,transcriber's ,note ,italic text displayed as3 italic ,bold text displayed as3 bold ,,personal ,,rights3 ,a ,,presidential ,,address ,delivered to the ,,forty-,,first ,,annual ,,meeting of the ,,personal ,,rights ,,association1 ,,on #fth ,,june1 #aiac1 by ,,mrs4 ,,mona ,,caird4 ,,london3 ,,the ,,personal ,,rights ,,association1 #aa1 ,,abbeville ,,road1 ,,london1 ,s4,w4 ,price3 ,,one ,,penny4 ,,printed ,,for ,,the ,,personal ,,rights ,,association1 ,,by ,,the ,,tokio ,,printing ,,co41 ,,reading ,,london ,,mrs4 ,,mona ,,caird ,,on ,,personal ,,rights4 ,,ladies ,,and ,,gentlemen3--,i used to feel some impatience with public speakers who spent half their speech in explaining how it was they had committed the indiscretion of making it1 and how much more suitable for the post somebody else would have been4 ,those gentlemen now have my profoundest sympathy6 ,i feel that ,i ought to spend not half1 but my whole speech1 in explaining why ,i have the temerity to address you tonight on this familiar subject1 seeing that ,i never do speak in public1 and that my feelings about taking the chair are very much like they would be about taking a cold plunge in the ,atlantic in early spring4 ,however1 ,i can't get rid of my deficiencies by enumerating them1 so ,i must just throw myself on your mercy1 asking you to regard this venture as a tribute of admiration and gratitude to our ,president and his supporters who have made so magnificent a defence of the ,cause for so many thankless years4 ,also ,i have felt moved to accept the honour on account of the scarcity of wholehearted champions1 especially--,i regret to hear--among the sex which has always been deprived of personal rights4 ,perhaps that is just why they are lacking in respect for them6 ,and what a warning this is6 ,the spirit of liberty1 it would appear1 can be starved to death4 ,society1 having done its foolish best to destroy that spirit in half its members1 expects the other half to retain it unimpaired--an obvious impossibility4 ,for interaction of influence is incessant and universal between the two sexes4 ,the career of women having depended not on right but on favour1 they have learnt to care little for an abstract idea which has no bearing on their lives4 ,only the exceptional mind cares for that4 ,but similar conditions would assuredly produce the same result in men4 ,and--we are on our rapid way to similar conditions4 ,now1 in a vast subject like this1 which really touches the heart of everything that is vital and valuable in life1 it is impossible1 in twenty-five minutes to deal with it in any detail2 and ,i propose tonight simply to dwell upon the perils with which we are all threatened1 in consequence of the present trend of sentiment4 ,for we have to try and make these perils obvious to the hearts as well as to the minds of our contemporaries1 if there is to be any hope of checking the present downward tendencies4 ,it is of little use merely stating that it is perilous to try to purchase social benefits at the expense of individuals4 ,to the majority1 that seems the safest thing in the world2 and1 strange to say1 the most just4 ,the ancient idea of vicarious sacrifice is as rampant today as it was when the groves of ancient temples echoed with the cries of human victims1 burnt on the altars1 for the appeasement of the gods and the good of the community4 ,the idea of numbers enters largely into the popular idea of right and wrong--what ,i call arithmetical morality4 ,because #ajj is ten times more than #aj1 it is assumed that ten persons may justly be sacrificed for the sake of the #ajj4 ,but that is to confuse mere nonsentient signs with living conscious beings2 surely a strangely stupid proceeding4 ,it is this deeply-rooted idea which we have to combat4 ,first of all then1 it must be noted1 that1 as a rule1 the less liberty people enjoy1 the less they value or respect it4 ,the preoccupation will be not with liberty but with the best means of getting on without it4 ,and the best way of doing that will be--or will seem to be--to force your own views as much as possible upon your neighbours--otherwise they will force theirs upon you4 ,mutually lacking in respect for liberty1 there will be as many good reasons for attacking it in others as you have theories to enforce4 ,and the same for them4 ,the situation must obviously end in a stupendous tyranny of some kind3 whether of king or oligarchy or ,state3 and that of the ,state1 being practically invulnerable1 is the worst of all4 ,i am far from thinking that the motive for aggression would always be self-interest4 ,it would be less dangerous if it were4 ,we all know the deadly tyranny of the thoroughly well-meaning person3 the highly-moral person1 for instance1 who calls out for medival forms of punishment for especially reprobated crimes4 ,as some philosopher said3 8,he must be an extraordinarily good man before he can safely be guided by his conscience40 ,i go farther1 and say3 8,the extraordinarily good man must be trained for a lifetime by the ,personal ,rights ,association before he can trust his conscience--and even then he had better not60 ,of all human attributes1 conscience1 when backed by power over others1 seems to be the most dangerous4 ,think what martyr-fires it has lighted1 what torture-chambers it has furnished and kept busy6 ,if we had only self-interest to deal with1 we should not be troubled with the present ardent desire of increasing numbers of people1 to further the interests of ,society--of morals1 medicine1 science--even what are called the true interests of the individual himself1 by progressive outrage against him4 ,it is this eternal 8good motive0 that makes our reformers as irresistible as a swarm of locusts1 and as destructive6 ,the bravest of us flinch before ,virtue on the war-path4 ,before they have done1 our philanthropic locusts will have eaten off every green blade and leaf of human initiative1 and will leave the ,society which they so yearn to serve barren and blight-stricken1 perhaps for centuries to come4 ,of what value to any one is such a ,society8 ,what in fact1 exists1 but individuals8 ,and mark3 there is no retracing our steps if we go too far in this direction4 ,we are always assured that there would be a reaction against a too great restriction of the human spirit4 ,but that is true only so long as the restriction is more or less a novelty and is not too great4 ,directly it becomes really extreme1 there is no reaction4 ,we can see this in the innumerable nations of antiquity and of today which have remained stagnant for hundreds and hundreds of years4 ,lack of human rights tends progressively to stifle the spirit that would demand or respect them4 ,even in ,england1 whose history is that of the struggle for liberty1 we have seen how1 in women1 that spirit has been weakened4 ,how then are we to hope--after a too deep descent to ,avernus--for a return towards the light and inspiration of freedom8 ,it is expecting a result without a cause--or rather in the teeth of one4 ,like ,xerxes1 stupidly confident1 we burn our boats behind us4 ,or1 more accurately1 ,nature burns them for us4 ,she seems to say3 8,very well2 if you don't want to give scope to original minds1 you have only to make your social conditions accordingly--subordinate your individual ruthlessly to what you call #8the common good'--and original minds will never trouble you again4 ,not only will your organization suppress them1 but it will gradually destroy your power even to produce them4 ,that will save them an immensity of trouble1 and prevent all hitches in your boring routine4 ,if that's what you want1 it is easily yours40 ,but our reformers don't exactly want that4 ,they like to have it both ways4 ,they want a subservient1 ,state-ridden community of highly individualized human beings1 who--like the inmates of ,barry's ,home for ,geniuses--would initiate punctually and spontaneously to order--in the approved direction1 of course4 ,no fantastic unexpected nonsense would be tolerated for a moment6 ,the old pathetic story of ,midas1 whose wish--granted by the gods--that everything he touched should turn to gold1 seems vaguely symbolic of this eager desire to turn living1 initiating individuals into subservient parts of a social ,whole4 ,it is possible to have a prayer too completely answered1 as poor ,midas found1 when his best cook's masterpieces became hard yellow metal under his teeth1 till he starved amidst fabulous riches2 while his heart was finally broken when his little daughter1 running in to bid him good morning1 was changed into a priceless golden statue4 ,like ,midas1 our reformers are short-sighted4 ,their eyes are so fixed on the ,golden ,age that they want to bring about for humanity1 that they forget that they may be killing humanity in the process--the very spring and life-essence of the human material which they--meddling little amateur deities--are trying so hard to make after their own image4 ,our philanthropists will find when too late1 that they have turned all that is living into hard1 precious1 valueless gold--the gold of a mechanical social order--if the gods are cruel enough to grant their foolish prayers6 ,i do not say that the day of awakening would never come4 ,to ,china and ,japan for instance1 it has at last come--through outside not internal causes1 be it noted4 ,but think of the spell-bound1 horrible ages of night-mare-ridden sleep that went before6 ,once upon a time in old ,japan1 a man was not allowed to give his grandchild a doll measuring more than certain carefully prescribed dimensions4 ,the paternal ,powers deemed moderation in dolls to be desirable1 and so curbed undue enthusiasm in grandparents by solemn legislative measures4 ,it is claimed by its admirers that the system 7whose nature we can gauge from this instance7 worked admirably4 ,probably it did4 ,so does a regularly-wound clock4 ,as a matter of fact1 the better the preposterous system worked1 the more fatally it would strangle its victims4 ,now it is this fact which we all have to try to make clear to our opponents4 ,humanity growing fat and prosperous on banquets of immolated individuals would be about as disastrous a condition as one could well imagine4 ,as a matter of fact 8,humanity0--a mere abstract term used for convenience of speech--has been endowed by careless thinkers with a sort of divine self-existence2 and1 like most divine beings1 this new deity demands sacrifices4 ,for instance1 the recent medical proposal to dissect criminals alive in the interests of the ,community--another collective-term fetish--reveals1 in typical form1 the line of sentiment 7,i can scarcely call it thought7 against which we have to contend4 ,i do not say that the majority would not still be shocked at this proposal2 but that is simply because it has not yet become familiar4 ,once it does become familiar1 the horror will die away 7think of the everyday atrocities which have the public sanction7 and then--as there is no principle of personal rights to stand between the proposed victim and the eager experimenter--the latter will be allowed to take his long-coveted prize4 ,he is already permitted to take innocent1 sentient creatures1 on the plea of the public good2 and it is only carrying out the theory to its logical conclusion1 to take guilty ones for the same purpose4 ,and on the same plea--like the lie1 8an ever present help in time of trouble0--the ordinary citizen will probably follow1 in due course4 ,it is a question of time and sentiment1 not of principle4 ,now is it quite impossible to awaken the public to the awful and innumerable dangers which confront us all1 as soon as the protection of personal rights is withdrawn8 ,will not even this threat of human vivisection reveal our utter defencelessness8 ,can we not persuade our contemporaries to ask themselves if1 for instance1 the apostles of eugenics have shrunk from any measure1 however outrageous1 which they thought promised the desired results8 ,provided the end is gained1 the individual must pay the price4 ,it seems to be thought unworthy of him to object4 ,thus he is placed at the mercy of every wind and tide of popular opinion1 or1 what is worse1 at the mercy of the views of experts who naturally tend to think all things lawful which benefit their particular branch of knowledge4 ,if vaccination is approved of1 vaccinated the individual must be4 ,if ,science demands human vivisection1 he must submit even to that outrage4 ,on what principle1 except that of personal rights1 can the demand be refused8 ,the outrage might result in valuable knowledge4 ,again1 if ,society is obsessed by a crude and unproved theory of heredity1 how are we to resist interference with our marriages1 or being treated as hysterical1 or feeble-minded1 or degenerate1 or insane8 ,genius and originality generally seem pathological to the majority2 and what the end will be of this sort of old-,japanese system1 considering its very vigorous beginning1 is not cheering to prophesy4 ,unless its very absurdity causes a reaction before it is too late1 we shall find ourselves in the current of an evolution backwards to the savage state1 in which the individual is very like that foolish and much overrated insect1 the bee1 hopelessly submerged in the social hive4 ,as originality is usually lodged in a peculiarly sensitive organism1 delicately responsive to conditions1 it would tend to atrophy1 as plants do whose leaves and buds are persistently nipped off4 ,no living thing can stand the process long4 ,it is one of the shallowest of popular fallacies that genius always overcomes obstacles4 ,it depends on the obstacles and the kind of genius2 or1 more accurately1 on the ordinary qualities with which the genius happens to be accompanied4 ,in itself1 genius is a handicap1 not an aid1 to outward success4 ,now in the degenerating society which we are considering1 its path of descent is easy to trace4 ,observe the increasing tragedy of the situation4 ,as the strata of what ,i call ,hive-heredity accumulate1 there is always a deeper and deeper soil of ,hive-instinct out of which each new generation has to spring4 ,is it not progressively unlikely1 therefore1 that 8sports0 would appear8 ,and if they did appear1 at lengthening intervals1 would they not be handicapped by a strong ,herd-instinct1 impregnably seated in that reservoir of inborn impulse that we now call the 8subconscious08 ,the more one dwells on this principle of ours1 the more its essential truth and beauty and sanity is revealed4 ,it is so gloriously universal in its scope6 ,just in so far as man or animal can enjoy rights or suffer wrongs1 just so far we demand for him protection4 ,we deem it absurd and irrelevant to ask questions as to his faith or his morals1 or his 8importance02 as to the number of his legs1 or the nature of his covering4 ,it is obviously enough that he can feel4 ,we do not say3 8,he has no friends2 let us make him suffer for our good40 ,we say3 8,he is in our hands2 therefore we are his guardians to a man 444 and woman60 ,and as a result of this loyalty to the least of our brethren1 we should find--if we could but make it universal--that we had made impregnable our one line of defence against innumerable dangers and evils--our ,chatalga lines1 we might call them1 of inalienable ,personal ,rights4 ,and in strengthening these for the protection of the humblest as well as the greatest of our brethren1 we render increasingly possible all that makes life interesting1 dramatic1 and truly worth the living3 all adventures of the human spirit4 ,a vista of possibilities is thus opened which promises an enrichment in all the relations of life1 an enlargement of the range of consciousness1 and therefore of progress1 to which we can actually set no limits4 ,compare this with the unspeakable boredom of the hurdy-gurdy existence of a ,state-dominated community6 ,those who have been used all their lives to the atmosphere of civilization1 often do not realize how easily it can be destroyed4 ,the curious change that comes over educated persons who have lived long in the backwoods1 gives a hint of my meaning4 ,as a rule1 the man--or woman--has in some way dwindled4 ,the consciousness and comprehension have narrowed1 the perceptions are poorer1 slower1 less human4 ,the companioning element has almost gone1 and one feels that the common meeting-ground of civilized humanity has shrivelled almost to nothing4 ,and so one can but realize that a certain fine flower of the human spirit--which might be still further glorified and developed--can1 on the other hand1 be swiftly annihilated4 ,humanity1 so to speak1 loses its level1 like a traveller who has mistaken his way1 and walks down hill only to have to come up again1 or else to resign himself to remaining on the plains--he who had set out for the mountains6 ,now1 what if this be the reason that civilizations blossom only to decay8 ,i utterly disbelieve in the facile and misleading analogy of the 8social organism40 ,societies do indeed change1 but they do not go through an exactly-repeated series of stages after the fashion of 8organisms40 ,it is quite unproved that there is any inherent 8principle of decay40 ,what1 in fact1 is a principle of decay8 ,now1 it seems probable that one cause of decay is just this perpetual losing of level4 ,like ,penelope1 humanity has always kept on undoing its own work1 and beginning all over again4 ,and so our civilizations naturally wither6 ,and is this not1 mainly1 because we have never yet learnt a true love of ,liberty8 ,suppose for a moment1 a universal respect for it such as ,i have just been imagining3 a society wherein there was a real passion for protecting and liberating and giving scope to the individual impulse and inspiration4 ,is it not almost certain that this incessant loss of level--this destruction of previous achievement would be avoided8 ,and if it were--what is to prevent our ,traveller reaching the ,mountains he set out for8 ,,the ,,personal ,,rights ,,association4 ,,founded #adth ,,march1 #ahga4 ,,offices3 #aa1 ,,abbeville ,,road1 ,,london1 ,s4,w4 ,president3 ,mr4 ,,franklin ,,thomasson1 ,j4,p41 ,ex-,m4,p4 ,hon4 ,sec4 and ,treasurer3 ,mr4 ,j4 ,h4 ,,levy4 ,assistant ,secretary3 ,mrs4 ,,lorenza ,,garreau4 ,bankers3 ,,parr',s ,,bank 7,,charing ,,cross ,,branch71 ,,limited4 ,,object ,,of ,,the ,,association4 ,the object of the ,association is to uphold the principle of the perfect equality of all persons before the law in the exercise and enjoyment of their ,individual ,liberty within the widest practicable limits4 ,it would maintain government just so far as1 but no farther than1 is necessary for the maintenance of the largest freedom2 and1 in applying this1 would have equal regard to the liberty of all citizens4 ,if you wish to join in this work1 send a subscription to the ,treasurer of the ,association1 at the above address2 and the ,individualist and a copy of each of the pamphlets and leaflets issued by the ,association will be sent to you1 as issued1 by post4 ,do not miss the opportunity of cooperating in this work--the breaking of the chains of oppression and the liberation of all the forces which work for happiness and human dignity4 ,cheques and ,postal ,orders should be crossed ,parr's ,bank1 ,charing ,cross ,branch4 ,further information with regard to the ,association may be obtained from 7,mrs47 ,,lorenza ,,garreau1 ,assistant ,secretary4 ,transcriber's ,notes pg #f ,changed3 ,the old pathethic story of ,midas to3 ,the old pathetic story of ,midas