diff options
Diffstat (limited to '75874-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 75874-h/75874-h.htm | 649 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75874-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 332512 bytes |
2 files changed, 649 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/75874-h/75874-h.htm b/75874-h/75874-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f17acca --- /dev/null +++ b/75874-h/75874-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,649 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Personal Rights | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; + text-indent: 1em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +hr.r5 {width: 5%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 47.5%; margin-right: 47.5%;} +hr.r10 {width: 10%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 45%; margin-right: 45%;} +hr.r40 {width: 40%; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 30%;} +hr.r65 {width: 65%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; + color: #A9A9A9; +} /* page numbers */ + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} + + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + +.fs80 {font-size: 80%} +.fs90 {font-size: 90%} +.fs130 {font-size: 130%} +.fs150 {font-size: 150%} + +.no-indent {text-indent: 0em;} +.bold {font-weight: bold;} +.wsp {word-spacing: 0.3em;} + +hr.double {width: 60%; border-top: 6px double; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; +margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75874 ***</div> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 85%"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h1>PERSONAL RIGHTS:</h1> + +<p class="center no-indent fs130 wsp">A PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS</p> + +<p class="center no-indent wsp fs90">Delivered to the</p> + +<p class="center no-indent fs130 wsp">FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING</p> + +<p class="center no-indent wsp fs90">of the</p> + +<p class="center no-indent fs130 wsp">PERSONAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION,</p> + +<p class="center no-indent wsp fs90">ON 6th JUNE, 1913,</p> + +<p class="center no-indent wsp fs90">by</p> + +<p class="center no-indent fs150 wsp bold">MRS. MONA CAIRD.</p> +<br> + +<hr class="r10"> +<br> + +<p class="center no-indent wsp">LONDON:<br> +<span class="fs130">THE PERSONAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION,</span><br> +11, ABBEVILLE ROAD, LONDON, S.W.</p> + +<hr class="r5"> + +<p class="center no-indent bold fs80 wsp">Price: ONE PENNY. +</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<hr class="r40"> +<p class="center no-indent fs80"> +<span class="smcap">Printed for the Personal Rights Association,<br> +by the Tokio Printing Co., Reading & London</span><br> +</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p> + +<p class="center no-indent fs130 bold wsp">MRS. MONA CAIRD</p> + +<p class="center no-indent bold wsp">ON</p> + +<p class="center no-indent fs150 bold wsp">PERSONAL RIGHTS.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="double"> +<br> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>:—I used to feel some +impatience with public speakers who spent half their +speech in explaining how it was they had committed +the indiscretion of making it, and how much more +suitable for the post somebody else would have been.</p> + +<p>Those gentlemen now have my profoundest +sympathy!</p> + +<p>I feel that I ought to spend not half, but my whole +speech, in explaining why I have the temerity to address +you tonight on this familiar subject, seeing that I +never do speak in public, and that my feelings about +taking the chair are very much like they would be +about taking a cold plunge in the Atlantic in early +spring.</p> + +<p>However, I can’t get rid of my deficiencies by +enumerating them, so I must just throw myself on +your mercy, asking you to regard this venture as a +tribute of admiration and gratitude to our President +and his supporters who have made so magnificent a +defence of the Cause for so many thankless years. +Also I have felt moved to accept the honour on account +of the scarcity of wholehearted champions, especially—I +regret to hear—among the sex which has always +been deprived of personal rights.</p> + +<p>Perhaps that is just why they <em>are</em> lacking in respect +for them! And what a warning this is! The spirit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span> +of liberty, it would appear, can be starved to death. +Society, having done its foolish best to destroy that +spirit in half its members, expects the other half to +retain it unimpaired—an obvious impossibility. For +interaction of influence is incessant and universal +between the two sexes.</p> + +<p>The career of women having depended not on right +but on favour, they have learnt to care little for an +abstract idea which has no bearing on their lives. +Only the exceptional mind cares for that. But similar +conditions would assuredly produce the same result +in men. And—we are on our rapid way to similar +conditions.</p> + +<p>Now, in a vast subject like this, which really touches +the heart of everything that is vital and valuable in +life, it is impossible, in twenty-five minutes to deal +with it in any detail; and I propose tonight simply +to dwell upon the perils with which we are all +threatened, in consequence of the present trend of +sentiment. For we have to try and make these perils +obvious to the hearts as well as to the minds of our +contemporaries, if there is to be any hope of checking +the present downward tendencies.</p> + +<p>It is of little use merely <em>stating</em> that it is perilous to +try to purchase social benefits at the expense of +individuals. To the majority, that seems the safest +thing in the world; and, strange to say, the most just. +The ancient idea of vicarious sacrifice is as rampant +today as it was when the groves of ancient temples +echoed with the cries of human victims, burnt on the +altars, for the appeasement of the gods and the good +of the community.</p> + +<p>The idea of <em>numbers</em> enters largely into the popular +idea of right and wrong—what I call arithmetical +morality. Because 100 is ten times more than 10, it +is assumed that ten <em>persons</em> may justly be sacrificed for +the sake of the 100. But that is to confuse mere nonsentient +signs with living conscious beings; surely a +strangely stupid proceeding. It is this deeply-rooted +idea which we have to combat.</p> + +<p>First of all then, it must be noted, that, as a rule, +the less liberty people enjoy, the less they value or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span> +respect it. The preoccupation will be not with +liberty but with the best means of getting on without +it. And the best way of doing that will be—or will +seem to be—to force your own views as much as +possible upon your neighbours—otherwise they will +force theirs upon <em>you</em>. Mutually lacking in respect for +liberty, there will be as many good reasons for attacking +it in others as you have theories to enforce. And +the same for them. The situation must obviously end +in a stupendous tyranny of some kind: whether of +king or oligarchy or State: and that of the State, +being practically invulnerable, is the worst of all.</p> + +<p>I am far from thinking that the motive for aggression +would always be self-interest. It would be less +dangerous if it were. We all know the deadly tyranny +of the thoroughly well-meaning person: the highly-moral +person, for instance, who calls out for mediæval +forms of punishment for especially reprobated crimes. +As some philosopher said: “He must be an extraordinarily +good man before he can safely be guided by +his conscience.” I go farther, and say: “The extraordinarily +good man must be trained for a lifetime by +the Personal Rights Association before he can trust +his conscience—and even then he had better not!”</p> + +<p>Of all human attributes, conscience, when backed +by power over others, seems to be the most dangerous. +Think what martyr-fires it has lighted, +what torture-chambers it has furnished and kept +busy! If we had only self-interest to deal with, +we should not be troubled with the present ardent +desire of increasing numbers of people, to further the +interests of Society—of morals, medicine, science—even +what are called the true interests of the individual +himself, by progressive outrage against him. +It is this eternal “good motive” that makes our +reformers as irresistible as a swarm of locusts, and as +destructive! The bravest of us flinch before Virtue +on the war-path.</p> + +<p>Before they have done, our philanthropic locusts +will have eaten off every green blade and leaf of +human initiative, and will leave the Society which +they so yearn to serve barren and blight-stricken,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span> +perhaps for centuries to come. Of what value to any +one is such a Society? What in fact, <em>exists</em>, but +individuals?</p> + +<p>And mark: there is no retracing our steps if we go +too far in this direction. We are always assured that +there would be a reaction against a too great +restriction of the human spirit. But that is true only +so long as the restriction is more or less a novelty and +is <em>not</em> too great. Directly it becomes really extreme, +there is no reaction. We can see this in the innumerable +nations of antiquity and of today which have +remained stagnant for hundreds and hundreds of +years. Lack of human rights tends progressively to +stifle the spirit that would demand or respect them. +Even in England, whose history is that of the struggle +for liberty, we have seen how, in women, that spirit +has been weakened. How then are we to hope—after +a too deep descent to Avernus—for a return towards +the light and inspiration of freedom? It is expecting +a result without a cause—or rather in the teeth of one.</p> + +<p>Like Xerxes, stupidly confident, we burn our boats +behind us. Or, more accurately, Nature burns them +for us. She seems to say: “Very well; if you don’t +want to give scope to original minds, you have only +to make your social conditions accordingly—subordinate +your individual ruthlessly to what you call +‘the common good’—and original minds will never +trouble you again. Not only will your organization +suppress them, but it will gradually destroy your +power even to produce them. That will save <em>them</em> an +immensity of trouble, and prevent all hitches in your +boring routine. If that’s what you want, it is easily +yours.”</p> + +<p>But our reformers <em>don’t</em> exactly want that. They +like to have it both ways. They want a subservient, +State-ridden community of highly individualized +human beings, who—like the inmates of Barry’s Home +for Geniuses—would initiate punctually and spontaneously +to order—in the approved direction, of +course. No fantastic unexpected nonsense would be +tolerated for a moment!</p> + +<p>The old pathetic story of Midas, whose wish—granted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span> +by the gods—that everything he touched +should turn to gold, seems vaguely symbolic of this +eager desire to turn living, initiating individuals into +subservient parts of a social Whole. It is possible to +have a prayer too completely answered, as poor Midas +found, when his best cook’s masterpieces became hard +yellow metal under his teeth, till he starved amidst +fabulous riches; while his heart was finally broken +when his little daughter, running in to bid him good +morning, was changed into a priceless golden statue. +Like Midas, our reformers are short-sighted. Their +eyes are so fixed on the Golden Age that they want to +bring about for humanity, that they forget that they +may be killing humanity in the process—the very +spring and life-essence of the human material which +they—meddling little amateur deities—are trying so +hard to make after their own image.</p> + +<p>Our philanthropists will find when too late, that +they have turned all that is living into hard, precious, +valueless gold—the gold of a mechanical social order—if +the gods are cruel enough to grant their foolish +prayers!</p> + +<p>I do not say that the day of awakening would never +come. To China and Japan for instance, it <em>has</em> at +last come—through <em>outside</em> not internal causes, be it +noted. But think of the spell-bound, horrible ages of +night-mare-ridden sleep that went before!</p> + +<p>Once upon a time in old Japan, a man was not +allowed to give his grandchild a doll measuring more +than certain carefully prescribed dimensions. The +paternal Powers deemed moderation in dolls to be +desirable, and so curbed undue enthusiasm in grandparents +by solemn legislative measures. It is claimed +by its admirers that the system (whose nature we can +gauge from this instance) worked admirably. +Probably it did. So does a regularly-wound clock.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, the better the preposterous +system worked, the more fatally it would strangle its +victims. Now it is this fact which we all have to +try to make clear to our opponents. Humanity +growing fat and prosperous on banquets of immolated +individuals would be about as disastrous a condition<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> +as one could well imagine. As a matter of fact +“Humanity”—a mere abstract term used for convenience +of speech—has been endowed by careless +thinkers with a sort of divine self-existence; and, like +most divine beings, this new deity demands sacrifices. +For instance, the recent medical proposal to dissect +criminals alive in the interests of the Community—another +collective-term fetish—reveals, in typical +form, the line of sentiment (I can scarcely call it +thought) against which we have to contend. I do not +say that the majority would not still be shocked at +this proposal; but that is simply because it has not +yet become familiar. Once it does become familiar, +the horror will die away (think of the everyday +atrocities which <em>have</em> the public sanction) and then—as +there is no principle of personal rights to stand +between the proposed victim and the eager experimenter—the +latter will be allowed to take his long-coveted +prize. He is already permitted to take innocent, +sentient creatures, on the plea of the public good; +and it is only carrying out the theory to its logical +conclusion, to take guilty ones for the same purpose. +And on the same plea—like the lie, “an ever present +help in time of trouble”—the ordinary citizen will +probably follow, in due course. It is a question of +time and sentiment, not of principle.</p> + +<p>Now is it quite impossible to awaken the public to +the awful and innumerable dangers which confront us +all, as soon as the protection of personal rights is +withdrawn? Will not even this threat of human +vivisection reveal our utter defencelessness?</p> + +<p>Can we not persuade our contemporaries to ask +themselves if, for instance, the apostles of eugenics +have shrunk from <em>any</em> measure, however outrageous, +which they thought promised the desired results? +Provided the end is gained, the individual must pay +the price. It seems to be thought unworthy of him to +object. Thus he is placed at the mercy of every wind +and tide of popular opinion, or, what is worse, at the +mercy of the views of experts who naturally tend to +think all things lawful which benefit their particular +branch of knowledge. If vaccination is approved of,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span> +vaccinated the individual must be. If Science demands +human vivisection, he must submit even to that outrage. +On what principle, except that of personal rights, +can the demand be refused? The outrage <em>might</em> result +in valuable knowledge. Again, if Society is obsessed +by a crude and unproved theory of heredity, how are +we to resist interference with our marriages, or being +treated as hysterical, or feeble-minded, or degenerate, +or insane? Genius and originality generally seem +pathological to the majority; and what the end will +be of this sort of old-Japanese system, considering its +very vigorous beginning, is not cheering to prophesy.</p> + +<p>Unless its very absurdity causes a reaction before it +is too late, we shall find ourselves in the current of an +evolution backwards to the savage state, in which the +individual is very like that foolish and much overrated +insect, the bee, hopelessly submerged in the +social hive.</p> + +<p>As originality is usually lodged in a peculiarly +sensitive organism, delicately responsive to conditions, +it would tend to atrophy, as plants do whose leaves +and buds are persistently nipped off. No living thing +can stand the process long. It is one of the shallowest +of popular fallacies that genius always overcomes +obstacles. It depends on the obstacles and the kind +of genius; or, more accurately, on the ordinary +qualities with which the genius happens to be +accompanied. In itself, genius is a handicap, not an +aid, to outward success.</p> + +<p>Now in the degenerating society which we are considering, +its path of descent is easy to trace. Observe +the increasing tragedy of the situation. As the strata +of what I call Hive-heredity accumulate, there is +always a deeper and deeper soil of Hive-instinct out +of which each new generation has to spring. Is it not +progressively unlikely, therefore, that “sports” would +appear? And if they did appear, at lengthening +intervals, would they not be handicapped by a strong +Herd-instinct, impregnably seated in that reservoir of +inborn impulse that we now call the “subconscious”?</p> + +<p>The more one dwells on this principle of ours, the +more its essential truth and beauty and sanity is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span> +revealed. It is so gloriously universal in its scope! +Just in so far as man or animal can enjoy rights or +suffer wrongs, just so far we demand for him protection. +We deem it absurd and irrelevant to ask +questions as to his faith or his morals, or his “importance”; +as to the number of his legs, or the nature of +his covering. It is obviously enough that he can <em>feel</em>.</p> + +<p>We do not say: “He has no friends; let us make +him suffer for our good.” We say: “He is in our +hands; therefore we are his guardians to a man ... +and woman!”</p> + +<p>And as a result of this loyalty to the least of our +brethren, we should find—if we could but make it universal—that +we had made impregnable our one line of +defence against innumerable dangers and evils—our +Chatalga lines, we might call them, of inalienable +Personal Rights.</p> + +<p>And in strengthening these for the protection of the +humblest as well as the greatest of our brethren, we +render increasingly possible all that makes life interesting, +dramatic, and truly worth the living: all adventures +of the human spirit. A vista of possibilities +is thus opened which promises an enrichment in all +the relations of life, an enlargement of the range of +consciousness, and therefore of progress, to which we +can actually set no limits.</p> + +<p>Compare this with the unspeakable boredom of the +hurdy-gurdy existence of a State-dominated community!</p> + +<p>Those who have been used all their lives to the +atmosphere of civilization, often do not realize how +easily it can be destroyed. The curious change that +comes over educated persons who have lived long in +the backwoods, gives a hint of my meaning. As a +rule, the man—or woman—has in some way dwindled. +The consciousness and comprehension have narrowed, +the perceptions are poorer, slower, less human. The +companioning element has almost gone, and one feels +that the common meeting-ground of civilized humanity +has shrivelled almost to nothing. And so one can but +realize that a certain fine flower of the human spirit—which +might be still further glorified and developed—can,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span> +on the other hand, be swiftly annihilated. Humanity, +so to speak, loses its level, like a traveller who has +mistaken his way, and walks down hill only to have +to come up again, or else to resign himself to remaining +on the plains—he who had set out for the +mountains!</p> + +<p>Now, what if this be the reason that civilizations +blossom only to decay? I utterly disbelieve in the +facile and misleading analogy of the “social <em>organism</em>.”</p> + +<p>Societies do indeed change, but they do <em>not</em> go +through an exactly-repeated series of stages after the +fashion of “organisms.” It is quite unproved that +there is any inherent “principle of decay.” What, in +fact, <i>is</i> a principle of decay?</p> + +<p>Now, it seems probable that one cause of decay is +just this perpetual losing of level. Like Penelope, +humanity has always kept on undoing its own work, +and beginning all over again. And so our civilizations +naturally wither! And is this not, mainly, +because we have never yet learnt a true love of +Liberty? Suppose for a moment, a universal respect +for it such as I have just been imagining: a society +wherein there was a real passion for protecting and +liberating and giving scope to the individual impulse +and inspiration. Is it not almost certain that this +incessant loss of level—this destruction of previous +achievement would be avoided? And if it were—what +is to prevent our Traveller reaching the Mountains +he set out for?</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="center no-indent fs150 bold wsp">THE PERSONAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION.</p> +</div> + +<p class="center no-indent bold wsp">FOUNDED 14th MARCH, 1871.</p> + +<hr class="r65"> + +<p class="center no-indent fs130 wsp"><em>OFFICES: 11, ABBEVILLE ROAD, LONDON, S.W.</em></p> + +<hr class="r65"> + +<p class="center no-indent"><b>President:</b></p> + +<p class="center no-indent wsp">Mr. <span class="smcap">Franklin Thomasson</span>, J.P., Ex-M.P.</p> + +<p class="center no-indent wsp"><b>Hon. Sec. and Treasurer</b>: Mr. <span class="smcap">J. H. Levy</span>.</p> + +<p class="center no-indent wsp"><b>Assistant Secretary</b>: Mrs. <span class="smcap">Lorenza Garreau</span>.</p> + +<p class="center no-indent wsp"><b>Bankers</b>: <span class="smcap">Parr’s Bank (Charing Cross Branch), Limited</span>.</p> +<br> +<hr class="r40"> +<br> + +<p class="center no-indent wsp fs130"><b>OBJECT OF THE ASSOCIATION.</b></p> + +<p>The object of the Association is to uphold the +principle of the perfect equality of all persons before +the law in the exercise and enjoyment of their +Individual Liberty within the widest practicable +limits. It would maintain government just so far as, +but no farther than, is necessary for the maintenance +of the largest freedom; and, in applying this, would +have equal regard to the liberty of all citizens.</p> +<br> +<hr class="r40"> +<br> + +<p><b>If you wish to join in this work, send a subscription to +the Treasurer of the Association, at the above address; +and the <em>Individualist</em> and a copy of each of the pamphlets +and leaflets issued by the Association will be sent to you, +as issued, by post. Do not miss the opportunity of cooperating +in this work—the breaking of the chains of +oppression and the liberation of all the forces which work +for happiness and human dignity.</b></p> + +<p><b>Cheques and Postal Orders should be crossed Parr’s +Bank, Charing Cross Branch.</b></p> + +<p><b>Further information with regard to the Association +may be obtained from</b></p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="padding-right: 4em"><b>(Mrs.) LORENZA GARREAU,</b></span><br> +<em><b>Assistant Secretary</b></em>.<br> +</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter transnote"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">pg 6 Changed:</td> +<td class="tdl">The old pathethic story of Midas</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">to:</td> +<td class="tdl">The old pathetic story of Midas</td> +</tr> +</table> + +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75874 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75874-h/images/cover.jpg b/75874-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..979ede4 --- /dev/null +++ b/75874-h/images/cover.jpg |
