DEGENERATION. 



295 



Most of the degeneration so cleverly treated by Nor- 

 dau is purely the result of defects in the life of the indi- 

 vidual, in his relation to his environment, and the course 

 of action by which his character is formed. Without 

 going into a detail for which I have neither space nor 

 ability, I may say that the development of mysticism, 

 symbolism, " hearts insurgent," and general mental and 

 moral vagabondage is caused by the lack of sober liv- 

 ing and of wholesome work, the lack of motor ideals 

 and of outlet for effort. 



In the cities of Europe the common man has risen 



to a life of larger possibilities and greater opportunities 



for success and failure without adequate 



Causes of , • • r u ^- -.^ r. • ^ • 



traming for such activity. Society is 

 decadence. 11 , . r 



like a band of schoolboys in charge of a 



railway train. They know not what to do nor how to 

 do it, and are more interested in present enjoyment than 

 in the success of any enterprise intrusted to them. 

 Small-minded men lost in a multiplicity of impressions 

 are likely to do things which suggest degeneration. If 

 to this we add the wide diffusion of corrosive elements, 

 narcotics, stimulants, impure suggestion, unwholesome 

 living, we have elements which tend toward personal 

 degeneration. As their influences affect many persons 

 alike, they appear as a form of social decadence. 



We find, moreover, in Europe, the prevalence of " a 

 strange drooping of spirit." This feeling that civiliza- 

 tion is confined in a blind channel, a 



e espon ency ^^i.^g.^^c, is a natural result of the g:reat 

 of Europe. . ' ^ 



increase of the results of sense-percep- 

 tion without corresponding outlet in action. "Prog- 

 ress," says Edward Alsworth Ross, referring to this con- 

 dition, " seems to have ended in aimless discontent. The 

 schools have produced, according to Bismarck, ten times 

 as many overeducated young men as there are places to 



