220 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



into dinner by Lord Oldcastle before Mrs. Gadsby of 

 Slocum Manor, it would be safe to predict that, in a 

 few years, less of the income of her husband, himself 

 the only son of his father (Gadsby of the Stock Ex- 

 change and later of Slocum), would find its way to 

 Newmarket or Monte Carlo, and more to Eton or 

 Harrow. 



But, seriously, our increasing knowledge of psycho- 

 logy makes it clear that, to move the mass of mankind, 

 academic argument and appeals to reason will of them- 

 selves produce little effect. They are needed to start 

 a movement ; but to make it a living force in the 

 world, those who are convinced intellectually must 

 get themselves and others into the right psychological 

 attitude by continued suggestion and association of 

 ideas. Fashion has a real and essential psychological 

 meaning. Owing to the nature of mankind, action is 

 controlled far more by habits of mind than by slow 

 and deliberate reason. " All we like sheep have gone 

 astray," and like sheep, with a dog to bark and a 

 bell-wether to lead, we must be brought back into 

 the right path. We must learn instinctively to pay 

 honour to those who, sound in mind and body, bring 

 up well a large family, and not less to those who 

 avoid marriage or have no children in fear of per- 

 petuating their own infirmities. On the other hand, 

 they who neglect their duty to the nation and the race 

 in either respect must be made to feel the unfavour- 

 able verdict of society. A man who will not earn his 

 living or learn to defend his country, a woman who 

 neglects her household and refuses to perform her 

 maternal duties, and a nation which will take no 



