HEALTH AND THE LAWS OF MECHANICS 131 



Christian civilisation, whose moral is, " Love thy 

 neighbour as thyself" we arrive at an absurd con- 

 clusion, which I propose to prove. 



Admitting that those who perish miserably are 

 our neighbours, and that it is more logical to give 

 bread to the hungry than to reduce him at the point 

 of the bayonet when maddened by despair ; consider- 

 ing that it is better economy to bring the Mauser 

 into action among Christian and unchristian 

 people than to fulfil the great duty of human 

 solidarity, it is clear that we arrive at the following 

 conclusion : This civilisation is not Christian, since 

 it does not love its neighbour as itself; otherwise, it 

 does not know what it is saying, or rather it does not 

 know what it is doing. But, as it can hardly be 

 granted that a society should contradict its moral 

 principles solely for the pleasure of violating them, 

 and as it can equally less be admitted that a 

 rational being should delight in being in continual 

 contradiction with himself, I gather that the in- 

 evitable conclusion is that present civilisation is 

 absurd, and that if we accept these consequences, 

 such as they are, it is because, day by day, there 

 are none better to be found, when we hear many 

 persons say, though with the best wishes: "All 

 this is very sad, but there is no remedy" 



To better understand the relation of health to 

 the general laws of mechanics, and how it is ruined 



