Round about the year 1913 Eugenics was turned from a fad to a fashion. Then, if I may so summarise the situation, the joke began in earnest. The organising mind which we have seen considering the problem of slum population, the popular material and the possibility of protests, felt that the time had come to open the campaign. Eugenics began to appear in big headlines in the daily Press, and big pictures in the illustrated papers. A foreign gentleman named Bolce, living at Hampstead, was advertised on a huge scale as having every intention of being the father of the Superman. It turned out to be a Superwoman, and was called Eugenette. The parents were described as devoting themselves to the production of perfect pre-natal conditions. They "eliminated everything from their lives which did not tend towards complete happiness." Many might indeed be ready to do this; but in the voluminous contemporary journalism on the subject I can find no detailed notes about how it is done. Communications were opened with Mr. H.G. Wells, with Dr. Saleeby, and apparently with Dr. Karl Pearson. Every quality desired in the ideal baby was carefully cultivated in the parents. The problemof a sense of humour was felt to be a matter of great gravity. The Eugenist couple, naturally fearing they might be deficient on this side, were so truly scientific as to have resort to specialists. To cultivate a sense of fun, they visited Harry Lauder, and then Wilkie Bard, and afterwards George Robey; but all, it would appear, in vain. To the newspaper reader, however, it looked as if the names of Metchnikoff and Steinmetz and Karl Pearson would soon be quite as familiar as those of Robey and Lauder and Bard. Arguments about these Eugenic authorities, reports of the controversies at the Eugenic Congress, filled countless columns. The fact that Mr. Bolce, the creator of perfect pre-natal conditions, was afterwards sued in a law-court for keeping his own flat in conditions of filth and neglect, cast but a slight and momentary shadow upon the splendid dawn of the science. It would be vain to record any of the thousand testimonies to its triumph. In the nature of things, this should be the longest chapter in the book, or rather the beginning of another book. It should record, in numberless examples, the triumphant popularisation of Eugenics in England. But as a matter of fact this is not the first chapter but the last. And this must be a very short chapter, because the whole of this story was cut short. A very curious thing happened. England went to war.
This would in itself have been a sufficiently irritating interruption in the early life of Eugenette, and in the early establishment of Eugenics. But a far moredreadful and disconcerting fact must be noted. With whom, alas, did England go to war? England went to war with the Superman in his native home. She went to war with that very land of scientific culture from which the very ideal of a Superman had come. She went to war with the whole of Dr. Steinmetz, and presumably with at least half of Dr. Karl Pearson. She gave battle to the birthplace of nine-tenths of the professors who were the prophets of the new hope of humanity. In a few weeks the very name of a professor was a matter for hissing and low plebeian mirth. The very name of Nietzsche, who had held up this hope of something superhuman to humanity, was laughed at for all the world as if he had been touched with lunacy. A new mood came upon the whole people; a mood of marching, of spontaneous soldierly vigilance and democratic discipline, moving to the faint tune of bugles far away. Men began to talk strangely of old and common things, of the counties of England, of its quiet landscapes, of motherhood and the half-buried religion of the race. Death shone on the land like a new daylight, making all things vivid and visibly dear. And in the presence of this awful actuality it seemed, somehow or other, as if even Mr. Bolce and the Eugenic baby were things unaccountably far-away and almost, if one may say so, funny.
Such a revulsion requires explanation, and it may be briefly given. There was a province of Europe which had carried nearer to perfection than any other the type of order and foresight that are the subjectof this book. It had long been the model State of all those more rational moralists who saw in science the ordered salvation of society. It was admittedly ahead of all other States in social reform. All the systematic social reforms were professedly and proudly borrowed from it. Therefore when this province of Prussia found it convenient to extend its imperial system to the neighbouring and neutral State of Belgium, all these scientific enthusiasts had a privilege not always granted to mere theorists. They had the gratification of seeing their great Utopia at work, on a grand scale and very close at hand. They had not to wait, like other evolutionary idealists, for the slow approach of something nearer to their dreams; or to leave it merely as a promise to posterity. They had not to wait for it as for a distant thing like the vision of a future state; but in the flesh they had seen their Paradise. And they were very silent for five years.
The thing died at last, and the stench of it stank to the sky. It might be thought that so terrible a savour would never altogether leave the memories of men; but men's memories are unstable things. It may be that gradually these dazed dupes will gather again together, and attempt again to believe their dreams and disbelieve their eyes. There may be some whose love of slavery is so ideal and disinterested that they are loyal to it even in its defeat. Wherever a fragment of that broken chain is found, they will be found hugging it. But there are limits set in the everlasting mercy to him who has been once deceived anda second time deceives himself. They have seen their paragons of science and organisation playing their part on land and sea; showing their love of learning at Louvain and their love of humanity at Lille. For a time at least they have believed the testimony of their senses. And if they do not believe now, neither would they believe though one rose from the dead; though all the millions who died to destroy Prussianism stood up and testified against it.
Abnormal innocence and abnormal sin, alliance between,4Abortion, open advocacy of,138Affinity as a bar to marriage,8Altruism, remarks on,111Anarchy, definition of,22,23the opposite of Socialism,159Anglican Church, the, and question of disestablishment,75Aristocratic marriages, Eugenists and,139et seq.Atheistic literary style, the,46Authority versus Reason,132Autocrats, Eugenists as,15Belloc, Mr., and the Servile State,21,165rebuked byThe Nation,122Blücher, Marshal, an alleged saying of,124Bolce, Mr., the super-Eugenist,180,181Bolshevists, and "proletarian art,"169Brummell, Mr., vanity of,96Burglary, punishment for,36Calvinism, immorality of,126,127in the Middle Ages,92Calvinists and the doctrine of free-will,52Capitalists, and workmen,133Socialists and,47Casuists, Eugenists as,14Catholic countries, and the drink traffic,122Celtic sadness, and the desolation of Belfast,121Chesterton, G.K., and Socialism,159et seq.on H.G. Wells,69rebuked byThe Nation,122Children, and non-eugenic unions,7cruelty to: punishment for,26-7Christian conception of rebellion, the,22,23Christian religion as protector of the ideal of marriage,175Christian serf, how he differed from a pagan slave,102Christianity, and freedom,10Church teaching, compulsory,75Church, the, and question of disestablishment,75"Class War, the," and Socialists,47Coercion, and control of sex-relationship,155Comic songs, and a sermon thereon,169et seq.Compulsion, and sexual selection,14,155Compulsory education,95vaccination,77Concordat, the, and the independence of the Roman Church,75Criminals, difference between lunatics and,34,35proposed vivisection of,79punishment of,25et seq.,35et seq.Criminology as a disease,167Cruelty to children, punishment for,26-7Delusions, concrete and otherwise,32et seq.Disestablishment, author's views on,75Doctors, as health advisers of the community,55,58limits to their knowledge,57Education, compulsory,95Endeavourers, the,17English proletarians, anomalous attitude of,175Establishment, author's views on,75et seq.Ethics, as opposed to Eugenics,7Eugenic Law, the first, and negative Eugenics,19,28Eugenic State, beginning of the,19Eugenics and employment,141author's conception of,12becomes a fashion,180beginning of,125different meanings of,4essence of,4first principle of,38general definition of,10meanness of the motive of,136et seq.,146moral basis of,5the false theory of,3et seq.the real aim of,91et seq.versus Ethics,7Eugenist, true story of a,114et seq.Eugenists, and their new morality,82as Casuists,14as employers,133,137as Euphemists,12their plutocratic impulses,139et seq.Mr. Wells' challenge to,70secret of what they really want,73et seq.,85Euphemists, Eugenists as,12Fabians, and Socialism,160Feeble-Minded Bill, the, Eugenists and,17,18,19,20,28,51,52Feeble-mindedness, Dr. Saleeby on,61hereditary,62,63Flogging, revival of,25Foulon, and the French peasants,103Freedom, Christianity and,10Free-will disbelieved by Eugenists,52Game laws, English, result of the,110,112Golf, a Scotch minister's opinion of,117Great War, the, outbreak of, and its effect on Eugenics,181Health, and what it is,59Mr. Wells' views on inheritance of,70,85-6not necessarily allied with beauty,144"Health adviser" of society, the,55,58Hereditary diseases, and marriage,44Heredity, and feeble-mindedness,62,63author's conception of,64incontestable proof of,66three first facts of,66-7unsatisfactory plight of students of,66uselessness of attempting to judge,39Housebreaking, punishment for,36Household gods of the heathen,176Housing problem, the,164Hutchinson, Colonel and Mrs., the historic instance of,7Huth, A.H., an admission by,50Idealists (seeAutocrats)Idiotcy, segregation of,61Imperialism, and its aims,93Imprisonment, the State and,25Incest, the crime of,8,9Indeterminate sentence, the, instrument of,35principle of,37Individualism, the experiment of,130Individualists, early Victorian,118Intervention, Socialistic movements of,166Irish peasants, T.P. O'Connor on,144Irishman in Liverpool, the,121Journalism and the Press of to-day,73Kindred and affinity, as a bar to marriage,8Law, the, and restrictions on sex,10and the indeterminate sentence,35and the lunatic,31et seq.Libel, definition of,28loose extension of idea of,27-8Liberty and scepticism,148the eclipse of,149et seq.the Eugenist's view of,16Lodge, Sir Oliver, and "the stud farm,"13,14Lunacy, and Eugenic legislation,17-20,28,29,31et seq.medical specialists as judges of,40,41Lunacy Law, the old,38Lunacy Laws, the, extension of principle of,17Lunatic, the, and the law,31et seq.Lunatics, difference between criminals and,34,35Macdonald, George, and space co-incident,34Madman, a, definition of,32Madness, degrees of,32medical specialists and,40,41the essence of,44(See alsoLunacy)Malthus, and his doctrine,118Mania, segregation of,61Marriage, and question of hereditary disease,44the aim of,5the Christian religion and,175Marriages, aristocratic,139et seq.Marxian Socialists, and Capitalists,47Materialism, as the established church,77in speech,46Materialists, modern,128Medical specialists and madness,40,41Mendicancy laws, result of the,113Metternich tradition, the,154Midas,129Middle Ages, the,91et seq.Midias, segregation of,29Monogamy, author's views on,176Morality, and restraints on sex,8Neisser, Dr.,79Newspapers, anarchic tendency of modern,26decadence of present-day,73Niagara, comparison of modern world with,24Nietzsche,182Non-eugenic unions, and children,7O'Connor, T.P., on the Irish peasants,144Œdipus, and his incestuous marriage,8Om, the formless god of the East,48On, meaning and use of the word,48Osborne, Dorothy, and Sir William Temple,7Pagan slave, the, difference between Christian serf and,102Pearson, Dr. Karl,50,65,181Peasant art, comic songs as an instance of,170Persecution, author's views on,77et seq."Platonic friendship,"138Politics in the Middle Ages,92Post Office, the State,161twin model of,162Precedenters, the,17Press, the, criticisms of,73,169Prevention not better than cure,55Preventive medicine, fallacy of,55Prison system, the,162Procreation, prevention of,138Profiteering, author on,124"Proletarian art,"169Property, author's views on,160Punishment, extension of,25Puritanical moral stories, immorality of,126Realities, denial of,33Reason versus Authority,132Rebellion, Christian conception of,23meaning of,22Reform and Repeal,95"Relations of the sexes," atheists and,47Religion in the Middle Ages,92Representative Government, the procedure of,116Rockefeller, Mr.,124Russian Orthodox Church, the, and the State,75Saladin, Sultan,100Saleeby, Dr.,50and a "health-book,"58and feeble-mindedness,61and heredity,68Saturnalia, the Roman,24Scepticism, reactionary,148Science and tyranny,76Scotland, Church of,76Scotland, drunkenness in,122Segregation of strong-minded people, a suggested,51Serf, the, different from pagan slave,102Servile State, the, Mr. Belloc's theory of,21,165Sex-relationship, controlled by coercion,155Sexes, the, relations of,47Sexual selection a destruction of Eugenics,9Shaw, Bernard,162and Sidney Webb,161as Puritan,69Slaves, breeding of,10Slum children, Mrs. Alec Tweedie and,143Smiles, Dr. Samuel, and the English tramp,119Snobbishness, an inverted,117Socialism as oppressor of the poor,166Socialism, the transformation of,159et seq.Socialist system, foundation of the,159Socialists, and "solidarity,"46their view of the State,163Specialists (medical) and madness,40,41Spiritual pride, an example of,96Spiritual world, the, author's belief in,63State, the, and compulsion,14Socialist view of,163Statistics, fundamental fallacy in use of,61Steinmetz, Dr. R.S.,8,181Stevenson, R.L., and pre-natal conditions,45Temperance Reform,164Temple, Sir William, and Dorothy Osborne,7Tithes, question of,75Tory conception of anarchy, the,22Tramp, true history of a,101et seq.Truant schools. Socialists and,167Tweedie, Mrs. Alec, and the children of the slums,143Tyranny of government by Science,76Vaccination, compulsory,77Vanity, hereditary—and other,62Victorian Individualists, optimism of,118snobbishness,117Wages, "rise and fall of,"47Webb, Sidney, and Bernard Shaw,161Wells, H.G.,55,154author's criticism of,69-70his "Mankind in the Making,"70White Slave traffic, punishment for,25Witchcraft, punishment for,26Witch-hunting and witch burning,63,64