickedest and worst. + +The reader may well declare that such criticism is easy, but of little +worth unless it be accompanied by some kind of constructive proposals +for the amelioration of present conditions. Nothing is destroyed until +it is replaced. If the present economic conditions of women involve the +most hideous wickedness and cruelty and injure the entire progress of +mankind, as they assuredly do, and if they therefore must be destroyed, +we must have something to replace them with; and if Mrs. Gilman's +proposals would simply make the difficulty a thousand times worse by +depriving women of men's help, what proposals are there to offer +instead? + +The reply is that we must go back to first principles. We must drop all +our phrases about economic independence or dependence. They have urgent +and real meanings for each one of us at any given time, but when applied +to the problems of the reconstruction of society as a whole, they mean +nothing because they are based upon no vital truths whatever. A man may +be economically secure when he is producing absinthe or whisky, or he +may die of starvation because he is producing the songs of Schubert. +Economic independence and dependence mean very much to the prosperous +distiller whom men pay for poison, and to the immortal composer whom men +do not pay at all, but who yet produces that which nourishes the life of +all the future. The maker of death may live, and the maker of life may +die; we see it every day and history is the continuous record of it. +These economic dependences and independences consist only in the +relations of one man or woman to the others. They have nothing to do +with the real issue, which is the relation of mankind as a whole to +Nature. These economic questions are simply concerned with money--the +means whereby one man has more or less claim upon another: society may +have to be reconstructed in such a fashion that economic independence +and dependence, as at present understood, would have no meaning +whatever. Yet all the real economic questions would remain, even though +money or private property were abolished. The real economy is the making +and preserving of life and the means of life. We live in a chaos where +the elementary conditions of human existence are constantly forgotten. +The real politics, the real economy, the real political economy, are the +questions of the birth-rate and the wheat supply--the relations not +between man and man, or class and class, or sex and sex, but mankind, +living and dying and being born, and the world in which he has to live. +The time is near at hand when the first conditions of national life will +be recognized as they have never been since the dawn of modern +industrialism. The products of men's labour and women's labour will be +appraised and paid for in proportion to their _real_ value, their +strength or availableness for life. + +In "Unto This Last" and "Munera Pulveris," Ruskin has laid down, on what +are really unchallengeable biological grounds, the foundations of the +political economy of the future. We are going to have done with the +industries which eat up men. We cannot much longer afford to grow whisky +where we might grow wheat, for there are ever more mouths to be fed, and +wheat is running short. Cheap and dear mean nothing when we get down to +realities. Is a thing vital or is it mortal?--that is the only +question. It may be vital and costless, like air, or mortal and dear, +like alcohol. The question is not how much money can you get from +another man for your product, but how much life can mankind get from +Nature for it. Thus we shall return to a sane appreciation of the +primary importance of agriculture as against manufacture, of food as +against anything else,--for unless one is fed, of what use is anything +else? And as nations gradually begin to discover that the means of life +are the really valuable things, they will go on to learn, what primitive +races, hard-pressed races, races making their way in the world against +heavy odds, have always known--that at all costs the insatiable +destructiveness of Death must be compensated for by Birth. If the means +of life are the real wealth, the life itself is more real still, and +unless we abolish death, the makers and bearers and nourishers of life +are at all times and everywhere the producers, the manufacturers, the +workers of the community above and beyond all others. And these are the +women in their great functions as mothers and foster-mothers, nurses, +teachers. + +The economics of the future will be based upon these elemental and +perdurable truths. No writer in his senses will then be guilty of such +immeasurable folly as to place the "natural industries of a human +creature" _in antithesis_ to "the primal physical functions of +maternity." The sex which came first and remains first in the immediacy +and indispensableness of its relations to the coming life will base its +economic claims--in the vulgar and narrow sense of that term--upon the +worth of those relations. The society which cannot afford to pay +for--that is, to sustain--the characteristic functions of womanhood, +cannot continue; and societies have continued and will continue in +proportion as they hold hard by these first conditions of their lives. +The case of Jewish womanhood is the supreme illustration of a thesis +which requires no experimental demonstration, but is necessarily true. + +Here, then, is the solution, as the future will prove, of the problem of +the economic status of woman. At present, though Ellen Key is the only +feminist writer who recognizes it, women can compete successfully with +men only at the cost of complete womanhood,--and that is a price which +society as a whole cannot afford to pay, if it wishes to continue. +Therefore we must, in effect, pay women in advance for their work, the +actual realization of the value of which is always necessarily deferred. +The case is parallel to that of expenditure upon forestry. In the +planting of trees or the nurture of babies the State will get value for +its money in the long run, but it must be prepared to wait. States are +slowly becoming more provident, and already we are coming to see this +about trees. Soon we shall see it about babies, and the problem of the +economic status of woman will then be solved in practice as it is +assuredly soluble in principle. + +Mankind must first learn to renounce Mammon and set up Life as its God; +but to that also we shall come--or perish, for Life is a jealous God and +visits the sins of the fathers upon the third and fourth generation. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE CHIEF ENEMY OF WOMEN + + +If we believe that the sexes are mutually dependent and, in the long +run, can neither be injured nor befriended apart, we shall be prepared +to expect that the chief enemy of civilized mankind is no less inimical +to women than to men. So long as it was supposed that drinking merely +injured the drinker, and so long as the drinkers were almost entirely +men, it could be argued by persons sufficiently foolish that indulgence +in alcohol was a male vice or delight which really did not concern women +at all--if men choose to drink or to smoke or to bet or to play games, +what business is that of women? It is an argument which would not appeal +to the mind of the primitive law-giver, and can be accepted by no one who +thinks to-day. + +For the least effects of drink are those which are seen in the drinker. +The question of alcoholism is not one of the abuse of a good thing, here +and there injuring those who take it to excess, but is a national +question which affects the entire community, abstainers, and drinkers, +men, women and children, present and to come. No one who has seriously +studied the action of alcohol on civilization can question that it is +our chief external enemy. We must use the word external for the best of +good reasons, since we know that always and everywhere man's chief foes +are those of his own household--his own proneness to injure himself and +others. And alcohol, indeed, would not be our chief external enemy were +it not for the very fact that its malign power is chiefly exerted by a +degradation of the man within. It is a material thing and no part of our +psychological nature. So long as it is kept outside us it has the most +admirable uses, which are yearly becoming more various and important; +but, taken within, it alters the human constitution, and hereby achieves +its title as our worst enemy. + +People who estimate the influence of alcohol by means of the alcoholic +death-rate or by the rate of convictions for drunkenness will not +readily accept the doctrine that alcohol is a greater enemy of women +than of men. Yet assuredly this is true. It is an axiomatic and first +principle that whatever injures one sex injures the other, and whilst +drinking on the part of women at present injures men as a whole in +comparatively small degree, the consumption of alcohol by men works +enormous injury upon women indirectly, in addition to that direct injury +which civilized women are yearly inflicting more gravely upon +themselves, at any rate in Great Britain. + +Woman, we have argued, is Nature's supreme organ of the future, and just +as she is mediate between men and the future, so men are mediate between +her and the present. For the individual woman and the present, the +quality of the manhood which constitutes her human environment is more +important than anything else. If the manhood is withdrawn and she is +thrown upon her own resources, there is disaster; if the manhood be +damaged or degenerate, so much the worse for the woman; if the manhood +be of the best, there and only there are the best conditions provided +for the highest womanhood. + +First, then, let us observe how alcohol injures women by its +contribution to the male death-rate. Allusion has already been made to a +simple statistical enquiry which I made a few years ago in regard to the +influence of alcohol as a maker of widows and orphans. The results of +that enquiry may here be quoted, having only appeared in the daily press +hitherto. They will suffice to show that alcohol on this ground alone is +a great enemy of women, and especially of wives. The following is the +conclusion published in several papers in England in November, 1908:-- + + "Some time ago we heard a good deal, both in and out of Parliament, + about the debenture widow whose little all is invested in brewery + securities. There is, on the other hand, the widow so made by + alcohol. I am not aware that anyone has attempted to estimate the + approximate number of each of these two classes. The following is + merely a rude approximation. + + It has been stated that there are half a million persons who have + invested money in the licensed trade. Let us allow that half of + these are men. The death-rate of all males, above fifteen years of + age, is slightly over sixteen per 1,000. At the census of 1901, 536 + in each 1,000 males aged fifteen years and upwards were found to be + married. Ignoring the differential death-rate of the married as + compared with bachelors and widows, it follows that about 4,100 + male investors in the licensed trade die each year, of whom some + 2,197 will be married men, leaving behind them the same number of + widows entirely or partly dependent on these investments. + + The widows made by drink are nearly six times as many. + + Numerous inquiries at home and abroad agree somewhat closely in + stating _14 per cent_. of the entire death-rate to be due to + alcohol. The proportion of one in seven is accepted by Dr. Archdall + Eeid, who considers that all efforts to restrain drinking increase + drunkenness. I do not think the justness of this figure can be + disputed at all, except as an under-estimate. We are here dealing + with male deaths only, and I will do my contention the obvious + injustice of supposing that the proportion of deaths due wholly or + in part to alcohol is no higher amongst men than amongst women. If + one could allow for the existing difference, the result would be + even more terrible. + + Taking the figures for 1906 for England and Wales alone, we have + 167,307 deaths of males over fifteen; 23,422 of these wholly or + partly due to alcohol, and of this number 12,554 were married men + (i. e., 536 per 1,000). The average size of a family in England and + Wales is 4.62, according to Whitaker. If we multiply the number of + widows, 12,554, by 3.62, we shall have an approximation to the + number of widows and orphans made by alcohol in 1906. There were + 45,445, or over 124 widows and orphans made by alcohol every day in + the year. + + We may now note some further data helping us to compare the 12,554 + alcohol-made widows with the 2,197 whose husbands' fortunes were + wholly or in part bound up with the welfare of the licensed trade. + (Of these latter, also, of course, a large proportion would be + alcohol-made.) + + Dr. Tatham's recently published letter on occupational mortality in + the three years, 1900, 1901, 1902, informs us as to twenty-one + occupations in which the alcoholic death-rate is grossly excessive. + In these twenty-one occupations selected by Dr. Tatham as having an + alcohol mortality which exceeds the standard by at least 50 per + cent., we can work out the alcohol factor and find that it amounts + to 24.5 per cent. The table would take up too much space for me to + ask you to print it, but it is ready on demand, public or private. + The figures work out to show that 5,092 married men in these + twenty-one trades died in each year from alcohol. (I have taken + 24.5 per cent, of the whole number of deaths in the three years, + and reckoned the married proportion of these.) + + The calculation shows that in these twenty-one occupations the + comparative alcohol mortality is 24.5 per cent., as against only 12 + per cent. in all other occupations. + + Amongst the occupations in Dr. Tatham's table may be noted + coalheaver, coach, cab, etc., service, groom, butcher, messenger, + tobacconist, general labourer, general shopkeeper, brewer, chimney + sweep, dock labourer, hawker, publican, inn and hotel servants. A + glance at the table will show that in most cases the men who are + dying are "industrial drinkers," who frequent public-houses in the + districts where the reduction in the number of the licenses under + the present Bill will occur. Often nowadays the widows are heavy + drinkers, and the lives of their children centre round the + public-house. + + If the only wealth of a nation is its life, and history teaches no + more certain truth--and if, since individuals are mortal, the + quantity and quality of parenthood--or of childhood, according to + the point of view--are the supreme factors in the destiny of + nations, do not the foregoing figures warrant the contention that + he who at this date is for alcohol is against England?" + +It has been shown that the effect of alcohol upon the brain persists for +not less than thirty hours after the last dose. But more than two years +have now passed since the foregoing was printed, leaving ample time for +any member of the alcoholic party to "pull himself together" and +demolish it. One is therefore entitled to assume that it cannot be +demolished; on the contrary, it could easily be shown that the foregoing +figures very considerably underrate the actual number of widows and +orphans who must be made by alcohol in this country every year. + +All students of modern life, however greatly they differ in their +methods and objects, are agreed that the question of the economic +position of women is one of the gravest of our time. While this is so, +it may be added that only the Eugenist can adequately realize the +importance of this question, since he knows that with it is involved the +all-important matter of the selection amongst present women for the +motherhood of the future. Unfortunately, as we have seen, the modern +trend is quite definitely in the direction of those of our guides, whom +most of us follow, knowingly or unknowingly, because they have the +brains and we have not, in favouring the economic position of women at +the expense of male responsibility. Meanwhile we have the economic basis +of society as it is, and there is no more serious indictment against +alcohol than this which I have attempted to formulate against it on the +ground of its destruction of fatherhood. Whatever the rest of the +community may incline to, it assuredly seems that the wives, from palace +to hovel, ought to be enemies of this great enemy of theirs. The time +will certainly come when the woman who is bringing up children will be +placed in a position of economic security, and when indeed all other +persons will be less secure than she because the sane State of the +future will guarantee, and regard as the first charge upon itself, the +maintenance of the conditions necessary for the production of the next +generation. But in the chaos in which we welter, widows and orphans have +to take their chance. Who will say a good word for the substance which +makes them by tens of thousands in England and Wales alone every year? + +At least one economic aspect of this question may, however, be dealt +with here. In a rightly constituted society people are held responsible +for their deeds. Parenthood is a deed; in a very true sense it is a more +deliberate, a more active, more self-determined deed, on the part of the +father than on the part of the mother. At present the only act for which +men are held irresponsible--for our practice amounts to that--is the act +for which, above all others, they should be held responsible. A large +amount of the money now spent by men on alcohol and tobacco, and other +things which shorten their lives, and are needed only because they +create a need for themselves, is really required for the interests of +the race. Such is the double destruction worked by the alcoholic form of +this waste that if the average sum, say six shillings a week, expended +in the working-class family on alcohol, were invested on behalf of the +possible widows and orphans, not only would they be provided for, but +the fathers would be saved, and they would not become widows and +orphans. In days to come it will be discovered that such matters as +these are the real political economy, the absence or presence of +tariffs, the incidence of taxation and the like, being matters of no +consequence or significance whatever compared with the question, +fundamental in all times and places for every nation and for every +individual: For what are you spending: for bread or a stone, for life or +for death? + +The foregoing has been chosen for the forefront of this chapter because +of its bearing on a central economic problem of the time, and also +because, for some reason or other, this alcoholic destruction of +fatherhood, though it is of the utmost importance, has hitherto escaped +the attention of sociological students. We pass now to a second point, +of a wholly different character, which particularly well illustrates +certain of the general principles with which we began. The supreme +importance of alcohol or of anything else for human happiness is +attained only through its influence on the selves of men and women. It +is upon these that our happiness depends--upon the nature and the +nurture, from hour to hour, of our selves and the selves with which we +have to deal. Above all, do women as individuals depend for their +happiness upon the selves of men, as we have suggested. + +Now if there be anything certain about the action of alcohol upon the +brain, it is that it degrades the quality of the self. Much of the +cruder pathology of alcohol is open to doubt. A great many of the +supposed degenerative changes in nerve-cells, which were attributed to +it and thought to be irrevocable, are now interpreted otherwise. Chronic +alcoholism is looked upon by such foremost students as Dr. F. W. Mott, +less as a disease due to organic changes produced in the brain than as a +chronic functional derangement due to the continued action of a poison. +This newer interpretation of chronic alcoholism has the very important +practical corollary of encouraging us to the belief, which is frequently +justifiable, that if the chronic intoxication ceases, the individual may +completely or all but completely recover, as would not be the case if +the fine structure of his brain had been actually destroyed. The recent +modification of our views on this subject has, however, only served to +render clearer our understanding of the mental symptoms of alcoholism. +Here is a drug which poisons the organ of the mind. The action of a +single dose persists for a far longer period than used to be supposed, +and thus we now know that in the great majority of civilized men +everywhere, the nervous system, which is the home of the self, is +continuously under the influence of alcohol. + +That influence, as we have said, consistently shows itself in a +degradation of the quality of the self. The poison deranges first the +latest and highest products of evolution; it beheads a man, as we may +say, in thin slices from above downwards. Beginning as it does with the +most human, and only at the very last attacking the most animal part of +our nervous constitution, it is essentially the bestializer, save only +that the alcoholized human being is much lower than the beast, on the +general principle, _Corruptio optimi pessima_--the corruption of the +best is the worst. + +Now wherever alcohol is consumed women have to pay the penalty for its +daily deterioration in the human scale of the men with whom they live; +nor need any reader of even the smallest experience require any writer's +assurance that in vast numbers of such cases the woman suffers more than +the man. He has its moments of compensation, inadequate though they be; +she has none. + +Whilst women suffer in every respect from the influence of alcohol as a +degrader of their men, most of all do they and the race suffer through +the action of alcohol upon the racial instinct. In my book on personal +hygiene was sought an interpretation of the difference between low and +high types of mankind largely in terms of their success or failure in +achieving what may be called the "transmutation" of the racial instinct. +In less metaphorical language this transmutation depends upon the +measure of self-control and deference of present desire to future +purpose. These are supremely human characteristics, and there are none +which alcohol more surely and early attacks. Men are not so constituted +that they are at all likely to profit by any substance which keeps their +racial instinct on its original and less than human plane, and certainly +women suffer in many ways, and with them necessarily the future suffers, +just because of this action of alcohol upon men. + +The argument need not be elaborated, but it may be added that the +disastrous action upon young womanhood of the consumption of alcohol by +young manhood is greatly increased when we find, as we do, that the +young women start drinking too. In these modern days, when the +controlling influence of religion and especially of religious fear is +steadily relaxing, the young woman's best protection is to be found in +her own judgment and self-control and prevision of the future. But these +are the very defences which alcohol in her nervous system saps. Every +social worker is familiar with the daily truth that young womanhood +connives at its own ruin under the influence of alcohol, where otherwise +it need not have fallen. + +This last consideration leads us to the study of a phenomenon which in +many respects is new and unprecedented, while none could be of worse +omen. + +It has for long been alleged that the amount of drinking amongst women +is increasing. When writing an academic thesis on the consequences of +city life, I attempted to discover definite evidence on this point. +Nothing that could be called precise was forthcoming, though the +evidence was abundant that the general assertion is correct. Drinking +amongst women means, of course, drinking amongst mothers. It means +drinking by unborn children. No one concerned with the fundamentals of +national well-being can ignore anything so minatory. Within the last few +years, much attention has been directed to the subject, and the Church +of England Temperance Society, for instance, sent out a form of inquiry +to the medical profession as to their experience in this matter. It may +now be stated, without any fear of contradiction, that drinking has +greatly increased amongst women of all classes during the last twenty +years, and especially, it seems probable, during the latter half of that +period. Along with it has gone an increase in the amount of +drug-taking; some, at any rate, of the drugs being not dissimilar to +alcohol in their action upon mind and body. + +It is here necessary not so much to discuss the causes of this fact as +to insist upon its consequences and indicate some possible remedies. So +far as one can judge there seem to be three principal causes for this +increase of drinking amongst women, and quite briefly they may be named +in order to guide the subsequent discussion, though it is not necessary +to occupy space here in discussing all the evidence for this diagnosis. + +A cause of some importance at work amongst women of the middle and upper +classes would seem to be the general tendency to revolt against sex +restrictions and limitations. In order to prove themselves the equals of +men, women proceed to demonstrate that they are capable of imitating +men's vices and indulgences. The trainer of chimpanzees for the +music-hall acts on the same principle. Directly the animals can smoke +and drink, they are such good imitations of men, in his judgment and +that of his patrons, as to be worthy of exhibition. Any ape, any boy, +any man, can learn to smoke and drink. It may be taken for granted that +any woman can do likewise, but the actual demonstration is worse than +superfluous. + +Much more important as a cause of the increased drinking amongst women +of the lower classes are the modern conditions of factory and industrial +life which so largely take women out of the home; the making of life +being neglected in order to serve some industry or other which, if it +costs the loss of the coming life, is a national cancer, however +grateful its expansion may appear to the capitalist or the Chancellor of +the Exchequer. As the nation cares nothing for its girlhood nor for +directing employment and education for the supreme business of +motherhood, upon which the national existence is always staked, vast +numbers of women in early adolescence are now exposed to the very +conditions of temptation outside the home to which so many of their +brothers have succumbed. The factory girl learns to drink, and when she +marries she takes her drinking habits with her into her home. Modern +industrialism, therefore, is to be cited as one of the causes for the +increase in drinking amongst women. It may be noted that, in Italy, the +temperate race which, according to one elegant but baseless theory, has +been evolved through ages of past drinking, is proving itself +intemperate when its members are exposed in towns to the industrial +conditions which look like national success and the continuance of which +would mean national ruin. + +A third cause of this increase is to be found in the greatly enhanced +facility with which alcoholic drinks can now be obtained by women, not +merely outside the home, but within it. So far as Great Britain is +concerned we must trace disastrous consequences to the "heaven-born +finance" of a former illustrious Chancellor of the Exchequer, who made a +little money for the State by selling to grocers permission to sell +alcoholic liquors. That was a great blow at womanhood and especially +motherhood; not to mention its lamentable effect in raising the +death-rate amongst grocers in that intensely obvious and inevitable +manner, the increase of temptation, which nothing can persuade the +enemies of temperance reform to understand. + +It is bad enough that women should be able to obtain alcohol as they do +by means of devices which may often prevent their habits from being +discovered at all until irreparable mischief has been done. Here the +cunning and the greed of commercialism have set to work to fool the +public and poison it by a systematic practice which is injurious to all +sections of the community, but especially to women, and which cannot be +too widely reprobated and exposed. All honour is due to the _British +Medical Journal_, the official organ of the British Medical Association, +for its recent attention to this subject. No one can challenge it when +it makes the following assertion regarding meat-wines and other +specifics containing alcohol, which are now so widely advertised and +consumed:--"It may be pointed out that by the use of these meat-wines +the alcoholic habit may be encouraged and established, and that it is a +mistake to suppose that they possess any high nutritive qualities." The +following are analyses to which everyone ought to be able to have +reference, and further information regarding which may be found in the +_British Medical Journal_ for March 27 and May 29, 1909. Let the reader +first note what proportions of alcohol are contained in the accepted +wines, the danger of which is admitted by all, and then let him compare +those figures with the figures which follow:-- + + ALCOHOL IN ORDINARY WINES + + Port 20 per cent. or 3-1/4} + Sherry 20 " " " 3-1/4}Fluid drachms + Champagne 10/15 " " " 1-3/4}in a wineglassful. + Hock 10 " " " 1-1/2} + Claret 9 " " " 1-1/2} + + ALCOHOL IN MEAT WINES + + Bendle's 20.3 per cent. or 3-1/4} + Bivo 19.2 " " " 3 } + Bovril 20.15 " " " 3-1/4}Fluid drachms + Glendenning's 20.8 " " " 3-1/3}in a wineglassful. + Lemco 17.26 " " " 2-3/4} + Vin Regno 16.05 " " " 2-1/2} + Wincarnis 19.6 " " " 3 } + + ALCOHOL IN TONIC WINES + + Armbrecht's Coca Wine 15.05% + Bugeaud's Wine 14.80% + Baudon's Wine 12.75% + Busart's Wine 16.85% + Christy's Kola Wine 18.85% + Hall's Wine 17.85% + Mariani's Coca Wine 16.40% + Marza Wine 17.48% + Nourry's Iodinated Wine 11.50% + Quina Laroche 16.90% + St. Raphael Quinquina Wine 16.89% + St. Raphael Tannin Wine 14.65% + Savar's Coca Wine 23.40% + Serravallo's Bark and Iron 17.26% + Vana 19.20% + Vibrona 19.30% + +In order to complete our reference to this subject, the following may be +quoted from an excellent little pamphlet which is published by the +National Temperance League. The United States Government Laboratory +affords striking evidence of the large percentages of alcohol contained +in specifics which are stated to be largely used by persons who profess +to be total abstainers. Of these the following are given as examples:-- + + Paine's Celery Compound 21.00% + Peruna 23.00% + Brown's Blood Purifier 23.00% + Brown's Vervain Restorer 25.75% + Hostetter's Bitters 44.30% + +But indeed we are far from having covered the ground in Great Britain +alone. There are many well-known preparations which consist almost +entirely of alcohol and water, together with small quantities of +flavouring matter nominally medicinal. Thus we find, for instance, the +following proportions of alcohol in-- + + Powell's Balsam of Aniseed 40.0% + Dill's Diabetic Mixture 35.0% + Congreve's Balsamic Elixir 25.5% + Steven's Consumption Cure 21.3% + Hood's Sarsaparilla 19.6% + +There are also other compounds such as Crosby's Balsamic Cough Elixir, +Townsend's American Sarsaparilla, and Warner's Safe Cure, which contain +from 8 to 10-1/2 per cent. of alcohol. As the _British Medical Journal_ +justly points out, in a mixture of which a table-spoonful is to be taken +five or six times a day a proportion of 10 per cent. of alcohol is by no +means negligible. + +Let it be noted further that though most malt extracts are free from +alcohol, that which is called "bynin" contains 8.3 per cent, and +"standard liquid" 5 per cent. The _British Medical Journal_ has also +shown that there is at least one "inebriety cure" in Great Britain which +consists of a liquid containing just under 30 per cent. of alcohol. + +On this whole subject it is impossible to speak too strongly, more +especially when one is concerned with the interests of woman and +womanhood. It is true that in consequence of the labours of those few +keen workers whom the impotent and the meaningless and the selfish call +fanatics, we are making a beginning in the matter of education on +Temperance. But apart from that, which amounts only to very little as +yet, it is the lamentable truth that the State does absolutely nothing +whatever to protect the community and especially its women from the +manifold evils which are involved in such figures as those here quoted. +The State wants money, and life is a trifle. Anything that can pay toll +to the State may therefore go without further question. A tax has been +paid on all the alcohol in these things. In many cases, also, a further +tax has been paid for the government stamp on patent medicines. That the +medicine may be dangerous, that it may be a cruel swindle, that it may +take from consumptives and others money which is sorely needed for air +and food, and give them in return what is worse than nothing--all these +things are nothing to the State if the tax is paid. + +Preparations such as those which have been mentioned above have no place +or status whatever in scientific medicine. Their constituents are known +and their action is known. The public pays for sarsaparilla, for +instance, and simply gets a 20 per cent. solution of flavoured alcohol, +and there is no one to inform it that sarsaparilla has been exhaustively +studied by pharmacologists, employing every means of observation and +experiment in their power, and that none of them have yet been able to +detect its capacity to modify the body or any function of the body in +any degree at all whether in health or disease. This is only one of many +instances that might be named; every preparation of which the +composition is not stated is suspect. Men are paying for these things at +this moment under the impression that they are buying valuable tonics +which will save their wives from the consequences of the drink craving +and help to avert it. Large numbers of women are ruining themselves in +purse and in body quite secretly under cover of these scandalous abuses +which are allowed to go on from year to year, and which are undoubtedly +doing more injury to the feminine--that is to say, to the more +important--half of the community in each succeeding year. At least let +the facts be known. Let liberty be believed in and encouraged; but if +these things are to be made and sold and bought, let their composition +be stated on the bottles. The composition of milk is supervised by the +State; margarine, which is harmless and an excellent food, may not be +sold as butter; alcohol, which is noxious, may be sold under any lying +name, but so long as the State gets its percentage, it is well pleased. +The official organ of the medical profession in this country has done +well to draw renewed attention to this subject. Surely it ought to be +possible for the profession and the advocates of temperance to join +hands for the promotion of legislation in a direction where reform +cannot otherwise be obtained. Something, one hopes and believes, can be +done by merely writing on the subject. A certain number of women who +read this book will be deterred from buying these things on finding that +they are simply "masked alcohol" and that their medicinal virtues are +less than _nil_. But though all that is to the good, only legislation +can meet the real need. These preparations offer insidious means of +teaching women to drink, and when the habit is established, nothing can +be accomplished by revealing to the victim the history of its origin. +The minimum demand for legislation should be, at the very least, that +all preparations of this kind should have their composition stated with +every portion of them that is vended to the public. Assuredly the +champions of womanhood will have to take this matter up soon, and the +sooner the better. There is no need to be a fanatic, there is no need +even to be a teetotaler, in order to satisfy oneself that here is a +crying abuse which is ruining the unwarned and the unprotected up and +down the land, and which is quite definitely and obviously within the +capacity of legislation to control effectively and finally. + +Let us turn now to the general question of the organic or physiological +relations between womanhood and alcohol. Both sexes of human beings are +identical in a vast majority of their characters, and the various +reactions to alcohol come within this number. There is no need to repeat +here any of the facts and conclusions which have been set forth at +length elsewhere. What was said there applies to women as to men. That +is true so far as the individual is concerned and it is also true that, +so far as the race is concerned, the germ-plasm or germ-cells in both +sexes alike may be injured by the continued consumption of large +quantities of alcohol. + +There remains the important fact, which it is the present writer's +constant effort to bring to the notice of Eugenists, that alcohol has +special relations to motherhood, to which there can necessarily be no +correspondence in the case of the other sex, and though motherhood, as +such, is not the subject of this book, yet it would be most pedantically +to limit the usefulness which one hopes it may possess if we were to +omit the discussion, as brief as possible, of the effect of alcohol upon +womanhood at the time when womanhood is expressing itself in its supreme +function. + +In my book on Eugenics there is merely the briefest allusion in a +foot-note to this subject, and I confess myself now ashamed of having +dealt with it in that utterly inadequate fashion. In practical +eugenics,--though sooth to say when eugenics begins to become practical +many professing eugenists seem to think that it is wandering from the +point--the great fact of expectant motherhood must be reckoned with. To +decline to do so is in effect to declare that we are greatly concerned +with bringing the right germ-cells together, but have nothing to do with +what may or may not happen to the product of their union. We desire, +however, not merely conjugated germ-cells, but worthy men and women, and +expectant motherhood is therefore part of the eugenic province. +Unfortunately it is easier to invent terms and categories and get people +to accept them than to control their use of one's terms thereafter. +Otherwise, I should forbid the use of the term Eugenist at all by anyone +who is unprepared to move a finger or utter a word on behalf of the care +and the protection of expectant motherhood. + +It is quite true that the question of expectant motherhood has nothing +to do with heredity in the proper sense of that term. We are dealing now +with "nurture," not with "nature," but we are dealing with a department +of nurture which can only be understood when we realize that human +beings begin their lives nine months or so before they are born, and +that the first stage of their nurture is coincident with what we call +expectant motherhood, whilst the second stage of their nurture, normally +and properly, ought to be coincident with what we may call nursing +motherhood. + +Let us then acquaint ourselves with the fact, fully established by +experimental and chemical observation, that alcohol given to the +expectant mother finds its way into the organism of the child. Thus, as +we should expect, alcohol can readily be demonstrated in a newborn child +when the drug has been given to the mother just before its birth. + +It must be understood that the circulation of the mother and of her +child are each complete and self-contained. They come into relation in +the double organ called the placenta, and it has been exhaustively +proved that this organ is so constituted as in large measure to protect +the child from injurious influences acting upon and in the mother. We +may therefore speak of the placenta as a filter. Its protective action +explains the facts, so familiar to medical men and philanthropic +workers, that healthy and undamaged children are often born to mothers +who are stricken with mortal disease--most notably, perhaps, in the case +of consumption. It becomes a most important matter to ascertain the +limits of the placental power, and by observation upon human beings and +experiment upon the lower animals this matter has been very thoroughly +elucidated of late years. There are many kinds of poison, and many +varieties of those living poisons that we call microbes, which the +placenta does not allow to pass through from the mother's blood-vessels +into those of the child, and which are unable, fortunately for the +child, to break down the placental resistance. On the other hand, there +are certain microbes and certain poisons which readily pass through the +placenta. Conspicuous amongst these are alcohol, lead and arsenic, and +it is especially important to realize that alcohol injures the child not +merely by its own passage through the placenta, but by injuring that +organ, so that its efficiency as a filter is impaired. On the whole +subject of expectant motherhood and the morbid influences which may act +upon it, the greatest living authority is my friend and teacher, Dr. J. +W. Ballantyne of Edinburgh. He contributed an important paper on this +subject to our first National Conference on Infantile Mortality held in +1906.[22] I only wish it were possible to reproduce in full here Dr. +Ballantyne's paper on the Ante-Natal Causes of Infantile Mortality. The +unread critic who is so ready with the word fanatic whenever alcohol is +attacked might begin to derive from it some faint idea of the quality +and massiveness of the evidence upon which our case is based. Here it +must suffice merely to quote the verdict at which Dr. Ballantyne arrives +after surveying all the evidence on the subject that had been obtained +up to the year 1906. He summarizes as follows:-- + + "It must then be concluded that parental and especially maternal + alcoholism of the kind to which the name of chronic drunkenness or + persistent soaking is applied, is the source of both ante-natal and + post-natal mortality. It acts in all the three ways in which I + indicated that ante-natal causes can be shown to act in relation to + the increase of infantile mortality, viz.,.by causing abortions., + by predisposing to premature labours, and by weakening the infant + by disease or deformity so that it more readily succumbs to + ordinary morbid influences at and after birth. By causing diseases + of the kidneys and of the placenta it also leads to that failure of + the filter to which I have already referred; the placenta being + damaged, not only does the alcohol more readily pass through it + itself, but it is also possible for other poisons, germs, and + toxins to cross over into the fatal economy. So it comes about that + the most disastrous consequences are entailed upon the unborn + infant in connection with syphilis, lead-poisoning, fevers, and + the like in the intemperate mother." + +The foregoing was written as long ago as 1906, and various workers have +helped to confirm it since that date. + +We must further learn that alcohol taken by the mother who nurses her +child has an organic relation to the child after birth. It is true, +indeed, that according to a celebrated observer, Professor von Bunge, +the influence of alcoholism in preceding generations is such that the +daughters of such a stock are mostly unable to nurse their children. It +is not quite certain that Professor von Bunge has proved his case, but +it is definitely proved that even if alcoholism in the maternal +grandparent has not altogether prevented a child from being fed in the +natural fashion, it may yet suffer gravely in consequence of receiving +alcohol in its mother's milk. In the case of the nursing mother, there +is one fresh avenue of excretion which the organism can employ for +ridding itself of the poison, and to the efforts of the lungs and the +kidneys are added those of the breasts. Alcohol can be readily traced in +the mother's milk within twenty minutes of its entry into her stomach, +and may be detected in it for as long as eight hours after a large dose. +Many cases are on record where infants at the breast have thus become +the subjects of both acute and chronic alcoholic poisoning. We have +numerous reports of convulsions and other disorders occurring in infants +when the nurse has taken liquor, and ceasing when she has been put on a +non-alcoholic diet. A most distinguished lady, Dr. Mary Scharlieb, may +be quoted in this connection, or the reader may indeed refer to the +chapter, "Alcoholism in Relation to Women and Children," contributed by +her to the volume "The Drink Problem" in my New Library of Medicine. She +says, "The child, then, absolutely receives alcohol as part of his diet +with the worst effect upon his organs, for alcohol has a greater effect +upon cells in proportion to their immaturity." Further, as she points +out, "the milk of the alcoholic mother not only contains alcohol, but it +is otherwise unsuitable for the infant's nourishment; it does not +contain the proper proportions of proteid, sugar, fat, etc., and it is +therefore not suited for the building up of a healthy body." + +It is plain that here we cannot avoid criticism of an almost universal +medical practice. Our concern in the present volume is not with children +but women; and in dealing with the effects of maternal alcoholism upon +childhood, the main intention is being kept in view. As regards the +giving of alcohol to the nursing mother, there is no doubt that the +child is more seriously in danger than she is. There is no doubt also +that, as one has often pointed out, the Children Act which forbids the +giving of alcohol to children under five years old is being broken when +the nursing mother takes alcohol. I refer to this subject here because +only thus can we come to a decision on the question whether the nursing +mother owes the taking of alcohol as a duty to her child. She may be a +teetotaler; she may fear to take alcohol; and she may be authoritatively +told that it is her duty to do so because the quality of her milk will +be improved. In such a case she may yield, though often with a wry face; +and thus we have the frequent beginning of disasters to which there is +no end. + +The truth is that the medical profession has long erred in this respect. +Judgment has gone by superficials. Undoubtedly there is a greater bulk +of milk when stout and porter are taken. But everyone knows that +ordinary household milk may come from the cow or from the pump. The +question is not how much bulk is there, but what does the bulk consist +of? Definite chemical evidence, which may be repeated a thousand times, +and which is allowed to go unchallenged by the vast host of doctors who +are prescribing alcohol for nursing mothers all over the world, shows us +that its influence is to increase the bulk of the milk while reducing +the amount of its nutritive constituents, and adding to them one which +is poisonous. The increase of bulk is easy to explain. Alcohol is +exceedingly avid of water. Thus the common experience that alcoholic +liquors tend to increase the desire for liquid can readily be explained. +Alcohol, leaving the blood, tends to withdraw with itself, if it can, a +quantity of water. These two, in the milk, between them maintain the +added bulk on account of which alcoholic liquors are so widely ordered +for and drunk by nursing mothers throughout the civilized world. The +infant mortality is thus contributed to, and many women are urged and +deceived by their love for their children into a practice which achieves +their own ruin. Doctors look back a hundred years or so and observe the +amazing practices of their predecessors. They have record of +prescriptions and treatments which were ridiculous or disgusting or +trivial or painful; they have abundant record of practices which were +deadly, and for which any medical man at the present day might be called +upon to pay heavy damages or indicted for manslaughter. Yet in the +matter of the indiscriminate and ignorant employment of alcohol, in +defiance of overwhelmingly proved facts which will not be challenged by +any of those whom this criticism hits and who will virulently resent it +and decry its author, doctors of the present day are assuredly earning +the astonished contempt of their successors in times by no means remote. +A certain number of women who nurse or will nurse will read this book. +Of these not a few will be ordered various alcoholic beverages by their +medical attendant in order to aid this function. Let them obey his +orders when he has satisfactorily answered the following questions: Are +you aware that part of the alcohol will pass unchanged through my breast +into my baby's body? Are you aware that if my milk is analyzed it will +be found to contain less food for the baby with more bulk than if I were +to do without the alcohol? Are you aware that careful enquiry and +observation have shown that the best foods for the making of milk are +those which contain the constituents of milk--as seems not +unreasonable--like milk itself and bread and butter and meat? Can you +begin to explain any imaginable process by which either the animal or +the vegetable body could build up a molecule composed as the molecule of +alcohol is into any of the nutritive ingredients in milk? That catechism +is quite short, but it will suffice. + +A serious error which has long been made by temperance workers consists +in supposing that the problem of alcoholism is the problem of +drunkenness. They speak of "the sin of intemperance," and by that term +they mean only such intemperance as produces what should properly be +called acute alcoholic intoxication. The friends of alcohol eagerly +accept an error which suits their case so admirably. Nothing can suit +them better than to assume that alcohol does no ill apart from causing +drunkenness. Better still, they are able to quote the case of the +incurable drunkard, suffering from an uncontrollable craving, and to +point out quite truly that he will get drunk in any case no matter how +many public-houses, for instance, we close. + +It was always a gross error to suppose that drunkenness was the whole of +the evil done by alcohol; if, indeed, it be one per cent. of it, which +we may doubt. This is not a point which one need trouble to argue here, +except in so far as our right understanding of it is necessary if we are +to see the meaning of current changes in the drinking habits of the +people. That women are drinking more, everyone grants. That this is evil +not merely for the women of the present but for both sexes in the +future, I am constantly asserting. But it will not do at all to use mere +drunkenness as our measure of what is happening amongst women. We know +that in either sex a single bout of drinking, say once a week on +Saturday night, may leave the individual little worse, may injure health +quite inappreciably, if at all; it may not interfere with his work, and +may even be of small economic importance. In such a coal-mining county +as Durham, for instance, where alcohol cannot be drunk in association +with work because the workman and his fellows know that the safety of +their lives will not permit it, we find a huge proportion of arrests for +drunkenness, and it might be supposed that in this most drunken county +in England we should find the highest proportion of permanent +consequences of alcoholism. On the contrary, as Dr. Sullivan says, +"owing to their relative freedom from industrial drinking coal-miners +show a remarkably low rate of alcoholic mortality, ranking in fact with +the agriculturists and below all the other industrial groups." Here is a +simple statistical fact which continues true year by year, and the +significance of which must be insisted upon. + +In the case of women, the very obvious and natural tendency is for the +proportion of drunkenness to the alcohol consumed to be much lower than +in the case of men. Drunkenness is commonly the result of convivial +drinking. A company of men get together, and they help each other to get +drunk. Women are not subjected to so many temptations in this respect. +Their drinking is industrial drinking,--above all, at the supreme +industry, which is the culture of the racial life. Like other industrial +drinking, it is less conspicuous than convivial drinking; it leads to +few arrests for drunkenness, but it has far graver effects on the +individual, and it shows its consequences in the industrial product with +which in this case no other industrial product can compare. Now unless +we disabuse ourselves once and for all of the notion that the drink +question is merely the drunkenness question, we shall never succeed in +rightly approaching and dealing with this most ominous development of +modern civilization, to which I have done such imperfect justice in the +present chapter. + +Dr. Sullivan[23] has some important remarks on this subject from which +one cannot do better than freely quote. As a distinguished and +experienced Medical Officer in H. M. Prison Service, notably at +Holloway, where so many women have been under his care, Dr. Sullivan has +very special credentials, even if the internal evidence of his book did +not convince us. He says that:-- + + "The domestic occupations which are the chief field of women's + activities obviously allow ample opportunity for the continuance of + alcoholic habits formed prior to marriage. This is a matter of much + importance. For the ordinary existence of the working man's wife, + with its succession of pregnancies and sucklings, and the + management of a brood of children in cramped surroundings, will of + itself be very likely to promote tippling; and if a knowledge of + the effect of alcohol as an industrial excitant has been acquired + by the factory girl, it is pretty sure of further development in + the married woman. Instances of this sort, in which the discomforts + of the first pregnancy stimulate the growth of a rudimentary habit + of industrial drinking to confirmed intemperance, are tolerably + common in any wide experience of the alcoholic." + +The following paragraph must also be quoted for its clear indication of +a matter which is of prime importance, which no one denies, and yet of +which no statesman or politician has begun to take cognizance:-- + + "The employment of women in the ordinary industrial occupations not + only involves a disorganization of their domestic duties if they + are married, but it also interferes with the acquisition of + housewifely knowledge during girlhood. The result is that appalling + ignorance of everything connected with cookery, with cleanliness, + with the management of children, which make the average wife and + mother in the lower working class in this country one of the most + helpless and thriftless of beings, and which therefore impels the + workman, whose comfort depends on her, not only to spend his free + time in the public-house, but also tends to make him look to + alcohol as a necessary condiment with his tasteless and + indigestible diet. Both directly and indirectly, therefore, the + employments that withdraw women from domestic pursuits are likely + to increase alcoholism, and, it may be added, to increase its + greatest potency for evil, namely its influence on the health of + the stock." + +Elsewhere I have endeavoured to deal with the general physiology of +alcohol and its relations to race-culture. Here our special concern has +been woman, and not woman as mother, but rather woman as individual. We +have had specially to refer, however, to expectant and nursing +motherhood because each of these offers special temptations and +opportunities for the beginning of the alcoholic habit or strengthening +its hold in a deadly fashion, and it is certainly necessary for us to +know that the supposed advantages to the child, which constitute a new +argument for alcohol at these times, are not advantages but injuries +which may be grave and often fatal. The utterly incomprehensible thing +is how anyone can suppose or ever could suppose otherwise. + +It is necessary to add a few words to the foregoing since there has +recently appeared what purports to be a contribution to some of the +problems that have concerned us. Part of the foregoing argument has +rested upon the fact, only too definitely, variously and frequently +proved, that alcoholism in women prejudices the performance of their +supreme functions. Complicated as the maternal relation to the future +is, the relations of alcohol to the problem are correspondingly so, and +in any discussion that is to be of value we must draw the necessary +distinctions. In many scientific contributions to the subject this has +already been done. We have identified certain degenerate stocks who +display the symptoms of alcoholism. The alcohol may aggravate their +degeneracy but it is not the prime cause of it in them, though it may +have been so in their ancestors. The children of such persons are +degenerate also, and as the class is numerous and fertile there is here +a social problem which is not primarily a problem in alcohol, but is +accidentally connected therewith simply because the proneness to +alcoholism is a symptom of the degeneracy. + +Quite distinct from the foregoing there is the influence of alcohol upon +mothers and motherhood that would otherwise have been healthy. Alcohol, +like lead, as has been shown elsewhere, may injure the racial elements +in the mother before even expectant motherhood occurs. Later, it may +prejudice both expectant motherhood and nursing motherhood; further it +is often the primary cause of over-laying and of chronic cruelty and +neglect. Until quite lately there was also the action of the +public-house upon the children to be reckoned with, where the mother +visited it and was allowed to take them with her. That, however, has +been at last put a stop to in England, following the example of +civilization elsewhere. + +But it will be clear that the problem is a complicated one. It has been +confidently attacked by Professor Karl Pearson in a Report upon "the +influence of parental alcoholism upon the offspring," and the +conclusions of that Report have been widely circulated and are being +circulated almost wherever the monetary interest of alcohol has power. +Briefly, Professor Pearson came to the conclusion that the children of +drunken parents are, on the average, superior to those of sober parents +in physique and in intelligence, in sight and in freedom from epilepsy +and other diseases. This, of course, as everybody knows, is obvious +nonsense, and the only problem remaining is how to account for its +assertion. I have dealt with that question at length elsewhere,[24] and +here need only note in a word that Professor Pearson's Report includes +no comparison between the children of abstainers and drinkers, since the +number of abstainers was too few to be treated separately; that +Professor Pearson attaches no strict meaning to the term alcoholism, by +which he means anything from what the word really means down to a +general suspicion that the parents were drinking more than was good for +themselves or their home; and finally that in studying the influence of +alcohol upon offspring Professor Pearson has omitted to enquire in a +single case whether the alcoholism or the offspring came first. The +Report has no scientific basis whatever and has been riddled with +criticism by expert students of every kind, including not merely +students of alcoholism but also Professor Alfred Marshall of Cambridge, +the greatest English-speaking economist of the time, who has shown that +there are no grounds for the assumptions made by Professor Pearson in +that part of his argument which is based upon the economic efficiency of +drinking and non-drinking parents. The publication of this Report merely +hastens the rapid decadence of "biometry," the foundations of which have +already been sapped by the re-discovery of Mendelism in 1900; but it was +necessary to refer to the matter here, since in the advertisements and +the other printed matter paid for by the alcoholic party, the public is +being informed that the children of alcoholic parents have been proved +to be, on the whole, superior to those of non-alcoholic parents. This +question has been exhaustively studied, yet again, in London by Dr. +Sullivan, in Helsingfors by Professor Laitinen, and also in New York in +an enquiry which actually embraced no less than fifty-five thousand +school children. The elementary fallacies entertained by Professor +Pearson were of course avoided and the uniform result in these and in a +host of other enquiries that might be named is the only result which +could be imagined in a universe where causes have effects. + +The particular causes under consideration have been having their effects +for a very long time. It begins to be more and more clear that they have +played a great part in the history of mankind. As the "history" we +learnt at school is more and more discredited, there is slowly coming +into being a real kind of history which deals with the essentials of +national life and death, and is based upon the principles of organic +evolution. This is a thesis which one has attempted to justify in a +previous book, but one aspect of it must be recurred to here. Our modern +study of various diseases and poisons is throwing a light on the life of +nations. Take for instance the modern theories as to the influence of +malarial poison upon Greece. In the case of alcohol, we now have +evidence which is real and unchallengeable. The properties which it +displays when we study it to-day have always been and always will be its +properties. We find that it has certain actions on living protoplasm in +the twentieth century; we know enough of the uniformity of nature to +realize that it had those actions in the tenth century, and will have +them in the thirtieth. As we study under the microscope the influence of +alcohol upon the racial tissues in the individual,[25] and therein find +confirmation of experimental study and observation by all the other +means available to science, we begin to see that the greatest facts of +history are those of which historians have no word, and not least +amongst these has ever been the influence of alcohol upon parenthood. It +is possible to adduce arguments in favour of the view that the +practically complete immunity of their parenthood from alcohol is one of +the great factors that explain the all but unexampled persistence of +the Jews and their present status in the van of the world's thought and +work. For history it is the parents that matter as against the +non-parents, and of the parents it is the mothers even more than the +fathers. The freedom of the Jews as a whole from alcoholism is more +marked than ever in the case of their women; that is to say, in the case +of their mothers. + +We see the part-results of this in our own time when we compare the +infant mortality amongst the Jews with that of their Gentile neighbours +in a great city such as London or Leeds. As everyone should know, there +is a huge disparity between the figures in the two cases, and in some +records it has been found that under equal conditions two Gentile babies +will die for each Jewish baby. The conditions are of course not equal, +because the Jewish babies have Jewish motherhood, splendidly backed up +as it usually is by Jewish fatherhood; whereas the Gentile babies have a +very inferior parental care. Now if it were that infant mortality, as +most people suppose, simply meant the death of a certain number of +babies, the foregoing facts would have no particular bearing upon the +questions of racial survival, except in so far as those questions depend +upon mere numbers. But the advocates of the great campaign against +infant mortality have always maintained that the actual mortality is +only one effect of the causes which produce it. When people have said +that the loss of a certain number of babies mattered little, we have +always replied that for every baby killed many were damaged. This +contention has now been proved up to the hilt in the remarkable +official enquiry, the first of its kind, made by Dr. Newsholme, now +Chief Medical Officer of the Local Government Board.[26] He studied +infant mortality in relation to the mortality of children and young +people at all subsequent ages, and he proved, once and for all, that +infant mortality is what we have always maintained it to be, not merely +a disaster in itself but an evidence of causes which injure the health +and vigour of the survivors at all ages. Wherever infant mortality is +highest, there child mortality is highest, and the mortality of boys and +girls at puberty and during the early years of adolescence when the body +is preparing for and becoming capable of parenthood. The evil conditions +that cause infant mortality are thus proved to be far-reaching and much +wider in their effects than any but the students of the subject have yet +realized. + +This chapter must be brought to a close, but it may be added that the +emergence of sober nations, such as Japan and Turkey, into contemporary +history, and the possibilities latent in China,--to mention none other +of the "dying nations," so very much alive, at whom glass-eyed +politicians used to sneer--constitutes one of the major facts of +contemporary history. No one can yet say whether these nations will have +the wisdom to retain their ancient habits or whether they will accept +our whisky along with our parliamentary institutions and motor-cars. +Much future history rests upon this issue. + +But I have little doubt that whatever happens in the case of Japan and +Turkey, Jewish parenthood will retain the quality which has long ago +become fixed as a racial characteristic, and that the race which has +survived so much oppression and so many of its oppressors will survive +contemporary abuse and the abusers. Its women nurse their own babies and +have retained the power to do so. Neither before birth nor after do they +feed the life that is to be on alcohol; they lay rightly the foundations +of the future, where alone those foundations can be durably laid. The +reader is not necessarily asked to admire them or to like them or to +speak well of them, but if he desires the strength and continuance of +whatever race or nation he belongs to, he will do well to imitate them. + +It seems necessary to believe in the yellow peril, though not, of +course, in its absurd form of a military nightmare. The pressure of +population is the irresistible force of history. It depends, of course, +upon parenthood, and more especially upon motherhood and therefore upon +womanhood. At present the motherhood of the yellow races is sober. If it +remains so, and if the motherhood of Western races takes the course +which motherhood has taken for many years past in England, it is very +sure that in the Armageddon of the future, those ancient races, Semitic +and Mongol, which had achieved civilization when Europe was in the Stone +Age, will be in a position of immense advantage as against our own race, +which is threatening, at any rate in England, to follow the example of +many races of which little record, or none, now remains, and drink +itself to death. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +CONCLUSION + + +The plan of this book has now been satisfied. The reader may be very far +from satisfied, but not, it is to be hoped, on the ground that many +subjects have been omitted which might quite well have been included +under the title of Woman and Womanhood. It was better to confine our +search to principles. + +For it seems evident that civilization is at the parting of the ways in +these fundamental matters. The invention of aeroplanes and submarine and +wireless telegraphy and the like is of no more moment than the fly on +the chariot wheel, compared with the vital reconstructions which are now +proceeding or imminent. The business of the thoughtful at this juncture +is to determine principles, for principles there are in these matters, +if they can be discovered, as certain, as all-important as those on +which any other kind of science proceeds. Just as the physicist must +hold hard by his principles of motion and thermodynamics and radiation +and the like, so the sociologist must hold hard by the organic +principles which determine the life and continuance of living things. +Unless we base our projects for mankind upon the laws of life, they will +come to naught, as such projects have come to naught not once but a +thousand times in the past. + +None will dare dispute these assertions, yet what do we see at the +present time? On what grounds is the woman question fought, and by what +kind of disputants? It is fought, as everyone knows, on the grounds of +what women want, or rather, what a particular section of half-instructed +women, in some particular time and place, think they want,--or do not +want--under the influence of suggestion, imitation and the other +influences which determine public opinion. It is fought on the grounds +of precedent: women are not to have votes in England because women have +never had votes in England, or they are to have votes in England because +they have them in New Zealand. It is fought on party political grounds, +none the less potent because they are not honestly acknowledged: the +Liberal and the Conservative parties favour or disfavour this or that +Suffrage Bill, or whatever it may be, according to what they expect to +be its effect upon their voting strength. It is fought upon financial +grounds, as when we see the entire force of the alcoholic party arrayed +against the claims of women, as in the nature of things it always has +been and always will be. It is fought on theological grounds by clerics +who quote the first chapter of Genesis; and on anti-theological grounds +by half-instructed rationalists who attack marriage because they suppose +it was invented by the Church. + +And whose voices never fail among the disputants? Loudest of all are +those of youth of both sexes, who know nothing and want to know nothing +and who have no idea that there is anything to know in attempting to +decide such questions as this. It is argued in the House of Gramophones +and such places, by common politicians of the type the many-headed +choose, who would do better to confine themselves to the soiled +questions of tariffs and the like, in which they find a native joy. It +is argued by vast numbers of men who hate or fear women, and women who +hate or fear men, as if any imaginable wisdom on this question or any +other could possibly be born of such emotions. + +Yet all the while we are dealing with a problem in biology, with living +beings, obeying and determined by the laws of life, and with a species +exhibiting those fundamental facts of heredity, variation, bi-parental +reproduction, sexual selection, instinct and the like, which are mere +meaningless names to nine out of ten of the disputants, and yet which +determine them and their disputes and the issues thereof. + +If these contentions be correct, there is plainly much need for an +attempt, however imperfect, to set forth the first principles of woman +and womanhood. Evidently the time for discussion of detailed questions +has not yet come, since, to take a single instance, there is not yet to +be heard on either side of the controversy a single voice asserting the +fundamental eugenic necessity that, at whatever cost, the best women +must be selected for motherhood, and the contribution of their +superiority to the future stock. + +Let us briefly sum up the substance of the foregoing pages. + +First, we have stated the eugenic postulate, failing to grant which we +and our schemes, our votes and our hopes, will assuredly disappear or +decay, as must all living races which are not recruited from their +best, Secondly, we have proceeded to analyze the nature of womanhood, +its capacities and conditions, assuming that we can scarcely discover +whither it should go unless we know what it is. To the party politician, +hungry for the prizes that suit his soul or stomach, such an assumption +is mere foolish pedantry; and the ardent suffragist will have little +more to say to it. That, however, cannot be helped. It is to be hoped +that all parties, _as parties_, will unite in banning the views herein +expressed, and then one may take heart of grace and dare to hope that +there is something in them. + +They may be crystallized in the dictum that woman is Nature's supreme +organ of the future. This is not a theory, but a statement of evident +truth. It is an essential canon of what one might call the philosophy of +biology, and applies to the female sex throughout living nature. Birth +is of the female alone. No sub-human male, nor even man himself, can +directly achieve the future; the greatest statesman or law-giver or +founder of nations can only work, if he knew it, through womanhood. The +greatest of these, and their name is very far from legion, was evidently +Moses, as history shows, and he acted on this principle. On the other +hand, those who have sought to achieve the future, as Napoleon did, +failed because they defiled and flouted womanhood. The best men died on +the battlefield and the worst were left to aid the women in that supreme +work of parenthood by which alone, and only through the co-operation of +men and women, the future is made. + +Thirdly, we have seen it to follow from this dedication of the greater +and vastly more valuable part of woman's energies to the future that, +just in proportion as she serves it and devotes herself thereto, she +needs present support. Biology teaches us that the male sex was invented +for this purpose; doubtless one should say for this "increasing +purpose," since it is scarcely more than foreshadowed at first in the +history of the male sex. The study of life has clearly proved that the +male sex is secondary and adjuvant, and that its essentially auxiliary +functions for the race have been increasing from the beginning until we +find them in perfection wherever two parents join in common consecration +and devotion to their supreme task, upon which all else depends and +without which nothing else could be. + +And just as woman is mediate between man and the future, so man is +mediate between woman and the present. Woman is the more immediate +environment, the special providence, so to say, of childhood; and man, +in a rightly constituted society, is the special providence, the more +immediate environment of woman, standing between her and inanimate +Nature, guarding her, taking thought for her, feeding her, using his +special masculine qualities for her--that is to say, in the long run, +for the future of the race; this indeed being the purpose for which +Nature has contrived all individuals of both sexes. If we prefer such +phrases, we may say that the future or the children are parasitic upon +woman, and that woman is "parasitic upon the male," which is one woman's +way of putting it. Or we may say that these are the natural and +therefore divine relations of the various forms in which human life is +cast, and that our business is to make them more effective, more +provident and freer from the factors which in all ages have tended to +injure them. + +Fourthly, we have everywhere seen cause to condemn sex-antagonism, and +it is my hope that no page or line or word of this book can be accused +of illustrating or justifying or inciting to or even attempting to +palliate either form of this wholly abominable spirit of the pit. If +such places there be, there assuredly is misdirection and falsity. This +spirit is one of the great enemies of mankind. As aroused in women +against men, it has done and is doing no little harm; as exhibited by +men against the righteous claims of women, it is one of the supremely +malign forces of history. Wherever and however displayed, it is false to +the first and most essential facts of life, from the moment of the +evolution of sex, hundreds of millions of years ago, until our own time. +All who display it, however excellent their intentions, are enemies of +mankind; all who work upon it for their own ends, political and +personal, without feeling it, are beneath disgust. These are things true +and necessary to be said, though they should not deter us from +sympathizing with the unhappy individuals, not a few, whose lives have +been blasted by individuals of the other sex, and who show the natural +but tragic tendency to make their private injury cause for resentment +against one-half of mankind. Surveying the pages that are past, I am +almost inclined to regret that, the plan of the book notwithstanding, a +special chapter was not devoted to Sex-Antagonism and to a demonstration +on biological grounds of its wickedness and pestilence wherever it be +found, and whatever plausible case for it may anywhere be made. + +If the sound of hope is not heard as the ground-tone of these chapters, +let it ring through all else at the end. I am an optimist because I am +an evolutionist, and because I believe, as every one of those whom I +call Eugenists must, that the best is yet to be. The dawn is breaking +for womanhood, and therefore for all mankind. If we are asked to express +in one phrase the reason why this hope is justified, it is because the +long struggle between two antithetic conceptions of human society is +reaching a definite issue. + +These radically opposed ideas may for convenience be called the +_organic_ and the _internecine_. The internecine conception of society +forever sets nation against nation, race against race, class against +class, sex against sex, individual against individual, on the ground +that the interest of one must be the injury of the other. It is false. +Nay, more, for man living his life on this earth as he must and will, it +is the Great Lie. + +And it is being found out. Even international trade and commerce, from +which such a service could scarcely have been expected, are here +contributing to philosophy. Our fathers talked of the comity of nations; +we are beginning to discover their interdependence. The coming of that +discovery is one of the few really new things under the sun. Not so very +long ago, when mankind was far less numerous, such interdependence of +nations did not exist; they were self-sufficient, just as the +patriarchal family was self-sufficient still further ago. + +But the interdependence of the sexes is so far from being a new fact +that it is as old as the evolution of sex, and the decadence and +disappearance of parthenogenesis or reproduction from the female sex +alone. Once bi-parental reproduction becomes necessary for the +continuance of the race, both sexes sink with either, and neither can +swim but with both. Yet so far are we from realizing this most ancient +of facts to-day that, on both sides of the woman question, wonderful to +relate, are to be found controversialists who are seeking to deny this +continuous lesson of so many million ages. The reader may take his +choice of folly between them. On the one hand, there are the feminists +who seek to do without man,--except for the minimum physiological +purpose. The women are to sustain the present and create the future +simultaneously, and man is to be reduced, apparently, to the function of +the drone. Thus Mrs. Gilman in "Women and Economics." Over against her +and those who think with her are to be set the men, and women too, who +tell us that "men made the State,"--a sufficiently shameful +admission--and that women have no business with these things. Do not +their mothers blush for such; to have travailed so much, and to have +achieved so little? + +Fortunately, however, the greater number of those who think and +determine the deeds of the mass are beginning, though the dawn is yet +very faint, to perceive that this truth of the interdependence of the +sexes, which is part of the greater truth that mankind is an organic +whole, is not only much truer than ever to-day, but is vital to our +salvation; and save us it will. In so far as we are keeping women +inferior to men, we must raise them; in so far as we are keeping men, in +other and certainly no less important respects, inferior to women, we +must raise them. The future needs and will obtain the utmost of the +highest of both sexes. Thus and thus only "springs the crowning race of +human kind": wherein, as we hasten to the dust, living for a day, yet +for ever, our eyes prophetic may behold the sure and certain hope of a +glorious resurrection. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +INDEX OF SUBJECTS + + +Adolescence, 124 + ---- and advertisements, 135 + ---- and alcohol, 228 + +Alcohol, 54, 100 + ---- accessibility of, 360 + ---- and expectant motherhood, 367 + ---- and breast-feeding, 371 + ---- and industrialism, 360, 377 + ---- and tobacco _versus_ children, 201, 251, 354 + ---- widows and orphans, 350 + ---- and womanhood, 348 _et seq._ + +Alcoholism and lead poisoning, 379 + ---- and offspring, 380 + ---- and Jewish survival, 382 _et seq._ + +Anti-Suffrage societies, 16 + +Asceticism, old and new, 102 + +Bees, arguments from, 31, 84, 322 + +Birth-rate, fall of, 288 _et seq._ + ---- and infant mortality, 301 + ---- and marriage-rate, 312 + +Board of Education Syllabus, 121 + +Breast feeding, 333 _et seq._ + ---- and alcohol, 371 + +"British Medical Journal" on meat, wines, etc., 361 _et seq._ + +Brooding instinct in fowls, 82 + +Canada's need of women, 269 + +Childless marriage, 244 + +Children Act, 265, 372 + +Climacteric, 21, 77, 98 + +Confirmation and adolescence, 124 + +Conservation of energy, 64 + ---- and higher education, 79 + +Contagious diseases, 219 + +Corset, 120, 186 _et seq._ + +Cycling for women, 119 + +Dancing, 120, 122 + +Degeneracy and inaction, 42 + +Determination of sex, 72 _et seq._ + +Divorce, conditions of, 291 _et seq._ + ---- _versus_ separation, 293 + ---- in Germany, 293 + ---- Law Reform Union, 293 + +Dolls and their significance, 95, 166 + +Education, definition of, 156 + ---- and instruction, 161, 172 + ---- for motherhood, 151, 158 _et seq._ + +Educational question, 43 + +Endowment of motherhood, 282 _et seq._, 308 + +Engagements, length of, 135 + +Eugenic feminism, 7 + +Eugenics, _passim_. + +"Evolution of Sex," 67 + +Exercise in girls' schools, Herbert Spencer on, 104 _et seq._ + +Expectant mother, 143, 367 + +Fabian Society, 182 + +Femaleness, constitution of, 76 + +Games _versus_ dumb-bells, 110 + ---- mixed, 113 + +Gameto-genesis, 82 + +Germ cells and germ plasm, 27, 28, 81, 206, 367 + ---- its immortality, 29 + ---- and sex inheritance, 74 + +Girls' clubs, 123 + ---- clothing, 125 + +Gonorrh[oe]a, 223 _et seq._ + +Gymnastics _versus_ play, 109 + +Haemophilia, 3 + +Happiness in marriage, 236 + +Heredity and responsibility, 195 + +Heredity of sex, 73 + +Higher education, 151 + ---- in London, 128 + ---- and marriage rate, 78 + ---- and conservation of energy, 79 + +Highest education, 154 + +Identical twins, 55 + +Illegitimacy, 148, 304, 336, 384 + +Infant mortality, 70, 172, 177, 194, 259, 325 + +Infant mortality and alcohol, 370 + +Insanity, 54, 225 + +Instinct and emotion, 164 + +Instinct, Spencer's definition of, 164 + +Insurance for motherhood, 315 + +Joy, physiological value of, 112 + +Kaiser's creed, 11 + +Knossos, 186 + +Law of multiplication, 66 + +Leprosy, 220 + +Maleness, constitution of, 76 + +"Man before speech," 39 + +Marriage age, 196 + ---- Metchnikoff on, 199 + ---- and quality of children, 204 + ---- conditions of, 258 + ---- and the "superfluous woman," 259 _et seq._ + +"Marriage as a Trade," 202 + +Marriage, social function of, 307 + +Married women's labour, 306 + +Mars, the parallel from, 50 + +Maternal instinct, 163 _et seq._ + ---- McDougall on, 168 _et seq._ + ---- in the cat, 171, 177 + ---- alleged decadence of, 174 _et seq._ + +Mendelism, 4, 67, 74, 75, 81 _et seq._, 330 + +Menstrual function, 108 + +Monogamy and its critics, 272 + +Monogamy and polygamy, 261 + +"Morning Post," quotation from, 340 + +Mortality in childbirth, 217 + +Mosaic legislation, 147 + +Mother and child worship, 148 + +Motherhood, endowment of, 282 + ---- physical and psychical, 83 + +Motherhood insurance, 315 + +"Mrs. Warren's Profession," 138 + +Muscles, relative value of, for women, 117 + +Muscularity and vitality, 99 + +Natural selection, 32 + +Nature and nurture, 52, 214 + +Neanderthal skull, 38 + +Notification of Births Act, 132 + +Organic analysis by Mendelism, 81 + +Parental instinct, 95 + +Parthenogenesis, 72 + +Patent medicines and alcohol, 361 _et seq._ + +Physical fitness for marriage, 208 + +Physical training of girls, 99 + +Physiological division of labour, 87 + +Play centres, 22 + +Preventive eugenics, 24 + +Progress and the nervous system, 102 + ---- definition of, 37 + ---- the two kinds of, 38 + +Prudery, 130, 132 _et seq._ + +Psychical fitness for marriage, 211 + +Puberty, 98, 124 + +Racial instinct, 167, 180, 225 + +Racial poisons, 24, 382 + +Radium, 35 + +"Reproduction" and "parenthood," 141 + +Rescue homes, 137 + +"Richard Feverel," 191 + +Rights of mothers, 293 _et seq._ + ---- of women, 319 + +Scotland, educational strain at puberty, 115 + +Separation _versus_ divorce, 293 + +"Sex and Character," 68 + +Sex equality and sex identity, 56 _et seq._ + +Sex and breathing, 93, 94 + +Sex and the blood, 93 + +Sex in childhood, 92 + +Sex antagonism, 391 + +"Sexual instinct" and "racial instinct," 144 _et seq._ + +Sexual attraction, Spencer on, 240 _et seq._ + +Sexual selection, 144 + +Skipping, 122 + +Socialism, 182 + ---- and motherhood, 282 + +Socialism and responsibility, 309 + +Swedish gymnastics, 121 + +Swimming, 120 + +Syphilis, 54, 222 _et seq._ + +Terms of specialization, 87 + +Transmutation of instinct, 171 + ---- of sex, 251 + +Vacation schools, 22, 114 + +Variation within a sex, 89 + ---- amongst women, 90 + +Venereal diseases, 219 _et seq._ + +Venus of Milo, 120, 186 + +Vital imports and exports, 267 + +Vitality superior in women, 99 + +Widowhood, causes of, 217 + ---- and motherhood, 303 + +Women and colonization, 268 _et seq._ + +"Women's Charter," 311, 315 + +Women and economics, 327 _et seq._ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +INDEX OF NAMES + + +Aristotle, 39 + +Aurelius, Marcus, 257 + +Bacon, 182 + +Ballantyne, Dr. J. W., 370 + +Bateson, 77 + +Bonheur, Rosa, 58 + +Botticelli, 184 + +Bouchard, 290 + +Brieux, 138, 221 + +Budin, Prof., 336 + +Bunge, Prof. von, 334, 371 + +Burke, 225 + +Burns, John, 325 + +Butler, Lady, 58 + +Carlyle, 8 + +Chesterton, G. K., 266, 333 + +Clouston, 21 + +Coleridge, 40, 178, 184 + +Croom, Sir Halliday, 119 + +Darwin, 26, 47 + +Duncan, Miss Isadora, 123 + +Duncan, Dr. Matthews, 210 + +Ehrlich, 233 + +Eliot, George, 58 + +Ellis, Dr. Havelock, 61, 93, 118, 119, 186 + +Evans, Dr. Arthur, 186 + +Fawcett, Mrs., 21 + +Forel, 86, 149 + +Galton, 7, 52, 203, 205, 208, 211 + +Geddes and Thomson, 65, 84 + +Gilman, Mrs. C. P., 327, 393 + +Goethe, 225 + +Haeckel, 82 + +Hamilton, Miss Cicely, 202 + +Haynes, E. S. P., 293 + +Helmholtz, 36 + +Horsley, 254 + +Huxley, 46 + +Kelvin, 35 + +Key, Ellen, 8, 59, 347 + +Kipling, 188 + +Laitinen, Prof. Taav, 381 + +Lamarck, 158 + +Lister, 20, 209 + +Maclaren, Lady, 315 + +Maeterlinck, Maurice, 325 + +Marshall, Prof. Alfred, 381 + +McDougall, Dr. W., 165 + +Meredith, 48, 142 + +Metchnikoff, 199 + +Mill, J. S., 174 + +Milne-Edwards, 87 + +Minot, 87 + +Mosso, 120 + +Mott, Dr. F. W., 356 + +Napoleon, 305 + +Nation, Carrie, 23 + +Newman, Sir George, 121 + +Newsholme, Dr. A., 384 + +Nightingale, Florence, 17 + +Pasteur, 217 + +Pearson, Karl, 205, 380 + +Phillpotts, Eden, 191 + +Plato, 2, 56, 182 + +Rotch, Prof. Morgan, 336 + +Ruskin, 19, 48, 150, 157, 189, 345 + +Sappho, 58 + +Scharlieb, Dr. Mary, 371 + +Shakespeare, 52 + +Spencer, Herbert, 6, 45, 48, 64, 81, 104, 129, 156, 159, 171, 240, 320 + +St. Francis, 46 + +St. Paul, 150 + +Stevenson, 154 + +Sullivan, Dr. W. C., 376, 381 + +Thales, 64 + +Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 21 + +Ward, Lester, 72, 261 + +Weininger, 68 + +Weismann, 26, 28, 82 + +Wells, H. G., 182, 282, 310, 313 + +Westermarck, 186 + +Wordsworth, Dorothy, 14 + +Wordsworth, 13, 48, 159, 189, 256 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] "The Germ-Plasm." English translation in Contemporary Science +Series, London: New York. + +[2] "Parenthood and Race-Culture: An Outline of Eugenics." + +[3] "The Obstacles to Eugenics," published in the _Sociological Review_, +July 1909. + +[4] See his "Pure Sociology." + +[5] _I. e._ marrying cells. + +[6] Here, as in many other cases, I am indebted to that invaluable +repertory of facts, Dr. Havelock Ellis's "Man and Woman." + +[7] This may be obtained from any bookseller at the price of 9d. + +[8] Further particulars may be obtained from the Vice-Principal, King's +College (Women's Department), 13 Kensington Square, London, W. + +[9] From _La Question Sexuelle_, French edition, p. 62. The author wrote +the book first in German and then in French. + +[10] The modern use of the word environment really dates from Lamarck's +original phrase. In his discussion of the characters of living beings, +he spoke of the _milieu environnant_. The higher the type of organism +the more comprehensive must the term become, not only quantitatively but +qualitatively. + +[11] "An Introduction to Social Psychology," by William McDougall, M.A., +M.B., M.Sc., Wilde Reader in Mental Philosophy in the University of +Oxford. + +[12] From the writer's paper, "The Human Mother," in the Report of the +Proceedings of the National Conference on Infantile Mortality, 1908, p. +30. + +[13] It it well to quote here the most recent comment of the late Sir +Francis Galton upon this subject. It is to be found in his celebrated +Huxley lecture, now published by the Eugenics Education Society, +together with much of the illustrious author's other work, under the +title, "Essays in Eugenics." The passage relevant to our discussion runs +as follows:-- + +"There appears to be a considerable difference between the earliest age +at which it is physiologically desirable that a woman should marry and +that at which the ablest, or at least the most cultured, women usually +do. Acceleration in the time of marriage, often amounting to seven +years, as from twenty-eight or twenty-nine to twenty-one or twenty-two, +under influences such as those mentioned above, is by no means +improbable. What would be its effect on productivity? It might be +expected to act in two ways:-- + +"(1) By shortening each generation by an amount equally proportionate to +the diminution in age at which marriage occurs. Suppose the span of each +generation to be shortened by one-sixth, so that six take the place of +five, and that the productivity of each marriage is unaltered, it +follows that one-sixth more children will be brought into the world +during the same time, which is roughly equivalent to increasing the +productivity of an unshortened generation by that amount. + +"(2) By saving from certain barrenness the earlier part of the +child-bearing period of the woman. Authorities differ so much as to the +direct gain of fertility due to early marriage that it is dangerous to +express an opinion. The large and thriving families that I have known +were the offspring of mothers who married very young." + +[14] An unavoidable delay in the publication of this book makes possible +reference to Professor Ehrlich's synthetic compound of arsenic, known as +"606," the anti-syphilitic potency of which will render even less +excusable the cowardice and neglect against which the foregoing is a +protest. + +[15] This is a libel upon poor people everywhere. There has been some +confusion between drink and poverty. + +[16] "T. P.'s Weekly," Christmas Number, 1909. + +[17] The first treatise on Infant Mortality in English, written by Sir +George Newman at the present writer's request, and published in his New +Library of Medicine in 1906, gives abundant and trustworthy information +as to the initial incidence of this disproportionate mortality. + +[18] "Socialism and the Family," Sixpenny Edition, p. 59. + +[19] The address of this Union is 20, Copthall Avenue, London, E. C. + +[20] "The primal physical functions of maternity." + +[21] W. Claassen in the Archiv fuer Rassen-und-Gesellschafts-Biologie, +Nov.--Dec., 1909. See the Eugenics Review, July, 1910, p. 154. + +[22] We decided to reprint the Report of that Conference, and a few +copies of the reprint are still obtainable. + +[23] In his "Alcoholism." 1906. + +[24] In the articles, "Racial Poisons: Alcohol," Eugenics Review, April, +1910, and "Professor Karl Pearson on Alcoholism and Offspring," British +Journal of Inebriety, Oct., 1910. + +[25] This study has only just begun, but remarkable results have already +been obtained. The interested reader should refer to the Proceedings of +the Twelfth International Congress on Alcoholism held in London in 1909. + +[26] This Report, published in 1910, can readily be obtained through any +bookseller. Its number is Cd. 5263, and the price only 1s. 3d. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Transcriber's Notes: + +1. Original chapter titles were inconsistently named. For example + "CHAPTER VI" was followed by simply "VII" without the "CHAPTER" + designation. The original printing has been retained. + +2. p. 269: word omitted in original ("on") has been added: + "I have recently been on a tour throughout Canada...." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman and Womanhood, by C. W. 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