,,lysistrata ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,to-,,day ,,and ,,to-,,morrow ,,series ---------------------------------------- ----------------- ,d,,dalus1 or ,science and the ,future ,by ,j4 ,b4 ,s4 ,haldane ,,icarus1 or ,the ,future of ,science ,by the ,hon4 ,bertrand ,russell1 ,f4,r4,s4 ,,the ,,mongol ,,in ,,our ,,midst ,by ,f4 ,g4 ,crookshank1 ,m4,d4 ,fully ,illustrated ,,wireless ,,possibilities ,by ,prof4 ,a4 ,m4 ,low4 ,with four ,diagrams ,,narcissus1 or ,the ,anatomy of ,clothes ,by ,gerald ,heard4 ,illustrated ,,tantalus1 or ,the ,future of ,man ,by ,dr ,f4 ,c4 ,s4 ,schiller ,,the ,,passing ,,of ,,the ,,phantoms ,by ,prof4 ,c4 ,j4 ,patten1 ,m4,a41 ,m4,d41 ,sc4,d41 ,f4,r4,a4,i4 ,,callinicus1 ,a ,defense of ,chemical ,warfare ,by ,j4 ,b4 ,s4 ,haldane ,,quo ,,vadimus8 ,some ,glimpses of the ,future ,by ,e4 ,e4 ,fournier d',albe1 ,d4,sc41 ,f4,inst4,p4 ,,the ,,conquest ,,of ,,cancer ,by ,h4 ,w4 ,s4 ,wright1 ,m4,s41 ,f4,r4,c4,s4 ,,hypatia1 or ,woman and ,knowledge ,by ,dora ,russell 7,hon4 ,mrs4 ,bertrand ,russell7 ,,lysistrata1 or ,woman's ,future and ,future ,woman ,by ,a4 ,m4 ,ludovici ,,what ,i ,,believe ,by the ,hon4 ,bertrand ,russell1 ,f4,r4,s4 ,in ,preparation ,,perseus1 of ,dragons ,by ,h4 ,f4 ,scott ,stokes1 ,,ma4 ,,the ,,future ,,of ,,sex ,by ,rebecca ,west ,,the ,,evocation ,,of ,,genius ,by ,alan ,porter ,,aesculapius1 or ,disease and ,the ,man ,by ,f4 ,g4 ,crookshank1 ,m4,d4 ,other ,volumes in ,preparation4 ---------------------------------------- ----------------- ,e4 ,p4 ,,dutton ,,company ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,lysistrata ,,or ,woman's ,future and ,future ,woman ,,by ,,anthony ,m4 ,,ludovici ,author of 8,woman3 a ,vindication10 8,a ,defence of ,aristocracy02 etc4 ,,with ,,foreword ,,by ,,norman ,,haire1 ,,ch4,m41 ,m4,b4 ,illustration ,,new ,,york ,e4 ,p4 ,,dutton ,,company #fha ,,fifth ,,avenue ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,copyright1 #aibe ,by ,e4 ,p4 ,,dutt ,,company ------- ,all ,rights ,reserved ,,printed ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,of ,,america ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,foreword ,,letter ,,from ,,dr ,,norman ,,haire ,,my ,,dear ,,ludovici1 ,it has been a great pleasure for me to read ,lysistrata--it is so stimulating4 ,whether one agrees with your views or not 7and ,i disagree with many of them71 the book impels one to re-examine one's standards of value1 and that is the highest function a book can perform4 ,perhaps ,i am prejudiced1 but to me you seem very hard on the medical profession4 ,with the present idiotic system of paying the doctor better for illness than for health the wonder is1 not that we doctors have so many faults1 but that we have so few4 ,in a saner age we shall get a retaining fee for keeping each person or group of persons well1 and so1 in order to avoid excessive work1 if for no higher motive1 we shall aim at preventing disease rather than at alleviating it4 ,to a large extent we do that now1 in spite of the fact that it takes money out of our pockets4 ,your exhortation to breast-feed babies is backed by all but a few cranks1 and ,i find your suggestion to make confinement easier by proper diet during pregnancy very interesting4 ,i remember that at the obstetric hospital at which ,i was trained we used to notice that patients who had been on special treatment for albuminuria had1 in general1 easy confinements4 ,it is very significant1 from the standpoint of your suggestions1 that in the diet of these patients the protein element had been very greatly reduced4 ,i shall follow up your idea and let you know the result4 ,i am sure you are right when you say 8,sound and desirable women cannot be happy unmated40 ,the fact that there are some women who can does not invalidate the general truth--they are atypical4 ,another of your phrases ,i would that you should trumpet forth in a voice that should reach to the uttermost ends of the earth3 8,strictly speaking1 moral depravity is no more voluntary than physiological depravity40 ,i am confident that as ,science advances the former will be found always to depend on the latter4 ,in speaking of the unfit1 infanticide1 and concubinage1 your frankness is splendid1 though on my pet subject1 ,birth-,control1 ,i disagree with you4 ,there can be no doubt that much of our present-day 8humanitarianism0 only results in wasting on the hopelessly unfit money and care which might be spent very profitably on the fit1 and in keeping alive those who should never have been born4 ,with the decay of sentimentalism1 infanticide must come to be practised on those who at birth are obviously below a 7variable7 minimum standard1 and sterilization 7destruction of fertility without interference with sexual potency or pleasure7 on those whose deficiency becomes unmistakable only at a more advanced age4 ,contraception will be used mainly to ensure an optimum interval between births in the interest of both mother and child1 and to limit the offspring to a 7variable7 number most suitable in the individual1 financial1 and social circumstances of each family4 ,some modification of our present marriage-arrangement is inevitable1 and concubinage seems quite a probable solution4 ,at present we pretend to be a monogamous people in spite of widespread fornication and adultery1 overtly with prostitutes and covertly with 8amateurs40 ,but sooner or later we shall have to drop the pretence and admit that men are polygamous4 7,a few men are monogamous1 and a few women polyandrous1 but both are exceptions47 ,surely it would be better to allow every woman to have half a husband1 if she wants to1 and remain respectable1 than to give half the women a whole husband and the others no share in a husband at all4 ,for this book you will probably be denounced as a daring and fantastic visionary1 and ,i shall be blamed as an aider and abettor1 but that doesn't matter4 ,it will have stimulated many unthinking people to a re-examination of their table of values4 ,ever yours1 ,,norman ,,haire #ij1 ,harley ,street1 ,w4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,introduction ,,values ,,direct ,,science ,,from a brief survey of his fellow-countrymen1 there are many strange lessons to be learnt in ,england to-day1 by anyone who keeps his eyes open and is on his guard against taking too much for granted4 ,the observer has only to exchange a few words with the men1 women1 and children he passes by1 and to look into their faces--no more is required to tell him all he wishes to know4 ,nor will he need to have a very high standard of human beauty to feel disappointed by the features of the great majority1 while the most elementary knowledge of psychology and hygiene will enable him to see from their behaviour and expressions that they are very largely harassed1 unhealthy and badly fed 7i4e41 not starving1 but improperly nourished74 ,but among the first of the curious facts he will notice is this--that large masses of his fellow-countrymen appear to have become so thoroughly accustomed to living their lives with the help of every variety of artificial aids that the latter no longer provoke either shame or concern4 ,for instance1 men and women--young and old--constantly pass by wearing glasses1 and they look quite cheerfully and confidently up through these optical aids when they are addressed4 ,to speak to others in the crowd1 and to see them smile1 is to recognize instantly that some or all of their teeth are bad or false4 ,but they smile with just as much conviction1 whether their dentition happens to be natural or manufactured4 ,numbers of the younger adults and children about have upon their faces1 in the region of their eyes and brows1 certain tiny1 almost imperceptible1 scars1 revealing the fact that they were brought into the world by means of obstetric instruments4 ,and countless others there are whose birth was just as artificial1 though they bear no marks to show it4 ,but no one seems to trouble1 or to inquire how such frequent interference with a natural function might be avoided4 ,everywhere people are seen shaking hands1 and sincerely proclaiming themselves 8,quite well10 when that very morning1 and many previous mornings1 their intestines have functioned only through the agency of some widely advertized artificial aid4 ,but none of them feels guilty of any grave inaccuracy in declaring himself well in the circumstances4 ,mothers can be seen by the hundred thousand1 serenely wheeling in perambulators1 or leading by the hand1 infants and children1 not one of whom has ever put its lips to a human breast4 ,the advertisements recommending the artificial foods on which these infants and children have been reared can be read on every boarding4 ,but it never occurs either to the mothers themselves1 or to the children1 or to the onlookers1 to consider whether this state of affairs is of a kind that justifies so much self-complacency1 good cheer1 indifference1 and apparent contentment4 ,these indications of a highly standardized life1 revealing almost universal imperfections of some kind in our bodies and their functions1 are now so common1 so much a commonplace in our midst1 that nobody notices them1 nobody mentions them as odd1 and certainly nobody seems to show any concern or alarm about their monotonous frequency4 ,mention might be made of other less obvious aids to normal functions which are in daily use among the population of these islands2 but1 since we are speaking of the lessons that may be learned by an ordinary observer who keeps his eyes and ears open in our streets and lanes1 we may well confine ourselves to the obvious4 ,now1 since all marked uniformity can result only from holding similar fundamental views1 similar general principles1 in common1 if our wanderer wishes to pursue his observations he may be led to inquire from what substratum of guiding rules1 from what basic values1 this uniformity arises4 ,if he is right in concluding that the population he sees about him--the people who are regarded as well and healthy1 not the people who crowd our hospitals1 asylums1 and homes for cripples and incurables6--are largely sub-normal1 or sub-human1 in the sense that they are neither complete bodily nor capable of functioning without artificial aids2 if1 moreover1 he is right in thinking that they do not seem to be much perturbed about their sub-humanity1 he may wish to know the nature of the atmosphere in which their thoughts and ideals are formed4 ,their readiness to declare themselves 8quite well10 or 8quite fit10 simply on the strength of their not being under a doctor1 or on a sick-bed1 is singular4 ,the question they ask themselves is not 8,am ,i really quite fit or well80 but 8,am ,i just able to discharge my daily duties1 walk about1 shop1 have a family1 and take ordinary meals80 ,if they can answer this question in the affirmative1 they reply with no conscious insincerity that they are quite fit4 ,evidently1 then1 among this population of to-day there is no severe standard of good bodily condition1 no cultivated taste about it4 ,or1 if there is1 it is surprisingly low4 ,defective functioning and incomplete bodily equipment no longer debars anybody from regarding himself1 or from being regarded by others1 as desirable and normal4 ,even in the vital matter of mating1 this is so--how much more customary it must be1 therefore1 in less vital matters6 ,stand up1 smile1 and agitate your four limbs to indicate that they are intact and still movable1 and that is enough4 ,the bias against a whole list of defects and blemishes has completely disappeared4 ,moral depravity is still stigmatized4 ,about physiological depravity1 however1 the world is frivolously indifferent4 ,in the popular novels1 which best reflect the spirit of the age1 the heroine rejects a suitor1 not because he has false teeth or chronic dyspepsia or varicose veins--such things are so common that they are never mentioned2 but because he is 8selfish10 or lacking in chivalry1 or in 8a sense of humour40 ,the hero whom she accepts may be less healthy1 less complete anatomically than the man she rejects4 ,he may also function less normally1 have two or three false teeth and a furred tongue--in fact1 he may be in every respect a much less desirable potential sire2 but she considers his 8soul10 as the expression goes2 and every reader is satisfied that she behaves in the best possible way4 ,the spiritual atmosphere of our population1 therefore1 is one in which all stress seems to be laid on the soul1 in which the severe standards are soul standards1 and in which the importance of the body and its completeness are almost entirely overlooked4 ,as an instance of this1 it is interesting to note that there is no such thing to-day as a guilty conscience about bodily depravity4 ,the results of hundreds of years of steady moralization has ended at last in the condition known as 8guilty conscience0 becoming restricted entirely to the soul and to the moral life4 ,to say that so-and-so 8can't help it10 immediately stifles criticism and arrests nausea4 ,this alone shows how purely moral our outlook is4 ,least of all are people able to despise themselves when their own teeth are false1 or when they habitually assist normal functioning by means of artificial aids4 ,and in all these matters the unanimity of the modern civilized world is so striking that the conclusion is forced upon us that here we are confronted with the outcome of certain ruling and fundamental values which must be common to all the people we have been discussing4 ,from the nature of the uniform attitude to which these values have led1 we are also obliged to infer that they must have taught at least two very definite doctrines with unswerving consistency--7a7 the over-emphasis of the importance of the soul1 and 7b7 the contempt and general slander of the body4 ,or1 to put it less offensively1 they must have taught mankind not only to place soul always before body1 but also to leave the body out of the reckoning when valuing the quality of human beings4 ,so much we know must have occurred1 and we come to this conclusion merely from judging the results which we see about us to-day4 ,when1 however1 we set out to inquire into the history of our population1 and attempt to discover whether such values have indeed operated in forming their spiritual atmosphere1 then1 not only are our suspicions abundantly confirmed1 but we are actually able to lay our finger on the body of doctrine containing the values whose existence we posited a priori4 ,having attained this end1 while we may still continue to deplore the results we see about us1 we can no longer wonder at them4 ,indeed1 we should marvel if1 in such an atmosphere1 we had failed to degenerate1 or ceased from degenerating4 ,the wonder is1 not that we have become a nation of decadents and crocks1 but that it should have taken all this time to make us such a nation4 ,if our values had not for scores of generations turned us away from strict standards concerning the body1 it is inconceivable that we should have become what we are2 it is inconceivable that this atmosphere of toleration and indifference towards bodily defects should have become so universal4 ,a nation ultimately becomes the image of its values4 ,the values are the die1 the nation is the coin4 ,from the face of the coin we judge the die4 ,from the faces of modern ,english people we can judge their values4 ,moreover1 these values must have been so deeply rooted that they now mould opinion without those whose opinion is moulded by them being conscious of the source of their mental attitude4 ,the best illustration of this is that1 although these values ultimately derive from a great religion1 the most irreligious people of the modern world share with the religious the spiritual atmosphere we have been describing4 ,people no longer believing in the soul from the religious standpoint1 nevertheless show by their tolerance towards bodily defects1 in themselves and others1 that they are being unconsciously influenced by the same atmosphere4 ,they may even have ceased to identify their opinions with any fundamental values whatsoever1 and regard their attitude as quite original1 as many1 particularly women1 do4 ,no matter6 ,let them reveal just that significant difference of standards in their judgment of human 8fitness0 and their judgment of the 8fitness0 of animals1 and we know the ancestry of their mental attitude4 ,for this reason it is surely somewhat muddle-headed on the part of a writer like ,dean ,inge1 situated as he is1 to plead with such vehemence on behalf of ,eugenics4 ,for how can we hope for a reaction in favour of the body as long as the values which lay all stress on the soul and despise the body abide as an influence among us8 ,are they not the values by which he stands1 and which he is officially expected to inculcate upon his generation8#a ,footnote #a3 ,mr4 ,g4 ,k4 ,chesterton is more consistent here1 and shows a deeper understanding of his true position4 ,he1 like ,dean ,inge1 accepts the fundamental values which by slow degrees have brought the modern world into existence1 and he therefore very rationally rejects ,eugenics4 ,if ever these values are proved before the whole world to be false1 and cease to exercise any influence1 no eugenic effort will then be required4 ,because1 the moment we begin to value people according to their physiological as well as their spiritual worth--the moment1 that is to say1 we value them according to the promise which they give in their own bodies and minds of guaranteeing the survival of human life in a desirable form1 eugenic mating will become quite as common and instinctive as dysgenic mating is to-day4 ,dean ,inge1 while recognizing the widespread degeneracy and physiological botchedness to which allusion has been made1 does not seem to perceive1 as our observer has1 the singular readiness with which all modern people overlook or condone it in themselves and others1 and he argues1 plausibly enough1 that our regrettable physical condition is due to our industrialism and hypertrophic urbanism4 ,but this is tantamount to regarding the latest accompanying symptom of our condition as its chief cause4 ,for1 in the first place1 it is extremely doubtful whether the ,industrial ,revolution could ever have come about without that contempt for the body and its needs which lies embedded in our ruling values4 ,secondly1 does ,dean ,inge find no signs of that contempt of the body before the ,industrial ,age8 ,how about the ,middle ,ages8 ,how about the ,great ,rebellion in ,england8 ,the present writer once went to the pains of tracing all the ,puritan contempt for the body1 and the fatal consequences it had for the ,english people1 to the values that ,dean ,inge upholds4 ,he was even able to show that1 without those values1 the seeds of modern industrialism could hardly have been sown1 as they were in the middle of the seventeenth century4#b ,was not this before the so-called ,industrial ,revolution8 ,footnote #b3 ,vide ,a ,defence of ,aristocracy 7,constable and ,co41 ,london3 #aiae74 ,how could the food-conditions in this country ever have become as appalling as they are without an old tradition involving the neglect of bodily concerns8 ,these things antecede the ,industrial ,revolution1 as the present writer has shown elsewhere1 by hundreds of years4 ,evidently1 then1 strict standards about the body had already gone long before the ,industrial ,age4 ,and1 when the latter came1 it found no barriers in the ,english people's prejudices regarding the body and health3 otherwise it could never have proceeded as successfully as it did to a further debilitation of the national physique4 ,we may take it1 then1 that the spiritual environment of all modern sub-human people is the outcome of our fundamental values1 as is also their sub-humanity2 and that this spiritual environment is characterized by a tendency to neglect and despise the body and bodily considerations4 ,at all events1 to put it in the mildest and most moderate terms1 it is impossible altogether to absolve these fundamental values from responsibility in the matter2 and to ignore their influence1 and to join the ,eugenic movement1 without first reckoning with their power1 as ,dean ,inge has done1 is to be guilty of a confusion of thought unworthy of anyone who professes to guide public opinion4 ,now what is the material environment of our population8--,quite clearly1 it is one in which the mechanical elaboration of daily life has been carried to a degree entirely bewildering4 ,these sub-human people of the twentieth century live among marvels of technical skill and ingenuity2 and the appliances1 apparatus1 and general equipment of their every-day life have reached a complexity and perfection quite unprecedented in history4 ,far from having learnt any lesson from the doctrines ,darwin taught last century1 all our energy and skill have been concentrated in precisely the opposite direction4 ,progressive evolution is no longer a fact with us2 for1 as a species we are steadily falling back to a level below that attained by our race in former ages4 ,while we ourselves1 however1 steadily recede along the scale of quality1 our environmental conditions1 our tools1 our means1 acquire ever greater perfection4 ,the onus of evolution has1 as it were1 been transferred from our own shoulders to the shoulders of our environment4 ,blinded by the dazzling achievements of the mechanical and other sciences1 we still speak about ourselves as if it were we1 as living organisms1 who were continuing to evolve4 ,but1 truth to tell1 it is nothing of the sort4 ,even in the sphere of intellectual powers1 we are miserably below standards already achieved4 ,to the bulk of unobservant and unthinking mankind1 this state of affairs is largely hidden2 because1 while science increases the efficiency of our extra-corporeal equipment1 it has also1 pari passu with our degeneration1 provided us with the means of keeping our corporeal equipment going4 ,almost as fast as we have wanted them1 the sciences of chemistry and of medicine have given us the means of replacing lost parts of our bodies1 and of supplementing failing functions4 ,a whole sphere of activity--indeed a whole world of interests and ingenuity--has been created by modern physical degeneracy4 ,the patent-medicine1 patent-appliance1 and patent-food industries1 alone represent some of the largest going concerns in the land4 ,in fact1 it might be said that these industries themselves are but the reverse of the medal representing our fundamental values4 ,where you have values such as ours1 you will necessarily possess a huge and flourishing medical profession and a vast army of dentists1 chemists1 and osteopaths1 daily directing their wits towards making good the increasing defects of the human body4 ,you will also be compelled to have your patent-drug1 patent-appliance1 and patent-food magnates1 who1 taking advantage of the universal physiological depravity of their contemporaries1 amass large fortunes in merely offering 8salvation0 at popular prices to the physiologically depraved4 ,to be strictly logical1 even the nature of scientific research should be added to the consequences of a people's ruling values2 because the ultimate goal of scientific investigation is necessarily determined by the desiderata implicit in values4 ,if the values of an age tend more and more towards tolerating bodily defects1 and towards securing satisfaction merely by patching or artificially replacing them1 scientific research will concentrate ever more and more on those discoveries which promise either to alleviate physical degeneration or else to conceal it4 ,and1 as fast as we slough off further parts of our bodies1 or lose further powers of functioning1 we may rely upon science being ever ready with artificial aids1 to make our lives just possible notwithstanding4 ,in this way1 values direct science4 ,if we altered our ruling values1 we should find that the direction of science was also altered1 because the desiderata always implicit in ruling values would then have changed4 8,but10 cry the modernists outrance1 8if science is ever ready1 and will continue to be ever ready1 with artificial aids to make good the losses in our corporeal equipment and efficiency1 why all this fuss and pother8 ,why worry80 ,now this view1 tacitly held or openly professed by the bulk of modern mankind to-day1 would be all very well1 and would justify a certain modicum of optimistic contentment1 if we could act and think1 and continue to reproduce our kind in a desirable form1 independently of our bodies4 ,but1 unfortunately for the modern man1 this is impossible4 ,not only that1 but a good many of life's joys--some of its greatest and most lasting--are connected precisely with the reproduction of our kind1 with the maintenance of our bodily efficiency1 and with happy functioning4 ,the moment physiological serenity goes1 the moment a function ceases to be a pleasure1 the body becomes the most tyrannical and insistent pleader against ,life4 ,it constantly sets the most formidable question-mark against the value of ,life4 ,the pleasures of the healthily functioning body are very real pleasures4 ,they constitute a very large proportion of the sum of joy on earth4 ,and nothing can be more obvious than that ,nature means them to contribute largely to this sum of joy4 ,to eat with false teeth is not as pleasant as to eat with natural teeth4 ,artificially to promote either appetite or digestion soon proves but a poor and delusive imitation of ,nature's way4 ,to wear glasses is not as good as to be without them4 ,neither is the face or the expression of one who always wears glasses as attractive as the face and the expression of one who does not4 ,to a mother1 the hand-feeding of her infant child is not the unforgettable experience that breast-feeding is4 ,and1 in the deepest and most rapturous transports of love1 where a large proportion of the ecstasy depends upon the bodily savouriness and sweetness of the couple involved1 natural and normal physiological equipment is of paramount importance4 ,a clean mouth1 full of natural teeth1 firmly set in unimpaired gums2 a clean fresh tongue1 not even slightly furred by incipient chronic indigestion2 a sweet breath1 and the natural fragrance of a healthily functioning body6--who knows love as ,nature intended him to know it if he has not known these things8 ,and yet1 how many modern men and women ever can know love in this form8 ,how is it possible8 ,can it be wondered at1 therefore1 that modern mankind as a whole are beginning to suspect that the joie de vivre is grossly over-rated8 ,can it be wondered at that the bulk of mankind are beginning to feel that life can well be lived without love8 ,this1 then1 is the disillusionment that follows on the heels of the values directing our scientific progress4 ,while1 through them1 we are content to exist despite our defective bodily equipment1 we are gradually weaned from our love of life and from our deepest convictions concerning the value of life4 ,for not only does our debilitated or incomplete body itself give us but second-rate joys1 but the science that comes to our aid offers us only substitutes1 and we are apt to measure the value of life according to those second-rate joys1 and according also to the level of happiness attained by means of these substitutes4 ,thus the values that revile both life and the body in the end succeed in making both life and the body vile4 ,so much for the sthetic side1 which is important1 because life is very largely an sthetic phenomenon4 ,but there are even more serious consequences than these4 ,for instance1 it is highly improbable that our vitality and intellectuality can fail to suffer depreciation when once normal functioning has been interfered with4 ,so intricate and inter-dependent are the various parts and functions of the superior mammal's body1 that it is hardly possible to disturb the balance of one part or one function without impairing the whole4 ,thus it is not unlikely1 in these latter days when ninety-nine per cent4 of the population of highly civilized countries is suffering from some kind of defective function or bodily part1 that all of us are sub-human in spirit as well as in body4 ,it is even conceivable that the hopeless pass at which we are arriving in ,western civilization is but the inevitable outcome of our chronic sub-normality or sub-humanity1 and that nothing but a reform of our bodies can possibly help us out4 ,nor is it any longer valid to argue that this view is materialistic4 ,we thank ,dean ,inge en passant for his able reply to those who1 objecting to the standpoint that has just been advanced1 are ready to accuse those who hold it of materialism4 ,at all events we can honestly deny that we are materialists1 and do not believe that we are any the less religious or spiritual for having fought hard for our heterodox religious views through years of metaphysical study and thought4 ,secondly1 we repudiate the suggestion that to preach the care and maintenance of the beauty and health of the body is necessarily material2 for it is the invalid1 the sick man1 the man of this age1 who calls himself 8well10 who is constantly reminded of his body4 ,a healthily functioning body can be forgotten4 ,thanks to its serenity1 its muteness in efficiency1 it allows its owner to indulge in every variety of spiritual exercise4 ,while1 therefore1 we accuse the values which for centuries have cast a slur on life and the human body of being the cause of modern decadence1 we do not thereby proclaim ourselves either irreligious or materialistic2 for1 let those who would too hastily presume both our irreligiosity and materialism remember that there are other religions besides that which first created the body-despising values to which we allude4 ,and1 when we challenge the modern age to prove that it can be anything else than materialistic1 with its countless millions of sick or deficient bodies2 when we challenge it to show in what manner the two thousand years of body-contempt and body-neglect have led us to a loftier spirituality1 the very grossness of modern life1 the very besottedness of the modern mind1 and the very system of government in the modern world1 ,democracy1 which is materialism in politics 7estimating the value of an idea or policy by measuring the body-weight behind it1 not by measuring the authority1 ability1 or competence behind it7--all rise before us in their ugliness1 leaving us but few qualms concerning the danger that we1 of our persuasion1 run1 of falling into materialism by questioning the values that have brought us thus far4 ,the masses are materialistic to-day because1 in the first place1 lowered vitality and defective functioning depress the spirit and dull the wits1 thus unfitting the mind for all lofty pursuits2 and1 secondly1 because at every moment of their lives their attention is either riveted upon their own halting functions or else distracted by similar disturbances in those among whom their lot is cast4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,present ,,position ,,of ,,women 7,i7 ,,the ,,unmarried ,,we have seen that the disillusionment that dogs the heels of the values directing our civilization and its alleged progress consists in our ultimate discovery that ,life1 as seen through the optics of our impaired and science-aided bodies1 appears to have lost a substantial portion of its reputed value4 ,the joie de vivre becomes an antiquated myth1 no longer a present experience4 ,if1 however1 this is true from the standpoint of modern men1 how very much more true it must be from that of modern women6 ,for1 if it is right to claim that some of ,life's greatest and most lasting joys are connected with the maintenance of the species1 woman1 whose share in reproduction is much greater than man's1 must necessarily be the greater sufferer when the corporeal equipment of the race becomes defective4 ,in these degenerate days of fourth-rate bodily joys1 therefore1 when the corporeal equipment of man and woman has to be scientifically completed with the help of elaborate extra-corporeal aids1 it is among the women of the species that we should expect to find the greatest revolt against the old notions concerning ,life1 ,motherhood1 and ,domesticity4 ,for man's degeneracy in itself contributes an added woe to woman's impaired physical life1 by depriving her of the very extra-corporeal equipment 7supplied by ,nature herself in this case7 for the urgent needs of her body4 ,or1 if it does not altogether deprive her of this equipment1 it gives it to her in a form so atonic1 fireless1 and un-ideal that the misery of modern women1 even when they are married1 is very great4 ,hence1 we believe1 the huge development of the modern novel1 the demand for which has been created almost entirely by the female population4 ,for only people whose lives are unsatisfying endeavour to enjoy life vicariously in the unreal world of fiction4 ,perhaps it was the recognition of this fact1 that the value of life for woman depends to a great extent on her physical efficiency and health1 which led the ancients to feel so much concern about the physical condition of their womenfolk1 and this probably explains why such careful instructions are to be found in sacred books--like that of ,manu1 for instance--regarding a father's duty towards his daughters4 ,manu goes so far as to say3 8,reprehensible is the father who gives not his daughter in marriage at the proper time40 ,and he adds3 8,to a distinguished handsome suitor should a father give his daughter4444 ,but the maiden1 though marriageable1 should rather stop in her father's house until death than that he should ever give her to a man destitute of good qualities40 ,in ,ecclesiasticus we read the following exhortation to fathers3 8,hast thou daughters8 ,have a care of their body40#c ,footnote #c3 ,it might be argued against the line taken in the ,introduction that here is an instance of the care of the body in the literature from which the body-despising values are alleged to hail4 ,but this is a misunderstanding4 ,not only is ,ecclesiasticus apocryphal1 but also1 as everybody must know1 the ,old ,testament and the ,new are quite different in their attitude towards the body4 ,in the ,new ,dispensation1 and certainly in traditional ,christianity1 it is never suggested1 as it is in ,judaic law1 that a man who is bodily defective defiles the sanctuary of the ,lord when he approaches it4 ,this healthy attitude to the body1 which constantly recurs in the ,old ,testament1 can be found neither in the ,new ,testament nor in historical ,christianity4 ,and in ,aristophanes we find the following sentiment expressed by a married woman3 8 2 0 7,but do not let us complain about ourselves4 ,what breaks my heart is the sight of all these young girls who will grow old sleeping alone47 ,aristophanes1 ,lysistrata1 ll4 #eib-c4 ,evidently these exhortations and sentiments hail from an age preceding that in which the body-despising values were created1 for they breathe a different atmosphere1 and ring strangely in our ears4 ,as late as the sixteenth century in ,england1 when1 it may be supposed1 a vestige of the old pagan spirit still lingered among our people1 there is indeed a tender allusion to the female body2 and1 strange to say1 it occurs in our ,book of ,common ,prayer4 ,but the very oddness of the sentiment to our modern ears shows how completely foreign it is to the atmosphere created by our values1 and we may be sure that it is seldom read1 or1 if read1 seldom understood1 at a modern marriage service4 ,it is as follows3 8,for the husband is the head of the wife 444 and he is the ,saviour of the body40 ,we have lost all sympathy with this attitude4 ,we no longer consider the physical side of our daughters' and sisters' lives4 ,we may wish them to have a 8good time02 or1 if we are poor1 we wish them to be self-supporting4 ,but bodily considerations scarcely enter into the first wish1 and into the second--never6 ,coupled1 however1 with our attitude of callous indifference to the young female's body is also the increasing doubt which is spreading among all classes regarding the actual value of the normal and natural life for woman4 ,impaired physical efficiency has turned so many of the joys and beauties of the natural life to pain and horror that there is no longer that certainty which ,manu felt about the desirability of motherhood for women4 ,and1 even when motherhood is not regarded as a greatly over-rated pleasure1 the mates by means of whom motherhood can be experienced are1 as a rule1 such poor shadows of men that the whole of ,manu's attitude has begun to be discredited4 ,the ,feminist ,movement1 in fact1 is actively engaged in discrediting it1 and that is why the ,feminist ,movement itself may be regarded as a remote off-shoot of the body-despising values4 ,indeed1 things have come to such a pass in this country that at present rich and poor alike are far more concerned about giving their daughters a calling than a mate2 and1 when once this has been done1 it is felt that parents have discharged their responsibility4 ,the most convincing demonstration of the prevalence of this attitude was the uproar that arose a year or two ago1 when one or two imprudent journalists inadvertently referred to our #b1jjj1jjj excess of women over men as 8surplus women40 ,the daily press was immediately flooded by indignant letters from women of all classes1 protesting that1 as a large proportion of these #b1jjj1jjj were self-supporting and ample room existed for the remainder in our industries and professions1 it was absurd to speak of them as 8surplus40 ,articles soon followed1 in which the same views were expressed1 though possibly more magisterially4 ,but there was no reference to the bodily destiny of these #b1jjj1jjj females--not a hint that the word 8surplus0 might have some relevancy if they were looked at in relation to the available males1 or that a civilization which condemns one-sixth of its adult females to celibacy must be very wrong6 ,it was for all the world as if being self-supporting and useful in industry or the professions were the sole and unique object of human life1 and nobody seemed to see that1 in this case1 there was no conceivable reason why human beings should have been created or become male and female4 ,of course the howl of indignation that arose at the word 8surplus0 was greatest among those women who are frankly hostile to men1 and who are keenest about making the bodily destiny of their sex a matter of no consequence4 ,nevertheless1 the cruelty of the attitude adopted by all was never actually felt as cruelty by anyone1 because the very people responsible for those articles and letters would have been the last to suspect themselves1 or to be suspected by others1 of any trace of inhumanity4 ,all they wanted to imply1 and wished everybody else to believe1 was that a human life can be full and can be lived adequately without that6 ,and yet to anyone who reveres the body1 and who knows how the spirit is tortured by a body unsatisfied and neglected1 how thoroughly unfounded does this claim appear6 ,a thwarted instinct does not meekly subside4 ,it seeks compensation and damages for its rebuff4 ,true sublimation1 except through whole-hearted and unremitting religious practices1 is rare4 ,what then is the fate of these #b1jjj1jjj women8 ,can we reckon with certainty on their all being so much below even the common standard of their married sisters that they will have no instincts to thwart8 ,there is an inclination abroad to adopt this comforting view4 ,so accustomed have we become to the spectacle of our omnibuses1 trams1 and trains being filled each morning with unmarried female workers1 that we are easily led to the erroneous conclusion that1 as time goes on1 these female workers will grow as used to filling their lives by means of self-support as we have grown accustomed to seeing them4 ,and1 indeed1 there would be something to be said for this view if1 by a kind of unemotional parthenogenesis1 these spinster workers could breed their own kind1 each generation of whom would be ever more perfectly adapted4 ,but unfortunately this cannot be so4 ,people forget that each generation of them is born from mothers who1 in an uninterrupted line reaching right back to our anthropoid ancestors1 have filled their lives with something more than self-support and business usefulness4 ,each generation of these unmated women-workers is born from mothers who must have known the ardent embrace of a lover1 the ecstasy of consummated love1 and the clinging devotion of adoring offspring4 ,no break can have occurred in this long dynasty of love1 otherwise they--the women-workers themselves--would not be there4 ,it is impossible at present to rear a species of human beings to lovelessness as you can rear a breed of dogs to retrieving or sheep-minding4 ,love must always have existed one step back4 ,and it is this fact1 that these unmated women-workers are all so fatally close to love1 all such near blood-relations of love1 that makes lovelessness such an ordeal and a trial to them--an ordeal and a trial no human being who has not sinned against society should be made to suffer4 ,thus the modern world is inclined to be very cruel to the young unmated woman4 ,for1 while everything is done to facilitate her self-support and usefulness1 no provision is made either to ensure the sublimation of her mating instincts 7a problem of almost insuperable difficulty now1 though solved with success in the ,middle ,ages71 or to give her the chance of expressing them without dishonour and disgrace4 ,on the contrary1 the whole tendency is to ignore1 to shelve1 and to conceal that aspect of her life2 and thousands of bitter or sub-normal women1 whose thwarted or deficient passions have unsaddled their natural love of man1 are now only too eager to assure her and everybody else that human beings can well get on and be happy without sexual expression--in fact that a spirit and a body can quite easily play the life-long rle of a disembodied spirit4 ,all this does not mean that the solution of the unmated woman problem is an easy and obvious one1 which modern people are too blind to see4 ,but it does mean that the very first step towards its proper solution can never be taken as long as we persist in arguing and behaving as if a full life can be lived by merely paying one's way4 ,in #aiba the population of ,england and ,wales amounted to #cg1hhe1bdb persons1 of whom #ai1hjc1jbb were females4 ,of this female population #d1cjb1efh consisted of children under twelve1 and the remainder1 amounting to #ae1eja1ded1 were divided up as follows3 #i1jgj1ech were married or widowed or divorced1 and #f1djc1iaf were single4 ,of the married #a1ajf1dcc1 and of the single #d1jjj1jjj 7to be precise1 #c1iad1abg7 were occupied in some form of work1 thus making a total of #e1jbj1efj women-workers1 #c1jjj1jjj of whom were employed in industry alone4 ,these figures give some idea of the formidable development of women's employment within recent years1 nor is there any sign whatsoever that the movement is likely to abate4 ,those who are aware of the harm that modern industry and commercial offices have done to the spirit and bodies of men for generations1 by converting them into little more than machine-minders or adding-machines1 exercising few if any of their highest faculties1 may deplore the fact that the sex which hitherto had still to a large extent escaped these dehumanizing labours should now be enrolled in such large numbers to accomplish them4 ,the last check on the complete besotment of our people seems thus to have vanished4 ,but1 in view of the existing atmosphere and tendencies1 there seems to be little hope of a reaction4 ,the #d1jjj1jjj spinster workers alone represent a formidable army2 and1 when it is remembered that this vast legion of single women not only compete with and directly replace male labour1 thus reducing still more their chances of marriage1 but are also drawn away from home and from the many arts that could be learnt there1 we cannot help feeling alarmed at the possible consequences of the development we are witnessing4 ,the duties and virtues of the home are almost all connected with the body and its care--sewing1 cooking1 and the nurture of the young4 ,all these arts are gradually being lost2 and1 when they have to be performed by inexperienced hands1 they are performed badly4 ,meanwhile1 abetting this movement and rendering it ever more practicable1 there are hundreds and thousands of commercial and voluntary corporations whose whole energies are directed towards taking the home-arts out of the hands of women4 ,science1 as usual1 following the hints implicit in values1 has come to the assistance of our female population deficient in domestic skill and knowledge4 ,the art of cooking is gradually becoming simplified into a mere fool's game1 and in its place we are being deluged by innumerable patent and proprietary products1 the preparation of which requires no thought and no trouble4 ,these products are very largely injurious to the bodies of those who live on them1 but1 as they leave the housewife ample leisure to gad about or else to earn money outside the home1 no one complains4 ,quick gravy-makers1 pudding- and cake-powders1 tinned foods of every description all ready for consumption1 custards1 porridges1 and jellies that require only a few minutes' cooking1 jams and preserves1 and a multitude of other artificial aids to replace1 though not to equal1 the dishes of former days1 now compose the normal contents of almost every working-class and middle-class market-bag4 ,never have the country's food and its preparation been in a more deplorable condition than they are to-day4 ,nevertheless1 so strong is the tradition to neglect bodily concerns1 that all this vast machinery for supplementing traditional knowledge1 skill1 labour1 and good food1 in the home1 has grown up in our midst without a word of protest from anyone4 ,as regards the lot of infants and children1 so completely broken is the tradition which1 once upon a time1 was handed down from mother to daughter1 that now child-welfare-workers in every town in ,england1 equipped with but a smattering of sound knowledge on the subject1 have to teach the women of the masses the arts they have had no opportunity of acquiring4 ,in the departments of dress-making1 millinery1 and lingerie1 it is just the same4 ,together with the loss of skill and knowledge in the home1 the supply of ready-mades from outside increases with leaps and bounds1 and huge drapery-businesses1 carried on in palatial premises1 now line all our leading thoroughfares in a practically unbroken frontage4 ,thus1 even if the girls and young women of the nation who are or who are not eligible for marriage were to remain at home1 there would now be little for them to learn1 and still less for them to do2 and the recent ,girl ,guide ,movement is the best possible proof that this fact has already been recognized4 ,meanwhile1 it may be asked what it is that these #d1jjj1jjj learn away from their homes4 ,what do they acquire in exchange for their lost arts8 ,those who have not actually adopted dress-making1 millinery1 or lingerie as an occupation1 have1 as a rule1 acquired only the knowledge necessary for running a certain machine--a cutter1 a folder1 a binder1 a stamper1 or a typewriter1 etc4 ,or else they have learnt to wait in restaurants1 sell goods across a counter1 or keep books4 ,only about one million of them are either domestic servants or hospital nurses4 ,those engaged in industry or commerce who remain at their work and do not marry are at least prevented from passing on their acquired besotment to the next generation2 but1 meantime1 no one inquires about their bodies1 and the general feeling is that a girl withered and broken by long years of typing is not a tragic figure because in the first place her career has been morally unimpeachable1 and secondly it has brought neither herself nor anyone else any pleasure4 ,in the better classes1 teaching and the professions obtain the bulk of the recruits each year1#d and girls are now trained quite unselectively from earliest childhood with a view to entering these occupations1 as if it were taken for granted that they would never marry4 ,footnote #d3 ,in #aibc in ,england and ,wales there were #bb women barristers1 and #ff law students2 #e women solicitors2 #gf1aag ,government officials1 and #b1jjj doctors2 and1 in #aiba1 #ic1ihg elementary and secondary school-teachers4 ,not all of the #f1djc1iaf spinsters--whether workers or not--are doomed to spinsterhood4 ,as we have seen1 the excess of females over males in ,england and ,wales is only #a1gbj1ijb4e ,but unless they attempt to emigrate1 these odd #b1jjj1jjj must certainly remain unmated1 and even if emigration could now be organized on a much bigger scale than hitherto1 they could hardly be satisfactorily disposed of4 ,footnote #e3 ,although1 however1 the actual excess of women amount to #a1gbj1ijb1 the number of women actually doomed to spinsterhood is much greater1 owing first to the cases of celibacy among the available men and secondly to the marriage of widows4 ,the self-governing ,dominions cannot absorb more than #dcb1bhdf in all1 and even if they could1 it is doubtful whether such a large number of girls could be induced to leave their native country4 ,why should they1 when almost every one of them considers her chance of matrimony at home as at least equal to her sister's or neighbour's8 ,footnote #f3 ,this figure represents the excess of men over women in ,canada1 ,australia1 ,new ,zealand1 and ,south ,africa in #aiba4 ,dame ,muriel ,talbot1 ,o4,b4,e41 writing on the effect of ,dominion life1 is not so very encouraging either4 8,for the woman10 she says1 8it means only too often an unduly heavy burden of work since there are so few at hand to help40#g ,footnote #g3 ,see ,the ,woman's ,year ,book1 #aibc4 ,owing to the degeneracy and unattractiveness of modern man1 a certain noble and estimable proportion of these #f1jjj1jjj will of course refrain from any attempt at marriage4 ,still faithful to the lost and antiquated values that once led people to respect and care for their bodies1 they will feel secretly that their bodies deserve something better than the mate the twentieth century can offer them2 and1 although they may be fully and admirably equipped for happy motherhood1 this noble and very small minority will turn nauseated away from it in order to become absorbed in interests that will help them to forget4 ,these are the greatest sufferers among modern women1 and their unmated condition constitutes our greatest national loss4 ,but the great majority will be too thoroughly unsophisticated1 too completely immersed in the values of their day1 to see anything wrong or odd in degeneration4 ,these1 like the #i1jjj1jjj already mated1 will strive after marriage and the home4 ,they will insist on having their third-rate or fourth-rate bodily ecstasies with the inferior men of the age1 and on rearing their fourth-rate children4 ,and1 if their hopes are disappointed1 either through their inability to find a mate or owing to the rude awakening that too often comes with modern matrimony1 they will become either wretched spinsters or disgruntled wives4 ,we shall consider their fate as wives1 however1 in the next chapter4 ,there are also a large number whose bodies are so conspicuously inferior in passion and equipment that they will be indifferent to marriage through sheer physiological apathy4 ,looking at life through the optics of their atonic or badly functioning bodies1 they will declare love unnecessary to human well-being1 and the natural life a wholly antiquated desideratum4 ,they will lack the desire even for fourth-rate bodily experiences1 and scorn all such experiences in consequence4 ,they will boast that they are 8above sex40 ,to them the ,feminist reformers will point triumphantly in refutation of all the arguments of those who1 like ourselves1 claim that sound and desirable women cannot be happy unmated4 ,and the more simple and unsuspecting among mankind1 looking upon these adapted unmated women1 will begin to believe that the ,feminists are right4 ,as the number of these women increases every year1 and1 in their systematic depreciation of the value of life1 they are joined and supported by thousands of disillusioned married women who also have become slanderers of love and man1 the ranks of those who scoff at marriage and motherhood as the only satisfactory calling for women1 swell with imposing rapidity4 ,with two million spinsters1 and--if we reckon the disgruntled married women--with probably two or three million more women distributed all over ,england1 who are prepared to malign both man and life and to cause the effect of their thwarted impulses to be felt in a thousand ways1 a good deal of misery and friction must necessarily arise from modern conditions which it is extremely difficult to relieve4 ,but the most serious aspect of the spinster and embittered wife question1 from the standpoint of the nation's life1 is the compensation which1 consciously or unconsciously1 these unmated women and revolted wives1 particularly the wealthy and leisured ones1 seek for their thwarted instincts4 ,the mother's fostering care never having been experienced1 its joys and thrills are sought along other channels4 ,the lust of exercising power becomes a consuming passion1 and its owner is usually quite indifferent as to the means she uses to express it4 ,any movement1 any policy1 any kind of interference may supply the opportunity1 and the merits of the case will always be subordinate to the urgent need of alleviating the hunger for compensatory power4 ,thus influences and forces are let loose which have about as much wisdom in them as accident alone can be expected to introduce into any lustful action2 and1 all the while1 the loftiest motives will be professed for the activities pursued4 ,the very natural discontent which arises from thwarted instincts will also tend to express itself in many instances1 particularly among the disillusioned married1 as a bitter hatred of man2 and1 as ,i shall show later1 in its extreme form as an unconscious jealousy of healthy young women and happily married women4 ,this will lead to an attempt to wean the latter from the lure of love and men4 ,signs are already visible which show that such a movement is on foot1 and1 although these ,lysistratas of the modern world have not ,lysistrata's patriotic motives1 this will not make them any the less anxious to achieve their end4 ,at all events1 from the imperfectly concealed triumph with which such people1 particularly the female working-woman leaders1 will tell you that in #aibc #gjj1jjj of the #e1jbj1efj women-workers were directly replacing males in industry alone1 it is impossible not to read the signs of hostility to the male in their general outlook2 and1 to examine their literature1 is to become convinced of it1 careful as they are to cover it up4 ,among the organizers of women-movements to-day1 there can be no question that there is this note of hostility to the male2 and the reason of it is that women-movements are largely led either by spinsters or else by unhappy married women4 ,now the attitude of ,feminism towards our vast army of spinsters and disgruntled wives is that of ,socialist organizations all over the world towards discontented labour elements4 ,it is one in which the latent discontent is turned to every possible advantage for the ,cause4 ,feminism offers no bodily solution of the problem presented by our unmated women and our disillusioned wives1 and it escapes from the responsibility of so doing by consistently regarding the whole crowd as nothing more than disembodied spirits4 ,it does not even recognize that the muddle in which we now find ourselves is chiefly due to physical degeneration3 for that it is too ,puritanical4 ,all it does is to promote and intensify the very tendencies which have brought us to our present pass1 and to use the power obtained from its supporters to express in every possible way1 legislatively and otherwise1 its general hostility to man and its radical hatred of the bodily side of life4 ,meanwhile1 it misses no opportunity of appealing to the vanity and mistaken ambition of its potential victims1 in order to lure even the normal and desirable among modern young women in ever greater numbers into neutral pursuits and interests only fit for neuters4 ,and it sets to work with a conscience so clean1 with such a profound conviction of its rectitude1 and above all with such a great display of moral indignation1 that the more guileless sections of the modern world1 always taken in by moral indignation1 are almost led to believe that ,feminism is a natural and desirable evolutionary development1 on which all hope for the future depends4 ,why does ,feminism act with a conscience so clean and a conviction so profound of its rectitude8--,because1 behind it1 it feels the support of the body-despising values1 which tell it that ,puritanism is right1 that sex-equality is at last a fact owing to the marked degeneration of man1 and that man1 as the traditional enemy of female 8virtue10 is the enemy par excellence4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,present ,,position ,,of ,,women 7,,ii7 ,,the ,,married ,,we shall now examine a little more closely the lot of the #i1jjj1jjj odd women in ,england and ,wales who are or who have been married1 and endeavour to find out whether similar tendencies to those already discovered in the previous chapter are making their influence felt in the matrimonial life of the country4 ,attention has already been called to the fact that1 almost as fast as bodily parts or functions are lost1 science comes forward with aids that enable us to carry on notwithstanding2 and also that these substitutes1 combined with the third-rate bodily experiences secured by our impaired physique1 make us question the value of both life and love4 ,nowhere1 however1 are the effects of imperfect functioning or incomplete bodies more acutely felt than in the married state2 and that is why1 if science had recognized the importance of securing happiness for this state1 it would have left no stone unturned in order to restore to us the natural conditions on which happiness depends1 instead of giving us ever more and more efficient substitutes4 ,in our present world the effect of the body-despising values enters as a disturber of our bliss into almost every aspect of matrimony4 ,it enters first in the form of our impaired physiques1 and affects the female partner in two ways3 it depreciates the quality of her most important natural extra-corporeal equipment1 man1 and therefore the quality of her joy2 and it further depreciates that joy through her own indifferent bodily condition4 ,it enters next in the form of ,puritanism1 which1 thanks to its associated fear of1 and incompetence in1 sexual matters1 arrests the male partner's impulses1 causing him to hesitate1 flounder1 and frequently to fail1 whereby the ideal relationship of two ardent lovers is marred1 if not destroyed2 and it usually succeeds in preventing them from attaining the top wave of ecstasy by imposing inhibitions against perfectly instinctive desires4 ,finally1 it enters by rendering ever more and more harassing for the woman the natural consequences of conjugal intimacy--gestation1 parturition1 and lactation2 and by converting these once beautiful and enthralling functions into things of ugliness and pain4 ,we cannot here discuss the many ways in which our bodily disorders and defects interfere with the happy congress of man and wife4 ,suffice it to say1 however1 that science already gives a good deal of assistance even here1 and is likely to perform a good deal more4 ,at all events1 this much we may say without impropriety--that1 as fast as ,puritanism and bodily imperfections together have conspired to cast a slur on sex by converting the congress of the human couple from an experience of magic beauty into an ordeal of both painful embarrassment and actual pain1 not only have a certain number of women begun to think that conception without congress would be a god-send1 but a scientific technique1 which realizes this desideratum1 has also been brought to ever greater efficiency4 ,artificial impregnation--the scientific aid again6--is now a thoroughly familiar operation1 frequently performed2 and1 if the present tendencies continue1 and the body-despising values culminate in their extreme logical consequence--the elimination of the body--there can be no doubt that it will become ever more and more customary4 ,in the limited space at our disposal1 however1 we must concentrate upon gestation1 parturition1 and lactation in this chapter1 more particularly as they form so important a part of woman's share in married life4 ,now it may be stated straight away that there are no human functions that have got into a more alarming state of abnormality and muddle than gestation1 parturition1 and lactation4 ,indeed1 so great are the divergences from ,nature in the two latter functions1 that it is no exaggeration to say that1 all hope of ever recovering normal conditions having long since been abandoned1 all persons have now resigned themselves to an almost complete reliance on artificial aids4 ,in the middle and so-called 8upper0 classes instruments and ansthetics are now very nearly the rule in helping the function of parturition1 while among the poorer classes they are very common4 ,and in regard to lactation1 all kinds of unnatural food1 including1 of course1 cow's milk1 take the place of breast-feeding4 ,the doctors1 the nurses1 the mothers1 and the whole population have1 we declare1 resigned themselves to the modern conditions of difficult and scientifically aided childbirth2 but it would be more strictly accurate to say that they have meekly prostrated themselves before a fait accompli2 for1 as far as we have been able to judge1 no attempt on a grand scale has ever yet been made to ascertain whether the present difficulties are as hopelessly inevitable as they seem1 or whether a more normal method of functioning might not be recovered4 ,the ugly circumstances of modern childbirth1 mitigated to some extent only by a liberal use of ansthetics1 are now sufficient to intimidate any young woman who happens to reflect1 before marriage1 on her future prospects2 while to those already married they constitute a heavy lowering cloud1 which hardly ever disperses until the climacteric at last puts an end to all anxiety4 ,stated in the most moderate terms1 these ugly circumstances at least add to the arguments which1 in our ,puritanical and ,feminist atmosphere1 accumulate year by year against both the body and the sexual life2 and for this reason alone1 if for no other1 it is important for us to examine them and to see how1 or whether1 they can be mitigated4 ,the curious part of it is that1 here1 we are not confronted by degeneration or malformation nearly to the extent that some people suppose2 but by ignorance1 lack of initiative in the medical profession1 and the foolish superstitions of all the chief actors in the muddle--the expectant mothers1 the doctors1 and the nurses4 ,a certain percentage of births still takes place each year under normal conditions--that is to say1 without ansthetics or instruments2 but even of these it is safe to say that they are accompanied by much more pain than can possibly be natural2 while1 owing to circumstances quite independent of the mother's bodily condition1 even these cases often receive quite unnecessary scientific aid4 ,the circumstances that cause doctors to interfere more and more frequently with confinements that promise to be normal are the following3 ,in the well-to-do classes1 the extreme busyness of the doctor1 on the one hand1 which makes him disinclined to wait for ,nature to do her work2 and1 on the other1 his interested relationship to his patient1 which makes it almost necessary for him to appear as her champion4 ,by encouraging the patient to be put to sleep and to allow the process to be hurried1 the doctor thus kills two birds with one stone4 ,after only a few hours' labour1 therefore1 he will employ ansthetics1 and the result is that what might have been a fairly normal confinement1 free from ansthesia and instruments1 becomes a serious operation1 in which damage is frequently inflicted on the young mother4 ,in the poorer classes the same thing happens1 except that poor women often go to some public institution to be confined4 ,it should not be forgotten1 however1 that young and aspiring doctors have to acquire some practice with the obstetric forceps1 and that it is precisely in homes and hospitals that this practice can be obtained4 ,instead of its being the excessive busyness of the doctor that leads to the hasty and unnecessary use of instruments1 therefore1 it is now the circumstance that the woman may find herself in a maternity-home or hospital4 ,and the tragic part of it is that the demonstrating surgeon in such cases1 far from electing an abnormal pregnancy for his exhibition1 deliberately chooses the most normal of his patients1 because of the greater ease with which the demonstration can then be made4 ,thus1 even when ,nature is most willing and modern women are most normal1 natural functioning is spurned and rebuffed4 ,such cases1 however1 are possible only in an atmosphere that has long been infected with body-despising prejudices4 ,in no other atmosphere would the doctors dare to behave in this way4 ,at all events1 among both the rich and the poor1 normal confinements are becoming increasingly rare1 and we shall now try to discover why1 except in case of obvious abnormality1 this is so2 and why1 moreover1 even in normal confinements there is always1 or almost always1 the alleged 8sorrow0 or excessive pain of biblical tradition4 ,provisionally we suggest the following reasons for the difficulties of parturition among modern women1 and for the fact that nothing is done to restore more normal functioning3 7a7 ,the absurd superstition that our heads are getting larger and that the pelves of women are getting smaller4 ,doctors are persuaded that the difficulty of modern childbirth must be due to 8,progress40 ,and1 since 8,progress0 is erroneously connected in their own and most people's minds with the belief that men are growing more intelligent 7which quite obviously they are not71 the facile conclusion is reached that1 as our brains must be growing larger1 our heads must follow suit4 ,it is hardly necessary to say that this is sheer nonsense1 and no more than an indolent excuse for the ,conservative stagnation of the medical brotherhood4 ,the heads of modern people are certainly not larger than the heads of their ancestors ten thousand years ago 7vide ,keith's ,antiquity of ,man72 and as to the shrinking of women's hips1 this also is an invention4 ,it is certainly found1 but only where the pelvis is rachitic1 or where undue strains on the thighs in early childhood 7in violent games1 etc47 have led to a premature stiffening of the fleshy1 and a premature ossification of the bony1 parts4 ,at all events1 it is much less common than is usually supposed2 and1 in any case1 it is very seldom that there is any disproportion between the sizes of the foetus and the pelvis4 ,see1 however1 how convenient the explanation is--,increasing brains1 larger heads1 and shrinking pelves6--,the doctors1 shrugging their shoulders before this apparently vicious circle1 can quietly resign themselves1 la ,walrus and ,carpenter1 to a permanent engagement as artificial functionaries to supersede a perfectly natural human function2 and1 what is more1 they need feel no dread about growing thinner or poorer themselves as time goes on1 nor trouble to discover how normal functioning can be recovered4 7b7 ,the still more absurd superstition that a baby should be #h or #i lbs at birth4 ,this is universal in ,england1 and whether it is the daily newspapers over the birth of a prince1 or a poor woman's neighbours over the birth of a new pauper1 everybody is jubilant if an #h-lb baby is born4 ,it may have required a team from ,harley ,street to deliver it1 and it may1 and usually does1 lose weight after birth2 but all this does not matter3 nobody cares1 nobody troubles to think1 provided that it has registered the full #h lbs in the first hour of its existence4 ,unfortunate women1 permanently injured by instruments1 smile triumphantly over the thought that they have had a baby-boy weighing #i lbs4 ,but what can we expect when their doctors encourage them in these lunatic transports8 7c7 ,the belief1 deeply rooted in the modern and lay minds1 that it is ,god's decree that children should be brought forth in sorrow4 ,having rejected the ,genesis version of the origin of man and all living creatures1 it is remarkable that the modern world1 led by its men of science1 should take so seriously a curse mentioned in the first book of ,moses1 which1 even if its effect be admitted as possible1 had probably only a tribal or national application when it was uttered4 ,and it is still more odd that they should regard us and our womenfolk as still lying under its spell4 ,for1 apart from the fact that there are savage and semi-civilized tribes still in existence with whom childbirth is not nearly such a sorrowful event as some might suppose1 but a simple and easy function 7teste almost every ethnological work71 why should we assume that the ,jewish women1 to whom the curse originally applied1 were normal or lived normally8 ,from our knowledge of the ,syrian ,jewess1 it seems highly probable that1 if her remote ancestors resembled her1 their confinements must have been extremely sorrowful4 ,but what has that to do with us8 ,this never seems to have occurred to the modern medical man2 and1 taking the ,genesis curse as his motto1 he has now solemnly allowed the agony to be piled up1 till it is no longer merely in sorrow1 but almost in tragedy1 that children are brought forth--not to mention the extra-corporeal equipment of instruments1 etc4 ,and1 why should there be any limit8 ,when once the principle is admitted1 where is the line to be drawn1 particularly if it pays not to draw it8 ,we protest1 however1 that even if we admit--which we do not--that there must be 8sorrow10 this can hardly have meant the miserable failure and elaborate scientific technique which modern medicine has made of parturition in general4 ,now1 in view of these three articles of faith1 not only are the doctors and the public in an attitude that paralyses all endeavour to effect a change for the better1 but both the doctors and the public have ceased to ask whether any such change is possible4 ,having ceased to ask the question1 no effort is made to inquire into the means of achieving the end it suggests2 and1 as usual1 everything is staked on artificial aids4 ,anyone who1 like ourselves1 asks whether there are not other ways of overcoming the enormous difficulties of parturition among modern women1 in order to remove this cloud from life and love and restore pleasure to a natural function1 is laughed at4 ,nevertheless the present writer continues to ask the question1 and for the following reasons3 ,for a long time it has seemed to him suspicious that ,nature1 who is so uniform in her methods and who with such unfailing consistency has made all vital functions pleasant1 should have made this one conspicuous exception1 particularly in regard to a function linked to the most vital moment in our lives4 ,being unsatisfied with the verdict of science on the subject1 therefore1 he made inquiries on his own account1 and was not at all surprised to find1 not only that a number of existing races still enjoy infinitely greater ease in parturition than most ,european women1 but also that1 as he expected1 there are still to be found among mankind faint vestiges of that ecstasy which he believes must once have attended the function in normal circumstances4 ,even the dreams of some ,european women lead the inquirer to suspect the existence of this ecstasy not so very far back along the racial line4 ,when1 however1 the present writer expressed this view in a recent work dealing with the subject1#h he provoked the most violent indignation1 particularly among women themselves4 ,footnote #h3 ,see ,woman3 ,a ,vindication 7,constable and ,co43 #aibc74 ,after having made a number of observations and experiments on the higher animals1 he discovered not only that parturition is in fact ecstatic among these animals when in their natural condition1 but also that their ecstasy can quickly be altered to anguish by only the smallest divergence from the normal in their food during gestation4 ,observing animals in a state of nature1 moreover1 he arrived at this interesting conclusion1 that their young1 even when the mothers are in splendid fettle1 are only skin and bone at birth1 that their birth is an ecstatic function to the mother only when they are in this state1 and that young born in this way not only never lose weight1 but grow as plump and vigorous as could be wished in the first twenty-four hours4 ,if1 however1 the gestating mother's food be so modified as to make it unlike the natural food of the species--for instance1 if large quantities of potatoes1 bread1 cabbage1 and rice-pudding be given to a female cat1 with rations of cooked instead of raw meat--the birth of the kittens1 which are grossly fat1 is immensely difficult1 and some of them may be still-born or appear only after long delay in mutilated fragments4 ,the present writer has confirmed these facts repeatedly1 and they led him to ask this question3 whether civilized women1 even in antiquity1 have not habitually taken the wrong food during gestation1 with the result that their babies have been too fat or too hard in the bone at birth8 ,it is notorious that a small1 healthy #f-lb baby frequently flourishes better than the heavier infant of #h or #i lbs2 also that1 since the larger baby usually loses weight after birth1 its bulk is demonstrably unnecessary at that stage4 ,what then prevents us from adopting what is obviously ,nature's plan--the birth of relatively thin and small babies1 through care of the gestating mother's food8 ,it is obviously only a question of feeding and hygiene1 and of ridding the public and the medical profession of a number of absurd prejudices3 the rest will necessarily follow if only it be earnestly desired4#i ,footnote #i3 ,as the present chapter is being written1 we notice with pleasure that at a conclave of doctors held recently at ,bradford1 ,dr 4 ,e4 ,mackenzie1 of ,leeds1 put a question to the meeting which showed that she is evidently on the track of the reforms we recommend2 but we were not surprised to find that the ,president1 ,dr ,j4 ,s4 ,fairbairn1 declared that he did not take her remarks seriously4 7,see ,british ,medical ,journal1 ,aug4 #afth1 #aibd74 ,we feel convinced1 from our study of animals1 that this is the direction in which inquiry should be directed1 for at least it offers some hope of an improvement1 whereas the elaboration and more persistent use of artificial aids offers none4 ,doctors should exert themselves to discover that ideal gestatory diet which will lead to an infant's being born whose weight is from #f to #f lbs1 whose body is lean1 whose head is small and not too hard1 and who will gain and not lose weight after birth4 ,but we can hardly refrain from adding that1 when once these food-conditions are found1 medical men are likely to discover that they have much less to do than at present by the bedside of the expectant mother1 and that they will then be invited to delegate their duties to someone less learned1 less expensive1 less pressed for time1 and therefore less interested in achieving the result by scientific aids4 ,dr ,eichholz of ,kreuznach1 writing in the ,frauenarzt as early as #ahie1 outlined a system of dieting which he declared produced the results described above2 while ,dr ,lahmann1 who was the first to point out that our aim should be to obtain smaller and thinner babies1 with heads less hard at birth1 experimented with a diet poor in nitrogen1 which he declared was completely successful4 ,according to ,lahmann1 it is not only excessive feeding and drinking during pregnancy which1 owing to the natural greed of women and the sycophantic encouragement of that greed by ignorant doctors1 is the universal error1 but the excessive eating of foods rich in protein2 and he recommends a diet rich in food-salts and poor in meat and cereals1 which seems to approximate very well to what one may imagine the food of primitive mankind to have been4 ,the compass of this work1 however1 does not allow us to enter into the minuti of the ,lahmann diet4 ,all we wish to emphasize here is that1 if only we can rid our minds of a few ridiculous superstitions and aim at a natural ideal1 the attainment of which cannot be beyond the wit of man1 the probability is that the 8sorrow0 in which children are brought forth will be greatly mitigated1 if not wholly removed1 and much of its pristine bliss restored to the life of woman and to motherhood4 ,since our aim should be the recovery of our belief in the value of life and love1 by improving our bodily functions1 we cannot halt at any difficulty in the way of our success4 ,but success means not only contesting the sway of the body-despising values1 but also fighting the ,conservatism and prejudices of a great profession1 which1 while it has great power to-day1 can hardly fail to identify its best interests with a perpetuation and aggravation of our present physical disabilities4 ,passing now to lactation1 which constitutes one of the chief joys of motherhood1 and which1 in its serenity and bliss has in all ages symbolized the beauty of the feminine virtues1 the home1 and the family1 it will perhaps not astonish the reader to hear that there is at present no human function1 except parturition1 which is more often replaced by artificial means than this one4 ,the vast multiplication in recent years of patent infant-foods and preparations of cow's milk sufficiently demonstrates the extent to which modern women are failing in this respect2 and1 when it is remembered that this failure is to be observed in all classes1 even among those who cannot plead society obligations as an excuse1 the situation appears to be deplorable enough4 ,no doubt a certain percentage of this increase in artificial feeding is due to actual physiological defects2 but we must not make too much of that4 ,truth to tell1 degeneration and defective functioning account for but a trifling number of those who1 every year1 have recourse to the bottle instead of the breast in the feeding of their infants4 ,for1 with few exceptions1 lactation can be established in every woman4 ,the general authoritative opinion seems to be that 8when care is exercised and adequate attention paid to the necessary details1 the glands can in nearly all cases be brought into the required degree of activity10 and that 8if the value of natural feeding were realized1 it can hardly be doubted that the capacity for breast-feeding would be found to be practically universal among the women of ,england40 7,dr ,janet ,e4 ,lane ,claypon74 ,the enormous popularity of artificial feeding1 therefore1 must be due to the increased activities of women of all classes outside the home1 which is one of the most noticeable features of the ,women's ,movement1 and the consequent disinclination on their part to undertake the rearing of their children in the natural manner4 ,together with the decline in the function on the one hand1 and women's refusal to suckle on the other1 there has1 as usual1 arisen both a scientific technique and a host of substitutes which take the place of mother's milk2 and1 in accordance with our traditional tendencies1 we have once more neglected the effort to restore natural conditions1 in order to apply all our ingenuity to the task of bringing artificial aids to perfection4 ,now this would be all very well1 and no one could rightly complain1 if the substitutes in this case were more akin to natural conditions than are most artificial aids4 ,if this were so we might regret1 from the sentimental and the sthetic standpoints1 the evanescence of breast-feeding1 and sympathize en passant with the mothers who were deprived of it as an experience2 but we should be able to advance no practical reasons why it was to be deplored from the standpoint of human desirability4 ,and1 indeed1 for many years this has been the position4 ,although doctors and commercial corporations repeatedly protest that breast-feeding is best1 they are quite ready in the same breath to admit that artificial feeding can be made 8as good as mother's milk02 and no one is in the least perturbed when he hears that his own child or that millions of other babies are being hand-fed4 ,we have even read the work of one ,english doctor who smugly proclaims that we shall improve on ,nature in this matter6 ,thus1 once again1 while flagrant abnormalities are becoming the rule amongst us1 science hastens to set our minds at rest by a shower of artificial aids2 and1 since we can 8carry on10 nothing more is said4 ,the problem appears to be a simple one1 and1 to give scientists their due1 they have done little to complicate it4 ,mother's milk contains so much water1 so much protein1 carbo-hydrates1 fat1 and mineral salts1 and1 when once you have these ingredients in the proper proportions1 you have a synthetic product 8as good as mother's milk40 ,indeed1 so long have these ingredients and their quantitative values held the field1 to the exclusion of everything else1 that we have come to believe that cow's milk or even ,allenbury's is as normal as breast-feeding4 ,and yet1 if we were to undergo a strange and uncommon test hardly ever applied in highly civilized countries1 how quickly would our blind faith in even the best artificial methods receive a shock6 ,true1 sentiment alone would be responsible for the commotion2 but in this case sentiment would be strangely akin to true knowledge4 ,place a human baby at the dug of a cow1 a goat1 or an ass1 as you sometimes see them placed in semi-civilized countries1 and what is it that you immediately feel8 ,the sight is an offence to the eyes1 a humiliation of our racial pride4--,why8 ,instinctively we feel and intellectually we know that ,nature makes the wisest provision for her needs4 ,when1 therefore1 we see one of our babies at the dugs of a goat1 our sense of fitness is shocked3 even our practical utilitarian prejudices receive a blow4 ,we know instantly that the baby cannot have been meant to take that milk1 because it is a nobler creature than the goat and its body has tasks and feats to perform with its food which the kid has not4 ,above all1 it has that huge brain to develop1 which the kid has not4 ,can it be possible that ,nature could have overlooked that8 ,the human brain is not only larger at birth than that of any other animal1 but its rate of growth is also greater4 ,is it conceivable that ,nature could have made no special provision for that8 ,hence our sense of degradation and revolt--feelings which somehow are not provoked when the milk reaches us in a bright glass-bottle1 or in a nice clean tin covered with printed matter--because all the degrading side of it is then hidden from our view4 ,the strange part of it1 however1 is that this sense of degradation and revolt is based upon fact2 for not only on a priori grounds may we deny that goat's milk or any other substitute can adequately replace breast-feeding1 but we may also deny it from positive knowledge4 ,years ago ,dr ,biedert showed that the most important differences between human and cow's milk were qualitative rather than quantitative4 ,a little later ,dr ,g4 von ,bunge confirmed this view2 and ,dr ,halliburton1 the great physiologist1 has recently repeated and emphasized it4 ,it is impossible to enter here into the qualitative differences to which these authorities refer3 suffice it to say that the gravity of the whole question from our standpoint lies not merely in the greater digestibility of human milk1 but in the conspicuous difference between human milk and all other substitutes as a brain-developing food4 ,dr von ,bunge1 who calls attention to this point1 claims not only that human milk is more complex than its substitutes1 but that in it we find lecithin bodies in peculiar proportions1 which serve for the construction of the inordinately large human brain4 ,it is not surprising that this important point should have been overlooked all this time4 ,as we have already said1 materialism is necessarily the creed of body-despisers4 ,but1 if ,dr von ,bunge's view is correct1 how severe must have been our loss in intelligence and genius1 precisely owing to the decline in breast-feeding6 ,certainly the uncontrollable and increasing stupidity of our governing classes for over a hundred years1 seems to point to the truth of von ,bunge's views2 for it is among them that1 for social reasons1 artificial feeding has been1 and still is1 most common4 ,dean ,inge comments somewhere on the increasing besottedness of modern people1 and we entirely agree with his view2 but we wonder whether it has ever struck him that the decline in breast-feeding1 which is the outcome of his body-despising values1 may be one of the most powerful contributory causes of it4 ,for we should always bear in mind1 in comparing our poor spiritual achievements with the genial performances of antiquity1 the ,middle ,ages1 the ,renaissance1 and the pre-,victorian era1 that the artificial feeding of infants is essentially a modern invention1 and that it was unknown to antiquity4 ,from ,plato down to ,pope ,alexander ,,vi no one had ever heard of a baby's bottle4 ,the alleged ancient artificial feeder discovered in ,cyprus by ,franz von ,lher was probably no more than an old traveller's gourd or wine-bottle4 ,as late as the fifteenth century the only kind of infant-feeding1 other than breast-feeding by the mother1 that was known1 was that which a foster-mother1 or so-called wet-nurse1 could provide4 ,metlinger in #adgc appears to be the first to mention cow's milk as a substitute1 and ,rosslin comes next1 in #aebb1 with a theory about egg-yolk and bread-mash4 ,but these men speak of these substitutes as applicable only in case of extreme need1 and there is nothing to suggest that the practice of artificial feeding was common4 ,at all events1 it is safe to say that the vast expansion of artificial feeding1 as we know it to-day1 is something quite recent and new2 and1 since there appears to be no doubt that1 qualitatively1 human milk is quite inimitable1 it is impossible to calculate the damage which the latest development of 8,progress0 may ultimately do to the spirits and bodies of civilized men4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,chapter ,,iii ,,woman',s ,,future ,,people ultimately become the image of their values4 ,discover their ruling values1 and their future is foretold4 ,now1 if we are right in inferring from the many signs and portents to which attention has been called1 that our values are largely body-despising values1 and that modern conditions already reveal these values well on their way to a complete triumph2 if we are right1 moreover1 in recognizing in modern degeneration1 science1 ,feminism1 ,puritanism1 and the increasing cleavage between the sexes the logical outcome of these values1 then there can be but two possible alternatives for the future3 either the complete realization of the desiderata implicit in these body-despising values1 or else a revolt against them1 the strength for which will be drawn from the sthetic1 older1 and more healthy side of our nature4 ,as both of these alternatives are possible1 and1 moreover1 each will mean a different future for women1 it will be necessary to examine them separately4 ,dealing first with the future which will result from the complete realization of the desiderata implicit in our body-despising values1 we must now recall the main tendencies of the present day1 so that we may discover whither they must necessarily lead4 ,we have seen that in our present world we have3 7a7 ,a population the bulk of which are physiologically sub-human1 and frivolously oblivious of this fact4 ,it is a population1 therefore1 to which the value of ,life and ,love is beginning to be a matter of doubt1 and among which ,puritanical prejudices are likely to become a spontaneous growth where they are not already present4 ,puritanism1 however1 must also bring about this indirect and unexpected result3 that1 where it prevails1 man is likely to become an object of general disapproval2 because1 since the desires of the body are regarded as sinful1 man as the initiator1 instigator1 and active agent in the sexual encounter1 will gradually appear as the traditional villain of creation1 the natural butt of all gratuitous moral indignation4 7b7 ,a body of sciences and commercial enterprises which1 guided by body-despising values1 tends rather to provide us with an extra-corporeal equipment for our declining bodies than to aim at restoring to us our pristine functions and original corporeal equipment4 ,this enhances our doubt concerning the value of ,love and ,life1 though it helps us to 8carry on40 7c7 ,a marked decline in the ability1 versatility1 and masculinity of men1 which is the outcome partly of physical and partly of intellectual inferiority1 brought about on the one hand by besotting and cramping labour for generations1 and1 on the other1 by the deliberate attempt1 throughout ,anglo-,saxon civilization and its imitations1 to limit the notion of manliness to martial bravery and proficiency at sports4 ,this has led to a loss of mastery over all things which is far from edifying1 and has enabled women during the last century and recently to draw unduly favourable comparisons between themselves and men--which1 while comprehensible in the circumstances1 give quite a distorted view of the situation4 ,it is the case of two climbers1 ,m4 and ,w4 who1 while ascending a hill1 find that1 through the sudden weakness of ,m41 ,w4's pace appears to be wonderfully enhanced4 ,w41 however1 interprets ,m4's retrograde movement not as abnormal weakness but as accelerated speed on her part1 and therefore feels contempt for ,m4 as ,m41 not merely as enfeebled ,m4 7d7 ,a large body of disgruntled women1 mostly unmarried1 who1 having turned away from ,life and ,love either through lack of mates or the nausea acquired in modern matrimony1 are prepared to slander not only ,life1 but also motherhood1 domesticity1 and ,man1 and who1 in their conscious or unconscious jealousy of younger women and girls1 try to convince the latter that life can be lived happily without bodily adaptation4 7e7 ,social circumstances which force millions of women into open competition with men1 and therefore increase the initial hostility fostered by 7a71 7c71 and 7d74 7f7 ,a state of abnormality so acute in some of the chief functions connected with the sexual life that more and more cogent arguments are found ready to hand for those who1 through ,puritanism1 jealousy of the rising generation1 or hostility to the male1 wish to slander life and emancipate themselves and others from 8that side of it40 7g7 ,a movement known as ,feminism1 generated chiefly by 7a71 7c71 and 7d71 and greatly reinforced by 7e7 and 7f71 but having also a strong trace of 7b7 in its attitude1 which claims that it can recruit among its own supporters the mastery1 ability1 and strength to put the world right1 and which proposes to do so by superseding man everywhere1 if possible1 even in his reproductive rle4 ,this is the picture at a glance4 ,to what can it lead8 ,the history of all reforms and radical innovations in this world has shown that far-reaching changes are always the work of a leading1 active1 gifted1 and small minority1 striving with zeal and determination to realize an ideal4 ,this ideal may be based on misconception or on error2 but that does not matter4 ,in the end1 the wilful minority establishes the environment1 or mould1 and the inert1 ductile masses pour into it and receive their shape4 ,now there is not a particle of doubt in anybody's mind that the leading1 active1 and gifted minority now constituting the van of the ,women's ,movement1 are by far the most vital and energetic body of women in the civilized world1 admirable in their zeal1 and noble in their readiness to shoulder the responsibility of setting things right4 ,this does not prevent us1 however1 from believing them mistaken in their reading of the situation1 and pathetic in their illusions about their own and their sex's capacities4 ,so indefatigable are they1 indeed1 that large numbers of apparently monorchid and shallow-minded men have already gone over to their side2 while the conversion of girls and young women to a sexless life is one of the least obvious but most pernicious results of their activities4 ,and1 since there appears to be no general recognition that our present state of muddle and lack of mastery over all things is the outcome of masculine degeneracy2 since1 moreover1 there seems to be no attempt made to discover how man himself can recover his quota of manly qualities1 it is not only possible1 but highly probable1 that the mass of mankind1 through not having its attention called to the only remedy1 which is the regeneration of man1 will1 out of sheer lack of principles and policies1 see in the quack-cure of ,feminism their only hope4 ,given1 therefore1 the persistence of the body-despising values1 and the conditions to which they give rise1 we may expect to see the energetic minority of women1 who now lead the ,feminist movement1 determine the future of their sex2 and1 if we watch them and try to understand them1 we shall be in a position to describe the world they will call into existence4 ,we have seen that ,feminism is not only the outcome of the modern world's main characteristics1 but also that it embodies these characteristics as elements in its general attitude4 ,truth to tell1 if we take our values as given1 together with all the results they were sure to bring about1 then ,feminism was a foregone conclusion from the start4 ,neglect and degeneration of the body were bound to lead to a loathing of the body and the wish to be emancipated from its thraldom4 ,this1 however1 necessarily destroyed one of the chief bonds between man and woman1 and left the natural and radical hostility of the sexes naked and unconstrained4 ,this is one side of ,feminism4 ,next we have the fact that physical neglect and degeneration were also bound to lead to the decline of man as the male1 both in the material and in the spiritual senses4 ,this1 in its turn1 led on the one hand to our lack of mastery in everything1 which caused women to wonder whether they could not help to clear up the muddle2 and1 on the other1 to a growing contempt of man's powers1 and1 as we have seen1 to an exaggerated notion of woman's4 ,this is the other side of ,feminism4 ,to complete the movement1 all that we required was1 7a7 a large body of disgruntled females1 either spinsters or wives1 all ready to slander life and man2 and 7b7 economic pressure driving women into open competition with men in all paid employment4 ,both these conditions having been fulfilled1 the rest naturally followed4 ,the first indication we had that ,feminism consisted of these elements was the fact that the old passionate calls to which women once responded gradually began to yield before calls of mere vanity and to the desire for notoriety4 ,numbers of women no longer showed the old eagerness to express physical passion1 or the old sad resignation when it was rebuffed3 they were content with gratifying their vanity in every kind of sterile pursuit that gave them the appearance of being important4 ,without any promise whatsoever of doing better than degenerate men1 and certainly without any past record of achievement that would justify us in expecting wonders from them--for in those departments of life over which they have held supreme sway for thousands of years the most deplorable muddle and ignorance prevail#aj--they claimed municipal and even parliamentary power1 they sought prominence even in empty privileges1 such as the right of sitting among the ,peers2 and were triumphant when1 at last1 they figured in a position which has naturally excited the abhorrence of all decent men for centuries--the jury box4 ,footnote #aj3 ,vide ,chapter ,x of ,woman3 ,a ,vindication4 ,the whole change revealed in the leaders of the movement and numbers of their followers a transmutation of the once powerful bodily passion into something more feeble1 more volatile1 and more exclusively dependent on vanity2 while accompanying it throughout were the two elements growing daily more acute--the longing to be rid of the thraldom of sex1 and hostility to man1 which these women like to see more general4 ,nothing startling has come of women's political power1 and we can prophesy with perfect confidence that nothing ever will2 even when1 as may quite possibly happen1 ,parliament consists only of females4 ,so far1 the measures they have introduced or clamoured for have indicated merely a continuation and intensification of the ,puritanical tradition1 but not a sign of anything hopeful or new1 in the sense that it was beyond degenerate men4 ,but the very demand for the vote was1 in itself1 merely a confirmation of the view1 held by ourselves and a few others1 that no possible good could come from ,feminism1 that it offered no hope of a better world1 and that it was a quack remedy for our sickness4 ,for1 if there had been any intrinsic quality in it1 any political or other genius peculiarly feminine and foreign in kind and degree to anything found in man1 how can we explain that one of its first claims was to obtain a political privilege1 the futility and undesirability of which had been demonstrated ad nauseam long before this century dawned8 ,modern democracy with its political machinery is so thoroughly discredited1 and is moreover such a menace to our national greatness1 that1 if there had been any social acumen or shrewdness in woman1 she would have proved it by utterly scouting this political faux pas of degenerate manhood4 ,a creative woman's movement1 if such an idea can possibly be conceived1 would have introduced something new and hopeful into our political life4 ,it might1 at least1 have tried to resuscitate the best in our pre-democratic past2 and1 even if it did not show this amount of flair1 it might1 when it got the vote1 straight-way have shown its power by initiating reforms that are peculiarly within woman's province4 ,it might have demanded a reform of our food-conditions1 and of the proprietary-food1 patent-medicine and culinary-aid industries1 which are in a scandalous state2 or a reform of the conditions under which midwifery is practised in this country4 ,but it neither attempted1 nor showed any inclination to attempt1 any one of these feats4 ,it demanded the preposterous vote2 and1 having got it1 proceeded1 both in ,parliament and out1 to try to effect only ,puritanical reforms1 some of which were frankly hostile to men4 ,we are likely to suffer a rude awakening1 therefore1 if we look to ,feminism for any marked improvement in our affairs4 ,nobody with any profound understanding of woman's nature1 and of her past achievements1 can possibly expect it4 ,what we can expect1 however1 when once the forces of ,feminism are completely organized1 is a systematic intensification of all the tendencies that have culminated in the modern ,women's ,movement4 ,the hostility to man and the jealousy of happy and passionate youth1 felt by all disaffected women1 whether spinsters or wives1 is sure to lead to every effort being made to lure girls more and more from bodily happiness4 ,we can1 therefore1 expect an increasing emancipation of girls and women from domestic arts and duties1 together with an aggravation of our present vices regarding foods4 ,this will be accompanied by the intensive manufacture of every kind of condensed1 preserved1 compressed1 and synthetic food1 with a corresponding multiplication of aids to minimize trouble in food-preparation4 ,the ideal will be a standardized and complete food1 containing its own correctives for failing digestion1 to be obtained probably in tabloid form1 and requiring no further preparation whatsoever4 ,ultimately1 there can be little doubt that this form of food will be discovered1 and may possibly become the product of a special ,government ,department4 ,meanwhile1 the human system will have undergone years of painful attempted adaptation to increasingly bad food-conditions1 and acute indigestion1 with repeated intestinal operations1 will probably have become as common as dental caries and tooth-extraction are to-day4 ,the tendency as regards men will be to rear ever larger numbers of them along the lines already indicated by modern taste--that is to say1 their manliness will be limited more and more to military courage and proficiency at games4 ,thus1 while they will prove increasingly harmless and amenable to female rule--as ,aristotle said such men always would--they will be even more besotted1 more lacking in mastery1 will-power and understanding1 more feeble as lovers1 and more contemptible than the men of to-day4 ,we can expect an increasing assertion of the rights of females in every branch of industry1 commerce1 and the professions1 accompanied by such a multiplication of ready workers that competition between the sexes will become acute4 ,the first moment of violent strain will occur when women employers and women labour-leaders1 both working under ,feminist guidance1 appropriate certain industries wholly to female labour4 ,this will be accompanied by a vast extension of an idea already materialized--the female bank1 that is to say1 financial houses and interests devoted entirely to the women's cause4 ,epicene organizations and staffs will then tend to disappear1 and soon the national industry will be divided into two sections1 each of which will be conducted by and for one sex only1 and in which the most poorly paid workers will belong to the other sex4 ,these two sections will confront each other jealously like two competing nations1 and1 while each will try to encroach on the domain and wealth of the other1 it will also try to compass the other's failure4 ,occasionally this bitter rivalry will lead to riots and savage street-fighting1 in which1 owing to the fact that moral indignation will always be on the side of the women1 the men are certain to be routed1 and to lose credit1 prestige1 and lives4 ,in any case1 owing to the continued besotment of men1 the female domain will steadily corrode and eat into the male1 and soon men will cease to be employers altogether1 and become the poorest-paid workers in an industry run entirely by women4 ,abetting and assisting this movement1 we shall see engineering and machinery so much perfected that skill in operative work will entirely vanish4 ,a team of intelligent monkeys will then be adequate for the productive work of the nation1 and1 with this final blow at the spiritual and physical qualifications of both sexes1 women will overrun every department of production4 ,this development was adumbrated during the ,great ,war1 when it was found that1 although #e1jjj1jjj men had left their work1 girls and women easily took it over4 ,hundreds of thousands of these men imagined that they had been doing both skilled and manly work4 ,the ease with which they were replaced by inexperienced girls and women proved that they were wrong4 ,it also proved1 incidentally1 that such was the extent of our urban degeneration and emasculation that only the fewest among the peace-occupations of the country were essentially masculine or demanded masculine qualifications4 ,meanwhile1 owing to health having suffered a further decline1 owing to motherhood having become more and more distressing1 and owing to sexual and bodily joys having become more completely suspect1 celibacy among women will be more common than it is at present1 and legislation may have to be passed to compel a greater percentage of wage-earners to marry4 ,to help increase the population1 greater benefits will be conferred on parents than ever before4 ,but1 as by this time it will be becoming more and more plain that man is growing superfluous except as a fertilizer and a soldier1 and as1 through his contemptible condition1 the feeling will be gaining ground that it is an indignity for a free female citizen to live in intimacy with him simply in order to provide the state with children1 there may be an attempt to legalize marriage by proxy1 accompanied by scientific fertilization without actual congress with any man personally known to the woman4 ,artificial impregnation will tend to become common1 and women--the wealthiest and most embittered foremost--will soon give up ordinary marriage altogether and choose to have children without concourse with the other sex4 ,the whole act of fertilization will be consummated in the surgery1 just as vaccination is now4 ,there are signs even to-day that this revolt against cohabitation is spreading1 and there are not a few women who1 either in their ,puritanism or jealousy of their happier sisters1 would be glad to see it become more common4 ,keeping pace with these changes1 lactation will wholly disappear1 and1 even among the lowest women1 it will be regarded very much as cannibalism is to-day4 ,pictures and statues of women in the act of suckling will be mutilated1 destroyed1 or hidden from the public view1 just as a certain class of ,greek statues are now mutilated and concealed2 while the ideal of beauty in the female will be a creature completely flat-chested and with the hips of a youth4 ,girls and women who happen to throw back to the ancestral type will be pitied1 and may even be operated upon1 just as people with facial blemishes are now4 ,meanwhile modifications will have occurred in the relations of the sexes4 ,the congress of male and female will have begun to seem much more guilty and disgusting even than it is to-day1 and as the male will still be looked upon 7as he is now7 as the principal culprit in the matter1 the age of consent will probably be extended to thirty-five or forty1 if not to the menopause4 ,seduction and rape will be punished brutally1 probably by means of emasculation2 and men of vigorous sexuality will be eliminated in order to make way for a generation of low-sexed1 meek1 and sequacious lackeys4 ,it will not be long before even the necessity for male soldiers will vanish4 ,when the manipulation of the engines of war becomes as simple as typing or making tea1 girls and women will make just as efficient soldiers as men2 and1 since war will then be carried on without visualizing the enemy1 all that will be required will be an army of obedient operatives1 who will not need the traditional courage and endurance of the male in the face of the foe4 ,when once artificial impregnation is an every-day occurrence1 a ,parliament of women will doubtless pass legislation to make it illegal for any man to procreate a child naturally1 if it is the wife's desire to have one by the intermediation of science2 and1 no matter how many children she may wish to have in this way1 he will be compelled to support them4 ,this1 however1 will be the final blow to marriage4 ,hundreds of thousands of women will still be naturally fertilized1 but they will be despised1 and form a class apart4 ,social prejudice will be against them1 and movements will be started to emancipate and rescue them1 just as there are movements to-day to rescue harem-women4 ,jealousy will still play a part in this movement2 but1 owing to the deplorable degeneration of men as lovers and mates1 it will be fainter than ever before4 ,there will1 of course1 be fluctuations in this development1 and some decades will reveal shameful lapses into matrimony and natural fertilization4 ,then the ,lysistratas of the ,feminist world1 burning with indignation once more1 will be heard crying aloud1 just as ,lysistrata cried over two thousand years ago in ,greece3 8 40 7,i can no longer hold the minxes4 ,they are running to the men2 they are deserting74--,aristophanes1 ,lysistrata1 ll4 #gah-i4 ,but the aggravated horrors of childbirth1 and the alarming increase in the performance of the ,csarian section1 together with the general surfeit of the body and the intensified loathing of men1 will cause these retrograde movements to diminish1 and very soon such a clamour will arise for extra-corporeal gestation that science will be allowed no rest until a technique is discovered that will meet the public demand4 ,the results achieved by men like ,alexis ,carrel1 ,ebleing1 and ,fische1 all of whom are now working with success on tissue-culture and the transplantation of anatomical structures from one living organism to another1 will be improved upon1 and a means will be discovered by which the fertilized ovum will be matured outside the female body4 ,at first1 we venture to predict1 this will occur by again enlisting the cow or the ass into our service4 ,science already suspects that vital fluids are not specific1 and it is probable1 therefore1 that in the early days of extra-corporeal gestation1 the fertilized human ovum will be transferred to the uterus of a cow or an ass1 and left to mature as a parasite on the animal's tissues1 very much as the newborn baby is now made the parasite of the cow's udder4 ,and1 with this innovation1 we shall probably suffer increased besotment1 and intensified bovinity or asininity1 according to the nature of the quadruped chosen4 ,thus extra-corporeal gestation1 or 8ectogenesis0 7to use a word coined by ,mr ,j4 ,b4 ,s4 ,haldane for the purpose7 will become a possibility1 and the ,feminist ideal of complete emancipation from the thraldom of sex will be realized4 ,fresh legislation will now be passed1 which will make it a felony for a man to give a woman a child in the old corporeal sense1 and any male found guilty of such an offence will be sentenced to death or else to a long term of hard labour4 ,in view of the initial heavy cost of extra-corporeal gestation1 however1 public centres will be provided where the ,borough ,council will undertake to 8grow0 children for the destitute and the poor4 ,a little later on1 of course1 this artificial aid will be perfected1 and even the cow will become unnecessary4 ,the fertilized ovum1 cultivated in embryonic tissue-juice1 will then be independent of the foster uterus of animals1 and will mature very much as chickens now do in incubators4 ,these discoveries are all potential in the scientific achievements of our day1 and implicit in our values4 ,all they need to bring them into existence is the further direction of these values1 together with the continued anti-sexual and anti-masculine bias of ,feminism4 ,with this final blow levelled at the corporeal equipment of sex1 triumphant ,feminism will probably reach its zenith1 and in a few generations a kind of woman will appear the only vestige of whose sex will be her smooth face and primary genital glands4 ,men will then be frankly regarded as quite superfluous4 ,having lost their powers1 first as spiritual and bodily leaders1 secondly as masters and lovers1 thirdly as skilled craftsmen and soldiers1 and fourthly as specialized workers1 their social use will have lapsed1 and their numbers will begin to be felt as a source of irritation and even indignation4 ,at this stage the social muddle will have become so intricate1 and have grown so alarmingly out of hand1 that nothing but the most drastic and sweeping changes will be able to prolong the life of the community4 ,a shortage of food1 occasioned by difficulties arising in the ,government ,department responsible for food-preparation and food-distribution1 will give the signal for the last and most bitter sex-struggle4 ,either through incompetent administration or the revolt of the workers1 there will be a threat of starvation4 ,no food will be made for weeks1 stores will be on the point of being depleted1 and panic will reign everywhere2 when suddenly a few of the leading women will perceive with apocalyptic clarity not only that the superfluity of men has become a burden on the community and a menace to the food of the children1 but also that the reduction of their numbers to the barest minimum indispensable for the purposes of fertilization would be a twofold boon--it would relieve the food-crisis both for the moment and possibly also for the future1 and obviate for ever the danger of a masculine or slave rising4 ,a sex-fight at the distributing station of a large store will suffice to light the first spark of this new conflagration4 ,a dead set will be made against the men1 not only round the original focus of the trouble1 but everywhere4 ,the legislature1 recognizing their opportunity1 will support the popular fury1 and proceed to a systematic slaughter of males1 until1 with the help of the regular troops1 it will be found necessary to protect and preserve a small nucleus for next year's fertilization4 ,by that time1 however1 a significant precedent will have been established1 and a lesson learnt that will not easily be forgotten4 ,the superfluousness of men above a certain essential minimum 7about #e to every #a1jjj women7 will have become recognized officially and unofficially as a social fact4 ,the legislature will establish laws to guarantee that this minimum should not be surpassed1 and in a very short while it will become a mere matter of routine to proceed to an annual slaughter of males who have either outlived their prime or else have failed to fulfil the promise of their youth in meekness1 general emasculateness1 and stupidity4 ,the only circumstance that can avert this ultimate development is the discovery by science of a means of determining the sex of the ovum4 ,if this can be done1 then1 of course1 only a certain small number of males 77 will be reared every year1 and the periodical slaughter will be avoided4 ,but in this connection it should be remembered that man will long since have grown too dull to be capable of scientific wonders of any kind2 and1 as it is not in woman's nature to be inventive or to make great discoveries1 the probability is that society will petrify at the level of mechanical and scientific progress reached at the moment of man's most serious decline1 and1 therefore1 that the periodical slaughter of males will remain just as much a necessity with the human female workers as with the worker-bees4 ,meanwhile1 to these millions of workers life will have become little more than a dreary1 colourless1 and hopeless round of toil and self-sacrifice4 ,the only sources of excitement and pleasure will be the pastimes offering chances for public parade and appeals to vanity1 the criticism of the latest ,government foods and their corresponding digestive aids1 and the reading in the papers about the prosecution of refractory female characters1 either for sedition1 immorality1 or indolence4 ,under immorality will be included all attempts at writing1 reading1 or circulating any poem1 novel1 or treatise faintly reminiscent of love as we now know it1 all attempts at unearthing or recalling the 8obscene0 literature of former ages--particularly the romantic fiction of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and all efforts to draw1 paint1 carve1 or otherwise represent any graphic image of barbaric woman1 when she still bore on her body the traces of the corporeal equipment for motherhood4 ,looking round upon this cold1 hard1 and business-like world1 however1 in which the unremitting industry1 so much exalted by ,maeterlinck1 will be the only activity and almost the only interest1 it is not unlikely that millions of these female workers will ask themselves1 with ever increasing perplexity and distress1 what purpose it all serves1 what good it all does1 and what advantage or pleasure they derive from it4 ,in their lives of stoic 8purity0 and monotonous bread-winning alone1 they are likely to discover that even waiting for the end is intolerable1 and many who will regard the normal term of human life as an unmerciful prolongation of their inexplicable misery will have recourse to all possible means of terminating their hardships4 ,gradually it will dawn upon a few independent and rebellious spirits that to have attempted to live like spirits before the spirit-world was reached1 to have attempted to extinguish the joys and thrills of the body and to taste of the interests of angels1 before having shuffled off this mortal coil--in fact to have planned and organized an sthetic phenomenon such as life without retaining its sthetic side1 was a tragic and utterly brutal blunder4 ,by the time1 however1 that this inevitable discovery is made--the only great discovery that an exclusively female community is ever likely to make--those who will be responsible for it will look aghast upon their own and their sisters' bodies2 and1 perceiving with horror the impossibility at that late hour of recovering the functions1 powers1 and bodily parts1 which centuries of disuse and degeneration will have withered to nothing1 they will1 if they still have enough spirit left1 execrate and curse the memory of those who first envisaged their state as a future possibility1 and who1 having once conceived it as desirable1 deliberately planned and schemed to bring it about4 8,almighty ,god10 they will cry in desperation1 8mercifully spared the bees our consciousness60 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,chapter ,,iv ,,future ,,woman ,,the picture1 given in the last chapter1 of the world that is likely to result from the extreme consequences of our present tendencies may seem overdrawn and fantastic2 but it should not be too readily dismissed as absurd on that account4 ,the fact that1 as a whole1 it may seem incredible is no argument against the inevitability of certain of its chief characteristics2 for it should always be remembered that1 since the main stream of human life as we now know it1 is based upon the bodily relation of the sexes and upon the love which makes this relation a thing desired1 all influences tending to deteriorate the human body or to upset that bodily relation1 and all scientific technique and substitutes which tend to supersede it1 must1 if they are allowed to develop1 lead to a dislocation so complete of the original scheme that there is no telling in what monstrous changes they may culminate4 ,had we not already reached bodily degeneration1 brought about and condoned by body-despising values2 had we not a ,puritanical tradition reinforced by ,feminism2 and1 finally1 had we not a group of sciences whose discoveries1 either actual or potential1 allow us to expect every kind of extra-corporeal substitute and aid for our defective corporeal functions and parts1 we could afford to laugh at the dangers indicated in the previous chapter4 ,in view1 however1 of the undeniable truth of the description of our state previously given1 it is impossible lightly to reject the ultimate evanescence of sexual love1 for instance1 as a remote future development4 ,and1 if we admit that1 we must reckon with the disappearance of our most effective protection against the instinctive hostility of the sexes4 ,it is for this reason that there is still a fight to be fought with ,feminism1 and why we ourselves1 though heart and soul pro-feminine1 still remain active anti-,feminists4 ,people point to the victories of ,feminism in recent years1 and say3 ,what is there left for active anti-,feminists to do8 ,now that women have the vote and that they sit in ,parliament1 now that they have practically the whole of the ,press behind them1 their battle is surely won1 and anti-,feminism is a lost cause6 ,obviously1 however1 if anti-,feminism means resisting the further development of ,feminism1 to prevent it from culminating in some or all of the changes outlined in the previous chapter2 if it means a struggle to maintain the natural relations of the sexes1 together with the normal functioning of male and female in reproduction2 and if it also means the retention of the family1 the home1 and some beauty in our social scheme1 then it certainly cannot yet be a lost cause1 and those who1 like ourselves1 remain anti-,feminists despite the ,feminine ,franchise1 the ,feminist ,press1 and the ,woman 4 ,p41 feel that we have still much to protect and much to achieve before we can regard our position as hopeless4 ,fortunately1 however1 there is an alternative to the developments described in the last chapter--an alternative which1 if we so choose1 we may well be able to bring about quite as certainly as the future already outlined4 ,but1 if we are in earnest about this alternative future1 and if we seriously wish to realize it1 we must not forget that1 since the other is more or less implicit in our present trend1 and will evolve automatically out of it if only we continue to acquiesce in everything that constitutes modernity1 this other1 or alternative1 future will require to be actively fought for4 ,the future is in our hands1 and we can mould it as we will--certainly6 ,but1 as we have seen1 it is also as potential in the present as a flower is potential in the bud4 ,while1 therefore1 the future sketched in the last chapter--or1 at all events1 very essential parts of it--will come without any special effort on our part1 merely as a further growth of existing tendencies1 the alternative future1 which we now propose to describe1 will1 if it is to be realized1 demand from us not only the hardness and determination of iconoclasts1 but also the creative gifts1 patience1 and constructive energy of builders4 ,there is much in our present that must be destroyed1 and even more that will subsequently require building and re-building4 ,among the first things that we shall destroy is our table of value4 ,we shall do this1 however1 not in the spirit of anarchists eager only for greater licence and more 8freedom0--for that is always the temptation of the mob1 and requires no particular courage or constructive programme2 but in the spirit of builders who want more discipline for greater achievement4 ,the first values to be destroyed will be the body-despising values1 and everything connected with them4 ,we shall no longer condone ugliness or physiological depravity either in ourselves or in others4 ,the fact that some bodily defect cannot be helped by the man who reveals it does not make him any the more desirable4 ,we shall remember that1 strictly speaking1 moral depravity is no more voluntary than physiological depravity2 and1 since we refuse to accept the excuse mea non culpa for moral depravity1 it is only logical and right to reject that same excuse for bodily depravity4 ,why is it important not to accept this excuse for bodily depravity8 ,because to condone is to overlook1 to condone is to accept1 and1 above all1 to condone is to become accustomed to4 ,where physiological depravity is a matter of custom1 however1 it very soon ceases1 as we know1 to be regarded as depravity2 and mating1 love-making1 and procreation quickly become possible in spite of it4 ,that is why it is more important to alter our values than to promote ,eugenic legislation4 ,for1 if our values are altered and physiological depravity is no longer condoned1 ,eugenic legislation will become unnecessary1 and will be anticipated by the taste of the people2 whereas1 if our body-despising values remain intact1 ,eugenic legislation will always be fighting an up-hill fight4 ,the most difficult feature connected with the task of suppressing our body-despising values is the duty it enjoins on each individual not only of condemning his neighbour but also of condemning himself1 if he is physiologically depraved2 but this each of us will learn to do4 ,we shall feel the shame of bodily defects once more1 and strive unremittingly to recover bodies complete anatomically beautiful1 and no longer defective functionally4 ,even at the risk of great immediate suffering1 we shall learn to eschew artificial aids of all kinds1 and regard it as beneath our dignity to use them4 ,then1 since very little is beyond the wit of man1 other means will be found1 and we shall recover our former bodily splendour4 ,we must bear in mind1 however1 that we are almost at the eleventh hour2 that to-morrow may be too late2 and that1 if we wish to spare ourselves the great discovery of the desolate women-workers of the previous chapter1 there is no time to lose4 ,secondly1 we shall destroy the value which makes it noble1 virtuous1 and desirable to sacrifice the greater for the less4 ,this value also belongs to the group of values which ,dean ,inge supports1 despite his apparent enthusiasm about ,eugenics1#aa and is among the greatest causes of modern degeneracy4 ,when once you admit the principle that it is noble and virtuous to sacrifice the greater for the less1 the desirable for the undesirable1 the corn for the weeds1 the god for the mob1 you necessarily invite the condition which we find around us to-day4 ,everything that is best in the nation1 all those elements on which the successful survival of our race depends1 are being penalized and sacrificed for the sake of the defective1 the lunatic1 the crippled1 the incurable1 the half-witted1 and the blind4 ,honours are acquired not for promoting the multiplication of the sound and hale1 but for promoting the comfort1 ease1 and daily welfare of the physiologically and spiritually hopeless4 ,this value must go4 ,its disappearance will clear the air4 ,so long1 however1 as one sound family in ,england continues to be penalized even to the extent of only sixpence a year in order to support humanity's wreckage and rubbish1 we shall continue to be sacrificing the greater to the less4 ,this absurd and degenerate value must be transvalued into the following3 ,it is noble and virtuous to sacrifice the less for the greater1 the rubbish for the precious4 ,when once this transvaluation has been effected1 we shall begin to ascend4 ,footnote #aa3 ,another instance of his astonishing confusion of thought4 ,thirdly1 we shall recognize the error of our modern conception of masculinity4 ,we shall try to forget the ,great ,war1 which at present tempts us to think highly of ourselves2 and we shall endeavour to understand that to limit the notion of masculinity to proficiency in sports and bravery in war is to overlook a whole catalogue of masculine virtues without which degeneration can hardly fail to overtake us in spite of all our games and our feats of arms4 ,this limitation of the idea of manliness to proficiency in sport and bravery in war is acceptable to women1 because it makes for a breed of men who are easily led and still more easily misled2 but it is fatal to civilization4 ,we shall learn to expect of the manly man not only courage and proficiency in sport1 but also will-power1 leadership1 mastery over the mysteries of life1 and not ,puritanical funk in their presence1 intelligence sufficient to overshadow any female brain that is placed alongside of him 7a feature notoriously absent both in the average soldier and in the average sportsman1 or at least1 if not absent in1 not essential to71 and clarity and decision regarding every problem that it concerns him to understand--in fact1 a man whose presence alone makes the claim of sexual equality a manifest and transparent absurdity4 ,nothing less should satisfy us2 for we shall always remember that it was the man who possesses merely courage and proficiency at sport that is responsible not only for all our present muddle1 but also for ,feminism4 ,here again1 therefore1 we shall recast our values1 and1 hard as it may seem1 discipline ourselves to a new outlook4 ,nothing else can save the world and nothing else can put woman back in her place--which is only another way of saving the world4 ,every other remedy is quackery4 ,the highest type of this kind of manly man is the ruler who gives us a new order and a new goal2 while even the lowest type is the husband who fills a woman's life and whom she finds it a joy to obey and no indignity1 no hardship to serve4 ,without this kind of man in large numbers in our midst1 the world cannot fail to go hopelessly astray1 and it will be our principal object henceforth to discover not only how he can be restored to us1 but how it is that1 during the last hundred years1 we have failed to produce him in ,england4 ,this is the only kind of scientific research that can possibly be fruitful of good results at the present juncture1 and it is the first direction in which we shall turn our remaining energy4 ,nor need we be deterred by the journalistic scoffers who will tell us that we are in search of that mythical monster the ,superman1 for we have no such highfalutin' schemes4 ,the men we wish to rear again have already been reared once before in these islands1 and history records their lives4 ,they are not a magic fantasy1 but a possible reality4 ,they are not demi-gods1 but mortals4 ,and we ourselves1 who claim that they are indispensable for the salvation of modern humanity1 do not hope for them as a race of ,supermen1 but merely as the leaders of a ,masculine ,renaissance4 ,with regard to the world these leaders will create1 and to the position of women in that world1 while we cannot safely foretell what they will do1 we venture to suggest the following3 ,we may expect a total and complete exposure of the shallowness1 impracticability1 and danger to national survival of ,democracy as we now understand it1 and therefore the evanescence of democratic forms of government4 ,the great suffering and chaos to which such forms of government lead will probably leave a deep impression upon the soul of humanity1 and this impression will help the leaders of the ,masculine ,renaissance to remodel the national life without having recourse to the discredited and preposterous vote4 ,we may expect a revival of agriculture and craftsmanship1 because one of the first things to be done is to arrest the dry-rot in spirit and body1 which industrial and urban conditions have brought about under the sway of the body-despising values4 ,men will learn to respect themselves once more1 and this they can do only by expressing their highest impulses in their work4 ,they will become agriculturists and craftsmen again1 because this is the only way by which they can recover their dignity1 their lost faculties1 and their vanished health4 ,we can also expect that science instead of concentrating1 as now1 upon providing us with ever more efficient extra-corporeal equipment such as wireless telegraphy1 aeroplanes1 etc41 and more and more substitutes and aids for our defective bodies1 will turn its research in the direction of restoring to man bodily perfection and to extending the range of his faculties4 ,it will probe the mystery of powers like clairvoyance1 and direct healing 7such as that effected by the laying on of hands from time immemorial72 it will discover the mechanism 7if any7 behind telepathy and behind the peculiar magnetism of cultivated will-power1 and discover an educational technique by which these properties and powers may become more general1 more efficient1 and more far-reaching4 ,it will seek the method behind the laws of heredity1 and establish principles whereby family and stock qualities may be brought to perfection4 ,it will also sift the mass of evidence and facts collected by modern science1 in order to co-ordinate the data1 and establish lines of proper conduct and legitimate aspiration4 ,finally1 it will aim at co-ordinating religious and naturalistic truths up to date1 with the view of offering to mankind a new faith1 and a new metaphysic1 purged of the sick and degenerate elements of former religions4 ,recognizing that stheticism is an essential part of terrestrial life1 the possession and expression of beauty will no longer be relegated to certain sections of the community1 but will be made a part of the national life4 ,the ,puritanical prejudice against beauty and its lure will be exploded1 and beauty will be cultivated in the human body as an indispensable factor in a happy life4 ,the old ,puritanical belief that it is possible to have a beautiful soul1 a beautiful character1 and a beautiful mind in an ugly body with evil-smelling breath1 will have to be recognized for what it is--that is1 merely a credo for the comfort of repulsive people4 ,meanwhile large hypertrophied cities and towns will tend to disappear1 and the population will be thinned by rigorous selection at birth4 ,abnormal1 crippled1 defective1 incurable1 and undesirable people will no longer be allowed to grow up4 ,their uselessness and their danger as a burden and an eye-sore will be recognized4 ,the old belief in the extreme sacredness of every human creature1 irrespective of bodily and mental perfection1 will vanish1 in order to make way for a valuation based on quality of mind and body4 ,this gradual elimination of the undesirable dregs of humanity with all the physiological botchedness they stand for1 will clear the air1 and relieve coming generations of many heavy burdens4 ,the energy1 spare wealth1 and spare time of the community1 will then be devoted to the desirable1 and the magnificent mansions which are now distributed all over the country1 for the housing of human monsters1 will be converted into palaces for people of promise4 ,the regeneration of man will immediately transform woman and her position2 because1 while her contempt for the male will vanish1 she will recover both physically and spiritually that lost joy of looking up to her mate4 ,through the mastery he will introduce1 her present very justifiable anxiety about the world will tend to disappear1 and the serenity of a dependent existence will be restored to her4 ,her life through being filled by a mate sufficiently versatile to supply her not only with offspring1 but also with every possible interest1 will gradually lose the feverish restlessness of the modern woman1 who is seeking constantly to forget the void both in her heart and in her existence2 and in time she will learn to measure at their proper worth the vanities which now supply her with but a poor substitute for her former bliss4 ,with these changes1 women's claim to equality with men will gradually cease to be heard of4 ,here and there it may still continue to be raised in some quarters2 but1 the moment its absurdity is made everywhere visible to the very eye of onlookers1 it will necessarily die down4 ,it is merely the fact that the claim is not manifestly absurd to-day that lends it for the time being a certain fatal plausibility4 ,but1 before woman is sound enough in body and mind to give birth to this new breed of masculine sons1 and to rear them herself1 she will undergo many transformations1 and learn to look at life from a very different standpoint4 ,in the first place she will regenerate her own body before it is too late1 and recover the ease1 if not the ecstasy of old1 in all her functions4 ,she will learn to despise herself if she wears glasses1 if she has false or bad teeth1 if she cannot function without scientific aids1 and if she cannot suckle her child4 ,she will perceive the boastful levity of the present generation of women who concern themselves more and more with highfalutin' interests and matters of the soul1 when all the while they are not masters of their bodies4 ,she will see that a workman who wished to leave his bench and his tools in order to try to master high finance when he had not yet mastered his trade1 would very justly become an object of derision1 and that modern women1 with their feverish interest in every new-fangled creed and power1 are also objects of derision1 because all the while their bodies grow more and more out of hand4 ,helped by her men of science1 she will apply herself to the task of discovering that mode of life and that diet which will restore to her normal and easy functioning in her digestive system2 that mode of life and diet during gestation which will restore to her the joy of childbirth--a joy that has probably not been known to mankind for thousands of years--and1 without losing heart over her initial failures1 she will persevere until the necessary discoveries are made4 ,when once bodily normality is recovered--and this will come about much more speedily by a change of values1 and therefore by a change of taste1 than by legally enforced ,eugenics--she and her mate will attach a new value to life1 and a new value to motherhood1 domesticity1 and marriage4 ,all three will appear nobler and more desirable1 not only because they have become more beautiful1 and more productive of beauty1 but also because their responsibilities and annoyances are endured for a man and for children who make them appear thoroughly worth while4 ,in ,chapter ,,ii we pointed out the direction in which inquiry might profitably be directed in order to achieve certain eminently desirable improvements in the present conditions of childbirth4 ,these indications may prove to be misleading4 ,it is possible that their application may be disappointing4 ,this1 however1 should not deter us4 ,the ideas suggested in ,chapter ,,ii may or may not be of value2 but what is important is that inquiry should be directed towards the goal to which they point1 and1 if this end be assiduously sought1 it cannot fail to be reached sooner or later4 ,it must be obvious to all that1 by persisting in our present direction of improved artificial aids1 we can never attain to anything either good or desirable--therefore that our present direction is manifestly wrong and hopeless4 ,the elimination of the bungled and the botched1 and a rigorous selection of the newly-born on qualitative lines both of mind and body1 will so much relieve the situation in all over-populated districts that early marriages will become a possibility again4 ,where it is difficult1 assistance will easily be found4 ,for where people acquire honour in helping and promoting the best1 instead of promoting and helping the worst1 the rich will seek distinction in endowing desirable people instead of endowing wrecks1 cripples1 and incurables4 ,when once these reforms have been instituted1 it will be possible to order life on a much happier scale1 particularly for women4 ,since males and females are normally about equal in number1 the increased prosperity will enable most men to marry and most girls to find husbands1 and the misery of modern sexual abstinence will cease for millions of women4 ,but1 as happiness can be permanently secured only if a nation cuts its coat according to its cloth1 careful measures will have to be taken to keep the population within certain limits4 ,seeing1 however1 that birth-control and contraceptive methods sacrifice the adults in order to achieve this end1 the tendency will be1 in a society whose principle it is to sacrifice the less to the greater1 to proceed to some kind of controlled and legalized infanticide4 ,this will allow standards governing infant-selection to be periodically revised1 and will thus lead to an improvement of the race4 ,since1 however1 wars and the greater danger attending male pursuits are always likely to create a preponderance of females in the community1 concubinage will be tolerated for the sake of the surplus women2 but1 instead of its being a concubinage like that of to-day1 which is hidden1 secret1 sterile1 condemned1 and therefore productive of much distress and tragedy1 it will be open1 tolerated1 recognized1 and fruitful1 just as it has been in the best civilizations of the past4 ,there are other and very deep reasons why some form of concubinage is essential4 ,i have already dealt with them elsewhere4#ab ,suffice it to say here1 however1 that no shame or discomfort will necessarily attach to the life of the concubines4 ,they will be legally recognized2 they will have their social status2 and they will be protected by public opinion and by law4 ,nor will they be encountered in every household4 ,as in former societies which have recognized them1 they will be found only where their need is felt1 and where their own taste guides them to seek protection4 ,footnote #ab3 ,see ,woman3 ,a ,vindication1 pp4 #agb-c4 ,women old enough for matrimony and older1 therefore1 will tend to be withdrawn more and more from industrial1 commercial1 and public life1 and the old industries of the home--bread1 cheese1 butter1 jam1 and confectionery making--will be revived1 and will flourish once more4 ,under the guidance of science1 domestic medicine will gradually be transferred from the doctor's consulting-room to the kitchen and the still-room1 and there it will remain1 as it always ought to have remained1 and doctors and their powers will tend to disappear4 ,children will be much more the apprentices of their parents than they are at present2 the duties of education will tend to be delegated less and less to elders who are not blood-relations2 and parents will have a higher sense of their responsibilities4 ,education outside the home will be regarded--at least for boys and girls under fifteen--as a pis aller1 more or less as we to-day regard the various arrangements that have to be made for orphans4 ,meanwhile1 with improved bodies and brighter wits1 women will share with men the joy of the developed faculties which1 as we have pointed out1 it will be the object of science to realize2 and a richer and more eventful intellectual and spiritual life will be led1 because humanity will be able to apply itself to the pursuit of ever loftier interests4 ,we shall have greater arts and greater religions1 deeper thoughts and a mightier grasp of reality2 because1 having mastered our bodies and solved once more the secret of their harmonious working1 we shall no longer be in the difficult dilemma of mortals who1 with neglected and badly functioning physiques1 try to anticipate here on earth the pastimes and pursuits of the immortal world4 ,,the ,,end ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected4 ,typographical errors were silently corrected4 ,inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a predominant form was found in this book4 ,text that3 was in italics is enclosed by underscores 7italics72 was in bold by is enclosed by 8equal0 signs 7bold7 had extra character spacing by 8plus0 signs 7stretched74