,,why ,,men ,,fight ,a ,,method ,,of ,,abolishing ,,the ,,international ,,duel ,,by ,,bertrand ,,russell1 ,m4,a41 ,f4,r4,s4 ,sometime ,fellow and ,lecturer in ,trinity ,college1 ,cambridge ,illustration ,,new ,,york ,,the ,,century ,,co4 #aibj ,copyright1 #aiaf1 by ,,the ,,century ,,co4 ,published1 ,january1 #aiag ,le souffle1 le rhythme1 la vraie force populaire manqua la raction4 ,elle eut les rois1 les trsors1 les armes2 elle crasa les peuples1 mais elle resta muette4 ,elle tua en silence2 elle ne put parler qu'avec le canon sur ses horribles champs de bataille4444 ,tuer quinze millions d'hommes par la faim et l'pe1 la bonne heure1 cela se peut4 ,mais faire un petit chant1 un air aim de tous1 voil ce que nulle machination ne donnera4444 ,don rserv1 bni4444 ,ce chant peut-tre l'aube jaillira d'un cur simple1 ou l'alouette le trouvera en montant au soleil1 de son sillon d'avril4 ,,michelet4 ,,contents ,,chapter ,,page ,i ,,the ,,principle ,,of ,,growth #c ,,ii ,,the ,,state #db ,,iii ,,war ,,as ,,an ,,institution #gi ,,iv ,,property #aag ,v ,,education #aec ,,vi ,,marriage ,,and ,,the ,,population ,,question #ahb ,,vii ,,religion ,,and ,,the ,,churches #bae ,,viii ,,what ,,we ,,can ,,do #bde ,,why ,,men ,,fight ,i ,,the ,,principle ,,of ,,growth ,to all who are capable of new impressions and fresh thought1 some modification of former beliefs and hopes has been brought by the war4 ,what the modification has been has depended1 in each case1 upon character and circumstance2 but in one form or another it has been almost universal4 ,to me1 the chief thing to be learnt through the war has been a certain view of the springs of human action1 what they are1 and what we may legitimately hope that they will become4 ,this view1 if it is true1 seems to afford a basis for political philosophy more capable of standing erect in a time of crisis than the philosophy of traditional ,liberalism has shown itself to be4 ,the following lectures1 though only one of them will deal with war1 all are inspired by a view of the springs of action which has been suggested by the war4 ,and all of them are informed by the hope of seeing such political institutions established in ,europe as shall make men averse to war--a hope which ,i firmly believe to be realizable1 though not without a great and fundamental reconstruction of economic and social life4 ,to one who stands outside the cycle of beliefs and passions which make the war seem necessary1 an isolation1 an almost unbearable separation from the general activity1 becomes unavoidable4 ,at the very moment when the universal disaster raises compassion in the highest degree1 compassion itself compels aloofness from the impulse to self-destruction which has swept over ,europe4 ,the helpless longing to save men from the ruin towards which they are hastening makes it necessary to oppose the stream1 to incur hostility1 to be thought unfeeling1 to lose for the moment the power of winning belief4 ,it is impossible to prevent others from feeling hostile1 but it is possible to avoid any reciprocal hostility on one's own part1 by imaginative understanding and the sympathy which grows out of it4 ,and without understanding and sympathy it is impossible to find a cure for the evil from which the world is suffering4 ,there are two views of the war neither of which seems to me adequate4 ,the usual view in this country is that it is due to the wickedness of the ,germans2 the view of most pacifists is that it is due to the diplomatic tangle and to the ambitions of ,governments4 ,i think both these views fail to realize the extent to which war grows out of ordinary human nature4 ,germans1 and also the men who compose ,governments1 are on the whole average human beings1 actuated by the same passions that actuate others1 not differing much from the rest of the world except in their circumstances4 ,war is accepted by men who are neither ,germans nor diplomatists with a readiness1 an acquiescence in untrue and inadequate reasons1 which would not be possible if any deep repugnance to war were widespread in other nations or classes4 ,the untrue things which men believe1 and the true things which they disbelieve1 are an index to their impulses--not necessarily to individual impulses in each case 7since beliefs are contagious71 but to the general impulses of the community4 ,we all believe many things which we have no good ground for believing1 because1 subconsciously1 our nature craves certain kinds of action which these beliefs would render reasonable if they were true4 ,unfounded beliefs are the homage which impulse pays to reason2 and thus it is with the beliefs which1 opposite but similar1 make men here and in ,germany believe it their duty to prosecute the war4 ,the first thought which naturally occurs to one who accepts this view is that it would be well if men were more under the dominion of reason4 ,war1 to those who see that it must necessarily do untold harm to all the combatants1 seems a mere madness1 a collective insanity in which all that has been known in time of peace is forgotten4 ,if impulses were more controlled1 if thought were less dominated by passion1 men would guard their minds against the approaches of war fever1 and disputes would be adjusted amicably4 ,this is true1 but it is not by itself sufficient4 ,it is only those in whom the desire to think truly is itself a passion who will find this desire adequate to control the passions of war4 ,only passion can control passion1 and only a contrary impulse or desire can check impulse4 ,reason1 as it is preached by traditional moralists1 is too negative1 too little living1 to make a good life4 ,it is not by reason alone that wars can be prevented1 but by a positive life of impulses and passions antagonistic to those that lead to war4 ,it is the life of impulse that needs to be changed1 not only the life of conscious thought4 ,all human activity springs from two sources3 impulse and desire4 ,the part played by desire has always been sufficiently recognized4 ,when men find themselves not fully contented1 and not able instantly to procure what will cause content1 imagination brings before their minds the thought of things which they believe would make them happy4 ,all desire involves an interval of time between the consciousness of a need and the opportunity for satisfying it4 ,the acts inspired by desire may be in themselves painful1 the time before satisfaction can be achieved may be very long1 the object desired may be something outside our own lives1 and even after our own death4 ,will1 as a directing force1 consists mainly in following desires for more or less distant objects1 in spite of the painfulness of the acts involved and the solicitations of incompatible but more immediate desires and impulses4 ,all this is familiar1 and political philosophy hitherto has been almost entirely based upon desire as the source of human actions4 ,but desire governs no more than a part of human activity1 and that not the most important but only the more conscious1 explicit1 and civilized part4 ,in all the more instinctive part of our nature we are dominated by impulses to certain kinds of activity1 not by desires for certain ends4 ,children run and shout1 not because of any good which they expect to realize1 but because of a direct impulse to running and shouting4 ,dogs bay the moon1 not because they consider that it is to their advantage to do so1 but because they feel an impulse to bark4 ,it is not any purpose1 but merely an impulse1 that prompts such actions as eating1 drinking1 love-making1 quarreling1 boasting4 ,those who believe that man is a rational animal will say that people boast in order that others may have a good opinion of them2 but most of us can recall occasions when we have boasted in spite of knowing that we should be despised for it4 ,instinctive acts normally achieve some result which is agreeable to the natural man1 but they are not performed from desire for this result4 ,they are performed from direct impulse1 and the impulse is often strong even in cases in which the normal desirable result cannot follow4 ,grown men like to imagine themselves more rational than children and dogs1 and unconsciously conceal from themselves how great a part impulse plays in their lives4 ,this unconscious concealment always follows a certain general plan4 ,when an impulse is not indulged in the moment in which it arises1 there grows up a desire for the expected consequences of indulging the impulse4 ,if some of the consequences which are reasonably to be expected are clearly disagreeable1 a conflict between foresight and impulse arises4 ,if the impulse is weak1 foresight may conquer2 this is what is called acting on reason4 ,if the impulse is strong1 either foresight will be falsified1 and the disagreeable consequences will be forgotten1 or1 in men of a heroic mold1 the consequences may be recklessly accepted4 ,when ,macbeth realizes that he is doomed to defeat1 he does not shrink from the fight2 he exclaims3-- ,lay on1 ,macduff1 ,and damned be him that first cries1 ,hold1 enough6 ,but such strength and recklessness of impulse is rare4 ,most men1 when their impulse is strong1 succeed in persuading themselves1 usually by a subconscious selectiveness of attention1 that agreeable consequences will follow from the indulgence of their impulse4 ,whole philosophies1 whole systems of ethical valuation1 spring up in this way3 they are the embodiment of a kind of thought which is subservient to impulse1 which aims at providing a quasi-rational ground for the indulgence of impulse4 ,the only thought which is genuine is that which springs out of the intellectual impulse of curiosity1 leading to the desire to know and understand4 ,but most of what passes for thought is inspired by some non-intellectual impulse1 and is merely a means of persuading ourselves that we shall not be disappointed or do harm if we indulge this impulse4#a ,when an impulse is restrained1 we feel discomfort or even violent pain4 ,we may indulge the impulse in order to escape from this pain1 and our action is then one which has a purpose4 ,but the pain only exists because of the impulse1 and the impulse itself is directed to an act1 not to escaping from the pain of restraining the impulse4 ,the impulse itself remains without a purpose1 and the purpose of escaping from pain only arises when the impulse has been momentarily restrained4 ,impulse is at the basis of our activity1 much more than desire4 ,desire has its place1 but not so large a place as it seemed to have4 ,impulses bring with them a whole train of subservient fictitious desires3 they make men feel that they desire the results which will follow from indulging the impulses1 and that they are acting for the sake of these results1 when in fact their action has no motive outside itself4 ,a man may write a book or paint a picture under the belief that he desires the praise which it will bring him2 but as soon as it is finished1 if his creative impulse is not exhausted1 what he has done grows uninteresting to him1 and he begins a new piece of work4 ,what applies to artistic creation applies equally to all that is most vital in our lives3 direct impulse is what moves us1 and the desires which we think we have are a mere garment for the impulse4 ,desire1 as opposed to impulse1 has1 it is true1 a large and increasing share in the regulation of men's lives4 ,impulse is erratic and anarchical1 not easily fitted into a well-regulated system2 it may be tolerated in children and artists1 but it is not thought proper to men who hope to be taken seriously4 ,almost all paid work is done from desire1 not from impulse3 the work itself is more or less irksome1 but the payment for it is desired4 ,the serious activities that fill a man's working hours are1 except in a few fortunate individuals1 governed mainly by purposes1 not by impulses towards those activities4 ,in this hardly any one sees an evil1 because the place of impulse in a satisfactory existence is not recognized4 ,an impulse1 to one who does not share it actually or imaginatively1 will always seem to be mad4 ,all impulse is essentially blind1 in the sense that it does not spring from any prevision of consequences4 ,the man who does not share the impulse will form a different estimate as to what the consequences will be1 and as to whether those that must ensue are desirable4 ,this difference of opinion will seem to be ethical or intellectual1 whereas its real basis is a difference of impulse4 ,no genuine agreement will be reached1 in such a case1 so long as the difference of impulse persists4 ,in all men who have any vigorous life1 there are strong impulses such as may seem utterly unreasonable to others4 ,blind impulses sometimes lead to destruction and death1 but at other times they lead to the best things the world contains4 ,blind impulse is the source of war1 but it is also the source of science1 and art1 and love4 ,it is not the weakening of impulse that is to be desired1 but the direction of impulse towards life and growth rather than towards death and decay4 ,the complete control of impulse by will1 which is sometimes preached by moralists1 and often enforced by economic necessity1 is not really desirable4 ,a life governed by purposes and desires1 to the exclusion of impulse1 is a tiring life2 it exhausts vitality1 and leaves a man1 in the end1 indifferent to the very purposes which he has been trying to achieve4 ,when a whole nation lives in this way1 the whole nation tends to become feeble1 without enough grasp to recognize and overcome the obstacles to its desires4 ,industrialism and organization are constantly forcing civilized nations to live more and more by purpose rather than impulse4 ,in the long run such a mode of existence1 if it does not dry up the springs of life1 produces new impulses1 not of the kind which the will has been in the habit of controlling or of which thought is conscious4 ,these new impulses are apt to be worse in their effects than those that have been checked4 ,excessive discipline1 especially when it is imposed from without1 often issues in impulses of cruelty and destruction2 this is one reason why militarism has a bad effect on national character4 ,either lack of vitality1 or impulses which are oppressive and against life1 will almost always result if the spontaneous impulses are not able to find an outlet4 ,a man's impulses are not fixed from the beginning by his native disposition3 within certain wide limits1 they are profoundly modified by his circumstances and his way of life4 ,the nature of these modifications ought to be studied1 and the results of such study ought to be taken account of in judging the good or harm that is done by political and social institutions4 ,the war has grown1 in the main1 out of the life of impulse1 not out of reason or desire4 ,there is an impulse of aggression1 and an impulse of resistance to aggression4 ,either may1 on occasion1 be in accordance with reason1 but both are operative in many cases in which they are quite contrary to reason4 ,each impulse produces a whole harvest of attendant beliefs4 ,the beliefs appropriate to the impulse of aggression may be seen in ,bernhardi1 or in the early ,mohammedan conquerors1 or1 in full perfection1 in the ,book of ,joshua4 ,there is first of all a conviction of the superior excellence of one's own group1 a certainty that they are in some sense the chosen people4 ,this justifies the feeling that only the good and evil of one's own group is of real importance1 and that the rest of the world is to be regarded merely as material for the triumph or salvation of the higher race4 ,in modern politics this attitude is embodied in imperialism4 ,europe as a whole has this attitude towards ,asia and ,africa1 and many ,germans have this attitude towards the rest of ,europe4 ,correlative to the impulse of aggression is the impulse of resistance to aggression4 ,this impulse is exemplified in the attitude of the ,israelites to the ,philistines or of medieval ,europe to the ,mohammedans4 ,the beliefs which it produces are beliefs in the peculiar wickedness of those whose aggression is feared1 and in the immense value of national customs which they might suppress if they were victorious4 ,when the war broke out1 all the reactionaries in ,england and ,france began to speak of the danger to democracy1 although until that moment they had opposed democracy with all their strength4 ,they were not insincere in so speaking3 the impulse of resistance to ,germany made them value whatever was endangered by the ,german attack4 ,they loved democracy because they hated ,germany2 but they thought they hated ,germany because they loved democracy4 ,the correlative impulses of aggression and resistance to aggression have both been operative in all the countries engaged in the war4 ,those who have not been dominated by one or other of these impulses may be roughly divided into three classes4 ,there are1 first1 men whose national sentiment is antagonistic to the ,state to which they are subject4 ,this class includes some ,irish1 ,poles1 ,finns1 ,jews1 and other members of oppressed nations4 ,from our point of view1 these men may be omitted from our consideration1 since they have the same impulsive nature as those who fight1 and differ merely in external circumstances4 ,the second class of men who have not been part of the force supporting the war have been those whose impulsive nature is more or less atrophied4 ,opponents of pacifism suppose that all pacifists belong to this class1 except when they are in ,german pay4 ,it is thought that pacifists are bloodless1 men without passions1 men who can look on and reason with cold detachment while their brothers are giving their lives for their country4 ,among those who are merely passively pacifist1 and do no more than abstain from actively taking part in the war1 there may be a certain proportion of whom this is true4 ,i think the supporters of war would be right in decrying such men4 ,in spite of all the destruction which is wrought by the impulses that lead to war1 there is more hope for a nation which has these impulses than for a nation in which all impulse is dead4 ,impulse is the expression of life1 and while it exists there is hope of its turning towards life instead of towards death2 but lack of impulse is death1 and out of death no new life will come4 ,the active pacifists1 however1 are not of this class3 they are not men without impulsive force but men in whom some impulse to which war is hostile is strong enough to overcome the impulses that lead to war4 ,it is not the act of a passionless man to throw himself athwart the whole movement of the national life1 to urge an outwardly hopeless cause1 to incur obloquy and to resist the contagion of collective emotion4 ,the impulse to avoid the hostility of public opinion is one of the strongest in human nature1 and can only be overcome by an unusual force of direct and uncalculating impulse2 it is not cold reason alone that can prompt such an act4 ,impulses may be divided into those that make for life and those that make for death4 ,the impulses embodied in the war are among those that make for death4 ,any one of the impulses that make for life1 if it is strong enough1 will lead a man to stand out against the war4 ,some of these impulses are only strong in highly civilized men2 some are part of common humanity4 ,the impulses towards art and science are among the more civilized of those that make for life4 ,many artists have remained wholly untouched by the passions of the war1 not from feebleness of feeling1 but because the creative instinct1 the pursuit of a vision1 makes them critical of the assaults of national passion1 and not responsive to the myth in which the impulse of pugnacity clothes itself4 ,and the few men in whom the scientific impulse is dominant have noticed the rival myths of warring groups1 and have been led through understanding to neutrality4 ,but it is not out of such refined impulses that a popular force can be generated which shall be sufficient to transform the world4 ,there are three forces on the side of life which require no exceptional mental endowment1 which are not very rare at present1 and might be very common under better social institutions4 ,they are love1 the instinct of constructiveness1 and the joy of life4 ,all three are checked and enfeebled at present by the conditions under which men live--not only the less outwardly fortunate1 but also the majority of the well-to-do4 ,our institutions rest upon injustice and authority3 it is only by closing our hearts against sympathy and our minds against truth that we can endure the oppressions and unfairnesses by which we profit4 ,the conventional conception of what constitutes success leads most men to live a life in which their most vital impulses are sacrificed1 and the joy of life is lost in listless weariness4 ,our economic system compels almost all men to carry out the purposes of others rather than their own1 making them feel impotent in action and only able to secure a certain modicum of passive pleasure4 ,all these things destroy the vigor of the community1 the expansive affections of individuals1 and the power of viewing the world generously4 ,all these things are unnecessary and can be ended by wisdom and courage4 ,if they were ended1 the impulsive life of men would become wholly different1 and the human race might travel towards a new happiness and a new vigor4 ,to urge this hope is the purpose of these lectures4 ,the impulses and desires of men and women1 in so far as they are of real importance in their lives1 are not detached one from another1 but proceed from a central principle of growth1 an instinctive urgency leading them in a certain direction1 as trees seek the light4 ,so long as this instinctive movement is not thwarted1 whatever misfortunes may occur are not fundamental disasters1 and do not produce those distortions which result from interference with natural growth4 ,this intimate center in each human being is what imagination must apprehend if we are to understand him intuitively4 ,it differs from man to man1 and determines for each man the type of excellence of which he is capable4 ,the utmost that social institutions can do for a man is to make his own growth free and vigorous3 they cannot force him to grow according to the pattern of another man4 ,there are in men some impulses and desires--for example1 those towards drugs--which do not grow out of the central principle2 such impulses1 when they become strong enough to be harmful1 have to be checked by self-discipline4 ,other impulses1 though they may grow out of the central principle in the individual1 may be injurious to the growth of others1 and they need to be checked in the interest of others4 ,but in the main1 the impulses which are injurious to others tend to result from thwarted growth1 and to be least in those who have been unimpeded in their instinctive development4 ,men1 like trees1 require for their growth the right soil and a sufficient freedom from oppression4 ,these can be helped or hindered by political institutions4 ,but the soil and the freedom required for a man's growth are immeasurably more difficult to discover and to obtain than the soil and the freedom required for the growth of a tree4 ,and the full growth which may be hoped for cannot be defined or demonstrated2 it is subtle and complex1 it can only be felt by a delicate intuition and dimly apprehended by imagination and respect4 ,it depends not only or chiefly upon the physical environment1 but upon beliefs and affections1 upon opportunities for action1 and upon the whole life of the community4 ,the more developed and civilized the type of man the more elaborate are the conditions of his growth1 and the more dependent they become upon the general state of the society in which he lives4 ,a man's needs and desires are not confined to his own life4 ,if his mind is comprehensive and his imagination vivid1 the failures of the community to which he belongs are his failures1 and its successes are his successes3 according as his community succeeds or fails1 his own growth is nourished or impeded4 ,in the modern world1 the principle of growth in most men and women is hampered by institutions inherited from a simpler age4 ,by the progress of thought and knowledge1 and by the increase in command over the forces of the physical world1 new possibilities of growth have come into existence1 and have given rise to new claims which must be satisfied if those who make them are not to be thwarted4 ,there is less acquiescence in limitations which are no longer unavoidable1 and less possibility of a good life while those limitations remain4 ,institutions which give much greater opportunities to some classes than to others are no longer recognized as just by the less fortunate1 though the more fortunate still defend them vehemently4 ,hence arises a universal strife1 in which tradition and authority are arrayed against liberty and justice4 ,our professed morality1 being traditional1 loses its hold upon those who are in revolt4 ,coperation between the defenders of the old and the champions of the new has become almost impossible4 ,an intimate disunion has entered into almost all the relations of life in continually increasing measure4 ,in the fight for freedom1 men and women become increasingly unable to break down the walls of the ,ego and achieve the growth which comes from a real and vital union4 ,all our institutions have their historic basis in ,authority4 ,the unquestioned authority of the ,oriental despot found its religious expression in the omnipotent ,creator1 whose glory was the sole end of man1 and against whom man had no rights4 ,this authority descended to the ,emperor and ,pope1 to the kings of the ,middle ,ages1 to the nobles in the feudal hierarchy1 and even to every husband and father in his dealings with his wife and children4 ,the ,church was the direct embodiment of the ,divine authority1 the ,state and the law were constituted by the authority of the ,king1 private property in land grew out of the authority of conquering barons1 and the family was governed by the authority of the pater-familias4 ,the institutions of the ,middle ,ages permitted only a fortunate few to develop freely3 the vast majority of mankind existed to minister to the few4 ,but so long as authority was genuinely respected and acknowledged even by its least fortunate subjects1 medieval society remained organic and not fundamentally hostile to life1 since outward submission was compatible with inward freedom because it was voluntary4 ,the institutions of ,western ,christendom embodied a theory which was really believed1 as no theory by which our present institutions can be defended is now believed4 ,the medieval theory of life broke down through its failure to satisfy men's demands for justice and liberty4 ,under the stress of oppression1 when rulers exceeded their theoretical powers1 the victims were forced to realize that they themselves also had rights1 and need not live merely to increase the glory of the few4 ,gradually it came to be seen that if men have power1 they are likely to abuse it1 and that authority in practice means tyranny4 ,because the claim to justice was resisted by the holders of power1 men became more and more separate units1 each fighting for his own rights1 not a genuine community bound together by an organic common purpose4 ,this absence of a common purpose has become a source of unhappiness4 ,one of the reasons which led many men to welcome the outbreak of the present war was that it made each nation again a whole community with a single purpose4 ,it did this by destroying1 for the present1 the beginnings of a single purpose in the civilized world as a whole2 but these beginnings were as yet so feeble that few were much affected by their destruction4 ,men rejoiced in the new sense of unity with their compatriots more than they minded the increased separation from their enemies4 ,the hardening and separation of the individual in the course of the fight for freedom has been inevitable1 and is not likely ever to be wholly undone4 ,what is necessary1 if an organic society is to grow up1 is that our institutions should be so fundamentally changed as to embody that new respect for the individual and his rights which modern feeling demands4 ,the medieval ,empire and ,church swept away the individual4 ,there were heretics1 but they were massacred relentlessly1 without any of the qualms aroused by later persecutions4 ,and they1 like their persecutors1 were persuaded that there ought to be one universal ,church3 they differed only as to what its creed should be4 ,among a few men of art and letters1 the ,renaissance undermined the medieval theory1 without1 however1 replacing it by anything but skepticism and confusion4 ,the first serious breach in this medieval theory was caused by ,luther's assertion of the right of private judgment and the fallibility of ,general ,councils4 ,out of this assertion grew inevitably1 with time1 the belief that a man's religion could not be determined for him by authority1 but must be left to the free choice of each individual4 ,it was in matters of religion that the battle for liberty began1 and it is in matters of religion that it has come nearest to a complete victory4#b ,the development through extreme individualism to strife1 and thence1 one hopes1 to a new reintegration1 is to be seen in almost every department of life4 ,claims are advanced in the name of justice1 and resisted in the name of tradition and prescriptive right4 ,each side honestly believes that it deserves to triumph1 because two theories of society exist side by side in our thought1 and men choose1 unconsciously1 the theory which fits their case4 ,because the battle is long and arduous all general theory is gradually forgotten2 in the end1 nothing remains but self-assertion1 and when the oppressed win freedom they are as oppressive as their former masters4 ,this is seen most crudely in the case of what is called nationalism4 ,nationalism1 in theory1 is the doctrine that men1 by their sympathies and traditions1 form natural groups1 called 8nations10 each of which ought to be united under one central ,government4 ,in the main this doctrine may be conceded4 ,but in practice the doctrine takes a more personal form4 8,i belong10 the oppressed nationalist argues1 8by sympathy and tradition to nation ,a1 but ,i am subject to a government which is in the hands of nation ,b4 ,this is an injustice1 not only because of the general principle of nationalism1 but because nation ,a is generous1 progressive1 and civilized1 while nation ,b is oppressive1 retrograde1 and barbarous4 ,because this is so1 nation ,a deserves to prosper1 while nation ,b deserves to be abased40 ,the inhabitants of nation ,b are naturally deaf to the claims of abstract justice1 when they are accompanied by personal hostility and contempt4 ,presently1 however1 in the course of war1 nation ,a acquires its freedom4 ,the energy and pride which have achieved freedom generates a momentum which leads on1 almost infallibly1 to the attempt at foreign conquest1 or to the refusal of liberty to some smaller nation4 8,what8 ,you say that nation ,c1 which forms part of our ,state1 has the same rights against us as we had against nation ,a8 ,but that is absurd4 ,nation ,c is swinish and turbulent1 incapable of good government1 needing a strong hand if it is not to be a menace and a disturbance to all its neighbors40 ,so the ,english used to speak of the ,irish1 so the ,germans and ,russians speak of the ,poles1 so the ,galician ,poles speak of the ,ruthenes1 so the ,austrians used to speak of the ,magyars1 so the ,magyars speak of the ,south ,slav sympathizers with ,serbia1 so the ,serbs speak of the ,macedonian ,bulgars4 ,in this way nationalism1 unobjectionable in theory1 leads by a natural movement to oppression and wars of conquest4 ,no sooner was ,france free from the ,english1 in the fifteenth century1 than it embarked upon the conquest of ,italy2 no sooner was ,spain freed from the ,moors than it entered into more than a century of conflict with ,france for the supremacy in ,europe4 ,the case of ,germany is very interesting in this respect4 ,at the beginning of the eighteenth century ,german culture was ,french3 ,french was the language of the ,courts1 the language in which ,leibnitz wrote his philosophy1 the universal language of polite letters and learning4 ,national consciousness hardly existed4 ,then a series of great men created a self-respect in ,germany by their achievements in poetry1 music1 philosophy1 and science4 ,but politically ,german nationalism was only created by ,napoleon's oppression and the uprising of #ahac4 ,after centuries during which every disturbance of the peace of ,europe began with a ,french or ,swedish or ,russian invasion of ,germany1 the ,germans discovered that by sufficient effort and union they could keep foreign armies off their territory4 ,but the effort required had been too great to cease when its purely defensive purpose had been achieved by the defeat of ,napoleon4 ,now1 a hundred years later1 they are still engaged in the same movement1 which has become one of aggression and conquest4 ,whether we are now seeing the end of the movement it is not yet possible to guess4 ,if men had any strong sense of a community of nations1 nationalism would serve to define the boundaries of the various nations4 ,but because men only feel community within their own nation1 nothing but force is able to make them respect the rights of other nations1 even when they are asserting exactly similar rights on their own behalf4 ,analogous development is to be expected1 with the course of time1 in the conflict between capital and labor which has existed since the growth of the industrial system1 and in the conflict between men and women1 which is still in its infancy4 ,what is wanted1 in these various conflicts1 is some principle1 genuinely believed1 which will have justice for its outcome4 ,the tug of war of mutual self-assertion can only result in justice through an accidental equality of force4 ,it is no use to attempt any bolstering up of institutions based on authority1 since all such institutions involve injustice1 and injustice once realized cannot be perpetuated without fundamental damage both to those who uphold it and to those who resist it4 ,the damage consists in the hardening of the walls of the ,ego1 making them a prison instead of a window4 ,unimpeded growth in the individual depends upon many contacts with other people1 which must be of the nature of free coperation1 not of enforced service4 ,while the belief in authority was alive1 free coperation was compatible with inequality and subjection1 but now equality and mutual freedom are necessary4 ,all institutions1 if they are not to hamper individual growth1 must be based as far as possible upon voluntary combination1 rather than the force of the law or the traditional authority of the holders of power4 ,none of our institutions can survive the application of this principle without great and fundamental changes2 but these changes are imperatively necessary if the world is to be withheld from dissolving into hard separate units each at war with all the others4 ,the two chief sources of good relations between individuals are instinctive liking and a common purpose4 ,of these two1 a common purpose might seem more important politically1 but1 in fact1 it is often the outcome1 not the cause1 of instinctive liking1 or of a common instinctive aversion4 ,biological groups1 from the family to the nation1 are constituted by a greater or less degree of instinctive liking1 and build their common purposes on this foundation4 ,instinctive liking is the feeling which makes us take pleasure in another person's company1 find an exhilaration in his presence1 wish to talk with him1 work with him1 play with him4 ,the extreme form of it is being in love1 but its fainter forms1 and even the very faintest1 have political importance4 ,the presence of a person who is instinctively disliked tends to make any other person more likable4 ,an anti-,semite will love any fellow-,christian when a ,jew is present4 ,in ,china1 or the wilds of ,africa1 any white man would be welcomed with joy4 ,a common aversion is one of the most frequent causes of mild instinctive liking4 ,men differ enormously in the frequency and intensity of their instinctive likings1 and the same man will differ greatly at different times4 ,one may take ,carlyle and ,walt ,whitman as opposite poles in this respect4 ,to ,carlyle1 at any rate in later life1 most men and women were repulsive2 they inspired an instinctive aversion which made him find pleasure in imagining them under the guillotine or perishing in battle4 ,this led him to belittle most men1 finding satisfaction only in those who had been notably destructive of human life--,frederick the ,great1 ,dr4 ,francia1 and ,governor ,eyre4 ,it led him to love war and violence1 and to despise the weak and the oppressed--for example1 the 8thirty thousand distressed needlewomen10 on whom he was never weary of venting his scorn4 ,his morals and his politics1 in later life1 were inspired through and through by repugnance to almost the whole human race4 ,walt ,whitman1 on the contrary1 had a warm1 expansive feeling towards the vast majority of men and women4 ,his queer catalogues seemed to him interesting because each item came before his imagination as an object of delight4 ,the sort of joy which most people feel only in those who are exceptionally beautiful or splendid ,walt ,whitman felt in almost everybody4 ,out of this universal liking grew optimism1 a belief in democracy1 and a conviction that it is easy for men to live together in peace and amity4 ,his philosophy and politics1 like ,carlyle's1 were based upon his instinctive attitude towards ordinary men and women4 ,there is no objective reason to be given to show that one of these attitudes is essentially more rational than the other4 ,if a man finds people repulsive1 no argument can prove to him that they are not so4 ,but both his own desires and other people's are much more likely to find satisfaction if he resembles ,walt ,whitman than if he resembles ,carlyle4 ,a world of ,walt ,whitmans would be happier and more capable of realizing its purposes than a world of ,carlyles4 ,for this reason1 we shall desire1 if we can1 to increase the amount of instinctive liking in the world and diminish the amount of instinctive aversion4 ,this is perhaps the most important of all the effects by which political institutions ought to be judged4 ,the other source of good relations between individuals is a common purpose1 especially where that purpose cannot be achieved without knowing its cause4 ,economic organizations1 such as unions and political parties are constituted almost wholly by a common purpose2 whatever instinctive liking may come to be associated with them is the result of the common purpose1 not its cause4 ,economic organizations1 such as railway companies1 subsist for a purpose1 but this purpose need only actually exist in those who direct the organization3 the ordinary wage-earner need have no purpose beyond earning his wages4 ,this is a defect in economic organizations1 and ought to be remedied4 ,one of the objects of syndicalism is to remedy this defect4 ,marriage is 7or should be7 based on instinctive liking1 but as soon as there are children1 or the wish for children1 it acquires the additional strength of a common purpose4 ,it is this chiefly which distinguishes it from an irregular connection not intended to lead to children4 ,often1 in fact1 the common purpose survives1 and remains a strong tie1 after the instinctive liking has faded4 ,a nation1 when it is real and not artificial1 is founded upon a faint degree of instinctive liking for compatriots and a common instinctive aversion from foreigners4 ,when an ,englishman returns to ,dover or ,folkestone after being on the ,continent1 he feels something friendly in the familiar ways3 the casual porters1 the shouting paper boys1 the women serving bad tea1 all warm his heart1 and seem more 8natural10 more what human beings ought to be1 than the foreigners with their strange habits of behavior4 ,he is ready to believe that all ,english people are good souls1 while many foreigners are full of designing wickedness4 ,it is such feelings that make it easy to organize a nation into a governmental unit4 ,and when that has happened1 a common purpose is added1 as in marriage4 ,foreigners would like to invade our country and lay it waste1 to kill us in battle1 to humble our pride4 ,those who coperate with us in preventing this disaster are our friends1 and their coperation intensifies our instinctive liking4 ,but common purposes do not constitute the whole source of our love of country3 allies1 even of long standing1 do not call out the same feelings as are called out by our compatriots4 ,instinctive liking1 resulting largely from similar habits and customs1 is an essential element in patriotism1 and1 indeed1 the foundation upon which the whole feeling rests4 ,if men's natural growth is to be promoted and not hindered by the environment1 if as many as possible of their desires and needs are to be satisfied1 political institutions must1 as far as possible1 embody common purposes and foster instinctive liking4 ,these two objects are interconnected1 for nothing is so destructive of instinctive liking as thwarted purposes and unsatisfied needs1 and nothing facilitates coperation for common purposes so much as instinctive liking4 ,when a man's growth is unimpeded1 his self-respect remains intact1 and he is not inclined to regard others as his enemies4 ,but when1 for whatever reason1 his growth is impeded1 or he is compelled to grow into some twisted and unnatural shape1 his instinct presents the environment as his enemy1 and he becomes filled with hatred4 ,the joy of life abandons him1 and malevolence takes the place of friendliness4 ,the malevolence of hunchbacks and cripples is proverbial2 and a similar malevolence is to be found in those who have been crippled in less obvious ways4 ,real freedom1 if it could be brought about1 would go a long way towards destroying hatred4 ,there is a not uncommon belief that what is instinctive in us cannot be changed1 but must be simply accepted and made the best of4 ,this is by no means the case4 ,no doubt we have a certain native disposition1 different in different people1 which coperates with outside circumstances in producing a certain character4 ,but even the instinctive part of our character is very malleable4 ,it may be changed by beliefs1 by material circumstances1 by social circumstances1 and by institutions4 ,a ,dutchman has probably much the same native disposition as a ,german1 but his instincts in adult life are very different owing to the absence of militarism and of the pride of a ,great ,power4 ,it is obvious that the instincts of celibates become profoundly different from those of other men and women4 ,almost any instinct is capable of many different forms according to the nature of the outlets which it finds4 ,the same instinct which leads to artistic or intellectual creativeness may1 under other circumstances1 lead to love of war4 ,the fact that an activity or belief is an outcome of instinct is therefore no reason for regarding it as unalterable4 ,this applies to people's instinctive likes and dislikes as well as to their other instincts4 ,it is natural to men1 as to other animals1 to like some of their species and dislike others2 but the proportion of like and dislike depends on circumstances1 often on quite trivial circumstances4 ,most of ,carlyle's misanthropy is attributable to dyspepsia2 probably a suitable medical regimen would have given him a completely different outlook on the world4 ,the defect of punishment1 as a means of dealing with impulses which the community wishes to discourage1 is that it does nothing to prevent the existence of the impulses1 but merely endeavors to check their indulgence by an appeal to self-interest4 ,this method1 since it does not eradicate the impulses1 probably only drives them to find other outlets even when it is successful in its immediate object2 and if the impulses are strong1 mere self-interest is not likely to curb them effectually1 since it is not a very powerful motive except with unusually reasonable and rather passionless people4 ,it is thought to be a stronger motive than it is1 because our moods make us deceive ourselves as to our interest1 and lead us to believe that it is consistent with the actions to which we are prompted by desire or impulse4 ,thus the commonplace that human nature cannot be changed is untrue4 ,we all know that our own characters and those of our acquaintance are greatly affected by circumstances2 and what is true of individuals is true also of nations4 ,the root causes of changes in average human nature are generally either purely material changes--for instance1 of climate--or changes in the degree of man's control over the material world4 ,we may ignore the purely material changes1 since these do not much concern the politician4 ,but the changes due to man's increased control over the material world1 by inventions and science1 are of profound present importance4 ,through the industrial revolution1 they have radically altered the daily lives of men2 and by creating huge economic organizations1 they have altered the whole structure of society4 ,the general beliefs of men1 which are1 in the main1 a product of instinct and circumstance1 have become very different from what they were in the eighteenth century4 ,but our institutions are not yet suited either to the instincts developed by our new circumstances1 or to our real beliefs4 ,institutions have a life of their own1 and often outlast the circumstances which made them a fit garment for instinct4 ,this applies1 in varying degrees1 to almost all the institutions which we have inherited from the past3 the ,state1 private property1 the patriarchal family1 the ,churches1 armies and navies4 ,all of these have become in some degree oppressive1 in some measures hostile to life4 ,in any serious attempt at political reconstruction1 it is necessary to realize what are the vital needs of ordinary men and women4 ,it is customary1 in political thought1 to assume that the only needs with which politics is concerned are economic needs4 ,this view is quite inadequate to account for such an event as the present war1 since any economic motives that may be assigned for it are to a great extent mythical1 and its true causes must be sought for outside the economic sphere4 ,needs which are normally satisfied without conscious effort remain unrecognized1 and this results in a working theory of human needs which is far too simple4 ,owing chiefly to industrialism1 many needs which were formerly satisfied without effort now remain unsatisfied in most men and women4 ,but the old unduly simple theory of human needs survives1 making men overlook the source of the new lack of satisfaction1 and invent quite false theories as to why they are dissatisfied4 ,socialism as a panacea seems to me to be mistaken in this way1 since it is too ready to suppose that better economic conditions will of themselves make men happy4 ,it is not only more material goods that men need1 but more freedom1 more self-direction1 more outlet for creativeness1 more opportunity for the joy of life1 more voluntary coperation1 and less involuntary subservience to purposes not their own4 ,all these things the institutions of the future must help to produce1 if our increase of knowledge and power over ,nature is to bear its full fruit in bringing about a good life4 ,,ii ,,the ,,state ,under the influence of socialism1 most liberal thought in recent years has been in favor of increasing the power of the ,state1 but more or less hostile to the power of private property4 ,on the other hand1 syndicalism has been hostile both to the ,state and to private property4 ,i believe that syndicalism is more nearly right than socialism in this respect1 that both private property and the ,state1 which are the two most powerful institutions of the modern world1 have become harmful to life through excess of power1 and that both are hastening the loss of vitality from which the civilized world increasingly suffers4 ,the two institutions are closely connected1 but for the present ,i wish to consider only the ,state4 ,i shall try to show how great1 how unnecessary1 how harmful1 many of its powers are1 and how enormously they might be diminished without loss of what is useful in its activity4 ,but ,i shall admit that in certain directions its functions ought to be extended rather than curtailed4 ,some of the functions of the ,state1 such as the ,post ,office and elementary education1 might be performed by private agencies1 and are only undertaken by the ,state from motives of convenience4 ,but other matters1 such as the law1 the police1 the ,army1 and the ,navy1 belong more essentially to the ,state3 so long as there is a ,state at all it is difficult to imagine these matters in private hands4 ,the distinction between socialism and individualism turns on the nonessential functions of the ,state1 which the socialist wishes to extend and the individualist to restrict4 ,it is the essential functions1 which are admitted by individualists and socialists alike1 that ,i wish to criticize1 since the others do not appear to me in themselves objectionable4 ,the essence of the ,state is that it is the repository of the collective force of its citizens4 ,this force takes two forms1 one internal and one external4 ,the internal form is the law and the police2 the external form is the power of waging war1 as embodied in the ,army and ,navy4 ,the ,state is constituted by the combination of all the inhabitants in a certain area using their united force in accordance with the commands of a ,government4 ,in a civilized ,state force is only employed against its own citizens in accordance with rules previously laid down1 which constitute the criminal law4 ,but the employment of force against foreigners is not regulated by any code of rules1 and proceeds1 with few exceptions1 according to some real or fancied national interest4 ,there can be no doubt that force employed according to law is less pernicious than force employed capriciously4 ,if international law could acquire sufficient hold on men's allegiance to regulate the relations of ,states1 a very great advance on our present condition would have been made4 ,the primitive anarchy which precedes law is worse than law4 ,but ,i believe there is a possibility of a stage to some extent above law1 where the advantages now secured by the law are secured without loss of freedom1 and without the disadvantages which the law and the police render inevitable4 ,probably some repository of force in the background will remain necessary1 but the actual employment of force may become very rare1 and the degree of force required very small4 ,the anarchy which precedes law gives freedom only to the strong2 the condition to be aimed at will give freedom as nearly as possible to every one4 ,it will do this1 not by preventing altogether the existence of organized force1 but by limiting the occasions for its employment to the greatest possible extent4 ,the power of the ,state is only limited internally by the fear of rebellion and externally by the fear of defeat in war4 ,subject to these restrictions1 it is absolute4 ,in practice1 it can seize men's property through taxation1 determine the law of marriage and inheritance1 punish the expression of opinions which it dislikes1 put men to death for wishing the region they inhabit to belong to a different ,state1 and order all able-bodied males to risk their lives in battle whenever it considers war desirable4 ,on many matters disagreement with the purposes and opinions of the ,state is criminal4 ,probably the freest ,states in the world1 before the war1 were ,america and ,england2 yet in ,america no immigrant may land until he has professed disbelief in anarchism and polygamy1 while in ,england men were sent to prison in recent years for expressing disagreement with the ,christian religion#c or agreement with the teaching of ,christ4#d ,in time of war1 all criticism of the external policy of the ,state is criminal4 ,certain objects having appeared desirable to the majority1 or to the effective holders of power1 those who do not consider these objects desirable are exposed to pains and penalties not unlike those suffered by heretics in the past4 ,the extent of the tyranny thus exercised is concealed by its very success3 few men consider it worth while to incur a persecution which is almost certain to be thorough and effective4 ,universal military service is perhaps the extreme example of the power of the ,state1 and the supreme illustration of the difference between its attitude to its own citizens and its attitude to the citizens of other ,states4 ,the ,state punishes1 with impartial rigor1 both those who kill their compatriots and those who refuse to kill foreigners4 ,on the whole1 the latter is considered the graver crime4 ,the phenomenon of war is familiar1 and men fail to realize its strangeness2 to those who stand inside the cycle of instincts which lead to war it all seems natural and reasonable4 ,but to those who stand outside the strangeness of it grows with familiarity4 ,it is amazing that the vast majority of men should tolerate a system which compels them to submit to all the horrors of the battlefield at any moment when their ,government commands them to do so4 ,a ,french artist1 indifferent to politics1 attentive only to his painting1 suddenly finds himself called upon to shoot ,germans1 who1 his friends assure him1 are a disgrace to the human race4 ,a ,german musician1 equally unknowing1 is called upon to shoot the perfidious ,frenchman4 ,why cannot the two men declare a mutual neutrality8 ,why not leave war to those who like it and bring it on8 ,yet if the two men declared a mutual neutrality they would be shot by their compatriots4 ,to avoid this fate they try to shoot each other4 ,if the world loses the artist1 not the musician1 ,germany rejoices2 if the world loses the musician1 not the artist1 ,france rejoices4 ,no one remembers the loss to civilization1 which is equal whichever is killed4 ,this is the politics of ,bedlam4 ,if the artist and the musician had been allowed to stand aside from the war1 nothing but unmitigated good to mankind would have resulted4 ,the power of the ,state1 which makes this impossible1 is a wholly evil thing1 quite as evil as the power of the ,church which in former days put men to death for unorthodox thought4 ,yet if1 even in time of peace1 an international league were founded to consist of ,frenchmen and ,germans in equal numbers1 all pledged not to take part in war1 the ,french ,state and the ,german ,state would persecute it with equal ferocity4 ,blind obedience1 unlimited willingness to kill and die are exacted of the modern citizens of a democracy as much as of the ,janizaries of medieval sultans or the secret agents of ,oriental despots4#e ,the power of the ,state may be brought to bear1 as it often is in ,england1 through public opinion rather than through the laws4 ,by oratory and the influence of the ,press1 public opinion is largely created by the ,state1 and a tyrannous public opinion is as great an enemy to liberty as tyrannous laws4 ,if the young man who will not fight finds that he is dismissed from his employment1 insulted in the streets1 cold-shouldered by his friends1 and thrown over with scorn by any woman who may formerly have liked him1 he will feel the penalty quite as hard to bear as a death sentence4#f ,a free community requires not only legal freedom1 but a tolerant public opinion1 an absence of that instinctive inquisition into our neighbors' affairs which1 under the guise of upholding a high moral standard1 enables good people to indulge unconsciously a disposition to cruelty and persecution4 ,thinking ill of others is not in itself a good reason for thinking well of ourselves4 ,but so long as this is not recognized1 and so long as the ,state can manufacture public opinion1 except in the rare cases where it is revolutionary1 public opinion must be reckoned as a definite part of the power of the ,state4 ,the power of the ,state outside its own borders is in the main derived from war or the threat of war4 ,some power is derived from the ability to persuade its citizens to lend money or not to lend it1 but this is unimportant in comparison with the power derived from armies and navies4 ,the external activity of the ,state--with exceptions so rare as to be negligible--is selfish4 ,sometimes selfishness is mitigated by the need of retaining the goodwill of other ,states1 but this only modifies the methods employed1 not the ends pursued4 ,the ends pursued1 apart from mere defense against other ,states1 are1 on the one hand1 opportunities for successful exploitation of weak or uncivilized countries1 on the other hand1 power and prestige1 which are considered more glorious and less material than money4 ,in pursuit of these objects1 no ,state hesitates to put to death innumerable foreigners whose happiness is not compatible with exploitation or subjection1 or to devastate territories into which it is thought necessary to strike terror4 ,apart from the present war1 such acts have been performed within the last twenty years by many minor ,states and by all the ,great ,powers#g except ,austria2 and in the case of ,austria only the opportunity1 not the will1 was lacking4 ,why do men acquiesce in the power of the ,state8 ,there are many reasons1 some traditional1 some very present and pressing4 ,the traditional reason for obedience to the ,state is personal loyalty to the sovereign4 ,european ,states grew up under the feudal system1 and were originally the several territories owned by feudal chiefs4 ,but this source of obedience has decayed1 and probably now counts for little except in ,japan1 and to a lesser extent in ,russia4 ,tribal feeling1 which always underlay loyalty to the sovereign1 has remained as strong as it ever was1 and is now the chief support for the power of the ,state4 ,almost every man finds it essential to his happiness to feel himself a member of a group1 animated by common friendships and enmities and banded together for defense and attack4 ,but such groups are of two kinds3 there are those which are essentially enlargements of the family1 and there are those which are based upon a conscious common purpose4 ,nations belong to the first kind1 ,churches to the second4 ,at times when men are profoundly swayed by creeds national divisions tend to break down1 as they did in the wars of religion after the ,reformation4 ,at such times a common creed is a stronger bond than a common nationality4 ,to a much slighter extent1 the same thing has occurred in the modern world with the rise of socialism4 ,men who disbelieve in private property1 and feel the capitalist the real enemy1 have a bond which transcends national divisions4 ,it has not been found strong enough to resist the passions aroused by the present war1 but it has made them less bitter among socialists than among others1 and has kept alive the hope of a ,european community to be reconstructed when the war is over4 ,in the main1 however1 the universal disbelief in creeds has left tribal feeling triumphant1 and has made nationalism stronger than at any previous period of the world's history4 ,a few sincere ,christians1 a few sincere socialists1 have found in their creed a force capable of resisting the assaults of national passion1 but they have been too few to influence the course of events or even to cause serious anxiety to the ,governments4 ,it is chiefly tribal feeling that generates the unity of a national ,state1 but it is not only tribal feeling that generates its strength4 ,its strength results principally from two fears1 neither of which is unreasonable3 the fear of crime and anarchy within1 and the fear of aggression from without4 ,the internal orderliness of a civilized community is a great achievement1 chiefly brought about by the increased authority of the ,state4 ,it would be inconvenient if peaceable citizens were constantly in imminent risk of being robbed and murdered4 ,civilized life would become almost impossible if adventurous people could organize private armies for purposes of plunder4 ,these conditions existed in the ,middle ,ages1 and have not passed away without a great struggle4 ,it is thought by many--especially by the rich1 who derive the greatest advantage from law and order--that any diminution in the power of the ,state might bring back a condition of universal anarchy4 ,they regard strikes as portents of dissolution4 ,they are terrified by such organizations as the ,confdration ,gnrale du ,travail and the ,international ,workers of the ,world4 ,they remember the ,french ,revolution1 and feel a not unnatural desire to keep their heads on their shoulders4 ,they dread particularly any political theory which seems to excuse private crimes1 such as sabotage and political assassination4 ,against these dangers they see no protection except the maintenance of the authority of the ,state1 and the belief that all resistance to the ,state is wicked4 ,fear of the danger within is enhanced by fear of the danger without4 ,every ,state is exposed at all times to the risk of foreign invasion4 ,no means has hitherto been devised for minimizing this risk except the increase of armaments4 ,but the armaments which are nominally intended to repel invasion may also be used to invade4 ,and so the means adopted to diminish the external fear have the effect of increasing it1 and of enormously enhancing the destructiveness of war when it does break out4 ,in this way a reign of terror becomes universal1 and the ,state acquires everywhere something of the character of the ,comit du ,salut ,public4 ,the tribal feeling out of which the ,state develops is natural1 and the fear by which the ,state is strengthened is reasonable under present circumstances4 ,and in addition to these two1 there is a third source of strength in a national ,state1 namely patriotism in its religious aspect4 ,patriotism is a very complex feeling1 built up out of primitive instincts and highly intellectual convictions4 ,there is love of home and family and friends1 making us peculiarly anxious to preserve our own country from invasion4 ,there is the mild instinctive liking for compatriots as against foreigners4 ,there is pride1 which is bound up with the success of the community to which we feel that we belong4 ,there is a belief1 suggested by pride but reinforced by history1 that one's own nation represents a great tradition and stands for ideals that are important to the human race4 ,but besides all these1 there is another element1 at once nobler and more open to attack1 an element of worship1 of willing sacrifice1 of joyful merging of the individual life in the life of the nation4 ,this religious element in patriotism is essential to the strength of the ,state1 since it enlists the best that is in most men on the side of national sacrifice4 ,the religious element in patriotism is reinforced by education1 especially by a knowledge of the history and literature of one's own country1 provided it is not accompanied by much knowledge of the history and literature of other countries4 ,in every civilized country all instruction of the young emphasizes the merits of their own nation and the faults of other nations4 ,it comes to be universally believed that one's own nation1 because of its superiority1 deserves support in a quarrel1 however the quarrel may have originated4 ,this belief is so genuine and deep that it makes men endure patiently1 almost gladly1 the losses and hardships and sufferings entailed by war4 ,like all sincerely believed religions1 it gives an outlook on life1 based upon instinct but sublimating it1 causing a devotion to an end greater than any personal end1 but containing many personal ends as it were in solution4 ,patriotism as a religion is unsatisfactory because of its lack of universality4 ,the good at which it aims is a good for one's own nation only1 not for all mankind4 ,the desires which it inspires in an ,englishman are not the same as the desires which it inspires in a ,german4 ,a world full of patriots may be a world full of strife4 ,the more intensely a nation believes in its patriotism1 the more fanatically indifferent it will become to the damage suffered by other nations4 ,when once men have learnt to subordinate their own good to the good of a larger whole1 there can be no valid reason for stopping short of the human race4 ,it is the admixture of national pride that makes it so easy in practice for men's impulses towards sacrifice to stop short at the frontiers of their own country4 ,it is this admixture that poisons patriotism1 and makes it inferior1 as a religion1 to beliefs which aim at the salvation of all mankind4 ,we cannot avoid having more love for our own country than for other countries1 and there is no reason why we should wish to avoid it1 any more than we should wish to love all individual men and women equally4 ,but any adequate religion will lead us to temper inequality of affection by love of justice1 and to universalize our aims by realizing the common needs of man4 ,this change was effected by ,christianity in ,judaism1 and must be effected in any merely national religion before it can be purged of evil4 ,in practice1 patriotism has many other enemies to contend with4 ,cosmopolitanism cannot fail to grow as men acquire more knowledge of foreign countries by education and travel4 ,there is also a kind of individualism which is continually increasing1 a realization that every man ought to be as nearly free as possible to choose his own ends1 not compelled by a geographical accident to pursue ends forced upon him by the community4 ,socialism1 syndicalism1 and anti-capitalist movements generally1 are against patriotism in their tendency1 since they make men aware that the present ,state is largely concerned in defending the privileges of the rich1 and that many of the conflicts between ,states have their origin in the financial interests of a few plutocrats4 ,this kind of opposition is perhaps temporary1 a mere incident in the struggle of labor to acquire power4 ,australia1 where labor feels its triumph secure1 is full of patriotism and militarism1 based upon determination to prevent foreign labor from sharing the benefits of a privileged position4 ,it is not unlikely that ,england might develop a similar nationalism if it became a socialist ,state4 ,but it is probable that such nationalism would be purely defensive4 ,schemes of foreign aggression1 entailing great loss of life and wealth in the nation which adopts them1 would hardly be initiated except by those whose instincts of dominion have been sharpened through the power derived from private property and the institutions of the capitalist ,state4 ,the evil wrought in the modern world by the excessive power of the ,state is very great1 and very little recognized4 ,the chief harm wrought by the ,state is promotion of efficiency in war4 ,if all ,states increase their strength1 the balance of power is unchanged1 and no one ,state has a better chance of victory than before4 ,and when the means of offense exist1 even though their original purpose may have been defensive1 the temptation to use them is likely1 sooner or later1 to prove overwhelming4 ,in this way the very measures which promoted security within the borders of the ,state promote insecurity elsewhere4 ,it is of the essence of the ,state to suppress violence within and to facilitate it without4 ,the ,state makes an entirely artificial division of mankind and of our duties toward them3 towards one group we are bound by the law1 towards the other only by the prudence of highwaymen4 ,the ,state is rendered evil by its exclusions1 and by the fact that1 whenever it embarks upon aggressive war1 it becomes a combination of men for murder and robbery4 ,the present system is irrational1 since external and internal anarchy must be both right or both wrong4 ,it is supported because1 so long as others adopt it1 it is thought the only road to safety1 and because it secures the pleasures of triumph and dominion1 which cannot be obtained in a good community4 ,if these pleasures were no longer sought1 or no longer possible to obtain1 the problem of securing safety from invasion would not be difficult4 ,apart from war1 the modern great ,state is harmful from its vastness and the resulting sense of individual helplessness4 ,the citizen who is out of sympathy with the aims of the ,state1 unless he is a man of very rare gifts1 cannot hope to persuade the ,state to adopt purposes which seem to him better4 ,even in a democracy1 all questions except a very few are decided by a small number of officials and eminent men2 and even the few questions which are left to the popular vote are decided by a diffused mass-psychology1 not by individual initiative4 ,this is especially noticeable in a country like the ,united ,states1 where1 in spite of democracy1 most men have a sense of almost complete impotence in regard to all large issues4 ,in so vast a country the popular will is like one of the forces of ,nature1 and seems nearly as much outside the control of any one man4 ,this state of things leads1 not only in ,america but in all large ,states1 to something of the weariness and discouragement that we associate with the ,roman ,empire4 ,modern ,states1 as opposed to the small city ,states of ancient ,greece or medieval ,italy1 leave little room for initiative1 and fail to develop in most men any sense of ability to control their political destinies4 ,the few men who achieve power in such ,states are men of abnormal ambition and thirst for dominion1 combined with skill in cajolery and subtlety in negotiation4 ,all the rest are dwarfed by knowledge of their own impotence4 ,a curious survival from the old monarchical idea of the ,state is the belief that there is some peculiar wickedness in a wish to secede on the part of any section of the population4 ,if ,ireland or ,poland desires independence1 it is thought obvious that this desire must be strenuously resisted1 and any attempt to secure it is condemned as 8high treason40 ,the only instance to the contrary that ,i can remember is the separation of ,norway and ,sweden1 which was commended but not imitated4 ,in other cases1 nothing but defeat in war has induced ,states to part with territory3 although this attitude is taken for granted1 it is not one which would be adopted if the ,state had better ends in view4 ,the reason for its adoption is that the chief end of almost all great ,states is power1 especially power in war4 ,and power in war is often increased by the inclusion of unwilling citizens4 ,if the well-being of the citizens were the end in view1 the question whether a certain area should be included1 or should form a separate ,state1 would be left freely to the decision of that area4 ,if this principle were adopted1 one of the main reasons for war would be obviated1 and one of the most tyrannical elements in the ,state would be removed4 ,the principal source of the harm done by the ,state is the fact that power is its chief end4 ,this is not the case in ,america1 because ,america is safe against aggression2#h but in all other great nations the chief aim of the ,state is to possess the greatest possible amount of external force4 ,to this end1 the liberty of the citizens is curtailed1 and anti-militarist propaganda is severely punished4 ,this attitude is rooted in pride and fear3 pride1 which refuses to be conciliatory1 and fear1 which dreads the results of foreign pride conflicting with our own pride4 ,it seems something of a historical accident that these two passions1 which by no means exhaust the political passions of the ordinary man1 should so completely determine the external policy of the ,state4 ,without pride1 there would be no occasion for fear3 fear on the part of one nation is due to the supposed pride of another nation4 ,pride of dominion1 unwillingness to decide disputes otherwise than by force or the threat of force1 is a habit of mind greatly encouraged by the possession of power4 ,those who have long been in the habit of exercising power become autocratic and quarrelsome1 incapable of regarding an equal otherwise than as a rival4 ,it is notorious that head masters' conferences are more liable to violent disagreements than most similar bodies3 each head master tries to treat the others as he treats his own boys2 they resent such treatment1 and he resents their resentment4 ,men who have the habit of authority are peculiarly unfit for friendly negotiation2 but the official relations of ,states are mainly in the hands of men with a great deal of authority in their own country4 ,this is1 of course1 more particularly the case where there is a monarch who actually governs4 ,if is less true where there is a governing oligarchy1 and still less true where there is some approach to real democracy4 ,but it is true to a considerable extent in all countries1 because ,prime ,ministers and ,foreign ,secretaries are necessarily men in authority4 ,the first step towards remedying this state of things is a genuine interest in foreign affairs on the part of the ordinary citizen1 and an insistence that national pride shall not be allowed to jeopardize his other interests4 ,during war1 when he is roused1 he is willing to sacrifice everything to pride2 but in quiet times he will be far more ready than men in authority to realize that foreign affairs1 like private concerns1 ought to be settled amicably according to principles1 not brutally by force or the threat of force4 ,the effect of personal bias in the men who actually compose the ,government may be seen very clearly in labor disputes4 ,french syndicalists affirm that the ,state is simply a product of capitalism1 a part of the weapons which capital employs in its conflict with labor4 ,even in democratic ,states there is much to bear out this view4 ,in strikes it is common to order out the soldiers to coerce the strikers2 although the employers are much fewer1 and much easier to coerce1 the soldiers are never employed against them4 ,when labor troubles paralyze the industry of a country1 it is the men who are thought to be unpatriotic1 not the masters1 though clearly the responsibility belongs to both sides4 ,the chief reason for this attitude on the part of ,governments is that the men composing them belong1 by their success if not by their origin1 to the same class as the great employers of labor4 ,their bias and their associates combine to make them view strikes and lockouts from the standpoint of the rich4 ,in a democracy public opinion and the need of conciliating political supporters partially correct these plutocratic influences1 but the correction is always only partial4 ,and the same influences which warp the views of ,governments on labor questions also warp their views on foreign affairs1 with the added disadvantage that the ordinary citizen has much fewer means of arriving at an independent judgment4 ,the excessive power of the ,state1 partly through internal oppression1 but principally through war and the fear of war1 is one of the chief causes of misery in the modern world1 and one of the main reasons for the discouragement which prevents men from growing to their full mental stature4 ,some means of curing this excessive power must be found if men are not to be organized into despair1 as they were in the ,roman ,empire4 ,the ,state has one purpose which is on the whole good1 namely1 the substitution of law for force in the relations of men4 ,but this purpose can only be fully achieved by a world-,state1 without which international relations cannot be made subject to law4 ,and although law is better than force1 law is still not the best way of settling disputes4 ,law is too static1 too much on the side of what is decaying1 too little on the side of what is growing4 ,so long as law is in theory supreme1 it will have to be tempered1 from time to time1 by internal revolution and external war4 ,these can only be prevented by perpetual readiness to alter the law in accordance with the present balance of forces4 ,if this is not done1 the motives for appealing to force will sooner or later become irresistible4 ,a world-,state or federation of ,states1 if it is to be successful1 will have to decide questions1 not by the legal maxims which would be applied by the ,hague tribunal1 but as far as possible in the same sense in which they would be decided by war4 ,the function of authority should be to render the appeal to force unnecessary1 not to give decisions contrary to those which would be reached by force4 ,this view may be thought by some to be immoral4 ,it may be said that the object of civilization should be to secure justice1 not to give the victory to the strong4 ,but when this antithesis is allowed to pass1 it is forgotten that love of justice may itself set force in motion4 ,a ,legislature which wishes to decide an issue in the same way as it would be decided if there were an appeal to force will necessarily take account of justice1 provided justice is so flagrantly on one side that disinterested parties are willing to take up the quarrel4 ,if a strong man assaults a weak man in the streets of ,london1 the balance of force is on the side of the weak man1 because1 even if the police did not appear1 casual passers-by would step in to defend him4 ,it is sheer cant to speak of a contest of might against right1 and at the same time to hope for a victory of the right4 ,if the contest is really between might and right1 that means that right will be beaten4 ,what is obscurely intended1 when this phrase is used1 is that the stronger side is only rendered stronger by men's sense of right4 ,but men's sense of right is very subjective1 and is only one factor in deciding the preponderance of force4 ,what is desirable in a ,legislature is1 not that it should decide by its personal sense of right1 but that it should decide in a way which is felt to make an appeal to force unnecessary4 ,having considered what the ,state ought not to do1 ,i come now to what it ought to do4 ,apart from war and the preservation of internal order1 there are certain more positive functions which the ,state performs1 and certain others which it ought to perform4 ,we may lay down two principles as regards these positive functions4 ,first3 there are matters in which the welfare of the whole community depends upon the practically universal attainment of a certain minimum2 in such cases the ,state has the right to insist upon this minimum being attained4 ,secondly3 there are ways in which1 by insisting upon the maintenance of law1 the ,state1 if it does nothing further1 renders possible various forms of injustice which would otherwise be prevented by the anger of their victims4 ,such injustices ought1 as far as possible1 to be prevented by the ,state4 ,the most obvious example of a matter where the general welfare depends upon a universal minimum is sanitation and the prevention of infectious diseases4 ,a single case of plague1 if it is neglected1 may cause disaster to a whole community4 ,no one can reasonably maintain1 on general grounds of liberty1 that a man suffering from plague ought to be left free to spread infection far and wide4 ,exactly similar considerations apply to drainage1 notification of fevers1 and kindred matters4 ,the interference with liberty remains an evil1 but in some cases it is clearly a smaller evil than the spread of disease which liberty would produce4 ,the stamping out of malaria and yellow fever by destroying mosquitoes is perhaps the most striking example of the good which can be done in this way4 ,but when the good is small or doubtful1 and the interference with liberty is great1 it becomes better to endure a certain amount of preventable disease rather than suffer a scientific tyranny4 ,compulsory education comes under the same head as sanitation4 ,the existence of ignorant masses in a population is a danger to the community2 when a considerable percentage are illiterate1 the whole machinery of government has to take account of the fact4 ,democracy in its modern form would be quite impossible in a nation where many men cannot read4 ,but in this case there is not the same need of absolute universality as in the case of sanitary measures4 ,the gipsies1 whose mode of life has been rendered almost impossible by the education authorities1 might well have been allowed to remain a picturesque exception4 ,but apart from such rather unimportant exceptions1 the argument for compulsory education is irresistible4 ,what the ,state does for the care of children at present is less than what ought to be done1 not more4 ,children are not capable of looking after their own interests1 and parental responsibility is in many ways inadequate4 ,it is clear that the ,state alone can insist upon the children being provided with the minimum of knowledge and health which1 for the time being1 satisfies the conscience of the community4 ,the encouragement of scientific research is another matter which comes rightly within the powers of the ,state1 because the benefits of discoveries accrue to the community1 while the investigations are expensive and never individually certain of achieving any result4 ,in this matter1 ,great ,britain lags behind all other civilized countries4 ,the second kind of powers which the ,state ought to possess are those that aim at diminishing economic injustice4 ,it is this kind that has been emphasized by socialists4 ,the law creates or facilitates monopolies1 and monopolies are able to exact a toll from the community4 ,the most glaring example is the private ownership of land4 ,railways are at present controlled by the ,state1 since rates are fixed by law2 and it is clear that if they were uncontrolled1 they would acquire a dangerous degree of power4#i ,such considerations1 if they stood alone1 would justify complete socialism4 ,but ,i think justice1 by itself1 is1 like law1 too static to be made a supreme political principle3 it does not1 when it has been achieved1 contain any seeds of new life or any impetus to development4 ,for this reason1 when we wish to remedy an injustice1 it is important to consider whether1 in so doing1 we shall be destroying the incentive to some form of vigorous action which is on the whole useful to the community4 ,no such form of action1 so far as ,i can see1 is associated with private ownership of land or of any other source of economic rent2 if this is the case1 it follows that the ,state ought to be the primary recipient of rent4 ,if all these powers are allowed to the ,state1 what becomes of the attempt to rescue individual liberty from its tyranny8 ,this is part of the general problem which confronts all those who still care for the ideals which inspired liberalism1 namely the problem of combining liberty and personal initiative with organization4 ,politics and economics are more and more dominated by vast organizations1 in face of which the individual is in danger of becoming powerless4 ,the ,state is the greatest of these organizations1 and the most serious menace to liberty4 ,and yet it seems that many of its functions must be extended rather than curtailed4 ,there is one way by which organization and liberty can be combined1 and that is1 by securing power for voluntary organizations1 consisting of men who have chosen to belong to them because they embody some purpose which all their members consider important1 not a purpose imposed by accident or outside force4 ,the ,state1 being geographical1 cannot be a wholly voluntary association1 but for that very reason there is need of a strong public opinion to restrain it from a tyrannical use of its powers4 ,this public opinion1 in most matters1 can only be secured by combinations of those who have certain interests or desires in common4 ,the positive purposes of the ,state1 over and above the preservation of order1 ought as far as possible to be carried out1 not by the ,state itself1 but by independent organizations1 which should be left completely free so long as they satisfied the ,state that they were not falling below a necessary minimum4 ,this occurs to a certain limited extent at present in regard to elementary education4 ,the universities1 also1 may be regarded as acting for the ,state in the matter of higher education and research1 except that in their case no minimum of achievement is exacted4 ,in the economic sphere1 the ,state ought to exercise control1 but ought to leave initiative to others4 ,there is every reason to multiply opportunities of initiative1 and to give the greatest possible share of initiative to each individual1 for if this is not done there will be a general sense of impotence and discouragement4 ,there ought to be a constant endeavor to leave the more positive aspects of government in the hands of voluntary organizations1 the purpose of the ,state being merely to exact efficiency and to secure an amicable settlement of disputes1 whether within or without its own borders4 ,and with this ought to be combined the greatest possible toleration of exceptions and the least possible insistence upon uniform system4 ,a good deal may be achieved through local government by trades as well as by areas4 ,this is the most original idea in syndicalism1 and it is valuable as a check upon the tyranny which the community may be tempted to exercise over certain classes of its members4 ,all strong organizations which embody a sectional public opinion1 such as trade unions1 coperative societies1 professions1 and universities1 are to be welcomed as safeguards of liberty and opportunities for initiative4 ,and there is need of a strong public opinion in favor of liberty itself4 ,the old battles for freedom of thought and freedom of speech1 which it was thought had been definitively won1 will have to be fought all over again1 since most men are only willing to accord freedom to opinions which happen to be popular4 ,institutions cannot preserve liberty unless men realize that liberty is precious and are willing to exert themselves to keep it alive4 ,there is a traditional objection to every imperium in imperio1 but this is only the jealousy of the tyrant4 ,in actual fact1 the modern ,state contains many organizations which it cannot defeat1 except perhaps on rare occasions when public opinion is roused against them4 ,mr4 ,lloyd ,george's long fight with the medical profession over the ,insurance ,act was full of ,homeric fluctuations of fortune4 ,the ,welsh miners recently routed the whole power of the ,state1 backed by an excited nation4 ,as for the financiers1 no ,government would dream of a conflict with them4 ,when all other classes are exhorted to patriotism1 they are allowed their #d per cent4 and an increase of interest on their consols4 ,it is well understood on all sides that an appeal to their patriotism would show gross ignorance of the world4 ,it is against the traditions of the ,state to extort their money by threatening to withdraw police protection4 ,this is not due to the difficulty of such a measure1 but only to the fact that great wealth wins genuine admiration from us all1 and we cannot bear to think of a very rich man being treated with disrespect4 ,the existence of strong organizations within the ,state1 such as trade unions1 is not undesirable except from the point of view of the official who wishes to wield unlimited power1 or of the rival organizations1 such as federations of employers1 which would prefer a disorganized adversary4 ,in view of the vastness of the ,state1 most men can find little political outlet for initiative except in subordinate organizations formed for specific purposes4 ,without an outlet for political initiative1 men lose their social vigor and their interest in public affairs3 they become a prey to corrupt wire-pullers1 or to sensation-mongers who have the art of capturing a tired and vagrant attention4 ,the cure for this is to increase rather than diminish the powers of voluntary organizations1 to give every man a sphere of political activity small enough for his interest and his capacity1 and to confine the functions of the ,state1 as far as possible1 to the maintenance of peace among rival interests4 ,the essential merit of the ,state is that it prevents the internal use of force by private persons4 ,its essential demerits are1 that it promotes the external use of force1 and that1 by its great size1 it makes each individual feel impotent even in a democracy4 ,i shall return in a later lecture to the question of preventing war4 ,the prevention of the sense of individual impotence cannot be achieved by a return to the small ,city ,state1 which would be as reactionary as a return to the days before machinery4 ,it must be achieved by a method which is in the direction of present tendencies4 ,such a method would be the increasing devolution of positive political initiative to bodies formed voluntarily for specific purposes1 leaving the ,state rather in the position of a federal authority or a court of arbitration4 ,the ,state will then confine itself to insisting upon some settlement of rival interests3 its only principle in deciding what is the right settlement will be an attempt to find the measure most acceptable1 on the whole1 to all the parties concerned4 ,this is the direction in which democratic ,states naturally tend1 except in so far as they are turned aside by war or the fear of war4 ,so long as war remains a daily imminent danger1 the ,state will remain a ,moloch1 sacrificing sometimes the life of the individual1 and always his unfettered development1 to the barren struggle for mastery in the competition with other ,states4 ,in internal as in external affairs1 the worst enemy of freedom is war4 ,,iii ,,war ,,as ,,an ,,institution ,in spite of the fact that most nations at most times1 are at peace1 war is one of the permanent institutions of all free communities1 just as ,parliament is one of our permanent institutions in spite of the fact that it is not always sitting4 ,it is war as a permanent institution that ,i wish to consider3 why men tolerate it2 why they ought not to tolerate it2 what hope there is of their coming not to tolerate it2 and how they could abolish it if they wished to do so4 ,war is a conflict between two groups1 each of which attempts to kill and maim as many as possible of the other group in order to achieve some object which it desires4 ,the object is generally either power or wealth4 ,it is a pleasure to exercise authority over other men1 and it is a pleasure to live on the produce of other men's labor4 ,the victor in war can enjoy more of these delights than the vanquished4 ,but war1 like all other natural activities1 is not so much prompted by the end which it has in view as by an impulse to the activity itself4 ,very often men desire an end1 not on its own account1 but because their nature demands the actions which will lead to the end4 ,and so it is in this case3 the ends to be achieved by war appear in prospect far more important than they will appear when they are realized1 because war itself is a fulfilment of one side of our nature4 ,if men's actions sprang from desires for what would in fact bring happiness1 the purely rational arguments against war would have long ago put an end to it4 ,what makes war difficult to suppress is that it springs from an impulse1 rather than from a calculation of the advantages to be derived from war4 ,war differs from the employment of force by the police through the fact that the actions of the police are ordered by a neutral authority1 whereas in war it is the parties to the dispute themselves who set force in motion4 ,this distinction is not absolute1 since the ,state is not always wholly neutral in internal disturbances4 ,when strikers are shot down1 the ,state is taking the side of the rich4 ,when opinions adverse to the existing ,state are punished1 the ,state is obviously one of the parties to the dispute4 ,and from the suppression of individual opinion up to civil war all gradations are possible4 ,but broadly speaking1 force employed according to laws previously laid down by the community as a whole may be distinguished from force employed by one community against another on occasions of which the one community is the sole judge4 ,i have dwelt upon this difference because ,i do not think the use of force by the police can be wholly eliminated1 and ,i think a similar use of force in international affairs is the best hope of permanent peace4 ,at present1 international affairs are regulated by the principle that a nation must not intervene unless its interests are involved3 diplomatic usage forbids intervention for the mere maintenance of international law4 ,america may protest when ,american citizens are drowned by ,german submarines1 but must not protest when no ,american citizens are involved4 ,the case would be analogous in internal affairs if the police would only interfere with murder when it happened that a policeman had been killed4 ,so long as this principle prevails in the relations of ,states1 the power of neutrals cannot be effectively employed to prevent war4 ,in every civilized country two forces coperate to produce war4 ,in ordinary times some men--usually a small proportion of the population--are bellicose3 they predict war1 and obviously are not unhappy in the prospect4 ,so long as war is not imminent1 the bulk of the population pay little attention to these men1 and do not actively either support or oppose them4 ,but when war begins to seem very near1 a war fever seizes hold of people1 and those who were already bellicose find themselves enthusiastically supported by all but an insignificant minority4 ,the impulses which inspire war fever are rather different from those which make some men bellicose in ordinary times4 ,only educated men are likely to be warlike at ordinary times1 since they alone are vividly aware of other countries or of the part which their own nation might play in the affairs of the world4 ,but it is only their knowledge1 not their nature1 that distinguishes them from their more ignorant compatriots4 ,to take the most obvious example1 ,german policy1 in recent years before the war1 was not averse from war1 and not friendly to ,england4 ,it is worth while to try to understand the state of mind from which this policy sprang4 ,the men who direct ,german policy are1 to begin with1 patriotic to an extent which is almost unknown in ,france and ,england4 ,the interests of ,germany appear to them unquestionably the only interests they need take into account4 ,what injury may1 in pursuing those interests1 be done to other nations1 what destruction may be brought upon populations and cities1 what irreparable damage may result to civilization1 it is not for them to consider4 ,if they can confer what they regard as benefits upon ,germany1 everything else is of no account4 ,the second noteworthy point about ,german policy is that its conception of national welfare is mainly competitive4 ,it is not the intrinsic wealth of ,germany1 whether materially or mentally1 that the rulers of ,germany consider important3 it is the comparative wealth in the competition with other civilized countries4 ,for this reason the destruction of good things abroad appears to them almost as desirable as the creation of good things in ,germany4 ,in most parts of the world the ,french are regarded as the most civilized of nations3 their art and their literature and their way of life have an attraction for foreigners which those of ,germany do not have4 ,the ,english have developed political liberty1 and the art of maintaining an ,empire with a minimum of coercion1 in a way for which ,germany1 hitherto1 has shown no aptitude4 ,these are grounds for envy1 and envy wishes to destroy what is good in other countries4 ,german militarists1 quite rightly1 judged that what was best in ,france and ,england would probably be destroyed by a great war1 even if ,france and ,england were not in the end defeated in the actual fighting4 ,i have seen a list of young ,french writers killed on the battlefield2 probably the ,german authorities have also seen it1 and have reflected with joy that another year of such losses will destroy ,french literature for a generation--perhaps1 through loss of tradition1 for ever4 ,every outburst against liberty in our more bellicose newspapers1 every incitement to persecution of defenseless ,germans1 every mark of growing ferocity in our attitude1 must be read with delight by ,german patriots1 as proving their success in robbing us of our best1 and in forcing us to imitate whatever is worst in ,prussia4 ,but what the rulers of ,germany have envied us most was power and wealth--the power derived from command of the seas and the straits1 the wealth derived from a century of industrial supremacy4 ,in both these respects they feel that their deserts are higher than ours4 ,they have devoted far more thought and skill to military and industrial organization4 ,their average of intelligence and knowledge is far superior2 their capacity for pursuing an attainable end1 unitedly and with forethought1 is infinitely greater4 ,yet we1 merely 7as they think7 because we had a start in the race1 have achieved a vastly larger ,empire than they have1 and an enormously greater control of capital4 ,all this is unbearable2 yet nothing but a great war can alter it4 ,besides all these feelings1 there is in many ,germans1 especially in those who know us best1 a hot hatred of us on account of our pride4 ,farinata degli ,uberti surveyed ,hell 8come avesse lo ,inferno in gran dispitto40 ,just so1 by ,german accounts1 ,english officer prisoners look round them among their captors--holding aloof1 as though the enemy were noxious1 unclean creatures1 toads or slugs or centipedes1 which a man does not touch willingly1 and shakes off with loathing if he is forced to touch them for a moment4 ,it is easy to imagine how the devils hated ,farinata1 and inflicted greater pains upon him than upon his neighbors1 hoping to win recognition by some slight wincing on his part1 driven to frenzy by his continuing to behave as if they did not exist4 ,in just the same way the ,germans are maddened by our spiritual immobility4 ,at bottom we have regarded the ,germans as one regards flies on a hot day3 they are a nuisance1 one has to brush them off1 but it would not occur to one to be turned aside by them4 ,now that the initial certainty of victory has faded1 we begin to be affected inwardly by the ,germans4 ,in time1 if we continue to fail in our military enterprises1 we shall realize that they are human beings1 not just a tiresome circumstance4 ,then perhaps we shall hate them with a hatred which they will have no reason to resent4 ,and from such a hatred it will be only a short journey to a genuine rapprochement4 ,the problem which must be solved1 if the future of the world is to be less terrible than its present1 is the problem of preventing nations from getting into the moods of ,england and ,germany at the outbreak of the war4 ,these two nations as they were at that moment might be taken as almost mythical representatives of pride and envy--cold pride and hot envy4 ,germany declaimed passionately3 8,you1 ,england1 swollen and decrepit1 you overshadow my whole growth--your rotting branches keep the sun from shining upon me and the rain from nourishing me4 ,your spreading foliage must be lopped1 your symmetrical beauty must be destroyed1 that ,i too may have freedom to grow1 that my young vigor may no longer be impeded by your decaying mass40 ,england1 bored and aloof1 unconscious of the claims of outside forces1 attempted absent-mindedly to sweep away the upstart disturber of meditation2 but the upstart was not swept away1 and remains so far with every prospect of making good his claim4 ,the claim and the resistance to it are alike folly4 ,germany had no good ground for envy2 we had no good ground for resisting whatever in ,germany's demands was compatible with our continued existence4 ,is there any method of averting such reciprocal folly in the future8 ,i think if either the ,english or the ,germans were capable of thinking in terms of individual welfare rather than national pride1 they would have seen that1 at every moment during the war the wisest course would have been to conclude peace at once1 on the best terms that could have been obtained4 ,this course1 ,i am convinced1 would have been the wisest for each separate nation1 as well as for civilization in general4 ,the utmost evil that the enemy could inflict through an unfavorable peace would be a trifle compared to the evil which all the nations inflict upon themselves by continuing to fight4 ,what blinds us to this obvious fact is pride1 the pride which makes the acknowledgment of defeat intolerable1 and clothes itself in the garb of reason by suggesting all kinds of evils which are supposed to result from admitting defeat4 ,but the only real evil of defeat is humiliation1 and humiliation is subjective2 we shall not feel humiliated if we become persuaded that it was a mistake to engage in the war1 and that it is better to pursue other tasks not dependent upon world-dominion4 ,if either the ,english or the ,germans could admit this inwardly1 any peace which did not destroy national independence could be accepted without real loss in the self-respect which is essential to a good life4 ,the mood in which ,germany embarked upon the war was abominable1 but it was a mood fostered by the habitual mood of ,england4 ,we have prided ourselves upon our territory and our wealth2 we have been ready at all times to defend by force of arms what we have conquered in ,india and ,africa4 ,if we had realized the futility of empire1 and had shown a willingness to yield colonies to ,germany without waiting for the threat of force1 we might have been in a position to persuade the ,germans that their ambitions were foolish1 and that the respect of the world was not to be won by an imperialist policy4 ,but by our resistance we showed that we shared their standards4 ,we1 being in possession1 became enamored of the status quo4 ,the ,germans were willing to make war to upset the status quo2 we were willing to make war to prevent its being upset in ,germany's favor4 ,so convinced were we of the sacredness of the status quo that we never realized how advantageous it was to us1 or how1 by insisting upon it1 we shared the responsibility for the war4 ,in a world where nations grow and decay1 where forces change and populations become cramped1 it is not possible or desirable to maintain the status quo for ever4 ,if peace is to be preserved1 nations must learn to accept unfavorable alterations of the map without feeling that they must first be defeated in war1 or that in yielding they incur a humiliation4 ,it is the insistence of legalists and friends of peace upon the maintenance of the status quo that has driven ,germany into militarism4 ,germany had as good a right to an ,empire as any other ,great ,power1 but could only acquire an ,empire through war4 ,love of peace has been too much associated with a static conception of international relations4 ,in economic disputes we all know that whatever is vigorous in the wage-earning classes is opposed to 8industrial peace10 because the existing distribution of wealth is felt to be unfair4 ,those who enjoy a privileged position endeavor to bolster up their claims by appealing to the desire for peace1 and decrying those who promote strife between the classes4 ,it never occurs to them that by opposing changes without considering whether they are just1 the capitalists share the responsibility for the class war4 ,and in exactly the same way ,england shares the responsibility for ,germany's war4 ,if actual war is ever to cease there will have to be political methods of achieving the results which now can only be achieved by successful fighting1 and nations will have voluntarily to admit adverse claims which appear just in the judgment of neutrals4 ,it is only by some such admission1 embodying itself in a ,parliament of the nations with full power to alter the distribution of territory1 that militarism can be permanently overcome4 ,it may be that the present war will bring1 in the ,western nations1 a change of mood and outlook sufficient to make such an institution possible4 ,it may be that more wars and more destruction will be necessary before the majority of civilized men rebel against the brutality and futile destruction of modern war4 ,but unless our standards of civilization and our powers of constructive thought are to be permanently lowered1 ,i cannot doubt that1 sooner or later1 reason will conquer the blind impulses which now lead nations into war4 ,and if a large majority of the ,great ,powers had a firm determination that peace should be preserved1 there would be no difficulty in devising diplomatic machinery for the settlement of disputes1 and in establishing educational systems which would implant in the minds of the young an ineradicable horror of the slaughter which they are now taught to admire4 ,besides the conscious and deliberate forces leading to war1 there are the inarticulate feelings of common men1 which1 in most civilized countries1 are always ready to burst into war fever at the bidding of statesmen4 ,if peace is to be secure1 the readiness to catch war fever must be somehow diminished4 ,whoever wishes to succeed in this must first understand what war fever is and why it arises4 ,the men who have an important influence in the world1 whether for good or evil1 are dominated as a rule by a threefold desire3 they desire1 first1 an activity which calls fully into play the faculties in which they feel that they excel2 secondly1 the sense of successfully overcoming resistance2 thirdly1 the respect of others on account of their success4 ,the third of these desires is sometimes absent3 some men who have been great have been without the 8last infirmity10 and have been content with their own sense of success1 or merely with the joy of difficult effort4 ,but as a rule all three are present4 ,some men's talents are specialized1 so that their choice of activities is circumscribed by the nature of their faculties2 other men have1 in youth1 such a wide range of possible aptitudes that their choice is chiefly determined by the varying degrees of respect which public opinion gives to different kinds of success4 ,the same desires1 usually in a less marked degree1 exist in men who have no exceptional talents4 ,but such men cannot achieve anything very difficult by their individual efforts2 for them1 as units1 it is impossible to acquire the sense of greatness or the triumph of strong resistance overcome4 ,their separate lives are unadventurous and dull4 ,in the morning they go to the office or the plow1 in the evening they return tired and silent1 to the sober monotony of wife and children4 ,believing that security is the supreme good1 they have insured against sickness and death1 and have found an employment where they have little fear of dismissal and no hope of any great rise4 ,but security1 once achieved1 brings a ,nemesis of ennui4 ,adventure1 imagination1 risk1 also have their claims2 but how can these claims be satisfied by the ordinary wage-earner8 ,even if it were possible to satisfy them1 the claims of wife and children have priority and must not be neglected4 ,to this victim of order and good organization the realization comes1 in some moment of sudden crisis1 that he belongs to a nation1 that his nation may take risks1 may engage in difficult enterprises1 enjoy the hot passion of doubtful combat1 stimulate adventure and imagination by military expeditions to ,mount ,sinai and the ,garden of ,eden4 ,what his nation does1 in some sense1 he does2 what his nation suffers1 he suffers4 ,the long years of private caution are avenged by a wild plunge into public madness4 ,all the horrid duties of thrift and order and care which he has learnt to fulfil in private are thought not to apply to public affairs3 it is patriotic and noble to be reckless for the nation1 though it would be wicked to be reckless for oneself4 ,the old primitive passions1 which civilization has denied1 surge up all the stronger for repression4 ,in a moment imagination and instinct travel back through the centuries1 and the wild man of the woods emerges from the mental prison in which he has been confined4 ,this is the deeper part of the psychology of the war fever4 ,but besides the irrational and instinctive element in the war fever1 there is always also1 if only as a liberator of primitive impulse1 a certain amount of quasi-rational calculation and what is euphemistically called 8thought40 ,the war fever very seldom seizes a nation unless it believes that it will be victorious4 ,undoubtedly1 under the influence of excitement1 men over-estimate their chances of success2 but there is some proportion between what is hoped and what a rational man would expect4 ,holland1 though quite as humane as ,england1 had no impulse to go to war on behalf of ,belgium1 because the likelihood of disaster was so obviously overwhelming4 ,the ,london populace1 if they had known how the war was going to develop1 would not have rejoiced as they did on that ,august ,bank ,holiday long ago4 ,a nation which has had a recent experience of war1 and has come to know that a war is almost always more painful than it is expected to be at the outset1 becomes much less liable to war fever until a new generation grows up4 ,the element of rationality in war fever is recognized by ,governments and journalists who desire war1 as may be seen by their invariably minimizing the perils of a war which they wish to provoke4 ,at the beginning of the ,south ,african ,war ,sir ,william ,butler was dismissed1 apparently for suggesting that sixty thousand men and three months might not suffice to subdue the ,boer ,republics4 ,and when the war proved long and difficult1 the nation turned against those who had made it4 ,we may assume1 ,i think1 without attributing too great a share to reason in human affairs1 that a nation would not suffer from war fever in a case where every sane man could see that defeat was very probable4 ,the importance of this lies in the fact that it would make aggressive war very unlikely if its chances of success were very small4 ,if the peace-loving nations were sufficiently strong to be obviously capable of defeating the nations which were willing to wage aggressive war1 the peace-loving nations might form an alliance and agree to fight jointly against any nation which refused to submit its claims to an ,international ,council4 ,before the present war we might have reasonably hoped to secure the peace of the world in some such way2 but the military strength of ,germany has shown that such a scheme has no great chance of success at present4 ,perhaps at some not far distant date it may be made more feasible by developments of policy in ,america4 ,the economic and political forces which make for war could be easily curbed if the will to peace existed strongly in all civilized nations4 ,but so long as the populations are liable to war fever1 all work for peace must be precarious2 and if war fever could not be aroused1 political and economic forces would be powerless to produce any long or very destructive war4 ,the fundamental problem for the pacifist is to prevent the impulse towards war which seizes whole communities from time to time4 ,and this can only be done by far-reaching changes in education1 in the economic structure of society1 and in the moral code by which public opinion controls the lives of men and women4#aj ,a great many of the impulses which now lead nations to go to war are in themselves essential to any vigorous or progressive life4 ,without imagination and love of adventure a society soon becomes stagnant and begins to decay4 ,conflict1 provided it is not destructive and brutal1 is necessary in order to stimulate men's activities1 and to secure the victory of what is living over what is dead or merely traditional4 ,the wish for the triumph of one's cause1 the sense of solidarity with large bodies of men1 are not things which a wise man will wish to destroy4 ,it is only the outcome in death and destruction and hatred that is evil4 ,the problem is1 to keep these impulses1 without making war the outlet for them4 ,all ,utopias that have hitherto been constructed are intolerably dull4 ,any man with any force in him would rather live in this world1 with all its ghastly horrors1 than in ,plato's ,republic or among ,swift's ,houyhnhnms4 ,the men who make ,utopias proceed upon a radically false assumption as to what constitutes a good life4 ,they conceive that it is possible to imagine a certain state of society and a certain way of life which should be once for all recognized as good1 and should then continue for ever and ever4 ,they do not realize that much the greater part of a man's happiness depends upon activity1 and only a very small remnant consists in passive enjoyment4 ,even the pleasures which do consist in enjoyment are only satisfactory1 to most men1 when they come in the intervals of activity4 ,social reformers1 like inventors of ,utopias1 are apt to forget this very obvious fact of human nature4 ,they aim rather at securing more leisure1 and more opportunity for enjoying it1 than at making work itself more satisfactory1 more consonant with impulse1 and a better outlet for creativeness and the desire to employ one's faculties4 ,work1 in the modern world1 is1 to almost all who depend on earnings1 mere work1 not an embodiment of the desire for activity4 ,probably this is to a considerable extent inevitable4 ,but in so far as it can be prevented something will be done to give a peaceful outlet to some of the impulses which lead to war4 ,it would1 of course1 be easy to bring about peace if there were no vigor in the world4 ,the ,roman ,empire was pacific and unproductive2 the ,athens of ,pericles was the most productive and almost the most warlike community known to history4 ,the only form of production in which our own age excels is science1 and in science ,germany1 the most warlike of ,great ,powers1 is supreme4 ,it is useless to multiply examples2 but it is plain that the very same vital energy which produces all that is best also produces war and the love of war4 ,this is the basis of the opposition to pacifism felt by many men whose aims and activities are by no means brutal4 ,pacifism1 in practice1 too often expresses merely lack of force1 not the refusal to use force in thwarting others4 ,pacifism1 if it is to be both victorious and beneficent1 must find an outlet1 compatible with humane feeling1 for the vigor which now leads nations into war and destruction4 ,this problem was considered by ,william ,james in an admirable address on 8,the ,moral ,equivalent of ,war10 delivered to a congress of pacifists during the ,spanish-,american ,war of #ahih4 ,his statement of the problem could not be bettered2 and so far as ,i know1 he is the only writer who has faced the problem adequately4 ,but his solution is not adequate2 perhaps no adequate solution is possible4 ,the problem1 however1 is one of degree3 every additional peaceful outlet for men's energies diminishes the force which urges nations towards war1 and makes war less frequent and less fierce4 ,and as a question of degree1 it is capable of more or less partial solutions4#aa ,every vigorous man needs some kind of contest1 some sense of resistance overcome1 in order to feel that he is exercising his faculties4 ,under the influence of economics1 a theory has grown up that what men desire is wealth2 this theory has tended to verify itself1 because people's actions are more often determined by what they think they desire than by what they really desire4 ,the less active members of a community often do in fact desire wealth1 since it enables them to gratify a taste for passive enjoyment1 and to secure respect without exertion4 ,but the energetic men who make great fortunes seldom desire the actual money3 they desire the sense of power through a contest1 and the joy of successful activity4 ,for this reason1 those who are the most ruthless in making money are often the most willing to give it away2 there are many notorious examples of this among ,american millionaires4 ,the only element of truth in the economic theory that these men are actuated by desire for money is this3 owing to the fact that money is what is believed to be desirable1 the making of money is recognized as the test of success4 ,what is desired is visible and indubitable success2 but this can only be achieved by being one of the few who reach a goal which many men would wish to reach4 ,for this reason1 public opinion has a great influence in directing the activities of vigorous men4 ,in ,america a millionaire is more respected than a great artist2 this leads men who might become either the one or the other to choose to become millionaires4 ,in ,renaissance ,italy great artists were more respected than millionaires1 and the result was the opposite of what it is in ,america4 ,some pacifists and all militarists deprecate social and political conflicts4 ,in this the militarists are in the right1 from their point of view2 but the pacifists seem to me mistaken4 ,conflicts of party politics1 conflicts between capital and labor1 and generally all those conflicts of principle which do not involve war1 serve many useful purposes1 and do very little harm4 ,they increase men's interest in public affairs1 they afford a comparatively innocent outlet for the love of contest1 and they help to alter laws and institutions1 when changing conditions or greater knowledge create the wish for an alteration4 ,everything that intensifies political life tends to bring about a peaceful interest of the same kind as the interest which leads to desire for war4 ,and in a democratic community political questions give every voter a sense of initiative and power and responsibility which relieves his life of something of its narrow unadventurousness4 ,the object of the pacifist should be to give men more and more political control over their own lives1 and in particular to introduce democracy into the management of industry1 as the syndicalists advise4 ,the problem for the reflective pacifist is two-fold3 how to keep his own country at peace1 and how to preserve the peace of the world4 ,it is impossible that the peace of the world should be preserved while nations are liable to the mood in which ,germany entered upon the war--unless1 indeed1 one nation were so obviously stronger than all others combined as to make war unnecessary for that one and hopeless for all the others4 ,as this war has dragged on its weary length1 many people must have asked themselves whether national independence is worth the price that has to be paid for it4 ,would it not perhaps be better to secure universal peace by the supremacy of one ,power8 8,to secure peace by a world federation0--so a submissive pacifist may argue--8would require some faint glimmerings of reason in rulers and peoples1 and is therefore out of the question2 but to secure it by allowing ,germany to dictate terms to ,europe would be easy1 in view of ,germany's amazing military success4 ,since there is no other way of ending war0--so our advocate of peace at any price would contend--8let us adopt this way1 which happens at the moment to be open to us40 ,it is worth while to consider this view more attentively than is commonly considered4 ,there is one great historic example of a long peace secured in this way2 ,i mean the ,roman ,empire4 ,we in ,england boast of the ,pax ,britannica which we have imposed1 in this way1 upon the warring races and religions in ,india4 ,if we are right in boasting of this1 if we have in fact conferred a benefit upon ,india by enforced peace1 the ,germans would be right in boasting if they could impose a ,pax ,germanica upon ,europe4 ,before the war1 men might have said that ,india and ,europe are not analogous1 because ,india is less civilized than ,europe2 but now1 ,i hope1 no one would have the effrontery to maintain anything so preposterous4 ,repeatedly in modern history there has been a chance of achieving ,european unity by the hegemony of a single ,state2 but always ,england1 in obedience to the doctrine of the ,balance of ,power1 has prevented this consummation1 and preserved what our statesmen have called the 8liberties of ,europe40 ,it is this task upon which we are now engaged4 ,but ,i do not think our statesmen1 or any others among us1 have made much effort to consider whether the task is worth what it costs4 ,in one case we were clearly wrong3 in our resistance to revolutionary ,france4 ,if revolutionary ,france could have conquered the ,continent and ,great ,britain1 the world would now be happier1 more civilized1 and more free1 as well as more peaceful4 ,but revolutionary ,france was a quite exceptional case1 because its early conquests were made in the name of liberty1 against tyrants1 not against peoples2 and everywhere the ,french armies were welcomed as liberators by all except rulers and bigots4 ,in the case of ,philip ,,ii we were as clearly right as we were wrong in #agic4 ,but in both cases our action is not to be judged by some abstract diplomatic conception of the 8liberties of ,europe10 but by the ideals of the ,power seeking hegemony1 and by the probable effect upon the welfare of ordinary men and women throughout ,europe4 8,hegemony0 is a very vague word1 and everything turns upon the degree of interference with liberty which it involves4 ,there is a degree of interference with liberty which is fatal to many forms of national life2 for example1 ,italy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was crushed by the supremacy of ,spain and ,austria4 ,if the ,germans were actually to annex ,french provinces1 as they did in #ahga1 they would probably inflict a serious injury upon those provinces1 and make them less fruitful for civilization in general4 ,for such reasons national liberty is a matter of real importance1 and a ,europe actually governed by ,germany would probably be very dead and unproductive4 ,but if 8hegemony0 merely means increased weight in diplomatic questions1 more coaling stations and possessions in ,africa1 more power of securing advantageous commercial treaties1 then it can hardly be supposed that it would do any vital damage to other nations2 certainly it would not do so much damage as the present war is doing4 ,i cannot doubt that1 before the war1 a hegemony of this kind would have abundantly satisfied the ,germans4 ,but the effect of the war1 so far1 has been to increase immeasurably all the dangers which it was intended to avert4 ,we have now only the choice between certain exhaustion of ,europe in fighting ,germany and possible damage to the national life of ,france by ,german tyranny4 ,stated in terms of civilization and human welfare1 not in terms of national prestige1 that is now in fact the issue4 ,assuming that war is not ended by one ,state conquering all the others1 the only way in which it can be permanently ended is by a world-federation4 ,so long as there are many sovereign ,states1 each with its own ,army1 there can be no security that there will not be war4 ,there will have to be in the world only one ,army and one ,navy before there will be any reason to think that wars have ceased4 ,this means that1 so far as the military functions of the ,state are concerned1 there will be only one ,state1 which will be world-wide4 ,the civil functions of the ,state--legislative1 administrative1 and judicial--have no very essential connection with the military functions1 and there is no reason why both kinds of functions should normally be exercised by the same ,state4 ,there is1 in fact1 every reason why the civil ,state and the military ,state should be different4 ,the greater modern ,states are already too large for most civil purposes1 but for military purposes they are not large enough1 since they are not world-wide4 ,this difference as to the desirable area for the two kinds of ,state introduces a certain perplexity and hesitation1 when it is not realized that the two functions have little necessary connection3 one set of considerations points towards small ,states1 the other towards continually larger ,states4 ,of course1 if there were an international ,army and ,navy1 there would have to be some international authority to set them in motion4 ,but this authority need never concern itself with any of the internal affairs of national ,states3 it need only declare the rules which should regulate their relations1 and pronounce judicially when those rules have been so infringed as to call for the intervention of the international force4 ,how easily the limit of the authority could be fixed may be seen by many actual examples4 ,the civil and military ,state are often different in practice1 for many purposes4 ,the ,south ,american ,republics are sovereign for all purposes except their relations with ,europe1 in regard to which they are subject to the ,united ,states3 in dealings with ,europe1 the ,army and ,navy of the ,united ,states are their ,army and ,navy4 ,our self-governing ,dominions depend for their defense1 not upon their own forces but upon our ,navy4 ,most ,governments1 nowadays1 do not aim at formal annexation of a country which they wish to incorporate1 but only at a protectorate--that is1 civil autonomy subject to military control4 ,such autonomy is1 of course1 in practice incomplete1 because it does not enable the 8protected0 country to adopt measures which are vetoed by the ,power in military control4 ,but it may be very nearly complete1 as in the case of our self-governing ,dominions4 ,at the other extreme1 it may become a mere farce1 as in ,egypt4 ,in the case of an alliance1 there is complete autonomy of the separate allied countries1 together with what is practically a combination of their military forces into one single force4 ,the great advantage of a large military ,state is that it increases the area over which internal war is not possible except by revolution4 ,if ,england and ,canada have a disagreement1 it is taken as a matter of course that a settlement shall be arrived at by discussion1 not by force4 ,still more is this the case if ,manchester and ,liverpool have a quarrel1 in spite of the fact that each is autonomous for many local purposes4 ,no one would have thought it reasonable that ,liverpool should go to war to prevent the construction of the ,manchester ,ship ,canal1 although almost any two ,great ,powers would have gone to war over an issue of the same relative importance4 ,england and ,russia would probably have gone to war over ,persia if they had not been allies2 as it is1 they arrived by diplomacy at much the same iniquitous result as they would otherwise have reached by fighting4 ,australia and ,japan would probably fight if they were both completely independent2 but both depend for their liberties upon the ,british ,navy1 and therefore they have to adjust their differences peaceably4 ,the chief disadvantage of a large military ,state is that1 when external war occurs1 the area affected is greater4 ,the quadruple ,entente forms1 for the present1 one military ,state2 the result is that1 because of a dispute between ,austria and ,serbia1 ,belgium is devastated and ,australians are killed in the ,dardanelles4 ,another disadvantage is that it facilitates oppression4 ,a large military ,state is practically omnipotent against a small ,state1 and can impose its will1 as ,england and ,russia did in ,persia and as ,austria-,hungary has been doing in ,serbia4 ,it is impossible to make sure of avoiding oppression by any purely mechanical guarantees2 only a liberal and humane spirit can afford a real protection4 ,it has been perfectly possible for ,england to oppress ,ireland1 in spite of democracy and the presence of ,irish ,members at ,westminster4 ,nor has the presence of ,poles in the ,reichstag prevented the oppression of ,prussian ,poland4 ,but democracy and representative government undoubtedly make oppression less probable3 they afford a means by which those who might be oppressed can cause their wishes and grievances to be publicly known1 they render it certain that only a minority can be oppressed1 and then only if the majority are nearly unanimous in wishing to oppress them4 ,also the practice of oppression affords much more pleasure to the governing classes1 who actually carry it out1 than to the mass of the population4 ,for this reason the mass of the population1 where it has power1 is likely to be less tyrannical than an oligarchy or a bureaucracy4 ,in order to prevent war and at the same time preserve liberty it is necessary that there should be only one military ,state in the world1 and that when disputes between different countries arise1 it should act according to the decision of a central authority4 ,this is what would naturally result from a federation of the world1 if such a thing ever came about4 ,but the prospect is remote1 and it is worth while to consider why it is so remote4 ,the unity of a nation is produced by similar habits1 instinctive liking1 a common history1 and a common pride4 ,the unity of a nation is partly due to intrinsic affinities between its citizens1 but partly also to the pressure and contrast of the outside world3 if a nation were isolated1 it would not have the same cohesion or the same fervor of patriotism4 ,when we come to alliances of nations1 it is seldom anything except outside pressure that produces solidarity4 ,england and ,america1 to some extent1 are drawn together by the same causes which often make national unity3 a 7more or less7 common language1 similar political institutions1 similar aims in international politics4 ,but ,england1 ,france1 and ,russia were drawn together solely by fear of ,germany2 if ,germany had been annihilated by a natural cataclysm1 they would at once have begun to hate one another1 as they did before ,germany was strong4 ,for this reason1 the possibility of coperation in the present alliance against ,germany affords no ground whatever for hoping that all the nations of the world might coperate permanently in a peaceful alliance4 ,the present motive for cohesion1 namely a common fear1 would be gone1 and could not be replaced by any other motive unless men's thoughts and purposes were very different from what they are now4 ,the ultimate fact from which war results is not economic or political1 and does not rest upon any mechanical difficulty of inventing means for the peaceful settlement of international disputes4 ,the ultimate fact from which war results is the fact that a large proportion of mankind have an impulse to conflict rather than harmony1 and can only be brought to coperate with others in resisting or attacking a common enemy4 ,this is the case in private life as well as in the relations of ,states4 ,most men1 when they feel themselves sufficiently strong1 set to work to make themselves feared rather than loved2 the wish to gain the good opinion of others is confined1 as a rule1 to those who have not acquired secure power4 ,the impulse to quarreling and self-assertion1 the pleasure of getting one's own way in spite of opposition1 is native to most men4 ,it is this impulse1 rather than any motive of calculated self-interest1 which produces war1 and causes the difficulty of bringing about a ,world-,state4 ,and this impulse is not confined to one nation2 it exists1 in varying degrees1 in all the vigorous nations of the world4 ,but although this impulse is strong1 there is no reason why it should be allowed to lead to war4 ,it was exactly the same impulse which led to duelling2 yet now civilized men conduct their private quarrels without bloodshed4 ,if political contest within a ,world-,state were substituted for war1 imagination would soon accustom itself to the new situation1 as it has accustomed itself to absence of duelling4 ,through the influence of institutions and habits1 without any fundamental change in human nature1 men would learn to look back upon war as we look upon the burning of heretics or upon human sacrifice to heathen deities4 ,if ,i were to buy a revolver costing several pounds1 in order to shoot my friend with a view to stealing sixpence out of his pocket1 ,i should be thought neither very wise nor very virtuous4 ,but if ,i can get sixty-five million accomplices to join me in this criminal absurdity1 ,i become one of a great and glorious nation1 nobly sacrificing the cost of my revolver1 perhaps even my life1 in order to secure the sixpence for the honor of my country4 ,historians1 who are almost invariably sycophants1 will praise me and my accomplices if we are successful1 and say that we are worthy successors of the heroes who overthrew the might of ,imperial ,rome4 ,but if my opponents are victorious1 if their sixpences are defended at the cost of many pounds each and the lives of a large proportion of the population1 then historians will call me a brigand 7as ,i am71 and praise the spirit and self-sacrifice of those who resisted me4 ,war is surrounded with glamour1 by tradition1 by ,homer and the ,old ,testament1 by early education1 by elaborate myths as to the importance of the issues involved1 by the heroism and self-sacrifice1 which these myths call out4 ,jephthah sacrificing his daughter is a heroic figure1 but he would have let her live if he had not been deceived by a myth4 ,mothers sending their sons to the battlefield are heroic1 but they are as much deceived as ,jephthah4 ,and1 in both cases alike1 the heroism which issues in cruelty would be dispelled if there were not some strain of barbarism in the imaginative outlook from which myths spring4 ,a ,god who can be pleased by the sacrifice of an innocent girl could only be worshiped by men to whom the thought of receiving such a sacrifice is not wholly abhorrent4 ,a nation which believes that its welfare can only be secured by suffering and inflicting hundreds of thousands of equally horrible sacrifices1 is a nation which has no very spiritual conception of what constitutes national welfare4 ,it would be better a hundredfold to forgo material comfort1 power1 pomp1 and outward glory than to kill and be killed1 to hate and be hated1 to throw away in a mad moment of fury the bright heritage of the ages4 ,we have learnt gradually to free our ,god from the savagery with which the primitive ,israelites and the ,fathers endowed ,him3 few of us now believe that it is ,his pleasure to torture most of the human race in an eternity of hell-fire4 ,but we have not yet learnt to free our national ideals from the ancient taint4 ,devotion to the nation is perhaps the deepest and most widespread religion of the present age4 ,like the ancient religions1 it demands its persecutions1 its holocausts1 its lurid heroic cruelties2 like them1 it is noble1 primitive1 brutal1 and mad4 ,now1 as in the past1 religion1 lagging behind private consciences through the weight of tradition1 steels the hearts of men against mercy and their minds against truth4 ,if the world is to be saved1 men must learn to be noble without being cruel1 to be filled with faith and yet open to truth1 to be inspired by great purposes without hating those who try to thwart them4 ,but before this can happen1 men must first face the terrible realization that the gods before whom they have bowed down were false gods and the sacrifices they have made were vain4 ,,iv ,,property ,among the many gloomy novelists of the realistic school1 perhaps the most full of gloom is ,gissing4 ,in common with all his characters1 he lives under the weight of a great oppression3 the power of the fearful and yet adored idol of ,money4 ,one of his typical stories is 8,eve's ,ransom10 where the heroine1 with various discreditable subterfuges1 throws over the poor man whom she loves in order to marry the rich man whose income she loves still better4 ,the poor man1 finding that the rich man's income has given her a fuller life and a better character than the poor man's love could have given her1 decides that she has done quite right1 and that he deserves to be punished for his lack of money4 ,in this story1 as in his other books1 ,gissing has set forth1 quite accurately1 the actual dominion of money1 and the impersonal worship which it exacts from the great majority of civilized mankind4 ,gissing's facts are undeniable1 and yet his attitude produces a revolt in any reader who has vital passions and masterful desires4 ,his worship of money is bound up with his consciousness of inward defeat4 ,and in the modern world generally1 it is the decay of life which has promoted the religion of material goods2 and the religion of material goods1 in its turn1 has hastened the decay of life on which it thrives4 ,the man who worships money has ceased to hope for happiness through his own efforts or in his own activities3 he looks upon happiness as a passive enjoyment of pleasures derived from the outside world4 ,the artist or the lover does not worship money in his moments of ardor1 because his desires are specific1 and directed towards objects which only he can create4 ,and conversely1 the worshiper of money can never achieve greatness as an artist or a lover4 ,love of money has been denounced by moralists since the world began4 ,i do not wish to add another to the moral denunciations1 of which the efficacy in the past has not been encouraging4 ,i wish to show how the worship of money is both an effect and a cause of diminishing vitality1 and how our institutions might be changed so as to make the worship of money grow less and the general vitality grow more4 ,it is not the desire for money as a means to definite ends that is in question4 ,a struggling artist may desire money in order to have leisure for his art1 but this desire is finite1 and can be satisfied fully by a very modest sum4 ,it is the worship of money that ,i wish to consider3 the belief that all values may be measured in terms of money1 and that money is the ultimate test of success in life4 ,this belief is held in fact1 if not in words1 by multitudes of men and women1 and yet it is not in harmony with human nature1 since it ignores vital needs and the instinctive tendency towards some specific kind of growth4 ,it makes men treat as unimportant those of their desires which run counter to the acquisition of money1 and yet such desires are1 as a rule1 more important to well-being than any increase of income4 ,it leads men to mutilate their own natures from a mistaken theory of what constitutes success1 and to give admiration to enterprises which add nothing to human welfare4 ,it promotes a dead uniformity of character and purpose1 a diminution in the joy of life1 and a stress and strain which leaves whole communities weary1 discouraged1 and disillusioned4 ,america1 the pioneer of ,western progress1 is thought by many to display the worship of money in its most perfect form4 ,a well-to-do ,american1 who already has more than enough money to satisfy all reasonable requirements1 almost always continues to work at his office with an assiduity which would only be pardonable if starvation were the alternative4 ,but ,england1 except among a small minority1 is almost as much given over to the worship of money as ,america4 ,love of money in ,england takes1 as a rule1 the form of snobbishly desiring to maintain a certain social status1 rather than of striving after an indefinite increase of income4 ,men postpone marriage until they have an income enabling them to have as many rooms and servants in their house as they feel that their dignity requires4 ,this makes it necessary for them while they are young to keep a watch upon their affections1 lest they should be led into an imprudence3 they acquire a cautious habit of mind1 and a fear of 8giving themselves away10 which makes a free and vigorous life impossible4 ,in acting as they do they imagine that they are being virtuous1 since they would feel it a hardship for a woman to be asked to descend to a lower social status than that of her parents1 and a degradation to themselves to marry a woman whose social status was not equal to their own4 ,the things of nature are not valued in comparison with money4 ,it is not thought a hardship for a woman to have to accept1 as her only experience of love1 the prudent and limited attentions of a man whose capacity for emotion has been lost during years of wise restraint or sordid relations with women whom he did not respect4 ,the woman herself does not know that it is a hardship2 for she1 too1 has been taught prudence for fear of a descent in the social scale1 and from early youth she has had it instilled into her that strong feeling does not become a young woman4 ,so the two unite to slip through life in ignorance of all that is worth knowing4 ,their ancestors were not restrained from passion by the fear of hell-fire1 but they are restrained effectually by a worse fear1 the fear of coming down in the world4 ,the same motives which lead men to marry late also lead them to limit their families4 ,professional men wish to send their sons to a public school1 though the education they will obtain is no better than at a grammar school1 and the companions with whom they will associate are more vicious4 ,but snobdom has decided that public schools are best1 and from its verdict there is no appeal4 ,what makes them the best is that they are the most expensive4 ,and the same social struggle1 in varying forms1 runs through all classes except the very highest and the very lowest4 ,for this purpose men and women make great moral efforts1 and show amazing powers of self-control2 but all their efforts and all their self-control1 being not used for any creative end1 serve merely to dry up the well-spring of life within them1 to make them feeble1 listless1 and trivial4 ,it is not in such a soil that the passion which produces genius can be nourished4 ,men's souls have exchanged the wilderness for the drawing-room3 they have become cramped and petty and deformed1 like ,chinese women's feet4 ,even the horrors of war have hardly awakened them from the smug somnambulism of respectability4 ,and it is chiefly the worship of money that has brought about this deathlike slumber of all that makes men great4 ,in ,france the worship of money takes the form of thrift4 ,it is not easy to make a fortune in ,france1 but an inherited competence is very common1 and where it exists the main purpose of life is to hand it on undiminished1 if not increased4 ,the ,french rentier is one of the great forces in international politics3 it is he through whom ,france has been strengthened in diplomacy and weakened in war1 by increasing the supply of ,french capital and diminishing the supply of ,french men4 ,the necessity of providing a dot for daughters1 and the subdivision of property by the law of inheritance1 have made the family more powerful1 as an institution1 than in any other civilized country4 ,in order that the family may prosper1 it is kept small1 and the individual members are often sacrificed to it4 ,the desire for family continuity makes men timid and unadventurous3 it is only in the organized proletariat that the daring spirit survives which made the ,revolution and led the world in political thought and practice4 ,through the influence of money1 the strength of the family has become a weakness to the nation by making the population remain stationary and even tend to decline4 ,the same love of safety is beginning to produce the same effects elsewhere2 but in this1 as in many better things1 ,france has led the way4 ,in ,germany the worship of money is more recent than in ,france1 ,england1 and ,america2 indeed1 it hardly existed until after the ,franco-,prussian ,war4 ,but it has been adopted now with the same intensity and whole-heartedness which have always marked ,german beliefs4 ,it is characteristic that1 as in ,france the worship of money is associated with the family1 so in ,germany it is associated with the ,state4 ,liszt1 in deliberate revolt against the ,english economists1 taught his compatriots to think of economics in national terms1 and the ,german who develops a business is felt1 by others as well as by himself1 to be performing a service to the ,state4 ,germans believe that ,england's greatness is due to industrialism and ,empire1 and that our success in these is due to an intense nationalism4 ,the apparent internationalism of our ,free ,trade policy they regard as mere hypocrisy4 ,they have set themselves to imitate what they believe we really are1 with only the hypocrisy omitted4 ,it must be admitted that their success has been amazing4 ,but in the process they have destroyed almost all that made ,germany of value to the world1 and they have not adopted whatever of good there may have been among us1 since that was all swept aside in the wholesale condemnation of 8hypocrisy40 ,and in adopting our worst faults1 they have made them far worse by a system1 a thoroughness1 and a unanimity of which we are happily incapable4 ,germany's religion is of great importance to the world1 since ,germans have a power of real belief1 and have the energy to acquire the virtues and vices which their creed demands4 ,for the sake of the world1 as well as for the sake of ,germany1 we must hope that they will soon abandon the worship of wealth which they have unfortunately learnt from us4 ,worship of money is no new thing1 but it is a more harmful thing than it used to be1 for several reasons4 ,industrialism has made work more wearisome and intense1 less capable of affording pleasure and interest by the way to the man who has undertaken it for the sake of money4 ,the power of limiting families has opened a new field for the operation of thrift4 ,the general increase in education and self-discipline has made men more capable of pursuing a purpose consistently in spite of temptations1 and when the purpose is against life it becomes more destructive with every increase of tenacity in those who adopt it4 ,the greater productivity resulting from industrialism has enabled us to devote more labor and capital to armies and navies for the protection of our wealth from envious neighbors1 and for the exploitation of inferior races1 which are ruthlessly wasted by the capitalist rgime4 ,through the fear of losing money1 forethought and anxiety eat away men's power of happiness1 and the dread of misfortune becomes a greater misfortune than the one which is dreaded4 ,the happiest men and women1 as we can all testify from our own experience1 are those who are indifferent to money because they have some positive purpose which shuts it out4 ,and yet all our political thought1 whether imperialist1 radical1 or socialist1 continues to occupy itself almost exclusively with men's economic desires1 as though they alone had real importance4 ,in judging of an industrial system1 whether the one under which we live or one proposed by reformers1 there are four main tests which may be applied4 ,we may consider whether the system secures 7#a7 the maximum of production1 or 7#b7 justice in distribution1 or 7#c7 a tolerable existence for producers1 or 7#d7 the greatest possible freedom and stimulus to vitality and progress4 ,we may say1 broadly1 that the present system aims only at the first of these objects1 while socialism aims at the second and third4 ,some defenders of the present system contend that technical progress is better promoted by private enterprise than it would be if industry were in the hands of the ,state2 to this extent they recognize the fourth of the objects we have enumerated4 ,but they recognize it only on the side of the goods and the capitalist1 not on the side of the wage-earner4 ,i believe that the fourth is much the most important of the objects to be aimed at1 that the present system is fatal to it1 and that orthodox socialism might well prove equally fatal4 ,one of the least questioned assumptions of the capitalist system is1 that production ought to be increased in amount by every possible means3 by new kinds of machinery1 by employment of women and boys1 by making hours of labor as long as is compatible with efficiency4 ,central ,african natives1 accustomed to living on raw fruits of the earth and defeating ,manchester by dispensing with clothes1 are compelled to work by a hut tax which they can only pay by taking employment under ,european capitalists4 ,it is admitted that they are perfectly happy while they remain free from ,european influences1 and that industrialism brings upon them1 not only the unwonted misery of confinement1 but also death from diseases to which white men have become partially immune4 ,it is admitted that the best negro workers are the 8raw natives10 fresh from the bush1 uncontaminated by previous experience of wage-earning4 ,nevertheless1 no one effectively contends that they ought to be preserved from the deterioration which we bring1 since no one effectively doubts that it is good to increase the world's production at no matter what cost4 ,the belief in the importance of production has a fanatical irrationality and ruthlessness4 ,so long as something is produced1 what it is that is produced seems to be thought a matter of no account4 ,our whole economic system encourages this view1 since fear of unemployment makes any kind of work a boon to wage-earners4 ,the mania for increasing production has turned men's thoughts away from much more important problems1 and has prevented the world from getting the benefits it might have got out of the increased productivity of labor4 ,when we are fed and clothed and housed1 further material goods are needed only for ostentation4#ab ,with modern methods1 a certain proportion of the population1 without working long hours1 could do all the work that is really necessary in the way of producing commodities4 ,the time which is now spent in producing luxuries could be spent partly in enjoyment and country holidays1 partly in better education1 partly in work that is not manual or subserving manual work4 ,we could1 if we wished1 have far more science and art1 more diffused knowledge and mental cultivation1 more leisure for wage-earners1 and more capacity for intelligent pleasures4 ,at present not only wages1 but almost all earned incomes1 can only be obtained by working much longer hours than men ought to work4 ,a man who earns #hjj a year by hard work could not1 as a rule1 earn #djj a year by half as much work4 ,often he could not earn anything if he were not willing to work practically all day and every day4 ,because of the excessive belief in the value of production1 it is thought right and proper for men to work long hours1 and the good that might result from shorter hours is not realized4 ,and all the cruelties of the industrial system1 not only in ,europe but even more in the tropics1 arouse only an occasional feeble protest from a few philanthropists4 ,this is because1 owing to the distortion produced by our present economic methods1 men's conscious desires1 in such matters1 cover only a very small part1 and that not the most important part1 of the real needs affected by industrial work4 ,if this is to be remedied1 it can only be by a different economic system1 in which the relation of activity to needs will be less concealed and more direct4 ,the purpose of maximizing production will not be achieved in the long run if our present industrial system continues4 ,our present system is wasteful of human material1 partly through damage to the health and efficiency of industrial workers1 especially when women and children are employed1 partly through the fact that the best workers tend to have small families and that the more civilized races are in danger of gradual extinction4 ,every great city is a center of race-deterioration4 ,for the case of ,london this has been argued with a wealth of statistical detail by ,sir ,h4 ,llewelyn ,smith2#ac and it cannot easily be doubted that it is equally true in other cases4 ,the same is true of material resources3 the minerals1 the virgin forests1 and the newly developed wheatfields of the world are being exhausted with a reckless prodigality which entails almost a certainty of hardship for future generations4 ,socialists see the remedy in ,state ownership of land and capital1 combined with a more just system of distribution4 ,it cannot be denied that our present system of distribution is indefensible from every point of view1 including the point of view of justice4 ,our system of distribution is regulated by law1 and is capable of being changed in many respects which familiarity makes us regard as natural and inevitable4 ,we may distinguish four chief sources of recognized legal rights to private property3 7#a7 a man's right to what he has made himself2 7#b7 the right to interest on capital which has been lent2 7#c7 the ownership of land2 7#d7 inheritance4 ,these form a crescendo of respectability3 capital is more respectable than labor1 land is more respectable than capital1 and any form of wealth is more respectable when it is inherited than when it has been acquired by our own exertions4 ,a man's right to the produce of his own labor has never1 in fact1 had more than a very limited recognition from the law4 ,the early socialists1 especially the ,english forerunners of ,marx1 used to insist upon this right as the basis of a just system of distribution1 but in the complication of modern industrial processes it is impossible to say what a man has produced4 ,what proportion of the goods carried by a railway should belong to the goods porters concerned in their journey8 ,when a surgeon saves a man's life by an operation1 what proportion of the commodities which the man subsequently produces can the surgeon justly claim8 ,such problems are insoluble4 ,and there is no special justice1 even if they were soluble1 in allowing to each man what he himself produces4 ,some men are stronger1 healthier1 cleverer1 than others1 but there is no reason for increasing these natural injustices by the artificial injustices of the law4 ,the principle recommends itself partly as a way of abolishing the very rich1 partly as a way of stimulating people to work hard4 ,but the first of these objects can be better obtained in other ways1 and the second ceases to be obviously desirable as soon as we cease to worship money4 ,interest arises naturally in any community in which private property is unrestricted and theft is punished1 because some of the most economical processes of production are slow1 and those who have the skill to perform them may not have the means of living while they are being completed4 ,but the power of lending money gives such great wealth and influence to private capitalists that unless strictly controlled it is not compatible with any real freedom for the rest of the population4 ,its effects at present1 both in the industrial world and in international politics1 are so bad that it seems imperatively necessary to devise some means of curbing its power4 ,private property in land has no justification except historically through power of the sword4 ,in the beginning of feudal times1 certain men had enough military strength to be able to force those whom they disliked not to live in a certain area4 ,those whom they chose to leave on the land became their serfs1 and were forced to work for them in return for the gracious permission to stay4 ,in order to establish law in place of private force1 it was necessary1 in the main1 to leave undisturbed the rights which had been acquired by the sword4 ,the land became the property of those who had conquered it1 and the serfs were allowed to give rent instead of service4 ,there is no justification for private property in land1 except the historical necessity to conciliate turbulent robbers who would not otherwise have obeyed the law4 ,this necessity arose in ,europe many centuries ago1 but in ,africa the whole process is often quite recent4 ,it is by this process1 slightly disguised1 that the ,kimberley diamond mines and the ,rand gold mines were acquired in spite of prior native rights4 ,it is a singular example of human inertia that men should have continued until now to endure the tyranny and extortion which a small minority are able to inflict by their possession of the land4 ,no good to the community1 of any sort or kind1 results from the private ownership of land4 ,if men were reasonable1 they would decree that it should cease to-morrow1 with no compensation beyond a moderate life income to the present holders4 ,the mere abolition of rent would not remove injustice1 since it would confer a capricious advantage upon the occupiers of the best sites and the most fertile land4 ,it is necessary that there should be rent1 but it should be paid to the ,state or to some body which performs public services2 or1 if the total rental were more than is required for such purposes1 it might be paid into a common fund and divided equally among the population4 ,such a method would be just1 and would not only help to relieve poverty1 but would prevent wasteful employment of land and the tyranny of local magnates4 ,much that appears as the power of capital is really the power of the landowner--for example1 the power of railway companies and mine-owners4 ,the evil and injustice of the present system are glaring1 but men's patience of preventable evils to which they are accustomed is so great that it is impossible to guess when they will put an end to this strange absurdity4 ,inheritance1 which is the source of the greater part of the unearned income in the world1 is regarded by most men as a natural right4 ,sometimes1 as in ,england1 the right is inherent in the owner of property1 who may dispose of it in any way that seems good to him4 ,sometimes1 as in ,france1 his right is limited by the right of his family to inherit at least a portion of what he has to leave4 ,but neither the right to dispose of property by will nor the right of children to inherit from parents has any basis outside the instincts of possession and family pride4 ,there may be reasons for allowing a man whose work is exceptionally fruitful--for instance1 an inventor--to enjoy a larger income than is enjoyed by the average citizen1 but there can be no good reason for allowing this privilege to descend to his children and grandchildren and so on for ever4 ,the effect is to produce an idle and exceptionally fortunate class1 who are influential through their money1 and opposed to reform for fear it should be directed against themselves4 ,their whole habit of thought becomes timid1 since they dread being forced to acknowledge that their position is indefensible2 yet snobbery and the wish to secure their favor leads almost the whole middle-class to ape their manners and adopt their opinions4 ,in this way they become a poison infecting the outlook of almost all educated people4 ,it is sometimes said that without the incentive of inheritance men would not work so well4 ,the great captains of industry1 we are assured1 are actuated by the desire to found a family1 and would not devote their lives to unremitting toil without the hope of gratifying this desire4 ,i do not believe that any large proportion of really useful work is done from this motive4 ,ordinary work is done for the sake of a living1 and the very best work is done for the interest of the work itself4 ,even the captains of industry1 who are thought 7perhaps by themselves as well as by others7 to be aiming at founding a family1 are probably more actuated by love of power and by the adventurous pleasure of great enterprises4 ,and if there were some slight diminution in the amount of work done1 it would be well worth while in order to get rid of the idle rich1 with the oppression1 feebleness1 and corruption which they inevitably introduce4 ,the present system of distribution is not based upon any principle4 ,starting from a system imposed by conquest1 the arrangements made by the conquerors for their own benefit were stereotyped by the law1 and have never been fundamentally reconstructed4 ,on what principles ought the reconstruction to be based8 ,socialism1 which is the most widely advocated scheme of reconstruction1 aims chiefly at justice3 the present inequalities of wealth are unjust1 and socialism would abolish them4 ,it is not essential to socialism that all men should have the same income1 but it is essential that inequalities should be justified1 in each case1 by inequality of need or of service performed4 ,there can be no disputing that the present system is grossly unjust1 and that almost all that is unjust in it is harmful4 ,but ,i do not think justice alone is a sufficient principle upon which to base an economic reconstruction4 ,justice would be secured if all were equally unhappy1 as well as if all were equally happy4 ,justice1 by itself1 when once realized1 contains no source of new life4 ,the old type of ,marxian revolutionary socialist never dwelt1 in imagination1 upon the life of communities after the establishment of the millennium4 ,he imagined that1 like the ,prince and ,princess in a fairy story1 they would live happily ever after4 ,but that is not a condition possible to human nature4 ,desire1 activity1 purpose1 are essential to a tolerable life1 and a millennium1 though it may be a joy in prospect1 would be intolerable if it were actually achieved4 ,the more modern socialists1 it is true1 have lost most of the religious fervor which characterized the pioneers1 and view socialism as a tendency rather than a definite goal4 ,but they still retain the view that what is of most political importance to a man is his income1 and that the principal aim of a democratic politician ought to be to increase the wages of labor4 ,i believe this involves too passive a conception of what constitutes happiness4 ,it is true that1 in the industrial world1 large sections of the population are too poor to have any possibility of a good life2 but it is not true that a good life will come of itself with a diminution of poverty4 ,very few of the well-to-do classes have a good life at present1 and perhaps socialism would only substitute the evils which now afflict the more prosperous in place of the evils resulting from destitution4 ,in the existing labor movement1 although it is one of the most vital sources of change1 there are certain tendencies against which reformers ought to be on their guard4 ,the labor movement is in essence a movement in favor of justice1 based upon the belief that the sacrifice of the many to the few is not necessary now1 whatever may have been the case in the past4 ,when labor was less productive and education was less widespread1 an aristocratic civilization may have been the only one possible3 it may have been necessary that the many should contribute to the life of the few1 if the few were to transmit and increase the world's possessions in art and thought and civilized existence4 ,but this necessity is past or rapidly passing1 and there is no longer any valid objection to the claims of justice4 ,the labor movement is morally irresistible1 and is not now seriously opposed except by prejudice and simple self-assertion4 ,all living thought is on its side2 what is against it is traditional and dead4 ,but although it itself is living1 it is not by any means certain that it will make for life4 ,labor is led by current political thought in certain directions which would become repressive and dangerous if they were to remain strong after labor had triumphed4 ,the aspirations of the labor movement are1 on the whole1 opposed by the great majority of the educated classes1 who feel a menace1 not only or chiefly to their personal comfort1 but to the civilized life in which they have their part1 which they profoundly believe to be important to the world4 ,owing to the opposition of the educated classes1 labor1 when it is revolutionary and vigorous1 tends to despise all that the educated classes represent4 ,when it is more respectful1 as its leaders tend to be in ,england1 the subtle and almost unconscious influence of educated men is apt to sap revolutionary ardor1 producing doubt and uncertainty instead of the swift1 simple assurance by which victory might have been won4 ,the very sympathy which the best men in the well-to-do classes extend to labor1 their very readiness to admit the justice of its claims1 may have the effect of softening the opposition of labor leaders to the status quo1 and of opening their minds to the suggestion that no fundamental change is possible4 ,since these influences affect leaders much more than the rank and file1 they tend to produce in the rank and file a distrust of leaders1 and a desire to seek out new leaders who will be less ready to concede the claims of the more fortunate classes4 ,the result may be in the end a labor movement as hostile to the life of the mind as some terrified property-owners believe it to be at present4 ,the claims of justice1 narrowly interpreted1 may reinforce this tendency4 ,it may be thought unjust that some men should have larger incomes or shorter hours of work than other men4 ,but efficiency in mental work1 including the work of education1 certainly requires more comfort and longer periods of rest than are required for efficiency in physical work1 if only because mental work is not physiologically wholesome4 ,if this is not recognized1 the life of the mind may suffer through short-sightedness even more than through deliberate hostility4 ,education suffers at present1 and may long continue to suffer1 through the desire of parents that their children should earn money as soon as possible4 ,every one knows that the half-time system1 for example1 is bad2 but the power of organized labor keeps it in existence4 ,it is clear that the cure for this evil1 as for those that are concerned with the population question1 is to relieve parents of the expense of their children's education1 and at the same time to take away their right to appropriate their children's earnings4 ,the way to prevent any dangerous opposition of labor to the life of the mind is not to oppose the labor movement1 which is too strong to be opposed with justice4 ,the right way is1 to show by actual practice that thought is useful to labor1 that without thought its positive aims cannot be achieved1 and that there are men in the world of thought who are willing to devote their energies to helping labor in its struggle4 ,such men1 if they are wise and sincere1 can prevent labor from becoming destructive of what is living in the intellectual world4 ,another danger in the aims of organized labor is the danger of conservatism as to methods of production4 ,improvements of machinery or organization bring great advantages to employers1 but involve temporary and sometimes permanent loss to the wage-earners4 ,for this reason1 and also from mere instinctive dislike of any change of habits1 strong labor organizations are often obstacles to technical progress4 ,the ultimate basis of all social progress must be increased technical efficiency1 a greater result from a given amount of labor4 ,if labor were to offer an effective opposition to this kind of progress1 it would in the long run paralyze all other progress4 ,the way to overcome the opposition of labor is not by hostility or moral homilies1 but by giving to labor the direct interest in economical processes which now belongs to the employers4 ,here1 as elsewhere1 the unprogressive part of a movement which is essentially progressive is to be eliminated1 not by decrying the whole movement but by giving it a wider sweep1 making it more progressive1 and leading it to demand an even greater change in the structure of society than any that it had contemplated in its inception4 ,the most important purpose that political institutions can achieve is to keep alive in individuals creativeness1 vigor1 vitality1 and the joy of life4 ,these things existed1 for example1 in ,elizabethan ,england in a way in which they do not exist now4 ,they stimulated adventure1 poetry1 music1 fine architecture1 and set going the whole movement out of which ,england's greatness has sprung in every direction in which ,england has been great4 ,these things coexisted with injustice1 but outweighed it1 and made a national life more admirable than any that is likely to exist under socialism4 ,what is wanted in order to keep men full of vitality is opportunity1 not security4 ,security is merely a refuge from fear2 opportunity is the source of hope4 ,the chief test of an economic system is not whether it makes men prosperous1 or whether it secures distributive justice 7though these are both very desirable71 but whether it leaves men's instinctive growth unimpeded4 ,to achieve this purpose1 there are two main conditions which it should fulfil3 it should not cramp men's private affections1 and it should give the greatest possible outlet to the impulse of creation4 ,there is in most men1 until it becomes atrophied by disuse1 an instinct of constructiveness1 a wish to make something4 ,the men who achieve most are1 as a rule1 those in whom this instinct is strongest3 such men become artists1 men of science1 statesmen1 empire-builders1 or captains of industry1 according to the accidents of temperament and opportunity4 ,the most beneficent and the most harmful careers are inspired by this impulse4 ,without it1 the world would sink to the level of ,tibet3 it would subsist1 as it is always prone to do1 on the wisdom of its ancestors1 and each generation would sink more deeply into a lifeless traditionalism4 ,but it is not only the remarkable men who have the instinct of constructiveness1 though it is they who have it most strongly4 ,it is almost universal in boys1 and in men it usually survives in a greater or less degree1 according to the greater or less outlet which it is able to find4 ,work inspired by this instinct is satisfying1 even when it is irksome and difficult1 because every effort is as natural as the effort of a dog pursuing a hare4 ,the chief defect of the present capitalistic system is that work done for wages very seldom affords any outlet for the creative impulse4 ,the man who works for wages has no choice as to what he shall make3 the whole creativeness of the processes concentrate in the employer who orders the work to be done4 ,for this reason the work becomes a merely external means to a certain result1 the earning of wages4 ,employers grow indignant about the trade union rules for limitation of output1 but they have no right to be indignant1 since they do not permit the men whom they employ to have any share in the purpose for which the work is undertaken4 ,and so the process of production1 which should form one instinctive cycle1 becomes divided into separate purposes1 which can no longer provide any satisfaction of instinct for those who do the work4 ,this result is due to our industrial system1 but it would not be avoided by socialism4 ,in a socialist community1 the ,state would be the employer1 and the individual workman would have almost as little control over his work as he has at present4 ,such control as he could exercise would be indirect1 through political channels1 and would be too slight and roundabout to afford any appreciable satisfaction4 ,it is to be feared that instead of an increase of self-direction1 there would only be an increase of mutual interference4 ,the total abolition of private capitalistic enterprise1 which is demanded by ,marxian socialism1 seems scarcely necessary4 ,most men who construct sweeping systems of reform1 like most of those who defend the status quo1 do not allow enough for the importance of exceptions and the undesirability of rigid system4 ,provided the sphere of capitalism is restricted1 and a large proportion of the population are rescued from its dominion1 there is no reason to wish it wholly abolished4 ,as a competitor and a rival1 it might serve a useful purpose in preventing more democratic enterprises from sinking into sloth and technical conservatism4 ,but it is of the very highest importance that capitalism should become the exception rather than the rule1 and that the bulk of the world's industry should be conducted on a more democratic system4 ,much of what is to be said against militarism in the ,state is also to be said against capitalism in the economic sphere4 ,economic organizations1 in the pursuit of efficiency1 grow larger and larger1 and there is no possibility of reversing this process4 ,the causes of their growth are technical1 and large organizations must be accepted as an essential part of civilized society4 ,but there is no reason why their government should be centralized and monarchical4 ,the present economic system1 by robbing most men of initiative1 is one of the causes of the universal weariness which devitalizes urban and industrial populations1 making them perpetually seek excitement1 and leading them to welcome even the outbreak of war as a relief from the dreary monotony of their daily lives4 ,if the vigor of the nation is to be preserved1 if we are to retain any capacity for new ideas1 if we are not to sink into a ,chinese condition of stereotyped immobility1 the monarchical organization of industry must be swept away4 ,all large businesses must become democratic and federal in their government4 ,the whole wage-earning system is an abomination1 not only because of the social injustice which it causes and perpetuates1 but also because it separates the man who does the work from the purpose for which the work is done4 ,the whole of the controlling purpose is concentrated in the capitalist2 the purpose of the wage-earner is not the produce1 but the wages4 ,the purpose of the capitalist is to secure the maximum of work for the minimum of wages2 the purpose of the wage-earner is to secure the maximum of wages for the minimum of work4 ,a system involving this essential conflict of interests cannot be expected to work smoothly or successfully1 or to produce a community with any pride in efficiency4 ,two movements exist1 one already well advanced1 the other in its infancy1 which seem capable1 between them1 of effecting most of what is needed4 ,the two movements ,i mean are the coperative movement and syndicalism4 ,the coperative movement is capable of replacing the wage system over a very wide field1 but it is not easy to see how it could be applied to such things as railways4 ,it is just in these cases that the principles of syndicalism are most easily applicable4 ,if organization is not to crush individuality1 membership of an organization ought to be voluntary1 not compulsory1 and ought always to carry with it a voice in the management4 ,this is not the case with economic organizations1 which give no opportunity for the pride and pleasure that men find in an activity of their own choice1 provided it is not utterly monotonous4 ,it must be admitted1 however1 that much of the mechanical work which is necessary in industry is probably not capable of being made interesting in itself4 ,but it will seem less tedious than it does at present if those who do it have a voice in the management of their industry4 ,and men who desire leisure for other occupations might be given the opportunity of doing uninteresting work during a few hours of the day for a low wage2 this would give an opening to all who wished for some activity not immediately profitable to themselves4 ,when everything that is possible has been done to make work interesting1 the residue will have to be made endurable1 as almost all work is at present1 by the inducement of rewards outside the hours of labor4 ,but if these rewards are to be satisfactory1 it is essential that the uninteresting work should not necessarily absorb a man's whole energies1 and that opportunities should exist for more or less continuous activities during the remaining hours4 ,such a system might be an immeasurable boon to artists1 men of letters1 and others who produce for their own satisfaction works which the public does not value soon enough to secure a living for the producers2 and apart from such rather rare cases1 it might provide an opportunity for young men and women with intellectual ambitions to continue their education after they have left school1 or to prepare themselves for careers which require an exceptionally long training4 ,the evils of the present system result from the separation between the several interests of consumer1 producer1 and capitalist4 ,no one of these three has the same interests as the community or as either of the other two4 ,the coperative system amalgamates the interests of consumer and capitalist2 syndicalism would amalgamate the interests of producer and capitalist4 ,neither amalgamates all three1 or makes the interests of those who direct industry quite identical with those of the community4 ,neither1 therefore1 would wholly prevent industrial strife1 or obviate the need of the ,state as arbitrator4 ,but either would be better than the present system1 and probably a mixture of both would cure most of the evils of industrialism as it exists now4 ,it is surprising that1 while men and women have struggled to achieve political democracy1 so little has been done to introduce democracy in industry4 ,i believe incalculable benefits might result from industrial democracy1 either on the coperative model or with recognition of a trade or industry as a unit for purposes of government1 with some kind of ,home ,rule such as syndicalism aims at securing4 ,there is no reason why all governmental units should be geographical3 this system was necessary in the past because of the slowness of means of communication1 but it is not necessary now4 ,by some such system many men might come to feel again a pride in their work1 and to find again that outlet for the creative impulse which is now denied to all but a fortunate few4 ,such a system requires the abolition of the land-owner and the restriction of the capitalist1 but does not entail equality of earnings4 ,and unlike socialism1 it is not a static or final system3 it is hardly more than a framework for energy and initiative4 ,it is only by some such method1 ,i believe1 that the free growth of the individual can be reconciled with the huge technical organizations which have been rendered necessary by industrialism4 ,v ,,education ,no political theory is adequate unless it is applicable to children as well as to men and women4 ,theorists are mostly childless1 or1 if they have children1 they are carefully screened from the disturbances which would be caused by youthful turmoil4 ,some of them have written books on education1 but without1 as a rule1 having any actual children present to their minds while they wrote4 ,those educational theorists who have had a knowledge of children1 such as the inventors of ,kindergarten and the ,montessori system1#ad have not always had enough realization of the ultimate goal of education to be able to deal successfully with advanced instruction4 ,i have not the knowledge either of children or of education which would enable me to supply whatever defects there may be in the writings of others4 ,but some questions1 concerning education as a political institution1 are involved in any hope of social reconstruction1 and are not usually considered by writers on educational theory4 ,it is these questions that ,i wish to discuss4 ,the power of education in forming character and opinion is very great and very generally recognized4 ,the genuine beliefs1 though not usually the professed precepts1 of parents and teachers are almost unconsciously acquired by most children2 and even if they depart from these beliefs in later life1 something of them remains deeply implanted1 ready to emerge in a time of stress or crisis4 ,education is1 as a rule1 the strongest force on the side of what exists and against fundamental change3 threatened institutions1 while they are still powerful1 possess themselves of the educational machine1 and instil a respect for their own excellence into the malleable minds of the young4 ,reformers retort by trying to oust their opponents from their position of vantage4 ,the children themselves are not considered by either party2 they are merely so much material1 to be recruited into one army or the other4 ,if the children themselves were considered1 education would not aim at making them belong to this party or that1 but at enabling them to choose intelligently between the parties2 it would aim at making them able to think1 not at making them think what their teachers think4 ,education as a political weapon could not exist if we respected the rights of children4 ,if we respected the rights of children1 we should educate them so as to give them the knowledge and the mental habits required for forming independent opinions2 but education as a political institution endeavors to form habits and to circumscribe knowledge in such a way as to make one set of opinions inevitable4 ,the two principles of justice and liberty1 which cover a very great deal of the social reconstruction required1 are not by themselves sufficient where education is concerned4 ,justice1 in the literal sense of equal rights1 is obviously not wholly possible as regards children4 ,and as for liberty1 it is1 to begin with1 essentially negative3 it condemns all avoidable interference with freedom1 without giving a positive principle of construction4 ,but education is essentially constructive1 and requires some positive conception of what constitutes a good life4 ,and although liberty is to be respected in education as much as is compatible with instruction1 and although a very great deal more liberty than is customary can be allowed without loss to instruction1 yet it is clear that some departure from complete liberty is unavoidable if children are to be taught anything1 except in the case of unusually intelligent children who are kept isolated from more normal companions4 ,this is one reason for the great responsibility which rests upon teachers3 the children must1 necessarily1 be more or less at the mercy of their elders1 and cannot make themselves the guardians of their own interests4 ,authority in education is to some extent unavoidable1 and those who educate have to find a way of exercising authority in accordance with the spirit of liberty4 ,where authority is unavoidable1 what is needed is reverence4 ,a man who is to educate really well1 and is to make the young grow and develop into their full stature1 must be filled through and through with the spirit of reverence4 ,it is reverence towards others that is lacking in those who advocate machine-made cast-iron systems3 militarism1 capitalism1 ,fabian scientific organization1 and all the other prisons into which reformers and reactionaries try to force the human spirit4 ,in education1 with its codes of rules emanating from a ,government office1 its large classes and fixed curriculum and overworked teachers1 its determination to produce a dead level of glib mediocrity1 the lack of reverence for the child is all but universal4 ,reverence requires imagination and vital warmth2 it requires most imagination in respect of those who have least actual achievement or power4 ,the child is weak and superficially foolish1 the teacher is strong1 and in an every-day sense wiser than the child4 ,the teacher without reverence1 or the bureaucrat without reverence1 easily despises the child for these outward inferiorities4 ,he thinks it is his duty to 8mold0 the child3 in imagination he is the potter with the clay4 ,and so he gives to the child some unnatural shape1 which hardens with age1 producing strains and spiritual dissatisfactions1 out of which grow cruelty and envy1 and the belief that others must be compelled to undergo the same distortions4 ,tho man who has reverence will not think it his duty to 8mold0 the young4 ,he feels in all that lives1 but especially in human beings1 and most of all in children1 something sacred1 indefinable1 unlimited1 something individual and strangely precious1 the growing principle of life1 an embodied fragment of the dumb striving of the world4 ,in the presence of a child he feels an unaccountable humility--a humility not easily defensible on any rational ground1 and yet somehow nearer to wisdom than the easy self-confidence of many parents and teachers4 ,the outward helplessness of the child and the appeal of dependence make him conscious of the responsibility of a trust4 ,his imagination shows him what the child may become1 for good or evil1 how its impulses may be developed or thwarted1 how its hopes must be dimmed and the life in it grow less living1 how its trust will be bruised and its quick desires replaced by brooding will4 ,all this gives him a longing to help the child in its own battle2 he would equip and strengthen it1 not for some outside end proposed by the ,state or by any other impersonal authority1 but for the ends which the child's own spirit is obscurely seeking4 ,the man who feels this can wield the authority of an educator without infringing the principle of liberty4 ,it is not in a spirit of reverence that education is conducted by ,states and ,churches and the great institutions that are subservient to them4 ,what is considered in education is hardly ever the boy or girl1 the young man or young woman1 but almost always1 in some form1 the maintenance of the existing order4 ,when the individual is considered1 it is almost exclusively with a view to worldly success--making money or achieving a good position4 ,to be ordinary1 and to acquire the art of getting on1 is the ideal which is set before the youthful mind1 except by a few rare teachers who have enough energy of belief to break through the system within which they are expected to work4 ,almost all education has a political motive3 it aims at strengthening some group1 national or religious or even social1 in the competition with other groups4 ,it is this motive1 in the main1 which determines the subjects taught1 the knowledge offered and the knowledge withheld1 and also decides what mental habits the pupils are expected to acquire4 ,hardly anything is done to foster the inward growth of mind and spirit2 in fact1 those who have had most education are very often atrophied in their mental and spiritual life1 devoid of impulse1 and possessing only certain mechanical aptitudes which take the place of living thought4 ,some of the things which education achieves at present must continue to be achieved by education in any civilized country4 ,all children must continue to be taught how to read and write1 and some must continue to acquire the knowledge needed for such professions as medicine or law or engineering4 ,the higher education required for the sciences and the arts is necessary for those to whom it is suited4 ,except in history and religion and kindred matters1 the actual instruction is only inadequate1 not positively harmful4 ,the instruction might be given in a more liberal spirit1 with more attempt to show its ultimate uses2 and of course much of it is traditional and dead4 ,but in the main it is necessary1 and would have to form a part of any educational system4 ,it is in history and religion and other controversial subjects that the actual instruction is positively harmful4 ,these subjects touch the interests by which schools are maintained2 and the interests maintain the schools in order that certain views on these subjects may be instilled4 ,history1 in every country1 is so taught as to magnify that country3 children learn to believe that their own country has always been in the right and almost always victorious1 that it has produced almost all the great men1 and that it is in all respects superior to all other countries4 ,since these beliefs are flattering1 they are easily absorbed1 and hardly ever dislodged from instinct by later knowledge4 ,to take a simple and almost trivial example3 the facts about the battle of ,waterloo are known in great detail and with minute accuracy2 but the facts as taught in elementary schools will be widely different in ,england1 ,france1 and ,germany4 ,the ordinary ,english boy imagines that the ,prussians played hardly any part2 the ordinary ,german boy imagines that ,wellington was practically defeated when the day was retrieved by ,blcher's gallantry4 ,if the facts were taught accurately in both countries1 national pride would not be fostered to the same extent1 neither nation would feel so certain of victory in the event of war1 and the willingness to fight would be diminished4 ,it is this result which has to be prevented4 ,every ,state wishes to promote national pride1 and is conscious that this cannot be done by unbiased history4 ,the defenseless children are taught by distortions and suppressions and suggestions4 ,the false ideas as to the history of the world which are taught in the various countries are of a kind which encourages strife and serves to keep alive a bigoted nationalism4 ,if good relations between ,states were desired1 one of the first steps ought to be to submit all teaching of history to an international commission1 which should produce neutral textbooks free from the patriotic bias which is now demanded everywhere4#ae ,exactly the same thing applies to religion4 ,elementary schools are practically always in the hands either of some religious body or of a ,state which has a certain attitude towards religion4 ,a religious body exists through the fact that its members all have certain definite beliefs on subjects as to which the truth is not ascertainable4 ,schools conducted by religious bodies have to prevent the young1 who are often inquiring by nature1 from discovering that these definite beliefs are opposed by others which are no more unreasonable1 and that many of the men best qualified to judge think that there is no good evidence in favor of any definite belief4 ,when the ,state is militantly secular1 as in ,france1 ,state schools become as dogmatic as those that are in the hands of the ,churches 7,i understand that the word 8,god0 must not be mentioned in a ,french elementary school74 ,the result in all these cases is the same3 free inquiry is checked1 and on the most important matter in the world the child is met with dogma or with stony silence4 ,it is not only in elementary education that these evils exist4 ,in more advanced education they take subtler forms1 and there is more attempt to conceal them1 but they are still present4 ,eton and ,oxford set a certain stamp upon a man's mind1 just as a ,jesuit ,college does4 ,it can hardly be said that ,eton and ,oxford have a conscious purpose1 but they have a purpose which is none the less strong and effective for not being formulated4 ,in almost all who have been through them they produce a worship of 8good form10 which is as destructive to life and thought as the medieval ,church4 8,good form0 is quite compatible with a superficial open-mindedness1 a readiness to hear all sides1 and a certain urbanity towards opponents4 ,but it is not compatible with fundamental open-mindedness1 or with any inward readiness to give weight to the other side4 ,its essence is the assumption that what is most important is a certain kind of behavior1 a behavior which minimizes friction between equals and delicately impresses inferiors with a conviction of their own crudity4 ,as a political weapon for preserving the privileges of the rich in a snobbish democracy it is unsurpassable4 ,as a means of producing an agreeable social milieu for those who have money with no strong beliefs or unusual desires it has some merit4 ,in every other respect it is abominable4 ,the evils of 8good form0 arise from two sources3 its perfect assurance of its own rightness1 and its belief that correct manners are more to be desired than intellect1 or artistic creation1 or vital energy1 or any of the other sources of progress in the world4 ,perfect assurance1 by itself1 is enough to destroy all mental progress in those who have it4 ,and when it is combined with contempt for the angularities and awkwardnesses that are almost invariably associated with great mental power1 it becomes a source of destruction to all who come in contact with it4 8,good form0 is itself dead and incapable of growth2 and by its attitude to those who are without it it spreads its own death to many who might otherwise have life4 ,the harm which it has done to well-to-do ,englishmen1 and to men whose abilities have led the well-to-do to notice them1 is incalculable4 ,the prevention of free inquiry is unavoidable so long as the purpose of education is to produce belief rather than thought1 to compel the young to hold positive opinions on doubtful matters rather than to let them see the doubtfulness and be encouraged to independence of mind4 ,education ought to foster the wish for truth1 not the conviction that some particular creed is the truth4 ,but it is creeds that hold men together in fighting organizations3 ,churches1 ,states1 political parties4 ,it is intensity of belief in a creed that produces efficiency in fighting3 victory comes to those who feel the strongest certainty about matters on which doubt is the only rational attitude4 ,to produce this intensity of belief and this efficiency in fighting1 the child's nature is warped1 and its free outlook is cramped1 by cultivating inhibitions as a check to the growth of new ideas4 ,in those whose minds are not very active the result is the omnipotence of prejudice2 while the few whose thought cannot be wholly killed become cynical1 intellectually hopeless1 destructively critical1 able to make all that is living seem foolish1 unable themselves to supply the creative impulses which they destroy in others4 ,the success in fighting which is achieved by suppressing freedom of thought is brief and very worthless4 ,in the long run mental vigor is as essential to success as it is to a good life4 ,the conception of education as a form of drill1 a means of producing unanimity through slavishness1 is very common1 and is defended chiefly on the ground that it leads to victory4 ,those who enjoy parallels from ancient history will point to the victory of ,sparta over ,athens to enforce their moral4 ,but it is ,athens that has had power over men's thoughts and imaginations1 not ,sparta3 any one of us1 if we could be born again into some past epoch1 would rather be born an ,athenian than a ,spartan4 ,and in the modern world so much intellect is required in practical affairs that even the external victory is more likely to be won by intelligence than by docility4 ,education in credulity leads by quick stages to mental decay2 it is only by keeping alive the spirit of free inquiry that the indispensable minimum of progress can be achieved4 ,certain mental habits are commonly instilled by those who are engaged in educating3 obedience and discipline1 ruthlessness in the struggle for worldly success1 contempt towards opposing groups1 and an unquestioning credulity1 a passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom4 ,all these habits are against life4 ,instead of obedience and discipline1 we ought to aim at preserving independence and impulse4 ,instead of ruthlessness1 education should try to develop justice in thought4 ,instead of contempt1 it ought to instil reverence1 and the attempt at understanding2 towards the opinions of others it ought to produce1 not necessarily acquiescence1 but only such opposition as is combined with imaginative apprehension and a clear realization of the grounds for opposition4 ,instead of credulity1 the object should be to stimulate constructive doubt1 the love of mental adventure1 the sense of worlds to conquer by enterprise and boldness in thought4 ,contentment with the status quo1 and subordination of the individual pupil to political aims1 owing to the indifference to the things of the mind1 are the immediate causes of these evils2 but beneath these causes there is one more fundamental1 the fact that education is treated as a means of acquiring power over the pupil1 not as a means of nourishing his own growth4 ,it is in this that lack of reverence shows itself2 and it is only by more reverence that a fundamental reform can be effected4 ,obedience and discipline are supposed to be indispensable if order is to be kept in a class1 and if any instruction is to be given4 ,to some extent this is true2 but the extent is much less than it is thought to be by those who regard obedience and discipline as in themselves desirable4 ,obedience1 the yielding of one's will to outside direction1 is the counterpart of authority4 ,both may be necessary in certain cases4 ,refractory children1 lunatics1 and criminals may require authority1 and may need to be forced to obey4 ,but in so far as this is necessary it is a misfortune3 what is to be desired is the free choice of ends with which it is not necessary to interfere4 ,and educational reformers have shown that this is far more possible than our fathers would ever have believed4#af ,what makes obedience seem necessary in schools is the large classes and overworked teachers demanded by a false economy4 ,those who have no experience of teaching are incapable of imagining the expense of spirit entailed by any really living instruction4 ,they think that teachers can reasonably be expected to work as many hours as bank clerks4 ,intense fatigue and irritable nerves are the result1 and an absolute necessity of performing the day's task mechanically4 ,but the task cannot be performed mechanically except by exacting obedience4 ,if we took education seriously1 and thought it as important to keep alive the minds of children as to secure victory in war1 we should conduct education quite differently3 we should make sure of achieving the end1 even if the expense were a hundredfold greater than it is4 ,to many men and women a small amount of teaching is a delight1 and can be done with a fresh zest and life which keeps most pupils interested without any need of discipline4 ,the few who do not become interested might be separated from the rest1 and given a different kind of instruction4 ,a teacher ought to have only as much teaching as can be done1 on most days1 with actual pleasure in the work1 and with an awareness of the pupil's mental needs4 ,the result would be a relation of friendliness instead of hostility between teacher and pupil1 a realization on the part of most pupils that education serves to develop their own lives and is not merely an outside imposition1 interfering with play and demanding many hours of sitting still4 ,all that is necessary to this end is a 7greater expenditure of money71 to secure teachers with more leisure and with a natural love of teaching4 ,discipline1 as it exists in schools1 is very largely an evil4 ,there is a kind of discipline which is necessary to almost all achievement1 and which perhaps is not sufficiently valued by those who react against the purely external discipline of traditional methods4 ,the desirable kind of discipline is the kind that comes from within1 which consists in the power of pursuing a distant object steadily1 foregoing and suffering many things on the way4 ,this involves the subordination of impulse to will1 the power of a directing action by large creative desires even at moments when they are not vividly alive4 ,without this1 no serious ambition1 good or bad1 can be realized1 no consistent purpose can dominate4 ,this kind of discipline is very necessary1 but can only result from strong desires for ends not immediately attainable1 and can only be produced by education if education fosters such desires1 which it seldom does at present4 ,such discipline springs from one's own will1 not from outside authority4 ,it is not this kind which is sought in most schools1 and it is not this kind which seems to me an evil4 ,although elementary education encourages the undesirable discipline that consists in passive obedience1 and although hardly any existing education encourages the moral discipline of consistent self-direction1 there is a certain kind of purely mental discipline which is produced by the traditional higher education4 ,the kind ,i mean is that which enables a man to concentrate his thoughts at will upon any matter that he has occasion to consider1 regardless of preoccupations or boredom or intellectual difficulty4 ,this quality1 though it has no important intrinsic excellence1 greatly enhances the efficiency of the mind as an instrument4 ,it is this that enables a lawyer to master the scientific details of a patent case which he forgets as soon as judgment has been given1 or a civil servant to deal quickly with many different administrative questions in succession4 ,it is this that enables men to forget private cares during business hours4 ,in a complicated world it is a very necessary faculty for those whose work requires mental concentration4 ,success in producing mental discipline is the chief merit of traditional higher education4 ,i doubt whether it can be achieved except by compelling or persuading active attention to a prescribed task4 ,it is for this reason chiefly that ,i do not believe methods such as ,madame ,montessori's applicable when the age of childhood has been passed4 ,the essence of her method consists in giving a choice of occupations1 any one of which is interesting to most children1 and all of which are instructive4 ,the child's attention is wholly spontaneous1 as in play2 it enjoys acquiring knowledge in this way1 and does not acquire any knowledge which it does not desire4 ,i am convinced that this is the best method of education with young children3 the actual results make it almost impossible to think otherwise4 ,but it is difficult to see how this method can lead to control of attention by the will4 ,many things which must be thought about are uninteresting1 and even those that are interesting at first often become very wearisome before they have been considered as long as is necessary4 ,the power of giving prolonged attention is very important1 and it is hardly to be widely acquired except as a habit induced originally by outside pressure4 ,some few boys1 it is true1 have sufficiently strong intellectual desires to be willing to undergo all that is necessary by their own initiative and free will2 but for all others an external inducement is required in order to make them learn any subject thoroughly4 ,there is among educational reformers a certain fear of demanding great efforts1 and in the world at large a growing unwillingness to be bored4 ,both these tendencies have their good sides1 but both also have their dangers4 ,the mental discipline which is jeopardized can be preserved by mere advice without external compulsion whenever a boy's intellectual interest and ambition can be sufficiently stimulated4 ,a good teacher ought to be able to do this for any boy who is capable of much mental achievement2 and for many of the others the present purely bookish education is probably not the best4 ,in this way1 so long as the importance of mental discipline is realized1 it can probably be attained1 whenever it is attainable1 by appealing to the pupil's consciousness of his own needs4 ,so long as teachers are not expected to succeed by this method1 it is easy for them to slip into a slothful dullness1 and blame their pupils when the fault is really their own4 ,ruthlessness in the economic struggle will almost unavoidably be taught in schools so long as the economic structure of society remains unchanged4 ,this must be particularly the case in middle-class schools1 which depend for their numbers upon the good opinion of parents1 and secure the good opinion of parents by advertising the successes of pupils4 ,this is one of many ways in which the competitive organization of the ,state is harmful4 ,spontaneous and disinterested desire for knowledge is not at all uncommon in the young1 and might be easily aroused in many in whom it remains latent4 ,but it is remorselessly checked by teachers who think only of examinations1 diplomas1 and degrees4 ,for the abler boys there is no time for thought1 no time for the indulgence of intellectual taste1 from the moment of first going to school until the moment of leaving the university4 ,from first to last there is nothing but one long drudgery of examination tips and textbook facts4 ,the most intelligent1 at the end1 are disgusted with learning1 longing only to forget it and to escape into a life of action4 ,yet there1 as before1 the economic machine holds them prisoners1 and all their spontaneous desires are bruised and thwarted4 ,the examination system1 and the fact that instruction is treated mainly as training for a livelihood1 leads the young to regard knowledge1 from a purely utilitarian point of view1 as the road to money1 not as the gateway to wisdom4 ,this would not matter so much if it affected only those who have no genuine intellectual interests4 ,but unfortunately it affects most those whose intellectual interests are strongest1 since it is upon them that the pressure of examinations falls with most severity4 ,to them most1 but to all in some degree1 education appears as a means of acquiring superiority over others2 it is infected through and through with ruthlessness and glorification of social inequality4 ,any free1 disinterested consideration shows that1 whatever inequalities might remain in a ,utopia1 the actual inequalities are almost all contrary to justice4 ,but our educational system tends to conceal this from all except the failures1 since those who succeed are on the way to profit by the inequalities1 with every encouragement from the men who have directed their education4 ,passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls4 ,it involves no effort of independent thought1 and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils2 it is moreover the way to win the favor of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man4 ,yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life4 ,it causes men to seek a leader1 and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position4 ,it makes the power of ,churches1 ,governments1 party caucuses1 and all the other organizations by which plain men are misled into supporting old systems which are harmful to the nation and to themselves4 ,it is possible that there would not be much independence of thought even if education did everything to promote it2 but there would certainly be more than there is at present4 ,if the object were to make pupils think1 rather than to make them accept certain conclusions1 education would be conducted quite differently3 there would be less rapidity of instruction and more discussion1 more occasions when pupils were encouraged to express themselves1 more attempt to make education concern itself with matters in which the pupils felt some interest4 ,above all1 there would be an endeavor to rouse and stimulate the love of mental adventure4 ,the world in which we live is various and astonishing3 some of the things that seem plainest grow more and more difficult the more they are considered2 other things1 which might have been thought quite impossible to discover1 have nevertheless been laid bare by genius and industry4 ,the powers of thought1 the vast regions which it can master1 the much more vast regions which it can only dimly suggest to imagination1 give to those whose minds have traveled beyond the daily round an amazing richness of material1 an escape from the triviality and wearisomeness of familiar routine1 by which the whole of life is filled with interest1 and the prison walls of the commonplace are broken down4 ,the same love of adventure which takes men to the ,south ,pole1 the same passion for a conclusive trial of strength which leads some men to welcome war1 can find in creative thought an outlet which is neither wasteful nor cruel1 but increases the dignity of man by incarnating in life some of that shining splendor which the human spirit is bringing down out of the unknown4 ,to give this joy1 in a greater or less measure1 to all who are capable of it1 is the supreme end for which the education of the mind is to be valued4 ,it will be said that the joy of mental adventure must be rare1 that there are few who can appreciate it1 and that ordinary education can take no account of so aristocratic a good4 ,i do not believe this4 ,the joy of mental adventure is far commoner in the young than in grown men and women4 ,among children it is very common1 and grows naturally out of the period of make-believe and fancy4 ,it is rare in later life because everything is done to kill it during education4 ,men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth--more than ruin1 more even than death4 ,thought is subversive and revolutionary1 destructive and terrible2 thought is merciless to privilege1 established institutions1 and comfortable habits2 thought is anarchic and lawless1 indifferent to authority1 careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages4 ,thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid4 ,it sees man1 a feeble speck1 surrounded by unfathomable depths of silence2 yet it bears itself proudly1 as unmoved as if it were lord of the universe4 ,thought is great and swift and free1 the light of the world1 and the chief glory of man4 ,but if thought is to become the possession of many1 not the privilege of the few1 we must have done with fear4 ,it is fear that holds men back--fear lest their cherished beliefs should prove delusions1 fear lest the institutions by which they live should prove harmful1 fear lest they themselves should prove less worthy of respect than they have supposed themselves to be4 8,should the working man think freely about property8 ,then what will become of us1 the rich8 ,should young men and young women think freely about sex8 ,then what will become of morality8 ,should soldiers think freely about war8 ,then what will become of military discipline8 ,away with thought6 ,back into the shades of prejudice1 lest property1 morals1 and war should be endangered6 ,better men should be stupid1 slothful1 and oppressive than that their thoughts should be free4 ,for if their thoughts were free they might not think as we do4 ,and at all costs this disaster must be averted40 ,so the opponents of thought argue in the unconscious depths of their souls4 ,and so they act in their churches1 their schools1 and their universities4 ,no institution inspired by fear can further life4 ,hope1 not fear1 is the creative principle in human affairs4 ,all that has made man great has sprung from the attempt to secure what is good1 not from the struggle to avert what was thought evil4 ,it is because modern education is so seldom inspired by a great hope that it so seldom achieves a great result4 ,the wish to preserve the past rather than the hope of creating the future dominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young4 ,education should not aim at a passive awareness of dead facts1 but at an activity directed towards the world that our efforts are to create4 ,it should be inspired1 not by a regretful hankering after the extinct beauties of ,greece and the ,renaissance1 but by a shining vision of the society that is to be1 of the triumphs that thought will achieve in the time to come1 and of the ever-widening horizon of man's survey over the universe4 ,those who are taught in this spirit will be filled with life and hope and joy1 able to bear their part in bringing to mankind a future less somber than the past1 with faith in the glory that human effort can create4 ,,vi ,,marriage ,,and ,,the ,,population ,,question ,the influence of the ,christian religion on daily life has decayed very rapidly throughout ,europe during the last hundred years4 ,not only has the proportion of nominal believers declined1 but even among those who believe the intensity and dogmatism of belief is enormously diminished4 ,but there is one social institution which is still profoundly affected by the ,christian tradition--,i mean the institution of marriage4 ,the law and public opinion as regards marriage are dominated even now to a very great extent by the teachings of the ,church1 which continue to influence in this way the lives of men1 women1 and children in their most intimate concerns4 ,it is marriage as a political institution that ,i wish to consider1 not marriage as a matter for the private morality of each individual4 ,marriage is regulated by law1 and is regarded as a matter in which the community has a right to interfere4 ,it is only the action of the community in regard to marriage that ,i am concerned to discuss3 whether the present action furthers the life of the community1 and if not1 in what ways it ought to be changed4 ,there are two questions to be asked in regard to any marriage system3 first1 how it affects the development and character of the men and women concerned2 secondly1 what is its influence on the propagation and education of children4 ,these two questions are entirely distinct1 and a system may well be desirable from one of these two points of view when it is very undesirable from the other4 ,i propose first to describe the present ,english law and public opinion and practice in regard to the relations of the sexes1 then to consider their effects as regards children1 and finally to consider how these effects1 which are bad1 could be obviated by a system which would also have a better influence on the character and development of men and women4 ,the law in ,england is based upon the expectation that the great majority of marriages will be lifelong4 ,a marriage can only be dissolved if either the wife or the husband1 but not both1 can be proved to have committed adultery4 ,in case the husband is the 8guilty party10 he must also be guilty of cruelty or desertion4 ,even when these conditions are fulfilled1 in practice only the well-to-do can be divorced1 because the expense is very great4#ag ,a marriage cannot be dissolved for insanity or crime1 or for cruelty1 however abominable1 or for desertion1 or for adultery by both parties2 and it cannot be dissolved for any cause whatever if both husband and wife have agreed that they wish it dissolved4 ,in all these cases the law regards the man and woman as bound together for life4 ,a special official1 the ,king's ,proctor1 is employed to prevent divorce when there is collusion and when both parties have committed adultery4#ah ,this interesting system embodies the opinions held by the ,church of ,england some fifty years ago1 and by most ,nonconformists then and now4 ,it rests upon the assumption that adultery is sin1 and that when this sin has been committed by one party to the marriage1 the other is entitled to revenge if he is rich4 ,but when both have committed the same sin1 or when the one who has not committed it feels no righteous anger1 the right to revenge does not exist4 ,as soon as this point of view is understood1 the law1 which at first seems somewhat strange1 is seen to be perfectly consistent4 ,it rests1 broadly speaking1 upon four propositions3 7#a7 that sexual intercourse outside marriage is sin2 7#b7 that resentment of adultery by the 8innocent0 party is a righteous horror of wrong-doing2 7#c7 that his resentment1 but nothing else1 may be rightly regarded as making a common life impossible2 7#d7 that the poor have no right to fine feelings4 ,the ,church of ,england1 under the influence of the ,high ,church1 has ceased to believe the third of these propositions1 but it still believes the first and second1 and does nothing actively to show that it disbelieves the fourth4 ,the penalty for infringing the marriage law is partly financial1 but depends mainly upon public opinion4 ,a rather small section of the public genuinely believes that sexual relations outside marriage are wicked2 those who believe this are naturally kept in ignorance of the conduct of friends who feel otherwise1 and are able to go through life not knowing how others live or what others think4 ,this small section of the public regards as depraved not only actions1 but opinions1 which are contrary to its principles4 ,it is able to control the professions of politicians through its influence on elections1 and the votes of the ,house of ,lords through the presence of the ,bishops4 ,by these means it governs legislation1 and makes any change in the marriage law almost impossible4 ,it is able1 also1 to secure in most cases that a man who openly infringes the marriage law shall be dismissed from his employment or ruined by the defection of his customers or clients4 ,a doctor or lawyer1 or a tradesman in a country town1 cannot make a living1 nor can a politician be in ,parliament1 if he is publicly known to be 8immoral40 ,whatever a man's own conduct may be1 he is not likely to defend publicly those who have been branded1 lest some of the odium should fall on him4 ,yet so long as a man has not been branded1 few men will object to him1 whatever they may know privately of his behavior in these respects4 ,owing to the nature of the penalty1 it falls very unequally upon different professions4 ,an actor or journalist usually escapes all punishment4 ,an urban workingman can almost always do as he likes4 ,a man of private means1 unless he wishes to take part in public life1 need not suffer at all if he has chosen his friends suitably4 ,women1 who formerly suffered more than men1 now suffer less1 since there are large circles in which no social penalty is inflicted1 and a very rapidly increasing number of women who do not believe the conventional code4 ,but for the majority of men outside the working classes the penalty is still sufficiently severe to be prohibitive4 ,the result of this state of things is a widespread but very flimsy hypocrisy1 which allows many infractions of the code1 and forbids only those which must become public4 ,a man may not live openly with a woman who is not his wife1 an unmarried woman may not have a child1 and neither man nor woman may get into the divorce court4 ,subject to these restrictions1 there is in practice very great freedom4 ,it is this practical freedom which makes the state of the law seem tolerable to those who do not accept the principles upon which it is based4 ,what has to be sacrificed to propitiate the holders of strict views is not pleasure1 but only children and a common life and truth and honesty4 ,it cannot be supposed that this is the result desired by those who maintain the code1 but equally it cannot be denied that this is the result which they do in fact achieve4 ,extra-matrimonial relations which do not lead to children and are accompanied by a certain amount of deceit remain unpunished1 but severe penalties fall on those which are honest or lead to children4 ,within marriage1 the expense of children leads to continually greater limitation of families4 ,the limitation is greatest among those who have most sense of parental responsibility and most wish to educate their children well1 since it is to them that the expense of children is most severe4 ,but although the economic motive for limiting families has hitherto probably been the strongest1 it is being continually reinforced by another4 ,women are acquiring freedom--not merely outward and formal freedom1 but inward freedom1 enabling them to think and feel genuinely1 not according to received maxims4 ,to the men who have prated confidently of women's natural instincts1 the result would be surprising if they were aware of it4 ,very large numbers of women1 when they are sufficiently free to think for themselves1 do not desire to have children1 or at most desire one child in order not to miss the experience which a child brings4 ,there are women who are intelligent and active-minded who resent the slavery to the body which is involved in having children4 ,there are ambitious women1 who desire a career which leaves no time for children4 ,there are women who love pleasure and gaiety1 and women who love the admiration of men2 such women will at least postpone child-bearing until their youth is past4 ,all these classes of women are rapidly becoming more numerous1 and it may be safely assumed that their numbers will continue to increase for many years to come4 ,it is too soon to judge with any confidence as to the effects of women's freedom upon private life and upon the life of the nation4 ,but ,i think it is not too soon to see that it will be profoundly different from the effect expected by the pioneers of the women's movement4 ,men have invented1 and women in the past have often accepted1 a theory that women are the guardians of the race1 that their life centers in motherhood1 that all their instincts and desires are directed1 consciously or unconsciously1 to this end4 ,tolstoy's ,natacha illustrates this theory3 she is charming1 gay1 liable to passion1 until she is married2 then she becomes merely a virtuous mother1 without any mental life4 ,this result has ,tolstoy's entire approval4 ,it must be admitted that it is very desirable from the point of view of the nation1 whatever we may think of it in relation to private life4 ,it must also be admitted that it is probably common among women who are physically vigorous and not highly civilized4 ,but in countries like ,france and ,england it is becoming increasingly rare4 ,more and more women find motherhood unsatisfying1 not what their needs demand4 ,and more and more there comes to be a conflict between their personal development and the future of the community4 ,it is difficult to know what ought to be done to mitigate this conflict1 but ,i think it is worth while to see what are likely to be its effects if it is not mitigated4 ,owing to the combination of economic prudence with the increasing freedom of women1 there is at present a selective birth-rate of a very singular kind4#ai ,in ,france the population is practically stationary1 and in ,england it is rapidly becoming so2 this means that some sections are dwindling while others are increasing4 ,unless some change occurs1 the sections that are dwindling will practically become extinct1 and the population will be almost wholly replenished from the sections that are now increasing4#bj ,the sections that are dwindling include the whole middle-class and the skilled artisans4 ,the sections that are increasing are the very poor1 the shiftless and drunken1 the feeble-minded--feeble-minded women1 especially1 are apt to be very prolific4 ,there is an increase in those sections of the population which still actively believe the ,catholic religion1 such as the ,irish and the ,bretons1 because the ,catholic religion forbids limitation of families4 ,within the classes that are dwindling1 it is the best elements that are dwindling most rapidly4 ,working-class boys of exceptional ability rise1 by means of scholarships1 into the professional class2 they naturally desire to marry into the class to which they belong by education1 not into the class from which they spring2 but as they have no money beyond what they earn1 they cannot marry young1 or afford a large family4 ,the result is that in each generation the best elements are extracted from the working classes and artificially sterilized1 at least in comparison with those who are left4 ,in the professional classes the young women who have initiative1 energy1 or intelligence are as a rule not inclined to marry young1 or to have more than one or two children when they do marry4 ,marriage has been in the past the only obvious means of livelihood for women2 pressure from parents and fear of becoming an old maid combined to force many women to marry in spite of a complete absence of inclination for the duties of a wife4 ,but now a young woman of ordinary intelligence can easily earn her own living1 and can acquire freedom and experience without the permanent ties of a husband and a family of children4 ,the result is that if she marries she marries late4 ,for these reasons1 if an average sample of children were taken out of the population of ,england1 and their parents were examined1 it would be found that prudence1 energy1 intellect1 and enlightenment were less common among the parents than in the population in general2 while shiftlessness1 feeble-mindedness1 stupidity1 and superstition were more common than in the population in general4 ,it would be found that those who are prudent or energetic or intelligent or enlightened actually fail to reproduce their own numbers2 that is to say1 they do not on the average have as many as two children each who survive infancy4 ,on the other hand1 those who have the opposite qualities have1 on the average1 more than two children each1 and more than reproduce their own numbers4 ,it is impossible to estimate the effect which this will have upon the character of the population without a much greater knowledge of heredity than exists at present4 ,but so long as children continue to live with their parents1 parental example and early education must have a great influence in developing their character1 even if we leave heredity entirely out of account4 ,whatever may be thought of genius1 there can be no doubt that intelligence1 whether through heredity or through education1 tends to run in families1 and that the decay of the families in which it is common must lower the mental standard of the population4 ,it seems unquestionable that if our economic system and our moral standards remain unchanged1 there will be1 in the next two or three generations1 a rapid change for the worse in the character of the population in all civilized countries1 and an actual diminution of numbers in the most civilized4 ,the diminution of numbers1 in all likelihood1 will rectify itself in time through the elimination of those characteristics which at present lead to a small birth-rate4 ,men and women who can still believe the ,catholic faith will have a biological advantage2 gradually a race will grow up which will be impervious to all the assaults of reason1 and will believe imperturbably that limitation of families leads to hell-fire4 ,women who have mental interests1 who care about art or literature or politics1 who desire a career or who value their liberty1 will gradually grow rarer1 and be more and more replaced by a placid maternal type which has no interests outside the home and no dislike of the burden of motherhood4 ,this result1 which ages of masculine domination have vainly striven to achieve1 is likely to be the final outcome of women's emancipation and of their attempt to enter upon a wider sphere than that to which the jealousy of men confined them in the past4 ,perhaps1 if the facts could be ascertained1 it would be found that something of the same kind occurred in the ,roman ,empire4 ,the decay of energy and intelligence during the second1 third1 and fourth centuries of our era has always remained more or less mysterious4 ,but there is reason to think that then1 as now1 the best elements of the population in each generation failed to reproduce themselves1 and that the least vigorous were1 as a rule1 those to whom the continuance of the race was due4 ,one might be tempted to suppose that civilization1 when it has reached a certain height1 becomes unstable1 and tends to decay through some inherent weakness1 some failure to adapt the life of instinct to the intense mental life of a period of high culture4 ,but such vague theories have always something glib and superstitious which makes them worthless as scientific explanations or as guides to action4 ,it is not by a literary formula1 but by detailed and complex thought1 that a true solution is to be found4 ,let us first be clear as to what we desire4 ,there is no importance in an increasing population2 on the contrary1 if the population of ,europe were stationary1 it would be much easier to promote economic reform and to avoid war4 ,what is regrettable at present is not the decline of the birth-rate in itself1 but the fact that the decline is greatest in the best elements of the population4 ,there is reason1 however1 to fear in the future three bad results3 first1 an absolute decline in the numbers of ,english1 ,french1 and ,germans2 secondly1 as a consequence of this decline1 their subjugation by less civilized races and the extinction of their tradition2 thirdly1 a revival of their numbers on a much lower plane of civilization1 after generations of selection of those who have neither intelligence nor foresight4 ,if this result is to be avoided1 the present unfortunate selectiveness of the birth-rate must be somehow stopped4 ,the problem is one which applies to the whole of ,western civilization4 ,there is no difficulty in discovering a theoretical solution1 but there is great difficulty in persuading men to adopt a solution in practice1 because the effects to be feared are not immediate and the subject is one upon which people are not in the habit of using their reason4 ,if a rational solution is ever adopted1 the cause will probably be international rivalry4 ,it is obvious that if one ,state--say ,germany--adopted a rational means of dealing with the matter1 it would acquire an enormous advantage over other ,states unless they did likewise4 ,after the war1 it is possible that population questions will attract more attention than they did before1 and it is likely that they will be studied from the point of view of international rivalry4 ,this motive1 unlike reason and humanity1 is perhaps strong enough to overcome men's objections to a scientific treatment of the birth-rate4 ,in the past1 at most periods and in most societies1 the instincts of men and women led of themselves to a more than sufficient birth-rate2 ,malthus's statement of the population question had been true enough up to the time when he wrote4 ,it is still true of barbarous and semi-civilized races1 and of the worst elements among civilized races4 ,but it has become false as regards the more civilized half of the population in ,western ,europe and ,america4 ,among them1 instinct no longer suffices to keep numbers even stationary4 ,we may sum up the reasons for this in order of importance1 as follows3-- #a4 ,the expense of children is very great if parents are conscientious4 #b4 ,an increasing number of women desire to have no children1 or only one or two1 in order not to be hampered in their own careers4 #c4 ,owing to the excess of women1 a large number of women remain unmarried4 ,these women1 though not debarred in practice from relations with men1 are debarred by the code from having children4 ,in this class are to be found an enormous and increasing number of women who earn their own living as typists1 in shops1 or otherwise4 ,the war has opened many employments to women from which they were formerly excluded1 and this change is probably only in part temporary4 ,if the sterilizing of the best parts of the population is to be arrested1 the first and most pressing necessity is the removal of the economic motives for limiting families4 ,the expense of children ought to be borne wholly by the community4 ,their food and clothing and education ought to be provided1 not only to the very poor as a matter of charity1 but to all classes as a matter of public interest4 ,in addition to this1 a woman who is capable of earning money1 and who abandons wage-earning for motherhood1 ought to receive from the ,state as nearly as possible what she would have received if she had not had children4 ,the only condition attached to ,state maintenance of the mother and the children should be that both parents are physically and mentally sound in all ways likely to affect the children4 ,those who are not sound should not be debarred from having children1 but should continue1 as at present1 to bear the expense of children themselves4 ,it ought to be recognized that the law is only concerned with marriage through the question of children1 and should be indifferent to what is called 8morality10 which is based upon custom and texts of the ,bible1 not upon any real consideration of the needs of the community4 ,the excess women1 who at present are in every way discouraged from having children1 ought no longer to be discouraged4 ,if the ,state is to undertake the expense of children1 it has the right1 on eugenic grounds1 to know who the father is1 and to demand a certain stability in a union4 ,but there is no reason to demand or expect a lifelong stability1 or to exact any ground for divorce beyond mutual consent4 ,this would make it possible for the women who must at present remain unmarried to have children if they wished it4 ,in this way an enormous and unnecessary waste would be prevented1 and a great deal of needless unhappiness would be avoided4 ,there is no necessity to begin such a system all at once4 ,it might be begun tentatively with certain exceptionally desirable sections of the community4 ,it might then be extended gradually1 with the experience of its working which had been derived from the first experiment4 ,if the birth-rate were very much increased1 the eugenic conditions exacted might be made more strict4 ,there are of course various practical difficulties in the way of such a scheme3 the opposition of the ,church and the upholders of traditional morality1 the fear of weakening parental responsibility1 and the expense4 ,all these1 however1 might be overcome4 ,but there remains one difficulty which it seems impossible to overcome completely in ,england1 and that is1 that the whole conception is anti-democratic1 since it regards some men as better than others1 and would demand that the ,state should bestow a better education upon the children of some men than upon the children of others4 ,this is contrary to all the principles of progressive politics in ,england4 ,for this reason it can hardly be expected that any such method of dealing with the population question will ever be adopted in its entirety in this country4 ,something of the sort may well be done in ,germany1 and if so1 it will assure ,german hegemony as no merely military victory could do4 ,but among ourselves we can only hope to see it adopted in some partial1 piecemeal fashion1 and probably only after a change in the economic structure of society which will remove most of the artificial inequalities that progressive parties are rightly trying to diminish4 ,so far we have been considering the question of the reproduction of the race1 rather than the effect of sex relations in fostering or hindering the development of men and women4 ,from the point of view of the race1 what seems needed is a complete removal of the economic burdens due to children from all parents who are not physically or mentally unfit1 and as much freedom in the law as is compatible with public knowledge of paternity4 ,exactly the same changes seem called for when the question is considered from the point of view of the men and women concerned4 ,in regard to marriage1 as with all the other traditional bonds between human beings1 a very extraordinary change is taking place1 wholly inevitable1 wholly necessary as a stage in the development of a new life1 but by no means wholly satisfactory until it is completed4 ,all the traditional bonds were based on authority--of the king1 the feudal baron1 the priest1 the father1 the husband4 ,all these bonds1 just because they were based on authority1 are dissolving or already dissolved1 and the creation of other bonds to take their place is as yet very incomplete4 ,for this reason human relations have at present an unusual triviality1 and do less than they did formerly to break down the hard walls of the ,ego4 ,the ideal of marriage in the past depended upon the authority of the husband1 which was admitted as a right by the wife4 ,the husband was free1 the wife was a willing slave4 ,in all matters which concerned husband and wife jointly1 it was taken for granted that the husband's fiat should be final4 ,the wife was expected to be faithful1 while the husband1 except in very religious societies1 was only expected to throw a decent veil over his infidelities4 ,families could not be limited except by continence1 and a wife had no recognized right to demand continence1 however she might suffer from frequent children4 ,so long as the husband's right to authority was unquestioningly believed by both men and women1 this system was fairly satisfactory1 and afforded to both a certain instinctive fulfilment which is rarely achieved among educated people now4 ,only one will1 the husband's1 had to be taken into account1 and there was no need of the difficult adjustments required when common decisions have to be reached by two equal wills4 ,the wife's desires were not treated seriously enough to enable them to thwart the husband's needs1 and the wife herself1 unless she was exceptionally selfish1 did not seek self-development1 or see in marriage anything but an opportunity for duties4 ,since she did not seek or expect much happiness1 she suffered less1 when happiness was not attained1 than a woman does now3 her suffering contained no element of indignation or surprise1 and did not readily turn into bitterness and sense of injury4 ,the saintly1 self-sacrificing woman whom our ancestors praised had her place in a certain organic conception of society1 the conception of the ordered hierarchy of authorities which dominated the ,middle ,ages4 ,she belongs to the same order of ideas as the faithful servant1 the loyal subject1 and the orthodox son of the ,church4 ,this whole order of ideas has vanished from the civilized world1 and it is to be hoped that it has vanished for ever1 in spite of the fact that the society which it produced was vital and in some ways full of nobility4 ,the old order has been destroyed by the new ideals of justice and liberty1 beginning with religion1 passing on to politics1 and reaching at last the private relations of marriage and the family4 ,when once the question has been asked1 8,why should a woman submit to a man80 when once the answers derived from tradition and the ,bible have ceased to satisfy1 there is no longer any possibility of maintaining the old subordination4 ,to every man who has the power of thinking impersonally and freely1 it is obvious1 as soon as the question is asked1 that the rights of women are precisely the same as the rights of men4 ,whatever dangers and difficulties1 whatever temporary chaos1 may be incurred in the transition to equality1 the claims of reason are so insistent and so clear that no opposition to them can hope to be long successful4 ,mutual liberty1 which is now demanded1 is making the old form of marriage impossible4 ,but a new form1 which shall be an equally good vehicle for instinct1 and an equal help to spiritual growth1 has not yet been developed4 ,for the present1 women who are conscious of liberty as something to be preserved are also conscious of the difficulty of preserving it4 ,the wish for mastery is an ingredient in most men's sexual passions1 especially in those which are strong and serious4 ,it survives in many men whose theories are entirely opposed to despotism4 ,the result is a fight for liberty on the one side and for life on the other4 ,women feel that they must protect their individuality2 men feel1 often very dumbly1 that the repression of instinct which is demanded of them is incompatible with vigor and initiative4 ,the clash of these opposing moods makes all real mingling of personalities impossible2 the man and woman remain hard1 separate units1 continually asking themselves whether anything of value to themselves is resulting from the union4 ,the effect is that relations tend to become trivial and temporary1 a pleasure rather than the satisfaction of a profound need1 an excitement1 not an attainment4 ,the fundamental loneliness into which we are born remains untouched1 and the hunger for inner companionship remains unappeased4 ,no cheap and easy solution of this trouble is possible4 ,it is a trouble which affects most the most civilized men and women1 and is an outcome of the increasing sense of individuality which springs inevitably from mental progress4 ,i doubt if there is any radical cure except in some form of religion1 so firmly and sincerely believed as to dominate even the life of instinct4 ,the individual is not the end and aim of his own being3 outside the individual1 there is the community1 the future of mankind1 the immensity of the universe in which all our hopes and fears are a mere pin-point4 ,a man and woman with reverence for the spirit of life in each other1 with an equal sense of their own unimportance beside the whole life of man1 may become comrades without interference with liberty1 and may achieve the union of instinct without doing violence to the life of mind and spirit4 ,as religion dominated the old form of marriage1 so religion must dominate the new4 ,but it must be a new religion1 based upon liberty1 justice1 and love1 not upon authority and law and hell-fire4 ,a bad effect upon the relations of men and women has been produced by the romantic movement1 through directing attention to what ought to be an incidental good1 not the purpose for which relations exist4 ,love is what gives intrinsic value to a marriage1 and1 like art and thought1 it is one of the supreme things which make human life worth preserving4 ,but though there is no good marriage without love1 the best marriages have a purpose which goes beyond love4 ,the love of two people for each other is too circumscribed1 too separate from the community1 to be by itself the main purpose of a good life4 ,it is not in itself a sufficient source of activities1 it is not sufficiently prospective1 to make an existence in which ultimate satisfaction can be found4 ,it brings its great moments1 and then its times which are less great1 which are unsatisfying because they are less great4 ,it becomes1 sooner or later1 retrospective1 a tomb of dead joys1 not a well-spring of new life4 ,this evil is inseparable from any purpose which is to be achieved in a single supreme emotion4 ,the only adequate purposes are those which stretch out into the future1 which can never be fully achieved1 but are always growing1 and infinite with the infinity of human endeavor4 ,and it is only when love is linked to some infinite purpose of this kind that it can have the seriousness and depth of which it is capable4 ,for the great majority of men and women seriousness in sex relations is most likely to be achieved through children4 ,children are to most people rather a need than a desire3 instinct is as a rule only consciously directed towards what used to lead to children4 ,the desire for children is apt to develop in middle life1 when the adventure of one's own existence is past1 when the friendships of youth seem less important than they once did1 when the prospect of a lonely old age begins to terrify1 and the feeling of having no share in the future becomes oppressive4 ,then those who1 while they were young1 have had no sense that children would be a fulfilment of their needs1 begin to regret their former contempt for the normal1 and to envy acquaintances whom before they had thought humdrum4 ,but owing to economic causes it is often impossible for the young1 and especially for the best of the young1 to have children without sacrificing things of vital importance to their own lives4 ,and so youth passes1 and the need is felt too late4 ,needs without corresponding desires have grown increasingly common as life has grown more different from that primitive existence from which our instincts are derived1 and to which1 rather than to that of the present day1 they are still very largely adapted4 ,an unsatisfied need produces1 in the end1 as much pain and as much distortion of character as if it had been associated with a conscious desire4 ,for this reason1 as well as for the sake of the race1 it is important to remove the present economic inducements to childlessness4 ,there is no necessity whatever to urge parenthood upon those who feel disinclined to it1 but there is necessity not to place obstacles in the way of those who have no such disinclination4 ,in speaking of the importance of preserving seriousness in the relations of men and women1 ,i do not mean to suggest that relations which are not serious are always harmful4 ,traditional morality has erred by laying stress on what ought not to happen1 rather than on what ought to happen4 ,what is important is that men and women should find1 sooner or later1 the best relation of which their natures are capable4 ,it is not always possible to know in advance what will be the best1 or to be sure of not missing the best if everything that can be doubted is rejected4 ,among primitive races1 a man wants a female1 a woman wants a male1 and there is no such differentiation as makes one a much more suitable companion than another4 ,but with the increasing complexity of disposition that civilized life brings1 it becomes more and more difficult to find the man or woman who will bring happiness1 and more and more necessary to make it not too difficult to acknowledge a mistake4 ,the present marriage law is an inheritance from a simpler age1 and is supported1 in the main1 by unreasoning fears and by contempt for all that is delicate and difficult in the life of the mind4 ,owing to the law1 large numbers of men and women are condemned1 so far as their ostensible relations are concerned1 to the society of an utterly uncongenial companion1 with all the embittering consciousness that escape is practically impossible4 ,in these circumstances1 happier relations with others are often sought1 but they have to be clandestine1 without a common life1 and without children4 ,apart from the great evil of being clandestine1 such relations have some almost inevitable drawbacks4 ,they are liable to emphasize sex unduly1 to be exciting and disturbing2 and it is hardly possible that they should bring a real satisfaction of instinct4 ,it is the combination of love1 children1 and a common life that makes the best relation between a man and a woman4 ,the law at present confines children and a common life within the bonds of monogamy1 but it cannot confine love4 ,by forcing many to separate love from children and a common life1 the law cramps their lives1 prevents them from reaching the full measure of their possible development1 and inflicts a wholly unnecessary torture upon those who are not content to become frivolous4 ,to sum up3 ,the present state of the law1 of public opinion1 and of our economic system is tending to degrade the quality of the race1 by making the worst half of the population the parents of more than half of the next generation4 ,at the same time1 women's claim to liberty is making the old form of marriage a hindrance to the development of both men and women4 ,a new system is required1 if the ,european nations are not to degenerate1 and if the relations of men and women are to have the strong happiness and organic seriousness which belonged to the best marriages in the past4 ,the new system must be based upon the fact that to produce children is a service to the ,state1 and ought not to expose parents to heavy pecuniary penalties4 ,it will have to recognize that neither the law nor public opinion should concern itself with the private relations of men and women1 except where children are concerned4 ,it ought to remove the inducements to make relations clandestine and childless4 ,it ought to admit that1 although lifelong monogamy is best when it is successful1 the increasing complexity of our needs makes it increasingly often a failure for which divorce is the best preventive4 ,here1 as elsewhere1 liberty is the basis of political wisdom4 ,and when liberty has been won1 what remains to be desired must be left to the conscience and religion of individual men and women4 ,,vii ,,religion ,,and ,,the ,,churches ,almost all the changes which the world has undergone since the end of the ,middle ,ages are due to the discovery and diffusion of new knowledge4 ,this was the primary cause of the ,renaissance1 the ,reformation1 and the industrial revolution4 ,it was also1 very directly1 the cause of the decay of dogmatic religion4 ,the study of classical texts and early ,church history1 ,copernican astronomy and physics1 ,darwinian biology and comparative anthropology1 have each in turn battered down some part of the edifice of ,catholic dogma1 until1 for almost all thinking and instructed people1 the most that seems defensible is some inner spirit1 some vague hope1 and some not very definite feeling of moral obligation4 ,this result might perhaps have remained limited to the educated minority but for the fact that the ,churches have almost everywhere opposed political progress with the same bitterness with which they have opposed progress in thought4 ,political conservatism has brought the ,churches into conflict with whatever was vigorous in the working classes1 and has spread free thought in wide circles which might otherwise have remained orthodox for centuries4 ,the decay of dogmatic religion is1 for good or evil1 one of the most important facts in the modern world4 ,its effects have hardly yet begun to show themselves3 what they will be it is impossible to say1 but they will certainly be profound and far-reaching4 ,religion is partly personal1 partly social3 to the ,protestant primarily personal1 to the ,catholic primarily social4 ,it is only when the two elements are intimately blended that religion becomes a powerful force in molding society4 ,the ,catholic ,church1 as it existed from the time of ,constantine to the time of the ,reformation1 represented a blending which would have seemed incredible if it had not been actually achieved1 the blending of ,christ and ,csar1 of the morality of humble submission with the pride of ,imperial ,rome4 ,those who loved the one could find it in the ,thebaid2 those who loved the other could admire it in the pomp of metropolitan archbishops4 ,in ,st4 ,francis and ,innocent ,,iii the same two sides of the ,church are still represented4 ,but since the ,reformation personal religion has been increasingly outside the ,catholic ,church1 while the religion which has remained ,catholic has been increasingly a matter of institutions and politics and historic continuity4 ,this division has weakened the force of religion3 religious bodies have not been strengthened by the enthusiasm and single-mindedness of the men in whom personal religion is strong1 and these men have not found their teaching diffused and made permanent by the power of ecclesiastical institutions4 ,the ,catholic ,church achieved1 during the ,middle ,ages1 the most organic society and the most harmonious inner synthesis of instinct1 mind1 and spirit1 that the ,western world has ever known4 ,st4 ,francis1 ,thomas ,aquinas1 and ,dante represent its summit as regards individual development4 ,the cathedrals1 the mendicant ,orders1 and the triumph of the ,papacy over the ,empire represent its supreme political success4 ,but the perfection which had been achieved was a narrow perfection3 instinct1 mind1 and spirit all suffered from curtailment in order to fit into the pattern2 laymen found themselves subject to the ,church in ways which they resented1 and the ,church used its power for rapacity and oppression4 ,the perfect synthesis was an enemy to new growth1 and after the time of ,dante all that was living in the world had first to fight for its right to live against the representatives of the old order4 ,this fight is even now not ended4 ,only when it is quite ended1 both in the external world of politics and in the internal world of men's own thoughts1 will it be possible for a new organic society and a new inner synthesis to take the place which the ,church held for a thousand years4 ,the clerical profession suffers from two causes1 one of which it shares with some other professions1 while the other is peculiar to itself4 ,the cause peculiar to it is the convention that clergymen are more virtuous than other men4 ,any average selection of mankind1 set apart and told that it excels the rest in virtue1 must tend to sink below the average4 ,this is an ancient commonplace in regard to princes and those who used to be called 8the great40 ,but it is no less true as regards those of the clergy who are not genuinely and by nature as much better than the average as they are conventionally supposed to be4 ,the other source of harm to the clerical profession is endowments4 ,property which is only available for those who will support an established institution has a tendency to warp men's judgments as to the excellence of the institution4 ,the tendency is aggravated when the property is associated with social consideration and opportunities for petty power4 ,it is at its worst when the institution is tied by law to an ancient creed1 almost impossible to change1 and yet quite out of touch with the unfettered thought of the present day4 ,all these causes combine to damage the moral force of the ,church4 ,it is not so much that the creed of the ,church is the wrong one4 ,what is amiss is the mere existence of a creed4 ,as soon as income1 position1 and power are dependent upon acceptance of no matter what creed1 intellectual honesty is imperiled4 ,men will tell themselves that a formal assent is justified by the good which it will enable them to do4 ,they fail to realize that1 in those whose mental life has any vigor1 loss of complete intellectual integrity puts an end to the power of doing good1 by producing gradually in all directions an inability to see truth simply4 ,the strictness of party discipline has introduced the same evil in politics2 there1 because the evil is comparatively new1 it is visible to many who think it unimportant as regards the ,church4 ,but the evil is greater as regards the ,church1 because religion is of more importance than politics1 and because it is more necessary that the exponents of religion should be wholly free from taint4 ,the evils we have been considering seem inseparable from the existence of a professional priesthood4 ,if religion is not to be harmful in a world of rapid change1 it must1 like the ,society of ,friends1 be carried on by men who have other occupations during the week1 who do their religious work from enthusiasm1 without receiving any payment4 ,and such men1 because they know the everyday world1 are not likely to fall into a remote morality which no one regards as applicable to common life4 ,being free1 they will not be bound to reach certain conclusions decided in advance1 but will be able to consider moral and religious questions genuinely1 without bias4 ,except in a quite stationary society1 no religious life can be living or a real support to the spirit unless it is freed from the incubus of a professional priesthood4 ,it is largely for these reasons that so little of what is valuable in morals and religion comes nowadays from the men who are eminent in the religious world4 ,it is true that among professed believers there are many who are wholly sincere1 who feel still the inspiration which ,christianity brought before it had been weakened by the progress of knowledge4 ,these sincere believers are valuable to the world because they keep alive the conviction that the life of the spirit is what is of most importance to men and women4 ,some of them1 in all the countries now at war1 have had the courage to preach peace and love in the name of ,christ1 and have done what lay in their power to mitigate the bitterness of hatred4 ,all praise is due to these men1 and without them the world would be even worse than it is4 ,but it is not through even the most sincere and courageous believers in the traditional religion that a new spirit can come into the world4 ,it is not through them that religion can be brought back to those who have lost it because their minds were active1 not because their spirit was dead4 ,believers in the traditional religion necessarily look to the past for inspiration rather than to the future4 ,they seek wisdom in the teaching of ,christ1 which1 admirable as it is1 remains quite inadequate for many of the social and spiritual issues of modern life4 ,art and intellect and all the problems of government are ignored in the ,gospels4 ,those who1 like ,tolstoy1 endeavor seriously to take the ,gospels as a guide to life are compelled to regard the ignorant peasant as the best type of man1 and to brush aside political questions by an extreme and impracticable anarchism4 ,if a religious view of life and the world is ever to reconquer the thoughts and feelings of free-minded men and women1 much that we are accustomed to associate with religion will have to be discarded4 ,the first and greatest change that is required is to establish a morality of initiative1 not a morality of submission1 a morality of hope rather than fear1 of things to be done rather than of things to be left undone4 ,it is not the whole duty of man to slip through the world so as to escape the wrath of ,god4 ,the world is our world1 and it rests with us to make it a heaven or a hell4 ,the power is ours1 and the kingdom and the glory would be ours also if we had courage and insight to create them4 ,the religious life that we must seek will not be one of occasional solemnity and superstitious prohibitions1 it will not be sad or ascetic1 it will concern itself little with rules of conduct4 ,it will be inspired by a vision of what human life may be1 and will be happy with the joy of creation1 living in a large free world of initiative and hope4 ,it will love mankind1 not for what they are to the outward eye1 but for what imagination shows that they have it in them to become4 ,it will not readily condemn1 but it will give praise to positive achievement rather than negative sinlessness1 to the joy of life1 the quick affection1 the creative insight1 by which the world may grow young and beautiful and filled with vigor4 8,religion0 is a word which has many meanings and a long history4 ,in origin1 it was concerned with certain rites1 inherited from a remote past1 performed originally for some reason long since forgotten1 and associated from time to time with various myths to account for their supposed importance4 ,much of this lingers still4 ,a religious man is one who goes to church1 a communicant1 one who 8practises10 as ,catholics say4 ,how he behaves otherwise1 or how he feels concerning life and man's place in the world1 does not bear upon the question whether he is 8religious0 in this simple but historically correct sense4 ,many men and women are religious in this sense without having in their natures anything that deserves to be called religion in the sense in which ,i mean the word4 ,the mere familiarity of the ,church service has made them impervious to it2 they are unconscious of all the history and human experience by which the liturgy has been enriched1 and unmoved by the glibly repeated words of the ,gospel1 which condemn almost all the activities of those who fancy themselves disciples of ,christ4 ,this fate must overtake any habitual rite3 it is impossible that it should continue to produce much effect after it has been performed so often as to grow mechanical4 ,the activities of men may be roughly derived from three sources1 not in actual fact sharply separate one from another1 but sufficiently distinguishable to deserve different names4 ,the three sources ,i mean are instinct1 mind1 and spirit1 and of these three it is the life of the spirit that makes religion4 ,the life of instinct includes all that man shares with the lower animals1 all that is concerned with self-preservation and reproduction and the desires and impulses derivative from these4 ,it includes vanity and love of possessions1 love of family1 and even much of what makes love of country4 ,it includes all the impulses that are essentially concerned with the biological success of oneself or one's group--for among gregarious animals the life of instinct includes the group4 ,the impulses which it includes may not in fact make for success1 and may often in fact militate against it1 but are nevertheless those of which success is the raison d'tre1 those which express the animal nature of man and his position among a world of competitors4 ,the life of the mind is the life of pursuit of knowledge1 from mere childish curiosity up to the greatest efforts of thought4 ,curiosity exists in animals1 and serves an obvious biological purpose2 but it is only in men that it passes beyond the investigation of particular objects which may be edible or poisonous1 friendly or hostile4 ,curiosity is the primary impulse out of which the whole edifice of scientific knowledge has grown4 ,knowledge has been found so useful that most actual acquisition of it is no longer prompted by curiosity2 innumerable other motives now contribute to foster the intellectual life4 ,nevertheless1 direct love of knowledge and dislike of error still play a very large part1 especially with those who are most successful in learning4 ,no man acquires much knowledge unless the acquisition is in itself delightful to him1 apart from any consciousness of the use to which the knowledge may be put4 ,the impulse to acquire knowledge and the activities which center round it constitute what ,i mean by the life of the mind4 ,the life of the mind consists of thought which is wholly or partially impersonal1 in the sense that it concerns itself with objects on their own account1 and not merely on account of their bearing upon our instinctive life4 ,the life of the spirit centers round impersonal feeling1 as the life of the mind centers round impersonal thought4 ,in this sense1 all art belongs to the life of the spirit1 though its greatness is derived from its being also intimately bound up with the life of instinct4 ,art starts from instinct and rises into the region of the spirit2 religion starts from the spirit and endeavors to dominate and inform the life of instinct4 ,it is possible to feel the same interest in the joys and sorrows of others as in our own1 to love and hate independently of all relation to ourselves1 to care about the destiny of man and the development of the universe without a thought that we are personally involved4 ,reverence and worship1 the sense of an obligation to mankind1 the feeling of imperativeness and acting under orders which traditional religion has interpreted as ,divine inspiration1 all belong to the life of the spirit4 ,and deeper than all these lies the sense of a mystery half revealed1 of a hidden wisdom and glory1 of a transfiguring vision in which common things lose their solid importance and become a thin veil behind which the ultimate truth of the world is dimly seen4 ,it is such feelings that are the source of religion1 and if they were to die most of what is best would vanish out of life4 ,instinct1 mind1 and spirit are all essential to a full life2 each has its own excellence and its own corruption4 ,each can attain a spurious excellence at the expense of the others2 each has a tendency to encroach upon the others2 but in the life which is to be sought all three will be developed in cordination1 and intimately blended in a single harmonious whole4 ,among uncivilized men instinct is supreme1 and mind and spirit hardly exist4 ,among educated men at the present day mind is developed1 as a rule1 at the expense of both instinct and spirit1 producing a curious inhumanity and lifelessness1 a paucity of both personal and impersonal desires1 which leads to cynicism and intellectual destructiveness4 ,among ascetics and most of those who would be called saints1 the life of the spirit has been developed at the expense of instinct and mind1 producing an outlook which is impossible to those who have a healthy animal life and to those who have a love of active thought4 ,it is not in any of these one-sided developments that we can find wisdom or a philosophy which will bring new life to the civilized world4 ,among civilized men and women at the present day it is rare to find instinct1 mind1 and spirit in harmony4 ,very few have achieved a practical philosophy which gives its due place to each2 as a rule1 instinct is at war with either mind or spirit1 and mind and spirit are at war with each other4 ,this strife compels men and women to direct much of their energy inwards1 instead of being able to expend it all in objective activities4 ,when a man achieves a precarious inward peace by the defeat of a part of his nature1 his vital force is impaired1 and his growth is no longer quite healthy4 ,if men are to remain whole1 it is very necessary that they should achieve a reconciliation of instinct1 mind1 and spirit4 ,instinct is the source of vitality1 the bond that unites the life of the individual with the life of the race1 the basis of all profound sense of union with others1 and the means by which the collective life nourishes the life of the separate units4 ,but instinct by itself leaves us powerless to control the forces of ,nature1 either in ourselves or in our physical environment1 and keeps us in bondage to the same unthinking impulse by which the trees grow4 ,mind can liberate us from this bondage1 by the power of impersonal thought1 which enables us to judge critically the purely biological purposes towards which instinct more or less blindly tends4 ,but mind1 in its dealings with instinct1 is merely critical3 so far as instinct is concerned1 the unchecked activity of the mind is apt to be destructive and to generate cynicism4 ,spirit is an antidote to the cynicism of mind3 it universalizes the emotions that spring from instinct1 and by universalizing them makes them impervious to mental criticism4 ,and when thought is informed by spirit it loses its cruel1 destructive quality2 it no longer promotes the death of instinct1 but only its purification from insistence and ruthlessness and its emancipation from the prison walls of accidental circumstance4 ,it is instinct that gives force1 mind that gives the means of directing force to desired ends1 and spirit that suggests impersonal uses for force of a kind that thought cannot discredit by criticism4 ,this is an outline of the parts that instinct1 mind1 and spirit would play in a harmonious life4 ,instinct1 mind1 and spirit are each a help to the others when their development is free and unvitiated2 but when corruption comes into any one of the three1 not only does that one fail1 but the others also become poisoned4 ,all three must grow together4 ,and if they are to grow to their full stature in any one man or woman1 that man or woman must not be isolated1 but must be one of a society where growth is not thwarted and made crooked4 ,the life of instinct1 when it is unchecked by mind or spirit1 consists of instinctive cycles1 which begin with impulses to more or less definite acts1 and pass on to satisfaction of needs through the consequences of these impulsive acts4 ,impulse and desire are not directed towards the whole cycle1 but only towards its initiation3 the rest is left to natural causes4 ,we desire to eat1 but we do not desire to be nourished unless we are valetudinarians4 ,yet without the nourishment eating is a mere momentary pleasure1 not part of the general impulse to life4 ,men desire sexual intercourse1 but they do not as a rule desire children strongly or often4 ,yet without the hope of children and its occasional realization1 sexual intercourse remains for most people an isolated and separate pleasure1 not uniting their personal life with the life of mankind1 not continuous with the central purposes by which they live1 and not capable of bringing that profound sense of fulfilment which comes from completion by children4 ,most men1 unless the impulse is atrophied through disuse1 feel a desire to create something1 great or small according to their capacities4 ,some few are able to satisfy this desire3 some happy men can create an ,empire1 a science1 a poem1 or a picture4 ,the men of science1 who have less difficulty than any others in finding an outlet for creativeness1 are the happiest of intelligent men in the modern world1 since their creative activity affords full satisfaction to mind and spirit as well as to the instinct of creation4#ba ,in them a beginning is to be seen of the new way of life which is to be sought2 in their happiness we may perhaps find the germ of a future happiness for all mankind4 ,the rest1 with few exceptions1 are thwarted in their creative impulses4 ,they cannot build their own house or make their own garden1 or direct their own labor to producing what their free choice would lead them to produce4 ,in this way the instinct of creation1 which should lead on to the life of mind and spirit1 is checked and turned aside4 ,too often it is turned to destruction1 as the only effective action which remains possible4 ,out of its defeat grows envy1 and out of envy grows the impulse to destroy the creativeness of more fortunate men4 ,this is one of the greatest sources of corruption in the life of instinct4 ,the life of instinct is important1 not only on its own account1 or because of the direct usefulness of the actions which it inspires1 but also because1 if it is unsatisfactory1 the individual life becomes detached and separated from the general life of man4 ,all really profound sense of unity with others depends upon instinct1 upon coperation or agreement in some instinctive purpose4 ,this is most obvious in the relations of men and women and parents and children4 ,but it is true also in wider relations4 ,it is true of large assemblies swayed by a strong common emotion1 and even of a whole nation in times of stress4 ,it is part of what makes the value of religion as a social institution4 ,where this feeling is wholly absent1 other human beings seem distant and aloof4 ,where it is actively thwarted1 other human beings become objects of instinctive hostility4 ,the aloofness or the instinctive hostility may be masked by religious love1 which can be given to all men regardless of their relation to ourselves4 ,but religious love does not bridge the gulf that parts man from man3 it looks across the gulf1 it views others with compassion or impersonal sympathy1 but it does not live with the same life with which they live4 ,instinct alone can do this1 but only when it is fruitful and sane and direct4 ,to this end it is necessary that instinctive cycles should be fairly often completed1 not interrupted in the middle of their course4 ,at present they are constantly interrupted1 partly by purposes which conflict with them for economic or other reasons1 partly by the pursuit of pleasure1 which picks out the most agreeable part of the cycle and avoids the rest4 ,in this way instinct is robbed of its importance and seriousness2 it becomes incapable of bringing any real fulfilment1 its demands grow more and more excessive1 and life becomes no longer a whole with a single movement1 but a series of detached moments1 some of them pleasurable1 most of them full of weariness and discouragement4 ,the life of the mind1 although supremely excellent in itself1 cannot bring health into the life of instinct1 except when it results in a not too difficult outlet for the instinct of creation4 ,in other cases it is1 as a rule1 too widely separated from instinct1 too detached1 too destitute of inward growth1 to afford either a vehicle for instinct or a means of subtilizing and refining it4 ,thought is in its essence impersonal and detached1 instinct is in its essence personal and tied to particular circumstances3 between the two1 unless both reach a high level1 there is a war which is not easily appeased4 ,this is the fundamental reason for vitalism1 futurism1 pragmatism1 and the various other philosophies which advertise themselves as vigorous and virile4 ,all these represent the attempt to find a mode of thought which shall not be hostile to instinct4 ,the attempt1 in itself1 is deserving of praise1 but the solution offered is far too facile4 ,what is proposed amounts to a subordination of thought to instinct1 a refusal to allow thought to achieve its own ideal4 ,thought which does not rise above what is personal is not thought in any true sense3 it is merely a more or less intelligent use of instinct4 ,it is thought and spirit that raise man above the level of the brutes4 ,by discarding them we may lose the proper excellence of men1 but cannot acquire the excellence of animals4 ,thought must achieve its full growth before a reconciliation with instinct is attempted4 ,when refined thought and unrefined instinct coexist1 as they do in many intellectual men1 the result is a complete disbelief in any important good to be achieved by the help of instinct4 ,according to their disposition1 some such men will as far as possible discard instinct and become ascetic1 while others will accept it as a necessity1 leaving it degraded and separated from all that is really important in their lives4 ,either of these courses prevents instinct from remaining vital1 or from being a bond with others2 either produces a sense of physical solitude1 a gulf across which the minds and spirits of others may speak1 but not their instincts4 ,to very many men1 the instinct of patriotism1 when the war broke out1 was the first instinct that had bridged the gulf1 the first that had made them feel a really profound unity with others4 ,this instinct1 just because1 in its intense form1 it was new and unfamiliar1 had remained uninfected by thought1 not paralyzed or devitalized by doubt and cold detachment4 ,the sense of unity which it brought is capable of being brought by the instinctive life of more normal times1 if thought and spirit are not hostile to it4 ,and so long as this sense of unity is absent1 instinct and spirit cannot be in harmony1 nor can the life of the community have vigor and the seeds of new growth4 ,the life of the mind1 because of its detachment1 tends to separate a man inwardly from other men1 so long as it is not balanced by the life of the spirit4 ,for this reason1 mind without spirit can render instinct corrupt or atrophied1 but cannot add any excellence to the life of instinct4 ,on this ground1 some men are hostile to thought4 ,but no good purpose is served by trying to prevent the growth of thought1 which has its own insistence1 and if checked in the directions in which it tends naturally1 will turn into other directions where it is more harmful4 ,and thought is in itself god-like3 if the opposition between thought and instinct were irreconcilable1 it would be thought that ought to conquer4 ,but the opposition is not irreconciliable3 all that is necessary is that both thought and instinct should be informed by the life of the spirit4 ,in order that human life should have vigor1 it is necessary for the instinctive impulses to be strong and direct2 but in order that human life should be good1 these impulses must be dominated and controlled by desires less personal and ruthless1 less liable to lead to conflict than those that are inspired by instinct alone4 ,something impersonal and universal is needed over and above what springs out of the principle of individual growth4 ,it is this that is given by the life of the spirit4 ,patriotism affords an example of the kind of control which is needed4 ,patriotism is compounded out of a number of instinctive feelings and impulses3 love of home1 love of those whose ways and outlook resemble our own1 the impulse to coperation in a group1 the sense of pride in the achievements of one's group4 ,all these impulses and desires1 like everything belonging to the life of instinct1 are personal1 in the sense that the feelings and actions which they inspire towards others are determined by the relation of those others to ourselves1 not by what those others are intrinsically4 ,all these impulses and desires unite to produce a love of man's own country which is more deeply implanted in the fiber of his being1 and more closely united to his vital force1 than any love not rooted in instinct4 ,but if spirit does not enter in to generalize love of country1 the exclusiveness of instinctive love makes it a source of hatred of other countries4 ,what spirit can effect is to make us realize that other countries equally are worthy of love1 that the vital warmth which makes us love our own country reveals to us that it deserves to be loved1 and that only the poverty of our nature prevents us from loving all countries as we love our own4 ,in this way instinctive love can be extended in imagination1 and a sense of the value of all mankind can grow up1 which is more living and intense than any that is possible to those whose instinctive love is weak4 ,mind can only show us that it is irrational to love our own country best2 it can weaken patriotism1 but cannot strengthen the love of all mankind4 ,spirit alone can do this1 by extending and universalizing the love that is born of instinct4 ,and in doing this it checks and purifies whatever is insistent or ruthless or oppressively personal in the life of instinct4 ,the same extension through spirit is necessary with other instinctive loves1 if they are not to be enfeebled or corrupted by thought4 ,the love of husband and wife is capable of being a very good thing1 and when men and women are sufficiently primitive nothing but instinct and good fortune is needed to make it reach a certain limited perfection4 ,but as thought begins to assert its right to criticize instinct the old simplicity becomes impossible4 ,the love of husband and wife1 as unchecked instinct leaves it1 is too narrow and personal to stand against the shafts of satire1 until it is enriched by the life of the spirit4 ,the romantic view of marriage1 which our fathers and mothers professed to believe1 will not survive an imaginative peregrination down a street of suburban villas1 each containing its couple1 each couple having congratulated themselves as they first crossed the threshold1 that here they could love in peace1 without interruption from others1 without contact with the cold outside world4 ,the separateness and stuffiness1 the fine names for cowardices and timid vanities1 that are shut within the four walls of thousands upon thousands of little villas1 present themselves coldly and mercilessly to those in whom mind is dominant at the expense of spirit4 ,nothing is good in the life of a human being except the very best that his nature can achieve4 ,as men advance1 things which have been good cease to be good1 merely because something better is possible4 ,so it is with the life of instinct3 for those whose mental life is strong1 much that was really good while mind remained less developed has now become bad merely through the greater degree of truth in their outlook on the world4 ,the instinctive man in love feels that his emotion is unique1 that the lady of his heart has perfections such as no other woman ever equaled4 ,the man who has acquired the power of impersonal thought realizes1 when he is in love1 that he is one of so many millions of men who are in love at this moment1 that not more than one of all the millions can be right in thinking his love supreme1 and that it is not likely that that one is oneself4 ,he perceives that the state of being in love in those whose instinct is unaffected by thought or spirit1 is a state of illusion1 serving the ends of ,nature and making a man a slave to the life of the species1 not a willing minister to the impersonal ends which he sees to be good4 ,thought rejects this slavery2 for no end that ,nature may have in view will thought abdicate1 or forgo its right to think truly4 8,better the world should perish than that ,i or any other human being should believe a lie0--this is the religion of thought1 in whose scorching flames the dross of the world is being burnt away4 ,it is a good religion1 and its work of destruction must be completed4 ,but it is not all that man has need of4 ,new growth must come after the destruction1 and new growth can come only through the spirit4 ,both patriotism and the love of man and woman1 when they are merely instinctive1 have the same defects3 their exclusions1 their enclosing walls1 their indifference or hostility to the outside world4 ,it is through this that thought is led to satire1 that comedy has infected what men used to consider their holiest feelings4 ,the satire and the comedy are justified1 but not the death of instinct which they may produce if they remain in supreme command4 ,they are justified1 not as the last word of wisdom but as the gateway of pain through which men pass to a new life1 where instinct is purified and yet nourished by the deeper desires and insight of spirit4 ,the man who has the life of the spirit within him views the love of man and woman1 both in himself and in others1 quite differently from the man who is exclusively dominated by mind4 ,he sees1 in his moments of insight1 that in all human beings there is something deserving of love1 something mysterious1 something appealing1 a cry out of the night1 a groping journey1 and a possible victory4 ,when his instinct loves1 he welcomes its help in seeing and feeling the value of the human being whom he loves4 ,instinct becomes a reinforcement to spiritual insight4 ,what instinct tells him spiritual insight confirms1 however much the mind may be aware of littlenesses1 limitations1 and enclosing walls that prevent the spirit from shining forth4 ,his spirit divines in all men what his instinct shows him in the object of his love4 ,the love of parents for children has need of the same transformation4 ,the purely instinctive love1 unchecked by thought1 uninformed by spirit1 is exclusive1 ruthless1 and unjust4 ,no benefit to others is felt1 by the purely instinctive parent1 to be worth an injury to one's own children4 ,honor and conventional morality place certain important practical limitations on the vicarious selfishness of parents1 since a civilized community exacts a certain minimum before it will give respect4 ,but within the limits allowed by public opinion1 parental affection1 when it is merely instinctive1 will seek the advantage of children without regard to others4 ,mind can weaken the impulse to injustice1 and diminish the force of instinctive love1 but it cannot keep the whole force of instinctive love and turn it to more universal ends4 ,spirit can do this4 ,it can leave the instinctive love of children undimmed1 and extend the poignant devotion of a parent1 in imagination1 to the whole world4 ,and parental love itself will prompt the parent who has the life of the spirit to give to his children the sense of justice1 the readiness for service1 the reverence1 the will that controls self-seeking1 which he feels to be a greater good than any personal success4 ,the life of the spirit has suffered in recent times by its association with traditional religion1 by its apparent hostility to the life of the mind1 and by the fact that it has seemed to center in renunciation4 ,the life of the spirit demands readiness for renunciation when the occasion arises1 but is in its essence as positive and as capable of enriching individual existence as mind and instinct are4 ,it brings with it the joy of vision1 of the mystery and profundity of the world1 of the contemplation of life1 and above all the joy of universal love4 ,it liberates those who have it from the prison-house of insistent personal passion and mundane cares4 ,it gives freedom and breadth and beauty to men's thoughts and feelings1 and to all their relations with others4 ,it brings the solution of doubts1 the end of the feeling that all is vanity4 ,it restores harmony between mind and instinct1 and leads the separated unit back into his place in the life of mankind4 ,for those who have once entered the world of thought1 it is only through spirit that happiness and peace can return4 ,,viii ,,what ,,we ,,can ,,do ,what can we do for the world while we live8 ,many men and women would wish to serve mankind1 but they are perplexed and their power seems infinitesimal4 ,despair seizes them2 those who have the strongest passion suffer most from the sense of impotence1 and are most liable to spiritual ruin through lack of hope4 ,so long as we think only of the immediate future1 it seems that what we can do is not much4 ,it is probably impossible for us to bring the war to an end4 ,we cannot destroy the excessive power of the ,state or of private property4 ,we cannot1 here and now1 bring new life into education4 ,in such matters1 though we may see the evil1 we cannot quickly cure it by any of the ordinary methods of politics4 ,we must recognize that the world is ruled in a wrong spirit1 and that a change of spirit will not come from one day to the next4 ,our expectations must not be for to-morrow1 but for the time when what is thought now by a few shall have become the common thought of many4 ,if we have courage and patience1 we can think the thoughts and feel the hopes by which1 sooner or later1 men will be inspired1 and weariness and discouragement will be turned into energy and ardor4 ,for this reason1 the first thing we have to do is to be clear in our own minds as to the kind of life we think good and the kind of change that we desire in the world4 ,the ultimate power of those whose thought is vital is far greater than it seems to men who suffer from the irrationality of contemporary politics4 ,religious toleration was once the solitary speculation of a few bold philosophers4 ,democracy1 as a theory1 arose among a handful of men in ,cromwell's army2 by them1 after the ,restoration1 it was carried to ,america1 where it came to fruition in the ,war of ,independence4 ,from ,america1 ,lafayette and the other ,frenchmen who fought by the side of ,washington brought the theory of democracy to ,france1 where it united itself with the teaching of ,rousseau and inspired the ,revolution4 ,socialism1 whatever we may think of its merits1 is a great and growing power1 which is transforming economic and political life2 and socialism owes its origin to a very small number of isolated theorists4 ,the movement against the subjection of women1 which has become irresistible and is not far from complete triumph1 began in the same way with a few impracticable idealists--,mary ,wollstonecraft1 ,shelley1 ,john ,stuart ,mill4 ,the power of thought1 in the long run1 is greater than any other human power4 ,those who have the ability to think and the imagination to think in accordance with men's needs1 are likely to achieve the good they aim at sooner or later1 though probably not while they are still alive4 ,but those who wish to gain the world by thought must be content to lose it as a support in the present4 ,most men go through life without much questioning1 accepting the beliefs and practices which they find current1 feeling that the world will be their ally if they do not put themselves in opposition to it4 ,new thought about the world is incompatible with this comfortable acquiescence2 it requires a certain intellectual detachment1 a certain solitary energy1 a power of inwardly dominating the world and the outlook that the world engenders4 ,without some willingness to be lonely new thought cannot be achieved4 ,and it will not be achieved to any purpose if the loneliness is accompanied by aloofness1 so that the wish for union with others dies1 or if intellectual detachment leads to contempt4 ,it is because the state of mind required is subtle and difficult1 because it is hard to be intellectually detached yet not aloof1 that fruitful thought on human affairs is not common1 and that most theorists are either conventional or sterile4 ,the right kind of thought is rare and difficult1 but it is not impotent4 ,it is not the fear of impotence that need turn us aside from thought if we have the wish to bring new hope into the world4 ,in seeking a political theory which is to be useful at any given moment1 what is wanted is not the invention of a ,utopia1 but the discovery of the best direction of movement4 ,the direction which is good at one time may be superficially very different from that which is good at another time4 ,useful thought is that which indicates the right direction for the present time4 ,but in judging what is the right direction there are two general principles which are always applicable4 #a4 ,the growth and vitality of individuals and communities is to be promoted as far as possible4 #b4 ,the growth of one individual or one community is to be as little as possible at the expense of another4 ,the second of these principles1 as applied by an individual in his dealings with others1 is the principle of reverence1 that the life of another has the same importance which we feel in our own life4 ,as applied impersonally in politics1 it is the principle of liberty1 or rather it includes the principle of liberty as a part4 ,liberty in itself is a negative principle2 it tells us not to interfere1 but does not give any basis for construction4 ,it shows that many political and social institutions are bad and ought to be swept away1 but it does not show what ought to be put in their place4 ,for this reason a further principle is required1 if our political theory is not to be purely destructive4 ,the combination of our two principles is not in practice an easy matter4 ,much of the vital energy of the world runs into channels which are oppressive4 ,the ,germans have shown themselves extraordinarily full of vital energy1 but unfortunately in a form which seems incompatible with the vitality of their neighbors4 ,europe in general has more vital energy than ,africa1 but it has used its energy to drain ,africa1 through industrialism1 of even such life as the negroes possessed4 ,the vitality of southeastern ,europe is being drained to supply cheap labor for the enterprise of ,american millionaires4 ,the vitality of men has been in the past a hindrance to the development of women1 and it is possible that in the near future women may become a similar hindrance to men4 ,for such reasons the principle of reverence1 though not in itself sufficient1 is of very great importance1 and is able to indicate many of the political changes that the world requires4 ,in order that both principles may be capable of being satisfied1 what is needed is a unifying or integration1 first of our individual lives1 then of the life of the community and of the world1 without sacrifice of individuality4 ,the life of an individual1 the life of a community1 and even the life of mankind1 ought to be1 not a number of separate fragments but in some sense a whole4 ,when this is the case1 the growth of the individual is fostered1 and is not incompatible with the growth of other individuals4 ,in this way the two principles are brought into harmony4 ,what integrates an individual life is a consistent creative purpose or unconscious direction4 ,instinct alone will not suffice to give unity to the life of a civilized man or woman3 there must be some dominant object1 an ambition1 a desire for scientific or artistic creation1 a religious principle1 or strong and lasting affections4 ,unity of life is very difficult for a man or woman who has suffered a certain kind of defeat1 the kind by which what should have been the dominant impulse is checked and made abortive4 ,most professions inflict this kind of defeat upon a man at the very outset4 ,if a man becomes a journalist1 he probably has to write for a newspaper whose politics he dislikes2 this kills his pride in work and his sense of independence4 ,most medical men find it very hard to succeed without humbug1 by which whatever scientific conscience they may have had is destroyed4 ,politicians are obliged1 not only to swallow the party program but to pretend to be saints1 in order to conciliate religious supporters2 hardly any man can enter ,parliament without hypocrisy4 ,in no profession is there any respect for the native pride without which a man cannot remain whole2 the world ruthlessly crushes it out1 because it implies independence1 and men desire to enslave others more than they desire to be free themselves4 ,inward freedom is infinitely precious1 and a society which will preserve it is immeasurably to be desired4 ,the principle of growth in a man is not crushed necessarily by preventing him from doing some definite thing1 but it is often crushed by persuading him to do something else4 ,the things that crush growth are those that produce a sense of impotence in the directions in which the vital impulse wishes to be effective4 ,the worst things are those to which the will assents4 ,often1 chiefly from failure of self-knowledge1 a man's will is on a lower level than his impulse3 his impulse is towards some kind of creation1 while his will is towards a conventional career1 with a sufficient income and the respect of his contemporaries4 ,the stereotyped illustration is the artist who produces shoddy work to please the public4 ,but something of the artist's definiteness of impulse exists in very many men who are not artists4 ,because the impulse is deep and dumb1 because what is called common sense is often against it1 because a young man can only follow it if he is willing to set up his own obscure feelings against the wisdom and prudent maxims of elders and friends1 it happens in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred that the creative impulse1 out of which a free and vigorous life might have sprung1 is checked and thwarted at the very outset3 the young man consents to become a tool1 not an independent workman2 a mere means to the fulfilment of others1 not the artificer of what his own nature feels to be good4 ,in the moment when he makes this act of consent something dies within him4 ,he can never again become a whole man1 never again have the undamaged self-respect1 the upright pride1 which might have kept him happy in his soul in spite of all outward troubles and difficulties--except1 indeed1 through conversion and a fundamental change in his way of life4 ,outward prohibitions1 to which the will gives no assent1 are far less harmful than the subtler inducements which seduce the will4 ,a serious disappointment in love may cause the most poignant pain1 but to a vigorous man it will not do the same inward damage as is done by marrying for money4 ,the achievement of this or that special desire is not what is essential3 what is essential is the direction1 the kind of effectiveness which is sought4 ,when the fundamental impulse is opposed by will1 it is made to feel helpless3 it has no longer enough hope to be powerful as a motive4 ,outward compulsion does not do the same damage unless it produces the same sense of impotence2 and it will not produce the same sense of impotence if the impulse is strong and courageous4 ,some thwarting of special desires is unavoidable even in the best imaginable community1 since some men's desires1 unchecked1 lead to the oppression or destruction of others4 ,in a good community ,napoleon could not have been allowed the profession of his choice1 but he might have found happiness as a pioneer in ,western ,america4 ,he could not have found happiness as a ,city clerk1 and no tolerable organization of society would compel him to become a ,city clerk4 ,the integration of an individual life requires that it should embody whatever creative impulse a man may possess1 and that his education should have been such as to elicit and fortify this impulse4 ,the integration of a community requires that the different creative impulses of different men and women should work together towards some common life1 some common purpose1 not necessarily conscious1 in which all the members of the community find a help to their individual fulfilment4 ,most of the activities that spring from vital impulses consist of two parts3 one creative1 which furthers one's own life and that of others with the same kind of impulse or circumstances1 and one possessive1 which hinders the life of some group with a different kind of impulse or circumstances4 ,for this reason1 much of what is in itself most vital may nevertheless work against life1 as1 for example1 seventeenth-century ,puritanism did in ,england1 or as nationalism does throughout ,europe at the present day4 ,vitality easily leads to strife or oppression1 and so to loss of vitality4 ,war1 at its outset1 integrates the life of a nation1 but it disintegrates the life of the world1 and in the long run the life of a nation too1 when it is as severe as the present war4 ,the war has made it clear that it is impossible to produce a secure integration of the life of a single community while the relations between civilized countries are governed by aggressiveness and suspicion4 ,for this reason any really powerful movement of reform will have to be international4 ,a merely national movement is sure to fail through fear of danger from without4 ,those who desire a better world1 or even a radical improvement in their own country1 will have to coperate with those who have similar desires in other countries1 and to devote much of their energy to overcoming that blind hostility which the war has intensified4 ,it is not in partial integrations1 such as patriotism alone can produce1 that any ultimate hope is to be found4 ,the problem is1 in national and international questions as in the individual life1 to keep what is creative in vital impulses1 and at the same time to turn into other channels the part which is at present destructive4 ,men's impulses and desires may be divided into those that are creative and those that are possessive4 ,some of our activities are directed to creating what would not otherwise exist1 others are directed towards acquiring or retaining what exists already4 ,the typical creative impulse is that of the artist2 the typical possessive impulse is that of property4 ,the best life is that in which creative impulses play the largest part and possessive impulses the smallest4 ,the best institutions are those which produce the greatest possible creativeness and the least possessiveness compatible with self-preservation4 ,possessiveness may be defensive or aggressive3 in the criminal law it is defensive1 and in criminals it is aggressive4 ,it may perhaps be admitted that the criminal law is less abominable than the criminal1 and that defensive possessiveness is unavoidable so long as aggressive possessiveness exists4 ,but not even the most purely defensive forms of possessiveness are in themselves admirable2 indeed1 as soon as they are strong they become hostile to the creative impulses4 8,take no thought1 saying1 ,what shall we eat8 or ,what shall we drink1 or ,wherewithal shall we be clothed80 ,whoever has known a strong creative impulse has known the value of this precept in its exact and literal sense3 it is preoccupation with possessions1 more than anything else1 that prevents men from living freely and nobly4 ,the ,state and ,property are the great embodiments of possessiveness2 it is for this reason that they are against life1 and that they issue in war4 ,possession means taking or keeping some good thing which another is prevented from enjoying2 creation means putting into the world a good thing which otherwise no one would be able to enjoy4 ,since the material goods of the world must be divided among the population1 and since some men are by nature brigands1 there must be defensive possession1 which will be regulated1 in a good community1 by some principle of impersonal justice4 ,but all this is only the preface to a good life or good political institutions1 in which creation will altogether outweigh possession1 and distributive justice will exist as an uninteresting matter of course4 ,the supreme principle1 both in politics and in private life1 should be to promote all that is creative1 and so to diminish the impulses and desires that center round possession4 ,the ,state at present is very largely an embodiment of possessive impulses3 internally1 it protects the rich against the poor2 externally1 it uses force for the exploitation of inferior races1 and for competition with other ,states4 ,our whole economic system is concerned exclusively with possession2 yet the production of goods is a form of creation1 and except in so far as it is irredeemably mechanical and monotonous1 it might afford a vehicle for creative impulses4 ,a great deal might be achieved towards this end by forming the producers of a certain kind of commodity into an autonomous democracy1 subject to ,state control as regards the price of their commodity but not as to the manner of its production4 ,education1 marriage1 and religion are essentially creative1 yet all three have been vitiated by the intrusion of possessive motives4 ,education is usually treated as a means of prolonging the status quo by instilling prejudices1 rather than of creating free thought and a noble outlook by the example of generous feeling and the stimulus of mental adventure4 ,in marriage1 love1 which is creative1 is kept in chains by jealousy1 which is possessive4 ,religion1 which should set free the creative vision of the spirit1 is usually more concerned to repress the life of instinct and to combat the subversiveness of thought4 ,in all these ways the fear that grows out of precarious possession has replaced the hope inspired by creative force4 ,the wish to plunder others is recognized1 in theory1 to be bad2 but the fear of being plundered is little better4 ,yet these two motives between them dominate nine-tenths of politics and private life4 ,the creative impulses in different men are essentially harmonious1 since what one man creates cannot be a hindrance to what another is wishing to create4 ,it is the possessive impulses that involve conflict4 ,although1 morally and politically1 the creative and possessive impulses are opposites1 yet psychologically either passes easily into the other1 according to the accidents of circumstance and opportunity4 ,the genesis of impulses and the causes which make them change ought to be studied2 education and social institutions ought to be made such as to strengthen the impulses which harmonize in different men1 and to weaken those that involve conflict4 ,i have no doubt that what might be accomplished in this way is almost unlimited4 ,it is rather through impulse than through will that individual lives and the life of the community can derive the strength unity of a single direction4 ,will is of two kinds1 of which one is directed outward and the other inward4 ,the first1 which is directed outward1 is called into play by external obstacles1 either the opposition of others or the technical difficulties of an undertaking4 ,this kind of will is an expression of strong impulse or desire1 whenever instant success is impossible2 it exists in all whose life is vigorous1 and only decays when their vital force is enfeebled4 ,it is necessary to success in any difficult enterprise1 and without it great achievement is very rare4 ,but the will which is directed inward is only necessary in so far as there is an inner conflict of impulses or desires2 a perfectly harmonious nature would have no occasion for inward will4 ,such perfect harmony is of course a scarcely realizable ideal3 in all men impulses arise which are incompatible with their central purpose1 and which must be checked if their life as a whole is not to be a failure4 ,but this will happen least with those whose central impulses are strongest2 and it will happen less often in a society which aims at freedom than in a society like ours1 which is full of artificial incompatibilities created by antiquated institutions and a tyrannous public opinion4 ,the power to exert inward will when the occasion arises must always be needed by those who wish their lives to embody some central purpose1 but with better institutions the occasions when inward will is necessary might be made fewer and less important4 ,this result is very much to be desired1 because when will checks impulses which are only accidentally harmful1 it diverts a force which might be spent on overcoming outward obstacles1 and if the impulses checked are strong and serious1 it actually diminishes the vital force available4 ,a life full of inhibitions is likely not to remain a very vigorous life but to become listless and without zest4 ,impulse tends to die when it is constantly held in check1 and if it does not die1 it is apt to work underground1 and issue in some form much worse than that in which it has been checked4 ,for these reasons the necessity for using inward will ought to be avoided as much as possible1 and consistency of action ought to spring rather from consistency of impulse than from control of impulse by will4 ,the unifying of life ought not to demand the suppression of the casual desires that make amusement and play2 on the contrary1 everything ought to be done to make it easy to combine the main purposes of life with all kinds of pleasure that are not in their nature harmful4 ,such things as habitual drunkenness1 drugs1 cruel sports1 or pleasure in inflicting pain are essentially harmful1 but most of the amusements that civilized men naturally enjoy are either not harmful at all or only accidentally harmful through some effect which might be avoided in a better society4 ,what is needed is1 not asceticism or a drab ,puritanism1 but capacity for strong impulses and desires directed towards large creative ends4 ,when such impulses and desires are vigorous1 they bring with them1 of themselves1 what is needed to make a good life4 ,but although amusement and adventure ought to have their share1 it is impossible to create a good life if they are what is mainly desired4 ,subjectivism1 the habit of directing thought and desire to our own states of mind rather than to something objective1 inevitably makes life fragmentary and unprogressive4 ,the man to whom amusement is the end of life tends to lose interest gradually in the things out of which he has been in the habit of obtaining amusement1 since he does not value these things on their own account1 but on account of the feelings which they arouse in him4 ,when they are no longer amusing1 boredom drives him to seek some new stimulus1 which fails him in its turn4 ,amusement consists in a series of moments without any essential continuity2 a purpose which unifies life is one which requires some prolonged activity1 and is like building a monument rather than a child's castle in the sand4 ,subjectivism has other forms beside the mere pursuit of amusement4 ,many men1 when they are in love1 are more interested in their own emotion than in the object of their love2 such love does not lead to any essential union1 but leaves fundamental separateness undiminished4 ,as soon as the emotion grows less vivid the experience has served its purpose1 and there seems no motive for prolonging it4 ,in another way1 the same evil of subjectivism was fostered by ,protestant religion and morality1 since they directed attention to sin and the state of the soul rather than to the outer world and our relations with it4 ,none of these forms of subjectivism can prevent a man's life from being fragmentary and isolated4 ,only a life which springs out of dominant impulses directed to objective ends can be a satisfactory whole1 or be intimately united with the lives of others4 ,the pursuit of pleasure and the pursuit of virtue alike suffer from subjectivism3 ,epicureanism and ,stoicism are infected with the same taint4 ,marcus ,aurelius1 enacting good laws in order that he might be virtuous1 is not an attractive figure4 ,subjectivism is a natural outcome of a life in which there is much more thought than action3 while outer things are being remembered or desired1 not actually experienced1 they seem to become mere ideas4 ,what they are in themselves becomes less interesting to us than the effects which they produce in our own minds4 ,such a result tends to be brought about by increasing civilization1 because increasing civilization continually diminishes the need for vivid action and enhances the opportunities for thought4 ,but thought will not have this bad result if it is active thought1 directed towards achieving some purpose2 it is only passive thought that leads to subjectivism4 ,what is needed is to keep thought in intimate union with impulses and desires1 making it always itself an activity with an objective purpose4 ,otherwise1 thought and impulse become enemies1 to the great detriment of both4 ,in order to make the lives of average men and women less fragmentary and separate1 and to give greater opportunity for carrying out creative impulses1 it is not enough to know the goal we wish to reach1 or to proclaim the excellence of what we desire to achieve4 ,it is necessary to understand the effect of institutions and beliefs upon the life of impulse1 and to discover ways of improving this effect by a change in institutions4 ,and when this intellectual work has been done1 our thought will still remain barren unless we can bring it into relation with some powerful political force4 ,the only powerful political force from which any help is to be expected in bringing about such changes as seem needed is ,labor4 ,the changes required are very largely such as ,labor may be expected to welcome1 especially during the time of hardship after the war4 ,when the war is over1 labor discontent is sure to be very prevalent throughout ,europe1 and to constitute a political force by means of which a great and sweeping reconstruction may be effected4 ,the civilized world has need of fundamental change if it is to be saved from decay--change both in its economic structure and in its philosophy of life4 ,those of us who feel the need of change must not sit still in dull despair3 we can1 if we choose1 profoundly influence the future4 ,we can discover and preach the kind of change that is required--the kind that preserves what is positive in the vital beliefs of our time1 and1 by eliminating what is negative and inessential1 produces a synthesis to which all that is not purely reactionary can give allegiance4 ,as soon as it has become clear what kind of change is required1 it will be possible to work out its parts in more detail4 ,but until the war is ended there is little use in detail1 since we do not know what kind of world the war will leave4 ,the only thing that seems indubitable is that much new thought will be required in the new world produced by the war4 ,traditional views will give little help4 ,it is clear that men's most important actions are not guided by the sort of motives that are emphasized in traditional political philosophies4 ,the impulses by which the war has been produced and sustained come out of a deeper region than that of most political argument4 ,and the opposition to the war on the part of those few who have opposed it comes from the same deep region4 ,a political theory1 if it is to hold in times of stress1 must take account of the impulses that underlie explicit thought3 it must appeal to them1 and it must discover how to make them fruitful rather than destructive4 ,economic systems have a great influence in promoting or destroying life4 ,except slavery1 the present industrial system is the most destructive of life that has ever existed4 ,machinery and large-scale production are ineradicable1 and must survive in any better system which is to replace the one under which we live4 ,industrial federal democracy is probably the best direction for reform to take4 ,philosophies of life1 when they are widely believed1 also have a very great influence on the vitality of a community4 ,the most widely accepted philosophy of life at present is that what matters most to a man's happiness is his income4 ,this philosophy1 apart from other demerits1 is harmful because it leads men to aim at a result rather than an activity1 an enjoyment of material goods in which men are not differentiated1 rather than a creative impulse which embodies each man's individuality4 ,more refined philosophies1 such as are instilled by higher education1 are too apt to fix attention on the past rather than the future1 and on correct behavior rather than effective action4 ,it is not in such philosophies that men will find the energy to bear lightly the weight of tradition and of ever-accumulating knowledge4 ,the world has need of a philosophy1 or a religion1 which will promote life4 ,but in order to promote life it is necessary to value something other than mere life4 ,life devoted only to life is animal without any real human value1 incapable of preserving men permanently from weariness and the feeling that all is vanity4 ,if life is to be fully human it must serve some end which seems1 in some sense1 outside human life1 some end which is impersonal and above mankind1 such as ,god or truth or beauty4 ,those who best promote life do not have life for their purpose4 ,they aim rather at what seems like a gradual incarnation1 a bringing into our human existence of something eternal1 something that appears to imagination to live in a heaven remote from strife and failure and the devouring jaws of ,time4 ,contact with this eternal world--even if it be only a world of our imagining--brings a strength and a fundamental peace which cannot be wholly destroyed by the struggles and apparent failures of our temporal life4 ,it is this happy contemplation of what is eternal that ,spinoza calls the intellectual love of ,god4 ,to those who have once known it1 it is the key of wisdom4 ,what we have to do practically is different for each one of us1 according to our capacities and opportunities4 ,but if we have the life of the spirit within us1 what we must do and what we must avoid will become apparent to us4 ,by contact with what is eternal1 by devoting our life to bringing something of the ,divine into this troubled world1 we can make our own lives creative even now1 even in the midst of the cruelty and strife and hatred that surround us on every hand4 ,to make the individual life creative is far harder in a community based on possession than it would be in such a community as human effort may be able to build up in the future4 ,those who are to begin the regeneration of the world must face loneliness1 opposition1 poverty1 obloquy4 ,they must be able to live by truth and love1 with a rational unconquerable hope2 they must be honest and wise1 fearless1 and guided by a consistent purpose4 ,a body of men and women so inspired will conquer--first the difficulties and perplexities of their individual lives1 then1 in time1 though perhaps only in a long time1 the outer world4 ,wisdom and hope are what the world needs2 and though it fights against them1 it gives its respect to them in the end4 ,when the ,goths sacked ,rome1 ,st4 ,augustine wrote the 8,city of ,god10 putting a spiritual hope in place of the material reality that had been destroyed4 ,throughout the centuries that followed ,st4 ,augustine's hope lived and gave life1 while ,rome sank to a village of hovels4 ,for us1 too1 it is necessary to create a new hope1 to build up by our thought a better world than the one which is hurling itself into ruin4 ,because the times are bad1 more is required of us than would be required in normal times4 ,only a supreme fire of thought and spirit can save future generations from the death that has befallen the generation which we knew and loved4 ,it has been my good fortune to come in contact as a teacher with young men of many different nations--young men in whom hope was alive1 in whom the creative energy existed that would have realized in the world some part at least of the imagined beauty by which they lived4 ,they have been swept into the war1 some on one side1 some on the other4 ,some are still fighting1 some are maimed for life1 some are dead2 of those who survive it is to be feared that many will have lost the life of the spirit1 that hope will have died1 that energy will be spent1 and that the years to come will be only a weary journey towards the grave4 ,of all this tragedy1 not a few of those who teach seem to have no feeling3 with ruthless logic1 they prove that these young men have been sacrificed unavoidably for some coldly abstract end2 undisturbed themselves1 they lapse quickly into comfort after any momentary assault of feeling4 ,in such men the life of the spirit is dead4 ,if it were living1 it would go out to meet the spirit in the young1 with a love as poignant as the love of father or mother4 ,it would be unaware of the bounds of self2 their tragedy would be its own4 ,something would cry out3 8,no1 this is not right2 this is not good2 this is not a holy cause1 in which the brightness of youth is destroyed and dimmed4 ,it is we1 the old1 who have sinned2 we have sent these young men to the battlefield for our evil passions1 our spiritual death1 our failure to live generously out of the warmth of the heart and out of the living vision of the spirit4 ,let us come out of this death1 for it is we who are dead1 not the young men who have died through our fear of life4 ,their very ghosts have more life than we3 they hold us up for ever to the shame and obloquy of all the ages to come4 ,out of their ghosts must come life1 and it is we whom they must vivify40 ,,the ,,end ,,footnotes #a ,on this subject compare ,bernard ,hart's 8,psychology of ,insanity0 7,cambridge ,university ,press1 #aiad71 chap4 v1 especially pp4 #fb-e4 #b ,this was written before ,christianity had become punishable by hard labor1 penal servitude1 or even death1 under the ,military ,service ,act 7,no4 #b74 ,note added in #aiaf4 #c ,the blasphemy prosecutions4 #d ,the syndicalist prosecutions4 ,the punishment of conscientious objectors must now be added1 #aiaf4 #e ,in a democratic country it is the majority who must after all rule1 and the minority will be obliged to submit with the best grace possible 7,westminster ,gazette on ,conscription1 ,december #bi1 #aiae74 #f ,some very strong remarks on the conduct of the 8white feather0 women were made by ,mr4 ,reginald ,kemp1 the ,deputy ,coroner for ,west ,middlesex1 at an inquest at ,ealing on ,saturday on ,richard ,charles ,roberts1 aged thirty-four1 a taxicab driver1 of ,shepherd's ,bush1 who committed suicide in consequence of worry caused by his rejection from the ,army and the taunts of women and other amateur recruiters4 ,it was stated that he tried to join the ,army in ,october1 but was rejected on account of a weak heart4 ,that alone1 said his widow1 had depressed him1 and he had been worried because he thought he would lose his license owing to the state of his heart4 ,he had also been troubled by the dangerous illness of a child4 ,a soldier relative said that the deceased's life had been made 8a perfect misery0 by women who taunted him and called him a coward because he did not join the ,army4 ,a few days ago two women in ,maida ,vale insulted him 8something shocking40 ,the ,coroner1 speaking with some warmth1 said the conduct of such women was abominable4 ,it was scandalous that women who knew nothing of individual circumstances should be allowed to go about making unbearable the lives of men who had tried to do their duty4 ,it was a pity they had nothing better to do4 ,here was a man who perhaps had been driven to death by a pack of silly women4 ,he hoped something would soon be done to put a stop to such conduct 7,daily ,news1 ,july #bf1 #aiae74 #g ,by ,england in ,south ,africa1 ,america in the ,philippines1 ,france in ,morocco1 ,italy in ,tripoli1 ,germany in ,southwest ,africa1 ,russia in ,persia and ,manchuria1 ,japan in ,manchuria4 #h ,this was written in #aiae4 #i ,this would be as true under a syndicalist rgime as it is at present4 #aj ,these changes1 which are to be desired on their own account1 not only in order to prevent war1 will be discussed in later lectures4 #aa ,what is said on this subject in the present lecture is only preliminary1 since the subsequent lectures all deal with some aspect of the same problem4 #ab ,except by that small minority who are capable of artistic enjoyment4 #ac ,booth's 8,life and ,labour of the ,people10 vol4 iii4 #ad ,as regards the education of young children1 ,madame ,montessori's methods seem to me full of wisdom4 #ae ,,the ,,teaching ,,of ,,patriotism4 ,,his ,,majesty',s ,,approval4 ,the ,king has been graciously pleased to accept a copy of the little book containing suggestions to local education authorities and teachers in ,wales as to the teaching of patriotism which has just been issued by the ,welsh ,department of the ,board of ,education in connection with the observance of the ,national ,anniversary of ,st4 ,david's ,day4 ,his ,private ,secretary 7,lord ,stamfordham71 in writing to ,mr4 ,alfred ,t4 ,davies1 the ,permanent ,secretary of the ,welsh ,department1 says that his ,majesty is much pleased with the contents of the book1 and trusts that the principles inculcated in it will bear good fruit in the lives and characters of the coming generation4--,morning ,post1 ,january #bi1 #aiaf4 #af ,what ,madame ,montessori has achieved in the way of minimizing obedience and discipline with advantage to education is almost miraculous4 #ag ,there was a provision for suits in forma pauperis1 but for various reasons this provision was nearly useless2 a new and somewhat better provision has recently been made1 but is still very far from satisfactory4 #ah ,the following letter 7,new ,statesman1 ,december #d1 #aiae7 illustrates the nature of his activities3-- ,,divorce ,,and ,,war4 ,to the ,editor of the 8,new ,statesman40 ,,sir1--,the following episodes may be of interest to your readers4 ,under the new facilities for divorce offered to the ,london poor1 a poor woman recently obtained a decree nisi for divorce against her husband1 who had often covered her body with bruises1 infected her with a dangerous disease1 and committed bigamy4 ,by this bigamous marriage the husband had ten illegitimate children4 ,in order to prevent this decree being made absolute1 the ,treasury spent at least #bjj of the taxes in briefing a leading counsel and an eminent junior counsel and in bringing about ten witnesses from a city a hundred miles away to prove that this woman had committed casual acts of adultery in #ahie and #ahih4 ,the net result is that this woman will probably be forced by destitution into further adultery1 and that the husband will be able to treat his mistress exactly as he treated his wife1 with impunity1 so far as disease is concerned4 ,in nearly every other civilized country the marriage would have been dissolved1 the children could have been legitimated by subsequent marriage1 and the lawyers employed by the ,treasury would not have earned the large fees they did from the community for an achievement which seems to most other lawyers thoroughly anti-social in its effects4 ,if any lawyers really feel that society is benefited by this sort of litigation1 why cannot they give their services for nothing1 like the lawyers who assisted the wife8 ,if we are to practise economy in war-time1 why cannot the ,king's ,proctor be satisfied with a junior counsel only8 ,the fact remains that many persons situated like the husband and wife in question prefer to avoid having illegitimate children1 and the birth-rate accordingly suffers4 ,the other episode is this4 ,a divorce was obtained by ,mr4 ,a4 against ,mrs4 ,a4 and ,mr4 ,b4 ,mr4 ,b4 was married and ,mrs4 ,b41 on hearing of the divorce proceedings1 obtained a decree nisi against ,mr4 ,b4 ,mr4 ,b4 is at any moment liable to be called to the ,front1 but ,mrs4 ,b4 has for some months declined to make the decree nisi absolute1 and this prevents him marrying ,mrs4 ,a41 as he feels in honor bound to do4 ,yet the law allows any petitioner1 male or female1 to obtain a decree nisi and to refrain from making it absolute for motives which are probably discreditable4 ,the ,divorce ,law ,commissioners strongly condemned this state of things1 and the hardship in question is immensely aggravated in war-time1 just as the war has given rise to many cases of bigamy owing to the chivalrous desire of our soldiers to obtain for the de facto wife and family the separation allowance of the ,state4 ,the legal wife is often united by similar ties to another man4 ,i commend these facts to consideration in your columns1 having regard to your frequent complaints of a falling birth-rate4 ,the iniquity of our marriage laws is an important contributory cause to the fall in question4 ,yours1 etc41 ,e4 ,s4 ,p4 ,,haynes4 ,november #bith4 #ai ,some interesting facts were given by ,mr4 ,sidney ,webb in two letters to ,the ,times1 ,october #aa and #af1 #aijf2 there is also a ,fabian tract on the subject3 8,the ,decline in the ,birth-,rate10 by ,sidney ,webb 7,no4 #aca74 ,some further information may be found in 8,the ,declining ,birth-,rate3 ,its ,national and ,international ,significance10 by ,a4 ,newsholme1 ,m4,d41 ,m4,r4,c4,s4 7,cassell1 #aiaa74 #bj ,the fall in the death-rate1 and especially in the infant mortality1 which has occurred concurrently with the fall in the birth-rate1 has hitherto been sufficiently great to allow the population of ,great ,britain to go on increasing4 ,but there are obvious limits to the fall of the death-rate1 whereas the birth-rate might easily fall to a point which would make an actual diminution of numbers unavoidable4 #ba ,i should add artists but for the fact that most modern artists seem to find much greater difficulty in creation than men of science usually find4 ,transcriber's ,notes ,punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book2 otherwise they were not changed4 ,simple typographical errors were corrected4 ,ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained2 occurrences of inconsistent hyphenation have not been changed4 ,duplicate hemi-title removed just before first chapter4