A GREAT FACTOR OF SOCIAL CHANGE. 435 but gentleness towards all evil-doers issues in, first, the effectual protection of society; second, the reform of corrigible criminals; third, the gradual extinction of crime. It urges upon Government a cautious, deliberate adoption of this policy. In the fourth relation the action of Scientific Meliorism is to promote the enfranchisement of women, and at every point aid the movement of advance to the position of social equality of sex. In the fifth and sixth relations, Scientific Meliorism inculcates by admonition and example, and especially among the young, a return to simplicity of manners, habits, and dress. It repudiates conventional etiquette, and opposes the tyranny of fashion. It promotes association of the sexes in youth, under conditions of adult control, whether the union be that of marriage, of friendship, or of simple intercourse and companionship. discountenances and takes no part in the excitements of an artificial, frivolous society, but it creates and fosters the invigorating excitements of useful labour, alternating with unconstrained and "tranquil delights." It In the seventh relation, Scientific Meliorism agitates for alteration of the marriage laws, the laws of inheritance, and the land laws. Equality of sex is required as the basis of the marriage law, accompanied by the condition of easy divorce, in order to facilitate (under ethical restraints) the dissolution of false ties in favour of the true. The laws affecting children. require adaptation to the ethics of social justice and sex equality. Laxity must give place to strictness in respect of parentage, and childbirth be recognized as an event bearing directly upon the interests of the general public. Hence modification here entails the recognition of illegitimate children and the counteracting of the vicious tendency to shirk parental duty and social responsibility. The land laws and laws of inheritance must be adjusted to a levelling process a policy of paring down large estates and diminishing the massive proportions of private property so slowly as to create no individual suffering or social confusion. Such legislative measures being directed, however, to Land Nationalization as their final aim. In the eighth relation, Scientific Meliorism frankly, deliberately relinquishes supernaturalism, and in the sphere of the real sets itself to the reconstruction of a religious cultus. It discards all theological ideals and dogmas, all selfish rewards and terrors. Religion in a scientific age is the tendency to form and follow ideals of life. It unhesitatingly embraces ideals that are true and beneficial, and becomes the religion of the real. The new cultus has its inspiration in the scientific doctrine of universal love and kindness and the evolution vista of universal happiness. It denies that the smallest duty of life is insignificant. It enlists the conscience of man. Pointing backwards it thus speaks: "The Nile overflowed and rushed onwards. The Egyptian could not choose the overflow, but he chose to work and make channels for the fructifying waters, and Egypt became the land of corn. Shall man, whose soul is set in the royalty of discernment and resolve, deny his rank, and say, I am an onlooker, ask no choice or purpose of me? That is the blasphemy of this time. The divine principle of our race is action, choice, resolved memory. Let us contradict the blasphemy and help to will our own better future, and the better future of the world."* "Let The world stands in need of heroes-heroes of peace. the spirit of sublime achievement move in the great among our people, and the work will begin." Let us invoke and act upon the noble sentiment, "I am lord of this moment's change, and will charge it with my soul."† From the too early grave of an earnest follower of the religion of the real there comes a voice that may fitly close this imperfect exposition of conscious evolution reclaiming the diverse forces of society and directing them to the production of general happiness by means of Scientific Meliorism. "Our interest, it seems to me, lies with so much of the past as may serve to guide our actions in the present, and to intensify our pious allegiance to the fathers who have gone before us, and the brethren with us; and our interest lies with so much of the future as we may hope will be appreciably affected by our good actions now. Beyond that we do not know, and ought not to care. Do I seem to say, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die? Far from it. On the contrary, I say, Let us take hands and help, for this day we are alive together.”‡ * "Daniel Deronda," book v. p. 357. † Ibid., book vi. p. 402. Professor Clifford. INDEX. A Acquisitiveness, 122-129, 267, 268, Aged, social position of the, 262, Amelioration, popular methods of. Artificial birth-control, 95, 97, 102, Asceticism, 103, 169, 252, 303, 304, Associated or Unitary Homės, 237– Boys, training of, 202-208, 268, C Capital, 43, 249, 254, 267, 383, 384, Carlyle, Thomas, 2, 103, 115, 264, Celibacy, 110, 111, 138, 150, 173, 221-224, 235, 269, 270, 295, 322, 102, 118, 174-176, 264, 298, 302, -, independence of, 58, 59, 99, training of very young, 21-25, Cock-fighting, 244, 245 Combe, Abram, 237 Communism, 283, 285, 398, 400, Competition in industrial life, 31, 155, 176, 180, 208, 215, 220, 221, Criminals, congenital, 372, 373, 377 365-367, Criticism by the Perfectionists, 208- 210 Culture, 4, 60, 63, 107, 123, 124, D Dancing, 152-154, 227, 238, 280 Disease, cost of, 227, 228 inherited, 328-332, 335, 339 servitude, decay of, 287-289 E Education, definition of, 343, 346, by the State, 405, 406 Education of children, 21-25, 48, 59, 99, 114, 144, 149, 160, 161, higher, of women, 160, 233, in anti-social feelings, 114, in barbarity, 22-25, 46, 48, in luxury, 66, 107, 149, 154, in self-control, 200, 204-210, in subservience, 97, 359 in vice, 99, 105, 105, 110, 152, 155 physical, 347, 353, 362 Eliot, George, 3, 108, 180, 186-188, Equality, social, of sex, 112, 150, Etiquette and fashion, 235, 279, Eugenics, or stirpiculture, 102, 118, Evils of man and society, 49, 425 INDEX. Evolution, the doctrine of, 27, 81, -, conscious, 49, 117, 118, 129, unconscious, 117, 118, 248, in marriage, 317, 321 of civilization, 378-382, 387- of of ideas of justice, 403, 406, of landholding, 378-383, 388 Excursion parties, 50-52, 104, 271 240-242, 278, 286, 289, 290, 293, F Factory labour, 34, 35 Familistère of M. Godin at Guise, "Fanny Dover," 145, 146, 158, Fashion and etiquette, 235, 279, or custom, 214-218, 225-235, France, birth-rate in, 175, 339, 341 French Revolution, 166, 169, 192 G Gentleness, 14, 41, 111, 195, 283, George Sand, 148 439 "Girl of the period," 132, 141, 142, Goodness as an aim of life, 7, 40 392, 399, 404, 434 Greg, W. Rathbone, 90, 95, 96, H Habits, good, 281, 350, 432 the primary object of life, Harmony community, 36, 238 Home education, 348-352, 430 the British, 41, 58-60, 66, 84, I Ideal of education, 344, 350-353, of home life, 290, 291, 295, 296, 304 of socialism, 396, 400, 407, Ideals of marriage, 298, 304, 305, of social life, 234, 277, 278, Immigration, legislation against, Individual liberty. See Liberty of Indolence, 107, 340, 428 Industrial epoch, 34, 42, 125, 127, Infant labour, 34, 35, 99, 100 |