DEGENERATION. 



291 



telling quotations, while nowhere in literature can we 

 find a more merciless arraignment of folly, laxity, and 

 " rot " as expressed in literary or artistic form. 



On the other hand, Nordau himself exhibits some of 

 the defects which he criticises. His work shows a de- 

 cided lack of the sense of perspective. He takes him- 

 self, and especially his subjects, too seriously.* He 

 gives no scientific analysis of the symptoms they show, 

 while causes, effects, symptoms, and imitations alike 

 pass with him as evidences of degeneration. His as- 

 sumption that degeneration among the higher classes is 

 a phenomenon of our times alone, and his supposition 

 that it is the inheritance of fatigue, nervous exhaus- 

 tion, and the diseases and degeneration conditioned by 

 them, has but slight foundation. The proposed remedy 

 of Societies for Ethical Culture to act as public judges 

 of literature and art seems puerile, and it is not clear 

 that his proposed Index Expurgatorius of fool-litera- 

 ture would "banish the writings of lunatics from the 

 shelves of all respectable booksellers." It would adver- 

 tise rather than suppress. 



A remedy for degeneration can not be applied in 



any easy fashion. Sanity is the antidote for insanity, 



cleanliness of thought and action in life for folly and 



crime. It is true, as has been said, that " vice, crime, 



and madness are called by different names only through 



social prejudice." In like manner virtue, purity, and 



wisdom are largely convertible terms. The sane man 



„^ . is like a well-made watch — trained to 



1 he mattoid. ,,,,.. 



keep correct time under all conditions 



of temptation, pressure, or environment. The " mat- 

 toid " is full of " vibrancy " ; he is affected by all sorts 



* "There is such a thing as nonsense, and when a man has 

 once attained to that deep conception you may be sure of him 

 ever after." — Bagehot. 



