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diff --git a/44094-0.txt b/44094-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9786978 --- /dev/null +++ b/44094-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7463 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44094 *** + ++-------------------------------------------------+ +|Transcriber's note: | +| | +|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | +| | ++-------------------------------------------------+ + + + + +CIVILISATION: ITS CAUSE AND CURE + +_AND OTHER ESSAYS_ + +(NEWLY-ENLARGED AND COMPLETE EDITION) + +BY +EDWARD CARPENTER + +AUTHOR OF "TOWARDS DEMOCRACY," +"MY DAYS AND DREAMS," ETC. + +[Illustration: logo] + +LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. +RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.1 + + +First Edition, _June 1889_; Second Edition, _December 1890_; +Third Edition, _November 1893_; Fourth Edition, _July 1895_; +Fifth Edition, _September 1897_; Sixth Edition, _October 1900_; +Seventh Edition, _July 1902_; Eighth Edition, _March 1903_; +Ninth Edition, _January 1906_; Tenth Edition, _January 1908_; +Eleventh Edition, _October 1910_; Twelfth Edition, _Dec. 1912_; +Thirteenth Edition, _Aug. 1914_; Fourteenth Edition, _June 1916_; +Fifteenth Edition, _Sept. 1917_; Complete Edition, _Jan. 1921_ + +(_All rights reserved_) + + + + +PREFACE TO COMPLETE EDITION + +(1920) + + +In looking over this volume, first published in 1889, with a view to a +final Edition, I am glad to note that after all there is not much in it +requiring alteration. Considering that the original issue took place +more than 30 years ago, I had thought that the great changes in +scientific and philosophic thought which have taken place during that +period would probably have rendered "out of date" a good deal of the +book. + +As a matter of fact, the first paper--that on Civilisation--was given as +a lecture before the Fabian Society, in 1888; and I shall not easily +forget the furious attacks which were made upon it on that occasion. The +book--published as a whole in 1889--came in for a very similar reception +from the press-critics. They slated it to the top of their bent--except +in those not unfrequent cases when they ignored it as almost beneath +notice. The whole trend of the thought of the time was against its +conclusions; and it is perhaps worth while to recall these facts in +order to measure how far we have travelled in these 30 years. For to-day +(I think we may say) these conclusions are generally admitted as +correct; and the views which seemed so hazarded and precarious at the +earlier date are now fairly accepted and established. + +The word Civilisation has undoubtedly during this period suffered an +ominous change of color. It is no longer an easy term denoting all that +is ideal and delightful in social life, but on the contrary, carries +with it a sense of doubt and of criticism, as of something that is by no +means accepted yet, but is rather on its trial--if not actually +condemned! + +I am sorry to note, however, that the suggestion made more than once in +the course of my book--namely that the term (Civilisation) should +properly be given an _historical_ instead of ideal value, as applicable +to a certain period only in the history of each people, has not yet been +generally taken up. Yet a paper by some more competent person than +myself on the definite marks and signs of the civilisation-period in +History--their first appearance in the course of human progress and +evolution, and their probable disappearance again at a later +stage--would be greatly interesting and instructive. + +My little essay on this subject was written at the time of its +composition with a good deal of imaginative _élan_; and is of course +open to criticism on that side, as being mainly enthusiastic in +character and only slenderly supported by exact _data_, proofs, +historical illustrations, analogies, and so forth. But to largely alter +or amend the essay without seriously crippling it would be impossible; +and though the form may be hurried or inadequate, yet as far as the +actual contents and conclusions are concerned I still adhere to them +absolutely, and believe that time will show them to be fully justified. + +With regard to my views on Modern Science the last quarter of a century +has curiously corroborated them. For while on the one hand--as +expected--the progress in actual discovery and application of observed +facts has been enormous, the _theories_ on the other hand about all +these things have receded more and more into the background, and have +passed almost out of sight. While knowing, for instance, infinitely more +about electrical actions and adaptations than we did, we seem to be if +anything further off than ever from any valid theory of what Electricity +_is_. The same with regard to Heat and Light, to Astronomical, +Biological and Geological "laws," and so forth. On such matters Modern +Science is on the verge of confessing itself bankrupt, but not wishing +to do that, it keeps a discreet silence. + +The Atom, which I ventured (to the disgust of my scientific friends) to +make fun of 30 years ago, has now exploded of itself as thoroughly as a +German "coal-box"; and the fixed Chemical Elements of older days have of +late dissolved into protean vapours and emanations, ions and electrons, +impossible to follow through their endless transformations. As to the +numerous "Laws of Nature" which in the nineteenth century we were just +about to establish for all eternity, it is only with the greatest +difficulty that any of these can now be discovered--most of them having +got secreted away into the darkness of ancient text-books: where they +lead forlorn and sightless existences, like the fish in the caves of +Kentucky. + +Here again--in my chapters on Science--though some expressions remain +which are now out of date, I have thought it best to leave them as +originally written: the meanings and general conclusions being still +valid and as they were. It will be seen that the general drift of these +chapters is to point the moral that the true field of science is to be +found in Life, and that the best way to _know_ things is to _experience_ +their meaning and to identify oneself with them through Action. From a +study on these principles will ultimately emerge a Science truly humane +and creative, masterful, and capable of building a true home for +men--instead of the feverish, spectral and self-deluding thing which has +usurped the name up to now. + +Something the same will happen with the conception of Morality. The +abstract codes on this subject, which have wrought so much havoc by +their fatal intrusion on the field of human Life, are rapidly fading +away. These ghosts, like the ghosts of Nature's "Laws," are receiving +their _quietus_. And the general outline which was suggested in "The +Defence of Criminals" has now been traced more positively in the chapter +on "The New Morality" inserted at the end of the present volume. +Morality has at last to become truly human, and the real expression of +our organic need. Man has to be liberated from the cramps and +suppressions and fixations which have hitherto paralysed him in the +moral field. He has to emerge from the swathing bands of his pupal stage +into the free air of heaven, and to become in the highest sense +self-determining and creative. + +Thus three things, (1) the realisation of a new order of Society, in +closest touch with Nature, and in which the diseases of class-domination +and Parasitism will have finally ceased; (2) the realisation of a +Science which will no longer be a mere thing of the brain, but a part of +Actual Life; and (3) the realisation of a Morality which will signalise +and express the vital and organic unity of man with his fellows--these +three things will become the heralds of a new era of humanity--an era +which will possibly prefer _not_ to call itself by the name of +Civilisation. + +In order to corroborate and confirm the first paper in the book an +Appendix has now been added containing notes and _data_ on the life and +customs of many "uncivilised" peoples; for much of which Appendix I am +indebted to the assistance of my widely-read and resourceful friend, E. +Bertram Lloyd. + +E. C. + +_December, 1920._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE +PREFACE TO COMPLETE EDITION 7 + +CIVILISATION: ITS CAUSE AND CURE 15 + +MODERN SCIENCE: A CRITICISM 79 + +THE SCIENCE OF THE FUTURE: A FORECAST 120 + +DEFENCE OF CRIMINALS: A CRITICISM OF MORALITY 143 + +EXFOLIATION: LAMARCK _versus_ DARWIN 181 + +CUSTOM 206 + +A RATIONAL AND HUMANE SCIENCE 219 + +THE NEW MORALITY 243 + +APPENDIX--BEING NOTES ON SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTICS +AND CUSTOMS OF PRE-CIVILISED PEOPLES 265 + + + + +CIVILISATION: + +ITS CAUSE AND CURE + +The friendly and flowing savage, who is he? Is he waiting for +civilisation, or is he past it, and mastering it?--WHITMAN. + + +We find ourselves to-day in the midst of a somewhat peculiar state of +society, which we call Civilisation, but which even to the most +optimistic among us does not seem altogether desirable. Some of us, +indeed, are inclined to think that it is a kind of disease which the +various races of man have to pass through--as children pass through +measles or whooping cough; but if it is a disease, there is this serious +consideration to be made, that while History tells us of many nations +that have been attacked by it, of many that have succumbed to it, and of +some that are still in the throes of it, we know of no single case in +which a nation has fairly recovered from and passed through it to a more +normal and healthy condition. In other words the development of human +society has never yet (that we know of) passed beyond a certain +definite and apparently final stage in the process we call +Civilisation; at that stage it has always succumbed or been arrested. + +Of course it may at first sound extravagant to use the word disease in +connection with Civilisation at all, but a little thought should show +that the association is not ill-grounded. To take the matter on its +physical side first, I find that in Mullhall's Dictionary of Statistics +(1884) the number of accredited doctors and surgeons in the United +Kingdom is put at over 23,000. If the extent of the national sickness is +such that we require 23,000 medical men to attend to us, it must surely +be rather serious! And _they_ do not cure us. Wherever we look to-day, +in mansion or in slum, we see the features and hear the complaints of +ill-health; the difficulty is really to find a healthy person. The state +of the modern civilised man in this respect--our coughs, colds, +mufflers, dread of a waft of chill air, &c.--is anything but creditable, +and it seems to be the fact that, notwithstanding all our libraries of +medical science, our knowledges, arts, and appliances of life, we are +actually less capable of taking care of ourselves than the animals are. +Indeed, talking of animals, we are--as Shelley I think points out--fast +depraving the _domestic_ breeds. The cow, the horse, the sheep, and even +the confiding pussy-cat, are becoming ever more and more subject to +disease, and are liable to ills which in their wilder state they knew +not of. And finally the savage races of the earth do not escape the +baneful influence. Wherever Civilisation touches them, they die like +flies from the small-pox, drink, and worse evils it brings along with +it, and often its mere contact is sufficient to destroy whole races. + +But the word Disease is applicable to our social as well as to our +physical condition. For as in the body disease arises from the loss of +the physical unity which constitutes Health, and so takes the form of +warfare or discord between the various parts, or of the abnormal +development of individual organs, or the consumption of the system by +predatory germs and growths; so in our modern life we find the unity +gone which constitutes true society, and in its place warfare of classes +and individuals, abnormal development of some to the detriment of +others, and consumption of the organism by masses of social parasites. +If the word disease is applicable anywhere, I should say it is--both in +its direct and its derived sense--to the civilised societies of to-day. + +Again, mentally, is not our condition most unsatisfactory? I am not +alluding to the number and importance of the lunatic asylums which cover +our land, nor to the fact that maladies of the brain and nervous system +are now so common; but to the strange sense of mental unrest which marks +our populations, and which amply justifies Ruskin's cutting epigram: +that our two objects in life are, "Whatever we have--to get more; and +wherever we are--to go somewhere else." This sense of unrest, of +disease, penetrates down even into the deepest regions of man's +being--into his moral nature--disclosing itself there, as it has done +in all nations notably at the time of their full civilisation, as the +sense of Sin.[1] All down the Christian centuries we find this strange +sense of inward strife and discord developed, in marked contrast to the +naive insouciance of the pagan and primitive world; and, what is +strangest, we even find people glorying in this consciousness--which, +while it may be the harbinger of better things to come, is and can be in +itself only the evidence of loss of unity, and therefore of ill-health, +in the very centre of human life. + +Of course we are aware with regard to Civilisation that the word is +sometimes used in a kind of ideal sense, as to indicate a state of +future culture towards which we are tending--the implied assumption +being that a sufficiently long course of top hats and telephones will in +the end bring us to this ideal condition; while any little drawbacks in +the process, such as we have just pointed out, are explained as being +merely accidental and temporary. Men sometimes speak of civilising and +ennobling influences as if the two terms were interchangeable, and of +course if they like to use the word Civilisation in this sense they have +a right to; but whether the actual tendencies of modern life taken in +the mass _are_ ennobling (except in a quite indirect way hereafter to be +dwelt upon) is, to say the least, a doubtful question. Any one who +would get an idea of the glorious being that is as a matter of fact +being turned out by the present process should read Mr. Kay Robinson's +article in the _Nineteenth Century_ for May, 1883, in which he +prophesies (quite solemnly and in the name of science) that the human +being of the future will be a toothless, bald, toeless creature with +flaccid muscles and limbs almost incapable of locomotion! + +Perhaps it is safer on the whole not to use the word Civilisation in +such ideal sense, but to limit its use (as is done to-day by all writers +on primitive society) to a definite historical stage through which the +various nations pass, and in which we actually find ourselves at the +present time. Though there is of course a difficulty in marking the +commencement of any period of historical evolution very definitely, yet +all students of this subject agree that the growth of property and the +ideas and institutions flowing from it did at a certain point bring +about such a change in the structure of human society that the new stage +might fairly be distinguished from the earlier stages of Savagery and +Barbarism by a separate term. The growth of Wealth, it is shown, and +with it the conception of Private Property, brought on certain very +definite new forms of social life; it destroyed the ancient system of +society based upon the _gens_, that is, a society of equals founded upon +blood-relationship, and introduced a society of classes founded upon +differences of material possession; it destroyed the ancient system of +mother-right and inheritance through the female line, and turned the +woman into the property of the man; it brought with it private ownership +of land, and so created a class of landless aliens, and a whole system +of rent, mortgage, interest, etc.; it introduced slavery, serfdom and +wage-labour, which are only various forms of the dominance of one class +over another; and to rivet these authorities it created the State and +the policeman. Every race that we know, that has become what we call +civilised, has passed through these changes; and though the details may +vary and have varied a little, the main order of change has been +practically the same in all cases. We are justified therefore in calling +Civilisation a historical stage, whose commencement dates roughly from +the division of society into classes founded on property and the +adoption of class-government. Lewis Morgan in his _Ancient Society_ adds +the invention of writing and the consequent adoption of written History +and written Law; Engels in his _Ursprung der Familie, des +Privateigenthums und des Staats_ points out the importance of the +appearance of the Merchant, even in his most primitive form, as a mark +of the civilisation-period; while the French writers of the last century +made a good point in inventing the term _nations policées_ +(policemanised nations) as a substitute for civilised nations; for +perhaps there is no better or more universal mark of the period we are +considering, and of its social degradation, than the appearance of the +crawling phenomenon in question. [Imagine the rage of any decent North +American Indians if they had been told they required _policemen_ to keep +them in order!] + +If we take this historical definition of Civilisation, we shall see that +our English Civilisation began hardly more than a thousand years ago, +and even so the remains of the more primitive society lasted long after +that. In the case of Rome--if we reckon from the later times of the +early kings down to the fall of Rome--we have again about a thousand +years. The Jewish civilisation from David and Solomon downwards +lasted--with breaks--somewhat over a thousand years; the Greek +civilisation less; the series of Egyptian civilisations which we can now +distinguish lasted altogether very much longer; but the important points +to see are, first, that the process has been quite similar in character +in these various (and numerous other) cases,[2] quite as similar in fact +as the course of the same disease in various persons; and secondly that +in no case, as said before, has any nation come _through_ and passed +beyond this stage; but that in most cases it has succumbed soon after +the main symptoms had been developed. + +But it will be said, It may be true that Civilisation regarded as a +stage of human history presents some features of disease; but is there +any reason for supposing that disease in some form or other was any less +present in the previous stage--that of Barbarism? To which I reply, I +think there is good reason. Without committing ourselves to the +unlikely theory that the "noble savage" was an ideal human being +physically or in any other respect, and while certain that in many +points he was decidedly inferior to the civilised man, I think we must +allow him the superiority in some directions; and one of these was his +comparative freedom from disease. Lewis Morgan, who grew up among the +Iroquois Indians, and who probably knew the North American natives as +well as any white man has ever done, says (in his _Ancient Society_, p. +45), "Barbarism ends with the production of grand Barbarians." And +though there are no native races on the earth to-day who are actually in +the latest and most advanced stage of Barbarism;[3] yet, if we take the +most advanced tribes that we know of--such as the said Iroquois Indians +of twenty or thirty years ago, some of the Kaffir tribes round Lake +Nyassa in Africa, now (and possibly for a few years more) comparatively +untouched by civilisation, or the tribes along the river Uaupes, thirty +or forty years back, of Wallace's _Travels on the Amazon_--all tribes in +what Morgan would call the _middle_ stage of Barbarism--we undoubtedly +in each case discover a fine and (which is our point here) _healthy_ +people. Captain Cook in his first Voyage says of the natives of +Otaheite, "We saw no critical disease during our stay upon the island, +and but few instances of sickness, which were accidental fits of the +colic;" and, later on, of the New Zealanders, "They enjoy perfect and +uninterrupted health. In all our visits to their towns, where young and +old, men and women, crowded about us ... we never saw a single person +who appeared to have any bodily complaint, nor among the numbers we have +seen naked did we once perceive the slightest eruption upon the skin, or +any marks that an eruption had left behind." These are pretty strong +words. Of course diseases exist among such peoples, even where they have +never been in contact with civilisation, but I think we may say that +among the higher types of savages they are rarer, and nothing like so +various and so prevalent as they are in our modern life; while the power +of recovery from _wounds_ (which are of course the most frequent form of +disablement) is generally admitted to be something astonishing. Speaking +of the Kaffirs, J. G. Wood says, "Their state of health enables them to +survive injuries which would be almost instantly fatal to any civilised +European." Mr. Frank Oates in his Diary[4] mentions the case of a man +who was condemned to death by the king. He was hacked down with axes, +and left for dead. "What must have been intended for the _coup de grâce_ +was a cut in the back of the head, which had chipped a large piece out +of the skull, and must have been meant to cut the spinal cord where it +joins the brain. It had, however, been made a little higher than this, +but had left such a wound as I should have thought that no one could +have survived ... when I held the lanthorn to investigate the wound I +started back in amazement to see a hole at the base of the skull, +perhaps two inches long and an inch and a half wide, and I will not +venture to say how deep, but the depth too must have been an affair of +inches. Of course this hole penetrated into the substance of the brain, +and probably for some distance. I dare say a mouse could have sat in +it." Yet the man was not so much disconcerted. Like Old King Cole, "He +asked for a pipe and a drink of brandy," and ultimately made a perfect +recovery! Of course it might be said that such a story only proves the +lowness of organisation of the brains of savages; but to the Kaffirs at +any rate this would not apply; they are a quick-witted race, with large +brains, and exceedingly acute in argument, as Colenso found to his cost. +Another point which indicates superabundant health is the amazing animal +spirits of these native races! The shouting, singing, dancing kept up +nights long among the Kaffirs are exhausting merely to witness, while +the graver North American Indian exhibits a corresponding power of life +in his eagerness for battle or his stoic resistance of pain.[5] + +Similarly when we come to consider the social life of the wilder +races--however rudimentary and undeveloped it may be--the almost +universal testimony of students and travelers is that within its limits +it is more harmonious and compact than that of the civilised nations. +The members of the tribe are not organically at warfare with each other; +society is not divided into classes which prey upon each other; nor is +it consumed by parasites. There is more true social unity, less of +disease. Though the customs of each tribe are rigid, absurd, and often +frightfully cruel,[6] and though all outsiders are liable to be regarded +as enemies, yet _within those limits_ the members live peacefully +together--their pursuits, their work, are undertaken in common, thieving +and violence are rare, social feeling and community of interest are +strong. "In their own bands Indians are perfectly honest. In all my +intercourse with them I have heard of not over half-a-dozen cases of +such theft. But this wonderfully exceptional honesty extends no further +than to the members of his immediate band. To all outside of it, the +Indian is not only one of the most arrant thieves in the world, but this +quality or faculty is held in the highest estimation." (Dodge, p. 64.) +If a man set out on a journey (this among the Kaffirs) "he need not +trouble himself about provisions, for he is sure to fall in with some +hut, or perhaps a village, and is equally sure of obtaining both food +and shelter."[7] "I have lived," says A. R. Wallace in his _Malay +Archipelago_ vol. ii. p. 460, "with communities in South America and the +East, who have no laws or law courts, but the public opinion of the +village ... yet each man scrupulously respects the rights of his +fellows, and any infraction of those rights rarely takes place. In such +a community all are nearly equal. There are none of those wide +distinctions of education and ignorance, wealth and poverty, master and +servant, which are the product of our civilisation." Indeed this +_community_ of life in the early societies, this absence of division +into classes, and of the contrast between rich and poor, is now admitted +on all sides as a marked feature of difference between the conditions of +the primitive and of civilised man.[8] + +Lastly, with regard to the mental condition of the Barbarian, probably +no one will be found to dispute the contention that he is more +easy-minded and that his consciousness of Sin is less developed than in +his civilised brother. Our unrest is the penalty we pay for our wider +life. The missionary retires routed from the savage in whom he can awake +no sense of his supreme wickedness. An American lady had a servant, a +negro-woman, who on one occasion asked leave of absence for the next +morning, saying she wished to attend the Holy Communion? "I have no +objection," said the mistress, "to grant you leave; but do you think you +_ought_ to attend Communion? You know you have never said you were sorry +about that goose you stole last week." "Lor' missus," replied the +woman, "do ye think I'd let an old goose stand betwixt me and my Blessed +Lord and Master?" But joking apart, and however necessary for man's +ultimate evolution may be the temporary development of this +consciousness of Sin, we cannot help seeing that the condition of the +mind in which it is absent is the most distinctively _healthy_; nor can +it be concealed that some of the greatest works of Art have been +produced by people like the earlier Greeks, in whom it was absent; and +could not possibly have been produced where it was strongly developed. + +Though, as already said, the latest stage of Barbarism, _i.e._, that +just preceding Civilisation, is unrepresented on the earth to-day, yet +we have in the Homeric and other dawn-literature of the various nations +indirect records of this stage; and these records assure us of a +condition of man very similar to, though somewhat more developed than, +the condition of the existing races I have mentioned above. Besides +this, we have in the numerous traditions of the Golden Age,[9] legends +of the Fall, etc., a curious fact which suggests to us that a great +number of races in advancing towards Civilisation were conscious at some +point or other of having lost a primitive condition of ease and +contentment, and that they embodied this consciousness, with poetical +adornment and licence, in imaginative legends of the earlier Paradise. +Some people indeed, seeing the universality of these stories, and the +remarkable fragments of wisdom embedded in them and other extremely +ancient myths and writings, have supposed that there really was a +general pre-historic Eden-garden or Atlantis; but the necessities of the +case hardly seem to compel this supposition. That each human soul, +however, bears within itself some kind of reminiscence of a more +harmonious and perfect state of being, which it has at some time +experienced, seems to me a conclusion difficult to avoid; and this by +itself might give rise to manifold traditions and myths. + + +II + +However all this may be, the question immediately before us--having +established the more healthy, though more limited, condition of the +pre-civilisation peoples--is, why this lapse or fall? What is the +meaning of this manifold and intensified manifestation of +Disease--physical, social, intellectual, and moral? What is its place +and part in the great whole of human evolution? + +And this involves us in a digression, which must occupy a few pages, on +the nature of Health. + +When we come to analyse the conception of Disease, physical or mental, +in society or in the individual, it evidently means, as already hinted +once or twice, _loss of unity_. Health, therefore, should mean unity, +and it is curious that the history of the word entirely corroborates +this idea. As is well known, the words health, whole, holy, are from +the same stock; and they indicate to us the fact that far back in the +past those who created this group of words had a conception of the +meaning of Health very different from ours, and which they embodied +unconsciously in the word itself and its strange relatives. + +These are, for instance, and among others: heal, hallow, hale, holy, +whole, wholesome; German heilig, Heiland (the Saviour); Latin salus (as +in salutation, salvation); Greek kalos; also compare hail! a salutation, +and, less certainly connected, the root _hal_, to breathe, as in inhale, +exhale--French haleine--Italian and French alma and âme (the soul); +compare the Latin spiritus, spirit or breath, and Sanskrit âtman, breath +or soul. + +Wholeness, holiness ... "if thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be +full of light." ... "thy faith hath made thee _whole_." + +The idea seems to be a positive one--a condition of the body in which it +is an entirety, a unity--a central force maintaining that condition; and +disease being the break-up--or break-down--of that entirety into +multiplicity. + +The peculiarity about our modern conception of Health is that it seems +to be a purely negative one. So impressed are we by the myriad presence +of Disease--so numerous its dangers, so sudden and unforetellable its +attacks--that we have come to look upon health as the mere absence of +the same. As a solitary spy picks his way through a hostile camp at +night, sees the enemy sitting round his fires, and trembles at the +crackling of a twig beneath his feet--so the traveller through this +world, comforter in one hand and physic-bottle in the other, must pick +his way, fearful lest at any time he disturb the sleeping legions of +death--thrice blessed if by any means, steering now to the right and now +to the left, and thinking only of his personal safety, he pass by +without discovery to the other side. + +Health with us is a negative thing. It is a neutralisation of opposing +dangers. It is to be neither rheumatic nor gouty, consumptive nor +bilious, to be untroubled by head-ache, back-ache, heart-ache, or any of +the "thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to." These are the +realities. Health is the mere negation of them. + +The modern notion, and which has evidently in a very subtle way +penetrated the whole thought of to-day, is that the essential fact of +life is the existence of innumerable external forces, which, by a very +delicate balance and difficult to maintain, concur to produce Man--who +in consequence may at any moment be destroyed again by the +non-concurrence of those forces. The older notion apparently is that the +essential fact of life _is_ Man himself; and that the external forces, +so-called, are in some way subsidiary to this fact--that they may aid +his expression or manifestation, or that they may hinder it, but that +they can neither create nor annihilate the Man. Probably both ways of +looking at the subject are important; there is a man that can be +destroyed, and there is a man that cannot be destroyed. The old words, +soul and body, indicate this contrast; but like all words they are +subject to the defect that they are an attempt to draw a line where no +line can ultimately be drawn; they mark a contrast where, in fact, there +is only continuity--for between the little mortal man who dwells here +and now, and the divine and universal Man who also forms a part of our +consciousness, is there not a perfect gradation of being, and where (if +anywhere) is there a gulf fixed? Together they form a unit, and each is +necessary to the other: the first cannot do without the second, and the +second cannot get along at all without the first. To use the words of +Angelus Silesius (quoted by Schopenhauer), "Ich weiss dass ohne mich +Gott nicht ein Nu kann leben." + +According then to the elder conception, and perhaps according to an +elder experience, man, to be really healthy, must be a unit, an +entirety--his more external and momentary self standing in some kind of +filial relation to his more universal and incorruptible part--so that +not only the remotest and outermost regions of the body, and all the +assimilative, secretive, and other processes belonging thereto, but even +the thoughts and passions of the mind itself, stand in direct and clear +relationship to it, the final and absolute transparency of the mortal +creature. And thus this divinity in each creature, being that which +constitutes it and causes it to cohere together, was conceived of as +that creature's saviour, healer--healer of wounds of body and wounds of +heart--the Man within the man, whom it was not only possible to know, +but whom to know and be united with was the alone salvation. This, I +take it, was the law of health--and of holiness--as accepted at some +elder time of human history, and by us seen as thro' a glass darkly. + +And the condition of disease, and of sin, under the same view, was the +reverse of this. Enfeeblement, obscuration, duplicity--the central +radiation blocked; lesser and insubordinate centres establishing and +asserting themselves as against it; division, discord, possession by +devils. + +Thus in the body, the establishment of an insubordinate centre--a boil, +a tumor, the introduction and spread of a germ with innumerable progeny +throughout the system, the enlargement out of all reason of an existing +organ--means disease. In the mind, disease begins when any passion +asserts itself as an independent centre of thought and action. The +condition of health in the mind is loyalty to the divine Man within +it.[10] But if loyalty to money become an independent centre of life, or +greed of knowledge, or of fame, or of drink; jealousy, lust, the love of +approbation; or mere following after any so-called virtue for +itself--purity, humility, consistency, or what not--these may grow to +seriously endanger the other. They are, or should be, subordinates; and +though over a long period their insubordination may be a necessary +condition of human progress, yet during all such time they are at war +with each other and with the central Will; the man is torn and +tormented, and is not happy. + +And when I speak thus separately of the mind and body, it must be +remembered, as already said, that there is no strict line between them; +but probably every affection or passion of the mind has its correlative +in the condition of the body--though this latter may or may not be +easily observable. Gluttony _is_ a fever of the digestive apparatus. +What is a taint in the mind is also a taint in the body. The stomach has +started the original idea of becoming itself the centre of the human +system. The sexual organs may start a similar idea. Here are distinct +threats, menaces made against the central authority--against the Man +himself. For the man must rule or disappear; it is impossible to imagine +a man presided over by a Stomach--a walking Stomach, using hands, feet, +and all other members merely to carry it from place to place, and serve +its assimilative mania. We call such a one an Hog. [And thus in the +theory of Evolution we see the place of the hog, and all other animals, +as fore-runners or off-shoots of special faculties in Man, and why the +true man, and rightly, has authority over all animals, and can alone +give them their place in creation.] + +So of the Brain, or any other organ; for the Man is no organ, resides in +no organ, but is the central life ruling and radiating among all +organs, and assigning them their arts to play. + +Disease then, in body or mind, is from this point of view the break-up +of its unity, its entirety, into multiplicity. It is the abeyance of a +central power, and the growth of insubordinate centres--life in each +creature being conceived of as a continual exercise of energy or +conquest, by which external or antagonistic forces (and organisms) are +brought into subjection and compelled into the service of the creature, +or are thrown off as harmful to it. Thus, by way of illustration, we +find that plants or animals, when in good health, have a remarkable +power of throwing off the attacks of any parasites which incline to +infest them; while those that are weakly are very soon eaten up by the +same. A rose-tree, for instance, brought indoors, will soon fall a prey +to the aphis--though when hardened out of doors the pest makes next to +no impression on it. In dry seasons when the young turnip plants in the +fields are weakly from want of water the entire crop is sometimes +destroyed by the turnip fly, which then multiplies enormously; but if a +shower or two of rain come before much damage is done the plant will +then grow vigorously, its tissues become more robust and resist the +attacks of the fly, which in its turn dies. Late investigations seem to +show that one of the functions of the white corpuscles in the blood is +to devour disease-germs and bacteria present in the circulation--thus +absorbing these organisms into subjection to the central life of the +body--and that with this object they congregate in numbers toward any +part of the body which is wounded or diseased. Or to take an example +from society, it is clear enough that if our social life were really +vivid and healthy, such parasitic products as the idle shareholder and +the policeman above-mentioned would simply be impossible. The material +on which they prey would not exist, and they would either perish or be +transmuted into useful forms. It seems obvious in fact that life in any +organism can only be maintained by some such processes as these--by +which parasitic or infesting organisms are either thrown off or absorbed +into subjection. To define the nature of the power which thus works +towards and creates the distinctive unity of each organism may be +difficult, is probably at present impossible, but that some such power +exists we can hardly refuse to admit. Probably it is more a subject of +the growth of our consciousness, than an object of external scientific +investigation. + +In this view, Death is simply the loosening and termination of the +action of this power--over certain regions of the organism; a process by +which, when these superficial parts become hardened and osseous, as in +old age, or irreparably damaged, as in cases of accident, the inward +being sloughs them off, and passes into other spheres. In the case of +man there may be noble and there may be ignoble death, as there may be +noble and ignoble life. The inward self, unable to maintain authority +over the forces committed to its charge, declining from its high +prerogative, swarmed over by parasites, and fallen partially into the +clutch of obscene foes, may at last with shame and torment be driven +forth from the temple in which it ought to have been supreme. Or, having +fulfilled a holy and wholesome time, having radiated divine life and +love through all the channels of body and mind, and as a perfect workman +uses his tools, so having with perfect mastery and nonchalance used all +the materials committed to it, it may quietly and peacefully lay these +down, and unchanged (absolutely unchanged to all but material eyes) pass +on to other spheres appointed. + +And now a few words on the medical aspect of the subject. If we accept +any theory (even remotely similar to that just indicated) to the effect +that Health is a positive thing, and not a mere negation of disease, it +becomes pretty clear that no mere investigation of the latter will +enable us to find out what the former is, or bring us nearer to it. You +might as well try to create the ebb and flow of the tides by an +organised system of mops. + +Turn your back upon the Sun and go forth into the wildernesses of space +till you come to those limits where the rays of light, faint with +distance, fall dim upon the confines of eternal darkness--and phantoms +and shadows in the half-light are the product of the wavering conflict +betwixt day and night--investigate these shadows, describe them, +classify them, record the changes which take place in them, erect in +vast libraries these records into a monument of human industry and +research; so shall you be at the end as near to a knowledge and +understanding of the sun itself--which all this time you have left +behind you, and on which you have turned your back--as the investigators +of disease are to a knowledge and understanding of what health is. The +solar rays illumine the outer world and give to it its unity and +entirety; so in the inner world of each individual possibly is there +another Sun, which illumines and gives unity to the man, and whose +warmth and light would permeate his system. Wait upon the shining forth +of this inward sun, give free access and welcome to its rays of love, +and free passage for them into the common world around you, and it may +be you will get to know more about health than all the books of medicine +contain, or can tell you. + +Or to take the former simile: it is the central force of the Moon which +acting on the great ocean makes all its waters one, and causes them to +rise and fall in timely consent. But take your moon away; hey! now the +tide is flowing too far down this estuary! Station your thousands with +mops, but it breaks through in channel and runlet! Block it here, but it +overflows in a neighboring bay! Appoint an army of swabs there, but to +what end? The infinitest care along the fringe of this great sea can +never do, with all imaginable dirt and confusion, what the central power +does easily, and with unerring grace and providence. + +And so of the great (the vast and wonderful) ocean which ebbs and flows +within a man--take away the central guide--and not 20,000 doctors, each +with 20,000 books to consult and 20,000 phials of different contents to +administer, could meet the myriad cases of disease which would ensue, or +bolster up into "wholeness" the being from whom the single radiant unity +had departed. + +Probably there has never been an age, nor any country (except +Yankee-land?) in which disease has been so generally prevalent as in +England to-day; and certainly there has never (with the same exception) +been an age or country in which doctors have so swarmed, or in which +medical science has been so powerful, in apparatus, in learning, in +authority, and in actual organisation and number of adherents. How +reconcile this contradiction--if indeed a contradiction it be? + +But the fact is that medical science does not contradict disease--any +more than laws abolish crime. Medical science--and doubtless for very +good reasons--makes a fetish of disease, and dances around it. It is (as +a rule) only seen where disease is; it writes enormous tomes on disease; +it induces disease in animals (and even men) for the purpose of studying +it; it knows, to a marvelous extent, the symptoms of disease, its +nature, its causes, its goings out and its comings in; its eyes are +perpetually fixed on disease, till disease (for it) becomes the main +fact of the world and the main object of its worship. Even what is so +gracefully called Hygiene does not get beyond this negative attitude. +And the world still waits for its Healer, who shall tell us--diseased +and suffering as we are--_what_ health is, where it is to be found, +whence it flows; and who having touched this wonderful power within +himself shall not rest till he has proclaimed and imparted it to men. + +No, medical science does not, in the main, contradict disease. The same +cause (infidelity and decay of the central life in men) which creates +disease and makes men liable to it, creates students and a science of +the subject. The Moon[11] having gone from over the waters, the good +people rush forth with their mops; and the untimely inundations, and the +mops and the mess and the pother, are all due to the same cause. + +As to the lodgment of disease, it is clear that this would take place +easily in a disorganised system--just as a seditious adventurer would +easily effect a landing, and would find insubordinate materials ready at +hand for his use, in a land where the central government was weak. And +as to the treatment of a disease so introduced there are obviously two +methods: one is to reinforce the central power till it is sufficiently +strong of itself to eject the insubordinate elements and restore order; +the other is to attack the malady from outside and if possible destroy +it--(as by doses and decoctions)--independently of the inner vitality, +and leaving that as it was before. The first method would seem the best, +most durable and effective; but it is difficult and slow. It consists in +the adoption of a healthy life, bodily and mental, and will be spoken +of later on. The second may be characterised as the medical method, and +is valuable, or rather I should be inclined to say, _will_ be valuable, +when it has found its place, which is to be subsidiary to the first. It +is too often, however, regarded as superior in importance, and in this +way, though easy of application, has come perhaps to be productive of +more harm than good. The disease may be broken down for the time being, +but, the roots of it not being destroyed, it soon springs up again in +the same or a new form, and the patient is as badly off as ever. + +The great positive force of Health, and the power which it has to +_expel_ disease from its neighborhood is a thing realised, I believe, by +few persons. But it _has_ been realised on earth, and will be realised +again when the more squalid elements of our present-day civilisation +have passed away. + + +III + +The result then of our digression is to show that Health--in body or +mind--means unity, integration as opposed to disintegration. In the +animals we find this physical unity existing to a remarkable degree. An +almost unerring instinct and selective power rules their actions and +organisation. Thus a cat before it has fallen (say before it has become +a very wheezy fireside pussy!) is in a sense perfect. The wonderful +consent of its limbs as it runs or leaps, the adaptation of its +muscles, the exactness and inevitableness of its instincts, physical and +affectional; its senses of sight and smell, its cleanliness, nicety as +to food, motherly tact, the expression of its whole body when enraged, +or when watching for prey--all these things are so to speak absolute and +instantaneous--and fill one with admiration. The creature is "whole" or +in one piece: there is no mentionable conflict or division within +it.[12] + +Similarly with the other animals, and even with the early man himself. +And so it would appear returning to our subject--that, if we accept the +doctrine of Evolution, there is a progression of animated beings--which, +though not perfect, possess in the main the attribute of Health--from +the lowest forms up to a healthy and instinctive though certainly +limited man. During all this stage the central law is in the ascendant, +and the physical frame of each creature is the fairly clean vehicle of +its expression--varying of course in complexity and degree according to +the point of unfoldment which has been reached. And when thus in the +long process of development the inner Man (which has lain hidden or +dormant within the animal) at last appears, and the creature +consequently takes on the outer frame and faculties of the human being, +which are only as they are because of the inner man which they +represent; when it has passed through stage after stage of animal life, +throwing out tentative types and likenesses of what is to come, and +going through innumerable preliminary exercises in special forms and +faculties, till at last it begins to be able to wear the full majesty of +manhood itself--_then_ it would seem that that long process of +development is drawing to a close, and that the goal of creation must be +within measurable distance. + +But then, at that very moment, and when the goal is, so to speak, in +sight, occurs this failure of "wholeness" of which we have spoken, this +partial break-up of the unity of human nature--and man, instead of going +forward any longer in the same line as before, to all appearance +_falls_. + +What is the meaning of this loss of unity? What is the cause and purpose +of this fall and centuries-long exile from the earlier Paradise? + +There can be but one answer. It is self-knowledge--(which involves in a +sense the abandonment of self). Man has to become conscious of his +destiny--to lay hold of and realise his own freedom and blessedness--to +transfer his consciousness from the outer and mortal part of him to the +inner and undying. + +The cat cannot do this. Though perfect in its degree, its interior +unfoldment is yet incomplete. The human soul within it has not yet come +forward and declared itself; some sheathing leaves have yet to open +before the divine flower-bud can be clearly seen. And when at last +(speaking as a fool) the cat becomes a man--when the human soul within +the creature has climbed itself forward and found expression, +transforming the outer frame in the process into that of +humanity--(which is the meaning I suppose of the evolution theory)--then +the creature, though perfect and radiant in the form of Man, still lacks +one thing. It lacks the knowledge of itself; it lacks its own identity, +and the realisation of the manhood to which as a fact it has attained. + +In the animals consciousness has never returned upon itself. It radiates +easily outwards; and the creature obeys without let or hesitation, and +with little if any _self_-consciousness, the law of its being. And when +man first appears on the earth, and even up to the threshold of what we +call civilisation, there is much to show that he should in this respect +still be classed with the animals. Though vastly superior to them in +attainments, physical and mental, in power over nature, capacity of +progress, and adaptability, he still in these earlier stages was like an +animal in the unconscious instinctive nature of his action; and on the +other hand, though his moral and intellectual structures were far less +complete than those of the modern man--as was a necessary result of the +absence of self-knowledge--he actually lived more in harmony with +himself and with nature,[13] than does his descendant; his impulses, +both physical and social, were clearer and more unhesitating; and his +unconsciousness of inner discord and sin a great contrast to our modern +condition of everlasting strife and perplexity. + +If then to this stage belongs some degree of human perfection and +felicity, yet there remains a much vaster height to be scaled. The human +soul which has wandered darkling for so many thousands of years, from +its tiny spark-like germ in some low form of life to its full splendor +and dignity in man, has yet to come to the _knowledge_ of its wonderful +heritage, has yet to become finally individualised and free, to know +itself immortal, to resume and interpret all its past lives, and to +enter in triumph into the kingdom which it has won. + +It has in fact to face the frightful struggle of self-consciousness, or +the disentanglement of the true self from the fleeting and perishable +self. The animals and man, unfallen, are healthy and free from care, but +unaware of what they are; to attain self-knowledge man must fall; he +must become less than his true self; he must endure imperfection; +division and strife must enter his nature. To realise the perfect Life, +to know what, how wonderful it is--to understand that all blessedness +and freedom consists in its possession--he must for the moment suffer +divorce from it; the unity, the repose of his nature must be broken up, +crime, disease and unrest must enter in, and by contrast he must attain +to knowledge. + +Curious that at the very dawn of the Greek and with it the European +civilisation we have the mystic words "Know Thyself" inscribed on the +temple of the Delphic Apollo; and that first among the legends of the +Semitic race stands that of Adam and Eve eating of the tree of the +Knowledge of good and evil! To the animal there is no such knowledge, to +the early man there was no such knowledge, and to the perfected man of +the future there will be no such knowledge. It is a temporary +perversion, indicating the disunion of the present-day man--the disunion +of the outer self from the inner--the horrible dual +self-consciousness--which is the means ultimately of a more perfect and +conscious union than could ever have been realised without it--the death +that is swallowed up in victory. "For the first man is of the earth, +earthy; but the second man is the Lord from heaven." + +In order then, at this point in his Evolution, to advance any farther, +Man must first fall; in order to know, he must lose. In order to realise +what Health is, how splendid and glorious a possession, he must go +through all the long negative experience of Disease; in order to know +the perfect social life, to understand what power and happiness to +mankind are involved in their true relation to each other, he must learn +the misery and suffering which come from mere individualism and greed; +and in order to find his true Manhood, to discover what a wonderful +power it is, he must first lose it--he must become a prey and a slave to +his own passions and desires--whirled away like Phaethon by the horses +which he cannot control. + +This moment of divorce, then, this parenthesis in human progress, covers +the ground of all History; and the whole of Civilisation, and all crime +and disease, are only the materials of its immense purpose--themselves +destined to pass away as they arose, but to leave their fruits eternal. + +Accordingly we find that it has been the work of Civilisation--founded +as we have seen on Property--in every way to disintegrate and corrupt +man--literally to corrupt--to _break up_ the unity of his nature. It +begins with the abandonment of the primitive life and the growth of the +sense of shame (as in the myth of Adam and Eve). From this follows the +disownment of the sacredness of sex. Sexual acts cease to be a part of +religious worship; love and desire--the inner and the outer +love--hitherto undifferentiated, now become two separate things. (This +no doubt a necessary stage in order for the development of the +_consciousness of love_, but in itself only painful and abnormal.) It +culminates and comes to an end, as to-day, in a complete divorce between +the spiritual reality and the bodily fulfilment--in a vast system of +commercial love, bought and sold, in the brothel and in the palace. It +begins with the forsaking of the hardy nature-life, and it ends with a +society broken down and prostrate, hardly recognisable as human, amid +every form of luxury, poverty and disease. He who had been the free +child of Nature denies his sonship; he disowns the very breasts that +suckled him. He deliberately turns his back upon the light of the sun, +and hides himself away in boxes with breathing holes (which he calls +houses), living ever more and more in darkness and asphyxia, and only +coming forth perhaps once a day to blink at the bright god, or to run +back again at the first breath of the free wind for fear of catching +cold! He muffles himself in the cast-off furs of the beasts, every +century swathing himself in more and more layers, more and more +fearfully and wonderfully fashioned, till he ceases to be recognisable +as the Man that was once the crown of the animals, and presents a more +ludicrous spectacle than the monkey that sits on his own barrel organ. +He ceases to a great extent to use his muscles, his feet become +partially degenerate, his teeth wholly, his digestion so enervated that +he has to cook his food and make pulps of all his victuals, and his +whole system so obviously on the decline that at last in the end of +time a Kay Robinson arises and prophesies as aforesaid, that he will +before long become wholly toothless, bald and toeless. + +And so with this denial of Nature comes every form of disease; first +delicatesse, daintiness, luxury; then unbalance, enervation, huge +susceptibility to pain. With the shutting of himself away from the +all-healing Power, man inevitably weakens his whole manhood; the central +bond is loosened, and he falls a prey to his own organs. He who before +was unaware of the existence of these latter, now becomes only too +conscious of them (and this--is it not the very object of the process?); +the stomach, the liver and the spleen start out into painful +distinctness before him, the heart loses its equable beat, the lungs +their continuity with the universal air, and the brain becomes hot and +fevered; each organ in turn asserts itself abnormally and becomes a seat +of disorder, every corner and cranny of the body becomes the scene and +symbol of disease, and Man gazes aghast at his own kingdom--whose extent +he had never suspected before--now all ablaze in wild revolt against +him. And then--all going with this period of his development--sweep vast +epidemic trains over the face of the earth, plagues and fevers and +lunacies and world-wide festering sores, followed by armies, ever +growing, of doctors--they too with their retinues of books and bottles, +vaccinations and vivisections, and grinning death's-heads in the rear--a +mad crew, knowing not what they do, yet all unconsciously, doubtless, +fulfilling the great age-long destiny of humanity. + + +In all this the influence of Property is apparent enough. It is evident +that the growth of property through the increase of man's powers of +production reacts on the man in three ways: to draw him away namely, (1) +from Nature, (2) from his true Self, (3) from his Fellows. In the first +place it draws him away from Nature. That is, that as man's power over +materials increases he creates for himself a sphere and an environment +of his own, in some sense apart and different from the great elemental +world of the winds and the waves, the woods and the mountains, in which +he has hitherto lived. He creates what we call the artificial life, of +houses and cities, and, shutting himself up in these, shuts Nature out. +As a growing boy at a certain point, and partly in order to assert his +independence, wrests himself away from the tender care of his mother, +and even displays--just for the time being--a spirit of opposition to +her, so the growing Man finding out his own powers uses them--for the +time--even to do despite to Nature, and to create himself a world in +which she shall have no part. In the second place the growth of property +draws man away from his true Self. This is clear enough. As his power +over materials and his possessions increases, man finds the means of +gratifying his senses at will. Instead of being guided any longer by +that continent and "whole" instinct which characterises the animals, +his chief motive is now to use his powers to gratify this or that sense +or desire. These become abnormally magnified, and the man soon places +his main good in their satisfaction; and abandons his true Self for his +organs, the whole for the parts. Property draws the man outwards, +stimulating the external part of his being, and for a time mastering +him, overpowers the central Will, and brings about his disintegration +and corruption. Lastly, Property by thus stimulating the external and +selfish nature in Man, draws him away from his Fellows. In the anxiety +to possess things for himself, in order to gratify his own bumps, he is +necessarily brought into conflict with his neighbor and comes to regard +him as an enemy. For the true Self of man consists in his organic +relation with the whole body of his fellows; and when the man abandons +his true Self he abandons also his true relation to his fellows. The +mass-Man must rule in each unit-man, else the unit-man will drop off and +die. But when the outer man tries to separate himself from the inner, +the unit-man from the mass-Man, then the reign of individuality +begins--a false and impossible individuality of course, but the only +means of coming to the consciousness of the true individuality. With the +advent of a Civilisation then founded on Property the unity of the old +tribal society is broken up. The ties of blood relationship which were +the foundation of the gentile system and the guarantees of the old +fraternity and equality become dissolved in favor of powers and +authorities founded on mere possession. The growth of Wealth +disintegrates the ancient Society; the temptations of power, of +possession, etc., which accompany it, wrench the individual from his +moorings; personal greed rules; "each man for himself" becomes the +universal motto; the hand of every man is raised against his brother, +and at last society itself becomes an organisation by which the rich +fatten upon the vitals of the poor, the strong upon the murder of the +weak. [It is interesting in this connection to find that Lewis Morgan +makes the invention of a written alphabet and the growth of the +conception of private property the main characteristics of the +civilisation-period as distinguished from the periods of savagery and +barbarism which preceded it; for the invention of writing marks perhaps +better than anything else could do the period when Man becomes +_self-conscious_--when he records his own doings and thoughts, and so +commences History proper; and the growth of private property marks the +period when he begins to sunder himself from his fellows, when therefore +the conception of sin (or separation) first enters in, and with it all +the long period of moral perplexity, and the denial of that community of +life between himself and his fellows which is really of the essence of +man's being.] + +And then arises the institution of Government. + +Hitherto this had not existed except in a quite rudimentary form. The +early communities troubled themselves little about individual ownership, +and what government they had was for the most part essentially +democratic--as being merely a choice of leaders among blood-relations +and social equals. But when the delusion that man can exist for himself +alone--his outer and, as it were, accidental self apart from the great +inner and cosmical self by which he is one with his fellows--when this +delusion takes possession of him, it is not long before it finds +expression in some system of private property. The old community of life +and enjoyment passes away, and each man tries to grab the utmost he can, +and to retire into his own lair for its consumption. Private +accumulations arise; the natural flow of the bounties of life is dammed +back, and artificial barriers of Law have to be constructed in order to +preserve the unequal levels. Outrage and Fraud follow in the wake of the +desire of possession; force has to be used by the possessors in order to +maintain the law-barriers against the non-possessors; classes are +formed; and finally the formal Government arises, mainly as the +expression of such force; and preserves itself, as best it can, until +such time as the inequalities which it upholds become too glaring, and +the pent social waters gathering head burst through once more and regain +their natural levels. + +Thus Morgan in his "Ancient Society" points out over and over again that +the civilised state rests upon territorial and property marks and +qualifications, and not upon a personal basis as did the ancient _gens_, +or the tribe; and that the civilised government correspondingly takes on +quite a different character and function from the simple organisation +of the gens. He says (p. 124), "Monarchy is incompatible with +gentilism." Also with regard to the relation of Property to Civilisation +and Government he makes the following pregnant remarks (p. 505): "It is +impossible to over-estimate the influence of property in the +civilisation of mankind. It was the power that brought the Aryan and +Semitic nations out of barbarism into civilisation. The growth of the +idea of property in the human mind commenced in feebleness and ended in +becoming its master passion. Governments and Laws are instituted with +primary reference to its creation, protection and enjoyment. It +introduced human slavery as an instrument in its production; and after +the experience of several thousand years it caused the abolition of +slavery upon the discovery that a freeman was a better property-making +machine." And in another passage on the same subject, "The dissolution +of society bids fair to become the termination of a career of which +property is the end and aim; because such a career contains the elements +of self-destruction. Democracy is the next higher plane. It will be a +revival in a higher form of the liberty, equality and fraternity of the +ancient gentes." + +The institution of Government is in fact the evidence in social life +that man has lost his inner and central control, and therefore must +resort to an outward one. Losing touch with the inward Man--who is his +true guide--he declines upon an external law, which must always be +false. If each man remained in organic adhesion to the general body of +his fellows, no serious dis-harmony could occur; but it is when this +vital unity of the body politic becomes weak that it has to be preserved +by artificial means, and thus it is that with the decay of the primitive +and instinctive social life there springs up a form of government which +is no longer the democratic expression of the life of the whole people; +but a kind of outside authority and compulsion thrust upon them by a +ruling class or caste. + +Perhaps the sincerest, and often though not always the earliest, form of +Government is Monarchy. The sentiment of human unity having been already +partly but not quite lost, the people choose--in order to hold society +together--a man to rule over them who has this sentiment in a high +degree. He represents the true Man and therefore the people. This is +often a time of extensive warfare and the formation of nations. And it +is interesting in this connection to note that the quite early "Kings" +or leaders of each nation just prior to the civilisation period were +generally associated with the highest religious functions, as in the +case of the Roman _rex_, the Greek _basileus_, the early Egyptian Kings, +Moses among the Israelites, and Druid leaders of the Britons, and so on. + +Later, and as the central authority gets more and more shadowy in each +man, and the external attraction of Property greater, so it does in +Society. The temporal and spiritual powers part company. The king--who +at first represented the Divine Spirit or soul of society, recedes into +the background, and his nobles of high degree (who may be compared to +the nobler, more generous, qualities of the mind) begin to take his +place. This is the Aristocracy and the Feudal Age--the Timocracy of +Plato; and is marked by the appearance of large private tenures of land, +and the growth of slavery and serfdom--the slavery thus outwardly +appearing in society being the symbol of the inward enslavement of the +man. + +Then comes the Commercial Age--the Oligarchy or Plutocracy of Plato. +Honour quite gives place to material wealth; the rulers rule not by +personal or hereditary, but by property qualifications. Parliaments and +Constitutions and general Palaver are the order of the day. +Wage-slavery, usury, mortgages, and other abominations, indicate the +advance of the mortal process. In the individual man gain is the end of +existence; industry and scientific cunning are his topmost virtues. + +Last of all the break-up is complete. The individual loses all memory +and tradition of his heavenly guide and counterpart; his nobler passions +fail for want of a leader to whom to dedicate themselves; his industry +and his intellect serve but to minister to his little swarming desires. +This is the era of anarchy--the democracy of Carlyle; the rule of the +rabble, and mob-law; caucuses and cackle, competition and universal +greed, breaking out in cancerous tyrannies and plutocracies--a mere +chaos and confusion of society. For just as we saw in the human body, +when the inner and positive force of Health has departed from it, that +it falls a prey to parasites which overspread and devour it; so, when +the central inspiration departs out of social life, does it writhe with +the mere maggots of individual greed, and at length fall under the +dominion of the most monstrous egotist who has been bred from its +corruption. + +Thus we have briefly sketched the progress of the symptoms of the +"disease," which, as said before, runs much (though not quite) the same +course in the various nations which it attacks. And if this last stage +were really the end of all, and the true Democracy, there were indeed +little left to hope for. No words of Carlyle could blast that black +enough. But this is no true Democracy. Here in this "each for himself" +is no rule of the Demos in every man, nor anything resembling it. Here +is no solidarity such as existed in the ancient tribes and primæval +society, but only disintegration and a dust-heap. The true Democracy has +yet to come. Here in this present stage is only the final denial of all +outward and class government, in preparation for the restoration of the +inner and true authority. Here in this stage the task of civilisation +comes to an end; the purport and object of all these centuries is +fulfilled; the bitter experience that mankind had to pass through is +completed; and out of this Death and all the torture and unrest which +accompanies it, comes at last the Resurrection. Man has sounded the +depths of alienation from his own divine spirit, he has drunk the dregs +of the cup of suffering, he has literally descended into Hell; +henceforth he turns, both in the individual and in society, and mounts +deliberately and consciously back again towards the unity which he has +lost.[14] + +And the false democracy parts aside for the disclosure of the true +Democracy which has been formed beneath it--which is not an external +government at all, but an inward rule--the rule of the mass-Man in each +unit-man. For no outward government can be anything but a make-shift--a +temporary hard chrysalis-sheath to hold the grub together while the new +life is forming inside--a device of the civilisation-period. Farther +than this it cannot go, since no true life can rely upon an external +support, and, when the true life of society comes, all its forms will be +fluid and spontaneous and voluntary. + + +IV + +And now, by way of a glimpse into the future--after this long digression +what is the route that man will take? + +This is a subject that I hardly dare tackle. "The morning wind ever +blows," says Thoreau, "the poem of creation is uninterrupted--but few +are the ears that hear it." And how can we, gulfed as we are in this +present whirlpool, conceive rightly the glory which awaits us? No limits +that our present knowledge puts need alarm us; the impossibilities will +yield very easily when the time comes; and the anatomical difficulty as +to how and where the wings are to grow will vanish when they are felt +sprouting! + +It can hardly be doubted that the tendency will be--indeed is already +showing itself--towards a return to nature and community of human life. +This is the way back to the lost Eden, or rather forward to the new +Eden, of which the old was only a figure. Man has to undo the wrappings +and the mummydom of centuries, by which he has shut himself from the +light of the sun and lain in seeming death, preparing silently his +glorious resurrection--for all the world like the funny old chrysalis +that he is. He has to emerge from houses and all his other hiding +places wherein so long ago ashamed (as at the voice of God in the +garden) he concealed himself--and Nature must once more become his home, +as it is the home of the animals and the angels. + +As it is written in the old magical formula: "Man clothes himself to +descend, unclothes himself to ascend." Over his spiritual or wind-like +body he puts on a material or earthy body; over his earth-body he puts +on the skins of animals and other garments; then he hides this body in a +house behind curtains and stone walls--which become to it as secondary +skins and prolongations of itself. So that between the man and his true +life there grows a dense and impenetrable hedge; and, what with the +cares and anxieties connected with his earth-body and all its skins, he +soon loses the knowledge that he is a Man at all; his true self slumbers +in a deep and agelong swoon. + +But the instinct of all who desire to deliver the divine _imago_ within +them, is, in something more than the literal sense, towards unclothing. +And the process of evolution or exfoliation itself is nothing but a +continual unclothing of Nature, by which the perfect human Form which is +at the root of it comes nearer and nearer to its manifestation. + +Thus, in order to restore the Health which he has lost, man has in the +future to tend in this direction. Life indoors and in houses has to +become a fraction only, instead of the principal part of existence as it +is now. Garments similarly have to be simplified. How far this process +may go it is not necessary now to enquire. It is sufficiently obvious +that our domestic life and clothing may be at once greatly reduced in +complexity, and with the greatest advantage--made subsidiary instead of +being erected into the fetishes which they are. And everyone may feel +assured that each gain in this direction is a gain in true life--whether +it be the head that goes uncovered to the air of heaven, or the feet +that press bare the magnetic earth, or the elementary raiment that +allows through its meshes the light itself to reach the vital organs. +The life of the open air, familiarity with the winds and waves, clean +and pure food, the companionship of the animals--the very wrestling with +the great Mother for his food--all these things will tend to restore +that relationship which man has so long disowned; and the consequent +instreaming of energy into his system will carry him to perfections of +health and radiance of being at present unsuspected. + +Of course, it will be said that many of these things are difficult to +realise in our country, that an indoor life, with all its concomitants, +is forced upon us by the climate. But if this is to some small--though +very small--extent true, it forms no reason why we should not still take +advantage of every opportunity to push in the direction indicated. It +must be remembered, too, that our climate is greatly of our own +creation. If the atmosphere of many of our great towns and of the lands +for miles in their neighbourhood is devitalised and deadly--so that in +cold weather it grants to the poor mortal no compensating power of +resistance, but compels him at peril of his life to swathe himself in +greatcoats and mufflers--the blame is none but ours. It is we who have +covered the lands with a pall of smoke, and are walking to our own +funerals under it. + +That this climate, however, at its best may not be suited to the highest +developments of human life is quite possible. Because Britain has been +the scene of some of the greatest episodes of Civilisation, it does not +follow that she will keep the lead in the period that is to follow; and +the Higher Communities of the future will perhaps take their rise in +warmer lands, where life is richer and fuller, more spontaneous and more +generous, than it can be here. + +Another point in this connection is the food question. For the +restoration of the central vigour when lost or degenerate, a diet +consisting mainly of fruits and grains is most adapted. Animal food +often gives for the time being a lot of nervous energy--and may be +useful for special purposes; but the energy is of a spasmodic feverish +kind; the food has a tendency to inflame the subsidiary centres, and so +to diminish the central control. Those who live mainly on animal food +are specially liable to disease--and not only physically; for their +minds also fall more easily a prey to desires and sorrows. In times +therefore of grief or mental trouble of any kind, as well as in times of +bodily sickness, immediate recourse should be had to the more elementary +diet. The body under this diet endures work with less fatigue, is less +susceptible to pain, and to cold; and heals its wounds with +extraordinary celerity; all of which facts point in the same direction. +It may be noted, too, that foods of the seed kind--by which I mean all +manner of fruits, nuts, tubers, grains, eggs, etc. (and I may include +milk in its various forms of butter, cheese, curds, and so forth), not +only contain by their nature the elements of life in their most +condensed forms, but have the additional advantage that they can be +appropriated without injury to any living creature--for even the cabbage +may inaudibly scream when torn up by the roots and boiled, but the +strawberry plant _asks_ us to take of its fruit, and paints it red +expressly that we may see and devour it! Both of which considerations +must convince us that this kind of food is most fitted to develop the +kernel of man's life. + +Which all means cleanness. The unity of our nature being restored, the +instinct of bodily cleanness, _both_ within and without, which is such a +marked characteristic of the animals, will again characterise +mankind--only now instead of a blind instinct it will be a conscious, +joyous one; dirt being only disorder and obstruction. And thus the whole +human being, mind and body, becoming clean and radiant from its inmost +centre to its farthest circumference--"transfigured"--the distinction +between the words spiritual and material disappears. In the words of +Whitman, "objects gross and the unseen soul are one." + +But this return to Nature, and identification in some sort with the +great cosmos, does not involve a denial or depreciation of human life +and interests. It is not uncommonly supposed that there is some kind of +antagonism between Man and Nature, and that to recommend a life closer +to the latter means mere asceticism and eremitism; and unfortunately +this antagonism does exist to-day, though it certainly will not exist +for ever. To-day it is unfortunately perfectly true that Man is the only +animal who, instead of adorning and beautifying, makes Nature hideous by +his presence. The fox and the squirrel may make their homes in the wood +and add to its beauty in so doing; but when Alderman Smith plants his +villa there, the gods pack up their trunks and depart; they can bear it +no longer. The Bushmen can hide themselves and become indistinguishable +on a slope of bare rock; they twine their naked little yellow bodies +together, and look like a heap of dead sticks; but when the chimney-pot +hat and frock-coat appear, the birds fly screaming from the trees. This +was the great glory of the Greeks that they accepted and perfected +Nature; as the Parthenon sprang out of the limestone terraces of the +Acropolis, carrying the natural lines of the rock by gradations scarce +perceptible into the finished and human beauty of frieze and pediment, +and as, above, it was open for the blue air of heaven to descend into it +for a habitation; so throughout in all their best work and life did they +stand in this close relation to the earth and the sky and to all +instinctive and elemental things, admitting no gulf between themselves +and them, but only perfecting their expressiveness and beauty. And some +day we shall again understand this which, in the very sunrise of true +Art, the Greeks so well understood. Possibly some day we shall again +build our houses or dwelling places so simple and elemental in character +that they will fit in the nooks of the hills or along the banks of the +streams or by the edges of the woods without disturbing the harmony of +the landscape or the songs of the birds. Then the great temples, +beautiful on every height, or by the shores of the rivers and the lakes, +will be the storehouses of all precious and lovely things. There men, +women and children will come to share in the great and wonderful common +life, the gardens around will be sacred to the unharmed and welcome +animals; there all store and all facilities of books and music and art +for every one, there a meeting place for social life and intercourse, +there dances and games and feasts. Every village, every little +settlement, will have such hall or halls. No need for private +accumulations. Gladly will each man, and more gladly still each woman, +take his or her treasures, except what are immediately or necessarily in +use, to the common centre, where their value will be increased a hundred +and a thousand fold by the greater number of those who can enjoy them, +and where far more perfectly and with far less toil they can be tended +than if scattered abroad in private hands. At one stroke half the labour +and all the anxiety of domestic caretaking will be annihilated. The +private dwelling places, no longer costly and labyrinthine in proportion +to the value and number of the treasures they contain, will need no +longer to have doors and windows jealously closed against fellow men or +mother nature. The sun and air will have access to them, the indwellers +will have unfettered egress. Neither man nor woman will be tied in +slavery to the lodge which they inhabit; and in becoming once more a +part of nature, the human habitation will at length cease to be what it +is now for at least half the human race--a prison. + +Men often ask about the new Architecture--what, and of what sort, it is +going to be. But to such a question there can be no answer till a new +understanding of life has entered into people's minds, and then the +answer will be clear enough. For as the Greek Temples and the Gothic +Cathedrals were built by people who themselves lived but frugally as we +should think, and were ready to dedicate their best work and chief +treasure to the gods and the common life; and as to-day when we must +needs have for ourselves spacious and luxurious villas, we seem to be +unable to design a decent church or public building; so it will not be +till we once more find our main interest and life in the life of the +community and the gods that a new spirit will inspire our architecture. +Then when our Temples and Common Halls are not designed to glorify an +individual architect or patron, but are built for the use of free men +and women, to front the sky and the sea and the sun, to spring out of +the earth, companionable with the trees and the rocks, not alien in +spirit from the sunlit globe itself or the depth of the starry +night--then I say their form and structure will quickly determine +themselves, and men will have no difficulty in making them beautiful. +And similarly with the homes or dwelling places of the people. Various +as these may be for the various wants of men, whether for a single +individual or for a family, or for groups of individuals or families, +whether to the last degree simple, or whether more or less ornate and +complex, still the new conception, the new needs of life, will +necessarily dominate them and give them form by a law unfolding from +within. + +In such new human life then--its fields, its farms, its workshops, its +cities--always the work of man perfecting and beautifying the lands, +aiding the efforts of the sun and soil, giving voice to the desire of +the mute earth--in such new communal life near to nature, so far from +any asceticism or inhospitality, we are fain to see far more humanity +and sociability than ever before: an infinite helpfulness and sympathy, +as between the children of a common mother. Mutual help and combination +will then have become spontaneous and instinctive: each man contributing +to the service of his neighbor as inevitably and naturally as the right +hand goes to help the left in the human body--and for precisely the same +reason. Every man--think of it!--will do the work which he _likes_, +which he desires to do, which is obviously before him to do, and which +he knows will be useful, without thought of wages or reward; and the +reward will come to him as inevitably and naturally as in the human body +the blood flows to the member which is exerting itself. All the endless +burden of the adjustments of labour and wages, of the war of duty and +distaste, of want and weariness, will be thrown aside--all the huge +waste of work done against the grain will be avoided; out of the endless +variety of human nature will spring a perfectly natural and infinite +variety of occupations, all mutually contributive; Society at last will +be free and the human being after long ages will have attained to +deliverance. + +This is the Communism which Civilisation has always _hated_, as it hated +Christ. Yet it is inevitable; for the cosmical man, the instinctive +elemental man accepting and crowning nature, necessarily fulfils the +universal law of nature. As to External Government and Law, they will +disappear; for they are only the travesties and transitory substitutes +of Inward Government and Order. Society in its final state is neither a +Monarchy, nor an Aristocracy nor a Democracy, nor an Anarchy, and yet in +another sense it is all of these. It is an Anarchy because there is no +outward rule, but only an inward and invisible spirit of life; it is a +Democracy because it is the rule of the Mass-man, or Demos, in each unit +man; it is an Aristocracy because there are degrees and ranks of such +inward power in all men; and it is a Monarchy because all these ranks +and powers merge in a perfect unity and central control at last. And so +it appears that the outer forms of government which belong to the +Civilisation-period are only the expression in separate external symbols +of the facts of the true inner life of society. + +And just as thus the various external forms of government during the +Civilisation-period find their justification and interpretation in the +ensuing period, so will it be with the mechanical and other products of +the present time; they will be taken up, and find their proper place and +use in the time to come. They will not be refused; but they will have to +be brought into subjection. Our locomotives, machinery, telegraphic and +postal systems; our houses, furniture, clothes, books, our fearful and +wonderful cookery, strong drinks, teas, tobaccos; our medical and +surgical appliances; high-faluting sciences and philosophies, and all +other engines hitherto of human bewilderment, have simply to be reduced +to abject subjection to the real man. All these appliances, and a +thousand others such as we hardly dream of, will come in to perfect his +power and increase his freedom; but they will not be the objects of a +mere fetish-worship as now. Man will use them, instead of their using +him. His real life will lie in a region far beyond them. But in thus for +a moment denying and "mastering" the products of Civilisation, will he +for the first time discover their true value, and reap from them an +enjoyment unknown before. + +The same with the moral powers. As said before, the knowledge of good +and evil at a certain point passes away, or becomes absorbed into a +higher knowledge. The perception of Sin goes with a certain weakness in +the man. As long as there is conflict and division within him, so long +does he seem to perceive conflicting and opposing principles in the +world without. As long as the objects of the outer world excite emotions +in him which pass beyond his control, so long do those objects stand as +the signals of evil--of disorder and sin. Not that the objects are bad +in themselves, or even the emotions which they excite, but that all +through this period these things serve to the man as indications of +_his_ weakness. But when the central power is restored in man and all +things are reduced to his service, it is impossible for him to see +badness in anything. The bodily is no longer antagonistic to the +spiritual love, but is absorbed into it. All his passions take their +places perfectly naturally, and become, when the occasions arise, the +vehicles of his expression. Vices under existing conditions are vices +simply because of the inordinate and disturbing influence they exercise, +but will cease again to be vices when the man regains his proper +command. Thus Socrates having a clean soul in a clean body could drink +his boon companions under the table and then go out himself to take the +morning air--what was a blemish and defect in them being simply an added +power of enjoyment to himself! + +The point of difference throughout (being the transference of the centre +of gravity of life and consciousness from the partial to the universal +man) is symbolised by the gradual resumption of more universal +conditions. That is to say that during the civilisation-period, the body +being systematically wrapped in clothes, the _head_ alone represents +man--the little finnikin, intellectual, _self-conscious_ man in +contra-distinction to the cosmical man represented by the entirety of +the bodily organs. The body has to be delivered from its swathings in +order that the cosmical consciousness may once more reside in the human +breast. We have to become "all face" again--as the savage said of +himself.[15] + +Where the cosmic self is, there is no more self-consciousness. The body +and what is ordinarily called the self are felt to be only parts of the +true self, and the ordinary distinctions of inner and outer, egotism and +altruism, etc., lose a good deal of their value. Thought no longer +returns upon the local self as the chief object of regard, but +consciousness is continually radiant from it, filling the body and +overflowing upon external Nature. Thus the Sun in the physical world is +the allegory of the true self. The worshiper must adore the Sun, he must +saturate himself with sunlight, and take the physical Sun into himself. +Those who live by fire and candle-light are filled with phantoms; their +thoughts are Will-o'-th'-wisp-like images of themselves, and they are +tormented by a horrible self-consciousness. + +And when the Civilisation-period has passed away, the old +Nature-religion--perhaps greatly grown--will come back. This immense +stream of religious life which, beginning far beyond the horizon of +earliest history, has been deflected into various metaphysical and other +channels--of Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, and the like--during the +historical period, will once more gather itself together to float on its +bosom all the arks and sacred vessels of human progress. Man will once +more _feel_ his unity with his fellows, he will feel his unity with the +animals, with the mountains and the streams, with the earth itself and +the slow lapse of the constellations, not as an abstract dogma of +Science or Theology, but as a living and ever-present fact. Ages back +this has been understood better than now. Our Christian ceremonial is +saturated with sexual and astronomical symbols; and long before +Christianity existed, the sexual and astronomical were the main forms of +religion. That is to say, men instinctively felt and worshiped the great +life coming to them through Sex, the great life coming to them from the +deeps of Heaven. They deified both. They placed their gods--their own +human forms--in sex, they placed them in the sky. And not only so, but +wherever they felt this kindred human life--in the animals, in the ibis, +the bull, the lamb, the snake, the crocodile; in the trees and flowers, +the oak, the ash, the laurel, the hyacinth; in the streams and +water-falls, on the mountain-sides or in the depths of the sea--they +placed them. The whole universe was full of a life which, though not +always friendly, was _human_ and kindred to their own, _felt_ by them, +not reasoned about, but simply perceived. To the early man the notion of +his having a separate individuality could only with difficulty occur; +hence he troubled himself not with the suicidal questionings concerning +the whence and whither which now vex the modern mind.[16] For what +causes these questions to be asked is simply the wretched feeling of +isolation, actual or prospective, which man necessarily has when he +contemplates himself as a separate atom in this immense universe--the +gulf which lies below seemingly ready to swallow him, and the anxiety to +find some mode of escape. But when he feels once more that he, that _he_ +himself, is absolutely indivisibly and indestructibly a part of this +great whole--why then there is no gulf into which he can possibly fall; +when he is sensible of the fact, why then the _how_ of its realisation, +though losing none of its interest, becomes a matter for whose solution +he can wait and work in faith and contentment of mind. The Sun or Sol, +visible image of his very Soul, closest and most vital to him of all +mortal things, occupying the illimitable heaven, feeding all with its +life; the Moon, emblem and nurse of his own reflective thought, the +conscious Man, measurer of Time, mirror of the Sun; the planetary +passions wandering to and fro, yet within bounds; the starry destinies; +the changes of the earth, and the seasons; the upward growth and +unfoldment of all organic life; the emergence of the perfect Man, +towards whose birth all creation groans and travails--all these things +will return to become realities, and to be the frame or setting of his +supra-mundane life. The meaning of the old religions will come back to +him. On the high tops once more gathering he will celebrate with naked +dances the glory of the human form and the great processions of the +stars, or greet the bright horn of the young moon which now after a +hundred centuries comes back laden with such wondrous associations--all +the yearnings and the dreams and the wonderment of the generations of +mankind--the worship of Astarte and of Diana, of Isis or the Virgin +Mary; once more in sacred groves will he reunite the passion and the +delight of human love with his deepest feelings of the sanctity and +beauty of Nature; or in the open, standing uncovered to the Sun, will +adore the emblem of the everlasting splendour which shines within. The +same sense of vital perfection and exaltation which can be traced in the +early and pre-civilisation peoples--only a thousand times intensified, +defined, illustrated and purified--will return to irradiate the redeemed +and delivered Man. + + +In suggesting thus the part which Civilisation has played in history, I +am aware that the word itself is difficult to define--is at best only +one of those phantom-generalisations which the mind is forced to employ; +also that the account I have given of it is sadly imperfect, leaning +perhaps too much to the merely negative and destructive aspect of this +thousand-year long lapse of human evolution. I would also remind the +reader that though it is perfectly true that under the dissolving +influence of civilisation empire after empire has gone under and +disappeared, and the current of human progress time after time has only +been restored again by a fresh influx of savagery, yet its corruptive +tendency has never had a quite unlimited fling; but that all down the +ages of its dominance over the earth we can trace the tradition of a +healing and redeeming power at work in the human breast and an +anticipation of the second advent of the son of man. Certain +institutions, too, such as Art and the Family (though it seems not +unlikely that both of these will greatly change when the special +conditions of their present existence have disappeared), have served to +keep the sacred flame alive; the latter preserving in island-miniatures, +as it were, the ancient communal humanity when the seas of individualism +and greed covered the general face of the earth; the former keeping up, +so to speak, a navel-cord of contact with Nature, and a means of +utterance of primal emotions else unsatisfiable in the world around. + +And if it seem extravagant to suppose that Society will ever emerge from +the chaotic condition of strife and perplexity in which we find it all +down the lapse of historical time, or to hope that the +civilisation-process which has terminated fatally so invariably in the +past will ever eventuate in the establishment of a higher and more +perfect health-condition, we may for our consolation remember that +to-day there are features in the problem which have never been present +before. In the first place, to-day Civilisation is no longer isolated, +as in the ancient world, in surrounding floods of savagery and +barbarism, but it practically covers the globe, and the outlying +savagery is so feeble as not possibly to be a menace to it. This may at +first appear a drawback, for (it will be said) if Civilisation be not +renovated by the influx of external Savagery its own inherent flaws will +destroy society all the sooner. And there would be some truth in this if +it were not for the following consideration, namely, that while for the +first time in History Civilisation is now practically continuous over +the globe, now also for the first time can we descry forming in +continuous line _within its very structure_ the forces which are +destined to destroy it and to bring about the new order. While hitherto +isolated communisms, as suggested, have existed here and there and from +time to time, now for the first time in History both the masses and the +thinkers of all the advanced nations of the world are consciously +feeling their way towards the establishment of a socialistic and +communal life on a vast scale. The present competitive society is more +and more rapidly becoming a mere dead formula and husk within which the +outlines of the new and _human_ society are already discernible. +Simultaneously, and as if to match this growth, a move towards Nature +and Savagery is for the first time taking place from within, instead of +being forced upon society from without. The nature movement begun years +ago in literature and art is now, among the more advanced sections of +the civilised world, rapidly realising itself in actual life, going so +far even as a denial, among some, of machinery and the complex products +of Civilisation, and developing among others into a gospel of salvation +by sandals and sunbaths! It is in these two movements--towards a complex +human Communism and towards individual freedom and Savagery--in some +sort balancing and correcting each other, and both visibly growing up +within, though utterly foreign to--our present-day Civilisation, that we +have fair grounds, I think, for looking forward to its cure. + + +NOTES + + (See p. 26) The following remarks by Mr. H. B. Cotterill on the + natives around Lake Nyassa, among whom he lived at a time, 1876-8, + when the region was almost unvisited, may be of interest. "In + regard of merely 'animal' development and well-being, that is in + the delicate perfection of bodily faculties (perceptive), the + African savage is as a rule incomparably superior to us. One feels + like a child, utterly dependent on them, when travelling or hunting + with them. It is true that many may be found (especially amongst + the weaker tribes that have been slave-hunted or driven into barren + corners) who are half-starved and wizened, but as a rule they are + splendid animals. In _character_ there is a great want of that + strength which in the educated civilised man is secured by the + roots striking out into the Past and Future--and in spite of their + immense perceptive superiority they feel and acknowledge the + superior force of character in the white man. They are the very + converse of the Stoic self-sufficient sage--like children in their + 'admiration' and worship of the Unknown. Hence their absolute want + of _Conceit_, though they possess self-command and dignity. They + are, to those they love and respect, faithful and devoted--their + faithfulness and truthfulness are dictated by no 'categorical + imperative,' but by personal affection. Towards an enemy they can + be, without any conscientious scruples, treacherous and inhumanly + cruel. I should say that there is scarcely any possible idea that + is so foreign to the savage African mind as that of general + philanthropy or enemy-love." + + "In _endurance_ the African savage beats us hollow (except trained + athletes). On one occasion my men rowed my boat with 10 foot oars + against the wind in a choppy sea for _25 hours at one go_, across + Kuwirwe Bay, about 60 miles. They never once stopped or left their + seats--just handed round a handful of rice now and then. I was at + the helm all the time--and had enough of it!... They carry 80 lbs. + on their heads for 10 hours through swamps and jungles. Four of my + men carried a sick man weighing 14 stones in a hammock for 200 + miles, right across the dreaded Malikata Swamp. But for _sudden_ + emergencies, squalls, etc., they are nowhere." + + + (See p. 27) "So lovely a scene made easily credible the suggestion, + otherwise highly probable, that the Golden Age was no mere fancy of + the poets, but a reminiscence of the facts of social life in its + primitive organisation of village and house-communities." (J. S. + Stuart-Glennie's _Europe and Asia_, ch. i. Servia.) + + + (See p. 72) "It was only on the up-break of the primitive + socialisms that the passionate desire of, and therefore belief in, + individual Immortality arose. With an intense feeling, not of an + independent individual life, but of a dependent common life, there + is no passionate desire of, though there may be more or less of + belief in, a continuance after death of individual existence." + (_Ibid_, p. 161.) + + + Following is an extract from a letter from my friend Havelock + Ellis, which he kindly allows me to reprint. The passage is + interesting as indicating _one_ cause, at any rate, of the failure + of the modern civilisations. "Your remark that you are + re-publishing _Civilisation: its Cause and Cure_ has led me to read + it once again, and I see how well adapted it is for reissue just + now when there is so widespread a discontent with 'civilisation.' I + do not see any reason for changing the essay, though, no doubt, + much might be added to supplement it. What has, however, struck me + is that you leave out of account the _reason_ for the greater + health, vigour, and high spirit of savages (when such conditions + exist), and that is _the more stringent natural_ selection among + savages owing to the greater hardness of their life. You doubtless + know ch. xvii of Westermarck's _Moral Ideas_, where he shows how + widespread among savages (when they have got past the first crude + primitive stage), and in the ancient civilisations, was the + practice of infanticide applied to inferior babies and the habit of + allowing sick persons to die. That was evidently the secret of the + natural superiority of the savage and of the men of the old + civilisation, for the Greeks and Romans were very stringent in this + matter. The flabbiness of the civilised and the prevalence of + doctors and hygienists, which you make fun of, is due to the modern + tenderness for human life which is afraid to kill off even the most + worthless specimens and so lowers the whole level of 'civilised' + humanity. Introduce a New Hardness in this matter and we should + return to the high level of savagery, while the doctors would + disappear as if by magic. I don't myself believe we _can_ introduce + this hardness; and that is why I attach so much importance to + _intelligent_ eugenics, working through birth-control, as the only + _now possible_ way of getting towards that high natural level you + aim at."--HAVELOCK ELLIS (1920). + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] It is interesting to note that the "sense of Sin" seems now (1920) +to have nearly passed away. And this fact probably indicates a +considerable impending change in our Social Order. + +[2] For proof I must refer the reader to Engels, or to his own studies +of history. + +[3] Say like the Homeric Greeks, or the Spartans of the Lycurgus period. + +[4] _Matabele Land and the Victoria Falls_, p. 209. + +[5] A similar physical health and power of life are also developed among +Europeans who have lived for long periods in more native conditions. It +is not to our _race_, which is probably superior to any in capacity, but +to the state in which we live that we must ascribe our defect in this +particular matter. + +[6] See Col. Dodge's _Our Wild Indians_. + +[7] Wood's _Natural History of Man_. + +[8] See Appendix. + +[9] See Note at end of this chapter. + +[10] No words or theory even of morality can express or formulate +this--no enthronement of _any_ virtue can take its place; for all virtue +enthroned before our humanity becomes vice, and worse than vice. + +[11] It is curious that this word seems to have the same root as the +word Man, the original idea apparently being Order, or Measure. + +[12] And with regard to disease, though it is not maintained that among +the animals there is anything like immunity from it--since diseases of a +more or less parasitic character are common in all tribes of plants and +animals--still they seem to be rarer, and the organic instinct of health +greater, than in the civilised man. + +[13] As to the unity of these wild races with Nature, that is a matter +seemingly beyond dispute; their keenness of sense, sensitiveness to +atmospheric changes, knowledge of properties of plants and habits of +animals, etc., have been the subject of frequent remark; but beyond +this, their strong _feeling_ of union with the universal spirit, +probably only dimly self conscious, but expressing itself very markedly +and clearly in their customs, is most strange and pregnant of meaning. +The dances of the Andaman Islanders on the sands at night, the wild +festival of the new moon among the Fans and other African tribes, the +processions through the forests, the chants and dull thudding of drums, +the torture-dances of the young Red Indian bravos in the burning heat of +the sun; the Dionysiac festivals among the early Greeks; and indeed the +sacrificial nature-rites and carnivals and extraordinary powers of +second-sight found among all primitive peoples; all these things +indicate clearly a faculty which, though it had hardly become +self-conscious enough to be what we call religion, was yet in truth the +foundation element of religion, and the germ of some human powers which +wait yet to be developed. + +[14] There is another point worth noting as characteristic of the +civilisation-period. This is the abnormal development of the abstract +intellect in comparison with the physical senses on the one hand, and +the moral sense on the other. Such a result might be expected, seeing +that abstraction from reality is naturally the great engine of that +false individuality or apartness, which it is the object of Civilisation +to produce. As it is, during this period man builds himself an +intellectual world apart from the great actual universe around him; the +"ghosts of things" are studied in books; the student lives indoors, he +cannot face the open air--his theories "may prove very well in +lecture-rooms, yet not prove at all under the spacious clouds, and along +the landscape and flowing currents"; children are "educated" afar from +actual life; huge phantom-temples of philosophy and science are reared +upon the most slender foundations; and in these he lives defended from +actual fact. For as a drop of water, when it comes in contact with +red-hot iron, wraps itself in a cloud of vapor and is saved from +destruction, so the little mind of man, lest it should touch the burning +truth of Nature and God and be consumed, evolves at each point of +contact a veil of insubstantial thought which allows it for a time to +exist apart, and becomes the nurse of its self-consciousness. + +[15] See Alonso di Ovalle's _Account of the Kingdom of Chile_ in +Churchill's _Collection of Voyages and Travels_, 1724. + +[16] See Notes at end of this chapter. + + + + +MODERN SCIENCE: A CRITICISM + +[Greek: panti logô logos isos antikeitai.] + + +It is one of the difficulties which meet anyone who suggests that modern +science is not wholly satisfactory, that it is immediately assumed that +the writer is covertly defending what Ingersoll calls the "rib-story," +or that he wishes to restore belief in the literal inspiration of the +Bible. But, religious controversy apart, and while admitting that +Science has done a great work in cleaning away the kitchen-middens of +superstition and opening the path to clearer and saner views of the +world, it is possible--and there is already a growing feeling that +way--that her positive contributions to our comprehension of the order +of the universe have in late times been disappointing, and that even her +methods are only of limited applicability. After a glorious burst of +perhaps fifty years, amid great acclamations and good hopes that the +crafty old universe was going to be caught in her careful net, Science, +it must be confessed, now finds herself in almost every direction in +the most hopeless quandaries; and, whether the rib-story be true or not, +has at any rate provided no very satisfactory substitute for it. And the +reason of this failure is very obvious. It goes with a certain defect in +the human mind, which, as we have pointed out (note, p. 57), necessarily +belongs to the Civilisation-period--the tendency, namely, to separate +the logical and intellectual part of man from the emotional and +instinctive, and to give it a _locus standi_ of its own. Science has +failed, because she has attempted to carry out the investigation of +nature from the intellectual side alone--neglecting the other +constituents necessarily involved in the problem. She has failed, +because she has attempted an impossible task; for the discovery of a +permanently valid and purely _intellectual_ representation of the +universe is simply impossible. Such a thing does not exist. + +The various theories and views of nature which we hold are merely the +fugitive envelopes of the successive stages of human growth--each set of +theories and views belonging organically to the moral and emotional +stage which has been reached, and being in some sort the expression of +it; so that the attempt at any given time to set up an explanation of +phenomena which shall be valid in itself and without reference to the +mental condition of those who set it up, necessarily ends in failure; +and the present state of confusion and contradiction in which modern +Science finds itself is merely the result of such attempt. + +Of course this limitation of the validity of Science has been +recognised by most of those who have thought about the matter;[17] but +it is so commonly overlooked, and latterly the notion has so far gained +ground that the "laws" of science are immutable facts and eternal +statements of verity, that it may be worth while to treat the subject a +little more in detail. + +The method of Science is the method of all mundane knowledge; it is that +of limitation or actual ignorance. Placed in face of the great +uncontained unity of Nature we can only deal with it in thought by +selecting certain details and isolating those (either wilfully or +unconsciously) from the rest. That is right enough. But in doing so--in +isolating such and such details--we practically beg the question we are +in search of; and, moreover, in supposing such isolation we suppose what +is false, and therefore vitiate our conclusion. From these two radical +defects of all intellectual inquiry we cannot escape. The views of +Science are like the views of a mountain; each is only possible as long +as you limit yourself to a certain standpoint. Move your position, and +the view is changed.[18] + +Perhaps the word "species" will illustrate our meaning as well as any +word; and, in a sense, the word is typical of the method of Science. I +see a dog for the first time. It is a fox-hound. Then I see a second +fox-hound, and a third and a fourth. Presently I form from these few +instances a general conception of "dog." But after a time I see a +grey-hound and a terrier and a mastiff, and my old conception is +destroyed. A new one has to be formed, and then a new one and a new one. +Now I overlook the whole race of civilised dogs and am satisfied with my +wisdom; but presently I come upon some wild dogs, and study the habits +of the wolf and the fox. Geology turns me up some links, and my +conception of dog melts away like a lump of ice into surrounding water. +My species exists no more. As long as I knew a few of the facts I could +talk very wise about them; or if I limited myself arbitrarily, as we +will say, to a study only of animals in England at the present day, I +could classify them; but widen the bounds of my knowledge, the area of +observation, and all my work has to be done over again. My species is +not a valid fact of Nature, but a fiction arising out of my own +ignorance or arbitrary isolation of the objects observed. + +Or to take an instance from Astronomy. We are accustomed to say that the +path of the moon is an ellipse. But this is a very loose statement. On +enquiry we find that, owing to perturbations said to be produced by the +sun, the path deviates considerably from an ellipse. In fact in strict +calculations it is taken as being a certain ellipse only for an +instant--the next instant it is supposed to be a portion of another +ellipse. We might then call the path an irregular curve somewhat +resembling an ellipse. This is a new view. But on further enquiry it +appears that, while the moon is going round the earth, the earth itself +is speeding on through space about the sun--in consequence of which the +actual path of the moon does not in the least resemble an ellipse! +Finally the sun itself is in motion with regard to the fixed stars, and +_they_ are in movement too. What then is the path of the moon? No one +knows; we have not the faintest idea--the word itself ceases to have any +assignable meaning. It is true that if we agree to ignore the +perturbations produced by the sun--as in fact we _do_ ignore +perturbations produced by the planets and other bodies--and if we agree +to ignore the motion of the earth, and the flight of the solar system +through space, and even the movement of any centre round which that may +be speeding, we may then _say_ that the moon moves in an ellipse. But +this has obviously nothing to do with actual facts. The moon _does_ not +move in an ellipse--not even "relatively to the earth"--and probably +never has done and never will do so. It may be a convenient view or +fiction to say that it would do so under such and such +circumstances--but it is still only a fiction. To attempt to isolate a +small portion of the phenomena from the rest in a universe of which the +_unity_ is one of Science's most cherished convictions, is obviously +self-stultifying and useless. + +But you say it can be proved by mathematics that the ellipse would be +the path under these conditions; to which I reply that the mathematical +proof, though no doubt cogent to the human mind (as at present +constituted in most people), is open to the same objection that it does +not deal with actual facts. It deals with a mental supposition, _i.e._, +that there are only two bodies acting on each other--a case which never +has occurred and never can occur--and then, assuming the law of +gravitation (which is just the thing which has to be proved), it arrives +at a mental formula, the ellipse. But to argue from this process that +the ellipse is really a thing in Nature, and that the heavenly bodies do +move or even tend to move in ellipses, is obviously a most unwarrantable +leap in the dark. Finally you argue that the leap is warranted because, +by assuming that the moon and planets move in ellipses, you can actually +foretell things that happen, as for instance the occurrences of +eclipses; and in reply to that I can only say that Tycho Brahé foretold +eclipses almost as well by assuming that the heavenly bodies moved in +epicycles, and that modern astronomers do apply the epicycle theory in +their mathematical formulæ. The epicycles were an assumption made for a +certain purpose, and the ellipses are an assumption made for the same +purpose. In some respects the ellipse is a more convenient fiction than +the epicycle, but it is no less a fiction. + +In other words--with regard to this "path of the moon" (as with regard +to any other phenomenon of Nature)--our knowledge of it must be either +absolute or relative. But we cannot know the absolute path; and as to +the relative, why all we can say is that it does not exist (any more +than species exists)--we cannot break up Nature so; it is not a thing in +Nature, but in our own minds--it is a view and a fiction.[19] + +Again, let us take an example from Physics--Boyle's law of the +compressibility of gases. This law states that, the temperature +remaining constant, the volume of a given quantity of gas is inversely +proportional to its pressure. It is a law which has been made a good +deal of, and at one time was thought to be true, _i.e._, it was thought +to be a statement of fact. A more extended and careful observation, +however, shows that it is only true under so many limitations, that, +like the ellipse in Astronomy, it must be regarded as a convenient +fiction and nothing more. It appears that air follows the supposed law +pretty well, but not by any means exactly except within very narrow +limits of pressure; other gases, such as carbonic acid and hydrogen, +deviate from it very considerably--some more than others, and some in +one direction and some in the opposite. It was found, among other +things, that the nearer a gas was to its liquefying point, the greater +was the deviation from the supposed law, and the conclusion was jumped +at that the law was true for _perfect_ gases only. This idea of a +perfect gas of course involved the assumption that gases, as they get +farther and farther removed from their liquifying point, reach at last a +fixed and stable condition, when no further change in their qualities +takes place--at any rate for a very long time--and Boyle's law was +supposed to apply to this condition. Since then, however, it has been +discovered that there is an ultra-gaseous state of matter, and on all +sides it is becoming abundantly clear that the change in the condition +of matter from the liquid state to the ultra-gaseous state is perfectly +continuous--through all modifications of liquidity and condensation and +every degree of perfection and imperfection of gasiness to the utmost +rarity of the fourth state. At what point, then, does Boyle's law really +apply? Obviously it applies _exactly_ at only one point in this long +ascending scale--at one metaphysical point--and at every other point it +is incorrect. But no gas in Nature remains or can be maintained just at +one point in the scale of its innumerable changes. Consequently, all we +can say is that out of the innumerable different states that gases are +capable of, and the innumerable different laws of compressibility which +they therefore follow, we could theoretically find one state to which +would correspond the law of compressibility called Boyle's law; and +that, _if_ we could preserve a gas in that state (which we can't), +Boyle's law really _would_ be true just for that case. In other words, +the law is metaphysical. It has no real existence. It is a convenient +view or fiction, arising in the first place out of ignorance, and only +tenable as long as further observation is limited or wilfully ignored. + +This then is the Method of Science. It consists in forming a law or +statement by only looking at a small portion of the facts; then, when +the other facts come in, the law or statement gradually fades away +again. Conrad Gessner and other early zoologists began by classifying +animals according to the number of their horns! Political Economy begins +by classifying social action under a law of Supply and Demand. When +people believed that the earth was flat, they generalised the facts +connected with the fall of heavy bodies into a conception of "up and +down." These were two opposite directions in space. Heavy bodies took +the "downward"; it was their nature. But in time, and as fresh facts +came in, it became impossible to group animals any longer by their +horns; "up and down" ceased to have a meaning when it was known that the +earth was round. Then fresh laws and statements had to be formed. In the +last-mentioned case--it being conceived that the earth was the centre of +the universe--the new law supposed was that all heavy bodies tended to +the centre of the earth as such. This was all right and satisfactory for +a while; but presently it appeared that the earth was _not_ the centre +of the universe, and that some heavy bodies--such as the satellites of +Jupiter--did not in fact tend to the centre of the earth at all. Another +lump of ignorance (which had enabled the old generalisation to exist) +was removed, and a new generalisation, that of universal gravitation, +was after a time formed. But it is probable that this law is only +conceived of as true through our ignorance; nay it is certain that +belief in its truth presents the gravest difficulties. + +In fact here we come upon an important point. It is sometimes said that, +granting the above arguments and the partiality and defectiveness of the +laws of Science, still they are approximations to the truth, and as each +fresh fact is introduced the consequent modification of the old law +brings us _nearer and nearer_ to a limit of rigorous exactness which we +shall reach at last if we only have patience enough. But is this so? +What kind of rigorous statement shall we reach when we have got _all_ +the facts in? Remembering that Nature is _one_, and that if we try to +get a rigorous statement for one set of phenomena (as say the lunar +theory) by isolating them from the rest, we are thereby condemning +ourselves beforehand to a false conclusion, is it not evident that our +limit is at all times infinitely far off? If one knew all the facts +relating to a given inquiry except two or three, one might reasonably +suppose that one was near a limit of exactness in one's knowledge; but +seeing that in our investigation of Nature we only know two or three, so +to speak, out of a million, it is obvious that at any moment the fresh +law arising from increased experience may completely upset our former +calculations. There is a difference between approximating to a wall and +approximating to the North Star. In the one case you are tending to a +speedy conclusion of your labours, in the other case you are only _going +in a certain direction_. The theories of Science generally belong under +the second head. They mark the direction which the human mind is taking +at the moment in question, but they mark no limits. At each point the +_appearance_ of a limit is introduced--which becomes, like a mirage in +the desert, an object of keen pursuit; but the limit is not really +there--it is only an effect of the standpoint, and disappears again +after a time as the observer moves. In the case of gravitation there is +for the moment an appearance of finality in the law of the inverse +square of the distance, but this arises probably from the fact that the +law is derived from a limited area of observation only, namely the +movements (at great distances from each other) of some of the heavenly +bodies.[20] The Cavendish and Schehallien experiments do not show more +than that the law at ordinary distances on the earth's surface does not +vary _very_ much from the above; while the so-called molecular forces +compel us (unless we make the very artificial assumption that a variety +of attractions and repulsions co-exist in matter alongside of, and yet +totally distinct from, the attraction of gravitation) to suppose very +_great_ modifications of the law for small distances. In fact, as we saw +of Boyle's law before--the Newtonian law is probably metaphysical--true +under certain limited conditions--and the appearance of finality has +been given to it by the fact that our observations have been made under +such or similar conditions. When we extend our observation into quite +other regions of space, the law of the inverse square ceases to appear +as even an approximation to the truth--as, for instance, the law of the +inverse _fifth_ power has been thought to be nearer the mark for small +molecular distances. + +And indeed the state of the great theories of Science in the present +day--the confusion in which the Atomic theory of physics finds itself, +the dismal insufficiency of the Darwin theory of the survival of the +fittest; the collapse in late times of one of the fundamental theories +of Astronomy, namely that of the stability of the lunar and planetary +orbits; the cataclysms and convulsions which Geology seems just now to +be undergoing; the appalling and indeed insurmountable difficulties +which attach to the Undulatory theory of Light; the final wreck and +abandonment of the Value-theory, the foundation-theory of Political +Economy--all these things do not seem to point to very near limits of +rigorous exactness! An impregnable theory, or one nearing the limit of +impregnability, is in fact as great an absurdity as an impregnable +armour-plate. Certainly, given the cannon-balls, you can generally find +an armour-plate which will be proof against them; but given the +armour-plate, you can always find cannon-balls which will smash it up. + +The method of Science, as being a method of artificial limitation or +actual ignorance, is curiously illustrated by a consideration of its +various branches. I have taken some examples from Astronomy, which is +considered the most exact of the physical sciences. Now does it not seem +curious that _Astronomy_--the study of the heavenly bodies, which are +the most distant from us of all bodies, and most difficult to +observe--should yet be the most perfect of the sciences? Yet the reason +is obvious. Astronomy is the most perfect science _because we know least +about it_--because our ignorance of the actual phenomena is most +profound. Situated in fact as we are, on a speck in space, with our +observations limited to periods of time which, compared with the +stupendous flights of the stars, are merely momentary and evanescent, we +are in somewhat the position of a mole surveying a railway track and the +flight of locomotives. And as a man seeing a very small arc of a very +vast circle easily mistakes it for a straight line, so we are easily +satisfied with cheap deductions and solutions in Astronomy which a more +extensive experience would cause us to reject. The man may have a long +way to go along his "straight line" before he discovers that it is a +curve; he may have much farther to go along his curve before he +discovers that it is not a circle; and much farther still to go before +he finds out whether it is an ellipse or a spiral or a parabola, or none +of these; yet _what_ curve it is will make an enormous difference in his +ultimate destination. So with the astronomer; and yet Astronomy is +allowed to pass as an exact science![21] + +Well then, as in Astronomy we get an "exact science," because the facts +and phenomena are on such a tremendous scale that we only see a minute +portion of them--just a few details so to speak--and our ignorance +therefore allows us to dogmatise; so at the other end of the scale in +Chemistry and Physics we get quasi-exact sciences, because the facts and +phenomena are on such a _minute_ scale that we overlook _all the +details_ and see only certain general effects here and there. When a +solution of cupric sulphate is treated with ammonia, a mass of +flocculent green precipitate is formed. No one has the faintest notion +of all the various movements and combinations of the molecules of these +two fluids which accompany the appearance of the precipitate. They are +no doubt very complex. But among all the changes that are taking place, +one change has the advantage of being visible to the eye, and the +chemist singles that out as the main phenomenon. So chemistry at large +consists in a few, very few, facts taken at random as it were (or +because they happen to be of such a nature as to be observable) out of +the enormous mass of facts really concerned: and because of their +fewness the chemist is able to arrange them, as he thinks, in some +order, that is, to generalise about them. But it is certain as can be +that he only has to extend the number of his facts, or his powers of +observation, to get all his generalisations upset. The same may be said +of magnetism, light, heat, and the other physical sciences; but it is +not necessary to prove in detail what is sufficiently obvious. + +But now, roughly speaking, there is a third region of human +observation--a region which does not, like Astronomy (and Geology), lie +so far beyond and above us that we only see a very small portion of it; +nor, like Chemistry and Physics, so far below us and under such minute +conditions of space and time that we can only catch its general effects; +but which lies more on a level with man himself--the so-called organic +world--the study of man, as an individual and in society, his history, +his development, the study of the animals, the plants even, and the laws +of life--the sciences of Biology, Sociology, History, Psychology, and +the rest. Now this region is obviously that which man knows most of. I +don't say that he generalises most about it, but he knows the facts +best. For one observation that he makes of the habits and behaviour of +the stars, or of chemical solutions--for one observation in the remote +regions of Astronomy or Chemistry--he makes thousands and millions of +the habits and behaviour of his fellowmen, and hundreds and thousands of +those of the animals and plants. Is it not curious then that in this +region he is least sure, least dogmatic, most doubtful whether there be +a law or no? Or, rather, is it not quite in accord with our contention, +namely that Science, like an uninformed boy, is most definite and +dogmatic just where actual knowledge is least. + +It will however be replied that the phenomena of living beings are far +more complex than the phenomena of Astronomy or Physics--and that is +the reason why exact science makes so little way with them. Though man +knows many million times more about the habits of his fellow-men than +about the habits of the stars, yet the former subject is so many million +times more complicated than the latter that all his additional knowledge +does not avail him. This is the plea. Yet it does not hold water. It is +an entire assumption to say that the phenomena of Astronomy are less +complicated than the phenomena of vitality. A moment's thought will show +that the phenomena of Astronomy are in reality infinitely complex. Take +the movement of the moon: even with our present acquaintance with that +subject we know that it has some relation to the position and mass of +the earth, including its ocean tides; also to the position and mass of +the sun; also to the position and mass of every one of the planets; also +of the comets, numerous and unknown as they are; also the meteoric +rings; and finally of all the stars! The problem, as everyone knows, is +absolutely insoluble even for the shortest period; but when the element +of Time enters in, and we consider that to do anything like justice to +the problem in an astronomical sense we should have to solve it for at +least a million years--during which interval the earth, sun, and other +bodies concerned would themselves have been changing their relative +positions, it becomes obvious that the whole question is infinitely +complex--and yet this is only a small fragment of Astronomy. To debate, +therefore, whether the infinite complexity of the movements of the +stars is greater or less than the infinite complexity of the phenomena +of life, is like debating the precedence of the three persons of the +Trinity, or whether the Holy Ghost was begotten or proceeding: we are +talking about things which we do not understand. + +Nature is one; she is not, we may guess, less profound and wonderful in +one department than another; but from the fact that we live under +certain conditions and limitations we see most deeply into that portion +which is, as it were, on the same level with us. In humanity we look her +in the face; there our glance pierces, and we see that she is profound +and wonderful beyond all imagination; what we learn there is the most +valuable that we can learn. In the regions where Science rejoices to +disport itself we see only the skirts of her garments, so to speak, and +though we measure them never so precisely, we still see them and nothing +more. + +There is another point, however, of which much is often made as a plea +for the substantial accuracy of the scientific laws and generalisations, +namely that they enable us to _predict_ events. But this need not detain +us long. J. S. Mill in his "Logic" has pointed out--and a little thought +makes it obvious--that the success of a prediction does not prove the +truth of the theory on which it is founded. It only proves the theory +was good enough for that prediction. + +There was a time when the sun was a god going forth in his chariot every +morning, and there was a time when the earth was the centre of the +universe, and the sun a ball of fire revolving round it. In those times +men could predict with certainty that the sun would rise next morning, +and could even name the hour of its appearance; but we do not therefore +think that their theories were true. When Adams and Leverrier foretold +the appearance of Neptune in a certain part of the sky, they made a +brief prediction to an unknown planet from the observed relations of the +movements of the known planets; that does not show, however, that the +grand generalisation of these movements, called the "law of +gravitation," is correct. It merely shows that it did well enough for +this very brief step--brief indeed compared with the real problems of +Astronomy, for which latter it is probably quite inadequate. + +Tycho Brahé, excellent astronomer as he was, kept as we saw to the +epicycle theory. He imagined that the moon's path round the earth was a +fixed combination of cycle and epicycle. Kepler introduced the +conception of the ellipse. Later on the motion of the perigee and other +deviations compelled the abandonment of the ellipse and the supposition +of an endless curve, similar to an ellipse at any one point, and +maintaining a fixed mean distance from the earth, but never returning on +itself or making a definite closed figure of any kind. Finally the +researches of Mr. George Darwin have destroyed the conception of the +fixed mean distance, and introduced that of a continually enlarging +spiral. Certainly no four theories could well be more distinct from +each other than these; yet if an eclipse had to be calculated for next +year it would scarcely matter which theory was used. The truth is that +the actual problem is so vast that a prediction of a few years in +advance only touches the fringe of it so to speak; yet if the fulfilment +of the prediction were taken as a proof of the theory in each of these +different cases, it would lead in the end to the most hopelessly +contradictory results. + +The success of a prediction therefore only shows that the theory on +which it is founded has had practical value so far as a working +hypothesis. As working hypotheses, and as long as they are kept down to +brief steps _which can be verified_, the scientific theories are very +valuable--indeed we could not do without them; but when they are treated +as objective facts--when, for instance, the "law of +gravitation"--derived as it is from a brief study of the heavenly +bodies--has a universal truth ascribed to it, and is made to apply to +phenomena extending over millions of years, and to warrant unverifiable +prophecies about the planetary orbits, or statements about the age of +the earth and the duration of the solar system--all one can say is that +those who argue so are flying off at a tangent from actual facts. For as +the tangent represents the direction of a curve over a small arc, so +these theories represent the bearing of facts well enough over a small +region of observation; but as following the tangent we soon lose the +curve, so following these theories for any distance beyond the region +of actual observation we speedily part company with facts.[22] + + +To proceed with a few more words about the general method of Science. +Science passes from phenomena to laws, from individual details which can +be seen and felt to large generalisations of an intangible and +phantom-like character. That is to say, that for convenience of thought +we classify objects. How is this classification effected? It is effected +through the perception of identity amid difference. Among a lot of +objects I perceive certain attributes in common; this group of common +attributes serves, so to speak, as a band to tie these objects together +with--into a bundle convenient for thought. I give a name to the band, +and that serves to denote any unit of the bundle by. Thus perceiving +common attributes among a lot of dogs--as in an example already given--I +give the name foxhound to this group of attributes, and thenceforth use +the name foxhound to connect these objects by in my mind; again +perceiving other common attributes among other similar objects, I +invent the word greyhound to denote these latter by. The concept +foxhound differs from the objects which it denotes, in this respect that +these latter are (as we say) _real_ dogs with thousands and thousands of +attributes each: one of them has a broken tooth, another is nearly all +white, another answers to the name "Sally," and so on; while the concept +is only an imaginary form in my mind, with only a few attributes and no +individual peculiarities--a kind of tiny G.C.M. arising from the +contemplation of a long row of big figures. + +Now having created these concepts "foxhound," "greyhound," and a lot of +other similar ones, I find that they in their turn have a few attributes +in common and thus give rise to a new concept "dog." Of course this +"dog" is more of an abstraction than ever, the concept of a concept. In +fact the peculiarity of this whole process is that, as sometimes stated, +the broader the generalisation becomes the less is its depth; or in +other words and obviously, that as the number of objects compared +increases, the number of attributes common to them all decreases. +Ultimately as we saw at the beginning, when a sufficient number of +objects are taken in, the concept ("dog" or whatever it may be) fades +away and ceases to have any meaning. This therefore is the dilemma of +Science and indeed of all human knowledge, that in carrying out the +process which is peculiar to it, it necessarily leaves the dry ground of +reality for the watery region of abstractions, which abstractions +become ever more tenuous and ungraspable the farther it goes, and +ultimately fade into mere ghosts. Nevertheless the process is a quite +necessary one, for only by it can the mind deal with things. + +To dwell for a moment over this last point: it is clear that every +object has relation to every other object in the world--exists in fact +only in virtue of such relation to other objects; it has therefore an +infinite number of attributes. The mind consequently is powerless to +deal with such object--it cannot by any possibility think it. In order +to deal with it, the mind is forced to single out a _few_ of its +attributes (the _method of ignorance_ or abstraction already alluded +to)--that is a few of its relations to other objects, and to think them +first. The others it will think afterwards--all in good time. In thus +stripping or abstracting the great mass of its attributes from our +object, and leaving only a few, which it combines into a concept, the +mind practically abandons the real article and takes up with a shadow; +but in return for this it gets something which it can handle, which is +light to carry about, and which, like paper-money, _for the time and +under certain conditions_ does really represent value. The only danger +is lest it--the mind--carried away by the extensive applicability of the +partial concept which it has thus formed, should credit it with an +actual value--should project it on the background of the external world +and ascribe to it that reality which belongs only to objects +themselves, _i.e._, to things embodying an _infinite_ range of +attributes. + +The peculiar method of Science is now clear to us, and can be abundantly +illustrated from modern results. Our experience consists in sensations, +we feel the weight of heavy bodies, we see them fall when let go, we +have sensations of heat and cold, light and darkness, and so forth. But +these sensations are more or less local and variable from man to man, +and we naturally seek to find some common measure of them, by which we +can talk about and describe them _exactly_, and independently of the +peculiarities of individual observers. Thus we seek to find some common +phenomenon which underlies (as we say) the sensations of heat and cold, +or of light and darkness, or something which explains (_i.e._, is always +present in) the case of falling bodies--and to do this we adopt the +method of generalisation above described, _i.e._, we observe a great +number of individual cases and then see what qualities or attributes +they have in common. So far good. But it is just here that the fallacy +of the ordinary scientific procedure comes in; for, forgetting that +these common qualities are mere abstractions from the real phenomena we +credit _them_ with a real existence, and regard the actual phenomena as +secondary results, "effects" or what-not of these "causes." This in +plain language is putting the cart before the horse--or rather the +shadow before the man. Thus finding that a vast number of variously +shaped and coloured bodies tend to fall towards the earth, we erect +this common attribute of falling into an independent existence which we +call "attraction" or "gravitation"--and ultimately posit a universal +gravitation _acting_ on all bodies in Nature!--or finding that a number +of different substances, such as water, air, wood, etc., convey to us +the sensation we call sound, and that in all these cases the common +element is vibration, we detach the attribute vibration, credit it with +a separate existence, and speak of it as the cause of sound. But though +we may thus _think_ of the shadow as separate from the man, the shadow +cannot _be_ separate from the man; and though we may try to think of the +falling or the vibration as separate from the wood or the stone, such +falling and vibration cannot exist apart from these and other such +materials, and the effort to speak of it as so existing ends in mere +nonsense. More strange still is the fatuity, when, as in the case of the +undulatory Theory of light or the Atomic theory of physics, the concepts +thus erected into actualities are composed of purely imaginary +attributes--of which no one has had any experience--an undulatory ether +in the one case, a hard and perfectly elastic atom in the other. The +total result is of course--just what we see--Science landing itself in +pure absurdities in every direction. Beginning by detaching the +attribute of falling from the bodies that fall--beginning that is by an +abstraction, which of course is also a falsity--it generalises and +generalises this abstraction till at last it reaches a perfectly +generalised absurdity and thing without any meaning--the law of +gravitation.[23] The statement that "every particle in the universe +attracts every other particle with a force proportional to the mass of +the attracting particle and inversely proportional to the square of the +distance between the two" is devoid of meaning--the human mind can give +no definite meanings to the words "mass," "attract," and "force," which +do not overlap and stultify each other. The law in every way baffles +intelligence. Newton, who invented it, declared that no philosophic mind +would suppose that bodies could thus act on one another "without the +mediation of anything else by and through which their action might be +conveyed;" scientific men to-day are fain to see that a material +mediation of this kind would only make the law still more remote from +our comprehension than it already is, while, on the other hand, an +immaterial mediation or a fourth-dimensional mediation, such as some +propose, would simply remove the problem out of the regions of +scientific analysis.[24] Again, the form of the law is declared to be +the inverse square of the distance; but this is the law by the nature of +space itself of any perfect radiation, and if true of gravitation +involves the conclusion that that radiation of force (whatever its +nature may be) takes place without loss or dissipation of any kind. This +would make gravitation absolutely unique among phenomena. More than +this, its propagation is supposed to be _instantaneous_ over the most +enormous distances of space, and to take place always unhindered and +unretarded, whatever be the number or the nature of the bodies between! +What can be more clear than that the law is simply metaphysical--a +projection into a monstrous universality and abstraction, of partially +understood phenomena in a particular region of observation--a +Brocken-shadow on the background of Nature of the observer's own +momentary attitude of thought? + +Again, the undulatory theory of Light. Studying the phenomena of a vast +number of coloured and bright bodies, Science finds that it can think +about these phenomena--can generalise and tie them into bundles best by +_assuming_ that the bodies are all in a state of vibration; a vibration +so minute that (unlike the vibrations connected with Sound) it cannot be +directly perceived. So far good. There is no harm in the assumption of +vibration, as long as it is understood to be a mere assumption for a +temporary convenience of thought. But now Science goes farther than +this, and not only supposes a common attribute to all visible bodies, +but credits this common attribute with a real existence independent of +the visible bodies in which it was supposed to inhere--and makes this +the _cause_ of their visibility! Obviously now a common and universal +medium is required for this common and universal assumed vibration (just +as Newton required a medium for his universal "falling")--and so, hey +presto! we have the Undulatory Ether. And having got it we find that to +fulfil our requirements it must have a pressure of 17 million million +pounds on the square inch, and yet be so rare and tenuous as not to +hinder the lightest breath of air; that while it is thus rare enough to +surpass all our powers of direct scrutiny, its vibrations must yet be +capable of agitating and breaking up the solidest bodies; that it must +pass freely through some dense and close structures like glass, and yet +be excluded by some light and porous, like cork, and so on and on! In +fact we find that it is unthinkable. Against this adamantine, impalpable +Ether, as against this instantaneous, untranslatable gravitation, +Science bangs its devoted head in vain. Having created these absurdities +by the method of "personification of abstractions"[25] or the +"reification of concepts,"[26] it seriously and in all good faith tries +to understand them; having dressed up its own Mumbo Jumbo (which it once +jeered at religion for doing) it piously shuts its eyes and endeavours +to believe in it. + +The Atomic Theory affords a good example of the "method of ignorance." +When we try to think about material objects generally--to generalise +about them--that is, to find some attribute or attributes common to +them, we are at first puzzled. They present such an immense variety. But +after a time, by dint of stripping off or abstracting all such +attributes or qualities as we think we perceive in one body and not in +another--as for example, redness, blueness, warmth, saltness, life, +intelligence, or what not--we find an attribute left, namely resistance +to touch, which is common to _all_ material bodies. This quality in the +body we call "mass," and since it is only known by motion, mass and +motion become correlative attributes which we find useful to class +bodies by, not because they represent the various bodies particularly +well, but because they are found in all bodies; just as you might class +people by their boots--not because boots are a very valuable method of +classification, but simply because every one wears boots of one kind or +another. So far there is no great harm done. But now having by the +method of ignorance _thought away_ all the qualities of bodies, except +the two correlatives of mass and motion, we set about to _explain_ the +phenomena of Nature generally by these two "thinks" that are left. We +credit these "thinks" (mass and motion) with an independent existence +and proceed to derive the rest of phenomena from them. The proceeding of +course is absurd, and ends by exposing its own absurdity. Thinking of +mass and motion as existing in the various bodies _apart_ from colour, +smell, and so forth--which of course is not the case--we combine the two +attributes into one concept, the atom, which we thus assume to exist in +all bodies. The atom has neither colour, smell, warmth, taste, life or +intelligence; it has only mass and motion; for it came by the method of +divesting our thought of everything _but_ mass and motion. It is a +projection of a "think" upon the background of nature. And it is an +absurdity. No such thing exists in all the wide universe as mass and +motion divested from colour, smell, warmth, life and intelligence. The +atom is unthinkable. It is perfectly hard and it is perfectly +elastic--which is the same as saying that it bends and it doesn't bend +at the same time; it has form, and it hasn't form; it has affinities and +yet is perfectly indifferent. To justify to men the ways of their Mumbo +Jumbo has sorely exercised the votaries of the Atom. One philosopher +says that it is mere matter, passive, exercising no force but +resistance; another says that it is a centre of force, without matter; a +third suggests that it is not itself matter, but only a vortex in other +matter! All agree that it is not an object of sense, and there remains +no conclusion but that it is nonsense![27] + +And so on in all directions. Human thought flying off at its tangents +from Nature lands itself in infinite nothings afar off, poor ghostly +skeletons and abstractions from Nature--which indeed is all right, for +human thought as yet can only see ghosts and not realities; but let +there be no mistake, let these ghosts not be mistaken for realities--for +they are not even compatible with each other. The Atom that suits the +physicist does not suit the chemist. The Ether that does for the vehicle +of Light will not do for the vehicle of universal Gravitation. + + +It would be hardly worth while entering into these criticisms, were it +not evident that Science in modern times, either tacitly or explicitly, +has been seeking, as I said at the beginning, to enounce facts +independent of Man, the observer. Seeing that the ordinary statements of +daily life are obviously inexact and relative to the observer--charged +with human sensation in fact--Science has naturally tried to produce +something which should be exact and independent of human sensation; but +here it has of course condemned itself beforehand to failure; for no +statement of isolated phenomena or groups of phenomena _can_ be exact +except by the method of ignorance aforesaid, and no statement obviously +can be really independent of human sensation. When a man says _It is +cold_, his statement, it must be confessed, is deplorably human and +vague. _It_--what is that? _Is_--do you mean _is_? or do you mean +_feels_, _appears_? _Cold_--in what sense? Cold to yourself, or to +other people, or to polar bears, or by the thermometer? And so on. +Science therefore steps in with an air of authority and sets him right. +It says _the temperature is_ 30° _Fahrenheit_, as if to settle the +matter. But does this really settle the matter? _Temperature_--who knows +what that is? What is the scientific definition of it? I find +(Clerk-Maxwell's Theory of Heat, p. 2.) "the temperature of a body is a +quantity which indicates how hot or how cold the body is." This sounds +very much like saying, "the colour of a body is a quantity which +indicates how blue, red, or yellow the body is." It does not bring us +much farther on our way. But in the next paragraph Maxwell shows the +object of his definition (which of course is only preliminary) by +saying, "By the use, therefore, of the word temperature, we fix in our +minds the conviction that it is possible not only to feel, but to +_measure_, how hot a body is." That is to say he clearly maintains that +it is possible to find an absolute standard of hotness or coldness--or +rather of the unknown thing called temperature--outside of ourselves and +independent of human sensation. When the man said he was cold he was +probably just describing his own sensations, but here Science indicates +that it is in search of something which has an independent existence of +its own, and which therefore when found we can measure exactly and once +for all. What then is that thing? _What_ is temperature? say, what is +it? + +We cudgel our brains in vain. Perhaps the remainder of the sentence +will help us. "The temperature is 30° Fahrenheit." "The unknown thing is +thirty degrees." What then is a degree? That is the next question. When +the Theory of Heat went out from sensation and left it behind, one of +its first landing places was in the expansion of liquids--as in +thermometer tubes. Here for some time was thought to be a satisfactory +register of "temperature." But before long it became apparent that the +degree--Fahrenheit, Réaumur, or what-not--was an entirely arbitrary +thing, also that it was not the _same_[28] thing at one end of the scale +as the other, and finally that the scale itself had no starting point! +This was awkward, so a move was made to the air thermometer, and there +was some talk about an absolute zero and absolute temperatures; it was +thought that the Unknown thing showed itself most clearly and simply in +the expansion of air and other gases, and that the "degree" might fairly +be measured in terms of this expansion. But in a little time this kind +of thermometer--chiefly because no gas turned out to be "theoretically +perfect"--broke down, absolute zero and all, and another step had to be +made--namely, to the dynamical theory. It was announced that the Unknown +thing might be measured in terms of mechanical energy, and Joule at +Manchester proclaimed that the work done by any quantity of water +falling there a distance of 772 feet is capable of raising that water +one degree Fahrenheit.[29] Here seemed something definite. To measure +temperature by mass and velocity, to measure a degree by the flight of a +stone, or the heat in the human body by the fall of a factory +chimney--if rather roundabout and elusive of the main question--seemed +at any rate promising of exact results! Unfortunately the difficulty was +to pass from the theory to its application. The complicated nature of +the problem, the "imperfection" of the gases and other bodies under +consideration, the latent and specific heats to be allowed for, the +elusive nature of heat in experiment, and the variable value of the +degree itself--all render the conclusions on this subject most +precarious; and the general equations connecting the Fahrenheit or other +temperatures with a thermo-dynamic scale--while they become so unwieldy +as to be practically useless--are themselves after all only approximate. + +Finally, to give a last form to the mechanical theory of heat, the +conception of flying atoms or molecules was introduced, and a number of +neat generalisations were deduced from dynamical considerations. Of +course it was inevitable, having once started with a mechanical theory, +that one should arrive at the Atom some time or other--and (from what +has already been said) it was also inevitable that the result should be +unsatisfactory. It is sufficient to say that the molecular theory of +heat is _not_ in accordance with facts. Such things as the law of +Charles and the law of Boyle, which according to it should be strictly +accurate and of general application, are known to be true only over a +most limited range. This failure of the theory may be said to arise +partly from its being pursued by the statistical method; but if, on the +other hand, we were to try and follow out the individual movement of +each molecule we should be landed in a problem far exceeding in +complexity the wildest flights of Astronomy, and should have exchanged +for the original difficulty about "temperature" a difficulty far +greater. + +The result of all this has been that notwithstanding the talk about +energy and atoms, Science has sadly to confess that it can still give no +valid meaning to the word temperature: the unknown thing is still +unknown, the independent existence round the corner still escapes us. By +the very effort to arrive at something independent of human sensation, +Science has, in a roundabout way, arrived at an absurdity. When the man +said he was cold, his statement--deplorably vague as it certainly +was--had some meaning; he was describing his feelings, or possibly he +had seen some snow or some ice on the road; but when, in the endeavour +to leave out the human and to say something absolute, Science declared +that the temperature was thirty degrees, it committed itself to a remark +which possibly was exact in form, but to which it has never given and +never can give any definite meaning.[30] + +Similarly with other generalities of Science: the "law" of the +Conservation of Energy, the "law" of the Survival of the Fittest--the +more you think about them the less possible is it to give any really +intelligible sense to them. The very word Fittest really begs the +question which is under consideration, and the whole Conservation law is +merely an attenuation of the already much attenuated "law" of +Gravitation. The Chemical Elements themselves are nothing but the +projection on the external world of concepts consisting of three or four +attributes each: they are not more real, but very much less real than +the individual objects which they are supposed to account for; and their +"elementary" character is merely fictional. It probably is in fact as +absurd to speak of pure carbon or pure gold, as of a pure monkey or a +pure dog. There are no such things, except as they may be arrived at by +arbitrary definition and the method of ignorance. + +In the search for exactness, then, Science has been continually led on +to discard the human and personal elements in phenomena, in the hope of +finding some residuum as it were behind them which should not be +personal and human but absolute and invariable. And the tendency has +been (hitherto) in all the sciences to get rid of such terms as blue, +red, light, heavy, hot, cold, concord, discord, health, vitality, right, +wrong, etc., and to rely on any less human elements discoverable in each +case; as for instance in Sound, to deal less and less with the judgments +and sensations of the ear, and to rely more and more on measurements of +lengths of strings, numbers of vibrations, etc. Each science has been +(as far as possible) reduced to its lowest terms. Ethics has been made a +question of utility and inherited experience. Political Economy has been +exhausted of all conceptions of justice between man and man, of charity, +affection, and the instinct of solidarity; and has been founded on its +lowest discoverable factor, namely self-interest. Biology has been +denuded of the force of personality in plants, animals, and men; the +"self" here has been set aside, and the attempt made to reduce the +science to a question of chemical and cellular affinities, protoplasm, +and the laws of osmose. Chemical affinities, again, and all the +wonderful phenomena of Physics are emptied down into a flight of atoms; +and the flight of atoms (and of astronomic orbs as well) is reduced to +the laws of dynamics--which the student sitting in his chamber may write +down on a piece of paper. Thus the idea, formulated by Comte, of a great +scale of sciences arising from the simplest to the most complex, has +tacitly underlain modern scientific work. It--Science--has sought to +"explain" each stage by reference to a lower stage--"blueness" by +vibrations, and vibrations by flying atoms--the human always by the +sub-human. Going out from humanity dissatisfied, it has wandered through +the animal and vegetable kingdoms, through the regions of Chemistry and +Physics, into that of Mechanics. "Here at last, in Mechanics, is +something outside humanity, something exact in itself, something +substantial," it has said. "Let us build again on this as on a +foundation, and in time we shall find out what humanity is." This I say +has been the dream of Modern Science; yet the fallacy of it is obvious. +We have not got outside the human, but only to the outermost verge of +it. Mass and motion, which in this process are taken to be real entities +and the first progenitors of all phenomena, are simply the last +abstractions of sensible experience, and our emptiest concepts. The +_material_ explanation of the universe is simply an attempt to account +for phenomena by those attributes which appear to us to be common to +them all--which is, as said before, like accounting for men by their +boots:--it may be possible to get an exact formula this way, but its +contents have little or no meaning. + +The whole process of Science and the Comtian classification of its +branches--regarded thus as an attempt to explain Man by Mechanics--is a +huge vicious circle. It professes to start with something simple, exact, +and invariable, and from this point to mount step by step till it comes +to Man himself; but indeed it starts with Man. It plants itself on +sensations low down (mass, motion, etc.), and endeavours by means of +them to explain sensations high up, which reminds one of nothing so much +as that process vulgarly described as "climbing up a ladder to comb your +hair." In truth Science has never left the great world, or cosmos, of +Man, nor ever really found a _locus standi_ without it; but during the +last two or three centuries it has gone in this _direction_, outwards, +continually. Leaving the central basis and facts of humanity as too vast +and unmanageable, and also as apparently variable from man to man and +therefore affording no certain consent to work upon, it has wandered +gradually outwards, seeking something of more definite and universal +application Discarding thus one by one the interior phases of +sensation--as the sense of personal relationship, the sense of justice, +duty, fitness in things or what-not (as too uncertain, or perhaps +developed to an unequal degree in different persons, embryonic in one +and matured in another), drifting past the more specialised bodily +senses, of colour, sound, taste, smell, etc., as for similar reasons +unavailable--Science at last in the primitive consciousness of muscular +contraction and its abstraction "mass" or "matter" comes to a pause. +Here in this last sense, common probably to man and the lowest animals, +it finds its widest, most universal ground--its farthest limit from the +Centre. It has reached the outermost shell, as it were, of the great +Man-cosmos. + +Even this shell is partially human; it is not entirely osseous, and so +far not entirely exact and invariable; but Science can go no +farther--and there, for the present, it may remain! + +Some day perhaps, when all this showy vesture of scientific theory +(which has this peculiarity that only the learned can see it) has been +quasi-completed, and Humanity is expected to walk solemnly forth in its +new garment for all the world to admire--as in Anderssen's story of the +Emperor's New Clothes--some little child standing on a door-step will +cry out: "But he has got nothing on at all," and amid some confusion it +will be seen that the child is right. + + +NOTE + + "I fear I have very imperfectly succeeded in expressing my strong + conviction that, before a rigorous logical scrutiny, the Reign of + Law will prove to be an unverified hypothesis, the Uniformity of + Nature an ambiguous expression, the certainty of our scientific + inferences to a great extent a delusion." (Stanley Jevons, + _Principles of Science_, p. ix.) + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] See note, p. 119. + +[18] Since the above was written there has certainly been a great +change, and the dogmatic confidence in the verity of the scientific +"laws" has now (1920) almost disappeared. + +[19] Such fictions, however, are (I need not say) quite necessary as our +only means of thinking out, however imperfectly, the problems before us +(1920). + +[20] It is not generally realised how feeble a force gravitation is. It +is calculated (Encycl. Brit., Art. Gravitation) that two masses, each +weighing 415,000 tons, and placed a mile apart, would exert on each +other an attractive force of only one pound. If one, therefore, was as +far from the other as the moon is from the earth, their attraction would +only amount to 1/57,600,000,000th of a pound. This is a small force to +govern the movement of a body weighing 415,000 tons! and it is easy to +see that a slight variation in the law of the force might for a long +period pass undetected, though in the course of hundreds of centuries it +might become of the greatest importance. + +[21] As another instance of the same thing, let me quote a passage from +Maxwell's _Theory of Heat_, p. 31; the italics are mine: "In our +description of the physical properties of bodies as related to heat we +have begun with solid bodies, as those which we can _most easily +handle_, and have gone on to liquids, which we can keep in open vessels, +and have now come to gases, which will escape from open vessels, and +which are generally _invisible_. This is the order which is most natural +in our first study of these different states. But as soon as we have +been made familiar with the most prominent features of these different +conditions of matter the most _scientific_ course of study is in the +_reverse_ order, beginning with gases, on account of the greater +simplicity of their laws, then advancing to liquids, the more complex +laws of which are much more imperfectly known, and concluding with the +little that has been hitherto discovered about the constitution of solid +bodies." That is to say that Science finds it easier to work among +gases--which are invisible and which we can know little about--than +among solids, which we are familiar with and which we can easily handle! +This seems a strange conclusion, but it will be found to represent a +common procedure of Science--the truth probably being that the laws of +gases are not one whit _simpler_ than the laws of liquids and solids, +but that on account of our knowing so much less about gases it is easier +for us to _feign_ laws in their case than in the case of solids, and +less easy for our errors to be detected. + +[22] All our thoughts, theories, "laws," etc., may perhaps be said to +_touch_ Nature--as the tangent touches the curve--at a point. They give +a direction--and are true--at that point. But make the slightest move, +and they all have to be reconstructed. The tangents are infinite in +number, but the curve is one. This may not only illustrate the relation +of Nature to Science, but also of Art to the materials it uses. The poet +radiates thoughts: but he sets no store by them. He knows his thoughts +are not true in themselves, but they _touch_ the Truth. His lines are +the envelope of the curve which is his poem. + +[23] See the report of the joint meeting of the Royal Society and the +Royal Astronomical Society, November 6, 1919, when Einstein's theory was +discussed. + +[24] It is obvious that the Einstein theory, in which Time enters as a +kind of fourth dimension in relation to Space, removes us at once out of +the whole field of ordinary scientific reasoning and lands us, so to +speak, in a new world. The nature of Space (or of the universal medium, +whatever it is) in any region--its possible fundamental accelerations +there, its "curvature" or non-Euclidean character, and so forth--is +supposed, according to this theory, to vary with the amount of matter +in, or density of, that region; and the movements of bodies are +consequently supposed to take on the characters (accelerations, etc.,) +which we ascribe to the action of Gravitation. Gravitation in fact in +any region is the manifestation in Time of the attributes of the +universal Medium in that region--which latter again is dependent on the +degree of Matter present. Thus, Matter, Time, and Space are _one +phenomenon_. + +The whole Einstein theory, in fact, is a device to present these three +Protean and variable elements of all material existence (Matter, Time +and Space) as so far involved and interlaced in each other that they +form always an absolute and complete unity. As such the theory is no +doubt suggestive, and along the line of future speculation: but it +awaits corroboration. If corroborated it will point the way to a new +conception of the Universe. + +[25] J. S. Mill. + +[26] See Stallo's excellent _Concepts of Modern Physics_. + +[27] See, for instance, the last new thing in this style--the Helmholtz +molecule as improved upon by Sir William Thomson; it is described as +follows: "A heavy mass connected by massless springs with a massless +enclosing shell; or there may be several shells enclosing each other +connected by springs with a dense mass in the centre (far more dense +than the ether)." It is not, of course, seriously maintained that this +nonsensical creation exists--but that if it did exist it would account +for certain unexplained phenomena in the dispersion of light, etc. + +Later still (1920) we have the following delightful verdict on the +Structure of the Atom, given by Sir Ernest Rutherford--and which I +commend to all lovers of clear thinking:-- + +"The Bakerian Lecture was delivered yesterday before the Royal Society +by Sir Ernest Rutherford, whose subject was 'The Nuclear Construction of +the Atom.' He said that during recent years much attention had been paid +to the nature and structure of atoms. The atomic theory of matter had +been definitely proved. The mass of the individual atoms, and the number +in any given weight of matter, were now known with considerable +accuracy. Not only was matter known to be made up of atoms, but +electricity was also atomic in nature, and there was a definite unit of +electrical charge which could not further be subdivided. The negative +electron, which was a constituent of all atoms of matter, was probably +nothing more than an isolated unit of negative electricity, and its +small mass was electrical in origin. It had long been considered +probable that the atom is an electrical structure, consisting of +positive and negative particles, held in equilibrium by electric or +magnetic forces. In recent years evidence had accumulated that an atom +consists of a positively charged nucleus surrounded at a distance by a +distribution of electrons to make it electrically neutral." (From _The +Morning Post_ of June 4, 1920.) + +[28] The very fact alone that the degrees on a thermometer are _equal_ +space divisions shows that they must bear a _varying_ relation to the +total volume of liquid as that expands from one end of the tube to the +other. + +[29] A statement obviously applying--from what has been already said--at +only one point in the scale. + +[30] I am not, of course, here arguing against the use of thermometers +or other instruments for practical purposes. This is certainly the +legitimate field of Science. But (as in the case of _prediction_ before +mentioned) the exactness of results obtained is a very different matter +from the truth of the generalities which are supposed to underlie these +results. In using a thermometer you need not even mention the word +"temperature." + + + + +THE SCIENCE OF THE FUTURE: A FORECAST + +Once let that [the human ideal] slip out of the thought, and science is +of no more use than the invocations in the Egyptian papiri.--RICHARD +JEFFERIES. + + +It would appear then, from the preceding paper, that in some sense a +mistake has been made in the method of modern scientific work; not that +the vast amount of labour expended in it has been altogether wasted, for +in return for this there is a mass of practical results and detailed +observations to show; but that in attempting to solve the problem of +science by the intellect alone, a radical mistake has been made which +_could_ only land us in absurdity, and that this mistake has for the +time being also vitiated the results that have been attained. For--in +reference to this last point--the divorce of the intellectual from the +emotional has caused a great portion of our scientific observations to +become merely pedantic and trifling; while it has turned the practical +results--as industrial and military machinery, etc.--into engines of +evil as often as into engines of good. + +Science in searching for a permanently valid and purely intellectual +representation of the universe has, as already said, been searching for +a thing which does not exist. The very facts of Nature, as we call them, +are at least half feeling. If we try to clean the feeling out of a fact +and to produce a statement which shall be devoid of the human or sense +element, it simply amounts to cleaning the meaning out; and though our +resulting statement may be exact it is nugatory and of no value. We +might as well try to take the clay out of a brick. It must never be +forgotten that the logical processes--important as they are--cannot +stand by themselves, have no standing ground of their own. They +presuppose assumptions and are the expression of things that are +unreasoning, perhaps illogical. The strictest logic is a mere hooking +together of links in a chain, and the last link is of no use--you can +put no stress on it--unless the first is secured somewhere. The strength +of the intellectual chain is no greater than that of the staple from +which it hangs--and that is a human feeling The strength of Euclid is no +greater than that of the axioms--and _they_ are feelings; they are +unreasoning statements of which all that we can say is, "I _feel_ like +that." In fact all the propositions of Geometry are nothing but the +analysis and elaborate expression, so to speak, of these primary +convictions--and the Geometry-structure stands and falls with them. +There is no such thing as intellectual truth--that is, I mean, a truth +which can be stated as existing apart from feeling. If, for instance, a +proposition in Geometry can be really shown to be based on the axioms, +it is true, not intellectually or absolutely, but as an expression of my +primary Geometrical sense; and if my giving a few pence to a crossing +sweeper is based not on a mere impression of duty, or an anxiety to +appear charitable, or wish to escape his importunity, but on genuine +regard for the man, then it is true, not in any absolute signification, +but just as an expression of what it professes to represent--namely my +primary sense of humanity. Indeed the truest truth is that which is the +expression of the deepest feeling, and if there is an absolute truth it +can only be known and expressed by him who has the absolute feeling or +Being within himself. + +This being so--and the nature of the intellectual processes being, like +the links in a chain, transitional--it becomes obvious that the +intellectual results may figure as a _means_ but never as an end in +themselves. To hang any weight of reliance on them in the latter sense +is like the Chinese Trick--described by Marco Polo--of throwing a rope's +end up in the air and then climbing up the rope. Hence it appears that +our scientific theories are perfectly legitimate, as long as they are +formed as a means towards _practical_ applications. In that sense they +are transitional; they are formed, not as substantial truths, but merely +as links in a chain towards some definite practical result. For this +purpose we may form whatever theories are convenient: if we are +calculating the strength of bridges, we may adopt what generalisations +we like concerning mechanical structure, as long as they give us actual +and practical results; if we are predicting eclipses, we may make use of +any theory that will do. The theory does not matter, as long as it hauls +the practical result after it, just as it does not matter whether your +cable is of iron or hemp or silk, as long as you can get your ship into +dock with it. In this sense our Modern Science is, I conceive, +admirable. For practical results and brief predictions it affords a +quantity of useful generalisations--shorthand notes and conventional +symbols and pocket summaries of phenomena--which bear about the same +relation to the actual world that a map does to the country it is +supposed to represent. It cannot be said to have any resemblance to the +real thing--but, when you understand the principle on which it is +formed, it is exceedingly useful for finding your way about. As long as +Science therefore keeps the practical end in view, and starting from +sense seeks to return to sense again, its intermediate theorising is +perfectly legitimate; but the moment it credits its theory with a +positive and authoritative existence, as an actual representation of +facts--and endeavours to pass by means of it into unverifiable and +abstract regions, as of invisible germs or atoms, or far distances of +space, or the remote past or future--it is simply throwing its rope's +end into the sky and trying to climb up! That "the wish is father to the +thought" is in its wide sense profoundly true. In the individual, +feeling precedes thinking--as the body precedes the clothes. In history, +the Rousseau precedes the Voltaire. There is, I believe, a physiological +parallel; for behind the brain and determining its action stands the +great sympathetic nerve--the organ of the emotions. In fact here the +brain appears as distinctly transitional. It stands between the nerves +of sense on the one hand and the great sympathetic on the other. + +Change the feeling in an individual, and his whole method of thinking +will be revolutionised; change the axiom or primary sensation in a +science, and the whole structure will have to be re-created. The current +Political Economy is founded on the axiom of individual greed; but let a +new axiomatic emotion spring up (as of justice or fair play instead of +unlimited grab), and the base of the science will be altered, and will +necessitate a new construction. + +So when people argue (on politics, morality, art, etc.) it will +generally be found that they differ at the _base_; they go out, perhaps +quite unconsciously, from different axioms and hence they _cannot_ +agree. Occasionally of course a strict examination will show that, while +agreeing at the base, one of them has made a false step in deduction; in +that case his thought does _not_ represent his primary feeling, and when +this is pointed out he is forced to alter it. But more often it is found +that the difference lies deep down at a point beyond the reach of +reason; and they disagree to the end. In this case neither is right and +neither is wrong. They simply feel differently; they are different +persons. + +The Thought then is the expression, the outgrowth, the covering of +underlying Feeling. And in the great life of Man as a whole, as in the +lesser life of the individual, his continual new birth and inward growth +causes his thought-systems also continually to change and be replaced by +new ones. Like the bud-sheaths and husks in a growing plant or tree they +give form for a time to the life within; then they fall off and are +replaced. The husk prepares the bud underneath, which is to throw it +off. The thought prepares and protects the feeling underneath, which +growing will inevitably reject it; and when a thought has been formed it +is already _false_, _i.e._, ready to fall. + +We are now, then, in a position to come back to the question of a +genuine Science, truly so-called. + +As there is no invariable and absolute datum on the fringe of +Humanity--no definable flying atom on which we can found our +reasonings--and as Modern Science, considered as an actual +representation of the universe, falls miserably to pieces in +consequence--is it possible that we have made a mistake in the +_direction_ in which we have sought for our datum; and may it be that we +should look for that in the very Centre of Humanity instead of in its +remotest circumference? In that direction evidently, if we could +penetrate, we should expect to find, not a shadowy intellectual +generalisation, but the very opposite of that--an intense immutable +_feeling_ or state, an axiomatic condition of Being. Is it possible that +here, blazing like a sun (if we could only see it--and the sun is its +allegory in the physical world), there exists within us absolutely such +a thing--the one _fact_ in the universe, of which all else are shadows, +_to_ which everything has relation, and round which, itself +unanalysable, all thought circles and all phenomena stand as indirect +modes of expression? + +Is it possible? That is the question--the question which each one of us +has to solve. At any rate, let us throw this out as a suggestion. Let us +suggest that as we have got nothing satisfactory by cleaning the +sense-element out of phenomena, we should take the opposite course and +put as much sense into them as we can! + +"Facts" are, at least, half feelings. Let us acknowledge this and not +empty the feeling out of them, but deepen and enlarge that which we +already have in them. Who knows whether we have ever _seen_ the blue +sky? Who knows whether we have ever seen each other? Is it not a +commonplace to say that one man sees in the common objects of Nature +what another is wholly unconscious of? "The primrose on the river's brim +a yellow primrose is to him--and nothing more." To what extent may the +facts of Nature thus be deepened and made more substantial to us--and +whither will this process lead us? + +Do we not want to feel _more_, not less, in the presence of +phenomena--to enter into a living relation with the blue sky, and the +incense-laden air, and the plants and the animals--nay, even with +poisonous and hurtful things to have a keener _sense_ of their +hurtfulness? Is it not a strange kind of science, that which wakes the +mind to pursue the shadows of things, but dulls the senses to the +reality of them--which causes a man to try to bottle the pure atmosphere +of heaven and then to shut himself in a gas-reeking, ill-ventilated +laboratory while he analyses it; or allows him to vivisect a dog, +unconscious that he is blaspheming the pure and holy relation between +man and the animals in doing so? Surely the man of Science (in its +higher sense, that is) should be lynx-eyed as an Indian, keen-scented as +a hound--with all senses and feelings trained by constant use and a pure +and healthy life in close contact with Nature, and with a heart beating +in sympathy with every creature. Such a man would have at command, so to +speak, the keyboard of the universe; but the mechanical, unhealthy, +indoor-living student--is he not really _ignorant of the +facts_?--Certainly, since he has not felt them, he is. + +The process of the true Science consists first in the naming and +defining of phenomena (_i.e._, the facts of human consciousness), and +secondly, in the discovery of the true relation of these phenomena to +each other; and since the definitions of phenomena and their relations +keep varying with the standpoint of the observer, the process evidently +involves all experience, and ultimately the discovery of that last fact +of experience to which and through which all the other facts are +related. It is therefore an age-long process, and has to do with the +emotional and moral part of man as well as with the logical and +intellectual. It is, in fact, the discovery of the nature of Man +himself, and of the true order of his being. + +Modern Science--though seeking for a unity in Nature--fails to find it, +because, from the nature of the case, any large body of knowledge in +which all people will agree is limited to certain small regions of human +experience--regions in which very likely no unity is discoverable. It +takes the emerald, and breaks it up; treats of its colour and +light-refracting qualities on the one hand; of its crystalline structure +and hardness on the other; of its weight and density; and of its +chemical properties; all separately, and producing long strings of +generalisation from each aspect of the subject. But how all these +qualities are conjoined together, what their relation is which +_constitutes_ the emerald--yea, even the smallest bit of emerald +dust--it (wisely) does not attempt to say. It takes the man and dissects +him; treats of his blood, his nerves, his bones, his brain; of his +senses of sight, of touch, of hearing; but of that which binds these +together into a unity, of their true relation to each other in the man, +it is silent. + +Yet the man knows of himself that he _is_ a unity; he knows that all +parts of his body have relation to _him_, and to each other; he knows +that his senses of sight and hearing and touch and taste and smell are +conjoined in the focus of his individual life, in his "I am;" he knows +that all his faculties and powers, however much they may belong to +different planes, spiritual or material, or may come under the +inquisition of different Sciences, have an order of their own among each +other--that there _is_ an ultimate Science of them--even though he be +not yet wholly versed in it. And he knows, moreover, that in a grain of +dust, or in an emerald, or in an orange, or in any object of Nature, the +different attributes of the object--which the Sciences thus treat of +separately--are only the reflexion of his different senses; so that the +problem of the conjunction of different attributes in a body comes back +to the same problem of the union of various senses and powers in +himself--each individual object being only a case, externalised as it +were, and made a matter of consciousness, of the general relation to +each other of his own sensations and feelings. Knowing all his--I +say--he sees that the understanding of Nature in general and of the laws +or relations which he thinks he perceives among external things must +always depend on the relations and laws which he tacitly assumes, or +which he is directly conscious of, as existing between the various parts +of his own being; and that the ultimate truth which Science--the divine +Science--is really in search of is a moral or psychologic Truth--an +understanding of what man is, and the discovery of the true relation to +each other of all his faculties--involving all experience, and an +exercise of every faculty physical, intellectual, emotional and +spiritual, instead of one set of faculties only. + +Not till we know the law of ourselves, in fact, shall we know the law of +the emerald and the orange, or of Nature generally; and the law of +ourselves is not learnt, except subordinately, by intellectual +investigation; it is mainly learnt by life. The relation of gravity to +vitality is learnt not so much by outer experiment in a laboratory as by +long experience within ourselves from the day when as infants we cannot +lift ourselves above the floor, through the years of the proud strength +of manhood scaling the loftiest mountains, to the hour when our +disengaged spirits finally overcome and pass beyond the attraction of +the earth; and just as the sense of weight--which first appears as a +quite external sensation--is thus at last found to stand in most +pregnant relation with our deepest selves, so of the other senses which +feed the individual life--the senses of light, of warmth, of taste, of +sound, of smell. Taste, which begins as it were on the tip of the +tongue, becomes ultimately, if normally developed, a sense which +identifies itself with the health and well-being of the whole body; the +pleasure of taste becomes vastly more than a mere surface pleasure, and +its discrimination of food more than a mere regard for the nutrition of +the ordinary corporeal functions. The sense of Light, which begins in +the material eye, grows and deepens inwardly till the consciousness of +it pervades the whole body and mind with a kind of inward illumination +or divine Reason, showing the places of all things and enfolding the +sense of beauty in itself. The sense of Warmth in the same manner is +related to and leads up to Love; and Sound, in the voices of our friends +or the divine chords of music, has passed away from being an external +phenomenon and has established itself as the language of our most tender +and intimate emotions. + +All the senses thus, as they develop and deepen, are found to unite in +the very focus of individual life. Slowly, and through long experience, +their relation to each other, _their very meaning_ unfolds, or will +unfold; and as this process takes place the man knows himself _one_, a +unity, of which the various faculties are the different manifestations. +Then further through his less localised feelings or more glorified +senses the individual finds his relation to other individuals. Through +his loves and hatreds, through his senses of attraction, repulsion, +cohesion, solidarity, order, justice, charity, right, wrong and the +rest--these feelings, each like the others deepening back more and more +as time goes on--he gradually discovers his true and abiding +relationship to other individuals, and to the divine society of which +they all form a part--and so at last, if we may venture to say so, his +relationship to the absolute and universal. At present, since our most +important relation to each other is conceived of as one of rivalry and +Competition, we of course think of the objects of Nature as being +chiefly engaged in a Struggle for Existence with each other; but when we +become aware of all our senses and feelings, and of ourselves as +individuals, as having relation to the Absolute and universal, +proceeding from it, as the branches and twigs of a tree from the +trunk--then we shall become aware of a Divine or absolute science in +Nature; we shall at last understand that all objects have a permanent +and indissoluble relation to each other, and shall see their true +meaning--though not till then. + +Is it possible then that Science, having hitherto--and we shall see in +time that this process has been really most valuable and important--gone +outwards from the centre towards the very fringe of Humanity--emptying +facts as far as possible as it went of all feeling, and reducing itself +at last to the most shadowy generalisations on the very verge of sense +and nonsense--is it possible, I say, that it will now return, and +_first_ filling up facts with feeling as far as practicable (that is, by +direct and the most living contact with Nature in every form, learning +to enter into direct personal sense-relationship with every phenomenon +and phase), will so gradually ascend to the great central fact and +feeling, and then at last and for the first time become fully conscious +of a vast organisation--absolutely perfect and intimately knit from its +centre to its utmost circumference--(the true cosmos of Man--the +conceptions of man and god combined)--existing inchoate or embryonic in +every individual man, animal, plant, or other creature--the object of +all life, experience, suffering, and toil--the ground of all sensation, +and the hidden, yet proper, theme of all thought and study? + +For this is it possible that Science will, speaking broadly, have to +leave the laboratory and become one with Life; or that the great +currents of human life will have to be turned on into these often Augean +stables of intellectual pruriency?--the investigation of Nature no +longer a matter of the intellect alone, but of patient listening and the +quiet eye, and of love and faith, and of all deep human experience, +bearing not superciliously its weight towards the interpretation of the +least phenomenon--every "fact" thus deepened to its utmost--all +experience (rather than experiment) courted, and filial walking with +Nature, rather than tearing of veils aside--the life of the open air, +and on the land and the waters, the companionship of the animals and the +trees and the stars, the knowledge of their habits at first hand and +through individual relationship to them, the recognition of their voices +and languages, and listening well what they themselves have to say; the +keenest education of the senses towards the physical powers and +elements, and the acceptance of _all_ human experience, without +exception--till Science become a reality. + +Is it possible that in some sense, instead of reducing each branch of +Science to its lowest terms, we shall have to read it in the light of +its _highest_ factors, and "take it up" into the Science above--that we +shall have to take up the mechanical sciences into the physical, the +physical into the vital, the vital into the social and ethical, and so +forth, before we can understand them? Is it possible that the phenomena +of Chemistry only find their due place and importance in their relation +to living beings and processes; that the phenomena of vitality and the +laws of Biology and Zoology--Evolution included--can only be "explained" +by their dependence on self-hood--both in plants and animals; that +Political Economy and the Social Sciences (which deal with men as +individual selves) must, to be understood aright, be studied in the +light of those great ethical principles and enthusiasms, which to a +certain extent override the individual self; and that, finally, Ethics +or the study of moral problems is only comprehensible when the student +has become aware of a region beyond Ethics, into which questions of +morality and immorality, of right and wrong, do not and cannot enter? + +Of this reversal of the ordinary scientific method Ruskin has given a +great and signal instance in his treatment of Political Economy; it +remains, perhaps, for others to follow his example in the other branches +of Science.[31] + +With regard to the absolute datum question we have seen that Science +has two alternatives before it--either to be merely intellectual and to +seek for its start-point in some quite external (and imaginary) thing +like the Atom, or to be divine and to seek for its absolute in the +innermost recesses of humanity. We have two similar alternatives in the +doctrine of Evolution, which looks either to one end of the scale or the +other for its interpretation--either to the amoeba or to the man--to +something it knows next to nothing of, or to that which it knows most +of. Goethe, when gazing at a fan-palm at Padua, conceived the idea of +leaf-metamorphosis, which he afterwards enunciated in the now accepted +doctrine that all parts of a plant--seed-vessel, pistil, stamens, +petals, sepals, stalk, etc.--may be regarded as modifications of a leaf +or leaves. In this view the distinctions between the parts are effaced, +and we have only one part instead of many--but the question is "what is +that part?" It is of course arbitrary to call it a leaf, for since it is +continually varying it is at one time a leaf, and at another a stalk, +and then a petal or a sepal, and so forth. What then is it? For the +moment we are baffled. + +So with the doctrine of Evolution as applied to the whole organic +kingdom up to man. Like the doctrine of leaf-metamorphosis it +obliterates distinctions. Geoffroy St. Hilaire proposed to show the +French Academy that a Cephalopod could be assimilated to a Vertebrate by +supposing the latter bent backwards and walking on its hands and feet. +There is a continuous variation from the mollusc to the man--all the +lines of distinction run and waver--classes and species cease to +exist--and Science, instead of many, sees only _one_ thing. What then is +that one thing? Is it a mollusc, or is it a man, or what is it? Are we +to say that man may be looked upon as a variation of a mollusc or an +amoeba, or that the amoeba may be looked on as a variation of man? Here +are two directions of thought; which shall we choose? But the plain +truth is, the Intellect can give no satisfactory answer. Whichever, or +whatever, it chooses, the choice is quite arbitrary--just as much so as +the choice of the "leaf" in the other case. There is no answer to be +given. And thus it is that _the appearance of the doctrine of Evolution +is the signal of the destruction of Science_ (in the ordinary +acceptation of the word). For Evolution is the successive obliteration +of the arbitrary distinctions and landmarks which by their existence +_constitute_ Science, and as soon as Evolution covers the whole ground +of Nature inorganic and organic (as before long it will do)--the whole +of Nature runs and wavers before the eye of Science, the latter +recognises that its distinctions _are_ arbitrary, and turns upon and +destroys itself. This has happened before, I believe--ages back in the +history of the human race--and probably will happen again. + +The only conceivable answer to the question, "What is that which is now +a mollusc and now a man and now an inorganic atom?"[32] is given by man +himself--and his answer is, I fear, not "scientific." It is "I Am." "I +am that which varies." And the force of his answer depends on what he +means by the word "I." And so also the only conceivable answer to the +absolute datum question is to be found in the meaning of the word +"I"--in the deepening back of consciousness itself. Man is the measure +of all things. If we are to use Science as a minister to the most +external part of man--to provide him with cheap boots and shoes, +etc.--then we do right to seek our absolute datum in his external part, +and to take his _foot_ as our first measure. We found a science on feet +and pounds, and it serves its purpose well enough. But if we want to +find a garment for his inner being--or, rather, one that shall fit the +_whole_ man--to wear which will be a delight to him and, as it were, a +very interpretation of himself--it seems obvious that we must not take +our measure from outside, but from his very most central principle. The +whole question is, whether there _is_ any absolute datum in this +direction or not. There have been men through all ages of history (and +from before) who have declared that there is. They have perhaps been +conscious of it in themselves. On the other hand there have been men +who, starting from their feet, declared that consciousness itself was a +mere incident of the human machine--as the whistle of the engine--and +thus the matter stands. On the whole, at the present day, the _feet_ +have it, and (notwithstanding their variety in size and boot-induced +conformation) are generally accepted as the best absolute datum +available. + +Under the foot _régime_ the universe is generally conceived of as a +medley of objects and forces, more or less orderly and distinct from +man, in the midst of which man is placed--the purpose and tendency of +his life being "adaptation to his environment." To understand this we +may imagine Mrs. Brown in the middle of Oxford Street. 'Buses and cabs +are running in different directions, carts and drays are rattling on all +sides of her. This is her environment, and she has to adapt herself to +it. She has to learn the laws of the vehicles and their movements, to +stand on this side or on that, to run here and stop there, conceivably +to jump into one at a favourable moment, to make use of the law of its +movement, and so get carried to her destination as comfortably as may +be. A long course of this sort of thing "adapts" Mrs. Brown +considerably, and she becomes more active, both in mind and body, than +before. That is all very well. But Mrs. Brown has a _destination_. +(Indeed how would she ever have got into the middle of Oxford Street at +all, if she had not had one? and if she did get there with no +destination at all, but merely to skip about, would there be any Mrs. +Brown left in a short time?) The question is, "What is the destination +of Man?" + +About this last question unfortunately we hear little. The theory is (I +hope I am not doing it injustice) that by studying your environment +sufficiently you will find out--that is, that by investigating +Astronomy, Biology, Physics, Ethics, etc., you will discover the destiny +of man. But this seems to me the same as saying that by studying the +laws of cabs and 'buses sufficiently you will find out where you are +going to. These are ways and means. Study them by all means, that is +right enough; but do not think _they_ will tell you where to go. You +have to use them, not they you. + +In order therefore for the environment to act, there must be a +destination. This I suppose is expressed in the biological dictum, +"organism is made by function as well as environment." What then is the +function of Man? And here we come back again to the meaning of the word +"I." + +Nothwithstanding then the prevalence of the foot régime, and that the +heathen so furiously rage together in their belief in it, let us suggest +that there is in man a divine consciousness as well as a +foot-consciousness. For, as we saw that the sense of taste may pass from +being a mere local thing on the tip of the tongue to pervading and +becoming synonymous with the health of the whole body; or as the blue of +the sky may be to one person a mere superficial impression of colour, +and to another the inspiration of a poem or picture, and to a third--as +to the "god-intoxicated" Arab of the desert--a living presence like the +ancient Dyaus or Zeus; so may not the whole of human consciousness +gradually lift itself from a mere local and temporary consciousness to a +divine and universal? There is in every man a local consciousness +connected with his quite external body; that we know. Are there not also +in every man the makings of a universal consciousness? That there are in +us phases of consciousness which transcend the limit of the bodily +senses, is a matter of daily experience; that we perceive and know +things which are not conveyed to us by our bodily eyes or heard by our +bodily ears, is certain; that there rise in us waves of consciousness +from those around us, from the people, the race, to which we belong, is +also certain; may there not then be in us the makings of a perception +and knowledge which shall not be relative to this body which is here and +now, but which shall be good for all time and everywhere? Does there not +exist, in truth, as we have already hinted--an inner Illumination--of +which what we call light in the outer world is the partial expression +and manifestation--by which we can ultimately see things, _as they are_, +beholding all creation, the animals, the angels, the plants, the figures +of our friends and all the ranks and races of human kind, in their true +being and order--not by any local act of perception but by a cosmical +intuition and presence, identifying ourselves with what we see? Does +there not exist a perfected sense of Hearing--as of the morning-stars +singing together--an understanding of the words that are spoken all +through the universe, the hidden meaning of all things, the word which +is creation itself--a profound and far pervading sense, of which our +ordinary sense of sound is only the first novitiate and initiation? Do +we not become aware of an inner sense of Health and of Holiness--the +translation and final outcome of the external sense of taste--which has +power to determine for us absolutely and without any ado, without +argument and without denial, what is good and appropriate to be done or +suffered in every case that can arise? + +And so on; it is not necessary to say more. If there are such powers in +man, then there is indeed an exact science possible. Short of it there +is only a temporary and phantom science. "Whatever is known to us by +(direct) consciousness," says Stuart Mill in his System of Logic, "is +known to us beyond possibility of question;" what is known by our local +and temporary consciousness is known _for the moment_ beyond possibility +of question; what is known by our permanent and universal consciousness +is permanently known beyond possibility of question.[33] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[31] Thus the study of Geometry would be primarily an education of the +eye, and the mind's eye, to the perception of geometrical forms and +facts, the judgment of angles, etc.--and secondarily only a process of +deductive reasoning--a body of empirical knowledge strengthened and tied +together by bands of logic; the study of Natural History would be +primarily an affectionate intimacy with the habits of animals and +plants, and classification would be treated as a secondary matter and as +a help to the former; Physiology would be studied in the first place by +the method of Health--the pure body--becoming gradually transparent with +all its organs to the eye of the mind--and dissection would be used to +corroborate and correct the results thus attained; and so on. + +[32] Compare the Sphinx-riddle: What is that which goes on four legs, +etc. + +[33] See for continuation of this subject the chapter on "A Rational and +Humane Science," p. 219 _infra_. + + + + +DEFENCE OF CRIMINALS: + +A CRITICISM OF MORALITY + +The State is the actually existing realised moral life. For it is the +unity of the universal essential Will with that of the individual, and +this is "Morality."--HEGEL. + + +A criminal is literally a person accused--accused, and in the modern +sense of the word convicted, of being harmful to Society. But is he +there in the dock, the patch-coated brawler or burglar, really harmful +to Society? is he more harmful than the mild old gentleman in the wig +who pronounces sentence upon him? That is the question. Certainly he has +infringed the law: and the law is in a sense the consolidated public +opinion of Society: but if no one were to break the law, public opinion +would ossify, and Society would die. As a matter of fact Society keeps +changing its opinion. How then are we to know when it is right and when +it is wrong? The Outcast of one age is the Hero of another. In +execration they nailed Roger Bacon's manuscripts out in the sun and +rain, to rot crucified upon planks--his bones lie in an unknown and +unhonoured grave--yet to-day he is regarded as a pioneer of human +thought. The hated Christian holding his ill-famed love-feasts in the +darkness of the catacombs has climbed up to the throne of S. Peter and +the world. The Jew moneylender whom Front-de-Boeuf could torture with +impunity is become a Rothschild--guest of princes and instigator of +commercial wars; and Shylock is now a highly respectable Railway +Bondholder. And the Accepted of one age is the Criminal of the next. All +the glories of Alexander do not condone in our eyes for his cruelty in +crucifying the brave defenders of Tyre by thousands along the sea-shore; +and if Solomon with his thousand wives and concubines were to appear in +London to-morrow, even our most frivolous circles would be shocked, and +Brigham Young by contrast seem a domestic model. The judge pronounces +sentence on the prisoner now, but Society in its turn and in the lapse +of years pronounces sentence on the judge. It holds in its hand a new +canon, a new code of morals, and consigns its former representative and +the law which he administered to a limbo of contempt. + +It seems as if Society, as it progresses from point to point, forms +ideals--just as the individual does. At any moment each person, +consciously or unconsciously, has an ideal in his mind toward which he +is working (hence the importance of literature). Similarly Society has +an ideal in its mind. These ideals are tangents or vanishing points of +the direction in which Society is moving at the time. It does not reach +its ideal, but it goes in that direction--then, after a time, the +direction of its movement changes, and it has a new ideal. + +When the ideal of Society is material gain or possession, as it is +largely to-day, the object of its special condemnation is the thief--not +the rich thief, for he is already in possession and therefore +respectable, but the poor thief. There is nothing to show that the poor +thief is really more immoral or unsocial than the respectable +money-grubber; but it is very clear that the money-grubber has been +floating with the great current of Society, while the poor man has been +swimming against it, and so has been worsted. Or when, as to-day, +Society rests on private property in land, its counter-ideal is the +poacher. If you go in the company of the county squire-archy and listen +to the after-dinner talk you will soon think the poacher a combination +of all human and diabolic vices; yet I have known a good many poachers, +and either have been very lucky in my specimens or singularly prejudiced +in their favour, for I have generally found them very good fellows--but +with just this one blemish that they invariably regard a landlord as an +emissary of the evil one! The poacher is as much in the right, probably, +as the landlord, but he is not right for the time. He is asserting a +right (and an instinct) belonging to a past time--when for hunting +purposes all land was held in common--or to a time in the future when +such or similar rights shall be restored. Cæsar says of the Suevi that +they tilled the ground in common and had no private lands, and there is +abundant evidence that all early human communities, before they entered +on the stage of modern civilisation, were communistic in character. Some +of the Pacific Islanders to-day are in the same condition. In those +times private property was theft. Obviously the man who attempted to +retain for himself land or goods, or who fenced off a portion of the +common ground and--like the modern landlord--would allow no one to till +it who did not pay him a tax--was a criminal of the deepest dye. +Nevertheless the criminals pushed their way to the front, and have +become the respectables of modern Society. And it is quite probable that +in like manner the criminals of to-day will push to the front and become +the respectables of a later age. + +The ascetic and monastic ideal of early Christian and mediæval ages is +now regarded as foolish, if not wicked; and poverty, which in many times +and places has been held in honour as the only garb of honesty, is +condemned as criminal and indecent. Nomadism--if accompanied by +poverty--is criminal in modern Society. To-day the gipsy and the tramp +are hunted down. To have no settled habitation, or worse still, no place +to lay your head, are suspicious matters. We close even our outhouses +and barns against the son of man, and so to us the son of man comes not. +And yet--at one time and in one stage of human progress--the nomadic +state is the rule; and the settler is then the criminal. His crops are +fired and his cattle driven off. What right has he to lay a limit to the +hunting grounds, or to spoil the wild free life of the plains with his +dirty agriculture? + +As to the marriage relation and its attendant moralities, the forms are +numerous and notorious enough. Public opinion seems to have varied +through all phases and ideals, and yet there is no indication of +finality. Modern investigations show that in primitive human societies +the affinities admitted or barred in marriage are most various--the +relation of brother and sister being even in cases allowed; in the +present day such a bond as the last-mentioned would be considered +inhuman and monstrous.[34] Polyandry prevails among one people or at one +time, polygyny prevails among another people or at another time. In +Central Africa to-day the chief offers you his wife as a mark of +hospitality, in India the native Prince keeps her hidden even from his +most intimate guest. Among the Japanese, public opinion holds young +women--even of good birth--singularly free in their intercourse with +men, _till they are married_; at Paris they are free after. In the Greek +and Roman antiquity marriage seems, with some brilliant exceptions, to +have been a prosaic affair--mostly a matter of convenience and +housekeeping--the woman an underling--little of the ideal attaching to +the relationship of man and wife. The romance of love went elsewhere. +The better class of free women or Hetairai were those who gave a +spiritual charm to the passion. They were an educated and recognised +body, and possibly in their best times exercised a healthy and +discriminating influence upon the male youth. The respectful treatment +of Theodota by Socrates and the advice which he gives her concerning her +lovers: to keep the insolent from her door, and to rejoice greatly when +the accepted succeed in anything honourable, indicates this. That their +influence was at times immense the mere name of Aspasia is sufficient to +show; and if Plato in the Symposium reports correctly the word of +Diotima, her teaching on the subject of human and divine love was +probably of the noblest and profoundest that has ever been given to the +world. + +With the influx of the North-men over Europe came a new ideal of the +sexual relation, and the wife mounted more into equality with her +husband than before. The romance of love, however, still went mainly +outside marriage, and may, I believe, be traced in two chief forms--that +of Chivalry, as an ideal devotion to simple Womanhood; and that of +Minstrelsy, which took quite a different hue, individual and +sentimental--the lover and his mistress (she in most cases the wife of +another), the serenade, secret amour, etc.--both of which forms of +Chivalry and Minstrelsy contain in themselves something new and not +quite familiar to antiquity. + +Finally in modern times the monogamic union has risen to +pre-eminence--the splendid ideal of an equal and life-long attachment +between man and wife, fruitful of children in this life, and hopeful of +continuance beyond--and has become the great theme of romantic +literature, and the climax of a thousand novels and poems. Yet it is +just here and to-day, when this ideal after centuries of struggle has +established itself, and among the nations that are in the van of +civilisation--that we find the doctrine of perfect liberty in the +marriage relationship being most successfully preached, and that the +communalisation of social life in the future seems likely to weaken the +family bond and to relax the obligation of the marriage tie. + +If the Greek age, splendid as it was in itself and in its fruits of +human progress, did not hold marriage very high, it was partly because +the ideal passion of that period, and one which more than all else +inspired it, was that of comradeship, or male friendship carried over +into the region of love. The two figures of Harmodius and Aristogiton +stand at the entrance of Greek history as the type of this passion, +bearing its fruit (as Plato throughout maintains is its nature) in +united self-devotion to the country's good. The heroic Theban legion, +the "sacred band," into which no man might enter without his lover--and +which was said to have remained unvanquished till it was annihilated at +the battle of Chæronæa--proves to us how publicly this passion and its +place in society were recognised; while its universality and the depth +to which it had stirred the Greek mind are indicated by the fact that +whole treatises on love, in its spiritual aspect, exist, in which no +other form of the sentiment seems to be contemplated; and by the +magnificent panorama of Greek statuary, which was obviously to a large +extent inspired by it. In fact the most remarkable Society known to +history, and its greatest men, cannot be properly considered or +understood apart from this passion; yet the modern world scarcely +recognises it, or if it recognises, does so chiefly to condemn it.[35] + +Other instances might be quoted to show how differently moral questions +are regarded in one age and another--as in the cases of Usury, Magic, +Suicide, Infanticide, etc. On the whole we pride ourselves (and justly I +believe) on the general advance in humanity; yet we know that to-day the +merest savages can only shudder at a civilisation whose public opinion +allows--as among us--the rich to wallow in their wealth, while the poor +are systematically starving; and it is certain that the vivisection of +animals--which on the whole is approved by our educated classes (though +not by the healthier sentiment of the uneducated)--would have been +stigmatised as one of the most abominable crimes by the ancient +Egyptians[36]--if, that is, they could have conceived such a practice +possible at all. + +But not only do the moral judgments of mankind thus vary from age to age +and from race to race, but--what is equally remarkable--they vary to an +extraordinary degree from class to class of the same society. If the +landlord class regards the poacher as a criminal, the poacher, as +already hinted, looks upon the landlord as a selfish ruffian who has the +police on his side; if the respectable shareholder, politely and +respectably subsisting on dividends, dismisses navvies and the +frequenters of public-houses as disorderly persons, the navvy in return +despises the shareholder as a sneaking thief. And it is not easy to see, +after all, which is in the right. It is useless to dismiss these +discrepancies by supposing that one class in the nation possesses a +monopoly of morality and that the other classes simply rail at the +virtue they cannot attain to, for this is obviously not the case. It is +almost a commonplace, and certainly a fact that cannot be contested, +that every class--however sinful or outcast in the eyes of +others--contains within its ranks a large proportion of generous, +noble, self-sacrificing characters; so that the public opinion of one +such class, however different from that of others, cannot at least be +invalidated on the above ground. There are plenty of clergymen at this +moment who are models of pastors--true shepherds of the people--though a +large and increasing section of society persist in regarding priests as +a kind of wolves in sheep's clothing. It is not uncommon to meet with +professional thieves who are generous and open-handed to the last +degree, and ready to part with their last penny to help a comrade in +distress; with women living outside the bounds of conventional morality +who are strongly religious in sentiment, and who regard atheists as +_really_ wicked people; with aristocrats who have as stern material in +them as quarry-men; and even with bondholders and drawing-room loungers +who are as capable of bravery and self-sacrifice as many a pitman or +ironworker. Yet all these classes mentioned have their codes of +morality, differing in greater or lesser degree from each other; and +again the question forces itself upon us: Which of them all is the true +and abiding code? + +It may be said, with regard to this variation of codes within the same +society, that, though various codes may exist at the same time, one only +is really valid, namely, that which has embodied itself in the law--that +the others have been rejected because they were unworthy. But, when we +come to look into this matter of law, we see that the plea can hardly be +maintained. Law represents from age to age the code of the dominant or +ruling class, slowly accumulated, no doubt, and slowly modified, but +always added to and always administered by the ruling class. To-day the +code of the dominant class may perhaps best be denoted by the word +Respectability--and if we ask why this code has to a great extent +overwhelmed the codes of the other classes and got the law on its side +(so far that in the main it characterises those classes who do not +conform to it as the criminal classes), the answer can only be: Because +it _is_ the code of the classes who are in power. Respectability is the +code of those who have the wealth and the command, and as these have +also the fluent pens and tongues, it is the standard of modern +literature and the press. It is not necessarily a better standard than +others, but it is the one that happens to be in the ascendant; it is the +code of the classes that chiefly represent modern society; it is the +code of the Bourgeoisie. It is different from the Feudal code of the +past, of the knightly classes, and of Chivalry; it is different from the +Democratic code of the future--of brotherhood and of equality; it is the +code of the Commercial age--and its distinctive watchword is property. + +The respectability of to-day is the respectability of property. There is +nothing so respectable as being well-off. The Law confirms this: +everything is on the side of the rich; justice is too expensive a thing +for the poor man. Offences against the person hardly count for so much +as those against property. You may beat your wife within an inch of her +life and only get three months; but if you steal a rabbit, you may be +"sent" for years. So again, gambling by thousands on Change is +respectable enough, but pitch and toss for half-pence in the streets is +low, and must be dealt with by the police; while it is a mere +commonplace to say that the high-class swindler is "received" in society +from which a more honest but patch-coated brother would infallibly be +rejected. As Walt Whitman has it, "There is plenty of glamour about the +most damnable crimes and hoggish meannesses, special and general, of the +feudal and dynastic world over there, with its personnel of lords and +queens and courts, so well-dressed and handsome. But the people are +ungrammatical, untidy, and their sins gaunt and ill-bred." + +Thus we see that though there are, for instance in the England of +to-day, a variety of classes and a variety of corresponding codes of +public opinion and morality, one of these codes, namely that of the +ruling class whose watchword is property, is strongly in the ascendant. +And we may fairly suppose that in any nation from the time when it first +becomes divided into well-marked classes this is or has been the case. +In one age--the commercial age--the code of the commercial or +money-loving class is dominant; in another--the military--the code of +the warrior class is dominant; in another--the religious--the code of +the priestly class; and so on. And even before any question of division +into classes arises, while races are yet in a rudimentary and tribal +state, the utmost diversity of custom and public opinion marks the one +from the other. + +What, then, are we to conclude from all these variations (and the far +greater number which I have not mentioned) of the respect or stigma +attaching to the _same_ actions, not only among different societies in +different ages or parts of the world, but even at any one time among +different classes of the same society? Must we conclude that there is no +such thing as a permanent moral code valid for all time; or must we +still suppose that there is such a thing--though society has hitherto +sought for it in vain? + +I think it is obvious that there is no such thing as a permanent moral +code--at any rate as applying to _actions_. Probably the respect or +stigma attaching to particular classes of actions arose from the fact +that these classes of actions were--or were thought to be--beneficial or +injurious to the society of the time; but it is also clear that this +good or bad name once created clings to the action long after the action +has ceased in the course of social progress to be beneficial in the one +case, or injurious in the other; and indeed long after the thinkers of +the race have discovered the discrepancy. And so in a short time arises +a great confusion in the popular mind between what is really good or +evil for the race and what is reputed to be so--the bolder spirits who +try to separate the two having to atone for this confusion by their own +martyrdom. It is also pretty clear that the actions which are beneficial +or injurious to the race must by the nature of the case vary almost +indefinitely with the changing conditions of the life of the race--what +is beneficial in one age or under one set of conditions being injurious +in another age or under other circumstances--so that a permanent or +ever-valid code of moral action is not a thing to be expected, at any +rate by those who regard morality as a result of social experience, and +as a matter of fact is not a thing that we find existing. And, indeed, +of those who regard morals as intuitive, there are few who have thought +about the matter who would be inclined to say that any _act_ in itself +can be either right or wrong. Though there is a superficial judgment of +this kind, yet when the matter comes to be looked into, the more general +consent seems to be that the rightness or wrongness is in the _motive_. +To kill (it is said) is not wrong, but to do so with murderous intent +is; to take money out of another person's purse is in itself neither +moral nor immoral--all depends upon whether permission has been given, +or on what the relations between the two persons are; and so on. +Obviously there is no mere act which under given conditions may not be +justified, and equally obvious there is no mere act which under given +conditions may not become unjustifiable. To talk, therefore, about +virtues and vices as permanent and distinct classes of actions is +illusory: there is no such distinction, except so far as a superficial +and transient public opinion creates it. The theatre of morality is in +the passions, and there are (it is said) virtuous and vicious +passions--eternally distinct from each other. + +Here, then, we have abandoned the search for a permanent moral code +among the actions; on the understanding that we are more likely to find +such a thing among the passions. And I think it would be generally +admitted that this is a move in the right direction. There are +difficulties however here, and the matter is not one which renders +itself up at once. Though, vaguely speaking, some passions seem nobler +and more dignified than others, we find it very difficult, in fact +impossible, to draw any strict line which shall separate one class, the +virtuous, from the other class, the vicious. On the whole we place +Prudence, Generosity, Chastity, Reverence, Courage among the +virtues--and their opposites, as Rashness, Miserliness, Incontinence, +Arrogance, Timidity, among the vices; yet we do not seem able to say +that Prudence is always better than Rashness, Chastity than +Incontinence, or Reverence than Arrogance. There are situations in which +the less honoured quality is the most in place; and if the extreme of +this is undesirable, the extreme of its opposite is undesirable too. +Courage, it is commonly said, must not be carried over into +foolhardiness; Chastity must not go so far as the monks of the early +Church took it; there is a limit to the indulgence of the instinct of +Reverence. In fact the less dignified passions are necessary sometimes +as a counterbalance and set-off to the more dignified, and a character +devoid of them would be very insipid; just as among the members of the +body, the less honoured have their place as well as the more honoured, +and could not well be discarded. + +Hence a number of writers, abandoning the attempt to draw a fixed line +between virtuous and vicious passions, have boldly maintained that vices +have their place as well as virtues, and that the true salvation lies in +the golden mean. The [Greek: epieikeia] and [Greek: sôphrosunê] of the +Greeks seem to have pointed to the idea of a blend or harmonious +adjustment of all the powers as the perfection of character. Plutarch +says (_Essay on Moral Virtue_), "This, then, is the function of +practical reason following nature, to prevent our passions either going +too far or too short.... Thus setting bound to the emotional currents, +it creates in the unreasoning part of the soul moral habits which are +the mean between excess and deficiency." + +The English word "gentleman" seems to have once conveyed a similar idea. +And Emerson, among others, maintains that each vice is only the "excess +or acridity of a virtue," and says "the first lesson of history is the +good of evil." + +According to this view rightness or wrongness cannot be predicated of +the passions themselves, but should rather be applied to the use of +them, and to the way they are proportioned to each other and to +circumstances. As, farther back, we left the region of actions to look +for morality in the passions that lie behind action, so now we leave the +region of the passions to look for it in the power that lies behind the +passions and gives them their place. This is a farther move in the same +direction as before, and possibly will bring us to a more satisfactory +conclusion. There are still difficulties, however, the chief ones lying +in the want of definiteness which necessarily attaches to our dealings +with these remoter tracts of human nature; and in our own defective +knowledge of these tracts. + +For these reasons, and as the subject is a complex and difficult one, I +would ask the reader to dwell for a few minutes longer on the +considerations which show that it is really as impossible to draw a +fixed line between moral and immoral passions as it is between moral and +immoral actions, and which therefore force us, if we are to find any +ground of morality at all, to look for it in some further region of our +nature. + +Plato in his allegory of the soul, in the Phædrus, though he apparently +divides the passions which draw the human chariot into two classes, the +heavenward and the earthward--figured by the white horse and the black +horse respectively--does not recommend that the black horse should be +destroyed or dismissed, but only that he (as well as the white horse) +should be kept under due control by the charioteer. By which he seems to +intend that there is a power in man which stands above and behind the +passions, and under whose control alone the human being can safely +move. In fact, if the fiercer and so-called more earthly passions were +removed, half the driving force would be gone from the chariot of the +human soul. Hatred may be devilish at times--but, after all, the true +value of it depends on what you hate, on the use to which the passion is +put. Anger, though inhuman at one time, is magnificent at another. +Obstinacy may be out of place in a drawing-room, but it is the latest +virtue on a battle-field, when an important position has to be held +against the full brunt of the enemy. And Lust, though maniacal and +monstrous in its aberrations, cannot in the last resort be separated +from its divine companion, Love. To let the more amiable passions have +entire sway notoriously does not do: to turn your cheek, too literally, +to the smiter, is (_pace_ Tolstoi) only to encourage smiting; and when +society becomes so altruistic that everybody runs to fetch the +coal-scuttle, we feel sure that something has gone wrong. The +white-washed heroes of our biographies, with their many virtues and no +faults, do not please us. We have an impression that the man without +faults is, to say the least, a vague, uninteresting being--a picture +without light and shade--and the conventional semi-pious classification +of character into good and bad qualities (as if the good might be kept +and the bad thrown away) seems both inadequate and false. + +What the student of human nature rather has to do is not to divide the +virtues (so-called) from the vices (so-called), not to separate the +black horse and the white horse, but to find out what is the relation of +the one to the other--to see the character as a whole, and the mutual +interdependence of its different parts--to find out what that power is +which constitutes it a unity, whose presence and control makes the man +and all his actions "right," and in whose absence (if it is really +possible for it to be entirely absent) the man and his actions must be +"wrong." + +What we call vices, faults, defects, appear often as a kind of +limitation: cruelty, for instance, as a limitation of human sympathy, +prejudice as a blindness, a want of discernment; but it is just these +limitations--in one form or another--which are the necessary conditions +of the appearance of a human being in the world. If we are to act or +live at all we must act and live under limits. There must be channels +along which the stream is forced to run, else it will spread and lose +itself aimlessly in all directions--and turn no mill-wheels. One man is +disagreeable and unconciliatory--the directions in which his sympathy +goes out to others are few and limited--yet there are situations in life +(and everyone must know them) when a man who is _able and willing_ to +make himself disagreeable is invaluable: when a Carlyle is worth any +number of Balaams. + +Sometimes again vices, etc., appear as a kind of raw material from which +the other qualities have to be formed, and without which, in a sense, +they could not exist. Sensuality, for instance, underlies all art and +the higher emotions. Timidity is the defect of the sensitive imaginative +temperament. Bluntness, stupid candor, and want of tact are +indispensable in the formation of certain types of Reformers. But what +would you have? Would you have a rabbit with the horns of a cow, or a +donkey with the disposition of a spaniel? The reformer has not to +extirpate his brusqueness and aggressiveness, but to see that he makes +good use of these qualities; and the man has not to abolish his +sensuality, but to humanise it. + +And so on. Lecky, in his "History of Morals," shows how in society +certain defects necessarily accompany certain excellences of character. +"Had the Irish peasants been less chaste they would have been more +prosperous," in his blunt assertion, which he supports by the contention +that their early marriages (which render the said virtue possible) "are +the most conspicuous proofs of the national improvidence, and one of the +most fatal obstacles to industrial prosperity." Similarly he says that +the gambling table fosters a moral nerve and calmness "scarcely +exhibited in equal perfection in any other sphere"--a fact which Bret +Harte has finely illustrated in his character of Mr. John Oakhurst in +the "Outcasts of Poker Flat;" also that "the promotion of industrial +veracity is probably the single form in which the growth of manufactures +exercises a favorable influence upon morals;" while, on the other hand, +"Trust in Providence, content and resignation in extreme poverty and +suffering, the most genuine amiability, and the most sincere readiness +to assist their brethren, an adherence to their religious opinions which +no persecutions and no bribes can shake, a capacity for heroic, +transcendent, and prolonged self-sacrifice, may be found in some +nations, in men who are habitual liars and habitual cheats." Again he +points out that thriftiness and forethought--which, in an industrial +civilisation like ours, are looked upon as duties "of the very highest +order"--have at other times (when the teaching was "take no thought for +the morrow") been regarded as quite the reverse, and concludes with the +general remark that as society advances there is some loss for every +gain that is made, and with the special indictment against +"civilisation" that it is not favorable to the production of +"self-sacrifice, enthusiasm, reverence, or chastity." + +The point of all which is that the so-called vices and defects--whether +we regard them as limitations or whether we regard them as raw materials +of character, whether we regard them in the individual solely or whether +we regard them in their relation to society--are necessary elements of +human life, elements without which the so-called virtues could not +exist; and that therefore it is quite impossible to separate vices and +virtues into distinct classes with the latent idea involved that one +class may be retained and the other in course of time got rid of. +Defects and bad qualities will not be treated so--they clamour for their +rights and will not be denied; they effect a lodgment in us, and we +have to put up with them. Like the grain of sand in the oyster, we are +forced to make pearls of them. + +These are the precipices and chasms which give form to the mountain. Who +wants a mountain sprawling indifferently out on all sides, without angle +or break, like the oceanic tide-wave of which one cannot say whether it +is a hill or a plain? And if you want to grow a lily, chastely white and +filling the air with its fragrance, will you not bury the bulb of it +deep in the dirt to begin with? + +Acknowledging, then, that it is impossible to hold permanently to any +line of distinction between good and bad passions, there remains no +course for us but to accept both, and to _make use_ of them--redeeming +them, both good and bad, from their narrowness and limitation by so +doing--to make use of them in the service of humanity. For as dirt is +only matter in the wrong place, so evil in man consists only in actions +or passions which are uncontrolled by the human within him, and +undedicated to its service. The evil consists not in the actions or +passions themselves, but in the fact that they are inhumanly used. The +most unblemished virtue erected into a barrier between one self and a +suffering brother or sister--the whitest marble image, howsoever lovely, +set up in the Holy Place of the temple of Man, where the spirit alone +should dwell--becomes blasphemy and a pollution. + +Wherein exactly this human service consists is another question. It may +be, and, as the reader would gather, probably is, a matter which at the +last eludes definition. But though it may elude exact statement, that is +no reason why approximations should not be made to the statement of it; +nor is its ultimate elusiveness of intellectual definition any proof +that it may not become a real and vital force within the man, and +underlying inspiration of his actions. To take the two considerations in +order. In the first place, as we saw from the beginning, the experience +of society is continually leading it to classify actions into beneficial +and harmful, good and bad; and thus moral codes are formed which eat +their way from the outside into the individual man and become part of +him. These codes may be looked upon as approximations in each age to a +statement of human service; but, as we have seen, they are by the nature +of the case very imperfect; and since the very conditions of the problem +are continually changing, it seems obvious that a final and absolute +solution of it by this method is impossible. The second way in which man +works towards a solution is by the expansion and growth of his own +consciousness, and is ultimately by far the most important--though the +two methods have doubtless continually to be corrected by each other. In +fact, as man actually forms a part of society externally, so he comes to +know and _feel_ himself a part of society through his inner nature. +Gradually, and in the lapse of ages, through the development of his +sympathetic relation with his fellows, the individual man enters into a +wider and wider circle of life; the joys and sorrows, the experiences, +of his fellows become his own joys and sorrows, his own experiences; he +passes into a life which is larger than his own individual life; forces +flow in upon him which determine his actions, not for results which +return to him directly, but for results which can only return to him +indirectly and through others; at last the ground of humanity, as it +were, reveals itself within him, the region of human equality--and his +actions come to flow directly from the very same source which regulates +and inspires the whole movement of society. At this point the problem is +solved. The growth has taken place from within; it is not of the nature +of an external compulsion, but of an inward compunction. By actual +consciousness the man has taken on an ever-enlarging life, and at last +the life of humanity, which has no fixed form, no ever-valid code; but +is itself the true life, surpassing definition, yet inspiring all +actions and passions, all codes and forms, and determining at last their +place. + +It is the gradual growth of this supreme life in each individual which +is the great and indeed the only hope of Society--it is that for which +Society exists: a life which so far from dwarfing individuality enhances +immensely its power, causing the individual to move with the weight of +the universe behind him--and exalting what were once his little +peculiarities and defects into the splendid manifestations of his +humanity. + +To return then for a moment to the practical bearing of this on the +question before us, we see that so soon as we have abandoned all codes +of morals there remains nothing for us but to put _all_ our qualities +and defects to human use, and to redeem them by so doing. Our defects +are our entrances into life, and the gateway of all our dealings with +others. Think what it is to be plain and _homely_. The very word +suggests an endearment, and a liberty of access denied to the +faultlessly handsome. Our very evil passions, so called, are not things +to be ashamed of, but things to look straight in the face and to see +what they are good for--for a use can be found for them, that is +certain. The man should see that he is worthy of his passion, as the +mountain should rear its crest conformable to the height of the +precipice which bounds it. Is it women? let him see that he is a +magnanimous lover. Is it ambition? let him take care that it be a grand +one. Is it laziness? let it redeem him from the folly of unrest, to +become heaven-reflecting, like a lake among the hills. Is it +closefistedness? let it become the nurse of a true economy. + +The more complicated, pronounced, or awkward the defect is the finer +will be the result when it has been thoroughly worked up. Love of +approbation is difficult to deal with. Through sloughs of duplicity, of +concealment, of vanity, it leads its victim. It sucks his sturdy +self-life, and leaves him flattened and bloodless. Yet once mastered, +once fairly torn out, cudgeled, and left bleeding on the road (for this +probably has to be done with every vice or virtue some time or other), +it will rise up and follow you, carrying a magic key round its neck, +meek and serviceable now, instead of dangerous and demoniac as before. + +Deceit is difficult to deal with. In some sense it is the worst fault +that can be. It seems to disorganise and ultimately to destroy the +character. Yet I am bold to say that this defect has its uses. Severely +examined perhaps it will be found that no one can live a day free from +it. And beyond that--is not "a noble dissimulation" part and parcel of +the very greatest characters: like Socrates, "the white soul in a satyr +form"? When the divine has descended among men has it not always, like +Moses, worn a veil before its face? and what is Nature herself but one +long and organised system of deception? + +Veracity has an opposite effect. It knits all the elements of a man's +character--rendering him solid rather than fluid; yet carried out too +literally and pragmatically it condenses and solidifies the character +overmuch, making the man woodeny and angular. And even of that essential +Truth (truth to the inward and ideal perfection) which more than +anything else perhaps _constitutes_ a man--it is to be remembered that +even here there must be a limitation. No man can in act or externally be +quite true to the ideal--though in spirit he may be. If he is to live in +this world and be mortal, it must be by virtue of some partiality, some +defect. + +And so again--since there is an analogy between the Individual and +Society--may we not conclude that as the individual has ultimately to +recognise his so-called evil passions and find a place and a use for +them, society also has to recognise its so-called criminals and discern +their place and use? The artist does not omit shadows from his canvas; +and the wise statesman will not try to abolish the criminal from +society--lest haply he be found to have abolished the driving force from +his social machine.[37] + +From what has now been said it is quite clear that in general we call a +man a criminal, not because he violates any eternal code of +morality--for there exists no such thing--but because he violates the +ruling code of his time, and this depends largely on the ideal of the +time. The Spartans appear to have permitted theft because they thought +that thieving habits in the community fostered military dexterity and +discouraged the accumulation of private wealth. They looked upon the +latter as a great evil. But to-day the accumulation of private wealth is +our great good and the thief is looked upon as the evil. When however we +find, as the historians of to-day teach us, that society is now probably +passing through a parenthetical stage of private property from a stage +of communism in the past to a stage of more highly developed communism +in the future, it becomes clear that the thief (and the poacher +before-mentioned) is that person who is protesting against the +too-exclusive domination of a passing ideal. Whatever should we do +without him? He is keeping open for us, as Hinton I think expresses it, +the path to a regenerate society, and is more useful to that end than +many a platform orator. He it is that makes Care to sit upon the Crupper +of Wealth, and so, in course of time, causes the burden and bother of +private property to become so intolerable that society gladly casts it +down on common ground. Vast as is the machinery of Law, and multifarious +the ways in which it seeks to crush the thief, it has signally failed, +and fails ever more and more. The thief will win. He will get what he +wants, but (as usual in human life!) in a way and in a form very +different from what he expected. + +And when we regard the thief in himself, we cannot say that we find him +less human than other classes of society. The sentiment of large bodies +of thieves is highly communistic among themselves; and if they thus +represent a survival from an earlier age, they might also be looked upon +as the precursors of a better age in the future. They have their pals in +every town, with runs and refuges always open, and are lavish and +generous to a degree to their own kind. And if they look upon the rich +as their natural enemies and fair prey, a view which it might be +difficult to gainsay, many of them at any rate are animated by a good +deal of the Robin Hood spirit, and are really helpful to the poor. + +I need not I think quote that famous passage from Lecky in which he +shows how the prostitute, through centuries of suffering and ill-fame, +has borne the curse and contempt of Society in order that her more +fortunate sister might rejoice in the achievement of a pure marriage. +The ideal of a monogamic union has been established in a sense directly +by the slur cast upon the free woman. If, however, as many people think, +a certain latitude in sexual relations is not only admissible but, in +the long run, and within bounds, desirable, it becomes clear that the +prostitute is that person who against heavy odds, and at the cost of a +real degradation to herself, has clung to a tradition which, in itself +good, might otherwise have perished in the face of our devotion to the +splendid ideal of the exclusive marriage. There has been a time in +history when the prostitute (if the word can properly be used in this +connection) has been glorified, consecrated to the temple-service and +honoured of men and gods (the hierodouloi of the Greeks, the kodeshoth +and kodeshim of the Bible, etc.) There has also been a time when she has +been scouted and reviled. In the future there will come a time when, as +free companion, really free from the curse of modern commercialism, and +sacred and respected once more, she will again be accepted by society +and take her place with the rest. + +And so with other cases. On looking back into history we find that +almost every human impulse has at some age been held in esteem and +allowed full play; thus man came to recognise its beauty and value. But +then, lest it should come (as it surely would) to tyrannise over the +rest, it has been dethroned, and so in a later age the same quality is +scouted and banned. Last of all it has to find its perfect human use and +to take its place with the rest. Up to the age of Civilisation +(according to writers on primitive Society) the early tribes of mankind, +though limited each in their habits, were essentially democratical in +structure. In fact, nothing had occurred to make them otherwise. Each +member stood on a footing of equality with the rest; individual men had +not in their hands an arbitrary power over others; and the tribal life +and standard ruled supreme. And when, in the future and on a much higher +plane, the true Democracy comes, this equality which has so long been in +abeyance will be restored, not only among men but also, in a sense, +among all the passions and qualities of manhood: none will be allowed to +tyrannise over others, but all will have to be subject to the supreme +life of humanity. The chariot of Man instead of two horses will have a +thousand; but they will all be under control of the charioteer. +Meanwhile it may not be extravagant to suppose that all through the +Civilisation-period the so-called criminals are keeping open the +possibility of a return to this state of society. They are preserving, +in a rough and unattractive husk it may be, the precious seed of a life +which is to come in the future; and are as necessary and integral a part +of society in the long run as the most respected and most honoured of +its members at present. + +The upshot then of it all is that "morals" as a permanent code of action +have to be discarded. There exists no such permanent code. One age, one +race, one class, one family, may have a code which the users of it +consider valid, but only they consider it valid, and then only for a +time. The Decalogue may have been a rough and useful ready-reckoner for +the Israelites; but to us it admits of so many exceptions and +interpretations that it is practically worthless. "Thou shalt not +steal." Exactly; but who is to decide, as we saw at the outset, in what +"stealing" consists? The question is too complicated to admit of an +answer. And when we _have_ caught our half-starved tramp "sneaking" a +loaf, and are ready to condemn him, lo! Lycurgus pats him on the back, +and the modern philosopher tells him that he is keeping open the path to +a regenerate society! If the tramp had also been a philosopher, he would +perhaps have done the same act not merely for his own benefit but for +that of society, he would have committed a crime in order to save +mankind. + +There is nothing left but Humanity. Since there is no ever-valid code of +morals we must sadly confess that there is no means of proving ourselves +right and our neighbours wrong. In fact the very act of thinking +whether _we_ are right (which implies a sundering of ourselves, even in +thought, from others) itself introduces the element of wrongness; and if +we are ever to _be_ "right" at all, it must be at some moment when we +fail to notice it--when we have forgotten our apartness from others and +have entered into the great region of human equality. Equality--in that +region all human defects are redeemed; they all find their place. To +love your neighbour _as_ yourself is the whole law and the prophets; to +feel that you are "equal" with others, that their lives are as your +life, that your life is as theirs--even in what trifling degree we may +experience such things--is to enter into another life which includes +both sides; it is to pass beyond the sphere of moral distinctions, and +to trouble oneself no more with them. Between lovers there are no duties +and no rights; and in the life of humanity, there is only an instinctive +mutual service expressing itself in whatever way may be best at the +time. Nothing is forbidden, there is nothing which may not serve. The +law of Equality is perfectly flexible, is adaptable to all times and +places, finds a place for all the elements of character, justifies and +redeems them all without exception; and to live by it is perfect +freedom. Yet not a law: but rather as said, a new life, transcending the +individual life, working through it from within, lifting the self into +another sphere, beyond corruption, far over the world of Sorrow. + +The effort to make a distinction between acting for self and acting for +one's neighbor is the basis of "morals." As long as a man feels an +ultimate antagonism between himself and society, as long as he tries to +hold his own life as a thing apart from that of others, so long must the +question arise whether he will act for self _or_ for those others. Hence +flow a long array of terms--distinctions of right and wrong, duty, +selfishness, self-renunciation, altruism, etc. But when he discovers +that there is no ultimate antagonism between himself and society; when +he finds that the gratification of every desire which he has or can have +may be rendered social, or beneficial to his fellows, by being used at +the right time and place, and on the other hand that every demand made +upon him by society will and must gratify some portion of his nature, +some desire of his heart--why, all the distinctions collapse again; they +do not hold water any more. A larger life descends upon him, which +includes both sides, and prompts actions in accordance with an unwritten +and unimagined law. Such actions will sometimes be accounted "selfish" +by the world; sometimes they will be accounted "unselfish"; but they are +neither, or--if you like--both; and he who does them concerns himself +not with the names that may be given to them. The law of Equality +includes all the moral codes, and is the standpoint which they cannot +reach, but which they all aim at. + +Judged by this final standard then, it may doubtless fairly be +said--since we all fall short of it--that we are all criminals, and +deserve a good hiding; and even that some of us are greater criminals +than others. Only of this real criminality the actual moral and legal +codes afford but ineffectual tests. I may be a far worse or more +self-included ("idiotic" or brutal) man than you, but the mere fact that +I have violated the laws and been clapped into prison does not prove it. +There may be, probably is, a real and eternal difference represented by +the words Right and Wrong, but no statement that we can make will ever +quite avail to define it. One use, however, of all these laws and codes +in the past, imperfect though they were, may have been to gradually +excite the consciousness in the individual of his opposition to society, +and so prepare the way for a true reconcilement. As Paul says, "I had +not known sin, but by the law," and, if we had not been cudgeled and +bruised for centuries by this rough bludgeon of social convention, we +should not now be so sensitive as we are to the effect of our actions +upon our neighbours, nor so ready for a social life in the future which +shall be superior to law. + +Of course, the ultimate reconcilement of the individual with society--of +the unit Man with the mass-Man--involves the subordination of the +desires, their subjection to the true self. And this is a most important +point. It is no easy lapse that is here suggested, from morality into a +mere jungle of human passion, but a toilsome and long ascent--involving +for a time at any rate a determined self-control--into ascendancy over +the passions; it involves the complete mastery, one by one, of them all, +and the recognition and allowance of them only because they are +mastered. And it is just this training and subjection of the +passions--as of winged horses which are to draw the human chariot--which +necessarily forms such a long and painful process of human evolution. +The old moral codes are a part of this process; but they go on the plan +of extinguishing some of the passions--seeing that it is sometimes +easier to shoot a restive horse than to ride him. We however do not want +to be lords of dead carrion, but of living powers; and every steed that +we can add to our chariot makes our progress through creation so much +the more splendid, providing Phoebus indeed hold the reins, and not the +incapable Phaeton. + +And by becoming thus one with the social self, the individual, instead +of being crushed, is made far vaster, far grander than before. The +renunciation (if it must be so called) which he has to accept in +abandoning merely individual ends is immediately compensated by the far +more vivid life he now enters into. For every force of his nature can +now be utilised. Planting himself out by contrast he stands all the +firmer because he has a left foot as well as a right, and when he acts, +he acts not half-heartedly as one afraid, but, as it were, with the +whole weight of Humanity behind him. In abandoning his exclusive +individuality he becomes for the first time a real and living +individual; and in accepting as his own the life of others he becomes +aware of a life in himself that has no limit and no end. That the self +of any one man is capable of an infinite gradation from the most petty +and exclusive existence to the most magnificent and inclusive seems +almost a truism. The one extreme is disease and death, the other is life +everlasting. When the tongue for example--which is a member of the +body--regards itself as a purely separate existence for itself alone, it +makes a mistake, it suffers an illusion, and descends into its pettiest +life. What is the consequence? Thinking that it exists apart from the +other members, it selects food just such as shall gratify its most local +self, it endeavours just to titillate its own sense of taste; and living +and acting thus, ere long it ruins that very sense of taste, poisons the +system with improper food, and brings about disease and death. Yet, if +healthy, how does the tongue act? Why, it does not run counter to its +own sense of taste, or stultify itself. It does not talk about +sacrificing its own inclinations for the good of the body and the other +members; but it just acts as being one in interest with them and they +with it. For the tongue _is_ a muscle, and therefore what feeds it feeds +all the other muscles; and the membrane of the tongue _is_ a +prolongation of the membrane of the stomach, and that is how the tongue +knows what the stomach will like; and the tongue _is_ nerves and blood, +and so the tongue may act for nerves and blood all over the body, and so +on. Therefore the tongue may enter into a wider life than that +represented by the mere local sense of taste, and experiences more +pleasure often in the drinking of a glass of water which the whole body +wants, than in the daintiest sweetmeat which is for itself alone. + +Exactly so man in a healthy state does not act for himself alone, +practically cannot do so. Nor does he talk cant about "serving his +neighbors," etc. But he simply acts for them as well as for himself, +because they are part and parcel of his life--bone of his bone and flesh +of his flesh; and in doing so he enters into a wider life, finds a more +perfect pleasure, and becomes more really a man than ever before. Every +man contains in himself the elements of all the rest of humanity. They +lie in the background; but they are there. In the front he has his own +special faculty developed--his individual façade, with its projects, +plans and purposes: but behind sleeps the Demos-life with far vaster +projects and purposes. Some time or other to every man must come the +consciousness of this vaster life. + +The true Democracy, wherein this larger life will rule society from +within--obviating the need of an external government--and in which all +characters and qualities will be recognised and have their freedom, +waits (a hidden but necessary result of evolution) in the constitution +of human nature itself. In the pre-Civilisation period these vexed +questions of "morals" practically did not exist; simply because in that +period the individual was one with his tribe and moved (unconsciously) +by the larger life of his tribe. And in the post-Civilisation period, +when the true Democracy is realised, they will not exist, because then +the man will know himself a part of humanity at large, and will be +consciously moved by forces belonging to these vaster regions of his +being. The moral codes and questionings belong to Civilisation, they are +part of the forward effort, the struggle, the suffering, and the +temporary alienation from true life, which that term implies.[38] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[34] Yet there is no doubt that lasting and passionate love may exist +between two persons thus nearly related. The danger to the health of the +offspring from occasional in-breeding of the kind appears to arise +chiefly from the accentuation of infirmities common to the two parents. +In a state of society free from the diseases of the civilisation-period, +such a danger would be greatly reduced. + +[35] Modern writers fixing their regard on the physical side of this +love (necessary no doubt here, as elsewhere, to define and corroborate +the spiritual) have entered their protest as against the mere obscenity +into which the thing fell--for instance in the days of Martial--but have +missed the profound significance of the heroic attachment itself. It is, +however, with the ideals that we are just now concerned and not with +their disintegration. + +[36] In the _later_ Egyptian centuries vivisection apparently became an +approved practice. + +[37] The derivation of the word "wicked" seems uncertain. May it be +suggested that it is connected with "wick" or "quick," meaning _alive_? + +[38] For further on the same subject see the last chapter, _infra_, on +"The New Morality." + + + + +EXFOLIATION + + "Creation's incessant unrest, exfoliation." + WHITMAN. + + +I think it may perhaps be agreed, once for all, that the human mind is +incapable of really defining even the smallest fact of nature. The +simplest thing, or event, baffles us at the last. It is like trying to +look at the front and back of a mirror at the same time. The utmost +squinting avails not. The ego and the non-ego dance eluding through +creation. To catch them both in any mortal object and pin them there, +surpasses our powers. And yet they are there. Montaigne quotes somewhere +the words of S. Augustine: _Modus quo corporibus adhaerent spiritus ... +omnino mirus est, nec comprehendi ab homine potest; et hoc ipse homo +est_. "The manner whereby spirits adhere to bodies is altogether +wonderful, and cannot be conceived of by men; and yet this _is_ man." +Man himself contains, or rather is, the reconcilement of this and +numberless other contradictions. We actually every day perform and +exhibit miracles which the mental part of us is utterly powerless to +grapple with. Yet the solution, the intelligent solution and +understanding of them _is_ in us; only it involves a higher order of +consciousness than we usually deal with--a consciousness possibly which +includes and transcends the ego and the non-ego, and so can envisage +both at the same time and equally--a fourth-dimensional consciousness to +whose gaze the interiors of solid bodies are exposed like mere +surfaces--a consciousness to whose perception some usual antitheses like +cause and effect, matter and spirit, past and future, simply do not +exist. I say these higher orders of consciousness are in us waiting for +their evolution; and, until they evolve, we are powerless really to +understand anything of the world around us. + +Meanwhile, since we _must_ have formulæ and generalisations to think by, +we are fain to accept our local views, and look on the world from this +side or from that. Sometimes we are idealists, sometimes we are +materialists; sometimes we believe in mechanics, sometimes in human or +spiritual forces. The science of the last fifty years has, as pointed +out in a preceding paper, looked at things more from the mechanical than +the distinctively human side--from the point of view of the non-ego, +rather than of the ego. Reacting from an extreme tendency towards a +subjective view of phenomena, which characterised the older +speculations, and fearing to be swayed by a kind of partiality towards +himself, the modern scientist has endeavoured to remove the human and +conscious element from his observations of Nature. And he has done +valuable work in this way--but of course has been betrayed into a +corresponding narrowness. + +In fact the main scientific doctrine of the day, Evolution, is obviously +suffering from this treatment, and the following remarks are merely a +few notes by way of suggestion of some things which may be said on its +more specially human side. For since each man is a part of nature, and +in that sense a part also of the evolution-process, his own subjective +experience ought at least to throw some light on the conditions under +which evolution takes place, and to contribute something towards an +understanding of the problem. + +If the question is: What is the cause of Variation among animals? some +approximation towards an answer ought to be got by each person asking +himself, "Why do I vary?" Why--he might say--am I a different person +from what I was ten years ago, or when I was a boy? Why have I varied in +one direction and my brothers and sisters from the same nest in other +directions? Though my individual consciousness only covers the small +ground of my own life, and does not extend back to that of my father or +forward to that of my son, still the intimate knowledge that I have of +the forces acting on me during that short period may help me to an +understanding of the forces that bring about the modification of men and +animals at large, and the discovery of some laws of my own growth may +reveal to me the laws of race-growth. + +In answer to such a question, it would speedily appear that there were +two general causes determining direction of change or growth in the +individual, which might be conveniently distinguished from each +other--an external and an internal. In the first place the supposed +person might say, "External conditions forced me along these lines. My +father was a town artisan, but he apprenticed me to a farmer. I grew up +a farmer's boy, and became an agricultural type as you see. I did not +particularly care for farming, sometimes indeed I would have been glad +to be out of it; but practically I succumbed to circumstances, and here +I am." But in the second place he might answer thus:--"My father was +himself a farmer; I was early used to the craft, and should no doubt +have grown up in it, had I not hated it like poison. I loved music, +broke away from home, joined a band, got on the musical staff of a small +theatre, and am now a professional musician. My frame is comparatively +slight, and my hands are of the nervous type, as you see. Of course, I +have some of the old agricultural stock left in me, but I feel that that +is dying out." The one cause would be a change of external conditions, +forcing the man to accommodate himself to them; the other would be a +change of internal conditions, an inward growth, expressing itself first +in the form of an intense desire, and compelling the man to change +himself and probably also his environment in obedience to it. Two such +general sets of causes, I say, could be roughly distinguished from each +other; and probably indeed are recognised less or more distinctly by +everyone as acting to modify his life. Nor can the life of a man at any +time be said to be ruled by one of these forces alone. No man is +modified by external conditions alone, without any play or reaction of +inner needs and desires and growth from within; nor is any man +transformed in obedience to an inner expansion without sundry lets and +hindrances from without. The two forces are in constant play upon one +another; but in some ways that would appear to be the more important +which proceeds from the Man (or creature) himself, since this is +obviously vital and organic to him, and therefore the most consistent +and reliable factor in his modification, while the external +force--arising from various and remote causes--must rather be regarded +as discontinuous and accidental. + +I propose, therefore, in these few pages to consider especially this +inner force producing modification in man and animals--to try and find +out of what nature it is, what is the law, and what are the limits of +its action--premising always, as already suggested, that this +distinction between "inner" and "outer," which is convenient and easy to +handle on certain planes of thought, may ultimately, and in the last +resort, prove very difficult or even impossible to maintain. + +It is often said by Biologists that _function precedes +organisation_--that is, man fights with his fellows before he makes +weapons to fight with; the rudimentary animal digests food (as in the +case of the amoeba) before it acquires a stomach or organ of digestion; +it sees or is sensitive to light before it grows an eye; in society +letters are carried by private hands before an organised postal system +is created. Such facts properly considered are of vital importance. They +show us, as it were by a sign-post, the direction of creation. They show +how any new thing or modification of an old thing may come into being. +They may be supplemented by a second statement--namely that _desire +precedes function_. That is, man desires to injure his fellow before he +actually fights with him; he experiences the wish to communicate with +distant friends before ever he thinks of sending such a thing as a +letter; the amoeba craves for food first, and circumvents its prey +afterwards. Desire, or inward change, comes first, action follows, and +organisation or outward structure is the result. + +In man this "order of creation," if it may so be called, _i.e._, from +within outwards, is very marked. Whenever a man creates anything new he +pursues it; when he builds a house, for instance, or composes a poem or +piece of music, or designs an Alpine tunnel, or whatever it may be. The +order seems to be: first, a feeling--a dim want or desire; then the +feeling becomes conscious of itself, takes shape in thought; the thought +becomes more defined and issues in a distinct plan; the plan is +committed to paper, models are made, etc.; and finally the actual work +is begun and completed. The process appears as a movement from within +outwards--the earliest and most authentic discernible source of the +movement being a feeling--(though there may lie something behind that). +Even in ordinary action the same order is manifest; for, though of +course _every_ action is not preceded by desire--since we know that +actions soon become habitual and more or less unconscious--still a vast +number of them are immediately so preceded; and in the case of any +action that is _new_, either to the individual or to the race, its +inception is generally accompanied by effort so painful that it would +not be exerted unless the desire were very strong. The difficulty which +a man experiences in learning any new art, and the records of the many +failures, struggles, oppositions, persecutions, etc., which have +attended every new invention or innovation of any kind in human history, +afford plenty of evidence of this last point. Certainly the effort that +accompanies a new action is not always faced so much from sheer desire +of the new thing itself as from fear perhaps of something else--as it +may be contended that monkeys did not take to climbing trees because +they loved trees, but because they feared the beasts below, or that the +giraffe did not stretch its neck because it particularly desired to feed +on leaves, as because it could not get food any other way--but still, +even in these cases the desire may be said to exist, though it is +secondary--being founded upon another and more elementary desire--the +desire namely of escaping pain or obtaining food. In either case a +desire of some kind is a precedent condition of the new action. And so +as we know of no case of a new action coming into play without being +preceded by desire, we seem to be justified in supposing that all our +actions when they were first initiated (in our forefathers, if not in +ourselves) were so preceded. If this is so, then, since function is +always preceded by desire, and organisation is preceded by function, +organisation must necessarily be preceded by desire. And if this is the +order of creation in man, should we not reasonably look in this +direction for the key to the variation of animals and the order of +creation in general?[39] + +If a farmer's son is occasionally born who hates farming and loves +music, and who ultimately through the force of his desire (driving him +into oppositions and difficulties and penurious struggles) transforms +himself into a musician, is it not also likely that occasionally an +animal is born who hates the customs of his tribe, and at last (also +through struggles) transforms himself into something else? Even if he +does not succeed (the animal) in entirely transforming himself, he +likely transmits the desire in some degree to his descendants, and the +transformation is thus carried on and completed later. For everywhere +among the animals there _is_ desire, of some kind or another, obviously +acting; and if in man, by our own experience, desire is the precursor +and first expression of growth, is there any reason why it should not +also be so among animals? Lamarck gives the instance--among others--of a +gasteropod; how the need or desire of touching bodies in front of it as +it crawled along would result in the formation of tentacles. The +gasteropod, he says, would keep making efforts to feel with the front of +its head, and the determination of consciousness that way would be +accompanied by a supply of nervous and other fluids, which would nourish +the part and cause growth there--the _form_ of the growth continuing in +the same way to be determined by need--till at last two or more +tentacles would appear. True, the inward determinations of consciousness +may not be so vivid and varied in animals as they are in men; but they +are persistent, and by the very cumulative force of habit which is so +strong in animals, must at length penetrate down through function into +organisation and external form. Who shall say that the lark, by the mere +love of soaring and singing in the face of the sun, has not altered the +shape of its wings, or that the forms of the shark or of the gazelle are +not the long-stored results of character leaning always in certain +directions, as much as the forms of the miser or the libertine are among +men? + +Such modification as this is very different from the "survival of the +fittest" of the Darwinian evolution theory. We may fairly suppose that +both kinds of modification take place; but the latter is a sort of easy +success won by an external accident of birth--a success of the kind that +would readily be lost again; while the former is the uphill fight of a +nature that has grown inwardly and wins expression for itself in spite +of external obstacles--an expression which therefore is likely to be +permanent. If the progenitors of man took to going upright on two legs +instead of on all fours, merely because a few of them by _chance_ were +born with a talent for that position, which enabled them to escape the +fanged and pursuing beasts, then when this danger was removed they might +have plumped down again into the old attitude; but if the change was +part and parcel of a true evolution, the fulfilment of a positive desire +for the upright position, a true _unfolding_ of a higher form latent +within--an organic growth of the creature itself, then, though the +moment of the evolution of this particular faculty might be determined +by the fanged beasts, the fact of such evolution could not be determined +by them. Besides, are we to suppose that Man, the lord and ruler of the +animals, came merely by way of _escape_ from the animals? Do lords and +rulers generally come so? Was it fear that made him a man? Were it not +likelier that in that case he would have turned into a worm? He would +have escaped better perhaps that way. Is it not rather probable that it +was some nobler power that worked transforming--some dim desire and +prevision of a more perfect form, the desire itself being the first +consciousness of the urge of growth in that direction--that prompted him +to push in the one direction rather than the other when he had to hold +his own against the tigers? In fact is it not thus to-day, when a man +has to meet danger, that the ideal which he has within him determines +_how_ he shall meet that danger, and others like it, and so ultimately +determines the whole attitude and carriage of his body? + +On the whole then, judging from man himself (and it seems most cautious +and scientific to derive our main evidence from the being that we are +best acquainted with), it certainly seems to me that, though the +external conditions are a very important factor in Variation, the +central explanation of this phenomenon should be sought in an inner law +of Growth--a law of expansion more or less common to all animate nature. +Partly because, as said before, the unfolding of the creature from its +own needs and inward nature is an organic process, and likely to be +persistent, while its modification by external causes must be more or +less fortuitous and accidental and sometimes in one direction and +sometimes in another; partly also because the movement from within +outwards seems to be most like the law of creation in general. Under +this view the external conditions would be considered a +secondary--though important cause of modification; and regarded rather +as the influences that give form and detail to the great primal impulse +of growth from within; while the creature's own ingenuity and good luck +would occupy the ground between the two--as the means whereby the +external conditions in each individual case would be turned to account +to satisfy the inner needs, or the inner life would be accommodated to +the external conditions. + +If we take the external view of Variation--which is the one most +favoured by modern science--modification or race-growth appears as an +unconscious or accretive process, similar to the formation of a coral +reef. There is no line of growth native in the race itself, but at any +moment it is supposed to have an equal tendency to vary in any +direction. Surrounding conditions act selectively; and by a process of +weeding out certain types survive; small successive modifications are +thus accumulated; and gradually and in the lapse of ages a more pliable +and differentiated creature, and more adaptable to a variety of +conditions, is produced--in whom however mind is incidental, and has +played but small part in the creature's evolution. This in the main is +the Darwinian-evolution theory. + +If we take the internal view, growth is from the first eminently +conscious. Every change begins in the mental region--is felt first as a +desire gradually taking form into thought, passes down into the bodily +region, expresses itself in action (more or less dependent on +conditions), and finally solidifies itself in organisation and +structure. The process is not accretive, but exfoliatory--a continual +movement from within outwards. When the desire or mental condition, +which at first was painfully conscious, has overcome opposition and +established itself in altered bodily structure, it has done its work, +and becomes unconscious--the bodily function continuing for a long +period to act automatically, till finally it is thrown off to make room +for some later development. Thus race-growth or Variation is a process +by which change begins in the mental region, passes into the bodily +region where it becomes organised, and finally is thrown off like a +husk. This may be called the theory of Exfoliation. + +To illustrate our meaning. Let us take the development of an eye. In the +amoeba there is a dim pervasive sensitiveness to light over the whole +body, but there is no eye, nothing that we should call vision. Still +this vague sensitiveness is of use to the amoeba. The shadow of its prey +falling upon the creature and exciting a sensation hardly yet +differentiated from touch helps to guide its movements. On this dim +sensation it relies to some extent; its attention is directed towards +it. Gradually, and in some descendant form, there comes to be a point on +the body on which this attention is most specially concentrated. The +faculty is localised; and from that moment a change is effected there, a +differentiation and a special structure; everything that favours +sensitiveness is encouraged at that place, everything that dulls it is +removed; and before long--there is a rudimentary eye. To-day we use our +perfected eyes, and are hardly conscious that we are doing so; but every +power of vision that we have was thus won for us by some lowlier +creature, step by step, with effort and with concentration. Or to take +an illustration from society. To-day society is ill at ease; a dim +feeling of discontent pervades all ranks and classes. A new sense of +justice, of fraternity, has descended among us, which is not satisfied +with mere chatter of demand and supply. For a long time this new +sentiment or desire remains vague and unformed, but at last it resolves +itself into shape; it takes intellectual form, books are written, plans +formed; then after a time definite new organisations, for the distinct +purpose of expressing these ideas, begin to exist in the body of the old +society; and before so very long the whole outer structure of society +will have been reorganised by them. After a few centuries the ideas for +whose realisation we now fight and struggle with an intense +consciousness will have become commonplace, accepted institutions, more +or less effete and ready to succumb before fresh mental births taking +place from within. + +The modern evolution theory would maintain that among many amoebas and +descendant forms, one would at last by chance be born having the usual +sensitiveness localised in a particular spot, and, surviving by force of +this advantage, would transmit this "eye" to its posterity; or that in +the progress of society, new economic conditions having arisen, that +people would prosper best which most effectually and rapidly adapted +itself to them. But though there is doubtless truth in this view, yet it +seems, when all has been said, to be inadequate and even feeble; it +omits at least one half of the problem. If we look at ourselves, as +already pointed out, we see the two forces--the inner and the +outer--acting and re-acting on each other. May it not be so in animals? +Lamarck, poorly off, blind, derided, was a true poet. "Animals vary from +low and primitive types chiefly by dint of wishing"--and the world +laughed and still laughs. But it was his deep sympathy even with the +worms and insects (which he studied till he could discern them with his +mortal eyes no longer) that led Lamarck to see the human nature and the +human laws that moved within them; and as his outward sight grew dim +there arose before him the inward vision of the true relationship which +binds together all living creatures--which was indeed a vision of divine +things, and as different from the mere mechanism-theory of the survival +of the fittest as the sight of the starry heavens is different from a +governess's lesson on the use of the globes. + +On the theory of Exfoliation, which was practically Lamarck's theory, +there is a force at work throughout creation, ever urging each type +onward into new and newer forms. This force appears first in +consciousness in the form of _desire_. Within each shape of life sleep +needs and wants without number, from the lowest and simplest to the +most complex and ideal. As each new desire or ideal is evolved, it +brings the creature into conflict with its surroundings, then gaining +its satisfaction externalises itself in the structure of the creature, +and leaves the way open for the birth of a new ideal. If then we would +find a key to the understanding of the expansion and growth of all +animate creation, such a key may exist in the nature of desire itself +and the comprehension of its real meaning. It is not certain that it can +be found here; but it may be. + +What then is desire in Man? Here we come back again, as suggested at the +outset, to Man himself. Though we see pretty clearly that desire is at +work in the animals, and that it is the same in kind as exists in man, +still, among the animals it is but dim and inchoate, while in man it is +developed and luminous; in ourselves, too, we know it immediately, while +in the animals only by inference. For both reasons, therefore, if we +want to know the nature of desire--even to know its nature among +animals--we should study it in Man. What then is this desire in Man, +which seems to be the instigation and origin of all his growth and +development? At first it seems a hydra-headed senseless thing without +rhyme or reason; but the more one regards it the more clearly one sees +that even in its lowest forms it is steadily building up and liberating +all the functions of the human being. In its most perfect form--as in +what we call Love--it is the sum and solution of human activities, that +in which they converge, for which they all exist, and without which +they would be considered useless. The more you look into this matter, +the plainer it becomes. The lesser desires--the self-preservation +desires--hunger, thirst, the desire of power--exist, but when they are +satisfied they empty themselves into this one; they find their +interpretation in it. The other desires are nothing by themselves--the +most absorbing, avarice, ambition, desire of knowledge, taken alone, +stultify themselves--but love perpetuates itself; it is a flame which +uses all the rest as its fuel. And this Love, which is the culmination +of desire, does it not appear to us as a worship of and desire for the +human form? In our bodies a desire for the bodily human form; in our +interior selves a perception and worship of an ideal human form, the +revelation of a Splendour dwelling in others, which--clouded and dimmed +as it inevitably may come to be--remains after all one of the most real, +perhaps the most real, of the facts of existence? Desire, therefore--as +it exists in man, look at it how you will--as it unfolds and its +ultimate aim becomes clearer and clearer to itself, is seen to be the +desire and longing for the deliverance and expression of the real human +Being. May it not, must it not, be the same thing in animals and all +through creation? Beginning in the most elementary and dim shapes, does +it not grow through all the stages of organic life clearer and more and +more powerful, till at last it attains to self-consciousness in humanity +and becomes avowedly the leading factor in our development? + +The desire which runs through creation is one desire. Rudimentary at +first and hardly conscious of itself, throwing out a tentacle here, a +foot there, developing an eye, a claw, a nostril, a wing, it seeks in +innumerable shapes and with ever partial success to realise the image it +has dimly conceived. The animal kingdom is the gymnasium, the school, +the antechamber, of humanity; to walk through a zoological garden is to +see the inchoate types of man, perched on branches, or browsing grass, +or boring holes in the ground; it is to witness a grand rehearsal of +some stupendous part, whose character we do not even yet fully see or +understand. From such half-conscious beginnings the desire grows, its +aim becomes clearer, till in the higher animals--the horse, the dog, the +elephant, the bird, and many others--it becomes a marked and +unmistakable force drawing them close to man, uniting them to him in a +kind of acknowledged kinship, and as obviously at work modifying their +structure as can be. Finally in man himself it becomes an absorbing +power; love becomes a conscious worship of the divine form; generation +itself is the means whereby, in time, the supreme object of desire is +realised. When at last the perfect Man appears, the key to all nature is +found, every creature falls into its place and finds its Interpreter, +and the purpose of creation is at last made manifest. + +The Theory of Exfoliation then differs from that very specialised form +of Evolution which has been adopted by modern science, in this +particular among others: that it fixes the attention on that which +appears last in order of Time, as the most important in order of +causation, rather than on that which appears first; and recalls to us +the fact that often in any succession of phenomena, that which is first +in order of precedence and importance is the last to be externalised. +Thus in the growth of a plant we find leaf after leaf appearing, petal +within petal--a continual exfoliation of husks, sepals, petals, stamens +and what-not; but the object of all this movement, and that which in a +sense sets it all in motion, namely the seed, is the very last thing of +all to be manifested. Or when a volcano breaks out--first of all we have +a cracking and upheaval of superficial layers of ground, then of layers +below these, then the outflow of lava, and _last of all_ the uprush of +the inner fires and forces which set it all agoing. What appears first +in time, or in the outer world is--in the case of the building of a +house, the making of bricks; in the case of the flower, the outermost +bracts; in the case of a volcano, the stirring of the surface of the +ground; and in the case of Life on the Earth, the appearance of +protoplasms and primordial cells. The bricks are not the cause of the +house (if indeed the word "cause" should be used here at all) but rather +the house--or the conception of the house--is the cause of the bricks; +and the cells are not the origin of Man, but Man is the original of the +cells. The rationale of sea-anemones and mud-fish and flying foxes and +elephants has to be looked for in man: he alone underlies them. And man +is not a vertebrate because his ancestors were vertebrate; but the +animals are vertebrate, because or in so far as they are forerunners and +offshoots of Man. + +It has been frequently said that great material changes are succeeded by +intellectual and finally by moral revolutions--as the conquests of +Alexander passed on into the literary expansion of the Alexandrian +schools and thence into the establishment of Christianity, or as the +mechanical developments of our own time have been followed by immense +literary and scientific activities, and are obviously passing over now +into a great social regeneration; but a reconsideration of the matter +might, I take it, lead us not so much to look on the later changes as +_caused_ by the earlier, as to look on the earlier as the indications +and first outward and visible signs of the coming of the later. When a +man feels in himself the upheaval of a new moral fact, he sees plainly +enough that that fact cannot come into the actual world all at once--not +without first a destruction of the existing order of society--such a +destruction as makes him feel satanic; then an intellectual revolution; +and lastly only, a new order embodying the new impulse. When this new +impulse has thoroughly materialised itself, then after a time will come +another inward birth, and similar changes will be passed through again. +So it might be said that the work of each age is not to build _on_ the +past, but to rise _out_ of the past and throw it off; only of course in +such matters where all forms of thought are inadequate it is hard to say +that one way of looking at the subject is truer than another. As before, +we should endeavour to look at the thing from different sides. + +We are obliged to use images to think by--_e.g._ the opening of a flower +or the accretive growth of a coral reef--and possibly it would save a +good deal of trouble if we did not disguise by long words the truth that +all our theories in science and philosophy are simply metaphors of this +kind--but the _fact_ still lies behind and below them. + +Perhaps, if we are to use the word Cause at all, we should do well to +use it in the old sense in which the _final_ cause and the _efficient_ +cause are one (the _eidos_ of Aristotle)--to use it not so much to link +phenomena or externals to _each other_ as to link each phenomenon in a +group to the thought or feeling which underlies that group. The notes in +the Dead March in Saul, for instance. We cannot say that one note is the +cause of another, but we might say that each note stands in a causal +subordination to the feeling which inspired the piece--which is the +_origin_ of the piece and the _result_ of its performance--the alpha and +omega of it. Similarly, the ground floor in a house is not the cause of +the first floor, nor the first floor of the second floor, nor that of +the roof; but these actualities and the whole house itself stand in +strict relationship to a mental something which is not in the same +plane with them at all, nor an actuality in the same sense. + +According to this view the notion that one configuration of atoms or +bodies determines the next configuration turns out to be illusive. Both +configurations are determined by a third something which does not belong +to quite the same order of existence as the said atoms or bodies. Chance +"laws" of succession may doubtless be found among physical events, and +are valuable for practical purposes, but at any moment--owing to their +superficiality--they may fail. Thus, an insect observing the expansion +of the petals of a chrysanthemum might frame a law of their order of +succession in size and colour, which would be valid for a time, but +would fail entirely when the stamens appeared. Or, to take another +illustration, physical science acts like a man trying to find direct +causal relations between the various leaves of a tree, without first +finding the relations of these to the branches and trunk--and so solving +the problem indirectly. It deals only with the _surface_ of the world of +Man. + +In thinking about such matters, Music, as Schopenhauer shows, is +wonderfully illustrative, because in creating music man recognises that +he is creating a world of his own--apart from and not to be confused +with that other world of Nature (in which he does not recognise any of +his handiwork). Supposing a non-musical person were to examine and +analyse the score of a Beethoven symphony, he would be in the same +position as a man examining and analysing Nature by purely scientific +or intellectual methods. He would discover the recurrence of certain +groups among the notes, he would establish laws of their sequences, +would make all kinds of curious generalisations about them, and point +out some remarkable exceptions, would even very likely be able to +predict a bar or two over the page; his treatise would be very learned, +and from a certain point of view interesting also, but how far would he +be from any real understanding of his subject? Let him change his +method: let him train his ear, let him hear the symphony performed, over +and over, till he understands its meaning and knows it by heart; and +then he will know at any rate something of why each note is there, he +will see its fitness and feel in himself the "law" of its occurrence, +and possibly in some new case will be able to predict several bars over +the page! The symphony is not understood by examination and comparison +of the notes alone, but by _experience_ of their relation to deepest +feelings; and Nature is not explained by laws, but by its becoming--or +rather being felt to be--the body of Man; marvellous interpreter and +symbol of his inward being. + +There is a kind of knowledge or consciousness in us--as of our bodily +parts, or affections, or deep-seated mental beliefs--which forms the +base of our more obvious and self-conscious thought. This systemic +knowledge grows even while the brain sleeps. It is not by any means +absolute or infallible, but it affords, at any moment in man's history, +the axiomatic ground on which his thought-structures, scientific and +other, are built. Thus the axioms of Euclid are part of our present +systemic knowledge, and afford the ground of all our geometry +structures. But as the systemic consciousness grows, the ground shifts +and the structures reared upon it fall. All our modern science, for +instance, is founded on the acceptation of mechanical cause and effect +as a basic fact of consciousness; but when that base gives way the +entire structure will cave in, and a new edifice will have to be reared. +Similarly, when the human form becomes distinctly visible to us in the +animals--as an unavoidable part of our consciousness--this consciousness +will form a new base or axiom for all our thought on the subject, and +the theory of evolution, as hitherto conceived by science, will be +entirely transformed. + +Thus, although the experimental investigatory coral-reef accretion +method of modern science is very valuable within its range, it must not +be forgotten that the human mind does not progress more than temporarily +by this method--that its progression is a matter of growth from within, +and involves a continual _breaking away of the bases_ of all +thought-structures; so that, while this latter--_i.e._, the progression +of the systemic consciousness of man--is necessary and continuous, the +rise and fall of his thought-systems is accidental, so to speak, and +discontinuous. + +It is then finally in Man--in our own deepest and most vital +experience--that we have to look for the key and explanation of the +changes that we see going on around us in external Nature, as we call +it; and our understanding of the latter, and of History, must ever +depend from point to point on the exfoliation of new facts in the +individual consciousness. Round the ultimate disclosure of the essential +Man all creation (hitherto groaning and travailing towards that perfect +birth) ranges itself, as it were, like some vast flower, in concentric +cycles; rank beyond rank; first all social life and history, then the +animal kingdom, then the vegetable and mineral worlds. And if the outer +circles have been the first in fact to show themselves, it is by this +last disclosure that light is ultimately thrown on the whole plan; and, +as in the myth of the Eden-garden, with the appearance of the perfected +human form that the work of creation definitely completes itself. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[39] This does not, of course, preclude the action of external +conditions, or imply that organisation is determined by desire _alone_. +In fact organisation may be regarded as the expression of desire acting +under conditions--as in the cases of the monkey and giraffe above. + + + + +CUSTOM + +"Whatever is off the hinges of custom is believed to be also off the +hinges of reason; though how unreasonably, for the most part, God +knows."--MONTAIGNE. + + +Every human being grows up inside a sheath of custom, which enfolds it +as the swathing clothes enfold the infant. The sacred customs of its +early home, how fixed and immutable they appear to the child! It surely +thinks that all the world in all times has proceeded on the same lines +which bound its tiny life. It regards a breach of these rules (some of +them at least) as a wild step in the dark, leading to unknown dangers. + +Nevertheless its mental eyes have hardly opened ere it perceives, not +without a shock, that whereas in the family dining-room the meat always +precedes the pudding, below-stairs and in the cottage the pudding has a +way of coming before the meat; that, whereas its father puts the manure +on the top of his seed-potatoes in spring, his neighbor invariably +places his potatoes on top of the manure. All its confidence in the +sanctity of its home life and the truth of things is upset. Surely +there must be a right and a wrong way of eating one's dinner or of +setting potatoes, and surely, if any one, "father" or "mother" must know +what is right. The elders have always said (and indeed it seems only +reasonable) that by this time of day everything has been so thoroughly +worked over that the best methods of ordering our life--food, dress, +domestic practices, social habits, etc., have long ago been determined. +If so, why these divergencies in the simplest and most obvious matters? + +And then other things give way. The sacred seeming-universal customs in +which we were bred turn out to be only the practices of a small and +narrow class or caste; or they prove to be confined to a very limited +locality, and must be left behind when we set out on our travels; or +they belong to the tenets of a feeble religious sect; or they are just +the products of one age in history and no other. And the question forces +itself upon us, Are there really no natural boundaries? has not our life +anywhere been founded on reason and necessity, but only on arbitrary +habit? What is more important than food, yet in what human matter is +there more unaccountable divergence of practice? The Highlander +flourishes on oatmeal, which the Sheffield ironworker would rather +starve than eat; the fat snail which the Roman country gentleman once so +prized now crawls unmolested in the Gloucestershire peasant's garden; +rabbits are taboo in Germany; frogs are unspeakable in England; +sauer-kraut is detested in France; many races and gangs of people are +quite certain they would die if deprived of meat, others think spirits +of some kind a necessity, while to others again both these things are an +abomination. Every country district has its local practices in food, and +the peasants look with the greatest suspicion on any new dish, and can +rarely be induced to adopt it. Though it has been abundantly proved that +many of the British fungi are excellent eating, such is the force of +custom that the mushroom alone is ever publicly recognised, while +curiously enough it is said that in some other countries where the +claims of other agarics are allowed the mushroom itself is not used! +Finally, I feel myself (and the gentle reader probably feels the same) +that I would rather die than subsist on _insects_, such is the +deep-seated disgust we experience towards this class of food. Yet it is +notorious that many races of respectable people adopt a diet of this +sort, and only lately a book has been published giving details of the +excellent provender of the kind that we habitually overlook--tasty +morsels of caterpillars and beetles, and so forth! And indeed, when one +comes to think of it, what can it be but prejudice which causes one to +eat the periwinkle and reject the land-snail, or to prize the lively +prawn and proscribe the cheerful grasshopper? + +It is useless to say that these local and other divergencies are rooted +in the necessities of the localities and times in which they occur. +They are nothing of the kind. For the most part they are mere customs, +perhaps grown originally out of some necessity, but now perpetuated from +simple habit and inherent human laziness. This can perhaps best be +illustrated by going below the human to the kingdom of the animals. If +customs are strong among men they are far stronger among animals. The +sheep lives on grass, the cat lives on mice and other animal food. And +it is generally assumed that the respective diets are the most "natural" +in each case, and those on which the animals in question will readiest +thrive, and indeed that they could not well live on any other. But +nothing of the kind. For cats can be bred up to live on oatmeal and milk +with next to no meat; and a sheep has been known to get on very +comfortably on a diet of port wine and mutton chops! Dogs, whose +"natural" food in the wild state is of the animal kind, are undoubtedly +much healthier (at any rate in the domestic state) when kept on +farinaceous substances with little or no meat, and indeed they take so +kindly to a vegetable diet that they sometimes become perfect nuisances +in a garden--eating strawberries, gooseberries, peas, etc., freely off +the beds when they have once learned the habit. Any one, in fact, who +has kept many pets knows what an astonishing variety of food they may be +made to adopt, though each animal in the wild state has the most +intensely narrow prejudices on the subject, and will perish rather than +overstep the customs of its tribe. Thus pheasants will eat fern-roots +in winter when snow covers the ground, but the grouse "don't eat +fern-roots," and die in consequence. A wolf of an inquiring turn of mind +would probably find strawberries and peas as good food as a dog does, +but it is practically certain that any ordinary member of the genus +would perish in a garden full of the same if deprived of his customary +bones. + +All this seems to indicate what an immensely important part mere custom +plays in the life of men and animals. The main part of the power which +man acquires over the animals depends upon his establishing habits in +them which, once established, they never think of violating: and the +almost insuperable nature of this force in animals throws back light on +the part it plays in human life. + +Of course, I am not contending in the above remarks upon food that there +is no physiological difference between a dog and a sheep in the matter +of their digestive organs, and that the one is not by the nature of its +body more fitted for one kind of food than the other; but rather that we +should not neglect the importance of mere habit in such matters. Custom +changed first; the change of physiological structure followed slowly +after. What happened was probably something like this. Some time in the +far back past a group of animals, driven perhaps by necessity, took to +hunting in packs in the woods; it developed a modified physical +structure in consequence, and special habits which in the course of time +became deeply fixed in the race. Another group saved its life by taking +to grazing. Grass is poor food; but it was the only chance this group +had, and in time it got so accustomed to eating grass that it could not +imagine any other form of diet, and at first would refuse even oysters +when placed in its way! Another group saw an opening in trees; it +developed a long neck and became the giraffe. But the fact that the +giraffe lives on leaves, and the sheep on grass, and the wolf on animal +matter, and that custom is in each so strong that at first the creature +will refuse any other kind of diet, does not of itself prove that that +diet is the best or most physiologically suitable for it. In other +words, it is an assumption to suppose that "adaptation to environment" +is the sole or even the main factor in the constitution of well-marked +varieties or genera; for this is to neglect (among other things) the +force of mere use or wont, which has about the same import in +race-growth that momentum has in dynamics; and causes the race, once +started in any direction, to maintain its line of movement--and often in +despite of its environment--even for thousands of years. + +Returning to man we see him enveloped in a myriad customs--local +customs, class customs, race customs, family customs, religious customs; +customs in food, customs in clothing, customs in furniture, form of +habitation, industrial production, art, social and municipal and +national life, etc.; and the question arises, Where is the grain of +necessity which underlies it all? How much in each case is due to a +real fitness in nature, and how much to mere otiose habit! The first +thing that meets my eye in glancing out of the window is a tile on a +neighboring roof. Why are tiles made S-shaped in some localities and +flat in others? Surely the conditions of wind and rain are much the same +in all places. Perhaps far back there was a reason, but now nothing +remains but--custom. Why do we sit on chairs instead of on the floor, as +the Japanese do, or on cushions like the Turk? It is a custom, and +perhaps it suits with our other customs. The more we look into our life +and consider the immense variety of habit in every department of +it--even under conditions to all appearances exactly similar--the more +are we impressed by the absence of any very serious necessity in the +forms we ourselves are accustomed to. Each race, each class, each +section of the population, each unit even, vaunts its own habits of life +as superior to the rest, as the only true and legitimate forms; and +peoples and classes will go to war with each other in assertion of their +own special beliefs and practices; but the question that rather presses +upon the ingenuous and inquiring mind is, whether any of us have got +hold of much true life at all?--whether we are not rather mere +multitudinous varieties of caddis-worms shuffled up in the cast-off +skins and clothes and débris of those who have gone before us, and with +very little vitality of our own perceptible within? How many times a day +do we perform an action that is authentic and not a mere mechanical +piece of repetition? Indeed, if our various actions and practices were +authentic and flowing from the true necessity, perhaps we shouldn't +quarrel with each other over them so often as we do. + +And then to come to the subject of morals. These also are +customs--divergent to the last degree among different races, at +different times, or in different localities; customs for which it is +often difficult to find any ground in reason or the "fitness of things." +Thieving is supposed to be discountenanced among us, yet our present-day +trade-morality sanctions it in a thousand different forms; and the +respectable usurer (who can hardly be said to be other than a thief) +takes a high place at the table of life. To hunt the earth for game has +from time immemorial been considered the natural birthright and +privilege of man, until the landlord class (whom wicked Socialists now +denounce!) invented the crime of poaching and hanged men for it. As to +marriage customs, in different times and among different peoples, they +have been simply innumerable. And here the sense of inviolability in +each case is most powerful. The severest penalties, the most stringent +public opinion, biting deep down into the individual conscience, enforce +the various codes of various times and places; yet they all contradict +each other. Polygamy in one country, polyandry in the next; brother and +sister marriage allowed at one time, marriage with your mother's cousin +forbidden at another; prostitution sacred in the temples of antiquity, +trampled under foot in the gutters of our great cities of to-day; +monogamy respectable in one land, a mark of class-inferiority in +another; celibacy scorned by some sections of people, accepted as the +highest state by others; and so on. + +What are we to conclude from all this? Is it possible, once we have +fairly faced the immense variety of human life in _every_ department of +arts, manners, and morals--a variety, too, existing in a vast number of +cases under conditions to all intents and purposes quite similar--is it +possible ever again to suppose that the particular practices which _we_ +are accustomed to are very much better (or, indeed, very much worse) +than the particular practices which others are accustomed to? We have +been born, as I said at first, into a sheath of custom which enfolds us +with our swaddling-clothes. When we begin to grow to manhood we see what +sort of a thing it is which surrounds us. It is an old husk now. It does +not bear looking into; it is rotten, it is inconsistent, it is +thoroughly indefensible; yet very likely we have to accept it. The +caddis-worm has grown to its tube and cannot leave it. A little spark of +vitality amid a heap of dead matter, all it can do is to make its +dwelling a little more convenient in shape for itself, or (like the +coral insect) to prolong its growth in the most favourable direction for +those that come after. The class, the caste, the locality, the age in +which we were born has determined our form of life, and in that form +very likely we must remain. But a change has come over our minds. The +vauntings of earlier days we abandon. _We_, at any rate, are no better +than anybody else, and at best, alas! are only half alive. + +If these, then, are our conclusions, is it not with justice that +children and early races keep so rigidly to the narrow path that custom +has made for them? Have they not an instinctive feeling that to forsake +custom would be to launch out on a trackless sea where life would cease +to have any special purpose or direction, and morality would be utterly +gulfed? Custom for them is the line of their growth; it is the +coral-branch from the end of which the next insect builds; it is the +hardening bark of the tree-twig which determines the direction of the +growing shoot. It may be merely arbitrary, this custom, but that they do +not know; its appearance of finality and necessity may be quite +illusive; but the illusion is necessary for life, and the arbitrariness +is just what makes one life different from another. _Till he grows to +manhood_, the human being, _he cannot do without it_. + +And when he grows to manhood, what then? Why he dies, and so becomes +alive. The caddis-fly leaves his tube behind and soars into the upper +air; the creature abandons its barnacle existence on the rock and swims +at large in the sea. For it is just when we die to custom that, for the +first time, we rise into the true life of humanity; it is just when we +abandon all prejudice of our own superiority over others, and become +convinced of our entire indefensibleness, that the world opens out with +comrade faces in all directions; and when we perceive how entirely +arbitrary is the setting of our own life, that the whole structure +collapses on which our apartness from others rests, and we pass easily +and at once into the great ocean of freedom and equality. + +This is, as it were, a new departure for man, for which even to-day the +old world, overlaid with myriad customs now brought into obvious and +open conflict with each other, is evidently preparing. The period of +human infancy is coming to an end. Now comes the time of manhood and +true vitality. + +Possibly this is a law of history, that when man has run through every +variety of custom a time comes for him to be freed from it--that is, he +uses it indifferently according to his requirements, and is no longer a +slave to it; all human practices find their use, and none are forbidden. +At this point, whenever reached, "morals" come to an end and humanity +takes its place--that is to say, there is no longer any code of action, +but the one object of all action is the deliverance of the human being +and the establishment of equality between oneself and another, the entry +into a new life, which new life when entered into is glad and perfect, +because there is no more any effort or strain in it; but it is the +recognition of oneself in others, eternally. + +Far as custom has carried man from man, yet when at last in the +ever-branching series the complete human being is produced, it knows at +once its kinship with all the other forms. "I have passed my spirit in +determination and compassion round the whole earth, and found only +equals and lovers." More, it knows its kinship with the animals. It sees +that it is only habit, an illusion of difference, that divides; and it +perceives after all that it is the same human creature that flies in the +air, and swims in the sea, or walks biped upon the land. + + +_The two following chapters--though not part of the original work--are +included in the present edition because they form continuations or +expansions of the chapters which criticise modern Science and modern +Morality respectively. The chapter entitled "A Rational and Humane +Science" is in fact a reprint of an address given before the +Humanitarian League in London in 1896. It was first included in the +present volume in 1906. The chapter entitled "The New Morality" is, with +slight alterations, a reprint of an article which appeared in the_ +Albany Review _in September, 1907, under the title "Morality under +Socialism"; and it now appears in the present book for the first time_. + + + + +A RATIONAL AND HUMANE SCIENCE + + +In bringing before you this subject of a Rational and Humane Science you +will perhaps forgive me if I dwell for a few moments on some points of +personal history in relation to it. After reading mathematics for some +four years at Cambridge, it happened to me for the next ten years or so +to be engaged in the study of the physical sciences, and in lectures on +these subjects. Naturally, during the earlier part of this period I +accepted the current methods and conclusions without any question. But +as time went on I became aware of a certain dissatisfaction; I felt that +many of the laws of Science, enounced as universal truths, were of very +limited application only, that many of the conclusions, so strongly +insisted on, were of quite doubtful validity; and at last this +increasing dissatisfaction culminated in a rather violent attack or +criticism of Modern Science which I wrote and published about the year +1884.[40] + +Now, looking back, at this interval of time, though I admit that my +attack was somewhat hasty and crude in detail, I feel that in its main +contention it was thoroughly justified, and I do not feel the least +inclined to withdraw it. + +What was that main contention? It was as follows. Modern Science is an +attempt (and no doubt it would accept this definition of itself) to +survey and classify the phenomena of the world in the pure dry light of +the intellect, uncoloured by feeling; and so far is an effort to +separate the intellectual in man from the merely perceptive, the +emotional, the moral, and so forth. It was in this very fact that my +criticism lay; for I contended that such a separation was in the long +run quite impossible. + +But before proceeding to defend this position, let me admit at once that +this attempt of Modern Science to get rid of human feeling and to look +at everything in the dry light of the intellect was in some respects a +very grand one. When you consider what the Old-time Science was, with +its fancies and prejudices, its dragons pasturing upon the sun and moon +in eclipses, its immolations of hundreds of human beings to appease some +god of pestilence or earthquake, its panics, its superstitions, and its +incapability of regarding anything except from the point of view of that +thing's influence on man's own comfort and his little hopes and fears, +it was indeed a grand advance to try and see _facts_, uncoloured and for +themselves alone. It was an effort of Man as it were to rise above +himself, to which I accord the fullest credit and honour. + +And yet, during the time spoken of, it kept growing on me: first, that +the attempt was an impossible one; secondly, that the Science so-called +was not a true Science; and thirdly, that in its pretence to an +intellectual exactitude which it did not really possess, this Modern +Science was leading to a narrow-mindedness and a dogmatism as bad as the +old. + +There is in fact (so I think) a fallacy in the attempt. But how shall I +describe it? Our relations to the world may, quite roughly speaking, be +divided into three groups--those that are sensuous and perceptional, +those that are purely intellectual, and those that are of an emotional +and moral order. Take any object of Nature--a bird, for instance. We may +look upon the bird as an object of sense-perceptions--its form, its +colour, its song, and so forth. Some people attain to extraordinary +skill and quickness in this department, recognising in a moment the note +or even the flight of a songster. Then again we may look upon the bird +from the intellectual side--we may study it in relation to its +surroundings--the form of its wings, the length of its leg, the +character of its beak, and their adaptation to its habits, to its +locality, to its food, and so forth. Thus we may get a whole series of +purely intellectual results--relations of the bird to the world in which +it lives. This is the special field of the present-day Science. But, +again, we may regard the bird in its emotional and moral relations to +_us_. One man at the sight of it may be affected with admiration of its +beauty, with tenderness towards it, or sympathy; another may be +stimulated to wonder whether he can kill it, or whether it is good to +eat! Modern Science is indifferent to what this last set of relations +may be; it does not concern itself much with the first; but it takes the +middle term, the purely intellectual, and seeks to abstract that from +the others, to study the bird, or whatever the object may be, in the one +aspect only. But can that really be done? The answer is, of course, No. + +To show my general meaning, and why I consider the claim an impossible +one, let us imagine a little cell--one of the myriads which constitute +the human body--professing in the same sort of way to stand outside the +body and explain the laws of the other cells and the body at large. It +is obvious that the little cell, swept along in the currents of the body +and swayed by its emotions, in close proximity and contact with some +portions of the organism, and far remote from others, cannot possibly +pretend to any such impartial judgment. It is obvious not only that it +would not have all the clues of the problem at its command, but that its +own needs and experiences would prejudice it frightfully in the +interpretation of such clues as it had. Yet man is such a little cell in +the body of Nature, or, if you like, in the body of the Society of which +he forms a part. + +There is, however, one way, it seems to me, in which a cell in the +human body _might_ come to an adequate understanding of the body; and +that would be rather through experience than through direct reasoning. +It is conceivable that there might be some cell in the body which, +through the nerves, etc., was in actual touch and sympathetic +relationship with every other cell. Then it certainly would have the +materials of the required solution. Every change in other parts of the +body would register itself in this particular cell; and its little brain +(if it had one), without exactly making any great effort, would reflect +sympathetically the structure of the whole body--would become, in fact, +a mirror of it. This will perhaps give you the key to my notion of what +a true Science might be. + +But before proceeding to that, I want to go a little more in detail into +the fallacy of the absolute intellectual view of Science. I say, first, +that a complete summary of any object or process in Nature is +impossible; secondly, that such summary as we do make is, and must +inevitably and necessarily be, coloured by the underlying _feeling_ with +which we approach that phase of Nature. + +To take the first point. You say, Why is a complete summary not +possible? A watch or other machine may be completely described and +defined; why should not (with a little more knowledge) a fir-tree, or +the human eye, or the solar system, be completely described and defined? + +And this brings us to what may be called the Machine-view of Science. +It is curious (and yet I think it will presently be seen that it is +quite what might have been expected) that during this century or so, in +which Machinery has played such an important part in our daily and +social life, mechanical ideas have come to colour all our conceptions of +Science and the Universe. Modern Science holds it as a kind of ideal +(even though finding it at times difficult to realise) to reduce +everything to mechanical action, and to show each process of Nature +intelligible in the same sense as a Machine is intelligible. Yet this +conception, this ideal, involves a complete fallacy. For the moment you +come to think of it, you see that _no_ part of Nature really even +resembles a machine. + +What is a machine in the ordinary sense? It is an aggregation of parts +put together to fulfil certain definite actions and no others. A +sewing-machine fulfils the purpose of sewing, a watch fulfils that of +keeping time, and they fulfil those purposes only. All their parts +subserve those actions, and in that sense may be completely +described--as far as just their mechanical action is concerned--the same +by a thousand mechanicians. But I make bold to say that _no_ object in +Nature fulfils just one action, or series of actions, and no others. On +the contrary, every object fulfils an endless series of actions. + +Let us take the Human Eye. And I choose this as an instance most adverse +to my position, for there is no doubt that the Human Eye is one of the +most highly specialised objects in creation. Helmholtz, as you know, is +said to have remarked concerning it that if an Optician had sent him an +instrument so defective he should have returned it with his compliments. +Helmholtz was a great man, and I will not do him the injustice to +suppose that he did not know what he was saying. He knew that, regarded +as a machine for focussing rays of light, the eye was decidedly +defective; but then he knew well enough, doubtless, _why_ it was +defective--namely, because it is by no means merely such a machine, but +a great deal more. + +The Eye, in fact, not only fulfils the action of focussing rays of +light--like an Opera Glass or a Telescope--but it might be compared to +another instrument, a Photographic Camera, in respect of the fact that +it forms a picture of the outer world which it throws on a sensitive +plate at the back--the Retina. But then, again, it is unlike any of +these "machines," in the fact that it was never made by any Optician, +human or divine, for any one definite purpose. On the contrary, as we +know, it has grown, it has evolved; it has come down to us over the +centuries, and over thousands and thousands of centuries, from dim +beginnings in the lowliest organisms who first conceived the faculty of +Sight, continually modified, continually shapen by small increments in +various directions, in accordance with the myriad needs of a myriad +creatures, living, some of them in water, some of them in air, requiring +some of them to see at close quarters, some at great distances, some by +one kind of light, some by another, and so forth. So that to-day it not +only contains a great range of inherited, yet latent, faculties, but it +is actually, in its complex structure, an epitome and partial record of +its own extraordinary history. + +As an instance of this last point, let me remind you that Sight was +originally a differentiation of Touch. The light, the shadows, falling +on the sensitive general surface of a primitive organism provoke a +tactile irritation. In the course of evolution this sense specialises +itself at some point of the surface into what we call Sight. Now, +to-day, when the little picture formed by the fore-part of the Human Eye +falls upon the Retina at the back, it falls upon a screen formed by the +myriad congregated finger-tips, so to speak, of the optic nerve--the +rods and cones, so-called--which cover like a mosaic the whole ground of +the Retina, and _feel_ with their sensitive points the images of the +objects in the outer world. And so Sight is still Touch--it is the power +of feeling or touching at a distance--as one sometimes in fact becomes +aware in looking at things. + +But then again on and beyond all these things--beyond the focussing and +photographing of rays, beyond the latent adaptations to the needs of +innumerable creatures, and the epitomising of ages of evolution--the +Human Eye has faculties even more far-reaching perhaps and wonderful. It +is the marvellous organ of human Expression. By the dilatations and +contractions of the iris, by the altering convexities of the lens and +the eyeball, and in a hundred other ways, it manages somehow to convey +intelligence of Command, Control, Power, of Pity, Love, Sympathy, and +all those myriad emotions which flit through the human mind--an endless +series--a perfect encyclopædia. It is difficult even to imagine the eye +without this power of language. And what other functions it may have it +is not necessary to inquire. Highly specialised though it is, it is +already obvious enough that to call it a Machine for focussing rays of +light is monstrously and ludicrously inadequate--even as it would be to +call the Heart (the very centre of emotion and life, and the symbol of +human love and courage) a common Pump. + +Nature is an infinitude, and can at no point be circumscribed by the +human intellect. Nor obviously is there any sense in taking one little +portion of Nature and isolating it from the rest, and then describing it +exhaustively _as if_ it really were so isolated. A thousand mechanicians +will agree, as I have said, in their description of a machine, because +in fact they will agree to view the machine just in the one aspect of +its particular action; but ask a thousand people to describe one and the +same face--or, better still, get a thousand portrait-painters, skilled +in their art, to paint portraits of the same face--and you know +perfectly well that all the likenesses will be different. And why will +they be different? Simply because every face, however rude, has infinite +sides, infinite aspects, and each painter selects what he paints from +his own point of view. And the same is true of every object and process +in Nature. + +Then if these things are true (you ask again) how is it that scientific +men _do_ arrive at definite conclusions, and do agree with each other so +far as they do? + +It is, and obviously must be, by the method of isolation; by the method +of selecting certain aspects of the problems presented to them, and +ignoring others. For since _all_ the relations of any phenomenon of +Nature cannot possibly be compassed, the only way _must_ be to ignore +some and concentrate attention on others; and when there is a kind of +tacit agreement as to which aspects shall be passed over and which +considered, there is naturally an agreement in the results. Thus by this +method, waiving all other aspects of the problem, the Eye may be +described and defined as an optical instrument, the Heart as a common +Pump, and the Solar System as a neat illustration of certain mechanical +laws discovered by Galileo and Newton. + +On the subject of the Solar System and Astronomy I will dwell for a few +moments, as here--in this great example of the perfection of Modern +Science--we have again a case apparently most adverse to my contention. +The generalisations by which Newton established the nature of the +planetary orbits has been a wonder to succeeding generations; the +positions of the planets can be foretold, eclipses can be calculated +with amazing accuracy. Yet every tyro in Mathematics knows that the +equations which give these results can only be solved by what is called +"neglecting small quantities"--that is, the problems cannot be solved in +their entirety, but by leaving out certain terms and elements, which do +not appear important, a solution can be approached. And naturally it has +been an important point to show that these small quantities _may_ be +safely neglected. In the case, for instance, of the orbits of the +planets round the sun, and of the moon round the earth, it was for a +long time taken as proved that the small variations in the shape and +position of each elliptic orbit would never be accompanied by any +permanent increase or diminution in its _size_--that is, that the _mean +distances_ of the planets from the sun, and of the moon from the earth, +would always remain within certain limits. Of late years however +Professor George Darwin, taking up one of these poor little neglected +quantities in the theory of the moon, found that it indicated after all +very vast and very permanent, though of course very slow, changes in her +mean distance from the earth; so that now it appears probable that the +Moon's true orbit, instead of being a limited ellipse, is a continually +though gradually enlarging Spiral, which may some day carry the Moon to +a great distance from the earth. If an eclipse were calculated for +twenty years in advance on the Elliptic theory or the Spiral theory, it +would probably--so slow would be the divergence--make no perceptible +difference; but in a hundred centuries the two theories would lead to +results utterly different. + +Thus the certitude of Astronomy as a Science arises largely from the +fact that our _times_ are so brief compared with Celestial periods. The +proper periods of Celestial changes are to be reckoned by thousands, +perhaps millions, of years; but we, ignoring _that_ aspect of the +problem, fix our observations on one little point of time, and are quite +satisfied with the result! + +As another illustration of my meaning, consider the Fixed Stars, +so-called. These stars in their groups and clusters, which we know so +well by sight, have remained apparently in the very same, or nearly the +same, relative positions during all the 2,000 or 3,000 years that we +have any record of the shapes of the Constellations. Yet now by minute +telescopic and spectroscopic examination we know that they are moving, +and have been moving all the time, in various differing directions with +great velocities, amounting to miles per second. Nevertheless, so great +are the spaces concerned, so great the times, that all this long period +has not sufficed to bring them into any greatly changed attitude with +regard to each other! What would you think of an intelligent foreigner +who, coming to England to study the game of cricket, remained on the +cricket field for a quarter of a minute--during which time the players +would have hardly changed their positions--and having noted a few +points, went away and wrote a volume on the laws of the game? And what +are we to think of poor little Man who, having noted the stars for a +few centuries, is so sure that he understands their movements, and that +he is versed in all the "ordinances of heaven." + +Thus it would appear that every Nature-problem is so enormously complex +that it can only be got at by what we have called the Method of +Ignorance. Let us take a practical Science problem like that of +Vaccination. The question here, put in its simplest terms, seems to be, +Whether Vaccination, with calf or human lymph, prevents or alleviates +Smallpox; and if it does, whether it does so without engendering other +evils at least as great. At first sight this may appear to you a very +simple question, and easy to solve; but the moment you come to think +about it, you see its extreme complexity. In the first place, it is +obvious that in a question like this, individual cases afford no test. +It is obvious that the fact that A. is vaccinated and has not taken +small-pox proves nothing, for there is nothing to show that he would +have taken it if he had not been vaccinated. And when you have got +people vaccinated by the hundred and the thousand, you still are not +certain; for these people may belong to a certain class, or a certain +locality, or may have certain habits and conditions of life, which may +account for their comparative immunity, and these causes must be +eliminated before any definite conclusion can be reached. Thus it is not +till the great mass of the population is vaccinated that we can expect +reliable statistics. But the introduction of a practice of this kind on +so great a scale necessarily takes a long period of years, and meanwhile +changes are taking place in the habits of the people, Sanitation is +being improved, customs of Diet are altering, possibly (as so often +happens in the history of an epidemic) the disease, having run its +course, is beginning spontaneously to decline. And thus another series +of possible causes has to be discussed. + +Then, supposing the question, notwithstanding all these difficulties, to +be so far settled in favour of the present system--there still arises +that whole other series of difficulties with regard to the possibility +of the spread of _other_ diseases by the practice, and with regard to +the _extent_ of such spread, before we can arrive at any finale. This +series of questions is almost as complex as the other; and it includes +that great element of uncertainty--the question what interval of time +may elapse between inoculation with a disease and its actual appearance. +For if in several cases children break out with erysipelas immediately +after vaccination, of course there is a certain presumption that +vaccination has been the cause; but if the erysipelas only appears some +years after, its connection with the operation may, though real, be +impossible to trace. + +The matter standing thus, it seems to us almost a mystery how it was +that the medical authorities of the early days of Jennerism were so +cocksure of their conclusions--until we remember that in arriving at +those conclusions they practically _ignored_ all these other points +that I have mentioned, like changes of Sanitation, spontaneous decline +of Small-pox, the spread of other diseases, etc., and simply limited +themselves to one small aspect of the problem. But now, after this +interval of time, when the neglected facts and aspects have meanwhile +_forced_ themselves on our attention, how remarkable is the change of +attitude as evidenced by the finding of the late Royal Commission! +(1896). + +From all this do not understand me to deride Science--for I have no +intention of doing that; on the contrary, I think the debt we owe to +modern investigation quite incalculable; but I only wish to warn you how +complex all these problems are, how impossible that notion of settling +even one of them by a cut-and-dried intellectual formula. + +But you will ask (for this is the second point I mentioned some little +time back) _how_ people's emotions and feelings come in to colour their +scientific conclusions? And the answer is--very simply, namely by +directing their choice as to what aspects of the problem they will +ignore and what aspects they will envisage; by determining their point +of view, in fact. To return to that illustration of several +portrait-painters painting the same face; just as each painter is led by +his feeling, his sympathies, his general temperament, to select certain +points in the face and to pass over others, so each group of scientific +men in each generation is led by its sympathies, its idiosyncrasies, to +envisage certain aspects of the problems of the day and to ignore +others. + +The whole history of Science illustrates this. We are all familiar with +the way in which the predilections of religious feeling in the time of +Copernicus and Galileo retarded the progress of astronomical Science. As +long as people believed that a divine drama of redemption had been +enacted on this earth alone, they naturally concluded that this earth +was the centre of the universe, and refused to look at facts which +contradicted their conclusion. When Galileo turned his newly-made +telescope on Jupiter and saw it circled by its satellites, he saw in +this an image of the Copernican system and of the planets circling round +the central Sun; but when he asked others to share his observation and +his inference, they would not. "O, my dear Kepler," he writes in a +letter to his fellow astronomer, "how I wish we could have one hearty +laugh together. Here at Padua is the principal Professor of Philosophy, +whom I have repeatedly and urgently requested to look at the moon and +planets through my glass; but he pertinaciously refuses to do so. What +shouts of laughter we should have at this glorious folly!" + +And though we laugh at the folly of those before us, we do the same +things ourselves to-day. Take the science of Political Economy. A +revolution has taken place in that, almost comparable to the change from +the geocentric to the heliocentric view in Astronomy. During the +distinctively commercial period of the last 100 years, the leading +students of social science, being themselves filled with the spirit of +the time, have been fain to look upon the acquisition of private wealth +as the one absorbing motive of human nature; and so it has come about +that the economists, from Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill, have founded +their science on self-seeking and competition, as the base of their +analysis. To-day another series of economists coming to the front--their +minds preoccupied with the great facts of Community of life and +Co-operation--have discovered that Society is in the main an +illustration of these latter principles, and have evolved a quite new +phase of the science. It is not that Society has changed so much during +this period, as that the altered point of view of the students of +Society has caused them simply to fix their attention on a different +aspect of the problem and a different range of facts. + +I have alluded already to the way in which the prevalent use of +Machinery in practical life has affected our mental outlook on the +world. It is curious that during this mechanical age of the last 100 +years or so, we have not only come to regard Society in a mechanical +light, as a concourse of separate individuals bound together by a mere +cash-nexus, but have extended the same idea to the universe at large, +which we look upon as a concourse of separate atoms, associated together +by gravitation, or possibly by mere mutual impact. Yet it is certain +that both these views are false, since the individuals who compose +Society are _not_ separate from each other; and the theory that the +universe, in its ultimate analysis, is composed of a vast number of +discrete atoms is simply unthinkable. + +When we come to a practical and modern question like Medicine, the +influence of the spirit in which it is approached on the course of the +science is very easy to see. For if the science of Medicine is +approached (as it perhaps mostly is to-day) in a spirit of combined Fear +and Self-indulgence--fear for one's own personal safety, combined with a +kind of anxiety to continue living in the indulgence of habits known to +be unhealthy--if it is approached in this uncomfortable and +contradictory state of mind, it is pretty obvious that its course will +be similarly uncomfortable: that it will consist for the most part in a +search for drugs which shall, without effort on our part, palliate the +effects of our misconduct; in the discovery, as in a kind of nightmare, +that the air round us is full of billions of microbes; in a terrified +study of these messengers of disease, and in a frantic effort to ward +them off by inoculations, vaccinations, vivisections, and so forth, +without end. + +If, on the other hand, the science is approached from quite a different +side--from that of the love of Health, and the desire to make life +lovely, beautiful and clean; if the student is filled not only with +this, but with a great belief in the essential _power_ of Man, and his +command in creation, to control not only all these little microbes +whose name is Legion, but through his mind all the processes of his +body; then it is obvious enough that a whole series of different facts +will arise before his eyes and become the subject of his study--facts of +sanitation, of the laws of cleanly life, diet, clothing and so forth, +methods of control, and the details and practice of the influence of the +mental upon the physical part of man--facts quite equally real with the +others, equally important, equally numerous perhaps and complex, but +forming a totally different range of science. + +In conclusion, you begin to see doubtless that I do not believe in a +science of mere Formulas, which can be poured from one brain to another +like water in a pot. I believe in something more organic to +Humanity--which shall combine Sense, Intellect and Soul; which shall +include the keenest training of the Senses, the exactest use of the +Brain, and the subordination of both of these to the finest and most +generous attitude of Man towards Nature. + +To come to quite practical aspects, I think that Physical Science, and +for that matter Natural History too, ought to be founded on the closest +observation and actual intimacy with Nature. It is notorious that in +many respects the perceptions, the Nature-intuitions, of savage races +far outdo those of civilised man. We have let that side go slack, and +too often the man of science when he comes out of his study is a mere +baby in the external world. I look back with a kind of shame when I +think that I studied the mathematical side of Astronomy for three or +four years at Cambridge and absolutely at the time hardly knew one star +from another in the sky. But such are the methods of teaching that have +been in use. They ought however to be reversed, and practical +acquaintance with the facts should come a long way first, and then be +succeeded by inductive and deductive reasoning when the difficulties of +the subject have forced themselves on the student's mind. + +Then in Natural History and Botany I think that we have hitherto not +only neglected the perceptive side, but also what may be called the +intuitive and emotional aspects. If any one will attend to the subject, +I believe they will perceive that there are dormant in the mind the +finest intuitions and instincts of relationship to the various animals +and plants--intuitions which have played a far more important part in +the life of barbaric races than they do to-day.[41] Primitive peoples +have a remarkable instinct of the medicinal and dietetic uses of herbs +and plants--an instinct which we also find well developed among +animals--and I believe that this kind of knowledge would grow largely +if, so to speak, it were given a chance. The formal classification of +animals and plants--which now forms the main part of these +sciences--would then come in simply as an aid and an auxiliary to the +more direct and human study. + +Again, let us take the science of Physiology. At present this is mainly +carried on by means of Dissection or Vivisection. But both these methods +are unsatisfactory. Dissection, because it amounts to studying the +organisation of a living creature by the examination of its dead +carcase; and Vivisection, because it is not only open to a similar +objection, but because it necessarily violates the highest relation of +man to the animal he is studying. There is, I believe, another method--a +method which has been known in the East for centuries, though little +regarded in the West--which may perhaps be called the method of Health. +It consists in rendering the body, by proper habits of life, pure and +healthy, till it becomes, as it were, transparent to the inner eye, and +then projecting the consciousness _inward_ so as to become almost as +sensible of the structure and function of the various internal organs, +as it usually is of the outer surface of the body. Of course this is a +process which cannot be effectuated at once, and which may need help and +corroboration by external methods of study, but I believe it is one +which will lead to considerable results. There is no doubt that many of +the Yogis of India attain to great skill in it. + +Similarly, from what we have already said about Political Economy, it +is obvious that satisfactory results in that science must depend +immensely on the high degree of social instinct and feeling with which +the student approaches it, and on the thoroughness of his acquaintance +with the _actual life_ of a people; and that the development of these +factors is fully as important a part of the science as that which +consists in the logical ordering and arrangement of the material +obtained. + +I need not, I think, go any further into detail of new methods in each +Science. You remember what I said at the beginning about the Cell +studying the Body of which it formed a part. We may imagine, if we like, +three stages in this process. In the first stage the Cell regards the +other cells and the Body simply from the point of view of how they +affect _it_, and its comfort and safety. This might be taken to +correspond to the Old-time Science. In the second stage the Cell, with +its tiny experience of the other cells and the small part of the body in +which it is placed, becomes highly intellectual, and professes to lay +down the laws of the structure of the body generally. This corresponds +to the attitude of Modern Science. In the third stage the Cell, growing +and evolving, and coming daily into closer sympathetic relationship with +all parts of the body, begins to find its true relation to the other +cells, not to use _them_, but to fulfil its part in the whole. Gradually +drawing all the threads together and coming more and more, so to say, +into a central position, it at last in its little brain spontaneously +and inevitably reflects the whole, and becomes the mirror of it. This +would answer to what we have called a really rational and humane +Science. + +Man has to find and to _feel_ his true relation to other creatures and +to the whole of which he is a part, and has to use his brain to further +this. Science _is_, as we all know, the search for Unity. That is its +ideal. It unites innumerable phenomena under one law; and then it unites +many laws under one higher; always seeking for the ultimate complete +integration. But (is it not obvious?) Man cannot find that unity _of_ +the Whole until he feels his unity _with_ the Whole. To found a Science +of one-ness on the murderous Warfare and insane Competition of men with +each other, and on the Slaughter and Vivisection of animals--the search +for unity on the practice of disunity--is an absurdity, which can only +in the long run reveal itself as such. + +I do not know whether it seems obvious to you, but it does to me, that +Man will never find in theory the unity of outer Nature till he reaches +in practice the unity of his own. When he has learnt to harmonise in +himself all his powers, bodily and mental, his desires, faculties, +needs, and bring them into perfect co-operation--when he has found the +true hierarchy of himself--then somehow I think that Nature round him +will reflect this order, and range itself in clear and intelligible +harmony about him. + +But I can say no more. I have dragged you by the neck, as it were, +through a recondite and difficult subject; and even so I do not feel +that I have by any means done justice to it. But it is possible, +perhaps, that I have cast the germ of an idea among you, which, if you +think over it at leisure, may develop into something of value. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[40] Afterwards reprinted in a modified form, as "Modern Science--a +Criticism," in the first edition (1889) of the present book. + +[41] Elisée Reclus, in his remarkable paper, _La Grande Famille_, points +out the wide-reaching _Friendship_, and free alliance for various +purposes, of primitive man with the animals, existing long before the +so-called "domestication" of the latter. See _Humane Review_, January, +1906. + + + + +THE NEW MORALITY + + +The tendency of the Evolution Theory, as it penetrates human thought, is +to rub out lines--the old lines of formal classification. We no longer +now put in a class apart those animals which have horns or cloven +hooves, because we find that continuous descent and close kinship weave +relations which are not bounded by horns or hooves. And, for a not +dissimilar reason, modern thought, based on the theory of evolution, is +tending to rub out the hard and fast lines between moral Right and +Wrong--the old formal classifications of _actions_ as some in their +nature good, and some in their nature bad. + +The Eastern, or at least Indian, thought and religion rubbed out these +lines long ago. Its philosophy indeed was founded on a theory of +Evolution--the continuous evolution or emanation of the Many from the +One. It could not therefore regard any _class_ of beings or creatures as +essentially bad, or any _class_ of actions as essentially wrong, since +all sprang from a common Root. The only essential evil was ignorance +(_avidya_)--that is, the fact of the being or creature not knowing or +perceiving its emanation from, or kinship with, the One--and of course +any action done under this condition of _avidya_, however outwardly +correct, was essentially wrong; while on the other hand _all_ actions +done by beings fully realising and conscious of their union with the One +were necessarily right. + +Of this attitude towards Right and Wrong there are abundant instances in +the Upanishads. The choice of the path does not lie _between_ Good and +Bad, as in the _Pilgrim's Progress_, but it lies above and in a region +transcending them both. "By the serenity of his thoughts a man blots out +_all_ actions, whether good or bad."[42] "He does not distress himself +with the thought, Why did I not do what is good? Why did I do what is +bad?"[43] All religions indeed, by the very fact of their being +religions, have indicated a sphere above morality, to which their +followers shall and must aspire. What else is St. Paul's reiterated +charge to escape from the dominion of sin and law, into the glorious +liberty of the children of God? And in all ages the great mystics--those +who stand near the fountain-sources of evolution and emanation--have +seen and said the same. Says Spinoza:--"With regard to good and evil, +these terms indicate nothing positive in things considered in +themselves, nor are they anything else than modes of thought, or +notions which we form from _the comparison of one thing with another_. +For one and the same thing may at the same time be both good and evil, +or indifferent."[44] + +Here indeed, in these pregnant words, we come upon the very root of the +matter. A thing, an action, may be called good or bad in respect to a +certain purpose or object; but in itself, No. Wine may be good for the +encouragement of sociability, but may be bad for the liver. The +Sabbath-day may be pronounced a beneficial institution from some points +of view, but not from others. A scrupulous respect for private property +may certainly be a help to settled social life; but the practice of +thieving--as recommended by Plato--may be very useful to check the lust +of private riches. To speak of wine as in its nature good or bad is +manifestly absurd; and the same of a pious respect for private property +or the Sabbath-day. These things are good under certain conditions or +for certain purposes, and bad under other conditions or for other +purposes. But of course it belongs and goes with the brute externalising +tendency of the mind, to stereotype the actual material thing--which +should be only the vehicle of the spirit--and give _it_ a character and +a cult as good or bad. The Sabbath ceases to be made for man, and man is +made for the Sabbath. Law, Custom, Pharisaism, and Self-righteousness +spring up and usurp the sphere of morality, and all the histories of +savage and civilised nations, with their endless fetishes and taboos +and superstitions and ceremonies, and caste-marks and phylacteries, and +petty regulations and proprieties,--including bitter scorn and +persecution of those who do not fulfil them,--are but illustrations of +this process. + +All the prophets and saviours of the world have been for the Spirit as +against the letter--and the teachings of all religions have in their +turn become literalised and fossilised! Perhaps there has been no +greater anti-literal than Jesus of Nazareth, and yet perhaps no religion +has become more a thing of forms and dogmas than that which passes under +his name. Even his counsels of Gentleness and Love--which one would +indeed have thought might escape this process--have been corrupted into +mere prescriptions of morality, such as those of Non-resistance, and of +philanthropic Altruism. + +It seems strange indeed that so great a man as Tolstoy should have lent +himself to this process--to the pinning down of the excellent spirit of +Christ (who by the way was man enough to drive the money-changers out of +the Temple) to a mere formula, as one might pin a dragon-fly to a +labelled card--_Thou shalt not use Violence: thou shalt not Resist!_ And +all the while to cleave to a formula only means to admit the evil in +some other shape which the formula does not meet--to forswear the stick +only means to resort to rebuke and sarcasm in self-defence, which may +inflict more pain and a deeper scar, and in some cases more injury, +than the stick; or if self-defence in any shape is quite forsworn then +that only means to resign and abandon one's place in the world +completely. + +And the same of the somewhat spooney Altruism, which was at one time +much recommended as the maxim of conduct. For all the while it is +notorious that the specially altruistic people are as a rule painfully +dull and uninteresting, and afford far less life and charm to those +around them than many who are frankly egotistic; and so by following a +formula of Altruism it seems they wreck the very work they set before +themselves to do--namely, that of making the world brighter! + +Against these weaknesses of Christianity Nietzsche was a healthy +reaction. It was he insisted on the terms "good" and "bad" being +restored to their proper use, as terms of relation--"good" for what? +"bad" for what? But his reaction against maudlin altruism and +non-resistance led him towards a pitfall in the opposite direction, +towards the erection of the worship of Force almost into a formula, Thou +_shalt_ use Violence, thou _shalt_ Resist. His contempt for the feeble +and the spooney and the knock-kneed and the humbug is very delightful +and entertaining, and, as I say, healthy in the sense of reaction; but +one does not get a very clear idea what the strength which Nietzsche +glorifies is for, or whither it is going to lead. His blonde beasts and +his laughing lions may represent the Will to Power; but Nietzsche seems +to have felt, himself, that this latter alone would not suffice, and so +he passed on to his discovery or invention of the Beyond-man,--_i.e._ of +a childlike being who, without argument, _affirms_ and creates, and +before whom institutions and conventions dissolve, as it were of their +own accord.[45] This was a stroke of genius; but even so it leaves +doubtful what the relation of such Beyond-men to each other may be, and +whether, if they have no common source of life, their actions will not +utterly cancel and destroy each other. + +The truth is that Nietzsche never really penetrated to the realisation +of that farther state of consciousness in which the deep underlying +unity of man with Nature and his fellows is perceived and felt. He saw +apparently that there is a life and an inspiration of life beyond all +technical good and evil. But for some reason--partly because of the +natural difficulty of the subject, partly perhaps because the Eastern +outlook was uncongenial to his mind--he never found the solution which +he needed; and his outline of the Superman remains cloudy and uncertain, +vague and variously interpreted by followers and critics. + +The question arises, What do _we_ need? We are to-day, in this matter, +in a somewhat parlous state. The old codes of Morality are moribund; the +Ten Commandments command only a very qualified assent; the Christian +religion as a real inspiration of practical life and conduct is dead; +the social conventions and Mrs. Grundy remain, feebly galling and +officious. What are we to do? Are we to bolster up the old codes, in +which we have largely ceased to believe, merely in order to have a +code?--or are we to let them go? + +Of course, if we have decided what the final purpose or life of Man is, +then we may say that what is good for that purpose is finally "good," +and what is bad for that purpose is finally "evil." The Eastern +philosophy, as I have said, deciding that the final purpose of Man is +identification with Brahm, declares _all_ actions to be evil (even the +most saintly) which are done by the self as separate from Brahm; and all +actions as good which are done in the condition of _vidya_ or conscious +union. But here, though a final good and evil are allowed and +acknowledged, as existing respectively in the conditions of vidya or +avidya, those conditions altogether escape any external rule or +classification. + +Mr. Gilbert Chesterton, taking up this subject not long ago in a +criticism[46] of Mr. Orage's little book on Nietzsche, said that all +this talk about "beyond good and evil" was nonsense; that we must have +some code; and that in effect, any code, even a bad one, was better than +none. And one sees what he means. It is perfectly true, in a sense, that +the harness, the shafts, and the blinkers keep a large part of the +world on the beaten road and out of the ditch, and that folk are always +to be found who, rather than use their higher faculties, will rely on +these external guides; but to encourage this kind of salvation by +blinkers seems the very reverse of what ought to be done; and one might +even ask whether salvation by such means is salvation at all--whether +the ditch were not better! + +Besides, what _can_ we do? It is not so much that we are deliberately +abandoning the codes as that they are abandoning us. With the gradual +infiltration of new ideas, of Eastern thought, of Darwinian philosophy, +of customs and creeds of races other than our own, with Bernard Shaw +lecturing on the futility of the Ten Commandments, and so forth, it is +not difficult to see that in a short while it will be impossible to +rehabilitate any of the ancient codes or to give them a sanction and a +sense of awe in the public mind. If with Gilbert Chesterton we should +succeed in bolstering up such a thing for a time--well, it will only be +for a time. + +And the question is, whether the time has not really come for us to +stand up--like sensible men and women--and _do without rules_; whether +we cannot trust ourselves at last to throw aside the blinkers. The +question is whether we cannot realise that solid and central life which +underlies and yet surpasses all rules. For truly, if we cannot do this, +our state is pitiable--having ceased to believe in the letter of +Morality, and yet unable to find its spirit! + +It is here, then, that the New Morality comes in, as more or less +clearly understood and expressed by the progressive sections to-day. +Modern Socialism, in effect, taking up a position in its way somewhat +similar to that of Eastern philosophy, says: Morality in its essence is +not a code, but simply the realisation of the Common Life;[47] and that +is a thing which is not foreign and alien to humanity, but very germane +and natural to it--a thing so natural that without doubt it would be +more in evidence than it is, did not the institutions and teachings of +Western civilisation tend all along to deny and disguise it. To liberate +this instinct of the Common Life, freeing it from hard and cramping +rules, and to let it take its own form or forms--grafted on and varied +of course by the personal and selective element of Affection and +Sympathy--is the hope that lies before the world to-day for the solution +of all sorts of moral and social problems. + +And the more this position is thought over, the more, I believe, will it +commend itself. The sense of organic unity, of the common welfare, the +instinct of Humanity, or of general helpfulness, are things which run in +all directions through the very fibre of our individual and social +life--just as they do through that of the gregarious animals. In a +thousand ways: through heredity and the fact that common ancestral blood +flows in our veins--though we be only strangers that pass in the street; +through psychology, and the similarity of structure and concatenation in +our minds; through social linkage, and the necessity of each and all to +the others' economic welfare; through personal affection and the ties of +the heart; and through the mystic and religious sense which, diving deep +below personalities, perceives the vast flood of universal being--in +these and many other ways does this Common Life compel us to recognise +itself as a fact--perhaps the most fundamental fact of existence. + +To teach this simple foundational fact and what flows from it to every +child--not only as a theory, but as a practical habit and inspiration of +conduct--is not really difficult, but easy. Children, having this sense +woven into their very being, grow up in the spirit and practical +habitude of it, and from the beginning possess the inspiration of what +we call Morality--far more effectually indeed than copy-book maxims can +provide. Respect for truth, consideration towards parents and elders, +respect for the reasonable properties, dignities, conveniences of +others, as well as for one's own needs and dignities, become perfectly +natural and habitual. And that this is no mere hypothesis the example of +Japan has lately shown where every young thing is brought up so far +drenched in the sentiment of community that to give one's life for one's +country is looked upon as a privilege.[48] The general lines, I say, of +morality would be secure, and much more secure than they now are, if we +could only bring the children up in an educational and practical +atmosphere of that solidarity which as a matter of fact is demanded +to-day by socialism and the economic movement generally. + +And on this ground-work, as I have hinted, Personal Affection and +Sympathy would build a superstructure of their own; they would outline a +society as much more beautiful, powerful and closely knit than the +present one founded on the Cash-nexus, as, say, the Athenian society of +the time of Pericles was superior to that of the Lapithæ who first +bitted and bridled the horse. + +While the general Life, equal, pervasive, and in a sense +undifferentiated, is a great fact which has to be acknowledged; so this +personal Love and Affection, choosing, selecting, and giving outline and +form to that life, is equally a fact, equally undeniable, equally +sacred--and one which has to be taken in conjunction with the other. + +I say equally sacred: because there has been a tendency (no doubt due to +certain causes) to look upon personal affection, in its various phases +from slight inclinations of sympathy to the stronger compulsions of +passion, as something rather dubious in character, at best an amiable +weakness not to be encouraged. Tolstoy, in one of his writings, figures +the case of a little household in days of famine not really having bread +enough for their own wants. Then a stranger child comes to the door and +pleads for food. Tolstoy suggests that the mother ought to take the +scanty crust from her own child to feed the stranger withal, or at least +to share the food equally between the two children. But such a +conclusion seems to me doubtful. + +Whatever "ought" may mean in such a connexion, we know pretty well that +such never _will_ be the rule of human life, we may almost say never can +be; perhaps we should be equally justified in saying, never "ought" to +be. For obviously there must be preferences, selections. Our affections, +our affinities, our sympathies, our passions, are not given us for +nothing. It is not for nothing that every individual person, every tree, +every animal has a _shape_, a shape of its own. If it were not so the +world would be infinitely, inconceivably, dull. Yet to ask that a mother +should in all cases treat strange children exactly the same as her own, +that a man from the oceanic multitude should single out no special or +privileged friends, but should love all alike, is to ask that these folk +in their mental and moral nature should become as jellyfish--of no +distinct shape or satisfaction to themselves or any one else. Profound +and indispensable as is the Law of Equality--the law, namely, that there +is a region within all beings where they touch to a common and equal +life--the other law, that of Individual predilection, is equally +indispensable. Try to reduce all to the one motive of the general +interest, and you might have a perfect morality, but a morality woodeny, +hard and dull, without form and feature. Try to dispense with this, and +to found society on individual affection and love, and on individual +initiative, without morals, and you would have a flighty, unstable +thing, without consistency or backbone. + +My contention, then, is that our hope for the future society lies in its +embodiment of these two great principles jointly: (1) the recognition of +the Common Life as providing the foundation-element of general morality, +and (2) the recognition of Individual Affection and Expression--and to a +much greater degree than hitherto--as building up the higher groupings +and finer forms of the structure. And in proportion as (1) provides a +solider basis of morals than we have hitherto had, so will it be +possible to give to (2) a width of scope and freedom of action hitherto +untried or untrusted. Conjointly with the strengthening of these +principles of Solidarity and Affection in society must of course come +the strengthening of Individuality--the right and the desire of every +being to preserve and develop its own proper _shape_, and so to add to +the richness and interest of life--and this involves the right of +Resistance, and (once more) the relegation of the formula of +non-resistance into the background. + +These considerations, however, are leading us too far afield, and away +from the special subject of our paper. I mention them chiefly in order +to show that while we are considering Morality as a foundation-element +of Society, it must never be lost sight of that it is not the only +element, and that it would be comparatively senseless and useless unless +grafted on and complemented and completed by the others. + +The method of the New Morality, then, will be to minimise formulæ, and +(except as illustrations) to use them sparely; and to bring children +up--and so indirectly all citizens--in such conditions of abounding life +and health that their sympathies, overflowing naturally to those around, +will cause them to realise in the strongest way their organic part in +the great whole of society--and this not as an intellectual theory, so +much as an abiding consciousness and foundation-fact of their own +existence. Make this the basis of all teaching. Make them realise--by +all sorts of habit and example--that to injure or deceive others is to +injure themselves--that to help others somehow satisfies and fortifies +their own inner life. Let them learn, as they grow up, to regard all +human beings, of whatever race or class, as ends in themselves--never to +be looked upon as mere things or chattels to be made use of. Let them +also learn to look upon the animals in the same light--as beings, they +too, who are climbing the great ladder of creation--beings with whom +also we humans have a common spirit and interest. And let them learn to +respect _themselves_ as worthy and indispensable members of this great +Body. Thus will be established a true Morality--a morality far more +searching, more considerate of others, more adaptive and more genuine +than that of the present day--a morality, we may say, of common-sense. + +For it may indeed be said that Morality--taking a downright and almost +physiological view of it--is simply _abundance of life_. That is, that +when a man has so abounding and vital an inner nature that his +sympathies and activities overflow the margin of his own petty days and +personal advantage, he is by that fact entering the domain of morality. +Before that time and while limited to the personal organism, the +creative life in each being is either non-moral like that of the +animals, or simply selfish like that of the immature man; but when it +overflows this limit it necessarily becomes social, and moves to the +support and consideration of the neighbour. Having formerly found its +complete activity in the sustentation of the personal self it now +spreads its helpful energies into the lives of the other selves around. +Altruism, in fact, in its healthy forms, is the overflow of abounding +vitality. It is a morality without a code, and happily free from +limiting formulæ.[49] + +And if it be again said that a morality of this kind, which rests on a +principle and a mental attitude only, is a danger, let us pause for a +moment to consider how much more dangerous is one which rests on +formulæ. If morality without a code is a serious matter, how much more +serious is one which is nailed up _within_ a code! For looking back on +history it would sometimes seem that the black-and-white, the +this-thing-right-and-that-thing-wrong morality has been the most wicked +thing in the world. It has been an excuse for all the most devilish +deeds and persecutions imaginable. A formula of the Sabbath-day, a +formula about Witchcraft, a formula of Marriage (regardless of the real +human relation), a formula concerning Theft (regardless of the dire need +of the thief)--and burnings, hangings, torturings without mercy! The +terrible thing about this Right-and-Wrong morality is not only that it +leads to these dreadful reprisals; but that it brands upon the victim as +well as upon the oppressor the fatuous notions that a certain _thing_ is +right or wrong, and that what one has to do is to save _oneself_--two +notions both of which are directly contrary to true Morality. A boy +tells a verbal lie--perhaps through fear, perhaps through inadvertence. +He has broken a formula and is immediately caned. Moral: he will keep to +verbal truth afterwards--however mean or insidious it may be--and be +pharisaically self-satisfied; but he will never realise that the +importance of truth and lies rests not in the words, but in the +confidence and mutual trust which they either create or destroy. The +peculiarly English worship of Duty is open to the same objection. +"Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds," and splendid as is the +conception and practice of Duty, as a self-oblivious inspiration and +enthusiasm, it becomes a truly revolting thing when it takes the +all-too-common form "I have done _my_ Duty, I'm all right!" "I am going +to do _my_ Duty, whatever becomes of you." Can anything be imagined more +disintegrating to society, more certain to split it up into a dustheap +of self-regarding units, than a formula of this kind? "It is my painful +Duty to condemn you to be hanged by the neck until you are dead," says +the Judge to the wretched girl who, in a frenzy of despair, has drowned +her baby. What he really means is that while he perfectly recognises the +monstrosity of the Law which he has sworn to administer, and the +soul-killing effect on the girl which his sentence may have, yet in +order to save _himself_ from the risk or the wrong of breaking that Law, +he is willing and ready to pronounce that sentence. "It is my duty to +burn you," says the Inquisitor to the heretic; and the implication is +really, "I am afraid that if I do not burn you I shall get burnt myself, +in the next world." + +The sooner an end can be made of this sort of morality, the +better--which under the cloak of public advantage or benefit is only +thinking about self-promotion and self-interest, either in this world +or the next, and which truly is calculated not to further human +solidarity but to destroy it. It runs and trickles through all of modern +society, poisoning the well-springs of affection, this morality which, +having paid its domestic servants their regular wages, is quite +satisfied with itself, and expects them to do _their_ duty in return, +but is silent about their real needs and welfare; which treats its +wage-workers as simple machines for the grinding out of profits, and +lifts its eyebrows in serene surprise when they retaliate against such +treatment; which can only regard a criminal as a person who has broken a +formula, and in return must be punished according to a formula; and a +pig as an animal for which you provide reasonable provender and a stye, +and which in return you are entitled to _eat_. Pharisaical, self-centred +and self-interested, materialistic to the last degree, and really +senseless in its outlook, this current morality is indeed, and very +seriously, a public peril. + + + Thou shalt not steal: an empty feat, + When it's so lucrative to cheat. + + +Keep _within_ the code, within the letter; always speak the nominal +truth (whoever may suffer thereby); keep up the accepted formulæ of +marriage and the sex-relation (though hearts may be bleeding and +perishing); pay every respect to property, and so forth; and you may +have the gratification of being looked upon as a bulwark of society. But +none the less it is probable that you are undermining and corrupting +that society to the core. Your outlook is merely on the surface, while +you are condoning deep-seated ill. + +Of course the New Morality--to look _within_, to feel and refer to the +needs of others almost as instinctively as to one's own, to refuse to +regard any _thing_ as in itself good or bad, and to look upon all +beings, oneself included, as ends in themselves and not as a means of +personal self-advancement and glorification--while it is the more +natural, is also the more difficult in a sense, as providing no set +pattern or rule. But surely the time has arrived for its adoption. It is +the morality which must underlie the freer, more varied forms of the +society of the future; and it is the only escape from the corruption of +the old order. + +To take particular examples. Truth, in word or act, is--we all +feel--very important, very fundamental. It is the basis of the common +understanding of which I have spoken. It is the basis of the expression +of oneself, and of the recognition of others. Any one who is deeply +imbued with the consciousness of the common life will necessarily have a +deep respect for the Truth; he will also have a deep respect for the +Life, the Property, the good Name, the Affections, and so forth, of +others, as well as for his own similar attributes. He will not be able +to say, as a formula: I will _never_ deceive another (tell a lie); I +will _never_ take the life of others, man or animal (kill); and so on, +because he knows there are situations in which that very Life arising +within him, or even his own absolute necessity, will demand such +actions, will compel him to the performance of them; but all the same he +will in his ordinary existence carry out the principle which underlies +these formulæ, and much more thoroughly, probably, than the formulæ +themselves would demand. + +Similarly about such matters as sexual morality. There are outcries +against Lady-Godiva-shows and living statuary--apparently because folk +are afraid of such things rousing the passions. No doubt the things may +act that way. But why, we may ask, should people be afraid of rousing +passions which, after all, are the great driving forces of human life? +Clearly it is because they think the other forces which should guide +these passions or give them a helpful and useful direction are too weak. +And in this last respect they are right. The guiding and inhibiting +forces in our present society are feeble--because they consist only in a +few conventional formulæ, which are rapidly being undermined. We are +generating steam in a boiler which is already cankered with rust. The +cure is not to cut off the passions, or to be weakly afraid of them, but +to find a new, sound, healthy engine of general morality and +common-sense within which they will work. And this is what in the future +we must try to do. + +This morality, this organic, vital, almost physiological morality of the +common life--which means a quick response of each unit to the needs of +the other units, and much the same in the body politic as health means +in the physical body--must underlie and be the basis of the societies of +the future. It will mean the liberation of a thousand and one instincts, +desires and capacities which since our childhood's days have lain buried +within us, concealed and ignored because we have thought them wrong or +unworthy, when really all they have wanted has been recognition and the +opportunity to become healthy _by_ recognition--by the process in fact +of balancing against each other, and against opposing and complementary +elements, and so finding their places in the Whole. On this new Morality +of acceptance and recognition and wide-reaching redemption, it will be +possible, as I have already said, to graft not only a stronger +expression of individuality all round, but also a higher and more varied +and more gracious life of _personal affection_--which now alas! lies +like a thing wounded and half dead. Its establishment will, I take it, +mean the oncoming of a society which will liberate personal affection +and love--will liberate forces hitherto artificially crippled because +their liberation would tear our current morality of formulæ to mere rags +and tatters. It means, I take it, the oncoming of a society whose main +motive will no longer be the struggle for Bread (since that is ruled out +by the enormous growth of our wealth-producing powers), but the desire +for the satisfaction of the Heart--thus preparing no doubt new and +unforeseen difficulties and sufferings, yet filling life with such +beautiful things that the motives of greed and the mean pursuit of +money, which now weigh upon the world, will be like an evil nightmare of +the Past from which the dawn delivers us. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[42] _Maitrayana-Brahmana-Upanishad_, vi. 34, 4. + +[43] _Taittiriyaka-Up_, ii. 9, etc. + +[44] Spinoza's _Ethic_, part iv. + +[45] It must be remembered that Nietzsche supposes three stages of the +spirit--(1) the Camel, (2) the Lion, and (3) the Child. And the +Beyond-man properly corresponds to the last stage. + +[46] _Daily News_, December 29, 1906. + +[47] I need hardly say that this does not mean, as Nietzsche so often +and sardonically suggests, the realisation of the _common-place_ life, +but something very different. + +[48] Many Japanese committed suicide on account of not being allowed to +join in the Russian War. See also Lafcadio Hearn's description of the +habitual dignity and courtesy of the youth of Japan.--_Life and +Letters_, vol. i, pp. 12, 113. + +[49] This morality, indeed, may be said to be implicit in much of the +teaching of Christ; yet, curiously enough, it has never been seriously +adopted by the Churches. And as to the regard for animals as ends in +themselves, the Roman Catholic Church, I believe, positively repudiates +any such attitude. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +As the author's attacks in the body of this book upon the Civilisation +peoples have sometimes been regarded as extreme and unjustified, it has +been thought appropriate, here in the Appendix, to collect a few notes +from reliable authorities on the characteristics and customs of +pre-civilised men--not so much of course with the object of proving the +latter always superior to the former, as of bringing to light the many +admirable virtues of the early peoples, which a cheap modern +civilisation has neglected or somewhat contemptuously ignored. + +No one would deny that there are many cases of primitive folk--folk +unclean and ignorant and absurdly superstitious--who can hardly be said +to command our admiration. On the other hand there are a vast number of +cases of an opposite sort--cases which present to us the realisation of +some remarkable human characteristic or social capacity well worthy of +consideration or even of imitation. If our Civilisation is ever to move +on to some form better than the present, it is these latter cases which +ought to be of assistance; for they not only direct our attention to +human possibilities, but by showing what has been realised in the past +assure us that such ideals are by no means unattainable now. + +It is therefore with a view to cases of this kind that the following +Appendix has been framed. + +E. C. + + ++Civilisation does not Engross all the Virtues.+ + + Quotations from Herman Melville's _Typee_, pp. 225, etc. (John + Murray, 1861.) + +"Civilisation does not engross all the virtues of humanity: she has not +even her full share of them. They flourish in greater abundance and +attain greater strength among many barbarous people. The hospitality of +the wild Arab, the courage of the North American Indian, and the +faithful friendships of some of the Polynesian nations, far surpass +anything of a similar kind among the polished communities of Europe. If +truth and justice, and the better principles of our nature, cannot exist +unless enforced by the statute-book, how are we to account for the +social condition of the Typees? So pure and upright were they in all the +relations of life, that entering their valley, as I did, under the most +erroneous impressions of their character, I was soon led to exclaim in +amazement: 'Are these the ferocious savages, the bloodthirsty cannibals +of whom I have heard such frightful tales! They deal more kindly with +each other, and are more humane, than many who study essays on virtue +and benevolence, and who repeat every night that beautiful prayer +breathed first by the lips of the divine and gentle Jesus.' I will +frankly declare, that after passing a few weeks in this valley of the +Marquesas, I formed a higher estimate of human nature than I had ever +before entertained. But alas! since then I have been one of the crew of +a man-of-war, and the pent-up wickedness of five hundred men has nearly +overturned all my previous theories. + + * * * * * + +"How little do some of these poor islanders comprehend, when they look +around them, that no inconsiderable part of their disasters originate +in certain tea-party excitements, under the influence of which +benevolent-looking gentlemen in white cravats solicit alms, and old +ladies in spectacles, and young ladies in sober russet low gowns, +contribute sixpences towards the creation of a fund, the object of which +is to ameliorate the spiritual condition of the Polynesians, but whose +end has almost invariably been to accomplish their temporal destruction! + +"Let the savages be civilised, but civilise them with benefits, and not +with evils; and let heathenism be destroyed, but not by destroying the +heathen. The Anglo-Saxon hive have extirpated Paganism from the greater +part of the North American continent; but with it they have likewise +extirpated the greater portion of the Red race. Civilisation is +gradually sweeping from the earth the lingering vestiges of Paganism, +and at the same time the shrinking forms of its unhappy worshippers. + +"Among the islands of Polynesia, no sooner are the images overturned, +the temples demolished, and the idolaters converted into _nominal_ +Christians, than disease, vice, and premature death make their +appearance. The depopulated land is then recruited from the rapacious +hordes of enlightened individuals who settle themselves within its +borders, and clamorously announce the progress of the Truth. Neat +villas, trim gardens, shaven lawns, spires, and cupolas arise, while the +poor savage soon finds himself an interloper in the country of his +fathers, and that too on the very site of the hut where he was born. + + * * * * * + +"During my whole stay on the island I never witnessed a single quarrel, +nor any thing that in the slightest degree approached even to a dispute. +The natives appeared to form one household, whose members were bound +together by the ties of strong affection. The love of kindred I did not +so much perceive, for it seemed blended in the general love; and where +all were treated as brothers and sisters, it was hard to tell who were +actually related to each other by blood. + +"Let it not be supposed that I have overdrawn this picture. I have not +done so. Nor let it be urged that the hostility of this tribe to +foreigners, and the hereditary feuds they carry on against their +fellow-islanders beyond the mountains, are facts which contradict me. +Not so: these apparent discrepancies are easily reconciled. By many a +legendary tale of violence and wrong, as well as by events which have +passed before their eyes, these people have been taught to look upon +white men with abhorrence. The cruel invasion of their country by Porter +has alone furnished them with ample provocation; and I can sympathize in +the spirit which prompts the Typee warrior to guard all the passes to +his valley with the point of his levelled spear, and, standing upon the +beach, with his back turned upon his green home, to hold at bay the +intruding European." + + ++Influences of "Civilisation"+ + + From R. L. Stevenson's _In the South Seas_, p. 43. (Chatto and + Windus, 1908.) + +[It is asked] "Was not the Polynesian always unchaste? Doubtless he was +so always: doubtless he is more so since the coming of his remarkably +chaste visitors from Europe. Take the Hawaiian account of Cook: I have +no doubt it is entirely fair. Take Krusenstern's candid, almost innocent +description of a Russian man-of-war at the Marquesas; consider the +disgraceful history of missions in Hawaii itself ... add the practice of +whaling fleets to call at the Marquesas and carry off a complement of +women for the cruise ... and bear in mind how it was the custom of the +adventurers, and we may almost say the business of the missionaries, to +deride and infract even the most salutary _tapus_ (taboos)." + + ++Captain Cook at Owyhee in 1799+ + + From his _Life and Voyages_, p. 379. (George Newnes, 1904.) + +"In the progress of the intercourse which was maintained between our +voyagers and the natives, the quiet and inoffensive behaviour of the +latter took away every apprehension of danger, so that the English +trusted themselves among them at all times and in all situations. The +instances of kindness and civility which our people experienced from +them were so numerous that they could not easily be recounted. A society +of priests, in particular, displayed a generosity and munificence of +which no equal example had hitherto been given: for they furnished a +constant supply of hogs and vegetables to our navigators, without ever +demanding a return, or even hinting at it in the most distant manner." +Of the island of Wateeoo (p. 309), "the inhabitants are very numerous, +and many of the young men were perfect models in shape." + + ++Natives of Tahiti+ + + From Havelock Ellis' _Sex in relation to Society_, p. 148. (1910.) + +"The example of Tahiti is instructive as regards the prevalence of +chastity among peoples of what we generally consider low grades of +civilisation. An early explorer, J. R. Forster (_Observations made on a +voyage round the World_, 1778), speaks of the fine climate and the +beauty of the females, as inviting powerfully to the enjoyments and +pleasures of love. Yet he is over and over again impelled to set down +facts which bear testimony to the virtues of these people. Though rather +effeminate in build they are athletic, he says. Moreover in their wars +they fight with great bravery and valour. They are, for the rest, +hospitable. He remarks that they treat their married women with great +respect, and that women generally are nearly the equals of men, both in +intelligence and social position; he gives a charming description of the +women. 'In short their character,' he concludes, 'is as amiable as that +of any nation that ever came unimproved out of the hands of +Nature'[!]"... + +"When Cook," continues Ellis, "who visited Tahiti many times, was among +this 'benevolent, humane' people, he noted their esteem for chastity, +and found that not only were betrothed girls strictly guarded before +marriage, but that men also who had refrained from sexual intercourse +for some time before marriage were believed to pass at death immediately +into the abode of the blessed." + + ++Radack--one of the Caroline Islands+ + + From Chamisso's _Reise um die Welt_, p. 183. (Leipzig.) + +"Thus we made acquaintance with a people who have endeared themselves to +me more than any others of the children of Earth. The very weaknesses of +the Radack folk removed mistrust on our side; their very gentleness and +goodness caused them to be trustful towards us, the all-powerful +strangers; we became declared friends. I found among them simple, +unsophisticated manners, charm, natural grace, and the pleasant bloom +of modesty. In the matter, certainly, of strength and manly independence +the O-Waihier [Owyhees] are greatly their superiors. My friend, Kadu, +who, though not belonging to this island-group, attached himself to us, +was one of the finest characters I have ever met and one of the most +dear to me of human beings; and he afterwards became my instructor with +regard to Radack and the Caroline Islands." + + ++Adaptation of Early Peoples to Surroundings+ + + THE DINKAS (Central Africa): from Grogan's _Cape to Cairo_, p. 278. + (Hurst & Blackett, 1900.) + +"Every one in Dinka-land carries a long spear, or pointed fish-spear, +and a club made of a heavy purple wood, while the more important +gentlemen wear enormous ivory bracelets round their upper arm; strict +nudity is the fashion, and a marabout feather in the hair is the essence +of _chic_. They are all beautifully built, having broad shoulders, small +waist, good hips, and well-shaped legs. The stature of some is colossal. +It was most curious to see how these Dinkas, living as they do in the +marshes, approximate to the type of the waterbird. They have much the +same walk as a heron, picking their feet up very high and thrusting them +well forward; while their feet are enormous. Their colossal height is +indeed a great advantage in the reed grown country in which they live. +The favourite pose of a Dinka (on one foot, with the other foot resting +on the knee) is in reality the favourite pose of a water bird.... They +are the complete antithesis of the pigmy, as the country in which they +live is the complete antithesis of the dense forest which is the home of +the dwarfs.... Our camp was near a large village where there were at +least 1,500 head of cattle, besides sheep and goats, and the chief +brought me a fine fat bull-calf--which settled the nervous question of +food for two days.... The rambling village with its groups of figures +and long lines of home-coming cattle, dimly seen in the smoke of a +hundred fires as I approached at sunset, was very picturesque." + + +THE PIGMIES: from _Cape to Cairo_, pp. 144 and 161. + +"The pigmies have no settled villages, nor do they cultivate anything. +They live the life of the brute in the forests, perpetually wandering in +search of honey or in pursuit of elephant; when they succeed in killing +anything, they throw up a few grass shelters and remain there till all +the meat is either eaten or dried. They depend upon the other natives +for the necessary grain, which they either steal or barter for elephant +meat or honey. All their knives, spearheads and arrow-heads they +likewise purchase from other people, but they make their own bows and +arrows. So well are these made that they are held in great esteem by the +surrounding people." ... "An hour later I met an elderly pigmy in the +forest and managed to induce him to talk. He was a splendid little +fellow, full of self-confidence, and gave me most concise information, +stating that the white man with many belongings had passed near by two +days before, and had then gone down to the lake-shore, where he was +camped at that moment. These people must have a wonderful code of signs +and signals, as despite their isolated and nomadic existence they always +know exactly what is happening everywhere. He was a typical pigmy as +found on the volcanoes--squat, gnarled, proud, and easy of carriage. His +beard hung down over his chest, and his thighs and chest were covered +with wiry hair. He carried the usual pigmy bow made of two pieces of +cane spliced together with grass, and with a string made of a single +strand of a rush that grows in the forests. The pigmies are splendid +examples of the adaptability of Nature to her surroundings; the +combination of strength and conciseness enabling them to move with +astonishing rapidity in the pig-runs that form the only pathway through +the impenetrable growth, and to endure the fatigue of elephant-hunting." + + +NATIVES IN RUANDA (near Lake Kivu): _Cape to Cairo_, p. 118. + +"Society in Ruanda is divided into two castes, the Watusi and the +Wahutu. The Watusi are the descendants of a great wave of Galla invasion +that reached even to Tanganyika. They still retain their pastoral +instincts, and refuse to do any other work than the tending of cattle; +and so great is their affection for their beasts, that rather than sever +company they will become slaves, and do the menial work of their beloved +cattle for the benefit of their conquerors. This is all the more +remarkable when one takes into account their inherent pride of race and +contempt for other peoples, even for the white man.... Many signs of +superior civilisation, observable in the peoples with whom the Watusi +have come into contact, are traceable to this Galla influence. + +"The hills are terraced, thus increasing the area of cultivation, and +obviating the denudation of fertile slopes by torrential rains. In many +cases irrigation is carried out on a sufficiently extensive scale, and +the swamps are drained by ditches. Artificial reservoirs are built with +side troughs for watering cattle. The fields are in many cases fenced in +by planted hedges of euphorbia and thorn, and similar fences are planted +along the narrow parts of the main cattle tracks, to prevent the beasts +from straying or trampling down the cultivation. + +"There is also an exceptional diversity of plants cultivated, such as +hungry rice, maize, red and white millet, several kinds of beans, peas, +bananas, and the edible arum. Some of the higher growing beans are even +trained on sticks planted for the purpose. Pumpkins and sweet potatoes +are also common; and the Watusi own and tend enormous herds of cattle, +goats and sheep. Owing to the magnificent pasturage the milk is of +excellent quality, and they make large quantities of butter. They are +exceedingly clever with their beasts, and have many calls which the +cattle understand. At milking time they light smoke-fires to keep the +flies from irritating the beasts.... They are tall slightly built men of +graceful nonchalant carriage, and their features are delicate and +refined. I noticed many faces that, bleached and set in a white collar, +would have been conspicuous for character in a London drawing-room. The +legal type was especially pronounced." ... + +"The Wahutu are their absolute antithesis. They are the aborigines of +the country, and any pristine originality or character has been +effectually stamped out of them. Hewers of wood and drawers of water, +they do all the hard work, and unquestioning in abject servility give up +the proceeds on demand. Their numerical proportion to the Watusi must be +at least a hundred to one, yet they defer to them without protest; and +in spite of the obvious hatred in which they hold their over lords, +there seems to be no friction." + + ++Natives of the Andaman Islands+ + +The following extracts, about the Andaman-islanders of the Bay of +Bengal, the Bushmen of South Africa, and the Eskimo tribes of Northern +latitudes, are specially interesting because they deal with peoples +whose present-day culture is undoubtedly on a par with, and in all +probability directly inherited from, the peoples of a long-past Stone +Age. Thus we get indirectly a glimpse of what the culture of the Stone +Ages was--both in its material acquisitions and its grade of social and +psychological evolution. + + + From _In the Andamans and Nicobars_, p. 184, by C. Boden Kloss. + (Murray, 1903.) + +"The Andaman Islands are inhabited by people of pure Negrito blood, +members of perhaps the most ancient race remaining on the earth, and +standing closest to the primitive human type.... It would be impossible +to find anywhere a race of purer descent than the Andamanese, for ever +since they peopled the islands in the Stone Age, they have remained +secluded from the outer world.... In stature they are far below the +average height; but although they have been called dwarfs and pygmies, +these words must not be understood to imply anything in the nature of a +monstrosity. Their reputation for hideousness, like their poisoned +arrows and cannibalism, has long been a fallacy which, though widely +popular, should now be exploded. The average heights of the men and +women are found to be 4 feet 10¾ inches, and 4 feet 7¼ inches +respectively, and their figures, which are proportionately built, are +very symmetrical and graceful. Although not to be described as muscular, +they are of good development, the men being agile, yet sturdy, with +broad chests and square shoulders." + + + From E. H. Man on _The Aborigines of the Andaman Islands_, p. 14. + (Trübner, 1883.) + +"No idiots, maniacs or lunatics have ever yet been observed among them, +and this is not because those so afflicted are killed or confined by +their fellows, for the greatest care and attention are invariably paid +to the sick, aged and helpless." + +Mr. Man also remarks (_Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ XII, 92): "It has been +observed with regret by all interested in the race, that intercourse +with the alien population has, generally speaking, prejudicially +affected their morals; and that the candour, veracity, and self-reliance +they manifest in their savage and untutored state are, when they become +associated with foreigners, to a great extent lost, and habits of +untruthfulness, dependence and sloth engendered." + + ++The Bushmen+ + + Extract from F. C. Selous' _African Nature-Notes_, pp. 344 and 347. + (1908.) + +"When I met with the first Bushmen I ever saw, on the banks of the +Orange River in 1872, I was a very young man, and, regarding them with +some repugnance, wrote in my diary that they appeared to be removed by a +very few steps from the brute creation. That was a very foolish and +ignorant remark to make, and I have since found out that though Bushmen +may possibly be to-day in the same backward state of material +development and knowledge as once were the palæolithic ancestors of the +most highly cultured European races in prehistoric times, yet +fundamentally there is very little difference between the natures of +primitive and civilised men, so that it is quite possible for a member +of one of the more cultured races to live for a time quite happily and +contentedly amongst beings who are often described as degraded savages, +and from whom he is separated by thousands of years in all that is +implied by the word 'civilisation.' I have hunted a great deal with +Bushmen, and during 1884 I lived amongst these people continuously for +several months together. On many and many a night I have slept in their +encampments without even any Kafir attendants, and though I was entirely +in their power I always felt perfectly safe among them. As most of the +men spoke Sechwana I was able to converse with them, and found them very +intelligent, good-natured companions, full of knowledge concerning the +habits of all the wild animals inhabiting the country in which they +lived.... I have never seen their women and children ill-treated by +them, and I have seen both the men and the women show affection for +their children." + +Elsewhere Selous speaks of "John"--a member of the close-related Korana +clan--who was in his service, as "of a pale yellow-brown colour, +beautifully proportioned, with small delicately made hands and feet." + + + From preface by Henry Balfour to the book _Bushmen Paintings + Copied_, by Helen Tongue. + +"It is certain that the designs representing animals, etc., which are +painted upon the walls of their caves and rock-shelters, frequently +exhibit a realism and freedom in treatment which are quite remarkable in +the art of so primitive a people. The skill with which many of the +characteristic South African animals are portrayed testifies not only to +unusual artistic efficiency, but also to a close observance of and an +intimate acquaintanceship with the habits and peculiarities of the +animals themselves.... The paintings are remarkable not only for the +realism exhibited by so many, but also for a freedom from the limitation +to delineation in _profile_ which characterises for the most part the +drawings of primitive peoples, especially where animals are concerned. +Attitudes of a kind difficult to render were ventured upon without +hesitation, and an appreciation even of the rudiments of perspective is +occasionally to be noted." + + + Note from the same book, by S. Bleek, daughter of the well-known + Dr. Bleek, of the Grey Library at Cape Town (1870). + +"Bushmen are called liars and thieves all over the Colony, but all those +who stayed with us were truthful and very honest. On no occasion did +they steal even a pocket-knife lost in the garden, or fruit from the +trees. They might have taken sheep from hostile farmers, but they would +never rob a friend or neighbour. They were cleanly in their habits, and +most particular about manners.... As a people they were grateful and +revengeful, independent in spirit, excellent fighters--who preferred +death to captivity.... Captives were sometimes made servants, but not +often well-treated, nor did they take to a settled life easily. Even +kind masters found their longing for freedom hard to conquer." + + ++The Nechilli Eskimo+ + + From Amundsen's _North West Passage_, vol. i, p. 294. (Constable, + 1908.) + +"We were suddenly brought face to face here with a people from the Stone +Age: we were abruptly carried back several thousand years in the advance +of human progress, to people who as yet knew no other method of +procuring fire than by rubbing two pieces of wood together, and who with +great difficulty managed to get their food just lukewarm, over the +seal-oil flame on a stone slab, while we cooked our food in a moment +with our modern cooking apparatus. We came here, with our most ingenious +and most recent inventions in the way of firearms, to people who still +used lances, bows and arrows of reindeer horn.... However, we should be +wrong if from the weapons, implements, and domestic appliances of these +people we were to argue that they were of low intelligence. Their +implements, apparently so very primitive, proved to be as well adapted +to their existing requirements and conditions as experience and the +skilful tests of many centuries could have made them." + + ++Ugpi, an Eskimo+ + + From Amundsen vol. i, p. 190. + +"Ugpi or Uglen (the 'Owl') as we always called him, attracted immediate +attention by his appearance. With his long black hair hanging over his +shoulders, his dark eyes and frank honest expression, he would have been +good-looking if his broad face and large mouth had not spoilt his beauty +from a European standpoint. There was something serious, almost dreamy, +about him. Honesty and truthfulness are unmistakably impressed on his +features, and I would never have hesitated for a moment to entrust him +with anything. During his association with us he became an exceptionally +clever hunter both for birds and reindeer. He was about thirty years old +and was married to Kabloka, a very small girl of seventeen." + + ++Eskimo and Civilisation+ + + From Amundsen vol. ii, p. 48. + +"During the voyage of the _Gjoa_, we came into contact with ten +different Eskimo tribes in all ... and I must state it as my firm +conviction that the Eskimo living absolutely isolated from civilisation +of any kind are undoubtedly the happiest, healthiest, most honorable +and most contented among them. It must therefore be the bounden duty of +civilised nations who come into contact with the Eskimo to safeguard +them against contaminating influences, and by laws and stringent +regulations protect them against the many perils and evils of so-called +civilisation. Unless this is done they will inevitably be ruined.... My +sincerest wish for our friends the Nechilli Eskimo is that Civilisation +may _never_ reach them." + + ++High Standard of Tribal Morality among the Aleoutes+ + + Witnessed to by the Russian missionary, Veniaminoff. See _Mutual + Aid_, pp. 99 and 100, by P. Kropotkin. + +The high standard of the tribal morality of the Eskimos has often been +mentioned in general literature. Nevertheless the following remarks upon +the manners of the Aleoutes--nearly akin to the Eskimos--will better +illustrate savage morality as a whole. They were written, after a ten +years' stay among the Aleoutes, by a most remarkable man--the Russian +missionary, Veniaminoff. I sum them up, mostly in his own words:-- + +Endurability (he wrote) is their chief feature. It is simply colossal. +Not only do they bathe every morning in the frozen sea, and stand naked +on the beach, inhaling the icy wind, but their endurability, even when +at hard work on insufficient food, surpasses all that can be imagined. +During a protracted scarcity of food, the Aleoute cares first for his +children; he gives them all he has, and himself fasts. They are not +inclined to stealing; that was remarked even by the first Russian +immigrants. Not that they never steal; every Aleoute would confess +having sometime stolen something, but it is always a trifle; the whole +is so childish. The attachment of the parents to their children is +touching, though it is never expressed in words or pettings. The Aleoute +is with difficulty moved to make a promise, but once he has made it he +will keep it whatever may happen. (An Aleoute made Veniaminoff a gift of +dried fish, but it was forgotten on the beach in the hurry of the +departure. He took it home. The next occasion to send it to the +missionary was in January; and in November and December there was a +great scarcity of food in the Aleoute encampment. But the fish was never +touched by the starving people, and in January it was sent to its +destination.) + + ++Home Life of the Eskimo+ + + By Villialm Stefansson. From _Harper's Monthly_, October, 1908. + +Stefansson lived for thirteen months in the household of a Chief, +Ovaynak, on the Mackenzie River, and knew his subject well. He says:-- + +"With their absolute equality of the sexes and perfect freedom of +separation, a permanent union of uncongenial persons is well-nigh +inconceivable. But if a couple find each other congenial enough to +remain married a year or two, divorce becomes exceedingly improbable, +and is much rarer among the middle-aged than among us. People of the age +of twenty-five and over are usually very fond of each other, and the +family--when once it becomes settled--appears to be on a higher level of +affection and mutual consideration than is common among us. In an Eskimo +home I have never heard an unpleasant word between a man and his wife, +never seen a child punished, nor an old person treated inconsiderately. +Yet the household affairs are carried on in an orderly way, and the good +behaviour of the children is remarked by practically every traveller. + +"These charming qualities of the Eskimo home may be largely due to their +equable disposition and the general fitness of their character for the +communal relations; but it seems reasonable to give a portion of the +credit to their remarkable social organisation; for they live under +conditions for which some of our best men are striving--conditions that +with our idealists are even yet merely dreams." + + ++Religious Beliefs among the Eskimos+ + + From Rasmussen's _People of the Polar North_, pp. 125 and 127. + (1908.) + +"Their religious opinions do not lead them to any sort of worship of the +supernatural, but consist--if they are to be formulated in a creed--of a +list of commandments and rules of conduct controlling their relations +with unknown forces hostile to man." + +"A wise and independent thinking Eskimo, Otag the Magician, said to me +of death: 'You ask, but I know nothing of death; I am only acquainted +with life. I can only say what I believe: either death is the end of +life, or else it is the transition into another mode of life. In neither +case is there anything to fear. Nevertheless I do not want to die, +because I consider that it is good to live.' This calm way of envisaging +death is not unusual; I have seen many pagan Eskimos go to meet certain +death without a trace of fear." + + ++Periodical Distributions to Obviate Accumulations of Wealth+ + + From Kropotkin's _Mutual Aid_, p. 97. (Heinemann, 1908.) + +"(The Eskimos) have an original means for obviating the inconveniences +arising from a personal accumulation of wealth--which would soon destroy +their tribal unity. When a man has grown rich he convokes the folk of +his clan to a great festival, and after much eating, distributes among +them all his fortune. On the Yukon river Dall saw an Aleoute family +distributing in this way ten guns, ten full fur dresses, two hundred +strings of beads, numerous blankets, ten wolf furs, two hundred beavers +and five hundred zibellines. After that they took off their festival +dresses, and putting on old ragged furs, addressed a few words to their +kinsfolk, saying that, though they are now poorer than any one of them, +they have won their friendship.[50] Like distributions of wealth appear +to be a regular habit with the Eskimos, and to take place at a certain +season, after an exhibition of all that has been obtained during the +year. In my (Kropotkin) opinion, these distributions reveal a very old +institution, contemporaneous with the first apparition of personal +wealth; they must have been a means for re-establishing equality among +the members of the clan, after it had been disturbed by the enrichment +of the few. The periodical redistribution of land and the periodical +abandonment of all debts, which took place in historical times with so +many different races (Semites, Aryans, etc.), must have been a survival +of that old custom." + + ++The Samoyedes+ + + From _Icebound on the Kolguev_, p. 384, by A. Trevor-Battye. + (Constable, 1895.) + +"Family affection among the Samoyeds is very strongly developed. It +would be impossible to find greater evidence of this among any people. +Another extremely marked character among them is family order. All +everyday offices and occupations are carried out by a well-defined +method and subdivision of labour. I never saw a single instance of +anything approaching a family quarrel.... They are very handy sailors, +patient and successful hunters and fishermen, and admirable workmen with +such tools as they understand. No man can repair a damaged boat more +quickly than a Samoyed, and from the roughest drift-wood (such as an +English carpenter would throw on the fire), they fashion bows, arrows, +sleighs, spoons, drinking-cups, bullet-moulds, and a variety of articles +of everyday use." + + ++The Belle of Kolguev+ + + From _Icebound on the Kolguev_, p. 130. + +"Her sister-in-law Ustynia was really, if you accept the type, a pretty +girl.... Her eyes were bright, and a pleasant smile played about her +lips. When she laughed--and these people are always laughing--she +betrayed the most perfectly beautiful teeth it is possible to imagine. +Indeed all these people, even old Uano, had most wonderful teeth--white, +regular and perfectly shaped. On her fingers Ustynia wore heavy rings of +white and yellow metal, and her hands, like those of all Samoyeds, were +faultless in shape and extraordinarily supple. If you add to this a +dress reaching to the knees, formed of young reindeer skin, worked in +many stripes of white and brown, the skirt banded with scarlet cloth and +dogskin fur, and foot and leg coverings of soft patterned skin reaching +above the knee--there you have Ustynia, the belle of Kolguev." + + ++The Todas+ + + Quoted from _The Todas_, by W. H. Rivers (1906). + +These people live on a very lofty and isolated plateau of the Nilgiri +Hills in South India; and are especially interesting to us because till +1812 "they were absolutely unknown to Europeans," and developed their +own customs untouched by Western civilisation. "They are a purely +pastoral people, limiting their activities almost entirely to the care +of their buffaloes and to the complicated ritual which has grown up in +association with these animals." (p. 6) ... They have a completely +organised and definite system of polyandry. When a woman marries a man, +it is understood that she becomes the wife of his brothers at the same +time. When a boy is married to a girl, not only are his brothers usually +regarded as also the husbands of the girl, but any brother born later +will similarly be regarded as sharing his older brother's rights." (p. +515.) + +"The men are strong and very agile; the agility being most in evidence +when they have to catch their infuriated buffaloes at the funeral +ceremonies. They stand fatigue well, and often travel great +distances.... In going from one part of the hills to another a Toda +always travels as nearly as possible in a straight line, ignoring +altogether the influence of gravity, and mounting the steepest hills +with no apparent effort. In all my work with the men it seemed to me +they were extremely intelligent. They grasped readily the points of any +enquiry on which I entered, and often showed a marked appreciation of +complicated questions.... I can only record my impression, after several +months' intercourse with the Todas, that they were just as intelligent +as one would have found any average body of educated Europeans.... The +characteristic note in their demeanour is their absolute belief in their +own superiority over the surrounding races. They are grave and +dignified, and yet thoroughly cheerful and well-disposed towards all." +(pp. 18-23.) + + ++Nudity+ + + THE PELEW ISLANDS: from J. G. Wood (vol. _America_, p. 447). _See_ + Captain H. Wilson, who was wrecked there in 1783. + +"The inhabitants are of a dark copper colour, well-made, tall, and +remarkable for their stately gait. They employ the tattoo in rather a +curious manner, pricking the patterns thickly on their legs from the +ankles to a few inches above the knees, so that they look as if their +legs were darker in colour than the rest of their bodies. They are +cleanly in their habits, bathing frequently and rubbing themselves with +coco-nut oil, so as to give a soft and glossy appearance to the skin.... +The men wear no clothing, not even the king himself having the least +vestige of raiment, the tattoo being supposed to answer the purposes of +dress.... In spite, however, of the absence of dress, the deportment of +the sexes towards each other is perfectly modest. For example, the men +and women will not bathe at the same spot, nor even go near a bathing +place of the opposite sex unless it be deserted." + + ++Natives of the Amazon Region+ + +Alfred Russell Wallace, in his _Travels on the Amazon_ (1853), speaks +most warmly about the aborigines of that district--both as to their +grace of form, their quickness of hand, and their goodnatured +inoffensive disposition. He says (chap. xvii): "Their figures are +generally superb; and I have never felt so much pleasure in gazing at +the finest statue as at these living illustrations of the human form." +In his _My Life_, vol. ii, p. 288, he says: "Their whole aspect and +manner were different (from the semi-civilised tribes); they walked with +the free step of the independent forest-dweller ... original and +self-sustaining as the wild animals of the forest ... living their own +lives in their own way, as they had done for countless generations +before America was discovered. The true denizen of the Amazonian +forests, like the forest itself, is unique and not to be forgotten." + + + From _The Putumayo, or Devil's Paradise_. By W. E. Hardenburg + (1912). + +"The Huitotos are a well-formed race, and although small, are stout and +strong, with a broad chest and a prominent bust; but their limbs, +especially the lower, are but little developed.... That repugnant sight, +a protruding abdomen, so common among the 'whites' and half-breeds on +the Amazon, is very rare among these aborigines.... Notwithstanding some +defects it is not rare to find among these women many who are really +beautiful--so magnificent are their figures, and so free and graceful +their movements." (p. 152). + +"Unions are considered binding among the Huitotos, and it is very rarely +that serious disagreements arise between husband and wife. The women +are naturally chaste, and it was not till the advent of the rubber +collectors that they began to lose this primitive virtue--so generally +met with among people not yet in contact with white men" (p. 154). + +[N.B.--These were some of the people so villainously tortured--men, +women and children--for the collection of rubber, by commercial +scoundrels, whose atrocities were exposed by Roger Casement and others. +E.C.] + + ++Fine Figures and Features of the Dyaks+ + + Quotations from Beccar's _In the Forests of Borneo_, pp. 325 and + 329. (Constable 1904.) + +"On the morning of October 19, as previously arranged, Ladja, with eight +other Dyaks, came to the fort duly equipped for the journey. Ladja was a +handsome young man, tall like most of his companions, slender, and +beautifully made. His profile was nearly regular, the nose perfectly +straight, but the cheek bones rather too prominent and the chin rather +pointed. His complexion was very light." ... "Our Arno boatmen in +Florence always pole where the river is shallow, and use their poles +exactly as the Dyaks do theirs, only they certainly cannot compare with +the latter in the length of the journeys thus performed with their light +canoes. Ours literally flew over the water handled with incomparable +dexterity by my six young savages. There is to my mind no lighter and +more pleasant mode of progression, and certainly no kind of work +displays so well the elegant movements and perfect proportions of these +young Dyaks, who, practically unencumbered with clothing, are truly +splendid specimens of humanity." + + + From Ida Pfeiffer's book _Meine zweite Weltreise_, vol. i, p. 116. + (Vienna, 1856.) + +"I must confess that I would gladly have journeyed longer among the free +Dayaks. I found them wonderfully honourable, gentle and modest; indeed +in these respects I put them above any people that I have as yet become +acquainted with. I could leave all my things about, and go away for +hours together, and never was the least thing missing. They begged me +occasionally for many an object they saw, but immediately gave way when +I explained that I needed it myself. They were never over-pressing or +tiresome. It will be said, in denial of this, that the beheading of +corpses and preservation of skulls does not look exactly like +gentleness; but it must be remembered that this sad custom is chiefly +the result of rude and ignorant superstition. I stick to my opinion, and +as a further proof, would cite their domestic and thoroughly patriarchal +mode of life, their morals and manners, the love that they have for +their children, and the respect their children show to them." + + ++A Rodiya Boy+ + +Ernst Haeckel in his _Visit to Ceylon_, describes the devotion to him of +his Rodiya serving-boy at Belligam near Galle. The keeper of the +rest-house there was an old man whom Haeckel, from his likeness to a +well-known head, called by the name of Socrates. And Haeckel continues: +"It really seemed as though I should be pursued by the familiar aspects +of classical antiquity from the first moment of my arrival at my idyllic +home. For as Socrates led me up the steps of the open central hall of +the rest-house, I saw before me, with uplifted arms in an attitude of +prayer, a beautiful naked brown figure, which could be nothing else than +the famous statue of the 'Youth Adoring.' How surprised I was when the +graceful bronze statue suddenly came to life, and dropping his arms fell +on his knees, and after raising his black eyes imploringly to mine bowed +his handsome face so low at my feet that his long black hair fell on the +floor! Socrates informed me that this boy was a Pariah, a member of the +lowest caste, the Rodiyas, who had lost his parents at an early age. He +was told off to my exclusive service, and in answer to the question what +I was to call my new body-servant, the old man informed me that his name +was Gamameda. Of course I immediately thought of Ganymede, for the +favorite of Jove himself could not have been more finely made, or have +had limbs more beautifully proportioned and moulded. + +"Among the many beautiful figures which move in the foreground of my +memories of the Paradise of Ceylon, Ganymede remains one of my dearest +favorites. Not only did he fulfil his duties with the greatest attention +and conscientiousness, but he developed a personal attachment and +devotion to me which touched me deeply. The poor boy, as a miserable +outcast of the Rodiya caste, had been from his birth the object of the +deepest contempt of his fellow-men, and subjected to every sort of +brutality and ill-treatment. He was evidently as much surprised as +delighted to find me willing to be kind to him from the first.... I owe +many beautiful and valuable contributions to my museum to Ganymede's +unfailing zeal and dexterity. With the keen eye, the neat hand, and the +supple agility of the Cinghalese youth, he could catch a fluttering moth +or a gliding fish with equal promptitude; and his nimbleness was really +amazing when, out hunting, he climbed the tall trees like a cat, or +scrambled through the densest jungle to recover the prize I had killed." +(p. 200.) + + ++Second Sight+ + + Native "diviners" in South Africa, from _The Spiritualism of the + Zulu_, by C. H. Bull, of Durban. + +"Many years ago I was riding transport between Durban and the Umzimkulu. +I checked my loads at Durban and found them correct with the waybill, +but when I reached my destination I discovered that I was one case +short, for which I had to pay. On my return to my farm, I mentioned the +fact to my brother, who proposed, more in the spirit of fun than +anything else, that we should visit a diviner, and endeavour to discover +what had become of it. I consented, and together we repaired to a native +diviner. He immediately informed us of the object of our visit, +although, so far as I can tell, it was morally impossible for him to +have known it through any ordinary channels, and then he went on +speaking as though in a dream: 'I see a waggon loaded with cases +climbing up the Umgwababa Hill; there has been a lot of rain and the +roads are slippery. Half way up the hill the rains have washed a gully; +into this the waggon lurches, displacing a small case, which falls to +the ground, but the driver, who is busy urging his team up the hill, +does not notice it. Now the waggon has passed out of sight, but I see a +Kaffir coming up the hill. When he reaches the spot where the case is +lying, he stops for a few moments to examine it, and then proceeds to +the top of the hill, where he stands for a few moments shading his eyes +with his hand, as though looking beyond. Now he returns to where the +case is lying, and lifting it up, crosses the road, and pushing his way +through some tall tambootie grass, he reaches a large indonie tree; +under the tree there is a stunted clump of wild bananas. He places the +case in the centre of the clump, and after concealing it with some of +the dry leaves, he goes on his way. The case is still there.' + +"Though wholly incredulous of the truth of the vision, I sent two 'boys' +to the spot indicated, and they returned bringing with them the lost +case, having found it exactly where the diviner said that he saw it." + + ++The Zulus+ + + THE ZULUS: Quotations from General Sir W. Butler's _Naboth's + Vineyard_, p. 263 (given in Blyden's _African Life and Customs_, p. + 43). + +"In all the sad history of South Africa few things are sadder than the +Zulu question. Where the Zulu came (in those days), no lock or key were +necessary. No man who knew the Zulu--not even the white colonist, whose +rage was largely the result of his being unable to get servile labour +from him--could say that he had not found the Zulu honest, truthful, +faithful; that the white wife and child had not been entirely safe from +insult or harm at the hands of this black man; or that money and +property were not immeasurably more secure in Zulu charge than in that +of Europeans or Asiatics." + + +From Blyden's _African Life and Customs_, p. 37. + +"There are to-day hundreds of so-called civilised Africans who are +coming back to themselves. They have grasped the principles underlying +the European social and economic order and reject them as not equal to +their own as means of making adequate provision for the normal needs of +all members of society both present and future--from birth all through +life to death. They have discovered all the waste places, all the +nakedness of the European system, both by reading and travel. The great +wealth can no longer dazzle them, or conceal from their view the vast +masses of the population living under what they once supposed to be the +ideal system--who are of no earthly use to themselves or to others.... +Under the African system of communal property and co-operative effort, +every member of a community has a home and a sufficiency of food and +clothing and other necessaries of life--and for life; and his children +after him have the same advantages. In this system there is no workhouse +and no necessity for such an arrangement." + + ++Over-government+ + + From Wallace's _Malay Archipelago_, p. 336. (1894 edition.) + +"This motley, ignorant, bloodthirsty, thievish population (Papuans, +Javanese, Chinese, etc.), live here without the shadow of a government, +with no police, no courts, and no lawyers; yet they do not cut each +other's throats; do not plunder each other day and night; do not fall +into the anarchy such a state of things might be supposed to lead to. It +is very extraordinary! It puts strange thoughts into one's head about +the mountain-load of government under which people exist in Europe, and +suggests the idea that we may be over-governed. Think of the hundred +Acts of Parliament annually enacted to prevent us, the people of +England, from cutting each other's throats, or from doing to our +neighbours as we would _not_ be done by. Think of the thousands of +lawyers and barristers whose whole lives are spent in telling us what +the hundred Acts of Parliament mean, and one would be led to infer that +if Dobbo has too little law England has too much." + + ++Society without Government+ + + From Morley's _Rousseau_, vol. ii, p. 227, _note_. (Eversley + edition, 1910.) + +"Jefferson, who was American minister in France from 1784 to 1789, and +absorbed a great many of the ideas then afloat, writes in words that +seem as if they were borrowed from Rousseau: 'I am convinced that those +societies (as the Indians), which live without government, enjoy in +their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those +who live under European governments. Among the former public opinion is +in the state of law, and restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did +anywhere. Among the latter, under pretence of government, they have +divided the nation into two classes, wolves and sheep. I do not +exaggerate; this is a true picture of Europe.'" (From Tucker's _Life of +Jefferson_, vol. i, p. 255.) + + ++Security without Government+ + +From _Tafilet_, p. 353. By W. B. Harris. (Blackwood, 1895.) + +"The Moors have a proverb, and it is a very true one, that safety and +security can only be found in the districts where there is no +government--that is to say, where the government is a _tribal_ one." + + ++Degradation through "Civilisation"+ + + From _The Spiritualism of the Zulu_. By C. H. Bull, of Durban. + +"Thirty-two years ago, I lived for some time in a district in Natal, +then thickly populated with natives, still conforming to the primitive +customs of their race, yet honest, manly and intelligent people, with +very definite ideas in regard to moral questions. After an absence of +thirty years, just prior to my sailing for England, I again visited the +district and was amazed to observe the change which had taken place in +the people; their habits, characters and physique. Sordid poverty, +dressed in mean rags or tawdry finery, suggestive of service to vice, +had displaced the old dignity, born of conscious physical strength and +symmetry of form, which once, though attired only in the trappings that +simple art could devise from the rough products of nature, was +characteristic; whilst drunkenness, dishonesty and immorality sought +shelter under the meagre cloaks of the religion dispensed by the +different sections of belief, established in the little iron, or wattle +and daub churches, which everywhere disfigured the country side. The +change was complete and deplorable, nor were the natives unconscious of +their degradation, or without regret for the passing of the old days." + + ++Slavery+ + + From Waitz's _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, vol. ii, p. 281. + (Leipzig, 1860.) + +"One finds that the fate of Slaves among the ruder peoples is much +happier than among the civilised; indeed it seems to grow worse and +worse in proportion to the civilisation of the ruling folk. Strange and +incredible as at first sight this seems, the following facts establish +it beyond doubt. And indeed it is not difficult to explain. The chief +reason is that with the increase of _merely material culture_, Time and +Labour-force are more and more prized, and consequently always more +violently and unscrupulously exploited, while on the contrary among +primitive people in general a lesser value is placed on these things." + + ++The Fraud of Western Civilisation+ + + Extract from "A Letter to a Chinese Gentleman," by Leo Tolstoy. + (Published in _Saturday Review_, December 1, 1906.) + +"Amongst all these Western nations there unceasingly proceeds a strife +between the destitute exasperated working people and the government and +wealthy, a strife which is restrained only by coercion on the part of +deceived men who constitute the army; a similar strife is continually +waging between the different states demanding endlessly increasing +armaments, a strife which is any moment ready to plunge into the +greatest catastrophes. But however dreadful this state of things may be, +it does not constitute the essence of the calamity of the Western +nations. Their chief and fundamental calamity is that the whole life of +these nations who are unable to furnish themselves with food is entirely +based on the necessity of procuring means of sustenance by violence and +cunning from other nations, who like China, India, Russia and others +still preserve a rational agricultural life. + +"Constitutions, protective tariffs, standing armies, all this together +has rendered the Western nations what they are--people who have +abandoned agriculture and become unused to it, occupied in towns and +factories in the production of articles for the most part unnecessary, +people who with their armies are adapted only to every kind of violence +and robbery. However brilliant their position may appear at first sight +it is a desperate one, and they must inevitably perish if they do not +change the whole structure of their life founded as it now is on deceit +and the plunder and pillage of the agricultural nations." + + + From O'Brien's _White Shadows in the South Seas_. (New York, 1919.) + +"A hundred years ago there were 160,000 Marquesans in these [South Sea] +Islands. To-day their total number does not reach 2,100." O'Brien +describes the bad effects of Christianity on these "savages." For he +says the so-called superstitions of these races had a great vitalising +influence. Their dancing, their tattooing, their religious rites, their +chanting and their warfare gave them a zest in life. But "to-day all +Polynesians from Hawaii to Tahiti are dying because of the suppression +of the play-instinct that had its expression in most of their customs +and occupations." And they are now "nothing but joyless machines" and +"tired of life." + + ++Failure of Our Civilisation+ + +For a searching comparison between our social conditions and those of +the many savage communities visited by him--and much to the general +advantage of the latter--_see_ A. R. Wallace's _Malay Archipelago_ (1st +ed. 1869), pp. 456, 7 (ed. 1894). And he ends the book by saying: + +"Until there is a more general recognition of this failure of our +civilisation--resulting mainly from our neglect to train and develop +more thoroughly the sympathetic feelings and moral faculties of our +nature, and to allow them a larger share of influence in our +legislation, our commerce, and our whole social organisation--we shall +never, as regards the whole community, attain to any real or important +superiority over the better class of savages. This is the lesson I have +been taught by my observations of uncivilised man. + +"I now bid my readers--Farewell!" + +FOOTNOTE: + +[50] Dall, _Alaska and its Resources_, Cambridge, U.S., 1870. + + +_Printed in Great Britain by_ + +UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED + +WOKING AND LONDON + + + + +ADVERTISEMENTS + + +BOOKS BY EDWARD CARPENTER + + +ANGELS' WINGS: Essays on Art and its Relation to Life. Illustrated. +Large Cr. 8vo, 6s. 6d. net. [_Fifth Edition._ + +ART OF CREATION, THE: Essays on the Self and its Powers. Cr. 8vo, 5s. +net. [_Fourth Edition._ + +CHANTS OF LABOUR: a Songbook for the People, with frontispiece and cover +by Walter Crane. (_Reprinting._) [_Fifth Edition._ + +CIVILIZATION: ITS CAUSE AND CURE. Essays on Modern Science. +Cr. 8vo. Original Edition. Cloth, 3s. 6d. net, and Limp Cloth, 2s. 6d. +net. [_Sixteenth Edition._ + +New and much enlarged Edition. Cr. 8vo. Cloth, 7s. 6d. net. + +DAYS WITH WALT WHITMAN. Cr. 8vo, 5s. net. 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