ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 133 



always easily defined has been growing throughout the historical 

 period with a steady progress on the whole. I refer to that code 

 which has for its basis the criticism of our fellows, and which we 

 call the morals and manners of a gentleman. Obscured by many 

 absurd and trivial details as to what clothing we shall wear and what 

 corner of our cards we shall turn down, it has yet a very substantial 

 moral basis, and there are evident signs of its advance. Time was 

 when it was not considered necessary to adhere closely to the truth, 

 and when the seduction of young girls was considered an accom- 

 plishment. Our grandfathers reverenced a five-bottle man while 

 we look rather askance at one who " tarrieth long at the wine." 

 I believe that never in the world nas the standard of clean, healthy 

 morality been as high as to-day, although I am aware that the eager 

 scramble for money perverts and injures many features of the fair 

 ideal. 



We do not always completely realize the Titanic task which this 

 wonderful teeming nineteenth century has before it. The civiliza- 

 tion of the past had for its object the training and enlightenment of 

 the few; we are apt to judge of it by its results upon that few, and 

 forget the countless miserable hordes of slaves and plebes that were 

 little above cattle, and whose morals no one noted. These formed 

 the armies that sacked and burned conquered cities, a proceeding that 

 was once a matter of course, performing deeds of lust and rapine 

 that are almost impossible to realize. The task to-day is to civilize 

 a//, to give to all the opportunity to live healthful, active, lives of 

 usefulness and enjoyment. It will take long, and we are in the 

 throes of the conflict. Of all biological processes those that bring 

 the passions under control are the slowest. The African whose 

 grandfather was a cannibal will not at once conform to the moral 

 attitude of the descendants of a long line of civilized ancestry, how- 

 ever he may seem to do so. 



On the other hand, I cannot but note that any stride in material 

 progress must ameliorate the general condition, and so foster moral 

 progress. That morality has something to do with food supply is 

 evident to us all, and it is a matter of daily observation that one is 

 more ready to do a good deed after breakfast. The poor half- 

 starved Irish peasant ready to shoot his landlord on trifling provo- 

 cation is transformed in the course of a generation to a jovial, hard- 

 working, and tolerably law-abiding citizen when transferred to a 

 more genial environment. 



