MAN. THE INSTINCT OF LIFE A{^D DEATH. 353 



Turks of to-day follow the ancient Greeks in the 

 practice of abortion. Plato approved of the custom, 

 and Aristotle sanctioned its general prevalence. In 

 the province of Canton the Chinese of the agricul- 

 tural classes kill two-thirds of their girl children, 

 and the same is done at Tahiti. All these customs 

 co-exist with the perfect love and tender care of the 

 living children. 



Because of these different discordancies the physical 

 life of man is insufficiently regulated by nature. 

 Neither the physiological instinct, nor the family 

 instinct, nor the social instinct is, in general, suffi- 

 ciently imperative and precise: Hence, since the 

 internal impulse has not sufficient power, the neces- 

 sity arises for a rule of conduct exercising its influence 

 from without. Philosophies, religions, and legislation 

 have provided for this. They have regulated man's 

 hygiene and the carrying out of his different physio- 

 logical functions. Their control has, moreover, had 

 its hygienic side. The scientific hygiene of to-day 

 has inherited their role. 



The idea of the fundamental perversity of human 

 nature is born of our cognizance of its discordancies, 

 unduly amplified and exaggerated. Soul and body 

 have been considered as distinctly discordant and 

 hostile elements. The body, the shroud of the soul, 

 the temporary host, the prison, the present source of 

 miseries, has been subjected to every kind of mortifi- 

 cation. Asceticism has treated the body and all the 

 innate instincts as our mortal foes. 



This suspicion, this depreciation of human nature 

 was the great error of the mystics. This view was 

 as fatal as the inverse view of pagan antiquity. 

 The model of the perfect life according to Greek 



