THE PRESENT EVOLUTION OF MAN — MENTAL 343 



individuals who crave for it. The sexual craving is not 

 stronger than the craving for alcohol is in races that 

 have not undergone Alcoholic Evolution, nor stronger 

 presumably than the craving for alcohol would be among 

 races that had undergone Alcoholic Retrogression ; but 

 never yet has even the fiercest fanaticism, in the 

 presence of opportunities for indulgence, been able to 

 do more than counteract the sexual craving to a very 

 limited extent; to do more, that is, than forbid its 

 indulgence except under certain regulations (i. e. among 

 the married only), and even in this it has been but 

 partially sticcessful. The early Christians, for example, 

 considered sexual indulgence abominable, and believed 

 that abstinence from it was conducive to eternal bliss ; 

 yet their strong enthusiasm withheld but a limited 

 section of the community, those with the strongest 

 enthusiasm, the members of the male and female 

 religious orders, from indulgence in it, and even among 

 the latter immorality was not unknown. 



Seeing then that it is practically impossible to banish 

 alcohol from our midst, if only for the reason that the 

 world grows more cosmopolitan every day, and races 

 that have undergone great Alcoholic Evolution, and are 

 therefore now little injured by the poison, would not 

 consent to abandon its use ; seeing also that, without 

 absolute banishment, alcoholic indulgence would cer- 

 tainly ensue in spite of moral influences, we cannot 

 rationally hope that moral influences will ever bring 

 about total abstinence ; and, d fortiori, since the 

 craving for alcohol increases with indulgence, since the 

 traits acquired through the use of alcohol form an ex- 

 tension, not a limitation, of the inborn craving for it, 

 we cannot rationally hope that moral influence will 

 ever result in temperance — i. e. in a moderate use of 

 alcohol. 



The above conclusion will, I fear, be very unpalatable 



