i8o A STUDY IN HEREDITY 



there never was an occasion when religious in- 

 toleration was not productive of more harm than 

 good. 



Legislators have gradually, if unknowingly, 

 given effect to these ideas. To God has been given 

 the punishment of offences against God ; to man 

 the punishment of offences against man. It has 

 been realised that a correct moral tone cannot be 

 enforced by legal methods, but only by the strength 

 of public opinion ; and that the legal enforcement 

 of morals (as such) implies a negation of civilisation. 

 Sexual immorality is par excellence a purely moral 

 offence ; in other words, it is wrong primarily 

 because our religion declares it to be so, not mainly 

 because it is an infraction of the legal rights of 

 an individual, such as, for instance, are murder, 

 rape, and robbery. As a consequence, the law 

 is no longer set in motion against the immoral. 

 Except among barbarians, the attempt to enforce 

 sexual mortality has been abandoned even by 

 the most extreme of " social reformers." But 

 in England the great procreation tapu comes 

 into operation. " Social reformers " no longer 

 demand that the immoral shall be hanged or 

 burned, or even fined or imprisoned. They 

 recognise that such demands are anachronisms. 

 But they attempt to attain their ends by means 

 that are infinitely more immoral and abominable 



