PROHIBITION 459 



thing more than immediate ends ; yet modern civilization has 

 arisen. Posterity may safely be left to redress its own evils. 

 Doubtless it will discover means of doing so at present unknown to 

 us." Is it possible, then, in the immediate future, if nothing more, 

 to suppress or considerably reduce excessive drinking by legal or 

 moral methods ? An immense body of evidence bearing on this 

 problem is available. All history indicates that as soon as any 

 race gains possession of considerable quantities of alcohol, that is 

 as soon as it reaches the earlier stages of civilization, it begins 

 attempts at temperance reform. Moderation was preached at 

 least 7000 years ago in Egypt. Prohibition was decreed more 

 than a thousand years before the Christian era in China. The 

 ancient Rechabites, the Gnostics, the followers of Montanism, and 

 the Manicheans were professed abstainers. It is probable that 

 every century in the history of every European and Asiatic 

 community, which had not already achieved moderation through 

 selection, has been marked by repeated temperance edicts, some 

 of them of savage severity. The final result is that the use of 

 alcohol is now less controlled and more nearly universal than at 

 any former period of the world's history. 



749. Under very primitive conditions the human being enjoys 

 almost as much freedom as a wild animal. In fact he is a wild 

 animal. As society organizes itself, and the individual is brought 

 into closer and more constant contact with masses of his fellows, 

 his freedom is restricted till a point is reached when the nation is 

 regarded as the property of some person who is believed to have, 

 or at least claims and enforces, a divine right to deal with his 

 subjects as he pleases. Later, with advancing organization, there 

 is a return, towards the primitive condition of individual freedom. 

 In modern England, for example, the individual is in many 

 respects as free as the utter savage. The general tendency of 

 such legal restrictions as bind him is merely to prevent him 

 curtailing the liberties of his fellows, or breaking such engage- 

 ments as he has voluntarily contracted. 



750. Some laws which are possible at one stage of civilization 

 are impossible at another. If incompatible with the spirit, the 

 general tendency of the times, they quickly pass into abeyance. 

 Thus during the Dark Ages of Europe edicts for the maintenance 

 of uniformity in religion were often terribly effective. They would 

 be absurd at the present day. A year or two ago a man was 

 forbidden to marry his deceased wife's sister ; it is probable that in 

 the future he will be permitted to marry his grandmother. Laws 



