“Notwithstanding all that has been and will be accomplished1 by your enterprising race,” said he, “there are some things about the earth that they will never be able to control or improve. There are two in particular of essential importance. One is the area of the earth’s surface, which your race can never increase no matter what its necessities may be; the other is the slow but very certain refrigeration of the earth’s climate by which we may be sure that a time will be reached in the long distant future when the habitable surface shall gradually be reduced till at last no part of the earth’s surface will be tolerable to any living creature. So in effect while the demand of the race will be for more room it will constantly be required to put up with less.”
“But,” said I, “isn’t that a good ways off? The extreme refrigeration of the earth is a process involving millions of years according to our scientists.”
“Yes, it will be a long time before any important reduction of area can take place, but not long before the present room will become very much cramped4. Only a few moments ago we reckoned that by the year 2070 there would be about two acres to each of the 12,000,000,000 of[156] inhabitants, on which to live and move and produce the means of subsistence. If the race should then be doubling every thirty years, in 2100 there will be but one acre for each; and if they keep on increasing in 2130 a half acre; in 2160 a quarter; in 2190 an eighth, in 2220 a sixteenth; in 2250 a lot thirty-three by forty-one and one-fourth feet, which in 2280 is reduced to thirty-three by twenty feet 8 inches and this in 2292 four hundred years after the centennial of the discovery of America by Columbus that was celebrated5 in your day at Chicago, will be reduced to thirty-three by sixteen and one-half, or two rods by one. If the population should get to be as numerous as that the entire earth would be a city inhabited twelve times as densely7 as the city of Minneapolis was in your day. This of course is the average. Some places are more desirable than others and these would be more densely packed. Already at the close of the twentieth century many of the pleasanter parts of the earth have become uncomfortably populous9, not from want of the means of subsistence, but from want of room to carry on the business and pleasures of life. And yet the growth of population may be said to be just fairly commenced. It is obvious from what can already be seen that it will very soon be necessary to place some artificial restriction10 on the increase of population or else there will be such suffering among men as will of itself operate to keep down the number of people by killing11 them off faster and shortening the average duration of life. These questions are already being seriously considered by the philosophers[157] and wise men, and many plans are being discussed.
“There are some pessimists12 who declare there is no remedy. They say it was an egregious13 blunder on the part of society to attempt the banishment14 of suffering. It was suffering that had in all ages kept down the population, so that the world remained roomy enough to live in with some comfort. They hold that suffering is a necessary concomitant of comfort and we are bound to have it both before it, as a necessary antecedent and after it, as a necessary consequent. It is the law of nature and it is vain to try to evade15 it. By banishing16 war and want and disease, and reducing the problem of life to an easy pleasant certainty, society, they say, has caused herself to be invaded by fresh innumerable hordes17 of human beings that step into the arena18 of life from the secret caves of non-existence as if attracted by the feast of good things that she has provided for herself. When the repressive hand of suffering is lifted a little the human species breed and grow like rabbits until they feel its hard pressure again.
“Nature, they affirm, is no sentimentalist. Her ways are all direct, hard, cruel and brutal20. She is extravagant21 and wasteful22 of effort and parsimonious23 of results. She creates a thousand seeds of grain or grass or tree, only one of which will become a grown plant and reproduce its kind. She is even more prodigal24 with the spawn25 of fishes destroying millions for one she brings to maturity26. There is nothing to show that she cares any more for the human race than for fishes. When men get[158] too numerous she destroys them as ruthlessly as if they were so many herring or clams27. They assert it is impossible to evade or even to improve upon the methods of nature. They point to the teeming28 multitudes that have swarmed29 upon the earth during the last century in such comparative security and comfort as to invite a still greater inundation30 during the century to come; and they declare it to be one of the characteristic stratagems31 of nature, only restraining her grim and malicious32 humor in order to make it the more tragic33 and appalling34 when she does give it play. And they aver8 that it would be better even now to drop a large part if not all of the artificial stimulations to the expansion of the population that have by insensible degrees been grafted36 upon state policy during the last century. Let every tub stand on its own bottom, say they, let natural selection secure the survival of the fittest, and let the unfit be quietly eliminated by whichever of the numerous methods nature finds most applicable. In opposition37 to these are the optimists38 who hold that the human race is nature’s pet. If she could be said to plan anything or to have any preferences in favor of anything, it was the human family. After making trial in succession of the Trilobite, the Orthoceras, the Shark, the Megalosaurus, the Pterodactyl, the Mastodon and others, she put them all down and brought forward man and placed him over them all, and made him master of the earth. He was a frail39 insignificant40 helpless creature without weight, power or dignity. Other animals could beat him swimming, diving, flying, running, fighting. There was only one[159] thing he could do tolerably well and that was to climb a tree. That was his capital, his stock in trade as one might say, for it developed his hands and quickened his senses. Nature took this unprepossessing, unpromising creature, educated and developed him in her stern school and by her untender methods, put brains into him, civilized41 him and fitted him to control the world and finally to govern himself. This last lesson he has not yet perfectly42 mastered, but he is learning more of it every day. Progress, say they, never takes a back track. The pessimistic theory that nature’s plan is to let every fellow look out for himself and the devil take the hindmost, is no longer true. The race has passed that place and the new ideal is; every fellow for all the rest, and no one left behind. Until this is practically realized they say the race will not have fulfilled its destiny, and retreat is impossible. Moreover it is not necessary; for the new departure is after all as natural as the old way, and is in fact only a continuation of it; a turn in the road as it were; and it may quite as well be depended upon to rectify43 all the difficulties of its own creation. If the principle of mutual44 succor45, sympathy and assistance leads to over population, the same principle must furnish the remedy. The optimists admit the contention46 of the pessimists that this trouble is looming47 up, and the philosophers of all schools are beginning to feel serious. They are discussing such figures as we had before us a few moments ago and endeavoring to fix the date at which a halt will have to be called, and the means devised by which it is to[160] be accomplished. Some say the population is dense6 enough now. Others point out that with the increased means of subsistence there need not be anything uncomfortable in a population of 12,000,000,000 which they estimate will not be reached till 2070, or 70 years from the present (A. D. 2000.) And they are hopeful enough to believe that by that time, human wit will have discovered some way of controlling population without violence to human happiness. All agree that if society is to be maintained on the present scale it is high time to settle the manner in which the great question of population is to be met and handled. It is the most difficult question that has ever demanded human attention.
“In your day there was already beginning to be some discussion in regard to stirpiculture and the scientific regulation of the family and rearing of children. But it did not at that time reach a practical stage. No scientific conclusions on the subject of marriage have yet been able to displace sentiment and instinct. But soon, as I have already told you, the rearing of the children was undertaken by the state and removed from the caprice of sentiment and ignorance greatly to the advantage of the children and of course the race. But the question of marriage remains48 the same sentimental19 business it was in the days of Jacob. And with the increasing independence of women it has become even more a question of the feelings than it was in your day when women often married for a home and men sometimes for money. As the problems of life, marriage etc., have become questions[161] of state, inviting49 and even requiring ample and public discussion, the squeamishness and false modesty50 with which they were approached in your day have entirely51 disappeared. The public interest and the rights of the state in the question of the perpetuation52 of the race are freely admitted and discussed. The public mind has been gradually prepared for this by the gradual assumption by the state of the care and education of the youth, and by its experience in the treatment of criminals. Where the treatment of all the youth is uniform and some after all, turn out to be criminals as they occasionally do, the cause is looked for in their parentage. The state is in condition to keep track of ill born children, and after leaving the schools they are still kept under the eye and guiding advice and restraint if necessary of a special department of the police service. In this way the criminally disposed are known in advance, and much crime is no doubt prevented. The criminally disposed are regarded and treated as mentally diseased.
“There has been much discussion pro3 and con2 of this mode of punishment, or—as some prefer to express it—mode of treatment. But it is now generally conceded that society is entirely justifiable54 in employing this mode of defense55, especially since capital punishment has been abolished, and this is the maximum penalty that is corporally inflicted56. The public mind having had before it the operation of this treatment as a sort of object lesson is the more ready to listen to the proposition that is now being discussed to use this same treatment for the[162] defense of society against herself. The question is one that must be approached with the utmost consideration and tenderness as well as fairness and justice applied57 after the most careful and expert selection and with due regard to the character and physical and mental qualities that are due to be expected from such conditions. It is natural selection they say, artificially applied without the circumlocution58 and tedious delay of nature’s ordinary methods. Left to herself, nature in the long run provides for the survival of the fittest. We now propose say they to make the same provision in the short run. We are now approaching one of those crises in human affairs in which something has to be done, and if men have not the wit to do it themselves, nature takes hold and performs it in her hard way with small tenderness for anybody’s feelings or notions of propriety59. If we are competent, we will find some way out of this difficulty without losing our civilization; if we are not, nature will put us back in the primer of barbarism, to learn it all over again as she has done a dozen times before. We have it in our power, and it is our obvious duty to reduce the population, or to stop its increase, and to do it in the very scientific manner that is at our disposal, by which the best blood is selected for transmission and the poorest is quietly eliminated without shock or pain to the individual or to society. Not only can the best blood in general be made exclusive, but any particular brand of best blood can be picked out to receive special encouragement. We can preserve a class of talent invaluable[163] to civilization that nature could not be depended on to select for preservation60 in the hard struggle for existence—the gentle, the unselfish, the intellectual worker and the poet. Nor can she be depended on to eliminate the ruffianly, brutal, criminal and selfish members whose room is better than their company. Rather these are the very ones she would be likely to save.
“This is all in our hands, say they, and if we have the nerve to carry it out, we can make the earth a perpetual paradise. All we have to do is to disqualify in their infancy61 the stirps whose posterity62 we prefer not to see.”
The Professor paused here and changed the profile to his ‘jokers’ or middle pair of hands and proceeded to roll up the 20th century and expose the 21st.
“I believe,” he resumed, “that we had better step forward another century, take our stand at the year 2100 and survey the century retrospectively, as we have done the 20th. It seems more natural to speak of it in the past tense since we have become accustomed to that way.”
“All right,” I answered, “consider it done. I am already there.”
“Do you not remember,” he went on, “that a little while ago you expressed a wish that it might have been your lot to live say 200 years later than you did, so as to share and experience the glory your race would have attained64 by that time? Well you are in effect now there, and while you shall never experience it in your own person, you shall[164] have a close glimpse of it and be able to compare your anticipation65 with the reality.
“We are now celebrating January 1, 2100. As you look around, you see very much that is unfamiliar66 and miss many things you used to see. Take a map of the world and examine it. You will find only three general governments on earth. First is the “Great union of Free States”, which you have heard of, but now comprising all America, the Pacific Islands, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, The West Indies, Ireland and Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, New Guinea and the Philippines. Thus you see the principal change in this government during the century consists in the full annexation67 of all the South American States north of Chili68 and Argentine, and the Annexation of England, Scotland and Wales and the Scandinavian states. The language of this great empire is almost exclusively English, which however, has been greatly corrupted70, some say, or enriched according to others, by the incorporation71 of a large number of foreign words, mostly Spanish, due to the intimate relations between the English speaking peoples and those who used the Spanish and Portuguese72. South America has been settled and cultivated and is the most productive county on earth; a fairy land, a paradise. Nothing can compare with it except some of the finest portions of the Sahara desert, which has been developed by the French; and some of the East India Islands.
“Next is the Russo-Asiatic empire that comprises Russia in Europe and all Asia except Arabia. It is styled the ‘Russasia.’ The government is a limited[165] monarchy73, very much like that of Great Britain in your day. The Russians in Europe and Siberia are represented by a parliament, which is the supreme74 legislative75 authority for the entire empire. The Asiatic States are governed by governors appointed by the emperor at St. Petersburg and most of them have local legislatures that regulate their local affairs. All China and parts of India, Persia and Tartary, and Afghanistan are divided into convenient sized states possessing this local autonomy. All of this territory is being developed by the combined enterprise of the Russians and the Chinese, the latter scarcely second to the former. Mongolia and Mantchooria have been supplied with railroads and settled by both Chinese and Russians. The Chinese have also migrated in great numbers into Tartary and settled up what used to be the western end of the Chinese empire. They have even settled in great numbers in Russia and in western Asia. A great change came over the Chinese after their war with Japan in 1894-5. They perceived that they were beaten by western methods, and they suddenly conceived a respect for the ways of the foreign devils as extreme as their contempt for them had been before. They had always been on good terms with the Russians while they disliked the English, French and Americans. Having determined76 to adopt western ways, they selected the Russians for their instructors77 and welcomed their capital and enterprise in the introduction of railways, opening mines, improving their water ways, introducing western machinery78 and manufactures. When the Russians in order to protect[166] their interests began a military occupation of the country, they were not opposed, but rather welcomed by the progressive party. The Chinese were not a military people, and were really in need of a coalition79 that would enable them to resist the aggressions of the nations of western Europe, and the Japanese. The remodeling of Chinese institutions under the tutelage of the Russians advanced rapidly. Probably the most radical80 and important innovation was the introduction of the Russian alphabet and the phonetic81 spelling of the Chinese language by its use. This enabled the Chinese youth to learn their own language much more easily, and it led directly to the study of the Russian which became very necessary to a large extent, on account of the intimate intercourse82 between the two people, and on account of the new ideas, processes and things, the names of which were Russian without Chinese equivalents. This finally led to the universal use of Russian by the educated Chinese.
“After the formal annexation of China, the Russian became the official language, and the Chinese language has gradually fallen into disuse and is now almost extinct. The Chinese say of their ancient tongue and the bug83 marks and turkey tracks that constituted its written expression, “we were little children when we used that language.”
“The Russian has also to a great extent superseded84 the Tartar, Turkish, Persian and other tongues current in Central Asia. In doing this, however, it has become considerably85 corrupted itself.
[167]
“The third great empire comprises all the territory not included in the other two, and embraces all of Continental86 Europe except Russia and the Scandinavian States, and all of Africa except that part south of the 10th parallel of S. Lat. and Arabia. It is called the Euro-Afric Confederacy. Tremendous activity has been displayed by the Europeans in the settlement and improvement of Africa during the past two centuries. The whole continent has been gridironed with railroads, all of it has been civilized and the most unpromising part—the Sahara desert has been made a vast garden.
“The French have been most active in the northern part, the Italians in the eastern part, the Portuguese and Germans in the central portions, the English in the southern. The Congo and German States being open to free trade, they came to be frequented by merchants from all Europe and these were soon followed by permanent settlers. After a time these people became tired of being governed from Europe, and set up for themselves, declaring themselves independent, much as the United States did in 1776. But in this case there was no opposition for the principle of free intercourse and unrestricted trade having been firmly established, the mother countries did not care to superintend the internal affairs of the young states, and readily consented to their independence. But this independence proved to be the forerunner87 of a more extensive union namely the Euro-Afric Confederacy. It was the last to be formed of the three great empires that now cover the world. The states comprising it are mostly republics. But a[168] few in middle Africa, Guinea and the Sondan, are limited monarchies88. The native races of Africa are rapidly being displaced by the Europeans and will totally disappear in a few generations as the North American Indians did in your day. A large migration89 of Negroes took place from the United States to Africa during the 20th century, but they did not thrive, and the race is vastly reduced both in Africa and America.”
“That is strange,” said I, “for in my day the negroes were very numerous in the southern states—a majority in some places—and the question how they were to be disposed of constituted one of the questions of state of that period.”
“True,” he replied, “but up to that time there had been no very severe competition for the means of living. But it became more and more difficult from that time on to make a living, and wherever there is strong competition between men, the strong positive, vigorous and hard, are sure to crowd the softer and weaker out, and take the prize they are struggling for. In your day the negroes were generally content, in fact were compelled to be content, with such humble91 employments as the whites did not care to engage in because there was enough of a more ambitious sort to employ them. But when the whites found it necessary to compete with the negroes for the work they had before monopolized92, they easily beat them. The defeat of men in the struggle for life affects them in two ways; it discourages, worries and exhausts them mentally; and it destroys their vigor90 through want and starvation, physically93. The latter of these effects[169] tells at once in shortening the existence of the present generation, and both of them tell on the general force and vigor, the deterioration94 of which is seen in the reduced numbers and virility95 of the succeeding generations. Wild animals newly domesticated96, fail to breed through mental strain and worry. The same is true of savages97 when the mental burdens of civilization are too suddenly laid upon them, and the same principle holds in civil life when from any cause the burden of life becomes too heavy—as, to the poor man when he struggles against odds98 for bread for his family, and to the rich when he struggles doubtfully for the superfluities required by fashion. The negro race is not extinct by any means even in the United States, but its extinction99 is only a question of comparatively short time easily estimated from the advance in that direction already made.”
“But it seems to me,” said I, “that there can no longer be such a desperate struggle for existence since the means of livelihood100 are within the reach of all, and the exertion101 required has been so much lessened102 by the state’s care of the young etc.”
“The means of mere103 existence,” he said, “are, in most of the states of the “Great union,” within the reach of all, and no one need go hungry or naked. If he is able to work, the state will give him employment if no one else will, and if he is not able he will be cared for anyhow. But the style in which a man lives depends altogether on his ambition and ability. If his ability is equal to his ambition, he obtains what he wants and is happy and contented104; unless, as often happens his ambition[170] grows by what it feeds on and excites him to fresh exertions105 by a new allurement106 after every success. And so the wearing struggle may go on forever. People are mimics107 and none of them more so than the negroes. In imitating a stronger race they give out and gradually succumb108. While they were slaves they were free from this competition, and rapidly increased. The African tribes were also free from it. But both have now been exposed to it for six generations and it has told on them heavily.”
“It would appear then that competition and selection go on under the present conditions of life almost as much as ever, for the law must apply to the weaker whites as well as to the negroes.”
“So it does, and always must, as long as men are competent to discriminate109 between the costly110 and the cheap, and continue to prefer the former, to the latter.”
“The reason for such preference,” I infer, “must be that more enjoyment111 of life is found in the possession of the more costly things. Is that your view?”
“It does not follow at all,” he replied. “Costly things give a fictitious112 enjoyment in anticipation while they are being pursued, but after they are obtained they give no more enjoyment than if they had been cheap. The possession of many things that have cost great worry and exertion frequently leads to nothing more than a perception of their vanity, and the uncovering of a new perspective of something bright and equally illusory beyond. From time immemorial your philosophers have[171] sounded the praises of contentment. Contentment is nothing more nor less than happiness, and it is little to the purpose to ask a man to be happy unless the suggestion is backed up by the conditions of his environment. When people have absolutely nothing better to look forward to, they can almost always settle down to a comparative degree of contentment with what they have. But with an environment constantly showing chances of preferment, wealth, distinction, etc., and examples of the attainment113 of these things by others, contentment is constantly being unsettled and happiness always deferred114 to the future. A guest taking his dinner ‘out’ will reserve part of his appetite for the unseen, but commonly expected, desert of pudding and pie, but if he is informed that he “sees his dinner” before him, he will make himself quite satisfied without the desert.
“The fact is, the absolute contentment or happiness that your poets dream for you, and your priests sell to you in their heavens and nirvanas, is absolute satisfaction with whatever is. It can only come to an instinct in perfect harmony with its environment. People can never be perfectly happy except in a finished unchangeable state of existence. They may approach it under conditions in which change is very slow and slight.”
“Things on earth to-day look far more unsettled than ever before, and yet they are getting into a shape that promises peace and permanence in the not very distant future. When the earth gets as[172] full of people as it will hold and they learn how to live by moderate exertion and above the fear of failure and want, the millennium115 will have come to the extent that it can come.”
“Well from what you said a while ago, I suppose the world must already be as full of people as it ought to be, and if everything is in equilibrium116, the millennium ought to have already dawned. But you have not told me whether this equilibrium has been made secure and stable. For evidently if means have not been found to keep the population uniform and steady at its maximum limit of comfort, even a perfect equilibrium would soon be disturbed by its increase and the millennium set back again.
“You told me the stirpiculturists in the 20th century proposed to accomplish the two objects of restricting the race and at the same time improving it, by select limitation. How did the plan succeed?”
“It did not succeed at all,” he replied. “The population increased more rapidly than before. A state of society something like a corrupt69 and clandestine117 polygamy supervened. The tone of society instead of being elevated was distinctively118 lowered. Thus both of the objects they so hopefully set out to accomplish, disastrously119 failed. When it was definitely given up by the progressive party that they were defeated and obliged to confess they were on the wrong track there was a fearful revulsion and upheaval120 of society, as there always is when opinion is forced to fly from one extreme to another. Many persons felt[173] they had been wronged—treated as criminals when they were only unfortunates.
“The danger from this class was now imminent121, and they had the sympathy of many in the better walks of life. But the time soon rolled round that drove people to think of nothing but themselves. But this was one of those deliberate movements that nature seems to delight in dealing122 out to us. She dangles123 it over us like the sword of Damocles. There was time to think; before the thread snapped, if there was only the wit. It was a time of common danger, and there was no inclination124 nor profit in recriminations between the parties. In the presence of an appalling calamity125 they were both awed126. They no longer contended with each other, they were both at their wits ends, and in fright they rushed into each others presence to consult not to fight; and trembled alike at the disaster that overwhelmed them both; like tigers slinking into the presence of their human enemies when threatened by a common danger; as an earthquake.
“All admitted, the disappointment and failure were complete.”
“It seems to me that might have been foreseen,” said I,—“what did they do next?”
“They were in a great quandary127, and did not know what to do, many wild propositions were offered and discussed. The pessimists although as largely interested as anybody in the success of any plan aiming at the public welfare, were really pleased at the failure of this, because it fulfilled their evil predictions. They now said there was nothing to[174] be done but to return to the ancient plan of nature in which every one looked after himself and his children.
“If one failed, it was nature’s sign that he was not wanted, and he had no business to have children. But the optimists declared it to be impossible to return to the barbarous conditions that prevailed in ancient times among savages. Nature, said they, has evolved civilization and altruism128, and these are therefore as natural as barbarism. But nature preserves a certain congruity129 of relationship between things, that we cannot easily set aside, and so if we are going backward in regard to the care of our young we shall lose the advantages that we have gained in the improved quality of the citizens, we have made out of them. For if we throw all the responsibility on the parents, while we cannot depend on a reduction in the number of the children, we may be sure of a deterioration in their bringing up and education. If we go back to barbarism we must take all that barbarism imposes. The human race they said was born to luck. Whenever it got into a tight place, some lucky turn of fortune’s wheel always supplied its need and brought it out of its troubles, and they avowed130 their faith that something would yet turn up to tide the race over the present crisis. In the midst of these discussions, a great discovery was made or accidentally stumbled upon that gave confirmation131 to this hopeful philosophy, and relieved the fears of those philosophers who were in the habit of taking the destiny of the race very much to heart and who felt more or less responsibility[175] for its future. That was a discovery of nature’s secret of the determination of sex. It enabled people to control the sex of their children, a power that had been ardently132 wished for ever since the days of Adam and scientifically sought after, at least as far back as the time of Aristotle. They thought that in this “option of sex,” as they styled it, they at last possessed133 the infinitely134 important power of the control of population. They had seen before this, that no restriction could succeed, not founded on the support of all. All discussion in this direction was brought to a sudden termination, by this timely discovery. All felt as if the great problem was solved in the most acceptable manner, not only in accordance with refined sentiment, but with the pressing requirements of society, because this vital condition that so intimately concerns us all is taken up by the state and administered for the benefit of the whole race.
“In your day you doubtless remember that generally boys were in greater request and more welcome by parents than girls. And there continued to be such a feeling until quite lately—for no very good reason, except the habit of heredity—since men could hardly be said to have had any advantage over women for the last 100 years. At any rate this prejudice assisted the state in the policy it adopted of reducing the proportion of females, and within two generations the census135 showed a reduction of fifty per cent in the number of females while the total population remained the same without increase. This result was peculiarly gratifying[176] to the political economists137 and philosophers, for as they declared the state had now complete control of the population and could on a tolerably short notice increase or diminish it as the comfort of the race might demand.”
I interrupted the Professor here to express with some pardonable enthusiasm my congratulations that this vital question had been so successfully and thoroughly138 met. I said I always had confidence in my race and now more than ever. I felt proud of the honor of being an humble member of it; and more to the same effect; to which he listened with some impatience139 and then proceeded.
“There were some results that were not anticipated, that followed from the practical operation of the “option of sex.” One was the very rapid elevation140, almost deification of women. As there was now but one woman to three men her value and importance rose in the inverse141 ratio; and it became the habit to say that women were worth three times as much as men. They were in fact worth a good deal more than that, for they soon perceived that they held the key of power and the destiny of the race and were able to construct the conditions of life to suit their own whims142 and caprices. They became in fact the ruling sex. They demanded for themselves and easily obtained all the easy and profitable positions in business and official life, and remanded men to those least desirable. The wholesome143 civil service principles that had become pretty well settled in the law, thought, and practice of the country were now habitually[177] evaded144 or openly set aside in favor of the sex. Nothing they asked for was denied them and hardly anything was good enough for them. In your day the women in America were extravagantly145 petted and coddled, but the attention and reverence146 they received then was nothing compared with the adulation and servility that has of late been rendered to them. Such a condition of things could not fail to encourage tyranny and arrogance147, and to create them where they had not been before. Sentiment and favoritism became the controlling forces and business principles were ignored.
“There were three candidates for every woman’s hand, two of whom were bound to be disappointed, and so one-half the population—two-thirds of the masculine part—were doomed148 to a life of single misery149. They did not accept the situation with fortitude150 or resignation. There was no end to quarreling and personal antagonisms151 and violence between rivals, and there arose what there had not been for several generations, and that was a “dangerous class.” It became unsafe for married people of either sex to appear on the streets unguarded. The “social evil” that in your day was so sore a question had long since under the conditions of universal matrimony, died out, and had practically ceased for a century and a half, now came again into existence in a more virulent152 form than ever. All classes felt the relaxation153 of the former restraints, and immorality154 became frightfully prevalent. Divorce which had become almost obsolete155, now came to be an every day occurrence, not often, however, upon the complaint[178] of the comparatively helpless husband, but upon that of the fickle156 wife who had succumbed157 to the superior attractions of a newer affinity158. Divorce was now practically in the hands of the wife, and she dismissed her husband when he failed to please her, or when a more eligible159 mate presented himself. All women of course were not like that, but they all had the power to be, and a frightfully large proportion of them were.”
“The wise men of our race,” said I, “especially those of ancient times have generally regarded women as being not merely inferior to men physically and mentally, but as being essentially160 depraved and incapable161 of being good except under the stimulation35 and wise and pious162 discipline and example of men. Does the state of society you have described to me bear out this opinion? It seems that the women have broken loose from the wholesome restraints that were imposed on them in the former constitution of society in which men were supreme; and like a runaway163 team they are about to smash the wagon164 and dash out their own brains.”
“No,” he replied, “the state of affairs I have described does not at all confirm the opinion of the old blockheads you call your wise men. If they had been really wise they would have known that both women and men are created, formed, moulded and finished by their environment. Now woman constitutes a part of the environment of man and man constitutes a part, but in old times he constituted a relatively165 much larger part of the environment of woman. So it might be said, that if man[179] was better than woman, it was because her influence on him was better or at least less harmful than his influence on her.
“But the fact is that under equal conditions the influence that each exerts on the other is equal, and they are mutually benefitted. The nearest to a golden age your race has ever come was during the one hundred years from the middle of the 20th to the middle of the 21st century, and that is the period of the most complete equality of the sexes in all respects—numbers, liberty, similarity of occupations and equal duties and responsibilities, and the total ignoring and rejection166 of the notion of any difference of ‘spheres’ for the activities of the two. The reciprocal and essentially exclusive functions involved are peculiar136 to each, but these do not essentially, and at the present, do not really interfere167 in any of the active employments people choose to engage in.”
“Nursing the children is essentially the woman’s business is it not?” I inquired.
“Functionless ones,” said I.
“Only functionless,” he replied, “because they are not used. In your day there were occasional cases of well developed male mammae and professional male wet nurses, now they are common and it is doubtful if there are as many female as male nurses. There are and always were women who could not nurse their children, and these are more numerous now than ever. It is simply because there are other things they prefer to do, and so the[180] accommodating function suppresses itself just as it did in the male because he for ages suppressed its use. So you see that even in nursing and rearing the children there is no exclusive female “sphere” any more than a male “sphere.” In the golden age I have just spoken of there was greater harmony and happiness than ever before, one of the essential conditions of which was the almost perfect equality of the sexes. But the termination of this golden age and the beginning of the social anarchy169 that commenced about the middle of the 21st century was traceable chiefly to the disparity in numbers between the sexes brought about by the operation of the “Option of Sex.” If we are to charge it to the corrupt influence of one sex on the other it was the corrupt assault of the unavoidably unmarried of the male sex on the institution of wedlock170. If the women were willful arrogant171 and naughty, it was only because there were men about them in the proportion of three to one—for which they were not to blame—nor the men either, but the limited capacity of this globe, and nobody was to blame for that. Thus whatever they are or do in either sex is traceable to their environment.”
“Well,” said I, “since there has been such a failure, I am glad after all that my day was ended long before these evil times came. But what is to become of the race now! Will they discover a way to hold their own?”
“There never was,” said he, “a lack of wise doctors amongst men who were always ready with a sure cure for the ills that beset172 the race. Some[181] of them now proposed as a remedy for the social maladies a plan of life that was not new nor original, but which differed as far as possible from the hereditary173 notions of the western nations. This was nothing less than polyandry or the plurality of husbands. They said, let every woman have three husbands and harmony and peace will be restored, and vice53 be deprived of excuse. They said this was no experiment, but had been practiced successfully amongst some of the eastern nations from time immemorial. They referred to the case of the Ladaks, a highly civilized, steady and religious people of the Buddhist174 faith, who inhabit the lofty and circumscribed175 valley at the head waters of the Indus. The place will support only so many people. If too many were born they could not emigrate to a lower country on account of the oppression of the heavier air. For a converse176 reason no immigrants ever attempt to settle there. But the population is kept uniform and steady by the simple plan of giving each wife three husbands. This has been successful for a thousand years on a small scale and there seemed no reason why it would not work on a large scale. But this scheme was promptly177 and emphatically rejected by the women of influence and authority, the moment it was proposed. They asserted there was no civilized relationship except Monogamy. That alone brought equality of the sexes and equality alone stood between the race and barbarism.
“It was true that polyandry was already practiced surreptitiously to a certain extent in America, but it was the disreputable exception and they did not[182] propose to make it the honorable rule. They denounced the plan as being scarcely one remove from the “social evil” itself. Polygamy, they said, is natural, made so by immemorial usage. The race was brought up on that and is built with reference to it. But polyandry, No! nothing in nature so repulsive178 and revolting. That settled it.”
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1
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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2
con
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| n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的 | |
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3
pro
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| n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者 | |
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4
cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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5
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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6
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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7
densely
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| ad.密集地；浓厚地 | |
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aver
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| v.极力声明；断言；确证 | |
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populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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10
restriction
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| n.限制，约束 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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pessimists
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| n.悲观主义者( pessimist的名词复数 ) | |
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13
egregious
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| adj.非常的，过分的 | |
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banishment
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| n.放逐，驱逐 | |
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15
evade
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| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
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16
banishing
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的现在分词 ) | |
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17
hordes
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| n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 )；部落 | |
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arena
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| n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台 | |
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19
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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20
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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21
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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22
wasteful
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| adj.（造成）浪费的，挥霍的 | |
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23
parsimonious
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| adj.吝啬的，质量低劣的 | |
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24
prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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25
spawn
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| n.卵，产物，后代，结果；vt.产卵，种菌丝于，产生，造成；vi.产卵，大量生产 | |
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26
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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27
clams
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| n.蛤；蚌，蛤( clam的名词复数 )v.（在沙滩上）挖蛤( clam的第三人称单数 ) | |
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28
teeming
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| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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29
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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30
inundation
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| n.the act or fact of overflowing | |
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stratagems
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| n.诡计，计谋( stratagem的名词复数 )；花招 | |
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32
malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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33
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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35
stimulation
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| n.刺激，激励，鼓舞 | |
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36
grafted
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| 移植( graft的过去式和过去分词 )； 嫁接； 使（思想、制度等）成为（…的一部份）； 植根 | |
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37
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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38
optimists
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| n.乐观主义者( optimist的名词复数 ) | |
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39
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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40
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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41
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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42
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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43
rectify
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| v.订正，矫正，改正 | |
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44
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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45
succor
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| n.援助，帮助；v.给予帮助 | |
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46
contention
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| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
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47
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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48
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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49
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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50
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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51
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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52
perpetuation
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| n.永存，不朽 | |
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53
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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54
justifiable
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| adj.有理由的，无可非议的 | |
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55
defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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56
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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58
circumlocution
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| n. 绕圈子的话，迂回累赘的陈述 | |
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59
propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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60
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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61
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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62
posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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63
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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64
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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65
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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66
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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67
annexation
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| n.吞并，合并 | |
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68
chili
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| n.辣椒 | |
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69
corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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70
corrupted
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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71
incorporation
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| n.设立，合并，法人组织 | |
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72
Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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73
monarchy
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| n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国 | |
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74
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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75
legislative
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| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
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76
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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77
instructors
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| 指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 ) | |
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78
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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79
coalition
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| n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合 | |
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80
radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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81
phonetic
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| adj.语言的，语言上的，表示语音的 | |
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82
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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83
bug
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| n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器 | |
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84
superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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85
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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86
continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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87
forerunner
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| n.前身，先驱（者），预兆，祖先 | |
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88
monarchies
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| n. 君主政体, 君主国, 君主政治 | |
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89
migration
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| n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙 | |
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90
vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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91
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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92
monopolized
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| v.垄断( monopolize的过去式和过去分词 )；独占；专卖；专营 | |
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93
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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94
deterioration
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| n.退化；恶化；变坏 | |
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95
virility
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| n.雄劲，丈夫气 | |
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96
domesticated
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| adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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extinction
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| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
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livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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106
allurement
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| n.诱惑物 | |
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107
mimics
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| n.模仿名人言行的娱乐演员，滑稽剧演员( mimic的名词复数 )；善于模仿的人或物v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的第三人称单数 )；酷似 | |
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108
succumb
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| v.屈服，屈从；死 | |
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109
discriminate
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| v.区别，辨别，区分；有区别地对待 | |
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110
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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112
fictitious
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| adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的 | |
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113
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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114
deferred
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| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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115
millennium
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| n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世 | |
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equilibrium
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| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
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clandestine
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| adj.秘密的，暗中从事的 | |
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distinctively
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| adv.特殊地，区别地 | |
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disastrously
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| ad.灾难性地 | |
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120
upheaval
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| n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱 | |
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imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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dangles
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| 悬吊着( dangle的第三人称单数 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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quandary
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| n.困惑，进迟两难之境 | |
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altruism
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| n.利他主义，不自私 | |
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congruity
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| n.全等，一致 | |
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avowed
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| adj.公开声明的，承认的v.公开声明，承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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ardently
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| adv.热心地，热烈地 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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census
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| n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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economists
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| n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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inverse
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| adj.相反的，倒转的，反转的；n.相反之物；v.倒转 | |
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WHIMS
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| 虚妄，禅病 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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evaded
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| 逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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extravagantly
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| adv.挥霍无度地 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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fortitude
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| n.坚忍不拔；刚毅 | |
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antagonisms
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| 对抗，敌对( antagonism的名词复数 ) | |
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virulent
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| adj.有毒的，有恶意的，充满敌意的 | |
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relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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immorality
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| n. 不道德, 无道义 | |
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obsolete
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| adj.已废弃的，过时的 | |
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fickle
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| adj.(爱情或友谊上)易变的，不坚定的 | |
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succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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affinity
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| n.亲和力，密切关系 | |
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eligible
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| adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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runaway
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| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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glands
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| n.腺( gland的名词复数 ) | |
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anarchy
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| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
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wedlock
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| n.婚姻，已婚状态 | |
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arrogant
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的 | |
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beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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Buddhist
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| adj./n.佛教的，佛教徒 | |
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circumscribed
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| adj.[医]局限的：受限制或限于有限空间的v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；划定…范围；限制；限定 | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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