In Peace 



Nordau pictures is not a matter of he- 

 redity. When not simply personal ec- 

 centricity, it is a phase of personal 

 decay. It finds its causes in bad habits, 

 bad training, bad morals, or in the 

 desire to catch public attention for per- 

 sonal advantage. It has no perma- 

 nence in the blood of the race. The 

 presence on the Paris boulevards of a 

 mob of crazy painters, maudlin musi- 

 cians, drunken poets, and sensation- 

 mongers proves nothing as to race 

 degeneracy. When the fashion changes, 

 they will change also. Already the 

 fad of " strenuous life " is blowing 

 them away. Any man of any race 

 withers in an atmosphere of vice, ab- 

 sinthe, and opium. The presence of 

 such an atmosphere may be an effect of 

 race decadence, but it is not a cause of 

 the lowered tone of the nation. 



Evil influences may kill the indi- 

 vidual, but they cannot tarnish the 



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