,,not ,,guilty3 ,a ,,defence ,,of ,,the ,,bottom ,,dog ,by ,robert ,blatchford ,,new ,,york3 ,,boni ,,and ,,liveright3 #aiah ,dedicated to my ,old ,friend ,fellow ,worker ,w4,t4 ,,wilkinson ,,the ,,author',s ,,apology ,,this is not a stiff and learned work1 written by a professor for professors1 but a human book1 written in humanity's behalf by a man1 for men and women4 ,i shall not fret you with strange and stilted language1 nor weary you with tedious and irksome science1 nor gall you with far-fetched theories1 nor waste your time in any vain word-twisting nor splitting of hairs4 ,a plain-dealing man1 speaking frankly and simply to honest and plain-dealing readers1 ,i shall trust to common sense and common knowledge and common ,english to make my meaning clear4 ,i have been warned that it is easier to write a book on such a theme as this than to get people to read it when written4 ,but ,i am hopeful1 and my hope springs from the living interest and deep significance of the subject4 ,for in defending the ,bottom ,dog ,i do not deal with hard science only2 but with the dearest faiths1 the oldest wrongs1 and the most awful relationships of the great human family1 for whose good ,i strive1 and to whose judgment ,i appeal4 ,knowing1 as ,i do1 how the hard-working and hard-playing public shun laborious thinking and serious writing1 and how they hate to have their ease disturbed or their prejudices handled rudely1 ,i still make bold to undertake this task1 because of the vital nature of the problems ,i shall probe4 ,the case for the ,bottom ,dog should touch the public heart to the quick1 for it affects the truth of our religions1 the justice of our laws1 and the destinies of our children and our children's2 children4 ,much golden eloquence has been squandered in praise of the successful and the good2 much stern condemnation has been vented upon the wicked4 ,i venture now to plead for those of our poor brothers and sisters who are accursed of ,christ and rejected4 ,hitherto all the love1 all the honours1 all the applause of this8 world1 and all the rewards of heaven1 have been lavished on the fortunate and the strong2 and the portion of the unfriended ,bottom ,dog1 in his adversity and weakness1 has been curses1 blows1 chains1 the gallows1 and everlasting damnation4 ,i shall plead1 then1 for those who are loathed and tortured and branded as the sinful and unclean2 for those who have hated us and wronged us1 and have been wronged and hated by us4 ,i shall defend them for right's sake1 for pity's sake1 and for the benefit of society and the race4 ,for these also are of our flesh1 these also have erred and gone astray1 these also are victims of an inscrutable and relentless ,fate4 ,if it concerns us that the religions of the world are childish dreams1 or nightmares2 if it concerns us that penal laws and moral codes are survivals of barbarism and fear2 if it concerns us that our most cherished and venerable ideas of our relations to ,god and to each other are illogical and savage1 then the case for the ,bottom ,dog concerns us nearly4 ,if it moves us to learn that disease may be prevented1 that ruin may be averted1 that broken hearts and broken lives may be made whole2 if it inspires us to hear how beauty may be conjured out of loathliness and glory out of shame2 how waste may be turned to wealth and death to life1 and despair to happiness1 then the case for the ,bottom ,dog is a case to be well and truly tried4 ,if man's flesh and woman's flesh are merchandise or carrion2 if the defiled and trampled souls of innocent children are no more to us than are the trodden blossoms under the feet of swine2 if love lies to us and pity is a cheat2 if whips and chains and contumely and the gibbet are meet for our sisters and our brothers and if dishonourable ease and beggarly pride and the flatteries of fools are worthy of ourselves1 then we have the ,yellow ,press and the painted altar and the ,parliamentary speeches and a selfish heaven and a hell where the worm never dies2 and everything is for the best in1 this best of all possible worlds4 ,but because ,i believe men needs must love the highest when they see it1 because ,i believe that the universal heart is sweet and sound1 because ,i believe there are many who honour truth and seek happiness and peace for all1 ,i do not fear to plead for the ,bottom ,dog1 nor to ask a patient hearing4 ,rightly or wrongly1 happily or unhappily1 but with all the sincerity of my soul1 ,i shall here deny the justice and reason of every kind of blame and praise1 of punishment and reward--human or divine4 ,divine law--the law made by priests1 and attributed to ,god--consists of a code of rewards and punishments' for acts called good or bad4 ,human law--the law made by ,kings and ,parliaments--consists of a code of punishments for acts called criminal and unlawful4 ,i claim that men should not be classified as good and bad1 but as fortunate and unfortunate2 that they should be pitied1 and not blamed2 helped instead of being punished4 ,i claim that since we do not hold a man worthy of praise for being born beautiful1 nor of blame for being born ugly1 neither should we hold him worthy of praise for being born virtuous1 nor of blame for being born vicious4 ,i base this claim upon the self-evident and undeniable fact that man has no part in the creation of his own nature4 ,i shall be told this means that no man is answerable for his own acts4 ,that is exactly what it does mean4 ,but1 it will be urged1 every man has a free will to act as he chooses2 and to deny that is to imperil all law and order1 all morality and discipline4 ,i deny both these inferences1 and ,i ask the reader to hear my case patiently1 and to judge it on its merits4 ,let us first test the justice of our laws1 divine and human3 the question of their usefulness we will deal with later4 ,,chapter ,,one--,,the ,,laws ,,of ,,god ,,divine law says that certain acts are good1 and that certain acts are evil2 and that ,god will reward those who do well1 and will punish those who do ill4 ,and we are told that ,god will so act because ,god is just4 ,but ,i claim that ,god cannot justly punish those1 who disobey1 nor reward those who obey ,his laws4 ,religious people tell us that ,god is ,the ,great ,first ,cause3 that ,god created all things--mankind1 the universe1 nature and all her laws4 ,who is answerable for a thing that is caused3 he who causes it1 or he who does not cause it8 ,he who causes it is answerable4 ,and ,god is ,the ,first ,great ,cause of all things4 ,and the cause of all things is answerable for all things4 ,if ,god created all things ,he must have created the evil as well as the good4 ,who1 then1 is responsible for good and evil8 ,only ,god1 for ,he made them4 ,he who creates all is responsible for all4 ,god created all3 ,god is responsible for all4 ,he who creates nothing is responsible for nothing4 ,man created nothing3 man is responsible for nothing4 ,therefore man is not responsible for his nature1 nor for the acts prompted by that nature4 ,therefore ,god cannot justly punish man for his acts4 ,therefore the ,divine law1 with its code of rewards and punishments1 is not a just law1 and cannot have emanated from a just ,god4 ,therefore the ,christian religion is built upon a foundation of error1 and there are no such things as ,god's wrath1 ,god's pardon2 heaven or hell4 ,that argument has never been answered4 ,but attempts have been made to evade it1 and the plea most commonly put forward has been so gracefully expressed by ,mr4 ,g4 ,k4 ,chesterton that ,i will quote it in his own words3 ,now1 the question round which this controversy has circled for ages is simply this3 ,clearly ,god can1 in the exercise of ,his omnipotence1 give part of ,himself to ,his creatures2 can give ,his strength to the bull1 or ,his beauty to the lily4 ,could ,god possibly1 in the exercise of ,his omnipotence1 give to one of ,his creatures some portion of that other quality of ,his--,his originating power1 ,his power of primal invention1 this making things from nothing or ,himself8 ,if ,god can do all things1 can ,he not make man free8 ,can ,he not give man the power to create actions as ,god creates stars8 ,he can give ,his force2 can ,he give a little of his sovereignty8 ,can ,he1 in short1 create a kind of little ,god--an imago ,dei8 ,the answer to that quaint piece of reasoning is that it begs the question4 ,for ,i do not say that ,god cannot give to man any power ,he chooses2 but that ,god is responsible1 and man is not responsible1 for the nature and the acts of any power by ,god bestowed4 ,if man did not invent1 nor create himself2 if man did not create the power bestowed upon him by ,god2 if man did not bestow that power upon himself1 how can man be responsible for the power or for its acts8 ,god not only created man2 ,he created the material of which man was made1 and the laws of the universe into which man was introduced4 ,god is the ,first ,great ,cause3 ,he created all things3 the evil and the good4 ,how can ,god blame man for the effects of which ,god is the cause8 ,for the defeat of all ,christian apologists it is not necessary for me to add another word2 the argument is invincible as it stands4 ,but for the reader's sake it may be as well to deal rather more fully with what may be to him a new and startling idea4 ,let us then return to ,mr4 ,chesterton's plea4 ,god is said to give to man a power3 a power which1 ,mr4 ,chesterton says1 ,god made out of ,himself4 ,and this power will create thoughts1 will create actions as ,god creates stars4 ,but we see that man cannot create the thoughts nor cause the actions until ,god gives him the power4 ,then it is the power that creates the thoughts or acts4 ,then it is not man1 but the power--the power ,god made out of ,himself and bestowed upon man--that creates the thoughts or acts4 ,then the power is a kind of lord or ruler made by ,god1 and put by ,god over man1 as a rider is placed upon a horse1 or a pilot on a ship4 ,then man is no more responsible for the acts or the thoughts of this ruling power than a horse is responsible for the acts of a jockey1 or a ship for the acts of a pilot4 ,in fact1 the power given by ,god to man is only another name for the will of ,god1 or the power of ,god2 and if man's acts are ruled1 or created1 by the will or power of ,god1 how can ,god justly punish man for those acts8 ,if ,god created man as well as this imaginary power which ,god is said to give to man1 ,god is responsible for the acts of both4 ,it is claimed by others that man is responsible to ,god for his acts because ,god gave him reason1 or because ,god gave him a conscience1 or because ,god gave him a will to choose4 ,but these words1 conscience1 reason1 and will1 are only other names for ,mr4 ,chesterton's imaginary power4 ,let us be careful to keep our thoughts quite clear and unentangled4 ,if we speak of will1 or power1 or reason1 as a thing given to man1 we imply that will1 or power1 is a thing outside of man1 and not a part of him4 ,having failed to saddle man with responsibility for himself1 our opponents would now make him responsible for some power outside himself4 ,the simple answer is that man made neither himself nor his powers1 and that ,god made man and the power given to man2 therefore ,god and not man is responsible4 ,conscience and reason and the power are rulers or guides given to man by ,god4 ,god made these guides or rulers4 ,these guides must be true guides1 or false guides3 they must be good or bad4 ,god is all-knowing1 as well as all-powerful4 ,not only has ,he power to create at will a true guide or a false guide1 but ,he knows when ,he creates a guide1 and when ,he bestows that guide upon man1 whether it will be a true or a false guide4 ,therefore1 when ,god created the reason or the conscience and gave it to man1 ,he knew whether the reason or the conscience would guide man right or wrong4 ,if the power made and bestowed by ,god leads man wrongly1 it is leading man as ,god willed and knew it would lead him4 ,how1 then1 can ,god justly blame man for the acts that reason or power creates8 ,god creates a number of good propensities1 and a number of evil propensities1 packs them up in a bundle and calls them man4 ,is the skinful of propensities created and put together by ,god responsible for the proportion of good and evil powers it comprises8 ,but then ,mr4 ,chesterton suggests that ,god puts over the bundle a power of control4 ,that power controls man for evil3 as ,god must have known it would4 ,is the bundle of ,god's making responsible for the failure of the power ,god made and sent to manage it8 ,god must have known when ,he created and put the power in control that it would fail4 ,tell me now1 some wise philosopher1 or great divine1 or learned logician1 which is the man8 ,is it the good propensities1 or the evil propensities1 or the power of control8 ,and tell me how can any one or all of these be responsible to the ,god who invented them1 who created them1 who joined them together2 who made and united them1 knowing they would fail8 ,here is a grand conception of an all-wise1 all-powerful1 perfectly just ,god1 who creates a man whom ,he knows must do evil1 gives him a guide who cannot make him do well1 issues commands for him to act as ,god has made it impossible for him to act1 and finally punishes him for failing to do what ,god knew from the first he was incapable of doing4 ,and the world is paying millions of money1 and bestowing honours and rewards in profusion upon the learned and wise and spiritual leaders who teach it to believe such illogical nonsense as the above4 ,when we turn from the old idea of instantaneous creation to the new idea of evolution1 the theories about ,god's mercy and ,god's wrath are still more impossible and absurd4 ,for now we are to believe that ,god1 the ,first ,great ,cause1 in the beginning created not man and beast1 and forest and sea1 and hill and plain1 but matter1 and force1 and law4 ,out of the matter and force ,god made1 working to the law ,god made1 there slowly developed the nebul1 the suns1 the planets4 ,out of the same matter and force1 changed in form by the working of ,god's laws1 there slowly developed the single-celled jelly-like creature from which1 by the working of ,god's laws1 all other forms of life have since evolved4 ,out of matter and force1 working to ,god's laws1 man has been evolved4 ,is there any step in the long march of evolution from the first creation of matter and force to the evolution of man1 when the jelly speck1 or the polyp1 or the fish1 or the reptile1 or the beast1 or the ape1 or the man1 had power to change1 or to assist1 or to resist the working of the laws ,god made8 ,is there any step in the long march of evolution1 any link in the long chain of cause and effect1 when any one of the things or beings evolved by law working on matter and force could by act or will of their own have developed otherwise than as they did8 ,is it not plain that man has developed into that which he is by slow evolution of matter and force1 through the operation of divine laws over which he had no more control than he now has over the revolution of the suns in their orbits8 ,how1 then1 can we believe that man is to blame for being that which he is8 ,is there any quality of body or of mind that has not been inevitably evolved in man by the working of ,god's laws8 ,you are not going to tell me that ,i am answerable or blame-able for the nature of matter and force1 nor for the operations of ,god's laws1 are you8 ,you will not suggest that ,i am responsible for the creation3 so long ago1 and ,i so new1 so weak1 so small6 ,god1 when ,he created matter and force and law1 knew the nature of matter and force1 and the power and purpose of law4 ,he knew that they must work as ,he had made and meant them to work4 ,he knew that we must be as ,his agents must make us4 ,will ,he punish or reward us1 then1 for the acts of ,his agents3 the agents ,he made and controlled8 ,absurd4 ,but1 it may be urged1 man has a soul4 ,so6 ,he got that soul from ,god4 ,god made the soul and fixed its powers for good and evil4 ,it is the soul1 then1 that is responsible1 is it8 ,but the soul did not create itself1 and can only act as ,god has ordained that it shall and must act4 ,if man is not to blame for his own acts he is not to blame for the acts of his soul2 and for the same reason4 ,soul1 or man1 reason1 or conscience1 responsibility lies with the causer1 and not with the thing caused4 ,and ,god is ,the ,first ,great ,cause1 and how then can ,god justly punish any of ,his creatures for being as ,he created them8 ,it is impossible4 ,it is unthinkable4 ,but upon this unthinkable and impossible absurdity the whole code of divine laws is built4 ,therefore the ,christian religion is untrue1 and man is not responsible to ,god for his nature nor for his acts4 ,,chapter ,,two--,,the ,,laws ,,of ,,man ,,common law and common usage all the world over hold men answerable for their acts1 and blame or punish them when those acts transgress the laws of custom4 ,human law1 like the divine law1 is based upon the false idea that men know what is right and what is wrong1 and have power to choose the right4 ,human law1 like divine law1 classifies men as good and bad1 and punishes them for doing wrong4 ,but men should not be classified as good and bad1 but as fortunate and unfortunate1 as weak and strong4 ,and the unfortunate and weak should not be blamed1 but pitied2 should not be punished but helped4 ,the just and wise course is to look upon all wrong-doers as we look upon the ignorant1 the diseased1 the insane1 and the deformed4 ,many of our wrong-doers are ignorant1 or diseased1 or insane1 or mentally deformed4 ,but there are some who are base or savage by nature4 ,these should be regarded as we regard base or savage animals3 as creatures of a lower order1 dangerous1 but not deserving blame nor hatred4 ,and this is the sound view1 as ,i shall show1 because these unhappy creatures are nearer to our brutish ancestors than other men1 the ancient strain of man's bestial origin cropping out in them through no fault of their own4 ,religion says man is the product of ,god2 science says he is the product of heredity and environment4 ,the difference does not matter much to my case4 ,the point is that man does not create himself1 and so is not to blame for his nature1 and1 therefore1 is not to blame for his acts4 ,for man did not help ,god in the act of his creation1 nor did he choose his own ancestors4 ,what6 do you mean to say that the ruffian1 the libertine1 and the knave are not to be blamed nor punished for any of the vile and cruel acts they perpetrate8 asks the average man4 ,yes4 ,that is what ,i mean4 ,and that is not a new and startling craze1 as many may suppose1 but is a piece of very ancient wisdom2 as old as the oldest thought of ,india and of ,greece4 ,in the ,bhagavad-gita it is written3 ,he sees truly who sees all actions to be done by nature alone1 and likewise the self not the doer4 ,and ,socrates said3 ,it is an odd thing that if you had met a man ill-conditioned in body you would not have been angry2 but to have met a man rudely disposed in mind provokes you4 ,neither am ,i unsupported to-day in my heresies4 ,most theologists are opposed to me1 but most men of science are with me3 they look upon man as a creature of heredity and environment4 ,what a man does depends upon what he is2 and what he is depends upon his breed and his experience4 ,we admit that no two men are quite alike4 ,we should not expect men who are unlike in nature and in knowledge to do like acts4 ,where the causes are different it is folly to expect identical effects4 ,every man is that which his forbears 7his ancestors7 and his experiences 7his environment7 have made him4 ,every man's character is formed partly by heredity 7breed1 or descent7 and partly by environment 7experience1 or surroundings74 ,that is to say1 his character depends partly upon the nature of his parents1 and partly upon the nature of his experience4 ,he comes into the world just as his ancestors have made him4 ,he did not choose his ancestors2 he had nothing to do with the moulding of their natures4 ,every quality1 good or bad1 in his own nature1 has been handed down to him by his forbears1 without knowledge or consent4 ,how can we blame the new-born or unborn baby for the nature and arrangement of the cells--which are he8 ,born into the world as he was made1 he is a helpless infant1 dependent upon his nurses and his teachers4 ,he did not choose his nurses1 nor his teachers2 he cannot control their conduct towards him1 nor test the truth nor virtue of the lessons he learns from them4 ,he grows older the nature he inherited from his ancestors is modified1 for better or for worse1 by the lessons and the treatment given to him by his nurses1 his companions1 and his teachers4 ,so1 when he becomes a man he is that which his forbears and his fellow creatures have made him4 ,that is to say1 he is the product of his heredity and his environment4 ,he could not be otherwise4 ,how1 then1 can it be just to blame him for being that which he must be8 ,but1 it may be objected1 a man has power to change1 or to conquer1 his environment2 to train1 or to subdue1 his original nature4 ,that depends upon the strength of his original nature 7which his ancestors handed down to him7 and of his environment--which consists1 largely1 of the actions of his fellow-creatures4 ,a man has power to do that which his forbears have made him able to do4 ,he has power to do no more4 ,he has certain powers given him by his forbears1 which may have been developed or repressed by his surroundings4 ,with those powers1 as modified by the influences surrounding and outside himself1 he may do all that his nature desires and is able to do4 ,up to the limit of his inherited powers he may do all that his environment 7his experiences7 have taught or incited him to do4 ,to speak of a man conquering his environment is the same thing as to speak of a man swimming against a stream4 ,he can swim against the stream if he has strength and skill to overcome the stream4 ,his strength is his heredity3 his skill is the result of his environment4 ,if his strength and skill are more than equal to the force of the stream he will conquer his environment2 if the stream is too strong for him he will be conquered by his environment4 ,his acts1 in short1 depend wholly upon his nature and his environment3 neither of which is of his own choosing4 ,of this ,i will say more in its place4 ,a man gets his nature from his forbears1 just as certainly as he gets the shape of his nose1 the length of his foot1 and the colour of his eyes from his forbears4 ,as we do not blame a man for being born with red or black hair1 why should we blame him for being born with strong passions or base desires8 ,if it is foolish to blame a child for being born with a deformed or weak spine1 how can it be reasonable to blame him for being born with a deformed or weak brain8 ,the nature and quality of his hair and his eyes1 of his spine and his brain1 of his passions and desires1 were all settled for and not by him before he drew the breath of life4 ,if we blame a man because he has inherited fickleness from an ,italian grandfather1 or praise him because he has inherited steadfastness from a ,dutch grandmother1 we are actually praising or blaming him because1 before he was born1 an ,italian married a ,hollander4 ,if we blame a man for inheriting cupidity from an ancestor who was greedy and rapacious1 or for inheriting licentious inclinations from an ancestor who was a rake1 we are blaming him for failing to be born of better parents4 ,briefly1 then1 heredity makes1 and environment modifies1 a man's nature4 ,and both these forces are outside the man4 ,therefore man becomes that which he is by the action of forces outside himself4 ,therefore it is unjust to blame a man for being that which he is4 ,therefore it is unjust to blame him for doing that which he does4 ,therefore our human laws1 which punish men for their acts1 are unjust laws4 ,now1 before we go fully into the meanings of the words heredity and environment1 let us make a short summary of the arguments above put forth4 ,since man did not create his own nature1 man is not responsible for his own acts4 ,therefore all laws1 human or divine1 which punish man for his acts are unjust laws4 ,,chapter ,,three--,,where ,,do ,,our ,,natures ,,come ,,from8 ,i ,,hope the reader will not fight shy of heredity4 ,i trust he will find it quite simple and interesting2 and ,i promise him to use no unfamiliar words1 nor to trouble him with difficult and tedious scientific expositions4 ,i deal with heredity before environment1 because it is needful to take them one at a time1 and heredity comes first2 as birth before schooling4 ,but we must not fall into the bad habit of thinking of heredity and environment apart from each other1 for it is both1 and not either of them that make man's character4 ,it is often said that neither heredity nor environment accounts for a man's conduct4 ,and that is true4 ,but it is true1 also1 that heredity and environment account for every quality in the human make-up4 ,a pianist1 an artist1 or a cricketer is made as well as born1 and so is every man4 ,a good batsman is a good batsman for two reasons3 7#a7 ,he was born with good sight1 steady2 nerves1 and sound sense1 all of which he owes to his ancestors4 7#b7 ,he has been well taught1 or has practised well1 and this practice1 this endeavour to succeed1 he owes to his inherited ambition1 and to the precept and example of other men4 ,so if a man plays a fiddle well1 or steers a ship well1 or devotes his life to charity1 the excellence is always due to heredity and environment4 ,for the cricketer would never have been a cricketer1 nor the violinist a violinist1 had he been born in a country where cricket and violin playing were unknown4 ,and1 on the other hand1 a man bred amongst cricketers or musicians will never excel in music nor in cricket unless he has what is called a gift2 and the gift is heredity4 ,,now1 ,,what ,,do ,,we ,,mean ,,by ,,heredity8 ,heredity is descent1 or breed4 ,heredity1 as the word is here used1 means those qualities which are handed down from one generation to the next4 ,it means those qualities which a new generation inherits from the generation from whom it descends4 ,it means all that is bred in the bone4 ,if a man inherits a ,grecian nose1 a violent temper1 well-knit muscles1 a love of excitement1 or a good ear for music1 from his father or mother1 that quality or feature is part of his heredity4 ,it is bred in him4 ,every quality a child possesses at the moment of birth1 every quality of body or of mind1 is inherited from his parents and their ancestors4 ,and the whole of those qualities--which are the child--are what we call heredity4 ,no child brings into the world one single quality of body or mind that has not been handed down to it by its ancestors4 ,and yet no two children are exactly alike1 and no child is exactly like any one of its forbears4 ,this difference of children from each other and from the parent stock is called variation4 ,hundreds of books and papers have been written about variation1 and to read some of them one might suppose variation to be a very difficult subject4 ,but it is quite simple1 and will not give us any trouble at all4 ,let us see4 ,,why ,,we ,,are ,,not ,,all ,,alike ,the cause of variation can be easily understood4 ,variation is due to the fact that every child has two parents4 ,if these two parents were exactly alike1 and if their ancestors had been all exactly alike1 their children would be exactly like each other and like their parents4 ,but the father and mother are of different families1 of different natures1 and perhaps of different races4 ,and the ancestors of the father and mother--millions in number--were all different from each other in nature and in descent4 ,now1 since a child inherits some qualities from its father and some from its mother1 it follows that if the father and mother are different from each other1 the child must differ from both1 and yet resemble both4 ,for he will inherit from the father qualities which the mother has not inherited from her ancestors1 and he will inherit from the mother qualities which the father did not inherit from his ancestors4 ,so the child will resemble both parents1 without being an exact copy of either4 ,it varies from both parents by inheriting from each4 ,the child of a black and a white parent is what we call a half-caste3 he is neither a negro nor a white man4 ,the pup of a bulldog and a terrier is neither a bull-dog nor a terrier2 he is a bull-terrier terrier4 ,but heredity goes farther than that1 and variation is more complex than that4 ,we must not think of a man as inheriting from his father and mother only4 ,he inherits from the parents of both his parents2 and from thousands of ancestors before those4 ,he inherits from men and women who died thousands of years before he was born4 ,he inherits from the cave-man1 from the tree-man1 from the ape-man1 from the ape1 and from the beast before the ape4 ,the child in the womb begins as a cell1 and develops through the stages of evolution1 becoming an embryo worm1 fish1 quadruped1 ape1 and1 finally1 a human baby4 ,the child is born with the bodily and mental qualities inherited from many generations of beasts and many generations of men4 ,any one of the many ancient qualities of mind or body may crop up again in a modern child4 ,children have been born with tails3 children have been born with six nipples1 like a dog1 instead of with two1 like a human being4 ,and now ,i will explain1 simply and briefly1 what we mean by the word ,atavism4 ,,why ,,the ,,clock ,,of ,,descent ,,sometimes ,,goes ,,backward ,atavism1 or breeding back1 or reversion1 may reach back through thousands of generations1 and some trait of the cave-man1 or the beast1 may reappear in a child of ,twentieth ,century civilisation4 ,darwin1 in ,the ,descent of ,man1 ,chapter ,,ii1 gives many instances of atavism1 or breeding back1 by human beings to apish and even quadrupedal characteristics4 ,alluding to a case cited by ,mr4 ,j4 ,wood1 in which a man had seven muscles proper to certain apes1 ,darwin says3 ,it is quite incredible that a man should through mere accident abnormally resemble certain apes in no less than seven of his muscles1 if there had been no genetic connection between them4 ,on the other hand1 if man is descended from some apelike creature1 no valid reason can be assigned why certain muscles should not suddenly reappear after an interval of many thousand generations1 in the same manner as with horses1 asses1 and mules1 dark-coloured stripes suddenly reappear on the legs and shoulders after an interval of hundreds1 or1 more probably1 of thousands of generations4 ,dr4 ,lydston1 in ,the ,diseases of ,society 7,lippincott3 #aijd7 says3 ,the outcropping of ancestral types of mentality is observed to underlie many of the manifestations of vice and crime4 ,these ancestral types or traits may revert farther back even than the savage progenitors of civilised man1 and approximate those of the lower animals who1 in their turn1 stand behind the savage in the line of descent4 ,this reversion to older and lower types1 or breeding back1 is important1 because it is the source of much crime--the origin of very many ,bottom ,dogs1 as we shall see4 ,but at present we need only notice that heredity1 or breed1 reaches back through immense distances of time2 so that a man inherits not only from savage ancestors1 but also from the brutes4 ,and man has no power to choose his breed1 has no choice of ancestors1 but must take the qualities of body and mind they hand down to him1 be those qualities good or bad4 ,descent1 or breed1 does not work regularly4 ,any trait of any ancestor1 beast or man1 near or remote1 may crop up suddenly in any new generation4 ,a child may bear little likeness to its father or mother3 it may be more like its great-grandfather1 its uncle1 or its aunt4 ,it is as though every dead fore-parent back to the dimmest horizon of time1 were liable to put a ghostly finger in the pie1 to mend or mar it4 ,let us now use a simple illustration of the workings of heredity1 variation1 and atavism1 or breeding back4 ,there is no need to trouble ourselves with the scientific explanations4 ,what we have to understand is that children inherit qualities from their ancestors2 that children vary from their ancestors and from each other2 and that old types or old qualities may crop out suddenly and unexpectedly in a new generation4 ,knowing1 as we do1 that children inherit from their parents and fore-parents1 the rest may be made1 quite plain without a single scientific word4 ,in our illustration we will take for parents and children bottles1 and for hereditary qualities beads of different colours4 ,,the ,,mystery ,,of ,,descent ,,made ,,easy ,now1 take a bottle of red beads1 and call it male4 ,take a bottle of blue beads1 and call it female4 ,from each bottle take a portion of beads2 mix them in a third bottle and call it child4 ,we have now a child of a red father and a blue mother2 and we find that this child is not all red1 nor all blue1 but part red and part blue4 ,it is like the father1 for it has red beads2 it is like the mother1 for it has blue beads4 ,it is unlike the father1 for the father has no blue1 and it is unlike the mother1 for the mother has no red4 ,here we have a simple illustration of heredity and variation4 ,now1 could we blame the child bottle for having red and blue beads in it2 or could we blame the child bottle for having no yellow and no green beads in it8 ,but that is an example of a simple mixture of two ancestral strains4 ,we have to do with mixtures of millions of strains4 ,let us carry our illustration forward another generation4 ,take our blue and red child and marry him to the child of a black bottle and a yellow bottle4 ,this gives us a marriage between ,red-,blue and ,black-,yellow4 ,the child bottle mixed from these two bottles of double colours will contain four colours4 ,he will inherit from grandfather ,red and grandmother ,blue1 from grandfather ,black and grandmother ,yellow1 and from father ,red-,blue and mother ,black-,yellow4 ,he will be like the six fore-parents1 but different from each of them4 ,can we blame this child bottle for being made up of red1 blue1 black1 and yellow8 ,can we blame it for having no purple nor white beads in its composition8 ,no4 ,these colours were mixed for the child1 and not by it4 ,how could there be white or purple beads in this bottle1 when there were no white nor purple beads in the bottles from which it was filled8 ,but what of the variation amongst brothers and sisters8 ,that is easily understood4 ,if the four colours in the ancestral bottles are evenly mixed1 the grandchildren bottles will vary from their ancestors1 but not from each other4 ,as we know that brothers and sisters do vary from each other1 we must conclude that the hereditary qualities are not evenly mixed4 ,,where ,,do ,,our ,,natures ,,come ,,from8 ,for the scientific explanation of this fact ,i must refer you to ,the ,germ ,plasm1 by ,weissmann4 ,for our purposes it is enough to know that brothers and sisters do vary from each other1 and that they so vary because the ancestral qualities are not evenly distributed amongst the sperms and the ova4 ,on this head our own knowledge and observation do not leave any room for doubt4 ,it is as if in the case of our marriage of ,red-,blue and ,black-,yellow there were three child-bottles1 of which one got more red and yellow1 one more blue and red1 and one more yellow and blue than the others4 ,so that the three brother-bottles would differ from their fore-parents and from each other4 ,and as it would be foolish to blame the second bottle for having less red in it than the first1 so it is foolish to blame a human child for having less intellect or less industry than his brothers4 ,if you refer to the masterly description of the impregnation of the ova given in ,haeckel's great work1 ,the ,evolution of ,man1 you will find that the heredity of brothers is largely a matter of accident4 ,see the plate and explanation on page #acj in the first volume4 ,the variation in brothers and sisters is like the variation in the mixing of beads in our bottles4 ,it is as though we made several tartan plaids of the same four colours1 but in different patterns4 ,it is like dealing hands of cards from a shuffled pack4 ,there are four suits1 but one hand may be rich in clubs1 another in diamonds4 ,and who in a game of whist would blame his partner for holding no trumps in his hand8 ,the partner could only play the trumps dealt out to him4 ,in no way can a child control the pre-natal shuffling or dealing of the ancestral pack4 ,now1 as to atavism1 or breeding back4 ,in the ancestral bottles called men and women there are millions of different kinds of beads4 ,and it sometimes happens that a particular kind of bead 7or quality7 which has lain dormant for a long time--perhaps for a thousand years--will crop up in a new mixing that goes to make a child-bottle1 and so that child may be less like its own parents than like some ancestor who has been dead and forgotten for centuries4 ,in the case of the man with the seven ape muscles1 mentioned by ,darwin1 the breeding back must have reached millions of years4 ,this lying doggo1 or inactive1 of some hereditary trait1 may be likened to the action of a kaleidoscope4 ,we do not see all the fragments of coloured glass at every turn4 ,but they are all there4 ,we do not see the same pattern twice2 yet the patterns are made almost of the same colours and the same pieces4 ,and now ,i think we have got a clear idea of the meanings of the words heredity1 variation1 and atavism1 and the most timid reader will not be afraid of them any more4 ,there is no need1 for our purpose1 to wrestle with severe science4 ,the reader may find for himself all about pangenesis in ,darwin1 and about the germ plasm in ,weissmann4 ,here we will not tax our memories with such weird words as biophors1 gemmules1 ids1 idents1 and determinants4 ,our similes of beads1 tartans1 and cards will serve us well enough4 ,the only objection to our similes is that they are too simple4 ,the mixture of bloods in descent is very much more extensive than our mixture of cards or beads4 ,if we trace a child's descent back only four generations we find that he has no less than thirty fore-parents belonging to sixteen different families4 ,another generation would reach thirty-two families4 ,if we go back to twenty generations we find the number of families drawn upon to be over a million4 ,but ,darwin speaks of thousands of generations4 ,does not6 this suggest the wonderful possibilities of variation and atavism8 ,imagine the variety of character and physique in a city like ,london4 ,then remember that each one of us is descended from more ancestors1 and of much wider varieties1 than all the population of ,london4 ,and to hold a man answerable for his inheritance from those motley myriads of men and women is to hold him answerable for the natures and the actions of millions of human beings whom he never saw1 of whom he never heard4 ,we all know that the different races of men differ from each other in colour1 in features1 and in capacity4 ,we have only to think for a little of the ,japanese1 the ,americans1 the ,spaniards1 and the ,swedes1 to feel the full force of the term racial characteristics4 ,we know that there is a great difference between the ,irish and the ,scotch4 ,we know that there is a great difference between the ,italians and the ,dutch4 ,we know the strongly marked peculiarities of the ,jews and the ,greeks4 ,now1 to blame a man for his nature is to blame him for not being like some other man4 ,and how absurd it would be to blame a ,norwegian for not being like a ,jew1 or a ,gascon for not being like a ,scot4 ,the ,italians are wayward and impulsive3 the ,dutch are steadfast and cautious4 ,is it reasonable to blame the one for not being like the other8 ,if a child is born of an ,italian father and an ,irish mother1 is it reasonable to expect that child to be as cool and methodical as the child of ,dutch and ,scottish parents8 ,is it not the same with personal as with racial traits8 ,we have all heard of ,spanish pride1 and of ,irish wit2 we have all heard of the pride of the ,howards1 and the genius of the ,bachs4 ,to blame a ,spaniard for being proud is to blame him for being born of ,spanish parents4 ,to blame a ,howard for his pride is to blame him for being a son of the ,howards4 ,bach was a musical genius1 ,sheridan was witty1 ,nelson was brave1 ,rembrandt was a great painter1 because there were golden beads in their ancestral bottles4 ,but they did not put the golden beads there4 ,they inherited them1 as ,lord ,tomnoddy inherits his lands1 his riches1 and his plentiful lack of wit4 ,we should not expect the daughter of ,carmen to be like the daughter of ,jeannie ,deans1 nor the son of ,rawdon ,crawley to be like the son of ,parson ,adams4 ,we should1 indeed1 no more think of praising a man for inheriting the genius or the virtues of his ancestors1 than we should think of praising a man for inheriting his parents' wealth4 ,we have laughed over the ,gilbertian satire on our patriotic boastfulness3 ,for he himself has said it1 ,and it's greatly to his credit1 ,that he is an ,englishman4 ,he might have been a ,rooshian1 ,a ,frenchman1 ,turk1 or ,prooshian1 ,or even ,italian2 ,but in spite of all temptations ,to belong to other nations1 ,he remains an ,englishman4 ,all of us can feel the point of those satirical lines2 but some of us have yet to learn that a man can no more help being born good or bad1 smart or dull1 than he can help being born ,english1 ,french1 or ,prooshian1 or even ,italian4 ,some of our ancestors conquered at ,hastings1 and some of them did not ,some of our ancestors held the pass at ,thermopylae1 and others ran away at ,bunker's ,hill4 ,some were saints1 and some were petty larcenists2 some were philosophers1 and some were pirates2 some were knights and some were savages2 some were gentle ladies1 some were apes1 and some were hogs4 ,and we inherit from them all4 ,we are all of us great-great-grandchildren of the beasts4 ,we carry the bestial attributes in our blood3 some more1 some less4 ,who amongst us is so pure and exalted that he has never been conscious of the bestial taint8 ,who amongst us has not fought with wild beasts--not at ,ephesus1 but in his own heart8 ,some of our ancestors wore tails6 ,is it strange that some of our descendants should have what ,winwood ,reade called tailed minds8 ,the ghosts of old tragedies haunt the gloomy vestibules of many human minds4 ,the ,bottom ,dog may often be possessed of ancestral devils4 ,he that is without inherited taint among us1 let him cast the first stone4 ,,chapter ,,four--,,the ,,beginnings ,,of ,,morals ,,what do we mean by the words sin and vice1 and crime8 ,sin is disobedience of the laws of ,god4 ,crime is disobedience of the laws of men4 ,vice is disobedience of the laws of nature4 ,i say that there is no such thing as a known law of ,god3 that the so-called laws of ,god were made by men in ,god's name1 and that therefore the word sin need trouble us no more4 ,there is no such thing as sin4 ,i say that since there are bad laws as well as good laws1 a crime may be a good instead of a bad act4 ,for though it is wrong to disobey a good law1 it may be right to disobey a bad law4 ,and now what do we mean by the words good and bad1 moral and immoral8 ,we call an act good when it makes good2 when its effects are beneficial4 ,we call an act bad when it makes bad2 when its effects are injurious4 ,what are morals8 ,my dictionary says1 the doctrine of man's moral duties and social relations2 and in ,crabbe's ,synonyms ,i find3 ,by an observance of good morals we become good members of society4 ,the italics are mine4 ,morals are the standard of social conduct4 ,all immoral conduct is anti-social1 and all anti-social conduct is immoral4 ,if there were only one man in the world he could not act immorally1 for there would be no other person whom his acts could injure or offend4 ,where two persons live together either may act immorally1 for he may so act as to injure or offend his companion4 ,any act is immoral and wrong which needlessly injures a fellow creature4 ,but no act is immoral or wrong which does not directly or indirectly inflict needless injury upon any fellow creature4 ,i say1 needless injury2 for it may sometimes be right and necessary to injure a fellow creature4 ,if it is wrong to inflict needless injury upon our fellows1 it is right to defend our fellows and ourselves from the attacks of those who would needlessly injure us4 ,any act which inflicts needless injury upon a fellow creature is immoral2 but no act which does not inflict needless injury upon a fellow creature is immoral4 ,that is the root of my moral code4 ,it may at first seem insufficient1 but ,i think it will be found to reach high enough1 wide enough1 and deep enough to cover all true morality4 ,for there is hardly any act a man can perform which does not affect a fellow creature4 ,for instance1 if a man takes to drink1 or neglects his health1 he injures others as well as himself4 ,for he becomes a less agreeable and a less useful member of society4 ,he takes more from the common stock1 and gives back less4 ,he may even become an eyesore1 or a danger1 or a burden to his fellows4 ,a cricketer who drank1 or neglected to practise1 would be acting as immorally towards the rest of the team as he would if he fielded carelessly or batted selfishly4 ,because1 speaking morally1 a man belongs not only to himself1 but also to the whole human race4 ,,where ,,did ,,morals ,,come ,,from8 ,morals do not come by revelation1 but by evolution4 ,morals are not based upon the commands of ,god1 but upon the nature and the needs of man4 ,our churches attribute the origin of morals to the ,bible4 ,but the ,egyptians and ,babylons had moral codes before ,moses was born or the ,bible written4 ,thousands of years1 tens of thousands of years1 perhaps millions of years before ,abraham1 there were civilisations and moral codes4 ,even before the coming of man there were the beginnings of morals in the animal world4 ,when ,i was a boy1 we were taught that acts were right or wrong as they were pleasing or displeasing to the ,god of the ,hebrew ,bible4 ,there were two kinds of men--good men and bad men4 ,the good men might expect to succeed in business here and go to heaven hereafter4 ,the bad men were in peril of financial frosts in this world1 and of penal fires in the world to come4 ,as ,i grew older and began to think for myself1 ,i broke from that teaching1 and at last came to see that all acts were wrong which caused needless injury to others2 that the best and happiest man was he who most earnestly devoted himself to making others happy2 that all wrong-doing sprang from selfishness1 and all welldoing from unselfishness2 that all moral acts were social acts1 and all immoral acts unsocial acts2 and that therefore ,socialism was good1 and ,individualism was evil4 ,but as to the beginning of the social virtues ,i was puzzled4 ,in most religions morality is supposed to have been established by divine revelation4 ,men did not know right from wrong until ,god gave them codes of laws ready-made2 and even after men had the divine laws given to them they were by nature so depraved that they could only obey those laws by the special grace of ,god4 ,the idea that morality was slowly built up by evolution was first given to the world by ,spencer and ,darwin4 ,it has since been elaborated by other writers1 notably by ,winwood ,reade and ,prince ,kropotkin4 ,the notions of the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest have been too commonly taken to mean that life in the animal world is one tragic series of ruthless single combats2 that every man's hand always was and ever must be against the hand of every man1 and every beast's tooth and claw against the tooth and claw of every beast4 ,but if we read ,darwin's ,descent of ,man and ,prince ,kropotkin's ,mutual ,aid ,among ,animals and ,winwood ,reade's ,martyrdom of ,man1 we shall find that the law of natural selection does not favour any such horrible conclusions4 ,self-preservation may be the first law of nature2 but it is not the last law of nature4 ,in union is strength4 ,the gregarious animals--those which live in communities of flocks and herds--as the apes1 the deer1 the rooks1 the bees1 the bison1 the swallows1 and the wolves1 gain by mutual aid in the struggle for existence1 for1 by reason of their numbers and their union1 they are better able to watch for the approach and to defeat the attacks of their enemies4 ,from this union and mutual aid of the gregarious animals arose the social instincts4 ,the sociable animals would doubtless be first drawn together partly for safety and partly for company4 ,sheep1 deer1 buffalo1 wild dogs1 ants1 rooks1 and other social animals enjoy the companionship of their own kind4 ,they play together1 feed together1 sleep together1 hunt together1 and help each other to evade or resist their common foes4 ,they share in social pleasures1 and practise some of the social virtues4 ,and as the more sociable animals would be safest1 and the less sociable animals most exposed to danger1 natural selection would tend to raise the level of sociability1 because the stock would be bred more from sociable than from unsociable animals4 ,the apes are social animals1 and also imitative animals4 ,the ape-like forbears of man would unite for safety and for society1 and1 being imitative1 would observe and copy any invention or discovery due to lucky accident or to the sharper wits amongst their number4 ,like the lower animals1 they would play together1 feed together1 fight in companies1 defend or rescue their young1 and post sentinels to watch for the approach of danger4 ,long before man had thought of any ghost or ,god1 some rude form of order and morality would exist in the families and tribes of men1 as some rude form of order and morality exists to-day amongst the wild elephants1 the bees1 the deer1 and other creatures4 ,i once saw two horses fighting in a field4 ,a third and older horse came up and parted them1 and then drove them away in opposite directions4 ,so in the earliest human tribes would the leaders prevent brawling and exact obedience4 ,partly from such action1 and partly from the training of the young1 would be formed the habit of resenting and of punishing certain unsocial acts which the herd or tribe felt to be opposed to the general welfare4 ,one of the first faults man would brand as immoral would be cowardice4 ,one of the earliest moral laws would1 perhaps1 resemble the ,viking law that men who proved cowards in battle should be buried in the swamp under a hurdle4 ,imitation1 habit1 natural selection1 and the love of approbation1 would all tend to fix and improve these crude customs1 and from these simple beginnings would grow up laws and morals and conscience4 ,very likely the earliest human groups were family groups1 or clans4 ,these clans would fight against other clans4 ,the next step may have been the union of clans into tribes1 and the next the banding of tribes into nations4 ,at present men are mostly united as nations4 ,each nation has its own laws1 its own morality1 and its own patriotism1 and the different nations are more or less hostile to each other2 as formerly were the tribes or clans4 ,the final triumph will be the union of the nations in one brotherhood1 and the abolition of war4 ,the red ,indian does not think it immoral to murder an ,indian of another tribe4 ,the ,european does not think it immoral to kill thousands of men in battle4 ,the evolution of morality has not yet carried us as far as universal peace4 ,nor has any revelation of ,god forbidden war4 ,we do not need to think long1 nor to look far to see that different conditions have evolved different moral codes4 ,but all morals may be divided into two classes3 ,true ,morals and ,artificial ,morals4 ,true morals are all founded on the rule that it is wrong to cause needless injury to any fellow-creature4 ,artificial morals are those morals invented by priests1 kings1 lawyers1 poets1 soldiers1 and philosophers4 ,moral codes made by rulers1 or by ruling classes1 are generally founded on expediency2 and expediency1 as understood by the rulers or the ruling classes1 usually means those things that are expedient for themselves4 ,now that which is expedient for a king1 a tyrant1 or an aristocracy may be far from expedient for the people over whom they rule4 ,so we need not be surprised to find that many of the laws of barbarous and civilised nations are immoral laws4 ,our ,british game laws1 land laws1 poor laws1 and very many of the criminal laws1 and the laws relating to property1 are immoral laws4 ,but there is no revelation of ,god condemning those laws4 ,nor does any ,european church oppose those laws1 nor denounce them as immoral4 ,then as to public opinion--our unwritten moral code--there is no clear and logical system of moral principles4 ,for instance1 the public think it a pity that men should be out of work1 that women should starve1 that little children should be sent to school unwashed and unfed4 ,but the public do not think these things immoral4 ,the fact is1 the ,british people1 after more than a thousand years of ,christian teaching1 do not know what true morality is4 ,and how should they know1 when their teachers in the church do not know8 ,the churches have always drawn their morality from the ,bible1 and have always tried to fit it in with the immoral codes made by kings1 soldiers1 landlords1 money-lenders1 and other immoral persons4 ,the ,church has often pleaded for charity to the poor1 but has never come to the rescue of the ,bottom ,dog2 because the churches have never understood morality nor human nature4 ,it is science1 and not the revelation of ,god1 nor the teaching of priests1 that has enabled us to begin to understand human nature1 and has made it possible to build up a systematic code of true morality4 ,as to what morality is1 ,i claim it is the rule of social conduct3 the measure of right conduct between man and man2 and ,i shall build up my whole case upon the simple moral rule that every act is immoral which needlessly injures any fellow-creature4 ,this rule is only an old truth in a new form4 ,it is1 indeed1 just a modern reading of the ,golden ,rule4 ,it is not the rule itself1 but the use ,i shall put it to1 that is likely to flutter certain moral dovecotes4 ,as to the rule1 the teachings of most great moralists1 of all times and nations1 go to prove it4 ,as1 for instance3 ,lao ,tze1 a ,chinese moralist1 before ,confucius1 said3 ,the good ,i would meet with goodness1 the not-good ,i would also meet with goodness4 ,confucius1 ,chinese moralist1 said3 ,what you do not want done to yourself1 do not do to others4 ,he also said3 ,benevolence is to be in one's most inward heart in sympathy with all things2 to love all men2 and to allow no selfish thoughts4 ,the same kind of teaching is found in the ,buddhist books1 and in the rock edicts of ,king ,asoka4 ,here is a ,buddhist precept1 which has a special interest as touching the origin of morals4 ,since even animals can live together in mutual reverence1 confidence1 and courtesy1 much more should you1 ,o brethren1 so let your light shine forth that you may be seen to dwell in like manner together4 ,the ,hebrew moralists often sounded the same note4 ,in ,leviticus we find3 ,thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself4 ,in ,proverbs3 ,if thine enemy be hungry give him bread to eat1 and if he be thirsty give him water to drink4 ,in the ,talmud it is written3 ,do not unto others that which it would be disagreeable to you to suffer yourself2 that is the main part of the law4 ,we have the same idea expressed by ,christ3 ,all things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you1 even so do ye also unto them1 for this is the ,law and the ,prophets4 ,sextus1 a teacher of ,epictetus1 said3 ,what you wish your neighbours to be to you1 such be also to them4 ,isocrates said3 ,act towards others as you desire others to act towards you4 ,king ,asoka said3 ,i consider the welfare of all people as something for which ,i must work4 ,,the ,,beginnings ,,of ,,morals ,in the ,buddhist ,kath ,sarit ,sgara it is written3 ,why should we cling to this perishable body8 ,in the eye of the wise the only thing it is good for is to benefit one's fellow creatures4 ,and another ,buddhist author expresses the same idea with still more force and beauty3 ,full of love for all things in the world1 practising virtue in order to benefit others--this man alone is happy4 ,but even when the moralists did not lay down the ,golden ,rule1 they taught that the cause of sin and of suffering was selfishness2 and they spoke strongly against self-pity1 and self-love1 and self-aggrandisement4 ,what is the lesson of ,buddha1 and of the ,indian1 ,persian1 and ,greek moralists8 ,buddha went out into the world to search for the cause of human sin and sorrow4 ,he found the cause to be self-indulgence and the cure to be self-conquest4 ,the cause of pain1 he said1 is desire4 ,and this lesson was repeated over and over again by ,socrates1 ,plato1 ,epictetus1 ,marcus ,aurelius1 and ,plutarch1 and ,seneca44 ,the moral is that selfishness is bad1 and unselfishness is good4 ,and this moral is backed by the almost universal practice of all men in all ages and of all races in testing or weighing the virtue or the value of any person's conduct4 ,what is the common assay for moral gold8 ,the test of the motive4 ,sir ,gorgio ,midas has given #ajj1jjj to found a ,midas hospital4 ,what says the man in the street8 ,ah6 fine advertisement for the ,midas pills6 ,mr4 ,queech1 the grocer and churchwarden1 has given #e to the new ,methodist ,sunday ,school4 ,h'm6 says the cynical average man1 a sprat to catch a mackerel4 ,sir ,norman ,conquest1 ,bart1 ,m4,p41 has made an eloquent speech in favour of old-age pensions4 ,chigwin1 the incorruptible1 remarks with a sniff that it looks as if there would soon be a ,general ,election4 ,what do these gibes mean8 ,they mean that the benevolence of ,messrs4 ,midas1 ,queech1 and ,conquest is inspired by selfishness1 and therefore is not worthy1 but base4 ,now1 when a gang of colliers go down a burning pit to save life1 or when a sailor jumps overboard in a storm to save a drowning fireman1 or when a ,russian countess goes to ,siberia for trying to free the ,russian serfs1 there is no sneer heard4 ,chigwin's fierce eye lights up1 the man in the street nods approvingly1 and the average man in the railway compartment observes sententiously3 ,that's pluck4 ,well4 ,is it not clear that these acts are approved and held good8 ,and is it not clear that they are held to be good because they are felt to be unselfish8 ,now1 ,i make bold to say that in no case shall we find a man or woman honoured or praised by men when his conduct is believed to be selfish4 ,it is always selfishness that men scorn4 ,it is always self-sacrifice or unselfish service they admire4 ,this shows us that deep in the universal heart the root idea of morality is social service4 ,this is not a divine truth3 it is a human truth4 ,selfishness has come to be called bad because it injures the many without benefiting the one4 ,unselfishness has come to be called good because it brings benefit and pleasure to one and all4 ,it is twice bless'd3 it blesseth him that gives and him that takes4 ,as ,marcus ,aurelius expresses it3 ,that which is not for the interest of the whole swarm is not for the interest of a single bee4 ,and again he puts it3 ,mankind are under one common law2 and if so they must be fellow-citizens1 and belong to the same body politic4 ,from whence it will follow that the whole world is but one commonwealth4 ,and ,epictetus1 the ,greek slave1 said that as ,god is the father of all men1 then all men are brothers4 ,for countless ages this notion of human brotherhood1 and of the evil of self-love1 has been to morality what the sap is to the tree4 ,and now let us think once more how the notion first came into being4 ,i said that morality--which is the knowledge of good and evil--did not come by revelation from ,god1 but by means of evolution4 ,and ,i said that this idea was first put forth by ,spencer and ,darwin1 and afterwards dealt with by other writers4 ,darwin's idea was two-fold4 ,he held that man inherited his social instincts 7on which morality is built7 from the lower animals2 and he thought that very likely the origin of the social instinct in animals was the relation of the parents to their young4 ,let us first see what ,darwin said4 ,in ,chapter ,four of ,the ,descent of ,man ,darwin deals with moral sense4 ,after remarking that1 so far as he knows1 no one has approached the question exclusively from the side of natural history1 ,darwin goes on3 ,the following proposition seems to me in a high degree probable--namely1 that any animal whatever1 endowed with well-marked social instincts1 the parental and filial affections being here included1 would inevitably acquire a moral sense1 or conscience1 as soon as its intellectual powers had become as well1 or nearly as well1 developed as in man4 ,for1 firstly1 the social instincts lead an animal to take pleasure in the society of its fellows1 and feel a certain amount of sympathy with them1 and to perform various services for them4444 ,every one must have noticed how miserable dogs1 horses1 sheep1 etc41 are when separated from their companions1 and what strong mutual affection the two former kinds1 at least1 shown on their reunion4444 ,all animals living in a body1 which defend themselves or attack their enemies in concert1 must indeed be in some degree faithful to one another2 and those that follow a leader must be in some degree obedient4 ,when the baboons in ,abyssinia plunder a garden1 they silently follow a leader1 and if an imprudent young animal makes a noise1 he receives a slap from the others to teach him silence and obedience4444 ,with respect to the impulse which leads certain animals to associate together1 and to aid one another in many ways1 we may infer that in most cases they are impelled by the same sense of satisfaction or pleasure which they experience in performing other instinctive actions4444 ,in however complex a manner this feeling 7sympathy7 may have originated1 as it is one of high importance to all those animals which aid and defend one another1 it will have been increased through natural selection for those communities which included the greatest number of sympathetic members would flourish best and rear the greatest number of offspring4444 ,thus the social instincts1 which must have been acquired by man in a very rude state1 and probably even by his early apelike progenitors1 still give the impulse to some of his best actions2 but his actions are in a higher degree determined by the expressed wishes and judgment of his fellow-men1 and unfortunately very often by his own strong selfish desires4 ,those quotations should be enough to show ,darwin's idea of the origin of the social1 or moral1 feelings4 ,but ,i shall quote besides ,haeckel's comment on ,darwin's theory4 ,speaking of the ,golden ,rule in his ,confessions of ,faith of a ,man of ,science1 ,haeckel says3 ,in the human family this maxim has always been accepted as self-evident2 as ethical instinct it was an inheritance derived from our animal ancestors4 ,it had already found a place among the herds of apes and other social mammals2 in a similar manner1 but with wider scope1 it was already present in the most primitive communities and among the hordes of the least advanced savages4 ,brotherly love--mutual support1 succour1 protection1 and the like--had already made its appearance among gregarious animals as a social duty2 for without it1 the continued existence of such societies is impossible4 ,although at a later period1 in the case of man1 these moral foundations of society came to be much more highly developed1 their oldest prehistoric source1 as ,darwin has shown1 is to be sought in the social instincts of animals4 ,among the higher vertebrates 7dogs1 horses1 elephants1 etc471 the development of social relations and duties is the indispensable condition of their living together in orderly societies4 ,such societies have for man also been the most important instrument of intellectual and moral progress4 ,there is a very able article in the ,march1 #aije1 issue of the ,nineteenth ,century1 by ,prince ,kropotkin1 the author of ,mutual ,aid1 on ,darwin's theory of the origin of the moral sense1 in which the striking suggestion is made that primitive man1 besides inheriting from animals the social instinct1 also copied from them the first rudiments of tribal union and mutual aid4 ,this notion may be gathered from the following picturesque passages3 ,primitive man lived in close intimacy with animals4 ,with some of them he probably shared the shelters under the rocks1 occasionally the caverns1 and very often food4444 ,our primitive ancestors lived with the animals1 in the midst of them4 ,and as soon as they began to bring some order into their observations of nature1 and to transmit them to posterity1 the animals and their life supplied them with the chief materials for their unwritten encyclopaedia of knowledge1 as well as for their wisdom1 which they expressed in proverbs and sayings4 ,animal psychology was the first psychology man was aware of--it is still a favourite subject of talk at the camp fires2 animal life1 closely interwoven with that of man1 was the subject of the very first rudiments of art1 inspiring the first engravers and sculptors1 and entering into the composition of the most ancient epical traditions and cosmogonic myths4444 ,the first thing which our children learn in natural history is something about the beasts of prey--the lions and the tigers2 ,but the first thing that primitive savages must have learned about nature was that it represents a vast agglomeration of animal clans and tribes2 the ape tribe1 so nearly related to man1 the ever-prowling wolf tribe1 the knowing1 chattering bird tribe1 the ever-busy insect tribe1 and on4 ,for them the animals were an extension of their own kin--only so much wiser than themselves4 ,and the first vague generalisation which men must have made about nature--so vague as to hardly differ from a mere impression--was that the living being and his clan or tribe are inseparable4 ,we can separate them--they could not2 and it seems even doubtful whether they could think of life otherwise than within a clan or a tribe4444 ,and that man who had witnessed once an attack of wild dogs1 or dholes1 upon the biggest beasts of prey1 certainly realised1 once and for ever1 the irresistible force of the tribal unions1 and the confidence and courage with which they inspire every individual4 ,man made divinities of these dogs1 and worshipped them1 trying by all sorts of magic to acquire their courage4 ,in the prairies and the woods our earliest ancestors saw myriads of animals1 all living in clans and tribes4 ,countless herds of red deer1 fallow deer1 reindeer1 gazelles1 and antelopes1 thousands of droves of buffaloes and legions of wild horses1 wild donkeys1 quaggas1 zebras1 and so on1 were moving over the boundless plains1 peacefully grazing side by side4 ,even the dreary plateaus had their herds of llamas and wild camels4 ,and when man approached these animals1 he soon realised how closely connected all these beings were in their respective droves or herds4 ,even when they seemed fully absorbed in grazing1 and apparently took no notice of the others1 they closely watched each other's movements1 always ready to join in some common action4 ,man saw that all the deer tribe1 whether they graze or merely gambol1 always kept sentries1 which never release their watchfulness and never are late to signal the approach of a beast of prey2 he knew how1 in case of a sudden attack1 the males and the females would encircle their young ones and face the enemy1 exposing their lives for the safety of the feeble ones2 and how1 even with such timid creatures as the antelopes1 or the fallow deer1 the old males would often sacrifice themselves in order to cover the retreat of the herd4 ,man knew all that1 which we ignore or easily forget1 and he repeated it in his tales1 embellishing the acts of courage and self-sacrifice with his primitive poetry1 or mimicking them in his religious tribal dances4444 ,social life--that is1 we1 not ,i--is1 in the eyes of primitive man1 the normal form of life4 ,it is life itself4 ,therefore we must have been the normal form of thinking for primitive man3 a category of his understanding1 as ,kant might have said4 ,and not even we1 which is still too personal1 because it represents a multiplication of the ,i's1 but rather such expression as the men of the beaver tribe1 the kangaroo men1 or the turtles4 ,this was the primitive form of thinking1 which nature impressed upon the mind of man4 ,here1 in that identification1 or1 we might even say1 in this absorption of the ,i by the tribe1 lies the root of all ethical thought4 ,the self-asserting individual came much later on4 ,even now1 with the lower savages1 the individual hardly exists at all4 ,it is the tribe1 with its hard-and-fast rules1 superstitions1 taboos1 habits1 and interests1 which is always present in the mind of the child of nature4 ,and in that constant1 ever-present identification of the unit with the whole lies the substratum of all ethics1 the germ out of which all the subsequent conceptions of justice1 and the still higher conceptions of morality1 grew up in the course of evolution4 ,besides these excellent contributions to the subject1 ,prince ,kropotkin gives us other new and striking thoughts1 bearing upon the parental source of the social feelings indicated by ,darwin4 ,but first let us go back to ,darwin4 ,in ,chapter ,four of ,the ,de-scent of ,man ,darwin says3 ,the feeling of pleasure from society is probably an extension of the parental or filial affections1 since the social instinct seems to be developed by the young remaining for a long time with their parents1 and this extension may be attributed in part to habit1 but chiefly to natural selection4 ,with those animals which were benefited by living in close association1 the individuals which took the greatest pleasure in society would best escape various dangers1 whilst those that cared least for their comrades1 and lived solitary1 would perish in greater numbers4 ,dr4 ,saleeby1 in the ,academy in the spring of #aije1 had some interesting remarks upon the origin of altruism4 ,he finds in the breast of the mammalian mother the fount whence love has flowed1 and points out that the higher we go in the mammalian scale the more dependent are the young upon their mothers4 ,after describing the helplessness of the human baby1 he continues thus3 ,yet1 this is the creature which has spread over the earth so that he numbers some fifteen hundred millions to-day4 ,he is the lord of creation1 master of creatures bigger1 stronger1 fleeter1 longer-lived than himself4 ,the earth is his and the fulness thereof4 ,yet without love not one single specimen of him has a chance of reaching maturity1 or even surviving for a week4 ,verily love is the greatest thing in the world4 ,well1 upon this subject of the parental origin of altruism1 ,prince ,kropotkin throws another light4 ,first1 alluding to ,darwin's cautious handling of the subject of the maternal origin of social feelings1 ,prince ,kropotkin1 quotes ,darwin's own remarkable comment1 thus3 ,this caution was fully justified1 because in other places he pointed out that the social instinct must be a separate instinct in itself1 different from the others--an instinct which has been developed by natural selection for its own sake1 as it was useful for the well-being and preservation of the species4 ,it is so fundamental1 that when it runs against another instinct1 even one so strong as the attachment of the parents to their offspring1 it often takes the upper hand4 ,birds1 when the time has come for their autumn migration1 will leave behind their tender young1 not yet old enough for a prolonged flight1 and follow their comrades4 ,he then offers the following suggestion3 ,to this striking illustration ,i may also add that the social instinct is strongly developed with many lower animals1 such as the land-crabs1 or the ,molucca crab2 as also with certain fishes1 with whom it hardly could be considered as an extension of the filial or parental feelings4 ,in these cases it appears rather an extension of the brotherly or sisterly relations or feelings of comradeship1 which probably develop each time that a considerable number of young animals1 having been hatched at a given place and at a given moment1 continue to live together--whether they are with their parents or not4 ,it would seem1 therefore1 more correct to consider the social and the parental instincts as two closely connected instincts1 of which the former is perhaps the earlier1 and therefore the stronger1 and which both go hand in hand in the evolution of the animal world4 ,both are favoured by natural selection1 which as soon as they come into conflict keeps the balance between the two1 for the ultimate good of the species4 ,to sum up all these ideas4 ,we find it suggested that the social feelings from which morality sprang1 were partly inherited by man from his animal ancestors1 partly imitated from observation of the animals he knew so well in his wild life4 ,and we find it suggested that these social feelings probably began in the love of animals for their young1 and in the brotherhood and comradeship of the young for each other4 ,it was the social feelings of men that made their ,bibles3 the ,bibles did not make the social feelings4 ,morality is the result of evolution1 not of revelation4 ,,chapter ,,five--,,the ,,ancestral ,,struggle ,,within ,,us ,i ,,have spoken of the nature handed down to us by our fore-parents4 ,i might have said natures1 for our inheritance1 being not from one1 but from many1 is not simple1 but compound4 ,we too commonly think of a man as an ,englishman or a ,frenchman2 as a ,londoner or a ,yorkshireman2 as good or bad4 ,we too commonly think of a man as one person1 instead of as a mixture of many persons4 ,as though ,john ,smith were all ,john ,smith1 and always ,john ,smith4 ,there is no such thing as an unmixed ,englishman1 ,irishman1 or ,yorkshireman4 ,there is no such thing as an unmixed ,john ,smith4 ,englishmen are bred from the ,ancient ,briton1 from the ,roman1 from the ,piets and ,scots1 from the ,saxons1 the ,danes1 the ,norwegians1 the ,normans1 the ,french4 ,all these varied and antagonistic bloods were mixed in centuries ago4 ,since then the mixing has gone on1 plentifully varied by intermarriage with ,irish1 ,scots1 ,dutch1 ,germans1 ,belgians1 ,french1 ,italians1 ,poles1 and ,spaniards4 ,we have had refugees and immigrants from all parts of ,europe4 ,we have given homes to the ,huguenots1 and the ,emigrs from ,france1 to the ,lollards and ,lutherans from the ,netherlands1 to crowding fugitives from ,russia1 ,holland1 ,hungary1 ,italy1 and ,greece4 ,we have absorbed these foreigners and taken them into our blood4 ,and the descendants of all these mixed races are called ,englishmen4 ,the ,londoner is a mixture of all those races1 and more4 ,from every part of ,england1 ,ireland1 ,scotland1 ,wales2 from most parts of ,europe1 from many parts of ,america and ,asia1 and even ,africa1 streams of foreign blood have flowed in to make the ,londoner4 ,in ,yorkshire there are several distinct races1 though none of them are pure4 ,there is one ,yorkshire type bearing marks of descent from the ,norsemen1 another bearing marks of descent from the ,flemish and ,french immigrants1 and another from the ,normandy invaders4 ,i have seen ,vikings1 ,belgians1 and ,normans all playing cricket in the ,yorkshire ,county team4 ,in ,ireland there are ,irishmen from ,denmark and ,norway1 ,irishmen from ,ancient ,mongolia1 and1 especially in ,kerry1 ,irishmen who seem to be of almost pure ,iberian type4 ,the ,iberian ,irishman is short1 dark1 aquiline1 and sardonic1 with black hair and eyes1 and a moustache more like a ,tartar's than a ,european's4 ,the ,viking ,irishman is big and burly1 with blue or grey eyes1 and reddish hair and beard2 the difference between these two types is as great as that between a ,saxon and a ,spaniard4 ,one of these ,irish ,iberians marries a ,yorkshire ,dane4 ,their son marries the daughter of a ,lancashire ,belgian and an ,ancient ,briton from ,flint2 and their children are ,english4 ,as ,i said just now1 we think of ,john ,smith as all ,john ,smith and always ,john ,smith4 ,but ,john is a mixture of millions of men and women1 many of them as different from each other as ,john ,ridd is different from ,dick ,swiveller1 or as ,diana of the ,crossways is different from ,betsy ,trotwood4 ,and these uncountable and conflicting natures are not extinct3 they are alive and busy in the motley jumble we call ,john ,smith4 ,john is not all ,john4 ,he is1 a great deal of him1 ,roman soldier1 ,ancient ,briton1 ,viking pirate1 ,flemish weaver1 ,cornish fisherman1 ,lowland scholar1 ,irish grazier1 ,london chorus girl1 ,yorkshire spinner1 ,welsh dairymaid1 and a host of other gentle and simple1 wild and tame1 gay and grave1 sweet and sour1 fickle and constant1 lovable and repellent ancestors2 from his great-great-grandparent1 the hairy treeman1 with flat feet and club like a young larch1 to his respectable father1 the white-fronted1 silk-hatted clerk in the ,pudsey ,penny ,savings ,bank4 ,and1 being as he is1 not all ,john ,smith1 but rather the knotted1 crossed1 and tangled mixture of ,johns and ,marys1 and ,smiths and ,browns and ,robinsons1 that has been growing more dense and intricate for tens of thousands of years1 how can we expect our good ,john to be always the same ,john8 ,we know ,john is many ,johns in the course of a summer's day4 ,we have seen him1 possibly1 skip back to the cave-man in a spasm of rage1 glow with the tenderness of the ,french lady who died of the plague in the ,fourteenth ,century1 and then smile the smile of the merry young soldier who was shot at ,dettingen--all in the time it takes him to clench and unclench his hand1 or to feel in his pocket for a penny1 or to flash a glance at a pretty face in the crowd4 ,john ,smith is not ,english1 nor ,yorkshire2 but human4 ,he is not one man2 but many men1 and1 which counts for more1 many women4 ,and how can we say of ,john ,smith that he is good or bad8 ,it is like saying of a bottle of beads1 mixed of fifty colours1 that it is red1 or blue4 ,as ,john's ancestors were made up of good and bad1 and as he is made up of them1 so ,john is good and bad in stripes or patches3 is good and bad by turns4 ,we speak of these mixed natures which a man inherits from his fore-parents as his disposition3 we call them the qualities of his mind1 and we wonder when we find him inconsistent1 changeable1 undecided4 ,ought we to be surprised that the continual struggle for the mastery amongst so many alien natures leads to unlooked-for and unwished-for results8 ,take the case of a council1 a cabinet1 a regiment1 composed of antagonistic natures2 what happens8 ,there are disputes1 confusion1 contradictions1 cross-purposes4 ,well3 a man is like a crowd1 a ,parliament1 a camp of ill-matched foreign allies4 ,indeed1 he is a crowd--a crowd of alien and ill-sorted ancestors4 ,the ,great ,arteries of ,human ,nature ,but1 differ from each other as we may1 there are some general qualities--some human qualities--common to most of us4 ,these common qualities may be split into two kinds1 selfish and unselfish4 ,the selfish instincts come down to us from our earlier brute ancestors4 ,the unselfish instincts come down to us from our later brute ancestors1 and from our human ancestors4 ,amongst the strongest and the deepest of man's instincts are love of woman1 love of children1 love of pleasure1 love of art1 love of humanity1 love of adventure1 and love of praise4 ,i should say that the commonest and most lasting of all human passions is the love of praise3 called by some love of approbation4 ,from this great trunk impulse there spring many branches4 ,nearly all our vanities1 ambitions1 affectations1 covetings1 are born of our thirst for praise4 ,it is largely in the hope of exciting the wonder or the admiration of our fellows that we toil and scramble and snatch and fight1 for wealth1 for power1 for place2 for masterly or daring achievement4 ,none but misers love money for its own sake4 ,it is for what money will buy that men covet it2 and the most desired of the things money will buy are power and display3 the value of which lies in the astonishment they will create1 and the flattery they will win4 ,how much meaning would remain to such proud and potent words as glory1 riches1 conquest1 fame1 hero1 triumph1 splendour1 if they were bereft of the glamour of human wonder and applause8 ,what man will bear and do and suffer for love of woman1 and woman for love of man2 what both will sacrifice for the sake of their children2 how the devotee of art and science1 literature1 or war1 will cleave to the work of his choice2 with what eagerness the adventurer will follow his darling bent1 seeking in the ends of the earth for excitement1 happy to gaze once more into the bright eyes of danger2 with what cheerful steadfastness and unwearied self-denial benevolence will labour for the good of the race2 is known to us all4 ,what we should remember is that these and other powers of our nature act and react upon each other3 that one impulse checks1 or goads1 or diverts another4 ,thus the love of our fellows will often check or turn aside our love of ourselves4 ,often when the desire for praise beckons us the dread of blame calls us back again4 ,the love of praise may even lure us towards an act1 and baulk us of its performance3 as when a cricketer sacrifices the applause of the crowd in order to win the praise of captain or critics4 ,so will the lust of pleasure struggle against the lust of fame2 the love of woman against the love of art2 the passion for adventure against the desire for wealth2 and the victory will be to the stronger4 ,let us look into the human heart 7the best way is to look into our own7 and see how these inherited qualities work for and against each other4 ,one of the strongest checks is fear2 another is what we call conscience4 ,fear springs sometimes from love of approbation2 we shrink from an act from fear of being found out1 which would mean the loss of that esteem we so prize4 ,or we shrink from fear of bodily pain3 as those knew well who invented the terrors of hell-fire4 ,there is a great deal of most respectable virtue that ought to be called cowardice4 ,deprive virtue of its dare nots1 and how many would nots and should nots might survive8 ,good conduct may not mean the presence of virtue1 but the lack of courage1 or desire4 ,but1 happily1 men do right1 also1 for right's sake2 and because it is right2 or they refrain from doing wrong because it is wrong4 ,the bent towards right conduct arises from one of two sources3 #a4 ,education3 we have been taught that certain acts are wrong4 #b4 ,natural benevolence3 a dislike to injure others4 ,the first of these--education--has to do with environment2 the second is part of heredity4 ,one we get from our fellow-men1 the other from our ancestors4 ,here let us pause to look into that much-preached-of mystery of the dual consciousness1 or double-self4 ,we all know that men often do things which they know to be wrong4 ,when we halt between the desire to do a thing1 and the feeling that we ought not to do it1 we seem to have two minds within us1 and these two minds dispute about the decision4 ,what is this mysterious double-self8 ,it is nothing but the contest between heredity and environment2 and is not mysterious at all4 ,heredity is very old4 ,it reaches back1 to the beasts4 ,it passes on to us1 generation after generation1 for millions of years1 certain instincts1 impulses1 or desires of the beast4 ,environment is new4 ,it begins at the cradle4 ,it prints upon us certain lessons of right and wrong4 ,it tells us that we ought not to do certain things4 ,but the desire to do those things is part of our heredity4 ,it is in our blood4 ,it is persistent1 turbulent1 powerful4 ,it rises up suddenly1 with a glare and a snarl1 like a wild beast in its lair4 ,and at the sound of its roar1 and the flame of its lambent eyes1 and the feel of its fiery breath1 memory lifts its voice and hand1 and repeats the well-learned lesson with its shall-nots4 ,we are told that the animal impulses dwell in the hind brain1 and that morals and thought dwell in the fore brain4 ,the dual personality1 then1 the double-self1 consists of the two halves of the brain2 and the dispute between passion and reason1 or between desire and morality1 is a conflict between the lower man and the higher2 between the old ,adam and the new4 ,but it is also1 to a great extent1 a conflict between the average man and the hero1 or leader4 ,we inherit the roots of morality1 that is ta say1 the social instincts1 or impulses of unselfish thoughts for others1 from the sociable animals4 ,but what we call ethics1 the rules or laws of moral conduct1 have been slowly built up by human teachers4 ,these teachers have been men with a special genius for morals4 ,they have made codes of morals higher than the nature of the average man can reach4 ,but the average man has been taught these codes of morals in his childhood1 and has grown up in unquestioning respect for them4 ,so when his baser nature prompts him to an act1 and his memory repeats the moral lesson it has learnt1 we have the nature of the average man confronted by the teaching of the superior or more highly moral man4 ,and there is naturally a conflict between the desire to do evil1 and the knowledge of what things are good4 ,it is not easy for ,wat ,tyler1 ,corporal ,trim1 or ,sir ,john ,falstaff to follow the moral lines laid down by such men as ,buddha1 ,seneca1 or ,socrates4 ,sir ,john knows the value of temperance2 but he has a potent love of sack4 ,wat knows that it is good for a man to govern his temper2 but he is a choleric subject1 and hefty with a hammer4 ,there was a lot of human nature in the shipwright1 who being reminded that ,st4 ,paul said a man was better single1 retorted that ,st4 ,paul wasn't a ,north ,shields man4 ,,our ,,possibilities ,we know very well that some qualities may make either for good or bad4 ,strength1 ability1 courage1 emulation1 may go to the making of a great hero1 or a great criminal44 ,if a man's bent1 or teaching1 be good1 he will do better1 if it be evil he will do worse by reason of his talents1 his daring1 or his resolution4 ,dirt has been defined as matter in the wrong place3 badness might be often defined as goodness misapplied4 ,courage ill-directed is foolhardiness2 caution in excess is cowardice2 firmness overstrained is obstinacy4 ,many of our inherited qualities are what we call potentialities3 they are possibilities1 capabilities1 strong1 or potential for good or evil4 ,love of praise may drive a man to seek fame as a philanthropist1 a tyrant1 a discoverer1 or a train-robber4 ,love of adventure and love of fame had as much to do with the exploits of ,gaude ,duval and ,morgan1 the buccaneer1 as with those of ,drake or ,clive4 ,nelson was as keen for fame as ,buonaparte3 but the ,englishman loved his country2 the ,corsican himself4 ,doubtless ,torquemada had as much religious zeal as ,st4 ,francis2 but the one breathed curses1 the other blessings4 ,pugnacity is good when used against tyranny or wrong2 it is bad when used against liberty or right4 ,men of brilliant parts have failed for lack of industry or judgment4 ,men of noble qualities have gone to ruin because of some inborn weakness1 or bias towards vice4 ,our minds are of a mingled yarn1 good and ill together4 ,many of life's most tragic human failures have been sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh4 ,ophelia was not the first woman1 nor the last by many millions1 to perish through reaching for flowers that grow aslant the brook4 ,if virtue is often cowardice1 frailty is often love2 and the words of ,laertes to the churlish priest might frequently be spoken for some poor ,bottom ,dog in reproach of the unjust censure of a ,pharisee3 a ministering angel shall my sister be1 when thou liest howling4 ,we must remember1 then1 that the happiness or unhappiness of our nature depends not so much upon any special quality as upon the general balance of the whole4 ,poor ,oscar ,wilde had many fine qualities1 but his egotism1 his vicious taint1 and1 perhaps1 his unfortunate surroundings1 drove him to shipwreck1 with all his golden talents aboard4 ,every day noble ships run upon the rocks2 every day brave pennons go down in the press of the battle1 and are trampled in the blood and dust2 every day lackeys ride in triumph1 and princes slave on the galleys2 every day the sweet buds go to the swine-trough1 and the gay and fair young children to shame or the jail4 ,some fall through loving too much1 others through loving not at all4 ,some are shattered by a single fault1 like a ruby cup with one flaw in its radiant heart4 ,some are twisted out of all hope from birth1 like one of ,omar's pots1 which the potter moulded awry4 ,some seeds of innocent lilies1 or roses of loveliness1 or passion flowers divine1 are scattered upon the rocks1 or blown by harsh winds out to sea4 ,do you know ,thomas ,carlyle's burning words concerning these tragic fates8 ,cholera doctors1 hired to dive into black dens of infection and despair1 they1 rushing about all day1 from lane to lane1 with their life in their hand1 are found to do their function2 which is a much more rugged one than ,howard's4 ,o1 what say we1 ,cholera ,doctors8 ,ragged losels1 gathered by beat of drum from the over-crowded streets of cities1 and drilled a little1 and dressed in red1 do not they stand fire in an uncensurable manner2 and handsomely give their life1 if needful1 at the rate of a shilling per day8 ,human virtue1 if we went down to the roots of it1 is not so rare4 ,the materials of human virtue are everywhere abundant as the light of the sun3 raw materials--,o woe1 and loss1 and scandal thrice and three-fold1 that they so seldom are elaborated1 and built into a result4 ,that they lie yet unelaborated and stagnant in the souls of widespread dreary millions1 fermenting1 festering2 and issue at last as energetic vice instead of strong practical virtue6 ,a ,mrs4 ,manning dying game--alas1 is not that the foiled potentiality of a kind of heroine too8 ,not a heroic ,judith1 not a mother of ,gracchi now1 but a hideous murderess1 fit to be mother of hyenas6 ,to such extent can potentialities be foiled4 ,let us bear in mind1 then1 that a man's powers1 like the powers of a state1 will work for good or for evil1 as they are ill or well governed4 ,and the government of human powers and desires depends partly upon heredity1 and largely upon environment1 of which in its due place4 ,how ,does ,heredity ,make ,genius8 ,i shall not weary the reader with proofs of heredity4 ,it would be a waste of words to quote pages of ,darwin1 ,spencer1 ,weissmann1 and ,galton for the sake of proving the obvious4 ,our own observation and common sense will convince us that our traits and qualities of body and mind are inherited4 ,we know that rabbits do not breed kittens1 nor eagles geese1 nor apples oranges1 nor negroes whites4 ,we know that in all cases where the breed is pure the descent is pure2 and we understand that where a black sheep is born into a white flock1 or a fair child is born of dark fore-parents1 the sport1 as it is called1 is due to atavism1 or breeding back4 ,somewhere1 near or far1 the breed has been crossed4 ,but there is one question that has caused a good deal of doubt and perplexity1 and1 as the answer to that question is not obvious1 we will consider it here4 ,a sport is an individual departure from a type4 ,a sport is a freak of nature4 ,a genius is a sport2 and the question we are to answer here is3 ,how does heredity account for genius8 ,to make the matter quite clear1 and to meet all doubts1 we will split our question into two3 #a4 ,how is it that genius does not always beget genius8 #b4 ,how is it mediocrity does sometimes beget genius8 ,take the first question4 ,how is it that genius does not always beget genius8 ,mr4 ,galton has disposed of the objection that clever men do not have clever sons by showing that clever men often do have clever sons4 ,but the fact remains that such men as ,shakespeare1 ,plato1 ,csar1 and ,socrates never have children as great as themselves4 ,and it has been claimed that this fact belies heredity4 ,but to those who know even a very little about heredity it is quite obvious that we ought not to expect the son of a very great genius to be equal to his father4 ,such a recurrence is rendered almost impossible by the law of variation4 ,a great man is a lucky product of heredity and environment4 ,he is a fortunate1 and accidental1 blending of several qualities which make greatness possible4 ,but the great man's son is not born of the same parents as his father4 ,his blood is only half of it drawn from the families which produced his father's greatness2 the other half is from another family1 which may contain no elements of greatness4 ,thus so far from its being strange that genius does not beget genius1 we see that it would be strange if genius did beget genius4 ,the children of ,shakespeare would not be ,shakespeareans3 they would be half ,shakespeare and half ,hathaway2 and it is quite possible that their intellectual qualities might come chiefly from the mother's side4 ,now1 if ,ann ,hathaway's family were not intellectually equal to ,shakespeare's family1 how could we expect the children of those two to be equal to the child of the superior breed8 ,we should not expect a mixture of wine and water to be all wine2 nor the foal of a blood horse and a half-bred mare to be a thoroughbred horse4 ,so much for the first question4 ,those who ask such a question have lost sight of the law of variation4 ,now for the second question4 ,how is it that mediocrity breeds genius8 ,the answer to that is that mediocrity does not breed genius4 ,let us take a case that is often cited3 the case of the great musician1 ,handel4 ,george ,frederick ,handel was a musical genius2 and we are told that heredity does not account for his genius1 as no other member of his family had ever displayed any special musical talent4 ,whence1 then1 did ,handel get his musical genius8 ,what are the qualities that go to the making of a great composer8 ,first1 an exquisite ear2 that implies great gifts of time and tune4 ,second1 a great imagination4 ,third1 an infinite capacity for taking pains4 ,fourth1 a quick and sensitive nervous system4 ,now1 a man might possess great industry1 or ambition1 and sensitive nerves1 and not be an artist of any kind4 ,he might have a great imagination1 and lack the industry or the ambition to use it effectively4 ,he might have industry1 ambition1 sensitive nerves1 and great imagination1 and yet without the musical ear he would never be a musician4 ,and the same may be said of any one or more of his ancestors4 ,therefore1 there may have been amongst ,handel's foreparents all the qualities needed for the making of a great musician without those qualities ever happening to be united in one person4 ,let us suppose a case4 ,a man of energy and ambition1 but with average imagination1 and an average ear1 marries a woman of ordinary mind4 ,their son marries a woman of strong imagination4 ,the child of this second1 union marries a woman of refined nature and considerable imagination4 ,the son of this union may be ambitious1 imaginative1 and energetic1 for he may inherit all those qualities from his foreparents4 ,then the only trait left to be accounted for is the fine musical ear4 ,now that gift for music may have come down to him from some distant foreparent1 living in an age when such a quality had no outlet4 ,or it may have come down to him from some foreparent who lacked ambition or energy to use it in a striking way4 ,it happens very often that a son inherits his finest intellectual and emotional qualities from his mother4 ,and we know that a talent of any kind is more likely to lie dormant in a woman than in a man4 ,for the woman may spend all her time and attention upon her home1 her husband1 her children4 ,i knew a case in which two sisters possessed considerable artistic talent ,yet1 so far as anyone knew1 none of their foreparents had shown artistic ability4 ,but one of the sisters told me that her mother had a remarkable gift for drawing1 which she had never used1 except to amuse her children4 ,now1 when we come to look into the case of ,handel1 we find that his father's family never gave any sign of musical talent ,but of his mother's family1 and of the families of his grandmother and great-grandmother we know little4 ,but ,handel's father was ambitious and energetic1 and his mother is described as follows3 ,the mother was thirty-three years old1 and1 we are told1 was clear-minded1 of strong piety1 with a great knowledge of the ,bible444 a capable manager1 earnest1 and of pleasant manners4 ,is there any proof that ,handel's mother had not a good musical ear8 ,none4 ,is there any proof that she had not1 lying dormant1 some special gift for music1 inherited from some ancestor8 ,none4 ,in that day1 and in that part of ,germany1 music was set little store by1 and musicians were regarded much as actors were in ,england4 ,therefore any great musical gift which happened to be inherited by a woman would have small chance of being developed or used4 ,and it is quite possible that ,handel may have inherited his ear from his mother's family4 ,again1 the musical talent may have been a quality that had been improving by marriage for several generations4 ,or it may have been an accident1 due to some physical process about which we cannot possibly have any direct knowledge4 ,for instance1 just as some special excellence of some special organ may be handed down1 so may some special defect ,a child may inherit the defect1 or the excellence4 ,or he may inherit a talent from both parents1 and so may excel them both4 ,a man may inherit his genius piecemeal from a hundred ancestors1 some of them dead for centuries1 or he may owe his special brilliance to some excitement1 or even to some derangement of the nervous system4 ,in fact1 to what ,lombroso calls degeneracy4 ,he may be like a river1 fed by several ancestral streams4 ,he may be the descendant of some mute inglorious ,milton4 ,but one thing he is not--he is not a mystery4 ,there is nothing in his greatness more mysterious than the accumulation of money in a bank1 or the agrandisement of a river by its tributary streams1 or the sudden appearance of a pattern of unusual beauty in a kaleidoscope4 ,there is nothing in genius to belie heredity4 ,there is nothing in genius that cannot be accounted for by heredity--if we remember the laws of variation1 and of atavism1 or breeding back4 ,,the ,,born ,,criminal ,speaking strictly1 there are no born criminals2 but there are some unfortunate creatures born with a nature prone to crime1 just as there are others born with a nature prone to disease4 ,these born criminals1 regarded by their better-endowed or luckier brothers and sisters as wicked1 are the victims of atavism or of degeneracy4 ,they are as much to be pitied1 and as little to be blamed1 as those born with a liability to insanity or consumption4 ,atavism1 as we have seen1 is a reversion to an older and a lower type1 a breeding back1 in some points1 to the savage or the brute4 ,degeneracy is the inherited result of vice1 insanity1 or disease in the parent ,lombroso describes degeneracy as the action of heredity in the children of the inebriate1 the syphilitic1 the insane1 the consumptive1 etc42 or of accidental causes1 such as lesions of the head1 or the action of mercury1 which profoundly change the tissues1 perpetuates neuroses or other diseases in the patient1 and1 which is worse1 aggravates them in his descendants4 ,the atavist is a man born with the nature1 or some of the traits of bestial or savage ancestors4 ,he is bred back to the type that was before morals4 ,he is born with strong animal traits1 with few social qualities2 with little or no moral brain4 ,he is a modern child1 born with the passions1 or the appetites1 or the intelligence1 of an ape1 or a cave-man4 ,to expect him to rise to the moral standard of to-day1 and to blame him if he fail1 is as unreasonable as it would be to expect the same conduct from a gorilla1 or a panther4 ,if the atavist is wicked1 the shark1 and the wolf1 and the adder are wicked4 ,to say that the atavistic man has reason is no answer2 he has not the kind of reason that makes for peace and order4 ,his misfortune just lies in the fact that he is bred back to the kind of reason which1 amongst the cave-men1 perhaps1 made a man a leader1 or a hero1 but amongst civilised ,western people makes him a born criminal4 ,i said before1 that to blame a ,spaniard for being proud is to blame him for being born of ,spanish parents4 ,it is just as true to say that to blame a man for being a born criminal is to blame him because some of his baser ancestors have accidentally passed on to him the traits of their lower natures4 ,indeed1 it is plainly absurd to blame a man for being born anything1 since he had no hand nor part in his birth4 ,all we can do with regard to the born criminal is to pity him for his unhappy inheritance1 and try to make the best of him4 ,so far we have never tried to make the best of him2 but have usually made almost the worst of him1 by meeting his hate with our hate1 his ignorance with our ignorance1 his ferocity with our ferocity4 ,nature1 or ,god1 having cursed the poor wretch with a heritage of shame1 we have come forward1 in the name of humanity and justice1 to punish and execrate him for his fatal mischoice of ancestors4 ,it is as though we should flog a gorilla or a hyna for having wickedly refused to be born a ,canon of ,st4 ,paul's1 or a ,primitive ,methodist ,sunday school teacher4 ,but some will suppose that the born criminal might be a sober1 law-abiding1 and ,god-fearing man1 if he would try2 and they do not understand that the man with the atavistic brain cannot try4 ,he has not got the kind of brain that can try to be what we think he ought to be4 ,we do not expect the bear to try to be polite1 nor the hog to try to be cleanly4 ,we know they cannot try to be either of those things4 ,neither can the atavistic man try to be something for which his nature was not made4 ,what is sauce for the atavist is sauce for the degenerate4 ,he also is the victim of cruel fate4 ,he also inherits misfortune1 or shame1 or disaster from his fathers4 ,his nature is not a casting back to an ancient type3 it is a nature poisoned1 maimed1 perverted1 or spoiled through the vices or the diseases of those who brought him into the world4 ,the degenerate may inherit from a diseased or drunken parent an imperfect mind or an imperfect body4 ,he may be born with a weak moral sense1 or with weak lungs1 or with an ill-balanced brain4 ,proneness to crime or proneness to disease may be born in him through no fault of his own4 ,the cause is the same in both cases3 the vice or disease of a parent4 ,now it is certain that we do not blame1 but pity1 and that we do not punish but help the victim whose degeneracy takes the form of disease4 ,but we do blame and we do punish the victim whose degeneracy takes the form of immorality or crime4 ,in neither case is the degeneracy the fault of the degenerate3 in both cases it is handed down to him by his parent or parents4 ,yet in the one case he gets our sympathy1 and in the other case our censure4 ,there is neither justice nor reason in such treatment of those who have the misfortune to be born--in the true sense of the words--of unsound mind4 ,those who have made a scientific study of crime tell us that psychic atavism is the dominant characteristic of the born criminal4 ,what is psychic atavism8 ,it is a breeding back1 or casting back to a lower type of mind4 ,this atavistic mind is inherited by the born criminal just as certain muscles common to apes are inherited by some other men4 ,and we are told that this inherited atavistic mind is the dominant characteristic of the criminal born4 ,in other words1 those men whom we have always blamed and punished as exceptionally wicked1 have inherited an atavistic1 or criminal1 mind from ancestors who died millions of years ago4 ,the most noticeable and striking fact about the born criminal is his unfortunate inheritance of that atavistic mind4 ,and in the plenitude of our wisdom and the glow of our righteous wrath1 we hang a man1 or flog him1 or brand him1 or loathe him1 because a cruel fate has visited upon him an affliction more pitiable than blindness1 or lameness1 or paralysis1 or consumption4 ,in cases of psychic atavism the actual form of the brain1 or the skull1 is more or less like that of the older and lower type to which the luckless atavist has been cast back4 ,the skull of the born criminal is the skull of the ape-man1 or the cave-man4 ,it has a low and retreating forehead1 a heavy and square jaw1 and is large behind1 where the baser animal parts of the brain are placed4 ,now1 to expect the same morals and the same intelligence from a man cursed with the skull of a gorilla1 or the brain of a wild hog1 as from the man blest with the skull and brain of a ,socrates or a ,shakespeare1 is like expecting figs to grow upon thistles1 or fish to breathe without gills4 ,and to blame a man for the shape of his skull1 or the balance of his brain1 is as foolish as to blame him because he has no eye for colour or no ear for music1 or because his having in beard is as a younger brother's revenue4 ,speaking on this subject in his excellent book1 ,the ,diseases of ,society1 ,dr4 ,lydston1 ,professor of ,criminal ,anthropology1 who is a well-known authority in ,america1 says3 ,atavism1 or reversion of type1 is a most important phase of the relation of evolutionary law to criminal and vice tendencies4444 ,reversion of type may be psychic 7mental7 or physical or both4 ,whether associated with obvious physical reversions or not1 psychic atavism is the dominant characteristic of the criminal4 ,it is certainly the principal phenomenon involved in the study of the crime question1 because it constitutes the dynamics of crime4 ,the outcropping of ancestral types of mentality is observed to underlie many of the manifestations of vice and crime4 ,these ancestral types or traits may revert farther back even than the savage progenitors of civilised man1 and approximate those of the lower animals who1 in turn1 stand behind the savage in the line of descent4444 ,lombroso assigns to atavism a position of pre-eminence in the etiology of crime4 ,in effect he thinks that crime is a return to primitive and barbarous ancestral conditions1 the criminal being practically a savage1 born later than his day4 ,obviously this view fits very accurately the so-called born criminal1 comprising about one-tenth of the entire criminal population4 ,but what of the other victims of heredity3 the criminal1 or immoral degenerate8 ,let us take a few facts1 and see what they will teach us4 ,dr4 ,lydston testifies as follows3 ,rev4 ,o4 ,mc,culloch has traced the life histories of seventeen hundred and fifty degenerate criminal and pauper descendants of one ,ben ,ishmael1 who lived in ,kentucky in #agij4 ,the ,rev4 ,dr4 ,stocker1 of ,berlin1 traced eight hundred and thirty-four descendants of two sisters1 who lived in #ahbe4 ,among them were seventy-six who had served one hundred and sixteen years in prison1 one hundred and sixty-four prostitutes1 one hundred and six illegitimate children1 seventeen pimps1 one hundred and forty-two beggars1 and sixty-four paupers4 ,it has been estimated by ,sichart1 ,director of ,prisons in ,wurtemburg1 that over twenty-five per cent1 of the ,german prison population comes from a degenerate ancestry4 ,vergilis claims thirty-two per cent1 for ,italian criminals4 ,now1 bearing in mind that the unfortunate children of drunken1 diseased1 criminal1 vicious1 and insane parents may1 and in very many cases will1 either become criminal or immoral1 or1 becoming imbecile or diseased1 will breed other degenerate children who will become criminal or immoral1 let us consider the following plain facts taken from a ,london daily paper of the present year 7#aije74 ,it is estimated that there are #ej1jjj epileptic children in the ,united ,kingdom1 and that one child in every #ajj of the population is feeble-minded4 ,in the last few years special schools have been opened for these children1 and they are trained until they are sixteen years of age4 ,at that age they are turned out into the world4 ,a few are able to look after themselves4 ,the majority drift into imbecility and vice1 and flood the workhouses and prisons4 ,at a meeting in the ,guildhall1 ,london1 called to discuss the means of dealing with imbeciles and epileptics1 a speech was made by ,dr4 ,potts1 of ,birmingham1 of which the following is a condensed report1 cut by me from the ,daily ,express3 ,terrible facts with regard to feeble-minded and defective women were given by ,dr4 ,potts4 ,he paid a visit to a girls' night shelter1 and investigated the first twelve cases he found there4 ,here is their record3 #a4 ,consumptive1 both parents died of the disease4 #b4 ,neurotic drunkard1 with a family who had suffered from ,st4 ,vitus' dance4 #c4 ,normal4 #d4 ,deaf and mentally defective4 #e4 ,neurotic and mentally defective4 #f4 ,no congenital defect1 but health ruined by drink4 #g and #h4 ,feeble character4 #i4 ,suffering from persistent bad memory4 #aj4 ,twice imprisoned for theft2 daughter of drunken loafer4 #aa4 ,normal4 #ab4 ,mentally defective and suffering from heart disease4 ,thus1 out of twelve only two were normal individuals4 ,yet the ten were free to go as they liked1 and to bring up defective children4 ,it is well known1 said ,dr4 ,potts1 that a large number of the inmates of penitentiaries are feeble-minded women4 ,we see1 then1 that a great many poor imbeciles are regularly sent to prison as criminals4 ,on that point allow me to put in the evidence of ,sir ,robert ,anderson1 late of ,scotland ,yard4 ,speaking of the feeble-minded1 ,sir ,robert said 7,i quote again from the ,london ,press73 ,my deliberate1 conviction is that our present prison methods and prison discipline are absolutely brutal to these poor persons4 ,people say the law of ,moses is brutal1 but it is not so brutal as the present criminal system of ,england4 ,no one who has not been behind the scenes can understand in any measure the misery and cruelty of it4 ,it is seven days' hard labour1 a month's hard labour1 time after time for these poor creatures1 who ought to be dealt with like children4 ,in prison they spend their miserable lives4 ,out of gaol they add to the number of their own species1 and commit offences which send them back once more4 ,our magistrates simply send them for another month or six months4 ,but it is not the magistrates' fault4 ,it is the fault of the law4 ,and this goes on in what promises to be the most intellectually conceited age since ,god made man upon earth4 ,surely we might have some pity for these poor creatures6 ,if we have no pity for them we should have regard for the public4 ,that is the testimony of the late head of the ,criminal ,investigation ,department3 an ,assistant ,commissioner of ,police1 and ,barrister at ,law4 ,let us now return to ,dr4 ,potts1 of ,birmingham1 for a moment4 ,in the speech above quoted ,dr4 ,potts gave the causes of mental defects--which are the causes that lead these poor creatures to immorality and to crime1 as follows3 #a4 ,defective nutrition in early years of life4 #b4 ,hereditary tendency to consumption4 #c4 ,descent from insane or criminal stock4 #d4 ,chronic alcoholism of one or both parents4 ,we have here1 added by ,dr4 ,potts1 another cause of degeneracy3 that is1 defective nutrition in early life4 ,in plain words1 improper feeding1 or semi-starvation4 ,later1 when we come to deal with environment1 ,i shall show that there are many other causes of degeneration and of crime4 ,but here ,i only point out that atavism and degeneration account for from thirty to forty per cent1 of the criminals of the present day4 ,that atavism and degeneration are forced upon the unborn child by heredity2 that therefore these forty per cent1 of our criminals are unfortunate victims of fate1 and are no more blameworthy nor wicked than the victims of a railway accident1 or an earthquake1 or an epidemic of cholera or smallpox4 ,they should1 as ,i claimed before1 be pitied1 and not blamed2 they should be helped1 not punished4 ,unhappy1 unblest atavistic man1 that in lieu of love has only lust1 in lieu of wisdom only cunning1 in lieu of power violence2 and with a whole world to walk in1 as in a garden fair1 lies wallowing hideously in the foul dungeon of his own unlightened soul4 ,unhappy criminal born1 most pitiful dreadful of developed creatures2 lonelier and more accursed than banded wolf or solitary tiger3 a waif1 a spoil1 a pariah born out of his due time3 ,a scribe's work writ awry and blurred1 ,spoiled music1 with no perfect word1 a wretched1 horrible ,ishmael with his hand against the hand of every man1 and every man's hand implacably against his4 ,on him1 it would appear1 has fallen the doom of the prophet1 and instead of sweet spices there is rottenness1 instead of a girdle a rope3 branding instead of beauty4 ,in the barren garden of his mind no flowers will blow1 his trees will bear no fruit ,all human pleasure is to him a ,circe cup2 he finds no pathos in the children's laughter1 no beauty in the dawn-shine2 no glory in the constellations4 ,what are we to do for this wretched desperate brother who will not love us though we whip him with whips of wire1 who will not make friends of us though we spurn and spit upon him2 who1 though we preach to him1 cannot understand2 who1 though we teach him1 cannot learn2 who1 though we hang him high as1 ,haman1 will die game1 cursing us with his strangled breath1 mocking us with his blinded eyes2 and in spite of all our intellect and righteousness going back from us unbettered and untamed into the abyss of eternity and the laboratory of evolution1 whence he and we were drawn3 going back from us a savage still1 and in his angry heart and baffled mind holding our half-fledged knowledge and green morality in derision4 ,well1 he is dead2 his stiff neck broken1 and his body wrapped in a winding sheet of lime4 ,and we8 ,we remain the superior persons we are4 ,we are civilised1 and holy4 ,we punish weakness with blows1 and misfortune with chains4 ,we teach sweet reasonableness with the cat-o'-nine-tails--steeped in brine4 ,we exemplify gentleness and mercy with the gibbet and the axe4 ,we brand the blind1 and torture the imbecile1 and execrate the miserable1 and damn the diseased1 and revile the fallen2 we set our righteous heel upon the creeping thing1 and thank our anomalous and hypothetical ,god of ,love and ,justice that we are not as those others--our atavistic brother and his degenerate children4 ,and our atavistic brother1 the criminal born6 ,he does not understand us1 he does not admire us1 he cannot love us4 ,we fail1 in some inexplicable way1 to charm the deaf adder1 charm we never so wisely4 ,but some day1 perhaps1 when the superior person has achieved humility1 even the outlawed ,bottom ,dog may come by some crumbs of sympathy1 some drops of the milk of human kindness1 and--then8 ,,chapter ,,six--,,environment ,,what is environment8 ,when we speak of a man's environment we mean his surroundings1 his experiences2 all that he sees1 hears1 feels1 and learns from the instant that the lamp of life is kindled to the instant when the light goes out4 ,by environment we mean everything that develops or modifies the child or the man for good or for ill4 ,we mean his mother's milk2 the home1 and the state of life into which he was born4 ,we mean the nurse who suckles him1 the children he plays with1 the school he learns in1 the air he breathes1 the water he drinks1 the food he eats4 ,we mean the games he plays1 the work he does1 the sights he sees1 the sounds he hears4 ,we mean the girls he loves1 the woman he marries1 the children he rears1 the wages he earns4 ,we mean the sickness that tries him1 the griefs that sear him1 the friends who aid and the enemies who wound him4 ,we mean all his hopes and fears1 his victories and defeats2 his faiths and his disillusionments4 ,we mean all the harm he does1 and all the help he gives2 all the ideals that beckon him1 all the temptations that lure him2 all his weepings and laughter1 his kissings and cursings1 his lucky hits and unlucky blunders3 everything he does and suffers under the sun4 ,i go into all this detail because we must remember that everything that happens to a man1 everything that influences him1 is a part of his environment4 ,it is a common mistake to think of environment in a narrow sense1 as though environment implied no more than poverty or riches4 ,everything outside our skin belongs to our environment4 ,let us think of it again4 ,education is environment2 religion is environment2 business and politics are environment2 all the ideals1 conventions1 and prejudices of race and class are environment2 literature1 science1 and the ,press are environment2 music1 history1 and sport are environment2 beauty and ugliness are environment2 example and precept are environment2 war and travel and commerce are environment2 sunshine and ozone1 honour and dishonour1 failure and success1 are environment2 love is environment4 ,i stress and multiply examples because the power of environment is so tremendous that we can hardly over-rate its importance4 ,a child is not born with a conscience2 but with the rudiments of a conscience3 the materials from which a conscience may or may not be developed--by environment4 ,a child is not born with capacities1 but only with potentialities1 or possibilities1 for good or evil1 which may or may not be developed--by environment4 ,a child is born absolutely without knowledge4 ,every atom of knowledge he gets must be got from his environment4 ,every faculty of body or of mind grows stronger with use and weaker with disuse4 ,this is as true of the reason and the will as of the muscles4 ,the sailor has better sight than the townsman1 because his eyes get better exercise4 ,the blind have sharper ears than ours1 because they depend more on their hearing4 ,exercise of the mind alters the arrangement of the grey matter of the brain1 and so alters the morals1 the memory1 and the reasoning powers4 ,just as dumb-bells1 rowing1 or delving develop the muscles1 thought1 study1 and conversation develop the brain4 ,and everything that changes1 or develops1 muscle or brain is a part of our environment4 ,there must be bounds to the powers of environment1 but no man has yet discovered the limits1 and few have dared to place them wide enough4 ,but the scope of environment is undoubtedly so great1 as ,i shall try to prove1 that1 be the heredity what it may1 environment has power to save or damn4 ,let us think what it means to be born quite without knowledge4 ,let us think what it means to owe all that we learn to environment4 ,so it is4 ,were it not for the action of environment1 for the help of other men and women1 we should live and die as animals2 without morality1 without decency1 without the use of tools1 or arms1 or arts1 or letters4 ,we should be savages1 or superior kinds of apes4 ,that we are civilised and cultured men and women we owe to the fellow-creatures who gave into our infant hands the key to the stored-up knowledge and experience of the race4 ,the main difference between the ,europe of to-day and the ,europe of the old ,stone ,age is one of knowledge3 that is1 of environment ,suppose that a child of ,twentieth-,century parents could be born into the environment of an earlier century4 ,would he grow up with the ideas of to-day1 or with the ideas of those who taught and trained him8 ,most certainly he would fall into step with his environment3 he would think with those with whom he lived1 and from whom he learnt4 ,born into ancient ,athens1 he would look upon slavery as a quite natural and proper thing born into ancient ,scandinavia1 he would grow up a ,viking1 would worship ,thor and ,odin1 and would adopt piracy as the only profession for a man of honour born into the environment of the ,spanish prime1 he would think it a righteous act to roast heretics or to break ,lutherans on the wheel4 ,born into the fanatical environment of ,sixteenth-,century ,france1 he would have no scruples against assisting in the holy massacre of ,st4 ,bartholomew's4 ,born a ,turk1 he would believe the ,koran1 and accept polygamy and slavery4 ,born a ,red ,indian1 he would scalp his slain or wounded enemies1 and torture his prisoners4 ,born amongst cannibals1 he would devour his aged relatives1 and his faded wives1 and most of the foes made captive to his bow and spear4 ,suppose a child of modern ,english family could be born into the environment of ,fourteenth-,century ,england6 ,he would surely believe in the ,roman ,catholic religion1 in a personal devil1 and in a hell of everlasting fire4 ,he would believe that the sun goes round the world1 and that any person who thought otherwise was a child of the devil1 and ought to be broiled piously and slowly at a fire of green faggots4 ,he would accept slave-dealing1 witch-burning1 the ,star ,chamber1 the whipping-post1 the pillory1 and the forcing of evidence by torture1 as comfortably as we now accept the cat-o'-nine-tails1 the silent system1 and the gallows4 ,he would look upon education1 sanitation1 and science as black magic and defiance of ,god4 ,he would never have learnt from ,copernicus1 ,newton1 ,harvey1 ,bacon1 ,spencer1 ,darwin1 ,edison1 or ,pasteur4 ,he would be ignorant of ,shakespeare1 ,cromwell1 the ,french ,revolution1 the ,emancipation of ,slaves1 the ,factory ,acts1 and the ,household ,franchise4 ,he would never have heard of electricity1 steam1 cheap books1 the free ,press1 the ,school ,board1 the ,fabian ,society4 ,he would never have heard of the ,australian ,colonies1 of the ,indian ,empire1 of the ,united ,states of ,america1 nor of ,buonaparte1 ,george ,washington1 ,nelson1 ,queen ,elizabeth1 ,abraham ,lincoln1 nor ,florence ,nightingale4 ,not one of these great men1 not one of these great things would form a part of his environment4 ,nor may we lightly claim that he1 himself1 would be of a more highly developed type1 that his propensities would be more humane1 his nature more refined4 ,for we must not overlook such examples as ,alfred the ,great1 ,joan of ,arc1 ,chaucer1 ,mallory1 and ,sir ,thomas ,more4 ,we must not forget that the refined ,john ,wesley believed in witch-burning1 that the refined ,jeremy ,taylor thought all the millions born in heathen darkness would be doomed to eternal torment4 ,nor must we forget that many educated1 cultured1 and well-meaning ,europeans and ,americans to-day believe that unbaptised babies1 and free-thinkers1 and unrepentant ,christians will lie shrieking forever in a lake of fire and brimstone4 ,we must not forget that it is now1 in the ,twentieth ,century1 that ,i1 an ,englishman1 am writing this book to plead that men and women1 our brothers and sisters1 should not be hated1 degraded1 whipped1 imprisoned1 hanged1 and everlastingly damned for being more ignorant and less fortunate than others1 their fellows4 ,taken straight from the cradle and brought up by brutes1 a child would be scarcely human4 ,taken straight from the cradle and brought up amongst savages1 the child must be a savage4 ,taken straight from the cradle and brought up amongst thieves1 the child must be a thief4 ,every child is born destitute of knowledge1 and every child is born with propensities that may make for evil or for good4 ,and the men and women amongst whom the child is born and reared are the sole source from which he can get knowledge4 ,and the men and women amongst whom the child is born and reared are the sole means by which his propensities may be restrained from evil and developed for good4 ,the child's character1 then1 his development for good or evil1 depends upon his treatment by his fellow-creatures4 ,his propensities depend upon his ancestors4 ,that is to say1 a child must inevitably grow up and become that which his ancestors and his fellow-creatures make him4 ,that is to say1 that a man is a creature of heredity and environment4 ,he is what he is made by a certain kind of environment acting upon a certain kind of heredity4 ,he does not choose his ancestors3 he does not choose his environment4 ,how1 then1 can he be blamed if his ancestors give to him a bad heredity1 or if his fellow-creatures give to him a bad environment8 ,should we blame a bramble for yielding no strawberries1 or a privet bush for bearing no chrysanthemums8 ,should we blame a rose tree for running wild in a jungle1 or for languishing in the shadow of great elms8 ,there are no figs on thistles1 because the heredity of the thistle does not breed figs4 ,and the lily pines1 and bears leaves only1 in darkness and a hostile soil1 because the conditions are against it4 ,the breed of the rose or the fig is its heredity3 the soil and the sunshine1 or the darkness and the cold1 and the gardener's care or neglect1 are its environment4 ,let any one who under-rates the power of environment exercise his imagination for a minute4 ,suppose he had never learnt to read6 ,suppose he had never learnt to talk6 ,suppose he had never learnt to speak the truth1 to control his temper1 to keep his word1 to be courteous to women1 to value life6 ,now1 he had nothing of this when he was born4 ,he brought no knowledge of any kind into the world with him4 ,he had to be taught to read1 to speak1 to be honest1 to be courteous2 and the teaching was part of his environment4 ,and suppose none had cared to teach him good4 ,suppose1 instead1 he had been taught to lie and to steal1 to hate and to fight1 to gamble and to swear6 ,what manner of man would he have been8 ,he would have been that which his environment had made him4 ,and would he have been to blame8 ,would it have been his fault that he was born amongst thieves8 ,would it have been his fault that he had never heard good counsel1 but had been drilled and trained to evil8 ,but the objector may say that as he got older and knew better he could mend his ways4 ,and it is really necessary1 strange as it may seem1 to point out that he never could know better1 unless some person taught him better4 ,and the teaching him to know better would be a change in his environment3 it would be a part of his environment1 for which he himself would deserve no credit4 ,the point is that1 since he is born destitute of knowledge1 he never could know good unless taught good by some other person4 ,and that this other person would be outside himself1 and part of his environment4 ,now1 how could the ignorant child be blamed if some power outside himself teaches him evil1 or how can he be praised if some power outside himself teaches him good8 ,but he would have a conscience8 ,he would be born with the rudiments of a conscience4 ,but what his conscience should become1 what things it would hold as wrong1 would depend wholly upon the teaching he got from those who formed part of his environment4 ,in a cannibal environment he would have a cannibal conscience2 in a ,catholic environment a ,catholic conscience2 in a piratical environment a pirate's conscience4 ,but of that more in its due place4 ,let us now examine some of the effects of environment4 ,,morals ,,and ,,disease ,the brain is the mind4 ,when the brain is diseased the mind is diseased4 ,when the brain is sick the mind is sick4 ,but the brain is part of the body4 ,we see1 hear1 smell1 feel1 and taste with the brain4 ,the nerves of the toes and fingers are connected with the brain2 they are like twigs on a tree1 of which the brain is the root4 ,the same blood which circulates through the heart and limbs circulates through the brain4 ,it is only a figure of speech to speak of the mind and the body as distinct from each other4 ,the mind and the body are one4 ,a wound in any part of the body--a burn1 a stab1 a lash--is felt in the brain4 ,when the body suffers from illness or fatigue1 the brain suffers also4 ,when a limb is paralysed1 the real paralysis is in a part of the brain4 ,when the brain is paralysed the man can neither move nor speak1 nor think nor feel4 ,when the heart is weak the brain does not get enough blood1 and the mind is languid1 or syncope sets in ana the man dies4 ,we do not need a prophet nor a doctor to tell us that sickness affects the mind4 ,we know that dyspepsia1 gout1 or sluggish liver makes us peevish1 stupid1 jealous1 suspicious1 and despondent4 ,we know that illness or weariness turns a sweet temper sour1 makes a patient man impatient1 a grateful man ungrateful4 ,we know how trying are the caprices and whims of an invalid1 and we commonly say of such1 he cannot help it3 he is not himself to-day4 ,but we do not know1 as doctors know1 how searching and how terrible are the effects of some diseases on the brain4 ,dr4 ,lydston1 in ,the ,diseases of ,society1 says3 ,the old adage1 mens sana in corpore sano1 is too often forgotten4 ,especially is it ignored by the legislator and penologist4 ,a normal psychic balance and a brain fed with blood that is insufficient in quantity or vicious in quality are physiologic incompatibles4 ,the nearer we get to the marrow of criminality1 the more closely it approximates pathology4 ,that is to say that the sound mind depends largely on the sound body2 that a brain fed with diseased blood1 or with too little blood1 cannot work healthily and well2 and that the more we know of crime the closer do we find its relation to disease4 ,i quote again from ,dr4 ,lydston3 ,despite the scant and conflicting testimony of cerebrologists with reference to the brain defects of criminals1 there is so much clinical evidence of the aberration of morals and conduct from brain disease or injury that we are justified in believing that brain defects of some kind affecting the mental and moral faculties is the fons origo of criminality4 ,this defect1 as already seen1 may be congenital or acquired1 and may consist of a lack of development due to vicious environment and faulty education1 mental and physical4 ,the fountain from which crime arises1 says this authority1 is some form of disease1 or defect of the brain4 ,and such disease or defect may be inherited1 or may be caused by bad environment3 by improper teaching1 food1 and exercise4 ,to feel the full force of this statement we must bear in mind that children are not born with intellect and conscience1 but only with capacities for their development4 ,therefore1 if the capacities for intellect and morals are not developed1 we cannot expect to find the intellect and morals4 ,in other words1 we have no right to hope nor to expect that the neglected child will grow up into the good and clever man4 ,neither is it reasonable to hope for a cure by pumping moral lessons into a brain in which no moral sense has been developed4 ,that epilepsy has a bad effect on morals1 and that epileptics are often untruthful1 treacherous1 and dangerous is as well known as that epilepsy is a form of degeneracy1 and is often caused by improper feeding and neglect in childhood4 ,hysteria also affects the moral nerves of the brain4 ,dr4 ,lydston says3 ,hysterical women often bring accusations of crime against others4 ,the victim is generally a man1 and the alleged crime1 assault4 ,physicians recognise this as one of the dangers to be guarded against in their work4 ,hysterical women in the primary stage of anaesthesia1 sometimes imagine themselves the victims of assault4 ,in one well-known case the woman accused a dentist of assault while he was administering nitrous oxide to her4 ,her husband was in the room during the imaginary assault4 ,dr4 ,lydston tells us that ,flesch examined the brains of fifty criminals1 and found imperfections in all4 ,in twenty-eight he found1 in different cases1 meningeal disease1 such as adhesions1 pachy-meningitis1 interna hmorrhagica1 tubercular meningitis1 leptomeningitis1 edema of the pia mater1 and hmorrhagic spinal meningitis2 also atheroma of the bisillary arteries1 cortical atrophy1 and cerebral haemorrhage4 ,in most cases the pathologic conditions were not associated with the psychoses that are usually found under such circumstances4 ,how many men have been hanged or sent to prison who ought to have been sent to lunatic asylums8 ,according to ,dr4 ,lydston1 very many4 ,as bearing upon that point ,i quote two passages from ,the ,diseases of ,society1 which give one furiously to think4 ,the first is from page #agb3 ,cases of moral turpitude1 mania furiosa1 and other mental disturbances are met with in which the patient is harshly treated1 because of supposed moral perverseness1 and only the autopsy has shown how undeservedly the patient has been condemned4 ,when a tumour or other disease of the brain is found in a punished criminal1 the case is most pathetic4 ,the other passage is from page #bba1 and is as follows3 ,if the foregoing premises be correct1 vice and crime will be one day shown more definitely than ever to be a matter to be dealt with by medical science rather than by law4 ,the foregoing premises here alluded to concern the increase in vice and crime through autotoxemia1 or unconscious self-poisoning1 due to over-strain and other evil conditions of life4 ,as to this self-poisoning1 a few words may be said4 ,it is known that birds who die of fright are poisonous4 ,that is because the violence of the emotion1 by some chemical action1 evolves poison4 ,it is also known that when the human system is out of order it secretes poison4 ,this poison affects the brain1 and excites the baser passions1 or injures the moral sense4 ,self-poisoning may be due to the presence of poisonous matter in the system1 or to the over-strain1 or over-excitement1 of business1 or trouble4 ,we all know the effects of violent anger1 of violent grief1 or violent love1 or violent emotion of any kind upon the health4 ,we know also the effect of worry1 and the effects of fatigue and of improper food4 ,one of these effects is self-poisoning1 and one of the results of self-poisoning is brain sickness1 resulting often in vice or in crime4 ,we find1 then1 that disease may be caused by neglect in childhood1 by starvation or improper food1 by over-work1 by terror1 by excitement1 and by worry1 amongst a thousand other causes4 ,and we find that disease affects the brain1 and very often leads to vice1 to crime1 to dishonesty1 falsehood1 and impurity4 ,and disease is one part of our environment4 ,a wound or a shock may have a wonderful effect on the mind4 ,a man may slip and strike his head on a stone1 and may get up an idiot ,a gunshot wound in the neck1 a sword-cut on the head1 may cause madness1 or may cause an injury of the brain which will quite change the injured man's moral nature4 ,as to the effects of such accidents on the mind there are many interesting particulars in ,lombroso's book1 ,the ,man of ,genius1 from which ,i am tempted to quote some lines3 ,it has frequently happened that injuries to the head1 and acute diseases1 those frequent causes of insanity1 have changed a very ordinary individual into a man of genius4444 ,gratry1 a mediocre singer1 became a great master after a beam had fractured his skull4 ,mabillon1 almost an idiot from childhood1 fell down a stone staircase at the age of twenty-six1 and so badly injured his skull that it had to be trepanned2 from that time he displayed the characteristics of genius4444 ,wallenstein was looked upon as a fool until one day he fell out of a window1 and henceforward began to show remarkable ability4 ,lombroso also gives many examples and proofs of the influence of weather and climate on the mind2 but for these ,i have no room4 ,now1 disease1 and weather1 and climate1 and injuries are all parts of environment4 ,food ,we have seen that one cause of insanity and disease1 and of immorality and crime1 is degeneration4 ,and we have seen that one cause of degeneration is insufficient or improper food4 ,children who are half starved suffer in body and in mind3 therefore they suffer in intelligence and in morals4 ,says ,dr4 ,hall1 of ,leeds3 ,it matters but little whether a child be born and bred in a palace or a cottage--of pure pedigree or mongrel--if he does not receive a proper supply of bone-making food he will not make a good bony framework1 which is the first essential of true physical well-being4 ,amongst the poor it is a common thing for children to want food3 not to have enough food4 ,this is not the fault of the children1 but is due to the poverty of their parents4 ,but it is common also amongst the poor for children to be fed upon improper food4 ,quite young infants1 babies1 indeed1 are often fed upon salt fish1 rancid bacon1 impure milk4 ,cases are too numerous in which babies are given beer1 gin1 coarse and badly cooked meat1 inferior bread1 and tea4 ,this is not the fault of the children1 but is due to the ignorance of their parents4 ,the results of such feeding1 and of such starvation1 are weakness1 poorness of blood1 deafness1 sore eyes1 defective intelligence1 rickets1 epilepsy1 convulsions1 consumption2 degeneration and death4 ,professor ,cunningham says3 ,one point which is established beyond all question is the remarkable influence which environment and nurture exercise upon the development and growth of the child1 as well as upon the standard of physical excellence attained by the adult ,according to the statistics supplied to the ,british ,association ,committee1 children vary to the extent of #e in4 in stature1 and adults to the extent of #c #a_/b in4 in stature1 according as the circumstances under which they are reared are favourable or otherwise4 ,dr4 ,r4 ,j4 ,collie1 ,m4,d41 speaking of the mentally defective children in the ,london ,board ,schools1 says3 ,in a large number of instances1 after the careful individual attention and mid-day dinner of the special schools1 they are returned1 after from six to eighteen months1 to the elementary school with a new lease of mental vigour4 ,these children are functionally mentally defective4 ,their brains are starved1 and naturally fail to react to the ordinary methods of elementary teaching4 ,in a certain proportion of the cases it is the result of semi-starvation4 ,the headmaster of a large school in ,london said to a ,press representative3 ,not #e per cent1 of my #djj boys know the taste of porridge4 ,new bread1 and margarine at fourpence per pound1 with a scrap of fried fish and potatoes at irregular intervals1 is responsible for their pinched1 unhealthy appearance and their stunted growth4 ,dr4 ,lydston1 in ,the ,diseases of ,society1 says3 ,the quantity1 quality1 and assimilation of food pabulum is the keynote of stability of tissue-building4 ,with the source of the architect's own energy sapped by innutrition1 and the materials brought to his hand made pernicious or defective in quality or insufficient in quantity1 structural degeneracy must needs result4 ,the importance of this as regards the brain is obvious4 ,it bears directly upon the question of the relation of malnutrition to social pathology4 ,so much has been written and said of late about the evil effects of starvation and improper food upon the health and minds of children1 and so much and such strong evidence has been put forward as to the seriousness and the prevalence of the evil1 that ,i need not go more fully into the matter here4 ,millions of children are ruined in body and mind1 millions of degenerates are made by bad feeding or under-feeding4 ,and the good and the bad feeding are both part of our environment4 ,poverty1 ,labor1 and ,overcrowding ,as the health affects the brain1 and the brain the morals1 all healthy and unhealthy influences have a moral bearing4 ,bad air1 bad water1 bad drainage1 bad ventilation1 damp and dark streets and houses1 dirtiness and over-crowding1 all tell against the health1 against the health of children most seriously1 and all help on the deadly progress of degeneration4 ,greyness and monotony of life1 unclean1 unsightly1 and sordid surroundings1 tedious and soulless toil1 all tend to blunt the senses1 to cloud the mind1 and to oppress the spirit4 ,millions of the working poor1 who live in great and noisy cities1 whose neighbourhoods are vast1 huddled masses of sunless streets and airless courts1 whose lives are divided between joyless labour and joyless leisure2 the conditions of whose comfortless and crowded homes are such as make cleanliness and decency and self-respect well nigh impossible3 millions of men1 women1 and children are here starved in soul as well as in body4 ,these people1 throughout their anxious and laborious lives1 sleep in the overcrowded cottages and tenements1 ride in the overcrowded and inconvenient third-class carriages1 sit in the crowded and stifling galleries at the theatre1 are regaled with crudest melodrama1 the coarsest humour1 the most vapid music4 ,when they read they have the ,yellow ,press and the literature of crime4 ,when they get to the seaside they spend their brief and rare holiday in the rowdiest of watering-places4 ,they have no taste for anything higher8 ,true4 ,they have never been taught to know the highest4 ,and their ignorance1 and their slums1 and their clownish pleasures1 are part of their environment ,we need not ask whether such environment makes for culture1 for joy1 for health4 ,they have no refinement in their lives1 these poor working millions4 ,they have no flowers1 no trees1 no fields1 no streams2 no books1 no art1 no healthy games4 ,worse than that1 perhaps1 they are paid neither honour nor respect3 they are without pride and ambition2 they have no ideals1 no hope4 ,the environment that denies to human beings all pride and honour and hope1 all art and nature and beauty1 does not make for health1 nor for morality4 ,the straitness of means1 the uncertainty of employment1 the looming shadow of hunger and the workhouse1 send some to suicide and some to crime1 but leave the impress of their dreaded and evil presence upon the hearts and minds of nearly all4 ,we must remember that these poor creatures human4 ,the difference between them and us is more a difference of environment than of heredity4 ,the hunger for pleasure1 for excitement and romance1 is as strong in their soul as in ours4 ,like ourselves1 they cannot live by bread alone4 ,excitement1 pleasure of some kind1 they must have1 will have4 ,the hog is contented to snore in his sty1 the cat is happy with food and a place before the fire2 but the human being needs food for the soul as well as for the body4 ,and there is ample environment to feed the hunger of the ignorant and the poor for excitement3 the environment of betting1 and vice1 and adulterated drink4 ,in the poor districts the drinking dens are planted thickly4 ,there is money to be made4 ,and they are blatant and frowsy places1 and the drink is rubbish--or poison4 ,i have seen much of the poor4 ,i could tell strange1 pathetic histories of the slums1 the mines1 the factories3 of the workhouses and the workhouse school1 and the police-courts where the poor are unfairly tried and unjustly punished4 ,let me dip back into some of my past work1 and show a few pictures4 ,here is a rough sketch of the women in the ,east ,end slums3 ,,women ,,in ,,the ,,metropolis ,,of ,,the ,,world ,have you any reverence for womanhood8 ,are you men8 ,if you come here and look upon these women1 you shall feel a burning scorn for the blazoned lies of ,english chivalry and ,english piety and ,english ,art4 ,drudging here in these vile stews day after day1 night after night2 always with the wolf on the poor doorstep gnashing his fangs for the clinging brood2 always with the black future1 like an ominous cloud casting its chill shadow on their anxious hearts2 always with the mean walls hemming them in1 and the mean tasks wearing them down1 and the mean life paralysing their souls2 often with brutal husbands to coax and wait upon and fear2 often with loafing blackguards--our poor brothers--living on their earnings2 with work scarce1 with wages low1 in vile surroundings1 and with faint hopes ever narrowing1 these ,london women face the unrelenting1 never-ceasing tide of inglorious war4 ,if you go there and look upon these women1 you will feel suddenly stricken old4 ,look at their mean and meagre dress1 look at their warped figures1 their furrowed brows1 their dim eyes4 ,in how many cases are the poor features battered1 and the poor skins bruised8 ,what culture have these women ever known2 what teaching have they had2 what graces of life have come to them2 what dowry of love1 of joy1 of fair imagination8 ,as ,i went amongst them through the mud and rain1 as ,i watched them plying their needles on slop-garments1 slaving at the wash-tub1 gossiping or bandying foul jests in their balcony cages1 drinking at the bars with the men--the thought that rose up most distinctly in my mind was1 ',what would these poor creatures do without the gin8' ,the gin--that hellish liquor which blurs the hideous picture of life1 which stills the gnawing pain1 which stays the crushing hand of despair1 and blunts the grinding teeth of anguish when the child lies dead of the rickets1 or the 'sticks' are sold for the rent1 or the sweater has no more work to give1 or the husband has beaten and kicked the weary flesh black and blue6 ,what would they do1 these women1 were it not for the ,devil's usury of peace--the gin8 ,my companion took me to a bridge across a kind of dock1 and told me it was known thereabouts as ',the ,bridge of ,sighs4' ,there is a constable there on fixed-point duty4 ,why8 ,to prevent the women from committing suicide4 ,the suicides were so numerous1 he said1 that special precautions had to be taken4 ,and since the constable has been set there1 so eager are the women to quit this best of all possible worlds that they have been known to come there at night with a couple of women friends1 and to leap into the deep1 still water while those friends engaged the constable in conversation4 ,do you understand it8 ,the woman has been wronged until she can endure no more2 she has sunk till she can struggle no longer2 she has been beaten and degraded until she loathes her life--even gin has ceased to buy a respite2 or she is too poor to pay for gin1 and she drags her broken soul and worn-out body to the ,bridge of ,sighs1 and her friends come down to help her to escape from the misery which is too great for flesh and blood to bear4 ,it is a pretty picture1 is it not8 ,while our sweet ladies are sighing in the ,west ,end theatre over the imaginary sorrows of a ,manon ,lescaut or repeating at church1 with genteel reserve1 the prayer for 'all weak women and young children'--here to the ,bridge of ,sighs comes the battered drudge1 to seek for death as for a hidden treasure1 and rejoice exceedingly because she has found a grave4 ,many of these poor women1 perhaps most1 are mothers4 ,what kind of environment1 what land of stamina can they give their children8 ,take care of the women1 and the nation will take care of itself4 ,here is another sketch from the life1 taken in the chain and nail-making districts of ,staffordshire4 ,,britons ,,never1 ,,never1 ,,shall ,in the chain shops of the ,black ,country the white man's burden presses sore4 ,it presses upon the women and the children with crushing weight4 ,it racks and shatters and ruptures the strongest men2 it bows and twists and disfigures the comeliest women1 and it makes of the little children such premature ruins that one can hardly look upon them without tears or think of them without anger and indignation4 ,at ,cradley ,i saw a white-haired old woman carrying half a hundredweight of chain to the fogger's round her shoulders2 at ,cradley ,i saw women making chain with babies sucking at their breasts2 at ,cradley ,i spoke to a married couple who had worked #abj hours in one week and had earned #ahs4 ,by their united labour2 at ,cradley ,i saw heavy-chain strikers who were worn-out old men at thirty-five2 at ,cradley ,i found women on strike for a price which would enable them to earn twopence an hour by dint of labour which is to work what the ,battle of ,inkerman was to a ,bank ,holiday review4 ,at ,cradley the men and the women are literally being worked to death for a living that no gentleman would offer his dogs4 ,thence to the domestic workshops4 ,old women1 young girls1 wives and mothers working as if for dear life4 ,little children1 unkempt and woebegone1 crouching amongst the cinders4 ,no time for nursing or housewifery in the chain trade4 ,these women earned from #fs4 to #is4 a week4 ,some of them are1 ,i see1 in an advanced state of pregnancy4 ,and what pleasures have these people3 what culture and beauty in their lives8 ,this3 ,were they ever so anxious to 'improve their minds1' what leisure have they1 what opportunity8 ,their lives are all swelter and sleep4 ,their town a squalid1 hideous place1 ill-lighted and unpaved--the paths and roads heel-deep in mire4 ,their houses are not homes--they have neither comfort nor beauty1 but are mere shelters and sleeping-pens4 ,in all the place there is no news-room nor free library1 nor even a concert-hall or gymnasium4 ,there is no cricket-ground1 no assembly-room1 no public bath1 no public park1 nor public garden4 ,throughout all that sordid1 dolorous region ,i saw not so much as one tree1 or flower-bed1 or fountain4 ,nothing bright or fair on which to rest the eye4 ,but there are public-houses4 ,and in several of them ,i tasted the liquor1 and spilled it on the floor4 ,of how many towns and villages in ,europe and ,america might the same be said8 ,of how many women are these terrible descriptions true8 ,in the evidence given before the ,royal ,commission on ,canal ,labour1 it was stated in evidence that men and women often worked for seven days and nights on the canals1 and in the winter4 ,some of the witnesses declared that the work was unfit for women1 that it was degrading4 ,the ,royal ,commissioners could not understand the word degrading1 and asked how it could degrade a woman to steer a boat4 ,here is one reply given by an angry witness3 ,do you think it womanly work to push with a twenty-foot pole a boat laden with #cj tons of coal8 ,if you saw a mother of a family climbing a four-foot wall1 you'd think it was no work for women4 ,i have seen a woman knocked into the lock with a child at her breast by a sudden blow of the tiller4 ,i have seen my own sister-in-law climb the lock-gates at one end to go and shut them at the other4 ,many of the cabins on the narrow boats are about seven feet by five4 ,in such cabins sleep the captain and his family2 in one case a man and his wife1 a girl of ten1 a couple of younger children1 and two boys of fourteen and sixteen years of age4 ,those are a few glimpses of the environment of the women and the children of the poor4 ,i cannot quit the subject without again telling an experience which hurt me like a wound4 ,it was in a workhouse school3 a school where master and matron did the best they could do for the children so unfortunately placed4 ,love ,hunger ,as we crossed a bridge from one building to another the master said something about a fish-pond1 adding1 ',we do not catch fish here1 but we catch a good many mice4' ',have you many mice8' ,i asked4 ',yes1' said he1 with a peculiar smile2 'there is hardly one of our big boys but has a live mouse in his pocket4' ',a live mouse8 ,what for8' ',well1' said the master1 'human nature is human nature1 and the little fellows want something to love4 ,some time ago the inspector cautioned a boy about putting his hand in his pocket1 and ordered him to be still4 ,the boy repeated the action1 and as ,i guessed what was the cause1 ,i called him out4 ,he had a live mouse in his trousers pocket1 and was afraid of its climbing out and showing itself in school4 ,he took it out on his hand ,it was quite tame4' ,but still more touching was a curious demonstration of the infants as we crossed their playground4 ,released from the restraint of parade discipline1 these little creatures1 girls and boys between three and seven years of age1 came crowding round us4 ,they took hold of our hands1 several of them taking each hand2 they stroked our clothes1 and embraced our legs4 ,several of them seemed fascinated by my gold watch-guard 7it is rather loud71 and wanted to kiss it4 ,i gave one the watch to play with--my own children have often used it roughly--and his little eyes dilated with admiration4 ,they followed us right up to the barrier1 and shook hands with us4 ',that1' said the master1 'is a peculiarity of all workhouse children4 ,they will touch you4 ,they will handle and kiss any glittering thing you have about you4 ,it is because you are from the outside world4' ,what an environment4 ,it set me thinking of the stories ,i had read about savages crowding round white men who have landed on their shores4 ,from the outside world4 ,something to love4 ,in ,england--where some five millions a year are spent on hunting--such environment is forced upon an innocent and defenceless child4 ,one wonders as to the hooligan4 and the tramp1 and the harlot1 and the sot2 how were they brought up1 and had they anything to love8 ,,education ,there are many who under-rate the power of environment ,but there are few who deny the value of education4 ,and education is environment4 ,all education1 good or bad1 in the home or the school1 is environment4 ,and we all know1 though some of us forget1 that good education makes us better and that bad education makes us worse4 ,and we all know1 though some of us forget1 that we have to be educated by others1 and that those others are part of our environment4 ,for even in the case of self-education we must learn from books1 which were written by other men4 ,and if we take the word education in its widest sense1 as meaning all that we learn1 the importance of this part of our environment stares us in the face4 ,for as we are born not with morals1 nor knowledge1 nor capacities1 but only with the rudiments of such1 it is plain to every mind that our goodness or badness1 our ignorance or knowledge1 our helplessness or power1 depends to a very great extent upon the kind of teaching we get4 ,the difference between the lout and the man of refinement is generally a difference of education1 of knowledge1 and training4 ,the root cause of most prejudice and malice1 of much violence1 folly1 and crime1 is ignorance4 ,there would be no despised and under-paid poor1 no slums1 no landless peasants1 no serfs1 were it not for the ignorance of the masses1 and the classes4 ,the rich impose upon the poor1 and the poor submit1 for the one reason3 they do not understand4 ,if they were taught better they would do better4 ,and the better teaching would be--improved environment4 ,it is not enough that people should be educated1 in the narrow sense of the word4 ,teaching may do harm1 as surely as it may do good4 ,all depends upon the things that are taught4 ,much of the teaching in our ,board ,schools1 our ,public ,schools1 and our ,universities is bad4 ,if teaching is to be good environment1 the teaching must be good4 ,national or local ideals are part of our environment4 ,we are born into these ideals as we are born into our climate1 and few escape their rule4 ,the ideals of ,england are not good4 ,to succeed1 to make wealth1 to win applause--these are not high ideals4 ,to buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest2 to make ,england the workshop of the world2 to seize all rich and unprotected lands1 and force their inhabitants into the ,british ,empire--these are not great ideals4 ,but such national ideals are part of our environment1 and tell against1 or for1 the development of our noblest human qualities4 ,a gospel of greed1 vanity1 and empire does not tend to make a people modest1 nor just1 nor kindly4 ,indeed1 it is chiefly because of their greediness for commerce and wealth1 and their ambition for empire1 that the nations to-day are armed and jealous rivals4 ,and it is chiefly because of their hunger for wealth1 and their worship of vain display and empty honours1 that the classes and the masses are hostile and divided4 ,ignorance again3 they do not understand4 ,the force of environment1 and especially the uses of education1 are stamped upon our proverbs1 are bedded deep in universal custom4 ,knowledge is power1 ,as the twig is bent---- ,he who touches pitch shall be defiled1 ,evil communications corrupt good manners4 ,and what educated parent would allow his children to grow up in ignorance1 or would expose them to the evil influences of impure literature or bad companions4 ,every church and chapel1 every school and college1 every book that teaches1 every moral lesson1 every chaperon and tutor1 is an acknowledgment of the power of environment to wreck or save our young4 ,in practice we all fear or prize the influences of environment--upon ourselves1 and upon those we love4 ,it is when we have to deal with the ,bottom ,dog that we ignore the facts which plead so strongly in his defence4 ,,personal ,,influences ,of home influences it is hardly necessary to speak4 ,the blessing of a wise and good mother2 the disaster of an ignorant1 vicious1 or neglectful mother call for no reminder4 ,the influence of husbands and wives upon each other2 the transformation wrought by a fortunate or unfortunate love passion in the life of a woman or a man are equally obvious and well understood4 ,so with friendship3 most men have known at least one friend whose counsel1 conversation1 or example has affected the entire current of their thoughts--perhaps has changed the direction of their life4 ,these instances being noted1 it remains for us only to remember that the influence of a wife1 a lover1 a mother1 or a friend may be as powerful for evil as for good4 ,but there are other personal influences as potent1 but not so generally nor so wisely recognised4 ,such are the influences of good or bad books1 and of great leaders and teachers--good and bad4 ,what tremendous powers over the lives and thoughts of millions were wielded by such teachers as ,confucius1 ,buddha1 ,socrates1 ,plato1 ,aristotle1 and ,jesus ,christ4 ,how vast a difference was wrought amongst the masses of humanity by ,caesar1 ,mahomet1 ,alexander1 ,oliver ,cromwell4 ,who can estimate the importance to the world of ,copernicus1 ,galileo2 ,luther1 ,calvin1 ,bacon1 ,darwin2 of ,rousseau1 ,wycliffe1 ,tyndall1 ,marx1 ,homer1 ,harvey1 ,watt1 ,caxton1 and ,stephenson8 ,which of us can assess his debt to such men as ,shakespeare1 ,dante1 ,shelley1 ,dickens1 and ,carlyle8 ,then consider our account with the scientists1 priests1 and lawgivers of ,babylon and ,egypt4 ,recall the benefits conferred upon us by the men who invented written language2 the wheel1 the file1 the plough4 ,think of all the laborious and gradual building up of the arts1 the ethics1 the sciences of the world4 ,the making of architecture1 mathematics1 sculpture1 painting1 agriculture1 working in wood or metals2 the evolution of literature and music1 the invention and improvement of the many decencies1 courtesies1 and utilities of life2 from the first wearing of loin cloths1 the fashioning of flint axes1 to the steel pen1 the use of chloroform1 and the custom of raising one's hat to a lady4 ,all the arts and crafts2 the ethics1 sciences1 and laws2 the tools1 arms1 grammars2 the literatures1 dramas1 and newspapers2 the conveniences and luxuries1 the morals and the learning--all that goes to the making of modern civilization we owe to the genius1 the industry1 and the humanity of countless men and women whom we have never seen4 ,into all the wealth of knowledge and freedom1 of wisdom and virtue they created and bequeathed1 we are born1 as we are born to the light and the air4 ,but for the labours and the sacrifices of the workers1 fighters1 and thinkers of the past we were shorn of all our pride and power1 and reduced below the social1 intellectual1 and moral level of the ,australian ,bushmen4 ,and yet1 to see the airs and graces of many educated and superior persons1 one might suppose that they invented and discovered and developed all the knowledge and wisdom1 all the virtues and the graces by which they benefit1 of their own act and thought4 ,one would suppose1 to behold the scorn of these superior persons for their more rude and ignorant and unfortunate brothers and sisters1 that they had designed and tailored all the moral and intellectual finery in which they are arrayed4 ,whereas all their plumes are borrowed plumes2 all they know they have been taught by other men2 all they have has been made by other men2 and they have become that which they are through the generosity and the tenderness of other men and women4 ,the rich young scholar fresh from ,harvard or ,cambridge is blessedly endowed with health1 and strength and grammar1 and mathematics1 a sprinkle of dead languages1 and more or less graceful manners4 ,he despises the lout at the plough or the coster at the barrow because of their lack of the benefits given to him as a dole4 ,he forgets that the ,university was there centuries before he was born1 that ,euclid1 ,lindley ,murray1 ,dr4 ,johnson1 ,cicero1 ,plato1 and a million other abler men than himself1 forged every link of the chain of culture with which his proud young neck is adorned4 ,he forgets that it is to others1 and not to himself1 that he owes all that makes him the man of whom he is so vain4 ,he forgets that the coster at the barrow and the hind at the plough differ from him chiefly by the accident of birth1 and that had they been nursed and taught and trained like himself they would have been as handsome1 as active1 as clever1 as cultured1 and very probably as conceited and unjust as he4 ,for all the mighty dead1 and the noble works they have bequeathed us1 and all the faithful living1 and all the tender services they render us and the shielding love they bear us1 are parts of our environment4 ,and for the blessings these good men and gentle women1 with their golden heritage1 have wrought in us1 we are no more responsible and no more praiseworthy than we are for the flowers of the field1 or the constellations in the sky1 or the warmth of the beneficent sun that shines alike upon the sinner and the saint4 ,and since we are but debtors to the dead1 but starvelings decked out by charity in the braveries made by other hands1 and since we are deserving of no praise for our grandeur and our virtues1 how shall we lift up our vainglorious and foolish faces to despise and contemn our less fortunate brothers and sisters1 who have been made evil1 even as we have been made good1 who have been left uncouth and ignorant1 even as we have been polished and instructed8 ,but for the grace of ,god1 said the tinker of ,elstow--but for the graces of environment1 say we--there1 in the hangman's cart1 in the felon's jacket1 in the dunce's cap1 in the beggar's rags1 in the degradation of the drunkard or the misery of the degenerate weed of the slums--go ,we4 ,,chapter ,,seven--,,how ,,heredity ,,and ,,environment ,,work ,,there are many who have some understanding of heredity and of environment when taken separately who fail to realise their effects upon each other4 ,the common cause of the stumbling is easy to remove4 ,it is often said that two men are differently affected by the same environment1 or what seems to be the same environment1 and that therefore there must be some power in men to overcome their environment4 ,i have dealt with this argument already1 showing that the contest between a man and his environment is really a contest between heredity and environment1 and may be compared to the effort of a man to swim against a stream4 ,a given environment will affect two different men differently because their heredity is different4 ,but remembering that we are born without any knowledge1 and that we are born not with intellect nor conscience1 but only with the rudiments of such1 it must be insisted that the hereditary power to resist environment is very limited4 ,so much so that we may amend our figure of the swimmer and the stream1 and say that no man1 howsoever strong and brave1 could swim against a stream unless he had learnt to swim4 ,and the learning to swim is environment1 and works against the contrary environment1 typified by the stream4 ,let us take the case of two children4 ,one has bad and one good heredity4 ,one is a healthy baby1 born of moral stock4 ,the other is a degenerate1 born of immoral stock4 ,we will call the healthy baby ,dick1 and the degenerate baby ,harry4 ,they are taken at birth into an environment of theft1 drunkenness1 and vice4 ,they are taught to lie1 to steal1 and to drink4 ,they never hear any good1 never see a good example4 ,harry1 the degenerate1 will take to evil as a duck to water4 ,of that1 ,i think1 there is no question4 ,but what of ,dick1 the healthy baby8 ,dick is born without knowledge4 ,he is also born with undeveloped propensities4 ,he will learn evil4 ,his propensities will be trained to evil4 ,how is he to overcome his environment and become good8 ,he cannot4 ,what will happen in ,dick's case is that he will become a different kind of criminal--a stronger and cleverer criminal than ,harry4 ,but1 ,i hear some one say1 we know that children1 born of thieves and sots1 and reared in bad surroundings1 have turned out honest and sober men4 ,and the inference is that they rose superior to their environment4 ,but that inference is erroneous4 ,the fact is that these children were saved by some good environment1 acting against the bad4 ,for there is hardly such a thing as an environment that is all bad4 ,in the case of ,dick and ,harry we supposed an environment containing no good4 ,but that was for the sake of illustration4 ,for the environment to be all bad1 the child must be prevented from ever seeing a good deed1 or reading a good book1 or meeting a good man1 woman1 or child4 ,now1 we can imagine no town1 nor slum1 in which a child should never hear nor see anything good4 ,he is almost certain at some time or other to encounter good influences4 ,and these good influences will affect a healthy child more strongly than they will affect a degenerate1 just as the evil influences will affect him less fatally than they will affect a degenerate4 ,because the poor degenerate is born with a bias towards disease or crime4 ,two children may be born of the same parents1 reared in the same hovel1 in the same slum1 taught the same evil lesson4 ,but they will meet different companions1 and will have different experiences4 ,one may meet a good boy1 or girl1 or man1 or woman1 and may be influenced for good4 ,the other may chance upon the very worst company4 ,let us suppose that two children are born in a ,hoxton slum1 and that one of them falls under the influence of a ,fagin1 and the other has the good fortune to meet such a manly and sensible parson as our friend ,cartmel6 ,would not the effects be very different8 ,yet at first sight the environment of the two boys would seem to be precisely alike4 ,and we shall always find that the man who rises above his environment has really been helped by good environment to overcome the bad environment ,he has learnt some good4 ,and that learning is part of his environment ,he must have been taught some good if he knows any1 for he was born destitute of knowledge4 ,a good mother1 a wise friend1 a pure girl1 an honest teacher1 a noble book1 may save a child from the bad part of his environment4 ,it would appear at first sight that two boys taught in the same school1 by the same teacher1 would have the same school environment4 ,but at a second thought we find that need not be the case4 ,we know what one bad boy can do in a class or in a room4 ,we may know1 then1 that the boys who share a class or a room with a bad boy have a worse environment than the boys who escape his evil influences4 ,it is a mistake to think of heredity as all good1 or all bad4 ,it is mixed4 ,we inherit1 all of us1 good and bad qualities4 ,it is a mistake to think of environment as all good or all bad4 ,it is mixed4 ,there are always good and bad influences around every one of us4 ,it is a mistake to think that any two men ever did or can have exactly the same environment4 ,it is as impossible for the environment of any two men to be identical1 as for their heredity to be identical4 ,as there are no two men exactly alike1 so there are no two men whose experiences are exactly alike4 ,good and bad environment work against each other4 ,all kinds of environment work with or against heredity4 ,different heredities make different natures2 different natures are differently affected by similar environments4 ,but the child1 being born without knowledge and with rudimentary faculties1 is1 whatever his heredity1 almost wholly at the mercy of his environment4 ,i hope ,i have made that clear4 ,one man is afflicted with colour-blindness1 another with kleptomania4 ,the kleptomaniac may be the most troublesome to the community2 but is he more wicked than the others8 ,why does an apple tree never bear bananas8 ,because it cannot ,why does a ,french peasant never speak ,english8 ,because he has never been taught4 ,why is an ,english labourer deficient in the manners of polite society8 ,because he has never moved in polite society4 ,why does not ,jones the engineer write poetry8 ,why does not ,smith of the ,stock ,exchange paint pictures8 ,why does not ,robinson the musical composer invent a flying machine8 ,because they have not the gifts nor the skill4 ,why does ,jarman play the violin so evilly8 ,he has no ear1 and has been badly taught4 ,why does ,dulcett play the violin so well8 ,he has a good ear1 and has been taught properly4 ,would proper teaching have made a ,jarman a proper player8 ,it would have made him a less villainous player than he has become4 ,but teach him never so wisely1 ,jarman will not play as ,dulcett plays4 ,he has not the gift4 ,is it ,jarman's fault that he has no gift8 ,it is not4 ,he did not make his own ear4 ,whence did he derive that defect of ear8 ,from some ancestor1 near or remote4 ,is ,dulcett's fine musical ear due to any merit of ,dulcett's8 ,no4 ,he did not make his own ear2 he derived it from some ancestor1 near or remote4 ,here are four brothers ,brown4 ,john ,brown is a drunkard4 ,thomas1 ,william1 and ,stephen ,brown do not drink4 ,does ,john deserve censure1 and do his brothers deserve praise8 ,let us see4 ,why is ,john a drunkard8 ,his grandfather was a drunkard1 and he was sent as a boy to work in a shop where the men drank4 ,then how is it his brothers do not drink8 ,thomas had the same hereditary inclination to drink1 and he derived it from the same source4 ,but he worked in an office where all the clerks were steady1 and when on one or two occasions he indulged in liquor1 a wise friend warned him1 and with a hard struggle he escaped from the danger4 ,william1 although the same blood runs in his veins1 has escaped the hereditary taint ,to use the colloquial parlance1 he does not take after his grandfather4 ,he never felt inclined to take liquor1 and although he worked with men who drank1 he remained steady without an effort4 ,stephen also was free from the hereditary taint4 ,he mixed with men who drank1 and he gradually formed the habit1 which gradually formed the taste for drink4 ,but he married a good woman just in time1 and she saved him4 ,thus3 ,john is a drunkard from heredity and environment ,thomas was a drunkard from heredity1 and was saved by environment4 ,william was always steady from heredity and environment4 ,stephen was steady from heredity1 almost became a drunkard from environment1 and was finally saved by new environment4 ,john owed his ruin to his grandfather and his shopmates4 ,thomas owed his safety to his shopmates1 who rescued him from the taint of his grandfather's evil legacy4 ,william owed his safety to his blood4 ,stephen1 after being endangered by his companions1 was saved by his wife4 ,assuming all other conditions to be equal1 and all other traits of character similar1 how are we to blame one or praise another of these four brothers8 ,each is what descent and surroundings have made him4 ,an apple tree cannot bear bananas4 ,a rose tree cannot bear lilies4 ,a rose tree in good soil bears well2 a rose tree in bad soil bears poorly4 ,in times of drought the crops perish for lack of water4 ,in rainy weather the hay rots instead of drying4 ,let us now consider some of the arguments actually used in denying the power of environment4 ,some little time ago the ,rev4 ,r4 ,j4 ,campbell1 of the ,london ,city ,temple1 preached a sermon on environment4 ,from a report of that sermon ,i take the following passage3 ,his argument was that it was all nonsense to say that environment made the man4 ,the man who had any manhood in him could rise above and beyond his environment1 just as ,bunyan soared above his tin kettles4 ,this is an example of the confusion of mind into which educated men fall when they deal with this simple subject4 ,mr4 ,campbell's first mistake is the mistake of separating heredity from environment4 ,of course1 it is nonsense to say that environment makes the man4 ,but who did say anything so silly8 ,heredity makes the man1 and environment modifies him4 ,having made that clear1 let us consider ,mr4 ,campbell's second sentence3 ,the man who had any manhood in him could rise above and beyond his environment1 just as ,bunyan soared above his tin kettles4 ,mr4 ,campbell says3 ,the man who has any manhood in him4 ,but suppose he has not any manhood in him6 ,suppose he is a poor human weed born of weeds4 ,can he bear wheat or roses8 ,and if he only bears prickles or poison1 who is to blame8 ,not the man1 surely1 for he did not choose his parents nor his nature4 ,shall we blame a mongrel born of curs of low degree' because he is not a bulldog8 ,a man can only realise the nature that he has1 and can only realise that in accordance with environment4 ,but this same sentence shows that ,mr4 ,campbell does not understand what we mean when we use the word environment4 ,for he tells us that a man can rise above and beyond his environment4 ,now1 a man's environment is composed of every external influence which affects him in any way1 from the moment of his birth to the moment of his death4 ,therefore a man cannot rise above and beyond his environment until he ceases to exist4 ,mr4 ,campbell cites ,john ,bunyan as a man who rose above his environment4 ,the fact being that ,bunyan's good environment saved him from his bad environment4 ,from the preface to my edition of ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress ,i quote the following suggestive words3 ,how was it1 one naturally asks1 that a man of little education could produce two centuries ago a masterpiece which is still read wherever the ,english language is spoken1 and has been translated into every ,european tongue8 ,it is not sufficient to answer that the author of the work was a genius3 it is necessary to show what the conditions were which enabled his genius to develop itself1 led him to find the form of expression which best suited its character1 and secured for what if produced immediate popularity and lasting fame4 ,bunyan was a poor boy of very little education4 ,but he was born with a great imagination1 a sensitive nature1 and keen powers of assimilation4 ,he was1 in short1 a born literary genius4 ,in his youth he got amongst bad companions1 and led a lewd and wicked sort of life4 ,how1 then1 came he to reform his life1 and to write his wonderful book8 ,to listen to ,mr4 ,campbell1 one would suppose that the tinker's boy rose against his environment1 and without any help for good from that environment4 ,but did he8 ,we find he served for some years in ,cromwell's army4 ,would the fierce religious atmosphere of ,cromwellian camps have no effect upon his sensitive and imaginative nature8 ,we find that he and his wife read together two religious books3 ,the ,plain ,man's ,pathway to ,heaven and ,bishop ,bayley's ,practice of ,piety4 ,would such books1 so read1 make no impression upon his impressionable mind8 ,we find that he was drawn to go to church4 ,that he was over-run with the spirit of superstition4 ,would that affect him naught8 ,we find that his neighbours at last took him to a very godly man1 a new and religious man1 and did much marvel to see such a great and famous alteration in my life and manners4 ,beyond this we need not go4 ,the religious soldiers of ,cromwell1 the pious books and the pious wife1 the spirit of superstition1 and the godly man1 were all parts of ,john ,bunyan's environment1 and1 acting upon the peculiar nature given to him by heredity1 these and other facts of his environment lifted him up1 made him what we know1 and enabled him to write his glorious book4 ,instead of a man who rose above his environment we have in ,bunyan a man who was led by one kind of environment to gamble and drink and blaspheme1 and by another kind of environment was made into a fanatical religious enthusiast4 ,john ,bunyan was ,john ,bunyan when he played tipcat1 and used profane language on the ,sabbath4 ,up to that time the manhood that was in him had not saved ,john ,bunyan4 ,if1 as ,mr4 ,campbell suggests1 it is the inherent manhood that saves a man1 how was it that ,bunyan's manhood1 up to a certain point in his life1 failed to raise him above his environment4 ,and1 when the change came1 what was it that brought that change about8 ,bunyan had only the same manhood3 the same manhood which had already been defeated by the environment4 ,how was it that same manhood now served to raise him above the environment8 ,john ,bunyan was the same ,john ,bunyan2 it was the environment that changed4 ,it was the pious ,ironsides1 the pious wife1 the godly man1 the atmosphere of superstition1 that made ,john ,bunyan the profane tinker into ,john ,bunyan the man of religion4 ,bad environment got ,john ,bunyan down3 there is no doubt of that4 ,good environment lifted him up4 ,the manhood was the same at both periods4 ,it was the environment that changed4 ,if ever there was an example of the power of environment to save or sink a man1 that example is ,john ,bunyan1 tinker and poet4 ,another instance of misunderstanding is afforded by ,mr4 ,g4 ,k4 ,chesterton1 who1 in an article in the ,daily ,news1 argues against the power of heredity and environment1 as follows3 ,the well-bred man--literally speaking1 that is the man with a heredity and environment much above the normal--can put forth all the cardinal sins like scarlet flowers in summer4 ,he has lands that meet the horizon1 but he steals like a starving man4 ,he has had armies of comrades in great colleges1 yet he snarls like a hunchback hissed in the street ,he has treasuries of gold that he cannot remember2 yet he goads poor men for their rent like a threadbare landlady in the ,harrow ,road4 ,he is only meant to be polite in public1 and he cannot even be that4 ,the whole system of his country and constitution only asks one thing of him1 that he should not be an unpresentable beast--and he often is4 ,that is a type of aristocrat that does from time to time recur to remind us of what is the real answer to the argument for aristocracy founded on heredity and environment4 ,the real answer to it is in two words--,original ,sin4 ,had ,mr4 ,chesterton understood the subject upon which he wrote the above picturesque but fallacious paragraph1 he never would have sent it to the ,press4 ,but he is always falling into blunders about heredity and environment because he has never learnt what heredity and environment are4 ,he seems to think that the ,west ,end means good environment1 and that the ,east ,end means bad environment4 ,he seems to think that noble blood means good heredity1 and that simple blood means bad heredity4 ,and he calls atavism original sin4 ,let us now consider the rather melodramatic nobleman ,mr4 ,chesterton has portrayed for us4 ,he does not tell us much about the nobleman's environment4 ,he has lands and wealth1 and has been to college4 ,does it tend to the moral elevation of a man to be like the ,chough in ,shakespeare1 spacious in the possession of dirt8 ,are the wise men of all ages agreed that the possession of great wealth is a good environment8 ,or do they not rather teach that luxury and wealth are dangerous to their possessor8 ,in so far as this noble was a very wealthy man1 ,i should say that his environment was not good1 but bad4 ,there remains the college4 ,now1 men may learn good at colleges1 and they may learn bad4 ,is not that so8 ,but let us give ,mr4 ,chesterton the credit and score the college down as good environment4 ,there remains unaccounted for--what8 ,all the life and experiences of a rich young man4 ,what were his parents like8 ,did his mother nurse him1 or neglect him8 ,did his father watch over him1 or let him run wild8 ,were his companions all men and women of virtue and good sense8 ,did he read no bad books8 ,did he make no dangerous friendships8 ,did he ever do any work8 ,was he ever taught that there art nobler ways of life than shooting dumb animals1 seducing vain or helpless girls1 debauching at bachelors' parties1 playing at bridge1 reading ,french novels1 and running loose in the gilded hells of ,europe and ,america8 ,because1 until we have these and a few thousand other questions answered1 we cannot accept ,mr4 ,chesterton's assurance that this wicked nobleman had a good environment4 ,then1 as to that question of original sin4 ,is ,mr4 ,chesterton in a position to inform us that his bold bad peer is not a degenerate8 ,is ,mr4 ,chesterton sure that he has not inherited a degenerate nature from diseased or vicious ancestors8 ,no insanity in the family8 ,no gout8 ,no consumption8 ,no drunkenness8 ,no diseases contracted through immorality or vice8 ,all his family for a hundred generations back certified as having united the manners of a marquis and the morals of a ,methodist8 ,quite sure the noble was not a degenerate8 ,quite sure that his failure was not due to bad environment instead of to bad heredity8 ,then ,i should advise ,mr4 ,chesterton to study ,darwin1 ,galton1 ,lombroso1 ,weissmann1 and ,dr4 ,lydston1 and he will find that a man of good descent may cast back1 or breed back1 to the ape or hog1 may be born an atavist2 and may be incapable of being a gentleman for the simple reason that he is a wild beast4 ,in which connection ,i may remark that in ,the ,diseases of ,society ,dr4 ,lydston mentions that ,benedikt's experiments upon criminal skulls showed that the skull of the born criminal 7atavist7 approximates that of the carnivora4 ,that is to say1 a man may be cursed with a skull resembling that of a tiger4 ,is it any wonder that such men1 to repeat ,mr4 ,chesterton's poetical simile1 put forth sins like scarlet flowers in summer8 ,i am grateful to ,mr4 ,campbell and to ,mr4 ,chesterton for their arguments3 they serve the useful purpose of exemplifying the confusion of thought upon this subject which exists in quarters where we should least expect to find it4 ,as it is of the utmost importance that we should thoroughly understand the relations to each other of heredity and environment1 this being a subject upon which there is much stumbling1 we shall do well to make quite sure of our ground before we go a step farther4 ,it is erroneous to speak of a struggle between a man and his environment1 or of a man rising above his environment4 ,what we call a man is a product of heredity and environment4 ,the man is largely what environment has already made him4 ,at the instant of birth a child may be regarded as wholly a product of heredity4 ,but his first breath is environment4 ,the first touch of the nurse's hands is environment4 ,the first washing1 the swaddling clothes1 the binder1 and the first drop of mother's milk are parts of his environment4 ,and from the first moment of his birth until the time of his manhood1 he is being continually moulded and affected by environment4 ,all his knowledge1 all his beliefs1 all his opinions are given to him by environment4 ,and now1 with this in our mind1 we can see the absurdity of ,mr4 ,campbell's talk about ,john ,bunyan4 ,before his conversion ,bunyan was already a creature of heredity and environment4 ,the very conscience of the man1 which his wife1 and the godly man1 and ,cromwell's soldiers1 and the preachings in the church he frequented1 were to awaken1 had been created by environment4 ,for a child is born without conscience3 with only the rudiments of a conscience1 to be developed or destroyed--by environment4 ,now let us reconsider the example of our swimmer and the stream4 ,the swimmer is something more than a mere heredity4 ,he is a man1 and he has learnt to swim4 ,therefore in his battle with the stream of environment he is using heredity and environment ,for environment taught him to swim4 ,let us take another simile4 ,a man is rowing a boat across a bay4 ,the tide1 the currents1 and the wind may be regarded as environments4 ,all these environments may be with him1 or against him4 ,or the tide may be against him1 and the wind in his favour1 and the currents dangerous if not avoided4 ,but the man is largely what environments have made him4 ,his knowledge of rowing came from environment1 his knowledge of the bay is environment1 his knowledge of the run and position of the dangerous currents is environment1 the boat and the oars belong to his environment4 ,and with all the useful and favourable environments1 plus his hereditary qualities1 he fights the adverse environments of the wind1 and the tide1 and the currents4 ,now1 let us suppose the sea to be rough1 and the tide and wind strong1 and against the oarsman4 ,and then let us imagine the cases of two men1 one of whom was an expert sailor1 in a good boat1 well found1 and one a landsman1 who could not row1 who did not know the bay1 who did not understand wind and tide1 who was ignorant of the currents1 who had bad oars and a leaky boat4 ,it is evident that the sailor would have a chance of getting safely across the bay1 and that the landsman would be in grave peril of being capsized1 or carried out to sea4 ,and the difference between the sailor and the landsman would be entirely a difference of environment4 ,but suppose1 farther1 that the sailor was of healthy descent1 that he was1 by heredity1 strong1 and brave1 and intelligent2 and suppose that the landsman was a degenerate3 weak1 nervous1 fainthearted1 and stupid2 then the difference would be one of heredity and environment4 ,and if the landsman were drowned and the sailor came safely to shore1 should we curse and revile the one1 and applaud and reward the other4 ,or should we take the sailor's success as a matter of course1 and give our pity to the landsman8 ,well3 in such a crazy boat1 with such useless oars1 with such a faint heart1 a lack of knowledge and skill1 and such a feeble mind1 does the ,bottom ,dog put out1 to wrestle with the winds and storms1 and escape the dangerous currents of life4 ,and how can we expect the badly bred1 badly trained1 badly taught degenerate to succeed like the well-bred1 well-trained1 and well-taught hero8 ,what ,mr4 ,campbell calls ,john ,bunyan's manhood--the manhood that raised him above his environment--was largely composed of environment4 ,there never yet has been a hero whose heroism was not in a great measure due to his environment4 ,let any one who doubts this look back to our suggestions of the fate of a child born into evil environments4 ,every man is largely what environment has made him4 ,no man can be independent of environment3 but for environment he could never live to be a man at all4 ,and now let us consider some of the good and evil things environment may do4 ,,chapter ,,eight--,,good ,,and ,,bad ,,surroundings ,,there are many who always think of environment as something bad4 ,we hear a good deal about men who rise above their environment2 but we seldom hear of men who are uplifted by their environment4 ,yet1 as ,i have shown1 no man rises above bad environment unless he is helped by good environment4 ,those who dread the power of environment cannot have given much thought to the subject4 ,instead of being a menace to the human race1 the power of environment is the source of our brightest hope4 ,environment has shaped evolution1 and has raised man above the beasts4 ,environment has created morality and conscience4 ,environment1 feared as a power for evil1 is also a power for good4 ,if bad teaching1 and evil surroundings make bad men2 then good teaching1 and good surroundings will make good men4 ,if bad food1 bad air1 ignorance1 and vice1 degrade mankind2 then good food1 good air1 knowledge1 and temperance will uplift mankind4 ,if men and women are largely that which environment makes them1 then1 by improving the environment we can improve men and women4 ,and here ,i come into touch with a certain school of dismal scientists who would have us believe that it is useless to improve environment1 because men are what heredity makes them1 and because we cannot control heredity4 ,let us dispose of these pessimists before we go any farther4 ,happily1 the cases in which heredity is stronger than environment are few4 ,environment cannot make a model citizen of the born criminal1 or atavist4 ,but good environment will make the worst man better than he would be under bad environment4 ,environment cannot make a genius4 ,no amount of feeding1 training1 and teaching will make an average man into a ,shakespeare1 or a ,plato4 ,but good environment will do more for the dullest of men than bad environment will do4 ,environment cannot prevent atavism4 ,it may happen that the best of stock will breed back to a lower type4 ,it may happen that a criminal or an incapable will crop out suddenly in a line of good and intelligent men and women4 ,but good environment will abolish degeneracy1 as certainly as bad environment will cause it4 ,for the occasional genius we need feel no concern4 ,he will come when heredity produces him2 and he is welcome4 ,and for the atavist1 or born criminal1 we may be thankful that he is comparatively rare1 and may content ourselves with doing the best we can with him1 in future1 instead of the worst1 as heretofore4 ,i am assuming that the worst type of born criminal is quite hopeless2 but ,i am not sure of that4 ,we can tame wild beasts1 and why not wild men8 ,but the dismal scientists will tell us that even good environment cannot improve the race1 because acquired characteristics cannot be transmitted3 which is to say that knowledge cannot be handed down hereditarily from father to son1 and that1 therefore1 all that the best environment can do is to begin at the beginning with each generation1 to teach and train them4 ,i deny that1 and will give my reasons4 ,but suppose we admit it4 ,what follows8 ,is it not better to teach and to train each generation well1 than to teach and train them ill8 ,if mental and physical culture cannot be handed down2 if the children of the educated and the well-developed must be born uneducated and undeveloped1 is it not better to have a generation of strong and cultured men and women than a generation of degenerate weeds8 ,because we cannot1 by education1 raise a breed of ,washingtons and ,darwins1 and ,miltons and ,nelsons1 are we to content ourselves with a population of hooligans and boors8 ,if environment cannot permanently improve the breed1 is that any reason for making the worst1 instead of the best1 of the breed we now possess8 ,and now1 as to that question of improving the breed1 ,i claim that environment would improve the breed1 and would improve it as it has improved it in the past1 by natural selection4 ,how do cattle-breeders improve their stock8 ,by breeding from the best animals1 and not from the worst4 ,men of weak or base moral natures1 and men of weak minds and bodies will1 ,i believe1 generally reproduce their faults in their descendants4 ,but1 to marry1 they must find wives4 ,i said a little way back1 take care of your women1 and the race will take care of itself4 ,good environment would take care of the women4 ,the women being properly nursed1 fed1 taught1 and honoured1 would select partners who would not shock them morally1 nor disgust them physically4 ,virtuous1 refined1 and intelligent women do not1 in general--there are exceptions--love and marry men of weak minds1 nor men of diseased bodies1 nor men of low moral type4 ,therefore1 given proper environment1 the born criminal and the mental weakling would not be able to find wives4 ,but that is not the only way in which good environment would affect the breed4 ,nearly all degeneration is caused by bad environment1 and good environment would stop degeneration1 and by that means would improve the mental1 moral1 and physical average4 ,it has been suggested1 by some of the most dismal scientists1 that to prevent the spread of degeneration we should prevent degenerates from marrying4 ,but ,i think a sounder method would be to stop the production of degenerates1 by abolishing the environment that produces them4 ,as to the atavist1 or born criminal1 ,i would point out that one of the laws of heredity is the tendency to revert to the normal4 ,that is to say1 genius and atavism do not persist4 ,in a few generations the atavist and the genius have bred back to the average level4 ,that1 as ,i have pointed out1 is due to the mixture of blood by marriage4 ,thanks to this law1 even the born criminal cannot often reappear4 ,an example of the working of this law is afforded by the descendants of the ,australian convicts1 who have turned out excellent men and women4 ,i think1 then1 that we need not be seriously troubled by the gloomy forebodings of our pessimists4 ,with bad environment human nature has no chance3 with good environment human nature will take care of itself4 ,and now let us look at some of the facts in proof of the magical results of improved environment4 ,i have before me a newspaper report of an interview with ,mr4 ,george ,jackson1 secretary of the ,middlemore ,children's ,emigration ,homes4 ,this society was founded some thirty years ago1 and has since sent out to ,canada more than three thousand children from the slums4 ,the children came from the worst of slums1 and from the worst of homes4 ,they are spoken of by the reporter as being rescued from homes where they are in daily contact with grinding poverty and misery1 in an atmosphere of moral and physical foulness1 with parents who are drunken1 criminal1 and inhuman4 ,and of these three thousand waifs not two in a hundred turned out badly4 ,to give an idea of the working of a changed environment in the case of these children1 ,i will quote from the report of the ,birmingham ,daily ,post3 ,mr4 ,jackson's view ranges over some three thousand children of both sexes rescued from the very lowest haunts of misery and vice1 picked up forlorn and deserted from the gutters of ,birmingham1 snatched from the evil influence of parents who had carried active cruelty or passive neglect to such terrible lengths that the retributive hand of human law had at last fallen upon them1 from parents who would have deliberately forced their offspring to mendicancy1 to thievery1 or to prostitution4 ,these three thousand worse than destitute little ones1 these infants crying in the night1 and with no language but a cry4 who had started their sad lives on the very threshold of that dark door over which is written1 ,all hope abandon1 were rescued by kindly hands and carried into the sunshine4 ,for a time they were fed1 and clothed1 and schooled1 taught that there was something more in life than squalor and selfishness and vice1 and then they were taken thousands of miles away from those foul slums in which their eyes had first opened to the murky light1 their tender sensibilities first awakened to the bitter lesson of human pain and misery4 ,they were taken to where ,god's fresh1 free air sweeps across leagues of virgin forest and prairie1 to where existence is vigorous1 it may be1 but healthy1 and pure1 and invigorating1 to where conditions are such as to develop strong1 self-reliant manhood1 instead of debased and neurotic criminality4 ,it was in the complete and sweeping character of the change that lay the wisdom of the scheme4 ,on the lone backwood farmstead of ,canada the slum child had no opportunity1 even had he wished1 of once more coming within the range of vicious influences such as he had left4 ,there was no temptation to many of the vices with which cruel circumstances had made him so terribly familiar4 ,heredity of evil was cheated of its chances1 and whatever tendencies to good remained were fostered and given full scope for development4 ,further1 the degraded relatives were no longer able to act the part of a millstone around the child's neck1 to fetter his every aspiration to a better life1 to drag him down or keep him down to their own dark state4444 ,hundreds upon hundreds of prosperous farmers in ,canada at this day can look back to the dim past1 when they sold matches or papers1 or picked up as best they could1 in the streets of ,birmingham1 a few stray coppers to take home to their dissolute parents2 to the time when1 with empty stomachs and with the rain and snow beating through ragged garments onto their little pinched bodies1 they cried through the rigours of winter nights on a sheltered doorstep rather than face the blows and curses which awaited them in the only place which they could call home4 ,they were born to poverty and crime as the sparks fly upward1 and they have lived to thank ,god for that kindly agency which rescued them from their inheritance of misery4 ,of these three thousand children two thousand nine hundred and forty were saved--by a change of environment4 ,had the environment been left unchanged probably not #b per cent1 would have escaped ruin4 ,as their parents were1 so would they have been4 ,had their parents been rescued in their youth only #b percent of them would have failed4 ,the experience of ,dr4 ,bamado and his friends with the children taken from the slums was very similar4 ,the percentage of failures was small1 and the ,london papers1 in their obituaries of the good doctor1 speak enthusiastically of the value of his work1 and say that thousands of children rescued by him and his agents are now steady and prosperous citizens beyond the seas4 ,since ,dr4 ,bamado took up the work over fifty-five thousand children have been saved--by changed environment4 ,from an article by ,mr4 ,r4 ,b4 ,suthers in the ,clarion of ,august1 #aijd1 ,i quote the following account of the ,george ,junior ,republic1 an ,american institution1 founded by ,mr4 ,william ,r4 ,george1 in #ahif4 ,the ,junior ,republic is a collection of #ajj hooligans1 juvenile criminals1 and unfortunate boys and girls who live under a constitution based on that of the ,united ,states4 ,the government is government of the citizens1 for the citizens1 and by the citizens4 ,children of all ages are admitted1 but the rights of citizenship are not granted to those under #ab1 and at #ba the juniors are drafted into the great republic outside4 ,schooling is compulsory up to the age of #af1 after which the citizen has the choice of many trades1 in the ,junior ,republic1 including farming1 carpentering1 printing1 dairying1 or he may be a cook1 waiter1 store keeper1 or office boy4 ,the girls may go in for dressmaking1 cooking1 and laundry work4 ,these boys and girls1 recruited from the slums and the criminal forcing beds of the great cities1 govern themselves4 ,they make their own laws1 appoint their own officials1 run their own gaol1 and are practically as free as the citizens of the big republic of which they become full-fledged members when grown up4 ,mr4 ,george asserts that he has never known them when administering the law1 to give an unjust or foolish decision4 ,remember they were hooligans1 criminals1 and wastrels4 ,it ought not to be necessary to argue that children well brought up will turn out better than children ill brought up4 ,we all know that such must be the case3 we all see every day of our lives that1 such is the case3 we all know the power of environment for good as well as for evil4 ,but facts are stubborn things1 and the above are stubborn facts4 ,i have hitherto dealt almost wholly with the environment of the poor1 but it is needful also to say something as to the environment of the rich1 as ,mr4 ,chesterton's mistakes have shown4 ,the chief evils of the environment of the rich are wealth1 luxury1 idleness1 and false ideals4 ,it is not healthy for young people to be brought up to do nothing but spend money and hunt for excitement4 ,it is not good for young or old to have unlimited wealth and leisure4 ,it is not good for men1 nor women1 nor children1 to be flattered and fawned upon4 ,flunkeyism and slavery degrade and debase the master as well as the servant3 the snob lord1 as well as the snob lackey4 ,we have hundreds of religions in the world2 but how many teachers of true morality8 ,true morality condemns all forms of selfishness1 all acts that are hurtful to our neighbours1 to the commonwealth1 to the race4 ,in the light of true morality1 a rich landowner1 or a millionaire money-lender1 is a greater criminal than a burglar or a foot-pad2 and a politician or a journalist who utters base words is worse than a coiner who utters base coin4 ,this being so1 all the rich are bred and reared in an immoral atmosphere4 ,but the atmosphere is polluted in other ways4 ,the children of the rich are perverted with false ideals4 ,they are taught to regard themselves as superior to the workers1 who keep them4 ,they are taught that it is sport to murder helpless and harmless birds and beasts and fishes4 ,they are taught to toady to those above1 and to expect toadyism from those below them4 ,they are given tacitly to understand that it is their lordly right to command1 and that it is the duty of the masses to obey4 ,they are allowed to believe that to be born spacious in the possession of dirt1 or free to wallow in unearned money1 is honourable1 and that to be poor and landless is a proof of inferiority4 ,they are puffed up with false ideas of value1 and suppose that to possess an opulence of pride and a beggarly smattering of useless and often hurtful knowledge1 is more creditable than to be capable of making honest pots and pans1 and boots and trousers2 of laying level pavements1 and cutting invaluable drains4 ,they have their unfurnished minds lumbered with immoral ideas of empire1 of conquest1 of titles1 of stars and garters4 ,they are the spoilt children of ,vanity ,fair1 and very many of them are the lamentable failures which their environment would lead us to expect4 ,no man is educated who has never learnt to do any kind of useful work2 no man lives in a good environment who has not been taught to think of the welfare of his fellow creatures before his own1 no life is sound1 nor sweet1 nor moral1 which is not based on useful service4 ,therefore the environment of the rich is generally evil and not good4 ,these are not the reckless utterances of any angry demagogue4 ,every word ,i have written about the evils of idleness1 of luxury1 of arrogance1 of vain-glory and self-love1 is endorsed by the teachings of the wisest and the best men of all ages2 every word is supported by the records of history1 by the known facts of contemporary life2 every word is in accord with the new and the old morality4 ,it is a matter of common knowledge that the environment of the rich puts forth sins like scarlet flowers in summer4 ,,chapter ,,nine--,,the ,,origin ,,of ,,conscience ,,the religious mind loves mysteries4 ,conscience has always been set down as a mystery by religious people4 ,it has been called the still small voice1 and we have been taught that it is a supernatural kind of sense by which man is guided in his knowledge of good and evil4 ,now1 ,i claim that conscience is no more supernatural than is the sense of smell1 and no more mysterious than the stomach4 ,if conscience were what religious people think it is--a kind of heavenly voice whispering to us what things are right and wrong--we should expect to find its teachings constant4 ,it would not chide one man1 and approve another1 for the same act4 ,it would not warn men that an act was wrong in one age1 and assure them in another age that the same act was right4 ,it would not have one rule of morality for the guidance of an ,englishman1 and another rule of morality for the guidance of a ,turk4 ,it would not change its moral code as the man it is supposed to guide changes his beliefs through education and experience4 ,it would not give such widely different men of the same age and nation4 ,if conscience were really a supernatural guide to right conduct it would always and everywhere tell man what is eternally right or eternally wrong4 ,but conscience is changeable and uncertain4 ,it is a magnetic needle that points ,north at one time and ,south at another time2 that points ,east on one ship and ,west on another ship2 that points all round the compass for all kinds of travellers on life's ocean2 that has no relation to the everlasting truths at all4 ,sceptics have pointed out that conscience is geographical2 that it gives different verdicts in different countries1 on the same evidence4 ,but ,i shall show that conscience is3 #a4 ,geographical3 that it is not the same in one country as in another4 #b4 ,historical3 that it is not the same in one age as in another4 #c4 ,personal3 that it is not the same in one person as in another4 #d4 ,changeable3 it alters with its owner's mind4 ,and that1 therefore1 conscience is not a true and certain guide to right1 and cannot be the voice of ,god4 ,first1 as to geographical1 or local1 conscience4 ,the ,english conscience looks with horror or disgust upon polygamy1 child murder1 cannibalism1 and the blood feud4 ,the ,turkish conscience allows many wives2 the ,redskin conscience allows the scalping of enemies2 the ,afghan conscience applauds the dutiful son who murders the nephew of his father's enemy2 the cannibal conscience is silent at a feast of cold missionary2 the ,chinese conscience goes blandly to the killing of girl babies2 the ,rand conscience sees no evil in the flogging of ,kaffirs and ,chinese2 the aristocratic conscience is not ashamed of taking the bread from starving peasants and their children2 the capitalist conscience permits the making of fortunes out of sweated labour4 ,now1 cannibalism1 murder1 cheating1 tyranny1 the flogging of slaves1 and the torture of enemies are all immoral and evil things4 ,they cannot be good things in the ,east and bad things in the ,west4 ,but conscience--the mysterious and wonderful still small voice--blames man in one part of the world and praises him in another for committing those acts4 ,conscience is local3 it tells one tale in ,johannesburg or ,pekin1 and quite a different tale in ,amsterdam or ,paris4 ,and to find out which tale is the true one we have to use our reason4 ,as to historical conscience4 ,what men thought good a few centuries ago they now think bad4 ,take only a few examples4 ,men once saw no wrong in slavery1 in trial by wager of battle1 in witch-burning1 in the torture of prisoners to extract evidence1 in the whipping of lunatics1 in the use of child-labour in mines and factories1 in duelling1 bear-baiting1 prize-fighting1 and heavy drinking4 ,not very long ago men would tear out a man's tongue for blasphemy1 would hang a woman for stealing a turnip1 would burn a bishop alive for heresy1 would nail an author to the pillory by his ear for criticising a duke1 would sell women and children felons into slavery2 and conscience would never whisper a protest4 ,,the ,,origin ,,of ,,conscience ,now1 it was wrong to burn heretics1 and pillory reformers1 and work babies to death in the mill and the mine in those days1 or it is right to do the same things now4 ,but conscience now condemns as wrong the same acts which it once approved as right2 it now approves as right what it once condemned as wrong4 ,conscience1 then1 differs in different ages4 ,conscience tells two quite different tales at two different times4 ,and if we want to find out which tale is the true one we have to use our reason4 ,as to personal conscience4 ,we all know that one man's conscience differs from another4 ,we all know that in any ,english town on any day there are as many varieties of conscience as there are varieties of hands1 and eyes1 and feet1 and noses4 ,there are the ,nonconformist conscience1 the ,roman ,catholic conscience1 the ,rationalist conscience1 the ,aristocratic conscience1 the ,plebeian conscience1 the ,military conscience1 the ,commercial conscience1 the ,tory conscience1 and the ,socialist conscience4 ,one man's conscience forbids him to swear1 to eat meat1 to drink wine1 to read a newspaper on ,sunday1 to go to a ball or a theatre1 to make a bet1 to play at cards or football1 to stay away from church4 ,another man's conscience permits him all those indulgences1 but compels him to pay trade union wages1 to speak courteously to servants and poor persons1 to be generous to beggars1 and kind to dumb animals4 ,a very striking example of this personal difference in the ruling of conscience is afforded by the quite recent contrast between the sentiments of ,northern and ,southern ,americans on the question of negro slavery4 ,another equally striking example is the difference to-day between the rulings of the consciences of ,socialists and sweaters4 ,my own conscience1 for instance1 never chides me for ,sabbath breaking nor for neglect of ,god2 but it would not allow me to grow rich on the rent of slum houses1 nor on the earnings of half-starved children1 nor on the sale of prurient novels1 or adulterated beer1 or sized calico4 ,now1 it is either right or wrong to do all these things4 ,it cannot be right for one man to dance and wrong for another to dance2 it cannot be right for one man to bet1 and wrong for another man to bet2 it cannot be right for one man to draw rents for slum houses1 and wrong for another man to draw rents for slum houses4 ,but conscience tells some men that it is right to do these things1 and tells other men it is wrong to do the same things4 ,conscience is not the same thing to one man that it is to another man4 ,it praises ,brown and blames ,jones for doing the same thing4 ,it tells different tales to different men4 ,an when we want to know which is the true tale we have to use our reason4 ,as to changeable conscience4 ,we all know very well that conscience does not keep to one rule of right and wrong even with one man2 but that it changes its rule whenever the man changes his belief through teaching or experience4 ,i need not give many examples of these changes4 ,every reader can supply them for himself4 ,when ,i was a boy my conscience pained me severely if ,i stayed away from ,sunday school or neglected to say my prayers4 ,but it does not chide me now for not going to church1 nor for not reading the ,bible1 nor for not praying4 ,why has conscience thus changed its tone with me8 ,simply because ,i have changed my opinions4 ,but those things could not have been wrong then if they are right now4 ,conscience has changed4 ,conscience changes as the mind changes4 ,it tells one tale in our youth1 and another in our prime1 and perhaps yet another in our decay4 ,and if we want to know which tale is the true tale we must use our reason4 ,and now we find that conscience is different in different nations1 in different cities1 in different classes1 in different persons1 in different ages1 in different circumstances1 in different moods4 ,and1 when we come to think about it1 we find that conscience never tells us anything we do not know4 ,it is a voice which always tells us what we do know3 what we believe4 ,it does not teach us what acts are right and what acts are wrong4 ,it reminds of what we have been taught about right or wrong4 ,it is not a divine voice1 for it often leads us wrong4 ,it is not a divine voice1 for it is no wiser and no better than ourselves4 ,what is it8 ,what is conscience8 ,conscience is chiefly habit3 it is chiefly memory3 but it is partly1 perhaps1 inherited instinct4 ,conscience is habit4 ,we all know that it is easier to do a thing which we have often done before than to do a thing we have never done before4 ,we all know that what we call practice improves an organ or power of our body or our mind4 ,as the proverbs put it3 ,use is second nature4 ,practice makes perfect4 ,most of us know that an organ develops with use and decays with disuse4 ,if you wish to develop your muscles you must use them4 ,if you wish to improve your memory or to sharpen your wits you must use them4 ,when a man is first taught to use a rifle he finds to his surprise that he cannot pull the trigger just exactly when he wants it4 ,but in time he does that quite without thought or effort4 ,the muscles of his finger have been educated to act with his eye4 ,some men1 when they first begin to shoot1 shrink from the rifle4 ,they fear the recoil or the sudden explosion1 and the muscles of their shoulder flinch4 ,if a man gives way to that habit it grows upon him1 and he can never shoot straight4 ,the muscles have learnt to flinch2 and they flinch4 ,one man falls into the habit of swearing4 ,the habit grows upon him4 ,the words come ever more readily to his tongue1 and he swears more and more4 ,now1 let us suppose a boy has been taught that it is wrong to swear4 ,in his memory lies the lesson4 ,it has been repeated until it has grown strong4 ,when he hears swearing it shocks him4 ,but the more he hears it the less it shocks him4 ,the words grow more familiar to his ear1 just as the sound of a waterfall or of machinery grows familiar to the ear4 ,then suppose he swears4 ,that is a very unusual act for him4 ,and his old lesson that to swear is wrong is still firm and ready4 ,it is not his habit to swear3 it is his habit to shrink from swearing4 ,so if he swears1 his memory1 which has been educated to resent all swearing1 brings up at once to his notice the lessons of years4 ,the same kind of thing is seen on the cricket field4 ,a batsman is playing steadily4 ,he has been trained to play cautiously against good bowling4 ,but he has a favourite stroke4 ,the bowler knows it ,he sends a ball very aptly called a ticer to entice the batsman to hit1 in the hopes of a catch4 ,the desire to make that pet cut or off-drive is strong2 but the habit of caution is stronger2 he lets the ball go by4 ,or the habit is not as strong as the desire1 and he cuts the ball2 and1 even as he watches it flash safely through the field for the boundary1 he feels that he ran a foolish risk1 and must not repeat it4 ,what is it tells him he did wrong8 ,it is his memory3 his memory1 which has been educated to check his rashness4 ,in fact1 it is his cricketer's conscience that warns him4 ,so with the youth who swears4 ,no sooner has the word passed his lips than his educated memory1 which has been trained to check swearing1 brings up the lesson1 and confronts him with it4 ,but let him swear again and again1 and in time the moral lessons in his memory will be overlaid by the familiar sound of curses2 the habit of flinching from an oath will grow weak1 and the habit of using oaths will grow strong4 ,it is really what happens with the rifleman who gives way to the recoil and forms a habit of flinching1 or with the cricketer who allows his desire to score to overcome his habit of caution4 ,the old habit fades from disuse2 the new habit grows strong from use4 ,the rifleman becomes a hopelessly bad shot2 the batsman degenerates into a slogger3 the young man swears every time he speaks1 and his conscience loses all power to check him4 ,take the case of the letter h4 ,the young ,lochinvar who comes out of the ,west sounds his aitches properly and easily--just as properly and as easily as a fencer makes his parries1 as a pianist strikes the right notes1 as ,c4 ,b4 ,fry plays a straight bat4 ,it is a matter of teaching and of use1 and has become a habit4 ,from his earliest efforts at speech he has heard the h sounded1 has been checked if he failed to sound it1 has corrected himself if he made a slip4 ,but the young ,lochinvar who comes out of the ,east drops his aspirates all over the place without a blush or a pang4 ,he has never been taught to sound the h4 ,he has not practised it4 ,he has formed the habit of not sounding it1 and it would take him years of painful effort to change the habit4 ,now what happens in the case of a letter h is what happens in the case of the rifle1 of the ticing ball1 of the swearing4 ,one man's memory is educated to remind him not to swear1 not to slog1 not to flinch1 not to drop the h4 ,the other man's memory is not so trained4 ,and this trained memory we call conscience4 ,it is purely habit3 and it is wholly mechanical4 ,there is a good story of a gang of moonlighters who had shot a landlord1 and were afterwards sitting down to supper4 ,one man was just raising a piece of meat to his lips when the clock struck twelve4 ,instantly he dropped the meat4 ,be jabers6 he said1 'tis ,friday6 ,that was the habit of abstaining from meat on a ,friday4 ,it had been drilled into his memory1 and it acted mechanically4 ,conscience1 then1 is largely a matter of habit3 it depends a great deal on what we are taught4 ,but it is not wholly a matter of habit1 nor does it depend wholly on our teaching4 ,we all know that two brothers1 born of the same parents1 brought up in the same home1 educated at the same school1 taught the same moral lessons1 may be quite different in the matter of conscience4 ,one will shrink from giving pain1 the other will be cruel2 one will be quite truthful1 the other will tell lies4 ,and so to go back to our rifleman and our cricketer4 ,every novice does not flinch from the recoil1 every batsman is not prudent4 ,no4 ,because men are different by nature4 ,some boys are easy to train2 some are not4 ,some are naturally obedient2 some are not4 ,some are naturally cruel2 some are naturally merciful4 ,the conscience of a boy depends upon what he is by nature and what he is taught4 ,if the emotion of anger is naturally strong in a boy it will need a better-drilled memory to check his anger than if the emotion of anger were weak4 ,i do not mean it will need more teaching to curb his will1 but it will need more teaching to build up his conviction that anger is wrong1 because the motion resists the teaching4 ,but in the case of a boy gentle and merciful by nature it needs no teaching to prevent him from torturing frogs1 and very little to make him know that to torture frogs is wrong4 ,it is a common mistake in morals to say that a man is to blame for an act because he knew it was wrong4 ,he may have been told that it was wrong4 ,but until he feels that it is wrong1 and believes that it is wrong1 it is not true to say that he knows it is wrong2 for he may only know that some other person says it is wrong1 which is a very different thing4 ,for instance1 it might be said in this way that ,i am wicked for listening to ,beethoven on the ,sabbath1 because ,i know that it is wrong4 ,but ,i do not know that is wrong4 ,i do not believe that it is wrong4 ,i only know that some people say it is wrong4 ,so ,i claim that conscience is what a man's nature and teaching make it3 that it is a habit of memory1 and no more mysterious than the habit of smoking1 or dropping the aspirate1 or eating peas with a knife4 ,let us now look at some of the scientific evidence4 ,,science ,,and ,,conscience ,i will quote first from ,darwin1 ,descent of ,man1 ,chapter #d3 ,the following proposition seems to me in a high degree probable1 namely1 that any animal whatever1 endowed with well-marked social instincts1 the parental and filial affections being here included1 would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience as soon as its intellectual powers had become as well1 or nearly as well1 developed as in man4444 ,secondly1 as soon as the mental faculties had become highly developed1 images of all past actions and motives would be incessantly passing through the brain of each individual2 and that feeling of dissatisfaction1 or even misery1 which invariably results1 as we shall hereafter see1 from any unsatisfied instinct would arise as often as it was perceived that the enduring and always present social instinct1 had yielded to some other instinct1 at the time stronger1 but neither enduring in its nature nor leaving behind it a very vivid impression4 ,now let us see what ,darwin means4 ,the social instincts include human sympathy and the desire for the company of our fellows2 love of approbation1 which is the desire to be loved1 or to be thought well of1 by our fellows2 and gratitude1 which is the love we pay back for the love which is given us3 ,these social instincts are sometimes so strong1 even in animals1 as to overcome the powerful maternal instinct2 so that migratory birds1 as ,darwin shows1 and as we all know who have read our ,gilbert ,white1 will go with the flock and leave their new broods defenceless and unprovided for4 ,the social instincts1 then1 are very strong1 and they lead us to conform to social rule or sentiment4 ,but now ,darwin tells us that in the case of man images of all past actions and motives would be incessantly passing through the brain4 ,these images are mental pictures1 and they are printed on those brain cells which make what we call memory4 ,now1 ,darwin tells us that these memory pictures would cause us pain as often as they reminded us that we had broken the social rule or outraged the social sentiment in order to indulge some instinct of a selfish kind4 ,and ,darwin makes it clear to us that such a selfish desire may be strong before it is gratified1 and may yet leave an impression of pleasure after it is gratified which is weak indeed in presence of the deep-rooted social memories4 ,let us take a few examples4 ,the desire for a pleasure may be strong enough to drive us to enjoy it1 and yet the pleasure may seem to us not worth the cost or trouble after the desire has been sated4 ,when we are hungry the desire for food is intense4 ,after we have eaten we are no longer hungry4 ,but we grow hungry again1 and then the desire for food is as intense as ever4 ,dick ,swiveller goes to a bachelor party1 and the desire for the convivial glass is strong within him4 ,he drinks too much1 and the next morning calls himself a fool for drinking4 ,he is ashamed of his excess1 and he has the headache1 and the temptation is now absent4 ,but when he is well again1 and at another party1 the old desire comes back with the old power4 ,so ,dick once more indulges too freely in the rosy1 and has another sick head in consequence4 ,and then the social instincts rise up and reproach him1 and the sated appetite1 being weak1 appears to him contemptible4 ,the social instinct is constant3 the selfish desire is intermittent4 ,the passion is like a tide which leaps the moral wall and then falls back to low water4 ,the wall remains3 it may be sullied or shaken1 but it is still a moral wall1 and only a long succession of such tides can break it down4 ,when passion has broken down the moral wall the man is at the mercy of his passions4 ,they flood the dwelling of his soul again and again until he is a ruin4 ,this1 ,i think1 explains ,darwin's idea of the struggle between the social and selfish instincts4 ,in ,adam ,bede ,george ,eliot blames the seducer of ,hettie ,sorrel for doing a terrible wrong for the sake of a brief selfish indulgence4 ,but that charge is unfair4 ,it implies that the deed was planned and done in cold blood4 ,but the fact was that both ,hettie and ,arthur were carried away by a rush of passion4 ,the great tide of desire1 a desire made terribly strong by ,nature1 had overleapt the walls of morality and prudence4 ,anger has been called a brief madness4 ,the same kind of thing might be said of all the passions4 ,it is as easy to be virtuous after the temptation as to be wise after the event ,we can all be brave in the absence of the enemy4 ,the result of a struggle between the sea and a wall depends upon the force of the tide and the strength of the wall4 ,it behoves us all to see that moral walls are builded strong and kept in good repair4 ,let us go back to the action of the memory in the making of morals4 ,dr4 ,c4 ,w4 ,saleeby1 who is doing good work in this field1 gives us clear light in his book1 ,the ,cycle of ,life4 ,he says3 ,memory means a change impressed more or less deeply on the grey surface of the brain4 ,a change4 ,those images which ,darwin tells us are continually passing through the mind have actually made a change in the brain4 ,that is to say1 they have made a change in the mind3 they have made a change in the personality4 ,after showing how a singer learns to produce a note properly by practice until he is almost incapable of producing it improperly1 and until its proper production has become mechanical1 ,dr4 ,saleeby says3 ,the effect of practice1 as in any other art1 mechanical1 mental1 or both1 has been so to alter the constitution of the nerve cells as to produce a new mode of action4 ,the nerve cells have been re-arranged1 and the habit of the person has been altered4 ,he is no longer quite the same person4 ,he now acts and thinks differently4 ,now1 these changes in the arrangement of the brain cells and fibres may be looked upon as the building up of the moral wall4 ,and the desires and aversions are like the rising and falling tide4 ,and the tide of our desires is a tide of nature4 ,because our desires and aversions seem to work by reflex action4 ,what is reflex action8 ,reflex action1 as ,i use the term here1 is the mechanical action of the nerves4 ,we do not grow hungry1 or thirsty1 or angry1 or compassionate on purpose3 we do not fall in love on purpose4 ,the stomach1 working1 like the heart and lungs1 by reflex action1 without our knowledge or direction1 uses up the food1 and our nerves demand more4 ,the desire for food1 for love1 for revenge1 is due to reflex action4 ,the desire makes itself felt first without our asking1 and we have to refuse or to grant its request after it is made4 ,we do not say3 ,behold1 there is a pretty face3 ,i will be attracted by it4 ,we cannot help being attracted by the face that attracts us1 any more than we can help being hungry4 ,the face attracts us1 more or less1 and we decide to seek out its owner1 according to the strength of the attraction and of the reason for resisting the attraction4 ,we see a diamond4 ,we do not say3 ,there is a diamond4 ,i will not think it beautiful4 ,we cannot think it anything but beautiful2 but whether or not we shall buy it or steal it depends upon the strength of our desire and the strength of the reasons against gratifying that desire4 ,now1 let us see how these conflicting ideas act4 ,a man sees a beautiful woman1 and desires to see more of her4 ,but he fears if he sees much of her he will fall in love with her4 ,and he is engaged to marry another woman4 ,what goes on in his mind8 ,memory reminds him that he is engaged1 and that it would be wrong to follow his desire4 ,and every time the temptation draws him to follow his desire he calls up the image of the other woman1 and he calls up the images of old lessons1 of old thoughts1 of old opinions read and heard by him4 ,and the stronger the temptation grows the more earnestly does he invoke these images4 ,now1 what does all this show8 ,it shows the contest between the reflex action of desire1 backed by the memories of love's pleasures1 on the one part2 and1 on the other part1 of the moral feelings of memories of what he has learnt or thought to be right and wrong4 ,it is then a battle between memory and desire4 ,a man is never tempted by a woman who does not attract him4 ,he never steals a thing he does not want4 ,he does not drink a liquor he does not like4 ,the desire must be there before his will is put to the test4 ,and the desire is independent of his will4 ,a child has no morals4 ,it has only desires4 ,if it likes sugar it will take sugar4 ,if it is angry it will strike4 ,it is only when it is told that to steal sugar or strike its nurse is naughty that it begins to have a moral sense4 ,and its moral sense consists entirely of what it learns--that is to say1 its moral sense is memory4 ,and its memory is a change in the arrangement of the cells of the grey matter of the brain4 ,and these changes make the brain into a different kind of brain3 make the child into a different kind of child4 ,now1 the child does not teach itself these moral lessons4 ,it does not know them4 ,it has to be taught by those who do know4 ,and its moral sense depends upon what it is taught4 ,and its conscience depends upon what it is taught4 ,and1 that being so1 is it not quite evident that the conscience is not the voice of ,god2 that the conscience is not an innate knowledge of right and wrong born with the child2 but it is nothing more nor less than the action of the memory8 ,the whole of this subject is ably and exhaustively treated by ,luys in ,the ,brain and ,its ,functions1 but ,i have not room here to go into it fully4 ,briefly put1 the scientific explanation may be expressed thus3 ,the brain cells have power to receive and to repeat impressions4 ,when a new sensory impulse arises it awakens these impressions by means of the fibres of association4 ,it is as though the brain were a phonographic record4 ,upon this record there is printed1 let us say1 some moral lesson1 as ,look not upon the wine when it is red in the cup4 ,on the word wine being heard the association fibre which links the idea of wine to the moral idea of temperance sets the record in motion1 and memory recalls the caution1 ,look not upon the wine in the cup4 ,it is as if a record on which is printed a song by ,dan ,leno were joined up with a battery which1 upon hearing the word ,leno1 would start the record to repeat the song4 ,i hope ,i have made that clear4 ,i will now conclude by quoting from ,dr4 ,saleeby a passage dealing with the important subject of association4 ,i take it from ,the ,cycle of ,life3 ,nerve cells are significantly incapable of division and reproduction4444 ,all the experience of living merely modifies1 the state of the cells already present4 ,the modification is memory4 ,but though a nerve-cell cannot divide1 it can send forth new processes1 or nerve-fibres from itself--what we call a nerve being simply a collection of processes from a nerve-cell4 ,throughout the brain and spinal cord we find great numbers of nerve processes which simply run from one set of nerve-cells to another1 instead of running to a sense-organ1 or a muscle1 or a gland4 ,such fibres are called association fibres1 their business being to associate different sets of nerve-cells4 ,it is conceivable that an exceptional development of such fibres may account for the possession of a good memory1 or1 at any rate1 for the power easily to learn such co-ordinations as are implied in violin-playing1 billiards1 cricket1 or baseball4 ,granting the power of nerve-cells1 even when adult1 to form new processes1 it might be supposed that the exercise of this power accounts for the acquirement of certain habits of thought or action4 ,now1 whether or not nerve-cells have power to form new association fibres late in life1 it is important to notice that the association fibres which exist at birth or form in childhood are the means by which one idea suggests another2 and the means by which1 as ,i said just now1 upon the utterance of the word wine all we have remembered to have read or heard about wine is repeated by the memory record4 ,and1 just as a phonograph record can only repeat the song or speech that is printed upon it1 so the memory can only repeat what it contains1 and it contains nothing that has not been printed there through the medium of the senses4 ,that is why the word marriage carries with it no moral revulsion against polygamy in the mind of a ,turk4 ,the brain of a ,turk has no record on its grey matter of any moral teaching against polygamy4 ,and the still small voice does not make good the absence of the record1 and tell him that polygamy is wrong4 ,this being so1 what becomes of the theory that conscience is a mysterious agent of ,god implanted in the mind of man to guide him to do right and to shun wrong8 ,a cannibal chief was told by a missionary that it was wicked to have two wives4 ,he went away and ate one wife4 ,the missionary had printed on his brain record the lesson that to have two wives was wrong2 but there was no record there to tell him he must not kill one wife and eat her4 ,where was the still small voice1 the divine guide to right conduct8 ,,chapter ,,ten--,,free ,,will ,,the free will delusion has been a stumbling block in the way of human thought for thousands of years4 ,let us try whether common sense and common knowledge cannot remove it4 ,free will is a subject of great importance to us in this case2 and it is one we must come to with our eyes wide open and our wits wide awake2 not because it is very difficult1 but because it has been tied and twisted into a tangle of ,gordian knots by twenty centuries full of wordy but unsuccessful philosophers1 ,the free will party claim that man is responsible for his acts1 because his will is free to choose between right and wrong4 ,we reply that the will is not free2 and that if it were free man could not know right from wrong until he was taught4 ,as to the knowledge of good and evil the free will party will claim that conscience is an unerring guide4 ,but ,i have already proved that conscience does not and cannot tell us what is right and what is wrong3 it only reminds us of the lessons we have learnt as to right and wrong4 ,the still small voice is not the voice of ,god3 it is the voice of heredity and environment4 ,and now to the freedom of the will4 ,when a man says his will is free1 he means that it is free of all control or interference3 that it can over-rule heredity and environment4 ,we reply that the will is ruled by heredity and environment4 ,the cause of all the confusion on this subject may be shown in a few words4 ,when the free will party say that man has a free will1 they mean that he is free to act as he chooses to act4 ,there is no need to deny that4 ,but what causes him to choose8 ,that is the pivot upon which the whole discussion turns4 ,the free will party seem to think of the will as something independent of the man1 as something outside him4 ,they seem to think that the will decides without the control of the man's reason4 ,if that were so1 it would not prove the man responsible4 ,the will would be responsible1 and not the man4 ,it would be as foolish to blame a man for the act of a free will1 as to blame a horse for the action of its rider4 ,but ,i am going to prove to my readers1 by appeals to their common sense and common knowledge1 that the will is not free2 and that it is ruled by heredity and environment4 ,to begin with1 the average man will be against me4 ,he knows that he chooses between two courses every hour1 and often every minute1 and he thinks his choice is free4 ,but that is a delusion3 his choice is not free4 ,he can choose1 and does choose4 ,but he can only choose as his heredity and his environment cause him to choose4 ,he never did choose and never will choose except as his heredity and his environment--his temperament and his training--cause him to choose4 ,and his heredity and his environment have fixed his choice before he makes it4 ,the average man says ,i know that ,i can act as ,i wish to act4 ,but what causes him to wish8 ,the free will party say1 ,we know that a man can and does choose between two acts4 ,but what settles the choice8 ,there is a cause for every wish1 a cause for every choice2 and every cause of every wish and choice arises from heredity1 or from environment4 ,for a man acts always from temperament1 which is heredity1 or from training1 which is environment4 ,and in cases where a man hesitates in his choice between two acts1 the hesitation is due to a conflict between his temperament and his training1 or1 as some would express it1 between his desire and his conscience4 ,a man is practising at a target with a gun1 when a rabbit crosses his line of fire4 ,the man has his eye and his sights on the rabbit1 and his finger on the trigger4 ,the man's will is free4 ,if he press the trigger the rabbit will be killed4 ,now1 how does the man decide whether or not he shall fire8 ,he decides by feeling1 and by reason4 ,he would like to fire1 just to make sure that he could hit the mark4 ,he would like to fire1 because he would like to have the rabbit for supper4 ,he would like to fire1 because there is in him the old1 old hunting instinct1 to kill4 ,but the rabbit does not belong to him4 ,he is not sure that he will not get into trouble if he kills it4 ,perhaps--if he is a very uncommon kind of man--he feels that it would be cruel and cowardly to shoot a helpless rabbit4 ,well4 ,the man's will is free4 ,he can fire if he likes3 he can let the rabbit go if he likes4 ,how will he decide8 ,on what does his decision depend8 ,his decision depends upon the relative strength of his desire to kill the rabbit1 and of his scruples about cruelty1 and the law4 ,not only that1 but1 if we knew the man fairly well1 we could guess how his free will would act before it acted4 ,the average spoiling ,briton would kill the rabbit4 ,but we know that there are men who would on no account shoot any harmless wild creature4 ,broadly put1 we may say that the sportsman would will to fire1 and that the humanitarian would not will to fire4 ,now1 as both their wills are free1 it must be something outside the wills that makes the difference4 ,well4 ,the sportsman will kill1 because he is a sportsman3 the humanitarian will not kill1 because he is a humanitarian4 ,and what makes one man a sportsman and another a humanitarian8 ,heredity and environment3 temperament and training4 ,one man is merciful1 another cruel1 by nature2 or one is thoughtful and the other thoughtless1 by nature4 ,that is a difference of heredity4 ,one may have been taught all his life that to kill wild things is sport2 the other may have been taught that it is inhuman and wrong3 that is a difference of environment4 ,now1 the man by nature cruel or thoughtless1 who has been trained to think of killing animals as sport1 becomes what we call a sportsman1 because heredity and environment have made him a sportsman4 ,the other man's heredity and environment have made him a humanitarian4 ,the sportsman kills the rabbit1 because he is a sportsman1 and he is a sportsman because heredity and environment have made him one4 ,that is to say the free will is really controlled by heredity and environment4 ,allow me to give a case in point4 ,a man who had never done any fishing was taken out by a fisherman4 ,he liked the sport1 and for some months followed it eagerly4 ,but one day an accident brought home to his mind the cruelty of catching fish with a hook1 and he instantly laid down his rod1 and never fished again4 ,before the change he was always eager to go fishing if invited3 after the change he could not be persuaded to touch a line4 ,his will was free all the while4 ,how was it that his will to fish changed to his will not to fish8 ,it was the result of environment4 ,he had learnt that fishing was cruel4 ,this knowledge controlled his will4 ,but1 it may be asked1 how do you account for a man doing the thing he does not wish to do8 ,no man ever did a thing he did not wish to do4 ,when there are two wishes the stronger rules4 ,let us suppose a case4 ,a young woman gets two letters by the same post2 one is an invitation to go with her lover to a concert1 the other is a request that she will visit a sick child in the slums4 ,the girl is very fond of music1 and is rather afraid of the slums4 ,she wishes to go to the concert1 and to be with her lover2 she dreads the foul street and the dirty home1 and shrinks from the risk of measles or fever4 ,but she goes to the sick child1 and she foregoes the concert4 ,why8 ,because her sense of duty is stronger than her self-love4 ,now1 her sense of duty is partly due to her nature--that is1 to her heredity--but it is chiefly due to environment4 ,like all of us1 this girl was born without any kind of knowledge1 and with only the rudiments of a conscience4 ,but she has been well taught1 and the teaching is part of her environment4 ,we may say that the girl is free to act as she chooses1 but she does act as she has been taught that she ought to act4 ,this teaching1 which is part of her environment1 controls her will4 ,we may say that a man is free to act as he chooses4 ,he is free to act as he chooses1 but he will choose as heredity and environment cause him to choose4 ,for heredity and environment have made him that which he is4 ,a man is said to be free to decide between two courses4 ,but really he is only free to decide in accordance with his temperament and training4 ,brown is a ,member of ,parliament4 ,he is given to understand that by suppressing his principles he may get a seat in the next ,cabinet4 ,brown is very anxious to get into the ,cabinet4 ,he is ambitious4 ,his wife is ambitious4 ,he wants to make a name2 he wants to please his wife4 ,but he has been taught that to sacrifice one's principles for a bribe is disgraceful4 ,now1 his ambition is part of his heredity2 the things he has been taught are part of his environment4 ,the conflict in his mind is a conflict between the old ,adam and the new2 between the older egotism and the newer altruism4 ,it is a conflict between good heredity and bad heredity2 between heredity and environment2 and the victory will be to the stronger4 ,if ,brown is very ambitious1 and not very conscientious1 he will take the bribe4 ,if his conscience is stronger than his ambition1 he will refuse it4 ,but to say that he is free to choose is a misuse of terms3 he is only free to decide as the stronger of the two motives compels him to decide4 ,and the motives arise from heredity and environment4 ,macbeth was ambitious2 but he had a conscience4 ,he wanted ,duncan's crown2 but he shrank from treason and ingratitude4 ,ambition pulled him one way1 honour pulled him the other way4 ,the opposing forces were so evenly balanced that he seemed unable to decide4 ,was ,macbeth free to choose8 ,to what extent was he free8 ,he was so free that he could arrive at no decision1 and it was the influence of his wife that turned the scale to crime4 ,was ,lady ,macbeth free to choose8 ,she did not hesitate4 ,because her ambition was so much stronger than her conscience that she never was in doubt4 ,she chose as her over-powering ambition compelled her to choose4 ,and most of us in our decisions resemble either ,macbeth or his wife4 ,either our nature is so much stronger than our training1 or our training is so much stronger than our nature1 that we decide for good or evil as promptly as a stream decides to run down hill2 or our nature and our training are so nearly balanced that we can hardly decide at all4 ,in ,macbeth's case the contest is quite clear and easy to follow4 ,he was ambitious1 and his environment had taught him to regard the crown as a glorious and desirable possession4 ,but environment had also taught him that murder1 and treason1 and ingratitude were wicked and disgraceful4 ,had he never been taught these lessons1 or had he been taught that gratitude was folly1 that honour was weakness1 and murder excusable when it led to power1 he would not have hesitated at all4 ,it was his environment that hampered his will4 ,we may say that ,wellington was free to take a bribe4 ,but his heredity and environment had only left him free to refuse one4 ,everyone who knew the ,iron ,duke knew how his free will would act if a bribe were offered him4 ,we may say that ,nelson was free to run away from an enemy4 ,but we know that ,nelson's nature and training had left him free only to run after an enemy4 ,all the world knew before the event how ,nelson's free will would act when a hostile fleet hove into view4 ,heredity and environment had settled the action of ,nelson's free will in that matter before the occasion to act arose4 ,we may say that ,nelson's will was free in the case of ,lady ,hamilton4 ,but it seems only to have been free to do as ,lady ,hamilton wished4 ,when ,nelson met an enemy's fleet1 he made haste to give them battle2 when he met ,lady ,hamilton he struck his flag4 ,some other man might have been free to avoid a battle2 some other man might have been free to resist the fascinations of a friend's wife4 ,horatio ,nelson was only free to act as his nature and his training compelled him to act4 ,to ,nelson honour was dearer than life2 but ,lady ,hamilton was dearer than honour4 ,nelson's action in ,lady ,hamilton's case was largely due to the influence of environment4 ,to hesitate in war was universally regarded as shameful4 ,but1 in ,nelson's environment1 a love intrigue was condoned as an amiable human weakness4 ,hence the failure of ,nelson's will and conscience to resist the blandishments of the handsome ,emma4 ,we may say that ,jack ,sheppard and ,cardinal ,manning were free to steal1 or to refrain from stealing4 ,but we know that the heredity and environment of the thief had made robbery1 for him1 a proof of prowess1 and a question of the value of the spoil2 and we know that the ,cardinal would not have stolen the ,crown jewels if he could2 that he did not want them1 and would not have taken them if he had wanted them4 ,we say that a drunkard and a lifelong abstainer are free to drink or to refuse a glass of whisky4 ,but we know that in both cases the action of the free will is a foregone conclusion4 ,in all cases the action of the will depends upon the relative strength of two or more motives4 ,the stronger motive decides the will2 just as the heavier weight decides the balance of a pair of scales4 ,in ,macbeth's case the balance seemed almost even3 ,lady ,macbeth's persuasion brought down the scale on the wrong side4 ,if the will were free1 it would be independent of the temperament and training1 and so would act as freely in one case as in another4 ,so that it would be as easy for the drunkard as for the lifelong abstainer to refuse to drink2 as easy for the thief as for the ,cardinal to be honest2 as easy for ,macbeth as for ,lady ,macbeth to seal the fate of ,duncan4 ,but we all know that it is harder for one man than for another to be sober1 or honest1 or virtuous2 and we all know that the sobriety1 or honesty1 or virtue of any man depends upon his temperament and training2 that is to say1 upon his heredity and his environment4 ,how1 then1 can we believe that free will is outside and superior to heredity and environment8 ,in the case of the slum children rescued by ,dr4 ,baraado and others we know that had they been left in the slums their wills would have willed evil1 and we know that when taken out of the slums their wills willed good4 ,there was no change in the freedom of the will2 the will that is free in ,whitechapel is free in ,manitoba4 ,the difference was the environment4 ,in ,canada as in ,london the environment controlled the will4 ,what6 ,cannot a man be honest if he choose8 ,yes1 if he choose4 ,but that is only another way of saying that he can be honest if his nature and his training lead him to choose honesty4 ,what6 ,cannot ,i please myself whether ,i drink or refrain from drinking8 ,yes4 ,but that is only to say you will not drink because it pleases you to be sober4 ,but it pleases another man to drink1 because his desire for drink is strong1 or because his self-respect is weak4 ,and you decide as you decide1 and he decides as he decides1 because you are you1 and he is he2 and heredity and environment made you both that which you are4 ,and the sober man may fall upon evil days1 and may lose his self-respect1 or find the burden of his trouble greater than he can bear1 and may fly to drink for comfort1 or oblivion1 and may become a drunkard4 ,has it not been often so8 ,and the drunkard may1 by some shock1 or some disaster1 or some passion1 or some persuasion1 regain his self-respect1 and may renounce drink1 and lead a sober and useful life4 ,has it not been often so8 ,and in both cases the freedom of the will is untouched3 it is the change in the environment that lifts the fallen up1 and beats the upright down4 ,we might say that a woman's will is free1 and that she could1 if she wished1 jump off a bridge and drown herself4 ,but she cannot wish4 ,she is happy1 and loves life1 and dreads the cold and crawling river4 ,and yet1 by some cruel turn of fortune's wheel1 she may become destitute and miserable2 so miserable that she hates life and longs for death1 and then she can jump into the dreadful river and die4 ,her will was free at one time as at another4 ,it is the environment that has wrought the change4 ,once she could not wish to die3 now she cannot wish to live4 ,the apostles of free will believe that all men's wills are free4 ,but a man can only will that which he is able to will4 ,and one man is able to will that which another man is unable to will4 ,to deny this is to deny the commonest and most obvious facts of life4 ,the will is as free in one nation and in one class as in another4 ,who would more willingly return a blow1 an ,irish soldier1 or an ,english ,quaker8 ,who would be readier to stab a rival1 an ,english curate1 or a ,spanish smuggler8 ,the difference does not concern the freedom of the will3 it is a difference of heredity and environment4 ,the wills of a priest and a sailor are free--free to make love in every port1 and to swear in every breeze4 ,the difference is one of environment4 ,the free will party look upon a criminal as a bad man1 who could be good if he wished3 but he cannot wish4 ,the free will party say that if ,smith wills to drink he is bad4 ,but we say that ,smith drinks1 and to drink is bad2 but ,smith drinks because he is ,smith4 ,the free will party say1 then he was born bad4 ,but we say no3 he was born ,smith4 ,we all know that we can foretell the action of certain men in certain cases1 because we know the men4 ,we know that under the same conditions ,jack ,sheppard would steal and ,cardinal ,manning would not steal4 ,we know that under the same conditions the sailor would flirt with the waitress1 and the priest would not2 that the drunkard would get drunk1 and the abstainer would remain sober4 ,we know that ,wellington would refuse a bribe1 that ,nelson would not run away1 that ,buonaparte would grasp at power1 that ,abraham ,lincoln would be loyal to his country1 that ,torquemada would not spare a heretic4 ,why8 ,if the will is free1 how can we be sure1 before a test arises1 how the will must act8 ,simply because we know that heredity and environment have so formed and moulded men and women that under certain circumstances the action of their wills is certain4 ,heredity and environment having made a man a thief1 he will steal4 ,heredity and environment having made a man honest1 he will not steal4 ,that is to say1 heredity and environment have decided the action of the will1 before the time has come for the will to act4 ,this being so--and we all know that it is so--what becomes of the sovereignty of the will8 ,let any man that believes that he can do as he likes ask himself why he likes1 and he will see the error of the theory of free will1 and will understand why the will is the servant and not the master of the man3 for the man is the product of heredity and environment1 and these control the will4 ,as we want to get this subject as clear as we can1 let us take one or two familiar examples of the action of the will4 ,jones and ,robinson meet and have a glass of whisky4 ,jones asks ,robinson to have another4 ,robinson says1 no thank you1 one is enough4 ,jones says1 all right3 have another cigarette4 ,robinson takes the cigarette4 ,now1 here we have a case where a man refuses a second drink1 but takes a second smoke4 ,is it because he would like another cigarette1 but would not like another glass of whisky8 ,no4 ,it is because he knows that it is safer not to take another glass of whisky4 ,how does he know that whisky is dangerous8 ,he has learnt it--from his environment4 ,but he could have taken another glass if he wished4 ,but he could not wish to take another1 because there was something he wished more strongly--to be safe4 ,and why did he want to be safe8 ,because he had learnt--from his environment--that it was unhealthy1 unprofitable1 and shameful to get drunk4 ,because he had learnt--from his environment--that it is easier to avoid forming a bad habit than to break a bad habit when formed4 ,because he valued the good opinion of his neighbours1 and also his position and prospects4 ,these feelings and this knowledge ruled his will1 and caused him to refuse the second glass4 ,but there was no sense of danger1 no well-learned lesson of risk to check his will to smoke another cigarette4 ,heredity and environment did not warn him against that4 ,so1 to please his friend1 and himself1 he accepted4 ,now suppose ,smith asks ,williams to have another glass4 ,williams takes it1 takes several1 finally goes home--as he often goes home4 ,why8 ,largely because drinking is a habit with him4 ,and not only does the mind instinctively repeat an action1 but1 in the case of drink1 a physical craving is set up1 and the brain is weakened4 ,it is easier to refuse the first glass than the second2 easier to refuse the second than the third2 and it is very much harder for a man to keep sober who has frequently got drunk4 ,so1 when poor ,williams has to make his choice1 he has habit against him1 he has a physical craving against him1 and he has a weakened brain to think with4 ,but ,williams could have refused the first glass4 ,no4 ,because in his case the desire to drink1 or to please a friend1 was stronger than his fear of the danger4 ,or he may not have been so conscious of the danger as ,robinson was4 ,he may not have been so well taught1 or he may not have been so sensible1 or he may not have been so cautious4 ,so that his heredity and environment1 his temperament and training1 led him to take the drink1 as surely as ,robinson's heredity and environment led him to refuse it4 ,and now1 it is my turn to ask a question4 ,if the will is free1 if conscience is a sure guide1 how is it that the free will and the conscience of ,robinson caused him to keep sober1 while the free will and the conscience of ,williams caused him to get drunk8 ,robinson's will was curbed by certain feelings which failed to curb the will of ,williams4 ,because in the case of ,williams the feelings were stronger on the other side4 ,it was the nature and the training of ,robinson which made him refuse the second glass1 and it was the nature and the training of ,williams which made him drink the second glass4 ,,what ,,had ,,free ,,will ,,to ,,do ,,with ,,it8 ,we are told that every man has a free will1 and a conscience4 ,now1 if ,williams had been ,robinson1 that is to say if his heredity and his environment had been exactly like ,robinson's1 he would have done exactly as ,robinson did4 ,it was because his heredity and environment were not the same that his act was not the same4 ,both men had free wills4 ,what made one do what the other refused to do8 ,heredity and environment4 ,to reverse their conduct we should have to reverse their heredity and environment4 ,let us take another familiar instance4 ,bill ,hicks is a loafer4 ,he doesn't like work4 ,he used to work1 but he was out on strike for six months1 and since then he has done no more work than he could help4 ,what has changed this man's free will to work into a free will to avoid work8 ,hicks used to work4 ,he was a steady young fellow4 ,why did he work8 ,he did not know4 ,he had always worked4 ,he went to work just as he ate his dinner1 or washed his hands4 ,but he did not think much4 ,he lived chiefly by custom2 habit4 ,he did things because he had always done them1 and because other men did them4 ,he knew no other way4 ,he worked4 ,he worked hard3 for nine hours a day4 ,he got twenty-five shillings a week4 ,he paid twelve shillings for lodging and board1 and he spent the rest1 as others spent it1 on similar boots and coats1 and a better suit1 and the usual amount of beer and tobacco1 and the usual music hall4 ,he thought those things were necessary1 or rather he felt that they were4 ,he did not love his work4 ,there was no interest in it4 ,it was hard1 it was dirty1 there was no credit to be got by doing it4 ,it was just an affair of habit--and wages4 ,then he was half a year on strike4 ,he had less food1 and less beer1 and no music hall4 ,but he had a very great deal less work1 and more liberty1 and--no boss4 ,men love liberty4 ,it is a love that is bred in the race4 ,they do not love shovelling clay into a barrow1 and pushing the barrow up a plank4 ,there is nothing in it that appeals to their humanity3 and it is dirty1 and laborious1 and it makes a man a prisoner and a slave4 ,hicks found that the difference between working and loafing was a difference of food1 clothing1 and beer1 on the one hand1 and on the other hand1 of unpleasant and hard labour4 ,he found he could do with much less beer and beef1 and that liberty was sweet4 ,he did not think this out4 ,he seldom thought3 he was never trained to think4 ,but the habit of toil was broken1 and the habit of freedom was formed4 ,also he had found out that he could live without so much toil1 and live more pleasantly1 if more sparely4 ,what had changed the free will of ,hicks from a will to work to a will to loaf8 ,change of experience3 change of environment4 ,now ,hicks is as lazy1 as useless1 and as free as a duke4 ,but1 someone asks1 where was his pride2 where was his sense of duty2 where was his manhood8 ,and it seems to me those questions ought to be put to the duke4 ,but ,i should say that ,bill ,hicks' pride and sense of duty were just overpowered by his love of liberty1 his distaste for soulless toil1 and his forgetfulness of the beautiful moral lesson that a man who will not work like a horse for a pound a week is a lazy beast1 whilst the man who does nothing--except harm--for a hundred thousand a year1 is an honourable gentleman1 with a hereditary seat in the ,house of ,peers4 ,in fact ,hicks had found his heredity too strong for his training4 ,but what had free will to do with it8 ,the duke has a free will4 ,does it ever set him wheeling clay up a plank8 ,no4 ,why not8 ,because1 as in the case of ,hicks1 heredity and environment cause the duke to love some other4 ,but the duke has no need to work4 ,that is how ,hicks feels4 ,but ,hicks could work if he liked4 ,so could the duke4 ,but neither of these men can like4 ,that is just what is the matter with them both4 ,two boys work at a hard and disagreeable trade4 ,one leaves it1 finds other work1 gets on1 is praised for getting on4 ,the other stays at the trade all his life1 works hard all his life1 is poor all his life1 and is respected as an honest and humble working man2 that is to say1 he is regarded by society as ,mr4 ,dorgan was regarded by ,mr4 ,dooley--he is a fine man1 and ,i despise him4 ,what causes these two free wills to will so differently8 ,one boy knew more than the other boy4 ,he knew better4 ,all knowledge is environment4 ,both boys had free wills4 ,it was in knowledge they differed3 environment6 ,those who exalt the power of the will1 and belittle the power of environment1 belie their words by their deeds4 ,for they would not send their children amongst bad companions or allow them to read bad books4 ,they would not say the children have free will and therefore have power to take the good and leave the bad4 ,they know very well that evil environment has power to pervert the will1 and that good environment has power to direct it properly4 ,they know that children may be made good or bad by good or evil training1 and that the will follows the training4 ,that being so1 they must also admit that the children of other people may be made good or bad by training4 ,and if a child gets bad training1 how can free will save it8 ,or how can it be blamed for being bad8 ,it never had a chance to be good4 ,that they know this is proved by their carefulness in providing their own children with better environment4 ,as ,i have said before1 every church1 every school1 every moral lesson is a proof that preachers and teachers trust to good environment1 and not to free will1 to make children good4 ,in this1 as in so many other matters1 actions speak louder than words4 ,that1 ,i hope1 disentangles the many knots into which thousands of learned men have tied the simple subject of free will2 and disposes of the claim that man is responsible because his will is free4 ,but there is one other cause of error1 akin to the subject1 on which ,i should like to say a few words4 ,we often hear it said that a man is to blame for his conduct because he knows better4 ,it is true that men do wrong when they know better4 ,macbeth knew better when he murdered ,duncan4 ,but it is true1 also1 that we often think a man knows better1 when he does not know better4 ,for a man cannot be said to know a thing until he believes it4 ,if ,i am told that the moon is made of green cheese1 it cannot be said that ,i know it to be made of green cheese4 ,many moralists seem to confuse the words to know with the words to hear4 ,jones reads novels and plays opera music on ,sunday4 ,the ,puritan says ,jones knows better1 when he means that ,jones has been told that it is wrong to do those things4 ,but ,jones does not know that it is wrong4 ,he has heard someone say that it is wrong1 but does not believe it4 ,therefore it is not correct to say that he knows it4 ,and1 again1 as to that matter of belief4 ,some moralists hold that it is wicked not to believe certain things1 and that men who do not believe those things will be punished4 ,but a man cannot believe a thing he is told to believe3 he can only believe a thing which he can believe2 and he can only believe that which his own reason tells him is true4 ,it would be no use asking ,sir ,roger ,ball to believe that the earth is flat4 ,he could not believe it4 ,it is no use asking an agnostic to believe the story of ,jonah and the whale4 ,he could not believe it4 ,he might pretend to believe it4 ,he might try to believe it4 ,but his reason would not allow him to believe it4 ,therefore it is a mistake to say that a man knows better1 when the fact is that he has been told better and cannot believe what he has been told4 ,that is a simple matter1 and looks quite trivial2 but how much ill-will1 how much intolerance1 how much violence1 persecution1 and murder have been caused by the strange idea that a man is wicked because his reason cannot believe that which to another man's reason seems quite true4 ,free will has no power over a man's belief4 ,a man cannot believe by will1 but only by conviction4 ,a man cannot be forced to believe4 ,you may threaten him1 wound him1 beat him1 burn him2 and he may be frightened1 or angered1 or pained2 but he cannot believe1 nor can he be made to believe4 ,until he is convinced4 ,now1 truism as it may seem1 ,i think it necessary to say here that a man cannot be convinced by abuse1 nor by punishment ,he can only be convinced by reason4 ,yes4 ,if we wish a man to believe a thing1 we shall find a few words of reason more powerful than a million curses1 or a million bayonets4 ,to burn a man alive for failing to believe that the sun goes round the world is not to convince him4 ,the fire is searching1 but it does not seem to him to be relevant to the issue4 ,he never doubted that fire would burn2 but perchance his dying eyes may see the sun sinking down into the west1 as the world rolls on its axis4 ,he dies in his belief4 ,and knows no better4 ,,chapter ,,eleven--,,self-,,control ,,the subject of self-control is another simple matter which has been made difficult by slovenly thinkers4 ,when we say that the will is not free1 and that men are made by heredity and environment1 we are met with the astonishing objection that if such were the case there could be no such things as progress or morality4 ,when we ask why1 we are told that if a man is the creature of heredity and environment it is no use his making any effort3 what is to be1 will be4 ,but a man makes efforts because he wants something2 and whether he be a free agent1 or a creature of heredity and environment1 he will continue to want things1 and so he will continue to make efforts to get them4 ,but1 say the believers in free will1 the fact that he tries to get things shows that his will is free4 ,not at all4 ,the fact is that heredity and environment compel him to want things1 and compel him to try for them4 ,the earth does not move of its own free will2 but it moves4 ,the earth is controlled by two forces3 one is centrifugal force1 the other is the force of gravity4 ,those two forces compel it to move1 and to move in a certain path1 or orbit4 ,but a man does not move in a regular path or orbit4 ,neither does the earth4 ,for every planet draws it more or less out of its true course4 ,and so it is with man3 each influence in his environment affects him in some way4 ,in every case the force of heredity compels us to move1 and the force of environment controls or changes our movements4 ,and as this is a subject of great importance1 and one upon which there is much confusion of thought1 ,i shall ask my readers to give me their best attention1 so that we may make it thoroughly clear and plain4 ,the control of man by heredity and environment is not the end of all effort2 on the contrary1 it is the beginning of all effort4 ,we do not say that the control of the earth by gravity and centrifugal force is the end of its motion3 we know that it is the cause of its motion4 ,but1 we shall be told1 the earth cannot resist4 ,it is compelled to act ,man is free4 ,man is not free4 ,man is compelled to act4 ,directly a child is born it begins to act ,from that instant until the end of its life1 it continues to act ,it must act ,it cannot cease from action4 ,the force of heredity compels it to act4 ,and the nature of its actions is decided3 #a4 ,by the nature of the individual3 which is his heredity4 #b4 ,by his experiences and training3 which are his environment ,therefore to cease from all action is impossible4 ,therefore it is nonsense to say that if we are creatures of heredity and environment we shall cease to act4 ,but1 it may be said1 a man can cease from action3 he has power to kill himself4 ,well3 the earth has power to destroy itself if it is caused to destroy itself4 ,and man cannot destroy himself unless he is caused to destroy himself4 ,for the nature of a man--through heredity--is to love life4 ,no man destroys himself without a cause4 ,he may go mad1 he may be in great grief1 he may be disappointed1 jealous1 angry4 ,but there is always a cause when a man takes his own life4 ,and1 be the cause what it may1 it belongs to environment4 ,so that a man cannot even take his own life until heredity and environment cause him to do it4 ,but there is a second argument1 to the effect that if we believe ourselves to be creatures of heredity and environment we shall cease to make any effort to be good1 or to be better than we are4 ,those who use such an argument do not understand the nature and power of environment4 ,environment is powerful for good as well as for evil4 ,well4 ,we have seen that it is impossible for us to cease to act4 ,now we are told that we shall cease to act well4 ,but our acting well or ill depends upon the nature of our heredity and environment4 ,if our heredity be good1 and if our environment be good1 we must act well3 we cannot help it4 ,if our heredity be bad1 and if our environment be bad1 we must act ill3 we cannot help it4 ,what8 ,do you mean to say ,i cannot be good if ,i try8 ,is it not evident that you must have some good in you if you wish to try8 ,that good is put there by heredity and environment4 ,but even a bad man sometimes tries to be good4 ,that is slovenly thinking4 ',a man who is all bad has no desire for good4 ,any man who has a desire for good is not all bad4 ,therefore a man who is bad never tries to be good1 and a man who tries to be good is not bad4 ,when it is said that a bad man tries to be good the idea is that a very imperfect man tries to be rather better4 ,and he tries to be rather better because heredity or environment causes him to wish to be rather better4 ,before a man can wish to be good he must know what goodness is4 ,all men are born destitute of knowledge4 ,to know what goodness is he must learn4 ,all learning is environment4 ,but when a man knows what is good1 and wishes to be good1 he will try to be good4 ,he cannot help trying4 ,and he will try just as hard1 and just as long as his temperament and training cause him to try2 and he will succeed in being just as good as his temperament and training cause him to be4 ,and his temperament is heredity1 and his training is environment4 ,it does not follow1 then1 that because a man is that which heredity and environment make him1 he will be nothing1 for they will make him something4 ,it does not follow that he will be bad1 for they will make him good or bad1 as they are good or bad4 ,then1 exclaims the confused opponent1 the man himself counts for nothing3 he is a mere machine4 ,no4 ,he is not a mere machine3 he is a mere man2 and he counts for just as much as his heredity and environment amount to1 for his heredity and environment are he4 ,but to tell a youth that he is a creature of heredity and environment would discourage him4 ,not if he understood what was meant4 ,as we want to get this subject perfectly clear let us put a speech in two ways4 ,a youth tells his father that he would like to be a painter4 ,the father's reply may be varied as follows4 ,first1 let us suppose the father says3 ,you will be just as good a painter as your heredity and environment allow1 or compel you to be4 ,if you have any hereditary talent for the art1 so much the better4 ,but painting requires something more than talent3 it requires knowledge1 and practice4 ,the more knowledge and practice you get the better you will paint4 ,the less hereditary talent you possess1 the more knowledge and practice you will need4 ,therefore1 if you want to be a good painter1 you must work hard4 ,the second speech would leave out the word hereditary before the word talent1 and would begin1 ,you will be just as a good a painter as your talent and industry will make you4 ,otherwise the speeches would not differ4 ,but are we to suppose that the first speech would discourage a boy who wanted to be a painter8 ,not at all3 if the boy understood what heredity and environment mean4 ,it tells him that he can only be as good a painter as his talent and his industry will make him4 ,but it does not tell him what are the limits of his industry and talent1 for nobody knows what the limits are4 ,that can only be settled by trying4 ,to know that he cannot get more out of a gold reef than there is in it1 does not discourage a miner4 ,what he wants is to get all there is in it1 and until he wants no more1 or believes there is no more1 he will keep on digging4 ,it is so with any human effort4 ,we all know that we cannot do more than we can1 whether we believe in free will or no4 ,but we do not know how much we can do1 and nobody can tell us4 ,the only way is to try4 ,and we try just as hard as our nature and our desire impel us to try1 and just as long as any desire or any hope remains4 ,not only that1 we commonly try when the limit of our attainment is in sight4 ,for we try to get as near the limit as we can4 ,for instance4 ,a young man adopts literature as his trade4 ,he knows that before he dips a pen into a bottle that he will never reach the level of ,shakespeare and ,homer4 ,but he tries to do as well as he can4 ,a miner might be sure that his reef would not yield a million2 but he would go on and get all he could4 ,so it is in the case of a desire for virtue4 ,a man knows that he cannot be better than his nature and his knowledge allow him to be4 ,he knows that he will never be as good as the best4 ,but he wants to be good1 and he tries to be as good as he can4 ,the fact that a private soldier is not likely to get a commission does not prevent him from trying to get a sergeant-major's stripes4 ,the knowledge that he is not likely to get twenty-one bull's-eyes in a match does not prevent a rifleman from getting all the bull's-eyes he can4 ,so with our young painter4 ,all desire is hereditary4 ,all knowledge is environment4 ,the boy wants to be a painter1 and he knows that industry and practice will help to make him a good painter4 ,therefore he tries4 ,he tries just as hard as his desire 7his heredity7 and the encouragements of his master and his friends 7environment7 cause him to try4 ,we do not say that it is no use trying to be good1 no use trying to be clever4 ,on the contrary1 we say that no man can be good or clever unless he does try2 but that his desire to try1 his power to try1 and his knowledge of the value of trying are parts of his heredity and environment ,a boy says1 ,i cannot do this sum4 ,his friend says1 ,try again4 ,i had to try six times2 but ,i did it4 ,that encouragement is environment4 ,a man says1 ,i cannot keep steady4 ,i have tried4 ,his friend says1 ,yes1 you can4 ,try again4 ,keep on trying4 ,try for your children's sake4 ,that speech is environment4 ,we advise a weakly lad to try a course of gymnastics1 and encourage him to persevere4 ,that is environment4 ,in another book of mine1 ,god and ,my ,neighbour1 ,i said something that was pounced upon as inconsistent with my belief4 ,one paper asked what ,i would give to cancel that fatal admission4 ,many critics said in their haste that ,i had given my case away4 ,but ,i am so far from regretting that paragraph that ,i will repeat it here1 and will prove that it is not inconsistent with my belief1 and that it does not give my case away4 ,the passage is as follows3 ,i believe that ,i am what heredity and environment made me4 ,but ,i know that ,i can make myself better or worse if ,i try4 ,i know that because ,i have learnt it1 and the learning has been part of my environment4 ,what is there in that paragraph that is inconsistent with my belief8 ,i know--how do ,i know anything8 ,all knowledge is from environment4 ,i know 7through environment7 that ,i can do something if ,i try4 ,what causes me to try8 ,if ,i try to write better1 or to live better1 it is evident that ,i wish to write better1 or to live better4 ,what makes me wish8 ,heredity and environment4 ,it may be inherited disposition to do the things called good4 ,it may be love of approbation4 ,those are parts of my heredity4 ,it may be that ,i wish to do the things called good because ,i have been taught that ,i ought to do them4 ,that teaching would be part of my environment ,therefore the desire to be good1 or better1 and the knowledge that ,i can be good1 or better1 if ,i try1 arise from and belong to heredity and environment4 ,but to try4 ,does not that show free will8 ,i have just proved that ,i try because ,i wish to succeed1 and that environment has taught me that ,i cannot succeed without trying4 ,but does not the free will come in when ,i decide whether to do good or bad things8 ,no4 ,for that has already been decided for me by heredity and environment1 which have made me wish to do good things4 ,so there is nothing wrong with that paragraph4 ,the fault was in my critics1 who had failed to understand the subject upon which they were trying to argue4 ,a man can only try if heredity or environment causes him to want to try1 and he can only keep on trying as long as heredity and environment cause him to keep on4 ,one man is born with more talent than another4 ,and one man is born with more industry1 or with more ambition1 or with more hope1 patience1 determination1 than another4 ,and the man who is more ambitious1 or more patient1 or more hopeful1 or more determined1 will try harder1 and will try longer than the man who is less ambitious1 or hopeful1 or determined4 ,heredity settles that4 ,but the man who has less of the qualities that make one try1 may be spurred on by a teacher1 a friend1 or a powerful motive1 and so may try harder and longer than the stronger man4 ,as1 for example1 a man who has given up trying to succeed in some enterprise1 may fall in love1 and then the added desire to marry the woman he loves1 may cause him to try harder than ever1 and may lead him to succeed4 ,but these things belong to his environment4 ,not only that1 but they are a proof that environment can move a man when free will fails4 ,for the man has a free will before he falls in love4 ,but he loses heart1 and does not succeed in his enterprise4 ,but love1 which is environment1 supplies a new desire1 and he does succeed4 ,why does he succeed8 ,because he wants to marry1 and he cannot marry until he succeeds4 ,this desire to marry comes of environment1 and it rules the will1 and compels the will to will a further effort4 ,is it not so8 ,although we say that man is the creature of heredity and environment1 we do not say that he has no self-control4 ,we only say that his self-control comes from heredity and environment1 and is limited and controlled by heredity and environment4 ,he can only do as he likes when heredity and environment cause him to like1 and he can only do as he likes1 so far and so long as heredity and environment enable him to go on4 ,a man can be good if he tries1 but not unless heredity and environment cause him to wish to try4 ,but for heredity he could not lift a finger3 he would not have a finger to lift4 ,but for environment he could not learn to use a finger4 ,he could never know good from bad4 ,we all know that we can train and curb ourselves1 that we can weed out bad habits1 and cultivate good habits4 ,no one has any doubt about that4 ,the question is what causes us to do the one or the other4 ,the answer is--heredity and environment4 ,we can develop our muscles1 our brains1 our morals2 and we can develop them enormously4 ,but before we can do these things we must want to do them1 and we must know that we can do them1 and how to do them2 and all knowledge1 and all desire comes from environment and heredity4 ,a youth wishes to be strong4 ,why8 ,say he has been reading ,mr4 ,sandow's book4 ,he is told there that by doing certain exercises every day he can very greatly increase his strength4 ,this sets him to work at the dumb-bells4 ,there may be many motives impelling him4 ,one group form a general desire to be strong3 that is heredity4 ,but the spur that moves him is ,sandow's book1 and that spur1 and the information as to how to proceed1 are environment4 ,the youth begins1 and for a few months he does the exercises every morning4 ,but they begin to get irksome4 ,he is tired1 he has a slight cold1 he wants to read or write4 ,he neglects the exercises4 ,then he remembers that he cannot get strong unless he perseveres and does the work regularly1 and he goes on again4 ,or he neglects his training for awhile1 until he meets another youth who has improved himself4 ,then he goes back to the dumb-bells4 ,is not this1 to our own knowledge1 the kind of thing that happens to us all1 in all kinds of self-training1 whether it be muscular1 mental1 or moral8 ,what causes the fluctuations8 ,let the reader examine his own conduct1 and he will find a continual shifting and conflict of motives4 ,and he will never find a motive that cannot be traced to his temperament or training1 to his heredity or environment4 ,a man wants to learn ,french1 or shorthand4 ,let him ask himself why he wants to learn1 and he will find the motive springs from temperament or training4 ,he begins to learn4 ,he finds the work difficult and irksome4 ,he has to spur himself on by all kinds of expedients4 ,finally he learns1 or he gives up trying to learn2 and he will find that his action has been settled by a contest between his desire to be able to write shorthand1 or to speak ,french1 and his dislike to the drudgery of learning2 or that his action has been settled by a conflict between his desire to know shorthand1 or ,french1 and his desire to do something else4 ,he does the thing he most desires to do4 ,and all desire comes from heredity or from environment4 ,every member of his body1 every faculty1 every impulse is fixed for him by heredity2 every kind of knowledge1 every kind of encouragement or discouragement comes of environment4 ,i hope we have made that quite clear1 and now we may ask to what it leads us4 ,and we shall find that it leads us to the conclusion that everything a man does is1 at the instant when he does it1 the only thing he can do3 the only thing he can do1 then4 ,what6 do you mean to say-8 ,yes4 ,it is startling4 ,but let us keep our heads cool and our eyes wide open1 and we shall find that it is quite true1 and that it is not difficult to understand4 ,,chapter ,,twelve--,,guilty ,,or ,,not ,,guilty8 ,,we are to ask whether it is true that everything a man does is the only thing he could do1 at the instant of his doing it4 ,this is a very important question1 because if the answer is yes1 all praise and all blame are undeserved4 ,,all ,,praise ,,and ,,all ,,blame4 ,let us take some revolting action as a test4 ,a tramp has murdered a child on the highway1 has robbed her of a few coppers1 and has thrown her body into a ditch4 ,do you mean to say that tramp could not help doing that8 ,do you mean to say he is not to blame8 ,do you mean to say he is not to be punished8 ,yes4 ,i say all those things2 and if all those things are not true this book is not worth the paper it is printed on4 ,prove it8 ,i have proved it4 ,but ,i have only instanced venial acts1 and now we are confronted with murder4 ,and the horror of murder drives men almost to frenzy1 so that they cease to think3 they can only feel4 ,murder4 ,yes1 a brutal murder4 ,it comes upon us with a sickening shock4 ,but ,i said in my first chapter that ,i proposed to defend those whom ,god and man condemn1 and to demand justice for those whom ,god and man have wronged4 ,i have to plead for the bottom dog3 the lowest1 the most detested1 the worst4 ,the tramp has committed a murder4 ,man would loathe him1 revile him1 hang him3 ,god would cast him into outer darkness4 ,not1 cries the pious ,christian1 if he repent4 ,i make a note of the repentance and pass on4 ,the tramp has committed a murder4 ,it was a cowardly and cruel murder1 and the motive was robbery4 ,but ,i have proved that all motives and all powers2 all knowledge and capacity1 all acts and all words1 are caused by heredity and environment4 ,i have proved that a man can only be good or bad as heredity and environment cause him to be good or bad2 and ,i have proved these things because ,i have to claim that all punishments and rewards1 all praise and blame1 are undeserved4 ,and now1 let us try this miserable tramp--our brother4 ,,guilty ,,or ,,not ,,guilty8 ,the tramp has murdered a child for her money4 ,what is his defence8 ,i appear for the prisoner1 and claim that he is not responsible for his act4 7,cries of shame6 bosh6 lynch him67 ,i will first of all remind the court of the reasons upon which ,i base my claim4 7,gentleman in white tie rises and declaims vehemently against the immorality of the defence4 ,talks excitedly about the flood gates of anarchy1 and the bulwarks of society1 and is with difficulty persuaded to resume his seat47 ,clerical environment does not make for toleration and sweet reasonableness4 ,i proceed to open my case4 ,every quality of body or mind possessed by a child at birth has been handed down to the child by its ancestors4 ,the child could not select its ancestors2 could not select its own qualities of body and mind4 ,therefore the child is not to blame for any evil quality of body or mind with which it is born4 ,therefore this tramp was not to blame if1 at the moment of birth1 his nature was prone to violence or to vice4 ,the prisoner is a criminal4 ,he is either a criminal born1 or a criminal made4 ,if he is a born criminal he is a victim of atavism1 and ought not to be blamed1 but pitied4 ,for it is not a fault1 but a misfortune1 to be born an atavist4 ,had a tiger killed the child1 we should have to admit that such is the tiger's nature2 as it is the nature of a lark to sing4 ,but1 if the prisoner is an atavist it is his nature to be furious and cruel4 ,we cannot1 however1 be sure that a man is a born criminal because he commits a murder4 ,so great is the power of environment for evil1 as well as for good1 that perhaps the most innocent and humane man in this court might1 by the influence of an evil environment1 have been made capable of an act as horrible4 ,if the prosecution adopt the course ,i expect them to adopt1 and claim that the unfortunate prisoner knew better3 if they succeed in proving that the prisoner was well-educated1 carefully brought up1 and never in all his life was once exposed to any evil influence1 then ,i shall claim that such evidence proves the prisoner to be atavist1 and entitles him to a verdict of unsound mind4 ,because no man whose whole environment had been good1 would be capable of murdering a child for a few coppers1 unless he were an atavist or insane4 ,on the other hand1 if it should appear1 in the course of evidence1 that the prisoner was born of criminal and ignorant parents1 was brought up in an atmosphere of violence and crime1 was sent out1 untaught1 or evilly taught1 and undisciplined1 to scramble for a living2 if it should be proved that he fell into bad company1 that he turned thief1 that he was sent to prison and branded as a felon3 if it should be proved that he has been hunted by the police1 flogged with the cat by warders1 bullied by counsel1 denounced by magistrates and judges2 if it should be proved that he has been treated at every turn of his wretched career as a wild beast or a pariah2 if it should be proved that he has been allowed to degenerate into an ignorant1 a savage1 a bestial and a drunken loafer2 then1 ,i shall plead that this miserable man has been reduced to his present morose1 cruel1 and immoral state by evil environment2 and ,i shall ask for a verdict in his favour4 7,cries of ,monster6 ,hang him6 ,lynch him67 ,it is said the prisoner is an inhuman monster4 ,he has been made a monster by a monstrous heredity2 or he has been made a monster by a monstrous environment4 ,no man of sound heredity ever becomes a monster save by the action of an evil environment4 ,say the prisoner is an atavist2 a man bred back to the beasts4 ,then he is entitled to be judged by the standard we apply to beasts4 ,some of you will remember ,poe's story of the murder in the ,rue ,morgue1 in which a terrible murder is done by an ape4 ,in such a case our horror and our anger would probably cause us to shoot the ape4 ,but that would be the uprising within us of our own atavistic and brutish passions2 it would not be the result of our promptings of our human reason4 ,reason might prompt us to kill the ape as a precaution against a repetition of violence4 ,but anger and hate are not reasonable1 not human3 all anger and all hate are bestial--like the hate and the anger of the tramp4 ,but if the prisoner is not an atavist1 or brute-man1 if he has been reduced to his present moral state of environment1 ask for some measure of compensation from the society2 unjust laws1 and dishonest social conditions1 and immoral neglect are responsible for the fact that a brother man has been allowed1 or rather compelled1 by society1 to grow up an ignorant and desperate savage4 ,be that as it may1 the prisoner is a creature of heredity and environment2 and1 as he is bad1 the heredity1 or the environment1 or both1 must be bad4 ,and ,i ask for a verdict in the prisoner's favour4 ,will any man on the jury say me nay8 ,the prisoner has defied the law1 he has injured society1 has outraged morality4 ,have law and morality not injured him8 ,has society not injured him8 ,he has committed a terrible crime1 for which it is claimed that he should be punished4 ,who shall be punished for the crimes of the law and of society against him8 ,there is much proper and natural sympathy expressed by the prosecution with the parents of the murdered child4 ,is there no sympathy with this unhappy victim of atavism1 or of society8 ,this prisoner has been bred as a beast1 or treated as a savage1 until he has become a savage and a beast4 ,here stands a human being1 poisoned1 battered1 and degraded beyond all human semblance4 ,here stands a brother man1 whose soul has been murdered by inches1 has been murdered by the society that now hales him here to be denounced1 and execrated1 and hanged4 ,do ,i speak truth1 or falsehood8 ,is logic true8 ,are facts true8 ,that which society has here planted it has here to reap4 ,not all the law1 the piety1 and education in the wide1 wide earth can make this ruined and degraded prisoner the man he might have been4 ,not all the repentance we can feel1 not any compensation we can offer can buy him back the soul we have destroyed4 ,it is too late4 ,gentlemen of the jury1 is it nothing to you8 ,you are accessories to the fact4 ,i appeal to your justice1 to your pity-- 7,a voice3 ,how much pity had he for the child87 ,none4 ,there is no pity in his soul4 ,either his forefathers put none there1 or society has destroyed it4 7,cries of monstrous6 immoral6 preposterous6 shame67 ,i hear cries of monstrous and immoral4 ,but ,i do not hear any voice say false4 ,is there a man in court can impeach my reasoning1 or disprove my facts8 ,is there a man in court can deny one statement ,i have made8 ,is there a man in court can break one link of the steel chain of logic ,i have riveted upon our metaphysicians1 our moralists1 our kings1 our judges1 and our gods8 ,you say my defence is unreasonable and immoral4 ,you dread the effects of justice and of reason upon society4 ,you talk of crime and cruelty1 of law and order4 ,you want the prisoner punished4 ,you ask for justice3 but you want revenge4 ,give me a fair hearing1 and ,i will speak of these things to you4 ,when you cry out that to deny responsibility is immoral you are thinking1 at the back of your heads1 that men can only be kept within the law by fear2 that wrong-doing can only be repressed by punishment4 ,it is the old and cruel conventions of society that hold you fast to the error that blame and punishment are righteous and salutary4 ,it is ignorance of human nature that betrays you into the belief that men can be made honest and benevolent by cruelty and terror4 ,punishment has never been just1 has never been effectual4 ,punishment has always failed of its purpose3 the greater its severity1 the more abject its failure4 ,men cannot be made good and gentle by means of violence and wrong4 ,the real tamers and purifiers of human hearts are love and charity and reason4 ,you seem to think it is a noble thing to be angry with a criminal1 and to be angry with me for defending him4 ,but it is always ignoble to be angry4 ,some of you deny this blood-stained murderer for your brother2 but directly your features are distorted by passion1 directly your fury overcomes your reason1 directly you begin to shriek for his blood1 your close relationship to him appears4 ,reason1 patience1 self-control1 these are lacking in the savage criminal3 ,i look around for them in vain amongst the crowd in this court4 ,i said that ,i would take note of what our ,christian friend said about repentance4 ,i will speak to that question now4 ,there are few who so often forget the tenets of their own religion as the clergy4 ,i have found it so4 ,the clergy are always amongst the first to raise the cry of immorality when one speaks against punishment as unjust1 or useless4 ,yet the clergy preach the doctrine of repentance4 ,it is only a few weeks since the ,english papers printed a letter from a murderer under sentence of death1 in which he spoke of meeting his relatives at the feet of ,jesus4 ,in a week from the date of his letter he expected to be in heaven4 ,in a month from the time when he murdered his wife1 he expected to be with ,jesus1 and to live in happiness and glory for ever4 ,that is what the prison chaplain had taught him4 ,it is what the clergy do teach4 ,they talk of the folly and the immorality of abolishing prison and gallows2 and then they offer the perpetrators of the most inhuman and terrible crimes a certainty of everlasting bliss in a sinless heaven4 ,if it is immoral and absurd to say that all criminals are sinned against as well as sinning2 if it is immoral and absurd to say that we ought not to hang a man1 nor to flog1 nor to imprison him1 what kind of morality and wisdom lie in offering all criminals an eternity of happiness and glory8 ,the clergy are that which their environment has made them4 ,what kind of reasoning can we expect from men who have been taught that it is wicked to think8 ,before you are angry with me for defending the prisoner be sure that you are not confounding the ideas of the criminal and the crime4 ,i hate the crime as much as any man here2 but ,i do not hate the criminal4 ,i am not defending evil2 ,i am defending the evil-doer4 ,before you plume yourselves too much upon your superior morality and greater love of justice1 allow me to remind you that ,i am asking that the world shall be moral1 and not only this man3 ,i am demanding justice for all men1 and not for a few4 ,but you--you think you have acted righteously and honourably when you have hanged a murderer2 but you have not a thought for the inhuman social conditions that make men criminals4 ,this prisoner is but a type3 a type of the legion victims of a selfish and cowardly society4 ,every day1 in every city1 in every country1 innocent children are being poisoned and perverted by millions4 ,which of you has spoken a word or lifted a hand to prevent this wholesale wrong8 ,what man of you all1 who are so fierce against crime1 so loud in praise of morality1 has ever tried in act or speech to combat the crime and the immorality which society perpetuates3 with your knowledge and consent8 ,you who are so anxious to punish crime1 what are you doing to prevent it8 ,when ,i ask for a verdict in the prisoner's favour you assume that ,i would set him free1 assuring him that he is an injured man and that fate compelled him to the act of murder4 ,do you think1 then1 that ,i would release a tiger amongst the crowd in a circus1 or that ,i would allow a homicidal maniac to go at large in the streets of a city8 ,it would be folly to give to this brutalised and ignorant tramp a message which hardly a man in this court is sufficiently educated and refined to understand2 it would be folly to set at liberty a besotted savage3 it would be unsafe4 ,but ,i say to you that the prisoner is a victim of heredity and environment1 that he has been debased and wronged by society1 and that to punish him is unjust4 7,a woman's voice3 ,the monster6 ,kill him47 ,madam1 there is not a woman here can be sure that any child she bears may not be driven by society to stand some day in the dock4 ,but still4 ,you are not satisfied4 ,some of you1 at any rate1 still frown and set your teeth hard4 ,logic or no logic1 he has murdered a baby4 ,there stands my clerical friend1 with knitted brows1 and fire in his eyes4 ,but that his calling checks his fierce old ,saxon heredity this parson would echo the stern speech of ,carlyle to the criminal3 ,scoundrel6 ,know that we for ever hate thee6 ,ah6 ,i thought so4 ,the cloud begins to clear from the face of my clerical friend3 the crowd look hopeful4 ,grim old ,thomas appeals to you4 ,the prisoner is a scoundrel1 and you do hate him4 ,nothing ,i have said1 so far1 has shaken that feeling4 ,he is a scoundrel1 and you hate him4 ,what is more1 you cannot forgive me for not hating him4 ,you cannot believe that ,i am a natural man4 ,i ought to hate him4 ,well1 my friends1 how do we feel about a shark8 ,i think you will find that men hate a shark4 ,and ,i think you will find that they hate him more bitterly than they hate a tiger4 ,and ,i think you will find that they believe they hate the shark because he is cruel4 ,but that seems to me a mistake4 ,the shark is not so cruel as a cat2 it is not so cruel as a shrike2 it is nothing like so cruel as a ,european lady4 ,for though the shark will devour any animals it can reach1 it does not deliberately torture them4 ,now the cat tortures the mouse1 the shrike impales flies or beetles upon a thorn1 and leaves them to die1 and the ,european lady eats lobster1 which has1 to her knowledge1 been boiled1 alive4 ,but the shark kills human beings4 ,so do tigers1 so do lions1 and so do men4 ,but the shark is horrible4 ,yes2 now we are getting nearer the real root of our hatred4 ,the shark is horrible4 ,and so is the murderer4 ,but there is a difference between horror and hate4 ,the murderer is horrible to me1 far more horrible than the shark1 just as a mad man is more horrible than a mad dog2 just as a human corpse is more awful than the carcase of a deer4 ,the criminal makes me shudder1 he makes my flesh creep2 my whole nature recoils from him4 ,but ,i do not hate him1 and ,i do not blame him4 ,which of us does not admire and honour an innocent1 graceful1 and charming girl8 ,to all of us1 men and women1 her presence is more delightful than a garden of sweet flowers4 ,think of some such amiable and gentle creature4 ,then imagine that we meet her ten years hence1 and find her a drunken harlot1 wallowing in the gutter4 ,think of her then so hideous1 filthy1 and obscene2 think of her debased1 indecent1 treacherous2 think of her incapable of honesty1 of gratitude1 of truth2 think of her sullied and broken and so vile that she would betray her only friend for a glass of gin3 think of her well1 and ask yourselves how should we feel towards her4 ,some of us would blame her3 some of us would pity her3 some of us would try to befriend her3 but hardly one of us could endure her touch1 her speech1 her gaze4 ,she has become a horror in the light of the day4 ,my clerical friend and ,i would stand before her sick and sorry and ashamed4 ,we should be alike dismayed and shocked3 we should be alike touched and repelled4 ,but there in that tragic moment would appear the likeness and the difference between us4 ,he would not understand4 ,the unfortunate woman has been rendered physically and morally loathsome to us4 ,so has this murderer4 ,but that should cause us to pity1 and not to hate them2 it should inspire us not to destroy them2 but to destroy the evil conditions that have brought them1 and millions as unfortunate as they1 to this terrible and shameful pass4 ,the bitterest wrong of all is the fact that these fellow-creatures of ours have been degraded below the reach of our help and our affection4 ,looking into my own heart1 and recalling my experience of men and women1 ,i must own that there is not one in a thousand of us who might not have become a shame and a horror to our fellows had our environment been as cruel and as hard as the environment of these from whom we shrink appalled4 ,and when ,i read of a murder1 when ,i see some human wreck1 so repulsive and unsightly that my soul is sick within me1 and my flesh shudders away from the contact1 ,i crush the anger out of my heart1 and remember what ,i am and might have been1 and that this man1 this woman1 now so dreadful or so vile1 is a victim of a state of society which most of us believe in and uphold4 ,i cannot hate these miserables1 but ,i cannot love them4 ,i could not sleep in a dirty bed1 nor eat a rotten peach1 nor listen to a piano out of tune1 nor drink after a leper or a slut1 nor make a friend of a sweater1 nor shake the hand of an assassin1 nor sit at table with a filthy sot4 ,but to drive our fellow-creatures into disgrace and crime beyond redemption1 and then to hate them or to hang them2 is that just8 ,to loathe and punish the victims of society1 and never lift a hand against the wrongs that are their ruin1 is that reasonable8 ,i ask for a verdict in the prisoner's favour2 but ,i cannot ask that he be set at liberty4 ,we could not liberate a smallpox patient nor a lunatic4 ,although the prisoner ought not to be punished1 it is imperative that he be restrained4 ,being what he is3 being what society has made him1 he is not fit to be at large4 ,we must defend ourselves against him4 ,we must protect our children from him1 even although we have failed to protect other children against society4 ,i ask the jury for a verdict in the prisoner's favour4 ,i leave the prisoner to their justice and to their reason4 ,that is my case4 ,,chapter ,,thirteen--,,the ,,failure ,,of ,,punishment ,,does it do a man any good to hang him8 ,does it do us any good to hang him8 ,is any human being in the wide world edified or bettered when a man is hanged8 ,is it any use hanging men8 ,that it is unjust to hang a man we have seen4 ,but is it any use8 ,there is a certain school of moralists who are angered and alarmed by the mere suggestion that men should cease to blame and punish each other4 ,they protest that virtue would die out and morality become a mockery if we ceased to scold1 and whip1 and execute each other4 ,they seem to believe that injustice and ferocity are the best exemplars of justice and human kindness4 ,dr4 ,aked1 minister of ,pembroke ,chapel1 ,liverpool1 declaiming against what he called this preposterous notion of moral irresponsibility1 declared that it is the doctrine of every coward1 of every cur1 of every thief who ever pilfered from his master's till1 of every seducer and traitor the world has seen4 ,i whisper the name of ,torquemada1 and pass on4 ,dr4 ,aked1 supposing1 for the sake of illustration1 that he who has been a bad man1 said3 ,if1 in the mercy of ,god1 the day comes when ,i see myself as ,i am1 when there is no more shuffling1 when to myself ,myself is compelled1 even to the teeth and forehead of my faults1 to give in evidence--if such a day comes1 no juggling with words1 no nonsense about not knowing any better or being driven by education upon organisation1 by environment acting on heredity1 will serve to conceal from my soul the hideous view of its own guilt4 ,and yet ,dr4 ,aked is a minister of the ,christian religion1 and a professed follower of ,christ1 who said of his murderers1 ,father forgive them1 for they know not what they do4 ,i might imitate ,dr4 ,aked1 and denounce the idea that punishment makes men virtuous and docile as the idea of every tyrant1 of every religious persecutor1 of every wife-beater1 of every martinet1 of every bully and brute the world has ever seen4 ,but ,i prefer to look calmly and sensibly at the evidence4 ,that mighty moral ruler1 ,king ,henry ,,viii41 during his reign did1 according to the author of ,elizabethan ,england1 hang up seventy-two thousand thieves1 rogues1 and vagabonds4 ,now1 ,sir ,thomas ,more1 who was one of the finest men ,england ever bred1 and was ,lord ,high ,chancellor under ,henry ,,viii41 has put it upon record1 in his great and noble work1 ,utopia1 that these severe punishments were not only unjust1 but ineffectual4 ,i will quote from ,sir ,thomas3 ,one day when ,i was dining with him 7,cardinal ,archbishop ,morton7 there happened to be at table one of the ,english lawyers1 who took occasion to run out in a high commendation of the severe execution of justice upon thieves1 who1 as he said3 were then hanged so fast1 that there were sometimes twenty on one gibbet2 and upon that he said he could not wonder enough how it came to pass1 that since so few escaped1 there were yet so many thieves left who were still robbing in all places4 ,upon this1 ,i1 who took the boldness to speak freely before the ,cardinal1 said there was no reason to wonder at the matter1 since this way of punishing thieves was neither just in itself1 nor good for the public2 for as the severity was too great1 so the remedy was not effectual2 simple theft not being so great a crime that it ought to cost a man his life2 and no punishment1 how severe soever1 being able to restrain those from robbing1 who can find out no other way of livelihood2 and in this1 said ,i1 not only you in ,england1 but a great part of the world1 imitate some ill masters that are readier to chastise their scholars than to teach them4 ,there are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves1 but it were much better to make such good provisions by which every man might be put in a method how to live1 and so be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing1 and dying for it4444 ,if you do not find a remedy to these evils1 it is a vain thing to boast of your severity of punishing theft2 which1 though it may have the appearance of justice1 yet in itself is neither just nor convenient2 for if you suffer your people to be ill-educated1 and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy1 and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them1 what else is to be concluded from this1 but that you first make thieves1 and then punish them8 ,in confirmation of the statement of ,henry the ,eighth's ,lord ,chancellor1 we have the evidence of ,harrison1 that after these #gb1jjj executions of ,henry1 there were more thieves than ever in the next reign4 ,harrison1 who wrote in the reign of ,elizabeth1 says of the rogues and vagabonds3 the punishment that is ordained for this kind of people is very sharp1 and yet it cannot restrain them from their gadding4 ,in that day any one convicted1 on the testimony of two honest and credible witnesses1 of being a rogue1 he is then immediately adjudged to be grievously whipped1 and burned through the gristle of the right ear1 with a hot iron of the compass of an inch about4 ,amongst the rogues were included actors1 jugglers1 fencers1 minstrels1 and tinkers6 ,harrison toasts that our laws against felons were more humane than those of the ,continent4 ,let us consider the leniency of ,elizabeth's day4 ,a woman who poisoned her husband was burnt alive4 ,other poisoners were boiled alive1 or scalded to death in seething water or lead4 ,heretics and witches were burnt alive4 ,murderers were hanged alive in chains4 ,harrison adds3 ,we have use neither of the wheel nor of the bar as in other countries2 but when wilful manslaughter is perpetrated1 besides hanging1 the offender hath his right hand commonly stricken off1 before or near the place where the act was done1 after which he is led forth to the place of execution and there put to death according to the law4 ,for treason men were hanged1 drawn1 and quartered4 ,for felony1 which was anything from highway robbery to theft of a piece of bread1 men1 women1 and children were hanged4 ,there were over #bej offences for which the penalty was death4 ,for speaking sedition against a magistrate the offender had both his ears cut off4 ,if a prisoner refused to plead he was pressed to death under heavy weights4 ,harrison says that there is not one year in which three or four hundred rogues are not eaten up by the gallows4 ,and then he goes on to remark that so many are the idle rogues1 that except some better order be taken1 or the laws already made be better executed1 such as dwell in uplandish towns and little villages shall live but in small safety or rest4 ,a hundred years ago there were over two hundred offences for which the punishment was death4 ,boys and girls were hanged for theft4 ,mr4 ,collinson1 in ,facts about ,floggings1 says that in #ahaf there were at one time over fifty prisoners in ,england waiting to be hanged1 and that one of them was a child of tender years4 ,mr4 ,collinson says3 ,the inefficiency and brutality of all this torture and bloodshed became obvious to the people1 through the propaganda of a few daring and enlightened reformers1 and it was swept away4 ,but let us come nearer home4 ,about a dozen years ago the late ,mr4 ,hopwood1 ,k4,c41 ,recorder of ,liverpool1 was good enough to give me his opinions on the subject of harsh and lenient punishment4 ,mr4 ,hopwood said3 ,i was first convinced of the uselessness of harsh sentences by attendance at two courts of sessions about thirty-five years ago4 ,the two courts were those of ,manchester and ,salford--towns very similar as to population and conditions of life4 ,in ,salford the sentences were uniformly lenient4 ,in ,manchester they were uniformly severe4 ,people said ,manchester would be purged of crime2 that all the criminals would flock to ,salford4 ,it was not so4 ,the state of things continued for some years1 and caused no increase of crime in the one1 nor decrease of crime in the other town4 ,hence it becomes evident that a great deal of useless punishment was inflicted in ,manchester4 ,i was a young barrister at the time1 and ,i took the lesson to heart4 ,mr4 ,hopwood only claimed a negative result4 ,he said3 ,i do not say ,i have reduced crime1 but only that ,i have reduced punishment without increasing crime4 ,for instance1 ,i claim that during my six years at this court ,i have saved three thousand years of imprisonment4 ,when ,i remarked that saved a great waste of money1 he answered that it was a great saving of humanity4 ,he claimed that life and property were at least as secure under a clement judge as under a cruel one1 and that his system saved much suffering and shame1 not only to the prisoners1 but also to those dependent upon them4 ,he said that very often his treatment had a good effect upon the prisoners3 ,do you know1 often they are ashamed to come back4 ,mr4 ,hopwood told me that at first he met with strong opposition1 but that his example had such an effect that the local magistrates had come to give six or ten months' imprisonment in cases where formerly the offenders would have got seven years4 ,asked whether his leniency had caused criminals to flock to ,liverpool1 ,mr4 ,hopwood answered1 ,not at all2 and his denial was backed by the statement of the ,chief ,constable that crime was decreasing to an appreciable extent4 ,mr4 ,hopwood told me he would like to release one-third of those men then in prison1 and1 he added1 another third ought never to have gone there4 ,asked what that meant1 he said that one-third of the prisoners were innocent4 ,my own observation1 in the police-courts afterwards1 convinced me that he was quite right4 ,finally1 after showing me that the boasted cure of garrotting by the cat was a fiction1 there never was a garrotter flogged1 ,mr4 ,hopwood asked me to go and see some of our prisons1 remarking1 gravely3 ,the prison system is cruel and vile4 ,the prisoners are starved1 tortured1 and degraded4 ,the system should be altered at once4 ,it is inhumanly severe upon the guilty1 and1 in my opinion1 a good third of those in our gaols are not guilty4 ,dr4 ,james ,devon1 medical officer at ,glasgow ,prison1 told the ,royal ,philosophical ,society in that city1 in #aijd1 that with milder methods of repression we have not more1 but less1 crime3 and certainly much less brutality4 ,dr4 ,hamilton ,d4 ,wey1 of ,elmira ,reformatory1 ',elmira1 ,n4 ,y41 says3 ,the time will come when every punitive institution in the world will be destroyed1 and be replaced by hospitals1 schools1 workshops1 and reformatories4 ,dr4 ,lydston1 professor of criminal anthropology1 writes as follows3 ,try to reform your man1 try to purify and elevate his soul1 and if he does not come to time1 lock him up or hang him4 ,this has been the war-cry of the average reformer through all the ages4 ,make a healthy man of your criminal1 or prospective criminal1 give him a sound1 well-developed brain to think with1 and rich1 clean blood to feed it upon1 and an opportunity to earn an honest living--then preach to him if you like4 ,this is the fundamental principle of the scientific criminologist4 ,which is the more rational8 ,havelock ,ellis says in his work on the criminal1 ,flogging is objectionable1 because it is ineffectual1 and because it brutalises and degrades those on whom it is inflicted1 those who inflict it1 and those who come within the radius of its influence4 ,the ,recorder of ,liverpool told me that millions were wasted upon prisons which ought to be spent upon detection4 ,make detection swift and certain1 said he1 and crime will cease4 ,no one will steal if he is sure he will be caught every time4 ,this is proved by the ,revenue service4 ,penalties did not stop smuggling2 but it has now become almost impossible to run a cargo3 the coast is so closely guarded4 ,dr4 ,lydston1 in ,the ,diseases of ,society1 says3 ,the prospective criminal once born1 what does society do to prevent his becoming a criminal8 ,practically nothing4444 ,what is the remedy at present in vogue8 ,society punishes the vicious child after a criminal act has been committed1 and sends the diseased one to the hospital to be supported by the public1 after he has become helpless4 ,even in this1 the twentieth century1 the child who has committed his first offence is in most communities thrown by the authorities into contact with older and more hardened criminals--to have his criminal education completed4 ,the same fate is meted out to the adult first offender4 ,we have millions for sectarian universities1 millions for foreign missions1 but few dollars for the redemption of children of vicious propensities or corrupting opportunities1 who are the product of our own vicious social system4 ,every penal institution1 every expensive process of criminal law1 is a monument to the stupidity and wastefulness of society--and expenditure of money and energy to cure a disease that might be largely prevented1 and more logically treated where not prevented4 ,lombroso1 the great ,italian criminologist1 said1 in #aija3 ,there are few who understand that there is anything else for us to do1 to protect ourselves from crime1 except to inflict punishments that are often only new crimes1 and that are almost always the source of new crimes4 ,,to ,,what ,,does ,,all ,,this ,,evidence ,,tend8 ,from the day of ,sir ,thomas ,more to the present hour1 it has been claimed by wise and experienced men that punishment is not only unjust1 but worse than useless4 ,and the statistics of crime have always supported the claim4 ,there was more crime in the fifteenth century1 when penalties were so severe1 than there is to-day4 ,there were worse crimes4 ,there was more brutality4 ,the abolition of cruel punishments has diminished crime4 ,the abolition of flogging in the army and navy has not injured either service4 ,the improvement in school discipline has not lowered the moral standard of boys and girls4 ,but1 it may be urged1 the decrease in crime1 and the improvement in morals are not due only to the increased leniency of punishments4 ,they are due also to the spread of education1 and to the improved conditions of life4 ,exactly4 ,that is my case4 ,decrease of punishment1 and increase of education1 have diminished crime and improved morals4 ,punish less1 and teach more2 blame less1 and encourage more2 hate less1 and love more2 and you will get not a lowering1 but a raising of the moral standard2 not an increase in crime1 but a decrease4 ,and the improvement will be due to alteration for the better of--environment4 ,chance has placed me very often in positions of authority4 ,i have been in charge of rough and reckless men3 soldiers1 militiamen1 navvies1 workers of all sorts4 ,i have never found it necessary to be harsh1 nor to threaten1 nor to drive4 ,i have always found that to respect men as men1 to treat them fairly and quietly1 and to show a little kindness now and again1 has sufficed to get the best out of them4 ,i have gone into the midst of a crowd of ,irish soldiers1 all drunk1 and all fighting in true ,donnybrook fashion1 and have got order without a hard word1 without making a single prisoner4 ,directly they recognised me they calmed down4 ,had ,i been a sergeant disliked by them they would have thrown me downstairs4 ,i have found the wildest and the lowest amenable to reason and to kindness4 ,one of the greatest ruffians in the regiment once spoke rudely to me in camp1 and even threatened me4 ,i was then a lance-corporal1 and a mere boy4 ,i sat down and talked to the bruiser quietly for a few minutes1 and from that day he would have done anything for me4 ,there was a blackguard in my company who once threatened to murder me4 ,a few months later he was taken ill in the night and ,i attended to him1 and probably saved his life4 ,he never forgot it4 ,it was but a small kindness1 and he was what is generally called a scoundrel1 but he showed his gratitude to me all the rest of the time ,i was in the army4 ,as a child ,i was brought up under strict discipline4 ,i felt that it was a wrong method4 ,i have spoilt my children2 and they are better than ,i ever was4 ,parents beat their children for their own errors4 ,if a father cannot gain the respect and obedience of his children1 it is because he is foolish1 or violent1 or ignorant4 ,children1 soldiers1 and animals are alike in one respect3 they know and respect strength and reason4 ,the quiet manager1 officer1 sergeant1 parent1 who knows his own mind1 who keeps his temper1 who is not afraid1 can always get discipline and order4 ,if ,i thought any one under my control or care was afraid of me1 ,i should feel ashamed4 ,if a master rules only by fear of punishment he is not fit to rule at all4 ,when those over whom we happen to be placed in authority feel that we deserve their respect1 we get it ,if you want to know whether a man is fit for command1 put him with men who are not bound to obey him4 ,put him with his equals1 where he has no power to punish nor to harm4 ,thus you will find the real leader of men3 the man who leads with his brains4 ,i knew a young lieutenant once1 a boy of twenty4 ,he met a boy private in town1 and saw that he had been drinking4 ,had he made a prisoner of the boy1 the private would have got punished for drunkenness1 and would have got drunk again4 ,but the young officer sent for the boy the next day and said1 ,if ,i were you1 ,thomas1 ,i wouldn't drink4 ,it is a poor game1 and your people would not like it ,that boy was cured4 ,that same officer1 if the men were unsteady on parade1 would stand quite still and look at them4 ,he had clear blue eyes1 and his look was not stern1 it was calm and confident4 ,it brought the whole company to attention without a word4 ,the officer was a man1 and the men knew it1 and they knew it because he knew it ,the boss who begins to bully is not sure of himself4 ,children1 soldiers1 workers1 and animals know by instinct when the boss is not sure of himself4 ,those who put so much trust in blame and punishment do not understand human nature4 ,i said in a previous chapter that a man could not believe a thing unless his reason told him that it was true4 ,i now say that a man cannot help believing a thing when his reason tells him it is true4 ,the secret of reform is to make men understand4 ,the terrors of capital punishment1 the terrors of the cat1 even the terrors of hell-fire fail to awe the criminal4 ,that is because the criminal is stupid or ignorant1 and lacks imagination4 ,he hears of hell1 and of death4 ,but he cannot imagine either4 ,he seldom thinks4 ,he seldom looks beyond the end of his nose4 ,discipline is not preserved in the army by the dread of the cat1 nor of the cells4 ,it is kept by the fact that the wildest and most reckless man knows that he must obey1 that the whole physical and moral force of the army is united to insist upon obedience4 ,if he disobey an order he will be punished4 ,he does not care a snap of his fingers for the punishment4 ,but he knows that after he has done his punishment drill the order will be repeated1 and that he will be obliged to obey4 ,he knows that the sentiment of the army is against him until he does obey4 ,i have seen an officer get a battalion into a mess on parade1 and then lose his temper and bully the men44 ,and ,i have seen another officer on the same day drill the men and get them to work like a machine4 ,the first officer did not know how to give the orders4 ,the second knew his business1 was sure that he did know it1 and so let the men feel that he knew it4 ,it is with parents as with those two officers4 ,the one who knows his duty1 and does it properly1 never has any occasion to lose his temper4 ,it is time ,solomon's rod followed the witches' broom4 ,it is time the cat1 and the chain1 and the cell1 and the convict's dress1 and the oakum and the skilly1 and the gallows followed the rack and the thumbscrew and the faggot and the wheel4 ,it is time the leaders of the people were taught to lead4 ,it is time the educated and the uneducated were given some real education4 ,it is time that tyranny1 cruelty1 self-righteousness1 superstition1 and the bad old conventions of an ignorant past1 gave place to reason1 to science1 to manhood4 ,but1 the penal moralist will demand1 if you propose to abolish blame and punishment1 what do you propose to put in their place8 ,and ,i answer1 ,justice1 knowledge1 and reason--in fact1 an improved environment4 ,the cause of most of our social and moral troubles is ignorance4 ,by ignorance ,i do not mean illiteracy only3 there are many classical scholars who are really ignorant men4 ,no3 ,i mean ignorance of human nature and of the essentials to a happy and wholesome human life4 ,it is this kind of ignorance which divides the people into two classes3 rich and poor--masters and slaves4 ,it is this kind of ignorance which causes men to sacrifice health1 happiness1 and virtue for the sake of vanity1 and idleness1 and wealth4 ,it is the kind of ignorance which keeps twelve millions of people in a rich and fertile country always on the verge of destitution4 ,it is this kind of ignorance which saddles mankind with the cost of armies1 and fleets1 and prisons1 and police4 ,it is this kind of ignorance which breeds millions of criminals1 and educates them in crime4 ,it is this kind of ignorance which splits a great nation into castes1 and sects1 and makes the realisation of the glorious ideal of human brotherhood impossible4 ,it is this kind of ignorance which drives professing ,christians to neglect the teachings of ,christ4 ,it is this kind of ignorance which makes possible the millionaire1 the aristocrat1 the sweater1 the tramp1 the thief1 the degenerate1 and the slave4 ,it is this kind of ignorance which keeps the children hungry1 drives the men to drunkenness1 and the women to shame4 ,it is this kind of ignorance which is answerable for all evil environments from which hate1 and greed1 and poverty1 and immorality spring1 like weeds from a rank and neglected soil4 ,we cannot get rid of this most deadly form of ignorance by means of blame and punishment4 ,there is only one way to drive out ignorance1 and that is by spreading knowledge4 ,what knowledge8 ,knowledge of human nature and of the essentials to a happy and wholesome life4 ,it is bad for men to be rich and idle2 it is bad for men to be ill-fed1 ill-clothed1 ill-housed1 ill-taught1 unhonoured1 and unloved4 ,whilst life is a sordid scramble1 in which the prizes are pernicious wealth1 and luxury1 and idleness1 and in which the blanks are hunger1 ignorance1 vice1 unhappiness1 the prison1 and the gallows2 immorality and crime must flourish as pestilence flourishes in a filthy1 pent1 and insanitary city4 ,it is sad to see the custodians of the public morality bewailing the wickedness of men1 and fostering the evil surroundings from which evil springs4 ,it is as foolish as to bewail the presence of malarial fever1 to punish the victims for spreading the disease1 and at the same time to refuse to drain the marsh from which the malaria comes1 because it is the property of a grand duke1 who wishes to shoot wildfowl there4 ,what do ,i propose should be done4 ,why that1 my friends1 is another story4 ,what ,i propose at present to do is to prove that crime and immorality are caused3 to show what the causes are2 and to point out that the recognised remedies are ineffectual4 ,while we have an idle rich1 and a hungry and ignorant poor1 we cannot get rid of vice and crime4 ,to punish the criminals we have made1 is unjust and useless2 to pray for deliverance from plague3 we must look to the drains--we must improve the environment4 ,no man should be idle4 ,no man should be rich4 ,no man should be ignorant1 no man destitute4 ,every man should have a chance to earn the essentials to a wholesome1 happy1 temperate1 and useful life4 ,every child should be nourished1 and taught1 and trained4 ,crime1 vice1 disease1 poverty1 idleness3 all these are preventable evils4 ,but we cannot drain our marshes1 because1 little as we heed the misery of the people1 the ignorance and hunger of the children1 the despair of the men and the degradation of the women1 we are marvellously tender of ,grand ,ducal sport4 ,it is ,mammon we worship1 not ,god2 it is property we prize1 not life2 it is vanity we love1 and not our fellow-creatures4 ,we are an ignorant1 atavistic people2 and our priests are wondrous moral4 ,,chapter ,,fourteen--,,some ,,objections ,,answered ,,the upholders of the doctrine of free will commonly fall into the error of considering heredity and environment apart from each other4 ,father ,adderley1 in a lecture given at ,saltley1 told his hearers that all our great scientists agree that people have the power to overcome their hereditary tendencies4 ,perhaps3 but they can only get that power from environment2 and if the environment is bad they will not get that power4 ,but the most surprising example of this mental squinting is afforded by the ,rev4 ,c4 ,a4 ,hall1 who may be said to squint with both eyes4 ,for1 in a lecture given at ,paisley1 this gentleman first shows that we can overcome our heredity1 and then shows that we can overcome our environment ,and yet it never occurred to him that to prove the freedom of the will we must be able to overcome our heredity and environment together4 ,mr4 ,hall's argument may be stated thus3 ,by the aid of environment we can overcome our heredity2 by the aid of heredity1 or of good environment we can overcome bad environment2 therefore we are superior to heredity and environment4 ,it is like saying3 by means of natural intelligence and a good teacher ,i can become a good scholar2 by means of natural intelligence and a good teacher ,i can correct the errors of a bad teacher4 ,therefore ,i do not depend upon intelligence nor teaching for my knowledge4 ,but ,i have answered ,messrs4 ,adderley and ,hall in my chapter on self-control4 ,an example of a similar error is afforded by a clergyman who wrote to me from ,warrington4 ,he said3 ,you can never hope to improve the social environment until you persuade men that they can rise superior to their circumstances4 ,the men are to be persuaded to rise4 ,and what is that persuasion1 but a part of their environment8 ,and if men are persuaded to try1 and succeed1 to whom is the victory due8 ,is it not due to the persuasion8 ,of course it is4 ,and the persuasion came from outside themselves1 and is part of their environment4 ,the same clergyman said1 ,if heredity and environment have made the individuals of whom society is made up1 heredity and environment have made society itself1 and asked me how ,i could logically accuse society of injuring any one4 ,a strange question based upon a misunderstanding4 ,the criminal injures society1 society injures the criminal4 ,i accuse both of injurious action4 ,i blame neither4 ,i say both are that which heredity and environment made them4 ,i say neither can help it4 ,but ,i say that both can be taught to help it1 and that both should be taught to help it4 ,is there anything illogical in that8 ,this brings me to the ,rev4 ,charles ,marson1 a very clever and witty man1 who is hopelessly muddled over the simple matter4 ,in ,the ,religious ,doubts of ,democracy1 ,mr4 ,marson says3 ,now1 as reform starts by a feeling and conviction of blame1 and cannot start at all unless it can say3 ,this is wrong4 ,it might be right4 ,this ought not to be and is1 and need not be so1 if the answer is3 ,but this was as mathematically fixed at its birth as the path of a planet in its orbit1 the poor reformed can only say1 ,sorry ,i spoke2 and if he speaks again it will be to laugh at the ,clarion for wasting ink in blaming orbits which are mathematically fixed4 ,indeed1 if ,i were a burglar1 ,i would invest part of my swag in endowing ,determinists to pour arguments and ridicule upon ,christian magistrates and criminal codes1 with their active and irritating blame4 ,certainly1 if ,i were ,lord ,rackrent1 ,i should invite my anti-reform friends1 the ,determinists1 to dinner1 take them to the opera1 and send them round to address the ,socialists1 at my expense4 ,mr4 ,blatchford1 being anxious to fight against the doctrine of sin1 builds a fatalist rampart1 looks over the top1 and says3 ,can man sin against ,god8 ,his actions are fixed4 ,we walk round behind him and say3 ,can man sin against man8 ,can social systems sin against man8 ,and the very rampart of fatalism he has erected hinders him from escaping from a withering fire1 except by backing into obscurantism and ultra-,toryism4 ,this is the same error1 differently stated4 ,if man cannot be blamed1 society cannot be blamed3 therefore everything must remain as it is4 ,i often wonder where the clergy learn their logic4 ,men cannot be blamed3 society cannot be blamed4 ,but both can be altered3 by environment4 ,that is to say1 if heredity and environment have endowed some man with reason and knowledge and inclination for the task1 that man may be able to improve society1 or the individual1 by teaching one or both4 ,and the teaching will be environment4 ,we cannot1 as ,mr4 ,marson pointed out in his article1 blame environment2 but we can attribute evils to the action of environment1 and we can change the environment1 always provided that heredity and environment have endowed us with the needful knowledge and brains for the purpose4 ,let us look at the facts4 ,there is a very terrible disease called diphtheria4 ,it is caused by a small fungoid bacillus1 and it has killed myriads of children1 and caused much suffering and grief4 ,do we blame the vegetable bacillus8 ,no4 ,we cannot blame a bacillus4 ,so ,i say we cannot blame diphtheria for killing children4 ,no sane person ever suggested blame in such a case4 ,but do we take any the less trouble to fight against diphtheria8 ,we do not blame a rat for eating our chickens1 nor a boat for capsizing in a breeze1 nor a lunatic for setting fire to a house1 nor a shark for eating a sailor4 ,but has any sane person ever suggested that we should not try to keep rats out of the henhouse1 nor to ballast a faulty boat1 nor restrain a madman from playing with fire1 nor to rescue a sailor from a shark8 ,mr4 ,marson asks ironically whether a social system can be naughty1 whether a social system may be praised logically1 blamed logically1 and held responsible logically4 ,i reply that a social system cannot be logically blamed1 any more than a shark1 a disease1 a fool can be logically blamed4 ,but a social system may be approved or disapproved1 and may be altered and abolished4 ,we cannot blame a man's environment1 in the strict meaning of the word4 ,but we may attribute a man's crime1 or shame1 or ruin to his environment4 ,we do not blame prussic acid for being lethal2 but we do not allow chemists to sell it in large quantities to every casual stranger4 ,why8 ,because it is poison4 ,well1 the influenza bacillus is poison1 falsehood is poison1 vice is poison1 greed and vanity and cruelty are poison2 and it behooves us to destroy those poisons1 and so to improve our social system and the environment of our fellow-men4 ,we come now to the idea that to teach men that all blame is unjust is to encourage them to do wrong4 ,this idea is expressed1 with characteristic clumsiness and obscurity1 by ,bishop ,butler1 in that monument of loose thinking and foggy writing1 ,the ,analogy of ,religion4 ,what ,butler wanted to say1 and tried to say1 in more than #hjj words of his irritating style1 is simply that a child brought up to believe that praise and blame were unjust1 would be a plague to all about him1 and would probably come to the gallows4 ,the reader will find it in ,chapter ,,vi4 of ,the ,analogy4 ,now1 ,i quite believe that if the matter had to be explained to a child by ,bishop ,butler the effect would be fatal1 because the poor bishop did not understand it himself1 and was not good at explaining things he did understand4 ,but the child would be in no danger if he were instructed by a man who knew what he was talking about1 and was able to say what he knew in plain words and clear sentences4 ,and ,i can say from my experience of children that ,i find them readier of apprehension1 and clearer thinkers than ,i have found most clergymen4 ,as ,i have dealt with this argument in my chapter on self-control ,i need not go over the ground again4 ,but ,i may say that we should teach a child that some things are right and some are wrong1 and why they are right and why they are wrong2 and that he was not to blame others because they either do not know any better1 or are unable to do any better1 and we should teach him that one learns to be good as one learns to write or to swim1 and that the harder one tries the better one succeeds4 ,and we should feel quite sure that the child would be just as good as his heredity and our training made him2 and as for his coming to the gallows1 if all children were taught on our system there would be no gallows to come to1 and very few looking for that sacred instrument1 the sight of which convinced ,gulliver that he was once more in a ,christian country4 ,is it necessary for me to answer the charge of presumption brought against me by ,dr4 ,aked8 ,dr4 ,aked says ,i am presumptuous because ,i deny the belief of great and holy men of past ages4 ,he says that the agreement of ,cheyne and ,perowne in praise of the fifty-first ,psalm is typical of the world's consensus of opinion4 ,and this ,psalm is the cry of a broken heart for deliverance from sin4 ,dr4 ,aked goes on as follows3 ,to-day we are asked to believe that all this is a delusion4 ,we are told that man could not and cannot sin against ,god4 ,we are invited to believe that the men of every age and nation whose hearts have bled in sorrow over accomplished sin1 who have cried in anguish of soul for deliverance from the body of this death1 whose joy in the realisation of divine forgiveness has flowed in strains of immortal joy over countless generations1 were ignorant and foolish persons1 inventing their sufferings and imagining their solace1 and needing some journalist of the twentieth century to teach them that no man could really sin against ,god6 ,we are1 apparently1 expected to believe that the author of this ,psalm and the author of the second ,isaiah1 that ,paul and ,augustine1 the author of ,thomas ,a',kempis1 and ,john ,bunyan1 knew nothing of psychology and nothing of divinity1 that they never understood their own experience1 and1 though they have interpreted humanity to uncounted millions of the children of men1 yet lived and died in crass ignorance of the workings of the human heart ,the proposition is not modest4 ,that any man should be found1 however flippantly1 to advance it is marvellous4 ,that any human being should be found to accept it seriously is incredible4 ,dr4 ,aked's argument amounts to a claim that we should believe in ,free ,will because most men believe in it1 because many good and great men have believed in it4 ,but many millions of men have believed in a material hell4 ,in which ,dr4 ,aked does not believe4 ,many good and great men have believed in a material hell1 and millions of men 7some of them good and clever7 still believe in a material hell4 ,and ,dr4 ,aked does not believe in it4 ,and when the doctrine of hell-fire was first assailed1 what did the ,dr4 ,akeds of the time declare8 ,that without the fear of hell men would be wicked1 and would do wrong in defiance of ,god2 and that the theory that there was no hell of fire was incredible4 ,and what is this charge of audacity which ,dr4 ,aked brings against me for denying sin8 ,it is just the charge that was brought against ,charles ,darwin when he had the immodesty to declare that the human species was evolved from lower forms4 ,how was that theory met by the ,dr4 ,akeds of the time8 ,darwin was ridiculed and denounced1 and nearly all the religious world was aghast at his folly and his irreverence1 and his presumption in advancing a theory which was contrary to the teachings of ,holy ,writ4 ,but ,darwin's theory was true4 ,darwin's theory was true1 and ,i claim that this theory is true4 ,is it any answer to tell me that ,i am presumptuous in opposing the beliefs of great men past and present8 ,darwin opposed the general belief1 and ,darwin was right and the general belief was wrong4 ,is it any more reasonable to condemn this theory for traversing the fifty-first ,psalm than it was to condemn ,evolution for traversing the ,book of ,genesis8 ,are we never to deviate from the beliefs of our forefathers1 be the evidence against those beliefs never so strong8 ,how1 then1 shall knowledge increase or progress be possible8 ,presumptuous to deny what great men in the past believed8 ,then the world is flat1 and the sun goes round the world1 and polygamy is right1 and ,saturday is the ,sabbath day1 and all ,jews1 ,mohammedans1 ,buddhists1 ,confucians1 and pagans will be damned1 and the abolition of witch-burning was a mistake1 and ,luther was presumptuous for resisting the authority of the ,church of ,rome1 and ,dr4 ,aked is presumptuous for differing from the ,church of ,england4 ,in such absurdities does the clerical mind entangle itself when it tries to think4 ,mr4 ,marson says that if he were a burglar he would spend some of the money he stole in paying lecturers to teach the doctrine that men ought not to be blamed for their actions4 ,but if all men were trained upon our principles there would not be any burglars4 ,however1 let us see what ,mr4 ,marson means4 ,he means that if punishment and blame were abolished burglars and other wrongdoers might go scot free1 and might rob1 or kill1 or cheat2 and no one should say them nay4 ,but ,mr4 ,marson is a clergyman1 and does not understand4 ,it is a strange notion this1 that if you do not blame a man you cannot interfere with him4 ,we do not blame a lunatic3 even a ,christian does not blame a lunatic4 ,but we do not allow a madman to go round with an axe and murder people4 ,we do not hang a madman1 nor punish him in any way4 ,if a murderer is proved to be mad he is pardoned and--restrained4 ,so1 although we might not blame a thief1 or a sweater1 or a poisoner1 it does not follow that we should allow him to go on stealing1 or sweating1 or murdering4 ,we propose to defend society from the individual2 but we propose to do more than that3 we propose to do what the ,christian does not attempt to do--we propose to defend the individual from society4 ,the ,christian method of dealing with the burglar is to neglect him in his childhood and his youth1 to allow him to become a burglar1 from sheer lack of opportunity to become anything else1 and then to lecture him and send him to prison4 ,but1 my ,christian friends1 how do you find your system work8 ,if you tell ,bill ,sykes he is a bad man1 that the angels will not love him1 that the fat successful sweater or idler will loathe and despise him1 and if you send ,bill to prison and hard labour for a term of years1 will it always happen that ,william will repent and reform1 and become a building society or a joint-stock bank himself8 ,or do you find that poor ,bill hardens his heart1 and hates you2 and that he comes out of your shameful prison1 and from your cowardly and savage whips and chains1 and burgles and drinks again1 and learns to carry a revolver8 ,if we want to get rid of evil we must remove the cause of evil4 ,it is useless to punish the victim4 ,it is with moral evils as with physical evils4 ,when an epidemic of fever or smallpox comes upon us we do not punish the sick1 nor blame them4 ,but we isolate the sick1 and we attack the cause of the sickness1 by attending to matters of hygiene and sanitation4 ,that is how we ought to deal with moral sickness4 ,men do not live badly because they are wicked1 but because they are ignorant4 ,the remedy lies in the study and adoption of the laws of the science of human life4 ,if we are to have a moral people we must first of all have a healthy people4 ,if the working classes are to be made sober and pure and wise1 the other classes must be made honest1 and to be made honest they must be taught what honesty is4 ,but the ,christian cannot teach what honesty is because he does not know4 ,he cannot attack the causes of vice and crime1 because he does not understand that vice and crime are caused4 ,he has been taught that men do wrong because they will not do right1 and that they can do right if they will4 ,the ,christian blames the criminal1 and punishes him1 because the ,christian believes that the criminal has a free will4 ,but we should not blame nor punish the criminal1 because we know that he is a victim of heredity and environment4 ,so we should restrain the criminal1 and try to reform him2 and we should attack the environment which made him a criminal1 and is still making more criminals1 and we should try to alter that environment1 and so prevent the making of more criminals4 ,for the hardened criminal1 restraint may be necessary4 ,it may be impossible to reform him4 ,it may be too late4 ,but it is not too late to save millions of innocent children from a like disaster and disgrace4 ,it is not too late to prevent evil in the future1 though we cannot atone for the evil wrought in the past4 ,we know1 and the ,christian knows1 that where a murderer destroys one life society destroys thousands4 ,we know that all through our pursy civilisation1 in all the fine cities of our wealth1 our culture1 and our boastful piety1 the ruin of children1 the production of monsters1 the desecration of human souls1 is going steadily and ruthlessly on4 ,we know this1 and the ,christian knows this2 but we propose to prevent it1 to stop it1 by striking at the root cause3 the ,christian hopes to check it by lopping off here and there one of the fruits4 ,that is one reason why ,i claim that ,humanism is a better religion than ,christianity2 that is one reason why ,i claim that ,christianity is a failure4 ,what is the cause of crime8 ,the ,christian does not know4 ,what is the cause of ignorance8 ,the ,christian does not know4 ,what is the cause of poverty8 ,the ,christian does not know4 ,for ages the ,christians trusted to religion to rid them of pestilence4 ,science taught them to prevent pestilence4 ,now they trust to religion to rid the world of vice and crime4 ,it is the same old error4 ,science has shown us the causes of vice and crime3 science teaches us that we must attack the causes4 ,but the world is very ignorant in affairs of moral sanitation2 and has an almost religious veneration for the sacredness of ,grand ,ducal ducks4 ,as for the children--why do not their parents take care of them8 ,perhaps because the parents were neglected by their parents4 ,and which is the better1 to go back for a dozen generations blaming parents1 or to begin now and teach and save the children8 ,,chapter ,,fifteen--,,the ,,defence ,,of ,,the ,,bottom ,,dog ,,friends1 ,i write to defend the ,bottom ,dog4 ,it is a task to stagger the stoutest heart4 ,with nearly all the power1 learning1 and wealth of the world against him2 with all the precedents of human history against him2 with law1 religion1 custom1 and public sentiment against him1 the unfortunate victim's only hope is in the justice of his case4 ,i would he had a better advocate1 as ,i trust he some day will4 ,the prosecution claim a monopoly of learning1 and virtue1 and modesty4 ,they may be justified in this4 ,i do not grudge them such authority as their shining merits may lend to a case so unjust1 so feeble1 and so cruel as theirs4 ,many of the gentlemen on the other side are ,christian ministers4 ,they uphold blame and punishment1 in direct defiance of the teaching and example of ,jesus ,christ4 ,the founder of their religion bade them love their enemies4 ,he taught them that if one stole their coat they should give him their cloak also4 ,he prevented the punishment of the woman taken in adultery1 and called upon him without sin to cast the first stone4 ,he asked ,god to forgive his murderers1 because they knew not what they did4 ,in not one of these cases did ,christ say a word in favour of punishment nor of blame4 ,christians pray to be forgiven1 as they forgive2 they ask ,god to have mercy upon us miserable sinners2 they ask ,him to succour1 help1 and comfort all that are in danger1 necessity1 and tribulation1 and to show ,his pity upon all prisoners and captives2 how1 then1 can ,christians advocate the blame of the weak1 and the punishment of the persecuted and unfortunate8 ,i suggest that men who do not understand their own religion are not likely to understand a religion to which they are opposed4 ,as ,i am generally known as a poor man's advocate1 ,i ask you to remember that ,i am not now appearing for the poor1 but for the wrong-doer4 ,there are many very poor who do no serious wrong2 there are many amongst the rich1 the successful1 and the respectable1 whose lives are evil4 ,one does not live half a century without knowing one's world pretty well4 ,i know the honourable and noble lord1 full of gout1 vainglory1 and stealthy vices2 ,i know the fashionable divine1 with pride in his heart1 milk on his lips1 and cobwebs in his brain2 ,i know the smug respectability1 with low cunning under his silk hat1 and chicanery buttoned up in his irreproachable frock coat2 ,i know the fine lady1 beautiful as a poppy1 who is haughty from sheer lack of sense2 ,i know the glib orator of mean acts and golden words2 ,i know the elected person of much dignity and little wit1' and the woman of much loveliness and little love4 ,i have to defend men and women whose deeds revolt me1 whose presence disgusts me4 ,i have to defend them against the world1 and against my own prejudices and aversion4 ,for ,i also have a heredity and an environment1 and therefore crochets1 and passions1 and antipathies4 ,though ,i can defend all victims of heredity and environment1 though ,i can demand justice for the worst1 yet my nature loathes the bully and the tyrant1 and still more does it loathe the mean3 the man of the ,judas spirit1 who barters children's lives1 and women's souls1 and the manhood of cities1 for dirty pieces of silver4 ,such a wretch is not to be hated1 is not to be punished3 he is to be pitied and ,i am to defend him4 ,but when ,i think of him my soul is sick4 ,i feel as if a worm had crawled over me4 ,i cannot help this4 ,i cannot endure him4 ,i am not big enough3 ,i lack the grace4 ,i pity him profoundly2 but my pity is cold4 ,i pity the devil-fish1 and the conger eel2 but ,i could not touch them4 ,they are repulsive to me4 ,it is very difficult for us to separate the man from his acts4 ,it is very difficult for us to hate and to loathe the acts1 without hating and loathing the man4 ,this is the old1 old ,adam in us1 rebelling against the new altruism and the new reason4 ,we are still a long way behind our ideals4 ,it is no part of my plan to flatter the world4 ,i know you1 my brothers and sisters1 too well for that4 ,there is a strong family resemblance between us4 ,your ancestors1 also1 had tails4 ,and then1 like ,thoreau1 ,i know what mean and sneaking lives many of you lead4 ,the majority of you1 indeed1 are still little better than barbarians4 ,the mass of you waste your lives and starve your souls for the sake of beads and scalps1 and flesh and firewater4 ,your heroes are1 too1 often1 mere prowling appetites1 or solemn vanities1 ravenous for pudding and praise2 mere tailor-made effigies1 to stick stars upon1 or feathers into2 mere painted idols for ignorance to worship2 embroidered serene-emptiness for flunkeys to bow down to3 kings and things of shreds and patches4 ,yes4 ,we are all painfully human1 and under a rgime of blame and punishment may count ourselves extremely lucky if we have never been found out4 ,do not let us stand in too great awe of our ancestors4 ,they also trafficked and junketted in ,vanity ,fair4 ,the prosecution lay stress upon the universal custom and experience of mankind ,the world has never ordered its life by rules of wisdom and understanding4 ,it has paid more court to the rich than to the good1 and more heed to the noisy than to the wise4 ,the world has imprisoned as many honest men as rogues1 has slain more innocent than guilty1 has decorated more criminals than heroes1 has believed a thousand times less truth than lies4 ,is it not so1 men and women8 ,does not common experience support the charge8 ,let us1 then1 understand each other1 before we go any farther4 ,the glory of manhood and womanhood is not to have something1 but to be something2 is not to get something1 but to give something2 is not to rule but to serve4 ,the greatness of a nation does not lie in its wealth and power1 but in the character of its men and women4 ,with greatness in the people all the rest will follow1 as surely as when the greatness of the people wanes the rest will be quickly lost4 ,the history of all great empires tells us this3 ,japan is just now repeating the lesson4 ,what is it most men strive for8 ,wealth and fame4 ,these are prizes for little men1 not for big men4 ,they are prizes that often inflict untold misery in the winning1 and are nearly always a curse to the winner4 ,vice and crime are fostered by luxury and idleness on the one hand1 and by ignorance and misery on the other hand4 ,the poor are poor that the rich may be rich2 and the riches and the poverty are a curse to both4 ,consider all the vain pride and barbaric pomp of wealth and fashion1 and all the mean envy of the weakly snobs who revere them1 and would sell their withered souls to possess them4 ,is this decorative tomfoolery1 are this apish swagger and blazoned snobbery worthy of men and women8 ,the powdered flunkeys1 the gingerbread coaches1 the pantomime processions1 the trumpery orders and fatuous titles3 are they any nobler or more sensible than the paint1 the tom-toms1 and the ,brummagen jewels of darkest ,africa8 ,and the cost6 ,we are too prone to reckon cost in cash4 ,we are too prone to forget that cash is but a symbol of things more precious4 ,we bear too tamely all the bowing and kow-towing2 all the fiddling and fifing1 all the starring and gartering1 and be-feathering and begemming1 all the gambling and racing1 the saluting and fanfaring1 the marching and counter-marching1 all the raking in of dividends1 and building up of mansions1 all the sweating and rackrenting1 all the heartless vanity1 and brainless luxury1 and gilded vice3 we should think of them more sternly did we count up what they cost in men and women and children1 what they cost in brawn and brain1 and honour and love1 what they cost in human souls--what they cost in ,bottom ,dogs4 ,happiness cannot be stolen2 nor won by cheating1 as though life were a game of cards4 ,the man who would be happy must find his duty1 and do it4 ,in no other way can man or woman find real happiness1 under the sun4 ,but the world1 so far has quite a different creed4 ,and the common experience1 on which the ,christians so much depend1 is not on the side of the angels4 ,and that is why the ,bottom ,dogs are so numerous1 and why so many of us lead such mean and sneaking lives4 ,descendants of barbarians and beasts1 we have not yet conquered the greed and folly of our bestial and barbarous inheritance4 ,our nature is an unweeded garden4 ,our hereditary soil is rank4 ,talk about the trouble of bringing up children3 what is that to the trouble of educating one's ancestors8 ,o1 the difficulty ,i have had with mine4 ,my friends3 you have read my statement of the case for the ,bottom ,dog2 you have read the arguments ,i have used in support of that statement3 you have read the evidence1 and you have read my answers to the arguments of the other side4 ,i claim to have proved that all human actions are ruled by heredity and environment1 that man is not responsible for his heredity and environment1 and that therefore all blame and all punishment are unjust4 ,i claim to have proved that blame and punishment1 besides being unjust are ineffectual4 ,i claim that the arguments which apply to heredity and environment apply also to the soul1 for since man did not create the soul he cannot be responsible for its acts4 ,i claim to have explained the so-called mysteries of conscience1 and of the dual personality1 and to have proved them to be the natural action of heredity and environment4 ,i claim to have proved that morality comes through natural evolution1 and not by any kind of super-natural revelation4 ,i claim to have proved that the argument from universal experience is fallacious1 and to have shown that universal experience has misled us in the manner of human responsibility as in so many other matters4 ,i claim to have proved that the theory here advocated is based upon justice and reason1 and is more moral and beneficient than the ,christian religion1 under which so much wrong1 and waste1 and misery continue to exist unchecked and unrebuked4 ,i claim to have proved that the prosecution do not understand the case1 and that their arguments are for the most part mere misrepresentations or misunderstandings of the issues and the facts4 ,it remains for me now to say a few words as to the wrongs suffered by my unfortunate client2 and as to the necessity for so altering the laws and customs of society as to prevent the perpetration of all this cruelty and injustice2 of all this waste of human love1 and human beauty1 and human power4 ,we are sometimes asked to think imperially3 it would be better to think universally4 ,illimitable as is the universe1 it appears in all its parts to obey the same laws4 ,its suns may be told by millions2 but matter and force compose and rule them all4 ,carlyle spoke of the contrast between heaven and ,vauxhall2 but ,vauxhall is in the heavens1 by virtue of the same law that there holds ,canopus and the ,pleiades4 ,we think of the dawn-star as of something heavenly pure1 and of the earth as grey in sorrow and sin2 but the earth is a star--a planet1 bright and beautiful as ,venus in a purple evening sky4 ,we gaze with wondering awe at the loveliness and mystery of the ,galaxy1 that bent beam of glory whose motes are suns1 that luminous path of dreams whose jewels are alive2 but we forget that ,whitechapel1 and ,oldham1 and ,chicago1 and the ,black ,country1 are in the ,milky ,way4 ,in that awful ocean of ,space are many islands2 but they are all akin4 ,in the roaring loom of time4 howsoever the colours may change1 the pattern vary1 the piece is all one piece2 it is knit together1 thread to thread4 ,all men are brothers4 ,from the age beyond the ,aryans the threads are woven and joined together4 ,all of us had ancestors with tails4 ,all the myriads of human creatures1 since the first ape stood erect1 have been like leaves upon one tree1 nourished by the same sap1 fed from the same root1 warmed by the same sun1 washed by the same rains4 ,all our polities1 philosophies1 and religions1 grow out of each other4 ,we can never fully understand any one of them until we know the whole4 ,comparative anatomy1 comparative philology1 comparative mythology1 all comparative sciences1 tell us the same story of growth1 of evolution1 of kinship4 ,babylon and ,egypt1 ,india and ,persia1 ,greece and ,rome1 ,gothland and ,scandinavia1 ,britain and ,gaul2 ,osiris1 ,krishna1 ,confucius1 ,brahma1 ,zoroaster1 ,buddha1 ,christ1 ,mahomet3 all are parts of one whole1 all parts related each to other4 ,the oldest nations speak in our languages to-day1 the oldest savages survive in our bodies1 the oldest gods have part in our religious forms and ceremonies1 the oldest superstitions and faults and follies1 still obscure our minds and impede our action4 ,we cannot thrust the dead aside and stand alone3 the dead are part of us4 ,we cannot take a man and isolate him1 and judge and understand him1 as though he were a new and special creation4 ,he is of kin to all the living and the dead4 ,he stands one figure in the great human pageant1 and cannot be taken out of the picture3 cannot be cut out from the background--that background of a thousand ages1 and of innumerable women and men4 ,he belongs to the great human family3 he1 also1 is in the ,milky ,way4 ,old families1 and noble families are made of parchment or paper3 there is but one real family of flesh and blood1 and that reaches back to the clot of jelly in the sea1 and we all belong to it4 ,when ,i hear some little ,brick ,lane ,brother talking about the true faith1 as taught in a tin chapel in ,upper ,tooting1 ,i think of the star-readers of the ,aryan hills1 of the dead gods1 and the obliterated beliefs of ancient conquerors1 long since eaten by worms1 and of the shrivelled corpse in the museum who has lain grinning in his sandhole for thirty thousand years1 amongst his grave pots1 and ghost charms1 and the uneaten food for the long journey to the great beyond4 ,when ,i hear honourable members prating in the ,house about ,imperial questions1 ,i think of the famished seamstress1 the unemployed docker1 the girl with the phossy jaw1 whom the honourable gentleman represents4 ,when ,i read of the gorgeous stage-management of the royal pageants1 ,i remember the graves of the ,balaclava men1 in the ,manchester workhouse field1 where the sods were spread out level over the neglected dead4 ,when ,i see beautiful sculptures and paintings of ,greek womanhood1 ,i remember how1 coming out of the art gallery where ,i had been looking at the picture of ,andromache1 ,i saw a white-haired old ,englishwoman carrying a great bag of cinders on her bent old back4 ,when ,i hear the angelic voices of the choirs1 and see the golden plate on cathedral altars1 ,i ask myself questions about that ,bridge of ,sighs where ,london women drown themselves in their despair1 and about that child in the workhouse school who tamed a mouse because he must have something to love4 ,when a callow preacher babbles to his grown-up congregation about sin and human nature1 ,i remember the men and women ,i have known3 the soldiers1 the navvies1 the colliers1 the doctors1 the lawyers1 the authors1 the artists2 ,i remember the dancing-rooms in the garrison town1 and the girls1 and how they were womanly in their degradation1 and sweet in spite of their shame2 and ,i wondered what the reverend gentleman would answer them if they spoke to him as they often spoke to me1 in words that were straight as blades1 and cut as deep4 ,and often1 when ,i mix with the crowds in the streets1 or at the theatre1 or in public assemblies1 ,i feel that ,i am in the presence of the haunted past1 and the whole human story unfolds itself to my mind3 the primeval savage with his fell of hair1 fighting with other savages1 under branching elm1 star-proof2 the ,ethiopian warrior in his battle chariot2 the bent slave1 toiling on the pyramid2 the armed knight errant1 foraying1 and redressing sentimental wrongs2 the fearless ,viking1 crossing oceans in his open galley1 to discover continents2 the gladiator in the ,roman arena2 the ,greek ,stoics1 discoursing at the fountain2 ,drake singeing the ,king of ,spain's beard2 ,st4 ,francis preaching to the birds2 the ,buddha1 giving his body to the famished tigress2 the ,aryan at the plough1 the ,phoenician in his bark1 the ,californian seeking gold1 the whaler amongst the ice1 the ancient ,briton in his woad--all the mysterious and fascinating human drama of love and hate1 of hunger and riches1 and laughter and tears1 and songs and sobbings1 and dancing and drunkenness1 and marriage and battle1 and heroism and cowardice1 and murder and robbery1 and the quest of ,god4 ,that wonderful human mystery-play1 how softly it touches us1 how deeply it moves us1 with its hum of myriad voices1 its vision of white arms1 and flashing weapons1 and beckoning fingers1 and asking looks1 and the ripple of its laughter1 like the music of hidden streams in leafy woods1 and the lisp of its unnumbered feet1 and the weird rhythm of its war songs1 and the pathos of its joy-bells1 and the pity of its follies1 and its failures1 and its crimes--the pity2 the pity of it1 the pity of it4 ,possessed1 then by this dreaming habit1 this ,janus-like bent of mind1 ,i cannot think of the ,bottom ,dog apart from the whole bloodstained1 tearstained tragedy of man's inhumanity to man4 ,for the ,bottom ,dog is a child of all the ages1 he plays his part in a drama whereof the scene is laid in the ,milky ,way4 ,he recalls to us the long wavering war between darkness and light1 the life and death struggle of the brute to be a man1 the painful never-ceasing effort of man to understand4 ,we cannot look back over that trampled and sanguinary field of history without a shudder2 but we must look4 ,it reaches back into the impenetrable mists of time1 it reaches forward to our own thresholds1 which still are wet with blood and tears1 and on every rood of it1 in ghastly horror1 are heaped the corpses of the men1 and women1 and children slain by the righteous1 in the name of justice1 and in the name of ,god4 ,though the gods perished1 though the vane of justice veered until right became wrong1 and wrong right1 yet the crimes continued1 the horrible mistakes were repeated2 the holy1 and the noble1 and cultivated still cried for their brother's blood1 still trampled the infants under their holy feet1 still forced the maidens and the mothers to slavery and shame4 ,men and women1 is it not true8 ,from fear of ghosts and devils1 and for the glory of the gods of ,india1 of ,babylon1 of ,egypt1 of ,greece1 of ,rome1 of ,france1 of ,spain1 of ,england1 were not millions tortured1 and burnt1 and whipped1 and hanged1 and crucified8 ,witchcraft1 and heresy1 idolatry1 sacrifice1 propitiation1 divine vengeance2 what seas of blood1 what holocausts of crime1 what long-drawn tragedies of agony and ,moody sweat do these names not recall8 ,and they were all mistakes6 ,they were all nightmares1 born of ignorance and superstition6 ,we have awakened from those nightmares4 ,our gods no longer lust after human blood4 ,we know that heresy is merely difference of education1 that there never was a witch2 we know that all those millions wept and bled and died for nothing3 that they were tortured1 enslaved1 degraded and murdered1 by the holy1 through ignorance1 and fear1 and superstition4 ,if we turn from the crimes and blunders of prophets and of priests to the laws of ,kings and ,parliaments1 we find the same ignorance1 the same ferocity1 the same futility4 ,i could fill a bigger book than mine with the mere catalogue of the punishments and the instruments of torture invented by tyrants1 and land-grabbers1 and superior persons for the protection of their privileges1 and their plunder1 and their luxury and ease4 ,for thousands of years the whip1 the chain1 the rack1 the gibbet1 and the sword1 have been used to uphold the laws made by robbers1 and by idlers1 and by ambitious lunatics41 to punish the crimes of the ignorant and the weak4 ,men and women1 is it not true8 ,and all the agony and blood and shame were ineffectual4 ,and always blame and punishment bred hate1 and savagery1 and more crime4 ,but it is different to-day4 ,it is the same to-day4 ,the laws to-day are defences of the foolish rich against the ignorant and hungry poor4 ,the laws to-day1 like the laws of the past1 make more criminals than they punish4 ,the laws keep the people ignorant and poor1 and the rich idle and vicious4 ,the laws to-day1 as in the day of ,isaiah1 enable the rich to add field to field1 until the people have no room4 ,the laws to-day sacrifice a thousand innocent children to preserve one useful1 lazy1 unhappy1 superior person4 ,the laws to-day punish as a criminal the child who steals a loaf1 or a pair of boots1 and honour as a grandee the man whose greed and folly keep the workers off the land1 and treble the rents in the filthy and indecent slums where age has no reverence1 and toil no ease1 and where shame has laid its hand upon the girl child's breast4 ,what was the old denunciation of those who cried peace1 peace1 when there is no peace1 and what shall we say of those priests and holy men who cry morality1 morality1 where there is no morality1 where usury and exploitation are honoured arts3 where crime and vice are taught to the children as in a school8 ,if you sow tares1 can you reap wheat8 ,if you sow hate can you reap love8 ,if you sow wrong can you reap right8 ,if you teach and practise knavery1 can you ask for purity and virtue8 ,the laws were made by ignorant and dishonest men1 they are administered by men ignorant and selfish2 they are dishonest laws2 good for neither rich nor poor2 evil in their conception1 evil in their enforcement1 evil in their results4 ,there need not be any such things as poverty and ignorance in the world4 ,the earth is bounteous1 and yields enough1 and more than enough1 for all4 ,men and women3 ,i beg of you to do all that is in your power to change the unjust laws1 and the uncharitable and unreasonable opinions1 which make the deadly environment that fosters vice and crime4 ,for1 besides that the laws are unjust1 that the teachings of our superior persons are untrue1 that blame and punishment must fail as they have always failed1 there is the awful waste--the waste of life1 and love1 of beauty and power that the present cruel system entails4 ,think of the loveliness of a good woman1 the blessing of her2 think of the sweetness and the joy of an innocent child1 of the value and nobility of an honest man4 ,picture to yourself the kind of woman you would wish your daughter to be1 the kind of man you would wish your son to be4 ,then remember what good or bad environment can make of the young4 ,i tell you there is hardly a battered drab1 a broken pauper1 a hardened thief1 a hopeless drunkard1 a lurking tramp1 a hooligan1 but who might have been an honest and a useful citizen under fair conditions4 ,good women3 if ever you felt the thrill of a dear child's fingers on your throat or breast1 think what millions of such children in our cities must become4 ,good men3 if you honour womanhood1 if you love your daughters and your wives1 think of the women and the girls in the streets1 in the fields1 in the factories1 and in the jails1 and then look into your mirrors for a friend to save them4 ,men and women3 as the little children are now the ruffian and the harlot once were2 as the ruffian and the harlot are now millions of helpless children must become unless you give them sympathy and aid4 ,it is no use looking for help to heaven3 we must look upon the earth4 ,it is no use asking ,god to help us3 we must help ourselves4 ,my friends3 for the sake of good men1 who are better than their gods2 for the sake of good women1 who are the pride and glory of the world2 for the sake of the dear children1 who are sweeter to us than the sunshine or the flowers2 for the sake of the generation not yet spoiled or lost2 for the sake of the nations yet unborn2 in the names of justice1 of reason and truth1 ,i ask you for a verdict of ,not ,guilty4