,,regeneration ,a ,,reply ,,to ,,max ,,nordau ,,with ,,introduction ,,by ,,nicholas ,,murray ,,butler ,professor of ,philosophy and ,education in ,columbia ,college in the ,city of ,new ,york ,new ,york ,g4 ,p4 ,,putnam',s ,,sons ,london3 ,,archibald ,,constable ,,co4 #ahif ,copyright1 #ahif ,,by ,g4 ,p4 ,,putnam',s ,,sons ,the ,knickerbocker ,press1 ,new ,rochelle1 ,n4 ,y4 ,,introduction ,max ,nordau is perhaps the most daring toreador of recent years4 ,he challenged ,modern ,civilization to mortal combat in the presence of assembled thousands4 ,had the customs of the ,roman arena prevailed1 the thumbs of the interested spectators would doubtless have been extended or pressed down in about equal numbers1 when the huge beast lay momentarily stunned by his blow4 ,that ,nordau had ingeniously tormented the monster was apparent2 had he earned the right to put an end to its existence8 ,the shrill cries of the excitable and easily moved predominated for a moment1 but they were soon drowned by the insistent demands of the sober-minded for a calm consideration of the fairness of the blows that had been struck1 as well as of the permissibility of the weapons that had been used4 ,yet the contest1 whether fair or unfair1 had been exciting2 and it was not without its uses4 ,it stimulated thought among the habitually unthinking4 ,the habit of reflective analysis1 like letter-writing and other accomplishments that require much leisure1 is slipping away from us under the pressure of our complex modern life4 ,the newspaper1 with its surges of insensate passion and unreasoned opinion1 thinks for large portions of the community2 and its thinking1 like the amusements of the nursery1 expresses itself in ways that appeal chiefly to the eye and to the ear4 ,information about things is too often mistaken for knowledge of things4 ,highly specialized activities on the one hand1 and the task of adjusting our part in the struggle for existence to economic conditions wholly new in the world's history1 on the other1 mark off our civilization from any that have preceded it4 ,the activities of modern men are so numerous1 so varied1 and so interesting1 that we often omit to ask on what principles they are based and whither they are tending4 ,apparent success has led us to forget sometimes that all sound practice has a reason behind it1 and reasons are seldom asked for or given4 ,to say the least1 then1 it is somewhat surprising to be stopped on the street corner and assured1 with due emphasis and the appearance of authority1 that nineteenth-century men and women are absorbed in interests that mark a diseased type of mind1 and are given over to a literature1 an art1 and a music that1 themselves produced by madmen1 are rapidly reducing us all to the mad-house level2 in other words1 that we and our boasted civilization are degenerates4 ,there is1 as ,i have said1 a certain use in this brutal proceeding1 for it causes us to stop and think4 ,it shatters our conceit and shakes our confidence4 ,if we pause only for a moment1 yet pause we must4 ,the mere daring of the attack forces this4 ,so it has come about that ,nordau's ,degeneration1 quite apart from its intrinsic merits or demerits1 has been widely read and much talked of throughout the civilized world4 ,it has provoked some anger1 not a little amusement1 and a fair measure of contempt4 ,yet in a certain subtle way it has set us to examining the reasons that lead most of us to deny the essential viciousness and abnormality of some of the most salient and striking characteristics of contemporary culture4 ,if ,nordau's indictment be classed as pessimism1 it at least has the merit of novelty of statement4 ,from ,homer's time to the present poets and philosophers have not forgotten1 even in moments of highest exaltation1 to remind man that his life has a dark and hopeless side4 ,our own century has listened to ,leopardi1 who envied only the dead1 and to ,schopenhauer1 who called man both the priest and the victim of nature4 ,and yet we have not been altogether unhappy4 ,but ,nordau is no ordinary pessimist4 ,he does not lead us to despair through the by-paths of metaphysical subtlety1 nor does he take advantage of the awful mystery of pain to perplex and distract us4 ,rather he drags us into the laboratory and1 stretching us on a table of definitions made for the purpose1 proceeds to measure our faces and our skulls1 our teeth1 the lobes of our ears1 and our palates2 we pay the penalty of our individuality in being found to be 8morbid deviations from an original type10 and are therefore degenerate4 ,next comes an examination of a selected group of man's newer interests4 ,the music of ,wagner1 the dramas of ,ibsen1 the romances of ,zola1 the art of the pre-,raphaelites1 the mystics1 the symbolists1 the ,parnassians--who but a 8decadent0 would treat all these alike8--are passed in review and pronounced to be proofs of the decadence of mankind even more conclusive than those based upon physical measurements4 ,all this is done in the name of ,science1 which1 reversing the procedure of ,saturn1 thus hastens to devour the parent that begot it1 ,modern ,civilization4 ,a long chapter might be written on the credulity of men of science4 ,the hypotheses that they have chased out of the door complacently fly in at the window4 ,many scientists1 fresh from apparently important discoveries in narrow fields1 need to be reminded of the lesson contained in the legend of ,st4 ,augustine1 who when walking on the shore one day1 absorbed in meditation1 suddenly perceived a child that with a shell was ladling the sea into a hole in the sand4 8,what are you doing1 my child80 asked ,st4 ,augustine4 8,i am emptying the ocean10 was the reply1 8into this hole40--8,that is impossible40 8,not more impossible than for you to empty the universe into your intellect10 said the child1 and vanished4 ,nordau is particularly prone to regard the small achievements of a certain school of alienists as having supplied him with a conclusive test of all excellence4 ,indeed1 no part of his diatribe is more open to criticism than the use he makes of ,science4 ,if modern science is demonstrating any one thing more clearly than another1 it is that the insights of the seers of our race as to the highest human aspirations and the deepest needs of the human spirit1 meet not with contradiction but with support as knowledge of the cosmos becomes more extensive and more accurate4 ,nordau has neglected to reckon with the profound truth that finds expression in the celebrated saying of ,lotze3 8,the more ,i myself have laboured to prepare the way for acceptance of the mechanical view of ,nature in the region of organic life--in which region this view seemed to advance more timidly than the nature of the thing required--the more do ,i now feel impelled to bring into prominence the other aspect which was equally near to my heart during all these endeavours4444 ,it is in such mediation between the two aspects that the true source of the life of science is to be found2 not indeed in affirming now a fragment of one view and now a fragment of the other1 but in showing how absolutely universal is the extent1 and at the same time how completely subordinate is the significance1 of the mission which mechanism has to fulfil in the structure of the world40 ,there is also hidden from ,nordau's view that noble conception of the place and significance of ,science to which ,tyndall gave expression in the eloquent peroration of his ,belfast address more than twenty years ago3 8,science itself not unfrequently derives motive-power from an ultra-scientific source4 ,some of its greatest discoveries have been made under the stimulus of a non-scientific ideal4444 ,the world embraces not only a ,newton1 but a ,shakspere--not only a ,boyle1 but a ,raphael--not only a ,kant1 but a ,beethoven--not only a ,darwin1 but a ,carlyle4 ,not in each of these1 but in all1 is human nature whole4 ,they are not opposed1 but supplementary--not mutually exclusive1 but reconcilable4 ,and if1 unsatisfied with them all1 the human mind1 with the yearning of a pilgrim for his distant home1 will still turn to the ,mystery from which it has emerged1 seeking so to fashion it as to give unity to thought and faith1 so long as this is done1 not only without intolerance or bigotry of any kind1 but with the enlightened recognition that ultimate fixity of conception is here unattainable1 and that each succeeding age must be held free to fashion the mystery in accordance with its own needs--then1 casting aside all the restrictions of ,materialism1 ,i would affirm this to be a field for the noblest exercise of what1 in contrast with the knowing faculties1 may be called the creative faculties of man40 ,why1 then1 should not literature and art and music enter and occupy the very field that the apostles of ,science assign to them1 without being exposed to the alienists' sneers for their symbolism and their mysticism8 ,the truth is that ,nordau is the slave of one idea1 and that the logical outcome of his definition and conception of abnormality4 ,ribot described such a case perfectly when he said that 8nothing is more common or better known than the momentary appropriation of the personality by some intense and fixed idea4 ,as long as this idea occupies consciousness1 we may say without exaggeration that it constitutes the individual40 ,degeneration constitutes ,nordau4 ,he is himself an abnormality and a pathological type4 ,every large hospital for the insane knows his representative--the one sane man in a world of lunatics4 ,to perceive the true direction and to estimate the relative force of a large human movement requires a long interval of time4 ,caught in an eddy of the moment1 we may seem to be drifting backward1 when in reality to the spectator on the shore we are being swept onward with great rapidity4 ,the same world of experience seemed to ,parmenides to exclude by its very nature all motion1 and to ,heraclitus to derive its only reality from its perpetual change4 ,it is the standard and the point of view that control such judgments1 and we are entitled to ask of any standard or point of view1 ,quid juris8 ,nordau1 however1 has not asked himself that question4 ,seizing upon some partially completed anthropological investigations1 with their half-speculative inferences1 he has fashioned for himself a yard-stick with which to measure civilization4 ,aristotle long ago pointed out that the true difference between the poet and the historian is to be found in the fact that the former relates what may happen1 the latter what has happened4 ,one might similarly distinguish the man of science1 who applies what has been proved1 from the charlatan1 who seeks to apply what has not been proved4 ,as a result of dissenting from ,nordau's premises1 method1 and conclusions1 it is by no means necessary to be forced to defend all the phases of modern civilization that he attacks4 ,some of them1 no doubt1 are unwholesome1 but for reasons other than those which this critic adduces4 ,many of them are mere fleeting phenomena1 confined within the narrowest limits1 and the world at large first heard of them from ,nordau's pages4 ,it is only a lack of humour that can elevate such traits and tendencies into the position of powerful forces in human culture1 such as ,platonism1 ,humanism1 or ,christianity4 ,the old ,sophist was right when he commended humour as the test of gravity4 ,the author of ,regeneration is successful in turning the flank of ,nordau's attacking forces at more points than one4 ,he is able at times1 without over-exertion1 to convict ,nordau not only of lack of knowledge1 but of what is far worse--knowledge of things that are not true4 ,his view of life is more sane and better-balanced than that of ,nordau1 despite an anti-,teutonic tendency that perhaps partakes of the nature of an argument ad hominem4 ,the judgment of the average man who knows the history of the past two centuries will sustain him in holding that 8there are a host of indications in all civilized countries pointing to an increase in intellectual power1 moral strength1 and sthetic refinement40 ,those to whom ,lincoln applied the affectionate designation of 8the plain people0 have advanced and are advancing by tremendous strides in knowledge and refinement4 ,they1 and not a group or two of men and women in each of the capitals of ,europe1 are the real index to the degeneracy1 or the contrary1 of modern life4 ,if democracy is to establish itself more widely and more efficiently as a form of government1 it must rest upon the common sense of the plain people4 ,so far from being influenced by the tendencies that ,nordau exploits with so much vigour1 it is not improbable that even the names of the representatives of most of those tendencies are unknown to them4 ,progress in education1 in philanthropy1 in commerce and industry1 and in the comforts of life1 has developed a seriousness and a sense of responsibility that have brought into many an ,english and ,american face the lines that distinguished the countenance of the typical ,senator of ,rome4 ,the higher altruism of our time believes that life is not only worth living1 but worth working for4 ,long ago ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer remarked that the current conception of progress is vague1 and that it is in a great measure erroneous4 ,it takes in1 he said1 not so much the reality of progress as its accompaniments--not so much the substance as the shadow4 ,nordau1 with all of the superficiality1 the absence of any sense of proportion1 and the lack of humour that so often mark the extreme specialist1 has hardly come in sight of even the shadow4 ,,nicholas ,,murray ,,butler4 ,columbia ,college1 ,january1 #ahif4 ,,contents ,,chapter ,i ,,page ,who is the ,critic8 #a ,,chapter ,,ii ,dusk or ,dawn6 #bg ,,chapter ,,iii ,mysticism and the ,unknowable #dd ,,chapter ,,iv ,the ,bankruptcy of ,science #gc ,,chapter ,v ,symbolism and ,logic #id ,,chapter ,,vi ,the ,light of ,russia #ajh ,,chapter ,,vii ,the ,real ,ibsen #acb ,,chapter ,,viii ,richard ,wagner #ahc ,,chapter ,,ix ,the ,religion of ,self #bcj ,,chapter ,x ,an ,ethical ,inquisition #bda ,,chapter ,,xi ,vigorous ,affirmations #beh ,,chapter ,,xii ,regeneration #bij ,,regeneration ,,chapter ,i ,,who ,,is ,,the ,,critic8 ,voltaire said that if all the celestial bodies are inhabited1 our earth must be the mad-house of the universe4 ,to us who know the era of the great cynic only as recorded by the history of ,dryasdusts1 and the flippant memoirs and autobiographies of his contemporaries1 his biting sarcasm cannot be considered undeserved4 ,but1 with regard to our own times1 most of us would probably hesitate to brand our present state of culture1 our modern civilization1 as a fool's paradise4 ,it is a truism that an historical epoch can only be correctly studied at a distance in time1 as the outlines of a mountain can only be studied at a distance in space4 ,the actor in a piece1 though intimately acquainted with his own part and the accessories with which he comes in contact1 cannot form a just idea of the impression which the play1 with its more or less successful rendering1 its scenery1 and other spectacular effects1 produces on the mind of the average spectator4 ,a super who is ignorant of stage management and of the precise results the manager aims at might deem many things going on behind the stage both foolish and ridiculous4 ,to him the frantic efforts of some actor1 or scene-shifter1 to produce some ordinary effect might well appear as lunacy4 ,the judgment we form concerning the time we live in runs a great risk of being biassed by the narrowness of the vista we can command4 ,the interdependence of causes simultaneously at work1 the co-operation of impulses active at a great distance1 the peculiarities of circumstances surrounding each leading phenomenon1 the real intentions of leading characters1 secret motives in groups and parties--all this represents so many sealed books to the contemporary to be gradually opened only by future historians4 ,there are no doubt many facilities ready to hand for the man who in modern times desires to study his own epoch1 which were not available in the past4 ,distances are practically suppressed1 the whole of civilized humanity has been placed in intimate connection1 a highly developed ,press records daily events everywhere in a minute fashion1 to the making of books there is no end1 and in every direction an elaborate mechanism is established for the obtaining of rapid and precise information4 ,in fact1 the ,kammergelehrte1 who1 like ,kant1 would study the world-phenomenon without leaving his native town1 would in our days stand a better chance of obtaining completer and exacter information than any philosopher before him4 ,but1 despite the quasi-ubiquitousness the modern philosopher enjoys1 he would indulge in self-deception were he tempted to believe that he had secured all the data requisite to judge the contemporaries of his race as they act1 live1 feel1 and think during the closing years of this century4 ,for1 against the easy access to information1 must be placed the mass of intricate problems that arise with every step of progress1 the multitude of ideas which strive for realization1 the bewilderment which ensues on crumbling systems and religions1 new discoveries1 new theories1 new and complicated associations of ideas1 new and hazy aspirations1 sympathies1 and yearnings--for all of which words cannot be coined fast enough4 ,every day we witness political1 social1 economic1 and psychological phenomena1 the explanation of which would demand not only an enormous amount of knowledge1 but reasoning powers and a freedom from bias seldom blended in one human mind4 ,facts1 circumstances1 theories1 human actions1 and human ideas1 change and intermingle so constantly and so rapidly as to produce bewilderment capable of misleading any philosopher who attempts to gauge them with the instruments of the past and in conformity with the doctrines of the school to which he belongs4 ,what renders it still more difficult to appraise any epoch1 and especially the present one1 is the intimate interdependence of all the phenomena to be observed4 ,the idiosyncrasies of a sovereign1 or of a minister1 influence legislation1 legislation influences public institutions1 public institutions influence the upper classes1 and the upper classes influence the masses4 ,but legislation1 institutions1 the upper classes1 and the people are influenced from a great number of other directions1 while they again influence the sovereign and the minister4 ,thus it would be impossible to attribute with accuracy a given number of effects to special causes3 for every cause is the effect of another cause1 and every effect produces other effects4 ,for instance1 art and literature may strongly influence men in power as well as the masses1 while no one will deny that men in power1 as well as the political and social condition of the masses1 exercise a strong influence on art and literature4 ,and then1 on top of it all1--as if worse to confound the confusion of the man with a system1 trivial incidents intervene and bring about a new series of causes and effects evidently destined to operate as long as humanity lasts4 ,so interdependent are the actors in the human drama1 so complete is the intricate and sensitive mechanism of causes and effects1 and so overcharged with energy are the social dynamos1 that any fool1 any child1 any trivial accident1 may move one of the countless points arranged by circumstances1 and thus hurl the engine of events in new and dangerous directions4 ,these and many other difficulties encountered by the student of his own time are largely responsible for his opinions1 often savouring as much of his idiosyncrasy1 his professional and national prejudices as of an independent inquiry4 ,in order to choose between the maze of highways and by-ways1 in order to judge whether he moved forwards1 backwards1 or in a circle1 he gropes for some kind of a compass and naturally clutches at that which his idiosyncrasy proffers4 ,when we therefore meet with an appraiser of his own epoch1 it behooves us to bear in mind the standpoint from which he has contemplated the world-phenomenon1 and with what bias and prejudice his views have been coloured4 ,the old ,greek story of the sandal-maker who became prejudiced against a work of art because the artist had made a mistake in the arrangement of the sandal-strings1 points its moral4 ,the prejudices arising from trade1 personal interests1 and many other palpable sources are not difficult to trace and to evade1 but where is the man whose views have not been influenced by his nationality1 his religion1 his favourite science or art1 his love1 his hatred1 or his ambition8 ,it is to such influences1 often considered by the influenced as so many advantages and seldom sufficiently noticed by his critics1 that we often owe the apparent profundity and exhaustiveness of an appreciation which in reality is one-sided4 ,education1 and1 still more1 an intense study of one special branch of knowledge1 rich in important and striking results1 naturally tend to strengthen the student's faith and his belief in the capabilities of his favourite science4 ,the brain-cells1 influenced by the will1 and habitually becoming stimulated by presentations--emanating from the subject on which the student has concentrated his attention--adapt themselves gradually to the perception of such presentations1 and by re-acting on other cells render the whole organism disposed to seek such presentations4 ,in plain language1 the specialist in one science has a great aptitude for discovering such causes and such effects as his favourite science has best elucidated1 while he is tempted to overlook other causes and other effects which may be of equal or greater importance4 ,the specialist attains to a mastery of his own subject1 and often acquires a strong bias regarding other subjects1 because he pursues his inquiries somewhat after the same fashion as the dog follows the scent of the game4 ,by training1 the dog is familiar with the smell of the animal pursued1 and1 bent on following the trail1 he pays no attention to any other scents or smells that he encounters in his course4 ,in the same way the specialist rapidly perceives and minutely studies any phenomena1 however slight1 with which his favourite science has rendered him familiar1 while he is apt to disregard phenomena demanding fresh studies and threatening to be inexplicable by investigation confined to the lines which he prefers to follow4 ,thus1 if a law-student were to write a treatise on our epoch1 he would endeavour to show that the jurisprudence1 the law1 and the courts--in fact1 the whole legal mechanism--is the most important feature in our civilization1 and that on which progress or retrogression most depends4 ,as remedies for our evils1 he would propose simpler or more complicated forms of procedure1 more or less enactments1 according to his own idiosyncrasies4 ,a military man would consider a development on military lines as true progress4 ,he would yearn to draft the whole nation into the army6 ,he would favour universal conscription1 as ,lord ,wolseley does1 and might1 like ,count ,moltke1 look upon war as a healthy bracing1 an epuration1 of a race1 and as an indispensable corrective to over-population4 ,he would cite the expansion of the chest in ,germany as a proof of the power of military training to further physical development1 and would look upon strict military discipline as the means of establishing moral order in a country4 ,a theologian would point to the immense influence exercised by ,christianity upon humanity1 and would insist upon the religious aspect of every question1 and1 like ,mr4 ,drummond1 would see in every new discovery a confirmation of his peculiar dogmas4 ,his remedy would be more ritualism1 or more liberal doctrines1 or more emotion in religion1 according to his ,high ,church1 ,broad ,church1 or ,low ,church creed4 ,philosophical religionists1 like ,mr4 ,benjamin ,kidd and others who pin their faith to the development of the altruistic feeling in human beings1 would endeavour to reconcile all phenomena under their observation with their theory of social evolution4 ,if therefore we wish to form a correct judgment of our own time and our own contemporaries1 we must not allow ourselves to be guided exclusively by a scientist of one specialty4 ,we ought to be all the more on our guard1 as the great erudition and the profound study which each modern specialist has brought to bear on his subject gives to his theories a striking plausibility1 a savour of exact science to such an extent as to sway our opinions in favour of the latest treatise we have read4 ,politicians1 sociologists1 economists1 biologists1 theologians1 and the sthetes have had their say and have each in their turn exercised a periodical spell over the public mind4 ,it is now the turn of the alienists4 ,dr4 ,max ,nordau has by his book entitled ,degeneration produced no small sensation throughout the world1 and not least in this country4 ,though his work may not have made the stir of a sensational novel read by the millions1 there can be little doubt that it has imposed itself on every educated mind in the country4 ,it is no exaggeration to say that1 like a sharp trumpet-blast1 it has awakened the educated classes from the lethargy consequent upon the din of clashing opinions and contradictory systems4 ,this volume has once more roused us to the fact that we1 as individuals1 as a nation1 as a race1 are travelling at comet-speed towards a goal of which we have no inkling4 ,it sternly suggests that we are on the wrong road and that a fate of a most horrible description is rapidly befalling us--an affliction in most people's view worse than annihilation4 ,madness is shown to be insidiously invading our minds1 and by its contagious nature threatening to prove ,voltaire's biting sarcasm a stern prophecy4 ,it is no wonder that his work has become as it were a nightmare to millions of minds4 ,if its diagnosis and its conclusions are as irrefutable as to most people they appear to be1 we indeed live in a fool's paradise3 our leaders1 our authorities1 our men of genius1 are not the beacons we have held them to be1 but will-o'-the-wisps luring us into the bottomless quagmires of lunacy2 the progression we vaunted is a slippery plane sliding us back to bestiality2 our means for raising the masses are so many slashes at the bonds of moral order and decency1 calculated to unloose the brutish ,loke of modern democracy2 unbridled animal appetites threaten to take the place of law and religion2 all social order is being undermined2 and the vilest instincts press for gratification in lust1 rapine1 and murder4 ,with all the solemnity1 moral persuasiveness1 and scientific authority of a medical practitioner1 ,max ,nordau tells us that a mortal disease is invading our race1 and that with the end of the century the 8dusk0 of humanity begins4 ,before we accept the views of ,max ,nordau1 before we have recourse to the drastic remedies he seems to recommend1 it is right that we should subject his theories to the closest investigation4 ,if his work were one of exact science1 there would be no necessity to refer to the personality of the author1 to his peculiar point of view1 and to his predilections4 ,but1 as his work partakes largely of the nature of special pleading1 as his methods of reasoning are those of the enthusiastic specialist1 and as his postulates are strongly coloured by racial1 national1 and professional bias1 the more we know of him the more easily shall we follow him in his progress on the highways of logic and in his deviations from them4 ,human language is not so perfect as to allow us to dispense with the additional light on expressed ideas which may be derived from one's knowledge of the speaker who gives utterance to them4 ,to study the author as well as his work is all the more permissible1 as this volume is not intended as a complete refutation of ,max ,nordau's conclusions1 but rather aims at separating the dross from the gold and at giving him1 as well as his work1 their right place and their true value as telling factors in the development of our race4 ,indeed1 this is exactly the method adopted by ,max ,nordau in his study1 not to say dissection1 of his contemporaries4 ,it must be clearly understood however that there is no intention of going to the length to which ,max ,nordau has gone in speaking of men of the day--an abuse of literature which recalls the literary squabbles of past generations4 ,the gross vituperation and the coarse calumny he levels against those he denounces will certainly not enhance his popularity or inspire confidence in his methods in ,england4 ,in fact1 his frequent indulgence in personalities would have prejudiced his work enormously were it not for the overwhelming testimony it offers of the fact that its author's mind is conspicuously devoid of the sense of the ridiculous4 ,had it not been for this peculiar mental defect1 his treatment of his opponents could not have failed to remind him of the disputing doctors in ,molire's ,malade ,imaginaire4 ,here we have to do not with the man1 but with the author1--not with his relations to his private surroundings1 but with his relation to the presentations he receives1 the ideas he elaborates1 and the conclusions he proclaims4 ,in ,degeneration ,max ,nordau evidently strives to take a cosmopolitan standpoint4 ,only in three or four places does he speak of ,germany as his own country1 while he displays a remarkable erudition in foreign literature1 but only a superficial knowledge of foreign circumstances4 ,unconsciously however he constantly betrays his ,german nationality4 ,to say that he is a typical ,german involves by no means any slur upon his views1 has nothing to do with the fact that the ,germans are at this moment--for reasons entirely independent of ,german worth--rather unpopular in this country4 ,it is his book that clearly announces him as a ,german1 just as the books of ,drummond and ,benjamin ,kidd announce them to be ,english4 ,in other words1 his methods1 his views1 his predispositions1 his standards1 his ideals1 are thoroughly ,german4 ,few countries have so strong a power of inspiring love for their institutions and their characteristics as ,germany4 ,not only is the ,german spell over those who are born and bred in the country1 but foreigners who reside there any length of time generally become thoroughly ,germanized4 ,even ,english people1 whose characteristic it is to create a little ,england around them wherever they go1 are remarkably susceptible to ,german influence when living in the country4 ,despite the propensity of many ,germans1 complained of by ,max ,nordau in his book1 to imitate ,french art and literature1 the ,german people have strongly pronounced characteristics1 opinions1 feelings1 and views4 ,we1 here in ,england1 have ample opportunity of observing the tenacity of the ,german bias4 ,we sometimes meet with ,germans who have conquered their native propensities and thoroughly assimilated themselves with the ,english nation4 ,but1 on the other hand1 many ,germans1 when settled among us1 continue to look on everything through ,german spectacles1 and utterly fail to grasp1 or even superficially to understand1 the ,english spirit4 ,this refers1 of course1 only to those who are actually born in ,germany4 ,the second generation is invariably more ,english than the ,english4 ,we often meet with ,teutons who have come young to ,england1 gained a position here1 married ,english wives1 brought up a large family of ,english children1 and who yet remain as ,german as any ,spiesbrger in ,berlin4 ,they do not appear so to the casual observer4 ,their business relations1 their acquaintances1 their wives1 and their children1 being all ,english1 expect them to be ,english4 ,they therefore assume an ,english outward garb1 but as soon as circumstances allow them to drop their ,english character the ,german characteristics of these 8tame ,englishmen0 come out as strong as ever4 ,these facts are elicited in no critical spirit1 but simply as proofs of the tenacity of the ,german bias4 ,the practical result of this bias is an open or secret contempt for ,english views1 a distrust in ,english institutions1 a want of sympathy with the ,english race1 and doubts about the future of the ,british ,empire4 ,if we wish ,max ,nordau's nationality to throw light on the working of his mind1 we must realize what are the most essential traits of the average ,german4 ,not yet completely freed from feudal institutions1 it is natural that the ,german people should associate moral and political order1 good administration1 and personal protection1 with feudal institutions4 ,hence an immense respect for those in authority and a contempt for the masses1 even on the part of the masses4 ,democratic government and individual liberty inspire the ,german with great distrust1 because he considers that the introduction into ,germany of such features would mean a social upheaval in which the meagre advantages which now each individual enjoys might be lost4 ,as in ,germany all initiative belongs to the authorities1 the people have become accustomed to bend to superiors1 and where an ,englishman would attempt to establish a ,free ,order1 the ,germans can conceive nought but discipline4 ,a great number of enlightened ,germans submit tacitly to all kinds of authorities because they are morally convinced that this is best for themselves and their country2 but a large part of the masses1 having always found that the authorities gain their ends by the use of police and military force1 submit only because they are obliged4 ,hence a deep-rooted feeling of discontent in a nation constantly compelled to do the bidding of others4 ,this discontent has engendered a hatred against the upper classes similar to that which in ,france paved the way for the first ,revolution4 ,the fear of the outbreak of this hatred gives1 in the eyes of the ,german middle-class1 an extra halo to authority4 ,the love of following authorities1 instead of standing alone1 is in ,germany not confined to the domain of politics4 ,while ,englishmen1 down to the wage-earning labourer1 have1 or believe they have1 their own opinions about politics1 administration1 religion1 social affairs1 and even scientific problems1 the ,germans have an accepted authority in each of these branches4 ,were we to question1 say1 a hundred ,germans in a ,bierhalle1 or any other public place1 as to their opinions on the above-named subjects1 the replies would be simply an enumeration of their authorities in each branch of knowledge4 ,though this characteristic is a misfortune to ,germany1 to the ,germans it savours of a quaint reasonableness4 ,a ,german ,socialist1 asked why he blindly accepted ,liebknecht's views1 replied3 8,i should be both silly and conceited if ,i1 a scantily educated man1 with no leisure and means for study1 could believe myself capable of forming a better opinion than ,herr ,liebknecht1 who has brought a remarkable mind and great knowledge to bear on political questions40 ,this reasoned self-depreciation1 this blind faith in authorities1 accounts for much in ,germany which would be impossible in ,england4 ,the way1 for example1 in which the youths of the country are forced into the ranks of the army against their will and inclination would be out of the question with us4 ,here1 the great majority of young men would simply refuse1 and to coerce them by military executions would involve a wholesale slaughter against which the whole nation would revolt4 ,there have been young men in ,germany who1 on principle1 have resisted the compulsory service1 but brutal punishment has quickly dissuaded those of their comrades who secretly admired them from following their example4 ,nothing could be more unjust to the ,german people than to attribute to cowardice this lamb-like submission4 ,german youths are as brave as those of any other nation1 and what to us ,english might appear a want of both moral and physical courage is simply the powerful influence of the ,german bias4 ,enough has been said to show that ,german education and ,german surroundings tend to foster in the human mind veneration for authority and aristocracy1 contempt for the plebeian1 distrust of liberty1 a firm belief in the unquenchable power of man's lowest instincts1 a nervous demand for authoritative repression of human passions1 contentment with a prosaic existence1 small resources1 and poor prospects4 ,it is natural that a nation whose mind is moulded in such a form should despair of the practical realization of its ideals2 that the aspirations of the ,german race for liberty1 enjoyment1 and romance should seek an outlet in the realms of the imagination2 and that the ,germans should be a sentimental race4 ,in this they differ diametrically from our nation4 ,the young ,german1 when his humdrum work-day is over1 will plunge into books of poetry1 romance1 and adventure4 ,he will worship and eagerly follow his pet heroes1 but to emulate them in practical life1 as a rule1 does not occur to him4 ,his romantic admiration of female beauty1 and his sentiment of love1 have nothing to do with his marriage4 ,he postpones1 as a rule1 the taking to himself a wife until he is fairly successful in life1 when pure romantic love has ceased to exercise any spell over him1 and he expects that his marriage should improve his social position and procure him a circle of desirable friends4 ,his poetical notions of love do not interfere with the choice of a wife4 ,what he looks for is a young woman with practical qualities1 likely to be a useful ,hausfrau1 and when he has found her1 he loses no time in suppressing all her poetical notions and soon reduces her to a submissive drudge4 ,no suspicion of inconsistency enters the mind of an average ,german when he reads or writes romances of love and chivalry in which the hero shows the most refined courtesy1 commits deeds of self-abnegation and daring in honour of his lady-love1 and exercises the utmost tact in shielding her from every harsh and unpleasant impression1 and at the same time treats his wife as one devoid of all claims upon his consideration4 ,he will exact from her such small menial services as the slave performs for his master4 ,he will expect her to work constantly for him1 the family1 and the house4 ,he will not allow her enough time or money for her toilet1 for pleasure1 for book1 and social intercourse4 ,he will not stir to save her trouble or fatigue4 ,he will come to the table in dressing-gown and slippers1 and coolly look for special dishes for himself1 while his wife and children have to content themselves with cheap garbage4 ,germans of the middle-class who come to ,england frequently express their amazement at the way in which ,english husbands constantly pay attention to their wives4 ,they call it undignified for the breadwinner and master of the house1 on return from a day of professional work1 to 8dance attendance0 on his wife1 whose duty it is to serve her husband4 ,the ,german1 prior to marriage1 allows his poetical notions to be disturbed as little by his sexual emotions as by his marriage plans4 ,in a methodical and business-like way he gratifies the former in police-supervised establishments1 and what he looks upon as 8constitutional sprees0 are never allowed to interfere with the course of his affairs4 ,after a night of debauch he will turn up in his studio1 his office1 or his home1 smiling and happy as if nothing had happened4 ,we record these observations with no desire to criticise or to underrate the ,german character4 ,nor do we wish to insinuate that hypocrisy and profligacy are non-existent in ,england4 ,we simply wish to show that the development of the ,german race has induced them to conceive ideals entirely unrealizable1 and to dream of aims so far off in time as to render them unattainable4 ,it will be evident to all who have read ,degeneration that ,max ,nordau is under the influence of a strong ,german bias4 ,as we proceed1 we shall have occasion to point out how in many instances this bias has warped his perceptions1 his reasoning1 and his conclusions4 ,from characteristics revealed in his work1 the observant reader will1 no doubt1 conclude that ,max ,nordau belongs to the ,jewish race4 ,the view he takes of the disgraceful ,jew-baiting tendencies now prevailing in ,germany is based on exactly the same mistakes committed by the ,jews themselves1 as we shall have an opportunity of verifying later on4 ,he is evidently a free-thinking ,jew1 a type which we meet with everywhere1 and against which as few objections can be raised as against any other type of man4 ,the free-thinking ,jew is generally clever1 well-instructed1 moral1 and cheerful4 ,his good qualities however do not prevent him from having his peculiar characteristics1 which naturally influence his perceptions and his feelings4 ,he has generally a cut-and-dried life-philosophy based on science and common-sense as well as on ,jewish authorities4 ,he distrusts democracy1 especially ,christian democracy1 and feels never quite safe except under laws and institutions which allow him to assume such ascendancy as his mental qualifications can secure for him1 and those who think with him4 ,he does not seek for primary causes1 and sets up no spiritual ideals4 ,though he may not be religious1 he has yet retained something of the monotheist creed1 the predilection for worldly affairs1 and the habit of looking forward to a future life rather in his descendants than in a heaven--a view which always characterized his race4 ,his philosophy is nothing if not practical4 ,his aims are immediate1 and1 as a rule1 he eagerly embraces all the teachings of the materialist scientists4 ,max ,nordau is a modern scientist4 ,he is not a pioneer in science1 but a most persevering and plodding student of the works of others4 ,he belongs to that class of savants who spend almost all their time and all their energy in reading up the authorities4 ,so vast an erudition as he has acquired cannot be attained to without some sacrifice in other directions4 ,the constant absorption of other peoples' opinions and theories compels the judgment to lean more and more on authorities1 and this unfits it1 to some extent1 for independent action4 ,it is the indefatigable readers who most blindly follow authorities1 and it suffices to glance at ,max ,nordau's dedication to ,professor ,lombroso to understand to what an extent he is subject to the influence of 8,masters40 ,the pride taken by a scientist in his science1 and the great practical results achieved by scientific investigations1 naturally tend to foster an implicit confidence in its tenets4 ,this has been especially the case during the last decades1 so remarkable for religious tolerance4 ,as the faith in old dogmas has receded1 science has advanced1 and in many cases taken its place4 ,that such has been the case has naturally flattered the votaries of science1 and tempted them to become prophets as well as investigators4 ,they have come to look upon systems as dogmas1 speculations as absolute truths1 and in this fashion scientific superstition tends to take the place of religious superstition4 ,the scientifically superstitious man is an example of the dangers of a little knowledge4 ,not that our men of science1 including the superstitious scientists1 are defective in such knowledge as is attainable at our present stage1 but the sum total of all human knowledge is still1 and is probably destined ever to be1 only partial and extremely superficial4 ,compared with the knowledge in the past1 modern science represents an immense progress1 but as to throwing light on the great secret of the ,universe1 far from having done anything of the sort1 it has1 on the contrary1 revealed more and more inexplicable wonders1 and placed us face to face with more insoluble problems4 ,though trite1 the aphorism that the more we learn the more we realize our ignorance is truer to-day than ever4 ,it is natural and excusable that devotees of a science which to them has revealed wonderful results should raise abnormal expectations with regard to its future possibilities1 and also that vanity1 a weakness often co-existent with vast knowledge1 should prompt a scientist to extol and glorify science far beyond the bounds of reason2 for any worship offered to science rebounds necessarily on its high priests4 ,this impossibility to realize the limits in which science moves1 and the yearning for admiration1 lie at the base of scientific superstition4 ,the scientifically superstitious man believes that science has adequately replied to those great questions which humanity has been asking itself for the last five thousand years4 ,how was creation originated8 ,for what purpose did it come into existence8 ,what is man8 ,what does the scheme of humanity involve8 ,have we existed before our birth8 ,shall we live after death8 ,what is the origin of evil8 ,what is eternity8 ,what is boundlessness in space8 ,what is reason8 ,what is instinct8 and so on4 ,if his excessive study has not seriously impaired his independent reasoning powers1 the superstitious scientist may confess that these questions have not been replied to by science1 but there will still lurk in his mind the belief that one day science will answer them4 ,he does not distinguish between nomenclature1 registration1 and classification on the one hand1 and explanation on the other4 ,when he has named any newly-discovered substance1 force1 or phenomenon1 he imagines that he has explained them4 ,he believes that he has accounted for what is called matter when he has evolved the atom1 and that he has unveiled the secret of life when he has discovered the protoplasm or the cell4 ,all scientists are not affected by scientific superstition4 ,they generally suffer from it in an inverse ratio to the actual knowledge they have acquired4 ,the pioneer in science generally exhibits less of this weakness than those who simply act as commentators and elaborators of other men's discoveries4 ,the votaries of certain sciences are less apt to indulge in scientific superstition than those of other branches4 ,thus1 astronomers rarely exhibit any such symptoms1 while biologists are more apt to do so1 and psychologists are more scientifically superstitious than any other class of scientists4 ,it might be hazardous to attempt an explanation of this fact1 but may it not be found in the obviousness of outward infinity1 and the impalpability of inward infinity8 ,later on we shall have ample occasion to show to what an extent ,max ,nordau's mind has been clouded by scientific superstition4 ,finally1 it must be pointed out that ,max ,nordau is an enemy to ,france4 ,it is only human in any ,german4 ,the stupendous armament of ,france is ostentatiously promoted with the object of revenge upon ,germany4 ,france1 in her sulks over the lost provinces1 takes every opportunity of showing animosity1 and this despite the conciliatory attitude of her ,government4 ,though nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed since the disastrous war between ,germany and ,france1 the bad feeling between the two nations has unfortunately been kept up4 ,france cannot forget the loss of her provinces1 and1 though the attitude of the ,french ,government is conciliatory1 outbursts of a feeling of hatred against ,germany1 accompanied by provocative language on the part of irresponsible men1 constantly occur4 ,the ,german people1 with a vivid recollection of the ,french invasion early in the century1 and perhaps taking the expressions of the war-party in ,france too seriously1 look upon the ,french nation as their arch-enemies4 ,by the celebration of anniversaries painful to the ,french1 and other means1 the ,german ,government keeps the animosity between the two nations alive1 and impresses the people with the opinion that the heavy taxes it has to pay for armaments are made indispensable by the enmity of ,france4 ,it1 is therefore1 natural that hatred against ,france should prevail in ,germany4 ,we understand that ,max ,nordau for a considerable time was the ,paris correspondent of ,german papers1 and we may take for granted that he would not have been able to please his ,german readers had he not been strongly biassed in favour of ,germany against ,france--a fact to which his work bears ample witness4 ,such is1 then1 the man who1 in his undaunted faith in his science and in himself1 in the name of truth and the welfare of humanity1 and undeterred by the penalties of the ,great ,council and ,hell ,fire1 has said to his brethren1--to the one1 8,you are ,raca60 and to the other1 8,thou fool60 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,dusk ,,or ,,dawn6 ,nordau's theory is that the educated classes of the world are degenerating2 that the peculiarities in passions1 tastes1 pastimes1 and moods1 bear witness to such degeneration2 that the cause must be found in the physical condition of the brains of such authors and artists as for the time being have the ear and the eye of the public2 that the remedy against degeneration may be found in a moral quasi-compulsory supervision on the part of the non-degenerate over degenerate authors and artists4 ,if we are not entirely exact in this summary of his postulates and conclusions1 it is to a great extent ,nordau's fault1 because nowhere does he give any decided statement of the scope of his book4 ,in his first chapter he goes out of his way in order to protest against the misconception which represents him as having insinuated that the whole of humanity exhibited signs of decay1 and he declares that his remarks apply exclusively to the educated classes4 ,were this absolutely true1 there would have been but small occasion for his remarkable work4 ,but over and over again in the pages of ,degeneration he speaks of the masses as partly affected by degeneration1 and of the danger of the contamination spreading from the educated classes to the masses4 ,he mentions the extreme ,socialists and the ,anarchists as the victims of the mental disease he investigates4 ,and yet he flatters himself that the proletariat is not as the upper classes are1 and bases his opinion on the fact that they appear satisfied with the old forms of art and poetry1 that they prefer ,george ,ohnet's novels to the works of the symbolists1 and ,mascagni's music to that of ,wagner4 ,these statements evidently emanate from one who has mingled little with the people4 ,the truth is that the newest books1 the newest music1 the newest pictures1 only slowly reach the working classes1 and when such works are the outcome of temporary fashion and mood1 they might not reach them at all4 ,but this by no means proves that the working classes do not experience the impulses which prompt the predilections of the upper classes4 ,if ,nordau's views of the proletariat in general were confirmed by actualities prevailing among the ,german proletariat1 a heavy load would be lifted from the shoulders of the ,german ,government4 ,but1 judging from the ,german ,press--the official ,press as well as the ,socialistic--or from the speeches of so high an authority as the ,emperor himself1 there exists but little of the ,philistine contentment with the present order of things of which the author speaks4 ,on the contrary1 the ,emperor complains that the discontented working classes are losing their respect for things that used to be sacred to them1 such as patriotism1 feudal loyalty1 religion1 etc4 ,does ,nordau mean to tell us that the pornographic novels of certain ,french authors1 that the works of mile ,zola and other realists1 are not read by the masses in ,france8 ,who then pays for the enormous editions issued after millions have read them in feuilleton8 ,or does he wish us to believe that only the aristocracy and the upper classes in ,france have been affected by the mysticism which finds its outlet in the pilgrimage to ,lourdes8 ,as to the working classes in the ,english-speaking countries1 which1 by the way1 signify so little to ,nordau that he not even once mentions them in his work1 are they not children of their time1 and do they not reflect every tendency1 every virtue1 and every vice in the upper classes8 ,not only would ,nordau find1 were he to investigate the matter1 that those stigmata of degeneration which he refers to as such--,individualism and ,anarchism--are making big strides among the ,english-speaking working classes1 but that the taste for criminal and realistic literature is growing in popularity4 ,he would even find ,wagner's music intensely applauded by audiences recruited from the working class4 ,far from developing ethically in different directions1 the upper and the lower classes in this country move together1 each simultaneously influencing the other4 ,while the lower classes follow the upper classes in many things--for example1 politics1 dress1 etc4--the upper classes obtain their comic songs1 their humorous stories1 and most of their fun from the lower classes4 ,the impartial observer cannot fail to notice the kinship which exists between the proclivities of the two extremes of ,english society--the wealthiest nobility and the poorest labourers4 ,both these classes are intensely fond of sports1 both degrade sport by betting1 both are given to lavish expenditure1 both pride themselves on physical force and pluck above everything4 ,both are prone to disregard the sanctity of marriage4 ,both indulge freely in the pleasures of eating and drinking4 ,individuals of both classes get on together better than they do with the middle classes4 ,and both are only superficially religious4 ,perhaps this remarkable community of tastes and views may account for what has always been an inexplicable enigma to foreigners1--the conservative working man4 ,nordau classes1 among the indications of decay1 the yearning for freedom from outward control and for complete personal independence4 ,it is true he takes for granted that such yearnings for individual liberty aim at the realization of bestial propensities now1 according to him1 kept in check only by law1 police1 and public opinion4 ,we shall1 later on1 find that he has completely misunderstood the attempts to shake off all shackles which he has noticed4 ,here it suffices to point out that the longing for individual freedom1 which manifests itself in a thousand ways unobserved by ,nordau1 and in the upper classes takes the shape of a revolt against conventionality1 is conspicuous among the working classes of ,great ,britain4 ,this year's elections have proved beyond doubt that the tendency towards ,state ,socialism which characterized the ,liberal policy is fast becoming distasteful to the rank and file of voters4 ,the tyranny1 which1 in the name of ,socialism1 was exercised by the ,trades ,unions1 will soon be a thing of the past4 ,when at its height of development the ,trades ,unions hardly comprised one-fifth of the working classes1 and now already the movement is in full retrogression4 ,the ,free ,labour ,association1 though only lately called into existence1 meets with increasing support1 and may no doubt be looked upon as an expression of our working classes' new-born love of freedom4 ,this change of mind1 or1 as ,nordau would call it1 this degeneration1 also accounts for the present halt in the advance of the ,socialistic propaganda and the rapid spread of moderate but decisive ,anarchist opinions which in no small degree contributed to the recent ,conservative victory at the polls4 ,what is here stated regarding the ,british working classes is true regarding the working classes of all the ,english-speaking countries4 ,everywhere we find a strong yearning for freedom from control4 ,the remarkable point about the expressions of this yearning is that1 though the votaries of the revolt against ,state tyranny have so far not been able to formulate any complete or practical scheme for the life of a ,state1 or community1 governed by the best instincts of the human being instead of by law1 their views are rapidly gaining ground4 ,this is especially the case in the ,united ,states1 where ,mr4 ,tucker1 the editor of a little journal called ,liberty1 is steadily extending his influence4 ,the author of ,degeneration distorts reality when he supposes that the upper classes of a country can be corrupt and degenerate1 while the masses conform to that ,german ,philistine ideal--a very poor one indeed--which ,nordau would fain hold up to them4 ,this is proved by the fact that it is in their relations with the masses that the corruption of the upper classes becomes conspicuous1 and that only through response from the masses can many forms of such corruptions become possible4 ,it would take us too far to record all the proofs that actualities furnish of this fact4 ,we shall simply point out one of the many conditions in the masses which promote corruption in the educated classes1 namely1 poverty4 ,the appalling1 demoralizing1 brutalising poverty in the large modern cities--this poisonous fungus grown out of modern government and political corruptions1 not only kills the sense of self-respect and decency in its victims1 but renders prostitution1 through sheer hunger and suffering1 the trade of millions4 ,it is poverty among the masses which undermines the artistic feeling of the nation1 stands in the way of applied art1 and compels the caterer of popular amusements to appeal to low passions and brutal instincts4 ,our epoch is not the first example in history where masses of destitute people exercise all their ingenuity in corrupting the wealthy citizens in the hope of snatching some crumbs of their wealth4 ,dire poverty it is1 with its hovels1 its rags1 and its diseases1 which gives riches their immense value in the eyes of the people4 ,it creates a thirst for gold4 ,no man thinks himself safe from falling into the abyss of modern poverty until he has amassed a large fortune and placed himself in the position of amassing more4 ,the love of wealth corrupts ,literature1 ,art1 the ,press4 ,it is at the base of all financial1 political1 administrative scandals4 ,it is responsible for mercenary marriages1 which fill the law courts1 pollute society1 and contaminate the home4 ,the poverty of the masses paralyses the efforts of honest industries1 honest trades1 and honest professions4 ,the men who succeed are not those who benefit their fellow-men1 but those who ruthlessly trample them under foot in their heedless race for gold4 ,it is a well-known fact that the upper classes are not prolific1 and would die out were they not recruited from the ranks2 if therefore the state of the masses is such as to allow its worst element to rise to influential positions in society1 demoralization of the masses must inevitably produce demoralization of the classes4 ,we will leave it to the thinking public to consider to what extent other conditions of the masses1 besides poverty1 react in all countries on the upper classes--what the effects are1 first on the masses1 and then on the classes1 of corrupt and retrograde churches1 compulsory service in the army1 police tyranny1 bad and unjust laws1 tutelage under pragmatical ,philistines1 caste institutions1 official newspapers1 ,state-regulated arts and entertainments1 administrative favouritism1 etc4 ,but ,nordau takes no heed of such all-powerful causes of corruption4 ,he sees degeneration only in the upper classes1 and1 placing the cart before the horse1 he regards what he considers the degenerated author and artist as the cause of a state of affairs of which they are the very last products4 ,there are many passages in his book that strongly suggest that he is not completely sincere in his one-sided view4 ,the savage blows he sometimes deals at the ,anarchists bear witness that this form of--as he would call it--degeneration among the masses caused him a considerable amount of uneasiness4 ,judging by the similarity of his language and that of the ,emperor of ,germany1 he might well be commissioned to brand both ,socialists and ,anarchists as wild beasts4 ,be this as it may1 his few allusions to the corruption of the masses serve to enhance the untrustworthiness of the signs of degeneration which he points out in the upper classes4 ,among these figure prominently--who would believe it8--modern female toilets4 ,and why8 ,not because they are indecent1 as they have often been in other periods1 but because they are eccentric4 ,is there then a normal dress for ladies8 ,or what code is there in existence to which ,nordau can appeal8 ,is it a sign of degeneration to hold that one of the chief objects of toilets is to be beautiful and to enhance the beauty of the wearer8 ,and ought a lady who dresses according to this principle to be put down as a dweller on the border-land of madness8 ,if women love to dress well1 and men love to behold them well-dressed1 would it not be madness to adopt ugly and monotonous toilets8 ,it is1 of course1 not difficult to see that the author's standard of female toilet is the plain and ugly dress of the ,german housewife1 and that he has never realized the delight which an ,englishman takes in seeing his wife richly dressed1 and in a way that suits her face and form4 ,if ,nordau's standard of female dress is the severe draperies of the antique1 he does not say so4 ,but1 if it be1 we must remind him that the beauty of the classic draperies was borrowed from the beauty of the forms they revealed or partly displayed4 ,with the best will1 we could not in northern ,europe emulate the ,greeks in dress4 ,there are two objections3 the climate1 which demands warm covering2 the sense of may-be false modesty1 inherited from the early ,christian ages1 which prevents the display of human forms4 ,the time will no doubt come when humanity is sufficiently pure-minded--sufficiently degenerated1 as ,nordau would probably say--to dress in clinging draperies1 to expose the form more freely indoors and in warm weather2 and who would say that morality would not be the gainer8 ,a movement in this direction is already apparent4 ,the skirt-dance represents one stage4 ,the appearance of an actress without shoes or stockings might well herald a return to sandals1 and the abandonment of the barbarous fashion of cramping children's feet in pointed shoes4 ,but to call the women of ,european society degenerate because1 under the present circumstances1 they do not go about in light tunics1 displaying their feet1 their arms1 and one leg1 is hardly fair4 ,our great alienist is very severe on the men of society as well1 more especially for the manner in which they trim their beards4 ,we cannot help sympathizing with men who wear a double-pointed beard when they are told that they are on the high road to lunacy because they ape ,lucius ,verrius1 a gentleman whose portrait they have probably never seen4 ,such stigmata of folly could have been pointed out only by a man whose mind is completely devoid of a sense of the ridiculous4 ,to anybody who has not a special point to prove at all cost1 it will be patent that throughout the whole course of history educated men never dressed more soberly than now4 ,in this matter ,english fashion governs the world1 and the ruling ideas in ,englishmen's dress are durability1 comfort1 and adaptability to the occasions on which it is worn4 ,continental men may not adhere so strictly to these ideas1 but there is good reason to believe that in a short time they will do so4 ,modern room and house decorations are1 according to ,nordau1 so many indications of degeneration and decay4 ,that there are many rooms and houses eccentrically furnished and decorated throughout the civilized world no one would deny4 ,but compared with the number of houses and rooms chastely furnished and decorated in a manner which is incomparably more pleasant and attractive than the average rooms1 especially in ,germany and ,england thirty years ago1 these abodes of eccentrics sink into insignificance4 ,as to the decoration of public halls and places of amusement1 we surely notice an improvement which could not point to degeneration4 ,hardly in any ,european town would such wall decorations be now permitted as disfigured the walls of public places of amusement and dancing-halls in ,germany some thirty years ago--the ,apollo ,saal of ,hamburg1 to wit1 the walls of which represented hell in the worst taste possible4 ,here1 again1 ,nordau gives us no standard to go by4 ,he does not tell us what the house or the room of a rational being should be like1 or to what extent a wealthy man may indulge in a freak1 or amuse his friends by grotesque furniture and bizarre decorations1 without being degenerated4 ,the enjoyments of society especially present symptoms which cause our psychologist to tremble for the sanity of the upper classes4 ,under this head1 we expected him to say something of the increasing taste for healthy games and sport1 for travel1 and the amateur practice of the arts for amusement's sake4 ,had he been willing to look at the question from both sides1 he might have said something about the increasing love of science1 especially social science2 of good books as well as bad ones2 of the high prices fetched by the paintings of the old masters1 even those not belonging to the pre-,raphaelite period1 consequently real works of art according to ,nordau4 ,he might have acknowledged the improved tone in social gatherings and the marked diminution in convivial drunkenness4 ,while sitting in judgment upon the upper classes of ,europe1 why should he not have noticed the more serious side of their lives as well as their enjoyments1 as manifested in subscriptions to hospitals or orphanages1 and institutes of every description2 sick-nursing establishments1 where ladies of high rank and wealth give their personal services1 sacrifices of time and comfort in the endeavour to brighten the lives of the poor1 to save fallen women1 to assist released prisoners1 to protect children and even animals from cruelty8 ,we say1 purposely1 nothing of all the charitable work done in connection with churches1 because ,nordau and his admirers might not recognise any results of religious feeling as a proof of sanity4 ,but all these emphatic and unmistakable indications of the state of society--at least as valuable as the manifestations of vice1 hysteria1 and eccentricity--are ignored4 ,on the other hand1 he makes much of the attempts which here and there have been made1 especially in ,paris1 with representations appealing to many senses at once2 for instance1 pictures exhibited with music1 musical recitals in darkened rooms1 etc4 ,such cases are not only extremely rare1 but simply are another combination of many arts hardly more complicated than that represented by operas1 in which dance1 music1 poetry1 and painting are mingled in order to please4 ,in what recorded period1 and in what nation1 have there not been attempts to create new sources of enjoyment8 ,why should not attempts be made at advance in amusements as well as in any other feature of our civilization8 ,that many of these experiments appear silly1 and end in utter failure1 ought to surprise nobody1 and scientists the least4 ,any one who has tried to invent something new1 to ascertain by experiments some scientific fact1 or to solve a physical or mechanical problem1 ought to know that a very large number of experiments are bound to fail before success is achieved4 ,it is strange to find in our days a scientist condemning1 as the beginning of folly1 that dissatisfaction with existing things which is the primary motor of all progress and all knowledge4 ,by doing so he ranges himself on the side of those ,philistines who burnt the apostles of progress as heretics and imprisoned the pioneers of science as madmen4 ,the unrest which our psychologist notices in the educated classes exists as well among all the lower classes of ,europe1 though among them it reveals itself in other manifestations4 ,it springs however from the same source--a strong instinctive feeling1 largely corroborated by judgment1 that human life in all spheres is1 in the present epoch1 utterly out of harmony with nature1 with our irresistible instincts1 and all those noble aspirations1 on the realization of which our self-respect1 our ease of mind1 and our happiness alone can be based4 ,it is not alone the present feeling of incongruity which disturbs humanity1 but the fast-ripening conviction that we are moving in a wrong direction inspires despair1 pessimism in some1 and a desire for hazardous new departures in others4 ,this sense of unrest1 this craving for change1 far from being symptoms of degeneration1 are the first faint indications of renewing vitality4 ,if decay there be1 it is simply the fermentation which precedes germination4 ,two opposing principles1 two different systems1 two classes of antagonistic institutions1 cannot exist in the same place and at the same time4 ,when therefore old things have been tried ad nauseam and constantly found wanting1 any unprejudiced man1 nay1 even an animal1 must experience a desire to destroy them4 ,this feeling naturally becomes strongest in the man with an imaginative and aspiring mind3 for besides the general disgust of old things1 he sees in them the chief obstacles to better and higher things4 ,the axe must precede the plough1 because the forest cannot co-exist with the wheat-field4 ,the growing enmity against old dogmas1 old authorities1 old forms among the educated and artistic classes1 the kindling rage of the masses against existing institutions1 signal the clearing of the rank jungle and the pestilential swamps prior to cultivation4 ,the leading features of modern culture have up till now been submission to authorities1 violation of nature1 sacrifice of individual liberty1 and progression on ,collectivist lines4 ,what wonder then that those who keenly feel the present degradation of man1 achieved under old conditions1 should turn1 against these and clamour for liberty1 nature1 and self8 ,nordau1 with his ,german-,philistine ideas1 with his head crammed full of authoritative teaching1 and biassed by the clap-trap of the commonest ,collectivism1 has utterly misunderstood the phenomena which he has only partially observed4 ,he does not allow for the mistakes1 the exaggerations1 and the eccentricities committed by men who try to give expression to their feelings1 their yearnings1 their aspirations1 unhampered by traditional bonds4 ,he is bewildered because a movement springing entirely from feeling and instinct does not follow a fixed programme1 or some dry philosophical system4 ,he under-estimates the value of an ethical revolution1 because so far it has not reached its constructive stage2 and because the new apostles of liberty1 intoxicated by their self-liberation1 run amuck indiscriminately against all old things1 be they good or bad2 because the movement is in the hands of extremists1 enthusiasts1 and sentimentalists1 and still awaits the guiding hand of the unbiassed logician1 the cool-headed sociologist and economist1 capable of harmonizing it with practical life and moral order4 ,nordau1 by his book1 has forfeited his claim to be one of these4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,mysticism ,,and ,,the ,,unknowable ,of the good things contained in ,nordau's book which should secure for it a place in the study of every educated man1 his fourth chapter entitled 8,etiology0 figures conspicuously4 ,he deals here with the causes--not the primary economic and sociological causes1 but the immediate causes--of the increasing bodily debilities and mental derangements characteristic of our epoch4 ,such facts1 or generally assumed facts1 as that the average term of human life is extending2 that the average stature of man has increased since the middle ages1 rendering the armour of mighty men of those days too small for middle-sized men of our generation2 that the average chest-measure in the ,german army is expanding2 that personal beauty of children1 women1 and men is in the ascendant2 that many men attain to a great age without the slightest sign of diminished mental power2--all these facts might appear so many contradictions to ,nordau's assertions in the chapter alluded to4 ,but1 though the consideration of them might induce him to modify some of the minor points1 they are not completely inconsistent with his general reasoning4 ,he warns us that the excessive consumption of spirits and tobacco1 the use of opiates and poisons in general1 produce debility and premature death4 ,bad food1 bad air1 bad dwellings1 and a great number of other disadvantages which town dwellers1 especially the poor1 must endure1 are no doubt at least as harmful to body and mind as he proves4 ,he rightly attributes a great number of nerve diseases to the prostration and fatigue consequent upon over-exertion and over-excitement1 which seems inevitable in an epoch of railways1 telegraphs1 and machinery4 ,the whole of his chapter 8,etiology10 however1 dealing as it does with the degeneration of the masses1 seems to contradict what he says in his first chapter about the upper classes only being affected by fin de sicle degeneration1 while the masses experience only a more or less slight touch of it4 ,it also seems to disprove his theory that degenerate authors and artists are the chief cause of degeneration among the upper classes1 a view which leads him to overlook the most palpable and most powerful causes for the production of those psychological phenomena throughout civilized humanity which he notices only among the upper classes4 ,in discussing degeneration it is of the utmost importance to know how the affliction progresses--whether certain authors and artists were degenerated1 and then affected the upper classes--or whether the upper classes were degenerated and thus produced the degenerated authors and artists4 ,nordau seems to vacillate between the two opinions1 or he considers the pernicious influence to have been reciprocal4 ,it is however clear that he regards these authors and artists1 as well as those members of the upper classes who sympathize with them1 as dwellers on the border-land between sanity and madness4 ,the stigmata1 or the signs of distorted minds1 he divides--as they necessarily must be divided--into bodily stigmata and mental stigmata4 ,the bodily stigmata are of course malformations of the head1 and he lays particular stress on the conformation of the ear1 its more or less projecting position1 the shape of the lobe1 or its clinging to the head4 ,it would have been charity and justice on his part to have explained that1 while these stigmata are frequently found on lunatics and idiots1 there are probably millions of people who bear them without being demented1 or even eccentric4 ,on the other hand1 it cannot be denied that there are thousands of lunatics who possess well-shaped heads and ears4 ,he relies however but little on the bodily stigmata1 and finds them only on a few of his subjects4 ,he deals1 of course1 chiefly with the mental stigmata1 and among these he gives mysticism a prominent place4 ,he quotes from ,legrain to the effect that 8mystical thoughts are to be laid to the account of insanity and degeneration10 but ,legrain adds at once that they are observable in two states--in epilepsy and in hysterical delirium4 ,according to his authority we consequently know that those who suffer from epilepsy and delirium are apt to be mystical4 ,but ,legrain would probably be the first to object to the conclusion that all those who are mystically inclined suffer from epilepsy and delirium4 ,in his definition of mysticism ,nordau says that 8the word describes a state of mind in which the subject imagines that he sees or divines unknown and inexplicable relations amongst phenomena1 discerns in things hints at mysteries1 and regards them as symbols40 ,but he adds1 8by which dark powers seek to unveil1 or1 at least1 to indicate all sorts of marvels which he endeavours to guess1 though generally in vain40 ,we have divided his definition into two parts1 because placed in one sentence it seems an incorrect and unfair definition1 the former part of which might be used as a proof of degeneration in a perfectly sound mind1 while the latter part is the essential of the whole definition4 ,as we have already pointed out1 science and all researches have utterly failed to furnish replies to all questions regarding the origin1 aim1 plan1 and final destiny of the universe and of humanity4 ,under such circumstances1 the world around us1 that which has preceded it1 that which will follow it1 as well as ourselves1 necessarily remain mysteries4 ,can then any one who perceives or divines unknown1 and to us now inexplicable1 relations between phenomena and who discerns mysteries be regarded as a degenerate8 ,all the scientific facts of which we are now in possession were mysteries before they were discovered1 and the scientists who1 guided by slight hints and sometimes by guesses1 have unravelled the marvels of nature1 could not surely be put down as lunatics4 ,it is therefore evident that the phrase 8dark power0 is a most essential part in ,nordau's definition1 and that a man can behold mysteries1 dwell on them1 study them1 sometimes unravel them1 and remain a perfectly sane man1 and that he only who is mystical and deals with mysteries in an irrational way is a degenerate4 ,nordau says as much in his illustration of the peasant who is a mystic in his religion and in his belief in the weather-witch1 but a matter-of-fact man in his farming and in his business4 ,but he is not so lenient to the exponents of the mystic school in art and literature4 ,with regard to these1 he is rather prone to determine the state of their mind according to that part of a quotation from ,morel which he has italicised in his book1 8a morbid deviation from an original type40 ,the word morbid alone would have sufficed1 but he seems to attach more importance to the other part of the sentence and to regard all who deviate from an original type as degenerate4 ,he does not allow for extenuating circumstances in the authors and artists as he does in the case of the peasant4 ,if he did1 he could not class any of these1 or their admirers1 among the degenerates1 unless he could also prove that they were irrational in their daily life and their business relations4 ,he acknowledges that the emotional nature of man has played a more important part in the world than his intellect1 and yet he seems to have before his eyes an original type consisting exclusively of intellect and devoid of emotions4 ,if man's destiny1 his moral condition1 his education1 his happiness1 and his usefulness in the world1 were to be determined chiefly by his intellectual power1 the progress of the race would have been infinitely more slow than it has been1 and the bulk of individuals now alive would be far less removed from the animal than they are4 ,it might be contended that1 if not all1 at least a large number of religions have brought with them many evils1 but1 taking a broad view of the work accomplished by them in comparison1 not with what they would have done had they been more perfect1 but with that state which would have prevailed had they never existed1 no unprejudiced historian will deny that civilization and the progress of our race have been considerably accelerated through the influence of religions4 ,no religion is based on logic1 and hardly ever were religious precepts and dogmas accepted exclusively on intellectual grounds4 ,faith and reasoning1 considerably modified by emotion1 have always formed the basis of religious beliefs4 ,not only in connection with religious matters1 but in every event and every development in human affairs1 emotion has played an active and prominent part4 ,such feelings as love1 friendship1 ambition1 lust1 gratitude1 hatred1 revengefulness1 patriotism1 loyalty1 chivalry1 etc41 are the great motive powers in the human drama1 and when the intellect steps in it is as their counsellor and their servant4 ,it is therefore legitimate and reasonable for those who wish to sway human beings1 who wish to educate them1 elevate them1 to address themselves to their emotional nature4 ,in the position in which man is placed--living on a cosmic grain of sand1 moving in space by an inexplicable power at an inconceivable speed1 without knowing who he is and why he is--the mystical must perforce have a great attraction for him4 ,to be easily impressed by the mystical is therefore one of his natural conditions1 be it good1 bad1 or indifferent4 ,when the emotional nature of human beings is appealed to it is as rational for artists and poets to address themselves to the love of the mystical as to the love of the beautiful1 and therefore there should be a legitimate place for mysticism in art and poetry4 ,it is almost inconceivable that an educated1 well-balanced mind should never dwell on those immensities still unexplored1 and the innumerable enigmas still unsolved or insoluble1 and content itself with lingering over those comparatively insignificant truths which science so far has revealed4 ,to what an extent a man remains satisfied with quasi-explanations of scientific research depends on the strength of his imagination4 ,it is pardonable if alienists should look upon imagination as a doubtful blessing2 but though it may appear a dangerous gift in their patients1 there can be little doubt that it is an indispensable attribute to a well-equipped mind4 ,it is the mental faculty which most distinguishes man from the animals--the one on which he could with the greatest appearance of legitimacy base his claim to divine origin4 ,dogs may dream and horses may see ghosts1 but their hallucinations are vastly different from the imagination of man1 which allows him to receive and retain almost any number of presentations1 to elaborate them into new combinations1 thus reconstructing pictures of the past and daring conceptions of the future1 capable of easy realization4 ,a powerful imagination is essential not only to the poet and the artist1 but to the engineer1 the mechanician1 the statesman1--in fact1 to all who set themselves a practical task or a distinct ideal4 ,it is the imaginative strength of the scientist which renders him a pioneer and a discoverer1 and without it he is to his science what the performer of music who cannot compose is to music4 ,from everyday experience we are justified in believing that the cramming of the memory1 much reading for examinations or other purposes1 and a developed habit of relying on authorities tend to weaken the imagination in a man4 ,this seems to be confirmed by the theory of psychologists3 that desuetude of a faculty tends to its decay2 and might well be the explanation of the often-confirmed fact that great discoverers and inventors have seldom emerged from the ranks of the omnivorous readers of the universities4 ,in the same manner we may explain what we have before called the scientific superstition discernible in so many scientists4 ,the more they are satisfied with their systems1 the more they take nomenclature and classification for adequate explanation1 the less they are attracted by the spheres into which science has not penetrated or cannot penetrate4 ,there is this similarity between the scientifically superstitious and the theologically superstitious--that they both believe that they have explained all1 and they thereby place themselves beyond the possibility of being right2 for the mass of unexpected facts revealed by science1 eclipsing as they do the wildest flight of the imagination1 renders it possible for any man to be right in his speculations on the secrets of the universe save those men who say that they know all4 ,it is therefore not surprising that a scientist by erudition1 and especially an alienist1 who1 by dint of studying the mechanism which connects what some call the soul1 and others designate as the trinity of the consciousness1 the judgment1 and the will1 with the body1 has persuaded himself that there is nothing beyond nerves1 cells and the gray matter1 should look with contempt on imagination1 and yet more so on the love of the mystical1 and that his ideal man1 his 8original type10 should possess so little imagination as to remain unaffected by the mystical4 ,lack of information and of observation has caused the multitude to regard a great number of men--distinguished in the eyes of the world exclusively by their intellectual powers--as non-mystics to such a degree as to class them as atheists4 ,the majority of such men1 though distinctly at variance with the dogmas and views of established sects1 have been and are1 in their inner consciousness1 both mystics and religionists4 ,when in public they have seemingly attacked religion and mysticism1 they have in reality only attacked churches and superstition4 ,in the judgment of a great many intelligent men the controversy between ,professor ,huxley and ,dr4 ,martineau goes far to confirm this view4 ,when humanity1 including scientists1 learns to distinguish between religion and churches1 it will be understood that almost all men in the past and present who have deservedly been called great1 have been religionists1 and therefore mystics4 ,let us instance ,faraday4 ,he belonged all his life to a sect which must be classed among the mystics1 and he died a believer in its creed4 ,are we then to class this keen observer1 accurate investigator1 and brilliant logician1 this daring pioneer of science1 this ingenious unraveller of nature's secrets1 among the degenerates8 ,if we do1 where should we class average scientists1 including ,nordau8 ,or should we place ourselves in the position of the common-sense ,german ,philistine1 and declare that mysticism is not mysticism when it takes the shape of the belief of a sect tolerated by the police8 ,but is not ,faraday's mysticism perfectly compatible with a sound mind8 ,he was one of those scientists with unclouded reasoning powers1 whose knowledge--gained by investigation1 not from authorities--had taught him how little he knew of the great mysteries of creation4 ,he recognised that our emotional cravings cannot be satisfied by science in its present stage1 but only by emotional realization4 ,hence his religious attitude towards the great mysterious power of which he knew nothing1 but whose work became more and more manifest as his investigation proceeded4 ,what wiser course could a man adopt1 who was so capable of distinguishing essence from form1 than to give that form to his religion which had gratified his emotional nature as a child8 ,if sound minds may be mystically inclined1 if our emotional nature can be reached by mysticism in poetry and art1 and if our emotions are acknowledged to be receptive to elevating and pleasing impressions1 the pre-,raphaelites could not all have been as degenerate as ,nordau would have us believe4 ,they were1 no doubt1 emotionalists1 mystics1 and even symbolists1 and they frankly claimed the right to be regarded as such4 ,they considered themselves as having a mission1 and the fact that a man throws himself heart and soul into his mission is no sign of degeneration4 ,now1 there are walks in life1 callings1 missions1 which involve no risk to those who undertake them2 there are others that involve great risks4 ,some callings expose a man to bodily harm1 others to mental harm4 ,nothing could be more uncharitable and cruel than to revile a man1 to attack his reputation1 to wound his feelings1 and to lower his self-esteem1 because he returns maimed and invalided after having fought the good fight4 ,a shopkeeper1 a shoemaker1 an author of sensational books1 runs but little risk of damaging either his body or his mind4 ,the sailor1 the miner1 the leader of a revolution1 exposes himself to great bodily danger4 ,the man who acquires a vast erudition may dull his imagination and his judgment2 the man who strains his brain to the utmost1 who1 perhaps1 overstrains it1 in the solution of difficult problems1 the man whose mission lies in the domain of the emotions1 exposes his mind to injury4 ,if there be truth in this1 mysticism in poetry and art may cause degeneration in the poet's or the artist's mind1 especially if it be a weak one2 but to conclude from this that mysticism in art springs from diseased minds is to confound cause with effect4 ,if we accept ,nordau's ,philistine definition of art and his views as to its mission1 mysticism would have no place in art or in poetry4 ,he would certainly exclude it1 but in doing so he would contradict himself glaringly4 ,we have already complained that he does not explain his standards1 and that he does not give his ideals4 ,but from his work before us1 it is evident that the standard by which he would measure poetry is the work of ,goethe and ,shakespeare1 especially the former4 ,goethe owes his fame largely to his ,faust--a mystical work if ever there was one4 ,the prologue is religious mysticism1 the first part is diabolism1 the second part is arch-mysticism1 which so far has resisted all attempts at interpretation4 ,in the same manner ,hamlet1 ,macbeth1 and other plays of ,shakespeare derive their great charm and their artistic value largely from mysticism4 ,all this however does not prove that either irrational or dishonest mysticism is acceptable1 and much that ,nordau says regarding pre-,raphaelitism should be taken to heart by the camp-followers of the movement4 ,in this term we include1 of course1 those painters who1 unable to draw and paint1 try to force their pictures upon the market by sheer bounce2 and empty-headed critics who insolently assume a mental1 or1 as they would call it1 a spiritual1 superiority by writing obscure1 unintelligible rigmaroles in praise of pictures which attract attention by means of nought but their eccentricity4 ,this class of people cannot be considered as representing the pre-,raphaelite movement1 nor can they be called degenerate in the sense ,nordau means1 for there is a method in their degeneracy which yields pounds1 shillings1 and pence4 ,we also include in this category a class of people whose conceit may border on degeneracy1 and who believe that any one who cannot draw and paint is qualified for a pre-,raphaelite painter1 and who sincerely assume and enjoy the position as misunderstood geniuses4 ,as to the crowds in the exhibitions that gather before an incomprehensible eccentricity made conspicuous by the log-rolling process1 they surely do not all deserve the epithet of degenerates4 ,many are drawn there by sheer curiosity2 others damn with faint praise1 in order to escape the wrath of the fanatic4 ,there are also1 of course1 many who1 for the purpose of giving themselves airs1 admire traits of beauty which they really fail to see4 ,the behaviour of these hypocritical sthetes is1 of course1 deplorable1 but they yield to a weakness not confined to the end of our century4 ,andersen's story of the king's clothes1 inspired by a very old ,german tale1 is one of many evidences of the antiquity of such folly4 ,the sincere pre-,raphaelites deserve the sympathy of every thinking man1 though they may be guilty of many imperfections4 ,according to ,nordau1 the mission of the painter is to serve as a vehicle of beautiful impressions to the public4 ,a man who fulfilled this mission might indeed be called an artist1 and his painting might be the limits of painting as such4 ,but this does not prevent a picture from containing a story1 a moral1 or the expression of an emotion1 if the painter be a good story-teller1 a true poet1 and a sound teacher4 ,if a work of art can thus fulfil two high purposes instead of one1 everybody is a gainer by it1 and the fact that it is the embodiment of two arts instead of one cannot reasonably be made an objection4 ,the artist who succeeds in thus blending two arts should surely not be called a degenerate4 ,ruskin did not1 as ,nordau confesses1 advocate any neglect in the art of painting as such1 but he warned artists not to waste their time on unworthy subjects4 ,he is a philanthropist as well as a writer on art1 and feels aggrieved when the artist neglects so good an opportunity of teaching as a well-executed painting offers1 and yet more when he sees art abased in order to gratify sensuality or morbid cravings for the horrible4 ,that ,ruskin did not so absolutely disregard beautiful pictures which have no story to tell and no teaching to impart becomes incontestable when we remember his panegyrics of ,turner4 ,victor ,hugo in his ,notre ,dame de ,paris makes ,claude ,frollo say1 when he has a book in his hand and the old cathedral before him1 that the one will kill the other1 meaning1 of course1 that books were predestined to supersede symbolism in buildings and other arts4 ,nordau takes for granted that this has already been done4 ,he sees no good in works of art giving expression to ideas and emotions which could so much better be described and more clearly defined in books4 ,but is there not a great inconsistency in first admitting that art keeps within its rational limit when it presents the beauties of nature to the public in such a manner as to make them more evident1 which is equal to teaching that nature is beautiful1 and then to say that art oversteps its limits when it teaches1 or attempts to teach1 anything else8 ,if we survey all the means available to humanity for the conveyance of thoughts and emotions1 they present a scale which begins by speech and ends with music4 ,though it must be acknowledged that speech only with difficulty lends itself to the expression of one or a considerable number of interdependent and intertangent complex ideas perfectly clear in a sound mind1 it is however the best means we possess for lucid expression4 ,written prose has the same merit as speech1 and may be used to express the driest mathematical facts1 as well as the most poetical imaginings4 ,verse1 we think it will be generally allowed1 is better calculated to convey poetical ideas and expressions1 as it admits of greater liberty1 more stirring language1 bolder metaphors1 and because rhythm and rhyme1 in virtue of their musical qualities1 appeal to the imagination and stir the emotions4 ,when to poetry melody is added1 it becomes song1 a mode of expression which appeals fully as much to our emotional nature as to our intellect4 ,when instrumental music is added to song1 to evoke emotion becomes the cardinal object1 and intellect receives hardly any impression4 ,music without words is the mode of conveying emotions--and possibly ideas1 too subtle1 so to say1 too spiritual to be analysed by the intellect--in so distinct a way that the emotions of the composer1 and may be of the performer1 are faithfully reproduced in the hearers4 ,a mutual understanding is thus established between them as clearly as any understanding arrived at through exhaustive verbal explanation4 ,scientists have endeavoured to explain on materialist lines the charm exercised by music over us1 but their explanations obviously never touch more than the mechanical motion of the sound-waves and the receptive mechanism of the ear and the brain4 ,their dogmatizing is moreover so dry1 halting1 and one-sided as to convince musical people that their attempt at explanation is hopeless4 ,music belongs to the sphere of emotions1 which lie beyond the ken of science1 and will be as long as scientific progression is hampered by the materialist bias4 ,and yet the most unimaginative scientist will not deny that all the methods of conveying ideas and emotions enumerated in the above scale1 including instrumental music1 are legitimate arts4 ,why then should there not be the same latitude allowed to the arts appealing to us through the sight as to those appealing to us through the hearing8 ,if the architect1 sculptor1 or painter1 or two of them1 or even three of them1 combined in collaboration1 wishing to convey an impression1 or to evoke an emotion1 why should they not be allowed to do so by any of the means which fall within their sphere8 ,if they should wish to evoke emotions similar to those evoked by music1 and they can do so by choosing a certain subject1 by introducing certain symbols1 or even by recalling sentiments of the past--the time of our first love1 our youth1 or even our childhood1--why should they not be free to do so8 ,the pre-,raphaelites claim the freedom to thus expand the scope of pictorial art1 to sanctify it1 and to make it appeal to the inmost recesses of our emotional nature2 and as the movement was started at a time when art was in decadence and tended to become subservient1 abroad to pruriency1 and at home1 to abominable ,philistinism1 the pre-,raphaelites deserve a better treatment than they have received at the hands of ,nordau4 ,that they should commit mistakes was inevitable4 ,it is probable that they had not realized completely to themselves the exact results to be aimed at4 ,like the composer of music1 they wished to convey to others such of their own emotions as they deemed legitimate1 beautiful1 and ennobling1 and had to grope in the dark1 or to trust to momentary inspiration1 for the means4 ,being1 and wishing to be emotional1 they may have neglected their intellectual powers1 forgetting that even when emotion reigns supreme it can express itself truly only by the aid of intelligence4 ,vivid emotions and powerful imaginations are not in themselves stigmata of degeneration1 but rather the signs of a rich mind1 so long as they remain under the control of the intellect4 ,it is only when they run riot1 unheeding the criticism of intellect1 that the balance of the mind is imperilled4 ,in their desire to emphasize the spiritual meaning and the emotional nature of their works1 the pre-,raphaelites may have committed the mistake of neglecting execution1 truthfulness to nature1 and the laws of optics4 ,finding pictures appreciated by the public in virtue of the subject and the conception1 despite faulty treatment1 many of them no doubt have been induced to realize their ideas and emotions on canvas before they had sufficiently trained their eye and their hand4 ,every educated ,englishman will understand that ,nordau somewhat distorts facts and conveys wrong impressions in the account he gives of the movement4 ,though the pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood was dissolved1 the movement has not been so devoid of results as he insinuates4 ,though the first exhibition of the ,brotherhood was also the last one1 pictures by the same artist have been constantly exhibited1 and some of them have fetched fabulous prices4 ,he says that ,millais1 amongst others1 has retained that characteristic of the pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood consisting of minuteness in details1 draperies1 and backgrounds4 ,any one who has seen ,millais' striking portraits1 his 8,cherry ,ripe10 8,bubbles10 8,caller ,herrings10 and other pictures could not possibly make such an assertion4 ,we must1 of course1 allow for the circumstance that ,nordau's knowledge of the pictures he criticises is second-hand4 ,it is evident that he has not seen ,millais' latest pictures4 ,had he done so1 he would not have jeopardized his whole system of reasoning by holding ,millais up as an example of degeneration4 ,here1 as in many other cases1 ,nordau1 while exhibiting an enormous erudition1 reveals a remarkable want of logic4 ,to call ,millais degenerate is a desperate way out of a dilemma in which he has landed himself by asserting1 on the one hand1 that those who paint pictures such as ,millais painted years ago are people with degenerate brains1 and1 on the other1 that people who produce pictures such as ,millais paints now are people of sound mind4 ,if degeneration is the first step towards a high1 normal1 and sound development1 ,nordau has been guilty of much ado about nothing4 ,had he ever beheld ,holman ,hunt's 8,shadow of the ,cross0 even in an engraving1 he could not in his description of it have committed the mistakes he has unless his mind is impervious to pictorial impressions4 ,he says that 8the shadow of his 7,christ's7 body falling on the ground shows the form of a cross40 ,this is not true4 ,the shadow of ,christ's body falls on the wall1 where a tool shelf and suspended tools simulate a cross4 ,nordau's erroneous description will certainly prejudice those who have not seen the picture against ,holman ,hunt4 ,it is natural that the materialist1 the pseudo-scientifically superstitious1 and the ,philistine tendencies of our age1 so eminently embodied in the mind of ,nordau1 and against which the pre-,raphaelite school is a protest1 should militate against a fair appreciation of the tentative departure of these innovators4 ,the essence of their mysticism and their symbolism is their belief in what1 for lack of a better term1 has been called their spiritual life--the belief that the mind is not a condition of matter1 but that our thinking ,ego might have existed before it was incarnated1 and that it will live after our body has decayed4 ,could our earthly existence be proved finite with certainty1 could any future existence be proved a vain dream1 incompatible with reason1 then indeed would pre-,raphaelitism be the beginning of folly1 as1 in fact1 would most of the things which now tend to lighten and beautify our lives4 ,we shall not here endeavour to determine the five-thousand-year-old discussion regarding eternal life4 ,we shall simply point out that the proofs on which the so-called materialists base their conclusions are not so absolutely convincing as to stigmatize their opponents as lunatics4 ,any one who has glanced at the development of science from old times up to the present is well aware of that weakness in the mind of scientists--especially the non-pioneer scientists--which induces them to believe that the conclusions they have arrived at1 generally in opposition to predecessors1 are the whole truth and nothing but the truth4 ,for thousands of years it has been the same4 ,for each step that science has climbed upwards1 its votaries1 with a few brilliant exceptions1 have believed themselves to be at the top1 and have with scorn rejected1 as sheer folly1 any suggestion that the step on which they stand is rotten and that there are sounder steps higher up4 ,the scientists of other days in their turn looked upon ,columbus1 ,galileo1 and ,tycho ,brahe as fools4 ,a hundred years ago the scientists would have laughed to scorn any one who had told them that their senses deceived them with regard to light1 darkness1 colours1 silence and sound1 and that all these presentations received by our senses were simply movement or manifestations of energy4 ,the theory which regarded atoms as minute subdivisions of matter is quite a modern dogma1 and yet it is already tottering to its fall4 ,more rational scientists already speak of atoms as centres of force1 an expression which twenty years ago was regarded as rank heresy4 ,if the theory that atoms are centres of force is accepted1 with all its consequences1 science is on the threshold of a new departure which may cause the materialists to look small indeed2 for if what to our senses appears as matter is a condition of force1 instead of force being a condition of matter1 a vista entirely opposite to that of the materialists is open to science--a vista disclosing possibilities before which we might well stand in awe4 ,though it is incontestable that invention and discovery have been enormously accelerated by often apparently wild suggestions by the imagination1 by emotion1 and by instinct1 it is especially such suggestions which are visited by the most furious onslaughts on the part of the superstitious scientists4 ,when these reject as utter folly imaginings prompted by faith or any other emotions1 it is because such suggestions are not only entirely out of harmony with the scientific ideas of the moment1 but because they appear so extraordinary1 so utterly destructive to the views familiar to them4 ,they would be less positive in face of suggestions and speculations justified by emotion1 if they did not constantly forget that every scientific discovery reveals facts which are not only diametrically opposed to opinions previously held1 but also so marvellous as to baffle human understanding4 ,bearing recent scientific discovery in mind1 no one will deny the folly of the man who a hundred years ago would have prophetically declared3 8,what we now have proved true and reasonable will in a hundred years be proved error and folly1 and what to us now appears as sheer madness and rank impossibility will then be scientific truth40 ,any contemporary scientist1 unaffected by scientific superstition1 would unhesitatingly acknowledge the probability of present scientific dogmas being declared errors1 and that what would now appear as the hallucinations of an overheated imagination may become scientific truth a century hence4 ,though the narrow-minded scientist who takes up his stand on the so far explored speck of the universe has no right to blame the artist or poet who1 guided by emotion and faith1 plunges his imagination into the surrounding abyss of the mystical1 which no well-balanced mind can ignore1 it would be both unjust and absurd to blame the prosaic and plodding scientist who concentrates his whole mind on scientific details1 and1 to use a happy metaphor of ,nordau himself1 is building a bridge1 arch by arch1 out into the unknown4 ,it is good that the ,alpine climber should concentrate his attention on the steps he hews in the ice and the safe resting-point he can find for his feet1 and not allow his mind to wander in the dark precipice below him or among the lofty peaks he hopes to reach4 ,man being two personalities1 one emotional1 the other intellectual1 stands in need of the services of both the logical scientist and the emotional artist and poet4 ,once it has been recognised that the emotions may be conveyed by pictorial art1 we cannot quarrel with the raison d'tre of the pre-,raphaelites1 though we might disagree with them as to the means they are using4 ,they can however justly demand that those who criticise their means of expression should show the possibility of better ones4 ,holman ,hunt has aimed at evoking by his pictures a feeling of respect and admiration for religion1 and in many cases has succeeded2 and the means he has employed are a reverential treatment1 a style of old associated with religious representations and suggestions of the supernatural4 ,burne ,jones1 whose object seems to be to emphasize the higher significance of our spiritual being over our bodily1 does so by giving us pictures of maidens whose beauty is of a kind devoid of all those attractions which coquetry1 roguishness1 animal spirits1 and exuberance of health may confer4 ,their vacant and inward look suggests a contemplative mood and a yearning to see the invisible4 ,as if to still further quicken the sluggish imagination of the masses1 he cloaks his figures in draperies and surrounds them by objects which of old have been used in representing holy people4 ,he comes as near as possible to the representation of wingless angels1 without presenting anything that could not be seen in reality4 ,such pictures may not appeal to everybody1 but we have overwhelming evidence that they do appeal to a great number2 and if the belief in a superiority over animals1 in a spiritual personality1 in a responsibility for our development1 and in a future life contributes to our happiness and exercises an ennobling influence on our race1 the pictures of ,burne ,jones cannot be the work of a degenerate aiming at the degeneration of others4 ,what by many is considered ,rossetti's masterpiece1 8,dante's ,dream10 would by a painter1 in his capacity of craftsman1 be found to contain many defects1 and only one great merit--exquisite colouring4 ,the conception is eccentric1 the surroundings are symbolic and mystical1 and the anatomy is incorrect4 ,there are faults of perspective1 some of them glaring4 ,for instance1 the left shoulder of the angel of love who stands on the left hand of ,beatrice1 facing her and bending over her1 is partly hidden by ,beatrice's right shoulder1 which could not be possible in reality unless the two figures had only two dimensions--height and breadth1 with no thickness4 ,and yet this picture has been bought by the ,corporation of ,liverpool for a large sum1 and is considered as a thing of joy and beauty by a mass of people among whom ,nordau could detect but a few with malformations of the heads and the ears1 and who in the whole of their life have given abundant proof of practical rationalism far greater even than that of the superstitious peasant he instances as having a sound mind4 ,the charm of the picture does not lie in the execution1 but in the conception4 ,it is probable that it evokes exactly the same emotion felt by ,rossetti while painting it4 ,the subject being a dream1 the many symbols tend to throw the spectator into the mood in which the picture should be contemplated4 ,there is an atmosphere of ,sabbath--presentiment of bliss--which is produced by the introduction of such presentations which in our youth or childhood have been associated with that day4 ,the artist has succeeded in intensifying the belief in the sacredness of love and the consolations which1 amid the troubles of life1 may be drawn from the faith in a spiritual existence4 ,the conceiving and representing of pictures like this1 the outcome of intense emotion1 might well endanger the balance of the painter's mind1 but the soothing influence they exercise on the spectator would surely assuage rather than excite any restless mind which1 deprived of a profound philosophy and a far-reaching scientific knowledge1 must needs cling to faith4 ,the painter who produces on the canvas a beautiful scene from nature1 beautiful flowers1 or other beautiful objects1 pleases and elevates the beholders of the picture4 ,nordau admits as much4 ,but he does not analyse the methods by which this result is accomplished4 ,he would probably not deny that one of the feelings which such a picture calls forth is a sympathy with nature and the ,creator1 and that this sympathy favours the conception of the distinct idea that the great power of the universe suggested by natural beauties--as the painter is suggested by the picture--loves the beautiful1 and consequently the good4 ,the signification of the pre-,raphaelites in the progress of art is that they strive to teach1 in the production of groups and figures1 similar emotions and thoughts to those produced by the representation of natural beauties4 ,they have therefore contributed considerably to the elevation of art so far as aims and subjects go4 ,if they believe that a purpose can be attained only by the imitation of the unskilled pre-,raphaelite painters1 by violating nature1 by eliminating perspective1 and by apotheosizing ugliness1 they do not further that regeneration which we believe they are striving for4 ,but there is every reason to hope that modern art will come out ennobled from the crisis into which it has been plunged1 and that rising painters will see their way to paint reverently and realize their noblest aims and highest ideals1 represented in naturally beautiful forms1 painted with the greatest skill of a painter proud of his craft4 ,whether this hope be realized or not1 it seems to us that a regeneration of art would be impossible without the attempts at new departure which ,nordau has mistaken for degeneration4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,bankruptcy ,,of ,,science ,in his chapter entitled 8,symbolism0 ,nordau seeks confirmation for his theory of degeneration in the tendency1 more or less perceptible all the world over1 on the part of contemporary artists and poets1 to have recourse to symbols in giving expression to ideas and emotions impossible to convey in ordinary language4 ,every one who has had to do with intricate syntheses of ideas1 even of the driest and the most clearly definable kind1 is well aware that language often appears inadequate to convey such syntheses from one mind to another4 ,how much more difficult then must it be to convey in exact language a presentation conjured up from the imagination1 an artistic conception1 a poetical mood1 a strong emotion1 or a chord of emotions1 to use an expression that may in itself serve as an illustration4 ,the use of symbols1 as we have just used the word chord1 has not only enormously widened the capability of language1 but has rendered it far more lucid1 laconic1 and agreeable4 ,a modern orator1 or writer1 could not possibly dispense with symbols1 for without them his speeches or his books would be intensely wordy1 tiresome1 and difficult to comprehend4 ,language is constantly being enriched by new symbols1 either invented and introduced by authors1 or taken from such literary works as have become classic4 ,often an author creates a character or an idea which typifies characters and situations frequently met with1 and for which symbols have long been needed4 ,thus1 for instance1 ,andersen's ,ugly ,duckling became a symbol largely used as soon as his fable was published1 and when ,ibsen's ,doll's ,house was played for the first time in ,london1 one newspaper1 which1 by the way1 took ,nordau's view of ,ibsen and declared his characters impossible1 in another article1 if we remember aright1 on the subject of marriage1 used with great effect ,ibsen's ,nora as a symbol4 ,but such symbols are as old as language1 and the new tendency of littrateurs who call themselves1 or who are called1 symbolists1 is not to invent and to use symbols that stand for well-known and perfectly undisputed characters and situations1 but such as represent new ideas1 difficult to define1 or undefinable1 because incomplete1 and concerning emotions4 ,the same authors are also prone to use symbols for things1 beings1 and powers1 the existence of which has not been ascertained by the senses1 but simply guessed at1 or evolved from consciousness4 ,many such symbols were not symbols when first introduced into the language1 but nouns that stood for things1 or beings1 supposed to be perfectly real4 ,thus1 for instance1 the word 8devil10 which in olden times stood for a satanic majesty1 adorned with horns and tail1 has now become a convenient symbol1 a thing only too real1 but covering such immense ground1 and presenting such innumerable aspects1 that a symbol expressing the whole conception is extremely convenient4 ,nothing is commoner than to hear a clergyman use the words 8the devil0 in his sermon1 though it be part of his creed and of his teachings that ,god is so omnipresent throughout the universe that there is not a square inch for a personal devil to place his foot on4 ,it is this kind of symbolism which ,nordau is bent on crucifying as degeneration4 ,as we have already said1 there is a general tendency among artists to indulge in it1 in order to produce moods and suggest emotions4 ,thus1 for example1 in the picture spoken of in our last chapter1 8,dante's ,dream10 an atmosphere of love is represented by red birds1 and sleep is represented by poppies strewn on the floor4 ,in ,rossetti's picture ,nordau would have taken objection to such symbols1 though he seems reconciled to the symbols used by ,raphael and his school1 and would probably not object to those of ,german allegorical painters and sculptors4 ,it is significant that the symbolism which he most vehemently holds up as a stigma of degeneration1 is that of the modern ,french poets who have made religious symbolism their speciality4 ,it is not difficult to see why these have been chosen as the scapegoats for the symbolism of every art and every country4 ,it is true they boldly call themselves symbolists4 ,but this would not be enough to elicit from ,nordau a chapter of forty-five pages4 ,besides calling themselves symbolists1 they have the audacity to be ,french4 ,their symbolism is religious1 and1 what is worse1 is ,roman ,catholic1 and1 what is worst of all1 it is antagonistic to science4 ,though the now prevailing love for symbols does not always manifest itself in a religious way1 it is natural for it to find its widest application in speeches and writings on religion4 ,religion avowedly deals with things not of this earth1 is based not on knowledge and investigation1 but on faith1 and appeals not to our intellect1 but to our emotional nature4 ,the ,french symbolists have created greater sympathy with their religious views than might have been expected in our rational times because1 unlike the ,catholic clergy of the past1 they treat as symbols what before were considered as representations of actual facts4 ,they are not orthodox2 and if the ,church of ,rome is anxious1 as it seems to be1 to turn this neo-,catholicism into a means of resuming its influence1 it can only do so by enormously modernizing its fundamental ideas4 ,it will be interesting to see whether the ,church of ,rome will accept the symbolists as co-operators1 or finally spurn them as heretics4 ,what especially rouses the animosity of ,nordau against the symbolists is the fact that the new movement is based on the supposition that science is bankrupt1 or1 in other words1 that it has failed in all its promises to humanity2 that it has usurped the throne of religion under false pretences2 and that its incapacity to supplant religion has been demonstrated by the latest scientific discoveries4 ,according to the idea underlying the ,french symbolist movement1 science has during the present century aimed at the destruction of religion1 and has caused religion to be neglected1 discredited1 and scorned4 ,such a movement founded on such premises and aiming at such aims must be of the greatest interest to any man who watches attentively the development of our race4 ,to study its true cause1 its real nature1 and its real aims should be the desire of every earnest investigator2 and if ,nordau falls back on obloquy1 indelicate insinuations1 and blunt accusations1 after the fashion of the militant literati of the past1 the reason of his animosity is easily explained4 ,nordau1 like many scientists before him and with him1 has taken sides in the absurd fight--the querelle allemande--between science and religion1 which has done so much to discredit both4 ,to the unprejudiced observer1 any scientist who joins in the fray is induced to do so by his inability to distinguish between religion and church1 and consequently to realize that the whole progress of science during the present century has had the result1 amongst many others1 of justifying such an attitude of mind towards ,god1 the original cause1 universal energy1 or whatever scientists choose to call it1 which religion implies4 ,whoever distinguishes between church and religion will at once understand that an ascendency of religious views throughout the world may be perfectly compatible with the decay of sectarian dogmas1 and that therefore many phenomena which appear to indicate the decay of religious views--such as church-going1 for example--may in reality mean a deeper religious life4 ,if we take a comprehensive view of that progress in religious views which has been accelerated by science1 we shall find that church-going1 the rosary1 and the images of the saints indicate the preliminary stages of a religious evolution which in its later development requires truer expressions4 ,so long as we have such a number of sects and churches1 many of which differ essentially1 and all of which differ to some extent1 it cannot affect any one's feelings to be told that church is not religion4 ,it is this truth that science has accentuated1 and the inevitable consequence has been that the churches1 though they at first might have vehemently opposed certain scientific facts1 and yet more certain rash speculations founded on them1 have afterwards quietly striven to modify their views and their dogmas so that they should not clash with absolute scientific truths4 ,that many such attempts at reconciliation between science and churches have been feeble and absurd does not disprove1 but confirms1 the existence of the above tendency4 ,though perhaps it would be difficult to give a true definition of religion as distinguished from church1 the conception which every thinking man forms of it is probably clear enough to allow him to realize that some churches are farther from the ideal than others4 ,if it be true that the progress of science has been instrumental in impelling the development of churches in the direction of a future religion of ideal beauty and ideal truth1 and that such a religion must necessarily be in complete harmony with scientific facts1 then the animosity of science and religion is to a sound mind incomprehensible4 ,yet ,nordau unhesitatingly takes for granted that religion and science are naturally antagonistic4 ,he takes very seriously the assumption of the ,french neo-,catholics that henceforth science will have to make room for religion4 ,had he any sense of humour1 he would not have thus betrayed how jalousie de mtier animates him to no small extent4 ,he mixes up science and the scientists in a most amusing manner when he compares the neglected scientist with the idolized saint1 and asks1 8,what saintly legend is as beautiful as the life of an enquirer who spends his existence bending over the microscope80 ,does our alienist aspire to go down to posterity with a halo around his head8 ,he regrets the good old time when the daily ,press of that date said1 8,we live in a scientific age10 when 8the news of the day reported the travels and the marriages of scientists1 the feuilleton novels contained witty allusions to ,darwin1 etc40 ,nordau completely denies that there is any foundation for the assertion of the ,french symbolists that science has become bankrupt--that it has not fulfilled its promises to humanity4 ,in order to refute it1 he gives us the long list of scientific achievements to which scientists who militate against religion have accustomed us1 beginning with spectrum analysis and finishing up with instantaneous photography4 ,he demands for science the respect and trust of humanity1 not only on the ground of what science has accomplished1 but also on the ground of what it will accomplish4 ,his faith in his mission deserves sincere admiration1 and proves him to be one of those earnest enthusiasts who alone can advance humanity4 ,but he does not see that his prophecies regarding future achievements are not science1 but faith and religion--based1 it is true1 on reasonable grounds1 but still faith and religion4 ,nor does he see that his proud asseveration of the achievements of science1 and his prophecy with regard to its future1 do not constitute a refutation to the cry of the symbolists that science is bankrupt4 ,the promises which the symbolists refer to as being dishonoured by science1 are not of the kind that could possibly be redeemed by the achievements referred to in ,nordau's splendid list4 ,they allude to promises not really made by science1 but by rash and prejudiced scientists4 ,these have over and over again proclaimed that religion had been supplanted by science1 and that science could1 or else soon would1 explain all those mysteries which religion claimed to explain or to symbolize1 such as first causes1 final aims1 existence or non-existence before birth and after death1 the origin of evil1 the essence of morality1 and so on4 ,science1 according to them1 was not only to bring about perfect serenity in man's mind regarding himself and the universe1 but to satisfy the mysterious longings and the uncontrollable emotions1 either hereditary1 or part of man's nature1 which hitherto religion alone had satisfied4 ,science was also to supply rational motives for purity1 morality1 self-sacrifice1 and all the virtues and exertions which are indispensable to the elevation of our race4 ,finally1 science was to transform us into an ideal race1 living in an ideal manner1 thus substituting a terrestrial heaven for humanity1 for the spiritual heaven which religion promised for the individual4 ,nordau cannot blame the scientists who made these promises2 for the whole of his book shows that he is in entire sympathy with them4 ,there was a time when the educated world believed in the arrogant promises of the scientists2 when it confidently expected that mysteries1 so far unexplained1 would be cleared up within a reasonable time1 and that systems and speculation1 which were to take the place of religion1 would gradually be so amended as to become capable of fulfilling so great an object4 ,but the rapid scientific discoveries which followed one upon each other1 far from tending to fulfil the promises of the scientists1 had the effect of persuading the world that science was not going to keep any of these promises4 ,for each mystery it unravelled revealed a series of new mysteries behind it1 and the explanatory task of science grew with its own progress4 ,in fact1 while the explanations increased by simple arithmetical progression1 the mysteries rose up in geometrical progression4 ,at the same time better schools1 public lectures1 and innumerable periodicals initiated the masses into the secrets of the scientific freemasonry1 and people began to perceive that what they1 in their awe of science1 believed to be perfect knowledge of the very essence of the world-phenomenon was only a series of acute observations1 an intelligent classification1 backed by arbitrary speculations and the superstitious faith in the omnipotence of science1 culminating simply in a barren religion of humanity4 ,as to eternity and infinity of space1 all that science could do was to tell the masses not to trouble their heads about them2 as to causality1 they were asked to regard it simply as 8a form of thought which had nothing to do with the phenomena40 ,as to morality1 the religion of humanity seemed extremely untrustworthy3 for the removal of all personal responsibility1 and the certainty of complete annihilation after death1 seemed to give the strong-minded and clever people the strongest possible inducement to make their fellow-beings tools for their own happiness4 ,the promised earthly paradise was not only thousands of years ahead in time1 but was to be constituted on principles which even a superficial knowledge of economy and sociology was bound to expose as an ,inferno4 ,it was natural then that a great number of people1 unable to climb to the height of abstract and unsatisfactory reasoning of the kind that the scientists had attained to1 and whose emotional nature utterly rebelled against a progression which was intended constantly to violate their best instincts1 should spurn science1 which offered them no other compensation than freedom from personal responsibility4 ,it was not only the hollow arrogance of the scientists and the failure of science to fulfil the promises of its superstitious votaries which had created disgust with scientific atheism3 the practical results of the anti-religious tendencies became alarmingly apparent2 experience began to prove that the discarding of all personal responsibility did not produce the ultra man--der ,uebermensch--of which the scientists claimed to be the prototypes4 ,many of them had been in the habit of speaking scornfully of those selfish natures who live irreproachable lives1 and who devote themselves to the promotion of the good of their fellow-men under the impression that in a future state they would reap their reward4 ,the atheist-scientist represented himself as a man of different metal3 he was fully as moral as the religionist2 he spent his life in serving humanity1 well knowing that his self-control and self-sacrifice would bring him no reward2 he did his duty1 not induced by any mean1 religious consideration1 but because he was a perfect man4 ,the lesser mortals1 those from whose ranks the symbolists are recruited1 began to entertain doubts of the infallibility of these first-fruits of the religion of humanity4 ,the very arrogance of these perfect men told against them4 ,if they disbelieved in the rewards of a future life1 they were not averse to the rewards in this1 and eagerly accepted the money and the distinction their works brought them4 ,there was especially this about them3 they unhesitatingly attacked that which the masses could alone rely on for moral guidance1 equanimity1 consolation1 and encouragement--religion--while the religion of humanity was thousands of years in the future1 and thus left the people a prey to mental bewilderment1 doubt1 and unrestrained passions4 ,the scientist stood accused of acting like a man depriving a cripple of his only crutch1 against the promise of supplying his remote descendants with better ones4 ,but atheism had a far worse effect on ordinary mortals1 who had not to sustain a reputation as apostles of the new scientific creed4 ,convinced that no personal responsibility attached to them1 and caring little for what would happen to the next generation1 or still less to generations thousands of years hence1 they tried to persuade themselves that conscience was an inherited weakness1 developed by evolution1 or a product of wrong religious teaching4 ,wishing to rise above such a weakness1 they did their best to silence conscience1 and to live for self-gratification4 ,in this manner selfishness1 if not ,egomania1 was strongly developed4 ,capitalists and politicians strove to acquire wealth and power1 regardless of other people's rights1 of their own conscience1 and of their sense of honour1 so long as their dishonour was known only to themselves4 ,society became frivolous1 and exhibited the same stigmata of degeneration noticed before in decaying commonwealths4 ,art became lascivious and corrupting2 literature became realistic and offensive4 ,in fact1 a host of clever men who ought to have been benefactors of their race cared not to what extent they ruined and demoralized their fellow-beings so long as they safeguarded their own health1 their own future1 and their social position4 ,the working classes being told by men1 far superior to them in intellect and education1 that their only chance was in their lives here on earth1 and that death was annihilation1 began to sympathize with violent ,nihilists and ,anarchists1 and were less averse to risk their lives1 if it were only to avenge themselves on those who deprived them of their terrestrial happiness4 ,but it was not only in the effect on their fellow-beings that the neo-,catholics1 the symbolists1 and their sympathizers all over the world beheld the results of scientific atheism4 ,many of these themselves became 8frightful examples0 of these results4 ,nordau commits a great mistake in studying the ,french symbolists as authors and poets4 ,it is as children of their times that they should be studied4 ,he looks upon them as causes of the symbolist movement1 whereas we should have regarded them as the indicators of a remarkable stage in the development of our race4 ,it was inevitable that the theories of the scientists should have been accepted more widely in ,france than in any other civilized country4 ,in the ,english-speaking countries the ,churches and sects had not assumed the same uncompromising attitude with regard to the medival doctrines as the ,church of ,rome4 ,they had gradually receded from one contested point after another and many of their old forms and texts were given a more liberal interpretation4 ,urged on by the example of the ,broad ,church1 the ,congregationalists1 and especially by the ,unitarians1 the clergy and the ministers ceased their opposition to any established scientific facts1 though they rejected scientific speculations4 ,the influence of the scientists in the ,english-speaking countries tended therefore to modernize religion1 instead of bringing it into contempt4 ,in ,germany1 where the people are slow to oppose any authority1 and where they are extremely shy of their real religious opinions1 scientific atheism simply encouraged the free-thinkers existing there of old and induced a mass of young men to masquerade as free-thinkers who in reality held no opinions at all1 and who were destined to become devout in their old age4 ,in ,italy and ,spain the teachings of the scientists only somewhat strengthened the hands of the ,liberals1 but produced no effect on the ,ultramontanes4 ,in ,russia1 where the nobility and the middle classes had for a long time been free-thinkers1 or perhaps non-thinkers1 in regard to religious questions1 the religion of humanity affected only that portion of the people which was already under the influence of ,nihilism1 and tended to render them more reckless4 ,in ,france however1 and perhaps in such countries as are directly influenced by ,french views--for instance1 ,belgium and ,switzerland1--circumstances were different4 ,the atheism which broke out with the first ,french ,revolution had begun to subside1 the nobility and the upper classes were the allies of ,rome partly by conviction and partly from policy4 ,in the country districts the curs had resumed their influence over the peasantry1 but the labouring class in the towns was divided into two camps1 the free-thinkers and the ,ultramontanes2 and the difference between them was emphasized by the circumstance that the ,ultramontanes were generally conservative in siding with the powers that be1 while the free-thinkers were more or less extreme ,republicans1 ,socialists1 or ,communists4 ,such was the situation in ,france when the influence of the scientists on religious opinion began to make itself felt there4 ,the materialist views were eagerly taken up by the ,bohemians of ,paris and by the extreme wing of the ,republican ,press4 ,the upper classes read1 or skimmed1 the ,english scientists1 and up to the beginning of the ,franco-,german war the ,german philosophers were much in vogue amongst the upper classes and in literary circles4 ,in this fashion the ,church of ,rome had to face an attack differing widely from the ,french ,revolution4 ,then the corruption1 and the siding of the ,church with those who were regarded as the enemies of the country1 exposed it to open violence prompted by strongly roused passions4 ,during the latter days of the ,second ,empire it was assailed in its dogmas with arms borrowed from scientific research and speculation4 ,the latter attack was by far the more dangerous4 ,the discontent with the ,imperial ,government did much to draw the urban working classes into the ranks of the free-thinkers1 where the theories of the scientists confirmed them in their new atheism4 ,parisian society had become atheistic1 and the whole male population of the middle class prided themselves on their freedom from all religious prejudices4 ,what remained of religion in ,france was represented by the old nobility1 who had a political interest in being religious2 by the peasants1 who were supposed to be too stupid to grasp the new scientific truths2 by old men1 who had not the courage to face the grave without the consolation of religion2 and by the women1 to whom1 it was confessed even by the most debauched rous1 religion gave an extra charm4 ,when the ,third ,republic was launched it had a strong atheistic character1 and the working classes in all the cities1 the sincere free-thinkers1 patriots1 and philanthropists1 hoped that under a ,republican form of government the religion of humanity of the scientists would at last have a fair trial4 ,but they were destined to bitter disappointment4 ,the new ,republic turned out to be bourgeois in the worst sense of the word4 ,politics passed into a profession4 ,politicians and administrators became corrupt4 ,scandals multiplied4 ,even the ,press was unable to show clean hands4 ,wealth became all-powerful1 and the plutocrats acquired an enormous influence which they did not hesitate to use to their own advantage4 ,speculators and adventurers pulled the strings of the home1 and especially of the colonial1 policy1 and in order to further private interests the indebtedness of the ,state was carried to such a point as to threaten the most gigantic financial catastrophe the world has ever witnessed4 ,in the meantime the working classes and even the agriculturists naturally suffered from the result of a system of government which disregarded their interests4 ,the proletariat of the cities grew1 labour troubles became frequent1 wages fell1 and poverty rapidly increased4 ,while this growing penury invaded the homes of the working and lower middle class of a nation which has only partially realized the happiness and healthy influence flowing from decent and moral homes1 scientific atheism took possession of the minds of the people1 especially of the men4 ,it urged them to make the most of their lives1 and enticed them into a whirlpool of dissipation4 ,scientific atheism was bound to produce a vast increase in immorality in a country like ,france1 where the ,church of ,rome1 in order to enhance its influence over the people1 favours unhappy relations between the sexes4 ,the clergy do all they can to estrange the sexes prior to marriage1 and thus prevent pure love and love-marriages1 while they encourage mariages de convenance4 ,they are animated no doubt by the best intentions1 but1 living themselves in enforced celibacy1 have no idea to what an extent they thus undermine the morality of the people4 ,as love counts for little in the tying of the matrimonial knot1 and the dot counts for much1 ,french unendowed girls stand a poor chance of ever getting married4 ,this exclusion of an enormous number of the best women from the marriage market explains1 to a large extent1 the many irregular households to be met with in ,france4 ,the fact that lovable and high-souled women accept the position of mistresses has largely tended to multiply mock marriages4 ,the refusal on the part of the ,church of ,rome to permit divorce1 and the lovelessness of the regular alliances1 tend in the same direction4 ,the sum total of all this is that a majority of ,frenchwomen have to choose between an unhappy married life without love1 and an immoral one with it4 ,those who are forced into the former in a great many cases seek consolation in an illicit liaison2 those who drift into the latter become debauched4 ,while thus the young1 respectable1 and pure-minded girls are relegated to schools and nunneries and excluded from all association with young men1 among these licentious pleasure often takes the place of romantic love4 ,hence physically and morally unhealthy lives1 absence of happiness1 craving for excitement1 morbid passions1 pessimism1 contempt for life1 depraved tastes1 hysteria4 ,scientific atheism had however only aggravated a state of things created by sacerdotal influence on social habits4 ,but it was only natural that a nation1 so biassed in social questions as ,france1 should ascribe the decay of morality and of so many other virtues to the weakening of that influence which for centuries had proclaimed itself1 and had been considered by the masses as the only check upon wickedness among great and small alike4 ,hosts of young men who entered life with noble aspirations to fight for high ideals1 soon perceived1 when left to shift for themselves1 that the society around them irresistibly opposed the realization of their hopes4 ,they found it difficult1 almost impossible1 to reconcile success with self-esteem1 love with morality1 and their poetical aspirations with their manner of living4 ,many1 in despair of happiness and success1 or in order to forget their crumbled illusions1 threw themselves into a feverish quest for excitement1 in which health of body and mind were jeopardized4 ,awakening to the full consciousness of the depth of their fall1 they could not fail to see that the social system under which they lived was largely responsible for their miseries4 ,in looking back over their wasted lives they saw nought but shattered hopes4 ,what they had forfeited were a happy and vigorous youth1 transports of romance1 the love of a pure-minded woman1 a strong and active manhood1 a chivalrous fight for the good1 the pure1 the true1 and the beautiful1 the respect of their fellow-men1 an ideal home4 ,the social conditions which they held responsible for their miserable career1 and even for the regret they experienced1 could not be laid at the door of an ,emperor or a dynasty3 for their country was governed by universal suffrage4 ,finding government1 legislation1 institutions1 and social conditions vitiated1 they had to blame ,society4 ,they found that ,society was atheistic1 and was deprived of the only check and guide that came within their ken--religion4 ,they were filled with an intense longing to destroy the atheism which science had created1 and to return to a belief which would re-endow ,society with moral order1 health1 romance1 love1 purity1 and beautiful emotions4 ,science was the enemy1 as under the ,empire the priest was the enemy4 ,to discredit it was the first essential step4 ,when therefore the actual power of science1 its actual possibilities1 became popularized1 and each successive scientific discovery rendered the prophecies of the superstitious scientists more and more preposterous1 the ,french symbolists took up the cry that science was bankrupt4 ,,chapter ,v ,,symbolism ,,and ,,logic ,the ,french symbolists1 and all poets and artists who move in the world of emotions1 are invited by ,nordau to 8take their place at the table of science1 where there is room for all40 ,were they to accept the invitation1 how would the emotional nature of our race find expression8 ,would it be possible1 or wise1 to ignore emotions in face of the fact that our lives are essentially emotional8 ,or does ,nordau push his scientific superstition to such a point as to believe that human emotions can ever be investigated by means of the lancet1 the microscope1 and the thermometer8 ,in spite of his sneer at ,rossetti's remark regarding his indifference as to whether the sun turned round the earth or the earth turned round the sun1 he cannot fail to acknowledge that what humanity yearns for is beautiful and pleasing emotions1 not scientific facts4 ,the glorious sunshine1 the balmy breeze1 the radiant flowers1 the inscrutable attractions of woman1 her love1 her esteem1 her faith1 the affection of children1 the confidence of our fellow-beings1 our trust in the good1 our struggle against evil--such are the elements of life and happiness4 ,science acquires all its importance from being the means by which beautiful and pleasing emotions are safeguarded1 and unpleasant emotions are avoided4 ,when science mistakes its mission1 when it attempts to distort and vilify their expressions1 it has become unreal and fatal4 ,nordau wishes us to regard science--progressing as it has done by replacing old errors of our senses by new errors of our senses--as embodying all facts worth noticing1 and to disregard emotions which are eternally unchangeable4 ,to turn our back upon emotions and to take our place at the table of science means to ignore all that is beautiful1 lovable1 ennobling1 and hopeful1 to shut our eyes to the charms of form1 colour1 motion1 and our ears to music1 and to concentrate our attention upon the repast spread on the table of science3 the pleasure of discovering bacteria in human tissue1 the curiosity of counting the throbs of a frog's heart after being torn from the living body1 the sensation of ascertaining the effect of the gastric juices on the foot of a living rabbit inserted into a living dog's stomach4 ,we take no side in the question of vivisection1 or any other scientific methods1 but without in the least minimizing the great services rendered1 and to be rendered1 by science to humanity1 we must express our astonishment that any sound mind1 knowing what scientific methods are1 and must be1 can seriously suggest that scientific investigation should supersede art and poetry4 ,if we believed in degeneration1 such opinions would be the first examples of it we should quote4 ,poets and philosophers who deal with emotions1 so to say with immaterial phenomena1 impalpable to every one of our senses1 but demonstrated as eternally real by their effects1 must needs make use of symbols1 or1 to be more exact1 of more symbols1 vaguer symbols1 and bolder symbols than those which naturally enter into language4 ,to deny them this right is equal to denying the mathematician the use of the letter ,x1 which stands for unknown quantities1 and which is handled by him as dexterously as if it were the most familiar object in the world4 ,if human beings were not allowed to speak about what their imagination conjures up1 what their feelings prompt1 and what irresistible instincts point to1 they would be brought alarmingly near to the level of the beast4 ,the ,french symbolists being poets1 might not have formulated into distinct thoughts what we have said above1 but they have certainly felt it all1 and much more4 ,they have felt themselves surrounded by undefined and undefinable ,x's of far greater moment to their lives1 to their happiness1 and to their best instincts1 than all the known and half-known quantities of science4 ,in attempting to give expression to their feelings and to their thoughts regarding the all-important unknown1 and to evoke among their fellow-beings an interest in them1 they have found themselves justified in using any means1 including symbolism1 for their purpose4 ,nordau has entertained no such considerations in dealing with the ,french symbolists4 ,in obedience to his professional prejudices1 he looks for no other causes1 no other influences1 than those that can be found in the mechanism of their brains4 ,this is all the more amazing as he over and over again recognises that external circumstances1 conditions of life and habits1 exercise a strong influence on the brain1 or1 in other words1 that the mechanism which connects the ,ego with matter may be influenced by the ,ego4 ,the result of his criticism presents therefore a want of fairness which to the ,english mind is especially objectionable4 ,the manner in which he pries into the private life and antecedents of ,paul ,verlaine1 and the indelicate manner in which he refers to the personal appearance of the poet1 impress us ,english people as so many unfair means of giving plausibility to his conclusions4 ,when a hunchback is good-humoured enough to make fun of his own deformity1 those of gentle feelings sympathize all the more with his misfortune1 and become all the more anxious not to refer to it4 ,when a poet1 in his love of truth and in his anxiety to rouse a certain emotion1 makes confessions1 when he instances his own sad experiences and failings1 when he1 so to say1 throws himself into the flames on the altar of truth1 we in ,england count it indelicate and unfair to base criticism on facts thus revealed4 ,had ,nordau read ,verlaine's poetry with an unbiassed mind1 he could not have failed to be struck by the extent to which the poet typifies the movement going on around him3 his failings1 his errors1 and1 maybe1 his bad habits--all this is the fate of millions who have been induced by the materialist tendencies of recent times to disregard personal responsibility1 and who1 after rejecting such guides as the nobler instincts of humanity had proffered1 attempt to follow the dictates of the lower instincts and animal impulses4 ,his terrible remorse and despair1 while he is still unmoved by religion1 bear witness to aspirations which the materialist would fain deny4 ,his instinctive groping for the consolations of religion shows to what an extent he attributes his failings to an irreligious life1 and that he experiences within him yearnings for a happiness which the gratification of the senses1 prompted by atheism1 has never afforded him4 ,nordau would object to this expression--the gratification of his senses prompted by atheism--and would tell us that atheism ought to have implanted into ,verlaine the religion of humanity1 and that he should have sacrificed all his inclinations for the future happiness of his race4 ,but1 surely1 it would require a good dose of hypocrisy for a man1 sincerely convinced that death puts him personally beyond any consequences of his life1 to persuade himself that he is practising a life-long abnegation for the good of posterity4 ,is it not much more likely that in so frank a nature as ,verlaine's the disbelief in personal responsibility would turn him into a devil-may-care vagabond until he learned in the school of experience the dangerous mistakes of materialism8 ,does ,nordau not recognise the logic and the frankness in a young man who1 in the exuberance of his animal life1 when convinced of personal irresponsibility1 lives up to the motto of a 8short life and a merry one08 ,the need of love and affection--a need generally so strongly felt by all poets--,nordau is pleased to call eroticism1 and when the poet finds that he has profaned love1 implanted in his soul by ,god1 ,nordau fancies he has discovered in ,verlaine that blending of religious fervour and morbid eroticism which1 when irrational1 is a sign of lunacy4 ,when ,paul ,verlaine invokes the ,virgin ,mary1 a form of religious expression which millions of sane people indulge in daily1 ,nordau at once imagines he has discovered another trace of insanity4 ,in order to show that we are not unfair to our alienist1 we will quote one of the poems of ,verlaine he refers to1 and the conclusions he draws from it1-- ,et comme j'tais faible1 et bien mchant encore1 ,aux mains lches1 les yeux blouis des chemins1 ,elle baissa mes yeux1 et me joignis les mains1 ,et m'enseigna les mots par lesquels on adore4 8,the accents here quoted10 says ,nordau1 8are well known to the clinics of psychiatry4 ,we may compare them to the picture which ,legrain gives of some of his patients4 #8,his speech continually reverts to ,god and the ,virgin ,mary1 his cousin4' ,the case in question is that of a degenerate subject who was a tramway conductor4 #8,mystical ideas complete the picture4 ,he talks of ,god1 of heaven1 crosses himself1 kneels down1 and says that he is following the commandments of ,christ4' ,the subject under observation is a day-labourer4 #8,the devil will tempt me1 but ,i see ,god who guards me4 ,i have asked of ,god that all people might be beautiful1' etc40 ,so far ,nordau4 ,because a mad tramway conductor thinks he is cousin of the ,virgin ,mary1 ,verlaine1 who symbolizes in the ,virgin ,mary the power that draws him towards the good1 is on the road to madness6 ,from this it follows that1 if a mad tramway conductor were to believe himself the cousin of ,professor ,lombroso1 ,nordau's quasi-worship of that authority would indicate degeneracy in ,nordau's mind4 ,one of ,nordau's characteristics is a weak or dull logical faculty1 often to be observed in those who over-study for examination and in specialists fanatically inclined4 ,without this peculiarity he could not possibly have omitted to ask himself the question1 8,how about all other worshippers of ,christ80 when he concludes that ,verlaine's mind is degenerate because he speaks devotedly of the ,virgin ,mary1 while a lunatic labourer says that he follows the commandments of ,christ4 ,nordau does not see that in this manner he completely gives himself away1 and lets us perceive that it is not the symbolist whom he considered degenerate1 but the whole ,christian populations of the world that have existed during two thousand years1 and that still exist4 ,only his lack of a sense of the ridiculous1 already pointed out1 has prevented him from remembering that the man in his cups considers himself the only sober man of the company4 ,the verses which ,verlaine has written in praise of a vagabond life ,nordau holds up as a sure sign of lurking lunacy4 ,are then all poets who write in praise of a vagabond life degenerates8 ,is not the true secret of ,nordau's conclusion to be found in the fact that he entirely misses the satire against our modern system which underlies ,verlaine's and other writers' poems on this same subject8 ,he does the same with regard to ,verlaine's poem addressed to the demented king1 ,louis ,,ii4 of ,bavaria4 ,when we behold the follies of reigning sovereigns1 who are supposed to be in the full enjoyment of their faculties1 making such poor use of their opportunities1 degrading and ruining their people1 rousing a hatred against themselves and their dynasty1 or striving at low bourgeois aims1 or even1 to use ,nordau's own expression1 selling their royalty for a big cheque2 when we read of the monarchs of the past1 of their crimes and their meanesses1 how can we wonder that the unfortunate ,king ,louis should inspire sympathy in a poet1 and that he should satirize the so-called reasonable monarchs by eulogizing the demented one8 ,nordau makes much of that form of mental weakness which manifests itself in echolalia1 or the mania of repeating for no reason the same words and the same sentences4 ,but to deny the poet1 who aims at conveying an emotion and for that purpose wishes to create a certain mood in his listeners1 the use of choruses1 refrains1 and cadenced repetitions1 he runs counter to the oldest literary tradition in the world4 ,he would surely not object to repetitions in verses intended to be sung2 and if we are right in placing poetry half way between speech and music in the list of the vehicles of thought1 as we have done in a previous chapter1 euphonies1 musicalities of words1 and repetitions are both permissible and rational4 ,many poetical emotions may be quickened by reminiscences from childhood2 and a style of writing1 or the use of words or sounds1 reminding us of early days1 might be the most effective methods of expression4 ,thus1 for instance1 a drowsy repetition of pleasant-sounding words may be very telling in a lullaby1 even if they convey no scientific meaning1 or do not contribute to the sense of the poem1 and so long as they do not distort it4 ,the examples of repetitions from degeneracy in ,verlaine are chosen so unhappily as to place ,nordau in the wrong and ,verlaine in the right in the judgment of unbiassed persons2 the one is a serenade1 and the other is entitled 8,chevaux du ,bois10 in which the sensation of a child on a merry-go-round is suggested4 ,another is supposed to be sung by1 or suggests1 ,pierrot ,gamin1 that is a young idiot4 ,when ,verlaine wishes to qualify a noun in a manner which is difficult to express in ordinary adjectives1 he1 like millions of his fellows1 has recourse to the method of giving a new1 or symbolic1 signification to an old adjective1 and this1 according to ,nordau1 is a sign of mental degeneration4 ,to prove his case he quotes such terms as 8a narrow and vast affection10 8a slow landscape10 8a slack liqueur10 8a gilded perfume10 8a terse contour10 etc4 ,he does not seem to know that the paucity of language renders such expressions not only legitimate but extremely useful in many professions and trades1 let alone poetry4 ,has he never heard of a warm colour1 a lively tint1 a cold tone1 etc48 ,are the ,french wine-growers mad when they say that wine is heavy1 light1 full1 dead1 alive1 slack1 round1 green1 angular1 smooth1 velvety1 etc48 ,we are glad to see that he recognises ,verlaine's ability as a poet and does not find fault with some of his poems4 ,thus he says of 8,chanson d',automne0 that 8there are few poems in ,french literature that can rival0 it4 ,while rejoicing at the fairness that ,nordau here displays1 we must however point out the eccentricity of his logic4 ,he desires to warn us against degeneration1 and therefore points to a poet whose degeneracy has not prevented him from writing a masterpiece of literature4 ,it should also be noticed that the 8,chanson d',automne10 which meets with such ample praise from ,nordau1 is on the same theme which underlies other pieces of poetry quoted in his work as examples of legitimate and sane poetry4 ,when he does intimate that a poet might burst into song over flowers1 trees1 books1 and twittering birds1 but not over the sympathy he feels in his consciousness with the powers that have called them forth1 simply because science has not so far been able to analyse and classify those powers1 he only shows that he is illogical enough to proffer his limited view of what is poetical as an infallible standard of the poetry of the world4 ,nordau blames ,verlaine and other symbolists for dealing with moods instead of with definite ideas4 ,but is there a single poet in the past or the present who did not largely deal in moods1 and who did not labour to give the world an impression of his own feelings8 ,nordau's ideal author--,goethe--has gone further4 ,he wrote a whole novel1 ,werther's ,leiden1 which is little else than a lengthy description of his hero's moods4 ,another symbolist1 ,stephane ,mallarm1 who in ,france as well as in ,england enjoys a reputation as a poet1 or rather as an authority on poetry1 is attacked by ,nordau in a manner which suggests other motives than fair criticism4 ,he gibes at the symbolists and at all who consider ,mallarm a poet1 because he has produced only a few original works and translations4 ,as our alienist cannot very well put this down as a sign of degeneration1 having treated those who write much as graphomaniacs1 he gives us no other reasons for placing ,mallarm among the examples of degeneration than that he has 8long1 pointed1 faun-like ears10 a fact which he seems not to have noticed personally but which he has obtained1 like most of his facts1 from a book4 ,he distinctly insinuates that the admiration for ,mallarm's poetical gift indicates degeneration1 especially as ,mallarm has written so little4 ,we meet here again with a striking example of his curious logic4 ,he imagines that he strengthens his case by quoting from ,lessing1 who in ,amelia ,galotti makes ,conti say that ,raphael would have been the greatest genius in painting1 even if he had unfortunately been born without hands4 ,from this1 ,english readers who happen to know nothing of ,lessing or ,conti would conclude that either ,lessing was a lunatic or that his character1 ,conti1 was mad4 ,but neither is the case1 and the quotation consequently tells against ,nordau4 ,whoever would deny that a man cannot be a poet and an authority on poetry without publishing verse must attach an extremely narrow meaning to the word poet4 ,if ,lessing1 or ,conti1 means by the word painter1 not the craftsman1 but the man with the painter's soul1 the symbolist may surely be allowed to call ,mallarm a poet4 ,has ,nordau never met with mute poets1 blind painters1 and deaf musicians8 ,one of the greatest musicians of the world composed marvellous music while stone-deaf4 ,now if we suppose that ,beethoven had lost his hearing before he had mastered the technicalities of music1 would he therefore not have remained a musician8 ,nordau is very severe on several other symbolists and certainly does his best to represent them in an unfavourable light4 ,in order to show that ,charles ,morice1 the author of ,la ,littrature de tout l'heure is literally insane and a graphomaniac1 he quotes ,morice's rhapsodical conception of ,god1 which he pretends to take as an exact definition in order to reduce it to twaddle4 ,to any unprejudiced reader it is evident that ,morice intended to convey by this wild attempt at description how impossible it is to define ,god4 ,nordau's prejudice against the ,french nation becomes palpable when speaking of the fact that the ,french language lends itself badly to blank verse and that a freer treatment of it in ,french poetry is a comparatively modern departure which by other countries was taken long ago4 ,he says3 8,but to any one but a ,frenchman1 they merely make themselves ridiculous when they trumpet their painful hobbling after the nations who are far in front of them1 as an unheard-of discovery of new paths and opening up of new roads and as an advance inspired by the ideal into the dawn of the future40 ,this gratuitous insult of a whole nation gives us a vivid insight into the working of his mind4 ,he would not have penned a sentence of such bad taste1 and so marked by the echolalia he condemns in others1 had he not been prompted by feelings stronger than his judgment4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,light ,,of ,,russia ,with regard to the ,russian novelist1 ,count ,leo ,tolstoi1 ,nordau pursues the same mode of criticism as he employed against other writers4 ,he also aims at the same object1 firstly1 to show that authors suffer from mental aberration2 and1 secondly1 that the public who read their books do not do so on account of their literary merit1 but because the readers are mentally afflicted in the same way as the authors4 ,to prove this against ,tolstoi and his admirers is no light enterprise1 and ,nordau does not acquit himself of his self-imposed task without a great deal of shuffling4 ,he allows nothing for ,tolstoi's surroundings1 the social condition of the country in which he lives1 and the life he has led1 but lifts him out of all that tends to interpret this ultra-,russian writer1 and regards him as one who has evolved some extraordinary notions in a studio far from his native land4 ,he who says ,russia says a great deal3 for the expression denotes a vast empire1 consisting of many nationalities and races1 held together by a strong pressure1 which seems1 like the gravitation of huge heavenly bodies1 to be determined by the size of the body from which it emanates4 ,the inclusion of so many elements does not prevent ,russia from remaining a great and powerful ,state1 provided its ,government soon becomes to some extent rational4 ,the predominant nationality is made up of genuine ,russians1 whose characteristics are such as to render them capable of being1 according to their rulers in the immediate future1 an imminent danger to ,europe1 or a model nation to be followed by the rest of the world4 ,the ,russian is good-tempered1 patient1 loyal1 generous1 kind-hearted1 and superstitiously religious4 ,he is extremely emotional and dangerous when aroused4 ,his easy-going manners1 his immense self-esteem1 and his intense vitality render him an easy victim to the numerous temptations which aliens are not slow to hold out to him4 ,he is straightforward and strongly averse to hypocrisy1 and when he is convinced that duty demands from him that he should assist in filling a trench with his dead body for the artillery to pass over1 or to throw a bomb at the ,czar1 he will do it without a murmur4 ,his passiveness1 his loyalty1 and long-suffering have been cruelly taken advantage of by a long succession of ,governments1 chiefly consisting of aliens4 ,in ,russia the most powerful bureaucracy in the world1 composed chiefly of a ,german element1 has taken possession of the power1 and holds to it in a quasi-unconscious fashion1 like a bull-dog unable to relax his hold4 ,the ,government1 with such legislation as exists1 has gone on for centuries with scarcely any regard for the well-being of the people1 and the inevitable results are slowly but surely manifesting themselves1 and point to some terrible catastrophe4 ,the emancipation of the serfs1 from which sanguine people1 unacquainted with ,russian circumstances1 hoped so much1 shook the old institutions to their very foundations1 but brought only momentary relief to the suffering people4 ,the mir-eaters1 or village usurers1 have swallowed up the land of the peasants1 their cattle1 and their implements1 and compelled large hordes of people to move about the country in search of work4 ,employment is scarce and labour ill paid4 ,the tax-collectors are as implacable and the ,government officials as corrupt as ever4 ,the tendency--to be observed all over the civilized world--of dividing humanity into two classes1 the wealthy and the poor1 has nowhere developed to the same extent as in ,russia4 ,the rich1 comparatively few in number1 are becoming extremely rich1 but the great mass of the people miserably poor4 ,extreme poverty1 intensified by the pressure of the tax-gatherer and the inhuman methods of the money-lender1 has a gnawing effect on a people living in an intensely rigorous climate1 in miserable villages sparsely scattered over vast monotonous plains4 ,the ,russians being a sentimental people1 it is natural that their forlorn condition should cause them to brood over their sad lives during the long and lonely winter nights1 or that they should be driven to drown their consciousness in vodka4 ,such is the stage on which alone a character like ,leo ,tolstoi can become intelligible4 ,but it is not only the powerful influences from external circumstances which give that direction to ,tolstoi's mind which ,nordau insists in interpreting as a sign of degeneracy4 ,the mode of life and the sphere of action he has adopted1 in pursuance of the large and noble traits of his character1 must have been powerfully conducive to his peculiar mood and ideas4 ,nobody who has read his works1 even if only those works ,nordau holds to be of the smallest literary merit and fullest of signs of degeneracy1 would ever conceive the idea that ,tolstoi's mind was weak or distorted4 ,but if this novelist had been driven to lunacy1 it would have been extremely irrational to account for his mental aberration without considering the outward circumstances that would have produced it4 ,tolstoi's sympathies were roused1 as those of every noble-minded man would have been roused1 by the miserable existence of a people who possess all the elements of a great nation4 ,in ,russia no such ways are open to the reformer as in free ,states4 ,there is no ,parliament1 no organized political parties1 no free ,press4 ,a political career is out of the question1 except in the form of a consistent toadying of those in power1 and of a blind obedience to those who crush the people4 ,any opposition to ,government1 or even proffered suggestions1 would lead to exile in ,siberia1 and abruptly cut short any man's activity4 ,tolstoi had therefore only two courses open to him3 either to expatriate himself and to thunder forth in a foreign ,press against the abuses of the ,russian ,government1 unheard and unheeded by his own censor-ridden compatriots or to adopt the line of action he did4 ,in the cities1 where the alien element prevails1 and where the scum of the ,russian nation congregates1 he would be out of contact with his people4 ,his emotional nature would have revolted against the police tyranny and spying rampant in the cities1 and he would soon have been landed in the clutches of the authorities4 ,he therefore elected to live among the peasants as one of them1 convinced both by his feelings and his reason that he would thus directly benefit his surroundings by his example and form that leaven by which the whole mass might in time be leavened2 while his writings simultaneously appealed to those of his countrymen who read books1 and those who1 outside ,russia1 sympathize with the ,russian people4 ,we do not pretend to know ,tolstoi's secret thoughts and his ultimate hopes1 but we believe it possible that he may1 without being an irrational enthusiast1 or even a dreamer1 have reckoned on his writings and opinions reaching the highest personages in the ,russian empire through being read by all the upper classes of the world4 ,he may have hoped that1 after establishing his reputation throughout the literary world1 and after having become the pride of his own nation1 he would one day dare to speak such words to the rulers of all the ,russians as might save him and his nation4 ,whatever may have been his expectations1 there can be little doubt that he has met with dire disappointment1 not so much in his personal career as in his hopes for his fellow-countrymen4 ,to the framers of paper constitutions and to theoretical revolutionists1 it may seem easy to introduce a new form of ,government and to regenerate a nation1 but1 to one who1 like ,tolstoi1 is in close contact with the masses to be regenerated1 who has daily experienced all the frailty of the material he has to work with1 who alone tries to swim against overwhelming currents1--to him1 the uplifting of a nation or a race is a herculean task impossible to approach with the clap-trap of the modern agitator4 ,tolstoi1 finding that it is the morale of the people he has to work upon1 that it is in the religious tendencies of his fellow-men that their strength lies1 concludes1 with the full consent of his emotional being1 that religious conceptions1 different from the ,russian orthodox ,church and from the western university theology1 must be the foundation on which he has to build4 ,what therefore is more rational than that he should plunge into religious speculation1 and thus expose himself to the mistake of adopting religious views which are prompted as much by the needs of the situation1 the circumstances1 his own and his people's characteristics1 as by logical deductions4 ,greater men than he--,moses1 ,mahomet1 and others--had done so before him4 ,besides1 as the postulates he starts from do not spring from exact knowledge1 but from faith and emotion--as all religious postulates necessarily must do1--and as these1 his postulates1 are diametrically opposed to those which ,nordau would pre-suppose1 ,tolstoi's conclusions must be the opposite of his2 but to differ from ,nordau is to be degenerate4 ,it is no wonder then that ,tolstoi's books should be more than novels4 ,he had a higher purpose in view than gathering in royalties and entertaining his readers4 ,his books are jam with a considerable amount of powder in them4 ,if1 despite this1 they have been widely read throughout the world1 ordinary minds would conclude that in creating them their author has accomplished tasks which alone a mind of a high order could hope to perform4 ,our alienist1 determined to come to no such conclusion1 supposes that all those who read ,tolstoi's works are degenerates1 and that the large sale of his books is consequently a confirmation of ,tolstoi's degeneracy4 ,would ,nordau apply the same kind of reasoning with regard to the sale of his own works8 ,he would probably2 but instead of starting with the supposition that contemporary readers of books are incipient lunatics1 he would very likely take for granted that the readers who approve of his works are highly intelligent1 and that the great sale they have attained proves the soundness of his own mind4 ,in support of his view1 ,nordau1 who fairly acknowledges the great qualities of ,tolstoi as a writer of fiction1 has the audacity to assert that it is not this great quality of his works that has secured him his world-wide fame1 but that it is due to his mysticism1 which a degenerate race prefers to a literary and moral value4 ,the only semblance of proof he gives for this view is that ,tolstoi's best works have not contributed to his reputation so much as the ,kreutzer ,sonata1 8an inferior creation1 which in the public opinion of the western nations placed him in the first rank of living authors40 ,but who has decided that the ,kreutzer ,sonata is inferior to ,tolstoi's other works8 ,only ,nordau1 whose opinion runs counter to the 8western nations40 ,if therefore there is any value in ,nordau's argument it rests entirely on the astounding fact that the 8western nations0 are all degenerate and ,nordau alone is sane4 ,nordau1 like most ,german bookworms1 evidently believes that references to an authority1 however obscure1 are enough to prove any assertion4 ,he has manifestly worked with any number of 8conversations-lexicons0 and encyclopedias about him1 in quest of some printed confirmation of the extraordinary opinion that the ,kreutzer ,sonata is a poor book1 and that the preceding works of ,tolstoi alone contain those grand qualities which ,nordau recognises4 ,he finds that ,franz ,bornmller1 an author of a biographical dictionary1 said in #ahhb of ,tolstoi3 8,he possesses no ordinary talent for fiction1 but one devoid of due artistic finish1 and which is influenced by a certain one-sidedness in his views of life and history40 ,it should be noticed that ,nordau gives this quotation in order to show that ,tolstoi had not attained any ,european fame in #ahhb1 that is1 before the ,kreutzer ,sonata was written2 but with that amazing want of logic characterizing his whole work1 he does not see that this ,franz ,bornmller thinks very little of the early works of ,tolstoi4 ,he consequently differs from ,nordau1 and shows every sign of sharing the opinion of the 8western nations40 ,nordau makes a sharp distinction between ,tolstoi's novels as such and the philosophy they enforce4 ,he is thereby enabled to give some plausibility to the sophistical assertion that it is not ,tolstoi's novels1 but his philosophy1 which brought him popularity4 ,this philosophy1 which is supposed to prove that ,tolstoi's mind is not sound1 ,nordau sums up in the following way3 8,the individual is nothing1 the species is everything1 the individual lives in order to do his fellow-creatures good2 thought and inquiry are great evils2 science is perdition2 faith is salvation40 ,among these items there is only one which differs from the views of the bulk of humanity--from that ordinary common-sense which ,nordau so often takes as a standard of sanity1 even in the superstitious peasant4 ,we refer to the item in which he says that thought and inquiry are great evils4 ,nowhere in ,tolstoi's writings can such a nonsensical phrase be found4 ,it is one of those little touches that ,nordau so dexterously applies1 or which his prejudice causes him to apply1 in order to strengthen his case in his readers'1 or perhaps in his own1 eyes4 ,he appears to ignore such works as ,my ,confession1 ,my ,faith1 ,a ,short ,exposition of the ,gospel1 and ,about my ,life1 all works built up by elaborate thoughts4 ,the whole life of ,tolstoi has been one of 8thought and inquiry10 and all his literary work is an invitation to think and to inquire4 ,tolstoi objects only to such thought and inquiry as vainly attempt to carry the methods of inductive science into spheres where the observation of our senses is of no avail1 and where their failure tempts us to believe in the non-existence of that all-important portion of the universe into which faith alone can penetrate4 ,that ,tolstoi should distrust science1 after the presumptuous attitude which scientists have taken up1 will surprise nobody who has read what we have said about this bankruptcy of science4 ,many scientists1 including ,nordau1 have in their gratuitous attacks on religion so recklessly mixed up scientific fact with scientific speculation1 that they must blame themselves if people use the term 8science0 when it would be more correct to employ that of 8unscientific speculations40 ,that a thinker1 who is at the same time the instructor of the ignorant masses1 should look upon faith as a means of salvation1 is not new1 and cannot be considered as a sign of mental aberration2 for millions of sane common-sense men have for thousands of years held this opinion4 ,even if we apply the word salvation exclusively to society in general1 to the race1 or to one nation1 leaving out any references to individual salvation in another world1 faith of some kind is the only source from which it could spring4 ,scientists of ,nordau's type seem unable to understand that science means the knowledge of absolute facts which1 while quite capable of undermining and destroying the foundations on which a more or less primitive religion rests1 cannot possibly come into collision with faith in the widest sense of the term4 ,when a scientist and a religionist differ about things which have not come under scientific inquiry--such as the final aim of the scheme of humanity1 for example--the dispute is not between science and faith1 but between two different faiths4 ,science therefore cannot regulate our conduct1 determine our views1 or save a nation4 ,this alone can be done by faith1 be it based on science1 on tradition1 or emotion4 ,a great scientific knowledge might be degraded into an excuse for1 and a means of1 an irresponsible1 selfish1 and wicked life2 or it might ennoble the mind1 intensify the sense of responsibility1 and serve as the means of rendering great services to humanity4 ,all depends on the faith of the scientist4 ,the end of what we may call the era of scientific atheism1 now at hand1 presents most deplorable results1 as we have already pointed out1 of removing the only foundations of a moral balance available to those who have not had any opportunity of drawing from scientific studies that strength of character1 and those noble aspirations to be met with in scientists who have a genuine faith--a faith in their science and in humanity1 if in nothing else4 ,tolstoi1 who1 like every thinking man of our time1 had seen the disastrous effects which scientific atheism had produced1 cannot possibly be regarded as of weak intellect because he rejected scientific superstition and proclaimed faith as the true basis of conduct and character4 ,nordau finds traces of degeneracy in ,tolstoi's question1 8,wherefore am ,i alive80 and in the manner in which ,tolstoi finds a reply to that question4 ,it seems however that ,nordau too has asked1 himself that question1 for in his book ,degeneration 7page #adi7 he replies to it in a close1 well-reasoned1 passage1 which deserves to be read to its full extent4 ,we shall quote only a part of it in order to compare the reply he himself obtains with the reply obtained1 by ,tolstoi4 ,after having shown that the aim of a man's life is necessarily involved in the greater question--the aim of the universe--and that such an aim cannot exist objectively in time or space1 he says3 8,but if it is not objective1 if it does not exist in time and space1 it must1 in order to be conceivable1 exist somewhere1 virtually1 as idea1 as a plan and design4 ,but that which contains a design1 a thought1 a plan1 we name consciousness2 and consciousness that can conceive a plan of the universe1 and for its realization designedly uses the forces of nature1 is synonymous1 with ,god4 ,if a man however believes in a ,god1 he loses at once the right to raise the question1 #8,wherefore am ,i alive8' since it is in that case an insolent presumption1 an effort of small1 weak man to look over ,god's shoulder1 to spy out ,god's plan1 to aspire to the height of omniscience4 ,but neither is it in such a case necessary1 since a ,god without the highest wisdom cannot be conceived2 and if ,he has devised a plan for the world1 this is certain to be perfect1 all its parts are in harmony1 and the aim to which every co-operator1 from the smallest to the greatest1 will devote himself is the best conceivable4 ,thus man can live in complete rest and confidence in the impulses and forces implanted in him by ,god1 because he1 in every case1 fulfils a high and worthy destiny by co-operating in a1 to him1 unknown ,divine plan of the world40 ,we here notice his words3 8that which contains a design1 a thought1 a plan1 we name consciousness40 ,now1 nobody knows better than the scientists that so far all scientific discovery has revealed plan1 method1 and purpose1 in the smallest thing and the smallest phenomena in the universe4 ,is it then necessary to be degenerate to believe in a self-conscious ,providence8 ,john ,stuart ,mill observes that the fact that we find in nature1 especially in human and animal bodies1 physical and mechanical problems solved in the same way as engineers had solved them long before they knew of such solutions in nature1 points not only to the existence of an intelligent ,creator1 but to a similarity of ,his intelligence to that of human beings4 ,according to the passage from ,nordau1 then1 the planning in nature proves a conscious force1 a conscious force is synonymous with ,god1 and the man who believes in ,god can live in complete rest in his faith4 ,tolstoi obtained a reply to his question in a manner which he describes in the following words3 8,it was quite the same to me whether ,jesus was ,god or not ,god2 whether the ,holy ,ghost proceeded from the one or the other4 ,it was likely neither necessary nor important for me to know how1 when1 and by whom the ,gospels1 or any one of the parables were composed1 and whether they could be ascribed to ,christ or not4 ,what to me was important was that the light which for eighteen hundred years was the light of the world is that light still2 but what name was to be given to the source of this light1 or what were its component parts1 and by whom it was lighted1 was quite indifferent to me40 ,the difference in the two replies is one of words only4 ,if therefore ,nordau acknowledged that a sensible man could ask such a question1 and if the reply of ,nordau we have just quoted is recognised by him as his own opinion1 he and ,tolstoi would stand very much in the same category4 ,but ,nordau does not think that a perfectly sane mind would ask such a question2 and if it was asked1 he has another reply4 ,this reply is however far from being so clear as the other4 8,if10 he says1 8on the other hand1 there is no belief in a ,god1 it is also impossible to form a conception of the aim1 for then the aim existing in consciousness only as an idea1 in the absence of a universal consciousness1 has no locus for existence2 there is no place for it in nature40 ,from this it ought to follow that1 if a man does not believe in ,god1 there is no ,god1 and consequently there can be no aim4 ,he then proceeds to argue that1 if there be no aim1 it is useless to ask the question1 8,wherefore am ,i alive80 but that we can ask the question1 8,why do we live80 ,his reply to this is characteristic3 8,we live in obedience to the mechanical law of causality1 which requires no plan and no universal consciousness40 ,it is curious to behold how ,nordau cannot perceive that his question1 8,why do we live80 implies the question1 8,whence the mechanical law of causality80 and that his reply is simply1 8,we live because we live40 ,once he has accepted this self-delusion as a solid foundation1 his reasoning again becomes rational1 and does not bear on the point before us4 ,the most astounding part of it is that ,nordau considers ,tolstoi1 and all others whose instinct1 whose emotion1 and whose immutable reasoning point to a cause behind ,nordau's home-made mechanical law of causality1 as thereby showing signs of mental degeneration4 ,nordau1 in order to prove the confusion existing in ,tolstoi's ideas1 seems to take for granted that the tendency towards ,pantheism1 perceptible in the ,russian's reasoning1 is utterly at variance with ,christianity4 ,we would simply point out that ,tolstoi has his own ,christianity1 framed on his own interpretation of the ,gospels1 and not any previously existing ,christianity1 and is therefore at liberty to proclaim a creed which has a ,pantheistic tendency without exposing himself to the reproach of being inconsequent4 ,but we consider it more important to notice the fact that the ,gospels1 far from laying down any dogmas1 are the record of the life of a man--divine or not divine--whose mission it was to protest against dogmas4 ,he called ,god 8,father10 in order to speak of universal consciousness only in its relations to man1 leaving it to the doctrinaires and the philosophers to agree as best they could on the question of ,pantheism or no ,pantheism4 ,besides1 the ,gospels certainly emphasize the omnipresence of the ,creator2 and if this ,pantheistic tendency had not existed among the disciples1 it is not likely that ,st4 ,paul would have said1 8,in ,him we live1 we move1 and have our being40 ,the shallow1 superficial manner in which ,nordau treats ,tolstoi's ethics is certainly unworthy of him1 and amounts simply to a quibble4 ,these ethics1 correctly summed up1 8,resist not evil1 judge not1 kill not10 which correspond precisely with the teachings of ,christ1 ,nordau does not regard as ethics1 but proceeds solemnly to test them as expediencies in peculiar cases1 and comes to the conclusion that they are ridiculous4 ,must we then conclude that ,nordau has no such ethics1 but that he believes it right to return evil for evil1--vendetta fashion1--that he objects to suffer wrong for a good cause1 and that he revels in indiscriminate murder8 ,tolstoi's ethics1 as ethics should do1 hold up the ideal for which we should strive1 and as a practical test of them we must consider not the murder and plunder of one good man by a bad one1 but the state which would ensue if all men conformed to them4 ,the practical moral we ought to draw from them is not that laws and law courts should be abolished1 but that laws should be framed and law courts should be managed in such a way as to favour a general acceptance of such ethics4 ,here again ,nordau indulges in illogical reasoning1 and in contradictions of himself4 ,he takes for granted that humanity is so utterly depraved that if 8the fear of the gallows did not prevent it1 throat-cutting and stealing would be the most generally adopted trade40 ,this means that ,nordau in one place in his book declares human beings are too good1 too noble1 too honest to need any belief in a hell1 but in another place declares that they are far too depraved to do without the fear of the gallows4 ,he forgets that good ethics have sprung from the good instincts of our race1 and that crime has largely been fostered by bad laws1 bad law courts1 and bad institutions4 ,in one of his stories1 entitled ,from the ,diary of ,nechljudow1 ,tolstoi's hero1 ,prince ,nechljudow1 is a most eccentric character1 created probably for the purpose of showing the absurdity of indiscriminate charity and other impulsive actions of the erratics of our day4 ,nordau gives an account of one of the instances in which the ,prince's selfish way of practising charity is forcibly brought out4 ,he evidently does this in order that the ,prince's action should be accepted as an illustration of what ,tolstoi means by charity4 ,this is both absurd and unjust4 ,it amounts to an identification of the author with the character he represents--a way of insinuating degeneracy in authors who simply hold it up in their characters as a warning4 ,to thus mix up authors with their characters is a mistake frequently committed by unintelligent readers1 but it is surprising to find that with ,nordau it is an habitual method4 ,with regard to the character ,pozdnyscheff1 ,nordau does the same thing4 ,he takes for granted that the opinions expressed by this character are those of the author4 ,the passages he extracts from ,short ,expositions1 in which ,tolstoi's own opinions are expressed1 in no wise justify such a supposition4 ,nordau's explanation of the enormous success ,tolstoi's books have achieved is that it is due to general degeneration among the upper classes throughout the world4 ,if he could personally meet the hundreds of thousands of ,english people who have read ,tolstoi's works1 he would be able to form an idea of the immensity of his mistake4 ,he would find that the majority of these people belong to a middle class1 consisting of persons who are not overworked and who indulge in none of the vices of the continental aristocracies4 ,their muscles and their nerves have been strengthened and fortified by a healthy education1 and by a love of bodily exercise1 sport and even danger1 and by a moral life4 ,they live in a country where the authorities have found that to proscribe any licentious book is to promote its sale1 and where consequently there is hardly any check upon morbid literature4 ,yet there is not a country where less of it is circulated than in ,england4 ,it is true that these readers of ,tolstoi have not attained to that height of intellectual development which would permit them to accept ,nordau's 8mechanical causality0 as a satisfying explanation of the universe2 but1 on the other hand1 it would be difficult to find a people so religiously inclined1 and yet so free from superstition and fanaticism4 ,some of them may like ,rossetti's pictures1 and many of them ,burne ,jones's1 but as a rule they have an equal admiration for ,raphael1 ,tintoretto1 ,correggio1 and others4 ,they cannot be classed among the mystics on that account4 ,as few of them write books1 they cannot be called graphomaniacs4 ,nor do they show any signs of being egomaniacs4 ,nor have they any physical stigmata of degenerates4 ,the heads of this class are generally beautifully shaped1 and the ears of the women are by all foreigners who visit this country proclaimed to be the finest and daintiest ears in the world4 ,personal beauty among this class is decidedly on the increase2 for each generation seems to be better-looking1 and the youngest is generally the most beautiful4 ,the latter fact1 we may mention1 is no doubt due to the increasing tendency of the upper and middle classes in ,england to beautify their homes and to surround themselves with exquisite objects1 as well as to a more intellectual education1 pastimes1 pleasures1 and arts4 ,why then must these readers of ,tolstoi's works be classed as degenerate8 ,it is not denied that in ,england there are people who exhibit signs of mental degeneration1 but they are to be found more in literary and political circles than in the close ranks of the upper and middle classes4 ,we would not undertake to class them under the headings established by the alienist1 and it would be difficult even for ,nordau to do so4 ,perhaps they are not sufficiently advanced in degeneracy to be so classed4 ,such signs as they exhibit are some of them as old as the hills1 and others are clearly the manifestations of that intellectual and moral daze which generally follows on the destruction of the religious foundations of belief involved in the acceptance of belief in scientific atheism4 ,but the most prevalent form of degeneracy is that which is palpably the result of financial depression1 felt not only in financial but artistic and literary circles4 ,for reasons which we leave to the economists to explain1 ,england's commerce and agriculture seem to have come to a dead-lock4 ,the result seems to be diminished incomes all round4 ,many artists1 littrateurs1 and politicians are at their wits' end how to make an income1 and there can be little doubt that this has fostered a certain amount of demoralization4 ,extraordinary attempts are made to produce sensational pictures1 to write eccentric poetry1 to send forth books that will shock1 and to treat of risky subjects on the stage4 ,politicians are obliged to make politics a profession1 and1 as popularity is indispensable to it as a profitable profession1 they worship majorities4 ,any one who is acquainted with ,london cannot doubt for a moment that these forms of demoralization spring entirely from a necessity of making a living4 ,artists1 authors1 and politicians of this class are no more inclined to lunacy than the vast class of people who do distasteful work1 as well as those who have to appear before the public in dangerous but not much esteemed performances4 ,if the financial depression is destined to disappear1 there can be little doubt that the majority of these signs of demoralization will also disappear4 ,there are in this country1 as everywhere else1 real degenerates1 people who have weakened their brains and moral faculties by drink1 debauch1 overwork1 or persons who have inherited mental debility4 ,there are also among us1 we regret to say1 an alarming number of destitute people who have been driven into mental derangement by those terrible pangs that misery inflicts4 ,but all these degenerates care as little for ,tolstoi's novels as they do for ,rossetti's or ,burne ,jones's pictures4 ,though ,english circumstances are vastly different from continental1 there can be no doubt that the causes which have rendered ,tolstoi's novels popular are the same here as in other countries4 ,the scientific atheists have introduced into literature a materialist1 selfish1 sceptical1 pessimistic1 and cynical tone which was tolerated by the public for a long time4 ,on the continent they had ,zola and his wretched imitators1 whose books found their way among us1 while ,england has produced a crop of neurotic storytellers1 playwrights1 and versifiers1 made up for the most part of masculine women and effeminate men1 who have exploited to the utmost the atheistic vein4 ,the noble spirit which atheism was to bring to the front somehow did not take to literature1 and the reading classes of the world began to miss those pure joys which reading used to afford them4 ,the books of the day offended their religious feelings1 their sense of decency1 their loftiest conceptions of the world1 and their self-esteem1 without amusing them4 ,the whole literature of fiction had become stilted1 and the morbid and pessimistic authors departed so widely from nature and evinced so many signs of utter insincerity that the reading world longed to be face to face with a man who spoke his innermost thoughts4 ,the world was therefore ready for a new departure in literature4 ,what wonder then that ,tolstoi's works were well received4 ,they bore witness to consummate ability1 a close study of human nature4 ,they presented a true picture of social ,russia4 ,they afforded an insight into the ,russian mind4 ,his readers experienced the intellectual treat offered by few books1--that of feeling the presence of a master-mind1 and of following the thoughts of a thoroughly sincere writer1 free from the cheap ready-made materialist philosophy--a man who devotes both his life and his work1 with almost superhuman energy1 to the regeneration of his race4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,the ,,real ,,ibsen ,in reading ,nordau's chapter on ,ibsen1 one cannot help wondering why our alienist has given his book the form he has4 ,the feeling which the preceding contents of his work have more or less inspired--that there is a discrepancy between the apparent plan of the work and its execution--almost ripens into conviction on the perusal of his chapter on ,ibsen4 ,he says in his dedication to ,professor ,lombroso3 8,now ,i have undertaken the work of investigating the tendencies of the fashion in art and literature1 of proving that they have their source in the degeneracy of their authors1 and that the enthusiasm of their admirers is for manifestations of more or less pronounced moral insanity1 imbecility1 and dementia40 ,he also says that he 8ventures to fill a void in your ,lombroso's powerful system40 ,from what he says higher up on the same page about the power of books and works of art to influence the masses1 and his many hints in other parts of the book1 as1 for example1 in its concluding pages1 we must understand that his great object is to do what he can to arrest the downward movement of human intelligence4 ,he thus assumes that there is a degenerating process going on throughout civilization1 but attentive readers of his book feel the whole time that this assumption1 far from being proved to be correct1 rests on data supplied by ,nordau1 which strongly warn his readers to accept them only with a grain of salt4 ,on the other hand1 there are a host of indications in all civilized countries pointing to an increase in intellectual power1 moral strength1 and sthetic refinement4 ,some of these indications would probably not be undervalued by ,nordau himself3 the rapid progress of science1 the increasing education among the masses1 the large number of newspapers and periodicals dealing intelligently with various branches of knowledge1 professions1 and trades1 the wider application of scientific methods to industry1 wonderful inventions1 not the outcome of discovery1 but of intelligent induction1 the decay of superstition1 love of investigation1 etc4 ,nordau1 having allowed that the test of a sound mind is its ability to attend rationally to one's business1 ought to recognize that the growth of intellectual power is manifest in improved business methods1 skill1 manufacturing1 complicated and daring financial schemes1 ingenious co-operative systems1 well-managed and disciplined trades'-unions1 nay1 even cleverly laid plots to defraud4 ,an increasing moral strength is proved by the growth of the altruistic feeling1 the devotion with which the cause of humanity1 morality1 and progress is served by people who1 thanks to scientific scepticism1 expect no reward in another world2 the greater sincerity observable in all religious bodies1 the magnitude of charitable institutions1 the magnificent heroism displayed by captains and crews on sinking ships1 by our life-boat men in attempting to save the shipwrecked1 by our colliers' efforts to rescue the victims of explosions1 etc4 ,the great victories of the ,germans over the ,french and the complete success of the commanders' daring tactics have been largely1 and probably correctly1 ascribed to the moral qualities of the ,german army1 while the utter defeat of the ,french cannot be ascribed to the want of moral qualities1 but to bad leadership4 ,a quarter of a century has elapsed since the ,franco-,german war1 but there is no reason to believe that the moral qualities of the ,german army have degenerated4 ,that no degeneracy has taken place in the ,english1 ,french1 and ,italian armies has been proved by the ,chitral expedition1 by the ,french war with ,madagascar1 and by the ,italian operations in ,africa4 ,if1 despite these manifest signs of growing intellectual power and moral strength1 ,nordau's deep insight into psychological matters has revealed to him a mental degeneracy in the civilized world1 his way of investigating such decay1 his mode of dealing with it1 and especially the causes he attributes to it1 are too vacillating1 too contradictory1 and too biassed to inspire confidence4 ,while sometimes1 as in his chapter entitled 8,etiology10 he refers to such causes as the increase in the consumption of spirits and tobacco1 the factory system1 overwork1 overcrowding--all causes palpable to all who have given any attention to social questions1--in the rest of his book he seems to regard certain popular writers and artists as the great cause of general degeneration who should be specially noticed4 ,this contradiction cannot be explained away on the plea that his book is only part of a wider investigation which has already been made1 or might be made1 regarding the causes of degeneration1 and that1 so long as his work is intended to treat of the influence of literature and art1 his ignoring of other causes is legitimate4 ,if an effect is first attributed to one cause and then to another1 we may be sure that there is something wrong with the reasoning4 ,we cannot prove first that the tendency to hysteria1 so common in people engaged in a certain class of business1 is due to overwork1 and afterwards prove that the same tendency in the same people is due to ,rossetti's pictures or to ,swinburne's poems4 ,nordau never furnishes an explanation of the enormous importance he attaches to the influence of writers and artists1 and the small importance he attaches to the more palpable causes of degeneration1 of the existence of some of which he is aware4 ,nor does he tell us how he reconciles the two facts1 alternately insisted upon by him1 that degeneration in artists is the cause of degeneration in their surroundings2 and again1 that the degeneration of their surroundings is the cause of degeneration in artists and authors4 ,if such artists and authors as ,nordau believes to be degenerate are the effect of degeneration all round1 they are surely the smallest and least deplorable results1 and it was certainly not worth while to write so bulky a volume about them4 ,nordau mentions about a score2 and what is a score compared to the mass of humanity1 or to the five hundred million people included in western civilization8 ,a degeneration that would not have other results than that of producing twenty degenerate men1 who1 though they are in many respects a source of enjoyment to many1 may have a grain of insanity in their brains1 would not be worth noticing4 ,if1 on the other hand1 these supposed degenerates are not what1 to the ordinary mind1 they decidedly appear to be--the children of their time--but the actual causes of such serious psychological effects which statistics seem to reveal1 we are face to face with a phenomenon which surely demanded a different method of investigation4 ,the real connection between the causes and the effects should have been ascertained4 ,for instance1 the most alarming feature of degeneration in ,england--that weak-mindedness which leads to drunkenness--should have been connected with the mystical painters and poets1 and should have been proved not to have been the result of those causes which seem palpable to every man4 ,then the influence of individuals on the masses in general should have been ascertained4 ,history offers a wide field for such an investigation4 ,if it had been found that authors and artists exercise less influence than other individuals1 such as sovereigns1 statesmen1 prophets1 reformers1 revolutionary leaders1 discoverers1 explorers1 and others1 the influence of these should have at first been studied1 and what could not be attributed to them might have been laid at the door of artists and authors4 ,in examining history1 old and new1 we are struck with the extremely slight effects which have been produced by littrateurs and artists1 and the enormous1 all-powerful influence exercised by other individuals4 ,books have influenced books1 poets have influenced poets1 painters have influenced painters1 but the political1 social1 intellectual1 moral1 and sthetical development of a nation has over and over again been completely determined by men who have been neither artists nor authors4 ,in modern times the same fact is palpable4 ,has ever the world been influenced more than by such men as ,cavour1 ,prince ,bismarck1 ,mr4 ,gladstone1 ,napoleon ,,iii48 and how might not the fate of humanity be determined in the near future by such men as1 for example1 the ,emperor of ,germany and the ,czar of ,russia8 ,on the mental qualities of the ,emperor of ,germany depends largely whether ,germany is to be crushed under the army system2 whether it is to be ruined by financial blunderings2 whether there shall be peaceful development of its resources1 or war to the knife between its classes2 whether healthy reforms shall gradually clear away its social anomalies1 or whether a revolution of unprecedented atrocity shall uproot its very foundations2 whether its inhabitants shall develop those characteristics to which peace and happiness are conducive1 or those which would inevitably be fostered if ,germany were made the battle-field of modern armies4 ,on the mental qualities of the ,czar depend directly the destiny of a hundred million people1 and indirectly the peace of the world4 ,russia is only too willing to progress under an imperial leader4 ,on the occasion of his accession to the throne and his marriage1 millions of people anxiously scanned his portrait and tried to read in his features the fate of ,europe4 ,the presence of lines supposed to indicate weak character produced prophecies of clerical domination1 opposition to progress1 and death to ,russia2 while a kindly expression of the eyes inspired many with hopes of a new era for ,tolstoi's unfortunate countrymen4 ,it is not only personages of high rank and sovereign power whose mental state is of utmost importance to humanity4 ,the political situation in most countries is capable of producing at any moment a man who1 without being either an author or an artist1 might be able to change the destiny of nations4 ,it is not the opportunity that is wanting1 it is the men4 ,france is panting for a man4 ,the working classes in ,america and in ,england stand in need of a good leader4 ,in ,germany ,liebknecht threatens to divide the power with the ,emperor4 ,a political ,tolstoi might1 at the head of the ,russian people1 sweep the recreant bureaucrats from his ,fatherland4 ,it is then sovereigns1 politicians1 and popular leaders whose mental state is of the utmost importance1 and whose influence may overwhelmingly determine the mental and moral development of humanity4 ,an answer to the question whether they are degenerates1 or whether they are of mentally or morally sound mind1 is momentous to the whole civilized world1 especially if it be admitted that the minds of the race are so susceptible of being moulded by the minds of influential men4 ,but who are the men whom ,nordau blames for the degeneracy for which he finds the proof in statistics8 ,poets and artists1 whose very names are known only to the educated classes1 and who for the most part supply what the market demands1 or simply reflect the society around them4 ,the most surprising of all is that he himself denies any power or any talent in some of these men1 calling them--to omit his worse epithets--such names as drivelling idiots1 weak-minded graphomaniacs1 etc4 ,one condition seems however necessary before a man can receive the compliment of being called names by ,nordau--he must have attracted public attention4 ,we have therefore said1 and repeat it1 that his desperate attempt to make out ,ibsen to be a degenerate renders it impossible to form a clear idea of his object1 or of his reasons1 for the methods he has adopted4 ,henrik ,ibsen aims not at being a prophet1 a teacher1 or a regenerator of mankind either by literary or scientific methods4 ,no one can detect in his works special ethics1 or particular religious or social views4 ,it is characteristic of his pieces--and according to many of his opponents a great fault in them--that he points no moral1 that the questions involved remain at the end of the piece exactly where they were at the beginning1 that his heroes and heroines are no heroes and no heroines1 and cannot serve as models of conduct4 ,his opponents and admirers alike complain that they cannot get at his meaning1 and that he will not explain himself4 ,it is therefore surprising that there should be so much talk about the influence he exercises1 and that ,nordau himself should speak about 8,ibsen's dogmas10 8,ibsen's code of morals10 and about ,ibsen himself as a 8reformer40 ,those who speak about ,ibsen's influence on the ethics of our time cannot1 as a rule1 give any explanation of their meaning which can justify the importance they attach to it4 ,they are apt to point to his influence on the ,english drama and blame him for certain of its objectionable features4 ,but to those who understand his pieces it is perfectly clear that he has not been followed by ,english dramatists in such things as have made him famous and popular4 ,they have contented themselves with imitating certain situations and with referring to some objectionable feature in modern society1 which ,ibsen does reluctantly1 compelled to do so by the situation1 and in order to emphasize types of character which are only too common in every civilized country1 but are so closely draped in hypocrisy as to require the great dramatist's lens to show them up4 ,his imitators however exemplify entirely exceptional cases and conjure up characters the prototypes of which it would be extremely hard to find4 ,he aims at presenting stern reality2 they aim at producing risky situations4 ,indeed1 his imitators cannot be said to have been influenced by him more than has his brilliant parodist1 ,mr4 ,f4 ,anstey4 ,in ,germany1 as in the ,scandinavian countries1 complaints are sometimes raised against ,ibsen's influence on women1 especially young women4 ,our daughters are getting ,ibsenized1 is the cry raised by a number of ,philistine parents4 ,it is perhaps natural that ,ibsen's influence on women in those countries1 where the staging of ,ibsen's pieces recalls more familiar presentations should be greater than in ,england1 where the ,norwegian manner of life is but little known4 ,but too much weight might easily be attached to the difference in acquaintance with ,norway4 ,there is a far more powerful reason why ,ibsen's so-called influence should appear to be more marked on ,german and ,norwegian women than on ,english women4 ,with the exception of the ,united ,states1 there is no country in the world where respectable women are better treated than in ,england4 ,an old adage says1 with a great deal of truth1 that the wife of the ,german is his slave1 the wife of the ,frenchman is his mistress1 and the wife of the ,englishman is the queen of his house4 ,the ,german woman certainly has of old held a position in her home which might well lead her to envy the ,english woman1 and as the ,scandinavian countries have been largely affected by ,germany in their social manners and habits1 the women of these countries have ample cause for dissatisfaction4 ,since the time of ,frederika ,bremer1 a woman's revolt has been brewing in the ,scandinavian countries1 and the aspirations for more liberty1 a more natural life1 and more happiness have been constantly becoming stronger1 and were highly developed before ,ibsen's first piece appeared4 ,besides1 the spread of ,english fiction in ,germany and in the northern countries of ,europe has shown the women of those countries that a happier life is quite possible4 ,the road to the realization of such aspirations was however barred by custom and the selfish view of the question taken by the men4 ,they had no objection to high-spirited1 talented1 well-dressed1 and lively women1 whose attractions could evoke in them romantic and ardent feelings2 and a great many knew well enough that leisure1 exemption from hard work1 good food1 plenty of exercise1 suitable friends1 artistic surroundings1 good books1 a fair amount of pleasure1 and considerate treatment were required to transform a young woman into that feminine ideal which they worshipped in their imagination4 ,but they repudiated entirely the idea of having such ideals in their wives4 ,it would have clashed far too much with the traditional type of a good wife1 and to marry one deviating from this type would have set the whole circle of acquaintances talking4 ,besides1 a wife conforming to the ideal was considered an expensive luxury1 leading to waste of money which could be much better employed4 ,mothers of girls1 well acquainted with the marriage market1 consequently exerted all their energy to form their daughters for the positions they were expected to occupy4 ,house-cleaning1 washing1 cooking1 darning1 etc41--this was what they had to learn4 ,a demure demeanour was what they had to practise4 ,the society of men was what they had to avoid4 ,romantic ideas had1 above all1 to be suppressed1 and only such love as would come after marriage1 or at least after betrothal1 was considered legitimate and decent4 ,a great feature in their education was to closely observe the evils and troubles which followed upon poverty1 and how much more comfortable life would be with a prosperous though unattractive husband than with a beloved man who might not succeed in the world4 ,the idea of refusing a proposal of marriage from a well-to-do man1 however old and prosy1 was regarded as preposterous1 and any respectable girl dreaming of such a thing would have been considered as a romantic1 ungrateful hussy4 ,as the men seldom married young1 the girls were taught to ask no questions about their past1 and were trained to sacrifice all their ideals of purity1 their dreams of love1 what a free woman would call her self-respect1 their future happiness1 their healthful youth1 on the altar of ,philistine respectability4 ,there are other ways of degrading women besides yoking them with an ox to a plough1 and that they were degraded and de-naturalized the thinking ,german and ,scandinavian women had felt long before ,ibsen wrote plays4 ,the struggle for better treatment was however extremely weak and the progress towards emancipation extremely slow4 ,just as oppressive government1 with its police persecution1 gags open discontent and drives the forces of revolt under ground1 so the tyranny over the ,german and ,scandinavian women--when tradition and prejudice prevented open manifestations--developed in the hearts of women1 especially among the most gifted1 a dangerously strong spirit of revolt4 ,already at the time when ,ibsen began to write there were numerous but isolated outbreaks4 ,the old treatment1 which generally resulted in turning the married woman into a dull1 despondent house-slave1 a soured invalid1 a nagging scold1 or a gossiping zany1 began to produce scoffing ,aspasias1 neurotic adventuresses1 and here and there avenging furies4 ,this tendency to revolt among the women was stronger in ,norway than in the other countries1 because it developed parallel with that ethical awakening--the new ,aand#a--which during the latter part of this century has taken possession of so many ,norwegian minds2 also because the strongly imaginative and contemplative character of the ,norwegian people1 and the intensely emotional nature of their women1 led them to brood over their wrongs in a thoroughly ,norwegian fashion4 ,better education and wide reading tended in the same direction4 ,footnote #a3 ,aand1 the ,norwegian for spirit1 inspiration4 ,ibsen has therefore not ,ibsenized the ,scandinavian ladies4 ,he has simply seized upon a social phenomenon and1 understanding its gravity1 has held it up to his contemporaries for a study and a warning4 ,nordau1 having committed the egregious mistake of believing that ,ibsen has invented whereas he has in reality only copied1 and that a social phenomenon which is natural to intellectual and moral progress is a result of ,ibsen's writings1 is1 in his capacity of the most ,german of ,germans1 naturally wroth with ,ibsen for representing as a social evil what a normal sound-minded common-sense ,german--the very type of the non-degenerate--would consider as a useful and comfortable arrangement4 ,there are several excuses for ,nordau's belief that ,ibsen misrepresents reality4 ,the improvement in woman's status in society has no doubt advanced more in ,germany than in the ,scandinavian countries4 ,it is possible that the ,dowager ,empress's influence as an ,englishwoman has not been so great as is generally supposed1 but there can be little doubt that ,english novels1 from ,charlotte ,bront's ,jane ,eyre upwards1 have considerably furthered justice towards ,german women4 ,the close business connections between ,germany and ,england1 the numerous ,germans who have had a long experience of ,english life1 have no doubt done much to spread ,english social views in ,germany4 ,the ,german women may therefore now have less cause for discontent and revolt than the ,scandinavian women1 and it is excusable if the ,germans consider that they treat them fairly and well4 ,to observing ,englishmen who visit ,germany it is however clear that the whole ,philistine idea of the housewife is still prevailing in that country4 ,a great number of husbands consider it a distinct advantage to be able to throw off all restraint in their own homes and to compel their wives to accommodate themselves as well as they can to their whims1 their habits1 their indulgences4 ,that exasperating type1 the house-tyrant1 which is found in all countries1 and not seldom in ,england1 is especially prevalent in ,germany4 ,german men are well aware that their wives have nothing in common with the fascinating ideal woman of their imagination1 and they are quite satisfied that it should be so4 ,their work1 their studies1 their profession1 or their business demands all their attention1 and they could not dream of dismissing them from their minds when they enter their homes4 ,a woman who would distract her husband's attention from such important subjects would be an impediment to his success1 while the typical housewife1 by her cares and ministrations1 furthers it4 ,like most men1 ,germans have chivalrous leanings1 and enjoy a courteous intercourse with ladies1 but it is generally not their wives who reap the advantages of this taste4 ,it is the other ladies1 those they meet in society1 and not seldom do they muster all their powers of gallantry1 all their means of pleasing1 and all their faculty to amuse in the company of women of light character1 often in every respect inferior to their wives4 ,it is those ,german women who feel that their happiness and their lives have been sacrificed1 not for their husbands1 but to a vicious conception of married life1 who sympathize with the women of ,ibsen1 and have thus contributed largely to the fame of that dramatist in ,germany4 ,ibsen has not ,ibsenized the ,german ladies1 but his pieces have revealed the existence of a grudge long harboured by ,german women4 ,it is only just to record that1 though ,englishwomen1 especially those who live and are treated up to the ,english ideal1 as we mentioned before1 live under much happier circumstances as children1 girls1 fiances1 and wives1 there are many of our countrywomen whose marriages have been a cruel disillusion4 ,many ,englishmen marry too young1 before they know their own minds1 and under the feverish impulse of a first love4 ,when such young husbands are thoughtless1 selfish1 or when they have made a bad choice1 a miserable married life is the result4 ,in a great number of young households happiness prevails1 thanks to the strong-mindedness and tact of the young wife1 who can take care of herself and of her husband also4 ,but thousands of marriages turn out utter failures1 not for want of love1 but from the husband's utter ignorance of how to take care of his wife's health1 beauty1 and happiness4 ,though it is the fashion in this country not to adapt but to translate literally ,ibsen's pieces1 there would be no difficulty to so adapt them as to render them exact representations of the state of many an ,english home4 ,and this is sufficient to explain his fame in ,england4 ,here1 as on the continent1 it is the selfish1 mean1 bullying husbands who cannot find any sense in ,ibsen's pieces1 and who are extremely shocked at what they consider ,ibsen's perversion in attempting to enlist1 by inexplicable devices1 the sympathies of the audience for the erring wife1 when these should be vouchsafed to the husband1 who appears to be such a respectable1 common-sense man4 ,when ,ibsen thus calls attention to the importance and the gravity of the feeling of revolt which has long rankled in the minds of thinking women all over the world1 and which manifested itself long before ,ibsen's pieces were known outside ,norway1 he cannot fairly be said to be responsible for the growing discontent4 ,in reality1 he has rendered the world a great service3 for the new views and aspirations of modern educated women can neither be suppressed nor ignored without considerable danger to society4 ,in order to understand that the demand for the purification of marriage is not a transitory whim1 it will suffice to consider who made the marriage laws1 and1 what is more important1 who inaugurated the traditional views concerning them4 ,men alone did4 ,not the young men1 who would be largely swayed by the yearning for true love and by chivalrous considerations1 but the law-makers of old2 that is to say1 elderly men of influence and fortune4 ,in the olden times1 when the foundations of social customs were laid1 the rights of women were considerably less respected than in our days2 and under such circumstances the law-makers did not feel called upon to consider woman to any large extent1 but made laws and introduced customs which suited themselves4 ,what they wanted was1 firstly1 to marry young and beautiful wives1 despite all objections that might be raised against their age1 their looks1 or their characters1 and without much troublesome courtship2 and1 secondly1 to keep their young wives in subjection by sheer force and legal compulsion4 ,it is not reasonable to suppose that the fair sex should submit for ever to such treatment1 and1 as the women in the ,english-speaking countries have already gained large concessions1 it is natural that their sisters in the rest of the civilized world should struggle for reform4 ,it is therefore difficult to see why ,nordau should consider ,ibsen's influence so dangerous to society as to deem it necessary to hold him up as a degenerate4 ,the enigma becomes more puzzling when we find that ,nordau frankly allows that ,ibsen has great merits and great talents4 ,he says1 for instance3 8,henrik ,ibsen is a poet of great verve and power40 8,he has the gift of depicting in an exceptionally lifelike and impressive manner that which has excited his feelings40 8,he has the capacity for imagining situations in which the characters are forced to turn inside out their inmost nature1 in which abstract ideas transform themselves into deeds1 and moods of opinion and of feeling1 imperceptible to the senses but potent as causes1 are made patent to sight and hearing in attitudes and gestures1 in the play of feature1 and in words40 8,he knows how to group events into living frescoes possessing the charm of significant pictures444 not like ,wagner1 with strange costumes and properties1 architectural splendour1 mechanical magic1 gods and fabulous beasts1 but with penetrating vision into the background of souls and the conditions of humanity4444 ,but he does not allow the imagination of the spectator to run riot in mere spectacles2 he forces them into moods1 he binds them by his spell in circles of ideas1 through the pictures which he unrolls before them40 8,the power with which ,ibsen1 in a few rapid strokes1 sketches a situation1 an emotion1 a dim-lit depth of the soul1 is very much higher than his skill1 so much extolled1 of foreshortening in time444 ,each of the terse words which suffice him has something of the nature of a peep-hole1 through which limitless vistas are obtained4 ,the plays of all peoples of all ages have few situations at once so perfectly simple and so irresistibly affecting40 ,further on he again says3 8,it must be acknowledged that ,ibsen has created some characters possessing a truth to life and a completeness such as are not to be met with in any poet since ,shakespeare444 ,none the less no poet since the illustrious ,spanish master 7,cervantes7 has succeeded in creating such an embodiment of plain1 jolly1 healthy common-sense1 of practical tact without anxiety as to things eternal1 and of honest fulfilment of all proximate1 obvious duties without a suspicion of higher moral obligations1 as this ,gina4444 ,hjalmar also is a perfect creation1 in which ,ibsen has not once succumbed to the cogent temptation to exaggerate1 but has exercised most entrancingly that #8self-restraint' in every word which1 as ,goethe says1 #8reveals the master4'0 ,we have quoted somewhat lengthily from this eulogy of ,ibsen in order to render justice both to him and to ,nordau4 ,there is no passage in ,nordau's book which displays more insight into dramatic art and a more intelligent appreciation of some of the subtle but marvellous merits of ,ibsen's plays4 ,we should not have thought it possible that so keen an appreciation could have been formed without seeing ,ibsen's pieces acted in the original language4 ,this eulogy becomes all the more valuable when we remember that it emanates from one of ,ibsen's opponents--from a man who would fain restrain ,ibsen from writing at all1 and who evidently has not paid any attention to the slow but important social struggle which ,ibsen so frequently illustrates4 ,most people who have read these and other acknowledgments on the part of ,nordau of ,ibsen's talent1 will be struck with the reckless manner in which ,nordau defeats his own object4 ,he wishes to warn the world against 8degenerates0 of ,ibsen's type1 and at the same time praises him as few writers have been praised1 seemingly without considering that in this manner he inspires thousands of young writers with the ambition to be degenerates as ,ibsen is4 ,to the average reader ,nordau suggests the idea of the impossibility of reconciling so much power1 genius1 talent1 and craftsmanship with decayed mental faculties4 ,this all the more as ,ibsen's pieces are financial successes1 and he consequently shows a solid capacity for the management of his own affairs1 which1 as ,nordau has already told us1 and every alienist would tell us1 is the safest test of a sound brain4 ,the conclusion seems inevitable that ,nordau is either utterly wrong when he sees all these merits in ,ibsen's work1 or else when he considers him to be degenerate4 ,in examining the grounds on which ,nordau strives to establish his theory of degeneracy we shall no doubt find that the latter alternative is the true one4 ,nordau first impeaches ,ibsen's reputation for realism1 but takes this term in its most literal sense4 ,the stage has its limitations1 and the dramatist must have a certain licence in the creating of his situations4 ,ibsen is not called a realist because all that he represents on the stage is in closer conformity with reality than the representations of practically any other dramatist ever were1 but because his characters1 besides being individually true to nature1 are types--strongly coloured types1 it may be1 but not too strongly coloured to be understood by an average audience4 ,in a piece not intended to be played the characters may be more delicately moulded1 but when they are to be grasped in a few flashes before the footlights they must1 like the statue intended for an elevated position1 be hewn in bold proportions4 ,in order to show how unreal ,ibsen is1 ,nordau asks whether it is probable that the joiner1 ,engstrand 7in ,ghosts71 wishing to open a tavern for sailors1 should call upon his own daughter to be the odalisque of his 8establishment40 ,by using the word 8odalisque10 and by placing the word 8establishment0 between inverted commas1 he gives a distorted idea of the tavern ,engstrand is going to open4 ,it is a question of a real tavern1 not of an 8establishment40 ,girls in similar taverns in ,norway are of course exposed to temptations and sometimes to insults1 but they are by no means necessarily unchaste4 ,in selecting the employment in the tavern1 ,ibsen succeeds in giving an insight into the ,philistine character of ,engstrand1 who for the sake of money would risk his daughter's reputation1 but who could always fall back on the excuse that he did not intend to ruin her4 ,nordau may be right when he says that no ,paris doctor would have told ,oswald ,alving in ,ghosts that he had softening of the brain4 ,but ,ibsen does not say 8softening of the brain02 he makes ,alving say 8a kind of softening of the brain10 an expression which might very well be ,oswald's interpretation of what the doctor had told him in very guarded words4 ,moreover it is not as an alienist that ,ibsen has gained his fame2 it is as a dramatist4 ,nordau quotes as another example of unreality1 the sense in which the term 8society0 is used by the characters in the ,pillars of ,society4 ,this is an error into which ,nordau has evidently been led by reading a bad ,german translation of the piece4 ,ibsen's characters do not mean 8social edifice10 as ,nordau pedantically will have it1 but the well-to-do people in the community4 ,again1 he thinks that excuse very unreal which ,berneck gives to his foreman1 whom he has not taken into his confidence4 ,but this unreality is precisely what ,ibsen wishes the public to see1 and he has evidently not accentuated the unreality sufficiently1 as this has escaped even ,nordau4 ,nordau does not find the speech of ,pastor ,rrlund realistic enough4 ,the fact is that the speech is a delightful parody1 in no way exaggerated1 of those addresses which toadying sycophants all the world over are in the habit of delivering to a magnate whom they desire to propitiate4 ,any one who has heard such a speech in ,norway will be amusedly surprised by its comic realism4 ,it would be tiresome to go minutely into the proofs of unreality ,nordau finds in ,ibsen's pieces1 and the bare mention of the following examples will suffice to show the futility of his attempt4 ,he considers it impossible for a man of forty-three to inspire love1 and this in ,norway1 where people develop and ripen so slowly4 ,he thinks it unreal for an excitable girl to describe as a storm on the sea the passion which induces her to encourage her rival's suicide1 and then when the rival is out of the way patiently to devote a year and a half to gaining the love for which her sin was committed4 ,our alienist1 who displays throughout his book an utter lack of the sense of the ridiculous1 finds the scene between ,ellida1 ,wangel1 and the ,stranger in ,the ,lady from the ,sea ridiculous1 a scene which thousands of audiences have followed in breathless silence and with deep emotion4 ,the puzzle is why ,nordau is so anxious to show that ,ibsen is not a realist1 and how his not being a realist can possibly be construed into an argument in favour of his insanity4 ,are then all the people who1 as a matter of taste or as a matter of business1 supply the public with unrealistic dramas to be considered more or less demented8 ,if this is the case1 what becomes of the mental sanity of ,nordau's great model1 ,goethe1 the author of the intensely unreal ,faust8 ,referring to the theory of heredity1 frequently alluded to in ,ibsen's works1 ,nordau says he cannot preserve his gravity when ,ibsen displays his scientific or medical knowledge4 ,here again we are tempted to refer to the sandal-maker and the sandal-strings2 but there is actually no occasion to do so1 because ,ibsen displaying his medical knowledge is a picture conjured up by ,nordau's own imagination4 ,we do not know what ,ibsen does in his private life1 but in his dramatic works he does not display his medical knowledge4 ,what suits ,nordau's purpose to give as ,ibsen's opinions are the opinions of his characters1 who1 being true to nature1 speak as their prototypes in reality speak4 ,it suits ,ibsen's dramatic purposes to make use of certain views on heredity1 and he is all the more entitled to do so as such opinions are very prevalent nowadays1 and not without exercising a considerable influence on people's minds4 ,ibsen may have exactly the same opinion as his characters give expression to1 or he may think the very opposite1 but those who thoroughly understand ,ibsen's method will be convinced that he would not commit the mistake1 so common among dramatists1 of allowing his characters to reflect the author's personality4 ,when ,regina1 in ,ghosts1 in reply to ,mrs4 ,alving1 who is harping on heredity1 says1 8,what must be1 must be444 ,i take after my mother ,i dare say10 she does not express ,ibsen's opinion about heredity1 but that fatalistic notion which is unfortunately extremely common among women1 especially when in trouble or at fault1 and a reference to her mother is only a confirmation of her fatalistic belief1 at which she clutches that she may rid herself of her responsibility4 ,if we must look for a tendency in ,ibsen's works1 it might be found in his attempt to show up this generally prevailing weakness in will and character which ,nordau himself finds everywhere and which he calls degeneration4 ,regina1 as well as ,oswald1 are 8frightful examples0 of this weakness1 and in placing them on the stage ,ibsen has the same object as ,nordau1 namely1 to exhibit a deplorable defect in modern society4 ,ibsen may therefore be looked upon as ,nordau's co-operator1 and even precursor1 because ,ibsen's characters are types of that very degeneration which ,nordau desires to combat4 ,in fact1 the importance that our alienist attaches to ,ibsen's characters suggests the idea that if there were no ,ibsen there would be no ,nordau4 ,by the aid of an extremely confused and distorted reasoning1 he condemns ,ibsen for that very weakness which he1 like ,nordau1 has discovered in modern society and incarnated in his characters as a warning to his contemporaries4 ,if we had not a strong objection to the tu quoque argument1 and were not resolved to avoid it1 we could here say a great deal about ,nordau's condemnation of ,ibsen's supposed illogical references to heredity1 while ,nordau himself yields to the temptation of using the absurdest logic in order to discover supposed proofs in favour of his own pet theories4 ,even supposing that ,ibsen did believe in heredity1 is he not in harmony with his time8 ,one does not require to be an alienist or a biologist to understand that the ,darwinian theory of evolution is the theory of heredity2 and one does not require to be very old to have observed that the characteristics of parents often repeat themselves in their children4 ,in his criticism of ,ibsen1 ,nordau seems to go too far when he casts discredit on the theory of heredity1 with regard to which he himself goes to an extreme when he attributes to heredity the lurking belief in a personal ,god in the inmost recesses of the consciousness of certain scientists4 ,the manner in which he refers to little ,hedwig's blindness will certainly induce his readers to infer that he himself does not believe in cases of hereditary blindness--an affliction which has however come within the knowledge of many4 ,nordau1 in his purposeless eagerness to tear ,ibsen down from his pedestal1 seems to imagine that he would further his object if he could show that ,ibsen is influenced by the religion of his childhood1 of his youth1 and of his country4 ,to be influenced by such religion has been the case with many sane people of strong mind1 especially in countries where the morality implanted in young children is based entirely on religious instruction4 ,even when a man ceases to believe literally all that has been taught him1 it is natural that his religious thoughts should mould themselves on the early impressions1 which then become symbols instead of fact4 ,this is especially natural with people whose walk in life has precluded them from giving that absorbing attention to psychology and biology which to a sound mind is indispensable before it can master1 or believe1 the scientists' theories of 8mechanical causality10 and the annihilation of the conscious ,ego4 ,nordau1 like many other scientific enthusiasts1 seems to labour under the impression that all the loud-voiced people1 who affect complete irreligiosity1 and who pose as free-thinkers1 are really convinced that the scientific discovery of yesterday1 which might be upset by the discovery of to-morrow1 sufficiently explains the world and themselves4 ,this is far from being the case4 ,how often when we scratch the atheist do we not find the superstitiously devout4 ,how many men could be found in the world who are so capable of satisfying all their curiosity regarding the unknown by scientific theories that they might be quoted in support of the artificiality of religious instincts8 ,they would certainly number very few4 ,and yet scientists of ,nordau's stamp are apt to regard such men as the only really sane ones1 and the rest of humanity as to some extent degenerate4 ,but how does ,nordau know anything about ,ibsen's religious opinions8 ,he simply studies the characters in ,ibsen's pieces and takes for granted that ,ibsen must necessarily hold the same opinions as his characters4 ,this absurd assumption1 indispensable to his purpose1 leads him sometimes into ridiculous dilemmas from which he escapes in a not less ridiculous manner4 ,when he finds that ,ibsen has dramatis person of diametrically opposed opinions and beliefs1 he does not know which of them represents ,ibsen's opinions and ,ibsen's beliefs4 ,determined not to notice the simple fact that none of them represent ,ibsen's views1 he falls back on the expediency of declaring that1 because his characters differ1 ,ibsen does not know his own mind1 a fact which in our alienist's view points to degeneracy4 ,he quotes copiously from ,ibsen's pieces in order to show that those characters who have committed evil deeds1 without having resigned themselves to being utterly bad1 yearn for confession4 ,from this we must conclude that ,nordau considers a longing for confession in those who have sinned as an obsession and as pertaining to stigmata of degeneration4 ,to make capital out of this1 ,nordau sticks hard to his assumption that ,ibsen's object is to preach some kind of creed by proclaiming his own opinions through his characters4 ,few people in the world really know what ,ibsen's final object and real aims are2 but his immediate object1 it will be granted1 is to show his contemporaries what they really are1 and so sternly and so cogently does he pursue this object that1 while other dramatists show their spectators the defects of others1 ,ibsen lays bare their own4 ,in showing sinners' yearnings for confession1 ,ibsen could not therefore be wrong unless a longing for confession in sinners is unreal or unusual4 ,far from being unusual1 we find it in almost every human being1 from the innocent child down to the brutal criminal4 ,the police and law-court reports in ,england frequently relate cases in which men and women confess crimes which would never have been discovered1 simply to satisfy a conscience yearning for confession4 ,we have nothing to do here with the question as to whether this first step towards a better life is longed for in obedience to an instinct implanted in the emotional nature of man by a ,creator1 or whether it is the consequence of an inherited tendency originated by religious teaching and moral civil laws4 ,we have only to deal with the fact that the conscience of all evil-doers1 and especially of those who are willing to abandon evil and return to good1 prompts them to confess4 ,nordau has only to consult a ,catholic priest in order to learn how strong and general this yearning is4 ,it must also be remembered that confession1 if not to priests yet to ,god1 is part of the ,lutheran creed prevailing in ,norway1 and that consequently confession is regarded by the people as the test of true repentance4 ,though auricular confession is not a sacrament in the ,lutheran ,church1 the ,norwegian ministers could tell ,nordau how often sinners and criminals ease their consciences by confessing to them4 ,it is hardly possible to write a serious dramatic piece without representing a struggle between good and evil4 ,and how then could ,ibsen write dramas true to ,norwegian life1 without instancing that yearning for confession which is the outward sign of the inward struggle between good and evil8 ,nordau instances the ,french assassin ,avinain1 who before being guillotined gave out as his life's motto 8,never confess10 as an example of a strong and healthy mind--or1 at least1 he regards this motto as one which only a strong and healthy mind can follow4 ,on the other hand1 he regards confessing men as men 8in whom the mechanism of inhibition is always disordered1 and who therefore cannot escape from the impulse to confess when anything of an absorbing or exciting character exists in their consciousness40 ,in this comparison ,nordau omits the chief factor--the religious opinion1 or the philosophy which necessarily determines whether the confession is a sign of strength or weakness4 ,if the murderer ,avinain was a confirmed atheist1 and if his emotional nature was such as to glorify murder1 then he had no impulse to confess1 and consequently required no strength of mind to resist confession4 ,if the man who glories in what is good--or1 to use an expression of ,nordau's1 who has social instincts1 and consequently believes that confession is his duty and an heroic action--should shun the ordeal and prefer to spend the rest of his life as a self-despising hypocrite1 this would be weak-mindedness4 ,of course ,nordau may always argue that to believe in the good and in personal responsibility is in itself a sign of degeneration4 ,but this would be simply to place the question on another plane1 where we have already discussed it4 ,what is said here about confession applies equally to what ,nordau says about redemption4 ,it is not1 as he states1 an obsession of ,ibsen's1 but a symbol very natural to a people of strong religious feelings4 ,his characters could not possibly express their ideas and their emotions in any other way than that in which they have been in the habit of thinking all their lives4 ,nordau cannot rid himself of the obsession that the dramatist must necessarily take a side in the squabble between religion and science1 and between the devotees of different social panaceas1 and seems exasperated because he cannot get at ,ibsen's real opinion on such questions4 ,when he persists in his egregious error of taking the opinions of ,ibsen's characters as those of ,ibsen1 his mind gets into a maze1 which leads him to the conclusion that it is ,ibsen's mind1 not his own1 that has got into a confused state4 ,it is very common to find a man1 who1 by dint of study or by natural talent1 has become an authority on one subject1 so far losing his power of self-criticism as to believe himself a universal genius1 capable of dogmatizing on every subject under the sun4 ,it is this conceit that induces successful men to imagine that their natural specialty is not that one which has rendered them famous1 but some other specialty for which in reality they have no aptitude whatever4 ,a successful comedian believes himself to be hardly dealt with because he is not acknowledged as a tragedian4 ,a musician considers himself an authority on the drama4 ,the poet thinks he ought to have been a politician4 ,biologists imagine they would shine as social reformers4 ,it is because ,ibsen has not yielded to this weakness1 because he has not the conceit to lay down the law on questions outside his own province1 but simply aspires to be a dramatist1 that ,nordau complains so bitterly of ,ibsen's omission to express a distinct opinion on all sorts of subjects on which ,nordau burns to break a lance with him4 ,he tilts against the opinions expressed by ,ibsen's characters with the wasted fury of ,don ,quixote attacking windmills4 ,we are at a loss to account for the contradictions of which ,nordau appears to be guilty4 ,much of what he says in the latter part of his essay on ,ibsen is in direct contradiction to what he says in the earlier part1 where his praise of ,ibsen's talents and abilities is conspicuous4 ,we will give an example of what we mean4 ,he says at the beginning of his chapter3 8,each of the terse words which suffice him ,ibsen has something of the nature of a peep-hole1 through which limitless vistas are obtained40 ,towards the end of it he says3 8,thus ,ibsen's drama is like a kaleidoscope in a sixpenny bazaar4 ,when one looks through the peep-hole1 one sees at each shaking of the cardboard tube new and parti-coloured combinations4 ,children are amused at this toy1 but adults know that it contains only splinters of coloured glass1 always the same1 inserted haphazard and united into mystical figures by three bits of looking-glass1 and they soon tire of the expressionless arabesque40 ,can this contradiction be the result of his great trust in authorities1 and has he made use of two that clash1 or does he write for writing's sake1 differently each day according to the mood he happens to be in8 ,when ,ibsen's characters give expression to their yearnings for greater personal liberty1 for a revolt against social traditions which threaten to wreck their lives1 and which they have beheld wrecking the lives of hundreds around them1 they are intended by the dramatist to show what is going on in modern society4 ,nordau of course concludes that ,ibsen is an egomaniac who resents any bonds on his worst instincts4 ,supposing that ,ibsen shares personally that same longing for more individual freedom which ,nordau so warmly deprecates1 it is evident that they differ simply because ,nordau starts from the supposition that men's instincts are necessarily bad1 and ,ibsen from the supposition that they are good4 ,the fundamental difference in opinion mainly springs from the different circumstances amongst which the two men have been born and brought up4 ,the ,german1 who has all his life been impressed with the necessity of officialism and police government1 who has lived under the impression that his castle would be attacked by a lower caste when free to follow its inclinations1 would naturally attach great importance to existing institutions4 ,if he at the same time be illogical enough to sap at the root of that great order-producing institution--religion--and beholds that this safeguard is becoming more and more unreliable1 he naturally looks for something to take its place4 ,the ,german social system1 so unjust to the working classes1 has naturally embittered the people and enlisted a number of working men into the revolutionary parties1 and this growing army of so-called enemies to society naturally alarms the ,german middle-class man and prejudices him against the proletariat4 ,passions and destructive instincts1 instilled by long suffering1 he is apt to regard as human nature from which the worst must be expected4 ,this explains many of ,nordau's contradictions4 ,he wishes to abolish religion because its abolition would glorify science1 but he wishes to retain the marriage laws because he fears that without them an unspeakable state of immorality would ensue4 ,he denies a divine plan in creation which might account for the moral instinct in man1 but he does not believe that morality has sprung from the only remaining source1 namely1 man's experience of the advantages of morality4 ,his habit of bowing to authorities causes him to believe that morality and a pure family life are the result of the marriage laws1 and not that the marriage laws are the result of man's love of morality and of a pure family life4 ,the ,norwegian is born and brought up in a country where liberty has been the basis and safeguard of moral order2 where few police are found in the cities1 and where1 throughout vast tracts of country1 man's good instincts are the only police2 where the peasant and working classes have no desire or intention to attack the wealthy2 where the people are religious because they are honest and not honest because they are religious2 where self-esteem and justice would take the place of religion were it to crumble4 ,the ,norwegian has noticed that the poor are more generous than the rich1 that the people are more honest than their officials1 that the free man and woman are more moral than the tied ones1 and that liberty elevates and oppressive laws degrade4 ,if the ,norwegian seems to attach little importance to legal marriage1 it is because1 in cleansing it from mercenary considerations and other low motives1 he hopes to base it on such foundations as moral instinct1 love1 self-respect1 honour1 and possibly on religious belief1 and thereby make it a life-long reality4 ,it is not to gratify low instincts and licentious passions1 as ,nordau would have it1 that he wishes for reform4 ,he may be mistaken in his motives1 but this is no excuse for attributing vile motives to him4 ,nordau is not the only one who is puzzled by the many peculiarities of ,ibsen's plays4 ,like him1 many ,english theatre-goers wonder why his best types and his leading characters1 as a rule1 are so void of nobility1 fine feeling1 and high principles2 why he always places his scenes in small towns1 and not among the romantically wild country and the picturesque peasants1 as ,bjrnsen and ,jonas ,lie have often done2 why he represents the so-called respectable and official classes in so unfavourable a light2 why his women seem to be morally and intellectually superior to his men4 ,in order to elucidate these questions and many other peculiarities in ,ibsen's plays and characters1 as well as some of the reasons why a ,german critic should disapprove of ,ibsen1 it should be remembered that in ,norway two cultures have met and struggled--the ,german and ,scandinavian--but have not blended4 ,of the ,scandinavian nations1 the ,norwegians may be considered as the extreme type4 ,while they differ from the ,danes and ,swedes considerably1 they differ still more from the ,germans4 ,their characteristics arise not only from race1 but largely from surroundings and modes of life4 ,the genuine ,norwegian people have of old lived scattered over a vast area of country1 separated by high fjelds and broad fjords1 foaming torrents and dense woods1 only sparingly communicating with each other1 and still less with strangers1 and hearing little of the outside world1 they have grown into a silent1 thinking1 and deep-feeling nation4 ,they have inherited from the old ,viking times an unquenchable love of liberty1 and all their institutions1 their customs1 their principles1 have developed in freedom1 and such virtues as they have and of which they are most proud1 are the outcome of personal independence4 ,accustomed to personal danger on the snow-clad mountain-paths1 in the vast forests1 and in small open boats upon the stormy fjords1 they have acquired an extraordinary degree of self-reliance4 ,unused to1 and distrustful of1 foreign ways1 and seldom successful in foreign countries1 they harbour an intense love of ,norway and for anything ,norwegian2 and while they may conceitedly think that everything that is ,norwegian is great and noble1 they certainly endeavour to put a stamp of nobility and greatness on everything that is ,norwegian4 ,they are proud1 generous1 loyal1 hospitable1 and can never be persuaded that lowly circumstances or poverty could possibly be an excuse for an unroyal conduct4 ,born and bred amid snow-capped mountains1 deep valleys1 perpendicular rocks1 a jagged1 stormy coast--the whole wearing an air of solemn and lonely grandeur--the ,norwegians are a meditative and highly imaginative people4 ,the stirring natural phenomena peculiar to the country cannot fail to stimulate their imagination4 ,the snow-storms1 the ice-avalanches1 the light summer nights1 the brilliant moonlight diffused over the abrupt mountains1 the dark forests and the glittering fjords1 the raging storms from the ,atlantic1 the flaming midnight winter skies1 the sunsets which so wondrously illumine the whole coast-line--such scenes1 such pictures1 sink into their minds and quicken their emotions4 ,what wonder1 then1 if they are full of folk-lore and the supernatural has for them an irresistible charm8 ,they are superstitious1 and believe that their actions and lives are influenced by gnomes1 fairies1 and trolls4 ,old heathen ceremonies for the propitiation of the spirits are still in vogue4 ,they are deeply moved by music and poetry1 and have a strong predilection for all that is heroic and great4 ,it is not surprising that in ,german translations of ,norwegian writings--for which ,nordau blames ,ibsen's degeneracy--adjectives should have taken a new meaning2 for in ,norway they have been influenced by nature's grandeur4 ,when ,norwegians say 8great10 they mean great as the fjeld1 great as the boundless ocean2 when they say 8silent10 they mean silent as the wood in the short summer night4 ,consequently1 when a man1 an action1 a thing1 is described to them1 they are apt to measure it by the standard of nature's extremes around them4 ,they are always disappointed when they behold the wonders of civilization described to them as great and wonderful4 ,they would call the ruins of the ,coliseum mean1 and think no more of the pyramids than of ant-hills4 ,their ideas of a great man could probably never be realized1 and their wonder is considerable at finding the mighty lords of ,england so unlike demi-gods4 ,it was the ,hanseatic ,league that brought this stern and haughty people into contact with ,german culture4 ,this remarkable federation of enterprising ,german merchants discovered that profits could be made out of the rough products of ,norway1 and they founded a ,german colony in ,bergen1 which rose to considerable importance4 ,german traders gradually settled in all the other important ,norwegian centres1 and the whole commercial life of ,norway became more or less ,germanized4 ,at the time ,germany was far ahead of ,norway in everything appertaining to industry1 and was already then bent on doing business with foreign countries by offering them a mass of ,german manufactured goods of attractive appearance1 but of little value1 and not indispensable to a people like the ,norwegians4 ,competition was already severe in ,germany1 money had acquired an immense importance1 success in life was most easily attained by intense application to business1 saving1 and grinding4 ,the ,german traders stood in the same relation to the ,norwegians as that in which ,english traders stand to the native races whom they first approach for business purposes4 ,the traders and agents who went as far as ,norway--a long distance before the days of steamers and railways--were daring and reckless men1 bent upon making money1 just as the pioneers of ,british commerce were and are in ,africa4 ,what interested them was not the great and noble aspect of the ,norwegian character1 but the desire on the part of these people to buy gewgaws1 and the facility with which they parted with their money and their goods4 ,though ,norway is a poor country1 it yielded to the not over-ambitious ,germans a satisfactory harvest1 and a great number of them settled permanently in the ,norwegian towns4 ,they became sufficiently numerous and influential to impress a ,german stamp on ,norwegian urban life1 on the people who worked and lived with them2 and these became ,germanized to no small extent4 ,these middle-class ,germans were no doubt excellent1 respectable people in their way1 but they had little in common with the ,norwegian country folk4 ,they were better educated1 they had more worldly wisdom1 their experience in their own cities had trained them to subject their emotional nature to their intellect4 ,in order to push on to success in their ,german communities1 where antagonistic and powerful magnates left but little scope for daring and straightforwardness1 they had learned to value diplomacy and discretion4 ,they had no sympathies with the natives1 whom they regarded as semi-barbarians1 and all their intercourse with them was diplomatic and insincere1 and their sole motive was profit4 ,the honesty1 the pride1 the generosity of the ,norwegian peasantry were well known to them1 but they took advantage of these characteristics1 which they regarded as expensive luxuries4 ,the cities however became the seats of the educational establishments1 and the ,norwegian youth who were intended for the professions came to the cities and mingled there with the ,german element4 ,on the other hand1 the sons of the citizens went into the country in professional capacities and created there a middle class strongly impregnated with ,german culture4 ,in this manner a sharp line of demarcation arose between the upper and middle classes on the one hand and the peasantry on the other1 the former being strongly influenced by ,german culture1 the latter clinging tenaciously to the ,norwegian4 ,it is no slur on the ,german character and ,german culture to say that it involved degeneration in no small degree4 ,it partook of the drawbacks of our civilization1 and what happened in ,norway has happened in every country where modern civilization has come into contact with nations whose virtues and noble qualities have rested as much on ignorance and the absence of temptation as on inborn worth4 ,thanks to the historical development we have indicated1 the ,norwegian upper and middle classes1 as well as the whole of the urban populations1 developed characteristics which drew upon them the contempt of the peasants4 ,their eagerness for profit1 their love of money1 their indifference to the great1 the noble1 and the beautiful1 their cringing attitude towards authorities and towards the wealthy1 their sacrifice of public interests to private welfare1 their susceptibility to the influence of foreign fashion1 manners1 and vices1--all this tended to lower the upper and middle classes in the eyes of the peasants4 ,when the phenomenon witnessed in all civilized countries--the impoverishment of the masses--made its appearance1 public-spirited men began to inquire as to the causes4 ,it was in the middle of this century1 when a spirit of revolution and reform was abroad1 that the yearning for a better state of things began to manifest itself4 ,there were no aristocracy1 no established ,church1 and no privileged class to blame for the unsatisfactory state of the country1 and consequently the investigators turned their attention to the ethical condition of the people themselves4 ,comparison between the olden and the modern times was instituted4 ,the discrepancy between the two classes became striking1 and the corrupting influences were traced to the towns4 ,a strong desire to revive and strengthen the old culture took possession of many men and women1 who1 though educated1 had a keen sympathy with the peasants4 ,to found the future development of ,norway on the basis of the old ,norwegian culture became the object of a new national party1 including some of the best elements of the ,norwegian nation4 ,these enthusiasts found their expression in composers like ,tjerulf1 and in the writings of men like ,bjrnstjerne ,bjrnsen1 ,jonas ,lie1 and ,ibsen4 ,the greatest mistake of these writers--the one that has entirely escaped ,nordau--is their belief that a nation can realize its best aspirations by methods that have utterly failed in the celestial empire of ,china4 ,the hope of preserving the grand feature of the old ,norwegian culture by exclusiveness1 by isolating ,norway1 and by offering a stubborn resistance to foreign influence1 be it good or bad--in this they have set themselves an impossible task4 ,a thorough national life and development produced by such artificial means would1 even if attended by the highest degree of success1 partake of a theatrical nature4 ,the more it succeeded1 the more it would attract foreigners1 and features which in olden times sprang from the character of the people and from natural circumstances1 would fall into the line of carnivals organized at the expense of the municipalities and of railways to ,alpine summits4 ,these ,norwegian enthusiasts have yet to learn that though foreign tourists1 foreign literature1 and foreign art place temptations in the way of their single-minded nation1 there are in every country large numbers of people who fight for progress as sedulously as themselves1 and whose co-operation would outweigh the dangers of ,european modernity4 ,in the old culture1 in the past life of nations1 especially in nations like ,norway1 there are great virtues and noble features which may well serve as a goal4 ,but to again render them a reality1 to base them on lasting foundations1 a people must pass through the fiery trials of modern temptations1 and1 instead of yielding plastically to outward circumstances1 must shape their destiny through sheer strength of character4 ,what ,norway has of good and noble she should give to other nations1 and freely accept their best from them4 ,this is an exchange which1 like mercy1 blesses both giver and receiver4 ,though the struggle against degeneration is1 in ,norway1 hampered by the national prejudices of the leaders1 it is still progressing4 ,ibsen's mission in the fight is to ruthlessly expose the stagnant pools of corruption4 ,he finds them in the cities and among the middle class1 where the old ,german ,philistine features have been most distinctly preserved4 ,many of his characters bear ,german names1 and those who take the part of the traditional villain wear often the garb of that respectable1 common-sense1 matter-of-fact1 self-absorbed ,german whom ,nordau would exempt from any stigma of degeneration4 ,thorvald ,helmer1 in ,the ,doll's ,house1 has1 or would have1 the sympathies of millions1 not in ,germany alone1 but in ,england and everywhere1 of people whose emotional nature1 whose love for the high and noble1 has been compressed by that worldly wisdom which in our large crowded cities becomes prudence1 and to obey which is often a duty--people who are not aware that it is not only possible1 but even easy1 to be both diplomatic and discreet in obedience to noble emotions and exalted aspirations1 and that to root these out of our nature is degeneration4 ,helmer1 in his sleek reasonableness1 is an excellent type of meanness1 and his character is brought out in a consummately artistic way4 ,it exasperates ,nordau that this man1 who comes so near his standard of sound-mindedness1 should inspire in audiences all the world over1 especially in the female element1 a sense of aversion1 apparently without any effort on the part of the author4 ,helmer has a keen eye for the main chance4 ,his reputation and his position have his first consideration4 ,he trembles at the idea of fighting the world without them4 ,his love of his wife is the quintessence of selfishness4 ,he loves her in the two only ways which ,nordau thinks reasonable in a human being1 as a companion1 as a pleasant thing to toy with2 and as the female of his race1 at such periods when he1 as the normal man of ,nordau1 is actuated by animal impulses--for example1 under the influence of champagne4 ,of the pure love for a woman which in a man's heart remains as a spring of living water1 giving him a pang of joy each time his thoughts revert to her1 and which casts a rosy tint of poetry over life1 nay even over death--of such love ,helmer is as incapable as ,nordau's normal man4 ,nora yearns for the higher1 nobler love1 and her lack of experience in character-study has left her in doubt1 though in hope1 regarding her husband4 ,the moment comes when she gains certitude2 and when ,helmer reveals himself in his ,philistine hideousness1 her spirit revolts4 ,though of course exaggerated for the sake of dramatic effect1 she is a good type of an intelligent and emotional ,norwegian woman4 ,norwegian girls receive a great deal of instruction1 and as they have no professions to prepare for1 their education is more literary and artistic than that of the men4 ,they read voraciously the ,norwegian modern writers1 and sympathize consequently more than the men with the extreme nationalists4 ,they are often strongly possessed by the ,aand--that indefinable yearning for all that is great and noble--in ,norwegian culture already alluded to4 ,they have a fair knowledge of foreign literature1 and read a great many ,english novels4 ,with their admiration for ,english pure love1 for ,english home life1 grafted on the grand aspirations which the new ,aand fosters1 they may well appear uncanny and troll-like to the prosaic ,german4 ,we trust that the struggle between the ,norwegian and the ,german cultures1 of which we have endeavoured to give an idea1 will make it easier for students of ,ibsen to understand his characters4 ,it is in ,the ,doll's ,house where the two inimical cultures are most clearly personified1 the old ,norwegian culture being represented by the uncompromising1 impulsive1 and intense ,nora1 and the imported ,german culture by the pedantic1 commonplace1 and animal ,helmer4 ,if our interpretation is right1 it is impossible that ,ibsen's work could in any way indicate degeneration4 ,it ought1 on the contrary1 to be evident that his pieces1 rendering objective as they do the struggle for a higher and better life1 based not on pedantic considerations of immediate and unworthy advantages1 but on the noble impulses of a strong and healthy nation1 are at once a summons to rise higher1 and signals pointing the way4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,richard ,,wagner ,we all have met with people who1 without being degenerates to any great extent repeat stories of their own invention so persistently1 that they end by believing in them4 ,in this kind of folly1 if folly it be1 there is a great deal of method when indulged in by people who are anxious1 for some reason or another1 that their views should nolens volens be accepted by others4 ,when one comes to deal with the intellectual development of a nation or a race1 and wishes to prove certain forms of progress or retrogression1 it is half the battle to bring your opponent to believe in the existence of some special1 well-defined psychological phenomenon or social tendency1 and to give it a high-sounding name4 ,what would astrology have been without the horoscope1 or alchemy without the philosopher's stone8 ,what would modern statecraft be without such terms as 8foreign competition0 and 8international jealousy08 ,what would ,german socialism be without the term 8revolutionary socialism08 ,what would bi-metallism be without the phrase1 8the stability of the currency08 ,and what would ,nordau's theory of degeneration be without the 8mystic movement08 ,he takes for granted that there is such a thing as mysticism1 as well as that it constitutes a movement1 and then endeavours to explain everything as partaking of or resulting from it4 ,according to him1 ,wagnerism is the reappearance in ,germany of that romanticism which originated there1 and afterwards travelled through ,france and ,england4 ,it reappeared1 according to him1 through ,wagner's degeneration1 and spread in virtue of the degeneration of his contemporaries4 ,he says that he finds in ,wagner a greater abundance of degeneration than in all the other degenerates put together4 8,the stigmata of his morbid condition10 he says1 8are united in him in the most complete and most luxuriant development40 ,this is a bold assertion1 and will appear bolder yet to any one who has read his chapter in ,the ,richard ,wagner ,cult4 ,wagner's dislike of the ,jews1 which ,nordau calls anti-semitism1 and his views on social questions1 which our alienist calls ,anarchism1 are pointed out as unfailing stigmata of degeneration4 ,one of the methods of our alienist is to notice and make much of certain extreme opinions in people who are actually made1 or who have made themselves1 intensely objectionable1 and then to point out that similar opinions and ideas are present in the mind of some celebrity1 and then to draw the conclusion that this celebrity must be on the road to madness4 ,either he does not see himself1 or he trusts his readers will not see1 that by such methods every man in the world might be proved to some extent deranged4 ,he forgets that exaggerated virtues become vices1 and that some of the most prominent men in the world have had idiosyncrasies to which they have even given considerable play without at all coming within the range of degeneration4 ,the anti-semitism in ,germany1 which ,nordau ascribes to degeneration--probably with the approval of the majority of ,jews--in that country1 as well as in ,russia1 ,france1 and the ,united ,states1 springs from causes so patent1 that no man who aspires to be considered an acute observer of his time should ignore them4 ,let us instance ,russia first--a country where the latest wave of anti-semitism first took a violent form4 ,can any one who is acquainted with the typical financial history of the ,russian villages wonder that the ,jews in ,russia should be looked upon as a scourge8 ,what has happened in thousands of such villages is this4 ,an energetic1 clever ,jew settles amongst the ,russian moujiks1 who combine thriftlessness and love of an easy life with many of the good qualities and innocence of primitive races4 ,the ,jew is bent on making money1 and caring little about the opinion the community may form of him1 and too brave to fear their enmity1 he has no hesitation in taking up any kind of business1 however unpopular it may render him4 ,he willingly becomes a publican1 a pawnbroker1 a land-grabber1 and1 in combination with other ,jews1 a speculator and cornerer4 ,his attention to business1 his self-denial1 his hardheartedness to his customers1 his knowledge of the tricks of trades and finance1 the ready support he gets from his co-religionists in other districts in carrying out his purposes1 however derogatory they may be to the community--all this soon renders him the master of the situation4 ,the stranger1 who at first in such a friendly spirit invited his customer to drink his vodka and borrow his money1 is soon transformed into a harsh tyrant who1 by hook or by crook1 came into possession of all the belongings of the villagers1 and calmly makes use of their destitution to extort from them their future earnings4 ,the ,jews1 as a rule1 on the one hand1 and the ,russians on the other1 form diametrically opposite views on this social phenomenon4 ,the ,jews say1 and ,nordau evidently sides with them1 that this successful village tyrant has done nothing to deserve blame4 ,he has only been more frugal1 more thrifty1 and more intelligent than the ,russians1 who were bound by their inferior character to go to the wall2 and that if ,russia hates the ,jews1 it is with that hatred against successful men common in human failures4 ,the ruined ,russian peasants simply know that the ,jew who came among them is rich and they are poor1 that what used to be their possessions form his wealth1 and that the means he has used to obtain it would not have been used by them under any circumstances4 ,they think they have been robbed1 and that they and their descendants would be robbed by the ,jew and his descendants if they cannot be freed from him4 ,hence anti-semitism in ,russia4 ,nordau has no right to call the anti-semitists degenerate1 even though they be wrong in their logic1 because he is wrong himself1 and he cannot point to ruined homes and wrecked lives as a substantial foundation for his opinion4 ,in ,germany the ,jews play the same part1 though under modified conditions4 ,though bad1 ,german laws and ,german officialism are better than those of ,russia1 and the ,german people do not so easily fall a prey to the strong-minded ,jew4 ,but1 on the other hand1 the ,jews make themselves obnoxious in other ways1 both in ,germany and ,austria4 ,here they act everywhere as trade-spoilers4 ,the ,jew undersells everybody4 ,he stops short of nothing1 save breaking the law1 to extend his business4 ,he is obsequious to those in power and in wealth1 but relentlessly hard to competitors and to creditors4 ,many of them will take the greatest possible advantage of other people's1 especially ,christians'1 misfortunes1 and will gain their end by deliberately wounding other people's feelings4 ,it is the ,jews who generally pay the lowest wages1 and who are found in the ranks of the sweaters4 ,we hasten to state that there are in ,germany a great many exceptions to the types here referred to4 ,but either they are not numerous enough1 or the ,jew must possess some inability to show his better qualities1 for no one acquainted with the circumstances in ,germany would deny that the ,jew-haters there look upon their enemies in exactly the light we have described4 ,but this is not all4 ,accusations are levelled against the ,jews which are partly untrue1 or else vastly exaggerated1 and those who make them should be called upon to prove their statements4 ,whether they may be able to do this or not1 the fact remains that the ,jew-hating ,germans believe that the ,jews have formed one vast conspiracy1 the object of which is to secure for the ,jews large advantages at the expense of the ,christians4 ,it is alleged that the methods employed are as follows3 ,the ,jews are supposed to meet in secret conclave1 in which those of them who desire to accomplish any special aim state it to their brethren1 who then combine in assisting them4 ,such aims may be the possession of a house or a shop in the hands of a ,christian1 the ruin of some obnoxious competitor1 the miscarriage of some public auction of goods coveted by some ,jew1 and so on4 ,with such ideas prevailing1 how is it possible to ascribe ,jew hatred to degeneracy8 ,such logic is all the more surprising as it remains a palpable fact that the fortunes of the ,jewish houses are growing apace1 that ,jews seem to succeed no matter what they undertake1 that they certainly are more charitable to their co-religionists than to ,christians1 and for that matter than ,christians are to ,christians1 while at the same time poverty and misery are on the increase among the ,christian masses4 ,nordau does a bad service to the ,jews of ,germany when he attempts to lay the blame for anti-semitism exclusively at the door of the ,christians and calls them degenerates1 while he entirely exempts the ,jews4 ,this partiality1 coupled with his contempt for the masses and his belief in government by the more strong-minded men1 points to a future state in ,germany in which the ,jews should be the ruling aristocracy4 ,his unfairness thus1 instead of abating the persecution against the ,jews1 might easily be construed into an excuse for a more bitter anti-semitism4 ,this error of his is due to his besetting habit of taking his postulates from doubtful authorities and of drawing illogical conclusions4 ,it is a common thing for men who have been successful in one branch of knowledge1 and who are regarded as authorities in a specialty by others1 to jump at rash conclusions with regard to subjects on which authorities differ or do not exist4 ,this is exactly what ,nordau does when he comes to consider facts which cannot be rightly understood without a clear insight into sociology and other social sciences4 ,he then evinces impossible opinions1 and gives us to understand that he has a ready-made scheme for reconstructing society on a new and perfect plan4 ,it is not difficult to see what this plan is4 ,it is quasi-,collectivism and ,communism4 ,he wishes the ,state to become the universal heir of all fortunes and the universal benefactor4 ,the absurdity and impracticability of this scheme--which1 by the way1 is always the very one that first enters the head of a young student who tackles social science for the first time--are obvious4 ,as however he does not insist upon his scheme in his volume ,degeneration1 it would be out of place to explain its hollowness here4 ,we have referred to it simply to show that his superficiality regarding the anti-semitic question is not incidental4 ,it will be evident to anybody who tackles this question with an unprejudiced mind that the ,christians in ,russia and ,germany are utterly at fault when they believe that they can escape from their troubles by persecuting ,jews1 and also that the ,jews are utterly at fault when they attribute anti-semitism to the jealousy and wickedness of the ,christians4 ,both these parties1 as well as ,nordau himself1 allow their feelings instead of their intelligence to determine these questions4 ,but they are not necessarily degenerate4 ,the true explanation of the imbroglio is as follows3 ,the ,jewish race1 which might have acquired a few unpleasant characteristics by no fault of their own but through a cruel and unjust persecution for centuries1 is a highly-gifted one1 distinguishing itself by strong-mindedness1 great will-power1 remarkable powers of endurance1 morality1 and singleness of purpose4 ,deprived1 in a great number of countries of social rights and the privileges of citizenship1 they have for centuries found only one way open to them by which they could attain to independence1 security1 and consideration--the accumulation of wealth4 ,in modern times1 when social institutions and laws tend to render wealth almost omnipotent1 its acquisition has become to this people of greater importance than ever4 ,success in a business1 however small1 may mean millions in the future1 while failure may result in life-long misery4 ,consequently1 the ,jews apply themselves to their trades or professions with an energy and assiduity such as few races can command4 ,they therefore represent a power in the development of humanity which is bound to produce far-reaching effects4 ,whether these will constitute a blessing or a curse to the nations among whom the ,jews live and work depends entirely on the institutions and the laws of those countries4 ,if these are such as to render the oppression of the poor1 the workers1 the borrowers1 the tenants--in fact1 all the sections of society on which the ,jews now batten1--a condition for the thriving of the capitalists1 the employers1 the lenders1 the tenants1 and the fortunate classes in general--if the laws are of this description1 then the ,jews will be conspicuous as the oppressors of others4 ,but if1 on the contrary1 the laws and institutions of the countries are such as to render the success of the upper classes and leaders of trade1 industry1 and finance dependent on the welfare of the workers1 then the ,jews will be the most liberal lenders1 the most generous employers1 and the most accommodating landlords4 ,in fact1 the question resolves itself simply into one of demand and supply2 as long as there is a greater demand for ,jews' services than the ,jews are able to supply1 the latter will dominate2 but when there are more services offered on the part of the ,jews than the people can avail themselves of1 these can dictate terms to the ,jews4 ,and this relation of demand and supply depends on laws and institutions4 ,even if ,nordau's prejudices prevented him from taking this view of the anti-semitic question--which is not only the correct one but which greatly facilitates the solution of the question1 and thus would prevent the disgraceful persecution which in many countries threatens to become more serious--he might have found1 by simply looking at the actualities1 in the different countries that anti-semitism prevails in an inverse ratio to good government4 ,he could not have asked for a better proof of the fact that laws and institutions are at fault and not the ,jews or the ,christians4 ,to take only the two extremes3 in ,russia1 where the ,government1 from the people's point of view1 is probably the worst in ,europe1 anti-semitism is most vehement2 in ,england1 where the ,government is more influenced by the consideration of the good of the people than in any other country1 there is scarcely any animosity against the ,jews1 and this in spite of the efforts of certain politicians to promote it4 ,the reception of ,dr4 ,stcker1 when he attempted to address a public meeting in ,london in favour of anti-semitism1 would have convinced ,nordau1 had he been present1 what a poor chance anti-semitism has in a country where the working classes are free to follow those instincts which ,nordau fears so much4 ,we may relate that hardly had the proceedings begun when the hall was filled by labourers1 who1 contrary to their habit on such occasions1 had not changed their dress1 and who hooted ,dr4 ,stcker1 stormed the platform1 overpowered the anti-semitists1 and cleared the hall4 ,in face of the fact that anti-semitic questions turn so entirely on prejudices and mistakes1 one cannot surely accuse ,wagner of madness because he sided with what may be called a national party1 and approved of a movement the object of which was to stay the progressive influence of an alien race over the destiny of the ,fatherland4 ,in several places in his work ,nordau insists upon considering the anarchist tendencies of our age as among the stigmata of degeneration4 ,if he were right1 we should be face to face with a calamity likely to end in the brutalization or the annihilation of our race4 ,for ,anarchism in some form of other is certainly spreading rapidly4 ,that there is ,anarchism and ,anarchism seems of little importance to our alienist in his eagerness to draw his preconceived conclusions4 ,he reasons as usual4 ,starting from the hypothesis that some of the criminal ,anarchists were1 to some extent1 mentally deranged and morally weak1 he arrives at the conclusion that ,wagner was a degenerate1 because he shared to some extent with the ,anarchists the hatred of our present social system and of the injurious effects it produces on the masses of the people4 ,though ,nordau dwells far more lengthily on poetry1 and art1 and cognate subjects than on the graver question of ,anarchism1 there is no point on which it behoves us better to set him and his readers right than that of the relation between ,anarchism and degeneration4 ,the ,anarchist is not a cause4 ,he is an effect4 ,there is a feeling in the consciousness of almost every human being1 be he a believer in a divine religion or in ,nordau's religion of humanity1 that our race is destined to a high degree of development1 and to a far larger sphere of happiness than now falls to the lot of most of us4 ,this yearning for happiness1 for elevation1 is not only a feeling but a conviction consequent upon our knowledge of the past stages of the development of man4 ,there was a time when fervent religious beliefs induced patience and resignation under suffering1 and when our future destiny was left in the hands of ,providence4 ,but the ,french encyclopdists1 and after them the modern scientists1 have done their best to undermine this belief and to show us that the destiny of future generations will largely depend upon us and themselves1 that science is placing in our hands an ever-growing control over the forces of nature1 and that if humanity suffers it is because the present generation has not the moral courage to throw off religious scruples and boldly shape their own destiny4 ,these doctrines1 in unison with the general progressive spirit of the age1 led to revolutions and political reforms4 ,in the absence of a providence the nations shifted their faith to constitutional governments4 ,but the new faith did not last long4 ,the more democratic the governments were the more they applied the principles of ,collectivism--they yielded to those instincts which ,nordau calls the social instincts4 ,under the pretext of exercising paternal kindness towards the people1 the governments demanded paternal rights4 ,communistic and socialistic ideas spread among the masses1 who1 well aware that a providence without power would be no providence at all1 wanted to render the ,state omnipotent4 ,when however socialistic features were introduced into the constitutions1 matters did not mend1 but the freedom of the individual was more and more infringed4 ,when detailed schemes of further socialistic development were made public1 a great many freedom-loving men and women beheld with terror that the chief cause of the favour with which the progressing socialism was regarded was to be found in the plan of complete subjection of the individual under government4 ,this discovery naturally caused a reaction in favour of liberty4 ,those who became ,anarchists felt keenly the claws of the ,state upon them1 and they foresaw that more socialism would aggravate their grievances4 ,they took for granted that humanity had now tried all forms of government and that they had all failed1 and that the salvation of the race could only be found in absolute personal freedom4 ,the first extreme ,russian ,nihilists paved the way for the ,anarchist movement in ,europe4 ,they1 like their first followers in ,france1 had only one idea1 that of destroying at all costs the present order of things1 and thus clearing the ground for a new system to grow up free from the tyranny of governments1 aristocracies1 militarism1 landlordism1 and capitalism4 ,they saw that an immense mass of poor1 hard-working1 honest people with but a small chance of happiness for themselves1 but imbued with a strong desire to see the whole of humanity happy1 were oppressed by a small number of selfish people who arrogated to themselves the lion's share of the good things of life4 ,they found that this band of selfish people attained to their immense power by a social system of slow and gradual growth4 ,tracing all the troubles to the few egotists whom they regarded as criminals1 they imagined that by destroying them and the system1 the unselfish and humanitarian aspirations of the masses would blossom forth free and unvitiated4 ,the ,anarchists were thus the backbone of the religion of humanity1 only their faith was stronger than that of ,nordau1 for they were willing to sacrifice all1 including life1 for the good of the race4 ,if these people were1 and are1 degenerate1 then every mistake in reasoning is a sign of degeneration1 and faith in humanity and its destiny is the beginning of madness4 ,when ,nordau designates ,wagner as an ,anarchist1 he evidently ignores the fact that there are two kinds of ,anarchists1 the violent ones just described1 and the moderate or constitutional ones4 ,the latter call themselves simply ,anarchists4 ,their numbers are growing rapidly in ,france1 as well as in ,england1 and in both these countries ,nordau would be surprised at their moderation and common sense4 ,the movement they represent is a reaction against the socialistic tendencies1 and their programme is not violence and destruction1 but the gradual abolition of all harmful and useless legislation4 ,it is true that so far they have no precise policy4 ,but such special measures as are advocated--partly in ,france1 partly in ,england1 and partly in the ,united ,states--seem to be founded on clear and thorough reasoning1 and when their leading principle is compared with the shallow chatter of ,socialists and ,communists of every school it appears as wisdom itself4 ,what all these people believe1 what they long for1 and what they hope for1 is exactly what ,wagner believed1 longed for1 and hoped for4 ,he saw in ,philistinism1 in official tyranny1 in police government1 and in legal trammels standing in the way of trades1 industries1 and arts1 so many impediments to the realization of the best instincts and the highest aspirations of humanity4 ,whatever opinions he held1 they can only be judged by the few exasperated exclamations he gave vent to with regard to the corruption of modern society4 ,it is not likely that he1 with such immense works on hand1 should have given sufficient attention to social questions to allow him to express himself in learned terms4 ,but what he said and wrote on the subject shows clearly that the foundation of his social views was trust in humanity1 in the sanctity of nature1 and in the ennobling power of liberty4 ,can any one with a true love of art imagine an artist without such a creed8 ,what was more natural than that1 fted and praised as he was1 he should have a good opinion of his own talent and consider himself a great man8 ,if for this he deserved to be suspected of megalomania1 what are we to say about other celebrities1 mediocrities1 and nonentities1 who imagine themselves demi-gods because they happen to be the sons of their fathers1 to be born in purple1 or to have a title attached to their name8 ,nordau is extremely hard on those who have sung the praises of ,wagner1 and insinuates that they have been actuated by base motives when they have not been absolutely degenerated4 ,according to him1 admiration for ,wagner's works is a sure sign of mental unsoundness4 ,and yet this same ,nordau finds reasons for praising ,wagner's genius which a host of his panegyrists have overlooked4 ,he says3 8,wagner1 as a dramatist is really an historical painter of the highest rank4444 ,this a fresco painter he is in a degree never yet attained by any other dramatic author in the whole world of literature4 ,every action embodies itself for him in a series of most imposing pictures1 which1 when they are composed as ,wagner has seen them with his inner eye1 must overwhelm and enrapture the beholder4 ,the reception of the guests in the hall of ,wartburg2 the arrival and departure of ,lohengrin in the boat drawn by the swan2 the gambols of the ,rhine maidens in the river2 the defiling of the gods over the rainbow-bridge towards the castle of ,asgard2 the bursting of the moonlight into ,hunding's hut2 the ride of the ,walkre over the battle-field2 ,brunhilde in the circle of fire2 the final scene in #8,gtterdmmerung1' where ,brunhilde flings herself on to her horse and leaps into the midst of the funeral pyre1 while ,hagan throws himself into the surging ,rhine1 and the heavens are aflame with the glow from the burning palace of the gods2 the love-feast of the knights in the castle of the ,grail2 the obsequies of ,titurel and the healing of ,amfortas--these are pictures to which nothing in art hitherto approaches40 ,it is strange that ,nordau in his love for authorities should quote ,nietzsche--a ,german author whom1 in another part of his book1 he makes out to be a hopeless degenerate and charlatan--in support of his views of ,wagner6 ,but ,nietzsche has written a book called ,der ,fall ,wagner1 and that suffices4 ,this ,nietzsche calls ,wagner a comedian1 but ,nordau insists upon his being a painter1 and that 8if he had been a healthy genius1 endowed with intellectual equilibrium1 that is what he would undoubtedly have become4 ,his inner vision would have forced the brush into his hand1 and would have constrained him to use it on canvas by means of colour40 ,when ,nordau says a painter1 he evidently restricts the meaning of the word to its narrowest sense1 and makes it difficult to at all class a man who1 like ,wagner1 evolved and produced pictures of such grandeur and such beauty as those our alienist so well describes4 ,the fact that the artist uses actual perspective1 real draperies1 living people1 actual fire1 that he selects his own light1 and personally arranges this mass of objects so as to exactly reproduce the daring conception of his mind--all this should surely not be cited as so many proofs of the unhealthiness of his genius4 ,would he have been a greater1 a sounder genius1 had his ability been restricted to sketching and colouring his conceptions on cardboard or canvas8 ,should then a painter's genius be confined to the production of pictures suitable only to decorate ,philistine houses and official galleries8 ,because ,nordau's pedantic tendencies have formed such a ,philistine idea about the art of painting1 is it right to deny true genius to a man who has produced unapproachable pictures on a colossal scale1 not by the means of brushes and pigments1 but by materials infinitely more difficult to handle8 ,but these masterpieces of painting do not alone bear witness to ,wagner's powers4 ,his paintings are not fixed2 they are movable4 ,they represent actually an enchanting succession of pictures4 ,the true genius la ,nordau gives us the pictures of figures in motion that never move1 and tires us with a ,quintus ,curtius suspended in mid-air half way down a chasm1 until we wish him at the bottom of it4 ,such a moving picture of ,wagner's is not thrust upon us suddenly in the manner of gallery pictures1 but is presented to us as the fit illustration of a beautiful poem1 and often as the climax of a series of other pictures which explain it1 relieve it1 and work up our emotions for its reception4 ,to this must be added that the same painter-genius1 the same dramatist1 the same poet1 has created the wondrous and enchanting music which accompanies the poem and the pictures4 ,and because he has done all this1 because he has not followed the routine of other ,german painters1 because he has dared to and succeeded in transporting his audiences into the highest possible region of imagination1 and given them a glimpse of real creative powers1 he is to be classed as a degenerate2 to rank among those of whom humanity is ashamed1 and whose degraded state is to warn us of the coming decay of our race4 ,can any one with a grain of humour read ,nordau's attacks on ,wagner without imagining an irascible toy-terrier barking at the moon8 ,nordau probably feels that ,wagner's anti-semitism1 his ,anarchism1 and his ability to create transcendentally beautiful pictures are stigmata which hardly any of his readers would accept as such1 and consequently feels impelled to make much of what it pleases him to call ,wagner's eroticism4 ,here1 as everywhere in his book1 in order to impress his readers he counts on the mystical effect which the use of a high-sounding scientific word generally produces upon unscientific readers4 ,a favourite expression of his1 when speaking of some psychological phenomenon1 is that science knows all about it1 and he calls it megalomania1 graphomania1 echolalia1 or some such name4 ,with people who have only a superficial knowledge of science1 and who stand in awe of its achievements1 such nouns stand for a special definite thing1 thoroughly investigated and explained4 ,they do not know that these scientific names have been invented1 not in order to designate something real and palpable1 but simply for the purpose of bringing order into an arbitrary classification1 invented so that the exchange of ideas may be facilitated on the subject thus treated4 ,such scientific terms might even be classed among mystical symbols1 in so far as they often stand for something of which hardly anything is known1 but at the same time serve the same useful end as algebraical figures4 ,psychologists are prone to speak of a man's consciousness1 though scarcely two scientific men would agree as to what it is4 ,but this does not prevent them from dividing consciousness up into divisions and sub-divisions1 all with their special names1 in order to be able to express their ideas in words4 ,the unscientific reader should bear in mind that consciousness has never been under the microscope1 or in the crucible1 and that the classification of the scientists has no counterpart in consciousness itself1 and that this remains the impalpable and indivisible ,ego1 with its infinite number of attributes inseparably commingled4 ,all the different states1 conditions1 faculties1 perfections1 and defects of the ,ego are of course known only by the results they produce in the physical world1 and it is by these results that they have been classified4 ,it is evident that such methods of classification should leave an immense margin for those who wish1 or feel impelled by their own idiosyncrasies1 to misuse scientific terms designating psychological phenomena4 ,nordau indulges in this misuse of scientific terms to the fullest extent1 in a way not to be easily discovered by the non-scientific reader4 ,the word 8eroticism0 used by him so frequently1 with all the pomposity of a scientific term1 is coined from the word 8erotic10 a literary term which again is derived1 as we all know1 from ,eros1 the ,greek god of love4 ,it is an adjective which means pertaining to or expressive of love-passion4 ,such an adjective necessarily finds an enormously wide application1 considering that love in one sense is the leading principle in organic creation1 and1 in a more psychological sense1 the motive power in the human drama4 ,we may say that we ourselves1 the outcome of love1 regulate our whole life1 and sometimes base our hopes of a future state on love4 ,consequently there is hardly anything in our lives that is not covered by the adjective 8erotic40 ,the alienists having adopted the word 8eroticism0 in order to designate a state of mind which certain actions reveal to them1 and which state of mind1 when its existence is corroborated by other facts1 may be considered as a disease1 it is evident that1 while they may apply the word 8eroticism0 to almost anything in the organic world and in human society1 it is better for their purpose to apply it only to a certain form of a diseased mind4 ,while a strictly logical and careful alienist might deem it irrational and confusing to use the term 8eroticism10 or even the adjective 8erotic10 outside a clearly defined case of mental disease1 it cannot be considered absolutely wrong to apply such terms whenever the love-passion is in question1 even a love-passion of a most legitimate kind4 ,we shall now show how ,nordau manages to slip over the border within which scientific terms should be used1 and applies them indiscriminately to everything2 and how he1 in this manner1 tries to establish that ,wagner suffers from erotic madness1 because he looks upon love as one of the chief motors in the human drama and the tree of knowledge for good or evil4 ,nordau1 in a flippant criticism1 which he endeavours to render funny1 of the behaviour of ,wagner's characters on the stage1 forgets his self-criticism to such an extent as to liken them to mad tom-cats--a simile which probably no sane man would accept as true4 ,having once conceived the idea of mad tom-cats1 it at once becomes an obsession in his mind1 and suggests presentations of real cases of erotic fury4 ,he consequently1 according to his habit1 takes for granted that the actors on the stage must necessarily represent the exact state of mind of the author1 and cries out that this state of the author's mind 7which he has persuaded himself is that of a mad tom-cat7 is well known to science1 and is called sadism4 ,then1 with a regret at having to touch upon subjects in order to make his readers understand ,wagner's real mental condition1 he gives a disgusting example of a maniac whose erotic madness has brought him below the level of the brute4 ,this is a fair sample of ,nordau's logic4 ,for the sake of clearness1 we recapitulate the logical tour de force he has been compelled to exercise in order to arrive at such an absurdity3 ,wagner1 like all poets and dramatists before him1 creates a love scene4 ,love is an erotic emotion4 ,eroticism is a disease of the mind4 ,tom-cats are erotically influenced4 ,the characters on the stage remind ,nordau of tom-cats4 ,the obsession of a 8tom-cat in convulsions over a root of valerian0 suggests a raving madman4 ,consequently ,wagner is mad4 ,such is the use a scientist is tempted to make of his science when he throws self-criticism overboard4 ,when ,nordau says of ,wagner that he has been all his life an erotic1 he is fair enough to add in parentheses1 8in a psychiatric sense40 ,but this is not enough4 ,the word 8psychiatric0 is a strictly scientific word1 not to be found in any ordinary ,english dictionary2 and the ordinary reader might easily conclude that1 instead of removing ,wagner's eroticism into the deep recesses of his soul1 it might have been used by the author1 as so many scientific words have been used1 in order to aggravate his charge4 ,in order to justify his opinion with regard to ,wagner's erotic madness1 he says3 8,the most ordinary incitements1 even those farthest removed from the province of sexual instincts1 never fail to awaken in his consciousness voluptuous images of an erotic character40 ,why 8sexual instincts08 ,why not love-instincts1 an expression which had so much better fitted in with the scenes ,wagner represents8 ,but1 as it suits ,nordau's purpose to keep his reader's mind upon love in its lowest1 most animal form1 we shall let it pass4 ,we must however express our astonishment at the example he gives in order to show how incitements1 8far removed from the province of sexual instincts10 caused ,wagner's mind to revert to voluptuous images4 ,the 8farthest removed incitements0 which ,nordau quotes is the description by ,wagner of a ballet--a pas de trois--evidently intended to represent the blending of the beautiful with love1 to give ,wagner's own words1 8love and life1 the joy and wooing of art40 ,what on earth1 then1 would more arouse such eroticism that might be found in a man than a ballet representing love and life8 ,and this especially when we consider the modern freedom with regard to the costume of ballet girls4 ,in order to show what ,nordau considers to be the outcome of erotic madness in ,wagner's choregraphic representation of love1 life1 and art1 we give in extenso the passage from ,art-,work of the ,future1 to which he refers3 8,in the contemplation of this ravishing dance of the most genuine and noblest muses of the artistic man1 we now see the three arm in arm lovingly entwined up to their necks1 then this1 then that one1 detaching herself from the entwinement1 as if to display to the others her beautiful form in complete separation1 touching the hands of the others only with the extreme tips of her fingers2 now the one1 entwined by a backward glance at the twin forms of her closely entwined sisters1 bending towards them2 then two1 carried away by the allurements of the one1 greeting her in homage2 finally all1 in close embrace1 breast to breast1 limb to limb1 in an ardent kiss of love1 coalescing in one blissfully living shape4 ,this is the love and life1 the joy and wooing of art10 etc4 ,when ,nordau wishes to traduce the love scenes in ,wagner's operas into arguments of the musician's erotic madness1 he forgets many things4 ,he forgets what he himself has given as a test of a sound mind1 namely1 the ability to look after one's own business4 ,even if ,wagner had produced scenes on his stage of an utterly corrupt character in order to gain money and popularity1 he having succeeded completely in such objects could not possibly be called mad by a critic who has made material success in life a test for sound-mindedness1 and who declares the belief in personal responsibility reaching beyond the grave to be a sign of madness4 ,but he also forgets1 what is more important1 that there is no line of demarcation drawn to indicate how far the representation of human passions may be carried on the stage4 ,even ,nordau does not seem to have discovered an authority on this subject4 ,he himself will not serve as an authority1 because he has shown himself too apt to fall into the error of newspaper critics1 that of judging a work or a piece1 not according to its merits1 but according to the author who has produced it4 ,he would praise in ,goethe what he would condemn in ,wagner4 ,if we were to indiscriminately ask people how far we may go in representing human passion on the stage1 we should get a mass of replies all differing according to the bias of the respondents4 ,the ,ultramontane abb1 the zealous ,methodist1 would differ enormously from the ,bohemian artist2 the prudish old maid would differ from the poet4 ,nay1 even two artists1 both painters of the nude1 or two ballet girls appearing in the same costume1 might hold almost opposite opinions on this subject4 ,how then shall we judge8 ,by leaving out of court all the extremists--those who object to theatres1 ballets1 and nature in art--as well as those who would clamour for indecent and obscene representations1 we might considerably narrow the ground for inquiry1 and elicit certain rules likely to meet the suffrage of the majority within these limits4 ,it might be argued that emotions1 playing by far the most important rle in the human drama1 and lying as they do at the root of all our actions1 educational agencies1 and amusements1 ought to be appealed to by the arts4 ,also that art1 in affording us opportunities of giving expression to our emotions1 elevates and ennobles our lives3 consequently1 that the passive1 objective contemplation of human emotions which the stage affords us helps us to study our own emotions and to bring them into harmony with our noblest aspirations1 our future happiness1 our judgment1 and our will4 ,in order to accomplish their mission1 such representations should be as true to life as possible1 whether they be beautiful or not4 ,on this plea1 it would be legitimate to represent on the stage erotic emotions in the full strength in which we meet with them in reality among sound-minded people4 ,a good deal of exaggeration may be permitted to the actor as he is under the difficulty of having to convey by actions1 gestures1 or facial expression a distinct representation of emotions which may rage in the consciousness of a human being without betraying themselves in physical signs4 ,from this it must be concluded that the purity of the stage depends more on what is acted than how it is acted4 ,the author who does not wish to desecrate the drama is therefore bound to represent emotions which are the outcome of natural life1 and acted upon by incidents such as we see around us and to avoid the representation of1 even if he cannot avoid the reference to1 emotions which spring from a diseased mind or a morbid moral state4 ,love1 being an emotion to which every sound-minded being may be subject1 there would be no objection to represent it in the most intense manner on the stage so long as we understand under the name of love that strong degree of affection which sometimes people of the opposite sex may conceive for each other apart from sexual emotions4 ,what makes ,nordau's reasoning plausible is that he does not admit that this kind of love exists4 ,he distinguishes only two degrees1 or two categories1 of love1 comradeship or friendship on the one hand1 and the animal instinct on the other4 ,but no one who has gone through life with open eyes can possibly deny the reality of what we here1 for want of a better expression1 would call pure love4 ,everywhere we meet with manifestations of it4 ,even young children1 who might have no idea of sexual emotion1 often love each other with a genuine passion which sometimes lasts through life4 ,adults may be so absorbed in love for each other as to prefer death to separation1 and yet never experience any sexual emotion in each other's company4 ,men and women lovers who have been separated have wasted away from sheer love of each other1 and yet been remarkably chaste in character4 ,in the ,english-speaking countries1 where the relations between the sexes are free and natural1 we find any number of proofs of the reality of pure love4 ,those cases alone which have ended tragically1 and therefore come before the public1 more than suffice to prove it4 ,even in countries like ,france1 for example1 where the sexual instincts are apt to become morbid from the one-sided education of the young1 it is not difficult to find examples of pure love4 ,it is even to be found where least expected1 as1 for instance1 between a licentious man and a fallen woman4 ,it is true that when pure love runs its usual course it gets1 so to say1 inflamed by animal passion1 but this is generally the case only as a result of the demonstrations by which pure love tries to manifest itself4 ,it may also be true that there exists a mysterious1 that is to say a so far unexplained1 connection between the purest love and sexual instinct even in loving couples to whom sexuality may be an abomination4 ,but all this does not disprove that1 speaking from a practical and ethical point of view1 there is such an emotion as pure love1 and that this emotion is a powerful motor in the human drama4 ,if it then be a fact that this yearning to love and to be loved with a pure love exists1 and ought to exist1 in rational human beings1 and that in running its natural course it will manifest itself in demonstrations extremely likely to rouse animal passions1 the question arises how far a love scene on the stage may display those demonstrations which1 while they are the only possible means of expressing pure love1 at the same time suggest sexual emotions4 ,here then is the point where the difference will arise1 and where we may well be careful whose decision we accept4 ,can we do better than ,wagner did--leave the audience to decide8 ,wagner's ,german audiences1 described by ,nordau as including wives and daughters1 have1 to his great bewilderment1 given the verdict in favour of ,wagner's most passionate scenes4 8,how unperverted10 ,nordau cries out1 8must wives and maidens be1 when they are in a state of mind to witness these pieces without blushing crimson1 and sinking to the earth for shame60 ,no4 ,they have not blushed in following calmly and serenely the objective representations of passions which by nature have been implanted in every breast4 ,the very vehemence1 the very naturalness of the scenes inspire that awe and reverence which great natural forces always do1 and the young girl in the audience does not for a moment revert to any impure representations or animal promptings which might have come within her experience1 because she is sthetically and not sexually excited4 ,but if ,nordau could watch her when she reads the above quoted passage in his book1 he would see her blush deeply1 not at the memory of ,wagner's scenes1 but at the feeling of having the first seed of degeneration sown in her heart4 ,among the phrases used by ,nordau in order to inculcate his readers with the idea that ,wagner1 instead of being the very essence of an artist1 one of the greatest practically creative geniuses of the world1 is a mere erotic maniac1 is this one--8all his ideas revolve about woman40 ,while this phrase may lead the unwary reader astray1 it throws a vivid light on the extent to which ,nordau's opinion with regard to the relation of the sexes has been influenced by his continental bias4 ,this ought to be made clear to his readers4 ,such expressions1 if of any use at all in ,nordau's reasoning1 pre-suppose that it is quite an unusual thing for the ideas of poets1 dramatists1 and writers of fiction to revolve about woman4 ,for our alienist does not refer to ,wagner's private life4 ,he is speaking only of ,wagner the author4 ,the actual fact1 of course1 is that love and women have from times immemorial been the subject of legends1 fairy tales1 troubadour songs1 poems1 romances1 novels1 and dramas4 ,thus1 according to the gospel of our alienist1 all the past and present poetical authors of the world must have been1 and are1 8subject to erotic madness10 like ,wagner4 ,there are1 of course1 men who1 like ,faust1 devote their lives to intellectual pursuits and expend all their energy in forcing nature to yield up her secrets4 ,but such men are not only exceptions--they may be looked upon as degenerates4 ,this is what ,faust at last discovered4 ,he recognised that life was essentially emotional1 and that by having crushed out his emotional nature he had failed to live his life4 ,whether ,goethe intended to impart the lesson his ,faust teaches us may be doubtful1 but we can thus read it3 we may suppress our emotional nature for a long time1 but it will one day claim its rights1 and1 in its explosive escape from unnatural bondage1 avenge itself on the suppressor1 and hurl him to perdition4 ,the emotions1 ,faust regrets1 are all those inspired by women4 ,but the great majority of men do not suppress the emotions inspired by women1 but1 on the contrary1 allow their whole lives to be influenced by them4 ,to find confirmation of this fact in countries like ,france and ,germany might not be so easy as in the ,english-speaking countries4 ,wherever the sexes are separated in youth1 and where conventional marriages are the rule1 the erotic impulses become over-stimulated and lead to the excitement of animal passion4 ,the love of the beautiful1 all the sthetic aspirations1 the yearning for the society of women1 the love of excitement1 the chivalrous leanings1 and the craving for pure love--all these are thrown as so much fuel into the furnace of sexual love4 ,it is then that the struggle arises between the terrible demoniac love and pure love--a struggle so frequently depicted in ,wagner's operas and which determines the lives of so many men on the continent4 ,part of the struggle of the continental man is to avoid the influence of women altogether1 or else to look upon them after the manner of the ,mahommedans4 ,in countries therefore where pure love is left but little or no scope1 the influence of women is not very marked1 and certainly not acknowledged1 because for a man to acknowledge it would be to avow himself an 8erotic madman40 ,to understand the immense influence which a woman exercises over man's destiny and how closely men's minds 8revolve about women10 we must study the ,english-speaking countries where pure love has1 if not free scope1 freer scope than anywhere else1 and where few healthy-minded men are ashamed to avow the value they place upon woman1 her love1 and her influence4 ,despite the fact that ,englishmen do not display towards women of all classes that engaging politeness which favourably distinguishes ,frenchmen1 a stranger who visits ,england cannot fail soon to perceive in what high estimation woman is held4 ,her name is seldom taken in vain4 ,there is no trace of that gross satire upon women which so often disfigures continental prints2 she may be represented as sharp1 worldly1 extravagant1 but rarely as immoral1 unfaithful1 or ugly4 ,some of the lower-class papers are strongly influenced by ,french views1 but they never indulge in adaptations without some modification1 and such papers as have been started in order to emulate the fast journals of ,paris have always been extremely short-lived4 ,the same respect for women is manifest in fiction as well as on the stage4 ,here again in consequence of ,french influence we meet with women who have sinned1 and women with a past1 but they never play such degraded parts as they often do in ,french novels and plays4 ,ladies are allowed an extensive liberty1 and they are rarely insulted2 and obtain1 even under trying circumstances1 a respectful treatment at the hands of the lowest class of labourers4 ,we have unfortunately amongst us ruffians who beat their wives1 but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred these are drunken and debauched human failures4 ,the average working man treats his wife and his daughter with as much consideration as a nobleman could his1 and their home is kept morally pure and as comfortable for the women as his resources allow4 ,he is not ashamed to carry parcels1 burdens1 the children1 or to perambulate the baby in public places in order to spare his wife the trouble4 ,the men most reluctantly suspect a woman of immorality1 and generally not until there seems a strong case against her4 ,indecent words and allusions are entirely excluded in the presence of ladies1 and if a woman in her innocence inadvertently makes a risky remark1 it passes unheeded and without producing a smile4 ,the average ,englishman's life brings him into constant contact with women1 and he is perfectly aware that he owes to them much that is bright and happy in his existence4 ,already as a child he is the trusted protector of his sisters1 and often the cavalier of their friends4 ,early in life he loves some young woman1 and his long courtship is to him a happy time4 ,when he works hard1 when he risks his life on the sea or in dangerous climes1 it is generally with a view to marrying the girl he loves4 ,when he is married1 he wishes to succeed that he may gain his wife's approval1 beautify her home1 and make her life happy2 while at the same time he never remains insensible to the admiration of other women4 ,while his wife is yet young1 his daughters grow up and become important features in his life and his happiness4 ,it may therefore be said of the men of the ,english-speaking countries that their 8ideas revolve about women10 and it will be difficult to persuade us ,englishmen that respect1 admiration1 and love for women are the signs of a degenerate mind4 ,coleridge well expresses the ,english feeling--a feeling which1 under circumstances similar to those prevailing in ,england1 would be universal3 8,all thoughts1 all passions1 all delights1 ,whatever stirs this mortal frame1 ,all are but ministers of ,love1 ,and feed his sacred flame40 ,wagner's music1 which may be said to have been the delight of millions of people1 is not approved of by ,nordau4 ,he condemns it on the usual ground that it is novel1 and that it differs from the standards accepted before ,wagner4 ,according to him1 it is the music of an unsound mind1 because it contains no distinct ideas in the shape of melodies4 ,he objects to the ,leit-motiv and to the unending melody1 but it is difficult to harmonize what he says against the one with what he says against the other4 ,speaking of the ,leit-motiv1 he says3 8,to express ideas is not the function of music4 ,language provides for that as completely as could be desired4 ,when the word is accompanied by song or orchestra1 it is not to make it more definite1 but to reinforce it by the intervention of emotion4 ,music is a kind of sounding-board in which the word has to awake something like an echo from the infinite40 ,later on he says about melody3 8,it is a regular grouping of notes in a highly expressive series of tones4 ,melody in music corresponds to what in language is a logically constructed sentence distinctly presenting an idea1 and having a clearly marked beginning and ending40 ,music being an art which exclusively appeals to emotion1 it is not surprising that any attempt to measure its value by a reasoning process should result in utter failure4 ,but this is no excuse for an author to contradict himself so flatly as ,nordau does in the above passages4 ,to say on one page that 8to express ideas is not the function of music10 and on another page to say that melody is indispensable to music1 because it 8corresponds to a logically constructed sentence distinctly presenting an idea40 ,again he says3 8,melody may be said to be an effort to say something definite10 and how can this harmonize with the other mission of music3 8to awake something like an echo from the infinite40 ,the latter expression is not only a true definition of the mission of music1 but also an exact description of the aim of ,wagner's music4 ,nordau feels that his scientific reasoning about music will affect no one who has heard the music of ,wagner1 and that those who admire it will be slow to believe that an unsound mind could have accomplished such complicated1 intricate1 and complete work4 ,to prepare his reader's mind for his rash conclusion1 he once more goes to the lunatic asylum for his arguments1 in order to show that a man may be a lunatic and yet be a good musician4 ,but here again he is strangely blind to the fact that such arguments tell directly against his theory4 ,he cites cases of lunatics who 8improvised on the piano10 who 8sang very beautiful airs and at the same time improvised two different themes on the piano444 who composed very beautiful1 new1 and melodious tunes40 ,the remarkable thing about the music of his maniacs is that it is tuny and melodious1 and consequently the only rational music1 according to ,nordau1 while ,wagner's music is condemned by him1 and ,wagner himself is held up as a lunatic because his music is not like that of acknowledged lunatics6 ,it stands to reason that a weak mind could follow and repeat a style of music which it has heard for years1 but that it requires a strong and sound mind to break a new road in the domain of music with the full approval of millions of musical people4 ,nordau also feels the necessity of backing up his opinion by authorities4 ,he sees a conclusive proof of ,wagner's inferiority in the criticism of professional musicians and composers4 ,he might as well form his opinion of an actress on the criticism of her by her most dangerous rival4 ,it seems that ,hiller and ,schumann would not acknowledge ,wagner's musical endowment1 but attributed his success to the libretti written by himself4 ,regarding this ,nordau exclaims3 8,the same old story3 musicians regard him as a poet1 and poets as a musician40 ,this means that our alienist is1 or pretends to be1 so utterly innocent of humour and satire as to accept this very common way of minimizing the talent of a rival as a trustworthy judgment4 ,it is the commonest thing in the world for a man to deny his rival's talent in his own specialty1 and then1 in order to strengthen the effect of his opinion and to give it the colour of impartiality1 to acknowledge in him talents outside that specialty4 ,practical men1 when they hear one musician run down another musician1 generally conclude that the latter has a dangerous talent4 ,voltaire1 in speaking of a writer none of whose works were in existence1 said that he must have been a man of genius judging from the savage attacks made upon him by another writer4 ,hiller and ,schumann are the only authorities whom ,nordau can point to in support of his views1 and he himself raises some doubts whether their dislike of ,wagner's music was not due to the difficulty of immediately appreciating a tendency so novel as ,wagner's4 ,our alienist is only able to add that ,rubinstein can only make some important reservations1 and that it was some time before ,hanslick struck his colours4 ,in view1 then1 of the enormous literature that has grown up around ,wagner and ,wagnerism1 ,nordau's habit of referring to authorities in this instance simply has the effect of showing that he stands unsupported in his opinion by all musical authorities4 ,it is irresistibly comic to notice how ,nordau regrets that the brochure--,der ,fall ,wagner--in which ,nietzsche attacks ,wagner1 is quite as 8insanely delirious0 as another brochure written by the same writer twelve years before in deification of ,wagner4 ,had it not been for this awkward circumstance1 ,nordau1 it seems1 would have been only too glad to exalt ,nietzsche--the man whom in another part of his work he strenuously endeavours to prove an imbecile--to the rank of an authority4 ,his amazing lack of logic prevents him from seeing that a certificate of lunacy issued by a lunatic is really a certificate of sanity1 in virtue of the logical axiom that two negatives are equal to one affirmative4 ,such faults and defects as may be found in ,wagner's prose writings have little importance in relation--and are almost irrelevant--to the question of his supposed degeneracy4 ,he had to deal with subjects which1 though intensely real to our emotional nature1 can only be treated inadequately in words4 ,whatever we may think of ,wagner's style1 there can be little doubt that he has succeeded in making himself understood by a great number of people whose emotional nature sympathizes with that of ,wagner1 and whom even ,nordau would not undertake to prove to be mentally deranged or morally degenerate4 ,wagner's writings have the defect1 very general among ,german writers1 and conspicuous in ,nordau1 of being verbose4 ,they all make us crave for 8,der langen ,rede1 kurzen ,sinn40 ,the fundamental idea in ,wagner's great work--,the ,art-,work of the ,future--is that the arts should co-operate1 and that each individual art should attain to its perfection in conjunction with other arts4 ,nordau in no way disproves the soundness of this view by saying that 8,goethe's lyric poetry and the ,divina ,commedia0 need no landscape painting1 that 8,michael ,angelo's #8,moses' would hardly produce a deeper impression surrounded by dancers and singers10 and that 8the #8,pastoral ,symphony' does not require a complement of words in order to exercise its full charm40 ,with that logic peculiar to ,nordau1 he quotes a passage from ,schopenhauer in which this thinker mildly deprecates such co-ordination of the arts as was to be found in the operas of his time1 and our alienist wishes us to accept this as a proof of insanity in ,wagner's admiration for the opera4 ,he forgets the important fact that ,wagner's greatness is proved by the way in which he has succeeded in obliterating at least the worst defects of the opera as it existed before him1 and that he has rendered it a complete and harmonious expression of combined and elevated arts4 ,the quoted passage from ,schopenhauer could be no condemnation of ,wagner's operas as it was written before they saw the light4 ,in the operas1 as they used to be1 there was much that tended to disturb the imagination and even to arouse laughter4 ,the most exasperating incongruities were indulged in4 ,an exciting hunting chorus would be played and sung while two rows of lady supers would walk in from each side of the wings in ,indian file1 each bearing as a hunting implement a yard-long piece of wood surmounted by a piece of tin4 ,the impossible dresses1 the demure demeanour1 the solemn faces1 the absurd lances--carried like candles in a nuns' procession--all this clashed so terribly with the music and the theme as to suggest a burlesque4 ,a band of conspirators afraid of being detected1 yet shouting at the top of their voices some compromising chorus2 a man with a deadly wound rising to his feet and singing a lively and complicated aria2 a messenger in the hottest haste delivering a message in a slow and long-drawn recitative2 an intensely modern consumptive lady dying amid ancient surroundings1 trilling in her last gasps musical complexities1 during a quarter of an hour1 with a marvellously strong and healthy voice--such1 and many other absurdities1 disfigured the opera before ,wagner and ,gounod1 and well deserved the condemnation of ,schopenhauer4 ,wagner's assertion that the natural evolution of each art leads to the surrender of its independence and to its fusion with other arts is looked upon by ,nordau as delirious4 ,to prove this he falls back on biology1 and points out that nature develops from the simple to the complex1 that originally similar parts develop into separate organs of different structure and independent functions4 ,why on earth should there necessarily be an analogy between the growth of plants and animals1 and between the development of the arts8 ,any other writer who had been unfortunate enough to indulge in such profound mysticism would certainly have been condemned by ,nordau to the lunatic asylum4 ,even if we admit the analogy as permissible1 he gains very little by it3 for when he speaks of nature as always proceeding from the simple to the complex he describes exactly the development of the arts into the opera--music1 poetry1 and dancing representing each the simple1 and the opera representing the complex4 ,what would ,nordau think of a mad doctor who based his verdict of insanity on such reasoning8 ,the attentive student of ,nordau's impeachment of ,wagner cannot fail to see that1 despite all his efforts to brand him as a degenerate1 he has only succeeded in throwing the grand power of that genius into bolder relief4 ,instead of inducing us to look upon ,wagner as a sign of degeneration1 he has impressed us with the fact that ,wagner's work constitutes an awakening from the slumber in which ,philistinism and conventionalism have so long enwrapped humanity1 and opened a new vista for the ennobling mission of the arts4 ,while we must reject ,nordau's clinging to that pedantry and conventionalism which limit the mission of the arts to the production of isolated pictures for public galleries and the salons of modern ,mcenases1 statues for public places1 and compositions of ,kammer-musik for drawing-rooms1 we at the same time do not believe that the opera1 even as regenerated by the genius of a ,wagner1 is the highest expression of the arts4 ,there will come a day when the illusions of the stage will be realities1 when we shall dispense with the dusty sceneries1 the garish footlights1 the painted faces1 the prudish trappings1 which go to make up the mirage which heralds an ideal future4 ,the arts1 instead of being relegated to the nursery in order to make room for science1 as ,nordau prophesies1 will become its aim4 ,when science has given us health1 strength1 and beauty1 an extended power over nature's forces1 when it has solved the terrible social problem on the basis of liberty and progress1 then will science be the handmaiden of the arts4 ,then will the answer be granted to the poet's prayer3 8,oh6 for a muse of fire that shall ascend ,the highest heaven of invention2 ,a kingdom for a stage2 princes to act2 ,and monarchs to behold the swelling scene60 ,the arts1 after having demonstrated in the opera their solidarity and their independence1 will leave that artificial shelter and take up their abode in our homes and in our civic buildings1 in our streets1 and in our public places1 in our arenas and in our temples4 ,a new renaissance lies ahead of us1 and we are all struggling to reach it4 ,the man who thinks and writes1 the artist who paints or composes1 the peasant at the plough1 the miner in the bowels of the earth1 all are contributing to further the advent of a new era when the life1 the work1 the pleasure1 and the worship of a regenerate race shall be exalted by the arts1 and present a realization of what ,wagner dreamed while he created4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,the ,,religion ,,of ,,self ,the term egomania is a welcome present from the scientists1 which enriches our language with a verbal representation of a psychological condition which is certainly characteristic of our time4 ,we trust that ,nordau's diagnosis of the disease will be carefully studied by its victims1 especially by those who are in the stage where it appears as egoism1 self-sufficiency1 indifference to others1 to society1 to the ,state1 and as that fashionable and superior pessimism which despairs of self as an excuse for despairing of others4 ,for1 though ,nordau goes very minutely into the psychological aspect of egomania without indicating its origin or the remedies against it1 he evidently does not reject the theory1 which seems constantly to be confirmed by actualities1 that mental diseases may be fostered and aggravated both by those who suffer from them1 as well as by surrounding circumstances4 ,putting his opinion as a psychologist together with that of others1 we seem authorized to hope that when our egotistical pessimists have learned that the aristocratic characteristic on which they pride themselves is the beginning of a mental disease1 they will fly to such remedies as may be found in the study of useful science and healthy work4 ,such authors as ,thophile ,gautier1 ,baudelaire1 ,rollinat1 and others attract especially ,nordau's attention2 but he deals with them in order to show that they individually had degenerated into egomaniacs1 and he does not once try to realize the relation between their so-called degeneracy and the general tendencies of our time4 ,had he done so1 he might have felt inclined to be less hard on these exponents of fin de sicle corruption4 ,speaking of the hints which this school of poets and writers sometimes throws out that they are not quite serious1 ,nordau comes very near to discovering their significance when he says about ,baudelaire that perhaps 8he sought to make himself believe that1 with his ,satanism1 he was laughing at the ,philistines40 ,but ,nordau does not follow up the cue he has thus accidentally dropped upon1 but adds a sentence revealing the one-sidedness of his inquiry1 when he says3 8but such a tardy palliation does not deceive the psychologist1 and it is of no importance for his judgment40 ,that may be so4 ,but it is of the utmost importance to humanity4 ,that the yielding to the promptings of 8unconsciousness10 to the dictates of instincts bad or good1 was on the part of the so-called ,parnassians an experimental plunge in the dark--a challenge to those who pretended to know better to show them that they were wrong--cannot be denied by any one who has read their writings with some knowledge of the ,french character4 ,these men took up literature at a time when the world began to perceive that science could not satisfy its emotional aspirations1 that it could not explain the mysteries of the ,universe1 or bring about that balance between our emotional and intellectual natures on which a healthy life depends4 ,but this was not the only disillusion which humanity experienced at that time4 ,all the hopes which the altruistic feeling had prompted us to base on democratic governments and scientific political economy had vanished4 ,when the ,utopias of the economists turned out to be a fata morgana1 instead of the solid ladder leading up to the material heaven promised by the religion of humanity of the scientists1 a ,babylonian confusion arose among the people who had first been told to worship at the shrine of religion1 then at the shrine of science1 and now stood without any shrine whatsoever4 ,in ,france1 more than in any other country1 we meet with people whose minds are too subtle and whose emotions are too genuine to permit them to dwell contented in that ,philistinism which leans on the one side towards the scientific creed or absence of creed1 in order to appear modern1 and1 on the other side1 on religion1 in order to be safe1 but whose real shrine is the money-safe4 ,these ,french people1 mostly authors and artists1 had studied both the religious and the scientific theories1 and had found the causes of their miscarriage4 ,the ,church had said3 8,nature is vile1 man is naturally bad1 instincts are prompted by the devil1 and knowledge is one of the snares of hell40 ,but the ,roman ,church had not only failed in its mission to keep up the faith and render humanity virtuous and happy1 but was responsible for great social troubles1 superstitions1 and obstacles to progress4 ,it had good intentions1 but the way in which it tried to carry them out rendered them valueless4 ,it required power first1 much power1 complete power over everything1 and the acquisition of power did more harm than the ,church could do good when ever so powerful4 ,the ,protestant ,churches in ,france were gloomy1 prudish1 anti-artistic1 and appealed with difficulty to any ,french character4 ,their dogmas seemed incompatible with scientific truth1 and their mission appeared to be rather to persuade their members that they were perfect than to render them perfect4 ,besides1 a great many minds throughout the world1 accredited with scientific accomplishments1 had mercilessly opposed dogmatic religion4 ,science1 in its turn1 when asked1 ,where is truth8 ,where is the ideal8 could only point to a pile of facts laboriously built up like a brick wall1 and had to confess that what it wished to give instead of religion was mere speculations4 ,the ultimate conclusion it pointed to was selfishness1 personal irresponsibility1 and a mere animal existence4 ,it failed entirely to satisfy the great moving power in the scheme of humanity--emotions--and could not therefore satisfy human yearnings and aspirations4 ,the postulates of religion--the wickedness of nature and of man--were rejected as groundless1 and the guidance of intellect and science was spurned because they were powerless to influence the emotions4 ,finding themselves in the plight of a ship driving about in the ocean without compass or rudder1 the ,parnassians1 the ,decadents1 and many others thought it was time to try a desperate course4 ,perhaps1 after all1 they thought1 nature is good1 perhaps human instincts may be trusted2 let us be natural and follow our instincts4 ,there was much to encourage the new departure4 ,it had often been found that the purest joys were the most lasting1 that the good was the most beautiful1 that lives and actions prompted by the altruistic feelings best satisfied selfish yearnings1 that vice was disappointing1 unhealthy1 degrading1 and joy-killing2 that virtue improved life1 increased the capacity for enjoyment1 and beautified mind and body4 ,these observations encouraged the belief in the religion of self4 ,the ,ego was not bad2 but it required freedom to develop itself4 ,like all founders of systems and philosophies1 the ,parnassians and ,decadents sought for confirmation of their theories in the possibility of a ,utopia4 ,in imagining a state of things under which the self should have unlimited latitude for self-realization1 where man could satisfy his highest aspirations and enjoy the greatest possible happiness under the guidance of his altruistic promptings1 where his instincts should be so sharpened and developed as to unfailingly select the greatest and the most lasting1 and therefore the noblest1 pleasures--in imagining such a state of things these experimentalists perceived that society1 such as it was around them1 offered thousands of obstacles to every attempt at practical realization of their theories4 ,they thus came to look upon themselves as at war with society1 its old standards1 its prejudices1 its religions1 and its morals4 ,their writings were at once weapons1 challenges1 rallying-cries4 ,they were intended to deride1 to shock1 and to draw attention to the new philosophy4 ,the distinction between good and bad was obliterated4 ,the artist and the poet should henceforth express their true feelings and nought else4 ,instinct should take the place of principles4 ,the devil might be worshipped as well as ,god4 ,art should have no other object than art4 ,nature might be abhorred as well as loved4 ,and so on4 ,from this moral chaos the self was to rise in all its glory4 ,for the present it was distorted by surrounding circumstances4 ,the ugliness and morbidness of the subjects they wrote about and the distortion of their own feelings were the proofs of the decayed state upon which humanity had entered4 ,characters such as ,huysman's ,duc des ,esseintes were intended to illustrate what the present state of society was1 and what its present tenets would lead to4 ,he is intended to represent the final result of our civilization1 and to show that disgust of our race may be so great as to inspire a man with the belief that by fostering evil and creating criminals he does a good action in so far as he accelerates the destruction of society4 ,the ,parnassians and the ,decadents have no proclaimed creed or any programme1 and their own opinion of their philosophy is of the haziest kind4 ,we are therefore far from asserting that we have here interpreted them as they would interpret themselves4 ,whatever may be said of their style and their writings1 they have1 at least1 the merit of being frank and unsophisticated1 and we think it must be recognised that1 whether they know it or not1 they hold themselves up as the 8frightful examples0 of the chaotic state into which creeds1 principles1 morals1 are falling at the end of this century4 ,to us the moral1 both of their existence and of their writing1 is that the world1 and especially ,france1 stands in sore need of better churches1 of a better system of philosophy1 and better principles of government4 ,these authors have rendered a great service in tearing away the hypocritical mask which society is so anxious to maintain1 and thus demonstrating the great need of regenerating agencies4 ,of late1 ,england has been considerably influenced by ,france1 and the sthetic revolt just referred to naturally affected the ,english1 but merely as a faint echo4 ,when ,nordau1 who correctly points out the connection between the ,decadents in ,france and the extreme sthetes in ,england1 insinuates that the whole of ,english society is affected by it1 he labours under a wrong impression4 ,we have had here--and we speak purposely in the past tense--a knot of people who have believed1 as ,nordau states1 that a work of art is its own aim1 that it may be immoral4 ,but1 as he himself has stated1 the sthetic awakening in ,england has forced art almost in the opposite direction4 ,we have had poets who have imitated ,baudelaire and other writers of the same class1 but these imitators have1 by imitating many others1 displayed a weakness which debars them from any great influence4 ,there was a time with us when a thoroughly immoral decadence had a spell of influence and created a sickly literature4 ,but the influence of this sham stheticism is fast vanishing1 since its essence has been mercilessly exposed4 ,while the influence of the ,parnassians and ,decadents in ,france was only small1 in ,england the circumstances which produced them have been in existence among us and have produced effects to some extent similar4 ,the struggle between science and religion1 the distrust of both1 the failure of social panaceas1 and the irresistible pushing of the working class against old social barriers have produced in a great number of educated men a peculiar state of mind which we wish that ,nordau had noticed4 ,whether he would have placed those thus affected among his degenerates as egomaniacs it is impossible for us to decide1 but there can be little doubt that egoism is the chief characteristic of a new religion or a new mental disease1 which has made large inroads among educated men4 ,it becomes manifest in their pessimism and in their indifferentism4 ,they believe that everything is bad1 that the classes are bad1 that the masses are bad1 that the country is in a bad state1 and that everything will finish badly4 ,at the same time they do not care4 ,they will do nothing to avert the coming evils4 ,they hope that none will think them foolish enough to make themselves martyrs4 ,they wish it to be clearly understood that they care only for themselves and that they take no heed of what happens to others4 ,they loathe the working class1 and affect a desire to crush them out of existence at one blow4 ,they belong to the few ,englishmen who suspect women of vile things1 except of course their mothers1 sisters1 fiances1 and wives4 ,they think life hardly worth living1 and certainly not worth any special exertions1 but their main preoccupation is the state of their health4 ,they study nothing save their own inclinations and cravings and certain excrescences of the most modern literature4 ,their capacity for hatred is stupendous in its scope but meek in its expression4 ,they claim to enjoy all the benefits of social life without considering themselves obliged to perform any of its duties4 ,they manage to be spendthrifts without being generous1 and to be mean without being economical4 ,but we are strongly averse to classing these social phenomena among the hopeless egomaniacs4 ,they exaggerate their egotism to such an extent as to suggest that they are rather following a foolish fashion than undergoing moral decay1 and that the existence of pinchbeck patriots1 political charlatans1 sham enthusiasts1 and professional philanthropists has frightened them from showing their best side and using their best abilities1 and causes them to flout their pessimism and selfishness in every one's face lest they should be taken for one of these4 ,in spite of their infatuated posing as degenerate egomaniacs1 we believe that many of them may be counted upon as part of those elements from which the future regeneration may spring1 when the cloud of scepticism has cleared away1 and a goal worthy to strive for is discernible4 ,,chapter ,x ,,an ,,ethical ,,inquisition ,a very large part of the sum-total of the work accomplished by ,nordau in ,degeneration consists in describing scientifically the psychological phenomena which underlie the idiosyncrasies of certain authors and artists3 in giving scientific names to their weaknesses1 and in setting forth the relations in which such weaknesses stand to madness4 ,these idiosyncrasies1 these weaknesses1 and their relations to madness were well known to observant people long before ,nordau's book was written1 and to these his work is simply the technical explanation of familiar phenomena4 ,in another chapter we shall dwell at greater length on the difference of views which ,nordau tends to bring about4 ,here we wish to point out that1 in spite of the mass of scientific phraseology employed by ,nordau1 and in spite of the difference of views he endeavours to bring about1 in what seems to be his main object1 he is entirely in accord with millions of sound-minded people in this country4 ,we ,english deplore1 as deeply as any one can1 the existence of artists and works of so-called art which appeal rather to the morbid than to the healthy mind2 of poetry1 novels1 and dramas calculated to flatter the corrupt1 instead of stimulating in all a desire for elevation4 ,we especially deplore the diabolical work done by pornographic artists and authors4 ,owing to this accord in aims with ,nordau1 his work has been read1 and is being read1 by thousands in this country1 in the hope that his vaunted science and his strong mind would show us the right remedies4 ,but in this respect we have been sorely disappointed2 for instead of meeting with that complete grasp of the subject to which ,english scientists have accustomed us1 we meet in his proposal of remedies with that dazed and superficial logic which throughout his work clashes so strangely with his power of perceiving and of marshalling his facts4 ,the way he proposes to treat the 8mystics1 but especially egomaniacs and filthy pseudo-realists10 forcibly reminds us of the solemn resolution of the rats to bell the cat4 ,he says3 8,society must unconditionally defend itself against them4 ,whoever believes with me that society is the natural organic form of humanity1 in which alone it can exist1 prosper1 and continue to develop itself to higher destinies2 whoever looks upon civilization as a good1 having value and deserving to be defended1 must mercilessly crush under his thumb the anti-social vermin4 ,to him who1 with ,nietzsche1 is enthusiastic over the #8freely-roving1 lusting beast of prey1' we cry3 #8,get you gone from civilization6 ,rove far from us6 ,be a lusting beast of prey in the desert6 ,satisfy yourself6 ,level your roads1 build your huts1 clothe and feed yourself as you can6 ,our streets and our houses are not built for you2 our looms have no stuffs for you2 our fields are not tilled for you4 ,all our labour is performed by men who esteem each other1 have consideration for each other1 mutually aid each other1 and who have to curb their selfishness for the general good4 ,there is no place among us for the lusting beast of prey2 and if you dare to return to us1 we will pitilessly beat you to death with clubs4'0 ,all this sounds very well2 but if ,nordau believes that in this passage he has given us the true method of how to defend society against its literary and artistic enemies1 he labours under a delusion with regard to his own achievements that savours somewhat of megalomania4 ,his big words1 his righteous indignation1 and his manifold signs of exclamation are not a magic wand1 are not a ,saint ,patrick's mitre1 with power to banish toads and serpents from the country4 ,when he says that society should be defended1 we can understand him4 ,but when he says that society must defend itself1 he drops into the mist of commonplace and meaningless generalities4 ,the word 8society0 stands for one of those things which will serve very well as the object of an activity1 but not as a subject because1 while its smallest component part may be affected1 action is only possible through an organized co-operation of all its parts4 ,to a ,german who has never witnessed the attempt of a free democratic community to launch out into collective activity1 this difference in the active and passive positions of society may never have occurred4 ,to him the activity of society seems an easy matter1 because in his mind society is represented by a concentrated1 powerful1 and pragmatical administration4 ,if ,nordau had said 8government should defend10 instead of 8society should defend10 he would at least have been logical2 but this he could not do1 because1 though an enemy to personal liberty1 he has seen enough of ,german forms of government to reject the postulate of the ,socialists regarding the infallibility of the central power2 while at the same time he has a healthy contempt for the judgment of the continental police4 ,he therefore says that society must defend itself1 and thus gives us a gratuitous piece of advice which is thousands of years old4 ,he calls upon all those who share his views to tell the enemies of their race to be gone from civilization4 ,but will they go8 ,why should they be more obedient than the spirits from the vasty deep8 ,the administration of society would have to be completely centralized1 and the central ,government would have to be absolutely despotic1 in order to compel such an exodus4 ,even with such a ,government it might be extremely difficult to accomplish4 ,the most despotic ,government in the world--the ,russian ,government--have encountered enormous difficulties in trying to expel the ,jews1 and this despite the fact that in this endeavour they had the sympathies of the majority of the ,russian people1 and could easily ascertain who were ,jews and who were not4 ,a ,government1 in ,england for example1 that would attempt to expel pernicious authors and artists would have none of these facilities4 ,they would first have to pass an ,act of ,parliament--the ,graphomaniac1 ,egomaniac1 ,pornographomaniac ,authors and ,symbolist ,artists ,expulsion ,act--and at least twenty ,governments would be turned out before it could get passed4 ,but let us suppose that ,parliament had decided on such an expulsion of these offenders1 then the real difficulties would begin1 namely1 to decide who should be expelled and who should not4 ,as to killing the returning ones with clubs1 this mode of execution being abolished among us1 hanging would have to be resorted to--an extremely difficult operation in our days1 when the abolition of capital punishment is more and more being considered as one of the first steps towards better ethics4 ,nordau admits that judges and the police cannot help us4 ,the reason which he gives with regard to ,germany--the public contempt in which the judges and police there stand--does not apply in ,england1 where our judges are beyond reproach1 and the police is a highly respected body1 in consequence of being less pragmatical than any police force in the world4 ,experience in ,england has given us far stronger reasons for not using the law and the police force against authors and artists4 ,each time it has been done1 the very works intended to be suppressed have gained a popularity and a circulation a thousand-fold greater than if they had been left alone4 ,instead of tribunals and police1 ,nordau suggests a body similar to an association in ,germany bearing the name 8,association of ,men for the ,suppression of ,immorality40 ,as he often deals with his authorities1 so he here deals with his model tribunal4 ,he turns round and shows that they are no good4 8,this association1 it seems1 pursues disbelief more than immorality10 he says4 ,alas6 such is the way with associations of frail men4 ,they are apt to leave undone those things which they ought to have done1 and to do those things which they ought not to have done4 ,nordau here ranges himself with the crowd of sentimental ,socialists who are so angry with the world because it cannot see how easily the regeneration of humanity would become by means of an infallible and almighty ,government4 ,he and they cannot see that this infallible and almighty ,government is the very thing beyond our reach4 ,if he had inquired logically into the causes of the disappointing results produced by the 8,association of ,men10 he could not have failed to notice that the latter were more logical than himself4 ,this 8,association of ,men10 wanting to suppress vice by forcible action1 exactly as ,nordau would1 were sensible enough to strike at the causes and not at the effects4 ,they had found that atheism1 and even free-thinking1 generally coincided with immorality2 and that on the other hand religious men were generally moral4 ,consequently1 atheism was found to produce immorality1 and religion morality4 ,in upholding religion1 therefore1 they were upholding morality in a most effective way1 because morality without religion1 or at least without expressed religion1 is found only in men of great intellectual powers and scientific attainments2 and to educate the mass of the people to that point is1 and will for a long time be1 out of the question4 ,religion1 therefore1 was the only choice of ,nordau's 8,association of ,men02 and1 if it was right to coerce people into morality1 it was surely right to coerce them into religion4 ,from this it should be clear that the fault does not lie in the reasoning of this 8,association of ,men10 but in the postulate which ,nordau has approved--namely1 the coercion of anybody by an 8,association of ,men40 ,he expects the new 8,society for ,ethical ,culture0 in ,berlin to do better1 and wishes it to constitute itself as the voluntary guardian of the people's morality4 ,what an extraordinary idea6 ,one set of men guarding the morality of another set of men--a small minority1 unauthorised1 unrecognised1 and devoid of all physical power1 to guard the morality of the great majority6 ,the ,london authorities could tell ,nordau a great deal about the effects of such attempts1 even when the guardians of morality have the law and police at their back4 ,but he need not come to ,london to learn what guarded morality is worth1 and what the results of such guardianship are4 ,the history of every country teems with illustrations of the fact that every attempt to coerce the people1 morally or physically1 into a moral life has invariably brought about more hypocrisy1 more secret corruption1 and a tone of greater immorality4 ,if he distrusts universal experience1 then he ought to know1 as a psychologist1 that1 so long as the human mind and the human emotions are what they are1 repression1 supervision1 and outside interference with personal liberty must demoralize4 ,the composition of his society would be no guarantee whatever against deplorable effects4 ,he proposes that it should consist of instructors1 professors1 authors1 members of ,parliament1 judges1 and high functionaries4 ,to begin with1 authors could not be included1 because they could not judge and be judged at the same time2 and if the qualification of authors were sufficient1 what would prevent authors of the ,zola type from predominating in the association8 ,here1 as with regard to original causes1 ,nordau fancies that he has struck solid ground when he has removed the difficulty a stage farther back4 ,the association is simply an instrument4 ,all depends upon who forges it4 ,of this he says not a word4 ,he evidently expects it to arise as a miracle1 like the infallible ,government of the ,socialists4 ,were the ,german ,emperor to select the members of the association--which in ,germany he would have to do directly or indirectly--he would take upon himself an enormous responsibility1 for the fulfilment of which he would have to acquire the necessary information and the necessary means4 ,he would simply be to ethics what the ,pope is to the ,catholic religion4 ,nordau boldly asserts that such an association would have 8the power to exercise an irresistible #8boycot4'0 ,why8 ,he evidently thinks so because his association would be an influential one4 ,he clearly does not know what ought to be an axiom to any one who meddles with social questions--namely1 that the circulation of a condemned book increases in an inverse ratio to the respect which the condemning authorities enjoy4 ,thus1 if his association were to consist of nobodies and were to condemn a book1 the condemnation would only increase the circulation a little2 but if it were to consist of the leading men of the ,german ,empire1 the condemned book would be read all over the world4 ,in the matter of public censors nothing is of any avail that is not absolutely despotic4 ,by allowing ,government and police to exercise all kinds of violence1 isolated newspaper paragraphs and leaders can be suppressed before they are published1 and the open circulation of condemned books may be prevented4 ,but once the public get hold of the contents of an article and the name of a book1 a secret circulation at once sets in4 ,eyewitnesses who were in ,france when the ,french ,government confiscated and prohibited ,edmond ,about's ,la ,question ,romaine can relate the eagerness with which this book was read1 and tell of the numbers of copies circulated secretly4 ,we cite this example from the continent1 as it corroborates what always happens in ,england4 ,nordau fondly imagines that the judgment of his association would absolutely 8annihilate0 not only the book1 but the author4 ,the contrary would happen4 ,as long as there is a grain of love of liberty in humanity1 the condemnation by an authority of a man's book will make him the object of public sympathy4 ,when ,nordau says that 8no respectable bookseller would keep the condemned book1 no respectable paper would mention it10 his meaning entirely depends on his standard of respectability--one of those standards he absolutely refuses to give us4 ,every one knows that there are respectable booksellers and papers1 and that there are non-respectable booksellers and papers4 ,but who could undertake to draw the line of demarcation between the two categories8 ,in a small ,german town where there are only one or two booksellers this line is easily drawn4 ,but how about places like ,berlin1 ,hamburg1 ,paris1 ,vienna1 and ,london8 ,besides1 a bookseller and a newspaper might be highly respectable1 but differ diametrically from an association which would have ,nordau's approval4 ,surely he would not push his mania so far as to deny a respectable character to all the booksellers and newspapers who1 for instance1 refuse to boycot ,ibsen8 ,nordau also thinks that the specialists in insanity should come out of their shells and publicly denounce the degenerate authors and artists4 ,in ,england1 for example1 he thinks that ,maudsley could exercise a healthy influence4 ,but he would be surprised at the small number of people in ,england1 outside the profession1 who read works on mental disease4 ,degeneration has been widely read2 but this is because it levels startling accusations against well-known authors and artists1 and because it purports to give a novel scientific interpretation of familiar phenomena1 with the purpose of turning our opinions with regard to some branches of art and literature topsy-turvy4 ,it is not to science alone that it owes its wide circulation1 but to the clever--conscious or unconscious--sophistries it contains4 ,english psychologists and specialists in insanity could not afford to launch out after the manner of ,nordau4 ,they might secure a certain number of readers2 but they would lose their patients4 ,a specialist who came before the public with ,nordau's artless and ill-considered scheme for the defence of society against its enemies1 could not hope to be taken seriously by an ,english public4 ,in ,england we have had a too large experience of books with a tendency1 of log-rolling1 of veiled advertisement1 and of sly party thrusts1 to be influenced by such a suggestion of lunacy against political opponents as is contained in the following sentence from ,nordau3 8,a ,maudsley in ,england1 a ,charcot1 a ,magnan in ,france1 a ,lombroso1 a ,tonnini in ,italy1 have brought to vast circles of people an understanding of the obscure phenomena in the life and the mind1 and disseminated knowledge which would make it impossible in those countries for pronounced lunatics with the mania for persecution to gain an influence over hundreds of thousands of citizens40 ,it is impossible for us to imagine an ,english specialist in insanity attributing the absence of anti-semitism in ,england to his own writings1 or those of other psychologists1 as ,nordau does in this sentence4 ,if the ,german electors can believe such a wild party distortion1 they are not the men we take them for4 ,we have already explained the causes of the existence of anti-semitism in ,germany1 and of its absence in ,england4 ,we do not expect that ,nordau will acknowledge our view to be right4 ,for had he not been so entirely the creature of prejudice on this1 as on many other subjects outside his specialty1 he would1 unassisted1 have discovered so obvious a truth4 ,englishmen are not less anxious than he to defend society against its enemies2 but only the most inexperienced and illogical ,englishman would recommend such remedies as our alienist seems to consider as the height of wisdom4 ,though we have been slow about it1 we seem at last to have grasped the not very hidden truth that if society--that is to say1 the people--is moral enough to elect an association capable of acting as an ethical censor over art and literature1 we believe the people also capable of exercising that censorship directly1 instead of indirectly through an association4 ,this censorship by the people themselves has the immense advantage of working unostentatiously and silently1 and without advertising the very work that should be suppressed4 ,we think it futile to condemn1 or even to suppress1 a work2 and on grounds of expediency only1 regardless of principle1 to club the sinning author4 ,the source from which the condemned work sprang would yield more such works1 and the circumstances which had produced the objectionable author would produce more objectionable authors4 ,these1 as well as their works1 are the symptoms of a social malady1 and we should treat them as such4 ,we have ceased to apply to society the old methods1 long since abandoned by the medical profession1 of curing an evil by means of violent suppression of the symptoms--methods adhered to by ,nordau with regard to society1 but1 let us hope1 not with regard to his patients4 ,we leave the symptoms alone3 for they allow us to diagnose the evil1 and we go for the causes4 ,in looking for them1 we try to keep our minds free from such prejudices as influence ,nordau's logic4 ,we should not cry out for new ethical standards1 for new and impossible moral authorities1 while we ruthlessly destroy a standard and an authority--religion--the practical usefulness of which could not be replaced for centuries by any new standard or authority1 even if invented now4 ,recognising the truth in ,voltaire's flippant saying1 that if ,god did not exist we should have to invent ,him1 we do not1 as the superstitious scientists do1 first abolish ,him and then re-invent ,him in the clumsy form of a 8mechanical causality40 ,we let the holders of the ominous rings--of which ,nathan der ,weiser told ,saladin--do their utmost to prove by virtue and happiness that they hold the magic ring conferring these privileges4 ,it matters little to us whether the genuine ring be the ,christian one1 the ,jewish one1 or the scientists'1 so long as the belief in the holders of each of the rings stimulates them to prove its genuineness4 ,we would not tell the great majority who pin their faith to the ,christian ring--even if we believe it to be spurious--that we can prove it to be worthless1 and that the scientists' ring alone will bring salvation3 for we know that this ring is beyond the reach of most of them1 and that1 handled in the wrong way1 it will work curses instead of blessings4 ,we limit ourselves to telling them that the rings held by the others must not be despised until the ,great ,competition is adjudicated4 ,in our quest for the causes of degeneration1 we do not begin by trying to discover traces of lunacy in a small number of prominent citizens4 ,we bear in mind that these are either isolated cases1 or types of a generally prevailing tendency4 ,in the first case1 we leave them alone2 in the second1 we search for the cause of this tendency4 ,if we find that the tendency1 let us say1 toward hysteria1 or egomania1 in the upper classes is being produced by a craving for excitement1 unhealthy pleasures1 or artificial sensations1 and by a frivolous and empty life1 we set about to discover the causes of this craving and this empty life4 ,if we again discover that the cause is found in the decay of the beliefs in personal responsibility1 in the importance of philanthropy1 morality1 and patriotism1 we try to discover why these beliefs have decayed4 ,if it be found that they have decayed simultaneously with and in consequence of the decay of the authority of the ,church1 we try either to strengthen the influence of the ,church by purifying and reforming it1 or we replace its dogmas and its doctrines by a healthy and moral philosophy4 ,should we find1 on the other hand1 that the deplorable state among the poorer classes--their suffering1 their degradation1 and their joyless lives1 co-existing with large fortunes1 and irremediable under present laws and institutions--leads to the conclusion that the altruistic feelings of the wealthy are useless1 and thus prompt among the upper classes selfishness and egomania1 and the determination to drown their higher emotions in a giddy life1 and in the poorer classes to foster destructive tendencies and the desire for revenge1 we turn our attention to social remedies4 ,no one can turn his attention to the social state of the working class in ,england1 and throughout the world1 without discovering a host of motors active in the production of dire misery1 and all the mental and moral degradation that follows in its train--a degradation which aggravates the misery1 and reacts1 as we have shown1 on the upper classes4 ,nothing will more actively stay the progress of any mental degeneration which might be going on than the removal of the causes of the awful misery suffered by such an alarming proportion of civilized humanity4 ,nordau's warning against mental decay and progression towards folly will1 we hope1 quicken1 if not the higher emotions1 at least the sense of self-preservation among the leading classes throughout the world4 ,but it must be regretted that he1 not only in his suggestion of remedies1 but in many other parts of his work1 displays a lack of logic and a want of clear perception as soon as he quits the narrow precincts of his special science and the teachings of his manifold authorities1 and falls back on his own reasoning powers4 ,had he prevented his prejudices from colouring his views1 and had he not sacrificed logic for brilliancy1 his work would have been of no slight assistance to those who are helping on humanity in its staggering onward movement4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,vigorous ,,affirmations ,it has come to our knowledge that a great number of people in this country who have read through the whole of ,nordau's bulky volume have carried away an impression far from pleasant4 ,indeed1 there are few men or women in a country like ,england who might not1 on some plea or another1 come under the suspicion of mental degeneration1 if all that ,nordau says were1 regardless of his contradictions1 accepted as true4 ,in this country education and morality are based entirely on religious principles1 and most of the inhabitants are1 either by faith or by dint of sincere philosophical inquiry1 to some extent religionists4 ,all these might think themselves included among those whom ,nordau stigmatises as degenerates4 ,there are also a great number who admire intensely ,burne ,jones1 ,rossetti1 and many other painters of the same school1 and all these have been told1 with somewhat brutal frankness1 that they are on the road to lunacy4 ,the pieces of ,ibsen have a great number of admirers who have welcomed with pleasure the additional intelligence and interest which he has infused into the drama1 and who consequently have been pointed out as degenerate imbeciles4 ,in the light of these facts there remain few educated persons among the upper classes of this country about whose intellectual soundness ,nordau's work might not raise doubts4 ,this all the more so as his few reservations with regard to people who have demonstrated their sanity by practical ability to conduct their own affairs1 sink into insignificance among his voluminous and wholesale accusations1 especially as such reservations are forgotten almost as soon as they are made4 ,this wholesale issue of certificates of madness would not have mattered so much if his work did not carry with it a certain power of conviction which tells especially with the weak1 uninstructed mind1 and with people who have not read his work with special attention4 ,in fact1 we know cases of people of sensitive mind who imagine that1 thanks to ,nordau's book1 their friends will look upon them as on the road to lunacy4 ,there can be little doubt that the strong impression the book has made1 sometimes in one way and sometimes in another1 is largely due to the style adopted by its author4 ,the secret of this style is revealed in the chapter 8,prognosis10 where he describes with somewhat elephantine humour the effects in the twentieth century of the present progressing degeneration4 ,he says1 among other things1 that companies of men will be formed who 8by vigorous affirmations are charged to tranquillize persons afflicted with the mania of doubt1 when taken by a fit of nervousness40 ,such a piece of prophecy could only enter the head of a man who has had practical experience of the great effect produced on nervous people by vigorous affirmations1 and1 having had this experience1 ,nordau fills his volume with such 8vigorous affirmations40 ,his method has succeeded all the better as he evidently belongs to that class of powerful and strong-willed men who1 when once they have formed an opinion1 hold to it tenaciously1 and count as nothing any conviction against their will4 ,having followed ,nordau through his vigorous crusade against that score of people whom he regards as dangerous enemies to humanity1 and having pointed out a host of his logical errors1 erroneous perceptions1 unsound postulates1 and exaggerated representations1 we propose before closing this volume to examine some of the reasoning methods which give him his apparent strength4 ,it is to him of great moment that his readers shall not believe in the existence of the thinking and feeling ,ego as a person1 apart from the organic mechanism which conveys impressions and presentations to the ,ego4 ,he uses all the arguments which that school of thinkers to which he belongs has piled up in order to show that mind is a condition of matter4 ,he says nothing about the arguments on the other side1 but treats them as the science of the past4 ,he takes for granted1 without showing a vestige of doubt1 that human beings are nothing but organic mechanisms4 ,he does not even refer to1 or allow that there is1 anything beyond the present scientific discoveries1 and scornfully ignores the existence of what less prejudiced scientists call the ,unknowable4 ,he thus treats a question which still trembles in the balance as if it were already decided in favour of his pet theories4 ,the attitude which biologists and psychologists take up as such1 and with the special purpose of proceeding in their investigations with perfectly unbiassed minds1 ,nordau assumes as a philosopher1 and tries to persuade himself and others that he has taken his stand on absolute facts4 ,science proceeds on the supposition that only that is true which has been proved so by demonstrations to our senses1 or through deductions from such demonstrations4 ,this1 of course1 is a postulate the illogicality of which most scientific men are aware of1 and is adopted mostly for the purpose1 as it were1 of clearing the ground4 ,to assume1 apart from their investigating attitude1 that there is nothing more to know than what is already known1 would be an utterly absurd assumption1 as it would1 if acted upon1 preclude further investigation4 ,nordau does not1 and would not1 deny that there is more to learn1 but he persists in the view that all future knowledge will be on the lines of our present knowledge1 and never contradictory to the present prevailing scientific dogmas4 ,he remains under this impression1 because he forgets that science has progressed1 progresses1 and1 as far as we see now1 always will progress through investigations by our senses1 and that this fact brings two important truths conspicuously into relief4 ,the first1 that our senses are liable to deceive us1 and that consequently the difference between primitive views--the result of imperfect observation--and the scientific opinions of the day is not one of kind1 but simply one of degree4 ,in olden times the senses deceived us very much1 and nowadays they deceive us less4 ,but to what an extent they deceive us now the future alone can reveal4 ,the second1 that science with the present methods cannot investigate anything that does not appeal to our senses4 ,to deny the existence of anything that does not appeal directly to our senses is absurd1 because we should have to deny all the forces of nature4 ,the existence of these can only be detected by their effects4 ,the more science teaches us about forces1 the more the view gains adherence that the forces are not a state of matter1 but a thing apart1 if matter is not a state of force4 ,even if this view should prove to be correct1 the error it would dispel1 that force is a state of matter1 would be pardonable1 as force only has come within the perception of our senses through its effect on matter4 ,psychology has to some extent succeeded in tracing and in describing certain forces which are at work in our nerves and our brains1 such as1 for example1 reveal themselves in the reception and elaboration of presentations4 ,but within every human being there are well-known phenomena which tell of forces--or of one general force--which so far have escaped all investigation4 ,these phenomena are emotion1 judgment1 will4 ,attentive readers of ,nordau's books will have noticed that1 in his scientific dissertations on the actions of the brain1 these factors--emotion1 judgment1 will--turn up suddenly without the slightest explanation as to whence they come and what they are1 though they seem to completely determine the action of the whole organism4 ,it is with this enormous gap in their chain of reasoning that some scientists1 with more learning than logic1 jump to the conclusion that the thinking and feeling ,ego is only a state of matter4 ,nordau1 being anxious1 as we have already mentioned1 to magnify the importance of his psychological theories by undermining his readers' belief in the existence of anything unscientifically called 8soul0 or 8spirit10 renders his task easier by attacking religion1 of which the belief in the existence of the spiritual ,ego is a vital part4 ,he knows that if he can compass the rejection of the idea of religion he kills two birds with one stone4 ,he gets rid of the personal ,ego as well as the belief in eternal life1 both of which1 if admitted to be realities1 would strongly point to an intelligent ,providence the existence of which would be a colossal impediment to the glorification of science and of scientists4 ,the way in which he strives to undermine religious belief is ingenious and often effective4 ,he trusts chiefly to the historical argument4 ,he goes back to primitive man in order to show that he1 in his ignorance of nature1 attributed those natural phenomena which strongly impressed him to some man mightier than himself4 ,nordau tries to show that out of this belief arose what he would call superstition1 the several forms of religion4 ,he here of course appeals to feeling more than to reason4 ,people do not like to feel that they have remained in the depth of ignorance of the primitive savage1 and might feel disposed to join the glorious company of the apostles of science4 ,but if we use our reasoning powers we cannot fail to perceive that science has merely taught us the methods by which1 and the laws according to which1 nature works1 and that as to the forces behind the laws of nature the scientist is as ignorant as the primitive savage4 ,nordau also pursues that diplomatic course--or commits the error--as we have already pointed out1 of confounding religion with the ,churches4 ,it is easy to inspire distrust in religion if it be permitted to consider ,pope ,borgia1 ,ignatius ,loyola1 and ,dr4 ,stcker as its inevitable results4 ,by analyzing1 to some extent distorting the essence of ritual1 ,nordau seeks to point out that ,christian worship is not only sheer imbecility1 but also an insult to the supposed ,god4 ,he never notices such discrepancies between the ,churches and religion as are1 for example1 revealed by the anti-semitist movement in ,germany1 which naturally he keenly resents4 ,from the defects1 the shortcomings1 the superstitions1 the antiquated dogmas of the ,churches1 he tries to draw the sweeping conclusion that a belief in an intelligent ,providence1 in the existence of a soul1 and in a spiritual life independent of the body is the outcome of degenerate mental powers4 ,the views that by such means he endeavours to impose upon his readers mean that man1 being an organic mechanism1 ceases to exist when he dies4 ,if this be so1 there is no personal responsibility1 and only that man would be wise1 rational1 undegenerate1 who so arranges his life that he may live long1 keep in good health1 and enjoy all the pleasures that he desires1 be they noble or ignoble4 ,to test1 then1 whether a man who is1 who believes he is1 or merely poses as1 a disbeliever in future responsibility1 we ought to examine how he regulates his life4 ,only in this manner can we discover to what an extent he is influenced--to use ,nordau's own language--by the inherited tendencies to worship lurking somewhere in the innermost recesses of his consciousness1 or1 to use our own language1 by the instinctive feeling of personal responsibility which has characterized humanity in every stage of barbarism and civilization4 ,the fact that a great many scientists1 including ,nordau1 do not live as if they were perfectly convinced of the non-existence of personal responsibility beyond the grave1 requires quite a different kind of explanation than that generally afforded1 before we abandon the belief that they are self-deceivers4 ,the moral scientists themselves have found the necessity of some explanation1 and this is what they say1 though perhaps in other words3 8,we do not believe in any responsibility beyond the grave1 but we do what we think our duty to humanity4 ,we should be sorry and ashamed to be actuated by a fear of punishment or the desire for reward1 and not to do what is right and good for the sake of the right and the good40 ,this sounds very beautiful1 but too boastful almost to be accepted as the bare truth4 ,some of them who are aware of this1 or who are genuinely too modest to thus stand forward as demi-gods1 add3 8,in living and acting as we do1 and wanting others to live and to act in the same way1 we are not more unselfish1 nor morally better1 than others4 ,we are only wiser2 in fact1 more intellectually selfish4 ,and all we desire of other people is that they should be intellectually selfish4 ,in exercising self-control and devotion to others1 we do not deprive ourselves of pleasures and enjoyments1 because most of these come to us from our surroundings and from society at large4 ,for what we do for our wives and families1 we get love in return2 for what we do for society and the race1 we get two rewards3 firstly1 esteem and reputation1 perhaps money2 and1 secondly1 all the social advantages which are valuable to us in the same proportion as society is in a healthy state40 ,this seems highly convincing1 but it does not by far cover the whole ground4 ,whoever has studied our times well knows that a man can secure for himself1 and even for his family and friends1 enormous advantages by disregarding and violating the interests and moral rights of others1 and also that1 when wholesale rascality succeeds1 when it is productive of great wealth1 great social and political power1 it also secures esteem and reputation4 ,there are1 of course1 men in positions1 the stock-in-trade of which consists in honesty and even philanthropy2 but there are others1 and millions of them1 who could1 under the present social systems of the world1 amass fortunes and rise to distinction by systematic robbery4 ,thousands of cases could be stated in proof of the fact that1 in the absence of the belief in responsibility after death1 selfishness will prompt men to hurt their fellow-beings and society in order to secure money1 power1 and reputation for themselves4 ,take the case of a poor labourer who1 in the usual course1 will work and suffer during his whole life and die in poverty4 ,to escape such a destiny many roads are open to him if he have courage1 exceptional ability1 and no belief in a hereafter4 ,he could commit a variety of crimes in order to give him a start in life without the slightest chance of being detected1 and without experiencing the smallest inconvenience during his lifetime4 ,he might even avoid violent and vulgar crimes1 and operate in a safer manner4 ,he might blackmail a rich man4 ,he might in war betray his country4 ,he might sell himself to a corrupt political party4 ,he might join the army of some selfish sovereign bent on conquest and plunder1 and gain a high position4 ,or he might pursue yet safer methods4 ,he might turn first a usurer1 then a financier4 ,he might keep a degrading public-house1 or a gigantic immoral place of amusement4 ,he might issue a debasing newspaper1 write corrupting books and dramatic pieces4 ,provided he does not expose himself to the hatred1 contempt1 and even the unfavourable criticism of his fellow-beings1 or injure his health1 there is positively nothing to prevent him from adopting all these courses to the great detriment of humanity1 so long as he is perfectly sure that he shall not be called to account after death4 ,what some of our scientists forget is that very few people are in the same position as they themselves are1 where respectability and quasi-philanthropy pay2 but1 on the contrary1 that the great majority live under the constant temptation to secure wealth1 health1 esteem1 and reputation by means which are injurious to society4 ,to such arguments they can only reply that the man1 however successful1 who attains his success by anti-social means runs a risk of ruining the happiness of his life by loss of self-respect4 ,but1 if the man has a conscience1--and he could not lose his self-respect without one1--it could not trouble him so long as he was convinced that he had done the best for himself4 ,by bringing the conscience at all into the discussion1 the scientists fall back on an emotion which has been always intimately associated with the sense of personal responsibility1 and which they themselves have been compelled1 in order to protect their theories1 to deny absolutely as an instinct or to represent as the result of religious education4 ,for this reason1 ,nordau would not call that instinct in man which prompts him to live and act morally--an instinct which is the original motor of all moral progress--conscience4 ,he would probably prefer to call it the social instinct4 ,but names matter little4 ,the essential point is1 that there exists in man's consciousness a strong instinct which cannot be reasoned away4 ,this instinct is intimately connected with another1 without which it would never have produced the results we see around us--namely1 the instinct that the ,ego is imperishable4 ,no one would deny the universal existence of this instinct1 but plenty of scientists1 while acknowledging it as an inherited tendency1 would deny it any value as an argument in favour of the immortality of the ,ego1 on the ground that a hazy1 unreasoned1 and utterly inexplicable yearning need not have a distinct goal4 ,the instinct of human beings is a subject which has been very much neglected by science1 and for the good reason that1 whatever instincts may be natural to man1 they have been carefully smothered by teachings1 examples1 and experience1 all appealing to his reason from infancy upwards4 ,he never uses1 never tries1 and never suspects the existence of his instincts1 and when accidentally they lead him right1 he regards the fact as a delusion1 and even avoids mentioning it from a fear of being laughed at4 ,this has however not prevented men1 and often remarkable men1 from being guided by their instincts2 only it is called feeling1 taste1 luck4 ,there are examples of men who owe the greater part of their success to instinctive feeling1 and who have committed great mistakes by having trusted too much to it4 ,besides it is generally believed that women's instincts are clear and trustworthy1 and many men consider themselves to have been largely benefited by consulting them4 ,but1 in order to get at a true appreciation of the value and power of instincts1 we must go to the animals4 ,what else but instinct could we call the feeling which allows the carrier-pigeon to find its way from ,london to ,paris in an atmosphere of darkness and fog which would render it impossible for the most experienced mariner to distinguish between north and south4 ,it is a well-known fact that dogs and even cats that have been left behind by their owners have followed them at great distances1 though the owner has gone by rail or water and the animal has had to find its way across country4 ,in face of such facts and considerations1 no man who has not a strong bias would suggest that an instinct that is general to humanity need not be heeded4 ,the instinct of personal responsibility cannot be re-christened social instinct and then minimised by the assertion that the social instinct is the outcome of reason1 the sense of self-preservation1 and intelligent selfishness3 for in that case the poor labourer who wanted to become wealthy and famous1 as instanced above1 could be as evil as he liked so long as he was successful1 and could not be restrained by the social instinct1 but only by conscience1 or in other words1 the feeling of unlimited personal responsibility4 ,atheistic scientists who lead a moral and useful life cannot hold themselves up as a pattern of results produced by social instincts1 because in the great majority of men1 placed differently1 these instincts would permit them to injure society to an enormous extent4 ,nor does the assertion of these scientists bear the stamp of sincerity when they say3 8,behold us1 we have no belief in personal responsibility beyond the grave4 ,and yet we labour and run risks for the good of humanity4 ,we sacrifice our time1 our money1 our health for others1 and we remain poor while we could be rich4 ,our life is the outcome of intelligent selfishness40 ,they would have a better chance of convincing us if they said3 8,life after death is impossible4 ,we prove by our lives that we believe this4 ,our moral lives and our humanitarianism are sheer hypocrisy which we practise in order to get esteem and fame4 ,the books we write are not true1 but they bring us money1 and we do not care how much evil we inflict on humanity by ripping away the only foundation on which its morality and happiness can be built1 while the substitute which we supply is worthless4 ,we might have averted an immense amount of vice and degradation by leaving old religions alone until the ,religion of ,humanity was perfect enough to replace them4 ,but we attack them now because in this way we make money and fame40 ,it is not the well-meaning1 plodding scientist1 striving to arrest disease1 lessen pain1 and dispel superstition1 that can bounce us into the belief in personal irresponsibility4 ,this could only be done by real flesh-and-blood ,ducs des ,esseintes1 men like the hero in ,huysman's novel1 ,a ,rebours4 ,this author1 whom ,nordau classes among drivelling imbeciles1 has shown that he has a clearer idea than our clever alienist what type of men the certitude of personal irresponsibility could produce4 ,we are fully convinced that ,nordau is no ,duc des ,esseintes at heart1 masquerading as a benefactor of humanity1 and1 if he boasts a little of his good intentions and not at all of his wickedness1 it is because he believes that what he does is right1 and does it because he is prompted by that strong sense of personal responsibility which his scientific prejudices and his lack of logical power cause him to deny4 ,having striven by 8vigorous affirmations0 to implant the belief in his readers' minds that they have no ,ego independent of their body1 and that they consequently are fatally doomed to become what their defective brains and nerves are bound to make them1 he proceeds with another series of 8vigorous affirmations10 that degeneration is on the increase1 that it is characteristic of the end of the century1 that the men whom we take for geniuses are mattoids1 and finally1 that the whole of our western civilization is degenerate4 ,we have1 in preceding chapters1 tried to show how he has neglected to pay any attention to the many signs all over the civilized world indicating an increase in mental and moral powers2 how he endeavours to overwhelm his readers by comparisons between the symptoms in real degenerates1 or lunatics1 and similar symptoms--accompanied however by perfect rationality and great intelligence--in authors and artists1 and concludes that they are as mad as the madman4 ,he tries to force this conclusion on the unwary reader by simply ignoring all other grounds for eccentricity that would have been taken into account by an unbiassed enquirer4 ,let us instance the way in which he judges ,zola4 ,he never for an instant regards him as a free agent1 but speaks of him as a patient suffering from erotic madness and other brain and nerve affections1 which compel the novelist to write1 and to write exactly in the vein he does4 ,the very idea that human beings should be thus subjected to all kinds of irresistible impulses produces the same gruesome impression as the old stories of demoniacal possession4 ,nordau might as well have described ,zola as a man hating above all things the writing of novels1 with a natural repugnance for anything savouring of the obscene1 compelled by a demon in possession of his body and his soul to write the history of the ,rougeon-,maquarts and other distasteful works4 ,on the careful reader the impression would have been precisely the same4 ,but no number of 8vigorous affirmations0 would have induced even the most weak-minded of readers to have accepted the demon1 while ,zola's eroticism and his mischievous olfactory nerves may have imprinted themselves upon the minds of some by dint of scientific dissertation4 ,while it would seem to most people rational to study ,zola's character and the state of his mind1 in order to form a correct idea of the objects he has in view1 ,nordau1 by his method of supposing that a writer is not a free agent1 but is compelled to exhibit for the readers of his works the innermost recesses of his consciousness1 proceeds in the opposite manner3 he evolves the characters of writers from the characters of their books4 ,from what he says about ,zola1 one feels inclined to conclude that this author devotes the large amounts he makes by his writings to the gratification of bestial lusts1 living in a kind of harem of degraded women1 rapidly destroying by debauch every spark of intelligence left in his tottering brain4 ,we do not know ,m4 ,zola personally1 but from what we hear1 he seems to live a quiet and laborious life with his wife in a peaceful country house1 and far from spending his earnings in riotous living1 he banks them as a reserve for old age1 which he seems likely to attain4 ,when however a man's private life and rational attention to his own business seem to clash conspicuously with ,nordau's diagnoses1 his serenity and self-confidence are not in the slightest degree disturbed1 because he has given his description to the man's tendency in a 8psychiatric sense10 and has referred to the man's actual life4 ,but the discrepancy between the author's actual life and the life he1 according to ,nordau1 ought to lead1 is not an extenuating circumstance in the eyes of so harsh a judge as our alienist4 ,on the contrary1 it aggravates the sentence1 for if the accused author is not in reality the monster he ought to be1 it is simply because his attenuated physique does not allow of it1 and drives him through all his debaucheries in his imagination4 ,we do not admire such literature as ,zola has put forth1 and do not believe that it has accomplished one iota of the good at which its author1 according to his admirers1 aims4 ,but all rational men should bear in mind that such books are sure indications that there is something rotten in the ,state4 ,to ascertain to what an extent the circumstances surrounding the author are capable of inducing a sound-minded man like ,zola to write such books1 before jumping to the conclusion that such authors are lunatics1 would be the method adopted by sincere searchers after truth4 ,a rapid survey of the circumstances under which ,zola began to write will at once show that the inborn eroticism and even coprolalia which ,nordau tries to foist upon ,zola were not the only influences to which he was subjected4 ,in ,paris1 as in all great capitals1 there is a host of young ambitious littrateurs who compete for the attention not only of the public but of the publishers4 ,it is far from certain that the books which most please the public would be most acceptable to the publishers1 and the latter are1 therefore1 to a great extent responsible for the state of literature4 ,nordau says that ,m4 ,alphonse ,lemerre was able to make ,parnassians1 as the editor1 ,cotta1 in the first half of the century1 made ,german classics2 and he is right4 ,a ,parisian publisher has the power to make pornographic authors just as well as ,parnassians4 ,he is a business man1 and of course wishes to obtain a large circulation for his books1 and1 therefore1 is on the look-out for authors who are sensational one way or another4 ,at the time ,zola began to write1 the obscene novel was beginning to be fashionable4 ,paul de ,kock and his imitators had become old-fashioned1 and the corruption of the ,third ,empire1 as well as the spread of scientific atheism1 had created a demand for something racier than the peccadilloes of light-hearted viveurs4 ,besides1 pessimism was in the ascendant1 and erotic literature had to be morbid instead of gallant and gay4 ,several authors of great ability1 but strongly influenced by the pessimism of the time1 and with the field of their ethical studies limited to the ,parisian boulevards and the ,quartier ,breda1 had paved the way for that false realistic literature of which ,zola's writing may be called the climax4 ,the publishers1 knowing their market1 were eager to accept books of an obscene character1 provided they were serious and written in a philosophical spirit4 ,zola may have seen his way to eclipse anything written in that style1 and being himself a child of his time1--materialist1 and nervously inclined to exaggeration1--may have seized upon the chance of making money and fame1 though he probably foresaw that his first novels would expose him to the execration of the ,philistines and the respectable world4 ,he might also have foreseen that one day he would be able to establish a sufficient fame to be received by ,english littrateurs as a genius of his time4 ,if1 therefore1 ,zola's object was to push himself to the front in the manner we here suppose him to have done1 he has certainly succeeded--a fact which could not establish his intellectual degradation4 ,he simply yielded to a tremendous temptation1 and if he did so under the impression that the scientists had completely proved the non-existence of personal responsibility1 ,nordau should be the last to blame him4 ,but there is not the slightest necessity to assume--nor do we assume--that ,zola yielded to any temptation at all4 ,on the contrary1 it is perfectly possible that1 in writing the books he has1 he sincerely believed that he was serving some good purpose4 ,knowing how many other ,frenchmen feel in this respect1 we might well suppose that he reasoned somewhat in the following manner3 ,religion is wrong1 and a fraud practised by the clever on the simple-minded4 ,the control which the ,church has assumed over the relations of the sexes is one of the means by which it retains its power1 and is fraught with immense unhappiness to the people4 ,the separation of the sexes1 and the devout decency which refrains from openly speaking or writing about sexual subjects1 distort the people's ideas1 inflame their imagination1 and tempt them into unhealthy vice4 ,nature is not sinful4 ,it is either the only divinity we have1 or it is created by the ,almighty1 and in this case it is holy4 ,to yield rationally to its dictates is therefore no sin4 ,books should therefore be written to prove this point1 and at the same time accustom the people to look upon nature and its laws without shame1 without hypocrisy1 and without running the risk of being overpowered by wild passions4 ,in this way humanity may be elevated1 because it will be frank and natural1 and religion1 which science has proved to be inimical to humanity1 will lose its influence4 ,we are not saying that ,zola's ideas ran in this groove1 only that it is possible that they did4 ,if they did1 he would have been utterly wrong2 but he would not have been the first nor the last man whose views have been influenced by his interests4 ,no man who knows both ,france and ,england better than ,nordau seems to do could for one moment doubt that had ,zola been born and educated in ,england1 where the surroundings are so vastly different to those of ,france1 he would have written books of quite a different character1 and probably free from obscenity4 ,if this be true1 it constitutes another reason why the surrounding circumstances of an author should be considered before it is asserted that inborn degeneration is alone responsible for the blemishes of his work4 ,nordau himself points out that the fashion which brought ,zola to the front is on the decline1 and that his influence is on the wane4 ,if so1 it only proves how limited the influence of such supposed degenerates really is1 and that--at least with regard to ,zola--,nordau's book is out too late1 and those who have been deeply impressed by his 8vigorous affirmations0 about the mental decay of the race need not despond4 ,over and over again civilization and society have been threatened by new and apparently dangerous tendencies1 but they have generally culminated in absurd exaggerations1 and have thus lost their potency4 ,who knows whether ,zola1 through the wisdom that the years bring1 will not change his opinions1 and with them his vein of writing8 ,we feel morally certain that he is now engaged on some novel entirely free from those erotic allusions which ,nordau says he cannot avoid--a book as pure as the first part of ,la ,joie de ,vivre2 and if he does1 what will become of ,nordau's imperious dogmas8 ,another of those features of ,nordau's work which strongly impresses his readers is seriousness4 ,he speaks throughout in that grave and solemn tone--the ,so-spake-the-,lord style--which never yet failed to impress superficial readers4 ,he is anxious to convey the impression that if he has to say unpleasant things it is because his teachings are momentous to humanity1 and not because he wishes to be sensational4 ,he condescends to speak about poetry1 drama1 and music1 but he plainly shows it to be his opinion that all these are vanities1 and hardly worthy to occupy a great man's thoughts4 ,he aims at crushing with his contempt both artists and poets1 the whole herd who have neglected science1 and who try to divert the attention of humanity from this all-important subject4 ,he would scare us with the threat that1 when science has elevated humanity for a little longer1 such frivolities as poetry1 music1 and dancing will be relegated to the nursery4 ,grown-up men and women1 who now indulge in such pastimes1 are made to feel that they belong to degenerates1 and that they only prove their folly if they look upon themselves with any self-respect4 ,he endeavours to deprive love between persons of the two sexes of its poetical reality1 and to wrap it in a gloomy scientific misconception by regarding it as a feeling of comradeship grown out of habit1 or as the same sexual instinct as in animals4 ,the pure and real love which permeates life1 which gives to man his manhood1 and to woman her true womanhood1 which has created the home and therefore the ,state--this love he denies1 and expects serious-minded readers to look upon the world-phenomenon and the drama of humanity deprived of their chief elements--light1 heat1 and motion4 ,he speaks of the tendency in men and women to take their own life when its burdens out-balance its pleasures as calmly as if suicide were the usual exit from our earthly existence4 ,nordau thus obtains part of his success by the same methods as those so freely adopted by the gloomy1 anathematising preachers--rapidly becoming types of the past--who1 by threats of the devil and hell-fire1 aim at compelling their hearers to turn their attention from this world in order to brood exclusively on dismal dogmas4 ,he would fain banish from our minds all that appeals to what is truest within us--our imagination and our emotions1--as the kill-joy fanatics in the pulpit have banished from our villages the maypole1 the dance on the green1 and the forfeit game4 ,he is much mistaken if he believes that by such means he can in our days produce a lasting impression on the common-sense and intensely human ,english mind4 ,here and there he may drive some clouded soul into neo-,catholicism1 and augment the ranks of the ,symbolists and the ,decadents1 but he will only make the morbid more morbid1 or morbid in a different mood4 ,the hard-working and enlightened ,englishman does not apply himself savagely to his business for business' sake4 ,nor does he encourage scientific progress for the sake of science4 ,when he considers himself1 and is considered by others1 an eminently practical man1 it is because he knows what he aims at1 and uses1 studies1 and encourages the most effective and promptest means to attain his ends4 ,but the secret and the essence of this ,english practicality lies in the fact that his aims1 so clear and so precise1 are determined by his imagination1 his emotions1 and his instincts4 ,unlike the ,german who despairs of realizing his ideal1 the ,englishman has it in his imagination as clearly before him as the architect has the plans1 elevations1 and sections of the palace he is going to build4 ,he does not begin to build until he is convinced that every detail is correct4 ,nothing discourages him more than the spoiling and blurring of his ideals2 he stops his work1 as does the builder when his drawings are lost1 or found impracticable4 ,it is vain for ,nordau to try to persuade the average ,englishman1 be he educated or not1 that the enjoyments which enchant him in his youth shall not cast their roseate hue over the rest of his days4 ,poetry1 music1 the drama1 are part and parcel of the pleasures the ,english people look forward to when business has supplied them with the means of enjoying them in the expensive form in which1 with us1 unfortunately1 they are alone obtainable in perfection4 ,it is not only such enjoyments as educated people of all ages appreciate which for an ,englishman retain a life-long charm4 ,even his boyish tastes give zest to his life1 so long as he retains his faculties4 ,at ten years of age he reads1 raves1 and dreams about horses and dogs2 at seventy he rides to hounds1 and at a still more advanced age he partakes in all the excitements of the racecourse4 ,as a boy he reads about travels and adventures2 at middle age1 or even later1 we find him travelling all over the world in quest of big and small game4 ,cricket1 football1 boating1 and athletics in general represent the life of ,english boys1 and far into old age they can seldom refrain from glancing at the sporting columns of their paper1 which to a foreigner appear as interesting as the dullest of dull market reports2 while athletic sports are witnessed by ever-growing crowds of people of all ages1 who watch the proceedings with a zest as intense as that of the ,spaniard watching a bullfight4 ,and to people who thus enjoy their lives1 ,nordau would say3 8,you are degenerates1 because you enjoy childish things4 ,put them behind you1 and rise to my level4 ,take a seat at the table of science1 where we will show you by dissection1 and by vivisection1 the minutest details of the entrails of those creatures which1 in the fulness of their life1 in the beauty of their form1 afford you a childish delight40 ,if such be the road to regeneration1 only the weak-minded among the ,english people will enter upon it4 ,thousands might momentarily experience a depression--a gloom similar to that produced by the fulminating and damnation-dealing preacher one meets with in country districts4 ,the dismal appearance of the orator1 his description of hell1 of an accursed world1 of the narrow way to salvation1 as well as the scared faces in the dark and dank little church1 may evoke a gruesome mood while the sermon lasts4 ,but on coming out into the summer air1 into the midst of the revivifying sunshine1 of the rustling trees1 radiant flowers1 singing birds1 dancing butterflies1 and softly humming bees1 the healthy-minded of the congregation experience a sense of relief and joy2 for the uncharitable condemnation of the ascetic preacher is powerfully contradicted by the direct and unmistakable language in which nature appeals to man's emotions4 ,the depressing effect of ,nordau's book is enhanced by his ostentatious display of knowledge1 and by the absolute faith he himself has in it4 ,he follows the methods of wily political speakers4 ,these have a way of piling proofs upon proofs in order to demonstrate the truth of such points as are almost self-evident2 and when they have thus established among their audience a confidence in their logic1 they slur over the weak points1 take for granted that everything is proved1 and draw a plausible conclusion devoid of any direct connection with the arguments4 ,a postmaster-general1 for example1 does not wish to be bothered with the reduction of postage1 and1 in order to resist such a proposal1 he will deliver a lengthy harangue to show that the work of the post-office is useful to the public1 that it cannot be well administered without sufficient revenue1 the necessity of keeping a complete staff1 the impossibility of reducing wages and salaries1 and many other points which are perfectly clear without demonstration4 ,he will then suddenly conclude that the post-office works at present with very small means1 and that1 if those means are further reduced1 disorganization and disorder may ensue4 ,to be able to draw this conclusion1 he has to take for granted that the reduced postage would mean reduced income to the post-office1 while in reality it may mean the very contrary4 ,in the same way ,nordau gives us pages upon pages in order to show us such facts as psychological science has established1 and then boldly elicits supposed facts which science never has and may never be able to prove4 ,we have already given plenty of instances of this1 and they need not be referred to again4 ,his careful minuteness in psychological matters often induces the unwary reader to accept his unproved statements purporting to represent facts drawn from other branches of knowledge4 ,thus1 for example1 he speaks of matters pertaining to sociology1 economy1 administration1 and politics1 as if he were a universally acknowledged authority on these subjects4 ,it will suffice1 however1 to read his plan for arresting the spread of degeneration to understand at once on what feeble foundations his apparent omniscience rests4 ,his idea of an ideal social order is an impossible amalgamation of socialistic as well as communistic fallacies4 ,while he retains the absurd postulate of the ,socialists1 that a perfect ,government could be established1 distributing all the wealth of the nation among individuals1 he indulges heedlessly in the communistic delusion that those who accumulate under the present system would continue to accumulate wealth at the same rate when the ,government confiscates all fortunes left by deceased individuals4 ,he does not see that people under such a system would take very good care to dispose of their property before they die1 a course which even the ,german police could not prevent4 ,he does not insist on these errors1 but they come out distinctly as indispensable links in the association of ideas1 underlying his views regarding the anti-semitist movement1 the dangers of individual liberty1 the bestial propensities of the masses1 and the necessity of a ,government composed of strong-minded scientific men4 ,it is only too easy to see that in all his suggestions of working out the terrestrial paradise of humanity1--which one day1 according to him1 will be the outcome of science1--he is guided entirely by prejudice and feeling4 ,in summing up what he has said on this subject1 his ideal social order presents itself to our minds as unfree1 completely subjected but well-cared-for masses benevolently governed by senates of strong-minded1 scientifically educated men--the ,jews4 ,the gloom and unrest called forth by ,nordau's work in nervous minds no doubt gain in strength from the apparently powerful personality behind it4 ,but it suffices1 as we have shown1 to divest this imposing giant of his assumed power in order to escape from his influence4 ,nordau1 had he not done so before1 reveals himself unmistakably in the very last sentence of his book as one largely beset by human frailties when1 in self-glorification1 he quotes the words of him whose work he so strenuously attempts to undermine and oppose4 ,in order to assure his readers that his object1 as a scientist1 is to benefit humanity1 to lead it farther on the road on which religion1 so much contemned by him1 has already taken it some distance1 he quotes ,christ's words3 8,think not that ,i have come to destroy the law or the prophets2 ,i have not come to destroy1 but to fulfil40 ,we here refrain from the temptation to write half a dozen pages in order to show1 in ,nordau's own manner1 how1 by quoting from the ,scriptures1 by appealing to faith and emotion1 by comparing himself to ,christ1 he is symbolic with ,paul ,verlaine1 he is mystical with the neo-,catholics1 he is emotional with ,rossetti1 he is an egomaniac with the ,diabolists1 and a megalomaniac with ,wagner4 ,but we refrain1 and only say that he is human4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,regeneration ,if the manifold discussions which have raged around the question of human progress have failed to establish a consensus of opinion1 it is largely due to the absence of any exact definition of the term progress4 ,there can be no doubt about our advance in science4 ,the trite references to the use we make of steam1 of which the ancient sages knew so little as to call it smoke1 establishes this beyond the possibility of denial4 ,but1 on the other hand1 our advance in literature and art has been crab-like2 for it has been accomplished with our face turned towards antiquity4 ,to set up ideals out of the actualities of the past involves the recognition that we1 as a race1 stand lower than we have done before1 or at least at one time we have slided backwards and not yet retrieved the lost ground4 ,the progress of humanity1 with all its deviations and backslidings1 may appear as one decided march onwards1 if we look upon our ideals1 plucked from the past1 as so many pegs thrown out into the distant future demarcating the ground to be occupied by the road of civilization4 ,the ,greeks showed us1 as in a flash1 and within a limited space1 ideals of poetry and art1 and since the time of the ,renaissance we have been striving to attain them4 ,christ has been the moral ideal held up to us for well-nigh nineteen hundred years2 but this we are so far from having realized1 as to be filled with doubt whether1 in our awkward groping1 with our faces turned towards ,calvary1 we move in the right direction4 ,there are many circumstances which render it difficult to decide whether we have progressed or not4 ,how are we to determine which represents the greater advance1 the high degree of sthetic civilization in a small group of the human family1 and all the rest plunged in barbarian darkness2 or a lower degree of sthetic civilization uniformly spread among all the peoples of the world8 ,we have1 thus1 to consider not only the degrees of progress1 but the nature--whether sthetic or moral--and its extension1 before we can decide whether we have progressed or not4 ,but this is not all4 ,we must agree1 or at least have clearly determined in our minds1 towards what goal the progression is supposed to move4 ,if it be to bring the whole of humanity up to an ideal beauty1 perfect health1 and a maximum of strength and agility1 our civilization in our present stage certainly tends in the other direction4 ,if1 on the other hand1 the goal be the conquest of ,nature's forces1 we are certainly moving rapidly towards it4 ,in face1 then1 of the complexity of the question1 whether humanity is progressing or not1 the best method of replying to it rationally is to take one feature of human development only1 but one in which the others are included1 or on which they depend4 ,to select for such a test-feature the psychological conditions of civilized humanity1 at a certain period as manifested in literature and art1 might at the first glance appear as the most rational course1 because with strong and sound minds1 with well-balanced psychological faculties1 a nation is most likely to shape its destiny in such a fashion as to secure excellency in all the domains of its existence4 ,but there are strong objections to this method of gauging human progress4 ,the fashionable writers and artists may not represent the mass of their contemporaries1 but may be the exponents of a temporary mood in a small uninfluential clique4 ,features of literature and art may1 as we have already pointed out1 convey the impression of retrogression simply because they reflect the unrest and confusion which prevail in the majority of minds at periods when new ideas and new views1 healthy in themselves1 trample out the old ones4 ,art and literature do not always reflect the ethics of a nation at a given period4 ,the nation may be intellectually strong and morally sound1 but political events1 economic troubles1 may momentarily goad it into abnormal moods and drive it1 by sheer necessity1 into a course which1 under normal circumstances1 it would shun4 ,a despot with sthetic leanings1 and his nobility1 might be instrumental in causing art and literature to blossom forth most vigorously1 while the people at large might be sunk in the deepest depths of demoralization and misery in order to furnish the means for the maintenance of a brilliant court4 ,history and actualities afford ample confirmation of the fact that art and literature may flourish while the people degenerate4 ,when the culture of ,greece was at its zenith1 a large proportion of the people--the slaves--had fallen so low as actually to afford object lessons to the young citizens1 in order to deter them from the horrors of vice and degradation4 ,during the ,renaissance in ,italy the courts were corrupt1 and the ,church had sunk to its deepest stage of demoralization4 ,while the 8,roi ,soleil0 was developing literature and art in the hothouse of his royal patronage1 the immorality of the nobles and the degradation of the people were unprecedented4 ,nor are there wanting examples of how a nation may be in a vigorous state of progression without developing any remarkable features in art and literature4 ,switzerland was for a long time the leading nation in ,europe in the matter of government1 legislation1 administration1 civic virtues1 and education1 but has never distinguished itself sthetically4 ,during the period in which ,america was most progressive1 its people were too busy with practical affairs to give much attention to the arts4 ,if1 therefore1 we were to judge the progress of a nation by its arts and literature1 we might feel disposed to conclude that these two blossoms of civilization sprout forth in the same ratio as the people degenerate4 ,but this would be absurd1 for it would be to give the palm of civilization to the ,esquimaux1 or to the pigmies in the dark forests of ,africa4 ,the idea1 therefore1 of judging whether a nation1 or a race1 is rising or degenerating by the state of its arts1 must be rejected as utterly misleading4 ,the political and social institutions of a nation are surely the features that best lend themselves to the test of the stage it has attained in progressive development1 or degeneration4 ,if laws and institutions are such as to give every inhabitant the best chances of attaining to a high degree of civilization1 of morality1 and of happiness1 and such laws and institutions emanate from the people themselves1 and are not imposed by another nation and not by the freak of a despot1 that nation is in a progressive state4 ,it is difficult to imagine a country with good laws and good institutions without corresponding healthy conditions in all the other features of its existence4 ,history offers no example of a community1 or of a people1 that has given itself laws and institutions equally beneficial to all the individuals1 and yet exhibiting signs of decay in any domain of its culture4 ,it is true that in a free1 healthy1 progressive ,state1 especially a thoroughly democratic one1 literature and art may not attain that hectic florescence so often co-existent with bad laws and bad institutions4 ,but it has never been found that art and literature in such healthy nations are in a degenerating state4 ,it is true that different minds hold different opinions as to the attributes of good laws and institutions4 ,a man who believes that human beings are essentially wicked and brutal would call a government good only when it possessed power enough to keep the people in subjection2 while he who has discovered that the good qualities in human beings spring from a natural instinct1 and the bad ones from unfavourable conditions and corrupt surroundings1 would only call that form of government good which afforded to each individual the greatest possible liberty consistent with the same degree of liberty in others4 ,but there can be no hesitation as to what constitutes good government and good institutions1 if we appeal to the only authority capable of judging with full knowledge of the case1 namely1 the individuals themselves4 ,we often meet with people who look with distrust upon institutions and systems of government based on liberty1 but this does not affect our assertion that the great mass of individuals would personally1 and for themselves1 claim as much liberty as they could obtain4 ,those who advocate authoritative administration and the subjection of the people to a class1 or an elected body1 behold in such constitutions the means not of reducing their own liberty1 but of extending it beyond legitimate boundaries1 and at the expense of the liberty of others4 ,it is hardly possible to imagine a nation that has given itself1 and is living under1 a system of personal liberty1 and is at the same time degenerate4 ,a degenerate man fears liberty1 he prefers to lean on others2 he feels not ashamed to live on charity1 and would abuse his liberty in order to satisfy his base instincts4 ,a sound-minded and morally healthy man needs no compulsion to respect the right and liberties of others4 ,he trusts and respects others1 because he trusts and respects himself4 ,he would assist no man in his attempts and intrigues to injure others4 ,he would1 therefore1 uphold his own1 as well as the liberty of others4 ,such bad results as ,nordau fears from institutions based on liberty can only arise out of oppression4 ,we have shown how the anti-semitic movement1 which he erroneously regards as an outcome of too much liberty1 is the result of oppression exercised by the ,jewish capitalists and employers in virtue of bad legislation1 and no one will deny that the anarchistic tendencies spring from the same cause4 ,from these reasons we may fairly conclude that1 if we wish to form an opinion of the intellectual soundness and moral strength of a nation1 we cannot do better than examine to what an extent it has attained to good institutions based on personal liberty4 ,if civilized mankind is actually degenerating1 we must find a tendency among the people in the countries under examination to give themselves1 or to accept under compulsion1 laws and institutions which rob them of their personal liberty4 ,in gauging the present epoch by this standard1 we might first be inclined to side with ,nordau4 ,those great nations which may fairly be looked upon as the leaders of civilization present spectacles of political corruption and retrogression1 which might well suggest the idea that1 instead of developing into a race intellectually and morally strong enough to live free1 they show a marked willingness to place themselves under control of some kind--to abandon their divine attributes and to assume those of domesticated animals4 ,but a correct opinion about so important a question cannot be formed on a superficial glance4 ,in no branch of knowledge are appearances so deceptive as in sociology4 ,apparently the same effects are often produced by two opposite causes1 and under slightly different circumstances the same cause may produce two opposite effects4 ,thus1 a man may vote for a measure because he is corrupt and selfish1 and with the object of benefiting himself at the expense of his fellow-men2 while another man may vote for the same measure because he does not happen to be in possession of certain special knowledge which would enable him to understand the nugatory character of his action4 ,there are nations in ,europe at this moment presenting such a mass of anomalies as to render it extremely difficult to decide whether they are bent on improving their laws and institutions1 or on making them worse4 ,much1 for example1 that has happened in ,germany has been pronounced as a decided forward movement4 ,the ,german army has displayed physical and mental qualities which bear witness to healthy development rather than degeneration4 ,the unification of the ,german ,states into one ,empire had for some time before the last war been the goal towards which the nation aspired4 ,when it was reached1 patriotic ,germans expected it to be made the starting-point of a new departure for further progress4 ,but the very accomplishment of national unification involved features which clearly pointed to retrogression4 ,the medival principle of conquest was revised4 ,the future peace and good-will among the nations was destroyed by the annexation of the two provinces conquered from ,france4 ,standing armies for ,germany became more than ever necessary1 and the nation was called upon to make enormous sacrifices in order to ward off the consequences of retrogression in foreign politics4 ,the heaviest burdens were laid upon the working class1 and their struggle for existence became desperate4 ,they have shown many signs of discontent1 and these have led to the consolidation of repressive measures4 ,thus ,germany now presents the spectacle of a curious amalgam of medival and modern features4 ,at the head of this great empire we find a young ,emperor who1 though not a despot in the widest sense of the word1 possesses1 as an indispensable feature of the system1 sufficient power to plunge not only the whole of ,germany1 but all ,europe1 into unspeakable misery4 ,the individuals of the nation sink into insignificance before him4 ,they plainly feel that their destiny is in his hands as much as that of their ancestors was in the hands of their medival emperors4 ,and yet the people are highly civilized1 well educated1 and show1 in their different walks of life1 intelligence1 strength of character1 moral worth4 ,here1 then1 is a people which1 judged collectively by our standard1 would stand at a low point of development1 because their laws and institutions are not based on personal liberty4 ,if we consider the direction in which they are moving1 the verdict becomes as unfavourable4 ,the country is torn by two divergent tendencies1 neither of them aiming onwards4 ,the one represented by the ,emperor1 the official bodies1 the plutocrats1 and men who think as ,nordau1 who wish to keep a keener watch on the destitute classes2 the other represented by the ,socialists1 who clamour for the destruction of the present system1 not for the purpose of securing personal liberty1 but of wresting what little is left of it from the people1 and of establishing complete ,state tyranny4 ,if the standard we are applying be trustworthy1 neither of the two currents of development noticeable in ,germany run in the direction of a high degree of civilization4 ,at the present moment it seems difficult to discover whence1 within ,germany1 could come the impulse for such general mental and moral progress as would be manifested by good and free institutions4 ,if the present conditions could prevail indefinitely1 and gradually improve so as to safeguard1 or at least not impede1 the development of the individuals1 ,germany might look forward to the future with equanimity4 ,but1 unfortunately1 actualities in that country confirm only too well the trustworthiness of our standard4 ,the result of the present system cannot fail to exercise degenerating effects on the people1 but whether these effects will influence the present generation only1 or by heredity be perpetuated in the nervous systems and the brains of the race1 is a question for psychologists to settle4 ,the stupendous standing army1 the heavy taxation1 and a host of bad laws have undermined1 and are still undermining1 the welfare of the people4 ,the immediate results are1 among the working classes3 extreme penury1 hopeless lives1 low morals1 intense hatred of the wealthy class1 a growing sympathy with the destructive programme of the advanced ,anarchists1 decay of religious belief without any growth of the religion of humanity of science4 ,among the commercial class1 the results are3 intense competition1 small profits1 nervous application to business1 a thirst for gold and recklessness with regard to the means of satisfying it4 ,among the bureaucratic classes the dread of reduced and retarded advancement has caused discipline and absolute submission to take the place of religion and philosophy4 ,the landed aristocracy1 seeing their incomes threatened by the deplorable state of agriculture1 plot and plan how to recoup themselves at the expense of the people1 and have even shown an inclination to resist the ,emperor himself when their interests require it4 ,this state of affairs is more than sufficient to account for such signs of degeneration as ,nordau has noticed in his own country4 ,what wonder that artists and writers1 menaced by misery and actuated by the general thirst for gold1 should consult their market rather than their inspiration1 and that they should copy successful authors and artists in ,france and elsewhere1 rather than take the trouble and the risk to do original work4 ,a comparison between ,german literature of to-day and that of decaying ,rome could not fail to impart important lessons4 ,everything in ,germany points to a coming catastrophe4 ,even if we consider only one of the directions from which the first alarm may come--that is1 the ,finance ,department--it seems impossible that the system can last much longer4 ,the heavy taxation unfortunately undermines its own basis1 namely1 the ability of the people to pay1 and the much-strained credit of the ,state is likely to collapse at the very moment it will be most needed4 ,it is1 therefore1 not premature to consider what will happen in that country at about the end of this century1 when the financial resources1 the patience of the people1 and the confidence of the army may be exhausted4 ,two alternatives are possible4 ,the crisis which seems bound to come may be a violent one1 arising from below2 or it may be a peaceful one1 taking its origin from above4 ,in the one case1 there will be a momentary social chaos2 for all the military and bureaucratic institutions1 all systems1 theories1 prejudices1 will be cast into the furnace4 ,at what time and under what conditions ,germany will emerge from the crisis will depend on the number1 and the strength of mind1 of those ,germans who understand that good institutions based on liberty are the cardinal attributes of a sound-minded and morally strong nation4 ,the other case--the crisis coming from above--does not seem possible just now1 because the ,emperor himself would have to take the initiative4 ,it is not likely that he would give up his power1 his military tastes and pastimes1 in order to render ,germany a free and happy nation1 living in peace with other free nations4 ,for a sovereign to conceive such an idea would be almost supernatural1 and to carry it out successfully would require the highest degree of human intelligence1 because it could not be done except in harmony and in co-operation with the other ,european ,states4 ,from whatever direction the crisis comes1 there is much in the ,germans to warrant a final successful issue4 ,we cannot believe1 with ,nordau1 that such signs as we see of degeneration spring from moral and intellectual weakness4 ,in the external circumstances1 we find sufficient cause for far more demoralization than actually exists2 and the ,germans1 taken as individuals1 show themselves to possess plenty of those mental and moral qualities which are the only possible foundations of a healthy ,state4 ,they bear witness to the fact that1 despite unfavourable outward circumstances1 the race is not decaying2 and that the present corruption and demoralization may be decay only of one stage of human development1 from which in obedience to some strong impulse a new regenerating era may arise4 ,in order to elucidate the apparent state of degeneration which characterises civilization at the close of this most remarkable century1 as well as its causes1 we have instanced ,germany--the country where ,nordau has studied and written1 and where he seems to have received his most vivid impressions4 ,the circumstances and tendencies of other countries1 especially in those governed more or less on despotic principles1 are akin to those in ,germany4 ,everywhere increasing penury1 discontent among the destitute classes1 a rapidly growing power among the plutocrats1 national indebtedness1 financial corruption1 the decay of all religious belief1 and general demoralization4 ,but the similarity does not end here4 ,in every country there are numbers of people striving and hoping to bring about a better state of things1 even at the cost and sacrifice of some of the leading features of our civilization4 ,there is a mass of evidence1 including those peculiar features of modern society on which ,nordau has dwelt so largely1 showing that a deep unrest has taken hold of humanity4 ,the feeling is not only that we are in a wrong position1 but that we are moving in a wrong direction4 ,the general fear is not that degeneration has set in1 but that1 moving on the road that we do1 we cannot escape it4 ,the most striking characteristic of our time is that in no nation do we find1 on either side of the ,atlantic1 any distinct indication of the road which can lead us past the ,slough of ,despond4 ,the moral state of the civilized world is like a nation preparing for revolt against a tyrant3 gloomy1 discontented1 and excited men are encouraging one another with secret signs and passwords1 mustering and drilling in secret places1 to be ready for action1 but without any trustworthy leaders1 without any plans for the future1 without even any tactics for the first struggle4 ,in some countries the cry is for leaders2 but the old faith that the situations will bring out the men seems to have been utterly falsified3 for everywhere mediocrity1 prejudice1 and corruption hold the helm4 ,the cry in ,england and other countries is not for leaders1 but for more light4 ,we want a higher philosophy1 nobler arts1 a loftier literature1 sounder principles of legislation1 a purer religion4 ,no nation holds a higher responsibility than the ,english4 ,its vast possessions all over the globe1 its financial and commercial supremacy1 its ethical influence over all the ,english-speaking countries1 mark it out as the standard-bearer of civilization4 ,nothing great can happen among us without re-echoing in the remotest corners of the earth1 and any step onward taken by us will send a thrill throughout humanity4 ,degenerate ,englishmen may still wish to meekly follow other nations1 but our mission is to be the practical1 energetic1 daring pioneers heading the march of progress4 ,by using its great power and influence1 the ,british nation can render invaluable service to humanity in the present crisis4 ,on ,england must therefore rest our hopes for the practical solution of the grave questions on which progress and retrogression depend4 ,from ,england alone can proceed that electrifying impulse of which the bewildered nations stand in need1 that they may marshal the forces and focus the goal of progress4 ,in our political circles1 in the ranks of literature1 and throughout all the strata of society there are already unmistakable signs that the period of scepticism1 selfishness1 and rant will end with the century2 that scientific superstition and sickly ,collectivist chimeras are doomed2 and that the nation is sternly entering upon the mission of leading humanity towards good laws and institutions based on liberty1 and thus inaugurating a universal movement which by its glorious results shall demonstrate that the alarming symptoms of degeneration1 revealed by the psychologists1 are the first symptoms of regeneration4 ,,index4 ,about's 7,edmond71 ,la ,question ,romaine1 #bej ,anarchism1 rapid spread of1 #aid2 causes of1 #aie-g ,andersen1 ,hans1 #eh ,andersen's ,ugly ,duckling1 #gd ,angelo1 ,michael1 #bbd ,anstey1 ,f41 #ada ,anti-semitism in ,germany and elsewhere1 #ahe ff4 ,armies1 ,english1 ,french1 and ,german1 no degeneracy is proved by recent events1 #acd ,art1 #ef ff42 does not necessarily reflect the ethics of a nation1 #bib ,artists and symbolism1 #gc ff4 ,arts1 the1 and science1 future harmony of1 #bbh1 #bbi ,association of ,men for the ,suppression of ,immorality1 #bdf ff4 ,atheism1 effect of1 upon morals1 #he1 #ij ff42 upon religion1 #hf ff4 ,auricular confession1 #afb-d ,austria1 causes of anti-semitism in1 #ahg ff4 ,avinain1 ,french assassin1 #afd ,baudelaire1 ,charles1 #bca1 #bcg ,beethoven1 ,ludwig1 #ajf ,bismarck1 ,prince1 #acg ,bjrnsen1 ,bjrnstjerne1 #agj1 #agg ,borgia1 ,pope 7,alexander ,,vi71 #bfe ,bornmller1 ,franz1 #aaf2 his estimate of ,tolstoi1 #aaf ,brahe1 ,tycho1 #ff ,bremer1 ,frederika1 #adb ,bront's ,jane ,eyre1 #adf ,cavour1 di1 ,count ,camillo ,benso1 #acg ,cervantes1 ,miguel1 #aeb ,chitral1 ,british expedition to1 #acd ,church and religion1 the1 distinction between1 #gg ff4 ,coleridge1 ,samuel ,taylor1 #bai ,columbus1 ,christopher1 #ff ,communism1 absurdity and impracticability of1 #aij ,confession of wrong-doing1 the yearning for1 #afb-e ,consciousness of man1 #bjd ,correggio1 ,allegri1 #abg ,cotta1 ,johann ,friedrich1 #bgg ,dante's ,divina ,commedia1 #bbd ,darwinian theory of evolution1 #aei ,degeneration1 the causes of1 #bee ff4 ,dishonesty as a means of acquiring wealth1 #bfg-i ,drummond1 ,henry1 #h1 #ab ,drunkenness in ,england1 #acf1 #acg ,egoism1 #bfj ff4 ,egomania1 #bcj ,england1 degeneracy in1 #acf1 #acg2 estimation of women in1 #adb1 #bag-i2 sthetic revolt in1 #bcg2 high moral responsibility of1 #cje1 #cjf ,english army1 no degeneracy in1 #acd ,ethical ,culture1 ,berlin ,society for1 #bdg1 #bdh ,eroticism1 #bje ff4 ,faraday1 ,michael1 #ed ,france1 marriage in1 #ij1 #ia2 sthetic revolt in1 #bcd ff4 ,free ,labour ,association1 the1 #ca ,french army1 no degeneracy in1 #acd ,french hatred of ,germany1 #bd1 #be ,french symbolists1 the1 #gf ff41 #id ,galileo1 #ff ,gautier1 ,thophile1 #bca ,germans1 submission of1 to discipline1 #ae ff42 their treatment of women1 #ah-ai2 ideas concerning marriage1 #ai2 hatred of ,france1 #bd1 #be ,germany1 marriage in1 #ah1 #ai2 army system in1 #ach2 position of women in1 #adb ff42 influence of1 upon ,norway1 #agc ff42 causes of anti-semitism in1 #ahg ff42 the development of the empire1 #bih2 burdens upon the working people in1 #bih1 #bii2 despotic rule of the ,emperor1 #bii2 bad effect of present system of government1 #cjj-b2 the coming catastrophe1 #cja-c ,gladstone1 ,william ,ewart1 #acg ,goethe1 ,johann ,wolfgang1 #ef1 #aeb1 #bbd ,goethe's ,werther's ,leiden1 #ajd2 ,faust1 #aeg1 #baf ,gounod1 ,charles ,franois1 #bbf ,hanseatic ,league1 the1 #agc ,heller1 ,ferdinand1 #bbb1 #bbc ,heredity1 #aei1 #afj ,hugo's ,notre ,dame de ,paris1 #ei ,human instincts1 #bgj-b ,humanity1 the religion of1 #bcb ,hunt1 ,holman1 #fd1 #fh ,huxley1 ,professor ,thomas ,henry1 #ed ,huysman1 ,joris ,karl1 #bcf ,huysman's ,a ,rebours1 #bgc ,ibsen1 ,henrik1 #acb ff41 #adj ff41 #agg1 #beh2 influence of1 upon women1 #adb ,ibsen's ,ghosts1 #aed1 #aee1 #aeh2 ,pillars of ,society1 #aee1 #aef2 ,the ,lady from the ,sea1 #aeg2 ,the ,doll's ,house1 #gd1 #agi-ha ,immorality1 ,association of ,men for the ,suppression of1 #adf ff4 ,immoral literature1 impossibility of prohibiting the circulation of1 #bdi-ea ,instinct in human beings1 #bgj-b ,italian army1 no degeneracy in1 #acd ,jew1 the free-thinking1 characteristics of1 #bj1 #ba ,jews1 the1 ,wagner's dislike of1 #ahd2 hatred of1 in ,russia1 #ahe2 in ,germany and ,austria1 #ahg ff42 inherent good qualities of1 #aia1 #aib ,jones1 ,burne1 #fh1 #abg1 #acj1 #beh ,kant1 ,immanuel1 #c ,kidd1 ,benjamin1 #h1 #ab ,kock1 de1 ,charles ,paul1 #bgg ,legrain1 #df1 #dg ,lemerre1 ,alphonse1 #bgg ,lessing1 ,gotthold ,ephraim1 #aje ,lessing's ,amelia ,galotti1 #aje ,liberty 7periodical71 #cb ,liebknecht1 ,herr1 #af1 #aci ,lie1 ,jonas1 #agj1 #agg ,literature does not necessarily reflect the ethics of a nation1 #bib ,lombroso1 ,dr4 ,cesare1 #ba2 ,nordau's dedication to1 in ,degeneration1 #acb ,love1 the purity of1 #bac1 #bad ,loyola1 ,ignatius1 #bfe ,lutheran ,church and confession1 the1 #afc ,marriage laws1 how inaugurated1 #aej ,marriage relations in ,germany1 #ah-ai2 in ,france1 #ij1 #ia ,mallarm1 ,stephane1 #ajd ff4 ,martineau1 ,dr4 ,james1 #ed ,maudsley1 ,dr4 ,henry1 #bea ,millais1 ,john ,e41 #fc1 #fd ,molire's ,malade ,imaginaire1 #ab ,moltke1 ,count ,helmuth ,karl ,bernard1 #g ,morel1 ,dr4 ,b4 ,a41 #dh ,morice1 ,charles1 author of ,la ,littrature de tout l'heure1 #ajf ,music1 the influence of1 #fj1 #fa1 #bbj ff4 ,mysticism1 #dd ff42 definition of1 #dg ,napoleon ,,iii1 #ach ,neo-,catholicism and the ,church of ,rome1 #gf ,nicholas ,,ii1 ,emperor of ,russia1 #ach ,nietzsche1 ,friedrich1 #bja1 #bbc1 #bdc ,nietzsche's ,der ,fall ,wagner1 #bbc ,nihilists1 ,russian1 #aig ,nordau1 ,max1 influence of his book ,degeneration1 #i2 importance of closely investigating his theories before accepting them1 #aj2 intemperance of his methods1 #aa2 a typical ,german1 #ab2 his ,german bias1 #ag2 an enemy to ,france1 #bd2 his attitude toward art1 #ef ff42 his animosity against the symbolists1 #gg ff42 views upon the poetry of ,paul ,verlaine1 #ii ff42 denunciation of ,tolstoi1 #ajh ff42 estimate of ,ibsen1 #acb-hb2 attack upon ,wagner1 #ahc2 judgment of ,zola1 #bgd ff4 ,norway1 position of women in1 #ade ff4 ,norwegians1 national characteristics of1 #aga ff4 ,ohnet's 7,george7 novels1 #bh ,poets and symbolism1 #gc ff4 ,pre-,raphaelitism1 #ee ff4 ,raphael1 ,sanzio1 #ge1 #abg ,religion1 influence of1 upon civilization and progress1 #di1 #ej2 and the ,church1 distinction between1 #gg ff42 relation of1 to science1 #bcb ff4 ,rollinat1 ,maurice1 #bca ,roman ,church and neo-,catholicism1 #gf ,rossetti1 ,dante ,gabriel1 #abg1 #acj1 #ace1 #beh ,rossetti's masterpiece1 8,dante's ,dream10 #fi1 #gj1 #ge ,rubinstein1 ,anton1 #bbc ,ruskin1 ,john1 #eh1 #ei ,russia1 causes of anti-semitism in1 #ahe-g ,russian1 characteristics1 #aji2 government1 #aaj2 serfs1 #aaj1 #aaa2 nihilists1 #aig ,scandinavia1 position of women in1 #ade ff4 ,science1 the unsolved problems of1 #bb1 #bc2 the bankruptcy of1 #gc ff42 and the arts1 future harmony of1 #bbh1 #bbh sic2 relation of1 to religion1 #bcb ff4 ,scientific atheism1 #ij ff4 ,scientists1 dogmatic attitude of1 #fe ff42 influence of1 upon religion1 #hf ff4 ,schopenhauer1 ,arthur1 #bbe1 #bbf ,schumann1 ,robert1 #bbb1 #bbc ,self1 the religion of1 #bcj-dj ,serfs1 emancipation of1 in ,russia1 #aaj1 #aaa ,shakespeare1 ,william1 #ef1 #aeb ,society for ,ethical ,culture 7,berlin71 #bdg1 #bdh ,sound mind1 the test of1 #acc ,stage1 the1 purity of1 #baa ,stcker1 ,dr41 anti-semitic agitator1 reception of1 in ,london1 #aic1 #aid1 #bfe ,swinburne1 ,algernon ,c41 #ace ,symbolists1 the ,french1 #gf ff4 ,tintoretto1 ,giacomo1 #abg ,tjerulf1 ,norwegian composer1 #agg ,tolstoi1 ,count ,leo1 #ajh ff4 ,tolstoi's ,kreutzer ,sonata1 #aae1 #aaf2 ,my ,confession1 #aag2 ,my ,faith1 #aag2 ,a ,short ,exposition of the ,gospel1 #aag1 #abf2 ,about my ,life1 #aag2 ,from the ,diary of ,nechljudow1 #abe ,trades unions1 #ca ,united ,states1 the1 treatment of women in1 #adb ,verlaine1 ,paul1 #ig ff42 his poem addressed to ,louis ,,ii of ,bavaria1 #aja2 his 8,chevaux du ,bois0 and 8,chanson d',automne10 #ajc1 #ajd ,victoria1 ,dowager ,empress of ,germany1 #adf ,voltaire1 ,arouet1 #a1 #i1 #bbc1 #bed ,wagner1 ,richard1 #bh1 #bi1 #aea1 #ahd ff41 #aid1 #aih ff4 ,wagner's ,art ,work of the ,future1 #bji1 #bbd ,wealth1 dishonesty in the acquisition of1 #bfg-i ,william ,,ii1 ,emperor of ,germany1 #ach1 #bii ,wolseley1 ,lord1 #g ,women1 position of1 in the ,united ,states1 ,england1 and other countries contrasted1 #adb ff4 ,zola1 mile1 #bi1 #acj1 #bgd ff4 ,zola's ,la ,joie de ,vivre1 #bha ,transcriber's notes3 ,this book was published anonymously and is now attributed to ,alfred ,egmont ,hake4 ,one sic has been placed in the index1 and a presumed missing comma in the original is indicated with 14 ,the book contains a single footnote1 which is placed below the relevant paragraph4