,,the ,,economic ,,functions ,,of ,,vice ,by ,john ,mc,elroy ,,washington1 ,d4 ,c4 ,published by ,the ,national ,tnbune ,copyright1 #aijf 8,are ,god and ,nature then at strife1 ,that ,nature lends such evil dreams8 ,so careful of the type she seems1 ,so careless of the single life40 ------ 8,and the individual withers1 and the world is more and more40 --,tennyson4 ,transcriber's ,note3 ,numbers in the text enclosed by curly brackets indicate the page numbers in the printed book4 ,,dw ,,the ,,economic ,,functions ,,of ,,vice ,,for some inscrutable reason which she has as yet given no hint of revealing1 ,nature is wondrously wasteful in the matter of generation4 ,she creates a thousand where she intends to make use of one4 ,imbued with the maternal instinct1 the female cod casts millions of eggs upon the waters1 expecting them to return after many days as troops of interesting #g offspring4 ,instead1 half die embryotic gadi are almost immediately devoured by spawn-eaters1 hundreds of thousands perish in incubation1 hundreds of thousands more succumb to the perils attending ichthyic infancy1 leaving but a few score to attain to adult usefulness and pass an honored old age with the fragrance of a well-spent life in the country grocery4 ,the oak showers down #aj1jjj acorns1 each capable of producing a tree4 ,three-fourths of them are straightway diverted from their arboreal intent through conversion into food by the provident squirrel and improvident hog4 ,great numbers rot uselessly upon the #h ground1 and the few hundred that finally succeed in germinating grow up into dense thickets1 where at last die strongest smothers out all the rest like an oaken ,othello in a harem of quercine ,desdemonas4 ------ ,,this is the law of all life1 animal as well as vegetable4 ,from the humble hyssop on the wall to the towering cedar of ,lebanon1 from the meek and lowly amoeba--which has no more character or individuality than any other pin-point of jelly--to the lordly tyrant #i man1 the rule is inevitable and invariable4 ,life is sown broadcast only to be followed almost immediately by a destruction nearly as swift4 ,nature creates by the million apparently that she may destroy by the myriads4 ,she gives life one instant only that she may snatch it away the next4 ,the main difference is that the higher we ascend the less lavish is the creation and the less sweeping the destruction4 ,thus1 while probably but one fish out of a thousand reaches maturity1 of #a1jjj children born #fjd attain adult age2 that is1 ,nature flings aside #iii out of every #a1jjj fish as useless for #aj her purposes1 and two out of every five human beings4 ------ ,,many see in this relentless weeding out and destruction of her inferior products a remarkable illustration of the wisdom of ,nature's methods4 ,what would they think of a workman so bungling that two-fifths of the products of his handicraft were only fit for destruction8 ,the 8struggle for existence0 is a murderous scramble to get rid of this vast surplusage4 ,the 8survival of the fittest0 is the success of the minority in #aa demonstrating that the majority are superfluous4 ,it is the ,kilkenny-cat episode multiplied by infinity4 ,it will be remembered that the whole trouble arose from the common belief that two cats were a surplus of one for the ,kilkenny environment4 ,darwin's theory recognizes in this super-fecundity of nature a most potent adjunct for improvement ,he says1 in fact1 that the impossibility of providing subsistence for more than a fraction of the multitudinous creation causes a mortal struggle in which the weaker and inferior are exterminated and only the stronger and superior survive4 ,these in turn1 have offspring like the leaves #ab of the forest1 which in like turn are winnowed out by alien enemies and reciprocal extermination1 and thus the process goes on with the sanguinary regularity of the ,king of ,dahomey's administration of the internal economy of his realm4 ,the benignity of this method of arranging the order of things is not so apparent as a member of the ,society for the ,prevention of ,cruelty to ,animals might desire4 ------ ,,but our opinion of this law is not cared for4 ,it is academic and superfluous4 ,the main importance #ac attaches to the recognition of the fact that it is a law4 ,its application to society is obvious3 ,since the propagation of human beings goes on with entire recklessness as to the quality of the product and the means of subsistence1 some strong corrective is absolutely necessary to establish limits to populations and to secure the continued development of the race4 ,if every begotten child lived to the average age of #dj1 in a very few years there would not be standing room on the earth for its people4 ,even with such limited propagators as the elephant1 each female of which produces but six offspring in her bearing #ad period of #ij years1 we are told that if the species had no parasitic or other enemy it would only be #gdj years until elephants would overrun the earth4 ,where then should we assign limits to the productiveness of the #gej1jjj1jjj human females on the globe1 each of whom is capable of producing #bj children in her #cj years of bearing8 ,if1 too1 every child had the same chance of life without reference to its mental and physical fitness to live1 humanity would soon become a stagnant slough of vicious vitality4 ,there are only food and room for the best1 and as the development of the race demands #ae it1 only the best survive and continue the work of propagation4 ,the rest are destroyed4 ------ ,,by the 8best0 is understood those having that harmony of mental and physical development which brings them most nearly into accord with ,nature's laws4 ------ ,,below the human stratum superabundant generation is neutralized by the simple device of having #af every organism prey upon some other one4 ,in her #aj years of fruitful life the female cod lays #ej1jjj1jjj eggs4 ,if nothing thwarted the amiable efforts of herself and offspring to multiply and replenish1 they would shortly pack the ocean as full as a box of sardines4 ,while1 however1 giving one female the desire and capacity to produce #ej1jjj1jjj lives1 nature has given other animals the desire and capacity to annihilate most of those #ej1jjj1jjj lives4 ,so all through the animal kingdom it is nearly a neck-to-neck race between production and extermination4 ,life is a universal and unceasing #ag struggle1 between the eaters and the eaten4 ------ ,,man alone is practically exempt from what is apparently an invariable condition of all other forms of animal life4 ,while he preys upon a myriad of created things1 there is no created thing that preys on him and assists in keeping his excessive produc tiveness within the limits of subsistence4 ,most significant of all1 not even a parasite wages destructive warfare against him4 ,that is1 if we except from the classification the doctors' latest explanation #ah of the cause of everything1 from pneumonia to laziness--the modest but effective bacillus4 ,the bacillus1 however1 is much more a condition than a parasite4 ,this absence of destructive enemies must be compensated for in some way1 and it is accomplished by making vicious inclinations the agents to weed out the redundant growths and to select for extermination those which are inferior1 depraved1 weak1 and unfit for preservation or reproduction4 ,if five human beings are procreated where there is present room and provision but for three1 how are the surplus #ai two to be picked out and exterminated8 ,of course each one of us feels entirely competent to pick out in his own community the persons who could be best spared1 but public opinion is at present hostile both to any practical plan of making the necessary thinning out1 and also to lodging the power of selection in the hands of those of us best calculated for the duty4 ------ ,,apparently the surplus ones relieve us from embarrassment on this score by selecting to exterminate #bj themselves4 ,their methods of suicide cover a wide range of expedients but all are very effective4 ,and most beneficent of any of the facts connected with this subject is that each of those chosen for extermination embraces his fate with positive eagerness1 under the delusion that he is about to enhance his own happiness4 ,immoderate use of stimulants and the varied excesses and vital errors which are grouped under the general head of 8dissipation10 a 8love of pleasure10 or the still #ba more expressive phrase 8a short life and a merry one10 etc41 are favorite ways of self-annihilation and leave little to be desired in the completeness with which they do their work4 ,english statisticians formerly estimated that if a man drank beer in large quantities it took him #ba4g years to kill himself1 which period the whisky-drinker shortened to #af4a years4 ,closer study and wider knowledge have materially changed these conclusions1 to the great detriment of beer4 ,for once1 and upon one point1 the physicians of the world have agreed4 ,american1 ,english1 and ,german doctors say with one voice that the most #bb hopeless patient who comes into their hands is the soaked1 crapulous1 beer-drinker4 8,point out a gray-haired beer-drinker10 they challenge1 and challenge in vain4 ,gray-haired whisky-drinkers may be found1 but not the others4 ,starch in every stage of decay1 carried by the all-penetrating alcohol1 surcharges the tissues with putrefaction1 and makes the tumid veins a forcing-ground for bacteria4 ,thus the beer-drinker's slight cold becomes at once pneumonia1 or inflammatory rheumatism1 or ,bright's disease1 and his life flickers out like a candle in a gusty passage4 ,intemperance being among the milder vices kills slowly4 ,sexual sins slay #bc more rapidly1 and the criminal grades of vice do their work with a swiftness in proportion to their flagrancy4 ,the ,psalmist says1 8bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days10 but police records will show that ,david materially overrates the average4 8,one quarter their days0 would approach much nearer exactness4 ------ ,,returning to the major premise that the 8survival of the fittest0 means the selection and preservation of those individuals who are most nearly in harmony with the conditions #bd of their environment1 and that the progress of the race or species involves the destruction of the weaker or the inferior who are not in such harmony1 the conclusion follows that any aberration toward vice shows such discordance in the individual with the laws of his environment as marks him as inferior1 weak1 and obstructive of the race's development ,vice is not so much a cause as an effect--precisely as disease is a symptom4 ,vice does not make a nature weak or defective3 a weak and defective nature expresses its weaknesses and defects in vice1 and that expression brings about in one way and another #be the sovereign remedy of extermination4 ------ ,,much is said of the devastation of our fairest and brightest by the ,drink ,demon4 ,this is mainly nonsense4 ,it was more nearly true in former generations1 when intemperance was an almost universal vice4 ,as ,hamlet says3 8it is a custom ,more honor'd in the breach than the observance4 ,this heavy-headed revel east and west ,makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations3 ,they clepe us drunkards1 and with swinish phrase ,soil our addition40 #bf ,morals has made wonderful progress since then1 in all directions1 and heavy drinking has been more and more restricted to those who are 8,marked cross from the womb and perverse40 ,with few exceptions every one who goes to perdition by the alcohol route would reach that destination by some other highway if the alcohol line were not running4 ,every man whose sloth or improvidence has brought himself and his family to beggary1 every thieving tramp upon the highways1 every rascal in the penitentiary1 every murderer upon the gallows1 hastens to plead 8whisky brought #bg me to this60 because he knows that such a plea will bring him a gush of sloppy sympathy unobtainable by other means4 ,whisky makes no man lazy1 shiftless1 dishonest1 false1 cowardly or brutal4 ,these must be original qualities with him4 ,if he has them he will probably take to whisky--though not inevitably--which then does the community the splendid service of hurrying him along to destruction1 and of abridging his infliction upon the public4 #bh ------ ,,people who have done much in the way of reforming drunkards have been astonished to find how little real manhood remained after eliminating whisky from the equation4 ,they had supposed the manhood to be only obscured1 and were disheartened to find how frequently it happened to be demonstrated that there never was enough of it to pay for the trouble of 8saving the victim of intemperance40 ,like the cherubim before the throne of ,god1 the ,temperance orators 8con- tinually do cry10 the burden of their song being that hundreds of thousands are annually slain by the monster ,intemperance4 #bi ,quite singularly these figures are probably not exaggerated4 ,myriads of times kindly-hearted physicians write in the death certificate 8pneumonia10 8heart-failure10 8diabetes10 etc41 when truth demands 8beer0 or 8whisky40 ------ ,,but what of this8 ,is it not merely ,nature sweeping out her overcrowded workshop8 ,ridding her laboratory of misfits1 defectives1 and rejects8 ,into her junk pile alcohol whisks away daily thousands of thieves1 gamblers1 prostitutes1 loafers1 8sports10 spongers1 swindlers1 #cj and others of the criminal and quasi-criminal classes4 ,over their moldering clay the daisies bloom in sweet oblivion of 8,the sins and crimes ,done in their days of nature40 ,upon these alcoholism accommodatingly performs the office of judge and executioner1 cutting their careers off at an average of five years1 which1 without this interposition1 would possibly be extended to #bj or #cj4 ,the certainty and celerity with which it ferrets out and destroys these classes gives it strong advantages over the ordinary processes of destruction4 ,it was exceedingly unfortunate for #ca the community that the leaders of the ,james and ,younger gangs were temperate men4 ,had it not been so1 their careers1 instead of extending over #bj harassing years1 would have been cut short inside of five4 ,uncontrollable predilection for whisky1 and the society of strange women brought about the destruction of nearly all of the band who from time to time were slain by each other's hands or those of justice4 ,temperance and chastity in a rascal of any kind mean an immense amount of mischief to the community4 ,fortunately they are quite rare4 #cb ,,the rapid spread of ,prohibition is full of suggestion4 ,the grain fields of ,kansas and ,texas are periodically devastated by the green bug4 ,when the green bugs are at their worst a parasite appears which sweeps them off1 and the wheat growers have a respite4 ,then1 having destroyed their provender1 the parasites starve1 and the green bugs have a chance to grow again until the parasites overtake them in the hour of their triumph and power4 ,will the suppression of the alcoholic scavenger allow the criminals and quasi-criminals to multiply like the green bugs8 #cc ------ ,,during the ages of terrible oppression of the ,european peoples which culminated in the ,french ,revolution1 the main amelioration of the hardships endured was found in the vices of the oppressors4 ,the sword of the duelist1 quarreling over women1 the picturesque horrors of delirium tremens1 and the loathsome mal de ,naples continually swept away hecatombs of tyrant lordlings and frequently obliterated whole families4 ,in fact no aristocratic family ever withstood these adverse influences very long4 ,extinction came as promptly and as certainly as the curculio to the ripening plum4 ,the student of ,french and ,english #cd history is continually astonished at the brief time in which noble names remain in view4 ,they rise to dizzy eminence on one page1 and on the next go down to oblivion4 ,one rarely finds the name of a century or two ago mentioned in any of the ,european news of to-day4 ,mr4 ,freeman1 the eminent ,english historian1 says1 conclusively1 that in spite of the perennial vaunt of ancestors who 8came over with the ,conqueror10 and of ,tennyson's musical mendacity about the 8daughter of an hundred ,earls10 the families who can trace back to even so recent a date as the reign of the ,stuarts are very rare4 #ce ,frequently hundreds of years elapsed before the historic titles were 8revived0 to gild some parvenu4 ,since then these families have been kept up only by intermarriages with later parvenus4 ,the royal family itself has been repeatedly on the point of extinction1 and the continuity of the line only maintained by extraordinary efforts4 ------ ,,idleness1 luxury1 and more or less flagrant debauchery have done their appointed work in removing the deteriorated forms of human life #cf from the world1 that their room might be had for more acceptable growths4 ------ ,,society has been most aptly likened to a vat of good wine1 which is scum and froth at the top1 dregs and sediment at the bottom1 and good1 pure1 clear liquor in the middle4 ,vice does admirable work in skimming away the supernatant scum and in drawing off the dregs and settlings4 ,unceasing fermentation seems to be a condition necessary to the health of society4 ,the humblest work incessantly to lift themselves into the ranks of #cg the middle-classes1 the middle-classes strive as earnestly to make themselves plutocrats1 aristocrats1 and lordlings4 ,this ambition for worldly advancement is one of society's most powerful adjuncts for good4 ,when a man at last reaches the social summit he desists from further efforts at improvement4 ,he becomes like a man who after struggling forward to reach the head of the procession refuses to march another step4 ,some vice1 mayhap merely over-eating1 is likely to remove him and secure the ground for another man to come to the front1 who is also removed summarily when he becomes obstructive4 ,if the fortune-builder is #ch not thus removed1 his children are subject to attack4 ,were it not for this1 the upper stratum of society would speedily become so crowded that ascent to it would be impossible1 all healthful1 ambitious motive be taken away from the middle and lower classes1 stagnation follow1 and society perish from congestion4 ------ ,,history is full of illustrations of the benefits of vice in assisting to shape the destinies of ,nations and peoples4 ,take1 for example1 the #ci ,bourbons whose stupidity and tyranny have passed into a proverb4 ,in the last century their worse than worthless personalities filled nearly every throne in southern ,europe4 ,they seemed to breed like wolves in a famine-stricken land1 and their fangs were at every people's throat ,fortunately they had vices4 ,wine and lechery did what human enemies could not and the pack of wolves rotted away like a flock of diseased sheep4 ,the mortality was so regular that for a long time ,french kings were succeeded by their grand-sons and great-grandsons1 their sons all burning themselves out before the time came for ascending the throne4 #dj ,the unutterably vile life of ,louis ,,xv4 was terminated by the smallpox communicated to him in the course of a most disgraceful amour4 ,his grandson1 who succeeded him1 had no destructive vices1 and so the people were compelled at last to resort to the guillotine to rid themselves of him4 ,the vast problem for the ,french in #agij would have been greatly simplified if ,louis ,,xvi4 had been a shortlived debauchee like his father and two brothers4 ,the healthy ,german blood of his ,saxon mother corrected some-what the virus in the ,bourbon veins1 and he lived to become an intolerable cumberer and obstructive4 ------ #da ,the only ,bourbon still remaining on a throne is the ,king of ,spain1 and his teeth are on edge from the sour grapes of unchastity which his fathers and mothers ate4 ,like his grandmother1 the notorious ,isabella ,,ii1 his father1 aunts1 and cousins1 and indeed every one of the ,bourbons1 he is a sad physical weakling4 ,the physicians politely term 8scrofulous diathesis0 the syphilitic taint of the ,bourbon blood4 ,in his grandmother it showed itself in a repulsive cutaneous disease which she tried to ameliorate or cure in a truly ,bourbon-ish way1 by having her underclothing #db previously worn by a nun of high repute for piety4 ,alfonso's ,,xiii4's father burned himself out at the age of #bh4 ,his aunts and kinsmen all had some one or more of scrofula's varied physical degradations and deformities1 and went out from time to time like ill-made candles4 ,though the hopes of his race and the peace of his country depend upon ,alfonso's life1 all the care given him in his boyhood could do no more than slightly mitigate the ancestral blight4 ------ #dc ,a ,,few years ago the people of ,holland were threatened with a most serious calamity4 ,depraved heredity1 unwise sexual selection1 or some other primal cause had resulted in the production1 as the ,prince of ,orange--the ,crown ,prince--of an individual of a weak1 inferior1 and depraved nature4 ,his was such a nature as on a throne becomes a fountain of numberless oppressions and evils1 and rarely fails to goad the unhappy subjects into rebellion1 attended with the usual frightful loss of life and property and vast sorrows4 ,fortunately he had destructive vices4 ,the appetite for these led him to ,paris4 ,a few years of riot and #dd debauchery sapped away the dangerous life of 8,lemons10 as his worthless boon-companions named him1 and he died as the fool dieth4 ,the only harm he was able to do was the indirect damage of a bad example1 and the good people of the ,netherlands were rid of a possible ,louis ,,xv4 at no greater cost than that of some years of extravagant life in the ,french capital4 ,his father's evil excesses and penchant for pretty ballet-girls left as his only successor a young not over-strong girl1 who thus far has failed to produce an heir to the throne1 to the deep disappointment of such of her people as love royalty4 ,holland will1 therefore1 #de in all probability1 glide into a republic without the usual sanguinary convulsions attending such transitions4 ------ ,,it is the story of the ,ages--old when the ,pyramids were yet young2 new to every generation4 ,hannibal's victorious army found the 8soft delights of ,capua0 far more deadly than ,roman swords4 ,that famous 8,winter in ,capua0 wrecked the invaders1 saved ,rome1 and ruined ,carthage4 ------ #df ,,in conspicuous contrast to the royal and aristocratic families just alluded to are the houses of ,hohenzollern and ,savoy4 ,a thrifty burgher of ,nuremberg1 eager to get into the landed aristocracy on any terms1 foreclosed a mortgage on a stretch of most unpromising sand and swamp around ,brandenberg4 ,it was of so little worth as to be frequently spoken of as 8the sandbox of the ,holy ,roman ,empire10 ,the ,hohenzollerns attacked this uninviting problem with real ,german thrift and tenacity4 ,they resolved to make their swamps and sand barrens productive like the rich lands of their neighbors4 #dg ,flinching from no drudgery themselves1 they would allow none of their people to do so4 ,every ,hohenzollern son and daughter was brought up to unsparing hard work1 severe economy1 plain food and coarse clothing1 with a rigid code of morals4 ,at the time when the example of ,louis ,,xiv4 was debauching every ,german princeling into having a showy court with a pretentious palace and a tinseled retinue1 all wrung from the poor peasantry1 the ,king of ,prussia was running his court after the manner of a close-fisted1 land-gaining ,german farmer4 ,cabbages that could not be sold #dh were served on the royal tables in order to save a few thalers for the support of the army1 and add to the war chest4 ,the shabby appointments of the palace were the derision of ,europe4 ,the common people of ,prussia had1 however1 a much larger share of what their labor produced than those of any other part of ,europe4 ,the ,king not only set a good example in making the most out of everything1 but he personally caned lessons of industry and frugality into his people1 high and low4 ,there were occasionally black sheep in even such a sternly regulated family1 but as a general rule the sons and daughters married strong1 clean mates1 #di and strictly maintained the family traditions4 ,a provision against the way ward princelings was made by which their possessions passed into the main house if they fell below the standard4 ,so the ,hohenzollerns grew1 and ,prussia grew from a despised sandbarren to be one of the ,six ,great ,powers of ,europe1 and is now the head of the mighty ,german ,empire4 ,we do not have as full history of the ,house of ,savoy1 but we have enough to know that in much the same way1 at the same time1 and by much the same moral discipline1 it arose from the lordship of a little stretch of mountain #ej land in the ,alps to rule over ,united ,italy4 ------ ,,the most attractive feature of this self-pruning of the objectionable growths in society1 as said before1 is that the victims destroy themselves under the hallucination that they are drinking the richest wine of earthly pleasure4 ,when execution can be made a matter of keen relish to the condemned1 certainly nothing is wanting on the score of humanity4 ------ #ea ,i ,,anticipate the objection that slaying bad men by means of their own vicious propensities brings much misery to those connected with them4 ,but then all innocent persons connected with bad men are fated to suffer in exact proportion to the closeness of the connection1 whether the bad men are destroyed or not4 ,weak1 selfish1 perverted1 and criminal men always inflict misery upon their relatives and associates4 ,this is not usually intensified by their being drunkards or debauchees4 ,it is also true that no one of ,nature's methods of extinction is pleasant #eb to those connected with the victim4 ,the thief or thug1 prematurely dying with delirium tremens1 is certainly quite as bearable a sight to those before whose eyes it may come as the spectacle of a virtuous man1 the sole support of his family1 slowly wasting away with consumption in spite of all that loving service and agonizing sympathy can do to retain for him a life that is of so much value4 ------ ,,to the next objection that the practice of vice is not invariably suicidal1 since many rascals live to attain as #ec green an old age as the most righteous1 it is sufficient to say that plentiful as these exceptions may occasionally seem1 their proportion to the whole number is at least as small as that of the exceptions to any other general law of biology4 ,the policeman on the next corner will bear decided testimony that the number of scoundrels who survive their #cjth year is astonishingly small1 and he can point out any number of erstwhile troublesome members of the community who are ending their lives in penitentiary1 poorhouse1 or hospital at an age when well-behaved men are #ed just entering upon the serious business of life4 ,it is also demonstrable that the proportion of vicious men to the whole population is much less to-day than at any previous period in the history of the race4 ,this shows conclusively the improvement of society by the self-destructiveness of vice4 ,the proportion of bad men is rapidly diminishing1 because bad men die sooner and propagate fewer than good ones4 #ee ------ ,,science is incredulous of any relation between religion and natural laws4 ,yet it is true now as said thirty centuries ago that-- 8,the fear of the ,lord is the beginning of wisdom4 ,a good understanding have they who keep his commandments40 ,from the ,ten ,commandments on1 all religions have been the best efforts of their founders and supporters to put man in accord with his environment4 ,this is their essence1 though too frequently obscured by the political1 theological1 and social aspects given them4 ,while some religions are much better than others1 every man gets as #ef good a religion and as much of it as he has capacity for4 ,nothing has been more clearly demonstrated by thousands of years of strenuous missionary effort than this fact4 ,furthermore1 any religion is better than none4 8,for modes of faith let graceless zealots fight1 ,his can't be wrong1 whose life is in the right0 ------ ,,religion1 in its primary sense of something to bind back1 to bind fast1 is a force which restrains a #eg man from acts temporarily attractive but eventually hurtful to himself and others4 ,some religions1 like the ,hebrew1 promise in addition to spiritual benefits1 long life1 worldly success1 peace1 happiness1 and blessings to the children1 even to the third and fourth generations4 ,the ,brahmin and ,buddhist promise a ,nirvana--a dreamless rest from the troubles of life4 ,the ,christian and ,mahometan promise an eternity of ineffable bliss4 ,all of these are based upon the elements of moral science and1 at least1 #eh give a man a fairly reliable sailing chart for the voyage of life4 ,defective as many of them may be1 they are the best that human intelligence has so far produced4 ,next in order but far inferior in saving power are statute laws and social ethics4 ,all these influences are potent in that broad1 middle ground which separates the best from the worst4 ,they 8pluck brands from the burning40 ,by their means the less aberrant are brought into nearer conformity with ,nature's stern requirements4 ,but for the hopeless defectives1--the misfits in her tireless productiveness #ei --religion1 laws1 and society are alike weaker than woman's tears4 ,they themselves sharpen the scythe of the ,grim ,reaper who brings the only remedy4 #fj