I I 8 PESSIMISM. 



And this IS not astonishing for many reasons. 

 For (j) feelings are slow to be eradicated, and their 

 persistence Is the greater the more deep-seated 

 and Important they were. Hence any considerable 

 change in human nature seems In this case to border 

 upon the impossible, although it must be admitted 

 that no Instinct which was acquired in the course 

 of Evolution can be exempted from the possibility 

 of being again removed by an adaptation to cir- 

 cumstances similar to that which generated it. (2) 

 Civilization, although It orlves the over-sensual mani- 

 fold opportunities of killing themselves, does not 

 directly favour the less sensual as against the more 

 sensual, as it favours the gentler as against the more 

 violent, the more Industrious as against the lazier; 

 on the contrary, It perhaps makes the sensual the 

 more likely to leave offspring. (3) Human instit- 

 utions and social forces have. In almost all cases, 

 done their utmost to keep the amative Instinct at 

 its pristine strength. Christianity alone has even 

 attempted to contend with human nature in this 

 •respect, and even It, In Protestant countries at least, 

 may now be said to have retired baffled from the 

 contest. Its defeat Indeed will surprise no one who 

 considers the meaos it adopted In order to repress 

 sensuality, and reflects upon the fatuity, e.g., of con- 

 demning to ceHbacy those who were presumably 

 the most spiritually-minded and least sensual In 

 each generation. 



And what are the present arrangements of 

 society ? Are they not all calculated to foster these 

 feelings in the young ? What else but " love " Is 

 the tale which is dinned into their all-too-wllllnor 

 ears from every side ? Not to speak of too un- 

 savoury matters, what Is to be thought of the effect 



