ETHICS
art, social reform. Where productive energy persists for
some time, a factor which Dr. Unwin calls * human entropy*
comes into play. Human entropy is the inherent tendency,
manifested as soon as the suitable social conditions are
created, towards increased refinement and accuracy. *No
society can display productive social energy unless a new
generation inherits a social system under which sexual
opportunity is reduced to a minimum. If such a system
be preserved a richer and yet richer tradition will be
created, refined by human entropy/
As a matter of brute historical fact, no civilized society
has tolerated for very long the limitation to a minimum
of its sexual opportunities. Within a few generations, the
rules imposing absolute pre-nuptiaj continence upon
females and absolutely monogamous forms of marriage
are relaxed. When this happens, the society or the class
loses its energy and is replaced by another society, or
another class, whose members have made themselves
energetic by practising sexual continence. ' Sometimes/
writes Dr. Unwin, ca man has been heard to declare that
he wishes both to enjoy the advantages of high culture
and to abolish compulsory continence. The inherent nature
of the human organism, however, seems to be such that
these desires are incompatible, even contradictory. . . .
Any human society is free to choose, either to display
great energy or to enjoy sexual freedom; the evidence is
that it cannot do both for more than one generation.*
We have seen that, as a matter of historical fact, no
society has consented to retain the tradition of pre-nuptial
continence and absolute monogamy for very long. But it
is also a matter of historical fact that these traditions have
always hitherto been associated with the oppression of
women and children. In deistic societies, wives have been
regarded as slaves or mere chattels, having no legal entity.
Custom and law have placed them at the mercy of their
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