This Human Nature A History A Commentary An Exposition

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THIS HUMAN NATURE

THIS HUMAN NATURE

A HISTORY : A COMMENTARY . AN EXPOSITION

r rom the earliest times to the present day

CHARLES DUFF

"The history of these animals with which we are best acquainted,
forms the first object of our chief est curiosity." GolcUmim.

COSMOPOLITAN BOOK CORPORATION
NEV YORK, MCMXXX

COPYRIGHT, 1930, BY CHARLES DUFF

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY
J. J. LITTLE & IVES CO., N. Y.

TO

MY PUBLISHERS

WHOSE SUGGESTION

INSPIRED THIS

BOOK

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T HAVE consulted so many books 'while writing
-* "This Human Nature" that now I hardly remem-
ber the names of one-half of those to which I am
indebted either for material or suggestions. The Bibli-
ography at the end, I think, covers works to which I am
under the greatest obligations, apart from those already
cited in footnotes throughout the book. I sincerely hope
that there is no offensive omission: for that would
annoy me more than it could offend the person whose
name I left out. But if there is, then I trust that my
attention will be drawn to it. I have no desire to take
upon my shoulders the knowledge and wisdom of ages;
and I hardly believe in originality of ideas in litera-
ture. That there can be originality in the form and
manner of presenting ideas is not disputed; and of this,
all I desire to claim as my own is a small measure.

I wish to thank Charles Hunt, Albert Kenfield, and
Norman E. Nash: the first for reading the manuscript,
the second for assistance rendered in many ways, and
the third for moral support and kindly supervision in
the (to me) terrifying task of proof-reading. I desire
also to record my deep indebtedness to Dr. David Duff ;
he has helped me in a brotherly manner across obstacles
which might otherwise have brought me down. Lastly,
I wish to thank Mrs. Ivy M. Duff, my very active
partner in the whole enterprise, who has relieved me of
burdens which threatened to overwhelm. The result of
all this encouragement has been to make the actual
writing of the book an enjoyable spare-time task during

the last year.

vii

viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

// would be too much to expect that, in a work of
such scope, no errors have crept in. One can but hope
that they are not serious. I shall be most grateful to
have my attention directed to inaccuracies, however
slight, so that they may be rectified if the work so far
justifies itself to be worthy of a place amongst histories
and commentaries of a less conventional nature. The
subject is one of general interest and, of course, has
never before been dealt with satisfactorily by any
writer. Quot homines, tot sententice.

C. D.

LONDON, 1930.

CONTENTS

BOOK I : A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY

1. Whys and Wherefores, if Any 3

2. Selfishness; and the Sexual Origin of Society 21

3. From Early Bread-Eating to Modern Canni-

balism 35

4. Manners, Mobs, and War 53

BOOK II: THE TAMING AND SOPHISTICA-
TION OF HUMAN NATURE

1. Real Estate and Juju 85

2. Credulity, Prudery, and the Nature of

Woman 97

3. The Phcnicians 109

4. The Egyptians 120

5. The Taming of Eastern Man 130

6. Liberation of the Mind by the Greeks 144

7. The Golden Age of Reason 160

BOOK III: ROMAN MATERIALISM AND IN-
STITUTIQNALIZED CHRISTIAN-
ITY

1. The Hub of History 175

2. Jesus and His Ethical Poetry 185

3. A Spiritual Challenge to Materialism 193

4. The Superb Influence of Hell 200

5. From Empire and Church to Church-Empire 206

X CONTENTS

6. The Sporting Spirit of Rome 217

7. Allah versus Jehovah 230

8. A Religio-Economic War and Its Conse-

quences 239

9. The Last Phase of Simple Straightforward

Warfare 244

BOOK IV: THE WAYWARD PROGRESSION
OF HUMAN NATURE

1. A Recipe for the Improvement of Morals 255

2. The Influence of Mere Accidents 267

3. The Machine Sets to fTork upon Human

Nature 274

4. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity 285

5. God is God but Business is Business 295

6. War and the Idealism of N apoleon 304

7. The Age of Progress 314

BOOK V: WESTERN CIVILIZATION TODAY
TOMORROW

1. The Eternal Frailties of Human Nature 333

2. Miscellaneous Matters of Sex 350

3. Manners and Morals of the Moderns 360

4. Concerning Change in Human Nature 386

5. A Brief Note on the Future of Human Na-

ture ^ 397

BOOK I

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY

AND A CONSIDERATION OF

THE CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS

OF HUMAN NATURE

THE ANGEL GABRIEL (to God] : How would it be if
You was to doom 'em all ag'in, like dat time You sent
down de flood?

GOD : You see how much good de flood did. Dere dey
is, jest as bad as ever.

GABRIEL: How about cleaning up de whole mess of
'em and sta'tin' all over ag'in wid some new kind of
animal?

GOD: An' admit I'm licked?

GABRIEL (ashamedly] : No, of co'se not, Lawd.

The Green Pastures.
By Marc Connelly.

El hombre es como Dios le hizo, y aun peor muchas

veces.

Cervantes.

I. WHYS AND WHEREFORES, IF ANY

VERY little is known of human nature, and one
reason for this is that man has always made great
efforts to hide his true nature. We do not even know
the origin of mankind; and talk of man's destiny must
be as it always has been, sheer balderdash. Researches
into the antiquity of our remote ancestors have covered
as yet a limited geographical area: a few parts of
Europe, one or two districts in Northern Africa, and
certain spots in Western Asia and North America have
been superficially investigated and have even been
made to yield a few elementary but futile secrets. We
are as yet barely entitled to suggest a possible hypoth-
esis regarding our beginning, though whether there
can be any real utility in bothering at all about the
origin of mankind is a moot point, upon which I for
one do not propose to waste either the reader's or my
own time. We are here because we are here; and no
man that has ever lived can give a better reason.
IT The cosmic importance of man

Amongst the mountains of books that have been writ-
ten about the myriad of aspects of human nature, not
one seems to offer a satisfying speculation regarding
the cause of one of them. To some people it may appear
rather pitiable that we mortals should not know whence
we came, where we go if "go" is the right word
when we die; or why. We are never sure of the reasons
(if any) why we behave as we do while we are here.
One of the most difficult problems to decide is which is
the wise man and which is the fool. By modern stand-
ards, Henry Ford or the man who can cure halitosis is

3

4 THIS HUMAN NATURE

great, and Socrates a perverse old blatherskite who
never did a useful hand's turn in his life; rather he
wasted his own and other men's time by poking an in-
quisitive nose in the direction of mere ideas. Man's
short and conceited strut on this earth hardly gives him
time to realize his utter insignificance in the "Space-
Time-Continuum" ( I) in which this alleged globe spins
its mystical little part. For all that, we are living mat-
ter: as we can prove to ourselves (but not necessarily
to others) by sitting on a red-hot cinder. In history, na-
tions appear and disappear like colonies of ants; and
for almost the same reasons. A casual glance through
a telescope may show us what looks to be a world simi-
lar to our own smashed to smithereens in a collision
with a silly wandering comet. Astronomers assure us
that this is not likely to happen to us; but in nature
the unexpected is not uncommon; nor are astronomers
infallible. In history, the lives of the greatest men
when closely examined show them to be human beings
not greatly dissimilar from ourselves; their story is
often little better than a tale told to idiots.

Now we have reached the twentieth century of the
Christian era and in it life differs from life in the past
only in that it is more complex and faster. But beneath
this speeding up, which as yet devastates only limited
areas of the earth's surface, there is the old and ele-
mental product: human nature. And this human nature
is not uninteresting to observe; it may even be amusing.
Man is still by far the most interesting animal (and
this term also includes woman). His place in the uni-
versal order of things lies somewhere between devil
and deity, on which side it is sometimes difficult to
determine. The first study of man must always be
man, and in such a study a little science may be useful.
But let us be frank in regard to this: science contains
much which, for want of a better word, we may put

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 5

under that broad heading of bunk. Psychology, for ex-
ample, flounders in a sea of pawky contradictions so
absurd that were we to take them seriously they would
deprive us of mind. Anthropologists may give us
the dimensions of the caveman's brainbox, and yet
neither they nor any other scientists can tell us the
meaning of laughter, for which the Lord be praised.
Nor can they tell why a mere idea (or even a tone
of voice) may produce important chemical changes in
our blood, or emotions which may cause us to writhe
or groan. But they try hard, and there is certainly no
lack of words about all this. In the meantime we go on
and on.

IT Climate the earliest and most important influence
Since it is useless for us to speculate upon the arrival
of man on this earth, let us accept him in his primitive
state; for in this he may still be found in many places.
Let us imagine him, then, upon the sparsely populated
globe of, say, half a million years ago. Primitive man
was and is very close to the animal in habits, and some-
times in appearance also. In those early days he lived
in very severe climatic conditions, and his first problems
then as now were to find food and shelter. The natural
modifications of the earth's surface must have had a
tremendous influence on the pristine formation and
development of human nature. Oscillations of the ter-
restrial crust, the chief contributing cause of glacial
cataclysms, modified the climate of large areas includ-
ing those which were inhabited, often causing even
whole continents to disappear, or cutting communica-
tions. We still have with us the legend of the lost con-
tinent Atlantis, and there is some evidence to show
that such a place existed. Change of climate may work
easily noticeable changes in man's nature; not only do
the temperate zones produce more virile and energetic
races than the tropics, but prolonged residence of a

6 THIS HUMAN NATURE

tropical man in the temperate zone or of a temperate
zone man in the tropics, may cause changes even in
one lifetime. The change is slight, but it is there all
the same. The contemporary Negro in the United States
differs slightly from the native African, in that he is
not so lethargic. If a new planetary movement were
suddenly to change the climate of Europe and North
America to that of the river Amazon area in Brazil,
we might be sure of losing much of our dynamic
energy. Such climatic changes were not infrequent in
the early days of man. It will be realized, therefore,
that as the climate of the world has tended and is tend-
ing to change slightly there has been a parallel change
in human nature: in a sense we are all becoming more
temperate, with the climate. But the change is very
gradual.

We arc still swayed by the heritage of the past: at
least 400,000 years of quasi-animal existence; 100,000
years or thereabouts a hunting animal following who
knows how long as a hunted animal; 25,000 years as
social beings, of which period there are records going
back 10,000 years. In this period of 10,000 years at least
four great civilizations have passed through their
spring, summer, autumn, and winter, their infancy,
youth, prime, and old age: in Egypt, in China, on the
shores of the Mediterranean, and in Arabia. To these
may be added a fifth which for convenience we call
Western Civilization, and it includes America. Its
springtime began a thousand years ago amongst West-
ern European nations, and already the older peoples in
it can feel the first blasts which mark the beginning of
winter.

Professor Dorsey has already given us a spirited ac-
count of "Why We Behave Like Human Beings" and
of the "Hows and Whys of Human Behavior" in two
books with these titles, and there is no need to touch

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 7

upon that ground again ; such works are admirable as
far as they go. But there are more ways than one of
dealing with such a subject, and in the history of human
nature there is much virgin soil. Here I propose to at-
tempt a survey of this history, as it appears to me. The
great difficulty is to glean from a mountainous rubbish
heap of historical writings a few of the most significant
facts, sparse diamonds of common sense, and to work
them to a pattern which will be becoming to human
nature as a whole.
f Two thousand million liars?

There are about two thousand million men, women,
and children alive now, and a cursory glance at their
nature and at history will convince us that no two
human beings are alike or regard their fellows in pre-
cisely the same light. Another fact will become appar-
ent as the present work progresses, and it is that man
is seldom a greater liar than when he writes or speaks
of himself. The greatest caution is therefore necessary
in an examination of historical records. There is a*
school of thought which teaches that it is impossible
for any person to write the true history of anything,
because truth means something different to each human
being. I myself believe that there can be no such thing
as objective writing, because between the subject mat-
ter and what is actually written there intervenes a
human personality: a bundle of emotions, vices, virtues,
illusions, and prejudices.
If Pilate's great question: What is truth?

To illustrate this I may cite a modern experiment in
psychology, one which gives an astounding side-light
on human nature. It is one which ought never be for-
gotten by historians, journalists, lawyers; or even by
readers of this book. A professor wished to test both
the accuracy of his pupils in observation and their
ability to reproduce in writing what they had observed.

8 THIS HUMAN NATURE

His class consisted of educated and intelligent young
men and women of this twentieth century. Without
previous warning a simple incident was enacted in
their presence during a lecture in classroom, and tin-
mediately afterwards each pupil was asked to write a
full account of what had occurred. Each one had a dif-
ferent story to tell; they were not even agreed about
what might be essentials. The incident was repeated a
second time. It was a simple incident, such as a child
could appreciate and understand. But even the second
accounts were grossly inaccurate and conflicting. Re-
peated yet a third time only a few could write down
with anything approaching accuracy an account of that
little event with the incidents leading to it, in the exact
order of occurrence, and with a reasonable sense of per-
spective.

A slow-motion cinematograph picture showed these
young people what had actually happened, and
they were bewildered. A few of the more "strong-
minded" among them argued that they were right and
the film wrong. So it is with history, about which our
doubts must always be great. There are two different
accounts of the creation, both inspired by the Creator.
There are four differing accounts of the life of Jesus,
all written by men of impeccable character and above
suspicion in the worldly sense. This being so, let us be
merciful and forgive the ordinary human historians
their human nature.

Nevertheless, on the strength of the above, we may
propound a useful axiom for all readers of history and
newspapers. It is this: Assume that historians and all
other writers are prejudiced, consciously or uncon-
sciously; that there can be no such thing as impar-
tiality; that he who claims it is either a knave or a slave
or a fool; and that above all it is part of the nature of
writers to be perverse. The more brilliant a piece of

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 9

writing is, the more likely it is to disarm suspicion.
So beware.

No excuse is offered for the tone of this survey.
1 The road to ruin

We see around us men and women at their best and
at their worst, and the humdrum of life provides us
with a mean or norm. A definite standard or "yard
stick" is hardly possible or even necessary in assessing
human nature, which is only nakedly exposed during
stress or emergency or by pure accident. A king or
president, prime minister or bishop, or great financier
who dared expose his real nature to the world would
be straightway ruined. As a rule such star turns of
mankind are well aware of that simple fact, though
they very often make the mistake of underestimating
the perspicacity of their more humble fellow creatures.
Even Napoleon failed in the long run to do as he
pleased. But mostly the mob is so blind, apathetic,
ignorant, or helpless that a great rascal with the aid of
bounce and bluff, and a working knowledge of human
nature may stalk brazenly through life, loudly adver-
tising hoof and horns. The ordinary man is so fright-
ened when other men begin to know his true nature
that he hastens to disguise it as quickly as possible: by
dissimulation, mystification, hocus-pocus, exaggera-
tion, romance, and rationalization; not to mention a
host of other very human tricks, far too familiar to the
reader to be worthy of mention here.

A swift survey of recorded history shows us that in
the mass human nature has changed very little. The
great religions assume that there is never any change.
Possibly if any great change ever occurred it was dur-
ing those hundreds of thousands of years from which
no record has survived. Manners and customs (or, as
some insist upon calling them, morals) may have be-
come a little more cruel in their mental as opposed to

10 THIS HUMAN NATURE

physical effects; or on occasion more refined in their
cruelty. But as regards the basic instincts and emotions,
one human being is still much the same as another; and
each age in world history is like another, in this respect.
In his ponderous "Decline of the West" the dis-
tinguished German mystical theorist and historical
thaumaturgist, Oswald Spengler, would show us that
each epoch throws up its "type," which differs from
the "types" thrown up in other periods of history. In
the civilizations best known to us he exemplifies three
principal "types" of man, the Apollinian, Faustian, and
Magian; and we are to believe that the very nature of
these types differs that western man has changed, and
will change again. But is not the change one merely of
intellect and manners both very superficial things
and not in the innate character of the animal? Were
Socrates alive today, and you stood heavily upon his
pet corn (supposing he had a corn, and a pet one), it is
doubtful if all his wisdom could enable him to preserve
that philosophic calm for which his name is famous:
pain, real or imagined, always reacts in resentment or
wrath. Stick a Woolworth's pin into the sitting part of
Mr. G. B. Shaw, and Mr. G. B. Shaw will yell more
loudly than is his wont. The social indignation from
which he habitually, but very patiently, suffers may in
this manner easily be changed into anger of quite a dif-
ferent sort against you as an individual. Imagine an-
other experiment: Place three of Spengler's healthy
young Apollinian, Faustian, and Magian males on an
island by themselves with only one pretty young woman
of eighteen or twenty summers, and what problems
would surely arise? Only one; and that would not be
based upon reason or morality or manners. It is doubt-
ful if the woman would be given the vote in such cir-
cumstances. If there were no restraints of law, and no
unwritten code of morals on that island, it would be

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY II

surprising if the problem were solved without vio-
lence: the most likely, and probably the best solution
biologically, being a process of elimination, which
would leave one man to share his lean-to with the out-
wardly resentful, but inwardly delighted woman. For
in such matters as this the woman is instinctively cruel;
and, happily, incapable of civilization.
WLofty purpose of this work

Interesting as such speculations may be, it may per-
haps be as well at this early stage of this treatise to
define more clearly its scope and purpose; and to indi-
cate to whom it is more particularly addressed. It is
a survey in easy terms of human nature, as shown by
the behavior of men and women toward their fellows
and the universe, in the course of history, and at the
present day. Let us hope that from it we shall be able to
draw a reasonable forecast of mankind's future. Two
classes of people must assuredly reap enormous benefits
from a careful perusal of such a work. First, those
who wish to know the nature of their friends and
enemies in order that they may love and help them.
This class is a very numerous one. Secondly, those who,
by learning more about their fellow creatures, may
thereby perhaps be able to add to their material pos-
sessions. There are so few of this somewhat sordid class
in a world which, after two thousand years of fasting
and prayer, is nearing perfection, that we may almost
leave them out of consideration.

This perfection is not difficult to illustrate. The
peoples of the chief civilized nations of the world have
hardly yet recovered from the most devastating and
cruel war of which we know, but they must needs be
preparing hypocritically for another. Europe has now
ten million more men under arms than she had in 1914,
and the United States does not neglect measures of
defense and preparations for the bigger and better

12 THIS HUMAN NATURE

slaughter of the millions of enemies which its worldly
success has inevitably created. All this demonstrates in
a fairly practical and easily comprehensible manner
the profound effect which the Sermon on the Mount
has had upon the better side of human nature. The
prosaic cloud of poison gas has replaced the more pic-
turesque cloud of arrows, in itself clearly proving our
moral superiority over primitive man and the genera-
tions that come between us and them. Are not the users
of high explosives spiritually superior to the wielders
of clubs and battle-axes? Is not the aerial incendiary
bomb, which grills the sleeping infant, a fair indication
of the tender hearts which beat amongst the leaders of
the higher races? Could anything be sweeter to con-
template than the fact that during the recent European
war it was not uncommon on both sides for guns to be
blessed before an action began? I can assure the pious
reader from personal observation that in at least one
case the results were in every way satisfactory.

It is almost a truism with writers that the moral sen-
timent of men and women has now reached a high
state of development. There is no doubt whatever that
it has improved noticeably as a result of the teachings
of the great moralists, as a result of bludgeonings, wars
of religion, religious torture, hangings and electro-
cutions, vegetarianism, widespread and easy communi-
cations, and modern influences such as Coueism, Chris-
tian Science, and the Four-Square Gospel.
IF Morality depends on mob mind

Moral sentiment was based entirely upon material
expediency and custom. Originally the actions of men
were good or evil in accordance with the material
utility or physical harmfulness of their consequences to
the community. It is only recently, say within the last
ten thousand years, or thereabouts, that men ever
thought of motives leading to actions, and this was a

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 13

philosophical subtlety of the lazier, more intelligent
members of the tribe who preferred the comfort of the
fireside, with the eternal delights of gossip and argu-
ment, to the rigors and vicissitudes of the hunt. The
theory of the origin of evil which most fits common
observation is that it sprang from the desire of the in-
dividual either to gain pleasure or to avoid discomfort.
It did not always occur to the individual to consider
that what pleased him might not only cause his fellows
actual discomfort but be prejudicial to the interests of
the tribe at large. Hence a man was regarded as good
or "moral" if his behavior did not interfere with the
well-being of those around him. In other words the
"moral" man was he, and the "moral" woman she, who
obeyed laws and customs accepted by usage, however
strange they might be.

As circumstances changed, the old laws and customs
remained, but the desire for pleasure and the avoidance
of discomfort also remained in individuals. Through-
out the whole of history there have been in every coun-
try, race, and community, men and women who were
" immoral" because their innate desires conflicted with
the generally accepted wishes of the community, and
also because the conservatism of a small but powerful
section of communities always fights for the continu-
ation of ancient law and custom. Thus, in the early days
of strong drink, it was evil for a man to get drunk
because the tribe might at any moment require his ser-
vices in battle. Today in prohibition countries, we have
a similar instance : in the United States men and women
are forbidden to drink alcoholic beverages because of
the possible loss in material efficiency, represented by a
collection of dollars in a bank. There has always been,
and still exists, yet another class of persons who are
marked down as immoral simply because they annoy
their neighbors without actually harming them. Until

14 THIS HUMAN NATURE

recently, amongst the aborigines of Australia, such per-
sons had their insides magically tied in knots by an art
which is now unhappily lost.
IF Man is a new animal

But let us return. It may be assumed (in view of the
wisdom of that curiosity, the average man) that our
ancestry is both long and distinguished; and that our
forebears may once have had the good sense to career
about on all fours, and to munch nuts in the tree tops.
At the same time we must not take too much for
granted, because another Lamarck or Darwin may
arise to reverse the present theory of evolution, and
prove by a mighty array of "facts" that the biblical
story is correct.

At a rough computation there have lived ten thou-
sand generations of descendants of the ape-men: a total
of, say, twenty million millions of human beings who
have inhabited the world since those far-off days when
our hairy ancestor pommeled the ground with his
closed fists in stupid rage at the duplicity of his soul-
mate. As the earth itself is so very, very old, we may re-
gard man as a comparatively new arrival upon it. In-
deed he is still raw and somewhat awkward in his new
surroundings. Many races have not yet learned the use
of clothes, and, when we civilized people visit a primi-
tive tribe of Negroes, we are amused at the sight of a
dark gentleman wearing a collar and tie, a top hat, a
loin-cloth and spats, with nothing else to cover his
nakedness. But we are no more startled than were the
Africans who first saw a white man wearing a bowler
hat or plus fours, and were staggered by the sight not
without reason, I think.

Nobody knows for certain whether there is life in
any of the planetary systems ; but there seems to be no
reason why life in a form beyond our comprehension
should not exist in other parts of the universe, espe-

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 15

cially as we cannot understand that form of it with
which we are acquainted here. Nor is there any reason
to suppose that, if there is life in other worlds, it
reaches its highest point in beings resembling our
friends and neighbors. The probabilities are all against
it, but to think of such matters is good for the soul, and
helps us to gain a sense of perspective of our place in
nature. The only reasonable conclusion one can reach
by such contemplation is that we are about as important
in the universal scheme of things as an influenza germ
in a gin palace.
If A bungled job?

It is only modern man who has regarded the world
as anything but the center of the known universe, and
himself as anything but the highest and most important
form of life that has ever existed, or could possibly
exist. But, if science now teaches us otherwise as re-
gards the universe, we know by looking round our
narrow circle of acquaintances, by considering some
of the greatest figures in history, their lives and habits,
and then by thinking of ourselves, that, if there is no
higher form of life than man, there has surely been a
piece of bungling somewhere. It is, however, a com-
fort to realize that to have peace of mind while we are
here it is unnecessary for us to solve such problems,
tantalizing as they are. At the same time there is no
reason why we should not amuse ourselves by examin-
ing briefly into this state of life to which it has pleased
God to call us ; and perhaps form a working hypothesis
regarding its basis and structure. Such things have
amused stupid men as far back as the memory of the
human race extends; for none but stupid men and
women imagine that by the aid of a finite mind they
can grasp infinite things.

Let us go back as close to the beginning as is prac-
tical,, and take a cursory glance at that now fatndus

l6 THIS HUMAN NATURE

ancestor of ours, the unpleasant blob of animate jelly
which the textbooks call protozoon. How did it deport
itself and habitually behave toward its fellow proto-
zoon in those very remote days (so remote that there is
no record of them except in human imagination) be-
fore it succeeded in achieving the dignity and status of
the walking ape which, by the grace of God, became
man?
f The proud protozoon

The spiritual side of the protozoon's nature con-
sisted chiefly of pride in itself, and so utterly proud
was it that its chief desires were divided between self-
preservation and self-reproduction. It had no sex to
speak of, and therefore experienced neither joy nor
grief in the process of multiplication; indeed it must
have had a dull, miserable existence; and was quite
incapable of being psychoanalyzed by Freudian tech-
nique. Its courtship, like that of a religious ascetic, was
of itself; its wooing was eating and drinking. Then
at maturity it would break up into nuclei, round which
portions of simple living matter remained or gathered
to grow into baby protozoa: replicas of their principal
or creator. They in turn became other protozoa, and
such was the simple cycle of primitive life: pride in
self provided the motive of life, the elan vital of Berg-
son. From this we may argue that SELFISHNESS was the
driving force of primeval organic life.

It is nevertheless true that this love of self, pride in
self, selfishness call it what you will manifests itself
in a myriad forms. But it is not a rule that the more
complex forms of life must necessarily have it in a com-
plex form, though the tendency is that way. The form
in which selfishness occurs differs in individual animals
and men, differs from age to age, from country to coun-
try, race to race, and often from time to time in the life
of the same person in different circumstances. Selfish-

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 17

ness works in a thousand disguises, many of them amaz-
ingly difficult to find if you are not looking for them.
Who suspects of selfishness the dear old lady who seeks
out the blind beggar to give him a shilling? But does
she not do this for the sake of a very self-satisfying
thrill, even when pity or bad conscience are in the
background ?

I am informed if I may digress for a moment
that to contemplate the origin of our race in a speck of
jelly, and our progressive development through an
elaborate ancestry of sponges, worms, clams, centi-
pedes, sharks, snakes, lizards, sloths, and monkeys is
very distressing to many good people. It is a shock to
those sacred religious beliefs which they have learned
from their parents and teachers. But let them just think
for one moment of the truth behind the stork story: that
they have themselves a germinal origin and a humili-
ating embryonic development, as every schoolgirl now
knows; and then let them consider seriously the pros-
pect presented in the other theory; and there is really
very little in it to which exception may be taken.
IF Enmity based on the desire for life

But to return to our ancestral jelly. In the protozoon
there was that strange spark which for want of a better
word we call life. It was essentially a craving to live,
and this craving manifests itself everywhere through-
out the plant, animal, and human world. Basically it is
primitive feeling, and throughout every phase of ex-
istence it retains at all times its principal features. The
old proverb says, "Self-preservation is the first law of
nature," and this is a scientific truth. It is only when
human beings lose normal reason and reach the highest
pinnacles of humanity that they honestly deny the truth
in this idea. Self-sacrifice may be the highest form of
morality and suicide may be logical: but both are
nearly always antibiological. When the protozoon ran

l8 THIS HUMAN NATURE

short of his accustomed diet, he overcame hunger by
consuming one, or a part of one, of his own race. He
would eat his own parent or brother. The wide-spread
growth of cannibalism amongst those rather unpleasant
ancestors of our was responsible for the beginning and
rapid growth of self-defense, growing out of fear, based
on self-interest, and ultimately springing from pride
and the craving for self-continuation and perpetuation.
Thus the spirit of enmity arose and flourished. Eaters
were considered enemies by the possible meals; and
vice versa. Hence the origin of an ineradicable habit
common to all life. War. So long as protozoa are
hungry they will fight to exist. It is the simple law of
all life. It applies equally in the jungle, and amongst
civilized nations today. So long as there are so many
people that existing food supply is insufficient, there is
only one way out: destruction, usually in the form of
war. There are, of course, other causes for war. It has
been made into an amusement at different times in the
world's history. There have been wars for which the
only reason was the whim or fancy of a ruler. There
have been wars regarding invisible and intangible
things, such as the Supreme Being, Hell, or the Devil.
There have been purely grabbing wars, not prompted
by sheer hunger, but by greed. And there have been
wars such as the recent European war, for which no set
of satisfactory reasons has yet been found, but which
may be blamed ultimately upon sheer human stupidity,
and human cussedness on both sides. The social and
spiritual changes in mankind that have resulted from
war are without number.

The antagonism which springs from selfishness exists
throughout all nature, often with very beneficial re-
sults. Is not competition the soul of trade? Two firms
produce or sell similar articles, and in order to attract
customers they must attempt to surpass each other, if

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 19

not in the quality or fine price-cutting of the goods,
then in the advertising or telling lies about the goods.
In advertising it is not always necessary to tell the
truth, although there are on record cases where the
plain truth was told with disastrous results; as many
men of business may whisper in your ear.
If The dominant law of human nature

As a result of cannibalism and fighting, the proto-
zoon developed new qualities and, indeed, evolved into
entirely different forms of life. These forms might dif-
fer in outward appearance, but they all retained the
original characteristics of pride in existence and self-
ishness, though often certain favored creatures would
be able to conceal them. A million new creatures came
into being, encouraged their own existence by every
trick and craftiness imaginable ; and they preyed upon
one another. The highest form of life which sprang
from primeval mud was man, who became Lord of
Creation because he had more pride in his existence,
more craving for life, and more selfishness than any
other beast of the field.

That is a brief account of the dominant law of
human nature ; the law of selfishness.

This law has innumerable corollaries, one of which
is that the unselfish creature is either killed or eaten
often swallowed alive or otherwise extinguished until
its species disappears. The selfish animal may develop
its selfishness into a form of cunning called intelligence,
and this, with an assortment of related qualitTes7may
enable it to draw many advantages from other animals
less intelligent than itself. I should perhaps mention
that this theory of pride in self is by no means new.
Nor is it always considered a high motive for existence.
Twice at least, as we shall see later, it has been power-
fully challenged: by the Indian mystic and teacher,
Gautama Buddha, who taught the complete elimina-

20 THIS HUMAN NATURE

tion of self; and again by the Jewish realist, Jesus of
Nazareth, who, following the idea propounded by the
Chinese philosopher Lao-tsu of six hundred years
earlier, said, "Love thy neighbor as thyself."
IT Impossible to love one's neighbor as one's self

Both ideas have from time to time caught, held and
even inflamed the imaginations of many good men.
Large bodies of mankind have rendered them lip
service, but very few who lived or live in the hurly-
burly of life have ever attempted to put them into
practice. There are others who make a spare-time
amusement of playing with the precepts of moralists
for an hour or so every week. That is, they make a
hobby of them. In the twentieth century there is among
ourselves a tacit acknowledgment of the utter imprac-
ticability of Christianity, the real reason being that to
take it seriously always means the suffering of sheer
physical discomfort And man, like all other animals,
prefers comfort to discomfort; more so now than ever
before in the course of his existence.

This theory of pride is worth a little thought. It ex-
plains many otherwise obscure problems of life. It
helps us, for example, to realize why man made God in
his own image. It also explains why the fully developed
type of higher man has often been driven by pride to
master the technique of selfishness, and hence to form
great empires; or to constitute himself a high priest of
religion, a prime minister, a mathematician, or a great
creative artist in literature or one of the arts; or now-
adays to turn himself into a hard-boiled millionaire.
Pride, says G. K. Chesterton, consists in a man's making
his personality the only test, instead of making the truth
the test; and cheek is not an assertion of superiority, but
rather a bold attempt to balance inferiority. He goes
even further, and states that all evil began with some
attempt at superiority. We are able to prove the truth

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 21

of this profound Catholic thought by the example of
the protozoon continuing its existence and proving its
superiority over its brother by virtue of having eaten
him. The rich man does precisely the same with the
poor.

2. SELFISHNESS ; AND THE SEXUAL ORIGIN OF SOCIETY

WE have already seen that self-regard is the pri-
mary quality of living matter, whether this be
in the form of protozoa, insects, or animals, including
apes and men. This self-regard or selfishness is the
fount of a great diversity of characteristics, some of
which, such as memory, hunger, power of adjustment
to environment and power of growth, are inherent;
while others are acquired, or secondary characteristics,
such as fear. The sexual qualities (of which I shall
have much to say later), which spring from the desire
for self-perpetuation, are of great importance and give
rise to a host of secondary qualities upon which society
is based. Indeed, the sexual qualities are largely re-
sponsible for the present organization of society.
1 Society based on sex

In primitive society the only ties between human
beings were the sexual, and out of this bond grew the
habit of association. At first man was a solitary animal
which wandered about in search of food, avoiding all
others of his kind, excepting females. Over one or more
of these he exercised an uncontrolled despotism and,
although he permitted his mates to have no rights, he
was prepared if need be to fight for them. But it is only
in the lower strata of society that this is so. In the East
End of London a man will still fight for his mate if
another threatens to run off with her; in the West (and
more aristocratic) End, he lets her go, perhaps with a

22 THIS HUMAN NATURE

philosophic sigh of relief. This is a slight change in
human nature, though an unimportant one.

A strange compound of intense individualism and
the sexual instinct, blossoming into fear or hate (they
are almost the same thing) and jealousy, was respon-
sible for the family tie.

On this foundation all human institutions are based.

Following upon the mud and slime age it is con-
jectured that there came an age of reptiles, and then
appeared the crawling mammal which learned to walk,
climb, and chatter. In its wanderings through time it
learned the use of language, and thereby acquired a
soul. In proof of this "Doctrine of Evolution," as it is
called, we are told that before man reaches maturity
he even now passes through all these stages, and at
maturity is maybe still near to certain members of the
monkey family, both in appearance and behavior. To
this I would recommend for the consideration of scien-
tists an observation of my own : that many full-grown
men and women have the characteristics of one or more
of the phases of life through which we all pass before
birth. I myself have often seen worms, fishes, reptiles,
birds, apes, and other mammals, such as wolves and
sheep, walking about on two feet, dressed in human
clothing; and to all intents and purposes behaving like
human beings so well that you could hardly tell them
from the real article.
1f Tales of tails

If still further proof of our close relationship to
monkeys were necessary (and I am not at all sure that
it is), we have only to consider those vestigial or rudi-
mentary tails, often distressingly long, which are fre-
quently found on men and women. In that advanced
anti-evolution state Tennessee, in this century a baby
was born with a tail eight inches long, and it
grieves me to have to report that the doctors interfered

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 23

with the course of nature by sawing it off. In this man-
ner Tennessee deals summarily with evolution. It is
also recorded that, within the last fifty years, at least
one distinguished and greatly beloved member of a
European royal family cream of the cream of western
civilization possessed a rudimentary tail of no mean
dimensions. It was so perky that before mounting on
horseback he had to cover it with a cotton "tail-stall":
otherwise the hindermost appendage of that royal per-
son would tend to become chafed at critical moments
on solemn public occasions, causing the wearer to ap-
pear to be suffering from some malady or habit such as
would ill become a man of blue blood.
If Pen-picture of Adam

That fallen angel, the father of humanity, was in
many ways a better man than we think he was. Nobody
knows exactly what he was like, but, following the de-
ductions of scientists, we may draw our own con-
clusions as to his nature and appearance. In stature he
was low and thick-set, with thin legs that were inclined
to be bandy; a shaggy creature of dirty yellow or
brownish color, with an undershot jaw and strong yel-
low teeth, the canines projecting slightly over thick,
sensual lips. Some say he had a dash of the ape in
him; perhaps they are right. When angry, which might
be at any moment, he bellowed, gnashing his molars;
and tears of rage often filled his fierce little eyes. When
pleased he threw back his head and showed the whole
of his dental equipment, puckering cheeks and jowl as
a dog does. Restless bright eyes glowered from under
a low, beetle brow. His appetite was voracious, and he
fed upon almost anything edible, from the lean raw
flesh of his kith and kin to the roots and fruits of the
forest. Nor was he above devouring carrion in seasons
of necessity, for there were times when long enforced
fasts made him the complete animal. The outside of his

24 THIS HUMAN NATURE

dwelling is described by a most eminent writer as a
veritable garbage-heap consisting of decayed and de-
caying remnants of many meals. It was only with diffi-
culty that primitive man restrained his offspring from
picking over this garbage-heap, because he was not
convinced in his own mind that to eat from it was
either unhealthy or unpleasant. Man even now often
eats putrid food, in the form of game and cheese, as a
delicacy. In China he eats rotten eggs.

The primitive man was incapable of sustained effort
in anything except flight from his enemies. He never
expended energy methodically, or knew method in any-
thing. But he was capable of great physical exertion
in emergency, like most lazy animals; and his robust
constitution could bear severe pain and offer resistance
to inclement climatic conditions. The nature of early
man was mercurial : quick changes from joy to sorrow,
from mirth to anger and from placidity to excitement
were his wont. At one moment he would beat his wife
(or wives) unmercifully, and the next he would grunt
loving nothings into her (or their) not too clean ears;
and perhaps playfully turn a female over to work off
a short spasm of remorse or emotional reaction. Mere
trifles annoyed, angered, or amused our primitive. He
took little heed for the morrow, leaving that to his
female housekeepers, who were also his beasts of
burden and incidentally the animals upon which he
most often vented his spleen. His intellect was of the
imitative sort, and its development was entirely due to
a terrible struggle for existence. Early man was a
hunted as well as a hunting animal, and fearful were
the monsters he had to encounter. Before at last holding
his own against the huge beasts and reptiles that sur-
rounded him, he was driven from post to pillar, from
cave to tree top, from one garbage heap to another; it
was in this process of being hunted that he developed

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 25

most of that cunning which later became known as

intellect.

H Bludgeon man's first invention

Early man could mimic cleverly the shriek of the
hawk, the howl of the wolf, the meow of the scented
polecat, the deep bellow of the buffalo ; these mimick-
ings were his first articulations. The track of beast or
fowl was an open book which he read as he ran, in a
crouching attitude, mostly on all fours, standing up-
right only to peer into the jungle. One man of a scien-
tific turn of mind and of superior intelligence invented
a most useful household utensil : the bludgeon. With it
he could not only silence a nagging mate, but more
easily defend himself against other men or animals.
The bludgeon evolved into a sort of boomerang; and
another genius invented the spear. The knife used was
a sharp shell, and it was an ingenious fellow who
thought of tying this to the end of a casting stick. These
simple weapons were used with formidable strength
and skill, and the power they gave to primitive men
merely whetted their appetite for more. Then came the
mighty genius who, by a divine stroke of wit, invented
the bow capable of sending a suitably modified spear
on an errand of useful destruction. Yet another man of
genius came forward with poison for the end of the
arrow; and in this manner was evolved the weapon
which very largely helped to change man from a
hunted into a hunting animal.

In the early days of humanity those who were not of
the same flesh and blood were enemies, to be extermin-
ated by any trick or trap. Man asked for no quarter and
expected none. He demanded no explanation of the
universe and was not troubled by abstractions other
than vague, nightmarish imaginings of the "Great Un-
known" intellectual contact had not yet been estab-
lished with either God or Devil. A lazy, unprogressive

26 THIS HUMAN NATURE

brute he was, whose life was eating, drinking, sleeping,
and occasionally fighting; his intellectual development,
as in the case of most modern men, ceased shortly after
the attainment of puberty.
IT Origin of language

Communication with other members of the race was
achieved by an uncouth chattering and gesticulation.
It was in this communing that our primitive ancestor
showed his greatest originality. Talking was his favor-
ite pastime, just as it is among men today. An instinctive
prompting caused the formulation of simple language.
We do not know whether it was man or woman who
first used language: but man has always used it with
greatest effect in dealing with numbers of his fellow
men, and woman has always used it with greatest effect
in dealing with individuals. The nagging wife of the
primitive had an immense influence upon the develop-
ment of language, for the male was often compelled to
ransack his imagination for words to reply to the usual
feminine shrewishness. Many of those early words
had sounds indicative of their meaning: "bow-wow,"
"pooh-pooh," "tut-tut," the more sophisticated word
"borborygmus," and so forth are survivals to our own
times. In our own age children say "choo-choo" for
locomotive. It is also probable that conversation was
interspersed with clickings of the tongue, gutturals,
glottal stops, sniffs, snorts, and wheezings; as well as
gestures and signs like those used by the deaf and
dumb. Vocabulary was limited to essentials : the chase
and the needs of the home. The physically lazier men
remained indoors and became more subtle intellec-
tually than those who went ahunting.

It may be interesting for us to consider for the mo-
ment the mentality of this primitive man. Probably the
greatest authority on the subject is Levy-Bruhl. He
shows us that primitive man's mentality was, and is,

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 27

extremely different from our own. Everything which
happened around primitive man, and was not imme-
diately explicable or very obviously a simple occur-
rence, was connected with occult or mystic powers.
These mystic forces, which he treats as first causes, re-
main invisible and intangible to his ordinary means of
perception. The connection and effect is immediate; it
does not admit of intermediate links, or at least if it
recognizes them it regards them as negligible. Primi-
tive mentality is thus indifferent to secondary causes,
and it is in this that we find the greatest difference be-
tween early human nature and our own. The savage
mind is so absorbed by the occult and mystic first cause
that what is to us the intermediate chain of causes dis-
appears entirely from his vision. Thus, even today
amongst primitives, if a crocodile devours a man, or he
is killed by having eaten an unknown poisonous plant,
the mind of the primitive leaps immediately to magic
or witchcraft of a sorcerer as the true cause, and at-
taches no importance whatever to the crocodile or the
poison.
1 Primitive men of genius

Notwithstanding the above important difference in
the primitive's outlook and our own, Levy-Bruhl has
given us a mass of evidence to show that the intel-
lect of our early ancestor can hardly have been inferior
in capacity to our own. It is certainly not to be viewed
as a rudimentary form of ours, as infantile and almost
pathological. If there is one way in which man differs
from brute creation, it is in the marvelous powers of
imagination which he possesses, even in his very primi-
tive state. The peculiar quality of human imagination is
its power, varying to an amazing extent amongst indi-
viduals, to visualize phenomena and their intercon-
nections wholly witkin the mind. It was this imagina-
tive activity of mind which produced the supreme

28 THIS HUMAN NATURE

genius who discovered how to create fire; the genius
who invented the wheel ; the genius who saw the incal-
culable possibilities in cereal plants; the genius who
first mounted a horse; the genius who first tamed a dog;
and the genius who first domesticated the cow, the goat,
and the sheep. It is this same quality of imagination
we see it in every age of recorded history which ac-
counts for all discoveries, inventions, and creations.

It was the same power of imagination that created a
whole series of morbid and other illusions which per-
sist to this very day. "The idea of unseen power in in-
definable and intangible things was, as we shall see
later, a tremendously weighty discovery both from the
point of view of its subsequent importance for most
modern religion and science." * Its earliest expression
was of the simple and concrete character of the present-
day West African fetish, to which the native ascribes
a power to bring him luck, or of the floating tree trunk
in the river, which by its mysterious appearances and
disappearances still gives the Fijian hill tribes or the
Ten'a Indians the impression of a mystical power. In
modern times we have in the world many primitive
tribes, but the spread of "civilized" ideas has in some
way or other affected them, generally for the worse.
A great link with the primitive past was severed in
1877, when the last member of the Tasmanian race
died. The Tasmanians were in almost every sense of the
word thoroughgoing primitives, and it is from a close
observation of their life and habits that we are able to
make many reasonable deductions regarding our an-
cestors.
If Unknown origin of the "God" idea

There is still some doubt in the minds c even the
most confident students of religion and anthropology
as to the origin of the "God" idea. We may speculate

* L<vy-Bruhl.

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 29

that it began in the animistic tendency of primitive
minds reading it into surrounding nature, as in the case
of the crocodile or the tree trunk cited above. But that
primitive man sat on his tail thinking hard for hour
upon hour, after the manner of an Einstein, as to the
origin of his existence, and then in a flash solved the
mystery by attributing life to gods or a god (for the
idea of one universal God is fairly modern) is an ut-
terly absurd proposition. Primitive man in the early
stages was so lacking in practical intelligence that he
often failed during the summer to lay in a store for the
wants of an inevitable winter. It is therefore most un-
likely that he should have had the particular form of
intellectual acumen necessary to evolve an idea of God
very quickly, when he had scarcely got beyond eating
carrion and bludgeoning any neighbor who interfered
with his promiscuity.

Fear has been both the savior and, in a sense, the de-
stroyer of human nature. We have seen that all life is
based on selfishness and the will to live, but with this
always goes the fear of pain or death. Fear is both an
instinct and an emotion. "The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom." If we substitute the word Un-
known for Lord although there is no real need for us
moderns to do so we find the wisdom which provides
impetus to our natural craving for life. Fear is a neces-
sary characteristic in the preservation of personality,
as any actor on the stage will tell you. We are afraid to
do this, that, or the other thing, lest those around us
obtain a view of our lives, different from that which we
wish to convey. It is a favorite ingredient in drama,
and it is because of it that the religious spirit has
persisted Abolish fear, and you remove much of the
driving force of many great actions. From my own
personal experience, I am inclined to believe that nine-
tenths of the courage so widely manifested in the Euro-

30 THIS HUMAN NATURE

pean war was the result of fear. Men were afraid to be
afraid. To create this fear of being afraid, a thousand
and one tricks and devices were necessary, in the form
of propaganda, social taboos, ignominy, and even the
threat of execution. A man in the front-line trenches
was presented with two alternatives. The first, to face
the enemy with a sporting chance of survival, and per-
haps of promotion or decoration for some act conspicu-
ously useful to his side. The second, court-martial by
a group of men armed with powers of life and death,
and brutalized by the modern system of military train-
ing which, to be effective, must be as cruel as that of
the jungle.
IT The importance of fear

We shall meet with many types of fear. There is
women's fear of mice or spiders, which, considering
the bravery with which they face, for example, a heavy
operation, is something inexplicable. Then there are
physical and moral fears, as well as physical and moral
bravery. Demosthenes, the Greek orator, who displayed
supreme moral courage at a time of crisis in his city,
was nevertheless so subject to physical fear that, when
he fell against a bush in a military retreat, he is said to
have groveled before it, asking it for mercy. It is per-
haps during an earthquake or a shipwreck that human
beings are most likely to show their courage or their
fear. The truly moral man will not pillage during an
earthquake, nor will he fight in a shipwreck, crushing
beneath him women and children in an endeavor to
find a seat in a lifeboat.

We hear from time to time, even nowadays, prophe-
cies to the effect that the world will end on such and
such a date. Some years ago there was a scare about
this, and in various parts of the world, but particu-
larly in the United States, there were thousands of
people who went to church and prayed ardently in a

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 31

manner never before their custom that they might be
saved from the catastrophe. Fear, after all, is merely
one of the forms of selfishness which keep us alive.
Fear and worry regarding his destiny are two of the
chief causes for man's progressive theology. The wor-
ship of ghosts figments of a terrified imagination
afterwards supplanted by the pagan deities, and then
by the single God, are the stepping-stones of this
progess.
1 The cause of music

It has been found that one of the best ways to avoid
fear and worry is by singing, and the use of music.
These auxiliaries have been used, and are used by al-
most every religious system. The bagpipes of the Scot-
tish Highlanders, used in the military exploits for
which their history is renowned, are employed not only
to drive away fear from those accustomed to such
sounds, but to instil it into the hearts of their enemies.
The opera, the musical comedy, and jazz are the con-
temporary antidotes and compensations for the fears
and worries of a conscience-stricken civilization. Sol-
diers often sing most lustily when they are afraid. In
England we have seen another example of this
same musical principle, although the motive which
caused it sprang from the desire of a newspaper to ad-
vertise itself. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of
people were easily gathered together for the purpose of
community song and hymn singing. For a time it ban-
ished their worries, just as the singing of that militant
hymn "Onward, Christian Soldiers" will make any-
body feel an inward urge to march heavenwards. On
Empire Day, 1928, at least 150,000 persons gathered
together in Hyde Park, London, and sang this hymn,
with a fervored enthusiasm which is difficult to de-
scribe. The emotional effect was to convert them into a
herd that could have been swayed in any direction by

32 THIS HUMAN NATURE

a capable orator, chipping in at the right moment, as
the keen psychologists of Christian teaching are wont
to do during a religious service.

The reader may feel inclined to think that a com-
parison between ourselves and our primitive fore-
fathers is disparaging to ourselves. If it makes you feel
destitute of cherished virtues there is no need to be
alarmed, for did you not possess them you would be
inhuman. Learn now that by acquiring an insight into
human nature, it will enable you to pursue the even
tenor of your destiny with a compass in your hand. You
will be able to adjust yourself to your environment, and
this is of paramount importance if you are to succeed
in life. If you can use those primitive emotions grace-
fully, in coordination with the intellectual powers
which have so rapidly developed in mankind, you
may possibly become a superman or superwoman.
IF Man's greatest discovery

We may now consider a few of those momentous
discoveries which have led to changes in human nature
since the days of the primitives. Of these, the most im-
portant was certainly the discovery of fire. It is almost
impossible for us to think of man without fire, but how
he discovered it is still a complete mystery. A jungle or
prairie conflagration which left behind it roast pork,
or roast goose and baked roots, may have suggested the
idea of cooking; and it may have been this which
prompted men to take advantage of opportunities for
nursing the spontaneous combustion of decaying vege-
tation, or the flames left behind in a shrub or tree struck
by lightning. One can visualize a primitive housewife,
jealously fanning a heap of such matter into flame.
Indeed, it is not unlikely that fire was first so produced
by a woman who employed it in a manner that showed
man how useful it could be. He or she who first pro-
duced fire by mechanical means was not only the

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY $$

supreme genius of antiquity, but the greatest benefactor
of the human race. In all history no person was re-
sponsible for greater subsequent changes in human
nature. The forest and the jungle with their dangerous
diseases, their poisonous reptiles and insects, fierce
beasts and destructive fowls, could be cleared by fire
in little or no time. It is also possible that life itself was
prolonged by the ability to cook food or preserve it for
future use by drying or smoking. With fire it was pos-
sible for a man to smile at the vagaries of climate.
Greatest factor of all, it caused our ancestors to develop
the wandering spirit which has ever since existed. It
was by wandering, by the culture of foreign travel, as
it were, that man first set out on the quest which has
never ended, and which is the chief cause of civiliza-
tion, namely the quest for greater Comforts in life. The
use of fire is the dividing line wJiich separates human
from purely animal nature. Man is the only fire-
making animal.
1f Fire and human nature

It is a long way from the first discovery of fire to the
steam-engine and steamboat of the nineteenth century.
A greater distance in progress separates man without
fire from the fire-maker. Gunpowder with the many
gentle uses to which it has been put are an outcome of
fire. There is still, I believe, or was until quite recently,
a race which could not kindle fire, but knew how to
preserve it; the Andamanese. Fire has played an im-
mense part in both political and religious progress. In
China, for instance, at the coronation of an emperor,
the royal procession was permitted to move through
the distance between palace and temple only during the
burning of a joss-stick of prescribed length. In the
simplest form of Christian worship from which all
symbolism is eliminated the word fire is used fig-
uratively, in allusion to ancient altars. From this poetic

34 THIS HUMAN NATURE

allusion it is not difficult by means of symbolism, to
trace the road back to fire-worship, when sacrifices
were made to gods by burning humans on a fire. The
anger of our own God was placated during the Inqui-
sition by the incineration of hopelessly obstinate here-
tics. In the World War the palm for philosophic
destruction must be given to the Germans for their
ingenious invention of the Flammenwerfer, the Flame-
Thrower, which could project a jet of blazing oil to a
distance of about three hundred yards. I have a hor-
rible recollection of a soldier friend who was hosed,
as it were, with burning oil and left only with sufficient
tissue to constitute life. Fire is certainly a very wonder-
ful thing.

The face of the earth was altered by fire, and in that
struggle between man and animal which was largely
responsible for the formation of human nature, and of
which we shall hear more later, it played a foremost
part Fire was responsible for pottery, the beginning of
the first plastic art. But most of all it was used as a
weapon to subdue nature: to burn down forests, to
make new pasture land, to harden the points of weapons
used in attacking the mammoth or the mastodon; for
the manufacture of flaming arrows or of fiery javelins
to be hurled against the foe; in the preparation of vege-
table poison, which in itself was a great advance in the
art of warfare.
H Effect of externals

Fire-producing man, confident in his new powers,
wandered over the face of the globe. In Mesopotamia,
between the Tigris and the Euphrates, he discovered a
spot where flourished a plant that could be made into
a convenient and palatable food. He noticed that where
the ears of this plant fell at the end of a season, a fresh
crop would appear. By planting ears of wheat he
learned to provide himself with as much as he required,

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 35

and this wheat could be made into a nourishing food.
From Mesopotamia restless wanderers in their quest
for favorable climates and comfortable territories in
which to live carried with them ears of wheat to the
valleys of the great rivers, the Nile, the Ganges, the
Yangtze-Kiang, the Hwang-Ho, across the steppes of
Siberia, and round the edges of the Black Sea. The dis-
covery of corn and rye followed ; these two plants were
found to flourish in climates unfavorable to wheat, and
thus the range of man's wanderings and possibilities
was further extended. Bread, milling, elaborate pot-
tery, and many of the commonplaces of life may be at-
tributed to the use of fire with which is coupled the
utilization of the cereals. The first man to use fire
gained immense prestige, and he who first made use of
a cereal could have gained no less. They became
magicians, forerunners of kings, priests, and doctors;
and, like them, the terror of the countryside. Families
or clans began to be formed, grouping themselves
around those with the mystic knowledge of fire and
cereal. To fire and wheat may be attributed the re-
sponsibility for turning man from utter savagery. A
few isolated groups of human beings, mellowed by the
benevolence of warmth and bread, aided by the natural
configuration of the country in which they settled, and
the favorable climatic conditions, became the torch-
bearers of civilization and culture. That is an example
of the effect of externals upon human nature.

3. EARLY BREAD-EATING AND MODERN CANNIBALISM

MEN congregate where food is easy to obtain. The
fact that in Mesopotamia a nourishing food-
stuff could be obtained without great exertion was at-
tractive to nomadic tribes that had hitherto moved

36 THIS HUMAN NATURE

from one pasture area to another in accordance with
the seasons of the year. Here many of the more intelli-
gent and perhaps more lazy wanderers found that they
could live without further wandering. So comfortable
a prospect influenced them to settle, just as within the
last two hundred years European settlers in the United
States fell upon and developed those areas which of-
fered the quickest and most promising returns. In the
course of time, as man was cultivating the wild wheat
between Tigris and Euphrates, those tribes that con-
tinued to wander or were unable to impose their will
on the inhabitants thereabouts brought the grains of
wheat to the East. At least ten thousand years ago it
became the staff of life of the hundreds of races living
between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

Henceforward, man needed no longer to spend all
his time hunting for the wherewithal of existence. He
need travel no more unless he desired to do so for
pleasure or for profit. He could work quietly during
seed-time and harvest and settle down to a life of com-
parative laziness during one half of the year. This
ability to be lazy was the beginning of contemplative
thought and the origin of all philosophy, just as rest-
lessness and hustle kill thought. Only a man of leisure
can think, is the rule of life; there are exceptions, but
they are few and unimportant. This ability to be lazy
was also the beginning of real vice, for the hunter had
little time for genuine evil.

For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do

an old tag with some truth in it. The wealth of those
peoples who had found the value of wheat was not
without causing envy and jealousy among less fortunate
people. And hence there were raids for plunder, which

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 37

were the primitive beginnings of warfare. War is still
made for plunder, but not in the form of wheat It is
now made for markets and the ability to collect tokens
whereby comforts and luxuries may be purchased, as
financiers will perhaps tell you. The fact that wheat
was so valuable and so convenient a form of sustenance,
and enabled men to have leisure, also influenced the de-
velopment of art, which had begun with the making of
weapons, tools, and household utensils. Given a fair
amount of leisure almost any race of human beings will
produce works of art, either in the form of pottery or
painting or sculpture. Remove the opportunity pro-
vided by leisure, both art and philosophy vanish. Bear-
ing this in mind one can check active periods of history
and indicate those of peace and prosperity; unless pros-
perity has become a sole mass ideal, as for instance in
the United States today, where art is crude and vigor-
ous, but without esthetic appeal to those not born in
the atmosphere.
f Origin of Diplomacy

Although a form of unleavened bread had long ex-
isted in Mesopotamia, a Chinese gentleman named
Ching-Nung is reputed to have been the first person
who taught the making of bread as we understand it
nowadays ; but he made a far more profound discovery,
the story goes. In that memorable year 1998 B.C. he
learned to make wine from rice, a discovery of which
the effects may still be seen in any bar in England, or
in any speakeasy in the United States. It was prob-
ably as a result of bread- and wine-making that dumb
barter arose. Those settlements of men which had the
ability to make bread and wine found themselves favor-
ably situated in regard to their ignorant neighbors. The
latter coveted the bread and wine and were willing to
exchange their meat, milk, fish, or wool for the valu-
able life-giving products. But men were even then

38 THIS HUMAN NATURE

suspicious of one another, and the system of credit (or
of credit tokens, which we call money) had not yet
been invented. The method of exchange was somewhat
as follows: The tribe with bread would deposit a pile
of loaves at a given spot between their territory and
that of their neighbors. These would come, take the
bread, and deposit what they were prepared to give in
exchange for it, a matter no doubt settled by the ex-
change of plenipotentiaries, forerunners of modern
diplomats. Thus trade began, and it was trade more
than anything else, with the possible exception of war f
which caused the intercommunication of races, leading
to a mixing of blood and leaving most of the earth with
a population of mongrels.

At this stage man had become a comparatively tame
animal. In the thousands of years which intervened be-
tween utter savagery and the state of tameness outlined
above, he had passed, as we have seen, through two
phases, both of which profoundly altered his nature.
At first he was a hunted animal. On all sides we see him
surrounded by fearsome beasts, which were ready to
devour him without a moment's notice. He therefore
developed all the characteristics of the hunted animal,
including the bravery which a rat shows when it is cor-
nered. He became mean and cunning, quarrelsome and
fierce. From day to day his energy and ingenuity were
devoted to schemes for avoiding his relentless enemies
of the animal world. It was a phase of continual war-
fare in which the animal world yielded step by step,
not so much to the physical strength of man as to the
increasing cunning of his mind. Man was at first a
slayer. He killed animals mostly in self-protection, and
was thus provided with a surfeit of fresh meat There
are men of science today who affirm that primitive man
was a vegetarian, but this seems extremely unlikely in
view of the fact that in order to live he must fight and

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 39

exterminate many animals which would provide him
with succulent and nourishing food. As already ex-
plained, it was fire which first gave man real power in
this world ; and it was by fire that he was able to turn
to his advantage the fierce primeval fight in the jungles
of antiquity.
1F Profound influence of animals

In his contact with the animal kingdom the primi-
tive developed militancy and industrialism, both of
which have survived and become intensified to the
present age. He had to invent missiles that would fly
faster than the object of their pursuit; he had to create
apparatus for digging and burrowing, and to devise en-
gines that would strike harder than the lion's paw, and
cut deeper than the tiger's fang. The genius of early
man was engaged in adding speed to his hand and
momentum to his blows. Little by little he won this
great battle. We may assume that it was the dog which
first raised a flag of truce, and came over into the camp
of his pristine enemy. One by one other animals of
small will-power followed the dog : the sheep, the goat
and the cow; and then, perhaps best of all, the horse.
Wearied of man's deadly weapons, his decoys and
snares and pitfalls, the ass, the elephant and less im-
portant animals surrendered. They were to lend their
patient backs and necks, their milk, their hides, their
very bones, to minister to men's wants. Now the pork-
packers of Chicago will tell you that they can use every
part of the domestic pig except its squeal.

Those animals which refuse to enter into an alliance
with man are everywhere doomed to extinction. How
ruthlessly has the war against the animal world been
conducted by successive generations of men may be
gathered from the fact that some animals which were
once very numerous are now rare. Hundreds of others
have entirely disappeared from the face of the globe.

40 THIS HUMAN NATURE

At the present moment millions of dumb creatures are
every year sentenced to death because women must
wear furs. It is no longer a case of sheer necessity, as
it was in the days of the primitive. Now it is fashion
that is responsible for the continued slaughter. Man
still uses animals for his amusement and often kills
them for his pleasure, as you may see almost any day at
a bull-fight in Spain. It is true that by a magnanimous
gesture of the government (following a fifty years' cam-
paign by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals) there has been a reduction in a few of the
savageries associated with bull-fights. No longer may
men stick fire-darts in the hides of these animals to
incite them to movements of greater spirit; no longer
may horses be publicly gored to death, and the entrails
shown to a cheering populace, as they were two or three
years ago. Humanitarianism has scored many notable
victories, of which this is one. It is a sign of decadence,
no doubt.
1 Did animals learn ferocity from man?

Naturalists state that in their wild state, and un-
touched by contact with man, most animals are harm-
less; Hudson declares that even the fierce puma will
never attack except in self-defense. Comstock asserts
that venomous reptiles, alligators, bears, skunks, and
other fearful creatures are quite harmless until man
comes into contact with them. The question now to be
decided, not by scientists but by philosophers, is this:
did man get his ferocity from animals, or did they
get theirs from him?

It is doubtful if any animal has changed human na-
ture by aiding the progress of man, in his long journey
from savagery to civilization, more than the horse. This
animal was first domesticated in Central or Southern
Asia, and no race has utilized it more than the Arabs.
The religion of Mohammed depended almost entirely

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 41

upon the horse for its wide-spread success. We shall
see later how Mohammedanism affected human nature,
but meanwhile let us not forget that the horse was re-
sponsible for it. In Arabia, as Winwood Reade has
pointed out, the Arab horse lived in his master's tent,
sucked from his calabash, and slept with the family. He
played with the children, showing that gentleness of
nature immortalized by Dean Swift; and when the
time came snorted and panted excitedly and sympa-
thetically in the war-charge. To the horse also may be
attributed much of the success of Cortez in his conquest
of Mexico. The mail-clad chargers of the Spaniards
struck terror into the hearts of the native Aztecs and
Toltecs, who thought that horse and man were one
animal. It is as a result of contact with horses that man
has developed many of his finer feelings, and in modern
times he repays this animal by using it as a beast of
burden or as a means toward his amusement in the
hunting field or on the race-course ; also to carry shells
and ammunition with which to blow to pieces other
horses and men in warfare.

Can we doubt that the food on which they lived in-
fluenced our ancestors? Modern science informs us that
stature depends very largely on diet, but does a man's
nature depend upon his diet, and, if so, how much? The
influence of nourishment upon the development of
racial characteristics has been shown recently in a series
of experiments by Japanese scientists in Tokio. To de-
termine whether the slight stature of the Japanese
depends upon their rice diet, the regular rice dinner of
a group of school children was supplemented by other
articles of food, such as are customary amongst taller
races. The results of these experiments, which were ex-
tended over a period of years, were an increase of sev-
eral inches in stature, and several pounds in weight.
An English military physician has confirmed this by

42 THIS HUMAN NATURE

experiments with Indian races of varying stature. Sikhs
and Pathans are bigger men than the Indians who use
other diets; Mohammedan Sikhs consume milk, cheese,
and vegetables, which the Brahmans do not.
T Ford on food

Mr. Henry Ford stated not long ago that most active
crimes are the results of wrong feeding. "If people/'
said he, "would only learn to eat the things they should
eat, there would be less need for hospitals and prisons."
There is little doubt but that food has an influence upon
character: nobody but a confirmed vegetarian could
have written George Bernard Shaw's plays. The good
Rabelais had a philosophy of life which was "Eat,
drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." The coarse,
sensual, and self-indulgent person will gorge himself
with rich and toothsome food. Most men who have
grown fat 'through overeating are lacking in healthy
decision. How good a psychologist was Shakespeare
when he made Caesar say, "Let me have men about me
that are fat" such men being more easily bent to a
stronger will? It is also well known that stout men are
good-tempered, but it may be that they are too timid,
or too lethargic to quarrel or disagree with anyone.

Is there any doubt but that meat-eating has a marked
effect on character? What it comes to is this, that meat
provides energy in a concentrated form and the man
who eats meat ought to have much physical exercise if
he is to benefit from it. If he has not this exercise he
grows bad-tempered and irritable, and may make him-
self a nuisance to those around him. Many thinkers
dating back to Buddha and Pythagoras have advocated
the simple, almost fasting diet for the contemplative
existence; meat is to be eschewed. But the English phi-
losopher, Herbert Spencer, was a believer in the meat
diet. Somebody informed him that his thought would
reach greater heights were he to become a vegetarian.

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 43

An ambitious man all philosophers are amazingly
ambitious he changed his habits and began to limit
himself to vegetable foods. However, his work imme-
diately began to deteriorate, and it was not long before
he was back again on beef, mutton, and pork, on which
he wrote the " Synthetic Philosophy," as one can easily
tell by perusing it.

We are not at all sure whether those exceptional men
whom we call giants can attribute their great size to
diet. In the Bible we read that the bedstead of Og, king
of Bashan, was about sixteen and one-half feet long; he
lived 1451 B.C. We all of us remember Goliath of Gath,
who was not far off ten feet in height. We know nothing
of his diet, but there is a good story of how he was
meanly killed in a duel by David. Pliny tells us, "The
tallest man that hath been seen in our age was one
named Gabara, who in the days of Claudius was
brought out of Arabia; he was nearly ten feet high."
The biggest man in the twentieth century was Mach-
now, the Russian, who, at the age of twenty-three years
was nine feet eight inches, and weighed thirty-two
stones. Camera, the Italian boxer, is six feet nine
inches, and to judge from press reports is wonderfully
healthy on beef, beans, and beer.
1F The elixir of life

The question of man's diet is one of great interest
from many points of view. The world is now worried
to death to know whether it has any influence upon
cancer, that dreadful scourge which, amongst civilized
people, is responsible for one out of every eight deaths.
No light can be thrown on this. An order of Roman
Catholic monks whose diet was of the simplest, and
who lived on very little in the way of meat, are found
to be equally susceptible to cancer with those who live
a hale, hearty and, indeed, more healthy existence. And
then we read of Mr. Willie Walker, England's oldest

44 THIS HUMAN NATURE

citizen, who has happily celebrated his one hun-
dred and seventh birthday. Willie worked as a brick-
layer up to the age of eighty-four. Diet specialists, and
others interested in longevity, inquired of Mr. Walker
how it was that he came to live so long, and to this Mr.
Walker replied, "I live on pork, plum-pudding, and
whisky." His slogan is, "Eat pork and live long!"
Willie is a bit of a philosopher. "I have heard," said
he, "that a monkey gland makes people young, but why
be monkeyed when there is plenty of pork, and there
are more pigs than monkeys." Packers, please note.

We all know the phrase, "One man's meat is an-
other's poison." Some people are poisoned by eggs,
others cannot eat fish. There are few people who can
safely eat the general run of foodstuffs, and there are
few who are not influenced in some way by a meal.
When Mr. Lloyd George was prime minister of Eng-
land, he scored many notable political triumphs and
settled many disputes at his breakfast table, to which he
regularly invited friends or opponents. A keen judge of
human nature, he must have realized that one of two
things would happen: either (a) his friends or oppon-
ents would be liverish and dull-witted in the morning,
or (b) they would be merry and bright. If they were
the first, he could corner them easily; if they were the
second, he could take advantage of their good temper.
He nearly always won his points in those days. Wells
and others have pointed out that the eating and drink-
ing bouts of our ancestors produced bards and en-
tertainers; the forerunners of Shakespeare, Chaplin,
Chaliapin, Crock, and Tallulah Bankhead. Ten thou-
sand years ago the tribal nights' entertainment was din-
ner, theater, and dance, culminating in the satisfaction
of the sexual appetite, on practically the same lines as
now in London, New York, Paris, or Buenos Aires;
and among the semi-savage tribes of Mandingoes or

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 45

Bantus. The eating of meat and the drinking of strong

drink exhilarate the enjoyment of such amusements,

just as they often prompt men to action or stifle clear

thinking.

IF All men cannibals when necessary

There is scarcely anything that men have not eaten
at different periods and among different races in the
earth's history. There have been root-eaters, twig-
eaters, and seed-eaters. There have been and are locust-
eaters, elephant-eaters, and cannibals. Indeed, there are
still a few places in which cannibalism still exists; in
Africa and Polynesia. In periods of great necessity can-
nibalism may become a fairly widespread practice
among highly civilized races, as in China during the
year 1928. One must not forget that the Chinese must
be considered, even today, a highly civilized people.
In the famine-stricken provinces of Northwest Chin^
very many instances of cannibalism were found among
the twenty million people who were reduced by famine
to the level of brute beasts ; a striking example of how
close civilized people, who have lived through a period
of three thousand years of good philosophy, can be to
the animal. The following examples, taken from the
report of the Reverend G. Findlay Andrew of the
China Inland Mission, speak for themselves:

"In the famine area," says Mr. Andrew, "all along
the road we were met by increasingly sad sights.
Emaciated forms staggered along till they were unable
to move another step, whereupon they simply dropped
in their tracks. Parents were crawling along the great
highway, leaving their starving children, too weak to
move another step, crying piteously after them. Whole
families were sitting desolately by the roadside at an
end of all their resources, and not knowing what to do
next. . . . Some forty li or so distant from the city of
Chingking lies the market of Shuilohcheng, and it was

46 THIS HUMAN NATURE

reported that about the beginning of March some
thirty-five brigands had been killed in the place and the
flesh had been eaten by the starving populace. I found
that this story was commonly accepted in Chungking,
and I was furnished by one of the leading gentry with
his card and full permission to use his name as one who
had witnessed the killing of the brigands, the cutting
off of their flesh, and the eating of it. Another man will-
ing to witness to the truth of the report is in the employ
of the mission station. He had just returned from Shuil-
ohcheng, where he had seen some of the bodies lying
with the flesh cut off from certain parts. Indeed,
throughout this whole section of the journey these
stories of cannibalism were commonly accepted and
caused no surprise.' 7 *

The question often arises whether civilization is re-
sponsible for such savagery in mankind. The answer
is that it is not; the tiger in man has existed from the
time when he was a hunted animal and it requires only
such circumstances as those mentioned above to show
it in the broad light of day.
1f Sex and salesmanship

Other factors have had their influence on human
nature: clothes and fashion, for example. We may
assume that early man ran about naked, and that the
first clothes were for the simple purpose of protection
against the weather, and were not adopted through any
false modesty. Indeed, in some parts of the world today
the only clothing used is an ointment or sweet-smelling
balsam of vegetable origin. Cleanliness is a virtue even
amongst the lower animals, so we need not pride our-
selves for its existence amongst mankind. It is an
equivalent to decoration. But the vagaries of clothing
and fashion would require an encyclopedia to describe.
In woman they are primarily the outcome of a desire

* Manchester Guardian, June 19, 1928.

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 47

to startle and attract males, or to cause anger and jeal-
ousy amongst other females. No woman, except a
sexual pervert, wishes to attract other women. Rouge
and lipstick, powder, corsets, and perfumes, high heels
and silk stockings, colorful dresses, beads and jewelry,
furs and feathers, are for a very admirable biological
purpose: to attract the attention of the opposite sex.
They are the equivalent of the nose-rings, nose-sticks,
tattooing, and face-paint of the ladies of Melanesia.
Fashion has grown into a trade conspiracy to sell goods.
In Europe, when the short skirts became fashionable
after the war, thousands of workers in the cloth fac-
tories were thrown out of work, and employers racked
their brains for some means of inducing women to cover
their knees. New fashions resulted. They were aided in
the economic revolt against the short skirt and the low
neck by the highest authorities of certain religions; the
pope himself was backed by Signor Mussolini in an
endeavor to persuade women to observe decorum. The
church started a "Wear more clothes" campaign,
while the cloth manufacturers tried the slogan, "Cover
your knees," and put it out that a woman's knees were
not a pretty sight. As I write evening dresses grow
longer.

But the battle is not yet over. We read that during
the summer of 1929 in the Midlands of England and
in the Peak district the women on Sundays discarded
their womanly garb for their week-end rambles. Vil-
lagers were shocked. The ordinary outfit worn on these
occasions consisted of a man's cricket shirt, open neck,
shorts, golf stockings, and a pair of heavy shoes; all
apparently very sensible. "Positively revolting," was
the clerical description of this covering. It is in the
realm of woman's fashions that there are most vagaries
in the twentieth century; but it was not always so; and
even today we are informed by the experts of the Na-

48 THIS HUMAN NATURE

tional Association of Merchant Tailors in the United
States that the well-dressed man should have at least
twenty suits, eight overcoats, twelve hats, twenty-four
pairs of shoes; with other things in proportion. I have
before me an appeal to the innate conceit of man in an
advertisement which appeared in 1929 in the Petit
Parisien. It is for a corset for men, "recommended to
all,- and particularly to those who are beginning to take
on stomach, as well as to sportsmen, motorists, etc. It
combats obesity, floating kidney, abdominal greatness,
assures a straight back, and an elegant carriage, com-
bined with absolute comfort."
IF Influence of the razor

The habit of shaving the face is one which has had a
profound influence upon human nature. Three thou-
sand years ago, the razor was a fairly common toilet
requisite for men of the upper classes. Among primi-
tives, who were naturally hairy, he who could remove
the fungus from his face became more awe-inspiring to
his neighbors. Hence it was that priests, kings, gover-
nors, judges, and generals decided they had better shave
in order to add to their influence over their more weak-
minded fellow creatures. Personal conceit was the
motive of the desire to be clean-shaven, for most of
these men believed that their faces were far more noble
than those of the commonalty. Alexander the Great is
shown to us as a clean-shaven man, and it is stated that
he set a fashion for the smooth visage. Hair was, and is,
the symbol of virility; but the smooth face was, and is,
the symbol of eternal youth. Whiskers and mustaches
are compromises. The goatee beard signifies strength
of character, or even pugnacity, as in the modern sym-
bolical case of Captain Kettle. The clean-shaven face
now tends to be a minor symbol of civilization, ex-
cept among Frenchmen, artists, Chinese pirates, and
naughty fellows in Russia and in other free countries

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 49

where men flout their independence of the conventional

ideas.

IF The imitative instinct

We know very well that animals imitate one another,
and with monkeys this propensity is almost a mania.
It is strongly inherited by all men, with whom it is
an instinct which has by no means weakened with the
passage of time. "Fashion" takes advantage of this imi-
tative instinct, which is one of the strongest of human
qualities. It is by virtue of imitation that men have
become educated ; it is by virtue of it that the landscape
of the civilized world is changing into a dull uni-
formity. In the suburbs of London you may walk along
almost any of the more prosperous roads, and you will
see houses built to the same pattern, flower gardens
laid out in almost the same way, window curtains of the
same material, and in the same scheme of colors; you
will see standing in the road motorcars of a few stand-
ard makes ; you will see the mistress of the house pos-
sessed of whatever kind of dog happens at the moment
to be fashionable, and she will wear a frock or a
costume which is almost a uniform. Suddenly the
builders, the landscape gardeners, the cloth manufac-
turers, the makers of motorcars, or the dog breeders
will decide that a change would be good for business.
They know perfectly well that they may safely rely
upon the imitative qualities of the crowds of quasi-
monkeys to buy just what is put on the market. It is the
desire to cater to this continual necessity for change
that is responsible for the creative spirit of the modern
fashion artist. That fine-sounding phrase "God made
all men equal," is as yet in the prophetic stage, for there
still remain the few who wish to differ from their
fellow creatures. But they steadily capitulate to stand-
ardization. Furthermore, it is the inward feeling of
natural inequality which often drives men to imitate

50 THIS HUMAN NATURE

their fellows outwardly, in order that they may feel
that they are equals. This explains what is meant by
"dressing up to a social position," and why it is that,
when you meet an overdressed man, you may expect to
find an underdressed mind.

He who will not imitate has always been considered
to be antisocial. Progress is the movement of crowds.
In order to keep up with the crowd men frequently
become complete hypocrites. The man who is born
with what we must call for want of a better phrase
"antisocial propensities," is forced to assume the per-
sonification of righteousness. Those who are cruel will
affect kindly and philanthropic acts. The murderer is
often outwardly, and often quite sincerely, fond of his
pets. Those who assume too strong an attitude in favor
of the orthodox are suspect, and those who are too out-
wardly good are generally inwardly bad. It is the out-
ward assumption of goodness, and the careful study of
its outward technique which enables so many rogues
to succeed in life.

This illustrates the genuine necessity there is for
hypocrisy, and gives as well an indication of the origin
of manners.
f Women prefer rogues

The success which rogues and vagabonds have with
women is not difficult to explain. They do not possess
that laudable lack of hypocrisy so noticeable in the
honest man ; and they make a point of demonstrating to
women those sentiments which women generally fail to
appreciate unless they be demonstrated. One of the
chief differences between the natures of men and
women is that, whereas men generally dislike to show
their feelings, women like doing so. Hence the man
who can dissimulate skilfully easily persuades a woman
of his affection, even when it does not exist. This is

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY $1

greatly appreciated by the woman ; for women gladly
suffer illusions, persuading themselves that they are
not illusions, where love is concerned. If it were not so,
the human species would long ago have become extinct.
The man who praises a woman for those qualities
which she does not possess, rather than for those which
she actually does possess, is a wise man ; he who omits
to emphasize the intelligence of a pretty nincompoop,
or the physical beauty of a blue-stocking, is lacking in
the most elementary knowledge of woman's nature, if
it is his desire to cause pleasure.
T Origin of manners

It may appear from what has been written that it
is desirable to encourage hypocrisy; and this is so.
Hypocrisy is often merely an unpleasant name for good
breeding. In order to be polite one must be a hypocrite.
Politeness originates from those remote times when
men had not learned dissimulation, but were beginning
to learn it through mortal combats with neighbors for
having spoken the truth. To illustrate what I mean, the
following imaginary conversation between two ape-
men is submitted for the consideration of the reader:

FIRST APE-MAN (meeting a neighbor casually and
waving his club merrily in the air). Hello, I haven't
seen you for some days. How are you?

SECOND APE-MAN (growling). Very well. I have
been out fishing this last week.

FIRST APE-MAN (looking narrowly at the other).
Really? Any luck?

SECOND APE-MAN. I caught two hundred trout, one
of which weighed as much as a full-grown bear.

FIRST APE-MAN. You dirty, pig-faced liar! How dare
you have such a low estimate of my intelligence as to
stand there brazenly and tell such a deliberately cal-
culated falsehood? (Indignantly spitting, cat-fashion.)

$2 THIS HUMAN NATURE

SECOND APE-MAN (stepping smartly forward and
bringing his club down accurately on the cranium of
First Ape-man). Take that, you unmannerly brute!
(Drags off the body and buries it)

And now consider the following conversation which
takes place fairly frequently, between, say, a couple of
English or American clubmen :

FIRST CLUBMAN. Hello, Brown, how are you? How
well you're looking! Been having a holiday?

SECOND CLUBMAN. Yes. Went fishing with the wife.

FIRST CLUBMAN. With the wife! Really? What sort
of sport did you have?

SECOND CLUBMAN. Excellent. Caught no end of fish.
(Tells a long and involved yarn, ending) . . . and
when we came to weigh the fish, mine was two hundred
and seventy-seven pounds, four ounces and a quarter!

FIRST CLUBMAN (raising his eyebrows slightly).
That was splendid. Well, we shall have to have a drink
on the strength of such a wonderful achievement. I
envy you. What will you have? Waiter, bring two
whiskies and soda. (They drink to each other's health.)

The politeness in the second conversation is, of
course, pure hypocrisy. But we do not think of it as
such. The first clubman probably thinks of his friend
in almost the same terms as the first ape-man thought
of his. But the number of fights that have taken place
in the period of time between the two have taught the
modern man that a little dissimulation or hypocrisy
makes life more comfortable. In such circumstances as
those quoted above, an archbishop will be even more
polite than an ordinary man, because of his greater cul-
ture and in spite of the calls, if any, of honesty. The
strictly honest man, if one could exist at all nowadays,
would inevitably spend the greater part of his life be-
hind the wall either of a prison or of a lunatic asylum.

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 53

4. MANNERS, MOBS, AND WAR

IT is a matter of dispute whether the manners in the
twentieth century are better than those which have
existed at the peak points of past civilizations. The old
instinct of self-preservation often provokes a man or a
woman to fight for a seat in a train, omnibus, or street
car; and we are told that to do so is ill-mannered.
Barrie tells a story of the manners observed at social
functions in Scotland. It is customary there in many
families to say grace before meals, and it is often a
problem for the hostess to decide who is to say grace.
If two or three clergymen are present the problem
becomes acute. Which one shall have the honor of say-
ing grace? There must be good reasons for the choice,
or the feelings of the others would be lacerated. Barrie
has heard a hostess decide the question offhand, by ask-
ing in this manner: "Mr. So-and-So, will you please
say grace, as you are nearest the door?"
If Manners continually change

Our manners have greatly improved in the course of
time, and the temper of man in ordinary circumstances
nowadays would appear to be better than that of his
ancestors. A good example of this may be found in the
behavior of audiences at theaters in England where
there has been, unhappily for the drama, a decided
decay in the old custom of booing. In Shakespeare's
time, and even in the eighteenth century, a theater was
sometimes almost wrecked by a disappointed audience.
In the "Memoirs of Casanova" will be found an ex-
ample of what this gentleman saw at Drury Lane. "We
went," says he, "to Drury Lane Theatre, where I had a
specimen of the rough insular manners. By some acci-
dent or other the company could not give the piece that
had been announced, and the audience were in a tumult.

54 THIS HUMAN NATURE

Garrick, the celebrated actor, came forward and tried
in vain to restore order. He was obliged to retire be-
hind the curtain. Then the king and the queen, and all
the fashionables left the theater, and in less than an
hour the house was gutted, till nothing but the bare
walls were left. In a fortnight the theater was refitted
and the piece announced again, but when Garrick
appeared before the curtain to implore the indulgence
of the house a voice from the pit shouted : 'On your
knees!' A thousand voices took up the cry, and the Eng-
lish Roscius was obliged to kneel down and beg for-
giveness. Then came a thunder of applause, and all
was over. Such are the English, and, above all, the
Londoners."

That was in 1759.

Even fifty years later, when Lamb frequented the
theater the hissing and booing had degenerated, as had
also the drama itself. It is extremely rare nowadays in
England for an audience to hiss and boo a production,
and this notwithstanding the fact that the average play
is worse than it has been for a long time. If a play is
bad, or unacceptable, nobody goes to it; in the great age
of the drama in England everybody went to the play,
and everybody execrated the authors and actors if it
was bad. This salutary influence having disappeared,
the public must bear with whatever is given to them ;
or keep away. // is in superficialities such as this that
human nature shows its greatest changes.

The imitative instinct which, as we have shown, was
responsible for the beginnings of standardized thought,
is also responsible for the mob mind. Crowd impulse
and that inherent tendency to act in herds or packs has
always been so wide-spread in its expression that it may
be regarded as a commonplace of human nature. Trot-
ter, dealing with this undoubted instinct amongst ani-
mals, says: "It can scarcely be regarded as an unmean-

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY $$

ing accident that the dog, the horse, the ape, the
elephant, and man are all social animals. The advan-
tages of gregariousness seem actually to outweigh the
most prodigious differences of structure, and we find
a condition which is often thought of as a mere habit,
capable of enabling the insect nervous system to com-
pete in the complexity of its power of adaptation with
that of the higher vertebrates." Manifestations of the
crowd, or herd instinct, are shown in the dislike of the
normal man of being conspicuous; and this is also
obvious in shyness and in stage fright. From this sug-
gestion of sensitiveness it follows that anything which
associates the suggestion of leaving the herd will tend
to its rejection. An imperious command from an indi-
vidual known to be without authority is disregarded;
whereas the same person making the same suggestion
in an indirect way, so as to link it up with the voice of
the herd, will meet with success.

The French psychologist Le Bon shows that a crowd
is not only a gathering of people but a state of mind
representing a mental unity. In the history of human
nature it is a cruel fact that the quality of this state of
mind has always gravitated toward the level of the low-
est intelligence and the lowest morality of the indi-
vidual unit. The reason for this is the prevalence of the
primitive feeling among men, in which any higher
rational expression or intellectual protest is completely
and utterly lost. The crowd revolts against the teach-
ings of those philosophers who emphasize the impor-
tance of self-analysis, and therefore disintegrate the
tendency to a mass mind. The crowd insists on com-
pliance with those principles which are nearest to the
primitive feelings of individual man, and it will tear
to pieces without compunction any spirit which di-
gresses from this fundamental law. Scarcely one of
those great thinkers in the whole of human history was

56 THIS HUMAN NATURE

popular in his own time. Many of them were executed
for their teachings ; Socrates and Jesus Christ being the
outstanding examples. It is only after their death that
society renders homage, which is scarcely ever sincere,
to men of the caliber of Goethe, Swift, Plato, Hobbes,
Hume, and a host of others.
IT Madness of mob mind

If we consider with the herd instinct the reaction to
authority, we have the ingredients for those wide-
spread hysterias which have shaken the world from
time to time. When war has progressed from the very
early stage in which combats were between mere indi-
viduals, families, or small clans, and become an affair
of nations, empires or, in its recent phase, whole groups
of nations on each side, we see the practical uses made
by leaders of the fundamental characteristics of human
nature which have been outlined in the preceding
pages. I would refer the reader to two great works of
fiction, which admirably illustrate my meaning: "All
Quiet on the Western Front" and "The Case of Ser-
geant Grischa." The German psychologist Freud has
jointed out in his own quiet but ruthlessly logical man-
ner that it is not that masses of people sink very low
in time of war, but that they are never in peace times so
high as they generally believe. In times of war the
whole veneer of civilization is removed, and we see
before us that ghastly spectacle which was so vividly
portrayed over the face of the world between 1914 and
1918. It is useless to argue against this. There was more
sheer brutality in one day on the western front, prac-
ticed by the highest types of modern man, than can be
found among the most savage peoples of the jungle, or
ever existed in the early days of human history, when,
we are optimistically informed, man was merely an
ape. I would ask this question of zoologists: Are they
acquainted with any animal that is capable of those

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 57

savageries which have been so vividly described to us
by many soldiers of different nationalities, and of
which I may have occasion to give a few examples
later, when we deal more explicitly with the World
War? Nor was the brutality merely confined to com-
batant soldiers on both sides, men in the grip of a vast
machine and driven by fate, as it were, to commit
brutal slaughter. From the pulpits of the Christian
churches there were preached sermons in which piety
and sheer vindictiveness were blended in a diabolical
mixture. The most humane and reasonable men were
affected by it. Those who, in their hearts, revolted
against the whole business, had to keep their mouths
shut, or they were flung into prison, beaten, and tor-
tured, not with the more humane physical tortures
of the Chinese devil-men, but with the far more cruel
mental tortures of modern civilization.
IF The glory of war

The passions released by war may permeate every
stitch of the modern social fabric. Reason is thrown
overboard, and emotionalism rules the day. In the
newspapers, on the stage, in the music-halls, in the
schools, in the pulpits, in the homes of the people, the
stupid sentimentalism of glory is paraded on every pos-
sible occasion. No lie is too great in time of war; and
no measure is too savage. It is a quaint fact of human
nature that those who are most tame in times of peace,
and who then behave in the most exemplary manner,
are the most likely to throw all restraint to the winds
when mob emotionalism becomes epidemic. Even the
women, from staid mothers of families to modest coun-
try maidens, succumbed to the general destruction of
the moral code. I have stood on the platform of Water-
loo Station in London as one of a draft of infantrymen
proceeding to the front, and I have seen the mildest of
women, sometimes with babies in their arms, kiss their

58 THIS HUMAN NATURE

men good-by and say, "Give the Germans one for me."
The phrase, "Gott strafe England," became a catch-
word in Germany; and an ingenious author wrote a
"Hymn of Hate" which was sung in church and school
in the central empires. We are told that he lived to feel
ashamed of his patriotic poem. The war was waged
even against inanimate things; we were forbidden to
speak the enemy language, to read its books of phi-
losophy, or to eat foods emanating from the culinary art
of the opposing forces. By burying our heads in the
sand, we hoped to see less of the danger; by making a
loud noise and clamor we drowned reason; and by
martial music and propaganda of hate we stimulated
our nervous systems for the fight. All this was natural
and necessary.

The world now talks of "the revolt against war."
There has always been a revolt against 'war. There is a
revolt against war in the Bible, and in Greek literature
we find the same revolt. Jonathan Swift raged against
the insanity of war in the eighteenth century. There
have been very few writers in the whole of literature
who were really in favor of war, and the greatest that
the world has seen have all revolted against war, with
the exception of that very honest man Mohammed, who
was perhaps the best judge of human nature amongst
them. There appears to be, deep down in human
nature, an instinct for war. For periods varying in
length it is covered over, and we occupy ourselves with
the routine of peace. The caldron of humanity sim-
mers steadily for a while, and then it boils over a re-
sult of some cosmic influence of which we have no
knowledge whatever. As I write, the public on both
sides of the Atlantic are being regaled with war book
after war book, in which the loathsome horrors of it
all are depicted with the greatest power available to the
authors. Those who were in the war receive few thrills

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 59

from these stories. But to the men who had no experi-
ence of it, the generation that has grown up since 1918,
they are an inspiration; and show merely the possibil-
ities of a great and thrilling adventure. Every war film
that is shown, although it may have been directed
against war, merely stimulates this deep-rooted instinct
of male spectators for similar adventure.
11 Great benefits of <war

And yet war has been responsible for much real
progress, and it has been responsible for many a change
in human nature. As Winwood Reade says rightly: "By
means of War the animated life was slowly raised up-
ward in the scale, and quadrupeds passed into man. By
means of War the human intelligence was brightened,
and the affections were made intense; weapons and
tools were invented; foreign wives were captured, and
the marriages of blood relations were forbidden ; pris-
oners were tamed, and the women set free; prisoners
were exchanged, accompanied with presents; thus com-
merce was established, and thus, by means of War, men
were first brought into amicable relations with one
another. By War the tribes were dispersed all over the
world, and adopted various pursuits according to the
conditions by which they were surrounded. By War the
tribes were compressed into the nation." *

If we compare the present with the past, and trace
events to their causes, we shall find that we have
reached our present stage not by a series of immutable
laws, but rather by provisional expedients, and that the
principle which in one age effected the advancement of
a nation, in the next age may retard the forward
movement or even destroy it altogether. Even despot-
ism and slavery have been responsible for many im-
provements in human nature. The history of the great-
est successes in history is not a record of the triumph of

* The Martyrdom of Man.

60 THIS HUMAN NATURE

great minds, but it is for the most part a chronicle of
political chicanery, debauchery, and cynical exploita-
tion, in which large masses of men have been moved to
commit and submit to unutterable stupidities by lead-
ers with a good knowledge of the herd instinct.
H Quantity and quality of brains

Although there has been a great increase in knowl-
edge, there has been practically no change in human
capacity, from that far-off day in which the first genius
found a method of producing fire. Past generations
have handed down knowledge to us, and each genera-
tion may or may not add to the wealth of knowledge
already available. There is a fair amount of evidence
to show that much useful knowledge has been entirely
lost at various times in our history. The destruction by
Theophilus of the great library at Alexandria in 389
A.D. meant the disappearance of we know not how many
advances in the province of intellect. From the exca-
vations of the anthropologists we know that the brain
capacity of primitive man was as great as our own. The
Cro-Magnons of perhaps fifty thousand years ago had
brains which were slightly greater in weight than our
own, the average weight of the male brain today being
about forty-eight ounces. The heaviest known human
brain belonged, as might be expected, to an English-
man. He was a bricklayer who died of tuberculosis in
1849; his brain exceeded sixty-seven ounces and was
well proportioned.

As regards the purely intellectual side of man's na-
ture, the foremost authorities maintain that no modern
race of men is the intellectual equal of the Greeks of
twenty-five hundred years ago.

Galton has drawn our attention to the fact that, in
the century between 530 and 430 B.C., the small country
of Attica produced fourteen illustrious men, one for
every forty-three hundred of the free-born, adult popu-

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 6l

lation. In the two centuries from 500 to 300 B.C. this
small country produced over two dozen illustrious men,
whose achievements were truly amazing. The philoso-
phers and men of science included Socrates, Aristotle,
Plato, Demetrius, and Theophrastus; the orators, De-
mosthenes, Lysias, ^Eschines, and Isocrates; statesmen
and commanders, Aristides, Themistocles, Pericles,
Cimon, Phocion, and Militiades; the poets and drama-
tists, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and ^Eschy-
lus; the artists and architects, Phidias, Polygnotus,
Ictinus, and Praxiteles; and the historians, Xenophon
and Thucydides. Galton quite reasonably concludes
that the average ability of the Athenian race of that
period was, on the lowest estimate, as much greater
than that of the Anglo-Saxon race of the present date
as the latter is above that of the African Negro.*

A vast accumulation of the knowledge of that golden
age of intellect was stored in the library at Alexandria.
It was lost as a result of what must always be regarded
as one of the supreme acts of folly in the whole history
of mankind; and was probably the equivalent to put-
ting back the clock of our intellectual development for
about one thousand years.
f The growth of the child

And now let us turn back to our old friend the proto-
zoon, and compare with it the early stages of man's
life. The newly born child is unable to think, but its
existence is made possible by the selfish primitive in-
stincts which are exactly similar to those of the proto-
zoon. During the first three weeks there is only the
desire for food and sleep, together with a tendency to
protect itself, indicated by a willingness to cling to
anybody in its immediate neighborhood. At the end of
about three weeks the emotions begin to show them-

Scc The Caveman Within Us, by William T. Fielding a work to
which I am greatly indebted. C. D.

62 THIS HUMAN NATURE

selves, and it is perhaps not surprising that the first of
these is the ability to be afraid, and to be surprised. At
the end of ten weeks we see signs of curiosity, pug-
nacity, and a little anger. By twelve weeks we see anger
more fully developed, and with it the beginning of
jealousy. Then comes the desire to play, and following
this we see, in about the thirteenth week, the ability to
associate ideas, which is the beginning of reason. It is
only in the fourteenth week that true affection begins
to show itself, and a baby is five months old before it
begins to manifest any signs of sympathy. Eight months
have passed before appreciation appears, and about the
same time we see the budding shoots of conscious pride
and resentment. By ten months the baby may suffer
grief which is not the outcome of actual physical pain.
At this stage hate and cruelty show themselves. The
year-old child begins to use objects around it as tools,
and it will open a tin or use a stick to draw something
toward it. At the end of fifteen months we see the
ability to suffer remorse, and it is at this late stage that
the child shows for the first time any signs of deceit.
But it should be noted that it is only children of high
intellectual capacity who show deceit in the fifteenth
month of their lives. Some anthropologists assert that
the mentality reached by the modern child in fifteen
months is equal to that of primitive man, but I do not
believe them. It may perhaps be of interest to compare
the development of the ape with that of the child.
Kohler has closely investigated the mentality of the
higher apes,* and has demonstrated for all time that,
although they may be superior to us in morals, they are
certainly inferior to us in intellect. The most advanced
among the group of intelligent apes with which he ex-
perimented was capable only of the most elementary
acts based upon logical reason, and then very often
when some solution of a problem was indicated.

* The Mentality of Apes, by Wolfgang Kohler.

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 63

1f Vanity of criminals, authors, and artists

We have already spoken of imitativeness and pride
as human characteristics, but there is yet another form
of pride which is worthy of some slight mention: van-
ity. This quality shows itself in every phase of society,
but it is perhaps more conspicuous amongst criminals,
literary men, and artists than among the comrfionalty.
George Borrow says, "There is not a set of people in
the world more vain than robbers in general, more fond
of cutting a figure whenever they have an opportunity,
and of attracting the eyes of their fellow creatures by
the gallantry of their appearance." In England the
conventional burglar was the rough Bill Sykes of Dick-
ens. However true this character may have been to life
in the early nineteenth century, it is no longer accept-
able today. Burglars who appear in the English law
courts are usually well-dressed men, often dapper and
natty in appearance, though there is a tendency among
them to pile on the highly colored ties and socks when
prosperity permits. As Havelock Ellis says, vanity may
exist in the well-developed ordinary man, but it is un-
obtrusive; in its extreme forms it marks the abnormal
man, the man of unbalanced mental organization, that
is to say, the creative artist or the criminal.

A good example of vanity is to be found in the dis-
plays that are customary at funerals in England and
America. "Up-to-date" burial is a social necessity, we
are told. In this respect the United States is ahead of
England, and surely has made death as pleasant a thing
as it can possibly be. The marked superiority of the
American "morticians" and their super-refined burial
caskets over the English undertakers and their common
coffins shows how far the natural vanity of the relations
of dead persons receives consideration. The English
Undertakers Association in August, 1929, sent a dele-
gation to America on an educational tour, in which it
was hoped that they would pick up much of the mod-

64 THIS HUMAN NATURE

ern technique and art of American burying. It must be
admitted that the visit was based as much upon the
desire to make money by brightening up undertaking.
They have admitted that the ordinary British funeral
director is antiquated in his ideas ; and declare it is high
time that his education be improved. We must not for-
get that burying has become almost a lost art, and, with
the decline of religion and the advance of science that
is to say, cremation by electricity we may expect it to
disappear altogether.
IF Death as natural as birth

While on the subject of death it may be well to say
a few words about it, since it is of some importance in
human nature. We have shown that the great urge of
life is the desire to live. The great dread throughout
the ages has been of death. The problems presented by
the hereafter have had their effect on the development
of religion, and they will be described in their proper
place. But since we are dealing with the life of man,
it may be as well to say here that death is by no means
the terrible affair depicted to us by our religious in-
structors. There may be pain before the arrival of
death, but when this at last comes it is usually quite
peaceful. With the exception of spectacular battle-field
examples, it is a mere lapse into unconsciousness. We
do not know what it feels like, for nobody who has
really died ever came back to tell us about it. There
are even very few well-authenticated cases of people
who, having lapsed into the unconsciousness preceding
death, actually survived to tell the tale. Of these the
best example I can find is that of an English girl. In
December, 1928, she had the following experience.
After an attempt to strangle her and to induce her to
take poison, her admirer, Mr. Rogers, committed
suicide. In the course of her evidence given before the
coroner, she made the following statement:

A PREFACE TO ALL HlSfORY 65

"Rogers had been sitting beside me quite quietly. He
then half-turned round and deliberately placed his two
thumbs on my windpipe. He did not shake my head as
though he were in a temper with me, and gradually I
realized he was not playing. I had that awful sensation
that he was trying to kill me. So far as I can remember
he did not speak. I could not speak at all to say, 'Don't
Reg! Don't be a fool!' as I wanted to. I do not even
remember trying to get my hands up to scratch or do
anything. Then I remember nothing. I became uncon-
scious and I imagined for the time that I was on a
comet or a planet, or something of that kind. I saw mil-
lions of faces flashing past me and all my past life came
back. As I gradually came to I could see fields, and
after a few seconds I realized that I was turning my
head from side to side. Then for a moment I thought I
was in a glass coffin and all I could see was the frosted
glass. The first words I remember saying were, 'Am I
dead?' Somebody was waving something white, a hand-
kerchief, I think, in front of me, and said, 'No, you are
not dead, and you will be quite all right.' Something
was wrong with my mouth, but I did not realize that
my tongue was hanging out. Reginald was still with
me. He waved a handkerchief before me as though he
were fanning me. I said to him, 'I am dying! I am
dying! Let me have air!' He opened a window of the
car, but it would only open half-way down. That was
not enough. I tried to get my head through. He said,
'You are all right. Eat this,' and he put something on
my tongue. I could not bear anything near my tongue.
I took it in my left hand and passed it into my right
and dropped it out of the window. At this time every
sound seemed to register itself on my mind. The stuff
I took from my mouth was rough and powdery and
shaped like a sugared almond. I heard it fall onto the
running board and it sounded almost like a bomb to me,

66 THIS HUMAN NATURE

because all sounds were gradually coming back to my
mind. At the same time I realized that Reginald was
crunching something. I was angry, and thought, Why
is he eating sweets when he knows I am so ill? I insisted
on getting out and he released me and I got into the
road. He followed me up the lane into the main road,
and even then I could not realize that he had tried to
strangle me. I merely thought that I had gone through
this terrible experience and he had been with me all
the time. But in the open air my senses came back to me
suddenly. I touched my tongue with my finger and
tasted something very bitter, like alum. Then it came to
me in a flash that he was trying to kill me, and I ran
down the road screaming." *
T Decline of murder except in the United States

The form of death described above was an attempt
at murder, the oldest crime in history and the highest
offense against the laws of most countries; although the
early Persians did not punish the first offense, and in
England during the heptarchy it was punished by fines
only. Persons who attempt murder or actually com-
mit murder are regarded by their fellows as criminals,
and all who kill without the permission of the law
are generally deemed to be the worst form of criminals.
Executioners, soldiers and policemen on duty are
licensed to kill. The life of a soldier is a training in
killing, and there are cynical persons who say that this
applies equally to doctors; but it is not true in every
case. In the ordinary course of life men no longer at-
tempt to murder their fellow men, except in certain
parts of the world where murder is not only common,
but increasing almost daily. Why men commit murder
nowadays will be discussed later. But taking crime as a
whole, and including in it the whole series of acts
against person or property, we may say that there are

Reported by the London Daily Mail.

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 67

three causes. The first is difficult to define and for want
of a better term may be called cosmic in its nature. It
depends upon climate and diet. There is, secondly, the
biological factor which depends upon the personal
peculiarities of the individual, and these include many
strange features of human nature, morbid, atavistic, or
even humorous. Wainwright, the English murderer,
was asked why it was that he could kill so innocent and
trustful a creature as Helen Abercrombie. After a mo-
ment's hesitation for reflection he replied, "Upon my
soul, I don't know, unless it was that she had such thick
legs." In India no motive for murder seems too un-
natural or too far-fetched to be occasionally true. A vil-
lage schoolmaster in Aligarh killed one of his pupils;
and a stepfather in the same district threw his two
stepsons into the Ganges because he was tired of them.
A man in Jhansi killed his daughter because his neigh-
bor had slandered her, in order that the girl's blood
might be upon the neighbor's head. A master murdered
his servant and threw the body before his enemy's door,
solely in order to bring a false charge against the
latter.*
II Society has the criminals it deserves

Lastly there is the social factor in crime. A French
criminologist wittily said, "Society prepares crimes and
the criminal is the instrument that executes them! 9 And
another declares that social environment may be the
cultivation medium of criminality; the criminal is the
microbe, an element that becomes important only when
it finds the medium which causes it to ferment. In other
words, every society has the criminals that it deserves.
Many instincts are inherited which seem to make crime
inevitable. The acquisitive instinct, the sex instinct, the
fighting instinct these, if unrestrained, may lead di-
rectly to offenses against law. Such instincts are inher-

Havclock Ellis, The Criminal.

68 THIS HUMAN NATURE

ited by every human being; they are part of the mental
equipment of the human race. The criminal, if he dif-
fers from the rest, differs merely because his instincts
are stronger than our own. In the hereditary equipment
of the youthful criminal the most serious handicap is
not lack of morals but lack of intelligence. Among the
juvenile delinquents in London, as many as eighty per
cent are below the average level in general ability. The
ordinary criminal, when grown up, still shows the men-
tal age of a boy of only ten or eleven. Most rogues are
also fools. Such cases as that of Leopold and Loeb are
exceptional; this case sprang from sheer conceit on
the part of at least one of these boys. Of all the con-
ditions that go to the making of the youthful criminal,
the most important are those that center in the home.
Improper discipline is perhaps the commonest. The
discipline may be too lax or too strict; or, worst of all,
it may be of the oscillating, forcible-feeble type, where
the boy is one moment cuffed for making a noise,
and next moment bribed with a penny to keep him
quiet*
IT Men of genius may be criminals

The late Professor Lester Ward, referring to the
skilful and daring criminal in the United States, called
him "the genius of the slums." By this expressive term
he meant that when native talent or genius finds its
birthright cheated by the blight of poverty, its course
nowadays often becomes perverted by sordid surround-
ings and lack of constructive opportunity. To satisfy
the craving for wealth, excitement, and achievement,
to secure an outlet for the expression of the powerful
primitive urge, it almost inevitably turns into antisocial
channels, and hence we get crooks and gangsters. Casa-
nova, a man of various and extraordinary abilities, has

*Dr. Cyril Burt, Professor of Education, University of London, and Psy-
chologist to the London County Council (1929).

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 69

in his memoirs, of which the strict historical accuracy
is now generally accepted, produced one of the most
valuable and interesting records of the eighteenth cen-
tury, and at the same time a most complete and com-
plaisant history of his own criminal offenses. It is diffi-
cult to say whether in him the criminal or the man of
genius is more prominent. A poet of very great impor-
tance, in French literature, Paul Verlaine, is an inter-
esting example of the man of genius who was also dis-
tinctly a criminal. Verlaine was leader of the so-called
"Decadent" school of the nineteenth century. The pre-
cise rank that he will ultimately take as a poet is not
yet clear, but it must surely be high ; he has been both
unduly neglected and unduly extolled. He excels in
delicate passages of vague and mystic reverie, in sud-
den lines of poignant emotion. His private life was
exceptionally vicious, even for a poet; and he is quoted
here merely to show that crime is not a question of
intellect.

Criminality consists in a failure to live up to the
standard recognized as binding by the community. The
criminal is an individual whose organization makes it
difficult or impossible for him to live in accordance
with this standard, and easy to risk the penalties of act-
ing antisocially. By some accident of development, by
some defect of heredity or birth or training, he belongs
to an older social state than that in which he is actually
living. "Men of undoubted intellectual power are
sometimes found among criminals. Villon, one of the
truest, if not one of the greatesfof poets, was a criminal,
a man perpetually in danger of the gallows; it does not
seem to me, however, by any means clear that he was
what we should call an instinctive criminal. Vidocq, a
clever criminal who became an equally successful po-
lice official, and wrote his interesting and instructive
Memoirs, may not have been, as Lombroso claims, a

70 THIS HUMAN NATURE

man of genius, but he was certainly a man of great
ability." *

It is impossible to go into details of the different
kinds of crime. A list of the acts or expressed thoughts
which in different parts of the world are considered to
be crimes would fill half this book. But it is possible to
mention here a few of the punishments that are meted
out to convicted criminals by those who desire to pro-
tect their own interests. The Jews used to stone their
criminals, and in the code of Draco published in 621
B.C. every offense brought with it a penalty of death. A
Persian soldier who boasted that he had killed Cyrus
the Younger at the battle of Cunaxa was, by order of
Artaxerxes, exposed to the sun for a period of eighteen
days. In the modern world there has been and still
exists in certain countries the punishment of death for
the more serious crimes, which include murder. In
England the ceremony of hanging, drawing, and quar-
tering was introduced in 1241, and abolished only about
a hundred and fifty years ago. The English still hang
their murderers, although there is a move afoot to re-
duce this penalty to one of penal servitude for life. In
1865 a commission on capital punishment in England
recommended that penal servitude should be substi-
tuted for unpremeditated murder, and in the course of
the nineteenth century the number of crimes for which
death was a penalty in England was reduced from
about two hundred to only three. Modern states execute
their criminals on the gallows or guillotine, by shoot-
ing, decapitation with an ax or sword, strangulation by
garrote in Spain, and by electrocution in the United
States. According to the London Daily Express the
ex-king of Afghanistan, in that (for him) troublesome
month of January, 1929, fell back upon a once popular
method of execution:

Havclock Ellis, The Criminal.

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 71

An eye-witness related how three tribesmen v who
had been caught by Amanullah's troops when at-
tacking caravans, were brought in chains to Kan-
dahar, and sentenced to be shot from the cannon's
mouth. The sentence was carried out on a mound
just outside the city, and all the inhabitants
viewed the spectacle by order. Guns imported re-
cently were used. The condemned men were tied
to the muzzles, and blown to pieces [my italics].

1 Case of the "Marquis de Chanbauberf

In October, 1929, Paris was astounded by a story
published in the newspaper regarding one Clement
Passal, alias the Marquis de Chanbaubert, a murderer
and well-known jewel thief, who came to a romantic
and spectacular end. This interesting human being used
to entice his victims to a sweet villa of his outside
Dinard. It was known as the Chateau Chloroforme,
because of his quaint method of dealing death to those
whose existence he no longer required. In his "castle"
that is, villa the marquis had constructed a death
chamber. A room in the basement was hung with mat-
tresses, covered with heavy curtains and made almost
airtight. By means of an electric pump (hidden in the
cellar) the ingenious nobleman would force fumes of
chloroform into the room, and in this manner he could
quietly and painlessly either exterminate his victims
completely, or put them to sleep, to be dispatched in his
leisure moments. Now it would appear that this tender-
hearted criminal had all the vanity of a literary man;
he determined to publish to the world a statement of
his adventures, and reminiscences. With a keen eye to
business, he realized at the outset that his work was
worthy of a good advertisement. He put on his thinking
cap, and the plan ultimately evolved was this : A num-
ber of confederates were to bury him alive, but leading

72 THIS HUMAN NATURE

from the coffin underground there should be a pipe to
permit him to breathe. The idea was that he should
"escape" that is, be rescued in order that the story
of his dramatic deliverance from a horrible death
might stir the imagination of mankind, bring fame and
glory to his name, and thereby increase the sales of his
book.

This great plan miscarried, as great plans some-
times do, by virtue of a trifling oversight. There was
only one air pipe, and therefore there could be no cur-
rent of air through the coffin : result, carbonic acid gas,
and untimely death of the noble marquis. On Wednes-
day, October 2, his companions went to the spot in the
forest where they had buried Passal, to bring him food.
When they arrived at the grave, they called out to him,
and found to their dismay that he was dead. That is one
version of the story. Another is that a group of men had
formed themselves into a secret society for the purpose
of executing justice on criminals, and they had decided
that he came within the scope of their activities be-
cause of his known robberies and murders.

"About six o'clock on Saturday," they wrote in a
letter to Le Matin, "we told the 'marquis' of the fate
which awaited him. We explained to him that we were
going to bury him alive, but that he would be allowed
to breathe and suffer atrociously from hunger and
thirst. We undressed him, and laid him in the coffin
we had made from a packing case. He made no re-
sistence, but continued to talk incoherently. We covered
the coffin with earth, and remained on watch until four
in the morning. We told him that if he uttered a word
we should plug the pipe leading to the coffin and suf-
focate him. In reality we abandoned him to his fate,
knowing that he could not escape." The full truth re-
garding this extraordinary case is not yet known, but
it is at all events an example either of the freakishness

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 73

of human nature, or of the criminal vanity of certain
members of the human species.
If Great utility of mendacity

It is fairly well known that most men are liars and
indeed the good Psalmist has said, "All men are
liars." * There is no need to describe the person who
tells lies for the sake of his own selfish gain, for there
are really very few people who do not do this at some
time or other in their lives. Mention should be made
of the type known as the "pathological" liar, that is the
person who makes amusement for himself and of ten for
others by conceits of exaggeration, and stories that sur-
prise. It is a fairly common human weakness, which
has persisted throughout the centuries. The writing of
most "fiction" is based on the use of this quality. Many
pathological liars are quite dangerous, because their
lying often takes the form of spreading stories and
rumors. Others of them frequently serve a useful pur-
pose. In the early days of the World War, for example,
there was that wonderful story of the Russian troops'
having landed in England to pass through it on their
way to help the Allies in France. Probably it was
started by a pathological liar. It was one of those de-
lightful lies which were so pleasant and comforting in
those days of trial. It spread like wildfire throughout
England. A curate in the Church of England at Liver-
pool told an acquaintance of mine that Mr. X., a close
friend of his, had only two days before seen the trains
full of Russians passing through Carlisle. One train
halted for a few moments, and a number of big strong
men with bushy black beards and top-boots got out on
the platform and asked in deep guttural tones for
vodka. The rumor was of great military value. A tele-
gram from Rome was published to the effect that there
was to be a concentration of a quarter of a million Rus-

* Psalm CXVI.v. n.

74 THIS HUMAN NATURE

sian troops in France. On September 14, 1914, the Lon-
don Daily News published the following :

As will be seen from the long despatch of Mr.
P. J. Philip, our special correspondent, Russian
troops are now cooperating with the Belgians.
This information proved the correctness of the
general impression that Russian troops have been
moved through England.

Such a piece of news, at a moment of very great
anxiety, was just what was wanted to counter the bad
news that could not be suppressed. No official denial
was necessary, although it was a complete falsehood.

The pathological liar is often unaware that he is
lying, and pays little attention to the morality of it. It
is with him a mental aberration which takes the form
of a life in fantasy. In children it springs generally
from a sense of inferiority, and the only way they can
compensate for this inferiority is to indulge in dreams
in which they are in a position of importance. The
same phenomena may often be observed in politicians,
writers, and poets; but they occasionally turn it to good
account. Goethe admits that in his early childhood he
felt himself developing into a pathological liar, and it
was only by a great mental effort that he turned his
imaginings into metaphysical speculations. We all of
us know the man who never goes anywhere or does any-
thing without some exciting adventure coming his way.
Such unconscious lying gives him a sense of superior-
ity, and a feeling of pleasure.

While on this subject I must fall back upon Mr.
Arthur Ponsonby's admirable analysis of the lies that
were told by the belligerents in the World War. He
says that there must have been more deliberate lying
from 1914 to 1918 than in any other period of the

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 7$

world's history. In my opinion original lying has al-
ways been on more or less the same scale, but the tele-
graph, the wireless, and the printing press gave lying
an amazing fillip and popularity in those eventful
years. I can illustrate this "golden age of lying," as
Mr. Ponsonby will have it, by quoting liberally from
his book. My excuse must be that he shows better than
I can what human mentality is like in this twentieth
century.
H The principles of propaganda

"There are several different sorts of disguises which
falsehood can take," says Mr. Ponsonby. "There is (i)
the deliberate official lie, issued either to delude the
people at home or to mislead the enemy abroad. As a
Frenchman has said, 'As long as peoples are armed
against each other, there will be lying statesmen, just as
there will be cannons and machine guns.' A circular
was issued by the War Office inviting reports on war
incidents from officers with regard to the enemy and
stating that strict accuracy was not essential so long as
there was inherent probability. (2) There is the de-
liberate lie concocted by an ingenious mind which may
only reach a small circle, but which, if sufficiently
graphic and picturesque, may be caught up and spread
broadcast; and there is the hysterical hallucination on
the part of weak-minded individuals. (3) There is the
lie heard and not denied, although lacking in evidence,
and then repeated or allowed to circulate. (4) There
is the mistranslation, occasionally originating in a
genuine mistake, but more often deliberate. Two minor
instances of this may be given.

(a)

The Times (Agony Column), July 9, 1915.
Jack F. G. If you are not in khaki by the 2Oth,
I you dead. Ethel M.

76 THIS HUMAN NATURE

The Berlin Correspondent of the "Cologne Ga-
zette" transmitted this:

"If you are not in khaki by the 2Oth,
hacke ich dick zu Tode (I will beat you
to death) !"

(b)

During the blockade of Germany, it was sug-
gested that the diseases from which children suf-
fered had been called die englische Krankheit,
(the English disease) as a permanent reflection on
English inhumanity. As a matter of fact, die en-
glische Krankheit is, and always has been, the com-
mon German name for rickets.

(5) There is the general obsession, started by rumor,
magnified by repetition and elaborated by hysteria,
which at last gains general acceptance. (6) There is
the deliberate forgery which has to be very carefully
manufactured but serves its purpose at the moment
even though it be eventually exposed.

"(7) There is the omission of passages from official
documents ; and the 'correctness' of words and commas
in parliamentary answers which conceals evasions of
the truth. (8) There is the deliberate exaggeration,
such, for instance, as the reports of the destruction of
Louvain: 'The intellectual metropolis of the Low
Countries since the fifteenth century is now no more
than a heap of ashes' (Press Bureau, August 29, 1914).
'Louvain has ceased to exist' (the Times, August 29,
1914). As a matter of fact, it was estimated that about
an eighth of the town had suffered. (9) There is the
concealment of truth, which has to be resorted to so as
to prevent anything to the credit of the enemy reaching
the public. A war correspondent who mentioned some
chivalrous act that a German had done to an English-
man during an action received a rebuking telegram
from his employer: 'Don't want to hear about any good

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 77

Germans.' Sir Philip Gibbs, in 'Realities of War,'
says : 'At the close of the day the Germans acted with
chivalry, which I was not allowed to tell at the time.'
(10) There is the faked photograph ('the camera can-
not lie') . These were more popular in France than here.
In Vienna an enterprising firm supplied atrocity photo-
graphs with blanks for the headings, so that they might
be used for propaganda purposes by either side. (ll)
The cinema also played a very important part, espe-
cially in neutral countries, and helped considerably in
turning opinion in America in favor of coming in on
the side of the Allies. (12) There is the 'Russian scan-
dal,' the best instance of which during the war,
curiously enough, was the rumor of the passage of Rus-
sian troops through Britain.

"Some trivial and imperfectly understood statement
of fact becomes magnified into enormous proportions
by constant repetition from one person to another. (13)
Atrocity lies were the most popular of all, especially in
England and America; no war can be without them.
Slander of the enemy is esteemed a patriotic duty. An
English soldier wrote (the Times, Sept. 15, 1914) :
'The stories in our papers are only exceptions. There
are people like them in every army! But at the earliest
possible moment stories of the maltreatment of prison-
ers have to be circulated deliberately in order to pre-
vent surrenders. This is done, of course, on both sides.
Whereas naturally each side tries to treat its prisoners
as well as possible so as to attract others. ( 14) The repe-
tition of a single instance of cruelty and its exaggera-
tion can be distorted into a prevailing habit on the part
of the enemy. Unconsciously each one passes it on with
trimmings and yet tries to persuade himself that he is
speaking the truth. (15) There are lies emanating from
the inherent unreliability and fallibility of human tes-
timony. No two people can relate the occurrence of a

78 TH IS "HUMAN NATURE

street accident so as to make the two stories tally. When
bias and emotion are introduced, human testimony
becomes quite valueless. In war-time such testimony is
accepted as conclusive. The scrappiest and most unre-
liable evidence is sufficient 'The friend of the brother
of a man who was killed/ or, as a German investigator
of his own liars puts it, 'somebody who had seen it/ or,
'an extremely respectable old woman.' (16) There is
pure romance. Letters of soldiers who whiled away the
days and weeks of intolerable waiting by writing home
sometimes contained thrilling descriptions of engage-
ments and adventures which had never occurred. (17)
There are evasions, concealments, and half-truths
which are more subtly misleading and gradually be-
come a governmental habit. (18) There is official se-
crecy, which must necessarily mislead public opinion.
(19) There is sham official indignation, depending
on genuine popular indignation, which is a form of
falsehood sometimes resorted to in an unguarded mo-
ment and subsequently regretted. The first use of gas
by the Germans and the submarine warfare are good
instances of this. (20) Contempt for the enemy, if illus-
trated, can prove to be an unwise form of falsehood.
There was a time when German soldiers were popu-
larly represented cringing, with their arms in the air
and crying 'Kamerad,' until it occurred to press and
propaganda authorities that people were asking why, if
this was the sort of material we were fighting against,
had we not wiped them off the field in a few weeks.
(21) There are personal accusations and false charges
made in a prejudiced war atmosphere to discredit per-
sons who refuse to adopt the orthodox attitude toward
war. (22) There are lying recriminations between one
country and another. For instance, the Germans were
accused of having engineered the Armenian massacres,
and they, on their side, declared the Armenians, stimu-

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 79

lated by the Russians, had killed 150,000 Moham-
medans (Germania, October 9, 1915).

"Other varieties of falsehood more subtle and
elusive might be found, but the above pretty well
cover the ground." *

Mr. Ponsonby then goes on to expand his analysis,
giving examples of each kind of the above lies used
wholesale throughout the war. We may assume that his
statement is correct if very incomplete. It shows in a
striking manner the basic immorality of modern man,
and that, given the right atmosphere, he may sink to
any form of degradation, to any despicable trick, in
order to thwart and deceive his fellow men.
IT Does human nature change?

We may now well ask ourselves the question: "Does
human nature change?"

In view of what has already been said, a very great
question-mark stands vividly before our eyes. Indeed,
what it all seems to amount to is this: the superficial
manners of man have changed considerably, but those
fundamental instincts and emotions upon which human
nature is based have undergone little real change. In
every-day life and in what may be called the ordinary
run of existence, many of these instincts and emotions
are repressed. At a given moment in the life of an indi-
vidual, of a nation, of a race, or nowadays of a conti-
nent, remove the lid of culture and civilization, and we
see boiling in the pot the whole vile stew of the primi-
tive. The history of human nature is the history of a
gradual repression of the primitive instincts and emo-
tions, with moments now and again and in certain cir-
cumscribed localities in which there is a sudden release
of the repressions during the World War, for ex-

*Thc above "Twenty-two points of lying" are quoted (almost verbatim)
from Falsehood in War Time by Arthur Ponsonby, M.P. The book is well
documented throughput, and worth perusal by those who are interested in
the question of religious influence upon truthfulness. C. D.

8o THIS HUMAN NATURE

ample, or during the Crusades. We then witness acts by
individuals and by groups, by races and by nations, of a
sort to show that we are, to all intents and purposes, not
very far above the level of jungle beasts. Such inven-
tions as the airplane, wireless telegraphy, or the talking
pictures do not cause great changes in our nature. They
are merely externals, and are not without some slight
influence. A long period of time may be necessary to
effect even the slightest changes.

We shall see that in the last two thousand years
Christianity has changed the outlook of men, and given
a great impetus to superficial humanitarianism. The
same may be said of the other great religions. But one
may ask whether even Christianity, which brought in
its train a whole series of terrible wars, not to mention
physical and mental torture, has really caused anything
very wonderful in the way of a change in our natures.
Curiously enough, it seems as if books have had as
great an effect as anything else. In December, 1928,
there was enacted in London a simple event which
shows as well as anything else what daily looms in the
background of our nature. A man boarded a t r am and
refused to pay his fare. The conductor caused this man
to be brought before a magistrate for the non-payment
of a legal fare. The man was asked why he had not paid
it, and he replied in these simple words: "Sheer cussed-
ness." The magistrate bowed solemnly and gave a judg-
ment worthy of Solomon. Said he, "Knowing human
nature to be what it is we accept the explanation." And
he forthwith dismissed the case.*

One may well feel after reading history that the
whole case against human nature may be dismissed for
the same unanswerable reason.

We may now proceed to a closer examination of his-
tory, and to a consideration of those events which illus-

* Reported by the London Times, in a leading article.

A PREFACE TO ALL HISTORY 8l

trate the working and development of this complex
phenomenon which we call human nature. We shall
see that it works in cycles of savagery, barbarism, and
civilization ; and that the one may run parallel with the
other or all three be found together at the same time
and in the same place.

BOOK II

THE TAMING AND

SOPHISTICATION OF

HUMAN NATURE

I. REAL ESTATE AND JUJU

IN the first book we have discussed the origin of fire
and indicated its supreme importance upon the de-
velopment of man's nature. Of scarcely less importance
was the fence, invented to separate one person's land
from that of another. It seems strange to us now to
think that originally land was not owned, in the sense
that real estate can be owned nowadays by an indi-
vidual, a group, or a nation. There was in many places
communal use of land. But one fine day a .greedy agri-
culturist conceived the idea of marking off a piece for
his own use, and surrounding it by a fence to keep other
men from trespassing: that was the origin of real
property, which has caused so much trouble in the
affairs of men in all ages. Great families, tribal boun-
daries, and nations sprang from it; one school of
thought believes it to be the pivot of all human history.
It seems quite simple, this fence idea, and yet its origin
cannot date very far back. I do not mean the fence
which primitive man might build round his cave or
shelter to protect it from the attacks of wild beasts or
of his fellow men of other tribes. Probably that was
the first kind of fence. But far more subtle was that
idea of surrounding a piece of arable or tillable land
with a hedge, or merely a row of sticks, to mark it off
from that which was occupied by a neighbor.
IF What we owe to the fence

The importance of this originally modest idea in
human affairs can scarcely be exaggerated, for was not
this fence or boundary the cause of the first economic
war? We see its effects even in our own times. There

85

86 THIS HUMAN NATURE

are still many parts of the world's surface which have
not yet succumbed by delimitation to the finesse of
greed. In Latin America, for example, there are still
a dozen boundary disputes, all of them very trouble-
some and a few having in them the germs of very pretty
wars. The dispute between Chile and Peru regarding
the territory of Tacna-Arica has been the cause of ex-
ceedingly bad blood between these two nations during
the last thirty years, and on many occasions war be-
tween them was averted only by the merest accident.
Paraguay and Bolivia were recently snarling at each
other, ready to bite off a piece of each other's boundary.
We see then that, although the fence is useful it may
be dangerous, for man will often fight to the death for
what it encloses. In Europe today there are several
boundaries which do not satisfy the peoples who live
in their immediate neighborhood, and others besides;
it is not impossible that they may in the future be the
cause of another conflagration as devastating as the
last. On each side of every fence in the world there are
to be found interests which conflict with one another in
some way. There appears to be little possibility of
avoiding the problems which they present; they have
seldom been avoided in the past. No civilized country
but possesses a body of property law; and there is no
civilized country in which the squabbles about real
estate do not bring a rich harvest to a type of human
being which exists rather to sit on the fence than to live
on either side of it: the lawyers.

Man the hunted animal, man the hunter, man the
fire-maker, man the agriculturist and pastoralist, man
the fencemaker these are great landmarks without
ascertained dates in the history of human nature. The
next landmark which we shall consider is the wheel, for
it too has shown itself to have been a powerful influ-
ence. It is as a result of the invention of the wheel that

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 87

life has been speeded up to its present pace : it is to the
fire and the wheel that we largely owe the quickening
of intellect that has taken place during the last one
hundred and fifty years. (Note that I do not say the
growth of intellect, but merely its quicker action within
severely circumscribed limits; this applies only to the
masses of western civilization.)
1F The 'wheel rounds off human nature

I have endeavored to trace the origin of the wheel,
but with utter lack of success. We can only speculate
as to its origin. Mr. Belloc submits a most likely theory
as to its beginning: his idea is that, by a flash of genius,
prehistoric man jumped the gulf which separates the
Awheel from the roller. Belloc shrewdly remarks that
the suggestion so often made that the first wheel was
probably the section of a tree, is so unlikely as to be
almost impossible. The fact remains that the oldest
wheels of which we have any knowledge are wheels in
the true modern sense of the word, with felloes and
spokes radiating from a hub. The earliest wheels come
to us from what has been called the cradle of civiliza-
tion Mesopotamia but the first ingenious wheel
having in it six spokes instead of four, thereby indi-
cating manufacture by a more civilized man, comes
from Egypt. There are solid wheels and spoked wheels,
the forerunners of those wheels used today on auto-
mobiles, motor-bicycles, pulleys, and other devices, the
use of which chiefly marks our differences from the
primitive. "In our own. time the wheel has taken on a
marvelous extension. It gives us electrical energy to
use; it transmits power; it keeps time for us; it
measures all things from a map to the speed of light; it
permits our curious toys, such as moving pictures. It
endows us with the special uses of the gyroscope; it
drives our turbines by steam and water, and soon per-
haps, by air. It even aids in our vices, and by its im-

88 THIS HUMAN NATURE

personality, and exactitude, it makes our gambling
reasonably impersonal." * One might add that it en-
ables us to wage war on a scale hitherto only possible
to the diseased imaginations of fiends. It was also this
simple device, the wheel, which caused man first to
make a road, later a highway, and still later the net-
work of railways to be found in all civilized parts of
the world and in many that are still living through
their age of barbarism. The first road was merely a
track made by the footsteps of men between one group
of dwellings and another. The invention of the wheel
was soon followed by that of the vehicle: this necessi-
tated a more solid surface upon which to circulate;
hence the first real road.
IT The canalization of humanity

In its relation to the development of human nature
the road occupies an exceedingly important place, one
which is almost entirely neglected by orthodox his-
torians, though those who specialize in military history
can scarcely avoid it at every turn. Once a good road is
made it attracts the attention of men and becomes a
means of communication; population is attracted to
certain parts of it which are favorably situated from
the point of view of protection, trade, or comfort.
The road is responsible for that huge division of man-
kind into town or city-dwellers and those who prefer
to remain closer to the soil in rural areas. "The road
having caused the growth of the city, after a certain
point a high differentiation arises between urban and
rural life. The differentiation may become so great that
you arrive at a clash of fundamental interests, in which
one of the two is defeated. . . . The towns became so
much the more important part of English life (in the
last two generations) that the agricultural life was en-
tirely sacrificed to them and the road was the ultimate

* Hilaire Belloc : The Highway and Its Vehicles.

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 89

cause. Again you get the curious development of what
may be called 'reserve' towns: towns like Brighton and
Blackpool, which are the playgrounds of the greater
cities at a distance; the large urban center breeds, as it
were, a lesser one after its own pattern. You have got
in modern times that further curious reaction due to
growing excellence of communications that is, due to
the growth of the road the pulse of the great modern
city. Crowds of human beings pour out of Victoria or
Liverpool Street stations into London, and pour back
from London in the evening. The station of Saint-
Lazare in Paris is, in Europe, the most striking visual
evidence of this strange modern development, great
floods of human beings cascading into the city at the
opening day and ebbing back at its close." *

To the road also we may attribute another curious
modern phenomenon in human nature: the growth of
an amazing snobbery among suburban dwellers. The
family which can afford a season ticket now deems it-
self a superior form of creation to that which is forced
by economic circumstances to dwell in the crowded
areas and slums of the city. And again, in London, as a
result of this, there is yet another class which is still
more snobbish than the suburbanites, and insists upon
dwelling in expensive and exclusive flats in the more
salubrious parts of the metropolis.
IF Migrant man

The road was largely responsible for the military
success of the Roman. Empire; and it was the road
which, by facilitating the spread of Christianity, as
well as the influx into Rome of wealth and luxury from
conquered territories, led to its decline and fall. As we
have shown, primitive man became a wanderer chiefly
because of the invention of a means of making fire.
The habit of wandering, once acquired, was assisted by

Hilairc Belloc, The Road.

90 THIS HUMAN NATURE

the road to develop into a nomadic tendency which
man has never abandoned. We see this exemplified in
modern tourism, in walking tours or "hiking"; in the
often aimless wanderings of tramps ; in the meandering
voyages across the American continent by penniless
hoboes. These people are often merely fleeing from
reality, but not always. At one period vast numbers
of Asiatics spread westward over the plains of Eastern
Europe. They were largely indisciplined forces, but
they had with them fire and wheels, horses and grain,
which they used in their settlement of Europe. Since
then at various times in human history the wandering
spirit of man has shown itself in vast migrations; at
first they were warlike raids, now they are peaceful
penetrations. In the past four hundred years, for ex-
ample, the continent of America has been the goal of
a migration from Europe. The results of these in-
vasions and migrations mean an intermixture of races
which seems on the face of it to be beneficial to hu-
manity; or at all events the resultant mixture is in-
variably inclined to assert that it is. The mingling of
the wise and weary with the young and powerful can
produce excellent results. The interchange of ideas pro-
ceeds; and new means of comfort are discovered.
Hitherto these migrations and penetrations have taken
place chiefly among white races, and now as a result
the white race everywhere almost entirely consists of
mongrels. The yellows and the blacks do not mix very
much or even very well with the whites; nor are the
whites anxious that they should do so. In a sense there-
fore there are three kinds of human nature, outwardly
indicated by the color of the skin.
1T Origin of sport

With the aid of his fire, his wheels, and his roads
man was enabled to settle in large groups which grew
into cities. He still continued to hunt, but when he was

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 91

unable to do this he had to find other means of working
off his excess energy. Occasionally he could do so in
war, but when there was no war he was driven back
upon other expedients, and these were based upon a sort
of instinct to throw, to run, and to strike, which came
from hunting or war. In this we see the origin of games,
which were originally in the form of contests in one or
another of these three. In Greece, as we shall see, they
afterwards developed into that group of activities
which we call sport. Hunting changed from a serious
business into a mere sport, and as such it has almost
disappeared because of the intense development of that
idea contained in the fence and the boundary. It is only
the richest people who can now afford to hunt on a
grand scale. But the hunting spirit survives. Nothing
can cause more excitement in the household of a highly
civilized family than the hunting down of a rat or
mouse or even of so beautiful an insect as a wasp. Boys
still love to throw stones at cats, dogs, or birds; and
must be taught that it is wrong before they will desist
from this cruel form of amusement. In England we
still hunt the hare, the fox, and the stag where these can
be found. Not many of them remain, for they have very
little chance against the modern organized hunt.
1 The delicate modern conscience

As an instance of the change which has taken place
in human nature, it should be noted that in many parts
of the world there is now a fair amount of public indig-
nation against hunting or the indulgence in what are
called "Blood Sports."

But it is in the development of games other than
hunting that man has showed himself to be most in-
genious. There was not one of the older civilizations
without its games. The Greeks were the originators of
that comparatively modern humanitarian spirit which
is called sportsmanship; in modern times no people

92 THIS HUMAN NATURE

have developed it to a greater degree than the English.

Most of the common modern games may be traced to

that country, and in England the interest in sport may

be estimated from the fact that many newspapers exist

chiefly because of the excellence of their sporting

pages.

IT Daymare origin of religion

The origin of the religious spirit cannot be traced so
successfully, although many attempts have been made
to do so. The contemplative part of early man's life
must have been something in the nature of a nightmare ;
or rather daymare; he feared everything unfamiliar
and unknown. He acted in precisely the same panicky
manner as a tiger which, having left the jungle, catches
sight of a few threads of cotton. He developed a whole
series of ideas regarding things that were forbidden
or "Taboo." Out of these fears and taboos was evolved
a system of religion, at which date in man's history we
do not know. Nor can one be sure that religion existed
amongst all the primitive races, for even now there are
whole races with scarcely any formal religion. Spencer
evolved a plausible theory of the origin of religion
based upon evidence furnished by the life and thought
of modern savages. According to him, the primitive
formed a conception of the soul from what he believed
to be his experience: that after dreams or swoons the
mind which had temporarily roamed away from the
body was able to return. The next step is the belief that
after death the soul exists for a time as a spirit; fol-
lowing this, in comparatively modern times that is,
in ancient Egypt an idea of the immortality of the
soul began to show itself.

Early man blamed evil spirits for all the calamities
and catastrophes of his existence. Gradually these were
narrowed down to two spirits, the one representing
Good (God) and the other representing Evil (Devil).

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 93

These old imaginative conceptions have come down to
us, and are the basis of most of the present religious
systems of the world. There are, however, still races
who have not advanced so far as the idea of God:
certain Australian tribes; the Lepchas of India; and
the Xosa Kafirs. Garcilaso de la Vega informs us
that the Chiriguanos and the natives of Cape Pasau in
South America had no inclination to worship god or
devil. In Brazil the Chunchos of the Amazon valley
have no religion, nor have many of the Indians of the
Gran Chaco. Until quite recently, Indians and tribes
that dwelt on the shores of the Hudson Bay had no
public worship nor any words to express the God-idea.
Before the arrival of missionaries with their whisky
and rum the Eskimos did not know of good or evil
spirits, and sternly avoided all forms of religious wor-
ship. There is sound reason to believe that, until deaf-
mutes (of any race) receive education, they never
formulate in their minds any idea of recognizable re-
ligion.* Be this as it may, once religion has taken root
it is not long before it shows some signs of growth and
expansion in ideas. It is a long way from the hazy con-
cepts of early religion to that of Akhnaton, the Egyp-
tian, or Judaism, in which the idea of a localized or
tribal deity was expanded into a Universal God,
omnipotent and omniscient.

The basis of the Jewish religion is the doctrine of
rewards and punishment: the man who behaves in the
manner decreed by God will be rewarded, and he who
does otherwise will be punished. There will be com-
pound interest given on good or bad deeds. The authors
of the first five books of the Bible took no account of
Hell, and the idea of offering rewards and punish-
ments in the after life is a comparatively modern idea
a few thousand years old, at most. Around the main

* F. J. Gould, A Short History of Religion.

94 THIS HUMAN NATURE

ideas of morality of the Hebrew religion there grew
an elaborate mythology, which was closely connected
with, and influenced by, the mythologies of preceding
and contemporary people. The ethical code was savage,
though a very practical one, dominated by the spirit
of vendetta or reprisal, by which the Almighty vented
his wrath on individuals, nations or races for failing
to pay mental tax and tribute.
1f Influence of Things Invisible and Intangible

There is no doubt that the influence of these ideas,
when stripped of the symbolism and formalism added
by priests and rulers, had a profound influence upon
human nature. It was these Invisible and Intangible
Things which caused the first spiritual change in our
nature: they were responsible for a repression and a
breaking-in or taming. The reason is obvious. Before
the arrival of the God who was everywhere, was every-
thing, and had even the hairs of human beings' heads
well and truly numbered, the man who wished to do
wrong, and was not immediately under the observa-
tion of his fellows, could do so almost with impunity.
But now a powerful universal spirit had arrived who
was taking account of every action, even if done by
stealth. How could man, with his inheritance of fear
from the days when he was a hunted animal, behave
otherwise than attempt to do that which his teachers
taught him was right? It was the first blackmail on the
grand scale.
IT True history of the Devil

Almost at the same time as the Hebrew use of the
Universal God (that is to say, about five thousand
years B.C.) another bright idea was evolved. It hap-
pened somewhat in this manner. If the Great Universal
God were omnipotent and omniscient, it was rather
difficult to explain why he permitted so much evil in
the world. Another god one not so powerful, but al-

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 95

most had to be invented; and so the Devil arrived
among us. It would appear that the Devil-idea spread
far more rapidly than that of the single God : far away
to the west are to be found traces of his existence in
paintings that must have been made perhaps a thousand
years before our era. The true history of the Devil is
now fairly well known, and his evolution from a kind
of horned god and ruler of the underworld of evil has
been chronicled in terms of moderately scientific his-
tory. How much influence the Devil has had upon our
spiritual advancement will be treated later, but let it
suffice for the present to say that, without him, the suc-
cess of the Universal God might not have been nearly
so great as it undoubtedly was. It is an amazing com-
mentary upon human faith and credulity that existing
religious and scientific doctrines relating to the cre-
ation of the world, the tyranny over man by Invisible
and Intangible Things, the control of his destiny after
death, all of them resulting from the imaginative
speculation of men of genius, but in no manner capable
of proof in terms of reason, have swayed whole na-
tions and governed almost every action in the lives of
masses of individuals. One may ask how it can matter
to the behavior of man whether he believes that his
actions are controlled by one God or a dozen, but this
becomes important if he is made to feel responsible to
those who have earthly power over him and who tell
him that it does matter. Rulers with their priests, sup-
ported by armies or the equivalent of police, have made
full use of religious systems to control actions not under
their immediate supervision. Even emperors and kings
submitted to this system of spiritual government, often
with beneficial results. In western civilization today
much of this influence is disappearing, but the great
trading and colonizing nations still use it as a means to
keep order in less sophisticated races. Reade noticed

96 THIS HUMAN NATURE

that the general attitude which human beings observe
toward God is that which an eastern subject is made to
observe toward his king: a form of devotion based on
fear and called loyalty when given to earthly rulers,
piety when given to the heavenly ruler. No influence is
more powerful and, on the whole, none more bene-
ficial to ignorant or helpless people incapable of
thinking for themselves. Religion was, until the seven-
teenth century of the Christian era, the dominating
power over human behavior.
IT A list of jujuists

The higher religions develop into a form of gov-
ernment with a code of laws drawn up and adminis-
tered by specially gifted beings. These exceptional
human beings are to be found everywhere. We meet
them as ecclesiastics, preachers, and patriarchs, deans
and postulants, canons and missionaries, lecturers and
friars ; they come to us as prelates and pastors, cardinals
and rectors, holy-rollers and cenobites, rabbis and
dervishes, acolytes and eminences, prebendaries and
confessors, medicine-men and incumbents, scribes and
monks; we meet them as hierophants and voodooists,
presbyters and priors, novices and readers, suffragans
and charm-sellers, class leaders and capitulars, elders
and primates, popes and juju men, tithe collectors, gos-
pelers and cure-alls.* The work of all these people is to
tell men to do as they say; and all will be well both
here and hereafter. Their influence is to be felt from
pole to pole, like that of the weather.

To assist these men in the difficult task of persuading
others that they must do as they are told, great gifts are
often claimed. For example, in the Bible we read of
certain men who claimed for themselves the gift of
prophecy; a very useful one indeed. They said that
they could persuade God to reveal the future to them,

* Ambrose Bierce's List, to which I have added. C. D.

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 97

and those around them were fully convinced both of
their sincerity and of the accuracy of their statement.
Prophets are men of great imaginative powers. Ideas
come to them vividly, and always when they are under
the influence of a deep emotion. In certain parts of the
East they may still be observed ; in the West they are
also found, though the modern medical practice is to
certify them insane, if they are bold enough to prophesy
publicly. They no longer set themselves up successfully
as religious prophets, as in the past. But the whole of
human history is littered with their work, which has
more often than not served to ennoble man. We owe
them a debt of gratitude, even if we know that their
sayings bear examination as poetry and not as science.

2. CREDULITY, PRUDERY, AND THE NATURE
OF WOMAN

WE now come to another extremely important
aspect of human nature: the effect which mar-
riage and sexual relations have had upon our existence.
For a sympathetic treatment of the origin and vagaries
of the sexual impulse I must refer the interested reader
to the profound works of Ellis, Bloch, Santayana, and
the Fathers of the Church. It is a subject which may be
treated freely in works of science, law, and theology,
but not in works of history or morals. But it can hardly
be avoided by whoever would understand either the one
or the other, and therefore I must do my best to make
clear a few relevant points.
If Sexual seasons of the Eskimos

It would appear that in the early days of man there
was something resembling the pairing season of ani-
mals. It is on record that the Eskimos inhabiting the

98 THIS HUMAN NATURE

country lying between the seventy-sixth and seventy-
ninth parallels exhibit, at all events until recently, a
distinct sexual season, which occurs with great intensity
at the first appearance of the sun. Little else is thought
of but sexual activities for some time afterwards ; and
the majority of the children are in consequence born
nine months later. It is also recorded that the Hos in
Chota Nagpur (according to Colonel Dal ton) have
every year a great feast in January, "when the granaries
are full of grain, and the people, to use their own ex-
pression, full of devilry." They have a wonderful
notion that at this period, men and women being so
overcharged with vicious propensities, it is absolutely
necessary for the safety of the person to let off steam
by allowing for a time full vent to the sexual passion.
The festival, therefore, becomes a saturnalia, during
which servants forget their duty to their masters, chil-
dren their reverence for parents, men for women, and
women all notions of modesty, delicacy, and gentleness.
Men and women become almost like animals in the
naive and innocent indulgence of their amorous pro-
pensities; the utmost liberty is given to the girls. Wes-
termarck reports stories about certain tribes or com-
munities in Morocco, where people of both sexes are
said to assemble at night in a mosque once every year.
The lights are extinguished, everybody lies down, and
the men and women who are lying nearest each other
have sexual intercourse regardless of all ties of mar-
riage and consanguinity.*
IF Was the primitive promiscuous?

We do not know whether primitive man lived a life
of utter promiscuity, as some writers assert, or whether
he was monogamous. It is, however, certain that there
is no part of the world within recorded history in

* I am Indebted to Westermarck's monumental History of Human Marriage
for the facts of this subject. C. D.

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 99

which formal marriage does not take place. The forms
of marriage are innumerable, but it seems that mar-
riage itself has little bearing upon the question of
promiscuity; for there has never been and there is now
no part of the world in which promiscuous intercourse
does not take place. Polygamy, which still exists in
Mohammedan, and certain other countries, has so many
disadvantages that it tends to die out. Polyandry is un-
popular both amongst club-bearers and check-writers.
The common rule of life is one man for one woman;
one partner at a time, even if it be short. Sex is respon-
sible for many queer manifestations of human nature,
which seem to have changed not at all regarding it.
Westermarck remarks that in spite of the general eco-
nomic progress, people have become more and more
unwilling to venture upon marriage and that this is no
doubt to some extent due to the ever-increasing stand-
ard of comfort among all classes, as well as to. the in-
creased cost of living in European countries, which has
led either to a retardation or to an abandonment of
marriages. In this respect there is a difference between
different social classes. Professor Fahlbeck has found
that among the Swedish nobility 43.17 per cent of the
marriageable men and 46.15 of the marriageable
women are unmarried, while the figures for the whole
population of Sweden are only 31.42 and 31.54 re-
spectively; and the number of unmarried persons has
greatly increased in recent times. Generally speaking,
the average age for marriage is more advanced among
upper classes than among the lower ones. A "gentle-
man" before marrying thinks it necessary to have an
income of which a mere fraction would suffice for a
married workman. He has to offer his wife a home in
accordance with her social position and his own ; and
unless she brings him some fortune, she contributes but
little to the support of the family. Sweden is mentioned

100 THIS HUMAN NATURE

in this example, because it is one of the most highly
civilized countries in the modern world.
f The chief objective of woman

The London Daily Express in 1929 asked its women
readers to give their choice of a career, and this was the
final summing up :

Marriage 68 per cent

Homecraft 7

Nursing 6

Teaching 4-5

Secretarial 3

Routine, Factory 1.5

No Ideal Career 10

From this one may conclude that in England marriage,
if not the most popular career for women, is one of
their chief objectives. Marriage takes place at all ages,
but in civilized countries seldom below sixteen in
women and eighteen in men. As regards the age when
marriages are concluded or consummated we are told
that the Papuans of the Macleay Coast of New Guinea
marry soon after they are circumcized, at an age be-
tween thirteen and fifteen; whereas among the inland
tribes of Dutch New Guinea the rnen are said to marry
comparatively late, living together as bachelors in the
men's houses, and indulging there in homosexual
orgies. In the Mekeo district of British New Guinea
a boy may marry at the age of about thirteen and a girl
at ten, but as a rule the youngest ages at which mar-
riages are concluded would be more like eighteen for
a boy and sixteen for a girl. In India child marriages
have been common, and only recently have been made
illegal by British ruling.
If Explanation of coyness

Coyness in the female may be regarded as a modified
continuation of a previous absolute refusal of the sexual
approaches of the male. The wise old Montaigne said

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE IOI

that nothing whets our taste so much as rarity and diffi-
culty, and that the artifice of virgin modesty serves the
object of increasing in us the desire to overcome all
obstacles. Burdach made this observation the basis of
a biological theory. He wrote that the male's endeavors
to catch, overcome, and hold the resisting female make
him more and more ardent and increase his fitness for
procreation, while the physical and mental excitement
of the female at the same time seems to promote her
fecundity. Since the sex impulse must necessarily have
extraordinary strength, the interests of the preservation
of species are best served by a preliminary condition of
excitement and by some checks to its discharge. The
instinctive coyness of the female serves this purpose.

Among the Andamanese, u when the elders of the
Sept are aware that a young couple are anxious to be
married, the bride is taken to a newly made empty hut
and made to sit down in it. The bridegroom runs away
into the jungle, but, after some struggling and pretense
at hesitation, is brought in by force and made to sit
down on the bride's lap." This is the whole of the cere-
mony. The newly married couple have little to say to,
and are very shy of, each other, for at least a month
after marriage, when they gradually settle down to-
gether. Among the Chiriguanos of the Gran Chaco,
who allow the greatest freedom in the relations between
the sexes, Father Chome was struck by the propriety
of their conversation and their behavior in general; he
never heard an indecent word among them. But since
they have had contact with civilization they are any-
thing but modest in their speech. Hans Stade, who in
the middle of the sixteenth century was a captive
among the Tupinambase on the coast of Brazil, re-
marks that men and women "conduct themselves de-
cently, and sleep with one another privately." The
Indians of British Guiana consider it extremely in-

102 THIS HUMAN NATURE

decent if a married couple show any signs of mutual
affection in the presence of others.
IF The sport of darkness

Regarding certain North American Indians I trans-
late from one writer: "They dare not enter the huts
where their wives live, except during the night; to
do otherwise would be considered an extraordinary
act." Among various other peoples it is considered in-
decent or is even prohibited to have sexual intercourse
in the daytime. The night is also the time for court-
ship. An observer wrote of some Canadian Indians:
"Nothing of intrigue or courtship must be mentioned
to the savage ladies in the daytime, for they will not
hear it; they'll tell you the nighttime is the most proper
season for that. . . . This is a general rule, that who-
ever designs to win the affection of a girl, must speak
to her in the daytime of things that lie remote from the
intrigues of love." The Nagas in the southern moun-
tains of Assam, according to a Persian historian of the
seventeenth century, "go about naked like beasts, and
do not mind to copulate with their women in the streets
and the bazars, before the people and the chiefs"; yet
the women covered their breasts. Of the Armenian
damsels we are told that they acted as prostitutes for a
long time before they were given in marriage. The
Cyprian maidens, according to Justin, procured money
for their marriage portions by prostituting themselves.
The Amorite virgins had to "sit in fornication" seven
days. In some provinces of Peru, says Garcilaso de la
Vega, "the nearest relations of the bride and her most
intimate friends had connection with her, and on this
condition the marriage was agreed to, and she was thus
received by the husband."
H Women more obstinate than men

Darwin has pointed out that among our domesticated
quadrupeds individual antipathies and preferences are

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 103

exhibited much more commonly by the female than
by the male; indeed, the male as a rule seems to be
ready to pair with any female, provided she belongs to
his own species. So also women seem generally to be
more particular in their choice than men, when the
union takes place without reference to interest. A
Maori proverb says, "Let a man be ever so good-
looking, he will not be much sought after; but let a
woman be ever so plain, men will still eagerly seek
after her." With regard to certain Negro tribes, Mer-
olla da Sorrento wrote: "Women would have expe-
rience of their husbands before they married them, in
like manner as the men, were to have of them; and in
this particular I can aver that they are commonly
much more obstinate or fickle than men, for I have
known many instances in which the men were willing
to be married, while the women held back, and either
fled away or made excuses." In Morocco supernatural
benefits are expected not only from heterosexual but
also from homosexual intercourse with a holy person.
IF Real purpose of the fig leaf

It is now common knowledge that the sexual rela-
tions of men and women have had an amazing influence
upon clothing and adornment. We cannot tell whether
the first clothing was designed for purposes of pro-
tection from the weather or for the attraction of the
opposite sex, and it is more difficult still in this twen-
tieth century for us to decide where the difference, if
any, exists. The fig leaf, being almost useless as a means
of concealment, was useful as an attraction to a region
of great importance for the continuation of history.
Shame is merely coquetry or a fear of causing disgust
to those of a different sex; it is largely a product of
civilization and a characteristic only of the clothed
human being. In women it is actually an attraction to
males, and well they know it.

104 THIS HUMAN NATURE

11 The saint; often a nuisance

Since the dawn of history there have been reform-
ers, and for two thousand years there have been saints.
They have not been entirely without effect on the de-
velopment of human nature. Men are never saints until
they are dead; and, if some people would have you
believe that they are saints while they are yet alive, you
should be on your guard : for it is not until they have
departed this life, and then not always, that a just esti-
mate of their value can be laboriously worked out. No
kind of human being is more generally detested than
a saint, who is often little better than a mere busybody
bringing storms and disturbances into the even tenor
of our ways; and forbidding us those little enjoyments
which make life worth living. But, when the saint has
been put out of the agony he suffers in regarding our
sins, we can afford to be generous ; and a halo costs us
little. It is a healthy human and biological instinct in
us which makes us torment saints while they are here;
and a sense of natural justice which makes us render
homage when it is not wanted or appreciated. Healthy
women detest in their hearts the saintly man; they
much prefer a rogue. Really good men are seldom suc-
cessful with women. But rogues and vagabonds, stock-
brokers and company promoters, murderers, soldiers,
sex-bound sailors, robbers, pimps and ponces are more
often than not very successful with the weaker sex,
which admires their "strength."

The state of being head-over-heels in love never lasts
long in men; though in women it may sometimes con-
tinue for a lifetime. This is an inheritance from the
good old days of caves and clubs, when men would bash
in the headpiece of their wives for gallivanting or
showing signs of promiscuous tendencies. In nations
where women to all intents and purposes rule men,
promiscuity becomes almost the rule of life: in the

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 105

United States for example. England is almost equally
a sexual paradise since women have won the right to
vote and govern. When two young people marry for
reasons of romantic love (that is to say, when the urge
to appease the sexual appetite is so great that it over-
rules all other considerations) each one marries some-
body unknown. For a person truly in love is insane as
regards the loved one, and cannot judge the full nature
and quality of the act of marriage. After a few years,
or months, or weeks, or sometimes even days, one or the
other of the partnership recovers his or her wits; and it
is only the supremely wise or the supremely weak in
character who can thereafter live any but a-cat-and-
dog existence.
H The happy marriage

One would therefore conclude that two persons head-
over-heels in love ought not to marry, and if they only
were concerned this would be right. But it is almost a
law of nature that the best stock comes from the young
people who are frantically in love with one another;
and it is this bigger aspect of the question, nature's
effort to perpetuate the species in the best possible bio-
logical conditions, which finally decides the right or
the wrong of love marriages. Experience proves that
the happiest marriages are those in which the husband
possesses in a greater degree than the wife one or both
of the two qualities which make men excel their fel-
lows : strength and cunning, or, as some will have it, in-
telligence, and at the same time the wife possesses the
quality of adhesion, or a good sense of economic
values.* The woman who is a flirt and the man who is a
libertine are of the same type, generally insincere hypo-
crites. This is and always has been well known to every-
body with a trifle of worldly wisdom. One might con-
clude that such men would be avoided by women, and

*Sec: The Art of Making a Perfect Husband. Anon.

106 THIS HUMAN NATURE

such women would be avoided by men. Nothing is
further from the truth. Men run after the woman who
is known to be a great flirt, and women pay homage to
the libidinous gentleman. The reasons are fairly ob-
vious : the desire of both men and women to have entire
possession of that which, for the moment, appears to be
common property. Sex being the impelling power, the
hypocrisy is overlooked, as it is in life generally.

Bachelors are either those men who know too much
or those who know too little. Spinsters are those women
who are either unattractive or who, being possessed of
remarkable insight, prefer to live without ties. Bach-
elors and spinsters are timid. They fear something
which cannot always be defined : but it is seldom selfish-
ness, as is often alleged, which causes them to retain
their liberty. The pretty woman is a born actress, and
can generally deceive any man she wishes to deceive,
because he nearly always likes being deceived; and
when he realizes that he is being deceived he often
deceives the woman by pretending that he is not being
deceived. It is the prerogative of the pretty woman to
deceive men ; and herself to be deceived by those who
are not deceived by her.

Women hate women more than men hate men. There
will always be wars until men can persuade women to
become soldiers and go to war. If this can be done on
the grand scale there is some hope that such a war will
really end war, or at least it will leave the world in
peace for a longer period than has ever before existed
between wars. Women would not go to war so readily
as men. But once let them start and . . . tjie worst
frightfulness of the World War will appear as an act
of benevolence. The reason women hate women more
than men hate men is because they see more clearly
through each other, a fact which has so often been
demonstrated that we may now take it for granted.

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATUfcE 107

H Sexual wisdom of the Latins

In Anglo-Saxon countries we assume that all young
boys and girls are innocent of sexual matters and
perfectly pure in heart and mind. The Latins and
other races are wiser in this respect. In France, Italy,
and Spain, it is taken for granted that if freedom is
given to girls in adolescence they will test out certain
physical theories which they seem to inherit quite
naturally, and acquire wisdom by experiment. With
boys this is all a part of their education; but with girls
it is not so, because chastity, if it be guaranteed, lowers
the amount of dower payable by parents at marriage.
The inevitable result of this is that those Latin parents
who wish to make good marriages for their daughters
take precautions, without which French, Spanish, and
Italian girls might have the same encyclopedic knowl-
edge of sexual matters as their British and American
sisters. Furthermore, the men of these Latin countries,
having a fair amount of freedom in their youth, of
which full advantage is taken, end by behaving more
reasonably throughout their married life than English
and American "sugar daddies." Both have much wis-
dom to learn from the East as regards the finer feelings
of hospitality in sexual matters, where a husband may,
in order to honor his guest, lend him a wife for so long
as he is under the same roof. It is a lesson in unselfish-
ness which we occidentals have still to learn. Conjugal
fidelity, though admired among civilized races, is
seldom assured.

The question we have to consider here is : has there
been any change in the nature of woman? Fundamen-
tally, no. The popularity of the caveman is still as great
as it ever was in the history of the race. After Camera,
the giant Italian "boxer," had won his match against
Stribling on a foul, he was bombarded with letters
from women who were agonized and tormented by

108 THIS HUMAN NATURE

unsatisfied desire. The London Sunday Despatch re-
ported that the pugilist suffered from shyness and, it
seems, did not quite know how to deal with his fifty
to one hundred daily correspondents of the fair sex,
even although some of them sent him their photo-
graphs. To quote a lady admirer, "In the eyes of a
woman this Goliath of the Ring is neither a fearsome
brute nor a repulsive bruiser." So that's that. But it
does not mean that the modern "caveman" need be
outwardly brutal like his early ancestor or the con-
temporary Camera. He is expected to be electric, and
dynamic, and he must be self-confident. Granted these
qualities and a moderate physical equipment, the cave-
man may still offer as much attraction as he did in the
past, and the chief reason for this is that most women
inwardly enjoy being mastered ; although the question
also presents itself as to whether they do not in the
end themselves obtain what is the real mastery.
IF Is e woman less intelligent than man?

Professor A. M. Low informs us that it will be
centuries before woman approaches man in intelli-
gence. "She has only had about fifty years of education.
Man is superior even in domestic accomplishments,
such as cooking. Woman will have to change phys-
ically, and assume some of man's physical characteris-
tics. Till then she will never catch up with him in
intellect In this lies, I think, the only hope of human
salvation, if we are to judge intellect by scientific
achievement." I am not sure that Professor Low is
right, or that it would be beneficial to human nature
if women were equal to men in intellectual achieve-
ments. But I have given his opinion, though it differs
from mine and is, I think, rather naive. The chief
characteristic of men is acknowledged to be selfishness,
but there is a whisper abroad that woman is unselfish
by nature. This is, of course, a cunning lie spread by

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 109

the female human being for her own protection; one
of the many smoke screens she uses to deceive her male
victims. In order to gain her ends by the way of least
resistance she pretends to be unselfish and indeed gives
many examples of unselfishness. Have you ever ob-
served the malevolent delight with which one of two
women friends will talk about the good points of her
pretty frock when she knows perfectly well that the
other cannot afford to buy one quite as good?

This digression may now, I think, be usefully ended,
to give place to more serious matters.

3. THE PHENICIANS

WE now come to that part of human history in
which tribes and clans became nations. To trace
this through every phase in its development is impos-
sible, but it is necessary for us to give careful consid-
eration to those races and nations whose activities are
known to have had a profound effect upon human
nature. Of Assyria, Babylonia, and the early empires
of Mesopotamia, little is yet known for certain. We
have already seen that it was in this part of the world
in which man first discovered the cereal plants; and
we have seen how they changed his nature. In regard
to the more complex civilizations which grew out of
the agricultural and pastoral existence of man in the
area between the Tigris and the Euphrates, we may
summarize their effect upon human nature by saying
that they gave us a host of myths and legends which
became interwoven with our religion, and in some
cases, were responsible for great wars and rumors of
wars. The Holy Trinity, for example, originated in
this part of the world. Three thousand years after its

110 THIS ftUMAN NATURE

discovery it was the cause of many grave and bloody
disputes among Christian churches. But it was to two
other peoples that some of the greatest changes in
human nature must be attributed: The Egyptians, to
whom I shall refer later, and the Phenicians, who may
conveniently be mentioned now.
1f Influence of the boat

It is perhaps necessary, first of all, to say something
about the origin of the boat, for it was the boat, to-
gether with an almost equally important invention, the
steering-oar, that was responsible for the success of the
Phenicians; and hence their great importance. Boats
are known to have existed beyond recorded history.
They exist among primitive races today: in the frozen
North, amongst the Fuegians, in Australia, in the cen-
ter of Africa, boats or rafts are in daily use. It is
possible and probable that the primitive boat was pro-
pelled by poling or paddling. Rowing was a great
advance, and extended the scope of the navigation. But
the invention of the sail, which I think may have been
slightly ahead of that of the steering-oar, was a con-
siderable improvement. The earliest pictorial monu-
ments of Egypt, dating back over three thousand years,
show us boats with crews paddling. There appears to
be no record of any of these Egyptian navigators ever
having attempted to make their way into the Mediter-
ranean. As a race, the Egyptians are interesting in
many ways, but they cannot be considered to have been
venturesome ; indeed they were extremely conservative
in nearly all things. It is possible that in very early
times wanderers from the Phenician cities of Tyre,
Sidon, and Damascus may have journeyed into Egypt
and observed the boats on the great river. The pos-
sibility of trade with the West showed itself to the
Phenicians who had reached the banks of the Nile.
By means of shipping they could explore the Mediter-

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE III

ranean, and their business instinct was supported by
an amazing ingenuity for ship-building and naviga-
tion. They became explorers and navigators because
they were traders. They were traders because they liked
to accumulate wealth in its already very old form of
gold.
If Beginning of the gold standard

To the Phenicians must be attributed the great
honor of having consolidated the gold standard; al-
though the earliest actual coinage of which we know,
was made by Croesus in Lydia about twenty-five hun-
dred years ago. The Phenicians did most of their
trading by means of gold-dust, nuggets, ingots, or
articles made of gold. To accumulate quantities of this
substance they made long and truly perilous voyages,
resulting in the establishment of colonies along the
North African coast. Later, in 800 B.C., the colony of
Carthage, founded by Tyre, became the greatest mari-
time power the world had hitherto seen. The original
efforts of the Phenicians to increase their trade de-
veloped, in the colony of Carthage, into the desire for
maritime power; in precisely the same manner as
nearly two thousand years later the early British Colo-
nial Empire and naval power grew from the desire for
increasing foreign trade. The little colony of Carthage
became a great city with a population of a million
souls; the largest single unit of humanity that had
hitherto been known to exist on earth.
f Pirates the first navy

Carthage claimed the whole of the western Mediter-
ranean, and organized piratical raids on the ships of
other nations, just as in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, the ships of England were sent abroad to
pillage the galleons of Spain, or to seize what land or
property they could find. One of the Carthaginian navi-
gators, Captain Hanno, in 460 B.C. sailed out of Car-

112 THIS HUMAN NATURE

thage, venturing into the hitherto unsailed ocean west
of the Straits of Gibraltar. Hence he pursued his way
toward Liberia with his fleet of sixty large ships. He
founded a settlement in the Rio de Oro, the Golden
River, whose name explains the landing and settle-
ment of Carthaginians at that spot. Hence they went
beyond the Gambia, and landed at some place on the
West Coast of Africa. They were frightened away by
what seems to have been merely a religious ceremony of
the natives; one accompanied by fire, and the music of
tom-toms. Not only were the Phenicians and Cartha-
ginians navigators in their own cause, but they were
willing to hire themselves out to other nations. Herodo-
tus tells us that Pharaoh Necho commissioned in 609
B.C. a group of Phenician navigators to attempt the
circumnavigation of Africa. The story is that they suc-
ceeded, taking nearly three years for their voyage; an
astounding achievement for that age.

Although trade existed in many parts of the world
before the days of the Phenicians we know of a
Sumerian trade of some importance in ancient Baby-
lonia the palm for ability in trade at that period must
be given to this race or people. They were a branch of
the Semitic race; a kind of Jews.
IT The Semitic sense of equivalents

To the Semitic race must also be given the palm for
accountancy, measuring, and weighing. It was they
who first showed that very strong sense for equivalents,
which is mostly responsible for their material success
in the world. The Jew still attaches almost a senti-
mental value to a bargain; and he prefers to do business
with little or no profit, rather than remain idle. Busi-
ness for businesses sake is the spirit in which the Jew
has always treated his occupation on this earth. To him
it is an art for art's sake. The Jews are sentimentalists
and probably in the present generation the wisest

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 113

people on earth. It is customary to regard them as
cowards and great sufferers from physical fear. This is
wrong. They are not physical cowards but merely
hypersensitive and highly intelligent. In proportion to
their numbers you will find as many brave men among
the Jews as among any race. Jewish thought has in some
matters reached further than the thought of other
human beings, and this is because they are continually
meditating on the unknown. Jews discovered sin and
God; a Jew evolved the theory of relativity. Many of
the most beautiful flights of higher mathematics and
science are the work of Jews, and by obtaining control
of those fictitious tokens called money, they have
achieved a power in the world which makes the most
powerful governments bow before them, and the most
haughty aristocrats to lick their boots. These few facts
are sufficiently cogent to explain why the Jews are still
a hated race and may one day suffer extermination at
the hands of their far less intelligent but nevertheless
not unpractical fellow men. By means of dogmatic as-
sertions the Jews have reduced great doubt in the minds
of men on subjects as widely different as the existence
of God, the value of money, and the constitution of the
atom.
1f Human standard of living raised

The importance of the Phenicians in human history
is briefly this: They raised the standard of living over
the greater part of the known 'world. They encouraged
the desire for comfort, and luxury. They spread a
knowledge of their alphabet, one of the finest achieve-
ments of the human mind. They taught our ancestors
bookkeeping, accountancy, the use of money and
equivalents. They invented credit. They worked out the
principles of trade, and infused a new ideal into the
minds of men. They set up the god of commerce and
made a code of commercial morality. Being a material-

114 THIS HUMAN NATURE

istic, energetic race with a genius for navigation, they
did not hesitate to explore unknown regions. Their tal-
ent for commercial enterprise was so advantageous to
other peoples that for a long time they did not need to
wage war. It will be noticed that the Phenician con-
tribution to human history has had lasting and far-
reaching effects. From their time to the present day
commercial enterprise has never ceased; it is even ex-
tending. The empire of the Phenicians was one of sea-
coast, and this was its weakness. Their only great rivals
were their pupils the Greeks, who built ships on the
Phenician model and showed their masters that kidnap-
ing and piracy were a game at which two could play.
The merchant kings who possessed the greater part of
the commercial world were too wise to stake their pros-
perity on a single province. They retired from Greece
and its islands, and the western coast of Asia Minor
and the margin of the Black Sea. They allowed the
Greeks to take the southern part of Italy, and the east-
ern half of Sicily, and did not molest their isolated
colonies, Cyrene in Africa and Marseilles in southern
Gaul.
IT Sad end of the Phenicians

But the Greeks supplanted them entirely. The Phe-
nicians found it cheaper to pay tribute than to go to
war, and submitted to the emperor of Syria for the
time being, sending their money with equal indiffer-
ence to Nineveh or Memphis. When the empire was
disputed they were compelled to choose a side. They
chose the wrong one, and Tyre and Jerusalem were
demolished. Phenicia declined in the East; Carthage
was rising in the West. We shall see later the part that
Carthage was destined to play, but in the meantime let
it not be forgotten that this city, which later all but
caused the downfall of Rome, was the child of Phe-
nicia, the motherland which had succumbed to the

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE

warriors from the East. The Phenicians, having made
the fatal mistake of trusting too far to the peacefulness
of men, paid the inevitable penalty of downfall.
IT Invention of writing

By this time one more weighty factor is added to
those which influenced the development and change of
human nature from the primitive to modern man.
Above all those qualities, which were engendered by
the commercial activities of the Phenicians, there
stands out one of paramount importance. It is fairly
modern in the sense that it occurred within the last five
thousand years; its influence has extended from that
day to the present, and is not yet by any means ended.
I refer to writing.* We may abandon to the experts the
decision as to whether writing was first actually in-
vented by the Chinese, the Sumerians, or the Egyptians.
For practical purposes we must attach ourselves to that
form of writing which we know came to Phenicia from
Sumeria. In this part of the world learned men had
evolved a system of perpetuating their ideas by a form
of picture-writing upon slabs of clay which were after-
wards baked hard. Originally they wrote with styles,
which, by a process of evolution and for purposes of
speed, became wedge-shaped. They used pictographs
or a form of picture writing similar to that found
among tribes of Indians on the American continent.
They also used ideograms, a pictorial representation of
an object to convey another idea, as we ourselves use
the word "tongue" to express "language" or "dialect."
The evolution of graphic symbolism had begun. In
ideogrammatic writing, language or dialect might be
expressed by a pictorial representation of a tongue. The
Sumerians also used phonograms, a more complex idea,
which is the basis of Chinese writing. One sign would
be used as a basis for a number of ideas, each of which

See H. G. Wells, An Outline of History.

Il6 THIS HUMAN NATURE

would be distinguished from the others by some slight,
or even diminutive modification of the basic sign. The
Sumerians must have been a people of amazing inge-
nuity for, in using these three methods of reducing
ideas to permanent records, they covered practically
the whole of human thought concerning writing. They
went further, for they evolved from pictograms, ideo-
grams, and phonograms a further development which
is called syllabic writing; that is the representation
graphically of a spoken syllable. This form of writing
is still used in Japan, in conjunction with and parallel
to the Chinese method.

The system of writing thus evolved by the Sumerians
spread over the whole of the Near East; Assyria,
Chaldea, Babylonia. And then the Semitic race of
Phenicians in their travels eastward, first for purposes
of trade, and then in the manner of the later Cartha-
ginians, for purposes of conquest, took over what must
appear to them to have been a marvelously useful sys-
tem of recording business transactions. They, in turn,
set their ingenuity to work, and now we meet with
another of those unknown men of genius whose work
has affected the whole history of the world, and been
responsible for a considerable development of the
human mind. This unnamed genius was the Phenician
merchant-scholar who conceived the idea of alphabetic
writing. Among the earliest records of this convenient
alphabetic writing are to be found accounts, business
letters, itineraries, lists of customers for business trans-
actions, and handy medical prescriptions for the cure
of those common ailments which follow the human
animal everywhere and at all times.
1f The fixation of tradition

Henceforward verbal tradition began to be fixed:
thoughts could be communicated over unlimited dis-
tances; and henceforward increasing numbers of

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 117

human beings were able to share the best and the worst
of such knowledge as existed. It was the beginning of
standardized thinking. Wells says: "Human thinking
became a larger operation in 'which hundreds of minds
in different places, and in different ages, could react
upon one another; it became a process constantly more
continuous and sustained. . . . From the first writings
onward a new sort of tradition, an enduring and im-
mortal tradition, began in the minds of men. Life,
through mankind, grew thereafter more and more dis-
tinctly conscious of itself and the world! 9 Surely this
was the most momentous event in the history of human
nature!

Although writing was first used for commonplace
affairs of life, for business transactions, medical pre-
scriptions, and so forth, it was also used in the formu-
lation of the first legal systems. Law, originating in
custom based upon the convenience and comfort of
the tribe, had existed from the time of the primitive.
With the development of the road and the growth of
cities and commerce it became more complex; and was
an essential in the preservation of order, the repression
of masses to strengthen the authority of kings and
priests. It was therefore well mixed with religion, and,
although it often courted those Invisible and Intangible
Things which have shown themselves to have had so
great an influence, it has always remained fairly close
to the soil, materialistic and realistic, with the cha-
meleonlike quality of changing its color to suit the
background of power. As we shall see later, Roman law
upheld by the legions of the emperors, was the chain
which bound the world for many hundreds of years.
f First great code of laws

Thanks to writing we are able to tell more or less
the habits of the men and women who lived under the
old Babylonian Empire of nearly five thousand years

Il8 THIS HUMAN NATURE

ago. A block of black diorite nearly eight feet high,
discovered by the French archeologist de Morgan in
1902, contains the oldest known code of laws in the
world : the Code of Hammurabi. With the exception of
a number of clauses pertaining to Invisible and In-
tangible Things, it is remarkably modern in its tone;
so much so that it raises once more in our minds that
great question as to whether there has really been any
considerable change in human nature. The code, it is
believed, antedated that of the Pentateuch by at least a
thousand years; and formed the basis of Babylonian
legislation under a king whose rule extended from the
Tigris to the Mediterranean. This code of laws is the
starting point of all classified and regulated legislation
known in history. It begins with the same formula
which precedes nearly all our modern legislation: a
preamble, glorifying the ruler or supreme authority,
verging into a description of the general purpose for
which the law is conceived, and giving a brief outline
of its contents. In some respects it was far in advance of
modern legislation : for example, it held a physician to
be responsible for the life of his patient. Again, it
emphasized the importance of putting everything in
writing; the agent who obtained goods from a mer-
chant and who had no document to show the nature of
the transaction could claim no legal aid in case of dis-
agreement. The idea of "An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth," the chief principle of all Jewish law, was
practiced to its logical extreme. Punishment was made
to balance crime to such an extent that if the ceiling of
a jerry-built house collapsed and injured the owner,
the builder received an equivalent punishment. If the
owner was killed, the builder was put to death; if the
owner's son were killed or injured, the builder's son
received his proportion of punishment, or was executed.
Furthermore, "a woman who wants a divorce, if she

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 119

can show fault in her husband may take her marriage
portion and go home ; but if the fault be hers she shall
be thrown into the water." Is there any such jus-
tice in Europe or the United States today? Again, "if
anyone has taken a wife and a sickness has seized her,
and if his face is set toward taking another wife, he
may take that other wife, but may not repudiate that
one whom sickness has seized; as long as she lives he
shall support her." There are regulations concerning
slaves which were far more humane than the regu-
lations imposed upon modern slaves in the eighteenth
and nineteenth century. There are elaborate provisions
for the protection of honest debtors, such as may well
make us moderns feel thoroughly ashamed. The laws
concerning physicians and veterinary surgeons show a
keen sense of reality. Thus, if a doctor used the wrong
kind of lancet or treatment upon a slave, thereby caus-
ing the death of that slave, he must return to the owner
one equally as good. "If the veterinary surgeon has
treated an ox or an ass for a severe wound, and has
caused its death, he shall pay one-fourth of its price
to the owner." . . . "If any person without the con-
sent of the owner of a slave has branded the slave with
an indelible mark, he shall lose one hand." . . . "If a
man has forced an ox to labor too hard, he shall be
fined." . . . "If anyone has struck a free-born woman,
and thereby caused her to bring forth a premature
child, he shall pay ten shekels of silver to the woman;
but if the woman dies, one shall put his daughter to
death. ..."
If How writing may imprison the mind

From writing, to the provision of a means of pre-
serving the ideas of writers, is not a great step. We have
seen that the first books were bricks. Every word was
written separately upon soft clay, and the whole was
baked into a hard mass. These original books are to be

120 THIS HUMAN NATURE

found in all parts of the Near East. Printing as we
know it is said to have been invented by the Chinese ;
and also the making of dictionaries. About three thou-
sand years ago there was a standard dictionary of the
Chinese language containing about forty thousand
characters. That dictionary was largely responsible for
the astonishing conservatism shown by the Chinese
throughout history. The complexity of the Chinese
language, mostly due to the utter lack of that origi-
nality which we have noted amongst the Sumarians,
coupled with its fixation in an elaborate dictionary, and
afterwards perpetuated in the classical literature, were
responsible for an imprisonment of the Chinese mind.
No nation on earth has less changed in the nature of its
individuals than the Chinese. Reading and writing be-
came a privilege to be gained only by long study and
limited to a special class. At a time when the Near
East and Europe in the west were being tamed, chiefly
by the spread of knowledge through the written word,
the masses of Chinese depended entirely upon oral tra-
dition, springing from the teachings of a very few
philosophers who had mastered the intricate art of
reading and writing their complex script. From the
facts to be presented in later parts of this book the
reader may have cause to speculate whether the written
word has had really so great an influence upon human
nature as the above pages may have led us to suppose*

4. THE EGYPTIANS

REFERENCE has already been made to the influ-
ence of the surface configuration of the earth
upon human nature. It would be impossible to give all
the instances there are of this fact; and it seems almost

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 121

too obvious in importance to be worth more than a
passing remark. It happens, however, that we have in
the history of Egypt one of the finest examples pos-
sible of what a river can be to the rise, progress, and
even decline of a whole race of people.

We must think of old Egypt as a somewhat secluded
country. It lies almost across one of the highways of the
modern world, that leading from England to India and
the East. But we first see Egypt on the dim horizon of
recorded history hidden and encircled by mountains,
deserts, and the Mediterranean Sea, all of which were
avoided by contemporary peoples. A country so shut
off from the rest of the world became for many hun-
dreds of years, impervious to any outside influences.
IT Influence of a river

Down the center of this secluded land, of which the
climate was and is perhaps the most perfect on earth,
there runs the great river Nile. In this singular river
valley it was easier for men to live and thrive than in
almost any other part of the world. One cannot think
of Egypt without at the same time thinking of the river
which made it. Every year the Nile overflowed its
banks, fertilizing the fields, and so the Egyptian, by
virtue of his river, climate, the nature of his soil, and
above all, because of his river, became a settled hus-
bandman and agriculturist. He was spared the dis-
quietude and hardships of a hunting existence. Not
only was there no need for him to be a nomad, but he
had every inducement to remain where he was. And it
so happened that the early men who found themselves
in Egypt whence they came we do not know more
than that it was probably from Asia, perhaps from the
Gobi became rooted in their land. Life was so easy
that they had not only an abundance of wealth from
little effort, but a great deal of spare time on their
hands. Hence it was that they were able to think, to

122 THIS HUMAN NATURE

give time to the development of the arts and sciences ;
to evolve highly sophisticated theories regarding the
hereafter and regarding the nature, habits, and influ-
ences of a host of gods and devils. From the very
earliest time from which records or legends survive,
when Egyptian husbandmen went about naked and
painted their bodies with green pigment, they possessed
kings and priests, noblemen who controlled the land by
a system not unlike feudalism. In the center of every
village there stood one hut larger than all the others,
with wattled walls, and an elaborately adorned en-
trance. Inside there was an image in wood of the god
most favored by that particular neighborhood, and
there would always be a man of superior intelligence
to tend the god and opportunely to interpret his wise
edicts to the silly common people. These spiritual lead-
ers of the old Egyptians, several thousand years be-
fore the Christian era, were already fairly enlight-
ened. They divided their country into two kingdoms,
which were united by the political astuteness of King
Menes about sixty-five hundred years ago. To this man
also is ascribed the foundation of Memphis, the capi-
tal and general headquarters of the artizan god Ptah.
Menes was a warrior, a politician, and a priest! but he
nevertheless met with an untimely and unspiritual
death in the jaws of a hippopotamus during a campaign
against a neighboring people.
IF The material value of mystical knowledge

In these early periods of Egyptian history the priests
labored unceasingly in behalf of their people. They in-
vestigated problems of science, and in 4366 B.C. an im-
portant work on anatomy was said to have been written.
They made religion not only mysterious but magnificent
an amazingly astute move. They were keen students
of astronomy, and in the course of centuries they
mapped out the heavens. By means of this knowledge

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 123

of astronomy, of which the masses of the people knew
nothing, and were permitted to know nothing, the
priests could foretell eclipses of the moon, and the
rising of the tide. They gained immense prestige from
knowing the precise hour at which the Nile would
overflow its banks. By a careful observation of meteoro-
logical facts they could give a very good idea of the
weather ; a far better one than our meteorological office
can give today. Nearly all the learning of Egypt re-
posed in this priestly class, which became more power-
ful from day to day until eventually they and the gov-
ernment were one. It was to the priests also that came
the idea of writing, and they were responsible for a
system of hieroglyphics capable of expressing subtle,
abstract ideas. It was the priests also who thought out
a system of government which would keep the lower
laboring classes in a state of utter subjection and at the
same time stimulate them to work diligently for the
benefit of the king and state. We find their sound ideas
echoing down the ages, even to those inspiring and
beautiful words which, in the Book of Common Prayer
of the State Church in England, tell me

"To honour and obey the King and all that
are put in authority under him: to submit my-
self to all my governours, teachers, spiritual
pastors and masters: to order myself lowly and
reverently to all my betters . . . and ... to
learn and labour truly to get mine own living,
and to do my duty in that state of life, unto
which it shall please God to call me."

These doctrines, inspired by the Invisible and In-
tangible, and backed by prisons, thumbscrews, blud-
geons, truncheons, machine-guns, poison gas, hangmen,
soldiers, police, law and magnificence, pomp and cere-

124 THIS HUMAN NATURE

mony, dignity and piety But I shall not spoil it by
unnecessary comment. You have heard it before.
IF Beginning of organized 'war

The old kingdom disintegrated and collapsed, but in
the third millennium B.C. Egypt became once more
united under a single sovereign ; and it was this Middle
Kingdom, as it is called, which became the great period
in Egyptian history and the one which showed most
effect upon, and indeed some changes in, human nature.
It was during this period that the ennobling influence
of war, in the truly modern sense of the word, showed
itself more markedly than ever before in history. This
is not to say that war had never before existed ; but it
was a small affair of families or tribes against other
small groups of more or less the same size. Now we
see for the first time a well-organized army, officered
by men of an educated and aristocratic type, and work-
ing out its plans scientifically. Tactics and strategy
entered into higher education. Egyptian arms now
flowed into remote lands; Nubia was turned into a
vassal province, and the gold of its desert swept into
the coffers of the Pharaohs. A busy commerce began
with the Mediterranean countries and with the Phe-
nicians. For two hundred years great progress was
made in the arts and sciences; this was the classic
period of Egyptian literature. As inevitably happens
when a nation grows rich (and indeed it often also hap-
pens to the individual) a period of laziness followed.
A decadence and degeneration set in, and we must
move ahead for fifteen hundred years, that is until
about thirty-five hundred years ago, before we find
Egypt again a really prosperous kingdom. The art of
war was again developed and in 1530 B.C. we come
across for the first time in history, an idea which has
remained down to this twentieth century; the ideal of
conquest and 'world power.

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 125

1 Two Sister Arts discovered

The reign of Tuthmosis III was notable for a vast
development in the two sister arts which we find so
often walking sweetly hand in hand: War and Re-
ligion. Great territories in Asia were subdued, and the
first great empire of the world came into existence. It
was now that the soul of man was first found to be im-
mortal ; it was now that an ingenious priestly explorer
discovered Hell. No earlier mention of these two fac-
tors in human nature can be found anywhere in history.
To the Egyptians must be given the honor of these two
great discoveries, whose influence upon the trend of
events and the nature of man are to be found in almost
every part of the world today. At this period the most
powerful section of the community was undoubtedly
the priesthood, which included not only the ministers
of religion but also the civil service and liberal pro-
fessions. Priests were chroniclers, keepers of records,
engravers of inscriptions, physicians of the sick, em-
balmers of the dead, lawyers and lawgivers, sculptors
and musicians. Labor was under their control; in their
hands were factories and public works. Key posts in the
army, that is all those requiring higher education, were
supplied by them. The clergy preserved the monopoly
of the arts which they had invented; the whole intel-
lectual life of Egypt was in them. It was they who
judged the living and the dead, enacted laws which ex-
tended beyond the grave, who issued passports to the
place above or the place below.

Under the admirable instruction of those pious and
enlightened men, the Egyptians became a prosperous
and a moral people. Monumental paintings reveal their
whole life, but we read in them no brutal or licentious
scenes, because they well knew what ideas to perpetu-
ate and what to suppress. Indeed the absence of un-
pleasantness in their art is so complete that one can only

126 THIS HUMAN NATURE

explain its omission as deliberate; from which its actual
existence in real life may safely be inferred.
IT A monument to pride

We may now turn to the religion of the Egyptians,
and consider a few of its more important aspects. We
have seen how the priestly class were almost entirely
responsible for the greatness of Egypt, for its pros-
perity, its discipline, its knowledge, its art, and its great
architecture. The first temples were actually designed
by priests; the earliest really important architect of
whom there is record was Imhotep who lived about
3000 B.C. Although the pyramids were built for the
Pharaohs the inspiration behind them was in nearly
every case priestly. An idea of the immensity of the
Great Pyramid of Gizeh may be gathered from the
fact that it is a solid mass of masonry covering thirteen
acres containing 2,300,000 blocks of limestone, each
weighing on an average two and one-half tons. The
building was 481 feet high; the sides at the base
measure 755 feet. One hundred thousand men worked
at it for twenty years. It presents many great problems
to the world, not least of which is this: Was it an in-
genious method invented by the Pharaoh Cheops to
solve the pressing unemployment problem, or was it
merely an edifice to human pride and selfishness as
exemplified in his own personality? Both factors may
take their place side by side to account for the building
of this immense pyramid.
IT Influence of the hereafter on the here

This was the beginning of that system of morality
based upon rewards and punishments in the hereafter,
which spread itself eastward and profoundly affected
the laws and religion of the Jewish races, the chief con-
cepts of the Christian and other religions: Be good
here, and you will be well treated after death; do evil
here and you will have a hot time. In order that full

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 127

weight might be given to the system, and that there
should exist powers and authorities capable of fulfill-
ing it, it was necessary for the Egyptian priests to in-
vent a number of symbols representing the powers of
the unseen world of the day. They had a multiplicity
of gods, among whom Osiris was king of the other
world and supreme judge of the dead. He was given
a wife Isis, and he had a son named Horus ; his chief
enemy was Set, who still exists as Satan. Every city,
town, village, and district of Egypt possessed a god of
its own, and the Egyptians always had the sense of
generosity and decency to provide him with a wife ; and
they added, chiefly for the benefit of the ladies, to each
god's wife a son. Another very important deity, im-
portant in the sense that he ruled the destiny of each
season's crops, was Ra, the sun god.

There were altogether at least two thousand gods in
Egyptian history. Eventually almost anything could
be a god; cats, snakes, crocodiles, and birds became
sacred beings worshiped by the superstitious masses.
Upon these masses a fat tribute was levied by their
priestly entertainers, by whom an atmosphere of terror
and a sense of awe was created. Wonderful and mystic
ceremonies were performed in the temples; Egyptian
magic became famous throughout the world, and its
influence lasted long, as we see in the Golden Ass of
Apuleius, and in our temples today. The attendants of
the gods now lived sensuous lives in sanctuaries into
which no layman might enter. A series of curses and
anathemas were drawn up, to be exuded by the earthly
representatives of gods upon the heads of those ignor-
ant or impious people who failed to attend to their
religious duties, or to prepare their minds to ask for
exemption by means of a stiff payment in kind. Men
and women were damned and blasted, terrified and
harrowed. The good Egyptian priests pointed out to

128 THIS HUMAN NATURE

their clients that it was then (as it is now) a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living god. "He shall
pour down rain upon the sinners, snares, fire and brim-
stone, storm and tempest; this shall be their portion to
drink. ... A terrible voice of most just judgment,
be pronounced upon them, when it shall be said
unto them, Go, ye cursed, into the fire everlasting,
which is prepared for the devil and his angels." And
soon.
1 Akhnaton discovers our God

It is, however, to an Egyptian king who reigned from
1375 to 1358 B.C. that we must give the honor for what
was long considered to be the greatest discovery in the
whole history of the world. For the confused and un-
elevating religion consisting in the superstitious wor-
ship of crocodiles, parrots, etc., this king substituted the
worship of Aton the god of the Solar Disc. The temples
of all the other gods were closed, and the very names of
the gods obliterated. Amenhotep IV, or Akhnaton as
he was afterwards called, this very important king,
conceived the god Aton as a kind father to all, to be
worshiped at sunrise and sunset; a more refined and
philosophical worship was introduced. The milder and
more humane aspect of the sun was stressed, and cruelty
was concealed. The number of priests was reduced and
religious ceremonies simplified; psalm singing and
prayer became the order of the day. No graven image
of Aton was permitted to be made. The new god was
formless, a divine Essence permeating space, with only
a benevolent mission and influence. Flinders Petrie
says: "How much Akhnaton understood we cannot say,
but he had certainly bounded forward in his views and
symbolism to a position which we cannot logically im-
prove upon at the present day. Not a rag of superstition
or falsity can be found clinging to this new worship."
We have already seen that the Egyptians were respon-

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 129

sible some time about 1530 B.C. for the discovery (a)
of the immortality of the soul, (b) of Hell; and now
we may add (c) the discovery of our own God. The
date of this last-named very important discovery being
in the reign of Amenhotep IV, or Akhnaton, round
about 1370 B.C.

In the later history of Egypt, when that country
came under Greek domination, we find established at
Alexandria a library of seven hundred thousand vol-
umes. Here was assembled the classified knowledge of
the world ; and here hundreds of copyists worked trans-
mitting to papyrus the literary heritage of the past. But
of this we shall see something when we consider Greek
thought and its influence on human nature.
1" Our debt to Egypt

What is our debt to the Egyptians? The discovery of
the immortality of the soul, the discovery of Hell, the
discovery of God. Are there any three ideas which have
more influenced the lives of men in the last three thou-
sand years, the period of the world with which we are
most acquainted? Have these ideas changed human
nature? To all three ideas there has been attached an
immense amount of speculative energy, resulting in
some of the most sublime thoughts of the human mind,
embodied in the greatest literature. We shall see how
these three ideas spread eastward, and attached them-
selves to various teachers. To these fundamental doc-
trines others were added, the result being first the de-
velopment of Judaism, then Buddhism, then Christian-
ity, then Mohammedanism. In the Far East we shall
see the rise and spread of another set of ideas, originally
shorn of the concept of life after death, the immortality
of the soul, and so forth. From Egypt also there spread
to Greece, by way of the Phenician traders, the same
ideas; they attached themselves to Greek philoso-
phy, and were again the subject of endless debate and

THIS HUMAN NATURE

were responsible for the works of some of the greatest
philosophers. The humanitarian ideas of Akhnaton
trickled through the darkness, transmitted here and
there by an intelligent, contemplative Phenician trader,
until at last we get God, the Father of the Book of
Genesis, as well as the possibly older gods of Babylon
and Assyria. Christianity and Mohammedanism spring
from precisely the same ideas as those of the old Egyp-
tian religion: Immortality in Heaven or Hell, with
either rewards or punishments hereafter, but with a
difference in Mohammedanism, which conceived it
necessary to cater to the stronger sexual impulse of the
Near Easterners. This religion provides for men a
paradise of sexy chorus girls with dark eyes, beautiful
lips, and curves pleasing to the eye; and a paradise of
handsome, warm, brave, strong, and generous sheiks
for the benefit hereafter of those women who observe its
laws.

5. THE TAMING OF EASTERN MAN

ABOUT the founder of Buddhism much is known :
there is a mass of legend concerning his existence
even greater than that which surrounds the origin of
other great teachers. He was born toward the end of the
sixth century B.C. in a small tribal community in Nepal.
His father was a member of an important clan called
Sakya, and the child was named Siddhartha Gautama.
If A doubtful conception

According to legend his conception was immaculate,
but of this we westerners cannot (as in the case of Our
Lord Jesus) be sure. There is nothing to distinguish the
first twenty-eight years of his life from the same period
in that of other young men who were sons of minor
chiefs. Indians call him "prince," and he was a prince

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 131

if the ruler of a clan may be called a king. One thing
is fairly certain: his parents were comfortably situated
and probably even wealthy, so that young Gautama was
short of nothing necessary to material comfort in this
world. Whether he lived a life of absolute or dissolute
luxury, as some writers assert, is another matter. In
Nepal, as in most other parts of the world at that
period, the chief amusements of such young men as
Gautama were the chase of animals and maidens. He
was married at the comparatively advanced age of
nineteen to a very sweet girl; his family provided him
with a good home, land, and indeed all that he could
desire. No doubt he also acquired a fair amount of
property as dower on his marriage.

There is a story (in which there may be some truth)
that with the son of a neighboring rajah he was spend-
ing more time in the company of ladies than was
seemly even in a warm clime in those liberal times ; and
his relatives, jealous of the boy's pleasure, began to
complain to his father. Gautama, being told of this,
appointed a day to prove his skill against all comers
and, by surpassing even the cleverest bowmen and
showing his mastery in the Twelve Arts, won back the
good opinion of the people. Be this as it may, in his
twenty-ninth year our young man turned his thoughts
to the study of religion and philosophy. We are in-
formed that the Deity appeared to him in four visions:
in the form of a man broken by age, then of a sick man,
then of a putrefying corpse, and finally of a dignified
hermit. Regarding each one of the first three, his cheery
companion said to him, "To this we must all come," but
when the fourth appeared Gautama saw a possibility
of avoiding the mental evils that are associated with
the first three. A desire to become a hermit and to live
a life of solemn meditation seized upon Gautama. He
returned to inform his parents and fellow clansmen,

132 THIS HUMAN NATURE

who received the news with great rejoicing. A dinner,
followed by a dance, was given to celebrate the re-
ligious conversion of this good young man. We are told
that late in the night, when the celebrations of the
evening were ended and the hired cabaret dancers were
sleeping on the veranda, he called his cab-driver and
told him to harness the household mare. Creeping
softly to the threshold of his wife's bedroom he peeped
in and saw her sleeping with their recently born child
in her arms. He overcame the desire to kiss them
good-by (selfishness on behalf of the good of his soul
overcoming his feelings of humanity), and he put the
temptation to gratify his wife to one side, stalking
boldly out of the house. Channa, his faithful cab-driver
(charioteer, the legends picturesquely call him), was
waiting outside to take him into the wilderness.
If Buddha meets the Devil

We are informed how at that point the old evil spirit,
the Devil, came and pleaded with him to return to the
bosom of his family. "Return," said old Clootie, "take
your place in the family and wait your turn for chief-
tainship, when I will make you king of kings. Do
otherwise and be damned, for I shall never cease from
following your footsteps. Lust or malice or anger will
betray you at last in some unwary moment; and sooner
or later I shall have you toasting in Hell." That is a
free rendering of the story.

But Gautama refused to listen to all temptation. He
rode forth into the night and reached at last a river,
beside whose banks he settled down to cut his hair, re-
move his rich garment, and discard all the ornaments
of this world. "It is impossible," thought he, "to achieve
complete wisdom in an elaborate outfit of clothing." Is
it not strange that this idea should persist in practically
all religious systems? the idea that a man must dis-
card all ornamentation, and sometimes even clothing

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 133

before he can clear his head of worldly thoughts? Faith
seems to flourish better in filth; everywhere.

Gautama settled down in the jungle to a life of fast-
ing and penance. His goodness and piety became well
known in the neighborhood, but the life of extreme
asceticism undermined his health, and he steadily lost
strength. One day, as he was walking up and down,
hands behind his back, he suddenly fell into a state of
unconsciousness. This fainting-fit impressed upon his
mind the impossibility of achieving wisdom, and at
the same time preserving life, health, and strength, by
the silly methods he had been pursuing. Gautama was
one of the first religious teachers in the world to realize
that you cannot have a sound mind without a sound
body; and he made this a cardinal point in all his sub-
sequent teaching.
If The cause of all unhappiness

It would appear that illumination came to Gautama
in a series of flashes of vision. The great question which
he attempted to answer was: "Why am I not com-
pletely happy?" He concentrated upon self-analysis.
We have seen in an earlier part of this book that selfish-
ness is the motive force which drives humanity to
nearly all its actions. No man discerned this fact
more clearly than Gautama. He evolved a fundamen-
tal maxim to the effect that all suffering and all un-
happiness are due entirely to the selfishness of the
individual. "Let us endeavor," said he, "to abolish self-
ishness; and good must inevitably follow." The Four
Great Truths of Buddhism are these: (i) The un-
doubted existence of suffering or sorrow in this world.
(2) The cause of this suffering is the action of the out-
side world on the senses, exciting a craving for some-
thing to satisfy them, something to meet greed, avarice,
and innate desire. (3) The necessity for causing this
sorrow to cease, by a complete conquest and destruction

134 THIS HUMAN NATURE

of the lust for life and the inborn selfishness of men.
(4) Only a life of virtue based upon an "Eightfold
Path" can be the cure for the unhappiness and sorrows
of this life,
If The Eightfold Path to Bliss

The Noble Eightfold Path propounded by Buddha
depended upon a strict observance of Right Belief,
Right Aims, Right Speech, Right Actions, Right
Means of Livelihood, Right Endeavor, Right Mind-
fulness, and Right Meditation in accordance with his
definitions of these factors. Having solved what he con-
sidered to be the most important thing in life, namely,
how to be happy while here, Gautama set forth on a
missionary journey to tell the world. It was a revo-
lutionary doctrine, which cut right to the very root of
Brahmanism, the orthodox religion of India at that
time. He became Gautama the Buddha, or teacher, the
founder of a great religion and subtle philosophy,
indeed one more subtle than any which had existed be-
fore, or which has ever been conceived since. He him-
self possessed a mind of the very highest order; it is
indeed doubtful if there has been a greater moral
philosopher on this earth.

With regard to the origin of man the Buddha began
by saying: "Please do not waste time on this problem.
It is really of no importance to your present existence.
Nor need you worry about the hereafter, for that also
is of no concern to us, there being no knowledge of it
except in abstract speculation; and such speculation is
a waste of time. Our concern is with our life here, and
heaven knows, it presents a big enough problem 1 Let
us concentrate on it and see if we cannot make for our-
selves, all of us, a world of peace and happiness, in
which cruel struggles, war, killing, greed, jealousies,
and indeed all those things which we know to be evil
shall be eliminated^The only way to do this is, in the

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 135

first instance, by the complete abolition of selfishness,
and a general purification of the mind." Thus, Budd-
hism was in the beginning purely an intellectual reli-
gion. It was not an appeal to the emotions ;* and it
held out no bribe in the form of reward in the here-
after, nor any threat for a neglect of its precepts, other
than a continuation of unhappiness. It was entirely an
appeal to reason, and it was as such that it>pleased and
still pleases many men of intelligence. It is perhaps
necessary to note that India was a country in which
even at that time the affairs of the mind were admired
by every class of person, and respected before all else.
Hence the Buddha was not persecuted as Christ was
by His contemporaries, but rather hailed as a philoso-
pher bringing a new but reasonable code of behavior
into the world. To follow it there was not any need for
a man to leave his business, no need for penancq^ for
fasting, or for waste of time in the self -hypnosis and
mental masturbation of prayer/ Naturally, those who
wished to become teachers of the new philosophy must
train themselves thoroughly, and for them a special
course of teaching was devised by the leader. -**
If Philosophy versus priestcraft

In a few years the gospel of Buddha had spread itself
over a great part of India, and in the course of time it
reached south as far as Ceylon, and later spread east-
ward and northward, to the Malay Peninsula, to Tibet,
China, Mongolia, Manchuria, and even to Japan. Orig-
inally a pure doctrine, it became, after the death of its
founder (as has happened to all other religious sys-
tems) a prey to the worldly! It developed a priesthood
and a series of complex excrescences in precisely the
same manner as Christianity, Taoism, and Confucian-
ism. It became the religion of bishops, priests, deacons,
and what-not. Nevertheless, the fundamental teachings
remain for those who would have them, just as the

136 THIS HUMAJST NATURE

fundamentals of Christianity as outlined in the Sermon
on the Mgunt exist for those who care to take them
seriously. ^There must be about 150 million Buddhists
in the world today, and although it is in essentials much
too subtle for the ordinary man to grasp, Buddhism has
an intellectual appeal such as is not to be found in any
of the other great religions.

The effect of the sublime doctrines of Buddha upon
the subsequent trend of human nature was profound. It
is perhaps no mere accident that the great teachings of
Jesus should be a reflection of some of the chief precepts
of the Buddha, of which the following are but a few
examples : "Blessed is he who does no harm to his fellow
beings"; "Blessed is he who overcomes wrong, and is
free from passion"; "To the highest bliss has he at-
tained who has conquered all selfishness and vanity."
(Compare Matthew V, 3 to 11).

This great religion was to the eastern peoples what
Christianity has been to Europe and America. It was
the first great challenge to the conscience of men, in
which it caused a quickening, and a generous appeal to
unselfishness. Sublime and rational, Buddhism has by
no means reached the end of its powers. Indeed, it holds
out definite hopes to those people who are unable to
accept many of the incredible aspects of the Christian
religion; and it can hold intelligent men who are in-
capable of blind faith. Furthermore, it faces real-
istically the fact of suffering on earth, and attempts to
deal with it, not by a postponement to the hereafter,
but by means of a cure now. It is pessimistic in the same
sense that medical science is pessimistic : it diagnoses a
disease of the mind, however bad, in order that a cure
may be found. It affords a Way of Escape from sorrow,
and is a practical creed which canjbe observed without
intellectual shame by sensible men. It cultivates a sense
of the worthlessness of temporal things ; and substitutes

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 137

mind for soul. The conception of happiness which it
propounds is realizable in this life; its strong moral
code emphasizes a stoical self-mastery. In matters of
human nature we cannot afford to neglect the possi-
bilities inherent in so powerful a system. ,K
11 Discovery of conscience

Gautama was the first man to offer to the world a
really practical code of behavior such as would convert
the evil into good, and abolish the wickedness which ap-
peared to him to rule the world. He was one of the
half-dozen Great Codifiers of Morality who lived in
that period of a thousand years, dating from the sixth
century before Christ to the sixth century after. It was
in this period that human nature saw its greatest
changes. New light came to the world; a new set of
ideas entered into the minds of men; henceforward,
although the actions of men might be evil, a conscience
was provided, to remain often in the background, but
nevertheless omnipresent.

Let us now move still farther East and see what was
happening there in regard to human nature at a period
almost contemporary with that of the Buddha in India.
Three great Chinese teachers appeared within a very
few years of one another ; and they in their turn did for
China what Buddhism did for India and what Chris-
tianity afterwards did for the West. Kong-fu-Tsi, or
Confucius as we call him, was born in 551 B.C. His
father was governor of a district in the present province
of Shantung. He entere.d the civil service, but did not
find in a government office sufficient spare time in which
to pursue his studies, whereupon he resigned and turned
to teaching. At the age of twenty-four his mother died
and, according to national custom, he mourned for three
whole years. But instead of moping during this period,
he settled down seriously to the study of history and of
such philosophy as existed. He pursued his investiga-

138 THIS HUMAN NATURE

tions and contemplations with two main objects in
view: the moral and material welfare of the people.
f Chief Justice Confucius on punishment

When he began to teach his fame soon spread
throughout China. By way of reward he was appointed
a town magistrate, and in the course of time became
minister of justice and chief judge in his own province
of Lu. Judge Confucius became renowned for the dis-
pensation of a remarkably even and equitable system of
justice, and legend informs us that so good was his in-
fluence that crime practically disappeared. He believed
in reformation rather than punishment; and he was
against the infliction of the death penalty upon those
whom the state had failed to instruct. Confucius con-
sidered it a tyranny to execute a person brought up in
darkness and ignorance of all moral virtues. Jealousy at
his unorthodox reforms caused neighboring feudal
lords to scheme for his removal, and this excellent man
eventually was led to retire in utter disgust with his
fellows. For many years he traveled about, preaching
his system of morality. At last he was permitted to re-
turn to stand behind ministers, a sage to be consulted in
cases of dire emergency. The remaining five years of his
life were spent in literary pursuits, and in the compila-
tion of his celebrated Analects, which were to become
the Bible of a great part of China.

We have already seen how Gautama Buddha con-
cerned himself chiefly with the elimination of self. We
have also seen that the Jewish teachers concerned them-
selves with "righteousness" and worship, based on their
fear of the universal God ; and we shall learn that the
Greeks attached most importance to external knowl-
edge. Confucius was responsible for the introduction of
a new idea. It was that man should strive by gentle and
well-mannered behavior in this life to become a sort of
superior being; a sort of peaceful aristocrat. Every-

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 139

body should be, like our late Lord Curzon, a superior
person. Confucius attached supreme importance to the
moral behavior of the state, his idea being that if rulers
and administrators achieve a noble ideal of kindly and
well-mannered behavior, such an influence must trickle
through and ultimately affect every department of life.
This attitude of mind explains his objection to the
capital punishment of undesirables; he regarded it as
setting a bad example in manners. He preached stern
self-discipline, punctilious observance of politeness,
and absolute justice in affairs. All these, one should
note, are intellectual attainments.
1f Excellent manners of the Chinese

His teaching comes roughly under five heads, each of
which elaborates itself into a system that is really very
simple, and capable of being understood by almost any
person. Moral excellence of any kind, he called virtue.
Intellectual attainments must be controlled always by
humaneness. Righteousness is merely fair and honorable
dealing, and an observance of duty. "To know what is
right, and not to do it, is sheer cowardice." All men
must show confidence, trustworthiness, and sincerity.
With these forms of virtue men must observe earnest-
ness, bravery, and perseverance; children must show
the highest respect for their parents. Such, in brief, is
the simple, straightforward teaching of the realistic
Confucius. There is no mention in it of Heaven or
Hell; and no reference to God or Devil. Regarding
his influence on Chinese national character and human
nature in the Far East there can be no doubt. With Lao-
tsu and Moti and the Buddhistic teachings which came
from India he helped to make the Chinese what they
are today.

Almost on a level with Confucius we must mention
Lao-tsu, the author of the Tao Te Ching, the Bible of
another great Chinese religion Taoism. Lao-tsu was a

140 THIS HUMAN NATURE

librarian, who preached a blase indifference to the
powers and pleasures of this world ; and he emphasized
the necessity for a return to the simple life of the past,
to the state of natural man in the Golden Age, of which
there is only conjectural record.* His book offers
statements and precepts which either stagger the west-
ern mind or merely cause a smile: "Attain complete
vacuity, and sedulously preserve a state of repose" a
precept no doubt admirable but hardly capable of com-
prehension in the western world today. His book is
full of riddles, but nevertheless contains much real
wisdom. For example: "Requite injury with kindness,"
and, "Do good to the evil ones in order that they may
become good." Only the very greatest of philosophers
such as Buddha, Plato, and later Jesus Christ had either
the wisdom or the courage to propound such a doc-
trine. But he made many profound mistakes of which
this saying contains an example: "Ceremonies are the
outward expression of inward feeling," and, "Those
who know do not speak, those who speak do not know."
1 Constant knowledge of Lao-tsu

Other examples of his precepts are these: "Desire
not to desire, and you will not value things difficult to
obtain. The best soldiers are not warlike ; the greatest
conquerors are those who overcome their enemies with-
out strife." How delightfully true is this one: "In the
highest antiquity the people did not know that they
had rulers. In the next they feared them. In the next
they despised them." And this: "Fishes must not be
taken from the water ; the methods of government must
not be exhibited to the people." And this : "The greater
the number of laws and enactments, the more thieves
and robbers there will be." Of capital punishment he
said: "If the people do not fear death, what good is

* Some modern anthropologists firmly believe in the Golden Age, and the
tame natural man. I confess I believe them to be wrong. C. D.

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 14!

there in using death as a deterrent? But if the people are
brought up in the fear of death, and we can take and
execute any man who has committed a monstrous crime,
who will dare to follow his example? People despise
death because of their excessive labor in seeking the
means of life." In regard to war he said: "In the track
of great armies there must follow lean years." Other
maxims of Lao-tsu are: "Peace and tranquillity are
prized by the superior man, but when he conquers, he
is not elate; to be elate were to rejoice in the slaughter
of human beings. . . . Nature is not benevolent; with
ruthless indifference she makes all things serve their
purposes, like the straw dogs we use at sacrifices. . . .
When shrewdness and sagacity appear, great hypocrisy
prevails. . . . He who moves not from his proper place
is long lasting. . . . Racing and hunting excite man's
heart to madness. No calamity is greater than discon-
tent. . . . Constant knowledge is wisdom ; to know, but
to be as though not knowing, is the height of wisdom ;
not to know, and yet to affect knowledge, is a vice. . . .
True words are not fine ; fine words are not true."

The above examples hardly indicate the teachings of
this philosopher, which are on the whole extremely
mystical, and where comprehensible at all by the West-
erner, they indicate the best policy of life to be: Keep
your hair on, look after Number One, and do not be
discontented. During his lifetime his teaching had little
success, but, because of its obscurity and paradoxical
wisdom, it was seized upon by men of satirical tempera-
ment, who turned it into a great religion. Lao-tsu recog-
nized his failure to convey his meaning and, at last, in
a bitter passage cries against his fate: "Other men have
plenty, while I alone seem to have lost all. I am a man
foolish in heart, dull and confused. Other men are
alert; I alone am listless. All men have their usefulness;
I alone am stupid and clownish. Lonely though I am

142 THIS HUMAN NATURE

and unlike other men, yet I revere the foster-mother,
the Path of Wisdom, the Tao." The religion thus
founded has now many millions of adherents.
IT Mo-ti's doctrine of mutual love

There arose in China yet another great teacher,
Mo-ti, who lived in the fourth century B.C., after the
doctrines of Confucius and Lao-tsu had been estab-
lished in China and before the arrival of the Buddhist
teachers in that country. As Wells and others have
pointed out, Mo-ti's doctrine bears an extraordinary
resemblance to the teaching of Jesus Christ, in political
terms. It was, as it were, the forerunner of the new
gospel. "The mutual attacks of state on state; the mu-
tual usurpations of family on family; the mutual rob-
beries of man on man ; the want of kindness on the part
of the sovereign, and of loyalty on the part of the minis-
ter; the want of tenderness and filial duty between
father and son : these, and such as these, are the things
injurious to the empire. All this has arisen from want
of mutual love. If but that one virtue could be made
universal, the princes loving one another would have no
battlefields; the chiefs of families would attempt no
usurpations; men would commit no robberies; rulers
and ministers would be gracious and loyal; fathers and
sons would be kind and filial; brothers would be har-
monious, and easily reconciled. Men in general loving
one another, the strong would not make prey of the
weak; the many would not plunder the few; the rich
would not insult the poor ; the noble would not be inso-
lent to the mean ; and the deceitful would not impose
upon the simple."
1f Inevitability of morality and inventions

As may be imagined, Mo-ti was a little before his
time in morality. But he outlined in the above passage
one of the essentials of the Christian religion: the doc-
trine of mutual love. It seems as if morality, as well as

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 143

inventive thought, ripens slowly in the human mind
and everywhere suddenly bursts forth to fruition. There
is an inevitability about it: for otherwise why should
thoughts such as those recorded in this section, and
those which we shall indicate as characteristic of the
age of philosophy in Greece (almost contemporary in
time) and then but a little later the sublime teachings
of Christ why should all these come to the world with-
in the very short space of a few hundred years? So far
as we know, nothing like them had ever before ap-
peared; and nothing like them has since appeared. One
cannot but consider Mohammedanism as an adaptation
of Christianity to the local thoughts and psychical
necessities of the Arabs. There is a parallel in modern
times, and it is in the realms of mechanical and scien-
tific thought. A long series of inventions and scientific
discoveries has been achieved almost at the same time
by different men often working in different parts of the
world. Perhaps the most striking of these was the work-
ing out of the theory of natural selection and variation
in the same year (1858) by Darwin and Wallace. There
was also the discovery which led to the use of internal-
combustion engines in motorcars, made by three
separate investigators working independently in three
different countries at the same time. One may well
ask the question, Is a development of morality inevi-
table; just as the question, Are inventions inevitable,
already has been discussed in the Political Science
Quarterly, with many examples to show that they are.

We must leave this question unanswered, and swing
back again once more to the West, to consider what was
happening in that astounding little country Greece, a
mere currant on the earth's surface, which was prob-
ably responsible for the greatest of all changes in hu-
man nature, one which we can moreover definitely as-
sert to be true: the liberation of the human mind.

144 THIS HUMAN NATURE

6. LIBERATION OF THE MIND BY THE GREEKS

AN object of the preceding section but one was to
show the profound influence which a river may
have upon the destiny of millions of human beings
living upon its banks; and to indicate how it may be
chiefly responsible for the evolution of a civilization
and culture which, in turn, become of immeasurable in-
fluence upon the trend of subsequent history. The dis-
coveries of God and of Hell, not to mention the im-
mortality of the soul, were influences which have
not entirely worked out their power over the
human mind and over the behavior of masses of
people alive today. The instance of superstitious
Egypt, though by far the most striking which can
be quoted to illustrate this river influence, is by no
means unique. Today the Ganges is regarded by the
Hindus as sacred; it rules the lives of masses; and
there is little doubt but that it will long continue to
do so. In such a work as this we cannot afford space for
great detail or elaborate and erudite accounts of all the
influences that have made us what we are. Only those of
outstanding importance can be mentioned, and brief
accounts given of men or nations or of inventions or dis-
coveries which may be considered to have changed the
nature of man even in a superficial sense.
IT The spiritual side of human nature

Biologists inform us that human nature is always
more or less the same; no doubt they are right, in the
purely biological sense. But beside this biological as-
pect of man's nature there looms high what, for want
of a better term, we must call his spiritual nature: a
thing impossible of satisfactory definition, but of para-
mount importance in human history. We have seen the

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 145

Egyptian superstitious contribution to the spiritual side
of man's nature in those three great priestly discoveries.
We shall now briefly consider what the Greeks contrib-
uted and, in order to do so, we must contemplate for a
moment the history of this amazing little country. For
Greek civilization and Greek influence, diffused mainly
by the wars of Alexander of Macedon in his selfish
quest for power and glory, were responsible for a pro-
found change in human thought, and in the spiritual
side of men's natures, over the most important part of
the globe. No doubt I shall by many be considered mis-
guided if, having indicated the great achievement of
the Greeks, I go on to say that much of it was negatived
by the bludgeon rule of materialistic Rome; and that
what was not completely extinguished by Roman rule
was, to a very great extent, suffocated by institutional-
ized Christianity.

Only once in the whole history of human nature did
we poor mortals come within measurable distance of
what seems like mental sanity in comparison with what
preceded and what came after. Only once did a whole
nation reach almost to the ideal of healthy, balanced
minds in the healthy bodies of its individual citizens. It
was a brief episode, but a glorious one; the closest ap-
proach to human perfection on a considerable scale of
which there is any record. Notwithstanding the bad
turn of events which for practical purposes wiped out
the Greeks, one is forced to the conclusion that their in-
fluence upon the development of the nature of western
man has been greater than all other influences, Chris-
tianity itself included. "Without what we call our debt
to Greece we should have neither our religion nor our
philosophy nor our science nor our literature nor our
education nor our politics." * It is a dismal reflection
upon man's intelligence that he has never had the wis-

* W. R. Inge, in Livingstone's The Legacy of Greece, 1921,

140 THIS HUMAN NATURE

dom to take full advantage of the immense intellectual
heritage left to him by this small country of big minds
1T Love's labor lost

No period in history will better repay close studj
than that of the rise and decline of Greek civilization
in the seven centuries preceding the appearance oi
Jesus Christ. It was then, for the first (and some say for
the last) time, that the liberation of the human mind
was achieved. To outline the steps which led to this
amazing achievement is hardly necessary, though even
a moderate understanding of our own intellectual de-
velopment is not possible without some statement of the
general history of Greece, whose mental and cultural
influences in one sense the scientific are even
stronger in the world today than they were in the age of
their creation. Those who read the history of Greek
thought, and appreciate the attitude of the Greeks to-
ward life, may well sigh when they turn to contemplate
our modern western civilization, which forms an un-
happy, perverse consequence. For it is a wretched fact
that human greed and selfishness, exemplified in Alex-
ander and Roman militarism, have almost entirely
negatived the glorious intellectual and artistic heritage
which was left to Europe for the taking. The un-
paralleled development of the Greeks and the rapidity
of the evolution of their thought are marvels of human
nature, in glory only exceeded by the ignominy de-
served by the men who came after and ignored the mis-
sion which clamored for fulfilment. How was it that
over two thousand years ago a territory about four hun-
dred miles long and two hundred broad was able to
produce so many really great men, and exert so power-
ful an influence upon the whole of subsequent history?
This enigma has never been satisfactorily answered, a
fact which in itself justifies us in looking shortly at
Greek history.

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 147

f What we owe to aristocrats

The Greek world was composed of city groups of
"aristocrats," with farms in the immediate neighbor-
hood, who had all their manual and a part of their in-
tellectual drudgery done for them by slavesfThe gentry
had nothing to do but to cultivate their bodies and
their minds, and this no doubt explains their rapid de-
velopment. They lived mostly out of doors, while their
wives remained in the home. A woman who entered
society and mixed with men forfeited her title to re-
spect or lost her heart to one or more handsome athletes.
It was almost inevitable. Little money was spent on
wives, houses, or food ; rich men were expected to give
dramatic entertainments and to contribute a company
or a ship for the protection of the city. The market-
place was a general club.* "There the merchants talked
their business: the labors of the desk were then un-
known [I quote from the picturesque Reade], The
philosopher instructed his pupils under the shade of
a plane tree, or strolling up and down a garden path.
Mingling with the song of the cicada from the boughs,
might be heard the chipping of the chisel from the
workshop of the sculptor, and the laughter and shouts
from the gymnasium. And sometimes the tinkle of a
harp would be heard ; a crowd would be collected ; and
a rhapsodist would recite a scene from the Iliad, every
word of which his audience knew by heart, as an audi-
ence at Naples or Milan knows every bar of the opera
which is about to be performed. Sometimes a citizen
would announce that his guest, who had just arrived
from the sea of Azov or the Pillars of Hercules, would
read a paper on the manners and customs of the bar-
barians. It was in the city that the book was first read
and the starue exhibited the rehearsal and the private

* For the facts in this section I am indebted to The Historians' History of
the World; to Grote and to Reade, who have all borrowed liberally from
conventional sources. The manner of presentation is my own. C. D.

148 THIS HUMAN NATURE

view; it was in Olympia [where the Olympic games
were held] that they were published to the nation. When
the public murmured in delight around a picture by
Zeuxis or a statue by Praxiteles, when they thundered
in applause to an ode by Pindar or a lecture by Herodo-
tus, how many hundreds of young men must have gone
home with burning brows and throbbing hearts, de-
voured by the love of Fame. And when we consider
that though the geographical Greece is a small country,
the true Greece that is to say, the land inhabited by
the Greeks was in reality a large country; when we
consider with what an immense number of ideas they
must have been brought in contact on the shores of the
Black Sea, in Asia Minor, in Southern Italy, in South-
ern France, in Egypt and in Northern Africa; when we
consider that, owing to those noble contests of Olympia,
city was ever contending against city, and within the
city man against man, there is surely no longer any-
thing mysterious in the exceptional development of that
people. Education in Greece was not a monopoly; it
was the precious privilege of all the free. The business
of religion was divided among three classes. The priests
were merely the sacrificers and guardians of the sanc-
tuary; they were elected, like the mayors of our market
towns, by their fellow citizens, for a limited time only,
and without their being withdrawn from the business
of ordinary life. The Poets revealed the nature, and
portrayed the character, and related the biography of
the gods. The Philosophers undertook the education of
the young; and were also the teachers and preachers of
morality. If a man wished to obtain a favor of the gods,
or to take divine advice, he went to a priest: if he de-
sired to turn his mind to another, though scarcely a bet-
ter world, he took up his Homer or his Hesiod ; and
if he suffered from mental affliction or sickness", he
sent for a Philosopher." The italics are mine.

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 149

11 The first confidence in reason

Professor Lowie says that we may liken the progress
of mankind to that of a man a hundred years old, who
dawdles through kindergarten for eighty-five years of
his life, takes ten years to go through the primary
grades, then rushes with lightning rapidity through
grammar school, and college. Culture, it seems, is a
matter of exceedingly slow growth until a certain
"threshold" is passed when it darts forward, gathering
momentum at an unexpected rate. So it was in Greece.
It is no exaggeration to state that never before and never
since was such attention given to a discussion of intel-
lectual problems. The result was the creation of confi-
dence in reason, in which five words I would sum-
marize the Greek contribution to the development of
human nature. Before this, prejudices tend to vanish,
and no problem in religion, philosophy, or morals need
be shirked. The attainment of Truth and Beauty was
the ideal; it overshadowed all else. The Greeks and
many of their ideas became dispersed over Asia, and
such was the influence of their superiority that coun-
tries in which they had no political power adopted
much of their culture and their manners. They also sur-
passed the foreigners "barbarians" as much in the
arts of war as in those of peace. They were destined to
inherit the Persian empire, which by this time was be-
ginning to decay. There is no need to retell what Hero-
dotus has already magnificently recorded of the history
of the wars between the Greeks and Persians more than
to say that they ended in favor of the Greeks, leaving
this people to dominate the greater part of the known
world.
IT The beginning of militarism

A desperate internal struggle now began, one in
which Sparta, Athens and other states each endeavored
to achieve the ascendency over its neighbors. It was

150 THIS HUMAN NATURE

also during the hundred and fifty years or so which fol-
lowed the defeat of Persia and the liberation of Greek
cities and communities in Asia that, as Wells says, "the
thought and the creative and artistic impulse of the
Greeks rose to levels that made their achievement a
lamp to mankind for the rest of history." It was in
359 B.C., fifty years after the end of the Peloponnesian
War, that Philip, king of the country called Mace-
donia which lies to the north (the Scotland of Greece,
as it were), conceived the idea which ultimately led to
the undoing of much of the practical good that Greek
philosophy was achieving in the mental liberation and
true spiritual education of mankind. Philip had the sol-
dier's mind, and he dreamed of a consolidation of his
own country with the Greek states into a strong military
union which might set about the conquest of Asia. He
invented the packed mass of infantry the phalanx
and also the mobile cavalry formation; and he trained
large bodies of infantry and cavalry to collaborate in
attack and defense. He systematized this branch of
warfare, evolving new tactics for his novel army. The
battle of Chaeronia 338 B.C. was one of the most im-
portant in history, not because of its own magnitude but
because of its effect upon the subsequent trend of politi-
cal events. By this victory Greece was now at Philip's
mercy; a Greco-Macedonian confederacy was formed.
Plans were laid for an onslaught on Persia, to be inter-
rupted by the assassination of Philip by one of his first
wife's satellites. But these plans were afterwards put
into practice by Alexander, his son. At the age of
twenty this young man found himself in command of an
excellent army. Having inherited his father's ability
(which was further strengthened by tuition under the
philosopher Aristotle), Alexander proceeded to what
must be regarded as one of the two supreme military
adventures in world-history.

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE

For a period of two years Alexander occupied him-
self in dealing with subversive movements among those
Greeks who thought that such a mere boy could not
possibly take the place of Philip, either in leading them
to conquest or in keeping them in some sort of order.
He succeeded in subduing those Greeks who from their
education aspired to liberty; and when this was com-
pleted he conceived his great scheme for a military
conquest of the East. From the memorable day on
which he crossed the Hellespont in the spring of the
year 334 B.C. to his death at Babylon in the summer of
323 B.C., a period of just above eleven years, his life was
spent in ever-growing conquest. The science and philos-
ophy as well as the political life of Greece itself were
brought to a standstill during the busy period of the
Macedonian adventurer. It would not be unreasonable
to say that those military expeditions of Alexander do
not belong properly to the history of Greece; he was of
a race as different from that which inhabited Athens as
the Highlanders of Scotland used to be from the people
who lived in London. As a political aggregate Hellas
almost ceased to exist. Nevertheless, it was this amaz-
ing military adventure of the Macedonian which was
responsible for the wide-spread, superficial diffusion
of Greek ideas; from the borders of Illyria through
Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Persia, Beluchistan, and
Afghanistan, a part of India, not to mention Syria,
Egypt, and a part of the Mediterranean shores all this
vast territory, the most t sensitive in the world to ideas,
received its leaven of Greek culture.
IF The military mind

It is not my intention in this work to give much space
to the exploits of military adventurers such as Alexan-
der the Great. In the first place the history of such ex-
ploits has been written so often that the world ought to
be thoroughly tired of the so-called glory of it. But

152 THIS HUMAN NATURE

when wars and conquests are responsible for really
wide-spread movements of moral or philosophic im-
port to the trend of human nature as a whole, they can-
not be ignored. Furthermore, one may fix upon a great
character in history such as Alexander of Macedon,
and use him to illustrate a type of mind which has
always existed and still exists and will probably exist
forever: that is to say the bashi-bazook or military
mind. It is a type of mind which recognizes no form of
right but that which is symbolized by the bludgeon.
The strong must rule the weak, is the argument; and a
very powerful one it is ; as Rome and other nations have
shown. Let us glance then briefly at the mentality and
achievements of one of the world's very greatest repre-
sentatives of this type of mentality; and, while endeav-
oring to point a moral, take the adorned tale as it is
given to us by writers of antiquity, and strip it of its
embroidery.
1T The science of massacre

The army at the disposal of Alexander consisted of
less than forty thousand men, of whom about three-
quarters were infantry. Its generals were highly trained
soldiers from his father's armies. The infantry consisted
of two branches : heavy and light troops ; the former for
mass movements in phalanx form; and the latter for
swift advances, skirmishes, or rear-guard fighting. It
was a highly organized and scientific army of tried
officers and men; the first really scientific army the
world had seen. The phalanx probably did more for its
success than all else except sheer chance, which often
assisted vigorously. The Macedonian phalanx is worth
notice ; it consisted of men heavily armed and armored,
carrying shields and long lances (of twenty feet or so)
as well as a short, stout, and very sharp sword. The
men stood sixteen deep, the lances of the first five files
projecting beyond the front, and offering an almost

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 153

impenetrable barrier to an enemy. The files behind
placed their lances on the shoulders of those in front.
The thorough training of individual members of this
body made possible a unity, rapidity, and precision of
movement which rendered the whole extremely formid-
able to any but a most courageous, highly disciplined,
and well-trained fighting force. For his phalanx-work
Alexander used eighteen thousand picked men in his
first campaign ; later this number was greatly increased.
This powerful arm was assisted by a corps with lighter
shields and longer swords ; the cavalry also consisted of
heavy and light sections. The battle array of Philip's
armies was worked out on geometrical lines in accord-
ance with the leader's idea of strategy; and this proved
itself during the next few years to be immeasurably
superior to any system of strategy hitherto conceived in
the mind of man. According to one authority, the war-
chest of Alexander at the outset of his campaign was
seventy talents about $75,000: a mere trifle with
which to begin so vast a military campaign

The leader of the Persians against whom Alexander
soon found himself (after a number of quick victories
in Asia Minor) was Darius, an extremely stupid man,
to judge by events. Within a few minutes of the be-
ginning of a battle (in which the Persian forces greatly
outnumbered those of Alexander) the Persian leader
made a series of hopeless blunders which placed him
at the mercy of the invader. The rout of the Persians
was complete. It was followed by the destruction and
slaughter of the fugitives on a formidable scale; the
camp of Darius was taken, and his family made
prisoners. The estimated total loss in Darius's forces
was over one hundred thousand men; Alexander lost a
mere three hundred foot and one hundred and fifty
horse. We are informed on excellent authority that no
victory was ever more complete and that few have had

154 THIS HUMAN NATURE

more far-reaching consequences than this one of Alex-
ander at Issus. The conqueror then turned and besieged
Tyre, which capitulated after a courageous struggle.
Two thousand prisoners were taken and forthwith
crucified. The next step of the victor was to take Egypt.
After this, by swift marches Alexander moved toward
Babylon, which he also took, apparently without diffi-
culty.
IT Spare time amusements of soldiers

The old historian Quintus Curtius tells us that Alex-
ander delighted in this city of luxury and amusement;
and remained there longer than he had done anywhere.
It was hardly a good place for military discipline,
though the conquering troops no doubt enjoyed them-
selves immensely. One might perhaps legitimately com-
pare it with certain aspects of "Gay Paree" during the
World War. "Nothing," says Curtius, "could be more
corrupt than the manners of this city, nor could one be
better provided with all the requisites to stir up and
promote all sorts of lewdness; for parents and husbands
did suffer their children and wives to prostitute them-
selves to their guests if they were but paid for the
crime. The kings and noblemen of Persia at that time
took great delight in licentious entertainments, and
were much addicted to wine and the consequences of
drunkenness. The women in the beginning of their
feasts would be modestly clad ; then after a little time
they would take off their upper garment and violate
their modesty by degrees, at last flinging away even
their lower apparel. Nor was this the infamous prac-
tice of the courtezans only, but likewise of respectable
matrons and their daughters, who looked upon this
vile prostitution of their bodies as an act of complai-
sance. It is reasonable to think that Alexander's
victorious army which had conquered Asia, having
wallowed thirty-four days in debauchery, would have

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 155

found itself enfeebled for battle if an enemy had ap-
peared ; to remedy this it was renewed with fresh re-
cruits."

Having ravaged the countryside our conquering
hero, whose army was feeling better after its holiday
in Babylon, was able to pillage a number of towns and
villages before turning upon the far-famed Persepolis.
This was the noblest city of the East, and had formerly
been the chief terror of Greece. It was sacked and
burned in a manner so terrible that a mere account of
it might curdle the gentle reader's blood. From that
moment Alexander became little better than a devil:
his campaigns are outstanding examples of military
skill, energy, and thoroughness. In the winter of 330-
329 B.C. his mighty conquests were extended over
Afghanistan, the western part of Kabul and on to
Kandahar; the conquest of a part of India quickly
followed.

We must not forget in considering the vast area
covered that there was no mechanical transport,
that the bulk of the army marched on foot, and that
roads hardly existed. Not until the civilized Napoleon
Bonaparte marched across the roads of Europe more
than two thousand years later did soldiers march at
such speed. Thirty miles a day, for sometimes weeks on
end, were not too much for men inspired by the leader-
ship of the Macedonian. Perhaps the greatest test was
a march across the desert of Gedrosia. It was here that
Alexander showed those qualities of courage and en-
durance and character which have stamped his name
upon history. Though ready to faint from thirst, he
marched on foot at the head of his troops. At one stage,
when the army had been without water for several days,
a few scouts discovered a little in the channel of a
brook. They drew it up and bringing it in a shield
presented it to their king. He took it quietly, thanked

I$6 THIS HUMAN NATURE

the men, and in the presence of the army poured it upon
the ground. This act in itself will give an idea of his
generalship, and exemplifies the heroism of the mili-
tary mind at its very best. The Indus, the Jaxartes, and
the Nile became Macedonian rivers. Alexander
brought about what is called the "Marriage of Greece
with Persia" by compelling a number of his generals to
wed Persian women and prepare to settle there. But
many of his veteran troops began to clamor for a re-
turn to their native country. Plots, conspiracies, and
minor mutinies began to show themselves. All these
were satisfactorily settled, and a campaign was pro-
jected for further conquests.
IF Journey's End of Alexander

Fortunately or unfortunately the leader was attacked
by a fever with which his physicians were unable to
cope. Droysen, the German biographer of Alexander,
tells us that the impression produced upon the troops
by this illness was beyond description. The hero of a
thousand battles called for his veterans to be conducted
to his chamber. They filed past his bed. Raising his
head faintly, he gave his hand to each one, signalizing
a silent farewell. Toward evening on June n, 323 B.C.
the first of the two really great military adventurers in
human history faded quietly out, following a prophecy
by the gods that he would soon be himself again.

It is difficult to form any sort of reasonable estimate
of the personality of this man. His ambition was to con-
quer the whole habitable globe as it was then known,
and Grote thought that he might have accomplished it
had God spared him ; for he was not only the first scien-
tific military organizer but one of the best. Alexander
was courageous in the military sense of the word; he
was also violent, ungovernable, and cruel to an extent
which indicated his utter barbarism. He could stand
no contradiction or criticism of any kind; only sub-

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 157

servience and adulation were acceptable. He had little
real sense of culture, but was nevertheless not without
political ideas and ideals, for he wished to amalgamate
Greeks and Persians and to make Greece a world-wide
power the people of which would live on terms of com-
parative equality and without the old smug division
into Greeks and barbarians.
1F Is man a determining agent?

There is no doubt but that Fortune served him re-
markably well, and that he took full advantage of every
opportunity she offered. "The extent," says Ogburn,
"to which man is a freely determining agent in direct-
ing social evolution is one of the fundamental questions
in sociology. This question is very similar to the old
philosophical question of freedom of the will. It is also
at the root of the question of the influence of the great
man in history." * Elliot Smith declares: "Sir Charles
Oman calls attention to the patent fact that history is
cataclysmic. The career of mankind has not been the
inevitable result of the action of natural causes, but has
in large measure been shaped by accidents and catas-
trophes, by the actions of dominating personalities who
have deliberately provoked great movements, peaceful
and warlike, which have shaped the destiny of the
world." t It is a matter of dispute whether any one
man has had greater influence than Alexander upon the
subsequent results of the great age of Greek culture
which had preceded him. Although his armies had a
backbone of Macedonians, the brains were very often
Greek; and nothing could prevent the wide-spread dis-
semination of the culture which was carried every-
where by Greek members of his forces. Wheeler aptly
sums it up thus: "Man as a base line for measuring the
universe, man as a source of governing power arose in

William Fielding Ogburn, Social Change.
fG. Elliot Smith, Human History (1930).

158 THIS HUMAN NATURE

Greece; it was Greece that shaped the law of beauty
from which came the arts of form, the law of specula-
tive truth from which by ordered observations came
the sciences, and the law of liberty from which came
the democratic state. This was what the old Greece held
in keeping for the world. Alexander was the strong
wind that scattered the seed; again, he was the willing
hand of the sower." It is more flattering to think that
we may be budding Alexanders than to contemplate ab-
stract conceptions as dominating factors.
IT Supposing

But there is another side to the picture. Although
Alexander and his armies were unconsciously respon-
sible for this wide-spread diffusion of culture and its
taming influence upon men, he was also responsible for
extinguishing completely the flame which was already
beginning to flicker at Athens. The problem with which
we are presented in considering the history of this great
general is one which can never fail to interest the stu-
dent of human affairs. It is this: Supposing, instead of
enthroning militarism and annihilating individual
liberty amongst Athenians, he had chosen to concen-
trate all his immense dynamic energy upon fostering
the true cultural spirit of Greece, and propagating it
by means of peaceful commerce supposing this had
been his choice, what might not the result have been
for the good of humanity? Some very terrible facts re-
sulting from his militarist career stare us in the face.
With the arrival of this selfish, domineering man upon
the scene, old Greece began to die; his name after-
wards became detested both by Athenians and Mace-
donians. While militarism spread a light leaven of
Greek culture over the face of the world, it killed it
surely at its rich source. Nor did the benefits of Alex-
ander's militarism, in the form of wealth and vast
territory, take the place of the intense culture that it

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 159

had stifled at the source. Immediately after his death,
the lust for power and the greed of his generals soon
asserted themselves. Our old friend selfishness again.
One seized the Persian Empire; another seized Egypt;
a third fell upon Macedon. Minor military adventurers
and political buccaneers arose on all sides, attempting
to emulate the conqueror. Barbarians in the north
swarmed down upon the Acropolis at Athens, to be
spasmodically driven off. From a beautifully organized
little state that had developed a higher consciousness
and a soul of its own, Greece changed into an unstable
and disorganized rabble.

For all that, the culture which had been disseminated
over the whole of the ancient world remained predom-
inantly Greek. Egypt under the Ptolemies, successors
to Alexander's general of that name, caught a short
blaze of the glory of three thousand years before. In the
city of Alexandria was founded the first university of
the world, the celebrated Museum in which Euclid
wrote his still more celebrated "Elements." Here also
worked the fine old engineer Hero, the man who in-
vented the first steam-engine. It is difficult for us mod-
erns to imagine the extent of the Greek mind when, in
mathematics alone, to take but one branch of thought
and perhaps the most difficult, it is only recently that
we have been able to advance beyond it. To quote Elliot
Smith again: "Abstract thought is the rarest manifesta-
tion of the human mind even in modern times. Every
school-boy and student can make a pretense of ab-
stract thinking by reproducing scraps of wisdom (and
folly) acquired from the writings of scholars, or the
every-day currency of polite conversation. But when it
comes to original observation and real thinking, the
influence of the traditions and fashions of the time tends
to inhibit abstract thought, and keeps most men's at-
tention fixed on concrete demonstrations."

160 THIS HUMAN NATURE

If Toleration appears

In physics the Museum had a notable exponent in
Eratosthenes, who succeeded in calculating the diame-
ter of the world to within fifty miles of what our great-
est physicists today have worked it out to be! The
Museum library was a publishing and book-selling
business, the first in existence. A celebrated librarian
named Callimachus devised a method of cutting up the
rolls of script to make them more convenient for refer-
ence and so made the first books to resemble our own.
Here also began the systematic study of human anat-
omy. A discipline of science was evolved. The Scien-
tific Method came into existence. The list of achieve-
ments could be extended, but there is no need to do this.
Let it suffice to say that the systematized scholarship
at Alexandria, following upon the age of philosophy at
Athens, helped in the dissemination of an entirely new
spirit throughout the world; one which was to be
bludgeoned out of existence for a time, but which came
to life again two thousand years later. This was the
spirit of intellectual toleration. Old barriers were be-
ing broken down in affairs of the mind ; the man of one
nation began to pay attention to the ideas of the man
of another nation. We shall see in due course how this
worked out, and the effect it had upon human
nature.

7. THE GOLDEN AGE OF REASON

ULTURE has been defined by Tylor as "that com-
plex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art,
morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man as a member of society." What
was this culture which the wars of Alexander the Great

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE l6l

diffused over most of the known world? It cannot be
described in a sentence or a paragraph, though I would
put it under the broad head of Right Thinking. We
may differ in our opinions as to whether the Greeks
were always right in their philosophy. But to them,
above all peoples, we must give credit for an endeavor
to achieve perfect honesty of thought. This showed it-
self to be beneficial in many ways, but chiefly in the
growth of liberty and toleration in word and deed.
IF Early drama

To outline even very briefly the steps by which free-
dom of thought and toleration were achieved in an-
cient Greece is beyond the scope of this work. The
movement probably originated in sport and the drama,
which both appeared there seven hundred years before
the Christian era. The drama had a religious origin,
and in its early phase consisted largely of performances
in honor of the many gods of the early Greek populace.
There is record of a comedy having been performed at
Athens about 580 B.C.; tragedy came earlier. An im-
portant step in the development of the theater was the
introduction of a chorus which has since that day de-
generated (or risen, whichever you like) into the
choruses of the pornographic "revues" of modern times.
Tragedy was first represented at Athens on a kind of
movable wagon. Musical performances were gradually
developed, in which songs and choruses were sung in
honor of Dionysius, god of wine and amusement. The
State of Athens during the great age of Pericles con-
sisted of over a quarter of a million people of whom
about 100,000 were slaves, 160,000 free citizens and
their families, and 20,000 resident aliens. There were
at most 50,000 freemen, who formed the democracy
the truest democracy the world has ever known before
or since, for every freeman attended and voted at the
meetings of the Assembly; he did not send an elected

162 THIS HUMAN NATURE

representative to do his work. In an earlier section we
have already seen how many men of genius appeared in
Greece during a very short period a record un-
paralleled in human history.* The theater of Dionysius
at Athens could hold thirty thousand spectators; and
that at Megalopolis fourty-four thousand.

From 475 to 325 B.C. the theater flourished in Greece
as it has never flourished anywhere else, if we take into
consideration the high standard of thought and the
elevated tone of the Greek plays. .ZEschylus, Sophocles,
and Euripides were the supreme masters of tragedy;
and Aristophanes the embodiment of the comic spirit.
In the last we see the beginnings of sophistication in
a new and salutary phenomenon in the development of
human nature: mockery. For the first time, masters of
literature and dramatic art applied their talents to the
ridicule of disliked persons or institutions. Perhaps I
ought to say here that a fairly high development of hu-
man culture is required in order to stand raillery and
the spirit of humor, satire, and mockery; and this the
Greeks possessed in a degree unrecorded in any previ-
ous history. Nowhere else do we find it excelled. The
Israelites were a dull, uninteresting crowd, consumed
by selfish desire for their own salvation; the Egyptians
appear to us as a lugubrious and even morbid race, de-
voting far too much attention to their dead; the In-
dians too solemn and thoughtful for pleasant human
companionship; and the Chinese a race giving all their
attention to a superficial politeness and code of manners
far too affected to be sincere. If the Greeks did nothing
else they proved to the world the advantages of irony
and of a sense of humor. And, after all, what is a sense
of humor but a God-given psychological compensation
for the woes around us? a most valuable asset to any
human being.

* Sec pages 60-61.

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 163

IT The Greeks discuss everything

The theater showed its influence by stimulating
thought. Schools of philosophy or, as they were orig-
inally, schools of argument sprang up on all sides. Men
began to discuss everything, from the constitution of
the universe to the meaning of beauty. Metaphysics,
the study of ultimate realities, began. With this went
the study and discussion of logic, the ideal method in
human thought. To the Greeks we owe the beginnings
of serious and ordered thought in all the chief branches
of human activity. Esthetics attracted one school, ethics
another, politics another; and certain notable schools
embraced them all. The conclusions of Einstein could
never have been reached, nor could we have modern
science, without that immense body of spade-work
done during a comparatively short period in the dif-
ferent schools of Greek philosophy. This people even
attacked psychology, though they did not make much
progress in formulating it; nevertheless, they were as
far ahead in many branches of psychology as some of
our most advanced thinkers of today. Pythagoras began
the study of disease and medicine, and Hippocrates
drafted a system which was to be the foundation upon
which Galen five hundred years later based further
advances; the science of healing thus evolved lasted
nearly two thousand years. The philosophy of the Em-
pirics began, that which teaches us to pay attention only
to what is useful. Among a host of schools of thought,
yet another group formed itself: the Eclectics, who,
without attaching themselves to the whole body of
doctrine of any given school, chose what they judged
good from each. In the midst of all this scramble after
the higher things of life there arose three men who may
be added to our list of those pioneers who have had
their effect upon the development of human nature as
a whole : Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

164 THIS HUMAN NATURE

Socrates was the son of a stonemason and a mid-
wife ; he was born at Athens about 470 B.C. He is not-
able in human history as the first great skeptic ; as the
man who challenged every statement. The chief tenet
of his teaching is, like all great precepts, a very simple
one: that the only possible virtue in this life is complete
honesty of thought. His whole life was a quest after
truth ; there was no belief, no code of laws or morals,
no system of government, or aught else which he did
not desire to investigate for the purpose of discovering
its ultimate truth. He would tolerate no belief or hope
which would not pass the test of investigation in every
aspect, and in every detail. Toward everything he held
himself as an unbeliever, capable of being convinced
by argument based upon human reason. This is not to
say that he did not investigate mysticism and other oc-
cult arts; he examined everything that came his way,
and accepted or rejected with impartiality and without
emotion. Socrates was a living challenge to every-
thing in human thought. His method took the form of
question and answer, a dialogue ruthless in its investi-
gatory powers. Such a man inevitably created enemies.
He had also many admirers, amongst these Plato, who
immortalized the works of his master in a series of
memorable literary efforts. If we think for a moment of
the significance of the cardinal maxim of Socrates, that
Virtue is Knowledge, we can see how it goes to the
very root of all that men even still hold dear and have
held dear from time immemorable.
1f The most honest human being

Socrates was the beginning of a definite progression
in human thought and, with Plato, he became for a
time the end of it. Such a man was a grave danger to all
the old institutions, to the vested interests of religion
and government; and, as has always happened in such
circumstances in human affairs, a means was found of

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 165

getting rid of him. Few human beings can tolerate
truth : this is a rule which applies throughout the whole
of history. The mass of humanity looks backward; it is
either the ill fortune or the ill luck of a very few to look
forward. He who challenges existing institutions
courts unpopularity and maybe death itself. In 399 B.C.
Socrates was accused of denying existence of the gods,
and of subverting the youth of Athens. There is not
the slightest doubt but that he was guilty, in the same
way that Christ was undoubtedly guilty of endeavoring
to turn the minds of the Jews against their cherished
and long-established religious institutions. In his old
age the grand old Greek was haled before a tribunal
and charged with the most serious offenses which could
be brought against a man, that of wishing to abolish
the gods and of turning the minds of his pupils against
the authority of the state. He was found guilty and
condemned to death by drinking a cup of the poisonous
hemlock. The trial and death of this man are described
in the Phaedo of Plato in a passage of great beauty.
When his end was close at hand he uncovered his face,
and calmly said they were his last words : "Crito, I
owe a cock to jEsculapius ; will you remember to pay
the debt?" Plato adds : "Such was the end of our friend :
concerning whom I may truly say that of all the men of
his time whom I have known he was the wisest and
justest and best." To this might be added that Socrates
was the founder of progress in human thought, the orig-
inator of that most difficult of all precepts to follow,
namely, "Know thyself." There is good reason for
claiming that he was the most honest man who has ever
lived.
1 Plato defines the upright man

It was not so much during his lifetime as afterwards
that the influence of Socrates made itself felt. His pupil
Plato, a man of very different type, did not altogether

166 THIS HUMAN NATURE

approve the attitude of quiet disillusionment and doubt
adopted by his master. He had been born in the midst
of a post-war atmosphere, in which the Greek republic
was suffering much social distress and confusion. It was
in a similar state to that of modern Germany in 1919;
there was discord; dissatisfaction, and a great yearning
everywhere. Hence, much of Plato's work consists of
discussions regarding political and social institutions
and relations, and the possibility of improving them.
He queried whether so much unhappiness and discord
could be possible if political and social institutions were
as perfect as those who supported them asserted. He
had been taught by Socrates that everything every-
thing must be investigated. And he set about doing so
with an amazing energy. At the age of forty he wrote
his Republic, a magnificent book drenched in thought
which has had almost as little influence upon subse-
quent political thought as the works of the great
teachers have had in the realm of religion. He demon-
strated that, difficult as it may be to define upright-
ness, courage, piety, and what other virtues there may
be, the upright, courageous, and therefore happy man
demonstrates in his own person the reality of these ab-
stractions. This alone might have sufficed to make Plato
a benefactor of the human race; but it is only a part of
his labor. He founded with Socrates the Academy of
Philosophy which lasted nearly a thousand years the
one which is still the prototype of all such organiza-
tions; and he immortalized the thought of Socrates in
the celebrated Dialogues, which are a guide to the
liberal education so desired by men. They are so good
that they are little read now. The works of bad writers
are more required in the world, because of the present
general low level of human culture. Not long ago I
spoke to the editor of a magazine which provides read-
ing for (or at all events is bought by) thousands of good

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 167

people in this twentieth century. I asked that editor a
question: "Supposing a man mentally equivalent to
Plato were alive today, and this man wrote a work of
a standard equivalent to the Dialogues, both in thought
and literary style. Would you publish it?" He replied
frankly: "I doubt very much if I should seriously con-
sider it for publication in my magazine. I have at
present one million readers whom it is my great desire
to retain. I must give them what they want and pay for.
And there are not one million people in the whole
world who could understand or would pay for any
work of so high an intellectual standard as the Dia-
logues of Plato."

We may add yet another name to those of Socrates
and Plato : that of Aristotle, whom Goethe called the
master builder among men. To these three men we
must attribute the glory of having laid down the basis
of practically every philosophic science, Aristotle was
the systematizer. They have never been surpassed as
philosophers by any three men anywhere. We have not
even yet exhausted all the possibilities that their works
contain: many of their ijDJ^ioj^ have been verified
after the lapse of centuries^^ter a thousand, in some
cases two thousand years. "It remained," says Elliot
Smith, "for the Greeks to remove the shackles and re-
store to human reason the freedom it had lost. Ever
since then the history of the world has been a conflict
between the rationalism of Hellas and the superstition
of Egypt."
IT The ethics of mercy

But apart altogether from philosophy, the Greek in-
fluence made itself felt in many ways. They were re-
sponsible for the formulation of a system of govern-
ment and politics ; to this may be added the rhetorical
system of Aristotle. They instituted government by
parliament, and a system of representation based upon

l68 THIS HUMAN NATURE

the ballot. They were the first people to introduce real
humanitarianism into the institution of slavery which
they had inherited from Egypt and the East. Human
society from the point of view of the economist, we are
told, begins when the strong man instead of eating and
killing his victim discovers that he can put him to a
much more profitable use. And this brings us to the
very root of the ethics of the spirit of mercy, which is
held up to us as so admirable a thing. Mercy was orig-
inally based upon the material interests of the person
who granted it: when a prisoner was spared after a
battle, it was because his captors thought they could
draw more benefit from a use of his service extending
over a period of years than they could draw from the
immediate enjoyment of a few human cutlets, probably
tough ones at that. Thus, when slavery was first estab-
lished it marked a great step in human progress. To the
institution of slavery we owe much of the law and
order which goes with property and inheritance, and
by means of slavery society was graded into two im-
portant classes. Aristotle taught that a servant is an in-
strument more valuable than any other, although he
was probably not the first to discover this fact. The
Greeks of his age began to treat their slaves well, real-
izing that it paid them to do so. In precisely the same
way many modern employers of labor offer excellent
conditions to their employees. Such employers practice
the enlightened self-interest to which Aristotle first
drew attention. It may seem quite a simple proposition,
though apparently it is not. Perhaps another two thou-
sand years of human history may convince us all of the
practical wisdom of at least this item of Greek philos-
ophy.

Notwithstanding all that has been said, there were a
few soiled spots on the Greek escutcheon. The Lace-
daemonian youths, for example, were trained in the

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 169

practice of deceiving and butchering slaves, and were
from time to time let loose upon them to show their
proficiency; once for amusement they murdered three
thousand in a night. With regard to rhetoric, the
Greeks were not guilty of what is often to be found in
our modern rhetoric : changes in the voice to produce
an influence altogether independent of the intellectual
worth of that which is uttered. In arts and letters the
Greek states were one nation; and their jealousy of
one another only served to stimulate their inventiveness
and industry. But in politics this envious spirit divided
them and weakened them; the Ionian cities were en-
slaved again and again because they could not combine,
and they could not combine because they never trusted
one another. Dishonesty, want of faith, disregard for
the sanctity of oaths, and a hankering after money had
much to do with disunion even in the face of danger.
Polybius declares that Greek statesmen could not keep
their hands out of the till. In Xenophon's account of the
Retreat of the Ten Thousand, banter is exchanged be-
tween a Spartan and an Athenian. It is necessary to
rob the natives in order to provide themselves with
food, and the Athenian says, "You Spartans are taught
to steal, so now is the time for you to show that you have
profited by your education." The Spartan replied, "You
Athenians will no doubt be able to do your share, as you
appoint your best men to govern the state, and your best
men are invariably thieves."
IT Evil results of work

It is to a Greek that we must give the credit for hav-
ing discovered the evil of idleness. The laws of Draco
enacted in 621 B.C. punished idleness as severely as
murder. This was afterwards modified by Solon, and
still further changed as a result of the teachings of the
philosophers, to that point when they began to con-
sider laziness almost as a virtue. They learned to re-

170 THIS HUMAN NATURE

lax and seemed to glory in it, perhaps not without some
reason. Our modern philosopher of industry, Mr.
Henry Ford, says that for man the natural thing to do
is to work to recognize that prosperity and happi-
ness can be obtained only through honest effort. " Hu-
man ills," he says, "flow largely from attempting to
escape this natural course/' I admit that large numbers
of us have to work in order that we may eat, but I am
not sure that we all enjoy work as much as Mr. Ford
says he does. Personally I regard most modern work
as an evil thing, to be avoided whenever possible. My
vision of happiness is a world basking philosophically
in the sunshine of some pleasant semitropical beach,
we men smoking our cigars and, between sips at a glass
of good alcohol, discussing how pleasant the weather is,
how nice it is not to have to go to the factory or to the
office, and preening ourselves on how enjoyable is the
thought that the only exercise we need take is such as
may be required to keep the body functioning properly.
The simple fact is that, as a result of labor-saving ma-
chinery, there are many people in the world for whom
no work can be found; and it is this mass of rather un-
intelligent and selfish animals, so conceited that they
will not bother to think out their problems, which calls
for still more work, much of it absurd and unnatural.
Indeed, the reasoning which makes a necessity of this
virtue is responsible both for man's ascent to intellec-
tual supremacy and also for his descent to machine-
minding. There is, however, one type of man, who
happily stands head and shoulders morally above his
fellow men, and that is the downright tramp who
simply refuses to do a hand's turn beyond what is im-
peratively necessary to obtain sustenance. He walks
about the world, a peripatetic protest against diaboli-
cal doctrines of utility. Our tramp may be a true phi-
losopher and, in his rags and dirt and laziness, come

THE TAMING OF HUMAN NATURE 17!

nearest to the high ideal of life taught in such excellent
books as the New Testament.

Is it not the craze for work which is largely responsi-
ble for the world's present discontents? Western man,
especially in the United States, is making work for
gain to take the place which the Holy Ghost occupied
in the cosmogony of our forefathers in the Middle
Ages. Work is responsible for Babbitts, robots, ad-
mirals, generals, madhouses, hospitals, high finance,
and a host of other extremely undesirable institutions.
If you wish to see how happy a man may be doing little
or nothing, you must read W. H. Davis's "Auto-
biography of a Supertramp."
IT Bird's-eye view of "Progress"

We have now come almost to the end, with one ex-
ception Jesus Christ of those Great Codifiers of
Morality amongst men of the West: Hammurabi, the
great Assyrian king; Akhnaton, the Egyptian; Moses
and the prophets of Israel, of the Pentateuch and the
Psalms. In the East we found in India Gautama the
Buddha, and Confucius, Lao-tsu, and Mo-ti in China.
Then in ancient Greece we have seen the challenge to
all existing thought, and the real beginnings of the dif-
ferent philosophies, including the science of mathemat-
ics, the elements of Euclid, the foundations of physics ;
the beginnings of the great games and sports, the opera,
the drama, and parliament, the institution of slavery
(which among the Greeks brought with it the inven-
tion of trousers as a sign of degradation) ; we see along-
side the invention of the bellows, that of the screw and
the saw as well as the beginnings of laughter and mock-
ery as a means of criticizing human institutions: we see
all these ideas spreading over the world, being carried
by commercial travelers and barterers. We have seen
the invention of money, and of a system of bookkeeping
and accounts by the early Phenicians, the forerunners

172 THIS HUMAN NATURE

of modern salesmen, the first advertisers. The diffusion
of culture has begun. In all these things the thought of
the known world was now beginning to run in prac-
tically the same channels amongst great peoples. A part
of Europe and a part of Asia had risen from savagery
and barbarism to the stage which we call culture and
then civilization: in Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Phenicia,
Greece, and a little later in Carthage and Rome, there
was a definite growth and decay of culture and civiliza-
tion. Population increased enormously, and races and
nations began to pass through a sort of spring, summer,
autumn and winter, like plants or men. Having done so
they left behind them the leaven of a standardized
method of thinking which has not greatly altered since
then. We shall see later there have been developments
of this thought, and generally, in intellectual achieve-
ments. We have not yet come to the age of modern
science, advertising, and money. But to all intents and
purposes, with the combination of Greek thought and
other thought in the few hundred years before the be-
ginning of the Christian era, we have a world which
was thinking almost as it does today: standard human
nature. From that moment onward we look only for in-
tellectual changes, and in these there is a great gap. The
appearance of Jesus Christ and the diffusion of his
wonderful teachings made what may be considered to
be the final change in human nature, at all events in the
whole of western civilization. We must chronicle the
working out of human destiny through a black age of
ignorance, thoughtlessness, brutality, and barbarism.
First there is Retrogression, than Stagnation, then a
Renaissance ; and finally we shall come to consider the
machine age in which we now live. It may seem a
dreary road from Socrates and the Dialogues of Plato
to some of our most popular authors today; and it is
only the comfort we find in a contemplation of human
progress which justifies so long a journey.

BOOK III

THE DOMINATION OF HUMAN
NATURE BY ROMAN MATERIALISM
AND INSTITUTIONALIZED CHRIS-
TIANITY

I. THE HUB OF HISTORY

ABOUT one thousand years before the appearance
of Christ, a number of Aryans set out on walking
tours from the north and east and extended their travels
to Italy and Greece. They reached Marseilles when it
had already become a busy center of Phenician trade,
and when there were on the other side of the Mediter-
ranean many outlying Phenician trading-posts. We are
informed that Italy also attracted a number of wan-
derers from Greece and Asia Minor, who began a
small war with the Aryan tribes already settled north
of the Tiber. These Etruscans were a fairly civilized
people who knew how to build strong fortresses; and
they could make good pottery. South of the Tiber were
then to be found semi-barbarous tribes who were called
Latins; by means of war the Etruscans overcame the
Latins. When we first read of Rome, it appears as a
small trading community, situated close by a ford on
the river Tiber, with a Latin-speaking population, and
ruled by Etruscan kings.
T Rome founded on blood

We understand that the city was founded in the year
753 B'C., r a * least fifty years later than the founding
of the Phenician city of Carthage on the other side of
the Mediterranean. The Latins of Rome were able in
the sixth century B.C. to expel the Etruscan kings, who
were beaten not so much by the superior force of arms
of the Romans as because they had suffered a severe de-
feat at the hands of the Greeks in a naval battle off
Sicily. About the same time a horde of barbarians from
France (or Gaul as it was called) swarmed down upon

175

176 THIS HUMAN NATURE

the Etruscans of the north to occupy the valley of the
river Po. Attacked on the north by the Gauls, and
greatly worried by a struggle with the Greeks, the
Etruscans succumbed to the first attempts of the Ro-
mans to achieve freedom. However, the Gauls under
Brennus made their way toward Rome itself, which
had now grown into a city. They sacked it and cap-
tured its most important citizens, whom they held for
ransom. But Brennus and his compatriots did not re-
main there long. In the course of two hundred and
fifty years of struggle, that is to say by 275 B.C., Rome
had made herself complete mistress of Italy, extended
her territory along the Gaulish boundary, and become
a compact power of considerable importance.

This was at a time when the small world still remem-
bered the achievements of Alexander the Great. The
Carthaginians the supreme maritime power feared
that the Greeks might become strong in Sicily, which
stood geographically opposite to their city. So they
made an agreement with the Romans by which Sicily
was given to Carthage, the whole of the rest of Italy
being in the hands of the Romans. Both Rome and
Carthage were young, vigorous, and growing commu-
nities. The Carthaginians, as we have seen, had in them
the strong Phenician (that is, Semitic) element driving
them to trade. The Latins were an agricultural peo-
ple, living close to the soil, and not caring greatly for
trade. It was entirely in the interests of these two
peoples to form an economic alliance. Instead of this
they decided in 264 B.C. that their differences could best
be settled by war.
T Force of the economics of selfishness

This sort of political stupidity occurs again and
again in history. It is based upon two of those funda-
mental characteristics of human nature which we have
noticed earlier in this book: selfishness and pride. Self-

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 177

ishness to acquire wealth and power; pride in the
ability to acquire this wealth and power quickly. War
in such cases merely hastens (with great loss to both
sides) the absorption or economic conquest of one side
by the other. By means of an alliance the process could
be much more comfortably achieved in nine cases out
of ten. The inability of Rome and Carthage to reach
some sort of economic and political compromise re-
sulted in the Punic War, one of the most bloody and
important in history. It consisted of three main phases
lasting altogether from 264 to 146 B.C. and ending with
the supremacy of Rome. This war is of such importance
,?~in a sense it seems to be more important than the
World War of 1914-1918 A.D. that it may prove in-
structive to consider the position of the two opponents
in some detail. The Punic War was the first important
economic war in history; and we have not yet left be-
hind the latest phase of economic wars. Besides, it
decided that the world should be ruled by Romans in-
stead of perhaps by Semites ; and Rome and Carthage
were not unlike two great modern nations.
H Qualities of racial success

From the natural temperament of the Romans (and
the systems of government and education which they
had evolved) there sprang a people admirably suited to
warfare. The freedom of the individual was repressed
in the interests of the state. Early Roman citizens
were honest, frugal, pious, and obedient to authority.
Neither generosity nor -mercy found much place in
their character; and they had none of that dissipating
speculative and cultural spirit of the Greeks. The
Roman paterfamilias was stern to the utmost degree
with his own kith and kin, over whom he had power of
life and death ; at the time we now consider he did not
hesitate to inflict a capital sentence upon a wife or son
or daughter, when he deemed it necessary. Shrewd and

178 THIS HUMAN NATURE

grasping in matters of business, cruel in their treatment
of slaves, the Romans were a harsh and austere people.
A strict discipline permeated their life and institutions;
physical bravery and ability to suffer without com-
plaint were considered as the highest virtues. The lead-
ers were proud and avaricious. So long as poverty and
discipline remained governing factors they were mor-
ally clean, if narrow and hard. Politically they were
astute and even at this early period they had a sensible
code of laws: their "Twelve Tables" are considered
by jurists to be the foundation of most of our modern
codes. In regard to usury they were severe: ten per
cent was the maximum of interest which a lender couL: 1
exact from a borrower of money (which would indicate
a weak sense of finance) . They could not stand ridicule.
Any person who wrote libels or lampoons on his neigh-
bors could be deprived of civil rights. This, in itself,
would indicate a non-philosophic mind.

The city had lived for three hundred years in a state
of perpetual warfare. The steady acquisition of power
had, as is nearly always the case where men are con-
cerned, produced a love of power and a desire for
more. Hence the army was the nation. It was essential
for a citizen to have served in ten campaigns before
he was eligible for a civil office. The discipline was
most severe; drill went on ceaselessly. Territory won
by the sword was used and cultivated, its inhabitants
made slaves, their personal wealth confiscated.
IT How a war is started

The Carthaginian Republic was almost entirely com-
mercial, its citizens for the most part engaged in peace-
ful pursuits. Such conquests as they made were rather
by peaceful penetration than by the sword. Carthage
possessed a great fleet and an army consisting largely
of mercenary troops. After the wind-up of a war with
Syracuse a number of Syracusan mercenaries (who had

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 179

been paid off) were passing on their way home through
the Greek town of Messina, where they were well
received. Following a mild soldierly debauch, they
turned to and massacred the male inhabitants, mar-
ried the women, and settled down comfortably. A
Roman regiment heard the story and emulated this
excellent idea at Rhegium, a Greek town on the Italian
side of the Straits. The king of Syracuse decided to
march against Messina, and the ex-mercenaries, be-
coming alarmed, turned to look for assistance: one
party declaring they were Italians asked the Romans
to help ; another looked to the Carthaginians. The Car-
thaginian party prevailed, and Carthaginian soldiers
under Hanno entered the town. Roman soldiers under
Appius fell upon Hanno and defeated him. The Syra-
cusans after a defeat threw in their lot on the side of
the Romans. Rome well knew that on land she could
hold her own against the Carthaginians, but was not
so certain of her ability to do so at sea. Her navy was
small and consisted of three-deckers, while- the Cartha-
ginian fleet was big and consisted of five-deckers, one
of which, happily for the Romans, was wrecked on the
Italian coast and could be used as a model.

After sixty days of frenzied effort the Romans had
built one hundred five-deckers and twenty other ships,
and while the building went on they trained men to
row by placing them with imitation oars on scaffolds
ranged along the shore not unlike those rowing
machines which we see used for practice in a modern
gymnasium. The ingenuity of the military general staff
was brought to bear upon the problem of how best to
deal with their enemies. The "Crow" was invented a
gangway which was kept hauled up till within reach
of the enemy's ship and then suddenly released to fall
and drive a strong, beak-shaped spike into the enemy's
deck. Roman soldiers could then swarm along the

AOU THIS HUMAN NATURE

gangway to engage the foe in a hand-to-hand fight. It
was a great idea, for it worked admirably. This all
seems very crude and simple to us now, but in naval
history it is a landmark. It was, so to speak, an advance
in material culture for, as Ogburn says, the facts of the
growth of material culture seem to indicate a develop-
ment by jumps. There is a period of stability or of rel-
atively slight change. Then occurs a fundamental
invention of great significance that precipitates many
changes, modifications, and other inventions, which
follow with relative rapidity for a time. There was, to
all intents and purposes, no further development in
naval warfare until the invention of the gun more than
a millennium later a very big jump indeed. I should,
perhaps, explain that the military mind is seldom orig-
inal, nearly all the advances that matter in military
science being the work of civilians.
If The idea of sea power

The war dragged itself wearily through a period of
years, and the issue of this long struggle was altogether
in favor of Rome. She became the first Mistress of the
Sea and severely interfered with the activities of com-
mercial Carthage. It was, however, all merely a pre-
lude to a far more deadly contest Hamilcar, the Car-
thaginian commander, did not despair. He decided that
by patience and prudence he might yet form an army
to defeat the Roman legions. He raised his army and
moved it to Spain. He trained his son Hannibal in the
subtle military art. This young man was to prove him-
self one of the great generals of history. The Spanish
town of Saguntum (now called Murviedro in Valen-
cia) was in alliance with Rome and therefore entitled
to Roman support. Hannibal besieged it successfully.
Roman envoys were sent to Carthage asking that the
author of the mischief be surrendered. They were in-
formed that Saguntum was not mentioned in the treaty

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE i8l

existing between the two countries. This specious rea-
soning did not appeal to Quintus Fabius Maximus,
Roman ambassador, who, doubling his toga in his hand
and holding it up, said: "In this fold I carry peace
and war. Choose!"

"Whatever you like," replied the Carthaginian.

"Then take war!" said Fabius forensically, letting
loose his toga.

"We accept the gift," gleefully cried the senators of
Carthage, "and welcome." Diplomacy was already
akin to the actor's art.
f Supreme importance of the Punic wars

The First Punic War arose from one silly incident;
the Second from another. So it is with most wars. Some
occurrence, often the merest trifle, provides an excuse
for a conflict of the bigger interests which diplomacy
endeavors to obscure or conceal. The German historian
Ihne writes of the incident in question: "War was re-
solved upon and declared on both sides ; a war which
stands forth in the annals of the ancient world without
a parallel. It was not a war about a disputed boundary,
about the possession of a province, or some partial ad-
vantage; it was a struggle for existence, for supremacy
or destruction. It was to decide whether the Greco-
Roman civilization of the West or the Semitic civiliza-
tion of the East was to be established in Europe, and to
determine its history for all future time. The war was
one of those in which Asia struggled with Europe, like
the war of the Greeks and Persians, the conquests of
Alexander the Great, like the wars of the Arabs, the
Huns, and the Tatars. Whatever may be our admira-
tion of Hannibal and our sympathy with heroic and yet
defeated Carthage, we shall nevertheless be obliged to
acknowledge that the victory of Rome the issue of
this trial by battle was the most essential condition for
the healthy development of the human race."

182 THIS HUMAN NATURE

IF Why Rome flourished

Having established military and naval supremacy
by this war in the Mediterranean, Rome turned her
still bloody sword eastward and northward. For the
first time wealth from conquest began to pour into the
city. War became profitable and so there should be war,
war, war; in every direction. We may jump a period.
The population of the city went on increasing steadily
and began to consist of all nationalities : the rich living
in separate houses with their slaves; the poor in vast
tenements in the lower parts, the slums. Conquered ter-
ritories became the legitimate prey of governors and
soldiers: from 73 to 71 B.C. the exactions of Verres,
governor of Sicily, desolated the island more than any
war had ever done. As a judge, he sold his decisions. He
would steal pictures and works of art from private
houses or temples, and crucify whoever resisted. On his
return to Rome he was indicted and tried for these
depredations. He was fined, but fled to save his plunder.
The noble Mark Antony coveted the treasures of
Verres, and had him put to death as the easiest method
of acquiring them.

The religion of the Romans was the worship of local
deities who could help them in their wars, their agri-
culture, or trade. It was entirely utilitarian and run by
the state for the state. Their literature was negligible,
their laws good t in a narrow materialistic sense. Their
art and science were nil, although their architecture
and road-making were excellent. This was a cruel, ma-
terialistic, solemn people, whose city was becoming the
hub of human history.
1" The military machine perfected

It was during the period of the Punic wars outlined
above that the Roman military system worked itself up
to an efficiency which was afterwards to enable the

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 183

great empire to be formed. Until the Punic wars the
Roman armies consisted of levies of volunteers. The
necessity for bringing Spain under Roman rule called
for soldiers of a different type. Men were now required
for foreign service. But those who had farms and hold-
ings were no longer willing to spare themselves for
long periods upon adventures which were not strictly
defensive. In matters military, as we have seen, the
Romans showed some ingenuity, and so it was not long
before a way was found out of this difficulty. In every
country there is nearly always to be found a number
of men of adventurous spirit who have practically no
ties, and who are willing to sell themselves for military
service that is, as hired murderers and assassins to
any good bidder. The Roman government conceived
the idea of paying its soldiers, and at the same time en-
listing them for long periods. A further inducement
and bribe was held out in an offer of booty. Such is the
make-up of human nature that in similar circumstances
soldiers could be found anywhere at any time. Woe to
the vanquished, and the spoils to the victors, although
by no means an entirely new idea in history, were moral
precepts developed to their very highest point after the
Roman success in the Punic wars.
1 Rome brandishes the bludgeon

The empire which followed the republic was based
upon an appeal to the greed of the individual soldier;
and an appeal to the collective greed of the whole
people. Explorations and conquests were begun in all
directions; every point of the compass was to be cov-
ered by the Roman legions. The amazing success of
their military buccaneering experiments was due to sev-
eral factors, chief of which were the dour fighting qual-
ities of the Roman soldiers. They were in many respects
like the Scotch and Ulster regiments in the modern

184 THIS HUMAN NATURE

British army; while not greatly elated after a victory, a
defeat left them almost equally unmoved. The geo-
graphical position of Italy was also an immense factor
in their success: Rome was conveniently situated for
protection from attack both by land and by sea ; and
also for the sallies of her soldiers and sailors against
alien peoples. Another factor was the importance at-
tached to road-building, because of the means a good
road provided for the consolidation of conquest. In
road-making the Romans showed some real genius.
Furthermore, the ideal of those Romans who remained
at home, especially those of the ruling class, was a stern
and stoical one, which demanded self-sacrifice in mat-
ters appertaining to the growth of power, or to the ad-
dition of property to the commonweal; it was a nature
that largely consisted of greedy patriotism. Indeed to
the Romans more than to any other people we must at-
tribute the inception and growth of greedy patriotic
ideals; of national materialism. The city and nation be-
came a military machine, and this, assisted by its roads
and a realistic and extremely common-sense system of
laws, developed into a state of an efficiency hitherto un-
known in human nature. Rome turned her face to the
world after the Third Punic War, and arrogantly
waved her bludgeon in the air. In the course of the next
five hundred years the result of this terrible military
efficiency was to beat the rest of the world to its knees
and thereby establish a powerful empire.

But about the middle period of Rome's greatness
there arose in the Roman province of Palestine a set of
ideas which was ultimately to negative bludgeon rule,
and cause the disintegration of the empire founded
upon force. We shall see how a few simple and revo-
lutionary ideas affected the trend of subsequent his-
tory; how military despotism brought the reaction of
peace and a message of pacifism, whose followers

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 185

taught the extremes of non-resistance; and how, in the
first instance, it was fairly successful, but that after-
wards this great message resulted, through the strange
perversities of human nature, in wars and troubles
quite as terrible as any hitherto experienced.

2. JESUS AND HIS ETHICAL POETRY

WE have already seen that from time to time there
come into the world men who prove themselves
to be Great Codifiers of Morality. It seems as if morals
are like inventions. Vague ethical ideas remain "in the
air" for a time, and then they are captured, sifted and
synthesized by a man of genius, who may, with the aid
of his own mind, make an advance upon all that has
preceded him. The great religions of the world have
been formulated by men whose spiritual nature was
highly sensitive to the yearnings and necessities of the
contemporary human soul, and who were therefore able
to capture a comforting idea. One must note that the
basic religions of the world were founded by men; and
that it is only in modern times that women have en-
deavored to compete with them in the formulation of
ethical ideas.
11 Jews prefer future to past

When Rome had achieved the state of expansion and
development described in the last section, the religion
of the western world was in a state of chaos. Egypt and
Palestine possessed what may reasonably be called great
systems of religion and, of the two, it was in Palestine
that the truly religious spirit was more highly devel-
oped. Here there lived a people with the tradition of
the Pentateuch and the prophets and differing pro-
foundly from Euro- Asiatic antiquity in the conception

1 86 THIS HUMAN NATURE

of the mythical "Golden Age." The Jews have proved
their supreme wisdom over all other races by placing it
in the future instead of in the past. In this they showed
a truly wonderful knowledge of human nature: for
men are more likely to be influenced in their conduct
by what must inevitably happen in the future than by
what has gone before and has perhaps become a hazy
memory. The people of Israel had made for themselves
a Book, which in turn governed them like an irre-
sistible force. They had created the idea of a sovereign
religion, superior to country, blood, and all other laws.
Having decided for themselves that paradise was yet
to come, one of their prophets * informed them of the
manner in which the forthcoming of the Kingdom of
Heaven was to be signalized: the Messiah, a Son of
Man, was first to appear a supernatural being in
human form who was to rule over the "Golden Age."
Every young Jew was taught these things, and they all
looked forward with joyful anticipation to the coming
of this Savior.

During the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus,
the child Jesus was born in the Roman province of
Judea, A dreamy, imaginative boy, highly sensitive to
the religious ideas with which his countryside was
saturated, he began to believe that he himself was the
long-expected Messiah. He possessed the soul of a poet,
and gloried in the marvelous lyrical poetry of the
Psalms of David and the imaginative flights of the old
prophets of Israel; the enchanting dreams which they
conjured up in his mind were ever a delight. He began
to live in complete harmony with the marvelous and the
supernatural, and cultivated a close mystical association
with the Great Universal God of Israel, whom he re-
garded as his spiritual father. He was a mystic, not a
metaphysician; a poet, not a scientist Reason or logic

* Daniel, vii, 13 et seg

l88 THIS HUMAN NATURE

hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you
and persecute you ; that ye may be the children of your
Father which is in heaven. . . . For if ye love them
which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the
publicans do the same? . . . Be therefore perfect, even
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

Obedience to such precepts has always been rather
difficult.

Nevertheless, this incomparable man advanced the
general cause of religion in the world as no other has
done. He was essentially a man of action, in the spir-
itual sense of the word. He lived as he taught, mixing
freely with all classes, but making his chief appeal to
the poor. He paid little attention to the rich, the
learned, the sophisticated, or those influenced by Greek
culture. He attacked the followers of the existing Jew-
ish religion, which was largely one of ceremonial.
Around him gathered a small group of admirers. The
small bucolic sect thus created was one inspired by zeal.
It was prepared to work and most important of all
to suffer for the principles in which its members be-
lieved. There was never before in history any question
of suffering for a religion.
If Miracles

The leader Jesus often spoke in parables, and in lan-
guage which, though simple and direct in construction,
contains the eternal truths of all religions: The King-
Jam of God is within you was his favorite reply to all
who pressed for subtle explanations. There are those
who are inclined to pour scorn upon the miracles he
achieved. But who can say what was possible and what
was not possible in the psychological atmosphere that
grew round this great man? Miracles were then re-
garded as the mark of the divine prophet, a faculty
which had nothing surprising in it. There are thousands
living today who firmly believe in Spiritualism and

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 189

faith healing. Jesus ridiculed human systems and ideas;
what he demanded was faith. It is surprising what
faith * can do, in any age. I quote from a newspaper
reporter's description of a faith-healing service in the
Albert Hall, London, 1930:

Principal George Jeffreys conducted the service
as part of the annual demonstration of the Elim
Foursquare Gospel Alliance, of which he is
founder and leader. Nearly ten thousand people
from many parts of England, Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland and continental countries attended. A few
of the pilgrims, total cripples, were wheeled into
the hall by friends. Women predominated, and
,,, people from Wales especially Cardiff and Swan-
sea formed about a tenth of the congregation.
Amid ecstatic cries of "Hallelujah" and "Praise
the Lord," followed by the singing of hymns by
ten thousand voices, hundreds stood up and ex-
tended their hymn sheets at arm's length when
Principal Jeffreys asked who had been cured of
ailments at other faith-healing services. Twenty-
six cripples claimed to have been cured and four-
teen people, including a small boy, testified by
standing up, that their sight had been restored.
The faith-healing part of the service was affect-
ing. Hundreds of afflicted men and women knelt
in the arena, while the rest of the audience sang
hymns with soflt, crooning tunes. Principal Jef-
reys went along row after row of the sick, laying
his hands on their heads, anointing them with oil
and offering prayers. ""We feel the power of the
Lord working mightily among us," he said, his
face aglow with enthusiasm. As he passed, there
was distressing emotion among some of those on
whom he laid hands. Women moaned pitifully
and their bodies and faces worked convulsively.
One woman fainted and was carried out of the

* Faith is the ecclesiastical terra for what laymen call credulity. C. D.

190 THIS HUMAN NATURE

arena. Many afterwards testified that they had
felt the power of healing upon them, but there was
no evidence of immediate cures*

The italics are mine. Women and Welsh the most
easily moved sections of a British community; testi-
mony of cures; but no evidence of immediate cures.
Perhaps it was the same in Galilee; but who knows?
We must leave it at that.
II Moralists always politically dangerous

The religion of Jesus is the religion of love. His
teaching sprang from the need which the heart of his
people felt for consolation during an exceedingly hard
period of their history. It was a spiritual reality which
was an inevitable reaction against the attitude of
Roman rule. It was a revolt against a state of hypocrisy
engendered by the religious formalism of the Jews.
Such a man as Jesus was therefore a danger to the
authorities of his own race ; and in a lesser degree to the
Roman authorities. As his mission progressed, more
and more he attributed to himself a divine nature, and
referred to himself as the Son of God. His utterances
at times reached great flights of extravagance. The
priests of the established religion began to consider him
a nuisance, and at last, when he uttered the words, "I
am able to destroy the temple of God and build it in
three days," their opportunity came. The Jews arrested
him, tried him for blasphemy, and found him guilty.
The penalty was death, but the authority of the Roman
governor had to be obtained before an execution. The
enemies of Jesus informed Pontius Pilate that the
blasphemer had taken upon himself the title of "King
of the Jews," which amounted to rank sedition against
the emperor. This statement of the Jewish authorities
was inaccurate, but it had its effect. Jesus was crucified,

* Daily Chronicle, April 22, 1930,

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 191

though not before Pilate had tried his utmost to find
some excuse for avoiding the extreme penalty. His was
a difficult political position, and he merely did his duty
in what was an unpleasant and somewhat troublesome
case, which he would have liked to ignore.
1[ The religion for "under dogs"

The fidelity of the small band of Jesus's followers,
their zeal, the inspiration and consolation of their
sublime teaching, and lastly the crucifixion of their be-
loved Master, all helped in the spread of their gospel.
A new spirit was infused into the world by virtue of the
life and death of Jesus, and the emotional, poetic ap-
peal of his ethics. Nine-tenths of the world have always
been poor, and the chief appeal of the new religion was
to this great majority of humanity. The new religion
was entirely the personal creation of Jesus, and in its
abolition of death was one of the most startling and
original creations of the human mind. Since then hun-
dreds of millions of men and women have lived and
worked and suffered for it. No climate but knows it,
and no land but has felt its influence. Pacifism, self-
restraint, love; these were its ideals. Today one-third
of the whole world acknowledges Jesus as its spiritual
leader.

How can one estimate the effect which this profound
doctrine had upon human nature in the years which
followed the death of its founder? One may look at the
history of the world before his birth and mission; and
one may examine it afterwards. Then, by comparing
the former period with the latter, some sort of con-
clusion may be reached. The reader will have, I hope,
already received a rough general idea of the develop-
ment of human nature, as indicated in the pages which
have preceded. In the pages which follow I shall en-
deavor to indicate its subsequent trend.

I am purposely giving the above account of Jesus

192 THIS HUMAN NATUR

and his teaching a very brief form, because the full
story is well known. But I trust that the reader will not
therefore receive an impression of the unimportance of
this story in a consideration of human nature. The
teachings of Christ came first as a small ray of light
which slowly but steadily spread itself until it entered
the innermost recesses of the households of a very large
part of our world. The formation of the ideas repre-
sented in the doctrines of the Master took a period of
perhaps three thousand years. They were the culmin-
ating point of all ethical teaching which had come
before and, original in the form he gave them and in
their cumulative energy, separately they had appeared
elsewhere: in China, in India, Babylon, Egypt, Greece,
and a few of them even in Rome. The mind of the
prophet of Nazareth welded them together, and im-
parted new life and a tremendous energy to them.
IT Advertising the Kingdom of Heaven

North, south, east, and west went missionaries adver-
tising Christ's Kingdom of Heaven. Tireless preachers
with long beards and a fervent glint in their eyes trav-
eled the world. St. Paul and St. Peter expanded
Christ's teaching, the former introducing into it much
of the doctrines of the advanced Platonists. In the early
days the whole movement was Jewish, simple and
direct. Now the new religion began to take to itself
many of the essentials, rituals, symbols, and methods
of the religions with which it came in contact; and
men and women of all creeds and races joined to spread
the good news and to lead a new life. To the proletariat
of the Roman Empire the message came from heaven;
to slaves everywhere it offered freedom beyond the
grave. The meek, the humble, the downtrodden were to
come into their own ; power and riches were a handicap.
The equality of men before God was proclaimed. It
was good, good news for all.

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 193

3. A SPIRITUAL CHALLENGE TO MATERIALISM

BEFORE the bludgeon which Imperial Rome still
continued to wield, the spiritual gauntlet of
Christianity was flung. The polytheistic, inclusive, and
essentially tolerant religion of Rome was too weak to
offer opposition. Tolerant religions are seldom strong.
The monotheistic, exclusive, and extremely intolerant
Christianity was a spiritual force without equal or
parallel. There is a rule of life which applies to human
nature as well as to plants or animals, and it is that
failure to secure some degree of adaptation involves
the penalty of extinction. The wisdom of St. Paul and
St. Peter in modifying the extreme tenets of Jesus and
including much paganism saved the life of the infant
sect.
If The world refuses to end

The belief of the early Christians that the end of the
world was at hand had to be modified immediately,
because the world went about its business as usual;
God, they declared, had granted a respite of a thousand
years. Instead of putting all souls into an eternity of
punishment, one out of every million would be spared.
And so on. The Roman moralists, if we may judge
from their writings, did not take the doctrines of the
new teachers seriously, at all events for a long time
after the very early period when they ignored them
entirely. Nevertheless, unmistakably powerful ideas
were in the minds of those wonderful groups of early
Christian missionaries and their converts. The doc-
trine of love in its revolutionary form and the memory
of the Cross took root in Rome itself and, to quote a
French rationalist who is highly critical of Christian-
ity,* "In the empire of the world, Jesus succeeded

* See P. L. Couchoud's The Enigma of Jesus, for an excellent modern
account of the foundation and early history of the church. C. D.

194 THIS HUMAN NATURE

Caesar. On the golden coins of Byzantium his majestic
countenance replaced the emperor's. In his name the
globe, surmounted with a cross, was transmitted to
Charlemagne. From him every crown derives. First,
from Rome to Byzantium, he passes as a despot to
medieval societies, and to modern nations. All power
proceeds from, and returns to him. He becomes as he
had appeared to the prophet of the Apocalypse, the
Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, from whose
mouth cometh a sword. He in whose hands are the keys
of death and of Hades. He who openeth and shutteth
not, he who shutteth and openeth not."
f Power of the spiritual in human affairs

But, alas, his doctrines were taken, distorted, ne-
glected, and often used as a means of inflicting cruelty
and oppression. Through them human nature in the
West became in many instances more mellowed, more
comforted, and more exalted; and stirred to its very
depths. Jesus and his doctrine were the mirage which
attracted the mad rushes of the Crusaders; Jesus was
the mystic lover inviting processions of virgins to take
the veil. His name provided the motive force of many
of the greatest achievements in painting and architec-
ture ; we have already seen how the religious impulse
provided exactly the same stimulus in ancient Egypt.
The effect of this one man's teaching upon the vagaries
of human nature transcends all historical measure. The
most sublime acts in the history of man may be attrib-
uted to the influence of his name; by its perversion, the
most cruel, the meanest, and the most dastardly acts
may be equally attributed to it.

It will remain for the historian of one thousand years
hence to decide whether the evil of it all has been
greater than the good. At present we are still in the
shadow of the Cross, and often prejudiced for or
against; but I think that the evidence will show that,

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 195

on the whole, the ideas of Jesus were progressive and
effected an undoubted improvement in man's nature.
For example, in time of war nations now have a bad
conscience; they pursue their war nevertheless. But be-
fore Jesus, war was an accepted fact by conquerors and
conquered; and there was no question of having a bad
conscience about it. That in itself is an achievement
and, should this bad conscience extend itself, it may at
last end war. For this Christianity would ultimately be
responsible. The German philosopher Nietzsche has
said the most bitter things that can be said against
Christianity, and also some of the wisest. He said, for
example, that its chief object is to tame wild men, and
then he points out that in so doing it may sap their
virility. We shall see whether he is right.
If Foundation of the church

But to return. The missionaries who went into the
world preaching the new doctrine established churches
at Alexandria, Antioch, Thessalonica, Jerusalem; and
a very important one at Rome in the center of the em-
pire. This was about the year 50 A.D. The small organi-
zation in Rome consisted of Christianized Jews who
came from Palestine or Antioch. It had existed for six
or seven years when the apostle Paul wrote his Epistle
to the Romans, who probably did not know him, and
whom he had never seen. It had been established about
ten years when the missionary Paul, laden with chains,
requested to be landed in Italy and judged by Caesar's
tribunal. Peter, supposing he ever came to Rome, could
have reached there only on the eve of his martyrdom.
The dissertation by Irenaeus regarding the foundation
of the church at Rome by Peter and Paul is now said to
have been a fiction.* Be this as it may, Rome gloried in
having been the scene of a martyrdom of early Chris-
tians, and it preserved the tombs of Peter and Paul,

* Sec Henri de la Fosse, Christianisme, Also Couchoud, op. cit.

196 THIS HUMAN NATURE

thereby acquiring a special importance. It claimed the
apostolic origin of its episcopate, and soon gained a
habit of domination over other Christian churches. It
was of the utmost importance for the development and
spread of the new doctrine that it should have a central
organization armed with authority. It was necessary
that a means of inspiring and supporting faith should
exist; and faith could not be created without tradition
or authority. Rome claimed to have both. One is per-
mitted to doubt if the Christian religion could have
been spread so efficiently without the accidents which
brought Peter and Paul to Rome, the center of the em-
pire and, more important, of the communications of the
whole civilized world.
IT Truth in religion or advertising is unnecessary

The doctrines of Jesus, now with a number of in-
genious additions, began to be disseminated to the four
points of the compass. The absolute truth or otherwise
of what was thus disseminated did not greatly matter.
For we must remember that, for something to have a
profound effect upon our behavior, it is a matter of
complete indifference whether it be fact, fiction, truth,
half-truth, or merely lies. But it is of the highest im-
portance that <we should believe it to be true, as any
advertising copy-writer or politician of the twentieth
century, if he knows his business, will be able to tell
you. The belief in its truth is the basis of religion,
faith-healing, journalism; and all advertising. Per-
suasiveness, coupled with a desire to believe in those
who are to be persuaded, is the basis of all propaganda,
as when herds of men are caught under the influence
of the herd instinct in time of war or religious service
such as that described in the preceding section. I would
at this point refer the reader back to earlier pages deal-
ing with the lies spread during the World War, and
their effect upon the behavior and attitude alike of civil

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 197

populations and soldiers. Ferocity can be created at
will.

It was the duty of the heads of the Christian religion
in Rome, as they now were, to persuade the rest of the
world that they possessed a certain mystic power, such
as is not possessed by other men. They seized upon a
hint thrown out in the teachings of St. Paul to invent
a new mystical, that is, intangible and invisible, sub-
stance called "grace." They claimed to possess a knowl-
edge of the theory of grace, and the means whereby it
might be made available for true believers. The appeal
of grace was based upon the selfishness of man, and his
desire for self-preservation and happiness after death.
The religious man is probably the most selfish of all;
for he thinks only of his own salvation. The most arro-
gant of all human beings are those who claim to possess
knowledge of the means whereby we may achieve hap-
piness during the eternity after death.
f The meaning of "grace"

As regards grace, the theory evolved in the first cen-
tury may require a little explanation, for its essence is
both difficult and important, and concerns us even now.
In the form of religion now most familiar to us the
theory is this: There is somewhere God only knows
where a reservoir of the indefinable substance or
quality called "grace." This reservoir can be tapped
only by those who possess the right technical knowl-
edge, which means that, except in rare and very special
circumstances, it is available only through a "channel
of grace," or in other words an ordained priest.
"Grace" has always been very well advertised, and we
are given to understand that by means of it the mur-
derer, the adulterer, the cheat, the rascal, the crook, or
even the real-estate agent may achieve blessedness in
the hereafter provided that certain conditions are ful-
filled. In all the advertising matter that has been pub-

198 THIS HUMAN NATURE

lished during the last nineteen hundred years we are
told that "grace" may be obtained free; that it is avail-
able for the poor as well as for the rich. In actual prac-
tice it is often otherwise. But in every case one con-
dition is essential: that the person who seeks "grace"
should humble himself before the properly ordained
priest. Samuel Butler was not quite right when he
epitomized it thus: No gold, no Holy Ghost. It should
be: No humility, no "grace." For without grace we
poor human beings are doomed after death, and for-
evermore, as Robert Burns aptly put it,

To weep and wail

In burnin' lakes,

Where damned devils roar and yell,

Chained to their stakes.

This, you will agree, is an unpleasant prospect; and
men will do much and pay heavily to avoid it. Some
pay regular subscriptions, just as they pay insurance
premiums, to keep the "channels of grace" working
freely. Large establishments with expert personnel ad-
vertise grace, and send out travelers all over the
world to extol its virtues. There are different brands
of grace, each of which, like a brand of soap or any
other commodity, claims to be better than all others.
But as the real test of the efficiency of all brands of
grace is in the hereafter, and there is no means whereby
they may be tested here and now, mankind has often
been greatly puzzled to know which one to patronize.
At one time there was only one brand of grace. Now
there are several hundreds, and new ones are being
invented every day. This is a pity. Because the adver-
tising of so many has tended to make men wonder not
only which one really is the best, but whether any of
them is of any use at all. That is the stage at which we
have now arrived.

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 199

1" A corner in religion

It was a monopolistic control of this mystical quality
which gave the church its immense power and wealth.
From the early period onward the church's whole aim
was to achieve power; power over the lives and even
the property of man. By subtle psychological exer-
cises and wonderfully elaborate reasoning a scholastic
theology began to be evolved. The gospels were rele-
gated to a secondary place, and were only to be read by
priests. Roman Christianity took the place of that of
Jesus and his apostles; an elaborate organization grew,
and the Roman Empire steadily succumbed before its
growth, as we shall see later.

But here we may conveniently consider the develop-
ment and expansion of at least one of the pagan ideas
seized upon by the early church, one of considerable
importance to human nature. I refer to Hell. With
"grace" and almost contemporary with its develop-
ment, and parallel to its development, there was an
insistence upon the importance of Hell. The early
fathers spent a great part of their time in working out
the code of rewards and punishments to be given in
the hereafter a very elaborate code, which was re-
quired to keep large numbers of human beings in a
state of continual fear and submission. This fear often
made men behave very well indeed, although, looking
back upon it, many of those good men appear to have
carried their goodness a little too far. With regard to
the doctrine of Hell, this proved to be of so much im-
portance in the taming of a still semi-wild humanity,
that we may profitably digress into a short account of
its growth, from the early days of the church until the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when Hell reached
the apogee of its importance. Some day an erudite his-
torian must write a full "History of the Rise and Fall
of the Empire of Hell," and its influence upon human

200 THIS HUMAN NATURE

nature. A Spengler might give us its psycho-biological
philosophy. But here I can only briefly sketch in three-
dimensional terms the mere outline of that story.

4. THE SUPERB INFLUENCE OF HELL

OF Heaven very little appears to be known to man,
and the existing accounts are contradictory. We
must accept it as a delightfully vague state or place in
which souls are kept in an ecstasy of happiness after
death, provided their owners have been good while on
this earth. The immortality of the soul, I should ex-
plain, has been accepted as a certainty by religious
teachers, by Christ and St. Paul, and we may say that,
since Plato fairly settled the matter in his Phaedo, it is
an idea almost universally accepted. Immortality dates
back at least six thousand years, for there are traces of it
in the Egypt of that period ; and it is with us today.
If Hell very old and important

Hell is a much more vivid conception. There is
much literature about it; a hundredfold more than
there is about Heaven, or even about that hazy state of
which we hear regarding survival after death, to which
neither Heaven nor Hell contributes either pleasure or
pain. It is, happily, possible to offer, out of the mass
of learned writings on the subject, a brief account of
hellish history, geography, and social conditions, from
which some notion may be gathered of the importance
of the idea and the profound effect it has had in forging
our natures.

To begin as close to the beginning as possible, we find
the earliest traces of the idea of Hell in the account of
Ishtar, the Venus of Babylon, who traveled into the
land whence no man returns in search of her lover

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 2OI

Tammuz. But it must be acknowledged that the Baby-
lonians did not treat this Hell of theirs at all seriously.
In Egypt the sun god was said to descend into the
underworld, of which there is some account, including
the first mention of souls being weighed before Osiris
and a calculation made of the punishment to be meted
them if found wanting in goodness. Here we find
the germ of a wonderful idea. The next record of Hell
is to be found in Zoroastrianism which was founded
about 1000 B.C., but in this case the bad souls were
merely silently accursed. Indian Brahmins had a spe-
cial Hell of their own, in which only moderate punish-
ment was inflicted ; Buddha was in favor of abolishing
all this, and did abolish it during his lifetime. How-
ever, the sturdy old idea survived and in the priestly
development of institutionalized Buddhism there is
a Hell of quite a useful sort. Every one of these Hells
was rather a pleasant place in comparison with the
Hell evolved by the vivid imaginations of the early
Christian Fathers. To them must be given the honor
and the glory of having worked out a subtle and con-
vincing doctrine of the eternity of punishment, not
excluding the utter damnation of infants. With these
ideas goes another which to many may seem peculiarly
sadistic: the joy felt by the blessed at the sight of the
torments of the damned. For this there was sound
biblical authority U I also will laugh at your calamity,
I will mock when your fear cometh." (Proverbs i, 26.)
The great and holy St. Thomas Aquinas writes: "That
the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of
God more richly, a perfect sight of the punishment of
the damned is granted them." The idea of grace has
already received some mention.
IF Authorities on Hell quoted

St. Ignatius was the first of the fathers who insisted
seriously that those who did not follow the faith should

202 THIS HUMAN NATURE

go into unquenchable fire. Clement said that, when the
righteous behold those who have done amiss being pun-
ished with grievous torments in unquenchable fire, they
shall give glory to God. Justin Martyr, writing about
1 60 A.D., declared that if there was no Hell there could
be no God and, according to Theophilus the sixth
bishop of Antioch (168 A.D.), the unbelieving shall
perish in everlasting fire, with tribulation and great
anguish. Tertullian dwells piously upon the delights
of those happy persons in Heaven who shall be able to
wonder, laugh, rejoice, and exult at beholding kings
and lesser persons frizzling and frying in the midst of
the fire. In the second and third century, Hell becomes
the boiling flood of Heaven's lake of fire, with the
worms that ceaselessly coil for food round the body:
that was the idea of St. Hippolytus, bishop of Portus.
St. Cyprian and St. Clement concur. Eusebius in the
third and fourth centuries declared emphatically that
those who do not accept "grace," or who deny its
efficacy shall be driven into Hell like so many sheep,
and be led into everlasting fire. The bishop of Jerusa-
lem, St. Cyril, cheerfully informs us that the object of
immortality is that sinners may burn forever and never
be consumed. St. Basil and St. Chrysostom say more or
less the same thing: "But we have a sea of fire, far
greater and fiercer than the Red Sea, having waves of
fire, of strange and horrible fire; an abyss is there of
most intolerable flame; everywhere fire may be seen
moving round like a savage wild beast. In that place
there is burning, but what is burned is not consumed."
In his celebrated vision of Utopia called "The City
of God" St. Augustine discusses the last judgment and
gives details of the rewards and punishments after
death: "Hell, that lake of fire and brimstone, shall be
real, and the fire corporeal, burning both men and
devils, the one in flesh, the other in air," Infants must

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 203

suffer with the rest St. Gregory of Nazianzus bursts
into poetry on the subject, and his Muse has been (only
moderately well) translated, as follows:

Whenever I snatch an hour of sleep,

Ruthless is night to me;
Mid searing dreams I lie and weep;

A place of doom I see,
And forms that stand in chill dismay,

Before a judge whom naught can sway.
On this side, boiling fierce and high,

A fount of quenchless fire ;
On that, the worm that cannot die

Feeds on with gnawings dire;
Betwixt, with no indictment scroll,

Stands conscience to accuse the soul.

1f Hell described by those who know

In other works the Devil is represented bound by
red-hot chains on a burning gridiron in the center of
Hell. The screams of his never-ending agony make its
rafters to resound ; but his hands are free and with these
he seizes the lost souls, crushes them like grapes against
his teeth and then draws them by his breath down the
fiery cavern of his throat. Demons with hooks of red-
hot iron plunge souls alternately into fire and ice. Some
of the lost are hung up by their tongues, others sawn
asunder, others gnawed by serpents, others beaten to-
gether on an anvil and welded into a single mass, others
boiled and then strained through a cloth, others twined
in the embrace of devils whose limbs were afire. The
fire of earth, it is said, is but a picture of that of Hell;
the latter is so immeasurably more intense that it alone
could be called real. Sulphur is mixed with it, partly
to increase its heat and partly too in order that an in-
sufferable stench may be added to the misery of the

204 THIS HUMAN NATURE

lost; while, unlike other flames, it emits according to
some visions, no light, that the horror of darkness may
be added to the horror of pain. A narrow bridge spans
the abyss, and from it the souls of sinners are plunged
into the darkness that is below.* According to St.
Thomas, the geographical position of Hell is in the
center of our earth ; another authority gives it as being
in the tail of a comet. There is some doubt about this,
even amongst the theologians. But Plancey, who gave
the subject deep thought, quotes authority for placing
it in the sun, and adds that sun-spots are congealed
masses of souls being smelted. This seems to be as sound
as any of the other theories.! Perhaps it is even more so.
Our telescopes are still imperfect, and so we cannot yet
prove Plancey's theory to be sound in the same way as
Einstein's.

The list of authorities on Hell could be greatly ex-
tended. In every branch of instruction the Christian
teachers, who had settled at Rome and were growing
daily in power, believed it necessary to hold out a
threat of the torments of Hell, in order to turn men
towards goodness. But we should remember that with
this threat of Hell there went a promise of a reward
in Heaven should the sinner turn to a behavior that
was exemplary in accordance with the code that was
being evolved. Be it noted, however, that the detailed
descriptions of the bliss in Heaven always fall far
short of those which deal with Hell. I cannot explain
why this should be.

At this point I should like to ask a question. If, as
some modern anthropologists assert, man is good by
nature, why all these threats of punishments and offers
of reward in the hereafter?

* Vision of Tundale and others in Delepierre's L'Enfer dtcrit par ceux qui
font vu t quoted by Lecky.
t Diet. Infernal. Art. Enfer.

DOMINATION OF HUM AN NATURE 205

I Good and bad results of hellish teaching

There is no doubt but that the immediate results of
the hell-fire teaching were good, from the point of view
of the Christian church. Large numbers of men became
better than they had been before. But the continual
threats of hell-fire and brimstone had ether profound
effects: they caused many to tell lies about their
thoughts and feelings, to become hypocrites ; and Lecky
believes that they created in the authorities of the new
religion an indifference to suffering. It would be a
terrible accusation to bring against Hell that it very
largely explains why man began, about the third cen-
tury A.D., to be a bigger hypocrite than he had ever been
before that time. For such appears to be the case. The
Holy Inquisition of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and
fifteenth centuries, then the Reformation and sixteenth-
century Puritanism, both at first influences for orthodox
good, added immeasurably to the development of
hypocrisy, until we have it with us today in its finely
perfected modern form.

II Hell a useful institution

Even if this reading of the evolution of human
nature is incorrect, it should be a comfort to know that
Hell is not nowadays entirely forgotten, although one
or two modernist divines definitely state that the old
idea was both ridiculous and immoral. For we must
never forget that it was on the old idea that the new
religion throve and held its adherents in spiritual
slavery an excellent state for the good of their souls.
In recent times an ardent Jesuit writer has equipped
the souls of the wicked with an asbestos covering, so
that they shall not perish in the flames of Hell. And
good Father Furniss not so very long ago gave the
world a delightful "Book for the Bairns" entitled "A
Night in Hell." "Look," ecstatically writes the rev-
erend father "Look at that girl, what a terrible dress

206 THIS HUMAN NATURE

she has on ; it is made of fire. She wears a bonnet of fire
which is pressed down all over her head. It scorches
the skull and melts the brain. See! she is on fire from
head to foot . . . Look at that boy. Listen ! There is a
sound like a boiling kettle. What does it mean? It
means this: the blood is boiling in the boy's veins. The
brains are boiling in his head. The marrow is boiling
in his bones." In regard to a little baby he rhapsodizes,
u Hear how it screams, see how it twists itself about.
It beats its head against the roof of the oven. It stamps
its little feet upon the floor. On its face is an expression
of the most appalling despair." Unfortunately the
Reverend Furniss was a little too graphic for modern
sentimentalists, and some unprincipled skeptics and
rationalists bought the work intended for children and
read it as a humorous effort; then unfortunately it had
to be withdrawn.

Hell has almost disappeared in the twentieth cen-
tury. The word is now mostly used as a mere expletive.
Once it flourished, and we must never forget that but
for it the grand old priests of the church would never
have gained so great a control over the minds of men ;
a control which was only partly obtained by the ethical
value of the Master's teaching. The doctrine of retri-
bution was the keystone of early Christianity.

5. FROM EMPIRE AND CHURCH TO CHURCH-EMPIRE

Roman Empire spread itself over the western
JL world from Spain to the Caspian Sea, northwards
to Britain and southwards to Egypt. It was unlike any
empire hitherto existing elsewhere, in that it was an
organic whole and a military despotism. Roman law
with an army behind it settled disputes in the village

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 207

of Londinium on the River Tamesis; in the fair terri-
tory of Hellas and in the proud city of Memphis.
Roman legions marched along cattle tracks under the
sweltering sun of Mauretania and through the frigid
passes of the Caucasus mountains. The progression of
the empire was upward, until about a hundred years
after the execution at Golgotha of that then obscure
felon Jesus by order of the mighty representative of a
still mightier emperor sitting with his mistress over a
thousand miles away. By then the Christian sect had
almost become an ecclesia militans, a military church,
at all events in spirit. For it was prepared to break
down all barriers set up by human power ; and no com-
promise was possible. The early church was socialistic,
in so far as it declared all men, even slaves, to be equal
before God. While the period before Christ was one of
active conquest by the Roman power, that for four cen-
turies afterwards was one in which endeavors were
made to preserve and consolidate its gains. The masses
now became restless and the policy of "bread and
circuses" became one of great importance for the well-
being of the state.
1F Despotism and debauchery

Under the influence of imported ideas from the East,
from Egypt, and from Greece, the hard old family
institution weakened. Debauchery, quack religions,
"mysticism," extreme wealth and extreme poverty, and
loose morals entered into the every-day life of the
people. Some of the emperors were little better morally
than the meanest of their subjects; others were worse;
not one of them was what we should call a "nice per-
son." Caligula killed his grandmother; and forced his
father-in-law to cut his own throat. He lived in-
cestuously with all his sisters, one of whom he took
from her husband and kept openly as his wife. When
once he fell sick, he made a will leaving her the entire

208 THIS HUMAN NATURE

empire. He organized deceits to prove his personal
bravery. His head was bald, and the rest of him hairy.
"On which account," says Suetonius, "it was reckoned
a capital crime for any person to regard him from
above when he passed in the streets, or so much as to
name a goat."
1 Caligula, the god-emperor

Sometimes he would appear in public dressed like
a woman; at others habited like a private soldier, but
with a golden beard fixed to his chin, and holding in his
hand a thunderbolt or trident distinctions of the
gods. He would tog himself up and pose as Venus.
Sending once in the middle of the night for a few con-
suls he placed them on a stage (he loved the theater)
and then all of a sudden pirouetted out before them
dressed in a long flowing robe to show his grace, while
the band played an accompaniment. If any person
made the least noise while the emperor publicly
danced, that person was dragged out to be beaten and
scourged with his own imperial hand. But Caligula
was not entirely without a sense of humor: for he dis-
patched a knight to King Ptolemy in Mauretania, a
journey of a thousand miles by land and sea, bearing
a letter with the words, "Do neither good nor harm to
the bearer." A gladiator named Columbus, who won
his combat with only a slight flesh wound to show for
his victory, had some poison rubbed into the scratch
by order of the emperor, who afterwards called the
poison Columbinum. He took an active part in the cir-
cuses, and was a good driver of the chariot. He caused
his soldiers to enjoin complete silence the night before
a race, so that the sleep of his favorite horse Incitatus
should not be disturbed. "How I wish," he once said,
"that the Roman people had only one head, so that I
could remove it with a blow." He was not the best of
monarchs, but there was an imaginative grandeur about

DOMINATION OF HUM AN NATURE 209

his practice of evil which assures him of his place in a

history of human nature.

IT Sexual frolics of Messalina

Nor were the wives of the emperors paragons of
queenly virtue. Take Messalina, for example. Tacitus
says that the facility of her ordinary adulteries pro-
duced such satiety that she broke forth into unheard-of
excesses. Modesty forbids one from dwelling upon
them. Occasionally she would organize a drunken
sexual jamboree, such as one now sometimes sees on
the films. "In the middle of autumn, and in her own
house, she celebrated the vintage. The wine presses
were plied, the vats flowed, and tipsy ladies danced
madly around them. Messalina herself, with her hair
loose and flowing, her illicit lover beside her wearing
buskins, tossed her head about. Around danced the
wanton choir in obstreperous revelry." She was a
woman of infinite frolics. She would command a man
to come to her bed, cast him aside when he was ex-
hausted; and then call "next please." It is good to have
to record of this woman that at last she repented of her
sin and ended her life in a fit of remorse. Her husband
the emperor, who was boozily banqueting when he
heard the news of her death, did not bother even to
inquire the manner of it; but merely called for another
drink, and went on as if nothing had happened.
IT Nero marries a man

The story of Nero needs no retelling. This bright
young spark wallowed in-defilements and atrocities. He
had at all events the courage of his sexual convictions,
for he publicly married a young man named Pytha-
goras, putting on the sacred nuptial veil and "during
the ceremony," a contemporary declared, Everything
was exposed to view which, even in a female, is covered
by night." He was believed to have set fire to Rome,
just for a lark, and in order to suppress this rumor he

210 THIS HUMAN NATURE

falsely charged with the guilt and punished "with the
most exquisite tortures the Christians who were hated
for their enormities." One is inclined to picture him as
a fat, sensuous old reprobate ; but like the good he died
young, at thirty or thereabouts. His was a full, free life.

The natural spirit of cruelty steadily increased in the
Roman Empire. No longer was there the simple, if
stern, code of the Republic. Unbridled cruelty now be-
came common in every grade of society, from the
emperor's entourage downward. It was a fruitful soil
for the new religion, and especially for one which, so
to speak, had abolished death and suffering. The
activities of the Christians were directed against the
cruel attitude toward life. Little by little the mission-
aries and their followers attracted the attention of the
authorities by their high-minded preaching against lust
and cruelty and all that was evil. At first the dislike
of those in power for the new preachers was slight, but
it grew into a hatred.
IT Persecution evokes courage

The celebrated persecutions began, and as they pro-
gressed a transcendent courage was evoked by them in
the hearts of the persecuted and those liable to be per-
secuted. From the reign of Nero in 54 A.D. to that of
Diocletian (284 to 305 A.D.) those dreadful perse-
cutions grew in volume and intensity, until they were
proved, by the extreme courage of the converts who
were rapidly increasing in numbers, to be quite useless
for their purpose. The reason for this was that martyr-
dom was deemed to be not merely honorable, but a
certain way of attaining salvation. Actual love of death
appeared in the world ; an astounding testimony to the
limits to which men and women are prepared to go for
an inspired ideal.

Tertullian mentions how in a little Asiatic town the
entire population once flocked to the Roman proconsul,

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 211

declaring themselves to be Christians and imploring
him to execute the decree of the emperor and grant
them the privilege of martyrdom. The bewildered
functionary asked them whether, if they were so weary
of life, there were no precipices or ropes by which they
could end their days; and he put to death a small num-
ber of the suppliants and dismissed the others. It is dif-
ficult for us, who live in an age when religious enthusi-
asm has lost much of its vigor, to imagine the fervor
and courage of those Christians in the face of so much
danger. Surely man is a very brave creature. The
authorities of Rome, with the aid of their armies and
supported by the rabble, made successive efforts to ex-
terminate them completely. It must be said in their
favor that they did so believing that they could only
in this manner rid the empire of a grave danger to its
very existence. It was for precisely the same reason that,
one thousand years later, the flourishing church insti-
tuted the Inquisition, that is, because the Papacy firmly
and honestly believed that heresy and heretics were
undermining its power.

All repressive movements, or nearly all, are based
on the same set of reasons : fear or selfishness, or both,
with their subsidiary instincts. Selfishness to preserve
power or gain it; and fear lest it be lost. In the present
age such persecution on behalf of the government
would not be tolerated by the most ardent supporters
of that government. Only a few hundred years ago the
massacres of the Irish by the English were approved by
men who have achieved a reputation for their broad
humanity, men such as Edmund Spenser and John Mil-
ton, the former a poet of chivalry, the latter a poet of
deep religious feeling. Against this we should weigh
the military and political measures taken by the Eng-
lish against the Irish in post-war years, when "Black
and Tannery" (as the Irish humorously called it)

212 THIS HUMAN NATURE

caused so much execration to fall upon the fair name
of England that some settlement of an age-old question
had to be arranged at any cost.
IF Marcus Aurelius, moralist and murderer

It should be mentioned that such atrocities were
almost as common under the "good" Roman emperors
as under the bad. That great moralist Marcus Aurelius
gave his authority to torture and human incineration in
the public arena. One has to skip over a thousand years
of human history to meet with any persecution and orgy
of sadism on a similar scale, when the religious zeal
of Christians was sublimated into a spirit almost as
fiendish. One finds it again in the slave movement of
the eighteenth century, though not so publicly ex-
pressed. Nor is it yet dead in the world. Nowadays our
tortures take a different form; they are more refined
and are done on the sly as, for example, in certain
prisons in every country. And under military law.
IT The most important years of western history

While Rome was steadily declining the Rome of
millions of slaves, of "bread and circuses," of vice and
weakness in every fabric of the body politic the
Christian religion, now a church well and truly estab-
lished, gained more and more converts. The zeal of the
converts knew no bounds in proselytizing, for was not
their religion "catholic," universal? In the first three
hundred years after the birth of Christ we see an em-
pire fighting what seemed to it a political or social
disease, and without great success. The year 311 was,
to my mind, one of the most important, perhaps the
most important in the whole history of human nature :
it was then that the empire, represented by its supreme
magistrate the Emperor Galerius, published a decree
which placed the Christian religion on the same foot-
ing before the law as the worship of the gods of Rome.
When Constantine, the emperor at Constantinople

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 213

(which had now become the seat of government for
the Eastern Roman Empire), decided that it was
politically expedient for him to become a Christian
and to make Christianity the official religion, the fate
of the hitherto struggling creed was decided. From
about 337 onward it was no longer merely not a crime
to be a Christian; it was honorable to be one. Whjit is
honorable or dishonorable is a matter of fashion, de-
pending upon the moral code commonly observed at
any period. At Rome the words of the emperor were
the moral code. From that point it was but a small
move to a direct reversal of the attitude of mind which
officialdom had adopted hitherto; for in human affairs
such changes are merely a question of power, often in
its crudest form of brute force. Official lawyers now
drew up edicts, the objects of which were to make it
uncomfortable for citizens of the Roman Empire not
to be Christians. To differ from the beliefs of the
church was to break the law. Those people who had
sufficient independence of mind to do so took the place
of the persecuted Christians; and martyrdom changed
its form.
1T Heroic heretics

But, the heretics, as these vile law-breakers were
called, had not an inward moral feeling of superiority
such as the early Christians had; they had not "the
Kingdom of Heaven" on the horizon of their lives;
they had no centralized force, no general staff, and
very little ardor or enthusiasm except of a negative sort.
They were able to offer little resistance and therefore
became the legitimate targets of their superiors in
power. The whole gamut of oppression started off
afresh on a different cycle. The meetings of the heretics
were indignantly broken up, their organizers thrown
into prison, heavily fined, and their property confis-
cated. Their books were meticulously sought out to be

214 THIS HUMAN NATURE

burned by the executioners of the state ; whoever con-
cealed one of these poisonous works was doomed to
capital punishment. The emperors helped the church :
the clergy were exempt from burdensome offices and
taxes and, most important of all, they were permitted
to receive bequests. The military power of the Roman
state was behind them, and now they had permission
to acquire property, real and personal. One further step
in the mentality of the leaders of Christianity and we
have a church quietly but steadily taking to its bosom
the very materialism which it had succeeded in under-
mining. A hundred years later (440 A.D.) we have the
papacy.
H "Let us smash our enemies''

Another hundred years after that we see the church
beginning to dominate the western world. Christianity
and empire became one; a church-empire, the most
powerful human institution which has ever existed,
with the longest line of rulers in the whole of history,
and an unwritten motto, "Smash our enemies.'' To de-
scribe the influence which this mighty institution has
had upon the destinies of millions of men and women is
beyond the scope of any writer. It transcends human
imagination. From cradle to grave every individual in
whole provinces and countries of Europe was to come
under its power. Beginning with the work of the ethical
poet Jesus, a sublime teaching, simple and direct,
which inspired men to face torture and death for the
Master's sake, it grew into a vast political organization
of immense power, wealth, and greed. Behind all this
was a set of casuistic doctrines which were largely
modifications of the original teachings. By the fourth
century the church at Rome had settled down to the
acceptance and practice of a number of dogmas. God
now consisted of three persons : Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, Three-in-One and One-in-Three: an idea bor-

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 215

rowed from the Egyptians who had taken it from the
Assyrians a long time before. For the benefit of women
the mother of Jesus was given an aristocratic title and
proclaimed to be the mother of God ; another Egyptian
idea. Following the Buddhist system of cleansing the
mind by a full statement of the iniquities it contains, a
system of confession was established ; forerunner of the
psychoanalysis preached by Freud, Jung, and others
fourteen hundred years later. A whole series of new and
elaborate ceremonies and formulae was drawn up by
the general staff in Rome. Baptism, confirmation, the
Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, ordination, and
marriage were established as sacraments originating in
the teaching of Jesus. From birth to the grave the life
and fortune of an individual came under the sway of
the church, which claimed omnipotence and infal-
libility.
IF Invention or discovery of Purgatory

Purgatory was an invention of Pope Gregory the
Great; and it proved to be extremely lucrative by
encouraging payment for masses for the dead. The
immediate result of Constantine's conversion was a re-
crudescence of mythology and a very thorough mate-
rialization of the Christian cult at Rome, where the
supreme authority grew increasingly mundane. The
high ideal of Jesus was resuscitated by a few noble
men, who sought refuge in a monastic life. A further
batch of subtleties was gradually introduced and, in the
fifth century what had originally been the center of the
noblest ideal known to man, became the nucleus of a
foulness and corruption almost unbelievable. Squabbles
about doctrine began; petty rivalries, insurrections, and
schisms were the order of the day.
If Multiple personality

The most learned men in the church developed mul-
tiple personality; alongside of simple piety and the out-

2l6 THIS HUMAN NATURE

ward expression of noble ideals we find unparalleled
stupidities and cruelties. The men who distinguished
themselves by the elaboration of official doctrines were
called the fathers of the church. They were notable for
an immensity of theological learning, coupled with a
credulity worthy of any twentieth-century newspaper
reader. St. Jerome, a sensuous and passionate man who
produced an excellent translation of the New Testa-
ment, bolstered up his theology by tall stories of cen-
taurs and satyrs who verbally declared the godliness
of Jesus. He says : "All Alexandria has seen a live satyr,
who after his death was put in pickle to be brought
for exhibition before King Constantine at Antioch."
IF A mindless period of history

When the Emperor Constantine had set up his new
capital at Constantinople, the Christian bishops there
assumed n equal status with that of the bishops of
Rome; a schism was the result, giving the world two
churches each claiming infallibility for its doctrines.
It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that, for a time, all
mind in the western world except that represented by
the priest ceased from functioning. From about 500 A.D.
to the twelfth century, we find a blank in the develop-
ment of human intellect in Europe. The middle of this
period is reckoned by all reputable historians to be the
blackest in history: wars, depredations, sacks of cities,
no commerce, little learning except in the monasteries,
no science, no law but that of brute force. Movements
of vast hordes from the north; their conversion to
Christianity with little or no mollifying effect upon
their nature; plunder and rapine; feudal lords stealing
land ; and everywhere the representatives of the church
either looking on or taking a share in the booty. The
western world was once more in the throes of a struggle
for power. The Roman Empire gave the world Roman
law, a highly materialistic system. It passed on to the

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 217

church the tradition of a world-empire, which the
church happily blended with Christ's universal king-
dom. The empire showed that, in nine arguments out
of ten, force is best. It transmitted the idea of mili-
tarism. And, above all, it crystallized the idea of
wealth.

6. THE SPORTING SPIRIT OF ROME

I REMEMBER when I was a boy at school my head
master, a clergyman, used to preach a sermon to us
every Sunday evening upon some aspect of Roman his-
tory. He would often emphasize the gravitas of the
Romans, a word which has no equivalent in English,
but denotes that combination of serious-mindedness and
dignity which are supposed to be the chief character-
istics of Roman nature. The remainder of the sermon
was given to a glorification of the sterling qualities of
Imperial Rome, into which we shall now briefly
inquire.
If Peace by force

We have already seen that the empire was created
by the use of the bludgeon; it was based entirely upon
the judicious but often violent use of force. It was
Roman statesmen who evolved an idea which for sheer
stupidity is unsurpassed in the annals of human nature,
one which has unfortunately come down to us and pre-
vails in the world at this very moment. This inane idea
was (and is) that the only means of assuring peace is
by armament. The Pax Romana or "Roman Peace" de-
pended entirely upon the sword; but when the arm be-
hind the sword lost its strength, and the brain which
guided the arm lost its strength of character and cun-
ning, the much-vaunted peace proved to be a mere

2l8 THIS HUMAN NATURE

tions never rose above the bludgeon. In Rome there was
never representative government, and although a
strong political structure and an ingenious system of
materialistic law were evolved they both depended not
upon right but upon might. The difference between the
Greek humanist and scientific outlook on life and the
cruelly brutal one of the Romans may be seen in their
different treatment of the lower classes and criminals.
The Greeks used their malefactors as material for
medical and surgical research-work, that is, for vivi-
section; the Romans used them to provide public
amusement either as food for wild beasts, or as gladi-
ators in the arena. There was a complete absence of
science in Rome. Even the science of war made prac-
tically no advance amongst the Romans, who had
mostly a narrow and enslaved intelligence and were
ruled by a materialistic bureaucracy. Their true men-
tality may best be estimated from a consideration of the
public "games" or spectacles, which increased in num-
ber and importance until the empire fell into decline
and ultimately collapsed. It is essential for us to look
a little closely at these spectacles, for in them we find
the most striking illustration of the sheer brutality of
the Roman mind.
If Games preferred to bread or money

The spectacles were originally religious celebra-
tions.* They existed under the early republic, but later,
in the time of the Emperor Augustus they became the
chief means whereby the government kept the prole-
tariat contented. "Bread and circuses" went together to
hold in a state of political subjection the populace of
Imperial Rome. "The Roman people," says a Latin
writer, "love most of all two things: bread and games;
even distributions of money were less desired than

* For most of the facts in this section I rely upon Ludwig Friedlander's
Sittengeschichte Roms (Ed. Freeze & Magnus).

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 219

games, for gifts of bread and money pacified only a few
but games the whole people." That oleaginous and
smug person Marcus Aurelius, who has achieved an
undeserved reputation for humanity, was entirely in
favor of the spectacles. With the exception of Tiberius,
all the emperors approved of them. Aurelian distrib-
uted handkerchiefs that had to be waved when a gladi-
ator killed his opponent; Marcus Aurelius did public
business from the royal box; Nero watched the games
from a drunken couch; and several emperors had a
part in the conception of the gigantic circus building.
We read of the great affability of Claudius in the circus
and his habit of sending round autograph notes to his
friends during a spectacle. This emperor carried the
habit of exchanging vulgar and obscene jokes with the
mob to an excess whieh our more gentle manners deem
to be both impolite and impolitic. All the same, those
old Roman emperors were not always without a sense
of humor ; Gallienus sent a wreath to a fighter who had
missed his beast ten times. When the mob roared its
protest, a royal herald announced that to miss a beast
ten times was no easy matter.
If Spirit of the circus

The yells of the people were recognized by the poli-
ticians as expressions of popular wishes, and it was at
the spectacles that the only liberty of speech existed;
here any man could shout his gibe even at the emperor.
Diocletian, it is said, left Rome because he could no
longer endure the outspokenness which met him at the
circus. For a period of over five hundred years the
games pervaded every man's thoughts. "The great spec-
tacle was the spectators. Long rows of rising seats were
thronged with a mass of men moved by one passion, al-
most a mania. Near the close of a race, suspense,
anxiety, fury, joy, savagery burst forth. Their eyes ever
fixed on the chariots, they clapped and shrieked with

THIS HUMAN NATURE

all their lungs, sprang up, bent over, waved handker-
chiefs, incited their favorites, stretched out their arms
as though they could reach the course, gnashed their
teeth, groaned, threatened, exulted, triumphed, or
swore. The winning chariot aroused a thunderous
applause and loud curses from the losers which re-
echoed over the deserted streets of Rome, announcing
to those who stayed at home the end of the race, and
struck the ear of the traveler when Rome had vanished
from sight. The races lasted intermittently, except for
short pauses at midday, from daybreak to sundown;
but the people sat there patiently despite sun and rain
and never wearied of following their idolized sport
with the same passionate attention." *
IT A thousand years of mass brutality

Five centuries after the foundation of Rome the first
gladiatorial fights were held; at the end of the fourth
century A.D. the Roman amphitheater was still a center
of attraction. At first there were few combatants, but
later the numbers of those who took part as well as the
numbers and style of the spectacles became more
elaborate. Ten thousand men fought in the great shows
of Augustus, and the same number took part in the four
months' circus given by Trajan after the conquest of
Dacia. With the spread of the Roman Peace over the
world the captured natives of conquered territories
were dragged into the arena and butchered to make a
Roman holiday: tattooed savages of Britain, Germans
from the Rhine and the Danube, Moors, Negroes,
Christians, Jews, Franks, Egyptians, Goths, and Sa-
maritans. Gladiators would appear fighting singly or
in troops. Battles were waged in which thousands had
to fight to the death, leaving the arena littered with
bleeding and battered bodies. Here women often
fought and, under Nero, even women of noble birth;

* Friedlander, op. cit.

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 221

but a wave of sentimentalism in 200 A.D. brought a pro-
hibition on female combats. **"

To the modern globe-trotter who visits Rome I
would say that, having first read his eulogistic guide-
book on the cultural influence of the Romans, let him
then contemplate the rjuins of the Coliseum which the
Flavians built about 90 A.D. Here it was that the gladi-
ators fought who were recruited from the prisoners
of war of the nations which came under the benevolent
influence of their civilized conquerors. Among the
gladiators there were also condemned prisoners, unruly
slaves, and often volunteers. It did not matter much
whether those chosen for the arena were good fighting
material, for if they were not they were simply thrown
as titbits to the beasts, to be eaten while the crowd
yelled its delight As time went on almost any excuse
was made for hurling a man into the arena. There is
a record of a poor wretch who was flung there simply
because he was naturally deformed. The Emperor
Claudius would make men face the animals for the
slightest offenses carpenters and property men for
bungling a change of scenery. Every successful military
campaign provided hundreds of prisoners for the great
school of gladiators, and the amphitheater was deemed
by everyone in Rome to be the readiest means of pro-
viding for their keep.
IT The great career of gladiator

There were many schools for gladiators besides the
great imperial one. Often the proprietors of these
schools were women, with whom the gladiators were
always popular. A lady named Hecataea of Thasos
owned an excellent training establishment, and spent
many leisure hours with its inmates. Gladiators passed
from owner to owner by purchase, sale or public auc-
tion. In this holocaust of human debauchery were to be
found all types of men, but the most interesting of all

222 THIS HUMAN NATURE

were the professional, volunteer gladiators who fought
their way to fame and fortune as our modern prize-
fighters or bull-fighters do. Each volunteer took an oath
to the effect that if he failed in his duty as a fighter
he would suffer himself to be whipped with rods,
burned with fire and killed with steel. "How many idle
men," exclaims Tertullian, "contract themselves out to
the sword for sheer love of combat." The criminal
could fight his way to liberty and the slave to freedom;
the poor soldier could gather a fortune in money; the
outcast could retrieve his character. It was a wonderful
system. Everything possible was done by the govern-
ment to add to the spectacular appearance of the fight-
ers in the arena. They were given a splendid equip-
ment, rich and artistic armor, helmets with embossed
designs, elaborate shoulder-pieces, belts, breastplates,
and weapons. Their helmets were decorated with
feathers, and their attire was laced with gold and often
set in jewels. The bull-fighters of modern Spain or the
prize-fighters in England or America are not more be-
loved by their bloodthirsty mobs than the Roman
gladiator was by his. The provision of fighters became
a profitable business, far more profitable than that of
the modern organizer of sports. It is estimated that the
annual outlay by entrepreneurs for the spectacles out-
side of Rome, that is to say for those of less importance,
must have amounted to five million dollars; and this
at a time when men were cheaper than they now are
even under military conscription.
T The physical and spiritual care of gladiators

Great care was taken of the physical well-being of
the fighters. The schools were situated in a healthy
locality, and men were given the best of food. One
writer says, "Fashionable surgeons attended to their
wounds and the best physicians supervised the adminis-
tration of their diet; a special class of slaves was edu-

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 223

cated for their massage." Even their spiritual welfare
was looked after by their masters : to encourage a com-
mon worship of the gods of their patrons, the gladiators
were permitted to form the equivalent of our Sunday-
school groups. They were fattened for the arena,
spiritually, mentally, and physically. But among these
gladiators there were always large numbers of men
who had lost courage and abandoned all hope. This
was more especially true amongst those called besti-
aries, or men chosen to fight for their lives with wild
beasts. Suicide was common among them, notwith-
standing the elaborate precautions taken by their mas-
ters to prevent it. Seneca tells us of a man, chosen as
a morsel for the beasts, who was being drawn on a
chariot to the arena, carefully guarded by the soldiers
standing on each side of him. He pretended to be over-
come by sleep and, letting his head drop between the
spokes of the wheel, so arranged for his neck to be
broken. Twenty-nine Saxons who were chosen for the
arena strangled one another with their bare hands
rather than appear.

We pride ourselves on living in an age of enlight-
ened advertisement, but it is doubtful if any modern
advertising king could surpass in ingenuity the copy
and the methods employed by the Romans to work up
enthusiasm for the spectacles of the Coliseum. An-
nouncements were painted on walls in all parts of the
city of Rome, and even on the gravestones. Examples
of these have been found in the ruins of Pompeii.
IT The royal box

On the evening before a spectacle there was always
held the Feast of Gladiators, a free feed at which every
imaginable luxury was provided, and to which curious
members of the public were admitted. Some of the men
would eat and drink frugally, to conserve their
strength, while others acted upon the motto Eat, drink

224 THIS HUMAN NATURE

GRAND SPECTACLE

Thirty Pairs of first class Gladiators!
All Members of the celebrated Quinquennalis,
including Gnaeus Alleius and Nigidius Maius

WITH UNDERSTUDIES TO REPLACE THE DEAD

WILL FIGHT

in Pompeii
From the 24th to the 26th of November.

ALSO BAITING OF ANIMALS

LONG LIVE THE QUINQUENNALIS

and be merry for tomorrow we die. This phrase prob-
ably originated in the Feast of Gladiators. The pro-
fessionals would say good-by to their families and the
Christians would hold a final prayer-meeting. All
would retire to rest early in order that they might be
fresh for the battle. The spectacle would open with
a full-dress parade of the fighters round the arena, and
they, holding their weapons in the air, would shout as
they passed the royal box, "Hail! emperor! We who
are about to die, salute thee." Those who appeared for
the first time had then to run the gantlet, after which
the giver of the spectacle would descend into the arena
and examine the sharpness of the weapons. Then there
were mock fights, followed by the real thing: fights
with sharp weapons and fights by half-naked, armor-
less and mobile men, with net, trident, and dagger,
against men in visor, shield, and sword. Others with
huge square shields and short straight swords met men
heavily armed with small shields and sharp scimitars.
There were fights between men on horseback or be-

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATUfcfi 22$

tween British war-chariots, in which a second man con-
cerned himself only with the management of the horses.
11 Importance of 'thumbs

When a fighter was struck a deafening roar went up
from the assembled populace, "Strike/ Let him have
it!" If a struck combatant fell to the ground, the giver
of the spectacle had the right of deciding his fate; but
this decision was almost invariably left to the spec-
tators. The wounded man would lay his shield down
and lift up a finger of his left hand as a sign that he
prayed for his life. The mob signified mercy by lifting
up their thumbs; by turning them down they decided
his death. "Brave gladiators often rejected popular
interference and made signs that their wounds were
slight and that they could still go on: such met with
pity; the faint-hearted aroused the anger of the popu-
lace, who thought it an insult that a gladiator should
not wish to die. Cowards were driven in with whips
and hot irons and goaded into fight. The mad crowd
would shout 'Lash him, kill him, burn him! Why does
he die so sullenly?' " * The victor often had to fight an
understudy immediately afterwards. Between fights the
ground saturated with blood was shoveled over by boys
or slaves and received a sprinkling of fresh sand. "The
victors brandished their palms and the fallen were
taken off by men garbed as Mercury the God of the
Nether World ; others, wearing the mask of the Etrus-
can demon Charon, probed them with hot irons to see
if they were shamming death. Hearses stood ready in
anticipation; on them the fallen were borne into the
mortuary through the gate of the Goddess of Death.
Any who still showed signs of life were killed." t Such
was the mentality of the glorious Roman Empire.

The expansion of the empire meant the discovery of

* Friedlander, op. cit.
t Ibid.

226 THIS HUMAN NATURE

many wild beasts that had been hitherto entirely un-
known to the Roman people. As early at 186 B.C. there
was held in Rome an exhibition of animals, and it was
not long before the practical Romans decided that to
tear a man to pieces by wild beasts would be an ad-
mirable and salutary method of inflicting the death
sentence. Whatever else may be brought against them
we cannot reasonably say that they were hypocrites;
they believed in public executions, and there were no
hole-and-corner or secret executions such as take place
in civilized countries today. The criminals of Rome,
furthermore, had a sporting chance of survival. The
public loved to see a good fight in which a man was
matched against a lion, a panther, a bear, a leopard, or
a pack of hungry wolves. Roman princes were proud of
their animal executions. The imperial menageries grew
to such an extent that they became a costly burden. The
problem of feeding the flesh-eating beasts was often
acute, but an emperor solved it by feeding them with
living criminals.
1 Ingenuity of circus managers

In the amphitheater the animals were made to fight
one another. Even they were trained to be fierce ; they
were driven onto the great stage with the sound of
whips, pricked, hot irons applied, straw dolls thrown
in front of them to be angrily tossed ; or they were tied
together with long ropes to fight like Kilkenny cats.
The populace roared with pleasure to see animals rend
each other's flesh. The men who had to face them were
either insufficiently armed or tied to stakes and de-
fenseless. The victims with limbs torn asunder and cov-
ered with blood were seen begging not for mercy but
for death. By way of diversion, criminals would appear
in tunics embroidered with gold and purple, wearing
crowns; suddenly the garments would burst into flame
and the wearers would burn to death. Christians who

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 227

were condemned to death for alleged complicity in the
burning of Rome were either tarred and resined to be
used as torches to illuminate other spectacles proceed-
ing in the arena, or they were wrapped in hides to give
them a flavor of fresh meat so that the wild dogs or
wolves let loose upon them might devour them with
greater appetite. A minor scene which never failed to
draw a roar of obscene laughter was the public castra-
tion of a victim in the amphitheater. "There," says
Tertullian, "we have seen the castration of Atys with a
man burnt alive to represent the living pyre of Her-
cules on Mount CEta." There were other scenes of in-
decency which will not bear mention here.

It is all very well for those writers whose custom it
is to extol the glory of the Roman Empire to slur over
or omit entirely any mention of these spectacles. Some
there are who assert that it was a less important aspect
of Roman life, one of little significance in a general
consideration of Roman history. I do not think so.
There is hardly a Latin writer who does not mention
the spectacles, and in Latin literature there is only one
who makes any pretense to be displeased with the
depraving sight; nowhere in the whole of the Latin lit-
erature of the empire can one find a note of horror at
the inhuman delights of the amphitheater. Where the
gladiatorial games are mentioned, they are mentioned
with either approval or indifference. Epictetus reckons
that among the trivialities and banalities of boring and
tedious conversation is a discussion of gladiatorial
shows a thing to be avoided. The gentle Ovid in his
great pornographic masterpiece (beloved of all young
classical students) called "The Art of Love," recom-
mends the blood spectacles as providing good oppor-
tunities for sexual advances. The noblest families of
Rome fully approved and frequently took an active
part in organizing the public slaughter of men.

228 THIS HUMAN NATURE

/ *

1F The attraction of torture and execution

All this provides an interesting problem for the
social psychologist. There is no doubt but that the
gladiatorial games became a habit and the butchery
of fellow creatures a firmly fixed attitude of mind in
Imperial Rome. There was also the attraction which
has ever existed throughout human history attaching
to torture and execution. Again, there was the hypnotic
effect of vastness and splendor. The gigantic amphi-
theater with its royal box, its rows of senators and
aristocrats, the farther rows of priests in their holy
vestments ; the rows of distinguished strangers, foreign
kings, and ambassadors; and behind these almost fifty
thousand representatives of the public on marble seats
rising tier above tier. The color and glamor of it all!
Far away on the top crowded the ragged mob. This
mass of brutal humanity spread itself over the mag-
nificent Coliseum, whose impressive architectural lines
were emphasized by rich and artistic decorations.
Around the arena itself fragrant fountains threw jets
of perfumed water to cool the air and refresh the stink-
ing, perspiring crowd. As a protection against the sun,
an awning of unparalleled proportions could be spread
over the whole. Rumble of drum and blare of trumpet
announcing the beginning of a fight would reduce the
immense restless and noisy audience to a state of silent
expectation.
If Psychological effect of mob on individual

The effect of this atmosphere upon a person of sensi-
bility and humanitarian principles is well illustrated
by St. Augustine, who tells a convincing story of his
friend Alypius, an ardent Christian. This young man
was dragged off to be a spectator by a few enthusiastic
followers of sport. He declared that, as a Christian, his
body might go but not his soul ; for he intended to keep
his eyes shut and would in reality be absent. He did so,

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 229

until a deep roar went up from the crowd at some inci-
dent of the fight. Struck by a very human curiosity, he
opened his eyes. The excitement of the spectacle
changed him. He looked on and on, until at last he
became fired with passion and the lust for blood. So
enthralled was he that he came again ; and afterwards
with the full enthusiasm of a devotee. Is there amongst
us today a man who could swear he would behave
otherwise? The state of mind which approved of the
public butchery of men existed; he who disapproved
would himself have been thrown into the arena. The
imagination of very many Christians was stirred by the
amusements of the Roman holiday; and the process of
weaning the Romans from the bloodshed of the arena
was exceedingly slow. In the sixth century the animal
fights still existed, though the human combats had come
to an end perhaps over a hundred years earlier.
IF The lure of bodily risk

Today we have our prize-fights, hunts, and races; in
Spain there is the bull-fight, which with our prize-fight
approaches nearest in spirit to the Roman games. Many
may remember having read of the wonderful fight of
the bull Senorito with a tiger, organized at Madrid in
1853*; or of the school of bull-fighting founded by
King Ferdinand VII at Seville only a century ago. All
these are faint survivals of Roman civilization; but
there are many people who strongly disapprove of them
and who loudly voice their disapproval. Yet the differ-
ence between human nature today and the human na-
ture of the first five centuries of the Christian era is not
nearly so great as it appears at first sight. Men and
women of today have a different set of standards and
values for the ordinary course of life. But there are
times when we are able to see beneath the surface, and
then we realize that the mind of a ticket-holder for

* The bull won. C. D.

230 THIS HUMAN NATURE

a world's championship fight between Tunney and
Dempsey in the boxing ring is precisely the same as
that of the Pompeian gentleman who booked his seat to
witness a tussle to the death between Gnaeus Alleius and
Nigidius Maius. They both glory in an exhibition of
manly sport accompanied by bodily risk. The boys of
Rome who played at gladiators showed the same type
of mind as our boys who enjoy fisticuffs or playing at
Red Indians; and Faustina, the consort of Marcus
Aurelius, showed the identical mentality in preferring
above all other men the gladiators of Caietae for her
indoor sports and pastimes, as the modern society lady
does for the lifeguardsman, champion boxer, base-
bailer, footballer or bull-fighter. The difference is
largely superficial and, indeed, a matter of degree.

7. ALLAH VERSUS JEHOVAH

WE may now leave the vanishing Roman Empire,
in which power had moved from the emperors
to the church. At first there was a decline in the mate-
rial power of the state and people and a corresponding
growth of spiritual power. Then the spiritual power
took on a material garment and, as regards political in-
fluence, it became far greater and more wide-spread
than that of the emperors themselves. When the church
at Rome was already well established, there was born
in the year 570 A.D. in far-off Mecca a man who was
to have a profound influence upon the destiny of the
Roman church, and who was to become for the Arabs a
Christ, a supreme spiritual leader. Mohammed, the
founder of Islam, like Jesus of Nazareth, was born in
extreme poverty and brought up uneducated. At the
age of twenty-five he was quite unsuccessful in life, but

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 231

shrewdly retrieved his fortune by marrying the rich
widow of a defunct merchant. He settled down for
fifteen years to humdrum married life, and in the
ordinary way of business he became father of several
children.

Wells pictures him at the age of forty as something
of a loafer: U A rather shy, good-looking individual,
sitting about and listening to talk, a poor poet, and
an altogether second-rate man."
1f Mohammed founds the prohibition movement

He seems to have become obsessed by the sort of
longings for spirituality winch overwhelmed Gautama
Buddha, Jesus, and the old Jewish prophets. Like them
he appears to have skedaddled into the dry desert to
avoid the insincerity and cynicism which surrounded
him in Mecca. There he became a convinced prohi-
bitionist. Wandering merchants and perhaps vagrant
missionaries from Palestine may have dropped remarks
which converted him to the idea of a single Deity. He
began ecstatically to emit stanzas of imaginative religio*
ethical poetry, in which the unity and supremacy of
Allah were asserted, as well as a life after death. There
would, of course, be a Hell for those who did not be-
lieve him and a Paradise for those who did. Nothing
original about him so far appeared. But time was to
work changes.
1 Ecstatic result of self-hypnosis

In the manner of delivering his teaching, Mo-
hammed differed greatly from Jesus. He would throw
himself into a religious ecstasy and then his words
flowed freely. It is not difficult for us to imagine the
religious ecstasy of his highly sexed nature. Apparently
without conscious effort he poured forth his sonorous
verses; technique never caused him any worries or
labors. His half-dreaming, other-worldly mind was in a
turmoil ; inside him there rumbled a religious volcano,

232 THIS HUMAN NATURE

the inspiration of Allah, his God. He went through the
common experience of the great mystics ; like Joan of
Arc later, he saw figures and heard voices and strange
noises. Before delivering himself of a section of what
was afterwards to be called the Koran, he passed
through a period of mental and spiritual gestation. His
intellect would be in a turmoil, his spirits would be-
come depressed and his whole being would twitch and
dither. He would shake like a man after a drunken de-
bauch, shivering and perspiring by turns. At times he
was a man in a trance, his extremities a cadaveric white
and his face like a piece of carved marble. On recover-
ing consciousness he would quiver all over, and the
veins of his forehead stand out boldly; then he would
begin to sway to and fro. As the paroxysm of ecstatic
thought came to its climax he began, slowly at first, to
let fall the mighty words of destiny. Steadily the cur-
rent grew in volume until it poured forth with tre-
mendous power and speed. At this stage he would per-
spire freely like a man who is engaged in heavy labor;
and when the section was completed he would fall back
exhausted but greatly relieved, like a small woman who
is delivered of a big child. The words which he uttered
(he said) were. not his but God's.

His friends became alarmed. Some said that he was
a poetic genius; others shook their heads, charitably
declaring that he merely had a "slate off." Mohammed
stood up against them and began to preach, after the
manner of the prophets of Israel, like Confucius,
Mo-ti, Lao-tsu, Gautama the Buddha, and Jesus, re-
viling the people for their evil ways, their local gods,
their immorality. They must turn their faces toward
Allah. In the course of this preaching he related the
old, old stories of the Jewish prophets, solemnly de-
claring that they had been revealed to him by no less a
person than the angel Djibril (Gabriel) him- (or per-

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 233

haps her-) self.* This evoked satirical jokes in the
bosoms of his listeners, and the rumor went about that
Mohammed was stealing the thunder of a certain Chris-
tian goldsmith of the market-place. Local wags and
wits composed rhyming lampoons about him; the poor
fellow became a target for all the ribald louts of his
town. But Mohammed triumphed over them all with
the aid of that same religious courage which we saw
manifested in Jesus ; and his words formed the basis of a
new religion, its laws embodied in the Koran, which
means that which is to be read. It is the next book in
history after Plato's Republic and the New Testament
to have an effect upon human nature. To it many ten-
dencies and movements may be traced.
1 Celestial origin of the Koran

Now Allah was the author of this work; Mohammed
was merely the humble transmitting and publishing
medium chosen by him. That is why every section of it
is preceded by the explanatory words "In the Name of
Allah the All-merciful and Omnipotent." Mo-
hammed^ own words or thoughts find no place in it. It
was intended to be a faithful copy of God's own laws, of
which the Arabic original is carved upon the olive-
green tables of translucent magnesium silicate which
forever stand before the sublime throne of the Creator
in Heaven, where angels "incessantly modulate it by
modulations in seven modulatory tones."t Those who
had listened to the paroxysmic revelations of the
prophet himself had put their heads together and
learned his words by heart; the Calif Abu-Bekr acted
as editor, having for assistant his good councilor Omar;
and wrote everything down. The verses were slightly
filed and polished by the scholarly Calif Otman, and

*The sex of angels has never been definitely settled to our satisfaction.
C. D.

t Lt Koran. Traducition HttSrale et complete des Sourates Essentielles, par
J. C. Mardrus (Paris, 1928).

234 THIS HUMAN NATURE

this copy was the editio princeps of the Koran as we
know it. The book long remained in the keeping of the
Omayyad Califs in their mosque at Damascus, until
one fine day it mysteriously disappeared "carried off
by a messenger from heaven." Mardrus says: "With re-
gard to the style of this work, it is the personal style of
God ; and as a style is the essence of its creator, it can
only be considered divine."
1f The practical miracles of Mohammedanism

The religion of Allah was spread with an enthusiasm
and rapidity which was a remarkable contrast to the
slow growth of all other religions. Mohammedanism
was final and complete in form, as one might reasonably
expect in a religion intended to be a divine and explicit
guide to salvation. It was never, like Christianity, stated
in contradictory or obscure terms. Hence it had an im-
mediate driving force which far surpassed that of the
gospel preached by our Lord's apostles. It was, further-
more, greatly helped by a number of divine miracles,
which seem to us particularly apposite and to the point,
in that they placed Mohammed at the head of a con-
siderable army. After that moment the prophet (who
was by no means the fool his people formerly thought
him) became a soldier of his creed. "Henceforth," says
Reade, "we may admire the statesman or the general;
the prophet is no more. It will hence be inferred that
Mohammed was hypocritical, or at least inconstant.
But he was constant throughout his life in the one ob-
ject which he had in view ; the spread of his religion. At
Mecca it could best be spread by means of the gentle
virtues; he therefore ordered his disciples to abstain
from violence, which would only do them harm. At
Medina he saw that the Kaaba idolatry could not be
destroyed except by force. He obeyed his conscience
both at Mecca and Medina ; for the conscience is merely
an organ of the intellect, and is altered, improved or

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 23$

vitiated, according to the education which it receives
and the incidents which act upon it." My italics.

Religion and sex are often so closely allied to one an-
other that it is sometimes difficult to tell where one ends
and the other begins. During religious revivals this is
abundantly clear to the casual observer ; and afterwards
to registrars of births. The Christian religion frankly
acknowledges the relationship between sexual and re-
ligious emotion, because of the grave danger which the
former has for the latter; and decrees that sexual pro-
clivities must be suppressed. But though the spirit may
be willing, the flesh is sometimes weak as our eyes and
history tell us. In many religions the priest not only is
not permitted to marry, but may not indulge even in the
most discreet promiscuity.
H Sword and sex-appeal spread Allah's gospel

Mohammed saw the whole problem very clearly and,
as he had himself been a married man at one period of
his life, he decided upon sexual license reserving his
prohibition entirely for matters of liquor that intoxi-
cates. At the age of fifty he renewed his youth and began
a career in which he quite distinguished himself as a
voluptuary after which his whole religion took on a
more liberal hue; it became more broad-minded and
more dynamic. The great achievement of Jesus was to
abolish death by the creation of a Kingdom of Heaven
in which souls could remain eternally clothed with a
vague sort of bliss. Mohammed took this vague bliss
and, having analyzed it, decided that it was largely
sexual. Remember, he was fifty at the time; an age of
experience in the lives of all strong men. The most re-
markable feature of Mohammedanism is that which
pertains to affairs of sex. We know from a perusal of
the Arabian Nights that the Arabs were (for that mat-
ter they still are) a race in which libidinousness and
salacity are more marked that in almost any other. Mo-

236 THIS HUMAN NATURE

hammed himself became somewhat of a sensualist; he
well knew the weakness of his fellow creatures, and did
not fail to trade upon it. He preached polygamy and
concubinage; and not the least intriguing part of his
sublime doctrines is that which promises a paradise in
which there shall be an unlimited number of female
souls at the disposal of the male souls that are saved.
He was a shrewd business man and judge of human na-
ture; he taught that this gospel, which offers the bait of
a sexual paradise, must be driven home with sword and
battle-ax, by conquest, murder, arson, and rapine.
1f A brilliant addition to theology

The Arabs had by this time outgrown their old re-
ligion, and it was not long before the word of Allah had
spread its power over the whole of Arabia. A new
ecclesiastical state was formed and ruled by the code of
laws embodied in the Koran. By far the most momen-
tous of these was to the effect that the gospel of the
founder should be disseminated with the aid of the
sword; a brilliant addition to theology. The difference
between the expansion of Christianity and Mohamme-
danism was this : that whereas both were based upon re-
wards and punishment in the hereafter, it was as yet
only the Mohammedans who could legitimately spread
their light by means of battle : We will cast terror into
the hearts of those who disbelieve was the text of the
new preachers. The sword took the place of the Chris-
tian Hell ; and was far more reasonable. Mohammedan-
ism was on the whole a simple, practical, liberal, and
easily understandable religion, with many highly at-
tractive features. Allah was a generous God. The
teachings of the founder were put into practice by his
close friend the scribe Abu-Bekr. This good man had
in his heart the complete fulness of the new faith, and
so he set himself systematically to subjugate the world
to Allah. Military campaigns were begun among the

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 237

most instructive in the whole history of humanity. The
inspiration of Allah's divine words produced generals
who, for military acumen and general cruelty, are
worthy to rank with Hannibal, Caesar, Alexander the
Great, Napoleon, Foch, and other great men of similar
genius. Egypt, Syria, Armenia, and part of Persia fell
before the power of Allah in twenty-five years' time.
During the next century the rest of Persia, Turkestan,
the whole of the north of Africa, Portugal, and the
greater part of Spain fell under the sway of the great
successors of the prophet The new faith satisfied and
did good to the races in the area it covered, for the
Arabs were then the most enlightened race in the world.
Without some easy faith in that dark and unspiritual
period the populations of the conquered territories
might have degenerated or become devils.

The growth of the empire of Allah continued until
the death of the great Harun-al-Raschid in 809 A.D.
With his disappearance Islam began to fall into civil
war and confusion. Two hundred years later Islamic
vigor was renewed by the Turks under the leadership
of the rude Seljuk family. It will be understood that the
religion of Allah was a serious threat to the power of
Jehovah reposing in His representatives at Rome and
throughout Christendom. Bickerings and even wars on
a small scale were not uncommon between the followers
of Allah and Jehovah. When one power threatens to en-
gulf another, humanity ripens for war. That is the law
of the jungle ; and of man.

Western Europe had by this time degenerated to a
condition of rather vigorous barbarism. Feudal lords
had established themselves everywhere. In the midst of
this general disruption there arose in the north the
Prankish chieftain Charles the Great, or Charlemagne,
the first German historical personage of whom we have
any clear knowledge. He was a remarkable man, re-

238 THIS HUMAN NATURE

nowned for his physical endurance. He conceived the
idea of a conquest, based upon the ideal of bringing the
Germans together into one great Christian empire. His
military feats were such that he has become a legend ;
even his intellectual achievements and piety marked
him as an exemplary character. Although he could
neither read nor write, we hear that he thoroughly en-
joyed the works of great teachers the fathers of the
church, for example which he had read to him,
mostly at mealtimes. When he had gorged himself with
roast pig, he would lean back and close his bright blue
eyes. Still masticating he would sign to a monk to read
to him a portion of what would then correspond to a
popular modern thriller, called "The City of God"; it
had been written by the good St. Augustine a few cen-
turies earlier.
1 Revolutionary Idea in education

The century before that in which Charlemagne
achieved power is acknowledged to be one of the black-
est in history, as regards the general ignorance of the
people; and chiefly because of the gross degeneration
that had now caught the church at Rome. But to
Charlemagne must be attributed the honor of having
preached the necessity for elementary education among
the common people at large ; a revolutionary idea which
never went further. He was successful in his conquests
and founded a moderately strong empire in the West,
an empire which resuscitated the declining strength of
Rome. His empire became disrupted, but left behind it
a germ of growth and renewed power for the papacy.
It was this renewed growth which enabled the papacy
to send forth three hundred years later its challenge to
the power of Islam, causing that astounding series of
"religious wars" which, first as the Crusades and later
as the religious squabbles of Europe, will be remem-
bered as one of the bitterest and most ruthless periods in

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 239

the history of humanity. It was responsible, with the In-
quisition, for a religious revival of cruelty. It was a
general setback to the spread of humanitarian ideals,
preached by Buddha and Jesus and by the Greek
teachers of antiquity. It almost put an end to Arabic
science, which promised great things to an unscientific
and utterly priest-ridden world.

8. A RELIGIO-ECONOMIC WAR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

Crusades were not the first demonstration of
A the utter failure of Christianity to make itself a
really effective influence for good, or an influence for
permanently beneficial change in human nature. But
they were the most striking demonstration of both facts.
(Here I refer to human nature as a whole, for there is
no doubt that the teachings of Christ had good effect
upon individuals.) History has few more imposing
spectacles to offer than the cutthroat struggle of the two
great religions for military supremacy; their dispute
for the economic control of the world ; and the oceans
of blood shed for Cross and Crescent by hosts of armed
men. No two symbols ever stood for more. The wearied
and corrupt West aroused itself and threw itself against
the East.
IT The power of symbols

For a time nationalism is abandoned and western
hordes unite into a single allied community sworn to
the destruction of a dangerous opponent. Now the sub-
limest virtues of men are mixed with degradation, the
wildest savagery, passion, and lust. We see men fight-
ing against famine, climate, and pestilence; we see
great examples of bravery, perseverance, and resigna-
tion. All for symbols ; the Cross and the Crescent. What

240 THIS HUMAN NATURE

was the origin of the Crusades? Answer: a superabun-
dance of dominant passions uniting on either side. Re-
ligious fervor and the sheer love of adventure and fight-
ing gave birth to this holy economic war; and war is
never so sublime, never so heroic, and never so brutal,
as when it is inspired by religion. One result of the
Crusades was to strike a bitter sorrow into the hearts
of the generations which followed. But by giving men
much military exercise they strengthened the West;
and at the same time they caused the East to grow
weary. They saved Europe from the Turk; and left us
Europeans instead of Eurasians, which we would cer-
tainly otherwise have been possibly to our advantage.
Wars nearly always spring from deeply hidden
causes which may never show themselves on the sur-
face. But there must always be given a superficial
reason for organized slaughter, a spark to set a flame
to smoldering fires : a slogan which appeals to the herd.
In the case of the Crusades the superficial reason was
the intolerance of the Seljuk Turks toward Christian
pilgrims who visited the sepulcher of Christ and other
holy places in Palestine. Large numbers of these pil-
grims returned to Europe with lurid tales of cruelty
and insult, not least of which was that one about the
patriarch of Jerusalem who was "dragged through the
streets by his hair" and thrown into prison to await a
heavy ransom. One of these indigent pilgrims, the cele-
brated Peter the Hermit, a Frenchman born in Amiens,
spread the tale with a rude, inflamed eloquence. In the
words of Gibbon : "He preached to innumerable crowds
in the churches, the streets, the highways; the hermit
entered with equal confidence the palace and the cot-
tage ; the people were impetuously moved by his call to
repentance and to arms. When he painted the suffering
of the natives, and the pilgrims of Palestine, every heart
was melted to compassion ; every breast glowed with in-

DOMINATION OF HUM AN NATURE 241

dignation when he challenged the warriors of the age to
defend their brethren and rescue their savior."
1T A sermon starts a war

After an appeal by the eastern emperor Alexius to
Pope Urban II for help against the advances and cruel-
ties of the Turks, there was called the Council of Cler-
mont in France. Urban preached a magnificent fighting
sermon to the delegates and others assembled, one of
such mighty power that there and then thousands were
pledged to take part in a holy war. "Christian war-
riors," he thundered, "you who seek without end for
vain pretexts of war, rejoice, for you have today found
true ones. You who have been so often the terror of your
fellow citizens, go and fight against the barbarians, go
and fight for the deliverance of the holy places; you
who sell for vile pay the strength of your arms to the
fury of others, armed with the sword of the Maccabees,
go and merit an eternal reward. If you triumph over
your enemies, the kingdoms of the East will be your
heritage; if you are conquered, you will have the glory
of dying in the very same place as Jesus Christ, and
God will not forget that he shall have found you in his
holy ranks. This is the moment to prove that you are
animated by true courage; this is the moment in which
you may expiate so many violences committed in the
bosom of peace, so many victories purchased at the ex-
pense of justice and humanity. If you must have blood,
bathe your hands in the blood of the infidels. I speak to
you with harshness, because my ministry obliges me
to do so : soldiers of Hell, become soldiers of the living
God! When Jesus Christ summons you to his defense,
let no base affections detain you in your homes; see
nothing but the shame and the evils of the Christians;
listen to nothing but the groans of Jerusalem, and re-
member well what the Lord has said to you, 'He who
loves his father and his mother more than me, is not

242 THIS HUMAN NATURE

worthy of me ; whoever shall abandon his house, or his
father, or his mother, or his wife, or his children, or his
inheritance, for the sake of my name, shall be recom-
pensed a hundredfold, and possess life eternal.' "

This was surely divine inspiration "If you triumph
the East is yours ; if you fail the Kingdom of Heaven"
"the East" being then the synonym for wealth,
luxury, and endless sexual raptures. What prospects
could be more pleasant and attractive to single adven-
turers, or to healthy married men who were tired of
their wives? Both in physical and mental condition the
people of Christendom were ripe for war; only the
right symbols and the voice of authority were required
to galvanize the crowds into action.
f Influence of Christ in IOQQ

Two mobs of undisciplined rascals swept down the
valley of the Danube toward Constantinople. On the
way they thoroughly pillaged Hungary and efficiently
massacred the Hungarians. Meanwhile, pogroms were
initiated against the Jews of the Rhineland and other
places, for no apparent reason except that they were
Jews and not Christians. A little later in 1097 a
more ordered body of soldiers moved into the Holy
Land to besiege Antioch and Jerusalem. The blood of
the conquered followers of Allah the All-powerful ran
in the streets, until the horses wallowed in it. Toward
evening on the fifteenth of July in the year 1099 the
crowd of fanatical Christian butchers reached the holy
sepulcher, sobbing for excess of pious joy, and knelt
offering thanksgiving to the Lord of Hosts for their
memorable victory. The Arab account states that one
hundred thousand persons were killed on their side,
including the aged of both sexes; and that the Jews
were locked in their synagogue and burned to death.
Such was the fervor of Christianity in the eleventh cen-
tury of Our Lord. There is, however, this to be said for

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 243

the First Crusade: it profoundly stirred the masses and
every grade of society; it was the symptom of a great
upheaval of sentiments and ideals amongst all classes.
This effect was due, some historians say, to the frenzied
and perfervid oratory of Peter the Hermit, working
upon the passions and instincts of the crowds. Others
say that Urban's great sermon set things going. There is
still doubt. But after the satisfactory slaughters in Asia
Minor and Palestine, Peter of Amiens was able to retire
to build a monastery in his beloved France, where he
died quietly in his bed, blessing himself for a well-
earned rest.

The news of a grave loss on the eastern frontier of the
Latin kingdom stirred Europe to a Second Crusade. St.
Bernard was ordered by Pope Eugenius to preach a
plenary indulgence to all who would join in it. The
eloquent Bernard roared from the pulpits of Christen-
dom his sermons teaching the moral disgrace of allow-
ing a land which had once been recovered from pollu-
tion to sink into it again. Very soon the cities of Europe
once more echoed to the sweet call of war. The Second
Crusade was unsuccessful. It weakened the position of
the Christians in Palestine, for in 1187 Jerusalem was
retaken by the Saracen leader Saladin after a battle at
Tiberias.
IF Quotation from an old Arab 'war book

"That battle," writes Imad-ad-Din, the Moslem his-
torian who was present, "took place on a Saturday. The
Christians, like lions at the beginning of the fray, were
as scattered lambs at the end. . . . The battle-field
was covered with the dead and dying. ... It was a
horrible spectacle. ... I saw severed heads ; dull dead
eyes; dust-covered bodies, twisted limbs; severed arms;
crushed bones; gashed and bloody necks; broken
thighs; feet no longer joined to the leg; bodies in two
pieces; torn lips, and split foreheads. On seeing their

244 THIS HUMAN NATURE

faces strewn over the ground, and covered with blood
and wounds, I recall the holy words of the Koran : c And
the infidel shall say, what am I but dust!' Ah! what
sweet odor is exhaled from this victory." For a moment
the God of Islam had triumphed over the God of Chris-
tianity, in scenes of carnage not unworthy of our own
age, which is generally more thoroughgoing in the or-
ganized slaughter of human beings : as you will realize
by comparing the words of Imad-ad-Din with those of
Erich Maria Remarque or Henri Barbusse or Briga-
dier-General Crozier or a host of other writers who
have dealt with our own pet war.

9. THE LAST PHASE OF SIMPLE STRAIGHTFORWARD

WARFARE

NOTHING succeeds like success and nothing
brings execration upon a leader spiritual or lay
so much as failure. Christian Europe cursed and
damned the holy Bernard for having been the moving
spirit in the wretched debacle. To all of which St.
Bernard replied quite rightly that the sins of the
people had merited divine punishment and that the
men of his day were suffering as did the Hebrews of
old for their bad morals, when they perished in the
journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. It is a re-
markable fact in considering these two Crusades, that
of the two it was the First which was the most dastardly.
In it are to be seen examples of mob-frenzy at its worst.
In the Second Crusade everything was comparatively
well-ordered, and the warriors behaved themselves in a
way which must be considered for that age to have been
exemplary; perhaps they were too gentlemanly, for the
Turk did not respond to the mild approach.

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 245

A Third Crusade, one of revenge a sort of "return
match" was organized. In this the German emperor,
the king of France and the king of England all took
part. They met in Normandy in February 1 188 A.D. to
consider the position. A priest of the Latin church ap-
peared and gave an accurate description of the suffer-
ings of the Latins in Syria. So touching were his re-
flections that the king of France and the emperor of
Germany stood before him with bowed heads, the tears
welling from their kindly eyes. When the good prelate
had finished, they turned toward one another and em-
braced, vowing that there was no alternative but for
them both to go together to the Holy Land. An arch-
bishop forthwith handed to each one of them a little
cross.
1T English respect for morality

Money was required. It was quickly collected by a
universal tax extending to personal and real estate.
Men who were willing to fight were not only exempted
from this tax, but were permitted to take the property
of tenants who were conscientious objectors for there
were even then people who disliked war. Crusaders
were allowed to raise money on mortgages of their
lands, and mortgagees were to receive rents, to the
prejudice of former creditors. Even at that date the
English showed their respect for sexual morality by
forbidding their warriors any indulgence in the lusts of
the flesh ; and also from gambling at cards or such evil
games as crown and anchor, just as today. An English
Crusader was not permitted to be accompanied by any
female, "except one washerwoman whose character was
beyond reproach." She would have to walk all the way
on foot, while her master gallantly rode on horseback.
O hardbitten and chaste washerwoman of the soldiers
of the Cross, footslogging in the wake of your chival-
rous masters, what great faith was yours 1

246 THIS HUMAN NATURE

The conduct of English pilgrims was regulated by a
few simple laws springing from the Christian spirit of
the English prince. Murder was to be punished by cast-
ing into the water the deceased person, with the mur-
derer bound fast to him. The penalty for bad language
and swearing or smut was a fine of one ounce of silver.
A thief was tarred and feathered and sent home to his
wife. As so often happens among military allies, a
squabble between the English and the French caused
the religious objects of the war to be forgotten. There
was an exchange of impolite epithets between the
"Frogs" and the "Tommies" which were just as bad as
those I have heard used on the western front during the
World War of 1914-1918 A.D. But the quarrel was duly
patched up and the forces of the Crusaders laid siege
to the city of Acre.
1T Diversion for Crusaders

The famous siege lasted for three long years, and
severely tried the patience of the besieging Crusaders.
There were, however, diversions. An Arabian author
informs us of the happy arrival in the camp of the
Christians of three hundred free and easy ladies from
Cyprus. In the shadow of the camp churches with their
pretty wooden steeples (where the mass was being cele-
brated from early morning till night) the women found
much favor in the eyes of the bored Crusaders. Scandal
spread about the camp regarding what took place under
canvas. Probably it was no more and no less than what
took place "behind the line" when all was quiet on our
western front. There has been no change whatever in
the fundamentals of human nature in such matters as
this. Few wars last long if there are no women at hand
during those difficult periods between battles.
IT How allies in war hate one another

Acre capitulated. On the same day dear, hot-headed
Richard of England in a fit of pique ordered the stand-

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 247

ard of Leopold duke of Austria to be thrown into a
ditch an incident which all but ended the war. After
this the forces moved forward to attack Jerusalem, but
the project was abandoned owing to increasing rancor
and dissensions among the crusading forces. How those
allied Christians grew to hate one another! Almost as
badly as the English hated the French at a later date
and as much as the English and the French hated the
Belgians; or as greatly as they both loathed the Ameri-
cans; or as soundly as they all abominated the Portu-
guese. It is a curious thing that many wars generate
among allies such a detestation of one another that an
expressed vow goes up to the effect that next time the
allies are to take the place of the enemy, who is not such
a bad fellow after all. The hatred of allies for one an-
other is a common phenomenon of all wars; and quite
rightly so.
1" A gust of wind and men's destiny

To return Saladin was at that moment engaged in
an onslaught on Joppa, and Richard had decided to
come to the rescue. Part of his troops went by land and
the remainder went by sea. A contrary wind arose de-
taining his Majesty's boats for three whole days at
Caiphas, where they had put in. Angry at this delay the
king cried aloud: "O Lord God, why dost thou de-
tain us here? Have sense, I pray thee; and consider the
urgency of the case and the devoutness of our wishes!"
The old chronicler Geoffrey de Vinsauf (in English
"Safewine") continues: "No sooner had he prayed thus
than God caused a favorable wind to spring up, which
wafted his fleet before it into the harbor of Joppa, in
the midst of the night of Friday immediately preced-
ing the Saturday on which the besieged forces had
agreed to surrender, and when all of them would have
been given over to destruction. They fled up the fortress
as far as they were able, and there they awaited the

248 THIS HUMAN NATURE

stroke of martyrdom, shedding tears, and supplicating
the mercy of the Almighty, who at length was ap-
peased, and deigned to listen to their petition. But their
deliverer was already come, his fleet was riding in the
harbor, and his soldiers were eager to land for their

rescue."

In the year 1198 Pope Innocent III thought it was
time that yet another Crusade should be fought. It was
frankly an attack on the Byzantine Empire. Crusaders
stormed the city of Constantinople in 1204, and the
Latin and Greek churches became united by virtue of
the shedding of much blood, and remained so until
the year 1261.
1f Children in arms

By this time the world was becoming rather tired of
Crusades, and some novelty had to be invented if men's
imaginations were to be stirred. In 1212 a strange ex-
citement was spread amongst the children in the south
of France, and thousands of French boys and Rhine-
land children awoke to enthusiasm. They formed a sort
of Children's Crusade, organized by religious fanatics
and other irresponsible persons. There were children
of all ages and conditions and of both sexes; some of
them were not more than twelve years of age. They set
out from villages and towns, without leaders, without
guides, or provisions, or money in their purses. It was
in vain their parents or friends tried to dissuade them.
When questioned they said they were going to visit the
holy places. Informed of their proceedings his Holiness
the Pope uttered a deep groan and exclaimed: "These
children put us to shame! They reproach us for being
buried in sleep whilst they are flying to the defense of
the Holy Land!"

It was not long before this fantastic adventure of chil-
dren and its inevitable end in debacle formed the basis
of reason for another adult crusade; and hence the

DOMINATION OF HUM AN NATURE 249

Sixth Crusade of 1228-9. Palestine soon became again
the theater of ambition and glory. As the result of a
squabble the pope excommunicated the German em-
peror, Frederick II, whereupon this emperor set out
on a little crusade of his own. Frederick met the sultan
of Egypt and, after a conversation with him, decided
that it was all rather a farce ; he thought he would re-
turn to put his own affairs in order in the West The
Christians lost Jerusalem in 1244, and this provoked
the Seventh Crusade. Henceforward, in spite of all
efforts of the West, Jerusalem remained in the hands
of the Turks until, after a Crusade in the twentieth
century it was captured by French and British forces
in 1918.
IF The end of crusading fanaticism

Not long after the fall of Jerusalem the whole of the
Holy Land was lost, and the flame of fanaticism slowly
burned itself out. Several of the popes endeavored to
revive these holy undertakings; but Europe had had
enough. From the commencement of the thirteenth to
past the middle of the fourteenth century the popes re-
peatedly sounded the trumpet of war. The states of
Europe pooh-poohed the summons. Even sermons and
prayers on their behalf failed to move them, for just
at that time the victories of the Mongols were occupy-
ing the attention of the West. Part of Russia, the whole
of Poland, Silesia, Moravia, Hungary, and all the
countries to the east of the Adriatic fell a prey to bar-
baric desolation under the hand of the Tatar con-
querors. Fear was greater than greed.

The consequences of the Crusades and their effect
upon human nature are so many and so complex that
they can only be briefly mentioned here. No wars ever
lasted so long, and few wars were more destructive.
The most horrible violences of fanaticism were en-
couraged during that fateful period from 1096 to 1291.

250 THIS HUMAN NATURE

For one thing, their failure was the beginning of that
unpleasant phase in human history known as the In-
quisition during which the papal power, having failed
to extend its territory and to bring under its sway the
Moslems, turned upon restive Christendom to subdue
it more thoroughly. The pastors of the church were
driven, after the use of anathemata, excommunications,
interdicts, and other weapons in the storehouse of spirit-
ual artillery, to fall back upon the rack, the thumb-
screw, and the heap of burning heretics as an example
of its power. The Crusades were the beginnings of
modern pogroms against the Jews. It is all very well
to speak of the practice of prayer, fasting, and alms-
giving as institutions salubrious to the individual and
beneficial to society, capable of softening pride and sub-
duing the passions. Against that we must balance the
bitterness engendered in the human heart during this
series of sanguinary wars which ended in failure; and
from which sprang the vilest system of torture, mental
and physical, of which there is account in the most
somber pages of human history. Furthermore, whatever
may be the virtues of soldiers, and they have many,
there are a number of evils which spring from their
utter freedom from domestic restraints. During two
hundred years Latin Christianity lived through a
career of murder and plunder of Moslems. The nations
of Europe became accustomed and inured to bloodshed
on a grand scale. We suffer from this damnable heri-
tage. It is part of our make-up.
1 Influence of the Crusades

Possibly the greatest influence of the Crusades was
upon international commerce and the exchange of
ideas. Europeans had learned what the East could give
in the way of riches; Venice and other cities prospered
greatly by the immense trade which followed, and the
leisure resulting from this wealth contributed to the

DOMINATION OF HUMAN NATURE 251

Renaissance of Europe. The art of navigation was
improved and, in a subsequent age, was to confer im-
mense material benefits upon the world. It would ap-
pear that the mariner's compass was invented about the
period of the First Crusade, possibly in order that the
fleets of the world might more rapidly find their way to
the Holy Land. The French navy came into existence
about this period. The necessity for transporting large
numbers of men brought with it bigger ships, and with
them came more masts and the invention of the jib, by
which tacking could be done, thereby enabling the
mariner to beat against a wind nearly dead ahead: the
way for the discovery of America was already being
prepared. Gothic architecture, copied from Byzantine
and Arab monuments, sprang up on all sides. Sculp-
ture and painting were cultivated with greater zeal.
Men became acquainted with customs and phases of art
hitherto unknown in Europe. Finally, those great reli-
gious wars were responsible for perfecting primitive
weapons and primitive warfare, of which this was the
last phase. After that both weapons and war take on
what may reasonably be called a new orientation ; that
is, they become more ingenious, more brutal, and more
horrible than ever before. The inward spiritual force
of man is threatened by the power of externals, but as
yet he has the latter well in hand.

BOOK IV

THE WAYWARD PROGRES-
SION OF HUMAN NATURE

I. RECIPE FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF MORALS

WE have seen how the power of a symbol moved
the whole of Europe to take part in a series of
wars which in two centuries left the East and the West
almost desolate. Foreign adventures having proved
futile, the church now turns upon its adherents at home
and concentrates upon them. The thirteenth century
marked the zenith of church power in the world. By
this time the pope had become "the Vicar of Christ,
successor of Peter, of Christ the Lord, God of the
Pharaoh, beneath God, above man, less than God, more
than man." Catholic Rome was now ruling emperors
and kings. Not only was the head of the church the
final court in matters of faith and morals; but he also
controlled the material resources of nations and
peoples.
If The two swords

The papal bull Unam Sanctam Ecclesiam "One
Holy Church" affirms that: To be submissive to the
Roman Pontiff is a condition of salvation for any hu-
man creature and also that there are, governing this
world, two swords: the spiritual one in the hands of the
pope, the temporal in the hands of kings. But kings
nay wield their swords only to serve the church by per-
mission of the pope. Possibly it may seem to the reader
that I am dwelling rather too much upon the influence
3f the priest upon human destiny and human nature.
My reply is that there is no influence equal to it in im-
portance before the fifteenth century. I would em-
phasize here the opinion expressed by James Harvey

255

256 THIS HUMAN NATURE

Robinson, the distinguished historian: without priests
and church, medieval history would be almost a blank.

At this period there began an extremely important
social movement based chiefly upon the developments
of trade and the growth of business. A middle class of
people arose, a class half-way between aristocrats and
feudal lords, between the authorities of the church and
the lower, or inferior and ignorant, masses of people.
There was a great increase in the prosperity of the
towns. A communal movement began.

The appearance of this movement is mentioned be-
cause from its very beginning, which involved the now
powerful religious and moral order, there sprang vehe-
ment outbursts of indignation against clerical abuses,
and this indignation amounted to a revolt of thinkers.
Many of them began to jeer and many began to doubt.
The thirteenth century is notable for what we may
reasonably call a reawakening of the human mind, a re-
vival in the spirit of man: the first for a period of over
a thousand years.

Heresy spread in all directions. There began to be a
conscious challenge to the power of the church, and for
this the church had to find a desperate remedy or
perish. The church had always opposed movements
which were beneficial to the people. It was (and is)
antagonistic to any innovation threatening to its own
well-being. Innocent III condemned Magna Carta,
which has (perhaps incorrectly) been called the "Key-
stone of English Liberty"; and he soundly upbraided
the English barons for their challenge to kindly author-
ity. They paid no attention and he therefore excom-
municated them. So far as I can gather they cared little
about the excommunication; this in itself would indi-
cate the new spirit of the age. A number of more serious
heresies, that is to say organized heresies, were viciously
stamped out, but dangerous individual heretics often

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 257

escaped. A heretic in those days was very often a per-
son who simply voiced derogatory opinions about the
church and his spiritual pastors and masters.
IT Chief task of bishops

The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 made it the
chief business of bishops to search out heretics and,
having judicially found them guilty of heresy, to hand
them over to lay authorities for punishment. Before
proceeding further it is necessary to emphasize a fact
which ought already to be clear enough: namely, that
all lay authorities including even emperors and kings
were under the heel of the church. It has been a favor-
ite excuse of Catholic apologists to say that the iniqui-
ties of the Holy Inquisition were perpetrated by secular
authorities and that the priesthood concerned itself only
with trial in regard to spiritual matters. Such an inter-
pretation of the facts is what is vulgarly called "pass-
ing the buck."

Before the moral sentiment of men had reached its
present high state of development there was a stage of
growing pains to be passed. Punishment has always
been a recognized cure for bad behavior, because many
people think it works better than all other cures. Be-
sides, punishment invariably comes from above, from
a superior to an inferior being. As men and women are
born in sin that is, without morals it has been neces-
sary at all periods of history to inflict severe pains and
penalties in order to impress upon feeble minds and
slow wits the difference between right and wrong. The
Roman Catholic Church was highly successful during
the latter part of the Middle Ages in instilling the prin-
ciples of morality into the thick skulls of certain Euro-
pean and other races. The history of the Holy Inquisi-
tion provides a salutary lesson for those who imagine
that a moral ideal can be achieved or even preserved
without physical suffering.

2$8 THIS HUMAN NATURE

T Heavenly origin of the Inquisition

As regards the origin of the Inquisition, the good
Jesuit historian Francisco de Macedo * informs us as
follows: "The Inquisition originated in Heaven. God
fulfilled the functions of First Inquisitor when He
blasted the rebellious angels ; He exercised those func-
tions when He punished Adam and Cain; and when
He obliterated mankind by the flood. He exhorted
Moses to act as Inquisitor on His behalf when He
punished the Hebrews in the desert by violent deaths,
by fire from above, and by engulfing them in the cracks
in the earth. God transferred His functions as Inquisi-
tor to St. Peter, who exercised them in striking dead
Ananias and Sapphira. Finally the Popes, inheritors
and successors after St. Peter, delegated the functions
to St. Dominic and members of his order." What
greater authority was necessary?

Now a dozen monks of the Dominican order were
chosen for the great work because of their sense of jus-
tice and because they were men whose consciences re-
acted rapidly to the faintest whiff of evil amongst the
erring laity. Their task was to investigate the state of
mind of all men and women who were suspected of
slackness in attending to the calls of the church, spiri-
tual or material; and they were to arrange for the pun-
ishment of such as might not show an inclination to re-
form and behave in an upright manner. They began
this admirable work by roasting alive several thousands
of suspects, i Twenty-five years later the zeal of these
good Christians brought their activities to Spain, where
they were to discover much frailty amongst men. The
first auto-da-fe jfras celebrated with pomp at Aragon
on May 12, 1314: then and there the corpses of half a
dozen suspected sinners were publicly incinerated by

* Schema congregationis sanctl officii Rom am, by F. de Macedo. Quoted
by Edmond Cazal.

PROGRESSION F H U M AN N AT U R E 259

way of example to the Aragonese; and to make the
affair more impressive six living citizens were set on
fire at the same time.
IF Moral education of the Spaniards

Soon afterwards the spiritual education of the Span-
iards began in earnest, but it was not until that excep-
tionally holy man Tomas de Torquemada was sent
by a merciful Providence that the Inquisition got into
its full stride. During the twenty-seven memorable
months when his zeal and devotion reached their high-
est point from February of the Year of Grace 1482
to May in the Year of Grace 1484 two thousand males
and females of the human species were burned alive
in the public fires of Seville, to the harmony of grunts
and groans emitted by a populace that was deserving of
enlightenment. In the same historic city seventeen thou-
sand persons were taught the elements of Christianity,
by suffering punishments which ranged from torture to
fines, confiscations, imprisonments, deportations, dis-
missals from employment, and that benevolent penalty
called civil death. To hasten the work of the tribunals
the crude and rigid rules of evidence used in secular
and profane courts were relaxed; more flexible and
more spiritual rules were applied, which permitted
fourth-hand hearsay to be heard by the patient, learned,
and devout judges. To be suspect was to suffer punish-
ment.

The Inquisition taught the ignorant multitude that
the physical discomforts which would follow in the
train of sin were so great that morality paid. The
results are before us today. The standard of morality
amongst Frenchmen, Spaniards, Italians, and tfhose
other fortunate peoples who experienced the cleansing
and purifying process of the Holy Inquisition is as high
as any which exists elsewhere. Therefore, man can be
improved morally by discomfort, torture, or death.

260 THIS HUMAN NATURE

What we are not certain of is how long the improve-
ment or its after-effects will endure.

It may be of interest to sketch briefly the details
of procedure and punishment used by the Inquisition,
since they show exactly what is meant by the word
suasion in regard to morality. When a transgressor was
discovered, or an information about him laid before a
local bureau of the Holy Office, he was cited three times
to appear before a court of Dominicans, or whatever re-
ligious order functioned in the neighborhood. If he
did not appear he was condemned; the longer he de-
layed the more weighty was his guilt. When an alleged
heretic fell into the hands of the inquisitors, he was an
isolated being. No friend dare even inquire after him,
much less write to him, intercede for him, or act as a
lawyer in his defense. As soon as all the property be-
longing to the suspect had been seized a very prac-
tical precaution the trial began. In the meantime
days, months, or even years might pass, the accused
dragging out a wretched existence and often dying
from sheer privation in loathsome dungeons. When
brought to trial the judges inquired, just as if they knew
nothing about him, who he was, and what he wanted.
Had the suspect the supreme impertinence to ask what
charge there was against him, he was indignantly ad-
monished to confess his faults himself. If he failed to
confess, time was given for reflection; back he went
to the dungeon, short rations, filth, lice, rats, and stench.

After a period of philosophic meditation in these
moving circumstances, he was again haled before the
committee; and if he still confessed nothing, he had to
swear to answer all questions that would be put to him.
If he would not swear, he was condemned without fur-
ther ado. If he swore to give answer, he was questioned
in regard to his whole life ; no inkling was ever given
of what his offense was that would give him a chance

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 261

to prepare a defense. He was, however, definitely
promised a pardon if he would but confess this offense.
Finally an indictment in writing was framed and
handed to him, and counsel was assigned. He was
allowed time to prepare a defense, but meanwhile he re-
turned to the dungeon with its unpleasant etceteras. His
accuser and the witnesses against him were not made
known. If at any moment during the trial the answers
did not satisfy the intelligence and godly nature of the
pious judges, the wink was given to skilled professional
torturers who were engaged by the court. A physician
was appointed to stand by to estimate how much the
man could endure; in effect, to test the supreme limit
of his endurance.

If when tortured he confessed nothing, snares were
set to trap the prisoner. When a person was found
guilty, that is, when he did not confess, he was con-
demned according to the measure of his offense: to
death or perpetual imprisonment or the galleys or flog-
ging or loss of property or banishment. And so forth.
He was delivered to the civil authorities, who were
entreated to spare his life. They well knew how they
would be punished if they did not put the decision of
the court into execution. "Better," said the judges, "that
a hundred innocent persons should be cut off and go to
Paradise, than that one heretic should escape, who
might poison many souls and plunge them into endless
perdition." One must not forget that heretics went
straight to Hell the moment they died ; and everything
had to be done to save them from such a fate. See the
earlier section on Hell.
1" A note on torture

Torture is a venerable institution in human affairs. It
has existed in China from time immemorial; it was
used by the Greeks and Romans to assist in the cross-
examination of slaves, chiefly in order to elicit informa-

262 THIS HUMAN NATURE

tion after capture concerning military matters. In
Cicero's time there existed a grim and efficient ma-
chinery which was used mostly on persons accused of
treason. It was also used without legal sanction in Eng-
land. There is torture today in every police station in
the world, but it is now more often mental torture than
physical. The third degree is not an American monop-
oly; it is a universal practice of police, varying in in-
tensity and method. During the World War a cunning
form of mental torture was used to gain information
from prisoners, as everyone knows. At the time of
which I write, torture was everywhere used in cases of
treason, and as heresy was "treason to the church"
secular authorities were instructed to treat it in pre-
cisely the same manner as secular heresy. "Know ye
therefore," says Julius Clarius, a member of the council
to Philip II of Spain "Know ye therefore," says he,
"that there are five degrees of torture : first the threat,
secondly the transportation to the place of torture,
thirdly the stripping and binding, fourthly the hoisting
upon the rack, and fifthly squassation. As to squassation
it is thus performed: the prisoner hath his arms bound
behind his back, and weights tied to his feet, and then
he is drawn up on high till his head reaches the very
pulley. He is kept hanging in this manner for some
time, that by the greatness of the weight hanging at his
feet all his joints and limbs may be dreadfully stretched,
and on a sudden he is let down with a jerk by the slack-
ing of the rope, but kept from coming quite to the
ground, by which terrible shake his arms and legs are
all disjointed, whereby he is put to the most exquisite
pain ; the shock which he receives by the sudden stop
of the fall, and the weight at his feet stretching his
whole body more intensely and cruelly." *

* See Phillipus van Limborch, Historia Tnguisitionis. Authorities for the
facts quoted regarding the Inquisition will be found in The Historians' His-
tory, Vol. X.

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 263

1T Abominable obstinacy of a Jew

Isaac Orobio, a Jewish doctor of medicine, was ac-
cused by his servant of being a Jew, which he strongly
denied. He was brought before the Inquisition and ac-
cused. He persisted in his denial and was duly tortured,
but unhappily survived to give us a record of his treat-
ment. It is an instructive document in the modern his-
tory of human nature. The religious ceremony took
place in a large underground room, lighted by candles.
At a table sat the inquisitor in the shadow of a cross, an
essential symbol for the whole business. The inquisitor
admonished him to confess the truth of the foul crime
he had committed by being born a Jew. Orobio denied
the crime, whereupon the committee declared they
would not be responsible for what might happen in the
face of such abominable obstinacy. With this he was
put in a strait-jacket, which was drawn so tight that the
stupid man was almost squeezed to death. When he
was about to die the garment was relaxed, and he was
allowed to come round. Again persisting in his denial,
Orobio's thumbs were tied tightly with small cords, so
that the extremities swelled, causing the blood to spurt
from beneath the nails. After this he was placed with
his back against a wall (not far from the cross) and
fixed upon a bench. At this stage the still young science
of dynamics was invoked. Iron pulleys were fastened
to the wall and through them ropes were drawn and
tied to the prisoner's body, arms, and legs. The execu-
tioner in attendance drew these ropes with great
strength, fastening the body with them to the wall so
effectively that the fingers and toes, "being bound so
straitly with them," put the man to what is eloquently
described as "most exquisite pain." In the midst of
these torments the torturer suddenly, with a gust of
heaven-sent inspiration, drew the bench from beneath
so that the accused was left hanging by fingers and toes.

264 THIS HUMAN NATURE

The imagination of the committee was not to be
baffled by the supreme obstinacy of this wretch. Hard
by, there was a device resembling a small ladder, made
of two upright pieces of wood and five other sharpened
pieces. 'This the torturer placed over against him and,
by a certain proper motion, struck it with great vio-
lence against both his [the Jew's] shins, so that he [the
Jew] received upon each of them all at once five violent
strokes." This, it seems, overstepped the bounds of
science, for the ungracious wretch simply fainted. The
science of physic now came to the rescue; the official
healer in attendance was sharply commanded to bring
the prisoner round. Other tactics were then tried. The
torturer tied ropes about Orobio's wrists and put the
ropes about his own back, which he had, of course,
taken the precaution to cover with stout leather lest
he himself suffer some slight hurt. Then, falling back-
ward and putting his feet firmly against the wall, he
drew the ropes with all his might till they cut through
the flesh of that obstinate Jew "even to the very bones,"
we are informed. This procedure was repeated thrice,
but even now the Jew continued to deny his Jewishness.
1f Punctilious humanitarianism of ecclesiastics

The story continues: "It so happened that as the
ropes were drawing the second time they slid into the
first wound, which caused so great an effusion of blood
that the man seemed to be dying." The attendant doctor
was again called and asked for medical advice. Could
the torture be safely continued without immediate
danger of death? The ecclesiastical judges were ex-
tremely punctilious in an observance of their duty; and
they were anxious not to be guilty of even a slight
irregularity which there would certainly be should
the vicious criminal die during this regrettable but
very necessary business. "If at any time they are forced
to leave off through fear of death," the regulation

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 265

reads, "all tortures, even those already suffered, must
be successively reinflicted to satisfy the sentence. Upon
this the torture was repeated a third time and then it
ended." Orobio was bound up in his own clothes and
carried back to his prison. Seventy days later he was
scarcely healed of his wounds. As he had made no con-
fession he was condemned, not as one convicted but sus-
pected of Judaism, to wear for two years the infamous
garments of the "suspect Jew," after which term he
would be banished perpetually from the holy kingdom
of Seville.*

It is painful to look upon these scenes. Remember, it
is only a few hundred years ago that they happened,
and then ask yourself the question : How far has man
progressed, in a humanitarian sense, during ten thou-
sand years of recorded history?

The strange feature of it all is that the Inquisition
was popular. It was long popular, at all events among
the masses of the people, although it was mildly op-
posed by the more sentimental of the nobility and by
many of the higher clergy who still believed in God or
mercy. There is much ado by many historians about the
sufferings of the masses, but here is an example one of
the most striking in history of suffering actually ap-
proved by the masses. The reason for this is because
they firmly believed it was inflicted for their ultimate
good. It is an example of how large numbers of people
will support a monstrous injustice so long as it is done
in the name of what is supposed to be their interests.
II Culture contemporaneous with cruelty

It is also surprising to find there was much enlight-
enment in many of the worst territories of the Inquisi-
tion. Is it not remarkable that the "Golden Age of
Spanish Literature" and the great age of conquest and
discovery coincided with the time when the Inquisi-
* op. /,

266 THIS HUMAN NATURE

tion was in full sway? Almost the whole of Europe was
affected by it, with the exception of England, Scan-
dinavia, and parts of northern Germany. Is it likely
that the Nordic races would have submitted to this
power in the same way that the Latins did? Yes, if they
had been persuaded that it was for their good, and that
they would benefit by it. For the Nordics are equally
as selfish as the Mediterranean races. Everybody in
Southern Europe believed, and many good people else-
where still believe, that the procedure was just, and we
must judge it by the circumstances which prevailed. In-
deed we must judge all human behavior by circum-
stances which are created by beliefs, symbols, and in-
stitutions; and they themselves are the result of cir-
cumstances reflecting the mentality of a mass or a group,
or sometimes even of one man.
1f Modern man as cruel as the primitive

When we come to consider the most recent state of
human nature, it may be possible to estimate the effects
of the Inquisition, which was intended to be a recipe
for improving human morals. But we may observe in
passing that it hardened western humanity to cruelty
and crushed many tender shoots of humanitarianism
that were appearing and showing more prospect of life
than at any period since the disappearance of Greek
civilization. The Inquisition proved that men still cling
hard to their old superstitions and their old cruelties;
moreover there is every reason to believe that the cruel-
ties of the Inquisition were far worse than any of which
we have knowledge among primitive men, who are, as
many modern anthropologists have shown, moderate in
their hates and less cruel than most of us who are
civilized.

The psychology of the Inquisition is not difficult to
understand. It is based upon that often unconscious
experience of inferior mind which takes pleasure in the

PROGRESSION OF HUM AN NATURE 267

mishaps of others. The Roman Church could not toler-
ate the criticism and derogatory statements attributable
to heretics. It suffered from an "inferiority complex,"
if I may be permitted to use this piece of psychological
jargon. Having power of governments and armies and
catchpolls behind it, it took every imaginable step to
crush its critics. These were subjected to the direst pains
and penalties; and ignorant fanatics found themselves
suddenly raised to a plane of importance while they
contemplated the burning of the heretics. They re-
ceived the same kind of delightful thrill as those do
who now take part in a lynching; or one similar to that
expected by the crowd of Londoners a year or two ago,
when numbers of perfectly good citizens held their ears
to a prison wall during a hanging, in the hope of hear-
ing the dull thud of the body falling or the official crack
of the neck-breaking which is now used to frighten
English men and women into virtue. "Ha! See how
superior I am to that wretch,^' is the thought behind it
all. In this respect there is little change in the nature
of man since the dawn of history; and what change
there exists, is not always for the better.

2. THE INFLUENCE OF MERE ACCIDENTS

IN the first part of the thirteenth century there lived
an English Franciscan monk whose influence was to
have an important effect upon our present natures.
Roger Bacon was that man. He said that the time had
come to test and map out knowledge by experiment with
real things rather than by abstract study. He foresaw
modern science; and prophesied the coming of air-
planes, motorcars, and ships that would move without
oars or sails. It is also known that Columbus (over

268 THIS HUMAN NATURE

two hundred years later) read the works of Friar
Bacon, and found in them the idea of a "round" world,
which idea, it is said, inspired him to sail westwards
in search of India. The capture of Constantinople by
the Turks on May 9, 1453, had driven away Venetian
trade, compelling the merchant kings of Venice to look
elsewhere for markets. These two events led to the dis-
covery of America in 1492, another landmark in his-
tory. So it is that one accidental event leads to another,
making the gorgeous pattern of history.
1F Two discoveries change the trend of history

About the time of Roger Bacon, or a little later, the
properties of the lens were discovered ; from that we
get the telescope, the spectroscope, the camera, the
cinematograph, and the diffusion of Hollywood culture
in the twentieth century. Calculation was speeded up by
the use of Arabic instead of Roman numerals. Gun-
powder was discovered, and the mariner's compass,
which had been little used before, began to be a com-
mon instrument of navigators. The whole course of his-
tory was altered by those two discoveries. The printing
press was invented, thereby providing means of
spreading knowledge rapidly. At this period we find a
renaissance of learning, the birth of modern invention,
the age of discovery, and the beginning of the western-
ization of the world the phase preceding American-
ization. Immense progress was made in art and even in
letters. It was the age of Leonardo da Vinci : a great
artist, engineer, and scientist, one of the few men in
whom the greatest qualities of the mind appear in com-
bination. It was the age of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe,
and Kepler: the first two being the founders of the
science of modern astronomy. Then follows Galileo,
the founder of the science of dynamics. To the disgust
and dismay of the church at Rome, Galileo expanded
the views of Copernicus to the effect that the earth

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 269

moves round the sun, and is by no means the center of
the universe, as everyone had fondly and conceitedly
supposed hitherto. The church made him kneel before
an assembly of cardinals and deny the truth of his dis-
coveries. He did so, an old bowed man, but as he rose to
his feet he is reported to have muttered to himself the
words, "It moves all the same." It was the Golden Age
of curiosity.

Less than four hundred years ago there was no
British Empire and no United States of America. The
face of the world was changed, so to speak, by that won-
derful invention the mariner's compass. It is one of the
great examples of how a mere scientific device may
affect the destiny of untold millions. This little instru-
ment became the center of attraction to merchants,
kings, princes, and all others who wished to add to their
worldly wealth. Behind it were the human factors of
greed and selfishness, and the combination of the two
brought about the exploration and exploitation of the
globe by Europeans. Venice, Genoa, Spain, and Portu-
gal were the countries which first showed most interest
in the new instrument. The voyages of the navigators
of that period make one of the most thrilling stories
ever written.

Various claims have been advanced for the discovery
of America ; eighteen different nations compete for the
great honor, but the probabilities are in favor of the
Genoese sailor-adventurer and shrewd business man
Cristoforo Colombo. He was a working seaman, who
was prepared to hire himself out for cash to whoever
would pay the biggest price, provided a share of the
resulting booty and glory also came his way. He held
himself ready for expeditions to go anywhere. On
April 17 he signed a contract with the Spaniards, by
which he was to receive from far-seeing King Ferdi-
nand and Queen Isabella the hereditary titles of ad-

270 THIS HUMAN NATURE

miral and viceroy of all the seas, lands, and islands
which he might discover. On the material side he was
to be entitled to reserve for himself one-tenth of all
pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other
articles of merchandise, in whatever manner found,
bought, bartered, or gained within his admiralty, the
costs of his expedition being first deducted ; and he was
permitted to contribute an eighth part of the expenses
and to receive an eighth part of the profits.

It was purely a business arrangement, by a business
man with a king and queen who had also an eye to busi-
ness. An unnecessary glamor has been thrown round the
whole affair. Americans should remember that, just as
they have become the great trading and business nation
of the world, so the very idea of their country germi-
nated in a business contract. On August 3, 1492, Colum-
bus as we call him set sail in three tiny vessels: the
Santa Maria commanded by himself, the Pinta com-
manded by Martin Alonzo Pinzon, and the Nina. The
expedition was accompanied by a few private adven-
turers, including a priest and physician. There were in
all one hundred and twenty persons. The story of that
voyage is an epic in itself. Columbus turned his prows
toward the west and kept them pointing in that direc-
tion. Day after day and week after week he sailed the
uncharted ocean. The crew at last became incensed
against his obstinacy in continuing the adventure and
eventually a sort of mutiny arose.
IT Discovery of America

But on Friday morning, October 12, Columbus saw
before him a level island. He landed, threw himself on
his knees, kissed the earth, and returned thanks to God
with tears of joy for his success; henceforward there
would be honorable provision for his declining years,
which was all he worried about. The island they had
discovered in the New World was one of the Bahamas,

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 271

and is now called San Salvador. On December 5 they
discovered Cuba. On January 16 the leader turned his
ships toward Spain and on March 4 entered the river
Tagus. When the Portuguese heard the news they were
so jealous of the tremendous discovery that they asked
their king to have the navigator assassinated, and to
send a fleet to occupy his discoveries, but it was all to
no purpose. A fortnight later Columbus returned to
the little Spanish port of Carlos. His entry into Spain
was triumphal and, when he approached the sovereigns
to render homage, they graciously rose to their feet as
if receiving a person of the highest rank. Bending his
knees the rude sailor attempted to kiss their hands, but
they hesitated to accept this act of servitude. Instead,
they raised him in the most gracious manner and or-
dered him to be seated in their presence, an act of
unprecedented humility on their part They were think-
ing hard of the gold that would come their way by this
fellow's achievement. There are many motives for
politeness.

Soon after the bold enterprises of Columbus, which
eclipsed those of their own navigators, the Portuguese
dispatched their star performer Magellan on a tour of
adventure. This man performed the greatest of all
feats, for he sailed round the whole world. In the mean-
time the coast of North America was being explored by
English navigators, with the success which we know.
1F Chance and navigation

Most of the discoveries made concerning North
America were the result of pure chance; they were
quite unintentional. The Scandinavians admit that their
heroes were blown to America (if they ever got there
at all) by a heavy storm. Columbus was looking for
India and ran blindly into the West Indies. John Cabot
believed he had reached the empire of the great khan
of Tartary; it was North America he found. Even the

272 THIS HUMAN NATURE

minor discoveries were the result of flukes. The French
found Newfoundland during a codfishing enterprise.
The romantic Coronado set out to discover the seven
golden cities of Cibola and found instead the gorge of
Colorado, the plains of Kansas, and a number of in-
sanitary huts along the coast of New Mexico. De Soto
looked for Peru in North America, but found little
new. The English navigator Drake found that he had
"looped the loop" and circumnavigated the globe
while on a piratical, freebooting cruise in search of
Spanish galleons. Hudson thought to find his way to
India by a short cut; instead he explored the river
which bears his name. Thus many of the greatest dis-
coveries in exploration were the result of blind chance;
as much credit is due for them as is due to the man
who now breaks the bank at Monte Carlo. There is
every probability that the great inventions (which we
have noted in the early parts of this work) fire, the
wheel, the boat, the steering oar, and even some still
later, such as the manner's compass and the lens, were
also the result of sheer accident. Is it not possible that
all man's progress in this world including the de-
velopment of human nature to that high stage at which
we find it today is it not possible that the whole thing
is based upon a series of wonderful accidents? Our
pride immediately banishes the thought.

We may now profitably glance at England, a country
which had hitherto lain on the outer edge of the civi-
lized world and was regarded by intelligent Europeans
as a semi-barbarous nation. Britain was a country to
which adventurous continentals had often turned in
their search for new lands to conquer. Romans, Saxons,
Jutes, and Angles had all had their turn at her. The
Normans had settled there in comfort after the battle
of Hastings in 1066. There was a link with France,
and there were links with the Netherlands; trading

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 273

links. But the internal history of England (with the
possible exception of that short period of Alfred's reign
from 871 to 901 when the British navy first came into
being) was a very local affair, apparently of hardly
any importance to the world at large.
1 English genius for the sea

It was a most important thing for the English that
southern navigators should have done much of the
donkey-work of exploring the seas and opening up new
territories in order that British merchants should carry
their mission of chivalry and civilization to the four
points of the other people's compass. The new routes to
the East and to the West showed great possibilities for
trade and the spread of culture; for with the English
the two always go hand in hand. At that time the Brit-
ish had not yet acquired their natural genius for sea-
manship and navigation; but a certain jealousy of the
southerners began to show itself. The first great English
navigator was John Cabot of Bristol, a Genoese; to him
may be given the credit for the British part of the
discovery of North America. Henceforward the way to
wealth lay on the sea.

During the sixteenth century the kings of England,
Henry VII and Henry VIII, and the Virgin Queen
Elizabeth set about creating naval power. A race in sea
armament began. The ships that were made in England
were found to be better for long voyages than the older
type of ships used by the southerners, for these had been
built originally for use in. the Mediterranean. The clash
with Spain (hitherto the great naval power of the
world) came in 1588. The Spanish Armada was out-
maneuvered by the 197 English ships which played
round and about the Spanish 132. The English vessels
were easier to work, and they were manned and com-
manded by very able seamen men who had already
gained experience in long voyaging and rough dealings

274 THIS HUMAN NATURE

with savages. Furthermore, the Almighty was this time
entirely on the side of the English; for He caused a
wind to blow, one which was any but the right wind for
the maneuvering required by the Spaniards to gain a
satisfactory position in the battle. The result of this ill
wind was the defeat of the great Armada and the estab-
lishment of English sea power. Things were not going
well for the Catholic countries just then. Cosmic forces
were at play, humorously loading the dice against them,
both in the material and the spiritual senses. Worst of
all, the world was again beginning to think for itself.

3. THE MACHINE SETS TO WORK UPON HUMAN

NATURE

WE now come to a phase in human nature which
must be almost as important as those phases
which succeeded the discoveries of fire and cereals, the
inventions of the wheel, the boat, and even writing it-
self. It is the phase in which paper and printing are set
to work. The ultimate effects are extremely difficult to
estimate, but there were certain very definite tendencies
set in motion of which the immediate importance is
hardly in doubt
IT Theft of a great idea

The first stage of this phase is a popularization of the
manufacture of paper. It is not known definitely who
invented this useful commodity but we know that it
existed in China in the seventh century of the Christian
era; that the Moslems stole the idea from a Mongol
prisoner of war captured in 751 A.D. at Samarkand ; and
that in the fourteenth century it had come to Europe
through the Arabs and the Greeks, and could be made
in sufficient quantities for purposes of authorship and

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 275

the communication or fixation of ideas. It is important
to remember this : that paper may fix an idea as well as
communicate it. We have already seen how the mind of
the Chinese was "imprisoned" by their writing. Our
great difficulty is to sort out ideas, distinguishing those
which have been fixed by paper, and have become
almost a part of human nature from those which are
still in a state of flux. It is almost an impossible task.

Johannes Gutenberg, a German scholar of the fif-
teenth century, was responsible for the invention of
printing from movable types, and this apparently very
simple invention put a light to the torch of the modern
world. The invention was so full of immediate possi-
bilities that it spread over Europe; it has reached such
a stage of perfection in the twentieth century that the
printed word is beginning to assume powers formerly
vested in priests and kings and great military leaders.
1 Sheet-anchors of morality

At the time of the invention of printing the Bible
was the most important book of the West, the Koran
of the East, and the works of Buddha, Confucius, and
Lao-tsu of the Far East. These contained the moralities
which were the great sheet-anchors of human nature.
As yet the knowledge contained in them was a vested
interest often of immense material value to rulers; and
generally grossly perverted from its original meaning
and intention. The Love your enemies of Jesus became
the Let us smash our enemies of the popes remember
Urban IPs great fighting sermon which started the
Crusades. Gutenberg and the admirers of his invention
he was not protected by "patent rights" which, like
literary copyright, are a modern refinement of selfish-
ness printed the Bible, and copies began to find their
way into quarters they had never hitherto penetrated.
Then came a period of translation, and the Great Book
of the West began to be read by all sorts of people

276 THIS HUMAN NATURE

(most of whom had no clear idea of what it was all
about) including many who were now confirmed in the
suspicions they were forming regarding its interpreta-
tion by those who had "made a corner" in it. It so hap-
pened that the invention of printing almost coincided
with the revival of Greek learning in the West, and
many men were now like the old Greeks discussing
everything.
IF The English Bible

The English reformer Wycliffe had already trans-
lated the Scriptures into English and spread a number
of violently heretical ideas, some of which were taken
by a Czech named John Huss and used as a basis for
popular teaching. We shall see later the effect of this,
but in the meantime the Englishman Caxton had gone
abroad to take a course of printing craftsmanship and
had returned to England in 1477 to found a press. Be-
tween that year and 1500, four hundred books were
printed in England, and a considerable number of each
one issued "published" to the world. The same sort of
thing was happening everywhere. The machine had
set to work to diffuse ideas, and there was practically
no limit to its work in this respect. Then Tyndale ap-
peared in England. He was a man of great literary
genius and indefatigable energy who brought out a
version of the Bible in a style that immediately found
its mark in the hearts of the people who read it. Tyn-
dale was, of course, executed for his work, Which was
regarded as highly dangerous in nature to all in author-
ity. But the seed was sown, and now the authority of
the church was everywhere being challenged. By this
time the English (who were never very good Roman
Catholics) were working out a "liberal" system of
parliamentary and legal institutions; and were grow-
ing in power. The church was already a house divided
against itself, and there was a growing resentment

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 2/7

against the idea of an external sovereignty above that
of the king a foreign sovereignty vested in an Italian
sitting at Rome. Furthermore the English disliked, as
they still dislike, rigid systems of morality; they prefer
both as individuals and as a nation to make their own
morals. But it was none of these great tendencies which
caused the revolt against church power, though they
provided an excellent atmosphere in which to begin it.
1T Sex and religion again

King Henry VIII was fond of variety in his bed-
chamber. He liked to change his wives fairly fre-
quently, but there were difficulties in the way espe-
cially the sexual inhibitions of the Roman Church,
whidh forbade divorce. Henry was not the type of man
to be nonplused by such trifles. He simply arranged
for the decapitation of the wives he no longer found
stimulating. One must admit that before he adopted
this extreme and expeditious course, he tried hard to
make Rome see reason in the matter. While his first
wife was still alive he secretly married Anne Boleyn
(being a strict observer of good form and moral
decency) and ordered Cranmer, his archbishop of
Canterbury, to declare the nullity of his first matri-
monial adventure, and the validity of the second. "The
result was papal excommunication, responded to by an
Act of Parliament passed by a subservient legislature
and settling the succession in favor of Anne Boleyn's
issue. Already an act had been passed making appeals
to Rome treasonable, and ecclesiastics were compelled
to accept the position that the pope was merely the
bishop of Rome. The political side of the Reformation
was completed When, in 1534, parliament was induced
to pass acts declaring the king to be supreme head on
earth of the Church of England (the Act of Suprem-
acy) and granting him the first fruits and tenths
hitherto paid to the pope. A layman Thomas Crom-

278 THIS HUMAN NATURE

well was appointed Vicar-General in Spiritual Mat-
ters, and the Act of Supremacy was enforced with
bloodshed. . . ." *
If Golden age of execution

Protestantism spread in England, and at Henry's
death its adherents were as numerous as the Catholics.
A struggle for power began. This meant that which-
ever side happened at the moment to be in the ascend-
ant would persecute the other party. Protestants sought
out, flogged, and executed Catholics; and vice versa.
The stake, the execution block, the hangman's noose
achieved great popularity. It was a "golden age" for
state executioners: there were seventy-two thousand
executions, we are told. Sometimes by way of diversion
a bag of gunpowder would be placed amongst fagots
at the feet of a victim, and cheers would go up from
the mob as a limb or head was blown sky-high. Bishop
Hooper, a Protestant, was so served in the market-place
of Gloucester on February 9, in the year of grace 1555 ;
and hundreds of others. By 1571 Protestantism was
firmly established in England, and an Act of Parlia-
ment bound children above a certain age to receive the
sacrament of Christ in the form prescribed by law.
Later, a fine of 20 was imposed on all who failed to
go to church. This started off afresh the old craze for
martyrdom, and we see Catholics courting death for
their symbols.

The Reformation sprang from a general discontent
with the corruption and materialism of Rome. In Eng-
land the teachings of Wycliffe, the printing press, and
the translation of the Bible into English were responsi-
ble for it. Other countries affected were France, Ger-
many, Denmark, Prussia, Sweden, and the Nether-
lands. Italy also was slightly affected. The original
movement was followed by a counter-reformation led

* The Reformation, by D. Ogg. (1927)

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 279

by the militant Jesuits under Loyola, a remarkable
man of powerful determination and an amazingly
astute knowledge of the hearts of his fellows. The
Jesuits worked by all means in their power for the re-
establishment of Roman authority, and nearly every-
where with success. They were great educators and
disciplinarians; but their methods gained them a
reputation which is undeservedly evil. The Scandina-
vian countries and a large part of Germany and Eng-
land remained unmoved by their efforts. In these
countries the Reform was consolidated and developed
into a system of Bible-reading in the home. No longer
was it found necessary or desirable for biblical inter-
pretation to be the sole preserve of an authoritative
church. Every man became his own interpreter. The
English Bible became a popular book, a best seller; and
the sheet-anchor of Anglo-Saxon hypocrisy.
1F The germs of modern materialism

It is almost too soon for us to estimate the full effects
of the Reformation upon the development of western
human nature. If we consider that it took place during
an age when wealth was pouring into Europe as a
result of the plundering voyages of the navigators, and
then consider what happened in the following "Age of
Reason" we may get a clue. Men were developing a
more materialistic outlook, and religious persecutions
gave a great impetus to hypocrisy. Modern capitalism
seems to spring from the blending together of these
forces. The Reformation secularized religious thought,
and political thought became secularized at the same
time. Religion was no longer, the keystone which held
together the social edifice. The idea of a spiritual
power standing above all others is replaced by eco-
nomic expediency in the struggle for wealth. And this
economic expediency became the arbiter of policy and
the criterion of human conduct. ''From a spiritual

280 THIS HUMAN NATURE

being, who, in order to survive, must devote a reason-
able attention to economic interests, man seems some-
times to have become an economic animal, who will be
prudent, nevertheless, if he takes due precautions to
assure his spiritual well-being." *
If The decline of religious conscience

This marks a distinct change in human nature, for
henceforward man develops a dual personality. He
begins to dissociate entirely his religious and commer-
cial life. He begins to think of religious duties and
observances as something which have nothing what-
ever to do with his secular existence. And so, the
"conscience" in human affairs which ruled the every
act of the Catholic Christians begins to disappear after
the Reformation. Henceforward it is possible for a
man who is a member of the reformed religion to de-
vote all his energy to his material welfare without this
interfering with his spiritual ideas, conscience, or other
behavior. Under Catholicism such a state of affairs is
impossible. Whatever may be said against Catholicism
(and I have said in this book as much as I deem neces-
sary in a general treatment of human history) it has
always retained to its eternal credit these great moral
precepts: That poverty is no dishonor, and that re-
ligion must enter into every single affair of this life.
The result of the gradual change in the attitude of men
began to show itself in the struggle for wealth. It re-
sulted in modern land-grabbing, conquests, slavery, and
wars for markets, including the recent World War.
From it came the modern financial system, with all its
tyranny and ruthless cruelty. Because of its absence the
Catholic countries of the world now occupy a second
place after their more materially successful Protestant
neighbors. All this may, I think, be traced back to the
printing press; and to wide-spread Bible-reading, in

* R. H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism.

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 281

which each person developed that form of secular con-
science which best suited his worldly interests. We may
therefore mark down the period of two hundred years
beginning about 1550 and ending about 1750 as the
period in which men's natures showed the most con-
siderable change in modern times. Some may prefer to
call it rather a change of mental attitude than an actual
change in his nature. But the change is, to my mind, so
profound that it goes to the very roots of our being.
IF The influence of literature

This was the springtime of the book, the period in
which it had greatest immediate effect. Marco Polo's
"Travels" inspired the work of explorers. Dante's
"Divine Comedy" fixed the Italian language; Chau-
cer's "Canterbury Tales" showed that vernacular
English could be a powerful literary medium. "The
recognition of the importance of direct observation of
Nature, rather than what ancient Greek philosophers
had written nearly two thousand years before, was in-
augurated by the Belgian anatomist Vesalius, whose
*De Fabrica Corporis' was published in 1543, the year
which also witnessed the issue of the volume that es-
tablished for all time the fame of Copernicus, and
represents the beginning of our modern conception of
the universe." * Rabelais in "Gargantua and Panta-
gruel" roared aloud with overpowering vitality, erudi-
tion, and optimism the spirit of humanism and
toleration which he felt; and voiced the world's reac-
tion against the dismal gloom of the church. It is an
amazing fact that before his time there was hardly a
humorous book in Christendtom. Rabelais abolishes
sorrow for mankind, as Jesus abolishes death. Erasmus,
the Dutch scholar, took his cue from him, and in 1519
published "The Praise of Folly," a work which made
learned Europe rock with laughter at the Roman

* Elliot Smith, op. cit.

282 THIS HUMAN NATURE

Catholic Church. Bunyan wrote his "Pilgrim's Prog-
ress" and this book together with the Authorized Bible
of 1611 and Shakespeare's Works settled the speech of
the race which, in its two branches, now dominates
the world.

It was also during this period that there came into
existence a man whose teachings embodied in two
books were to have considerable effect upon the sub-
sequent political history of Europe. Niccolo Mac'hia-
velli was born in 1469 and died in 1527. Italy was then
a divided country, in which great families were strug-
gling for power. There were many feudal lords who
had made themselves independent; there was the papal
territory; in Florence a family of merchants, the
Medici, had risen to power. There was great need for
a strong unified Italy; and Machiavelli, the Floren-
tine, set down in his useful work "The Prince" what
he considered to be the best means whereby a ruler
could achieve or retain power. Machiavelli was a real-
ist, and he had few delusions about human nature. His
is rather a cold-blooded book, but its redeeming qual-
ity is honesty and its utter lack of sentimentalism. There
is no crime, he says, no cruelty and no means to be
neglected by the ruler who wishes to retain power.
Scruples may be thrown to the winds, and every politi-
cal question should be decided in accordance with
sheer expediency. There was nothing really new about
Machiavelli's teachings, but he was the first man to
have the ability and honesty to put them on paper. He
allows his Prince as much force and fraud as he re-
quires, and advocates a policy of frightfulness should
this be necessary. The name of Machiavelli has been
execrated for preaching such a doctrine. But let us not
forget that it is in the background of nearly all modern
political practice. For several centuries "The Prince"
has been carefully studied by governors and politicians

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 283

in all countries of the world, since it is one of the most
practical documents one can find where the governance
of men is concerned. Napoleon read it carefully in the
original; and no doubt Mussolini studied it for style.
f Culture and loot

Life was now tending to become a derivative of
literature. The "New Atlantis" of Francis Bacon, Lord
Verulam, showed the marvelous possibilities of science,
and already strange men were poring over retorts,
clearing away the dusty knowledge of ages. So great
was the attraction of books for men, even those of the
adventurous sort, that when the earl of Essex plun-
dered Cadiz he was content to take with him as per-
sonal loot the great library of Bishop Jerome Osorio.
Later, when the earl was racking his brains to find a
gift for a faithful supporter he remembered his loot
He gave it to Bodley, and it formed that nucleus of
culture around which grew the Bodleian Library of
Oxford University; where it is still found to be most
useful in Spanish and other studies.

Elliot Smith tells us how simple social customs such
as tea-drinking promoted the advancement of learning.
Famous learned societies and literary academies were
created in the days when tea-drinking and coffee-houses
were first established, and there was an intimate rela-
tionship between these social institutions and the culti-
vation of academic discussions and the work of the
scientific societies. It is also within this period that we
find the beginnings of modern journalism and the
newspaper. The first real newspaper published in Eng-
land was the Public Intelligencer edited by Sir Roger
L'Estrange. It appeared in 1663. L'Estrange was a man
of immense energy, considerable learning and inde-
pendence of mind. He was a master of a free and
intimate style that was admirably suited to pamphlet-
eering and popular appeal. He had a "nose for news"

284 THIS HUMAN NATURE

and a knack of producing the striking and often
humorous headline. He led the memorable battle for
the freedom of the press in England. To him and to his
successors who perfected the cheap daily paper we may
attribute some of the changes that have taken place in
the mentality of England up to the twentieth century.
11 Eton and gentlemen appear

It was during L'Estrange's time that English clergy
took upon themselves the title of Reverend ; before that
date they were ordinary men like ourselves. It should
also be remarked that it was during this great period
that Gentlemen came into existence, about the same
time as the invention of firearms in 1364. by the Italians,
but before the chain, the grape and the canister-shot
were perfected, and nearly four hundred years before
the Reverend Mr. Forsythe, a reverend gentleman of
the Reformed Church, patented his percussion prin-
ciple of igniting gunpowder in muskets by means of
detonating powder. It was also about this time that
Eton College was founded by Henry VI, that is to say
about a hundred years after the invention of the Gen-
tleman. To Eton may be attributed much with which
we are now familiar in English life. To the Gentleman,
Eton represents the ideal form of education for boys.
It is in this school that the top hat and tail coat are
still worn; and the top hat and tail coat have become
symbols of that dignity and grace for which the Eng-
lish upper classes are famous. The ambition of the
teachers at Eton has been and is to turn out boys whose
minds are all dressed exactly alike, and boys whose
thoughts will always even in adversity have top hats
and tail coats. Thus the uniform is often an outward
and visible sign of an inward invisible grace. It sym-
bolizes dignity; and, as regards dignity and certain
other qualities, the modern Englishman tends to be like
the old Romans, who have already been described.

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 285

4. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY

WE now come to that momentous stage in human
affairs: the age of Voltaire, Rousseau, and
Montesquieu, and other Frenchmen responsible for
many changes in the public opinion of Europe and the
attitude of western man toward life. The three men
named were responsible on the continent of Europe for
instilling into the minds of the masses the pernicious
doctrine that they had public rights as well as public
duties ; that religion generally was not what it seemed
to be ; and that there was such a thing as human reason,
which, if it only could be used judiciously, might im-
prove the happiness of mankind.
IT Freakish influence of one man

Voltaire is one of the prodigies of all literature.
Historian, essayist, pamphleteer, novelist, short-story
writer, and philosopher, he had an influence on the
Europe of the eighteenth century that was almost
freakish. We should not forget that without the print-
ing press it must have been negligible. The age was
one in which men became susceptible to almost any
appeal that could be symbolized as "reason." Euro-
peans were becoming rather tired of the consequences
of religion, and by now the printing-press and news-
papers were spreading a knowledge of the schisms and
sects and squabbles and other frailties that are found
in all doctrines. One of the first works of Voltaire was
an appeal for religious toleration. It was so well writ-
ten that the author became famous immediately and
was everywhere lionized. His satirical wit, brilliant lit-
erary style, great sense of irony, and his ability to give
a stinging reply to an intellectual opponent very soon
caused him to be locked up in the Bastille. There he
decided that France was not a safe place for him to

286 THIS HUMAN NATURE

work in; and so, when released, he went to reside at
Ferney on the frontier near Geneva, which could be
reached very quickly on the first indication of peril.
For good or evil he settled there and began an immense
output of works on every conceivable subject; all of
them written in his lucid and sparkling style.
11 The influence of good style

The French of Voltaire is so simple and straight-
forward that its meaning can be appreciated by a for-
eign schoolboy who has played with French in the
schoolroom during three or four years. To the French
themselves it is the simplest of the simple; the ideal
literary style, rather like that of the Irishmen Jonathan
Swift and George Bernard Shaw in English. The im-
portance of literary style in such a work as Voltaire
had undertaken can hardly be overestimated. For, how-
ever good the reasoning, if it were not stated in terms
capable of comprehension and even admiration by
ordinary men, it could never hope to move masses to
action. French writers of the "Age of Reason" are all
excellent stylists, facile composers and witty as well as
learned. Their works were read in the households and
discussed in the streets. Voltaire's chief struggle was
against the Roman Church, and he dealt it a blow from
which it has never since fully recovered. To him it was
an infamous institution, and he set up the cry "Ecrasez
I'lnfame!" The French clergy, monks and nuns num-
bered in 1762 over four hundred thousand, with total
possessions estimated at two thousand million pounds,
producing an annual revenue of about one hundred and
forty millions. They were free from taxation and
higher members of the chu|pfi possessed all the rights
and privileges of the feudal nobility. The church was
the champion of privilege and misgovernment. "It
was," says Sloane, "the cement of French society to a
higher degree than the absolute monarchy."

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 287

Not only did Voltaire deal a severe blow to the
Church of Rome. He wounded all religion. It is too
early yet to say whether religion, even as we know it,
can ever again have the power which it had before
Voltaire; to all appearances it cannot. The intellectual
government of Europe came under the leadership of
this man for a period of no less than fifty years. The
Roman Catholic Cardinal De Bernis has called him
"the great man of the eighteenth century"; and with
this judgment posterity has agreed. Voltaire enthroned
Reason in the affairs of men, after she had been, de-
throned for a period of two thousand years.
IT The doctrines of Rousseau

Almost contemporary with Voltaire was Rousseau, a
man of exalted sensibility and active imagination. An
early life of misery and suffering made him declare
war against the inequalities of society. Relying en-
tirely upon his feelings (which were tinged with much
sentimentalism and passion) he attacked nearly all
human institutions. A savage, morose, and speculative
man, his appeal was entirely to the sentiments. His
style is an exaggerated declamation, which, taken in
small doses, is very stimulating. All Rousseau's teach-
ing was based upon the assumption that human nature
can be molded by education and environment. It dis-
misses heredity and tradition. The way to happiness
on this earth, he says in effect, is to have few needs. Un-
happiness does not consist in the lack of things but in
an unsatisfied desire for them. Man is not a savage
creature, but one that has often grown savage because
of the environment of civilization. He is fundamentally
a good creature and can, if he but try, make himself
and his fellows and descendants perfect by creating
good institutions, and by developing the goodness that
is in him. Happiness should be the end in view of all
political and social effort. In other words, constitute

288 THIS HUMAN NATURE

man a moral being and you will make jor the excel-
lence of all human nature.

Behind all this moralizing was a realistic political
doctrine that was to prove far more attractive to men
and women: the doctrine of the sovereignty of the
people. Such a doctrine challenged all the religious
and political dogmas, and was eagerly seized upon for
popularization by the followers of the new teacher.
Rousseau preached fraternity, almost the same doctrine
as that of the Quakers. He firmly believed that man's
nature is a thing capable of growth and development:
but if it is to be developed in the right direction it must
first be thoroughly understood; and if neglected it will
grow worse. Harmony based upon the educated will of
the mass is what is necessary, he said, for the good of
mankind.
T Montesquieu's slogan

The emotional teaching of Rousseau was rather
vague, inconsistent apparently, and not held together
by a very clear logical system of reasoning. This defect
was remedied by the third of these great Frenchmen,
Montesquieu, in his philosophical work "The Spirit of
Laws" written in 1729. In this work the writer evolved
a combination of words Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
that formed the symbol which was to be the battle
cry of the revolution of 1789. He first gave to France
the theory of a mixed government, and revealed the
principles of a representative system. His work made
people think furiously and, when added to that of
Rousseau and Voltaire, was largely responsible for the
overthrow of the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the
priesthood of France.

In every phase of life there were changes during this
age. There is an endeavor to simplify ideas; to banish
puzzling complexities; to approach reality; to investi-
gate. The results were to be seen even down to the dress

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 289

of the people, which itself became simpler. It is to this
period that we may attribute the beginning of the
artistic dominance in woman's dress and fashion for
which Paris is still notable. A new architecture, new
painting, and a progressive science showed itself. Lit-
erature made astounding progress; natural history for
the first time received detailed treatment of a philo-
sophical nature. And yet the king, the church, and the
aristocrats long retained their power, and continued to
grind the faces of the poor. It was in this atmosphere
that the revolution was born.

There is no need to enter into the details of the politi-
cal squabbles which culminated in the French Revolu-
tion. Briefly, the monarchy found itself short of cash
and called a meeting of the nobles, clergy, and com-
mons in 1789; this body, the States General, had been
abolished in 1610, when the monarchy became absolute.
The gathering gave the common people a means of
expressing a long fermenting discontent. The Third
Estate the Commons soon gained control; and the
king, seeing the danger, mobilized troops in the prov-
inces. This threat of violence sent the whole of France
into open revolution. The monarchy collapsed, and a
government of the people was formed. France showed
a mad passion of "patriotism." A republic was pro-
claimed and war was declared on the aristocrats.
1f "Progress" is based on cruelty

The reign of terror which followed has been painted
in vivid colors by many writers. But let us endeavor to
look behind the scenes at the aspect of human nature
which especially manifested itself just then. It is re-
markable that there can be no progress on this earth
without cruelty. We have seen how this showed itself
in the architecture of Egypt, built by the labor of hun-
dreds of thousands of slaves and workmen under the
encouragement of the whip. We have seen how the

THIS HUMAN NATURE

civilizing influence of Rome was the result of innumer-
able wars and law based upon bludgeon rule. We have
seen how the church established itself by the cruel
suppression of thought, and tried to conserve its influ-
ence by the tortures of the Holy Inquisition. We have
seen that the Reformation was responsible for the
formation of modern capitalism, of which the first
phase was slavery (to which we shall come very soon)
followed by industrialism and finance (to which we
shall come later). Now we shall see that the French
Revolution, which was very largely responsible for
the growth of modern republicanism and democracy,
was the result of almost unparalleled cruelty. A ma-
chine consisting of men (the outcome of the scientific
spirit) began to rule in France. The Constituent As-
sembly of the people, having declared war upon the
aristocrats, looked round for a convenient method of
exterminating them. Before that time undesirable per-
sons had been hanged, broken on the wheel, boiled, or
incinerated, but the Assembly consisted of a large num-
ber of humane-minded men who were unwilling that
unnecessary pain should be inflicted. They had misgiv-
ings about the various popular methods of official
killing, and had well-grounded suspicions for believ-
ing that they were not as merciful as they might be.
Headsmen operating with ax or sword would not be
immune from human fallibility; and hanging required
far too much skill, and besides it wasted much valuable
time, for it may take an hour to hang a man to death,
as English law now admits.
f Dr. Guillotin: philanthropist and humanitarian

In seasons of perplexity in human affairs, someone
usually comes forward with a remedy which seems to
offer a solution of the difficulties. Now we see that
great philanthropist and humanitarian, Dr. Guillotin,
concentrating his immense intellect upon the problem

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 29!

of how most quickly and most humanely to dispose of
the unwanted. He studied old records and found that
the Chinese had used an instrument which contained
elements of great utility. He found that this machine
had been used with success by a highly civilized and
indeed humane people, to wit the English, in the form
of a gibbet at Halifax. The same implement, he found,
was in contemporaneous use by certain of the more en-
lightened German states. He consulted the celebrated
Charles Henri Sanson, the high priest of French execu-
tioners, and found that this quick-witted man imme-
diately showed favor for the machine. A model was
built and experiments were made decapitating sheep.
The model proved its efficiency beyond doubt. Dr.
Guillotin gave a report of the invention which his
genius had plagiarized, and the delighted Assembly
decided that thenceforward it should be used for execu-
tions. Legislation was introduced, and so the mechani-
cal decapitator constructed by Dr. (fiuillotin was
destined to immortalize the good man's name. His ma-
chine was so excellent that they still use it in France
for public executions, which are well patronized by
the people; they are indeed so popular today that cav-
alry has to be used to keep the crowds of spectators in
order.

At first the change was not very pleasing to the
people. The instrument, it would appear, did not kill,
in the sense that hanging kills. It suppressed. It was far
too rapid in its action to provide really popular enjoy-
ment. After those early guillotinings the crowds dis-
persed, disappointedly singing:

"Give us back our wooden gallows;
Give us back our gallows."

Dr. Guillotin and his friends were hurt: to think
that they had not scored a success with the mob! How

292 THIS HUMAN NATURE

annoying that this swift, hygienic, and polite instru-
ment the culmination of man's mechanical ingenuity
at an opportune moment should not be immediately
appreciated! Never mind. A little patience and ! In
the Place de Grave in Paris the guillotine was first set
up in France. To this point the executioner came every
day, his umbrella under his arm. There he removed his
hat and coat, rolled up his sleeves and set his machine
in motion. Very soon he developed an artistic pride in
the work. As he became more accustomed to the mech-
anism, his speed increased. It was found, to the delight
of those in power, that if an isolated guillotining was
unsatisfying to the mob, a day's work at it could pro-
vide them excellent entertainment. Think of the thrills!
each one depending upon the character and reputa-
tion of the person to be decapitated, and therefore dif-
ferent from the last. It was ideal.
11 Fun for the folks

When the extermination of the aristocrats began in
real earnest, the "Widow" (as the guillotine was
familiarly called) became the center of social attrac-
tion. In the midst of a wave of fanaticism, to the cry of
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity the rhythmic music of
the rising and falling blade rendered a sweet accom-
paniment. Aristocrats were drawn there in carts. Later
the machine was moved to the Place du Trone, where
prisoners had their heads swiftly removed, in batches
and even crowds.

Gradually, we are informed, the Quartier Saint-
Honore wearied of the spectacle that was presented
day after day. The carts of condemned completely
ruined business at certain hours. When a procession
approached, the shops had to be shut; and the streets
abandoned to the mob. First hawkers would appear,
circulating the freshly printed list of victims, where-
upon the bystanders gathered into groups and posted

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 293

themselves before the house-fronts, shouting ribaldries
or singing revolutionary choruses. The upper windows
were filled with onlookers. Suddenly the cry went up,
"Heigh-ho I Here they come!" The lines of the Grand
Avenue of the Tuileries were strangely broken by the
spectacle of the guillotine, while the soil surrounding
it was always saturated with blood, to such a degree
that the footsteps of those who crossed the square could
be traced to a considerable distance as far as the pave-
ment of the Rue de Bourgogne and this, it seems, was
not regarded as an attraction by the snobbish inhabi-
tants of the district. A hole measuring "about six cubic
feet" was dug underneath the platform to take the blood
and also the water with which the engine was fre-
quently washed. But this trench was quickly filled and
began to poison the surrounding air to such an extent
that the authorities, in the interests of public health,
decided to fill it up and make another deep enough to
absorb the blood.
H Decapitations galore

Between April 6, 1793, and July 29, 1795, Dr. Guil-
lotin's great machine had severed two thousand eight
hundred and thirty-one heads, and the inspiration be-
hind this activity was the cause of Liberty, Equality
and Fraternity, which had been preached by those two
humanitarians, Rousseau and Montesquieu. Danton
excused himself for it all by saying: "The Revolution-
ary Tribunal! I ask forgiveness for it from God and
man." Saint-Just wisely remarked: "The experience of
the Terror dulled the sense of crime, as strong liquors
dull the palate! 9

"The time is rabid," comments someone, "and all
men are rabid." A representative of the people dashed
his sword into the blood flowing from a provincial guil-
lotine and exclaimed, "How I love it!" By his order
mothers stood by while the guillotine devoured their

294 THIS HUMAN NATURE

children. A band of music was assembled near, and at
the fall of every head struck up the merry tune of "a
ira'M Royalist supporters cut down the revolutionary
symbol of liberty in the town of Bedouin. The people's
representative heard of it and "burns Bedouin to the
last dog hutch, guillotines the inhabitants or drives
them into the caves and hills" : the republic must be
one and indivisible. In the year 1793, on December 20,
France began the worship of the new goddess : Reason.
An elaborate ceremony took place to symbolize the
installation of the divinity, and in the provinces the
example of Paris was followed. The nation went mad
in its fanaticism for the worship of the new. Nothing
was good unless it would stand the test of human
reason.

And the results of it all?
II The cost of hobnobbing

An impetus was given to the use of the mind; the
guillotine sharpened the wits of men. The resultant
gospel of democracy reached far outside the borders of
France, although there was little immediate Liberty or
Equality and still less Fraternity. Nevertheless the idea
caught on in many countries, and those which were not
prepared to put it into practice were forced in time to
render lip service to it. Aristocrats everywhere grew
less domineering, and the priest ceased for a while
from interfering in political matters. The price paid
by France for such progress was terrible. But today in
France all men and women are equal socially. The
general will exchange a joke with the private soldier;
the prime minister with his charwoman. Snobbery
hardly exists. And although governments may change
from week to week, the country is an exceedingly pros-
perous one. This is all partly due to the guillotine and
to the intensive education provided by the Age of Rea-
son. But behind the present French and other mentali-

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 395

ties is another factor militarism, which also sprang
from the Revolution, and has not yet passed away. It
sprang from the reaction to Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity on the part of those who suffered most from
it: the aristocrats. Hence militarism is a creation of
both patricians and plebeians. But it was a plebeian
who, wishing to ape the domineering attitude of aristo-
crats, gave it the impetus which has carried it down to
our own day in the most important countries of the
world.

5. GOD IS GOD, BUT BUSINESS IS BUSINESS

WE have seen that the most profound change in hu-
man nature produced by the vagaries of religion
during the Reformation and afterwards was a division
of the mind of man into two separate compartments.
The spiritual life was now a thing which he no longer
intermixed with common and sordid affairs of every-
day, as he had hitherto done from time immemorial.
The division between the two was not at first sharp:
the change was a gradual one from the domination of
human nature by God during seven days of the week
to that stage when one day was considered sufficient.
The date at which this great change took place was
between 1550 and 1750; fcr historical convenience we
may put it down as about 1650.
1T God is put in His place

From that time the western world began to act on the
principle that, whereas the worship of God and a strict
observance of religious morality is an excellent thing,
it need not interfere greatly with the general tenor of
one's way, provided always one solemnizes religion in
certain seasons or on occasion. "God is God but after

296 THIS HUMAN NATURE

all Business is Business" was the feeling that was
steadily growing among trading peoples. I propose to
demonstrate the truth of this by dealing summarily
with the history of the slave trade; this phase of history
also illustrates a few further truths, to which reference
will be made later.

Slavery has existed from the very beginning of man's
records. It has existed because of the great conven-
iences and facilities it offers to the happiness of certain
human beings and communities; it still exists in a sur-
prisingly large number of places; and will probably
continue to exist somewhere for a very long time. By
slavery I do not mean the "wage-slavery" which has
taken the place of actual ownership : but that system by
which the slave-owner possesses the slave against the
world, as he might possess a horse or a cow; and by
which he can sell his slave or make him work in return
for food and shelter, just as he can make a horse or
donkey work; or sell him to the highest bidder and
make profitable commerce when this course seems the
more lucrative. In real slavery the owner also has the
right to recapture his slave and may call upon the state
to help him.
IT Christianity and slavery

One might imagine that Christianity ought to have
put an end to the vast system of slavery which con-
tributed to the comfort and wealth of the Roman Em-
pire. But there was not a word in early Christian
literature to encourage the manumission of slaves: St.
Paul had recognized the position of the master; and
that was good enough. Nor do we find any condem-
nation of the institution anywhere in the writings of
the fathers. The church itself owned slaves and we
find that the Council of Toledo in 597 stigmatized as
robbers those who set free the slaves of the church
without giving an equivalent. The Council of Epaeone,

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 297

517, prohibited abbots from emancipating the slaves of
their monasteries. Slaves were bequeathed to the
church by will, or given as an act of piety; and seldom
if "ever was a gift refused. The church, too, held its own
slaves to the very end. Voltaire estimated that in his
day the church still possessed between fifty thousand
and sixty thousand of them.*
IF The first Big Business

The modern world, with an eye to returns on a scale
that was lacking among our pagan and barbarian fore-
bears, made the slave trade into Big Business the first
really Big Business in the world. It was the Christian
peoples of Europe and America who first fully appre-
ciated the cash value of human cattle and the com-
pound profits that could, with a minimum of care, be
drawn from a commerce of buying and selling mem-
bers of races inferior in war and culture. With the
Greeks and Romans the slave was on the whole well
treated and often had more personal freedom than the
modern industrialist will give his employees in work-
ing hours. Roman law provided for the freeing of
slaves, many of whom reached high and responsible
positions in society; indeed there was practically no
stigma attaching to being a Greek or Roman slave, for
such a position nearly always resulted from capture in
battle, or otherwise as a prize of war. The benevolence
of Greeks and Romans toward their slaves seems nau-
seating sentimentalism when we compare the sterner
and saner attitude adopted, by civilized modern Europe
and America. For us the slave became a commodity
which brought cash. Out of slavery grew business on
a scale which laid the foundations of the wealth of
England, the United States, and other countries to a
lesser degree, because they did not possess our com-
mercial acumen.

* Chapman Cohen, Christianity and Slavery.

298 THIS HUM AN NATURE

f The slave ship Jesus

To the enlightened followers of Columbus must be
given the credit of the grand discovery that slavery was
well worth commercializing. The first British slaving
venture was brought to a successful conclusion by the
celebrated admiral jolly Jack Hawkins, who in 1562
shipped three hundred Africans from Sierra Leone to
Santo Domingo. Hawkins was a man of peculiarly
Anglo-Saxon type, in whose personality a piratical
piety and religious rascality were delicately blended.
Our second venture was in a ship which the religious
spirit of our mariners named the Jesus. Shortly after
sailing, the good ship was becalmed, and the cargo of
human cattle had to be put on the short rations of the
period (which were far shorter than a modern army's
iron rations). This threatened grave financial losses to
the moving spirits of the enterprise. Happily disaster
was averted, for we read that, "Almighty God, who
never suffereth His Elect to perish, sent Us a breeze,"
so there were jigs and hornpipes on the upper deck.

It speaks very highly of the Christian spirit of trad-
ers that they insisted upon the full holy baptism of
slaves before these were shipped from Africa; and if,
in the rush to catch a favorable wind, the rites neces-
sary to comforts in the world to come were omitted, a
clause in the bill of lading provided for baptism before
market in the New World. Could anything be more
thoughtful? Slaves' welfare in this world was often
deplorably neglected; but every precaution was taken
to see that their place in Heaven would be assured,
because traders and owners realized at an early date
that slaves would thereby work far harder and suffer
far more while on this earth. The much neglected bliss
of Heaven now came into its own among the Negroes.
Had it not been for the comforts of religion, there is no
knowing how much traders and owners would have

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 299

lost in money by unrest, rebellion, or the moral and
physical collapse of their ignorant human cattle.
IF Humanitarianism at sea

At first the trade was unregulated. But intelligent
financiers behind it discovered that this meant endless
loss by deaths and disease. Traders would have to be
saved from their own greed, and hence "regulations"
were introduced; in the same manner that humani-
tarian legislation in the form of factory acts and mer-
chant shipping acts was necessary simultaneously to
preserve commercial morality and insure greater effi-
ciency in nineteenth century England. A "regulated"
trade-ship the Brookes, for example, of 297 tons, was
allowed to carry 450 persons. She carried 351 men, 127
women, 90 boys, and 41 girls a total of 609: rather
more than the regulations permitted but what mat-
ter? The length of the lower deck on which the slaves
were carried was one hundred feet, and in this space
were packed men, women, children, and babies with-
out the slightest regard for health or decency. It was
customary to allow six feet by one foot four inches for
a man or woman, five feet by one foot two inches for a
boy, and four feet six inches by one foot for a girl. In
fact, for each item of cargo about the same space as
would be necessary for a coffin to hold it. The slaves
were chained to each other. Crammed together like
herrings in a barrel, they contracted fatal disorders,
so that when the skipper came to inspect them in the
morning he had occasionally to pick the dead out of
their rows and to unchain their carcasses from the
bodies of their fellow tourists. Exclusive of the slaves
who died before leaving Africa, it is reliably stated
that not more than fifty out of every hundred lived to
earn money for their purchasers. Such a loss of good
labor could never occur in our own more efficient age.

Nine million slaves were shipped, mostly from

306 THIS HUM.AN NATURE

Africa to America. From 1800 to 1850 they were trans-
ported at the rate of many thousands a year. Only men
and women of good breed and physical fitness were
chosen. In certain parts of Africa the Darwinian law
regarding the survival of the fittest produced strange
results : the fittest were selected, placed on board ship
to die at the rate of one out of every four or five, ulti-
mately only one or two to live a full life. The halt, the
maimed, the blind, the decrepit, and the degenerate
were left behind to do their best in the perpetuation of
their races. This explains why the modern American
Negro is a finer man than the African. It is about the
only example one can discover of the last achieving en
masse the first place. The elite of the colored races that
went to the New World found compensation in the
civilizing influence of the whites, while the unfortunate
"rejects" were left to their tom-toms and juju, help-
less instances of the traders' regrets.
If Morality in a bill of lading

British laws upheld slavery quite rightly from the
point of view of the new business morality. Here is the
actual wording of a bill of lading used by the good ship
Thomas just over a hundred and fifty years ago:
"Shipped by the grace of God in good order, and well
conditioned, by James Dodd, in and upon the good
ship Thomas, master under God for this present
voyage, Captain Peter Roberts, and now at anchor at
Calabar, and by God's grace bound for Jamaica, with
630 slaves, men and women, branded D.D., and num-
bered in the margin 31 D.D., and are to be delivered in
good state and well conditioned, at the port of Kingston
(the dangers of the sea and mortality alone excepted)
unto Messrs. Broughton and Smith. In witness whereof
the master and purser of the ship Thomas hath affirmed
to this Bill of Lading, and God send the good ship to
her destined port in safety. Amen. October 3ist, 1767."

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 301

Note the sublime simplicity of the word "mortality" :
no pernickety medical technicalities about that. And
note the great piety of this bill of lading, which had
all the power and majesty of British law behind it.
From 1750 to 1800 was truly a golden age for slave-
traders and, as I have mentioned, it was during this
period that the basis was laid of subsequent British and
American prosperity.

Notwithstanding the wealth that was being drawn
to England by the pursuit of slave-trading and slavery,
it was a decision of a British court of law which first
sent through the world the moral influence that ended
in the emancipation of great masses of slaves, leaving
for this twentieth century only scattered and isolated
instances of slavery. It took thig moral influence sixty-
two years to ripen in England, for it was not until 1834
that slavery was abolished by law throughout the Brit-
ish Empire.
T Progress through bloodshed

America tends, they say, to be slower than Europe
in an appreciation of the finer shades of morality
where morality touches the pocket, as it did in this
slave question; and a terrible war was necessary to en-
force it. Twenty-eight years later, during one of the
most bitter struggles in the history of a Christian race,
about an issue which now seems to us to be in a moral
sense ridiculously simple, Abraham Lincoln achieved
fame by giving Negroes in the States their freedom.
Seldom in human history .had there been a greater ges-
ture, when we consider the materialism which it
flouted. Lincoln was undoubtedly one of the finest ex-
amples of human nature that ever lived, and his
humane influence still survives. But he paid the almost
inevitable penalty that follows those who attempt to
free either the body or the mind of old and lucrative
shackles. On April 15, 1865, he was dispatched from

302 THIS HUMAN NATURE

further pernicious educational activities by the bullet
of an assassin. Had Lincoln and his spirit lived, it is
doubtful if American prosperity could have advanced
so rapidly; but the soul of a nation might possibly have
been preserved a little longer.

The period between Lincoln and the League of Na-
tions decision of 1925 favoring the abolition of slavery
"in all its forms" is notable for struggles by backward
races in all parts of the world to achieve their freedom.
America was not last in the race. In Putumayo, where
man treated his fellow man worse than he has ever
treated brute beasts, and in the Congo, where under
Belgian supervision about five million Negroes disap-
peared as a result of the unparalleled cruelty of profit-
eering taskmasters, we have almost contemporary
record of the degradation of which commercialized
human nature is capable in the twentieth century. In
1924 the maharaja of Nepal denounced in his neigh-
borhood an institution which, though shorn of western
refinements, is but a form of slavery. And so the
struggle for Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, still con-
tinues.

It may come as a surprise to many that, notwith-
standing the work of the three great emancipators,
Wilberforce, Lincoln, and the maharaja of Nepal,
slavery and slave-trading with all its amenities still
exists in Abyssinia, Algeria, China, Egypt, Eritrea, the
Far East, the Hejaz, Kufra, Liberia, Morocco, South
Morocco, Rio de Oro, East Sahara, West Sahara, Brit-
ish Somaliland, French and Italian Sudan, and South
Tripoli.* It is practiced openly in several Moham-
medan states in Asia, the Arabian peninsula, arid the
Hejaz. In a veiled form it still exists in so many places
that a list would merely bore the reader, who may re-
member the Sierra Leone scandal of a year or two ago.

* Sec Harris, Slavery or Sacred Trust.

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 303

IT Value of money

It is a maxim of modern civilization (as well as
being inherent in human nature) to pay the minimum
of cost consistent with maintaining the efficiency of an
article or a piece of work. This principle has remained
unchanged in the whole history of the race. He who
pays more than is necessary is regarded by his fellow
men and women as an imbecile; and he who gets the
best result with the minimum of expenditure is re-
garded as a genius. By employing slaves, the more for-
tunate human beings have been able to obtain services
for the bare cost of physical support, and in countries
rich in agricultural products the cost of nutriment is
very low, almost negligible in some cases. Add to this
a healthy climate, and human effort is obtainable with
hardly any expenditure; for clothing and shelter are
then requisite only in certain seasons of the year. No
further details are necessary to explain the origin of
slavery, except that slave owners must always have be-
hind them a military or some other force strong enough
to keep their slaves in order, or to exterminate them
should rebellion or other unfortunate contingencies
necessitate this most regrettable loss. Men and women
who have failed to perfect their powers of resistance,
whether these powers be psychological or military,
have always fallen victims to their more powerful
neighbors; hence slavery ancient and modern. All this
is the A B C of human nature and, although the man-
ner of application and the customs that go with it may
have changed on the surface, it is still fundamentally
true in most parts of the world. Selfishness and greed
again are the driving impulses of the conquerors.

To the modern phase of slavery, which itself was
part and parcel of the "God is God but Business is
Business" idea, and to the French "Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity" movement, we may trace those great differ-

304 THIS HUMAN NATURE

ences between human nature as it is today and as it was
a thousand years ago. We find now a cynical business
morality which (especially in America) is often
closely escorted by pseudo-religion. Alongside of this
we find that there are innumerable genuinely humani-
tarian impulses, which spring from the soul's reaction
against the cruelties of the slave trade and its legitimate
child, modern industrialism. Cruelty disappears gradu-
ally from the individual, who holds his head in the air
and becomes ashamed to beat a naughty child or ill-
treat a dog. But nations still go to war on trivial ex-
cuses, prompted by commercial greed; and then we see
all the vilest qualities of human nature mobilized by an
appeal to our better feelings and stimulated by poster
and cinema, sermon and pamphlet, book and news-
paper. The machine exerts its mighty power and then
poor humanity goes straight back to the jungle. Yet
it is a remarkable testimony to the change in the human
heart that we must now fall back upon the machine
when we wish to stimulate ourselves en masse to cruel-
ties such as those of war.

6. WAR AND THE IDEALISM OF NAPOLEON

WE come now to a man who may almost be called a
modern Codifier of Morality, one whose nature
differed slightly from that of his great predecessors, but
whose effect upon the world has been very great; and
whose idealism is still with us, although in a slightly
modified and improved form. The "sentimentalism" of
Rousseau and the rationalism of Voltaire and Montes-
quieu caused some trouble in monarchical and aristo-
cratic circles in France, during which there arose, as
we have seen, that noble instrument of Liberty, Equal-

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 305

ity and Fraternity, the guillotine, which in turn gave
the French a further lease of the egotism and patriotism
for which their country has always been notable. In the
year 1769 there was born in Corsica an important child,
Napoleon Bonaparte. He was a clever, hot-tempered,
and autocratic boy with a prodigious memory and a
bent for mathematics ; and his qualities and ambitions
turned toward a military career. Young Napoleon had
read Rousseau and other writers of the period, and,
like many great men, his early ideas ran to extremes.
Glancing at Europe he saw the Holy Roman Empire
tottering while France was becoming a great political
power. He conceived a magnificent idea : to replace the
old Roman Empire with one whose headquarters he
would establish in Paris.
If The brilliant young officer

About this time there was (as there always is in such
circumstances) a strong reaction against the doctrines
and general activities of the revolutionaries. The young
artillery officer had the good luck to be in Paris at a
moment when the royalists and aristocrats in 1795 made
their last attempt to snatch power from the revolution-
ary government. The services of Napoleon were en-
listed by the government, and there is no doubt but
that his military skill was the means of saving the
republic. Delighted with the ability of the brilliant
young officer, members of the government arranged
that he should be given promotion, so in 1796 he was
given command of the army which had been created to
make an attack upon northern Italy. He wrote home
that he intended to exact twenty million francs from
the Italians, and like the old Roman generals he held
before his soldiers the prospects of honor, glory, and
loot. In his imagination he saw himself the leader of a
French campaign which would make the French the
most powerful nation in the world.

306 THIS HUMAN NATURE

He won his first war brilliantly, and imposed a peace
which had in it the vigorous germ of further wars. He
then persuaded the government to allow him to attempt
the capture of Egypt; in this he succeeded, but, after
he had landed, his fleet was destroyed by the British at
the memorable battle of the Nile. He was thus com-
pletely isolated. The Turks gathered against him, but
he defeated them at Jaffa and butchered the prisoners
taken by his army. By another of those strokes of chance
(by which so many military campaigns are won) the
cutting-off and isolation of Napoleon prevented the
people at home from knowing what was happening.
Affairs were not going well in Paris. There was a se-
vere financial crisis. Meanwhile, Napoleon slipped
through the British fleet and landed in France. He was
the "strong man" that was required at the moment. A
conspiracy placed the Corsican in the chief executive
position. A new constitution was drawn up, and sub-
mitted to the country. It was couched in terms favor-
able to Napoleon, and when the nation accepted it
France had completely placed itself in his hands. Five
years later he was crowned ernperor by the pope. It was
a lightning career so far.
11" Napoleon converted to religion

Napoleon was a close student of human nature, and
he had formed in his mind the lowest possible estimate
of it. He saw that man can never be happy without
religion, so he made a cunning pact with Rome. He
would restore the authority of the priest in the parishes,
and so make the people more manageable; for he be-
lieved that there is nothing better than religion to keep
the masses quiet, so long as it is on your side. He was a
student of history. The emperor became a Christian
teacher. "It is my wish," he said, "to reestablish foreign
Christian missions, for missionaries may be very useful
to me as spies in all the lands they visit, in Asia,' Africa,

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 307

and America. They will be protected by the sanctity
of their dress, which will serve to conceal their polit-
ical and commercial investigations. The head of the
missionary establishment shall be in Paris, and not in
Rome." In matters of education he was also very astute.

Realizing that the great educative scheme (drafted
by the revolutionary Condorcet in the Age of Reason to
provide for a system of free education for the entire
nation) would tend to develop the minds of men, and
perhaps even make them think, he saw the course be-
fore him clear. Elementary education must be com-
pletely neglected, or encouraged as little as political
expediency would permit. With regard to women he
found education entirely unnecessary; their job was
knitting. In a code of laws he fixed the status of the
workers and peasants as well as that of the women: all
of them were placed on a basis which would leave them
entirely at his disposal for war or for peace.
t The romance of butchery

By this time he had thoroughly frightened the Eng-
lish. He had become king of Italy; he had dissolved the
Holy Roman Empire, occupied Vienna, defeated the
combined armies of Austria and Russia in the battle
of Austerlitz, and utterly humiliated the Prussians. His
friends and relations became kings and rulers. Spain
had become a subject state, the Confederation of the
Rhine and the duchy of Warsaw were under his sway.
By 1810 Napoleon had become the most powerful man
in western civilization. His military campaigns (like
all big military campaigns, and butcheries on a grand
scale) are among the most romantic stories in the whole
of history. His personal influence over his men was
something which had not been seen in the world since
the days of Alexander or the semi-barbarian Charle-
magne. Such is the attraction of successful rascals for
those whom they succeed in hypnotizing.

308 THIS HUMAN NATURE

The English navy caused the downfall of Napoleon,
first by an indirect influence, and afterwards by a direct
one. It treated as contraband of war all articles of
foreign commerce attempting to enter the French Em-
pire or belonging to Napoleon's allies. The selfish Rus-
sians, in the face of this threat to their trade, broke their
alliance with France in 1807. Five years later Napo-
leon entered Russia with an army of six hundred
thousand. After one great defeat the Russians refused
to fight a pitched battle, but instead they devastated
their country before the invader, removed all supplies
of food and proceeded to harass the French army from
all sides. They repeated the tactics of Fabius in the
Punic wars.
1 The Russian debacle

When the French reached Moscow in the middle of
summer, their spirit was broken; after the one battle
they had lost as many men as their enemies. The Rus-
sians, rather than permit the French a comfortable
occupation of their capital, decided to burn it; much
of the city was destroyed and still in conflagration when
the French arrived. Napoleon decided to retreat, and
made his way back to France, arriving with scarcely
more than twenty thousand men. Nearly half a million
souls of the French forces and perhaps half as many
Russian troops perished as the result of Napoleon's
fit of pique with the tsar for having broken an un-
profitable alliance. This is an excellent example of how
the mere splenetic whim of a man with power may
control to the point of death the destiny of hosts of his
fellow creatures.

France, though weary and disappointed with the
Russian adventure, had not entirely lost confidence in
the empire. A new army was created from the dregs.
It was necessary, because the English with their genius
for diplomacy had begun to organize alliances against

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 309

the Napoleonic threat to their existence. The moment
was ripe for such alliances, and they quickly came.
In 1814 Austrians, Prussians, Russians, and Swedes
crossed the Rhine; from the south came British and
Spanish troops to join them. Napoleon was defeated
and abdicated. The victories restored the old monarchy
in the person of Louis XVIII and Napoleon was exiled
to Elba in the Mediterranean.
T Value of a slogan

But this strong-minded man was not yet prepared to
sit down under defeat. In less than a year he escaped,
and was trumpeting to the French his promises of Lib-
erty and Freedom always an excellent slogan. He
promised to renounce adventurous wars and to rule
constitutionally. Such was his influence over the French
mind, which was still smarting from defeats, that the
public was once more prepared to support the skilful
military adventurer. Napoleon raised an army from
the exhausted country. This last rather miserable force
was just defeated by the British and Prussians at the
battle of Waterloo in 1815. Its leader was exiled to the
little island of St. Helena, and remained there trying to
live down a bad conscience, until he died in 1821.

The life and career of Napoleon in themselves pro-
vide the student of human nature with ample material
for a treatise. The first lesson they emphasize is the
practicability of the doctrines of Machiavelli, and the
idea that what counts for most in the overcoming and
governance of nations is brute force. Also that if you
wish to rule men and to be supreme, you must keep
them from thinking too much, or give them something
unimportant to think about; you must provide them
with something religion will do very well which
will satisfy the spiritual side of their nature; and you
must provide them with bread and circuses. It is also
necessary to create the illusion of a possession of some

310 THIS HUMAN NATURE

great ability or power in the leader, such as is not
possessed by ordinary people, and it is necessary to do
this continuously by means of propaganda.
1 Always deliver some goods

It is also necessary at times to "deliver the goods."
Much more may be promised than can possibly be
delivered; for it is only those hostile in spirit who re-
member unfulfilled promises of a ruler or politician.
He is forgiven many sins if he delivers something or
other and takes care to work in the right atmosphere,
which itself can often be created. Napoleon had amaz-
ing powers of organization and he laid the basis of all
modern war propaganda ; for which see pages 75 to 79
of Book I, to refresh the memory as to the meaning of
propaganda in war time.

If we glance at a few of Napoleon's celebrated
Maxims we shall obtain an inkling as to the reason for
his success. He began by assuming that human nature
does not change, that "man is ever the same." He says:
"Chance is the providence of the adventurous. . . . He
who fails is always wrong. . . . The heart of a minister
should be only in his head. . . . Friendship is but a
name. . . . Great ambition is the passion of a great
character. . . . Let us obey circumstances, not fight
them. . . . The secret of a legislator should be to take
advantage of the errors of those whom he would gov-
ern. . . . Generals have to deal with the human frame,
psychology does not matter. . . . Men are led by trifles.
. . . The fate of a nation may depend upon the position
of a fort. . . . One ought not to commit more atrocities
than are necessary. . . . Police invent more than they
detect ... A glutton will defend his dinner like a
hero. . . ," and so forth.
T Back to Roman materialism

The Maxims of Napoleon bring us straight back to
Roman materialism, and in many other respects also

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 311

we see that old spirit revived by the emperor. By re-
building Paris, and providing classical arches with
classical columns to make it look like ancient Rome,
he put up something which all men could see and ad-
mire^With regard to the press, he created a department
of state to supply the right kind of news to the papers;
and editors had strict orders that they were to publish
nothing disadvantageous or disagreeable. It is the same
in all European countries which are today under a
dictatorship.

Notwithstanding the faults of his code of laws, it
substituted plain statements for legal flummery and
mystery. Napoleon instilled into the French a love of
glory la gloire a quality of human nature which has
reached its most intense development in that nation.
La gloire in essence means that if you have an enemy,
you must kill him or render him helpless, so that you
may lord it over him. If we add the essence of the
philosophy of Napoleon to the "God is God, but Busi-
ness is Business" idea we have in a nutshell the domi-
nant features of national psychology in the greater part
of the modern world.
IT Napoleon's influence

Finally, if we are in a few words to sum up Napo-
leon's greatest contribution to human progress, we may
say that it was toward the perfection of the science (or
art, I never know which it is) of war: that is to say, he
laid the foundations for really thorough-going slaugh-
ter, as we of a war generation understand it. After him
we look, in time of war, for the organization of the
entire resources of each nation. After him we regard as
quite natural that modern spirit in which every able
man must be prepared to throw his bomb and every
woman to make it. Every female must now be prepared
to make either clothes, poison gas, high explosives, am-
munition, or other supplies for the males who are fight-

312 THIS HUMAN NATURE

ing. Or she must lend her tender care in nursing them
round when they are wounded and use her divine influ-
ence to send them back again so as to be targets for
bullet and shell and shrapnel and flame-throwers, etc.,
etc., until such moment as they are stuck by a bayonet,
blown to smithereens or rendered a burden to them-
selves, their friends, and their country. No man knew
better than Napoleon the value of the propaganda
weapon and no man before him ever knew how to use
the raw materials of propaganda: lies, forgery, mystifi-
cation, misrepresentation, organized hypocrisy, cant
and rant, humbug and bunkum. This great cultural in-
fluence must henceforth be used with ever-increasing
power and efficiency to hypnotize into a suitable state
of hate, ferocity, and effectiveness the minds of the
masses not already enslaved under conscription.

Henceforward nations must be made to work as
teams. Henceforward there must always be ready in
each country a "nucleus" of fighters trained and
armed for the fray; or a navy ready to put to sea at
any moment. A high type of scientific and engineering
skill must be acquired in the use of armaments. Even
religion must be mobilized in the interests of the state,
which are invariably those of the Almighty. This was
in itself rather a remarkable change to work in human
nature, but one not altogether unexpected in view of
the past. It shows that with the spread of humanitarian-
ism and hypocrisy in the individual, there can be a
grand-scale growth in collective savagery and cruelty.
From the time of Napoleon, the hatred that had
hitherto nearly always existed between individuals of
one nation and those of another, was taken when neces-
sary and molded into hatreds of nation by nation. After
this period, in times of peace, Russians may as indi-
viduals get along very well with Germans. Individual

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 313

Frenchmen may be on quite friendly terms with En-
glishmen. And so forth. But band these people together
in that abstract which we call a nation at war, and we
find that a frightful monster has been created.
1 War and human nature

To discuss the effects of modern war upon the de-
velopment of human nature is a task which must be left
to posterity. If we take the mere slaughter itself, the
mind and heart recoil in dismay. The loss of life oc-
casioned affords an excellent standard whereby to
measure both human wickedness and human greatness.
It shows to what extent desire to do evil or enthusiasm
in support of a good cause may counterbalance the in-
stinct of self-preservation. Then consider the wounded
and those who are not actually wounded but whose
nature has undergone a complete change. Of eight
thousand defenders left in Port Arthur at the time of
its capitulation, for example, no less than two thousand
were found to be suffering from neurasthenia ; and there
is no doubt that a certain proportion of them never
fully recovered their normal capacity for work. But
this is not all. Men who have been fighting for a long
time become so accustomed to adventure that they find
it difficult to readapt themselves to ordinary life.
Richet says that we may estimate at approximately
three million the number of French lives sacrificed for
the gratification of the insensate pride of Napoleon.
Frohlich, who gives a detailed and reasoned statement,
estimates the figure at 5,925,084. In the American Civil
War the dead numbered not far short of a million men,
and in the recent World War there were ten million
dead, according to Westergaard; seven million killed
and three million who perished by disease.*

* See Losses of Life Caused by War, by S. Dumas and K. 0. Vcdel-Peter-

son (1923).

314 THIS HUMAN NATURE

f Man a fighting animal

There is no need to occupy space with statistics of all
the wars of the last hundred years, not to mention all
the wars since the very dawn of history, in order to con-
vince the reader that human nature now accepts pug-
nacity as a part of itself which shows no signs of
weakening. The world accepts war as inevitable ; and
makes its preparations accordingly. It is a disease of
man for which no cure has been found. Treaties and
pacts are signed from time to time to put off the evil
day. Sooner or later it comes. Then we all of us go back
to the jungle, and he or she who will not move with the
herd must be prepared to be crushed or (if the herd so
wishes) exterminated. The idealism of Napoleon was,
like the idealism of Buddha or Jesus or the other Great
Codifiers of Morality, by no means original. But in it
he crystallized a host of hitherto vague moral ideas and
transmitted them to us in a form easy of assimilation.
The spiritual receptivity of the human soul has done
the rest

7. THE AGE OF PROGRESS

NATIONS now begin to hate each other more
thoroughly than ever; the bogy of the modern
world has come into existence. It was not until the end
of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nine-
teenth that the work of Roger Bacon and his namesake
Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, made its influence
thoroughly felt on the intellectual development of man-
kind. The Renaissance had swept across the world a
thirst for knowledge, and the French revolutionary
thinkers made men concentrate upon the use of "pure

reason."

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 315

IF External power the modern factor

At a time when the Terror had almost expended it-
self in France, the Englishman, James Watt, was im-
proving his steam-engine. It was used for driving
machinery, and the first engine so employed was in-
stalled in a mill at Nottingham. The first locomotive
appeared in 1803, and in 1829 Stevenson's Rocket was
put on rails between Liverpool and Manchester to race
along at over twenty-four miles an hour. The printing
press of the fifteenth century had shown how a machine
could change human nature. But here was something
different, with a power external to man behind it.
Great external power something extraneous: this was
to be the new and terrible factor in forming our nature.
From the moment of its discovery there began a quest
for more and still more power, and this quest ever
continues. Faraday's discovery of electro-magnetic ro-
tation in 1821 added immeasurably to this external
power, and the internal-combustion engine of the latter
part of the nineteenth century went still further. A
great era of mechanical invention began, and new
machines appeared in every direction: machines which
would eliminate the human factor almost entirely from
the making of articles for trade.
1F The new code of ethics

It is unnecessary to go into details of the application
of electricity to the telegraph, to the telephone, and
wireless. Nor is it necessary to mention the thousand
and one advances in mechanical powers that took place
during the nineteenth century. The prophecy of Aris-
totle that machines would abolish slavery showed signs
of fulfilling itself. As it happened, slavery was being
abolished for other sets of reasons. Now a new and
equally unpleasant form of slavery showed itself. Men
became slaves to machines. In England, France, Ger-
many, and in the United States, factories sprang up on

316 THIS HUMAN NATURE

all sides, but this industrial movement was quicker in
England than elsewhere. New types of human beings
were created. A new type of Homo Sapiens appeared:
the man who used his money to employ large numbers
of other men in the production of goods by machinery.
These goods were eagerly bought by the rest of the
world, and England began to be a moneyed nation,
with a new code of ethics springing from financial
power. Human power was being superseded every-
where by machine power, and the drudgery of human
labor was not required so much. What was now needed
was men with a little mechanical aptitude and a little
intelligence who could be trusted to look diligently
after the simple operations of the producing machinery.
A slightly higher standard of intelligence and educa-
tion was required of these machine-minders ; but not too
much, for that would be dangerous. The second half of
the nineteenth century showed an extraordinary ad-
vance in the elementary education of the masses
throughout the area of western civilization. The print-
ing press, now with power behind it, the increase in
wealth, and a general feeling that education was a good
thing, caused working classes to thirst after what knowl-
edge existed.

The characteristic of the industrial revolution that
resulted from the mechanical revolution was in the
creation of large masses of men who were driven into
factories by the necessity for earning a living. Wage-
slavery and machine-slavery took the place of the other
old form, which was now in its last phase. Slums arose
in the neighborhood of factories, mines, and workshops.
Those men who, in the beginning of the nineteenth cen-
tury, had received favors from Heaven in the form of
wealth from slave-trading, and other profitable activi-
ties, now put their wealth at the disposal of the fac-
tory system, because it promised to create still more

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 317

wealth. Greed and cupidity increased enormously
among the already rich. An English cotton manufac-
turer named Robert Owen saw the demoralization and
degradation that was fast spreading among the workers
in the factories. "Bad and unwise as American slavery
was," he says, "the white slavery of the manufacturers
of England was at this unrestrained period far worse
than that of the slaves whom I afterwards saw in the
West Indies and the United States; and in many re-
spects as regards health, food, and clothing, the latter
were much better provided for than the oppressed and
degraded work people in the manufacturies of Great
Britain."
IT Socialism appears

There were with Robert Owen a number of other
men who were interested in improving the condition
of the workers, men who wanted social "uplift" for
the wage-slaves, and a change in the system which
created wage-slavery. This movement was the germ of
modern Socialism, the force that ultimately emerged to
combat extreme Capitalism, resulting from the causes
already outlined: the Reformation, the wealth created
by slave-trading, plunder, and conquest, the mechanical
and industrial revolution. About this time, that is to
say, in the eighteen thirties, the agitation of these new
Socialists caused an inquiry to be made into the factory
system. Its report states that, among other things, the
manufacturers employed children, down to those of five
years of age, for working days of fourteen to sixteen
hours, exclusive of meals and intervals. Many of the
manufacturers employed overseers to flog and ill-treat
the infants with a view to speeding up their energy and
output. In England there were many scenes similar to
those previously common in America. A Scottish Pres-
byterian manufacturer on horseback chased a runaway
bad boy sixteen years old, forcing him to return to his

318 THIS HUMAN NATURE

work as fast as the horse trotted, while the good Pres-
byterian beat him soundly the whole way with a long
whip.

Although wealth was pouring into Britain at that
period the greed of the capitalists was merely being
whetted. A higher output was required. That good old
driving force of human nature selfishness into which
we inquired in the first pages of this book, showed it-
self to be stronger than ever. The enlightenment and
philosophic perceptions of a few godly employers were
turned upon the important problem of how to increase
output still further, and so a system of night shifts was
invented: two sets of operatives were employed, each
numerous enough to fill the whole mill ; one set worked
by day and the other by night. The nervous system of
the working classes was steadily undermined by all this
drive, for about two-thirds of the employees were
young persons and children. In such circumstances as
this the human being invariably has recourse to some
form of psychological compensation. The Reformation
had killed the Catholic Church (or almost killed it)
in England, and the new religions were pale reflections
of the old, and had few sensual attractions. Workers
therefore began to find compensation in alcohol and
vice.

With each new invention that came along, work be-
came more and more simplified, and here and there
with the installation of new devices large numbers of
men were thrown into unemployment. To add still fur-
ther to the complexities of the situation, the population
of now unnecessary creatures steadily increased. Masses
were toiling for wages representing bare subsistence,
and at the same time the riches of capitalist manufac-
turers steadily increased. Land-owning aristocracy was
replaced by capitalist aristocracy. Morals and manners
based upon the sublime ownership of real property be-

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 319

gan to go, and the process which started in England
spread itself throughout the world, in some countries
more quickly than others. Everywhere the phenomena
of the first phase were always the same : in each country
those with wealth did their utmost to increase it by
compelling the workers to labor for long hours at the
lowest possible wages.
If The <wcalth-is-po*wer idea

The internal history of all countries that have been
affected by industrialism, that is to say, the principal
countries of the world, is since that day a hateful
struggle between employers and their work-people, and
it is based purely, simply, upon the selfishness of both
parties. The workers are selfish in wishing to live com-
fortably; the others are selfish in wishing to pile up
wealth, for the sake of the material comforts it gives,
and because of the power it provides them with over
those who do not possess it. Wealth is power was the
basis of the new ethic.

It was during the nineteenth century that French
workers learned from the more sophisticated people in
their own country the tricks of birth control. Their
poverty was so great that to rear a large family was
difficult or impossible. As a result, the population of
France began to remain nearly stationary. The great
doctrine of birth control was to begin its cultural work
in earnest in the next century. It was also during this
period that science was bought and, for the first time
in history, "wedded" to industry. Some idea of the
progress made in speeding up production by the end of
the nineteenth century may be gathered from the re-
ults of American researches. For the manufacture of 10
plows, it was found that 2 hand workers, performing
ii distinct operations, took 1,180 hours and were paid
$54. By machine labor 52 workers, performing 97
operations, worked 37 hours and 28 minutes and re-

320 THIS HUMAN NATURE

ceived $7.90. In the manufacture of 100 sets of clock
wheels by hand labor there were 14 workers, 453 opera-
tions, 341.8 hours, and the wages amounted to $80.82.
By machine labor: 10 workers, 1,088 operations, 8.34
hours, and wages $1.80. The cash results were so satis-
factory to manufacturers that the gospel of mass-pro-
duction inevitably followed. If men were thrown out
of work to starve or die well, it was regrettable but,
after all, "Business is Business." Cash-consciousness
takes the place of conscience.
1f The new framework for human affairs

Toward the end of the nineteenth century there was
still a further development in the history of invention;
the internal-combustion engine came on the market.
The chief advantage of this over the steam engine is
that it reduces weight enormously. It developed at last
to such a pitch of lightness and efficiency as to bring
flying within the bounds of practical achievement.
There is no doubt but that the nineteenth century saw
an entire change in the attitude of man toward the
world and the universe. Hitherto he had lived close to
the soil and was to all intents and purposes very little
in advance of the Roman, the Greek, the Egyptian, or
agricultural and pastoral man of prehistoric times.
Wells has pointed out that "in a little more than a
century this mechanical revolution has been brought
about. In that time man has made a stride in the ma-
terial conditions of his life, vaster than he had done
during the whole long interval between the paleolithic
stage and the age of cultivation, or between the days of
Pepi in Egypt and those of George III. A new gigantic
material framework for human affairs has come into

existence."

We may add that the nineteenth century saw many
lesser changes in the behavior of human beings toward
one another; they reflect merely minor and superficial

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 321

changes in man's nature. It had been the custom, for
example, for henpecked husbands in England to have
their shrewish wives tamed. The women were bound
in a chair at one end of a ducking stool and wheeled to
a pond, into which they were plunged as many times
as the crime seemed to warrant. The last martyr to this
cruelty was a Mrs. Jenny Coram, who was immersed in
1809. In the United States of America there originated
an ingenious system of arranging the political divisions
of a state, so that the minority might get the advantage
over the majority. Such an immoral practice could
hardly exist today, one might think. An American
friend, however, has informed me that the late
Elbridge Gerry the man who invented the ingenious
political method would turn in his grave with
jealousy if he knew how far his brilliant idea was to
be pushed by succeeding generations of his country-
men. A Yorkshireman of genius invented shoddy, a
kind of soft woolen goods made from old rags and
refuse. It could, by enlightened salesmanship, be sold
as the real thing. There is now hardly a tailor's shop in
the world where you will not find attempts made to pass
it off as pure wool not that there is anything morally
wrong about this. Not at all.
1 Prohibition in the United States

The American prohibition movement began early in
the nineteenth century. One hundred years later the
Volstead Act was passed in the interests of morals and
business efficiency! Twelve years after that (accord-
ing to anti-prohibition statisticians) there was more
drunkenness and abuse of alcohol in the United States
than at any period of its history. According to prohibi-
tionists it is a success. They both can't be right, so one
party or the other is lying steadily about it. It was dur-
ing the nineteenth century about ten years after the Na-
poleonic wars that the Royal Society for the Prevention

322 THIS HUMAN NATURE

of Cruelty to Animals had to be instituted to restrain
men from the ill-treatment of dumb creatures. In the
year 1928 the society was responsible for innumerable
prosecutions of men and women who had been cruel to
animals. Since then all sorts of societies have sprung
up to restrain human beings from their natural cruel-
ties : cats' protection societies, the dickie birds' societies,
culminating in a Tail Wagger's Club for dogs.
1" Capital punishment of animals

Even in matters of religion and law this humani-
tarian movement showed itself, for during the nine-
teenth century the criminal prosecution and capital
punishment of animals fell into a decline and, I be-
lieve, was completely abolished in that enlightened
period. At all events I find that only a few locusts in
Catalonia, a cock at Leeds, a wolf at Calabria, and one
dog in Switzerland suffered malediction, excommuni-
cation, or the penalty of death. This is in remarkable
contrast to preceding centuries, when moles, serpents,
field-mice, caterpillars, flies (house and horse varie-
ties), eels, pigs, bulls, cockchafers, rats, buck and nanny
goats, weevils, vermin, grasshoppers, snails, sheep,
mules, dolphins, gadflies, horses and mares, dogs and
bitches, turtledoves, termites, and worms were solemnly
tried by courts and had dire punishments inflicted for
their crimes and misdemeanors by the authority of the
intellectual and spiritual leaders of men. A he-goat was
banished to Siberia by the Russian Church, for a
heinous crime which had better remain unmentioned.
In 1906 a dog which was with a murderer during a
murder at Delemont was condemned to death, because
it was found to be the chief culprit; the man was sen-
tenced to life imprisonment. This seems to be the last
recorded case of the kind.* During the nineteenth cen-

* See E. P. Evans, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of
Animals (19x6),

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 323

tury the feeling among Christian nations that Jews were
on a par with beasts also suffered a transformation,
though there were a few reactions to this in the form of
pogroms, when thousands of Jews were murdered by
Christians for still being Jews.
H Our debt to the Rev. Forsyth and Col. Shrapnel

The inventiveness of man during this period was not
entirely limited to machines for industry and com-
merce. The Rev. Alexander John Forsyth, one of the
Lord's anointed, minister of the parish of Belhelvie in
Aberdeenshire, patented the first percussion gun in
1807. The military and other authorities invited him to
London, to show what his device could do. The experi-
ments were entirely successful, but the poor minister
was told to pick up his rubbish and get out. The French
offered him 200,000 for his invention, but the patriot
refused. Wellington would not touch it; and thirty-
three years elapsed before English military minds
realized that it could be useful to them for manslaugh-
ter in war. Posterity has recognized the debt owed to
the great and holy Forsyth; one is pleased to see that
on January 30, 1930, a tablet to his memory was un-
veiled in the capital of England.* To the great cultural
benefits conferred upon us by Forsyth may be added
those resulting from the work of a man of genius who
made a breech-loading rifle in 1836 in which the charge
could be ignited by a fine steel rod being pressed into
the cartridge. Henceforward, one well-trained soldier
could kill thirty of his opponents where his predecessors
would be preparing to reload their guns. But these
were trifles compared with that most ingenious inven-
tion, the shrapnel shell. Colonel Henry Shrapnel (who
died in 1842, God rest his soul) brought his fine mind
to bear upon the interesting problem of how to make
a shell explode shortly before it hits the enemy. He

* Dally Sketch, January 30, 1930.

324 THIS HUMAN NATURE

was very successful in finding a solution. Later devel-
opments of the art of war have shown us how really
excellent a thing shrapnel is for blowing human beings
to smithereens. Surely the nineteenth century was one
of solid progress.
IT Victorian idyls

Now nearly everybody was semi-educated, which
was better than not being educated. In Protestant coun-
tries everybody settled down to the fixed idea that the
advances in science and material wealth meant that
God had definitely taken their side against the ignorant
Catholics. Human nature became sure of itself, certain
that all problems spiritual had long ago been solved,
and that the material ones were panning out very satis-
factorily. And with all this the world had not yet lost
its pleasing old simplicity; its old politeness; or its old
credulity. Did not Miss Mackay see a mermaid in
1809? And did not the Rev. Dr. Phillip write in the
Gentleman's Magazine of July, 1822: "I have to-day
seen a mermaid, now exhibiting in this Town. The
head is almost the size of that of a baboon. . . . The
ears, nose, lips, chin, breasts, nipples, fingers, and nails,
resemble those of a human figure. The appearance of
the teeth affords sufficient evidence that it is full-grown.
The canine teeth resemble those of a full-grown dog;
all the others resembling those of a human subject. . . .
The resemblance to the human species ceases immedi-
ately under the mammae . . . below the vertex of the
head it resembles a large fish of the salmon species."
The smugness, credulity and the greed of that age were
such that one bold fellow offered to let the world into a
discovery of his which would no doubt have made many
fortunes. An advertisement appeared offering the secret
of perpetual motion for the sum of 300,000. Happily,
investigation showed that there was nothing in it. This
was the romantic age of Joanna Southcott, who ushered

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 325

in the Millennium, offered to chain down the Devil for
a thousand years and to save the faithful (exactly 144,-
ooo all told) ; she was the Bride, the Lamb's wife, the
woman clothed with the sun, she said. She announced
that at the age of sixty-four she would bear a son, the
second Messiah. Thousands believed her. On nearing
that age she shut herself up and when, on the testimony
of women and doctors, she was found to be pregnant
with a living child, the doubters began to look solemnly
at each other. She showed all the symptoms of gestation.
Money was raised for this most important accouche-
ment. The crib alone cost 200 and the silver cup was
got ready with the words Hail, Messiah, Prince of
Salem! At last when the normal period had elapsed she
fell into the conventional pains and movements which
precede the delivery of a new human being. But no
child came. Joanna died. A post-mortem examination
showed she had suffered only from an excess of gas.*
Across the Atlantic Joseph Smith in 1827 took from
Mohammed a selection of the sexual doctrines that
most struck his fancy and, adding them to a selection of
good Christian tenets, produced the great "Book of
Mormon" which, investigators have since discovered,
may have been a work written by a clergyman fifteen
years before, and merely stolen by Smith. (The origin
of religion is always wrapt in mystery.) The Mormons
preached and practiced multiple marriage until the
year 1882, when there was an outbreak of jealousy
amongst leaders and members of other sects, resulting
in 1890 in the suppression of polygamy by law. But
after that date divorce facilities began to increase, until
now one can change a wife or husband almost at will
and thus preserve the sanctity of the marriage institu-
tion.

* See Sober Truth, a collection of nineteenth century episodes, Fantastic,
Grotesque and Mysterious, Margaret Barton and Osbert Sitwell (1930)-

326 THIS HUMAN NATURE

A number of persons professing a devotion to inno-
cent recreation and spiritual knowledge formed them-
selves into a religious group in England under the
leadership of Mr. Henry James Prince. They formed
the sect known as Agapemonites (Greek for " Abode
of Love"). The idea caught on, and seemed likely to
flourish until there was rather a scandal in the affairs
of the sect, which caused it to vanish from outward and
visible existence in 1908. The last century is remark-
able for the number of new sects that sprang up
everywhere. There was a yearning after novelty in spir-
itual as well as in sexual matters. A list of the new sects
which appeared in the nineteenth century would fill a
page of this book. But we should not overlook that
small group of holy people who in 1838 decided that
they would believe literally the words of the New
Testament, including the explicit instructions given in
James V, 14, regarding the healing of the sick by
faith. These people were regarded as harmless lunatics.
Several were tried and sentenced to prison for believing
that what the New Testament said was true. They have
since been known as the "Peculiar People"; and the
modern humanitarian attitude toward them is one of
ironical pity.
If The century of ISMS and OLOGIES

Against religious eccentricities there arose a charac-
teristic growth of the nineteenth century: Secularism,
under the leadership of Holyoakc in England and of
Ingersoll in America. The teachings of the Secularists
were a rehash of those of Voltaire and they provided
many vigorous germs to help in the decay of religion in
England; their effect in America has so far not been
great. This nineteenth century is the century of ISMS:
Socialism, Secularism, Vegetarianism, Utilitarianism,
Spiritualism, ||enianism, Salvationism, Nihilism,
Estheticism, Fatnanism, Liberalism, Radicalism, Capi-

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 327

talism, Communism, Mesmerism; and a host of others,
not to mention another host, almost as great, of OLOGIES.
The two ISMS of foremost importance to the subsequent
trend of events were Socialism and Industrialism.
IT Socialism

There are as many definitions of Socialism as there
are disciples. George Bernard Shaw, for instance, bases
his present Socialism upon equality of income. He says,
in effect, "Let all men and women have the same in-
come and all our troubles will vanish." There was a
time when Socialism was a force to be reckoned with
as a revolutionary one, but it seems to have passed. All
western civilization seems to have taken the Socialistic
ideas most consistent with the preservation of wealth
and industrialism in its present form, and used them in
the education of masses for machine-minding or other
productive work. A European Socialist is now very
often a hypocritical capitalist, to all intents and pur-
poses. Of all the brands of Socialism which came into
existence during the nineteenth century, none was to
have so much influence as that of the German, Karl
Marx, whose terrible book became the bible of modern
Communists. His slogan was, "Workers of the world,
unite !" that is, against Capitalism. Marx's book
"Capital" was largely responsible for the growth of
international thought amongst workers in different
countries during this period. There was an exchange of
the thought representing the interests of wage-slaves.
Such a thing had never before taken place. It was to
result in Bolshevik Russia in the twentieth century,
one of the most powerful and, so far as one can judge,
one of the most far-reaching movements in history.

We see in the nineteenth century the triumph of
nationality. It was now that the nations of Europe, fol-
lowing the example of France, developed ifleir nation-
alism to a great intensity. Meanwhile tfa^ two most

328 THIS HUMAN NATURE

momentous events of modern times took place. The ex-
pansion of England into the British Empire, and the
strengthening of the Union in America after the Civil
War of 1 86 1 to 1865. For the results of the latter we
have the modern United States; and the words United
States are the modern equivalent for supreme efficiency
in business and finance. Here a new idealism came into
being, based upon wealth. The word "Success" took on
a new meaning. The most successful man is he who col-
lects the largest quantity of worldly wealth; the most
successful nation is that which has most gold. Land is
no longer of so much importance; its place has been
taken by machine-made wealth. With this idealism
having wealth as its goal there grew a strong quasi-
religious sentimentalism, which is its psychological
compensation. This sentimentalism showed itself in a
thousand welfare schemes and movements of a highly
humanitarian and genuinely beneficial nature. The
standard of comfort of the ordinary human being, as a
result of the search for wealth with its parallel creed of
humane sentimentalism, stands higher in the United
States of America than in any other country in the
whole of human history. The Americans, after the
Phenicians, have contributed most toward raising the
standard of living of the human being.
f Man decides that he is a kind of ape

I will conclude this section of the history of human
nature by mentioning only three further notable and
characteristic achievements of the nineteenth century,
where one could mention a thousand. The first of these
was the publication of Charles Darwin's "Origin of
Species" in 1859, the book which stated a theory of
human development by natural selection that is, by
the strong overcoming the weak and the subsequent
"survival of the fittest." Another idea propounded by
Darwin was to the effect that man is related to the

PROGRESSION OF HUMAN NATURE 329

great apes, and for some reason which cannot now be
explained this was regarded by his contemporaries as
highly ingenious and original. The second of these three
achievements of the nineteenth century was the procla-
mation in 1870 of the infallibility of the pope in mat-
ters of faith and morals, a matter which had long been
in abeyance and doubt, but was thus settled forever.
The third was a mechanical invention of the great En-
lish executioner, Mr. Marwood, for the more efficient
hanging of criminals. It is rather surprising and pitiful
that it came so late, for in his time there were only a few
crimes involving the death penalty, as against the 150 of
half a century earlier. Mr. Marwood proved himself to
be a master of the hangman's great art. He it was who
introduced the humanitarian long drop, which, he
claimed, instead of asphyxiating his clients, simply
broke their necks. This method is still used in En-
gland, though nobody knows if it lives up to the claims
made for it, because the new hypocrisy insists upon
secret executions. The great inventor was fond of saying
of his predecessor in regard to the state-killing of un-
desirables, "Whereas he hanged them, I execute them."
Those words succinctly and metaphorically express the
progress of the century in every direction. Perhaps I
should also mention that the science of official killing
was not without advances in other countries for, a few
years after the establishment in Boston, Massachusetts,
of the first branch of the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals, the state of New York, taking ad-
vantage of a means to popularize electric power, de-
cided to kill its criminals by electrocution.

What with war, invention, industrialism, the aboli-
tion of the bad old slavery and its substitution by
wage-slavery, the ISMS and OLOGIES of later years, the
inculcation of white culture into black races during the
scramble for Africa, and the transformation of man the

330 THIS HUMAN NATURE

agriculturist into man the machine-minder over an im-
portant part of the globe, there was a great change in
human nature in tttis period. It all pointed in one direc-
tion: the superficial standardization of human nature,
much of which may be directly attributable to the in-
fluence of the machine, which already seemed to take a
grip on the souls of men and women in most parts of the
western world.

BOOK V

HUMAN NATURE IN WESTERN
CIVILIZATION TODAY AND TO-
MORROW

I. ETERNAL FRAILTIES OF HUMAN NATURE

HUMAN nature has as many varieties and shades
as there are men and women. Nevertheless, there
are such things as trends and tendencies, and one must
somehow grapple with them. Clearly the nineteenth
century was the one which contained the greatest possi-
bilities for change in the world, for had there not been
two great revolutions? the industrial and the mechani-
cal? It was yet a little early for the machine to have
any great standardizing effects; but the germs were
there, and already in the first days of the twentieth cen-
tury the disease had begun to show itself on all sides.
The invention of the linotype printing machine gave an
immediate impetus to newspaper production; and men
of genius the late Lord Northcliffe, for example
were not slow to take advantage of it. Elementary edu-
cation acts in England and their equivalent in other
parts of the world were producing a more enlightened
person one who could read news items and simply
written articles on matters that were not too intellec-
tual: politics, crime, sport, sex, and so forth. The circu-
lation of newspapers, books, novelettes, and periodicals
for these new readers increased enormously. Writers
were wanted who could write almost to a formula. So
began the widespread provision of a standardized men-
tal pabulum. Great news agencies collected news to fit
the formula, and the resultant concoction was tele-
graphed to strings of newspapers in all parts of the
world. Wireless telegraphy, which appeared a little
later, and broadcasting, its latest phase, have added to a
standardizing process; while the cinematograph added
to it still further.

333

334 THIS HUMAN NATURE

In the United States there was an astounding ma-
terial growth during the nineteenth and twentieth cen-
turies. The sea-machine (in the form of ships that
could carry many times as many passengers as the old
ones and at a far greater speed) assisted another and
the last of those great nomadic movements of human-
ity which regularly occur in history. Once again nomad
man appears; and there is a new canalization. Hun-
dreds of thousands of people cross the Atlantic to found
a new country and be born again. The abolition of
slavery, the sublimation of a number of French ideas
(which came from the Age of Reason) and the con-
tinuation of strong puritanical ideas among the Eng-
lish who had early settled in America, as well as the
hard struggle of pioneering days, were producing a new
type of human being: the American citizen. Racially
he might be of any origin. But in the new atmosphere,
which differed entirely from the old one (it was a
harsh, crude atmosphere), he abandoned old ideas and
wholeheartedly agreed with and adopted those of the
land in which he had settled. Those who did not con-
form paid the usual penalty in such cases: they were
eliminated. Those best fitted survived, and only those
survived who were inspired by the ideal of achieving
success in the new surroundings. It was during that
period of settlement and tremendous struggle for exis-
tence that the grand American ideal of SUCCESS arose.
It was to be the godhead of a new Trinity: SUCCESS,
PROSPERITY, OPTIMISM.

f Freud discovers the unconscious "cesspool"

The beginning of the twentieth century was the end
of that very compact and clean-cut phase of English
history which we call Victorianism. After it comes a
period in which solidity begins to disappear from the
old ideas, and the old morality, both of which were re-
placed by new and nebulous ones. It is a period of So-

TODAY AND TOMORROW 335

cialistic growth; of experiment; and of inquiry. Hu-
man nature began to be the subject of intense investiga-
tion, and many weird facts were unearthed concerning
it. Sigmund Freud, for example, was pursuing investi-
gations into human psychology which were to culmi-
nate in an epoch-marking book, "The Interpretation of
Dreams." It was first received by European publics
with something akin to horror; but in a decade it had
changed the ideas of educationists and psychiatrists in
all parts of the world. Freud proved beyond reasonable
doubt that the hidden part of the human mind is little
better than a cesspool a thing which had been sus-
pected by many unscientific people before him. Ad-
vances in the "new" psychology together with the
World War were to produce a sort of reaction against
the pseudo-puritanism of Victorian England, and
against the similar hypocrisy of the American public.
In jts place! a new form of hypocrisy appeared: the
pseudo-scientific. There appeared, and still are, great
legions of "students" of eroticism and sexual matters.
The older generation regarded all this new psychology
with fear and detestation because of its implications
that they are really very low creatures after all. The
new generation regards it as something naughty; and
intensely interesting. Hence, scraps of it appear in the
literature of all modern countries; and the unconscious
has proved itself to be a gold mine for writers as well as
a cesspool for everybody.

During the period of investigation into human nature
which followed Darwin's two masterpieces, the infor-
mation collected from all sorts of sources proved the
variegation of humanity and what a really queer crea-
ture man often, and generally, is. The facts also indi-
cated that there can be such a thing as a great cultural
change in human nature, though not a great biological
one. Information appeared regarding the urrghi and

33 THIS HUMAN NATURE

development ot the religious spirit; and in regard to
the origin and growth of religious symbols. In the
quest after this information, men of science have pro-
vided us with veritable encyclopedias of the vagaries
of mankind. The works of Frazer and Westermarck
alone prove that there is no limit to man's simplicity,
credulity, absurdity, and caprice.
1f A few vagaries of human nature

We read of such occurrences as men worshiping tur-
key buzzards; of using a rabbit to stop rain or to re-
tard the movement of the sun. We read of the Ajumba
hunter who abjectly apologizes to the hippopotamus he
has killed ; and of people guilty of a crime coolly trans-
ferring it to a goat In modern times, that is to say,
in the time of our great-great-grandfathers, an anthro-
poid ape is arrested in England on suspicion ; it is court-
martialed as a foreign spy and, I believe, duly executed.
We read of men whose religion is the worship of each
other; and of others who set nets to catch escaped souls.
We discover Brazilian Indians who devour the hearts
of courageous foes in order to acquire some of their
bravery. Of people who solemnly debate how best to
embark upon a campaign for an amelioration in the
character of their gods. Of others who decide that an
elongated head is an indication of beauty, and who
therefore spend their whole lives in a process of elon-
gating it artificially. And of another part of the world
where women one year believe that big hats are beauti-
ful; and the next believe that they are ugly. Of one
race which believes that long hair in men or the wear-
ing of soft black hats is a clear indication of unspeak-
able habits. We read of human souls being stored in
bottles and boxes; and of a tribe which practices sham
burials in order to deceive Satan. Another race trans-
fers its sin to weeds; another disposes of wrong by eat-
ing it; another eats a mixture of cooked flour and

TODAY AND TOMORROW 337

water believing that it will cure sin. We find that the
aborigines of Australia had an excellent method for
controlling the movements of the sun; and that certain
Arabs preserve their nail-parings for a religious pur-
pose; and that another race drinks fermented grape-
juice to cleanse the spirit. One people finds that fever
can always be transferred to a bald-headed widow;
another can tie the soul in a bandage, and so prevent it
from running away. We read of childless women who
crawl into holes in a certain rock, which possesses the
magical property of impregnating them during the
night; of a people who believe in the beneficial proper-
ties and virtue of mutual vituperation; of others who
once a year expel all the evil of their tribe by means
of a ritual. We read of a man who, two thousand years
or so after the disappearance of the tribes of Israel,
discovers them in the Middle West of America. And
of a race in which the wife's adultery is supposed to
bring bad luck upon her absent husband; of another in
which sexual crimes disturb the whole course of nature ;
of another that uses an instrument which creates a big
noise to make them courageous; of another which be-
lieves that by emitting groans they induce piety. An-
other race arranges for its priests to fertilize their
women by a religious ceremony, which is only effective
when the priests are in full health and strength. We
discover that for a long time Alaskan Islanders mis-
took Russians for cuttlefish. There is one race among
whom the eating of almonds will cause virgins to con-
ceive; another in which continence is practiced to im-
prove crops ; another in which only whores may serve
God; another that regards all their ancestors as mis-
chievous beings ; another that speaks with bated breath
and the highest respect of all wild animals ; another that
religiously preserves the tribal prepuces; and another
in which the men decorate their codpieces, to draw

338 THIS HUMAN NATURE

public attention to them. This race uses an iron chain
to promote the growth of beards ; that one soundly flogs
girls the moment they attain the age of puberty; the
other one transfers ill-feeling to a banana. One race re-
spects the ghosts of men, but wages war against the
ghosts of women ; and another takes the chief's soul and
bottles it the moment he dies. One race believes that for-
nication is bad for prosperity; another believes that it is
good, but not for the crops. One race believes that read-
ing will cause wind ; another that the moon can be per-
suaded to impregnate barren females; and another
forms a brotherhood with trees by sucking their sap.
On one side of the world there is a race which believes
that the poisonous juice of a certain fruit is bad for
themselves and forbids its use, but that it is an excellent
thing for another race at the other side of the earth. In
this race the kings become boa-constrictors after death;
that one uses the bandicoot for rain-making. A race in
one part of the world has no word for chastity and
cannot understand what it can mean; another race
knows what it means but regards it as something evil,
to be avoided if possible. One race considers it bad luck
for parents to have children resembling themselves;
another that fatigue can be transferred to sticks and
stones. In one part of the world a tree is married to a
mango; another whole nation worships gnats. Some
races there are who believe that by imitating the grunts
of a wild boar they will prevent sore feet; others that
by crawling under a bramble they can cure boils ; others
that a brass ring worn on the finger will cure pains in
the hip-joints. One race chooses its kings only from
amongst the best singers; another has an admirable
method for supplying an internally diseased man with
a new set of bowels. In one tribe there are people who
acquire wisdom by eating the brains of the dead ; in an-
other corpulency is regarded as a mark of aristocratic

TODAY AND TOMORROW 339

birth ; and in another it is looked upon as a sign of vul-
garity. A priest of this race declares that pointed toes
are an offense to the god of the tribe ; a priest of that
race provides eternal punishment for women who wear
their hair short or who expose their knees.

The list could be extended indefinitely, for the
libraries of the world are packed with records of hu-
man vagaries, absurdities, and stupidities. No race or
individual is free from them, now or at any other time
in history. The astounding feature of all this is that
they exist and persist in the midst of civilization. There
are so many of them around us that one can only con-
clude that man will never become really standardized,
in spite of machines. We smile when we read of the
simplicities of savage and barbarous races. But are not
the practices, customs, and beliefs prevalent among the
most enlightened races on a par with the vagaries of
human nature recorded by the anthropologists? If we
merely follow our daily newspapers carefully, we shall
find every-day occurrences far stranger than those to
be found amongst primitive or half-developed peoples.
I have beside me a popular monthly magazine contain-
ing advertisements for methods to produce beautiful
eyes, perfect noses, methods to make thick lips thin, to
banish corpulency, thinness, bad complexion, or pro-
truding ears ; methods to reshape the body or to achieve
popularity or sex-appeal, or fascination or charm.
Patent medicine charlatanism is vieux jeu.
1 Modern hoaxes

Hoaxes occur on all sides, commercial and financial
hoaxes; scientific and religious hoaxes; and a host of
others. A man called Stephane Otto in recent years
posed as Lord Ashdown, the vicomte de Beney, the
comte d'Artagnan de Sabrol, the comte de Horn, Baron
Tiergney and as Prince Charles of Belgium. This ver-
satile fellow included in his repertoire King Leopold

340 THIS HUMAN NATURE

II and Maeterlinck's son; he could become at short
notice the nephew of Cardinal Mercier or of Mr.
Andrew Mellon, the American statesman. When the
American army was at Coblenz * he arrived as "Baron
Tiergney" sent by the king of the Belgians to "con-
fer the Order of Merit upon the American Comman-
der." He was received with all the respect and defer-
ence due to so important a personage. Next morning the
American troops were paraded, and the "baron" deco-
rated (with faked medals) the commander and many
members of his staff. The general issued an order of
the day calling attention to the signal royal favor they
had all received ; and Otto was entertained at a magnifi-
cent banquet The following day he left, to a salute of
artillery, and with several temporary "loans" which
none of the good-natured soldiers had dared to refuse
to so noble and august an aristocrat. King Albert re-
ceived a hearty letter of thanks from the American
general in command; and only then was the cat let out
of the bag. Later, when Otto visited Buckingham
Palace, in a neat equipage, to demand an audience with
the duke of York, he was caught out; and went to prison
for three months as a consequence.
IT Intellectual hoaxes

A few years ago an "intellectual" hoax was perpe-
trated on the professors of a great English university.
A small, dignified, bespectacled and heavily bearded
man turned up (after having previously made arrange-
ments for his visit) saying he was "Dr. Emil Busch,
the celebrated German psychologist." He was received
with open arms at the university; and arrangements
were made for him to deliver a lecture to the represen-
tatives of higher English culture. The lecture consisted
of utter nonsense from beginning to end, but it was
couched in the high-falutin terms of philosophy,

* The incident was fully reported in the press at the time.

TODAY AND TOMORROW 341

psychology, and modern science. Everybody was taken
in, and a vote of thanks passed for Dr. Busch. It was
not until afterwards that it was found to be a complete
and perfect hoax. There is in Paris at this moment (un-
less he has died since the words were written) a man
who has persuaded many people that he can arrest the
process of organic decay by merely touching the object
which it is desired to preserve. A mutton chop, a dead
swallow, a slice of calf's liver, and a fish showed no
signs of putrefaction after an experiment. His method
is to put all microbes out of action by directing against
them "a magnetic fluid which throws them into a
trance." The commercial possibilities of this power are
endless, and the man is only waiting for an enterprising
financier to assist him in founding a business. The pity
of it is that he resides in France, where the people are a
race of utter skeptics.
If The case of Dempsey's sweater

In December, 1928, when Jack Dempsey's sweater
was exhibited in a shop window in Glasgow, hard-
headed Scotsmen and soft-hearted Scotswomen col-
lected to gaze upon it in rapturous admiration. The
news that it was there spread like wildfire through-
out the city. From Clydebank and the suburbs, hosts
of people flocked to the window. That each person
of the populace might have a fair chance of seeing this
great sight, the police force of Glasgow came into
action. Special constables swarmed about the shop, reg-
ulating the queues of sightseers and keeping the crowds
in order. I have since heard a whisper that the sweater
was in no way different from any other; and I have no
reason to doubt that it did at some time or other form
part of the wardrobe of the famous boxer. But I men-
tion the incident to illustrate the mind of a modern
people; and the effect which even a garment may have
upon it by association of ideas. Then there is the case

342 THIS HUMAN NATURE

of Adrienne Guyot, the Mons heroine who, between the
ages of fifteen and forty, became engaged every fort-
night and so captured a new husband on each occasion.
At the age of forty' she had had fifty-two sweethearts
and fifty husbands. By mere accident during her last
wedding one of her previous husbands came upon the
scene, with the result that Adrienne was put in a Brus-
sels prison to recuperate. The husbands were well-to-do
men of a good standard of education and morals. But
they were completely taken in by the adventuress. Ap-
parently they made no inquiries, but took Adrienne on
her face value, which was good. Man is still, as he
always has been, gullible in so far as women are con-
cerned.
f Modern 'witchcraft

Modern witchcraft trials in America provide a
striking example of the credulity and gullibility exist-
ing among large numbers of people. In York County,
Pennsylvania, and its vicinity, it was disclosed in 1928
that witchcraft and "pow-wow" necromancy rites are
prevalent amongst at least 150,000 people. The facts
were made public in consequence of investigations by
the police in the murder of Nelson Rehmeyer. A
farmer named John Blymer was accused and found
guilty of the crime. Under cross-examination Blymer
said that Rehmeyer had put a spell (a "hex") on him
which was causing insomnia, debility, and a lack of de-
sire for work. The following extract is from a report of
the trial :

Counsel. Was the spell broken when Rehmeyer
was killed?

Blymer. Yes. Because he was buried six feet
underground, with his hair.

Counsel. Are you all right now?

Blymer. Yes, I can eat and sleep now I am un-
hexed.

TODAY AND TOMORROW 343

Counsel. Then you were justified in killing
Rehmeyer?

Blymer. Yes, sir.

Counsel. If the judge put a spell on you, would
you kill him if necessary?

Blymer. Yes, sir.

Counsel. If the district attorney had you hexed,
would you kill him if you couldn't break the spell
any other way?

Blymer. Yes, sir.

There is scarcely a country in the world in which
gross superstition and witchcraft in some form or other
do not exist today. We have it on the authority of Mr.
William H. Paynter (recorder to Callington Old Corn-
wall Society) that in his part of England there are still
the strangest of beliefs among the people. For example
one must: "Never cut a baby's nails for the first few
months after its birth; they must be bitten short by the
teeth, otherwise the baby will grow up to be a thief
and rogue. An empty cradle should never be rocked,
for this leads to an overlarge family. The right hand of
a baby should never be washed until the child is a
year old ; to clean it would deprive the baby of riches."
According to an ancient Cornish dame who is well
versed in witchcraft, possessors of the evil eye can be
recognized by having a double pupil or a pupil that
contains the figure of some animal, usually a horse.
They have lean bodies and melancholy temperaments;
or squints, hollow eyes, hook noses, broad overhanging
eyebrows; while there is stated to be a strange glare in
the eye of a person who can "overlook," and the eye-
lids are always red. I have excellent authority for a
superstition which is still common among London
working classes: that birthmarks on children can be
most satisfactorily removed by the mother's licking
them off. I know of a case in which a mother licked the

344 THIS HUMAN NATURE

neck of her child with such good effect that a mark en-
tirely disappeared. In the highest branches of civilized
European society amulets are still often worn as charms
to keep away evil.
If An encyclopedia of frauds

Superstition takes so many forms that it is not possi-
ble always to say where it begins and where it ends. It
would perhaps be unfair to refer to the activities of
modern spiritualists as sheer fraud, since spiritualism is
too great a subject to be dismissed here in a few lines.
I can only direct the attention of the reader to a huge
catalogue of works on the subject recently compiled by
the director of the English National Laboratory of
Psychical Research. In this a hundred and forty sub-
jects of "mystery" are catalogued among them spir-
itualism, occultism, poltergeists, hauntings, levitation,
ecstasy, black magic, fire-walking, vampirism, water-
spouters, vaudeville telepathy, human ostriches, Indian
rope trick, magical secrets of the Greek temples, sword
swallowers, magnetic ladies, and Chinese magic. The
director says: "To those cast-iron bigots who believe
that every medium is white and every 'phenomenon'
genuine, this catalogue will make little appeal. But
those students of the occult with a mind of a more elas-
tic fiber who wear their convictions lightly will find a
vast number of interesting works on impostors of all
ages, including many modern charlatans who lay claim
to psychic gifts. But if the reader perseveres in his
search he will also find records of phenomena which
will stand scientific scrutiny and are inexplicable in our
present state of ignorance. Because modern spiritual-
ism is riddled through and through with charlatanism,
fraud, and self-deception, we must not blind ourselves
to the fact that abnormal phenomena do occur through
a few gifted persons or even spontaneously."

Telepathy and thought transference for vaudeville

TODAY AND TOMORROW 345

use are very ancient, it seems. "Those who think that
the Davenports may have had some psychic power need
only glance at the collection of their showbills to have
this illusion dispelled, apart from the fact that one of
the brothers confessed." But the late Harry Houdini
was convinced that a "spirit extra" of the late James
Hyslop was a genuine one. Technical works dealing
with finger-prints, ambidexterity and "what can be
done with the mouth," are included in the library, and
a series of packs of marked playing cards used by
gamblers. This fine catalogue is a general guide to
fraud, ancient and modern. The temptations for fraud
in spiritualism are indeed endless. Respectable and
worthy people, of undoubtable honesty, integrity, and
the highest reputation, fall under the attraction of such
practices. They may perhaps begin by doubting, a
phase which is followed by one of investigation. In-
terest grows to a point where they become convinced,
on the one side or the other; but there is every likeli-
hood that the period of study and investigation will
prove to be a slow, hypnotizing process even to people
who are not credulous. A "will to believe" is created
in them and, from that point, anything, however stupid
and ridiculous it may appear to others, becomes to them
convincing evidence. I have already quoted the as-
tounding effects of self-hypnosis in the case of Joanna
Southcott. The case of many spiritualists is obviously
of the same nature, except that the physical phenomena
are slightly different.

The number of facts and anecdotes which could be
produced to illustrate the credulity of contemporary
human beings is almost endless; and this in itself is
utilized by politicians and commercial advertisers in
their campaigns. The difference between human nature
of today and human nature of a few hundred or a
thousand years ago is in this respect almost negligible.

346 THIS HUMAN NATURE

In politics and advertising indirect methods of sugges-
tion, based upon the fundamental instincts and emotions
of men and women, have often taken the place of frank
and direct suggestion ; although even this is not yet by
any means a negligible method. Suggestion founded
upon a credulous receptivity of the victim does not
always depend upon an appeal to selfishness or greed ;
in many cases undoubtedly it is so.
11 ''Brides in the Bath" Smith

What could be better than the method practiced by
the Englishman, George Joseph Smith (of "Brides in
the Bath' 7 renown) upon those with whom he happened
to be traveling? In order to make money this astute
man cunningly selected race-trains in which to find his
victims. One may assume that the passengers who travel
by race-trains would mostly consist of those who attach
immense importance to sheer chance and luck as factors
in the making of a fortune. When Smith found him-
self in the right company he was a keen psychologist
he would remark upon the presence of flies. Then
he would produce a few half-crowns and invite the
race-goers to produce a similar number. The owner
of the oin upon which a fly first settled was to pocket
the lot. Smith always came out of these adventures a
richer and a happier man because he had previously
taken the precaution to soak his coins all night in an
alluring mixture of stout and sugar. The same prin-
ciples are behind much business success in the modern
world.
II Modern vitamins and ancient magic

"The process involved in the growth of magic/' says
Elliot Smith, "can be witnessed in operation at the
present time. As instances we might refer to two vastly
important biological discoveries that have been made in
our own generation. The recognition of the fact that,
in addition to the substance in our food required for

TODAY AND TOMORROW 347

building up of the physical structure of our bodies, it
must also contain certain accessory food substances now
called vitamins, if the nutriment is to maintain the
healthy growth and vital efficiency. The recognition of
this tremendously important fact has let loose upon the
world a vast campaign for exploitation of the imag-
inary virtues of the many substances and physical de-
vices such, for example, as one little fragment of the
light spectrum which are as devoid of reasonable jus-
tification as the elixirs of life and the witches' caldrons
of the Middle Ages. Not only do these false claims find
expression in commercial enterprises involving hun-
dreds of millions of pounds, but also in the activities
of many serious scientific investigators, who in their en-
thusiasm to obtain results make use of utterly mislead-
ing or worthless tests. Here, then, is an instance of one
of the most important scientific discoveries being per-
verted to become 'magic' and 'superstition/ and as such
immune to reasonable criticism." *
If Our obsessions

There is no need for me here to enter into details re-
garding the obsessions and delusions from which thou-
sands of people suffer. Many of them are so typical
that they have been classified and are to be found in
every textbook dealing with neurosis. There is scarcely
a human being who has not an obsession of some sort,
occasionally developed to the stage when it can be re-
garded only as a disease. There are people who dread
open spaces and others in whom confinement in a closed
space produces a sort of helpless lunacy. There are
others who fear being in high places; and others who
dislike low-lying places. There are obsessions for drink;
and for drugs, including tobacco. There are people who
have a mania for collecting things; and others who de-
sire to count everything. There is a fairly common fear

* Human History.

348 THIS HUMAN NATURE

of the color of red (which modern psychologists declare
to be an indication of self-reproach or shame of some
kind). And there is amongst literary men the common
unconscious impulse to repeat themselves. Such things
are of the very warp and woof of human nature in every
country at every period. The World War has intensi-
fied them and made them, with insanity generally, in-
creasingly common among us.
If Eccentricities of genius

Eccentricities and abnormalities are by no means con-
fined to half-wits or simpletons. Indeed it is among men
of genius that we find them exemplified in the highest
degree. Respect for the law of libel prevents me from
mentioning what I know on the best of authority to be
the strange behavior at times of many of our contem-
porary men of genius. But we know that DostoyevskPs
behavior and manner of life was such that, had he not
been recognized as a man of genius, he might have been
put away in an asylum for the insane. His powerful
imagination would sometimes create for him a great
fear of nothing which he could define; and then his
days and nights were spent in misery. Michael Angelo
suffered from a mad and melancholy humor; Ben-
venuto Cellini was affected by hallucinations; and Bee-
thoven undoubtedly bordered upon insanity. Schumann
had suicidal impulses, and Donizetti a sort of moral
insensibility his was a Jekyll and Hyde personality.
According to one biographer, Lord Byron was tor-
tured by hallucinations ; though one doubts this. Charles
Lamb was confined for six weeks in a madhouse dur-
ing the period in which he wrote most of his sonnets.
William Blake, Jonathan Swift, and the poets Cowper
and Southey were all not merely unbalanced but suf-
fering from definite brain disease; and everybody
knows of the neurosis with which Edgar Allan Poe
was afflicted. Napoleon suffered from that morbid

TODAY AND TOMORROW 349

excitability of the motor centers which is characteristic
of insanity; Wellington and Peter the Great of Russia
both had epileptic fits. Charles V, one of the greatest
kings living in the sixteenth century, was born of in-
sane parents; was scrofulous and melancholic. His
stammering was so bad that it was with great diffi-
culty he could make himself understood at all. That
great genius Cardinal Richelieu was also an epileptic;
Moreau reports that on one occasion the cardinal was so
mentally disturbed that he believed himself to be a
horse and galloped about, neighing and jumping. The
English statesman Pitt the Elder was a victim of both
gout and true mental aberration. Newton confessed, in
regard to a very odd letter he had written (one which
would nowadays justify his friends in having him
examined by an alienist) , that he had done it under the
influence of a "distemper" that seized his head and kept
him awake for five nights together. The German phi-
losopher Kant became a complete imbecile in his old
age. Descartes was convinced that he was followed
about by an invisible being who begged him for the
sake of humanity to continue his researches. Auguste
Comte, the French philosopher, was locked up for two
years, a raving lunatic, during which period he put the
finishing touches to his Positivist philosophy. The En-
glish economist John Stuart Mill was insane for a part
of the year 1826 ; after which he began his book on logic
published in 1843. Rousseau developed into a maniac,
finally suspecting that there was a conspiracy of Heaven
against him. The number of men of genius who suffered
from delusions of their own grandeur or divinity is a
very large one. Hegel would begin his lectures with the
words, "With Christ, I may say that I myself am truth."
Hallucinations were the mainspring of many great re-
ligious achievements, such as those of Ignatius Loyola,
the founder of the Jesuits, and of Joan of Arc, who was

350 THIS HUMAN NATURE

kissed by certain angels. She declared that she felt they
"had a good odor." *

2. MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS OF SEX

IT is often stated that there has been a fundamental
change in the nature of woman, especially during
the post-war period. There has been, I think, no funda-
mental change in the nature of woman since the dawn
of history: there is a peculiar sameness about woman's
nature, everywhere and at all times. The reason for this
is that she has a function which transcends all her other
functions and those of men : the function of procreation,
and the early care and education of children. Nothing
man does can compare in importance with this. After
self-nourishment, it is the supreme function of the hu-
man being and very well woman knows it. Her physi-
cal and psychological texture are designed toward
this great end. Her whole behavior revolves round it
and is held in a more or less fixed manner, as planets
are held in space by electro-magnetism or gravitation.
The superficial fashions and manners of woman may
change ; but not woman herself. There has been so much
variety in the history of the male (to whom the birth
and rearing of children is often an unimportant matter)
that he is never quite the same animal from one genera-
tion to the next. He has moved away from the primitive
state and developed a number of new faculties and a
new mentality, all of which emphasize the difference
between him and woman today. Woman tends to follow
the trend of man's development, but always there looms
in the background the great function of her sex; race
and climate and social conditions do not seem to affect

* See Fielding, op. cit., and J. F. Nisbet, The Insanity of Genius.

TODAY AND TOMORROW 351

it very greatly, so far as one can judge. But when
woman changes, she changes more rapidly than man.
H Birth control today

Momentous possibilities for change are to be found
in the modern practice of birth control. Woman is be-
ginning to control population through birth control,
and the importance of this new factor in human affairs
can hardly be overestimated. Birth control is at present
merely in the fetal stage ; in a generation or two it may
grow into a giant that will embarrass the whole world.
It may dominate the polity, commercial and political,
of all countries in which it is practiced. What, for in-
stance, will be the use of a machine-made civilization
depending upon mass-production and populous mar-
kets for its wealth, if those populous markets are re-
duced by twenty or thirty years of fairly strict birth
control?
1f Increase in population

At present the population of the world is increasing,
except in districts where birth control is practiced; in
these it is stationary or declining. The United States,
we are told, has increased in population from 7,5OO,ooc
to 120,000,000 in one hundred and fifty years. The pop-
ulation has doubled itself every thirty-five years since
the Declaration of Independence. This is no doubl
largely due to immigration, but immigration has had
to be slowed down enormously. Nearly two million ne\\
creatures, not counting immigrants, are added ever)
year.

Diseases such as yellow-fever, smallpox, plague
tuberculosis have yielded to medical science; cancel
and the other scourges of humanity may disappear ir
our lifetime. It is asserted by those best able to judg<
that in every country the feeble-minded and the bio
logically unfit are in a majority; and in some countrie:
these undesirables increase about three times as fast a

352 THIS HUMAN NATURE

the best stock. Two out of every three high-school stu-
dents in America are girls. One-third of all college stu-
dents in America are girls. In high schools and colleges
there are more females than males in the United States,
and in England it is the same, and there are already
two million surplus women.
1f Modern women's power

Since the privileges of education and independent
thinking have been accorded to women, they have
often shown aptitude not second to that of men and, in a
comparatively short time, they have entered almost
every field of human activity. They now occupy im-
portant positions in the political, professional, social,
and industrial worlds, with great credit to themselves
and their sex. Every census shows an increasingly large
number of women who are economically independent.
It is therefore quite in accordance with these social
changes that woman should inquire into the basis of
traditional ideas concerning her supreme function. The
modern woman is deciding that she has a right to be
the mistress of her own body; and to have the final
word regarding her own maternal destiny. She is think-
ing that no man, group, or institution has a right to
dictate to her whether or not she shall become a
mother ; or how many children she shall breed ; or when
she shall procreate. Motherhood is to her such an im-
portant undertaking that she does not wish it to be left
to mere accident, blind chance, or the caprice of na-
ture. It should be undertaken voluntarily and intelli-
gently; with due regard to her own health, the health
of children already born, the financial prospects of the
family, and the outlook on life in general. This is
claimed to be the basis of the birth-control movement
everywhere: a voluntary and intelligent motherhood
instead of one that is accidental and indiscriminate or
regardless of circumstances or consequences. "Such a

TODAY AND TOMORROW

program has been almost universally adopted by the
most intelligent in every civilized country." *

Hitherto the world has been conducted for man's
benefit rather than for woman's, and the new woman is
determined to wield to her own advantage the power-
ful weapons she holds. No one can yet tell how all this
will end. But it is certain that the future of mankind
will depend upon the use or abuse of it. The greater
biological safety which birth control has given, has
also contributed to the general laxity in sexual morality
everywhere. I believe that this is now greater than it
has ever been before in western civilization, though it is
not nearly so great as in the East where there is no
birth control. In any case it does not seem to matter
much one way or the other. Nature is not alarmed ; and
sexual immorality has seldom, if ever, affected the gen-
eral efficiency of a great people.
1f Making divorce pay

Modern marriage is so complex a subject that it can
be only briefly mentioned here, merely to show that it is
no longer (among Protestant nations) the binding insti-
tution it used to be. Its basis is biologically the same.
To women the (or a) wedding day is still the most
important event of her life. Marriage between two
human beings happens in the old way: by the capture
of the man by the woman, or occasionally vice versa.
But there is now a new element, as one might well
expect, in view of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,
commercialism and finance. This is the business-
arrangement marriage, the one in which a woman puts
a cash value on herself. The cash consideration also
frequently enters into divorce; and in the United
States there is a tendency for divorces to turn into mere
money-making transactions for women. The profes-
sional divorcee has come into existence the woman

* James F. Cooper, M.D.

THIS HUMAN NATURE

who, with her single sister of the oldest profession, uses
icr physical attractions to extract money from men.
Nor has the oldest profession disappeared from the
world, though Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity make
it increasingly difficult in very many countries. There
are professional prostitutes everywhere, and the white
slave traffic still flourishes. I have culled a few casual
extracts from a recent League of Nations report* on
this most interesting aspect of contemporary human
lature. In regard to England it proved difficult for the
League investigators to estimate the number of prosti-
tutes operating, no doubt because prostitution is a very
sly game in England. The number of arrests in the
United Kingdom and Ireland shows a reduction from
1,281 in 1914 to 405 in 1923. The number of arrests
for brothel-keeping has fallen from 69 in 1914 to 49 in
1923; there are so many free amateurs that it does not
pay to keep shop. Investigation in London showed that
the underworld does not consider conditions favorable
for white slave traffic. A pimp said : "Things in London
are tough. All the girls here are on the streets. Keep
under cover or you are liable to be knocked off [be
arrested]. They [the police] ain't very fond of boys
[pimps] here." t In the United States an investigator
"called on i8-R in New York and inquired about en-
gaging girls for a proposed cabaret in Panama City."
i8-R said : "I have sent over three hundred down there
and I know exactly what you want. You don't want in-
nocents and you don't want prostitutes, but you want
^irls whom you would call a happy medium. If you had
been here five minutes ago you would have seen the
swellest flock of blondes that you ever saw. ... In the
next room is a guy who is taking them tomorrow to
X-Siy in Panama."

* Report of the Special Body of Experts on Traffic in Women and Chil-
iren, C. 52, 1927, IV.

t Op. cit.

TODAY AND TOMORROW

f English and American prostitution

As prostitutes are not registered in the United States,
a study was made of the records of the Woman's Court
in the City of New York, forty per cent of whose popu-
lation is foreign-born, in order to obtain some idea of
the proportion of prostitutes who are foreign-born. All
women charged with sex offenses throughout the
great city pass through this court. The court records
showed that from twelve hundred to fourteen hundred
women and girls of all nationalities are convicted (in
this court) every year of various offenses relating to the
practice of prostitution; more than three hundred, or
twenty-five per cent, admitted foreign birth. Because
of the rigidity of the marriage institution and the short-
age of easy amateurs, prostitution would appear to be
very much worse in Catholic countries.
If The whore's paradise

In Brazil, for example, according to the report, "it
was explained to the investigator by the madames,
prostitutes, and souteneurs that young foreign girls
were usually brought over to be taken up by wealthy
Brazilians as mistresses. The more notorious madames
and souteneurs frankly stated that they had upon many
occasions supplied foreign girls to these wealthy men
and had received large sums of money for effecting the
introduction, both from the men and from the girls
themselves. When asked where these pretty girls came
from, one souteneur said: "Oh, shows come through
town all the time and usually drop a few." He con-
tinued: "Do you know there are more kept women in
this town than prostitutes?' 1 Others are brought by their
husbands (pimps who go to Europe, marry them and
place them in "business" in South America) or rel-
atives. The majority of the foreign girls who are to be
found in the houses come over at the instigation of
friends, male or female, who advance the money and

356 THIS HUMAN NATURE

are reimbursed from the earnings of the girls. Properly
licensed houses are the rule in Latin-America, though
the activities of professional ladies are not confined to
them. "In the So and So Theater (568%) at Buenos
Aires, from one hundred to two hundred clandestine
prostitutes nightly parade the balcony in search of cus-
tomers. These women are permitted by the management
to ply their trade, and may enter without paying any
admission fee. The majority of these women are of
foreign birth. Many had just arrived in Buenos Aires
and admitted that they came there principally to make
money, expecting, after having done so, to return to
their native lands. These women were free to operate
in this way because the Argentine law does not pro-
hibit soliciting, except upon public streets. Rarely, if
ever, except in red-light prostitution districts, has the
investigator in a somewhat wide experience seen
such a varied supply of women as existed in this inter-
national market-place." Europe supplies most of the
prostitutes to Brazil and the Argentine; other Latin-
American countries support the home industry.
11 Prostitution and poverty

Human nature shows no change whatever in respect
to this ancient institution, whose members are men-
tioned in the Bible. They are, like the poor, always
with us; and, like the poor, they will probably always
exist everywhere, so long as there are men with money
and women without it. We must not overlook the fact
that nobody hates the business so much as the unfortu-
nate women themselves, who are, in nine cases out of
ten, driven to it by force of economic circumstances;
and in the tenth case by the desire to preserve liberty
of conscience.
H Example of a great European criminal

It may perhaps be instructive at this point to con-
sider a celebrated case heard a very few years ago in

TODAY AND TOMORROW 357

the French courts. It illustrates many phases of con-
temporary human nature, and not least a fantastic sexo-
economic extreme of twentieth century life in one of
the most highly civilized European countries. It also
provides a good example of the type of criminal one
finds on the continent of Europe, who differs from his
confrere in the United States in that he more often com-
bines esthetic pleasure with the simple quest for gain.
I choose for this example a very great Frenchman, the
late Monsieur Henri Desire Landru, whose biography
is briefly as follows: The parentage and upbringing of
this excellent man were in every way respectable. His
home had a religious atmosphere and, at an early age,
he favorably impressed his spiritual pastors and mas-
ters by his sweet voice and devout manner in the church
choir. In adolescence he took to pursuits rather more
profane, successfully seducing the young daughter of
his cousin, a girl who was ultimately turned into an
honest woman by the holy sacrament of marriage. In
the military career he made fair progress, attaining the
rank of quartermaster-sergeant. On leaving the army
he adopted the profession of advertising. From that
moment till he was decapitated by the celebrated
Monsieur Deibler (to whose great public work I have
referred at some length in another book of mine) he
took to swindling nearly everybody with whom he
came in contact.

It is a remarkable fact that, before Monsieur Landru
became an advertiser, he was a moderately good citi-
zen of France. He now directed his great talent for
copy writing to drawing up matrimonial advertise-
ments, which he placed in the newspapers, offering
himself as a suitable person to share a couch with any
widow who might be possessed of financial charm.
Having made contact, he would write pages of love and
flattery; to washerwomen in the fifties and other women

358 THIS HUMAN NATURE

whose illusions were as great as their physical ugliness.
Of such women as these he would capture the affec-
tions, promise marriage, and take care to consummate
the relation before embarking upon an actual cere-
mony. Then, at the right moment, he would suggest
that they permit him to sell their goods and chattels or
any investments they might possess. When this trans-
action was completed Monsieur Landru would dis-
appear; and in another neighborhood he would tackle
another problem of a similar nature.
IT Landru' s charms

Now it happened that among the women whose con-
fidence this man of genius won and 169 of them were
found by the police there were at least ten whom he
could not discard with the ease which he considered
necessary to his progress, comfort, and prosperity.
These ten he murdered. Their bodily and other re-
mains were incinerated in a little stove at a country
villa which he rented ; for he found that a change of air
during week-ends was good for his health. In appear-
ance Monsieur Landru was a small cockatoo of a man,
skinny and pale, with a shining bald pate and a heavy
beard of which he was inordinately proud. Those who
had the honor of his acquaintance say that he was pos-
sessed to an extraordinary degree of those qualities
which invariably spell success in dealings with women.
He was polite and had a flow of well-turned flattering
phrases; and a gift for doing the right thing at the right
moment. He could roll his eyes eloquently; and strike
a note of piety when this seemed necessary. He also
possessed the ready wit which is characteristic of so
many criminals and great men. With such an equip-
ment it is not surprising that he led a full, interesting
life.

When Landru was tried for his ten known murders
his personality was such that he almost bamboozled the

TODAY AND TOMORROW 359

jury into a verdict of not guilty; and, although in the
end they found him guilty, they tearfully signed a
petition for mercy. As an example of Landru's rhetor-
ical abilities the following may be quoted: "You seem
preoccupied," said the examining magistrate at the end
of a day's grueling cross-examination. To this OUT
hero replied: "True, true, I am. And who could help
being so? Alas, my thoughts are upon the electoral situ-
ation of my unhappy country" a remark which caused
hilarious laughter and largely destroyed the bad ef-
fects that had been produced by the preceding cross-
examination.
If Life and death of a great man

His death was exemplary. When the priest came to
cheer him up and prepare the way for the journey from
this world to the next, Monsieur Landru indignantly
refused to hear him, declaring that the cleric should
concentrate his attentions on saving his own soul "of
which there was great need." When offered the cus-
tomary glass of rum and dope which comforts French-
men in the hour of decapitation, he refused, saying that
he was a life-long prohibitionist. There appeared to be
only one regret in his life, and it was that, in order to
behead him neatly, the prison officials found it neces-
sary to trim his beard. This he bitterly resented, saying
it was quite unnecessary. But officials are not without
some of the skim-milk of human kindness, for instead
of completely cutting off the beard they merely
trimmed it. The great man's head was struck off while
he continued uttering the words, "I will be brave"
a piece of Coueism which turned him into a perfect
subject for a terrible ordeal.

The lessons to be learned from the life and death .of
the late Monsieur Landru are so great and so many
that I would recommend strongly that his trial be made
an official textbook of philosophy, morals, and divin-

360 THIS HUMAN NATURE

ity; and even of science, because of the evidence given
by great experts regarding the chemical constitution
of incinerated human beings. Every young man who
wishes to study the art of love should concentrate upon
the work of this modern master. Bacon said that a man
finds himself seven years older the day after his mar-
riage; although this may generally be true, it does not
apply in the case of Henri Desire Landru. He reversed
the laws of the universe and grew younger as he grew
older; until a cruel government put an end to his life
in a manner which typifies national morality in the
twentieth century.

3. MORALS AND MANNERS OF THE MODERNS

LET us glance at the morals and manners of our
contemporaries, and mentally compare them with
those of past generations of men and women. We have
already seen how Protestantism following the Refor-
mation introduced the sharp distinction between a
man's private life and his religion. In every country
which is not Catholic, and even in some of the Catholic
countries, the new system of morality has reached an
intensified form. In Catholic Ireland, southern Ger-
many, northern Italy, northern Spain, and other places
where Catholicism has come into close contact with
Protestantism or industrialism, one can see that Catho-
lics are becoming unconsciously followers of the new
idea, because of its great commercial convenience.
Throughout the whole of western civilization religion
now occupies a less important position than formerly
in the affairs of men. It still has a strong appeal to the
majority, but its restraining moral influence is disap-
pearing and is now considerable only among women

TODAY AND TOMORROW 361

and children. The man who introduces religion in any
form into his every-day life is ostracized not as an evil
or untouchable person but simply as a confounded
nuisance whose presence is disturbing.
If Irreligion the mark of civilization

Organized forms and practices of religion are on the
wane, except for social or business purposes; and ex-
pression of the true religious spirit is far less than
among savage or primitive peoples. Irreligion is the
mark of highly civilized man in every phase of history.
This is not to say that modern morality is better or
worse than that which went before. But modern mor-
ality is based on motives rather than dogma ; in practice
it depends upon the expediency of the moment. There
has undoubtedly been a great passing of deliberate and
wanton cruelty. In some cases it has merely been trans-
ferred from beast to man: such sports as gladiatorial
fights, animal combats (or their more modern counter-
parts, blood sports such as cock-fighting, fox-hunting,
and badger-baiting) may be regarded as barbarous,
but the soul-killing results of machine-minding and
factory life, or life in coal mines, do not seem greatly
to matter. When at last they do appear to matter, pow-
erful social movements are required before improve-
ments can be effected.
f Modern man easily turned into a beast

Organized cruelty on a vast scale takes the place of
individual acts of cruelty. In twentieth century war-
fare we see men banded together and trained with the
avowed purpose of inflicting the most cruel injuries
imaginable upon their fellow men. It is considered to
be quite the correct and proper thing to turn men into
beasts, and (speaking as an ex-instructor in bombing
and bayonet fighting during the last bloody war) I can
assure the reader that it takes about a couple of months
to achieve this desirable end. Brigadier-General Cro-

362 THIS HUMAN NATURE

zier, who has given much study to matters of warfare
says : "I, for my part, do what I can to alter completely
the outlook, bearing, and mentality of over a thousand
men in as short a time as possible for the blood lust
is taught for purposes of war in bayonet fighting itself
and by doping the minds of all with propagandic
poison. The German atrocities (many of which I doubt
in secret), the employment of gas in action, the vio-
lation of Frenchwomen, and the 'official murder' of
Nurse Cavell all help to bring out the brutelike bes-
tiality which is so necessary for victory. The process of
'seeing red/ which has to be carefully cultured if the
effect is to be lasting, is elaborately grafted into the
make-up of even the meek and mild, through the instru-
mentality of martial music, drums, Irish pipes, bands,
and marching songs. Sacred and artistic music is for-
bidden, save at church, and even then the note of com-
bat is struck. The Christian churches are the finest
blood-lust creators we have and of them we made free
use." * That shows how superficial civilization really is.
In spite of these occasional and often artificially
created lapses into utter savagery, there has been in
twenty centuries a general leveling-up and spreading-
out of happiness, resulting from a growth in the
humanitarian spirit; and this tendency is not on the
decline. We no longer regard the lunatic as a person to
be beaten unmercifully in order that an evil spirit may
be driven out; nor do we chain up in dungeons the
mentally infirm. So long as they are harmless they may
freely walk about, as we all know from daily personal
encounters with them. No longer is a wife regarded as
chattel; her status has recently that is, within the last
half-century been raised above that of the domestic
pig and frying-pan. In the year 1927 a gold digger in
Johannesburg sold his wife for the sum of ten pounds

* A Brass Hat in No Man's Land, by Brig.-Gen. F. P. Crozier.

TODAY AND TOMORROW 363

and a motor-truck, a transaction which was pleaded as
a defense and a set-off to an action for the return of the
lorry. I gather that it was not a successful defense;
fifty years ago it would have been. In England, state
pensions are now paid to the aged whose income is
below a certain figure, and there is a proposal under
consideration for increasing these pensions, and making
them applicable to all persons over sixty. This money
is paid not as charity but as a right. Before 1908 old
people who suffered from poverty were left to die as
best they could ; and there was no hubbub about it.
1T Is man poorer today?

It is claimed by economists that there has been a gen-
eral increase in the prosperity of the western world.
By this is meant that there is a greater aggregate of real
wealth, whose full use is prevented by the ingenious
modern system of bookkeeping and the desire of gov-
ernments to assist finance. It is, however, doubtful if
there is much less general poverty now in the world
than at any other period. It is estimated that in west-
ern civilization there are fifteen million unemployed
and sixty million starving. We do not know the figures
of fifty years ago, or of two thousand years ago, though
surely they cannot have approached these for today.
The cause of this wide-spread unemployment and pov-
erty is undoubtedly the increase of mass-production by
machines. In New York alone, over one hundred thou-
sand needy and starving people were assisted finan-
cially or otherwise in one twelvemonth, a decade after
the war, by a single philanthropic society. In England,
the system of insurance by which a worker is com-
pelled to contribute so much each week toward a state
fund which is available for unemployment, has been
the means of preventing extreme starvation among the
masses during post-war years. Insurance money drawn
by unemployed from the state has been disgracefully

364 THIS HUMAN NATURE

called the "dole," but it is all nothing more nor less than
a simple insurance transaction, in which man insures
himself against unemployment, as he might insure him-
self against sickness or accident. Among those who are
not eligible to receive unemployment money there is
appalling suffering. In 1928 a man wrote to the London
Daily News declaring himself to be out of work and
with no prospects of obtaining it. He therefore offered
himself to any university or hospital that would care to
have him for purposes of scientific research. "I will
consent," he wrote, "to the injection of cancer, typhoid,
or malaria germs, grafting, or any other form of
surgery with the exception of permanent blindness, as
I think that would affect my reason." All he asked for
was enough money to keep his wife and children from
utter starvation. There are thousands equally as badly
off.
IF Industrial cruelty to children

A peculiar form of modern cruelty is the employ-
ment of child labor. In England this has almost
disappeared, but not so in America, where indus-
trialism is more highly developed. In 1927 the Ameri-
can Child Labor Committee reported : "The tendency
to employ children has not materially lessened since
1920 when, according to the U. S. Census, there were
more than 552,000 working, not including those on
home farms. On the contrary there are indications of an
increase. Economists say the restriction of immigration
and the rapid development of industrial activity will
undoubtedly add to this tendency. The harmfulness of
child labor has not been clearly understood, or, if un-
derstood, has been disregarded. Recent legalistic dis-
cussion has to some extent obscured the facts both as to
the number of child workers and to the effects of this
labor. Many thousands of children who ought to be at
school are at work, and many thousands are at work

TODAY AND TOMORROW 365

under conditions that must be condemned. Stricter
regulation of child labor coupled with better provision
for education and recreation remains a social necessity
and therefore the immediate concern of every citizen
of every state. There is a grave danger of false com-
placency growing out of a belief that the job is finished.
It isn't." The report then goes on to say that seven states
permit children to go to work at fourteen without evi-
dence of ability to read; eighteen states do not make
physical fitness for work a condition of employment;
twelve states allow children at fourteen to work nine to
eleven hours a day; twenty-two states allow children at
fourteen to run elevators; nineteen states have no laws
prohibiting children of fourteen from working on dan-
gerous machinery; seventeen states allow children of
fourteen to oil, wipe, or clean machinery in motion;
thirty-five states allow children at fourteen to work on
scaffolding; twenty-eight states have no laws prohibit-
ing children of fourteen from working in the imme-
diate neighborhood of explosives. It all seems a horrid
nightmare.

These are merely facts of modern industrial mo-
rality, and they are to be found in greater or less degrees
in every industrial country. Modern industrialism is
such that ive cannot afford to sneer at the morality of
any race or people under the sun. Perhaps one of the
most interesting features of modern American life is
the amazing increase in crime. This has been called
"The National Dishonor." Crime now costs the United
States every year the sum of $13,000,000,000 approxi-
mately the total of the war debt! There are twelve thou-
sand people murdered every year, that is, there are fifty
murders in America for each one in Great Britain. The
annual murder rate in the United States has increased
350 per cent since 1900. Two-thirds of the crimes com-
mitted in the United States are committed by persons

366 THIS HUMAN NATURE

born in Europe or by their immediate descendants. In
other words, while in every European country there is
less lawlessness than there is in the United States, the
chief contributors to lawlessness in the United States
are the immigrants from European countries. In many
of the larger cities of America there is a political and
sometimes a financial partnership between the under-
world and the very officials who are sworn to protect
the lives and property of law-abiding citizens.
f Wealth and crime

The causes of this great increase in crime lie much
deeper than the influence of the World War or of Pro-
hibition. A steady increase in crime and disrespect for
law has been going ahead for thirty years. First and
foremost among the causes is the tremendous increase in
wealth, "which has made for wastefulness, extrava-
gance, and display, and tempted the weak to the acqui-
sition of easy money, which has brought in the conscious
part of the economical and political and social life of
the nation many thousands of a new generation who
have heretofore hidden in poverty. They have caught
the spirit of the sordid game and, being participants,
they have less confidence in their own judgments and
easily follow the examples of others." Another cause is
the "stupid increase in the number of laws, which by
the force of multiplicity alone have increased the sum
total of crimes." Next in importance is the "stupendous
growth" of physical conveniences such as automobiles,
automatic pistols, machine-guns, smoke-screens and
airplanes. "The inefficiency of the judicial system" and
the "business of amassing wealth and devoting to fri-
volity the leisure thus gained" are also blamed.*

* Broadcast from station WJSV, Washington, by Wade H. Ellis, of the
American Bar Association's Crime Commission. The figures presented by
Mr. Ellis, who is a former assistant attorney-general of the United States
and an ex-attorney-general of Ohio, are, says the Literary Digest, from the
Report of Bar Association's commission. Reported by the Manchester
Guardian.

TODAY AND TOMORROW 367

I Ordered disorder

Another reason given for the prevalence of crime is
the insufficiency of the police force. The relative neces-
sity for keeping citizens in order may be gathered from
the numbers of police per head of the population in the
following cities : London, one policeman to 427 of popu-
lation; Paris, one policeman to 358 of population; Ber-
lin, one policeman to 367 of population; Vienna, one
policeman to 492 of population ; New York, one police-
man to 553 of population; Philadelphia, one policeman
to 468 of population; Chicago, one policeman to 712
of population. So that in America, where there is most
crime, the necessity for law and order is considered to
be less than in Europe. Probably the greatest cause of
murder in the United States is the practice of carrying
revolvers. There is an almost complete absence of re-
striction on the sale of firearms and ammunition. Crime
is now a business, and the Chicago Crime Commission
says: "Organized crime has adopted and promoted all
those elements of weakness in democratic government
which develop, particularly in a large city, the evils
of petty politics. One price paid always in some meas-
ure and in some way for a democratic form of govern-
ment is privilege or advantage traded and dealt in to
secure votes and the personal advantages accruing from
securing political office. Whether the appeal is to one
class of voters, or to a single gang leader for the sup-
port he may give, the condition to be dealt with
should be frankly acknowledged and intelligently
handled." I do not quite understand all that; but it
seems terrible.
f Lynchings and rape

Lawlessness in the United States is further exempli-
fied in lynchings, of which there is a recurrence and
sometimes an epidemic every year, although there has
been some decrease since the great year 1919 when

368 THIS HUMAN NATURE

there were eighty-three recorded cases. Lynching is a
survival from the days, after the liberation of slaves,
when the white population set about driving the Negro
out of politics. It is a custom which has disappeared
from the whole world with the exception of America.
The excuse usually made for lynching a Negro is that
he has been guilty of rape. One can seldom get at the
truth in regard to this, but I quote from the best author-
ity I can find. "During the thirty-year period, 1889-
1918, less than one-fifth of the colored men done to
death by lynching mobs were even accused of 'the usual
crime' and in that period fifty colored and eleven white
women were lynched. It should be borne in mind that
the mob's accusation is not by any means equivalent to
conviction, or even to an indictment for crime by a
regularly constituted jury. In fact, in a number of cases
in which investigators were sent to the scene of lynch-
ings by the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, their reports showed not only that
the victim's guilt had not been proved, but that he was
actually innocent of the crime charged. To take a
recent five-year period, that of 1914-18, the number of
Negroes lynched in the United States, exclusive of
those killed at East St. Louis in the riot, was 264. In
only twenty-eight cases, or slightly more than one-tenth
of the lynchings, was rape assigned as the cause. If we
compare these figures with the record for New York
County, which is only a part of New York City, we
find that in this one county, in the single year 1917,
there were 230 persons indicted for rape, of whom
thirty-seven were indicted for rape in the first degree.
That is, in just a part of New York City, nine more
persons were indicted for rape in the first degree than
there were Negroes lynched throughout the entire
United States in a five-year period. Not one of the
thirty-seven persons indicted in New York was a

TODAY AND TOMORROW 369

Negro." * I have no means of checking the accuracy of
these statements but, as they appeared in a publication
read by those best able to contradict them, and no con-
tradictions appeared, one must assume their truth.

Lynching provides an excellent example of the effect
of example and suggestion upon a crowd of otherwise
decent citizens. It is an example of how far seemingly
peaceful modern people will go, in giving expression
to hate, the moment they are aroused. And it is a
striking example of the fact that the reasons and actions
which arouse frenzy in a crowd need not necessarily
be either moral or based upon truth. It is sufficient for
the crowd to believe that they are true. The atmosphere
does the rest. This applies to the actions of crowds in
every country, and in every country their madness is
precisely of the same nature. Lynching is merely a local
mannerism or fashion in certain states of America.
Happily it tends to decrease.
1f Savagery in the midst of civilization

I shall now give a verbatim report from an American
newspaper, in which the facts are given of what an
excellent lynching there was during New Year's Eve
celebrations in the year of grace 1929. "More than six
thousand enraged Delta farmers," it reads, "were back
at their homes today after witnessing last night the
burning alive of Charley Sheppard. Occupants of more
than three thousand automobiles, standing in a giant
circle, stood silently about in a clearing of the forests
near Rome,t just outside the gates of State Prison
Camp 1 1, and watched the mob leaders bind Sheppard,
toss him on a pile of wood, drench the Negro killer
and the wood with gasoline and touch a torch to the
powerful Negro's frame. A staff correspondent of the
Daily News who was with the mob which toured

* "Lynching/' by James Wcldon Johnson in the Current History Magazine
(January, 1924).
t I.e., Rome, U.S.A.

370 THIS HUMAN NATURE

through the country for nearly seven hours, and who
was present 14J during the burning alive of the black
slayer, gave a vivid description of how the enraged
farm and townspeople went methodically about their
work of torturing Sheppard in the most dramatic man-
ner possible. Before the match was touched to him,
Sheppard's mouth and nose were partly filled with mud
to prevent him from inhaling gas fumes which might
cause him instant death. It was clearly the intent of the
mob, the staff correspondent said, to make the black
double-murderer-kidnaper suffer as long as there was
life in his body. The flaming torch was again withheld
as a wild-eyed member of the mob, intent on further
torture, leaped atop the pile of wood, straddled the
Negro's body and cut his ears off with a pocket knife.
At about 7:15 the flaming torch was touched to the
gasoline-soaked mass of humanity and wood, and a gasp
went up from the circle of spectators as the gasoline
flames shot high in the air. Some hundreds of women
in the crowd screamed, and their cries mingled with
the agonized shrieks of the burning Negro, who twisted
and fought at his ropes, cursing his captors and white
people generally. Several attempts were made to shoot
Sheppard as he let loose his death-shrieks, but these
were stopped by other members of the mob, who
argued that the Negro should be made to suffer as
much as his life allowed. While the silent crowd stood
about the clearing, fresh cans of gasoline were tossed
on the burning bier to keep the fire burning brightly.
The correspondent estimated it was forty-five minutes
before the powerfully built Negro finally quit his con-
vulsive twitching and agonized fighting at the ropes and
flames. The time might, he admitted, have been shorter
than that, although it seemed that long to the witnesses.
Because of his powerful build the black slayer lived an
almost unbelievably long time, according to all reports.

TODAY AND TOMORROW 371

His body began to disintegrate almost before he died,
they said. His feet and legs were soaked with gasoline
before oil was poured on the rest of his body, and one
leg fell from his trunk before he gave his last living
twitch. Cooper, former deputy sheriff of Rankin
County, told the Daily News that he thought Sheppard
was 'crazy.' 'You could tell he was a half-wit by looking
at him,' Cooper said. The blackened skull of the black
who paid by an hour of burning alive before he lost
consciousness, smoked in a ditch beside the road this
morning, tossed there by a souvenir hunter who cap-
tured it after cremation last night. The man who cut off
Sheppard's ears with a pocket knife just before the
torch was applied to his gasoline soaked body, later
exhibited them at a filling station in Drew." *

That, I think, is a good example of the extremes of
savagery to which modern civilized man (Homo
Sapiens] will go in his hate of his fellow creatures. In
short, he is at times far more savage than any animal to
be found in any jungle. Other examples could be
quoted, but I think that one makes my point clear,
without laboring it unnecessarily. I may perhaps men-
tion one more case, rather different, to show how a silly
little incident may lead to a grand riot. In the spring
of 1921 at Tulsa, Oklahoma, a careless and no doubt
impertinent Negro lad a mere spirited boy had
stumbled as he entered the elevator of a hotel. In an in-
stinctive effort to regain his balance he caught the arm
of a young white lady who was operating the elevator;
whereupon the girl screamed loudly. A sensation-
seeking newspaper reporter who happened to be near,
wrote what journalists call a good story of a "Negro's
Attempt to Assault White Girl." In the newspaper
office this scoop was further embroidered and embel-
lished; stunning headlines were added; and the story

* Jackson Daily News, January i, 1929.

372 THIS HUMAN NATURE

was duly published. That started the fun. The "boys"
got busy. A white mob collected to lynch the Negro,
and a colored mob assembled to defend his life. All
signs of law and order vanished, together with the in-
fluence of three thousand years of culture. Mob spirit
rose to great heights and a conflict raged until the death
roll numbered one hundred. A considerable portion of
the city was wiped out.
f European heritage of cruelty

Similar epidemics, I find, have occurred within very
recent years in East St. Louis, Omaha, and Chicago;
and there have been other murderous outbreaks of less
consequence elsewhere. I trust that the facts and figures
which I have quoted will convince the reader of one
thing: that amongst the most civilized races the spirit
of savagery and cruelty is by no means dead. Longer
experience and discipline and very great experience of
brutality and torture have helped to curb it in Euro-
pean countries, with the possible exception of Russia;
in which, under both tsarist and Bolshevik rule, those
vigorous primitives are wont on occasion to be more
bloodthirsty than anywhere else in the world. Incidents
of modern cruelty could be quoted from every civilized
country. Under the Fascist rule in Italy there have
been many brutalities; the English effort to subdue the
Irish before the settlement of 1921 indicated the pres-
ence of the old spirit. All that is required now and in
the past to set flame to the passions of man is a
"cause." It is rather curious that the "causes" nowadays
productive of most cruelty are always intended for the
benefit of mankind. In capital punishment, which still
survives in many countries, we find an example of
violence "righteously" used by states for the benefit of
their citizens. If it be of any use whatever in dealing
with crime which many people doubt it is a stand-
ing example of how a brutal old law can survive. And

TODAY AND TOMORROW 373

it sets a bad fashion in morality. One is glad to learn
that it is exceptional for men awaiting execution (in
England) to lose weight and to lose health. Indeed,
according to one excellent authority a man awaiting his
execution "generally improves in health." *

Protestantism introduced the "God is God, but Busi-
ness is Business" idea and finally put the hall-mark on
this facet of morality during the golden age of slave-
trading; then nineteenth century industrialism intensi-
fied the feeling that God must be kept in his place. And
when we come to the twentieth century we find the in-
fluence of the Supreme Being so far reduced that He is
becoming a polite term of reference. The fear of God,
which was formerly the beginning of wisdom, has
almost disappeared from the world. An English
preacher, Dr. Dale of Birmingham, stated even some
years ago, "No man now fears God." The steady elimi-
nation of fear generally is another interesting feature
of the modern world. The general philosophic outlook
of mankind has been so changed by the European war
(with its ten million dead) that far fewer people
regard the fear of death as something that need seri-
ously disturb them. The terrors of Hell have vanished.
Furthermore, fear is playing a small and decreasing
role in penology. A hundred years ago the hangman's
noose was the cure-all for crimes. At present there is
serious discussion, in all countries where capital pun-
ishment exists, as to whether it is of any use whatever
in dealing with the very -few crimes for which it is
retained. Fear of parents has also practically disap-
peared: the birch-rod no longer has its former honor-
able place in the average household. The old idea of
morality was to punish the wrong-doer, child or adult,
and there was considered to be no great need to argue
about right or wrong, because might was always right,

*Dr. Alan C. Pearson, Senior Medical Officer, Wandsworth Prison.

374 THIS HUMAN NATURE

Parents will now reason with their children; and the
process frequently ends in an argument in which the
child wins. The result is a good-humored disrespect for
parental authority.
IT Great physical courage of modern man

One school of thought believes that the new morality
is undermining the hitherto strong, resolute, and dar-
ing character of men ; that the present generation is a
flaccid one, with none of the old courage that "sprang
from religion." Such a view as this is based upon a
complete ignorance of history, a lack of common sense,
and an absence of the power of observation. There was
probably no time in history in which both the physique
and intelligence of man as a whole were greater than
they are today; and there was no time when men have
more widely demonstrated, beyond a shadow of a
doubt, their great courage and tremendous vitality.
Some peoples may be a little exhausted after the strain
of war. But what does the loss of ten million men
matter biologically in a world consisting of twenty
thousand millions? And in which the population is
steadily increasing? War losses and the psychological
effects of war are very quickly retrieved. The phys-
ical, mental, and spiritual reactions afterwards merely
represent human nature having a rest after an over-
exhilarating activity. In two generations at the outset
the biological effects have disappeared completely. But
certain psychological effects remain a little longer, and
a few may even be intensified. Of these, I think, the
most important is that part of the human psyche which
governs the quality of courage; and this, I think, is
strengthened. I believe that western man (that is to say,
the type we find in western European and American
civilization) is in every way a braver creature than any
that has ever before existed on the face of this earth.
Looking through the pages of world history, I doubt if

TODAY AND TOMORROW 375

one will find any phase in which man more resolutely
faced more terrifying or devastating creations than the
modern engines and explosives of war which millions
faced between 1914-18. There is no need for me to illus-
trate this fact by quoting incidents ; nor any need for me
to enter into the history of the war. Our generation has
been made thoroughly familiar with the whole filthy
business. Every book that is published on the subject
merely adds further evidence to support what I wish to
emphasize : namely, the great courage to be found in all
classes of society, and in a diversity of nations.

In spite of the fact that the influence of God in
human affairs is declining, masses of people every-
where continue the devout worship of the Supreme
Being. This is especially true of Catholic countries and
the United States. The great wave of prosperity in the
last-named country is reflected in a wave of church-
building everywhere, by all denominations.* Schools
and universities are building notable chapels; great
sums of money are expended; and the best architects
are at work providing imposing designs and solid struc-
tures. When American civilization has crumbled to the
dust, there will remain (for the Russo-Chinese arche-
ologist of five hundred years hence) so many ruins of
churches that he will say to himself, "These Americans
were a very religious race or, perhaps, like the
English, they were a nation of hypocrites." It is also in
America that we find least toleration; and this in itself
is an indication that the spirit of religion has not yet
disappeared. In Europe religion has reached the phase
at which few people take it really seriously; and hence
there is great toleration.
1F Bolsheviks abolish God

But matters have sometimes gone beyond mere tol-
eration. By far the most interesting phase of modern

* See the Literary Digest, August, 1929.

376 THIS HUMAN NATURE

religion is the attempt by the Bolshevik government
to abolish God entirely. In the Federation of Soviet
Republics the law provides that every citizen is at
liberty to practice any religion or none at all. It is,
however, the definite belief of the Bolshevik leaders
that religion is not a good thing for human nature ; and
they have begun an intensive campaign of propaganda
to educate millions of peasants and workers to this be-
lief. Accusations have been brought against the Soviet
government that in their enthusiasm to propagate
atheism, members of Christian and other creeds have
suffered the direst persecution. It is inconceivable in
view of the who&e history of human nature that there
should be any profoundly revolutionary idea which
does not involve cruelty, or even persecution, in some
form or another; though the modest claim is made that
under the Soviet regime there is more toleration than
there was under the tsar. We must leave it to the next
generation to elucidate the truth in regard to the present
phase of religion in Russia, and content ourselves with
the one important fact which emerges beyond doubt,
even at this stage of the business. We must record in our
minds that, for the first time in history, a powerful gov-
ernment (ruling nearly one-fourteenth of the popula-
tion of the globe) has definitely set itself the immense
task of preventing God from interfering in the affairs
of men. If they succeed, they will have effected a com-
plete revolution in human mentality.
f Cultural influence of the cinema

The cinema is the modern attraction which every-
where seems to be taking the place of church-going in
countries where this practice is admittedly declining.
There is now no city in the world without its moving-
picture theaters; and bigger and better ones appear in
all directions. The screen is undoubtedly one of the
factors which go to the shaping of human nature in its

TODAY AND TOMORROW 377

latest phase, though it is a little early to say exactly how
and where this shaping process is taking place, not to
mention its ultimate effects upon the nature of man;
especially upon his morals and his manners. As usual,
the experts disagree. Some say that the influence is
good. Those who favor the church influence, or who
obtain a livelihood as professional moralists, right-
eously maintain the contrary. In Europe nobody wor-
ries very much about it one way or the other, but in the
United States, where more money is at stake on both
sides, the pros and cons of cinematograph morality are
matters of considerable financial importance; and are
therefore subjects of deep study. The Rev. Clifford
Gray Twombly, D.D. (rector of St. James's Church,
Lancaster, Pennsylvania) estimates that of the twenty
million people who daily enjoy the films in America
seventy-five per cent are under twenty-four years of
age, and he says, "more than thirty per cent of the films,
or about one in every three, are striking at the very
basic cornerstone of American life, for they are tend-
ing to destroy the sanctity of marriage and of the fam-
ily, *nd are making light of personal purity. They are
subtly and insidiously and intentionally sensual."

Dr. Twombly estimates that ten million children of
school age daily attend moving-pictures. They con-
template the behavior of their elders and no doubt are
influenced by the astounding sexual and other tergi-
versations of screen heroes and heroines, villains and
villainesses. "One needs to do no more," comments the
Rev. Dr. Twombly, "than scan the billboards or read
the movie-showhouse announcements in the press, to be
certain that the vile is emphasized and the suggestive
played up above all other forms of attraction. That the
picture industry has become the fourth or fifth largest
in the United States, under these conditions, would
seem to justify the judgment of the producers in feed-

378 THIS HUMAN NATURE

ing out so great a proportion of filth. If this were done
frankly they could be left to the authorities, but it is all
disguised under a hypocritical camouflage maintained
by three men, who have chosen to sell their own repute
to the shameless and mercenary group who fatten off
the souls of the innocent, and who pretend they are in-
terested in art This shallow pretense has now worn
thin, and through the threadbare veil appears greed, in
the full panoply of the richness it has grasped. The
shares in the movie corporations are widely held, under
the modern system of selling earning power while con-
tinuing control in the hands of insiders. This keeps the
paws of the investor clean and permits the promoter
to work his rascally will." I hope this is clear to the
reader.

Replying to it in a scientific paper (read to the po-
licewomen of San Francisco) a representative of the
film industry gave an imposing array of facts to show
that, but for the films, crime might reach really serious
dimensions in America. He said that a study of 620
feature pictures produced in America during 1928
shows that actually 33.7 per cent contained no villain
and no crime; in 17.5 per cent the villain was killed; in
33.8 per cent the villain was imprisoned; in 4.4 per cent
he was reformed; and in the remainder of the pictures
he was punished by the hero. The lecturer, warming to
his subject, went on to say that, in the thirty-eight
'underworld' pictures of the preceding year, the villain
was killed in fourteen instances, arrested in nineteen
cases, and reformed in five. "Such fs the iron-clad
moral of the movies'' he declared, "that not once does
the guilty escape punishment! 1 My italics.
1 The psychology of the film audiences

Now most films are made with the object of catering
for what the psychologists call "projection," the idea
being that the audience may pleasingly project itself

TODAY AND TOMORROW 379

into the personalities of the actors and actresses who
appear on the screen. The activities of these shadowy
figures are those best calculated to appeal pleasingly to
the emotions of the audience. On the screen there can
be shown activities such as are strongly forbidden by
religion and law, as well as by that unwritten code of
morality we all know so well the one which "holds
society together." The audience finds itself enraptured
while it projects itself and in imagination lives a life
of delightful immorality or lawlessness, drunkenness,
love-triangles, and infinitely sweet adulteries. For the
strong, silent, asexual men there are shooting and mur-
ders and business-cheatings resulting in great fortunes.
Weak and miserable characters inevitably lose all their
money, if they ever had any. The films are thus a great
help in popularizing the notion that sin may be very
amusing and provide first-rate fun for those who in-
dulge in it. By virtue of the general diffusion of cul-
ture, and especially the spread of elementary education,
this fact had already been suspected by a large number
of people.

The World War had released many hitherto sup-
pressed passions of men and had provided a powerful
impetus for evil (for soldiers and sailors do not con-
tinue to fight very well unless they are given great li-
cense the moment military discipline is relaxed). And
the female population of all countries took pity upon
the men suffering from a release of passion, glad of the
great opportunity. Hence, the morality of the cinemato-
graph matured at an opportune moment and helped by
association of ideas to stimulate laxities in sexual mat-
ters and encouraged that common feature of all human
nature: the propensity for what we call vice.

Vice is a matter of fashion, changing from period to
period, and locality to locality. Definition of it depends
entirely upon public opinion at a given moment For

380 THIS HUMAN NATURE

example, in prohibition countries there are prohibition-
ists who regard drinkers as vicious ; in wine-producing
countries (such as Italy or France) the man who does
not take his glass of wine is looked upon with extreme
suspicion, and the solemn whisper goes round that he
practices some secret horrible vice that is ten times
worse than drunkenness; otherwise, "he must have a
bad stomach." By stimulating the propensity for vice,
the films arouse indignation in the hearts of those
whose public position prevents them from free indul-
gence in it; and at the same time they must perforce see
the more fortunate endlessly enjoy themselves. Conse-
quently, the number of people everywhere who are vir-
tuous against their will is almost as great as that of
those who make a virtuous pastime of their natural and
inherent vices,

I have referred once or twice to the growing hypoc-
risy of modern man, the far-away cause of it being the
desire among large numbers of men to avoid some form
of pain or punishment. The appearance of the Empire
of Hell caused a great growth of hypocrisy among
Christian nations in the first centuries of our era. Men
and women were willing to say something which they
did not believe, in order that they might be given the
assurance that they should not burn throughout eter-
nity. The Inquisition produced similar results, the
reason then being that men would say what they did
not believe rather than burn there and then. The Refor-
mation again produced a wave of hypocrisy, for people
joined the new church very often as a matter of mere
whim or fancy based upon the attraction of novelty or
variation in religion; or to avoid terrible persecutions.
Industrialism again added to it. It was so beneficial to
the country, they said. But it is the modern commercial
doctrine of Success and Prosperity which is giving
the final touches to human hypocrisy.

TODAY AND TOMORROW 381

If Success in business

For purposes of business, men will now say or do
almost anything. During business hours the most excel-
lent people, who do not dream of lying or deceiving in
their private lives will, for purposes of gain and Suc-
cess, perjure themselves from morning to night, and
never think for a moment that they are behaving in any
but the most exemplary manner. We see this admirably
illustrated in methods employed to advertise and sell
goods. In regard to advertising, hard lying has reached
such a state of poise and perfection that much of the
copy we read is better conceived and written than the
bulk of contemporary prose literature. As for sales-
manship, modern man thrives on it. The salesman
(which word also embraces those of the opposite sex)
is a man whose chief object in life is to persuade people
to buy the goods he is selling. It occasionally happens
that there are numbers of people who actually require
the particular goods he is trying to sell ; but it is equally
certain that there are far larger numbers who either
cannot afford to buy them or do not really need them.
All of the modern salesman's education is designed to
provide him with powers capable of persuading these
last two classes of people to buy; for, it is only when
goods are not 'wanted that any real skill is required.
When we inquire into the meaning of the word skill
as applied to salesmanship, we find that it embraces
cajolery, hypocrisy, lying, prevarication, subterfuges,
cunning, and deceitful movements from the front and
flank, mendacious attacks from the rear, from above,
and from below, all with the object of making people
buy the unnecessary and unwanted article or articles.
The art of rhetoric is expanded by advertisers and
salesmen into flights perhaps not worthy of Shake-
speare, yet very imaginative. The machine enormously
magnifies the boosts of the advertisers. A tin whistle

382 THIS HUMAN NATURE

well played may sound better than a cathedral organ
badly played. And the organ badly played can make
so much noise as to be impressive in spite of the dis-
harmony. The article is sold, the salesman gets his com-
mission and the customer adds one more article to a
number which he has been persuaded to buy against his
or her (generally her) better judgment. When sales-
manship is combined with facilities for hire-purchase,
a goodly proportion is roped in of those people who
otherwise could not afford to buy.
f What Success means to others

All this is the logical outcome of the machine and of
a manufacturing system which can produce far more
goods than the world is able to buy. The world is now
purchasing nearly twenty times the amount of goods
per year that it was purchasing thirty years ago. There
is more unemployment and, on the whole, probably
more real poverty; there are also more millionaires,
more advertising, and more "expert" salesmen. The
whole system is becoming intensified and there is at
present an increasing population which is "educated"
to require more luxuries and more "necessities." The
moral cause behind it all is merely that "Business is
Business." Advertising, hire-purchase, and salesman-
ship are everywhere causing people to live above their
income, which itself means that they tell or act lies all
day long. The world today is largely a hypocritical
world as a consequence. On the one hand we have a
general laxity in morals and beside it we have the cyn-
ical hypocrisy of an artificial existence, which brings
with it the most fantastic reactions. This partly explains
why we find such curious phenomena as a state banning
a dictionary because it contains a definition of the word
evolution, as actually occurred when Arkansas banned
Webster's Dictionary. It also partly explains the activi-
ties of good people who are not really puritans, but

TODAY AND TOMORROW 383

who salve their horrible consciences by banning the
amusements of others : they are often the people behind
movements to suppress " immoral" literature and move-
ments to prohibit all frankness in matters of religion
or sex. It also tends to produce extremes in innumerable
directions, freakish movements in religion and in mat-
ters of social life. There are countries in which the
dangers of commercial materialism are fully realized,
and spiritual compensations provided. In Germany,
for instance, there is a "nakedness" cult patronized by
males and females who enjoy sun-bathing combined
with contemplation of their own human forms divine.
Nobody in Germany seems to take exception to this;
it is indeed regarded as quite a beneficial and soul-
soothing form of amusement, though amusement is
hardly the right word, because members of the sect take
it so seriously.
^Censorship of legs and busts

In England this sort of completely naked sun-
bathing would land the bathers in prison. There are in
England seventy-three seaside resorts where the length
and color and shape of bathing costumes are subject to
municipal scrutiny; the Lord help the woman who
wears a V-shaped neck at Wigan; or those males and
females who dare to bathe in each other's presence at
Huddersfield.* In certain parts of the world it is con-
sidered undesirable for women to engage in sports,
because of the possibility of exciting the passion of
males by an exhibition of legs and busts. However, in
most civilized countries women may now indulge in
outdoor sports to their hearts' content. In the Victorian
era this was not so, and even today the Vatican looks
upon it with disfavor. In 1928 the pope protested
against the public appearance of females in sporting
contests in Italy. It was therefore decided to compro-

* Sunday Express, May n, 1930.

384 THIS HUMAN NATURE

mise by substituting bows and arrows for rifles in a
shooting competition, and this announcement drew a
vigorous protest from the Osservatore Romano. The
newspaper maintained that the offense to Christian
manners and customs was repeated by this new athletic
contest. "Further," added the Osservatore, "it is, to say
the least, a sudden exotic mimicry of other nations here
in Italy, where the Fascist regime so jealously guards
the characteristics of Latin civilization. In any case,
it is false to say that women's sport in public enjoys the
highest credit among Anglo-Saxons. (Sic) As to Latin
civilization, everyone knows that the Romans never
admitted women to their stadiums, armed or unarmed.
(Sic) To find a precedent for such a practice we should
have to go back to the most corrupt cities of ancient
Greece. (Sic)"* This shows how women's mentality
is changing even under the rigid conservatism of Mus-
solini.

The change in western mentality may be illustrated
further by the general attitude of authority toward
"outspokenness" in matters of sex. Before the industrial
era, men and women could say almost what they liked
in public, and there was almost complete frankness in
literature. Now there is a brake upon honesty of ex-
pression. It takes the form of a censorship of the
theater, of books, newspapers, and all forms of publi-
cations, and is most noticeable in England, Germany,
and the United States. In France it hardly exists. No
doubt this censorship may in some instances be bene-
ficial. In Germany, for instance, a "Smut and Trash"
Act was introduced in 1926, one which only comes into
operation when complaints are made against individual
works and publications. These complaints are investi-
gated and judged by a proper tribunal. Appeals against
decisions of the tribunal can be made to a higher one.

* Quoted by the Manchester Guardian, November 19, 1928.

TODAY AND TOMORROW 385

Departments have been formed to give effect to the cen-
sorship law, at Berlin, Munich, and Leipzig, Some
sixty-three publications were put on an Index by the
Smut and Trash Tribunal up to May 31, 1929. Nine
of these were deliberately criminal or scandalous,
seventeen were serial stories, fourteen were criminal or
love stories in book form, seven were homosexual maga-
zines, seven were "nature" magazines (highly porno-
graphic in character) ; there were also a Cologne
criminal-news publication and three other books. In
both England and America there is, in addition to the
legal provision for dealing with obscene books, an un-
regulated, irresponsible, and hypocritical censorship,
which often interferes with the publication of great
works of literature. James Joyce's "Ulysses," for ex-
ample, one of the great books of the modern world
(and in no sense immoral) is banned because it contains
a few passages and words which might shock us. This
unregulated censorship is defeated by the publication
of "limited" editions at high prices. Thus, there is as
there always has been everywhere one code of moral-
ity for the rich, and another for the poor; and that, in
a nutshell, sums it all up.

Now as manners depend upon morals, it is quite
simple for us to sum up the change that has taken place
in the twentieth century. Since we have become more
hypocritical, we may say that in so far as the superficial
manners of men and women are concerned there has
been a very distinct change for the better. This may
also be partly attributable to the feminist movement in
which the slogan went up for equality of the sexes; and
hence there is less tomfoolery in the guise of etiquette
and chivalry. The war also contributed its share to the
process of making men and women more genuinely
polite to one another. It is, however, in matters of taste
and "form" that there is the greatest difference. The

386 THIS HUMAN NATURE

modern world undoubtedly suffers from what is called
the vulgarity of wealth, as popularized by the cinema.
In the past the standard in manners, morals, good taste,
and form was set up by the aristocracy, the priesthood,
and men of culture. There was a very small "upper
ten" whose taste was good, and the rest of the world con-
sisted of simple and often very rude people. The Cru-
sades created the spirit of chivalry which we saw exem-
plified in the case of the washerwoman who had to
walk on foot the whole of the land journey to Palestine,
while her lord lorded it on horseback. We are not so
honest as that Crusader. We are more hypocritical. If
we were in his place we should probably give the poor
girl a lift, even to our own discomfort; though, if it
interfered with the progress of a war it might even
today be in the national interests to make her walk. We
should be simply delighted to take shelter behind such
an excuse.

4. CONCERNING CHANGE IN HUMAN NATURE

THE question "Does human nature change?" will,
I hope, have answered itself by this time. Human
nature does change; often for the worse. It may be in-
structive, however, to attempt to draw up a rough
schedule of how and in what manner changes occur,
one which will indicate whether they are superficial or
fundamental. To understand the nature of these
changes it is necessary to appreciate fully the fact that
man is an animal with social propensities, and an intel-
ligence developed to an extent which we do not find in
any other form of nature. In the first place let us con-
sider those qualities of man which are to be found
among all highly developed animals; that is to say,

TODAY AND TOMORROW 387

those qualities which are more or less subject to the
ordinary laws of biology. Such qualities spring from
fundamental instincts and emotions pertaining to the
existence, the preservation and perpetuation of the
species for example, hunger and sex. In these there
has been hardly any change whatever in the half a mil-
lion years in which human beings are supposed to have
existed on this earth. In circumstances of extreme
hunger and privation one cannot be sure that the most
civilized man will not kill and eat his dearest friend.
I have already given recent instances of wide-spread
contemporary cannibalism in China; there are re-
corded isolated instances of cannibalism at sea among
Englishmen during the Victorian era; and there has
been a rumor of a very recent case having occurred
during an exploring expedition whose members con-
sisted of an old and highly cultured race. When driven
by hunger man will eat almost anything and will do
anything for food; law, morality, manners, and all in-
fluences of heredity and environment are driven out.
The sublime law of biology the law of jungle and
ocean takes their place.

In regard to hunger, then, there has been no funda-
mental change. Nor is there in matters of sex any great
change, though there is a host of changes in the moral
code and in the manners governing it at different
periods of history and in different races. Rape is no
longer considered polite by men and women, though
they both object to it in principle far less than they care
to admit. In regard to fear, another fundamental in-
stinct based always upon the desire for life, there is a
slight change due to the steady disappearance from the
world of a dread of Invisible and Intangible Things,
and the fear of the consequences of death. Man now
seems to be a much braver being than he has ever been
before, although one is not too certain of this when we

388 THIS HUMAN NATURE

think of his terrific struggle against the monsters of the
prehistoric world and those of the jungle during the
incalculably long hunting period, when his character
and nature were mostly formed. In regard to combat-
iveness, there are considerable changes ; although some
people may consider that they are merely superficial.
The original physical struggle for existence during the
period when man was still a hunted animal has been
replaced by (or sublimated in) a sort of commercial
combativeness and ruthlessness exemplified in every
phase of life under modern finance and industry. The
gregarious instinct is another of the fundamentals that
have undergone a change, in that it has become intensi-
fied. Although the world is still for the most part
engaged in agriculture, there are now whole areas in
which ninety per cent of the population consists of city
dwellers: and when human beings have dwelt for a
couple of generations in a city they lose desire for the
peace of a bucolic life.
II The cultural structure

It is doubtful if the human powers of imagination
have very greatly changed in two thousand years. The
powers are the same, but behind them they have an
immense cultural structure providing endless stimu-
lating and suggestive ideas. I have already referred to
the seeming inevitability of inventions. To this may be
added that each new invention provides material for
Heaven only knows how many others. Who could
imagine in the early nineteenth century that Faraday's
experiments in electricity were to end in the American
financial and commercial conquest of half the world.
For there is no doubt whatever but that American in-
dustrial efficiency and wealth are based upon electric
power and the highly efficient use made of it in dealing
with the immense natural resources ready to hand.
Those immense natural resources were discovered, it

TODAY AND TOMORROW 389

would appear, as a result of Columbus's leisure reading
(which happened to include Marco Polo's "Travels")
together with the development of those two amazing
inventions, the mariner's compass and the jib for tack-
ing against the wind.
1f The intelligence of "average man"

In the whole history of human nature there has been
only one thorough effort to reduce to scientific terms
the intelligence of a large number of men. It is of very
great importance to everybody, since it gives a rough
indication of the standard of intellect to which modern
man has attained. During the World War the Ameri-
can army authorities collected data of which the object
was to discover the intelligence, if any, of about
1,800,000 men, of whom 41,000 were officers. Nearly
thirty per cent were found to be unable to read or un-
derstand newspapers or write letters home. The whole
army was eventually divided into the following cate-
gories: A, men of Very Superior intelligence, such as
those with ability to make a good record at a univer-
sity; of these there were no less than four and one-half
per cent. B, men of Superior intelligence, that is, men
capable of average work at a college or public school;
of these there were nine per cent. C+, sixteen and one-
half per cent, men of High Average intelligence, in-
cluding some with a capacity for "leadership." C,
about twenty-five per cent, men of average intelligence
who made "excellent privates" (mental age fourteen),
C , about twenty per cent, men of Low Average
intelligence only "moderate privates" (mental age
twelve). D, about fifteen per cent, men of Inferior in-
telligence, slow to learn but "fair soldiers," though un-
able to understand written directions. D &E, about ten
per cent, men of Very Inferior intelligence (mental age
of from three to ten years). Fielding comments: "As-
suming that the drafted men were a fair sample of the

390 THIS HUMAN NATURE

mental development of our [i.e. American] 100,000,000
population, it means that 45,000,000 or nearly one-half
of the whole population have the mental capacity of a
normal twelve-year-old child, and that only thirteen
and one-half per cent possess superior intelligence."
The same probably applies throughout western civili-
zation, to judge from the general social history of
recent years. I should, however, put the literacy of
European nations higher.

Now we cannot well estimate the intelligence of our
prehistoric ancestors, apart from such guidance as may
be obtained from the brain capacity of the skulls that
have been found in various places. But we do know
that the brain capacity of the Cromagnon woman far
exceeded that of the average twentieth century man.
The skull which informs us of this had been smashed
by a heavy blow from a bludgeon, perhaps some fifty
thousand years ago (and probably during a domestic
argument). It is therefore a little difficult to say
whether we have more intelligence, though there is evi-
dence which points to a slight improvement. In this
respect also we may, therefore, give man the benefit of
the doubt; and say that human nature has changed for
the better. I am well aware that there is a powerful
group of anthropologists and sociologists opposed to
this conclusion, but somehow I do not care to admit
that they are right, and that man is now lower in intel-
ligence than he used to be. This is mere emotional
prejudice on my part, and is not based upon reason.

Whether there is any great advance in human energy
I do not know. A casual glance at the great feats of
endurance of the past makes one doubtful. Is there any
modern feat of endurance which surpasses the marches
of Alexander the Great across half of Asia? Or Han-
nibal's feat in crossing the Alps? Or the building of
the Pyramids? Or the voyages of the navigators, or

TODAY AND TOMORROW 391

those funny wars of the Middle Ages in which men
careered about and fought terrific hand-to-hand com-
bats while carrying armor and equipment of appalling
weight? One thing seems to be certain and it is that the
modern collectivist use of the mobilized energy sur-
passes anything known to history. It is this mobilized
and controlled energy, harnessed to machine power,
which has in the course of a hundred years provided a
means of rapidly changing a whole cultural edifice:
this may best be illustrated by the case of Japan.
IT Influence of the cultural structure

Our cultural edifice has itself now become an ex-
ternal influence which is at present engaged in remak-
ing and reshaping the superficial facets of man's nature,
those which change from age to age and may even
change considerably in the nation or individual during
a lifetime. Thus, the western world is steadily being
divided into two categories of people: those who are
actually slaves to the machines, and those who come
under machine-made or machine-magnified influence in
some form or other. The tending of machinery is even
producing a new type of man. In the old days a crafts-
man made his product from start to finish and in it ex-
pressed his originality and personality. In so doing he
fulfilled a psychological yearning. Now the tendency is
for a worker to spend nearly all of his very short period
of maturity and fitness in doing a single operation which
after a week or so requires no mental effort whatever.
The machine knows no fatigue in the natural sense of
the word. It sets the pace of human labor in a ruth-
lessly exacting manner. Science has been called in to
estimate nicely how much a machine-minder can stand ;
the vigilance of employers takes care that he uses up to
the very last ounce his powers of endurance. Tension,
monotony, and noise unite to turn what might have
been a fair example of Homo Sapiens into a wretched

392 THIS HUMAN NATURE

creature that is neither machine nor human. The
creature may have wages and freedom outside of fac-
tory hours: but is he or she really in advance of the
serf or villein or slave of the Middle Ages, or the slave
of Babylon, Egypt, Greece, or Rome?
IT Standardized man

The man who is half a machine is now common to
most parts of the world; the man who is one-quarter
machine is to be found in every grade of society; and
the man who does not come under the standardizing
influence of the machine in some form or other is as
rare as a white blackbird. Every phase of modern civi-
lization is coming under the sway of machinery and the
ruthless commercial greed that is behind it. The higher
artistic faculties and the latent powers of creation are
being eliminated in all directions; they survive only
among the most courageous rebels, who themselves tend
to be overwhelmed or develop into freaks. Two late
cultural achievements of the modern world are the
invention of the talking film (of which the logical de-
velopment is multilingual "talkies") and the machine
which enables a telegraph operator to set up type at the
rate of sixty words a minute in one or more printing
factories or newspaper offices situated at great dis-
tances. This invention contains a possibility that one
operator will be able to set up type simultaneously in
every city of a country. Hence, one staff of journalists
working under one editor (who may be and most prob-
ably will be a finance-slave) will be able to educate
millions of people in the way they should go. Such an
editor, like all other editors, will have to bear in mind
the lowest common denominator of intelligence among
his readers (please remember the result of those intel-
ligence tests), and any idea that is unlikely to please
them will have to be struck outMdeas are valuable onlj
when they are strikingly original and as near to abso-

TODAY AND TOMORROW 393

lute truth and absolute honesty as is humanly possible ;
and they must tend toward the happiness and comfort,
not of a few, but of all men. Hence the utilization of
this machine and others of a similar nature by the
commercially and financially powerful may end in the
mental and moral degradation and enslavement of huge
conglomerations of people, many of whom are already
more than half standardized as it is. Here the reader
may turn back to pages 228-9 and ponder upon the
example given of the effect of mob upon individual.
H The standardized face

A writer in the English press * recently drew atten-
tion to a phase of standardization which has, appar-
ently, been overlooked by the anthropologists. It is one
which must have unconsciously occurred to many peo-
ple who visit the cinemas and see machine-made heroes
and heroines, villains and bad lasses. I mean the stand-
ardizatiofr of the human face. Ideas and motorcars,
buildings and tea-cakes, music and literature, ice-cream
carts and petrol pumps, clothing, haircuts and film
stars are, we know, already much of a muchness every-
where, not only in the United States but in the more
highly civilized parts of Europe such as England. But
faces? One might have thought that they would be the
last things to resist standardization. Apparently it is not
so. The observer I have mentioned says: "The third
generation of European immigrants seen in American
public schools tends toward a uniformity of face and
feature suggesting the work of a Heavenly Henry
Ford. I have seen children of Italians, Swedes, Ger-
mans, and Greeks sitting side by side, looking almost
alike, and talking exactly the same. Impressive thought!
One day America may have one single face. This will
not be at all like the marvelous long face of Lincoln,

*R. J. Cruikshank, New York correspondent of the London Daily
April 25, 1930.

394 THIS HUMAN NATURE

thought-worn and tender. It will be a round, fattish
face, with a jolly smile flashing on and off like electric
light It will be a middle-western face, and it will have
few lines but quite a number of creases. It will be very
pleasant and good-natured, but oh! so redundant."

No lessons are simpler than those of history; and
none receive less serious consideration by the human
being. One thing may yet save western civilization from
utter standardization and robotization, and that is the
preservation of languages and dialects and the encour-
agement of individual absurdities, bizarreries, gro-
tesqueness, mysteries, superstitions and beliefs; the cul-
tivation of such originalities as those we have recently
read of in the press regarding the solemnization of a
marriage under water, and the refusal of an English
bargee to permit his children to read or go to the
cinema, because he did not believe in such silly, new-
fangled ideas as newspapers and films. We must en-
courage such admirable institutions as the Monkey
Hill at the London Zoological Gardens, where en-
lightened men, women, and children now go to con-
template in unabashed honesty and spiritual ecstasy the
natural and unrestrained frolics of sacred blue-ended
baboons. We must, indeed, as Rousseau recommended
long ago, "get back to nature" and to the golden age of
ancient mythologists and modern anthropologists; to
minding a cabbage patch and tending pigs and sheep.
One must cultivate one's garden. It is only in this way
that human nature can avoid being transformed into an
efficiency resembling that of termite ants/ those terrible
insects which have organized and standardized them-
selves to such a pitch that their whole life seems to us
a horrible nightmare. Perhaps this may appear rather
too pessimistic a reading of history. For those who
think that it is, I offer an alternative future for human
nature. There may possibly be war on such a scale that

TODAY AND TOMORROW 39$

it will devastate civilization completely and create such
a horror of machines that Samuel Butler's "Erewhon"
may come into real existence.
11 The profound wisdom of America

Personally, I have no great fear of standardization.
And if it comes, what matter? so long as men are opti-
mistic and happy and can go on eating and drinking
and generally enjoying themselves. Are not rabbits
happy? I am far more afraid that the alternative, in the
form of war, is the more likely to occur. And I base it
upon my reading of the history of human nature. Con-
sider Ludwell Denny's words: "We [America] were
Britain's colony once. She will be our colony before she
is done; not in name, but in fact. Machines gave
Britain power over the world. Now better machines
are giving America power over the world and Britain.
We are not content with the richest country on earth.
Geniuses of mechanical efficiency, we cannot organize
an equitable distribution of our wealth. Instead we
exploit nations far less rich. There may have been some
excuse for Britain on her poor island to go imperialist.
There is none for us with a near continent on which to
thrive. But we are not without cunning. We shall not
make Britain's mistake. Too wise to try to govern the
world we shall merely own it. Nothing can stop us.
Nothing, until our financial empire rots at its heart, as
empires have a way of doing. If Britain is foolish
enough to fight us, she will go down more quickly, that
is all r*
H The next Crusade?

Now the human animal presents many faces to the
world. As a general rule he is all things to all men, but
tends to dislike all those who he imagines are in a
position to injure him in any way; and likewise he is
inclined to love those who may bring him some bene-

* America Conquers Britain, by Ludwell Denny.

396 THIS HUMAN NATURE

fit. The perversity of mankind is this, that it will gen-
erally change like for dislike the moment a benefit has
been received. If you lend money to your best friend
and, for reasons over which he has no control, he finds
that he is unable to pay you back or finds his comfort
disturbed by paying you back, there are a hundred
chances to one that he will become your enemy.' This
tendency in human nature is such that it has in many
countries of the world become proverbial. In Spain,
for instance, they say: A reconciled friend is a double
enemy. If we add to Ludwell Denny's words (and the
acrimonious history of war debts) this factor which is
common to all human nature, we get a potent cause of
trouble. A bad atmosphere is created: one in which
war thrives.

No Englishman will agree that if there ever should
be a war between England and America, England must
inevitably go under in battle. Denny has great knowl-
edge of economics, but has he a knowledge of European
psychology, British diplomacy, French military genius,
and German organizing ability? And does he not know
that nations are sometimes reborn? Has he overlooked
the old proverb to the effect that "Birds of a feather
flock together 77 ? Does he realize that American com-
mercial and financial Success may unite Europe, as
Moslem power united Europe during the Crusades?
All that is required then is a few good fighting sermons,
and a blare of the propaganda trumpet and I fear that
we should all once more relapse into the jungle. Be-
sides, before all this occurs, the release of energy from
the atom will almost certainly have caused a revolution
in human affairs far greater than that caused by the
combined industrial and mechanical revolutions of the
nineteenth century. But even that will not alter the
basic qualities of human nature. No, not in a hundred
thousand years.

TODAY AND TOMORROW 397

5. A BRIEF NOTE ON THE FUTURE OF
HUMAN NATURE

WHAT of the future of human nature? My answer
is that it will go on and on and on and on more
or less as before. Manners and morals will change ; and
cultural structures will change. But man and woman
will never profoundly alter their natures; by pro-
foundly I mean biologically. That there will be great
discoveries and advances in such sciences as bio-
chemistry nobody doubts. It may one day be possible
for a man sitting at a wireless machine to cause physical
reactions of a foreseen and even deliberately calculated
nature in thousands of people who have previously
been doped (in the right manner) through the water
supply. Such achievements as that will not be beyond
science. But they are merely freakish possibilities; and
there are already hundreds of such possibilities in the
minds of imaginative scientists at this very moment.
The mass of humanity jogs along more or less the same
in spite of them all; though they are a great comfort
in time of war.

Man will probably become a fitter animal death
rates wilj be reduced, the span of life lengthened; and
birth control will counterbalance the extra numbers of
useful and useless human beings which science will
preserve for us. This may, in the course of four or five
hundred years, raise the, intelligence of "average" man
from the mental age of fourteen to, say, fifteen; or per-
haps a little less. It is not upon science that the imme-
diate future of humanity depends, so much as upon
politicians; and they are a breed that, without the
slightest doubt, grows steadily worse. There is hardly
a country in the world in which the word "politician"
is not either a term of reproach or (as "cabinet min-

398 THIS HUMAN NATURE

ister" was in one country not long ago) a term of abuse.
I offer no constructive solutions for such a state of af-
fairs, as I know that they will inevitably right them-
selves an d no doubt ultimately end by beginning an-
other historical cycle, which will end in more or less
the same way as the last.

Bernard Shaw says, "Government presents only one
problem the discovery of a trustworthy anthropo-
metric method," and Plato long ago recommended a
system which would have "philosopher-kings" in
charge of affairs. But would the trustworthy anthro-
pometric method (supposing such a method could be
devised, which seems to me utterly beyond human
capacity) eliminate the bad qualities to be found in the
make-up of all good men? By "bad" I mean those un-
suitable for the direction of human affairs. Biology
cannot be altered by mere measurement. Man is hap-
piest, or so it seems, when his existence is most orderly
and peacefully monotonous, and when all his problems,
physical and spiritual, are solved without too much
irritating effort of the intellect.

We live in an age when affairs of the spirit are said
to be in a bad way, and with every prospect of growing
steadily worse. The germ of efficiency and success has
infected two great sections of the world: first America,
and now Russia the latter in a slightly different sense.
We are familiar with American civilization and the
manner in which it is working out its destiny. It is, on
the whole, a happy manner, and I base this observation
upon the fact that, in spite of all that can be said against
it (and what I have said is mild compared with what
Americans themselves are saying), on the whole it pro-
duces a contented, happy, optimistic and when you
know him or her a very likable type of human being.
To my mind, the most significant feature of America
today is the quest in all directions for "uplift" and cul-

TODAY AND TOMORROW 399

ture. There are some people who sneer at it. But if it
continues and expands, a very fine culture may be the
result by the time the disgusting money-craze has spent
itself as it inevitably will spend itself.

By far the most significant possibilities for the future
of human nature are to be found in Soviet Russia. Sup-
pression and cruelty resulted in the Bolshevik revo-
lution; and Russia has passed through its "Terror" and
is now going through its "Age of Reason." But it is an
Age of Reason with science and English and American
and German industrialism behind it, from which to
learn. Hence Russia, to judge from such evidence as
from time to time becomes available, promises to leave
every other country behind in sheer ruthless efficiency.
The more one reads of this efficiency, the more terrify-
ing it appears. The Russian mind at its highest is a
blend of the oriental with occidental. It is a mystical
mind of immense range; and of more devastating logic
than the French mind. It has a fair leaven of cruelty;
and now (as a result of tsarist rule and the reaction
thereto) a high social consciousness. This social con-
sciousness is being grafted upon a mass of 150 millions
of people by means of propaganda on a scale before
which all western propaganda pales. The object of it
all is to teach individual man that he must completely
use his individuality for the benefit of the mass. The
welfare of the mass has taken the place of God and
Heaven. "Bliss" and "grace" are achieved by work for
the earthly community. This doctrine has reached, in
a very few years, a power which almost justifies one in
calling Russian Communism a mystical religion one
with all the drive of any of the old religions. It is early
yet to judge results : but obviously the creative strength
of Soviet Russia is expanding at a rate for which there
is no parallel in the history of any other race or nation
on this earth.

400 THIS HUMAN NATURE

How will this end? Is it tending for the good or for
the bad of human nature? One cannot tell. Unless his-
tory is to take an entirely new turn which it may the
end will be similar to that of nearly all such idealisms :
in an abominable, cruel, and materialistic culture, in
this case one which will have stupendous efficiency
added to render still more intense the innate faults of
human nature. In the struggle between individual lib-
erty and mass discipline, mass discipline may win for
a time; and while it is on top, Russia may be turned
into an organization of humanity on a parallel with the
termitarium. Progress will then mean the anthropo-
metric grading of men and women for purposes of
collective selfishness. Security and comfort will be
achieved at the expense of the emotions; and a highly
efficient, vast, and awful machine whose cogs are indi-
vidual men and women will be the result. Whether this
will be generally beneficial to the world and produce
better men or women, I do not know. Somehow the
human heart beats a little quicker with fear at the pos-
sibilities raised in the imagination by the picture of a
"human" termitary.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world and the average
man will job along somehow, perpetrating human
stupidity and goodness as before. Nations will come
and go. Some men and women will be beautiful
flowers; others rank weeds; others monkey-puzzles.
And so on. Men will live their three-score-and-ten
years, if thy are lucky; they will sleep one-third of this
period and be immature or ailing for one-half of it,
leaving about twenty-five years for full life as before.
Nothing can alter that. There will always be great fun
and great sorrow sometimes more of one and some-
times more of the other in the lives of men and
women. Eating, drinking, sleeping, and breeding will
ever remain the most important functions of human

TODAY AND TOMORROW 401

life. The rest is nearly all mere extrinsic, superficial
ornamentation which may be either simple or elab-
orate, often depending upon the vagaries of weather
and climate and physical surroundings, which are
themselves governed by planetary movements and
forces over which we can never hope to have control.
Scientists may show us a method of ectogenesis: but
men and women will persist in a superstitious prejudice
in favor of the old, old system of procreation. In that
lies the future of human nature. In that lies the assur-
ance that it will be as variegated as ever: that coming
generations of men and women will laugh and weep;
that they will fight and hate and love one another, just
as we do. Fortunately for the generations to come they
will have the heritage we leave them, and this is the
only thing of which we can be really certain.

So there is no great cause for worry: God will re-
main in his Heaven ; and all will always be well with
the world.

THE END

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