In Peace 



Nordau pictures is not a matter of he- 

 redity. When not simply personal ec- 

 centricity, it is a phase of personal 

 decay. It finds its causes in bad habits, 

 bad training, bad morals, or in the 

 desire to catch public attention for per- 

 sonal advantage. It has no perma- 

 nence in the blood of the race. The 

 presence on the Paris boulevards of a 

 mob of crazy painters, maudlin musi- 

 cians, drunken poets, and sensation- 

 mongers proves nothing as to race 

 degeneracy. When the fashion changes, 

 they will change also. Already the 

 fad of "strenuous life" is blowing 

 them away. Any man of any race 

 withers in an atmosphere of vice, ab- 

 sinthe, and opium. The presence of 

 such an atmosphere may be an effect of 

 race decadence, but it is not a cause of 

 the lowered tone of the nation. 



Evil influences may kill the indi- 

 vidual, but they cannot tarnish the 



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