CHAPTER IV.
As to Physical causes, I am inclined to doubt altogether of their operation in this particular; nor do I think that men owe anything of their temper or genius to the air, food, or climate.--_Bacon._
I listened with the keenest interest to this curious and instructivehistory; and when the Preceptress had ceased speaking. I expressed mygratitude for her kindness. There were many things about which I desiredinformation, but particularly their method of eradicating disease andcrime. These two evils were the prominent afflictions of all thecivilized nations I knew. I believed that I could comprehend enough oftheir method of extirpation to benefit my own country. Would she kindlygive it?
"I shall take Disease first," she said, "as it is a near relative ofCrime. You look surprised. You have known life-long and incurableinvalids who were not criminals. But go to the squalid portion of any ofyour large cities, where Poverty and Disease go hand in hand, where thechild receives its life and its first nourishment from a haggard anddiscontented mother. Starvation is her daily dread. The littletendernesses that make home the haven of the heart, are never known toher. Ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-cherished, all that _might_ be refinedand elevated in her nature, if properly cultivated, is choked intostarveling shapes by her enemy--Want.
"If you have any knowledge of nature, ask yourself if such a conditionof birth and infancy is likely to produce a noble, healthy human being?Do your agriculturists expect a stunted, neglected tree to produce rareand luscious fruit?"
I was surprised at the Preceptress' graphic description of wretchedness,so familiar to all the civilized nations that I knew, and asked:
"Did such a state of society ever exist in this country?"
"Ages ago it was as marked a social condition of this land as it is ofyour own to-day. The first great move toward eradicating disease was inproviding clean and wholesome food for the masses. It required theutmost rigor of the law to destroy the pernicious practice ofadulteration. The next endeavor was to crowd poverty out of the land. Inorder to do this the Labor question came first under discussion, andresulted in the establishment in every state of a Board of Arbitrationthat fixed the price of labor on a per cent, of the profits of thebusiness. Public and private charities were forbidden by law as havingan immoral influence upon society. Charitable institutions had long beennumerous and fashionable, and many persons engaged in them as much fortheir own benefit as that of the poor. It was not always the honest andbenevolent ones who became treasurers, nor were the funds alwaysdistributed among the needy and destitute, or those whom they werecollected for. The law put a stop to the possibility of such frauds, andof professional impostors seeking alms. Those who needed assistance weresupplied with work--respectable, independent work--furnished by the cityor town in which they resided. A love of industry, its dignity andindependence, was carefully instilled into every young mind. There is nocountry but what ought to provide for everyone of its citizens acomfortable, if not luxurious, home by humane legislation on the laborquestion.
"The penitentiaries were reconstructed by the female government. Onehalf the time formerly allotted to labor was employed in compulsoryeducation. Industrial schools were established in every State, where allthe mechanical employments were taught free. Objects of charity weresent there and compelled to become self supporting. These industrialschools finally became State Colleges, where are taught, free, all theknown branches of knowledge, intellectual and mechanical.
"Pauperism disappeared before the wide reaching influence of theseindustrial schools, but universal affluence had not come. It could notexist until education had become universal.
"With this object in view, the Government forbade the employment of anycitizen under the age of twenty-one, and compelled their attendance atschool up to that time. At the same time a law was passed thatauthorized the furnishing of all school-room necessaries out of thepublic funds. If a higher education were desired the State Collegesfurnished it free of all expenses contingent.
"All of these measures had a marked influence in improving thecondition of society, but not all that was required. The necessity forstrict sanitary laws became obvious. Cities and towns and even farmswere visited, and everything that could breed malaria, or produce impureair, was compelled to be removed. Personal and household cleanliness atlast became an object of public interest, and inspectors were appointedwho visited families and reported the condition of their homes. Allkinds of out-door sports and athletic exercises were encouraged andbecame fashionable.
"All of these things combined, made a great improvement in the healthand vigor of our race, but still hereditary diseases lingered.
"There were many so enfeebled by hereditary disease they had not enoughenergy to seek recuperation, and died, leaving offspring as wretched,who in turn followed their parents' example.
"Statistics were compiled, and physician's reports circulated, until alaw was passed prohibiting the perpetuity of diseased offspring. But,although disease became less prevalent, it did not entirely disappear.The law could only reach the most deplorable afflictions, and waseventually repealed.
"As the science of therapeutics advanced, all diseases--whetherhereditary or acquired--were found to be associated with abnormalconditions of the blood. A microscopic examination of a drop of bloodenabled the scientist to determine the character and intensity of anydisease, and at last to effect its elimination from the system.
"The blood is the primal element of the body. It feeds the flesh, thenerves, the muscles, the brain. Disease cannot exist when it is in anatural condition. Countless experiments have determined the exactproperties of healthy blood and how to produce it. By the use of thisknowledge we have eliminated hereditary diseases, and developed into ahealthy and moral people. For people universally healthy is sure ofbeing moral. Necessity begets crime. It is the _wants_ of the ignorantand debased that suggests theft. It is a diseased fancy, or a mindignorant of the laws that govern the development of human nature, thatcould attribute to offspring hated before birth: infancy and childhoodneglected; starved, ill-used in every way, a disposition and character,amiable and humane and likely to become worthy members of society. Thereverse is almost inevitable. Human nature relapses into the lower andbaser instincts of its earlier existence, when neglected, ill-used and_ignorant_. All of those lovely traits of character which excite theenthusiast, such as gratitude, honor, charity are the results ofeducation only. They are not the natural instincts of the human mind,but the cultivated ones.
"The most rigid laws were passed in regard to the practice of medicine.No physician could become a practitioner until examined and authorizedto do so by the State Medical College. In order to prevent favoritism,or the furnishing of diplomas to incompetent applicants, enormouspenalties were incurred by any who would sign such. The profession longago became extinct. Every mother is a family physician. That is, sheobeys the laws of nature in regard to herself and her children, and theynever need a doctor.
"Having become healthy and independent of charity, crime began todecrease naturally. The conditions that had bred and fostered pettycrimes having ceased to exist, the natures that had inherited them roseabove their influence in a few generations, and left honorableposterity.
"But crime in its grossest form is an ineradicable hereditary taint.Generation after generation may rise and disappear in a family oncetainted with it, without displaying it, and then in a most unexpectedmanner it will spring up in some descendant, violent and unconquerable.
"We tried to eliminate it as we had disease, but failed. It was aninherited molecular structure of the brain. Science could notreconstruct it. The only remedy was annihilation. Criminals had noposterity."
"I am surprised," I interrupted, "that possessing the power to controlthe development of the body, you should not do so with the mind."
"If we could we would produce genius that could discover the source ofall life. We can control Cause and Effect, but we cannot create Cause.We do not even know its origin. What
the perfume is to the flower, theintellect is to the body; a secret that Nature keeps to herself. For athousand years our greatest minds have sought to discover its source,and we are as far from it to-day as we were a thousand years ago."
"How then have you obtained your mental superiority?" I inquired.
"By securing to our offspring perfect, physical and mental health.Science has taught us how to evolve intellect by following demonstratedlaws. I put a seed into the ground and it comes up a little green slip,that eventually becomes a tree. When I planted the seed in congenialsoil, and watered and tended the slip, I assisted Nature. But I did notcreate the seed nor supply the force that made it develop into a tree,nor can I define that force."
"What has produced the exquisite refinement of your people?"
"Like everything else, it is the result of gradual development aimingat higher improvement. By following strictly the laws that govern theevolution of life, we control the formation of the body and brain.Strong mental traits become intensified by cultivation from generationto generation and finally culminate in one glorious outburst of power,called Genius. But there is one peculiarity about mind. It resemblesthat wonderful century plant which, after decades of developing, flowersand dies. Genius is the long unfolding bloom of mind, and leaves noposterity. We carefully prepare for the future development of Genius. Weknow that our children will be neither deformed nor imbecile, but wewatch the unfolding of their intellects with the interest of a newrevelation. We guide them with the greatest care.
"I could take a child of your people with inherited weakness of body andmind. I should rear it on proper food and exercise--both mental andphysical--and it would have, when matured, a marked superiority to itsparents. It is not what Nature has done for us, it is what we have donefor her, that makes us a race of superior people."
"The qualities of mind that are the general feature of your people," Iremarked, "are so very high, higher than our estimate of Genius. How wasit arrived at?"
"By the processes I have just explained. Genius is always a leader. Agenius with us has a subtlety of thought and perception beyond yourpower of appreciation. All organized social bodies move intellectuallyin a mass, with their leader just ahead of them."
"I have visited, as a guest, a number of your families, and found theirhomes adorned with paintings and sculpture that would excite wonderingadmiration in my own land as rare works of art, but here they are onlythe expression of family taste and culture. Is that a quality ofintellect that has been evolved, or is it a natural endowment of yourrace?"
"It is not an endowment, but has been arrived at by the same process ofcareful cultivation. Do you see in those ancient portraits a variety ofstriking colors? There is not a suggestion of harmony in any of them. Onthe contrary, they all display violent contrasts of color. The originalsof them trod this land thousands of years ago. Many of the colors, weknow, were unknown to them. Color is a faculty of the mind that iswholly the result of culture. In the early ages of society, it was knownonly in the coarsest and most brilliant hues. A conception andappreciation of delicate harmonies in color is evidence of a superiorand refined mentality. If you will notice it, the illiterate of yourown land have no taste for or idea of the harmony of color. It is thesame with sound. The higher we rise in culture, the more difficult weare to please in music. Our taste becomes critical."
I had been revolving some things in my mind while the Preceptress wasspeaking, and I now ventured to express them. I said:
"You tell me that generations will come and go before a marked changecan occur in a people. What good then would it do me or mine to studyand labor and investigate in or to teach my people how to improve? Theycan not comprehend progress. They have not learned by contact, as I havein Mizora, how to appreciate it. I should only waste life and happinessin trying to persuade them to get out of the ruts they have traveled solong; they think there are no other roads. I should be reviled, andperhaps persecuted. My doctrines would be called visionary andimpracticable. I think I had better use my knowledge for my own kindred,and let the rest of the world find out the best way it can."
The Preceptress looked at me with mild severity. I never before had seenso near an approach to rebuke in her grand eyes.
"What a barbarous, barbarous idea!" she exclaimed. "Your country willnever rise above its ignorance and degradation, until out of its mentalagony shall be evolved a nature kindled with an ambition that burns forHumanity instead of self. It will be the nucleus round which will gatherthe timid but anxious, and _then_ will be lighted that fire which nowaters can quench. It burns for the liberty of thought. Let human natureonce feel the warmth of its beacon fires, and it will march onward,defying all obstacles, braving all perils till it be won. Human natureis ever reaching for the unattained. It is that little spark within usthat has an undying life. When we can no longer use it, it flieselsewhere."