126 CREATIVE INVOLUTION 



way to Mendelism we may no longer hope to perfect 

 human character through a gradual process of mod- 

 ification, but must look to spontaneity of expression 

 for the realisation of our vision. Hence, with our 

 laws, our work, our very feelings even, fast becom- 

 ing socialised, we cannot have too much of individ- 

 ual expression. Let the home be what it may, it 

 holds for us the one bit of life that in this day of the 

 mass we can claim as distinctly our own. Outside 

 its doors we are of necessity as other men; the law 

 of averages strips us of aught distinctive and we fall 

 into this category or into that. The increase of 

 institutions makes all the more imperative our need 

 of the home. To counteract this menace of fewer 

 personalities, our youth must have such individual 

 upbringing as only the home can give. 



We need the home. How are we to keep it? An 

 organ becomes atrophied only through disuse ; so an 

 institution dies but with the purpose it subserves. 

 The disappearance of the home may be hastened by 

 easy divorce or the high cost of living, but the dis- 

 appearance itself finds its raison d'etre in the fact 

 that the home has ceased to function as it should for 

 the general welfare. The loosening of the marriage 

 bond is an effect, not a cause, of its disintegration. 

 How blind we are when it comes to causal relations ! 

 We lament the passing of the home, and yet rejoice 

 in every bit of advance that the State makes towards 

 assuming the province of the parent. What is the 



