{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_37964/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_37964","id":"gutenberg_37964","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37964","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Gender & Sexuality Studies","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Sociology","Feminism","Women","Women -- Social and moral questions","Women -- Social conditions"],"text":"E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Martin Pettit, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images\ngenerously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries\n(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)\n\n\n\nNote: Images of the original pages are available through\n      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See\n      http://www.archive.org/details/feminismsexextin00kenerich\n\n\n\n\n\nFEMINISM AND SEX-EXTINCTION\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOLIVE SCHREINER'S GREAT BOOK\n\nWOMAN & LABOUR\n\n_Large Crown 8vo. Cloth._\n\n8s. 6d. net\n\n\"The feelings which are behind the various women's movements could not\nfind clearer or more eloquent expression than they do in this remarkable\nbook.\"\n\n_The Daily Mail._\n\n\"At last there has come the book which is destined to be the prophecy\nand the gospel of the whole awakening.\"\n\n_The Nation._\n\n\nT. FISHER UNWIN, LTD., LONDON.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFEMINISM AND SEX-EXTINCTION\n\nby\n\nARABELLA KENEALY L.R.C.P. (DUBLIN)\n\n\n\"_A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can\na corrupt tree bring forth good fruit._\"\n\n\"_Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them._\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLondon\nT. Fisher Unwin, Ltd.\n1 Adelphi Terrace\n\nFirst published in 1920\n\nAll rights reserved\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nFeminism, the extremist--and of late years the predominant cult of the\nWoman's Movement, is Masculinism.\n\nIt makes for such training and development in woman, of male\ncharacteristics, as shall equip her to compete with the male in every\ndepartment of life; academic, athletic, professional, political,\nindustrial. And it neither recognises nor admits in her natural\naptitudes differing from those of men, and fitting her, accordingly, for\ndifferent functions in these. It rejects all concessions to her\nwomanhood; even to her mother-function. It repudiates all privileges for\nher. Boldly it demands a fair field only and no favour; equal rights,\npolitical and social, identical education and training, identical\neconomic opportunities and avocations, an identical morale, personal and\npublic.\n\nIn _Woman and Labour_, Miss Olive Schreiner sums in a line the Feminist\nobjective: \"_We take all labour for our province._\" And this is the text\nof the Feminist creed; the elimination of sex-differences and the\nabolition of sex-distinctions in every department of life and activity.\n\nFeminists anticipate--the militant faction with zest--fierce economic\nencounters between the sexes now that, War ended, our men, having fought\ntheir own and woman's battle in the trenches, are returning to reclaim\ntheir places in the world of work. Secure in that possession which is\n\"nine-tenths of the law,\" and armed with their new powers of\nenfranchisement, it is further anticipated that the usurpers will be\nable triumphantly to stem the masculine reflux, and to retain, on all\nhands, their new industrial footing.\n\nBy showing that, contrary to Feminist doctrine, the division of Labour\ninto two sexes, so to speak, is as natural and is as indispensable to\nHuman Progress as is the division of Life into two sexes, the purpose of\nthis book is to dissuade women from exploiting a world's misfortunes for\ntheir own immediate profit, and to reconcile them, in their profounder\nand more vital interests and in those of the Race, to surrender freely\nall the essentially masculine employments into which mischance has cast\nthem.\n\nHuman evolution and progress have resulted absolutely from an opposite\ntrend, in inherence and development, of the two sexes, as regards Life\nand characteristics, aptitude and avocation. The progressive\ndifferentiations and specialisations of vital processes and living\nforms, whereby human character and faculty have been increasingly\nadvanced to higher powers, reach their most admirable culmination in the\ncomplex division of Humanity into two genders; each of which is enabled,\nby way of such complex specialisation, to promote, to intensify and to\ndignify its own allotted order of qualities. To oppose and frustrate\nthis natural dispensation, whereby Human development is achieved by the\ntwo sexes travelling along diametrically opposite lines of Ascent, is to\nnullify all that civilisation has secured, and to transform the impulse\nof Progress into one of Decadence.\n\nNature, marvellously prescient in all her processes, has provided that\nthe sexes, by being constituted wholly different in body, brain and\nbent, do not normally come into rivalry and antagonism in the fulfilment\nof their respective life-roles. Their faculties and functions, being\ncomplementary and supplementary (and obviously best applied, therefore,\nin different departments of Life and of Labour), men and women are\nnaturally dependent upon one another in every human relation; a\ndispensation which engenders reciprocal trust, affection and\ncomradeship.\n\nFeminist doctrine and practice menace these most excellent previsions\nand provisions of Nature by thrusting personal rivalries, economic\ncompetition and general conflict of interests between the sexes.\n\n\nShould any reader find in these pages allusions and passages which,\nwithout biological or medical knowledge, may not be wholly clear to him,\nlet him remember that these are addressed to such as have dipped more\ndeeply into the subjects dealt with.\n\nThe main outlines and implications of the new Hypothesis presented here,\nof the origin and evolution of Sex, are all that he requires to grasp,\nin order to follow the argument of the book in its relation to Feminist\nmethods.\n\nARABELLA KENEALY, L.R.C.P.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nCHAP.                                                         PAGE\n\nFOREWORD                                                         v\n\n\nBOOK I\n\nWOMAN'S PART IN HUMAN EVOLUTION\n\n     I. IMPASSIONED FALLACIES OF FEMINISM                        3\n\n    II. INCREASING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MALE AND\n        FEMALE SEX-CHARACTERISTICS AND FUNCTIONS\n        ARE THE MAIN FEATURE OF HUMAN ADVANCE                   21\n\n   III. THE MYSTERY OF SEX AND SEX-TRANSMISSION                 35\n\n    IV. ONE SIDE OF BODY IS MALE, THE OTHER SIDE IS FEMALE      51\n\n     V. MASCULINE MOTHERS PRODUCE EMASCULATE SONS BY\n        MISAPPROPRIATING THE LIFE-POTENTIAL OF MALE OFFSPRING   73\n\n\nBOOK II\n\nWOMAN'S PART IN HUMAN DECADENCE\n\n     I. DECLINE AND FALL OF ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS\n        DUE TO FEMINISM                                         95\n\n    II. THE EVOLUTION OF SEX IN ADOLESCENCE                    109\n\n   III. THE EXTINCTION OF SEX IN ADOLESCENCE                   126\n\n    IV. THE WOMAN BRAIN: ITS POWERS AND DISABILITIES           146\n\n     V. MALE AND FEMALE SEX-INSTINCTS AND MORALE\n        DIAMETRICALLY DIFFERENT                                166\n\n    VI. FEMINIST DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE DISASTROUS\n        TO INFANT-LIFE AND HUMAN FACULTY                       190\n\n   VII. FEMINIST DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE DESTRUCTIVE\n        OF WOMANLY ATTRIBUTES, MORALE AND PROGRESS             219\n\n  VIII. DANGEROUS SEPARATION OF WOMEN INTO TWO\n        ORDERS: FEMINISTS AND FEMININISTS                      242\n\n    IX. THE IMPENDING SUBJECTION OF MAN                        264\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nFURTHER EVIDENCES IN SUPPORT OF BIOLOGICAL AND\nMENDELIAN PROPOSITIONS ADVANCED IN BOOK I                      292\n\n\n\n\nBOOK I\n\nWOMAN'S PART IN HUMAN EVOLUTION\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nIMPASSIONED FALLACIES OF FEMINISM\n\n     \"The sexual love which has its origin in what is external and\n     accidental may easily be turned to hate, a kind of madness that is\n     nourished on discord; but that love, on the other hand, is lasting\n     which has its source in freedom of soul and in the will to bear and\n     bring up children.\"--_Spinoza._\n\n\nI\n\nThere is no subject save that of Religion about which so much\nimpassioned fallacy has been spoken and written as has been spoken and\nwritten round the Woman Question.\n\nFor more than half a century--since Mill wrote his famous _Subjection_,\nindeed--it has become an increasing vogue to regard Woman as a martyr;\nmore or less sainted, more or less crushed and effaced beneath the\niron-heeled tyrannies, personal, economic, and political, of the\noppressor, Man. And it has been in the spirit of this conviction and in\nfervid endeavours--indignant and chivalrous on the part of the one sex,\nand still more indignant and but little less chivalrous on the part of\nthe other--to liberate unhappy victims from a barbarous oppression, that\nmost of the impassioned fallacy has been spoken and written, and doughty\ndeeds done.\n\nAt the certain cost, therefore, of being stigmatised as a reactionary\n(severely qualified), I propose to unmask some of these which I believe\nto be baseless obsessions, and to present a wholly new--and, I hope, a\nmore veracious and inspiring version of the case between the sexes.\n\nTo begin with, I assert boldly that the so-called Subjection of Woman,\nvery far from having been a cruel injustice merely, on the part of man,\nhas served, on the contrary, as a blessing and an inestimable benefit\nnot only to herself but to the Race bound up in her. A blessing often\nrough and painful in its methods, during epochs when all other methods\nwere both rough and painful, attended, too, by wrongs and cruelties;\nyet, in the main, operating vastly to her well-being and advancement\nand, in hers, to those of the Race.\n\n\nLooking back upon the hard and bloody routes of Evolution whereby the\nhuman Races have attained to present-day developments, we see our\nforbears groping blindly, fighting blindly, advancing blindly;\nstumbling, falling, picking up again; making new departures only\nhopelessly to lose the road; making new departures, now to find it and\ntrudge on. In all its painful and laborious phases, a terrible and\nsordid climb. Yet, nevertheless, in its great annals of Ascent, a noble\nand a wondrous March of Progress.\n\nAnd whether we are Religionists or Evolutionists--or are sufficiently\nbroad-minded to be both--the history of Life is seen to have been a\nhistory of deathless effort, never ceasing, never waning; renewed with\nevery generation; intensified by every further acquisition of new power,\nas, with every further recognition of new goals and problems, the\never-increasing Purpose and the ever-increasing perplexity and\ncomplexity of The Purpose revealed itself at every step. It becomes\nincreasingly clear, moreover, that Creation, or Creative Evolution (to\nemploy Professor Bergson's phrase), has been the resultant of a\nprogressive aggregation of Atomic Matter about some vast immanent\n_Idea_, slowly and by infinitesimal degrees materialising in the\nobjective. Very much as bricks are grouped about the pre-conceived plan\nof a house, and could not be assembled in the building of the simplest\ntool-hut without predetermination of the site of every brick, and of\nthe relation of every brick to every other.\n\nAnd in all those past ages of conflict, bringing Order out of Chaos,\nProgress out of Order, and an ever-increasing domination of blind Energy\nand Inorganic Matter by Mind and Purpose, the fighting male it has been\nwho, in his conquest of the Earth as in his conquest of other fighting\nmales, both brute and human, has borne the greater heat and burden of\nthe day. Women have striven also--toil has been the crux of their\ndevelopment as of their mates. But men have striven twofold. While women\ntoiled in the security of homes, the sword, the blunderbuss or\npress-gang, or the equivalent of these, according to the epoch, awaited\nmen and still await them at most street-corners of the arduous male\ncareer.\n\nWomen have suffered more, _psychically_; because this way lay their\nnature and their human lot. Men have suffered more, _materially_;\nbecause here lay theirs. And since advancement comes by suffering, women\nare reaping to-day the harvest of past travail of their sex, in the\nhigher psychical development which now characterises that sex. During\ncenturies when men were vastly too hard-pressed by the struggle for\nbarest existence to have been aware that they possessed souls, women\nwere privileged to be aware of theirs--by the affliction thereof.\n\nThe immediate purpose of this fencing of the women behind the stronger\nframes, the stronger wills, and stronger brains of fighting males was\nthe Racial one, of course. While men battled with environment and with\nalien aggressors for their lives and for their food, as for those of the\nfamily, the sheltered women were alike the loom and cradle of the Race.\nAs well, they made havens, or homes, for the fighters to return to for\nsleep and refreshment. They plied a simple, primitive agriculture,\npractised a primitive healing art, and otherwise evolved The\nHumanities. But since mortal power is limited, power expended in one\ndirection is power withdrawn from some other. Power spent in battle is\npower lost to progress. The woman who, with the instinct for home and as\nshelter for her babes, laid the foundations of Architecture in a hut of\nmud, was enabled to do this solely by virtue of masculine protection.\n\nIt is in peace only that Progress arises, in leisure that The Arts\nevolve. And woman, walled in by the lives of the males, found leisure of\nbody and mind to pluck flowers for the adorning of her hut, to shape\nplatters of clay, and, later, even for embellishment of these with crude\ndesigns. Thus she was the first artist.\n\nThe fighting male was--by necessity--destructive. He invented a club.\nThe female was--by privilege--constructive. She invented the needle (a\nfish-bone, doubtless). And while the male transmitted to offspring his\nvirile fighting and destructive qualities, woman tempered and humanised\nthese by incorporating with them her milder traits and artistries of\npeace. Lacking the male aggressive and protective faculties, however,\nincreasing in skill and resource with his ever further Adaptation to\n(and of) environment, woman's gentler and humanising aptitudes would\nhave had neither opportunity for evolution, nor scope for exercise and\nfurther sway.\n\n\nII\n\nI have been reading an account, by a naturalist, of some phases in the\nlife-history of crabs. And it is interesting to find even among\ncreatures so low in the Life-scale (although Darwin regarded these as\nthe most intelligent of _crustaceae_) that same instinct of protection of\nthe female which is seen in the higher orders of creation.\n\nA crab, being encased in an unyielding shell, is able to increase its\ngrowth only by \"casting\" its shell and developing one of larger size\nover its increased bulk. During the interval between casting an old\nshell and acquiring a new one, the crab in its soft, pulpy condition is\nreadily injured, or falls prey to its natural enemies. To protect itself\nas well as may be, it shelters in rocky crevices or in other available\nhiding-places. This shell-casting occurs in both sexes, of course. But\nthe circumstances under which the change is made differ widely in the\nsexes. For while the male-crab has no protector during his defenceless,\nshell-less state, his shell is cast a month or more earlier than occurs\nin the female; after which he feeds up, in order to be in superior\nfighting trim for her protection during her shell-casting phase.\nFishermen describe him as then spreading himself over her as a hen\ncovers her chicks, and in her defence desperately attacking all comers.\nThe result of such protection of the female is that, although males are\nlarger and fiercer, \"hen-crabs\" are numerous, while males are scarce.\n\nThe like is true of nearly every species. The males protect the females.\nEven the gorilla, savage and most terrible of beasts, lies at night on\nguard beneath the tree in which his mate and offspring sleep. If need\narise, he fights to the death in their defence.\n\nWith regard to the chivalrous devotion of male-birds, Olive Schreiner\nthus comments in _Woman and Labour_ (an example of that I have ventured\nto describe as the \"impassioned fallacy\" hurtling round the Woman\nQuestion): \"Along the line of bird-life and among certain of its\nspecies, sex has attained its highest aesthetic, and one might almost say\nintellectual, development on earth ... represents the realisation of the\nhighest sexual ideal which haunts humanity.\"\n\n(This however, less, I fear, to accredit the male-sex with chivalry than\nto discredit the human male by ornithological comparison!)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOne does not profess that such protective role of males--beast and bird\nand crab--is the outcome of sentiment. It is instinctive, subconscious.\nNature's purpose being to preserve and to perpetuate species, she\nachieves this by safeguarding the female. The province of the male in\nreproduction is but slight and brief. It exacts so little from him as to\ninterfere not at all with those other masculine activities which are the\nfunction of his sex.\n\nWhereas, as Professor Lester Ward says, \"Woman [and the female of all\nspecies] _is_ the Race.\" Out of her blood and bone and vital powers she\nevolves and fashions it, nurtures and ministers to it.\n\n\nIII\n\nFor the preservation of species, two roles are essential: the Male role\nof Combat, demanding strength and boldness, resource and\nfighting-quality, in order to protect and provide for the female and\noffspring; and the Female role of Devotion and Self-surrender, in order\nto nurture offspring ante-natally, and, after birth, to nurture and to\ntend its helplessness.\n\nNow all but biologists, perhaps, take it as matter-of-course that Love\nhad its origin in Sex.\n\nSeeing love between the sexes as the strongest and most dominant of the\ncivilised passions, it is natural to infer that it was born of the\ninstinctive attraction between male and female, and that this\ninstinctive attraction, with the growth and expansion of faculty, mental\nand temperamental, has evolved to the high and tender issues to be found\nin latter-day romantic passion; theme of poets, novelists, artists;\nrichest and most exquisite of life's emotions; inspiration and motive of\nthe finest human achievements. A passion which, for a space at least,\ntransfigures the natures and ennobles the lives of all but the crass and\nthe sordid.\n\nNevertheless--Love did not arise out of sex. The sex-relation in primal\nmen and women held no element of affection; no sympathy, tenderness,\nself-sacrifice, or other attribute of Love. On the part of the female,\nit was compulsory surrender and the habit of surrender to superior\nstrength, mitigated, doubtless, by a subconscious instinct to secure\noffspring. In the male, it was impulse as tyrannous and selfish as was\nthe instinct to kill. Like the instinct to kill, a factor in it made for\nfitness for survival. There was in it, accordingly, an element of\ninstinctive selection. But the selection made for survival-fitness\nmerely in the mate. It owed nothing to sentimental appeal exercised by\none female, and lacking in another. The instinct to mate was implanted\nby Nature for the continuation of species. If its observance contained\nan element of gratification, it held no more of reciprocity than did the\ngratification of that stronger lust, to kill, include a consideration of\nthe feelings of the prey, or than greed of any other form of possession\nextends a grace of reciprocal benefit to the thing acquired.\n\nModern savages have no conception of sexual love. There are no\nlove-songs, no courtship, no affection in their matings. The males marry\nmainly in order to secure wives to work for them. And they select strong\nwomen because these are best fitted for work. Or they select women who\nhave some or another small possession. Biological instinct is a factor,\ndoubtless, but it is not a factor of sentiment.\n\nIn his fine book, _Natural Law in the Spiritual World_, Professor\nDrummond says:\n\n\n     \"Probably we have all taken for granted that husbands and wives\n     have always loved one another. Evolution takes nothing for granted\n     ... in the lower reaches of Human Nature, husband and wife do not\n     love one another ... for the vast mass of mankind during the long\n     ages which preceded historic times, conjugal love was probably all\n     but unknown....\n\n     \"The idea that the existence of sex accounts for the existence of\n     love is untrue. Marriage among early races has nothing to do with\n     love. Among savage peoples, the phenomenon everywhere confronts us\n     of wedded life without a grain of love. Love then is no necessary\n     ingredient of the sex-relation; it is not an outgrowth of passion.\n     Love is love and has always been love, and has never been anything\n     lower.\"\n\n\nEven to-day, despite the evolution of the higher faculties, despite long\ncenturies of inherited habit and tradition, and despite the circumstance\nthat in all the nobler types of men and women the sex-instinct is\nspiritualised by affection and understanding--Even in this late day of\ncivilisation, the male sex-instinct may be seen still in all its native\ntyranny and selfishness; seeking gratification in sensuality and\ncruelty, with callous disregard alike of the welfare as of the suffering\nof its victim. In the violation of women and children that occurs both\nin peace and in war, the instinct manifests as an impulse of aggression,\nand the sex-function as one of brutality or ruthless lust.\n\n\nIV\n\nRespecting the origin of Mind and Emotion, Charles Darwin said:\n\n\n     \"In what manner the mental powers were first developed in the\n     lowest organisms, is as hopeless an inquiry as how life itself\n     first originated.\"\n\n\nAnd Huxley:\n\n\n     \"I know nothing, and never hope to know anything of the steps by\n     which the passage from molecular movement to states of\n     consciousness is effected. The two things are on two utterly\n     different platforms, the physical facts go along by themselves and\n     the mental facts go along by themselves.\"\n\n\nWhile Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace (the biologist who was working out the\ntheory of Natural Selection simultaneously with Darwin, both unaware\nthat the other was working in the same direction) attributes to a\nCreative act of God, all the moral and intellectual qualities which have\nbeen super-added in man to those lesser and simpler ones he possesses in\ncommon with the higher animals. Wallace describes this as a \"Divine\nInflux,\" and regards it as being wholly distinct and apart from the slow\nand gradual processes of Natural Selection.\n\nBut yet, in point of fact, what was it that inspired and energised the\nearlier processes, if not this same Divine Influx? The simpler processes\nmust, from their earliest rudimentary beginnings, have been leading up\nto the later and more complex. And the later and more complex were,\nsurely, continuous with the simpler--since Nature abhors miracles, and\nworks by slow progressive biological sequences.\n\nNothing shows as more impersonal than a crystal; cold, hard, senseless,\nmotionless. And yet in crystals is the element of Life, even the power\nof reproduction, showing factors of sex already operative in them. While\nliving bodies, charged with warmth, mobility, sentience, intelligence,\nhave Inorganic Matter for their basis of construction. And that\nInorganic elements are very far from being the impersonal things they\nseem, but are linked by subtle correspondences to living Mind and vital\npowers, is shown by their effects on living processes and consciousness.\nGiven as medicines, digestion (which is a species of rapid evolution\nfrom lower to higher forms of energy) develops such vital inherences\nwithin them as prove their apparent impersonality to contain a principle\ncontinuous not only with living processes, but with the highest\nmentality.\n\nProfessor Leduc observes in his illuminating book, \"The Mechanism of\nLife,\" \"_the ordinary physical forces have, in fact, a power of\norganisation infinitely greater than has been hitherto supposed by the\nboldest imagination_.\"\n\nCoralline structures and beautiful shells, fungi, leaves, and plants\nbearing coloured, flowerlike blooms spring into growth when a formless\nfragment of calcium salt is dropped into a chemical solution. And these\n\"Osmotic growths,\" artificially produced, possess far greater complexity\nof structure and of function than do the simpler living organisms of\nNature.\n\n\nThe evidences of a Vast Stupendous Plan, which every further scientific\ndiscovery still further emphasises, are slowly forcing from our men of\nScience the confession that behind the marvellous phenomena their\nfindings reveal, and which they are powerless to explain, must lie a\nCause, occult and irresistible, an Impulse, all-pervading,\nincomprehensible.\n\nBergson describes an _elan vital_--a living impetus--determining such\nphenomena.\n\nIn his Presidential address to the British Association at Dublin, in\n1908, Professor J. S. Haldane summed up as follows the position of\nPhysiological Science: \"The point now reached is that the conceptions of\nPhysics and Chemistry are insufficient to enable us to understand\nphysiological phenomena.\"\n\nWeismann says: \"Behind the co-operating forces of Nature, we must admit\na Cause ... inconceivable in its nature, of which we can only say one\nthing with certainty, that it must be theological.\"\n\nDrummond says: \"Evolution is Advolution,--better, it is Revelation--the\nphenomenal expression of the Divine, the progressive realisation of the\nIdeal, the Ascent of Love.\"\n\nIf, then, we admit Life to be the product of a Divine Influx, whereby\nInorganic Matter has been, by way of evolutionary processes,\nincreasingly empowered to fructify in living form and faculty, Human\nAttributes are seen to be the flower of Spiritual seed, which, sown in\nLife, has germinated; has struck roots of biological function into\nliving flesh and put forth leaves in living traits; has developed in\nphysiological processes and blossomed in powers of Mind and of body. And\nas the stronger and deeper the grip of its roots in the earth, the\ntaller and nobler the oak towers heavenward, so it must be with human\ncharacteristics. The deeper and more firmly the seedling faculties\nstrike roots in living function, the fuller and more potent springs the\nimpulse toward that evolutionary perfection which is the goal of Human\nBeing.\n\nIf, however, living processes are the resultant of a Divine Influx, they\nare Spiritual processes. Life is then a manifestation in Matter, of\nSpirit. All the developments of Life are Spiritual phenomena, therefore.\nThe imperfection and evil found in living creatures are not attributes\nof Life. They are crudities of rudimentary organisation, or are failures\nin or aberrations from the normal development of Life.\n\n\nV\n\nIn the Evolution of Faculty, living traits are seen to have been all the\nwhile attaining to higher power by the differentiation and development\nof special organs to subserve their fuller function, their finer\nconscious apprehension, and their more complex manifestation on the\nmaterial plane.\n\nThe brain has been specialised thus to serve as the organ of\nConsciousness; the eye, of Vision; the ear, of Hearing; the hand, of\nTouch and of manipulation. The lowest organisms possess no such\nspecialised organs of sense or of consciousness. Nor are they equipped\nwith special reproductive organs. They reproduce by cleavage; by\nbudding a small portion of themselves, which, when separated, grows to a\nmature organism.\n\nWith other differentiations and specialisations of Function and Faculty,\nthere has developed--for the all-important racial purpose of creating\never higher and more potent living species--the highly-complex human\nreproductive system, which, by its close and subtle nervous alliance\nwith the brain, has become the medium and the instrument of a new and\nirresistible emotion. So that it serves not only for the perpetuation of\na complex species, but, moreover, for the attraction, by natural\naffinity, of the mates best suited to one another.\n\nAnd in course of evolutionary progress, the emotion of Love has been all\nthe while more and more so leavening and inspiring sex-attraction with\nits purer and more tender attributes, that human passion has come to\ncombine--in those of higher nature--the flame and energy of physical\nattraction with the tenderness and devotion of altruistic affection.\nWith the result that human parenthood, thus quickened and spiritualised,\nhas become ever further empowered to evolve more highly intelligised,\nmore beautiful and more efficient types of offspring.\n\n\nThat Passion, pure and simple, has evolved out of the Male sex-instinct\nis certain. Even in its chivalrous development of romantic passion, are\nfound, in transfigured form, that flame and urgence for possession which\nmanifest crudely and cruelly in the primal male-instinct. Without this\nvirile ardour, indeed, the sex-relation is but a poor and tepid, or a\ncold and sensual thing.\n\nYet Passion is not Love.\n\nThat meekness and forbearance, humility and self-surrender have been\nreared in the Female sex-instinct of submission to passion (primarily in\naversion and fear more often than in acquiescence) is equally certain.\nAnd without these chastening factors to temper, soften and anneal, the\nsex-relation is a fierce and tyrannous concern. But no more than\npassion, is submission Love. Neither in passion nor in submission, pure\nand simple, is there joy of surrender or welding communion.\n\nNevertheless, since every human faculty must have its roots in living\nfunction, and every living function must possess some physical organ in\nwhich its processes occur, from what human function sprang the Love that\nis selfless, altruistic and pitiful; soul and inspiration of the most\nsacred emotions--self-sacrifice, charity, mercy, devotion, tenderness?\nIn what nursery of Human Consciousness was this fair and gentle blossom\nsown; to spring, to develop, and to make for gracious growth?\n\nSince, although it has come to lend its purity and sweetness to the\nSex-passion, it neither sprang from nor has been reared in sex-instinct,\nis it a product of Parental Affection? Is it an evolution of the\nself-negation and the tenderness of parents for their children?\n\n\nVI\n\nThroughout Nature, the parental instinct is seen as a unique\ndevelopment, detached from and high above all other developments.\nDemanding, as it does, the complete surrender and self-denying labours\nof one individual in the interests of another, it differs from and\ntraverses all other dictates. It impels a creature whose every instinct\nit had been--whose religion of biological survival it had been,\nindeed--to be wholly self-centred in its every aim and action, all at\nonce to make another creature the focus of its interests and efforts.\nWhere for a scratch, for a glance, the fierce female would have fallen\ntooth and nail upon another, now she surrenders meekly to the pangs of\nbringing offspring into life--and straightway licks and suckles the\nfrail being that has riven her. Where she would furiously have driven\noff, or would have killed, another creature that approached her food,\nnow she gives herself as food for this. Where lesser Fitness for\nsurvival on another's part had been signal for making such her prey, now\nUnfitness in the extremest degree claims her devotion and care.\n\nSuperfluous to cite cases of maternal altruism. The mildest and most\ntimid among creatures becomes fierce and courageous in defence of her\nyoung. Style it \"merely instinct,\" if you will. It is none the less\nheroic on the part of every individual that obeys it, and does not obey\nit blindly and mechanically merely, but employs all her poor wit and\nresource to suit her heroism to the special circumstance.\n\n\nWithout care and attention from the moment of its birth, the life of an\ninfant would be reckoned in hours. The higher the organism, the more and\nfor the longer period its infancy exacts unceasing devotion and nurture.\n\nFish and moth and other species of low order are cast off in the egg.\nChicks scramble out of the shell.\n\nThe higher their grade in the scale of organisation and intelligence,\nthe more helpless and incapable young creatures are to feed and to fend\nfor themselves. Kittens are born blind and helpless, but after a few\ndays they see and crawl about. The elephant-mother suckles and\nsafeguards her baby-elephant for two whole years.\n\nNow, were there no purpose in all this--Were it not that such devotion\nto offspring serves as impulse and spur to the evolution and development\nof faculty in parents, Nature, in planning the complex human species,\nwould, surely, have endowed the human infant and child with fuller\npowers of self-preservation.\n\nWere there other functions and aptitudes the exercise whereof would\nbetter stimulate and foster human progress, it is inconceivable that\nchildren would be, and would be for so long, the helpless, feckless,\ndependent mortals that they are.\n\nFor ten long lunar months, the human babe is part of its mother; homed\nin the nest of her body, warmed by her warmth, fed by her blood. She\nbreathes for it, digests for it, assimilates for it, exercises for it.\nFor ten further lunar months, it is dependent upon her for the food by\nwhich it lives. For nearly a year, save for an inept power of creeping,\nwith but small sense of direction, it requires to be moved and carried\neverywhere. For years it must be washed, dressed, combed, laid down to\nsleep at night, got up in the morning, taken for rides or for walks,\nplayed with, bidden, chidden; comforted, warmed, cooled; defended,\ncherished, instructed--in a hundred ways to be gently and progressively\nadapted to life, by way of a more or less highly-specialised\nenvironment. Even when no longer helpless, it must be provided for in\nthe matters of housing, food, clothing, education. It must be instructed\nin a means of livelihood, and started on its young career.\n\nAmong the poorer classes the child depends upon its hard-worked parents\nfor a period varying between twelve and sixteen years. In the\nprofessional classes, the young son and daughter are not fully qualified\nfor independent existence before the ages of twenty-three or\ntwenty-five. In ill-health, in brain defect, and in other incapacities,\nparents must provide for their offspring for life.\n\nAnd seeing how the demands of the young, and the response and exactions\nof the parents multiply and amplify proportionally with the higher\nevolution of both, we are forced to believe that the small\nsurvival-value of the child, owing to its native unadaptedness to\nenvironment, is part of The Plan, and that it subserves some high and\ncomplex purpose in human development.\n\n\nVII\n\nAn essential obligation of Parenthood is, that, in order to fulfil this\nduly, the parents require to undergo a wholly new and intrinsic\nadjustment of faculty. Having arrived already at a complex adaptation to\na complex civilised environment, in physique and character, in mentality\nand habit, now, by a revolutionary reversal of their human progress,\nthey must re-adapt to the simplest of all creatures and conditions--a\nhelpless, puling infant in a cradle.\n\nWhere they had had a whole world, perhaps, of intellectual interests and\nsocial pursuits to engage them, now they forgather beside a cot\nand--according as they are human or are not--lose themselves, brain and\nheart and soul, in the puling, impotent thing. They make themselves eyes\nand ears, arms and legs for it; carriage, chair and bed. They gaze,\nentranced, upon the marvel of the opening and shutting of its eyes. It\nyawns; they tremble lest it dislocate a jaw. It sneezes; now they\nshudder lest it may have taken cold. It gurgles, and they are\ntransported to a seventh heaven.\n\nNever has either been equally fluttered at their recognition by an\nexalted personage as both exult when flattered by the flicker of an\neyelash that it distinguishes its father from its mother; or either from\nits nurse. Both perhaps are self-contained and philosophic beings, yet\nits cry distracts them; scatters their composure to the winds. The inept\nthing cannot even tell them what it wants. Its cry for food is much the\nsame as is its cry when it requires to be laid down, or lifted up. When\nits milk is not sweet enough, its inarticulate fury is expressed in\nnotes identical--so far as they can judge--with those of its impotent\nwrath when a pin-point pricks it.\n\nBut whatsoever the cause, to the winds the parental composure is\nscattered, as hither and thither they scurry, distraught, seeking a\nreason and a remedy. And this, of course, had been their tyrant's\npurpose. He had meant to strike panic in his parents' hearts. He was\nvexed or empty, or was otherwise uneasy. And behold the penalties of\nthose who suffer him to be vexed or empty, or otherwise uneasy!\n\nAnd whether they are rough, hard-working persons who have neither time\nnor taste for fuss and nonsense; whether they are the Archbishop of\nCanterbury and Mrs. Archbishop, Sir Isaac and Lady Newton, or the\nEmperor and Empress of Japan, it is all the same to Baby. No other uses\nhave they in his absurd judgment than to obey his slightest gurgle.\n\nAnd the wonder of the business is that they too--provided they be\nnormal, wholesome-minded, natural-hearted persons--are of similar\nopinion. Even a Professor of Archaeology must feel a twinge of some\nemotion when his first baby cuts its first tooth. King Lion himself\nsuffers it with patience when his cub scratches his royal countenance,\nor gets its milk-teeth into his prize-bone.\n\nThe whole face of the earth is transformed by the Baby, indeed. And how\nmuch it is transformed for the better! It is not too much to say that it\nis humanised, redeemed. The most grudging of curmudgeons murmurs only a\nlittle to surrender his place at the fire to The Baby. The thirsty thief\nforbears to drink his infant's milk.\n\nIn his great story, _The Luck of Roaring Camp_, Bret Harte has shown,\nand has shown as probable, the uplifting and regenerating influence that\n\"The Luck\"--its mother a sinner, its father, Heaven alone knew\nwho!--exercised upon a rough community of vicious men.\n\n\"It wrastled wi' my finger,\" says one in an awed whisper. To cover\nsentiment he adds, \"the durn'd little cuss!\" But carefully he segregates\nthe member sanctified by the tiny, satin touch, from the other fingers\nof his wicked hand.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nINCREASING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE SEX-CHARACTERISTICS AND\nFUNCTIONS ARE THE MAIN FEATURE OF HUMAN ADVANCE\n\n     \"The most beautiful witness to the Evolution of Man is the Mind of\n     a little child.... It was ages before Darwin or Lamarck or\n     Lucretius, that Maternity, bending over the hollowed cradle in the\n     forest for a first smile of recognition from her babe, expressed\n     the earliest trust in the doctrine of development. Every mother\n     since then is an unconscious Evolutionist, and every little child a\n     living witness to Ascent.\"--_Professor Drummond._\n\n\nI\n\nTracing the attribute of Love to its source in the parental function, it\nbecomes clear that this function cannot be dismissed thus in a phrase.\n\nThere are two parents. And the parts played by these, respectively, not\nonly differ widely in their nature, but they are signally\ndisproportionate in their share of the labours involved. For while the\nmale bears the brunt of the struggle with environment, for his own and\nfor survival of his mate and offspring, upon the female falls the\nbiological stress of pregnancy and lactation, and the material cares of\nupbringing.\n\nThe reproductive function of the male is but slight and cursory. With\nthe female lies the tax of havening the embryo before birth, of\nnurturing it with her blood and substance, of suffering the drain it\nmakes upon her vital energy, the burden of its weight; with, finally,\nthe anguish and the dangers of delivery. And having come through all\nthis, the subconscious and involuntary sacrifice is replaced by\nfurther--but now voluntary sacrifices. She not only continues to feed it\nwith her living substance, but she employs brain and wit and bodily\neffort in tending, safeguarding and rearing it.\n\nMeanwhile the sire--among the lower creatures, at all events--detaches\nhimself with lordly indifference from any portion in these later, as he\nwent free of the earlier obligations. He shares his prey with her and\nwith their young. He defends them from the natural enemies of all.\nSometimes he condescends to play for minutes with his cubs. But\nexcepting among birds, the male parent takes little or no part in the\nupbringing of his family.\n\nAs with Love, so with Fatherhood, we take it as matter-of-course that\nthis sprang and has evolved to present developments directly out of\nnatural instinct. But as Love did not evolve out of the sex-instinct,\nneither did father-love evolve from a paternal instinct inherent in the\nlower animals and in primal man.\n\nOf this, Professor Drummond says:\n\n\n     \"The world was now beginning to fill with Mothers, but there were\n     no Fathers, ... while Nature has succeeded in moulding a human\n     Mother and a human child, he still wanders in the forest, a savage\n     and unblessed soul.\n\n     \"This time for him is not lost. In his own way he also is at\n     school, and learning lessons which will one day be equally needed\n     by humanity. The acquisitions of the manly life are as necessary to\n     human character as the virtues which gather their sweetness by the\n     cradle; and these robuster elements--strength, courage, manliness,\n     endurance, self-reliance--could only have been secured away from\n     domestic cares.... The Evolution of a Father is not so beautiful a\n     process as the Evolution of a Mother, but it was almost as\n     formidable a problem to attack.... If Maternity was at a feeble\n     level in the lower reaches of Nature, Paternity was\n     non-existent.... When we leave the Birds and pass on to the\n     Mammals, the Fathers are nearly all backsliders. Many are not only\n     indifferent to their young, but hostile; and among the Carnivora\n     the Mothers have frequently to hide their little ones in case the\n     father eats them.\"\n\n\nIn place of saying, therefore, that Love sprang in, and has developed\nfrom the exercise of the parental function, we must say that Love--in\nall its higher aspects--sprang and has developed in the _maternal_\nfunction.\n\nBut since every attribute, in order to be conscious and realised, is not\nonly rooted but is reared in living function--out of what living\nfunction did Mother-love evolve? In the exercise of what vital processes\nhas it been fostered and furthered?\n\nIn so far as these involve sacrifice of self in the interests of the\nchild, the maternal ante-natal processes are processes of\nself-surrender. But these, when once incurred, are subconscious and\ninvoluntary. The prospective mother has no choice but to submit to\nphysiological exactions.\n\nAnd only a few women--those in whom maternal love is deep beyond the\naverage--feel affection for their infants before birth.\n\nSince love must have an object upon which to exercise its faculties and\nlavish its devotion, it is not, therefore, until the babe is in the\nmother's arms that the Love-attribute begins to function. And then the\nprimal fount of all conscious and voluntary human selflessness and\nsacrifice springs afresh in the individual when, in yearning toward the\nhelpless being in her arms, she wells with tenderness and gives herself\nto be its life.\n\nIn the altruistic tender yearning of the mother to her babe, whereat her\nblood transforms itself to milk, Human Love first sprang and functioned\nconsciously.\n\n_This is my Body which is given for you.... This is my Blood ... which\nis shed for you._\n\nSays Goethe, \"There is no outward sign of courtesy that does not rest\non a deep moral foundation.\" He might have added \"and on a great\nbiological function.\" Every act of voluntary sacrifice, every impulse of\ncompassion, mercy, tenderness, devotion, has had its inspiration and its\nsource in this which is discredited by some as being a merely physical,\nand is despised, accordingly, as being an inferior process; this\nmystical transmutation of the mother's blood to milk, and the\nself-forgetting yearning wherein she yields herself as food for\noffspring. By the evolution, upon ever higher planes of consciousness,\nof this primarily instinctive sacrifice, not only Motherhood but\nFatherhood too, and the Love-passion between the sexes have been\nfructified and purified, and uplifted down the ages. Other acts of\ndevotion arise out of maternal ministry. But this is the intrinsic\nsource of all.\n\nTravelling up through all the rudimentary phases of development,\nsimultaneously and side by side with the male fierce methods for the\nSurvival of _Fitness_, there was evolving in the female, subconsciously\nand secretly, this sacramental impulse which was to inaugurate a new\nera--an era wherein charity and ruth were to be born as response to the\nclaims of _Unfitness_.\n\nThe first woman who, of her free-will, gave her breast to her babe was\nthe Mother of all the Humanities. She it was who prepared the way for\nthe coming of Christ. By her, Love entered first into human\nconsciousness.\n\nAnd by countless generations of such willing tender sacrifice upon the\npart of mothers, human love has climbed out of the darkness of blind\nsubconscious instinct into the Light of a great transfiguration.\n\n\nIt is weighty evidence of the evolutionary impulse inherent in the\nfunction of Lactation, that the development of this maternal trait\nengenders species so far higher in organisation and morale than those of\ncreatures unequipped to suckle offspring, as to set the Mammalia in a\nclass by themselves in the van of progressive advance. The higher\norganisation and morale of such result not only from the\nself-surrendering instinct in the mothers of species, but doubtless also\nfrom the superior nutrition promoted in the developing tissues of the\nyoung of species, by the highly-individualised food elements which are\nsecreted by the maternal living cells.\n\nThe vital significance of this new potence in blood to transform itself\nto milk for sustenance of offspring is emphasised by the fact that the\nMammalia are warm-blooded creatures. While that this new quickening of\nLife by the altruistic parental instinct originates in the female shows\nher as medium of that Divine Influx inspiring Creative Evolution, and\nevolving faculty by way of living function.\n\n\nII\n\nThe question now arises: If Love and the higher affections had their\norigin in the maternal function, how happens it that man, in whom this\ncapacity is absent, and who is devoid, moreover, of an inherent paternal\ninstinct, has come, notwithstanding, to possess these higher affections?\n\nOne may answer off-hand, with the lightness of the tyro, that these have\nbeen transmitted to him by maternal inheritance.\n\nBut complex biological problems are not thus easily explained. Nature\nworks by processes, not by implications. And the physical functions and\nthe mental attributes of the sexes are so dissimilar, and have, with\nevolution, so diverged by ever further accentuation, that we must seek\nfor definite biological processes by way of which the male has become\nendowed with, and whereby his primal characteristics have been\ntransformed by the evolution in him of the maternal instinct--under\nguise of the wholly new and alien trait of Fatherhood.\n\nA study of Evolution shows the differentiation and intensification of\nSex-characteristics to have been the main feature in Human advance, and\nto have been progressively achieved by incalculable centuries of\nincreasing differentiation and intensification of two opposite orders of\nimpulse and faculty.\n\nIn savages and in all the less civilised races, the personal and\ntemperamental differences between the sexes are but slight, and last\nfor no longer than a few years of life. As with other faculties,\nSex-differentiations become ever further intensified and more\ncomplexly defined as development rises in the scale. Man becomes more\nman. Woman, more woman. Most notable during the period over which\nthe human organisation sustains its maximum of condition, these\nSex-characteristics take longer to arrive at their perfection, and are\nlonger and more fully sustained in the higher races and organisms than\nis the case with the lower. Then, with that degeneration of tissue which\nsets in with on-coming age, the old man becomes womanish, the old woman\nmannish.\n\nIt cannot be doubted that human perfection reaches its climax in the\naccentuation of the differences between the Sex-characteristics,\nphysical and mental, of the one sex from those of the other. The best\ntypes of men differ far more from the best types of women than inferior\nmen and women differ from one another. In body and in attribute, the\nsexes are complementary and supplementary. And their dissimilarities are\nthe measure of their complementary and supplementary values.\n\nTheir attraction to one another, their interest and happiness in one\nanothers' company, are proportional to the degree in which members of\none sex supply for members of the other, sentiment and qualities lacking\nin their own. Mannish women and womanish men are alike incapable of\nexperiencing and inspiring the love-passion, which charms and\ntransfigures life for true man and true woman. These unfortunate,\nimperfect neuter-persons, because of the deficiency in them of normal\nsex attributes and impulse, are shut out from the richest and sweetest,\nmost sacred emotions of Humanity--precisely as persons of defective\nbrain are debarred from the richer and fuller appreciations and joys of\nconsciousness.\n\nAnd yet, apart and distinct from, although at the root of this abnormal\nneuterdom, wherein the traits of one sex are so antagonised by those of\nthe other that the finest powers of both are nullified--normally,\nall men possess latent in them the qualities of Woman; all women\nhave latent in them the qualities of Man. Otherwise, this third\nNeuter-gender--mannish women and womanish men--could not have come into\nbeing.\n\nIn crises of life and under other abnormal conditions, the dormant\ncharacteristics of the one sex are seen to emerge in members of the\nother, and to become dominant. A woman, in the face of danger, develops\nthe strength, the courage and the material resource of a man. A man,\nwhen put to it, reveals the gentleness, patience and psychical resource\nof a woman. And in neither is this substitution of alien traits\nimitative, merely. That it is vital and intrinsic is shown by the fact\nthat not only mental characteristics, but the body itself becomes\ntransformed. If the circumstances--exposure to danger, to hard and rough\nphysical labours or to mental exactions which are the normal of the\nmale--continue for long, woman's physique, equally with her attributes,\nbecomes increasingly virile of mode.\n\nA kindred metamorphosis occurs in men. When called upon to exercise for\nany length of time the functions of a woman, beside a sick bed, for\nexample--or, to state it otherwise, when the male in him no longer\nreceives the stimulus of the natural male role and activities--man's\nvirile qualities decline. He becomes emasculate.\n\nSo too in disease. With the vital powers at low ebb, man's virility\nebbs low. He grows soft and sensitive, uncontrolled and emotional, loses\nenergy and initiative; lapses in outlook and temperament from the\nmasculine normal. In abnormal states of physical development, men are\npuerile or womanish.\n\nWomen, as result of like abnormal undevelopment, or after operative\nremoval of reproductive organs (_propter quos est mulier_) become\nmannish of type. In extreme cases the figure changes to a strong and\nsturdy maleness, the voice drops to gruffness; manners and speech become\nterse and abrupt, the jaw squares; even moustache or beard may develop.\nSuch women lose, perhaps, every womanly characteristic; refinement of\nform, mental delicacy and sensitiveness, emotion, subtlety. They lapse\nto the biological grade, not of cultured, but of rough working men. In\nlesser degrees of sex-extinction, such as are seen in many of our modern\ngirls, de-sexed by masculine training, the subjects are boyish merely;\nlean, active, restless, hipless, breastless, lacking all those fair,\ndelicate artistries of face and form, as likewise the complex\nsensibility and emotionalism which are the higher characteristics of\ntheir sex.\n\n\nIII\n\nThese and other singularities of the phenomenon indicate that man has,\nso to speak, a woman concealed in him; woman has a man submerged in her.\nThe case suggests the little Noah and his wife of the toy weatherglass.\nUnder some conditions the man in woman emerges temporarily. Under some\nconditions the woman in man reveals herself. But the emergence in the\none sex of the characteristics of the other, when appreciable and\npermanent, is abnormal and unpleasing, and is obviously degenerative.\n\nMan is at his best when the woman in him is dominated by his natural\nvirile traits. Woman is at her best when the man in her is sheathed\nwithin her native womanliness. This way, each is a highly evolved and a\nfinely-specialised creation.\n\nNevertheless, such possession, in latency, of the qualities of the\nother, not only enhances for members of both sexes the potence of their\nown, inspiring and enriching these, but it engenders more perfect\nsympathy and understanding between them. The woman in man endues him\nwith intuitive apprehension of the Woman-nature; of its needs and modes,\nits disabilities, its sufferings and aspirations. The man in woman\ninforms her of the intrinsic values of his sterner calibre, and thus\nlends her patience with his impatiences, moves her tenderness and care\nfor him in his rougher, more arduous lot, wins her admiration of his\nenterprises and ambitions. Moreover, the man in her strengthens and\nintelligises her mental fibre, stiffens and renders more stable and\neffective her more pliant will and softer, more delicate aptitudes.\n\nWhile she, in her turn, endows him with her intrinsic mentalities.\n\nMasculine intellection, pure and simple, is initiative, vigorous,\nenterprising; analytical, logical, critical; its outlook rational and\nconcrete, its disposition just and honest. Capable in the degree of its\nvirility, of strenuous and sustained endeavour, of keen concentration\nand close application; taking nothing for granted, but questioning and\ndemanding proof of all things, it is an admirable executive agent of\nMind. _Per se_, however, it is rational and deductive, judicial and\njudicious, rather than inspirational and creative. The blending with it\nof the Woman-faculty in him quickens his male brain by contributing the\nemotional element; endues it with intuitive sensibility, fructifies it\nwith female creativeness.\n\nThus it blossoms in Imagination--a new talent, which his natural\nintellectual energy and executive ability enable him to raise to highest\nissues in Inductive Science and the creative Arts.\n\n\nSex, with its phenomena of the characteristics of both sexes blended\nbut, nevertheless, distinctive in the totally dissimilar constitution of\nmembers of both, presents an enigma which all the thinkers of all the\nages have left unsolved.\n\nWhat is its significance--what its explanation? How has it been\npossible--without miracle, but by way of biological sequences of form\nand process, of function and faculty--for the divergent characteristics,\nphysical and mental, of the two sexes to have developed in both, not\nonly without either order of characteristics (normally) neutralising\nthose of the other, but, on the contrary, with both orders ever further\nintensifying their differences in the sex to which they belong?\n\nBy hereditary transmission. True! But by what precise means? Because\nNature achieves her results always by the continuous operation of\nunerring Law and intensifying processes, not by eccentricities or\ndeviations. When she seems to us to skip at random, it means that we\nhave missed some intermediate footprints linking her progressive\nsequences in a long unbroken train.\n\nThis problem of human duality, physical and psychical, has baffled not\nbiologists only, but philosophers, religionists and seers. It fills both\nlife and literature with puzzles, paradoxes, incongruities. It has been\nthe source of perpetual misapprehension, misconception,\nmaladministration, personal and ethical.\n\nIt lies at the root of the whole Woman question. It has supplied the\nmotive--and has made the mischief of the Feminist propaganda and\npractice.\n\nBecause, in view of the masculine qualities latent in women, allied with\nthe circumstance that masculine powers are those most profitable and\neffective on the plane alike of physics and of economics, it has seemed\nan inevitable conclusion that these dormant male potentialities were\n_powers lying idle_; virgin soil which, tilled and cultivated, would\nyield fruitful harvest. And this for the benefit not of woman solely,\nbut of Humanity at large. Strangely enough, the converse proposition has\nnot presented itself. A pity! For it might have brought enlightenment.\nBecause it presents itself outright in the form of a patent absurdity.\n\nSuppose a Man's Movement which should have had for aim the cult in males\nof their potential woman-qualities! Not for an instant could the project\nhave found footing as being rational, its ends desirable, or as\nimproving upon Nature. Everywhere is pity or contempt for the effeminate\nman. He is regarded as a poor creature, neither one thing nor the other;\nas little the peer of true man as he is notably an unworthy counterfeit\nof woman.\n\nYet how is this? Is it that we admit the male-sex to be so vastly and\nintrinsically superior to the female that we are not satisfied for half\nonly, but demand that the whole human species shall be male?\nNevertheless, since masculine qualities, although undeniably present,\nare normally latent in women, they must be inferior in power and calibre\nto these same qualities in men. Otherwise, in place of remaining in\nlatency, they would assert themselves like men. Woman's inferior\nmasculine powers, even when developed to the full, can equip her,\ntherefore, to be no more than inferior male; \"lesser man\" merely, in\nplace of being \"diverse\"--the highly-differentiated, finely-specialised\nbeing for which Nature would seem to have been shaping in her, during\nuntold aeons of progressive differentiation.\n\n\nIV\n\nThe prevailing notion is that these masculine potentialities dormant in\nwomen are powers common to both sexes, which have been blighted in the\none by long generations of educational and vocational disabilities\nprecluding exercise and outlet for them. Or that they are powers which\nhave been dwarfed by long \"subjection\" of the sex in maternal and\ndomestic functions mainly.\n\nConsulting Biology, we find that such artificial repression of Faculty\nin the mother (even were artificially-repressed faculty transmissible as\nsuch) could in no way have limited itself, in succeeding generations, to\ninheritance by daughters. On the contrary, the more we learn of the laws\nof Heredity, the more it is seen that Faculty descends from mother to\nson, rather than from mother to daughter. And yet, despite the\nsex-disabilities, personal and social, which are now condemned as having\nprecluded the mothers of earlier eras from developing their masculine\nabilities, such mothers transmitted masculine characteristics in\never-increasing degree to successive generations of male offspring.\n\nWhereupon another seeming paradox confronts us. Namely, that the sons of\nthose earlier women, in whom masculine inherences were permitted to\nremain dormant, were notably more virile of body and mind than are the\nsons of latter-day emancipated mothers who have sedulously cultivated\nand have fully exercised their male proclivities.\n\nAnd now upsprings a further momentous consideration: Is this cause and\neffect? Were the sons of women in whom the potential male had remained\nabeyant, more virile of body and brain than are the sons of women who\nhave cultivated masculine characteristics, solely and absolutely because\nthe mothers in the latter case had misappropriated to their own uses\npowers that belonged by right of heredity to sons? While those other\nmothers, by retaining such in latency, preserved them as a rich\ninheritance for male heirs. Is it similar, indeed, to the cases of a\nmother who realises and expends for her own purposes her sons' financial\npatrimony, and of a mother who, expending the interest alone thereof,\nretains the capital intact; and is enabled thus to pass it on as\nheritage? Is the power held latent in one generation the potential of\nthe generation following?\n\nIt may be asked: Why should woman forgo possession and exercise of\nfaculties available to her, in order to transmit these to sons? One\nmight answer as in respect of that other patrimony. If it be true that\nshe holds these powers in trust merely, they are not hers to spend. To\nexpend them is to despoil her sons; to make paupers and bankrupts of\nthem, humanly speaking. Further, since daughters inherit from the\nfather, the male entail woman forbears to realise and to exploit for her\nown uses returns to her sex in the person of her grand-daughter--by\npaternal inheritance. For the able father is the parent of the able\ndaughter.\n\nThus Nature works with the eternal justice of eternal reciprocity\nbetween the sexes; making them all the while more complexly diverse, but\nnevertheless more closely interdependent. So that one sex can neither\nprogress nor can it regress by itself; but draws the other onward with\nit, or drags it back. Thus, the bread of human heritage consigned to the\nstream of posterity by one sex, for equipment and furtherance of the\nother, returns to the hand of the sex that consigned it.\n\nIf this be so--and I hope to prove it so--the woman who develops the\npotential male in her defrauds of its lawful racial and personal entail\nnot only the opposite sex, in the person of her son, but she defrauds of\nits dower her own sex too, in the person of her grand-daughter.\n\nOf the interesting and important biological processes underlying the\nmystery of the Dual-Sex constitution and its manifold phenomena, I am\nabout to present a wholly new and--I venture to believe--a wholly true\nand convincing elucidation.\n\n_Natura simplex est_, said Newton, _et sibi semper consonans_. (Nature\nis simple and always agrees with herself.) Bewilderingly multiple in her\nphenomena, she is superbly simple in her principles. By the operation of\nher one great Law of Gravitation, she sustains the mighty Solar\nsystems--and brings the apple to the ground. By the extension,\ncounterpoise and co-operation of one Primal Cosmic Energy--with its dual\nimpulses, Centripetal and Centrifugal--she has generated all the diverse\nmarvels of a Universe. And in view of her simplicity of Principle, it is\nconceivable that the Duality of Sex may be an extension into Life of\nthat same principle of Duality which characterises the vaster Cosmic\nphenomena.\n\nIf this be true, Man and Woman are the complex resultant of infinitely\nmany and varied evolutionary differentiations and associations of the\ntwo modes of Primal Energy. If so, the principle of Sex must have\nexisted before Matter; must have been inherent in Creation before\nCreation began to evolve. And if so, Evolution would seem to have had\nfor its purpose the ever further and fuller manifestation of these dual\nand contrary inherences in terms of Life and Sex. While, to judge by\neffects, it has had for its means such ever more intimate and intricate\nco-operations of these as have resulted in the progressively diverse and\ncomplex developments found to-day in Human Life and Human\nSex-Characteristics.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE MYSTERY OF SEX AND SEX-TRANSMISSION\n\n     \"The idea that the female is naturally and really the superior sex\n     seems incredible, and only the most liberal and emancipated minds,\n     possessed of a large store of biological information, are capable\n     of realising it.\"--_Professor Lester Ward._\n\n\nI\n\nThose happy persons who do not perplex themselves concerning the\nintrinsic causes behind all physical phenomena see it as only \"natural\"\nthat two parents of opposite sex should produce offspring of both sexes.\n\nAnd yet it is not only a great mystery, but, on the face of it, it is an\nanomaly that a child who may possess an admixture of all the physical\nand mental characteristics of its two parents, bears, nevertheless, the\nsex and the sex-characteristics of one only. Sex, male or female, breeds\ntrue in nearly every case; the rare exceptions merely emphasising the\nrule. The mystery deepens when we realise that every individual is a\nproduct of countless such admixtures of the qualities, throughout\ncountless generations, of countless forefathers and foremothers. And\nalthough such a man or woman may hark back to any one, or more, of the\ntraits of his or her innumerable forbears, he or she, nevertheless,\n\"breeds true\" in the factors of sex and sex-characteristics.\n\nLong and closely biologists have pondered these many and involved\nproblems. How is it, they inquire, that an embryo bred of two parents of\nopposite sex develops the sex of one only of these? How is it that the\nmother, who belongs to one sex only, produces--and produces in about\nequal number--offspring of both? The phenomenon is expressed,\nbiologically, in the term, \"sex-limited factor\"--an incalculable\nsomething in the embryo which limits its sex to the sex of one only of\nits parents. But the \"something,\" and the method of this sex-limitation\nhave remained enigmas.\n\nSex is regarded by the new Mendelian school of biologists as that which\nis known as a \"Mendelian factor.\" And to follow the argument to its\nconclusions, a few simple words about the Mendelian theory of Heredity\nare essential to those unacquainted therewith.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAbout forty years ago, a German monk, Mendel by name, was struck by the\nfacts that in his bed of edible peas certain plants grew tall, while\nothers remained dwarf; that the blossoms of certain plants were white\nalways, while those of others were always coloured. He made a number of\nexperiments in crossing the plants, with a view to discovering the law\nof inheritance by way of its operation in hybrid varieties. Briefly, the\nresults of his experiments--which have since been repeated and confirmed\nby many later observers--were as follows:\n\nThere are plants that are tall and can transmit only Tallness to\noffspring. There are plants that are dwarf and can transmit only\nDwarfness to offspring. So too, there are plants of white blossom or of\ncoloured blossom that can transmit, respectively, only White or Coloured\nblossoming to offspring.\n\nWhen a Tall is crossed with a Dwarf plant, however, or a Coloured with a\nWhite plant, strange to say, the hybrid offspring of this cross shows\n_one_ only of these opposite traits, to the exclusion of the other. No\nintermediate, or mixed, forms are produced.\n\nThus, a Tall crossed with a Dwarf produces only Talls. Plants of\nColoured flower crossed with those of White flower give only Coloured\nflowering varieties. A yellow and a green-seeded cross produce only\nyellow-seeded plants.\n\nIn the cross between plants of opposite traits, _one_ set of traits\nappears thus, exclusively, in the hybrid offspring. These\ntraits--because they _dominate_ growth and development--Mendel styled\n\"Dominant.\" While those traits which are dominated by the other and\nopposite traits and do not appear in offspring, he styled \"Recessive.\"\n\nOn further breeding, a new and stranger thing happens, however. Because\nwhen such hybrids--plants bred of parents that had borne, respectively,\n\"Dominant\" and \"Recessive\" characteristics, but with the parental\nDominant traits so overpowering the Recessive traits of the other parent\nthat these latter are submerged and concealed--When these hybrids are\ncrossed with other hybrids like themselves, both the Dominant and the\nRecessive traits of the original parents reappear in offspring. The tall\nhybrids resulting from the cross between Tall and Dwarf plants, when\ncrossed with other tall hybrids of similar origin, produce both Tall and\nDwarf plants. So with Colour, and with the other so-called \"Contrasted\nTraits.\"\n\nIt becomes evident, therefore, that although the Dominant traits of\nTallness and Colour overpower in the growth and development of the\nsecond generation of plants, the Recessive traits of Dwarfness and\nWhiteness, these latter traits are _submerged_ only, and are neither\nimpaired in their values, nor destroyed. In the third generation, under\ndifferent conditions of mating, the original Recessive, and submerged,\ntraits re-appear, and reveal themselves in offspring-plants as the\nDwarfness or the Whiteness that had characterised their grandparents.\n\nMendel assumed that such hybrid plants--offspring of a Dominant and of a\nRecessive parent--produce two varieties of sex-cells, or gametes, and\nthat one order of cells contain the Dominant traits of the Dominant\nparent, while the other order contain the Recessive traits of the\nRecessive parent.\n\nBut any individual sex-cell, or gamete, cannot (according to his view)\nbear both Dominant and Recessive traits. The Dominant traits and the\nRecessive traits of the respective parents he regarded as being\nsegregated, absolutely, in one or in the other set of sex-cells produced\nby hybrid varieties. And of these, the cells bearing Dominant traits are\nable to transmit Dominant traits only to offspring; while the cells\nbearing Recessive traits transmit Recessive traits only to offspring.\n\n\nII\n\nNow, Biology shows that plants and living creatures develop from a\nsingle microscopic cell, formed by the union of two half-cells, of which\neach half was contributed by one of the two parents.\n\nClearly then, a hybrid plant is one that has sprung from the union of\ntwo half-cells, one of which bore the Dominant traits of one parent,\nwhile the other bore the Recessive traits of the other parent. But\nbecause Dominant traits overpower Recessive traits in development, the\ncross between a tall plant and a dwarf plant produces tall offspring\nonly--Tallness being a Dominant trait which overpowers the Recessive\ntrait of Dwarfness. So too, the cross between a plant bearing coloured\nand a plant bearing white flowers produces offspring bearing coloured\nflowers only--Colour being Dominant over the Recessive Trait of\nWhiteness.\n\nBut because the Recessive traits of Dwarfness and of Whiteness were only\n_overpowered_ in the plant-development, by the Dominant traits of\nTallness and Colour, but were neither lost nor impaired in stock, hybrid\nplants that had shown only Dominant traits in growth and constitution,\nproduce, nevertheless, two sorts of sex-cells for plant-reproduction:\ncells that bear the Recessive traits of the one parent, and cells that\nbear the Dominant traits of the other parent. So that in the\nfertilisation of one another by such hybrids, cells bearing Dominant\ntraits mate with other cells bearing Dominant traits, and produce plants\nof pure Dominant type--Tall or Coloured, like one of the grandparents.\nWhile cells bearing Recessive traits mate with other cells bearing\nRecessive traits, and produce plants of pure Recessive type--Dwarf or\nWhite, like the other grandparent.\n\nIt is seen, therefore, that in plants, when a cell bearing Dominant\ntraits mates with one bearing Recessive traits, the Dominant\ncharacteristics so overpower the Recessive that these latter lie latent,\nand concealed, in the resulting plant. But when a cell bearing Recessive\ntraits mates with another cell bearing Recessive traits, the resulting\nplant (its growth and development not over-ridden now by the more\nassertive Dominant traits) is able to develop its Recessive\ncharacteristics.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThese interesting and significant laws of plant-heredity and\nconstitution, discovered by Mendel in peas, have since been found by\nmany expert observers to hold true as regards other species of plants;\nas too in poultry, in mice, and in rabbits, and moreover, in the\nhereditary transmission of human characteristics.\n\nIn _Heredity and Variation_, Dr. Saleeby points out that in the mating\nof a black with a white rabbit, some of the offspring will be black like\none parent, some white like the other, and some grey--a blend of the\ncolours of both parents.\n\nIn the last case, the _Dominant_ trait of Blackness, derived from one\nrabbit-parent, blends in the fur of the rabbit-offspring with the\n_Recessive_ trait of Whiteness, derived from the other rabbit-parent; a\ngrey rabbit resulting. But that the Contrasted Traits come to no more\nthan a temporary and partial compromise during the life of such a\nrabbit-individual, without either of the traits losing its intrinsic\ncharacteristic--Blackness and Whiteness, respectively--is proved by the\nfact that these grey rabbit-offspring, on further breeding, produce not\n_grey_ rabbits, but black rabbits and white rabbits; proving that the\nBlack trait and the White trait in them remained distinct and\nsegregated, neither altering its character in the least degree.\n\nIt is as though one should take a spoonful of black pepper and a\nspoonful of white salt, and thoroughly mix them. A drab\n\"pepper-and-salt\" mixture will result. But neither pepper nor salt will\nhave changed its colour or its properties one iota. Could they be\nseparated out again, each would be precisely as it had been before\nmixing. So it is with the Dominant and the Recessive traits in living\norganisms. They commingle intimately, but each retains its original and\nintrinsic quality.\n\nAll the diverse and beautiful varieties of vegetation and the loveliness\nof flowers, in form and colour, result from multiple associations in\nhybrid-plants, of those which are known as the \"Contrasted Traits\" of\nparent-stock.\n\n\nIII\n\nThe lay reader need not perplex himself with the problems and phenomena\nof Mendelism.\n\nAll he requires to remember are its three leading principles. Firstly,\nthat in the world of Life, plant and animal, living attributes are\ndivided into two contrasting orders. Secondly, that of these two orders\nof so-called \"Contrasted Traits\" (\"Contrasting Traits\" would be a fitter\nphrase), the two groups are as absolute and opposite in character and in\nsignificance as are the _plus_ and the _minus_ signs of Algebra, the\nPositive and the Negative potentials of Electricity, the conditions of\nLight and Darkness, of Blackness and Whiteness, of Heat and Cold.\nThirdly, that the Dominant order of traits are paramount over and\nextinguish the Recessive order of traits.\n\nTo sustain her equilibrium by a counterpoise of dual and contrary\nfactors, physical and vital, Nature must preserve these factors absolute\nand unchangeable as the constitution and the opposite attraction of The\nPoles. But in order to produce her countless progressive variations of\nform and attribute, physical and vital, she assembles these contrary\nfactors in countless progressively complex combinations, co-operations\nand correlations.\n\nIt is conceivable, therefore, that the infinite gradations and\nvariations of form and attribute found in the world of living creatures\nare, as in the world of plants, phenomena of the ever further\ndifferentiation and more complex combination, in the hybrid offspring of\ntwo parents, of two orders of Contrasting Traits, transmitted by the\nrespective parents.\n\nIn all their multiple associations and diverse developments, however,\nthe two Sets of Traits remain unchanged, precisely as do the individual\nelements of chemical combinations. Variations in species result,\naccordingly, not from change in the essential traits, but from changes\nin the modes and the degrees of the commingling of these in organisms;\nand in the modes and degrees of their ever more complex associations in\nsuch.\n\nTallness, being an impulse toward extension, can never be Dwarfness,\nwhich is an impulse toward contraction. Black can never be White. Square\ncan never be Round. Yet two opposite traits, both influencing\ndevelopment, may come to a mean, or poise, in an individual organism; as\nis seen in the grey offspring of a black rabbit mated with a white\nrabbit. But it is a _counterpoise_ merely of contrary factors. The\ntraits of Blackness and Whiteness remain absolute and unalterable.\n\nIf now, the reader has grasped these leading principles of\nPlant-biology, he is in a position to follow the new application of them\nto Human Biology which I now venture to present.\n\nWithout going into details of physiology, it may be stated that the\nprinciples of reproduction are so identical in plants and living\ncreatures as wholly to justify argument from one to the other. The only\ndifferences are in degrees of structural complexity as organisms rise\nhigher in the scale of development, and demand, accordingly, more\ncomplex organs and functions for the more perfect manifestation of their\ncharacteristics; as also for the transmission of these to offspring. It\nmay be repeated, however, that Mendelian law is found to hold good in\nhumans, both in the hereditary transmission of normal characteristics\nand in the hereditary transmission of the abnormal traits of disease and\ndegeneracy.\n\nIncreasing complexities, structural and functional, are indispensable to\nthe presentment of the attributes of the higher species, Man. But such\ncomplexities are, nevertheless, continuous with and have sprung out of\nthe simplicities of lower and rudimentary organisms, precisely as the\nbranches and leaves and flowers of a plant are continuous with and have\nsprung out of its roots. A vital and important biological detail (to be\nconsidered later) is that plants are not, as living creatures are,\ndifferentiated into a right and a left-side, identical in construction.\nAnother is that plants are self-fertilising.\n\nWith the lower animals, plural births are the rule. And in these, the\nstill crude and imperfect differentiations of the Contrasting Traits\nallow of piebald and other modes of chequered colour and amorphous\nconstruction.\n\nThe higher the organism, the more complex are the biological\nrequirements for its pre-natal development, as for its post-natal\nnurture. The functions of Parenthood, both physiological and\npsychological, are always evolving to higher and more complex issues,\ntherefore, as the species to be reproduced and nurtured becomes more\ncomplex. In human births, single offspring is the normal. Twin births\nare comparatively rare. And that these are abnormal is shown by twins\nbeing below the average always in health or in faculty; usually in both.\n\n\nIV\n\nAs already mentioned, Sex is regarded by the large and ever-increasing\norder of the adherents of Mendel as a \"Mendelian factor.\" But in\napplying Mendelian truth to humans, I venture to think the applications\nhave not been carried to their ultimate and most momentous conclusions.\n\nBecause, given the keynote to the Principle of Duality in the phenomenon\nof the Contrasting Traits found manifesting in plant-heredity and\nconstitution, the duality of the Human Sexes, with their respective\norders of Contrasting characteristics, suggests itself as being\nanalogous.\n\nHuman attributes, physical and mental, are seen, like those of plants,\nto group themselves into two distinct categories, the Male and the\nFemale sex-characteristics, primary and secondary. And these, though\nwholly contrary in nature and in trend, are found--precisely as occurs\nin plants--linked together in the hybrid offspring of the two parents\nfrom whom they were, respectively, derived; blending in a temporal\nunity, but remaining, nevertheless, unchanged in their essential\ndifferences; coming to means and counterpoises in individual\norganisations, yet nevertheless preserved distinct and unalloyed in\nthese, as is shown by their emergence, unaltered, in offspring of\nopposite sexes.\n\nAs a hybrid plant is the product of two parents characterised by\nopposite traits--Tallness and Dwarfness, for example--so, I submit, a\nhuman creature is the hybrid offspring of two parents characterised by\nopposite traits--Maleness and Femaleness, with the Sex-traits\ndifferentiating one sex from the other.\n\nAnd at once a solution of the many baffling presentments and problems of\nSex presents itself--of the enigma of man with Woman potential in him,\nof woman with Man potential in her; a key to the mysterious Duality of\nhuman biology and psychology, with its conflict of battling impulses,\nits harmonies of blending attributes, its innumerable and diverse\ndevelopments in proportions, in means, in extremes; in normalities,\neccentricities, deviations and reversions. And the analogy between the\ntwo orders of Traits--in Plant-life at the lower end of the scale of\nspecies, and in Human life and psychology at the higher end--suggests\nthat the ever-increasing complexity of organisation and faculty which\nhas characterised Evolutionary Progress, has had for aim, as it has had\nfor method, the ever further differentiation and more perfect\nsegregation, but, nevertheless, the ever closer and more intricate\nassociation of the contrary factors of Maleness and Femaleness.\n\nIn the lower organisms--plant and animal--the two groups of Traits are\nbut crudely differentiated as characteristics distinguishing one sex\nfrom the other. In such lower organisms, Sex-development is merely\nrudimentary; the first foreshadowings in Life of two intrinsic orders of\nEssential Attribute, the progressive evolution whereof reveals two\ncontrary trends in physiological and psychical inherences.\n\nLike Light and Darkness, Heat and Cold, Sex is a phenomenon of Dual\nstates which manifest by way of relativity. Without Maleness, Femaleness\nhas no significance--no existence, in fact. And the converse. And in the\nlower and rudimentary forms of existence, in proportion to their degrees\nof undevelopment, the dual states of Sex are but faintly defined. The\nvery lowly forms are bi-sexual and self-fertilising. While the first and\nsimplest mode of reproduction is by cell-division merely; the principle\nof Sex, with its dual factors, functioning, but not yet differentiated\ninto dual forms.\n\nThe evolution of Species and the evolution of Sex have been so\nabsolutely co-incident in biological progress, indeed, that we are\nforced to perceive them as cause and effect; or, rather, as one and the\nsame thing. And the evolution of Sex has meant, of course, the ever\nfurther divergence and the more complex specialisation, in form and in\nfunction, of the characteristics of the one sex from those of the other.\n\n\nV\n\nOn still closer consideration, it appears, moreover, that the evolution\nof Sex has meant pre-eminently the evolution of the _female_ sex--the\nslow and gradual emergence and development, in species, of female\ncharacteristics, as, in course of Evolution, these have freed themselves\nand have risen ever further into evidence from long subjection by the\nstronger, fiercer, more assertive--in a word, the Dominant--traits of\nthe male.\n\n(A conclusion as singularly interesting, I think, as it is instructive,\nin view of modern Feminist doctrine and aims, which make, not for the\nculture and the ever further evolutionary development of the\nWoman-traits in woman, but, on the contrary, for a reversion to earlier\ncruder states of the subjection in her of her Woman-traits by those male\nDominant ones, which, as the hybrid offspring of a male and of a female\nparent, every female creature inherits from her father, together with\nthe Woman-traits she inherits from her mother. There is seen here the\nirony that woman has, by long ages of biological development, released\nherself from sociological subjection by the male, only voluntarily to\nset the Woman in herself in far worse psychological subjection to the\nmale in herself.)\n\n\nIn the new and profoundly interesting light thrown by Mendel on some\npreviously unsolved problems of heredity, the reason for the long\nsubjection of woman, biological and sociological, becomes clear.\n\nBecause, given the key-notes of Tallness and Colour as Dominant traits,\none identifies these, at once, as traits of Maleness; the greater\nstature of male creatures and the richer colour of their fur and plumage\nin the lower species pointing unmistakably thereto. Dwarfness (or lesser\nstature) and Whiteness (or lesser colour) are Recessive, and are\nobviously Female traits. The plant of Dominant type, though still\nbi-sexual, is making for a male _genus_; the Recessive type is making\nfor a Female _genus_. White creatures are so feminine in general effect\nthat it seems an anomaly when they are males. The converse is true of\nblack creatures. The black horse is stubborn and restive; the white,\ngentle and submissive.\n\nWhite poultry are prolific in egg-production; white cattle are good\nmilkers--a female characteristic. Jersey cows are both small in size and\npale of colour.\n\nThe male sex stands presumably for Dominance. And his positive, or\nobjective, traits overpowering the negative, or subjective, traits of\nRecessiveness, prevail accordingly in early biological development.\n\nThe female sex stands for Recessiveness. Her less assertive traits yield\nand recede into the background before those of the Dominant male. In\nstature, in strength, and in colour, and in the allied mental\nattributes, he holds the foreground in form and in function. The reason\nbeing that his role in Life is adaptation to environment.\n\nThe male, therefore, in his masculine role of Adaptation, with his\nDominant traits making fiercely for the survival and for the ever\nfurther development of physical fitness--until physical fitness, or\nAdaptation, had attained due degrees of ascendancy--was long lord of\nCreation; the female, his vassal. And this not only in life and in\naction, but too in the personal characteristics of both sexes. During\naeons before the Recessive female-traits were able to come into evidence\nas definite traits, they functioned as negations, merely; submerged and\nover-ridden in all female creatures by the Dominant male-traits they had\ninherited from their sires.\n\nPrimal physical development may be said, thus, to have derived its first\nimpulse from those fierce and fighting male-proclivities which\ncharacterised it in the epoch of that early savage struggle with\nenvironment whence Species emerged. Only with further evolutionary\nprogress, do the female traits manifest as personal characteristics,\nsecure survival, and find increasing exercise and sway.\n\nThe tigress is only less fierce, less strong, and less savage than the\ntiger. Primal woman was only less fierce, less strong, and less savage\nthan the male. It is only, indeed, in the maternal function and relation\nthat the female traits of both tigress and primal woman awake, and find\njustification, impulse, and scope for development. And while the\nmaterial progress which has led to modern Civilisation resulted from\nAdaptation to, and of, environment, and derived its impulse from the\nmale proclivities of strength, assertiveness and intelligence, the moral\nprogress thereof may be said to have derived its impulse from the\nevolution of the female sex-characteristics. Because the evolution of\nWoman-traits has meant the ever further tempering and counterpoising of\nthe fiercely active and aggressive male propensities, by the more\npassive and self-surrendering qualities of the female.\n\nJudging the respective characteristics of the sexes by their\nwidely-differing roles in the most important of their co-operative\nliving functions, the parental one--the sole function wherein the sexes\nof lower organisation co-operate, indeed--the respective attributes of\nDominance and Recessiveness manifest clearly in these. The province of\nthe male being to fight for mate and young, providing food, defending\nlife--in order to fit him for this struggle for racial survival, his\ntraits of strength and stature remain long paramount, alike in\ndevelopment and function, over those of the female, as regards his own\norganisation and that of his offspring, both male and female. The\nprovince of the female being to surrender her powers to the nurture of\noffspring before birth, and, after birth, mildly to suckle and to tend\nits helplessness, Nature equips her to these ends; inhibiting, or\nnegativing, strength and fierceness in her by the traits of\nRecessiveness.\n\nTigress or savage woman, her struggle with the rough conditions of\nprimal existence is only less fierce and less strenuous than her mate's.\nIt demands the positive male-qualities (which manifest first in stature,\nstrength and pugnacity) only less in degree than does his, therefore.\nThe negative female qualities which, manifesting first in passivity and\nsurrender, detract from her fierceness and activity, would have made for\nextinction of species had they not been defended by those of her\nfighting mate, as too by the male-traits she herself had inherited from\nher fighting father. They could only evolve, accordingly, precisely in\nproportion as they were sheltered behind the male dominant powers. The\ntiger shelters his tigress only during her maternal phases, however. Her\ncubs brought forth, suckled, reared, and thrust into the jungle to fend\nfor themselves, she must fight her own battles for food and existence.\nAnd her brief maternal phases being all too short for more than the\nscantest development of female traits--which derive their fullest\nimpulse in their exercise as mother-traits--she remains a tigress\nmerely, and produces tiger offspring merely, because only tigerishness\nsecures survival in her domain of life and attribute.\n\nWith the further advance of progressing species, savage woman has\nevolved from savage brute to savage woman by way of such increasing\nshelter and protection by her Dominant mate as have permitted the slow\nand gradual evolution of the Recessive Woman-traits in her; and thereby\nthe evolution of the Woman-sex. Her maternal phases and the unfitnesses\nof these become ever more prolonged and incapacitating; her offspring\ndemands ever longer periods of suckling, devotion and care, as both she\nand it rise higher in the scale of organisation. Thus, Sex has evolved\nin the male by response to the ever-increasing claims upon him, by the\nfemale and by offspring, of his traits of protective chivalry and\nintelligent effort. And Sex has evolved in the female by response to the\never-increasing claims by offspring upon her, of her traits of devotion\nand ministry.\n\n\nThe evolution of the Woman-attributes has been rendered possible only by\nthat protection accorded by the male to the female as the due of her\nmaternal unfitnesses; securing thus for her and for offspring a more\nprivileged and kindlier environment. Environment which, evoking less of\nfight and physical stress, enabled her inherent milder,\nself-surrendering Recessive traits to emerge, to unfold, and to function\nincreasingly in life and heredity.\n\nAnd in the degree of her advancing evolution, the male evolved. Because,\njust as in her earlier hybrid constitution, the Dominant male-traits she\nhad inherited from her father, submerging the Recessive female-traits\nshe had inherited from her mother, made her, for long aeons, more male\nthan she was female, so now, with their progressive evolution, the\nRecessive female-traits not only made _her_ ever more woman, but,\ntransmitted in ever fuller measure to her sons, increasingly tempered,\nmodified and humanised, the masculine fierceness and combativeness of\nthese. Whereby were substituted arts of peace and civilisation for those\nof war.\n\nThus, with advancing Evolution, the female sex-characteristics have\nengendered, in both sexes, qualities of quietism and subordination, to\ntemper those of force and aggression; amenities of gentleness,\nforbearance and affection, to soften assertiveness, turn the edge of\nstrife, and fructify intelligence. Thus, human civilisation has been\nfostered and furthered.\n\n\nIn the hybrid creature that every man and woman is, are grouped two sets\nof Contrasting Traits, or Sex-characteristics: traits Dominant, or male,\nand traits Recessive, or female. And in the complex human hybrid, these\ntraits, ever increasing in complexity of constitution and further\ndiverging in trend, are associated in ever more close and complex poise\nand counterpoise as both become more intensified and intelligised.\n\nMan is a hybrid in whom the male Dominant traits derived from his father\nprevail in impulse and development over the female Recessive traits\nderived from his mother. Woman is a hybrid in whom the maternal\nRecessive traits prevail in impulse and development over the male\nDominant traits she has inherited from her father.\n\nThe Woman-traits (which, as said, reach their highest culmination in\n_mother_-traits), become in man _paternal_ traits; modified\nmother-instincts which move him not only to love, in addition to\nproviding for and protecting offspring, but, transfiguring all his other\ncharacteristics, move him to philanthropy, amity, tolerance and altruism\nin his dealings with his fellow-creatures.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nONE SIDE OF BODY IS MALE, THE OTHER SIDE IS FEMALE\n\n     \"Oh, I must feel your brain prompt mine,\n       Your heart anticipate my heart,\n     You must be just before, in fine,\n       See and make me see, for your part,\n     New depths of the Divine!\"\n\n     _Robert Browning._\n\n\nI\n\nOn further applying the Principle of Duality, as operating in\norganisation and heredity, strangely interesting and significant\ndevelopments appear.\n\nBecause, with the ever further evolution of Form and Faculty as\norganisms have risen higher in the scale of life, the bodies of living\ncreatures are seen to have become further differentiated into two sides;\na right and a left. Anatomically, these two sides appear identical in\nstructure and in function, although contrary in incidence to one\nanother. Each is incomplete and impotent without the other.\nNevertheless, paralysis and other diseases show that each is, as it\nwere, an entity totally distinct from the other. One side may be wholly\nhelpless and insensitive while its fellow remains sound and efficient.\n\nComplementary and supplementary each to the other, both are, in a sense,\ncomplete. Further and closer comparison of function shows, however, that\nalthough they co-operate in action, they are by no means identical in\npower or aptitude.\n\nThe right half of the body is, for both sexes, the active and executive\nhalf; quicker and stronger, and in all ways more efficient on the plane\nof physics.\n\nThe left half is, relatively, passive and inert, is _responsive_,\nmainly, to the initiative and requirements of the right half, by which\nits powers are overshadowed in every form of direct activity.\n\nAs with the two sides of the body, so it is with the two halves of the\nbrain, which are at the same time the agencies of mentality and the\ncentres for recording the sensations and for directing the movements of\nthe two sides of the body. The brain-half which controls the right side\nis known as \"the Leading half.\" It is the agent in concrete\nintellection, as in physical activity.\n\nWhile, so far as biologists and psychologists have been able to\ndiscover, the other half of the brain is negative in function--a blank,\nas regards concrete intelligence and nervous or muscular initiative. In\ndisease, it has sometimes been found to undertake, and to perform feebly\nand imperfectly, sundry of the duties of its active \"Leading\" partner.\nBut inert and inadequate in muscular action, it is negative in\nintellection. It has been observed, however, that patients in whom this\nbrain-half is diseased show signs of moral deterioration. Yet whatsoever\nits functions--and the fact that it does not atrophy nor degenerate in\nthe marvellous structure and complexity which characterise\nbrain-constitution shows that it functions duly--its operations are\ntotally dissimilar to, and are, moreover, wholly overshadowed by those\nof its active, intelligent partner.\n\n\nHere again, as in the two sides of the body, appear, surely, the factors\nof Dominance and Recessiveness--in other words of Maleness and\nFemaleness; of strength and activity upon material planes, and of\ninhibition upon these.\n\nDevelopments which, being in full agreement with one another and with\nothers, suggest that the two orders of Sex-characteristics (derived from\nparents of opposite sex) are centred, respectively, in the two sides of\nthe body, and in the two brain-hemispheres allied, respectively, with\nthese. One side of the body, with its allied brain-half, represents the\npaternal inherences of the individual; the other, the maternal. If so,\nthe right side of the body, with its allied Leading, or Dominant,\nbrain-half is, clearly, of male inherence. While the left side, with its\nallied Recessive, or Dormant, brain-half is of female inherence.\n\nThe inference is further supported by the fact that the stronger right\nside is rather larger and more masculine in form; while left-side limbs\nare in normal right-handed persons, more slender and shapely and\ndelicate--in a word more womanly--than are those of the right.\n\nAs regards the face, from one aspect both sides are complete, from\nanother aspect both are incomplete, without the other. And in\nconfiguration and expression, the two sides of the face differ\nappreciably; the left side being more psychical, emotional and\nsubtle--in a word again more womanly.\n\nIn most persons, the hands and ears and eyes of one side differ from\nthose of the other, both in form and in function. In some persons the\ndifferences are considerable. It happens occasionally, indeed, that the\neye of one side resembles in colour the eyes of one parent, while the\nopposite eye bears the colour of those of the other parent.\n\nStrange to say, there are, moreover, in the human male, organs concerned\nwith the strictly female function of lactation.\n\nIndication of primaeval human hermaphrodites formed one of Darwin's\ngreatest puzzles, indeed. In his _Descent of Man_, the following passage\noccurs:\n\n\n     \"It has been known that in the vertebrate Kingdom one sex bears\n     rudiments of various accessory parts appertaining to the\n     reproductive system, which properly belong to the other sex....\n     Some remote progenitor of the whole vertebrate kingdom appears to\n     have been hermaphrodite, or androgynous.\"\n\n\nIt escaped him as it has escaped later biologists that Man, the highest\nof the vertebrates, _is still androgynous_. And this inevitably so,\nsince, being of bi-sexual parentage, the sex-characteristics of both\nparents must be present in him.\n\nIn _The Evolution of Sex_, Professors Geddes and Thomson state:\n\n\n     \"Sometimes a fish is male on one side, female on the other, or male\n     anteriorly and female posteriorly.... Among invertebrates the same\n     has been occasionally observed, especially among butterflies, where\n     striking differences in the colouring of the wings on the two sides\n     have in some cases been found to correspond to an internal\n     co-existence of ovary and testes.... The prettiest cases of\n     superficial hermaphrodism occur among insects, especially among\n     moths and butterflies, where it often happens that the wings on one\n     side are those of the male, on the other, those of the female.\"\n\n\nII\n\nDespite the fact that Nature has evolved the complex human races from\nthe single-celled microscopic _amoeba_ (\"Protoplasmic father of Man,\" as\nscience has styled this), there are those who regard it as another of\nnumerous blunders on the part of the Great Mother that the left side of\nthe body is a more or less passive and powerless member. Accordingly,\nthe doctrine of Ambidextry has arisen. With the result that its wiser\nexponents have abandoned it. Because it has been found that children\ntrained on Ambidextrous lines develop neurotic symptoms. This occurs\neven in cases in which children naturally left-handed are taught to use\nthe right hand, as is normal.\n\nIn a lecture given before The Child-Study Society in London, Mr. P. B.\nBallard, London County-Council Inspector of Schools, stated that\nleft-handed bowlers send down the ugliest balls, left-handed boxers deal\nthe most unexpected blows--blows that hurt terribly. To be left-handed,\nit seemed, was to be not merely awkward, but to be wicked, moreover. Yet\nany attempt to interfere with a child's natural habit is liable to make\nhim stammer. (The evil bent of left-handed persons has a special\nsignificance in view of my hypothesis of the dissimilar mental functions\nof the two brain-hemispheres. The term \"sinister\" expresses this bent.\nThe inference is that in such transposition of the normal functions of\nthe brain-halves, the tempering and humanising influence of the\nWoman-half is counteracted.)\n\nOf a group of 545 left-handed children, 1 per cent. of pure left-handers\nstammered, against 4.3 per cent, of 399, in course of being taught to\nuse the right hand, Mr. Ballard further stated. In another group of 207,\nthe figures were 4.2 per cent, and 21.8 per cent. respectively. Six out\nof ten left-handed children who had been taught to use the right hand\nwere practically cured of stammering after having been allowed to use\nthe left hand exclusively for eighteen months. There are twice as many\nleft-handed boys as left-handed girls; and stammering is twice as\nprevalent among boys.\n\nAll of which indicates normal differences in function of the two sides\nof the body--differences suggesting that, as I have surmised, each is\nthe site and the agency of a principle totally unlike that of the other.\n\n\nIII\n\nUpon referring to Biology--on the processes whereof every development,\nboth physical and psychical, of living creatures rests--this curious\ndual constitution of the body, together with the problems of dual\nsex-transmission and inherency, become explicable.\n\nAnd the solutions are at the same time so simple and inevitable as to be\nthe strongest possible confirmation of my thesis.\n\n\nAs already stated, living organisms, offspring of two parents, derive\nhalf the source of their structure from one parent, half from the other.\n\nAll plants and living creatures evolve their organisation from a single\nmicroscopic cell, precisely as Life itself evolved primarily, and has\ndeveloped out of the single-celled, microscopic _amoeba_. The\nmicroscopic cell which develops into a living creature is composed thus\nof two halves, or \"gametes,\" to employ the scientific term. One half was\ncontributed by the father: the other, by the mother. The two have united\nto form a whole cell. From such a cell (zygote), half male, half female,\nthe body of every living organism has sprung.\n\nNow, although these two half-cells unite to form a whole cell, exchange\nconstituents, and appear to lose their identity each in the other, it\nis, in the face of the strange dual constitution of the body, difficult\nto doubt that each half actually retains its identity and\nsex-inherences, and develops along its own lines (albeit in close\ncorrelation with the other), throughout all the marvellous, intricate,\nand complex processes of embryological existence, during which the\nzygote is evolving into a living creature, capable of separate and\nindividual life. And the inherences of these two halves are represented,\nat birth, in the respective sides of the body; each being, as it were, a\ncomplete and perfect entity, although inseparably knit in one flesh to\nits twin. And throughout all the further intricate and complex processes\nwhereby the creature comes to maturity, lives, reproduces its species,\nand dies, each half preserves its individual inherence alike in\nconstitution and in function. And yet in the mystical unity of their\ncommingling duality, they are one flesh.\n\nEach of the parental half-cells contained, marvellously, the potential\nmoiety of a living personality. But either, alone, would have been but\nan incomplete and valueless thing, had it not become united with the\ncomplementary half-cell required to complete it structurally, and to\nengender and energise its potentialities. Nevertheless, throughout all\nthe immature and the mature phases of life, from conception to birth,\nand from birth onward to death, the opposite sides of the body represent\nnormally the opposite sex-inherences of their respective parents. They\nare, in humans, the Man and the Woman--two in one--that exist in every\nliving man and woman. They represent contrary principles; they perform\ndifferent functions; they engender and energise dissimilar processes.\nOne is the centre of the Male characteristics, Dominant upon the\nmaterial plane; the other, of the Female characteristics, Recessive\nthereon.\n\nNormality and health are the mean and balance, in the individual, of the\ncomplementary and supplementary functions and processes of the opposite\nsex-inherences of his, or her, body. Precisely as in the social economy\nthe complementary and supplementary roles of men and women counterpoise\nthe aptitudes and determine the effectiveness of human life and action.\n\nThe left, Female-half of the body, with its allied half-brain,[1] is\ninhibitive, and engenders the evolution and the preservation, physical\nand mental, of The Type; sustaining health and vital power by way of the\nfemale attributes of rest and conservation.\n\nThe right, Male half, with its allied half-brain, is executive, and\nenergises the development (Adaptation) of The Type in its relation to\nEnvironment, and, disbursing and applying the vital resources, generates\nand differentiates potential faculty in terms of living function.\n\n\nIV\n\nThis hypothesis of the dual constitution and of dual functions of the\ntwo-sided body supplies an explanation, equally simple and inevitable,\nof the parental transmission of Sex. _Natura simplex est_, said Newton.\nAnd Du Prel, \"Nature is much more simple than we have any conception\nof.\"\n\nBecause, as Biology shows, not only does each of the two parents\ncontribute to offspring, but there being both a right and a left\nreproductive gland in members of both sexes, the contribution either\nparent supplies must have been derived from one or other of these glands\nin them. And if the two sides of the body are of different\nsex-inherence, it is only logical to conclude that the contribution the\ngland of one side makes will be of different sex-inherence from that of\nthe other.\n\n\nSince all forms of Energy have two modes, potential (or latent) and\nkinetic (or active), on the plane of physics, this must be true, of\ncourse, of Vital Energy.\n\nLife-energy must be present in all living bodies in the forms,\nrespectively, of _latent_ Vital Energy and _functioning_ Vital\nEnergy--energy conserved and available for functioning, and energy\nexpending itself in the living processes of mentality and action.\n\nAn individual is able to move his limbs by power of the _potential_\nmotion stored, or latent, in the muscle-cells of his limbs. Just as a\nlocomotive-engine is enabled to travel by power of the _potential_\nmotion stored in the steam generated in its boiler. And as in the\nliving organism, so in the engine, the mechanism and the processes that\nengender in it the _potential motion_ of steam are wholly distinct from\nthose which convert this potential motion into _actual motion_.\n\nOne is able to think, by power of the _potential_ mentality stored, or\nlatent, in his brain-cells. For not only the vital processes which\nsustain the life of the organism, as those too which enable it to\nfunction in terms of living personality and action, but brain-power also\nmust exist in the dual forms, respectively, of _potential_ Faculty and\n_functioning_ Faculty. So too, Reproductive power. In all of these\nappear again the modes of Dominance and Recessiveness, of powers\n_positive_ and _manifesting_, and of powers _negative_ and _latent_. And\nsince the female sex is characterised by traits of repose and\nconservation, and the male sex by traits of action, the dual modes of\nvital, muscular, cerebral and reproductive energy _in potential_, and of\nvital, muscular, cerebral and reproductive energy _in course of\ngenerating function_, range themselves inevitably on the two sides of\nthe living equation as Sex-characteristics differentiating the male\norganisation from that of the female. Thus ranged, they characterise the\ntwo sides of the body as representing, respectively, a right, male side\nwhich is the central agency in function, and a left, female side, which\nis the reservoir of the _potential_ of function.\n\nIf then the female mode of functioning is the Potential, or Recessive, a\nmode of latency, it is to be inferred that the male traits every female\ncreature inherits from her father will, when incorporated in a body of\nfemale prepotence, pass into the potential, or Recessive, mode; and will\nthus become inhibited from developing as male-characteristics.\nNevertheless, this male potential will be preserved in that reproductive\ngland which represents the paternal inherences in her, and will be\ntransmitted, as her contribution to male offspring, in the sex-cells\ngenerated by this gland.\n\nWhile the female inherences every male derives from his mother will, in\nthe presence of the Dominant male-characteristics he derives from his\nfather, retain their latent, or Recessive, mode; and will thus not\nemerge as female characteristics. The female inherences will be\npreserved, however, in that reproductive gland which represents the\nmaternal inherences in him; and will be transmitted as his contribution\nto female offspring.\n\nIt will be seen thus that, as in hybrid plants, so in hybrid creatures\nof both sexes, cells of two sexes are generated: in the male, cells\nDominant for maleness and cells Recessive for maleness--female that is;\nin the female, Recessive cells, prepotent for femaleness, and Dominant,\nor male, cells.\n\nAnd of these, the Dominant male sex-cells contributed by the male\nparent, mating with the Dominant, or male, sex-cells contributed by the\nfemale parent, male offspring results. While the Recessive female\nsex-cells contributed by the female parent, mating with the Recessive,\nor female, sex-cells contributed by the male parent, female offspring\nresults.\n\nFurthermore, Dominance being paramount in development, it must be from\nthe Dominant inherence imparted by residence in a male organisation to\nthe potential, or Recessive, female Germ-Plasm that the latter derives\nthe new developmental impulse it transmits to sex-cells. While\nRecessiveness being Life and Faculty in the potential mode, it must be\nfrom the Recessive inherence engendered in the Dominant male Germ-Plasm,\nby residence in a female organisation, that its Dominance, passing into\nlatency, derives a new potential of further evolutionary impetus.\n\nThe differentiation of living creatures into two sexes, therefore, of\nbodies into two sides, of brains into two halves, and of Germ-Plasm into\ntwo reproductive glands, would seem to have had for object the ever\nfurther specialisation and segregation in the individual, for purposes\nalike of constitutional organisation and of the evolution of Faculty and\nReproduction, of the two Orders of Contrasting Traits, which I have\nassumed to be Maleness and Femaleness, respectively.\n\nFrom this view-point, the female Sex and Sex-traits are Recessive, or\nPotential, always, on the material plane, and manifest increasingly\nthereon only by way of ever more complex alliances with male-traits;\nwhich, being positive on the concrete plane, equip the female inherences\nfor function thereon. Femaleness, or Recessiveness, on its side,\nhowever--being Life-Energy in the potential--is all the while\nengendering new potence for Dominance to transform into active, or\nfunctioning, power. While although negative, it is equally potent, on\n_its_ side of the equation, to alter the values and manifestations of\nDominance. Just as negative electricity inhibits the positive and\ndestructive forces of positive electricity, although it does not, of\nitself, _manifest directly_.\n\nThe Dominant traits of Tallness and Strength, for example, are direct\nand _positive_ factors in physical development. Dwarfness and Weakness\nare indirect and _negative_ factors therein. Nevertheless, degrees of\nDwarfness or of Weakness must proportionally reduce and modify the\ntallness of Tallness or the power of Strength.\n\nBut that Recessiveness is not a _minus_ sign merely, as algebraically\nunderstood--but is an essential potence on another, and a psychical\nplane, is shown by the lesser height of woman rendering itself as a\nGrace; her lesser strength appearing in the new virtue of Gentleness.\n\nThat the female provides, for fertilisation, only a single sex-cell,\nfrom the reproductive gland of one or other side, while the male\nprovides multiple and commingled cells from both sides, supports the\nview that sex-cells derived from one side are of opposite sex-inherence\nto those from the other side. Otherwise, why two reproductive glands?\n\nThe author of _The Causation of Sex_ adduces evidence showing not only\nthat the two glands are of opposite sex-inherence, but, moreover, that\nnormally they function alternately; so that now a cell of one, now, of\nthe other sex, is produced. It is likely, however, that function is\nseldom so mechanical, but that personal constitution or nurture modifies\nits operations.\n\nThat the male cells are multiple in number points to such a struggle of\nsurvival-fitness as ever characterises the more strenuous male destiny.\nNot, perhaps, the fittest as regards intrinsic superiority, but that\nmost compatible with the requirements of the Queen-cell is selected for\nmate. Should the Queen-cell be of inferior standard, therefore, then (as\nhappens in life) not the noblest of type, but that most adapted to\nenvironment secures racial survival.\n\nSo that here again, evolutionary racial advance may derive its impulse\nfrom the Female factor.\n\nA singular phenomenon, recorded by the biologist, Roerig, and one which\nmaterially supports my argument, is that disease of the ovaries of a\nfemale deer will cause _male_ antlers to develop in her. Proving a male\norganism concealed, or held Recessive, in her, by power of her female\nsex-organs normally to inhibit the development of her inherited\nmale-traits. A strange feature of this abnormal occurrence is that\ndisease of _one_ ovary only causes antlers to develop on _one_ side\nonly--and this on the side opposite to that of the diseased gland.\n\nOn the other hand, castration of male sheep of the Merino breed (only\nthe males of which are horned) occasions hornlessness.\n\n\nV\n\nMale traits being paramount on the plane of concrete function, although\nthey exist (normally) in Recessive form in the female, it is from the\nmale inherence of her active right side and its allied brain-half that\nshe derives her concrete powers alike of body and of brain.\n\nIt is obvious, therefore, that when abnormally stimulated by undue\nexercise, such male-traits may develop into abnormal dominance.\n\n\nThe left arm of woman is essentially the woman-member. In its\nhalf-passive action of supporting her infant for hours together, it is\nstronger for this maternal ministration than is the more active and\ndoughty right arm of the male. Her left hand is more delicate of form,\ngentler and more soothing of motion than her right hand is. It is the\nhand she caresses with. While for direct, strong action--masculine\naction, that is--the paternal right half of her is dominant, as in the\nmale. And although in our present-day stages of Evolution, the Recessive\nWoman-traits have emerged as definite characteristics, emancipating\nthemselves from subjection by the Dominant male-traits, it must be\nremembered that their impulse and their powers are yet but rudimentary.\nWoman is still more male than she is female; her methods being more\nmasculine still than they are womanly. And this in the degree of her\ncruder racial stock, or of the harder conditions (natural or artificial)\nof the environment in which she finds herself, demanding more of\nmasculine proclivity in her--of physical activity and mental\nassertiveness--than of her intrinsic Woman-qualities of emotion and\nministry.\n\nCivilisation, foreshadowing evolutionary ideals, discountenances, the\nfighting female. Nevertheless, the cruder female _fights_ still with her\nmale right arm, and the more cultured female, with tongue and tactics.\n\nThe intrinsic Woman-qualities, whereof Christianity is the gospel, are\nyet in their infancy of development; are yet more ideals for which we\nare shaping and waiting than they are realised and abiding facts.\n\nEven their own babes are not secure from the instinct of blows inherent\nin the male-muscles of their mothers' right arms, when these are\nrestrained neither by a woman's tenderness nor by a man's chivalry.\nGirl-babies, save those of the rarer higher types, beat their mothers\nand nurses only rather less frequently and less fiercely than boy-babies\ndo.\n\nLater in their life-history, that new impulse to the evolution of the\nWoman-traits which characterises their development to womanhood,\nnormally negatives and further tempers in girls the male instincts of\nfight and of sport. But many of our modern amazons, brought up like\nboys, are more male than are their brothers. The male fighting-instinct\nwhich moved man to invent a club (destructive) has become so tempered by\nthe increasingly potent Woman-traits in him that, save when angry or at\nwar, he is content to turn his club into a golf-stick, a cricket bat, or\ntennis racquet; his sword into a plough-share. Whereas, on the contrary,\nthe Woman-traits which moved woman to invent the needle (constructive)\nare becoming so over-ridden by the male in her that modern woman,\nartificially masculinised, abhors the needle, and is almost as much\ndominated as the other sex is by the male instinct for a weapon in the\nhand.\n\n\nThe class, Vertebrates, would seem to represent an adaptation to\nenvironment typically Male; earlier than and contrary in trend to that\nof the Mammalia, whereof the impulse was obviously Female.\n\nIncreasing vertebration was characterised by such a progressive\ndifferentiation of Male from Female traits as progressively segregated\nthese in opposite sides of the body; with spinal column and spinal cord\nfor, respectively, physical and nervous central lines of demarcation.\nThus the Male traits were enabled more and more to detach themselves at\nwill from Female inhibition, and thereby increasingly to specialise and\nexercise those powers of force and fierceness and activity by way of\nwhich species became ever more individuated; aggressive, intelligent,\nefficient, in terms of _Fitness_ for the struggle for survival.\n\nUntil that later evolution of female adaptation to _Unfitness_, in the\nsacrificial function of Lactation, inhibiting and tempering the earlier\nmale trend, engendered the yet higher order of Mammalia.\n\n(With that intuitive illumination inspiring speech, men and races\nlacking in virility are contemptuously described as being\n\"invertebrate.\")\n\n\nAccording to this hypothesis, the paternal (and male) inherences of any\nmother may be said to be transmitted to the grandson in the direct male\nline of her heredity--an unbroken line of Maleness reaching back to its\namoebic origin. While the maternal (and female) inherences of any father\nare transmitted, in the direct female line, to the grand-daughter--a\nsimilar line of continuity. The Woman-sex and traits of the grandmother\nremain thus for a generation dormant, or Recessive, in the father;\n\"skipping a generation,\" as the phrase is. Then, in the third\ngeneration, they re-appear in the grand-daughter; by power of a maternal\ncontribution in which the female inherence is prepotent. While the\nmale-sex and traits of the grandfather remain dormant, or potential, in\nthe mother; likewise \"skipping a generation.\" Then they emerge in the\ngrandson, by power of a male gamete evoking the inherent male in them.\n\n\nVI\n\nThe attributes of the one sex invested thus in the other, although\nnormally submerged, form nevertheless a valuable endowment; supplying\nsupplementary and complementary factors to counterpoise, to energise,\nand fructify the powers proper to the sex of the individual.\n\nMan bears throughout life the Woman-potential his mother transmitted to\nhim. But it is not his to realise. He bears it in trust for his\ndaughters. He transmits it to his daughters, and in them this potential,\nrecovering its woman-impulse, evolves to a further degree of\nwoman-power. The like with mothers and sons.\n\nAll of which is supported by the Mendelian doctrine that the mother\ntransmits \"Femaleness\" as a Dominant factor to her daughters and as a\nRecessive factor to her sons.\n\nBut the method whereby this is achieved has remained a mystery.\n\nProfessor Punnett says with regard to the phenomenon:\n\n\n     \"The mother transmits to her daughter the dominant faculty of\n     femaleness, but to balance this, as it were, she transmits to her\n     sons another quality which her daughters do not receive ... among\n     human families, in respect to particular qualities, the sons tend\n     to resemble their mothers more than their daughters do.\"\n\n\nA striking illustration of such transmission by mother to son of a\npaternally-derived abnormal inherence _which she herself does not\ndevelop_, is found in so-called \"bleeders\"; persons who suffer from the\ndisease, haemophilia. The daughters of a \"bleeder\" father show no symptom\nat all of the affliction, but they, nevertheless, pass on to their sons\nthis male heritage of the grandfather.\n\nThere are numerous other examples of traits and diseases thus \"skipping\na generation\"--in other words, of lying dormant, or potential, merely;\novershadowed in the constitution and psychology of the sex to which they\ndo not rightly belong, but developing in a succeeding generation in\noffspring of that sex whereof they are a natural trait, or (so to speak)\na natural defect.\n\n\nSince the woman-half she contributes to their hybrid constitution\nengenders the potential of their living processes, the mother may be\nregarded as still mothering her children throughout development and\nmaturity, and to the end of their natural term. Accounting for that\nmystical sympathy between mother and child which intuitively informs her\nof fatalities occurring to absent sons and daughters--but to sons\npre-eminently. Marvellously, they remain one living flesh so long as\nlife persists.\n\nDuring the War, mothers at a distance have known by an intuitive flash,\nand have told of the death of sons cut down in battle. One mother\ndescribed the sensation she experienced as being precisely _as though\none side of her body had been suddenly torn away_. So too, mothers whose\ninfants have died during childbirth or shortly after, describe as\npersisting for months subsequently a sense as though part of them were\ndead.\n\nThe father too must function in the hybrid living constitution. With the\nimmense difference, however, that his part therein is a factor of the\ndevelopment of traits, not of the mystical functioning of Life. A\nnotable feature of this paternal heritage is that in women at middle-age\n(when the wane of reproductive power releases vital potential from\nmaternal investments) not only may masculine physical traits emerge, but\nthere may develop in them notable brain-capacities inherited from the\nfather. Capacities inherent in them previously, but long inhibited in\naction by the normal female brain-Recessiveness.\n\n\nVII\n\nEvery higher evolutionary differentiation results inevitably not only in\nprogressive mutations in the traits of species, but, as well, in\nvariations of the reproductive processes of such. When _defects_,\nphysical or mental, are not reproduced in later generations true to\nMendelian law, however, this is not abnormal, but is beautifully normal.\nNormality requires that defect--which is a deviation from The\nNormal--shall not be transmitted in any ratio whatsoever, but shall be\ncorrected in a succeeding generation.\n\nMoreover, when we realise the number and the complexities of human\ntraits, all struggling to keep The Law, it is only to be expected that\nany single characteristic owing to its sex-inherence, may pass into the\npotential or Recessive, mode, and may thus vanish for a generation.\nFurther, by the law of compensation, any trait or determinant, although\nitself Dominant, may be dwarfed and submerged by some other Dominant\ntrait more assertive than itself.\n\nSuppose a father normally larger and stronger than the normally shorter\nand weaker mother: Stature and strength being both Dominant and\nmasculine traits, the traits of such a father, dominating the\ndevelopment of his sons, should so over-ride the traits of lesser\nstrength and stature of the mother (in whom strength and stature are\nnormally Recessive) that his sons will be tall and broad and strong, and\nmentally virile. On the other hand, the mother's traits, prepotent in\nthe development of daughters, will inhibit in these and diminish the\nstrength and stature of their paternal inherences. Thus, the woman of\npure Recessive (the essential woman) type is smaller, more delicately\norganised, and weaker than the male.\n\nBy such means, the normal of the relative strength, stature, and mental\nqualifications of the sexes is preserved; the specialised\ncharacteristics of both ever further diverging in trend, while at the\nsame time intensifying their intrinsic attributes.\n\nSuppose, however, a mother who deviates from the normal in having\ndeveloped along masculine lines, and who is, accordingly, tall or strong\nor mentally virile: Far from supplementing, in her sons, the father's\ntraits of strength and stature, her sons will be more or less emasculate\nin mind or body, or in both. Strength and stature and virile mentality\nnot being normal to her, these can only have emerged in her and can only\nhave been exercised by her at cost of the masculine potential she bore\nin trust for male offspring. A woman who wins golf or hockey-matches may\nbe said therefore to energise her muscles with the potential manhood of\npossible sons. With their potential existence indeed, since\nover-strenuous pursuits may sterilise women absolutely as regards male\noffspring.\n\nThus it is that muscular and otherwise masculine women produce weakling\nmales. (Giant women--female-Dominants--are incapable of reproduction.)\nTall mothers may produce tall sons, by transmitting to them the single\ntrait of tallness of the maternal grandfather. But since tallness in\nwoman is development along masculine lines, and detracts from her\nmaternal power, the tall son in such case is likely to be defective in\nother manly traits. Men are of greater height than women, mainly in\nconsequence of greater length of leg. The power expended in the male in\nlength of limb is absorbed in the female into complex pelvic\ndevelopments, wherein it is stored as Reproductive potential.\n\nThe power thus stored in latency reveals itself in the amazing\nevolution, as regards capacity and muscular equipment, by way of which\nthe maternal _uterus_ so develops during pregnancy as to enable it to\ncradle an infant of 9 or 10 lbs. weight, and to deliver this by output\nof immense energy--a marvel of biological function and mechanism.\n\nSince the male trait of Tallness may be transmitted by woman from her\nfather to her son, without manifesting in herself, it is obviously waste\nof power for her to develop a characteristic she needs neither for\npersonal nor for hereditary purposes. Whereas, by further evolving her\nown woman-traits of suppleness and grace, she contributes new factors to\nthose of the male. And so with all the other sex-characteristics.\n\nMr. Horace G. Regnart, M.A., the well-known breeder of pedigree stock,\nstates that a bull of marked _masculine_ characteristics sires daughters\nof marked _feminine_ characteristics. While the _feminine_ cow bears\nsons of strongly _masculine_ type. On the other hand, the daughters of a\n\"steery\" bull (a bull of de-sexed type) are themselves defective in\nfemale characteristics, and bear sons defective in male characteristics.\n\n\nVIII\n\nClearly and fully defined, accordingly, as Sex-characteristics are in\nproportion as the individual is of high and normal organisation,\nobtrusions in the one sex of the traits of the other are as much\nstigmata of abnormality as are cleft-palate, webbed feet, or other\ndeviations from the normal. Because they are reversions to lower types\nof organisation in which sex was less highly differentiated than is the\nnormal of to-day.\n\nAlthough, with progressive evolution, the Sex-traits are spun ever finer\nand finer, and are ever more subtly and inextricably interwoven with\nthose of the other, normally the threads run true and distinct as do the\nthreads of warp and woof in textile fabric.\n\nThe ever finer spinning of the threads secures an ever closer, subtler\ninterweaving. Whereby the fabric of human organisation, of character and\nFaculty, becomes ever firmer yet more supple, ever stronger yet more\ndelicate, ever more intense and rich of colour, but nevertheless more\nbeautifully harmonised and subtilised by half-tones and complex\ngradations.\n\nThis is the reason why the strongest and most virile men are the most\nhumane; the sternest are most tender; the greatest are most subtle. So\ninextricably interwoven with their virile characteristics are the finer\nspun Woman-potencies, as strangely and exquisitely to temper and\nsensitise their Manhood's powers.\n\nAnd it is why the tenderest, most womanly women are the noblest; the\ngentlest are the most enduring; the wisest are the sweetest.\n\nBut no more than Black can be White, Acid, Alkaline, or the Straight\nline a Circle, can Repose be Action, Sternness be Sweetness, Firmness be\nSoftness, Fierceness be Gentleness; Assertiveness, Selflessness;\nBoldness, Modesty. Nevertheless, in the hybrid unfoldment of Contrasting\ntraits, Softness tempering Fierceness transforms it to Strength;\nSweetness tempering Sternness melts it to Mercy; Assertiveness\nreinforcing Selflessness nerves it to Devotion; Firmness preserves\nSoftness from lapsing to Weakness; Altruism, inspiring Chivalry,\ntransfigures it to Heroism. But that Fierceness and Strength, Sweetness\nand Selflessness, have only intensified as, with further evolution, they\nhave extended further into Life and Consciousness, is shown when they\ntear themselves asunder from their counterpoising attributes. Fierceness\nis seen then to be more fierce in complex man--because fierce in so many\nmore and deeper issues of Life and Consciousness--than is the fierceness\nof the gorilla, which manifests largely in muscular savagery; champing\nof jaws, and beating on its breast as on a drum.\n\nSo too, the emotion of complex woman is more deeply rooted in her, and\nis more intense, than is the instinctive emotionalism of the savage\nwoman which expresses itself mainly in reflex movements and hysterical\noutcries.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThus down the ages, man, by way of Fatherhood, has endowed woman ever\nfurther with his developing traits of strength and intelligence. Woman,\nby way of Motherhood, has endowed man with an ever fuller heritage of\nher attributes of selflessness and intuition.\n\nSo these poor souls--the Man and the Woman in all men and women--have\nclimbed the steep ascent together, hand in hand, toward the Light.\nWithout the other, neither could have come. So tragically drear and\nsolitary would have been the pilgrimage, save for the spiritual converse\nof that mystical comrade.\n\nOnly by way of this psychical comradeship, which solaces the one sex by\nthe inspiration of the other, do men and women win through the\nterrestrial travail of the human destiny.\n\nThe mystical Man (who is her father in her) when woman would falter and\nfail in the fight, whispers, \"Courage, dear Girl, go on!\"\n\nThe mystical Woman (who is his mother in him) goes with her son into the\nmurk and struggle of temptation, holding her lamp of The Good and The\nTrue and The Beautiful before his blinding eyes.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[1] Owing to an interchange of nervous strands, the right half of the\nbrain controls the left half of the body; and the converse. Structural\ndetails which need not be considered here, but which have clearly for\npurpose the closer and more complex association and co-ordination of the\nContrasting Traits of the two sides of the body.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nMASCULINE MOTHERS PRODUCE EMASCULATE SONS BY MISAPPROPRIATING THE\nLIFE-POTENTIAL OF MALE OFFSPRING\n\n     \"_The truth, when it is discovered, is what every one has known._\"\n\n\nI\n\nMendel found that the hybrid plants resulting from his cross-breedings\nof Dominants with Recessives produced, when mated with similar hybrids,\nsex-cells of pure Dominant and sex-cells of pure Recessive types, and,\nmoreover, a proportion of sex-cells of mixed type, corresponding to the\ngrey rabbit-offspring of a black rabbit that has mated with a white.\n\nSo too, are found among humans, four types of men and women such as\nmight be expected under my application of Mendelian doctrine:\n_Homozygotes_ for Traits, or pure typical men and women--Dominant males\nand Recessive females, respectively; and _Heterozygotes_ for Traits, or\nmixed types--Dominant females and Recessive males.\n\nOf the pure Masculine type, are men who are wholly male in body, mind\nand bent; active, energetic, enterprising; pioneers of material\nprogress; State-builders, city-builders, trade-builders, financiers,\nexplorers, soldiers, men of affairs. Of the Mixed type, are men who,\nwhile being virile of body and mind, possess nevertheless a greater\nadmixture of womanly quality than is strictly normal. These are the\nartists, poets, writers, doctors, priests, philanthropists.\n\nAmong women also, are two kindred orders; the wholly womanly--pure\nunalloyed types of natural woman, wife and mother, sister, friend; and\nwomen who, while being wholly womanly too in attribute and trend,\npossess, nevertheless, underlying manly faculties which give broader\nscope and effectiveness to abstract and impersonal issues of their own\nsex-characteristics. These are the artists and poets and writers who\npresent the Woman point of view. They are the Florence Nightingales, the\nCharlotte Brontes, Mary Somervilles; the philanthropists, reformers,\nborn physicians, teachers, nurses, and so forth; whose part it is to\nmother, befriend and inspire humanity at large rather than to minister\nto individuals. Whose part it is, as well, to extend the tender,\npurifying ethics of Woman and The Home ever further and more deeply into\npublic life, public work, and public administration.\n\nSuch men and women possess the characteristics of their own sex fully\ndifferentiated, but tinctured and fructified by more than a normal\nquotum of the characteristics of the other. They are quite normal,\nhowever, and are wholly invaluable in their contribution to the world's\naffairs. Admirably manly or womanly, they bear but little likeness to\nthe hereditarily-defective or to the artificially-manufactured\nspecies--mannish women and womanish men. They deviate from the essential\nMan and Woman types by degrees of overlapping in the higher mental\nattributes. In all the main characteristics of Sex, physical, mental and\nfunctional, they are completely men and women. The abnormal mixed types\nare, on the contrary, more or less degenerate, structurally,\nfunctionally and mentally. These persons of natural Mixed Types are\nNature's workers rather than the parents of her Races. The daily round\nis too restricted for them. Their abilities and bent claim wider fields.\nThe home cannot contain them. It is too round to fit their angles. They\nare hampered by its reciprocities, stifled by its personal atmosphere,\nrestive beneath its obligations. And not seldom they succeed in making\nhomes as uncomfortable for others as they themselves find such.\n\nThese Heterodox--of which mould Genius is--are indispensable to spur and\nquicken human progress, while adding nothing to the personal evolution\nof the Human Type. They advance the standards and the ethics of Humanity\nby creating ideals in Art, in Literature, in Politics, in Reform and\nPhilanthropy. But only too often they fall short, in their own lives, of\nthe standards and ideals they establish for the world at large.\n\nThe Advance-guard of Faculty, they break new ground of Mind and Morale\nfor others to cultivate. Although they themselves frequently quarrel\nwith life, they make life in general greater and happier for their\nfellows. If women, they possess much of the initiative and energy, the\nintellect and chivalry of men. But they apply these to womanly ends. If\nmen, they possess much of the insight and sympathy, the altruism and\ncreativeness of women. But they devote these to manly achievements.\n\n\nHerbert Spencer held that Genesis (or reproductive power) and\nIndividuation (or Self-development) exist in inverse ratio. Which is\nbecause individuation _beyond the normal_ can only be achieved by\ndrawing upon the vital potential of offspring. Hence, these strong\nindividualities of Mixed Type--because reproductive power is diminished\nin them--but seldom transmit their abilities to offspring. Genius is\nfrequently sterile. Otherwise, its children are of inferior calibre.\n\nIt is in imitation, doubtless, of the natural Mixed Types--which may be\ndescribed as a normal deviation from The Normal--that the cult of the\nmannish woman is being cruelly and disastrously forced upon our\nlatter-day girls and women; resulting in wholly deplorable developments.\n\nThe woman of natural Mixed-type is essentially womanly in aim and bent.\nShe does womanly work with virile energy and masculine mental grip. But\nshe never (or seldom) assumes male proclivities or adopts male habits;\ncrazes to wear trousers, to ride astraddle, to smoke, spit, swear,\nstride, talk slang, or shoot living sentient creatures. Nor does she\notherwise exchange the more highly-evolved and delicate morale and\nmanners of woman for those of the male. In Art, in Literature, in\nScience; in Industry and Reform, her aims and work preserve the womanly\nmode and outlook.\n\n\nII\n\nIn consequence of doctrine which, for several generations, has trained\nwomen to develop for their own uses the masculine potential belonging to\nsons, many of our present-day boys and girls are seen actually to have\nexchanged their natural sex-characteristics. Boys are born now, puny,\nneurotic, and effeminate; while girls are strong and male and masterful.\nAnd it is precisely in the families whereof the girls are strong and\nmale and masterful, that the boys are weakly and effeminate; the\ndegenerative lapse from The Normal expressing itself, in both sexes, in\nterms of abnormal characteristics of the other sex.\n\nThat at thirteen, girls now-a-days are taller and heavier than boys of\nthe same age has been established by the Anthropometrical Committee of\nthe British Association.\n\nDr. J. J. Heslop, after carefully observing the health and the physical\ngrowth of children in fourteen elementary schools belonging to the\nStretford (Lancashire) Education Authority, has published a striking\nreturn of his investigations. The following table shows the average\nheight and weight at this age:\n\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n|                       |        Height.          |      Weight.     |\n+-----------------------+--------------------------+-----------------+\n|St. Matthew's          | Boys  4 ft.  7-3/4  in. | 5 st.  7-3/4 lb. |\n|                       | Girls 4 ft.  9      in. | 5 st. 10-3/4 lb. |\n|Cornbrook Park         | Boys  4 ft.  8-1/2  in. | 6 st.  0     lb. |\n|                       | Girls 4 ft. 10-1/3  in. | 6 st.  5-1/2 lb. |\n|St. Anne's             | Boys  4 ft.  7      in. | 5 st.  3-3/4 lb. |\n|                       | Girls 4 ft.  9      in. | 5 st. 10-1/2 lb. |\n|Trafford Park          | Boys  4 ft.  7-3/4  in. | 5 st.  4     lb. |\n|                       | Girls 4 ft.  9-1/2  in. | 5 st.  8-1/2 lb. |\n|Gorse Hill             | Boys  4 ft.  8-1/2  in. | 5 st. 10     lb. |\n|                       | Girls 4 ft.  10     in. | 5 st. 11     lb. |\n|Seymour Park           | Boys  4 ft.  8-2/3  in. | 5 st.  0     lb. |\n|                       | Girls 4 ft. 10      in. | 5 st. 11     lb. |\n+-----------------------+-------------------------+------------------+\n\n\nThe most notable development among girls takes place between the\neleventh and thirteenth years.\n\nThe opposite bias in this abnormal substitution of alien sex-traits is\ndue presumably, in both sexes, to an antagonising and neutralising of\nthe qualities normal to the one sex by emergence of those of the other.\nThus, the boy is puny and emasculate because his impoverished maleness\nis too feeble to dominate the Female traits inherent in him, as is\nnormal to males. The girl is big and crude and masterful because her\nimpoverished Womanliness is inadequate to inhibit and refine her\ninherent Male traits.\n\nThe aims of Feminism are being realised in unforeseen developments.\nBecause in addition to extinguishing the most beautiful and inspiring\norder of human qualities, this masculinising of women is burdening the\nRace and deteriorating type by producing an ever-increasing number of\nneurotic, emasculate men and boys.\n\n\nIII\n\nThe present-day Mortality-rate of boy-babies has become increasingly and\nalarmingly high.\n\nThe mortality-rate of males is higher always than is that of females,\nbecause of the greater hardships and dangers of men's pursuits. This is\none of the reasons why, although, normally, boys are born in greater\nnumber (about 1050 to every 1000 girls) the female (pre-war) population\nof England and Wales exceeded the male population by the huge majority\nof 1,205,311.\n\nBut the excess of male over female infant-mortality has greatly\nincreased of late years. In 1860 it was only 9 per cent. In 1913 it had\nleapt to the high figure of 23 per cent. And this diminishing vital\npower of males begins before birth even, 180 boys being born prematurely\nas compared with 145 girls. Of boys born, 7 die from inborn physical\ndefects, as compared with 6 girls. While, before the age of three\nmonths, 4 boys die to every 3 girls. Among 1000 infants dying before\nthey are a year old, only 96 are girls, as compared with 120 boys.\nRecent statistics show that in rural Westmoreland, 48 boys under a year\nold died, while only 21 girls of the same age succumbed. In Wiltshire,\nthe ratio was _135 boys to 78 girls_.\n\nTo quote from a writer on these startling statistics of the\nRegistrar-General:--\n\n\n     \"Tuberculous diseases, convulsions, intestinal troubles, bronchitis\n     and pneumonia, and other maladies, all kill more boy than\n     girl-infants in their first year. The figures are surprising.\n     Omitting fractions, we find that among 1000 infants of each sex 21\n     boys die of intestinal troubles to 17 girls; 10 boys die of\n     convulsions to 8 girls; 21 boys die from bronchitis and pneumonia\n     to 17 girls; and 14 boys from other causes to 11 girls.\n     Whooping-cough stands alone, carrying off 3.15 girls to 2.65 boys.\n     Even when chloroform or ether is given for the purposes of an\n     operation it kills more boys than girls.\"\n\n\nIt may be objected that, according to my view, the mortality of girls,\nbred of constitutionally impoverished males, should likewise have\nincreased. But this high mortality among boy-infants and children must\nso weed out the weakliest males that many of these do not live to\nbecome fathers. Moreover, by developing into abnormal dominance the\n_male_ potential in her, the mother de-vitalises sons more than she\nde-vitalises daughters.\n\nFurther, these crude hoyden-sisters of the weakly boys fail rather in\nthe higher attributes of Sex than in mere survival-power. They survive,\nbut they are marred in type by the stigmata of sex-immaturity or\nabnormality.\n\nIncreasing sex-impoverishment is bringing into vogue--almost as a matter\nof routine--the performance on male infants of an unnatural (and a\ndegenerative) Jewish rite.\n\n\nIV\n\nOf the many theories advanced to explain the determination of Sex in\noffspring, the true one is, undoubtedly, the relative parental power of\nthe respective parents.\n\nNormally, this being well-balanced, the ratio of the sexes is about\nequal; the preponderance being on the male side, however, owing to the\nmaternal parental potential being normally greater, because conserved by\nreason of her less onerous role in life. When parental potential is\nrelatively greater in the father, female offspring is born. When greater\nin the mother, male offspring results. In the families of men notably\nvirile, daughters preponderate. In those of women notably womanly, sons\nare in the majority. (Presuming in such case the parent of the other sex\nto be of average potence.)\n\nThe preponderance of male-births during War-conditions is due to the\nfact that by far the greater stress of these conditions, with consequent\ndepletion of vital reserves, falls upon the males. Hence the women--who\nalthough depleted likewise by the increased demands upon them, are less\nvitally exhausted than the men are--become relatively prepotent in\nparental potential. The more virile men being absent on military duty,\nmoreover, the less virile members of the sex it is who preponderate in\nthe paternal role.\n\nOther parental factors, as of age, health and circumstance, which affect\nthe sex of offspring, do so _indirectly_ by their effects upon the\nrelative vital and parental potential of mother and father.\n\nIn corroboration of the view that power conserved in the mother\nengenders Maleness and masculine vigour in offspring, I have received\nthe following letter from the Head-mistress of the village-school of\nCorley:\n\n\n     \"I was much interested in your article _re Boy-babies_. I think my\n     school here is unique, there being 86 children on the roll, of whom\n     57 are boys and 29, girls. And of the children in the village who\n     will be of age for admission this year, 7 are boys and 3, girls.\n\n     \"In the village there are several families composed of boys only.\n\n     One family has    7 boys and 2 girls.\n\n      \"     \"    \"     6   \"   \"  0   \"\n\n     Two families have 5   \"   \"  1 girl each.\n\n      \"     \"      \"    4  \"   \"  1   \"    \"\n\n     \"Of one family reckoning 6 boys (1 dead; making 7 in all) the\n     mother has but one leg--the other having been amputated when she\n     was fourteen.[2] _None of the mothers here (so for as I can learn)\n     do work outside their homes_; except in odd cases, an odd day's\n     washing or cleaning.\n\n     \"_None do regular work on farms, or otherwise._\n\n     \"All the children are well-fed, clean and well clothed. Our Medical\n     Nurse says she finds the finest babies here--of the whole of her\n     district. For 57 years the yearly returns in School have shown a\n     great preponderance of boys over girls.\"\n\n\nThe writer contrasts this Utopian order of things with her experience of\nthe rickety and otherwise diseased and defective states of\nschool-children whose mothers were employed in factories.\n\n\nV\n\nIt would seem that the embryological development of the male brain and\nnervous system, it is which demands more of vital expenditure on the\npart of the mother than does that of the female brain; less elaborately\ndifferentiated as is this in respect of concrete intellection and\nphysical adaptation.\n\nFor this reason, not only is more constitutional vitality on the\nmother's part required for the production of sons--and more particularly\nof virile sons--but the production of male offspring entails more\nstress, and exacts a greater toll, physical and psychical, than does the\nante-natal nurture of the female embryo. Mothers who have borne female\nchildren with but little constitutional strain or suffering may be\ngreatly debilitated, even invalided, during pregnancy with male\noffspring. One finds women permanently weakened in constitution and\nfunction, indeed, from the strain of producing a male. In such cases,\nthe male may be exceptional of type. Or the mother may be of\nexceptionally low vitality.\n\nIt has been argued that defect and degeneracy, as hare-lip,\ncleft-palate, clubbed or webbed-foot, are more common in the male\nbecause he is normally less highly-developed than the female is. The\ncontrary is obviously the case. In creating a difficult and a simpler\nthing, there will necessarily be more failures in the difficult than in\nthe simpler product. Being nearer to Nature, the female is usually more\ntrue to the normal type of species. But the type is not so fully\ndifferentiated, or specialised in relation to environment, as is the\nmale.\n\nIt is significant that the female _aphis_, when its vital potential is\nstimulated by summer heat, is able to breed without co-operation of the\nmale, but breeds _females_ only. Supporting not only the view that the\nfemale is the rootstock of species, while the male is, so to speak, an\nalien grafted upon it, but indicating too, that the production of\nfemales represents less output of reproductive energy, since one sex\nalone is able to accomplish this.\n\n\nVI\n\nAbsence both of womanly emotion and of spiritual attribute disqualifies\nthe faces of the greater number of our modern \"beauties\" from being\ntruly beautiful. They lack those last exquisite touches which psychical\nqualities bestow; sweetness, tenderness, gaiety, pensiveness, mystery,\nmockery, witchery, wistfulness, surrender, resistance, maidenhood,\nmotherhood--the celestial and the terrestrial melting into one another\nlike the colours of the rainbow.\n\nSince evolution is advancing in some stock, modern beauty is, no doubt,\nof higher calibre than has been attained in any previous epoch. But for\nthe most part, the faces of our handsome women are pre-eminently\npagan--bold, sophisticated, clever; without sweetness, softness,\nimagination, sensitiveness--in a word, without Soul. The outlines,\nhowsoever fine, are hard and antipathetic in their uncompromising\nfirmness. The eyes are cold and critical and challenging, so that their\nrelentless gaze is sometimes rather of the nature of a blow than it is a\nsympathy.\n\nOwing to that setting of the jaw which attends strong muscular action,\nthe shaping bones of the faces of developing girls thicken and coarsen,\nand the naturally delicate, beautiful contours of chin and of cheek\ndeteriorate to the crude and heavy lower jaws characteristic of a very\nlarge order of the sex to-day.\n\nThe weak receding, or the sharply-pointed chin of the over-feminised\ntype--both early-Victorian and modern--errs in the other direction. To\ngive fine balance to the face and form--as to the mind--the Male traits\nmust be duly represented. These broaden and strengthen the curves, and\npreserve them from lapsing to narrowness and feebleness; lending touches\nof straightness and firmness which nobly enhance the graces. In excess,\nthey mar and deface, however; as is exemplified in the strong and\nslovenly features, without drawing or delicacy, which characterise the\nnew type of girl being turned out by our schools and colleges, most of\nwhich make now-a-days a speciality of sports. Similar heavy jaws and\nblunt, amorphous features are replacing in our working-girls, de-sexed\nby masculine employments, the classic, nobly-modelled lineaments which\nmade our Anglo-Saxon Race once the most beautiful, as it was the most\nvigorous and enterprising, of the nations. Such faces may be deplorably\nsenseless for the sense--and lack of sensibility--in them.\n\nThe facial type of the opposite extreme is ultra-feminine--a cameo-like\nreversion to an earlier Victorian physiognomy, to which several\ngenerations of mothers have failed to add any new quality. But, unlike\nits Victorian prototype, the modern ultra-feminine face lacks blood and\nemotion, and shows like a faded attenuation thereof. The cold, delicate\nfeatures, with the pinched nostrils which, owing to adenoid\nobstruction, have never expanded to a full, inspiring breath of Life,\nsuggest further cameo-comparison; as being the daintily-carven shell of\nan extinct creature.\n\nSo devitalised and neurasthenic are many of our pretty young girls, that\ntheir flowerlike faces, topping over-tall and undeveloped bodies,\nsuggest delicate blossoms crowning long attenuated, sapless stems.\nNeither faces nor bodies are vitalised and athrill with powers rooted in\nhealthful organs; vivified by healthful functions, and instinct with\nwarm, iron-rich, magnetic blood. They show that making for beauty which\nis inherent in the Woman-traits, but which, in latter-day girls, owing\nto defective constitutional vigour or to educational, social or\nindustrial exhaustion, has been able to realise itself only in sickly\nand weed-like development.\n\nLife manifests in these neurotics in the form of vivacities merely; not\nas vitalities.\n\nSevered from their natural roots in Life and vital function, they\nresemble nothing more than charming cut-blossoms gracefully fading on\ndrawing-room shelves.\n\nThe truth is that girls brought up on modern strenuous methods skip the\nyears between 16 and 26. If young and fresh at 16, all at once we find\nthem 26 in constitution and in temperament--a little lean, a little\nlined, a little wan, a little shrill, a little chill, and only too often\nmore than a little disillusioned and cynical--in a word already\n_passees_. Some are, of course, an interesting and attractive 26, but\nthe fresh, warm, vital and beautiful years from 17 to 27, the years of a\nnatural woman's most charming bloom of mind and body, have dropped from\ntheir lives, like petals from roses. So that our girls in their 'teens\nrequire to hide the ravages of time by every sort of artifice. And at 26\nin years, they are approaching the forties in constitution and\ntemperament; are even keen on politics, cards, finance--resorts,\npre-eminently, of materialistic middle-age.\n\nThis blighting of young womanhood, with loss of youthful bloom and\nresponsiveness, it is that has led to the decadent and demoralising\nvogue of the Flapper. Since, beyond all things, men seek vital youth and\nfreshness in the other sex, to find it now-a-days, they must seek it in\nchildren.\n\n\nVII\n\nDeplorable are the degenerative processes by way of which those noble\nnatural characteristics of the Woman-sex which Nature has achieved by\nages of evolutionary advance may be observed to lapse, and are presently\nall but obliterated from the woman form and face.\n\nIncreasingly the curves straighten; the conflict between straight lines\nand curves occasioning wrinkles. The jaw squares. The lips lose womanly\nfullness, sweetness, and their natural colour and texture of\nrose-leaves; becoming thin and pale and stern. Shadows gather round\nthem, foreshadowing, it may be, a masculine growth of hair. Hair loses\nlustre and grows sparse, particularly above the brows. The chin loses\nits feminine softness; rigidity and grimness being substituted. Eyes\nlose fullness, tenderness, brilliance, and woman's normal melting\nexpression. The glance grows chill, hard, shrewd, direct. Crowsfeet mar\nthe modelled lids. The serene, inspiring woman-brows are furrowed by the\npermanent frown of eye-strain or of nervous tension. The voice falls\nflat and metallic, or drops into gruffness and harshness; losing its\ndelicate tuneful inflections, its sympathetic timbre, its joyous\nquality. The cheeks hollow; the white temples are wrecked.\n\nIn the faces of women whose systems are functioning healthfully, a\nnumber of exquisite artistries in cellular texture of skin and in\ntinting appear; the skin beneath the eyes differing from that of\nthe cheeks, that of the brows differing from that of the chin,\nthat above the mouth from that below, and so forth. In women\nsubjected to constitutional strain, all these exquisite artistic\ndifferentiations--product of incalculable evolutionary developments--are\nobliterated; the skin over the whole face becoming of the same grain and\nhue, as is normal to the male. The body becomes spare and sinewy, or set\nand spread; its movements heavy and abrupt. And more and more the hidden\nmale emerges from the wreckage. The male right arm, swinging like a\npendulum, suggests itself as being the motive-power of the ungraceful\nmechanism.\n\nWith the increasing maleness of physique, male mental proclivities\ndevelop; obsessions to wear trousers, to smoke, to stride, to kill, and\notherwise to indulge the masculine bent.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt may be objected that Beauty takes too high a place in the counsels of\nthis book. _Beauty is Normality_, however. Nature, in her every aim and\nhandiwork, makes beyond every other thing for grace. Weed and moth,\nshell and beetle, humming-bird and dragon-fly--all are lovely in\ntechnique and artistry. Plainness and uncouthness in humans only too\noften belie noble mind or disposition. This results, however, from such\nfailure of vital resources that the individual had fine material only to\nequip his mind, and none left over to adorn his body.\n\nOne sees the converse too, where all the available potential of beauty\nhas been lavished on handsome exteriors.\n\nPlainness is a mark of abnormality. The victim may be normal in other\nrespects. But in this, he or she is abnormal. And more particularly\n_she_--since Woman is both medium and Creatrix of living harmony and\ngrace. So is comeliness declining, however, that one of the\nspecifications of a recent Baby-Competition was that beauty would not be\na necessary qualification.\n\nYet Beauty is the natural birthright and The Normal of all babes and\nchildren.\n\n\nVIII\n\nThe Male cult is impressed now at the earliest age. Some of our hapless\nlittle girls, in consequence of having been subjected early to strain of\nmasculine drill, hockey, cricket and other rough and strenuous\nexertions, are more like colts or smaller-sized bullocks in their crude\nconformation and ungainly movements, as also in their crude mentality\nand manners, than they are like charming human maids.\n\nFew developments in life are prettier or more engaging than is a natural\nlittle girl. The sex of her, with its fair Woman-attributes, reveals\nitself early in children of high organisation. Crowned by her curls, in\nher simple white frock, she is as fresh and dainty, as winsome and\nelusive as a fairy. Her little Woman-soul begins to make for beauty ere\never she can walk. Ere ever she can walk, she moves her limbs in rhythm\nof the dance. She tries to sing. She stretches out a tiny finger and\nreverently touches a bright colour--a blue ribbon, a gold button, a pink\nflower on a chintz. Set her in a field, she runs to cram her hands with\ndaisies. She fills, within the House of Life, an exquisite small niche\nthat nothing else can fill.\n\nYet now they are cropping her fair curls, are exchanging her white frock\nfor masculine knickers. They are training her soft limbs and exquisite\nelastic movements to the hard and rigid action of the soldiers' drill\nand march; are teaching her to stride her pony that once she sat as\nprettily and lightly as a bird; are making a hard, boisterous tom-boy of\nher, with lusty, hairy limbs and uncouth manners; perverting all her\nnatural highly-differentiated delicate attributes and graces to clumsy\nlower-grade form and activities.\n\nThey have robbed her of her Doll, whose helplessness and wax perfection\nfostered sentiments of worship, tenderness and ministry in her. They\nhave given her a whipping-top, which--unlike the boy, who pleasures in\nthe skill and mechanism of its handling--she lashes with contorted\nfeatures and neurotic spitefulness.\n\n\nWith characteristic scorn of physical disability, Feminism contemns old\nage as disease or degeneracy--a weakness to be combated with latter-day\nstrenuousness, cloaked by a counterfeit youthfulness, forced exertions\n(even games!) simulated youthful zests and gaieties.\n\nBeyond all things, women are exhorted not to allow themselves to \"grow\nold\" as their grandmothers did, sitting, comely and tranquil and wise,\nat their quiet firesides.\n\nYet the truth is, Age is a natural beautiful phase; in its way, as\nnatural, as healthful and as beautiful as are any of the younger\nseasons. Calm and stately as the snows of Nature's winter, as Nature's\nwinter shows us, old age does not presage death--because there is no\nDeath. That we call Death is but a temporary Recession from the Outer\nand Terrestrial to the Inner and Celestial zone of Being. And with the\nvital quietude and longer-sightedness of eyes, come spiritual quickening\nand longer-sightedness of mental view. So that both eyes and mind\nperceive The Outer more and more obscurely, focusing more and more on\nThe Remote. The stream of life runs stilly for the reason that it runs\nmore deep; centring again to that Within and Spiritual, whence it issued\nin Birth, and will issue again in re-Birth.\n\nCompare such serene-faced, dignified age, cause to all of reverence and\ntenderness, for the mystery and pathos of its wise and tranquil\nresignation--Compare such with the restless, harried, malcontent old age\nof modern counsels!\n\n\nIX\n\nBefore the advent of that admirable institution, the Eugenics Education\nSociety, for the establishment of a new Science of Heredity, as, too, of\na new propaganda of Race-Culture, vital and illuminating data, not only\nof supreme scientific interest but, moreover, of the greatest practical\nsignificance, passed, for the most part, unnoted.\n\nI venture to believe, however, that Eugenic propaganda has been too much\nin the direction of eliminating defect from the Race by prohibiting\nmarriage to the so-called \"Unfit.\" Whereas the true way of Racial\nhealth, of normality and excellence, is, surely, to eliminate from life\nthe many conditions, material, economic, and personal, which make for\nUnfitness--which preclude, indeed, the survival of little save\nUnfitness.\n\nFor since we are not in the secret of Nature's aims, and are wholly in\nthe dark as to the human type for which she is aiming, to prohibit\nparenthood to any but the flagrantly abnormal, the insane and imbecile,\nthe epileptic and the hopelessly-diseased, might be to quench the\nevolution of such higher Fitness as we are not qualified to foresee.\nThat which shows like disability in one age may be the incipient ability\nof a later. In cruder, primitive days, when standards of Fitness were\nphysical strength, rapacity and cunning, honesty and mercy, and more\ndelicate organisation of body--the starting-points of new routes of\nevolutionary development--would have been condemned as worthy only of\nextermination.\n\nIn sickly and declining stock there may exist, moreover, an ebbing vein\nof rare faculty, which, re-vitalised by a due potential of maternal\nre-creative power, might come to throb with genius.\n\nRealising all the factors--the innumerable lives, the incalculable\npersonal traits, endeavours and experiences, that have gone to make the\nIndividualism of any strain of stock, and realising that just these\nfactors of Individualism can have occurred in one line only of human\nascent and can never be repeated, it becomes clear that summarily to\nextinguish any human strain, by arbitrary prohibition, would be to\nexterminate a unique branch of the great Life-tree, and thereby to\ndeprive the Race of a specialised route of further ascent; a route which\nno other stock could supply.\n\nThe fact that great families, with great histories and talents behind\nthem, fall into decadence shows that even in decadent stock are\ninherences of greatness which might be recruited to greatness again.\nWhile apart from all this, the right of Parenthood, with the\nevolutionary impulse to character and faculty consequent upon the\nexercise of parental functions, is the birthright of every individual\ncapable of fulfilling such. The counsel of Selective Parenthood is\ndangerous doctrine, indeed. Given Life, Nature by her methods of Disease\nis able to eliminate stock too deteriorate for, or beside her purpose.\nBut she alone knows her purpose. And she alone can judge as to what is\nintrinsic Fitness for Survival.\n\nSelective Parenthood makes, moreover, for the elimination of those\nvaluable object-lessons of inherited defect and disease, whereby Nature\npoints her inestimable morals of healthy and disciplined living. For\nevasion, too, of those penalties and burdens in the care and maintenance\nof the Unfit, which a nation justly incurs by such social wrongs and\nmaladministrations as are largely responsible for disease and defect.\n\nThe doctrine of operative sterilisation is not only humanly repugnant\nbut, in view of the psychological import of every physical function, it\nis essentially evil.\n\n\nX\n\nSome momentous morals of the Feminist trend are pointed by the\nInsect-world, which may be regarded as a devolutionary back-water,\nwherein Life is slowly ebbing toward extinction by fluctuating out in\never smaller, meaner, drabber, ineffective, pulseless and spectral\nexistences--chill and teeming myriads unwarmed by the throb of emotion,\nunillumined by the light of Mind. Dust which, raised from dust by power\nof Life, has caught the trick of living, and goes on living and\nperpetuating, without cause or impulse other than age-old, time-worn\nmechanistic habit imparted by the state of living.\n\nAnd in this phantom under-world of Decadence, cast by the shadow of Life\nand peopled with distorted images thereof, the females are\nDominant--larger in size, stronger, more active, more enterprising and\nferocious than the males. As in the world of Vegetation, by way whereof\nMatter first quickened into Life, so in this realm of _Insectivorae_ by\nway of which Life is gravitating back to the inertia of Inorganic\nMatter, in ever shallower, denser and more sluggish strata, the male is\nseen as appanage and victim of the female.\n\nIn the beehive, he appears as ineffective drone amid a throng of\nstrenuous neuter female-workers. And a female is his Queen.\n\n\nSignificant again is it that insect-females are seen increasingly to\nhave emancipated themselves from mother-instincts and maternal\nfunctions, as regards nurture or affection for their young. The single\nprocess wherein the warring males and snarling females of finer fierce,\nevolving species sheathe their claws and mute their hates in a\nco-operative, self-effacing instinct--Reproduction, here in this\ndisintegrating world of Devolution, functions without welding spark, or\nlighting gleam of parent-altruism. At best, it is as chill, as\ncolourless and meticulously mechanical as the interminable tickings of a\nworld of clockwork. At worst, it is a repulsive rapacity on the part of\nfemales to secure perpetuation. And this secured, they straightway sting\nthe craven male to death, or tear him limb from limb and ghoulishly\ndevour him.\n\nQueen Bee leads her vassal suitors so strenuous and dizzying an\nante-nuptial dance, for privilege of mating with her, that only one\nsurvives to claim the prize; the others dropping, dead and dying, in the\nwake of her murderous supremacy. And, as with other masculine and\nmuscular females, her progeny are neuter working-females (sterile) and\nemasculate males (drones).\n\nAs Feminists demand for human babes, the Bee-mother hands over her\noffspring to be brought up by the State. While some other\ninsect-mothers, having reposited their eggs (to serve as bombs that\nexplode and devastate their living hosts) straightway abandon them, and\nreturn to the more strenuous and repulsive female-pursuits of this\nPhantasmagoria-world--a clockwork kingdom fabricated of Life's debris,\nand drably mimicking the throb and motion of its mechanism in ghoulish\nmockeries and vacuous reiterations; the while it runs down slowly,\nticking back to the molecular vibration of mineral inertia.\n\n\nEND OF BOOK I\n\nNOTE.--_Mendelian and other readers interested in the more scientific\naspects of the subject are referred to an Appendix at the end of this\nvolume, in which these issues are further considered and some important\nevidences adduced._\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[2] I have observed that lameness in women, by restricting physical\nactivities and thus conserving vital energy, conduces to male offspring.\nThe fact may well have been the origin of the Chinese custom of\ncrippling the feet of female children. In my own professional practice,\nby prohibiting all strenuous and exhausting pursuits, intellectual,\nsocial or athletic, before and after marriage, I have succeeded in\nsecuring male offspring in patients whose stock had for generations\ngiven birth to girls only. In those _organically_ de-sexed by male\npursuits, rest will not avail, of course.--_Author._\n\n\n\n\nBOOK II\n\nWOMAN'S PART IN HUMAN DECADENCE\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nDECLINE AND FALL OF ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS DUE TO FEMINISM\n\n     \"This is the function of our and every age, to grasp the knowledge\n     already existing, to make it our own, and in so doing to develop it\n     further and raise it to a higher level. In thus taking it to\n     ourselves we make it different from what it was.\"--_Hegel._\n\n\nI\n\nAncient history is depressing study.\n\nIt shows us peoples rising slowly and laboriously out of states of\nbarbarism to high degrees of culture and enlightenment, and then, more\nor less suddenly, falling upon decline; lapsing to total extinction,\neven. One after another, we may watch them climb the Evolutionary Hill,\nthen slacken pace and struggle on spasmodically. Till presently we find\nthem steadily losing ground; slowly at first, but, gathering momentum,\nregressing more and more rapidly, until finally they are seen racing\nheadlong to destruction.\n\nOf some among the proudest and the greatest Civilisations, so absolute\nhas been their ultimate extinction that nothing more than ruined temples\nand some statuary remain to mark their quondam glory.\n\nBiologists tell us this is natural. Races, they say--like\nindividuals--have only a certain life-tenure. They are born, develop,\nattain maturity, lapse to old age and then die; just as men do.\n\nThe analogy is not sound, however. Because although individual men die,\nthe stock they leave behind, if duly preserved and replenished by fresh\nblood, may live indefinitely. Moreover, such records as remain show\nthat these past civilisations died, obviously, not of natural old\nage--but of disease. Natural old age is sane and wise, and\nself-controlled; healthful in mind and in body. Whereas the main\nfeatures characterising the decline of these great powers, were\nviciousness and licentiousness; physical, mental and moral corruption.\nTheirs was no passing in gradual waning of strength and quiet\ndissolution; not even in senility. They may be described, on the\ncontrary, as having rushed helter-skelter upon death in full vigour of\ntheir prime. We see in them, indeed, all the vehemence and\nself-destructive forces of \"sthenic\" disease--disease as it occurs in\nstrong men struck down in full health. They died in riot, venality, and\nlust, and every other form of vice and evil. Clearly, they died\nunnaturally--of disease, not naturally of old age.\n\nHow and why then did this happen? How and why should disease thus have\nstricken these in mid-career? Since history shows the political\ninstitutions, the laws and the administration of many of such mighty\ndecadents to have reached high levels of excellence, in respect of\njustice and intelligence, while Culture, Art and Industry were likewise\nnotable among them, the causes of their downfall must be looked for\nelsewhere than in their sociology.\n\nAnd since all human processes, sociological as well as natural, have\ntheir roots in Biology, we are led to examine such records as remain,\nfor evidences of biological failure. Healthy and vigorous races do not\ndecline in consequence of unjust laws or maladministration. If they are\nhealthy and vigorous, they reform these.\n\n\nII\n\nInvestigation shows one striking feature as having been common to most\nof these great decadences. In nearly every case, the dominance and\nlicence of their women were conspicuous. And realising Woman's\nportentous role in Racial advance, it is difficult to believe anything\nbut that her role must be equally potent in Racial decline.\n\nA nation becomes decadent because the individuals composing it have\nbecome decadent. The individuals composing it can only have become\nprogressively decadent by progressive hereditary decadences. And since\nWoman is the racial reservoir and the Agency of Evolution, hereditary\ndecline of individuals and nations must have its source in a decline of\nmother-power.\n\nHistory confirms this view. It shows the progress and waxing supremacy\nof these great powers to have been concurrent with rising levels of\nwomanly character and virtue, with high regard for woman by man, with\nhigh estimation and observance by woman of the functions of motherhood\nand of The Home. While neglect of the home, contempt for and evasion of\nthe duties of motherhood, immorality and general licence among their\nwomen characterised their downfall.\n\nAnd comparing some modern developments with these records of Ruin, one\ncan but be struck by notable resemblances between these latter and the\npresent-day trend of all our greater civilisations.\n\n\nIn the decline of Rome, the Roman women went to two extremes. A tendency\nthat shows increasingly among our modern womanhood. They separated into\ntwo main orders. \"Blue-stocking\" and \"Rake,\" they were then designated.\n\"Mannish\" and \"Womanish,\" or \"Feminist\" and \"Ultra-Feminine,\" better\ncharacterise their latter-day presentments.\n\nIn America, these two orders of women are known as the \"College\" and the\n\"Society\" types, respectively. The \"College\" type makes a cult of\nmasculinity of body and of brain. The \"Society\" type makes a cult of\nfeminine graces and social accomplishments.\n\nIn the poorer, as in the superior classes of all nations, similar\nextremes are found. One order is virile and hard-working; and for the\nmost part plain and moral. The other is womanish and pretty; and for the\nmost part frail.\n\nWith us--as with those earlier peoples--the demand for liberty and\nunrestricted economic opportunities for women is occasioning contempt\nfor and evasion of the functions of wife and of mother, emancipation\nfrom the home, increasing absorption in public affairs, fever for\npleasure, lapse of womanly traditions and morale. All of which\ndevelopments passed rapidly, in those others, into general laxity,\nlicence and corruption; culminating finally in total ruin. With them,\nthe claims of Home and of The Family became, as they are becoming more\nand more with us, secondary merely and subsidiary to other pursuits; to\npersonal ambitions, public careers, to pleasures, excitements, crazes\nfor notoriety. Woman's inherent erraticism--defect of her intrinsic\nspontaneity, her bent for novelty and strong sensation--degenerated,\nunder the licence accorded her in ancient Rome, into the appalling\norgies of The Bacchanalia; which were instituted by the sex.\n\nWomen attended the displays of gladiators. They watched the wild beasts\ntear their victims. They themselves dressed as gladiators, and held\nmimic combats. By cult of muscle, they grew taller than the men.\n\nSallust writes thus of a notorious Roman matron:\n\n\"Sempronia had committed many crimes of a boldness _worthy of a man_.\nBlest alike in family and beauty, in husband and children, she was\nwell-read in Greek and Roman literature; could sing, play and dance more\ngracefully than any honest woman need; had many of the other\naccomplishments of a riotous life. She cared for nothing less than for\ndecency and modesty.\"\n\nFifty years later, Seneca takes up the story of a rapid decadence: \"The\nladies do not reckon the years by the number of the Consuls, but by the\nnumber of their husbands.\"\n\nMuch the same licence, extravagance and viciousness of the sex\ncharacterised the greater number of those other old-world wreckages.\n\nThe higher Woman-attributes ceased to evolve; ceased to be exercised;\nceased to inspire. Women cultivated solely, or pre-eminently, the\nmale-side of their natures; muscle, intellect, ambition, concrete\nactivities, indulgence of sex-instincts. By power of which masculine and\nalien proclivities, they increasingly dominated the men, in whom the\nvirile traits had proportionally declined. Thus, more and more, the\npurifying, uplifting and inspiring potence of true Womanhood, together\nwith the softening refinements of The Home, became ever further\nwithdrawn from the national life. Thus corruption undermined; and chaos\nfinally engulfed.\n\n\nIII\n\nThings were different in Ancient Greece.\n\nIt has been said that Greece fell because she did not give her women\nliberty. For a time comes, in the development of every nation, when its\nwomen must be freed. Or decadence sets in inevitably. And some of those\nold civilisations declined, undoubtedly, from lack of progress in this\nrespect.\n\nIt would seem that the first sips of liberty require to be administered\nto the sex with caution, however; the effects observed carefully, the\ndoses increased warily. Otherwise, impulsive and impressionable as they\nare, women lose their heads; become intoxicated, and get out of hand.\nAnd once women get out of hand, it is next to impossible to bring them\nagain under control (as was seen in the outbreaks of Feminist\nmilitancy). Civilisation forbids that men shall deal with them as with\nmasculine rebels. And fenced thus behind the privileges of their own\nsex, when armed with the prerogatives of the other, they may prove\ndangerously difficult customers.\n\nIn ancient Greece, the wives and mothers and the other reputable women\nhad but little or no freedom. They lived, for the most part, in\nseclusion; dull and unintelligent and uneventful lives. There was no\npure, wholesome, and inspiring social life. The only women who were free\nwere the _hetairai_, those famous ladies who shed a lurid brilliance\nover the corruption and decline of this great State--a decline wherewith\nthey had, most certainly, much to do. A faction apart from the wives and\nmothers--although many among them were courtesans, they stood apart too\nfrom the courtesan class. Women who had found in the unfreed state of\nthe wife and mother of their epoch, inadequate scope for their impulses\nand talents, they broke away from domestic conditions, to form a coterie\nof free lances--a cultured, brilliant and alluring band of renegades,\nsought and esteemed for their beauty and intelligence by all men;\naristocrat, philosopher, and pleasure-seeker.\n\nMore likely than that Greece fell because she did not emancipate her\nwomen, it is that she fell because the women who emancipated themselves\nabandoned the roles of wife, of mother, and other reputable functions.\nFor these Grecian _hetairai_ comprised, in the main, the flower of their\ngeneration. One sees them, indeed, as brilliant Racial poison-blossoms,\ngreedily appropriating and exploiting to their own purposes the nation's\nbeauty and the nation's talent, its aspirations, potence,\npassion--without transmitting any of these racial attainments to a later\ngeneration. In place of endowing their kind with such nobler light and\nfaculty, inspiration and sweetness, as supply a people's evolutionary\nimpulse, they abandoned the home and the sacred and spiritualising\nfunctions of true wifehood, and of the motherhood of such higher living\ntypes as are indispensable to lead a nation's progress.\n\nA kindred movement--modified, for the present, by the more enlightened\ntraditions of our Century--is foreshadowing itself across the higher\ncivilisations of our day. More and more, our better types of women (the\nmisinterpretations of the Feminist Movement having imparted a distorted\nbias and direction to their powers) are similarly abandoning the Home,\nor are withdrawing their best interests and talents from it; are evading\nwholly, or are gravely restricting their maternal obligations to the\nRace; regarding children as bye-products, merely, of life--vastly less\nimportant than some hobby or career. In place of realising the new\ngeneration as the Vanguard of Life and Evolution; that which beyond\nevery other human achievement counts in the Universe.\n\nWorse than this even, more and more, everywhere, women are failing in\nthe maternal power of transmitting to offspring the health, the beauty,\nthe abilities and aspirations which are the model and ideals of our age.\n\n\nIV\n\nA menace to the Race more alarming than that of the hard and mannish\nwoman (who, because of her lack of womanly attractiveness, is debarred,\nin considerable degree, from marriage) is another and less ungraciously\nobvious deviation from The Normal--an order of the sex, modern and\nartificial, and rapidly increasing in number, over-civilised and\nhighly-feminised both of physique and of temperament, which may be\ndescribed as an Ultra-Feminine, or, in contradistinction to the\nFeminist, as a Feminist order.\n\nTheir womanhood but lightly rooted in neurotic systems, the women of\nthis sect are unstable and erratic, seeking distraction for their\nrestless, ill-balanced forces, in cards, crazes, drugs; fads and freaks.\nUnfitted for wifehood and motherhood--some by faulty heredity, but a far\ngreater number by educational strain and consequent warp--some of these\nultra-feminised and frequently interesting creatures absorb themselves\nfeverishly in public movements; religious, social or political. Some are\npersons of irreproachable morale and ideals; devoted, gifted, wholly\nadmirable. And being wives not seldom of men as talented, it is\ndeplorable that warp of culture, unfitting them for motherhood, should\nhave left such to waste their powers and aspirations in beating the thin\nair merely of Utopian propaganda. When, otherwise, they might have led\nthe true and only way of Progress by endowing the Race with living\npresentments and evolving treasuries of the parental ideals and\nendowments.\n\nThe greater her charm, the nobler her character and talent, the more the\npity is when woman is defective in the power to transmit her high\nqualities, or has power to transmit these in inferior degree only; thus\nsealing up for ever, or gravely impoverishing a vital spring of living\nfaculty and individualism--a unique line of Human Ascent which no other\nstock can supply, and one which may have been leading up to the\nproduction of genius such as the world has not yet known.\n\n\nAnother--and quite different--sub-order of this neurotic (and\npartially-sterilised) type, in losing its higher potential of motherhood\nhas lost the racial instinct wherein personal virtue is rooted. The\nlives of these are free and irregular. Not measures, but men, are their\nvogue; to serve as admirers of their charm and talents, as spectators of\ntheir temperamental extravagances. Incapable of the emotions of love,\nthey seek, are discontented, and seek further when they do not find in\nits excitements, the joys and contentment that reside alone in deep and\nabiding emotions. The poise and repose, the charm, the refreshment and\nthe inspiration of true Womanhood are lacking in them. They demand\nincreasing novelty and change of venue for their ill-ballasted powers\nand capricious sensibilities. And this precisely in proportion as they\nare deficient in those womanly emotions and illusions which endue the\nleast and simplest things with glamour and with beauty.\n\nThis type, which can scarcely be said to _live_, but merely to frolic\nthrough life, is pre-eminently dangerous to progress. Because, while\npossessing the psychology, the appeal and influence of women, some of\nthese have cast off, utterly, the traditions, the nobler aspirations and\nthe functions of the best womanhood.\n\n\nV\n\nIt is universally admitted that a bad woman is far more wicked than a\nbad man is. She is more callous, ruthless, wanton and debased. The\nirresponsibility regarding concrete affairs (innate in a sex whereof The\nConcrete is only secondarily the province) makes her a dangerous and a\ndemoralising factor when her acquired male brain and activities (for the\nclever, bad woman is always of masculine bent) over-ride her own natural\naptitudes. Because the powers she has artificially acquired--in\nsubstitution for her native ones--do not alter her inherent constitution\nof a creature builded upon instincts; instincts which her native higher\nqualities are alone adequate to guide and inspire. One may acquire some\nof the characteristics of an opposite sex, _but never the morale_; which\nis inborn and inherent to the natural sex-characteristics.\n\nFaculty declines in the inverse order of its development. The bloom and\nbeauty of the peach and of the flower are the last things to come--and\nthe first to go. So, in forfeiting her womanly qualities, woman forfeits\nearliest the best of these. Love and purity and spiritual aspiration\nperish first; with the result that the lower-grade female Subconscious\nemotionalism, instinct and palpitant with animal impulse, comes into\nplay.\n\nMan requires to degenerate to far inferior levels than is the case with\nwoman, before he so loses his normal rationalism as to forfeit his sense\nof proportion and of his responsibility with regard to material affairs,\nand that stern obligation to conform to environmental conditions which\nhas been the impelling force of male development. Irresponsibility is in\nhim an acquired--and a feminine--defect; not an inherent failing of his\nsex. The very basis of the manly character is a recognition of the male\nresponsibility in life's affairs. It was the impulse of man's primal\nstruggle. It is the mark of his civilised manhood.\n\nIrresponsibility is, on the contrary, innate in woman. It is part of\nthat spontaneity, plasticity, and versatility which have engendered the\nracial evolutionary mutations; and by way of these have engendered the\nprogressive transitions to ever higher forms. And indispensable as her\nnative mutability is in making her the agency of evolutionary change, it\nis an insecure and a dangerous basis for too heavy a super-structure of\nmale characteristics, physical or mental; as also for too heavy a burden\nof male responsibilities. It disqualifies her for liberty and scope of\naction identical with man's, in material affairs.\n\nThe further we fit her, moreover (beyond her normal capacity), for such\naffairs, by artificially equipping her with masculine aptitudes, the\nmore we unfit her for her evolutionary role of spontaneous advance. Her\nchiefest values lie in the spring and the plasticity which enable her to\nadapt her nature to the evolutionary impulses of life inherent in her;\nand thereby to engender further human evolution. For this, it is\nimportant that she shall not be moulded on those firmer and more\ndefinitely prescribed lines of masculine development which are\nindispensable to the pioneering of material progress. Nor should her\npowers be equally differentiated, or similarly expended. They must be\nleft, in far greater degree, conserved, unformulate and unadapted.\n\nNormally, she is the child of Nature, in whom (because she is the\nmother of the human child, who shapes to the maternal model) Nature is\nunfolding the type of our Perfecting Humanity. She should remain,\ntherefore, more or less in the native and spontaneously fructifying\nstate conducive to evolutionary unfoldment. When she adapts as closely\nto concrete conditions as it is imperative for man to do, not only does\nshe exhaust the potential fertility indispensable to the further\nevolution and growth of racial faculty, but her powers lose that mode of\nflux which enables them to tide to higher levels.\n\nWhile man stands for Civilisation, woman stands for Nature. Generatrix\nof Life, she is instinct with vital impulses. And when these are not\nexpended, as is normal, in the creation of and ministration to living\nand beloved beings, they generate warped, erratic and chaotic\naberrations. Because, no matter to what degree she may acquire masculine\ncharacteristics and aptitudes, she remains, at core, a creature of\ninstinct; not of reason. As a creature of instinct she is invaluable to\nlife--because Life is moulded upon instinct. But instinct and\nrationalism function on different planes of mentality. To over-develop\nrationalism in her is to quench emotionalism in her, and the higher\nillumination of her Supra-conscious faculties; thus rendering her the\nprey of smouldering subconscious impulses which burst fitfully and\nmischievously into flame.\n\nFor Progress, man must be always the leading half and controller in\npolitics and civic affairs. These are his province. His sex stands for\npermanence and conformity--and, accordingly, for uniformity. And\nuniformity is the model for Civilisation, making as it does for justice\nand the common good.\n\nWoman's non-conformability adapts her admirably to the personal\nrelations of life, but not to the political. Man builds institutions and\nadministers them by more or less rigid impersonal rule. Woman transforms\nthem into homes, and humanises them by individual concessions and\nexceptions.\n\nSo the two are supplement and complement in the public as in the natural\nsphere. But their respective roles are contrary in every mode and issue.\nMan's conformity, political and civic, is continually leavened by the\nelement of non-conformity and change he inherits from his mother, with\nher other Woman-traits. But in him, her spontaneity and impulse are so\nintelligised and stabilised by his masculine rationalism and bent for\norder that, in place of operating emotionally and spasmodically, they\nbecome tempered and restrained. Under his administration, material\nadvance proceeds slowly, but surely and securely. His masculine\nintelligence and sense of responsibility cause him to adjust the\nmaternal evolutionary impulses,--which he inherits as reformatory and\nrevolutionary impulses--to the exigencies of practicability, and the\nrequirements of circumstance.\n\n\nVI\n\nThere is no more difficult, or possibly mischievous, person than a\nstrong and clever woman whose over-developed masculine energies and\nabilities are controlled neither by a man's reason and sense of\nresponsibility, nor by a woman's natural disabilities, affections and\nrestraints. She is sometimes prodigiously clever; adding to her male\ntalents a woman's fertility, versatility, adaptability, complexity and\nintuitiveness. And yet with all their gifts, such women accomplish\nlittle but harm--alike to themselves and others.\n\nErratic, fickle, irrepressible, they are perpetually flying off at\ntangents. Now they are one thing too much. Now they are the opposite--in\nan equal extreme.\n\nMedleys of contradictions and perversities, they are no sooner repressed\nin one direction, or become fatigued by the monotony of any single line\nof action, than they burst forth in some other. Their abnormal\nmentality and energy, allied to their innate impulsiveness and craving\nfor change, impel them to break loose from those bonds of affection, of\ntradition and of aspiration, which are woman's safeguards. There is in\nthe nature of most women, this dangerous quicksand of irresponsibility,\nwhich may, in crises, topple and submerge the soundest structure of\neducation and of habit builded over it. This is seen in the abandon and\nanarchy of the sex in riots and in revolutions.\n\nSuch women rebels become increasingly a law unto themselves, and see no\nreason why all others should not do likewise. They lack the masculine\ngrip of concrete principles to recognise that general lawlessness and\nindividual liberty cannot co-exist. Because where every man is free to\ndo as he pleases, no man is free to do as he pleases, owing to some\nother man's abuse of his liberty encroaching on that of his neighbours.\n\nWomen of this order are the Cleopatras, Agrippinas, Messalinas and the\nCatharines of Russia; the de Pompadours, de Staels, Georges Sands, and\nthe innumerable other self-centred, unconscionable female-egotists whose\nextravagances shriek discordant down the ages.\n\nLacking both a woman's morals and a man's ethics, they are freaks of\nNature; or are Frankensteins of abnormal culture. When they are not\nEmpresses, to indulge in shameful licence--their male abilities\nexaggerating their woman-instincts to the dimensions of\nmegalomanias--their inordinate ambitions make them mistresses of crowned\nheads, or of others whose rank or wealth supplies their mistresses with\nmeans and scope for their unbridled prodigalities. Privileged by their\nsex and by masculine favour, their lawlessness protected from its\nmerited penalties by the law-abiding of their fellows, they become\nintoxicated--frequently insane--as result of their successes and\nexcesses. The famous courtesans have been (and are still) for the most\npart women of this ilk; persons of steel brain and will, without a\nwoman's aspirations or emotions to soften their self-centredness; nor a\nman's code to discipline their wantonness. They make men the instruments\nand the victims of their feminine defects, which are all--or nearly\nall--of woman they possess; self-consciousness distorted to a monstrous\nvanity, emotions dwarfed to greeds and lusts.\n\nOne after another, they exploit their victims, by exercise, precisely,\nof the same masculine business-abilities and ruthlessness which make men\nfraudulent company-promoters, profiteers, or sweaters of the poor. When\none has served their purpose, they cast him off for another.\nCold-blooded, clever, and emotionless, although sometimes sensual in a\nfashion purely male (in keeping with their other male proclivities) they\nare adventuresses, spies, poisoners, adultresses, monsters; abiding\nreproach to a noble sex; terrible example of the fate awaiting that sex,\nas penalty for abnormal development of masculine characteristics beyond\nthe capacity of its Woman-traits to counterpoise and guide.\n\nPower, which strengthens and steadies all but weak men, only too often\ndrives women to destruction. A factor in this is that those privileges\nof their sex which have become, more or less, their civilised\nprerogative, preserve them from the salutary harsh and stern rebuffs\nwhich men in like circumstance inevitably encounter.\n\n\nIf women are to have scope and authority identical with men's, then they\nmust forgo all privileges; must come out from their fence behind strong\narms and chivalry to meet masculine blows in the face, economic and\nethical--if not actual, indeed, as Prevost has predicted.\n\nAnd then, Heaven help them--and men--and the Race!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE EVOLUTION OF SEX IN ADOLESCENCE\n\n     \"I am for you and you are for me,\n     Not only for your own sake, but for others' sakes,\n     Envelop'd in you, sleep great heroes and bards,\n     They refuse to awake at the touch of any man but me.\"\n\n     _Walt Whitman._\n\n\nI\n\nA French biologist has discovered that when a female oyster is starved,\nand its constitution thus deteriorated, it becomes transformed into a\nmale.\n\nThe male oyster must be inferior, therefore, in organisation to the\nfemale. Its constitutional potential is less, since the constitutional\npotential of the female contains both its own, and the potential of the\nmale. And the lesser, it is admitted, cannot contain the greater;\nalthough higher evolutionary forms, when subjected to conditions which\npreclude them from sustaining these their higher forms, may lapse to\nmodes less complex.\n\nFurther and more striking examples of such Sex-transformation are\nafforded by so-called \"mules,\" or \"neuters,\" which occur in other\nspecies. A well-known case is that of a pea-hen belonging to Lady Tynte.\nHaving laid eggs from which chicks were raised, this pea-hen, after\nmoulting, developed feathers proper to the other sex; appearing like a\npied peacock. In the third year the same phenomenon occurred in her; she\ndeveloped spurs, moreover, resembling those of the cock. _She never bred\nafter this change in her plumage._\n\nAs already mentioned, kindred phenomena of sex-metamorphosis are\nobserved in women after operations involving removal of reproductive\nglands.\n\nThat the female is, indeed, a more complex order of organisation than\nthe male, is not to be doubted, since masculine characteristics emerge\nfrom it when it lapses from its normal of condition.\n\n\nAdolescence as it occurs in the boy and in the girl emphasises this\nconclusion.\n\nTo the age of twelve or thereabouts, the normal boy- and girl-child are\nlike enough to one another; smooth-skinned, active, simple creatures.\nThe boy is, normally, larger, sturdier, stronger and rougher than the\ngirl. But, save for the cut of their hair and of their clothes, the two\nare very similar.\n\nWith the transition to manhood and womanhood, respectively, notable\ndifferences accrue, however.\n\nFrom having been a strong, young, active, boy-like creature,\nnow--provided her development be allowed to take the normal course--the\ngirl loses physical activity and strength. A phase of invalidation sets\nin. Instinctively, she no longer runs and romps. New languors invest her\nin mind and in body. She is indisposed to brain-work or to much\nexertion. She lounges and muses. Her mind is clouded with the mists of\nawakening sensibilities. She suffers from lassitudes.\n\nShe becomes a complex of disabilities, indeed; disabilities which in\ndelicate, sickly or over-taxed girls, show in chlorosis, anaemia,\nhysteria and other ills. Obviously, profound changes, with\nre-adjustments of her constitutional resources, are taking place in her.\nAnd most significant of these is that which shows like an _arrest_ of\ndevelopment, physical and intellectual. Because, normally, she develops\nbut little further along direct lines of intellect and muscle. Yet that\nshe is still developing, and this upon wholly new--subtler, higher and\nmore complex lines, is manifest at the end of this transition-period\nwhence she emerges, a woman.\n\nHer developmental arrest and her disabilities (resulting from an\nintensification of Recessive processes in her) are seen now to have\nsubserved a phase of higher evolution. Nature suddenly locked the door\nupon her differentiating and escaping energies, in order that these\nmight be conserved and knit into organisation. The active muscularity\nshe has lost reappears in the new factors of symmetry and delicate\nmodelling of limb; in repose and grace of movement. The straight, slim,\nboy-like lines of the hoyden girl have evolved into the curves and\nrounded suppleness and beauties of a woman. The girlish, agile and\nabrupt movements have passed into a woman's poise and grace. The\nunformed features of the child have become now delicately modelled; the\ncurveless, emotionless lips have bloomed into the flower-like, rosy\nfullness of a woman's mouth; passionate and tender. New mystery and\nbrilliance light her eyes. Eyes and brows are charged with potencies;\nwith seriousness, with modesty, serenity, elusiveness. Hair and hands,\nvoice and expression, have become transfigured by the magic of a\nre-creative impulse which has regenerated her whole being.\n\nSo too her brain development, arrested along lines of concrete\nintellection, is seen to have evolved to higher, subtler forms of\nmentality; to be instinct with delicacy, sympathy, tact, and with that\nincalculable mode of supra-conscious cerebration which is intuition. In\nso far as she is of high, womanly type, she is now warm and emotional,\nsympathetic, intuitive; consciously pure, yet delicately passionate.\nFrom a crude and sexless hoyden, she has evolved into an exquisite\ncomplexity; invested all round with higher values, human and psychical.\n\nAs in their earliest beginnings, however, so now again the Woman-traits\nmanifest as Unfitnesses. Her new departure has actually undone in her\nmuch that had been achieved in physical adaptation.\n\nBiologists, observing this arrest of development in the female, have\ninterpreted it as sign of an organisation inferior to that of the male.\nIn point of fact, the contrary is the case. Her arrest of development\nalong lines of masculine inherence no more proves her inferior to the\nmale than does the human developmental arrest along lines of that tail\nour ape-progenitor possessed, prove the human inferior to the\nape-species.\n\nThis arrest of tail-development occurred first in the female, doubtless;\nbeing one of those evolutionary mutations in the direction of advance of\nType which are engendered in her sex; and which are characterised by a\nconversion to higher potential, of differentiations in respect of\nadaptation to environment that have been achieved in the male.\nConversion of male Fitness to female Unfitness, therefore.\n\nSeeing that the ape is vastly more adapted than is man to natural\nenvironment, it is obvious that the trend of adaptation to environment,\nfar from having been along lines of evolving ape to man, must have been\nalways, on the contrary, impelling reversion of the human to the\nape-type. Darwin relates how he and Huxley, watching some boys bathing,\n\"marvelled over the fact, seeming especially strange when they are no\nlonger disguised by clothes, that human beings should dominate over all\nother creatures and play the wonderful part they do on earth.\"\n\nHugo de Vries says: \"Natural Selection (whereof Adaptation is _modus\noperandi_) ... does not single out the best variations, but simply\ndestroys the larger number of those which are, from some cause or other,\nunfit for their present environment. In this way it keeps the strains up\nto the required standard.\"\n\nWhile Hoffding states explicitly: \"Adaptation and Progress are not the\nsame.\"\n\nClearly there are Dual Principles operating in progressive development;\none adapting the organism to environment, the other adapting it to the\nTypal model inherent in species.\n\n\nII\n\nIn the male of stock impoverished by artificial conditions of\ncivilisation, the transition to manhood is attended likewise by some\nlanguors, physical and mental. New powers are being developed and\noccasion more or less strain upon the constitution--a strain wherewith\nour present-day masters and pastors, in their zeal of intensive culture,\nreckon far too little. In healthy boys this is in no way comparable,\nhowever, with the constitutional stress which adolescence causes in\nhealthy girls. The youth continues to wax in strength of brain and body.\nThe arrest, or involution, normal to the girl, does not occur in him.\n\nWhile she becomes gentler and more tranquil, by reason of a new poise in\nher of mind and body, he becomes forceful and restless by reason of a\nnew release in him of energy. Yet though he gains in strength of brain\nand body by this further differentiation of his resources into concrete\nfaculty and virile energy, he lapses notably in organisation. From the\nsupple, fine-skinned boy--clear-eyed, sweet-voiced, womanly almost in\nrefinement and comeliness--he grows large and hard and muscular; more or\nless sinewy and rough-hewn, according as he is, or is not, manly of\ntype. His skin loses its fine grain and smoothness, becoming coarser and\nhirsute; thus reverting, in degree, to the inferior, animal grade of\nskin. His voice falls nearly an octave, lapsing from sweetness and\npurity to gruffness and volume. Obviously--although all this being\nnormal, the male has a virile charm and handsomeness of his own--man's\nis notably a less highly and subtly-evolved organisation than is\nwoman's.\n\nIn the boy, is seen a progressive adaptation of body and brain to\nenvironment, in order to fit him for his man's task of coping with and\nadvancing the conditions of life, material and ethical. And for this,\nthe more delicate and sensitive woman-physique, demanding more of vital\nconservation for its upkeep, would be a handicap.\n\nBiological adaptation for his part in reproduction occurs too. But the\nmale development at this epoch is pre-eminently one of adaptation to\nenvironment; equipping him with bone and muscle, brain and enterprise,\naggressiveness, initiative and energy. Racially indispensable as the\nreproductive function is in him, it is obviously incidental and\nsubordinate to his general development.\n\nThe girl's transition to womanhood is seen, on the contrary, to be one\nalmost entirely of adaptation, physiological and psychical, to the\nfunctions of wifehood and child-bearing. Her growth ceases. She loses,\nin place of gaining, nerve and muscle-power. While, in becoming\nemotional, her changed mentality unfits far more than it fits her to\ncope with life at first hand; with life unadapted, that is, and herself\nunshielded by the male. Her intelligence at eighteen is normally less\nkeen and active--although of higher and more subtle quality and\ntrend--than it had been at twelve.\n\nIndications of Nature which point unmistakably to diametrically\ndifferent modes of culture and of training for the sexes, and, in\nconsequence, to wholly different applications of their respective powers\nand aptitudes in every department of life.\n\n\nIn the boy, the Male-traits receive, with adolescence, a great influx of\nenergy; wholly dominating the Woman-traits which had made him more or\nless a feminine creature.\n\nMore and more each day, the potential virile in his every cell asserts\nitself in structure and in function; dominating the Woman-traits\ninherent in him. He waxes big and strong of body; restless and active of\nmentality. And the less, within normal limits, virility has been\nprematurely forced in him by too hard strain of mind or body, the better\nfor the evolution of his manhood. Unless the Woman-traits have been\nunduly drilled and hardened out of him, they will now refine, inspire\nand fructify his awakening masculine powers. The too hard struggle for\nexistence put, by necessity, on boys of the poorer classes, and, in the\nhigher classes, forced on sensitive boys called upon, too young, to\nfight for survival in the semi-savage communities that public schools\nare, hardens them too soon and too summarily, and thus frustrates their\nbest development.\n\nIt is said that there is no atrocity a boy-community will not commit.\n\nIn this stage of development, the moral consciousness of the _genus_ is\nat low ebb. The accentuation of Male-traits now occurring occasions a\nrecrudescence of primal instincts. And the collective atmosphere such\nrecrudescence engenders in a boy-community, marooned in school-life\napart from the refining, softening influences of home and womenkind, is\nonly too often an evil and a demoralising one. Boarding-schools should\nbe abolished; good day-schools substituted.\n\nMore than at any other phase of his existence, the masculine needs now\nthe Woman-influences from _without_; because the Woman-traits _within_\nare, for a period, submerged beneath a surge of Maleness.\n\nNotwithstanding these obvious truths, however, during the years when\nbody and mind should be adapting gradually, consciously and\nsubconsciously, to the social environment wherein their lives are to be\npassed; when the mental horizon should be expanding simultaneously with\nthe expanding intelligence, when the moral should be rising to the new\ndemands upon it, boys are imprisoned in scholastic institutions, where\nthey are hemmed in by routine and restrictions, in an atmosphere of\npuerile conceptions, puerile traditions, puerile conventions and\nassociations; their chief outlet and respite the narrow rules and the\nnarrowing absorptions of so-called \"Games,\" supervised by martinet\nGames-masters.\n\nAnd then, when we bring them to the field of life, we are surprised to\nfind many of them unintelligent, unadapted, unadaptable; resourceless,\ninept and incompetent. Cooped during those impressionable years in a\nwholly artificial environment, when confronted by the world of living\nactualities, which is not ruled by similar narrow restrictions, nor\nshaped upon the artificial forms and puerile misconceptions in which\ntheir young ductile natures have been run and have set--they show\nthemselves wholly unfitted for life, with its varied, difficult and\ncomplex conditions and adjustments. They have become, in point of fact,\nmentally and temperamentally \"provincial.\"\n\nThe good form which some of them acquire is derived less from\nschool-ethics or training than from an aristocratic strain of boys with\nwhom they have been associated. And being acquired, when it is not the\nform of their own social order, it appears only too frequently as a\ncounterfeit; engendering insincerity and snobbishness, and marring\nindividuality.\n\n\nIt has seemed to me that, in both sexes, the first seven years of\nlife--during which native faculty and attribute are evolving at great\npace--are a phase in which the Recessive, or anabolic, mode,\nconservative of the resources and vitalising of the tissues, is in the\nascendant. The true child of both sexes is normally, during these years,\na typification of the Woman-traits; receptive, plastic, gentle,\naffectionate, trustful, intuitive, emotional; quickly fatigued, quickly\nrecuperative; more or less lovely and angelic. In this phase, native\nintuitive faculty makes children sometimes phenomenal; lightning\ncalculators, musical prodigies, precocious poets, artists. So too, their\nmarvellously rapid apprehension of the complex meanings and\nimplications of life betokens Supra-conscious mentality.\n\nAt seven years old and thence onward to fourteen, a male, and katabolic,\nphase sets in. Phenomenal faculty vanishes. Concrete development of\nbody, brain and energy proceeds apace. The child becomes active,\nintelligent, enterprising, inquiring. The boy becomes appreciably male;\nthe girl more or less of a hoyden, more male, indeed, than she is\nnormally at any other period of her existence. Unless, that is, this\nhoyden phase is rendered permanent in her by masculine training.\n\nAt fourteen, with the evolution of sex, the sex of boy and girl, with\nits respective opposite modes of constitution and of function, makes for\nmarked development, each along its characteristic lines.\n\n\nIII\n\nThe French have a saying: _La femme est une malade_. Woman is not, of\ncourse, an invalid. Nature does not fashion invalids. Woman's\norganisation is normally delicate and sensitive and highly strung,\nbecause of its special and complex sex-differentiation. She resembles\nthe child, in that howsoever healthful (in proportion, indeed, as she is\nnormal and healthfully organised) her cells of brain and body re-act\nresiliently and vitally to all the agencies, physical and psychical,\nabout her.\n\nThis sensitive re-activity is not only a sign, it is, as well, a\n_source_ of health. Because the greater delicacy and sensitiveness of\norganisation which characterise women and children, resulting in their\nquick re-activity to deleterious conditions, secure a permanently more\nhighly-vitalised condition of body than is the case with man, whose\ncells are less sensitive, more tolerant of fatigue, of cold, and of\nother injurious agents. Immunity against injurious factors is the\nparent of degeneracy. Life being re-activity, in terms of living\nprocesses, to the factors of environment, such immunity entails loss of\nvital re-activity to _vivifying_ as much as against deteriorative\nfactors.\n\nWe complain that Nature, in place of making our bodies of cast iron, so\nto speak, makes them, on the contrary, vulnerable at every point. The\nreason is, surely, that the less we are constituted like cast iron--the\nmore vital and complex, intelligent and responsive, our tissues are,\naccordingly--the more conducive to change and advance (because the more\nsensitively re-active to subtler and psychical stimuli) they are\nlikewise. We cannot be, at the same time, hardy and obtuse, yet\nexquisitely sensitive. Living tissue-cells are characterised, beyond all\nother developments, by a range of contrasting abilities. An arm serves\nas softest cushion for a child's head, or, by stiffening of its muscles,\nbecomes rigid as steel. An eye that sees for miles will focus to a\npin-point. But being, as we are, still in the making, our tissues\nnecessarily have limitations--and the defects, accordingly, of both\ntheir sets of qualities. High sensitiveness of function is necessarily\nattended by corresponding complexity and delicacy of structure. Such\nstructural delicacy obliges us to adapt environment to its complexities.\nIt is thus an incentive to progress.\n\nIt obliges us, as well, to moderate our activities, and, by thus\nrestricting the output of our cruder powers, our resources are husbanded\nand directed into higher channels.\n\n\nThe purpose of the complex differentiations which handicap the\nadolescent girl is obvious. The curving bones, the expanding pelvis, the\nrounded contours, the inhibited muscles, the languors and recurring\ndisabilities, are designed to restrict activity, physical and mental.\n\nPhysicists tell us that the Conservation of Motion and the Conservation\nof Energy are one and the same thing. This must be true, as well, of\n_Vital_ Energy. The conservation of Vital Activity subtends the\nConservation of Vital resources. The new developments are by no means\nincidental merely to the new processes; they are an integral part of The\nPlan. In half-closing the doors on avenues of active output, Nature\nconserves the Woman-powers for more intrinsic use. Every brain and\nbody-cell is raised thereby to higher levels both of constitution and of\nfunction.\n\nAs stored _mechanical_ energy becomes transformed into the higher form\nof _electrical_ energy, so the power stored in Woman's anabolic cells is\nraised to higher evolutionary forms. Thus she becomes fitted to be\nmother of the Child--the blossom of the Race. Her part in the child will\ncontain the inherence of these new higher evolutionary values, as the\nfather's part in it will contain the inherence of the concrete powers he\nhas developed. And while her body spontaneously raises all its issues in\norder to fit her to be a Mother, so it develops powers and functions\nadapting her to serve as soft environment, physical and attributal, for\nthe rearing of her child.\n\nAll this complex differentiation and evolution are designed, as well, to\nadapt woman for the love-passion, and to draw and bind her mate to her.\nAnd Nature has so cunningly interwoven the two plans and the two\ndevelopments that, for the most part, those physical traits and\nemotional attributes which best qualify for motherhood most potently\nattract and closely attach the woman's mate to her.\n\nWoman is \"_une malade_,\" because, throughout the more than thirty years\nof her potential maternity, she suffers periodically those which,\nbiologically speaking, are _minor childbirths_; each entailing a cycle\nof complex physiological processes, with more or less considerable\nconstitutional and nervous stress, debility and incapacitation. Nature\nexacts from her this recurring toll to Life and to the Race, not only to\npreserve in her, in healthful and efficient function, the power and\nmechanism of actual child-bearing, but (only second in importance)\nperpetually to recruit her emotional womanhood and wifehood.\n\nWhen girls in course of developing the maternal function, with all its\nattendant psychical implications, are strained by athletics, by\nover-culture or industrial exhaustion, the vital resources are so\ndiverted from the evolution of this function as to cause incapacitation\nin them, partial or complete, for wifehood, and for the bearing of sound\nand fine offspring. Sterilisation, absolute or partial, is induced; with\ndwarfed structure, blighted emotions and warped instincts. Even in women\nwho have developed normally, disease or atrophy of reproductive organs\nmay follow constitutional strain or undue effort.\n\nToll to Life, in genesis of potential lives, is exacted likewise from\nthe male. It is a reflex in him of the vital maternal function, inherent\nin his Woman-side. And this perpetual Life-tax upon his energies so\nreduces these as to temper his physical and nervous activities and his\nbent for individuation, and thus inhibits him from squandering his whole\npotential of Life-power in volitional output. Thus is preserved in him\nthat normal proportion between Individuation and Perpetuation which\nHerbert Spencer describes as existing in inverse ratio to one another.\n\nThus also is preserved in him the normal mental balance between the Male\nand the Female departments of his dual brain. Men muscularly or\nintellectually overactive become lopsided and ineffective; restless and\nwasteful of their forces, chill and sterile of temperament; having lost\nthat fine fructifying calm wherein creative potential is engendered for\nconcrete achievement; having lost also that equipoise of faculty\nwhereon mental and moral stability depend.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Life-tax levied on the male is incomparably less, however, than that\nexacted of the female.\n\n\nIV\n\nIt is because of their _anabolic_ mode of tissue-cells, less wasteful\nupon the material plane, that girls and women normally require less food\nthan boys and men do. Notwithstanding that their bodies are more highly\nnourished than are those of males. Healthy young women continue to be\nplump and pretty, healthful and active on bread-and-butter, fruits and\nsweetmeats. While mannish women, whose physiology has deteriorated to\nthe _katabolic_, disruptive and forceful, male mode, possess frequently\nthe hungry appetites of men; not only for food but for drink. And yet\nwithal, they are lean and for the most part plain, and poorly nourished.\n\nWith the wane in her of the _anabolic_ mode of cellular conservation,\nand the release thereby of vital resources which, sealed up in her\ntissue-cells at adolescence, remain invested in organisation during her\nyears of possible motherhood, woman in whom sex is not highly developed\nreverts more or less (as does the constitutionally-deteriorated oyster)\nto the masculine type. She lapses to a _katabolic_ metabolism.\n\nAt middle-age, accordingly, provided she be still healthy, she derives a\nconsiderable accession of energy, physical and intellectual. Now for the\nfirst time relieved of the Life-tax upon her resources, her powers are\nreleased from bond, and become more fully available for individuation\nand personal activity.\n\nAt the same time, with this conversion of constitutional investment to\nthe form of current and available energy, there occurs a\nproportional--sometimes a very signal--impoverishment of organisation;\nand, after a phase of recrudescent emotionalism, a cooling and thinning\nof passional feeling. Because such realisation of invested vital capital\nis inevitably the precursor of decline. Thenceforward her cells, no\nlonger sustaining their high evolutionary states, generate more of\nconcrete energy, and endow her with increased powers of action. But\ntheir conditional deterioration is manifest in general deterioration of\nphysique, of looks, and frequently of health.\n\nNot seldom, indeed, when her constitutional reserves had been previously\ndepleted by over-expenditure, physical or mental, the cell-deterioration\nof this epoch lapses to serious disease or disability; to rheumatism,\ngout, cancer or other perverted forms.\n\nWith the constitutional and biological changes come psychical changes\ntoo. In women in whom sex is not highly-specialised, middle-age entails,\nwith its quasi-masculine physical phase, quasi-masculine mental traits.\nThey may become strenuous and combative, sometimes difficult and\ndomineering. Perhaps they attach themselves to political and ethical\n\"anti\"-movements, as arena for their new combativeness, their augmented\nintellection, and increased physical activity.\n\nIn the most womanly of women also (as in men at a later epoch) there\noccurs at this period a natural transposition of the parental traits of\nAltruism and Chivalry to the impersonal plane; moving them to mother and\nfather the world in general, by way of Charity, Philanthropy, Reform.\n\n\nV\n\nIs it not waste of power and faculty, is asked, for able and cultured\nwomen to permit their development, physical and mental, to adapt to the\nsimple requirements of a nursery?\n\nUncultured and more or less brainless women of an inferior class, it is\nsaid, should be adequate, surely, to cope with the minds and the needs\nof these immature beings.\n\nImmature they are, in truth. But they are nevertheless strangely\ncomplex; exquisitely sensitive. And they are men and women in the\nmaking--or the marring. Behind the eyes of any child that looks at you\nin dumb and wistful impotence to express itself, to defend itself, to\nprovide and to care for itself, may lie the mind, in bud, of a\nShakespeare, of a Newton, of a Shelley; of a Florence Nightingale, a\nMrs. Somerville, a Charlotte Bronte.\n\nHow the most ordinary child, indeed, of cultured parents suffers acutely\nin feeling, and deteriorates in mind and character under the regime of\nblundering rebuffs, scoldings and misapprehensions, he meets at every\nturn in the nursery ruled by a crude, hard woman of the labouring\nclasses!\n\nHow, when they have grown older in years but are still only young in\nunderstanding, all youth suffers from the shallow motherhood that was\nkind, maybe, and helpful to it in its childhood, but fails it utterly in\nthe stress and difficulties of its teens!\n\n\nTrue motherhood is the greatest of the Creative Arts; Mother-craft, the\nmost vital and complex of the Sciences. Life has never received more\nthan a tithe of that which Nature destined for it, owing to lack of\nmother-nurture. Genius has never fruited to full bloom and potence,\nbecause the mothers have so seldom realised the greatness of their task.\n\nNearly all the records of childhood that writers have given us are\nannals of bewildered mental suffering and of moral torture, which have\nleft their evil mark in injured health or warped mentality--not seldom\nin both.\n\nThe home, with all the intuitive wisdoms, the powers and sympathies and\nthe maternal ministry of a true mother, is indispensable to the nurture\nof Individualism, and thereby to the evolution of human character and\nfaculty.\n\nThe true home is the temple of the soul. Souls are exquisitely\nsensitive, infinitely shy. And only in the warm and fostering\natmosphere of kindred beings do they find courage to unfold in living\nattribute. Every home should be a unique environment, pre-eminently\nspecialised and adapted to the evolution of the young and tender\nnursling-individualities shaping in it. To uproot these prematurely from\ntheir native soil and transplant them in an alien one, is to blight\nnascent talent and to warp character. For the reason that it\nnecessitates too early individuation, with precocious development of\nself-protective and other qualities of worldly expedience.\n\nTo plant out the shivering, exquisitely sensitive seedling, the human\nBabe, in the chill, communal atmosphere of a Creche or other\ninstitution, is as inhuman a social crime as it is an inhuman social\ncrime to defraud its mother of her highest evolutionary impulse and\nfunction in the nurture of her little one--a responsibility she has\nincurred, a privilege she has earned by right of her maternity.\n\nIn her nursery, the mind of woman opens new windows of illumination,\nglimpses new vistas of thought and emotion, higher and lovelier\napprehensions of the profounder meanings of Life. In her nursery, her\neyes learn tenderness, her voice sweet modulation, her speech new purity\nand fondness.\n\nIn good and happy homes where young persons, in place of being banished\nto schools, grow up in the natural bracing and inspiring atmosphere of\nparental influence and affection, Sex evolves new issues, in those\nattractions and sympathies of its Contrasting Traits which are evoked by\nthe relations of mother and son, of father and daughter, of brother and\nsister.\n\nUnder modern conditions, in which children and young persons renew\nintermittent acquaintance merely with parents and brothers and sisters\nduring brief holiday visits--returning home, with every added term of\nabsence, more and more strangers to their kin, their personalities and\ninterests increasingly detached from those of the home circle--such\npotent and inspiring developments of sex are vanishing.\n\nA wide gulf, truly, separates from their fathers these modern\nself-centred, self-opinionated young sportswomen and over-academised\ngirls. The charming filial relation, engendering new and tender\nsex-amenities in the daughter's hero-worship and reliance on the manhood\nof her sire, in the father's protective chivalry and recruital of his\nyouth in the company and interests of his young daughter, is waning\ntoward extinction. The vast majority of fathers feel dismally\nconstrained, indeed, and out of countenance in the presence of their\ngirls--so smart and sophisticated, so superior, critical and\nself-sufficing are our latter-day school and college-maidens. For the\nmost part, their own daughters are the last among womenkind to whom men\nturn, to reap something of the freshness and fairness of the younger\ngeneration they have sown and laboured for.\n\nWhile the up-to-date mother aspires to no higher or more beautiful place\nin her boy's life and affections than that of \"good chum!\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE EXTINCTION OF SEX IN ADOLESCENCE\n\n                           \"We may outrun,\n     By violent swiftness, that which we run at,\n     And lose by over-running.\"\n\n     _Shakespeare._\n\n\nI\n\nHow now, in detail, does the Feminist creed lend itself to the\nbiological developments and indications of Nature described in the last\nchapter?\n\nUnfortunately, as already intimated, it ignores, violently combats at\nevery turn, and only too frequently wholly frustrates them.\n\nFeminist leaders have shown themselves deplorably indifferent alike to\nbiological and to sociological law. Losing sight of the truth that the\nintrinsic and eternal function of Humanity is Parenthood--and more\nparticularly Motherhood--they have made, all along the line, not for the\ntrue emancipation of woman but for her commercialisation, merely.\n\nThe economic viewpoint has obsessed them wholly. Not to free woman from\ndisabilities under which her womanhood, her wifehood, and her motherhood\nwere suffering, but to convert her powers into industrial and marketable\ncommodities has been the aim. That higher ideals are bound up with\neconomics, is true. The rights of honest self-support and adequate wage,\nleading to kindlier, healthier and happier life-conditions, are, by\nimproving constitution and character, important assets on the side of\nEvolution. But by far the most urgent and important consideration in\neconomics, as these affect women, is the fundamental biological\nprinciple that, because their greatest of all values lie in their\nevolutionary and racial endowments, rather than in their concrete and\ncommercial efficiencies, the sex requires and is entitled to such more\nlenient and privileged social and industrial adjustments as admit of due\nquota of its vital resources, physical and mental, remaining conserved\nin the potential. In place of these being differentiated and expended to\nthe degree natural to man, and exacted of him by his prescribed role in\nprogress.\n\nIn direct and violent opposition to Nature, the Feminist system does\neverything possible, however, to frustrate that normal phase of arrest\nalong lines of concrete development whereon the higher evolution of\nwoman--and in woman, of the Race--depends. Just at the age when Nature\nlocks the door upon her constitutional resources, for the purpose of\nevolving these to higher organisation, the schools and industries do a\nstrenuous best to keep the door forcibly open, and to wrest the\nresources from the storehouse of potential. With a view to fitting woman\nto compete with the male, in whom such arrest of individuation, in the\nracial interests, is occurring to vastly less degree.\n\nIn all ways, the natural languors and disabilities of the girl's\nadolescent phase are vigorously combated. The unfortunate young\ndeveloping creature is exhorted, spurred--compelled by rigid rule,\nindeed (whatsoever her physiological disabilities), to take her part in\nstrenuous exertions; hard drill, cricket, hockey, football; with the aim\nof developing masculine muscles where feminine muscles should be. At the\nsame time, her brain is forced, crammed and exploited by perpetual\nmental tasks; by competitive examinations, or by some or another strain\nof specialism, intellectual or industrial. The result is that she is\nforcibly precluded from evolving to those higher, subtler modes of body\nand of mind, which are the essence, the charm and the inspiration of\nthe sex; and the model of the Race to be.\n\nOur school-girls and work-girls, in whose already impoverished, or\ndegenerate, bodies this battle for their resources between Nature and\nCulture (or Industrialism) is waged--the one to make them normal, the\nother to make them abnormal--are all more or less in states of disease;\nare chlorotic, anaemic, neurotic, dyspeptic, hysterical; or suffer from\nailments special to their sex. While some are sturdy and florid and\nbuxom (prematurely middle-aged), more are neurasthenic and attenuated,\nill-nourished, spectacled, breastless, hipless, pale or pimply; are\nrestless, emotionless, joyless, cynical, discontented. In but few\nare found the thrill and joy, the pulse and spring and natural\nenthusiasms of healthy, happy young creatures in the dawn and grace of\nmaidenhood. Such as are charming and pretty possess these natural\nwoman-characteristics only too often in fragile and weed-like\nform. The constitutional degeneracy of some shows in precocious\nsex-development--all precocity being degeneracy, development too\nrapid and exhaustive, and entailing therefore flimsy and unstable\ntissue-cells, faulty functioning and premature decline.\n\nA proportion, one is thankful to say, are normal and healthful and\ncharming, endowed with the attributes and graces, personal and mental,\nfor which Nature is shaping in the sex. Others are, biologically\nspeaking, mere lamentable \"spoiled copies\"; amazons of the hockey,\nfootball, tennis or hunting-fields, only just distinguishable in general\ncharacteristics from the male, and lacking more or less wholly in\nwomanly psychology and aptitude, and in all the fairer and nobler\nattributes of their sex. Still others, although handsome and finely\nfemale of physique, are \"splendidly null\" in respect of the emotions,\nand of the other subtler and psychical developments of natural\nwomanhood.\n\nThe Greeks, with their intuitive apprehension, pourtrayed both Athene,\ngoddess of Intellect, and Artemis, goddess of Sports, as sexless,\npassionless, unwedded and childless; scorners of men, devoid of all\nwomanly impulse and sentiment. (Strangely enough, as though anticipating\nthe argument of this book, Athene is described as having sprung, in full\nlife, from her father's brain. While Scripture tells of Eve derived from\nAdam's side.)\n\nIn _The New System of Gynaecology_, the latest and most authoritative\ntreatise by eminent specialists in women's diseases, the following\npassage occurs, under heading, \"Derangement of the Sex-Characteristics\":\n\n\"It is our belief that the more truly feminine a woman is, psychically\nand physically, in instinct and in performance, so much the more\ncomplete and normal will be the functions of her mind and body. We have\nalready alluded to inverted instincts. And in the perversion of\nfunctions and characteristics (physical phenomena) we may observe all\ngrades from almost complete masculinity in appearance, _with the\ndisappearance of the feminine functions_, to the lesser degrees of\ndisordered function and characteristics.\"\n\n\nII\n\nNature is so complex, yet so subtly consistent in her workings, that\nthe neuter-state shows in the faces of many of our women as the\ntypical look of the mule--cross between horse and ass, a creature\nincapable of reproduction. In the eyes of young women of strenuous\npursuits--academic, industrial, or athletic, this characteristic sterile\nglint, part boldness, part antagonism, is common.\n\nThe normal condition of woman is attended by the normal expression of\nwoman. The womanly biology entails the womanly psychology. And modesty\nis one of the natural female secondary Sex-characteristics, attendant\nupon healthy structural development and function. The hard, bold\nglance--the \"mule\"-look--of some masculine girls and women by no means\nnecessarily implies conscious immodesty. It is mainly biological and\nsubconscious; sign of an attribute missing, as result of deterioration\nof the function in which the attribute is normally rooted.\n\nWith reduced values of that Reproductive function it is modesty's\nprovince to defend, the attribute of modesty declines.\n\n\nThe girls and women of old Sparta, as ignorant of biology as women are\nto-day, made a cult of athletics--good and zealous, but mistaken\npatriots!--for the express purpose of mothering a fine, athletic race.\nThese high and praiseworthy aims failed signally. For Sparta, with all\nher zeal of racial improvement (so drastic in its methods that she\nkilled her weakly girl-infants) fell upon decline and degeneracy. Noble\ncivilisation that she had been, she died in decadent corruption.\n\nAnd showing the relation between athletic pursuits and extinction of\nwomanly qualities, the Spartan cult of Maleness led to such decay of\nmodesty that it became the custom for women to run with the men in The\nGames, naked as they. A custom that sprang less from actual immodesty\nthan from lapse of that normal Sex-specialisation, whence arises the\nnormal sex-consciousness which engenders wholesome reserve between the\nsexes. Modern developments of a similar extinction of womanly modesty\nare seen in the conduct of latter-day girls and women in public parks\nand elsewhere; in the unseemly familiarities of mixed bathing; in the\ndecadent, unduly-familiar or frankly indecent dances, and the frankly\nindecent modes of dress just now in vogue. As too in that so-called\n\"candour\" which permits women of culture to talk openly of the most\nintimate physiological functions, and, without sense of shame, to\ndiscuss across the dinner-table prurient scandals and other unsavoury\ntopics.\n\nThe mystery of the creative powers of Life occulted in her has ever\ninvested woman, for man, with glamour and reverence, enhancing a\nthousandfold her charm and appeal to his chivalry and tenderness. In\nstripping herself of womanly reserve and dignity, alike in demeanour and\ndress, she shatters her mystery for him and forfeits her supremest claim\nupon his manhood; while robbing him of his fairest illusions and most\ninspiring incentives.\n\n\nIII\n\nIn cases of sex-transformation in the lower creatures, the lapse to a\nmasculine type is found to be accompanied by atrophy of reproductive\nglands. As recorded in a previous chapter, investigations by Roerig show\nthat when the ovaries of female deer atrophy from any cause, male\nantlers develop.\n\nMannish sex-characteristics in women are as abnormal and as unnatural,\nand arise from a similar cause as do male antlers in female deer.\n\nWith the wane of parental power, normal to middle-age, there occurs a\nlike--but in such case a natural--atrophy of glands. And this it is that\ncauses some women to acquire masculine traits at this epoch.\n\nDegrees, greater or less, of such a decline (natural to middle-aged\nwomen) are being artificially, and prematurely, induced in our girls and\nyoung women. Some of them become actually sterilised, and are wholly\nincapable of reproduction. The greater number are only partially\nsterilised. They are capable still of being mothers. But the function,\nin place of being the crown and the fulfilment of their natures, is a\ndisability; is more or less of a morbid process, indeed. And their\noffspring are more or less deteriorate. Not a few, after\nmarriage--called upon to fulfil functions the resources whereof have\nbeen sapped by other and abnormal activities--become invalids; a number\nrequire surgical treatment.\n\nNon-development, similar atrophy, or other deterioration of the mammary\nglands precludes the vast majority of our young mothers from nourishing\ntheir babes--a deplorable injury to these as well as to the mothers\nthemselves; physical and psychical function being closely and subtly\nallied.\n\nWomen who fence or play hockey and other rough games during girlhood,\nbecome, owing to such degenerative atrophy, incapacitated for lactation.\n\nThe following is an interesting example of the manner in which cruder\nand lower-grade power may be increased at the cost of higher faculties.\nA patient told me that, having been naturally a poor walker--two miles\nhaving been her limit--she had determined to train herself out of this\nwhich she regarded as an infirmity. Accordingly, by persistent practice,\nshe succeeded in raising her walking-power to ten miles daily. She\nmentioned incidentally--seeing no relation of cause and effect--that,\nfor several years (the years during which her walking-powers had been\nincreasing) _she had become progressively deaf_.\n\nThat she had been, in point of fact, sapping the potential of the\ncomplex, invaluable faculty of hearing, in order to equip her\nleg-muscles, was confirmed for me a few weeks later, when I\nread of a number of cyclists, who, after one of those deplorable\npacing-exhibitions common to-day, came in, one and all, stone deaf: a\nconsequence of nervous strain. The deafness in these cases passed off\nwith rest. But it is easy to understand that from such temporary\nfunctional depletions frequently recurring, permanent structural\ndeterioration must result inevitably. Thus it is that over-use, in\nsports and games, of the muscles of shoulder and chest, occasions\natrophy of mammary glands.\n\nBy no other way than by artificially inducing in them a premature\n(partial) climacteric, by perverting their young organisations to the\nquasi-masculine type of the middle-aged woman, and thereby releasing,\nfor available output, power which should have remained conserved for\nmany years in organisation, can women be fitted for masculine pursuits.\nAnd such sterilisation, where it is not producing actually diseased and\ndegenerate offspring, is producing a pitiful race of pallid and\nenfeebled babes and children; dyspeptic and spectacled,\nadenoid-afflicted, unchildlike and generally deteriorate.\n\nThat other factors contribute to the wave of Racial decline now menacing\nour modern civilisations, great and small, is true. Yet mothers of fine\nvital potential are able to counteract and to minimise the effects of\nconstitutional disease in the other parent to degrees but little\nrealised. Because such mothers are so lamentably rare.\n\n\nIV\n\nIt is the natural release of vital forces, consequent upon the normal\nwane of mother-power at middle-age, that has been mainly responsible for\nthe errors of the Woman's Movement.\n\nIn all its aims and methods it has been essentially a Middle-aged\nWoman's movement. There are no young ideals in it; no concessions to\nyouth, to love, to graciousness or sentiment; none to wifehood or to\nmotherhood. It has been, for the most part, a grim, dour striving after\nneuter standards, neuter models, neuter efficiencies, neuter lives and\nneuter recompenses.\n\nIdentity of brain and muscle, of aims and claims, of games and\navocations; equal rights and equal work and equal pay have been the\nwatchwords of its propaganda. \"Fair play and no privileges!\" its\npromoters rigorously demand for these poor weedy girl-neurotics who,\nbeyond all else, require industrial concessions and the human clemency\nof adequate rest and leisure, to allow of normal and healthful\ndevelopment of their growing brains and bodies.\n\nPioneered by strenuous, middle-aged women--with the best intentions, be\nit said--Feminists have adopted the fatal policy of sternly impressing\nthe model of their own quasi-masculine middle-age as the standard of\nyouthful development. Without, for a moment, suspecting that such\nwresting of male energies and efficiencies from its young women-victims\nhas inevitably entailed upon them degrees of that climacteric of\nwomanhood which is the herald of decline. On the contrary, this\nmiddle-aged, quasi-masculine state, because of its release of power for\nsterner purposes, has been hailed as a triumph of Emancipation and of\nhigher education; proof positive that woman is not man--only because she\nhas lacked opportunity to become so.\n\nIn point of fact, these unfortunate young creatures have been, and are\nbeing all the while ever further despoiled of their youth, of their sex,\nand their fair heritage of life and happiness, of function and of\nfaculty. And the Race has been robbed of priceless living wealth in\nhuman health and capability.\n\nThe breasts of these despoiled have shrunk, in place of blossoming.\nThere are no founts of altruistic life in them. Never will they be\ncapable of nurturing babes, or of contributing their mysterious due to\npsychical attribute. The pelvis remains narrow and puerile. Never can it\nserve as hostel for a babe of normal, healthful type.\n\nIn the vast majority of modern girls and women, the reproductive organs\nare structurally immature or functionally defective.\n\nDr. Gaillard Thomas, an eminent American gynaecologist, estimated, some\nyears since, that only about 4 per cent. of American women proper were\nphysiologically fitted to become wives and mothers.\n\nThe United States have been and are all the while deriving fresh influx\nof vigour and vitality in stock, from the continuous immigration of\nsimpler and more vitalised peoples. But American women proper have never\nrecovered from the strain and hardships of adaptation to a new\nenvironment, which settlers in alien and undeveloped countries\nnecessarily encounter; the deteriorative influences whereof are shown in\nconstitutional impoverishment of the parent-stock. This is true, as\nwell, of our Colonial kin. Not only the strain of acclimatisation, but\ntoo the hard and rough life-conditions women have to cope with in\nundeveloped lands are responsible for the constitutionally-debilitated,\nor, on the other hand, for the rawer and less highly-organised racial\ntypes found in new settlements.\n\nIn the United States, moreover, the standards of culture and of training\nare pre-eminently artificial. Democratic sentiment and material\nprosperity induce persons of working-class biological organisation to\nover-tax their children's brains and constitutions by forcing these to\nthe educational standards and culture of stock that has evolved, by\ngenerations of higher nurture, to higher evolutionary grades. The\n\"newly-rich,\" eager for their families to profit (as they regard it) by\nopportunities denied themselves, invariably commit this radical error of\nover-estimating academic education and social accomplishment. They fail\nto realise that one can no more attain culture than one can acquire\nbreeding in a single generation. It takes _three_ generations of\nculture--of comparative ease and freedom from the strain of industrial\nlabour and living--to evolve the crude muscular arm of a working woman\ninto the shapely, refined arm of a gentlewoman. And so it must be with\nbrains. In nineteen cases out of twenty, a 'Varsity education serves as\nirreparable injury rather than as benefit to a working-class youth,\ndepleting health or warping character as it inevitably does.\n\nThe strain of living above the evolutionary level is exhaustive and\nharmful, physically and mentally, both to individuals and to stock. The\nprudence of apportioning education to the grade of evolutionary\ndevelopment is strikingly shown in the cases of negroes, who, when\nover-taxed by the education normal to white races, not seldom become\nblind or consumptive. And always the morale deteriorates. The forcing\nupon our own labouring-classes of an education above that suited to\ntheir natural powers has contributed largely to the constitutional\ndeterioration and the neurasthenia common among them to-day.\n\nOne of the factors of modern Labour-unrest, indeed, is the physical\nunfitness of debilitated and neurotic working-men to cope capably and\ncheerfully with the tasks of earlier and sturdier generations.\n\nThe urgent need of all our over-civilised races is not more education\nbut more _native faculty_.\n\nEvery form of disease and degeneracy, physical and mental, is rampant. A\nwell-known authority on brain-diseases warns us that if mental\ndefectiveness continues to increase at its present rapid pace, soon we\nshall be unable to support the asylums required to accommodate and\nsegregate the unfortunate victims thereof. They must remain at large--to\nperpetuate and multiply indefinitely their terrible afflictions.\n\nYet how is it possible that such weedy, half-sterilised creatures as are\nso many of our modern mothers, should bear sound and sane and vigorous\noffspring?\n\nInherited debilitation and defect are further aggravated by present-day\neducational methods.\n\nOur modern rendering of the training of the young is the _straining_ of\nthe young.\n\nDeveloping creatures should never be allowed to over-use function or\nfaculty. Because to over-tire an immature faculty is to deplete its\nvital resources of development. Nor should young developing creatures be\npermitted to do anything too strenuously or for too long a time.\nNarrowness and mental warp result inevitably from too early and too long\nperiods of concentration in one direction, of the ductile shaping brain.\n\nIn defiance, nevertheless, of this first principle of rearing, boys and\ngirls, after the morning's brain-work, are kept at strenuous games for\nhours in succession.\n\nBody and mind, after having been cramped between the covers of\ntext-books, now are cramped within the narrow rules and rigid form of\nsuch miscalled \"games,\" supervised by over-keen experts--the whole\nbusiness exacting sustained muscular tension, temperamental excitement\nand competitive nervous strain. The powers are stretched to win some\ngoal, in place of being unbent in leisure and in pleasure. True play is\nspontaneous enjoyment of the moment, not fierce concentration upon\ngoals. This latter induces excitement, which may be pleasurable, but it\nentails its tax in reactionary exhaustion. Because of the spur of\ncompetition in them, sports and games, as now rendered, act as powerful\nnerve-stimulants that deplete and waste the vital powers.\n\nSchool-boys and school-girls live, for the most part, in alternating\nstates of high tension in sports and reactionary languors from the heart\nand nervous strain resulting therefrom.\n\nSince sports and athletics became a cult, heart-diseases have increased\nby 50 _per cent._ We complain that our young men are limp and\nunintelligent, lacking in initiative and enterprise. Apart from the\nserious circumstance that, mentally, they have been trained for\ncricket, not for life, most of them (to employ their own phrase) have\n\"gone stale\" in heart and brain, in consequence of forced athletics,\nlong before they come to the momentous business of living. Even their\nmuscles have wasted, in place of developing. With the result that\ninstead of being finely-built and graceful, numbers of our youths are\nstiff, stoop-shouldered and abnormally attenuated.\n\nEducation should aim at keeping young persons fresh and unstrained;\ncharged with vital energies for growth of mind and body, filled with\nzest and enthusiasm for the career before them.\n\n\nEverywhere, mothers deplore bitterly that they can obtain neither duty,\nobedience, nor affection from their girls. Many will not mend their\nclothes even; refuse so slight a domestic concession as to arrange\nflowers for the home. Lacking the morbid excitement of competitive rough\ngames, an abnormal craving for which has been artificially created, and\nhome-tastes extinguished, at school, modern girls are bored and\ndisaffected save when indulging in sports or in other excitements. The\nmore delicate, sympathetic, and humanising amenities have no appeal for\nthem.\n\nAll the subtler, vital and inspiring impulses of natural womanhood have\nbeen rudely smothered in tussles of big muscles, in sensational crazes\nfor making hockey-goals, and similar crude aims, quite alien to natural\ngirlhood. The recurring stimulus of such, in addition to over-developing\nmale muscles and proclivities in them, creates both the habit and the\ncraving for excitement; effects pernicious and demoralising as are those\nof all habitual strong nerve-excitants.\n\nIt is impossible to exaggerate the cumulative effect of habit upon\ndisposition--and this particularly upon the plastic, shaping\ndispositions of young girls.\n\nYouth is at the mercy of its pastors and its masters, to spoil or to\nfoster its best growth. We feed the bodies and cram the brains of our\nyoung people, while, in sending them away from the home which is their\nnatural environment, we starve and dwarf their emotions and affections;\ngiving these nothing to evoke, nothing to nurture them. The abnormal\ncold-heartedness and self-absorption latter-day mothers bewail in their\ngirls are the inevitable outcome of their unnatural upbringing.\n\nThe spectacle of young women, with set jaws, eyes strained tensely on a\nball, a fierce battle-look gripping their features, their hands\nclutching some or other implement, their arms engaged in striking and\nbeating, their legs disposed in coarse ungainly attitudes, is an\nobject-lesson in all that is ugly in action and unwomanly in mode. The\nso-called \"tennis-grin,\" which on many women's faces does duty for\nsmile, shows how the muscular tension of forceful effort permanently\nmars higher attribute. So too, the proverbial quarrelsomeness of\ntennis-playing women results from the combative habit of mind. Light and\nexhilarating, in place of strenuous competitive exercises, enable girls\nto develop their womanhood in healthy structure, efficient function, and\nbeauty of body and mind. Dancing--the poetry of motion--particularly\nconduces to health and to grace. True dancing, that is, not the\nacrobatics of the professional dancer, which result in coarsened ugly\nlimbs and stilted action.\n\n\nThere is a well-known Girls college which makes pre-eminently for the\ncult of Mannishness.\n\nAnd here are seen, absorbed in fierce contest during the exhausting heat\nof summer afternoons, grim-visaged maidens of sinewy build, hard and\ntough and set as working-women in the forties; some with brawny throats,\nsquare shoulders and stern loins that would do credit to a prize-ring.\nAll of which masculine developments are stigmata of abnormal\nSex-transformation precisely similar in origin to male antlers in\nfemale-deer; namely, deterioration of important sex-glands, with\nconsequent obliteration of the secondary Sex-characteristics arising\nnormally out of the functional efficiency of these.\n\nIt has been said that the \"hardening\" process for children succeeds in\nrearing sturdy families, by killing off those of more delicate (and\nhigher) organisation. And this and other such latter-day schools earn a\nreputation for rearing amazons, by so breaking the health and\nconstitution of their more delicately-constituted members that these are\ncompelled to withdraw. Following the rule that healthy bodies rebel in\nterms of illness against deteriorative conditions, it is the normal and\nhealthfully-constituted girls who fail beneath such injurious strain.\nWhile organisations less sound of constitutional morale, in place of\nsustaining their typal ideals, conform to these deteriorative methods,\nand degenerate from higher to lower-grade standards of structure and\nfunction. Precisely as happens to minds when exposed to demoralising\ninfluences.\n\nAnd to what end is it all? The training of modern young persons should\nfit them for Twentieth-Century existence in all its varied, complex and\npsychical developments. Yet now-a-days we train our girls as though\ntheir destiny were carpet-beating or the forge, rather than the higher\nhuman amenities. It is not surprising, therefore, that they frequently\nplay hockey with the higher amenities. So impressionable and mimetic the\nsex is, and such its bent toward extremes, that women trained to Sports\ncomport themselves in after-life as though playing a competitive game. A\nmental warp which has been one of the sources of latter-day\nstrenuousness, as too of that fierce social rivalry which is wrecking\nolder and fairer ideals and methods of friendship and hospitality.\n\nOver-development of the large and cruder muscles dwarfs those smaller\nand more delicate ones which adapt to the softer and subtler departments\nof faculty. And while despoiling these smaller muscles which subtend\ngentle and delicate artistries, the crude larger ones, hypertrophied by\nathletic activities, become alike a burden and a curse to their\npossessor. Because not only is their upkeep a continual and a\nsuperfluous tax upon her vital powers, but their hunger for continued\nfunction in further such crude activities afflicts her with turbulent\nimpulses, for which the more civilised vocations supply no scope. The\nmilitant Feminist movement was as much an explosion of suppressed\nmuscularity in young women deprived of other outlet for accumulated\nmuscle-steam, as it was an ebullition of masculine mentality on the part\nof its leaders.\n\nHysteria and other neuroses, obsessing hobbies and crazes, are, more\noften than not, morbid and distressing consequences of habits acquired\nat school and college, of developing abnormal high-pressures of muscular\nand nervous energy. Masculine war-occupations have similarly evoked male\nmuscularity and mentality in women. So that--War over--they find it\nwell-nigh unendurable to return to the more refined and humanising\nwomanly employments of their pre-war days. While on the other hand,\nemployers are bewailing the rough and coarsened manners, personality and\nspeech, as too the clumsy movements and ineptitudes of domestic\nservants, nurses and others, de-sexed by War-work in respect of the\nhigher qualities and efficiencies of their sex. Many of these sturdy\nmotor-drivers, lusty W.A.A.Cs. and strapping Land-girls have lost all\ntaste as well as aptitude for the finer arts of life and of the home.\nEfficient in the handling of plough or gun or lorry, woe to the hapless\nbabe or invalid subjected to their hard, forceful touch!\n\n\nV\n\nLanguage is scarcely emphatic enough to characterise the painful (and\ninsane) exhibitions of Public-school and College \"Sports,\" in which boys\nand young men, whose vital forces are needed beyond all things for\ndevelopment, may be seen with faces whereon is neither joy of action nor\npride of achievement, but only the pained rigidity of supreme heart and\nnervous strain, as they strive for goals that are no test of true\nphysical fitness, but, on the contrary, prove physical lopsidedness.\n\nIn confirmation whereof is the fact that many such athletes die young,\nand die suddenly. Or they live the years when men should be still in\ntheir prime--valetudinarian and hypochondriac. The secret of health and\nnervous power is the constitutional capacity to _store reserves_ of\nvital energy, for expenditure as required. Exhausting sports in youth\nengender habits of _over-expenditure_ thereof.\n\nTrials of skill and of strength are admirable spurs to development and\nself-discipline. But these should make for excellence in that fine poise\nof Mind and Muscle which is the hall-mark of human achievement, not for\nextremes of crude brute-force (muscle being the lowest grade of human\npowers) which strain the living mechanism; and, straining, leave\ninevitably weak and warped links, when not actually snapped ones\ntherein. The human body is a marvellous and delicate psychological\ninstrument, not a mere muscular implement. When the hearts of boys are\n\"sounded\" after competitive sports, \"murmurs\" are heard; showing\nvalvular incompetency. Temporary in the majority of cases, but none the\nless indicative of gravely-weakened states which can but permanently\ninjure the fine-spun valvular apparatus. \"Dilated hearts\" caused numbers\nof our \"fine young athletes\" to be rejected as unfit for military duty.\n\nYoung men \"in training\" suffer from albuminuria, showing serious\nderangement of the kidney-function; derangement which inevitably entails\nsuch permanent structural deterioration as lapses readily, in after\nyears, to grave disease.\n\nThe fallacy that the excitement of games distracts the attention of\nyouth from the processes of sex-development has been disproved. While\nall athletic boys are not vicious, it is now recognised that the most\nvicious are the athletic. The languors of body and mind reactionary upon\nthe exciting strain of games are unwholesome languors; and breed\nunwholesome self-absorptions. A fresh and active imagination, to keep\nthe mind interested at every turn, is the best of all safeguards. It is\nin the imagination, moreover, that higher moral and ideals arise.\n\nIt has been said that \"the battle of Waterloo was won on the\nplaying-fields of Eton.\" It was far more likely won in the pages of\n_Jack the Giant Killer_! Because in war, as in most other things, moral\nis more potent than muscle. There is, it is true, a moral of Games. But\nits outlook and its application are both contracted of range and\nartificial of form. Games are useful in forming habits and in exercising\nfaculties of co-operation in concerted action. But being played in\ncompany with others, and played in obedience to rule and regulation,\nthey allow no scope for the development of individualism in mind or\ncharacter, initiative or resource--outside the narrow boundaries of\ncricket-pitch or football field.\n\nBy perpetual absorption of the powers in the movements of a ball, the\nmind becomes contracted and set in puerile mould, during years when it\nshould be germinating and expanding in response to the countless varied\nand inspiring stimuli and factors of natural environment. Over-keenness\nin sports destroys the sense of beauty, love of art and love of Nature.\n\nThe grey matter of the brain--the medium of Mind--wherein arise\nimagination, inspiration and those noble talents and the noble dreams of\nenterprise which make for noble lives--this highest and most complex of\nthe human tissue-cells becomes starved and atrophied from continued\nwaste of brain-resources by those lower-grade cerebral motor-tracts\nwhich control and energise the muscles.\n\nThe popular impression, both lay and medical, that muscular exertion\nsupplies rest to the brain and recuperation to the nervous system, is a\nsad delusion. One cannot raise a finger without expending brain and\nnervous force, the muscles being implements by way of which the brain\ntransforms purpose into action--being _brain_-implements therefore. So\nthat brains--and particularly young brains--unduly taxed by muscular\nactivities are robbed of power to develop or to function in their\nintellectual and other higher departments.\n\n\nIf my hypothesis be true, and the right side of the body with its allied\nbrain-hemisphere is the executive and expenditure side, while the left\nis the Life and asset side, it is obvious that excessive brain-work, or\nSports, for which the executive power is supplied by this right side and\nits allied brain half, must necessarily deplete and exhaust the left\nside, which is the power-house and reservoir of Life and Mind whence the\nexecutive half derives its mental, nervous and vital potential.\n\nIt goes without saying that such careful economy of the powers is\nsuperfluous in truly healthful and normally vigorous males. But\nlatter-day stock has been, for the most part, so far depleted by\ngenerations of neglect of natural law as to require the strictest\nhusbandry of its vital expenditure, in order to apportion its means to\nthe best all-round advantage.\n\n\nObject-lessons in such extremes of athleticism as destroy the normal\nbalance of the counter-poising Sex-traits have been supplied by War.\n\nThe faces--as the natures--of some of our soldiers have become crude,\ncoarse and deteriorate in intelligence, others abnormally harsh and\nfierce; the softer human qualities having been trampled out of them by\nstress of militarism, some to degrees of brutalisation and criminality,\neven. While a very great number show lined and haggard from heart or\nnervous strain.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE WOMAN BRAIN: ITS POWERS AND DISABILITIES\n\n     \"_My state is like the lightning's light--\n     Now it shines forth, and now 'tis gone from sight.\n     At times, amid the heavens I find my seat;\n     At others, I am lower than my feet._\"\n\n     Sa'di (Persian poet).\n\n\nI\n\nOf what order is this Woman-half of Mind which Feminism seeks to\nextinguish?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe cerebral processes appreciable upon the Outer plane, and calculable\nby Science, represent no more than a tithe of brain-activities. They are\nbut a single highly-specialised focus of brain-functioning.\n\nBehind concrete Volition, Intellection, and Action, are the silent,\nceaseless, inner and incalculable workings of innumerable brain-cells\nconcerned with the mysterious constitution and metabolism of Life, and\nits strange, potent relation and correlation with Mind and with\nenvironment; concerned with character and attribute and impulse; with\nancestral vestiges and personal experience; with memories and instincts;\nwith an infinitude of occulted and imperishable records of previous\nterrestrial existences, perhaps; concerned, in a word, with all the\nsecret springs and complex potences of Individuality; which\ndifferentiates every thought, emotion and action of any human person\nfrom those of every other.\n\nAnd in these recondite mysteries fructifying in a hundred million\nbi-sexual brain-cells, it may be that the subtle counter and\ninter-operations of the Man and Woman-traits find their highest\nactivities, and make for their supremest issues.\n\nEvery man and woman is to every other a Sealed Book, whereof no more\nthan a few pages have been glimpsed--even by those nearest and dearest.\nWe are Sealed Books to ourselves, indeed, because we do not know the\nlanguage we are written in. For of all the muted mysteries spinning\nceaselessly within the silent-functioning cells of twin\nbrain-hemispheres, Science affords us but the scantest and most sketchy\ninformation. That the grey matter coating the brain-convolutions is the\nsite of mentality; that the higher the intelligence, the deeper and more\nintricate these convolutions are; that disease of a certain area\ndestroys the power of speech; while disease of some other occasions\nparalysis of this or that group of muscles, loss of sensation in this or\nthat tract of skin. Baldly it states that a portion of a certain\nconvolution controls a certain movement of a hand. But the thousand and\none emotions and incentives prompting such movement, and differentiating\nthe resulting action across the extensive range between the noblest\nbenefaction and the blackest murder, baffle every scientific method.\n\nThe processes of Mind and Impulse occur on planes we have no means of\npenetrating, possess no appliances whereby to estimate the ethereal\nundulations thereof.\n\nWhat are we? Who are we? Whence are we? Whither do we go?\n\nAll is locked within the occulted silence of our hundred million\nbrain-cells; each of which holds and keeps its own intrinsic secret;\neach the mysterious record, it may be, of one of those countless\nexperiences, forms and phases, ancestral or individual, whereof every\nliving person is the last resultant. But the Twin-hemispheres, face to\nface within the skull, like opposite pages of a book, are key to one\nanother; one page written in the mystical language of The Past and\nFuture, the other in the concrete language of The Present.\n\n\nII\n\nIs that which I surmise to be the _Woman_--and emotional half of brain,\nthe site of the mysterious province known as The Subconsciousness, into\nthe strange powers and phenomena whereof scientists are now beginning to\ninquire?\n\nIs it the seat of that which Myers designated \"The Subliminal\nConsciousness,\" but which might well be called the Supra-Consciousness,\nbecause, in the regions of its higher functioning, it cognises things\nbeyond power of Concrete Consciousness to apprehend; intuitions,\npremonitions, apparitions, telepathic messages?\n\nIs it medium of those inherences and that sub-intelligent emotionalism\nknown as _Instinct_; which may be regarded as the implanted religion of\nrudimentary organisms, leading them upward in blind subconscious\nobedience, at sacrifice of their self-interests and disposition?\n\nRespecting the regeneration of the crystalline lens of the eye of a\nTriton, Bergson says:\n\n\n     \"_Whether we will or no, we must appeal to some inner directing\n     principle in order to account for this convergence of effects._\"\n\n\nMay it not be that this brain-half--seemingly functionless, albeit as\nmarvellously constructed and constituted as its fellow-half--is, in its\nmerely organic departments, the agency of such an \"inner principle,\"\nengendering the vital potentials of Life and Evolution, of health, of\nnervous recuperation and of biological repair? While in its departments\nof Mind, it functions as instinct, as intuition, as inspiration,\naspiration; serves as the subtly receptive medium by way of which The\nDivine Influx wells in human attribute; whereby Divine Revelation is\ncommunicated to the concrete brain-half, for interpretation in speech\nand in writing. Bergson says also: \"The consciousness of a living being\nmay be defined as an arithmetical difference between _potential_ and\n_realised_ activity. It measures the interval between representation and\naction.\" (Duality is indicated.)\n\nThe trait essentially distinguishing the human from the brute-mind, is\nIntelligent Purpose. And Purpose is the product of Impulse (or Instinct)\nand Reason, (or Concrete Intelligence). (Duality again.) Impulse is an\nemotion and is feminine. Reason is masculine. Intelligent Purpose may\nwell be, therefore, a resultant of the co-operation of the feminine half\nof the brain, which supplies Impulse, with the masculine half, which\nsupplies Reason.\n\nInstinct, Professor James, the American psychologist, has pointed out,\nexists independently of any recognition of its purpose. While Reason\nexists apart from instinct--apart therefore from the emotional impulse\nwhich gives it the personal motive-power to become purpose. Thus, either\nmode of brain without the other to supplement it would be incapable of\nfunction.\n\n_Self_-consciousness requires two departments of Consciousness--each of\nwhich is aware of the other. So that a man may judge and restrain\nimpulses in himself that are contrary to reason and expedience, or, on\nthe other hand, may choose to sacrifice both reason and self-interest to\nemotional impulse, noble and uplifting, or ignoble and debasing.\n\n\nDescribing Intellect as characterised by a natural inability to\ncomprehend Life, Professor Bergson further says: \"Instinct, on the\ncontrary, is moulded on the very form of Life.... If the consciousness\nthat slumbers in it should awake, if it were wound up into knowledge\ninstead of being wound off into action, if we could ask and it could\nreply, it would give up to us the most intimate secrets of Life.\"\n\nAgain Duality of mental processes is inferred. As too in the following\npassage:\n\n\"Instinct is sympathy. If this sympathy could extend its object and also\nreflect upon itself, it would give us the key to vital operations--just\nas intelligence, developed and disciplined, guides us into Matter....\nIntelligence, by means of science ... brings us, and moreover only\nclaims to bring us, a translation of Life in terms of inertia.... But it\nis to the very inwardness of Life that Intuition leads us--by Intuition\nI mean instinct that has become disinterested, self-conscious, capable\nof reflecting upon its object and of enlarging it indefinitely.\"\n\n\nIII\n\nThe phenomena of Hypnotism seem to set the Duality of cerebral processes\nbeyond dispute.\n\nDr. George H. Savage, Consulting Physician and late Lecturer on Mental\ndiseases at Guy's Hospital, in his Harveian Oration, October 1909,\ntestified as follows to the strangeness and authenticity of hypnotic\nevidences:\n\n\n     \"Wishing to follow our great master in not accepting anything\n     without personal investigation, I took advantage of the opportunity\n     offered by Dr. Wright, to test some of the points of most\n     importance to which I have referred.\n\n     \"A gentleman, an engineer, who had been relieved by treatment by\n     Dr. Wright, was willing to allow him to demonstrate the various\n     stages of hypnotism and their effects.... He was asked to sit down\n     and talk quietly about his relationship to hypnotism. Then he was\n     told to go to sleep. A few passes being made over his head, he\n     slowly closed his eyes, and in less than a minute he was sleeping\n     placidly. By the gentle stroking of his left arm this was rendered\n     inflexible. The pulse was in no way affected; pupils were equal,\n     but rather larger than before he slept, and were sluggish. He was\n     slowly aroused (it being well always to recall the subject slowly).\n     After a talk on general matters he stated that he had no sense of\n     fatigue in the arm, nor any recollection of anything said and done\n     during the period of hypnosis.\n\n     \"He was again, in a similar way, sent to sleep. It was then\n     suggested that at the end of seven minutes he should lose all power\n     and sensibility in his right side. He was roused, given a\n     cigarette, which he smoked while he talked, having no knowledge of\n     the suggestion which had been made. About five minutes after he had\n     been roused, _his right arm fell useless by his side, he passing at\n     the same time into a partial stage of hypnosis_. _This is common\n     when a post-hypnotic suggestion is being carried out. The whole of\n     the right side, including the face, was insensitive_; the pupils\n     were smaller and inactive. He was again slowly aroused, and resumed\n     smoking, having no feeling of oppression, or recollection of\n     anything which had been said or done. He was later again\n     hypnotised, and in that condition he was asked what had been done\n     formerly. After some hesitation, he, in part, recalled the facts.\n\n     \"It is interesting to note that though constantly the acts\n     performed during hypnosis are not recalled when awake, they are\n     fully remembered on a second hypnosis. We tested his emotional side\n     by getting him to recall scenes in a comic opera, at which he\n     heartily laughed but had no knowledge of on waking. While\n     unconscious, it was suggested that when he woke he should remark\n     upon a strong odour of violets. He was awakened and offered a\n     cigarette; but, looking about the room, he asked whence the strong\n     smell of violets came.\n\n     \"I inquired as to the revival of long-past impressions, and it\n     seems that occurrences which took place before his present memory\n     existed, had been revived and verified. But still more interesting\n     was his experience in reference to a mathematical formula which he\n     had forgotten. Being hypnotised, he dictated it, and though when\n     once more awake he did not remember it, when shown what he had just\n     dictated he recognised it as the lost formula. This, of course, is\n     in a way parallel to the solution of difficult problems during\n     sleep.\"\n\n\nBe it observed that when at the end of seven minutes (as had been\n\"suggested\" to him should happen) the subject lost all power and\nsensibility in his right side and \"_his right arm fell useless by his\nside_,\" he passed \"_at the same time into a partial state of hypnosis_.\n_This is common_,\" Dr. Savage adds, \"_when a post-hypnotic suggestion is\nbeing carried out_.\"\n\nHere is strong corroboration of my argument that the right side of the\nbody, with its allied half-brain, is the agent of Material\nConsciousness, of muscular action and of physical sensation, and that it\noperates normally in fencing in the higher faculties of Mind from the\nouter plane of concrete happenings, as also of interpreting them upon\nthis plane.\n\nHypnosis is induced by devices occasioning muscular exhaustion, and thus\ntemporarily paralysing \"voluntary muscles\"--muscles, that is, which are\nunder conscious control. It is induced as well (as in the case cited) by\nstroking, and thus putting to sleep the sensory nerves--nerves which\ndefine the patient's consciousness of his material personality. It would\nseem that by such inhibition, or paralysis, of the perceptions of the\nouter consciousness, faculties of Subconsciousness--even of\nSupra-consciousness--are exposed, so that Mind itself may be dealt with\ndirect.\n\nEvery form of insensibility is closely allied with muscular relaxation\nor paralysis.\n\n\nIV\n\nExamples of the operation of the Supra-conscious faculties upon the\nconcrete plane are supplied by the marvellous feats of \"lightning\ncalculators.\"\n\nThe most intricate mathematical problems--calculations that would call\nfor lengthy and complicated intellectual processes on the part of expert\nmathematicians to work out by ordinary methods--are solved\ninstantaneously by the genius of such natural \"calculators.\" You cannot\npuzzle them; you cannot baffle them. Scarcely have you stated your\nproblem than they have calmly presented you with the solution. As\nMaeterlinck records in his interesting book, _The Unknown Guest_, this\ngenius for figures developed in Colbourn and Safford at the age of six,\nin Mangiamele at ten, in Gauss and Whateley at three. All that and more\nthan expert mathematicians laboriously acquire by decades of study and\npractice, these boy-prodigies achieved by way of native faculty. Such\nhave not the slightest notion how they arrive at their results. These\nare obtained automatically--are products of unconscious cerebration.\n\nMaeterlinck observes of this, that the resultant \"appears to rise,\ninfallible and ready-done, from a sort of eternal and cosmic reservoir\nwherein the answer to every question lies dormant.\"\n\nWhat is this \"eternal and cosmic reservoir\" if it be not Mind, or\nSupra-consciousness, as distinguished from conscious intellection--a\nnative intuitive, but undifferentiate, or potential, consciousness which\nholds the answer, \"infallible and ready-done,\" to every question.\n\nTruth _Is_. There is but one solution--the true one--of a mathematical\nor any other problem of exact science.\n\nA significant fact is that such prodigy boys generally lose their\nmysterious faculty \"_at the moment when the possessor begins to go to\nschool_.\" So soon, that is, as he develops the power of conscious\nbrain-processes--the power to work out his problems by concrete\nmethods--his native supra-conscious gift of solving them spontaneously\nfails.\n\nIntuition, the woman-mode of arriving at conclusions, lightning quick\nand true without reason or reflection, is a kindred potency of Mind.\n\"When a man,\" says a French writer, \"has laboriously climbed a\nstaircase, he is sure to find a woman at the top--although she will be\nunable to say how she came there!\"\n\nHe did not add the further truth, that--as with the prodigy boys--the\nmore you educate her to come at her conclusions by processes of\nintellection, the more you rob her of her native woman-gift of\ndivination.\n\nWith the rising level of Faculty engendered by progressive evolution,\nwoman's powers of intellection have developed too.\n\nWhile her own mental attributes are themselves of a very high order, and\ngive to her mentality an inductive subtlety and illumination lacking in\nthat of the male. And this high quality of brain it is that is now being\nextinguished in her by straining her to masculine standards.\n\nProgress awaits, indeed, the new and quickening impulse Life and Faculty\nshould derive from the Woman-mind fostered along its own inherent\nlines--to supplement the mind of man. For as Bergson says, \"it is to the\nvery inwardness of Life that Intuition leads us.\"\n\nAnd Intuition is the woman-mode of Mind.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe women intellectuals who have done great work have been women who\ninherited talents so far above the average, as spontaneously to have\nreached high mental levels, without need to have sacrificed those\nwomanly traits which gave the noblest values to such work.\n\nThe woman of average brain, however, attains the intellectual standards\nof the man of average brain only at cost of her health, of her emotions,\nor of her morale.\n\n\nV\n\nHerbert Spencer said profoundly, \"_Mind is as deep as the viscera_.\"\nIndicating it as being vital and intrinsic, at one with the occulted\nsources of Life.\n\nMind is of an order of mentality wholly different from that of\nIntelligence or Intellect. Mind is of the nature of Emotion. It is\npersonal, is sympathy, is divination. It is the cerebration of the Soul.\n\nThe Soul, or essential Individuality, must abide amid infinitely\ndelicate and delicately infinite brain-cells attuned to those spiritual\nvibrations whereof Mind is the reflex. And if Mind is Emotion, the Woman\nbrain-half, which is the department of human emotion, must be the\nmainspring of the human mind.\n\nGreat intellect, pure and simple, may exist in man or woman without or\nwith only a fractional leaven of Mind. This is seen in the abstractions\nof scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, physicists, astronomers,\nfinanciers, and others. Such brains are special organs of a high order\nof Intellection, clear, calculating and precise of observation and\nreflection; rational, deductive; admirable in their unswerving\nrectitude, pitiless in their impregnable emotionlessness; rejecting all\nbut incontestable evidences, scrupulously aggregating and faithfully\ninterpreting their dry bones of numbers and data and vestiges--skeletons\nof Life long since extinct, or scaffoldings of Life that lives and moves\nand laughs and weeps, and bears no more semblance to their bloodless\ntabulations of its modes and processes than warm, creative Mother-Earth\nresembles the geological strata they describe in her; or than a\nbeautiful flower-garden blooms in botanical treatises; or than living\nmen and women are pourtrayed in text-books of Anatomy and Physiology.\n\nMany men of Science--and all the great ones--have been men of Mind as\nwell as of Intellect. But the intellectual processes of Abstract Science\nare no more operations of Mind than the paths by which we climb to\nsun-illumined peaks are the Light upon those peaks. Mind is Spiritual\nIllumination--a glimmering of The Infinite, reflected in the highest and\nmost subtle order of the brain-cells. Rays from it are deflected toward\nthe concrete, to function as Intellection. But these rays enter the\nbrain at a different angle from that of Mind-rays.\n\nLike woman its medium, Mind is inspirational, wayward and elusive. It\ncomes we know not whence. It goes we know not whither. Receptive,\nintuitive, creative, colourful, it may be unwitting of Astronomy, yet it\nroams amid the stars. Ignorant of Geology, in it Immortal, the dry-bones\nof The Past become immortal--arise eternally in everlasting re-creation.\nIts Biology is in the lives and loves, the hopes and fears, the throes\nand tears of human souls and stories. It inspires the poet, priest,\nhistorian, romancist, artist; the seer and statesman; the philosopher\nand wondering child. It exalts the humble and meek. It may be lacking in\nthe cleverest and most learned of men. It is found in the most ignorant\nand simple women; in whom it is dumb, however, failing the intellectual\ntalent of expression.\n\n\nVI\n\nThe Woman brain-half being medium, in its higher region, of that\n_Supra_-conscious emotionalism which engenders Mind, and in its lower\nregion, of that _Sub_conscious emotionalism which engenders vital\nimpulse in the body, woman's range of mentality is wider than is that\nof man; extending both higher and lower in its opposite reaches.\n\nBut because her Intelligent Consciousness is not inherent in her own\nbrain-half, but is supplied by her borrowed masculine brain-half, her\nintelligence is more superficial, is weaker and less deep and strong of\ngrip than is his. And when the gap between her upper and her lower\nregisters is not duly bridged and stabilised by an efficient\nmiddle-register of male-intelligence, she tends toward two extremes of\nmentality, both of which are emotional. Thus she lives on the plane of\nher highest emotional impulses. Or she lives on the plane of her senses.\nSome women act and re-act perpetually between these two extremes.\n\nIn her highest _Supra_-reaches, she is athrill with Supra-faculties. In\nher lowest _Sub_-register, she is instinct and palpitant with the\ncolour, the magnetic vibrations and the blind forces of Matter, which\nher vital processes are evolving into Life.\n\nExtremes which are shown, at the one end, in the reasonless animal\nemotionalism of hysteria, with its abandon of control, its\ninco-ordinated muscular movements, its senseless weepings, cries and\nlaughter; at the other end, in catalepsy, in which she exists detached\nfrom earth and its material needs and consciousness, subsisting, it may\nbe for weeks together, without food or drink, withdrawn into the Inner,\nand potential, zones of Life and Mind. So that, no longer subject to\nlimitations of Matter, she perceives without aid of the senses,\napprehends without aid of intelligence, discerns without help of the\neyes, hears without instrumentality of ears. And Time and Space no\nlonger circumscribing her essential faculties, she visions happenings at\nthe Antipodes, overhears whispers across a Continent, recalls The Past,\nforetells The Future.\n\n\nIt is because of the potence of the Subconscious medium in her,\ninstinct with the magnetic forces of Evolving Matter, that, in her\nintelligence, she shows as more materialistic than man is, although\nwarmer and more quickened in her feelings.\n\nLiving personalities and issues mean to her more than intellectual\nabstractions do. She is more materialistic because she cares more for\nthe things that matter! The puddings which in her children's young\nbodies will be transmuted into living flesh and function, are to her of\nmore significance than the Isosceles Triangle is.\n\n(All that is true of the Woman brain-half must be true of the Woman\nbrain-half in man. In him, however, his own hemisphere dominates the\nbent and faculty of its female counterpart.)\n\nIt is in the emotional impressionability of the Subconsciousness that\nhabit, good and bad, is formed. Hence woman's native susceptibility to\nher environment--a susceptibility which renders indispensable due\nprotection of her mind and nature during years when habits of thought\nand of conduct are shaping in her. Normal man, whose emotionalism is\n(like woman's intelligence) a borrowed faculty, differs essentially from\nher in this. His intelligence is inherent and more stably rooted. He is\nfar less mimetic, far less a creature of circumstance. His firmer will\nand stronger intellect enable him to rise superior to environmental\nconditions, to shake himself free alike of habit and of circumstance;\nhis pioneering spirit disposing him to new departures.\n\n\nVII\n\nDual Personality, Catalepsy, Epilepsy, Shock, Insanity, Chorea are\nexplicable as effects of abnormal dissociations or inherent discrepant\nrelations between the two brain-hemispheres, which represent,\nrespectively, Conscious (or objective) Intelligence, and\nSubconsciousness (which is subjective).\n\nSuch discrepancy occasioning confusion between the two planes of\nmentality, perception becomes so blurred that, as in insanity,\n_subjective_ impressions are perceived as _objective fact_. And some\nidea or spectre of his own mind becoming thus objective, and being seen\nout of all perspective with the facts and conditions of everyday life,\nthe patient may be so haunted and dominated thereby that not only his\nmentality, but his actions too may take distorted shape.\n\nWhile the Conscious Brain-half is a lens that focuses the Concrete, the\n_Sub_conscious Brain-half is a highly-sensitised mirror (or retina) that\nreflects and retains, in terms of potential Memory, all impressions and\nexperiences. It becomes charged thus with a medley of strange and\nincongruous imprints, which, so long as the lens keeps these submerged\nand subconscious--because unfocused on the plane of consciousness--do\nnot obtrude upon mentality. Flaws or failures in the lens of reason\nallowing certain imprints to emerge, these become fixed ideas and\nobsessions.\n\n\nIt is by way of the Subconsciousness, that the hypnotist impresses\n\"suggestion.\"\n\nClairvoyants and other \"mediums\" employ crystal-gazing and other devices\nin order to fatigue, and thus to paralyse or inhibit the visual function\non the outer plane of Sight. By such means, the Subconscious visual\nfaculty comes into operation, and sets them _en rapport_ with their\nclient's subconscious mentality. This becoming _objective_ to them,\nthose endowed with the gift of \"Second-Sight\" (a faculty not to be\ndenied) are able to visualise in it misty impressions of the subjects'\ncharacter, thoughts and circumstances. Those rare clairvoyants who are\nable to establish rapport with their client's Supra-consciousness may\ncatch glimmerings of future events, even. Because Supra-conscious Mind,\nbeing Supra-Natural, is not bounded by the limitations of The Natural,\nin respect of Time and Space. In it, that which Was still Is, and that\nwhich Is-to-be already Has Been.\n\n\"Spiritists\" who see or hear phenomena they attribute to \"spirits\" are\n(when such are genuine) for the most part visualising or overhearing\nphenomena of their own (or of some other's) Subconsciousness, which,\nowing to errors of refraction in the lens of Consciousness, have become\n_objective_ to them.\n\n\nIt may well be by way of magnetic vibrations communicated to Ether by\nthe _Supra_ or the _Sub_consciousness, that apparitions and telepathic\nimpressions are transmitted from the brain of one person to that of\nanother. So too, apparitions seen of persons lately dead, and so-called\nspiritist \"communications\" with these, may be (when genuine) phenomena\nof such etheric vibrations communicated to the Supra or the\nSubconsciousness of a living person, and apprehended by him in the\nobjective forms of \"ghosts\" or \"voices.\"\n\nKindred vital and powerful electric vibrations emanating, at the moment\nof death, from the Subconsciousness of victims murdered, may so charge\nthe etheric element of houses and localities as to be communicable, for\nlong periods afterwards, to the Subconscious mentality of \"sensitives,\"\nwhich serves thus as \"wireless receiver.\" Such sensitives derive the\nimpression that the scene of the tragedy is haunted by the actual\n\"spirit\" of the murdered.\n\nIt is as incredible, of course, that an immortal soul should be chained\nto the scene of the violent death of a mortal body as it is incredible\nthat a \"spirit\" should be at the call of a \"medium,\" who--perhaps, for a\nfee--should be able, at will, to summon it back to the plane of concrete\nconditions, in order that it might talk (for the most part) irrelevant\nnonsense.\n\nOn the other hand it is to be believed that, for a brief period after\ndeath, a spiritual entity may remain sufficiently in touch with the\nmaterial plane as to be able, by way of those Etheric undulations\ncontinuous through all the planes of Being, to manifest its existence to\none in close sympathy with it.\n\n\nVIII\n\nIn an article by me, \"_Is Man an Electrical Organism?_\" which appeared\nin _The Nineteenth Century_, July, 1914, I showed--on the evidence of\ncareful and delicate experiments by an electrical expert--that the two\nsides of the body (and presumably of the brain) are of different\nelectrical potential. The active, right side is _positively_\nelectrified, while the passive, left side is _negatively_ electrified.\n\nMental Telepathy and Telaesthesia prove, surely, that brain and\nnerve-currents are electrical--one brain-hemisphere operating as\ntransmitter, the other as receiver. Since Nature employs _one_ Law only\nto suspend the mighty solar systems of the Universe and to bring an\napple to the ground, is it credible that she should employ _two_ laws\nfor \"Wireless\" and for Human telegraphy, respectively?\n\nThe Hibernation both of animal and vegetative organisms shows two poles\nof vital function; Life and Consciousness passing into the Recessive, or\npotential, mode during such winter-sleep. Plants sleep by night.\n\nIs Sleep a recession merely from the state of Consciousness to the\npotential states of Sub- and Supra-consciousness? And do these two\nstates alternate normally in the opposite halves of the brain,\nconcurrently with the alternation of Day and Night? Night-blindness\nsuggests such an alternation in the dual factors of Vision--which\ncomprises the intrinsic _faculty_ of Vision and the concrete _function_\nof visualising the external. Every concrete function normally wanes with\nthe waning of Day.\n\nHence increasing drowsiness, passing into Sleep.\n\nMorning and evening mentality differ greatly. Intellect, reason and\nphysical activity are paramount during the day. Emotion and imagination\nintensify with the approach of night.\n\nIs this an alternation in function of the Male and Female\nbrain-hemispheres, coincident with the alternation of the dual\nluminaries of our earth--the positive, unchanging Dominant Sun; the\nchangeful Moon, with her Recessive phases and her mystical influences\nupon Life and Mind? The ante-natal life of the embryo is set in terms of\nlunar months. The word \"lunatic\" expresses the effects of lunar phases\non persons of unstable mentality.\n\n\nWhence do we derive our daily influx of Life? Though we have sunk to\nrest with dissolution in our bones, we awake re-charged with powers of\nliving--a phenomenon for which Science has no explanation.\n\nLife does not originate in vital processes; vital processes originate in\nLife. Do we, in sleep, when processes have exhausted our daily influx of\nLife-power, recruit this again from a psychical source? Are living\nprocesses the wick of a lamp which is filled with the Spirit of Life at\neach recurring dawn, spent by the day's endeavour, and re-filled again\nwith the following dawn?\n\nFailure of sleep kills more swiftly than starvation. And\ndrug-insensibility will not preserve life unless natural sleep\nsupervene.\n\nIf nervous energy is a complex form of electrical energy, then the brain\nin which this is stored is an electrical dynamo. Is this dynamo\nre-charged during sleep from some Occult Power-station?\n\nSince, in every equation of Science, an unknown factor reveals itself,\nwhy not candidly confess this to be a Spiritual factor?\n\nSpirit is no more a hypothetical medium than Ether is. And Science has\nbeen forced to assume the existence of Ether, as a basis for its\ncalculations. Ether and Spirit are conceivably the same medium\nmanifesting on different planes--the one of Physics, the other of Mind.\n\n\nIX\n\nAccording to Professor Clarapede:\n\n\n     \"The intellect appears only as a makeshift, an instrument which\n     betrays that the organism is not adapted to its environment, a mode\n     of expression which reveals a state of impotence.\"\n\n\nA saying which supports three clauses of my hypothesis: First, that the\nbrain, with its tributary spinal-nervous system, is an instrument of\nConsciousness wholly differentiated from, and supplementary to the\norganism of Life. Secondly, that it is an instrument designed for the\nadaptation of the organism to environment (the role I have assigned,\nthroughout, to the male). Thirdly, that the organism of Life is not\nitself adapted to its environment, and that, accordingly, Adaptation to\nEnvironment cannot be regarded as the impulse of Evolutionary\ndevelopment, since the living organism has so far failed to adapt itself\nto environment that it requires a highly specialised instrument to serve\nas medium between itself and its surroundings.\n\nThat Intellect--being an instrument by way of which Life is adapted to\nenvironment, as also, on the other hand, by way of which environment is\nadapted to Life--is a makeshift that \"reveals a state of impotence\" is\nnot to be admitted, however, in view of the fact that it is an\ninstrument which preserves Life from developing along the lines of its\nenvironment; an adaptation which would necessarily involve lapse from\ntypal ideals.\n\nIntelligence taught man, in place of so adapting to environment as to\nhave developed the fist of a gorilla (which at a blow can crack a human\nskull), to arm himself with a club. And by thus adapting environment to\nhis evolutionary requirements, he conserved his resources and applied\nthem to development along higher lines. Such impotence as may be, arises\nout of the undevelopment of a rudimentary organism. Of an organism in\ncourse of development, however. In the meanwhile, both man and woman are\nprovided, in their hybrid constitution, with the \"makeshift\" of an\ninstrument of opposite sex, which supplies both with the powers neither\nhas yet developed in himself or herself; but without which neither is\nable to exist or to function.\n\n\nHybrid Humanity is still amphibious; a creature living between two\nplanes, the Without and the Within, the Material and the Spiritual. And\nlike all amphibious creatures, the human species is, in a measure,\nclumsy and imperfect. Because while fitted still with organs and\nfaculties that have adapted to a lower plane, it possesses likewise\norgans and faculties that are adapting to a higher. Its powers thus\nhandicapped by requiring to engender the vital potential and the\ndevelopmental power to equip it with two orders of implement, neither\norder has attained perfection of construction or of function. And both\nministering to the requirements of the other, necessarily hamper the\noperations and mask the characteristics of the other.\n\nThe two sexes are making all the while for higher development, each\nalong routes of its contrary trend. Man develops human faculty in the\ndirection of the Outer and material plane of Being. Woman develops it in\nthe direction of the Inner and psychical plane.\n\nMan transmits to woman a brain-hemisphere and powers ever further\nincreased and intensified in their relation to the concrete. Woman\ntransmits to man a brain-hemisphere ever further indrawn and illumined\nin respect of the emotional and intrinsic. Woman's brain-hemisphere,\nadapting to its concrete fellow, becomes increasingly empowered to\nmanifest, upon the outer plane, its own essential Woman-traits in Life\nand Consciousness. Man's brain-hemisphere, adapting to its diviner\nfellow, becomes increasingly illumined and inspired thereby to leaven\nand exalt its concrete outlook and activities.\n\nMan's brain, by way of its responsive adaptation to the brain of woman\ninterior to it in the zone of Mind, becomes thus ever more\nsympathetically intelligent, or intuitive, in respect of human life and\nconditions, of Science and the Arts; while losing nothing of its\nDominance and concrete power, but interpreting its operations in terms\nof a profounder and a nobler Chivalry. Woman's brain becomes ever more\nintelligently sympathetic and practically helpful; losing nothing of its\nRecessiveness, or emotional impulse, but, on the contrary, intensifying\nall its Woman-attributes by extending the range and the operations of\nthese in terms of a profounder and a nobler Altruism.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBecause of their hybrid constitution, there is necessarily a borderland,\nalike of faculty and function, wherein the organisation and the\ncharacteristics of the sexes merge and approximate one another's trend\nand traits. This borderland represents, however, the crudest and least\ndifferentiated department of the personal and mental powers of both. It\nis a zone of Neuterdom, and marks a grade of rudimentary organisation in\nwhich the Sex-characteristics have not yet sufficiently diverged in\ndevelopment, as clearly and finely to differentiate themselves as traits\nof pure and unalloyed type.\n\nThe cruder the species or the evolutionary stage of species, the less\nSex is specialised in it.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nMALE AND FEMALE SEX-INSTINCTS AND MORALE DIAMETRICALLY DIFFERENT\n\n     \"_In conjunction with any other beings but men, women would have\n     been angels; but with men they are just women, which when all is\n     said and done, is much the same thing._\"--De Livry.\n\n\nI\n\nAmong many other misconceptions with regard to Sex-characteristics, is\nthe modern teaching that the sex-instinct is identical in men and women.\n\nIgnoring the truth that a higher moral code is the mark of psychical\nsuperiority, and moreover that the exaction of it from women, under\nsocial penalty, has done more than any other thing to purify and to\nexalt the woman-character, impassioned fallacy now sees this higher\nstandard demanded of the sex as a stigma of inferiority, and as an\ninjustice. Accordingly it preaches equal liberty in this as in other\nrespects. The trend toward equalisation is unfortunately (but\ninevitably) in the direction of lowering the woman-code rather than of\nraising man's.\n\nNo falser or more disastrous doctrine could be promulgated. As in all\nits other attributes and functions, so in this, the woman-nature differs\nwholly from that of the male. The primal male sex-instinct was one of\ntyranny and subjugation. There was no element of affection in it, and\nits bent was toward promiscuity. In the primal female, the instinct as\nan initiative impulse was non-existent. The surrender was to fear, and\nto habit engendered by fear. Fondness for her mate came to woman by way\nof her love for his child, a source essentially monogamous in trend.\n\nPhysical passion in woman is derived from the Male-traits in her. It is,\naccordingly, a borrowed, not an inherent instinct. And in all natural\nwomen, passion is secondary to love; love belonging to her own intrinsic\nnature. Because of its heritage, there is, in a true woman's love,\nalways a maternal altruistic element: unselfish, ministering, devoted.\nLove has come to be intensified in her by fire of passion and by force\nof personal attraction. It is no longer a mere meek surrender, with fear\nfor spur and maternity for solace. In proportion as she is of high\norganisation, it has become a complex of mind and emotion and sense;\nintense and vital. But always, in proportion as she is womanly, her own\nway of loving--the way of devotion and tenderness--is ascendant over\npassion.\n\nIn man, howsoever it be leavened by the higher love, passion dominates.\nWhen in woman passion dominates love, she is loving with the Male-traits\nin her--not as woman. And in the measure wherein she falls short of the\nwomanly monogamous ideal, she is less woman than she is male.\n\nMr. Justice Hannen, for long President of the Divorce Court--and a\nsubtle expert in women--observed that it was not the passionate,\nwarm-eyed women who figured most before him, but, in far greater number,\nthe cold-blooded, greedy and emotionless. Because for one woman who\nsuccumbs to love or passion, twenty transgress from motives of vanity or\ngain; or from mere frivolous craving for excitement.\n\nIt is the sexless women who are most immoral, for the same reason that\nsome dyspeptics are always hungry. Persons of healthy digestion eat, and\nare satisfied. The healthfully-sexed love, and are content. The\nemotionless woman is for ever seeking in novelty, emotions she lacks the\nemotion to feel. Such women exploit passion for vanity, for\ndistraction, or for the primal male-instinct of subjugation. Their\ndesire for a lover is less a sentiment than it is of the nature of that\ncraving for drink, or for drugs, or for dress, which many of this order\nalso indulge. All are megalomanias--natural instincts distorted to vices\nby warp of abnormal self-centredness.\n\nWith its foundations laid in instinct, its organic emotionalism, its\nstreak of mental irresponsibility, and its hunger for approbation, the\nWoman-nature, when lacking in the higher Woman-traits of affection and\nselflessness, or when these are not duly absorbed in the natural\ninterests and functions of the sex, may degenerate to a very ugly thing.\n\nSome of our latter-day \"smart\" young married women, childless or with\none or two children consigned to hirelings, their passions excited by\nmarriage and not duly assuaged by maternity, their impulses unchastened\nand their powers unexpended in affection and care for the family, seek\noutlet and distraction in promiscuous philanderings, in intrigue or in\nvice.\n\nHuman faculty and impulse diverted from their normal channels readily\nfind crooked and dangerous courses.\n\nIn the fourth year of War, the Prussian Protestant State-Church declared\nthat \"immorality among German women has attained such a degree that the\nvery foundations of Society are threatened.\" This and kindred\ndevelopments in other War-ridden countries are not due to women having\nchanged their natures, but are the outcome of conditions so altered as\nto have released them from the wholesome disciplinary exercise of their\naccustomed duties, relaxing thus the salutary curbs of habit and\nconvention. Child of Nature that she is, woman is a born rebel; for ever\nin revolt against the law and order and restraints which man has imposed\nas indispensable to Progress. Whereas men abhor, women exult in crises\nand upheavals. Because these serve for outlet to their restive\nemotionalism and supply scope for exotic sensation, while at the same\ntime giving them temporary mastery over the male--who is always at a\ndisadvantage in exhibitions of feeling.\n\nAnd this temperamental erraticism is valuably disciplined by the\nmasculine bent for rule and method, and normally finds admirable\nsafety-valves in wifely, housewifely, and motherly functions.\n\n\nII\n\nTo advocate a moral standard higher for women than for men is regarded\nnow as reactionary and regressive.\n\nNevertheless, it is certain that beyond all the other virtues, personal\npurity is essentially the highest, and is racially the most valuable of\nall the Woman-qualities. Lapses in the other sex are in no way\ncomparable, as regards moral, biological, or sociological significance,\nwith kindred lapses in woman. Because of her native non-conformability,\nonce she has deviated from the monogamous code, she is dangerously\nlikely never after to conform to it. (It is a truism that _The woman who\nhas one, has many lovers_.) Her non-conformity requires, accordingly, to\nbe protected by a social ordinance more rigid than is that of man. Man\nbeing less complex of psychology, moreover, that which in him is merely\nbiological is vice in woman. The fact alone that the male is able to\nemploy the sex-function as a weapon of brutality (as in violation)\nproves him totally dissimilar to woman in this relation.\n\nMan disperses; Woman absorbs. And the consistency of Nature is such that\nthese two diametrically-opposite biological modes in reproduction are\nreflected on the planes of mind and impulse. The diametrical difference\nof the modes disposes outright of the Feminist demand for identical\nmoral codes for the sexes; the sex-functions of the two being so\nintrinsically contrary in method and inherence, with correspondingly\nsignal differences in moral impulse and significance.\n\nBiologically, the masculine function concludes with its fulfilment.\nWhereas the feminine function _begins_ mainly therewith, and continues\nthence onward to operate in an ever-deepening, broadening, and\nintensifying tide of issues; biological and psychological. And so potent\nand subtle is Nature's consistency with regard to this primary and vital\nfunction of woman in Life, that whether or not biological issue results,\npsychological issues do inevitably. Woman's mode and mood of\n_receptiveness_ in this mysterious union so operate that, in her\nsurrender, she admits to the inmost sanctuary of her being an alien\npresence--which remains with her till death. Fade as it may from her\nconsciousness, it remains, nevertheless, impressed for ever after on the\nvibrant records of her sensitive Subconsciousness, as vitally as in the\nhour of her surrender. And underlying mind and character and conduct\never after, it for ever after contributes its quota to these.\n\nBecause of the vivifying potence of her creative womanhood--the function\nwhereof is to engender Life--the stranger admitted to her citadel\nbecomes endued with Life, and takes up his abode with her to the end of\nher natural term. For this reason, the adulterous woman is adulterous in\na sense impossible to man--adulterous in both a vital and an intrinsic\npsychical sense that is revolting.\n\nWith the increasing intensification in the male, with advancing\nevolution, of his inherited Woman-traits, he has become ever further\nendowed with Woman's Sub- and Supra-conscious faculties. So that the\nfunction which was, in its primal moral, but brief and cursory, ending\nsummarily with its biological fulfilment, has become increasingly endued\nin him with the vital emotionalism, and accordingly with the moral\nsignificance inherent to the Woman-nature. If his experiences fade more\nquickly from his consciousness than hers do, they remain nevertheless\n(in the degree of his psychical development) potent still in his\nSubconsciousness--as possibly adulterating and debasing factors. But\nsince his Subconscious emotionalism is an acquired and not an inherent\npart of his male mentality, it is a medium vastly less sensitised and\noperative in him than it is in her; of whom it is the very basis of her\nbeing.\n\nThis is no apology, of course, for masculine aberration, but a counsel\nof feminine virtue--a counsel making indirectly, therefore, but none the\nless surely for masculine virtue also. The reasons for chastity in the\none sex differ diametrically from those which should be the motive\nthereof in the other, however.\n\nChivalry and Prostitution are incompatible.\n\n\nIt must be confessed, however, that deterioration of the\nwoman-organisation and temperament conduces greatly to masculine\npromiscuity. Not only because this entails loss of power to charm and\nbind the mate, but because with the sex-immaturity, on the one hand of\nthe over-Feminised type, on the other, of the Mannish woman, women lose,\nin greater or less degree, the natural power of one sex to assuage\npassion in the other.\n\nMan is deteriorated, moreover, by moral and psychical deterioration in\nthat sex whence moral impulse springs, because, in such case, the appeal\nof woman ceases to be, as is normal, to the emotional and chivalrous in\nhim, but evokes, on the contrary, biological instinct mainly, or merely.\n\n\nIt is well-established truth that her first lover (or her husband,\nsupposing she had loved him) retains a unique hold upon a woman's mind\nthroughout her after-life--his personality or memory dominating her\nimagination as no later-comer is able to do. This is because that first\nenters into possession of both Consciousness and Subconsciousness while\nthe tablets of these are still virgin and unblotted. This first\nimpresses himself, therefore, clearly and strongly defined upon her\nexquisitely-sensitised tablets of remembrance.\n\nLatter-day young girls, permitted the injurious licence of free and\nunchaperoned association with the other sex, even when they come to\nmarriage, inviolate, have, many of them, passed through experiences\nwhich so have blurred and sullied their young highly-impressionable\ntemperament and senses as to have despoiled these of that fair purity\nand freshness indispensable alike to potent impressions and to deep\nattachments. In natural woman who has arrived at womanhood without\npremature arousing of the senses, soul and sense are at fine poise, and\nrespond in vital unison to love. In girls whose innocence and conduct\nhave not been duly safeguarded, the prematurely-excited senses have\nbecome detached from the soul--from the higher emotions, that is. With\nthe result that this fine poise of mind and body, which is the Hall-mark\nof Woman-development, and whence romantic passion issues, has been\nirretrievably lost.\n\nThe same is true, in degree, of young men. They too deteriorate when\nbiological instinct is dissociated in them from the higher impulses of\npassion. But in men, the poise, being less delicate, is not only less\nreadily lost, but it is more readily recovered. In this, as in other\nthings, the normal male makes for means; while woman's bent is toward\nextremes. Further, physical passion being normally far stronger in him,\nand _initiative_ in impulse--whereas in her it is mainly\n_responsive_--the senses assert sway over him spontaneously. While in\nnatural girls these lie more or less dormant, unless artificially\nroused, or until aroused in natural response to love.\n\nEarly philanderings (more serious than boy-and-girl comradeship and\ninnocent flirtation) prevent women not only from ever attaining their\nhighest levels of organisation and temperament, but they destroy\neffectually their power to love profoundly and whole-heartedly. They rob\nthem, accordingly, of the greatest transfiguring potence and happiness\nof life.\n\n\nIII\n\nOdious and startling evidence that because of woman's vital emotionalism\nand sensitive psychology, her nature retains ineffaceable vestiges of\nall that has happened to her, is the fact that a woman's children by a\nsecond husband may resemble her first husband far more than they\nresemble their father. A significant and repulsive adulteration of type,\nand one so intrinsic that a woman who had been previously wife to a\nnegro or a Chinaman will present her second husband, typically European,\nwith offspring of negroid or of Mongolian type. That husbands and wives\ncome to resemble one another in physiognomy and characteristics, is\nfurther indication of the subtle and potent temperamental fusion and\nimplications of the mysterious sex-union.\n\nThe adulteration of type which may thus repulsively mar the offspring of\nwomen twice-mated is seen, at first hand, in that adulteration of\npersonality which results from sex-promiscuity. Not only is the\nindividuality both of mind and character obliterated, but the\nindividuality both of form and feature is obliterated too. The features\nof persons of irregular life become blurred and more or less mongrel;\ncharacter and expression so degenerating as to produce eventually that\nwhich has been styled a \"composite face\"--the face resulting when a\nnumber of portraits of different persons are printed one over another on\nthe same photographic plate.\n\nThe degree to which in the sex-union--howsoever lightly entered\non--they twain become intrinsically and remain irrevocably one, in the\nvital records of individualism and character, is wholly unsuspected. But\nin this--which is a complex phenomenon of Hypnosis--indelible undying\nimages, such as are impressed upon the Subconscious mind in every other\nform of Hypnosis, remain impressed thereon; to inspire and fructify, or\nto weaken and vitiate nature and faculty.\n\nThat vigilant supervision of her young daughters for which the early\nVictorian mother is now decried, secured a purity of racial type, in\nfine physique and constitution, in notable talent and enterprise, in\nrare womanly beauty and virile handsomeness, which proves the unique\npotentialities inherent in our Anglo-Saxon stock. No merely material\nservice a woman can render to the State approaches in value the\nall-potent one of safeguarding the virtue of its young daughters.\n\nEach sex has its own morale to sustain. And personal virtue is woman's.\nThe desire for equal liberty in this respect is added proof of the\nascendancy, in modern women, of Male over their own natural\nWoman-traits. It springs not from an intensification of passion, but, on\nthe contrary, from a waning of that power to love which holds a woman\ntrue to one mate.\n\nLast and most cogent of reasons: In view of those long centuries of\nsuffering and aspiration, by way of which the evolution of the\nWoman-traits of love and purity has been achieved in blood and\ntears--albeit the monogamous ideal is far yet from attainment--beyond\nall else, the sex should strive toward this, both personally and\nsocially.\n\nIt is the soul of Love and Life, the impulse of Human advance. With\ndecline of this ideal, the emotions cease to centre in the Home and\nFamily, and civilisation relapses to barbarism.\n\n\nIV\n\nEllen Key, in _Love and Marriage_, observes: \"Few propositions are so\nlacking in proof as that monogamy is the form of sexual life which is\nindispensable to the vitality and culture of nations.\" And further: \"all\nthe progress that is ascribed to Christian civilisation has taken place\nwhile monogamy was indeed the law, but polygamy the custom.\"\n\nShe overlooks the portentous truth that a law is the expression of a\ngeneral aspiration toward an ideal for which a people is striving. That\na law is broken proves that the higher in man moves him to set a\nstandard beyond his power--or beside his inclination--to sustain\nundeviatingly. Yet although he may not act up to it undeviatingly, it\nstands, nevertheless, for the ideal he realises that he should reach.\n\nAbolition of a good and elevating law proves, therefore, not only the\nserious lapse of a community from an established standard of conduct,\nbut it inevitably lowers the level of conduct by removing\nbarriers--self-respect and self-restraint, public opinion and so\nforth--standing in the way of laxity. Despite the death-penalty, murders\nare committed. But were the death-penalty to be abolished, murder would\nincrease by leaps and bounds. The human mind is strangely susceptible.\nAnd the power of habits acquired under fear of penalties is an\ninvaluable force for good. The higher minds of a community evolve and\nestablish codes for lesser minds to shape by. And undoubtedly the\nsubconscious as well as the conscious shaping toward such standards\nfurthers development in the directions thereof. To make honesty a matter\nof personal choice, with no penalties attaching to theft, would be in\nitself an incentive to theft.\n\nComparison with polygamous countries, of countries in which monogamy is\nthe law, refutes straightway Miss Key's discredit of monogamy; showing\nthe polygamous uncivilised, unenlightened, unprogressive, subject to\nmonogamous races, and in every sense, both materially and morally\ndecadent. And if, with a notion of establishing equality in all things\nbetween the sexes by emancipating woman from the higher moral code,\nleasehold marriage or other forms of wedded laxity should be\nsubstituted--not only would national purity, but personal character and\nhappiness too would suffer grievously.\n\nIf men have not kept the monogamous law, the instinct of jealousy,\nreinforced by repugnance to supporting alien offspring, has seen to it\nthat wives should trespass as seldom, at all events, as was possible to\nbe guarded against. Custom and public opinion, furthered by personal\nfear and fear of divorce, have all contributed toward advancing ideals\nof womanly honour and conduct. And from monogamous mothers--whether\nvoluntarily or involuntarily so--progress has derived immense impulse.\nApart from biological considerations, the benefit to the family of the\nmother's influence centred in her home and kept from straying thence,\neither by her own aspirations, by public opinion, or by fear of the\nhusband, has been incalculable.\n\nDuring and since the War, crime among children has increased by 50 per\ncent., largely owing to absence of mothers from their homes, working or\ndrinking, or otherwise dissipating, while their children have been left\nto run wild in the streets.\n\nOur reformatories are full to overflowing with these neglected\nunfortunates; deprived thus of the haven of homes and maternal control.\nAs a man is responsible to the State for the support of his family, so a\nwoman should be held responsible to the State for the proper care and\nsupervision of its future citizens, who, without due care and\ndisciplinary influence, become a burden and scourge to the community.\n\nIn all these vitally-momentous issues, let us free our minds alike of\nsex-bias and false sentiment, in order that we may see clearly, and may\nact honestly and wisely in the interests not only of women themselves,\nbut in those of the Race.\n\n\nV\n\nThe sex-instinct in woman having had its origin in surrender, retains\nmuch still of this primal element. And both middle-class men of lower\nevolutionary grade, and men of the working classes, exercise still, to\nconsiderable degree, the brute-trait of terrorism over women--moral\nrather than physical terrorism.\n\nIn rescuing young girls from molestation in the streets, one may see in\nthem the panic of such intimidation. They are pale and trembling, with\npupils widely dilated. In full daylight, it may be in a crowded\nthoroughfare, with police at hand, primal instinctive emotionalism\nparalyses reason, resource and will-power. Weak-minded women, who lack\ntheir due share of masculine combativeness to stiffen resistance in\nthem, frequently marry, or otherwise yield to such men, far more because\nthey are afraid than because they are fond of them. And the terrorism\nhusbands have exercised over wives has nerved wives against the\nterrorism exercised over them by other men; and has thus served to\nprotect them from their own weaknesses.\n\nThe Woman-traits, always at a disadvantage in concrete affairs against\nsuperior strength, have been buttressed thus and coerced--often cruelly\nand tyrannously, 'tis true. But they have nevertheless been greatly\nfurthered in development by a mate who, if he did not recognise the\nhigher calibre of woman's nature, nor himself aspired to the code he\nexacted from her, recognised, at all events, that this higher code he\nexacted of her was that best adapted to progress. Thus has poor\nmortality been beaten and shapen on the anvils of compulsion and\nexigency. And always the woman has most suffered--to be beautiful of\nnature.\n\nWere it not that an advance-guard of higher and chivalrous men stand, by\nforce of the laws they have made, between women and the lower and\ncoarser masculine orders, no woman's life would be worth the living\nbecause of perpetual affront. With existing laws, indeed, which protect\neven the most degraded of the sex, the women of the poorer classes are\neverywhere subject to insult and unseemly jest, open or covert. Because\nto many men of crude order, the eternal mystery of Sex shows mainly as\nsubject for levity. The crass and unimaginative frequently deride thus\nthings too high for their dense understanding.\n\nWomen have come to take their chivalrous protection by law as mere\nmatter-of-course, precisely as they take it as matter-of-course that men\nshould labour, and should endow them with the benefits of their\nindustry. These things are by no means matter-of-course, however, but\nare matter of chivalry--chivalry so innate as to have become convention.\n\nIt would be occasion for laughter, were it not cause for profoundest\nregret, that the hypertrophy of male-traits in woman has engendered\nto-day a sex-antagonism which has set her in open revolt against man,\nfrom whom, if she has suffered and suffers, and will continue to suffer\nat the hands of his defects, she nevertheless derives, and has always\nderived from his chivalries her most gracious human privileges.\n\nThat the obligations and the recompenses of the sexes are reciprocal,\nis true. It is equally true, however, that the choice has lain\nwith men to have ignored the nobler issues of the compact. As the\nseraglio-imprisoned women of the less manly and progressive peoples\nprove.\n\nAll our civilisation, with its complex sociological, intellectual, and\nmoral developments, rests on a basis of Force. Men must still prove\ntheir right to each and all of their laboriously-won achievements by\narms and the valours of war. In peace, the laws--which alone make life\ntolerable--rest equally upon the powers of masculine will and strength\nto inflict due punishment for violation thereof.\n\nAnd laws having been made by men, it was clearly optional with them to\nhave left women unprotected, or far less protected than the other sex;\nin place of having extended special protection to their more delicate\nattributes.\n\nIn safeguarding women in general, men safeguard their own individual\nwomen, of course. Human motive is involved; is the product of a number\nof factors. That this is so is reason for eliminating no single one of\nthese factors, lest the resultant undergo a wholly unexpected and\ndisastrous transformation.\n\nThe Plan sets most women at the mercy of most men, by reason of the\ngreater physical strength of males, and by temptation of their more\nurgent sex-instinct. In view of her inherent disabilities, it would have\nseemed, _a priori_, that no woman could in ruder days have attained to\nwomanhood, inviolate.\n\nAnd yet that her very disabilities have served for her increasing\nprotection is shown by the fact of her increasing protection as, with\nthe evolution of her higher organisation, her disabilities have\nintensified.\n\nCivilised woman, with her more delicate organisation, is far more\ndefenceless than was savage woman. But in response to the claims of her\nincreasing defencelessness, the instinctive chivalry of the stronger\nmale, her natural protector, has become progressively the intelligent\nand moral chivalry of higher man. No strength or capability of woman's\nown to defend herself could so have served her; nor could so have served\nthe other sex for fine incentive.\n\nTo free woman of her highly specialised and inspiring disabilities by\nsubstituting in her, powers, muscular and mental, that would fit her to\nmeet the male on equal terms, would be to frustrate the method of the\nmale evolutionary ascent, by eliminating the humanising and uplifting\nappeal to his manhood of these her inspiring unfitnesses.\n\nThe deplorable decadence in masculine regard for and bearing toward\nwomen, which has resulted in direct proportion as the sex has\nsubstituted male efficiencies for womanly ineptitudes, serves for one of\nmany other valuable object-lessons of the War.\n\n\nVI\n\nAmong other Feminist fallacies, the _demi-mondaine_ has come to be\nregarded as victim merely, on the one hand, of an unjust,\nman-administered economic system, on the other, of masculine\nlibertinism. The truth is that the vast majority of immoral women are\nunder no compulsion, but voluntarily adopt this mode of life either to\nescape work, or because of a natural vicious proclivity. A number are\nmental defectives; some actually feeble-minded, others only morally\ndeficient.\n\nIt must always be remembered, moreover, that, biologically speaking, the\nseparation of the _genus_ woman into the folds, respectively, of sheep\nand goats is of signal racial and social service. That some goats are in\nthe sheep-fold, some lambs among the goats, is not to be denied.\nFatalities, injustices, and incongruities are inevitable to all broad\nhuman classifications. In the main, however, the women who resist\ntemptation and remain virtuous are obviously better fitted to be the\nwives and mothers of the Race than are they who fall.\n\nAnd although this is not, of course, the calculated purpose of this\nlamentable under-world, the rough division of the sex thereby into two\nmain classes has been of service, by supplying a sociological backwater\nwherein the worst of our racial derelicts--mental and moral\ndefectives--are segregated; and are precluded, for the most part, from\nperpetuating their mental and moral defectiveness.\n\nWomen, like men, must uphold and battle for their standards in the\nteeth of circumstance. The most notable types of parasite-women,\nselfish, slothful, worthless, venal, vicious, whose standards are jewels\nand clothes, their goals luxury and pleasure and the evasion of all that\nis difficult and distasteful in life, are found among the aristocratic\nand the plutocratic orders; safely secured against economic necessity or\nlack of scope and outlet for their powers.\n\nThe Feminist fallacy that prostitution is almost entirely a product of\nmale economics has been strikingly refuted, too, by War-conditions,\nwhich opened numerous well-remunerated employments for the sex. Yet,\ncoincident with a sad deficit of women to fill these, prostitution has\nwaxed rampant.\n\nWise and discreet were those early Victorians, with their uncompromising\nostracism of loose women. Apart altogether from such salutary expression\nof their condemnation of impure living, they were vastly too clever and\nfar-seeing to admit persons of notoriously evil habit, peeress or\nactress, to association with their clean young girls, as modern mothers\ndo; to meet and to mix freely with them socially or at Charity Bazaars,\non Flag-Days, and so forth. With the result that girls all the world\nover have become increasingly lax and decadent in tone and manner, in\ndress and morale, from confusion of their young standards by social\ntolerance and recognition of such persons, as also from corruption by\ndemoralising contact with and observation of such.\n\nIntolerance? Pharisaism? By no means!\n\nThe strong and straight, uncompromising moral standards of its women\nserve as landmarks of, and impulse to a nation's progress. Clear and\ndefinite lines of demarcation between good and evil, between possible\nand impossible modes of conduct, point the moral of advance, and turn\nthe scale in the upward direction for the weak, the hesitating, and the\nimitative.\n\nDread of consequences went far, in less sophisticated days, to\nsafeguard and foster womanly virtue. Modern expedients have,\nunfortunately, removed all cause for fear in this relation; permitting\nan impunity of action demoralising to the weak in will or principle, who\nrequire every possible aid and check to guide them aright. In simpler\ndays, girls who had lapsed were steadied and strengthened in character\nand self-restraint by the compulsion to support, as too by their natural\nfondness for the unwanted child. Now the first step--having cost them\nnothing--predisposes to further backslidings. And both character and\nself-control degenerate increasingly.\n\n\nVII\n\nTo weaken the marriage-bond by setting it for a term of years only, or\nby making it terminable by consent, would virtually destroy marriage and\nfamily-life. The fact that the bond would not be binding would make\npersons more careless even than they are at present in selection of the\nmate, and would thus multiply the number of mis-matings. Which would be\nstill further to deteriorate species, since the finer types of children\nare born only of well-mated parents.\n\nThe finality of the bond, if it does not always prevent one or both from\nmeeting some other they prefer, prevents the scrupulous, at all events,\nfrom seeking such. Or having found, it keeps many from fostering and\nfrom yielding to temptation. Were marriage terminable, or, as is\nsometimes proposed, were it abolished wholly, and love the only bond\nbetween the sexes, there would be no confidence, no sense of security\nbetween the partners, no stability of family life; no centring of\ninterests in this, and but small endeavour to retain affections which\nfor the many could be easily replaced--and replaced, moreover, with the\nzest of novelty. On the contrary, a curse of unrest would afflict the\nvast majority of married folk with the unsettling--mayhap with the\nalluring--prospect of meeting their further \"Fate\"; perhaps their\nsecond, possibly their third, it might be, their seventh \"Fate.\"\n\nOnly the few are strong enough of heart or stable enough of character to\nremain steadfast for a lifetime in any undertaking, unless bound\nstringently thereto by authorised obligations, incentives, and\npenalties. Only the few are deep enough of nature to love for a\nlifetime; or are deep enough of nature to love so intensely as to\njustify altering the marriage-code in order to spare these few\nsuffering. The wane of nine out of ten honeymoons impresses the value of\nan inflexible decree that declines to reckon with disillusion, but\nsternly bids the disillusioned take up their burden and make the best of\nit. And having no choice, many do this and make a success of it--on new,\nand, it may be, on far higher lines than those they had set out upon.\n\nThat but few love so deeply as to love for life by no means implies that\nmarriage for less than a lifetime should be substituted. It shows, on\nthe contrary, that the majority of persons would prove as incapable of\nloving No. Two for long as they had been incapable of loving No. One; or\nas they would be incapable of loving No. Three, or No. Ten. A bond that\nrivets them for life to No. One therefore, and entails loss or suffering\nwhen they fail to abide by it, is safeguard for them against such a\nsuccession of loves as would be as demoralising to the individual as it\nmust be destructive of society.\n\nExamples of this tendency to amorous licence have been furnished by the\ncomplications of War-\"widows,\" who, on report of the death of\nsoldier-husbands, remarried in unseemly haste--only to find the husband\nreturn. So too, by the widespread infidelity of wives to absent\nsoldier-husbands. If the grave and moving circumstance of a husband\nfacing death or mutilation in the trenches, for his country's defence,\nwas not grave nor moving enough to keep his wife faithful to him, then\nwe should congratulate ourselves upon a marriage-law which, by exacting\npenalties whereby such a wife suffers material damage, supplies the only\nargument likely to stiffen the morale of so light-minded and callous a\ncreature.\n\nNothing less binding than a lifelong contract is coercive enough or is\nsufficiently chastening to bridle woman's native changefulness and curb\nher instinctive emotionalism. The realisation that there is no way out\nof a situation is her finest incentive to nobility. She bruises her\nimpulses against the iron of circumstance, and the essences of her\nintrinsic Woman-soul distil in patience and in sweetness. Under the\nharrow of sacrifice, she feels herself martyred. And yet without the\nsense of martyrdom, as may be also without the conditions thereof, no\ntrue woman is ever wholly content that she is fulfilling her destiny.\n\nEllen Key writes of \"_all the impurity that the sexual life shuts up\nwithin the whited sepulchre of legal marriage_.\" She falls here into the\ncommon error of assuming such evil to be restricted solely to the state\nof marriage. Whereas the higher interests, the duties and affections of\nthe family life--purifying and inspiring influences lacking in\nunsanctioned unions--make inevitably for the uplifting of the relation.\nThat some husbands and wives fall short of the pure intensity of passion\npossible to some others between whom love is the sole bond, is true, of\ncourse. But as are most other human developments, this is a matter of\nthe character of individuals rather than of the terms of the bond\nuniting them. Certainly, high and tender passion is scarcely to be\nexpected in a union for no better reason than that this is illicit.\n\n\nVIII\n\nWere life designed for happiness and pleasure merely, the case would be\ndifferent. Were one life our sole portion, it might be different too.\nHaving one life only, we might be justified in claiming for it the joy\nof the best love available. An unhappy or a less than happy marriage is\nonly one, however, of the many expedients for the evolution of faculty.\n\nIf the evolution of the individual progresses by way of countless\nearth-existences strung upon a thread of spiritual continuity, one life\nis but a brief and single page of everybody's great Life-serial.\nThat is, doubtless, why all feel their lot to be an episode\nmerely--unexplained, and incomplete, rather than a finished story. And\nin our innumerable pages and innumerable episodes, we must resign\nourselves to sundry matrimonial vicissitudes.\n\nSays the author of _The World-Soul_, \"The more function is specialised\nin either sex the less able either is to stand alone.\" This is argument\nfor further and fuller specialisation of their respective functions, in\nboth sexes, because so great is the happiness of fulfilling for that\nother his or her great need of us, and of being blessed by that other in\nour own need. But too, it raises the voluntary surrender of such\nhappiness for honour's sake, for holiness' sake, for God's sake, or for\nchildren's sake, to the height of a renunciation which transfigures\nhuman life and character, and proportionally ennobles both.\n\nThat both man and woman should be entitled to divorce for infidelity,\nfor incorrigible drunkenness, criminality or insanity on the part of the\nmate, would be just and reasonable clauses in the marriage-code.\nBecause, apart from the unmerited cruelty and shame of such bondages, is\nthe risk of entailing degenerate offspring. Otherwise, it appears that\nrelaxation of the Divorce-Law would result in evils far worse than any\nit would remedy. And these evils would re-act inevitably far more\ncruelly--both temperamentally and materially--upon women and children\nthan upon men.\n\nThe conjugal and the paternal instincts being traits the sex has\nacquired by long ages of developmental progress, for men to lose these\nwould be as easy as the loss would be degenerative to themselves and to\nthose others. Folly to suppose that having reached a certain stage of\nhuman character-building, we can, with impunity, kick away the\nfoundations whereon our house of evolution has been raised; and on which\nit must rest for all time.\n\nThe irrevocability of the marriage-contract is woman's greatest\nsecurity. Realisation of that sex-lawlessness which is an innate\nMale-trait--relic of the promiscuous and cursory nature of the primal\nmale-instinct--should set us on guard against weakening, in the least\ndegree, this covenant, which is the best among those privileges whereby\nman, in the teeth of his inherent instincts, has chivalrously protected\nwoman and the family. In the teeth of these, he has applied his natural\nintelligent bent for Conformity in concrete affairs to the repression\nand regulation of his impulses by the institution of Marriage. And\nthis--the apotheosis of masculine conformity to the exactions of\nProgress--is now menaced by the native Non-conformity of woman,\nexploited by Feminism.\n\n\nIt is notable that men are but seldom truly fond of, nor are they\nfaithful to the wife who works outside the home. In France, where the\nclever, industrious wife of the middle and lower classes is more a\nbusiness-partner than she is a wife, conjugal fidelity is not expected.\n\nNot only is a house without a woman in it to devote her best interests\nand powers to the arts of home-making, not a home, but the bond of that\nfraction of interest and affection left over to her from her work\noutside it is a thing too slight to bind her husband to her. He finds no\ndifficulty in substituting--should he seek this--a haven with more\natmosphere of home and sentiment in it, companionship with more of\ntemperament in it, more resiliency and freshness, than that of the\nindustrious and wage-earning, but fatigued and jaded working-wife.\n\nThe children of such a union--if such there be--supply no bond either to\ndraw together and unite their parents. Children reared by servants,\nwithout understanding or affection, are but seldom affectionate or\ncharming. Moreover, the children of hard-working mothers are but seldom\ntrue children. They bring to the home nothing of the freshness, the\nvitality or charm of natural childhood.\n\nIf father and mother possess aesthetic sensibilities, these are offended\nprobably by the plainness and the lack of graces in their\noffspring--bye-products merely of their economic assiduities. Perhaps\nthe big spectacles through which the young eyes gaze forth like doleful\nprisoners from behind bars, make them feel strangely uncomfortable; as\nin the presence of weird and reproachful intelligences.\n\nNeither derives interest or joy enough from the family circle to repay\nthem for their parental obligations and responsibilities.\n\n\nIX\n\nLove between the sexes, being a need alike of souls and biogenesis, is\nregarded by some as reason enough in itself for relaxing the\nMarriage-law--even for the abolition of Marriage; making affection the\nsole bond between the lovers.\n\nWe cannot, logically, abolish the legal contract uniting two persons in\nmarriage, however, without at the same time abolishing every other form\nof legal contract, and the legal liabilities thereof. Logically, we\ncannot make conjugal duty and family responsibility mere matters of\npersonal conscience, unless we are assured that the human species has\nreached such a phase of moral integrity as to need no other incentive\nthan its own integrity to secure fulfilment of its obligations, moral\nand material. If we abolish the legal factor in marriage, to be\nconsistent we must abolish the legal factor in business partnerships and\nin all other sociological compacts. We must make the payment of rent, of\nrates and taxes, of tradesmen's bills and so forth, debts of conscience\nand of honour merely; for the discharge whereof conscience and honour\nmust alone suffice.\n\nIt may be objected that these are purely material obligations, while the\nbond between the sexes is an emotional one. And yet--Have we reached\nsuch a stage of development that emotional considerations are more\nbinding on us than material ones are?\n\nMoreover, if we are to make love the sole bond--clearly the waning of\nlove must release from the bondage. Further, when we sift out the purely\nemotional element in the vast majority of unions, we shall find it but a\nvery slender factor among other more binding reciprocities. Certainly a\nfar more slender thread to trust to in the safeguarding of a contract\nthan is, for example, the factor of commercial honesty. Commercial\nhonesty is not, perhaps, a conspicuous virtue of the times.\nNevertheless, the sense of honesty in business is a good deal stronger\nin most men than is their sense of honour with regard to love. And their\nsense of honour in love has developed mainly as a direct consequence of\nthose legal compulsions and responsibilities of love which have been\nexacted and fostered by the legality of marriage.\n\nHow many men are there, for example, who, having come to care for some\nother, hold themselves bound in the least by an illicit tie; howsoever\nmuch they may have cared at one time for the woman in the case? Lightly\ncome--lightly go! And if the terms, marriage and love, are by no means\nnecessarily synonymous, it has been, nevertheless, greatly by way of the\nobstacles and compulsions and the social penalties attaching to\nviolation of the marriage vows that the love-passion has been purified\nand uplifted out of the barbarism of mere instinct and promiscuity,\ninto the graces of emotion and the virtues of monogamy.\n\nHad any man and woman, reciprocally attracted at their first meeting,\nbeen free always to have carried this attraction straightway to its\nbiological conclusion, the sex-relation would be still the merely\nphysiological incident it was in primal forests. The circumstance that\nsuch attraction has been debarred from ready consummation by the\nobligations and the obstacles engendered by a recognised and legalised\nbond between the sexes, has been debarred, moreover, in innumerable\ncases, by one of the attracted couple being subject to this bond--all of\nthis has preserved the nascent emotion from straightway relapsing to the\nbasic level whence it sprang, and has fostered the evolution of love in\nthe higher reaches of emotion; of imagination, of controlled and\nchastened passion.\n\nIt may be said that modern men and women, loving one another with the\nmore highly-evolved passion of our enlightened epoch, would love as\ndevotedly and would remain as constant in an illicit as in a legalised\nunion. If so, such constancy would be an echo mainly of the\nlong-dignified state of wedded constancy; and the greatest of all\ntributes to the values of this. Nevertheless--For how long after the\nclarion-note of aspiration sounded by Marriage should have ceased to\nvibrate, would the echo of it last?\n\n\nShould woman, in her short-sighted efforts to \"emancipate\" herself still\nfurther, release herself wholly (as she now inclines to do) from the\nmarriage-bond, she will have thrown back in man's face the very\ntenderest guerdon of his worth and of his high regard for her. And she\nwill have destroyed, at a blow, his most vital incentive to further\nadvance, her own and her children's most powerful safeguard, and the\nmain buttress not alone of national but, as well, of Natural human\nprogress.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nFEMINIST DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE DISASTROUS TO INFANT-LIFE AND HUMAN\nFACULTY\n\n     \"_A hundred men may make an encampment, but it takes a woman to\n     make a home._\"--Chinese Proverb.\n\n\nI\n\nThe paths alike of progress and of happiness lie, obviously, in the ever\nfurther dignifying and enhancement of the functions of home and of\nwifehood, by way of every further interest and charm that higher, fairer\nWomanhood confers.\n\nThe chief cause of latter-day conjugal unrest and disaffection is to be\nfound--not in the natural state of marriage, but in a decline of those\npersonal traits which make for happiness therein. Girls brought up as\nnow, without home-interests or training, but, on the contrary, with\nmainly self-realising and self-absorbing aims and pursuits, are\ndeficient not only in domestic aptitudes but lamentably also in\nemotional qualities. And the home-life without the emotions to give\nvalues to it, is like a fine air played on the keyboard of a piano from\nwhich have been removed the strings that transform the movements of the\nfingers into melody.\n\nSo keenly self-centred the majority of women have become, so bent upon\ntheir hobbies and careers, as to have lost nearly all of that\nsympathetic adaptiveness natural to woman, which enables her to\nforget--and to forget with pleasure--her own in the personality and\ninterests of others.\n\nHow eagerly latter-day girls seek refuge from their boredom in the\ntennis-court, the Bridge-table, the dance, or in some other mode of\ndirect action which entails but little temperamental tax or output!\n\nTo such degree the sexes are now drilled to the same standards,\ninterests, and points-of-view, that neither brings to the other any new\nthing, of freshness, of colour, or of inspiration. The interchange is\nonly too often a competitive struggle, indeed, as to which shall know\n(or shall appear to know) more than the other knows (or appears to know)\nof topics equally trite to both. There is little or nothing of the zest\nand glamour of a delightful picnic of two; whereat each keeps producing\nsome new and unexpected thing to supplement the new and unexpected of\nthe other. Modern woman has no novelty in language even for her mate,\nbut deals him back his own slang--a vernacular which among women of the\nworking-classes not seldom takes the forms of blasphemy and obscenity,\nwholly disqualifying for the rearing of children. As, indeed, do the\ncoarse and vulgar phrases in vogue now among the cultured of the sex. In\nview of woman's native faculty of music and her subtle aptitude for\nnaming (as for nick-naming), one cannot doubt that she it was who\nmothered Language. Yet now-a-days, adopting virile lingo, her \"rotten,\"\n\"stick-it,\" and the like are murdering the infant of her quondam genius.\nAnd what genius it was, that gave birth to our surpassing mother-tongue!\n\n\nIn case of engagement between a young man and his bored one--whom, by\nthe way, although he may suspect that the relation is not all that it\nmight be, he never suspects of being bored--manlike, he trusts to\nmarriage \"to put everything right.\" Yet although the newly-wedded more\nand more relieve themselves of the strain of a honeymoon, with its\nunmitigated (or inimitable) company of two, a month or six weeks of\nwedlock find most young modern couples wofully at cross-purposes.\nPossession has freed the man of the obligation to woo. And when the\nwooing--which had engendered for the woman a flattering and intoxicating\nsense of being a coveted prize--comes to a more or less abrupt ending,\nshe feels herself defrauded.\n\nHe too! Because while Courtship is man's affair, Marriage is woman's.\nAnd where love is not, to recruit and quicken passion and to take the\nplace of novelty, the wane of honeymoons is sad indeed.\n\n(There are faults and failings on the bridegroom's part, 'tis true. That\nbelongs to another story, however. Sufficient for these pages is the\nunpleasing task of holding a mirror to the faults of a single sex.)\n\nIt should be remembered that men, for the most part, are not eager to\nmarry. Considering the nature of the bond, with its lifelong\nobligations, responsibilities and sacrifices, this is little to be\nwondered at. A week after marriage a wife may be crippled by an\naccident, may become insane; or may otherwise be thrown, more or less a\nburden, on her husband's hands. Or she may develop disagreeable and\nwholly uncongenial traits. In spite of which, even though they wreck his\nhappiness, he will have bound himself to her--and will have bound\nhimself to maintain her--till death them parts.\n\nHe too, of course, may turn out wholly unsatisfactory. That belongs\nlikewise to the other story. But from the material standpoint, the onus\nof support which falls on him, and which, in the case of an invalided or\nof an obnoxious wife, may prove nothing but a carking care, makes the\nliabilities unequal.\n\nIt is, doubtless, because of these his greater material obligations and\nresponsibilities, that passion has been planned to beset man more\nurgently than woman. And had Church and State not taken advantage of his\ninherent, chivalrous instinct, and so turned it to account, both for his\nown moral uplifting and for the founding and maintenance of the family,\nwoman and society--and man, accordingly--would have remained at very low\ngrades of development.\n\n\nII\n\nAmong other \"wrongs\" resented by women is that his obligation and his\neconomic means to support a wife have endowed the male, in the majority\nof cases, with the lordly prerogative of selecting his mate. On her\nside, while having much to gain materially by marriage, unless she is\nunusually attractive she has but little range of choice.\n\nAnd yet this masculine prerogative of selection has served as the\nstrongest incentive to the culture both of higher attribute and charm in\nwoman. Failing that economic struggle which has been man's spur to\ndevelopment, this incentive has operated vastly to her benefit; inducing\nher parents to educate and to enhance her gifts, and influencing her to\ndo the like for herself. A proportion of women have always been\nself-supporting, of course. But their work has been mainly in fields of\nunskilled labour, and has lacked, accordingly, the stimulus of\ncompetition. The goal of marriage has not only supplied thus the element\nof emulation, but it has turned Woman-culture in the direction of\ndeveloping personal traits and morale, rather than industrial or\nprofessional specialisations. And this has been the right direction,\nseeing that the role of the sex is one demanding personal qualities and\nvirtues rather than economic technicalities.\n\nAs regards human values, it is a higher privilege to be a charming\npersonality than to be a successful stockbroker. So that in this, as in\nother things, woman has been privileged by her disabilities.\n\n\nIII\n\nAn ever-increasing number of working-class girls, on leaving school,\nenter a work-shop, a factory, or an office, and spend their time and\npowers in minor mechanical tasks; gumming labels on jam-pots, making\nmatch-boxes or tags for boot-laces, addressing envelopes, and other such\nemployments, deadening to female intelligence, impulse and temperament.\nTheir minds and natures become too warped and narrowed to adapt later,\nwith ease and interest, to the many and varied intelligent functions of\nthe home. They escape thence, accordingly, after a few months or years\nof marriage (supposing them to have given up their industrial tasks for\na space even), and abandoning home and children, return to the old\nnarrow, mechanical routine, to which alone their poor stultified brains\nhave been shaped. In the education of girls, the Subconscious mimetic\nelement in their impressionable natures should be borne in mind. It may\nbe turned to excellent, as to disastrous account.\n\nM. Vologotsky, head of the Omsk Government, has called attention to a\nsignificant phenomenon of modern Russian life--namely, that the women\ntake no interest in their homes. This he attributes to their low states\nof culture. Could they but be persuaded to become \"house-proud\"--with\nall that this means and entails--he considers that the task of the\nRegeneration of this vast unhappy, although singularly gifted, people\nwould be greatly furthered.\n\nConstitutional deterioration, inherited or acquired, entailing defective\nsex-development, causes many young working-women to be deficient in the\nmaternal instinct, whence spring fondness for and interest in children.\nThe same defective sex-development, disqualifying them for wifehood,\nresults in the vast majority of working-class wives lapsing, after a\nfew years of marriage with normal, virile young men, into haggard,\nneurasthenic wrecks.\n\nThe whole of this vital and important department of the\nwoman-organisation is not only ignored in so far as scope for normal\ndevelopment is concerned, but, despised as subserving inferior and\n\"merely physical\" functions, every other capacity and aptitude is\nfostered or forced at the expense of constitutional reserves and\nresources which belong, by rights of Life and Love, to this. With the\nresult that the vast majority of modern women are physically unfitted\nfor, as an increasing number are temperamentally averse to the\nsex-relation--_fons et origo_ of Life.\n\n\nIV\n\nTo such degree the doctrine of Expedience and Self-for-Self-solely has\nspread that there are women who seek now to escape wholly the natural\npangs of childbirth. Such persuade their doctors to induce labour a\nmonth or more before term; in order that the smaller-sized infant may be\nborn with less discomfort to themselves. Others restrict their diet or\nabstain from certain foods, in order that the babe, starved thus and\nill-nourished before birth, shall be soft and frail and easier of\ndelivery. Dread of pain at whatsoever cost to the future of a human\nbeing--and that being their own child--actuates these unnatural and\npusillanimous practices.\n\nIt is becoming a vogue for expectant mothers of the wealthier classes to\nenter Maternity-Homes, where, in luxurious surroundings, they are\nenabled, under spinal anaesthesia (Twilight Sleep), to conclude their\nmother-function without suffering or inconvenience; lying in a torpor of\ncrass insensibility while the greatest of Human Events is taking place\nin them. Meantime, the sensitive infant-body is dosed with the powerful\ndrug circulating in the maternal blood.\n\nBut--whither is all this trending? Can we believe that true intelligence\nand progress consist in grasping greedily all the pleasures and the\nprivileges to be had from life, and basely shirking all the hardships?\nCan we believe that--suffering and effort being the laws alike of Life\nand Progress, and the rungs whereby we have climbed the Evolutionary\nladder--we can continue to climb when, with short-sighted selfishness,\nwe shall have stripped the ladder of its rungs? The humane use of\nchloroform duly assuages the worst pangs. While the fine courage,\nfortitude and sweetness wherewith the soul of woman fares forth\nnaturally upon her Great Adventure, to meet this the Apotheosis of human\npain, prove and still further enhance her nobility. Even weak and flimsy\nwomen rise to greatness at this crisis. Powers they had never glimmered\nin themselves emerge and armour them, and--be it remembered--leave\neternal records upon mind and character; striking spiritual roots still\ndeeper into living function.\n\n\nV\n\nWith characteristic Feminist materialism, Olive Schreiner lightly\ndismisses Maternity as a merely \"passive\" form of labour.\n\nHeaven save the mark! Is it passive so to equip a microscopic cell with\nliving human powers and aspirations that, within the space of months, it\nmakes that miraculous pilgrimage of the pre-natal evolutionary ascent\nwhereby it becomes Man? Passive--so to serve for living environment to\nthis developing organism as to supply it with the multiple, complex and\ndiverse elements, material and vital, biological and psychical, required\nfor the manifold needs and adjustments of its evolving life and\nfaculties?\n\nDuring the ante-natal months of this miraculous Ascent, the embryo\n\"climbs its genealogical tree,\" as biologists style it. That is to say,\nit passes, in turn, through all the countless evolutionary phases of all\nthe countless evolutionary ages whereof Humanity is the culminating\nproduct. Fashioning out of formlessness, slowly it attains to form.\nShaping, shaping, ever marvellously shaping, it evolves, in succession,\nthrough fish, amphibian and other rudimentary life-grades. Climbing,\nclimbing, ever marvellously climbing, day by day, to nobler heights, it\nis transformed at last to human shape; lower human first, then higher\nhuman, and finally to the highest human possible to its stock, its\nparentage, and the resources, physical and psychical, available to it.\n\nIt is the most stupendous miracle in Nature; a miracle so sacred and so\ntender that every man in passing an expectant mother should mentally bow\nthe knee. Individually, socially, morally--she may be a person of but\nsmall significance. But because of the mystery of Life enshrined within\nher, she is a living Testament of Evolution. The pregnant woman is,\nmoreover, pregnant with the destiny of Races.\n\nDuring those ten lunar months there is enacted in the tender darkness of\nthe mother's womb the whole wonderful drama of the Human\ntransfiguration. With lightning swiftness, the evolving babe climbs in\nthe footsteps that its countless ancestors had trod, in forms\ninnumerable, along the route interminable of the Human Advent. In\nflashes of progressive, infinitesimal transitions, through incalculable\nphases and mutations, the single cell of double parentage unfolds the\nmarvel occulted in it. Until at last, the living product stands\ntriumphant on the topmost branch of its genealogical tree, a perfect\nhuman babe awaiting birth; the last achievement of its Race, the latest\nand most perfect bud of its hereditary stock.\n\nIn so far as all this occurs subconsciously within the mother, the\nmaterialist may lightly dismiss the evolutionary marvel as a \"passive\"\nform of labour. But although subconscious, these unceasing processes\ndemand inevitably such proportional vital potential and activities on\nher part from whom the powers energising it are derived, as to be a\ncontinued tax and strain upon her strength and health. There are women\nwho feel this strain but little. A rare few of these because they are so\nrichly endowed with maternal potence that the subconscious processes\nhave remained, as Nature doubtless intended, for the most part\nsubconscious and painless. Far more often, however, when Maternity\nexacts but little from the mother, _it is because she is contributing\nbut little to the child_. I have observed that the finer a child in\nphysique and in brain, the greater the stress and disability the mother\nhad suffered prior to its birth.\n\n\nVI\n\nIndifferent, notwithstanding, to all the vital activities and psychical\nevolutions taking place within the mysterious laboratory of the mother's\nbody; reckless of the circumstance that any interference with, or\nhampering of the least of these must inevitably jar, and warp, the\ndelicate complexes of infantine development, we scruple not to strain\nand burden, to harass and deplete, the prospective mother even further\nby strenuous breadwinning. Her whole physiology and psychology are\nprofoundly altered by her momentous condition; by the new adjustments to\nthe needs of the developing babe, of the maternal circulation and\ndigestion, assimilation and elimination, mentality and intricate nervous\nconstitution and processes. Fatigue, noise, turmoil, effort, shock--any\none or all of these which are inseparable from industrial\nemployment--cannot but injuriously re-act upon the delicate evolutions\nmysteriously occurring in her.\n\nThe infant brain is complete at birth. From its lowest to its highest\ndepartments, all the marvel of exquisitely-delicate construction and\nassociation of its complex cells is achieved pre-natally. And according\nor not as her vital powers have been rich and otherwise unexpended, and\naccording or not as the embryological processes of development have\noccurred in quietude and freedom from strain upon the mother's part,\nwill be the quality for life, in vigour and in sanity, of her child's\nintelligence and character.\n\n\nVII\n\nIn view of those lower biological grades through which the embryo passes\nbefore arriving at the human stage, it is inevitable that maternal\nover-fatigue, shock or undue effort may arrest its physical development\ntemporarily upon any of these lower levels. And such arrest must\ninevitably entail some warp or bias of a lower animal phase; which may\nso impress itself permanently on embryonic development as to detract\nmore or less gravely from the final transition.\n\nIt is, doubtless, for this reason that many modern humans show in their\nconfiguration, degrees of reversion to ape, sheep, fish and other lower\nspecies.\n\nShock or nervous perturbation in the expectant mother may occasion, in\nthe babe, appalling monstrosity, or such minor defects as cleft-palate,\nhare-lip, and other deformities. Showing the vital and--inevitably--the\npsychological effects on offspring, for good or for evil, of maternal\nconditions and impressions.\n\nThe Germans record that of infants born during the war, a number are\ngravely degenerate of type, an infant-degeneracy attributed by some to\nthe creed of Hate obsessing German mothers. The same phenomenon is seen\nhowever in the offspring of mothers exhausted by religious preachings\nand marchings, in furtherance of their creed of Christian Love.\n\nFor Biology recognises no Theology except its own--that of Evolution.\n\nAt a representative meeting of London doctors, it was stated recently\nthat the number of imbecile infants now coming into existence with us is\nno less than appalling.\n\n\nA medical wiseacre has adventured the amazing dictum that _Every infant\nis born healthy_! He might, with equal truth, have said that every\ninfant is born wealthy, or is born a Chinaman. Some infants are born\nalive, a great number are born dead. And between those born alive and\nhealthy and the still-born, lie all the infinite gradations of\nconstitutional condition between life and health, between disease and\ndeath.\n\nOne child inherits from its parents a tuberculous tendency; another a\nneurotic, another a strain of alcoholism or other taint. One is born\nblind or a hopeless idiot; another with hare-lip or clubbed-foot;\nanother with congenital heart-disease. One babe is born with a beautiful\nhead; all its brain-faculties nobly developed and splendidly balanced.\nAnother is born headless, or with a skull which, from crown to brows, is\na rapid descent--showing lack of all the brain-powers involved in higher\nmentality; is born, in short, of criminal inherency.\n\nThe degrees in which individuals strive against inherited tendencies\ndiffer greatly, as do the life-conditions wherein their will and moral\npower are tested--to make or to break them. Man is not, of course, _the\ncreature_ merely of his heredity or of his environment. But he whose\nmother has equipped him with physical defects instead of with qualities,\neven though he fight against his disabilities, is obviously handicapped\nfor the life-struggle. A great musician may charm fine music from a\npoor fiddle, but in no degree so fine as he will bring out of a more\nperfect instrument.\n\n\nVIII\n\nA phenomenon which has baffled vital statisticians is a curious relation\nbetween the Birth-rate and Infant-Mortality. A high birth-rate is found\nto be associated with a high rate of infant-mortality; while with a\nlower birth-rate, the death-rate among infants and children decreases.\n\nLong and careful observation has left me in no doubt as to the cause of\nthis phenomenon. Which is, that under strain of disease, of industrial\nexhaustion or strenuous activities of any sort, but particularly as\nresult of _the constitutional drain entailed by pregnancy_, mothers may\nso draw upon the vital powers of their children in order to recruit\ntheir own, as to occasion fatal illness in their families.\n\nThe evil is so great in its effects, not only upon the health and\nconstitution of the rising generation, but, as well, upon the physical\nand mental development thereof, that such maternal depletion is, I am\nassured, a cause of widespread disease among children; of infantile\nparalysis, degeneracy and mortality. It is reason enough, in all\nconscience, to call for the legalised prohibition of all mothers with\nyoung families from engaging in professional or industrial employment.\n\nBecause although such depletion of her children's health is graver in\ndegree during a mother's pregnancy, at all times over-worked, sickly, or\nstrenuous women recruit their powers from the constitutional resources\nof others. Only, indeed, by such depletion of their neighbours can many\nof our present-day neurotic, overactive women (some of them with\nill-nourished bodies and feeble assimilation, but with, nevertheless,\nindefatigable energies) contrive to keep going.\n\nStrong-willed, self-centred women, keen in pursuit of business,\nathletics or pleasure, will, by sapping the nervous forces of these,\nkeep all the members of their households--husband, children,\nservants--more or less de-vitalised, neurasthenic and characterless; one\nor more actually invalided, perhaps.\n\nIf nervous energy is, indeed, a complex form of electrical energy, this\nnervous interchange is intelligible; obeying the law that bodies\nunder-charged with electricity charge themselves from bodies more highly\ncharged, until equilibrium is established.\n\nWho among doctors does not know the wan and listless, semi-paralytic\nbabes that working-mothers--and most particularly _pregnant_\nworking-mothers--bring to the consulting-room? The hapless victims lie\nlimply, or sit hunched upon the woman's lap, nerveless, wasted,\napathetic; faces white and hopeless, abdomen lax and tumid; the blenched\nlimbs soft as butter, weak and dangling. They are suffering, perhaps,\nfrom some specific ailment, bronchitis, paralysis, gastric or intestinal\ntroubles; perhaps only from mysterious wasting and inanition. Not seldom\nthere is an elder child too, white and weak and fretful, and the subject\nof \"infantilism\"; growth stunted, development arrested. Such children,\nin their mental hebetude and physical degeneracy, suggest a degree of\ncretinism. And in the suggestion, a possible cause appears for the\ncretinous offspring of the hard-living, over-worked mothers of Swiss\ncantons.\n\n\nIX\n\nDrummond says of Motherhood:\n\n\n     \"_Even on its physical side ... this was the most stupendous task\n     Evolution ever undertook._\"\n\n\nWhile on the physical side, we see that Nature has made infancy and\nchildhood increasingly helpless as species advances in evolutionary\nvalues, in order to call forth increasingly intelligent, and sympathetic\nresponse and resource in the mother. Feminism in _un_making the mother,\nis undoing the labours of countless ages of evolutionary advance. The\nintensifying mentality of woman, destined for the more subtly\nintelligent and sympathetic nurture of the Race's increasingly valuable\nand complex offspring, is being diverted, more and more, by Feminist\ncounsel and practice from human and vital into merely economic channels.\n\nLife is so constituted that its most cruel disabilities and evils are\nborne inevitably by the children in the van of the Great March. These\nhapless ones it is--soft buds pushing from the Human Tree--that bear the\nbrunt of the evolutionary impulse.\n\nIn the main, the very finest children of The Poor succumb. Because the\nhigher the organism, the more complex and delicately-fitted to its vital\nneeds its life-conditions require to be. Briars flourish where\nrose-trees die. Degenerate children struggle through where better types\ngo under. We are not ready, it is true, for exotic humans. But we need\nurgently, indeed, all the healthy, intelligent, well-balanced stock we\ncan produce.\n\nA certain uniformity of type is secured by the expedients of Natural\nSelection; by that continual correction of premature evolutionary\nunfoldment which results from the checks and prunings of developmental\nexigencies--in the necessary acclimatisation and adaptation of the young\nand tender organism to environment. And Nature herself provides all the\nchecks and prunings required, in her tests of teething, of measles, and\nthe other diseases and trials of infancy and childhood.\n\nThe respiration-curves and the brain pulse-waves of young infants show\nserious disturbance as result of sudden loud noises. The consequent\nnervous jar perturbs both breathing and circulation.\n\nThe whole organisation of an infant is so delicate and is so subtly\nbalanced as to require the gentlest possible treatment. One sees on the\nfaces of infants and young children a chronic look of painful\nexpectancy. Their brows are knitted as though to brace their\nhyper-sensitive systems for the next distressing shock. Women accustomed\nto hard, laborious work (or sports) lose power to adjust their movements\nto these delicate needs. And when, unkind and impatient, they fly at the\nunfortunates and shake or beat or scold them violently, they have no\nsuspicion that for hours afterwards, perhaps for days, the children's\nnervous systems may be so shattered and disorganised, digestion and\nassimilative powers so impaired, as to interfere gravely with growth and\ndevelopment. Degrees of \"shock,\" akin to shell-shock, result from such\nmaternal violence and chronic terrorism; occasioning feeble-mindedness,\nmorbid timidity, mental hebetude and, moreover, subconscious\nimpressions, which, later in life, may emerge as obsessions, or as other\nforms of insanity. Fear is the most shattering and paralysing of the\nemotions. Yet not only brought up by hand, the majority of our little\nones are brought up by _violent_ hand.\n\nAll day long and during every moment of it, a thousand delicate\nprocesses of growth and unfoldment and of intricate adjustments are\ngoing on mysteriously within the shaping brain and body of a child.\nSubconsciously, these are a continued tax and strain; making him\nhyper-sensitive, irritable, cross, perhaps, for causes that appear\ninadequate. A child is like a convalescent, in that he uses up rapidly\nfor growth and development all the nutritive material and vital energy\nat his disposal. This is true of healthy, well-nurtured children. What\nthen of these child-martyrs of The Poor, who in addition to the strain\nof growth, are ill-fed, poisoned by unsuitable foods; are sickly,\nrickety, bronchitic, dyspeptic, syphilitic, phthisical? Nevertheless,\nall the maternal care these miserables receive are such rough dregs of\nkindness and of patience as may be left over from the toil of their\nworking-mothers' hard, exhausting days.\n\nIt is no less than monstrous that our laws allow the nation's babes and\nchildren--to whom are due all the best resources of maternal care and\ntenderness and duly-trained maternal powers--to be thus martyred. As\nsubstitute for the home and for their mothers--which are every child's\nbirthright--more and more, infants and young children are consigned now\nto Creches; chill institutions of alien atmosphere, alien surroundings,\nalien nurses, where, unmothered, they are ciphers among other unmothered\nalien ciphers. Yet babies and young children are so pathetically\nconstituted that they prefer blows from their mothers to caresses from\nstrangers.\n\n\nX\n\nThe life-story written in the faces of the great majority of our\nTwentieth-Century babes and children is a terrible one, in its\nrevelation of tortured helplessness, hopeless resignation, unnatural\nfortitude, blank despair. See them sunk, limp and dejected, in their\nprams or go-carts, eyes staring forward on the dreary waste their lives\nare; limbs dangling, like those of toys with broken springs.\n\nIn cities, mothers, ignorant of the shock and injury which noise and\nturmoil inflict upon these sensitive brains and nerves, wheel them amid\njostling crowds--in order that they themselves may enjoy the excitements\nof the shops. At the low level of their prams, they breathe air vitiated\nby the passers-by; are in the exhausting whirl and press of swirling\nnerve-currents. In their poor ill-made carriages, they are jerked\nabruptly, now up, now down, at every kerb; with no more care or\ntenderness than though they were baskets of clothes. They sit patient,\nleaden, apathetic; cruelly strapped for hours together in one position;\nneither pulse of health nor spirit in them.\n\nIn cold weather, their heads but thinly thatched with hair are bare. So\ntoo their limbs; though warmth is life to young, developing creatures.\nIn hot weather, the sun beats mercilessly down upon their hatlessness,\ntheir exquisitely-sensitive brains but slightly shielded by their thin\nun-ossified skulls. Degrees of sunstroke, with lifelong injury to health\nand faculty, occur. They knit their pale brows in fruitless attempt to\ndefend their weak eyes from the glare. Many keep their lids close shut,\nto protect both eyes and brain from the nerve-shattering solar rays,\nwhich are far too powerful to be allowed to fall, untempered, upon an\ninfant's highly-sensitive body. With closed eyes, the poor things miss\nall the joys of their ride; the colour and movement about them, and the\nspurs to intelligence these should supply. Their unobservant mothers and\nnurses suppose them to be sleeping!\n\nChildren old enough to walk are walked to stages--sometimes to extremes\nof exhaustion. You may see them dragging heavily along, with wan,\nexhausted faces; peevish and cross, and scolded and shaken and slapped\nfor being peevish and cross. Exhaustion from such over-fatigue will keep\na child below par for days; checking its growth and development--to say\nnothing of its happiness. Children derive but little benefit from their\nholiday changes to sea or country, because of the exertions forced upon\nthem, or the too strenuous play to which they are exhorted.\n\nChildren who go bare-headed suffer, in large number, from eye-strain,\nwith resulting permanent frown. As too, from ear-ache and from\near-diseases; from headache and toothache. In as many as 75 per cent. of\nschool-children, vision is defective.\n\n\nThe obsessing aim of many mothers is to \"harden\" their children. Yet no\nmore than a clay model in the shaping may be hardened and set, should\nthe process be applied to children in the shaping.\n\nHealthy children are inevitably _delicate_ children, because of that\nhighly-sensitive re-activity to surroundings which not only\ncharacterises but _conduces_ to the developmental state. (Such delicacy\nmust not be confused with _sickliness_.) The finer the organisation the\nlonger it takes (within normal limits) to come to full growth. Our\ngreatest men and women were delicate in youth. Hardy children are always\nof inferior type--for the most part, plain and shrewd and unimaginative,\ninsensitive, unlovable. They have matured (have adapted to environment,\nthat is) precociously. Evolution of higher faculty has been prematurely\narrested in them.\n\nModern children are described as \"super-children,\" for their abnormal\nsharpness and worldly perspicacity. They are merely precocious, which is\nto say, they have missed their childhood. And too early development\nentails inevitably early decline. Not only America, but England now has\nproduced a grey-haired boy of ten!\n\n\nNo less amazing than it is lamentable is the light neglect by the\nmajority of cultured mothers, of their grave maternal obligations. From\nearliest infancy, they hand over their children, body and soul, to the\nignorance, the carelessness, the cruelty (not seldom to the viciousness\neven), of stranger-women of the uncultured classes; women of whose\ncharacter and disposition they know nothing, and who are only too often\nunfitted by nature, by upbringing, and by habit for this most delicate,\ndifficult and important of all human tasks.\n\nIt is by no means uncommon to find prostitutes, grown too old for a\ntrade that has vitiated every cell and secretion of their bodies (to say\nnothing of mental vitiation), officiating in the capacity of nursemaid\nto children of culture.\n\nEvery child is a new creation, with a highly specialised organisation of\nmind and of body. For the nurture and best development of these, are\nrequired high degrees of intelligence, of understanding and of sympathy\nin treatment. To realise its idiosyncrasies, constitutional and\ntemperamental, and to adapt to these in its rearing and surroundings,\nwith respect to diet, exercise, play, sleep, moral supervision and\ndiscipline, demand intuitive perceptiveness, intelligent discrimination,\nand practical resource such as no other department of life demands--or\nis worth.\n\nNotwithstanding all this, mothers who can afford to shelve their duty\nupon paid substitutes abandon the most complex and sensitive, the most\nbeautiful and valuable, and moreover, the most helpless thing in\nNature--the mind of a child--to be shaped and coloured, during all the\nmost impressionable years of its development, by persons with neither\naptitude nor faculty for this supremely complex and difficult function.\nIn place of so adapting its environment to the child-organism as to\nenable it, fenced within the tender mother-fold, to enjoy to the full\nand to develop to the full the lovely, inspiring beliefs and illusions\nof natural childhood, latter-day mothers now cruelly rob their little\nones of this fructifying phase, by prematurely forcing worldly knowledge\nand distrusts upon them, in precocious adjustment to mature view-points\nand conditions from which they should be carefully secluded.\n\nIn that mysterious Mind-department, the Subconsciousness, with its\nhighly sensitised brain-tablets, every smallest happening of a\nlifetime--scenes, experiences, mental impressions--are photographed, to\nbe stored for ever after as ineffaceable records. And though, perhaps,\nwholly forgotten, these subconscious records nevertheless colour and\ninfluence for ever after every thought and impulse and action.\nSometimes they flash up as memories. They can be recalled under\nhypnotism.\n\nThe young mind is like an unfurnished house. The rooms are empty. There\nare no pictures on the walls. But its unblotted, exquisitely-sensitised\nspaces are ceaselessly filming indelible records of everything seen and\nfelt and apprehended. One impression may correct, or may distort,\nothers. Or that right point-of-view which is judgment may focus all\nimpressions in the true perspective which reveals their true values and\nproportions. But until such judgment has been formed by mental\ndevelopment, it is vitally important that all the impressions absorbed\nby young minds, whether of their life-conditions and associates, of\nbooks or of plays, shall be fair and simple and wholesome.\n\nThus, the foundations of mind and of character are laid in clean,\nintelligising and uplifting influences.\n\n\nXI\n\nWhile we deplore, as appalling, that during the first fifteen months of\nWar, 109,725 of our fighting men were killed or died, the returns of the\nRegistrar-General show that during the twelve months of the peace\npreceding War, _there died 140,957 of the nation's children_, at less\nthan five years old; 95,608 of these at less than a year old.\n\nConsider it! War, with its destructive engines of bomb and shell, more\nor less swiftly and painlessly kills just over a hundred thousand men,\nin the course of fifteen months. Peace, with its destructive\ntransgressions against Nature, kills in less time a far greater number\nof defenceless babes and children, by slow and more or less torturing\nforms of disease. Babies, even when unhealthy, come into existence\nendowed with a certain Life-potential. And they struggle hard and\npainfully to live. It is amazing to see the odds against which the poor\nthings battle; and battle successfully. It is only the fearfulness of\nthe odds to which most of them are subjected that succeeds in killing\nthem.\n\nPain and suffering are spurs to adult development. In children they are\nas needlessly cruel as they are permanently injurious. Far from fitting,\nthey _unfit_ them for life.\n\nThe ratio of mortality is no guide, of course, to the immeasurable\ninjuries wrought to mind and body by these same fearful odds upon the\nchildren who survive; and who survive, maimed, diseased, degenerate, to\nlive out lives of disability, of joylessness and ineffectiveness.\n\nIt will be said--and said truly--that much of this high infant-mortality\nresults, not from maternal omissions, but from paternal commissions.\nWell, that alas! is another of the terrible wrongs against children\nwhich lie at the door of the sex. Were there not women whose lives are\npassed in engendering and transmitting the direst of all the diseases\nhuman evil has bred, the hapless imbecile and paralytic, the blind, the\ndeaf, the ulcerous, the slowly-wasting, tortured little ones who fill\nour asylums and hospitals would not be.\n\nAt every turn the truth is more and more impressed, that the fate of\nHumanity rests, in some or other form, with its women. Woman is\nRedeemer; or she is Destroyer. Because, while man's province is the\nmaterial, with its roots in temporal things, woman's province is the\nvital, with its roots and stem and blossom in functioning Life.\n\nThe burning wrongs of women? Alas! what are they beside the burning\nwrongs of helpless babes and children?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nXII\n\nAn anomaly of Feminism is the admission, on the one hand, that\nMotherhood was woman's most valuable function, and her greatest claim\non the community in days of barbarism, and the denial, on the other,\nthat it is her most important function in civilisation.\n\nThe illogic of the position is patent.\n\nThat the production of savages should be primitive woman's chiefest\nclaim to honour; while the production of highly-evolved and complex\nhuman beings should be civilised woman's least.\n\nThe potence and the values of fine motherhood are proven by the fact\nthat every great, or good, or clever man or woman has been the child of\na great, or good, or clever mother. Not of one who has made her mark in\nthe world of affairs. Such, for the most part, have not reproduced at\nall. And when they have been mothers their children have been notably of\ninferior calibre.\n\nOn the other hand, bad men and bad women have in nearly every instance\nbeen sons or daughters of bad women.\n\nExamples innumerable might be cited to show that both genius and moral\ngreatness are variations (mutations) of the human species which have\ntheir origin in mother-genius and greatness.\n\nGreat scientists, it has been noted, have been sons of women\ncharacterised by intense love of Truth. The love of Truth in the\nmother--for Truth's sake--became in the executive, concrete mentality of\nthe son an intuitive apprehension of the truths of Science, and an eager\nand indomitable aspiration to render these in terms of intellection.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nShall woman leave to man no field at all of natural supremacy? Shall she\nnot be content with her beautiful part as generatrix of Faculty, but\nmust seek to be exponent too?\n\n\nThat all women do not marry--cannot marry, indeed, because of their\npreponderance in number over the other sex--is no reason for dissembling\nthe truth that in wifehood and motherhood lie woman's most vital and\nvaluable roles.\n\nNor is it warrant for training the whole sex as though none were\ndestined to fulfil this, their natural and noblest--if not always, their\nhappiest vocation.\n\n\nXIII\n\nFeminism repudiates, from time to time, the charge against it of\nbelittling Motherhood. Yet how can it profess to credit the maternal\nfunction with due values or significance when it denies the obligations\nand responsibilities thereof, asks no economic concessions for it? And\nwhen, in place of demanding privileges indispensable to its exercise and\ncomplete fulfilment, it makes no distinction, in respect of work and the\nworker, between childless and unmarried women and mothers and expectant\nmothers? And this despite the fact that, for a period of eighteen months\nat very least, the mother's best vital resources belong by rights,\nbiological and moral, to each babe she produces--nine for the pre-natal\nbuilding of its body and brain, and nine for lactation.\n\nHer moral obligation to nurse, and the criminality of her omission when\nable to do so, have been emphasised as follows by Sir J.\nCrichton-Browne:\n\n\n     \"Dr. Robertson, Medical Officer of Health for Birmingham has shown\n     that while the infant-mortality of breast-fed infants is 7.8 _per\n     1000 births_, that of infants receiving no breast-milk is 232 _per_\n     1000. And Sir Arthur Newsholme, Medical Adviser to the Local\n     Government Board, has shown that the probability of death from\n     epidemic diarrhoea is 54 _times greater among infants fed on cow's\n     milk_ than among those fed on breast-milk, and 150 _times greater_\n     amongst infants fed on condensed milk.\n\n     \"But it is not merely in a high infant death-rate that the evil\n     effects of the want of breast-milk stand confessed. Where it does\n     not kill it often maims, and is responsible for malnutrition,\n     rickets, tuberculosis, and a multiplicity of ailments. Every doctor\n     is familiar with the alabaster babies, flabby, limp, languid, and\n     painfully pallid, who have never tasted their natural nutriment.\"\n\n\nDr. Truby King records the interesting fact that the finest calf-skin,\nknown as Paris Calf, is obtained from calves reared by their mothers, in\norder to provide the finest veal for Paris. So supple and smooth-haired\nand superior is the skin of these mother-suckled creatures that dealers\nare able to distinguish it at once from the skin of calves that have\nbeen artificially fed.\n\nAbout this, Mr. Horace G. Regnart kindly supplies me with the following\nsignificant data:\n\n\"If we feed a calf, 'on the bucket,' the calf's coat loses its shine and\nbecomes dull. We say it is 'dead.' A couple of days is sufficient to\ndeaden the coat. And it takes three weeks or a month 'on a cow' to get\nthe gloss back. _A quart of milk direct from the cow is as good as a\ngallon of milk out of a bucket._\n\n\"We do not attempt to feed our female calves so well as we feed the\nbulls. It is too costly. Our heifers are put on 'the bucket' when three\ndays old. I buy a cow to rear my bull-calves on. I once reared a bull on\n'the bucket' satisfactorily. But I gave him twelve gallons of new milk\nevery day after he was five months old, and kept it up till he was\nfourteen months. _One cow that gives three gallons does a calf just as\nwell as twelve gallons_ via _the bucket, and is much cheaper._ Some\ncrack bulls have three and four five-gallon cows at once, and go to\nShows with all their nurses in attendance.\n\n\"Once I reared a bull as we rear the heifers. But he was a failure. His\ndaughters are only half the size they ought to be.\"\n\n(An example of direct developmental inheritance--in terms of\ndeterioration--from father to daughter.)\n\n\nXIV\n\nComparing a calf with a human baby, it becomes self-evident that the\ndiet suited for the large, crude creature which trots about on four legs\nshortly after birth must be wholly unsuited to the delicate digestion\nand the subtle psychological needs of the small and complex,\nhighly-organised human infant, which remains so long a helpless infant.\n\n\nThe all-important _proteid_ of every order of creature differs from that\nof every other. Before any form of alien _proteid_ can be built into the\nbody of a living organism, the digestion and assimilation of this\ncreature must first have laboriously disintegrated and reconstructed it\nto the form of its own individual _proteid_.\n\nThe Irish tradition that persons not nursed during infancy by their\nmothers are beings without souls has much to justify it. Even the\nill-nourished, sickly babes of working-mothers have an essentially\n_human_ look in eyes and features, possess far more of nervous power,\nand are of appreciably higher and more intelligent psychology than are\nthe bottle-fed infants of the cultured.\n\nThe bottle-fed start handicapped for life, both in constitution and\nmentality. It is safe to say that all great men and women have been\nsuckled by their mothers or have come of stock thus humanly nurtured.\nThat they were thus humanly nurtured during their momentous first nine\nmonths of life, is the reason, doubtless, why so many of our greatest\nmen have sprung from humble origin.\n\nThe incapacity of a mother to nourish the babe she has borne should be\nknown for a mark of degeneracy--sign, too, that she was unfitted to\nhave borne a child, because deficient in the vital reserve requisite to\ncarry her maternal function to its normal biological and psychological\nconclusion. Just as a statesman or a general would be held unfitted for\n_his_ function, if he should lack the physical and mental enterprise to\ncomplete his national undertakings.\n\n\nThat for the nine months preceding its birth the infant obtains its\nnourishment directly from its mother's blood, and for nine months after\nbirth it obtains this, normally, from her milk--_her_ digestive\nprocesses having so assimilated the originally brute and vegetable\nproteids of her food that these are now _human_ proteids, and are ready,\ntherefore, to be built into the infant's body with the least possible\ntax upon its own assimilative powers--proves a number of important\nfacts.\n\nFirst: that an infant's digestive powers remain, normally, for nine\nmonths after birth, in a more or less embryonic state; slowly and\ngradually developing capacity to convert the products of the brute and\nvegetable kingdoms into forms suitable for building into its human\norganisation. (Just as we see the digestive organs of the child\nprogressively developing power to assimilate an adult dietary.)\n\nSecondly: that the infant's digestion remains thus undeveloped obviously\nin order that as little as possible of its vital power may be expended\nin the complex processes of assimilation, all available vital-power\nbeing urgently required for its exhaustingly rapid brain- and\nbody-building.\n\nThirdly: that where an artificial diet forces precocious development\nupon the infant-digestion--since all precocity is degeneracy, all the\norgans concerned in digestion will be, necessarily, more or less\nstructurally defective and functionally inefficient; as a consequence of\nnot having been permitted time and rest to develop slowly and stably\nover the normal allotted period. (Proof is supplied by the premature\ndevelopment of teeth, which occurs in artificially-fed babies some\nmonths before dentition is normally due. And these teeth and those that\nsucceed them are of such perishable structure that present-day children\nneed perpetual dental repairs.)\n\nFourthly: that such misapplication of vital resources for the premature\ndevelopment and abnormal functions of precocious digestive organs\nentails inevitably corresponding loss of vital power for general\ndevelopment.\n\nFifthly--and by no means lastly, but perhaps most important of all: that\nsince the infant-digestion is quite incapable of properly converting\nbrute and vegetable-proteids into human proteid, infants artificially\nfed must necessarily _build into their brains and bodies lower-grade\nproteids_--and proteids so imperfectly assimilated as to be something\nless than human, and, accordingly, more or less brute or vegetable still\nin their inherences. And since all living cells and tissues reproduce\nupon the plan of the parent-cells and tissues they were derived from, it\nis clear that the abnormal cells and tissues constructed of these\nhalf-brute, or half-vegetable proteids must be abnormal; unstable and\ndegenerate, and prone to lapse readily to still further degrees of\ndeterioration and disease.\n\nHence a source of our neurotic, neurasthenic, adenoid-afflicted,\nmentally-defective and otherwise diseased children. Hence too the\nincreasing criminality--which is _animality_, of course--that\ncharacterises a considerable proportion of the rising generation.\n\nEach further generation artificially fed in infancy can but deviate\nstill further from the Human Normal, becoming ever less human; brain and\nbody-cells reproducing themselves, throughout life, on the plan of their\ninfant-construction of half-brute or half-vegetable proteids. One sees\nthe ox in the dull, soulless eyes, in the bovine flesh, the stolid\nfaces, and in the crude animal natures of many modern little ones, to\nwhom calf-diet was fed before they had developed the digestive power of\ntransforming this into substance highly vitalised enough for human brain\nand body-building. And the less their systems have rebelled against and\nhave rejected, but, on the contrary, have conformed to and have thriven\nupon such brute-diet, the cruder are their organisations. Of this order\nare the insensate child-monsters who win prizes at Baby-shows.\n\n\nTo one who realises that, of all the powers of Woman, the ability to\nnurse her babe is second in importance only to her first and vital\nfunction of producing it, the cry and clamour and impassioned fallacy\nthat have swirled around the trivial detail of her Suffrage-disabilities\nshow grotesque beside the human tragedy of her increasing biological\ndisability and her increasing psychical aversion to fulfil this\nindispensable and sacred mother-office. To despise which, as being a\nfunction woman possesses in common with the humbler creatures, is as\nnarrow-sighted as it would be to scorn the genius of Shakespeare because\nboth dog and pig, poor things! possess brains. Moreover, in forfeiting\nthis maternal faculty, woman reverts to the mode of those crude\nrudimentary species _below_ the Mammalia.\n\n\n                       \"... _Each mother's breast_\n     _Feeds a flower of blue, beyond all blessing blest._\"\n\n\nNotwithstanding all this, Feminism, in its grim materialism, blind to\nthe mystical beauty of Life and the sacredness of Individuality, regards\nwomen mainly as parts of an economic machinery. And to serve as such, it\nstandardises all in body, mind and aptitude, to economic ends; the young\nand tender girls whose shaping frames are shaping to become the mystical\nlooms of evolving Humanity; the young wives in whom love and marriage\nhave set mysterious processes in motion; the young pregnant mothers in\nwhom the shuttle of Life is already marvellously flying, interweaving\nthe luminous threads of a soul with a body of flesh.\n\nNature made women ministrants of Love and Life, for the creation of an\never more healthful and efficient, a nobler and more joyous Humanity.\nFeminism degrades them to the status of industrial mechanisms, whereof\nthe commercial products are the chiefest values, and children no more\nthan bye-products.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnd what bye-products they are! God help them!--Who alone can help\nthem--this pathetic rubble of pallid, sickly, suffering, and dejected\ninfant- and child-Life; the violet-hued babies, with their dull eyes\nglazed by misery, their leaden, half-paralysed limbs; the blind and\ncrippled, halt and deaf, the imbecile and feeble-minded children,\napathetic, neurasthenic, joyless; as too, on the other hand, the\nlow-browed, sturdy and soulless, or the debased and evil--All the\ngeneration of degeneracy which our deteriorate and enfeebled looms of\nwomanhood are grinding out to-day.\n\nThough shut from sight and thought, in the prisons, hospitals and other\ninstitutions of our modern civilisations is an ever-swelling,\never-rising, further-menacing tide of diseased, defective, insane and\ncriminal mankind, product of ours and of those others' violations of\nNatural Law; clogging the River of Life, choking the Springs of\nEvolution, damming the current of Progress.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nFEMINIST DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE DESTRUCTIVE OF WOMANLY ATTRIBUTES, MORALE\nAND PROGRESS\n\n     \"A woman versed in that finest of all fine arts, the beautifying of\n     daily life.\"\n\n\nI\n\nIn _Woman and Labour_, Miss Schreiner laments as follows, picturesquely\nbut speciously: \"Our spinning-wheels are all broken; in a thousand huge\nbuildings steam-driven looms, guided by a few hundred thousands of hands\n(often those of men) produce the clothings of half the world; and we\ndare no longer say, proudly, as of old, that we and we alone clothe our\npeoples!\"\n\nA scene is conjured of brute-men with clubs savagely attacking and\ndestroying hapless women's innocent spinning-wheels, as Mrs. Arkwright\nruthlessly destroyed her husband's cherished models. Yet who, regarding\nthe subject dispassionately, sees cause for anything but gladness that\nmodern woman has not still to spin the linen of her household and the\ngarments of its members--for anything but thankfulness for that\nintelligent male-brain which carried the woman-invention of the needle\nto its higher adaptations in the weaving and the sewing-machine? Who can\njustly regret that the taking over by men, in factories, of wholesale\nbrewings and bakings, jam-makings, and so forth, has relieved the other\nsex of ceaseless drudgeries; and in so relieving it of drudgeries of\nhouse-keeping has left it free to develop the higher and the more\nintellectual arts of home-making?\n\n\"_Slowly but determinedly, as the old fields of labour close up and are\nsubmerged behind us, we demand entrance into the new_,\" Miss Schreiner\naffirms. And to emphasise our determination, the demand is printed in\nher book, as I have reproduced it, in Italics.\n\nLosing sight altogether of the inestimable benefits to woman secured by\nthe intervention of men between her and the hardest and the most\ndebasing employments, she further protests, \"any attempt to divide the\noccupations in which male and female intellects and wills should be\nemployed, must be to attempt a purely artificial and arbitrary\ndivision.\"\n\n\"Our cry is, _We take all labour for our province!_\"\n\nNevertheless, clever and intuitive woman as she is, she confesses (now\nthe Italics are mine), \"_It may be with sexes as with races, the\nsubtlest physical differences between them may have their fine mental\ncorrelatives_.\" And yet, oh why, having come upon so promising a vein of\ntruth, did she not follow it to its logical conclusions, and find in it\nall the answers to her extremist demands, and, with these, the\nrefutations of her Feminist plea and claims?\n\nMen and women are unlike not only in \"_the subtlest physical\ndifferences_\" which \"_may have their fine mental correlatives_.\" They\nare unlike in the most obvious and basic facts of physical constitution\nand of biological function. And these must inevitably entail mental and\ntemperamental correlatives more intrinsic and farther reaching even than\nthe subtler physical differences she recognises as being possibly\nmodifying factors in psychical aptitude.\n\n\nAdvocating soldiering even for the sex, Miss Schreiner says: \" ...\nUndoubtedly, it has not been only the peasant-girl of France, who has\ncarried latent and hid within her person the gifts that make the supreme\ngeneral.\"\n\nHere is fallacy again. Joan of Arc was, beyond all things, woman. Not\nthe man in her, but the woman in her, and her Supra-conscious womanly\nattributes it was which (inspiring her by way of mystical voices and\nvisions) impelled her so to transcend her woman-nature that without\nknowledge of arts military or of strategic science, as, too, without\nexperience, she was able, by intuitive prescience, to lead her\ncompatriots to victory. For the soldiers, perceiving the Light in her\nface, followed in awed confidence whithersoever she led.\n\nIn earlier days of civilisation, this intuitive and visionary faculty of\nwoman was recognised and honoured.\n\n\nII\n\nIn _The Human Woman_, Lady Grove presents a wholly contrary view to Miss\nSchreiner's.\n\nWith her, woman suffers less in being shut out from the labour-market\nthan in having been driven from the home.\n\n\n     \"The woman has been driven from her home into the labour-market.\n     The fact of 82 per cent. of the women of this country working for\n     their living is an ugly rebuff to the pretty platitudes about the\n     home,\" she says.\n\n     \" ... The stupendous mistake that has been made up to now is in\n     supposing that it is men's judgment only that should decide\n     questions, and hence the hopeless state of unravelled misery\n     existing in the world, side by side with all the wealth and wonders\n     of the age.\n\n     \"If we examine the conditions of the working-classes, after years\n     and years of male legislation, what a hideous set of conditions we\n     find. Intemperance, bad-housing and the cruel struggle for\n     existence among the poorer classes. And yet we spend over\n     L22,000,000 annually on the education of these people. Surely there\n     is something wrong somewhere. What is it that we, seeing this\n     condition of things at our very door, have, as women, to be so\n     grateful for in male legislation?\"\n\n\nThe writer fails wholly to perceive that these factors she deplores as\ndue to defective masculine legislation are effects less of faulty\nmeasures than of faulty Humanity. Measures are the gauge of the men who\nframe them. And men are very much the measure of the mothers who bore\nthem. Those which she properly characterises as the \"hideous\" conditions\nof the working-classes, \"intemperance, bad-housing and the cruel\nstruggle for existence\" are circumstances legislation cannot remedy\nunless the hearts of legislators are moved to do this, and their hands\nare empowered, moreover, to do it, by the collective will of those they\nrepresent.\n\nExcept all are content to subordinate their personal interests to the\ngeneral welfare, and to improve their personal morale for their own and\nfor the common good, Acts of Parliament can do but little. Drunkenness\ncan be penalised by legislation, difficulties put in the way of\nobtaining drink. But intemperance can be effectually stamped out only by\nindividual men and women so rising to higher levels of thought and\nself-control as voluntarily to become sober; or by men and women so\nimproving in brain and constitution that the craving for drink--now\nrecognised as a disease--no longer obsesses them.\n\n\nActs of Parliament may condemn insanitary and defective dwellings, may\ncompel landlords to repair them to degrees of decency and comfort; may\npull them down and build others in their stead. But none of these\nmeasures will eradicate the bad housing of dirty and comfortless, or of\ndemoralised and demoralising homes. The best house possible becomes bad\nhousing for its occupants when the woman at the head of it fails to do\nher duty therein, in consequence of industrial labour which leaves her\nneither time nor energy to make a clean, well-ordered, cosy and\ninspiring home of it; or because her own idleness or ignorance, her\ndrunkenness or worthlessness, results in her neglect of it. Human\nconditions, like human measures, result from the personalities, good or\nbad, capable or incapable, of those who create them.\n\n\nIII\n\nThe Feminist's faith in the masculine prerogative of Legislation, as\nbeing a possible panacea--had _she_ but part in it--for every ill\nbeneath the sun, is one of her gravest disqualifications for taking part\ntherein.\n\nLegislators who are over-confident in the efficacy of The Law express\ntheir over-confidence in terms of premature and unduly-coercive\nlegislation. Procedure which, more often than not, frustrates the ends\nto which it was designed by the methods taken to secure these. Progress\nis personal, moreover. It is the sum of the advance of individuals.\nLegislation is the statutory _formulation_ of public opinion; it is not\nthe _source_ of this. It merely crystallises public opinion. But before\ncrystallisation of thought (as of chemical) sets in, saturation-point\nmust first have been reached throughout the medium wherein it occurs.\n\nWere any other development required to show the utter inadequacy of\nLegislation to attain its ends--when not reinforced by personal\nco-operation and initiative--this has been supplied in that latter-day\ndemoralisation of young girls, the consequences whereof will be vastly\nmore baneful and farther-reaching in contributing to national decline\nthan even that other dire factor of the flower of our virile youth\nstruck down before its prime.\n\nGirls are fully protected by law to the age of sixteen. Yet many of the\ndemoralised girls seen consorting freely with Tommy or Reggie, according\nto their class, are well below that age. Legislation is powerless,\nhowever, failing parental vigilance and co-operation to invoke its aid.\nNevertheless, with its characteristic blind confidence in the male\nprerogative of Law, Feminism now advocates raising \"the age of consent\"\nto eighteen. But to do this would no more protect the girl under\neighteen than the existing law protects the girl under sixteen--or, for\nthat matter, protects the girl of twelve. Law can do little or nothing\nunless, as happens so seldom and happens too late, parents requisition\nits assistance for menace or for punishment. Mothers themselves should\nsee to it that their little daughters have neither temptation nor\nopportunity to consent to their own ruin.\n\n\nIV\n\nWe saw lately a militant rising of women against men and their laws; the\nobject being to compel concessions from the male by way of violence. And\nso short-sighted were the leaders of this Movement that not only did\nthey seek to prove their right to make laws, by breaking them, but they\nshowed themselves ignorant of the first rudiments of combat by electing\nto fight the enemy with his own weapon--that weapon of Force which is\nman's especial Fitness and Woman's Unfitness. Woman's Unfitnesses have\nprevailed, it is true, in the counsels of progress, but, obviously, they\nhave not prevailed, nor can they ever prevail by being pitted directly\nagainst masculine strengths. Her way of supremacy is one by far more\nsubtle and sublime.\n\nThe leaders of Militancy seem never to have suspected, moreover, that\nwhile they were demanding to be liberated from all womanly privileges,\nthey were, nevertheless, waging their deplorable skirmishes from behind\na strong wall of such privileges. Men who should have adopted such\ntactics would have received but short and scant shrift.\n\nWere the sex to be confronted, indeed, with that \"Fair field and no\nfavour!\" for which some members of it are so clamorous, these would find\nit a grievously different thing from the privilege they paint it.\n\nMarcel Prevost has said that when men find women competing with them in\nfields of Labour, to degrees injurious to masculine interests, they will\nturn and strike them in the face. There are indications to the contrary,\nhowever. Among decadent races and savages, the emasculate sons of\ndeteriorate mothers assert their masculine authority otherwise.\n\nFar from combating their women's right to work, they force them to\nwork--and to work in support of the males!\n\nMore and more every day, civilised men, indeed, released by\nworking-wives from their natural obligation to maintain the family, are\nseen so to have lapsed from their sense of virile responsibility as to\nbe coming further and further to shelve upon such working-wives the\nburden of the family support. Among the labouring and artisan classes,\nthe wife's contribution to the exchequer leaves the husband more money\nto spend on drink or on gambling; or on both. In superior classes, too,\nit leaves husbands with more money to spend on amusement--of one sort or\nanother.\n\nResponsibility and effort are natural spurs to masculine development.\nRelieve the male of these and he degenerates. As woman released from\nchild-bearing and the duties entailed by the family, degenerates\nrapidly. We can no more improve on The Plan than we can improve without\neach and every appointed factor of it.\n\n\nV\n\nAnother disastrous blunder of Feminism is to make for equal wage for men\nand women.\n\nThe higher wage of men springs, economically, from the fact that the\nindustrial output of women is, normally, less than that of men. But\nthere is a deeper, and a biological significance involved. Which is,\nthat men's greater output of work results from more of their energy of\nbrain and body being available to them for work, because far less of\ntheir vital power is locked-up in them for Race-perpetuation and\nnurture. There is the implication also that man being the natural\nbreadwinner of the family, his wage should suffice for its support.\n\nA system of equal wages for the sexes would press as cruelly upon women\nas it would be disastrous to the Race. Because it would compel woman,\ndespite the biological disabilities that handicap her economically, to\nforce her powers to masculine standards of work and output. It would,\nmoreover, by qualifying her to support the family, serve as cogent\nexcuse for her husband to shirk his bounden duty.\n\nThe crux of the demand for equal pay for equal work is that, because of\nher natural lesser strength and endurance, when a woman is doing work\nidentical in nature and equal in quantum to that of a man, it means that\n_she_ is doing _more_ than a woman's work, and is overtaxing and\ninjuring her constitution, therefore; or it means that _he_ is doing\n_less_ than a man's work, and is \"slacking,\" therefore.\n\nA further important issue is that when rendered too easy by both husband\nand wife earning wage, marriage is entered upon far too lightly, and at\ntoo early and irresponsible ages, than happens when the whole burden of\nsupport rests with the man. Moreover, in such case masculine selection\nmakes only too often for economic rather than for human values in the\nwife. A man upon whom is to fall the whole tax of supporting the home\nand the family regards marriage more seriously, and delays it until he\nis more mature of years and of settled position. Moreover, he chooses\nmore carefully. And the Race benefits proportionally.\n\nIn manufacturing towns, with opportunity for both husband and wife\nearning wage, boy-and-girl marriages, feckless, discordant homes, and\nsickly degenerate, neglected children are the rule.\n\nThat women should be paid for work they do, a salary enabling them to\nlive honestly and in comfort, goes without saying. Economics should be\nadjusted on a far higher basis than that mainly of a competitive\nstruggle which allows the employer to fix wages less according to the\nvalue of work done, than by the number of persons at his mercy, who, in\ntheir eagerness to live, will undersell their values and thus cheapen\nlabour. Nevertheless economics have, in a degree, adapted to the\nevolutionary trend. Because, in the main, the more skilled and difficult\ntasks are more highly remunerated than the less skilled, and are\nperformed by the more fit. And not only are these better qualified to\nexpend such higher remuneration intelligently, and with benefit to\nthemselves and to the community, but they are able to secure thereby\nthose better conditions which are the due and the need of families\nhigher in the scale of humanity, and requiring, therefore, higher\nconditions of nurture.\n\nThe cases of colliers and of other rough-grade humans who earn wage\nbeyond their mental calibre to expend intelligently, show how an income\ntoo large for its possessor leads to coarse and demoralising\nextravagances, rather than to personal happiness or elevation. (The like\nis true of many plutocrats.) War has shown us boys' lives wrecked by the\nsame factor. No greater fallacy exists than that of supposing progress\nto lie in freeing persons from all disabilities--poverty, and other\nrestrictive conditions.\n\nWives should be legally entitled to a just proportion of their husband's\nincome, as a _right_, not merely as dole. This, in recognition of their\ninvaluable work in home-making, and of their invaluable service to the\nState in producing and rearing worthy citizens for it.\n\n\nVI\n\nMasculine legislation, making all the while, in the face of economic\ndifficulties, for the ever further release of women and children from\nthe more laborious and debasing tasks, has made compulsory, in their own\nand in the interests of their unborn infants, a month of respite for\nexpectant mothers, and a further month for mothers after delivery.\nExtending thus to these poor victims--beasts of the burden of toil, and\nbeasts of the burden of sex--a mercy and consideration wholly lacking in\nthe Feminist propaganda. For this latter repudiates indignantly all need\nfor concession or privilege to wifehood or to motherhood, equally with\nwomanhood.\n\nTo justify the claim for equality in all things, women must be forced,\nat all cost, to identical standards of work and production. To ask\nprivileges and concessions would be to confess, in the sex, weaknesses\nand disabilities that must disqualify it from economic identity with the\nother.\n\nFar, indeed, from such vain-glorious and disastrous straining for\nequality, the leaders of the Woman's Movement should, before all else,\nhave demanded insistently still further industrial concessions and\nprivileges for a sex handicapped for industry, by Nature. First and\nforemost, they should come into the open and boldly proclaim--what it is\nuseless to deny, indeed--that in the function of parenthood, at all\nevents, men and women are wholly dissimilar. They should reject outright\nall tinkerings and half-measures for relief of this great human\ndisability, whereof one sex only bears the stress and burden for the\nbenefit of both, and for survival of nations and races.\n\nNot only for the pitiful respite of a month before and a month after\nthe birth of her child, should the mother be prohibited from industrial\nlabour. By that time all the damage will have been done. The power that\nshould have been put into the evolution of her infant will have been put\ninto the revolutions of a lathe. The life-potential that should have\ngone to build its living bone and brain and muscle will have gone to\nfeed the life of a machine. The breath she will have drawn for it will\nhave been contaminated by the dust and fumes of toil. Its poor nascent\nbrain and faculties will have been dulled and depleted, stupefied and\nvitiated by the stress and turmoil of its mother's labours. Only the\ndregs of the maternal powers will have been invested in the Race. The\nfinest and most valuable will have gone to swell the balance-sheets of\nCapital.\n\nThe trumpet-cry of The Woman's Movement should be, indeed, _The Absolute\nProhibition of young Wives and Mothers from all Industrial and\nProfessional employment!_\n\nSuch a prohibition, by lessening the competition of the labour-market,\nand by thus increasing the value of labour (which the flood of female\nindustry inevitably cheapens) would automatically so increase the wage\nof men as to make of these true living wage, sufficient for the\nmaintenance of home and family. Such a prohibition would, moreover, so\ndiminish the competitive pressure among women as to make it possible for\nunmarried women, the future wives and mothers, as well as for the older\nspinsters and widows, to select in every fitting trade and industry,\nwork suited to the lesser strength and endurance of the female brain and\nbody.\n\n\nVII\n\nNothing has characterised the Feminist Movement throughout so much as\nlack of knowledge of human nature (both masculine and feminine), lack\nof prevision to foresee the trend of new developments, lack of intuitive\napprehension to gauge the issues of such trend. Its leaders have never\nsuspected, accordingly, that, in propaganda and in practice, they have\nbeen tampering with a great biological ordinance; and that, in\nobliterating women's Sex-characteristics, they have been destroying that\ncounterpoise of human powers and faculties whereon progress and\npermanence rest, and that morale which is the inspiration of advance.\n\nRegarding their own masculine Rationalism as the ideal and standard for\nall women, they have believed it possible to shape all women\nsuccessfully thereto. Nature is not to be thwarted, however. And when we\ndestroy the balance of the Normal, abnormal developments--gravely\nmischievous and singularly difficult to deal with--crop up and require\nto be dealt with. One may raise the familiar cry that some modern\ndevelopments are due to our being in \"a transition stage.\" But from that\nremote day when Nature first evolved us as a race of _amoebae_, further\nto evolve into the human species, we have been always in \"transition\nstages.\" Normal transition upwards is so slow an impulse as to be\nwell-nigh imperceptible, however. Rapid change invariably betokens\nregression--descent being vastly easier and swifter in movement than\nascent is.\n\nDeplorably mistaken has been a doctrine of Emancipation which, by\ndisparaging the arts domestic, has sent out young girls and women,\nindiscriminately, from the sphere domestic, to de-sexing and\ndemoralising work in factories and businesses; and has engendered the\nrace of stunted, precocious, bold-eyed, cigarette-smoking, free-living\nworking-girls who fill our streets; many tricked out like cocottes, eyes\nroving after men, impudence upon their tongues, their poor brains\nvitiated by vulgar rag-times and cinema-scenes of vice and\nsuggestiveness.\n\nSome of our working-girls are charming-looking, pretty-mannered, pure\nof thought and life, of course. A small minority--alas, how small!--are\nnormal of development and sound of constitution. But these are not the\naverage. And it is the average with which a nation has to reckon.\n\nEmphatically, men are not as women. In body and in mind they are by\nnature rougher, tougher, and vastly less impressionable. A regime that\n_makes_ a boy will wreck a girl. Of more sensitive calibre, she requires\nmore kindly, protective conditions, moral and industrial, than does he.\nNotwithstanding which, little girls now run the streets and take their\nchances as they may--in capacities of over-burdened errand-girl,\ntelegraph-messenger, and otherwise--at ages when their developing\nwomanhood requires due care of nurture, moral supervision, and freedom\nfrom physical strain. Sedentary occupations are a natural need of their\nsex, moreover, as is indicated by the breadth and weight of the female\npelvis and hips, as too by the delicate adjustments of those important\nreproductive organs, the future products whereof are of inestimably\nhigher national values than are the industrial assets of these poor\nchildren's labour. As Girl-guides and so forth, young girls parade our\ntowns in meretricious (albeit hideous) uniform; developing thereby that\nlove of publicity and of unwholesome excitement to which the sex is\nprone. Small girls just fresh from school are even now employed in\nbarbers' shops to shave men; destroying thus in them, at the outset of\nlife, that natural diffidence and reserve toward the other sex which are\nthe first defences of womanly honour.\n\nIn demanding absolute emancipation, industrial and personal, Feminists\nhad no other thought but that such new liberty would have widened\nwoman's scope for usefulness, for happiness, for self-development. Yet\nwhat has been the outcome of it all? For one who has used her new\nfreedom for the ends designed, very many more have used it to their\nserious injury; only too many to their moral downfall.\n\nAlready everywhere such liberty has fast degenerated into licence. Our\ngirls were no sooner emancipated by their mothers from the usually\nwholesome--if sometimes too severe--control of their fathers, than\nstraightway they have emancipated themselves from the indispensable\nmaternal rule. Strict supervision and guidance in a world they are\nignorant of--or if sophisticated are in far worse case--are essential to\nthe well-being, physical and moral, of the young and immature.\n\nYoung girls, on first discovering their attraction for the other sex,\nbecome intoxicated by the sense of their new dangerously-alluring power,\nand lose their heads. Beyond all things, they require at this phase a\nmother's strict and careful supervision, with sympathy and firm control;\nto tide them over their perilous phase, and thus to preserve them from\nconsequences of their ignorance or folly, or from those of a pernicious\nbent. Nevertheless, young girls of every class are granted now\ndisastrous latitudes of thought and action. The vigilant chaperonage\nindispensable to protect them from the biological impulses--which they\nmistake for \"love\"--of the careless or vicious young men to whom\n(equally with the chivalrous and honourable) modern mothers abandon\ntheir daughters, has become a dead-letter. The girl only just in her\nteens is free to play fast-and-loose with boys and men--as too\nwith life, before she has learned the merest rudiments of living.\nAll too soon she learns her lesson. And becoming precociously\nsophisticated--only too often precociously vicious--her nature and\nfuture are wrecked at the outset. Because nothing wrecks a woman's\ndisposition so effectually as sex-precocity does. Sex is the very pivot\nof her nature. On this she swings up--or down. And early habit decides\nher bent.\n\nThat many of these cigarette-smoking, decadent young creatures are no\nworse than impudent, feather-brained and misguided, does not save the\nlicence allowed them from being as harmful to physical as it is perilous\nto moral health; nor from the experiences resulting from such licence\nwholly unfitting the majority for later wholesome restraint, and for\npurer and fairer ideals of womanly conduct and living.\n\nFor much of this Feminism is gravely to blame. Not only because it has\nled to the absorption of the mothers in outside pursuits, as being of\ngreater importance than the fulfilment of their maternal duties and\nresponsibilities to their young daughters, but because, too, the partial\nsterilisation of girls, by masculine training and habits, in robbing\nthem of womanly qualities, robs them of natural reserve and modesty, and\nof the other more delicate instincts and aspirations of their sex.\n\n\nSignificant, truly, of latter-day maternal neglect of young daughters\nwas the disclosure by a doctor, in a recent _British Medical Journal_,\nthat of a hundred men infected with venereal diseases, more than\n_seventy had contracted disease_ from \"_amateur flappers_.\" Yet as with\na child badly burned by playing with fire, we blame the mother or\nguardian who exposed it to danger of thus injuring itself for life, so\nthe mothers of these unfortunate girls were to blame for gross neglect\nof their duty to safeguard these young lives.\n\nNature avenges her betrayed girls, however. For medical authority shows\nthat these youthful unfortunates transmit disease in its most virulent\nand destructive forms. It is as though all the vital potential of their\ndeveloping womanhood is perverted to a malign poison, charged with the\nforces of their blasted youth.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Victorian, who brought up her daughters to marry in ignorance of\nbiological fact, went to the other extreme. But it was a far less\nharmful one than that in vogue to-day.\n\nLike that of the child, the immature, susceptible mind of a girl,\nincapable of apprehending the sex-factor in its true perspective with\nthe other factors of life, becomes unduly dominated by consideration\nthereof when too early instructed. She is far better left, for so long\nas is practicable, ignorant or hazy concerning this vital phenomenon, in\nplace of being fully informed, as girls are now-a-days. So that they\nknow all that there is to be known about sex--except its seriousness and\nsacredness. And divorced from the seriousness and sacredness of Love and\nBirth--which mere knowledge of biological fact is wholly inadequate to\nimpart--such knowledge of fact presents a crude and bald distortion of\nthe truth; only too often imparting an ugly and demoralising warp to\nmind and conduct. Ignorance is not Innocence, 'tis true, but it serves\nthe same purpose in safeguarding innocence that clothes do in\nsafeguarding modesty. And for one girl who falls in consequence of\ninnocence, twenty fall from sophistication.\n\nUnless masculine traits have been over-developed in her by abnormal\ntraining, in which case (as occurs sometimes in the quasi-masculine\nwoman of middle-age) sex-instinct may acquire an unnatural and\nquasi-masculine insistence, this instinct is, in the normal girl,\n_responsive_ rather than _initiative_. (Wherein she differs\ndiametrically from the male.) And such natural dormancy may be\nadvantageously preserved by haziness of knowledge, and by the careful\nsurveillance required for protection of immature minds and powers. The\nbald, matter-of-course view-point of many modern girls with regard to\nsex, their knowledge of vice, and their cynical acceptance and\ndiscussion thereof, as too of the vulgar intrigues of notorious dancers\nand peeresses, to say nothing of the ugly and debasing personal\nexperiences only too many of them have incurred, are among the evils of\nthe injurious licence at present accorded to young persons.\n\nFeminism, having thrust such disastrous liberty on creatures as eager to\ngrasp as they are unfitted to cope with the dangers thereof, is striving\nnow, by way of women-patrols and police-women, to stem the evil with one\nhand--while with the other, it continues to open the flood-gates still\nwider. The only way to stem the evil is to stem it at its source. The\nhome, with the vigilant supervision and guidance of a mother whose duty\nis publicly recognised and her authority strengthened thereby, whose\ntime and faculties are devoted mainly to the making of home and to the\nsafeguarding and disciplining of the young creatures she has brought\ninto existence, is environment and shelter as indispensable to the\nimpressionable youth of both sexes--but more particularly to the\nimpressionable youth of one--as it is for the rearing of infancy and\nchildhood. Such home-influences, reinforced by the strong hand of a\nfather who likewise recognises his parental responsibilities, are the\nfirst of all the rights that matter for young womanhood.\n\nLater, should come a term of domestic service. Mistresses of households\nshould realise not only their human but likewise their national\nresponsibility to these young humbler members thereof. No other public\nservice possible to them would equally conduce to national progress.\n\nAs fathers are legally responsible for debts of sons under age, mothers\nshould be responsible to the State for the virtue of daughters under\nsixteen.\n\nIn the _personal_, vastly more than in any other field of operation,\nwoman's chiefest value lies. When she exchanges it for public functions,\nand seeks to further progress by officialdom and politics, by\ninstitution of women-patrols, police-women, Mayoresses, and so forth,\nthe supreme importance of the personal factor becomes impressed by the\ndiscovery of the utter inadequacy of any substitute to take its place.\n\"If mothers did their duty, there would be no need for us,\" a\nwoman-patrol stated recently.\n\nBy the time young women have reached such phases of demoralisation that\ntheir conduct in public demands the intervention of police-women, it is\ntoo late to reform them, moreover. They will have lost the best promise\nand hope of their womanhood.\n\nAnd so it is and must be ever all along the line. The home and the\nfamily are the nursery of civic as they are of racial progress. We\nregard it as proof of civilisation that Law-Courts for Children have\nbeen instituted. Yet what a blot it is, in truth, upon both parentage\nand parenthood that, in our day of enlightenment, such should have\nbecome necessary.\n\nSo have mother influences and maternal sense of responsibility declined,\nhowever, that mothers on all sides openly confess their utter lack of\npower to control boys and girls just in their 'teens.\n\n\nVIII\n\nThe fashion is to pity and deride the \"poor\" early Victorian because she\nlacked the manifold and nerve-wracking outlets for that restlessness and\nboredom from which modern women suffer.\n\nThe \"poor\" Victorian was a more harmonious, better-balanced and more\ntranquil being, however. And she was far less cursed with \"nerves,\" with\nfeverish unrest and carking discontent, than women are to-day.\n\nMrs. Craigie observed that the Victorian, with her backboard and gentle\naccomplishments, produced (without the pusillanimous expedient of\n\"Twilight Sleep\") notably stronger, finer, and more clever children than\ndo present-day over-educated or athletic women--athletic women, whose\nmuscles of arms and of legs have so sapped the powers of important\ninternal muscles that most of them are incapable of bringing their\ninfants into life without instrumental aid.\n\nOne does not, for a moment, counsel reversion to the type or to the\nmethods of an earlier generation. Evolution and development must\nadvance, and are, of course, advancing satisfactorily in some stock. But\nthe Victorian served her generation nobly, producing splendid specimens\nof men and women, and handing on a generous racial constitution--now\nbeing squandered recklessly, alas! by her descendants. The tide of\ngreater freedom, of broader outlook, and fuller effectiveness for woman\nhas set in, however. Albeit, owing to Feminist misapprehensions, it is\nnot only moving too rapidly but it is moving in a wrong direction;\nbecause in direct opposition to biological law.\n\n_By their fruits ye shall know them._ And the Victorian so preserved her\nwoman-powers and attributes that she was an excellent and a contented\nwife, and could bring into existence--without instrumental aid--a family\nof comely, clever boys and girls; nurse them all from eldest to\nyoungest; rear and discipline and put such stuff of health and sanity\nand enterprise into them as shames some flimsy, feeble-minded,\ncharacterless modern stock. We have far to look to-day, indeed, for\nstatesmen and soldiers, poets and artists, business and craftsmen, and\nother such virile and talented personages as those early and\npre-Victorian mothers endowed their epoch with.\n\nAnd were further evidence needed that our great-grandmothers equalled\nour own women in the qualities we pride ourselves upon as triumphs of\nFeminism, the strength and courage, the resource and fortitude those\nothers showed throughout the stress and horrors of the Indian Mutiny are\nproof sufficient that, beneath their gentler virtues, lay the sterner\nfibre of nobility.\n\n\nIX\n\nTo prove to what a third-grade power Woman, once so potent an\ninspiration of life, has lapsed, we need but go to The Drama--reflex\never of its period. Consider Shakespeare's women--subtly wise,\nprofoundly clever, beautiful and gracious, true and charming, strong and\ntender, chaste and gay; warm with temperament, crystal-sparkling with\nwit and parry!\n\nAnd comparing these adorable beings with the posturing, tricky,\nintriguing, slangy, spotty creatures--neurotic unfaithful wives and\nerratic \"bachelor\"-daughters--of the modern stage, the deplorable\ndeterioration of our womanly ideals becomes patent.\n\nWomen have sinned in every age, but they have sinned in some ages\npicturesquely and pathetically, because Nature led them. While the\nmorbids and neurotics of our modern Plays are for ever noisily turning\nout the dusty corners of their warped psychologies, in order to discover\nsome loose end of Nature in them to condone their erotic eccentricities.\nStrange, that Twentieth-Century woman tolerates the mirror held to her\nin these abnormal and distasteful creatures!\n\nThe modern dramatist is handicapped in his art, it is true, by lack, in\nour latter-day actresses, of that personal charm and magnetism, and the\nvital power to render the higher and subtler emotions and passions,\nwhereby the actresses of earlier days held audiences spell-bound.\n\nPolitics and Sports destroy alike the Muses and the Graces. One who\nattempts to combine them with the delicate psychological arts and\nartistries of The Drama is bound to failure--in her art, at all events.\n\n\nTime was when the best men reverenced women as beings of more delicate\ncalibre, to be shielded from the rougher and grosser contacts of life.\nChivalry forbade that they should have taken these to coarse\nexhibitions, prize-fights and the like. And to such restriction woman's\npurer instinct and her finer taste assented.\n\nThe male being practical and rational, however, since women themselves\nare changing all that, he too is coming to believe that any and every\nthing is good enough for a sex which more and more repudiates its\nsubtler quality.\n\nThat native delicacy which preserved her once from masculine habits of\nthought and indulgence, taught man to realise woman as belonging, by\nnature, to a purer and daintier order. (Howsoever inferior to himself in\nsome other respects he may have held her.)\n\nIt won his reverence and worship that these frailer and more\nexquisitely-constituted creatures should possess, despite their\nexquisiteness, such fine mettle of resistance in their softness as\nwithstood the fire and urgence of the masculine siege; that within their\n(possibly) ignorant little brains was light that flashed straight to\nintrinsic truths and right courses of action; such intuitive\napprehension of The Good and The Beautiful, without experience of the\nbase and ugly, as taught them to distinguish clearly, to select, and to\nhold fast to the fairer in thought and in conduct.\n\nTo encounter in woman his own traits touched to higher, subtler issues,\nand transformed to novel and alluring quality by the charm and graces of\nanother sex, has made always an enchanting, an inspiring, and a baffling\nenigma of her--to endue woman for man with eternal values and\nimpenetrable mystery. For he has visioned in her--without\nformulating--the mystery of the Human Duality.\n\nTrembling in the delicate poise of her twofold being, between the soft\nimpressionable, variable woman in her and the man of steel aesthetically\nsheathed within the velvet of her womanhood, the play of her swift\nsupple transitions, the kaleidoscopic changes of her perpetual new\ncombinations--giving ever fresh bewildering effects of colour, light and\nmode--have made her infinite variety for him. While her soft, immediate\nadjustments to his own moods and needs have been his wonder and delight;\npresenting to him all that there is in himself, yet in modes impossible\nto himself. All that he knows by acquaintance she knows by\nintuition--and in a fresh and fairer way. All that he sees, her eyes\nmake him see again in new and more exquisite lights. All that he thinks\nhad been already in her woman-heart ere ever man began to think. All\nthat he loves she shows him a reason for loving--yet not by way of\nreason. All that he craves with his soul, her soul can confer. All that\nhis body and sense have desired, her body and sense can bestow--But with\nall the immeasurable differences and enhancements of her unlike sex.\n\n\"_Away, away!_\" cried Jean Paul Richter, apostrophising Music, \"_thou\nspeakest to me of things that in all my endless life I have not found,\nand shall not find!_\"\n\nWagner said, \"Music is a Woman.\"\n\n\nDr. Havelock Ellis, himself a zealous Feminist, has said, that, in their\nardour for emancipation, women sometimes seem anxious to be emancipated\nfrom their sex. While Ellen Key, most impartial of critics, observes:\n\n\"But full of insight as they are into the _ars amandi_, have modern\nwomen, indeed, learned how with all their soul, all their strength, and\nall their mind to love? Their mothers and grandmothers--on a much lower\nplane of woman's erotic idealism--knew of only one object; that of\nmaking their husbands happy.... But what watchful tenderness, what\ndignified desire to please, what fair gladness could not the finest of\nthese spiritually-ignored women develop! The new man lives in a dream of\nthe new woman, and she in a dream of the new man. But when they actually\nfind one another, it frequently results that two highly-developed\nbrains together analyse love; or that two worn-out nervous systems fight\nout a disintegrating battle over love.... Of love's double\nheart-beat--the finding one's self, and the forgetting one's self in\nanother--the first is now considerably more advanced than the second.\"\n\nThe reason why the New man and the New woman, having found one another,\nfind no more inspiration or sweetness each in the other than to \"fight\nout a disintegrating battle\" is because both are male of brain and\nbent--one normally so, the other abnormally.\n\nAnd when two males meet, their nature is--to fight!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nInto every clause of this book must be read the many inspiring\nexceptions to be found among those modern men and women and children who\nare advancing normally along evolutionary lines. Such are so fine of\ntype, in body and in mind, that they blind not a few to facts of racial\ndeterioration. We point to these and say: One cannot speak with truth of\nthe degeneracy of nations which produce such noble specimens!\n\nThese exceptions prove the principle I am endeavouring to impress,\nhowever. That were we to apply ourselves to correction of our biological\nand social errors, we have with us stock of the noblest Race\nconceivable, and the noblest possible future for that Race.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nDANGEROUS SEPARATION OF WOMEN INTO TWO ORDERS: FEMINISTS AND FEMININISTS\n\n     \"_Every child comes with the message that God is not yet\n     discouraged of Man._\"\n\n\nI\n\nSince women possess native gifts of highly-differentiated faculties and\naptitudes, not only their greatest effectiveness, but, too, their\nwell-being and happiness lie in finding highly-specialised and selective\napplication for these, in Life, in Art, in Science, and in Industry.\n\nTheir role in every field of operation should be recognised as being\nwholly different from that of man, however; and their own natural\nview-points and special abilities should be fostered, accordingly, by\nsuitable training; in order to fit them for the special departments for\nwhich they are essentially suited.\n\nThe charming artistry and fancies, spontaneous and full of delicate\ninsight, feeling, and sense of line, which a woman puts into her\nillustrations of a child's Fairy-story, are art as true, for example,\nand if less great of achievement, are nevertheless as intrinsically\nvaluable in The Scheme of Things as are the virile masterpieces of a\nMichael Angelo or Turner.\n\nFew men attain the exquisite artistry in colour that even indifferent\nwomen-painters show. It is an expression, in mentality, of the\nbiological fact that the colour-sense is naturally so highly developed\nin woman that Colour-blindness--comparatively common among men--is rare\nindeed in her.\n\nOn the other hand, woman is inherently weak in drawing. When she is\ntrained, however, to draw with masculine strength and precision, she\nloses her natural freedom and delicacy of touch, her sensitive feeling\nfor line, her exquisite colour-sense, her fertile fancy. Rosa Bonheur's\nhorses are as strong in drawing as they are baldly deficient in\nsentiment. Men have painted horses bolder still in line, but\nnevertheless noble and beautiful in feeling.\n\nThe same is true of Literature. Mrs. Browning would have been a great\npoet had she not taken her husband for model. Some of her delicate\nwoman-fancies, tricked out in Robert Browning's over-virile style, are\nlike charming women masquerading in fustian trousers.\n\nGeorge Eliot, too, affected the masculine both in viewpoint and\nmethod--a bad habit which so grew upon her that her later novels are\nponderous as political treatises, and devoid of human interest.\n\nFar different, Charlotte Bronte. True to herself and to her sex, she\nwrote and has written for all time--as those others did not--as a woman,\nand as only a woman could have written. Jane Austen, likewise.\n\nThe woman point-of-view and method are regarded, for the most part,\nhowever, as mark of the amateur--the model aimed at being the eternal\nmasculine in mode and trend.\n\n\nIf the demand, \"_We take all labour for our province!_\" be safeguarded\nby recognising and differentiating the province into two distinct and\nseparate--supplementary and complementary--departments, for the\nrespective labours of the two widely differing sexes, the claim comes\nfirst within the range of reason and discretion.\n\nAs woman was the first doctor, so she was the first artist. Man inherits\nfrom her not only his artistic faculty, but he derives from her his\nfaculty of creative inspiration. Applying his native intelligence, his\nexecutive ability and power of sustained effort, to this end, he has so\ndeveloped The Arts as to have carried these to their modern\nrealisations. And though woman, in her turn, may learn of him, it by no\nmeans follows that his standards or technique are best adapted to her\nmodes of inspiration, to her ideals or attainments.\n\nTrained along the lines of natural inherences, and trained, accordingly,\nwithout injury or warp to health or faculty by straining after standards\nnot their own, women would not be disqualified, as so many are now by\navocational specialisation, for wife and motherhood. They would, on the\ncontrary, be the better adapted. And health and charm and emotion not\nhaving been sacrificed in them by de-sexing pursuits, such would be\neagerly sought. Thus Racial advance would be secured by its wives and\nmothers having been drawn from the best orders of women; the women\nnaturally endowed with faculty and character; self-reliant, but\nunspoiled by abnormal training.\n\nA number of latter-day women being unfitted, alike by nature and by\ninclination, for marriage, two orders of the sex should be clearly\ndistinguished and administered for; as being wholly different types, for\nwhom wholly different creeds and employments are indicated.\n\nThose whose aims and talents incline them to public careers should be\ncontent with the lot to which they are best suited; and content to\naccept the privileges thereof, and the disabilities thereof. They should\nnot be greedy, and demand, at the same time, the liberty of the\nfree-lance and the privileges of the wife and the mother.\n\nSo with the wife and mother. She, for her part, must forgo the liberty\nof the free-lance. Because, with her privileges, she has undertaken\nfunctions and duties which, for their complete fulfilment, demand her\nbest powers and activities.\n\nMen who marry are similarly restricted. The bachelor lacks the interests\nand happiness of the husband and father. The husband and father lacks\nthe personal liberty and the freedom from responsibility enjoyed by the\nbachelor.\n\nIt is women, mainly, who demand both the prerogatives of the married and\nof the unmarried states. Notwithstanding that it is wholly impossible\nfor them to fulfil the functions of both, because it is impossible for\nthem to possess either the aptitudes or the energies for both.\n\nIn view of all that men have attained by devotion of their lives to the\ncivilised achievements which now dignify existence and ennoble faculty,\nwhen one sees women more clamorously confident in their bounden right to\ninherit lightly all that the other sex has so laboriously won than they\nare reverently grateful for the inestimable human privileges and the\ntreasuries of Art and Mind-wealth available to them by way of these\nsurrendered masculine lives, it seems cause for indignation equal to\nthat aroused by the phlegmatic calm wherewith most men accept as\nmatter-of-course--instead of as matter for reverent gratitude--the gifts\nof Life and Faculty, to evolve and to transmit which to them, their\nmothers and all the generations of mothers before them surrendered their\nlives and their powers.\n\nRecognition of the intrinsic differences, in trend and in function,\nbetween the sexes, should go far to dispel misconceptions and points of\nvariance between them. The prevailing notion that the one sex is a sort\nof muddled version of the other--and not a highly-specialised\npresentment of an invaluable order of qualities, with inevitable\nshortcomings in the complementary order of qualities--is greatly to\nblame for sex-misapprehensions and antagonisms.\n\n\nII\n\nFeminists anticipate that War-experiences will further and finally\neliminate all economic sex-distinctions, by having supplied convincing\nobject-lessons that their sex is able to do, and to do efficiently, all\nthat the other sex can do.\n\nFar from object-lessons in the suitabilities, however, the experience\nhas furnished terrible examples pointing the contrary way. Because\nalthough women have shown themselves both willing and efficient in these\nnew capacities, results have proved at what cost to themselves and to\nlife they have done men's work. Apart from a deplorable deterioration in\nmorale, showing both in coarseness and in viciousness, the blight of age\nwhich has swooped upon both young and old, as direct consequence of the\nhardship and strain of masculine employments, robbing them of youth and\nhealth and joy and beauty, of repose and higher appeal, and transforming\nthem into the grim, drab, harassed spectres many have become, should be\nwarning enough, in all conscience, of whither Feminism is leading us.\n\nMany of our young women have become so de-sexed and masculinised,\nindeed, and the neuter state so patent in them, that the individual is\ndescribed (unkindly) no longer as \"She\" but as \"It.\"\n\nDire have been the disillusionment and bitterness among our fighting\nmen, upon returning to the homes and wives or loves they had long\ndreamed of--to find the wife or love a shattered wreck, or a strenuous,\ngraceless, half-male creature; the home a place of nerve-racking unrest.\n\nIt is consoling to know that a number of those who have been de-sexed\nmerely, and not disabled, will continue to find useful and contented\noutlet for their masculine developments in filling still the places of\nour fallen heroes. Cruelty lies in the fact, however, that the womanhood\nof many will have been wrecked quite needlessly; by strain of\nsuperfluously strenuous drill and marchings, scoutings, signallings, and\nother such vain and fruitless imitations of the male.\n\nThe greatest care should have been exercised to have selected the\nstrong and able-bodied, the older women and the women of the\ncharacteristic worker-type (corresponding to the sterile female-worker\nof the bee-hive), for the rougher and the more exhausting tasks. The\nyoung wives and mothers and the young girls should have been rigorously\nexcluded from such.\n\n\nOf all human prerogatives, the greatest is that of being preserved, by\nclass, by ability, by means, or by privilege, from gravitating to levels\nof work that coarsen and debase; or that, at all events, do not exercise\nand foster the development of higher tastes and faculty. And this human\nprivilege is, in proportion to their degrees of civilisation, accorded\nto women by all civilised peoples. As men have stood between them and\nthe perils of battle and shipwreck, the slaying of wild beasts,\npioneering, exploring, and the like, so they have stood between them and\nthe coarsest, ugliest, and most debasing industrial functions.\n\nNevertheless, Feminist anger at restriction whatsoever in the matter of\nemployment ignores all cause for gratitude on the part of the sex, that,\nbeing at man's mercy as she is, civilised woman is no longer (as the\nwoman of inferior civilisations is still) a beast of heavy burden. Far\notherwise, indeed, Feminism aims at nothing so much as to repudiate her\nestablished privileges, abolish all distinctions, and to make woman once\nagain that beast of burden the chivalry of man--at first instinctive,\nlater magnanimous--has progressively rescued her from being.\n\nAnd yet the degree to which sex is defined in Labour (as in Life) is at\nthe same time the gauge and the cause of human development. Wheresoever\nare found low intelligence, crude morale and lack of progress, there the\nwomen are employed in men's work. Wheresoever women are employed in\nmen's work, there are low intelligence, crude morale and lack of\nprogress.\n\n\"Thank Heaven for the War!\" Feminists have said, however, \"because it\nhas enabled our sex to prove its worth--by enabling us to quit ourselves\nlike men. The world knows now that women can conduct omnibuses, drive\nploughs, clean stables, kill chickens, ring and slaughter pigs, quite as\nwell as men can.\"\n\nIt is as painful as it is amazing to find intelligent and cultured\npersons so blinded by the obsessions of their creed as to suppose that\nin ploughing and hoeing and making munitions, women are doing finer and\nmore valuable work than they had been doing previously; that the woman\nbus-conductor is a more important person than the children's nurse; that\nto drive a cab or clean a boiler is a nobler occupation than the\nteaching of music or the cleansing of clothes; that to spread manure is\nmore dignifying than to make beds; to amputate the limbs of wounded\nsoldiers is superior to the subtler, far more difficult art of medically\ntreating the complex ills of women and children.\n\nThat these other employments have been demanded by the times, is\nundeniable; as, too, that honour and credit are due to those who well\nand capably responded to the exigencies of the hour. But this does not,\nin the least degree, lessen the illogic of the claim that such response\nto the cruder and less-civilised demands of War proved woman's value\nmore than did the devotion and efficiency she was previously showing in\nthe far more complex and progressive arts of Peace. The main value of\nher War-work was that it fitted the times. But the times have been\nwoefully out of joint!\n\n\nIII\n\nAt a recent Feminist Meeting, one of the leaders of Militancy detailed\nto an audience of fierce-eyed, sombre-visaged members of her own sex,\nand sundry meek-browed persons of the other, her latest exploits in the\nmatters of arranging Labour disputes and averting strikes of\nworking-men; of sending Governmental male officials to the right-about,\nand of disposing, in general, of masculine concerns.\n\nThe main issue of her story was lost sight of, alike by herself and by\nher audience. This was--or so it seemed to one among the latter: What\nmanner of men were these who required or tolerated it that a woman\nshould take them thus in hand, and, as though they had been whipped\nchildren, dispose of them and their men's affairs--between worker and\nemployer, between man and man? What order of creature will be the sons\nand the grandsons of men ever further emasculated by every further\ngeneration of subjection by such masterful persons; female-Dominants who\narrogate the virile rights and prerogatives of their menkind; their\ninitiative and enterprise; their capacity to think, to speak, to plan\nand to act for themselves?\n\nThe Subjection of woman by man--What was that evil compared with this\nother enormity: the Subjection of man by woman, which is fast replacing\nit?\n\nMen who--saving under stress of War--permit women to usurp the functions\nand prerogatives of their natural domain, in capacities of Mayor, of\nChairman of Companies and so forth, are, frankly speaking--Muffs!\n\nNot of such sires were our great Anglo-Saxon Races gotten. Not such was\nit who have made England what she is! And the England we look to will\nnever be the England we look to--until such effeminate blood shall have\nbeen bred out of her sons.\n\nThe male becomes emasculate when women invade his domain. And with the\nincreasing Hugger-mugger of the sexes, it grows, every day, more and\nmore difficult for men to escape into the bracing, invigorating\nenvironment and moral of their own sex--a moral untempered by amenities\ndue to the other, and one indispensable to string them to the pitch of\nvirile thought and action. Our sailors and soldiers and aviators are\nstill _men_, because woman has not so far invaded the Navy, the Army, or\nthe Air.\n\nFeminine invasion everywhere else--in schools and colleges, in the arts,\nin politics, in commerce and in sports--is undoubtedly enfeebling the\nfibre of our manhood and the quality of masculine achievements. Man is a\npioneer; aggressive, progressive, ever breaking new ground; conquering\nnew territory and new forces of Nature. And this alike in politics, in\ncommerce, and in other material affairs. When he fails to pioneer,\nreaching out to new horizons of thought and activity, engineering new\nenterprises, while at the same time strengthening and consolidating all\nhe had already acquired--then the world, in place of progressing,\nregresses. And for pioneering, whether in political or in geographical\nregions, woman's presence hampers him.\n\nThe less men are in a position to escape from the other sex, the more\nthey lose the impetus and characteristics of their own.\n\nThe like applies to women. Women who mix too much and too freely with\nmen deteriorate signally in womanly values and quality.\n\nBoth sexes benefit by segregation from the other, in order to\nadapt--each to its own characteristic morale and moral. Neither sex is\nwholly unconstrained and candid when in company of the other--unless\nboth are demoralised.\n\nSex operates as a stimulant. And to be always under influence of a\nstimulant is enervating. On the other hand, when, from over-indulgence,\nSex or any other stimulant ceases to release new inspiration and forces,\nit is sign of a permanently enervated state. Or sex operates as a\nhypnotic. And to be always under hypnotic influence is as destructive of\nindividuality as it is fatal to achievement.\n\nThe sexes require to separate, accordingly, in order to derive fresh\nimpulse on coming together again.\n\nBoth work more seriously and sincerely, more efficiently and more\neffectively, apart; taking counsel, when need be, one of the other.\n\nThe dilettante spirit and amenities of mixed companies, destructive of\n\"thoroughness,\" are greatly to blame for that decline of British\ncommerce which has followed on the Feminist invasion of business-houses.\n\nSignificant of the trend is the fact that young and pretty and\ninefficient girls are selected for business positions, as clerks and so\nforth, while older women of experience and accredited ability are\nrejected summarily. It is, doubtless, amusing and flattering to\nmasculine employers to be surrounded by attractive youth of the opposite\nsex. But it is conducive neither to commercial enterprise nor to\nachievement.\n\n\nIV\n\nBecause of the intrinsic variability underlying her duality of\nconstitution, the happy mean and balance (difficult to all humans) are\nespecially difficult to woman.\n\nMan, like herself, is of dual constitution. But he is more firmly,\nbecause less finely, poised between his two orders of Traits. She, on\nthe contrary, tends to oscillate between the opposite extremes of her\ntwo-sided nature. A bent which may be traced, throughout history, in the\nexcesses, in one or the other direction, that have characterised the\ncareers of many famous women-personages.\n\nThe Ultra-Feminine extreme, which results from lack of due balance of\nher woman-side by the masculine side of her, and the Mannish extreme,\noccasioned by over-development of her masculine inherences, may be\nregarded as, respectively, the Scylla and Charybdis--the rocks of the\nMale-traits, or the vortex of the Female-traits--whereon, equally, may\nbe wrecked the noblest characteristics and the highest values of the\nsex, when it fails to steer clear, _in medias res_, of either.\n\nIn a number of women, the Feminist and the Femininist (Ultra-Feminine)\ntypes alternate in the same person. In place of being stably and\npermanently centred in the woman-side of them, with the masculine to\nsteady and intelligise, such persons act and re-act, in more or less\nviolent pendulum-swing, between their two orders of impulse. Thus we get\nwomen, intellectual, progressive, strenuous, engrossed for part of their\ntime in serious, perhaps in public avocations--and then plunging, in\nviolent recoil, into social frivolities; vanities, dissipations, pranks,\nintrigues, excesses.\n\nMen, too, act between extremes. In far less degree, however. Life\ndemands from most of them over-accentuation and concentration of their\nmale-abilities, in physical and mental specialisations. And in reaction,\nthey plunge into follies and vices. But the more virile keep their\nheads, and preserve a certain stability and conformity in their\naberrations. While effeminate men, it is mainly who lapse into vicious\nexcess.\n\nSince woman supplies the inspiration and the morale of life, however,\nand since her momentous function of motherhood empowers her to make or\nto mar the Race whereof she is creatrix, a nation has a greater claim\nupon its women, and has, at the same time, more reason and more right to\nrestrict their liberty of action, and to direct their bent, than it has\nin the case of its men. Its survival and its downfall tremble in the\nscales of Life which woman holds. To compensate her for such restriction\nand limitation of her scope, obviously it owes her privileges, personal\nand economic. And a subconscious recognition of this fact has been,\ndoubtless, the source of such privileges as she now enjoys.\n\n\nThere have always been, as history shows, women in whom, from faulty\nheredity or culture, or from stress of circumstance, the Male-traits\nhave been abnormally developed; virile-brained, stout-hearted, muscular\nchieftainesses, chatelaines, abbesses, matrons; or (in less agreeable\nguise) amazons, shrews and viragoes. But always such were recognised as\nbeing abnormal, and for the most part as being repellant. It was not\nsought to manufacture them. It is only of late years that Mannishness\nhas become a serious Cult.\n\nAnd now a dangerous thing has happened. Because where formerly symptoms\nof Feminism attacked individuals only--and these mainly the mature and\neccentric--now the young and the normal are being indoctrinated\nwholesale. Young girls taken during the malleable phases of growth and\ndevelopment, and forcibly shaped to masculine modes, become more or less\nirretrievably male of trait and bent; losing all power to recover the\nwomanly normal.\n\nWhile on the other hand, there are assembling to-day, in an opposite\never-increasing and menacing camp, those others for whom Feminism, with\nits extremist, exacting, self-reliant codes and modes, has no appeal;\nthe pretty mindless, the idle frivolous, the pleasure-seeker, the\nfreakish and the conscienceless--in a word, the Ultra-Feminines; in whom\nthe woman-failings are unfortunately more conspicuous than are the\nwoman-virtues. Between these two extremes stand (and stand so far in\ngratifying number) the natural, admirably-balanced, noble and invaluable\nModerates--normal women content to be normal women, and to fulfil the\ndestined role of such. And these are the saving grace of nations.\n\nApart from these, the sex is ever further and more dangerously\nseparating into the two extremist camps; the Mannish and strenuous, and\nthe Over-Feminised and purposeless, more or less idle and frivolous,\nselfishly absorbed in clothes, in luxury and pleasures; exacting\nmasculine tribute in mind and kind, with but little return in affection\nor ministry.\n\nIn place, accordingly, of that fine normal poise of the Contrasting Man\nand Woman-Traits--which is the way of Evolution and of Progress--there\nis being substituted in the sex this degenerative segregation of its\nTraits in two wholly opposite, and equally lopsided types. And of these,\nthe purposeful and strenuous, all the while making for masculine\nstandards, are all the while further discarding the beauty, the\nemotions, the delicacy and morale of true woman; while the mindless and\nvain, the attractive and charming, are more and more divorcing\nthemselves from purpose, from seriousness, from noble endeavour and\nusefulness.\n\nAnd since rights accorded to women are shared by all, every new\nprivilege Feminists win for the sex in the sweat of their assiduous\nbrows--liberty, latchkeys and general latitude--the Ultra-Feminines\nsnatch, and apply to frivolous and profitless, or to demoralising ends;\nlicence, extravagances, vices.\n\nThe Ultra-Feminine, for the most part shallow and mindless (although\nmany clever women belong to this order), absorbed in complacent culture\nof her oftentimes alluring personality, enhancing it, attiring it,\ndeveloping its charm and graces, eager of homage and of tribute, is\nexample of that Parasitism Miss Schreiner condemns in the sex; example\nof qualities normally making for beauty, but from loss of balance, owing\nto warp, hereditary or of misdirection, morbidly feeding upon\nthemselves.\n\nThis Parasitism is seen in its worst guise in the vast armies of\nprostitutes, who in every clime and epoch ravage the fair fruits of\nhuman life and achievement.\n\nAgainst this Parasitism in herself, self-absorbing, self-indulgent,\nenervating--defect of her reposefulness, of her aestheticism and vital\nself-consciousness--every woman needs to be upon her guard; to repress\nwith firmness the smooth easy lapse it prompts toward sloth and\npleasure; to exorcise the soft dry-rot of it, by power of aspiration and\nby prayer of ministry. (For noble truth it is that _Laborare est\norare_.)\n\nThe Woman's Movement did good service for the sex in the early chapters\nof its history, when it made for due education of woman's higher\nmasculine inherences; intelligence, application, self-reliance; as also\nin finding further fields of usefulness and self-expression for her.\n\nBut unfortunately in the later chapters, over-cultivation of these\ntraits has increasingly annulled and extinguished her own. And this with\nthe unforeseen, disquieting resultant that a compensatory movement has\nset in apace among that other faction of the sex. So that the more\nmannish the Feminists become in mode and aim, the more womanish become\nthe Effeminates. Thus, albeit sincerely despising and decrying this,\nFeminism has nevertheless indirectly fostered the growth of Effeminacy.\nWhile, by supplying it with ever further liberty and scope for the\nindulgence of its freaks and failings, Feminist propaganda has directly\nplayed into its hands. Motherhood strikes deeper roots of attribute even\nin the Ultra-Feminine; brings thin streams of altruism to her\nneurasthenic breasts. In her children she forgets clothes, grows less\ngreedy of masculine tribute, forgoes pleasures and excitements that had\nbeen the breath of life to her.\n\nThe increasing emancipation of the sex from home-functions and from\nwomanly and mother-duties, however--claimed and obtained with a view to\nfurther economic scope and application of its powers--has been\nexultantly hailed and exploited by the Ultra-Feminines for ever further\nindulgence of and wider range of action for their dangerous defects. And\nFeminism will find--and this soon to its dismay--that the battle it has\nwaged against the other sex has been as nothing to the battle it has yet\nto wage against its own, in the person of the Eternal Effeminate; idle,\nluxurious, parasitic and effete, who, with her brood, engenders the\ndry-rot which crumbles mighty civilisations, or topples them in\nRevolution.\n\n\nV\n\nOf the two camps, the vast majority of masculines will always seek their\nloves and wives among the Ultra-Feminines; frail and erratic, but\nattractive and more or less womanly. So long as men are men, the\nfeminine graces, even in their spurious forms of Effeminacy, will\npossess more vital appeal for them than do the intelligences and\nutilities.\n\nThe Feminist camp, further and further commandeering the intelligent and\nself-reliant, the worthy and purposeful of the sex, while more and more\ndiscarding the charms and the softness thereof, will be further and\nfurther deserted by men. And of the happy mean--the well-balanced woman,\nat once tender and intelligent, devoted and charming--there will be ever\nfewer available.\n\nWhat then is the future, biological and sociological, of Races whose\nwives and mothers will have been drawn mainly from the shallow-brained\nand shallow-hearted, from the less dutiful, the less high and\nright-minded? To say nothing of the less constitutionally-sound, the\nUltra-Feminine being, for the most part, a neurotic? The great majority\nof such will decline part, indeed, in functions so dull and distasteful\nas the mothering and rearing of children.\n\nThe Feminist wife, with her intelligent grip of economics and her stern\nsense of citizen-duty, would fulfil her racial function (in accordance\nwith Malthusius) during intervals of more absorbing and strenuous\nactivities. But when once the novelty--which gives a certain piquancy\nfor some men to a mannishness some women are able to wear quite prettily\nand attractively in early youth--shall have worn away, the poor\nFeminist's chances of marriage will be few, indeed; save with\nmen-weaklings, requiring the virile support of a strong-minded,\nmuscular wife.\n\nThe Feminist makes a far more honest and reliable, sincere and helpful,\nmate than does the Ultra-Feminine. But men prefer the latter.\n\nMale characteristics are to be found among their male acquaintance. And\nit is not a normal, nor is it a wholesome instinct in a man, to seek in\nsex the traits of his own.\n\nIn the cult of Mannishness, woman loses her strongest, her noblest and\ntenderest appeal for true men--the appeal of her womanhood. And losing\nit, she abandons the male to the toils of the enemy camp; to those whose\nwomanishness partakes, at all events, of the attributes of a sex\ncomplementary and supplementary to his own.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nUnhappy wights! How Nature has handicapped them--in order to spur them\nto their virile part of founding and providing for the family!\n\n\nVI\n\nAs innocent of misappropriating that which is Caesar's as they are\nignorant of the biological verities, some Women-leaders and Prime-movers\nin Feminism exact and exult in the warm young, zealous adulation and\nhero-worship of their followers; never suspecting that such tribute is\nrendered, in fact, to the _male_ in them. Both they and their votaries\nbelieve themselves loyal and thrall to their finger-tips to Woman and\nThe Woman-Cause. Whereas they are, in reality, hero-worshipping, on the\none hand, the Male in their Cult, and on the other, the Masculine traits\nof its female exponents. Against man himself and the Maleness that is\nhis by natural right, many are filled with hottest distrust and\naversion. Yet while sex-antagonism is thus strong in them in fealty to\ntheir creed, Nature is strong in them too. And with gentle irony she\nexacts their homage for the traits of the foe--masquerading in guise of\na female!\n\nHeroes to worship, every naturally-constituted woman craves. And it is\nthe hero--far less than it is the heroine--in the Feminist leaders,\ntheir qualities of fight and masterfulness, of virile brain and concrete\nenterprise, which evoke their adherents' devotion and tribute.\n\nSome Feminist leaders bid, indeed, as strenuously for and claim as\njealously the undivided loyalty and subjection of their flock as ever\nTyrant-Man demanded of the sex.\n\nIn schools and colleges too, the girls make gods and heroes of those of\ntheir sex who excel in manly sports. They have never a suspicion that\ntheir gods and heroes are not goddesses and heroines. Similars being\nunattractive to one another, the exposition of woman-traits leaves woman\nmore or less unmoved. As Nature destined, the woman-heart goes out to\nthose virtues and valours which are the natural complement of her own.\n\nThis latter-day vogue is not a normal, nor a pretty development. But it\nis another of the inevitable consequences of disturbing Nature's\nbalances. Nature's plan and her methods of administration are so perfect\nthat when left to herself she preserves her equilibrium and secures her\naims by the safest and, at the same time, by the simplest expedients.\nWhen man destroys the hawks which, normally, reduce the smaller fry of\nbirds to their allotted quotum in the Scheme of Things, however, the\nsmaller fry multiply inordinately and devour his cherries and his corn.\nAnd when he destroys the smaller fry, the slugs and grubs and _aphides_\nmultiply and devour his lettuces and roses.\n\nSo it is with Human traits and faculties. The balance of The Normal is\nthe way alone of health and happiness and progress.\n\n\nThere is great boast now-a-days of friendship and comradeship between\nthe sexes. Yet though friendship and comradeship are good allies of\nlove, they are but sterile, uninspiring substitutes for the profounder,\nhigher, vital and undying emotions of the true love-passion.\n\nOn the other hand, attachments between men and men, and between women\nand women, are strengthening and intensifying; absorbing the emotion and\ndevotion formerly and normally bestowed on members of the opposite sex.\nWhile attraction between persons of opposite sex becomes ever lighter\nand triter in sentiment; serving more and more for brief distraction and\nprovocative pastime rather than for a living and abiding bond.\n\nThis misplaced affection for members of the same sex arises from the\nattraction of traits of the opposite sex unduly developed in them. While\nindifference to members of the opposite sex results from lack in these\nof the characteristics of their sex, normally accentuated. Thus a woman\nis more drawn to one of her own sex possessing virile characteristics,\nphysical or mental, than she is drawn to a weak-brained, emasculate man.\nMasculine women are attracted likewise by the womanly graces and quality\nof feminine women.\n\nWhile men find in some members of their own sex, feminine traits of\nsympathy and sentiment absent in women of male-proclivity. All is an\nexpression of the law of the Attraction of Opposites, which (normally)\ncauses persons of opposite sex to be strongly drawn to one another.\n\nOn the other hand, the development in himself, or in herself, of the\ncharacteristics of the opposite sex makes members of either sex\nindependent of and indifferent to members of the other, by supplying\nthem with a spurious counterfeit of qualities it is natural to seek in\nthose others.\n\n\nVII\n\nProfessor Drummond, from whom I quote frequently, as being one of those\nbiologists on the side of the angels, writes thus beautifully:\n\n\n     \"Sex is a paradox; it is that which separates in order to unite....\n     There is no instance in Nature of Division of Labour being brought\n     to such extreme specialisation. The two sexes were not only set\n     apart to perform different halves of the same function, but each so\n     entirely lost the power of performing the whole function that even\n     with so great a thing at stake as the continuance of the species\n     _one_ could not discharge it.\n\n     \"It is important to notice this absence of necessity for Sex having\n     been created--the absence of any known necessity, from the merely\n     physiological standpoint.\n\n     \"Is it inconceivable that Nature should sometimes do things with an\n     ulterior object, an ethical one, for instance? To no one with any\n     acquaintance with Nature's ways, will it be possible to conceive of\n     such a purpose as the sole purpose.\n\n     \"Had Sex done nothing more than make an interesting world, the debt\n     of Evolution to Reproduction had been incalculable.... What exactly\n     Maleness is, and what Femaleness, has been one of the problems of\n     the world. At least five hundred theories of their origin are\n     already in the field, but the solution seems to have baffled every\n     approach. Sex has remained almost to the present hour an ultimate\n     mystery of creation....\n\n     \"The contribution of each to the evolution of the human race is\n     special and unique. To the man has been mainly assigned the\n     fulfilment of the first great function--the Struggle for Life.\n     Woman, whose higher contribution has not yet been named, is the\n     chosen instrument for carrying on the Struggle for the Life of\n     Others.\n\n     \"That task, translated into one great word is Maternity--which is\n     nothing but the Struggle for the Life of Others transfigured,\n     transferred to the moral sphere. Focused in a single human being,\n     this function, as we rise in history, slowly begins to be\n     accompanied by those heaven-born psychical states which transform\n     the femaleness of the older order into the Motherhood of the New.\"\n\n\nOut of the misconception of Sex as having no other purpose or\nsignificance than that of reproduction merely, there has arisen the\nfurther misconception that, lacking other purpose or significance, the\nsex-characteristics of Woman may be obliterated in her not only without\ninjury, but with benefit to her; as being superfluous and hampering\nimpedimenta merely, when reproductive issues are beside the question.\n\nYet since Faculty lapses first in its latest and highest developments,\nsex-deterioration manifests most in the higher mental and moral\nSex-characteristics. One result, therefore, of not fostering, by culture\nand by avocation, sex-specialisations upon planes of mind and aptitude,\nis that, while lapsing in its higher functions, Sex remains operative\nstill upon the physical plane, and functions crudely--perhaps viciously\nthereon. Just as intelligence becomes dense and degraded when its finer\nqualities are not exercised, and their development thus raised to finer\nissues. Moreover, by denying to Sex and to the rites of love any but\nparental issues, the individual, emotional and spiritual issues of the\nhuman union are ignored; a limitation all the more dishonouring, because\nof the present-day misconception of parenthood as being a purely\n\"physical,\" and, accordingly, an inferior function.\n\nThere is not, of course, in all the complex marvel of human metabolism,\nsuch an anomaly as a purely physical function. Digestion even is far,\nindeed, from being such, since by way of this a slice of bread is\ntransformed into living personality, living thought and impulse, living\naction.\n\nSex is manifestly a Spiritual and an Eternal Principle. Because, by way\nof its essential dual differentiations and intensifying operations,\nMatter becomes endued not only with Life and Faculty, but, having become\nLiving Matter, it becomes endued, by power of reproduction, with the\npotential of eternal Life and Faculty. Even more, it becomes endued with\nthe potential of the eternal unfoldment of ever-further intensifying\nLife and Faculty.\n\nSex is, in truth, for both genders, such a convergence of every\ncharacteristic--physical, mental and emotional--in a highly specialised\nfocus, that the whole outlook upon life becomes highly specialised and\nintensified thereby; every impression and experience becoming instinct\nand charged with intrinsic meanings, vividness and colour. And this\napart wholly from relation to the other sex. Although, of course, the\nfocus and intensity of the traits of the one sex are _accentuated_ in\nvividness and richness, in response to the complementary traits of the\nother.\n\nIt is Sex that energises men to be great; great leaders of men, great\nwriters, great statesmen, great soldiers, great sailors,\nexplorers--great sinners and great saints.\n\nSex it is makes women great also; great mates for great men, great\nmothers, writers, ministers to poor Humanity--great saints.\n\nThe mystery of Sex is, surely, Master-key to all the other mysteries of\nthe Cosmos.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nVIII\n\nIn aiming at Hermaphrodism, Feminism is contriving not only at\nfrustration of all that Evolution has achieved in Life and Faculty, but\nit is making for the extinction of Life itself.\n\nThe Hermaphrodite is incapable of parenthood. And in the degree to which\nmembers of either sex lapse toward Neuterdom, in body or in mind, they\nbecome incapable of transmitting to offspring all those higher\ndevelopments of form and faculty which are, essentially,\nSex-differentiations. The present-day decline in parental impulse and\naffection, which shows, among other signs, in ever-decreasing\nBirth-rates, is a symptom of temperamental Neuterdom; evidence alike of\nSex-decline, and, in this, of decline of that vital energy and spiritual\nimpulse whereof Sex is the manifestation.\n\nSuch trend toward Race-suicide denotes, in the Race, that same\nneurasthenia and pusillanimity, which, in the individual, impel him to\npersonal suicide.\n\n\nLatter-day marriage, greedily grasping all that Life and Love bestow\nwhile grudging any due to Life and Love, is not true Marriage--but is\nsacrilege.\n\nBetween this and the mating of true men and women, who, in gratitude for\nLove, pay tribute joyfully to Life in lives to follow after them, is all\nthe vital difference, in impulse and emotion, between the Ship of\nLove--with its mysterious freight--immured within a narrow lock whereof\nthe gate to the Beyond is sealed, and the Ship of Love launched free\nupon the open sea of Human Destiny--a Shining sea of Faith and Hope,\nwhich tides beyond the narrow mortal gateway toward a Great Unknown;\nRemote, Illimitable, Veiled in Everlasting Silence.\n\n_This_ ship fares forth upon its voyage of Mystery, beatified by full\nsurrender of all lesser issues to that sacred one of the Eternal\nHuman--a surrender which endues true marriage with tenderness and awe\nand beauty.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Do we not pitch our songs too low, O sweet--my Singers?_\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nTHE IMPENDING SUBJECTION OF MAN\n\n     \"The Earth never tires.... Nature is rude and incomprehensible at\n       first;\n     Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well\n       envelop'd;\n     I swear to you there are Divine Things more beautiful than words\n       can tell.\"\n\n_Walt Whitman._\n\n\nI\n\nIn the long and painful history of man's more or less total failure to\nvalue and to honour woman for her greatest, her most vital and\nself-sacrificing part in human affairs, none has approached in obliquity\nhis recent deplorable blunder of awarding her the suffrage and the right\nto sit in Parliament, as recognition of her War-services.\n\nAll the long ages of Mother-surrender, of quiet heroism and attainment,\nall the best, beautiful years of women's lives which the burden and\nsickness, the weariness, danger and anguish have devoured down the\ncenturies, while the mothers were giving themselves to be the nation's\nbone and blood and brain, to nourish, cherish, and upbring it--All were\npassed over without word or sign.\n\nNot for her long ages of devoted duty to the nation's sick and helpless,\nfor rearing and safeguarding its priceless infant and child-life, for\nadministering its homes--fashioning, cleansing, beautifying, contriving,\nmaking the utmost of its means and ends--Not for her inestimable\nservices as man's good comrade and wise counseller, his love and friend\nand faithful help, in sorrow, evil and adversity; not even for her\nage-long, arduous labours and achievements in Religion, Charity, Reform.\nFor none of these, her great intrinsic and eternal ministries to Life\nand to Humanity, has man now set her by him in the Van of Things.\n\nBut for filling shells and felling trees, for turning lathes and driving\nmotors, ploughing fields and lighting street-lamps--all valuable duties,\nit is true, in the crisis we have passed through, and indispensable to\ncarrying on the nation's business. Yet what a drop from the supreme and\ntender to the trite and banal, from the vital and essential to the\nmerely incidental, is seen in this belated recompense.\n\nNot woman, Generatrix of Humanity and inspiration of all that is fairest\nin Humanity, has been now honoured--but woman the bus-conductor,\nticket-clipper, clerk and agricultural labourer, woman in breeches and\nworkman's overall, woman whom German frightfulness had dislocated for a\nspace from her high lot and labours; twisting her powers awry to fit a\nhideous revulsion of barbarism.\n\nHow, if the gods ever laugh at the fantastic tricks of poor mankind,\nthey must now have laughed (or wept) over the opportunity that one sex\nhad--and forfeited--to requite the other's finest merit.\n\nHow deeply-moving and far-reaching in its impulse and its inspiration\nwould have been the tribute, had it been made in reverent gratitude to\nthe mothers-of-men who had saved the world by mothering the men who\nsaved the Empire--For achievement stamped with the high and unique\nquality of service that woman alone could have rendered. And not\nbecause, when tested by men's standards, she proved herself a worthy\nsecond-best in doing things that men have always done.\n\nThe gods must long have wept, I think, that men had thought so lightly\nof the women living every day beside them, surrendering their lives and\npowers, their interests, desires and individuation; toiling over\ncooking-pans and wash-tubs, tied for years to children's cots, for life\nto some or another person's sick-bed; smothering talents, impulse,\nhopes, impatiences, to find the soft and simple word; solacing,\ninspiring, making-believe above an aching spirit and a breaking heart\nthat all was fair and well with the world. And, moreover, in every\ngeneration making these beautiful fictions ever a fraction more truth\nand less fiction. For the gods alone know how that kindlier, purer and\nmore tender Home-environment which women have created in men's\nstony-hearted cities involves the most laborious, heart-wearing, complex\nand widest exercise of faculty of any human task.\n\nWomen themselves had long been tiring of it; stung to the soul and\nmortified by centuries of man's ingratitude--when not contempt.\nNevertheless, where love and duty did not, chains of custom and\ntradition bound them faithful to their oars.\n\nTill German Frightfulness releasing them, the cry is now:\n\nSince you can do something better and more profitable than merely to row\nthe old Galley of Life--since you can do men's work, forsooth, come out\ninto the market-place and help us pay our big War-Bill!\n\nAnd yet--Whither will drift the Galley of Life when its rowers put their\nstrength elsewhere?\n\n\nII\n\nIn the haze of false sentiment exaggerating--not the value of masculine\nwork done by the sex during War, because this was, of course, invaluable\nand indispensable, but exaggerating, absolutely, the values of this work\nas compared with the woman's work it had been doing previously, the\ndecision to admit women to Parliament was a precipitate and an\nill-considered measure, by no means innocent of party motive.\n\nThreatening, as it does, a drastic sweep of all political, economic and\nevery other difference between the standards, training, and employment\nof the sexes, it was pressed forward, nevertheless, not only with\ncharacteristic masculine failure to recognise the vital significance of\nthe other sex in Human Things, but in utter blindness to social and\nracial consequences, immediate and remote, which make it possibly the\nmost momentous decision ever arrived at in the history of human\nprogress.\n\nShowing how little it was known for the turning-point in our great\ndestiny, the question was debated with unseemly levity, while less than\nhalf the parliamentary members troubled (or had hardihood) to record\ntheir votes; the abstention of the others proving which way blew the\nstraws of their faint wills. And of those voting in favour, half,\nperhaps, did so (as some confessed) under intimidation of otherwise\nlosing their seats. (What would be said of the soldier who should turn\nhis back upon the enemy for fear of losing life even?)\n\nNo more than twenty-five found courage to say their \"No's\" like honest\ngentleman.\n\n\nYet far from Enfranchisement having been a burning need blazing in the\nhearts of women, their newly-awarded vote required to be spurred and\nwhipped out of all but a small minority. Or coaxed from them by\nabandoning appeal on all the wider issues of Imperial and national\npolicy, and, in so far as their interest was sought, by reducing the\nprogramme to personal and domestic issues--electric lighting in their\nparlours, hot-water taps in their kitchens, and so forth.\n\nAnd here was seen, at once, the threat of a grave and an increasing\ndiversion from that purely political outlook of men, which should be\nimpersonal in issue, broad in enterprise. Not that the human and\ndomestic side is a whit less momentous than the more abstract and\nnational. But appealing to a different order of mind, it demands that\ndifferent order of mind which characterises the woman-sex, to deal with\nit effectively.\n\nThe plea that women will acquire in time the masculine political\nview-point threatens, on the other hand, the loss in them of their own\nhighly-specialised and invaluable interests, morale and qualities;\nwhich, being womanly of impulse and of trend, make for the individual\nwelfare, happiness and elevation of the nation's members.\n\n\nIII\n\nAs with every other human function, there are two departments of\npolitics. And the House of Commons represents man's.\n\nIt stands for all that is best accomplished politically by his\nhighly-specialised order of brain; by his concrete energy and\ninitiative, his justice and rationalism, his power of administration,\nand his uncompromising sternness--pitilessness, if need be--to deal with\nand to punish crime and aggression, national and international. It\nstands, in a word, for that virile outlook and the virile grip in\nStatesmanship which are indispensable to materialise a people's\nprosperity and to pioneer its progress. These are the functions of\n_men_. Just as the Army and Navy, Science and Commerce, are the\nfunctions of men. Because the male bent and intellect are those best\nfitted to raise these developments to their highest and most effective\nissues, just as the male physique and energy are best fitted to achieve\nthese issues in material results.\n\nHad anything been needed to emphasise the values of such virile\ncharacteristics in the administration of a nation's policy, the War\nfurnished it. And the many blunders and vacillations marring the conduct\nof the War emphasised the lack of these invaluable masculine qualities\nin the concurrent House of Commons. Army, Navy, and Air-Services proved\ntheir manhood doughtily in their respective provinces. Had they been\nsupplemented by an equally virile Statesmanship, the War, having begun,\nwould have been brought to a speedy termination. In point of fact, it\nwould never have begun.\n\nIf now, our British politics are already so lacking in the manly ability\nand grip indispensable to national permanence and progress, the presence\nof women in Parliament can but further emasculate these. It may be said\nthat some women outside the House are more male of mind and mode (not to\nspeak of muscle) than are some men inside. But this is reason, surely,\nfor replacing these weak males by stronger ones, rather than for\nadulterating British statesmanship with Femaleness.\n\nThe presence of a masculine woman in a house--whether this be writ with\na small or a capital letter--far from stiffening the manly calibre of\nweak men in it, only further enervates and paralyses them. To serve on a\ncommittee of mixed sex is to realise this.\n\nWomen should be represented in the counsels of the nation--but not in\nthe councils of men. They should have a House of their own, wherein to\nfoster the interests of women and children mainly, as well as to further\nThe Humanities and The Moralities; which are, at the same time, woman's\ntrue political sphere and her chiefest concern--because she and the\nchild most suffer from failures thereof. Thus, the House of Men would be\nrelieved of problems their sex is unqualified to deal with. While more\ntime and energy would be left them to dispose of affairs they are best\nfitted to administer.\n\nAs already pointed out, the all-potent factor of Sex intervening,\nmembers of neither sex are capable of doing their best work while in\nassociation with the other. Sex-rivalries are stirred, or\nsex-antagonisms. Either of which range the sexes on opposite sides; thus\nprecluding amicable co-operation. Or they engender sex-ascendancy.\nWhich, making one sex dominate or defer to the other, precludes\nintelligent co-operation. Through all, moreover, only too often run\nthreads of intrigue, to entangle and hamper the powers of both.\n\nBritish politics have notably declined since woman's incursion therein.\nBritish commerce, once supreme among the nations, has notably declined\nsince women entered business-houses. Good and thorough work demands,\nbeyond all things, undivided concentration of the powers upon it. And\nfor nine persons out of ten, this concentration is impossible while in\nthe presence of members of the opposite sex. And emphatically this is\ntrue of the male, since woman exercises a hypnotic, and, accordingly, an\nenervating influence upon him. Worse still, he poses for her: becoming\nmeretricious and insincere. It is held by some that women in Parliament\nmight elevate the codes and modes of latter-day politics, many of our\nbest men withholding themselves therefrom because of bad odour imparted\nby self-seeking and unscrupulous politicians.\n\nBut let us keep our House of Commons a House of men, and make it\nrepresentative of the nation's finest manhood. It is the first and\nforemost function of the sex, the way of national success and progress.\nAnd just as the presence of women would blunt the pioneering spirit and\ncripple the action of a party of Arctic explorers, so women in the House\nmust blunt the enterprise and hamper the exploits of Statesmanship.\n\nSo far, the good sense alike of women as of men has declared against the\ninnovation; rejecting, by large majorities, all but one of women\nParliamentary candidates. It remains to be seen, however, whether men\noutside the House will later endorse the new departure, by electing\nmembers of the other sex to represent them. A thing impossible for one\nsex to do for the other, of course, seeing that not only do men and\nwomen arrive at their different conclusions by wholly different routes,\nbut all questions bear wholly different values for them.\n\nIt may be argued that the existence of dual departments of politics, and\ndual points-of-view is argument for electing representatives of both\nsexes to The Commons. Not so, however. Each sex is specialist in its\nown domain. And an aurist wastes time, and most likely blunders, when he\napplies himself to treat eye-diseases. An oculist wastes time, and\nprobably blunders, when delicate ear-operations are required of him.\n\nSince by his dual constitution, moreover, man possesses, by inheritance\nfrom his mother, the quotum of woman-apprehension, foresight, and\naltruism required to present the woman-bent and view-point in his\noutlook and conduct of political and civic affairs, woman's personal\nintervention in these is as superfluous as it would be harmful.\n\nFurther, there are two orders of men: An order strictly male in trend\nand talent, and an order whose mentality is tinctured with a higher than\naverage proportion of womanly conservatism, sympathy and intuition. And\nthese two orders of male--typified, respectively, by the Conservative\nand the Radical parties--perpetually struggling to secure the measures\nprompted by their respective orders of mind, and intermittently gaining\nascendancy, sustain a poise, or mean, between the unduly conservative\nand traditional, and the unduly radical and transitional in our\npolitical administration.\n\nThese two orders of mentality are found again in Youth and Age. All\nhealthy and vigorous-minded young men are radical of bias; hot-headed,\nprecipitate and intolerant of crusted orthodoxy, keen to demolish old\ninstitutions and established methods. While maturity makes for\nconservatism. It _knows_. And having learned by experience the values of\ninstitutions which have become institutions because of their values, it\nis prudent in its counsels of slow and stable reform, in its distrust of\ndrastic, precipitate change, and, beyond all, in its wise misdoubtings\nof the world in general as being better than it is, and ripe,\naccordingly, for the best things.\n\nFor the present, there are numberless problems and questions of women's\nindustrial employment, of children's employment, of the industrial\nsupervision of young girls and their moral protection; problems of\nfemale drunkenness and prostitution, crimes of children, crimes against\ninfants and children; questions of health, of the education and\nupbringing of the young, of dress and conduct, and of the general moral\npurification and the mental elevation of the Race--with all of which\nwomen are essentially qualified to deal; and the vital national\nimportance whereof men have proved themselves as incapable of\napprehending as they have shown themselves powerless to administer them.\n\nThe two classes of national problems, or the two departments into which\nmost of these problems might be advantageously sub-classed, should be\nrecognised as being the functions, respectively, of the one or of the\nother sex, and should be deputed for consideration to the House of Men\nor to the House of Women. With the result that in both, every problem of\nreform would be dealt with by the sex specialised by nature, by\nsympathy, and by training, best to understand and best to legislate for\nit.\n\nAs with The Lords, either House should have power to question or to\nreject the conclusions of the other.\n\nWe need urgently, indeed, such a House of Women to employ its native\nwisdom, its intuitive apprehension, and its moral and emotional impulse,\nand, moreover, to bring its experience and tact to bear upon a\nhundred-and-one tangled and neglected issues of moral and social reform.\nIn order to remedy evils that have come, from long neglect, to be a\ncancer, slowly and surely sapping and vitiating our national life and\nendangering our racial supremacy.\n\n\nIV\n\nThat women may do useful work in male departments of politics and\neconomics is quite beside the question. Far more valuable work is needed\nand is possible from them in their own especial fields of aptitude. In\nthese latter, moreover, they would be fostering, in place of\nsacrificing, that morale and those distinctive talents Nature has\nspecialised in them. While their withdrawal _in toto_ from male\npolitical and economic functions would put men on their mettle, and\nstimulate their efforts and achievement therein.\n\nWoman's influence, like that of Religion, is most potent when it is\nindirect and inspirational. Like the Church, when she exchanges her\nindirect and devotional ministrations for direct and material ones,\ntemporal or militant, she destroys herself or the peoples she dominates.\nOr she destroys both.\n\nIt is common fallacy that so long as the world's work is done and its\naffairs tolerably well conducted, it is of no significance whatsoever by\nwhich sex these ends are attained.\n\nSight is lost of the intrinsic truth that Life exists for Man--not Man\nfor Life; its purpose being the evolution of the human Species by way of\nthe evolution of human Faculty. The world's work has no slightest value\nsave as spur and instrument of human education. And the evolution of the\ndual orders of human Faculty having differentiated the human Species\ninto two sexes, each representing a wholly different order of\nFaculty--obviously the perfection of both orders of Faculty and,\naccordingly, the further evolution of both sexes wherein these orders\nare respectively specialised, can be attained only by the exercise, by\neach order, of the role and the functions that best evoke its powers.\nIf, therefore, the male sex repudiates its allotted role and functions,\nand forfeits, in consequence, the education of its distinctive talents\nand moral, by shelving its responsibilities upon the other sex,\nhowsoever capable a substitute this other sex may prove itself, man acts\nas foolishly and fatuously as the schoolboy who shirks his schooling and\nthe discipline thereof, by enlisting his capable sister to do his\nlessons for him.\n\nIt is, at the same time, man's duty and his privilege manfully to\nshoulder and ably to perform his own allotted part in Life's affairs.\nEvading this, or from a false conception of chivalry allowing woman to\nusurp a share therein, he degenerates inevitably; in default of his\nnatural spur to development. Moreover he obliges--or connives at woman\ndoing likewise, in respect of her allotted part.\n\nThat he has already grown so slack, his virile pride and enterprise have\nso far lapsed, as to reconcile him to woman's usurpation of his\nmasculine functions and prerogatives should warn him of incipient\ndry-rot in him. As too, the portentous fact that had he not declined in\nphysical and mental calibre, she could never so readily and efficiently\nhave taken his place as we have seen her doing. So efficiently, indeed,\nthat he will be hard put to it to regain and to retain his lost\nprofessional and industrial footing, by proving himself appreciably the\nbetter man.\n\nAs Dr. Havelock Ellis says, if they are to cope with the new Feminism,\nmen must needs look to their laurels and produce a new Masculinism. For\ntruly these weak-chinned, neurotic young men of the rising generation\nare no match at all for the heavy-jawed, sinewy, resolute young women\nFeminist aims and methods are giving us.\n\nOn every side, in politics, literature, journalism, oratory, commerce,\neven in scientific invention, women are swiftly coming up abreast of\nmen, and threaten shortly to out-distance them.--And this upon their own\nground.\n\nOn the other hand, the finer and more exquisite womanly qualities and\naptitudes, the emotions and devotions; purity, sweetness, patience,\nforbearance, tenderness, lovingness and lovableness, together with the\ncourtesies and graces, have fallen out of culture and are fast declining\ntoward extinction. And this, in the measure of the mushroom-growth of\nmasculine abilities and aims and bent, now substituted for them in the\nsex. With which decline of womanly characteristics, the religion and\nnobility, virility and chivalry, manly reverence and regard for women,\nwherewith the true mother illumines the souls of her sons, and which are\nman's response to the appeal of true woman, are waning rapidly also.\n\nThere is, in all men worth the name, an instinctive recognition that the\nworld's most strenuous labours and the world's administration are their\nnatural functions, and that upon their sex, accordingly, rests the\nresponsibility alike of progress or decline in these directions.\n\nThis sense of responsibility is both stimulating and uplifting, in the\ndegrees of its realisation and fulfilment. The yielding, by man, to the\nother sex, of masculine essential rights and obligations is, at the same\ntime, a symptom in him of declining virility, physical and mental, and a\ncause inevitable of his further speedy decadence. The position yielded,\nand equality in all things ceded to woman, that pride in his sex, in\nhimself, and in his work, which were his strongest incentives to\nprogress, drop to ever lower grades. Until he comes at last to the state\nof the decadent savage, who keeps as many wives to work for him as their\nwork for him enables him to keep.\n\nThe spirit and pride of Sex are normal and inspiring, and are the\nexpression of that impulse which has directed, in both sexes, the\ncontrary trend of both. No man of mettle feels ever again the same zest\nor spur to achievement in a role that has become equally woman's.\nArrogance? Possibly. But wholesome and energising. Defect of that pride\nin his man's mission which inspired Drake, Columbus, Nelson, Caesar,\nShakespeare, Newton, to great conquest. Without it, man ceases to be\nman. That it is a factor to be reckoned with, was proved by the recent\nelection, which was signalised by being woman's first authorised entry\ninto the political arena--and was characterised by nothing so much as by\nman's indifference, even his neglect to record his vote. And that it is\na factor to be reckoned with, is further and seriously proved by the\nslackness and diminished zest and output of masculine Labour, since the\nother sex has invaded the field.\n\nWoman, for her part, is characterised by a similar spirit and pride of\nher sex. Equally she loses it when men intrude upon her province. And\nthis Sex-pride and spirit in her would be nobly intensified and uplifted\nto ever higher levels of expression and attainment, were she but assured\nof the fine quality and issues of those woman-faculties and functions,\nby way of which it is her privilege first to create Life, and afterwards\nto minister to it.\n\n\nA potent factor in man's impotence to hold his own either in moral or\nachievement, when pitted directly against the other sex, is that power\nmany women exercise of recruiting their vital forces from those of\npersons--and of men, particularly--in association with them. The highest\nlevels of work and inspiration are the product of _reserve_ and surplus\nforces. When these are depleted, only languid and lower-grade aims and\ncapacities are possible.\n\nThe extent to which over-worked women may impair the health and\nconstitutional vigour of men associated with them in work was strikingly\nshown during the changed conditions of War. Surrounded by over-wrought\ngirls and women, who kept themselves going by stimulus of nervous\nexcitement, of strong tea or more dangerous drugs, many men, co-workers\nor heads of departments, became neurasthenic wrecks. Others lapsed to\nthe condition of infirm old men. The like was seen in fathers and\nhusbands of such over-wrought War-workers. And nervous depletion\noccasioned by working-wives has doubtless much to do with the inanition\nand depression now crippling our industrial output.\n\n\nI may be charged with holding a brief for the Enemy-sex. If so, it is\nnot only because man's cause is woman's, but, moreover, because his\npresent disposition to surrender his prerogatives all round shows him\ndangerously blind to the truth of woman's power; misdirection whereof\nfrom its natural channels menaces not only him, but woman herself, and\nthe Race. _Find the woman!_ said the French cynic. Jestingly: because he\nno more than other men had gauged the profundity of the saying, in all\nits deep and vast biological phenomena and implications.\n\nOur national survival stands in jeopardy already, indeed, from the\nlower-grade males--narrow-brained neurotics or feeble-brained\nneurasthenics--whom latter-day women are producing yearly in tens of\nthousands. And the deplorable truth of this degeneracy is overlooked,\nbecause no more than a fractional number of our doctors distinguish\nbetween The Normal and The Average. With the result, that comparing an\nabnormal with others more abnormal, they declare the less abnormal\nsatisfactory. Of the fine physique, the vital health and faculty, the\nzest and joy of living which characterise true Normality--and which are\nthe birthright of every human being--only the few have any conception.\n\n\nIt is significant that the sole ancient civilisations now surviving,\nIndia and China, have never hazarded their chances of survival by\nemancipating their women. On the other hand, because their women are in\nbondage, personally and psychologically, and because their women's vital\npowers are exhausted by laborious and de-sexing occupations, the moral\nand material progress of these peoples is at low ebb.\n\n\nV\n\nRecruiting statistics have shown us the Damocles-sword of Decadence\nsuspended by a hair above our heads; have shown us our great people so\nriddled with disease, defect and abnormality, that nearly _half our\nmanhood was declared_ unfitted for man's elementary duty of fighting for\nhis country (55.9 per cent. only being classed in Grade I.). All that\nour centuries of evolutionary progress have achieved for us, all that\nthe Race has achieved for itself by faculty and enterprise, integrity\nand industry, threatens now to be sacrificed to a Feminist fanaticism,\nwhich, denying to woman any more vital or tender human faculties or\noffices than those of man, has increasingly repudiated all else for her\nthan rights to pit her wits and muscles against his.\n\nEngland has long been, and has once again proved herself supreme among\nthe nations. Because England, more than any other land, had freed her\nwomen from the more laborious industrial employments; leaving them, in\nconsequence, more vital power to put into the making of a splendid Race,\nfine of body, stable of character; the men of it charged with virile\nenergy and enterprise, the women house-proud, home-abiding; faithful\nwives and admirable mothers.\n\nRecruiting statistics have valuably emphasised the truth that in those\nlocalities where women are most employed in labour, there disease and\ndegeneracy are most rampant. Significantly it was shown that\ncolliery-districts and the Universities (the latter with about 80 per\ncent. of Grade I. men), were conspicuous in providing the greatest\nnumber of men qualified for military service. Why? Because neither the\nmothers of men enrolled in Universities, nor, for the most part, those\nof colliery-districts, are employed industrially.\n\nWhile, on the other hand, the health and physique of cotton-mill\noperatives proved so \"alarmingly low\" that of 184 weavers and spinners\nonly 57 could even be passed for Army-training. Of 290 examined, only 57\nmen of one cotton-spinning town were graded I.; only 64 were graded II.,\nwhile 169 were graded III. and IV.\n\nAgain, _Why_? Because, unlike colliery-districts where the standard of\nhealth was notably good, in cotton-towns where physique and health were\n\"alarmingly low\" the vast majority of wives and mothers are employed in\nfactories. It is important, moreover, to note that in such gradings of\nmen for military service, even those classed first were by no means\nnecessarily normal or vigorous. On the contrary, many passed were later\nshown defective, by breakdown under stress of military discipline.\n\nFurther, that so many as 20 _per cent._ of the young manhood of our\nhighest culture were disqualified for Grade I. is a serious\ncircumstance.\n\n\nMr. Lloyd George has said regarding this most vital question: \"The next\ngreat lesson of the war is that if Britain has to be thoroughly equipped\nto meet any emergencies, the State must take a more constant and a more\nintelligent interest in the health and fitness of the people. If the\nEmpire is to be equal to its task, the men and women who make up the\nEmpire must be equal to it. The number of B2 and C3 men is prodigious. I\nasked the Minister of National Service how many more men could we have\nput into the fighting ranks if the health of the country had been\nproperly looked after. I staggered at the reply: '_At least a\nmillion_.' A virile race has been wasted by neglect and want of\nforethought, and it is a danger to the State and to the Empire. I\nsolemnly warn my fellow countrymen that you cannot maintain an A1 Empire\nwith a C3 population.\"\n\nThis estimate of abnormality, by reason of a million of the nation's\nyoung manhood disqualified by definite disease, defect or degeneracy, is\nfar below the mark. Because owing to the urgent need for fighting men,\nthe standard of fitness was compulsorily low. And the estimate takes no\naccount of the huge number of such low-grade \"Fit,\" who succumbed in\ndeath or incapacitation to the strain of military training, or to the\nvicissitudes of active service.\n\nThe _British Medical Journal_ has published figures showing that of\n2,080,709 men examined by Medical Boards--the men constituting \"a fair\nsample of the male population between the ages of 18 and 43, and a\nsmaller proportion of the more fit between 43 and 51\"--_only 1 in 3\ncould be classed in Grade I_. That is, out of every 150 members of our\nBritish manhood in its best years of life, _only 50 were up to the mark\nin health and normality_.\n\nThe _Journal_ comments on \"this mass of physical inefficiency, with all\nits concomitant human misery, and direct loss to the country.\"\n\nSir Auckland Geddes, addressing the Federation of British Industries,\nstated that \"_appalling facts about the health of the nation have been\ndisclosed in reports of medical examinations carried out by recruiting\nauthorities_.\" One of the most startling and disquieting of these\ndisclosures was that of hundreds of thousands of our men, between the\nages of 18 and 43, dying of tuberculosis.\n\nDespite all this, however, because our authorities fear to face the\ntruth and the drastic economic upheaval involved in the prohibition of\nall young wives and mothers from the stress of breadwinning, attempt is\nbeing made to shelve the whole blame of this appalling state of national\nhealth upon faulty industrial and hygienic conditions; too long hours of\nwork, imperfect ventilation, bad housing, inferior cooking, poor wages,\nand so forth. All factors, of course, but only contributory to the great\nvital one. And in order to placate the public conscience, reforms in\nthese directions are promised. Excellent and sadly needed reforms, it is\ntrue--in so far as they go; but bound to failure because they will not\ngo to the root of things. They will be tried, no doubt, in our promised\nReconstruction-scheme. But being palliative merely, further holocausts\nof human life and faculty and happiness will be sacrificed in the\nexperiment.\n\nSooner or later--and Heaven send it be sooner lest it come too\nlate!--the truth must be confronted, and the crisis met. The further the\nFeminism now threatening our downfall secures footing, however, and more\nand more diverts the nation's life-resources into merely economic\nchannels, more and more squanders them in abnormal ambitions and output,\nthe more deeply-rooted and more desperate will have become the cancer of\nour national decadence. And incalculably the more difficult and\ndangerous will be the task of its eradication.\n\nThe reform should have come while _man_ still held the reins securely in\nhis grasp--ere Feminism had entrenched itself and its deforming aims and\npowers behind an enfranchised woman-sex; to intimidate and out-number\nhis own. Because women in general, misled by these false standards, and,\nmoreover, deteriorated by de-sexing training, become every year less and\nless disposed toward home and family-life; less and less willing to\nburden themselves with the duties and sacrifices indispensable to the\nproper fulfilment of wife and motherhood. And now, more than ever, when\nthey are still further to be pitted against men in the industrial\nstruggle, woman-instincts and aptitudes will become ever more warped and\nenfeebled in them.\n\nThe Danger menacing us is the graver because, while Disease is the\nexpression of a healthy vital conscience protesting, in terms of pain\nand disability, against conditions, environmental or personal, adverse\nto normal states of health and development (and to which the healthy\nliving organism declines therefore to conform), Degeneracy is\ncharacterised by a vital conscience of so low an order that it conforms\nand adapts the type, without pain or protest, to conditions perversive\nof healthy normality and of further evolutionary advance.\n\nThere comes a stage, accordingly, in Racial decline, when the Racial\nvital conscience no longer rebels, in terms of Disease, but conforms, in\nterms of Degeneracy, to artificial, abnormal and evil conditions of\nliving, environmental and personal. And then as happened to those mighty\ncivilisations snuffed out before us--the major portion of the community\nhaving lapsed from health and normality into decadent states of mind and\nbody, vice and corruption become its Normal both of mind and body. Evil\nand chaos run riot. Till Nature, defied and transgressed at every turn,\nopens the vials of her wrath, and pours forth her microbic myriads to\nsow death and destruction wholesale.\n\nThus she sweeps from the board of Life another great Race--that had\nfailed.\n\n\nVI\n\nAlready, there are disquieting signs that the physical disease and\nabnormality among us have engendered such degrees of mental and of moral\naberration as may lead at any hour to grave disruption. Below the quiet\norder of our British constitution are heard, from time to time, the\nrumble of chaotic and disintegrating forces. With growing frequency, the\nshriek of anarchy shrills. Red flags break. We shall be truly fortunate\nif we succeed in bridging over, without more or less serious upheaval,\nthe critical gap between War and Peace.\n\n\nWoman is Nature's peacemaker and welder. She it is who, in the home,\nknits the loose ends of the multiple incongruous and turbulent human\nelements into social unities--families, friendly communities, townships\nand peoples--by her annealing powers of affection and sympathy, of\ncharity and intuitive understanding.\n\n\"_Keep the Home-fires burning!_\" sang our soldiers. No considerations of\nThe British Constitution, the London Stock Exchange, or Worshipful Civic\nCompany, fired them to heroism, spurred them to victory. But for the\nHome-fires burning in suburban villas, in four-roomed cottages or\ntwo-room lodgings--as equally in hereditary mansions--it was, our\ngallants dared and died, and reaped their glorious triumph.\n\nMy father, an early and an earnest advocate of Female enfranchisement,\nused to counsel Lord Beaconsfield that to enfranchise women would be to\nestablish the Conservative party for a century, at least. Because nine\nout of ten women were, in those days, Conservative.\n\nSince then, Feminism has been active, however. Less by way of direct\npropaganda of anarchy or Bolshevism, be it said, than by fostering that\nmasculine bent and spirit of material unrest and discontent which\ndestroy in women all the finer, fairer ideals and attributes of their\nintrinsic womanhood, and those self-denying ordinances which so sweeten\nand dignify the humblest tasks as to content the doers of them with the\ninspiring sense that they are worth the while. With the result that\nnothing so characterises the great mass of latter-day working women as a\nsmouldering irrational and intemperate Socialism. And the Socialism of\nworking-women (as, too, of the majority of working-men) is based on\ntotal ignorance of the impracticability and evil of making for\nuniversal equality in a vast Scheme of Things, the values and the\nultimate successes whereof depend absolutely on preserving those\nhighly-specialised diversities and inequalities, alike of faculty and\nbent, into which Life, with its countless degrees of evolutionary\ndevelopment, has progressively graded living creatures, brute and human.\nThe innumerable orders and classes of our sociology are as inevitable as\nthey are invaluable. Because they serve for stages of faculty and\navocation upon that biological gradient of Ascent by which we climb.\n\n\nAs was pointed out earlier in this book, woman, although passive and\nreposeful of inherence, is variable and unstable of temperament; her\npowers being eternally at ebb and flux, in order that she may be the\nmedium of those evolutionary mutations which engender human progress. A\nnature truly perilous when too great dominance is permitted the sex in\naffairs so momentous as those of State-administration, upon the firm\nstability and permanence whereof depend so many destinies. Because this\nevolutionary impulsiveness of hers is dangerously liable to express\nitself in irresponsible, chaotic and anarchical outbreaks. As history\nshows, wreckage of many once mighty, but now extinct, civilisations set\nin when the males thereof weakly, or basely, surrendered their manhood's\nrights of rule to a sex disqualified by its native non-conformability to\nrule in national and international policies.\n\nShould women ever come to exercise political power identical with man's,\nthey would be liable to subvert the whole national and international\nadministration of their country on an impulse. Not solely from craving\nfor novelty, but, too, as result of their inherent bent toward forward\nand precipitate movement, and their implicit faith in change as being\nnecessarily _reform_.\n\nNations in which the feminine element is strong betray the native\nfickleness thereof in perpetual change of Ministry--even in frequent\nrevolution. This element of instability is Ireland's curse, the flaw in\nher people's splendid Celtic faculty.\n\n\nIn view of the stern and strenuous and narrowly-rationalistic creed and\nclaims of Feminism, as too of the steel-brained, steel-willed fighting\nwomen leading it, men may scoff, with sense of false security, at odds\nof danger from feminine weakness and fickleness in Feminist ranks. They\nscoffed just so at the menace of Prussianism--whereof Feminism is the\nfemale rendering.\n\nIt must always be remembered, moreover, that the civic and political\nprivileges ceded to Woman, the Feminist, are ceded alike to that\nfreakish, irresponsible creature Woman, the Femininist, who, to\ncounterbalance the decline of woman-quality in those others of her sex,\nadds to her number and her freakishness as those others wax in number\nand in stern determination. And in a House of Commons of mixed sex,\nFeminists would find, to their undoing, that here as elsewhere the\nUltra-Feminines would speedily outnumber and out-power themselves. The\nMovement, inaugurated in all the stern and sterile sex-insensibility of\nthe Feminist code, would soon be dry-rotten and corrupt with the\nweaknesses bred of Effeminacy.\n\nNor should it be forgotten that the present Feminist leaders it was who,\nby their dangerous Bolshevist tactics of Militant Suffragism, proclaimed\nthe anarchy seething in themselves and their adherents.\n\n\nSo long as there survives within the breast of man a spark of that\nChivalry which has been both the inspiring and impelling power of his\nvirile development, he can neither meet, nor can he treat with woman\nupon equal terms.\n\nAlways the aspects of her in capacities of mother, wife or love (or\nmistress) must intervene to disarm, and to incapacitate him from\nexerting his full strength against her. Whether her appeal to him be\nsacred or profane, accordingly--that of woman at her best or at her\nworst--always so long as he is man, her highest and most tender (as her\nbasest) appeal will be by way of those woman-Unfitnesses which in every\nage have served as highest incentive of his Fitnesses; that he might\nwin, safeguard and cherish her. This chivalrous instinct it was, in\npart--for behind it lurked the recognition of more than half a nation\nsuffering from the wrong of Unenfranchisement--which disarmed and\nparalysed his action in respect of those same Suffragist outbreaks. And\nso long as he is man, will he be similarly disarmed and dangerously\ninhibited from meeting and from battling successfully with woman.\n\nHistory repeats itself. And if men suppose that they have seen the last\nof female Militancy, and overlook the menacing truth that their own\nincapacity to cope with this must increase inevitably in direct\nproportion to woman's waxing power, they are blind, indeed, to dangerous\nbreakers ahead.\n\nHaving sown the fickle wind of woman's variability, they are like to\nreap the whirlwind in her inherent non-conformability; a difficult and\nparlous factor such as they have never previously encountered in\npolitical and industrial administration. Such non-conformability as is\nseen at an extreme in the anarchy of revolutions; in which women, having\nlost control and balance, plunge deeper and deeper into excesses,\nwithout power, it would seem, of recoil. While men reach a maximum,\nrecover poise, and then setting about to re-constitute order out of\nchaos, more often than not evolve a higher form of order than had\npreviously obtained.\n\n\nVII\n\nSecure in their traditional superior strength, however, and with\ncharacteristic complacency in this relation, men have no suspicion of\nthe sex-antagonism--hatred even--seething against them in Feminism. And\nthis far from having been annealed or softened, has been, on the\ncontrary, greatly aggravated by the concessions and new privileges\nlately accorded the sex.\n\nStrange to say, the chief talk of extremist women in their new\nWar-capacities was bitterest grievance and hostility against the male,\nbecause, although installed in masculine positions, they were denied\nrights identical with his; of rank and recognition, of responsibility\nand pay. That they held these capacities temporarily merely, and as\nnovices and amateurs, while men held theirs as experts, for long service\nor for superior values by right of masculine abilities, had no weight\nwhatsoever. Never in all her days of so-called subjection has woman been\nso loud and denunciatory of the injustices of The Oppressor, of his\nconspiracies and crimes against her, as since she has been yielded a\nnumber of those rights which Feminism claims.\n\nFeminists will say this is because complete equality in all things has\nnot yet been granted--has yet to be fought for. The truth is, however,\nthat the interests and functions of men fail wholly to satisfy the\nwholly dissimilar natures of women. But until they have realised\nthis--the true reason of their discontent--an ever-increasing number of\nwomen will continue to make these their coveted goal, and to chafe with\nanger and bitterest resentment against the other sex for denying them\nfull measure of things--without intrinsic value for them.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt needs no saying by me, that, apart from the Feminist extremist\nfaction, the Woman's Movement includes a number of the sex\ncharacterised by the noblest ideals and impulse, as by the finest\nachievements; their creed and aims being pure of self-seeking or\nmaterialist ambitions for themselves or for their kin. And these it is\nto whom we owe it, that, amid the clamour and the combat of those\nothers, the spirit of true Womanhood, devoted, wise and altruistic, is\nmaking itself felt everywhere in modern thought and modern progress.\nSuch women for the most part discredit Feminism, in many cases directly\noppose both its doctrine and practice.\n\n\nVIII\n\nThe huge numerical preponderance of women must, of itself, presently\nswamp all masculine power and initiative in State affairs unless the\npolitical functions of the sexes be separated. Thenceforward, _Vox\npopuli_ must be the voice of Woman--man's having ceased to be heard.\n\nAnd man's chiefest menace lies, be it reiterated to the point of tedium,\nin that momentous fact of the biological investment in woman, of the\nRacial Trustfund. For this is, at the same time, his sole heritage and\nthat of the nation. And not only does it constitute her the custodian of\nHuman Life and Faculty but it makes her arbitress as well of man's and\nof the nation's destiny.\n\nIn yielding his House of Parliament, man has surrendered not only his\nhighest and most characteristic prerogative, but he has yielded the last\nexclusive stronghold of his manhood. An entrenchment indispensable to\nhis difficult task of holding his own against a sex overwhelmingly\nsuperior in number, and chartered, by right of womanhood, with\ntime-honoured baffling privileges which handicap and defeat him at all\nturns. A sex Nature has armoured with charms, moreover, and with\nweaknesses for his disarming; by appeal, on the one hand, to his\nchivalry, on the other, to his senses.\n\nEntrenched in his last stronghold, he stood some chance of exerting his\nallotted dominance in life's affairs. All his strongholds invaded, he\nstands none.\n\nFor the rest, it can only be said that men who should reject their own,\nand elect members of the opposite sex to represent them in Parliament,\nwould by that vote alone of non-confidence in the ability or the good\nfaith of their kind, proclaim the human male a pitiful failure in\nspecies; an order without specialisation of brain, of character, or of\nmoral, to give it essential values in Human concerns.\n\nWoman, on the other hand, would stand acclaimed a Super-Being. One not\nonly highly-specialised by God and Nature, as creatrix of the Race, and\nendowed with gifts to be the Racial nurse and guide and teacher, but,\nadded to these most vital of human capacities, she would stand\naccredited by man with such superior qualifications also for the\nadministration of the State as to lead him to adjudge her his superior\nin this capacity likewise. While her still further pre-eminence is now\nto be emphasised by pitting her on equal terms against the male, in all\nthe Arts and Crafts, the professions and the businesses.\n\nTruly--poor Super-Being that she is to be--burdened and spent by her\nsuper-tax of faculties and functions, she will need, indeed, to break\ninto the Racial Trust-Fund, in order to equip herself for these her\nmultifarious exactions. Because not only will it be her affliction to\nproduce the Race and mother it, but she must provide for it too;\nmoreover, must doctor it, play lawyer, parson and accountant to it;\npaint its pictures, mould its statuary, plan its architecture, build its\nhouses, compose its music, blow its trumpets, beat its drums; and, over\nand beyond all these, must administer its politics, and serve it\npresently, no doubt, as Premier, Primate and Chancellor.\n\nWhile it must be merely a matter of brief time, when, to her other\ntasks, will be added the manning of its Army, its Navy and Air-Services,\nand the serving of its guns.\n\nShould Feminist aims be realised--and already they are more than\nhalf-won--it will be a case, truly, of _Exit Man!_\n\nRejected on all counts, as possessing no intrinsic sex-values, to offset\nwoman's vital and pre-eminent one of the creation of Life (for his\nbiological part in this is so slight and brief as to be unworthy of note\nwere it not indispensable, and will be insignificant, indeed, when he no\nlonger serves as highly-specialised agent and artificer of the Racial\nfaculty); possessing no distinctive qualities and no obligations of\nfatherhood, to protect and to provide for offspring, and thereby to\noffset woman's vital and important one of nurturing and rearing this; no\nmore than woman's equal (if that) in the Sciences and Arts, in Politics\nand Commerce--Truly no alternative will be left him save to retire,\nabased, into the dim background of the Human Pageant; a self-admitted\nfailure, without place or standing, by virile and exclusive right and\npower of body, brain and office.\n\n\nIX\n\nA more inspiring picture presents itself, however.\n\nOf a Manhood, worthy of its racial and national traditions, waking\ntimely to a recognition of its manhood's powers and duties, and, having\nemancipated itself from woman's rule in all beside her natural province,\nreinstating its supremacy in every virile field and function; and thus\nre-shouldering bravely its allotted burdens in Labour, Faculty and\nAdministration.\n\nOf a Womanhood re-finding itself also, and finding itself and its\nnatural lot upon a fairer and a nobler plane--the plane of Life, as\never, but illumined now by broader outlook, and instinct with higher\nunderstanding.\n\nAnd these two working for the common good, of our Anglo-Saxon Race,\nrecruited by their sympathetic impulse and reciprocal achievement,\nhaving been set, in course of a few generations, upon routes of such a\nHuman Renaissance as should carry it forward to fulfilment of its\nsplendid destiny.\n\n\nIn this New Human Dispensation would be a House of Women to serve as a\nsecond--a balancing and an uplifting--wing to the House of Men.\n\nThus in the national as in the natural life, The Sexes would be most\neffectively operating and co-operating; travelling each along its own\ninherent and allotted lines, employing each its own intrinsic powers and\nfulfilling its intrinsic functions, apart from, but abreast of and in\ncontinual touch with the other; inspiring, fortifying, supplementing and\ncomplementing the attributes, the trend and the achievements, each of\neach.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSaid Mazzini, \"_Man and Woman are the two human Wings that lift the soul\ntoward the Ideal we are destined to attain_.\" And the value and the\neffectiveness of these two human, as of other wings, lie in the degree\nto which, although they work in unison, _they move in different areas_;\napart from and independent, each of the other; balancing and\ncorrelating, but, nevertheless, each sustaining its own side of the\nbody, Vital and Social.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\n     FURTHER EVIDENCES IN SUPPORT OF THE BIOLOGICAL AND MENDELIAN\n     PROPOSITIONS ADVANCED IN BOOK I.\n\n\nI\n\n     _The Male is the impelling force in Physical Development, or\n     Adaptation to environment_\n\nScientific stock-breeding supplies valuable practical examples of\napplied Genetics, or the Science of Heredity.\n\nAlthough artificial, in the sense that the creatures of the Stock-yard\nare not mated by law of Natural Selection, nor are they bred or reared\nunder normal environmental conditions, the circumstance that breeders\nare breeding for special characteristics, and mate the parents with a\nview to the transmission and the accentuation of such, provides\nimportant indications regarding hereditary influence and its determinant\nfactors.\n\nMr. Horace G. Regnart, who has done much to establish Stock-breeding on\na scientific basis, kindly furnishes me with the following interesting\nand suggestive data:\n\n\"We Breeders pay more attention to the bull because he can sire fifty\ncalves yearly; while the cow can produce only one. One can afford to pay\na thousand guineas for a bull, whereas one cannot afford fifty cows at\nthe same price. And the purchase of a first-class bull is the cheapest\nway of getting a good herd. The history of practically every great herd\nis the history of some particular bull. As we say, '_a bull is half the\nherd_.' It is equally true to say that every great bull is the son of a\ngreat cow. With one highly-prepotent bull we can raise a high-class\nherd, even if we start with second-rate females; while a bad bull will\nruin the best herd in the county. It is for this reason that we 'put all\nour money' on the bull.\"\n\nAll of which supports my theory that the male is the impelling agency\nin Adaptation to Environment, or evolutionary development on the plane\nof physics, and that such progressive development is achieved by way of\nthe male traits being Dominant upon this plane, and manifesting,\naccordingly, in the physical terms of stature and muscle and\nforce-production.\n\nThe male being the determinant agent in the physical characteristics of\nsize and flesh and nervous energy--for which breeders of Live-stock are\nmaking--the bull is \"half the herd.\" \"With one highly-prepotent bull,\" a\nhigh-class herd may be raised, even though inaugurated with second-rate\nfemales. Whilst \"a bad bull will ruin the best herd in the county.\" Akin\nto which is the circumstance that, in two generations, the improvement\nwhich occurs in the offspring of a New Forest pony-mare when mated with\na horse, lapses; the descendants reverting to the type of the New Forest\npony.\n\nIf, however, the male, being the agent of Adaptation, determines\nprogressive development in the direction of such physical traits as\nfurther fit species to its material environment, the female it is, that,\nbeing the agency of the Evolution of Life (and of the equipment of\nspecies in terms of Life, accordingly) supplies offspring with the Vital\npotential of living cells and vital organs--heart, lungs, digestive and\nassimilative organs and functions--which, by engendering the multiple\nfunctions and vital processes of Life, _sustain_ the existence and the\npowers of the organism in relation to environment. The female, moreover,\nprovides it with the Vital potential of reproductive organs for the\ntransmission of types ever further evolved and adapted, in terms both of\nLife and Adaptation.\n\nThe male thus broadly sketches out the lines and supplies the initiative\nof structural development. The female supplements the sketch with the\nstructural potential of living cells, whereby structural development is\nachieved; as too with the vital potential of organs whereby living\norganisation is sustained and transmitted.\n\nThe great sire, bull or man, generates the great daughter. But since\nLife is earlier in origin and precedes Development, the great mother it\nmust be who first _engenders_ the great son. Because, as I have already\npointed out, Life and Reproductive-Energy must exist in the potential\nbefore they can evolve upon the plane of personal development. In other\nwords, function precedes structure. The potential of both function and\nstructure must precede the _development_ of either on the plane of Life.\n\nWoman, accordingly, is Creatrix of the Race, because in her the Race\nbecomes potential. Man is Artificer of the Race, however, because from\nhim the Race receives its powers of concrete development.\n\nFor progressive evolutionary advance, therefore, every new generation of\nfemales must contribute a new complement of Vital potential, equal in\npotence to the new complement of Developmental initiative which the new\ngeneration of males contribute, and by way of which the female Vital\npotential is differentiated into further concrete powers. Fruitless for\none parent to supply a finer complement than the other is able to render\nin terms, respectively, of Life or Development. The female potential\nmust be adequate to energise the male powers of differentiation. The\nmale powers must be adequate to differentiate the female potential.\n\n\nII\n\n     _The female supplies the Typal and Vital Potentials of Adaptation_\n\nTo Mr. Regnart, I am indebted for the following further data, which seem\nfurther to support my view:\n\n\"Ursula Raglan was a Beef-cow that milked heavily. To a Beef-bull, she\nproduced Gainford Champion--a great bull. While to a Dairy-bull, she\nproduced the dam of Priceless Princess--about the best Dairy-cow that\never looked through a halter.\"\n\nHere we find the Vital-potential indispensable to the equipment of great\noffspring, proved great in the mother, by her Female vital-function of\nlactation. While her respective bull-mates appear as the determinant\nfactors which differentiate this Vital potential in offspring,\nrespectively, into the Beef-traits (stature and muscle, that is) or the\nMilking-traits (Vital function, that is). The very term \"Dairy-bull,\"\nsignifying a male with power to transmit to female descendants the\npurely Female trait of milking, is evidence, in itself, of a female\ntrait, derived by a male from his mother, passing into the potential,\nand lying dormant, or Recessive, for a generation, in his male\norganisation, and then emerging again in his daughter.\n\nThe great bull is sire of a great cow--_because he was son of a great\ncow_. And he is a great bull because he received from his dam a great\nfemale Vital-potential, for differentiation into greatness of the male\ntraits that characterise great males. And in his turn, he may sire a cow\ngreater than his mother, because in passing on to his daughter the great\nfemale Vital-potential of his mother, he passes on a female potential of\ngreatness to which his own male inherence of greatness has added a\nfurther power of Differentiation. This increased _Male_ power of\ndifferentiation, descending in the female line, however, manifests in\ntraits of increased _Female_ functioning--the function of milking, that\nis.\n\nThe daughter inherits thus from her father the Female potential of her\npaternal grandmother, with new power of Male differentiation acquired by\nits residence during a generation (so to speak) in a male organisation.\nWhich new power, when reawakened to function in a female organism,\nmanifests in a further degree of Femaleness.\n\n\nMale development having progressed along lines of increasing brain- and\nnervous power, which the female has ever further inherited, Female\ndevelopment has progressed along lines of such increasing brain-power as\nhas enabled her to transform her native simple and undifferentiated\nFemaleness into ever further developed and more complex Female _traits_,\nor functional and nervous characteristics.\n\nWhile, on the other hand, since Female evolution has proceeded along\nlines of increasing Life, or Vital Power, which the male has ever\nfurther inherited this increasing Vital power it has been that has\nserved as _potential_ for the evolution of his Maleness in terms of\nhigher brain- and nervous power.\n\nThe great cow is mother of a great bull _because she was daughter of a\ngreat sire_. And she was a great cow because she received from her sire\na great male complement of developmental power, which imparted to her\nRecessive, and undifferentiated Femaleness, further power of functioning\nas female characteristics. And she may mother a son greater even than\nher sire because the great male Developmental impetus of her father\nbecomes in her a greater Vital potential; which, descending in the male\nline, engenders further power for the further differentiation of male\ncharacteristics.\n\n\nIII\n\n     _Evolution of Species and evolution of the Individual occur on\n     different planes_\n\nThe Evolution of Species progresses in every generation by way of each\nSex having derived from the other Sex a new and opposite potential to\nengender, in every alternate generation, the further evolution of its\nSex-traits along its own (and contrary) lines.\n\nIt may be considered therefore that Type, or Species, evolves to higher\ninherences by way of progressive divergences of Sex-characteristics.\nWhile the Evolution of the individual progresses in every generation in\nproportion as parents of both sexes had mated, in the previous\ngeneration, with such members of the opposite sex as were best fitted to\nsupply, in the gametes contributed to offspring, complements which, by\nunion with their own, so matched and supplemented their own as to have\nquickened and energised the development of offspring to the fullest and\nthe most efficient issues. In any line, however, a strain of greatness\nor of other inherence descends in alternating succession, now in the\nfemale, now in the male line; receding now into the potential, and then\nevolving in development. So that while the Individual normally evolves\nin every generation, the Type evolves only in alternate generations.\n\nThe evolution of Type, or Species, is the intrinsic function of the\nspontaneous Evolution of Life into two orders of Sex. It occurs on a\nwholly different plane from that of the evolution of the Individual. But\nby way of his, or her, complement to the biological constitution of\noffspring, members of both sexes contribute alike to the evolution of\n_Species_ and to that of the _Individual_--according as such complement\nenhances the power of the traits of the opposite Sex to manifest, and\nfurther to evolve in offspring.\n\nThe intensification in the one sex of its own inherences stimulates a\nproportional intensification of the opposite inherences in the other\nSex, both as regards the evolution of the Type and of the Individual.\nThe phenomenon would seem to be akin to that increase of one electrical\npotential evoking a proportional increase of the other electrical\npotential, to complement it. When one sex fails to supply its due\npotential, or complement, to the other, the evolution both of Type and\nIndividual receives a check.\n\nAnd because the evolution of Type is achieved by the Germ-plasm derived\nfrom a parent of one sex obtaining new increment from being invested in\nthe organisation of offspring of the opposite sex, it is not until the\nnew Typal-inherence of this Germ-plasm is revivified again in the\norganisation of a member of the Sex from which the plasm was derived,\nthat such new impulse manifests. Hence the phenomenon of characteristics\nbeing transmitted from parents to offspring of opposite sex. So that\ndaughters of normal womanly organisation reproduce the Typal\ncharacteristics of their fathers' maternal line; while in sons of normal\nmale organisation those of their mothers' paternal line emerge.\n\nHence too, the reversion of offspring of hybrid plants to the\ntypes,--pure Dominant and pure Recessive--of their grandparents.\n\n\nIV\n\n     _Progressive segregation of Male and Female traits in opposite\n     sides of body ever further intensifies and differentiates their\n     intrinsic qualities_\n\nThe biological constitution of humans and of the other higher organisms\ndifferentiating them into two opposite symmetrical sides, in which, as\ndevelopment rises higher in the scale, the Dominance, or Maleness, in\nthem is ever further and more perfectly segregated from the\nRecessiveness, or Femaleness, in them, secures the progressive\nintensification, respectively, of Maleness or of Femaleness in them, by\never further ranging the factors, or traits, of these on opposite sides\nof the biological equation; and by thus more effectively centralising\nthe powers, according to sex, in one or the other side thereof.\n\nMendel's peas, not thus differentiated into two sides, are bi-sexual and\nself-fertilising. Of the original stock, that order in which Dominant\ntraits are prepotent is differentiating toward a male _genus_, however.\nWhile the Recessives are differentiating toward a female _genus_.\nAlthough regarded as \"pure\" Dominants and \"pure\" Recessives, they are\nnevertheless hybrids in respect of Sex. Being self-fertilising, both\nDominants and Recessives are of low power, alike for reproduction and\ndevelopment. Because the Dominance, or Male developmental power, of the\nRecessives being inhibited by the Recessiveness, or Femaleness, in them,\nis of low Vigour. While the Recessiveness, or Female vital power in the\nDominants being unduly expended by the Dominance, or Maleness, in them,\nis of low Vitality. The male sex-cells of the self-fertilising Dominants\nthus fertilise female sex-cells of low vitality. While the female\nsex-cells of the self-fertilising Recessives are fertilised by male\nsex-cells of low vigour.\n\nIn cross-breeding, the conditions cease not only to be those of\nself-fertilising, but they cease, moreover, to be those of the\nclose inbreeding of self-fertilisation. In the \"hybrids\" obtained\nby crossing the higher-vigoured male sex-cells of the \"pure\"\nDominants with the higher-vitalised female sex-cells of the \"pure\"\nRecessives, the Dominants--because Dominance is prepotent for exterior\ncharacteristics--submerge the external traits of the Recessives, which\nare prepotent for vital and internal functioning. Such Dominants are a\nbi-sexual species in which the male is prepotent. And to be male, means\nthat they have expended, in terms of structural development, a great\nproportion of the female Vital power inherent in them; thus masking the\nRecessive female traits in them, as regards exterior characteristics.\nBut since reproductive power inheres in these Recessive traits, these\ntraits are preserved in the sex-cells, equally with the Dominant traits.\nThe plants being not only bi-sexual, but self-fertilising also, the\nsex-cells must obviously be bi-sexual too; in order to provide the\norganism with factors both of life and development. Every sex-cell is a\nhybrid cell, therefore; bearing both Dominant and Recessive traits. But,\nlike their parents, in some, the Dominant, in others, the Recessive\ntraits are prepotent. And the Dominant sex-cells mating with Dominants,\nthe Recessives with Recessives, the original types of so-called \"pure\"\nDominants and \"pure\" Recessives reappear in the third generation.\n\n\nV\n\n     _Self-fertilising organism is a female organism with a male\n     organism differentiated in it_\n\nBecause the female represents the Life-potential of species and the\nVital potential of organisms, a self-fertilising plant or creature must\nbe regarded as a female organism, with a male organism of Adaptation, or\nDifferentiation, developed in it. This male organism energises both its\ndevelopmental and its functioning power, and fertilises it; although the\n_potential_ of structure, of growth, of function and of reproduction are\nengendered in the female organism. The female is the root-stock or\nparent-stem of all species, therefore.\n\nIf Dominance is Maleness, and Recessiveness is Femaleness, and if\nDominance energises structural development while Recessiveness engenders\nreproduction, a Dominant self-fertilising plant is a female plant, with\na male plant of superior Dominance differentiated in it. While a\nRecessive self-fertilising plant is a female plant of superior\nRecessiveness, with a male plant of inferior Dominance differentiated in\nit. In crossing stock of superior Dominance with stock of superior\nRecessiveness, the Dominant prevails over the Recessive in the general\nstructural traits of the resulting \"hybrid,\" but not in its reproductive\ninherence. The new hybrids being male in inherence, nothing is added to\nthe female reproductive, or Vital, potential in them. The root-stock\ntransmits to its sex-cells therefore just as its grandmother\ndid--Recessives of her type, and Dominants of the type of the Dominant\nmale engrafted on her, of the male grandfather of this third\ngeneration, that is. Hence reversion.\n\n\nVI\n\n     _Sterility of offspring of alien species proves evolution of\n     Species and of Individual are independent phenomena_\n\nThe fact that dog and wolf, when mated, breed fertile species, proves\nthem sprung from the same root-stock. While the hybrid offspring of\ndifferent species are sterile. Showing such an intrinsic incompatability\nof the alien complements in the zygote as, while operating as no bar to\ntheir immediate union and their development into a complete hybrid\nindividual, nevertheless bars the incorporation of the alien breed in\nthe Vital potential of stock.\n\nSuch sterility in the offspring of creatures of different species is\nweighty evidence that the Evolution of Type, or Species, and the\nEvolution of the Individual are wholly independent phenomena; occurring\nupon wholly different planes, and involving wholly different principles\nand sets of processes. In the mating of alien species, the two\nsex-cells, although of dissimilar species-inherence, unite nevertheless\nand develop in the maternal environment into a living entity of mongrel\norder. But the Germ-plasm contained in the gamete of one species will\nnot germinate in the alien environment of an organism of alien species.\nNo potential, either Vital or of Differentiation, is engendered,\ntherefore, for production of offspring. Hence sterility results. The\npotential of a living individual is seen thus to belong to a wholly\ndifferent plane of phenomena from the potential of Stock. Conditions\nwhich do not annul the powers of life and of function in the one, quench\nlife and function in the other with the seal of sterility.\n\n\nVII\n\n     _Possible explanation of \"Sports\"_\n\nMr. Regnart says: \"We often meet with Sports. Second- and third-rate\nparents may produce an exceptionally fine individual, but such animals\nare always failures to breed from. The law of Filial Regression comes\ninto operation. Our aim is to find families that have produced a large\nnumber of fine animals--we know then that we are on safe ground.\"\n\nIn these cases, it would seem that the \"fine individual\" results from so\nsingularly harmonious and successful a complementing and fructifying of\nthe parental halves in offspring as conduce to develop the best points\nof both; doubtless, too, to eliminate or to annul weak or faulty factors\nof either parental strain. Neither of such inferior-grade parents\ntransmitting a fine _lineal_ potential, however, the exceptional\nfineness of the individual is not inherent in the Germ-plasm he or she\ntransmits to offspring. The fine characteristics of such \"Sports\" are\nnot transmissible, therefore, to descendants.\n\nProof again of two planes of Life and Evolution, that of Species and\nthat of the Individual. Moral, too, of the importance of fine selection\nin mating, since the harmonious mating of second- or third-rate parents\nmay produce finer offspring than are born of ill-assorted matings of two\nfiner breeds of parent.\n\nThe case is recorded of a pony about the size of a Shetland pony, which\nwas the offspring of pedigree Shire-parents on both sides, _both parents\nbeing over 17 hands_. The most striking feature about the animal was\nthat there was nothing of the _horse_-type about him--he was a perfect\nexample of _pony_.\n\nShire horses are typical examples of Vigour, or developmental power,\nexpressed in terms of stature, muscle and nervous energy. And for so\nlong as the breeding for these characteristics was supplemented in terms\nof vital organs and vital functioning, by an equivalent maternal\ncomplement of Vital potential, to sustain the constitutional expenditure\ninvolved in stature, muscular equipment, and nervous energy, the breed\nimproved in these particulars. Pushed beyond this limit, by introducing\ninto stock further strains of Vigour, or developmental initiative,\nwithout simultaneously providing the indispensable equivalents of these\nin increasing Vital potentials, all at once the balance toppled, and\nreversion to inferior type resulted.\n\nAn excessive proportion of the Vital power of these two Pedigree Shires\nof great stature and great strength had been expended in the\nachievement of such great stature and great strength, and in the\nequipment of digestive and assimilative organs required to sustain\nthese. But little had remained, accordingly, for Reproductive\ninvestments. Hence reversion in the de-vitalised stock.\n\nOne conceives of the counterpoise in Stock, of Male and Female\ncomplements, as being akin to that of the opposite and complementary\ncurves of an arch. So long as equipoise is sustained by the perfect\nbalance of the contrary curves, so long each re-inforces the other to\nsupport a heavy superstructure of development. Lopsidedness of either\ncurve leads to collapse.\n\n\nVIII\n\n     _Vigour is Male. Vitability is Female_\n\n\"Vigour,\" which breeders regard as a potent factor in heredity, is\ncommonly confounded with Vital Power, or Vitability; although the two\nwould seem to be diametrically opposite in cause, in nature and effect.\n\nAn athlete, in so-called \"condition,\" is in the prime of Vigour; his\nmuscular and nervous powers being at high levels of structure and of\nfunctioning. His Vital powers are proportionally at low ebb, however; as\nis proved by his notable lack of recuperative power in illness. He is\nbad subject, indeed, in respect of progress and recovery from disease.\n\nFeeble-minded persons possess but little Vigour of brain or of body, yet\ntheir Vital power, as shown in healthy organic functioning and\nvitativeness, is often extraordinary. Vigour is an expression of nervous\nenergy, and is generated by the brain. Vitability is Life-power, and\nresults from vital organs efficient both in structure and in processes.\nIt is engendered in the Reproductive System; which may be regarded as\nthe power-house of Life and vital function.\n\n_Vigour_ is the power of Differentiation, or Individuation, of an\norganism, structural and functional, physical and mental, in terms of\nits relation to environment. _Vitability_ is the intensification of the\nindividualism and of the functioning of an organism in terms of\nLife-power.\n\nVigour, being katabolic, a male and a Dominant trait, manifests in man\n(as in plants) as Tallness, or the expenditure of vital energy upon the\nmaterial plane, in growth and stature; as too in functional initiative\nand activity, both physical and mental, on the material plane.\n\nVitability, being anabolic, a female and a Recessive trait, manifests as\nDwarfness, or the conservation of vital energy upon the material plane,\nin respect of growth and stature; as too in weakness, or inhibition of\nvigour and activity, both physical and mental.\n\nThe male trait of Vigour makes men larger, stronger, hardier, and more\nresistant to disease than women are. The female trait of Vitability\nmakes women healthier, more charged with vital power and temperament,\nmore recuperative from disease, and longer-lived than men. The\ncomplementary inherences of Vigour and Vitability, derived respectively\nfrom the two parents, and supplementing one another in offspring, endow\nhim or her with fine form and structure, healthy vital organs and\nefficient function, power of Life and nervous energy.\n\nIn the normal male, Vigour dominates Vitability; the maternal potential\nof Vitability being differentiated in him into its male equivalent.\nWhile in the normal female, Vigour recedes within the Female traits of\nvital power and healthy functioning, endurance and womanly faculty.\n\nThe opposite modes of Vigour and Vitality are well shown in disease. In\nvigorous men, disease may assume the type known as \"sthenic\";\noccasioning such violent re-activity, or rebellion, of the system, and\nsuch consequent severity of symptoms as speedily exhaust the resources,\nand tend to fatal ending. While Vital power, being anabolic and\nconservative, meets the foe passively, and instead of wasting,\neconomises the forces by moderation of symptoms; bending to the course\nand processes of sickness, and making thereby for recovery. Because of\nthe lesser vitability of their cells, disease in men tends toward\nstructural, or organic deteriorations. While disease in normal women is\nmore often functional, merely.\n\nIn masculine women, disease is prone, as in men, to structural\ndegenerations. Masculine women are very liable to cancer; a liability\nthey transmit as heritage to offspring of both sexes. Hence the\nincreasing masculinity of latter-day women has entailed upon the race an\nincreased liability to cancer and to other structural degeneration. This\nliability has assumed such grave proportions as to occur in children\neven, showing in the abnormal growths, \"adenoids\" now so prevalent as to\nhave become \"the normal\" of modern childhood.\n\n\nIX\n\n     _The living body is a highly-vitalised Vegetative organism with a\n     highly-specialised Cerebro-nervous organism differentiated in it_\n\nProfessor Cuvier said, \"The nervous system is, at bottom, the whole\nanimal; the other systems are there only to serve it.\"\n\nProfessor Bergson amplifies the statement:\n\n\"A higher organism is essentially a sensori-motor system installed on\nsystems of digestion, respiration, circulation, secretion, etc., whose\nfunction it is to repair, cleanse and protect it, to create an\nunvarying, internal environment for it, and above all to produce its\npotential energy for conversion into locomotive movement.\"\n\nIn both statements, is recognition of the Dual differentiation of the\nbody into an organism of Life which functions in relation to its own\nintrinsic being, and an organism of Consciousness which functions in\nrelation to exterior environment. That in death from starvation, the\nbrain and the nerves remain almost unimpaired, while all the other\norgans and tissues lose weight, their cells undergoing profound\ndegenerative changes, is further indication of two distinct and separate\ndepartments of development and processes in every animal existence.\n\nAs in its Mendelian phenomena of the Segregation of its Contrasting\nTraits, and the Dominance and Recessiveness of these in constitution and\nheredity, so, in its living organisation, the human body is\nextraordinarily and in a number of ways essentially plant-like. The\nbrain and the nervous system may be regarded, indeed, as a\nhighly-differentiated Cerebro-Nervous organism grafted upon a simpler\nVital, and vegetative body, from which, as from a soil, it draws its\nlife and energy: and from which, as age advances, it gradually withdraws\nthe power of further sustaining its existence.\n\nThis Cerebro-Nervous graft perishes only because the Vegetative body on\nwhich it is installed has come to the end of its power to sustain the\nlife of the Nervous organism picketed upon it.\n\nThe close resemblances in structure and in processes between the Cells\nof vegetable and animal organisms, when taken in conjunction with a\nnumber of other biological indications, justify the conclusion that\nliving bodies are actually vegetative organisms to which have been\nsuper-added, by progressive evolutionary differentiations, faculties of\nMotion and of Consciousness.\n\n(Plants are recognised as possessing rudimentary consciousness. While\nGrowth is a mode of Motion.)\n\nThe trunk, which contains the respiratory, circulatory, nutritive and\nreproductive organs represents the Vitative, or Vegetative, system. The\nbrain with its tributary spinal cord and spinal-nervous system\nrepresents the Sensori-motor organism. While the limbs are\nhighly-differentiated implements which the Cerebro-Nervous organism has\ndeveloped in the Vitative organism; to serve it with means of locomotion\nand of action, for the achievement of intelligent purpose.\n\nThe lungs, with their ramifications of tubes and their air-cells,\nclosely resemble the branches and leaves of a tree, which spread into\nand absorb from the atmosphere the oxygen whereby it lives. While the\nconvoluted intestines are like the roots of a tree, absorbing nurture\nfor it from environment.\n\nThe Vegetative organism, being the agency of Life, is female in origin\nand inherence.\n\nThe Cerebro-spinal organism, being the agency of Adaptation, is male in\norigin and inherence. In both, however, the inherences of the other sex\nare represented.\n\nThe body resembles thus a bi-sexual plant, its root-stock being female\nand Recessive, with a male Dominant and differentiating organism\nincorporated in it.\n\n\nX\n\n     _Vegetative body has its own brain and nervous system and its\n     (involuntary) muscles_\n\nThis Vegetative body has its own separate (organic) brain, in the Solar\nPlexus--or \"Abdominal brain\"--and its nervous system, in the intricate\n\"Sympathetic\" system of nerves; which, in addition to administering the\nnutrition of the body, is intimately and closely associated, in\npsychology, with the brain and with the spinal-nervous system of the\nPsychical organism. Itself subconscious, this organic brain nevertheless\ncontributes vital impulse and colour to Consciousness.\n\nIt possesses also its own specialised system of muscles, the\n\"Involuntary muscles\"; which are not under control of the conscious\nbrain and will, but operate automatically--by so-called reflex action.\nThe motions they subtend are concerned with vital functions; nutrition,\nrespiration, circulation, assimilation, elimination, reproduction.\n\nThe Vitative organism, being vegetative of growth and passive of mode,\nneeds rest and sun and wind and air and water for its nurture and\ndevelopment. With that rising of the sap in the world of vegetation\nwhich occurs in spring, kindred processes occur within the human\nvegetative body. It responds to the re-creative forces of its\nmother-earth.\n\nWith every recurring Spring-tide, youth turns again to thoughts of love,\nbecause of this natural renaissance of its vitative resources, for\npurposes of re-creation--both of Cells and individuals.\n\nOld age is a permanent winter of this plant-body. Summer suns revive but\nlittle more than flickerings of its vegetative pulsings. Although the\npsychical life, intellectual and nervous, may be still vigorous, the sap\nof the plant-body no longer rises, quick and warm and fructifying, to\nearth's perennial call.\n\nThis plant-like body with its plant-like fruiting Cells, it is, that\nwhen charged with the graces and magnetic potences of health and high\nnurture, supplies the pleasing personality found not seldom in sinners,\nwhile often conspicuously lacking in saints--a seeming anomaly which\nhas gone far to discredit the virtues.\n\nBy way of it, human personality resembles a mystical flowering plant\nthat breathes and feels and moves; and a fruiting plant that reproduces.\nThe Cerebro-Nervous system animates and intelligises this beautiful\nvessel of flesh wherein it subsists.\n\nThe vigour of its Vegetative stock, supplementing brain and nervous\nsystem by fine structure, fine stature, organic vigour, native faculty,\nand reproductive power, has given the Anglo-Saxon race its world-wide\nrule. It is to this that its women have owed their shapely frames, their\nhealthful constitutions and their loveliness; the warm tints of hair and\nskin, the fresh and flower-like complexions, and the fruit-like form and\nbloom of cheek for which they once were famed.\n\nRich personal charm and sweetness of healthful condition which are all\ntoo swiftly passing from our modern women, hag-ridden by a strenuousness\nthat is wrecking the flower-body, with its vital joy and warmth, its\ngrace of being and its bliss of sense, its temperamental thrill and\ncolour.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe doctrine of Evolution is signally incomplete unless we realise it as\na sequence of progressive developments, direct and without intermission,\nfrom the simplest forms of Elemental Matter to the highest, living\norders of Creation--Mineral, Vegetable, Brute and Human being\nprogressive stages in the evolution of Life and of Consciousness; graded\nby links so subtly and infinitesimally constituted as to belong equally\nto the kingdom below and to that above them.\n\nThe subject appears full of interest and suggestion, showing all the\nplanes of Nature, from mineral to man, linked in an unbroken line by way\nof this half-vegetable body of flesh, with its roots in earth and its\nbranches in Consciousness. No more than this briefest of mentions can be\ngiven here, however.\n\n\nXI\n\n     _Mysterious \"Internal Secretions\"_\n\nBiologists tell of Dual planes of operation in the processes of every\norgan of the body. Because some of these function on the external plane,\nin visible secretions or in other ways calculable by scientific methods,\nand they function, too, upon an Inner and occulted, plane; in the form\nof mysterious \"Internal Secretions,\" the mode and nature whereof have\nlong baffled and eluded the most intricate scientific appliances and\nintellections.\n\nWhat is indicated if not an Inner, and Potential, plane of Life\nand vital processes--a _plane of Involution_, or Recession\n(centripetal)--whereon factors of environment, air, food, water and so\nforth are transformed by vital involutionary processes, into\n_potentials_ of living form and function? Which potentials remain\nlatent, or Recessive, in the cells and glands secreting them, and\navailable for transformation by evolutionary processes, into actualities\nof physical form and function on the Outer (centrifugal) plane of\nLife--the _plane of Evolution_.\n\nAnd Life and health, together with normality of faculty and function,\ndepend upon the perfect balance and co-ordination of these two contrary\norders of factors and processes, which, I assume, are engendered,\nrespectively, in the Male and the Female departments of living organisms\nof both sexes.\n\nAll the vital functions--Respiration, Circulation, Digestion,\nReproduction--may be classed as Recessive functions, because they are\ncharacterised by a Recession, or withdrawal, from the Without to the\nWithin. This is a phenomenon of the _Involution_ of Environment, for\ntransformation thereof into potential Life, and potential Evolutionary\noutput.\n\n_Death_ is a centripetal withdrawal of the soul from the material\nWithout to an Inner zone of Spiritual, or Potential, Being. And in due\ntime, analogy assures us, having assimilated and transformed the\nresultant of a terrestrial existence into a new potential of Life, Life\nissues forth again, by the centrifugal impulse of re-Birth, to\ndifferentiate itself once more in living form upon the Outer plane.\n(_Re-incarnation_ is, obviously, the true interpretation of\n_Resurrection of the body_, which otherwise is scientifically\nimpossible.)\n\nWinter withdrawal, or Involution, of the sap of Vegetation from the\nouter plane of functioning to the inner plane of potential Life, whereby\nit derives such new increment of Vital potential as, with the outgoing\nof sap again in the renaissance of spring, evolves in increased growth\nand new foliage, is further example of the principle and processes of\nDominance and Recessiveness--of the female Vital impulse and the male\nDevelopmental impetus, operating in an eternal tidal rhythm of ebb and\nflow.\n\n\nXII\n\n     _Dual planes of Mentality: Outer and Material, Inner and Occult_\n\nAs in the Domain of Life and vital processes, so in the Domain of\nConsciousness and nervous processes, there are two planes of function;\nan Inner and occulted plane of Mind, or potential Consciousness, and an\nOuter plane of material Consciousness; representing respectively\nafferent (or centripetal) and efferent (or outgoing) nervous currents.\n\nFaculty and sense may be regarded as having developed in one direction\nalong lines of the telescope, with increasing capability to horizon the\nWithout; while they have developed simultaneously along lines of the\nmicroscope, to reveal an Invisible Within.\n\nThe Senses, which adapt man's Consciousness to environment by the\nfunctions of Sight, Hearing, Touch, Taste, Smell, have become, with\nevolutionary development, so increasingly sensitised in response to The\nWithout as ever further to have set him in rapport with the world\nexterior. While, at the same time, so have they become sensitised in\nresponse to The Within, as ever further to have deepened and quickened\nhis apprehension of an occulted Interior plane. Faculty has acquired\nthus, simultaneously with its increasing power of focusing the Outer and\nObjective, an increasing power so to invert its focus as to penetrate\never more deeply into the Inner and Subjective, alike of man's own\nconstitution and that of environment.\n\nThese two contrary, but co-operative, modes of mentality are,\nrespectively, Intellection and Intuition--Male and Female modes of mind.\n\n\nXIII\n\n     _Differentiation of the Zygote, or Mated Sex-cell_\n\nI have described, throughout, the right side of the human body as the\nmale-side--that in which the Male-traits of Humanity are specialised in\nthe individual; the left as the woman-side, that in which the\nWoman-traits of Humanity are centred.\n\nBut the modes of constitution, as of inheritance, are more complex, of\ncourse, than that one parent supplies the potential of one side, the\nother parent that of the other side.\n\nAs regards inheritance, the maternal ovum comprises, I believe, the\npotential of the whole body, with the exception of the brain, the\nspinal-cord and the spinal nerves. But because the mother is descended\nfrom parents of both sex, and possesses, therefore, both Male and Female\nelements, the ovum must contain (as must every other cell) both male and\nfemale factors. These, it is conceivable, are grouped, by contrary\npolarities, into two areas, or hemispheres; an upper and a lower. Of\nthese the upper is Male in inherency. It comprises the potentials of\nshoulders and spinal column which are fulcra of action, and of lungs and\nheart which are the _energising_ organs of Life. The lower hemisphere of\nthe ovum is Female in inherency. It comprises the potentials of the\npelvis, which is the cradle of Maternity, of the reproductive organs,\nwhich engender Life and the emotions, and of the digestive and\nassimilative organs, which engender vital processes.\n\nSo too, because the male parent is likewise descended from parents of\nopposite sex, his contribution to offspring must also contain both male\nand female factors. But while the mother supplies, in the ovum, the\npotential of the whole body--face and head, trunk, limbs and vital\norgans, the father contributes the potential of the brain, the spinal\ncord and the spinal nerves only, which adapt the organism, by way of\nform and Consciousness, to environment. The limbs, which adapt it, by\nway of Motion, to environment, may be regarded as differentiations\nprimarily of the brain and nervous system.\n\nThe ovum is spheroidal; the sperm-cell rectilinear (following the rule\nthat the line of Maleness is a straight one; that of Femaleness, a\ncurve). And as in the spheroidal ovum, the factors of the opposite\nsexes, grouped into two areas, separate it into hemispheres of opposite\nsex-inherency, so in the rectilinear sperm-cell, we may surmise the\nfactors of the two sexes to be grouped lengthwise, and to separate it\nthus into a male side and a female side. Such a sperm-cell penetrating\nthe ovum, and developing laterally, further differentiates this into\nanterior, posterior and lateral areas. The two lateral developments of\nthis potential brain and spinal cord and nerves eventually constitute\nthe right and the left brain-hemispheres, and differentiate the body\ninto right and left sides.\n\nThe left brain-hemisphere, with its half of the spinal cord and nerves,\nis derived from the _male_ side of the sperm-cell; while the right\nbrain-hemisphere, with its half of the spinal cord and spinal nerves, is\nderived from the _female_ side (by inheritance) of the sperm cell.\n\n\nWeismann describes the Germ-Plasm as being transmitted in the female\nline solely, from ovum of mother to that of daughter.\n\nThis supports the above view; namely, that the Germ-Plasm proper is\ninherent in the ovum, in which it exists in potential, or\nundifferentiated, form, and that it becomes differentiated (in both\nsexes) into a right and a left-reproductive gland of contrary\nsex-inherence, by differentiative power of the dual-sexed sperm-cell.\nThe re-polarisation of the fertilised ovum, which is visible beneath the\nmicroscope, would seem to represent this differentiative process.\n\n\nSince the microcosm is as the macrocosm, the Dual constitution must be\nrepeated in every living cell of the body; the cell-plasma representing\nthe vegetative system, the cell-nucleus representing the cerebro-nervous\nsystem. Possibly the nucleolus is the Supra- and Subconscious element.\n\n\nXIV\n\n     _Inorganic Matter is Dual and Hermaphrodite. Life breaks up this\n     Neuter counterpoise, and progressively unlocks and segregates, and\n     thus reveals and specialises the inherent attributes of Sex_\n\nPhenomena of Duality characterise not Living Matter only, but Inorganic\nMatter too. The elemental atom is never found manifesting singly, but\nalways as two atoms coupled together, in the form of \"the molecule\";\nthese mated atoms being of opposite electrical potential.\n\nAnd since Living Matter has evolved out of Inorganic Matter--what is to\nbe inferred but that the duality of the living cell is the evolution, on\nthe plane of Life, of the duality of the chemical molecule?\n\nFurther, that the duality of living forms in terms of\nsex-characteristics is the evolution, on the plane of Living Faculty, of\nthe duality alike of the living cell and of the chemical molecule; the\ntwo sexes representing, respectively, the contrary inherences of all\nthese dualities, specialised and ever further intensifying in the\ncontrary trends of the opposite Sex-traits of Male and Female.\n\nThe elemental molecule is seen thus to be hybrid, or hermaphrodite, in\nconstitution, precisely as the living cell and the living body are.\nWhile that both living cells and inorganic crystals reproduce, proves\nfactors of Sex differentiated and functioning in them.\n\nThe inertia of Matter is due to the hermaphrodite state; its contrary\nSex-impulses interlocking and nullifying one another. Life breaks up\nthis neuter state of equipoise, by increasingly segregating the\ndual-sex-inherences and evolving each along its own intrinsic trend;\nthereby engendering between their dual factors fructifying\ninteroperations which result in the motions of Growth and other vital\nprocesses.\n\nGrowth is a phenomenon of Reproduction. Living cells increase their\nsubstance by germination of their bi-sexual elements. Attaining\nmaturity, a cell divides into two cells, each of which by way of similar\nprocesses develops into a mature cell.\n\nAnd since for all Change, two (or more) contrary impulses are\nnecessary, and since Reproduction is a function of Sex, what is to be\ninferred but that Evolution and Growth and all other phenomena of living\ncells result from oppositions, co-operations and correlations of the\ncontrary impetus and processes of two orders of sex-factors present\ntherein? By way alone of their bi-sexuality, are cells, both animal and\nvegetable, able to reproduce the cell-offspring required by living\norganisms for processes of growth, of function and repair.\n\n\nPRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY\nRICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,\nBRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E.1\nAND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWOMAN AND LABOUR\n\nBy OLIVE SCHREINER\n\nDemy 8vo, cloth, 8s. 6d. net\n\n_SEVENTH IMPRESSION_\n\n\n\"At last there has come the book which is destined to be the prophecy\nand the gospel of the whole awakening.... Remarkable as this book of\nOlive Schreiner's is, merely as an intellectual achievement, its\ngreatness and its life are in the emotional power which has found its\nstimulus and its inspiration in a vision of the future.... A book which\nwill be read and discussed for many years to come.\"--_The Nation._\n\n\"It is a fascinating mingling of keen argument, scientific knowledge,\nhistorical pageantry, rushing emotion, written (need it be said) in that\nadorned prose which is Olive Schreiner's characteristic style.... The\nbook ... is an epic.\"--Mr. J. RAMSAY MACDONALD in _The Daily Chronicle_.\n\n\"All the qualities which long ago won for Olive Schreiner the gratitude\nand admiration of readers all over the globe are here in their old\nstrength. There is fierce satire; there is deep-souled eloquence. There\nis the same quick reasoning, the same tenderness, the same poetic\ninsight into the puzzle of life.... The feelings which are behind the\nvarious women's movements could not find clearer or more eloquent\nexpression than they do in this remarkable book.\"--_The Daily Mail._\n\n\"It is one of those books which are sunrises, and give us spacious and\nnatural horizons. Like Mazzini's essays, it is logic touched with\nemotion, politics on fire. One may begin to doubt the cause of woman's\nrights when the opponents of sex equality produce an equally glowing\nearnest and prophetic book.\"--_The Daily News._\n\n\nT. FISHER UNWIN, Ltd., 1 Adelphi Terrace, London, W.C.\n\n\nBABY WELFARE\n\nA GUIDE TO ITS ACQUISITION AND MAINTENANCE\n\nBy W. E. ROBINSON, M.D. _Assistant Physician and Pathologist to the\nInfants' Hospital, London_\n\nDemy 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d. net\n\n\n\"We congratulate the author on his careful study of the healthy infant,\nabout whom it has too long been difficult to obtain exact\ninformation.\"--_The Lancet._\n\n\"A valuable addition to the literature dealing with the scientific\nknowledge of infancy and early childhood.... The book starts with a\nbrief and easily comprehended exposition of physical characteristics, a\ngroundwork of great value to intelligent women who desire, from one\nreason or another, to be self-reliant as far as possible where their\nbabies are concerned. A chapter devoted to 'The Healthy Infant' gives in\npleasingly lucid fashion a picture of what a baby should be doing at\neach point of its development.\"--_The Queen._\n\n\"This book deals fully and clearly with the physiology of the infant;\nwith dietetics, based on a study of human and cow's milk, as supplied to\nit; with the effects of faulty upbringing, more especially of faulty\nfeeding; the signs, causes and treatment of diseased conditions, and so\non. It should be a valuable aid to the intelligent mother or\nnurse.\"--_Nursing Notes._\n\n\nT. FISHER UNWIN, Ltd., 1 Adelphi Terrace London, W.C.\n\n\nWOMAN AND MARRIAGE\n\nA HANDBOOK\n\nBy MARGARET STEPHENS\n\nWith a Preface by DR. MARY SCHARLIEB, and an Introduction by Mrs. S. A.\nBARNETT\n\nLarge crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. net\n\n_SIXTH IMPRESSION_\n\n\nThe direct purpose of this book is to explain very simply something of\nthe structure and the use of parenthood, and to show the possibilities\nwhich arise from it--in short, to help women, and men too--in the\nunderstanding of themselves. It endeavours to increase intelligence on\nthe subject of child-life by letting a clear light shine on those\neveryday matters of birth and life which are so often furtively wrapped\nin a mysterious and wholly distorting gloom.\n\n\n\"'Woman and Marriage' is an outspoken book which should be carefully\nread by those for whom it is written. It is not a book for boys and\ngirls; it is a physiological handbook, thoroughly well written, orderly,\nwholesome and practical.... We commend this work to all who want a full\naccount in simple words of the physical facts of married life. All the\ndifficulties of the subject are handled fearlessly, gravely and\nreverently in this book, and as it must be kept out of the reach of mere\ncuriosity, so it deserves thoughtful study by those of us whose lives it\ntouches.\"--_The Spectator._\n\n\"If more such books were written, and more such knowledge disseminated,\nit would be a good thing for the wives and mothers of the present\nday.\"--_The Times._\n\n\nT. FISHER UNWIN, Ltd., 1 Adelphi Terrace, London, W.C.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIMPORTANT NOTICE.\n\n     All the works mentioned in this list may be purchased through any\n     bookseller. They are also obtainable at all Libraries.\n\n     Any book-buyer wishing to see any of the books mentioned before\n     purchasing them may, on sending to Mr. Unwin the name of his local\n     bookseller, have the opportunity of so doing.\n\nT. FISHER UNWIN, LTD., 1, ADELPHI TERRACE, LONDON, W.C.2.\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nHISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY              pages  1 to  8\nTRAVEL & DESCRIPTION                 \"    8  \"  9\nPOLITICS, SOCIOLOGY & ECONOMICS      \"   10  \" 13\nBELLES LETTRES                       \"   14  \" 16\nPOETRY AND DRAMA                     \"   17\nMISCELLANEOUS                        \"   18\nFICTION                              \"   19 to 21\nNEW EDITIONS AND IMPRESSIONS         \"   22  \" 27\n\n\n     Life and Letters of Silvanus Phillips Thompson, F.R.S. By JANE S.\n     THOMPSON and HELEN G. THOMPSON. Illustrated. Demy 8vo, cloth.\n     (Spring, 1920).\n\n21s. 0d. NET Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nThis is a straightforward and somewhat intimate account of the career of\na man of great and varied gifts. Born into the family of a simple Quaker\nschoolmaster of York his extraordinary energy and devotion to science\ncarried him into the foremost ranks of physicists, an acknowledged\nleader in electro-technology and optics. Both as popular lecturer and as\ntrainer of technical college students his skill was unrivalled, and\nwheresoever he went his enthusiasm for men and things won him\nfriendships, alike in his own country and abroad. Many of the letters\ndescribe experiences on his journeys, others adventures of the\nantiquarian in the pursuit of sixteenth and seventeenth century\nscientific literature, and yet others tell of battles for truth in some\nfield or other.\n\nThe book contains appreciations of his works as original investigator,\nteacher, writer, artist, and \"prophet,\" and indirectly testifies to the\nwarmth of personal regard which the frank geniality of his nature won\nfor him in many spheres.\n\n\n     All and Sundry: More Uncensored Celebrities. By E. T. RAYMOND,\n     Author of \"Uncensored Celebrities.\" Demy 8vo, cloth.\n\n10s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nFew books this year have attracted more attention or been more widely\nread than Mr. E. T. Raymond's \"Uncensored Celebrities,\" a work as\ncaustic as it was impartial. In his new work Mr. Raymond does not limit\nhimself to political personalities only, but includes figures in the\nChurch, such as the Bishop of London and Dean Inge; in literature, Mr.\nG. K. Chesterton, Mr. Hilaire Belloc, and Mr. Rudyard Kipling; in\njournalism, Mr. Harold Begbie, Mr. T. P. O'Connor, and Mr. Leo Maxse; in\nart and music, Mr. Frank Brangwyn and Sir Thomas Beecham. Mr. Raymond\nincludes also character sketches of President Wilson, M. Georges\nClemenceau, the Duke of Somerset, Viscount Chaplin, Viscount Esher, Sir\nArthur Conan Doyle, Lord Ernle, Mr. Speaker, and many other prominent\npeople. Wider in range than \"Uncensored Celebrities\" and equally\nbrilliant, this work may be expected to appeal to even a larger public\nthan its remarkable predecessor.\n\n\n     The Life of John Payne. By THOMAS WRIGHT, Author of \"The Life of\n     William Cowper,\" etc. With 18 Illustrations. Demy 8vo, cloth.\n\n28s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nFew great authors appeal more to the imagination than John Payne, the\nhero of \"The John Payne Society,\" who shrank from the lime-light of\n\"interviewing.\" Recognised as a true poet by Swinburne, he was probably\nthe most skilful translator of the nineteenth century, for we owe to him\na version of Villon's poems which is itself a poetic work of consummate\nart, the first complete translation of the \"Arabian Nights,\" the first\ncomplete verse rendering of Omar Khayyam's quatrains, to say nothing of\ntranslations of \"The Decameron,\" etc. Among his friends were Swinburne,\nSir Richard Burton, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Arthur O'Shaughnessy, French\nauthors such as Victor Hugo, Banville, and Mallarme, and the artist who\nventured to depict \"God with eyes turned inward upon His own glory.\" Mr.\nWright by an extraordinary exercise of tact and sympathy was able to\npass the barrier which shut Payne off from anybody who sought to know\nthe man behind the books. For twelve years before Payne's death in 1916\nhe was his most intimate friend, and as, during all that time, he had in\nview the writing of Payne's Life he lost next to none of his\nopportunities for obtaining at first hand the facts and opinions needed\nfor his work. Moreover, Payne made him a present of a MS. autobiography\nand supplied him with valuable material from his letter-files. Mr.\nWright was, in fact, Payne's Boswell, and no life which may be written\nhereafter can have the weight and interest of this vivid book, much of\nwhich gives us the sound of Payne's own voice.\n\n\n     A History of Modern Colloquial English. By HENRY CECIL WYLD, B.\n     Litt. (Oxon.), Baines Professor of English Language and Philology\n     at the University of Liverpool. Demy 8vo, cloth. (Spring, 1920.)\n\n21s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nThe book deals more particularly with the changes that have taken place\nduring the last five hundred years in the spoken forms of English. The\ndevelopment of English pronunciation and the changes in grammatical\nusage are dealt with in considerable detail, and there is a chapter on\nidiomatic colloquialisms, modes of greeting, forms of address in\nsociety, conventional and individual methods of beginning and ending\nprivate letters, expletives, etc. The main part of the book is based\nalmost entirely upon new material collected from the prose and poetical\nliterature, and also from Letters, Diaries and Wills written during the\nfive centuries following the death of Chaucer. A sketch is given of the\nchief peculiarities of the English dialects from about 1150, to the end\nof the 14th century, and special chapters are devoted to a general\naccount of the languages of the 15th, 16th, and 17th and 18th centuries\nrespectively. Many questions of general interest are dealt with, such as\nthe rise of a common literary form of English, and its relation to the\nvarious spoken dialects; the recognition of a standard form of spoken\nEnglish, and its variations from age to age, and among different social\nclasses. The various types of English are illustrated by copious\nexamples from the writings of all the periods under consideration. This\nwill be a work of much interest for the intelligent general reader as\nwell as for the scholar. Professor Wyld is the author of many well-known\nand widely read books of which this ought to prove not the least\npopular.\n\n\n     Zanzibar: Past and Present. By MAJOR FRANCIS B. PEARCE, C.M.G.\n     (British Resident in Zanzibar), With a Map and 32 pages\n     Illustrations. Super Royal 8vo, cloth. (Spring, 1920.)\n\n30s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nThis important work deals with the past and present history of Zanzibar.\nFrom the earliest times this island, owing to its commanding position\noff the coast of Africa, controlled the great trade-routes which\ntraversed the Continent from the Indian to the Atlantic Oceans, and it\nhas remained to the present day the Metropolis of the East African\nRegion. It has known many over-lords, and the author, who is His\nMajesty's Representative in Zanzibar, traces the story of this romantic\nisland-kingdom down the centuries. The close association of this African\nisland with ancient and mediaeval Arabia is demonstrated, and the advent\nof the old Persian colonists to its shores explained. Coming to later\ntimes such names as Vasco da Gama and Sir James Lancaster, that famous\nElizabethan sea-captain, are met with; until leaving beaten tracks, the\nauthor introduces the reader to the hoary kingdom of Oman, whence came\nthose princes of the Arabian desert, who subdued to their sway the rich\nspice-island of Zanzibar, and the adjacent territories of Central\nAfrica. Modern Zanzibar is fully dealt with, and the enlightened Prince\nwho occupies the throne of Zanzibar to-day is introduced to the reader\nin a personal interview. The latter portion of the work is devoted to\ndescriptions of the ruined Arab and Persian stone-built towns--the very\nnames of which are now forgotten--which until cleared by the author, lay\nmouldering in the forests of Zanzibar and Pemba. The text is elucidated\nby a series of beautiful photographs and by specially prepared maps.\n\nThis volume must be regarded as the standard work on the Sultanate of\nZanzibar.\n\n\n     The Canadians in France, 1915-1918 By CAPT. HARWOOD STEELE, M.C.,\n     late Headquarters Staff, 2nd Canadian Division. With Maps. Demy\n     8vo. (Spring, 1920.)\n\n21s. 0d. NET.\n\nCaptain Steele, who is already favourably known as the author of the\nspirited volume of poems entitled \"Cleared for Action,\" here recounts\nthe deeds of the famous force sent by Canada to take part in the Great\nWar. What St. Julien, Ypres, St. Eloi, the Somme, Passchaendaele, Lens,\nVimy, Amiens, Cambrai and Mons, 1918 mean in the glorious record of the\nAllies will be fully understood by the reader of this book.\n\nThis is the first complete record of the achievements of the Canadian\ndivisions to be published. Captain Steele served three years in France,\nand participated in most of the important engagements in which the\nCanadians took part.\n\n\n     Drake, Nelson and Napoleon: Studies. By SIR WALTER RUNCIMAN, Bart.,\n     Author of \"The Tragedy of St. Helena,\" etc. Illustrated. Demy 8vo,\n     cloth.\n\n12s. 6d. NET Inland Postage 6d.\n\nIn this work Sir Walter Runciman deals first with Drake and what he\ncalls the Fleet Tradition, of which he regards Drake, the greatest\nElizabethan sailor, as the indubitable founder; next the author deals at\nconsiderable length with Nelson, his relations with Lady Hamilton, and\nthe various heroic achievements which have immortalised his name. From\nNelson the author passes on to Napoleon, and shows how his career and\npolicy have had a vital relation to the World War. As himself a sailor\nof the old wooden-ships period, Sir Walter is able to handle with\nspecial knowledge and intimacy the technique of the seafaring exploits\nof Nelson; and Sir Walter's analysis of the character of Nelson, a\ncombination of vanity, childishness, statesmanlike ability, and\nincomparable seamanship and courage, is singularly well conceived.\n\n\n     Bolingbroke and Walpole. By the Rt. Hon. J. M. ROBERTSON, Author of\n     \"Shakespeare and Chapman,\" \"The Economics of Progress,\" etc., etc.\n     Demy 8vo, cloth.\n\n12s. 6d. NET Inland Postage 6d.\n\nMany years ago, in his \"Introduction to English Politics\" (recast as\n\"The Evolution of States\"), Mr. Robertson proposed to continue that\nsurvey in a series of studies of the leading English politicians, from\nBolingbroke to Gladstone. Taking up the long suspended plan, he has now\nproduced a volume on the two leading statesmen of an important period,\napproaching its problems through their respective actions. The aim is to\npresent political history at once in its national and its personal\naspects, treating the personalities of politicians as important forces,\nbut studying at the same time the whole intellectual environment. A\nspecial feature of the volume intended to be developed in those which\nmay follow is a long chapter in \"The Social Evolution,\" setting forth\nthe nation's progress, from generation to generation, in commerce,\nindustry, morals, education, literature, art, science, and well-being.\n\n\n     Seen from a Railway Platform. By WILLIAM VINCENT. Crown 8vo, cloth.\n     (Spring, 1920.)\n\n3s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nMr. Vincent must from his early years have cultivated his faculty of\nobservation, and he has a marvellous memory for what he has seen or\nheard. His recollections start from the early 'sixties, when, as a boy,\nhe got a situation as bookstall clerk, from which position he rose to be\nbookstall manager in various parts of the country. His experiences as\nbookstall manager on a railway platform, with its continuously shifting\ncrowds and contacts with various idiosyncracies, are highly interesting,\nbut he recalls many events that have happened in his time away from the\nbookstall, the notorious Heenan fight, the remarkable exhibition of the\n\"Great Eastern\" and others. He gives curious accounts of the early\nrailway carriages, the treatment of the third-class passenger and much\nother lore concerning railway travel in the now distant days.\nAltogether, Mr. Vincent has produced a valuable volume of reminiscences.\n\n\n     Life of Liza Lehmann. By Herself. With a Coloured Frontispiece and\n     16 pp. Illustrations. Large Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n10s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nShortly before her death, Madame Liza Lehmann completed a volume of\nReminiscences. A charming and gifted woman her life was spent in\nartistic and literary surroundings. She was the daughter of an artist,\nRudolf Lehmann, the wife of another, Herbert Bedford, one of her sisters\nbeing Mrs. Barry Pain, and her cousins including Muriel Menie Dowie\n(\"The Girl in the Carpathians\") and Mr. R. C. Lehmann, of \"Punch.\" Her\nmemories include a dinner with Verdi, conversations with Jenny Lind,\nanecdotes of Edward VII, Brahms, Mme. Clara Butt, and other celebrities.\nAs the composer of \"A Persian Garden,\" she became world-renowned, and\nher self-revelation is not less interesting than her tit-bits about\nother artists.\n\n\n     Men and Manner in Parliament. By SIR HENRY LUCY. With a\n     Biographical Note and about 32 Illustrations. Large Crown 8vo.\n\n10s. 6d. NET Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nAs \"Member for the Chiltern Hundreds\" Sir Henry Lucy published an\ninteresting volume on the Parliament of 1874. The book has been long out\nof print, but it again came \"on the tapis\" as it seemed to the publisher\nso thoroughly worth bringing to life again. It is recorded in the\nauthorised Life of President Wilson that study of the articles on their\noriginal publication in the \"Gentleman's Magazine\" directed his career\ninto the field of politics. He wrote to the author apropos this book: \"I\nshall always think of you as one of my instructors.\" The book is\nessentially a connected series of character-sketches written in the\nwell-known witty manner of the famous _Punch_ diarist. Gladstone,\n\"Dizzy,\" Dilke, Bright, Auberon Herbert, Roebuck, Sir Stafford\nNorthcote, etc., are some of the leading figures, and lesser-known\nM.P.'s resume a vigorous vitality, thanks to Sir Henry's magic pen.\n\n\n     Anglo-American Relations, 1861-1865. By BROUGHAM VILLIERS & W. H.\n     CHESSON. Large Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n10s. 6d. NET Inland Postage 6d.\n\nThis book deals with the causes of friction and misunderstandings\nbetween Great Britain and the United States during the trying years of\nthe Civil War. The reasons which, for a time, gave prominence to the\nSouthern sympathies of the British ruling classes, while rendering\nalmost inarticulate the far deeper feeling for the Cause of Union and\nEmancipation among the masses of our people, are examined and explained.\nSuch dramatic incidents as the Trent affair, the launching of the\n\"Alabama,\" and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation are dealt with from\nthe point of view of their effect upon opinion in this country as\nillustrated by contemporary correspondence and literature. Interesting\nfacts, now almost forgotten, of the movements inaugurated by the English\nfriends of the North to explain to our people the true issues at stake\nin the conflict are reproduced, and an attempt is made to estimate the\ninfluence of the controversies of the time on the subsequent relations\nof the English-speaking peoples.\n\nMr. W. H. Chesson, grandson of George Thompson, the anti-slavery orator,\nwho was William Lloyd Garrison's bosom friend, contributes a chapter\nwhich attempts to convey an impression of the influence of Transatlantic\nproblems upon English oratory and the writings of public men.\n\n\n     Woodrow Wilson: An interpretation. By A. MAURICE LOW, Author of\n     \"The American People: A Study in National Psychology,\" with a\n     Portrait. Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n8s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nMr. A. Maurice Low has long been recognised as, next to Lord Bryce, the\nmost acute, discriminating, and well-informed of the English critics of\nAmerica. His long residence in that country and his exhaustive study of\ncertain phases of American life have given him a background for the\ninterpretation of their political life.\n\nMr. Low has written this interpretation of President Wilson \"because the\nman to-day who occupies the largest place in the world's thought is\nalmost as little understood by his own people as he is by the peoples of\nother countries, and still remains an enigma,\" but his point of view as\nan interpreter is that of a contemporary foreign observer who, while\nhaving the benefit of long residence in the United States and an\nintimate knowledge of its people and politics, may justly claim a\ndetached point of view and to be uninfluenced by personal or political\nconsiderations.\n\n\n     Peace-Making at Paris. By SISLEY HUDDLESTON. Large Crown 8vo,\n     cloth.\n\n7s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nMr. Huddleston has been one of the most independent commentators of the\nproceedings at the Paris Conference, with a keen sense of the realities,\nand his despatches have, in the phrase of one of our best-known authors,\nmade him \"easily the best\" of the Paris correspondents. This book aims\nat giving a broad account of the seven months which followed the\nArmistice; but the writer has a point of view and has not told the story\nof these memorable days objectively, such as might have been done by any\ncompiler with the aid of the newspapers. A resident in Paris, he has\nlived close to the heart of the Conference, and throws a vivid light on\ncertain events which it is of the utmost importance to understand. Thus\nthe famous \"moderation interview,\" which was followed by the telegram of\nprotest from 370 M.P.'s and the return to Westminster of the Prime\nMinister, who made the most sensational speech of his career, came from\nhis pen. The attitude of Mr. Wilson is specially studied; his apotheosis\nand the waning of his star and his apparent lapse from \"Wilsonianism\" is\nexplained. There is shown the dramatic clash of ideas. Special attention\nis devoted to the strange and changing policy in Russia, and some\nextremely curious episodes are revealed. This is not merely a timely\npublication, but the volume is likely to preserve for many years its\nplace as the most illuminating piece of work about the two hundred odd\ndays in Paris. It is certain to raise many controversies, and it is one\nof those books which it is indispensable to read.\n\n\n     Letters of Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman. Edited with an\n     Introduction by THOMAS B. HARNED (One of Walt Whitman's Literary\n     Executors). Cloth.\n\n8s. 6d. Net. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nAnne Gilchrist, a charming woman of rare literary culture and\nintelligence, who was born in 1828 and died in 1885, was Whitman's first\nnotable female eulogist in England, her essay on him being a valuable\npiece of pioneer-criticism. Admiration in her case became identified\nwith love; in the 'seventies she wrote Whitman ardent love letters, the\ncontents of which would have surprised any literary man less acquainted\nthan he was to heroic candour. Whitman was not insensible to the\naffectionate feelings of Mrs. Gilchrist (her husband died in 1861), and\nhis share of their correspondence is of considerable interest to\nstudents of \"Leaves of Grass.\"\n\n\n     Breaking the Hindenburg Line: The Story of the 46th (North Midland)\n     Division. By RAYMOND E. PRIESTLEY, Author of \"Antarctic Adventure.\"\n     Illustrated. Large Crown 8vo, cloth. (Second Impression.)\n\n7s. 6d. Net. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nWritten by a member of the Division for his comrades and their relatives\nand friends, the book is first of all intended to place on record for\nthe North Midland people the deeds of their men during the weeks which\ncrowned four years of steadfast endeavour during the Great War.\n\nIt has, however, a wider significance, and thus deserves a wider\ncirculation. The North Midland county regiments were composed mainly of\nminers, machinists, operatives and agriculturists: men without military\ntraditions or militant desires. The last men to take to war without an\nall-compelling reason.\n\n\n     The Transvaal Surrounded. By W. J. LEYDS, Litt.D., Author of \"The\n     First Annexation of the Transvaal.\" With Maps. Demy 8vo, cloth.\n     (Spring, 1920.)\n\n21s. 0d. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nThis work is a continuation of \"The First Annexation of the Transvaal\"\nby the same author, and like the previous volume is based chiefly on\nBritish documents, Blue Books, and other official records. References\nare given to these, and the reader can form his own opinion from them.\nTo find his way through the overwhelming mass of documents is only\npossible for the man who for long years drew up and signed most of the\npapers issued by his Government. For the official records accessible to\nthe historian are incomplete; they must be supplemented by the archives\nof the Republic. Only when this has been done--as it has now by one who\nknows--will the history of the relations between England and the Boers\nbe freed from falsehood and slander.\n\n\n     Modern Japan: Its Political, Military and Industrial Development.\n     By WILLIAM MONTGOMERY MCGOVERN, Ph.D., M.R.A.D., F.R.A.I., M.J.S.,\n     etc. Lecturer on Japanese, School of Oriental Studies (Unv. of\n     Lond.), Priest of the Nishi, Hongwaryi, Kyoto, Japan, (Spring,\n     1920.)\n\n21s. 0d. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nUnlike the book of casual impressions by the tourist or globe-trotter or\na tedious work of reference for the library, Mr. McGovern's book on\n\"Modern Japan,\" gives for the average educated man an interesting\ndescription of the evolution of Japan as a modern world Power, and\ndescribes the gradual triumphs over innumerable obstacles which she\naccomplished. The book relates how the Restoration of 1867 was carried\nout by a small coterie of ex-Samurai, in whose hands, or in that of\ntheir successors, political power has ever since remained. We see\nportrayed the perfecting of the Bureaucratic machine, the general,\npolitical and institutional history, the stimulation of militarism and\nImperialism, and centralised industry. It is a vivid account of the real\nJapan of to-day, and of the process by which it has become so. Though\ncomprehensible to the non-technical reader, yet the most careful student\nof Far Eastern affairs will find much of value in the acute analysis of\nthe Japanese nation. The author is one who has resided for years in\nJapan, was largely educated there, who was in the Japanese Government\nservice, and who, by his fluent knowledge of the language, was in\nintimate contact with all the leading statesmen of to-day. Furthermore\nhis position as priest of the great Buddhist temple of Kyoto brought him\nin touch with phases of Japanese life most unusual for a European. While\nneither pro nor anti-Japanese, he has delineated the extraordinary\nefficiency of the machine of State (so largely modelled on Germany),\nwhile, at the same time, he has pointed out certain dangers inherent in\nits autocratic bureaucracy.\n\n\n_TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION_\n\n\n     Byways in Southern Tuscany. By KATHERINE HOOKER. With 60 full-page\n     Illustrations, besides sketches in the text and a removable\n     Frontispiece, the end papers being a coloured map of Southern\n     Tuscany by Porter Garnett. Demy 8vo, cloth.\n\n18s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nIn addition to its absorbing historic interest this book has the claim\nof recording the impressions of a vivacious and observant lady who\ndescribes what she has seen in modern Tuscany from San Galgano to\nSorano.\n\nThose who like books which conjure up beautiful historic places and\nfascinating romances of real life will be sure to enjoy this handsome\nvolume. Among the stories related by the author is the harrowing one of\nNello Pannocchieschi told by Dante, the scene of which is the ill-famed\nMaremma, mentioned in a proverb as a district where \"You grow rich in a\nyear, but die in six months.\"\n\n\n     The Romantic Roussillon: In the French Pyrenees. By ISABEL SAVORY.\n     With Illustrations by M. LANDSEER MACKENZIE. Super Royal 8vo.\n\n25s. 0d. NET Inland Postage 6d.\n\nThis book is written for a double purpose: to reveal to lovers of\nsculpture the beauties of certain Romanesque work hitherto hidden in\nremote corners of the Pyrenees, and to suggest to travellers the\nattractions of a little country formerly known as the Roussillon, which\nnow forms part of the Pyrenees Orientales.\n\nWell off the beaten track, though within easy reach of London, it should\nappeal to lovers of fine scenery and to students of Romanesque and\nmediaeval architecture.\n\nMiss Isabel Savory, author of \"The Tail of the Peacock\" and \"A\nSportswoman in India,\" has explored every inch of it. Each chapter is a\nwitness to the writer's research in the Library at Perpignan, coupled\nwith a graphic description of the country from an artistic point of\nview, and lively portraits of the Catalam as he exists to-day.\n\nMiss Muriel Landseer MacKenzie, sculptor and great-niece of Sir Edwin\nLandseer, gives a series of pencil drawings of which the collotype\nprocess makes faithful reproductions. Apart from their own merit, they\nrepresent subjects of which apparently no records exist, details of\nByzantine and Romanesque architecture discovered in neglected abbeys,\nold churches, and ruins in the hills.\n\nAt the end of the book there is a map and a few practical notes for\ntravellers which indicate that prices are moderate, and that there are\ngood roads for motorists, though the country is pre-eminently adapted\nfor those who like the informality of the knapsack and the mountain\npath.\n\n\n     In the Wilds of South America: Six Years of Exploration in\n     Colombia, Venezuela, British Guiana, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina,\n     Paraguay, and Brazil. By LEO E. MILLER, of the American Museum of\n     Natural History. First Lieutenant in the United States Aviation\n     Corps. With 48 Full-page Illustrations and with maps. Demy 8vo,\n     cloth.\n\n21s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nThis volume represents a series of almost continuous explorations hardly\never paralleled in the huge areas traversed. The author is a\ndistinguished field naturalist--one of those who accompanied Colonel\nRoosevelt on his famous South American expedition--and his first object\nin his wanderings over 150,000 miles of territory was the observation of\nwild life; but hardly second was that of exploration. The result is a\nwonderfully informative, impressive, and often thrilling narrative in\nwhich savage peoples and all but unknown animals largely figure, which\nforms an infinitely readable book and one of rare value for geographers,\nnaturalists, and other scientific men.\n\n\n     Millions from Waste. By Frederick A. TALBOT, Author of \"The Oil\n     Conquest of the World,\" \"All About Inventions and Discoveries,\"\n     \"Moving Pictures; How they are Made and Worked,\" \"Practical\n     Cinematography,\" \"The Building of a Great Canadian Railway,\" etc.,\n     etc., etc. Demy 8vo, cloth.\n\n21s. 0d. NET Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nIn this book, Mr. Frederick A. Talbot, whose many volumes dealing with\ninvention, science, and industry in a popular manner have achieved such\na successful vogue, introduces us to what may very appropriately be\ndescribed as a fairyland of successful endeavour in a little known\nfield. The present work does not aim at being a treatise upon the whole\nsubject, because it is far too vast to be covered within the covers of a\nsingle volume. He takes us, as it were, into the less frequented, yet\nmore readily accessible by-ways, where exceptional opportunities occur\nfor one and all sections of the community to contribute to one of the\ngreatest economic issues of the day.\n\nEvery industry, every home, contributes to the waste problem; each\nincurs a certain proportion of residue which it cannot use. This\ncircumstance, combined with the knowledge that it is our duty to\ndiscover a commercial use for such by-products, has been responsible for\nmany happy stories of success achieved during voyages of discovery which\nthe author duly records.\n\nMr. Talbot does not confine himself to a mere recital of the so-called\nwaste products. He describes how their recovery and exploitations may be\nprofitably conducted, so that the present volume is of decided practical\nvalue. He treats of the fertility of thought displayed by the inventor,\nchemist, and engineer in the evolution of simple ways and means to turn\ndespised materials into indispensable articles of commerce. Many of the\nappliances are of a striking and highly ingenious character and cannot\nfail to excite interest.\n\n\n     The Nations and the League. By Various Writers. With an\n     Introductory Chapter by Sir GEORGE PAISH. Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n7s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nThis important work presents the views of eminent men of different\nnationalities upon one of the most burning questions of the day. French\nviews are supplied by M. Leon Bourgeois, President of the Association\nFrancaise pour la Societe des Nations, and the famous French barrister,\nM. Andre Mater, whose historical account of experiments already made in\nInternational Leagues, is of high interest. The President of Columbia\nUniversity, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, supplies an essay on Patriotism\nin which this noble quality is rightly adjusted to a larger idea of\nhuman brotherhood than has formerly been connected with it. Sir Sidney\nLow presents a British view, and Messrs. Louis Strauss and A. Heringa\ncontribute Dutch and Belgian views respectively. Mr. Johan Castberg,\nPresident of the Norwegian Odelsting, and the celebrated explorer, Dr.\nNansen, write for Norway, and the Germans have a spokesman in Professor\nLujo Brentano, of Munich. Sir George Paish brings his long experience\nand expert knowledge to bear on the economic questions that confront the\nLeague.\n\n\n     Local Development Law: A Survey of the Powers of Local Authorities\n     in Regard to Housing, Roads, Buildings, Lands and Town Planning. By\n     H. C. DOWDALL, Barrister-at-Law, Lecturer on Town Planning Law in\n     the University of Liverpool and Legal Member of the Town Planning\n     Institute. Demy 8vo, cloth.\n\n10s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nThis book, which incorporates the important legislation just passed on\nthe subject, has been written at the request of architects and surveyors\nas well as lawyers, council clerks, and councillors, who have complained\nthat they have been unable to find the kind of information which it\nsupplies in a brief, comprehensive, and intelligible form.\n\nFor the law of housing, roads, parks, open spaces, allotments, public\nbuildings, town planning, private Bill procedure, compensation, and\nkindred matters bearing on the public control of land and the use of\nland for public purposes is contained in many large volumes through\nwhich even a skilled lawyer finds his way with difficulty. Mr. Dowdall's\nwork deals with all these subjects systematically and fully, almost in\nthe form of a code, but it is held together and enlivened by a certain\nmeasure of historical and illustrative matter, and avoids unnecessary\ndetail by giving references through which the fullest information is\nmade readily accessible to those who desire it, but perhaps do not know\nwhere to look for it.\n\nThe author is of opinion that local authorities are often imperfectly\naware of the full range and scope of the powers which they enjoy, or of\nthe manner in which they might be co-ordinated and brought to bear upon\nwhat is, after all, the single and indivisible problem of town planning\nand town improvement.\n\n\n     My Italian Year. Observations and Reflections in Italy, 1917-18. By\n     JOSEPH COLLINS. Demy 8vo, cloth.\n\n10s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage. 6d.\n\nIn the latter part of 1917 the author was assigned to military duty in\nItaly. The nature of his duties brought him in close contact with\nItalians in every walk of life and every part of the kingdom. Italy was\nnot previously unknown to him, as he had made already frequent visits.\nHe presents a study of the Italian temperament, describes the different\nsocial classes, gives a study of the governmental machine, describes\nvarious sights and monuments (not at all in the tourist manner), and\naltogether writes a very original book. The author has been trained by a\nlife of observation, examination and deduction, as the work itself\nclearly shows. He writes with lucidity and charm, and though, as he\nsays, he has been since childhood a lover of Italy, he writes with great\nimpartiality of certain features of the Italian people. Despite the fact\nthat the war enters the book to a certain extent, its main interest is\nby no means the war, but the fascinating study it presents of the\nItalian character, ways and manners, and of Italy generally.\n\n\n     Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War. By W. TROTTER. New Library\n     Edition. Revised and Enlarged. Large Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n8s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nPRESS OPINIONS OF THE FIRST EDITION.\n\n\"An exceedingly original essay on individual and social\npsychology.\"--THE NEW STATESMAN.\n\n\"It is a balanced and inspiring study of one of the prime factors of\nhuman advance.\"--THE TIMES.\n\n\"The main purpose of Mr. Trotter's book, which may be commended both for\nits logic and its circumspection, is to suggest that the science of\npsychology is not a mass of dreary and indefinite generalities, but if\nstudied in relation to other branches of biology, a guide in the actual\naffairs of life, enabling the human mind to foretell the course of human\naction.\"--DAILY TELEGRAPH.\n\n\n     Boy-Work: Exploitation or Training? By the Rev. SPENCER J. GIBB,\n     Author of \"The Problem of Boy-Work,\" etc. Large Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n8s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nMr. Spencer Gibb Is well known as a writer on the social and economic\nproblems which arise from the employment of boys. His new book, is a\nsystematic consideration of these problems, as the conclusion of the War\nhas left them, and of the remedies which are being proposed. It seeks to\nco-ordinate these reforms so as to lead to a solution of the problem.\nBut the book is of wider than merely economic and industrial interest.\nThe problem as Mr. Gibb sees it is not only one of boy-work, but of the\n_boy at work_. He therefore examines, with close analysis and\nsympathetic knowledge, the psychology and physiology of the boy at the\nage of entering upon work and in the succeeding years, and traces the\nreaction of working conditions, not only upon his economic future, but\nupon his character.\n\n\n     The Land and the Soldier. By FREDERICK C. HOWE, Author of \"The Only\n     Possible Peace,\" etc. Demy 8vo, cloth.\n\n8s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nThe author believes that this is the moment for extensive social and\nagricultural reconstruction: the large bodies of returning soldiers on\nthe outlook for work gives an unparalleled opportunity for experiment\ntoward this; and the war experience of the Government gained in\nfinancing and organising war industries and communities could be applied\nwith great advantage and effect. The plan is based on the organisation\nof farm colonies somewhat after the Danish models, not on reclaimed or\ndistant land, but upon land never properly cultivated, often near the\nlarge cities, and aims to connect with the communities thus formed the\nsocial advantages of, for instance, the garden villages of England. In\nfact, the author advances a broad and thoughtful programme, looking\ntoward an extensive agricultural and social organisation, and based upon\na long and careful study of experiments in this line in other times and\ncountries as well as here.\n\nIt is a book that no one concerned with reconstruction can afford to\nneglect.\n\n\n     The Only Possible Peace. By FREDERICK C. HOWE, Author of \"Privilege\n     and Democracy,\" \"The City,\" \"The Hope of Democracy,\" etc. Large\n     Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n7s. 6d. NET Inland Postage 6d.\n\nUnder modern industrial conditions it is conflicts springing from\neconomic forces that are mainly responsible for war forces that seek for\ncontrol of other people's lands, territories, trade resources, or the\nland and water ways which control such economic opportunities. Mr.\nHowe's work, keeping these essential points in view, is an attempt to\nshow how to anticipate and avoid war rather than how to provide means\nfor the arbitration of disputes after they have arisen. Mr. Howe, a\nwidely known student of economics and international questions, has here\nproduced a book of the highest importance.\n\n\n     Nationalities in Hungary. By ANDRE DE HEVESY. Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n6s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 4d.\n\nThis is a study of the many and various nationalities of which Hungary\nis composed, of their respective characters, and of the problems which\nconfront these nationalities. The author advocates a sort of United\nStates of Hungary, giving each nationality the fullest liberty of\ninternal self-determination. Included in the work is an ethnographical\nmap of Hungary which is of great assistance to the reader.\n\n\n     The New America. By FRANK DILNOT, Author of \"Lloyd George: the Man\n     and His Story,\" etc. Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n5s. 0d. NET Inland Postage 4d.\n\nThis volume presents in a series of short, vivacious sketches the\nimpressions made on a trained observer from England of life in the\nUnited States during 1917 and 1918. Manners, outlook and temperament are\ndealt with appreciatively, and there is a good-humored analysis of how\nAmericans eat, drink and amuse themselves. The chapters include \"The\nWomen of America,\" \"American Hustle and Humour,\" \"President Wilson at\nClose Quarters.\" There is an intimate character-sketch at first-hand of\nGeneral Rush C. Hawkins, who raised and commanded the New York Zouaves\nin the Civil War, with a narrative of some of his conversations with\nLincoln.\n\n\n     Home Rule Through Federal Devolution. By FREDERICK W. PIM. With an\n     Introduction by FREDERIC HARRISON. Paper covers.\n\n1s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 2d.\n\nThe author assumes that there is a general consensus that extensive\nmodifications of our existing legislative and administrative systems are\nurgently required, and that all indications seem to show that the\npresent time offers an exceptional opportunity for dealing with them. He\noffers federal devolution as the solution of the Irish question. Mr.\nFrederic Harrison makes a valuable contribution to the pamphlet.\n\n\n     Bye Paths in Curio Collecting. By ARTHUR HAYDEN, Author of \"Chats\n     on Old Clocks,\" \"Chats on Old Silver,\" etc. With a Frontispiece and\n     72 Full Page Illustrations. Demy 8vo, cloth.\n\n21s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nThe broad way of collecting is crowded with bargain-hunters. Competitors\nare keen and prices are high. All real collectors love peregrinations\ninto the unknown, and have often stumbled upon quaint and long-forgotten\nobjects which were once in everyday use, but are now relegated to the\nattic or the lumber-room. In furniture there are many objects not deemed\ndesirable by the fashionable collector; in porcelain and earthenware\nthere is still much that has not reached the noisy mart to be chaffered\nover as being rare. There are precious and beautiful things\ncomparatively unsought and unconsidered. Modernity has forgotten many\nby-gone necessities. The tinder-box with its endless varieties has not\nescaped studious attention but it has not come into the forefront of\ncollecting as has the ornate and bejewelled snuff-box with its more\nhighly attractive appearance. Old Playing-Cards, Old Fans, Silhouettes,\nPatch-Boxes, Snuffers, Old Keys, Old Chests and Coffers, Earrings, Brass\nTable-Bells, Carved Watch-Stands, Curious Teapots, Tea-Caddies and\nCaddy-Spoons, Tobacco-Boxes, Tobacco-Stoppers, have their appeal to\ncollectors who have specialised and have become experts--that is, have\nleft the highway of collecting and pursued a delightful search in the\nbye-paths. This volume deals with these, among other subjects.\n\nThe author has drawn upon his notebooks for twenty-five years, and has\nopened to the reader a wonderful storehouse of miscellaneous information\nilluminated with a gallery of photographic reproductions. As a pleasant\nguide in the bye-paths of collecting, Mr. Hayden will fascinate those\nreal collectors who love collecting for its own sake.\n\n\n     Shakespeare and the Welsh. By FREDERICK J. HARRIES. Demy 8vo,\n     cloth.\n\n15s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nThe author has dealt with his highly interesting subject in a manner\nboth critical and attractive. Not only has he examined Shakespeare's\nknowledge of Welsh characteristics through a study of his Welsh\ncharacters, but he has also collected much valuable information\nregarding the Celtic sources from which Shakespeare drew his materials.\nThe opportunities which probably presented themselves to the poet for\nstudying Welshmen at first hand are suggested, and an endeavour is made\nto arrive at an explanation of Shakespeare's singularly sympathetic\nattitude toward the Welsh nation. What will strike the general reader\nmost, perhaps, is the variety of topics which arise around Shakespeare's\nCeltic allusions, and a subject of great interest to the Welsh reader\nwill be the claim that Shakespeare was descended through his paternal\ngrandmother from the old Welsh kings. The claim is not a mere\nspeculative one, for a pedigree is given. The work is unique in many\nrespects, and should find a welcome not merely among Welshmen, but among\nall Shakespeare students.\n\n\n     My Commonplace Book. J.T. HACKETT. Dem 8vo, Cloth.\n\n12s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nThe title of this bock, it is needless to say, does not mean that the\ncontents are commonplace. It is a very rich collection of choice\nextracts from the verse and prose of famous writers, and writers who\ndeserve to be famous. Swinburne is particularly well represented, as is\nseldom the case in anthologies. The arrangement of the book and the\naccuracy of the matter have been the subject of careful consideration.\n\n\n     Some Greek Masterpieces in Dramatic and Bucolic Poetry Thought into\n     English Verse. By WILLIAM STEBBING, M.A., Hon. Fellow of Worcester\n     College, Oxford, and Fellow of King's College, London.\n\n7s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nThe author, who is a scholar, presents in this volume an English verse\nanthology of two departments in Greek poetry. Among the passages and\npoems which he has rendered are the charge against Olympus by\nPrometheus, the \"Hymn of the Furies,\" Iphigenia's appeals to her father\nand mother, \"Hue and Cry after Cupid,\" etc. To convey the poet's thought\nhas been the translator's purpose, and his versions are particularly\nintended for the reader who has classical tastes without having had a\nthorough classical education.\n\n\n     The Legend of Roncevaux. Adapted from \"La Chanson de Roland,\" by\n     SUSANNA H. ULOTH. With four illustrations by John Littlejohns,\n     R.B.A. Small 4to, cloth.\n\n5s. 0d. NET Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nOf all the legends circulating round the name of Charlemagne none is\nmore famous and popular than that of the Paladins Roland and Oliver. The\npoem known as \"La Chanson de Roland\" is the earliest epic in the French\nlanguage, dating in all probability from a period not long after the\nconquest of England by William of Normandy and before the first Crusade.\nMrs. Uloth has written a metrical and rhymed version of the most\nimportant part of the \"Chanson,\" namely, the story of the treachery\nwhich led to the battle of Roncevaux, and the thrilling series of\nencounters which terminated in the heroic death of Oliver and the lonely\nand mystical death of Roland. There are not many rivals in the field,\nand her work should, therefore, command a good deal of interest. It may\nbe added that Mr. John Littlejohns, who illustrates the work, has won a\nconsiderable reputation for originality and charm in drawing and\npainting.\n\n\n     The Collected Stories of Standish O'Grady. With an Introduction by\n     Ae. First 3 volumes now issued. Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n4s. 6d. NET EACH Inland Postage 6d.\n\nTHE CUCULAIN CYCLE.\n\n(1) The Coming of Cuculain.\n(2) In the Gates of the North.\n(3) The Triumph and Passing of Cuculain.\n\nThese three books contain the essential and most beautiful portions of\nMr. Standish O'Grady's \"Bardic History of Ireland,\" the work which\nproved to be the starting-point of Ireland's Literary Renaissance. That\nwork has long been unobtainable, and is now offered for the first time\nin a convenient and popular form, which will enable every reader to make\nthe acquaintance of the most striking figure in contemporary Anglo-Irish\nliterature. The debt which a generation of brilliant poets and\ndramatists owe to the author of these Cuculain stories has well been\ndescribed by one of his disciples, who wrote:--\n\n\"In the 'Bardic History of Ireland' he opened, with a heroic gesture,\nthe doors which revealed to us in Ireland the giant lord of the Red\nBranch Knights and the Fianna. Though a prose writer, he may be called\nthe last of the bards--a true comrade of Homer.\"\n\n\nA NEW VOLUME OF THE TALBOT LITERARY STUDIES.\n\nIrish Books and Irish People. By STEPHEN GWYNN, M.A. Crown 8vo, cloth\n\n4s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nWhatever Captain Gwynn writes is worth reading. He has a knowledge of\nthe literary value of Irish books, and the complex personality of Irish\npossessed by few present-day writers, and he imparts his knowledge with\nthat peculiar detached conviction of the hurler on the ditch. Whether\none accepts or rejects the opinions expressed, they are always worthy of\nconsideration, while the fine choice of language and beautiful literary\nstyle will well repay a second reading. Capt. Gwynn deals with such\nsubjects as Novels of Irish Life, A Century of Irish Humour, Literature\nAmong the Illiterates, Irish Education and Irish Character, Yesterday in\nIreland, etc., etc.\n\n\nTo Book Lovers.\n\nIf you would like to receive future issues of this catalogue you are\ninvited to send a post card to that effect to T. FISHER UNWIN, Ltd. 1,\nAdelphi Terrace, London, W.C.2.\n\n_Please write your name and full address clearly._\n\n\n     Swords and Flutes. Poems. By WILLIAM KEAN SEYMOUR. Crown 8vo,\n     cloth. 4s. net.\n\n4s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage, 3d.\n\nWHAT THE CRITICS SAY OF MR. SEYMOUR'S WORK.\n\n\"We recognise not so much audacity of experiment as a sound loyalty to\nthe best standards of the past, and an almost acute appreciation of\nbeauty both of vision and form.... Mr. Seymour's poetry is full of rich\nand multi-coloured pageantry, a sheer delight to the eye and\nimagination.\"--THE BOOKMAN.\n\n\"Mr. Seymour's verse is full of a haunting, fugitive sense of beauty,\nand owes allegiance to a school of lyric craftsmanship which is rapidly\nfalling out of date. But it is something more than this. Mr. Seymour\nbelieves that poetry should not only beautify, but interpret\nlife.\"--DAILY TELEGRAPH.\n\n\n     \"The Measure\" and \"Down Stream.\" Two Plays. By GRAHAM RAWSON,\n     Author of \"Stroke of Marbot,\" etc. Crown 8vo. Paper Cover.\n\n4s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 3d.\n\n\"The Measure\" is an amusing comedy of contemporary life, in a prologue\nand two acts, dealing with the adventures of two bachelors who become\nentangled in a family containing three daughters.\n\n\"Down Stream\" is a one-act play whose action takes place in a\nsupposititious country in South-Eastern Europe, where the King traps one\nof his Ministers neatly, and then deals with him in an unexpected\nfashion.\n\nOf Mr. Rawson's previous volume (\"The Stroke of Marbot,\" Fisher Unwin,\n1917) the _Times_ said: \"They are effective plays which should act well,\nand the stage directions are so given as to make them quite good reading\nfor the study.\"\n\n\nLATEST ADDITION TO THE TALBOT PRESS BOOKLETS\n\n     The Spoiled Buddha. An Eastern Play in two Acts. By HELEN WADDELL.\n     Paper Covers.\n\n1s. 0d. NET Inland Postage 3d.\n\nThe play is about the Buddha, in the days before he became a god; and\nabout Binzuru, who was his favourite disciple, and who might have become\neven as the Buddha, only that he saw a woman passing by, and desired her\nbeauty and so fell from grace.\n\n\n     Songs of the Island Queen. By PEADAR MacTOMAIS. Paper Covers.\n\n1s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 3d.\n\n     \"Those are songs of a dreamer of Eire,\n     A scion of a race that is old\n       --Of a race that is strong,\n     A people begotten of freemen,\n       Rocked on the cradle of song.\"\n\n\n     West African Forests and Forestry. By A. HAROLD UNWIN, D.Oec.,\n     M.Can.S.F.E. Author of \"Future Forest Trees.\" With upwards of 150\n     Illustrations. Cloth. (Spring, 1920.)\n\nL3 3s. NET. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nThe author, late Senior Conservator of Forestry in Nigeria, having spent\neleven years in West Africa in forestry work, has had exceptional\nexperience. He starts by dealing in general with West African forests,\nthen successively in geographical order, with the trees and forests of\nGambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Ivory and Gold Coasts, Togo, Nigeria,\nand the British Sphere of the Cameroons. He supplies notes on timber\ntrees both for export and local use, and gives throughout the botanical\nand vernacular names of indigenous trees. Dr. Unwin has also chapters on\nthe oil beans, seeds and nuts of the West African forests; on the oil\npalm and palm kernel industry, and the question of the forest in\nrelation to agriculture. The work is an elaborate one, marked by\nsingular thoroughness in its execution.\n\n\n     Collected Fruits of Occult Teaching. By A. P. SINNETT. Demy 8vo,\n     cloth. (Spring, 1920.)\n\n15s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage. 6d.\n\nMr. Sinnett, who is one of the leading lights of Theosophy and one of\nthe ablest exponents of reincarnation and the science of the evolution\nof races, embodies in this work the deeply interesting information\nwhich, as an occultist, he states he has derived about the human soul,\nits hereafter and other matters.\n\nMuch of the work is due to the teaching of the occult master with whom\nMr. Sinnett claims to be in touch. It cannot be doubted that even the\nmost sceptical reader will be thrilled and impressed by more than one of\nthe chapters of this remarkable and fascinating book.\n\n\n     The Religion of a Doctor. By THOMAS BODLEY SCOTT, M.D., Author of\n     \"The Road to a Healthy Old Age.\" Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n5s. 0d. NET Inland Postage 4d.\n\nDr. Scott, who is well known for his skill as a physician, offers here a\nsort of modern companion to the famous \"Religio Medici.\" The essays in\nthis interesting volume enable the reader to view the spiritual side of\na contemplative man of science of our day.\n\n\n     Revelations of Monte Carlo Roulette. By J. COUSINS LAWRENCE. Crown\n     8vo, cloth. (Spring, 1920.)\n\n3s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage, 4d.\n\nMr. Lawrence has had an extensive experience in studying roulette\nplaying at Monte Carlo, and the result is an accumulation of evidence\nsupporting his accusation of unfair control on the part of the bank in\nthe notorious Casino. The book is a full and descriptive account of the\nmethods of croupiers in dealing with players, of the observation\nmaintained by the officials over both croupiers and the players. The\nwork is full of typical incidents, tragic and amusing, observed on the\nspot.\n\n\n     Blind Alley. By W. L. GEORGE. Author of \"The Second Blooming,\" etc.\n     Crown 8vo. (Second Impression.)\n\n9s. 0d. NET Inland Postage 6d.\n\n\"A powerful piece of work, and is at once a protest against the\nexploitation of youth by age and an attempted demonstration that war and\nall its activities are spiritual blind alleys from which we merely have\nto grope back to the position from which we started.\"--PALL MALL\nGAZETTE.\n\n\"It is an indictment in detail, a display of follies and festivities, a\nprotest against the past stifling the future, a stirring of muddy\ndepths.\"--MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.\n\n\"It strikes us being so far its author's high watermark.\"--DAILY\nCHRONICLE.\n\n\"We ate tempted to say that 'Blind Alley' is the greatest character\nstudy of the influence of the war we have read.\"--LADIES' FIELD.\n\n\n     Pink Roses. By GILBERT CANNAN. Author of \"Mendel,\" \"The Stucco\n     House,\" etc. Crown 8vo, cloth. (Second Impression.)\n\n7s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\n\"Character and atmosphere are the qualities of Mr. Gilbert Cannan's new\nnovel, and they revel through its pages like a riot of pink roses....\nRuth Hobday symbolises the new generation, who have learnt in suffering\nwhat they will realise in joy. Mr. Cannan has done nothing better than\nthe portrait of this splendid type of young womanhood. Indeed, we are\ninclined to doubt if he has ever done anything as good.\"--DAILY\nTELEGRAPH.\n\n\n     The Candidate's Progress. By J. A. FARRER. Crown 8vo, cloth, with a\n     picture wrapper.\n\n7s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nThis is a jeu d'esprit, a political skit which pokes fun pretty evenly\nat all parties, especially at so-called democratic representation as\nexemplified by a parliamentary election conducted largely by the cynical\nwiles of the election agent.\n\nThe Candidate (a Conservative), who tells the story in the first person,\nmeets all the local elite and has patiently to listen to crusted\nToryism; he gets heavy orthodox support from the Bishop and the Church,\nand is involved in expensive experiences in competing in philanthropy\nwith the Liberal candidate. He finds it necessary to take elocution\nlessons; eventually, after incredible exertions, he gets in by five\nvotes--but this is only part of an extravaganza which has the great\nmerit of being founded largely on fact and the observation of a\npolitical expert who is also a master of irony.\n\n\n     Pirates of the Spring: A Novel. By FORREST REID. Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n7s. 0d. NET Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nMr. Forrest Reid is one of those careful craftsmen who are not convinced\nof the absolute necessity of producing one or two full-length novels\nevery year. Mr. Reid has always an interesting story to tell, and he is\na master of style, tender and sensitive, yet powerfully effective.\n\"Pirates of the Spring\" is a fine example of Mr. Reid's work which will\ncertainly enhance his literary reputation amongst discriminating readers\nwho appreciate a good story well told.\n\n\n     By Strange Paths: A Novel. By ANNIE M. P. SMITHSON. Crown 8vo,\n     cloth.\n\n6s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\nMiss Smithson's former novel, \"Her Irish Heritage,\" achieved a success\nseldom accorded to first ventures, and \"By Strange Paths\" is certain to\nbe equally popular. Miss Smithson is a nurse by profession, and her\npictures of the unseen side of hospital life are drawn with the sure\ntouch of knowledge and experience. Her characters are familiar because\nthey are real, and the human notes of gladness and sadness run through\nthe story as \"a melody in tune.\"\n\n\n     Tales That Were Told. By SEUMAS MACMANUS. Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n6s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nThese are stories that are truly different real Irish folk tales, with\nthe scent of the turf smoke still on them, and qualities of humanness,\nfancy and humour which make them of irresistible appeal. A delightful\nbook for young and old, written with that touch of genius which brought\na poor Donegal schoolmaster into the front rank of Irish authors.\n\n\n     The Whale and the Grasshopper. By SEUMAS J. O'BRIEN. With\n     frontispiece and cover design by JOHN KEATINGS, A.R.H.A. Crown 8vo,\n     cloth.\n\n3s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 4d.\n\nA curious title of a curious book of curious stories that a curious\nreader will simply revel in.\n\nMr. Seumas O'Brien is one of the younger school of Irish writers who has\ntaken American readers by storm, and this unique collection of short\nstories comes to us by way of Boston and Dublin. Regarding the stories,\nthe \"Boston Transcript\" says:--\n\n\"One new short stories writer has appeared this year whose published\nstories open a new field to fiction and have a human richness of feeling\nand imagination rare in our sophisticated literature. In Seumas O'Brien\nI believe that America has found a new humorist of popular sympathies, a\nrare observer and philosopher whose very absurdities have a persuasive\nphilosophy of their own.\"\n\n\n_FIRST POPULAR EDITION._\n\nGREATHEART\n\nBy ETHEL M. DELL.\n\nCrown 8vo, cloth. With a Striking Picture Wrapper, printed in three\ncolours. (Fifth Impression.)\n\n3s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\n\"We think Miss Dell's many admirers will consider her present novel the\nbest she has written.\"--PALL MALL GAZETTE.\n\n\"Miss Dell's huge circle of admirers will revel in this latest example\nof her skill in incident and plot. It goes with an unfaltering swing\nfrom start to finish.\"--SHEFFIELD TELEGRAPH.\n\n\"The novel is full of tense situations and highly wrought emotions.\nWhoever begins it will not put it down until it is finished.\"--THE\nSCOTSMAN.\n\n\nA NEW POPULAR EDITION OF THE SEQUEL TO \"THE SHULAMITE.\"\n\nTHE WOMAN DEBORAH By ALICE AND CLAUDE ASKEW.\n\nNew Impression, Re-set. Crown 8vo, cloth, with a Striking Picture\nWrapper, printed in three colours.\n\n3s. 6d. NET Inland Postage 6d.\n\nAlice and Claude Askew's South African Novel, \"The Shulamite,\" is one of\nthe most popular of successful novels. The sequel, \"The Woman\nDeborah\"--an equally striking piece of work--has long been unobtainable.\nThis new impression will find many new readers for both books.\n\n\n     Town Planning in Practice: An Introduction to the Art of Designing\n     Cities and Suburbs. By RAYMOND UNWIN. With many Illustrations, Maps\n     and Plans. Crown 4to, cloth. (Sixth Impression.)\n\n31s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\n\"Few men in England have had so much experience of town-planning as Mr.\nUnwin has had.... His is the first English handbook on the subject....\nIt is not too technical for the general reader, and it deserves a wide\npublic.\"--MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.\n\n\n     The Evolution of Modern Germany. New and revised edition. By W.\n     HARBUTT DAWSON. Demy 8vo, cloth.\n\n21s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\n\"A book so well known needs no recommendation, and those who have the\nearlier edition will assuredly desire to get the new one. It is\nessential as a work of reference.\"--THE NEW WORLD.\n\n\n     Richard Cobden: The International Man. By J. A. HOBSON. With a\n     Photogravure Frontispiece, and 8 other Illustrations. Demy 8vo,\n     cloth. (Second Impression.)\n\n21s. 0d. NET Inland Postage, 6d.\n\n\"Mr. Hobson has produced one of those rare books which it is difficult\nto read through, because they are too interesting. It continually lures\none into reflection; one puts it down on one's knees and wanders away\nstraight out of the text down some pleasant (and sometimes unpleasant)\npath of speculation.... Almost every page testifies to Cobden's\nsoundness of judgment in the sphere of international policy.\"--NEW\nSTATESMAN.\n\n\n     Tropic Days. By E. J. BANFIELD, Author of \"The Confessions of a\n     Beachcombe,\" etc. With Illustrations. Demy 8vo, cloth. (Second\n     Impression.)\n\n16s. 0d. NET Inland Postage, 6d.\n\n\"The plant and bird life of a tiny Pacific island are described with\ncare and charm, and in a number of revealing chapters the characters and\nhabits of the very primitive natives who are Mr. Banfield's neighbours\nare explained. To the naturalist the abundant illustrations of rare\ngrowths will be a treasure.\"--THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.\n\n\n     Shakespeare's Workmanship. By SIR ARTHUR QUILLER-COUCH, M.A.,\n     Litt.D., King Edward VII. Professor of English Literature in the\n     University of Cambridge. Demy 8vo, cloth. (Third Impression.)\n\n15s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\n\"Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's analysis of Shakespeare's craftsmanship goes\ndirect to the principles of dramatic construction; and if ever the\npoetic drama seriously revives in England it is more than likely that\nthis book will be found to have had a hand in the revival.\"--WESTMINSTER\nGAZETTE.\n\n\n     The Soul of Denmark, By SHAW DESMOND. Demy 8vo, cloth. (Third\n     Impression.)\n\n15s. 0d. NET Inland Postage 6d.\n\n\"This book is the result of nearly four years' residence in Denmark; and\nconveys a full and intimate picture of the Dane and his life as he\nimpressed the author.\"--THE TIMES.\n\n\n     Old and New Masters. By Robert Lynd. Demy 8vo, cloth. (Second\n     Impression.)\n\n12s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\n\"A book of essays full of charm, insight and sympathy, and of the\ntransmitted enthusiasm that is the basis of all good criticism.\"--DAILY\nNEWS.\n\n\"This is a fascinating volume, and has the right quality of literary\ncriticism.\"--SUNDAY TIMES.\n\n\n     Through Lapland with Skis and Reindeer. By FRANK HEDGES BUTLER,\n     F.R.G.S. With 4 Maps and 65 Illustrations Demy 8vo, cloth. (Third\n     Impression, Re-set.)\n\n12s. 6d. NET. EACH. Inland Postage 6d.\n\n\"It is at once a fascinating story of travel, a practical guide book,\nand a storehouse of interesting information on the manners, customs, and\nfolklore of a little-known people.\"--WORLD'S WORK.\n\n\n     Uncensored Celebrities. By E.T. RAYMOND Large Crown 8vo, cloth,\n     (Fourth Impression.)\n\n10s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\n\"Some exceedingly frank portraits of public men are contained in a book\nwith the curious title of 'Uncensored Celebrities,' which Messrs. Fisher\nUnwin publish. The author, Mr. E. T. Raymond, is mercilessly careful to\nexplain in his preface that the work is 'not meant for the\nhero-worshipper.\"--EVENING STANDARD.\n\n\"No book of personal studies of recent years has given so much food for\nthought, and in spite of its frankness it is always fair. Mr. Raymond\nhas succeeded in revealing men without taking sides.... Here we have\nclear vision, sane opinion, and a very useful sense of humour, not\nalways free from acid.\"--NATIONAL NEWS.\n\n\n     A Short History of France. By MARY DUCLAUX. With 4 Maps. Demy 8vo,\n     cloth. (Fourth Impression.)\n\n10s. 6d. NET Inland Postage 6d.\n\n\"Mme. Duclaux is a true literary artist; and no one, we venture to say,\neven among the writers of her adopted nation, the home of brilliant\nliterature, was better fitted for the exact task she has here set\nherself and so charmingly fulfilled.... One of the chief merits of the\nbook, which makes it valuable for all persons, and they are legion in\nthese days, who wish really to understand France, is Mme. Duclaux's\npenetrating knowledge of the French character.\"--THE SPECTATOR.\n\n\n     The Wonders of Instinct: Chapters in the Psychology of Insects. By\n     J. H. FABRE. Translated by ALEXANDER TEIXERA DE MATTOS and BERNARD\n     MIALL. With 16 Illustrations. Demy 8vo, cloth. (Third Impression.)\n\n10s. 6d. NET. 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Full of thought, but fuller yet of\na subtle humorousness which is not Addison's or Lamb's, but something as\nseparate and almost as attractive.\"--THE SPECTATOR.\n\nList of Volumes:\n\nARCADY: FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE.\nBEFORE THE GREAT PILLAGE.\nTHE COMING OF THE FRIARS.\nRANDOM ROAMING, AND OTHER PAPERS.\nSTUDIES BY A RECLUSE.\nTHE TRIALS OF A COUNTRY PARSON.\n\n\n     Dreams, By OLIVE SCHREINER, Author of \"Woman and Labour,\" \"The\n     Story of an African Farm,\" etc. Crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n3s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 4d.\n\n\"Written in exquisite prose they have the essential qualities of poetry,\nand are, indeed, poems in prose.\"--ATHENAEUM.\n\n\"The book is distinctly one of genius.\"--BRITISH WEEKLY.\n\n\n     \"Stops,\" or, How to Punctuate, a Practical Handbook for Writers and\n     Students. By PAUL ALLARDYCE. (Eighteenth Impression.) Cloth.\n\n2s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 3d.\n\n\"A boon to authors, journalists, printers, teachers, and all whose\noccupations bring them into contact with printing and\nwriting.\"--PITMAN'S PHONETIC JOURNAL.\n\n\n     The Irish Song Book. With Original Irish Airs. Edited by ALFRED\n     PERCEVAL GRAVES. Paper covers. (Thirteenth Impression.)\n\n2s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage 3d.\n\n\"A collection of national airs, untrimmed, unadorned, unaccompanied,\nfresh with the fragrant lyrical poesie of a people who honoured their\nbards as they honoured their kings.\"--CAMBRIDGE MAGAZINE.\n\n\n     The Life of Lamartine. By H. REMSEN WHITEHOUSE. With many\n     Illustrations. Two volumes. Demy 8vo, cloth.\n\n42s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage, 8d.\n\n\n     Vagabonding Down the Andes. By HARRY A. FRANCK, Author of \"A\n     Vagabond Journey Around the World,\" etc. With a Map and 176\n     Illustrations. Demy 8vo, cloth. (Second Impres.)\n\n25s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage, 6d.\n\n\n     Public Speaking and Debate. A Manual for Advocates and Agitators.\n     By GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE. Crown 8vo, cloth. (Fifteenth Impression.)\n\n2s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage, 3d.\n\n\"It is eminently readable; full of good advice to public speakers and\ndebaters, and rich in capital stories.\"--THE NEW AGE.\n\n\"To the aspiring young orator this is a most practical and informing\nwork.\"--REYNOLD'S NEWSPAPER.\n\n\n     _WESSELY'S DICTIONARIES._ Pocket Size (6-1/4 by 4-1/4 inches).\n     Cloth, 4s. net each.\n\n4s. 0d. NET. EACH. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nWessely's Dictionaries are not only convenient in size, low in price,\nand thoroughly up-to-date, but also remarkably complete. They are not\nmere dictionaries of technical terms, or of conversational phrases, but\ncombine the advantages of both; and they also contain useful lists of\ngeographical and Christian names which differ according to the\nlanguages, and tables showing the conjugation of irregular verbs. The\ntype is very clear, and in all respects the dictionaries are admirably\nadapted to the needs both of students and of travellers.\n\n\nLIST OF VOLUMES.\n\nEnglish-French and French-English Dictionary.\nEnglish-German and German-English Dictionary.\nEnglish-Italian and Italian-English Dictionary.\nEnglish-Spanish and Spanish-English Dictionary.\nEnglish-Swedish and Swedish-English Dictionary.\nLatin-English and English-Latin Dictionary.\n\n\n     Spanish America: Its Romance, Reality and Future. By C. R. ENOCK,\n     Author of \"The Andes and the Amazon,\" \"Peru,\" \"Mexico,\" \"Ecuador.\"\n     Illustrated and with Map. 2 vols. Demy 8vo, cloth. (Spring, 1920.)\n\n30s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage. 9d.\n\nStarting with the various States of Central America, Mr. Enock then\ndescribes ancient and modern Mexico, then takes the reader successively\nalong the Pacific Coast, the Cordillera of the Andes, enters the land of\nthe Spanish Main, conducts the reader along the Amazon Valley, gives a\nspecial chapter to Brazil and another to the River Plate and Pampas.\nThus all the States of Central and South America are covered. The work\nis topographical, descriptive, and historical; it describes the people\nand the cities, the flora and fauna, the varied resources of South\nAmerica, its trade, railways, its characteristics generally, and\nsuggests the possible future of this vast, and, as yet, it may be almost\nsaid, unexplored region with its infinitude of opportunities for\nenterprise. Mr. Enock has written several volumes in the \"South American\nSeries\"; he is one of the best-known and most authoritative writers on\nSouth America. Here he has written a volume which is not only most\nvaluably informative, but in such a manner as to form entertaining\nreading for all classes of readers.\n\n\n     _THE SOUTH AMERICAN SERIES._ Illustrated. Demy 8vo, cloth.\n\n15s. 0d. NET. EACH Inland Postage. 6d.\n\n1. CHILE. By G. F. Scott Elliott, F.R.G.S. (5th Impression.)\n\n2. PERU. By C. Reginald Enock, F.R.G.S. (4th Impression.)\n\n3. MEXICO. By C. Reginald Enock. F.R.G.S. (5th Impression.)\n\n4. ARGENTINA. By W. A. Hirst. (5th Impression.)\n\n5. BRAZIL. By Pierre Denis. (3rd Impression.)\n\n6. URUGUAY. By W. H. Koebel. (3rd Impression.)\n\n7. GUIANA: British, French and Dutch. By James Rodway.\n\n8. VENEZUELA. By Leonard V. Dalton, B.Sc. (3rd Impression.)\n\n9. LATIN AMERICA: Its Rise and Progress. By F. Garcia Calderon. With a\nPreface by Raymond Poincare, President of France. (5th Impression.)\n\n10. COLOMBIA. By Phanor J. Eder, A.B., LL.B. (3rd Impression.)\n\n11. ECUADOR. By C. Reginald Enock. F.R.G.S. (2nd Impression.)\n\n12. BOLIVIA. By Paul Walle.\n\n13. PARAGUAY. By W. H. Koebel. (2nd Impression.)\n\n14. CENTRAL AMERICA. By W. H. Koebel.\n\n\n     _THE STORY OF THE NATIONS._\n\nWith Maps and many other Illustrations. Large crown 8vo, cloth.\n\nNEW AND REVISED EDITION.\n\n7s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\n\n     Japan. By DAVID MURRAY, Ph.D., LL.D. with a new chapter on Japan as\n     a Great Power, by JOSEPH LONGFORD, B.A., Emeritus Professor of\n     Japanese, King's College, London, and 35 Illustrations and Maps.\n\nEdition\n\n9th  1. Rome.\n8th  2. The Jews.\n9th  3. Germany.\n7th  4. Carthage.\n8th  5. Alexander's Empire.\n9th  6. The Moors in Spain.\n10th 7. Ancient Egypt.\n7th  8. Hungary.\n6th  9. The Saracens.\n6th 10. Ireland.\n7th 11. Chaldea.\n4th 12. The Goths.\n6th 13. Assyria.\n5th 14. Turkey.\n5th 15. Holland.\n6th 16. Mediaeval France.\n4th 17. Persia.\n4th 18. Phoenicia.\n4th 19. Media.\n3rd 20. The Hansa Towns.\n6th 21. Early Britain.\n4th 22. The Barbary Corsairs.\n6th 23. Russia.\n4th 24. The Jews under the Romans.\n5th 25. Scotland.\n3rd 26. Switzerland.\n3rd 27. Mexico.\n3rd 28. Portugal.\n3rd 29. The Normans.\n3rd 30. The Byzantine Empire.\n3rd 31. Sicily: Phoenician, Greek and Roman.\n2nd 32. The Tuscan Republic.\n3rd 33. Poland.\n3rd 34. Parthia.\n5th 35. The Australian Commonwealth.\n3rd 36. Spain.\n6th 37. Japan.\n8th 38. South Africa.\n5th 39. Venice.\n3rd 40. The Crusades.\n3rd 41. Vedic India.\n3rd 42. The West Indies and the Spanish Main.\n2nd 43. Bohemia.\n3rd 44. The Balkans.\n3rd 45. Canada.\n4th 46. British India.\n2nd 47. Modern France.\n2nd 48. The Franks.\n2nd 49. Austria.\n2nd 50. Modern England before the Reform Bill.\n3rd 51. China.\n3rd 52. Modern England from the Reform Bill to the\n        Death of Queen Victoria.\n2nd 53. Modern Spain.\n2nd 54. Modern Italy.\n2nd 55. Norway.\n4th 56. Wales.\n2nd 57. Mediaeval Rome.\n2nd 58. The Papal Monarchy.\n4th 59. Mediaeval India under Mohammedan Rule.\n1st 60. Parliamentary England.\n3rd 61. Buddhist India.\n2nd 62. Mediaeval England.\n1st 63. The Coming of Parliament.\n2nd 64. The Story of Greece from the Earliest Times to A.D. 14.\n2nd 65. The Roman Empire.\n    66. Denmark Sweden.\n\n\n_THE \"CHATS\" SERIES._ PRACTICAL GUIDES FOR COLLECTORS, With\nFrontispieces and many Illustrations. Large crown 8vo, cloth. NEW\nVOLUME.\n\n     Chats on Royal Copenhagen Porcelain: Its History and Development\n     from the 18th Century to the Present Day. By ARTHUR HAYDEN, Author\n     of \"Chats on English Earthenware,\" etc. With 56 Illustrations.\n     Large crown 8vo, cloth.\n\n10s. 6d. NET. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nThe above volume has been condensed from the author's edition deluxe,\npublished a few years ago, concerning which the \"Pall Mall Gazette\"\nsaid: \"No book on ceramics has been awaited with so much interest by\ncollectors as Mr. Arthur Hayden's work on 'Royal Copenhagen Porcelain.'\nHayden has handled this eventful history with the skill of the practised\nwriter, the enthusiasm of the collector, and the method of the curator.\"\nIn presenting it in a cheaper edition, although, naturally, many of the\nillustrations have been omitted, there is remaining a gallery of\nexamples richly illuminating the subject. In the letterpress nothing has\nbeen omitted which is of importance. The full tables of marks which\nappeared in the first edition are here reproduced. There is no other\nvolume on the subject, and, therefore, to all who are interested in\nCopenhagen porcelain, now considered to be the leading factory in\nEurope, this volume is indispensable.\n\nAn additional chapter deals with Copenhagen Faience, which has qualities\nof its own appealing to connoisseurs.\n\n\nNEW IMPRESSIONS IN PREPARATION.\n\n10s. 6d. NET EACH. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nChats on English China. By ARTHUR HAYDEN. (6th Impression.)\nChats on Old Silver. By ARTHUR HAYDEN. (2nd Impression.)\nChats on Old Prints. By ARTHUR HAYDEN. (4th Impression.)\nChats on Costume. By G. WOOLLISCROFT RHEAD. (2nd Impression.)\nChats on Pewter. By H. J. L. J. MASSE, M.A. (2nd Impression.)\nChats on Old Lace and Needlework. By Mrs. LOWES. (3rd Impression.)\nChats on Postage Stamps. By FRED. J. MELVILLE.\nChats on Old Coins. By FRED. W. BURGESS. (2nd Impression.)\nChats on Oriental China. By J. F. BLACKER. (3rd Impression.)\nChats on English Earthenware. By ARTHUR HAYDEN. (3rd Impression.)\n\n\nOTHER VOLUMES\n\n6s. 0d. NET. EACH. Inland Postage 6d.\n\nChats on Old Furniture. By ARTHUR HAYDEN. (5th Impression.)\nChats on Old Miniatures. By J. J. FOSTER, F.S.A.\nChats on Autographs. By A. M. BROADLEY.\nChats on Old Jewellery and Trinkets. By MACIVER PERCIVAL.\nChats on Cottage and Farmhouse Furniture. By ARTHUR HAYDEN.\nChats on Old Copper and Brass. By FRED. W. BURGESS.\nChats on Household Curios. By FRED. W. BURGESS.\nChats on Japanese Prints. By A. DAVISON FICKE.\nChats on Military Curios. By STANLEY C. JOHNSON, M.A.\nChats On Old Clocks. By ARTHUR HAYDEN.\n\n\n_THE MERMAID SERIES._\n\nThe Best Plays of the Old Dramatists, Literal Reproductions of the Old\nText.\n\nWith Photogravure Frontispieces. Thin Paper Edition.\n\n5s. 0d. NET EACH. CLOTH\n\n7s. 6d. NET EACH LEATHER. Inland Postage 4d.\n\n\n     BEAUMONT. The Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher. Introduction and\n     Notes by J. St. LOE STRACHEY. 2 vols.\n\n     CHAPMAN. The Plays of George Chapman. Edited by William Lyon\n     Phelps, Instructor in English Literature at Yale College.\n\n     CONGREVE. The Complete Plays of William Congreve. Edited by Alex C.\n     Ewald.\n\n     DEKKER. The Best Plays of Thomas Dekker. Notes by Ernest Rhys.\n\n     DRYDEN. The Best Plays of John Dryden. Edited by George Saintsbury.\n     2 vols.\n\n     FARQUHAR. The Best Plays of George Farquhar. Edited, and with an\n     Introduction, by William Archer.\n\n     FLETCHER. See Beaumont.\n\n     FORD. The Best Plays of John Ford. Edited by Havelock Ellis.\n\n     GREENE. The Complete Plays of Robert Greene. Edited with\n     Introduction and Notes by Thomas H. Dickinson.\n\n     HEYWOOD. The Best Plays of Thomas Heywood. Edited by A. W. Verity.\n     With Introduction by J. A. Symonds.\n\n     JONSON. The Best Plays of Ben Jonson. Edited, with Introduction and\n     Notes, by Brindsley Nicholson and C. H. Herford. 3 vols.\n\n     MARLOWE. The Best Plays of Christopher Marlowe. Edited, with\n     Critical Memoir and Notes, by Havelock Ellis; and containing a\n     General Introduction to the Series by John Addington Symonds.\n\n     MASSINGER. The Best Plays of Phillip Massinger. With Critical and\n     Biographical Essay and Notes by Arthur Symons. 2 vols.\n\n     MIDDLETON. The Best Plays of Thomas Middleton. With an Introduction\n     by Algernon Charles Swinburne. 2 vols.\n\n     Nero, and Other Plays. Edited by H. P. Horne, Arthur Symons, A. W.\n     Verity, and H. Ellis.\n\n     OTWAY. The Best Plays of Thomas Otway. Introduction and Notes by\n     the Hon. Roden Noel.\n\n     SHADWELL. The Best Plays of Thomas Shadwell. Edited by George\n     Saintsbury.\n\n     SHIRLEY. The Best Plays of James Shirley. With Introduction by\n     Edmund Gosse.\n\n     STEELE. The Complete Plays of Richard Steele. Edited, with\n     Introduction and Notes, by G. A. Aitken.\n\n     TOURNEUR. See Webster.\n\n     VANBURGH. The Select Plays of Sir John Vanburgh. Edited, with an\n     Introduction and Notes, by A. E. H. Swain.\n\n     WEBSTER. The Best Plays of Webster and Tourneur. With an\n     Introduction and Notes by John Addington Symonds.\n\n     WYCHERLEY. The Complete Plays of William Wycherley. Edited, with an\n     Introduction and Notes, by W. C. Ward.\n\n\n_WORKS BY ROBERT W. SERVICE._\n\nRhymes of a Red Cross Man. 4th impression.\n\nCLOTH 4s. 6d. NET EACH. Inland Postage 4d.\n\n\"It is the great merit of Mr. Service's verses that they are literally\nalive with the stress and joy and agony and hardship that make up life\nout in the battle zone. He has never written better than in this book,\nand that is saying a great deal.\"--BOOKMAN.\n\nSongs of a Sourdough. 33rd Impression.\n\nBallads of a Cheechako. 12th Impression.\n\nRhymes of a Rolling Stone. 11th Impression.\n\n\"Mr. Robert Service is, we suppose, one of the most popular verse\nwriters in the world. His swinging measures, his robust ballads of the\noutposts, his joy of living, have fairly caught the ear of his\ncountrymen.\"--THE SPECTATOR.\n\n\"Of the Canadian disciples of Kipling, by far the best is R. W. Service.\nHis 'Songs of a Sourdough' have run through many editions. Much of his\nverse has a touch of real originality, conveying as it does a just\nimpression of the something evil and askew in the strange, uncouth\nwilderness of the High North.\"--THE TIMES.\n\n\n_THE IRISH ARTEMAS._\n\n     The Book of the Land of Ire: Being a record of those things that\n     were done by the Men of Ire when the Men of Hun made war on the\n     earth. By ALPHEO that is an humble disciple and brother scribe of\n     one Artemas. Post 8vo. With specially designed cover.\n\n1s. 0d. NET. Inland Postage, 2d.\n\nAlpheo is no respecter of persons, and his keen shafts of wit fly north\nand south, east and west, to find their mark in the camp of the\nCarsonite, in the inner room of the Sinn Feiner, in the Wait and See\nCabinet of Downing Street, and in the secret places of Tammany.\n\n     \"Yet malice never was his aim,\n     He lashed the vice but spared the name.\n     No individual could resent\n     Where thousands equally were meant.\"\n\nA book of genuine wit and humour which is sure to be as much appreciated\nas \"The Book of Artemas.\"\n\n\nPRESENTATION EDITION\n\nof the Novels of\n\nETHEL M. DELL\n\n_Seven volumes, Crown 8vo, bound uniform in Cloth gilt, complete in a\nhandsome box._\n\n25s. 0d. NET. The set.\n\n     _NOTE._--The volumes are also included in THE ADELPHI LIBRARY of\n     Standard Novels, and sold separately, bound in cloth at 3/6 net\n     each.\n\n_List of Novels included in this Presentation Edition._\n\nThe Way of an Eagle.\nThe Knave of Diamonds.\nThe Rocks of Valpre\nThe Swindler, and other stories.\nThe Keeper of the Door.\nThe Safety Curtain, and other stories.\nGreatheart.\n\n     _IMPORTANT._--It is advisable to place your order for this\n     presentation edition without delay, otherwise delivery cannot be\n     guaranteed.\n\nT. FISHER UNWIN, LTD., 1, ADELPHI TERRACE, LONDON.\n\n\nUNWIN'S POCKET NOVELS.\n\n_Neatly Bound_ 2/- _net_ _Picture Wrapper_\n\n 1 THE WAY OF AN EAGLE                 By ETHEL M. DELL\n 5 THE KNAVE OF DIAMONDS               By ETHEL M. DELL\n16 MY LADY OF THE CHIMNEY CORNER    By ALEXANDER IRVINE\n22 RICROFT OF WITHENS            By HALLIWELL SUTCLIFFE\n23 THE VULTURE'S PREY           By H. DE VERE STACPOOLE\n31 ARUNDEL                              By E. F. BENSON\n33 EXILE                               By DOLF WYLLARDE\n35 CARNIVAL (abridged edition)     By COMPTON MACKENZIE\n44 GUY AND PAULINE                 By COMPTON MACKENZIE\n45 THE PASSIONATE ELOPEMENT        By COMPTON MACKENZIE\n46 THROUGH SORROWS GATES         By HALLIWELL SUTCLIFFE\n47 SHAMELESS WAYNE               By HALLIWELL SUTCLIFFE\n\n\n1/9 _net_\n\n 2 M'GLUSKY THE REFORMER                 By A. G. HALES\n 3 THE TRAIL OF '98                By ROBERT W. SERVICE\n 4 ANN VERONICA                          By H. G. WELLS\n 6 THE BEETLE                          By RICHARD MARSH\n 7 ALMAYER'S FOLLY                     By JOSEPH CONRAD\n 8 THE SHULAMITE                By ALICE & CLAUDE ASKEW\n 9 NEW CHRONICLES OF DON Q.    By K. & HESKETH PRICHARD\n11 THE CAMERA FIEND                    By E. W. HORNUNG\n12 MONTE CARLO                By MRS. DE VERE STACPOOLE\n13 CALLED BACK                           By HUGH CONWAY\n14 THE STICKIT MINISTER               By S. R. CROCKETT\n15 THE CRIMSON AZALEAS          By H. DE VERE STACPOOLE\n17 PATSY                        By H. DE VERE STACPOOLE\n19 BY REEF AND PALM                      By LOUIS BECKE\n21 UNCANNY TALES                  By F. MARION CRAWFORD\n24 THE PRETENDER                   By ROBERT W. SERVICE\n25 ME. A Book of Remembrance                  ANONYMOUS\n26 GARRYOWEN                    By H. DE VERE STACPOOLE\n27 THE LADY KILLER              By H. DE VERE STACPOOLE\n28 AS IN A LOOKING GLASS               By F. C. PHILIPS\n29 THE VICTORIANS                       By NETTA SYRETT\n32 THE ROD OF JUSTICE           By ALICE & CLAUDE ASKEW\n34 THE CHRONICLES OF DON Q.    By K. & HESKETH PRICHARD\n\n\nUNWIN'S POCKET NOVELS.\n\n_Neatly Bound_      1/6 _net._      _Picture Wrapper._\n\n10   THE CANON IN RESIDENCE                 By VICTOR L. 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Fourth Revised edition. 1909.         Net 18s.","title":"Feminism and Sex-Extinction","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":104326}