Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (20 page)

now
mere
dreams
had
become
projects
deliberately
put
in
hand
and carried
forward.
And
the
harvest
was
what
I
saw!

"After
all,
the
sanitation
and
the
agriculture
of
to-day
are
still
in the
rudimentary
stage.
The
science
of
our
time
has
attacked
but
a little
department
of
the
field
of
human
disease,
but,
even
so,
it
spreads its
operations
very
steadily
and
persistently.
Our
agriculture
and
horticulture
destroy
a
weed
just
here
and
there
and
cultivate
perhaps
a score
or
so
of
wholesome
plants,
leaving
the
greater
number
to
fight out
a
balance
as
they
can.
We
improve
our
favourite
plants
and animals—and
how
few
they
are—gradually
by
selective
breeding;
now a
new
and
better
peach,
now
a
seedless
grape,
now
a
sweeter
and
larger flower,
now
a
more
convenient
breed
of
cattle.
We
improve
them gradually,
because
our
ideals
are
vague
and
tentative,
and
our
knowledge
is
very
limited;
because
Nature,
too,
is
shy
and
slow
in
our clumsy
hands.
Some
day
all
this
will
be
better
organised,
and
still better.
That
is
the
drift
of
the
current
in
spite
of
the
eddies.
The whole
world
will
be
intelligent,
educated,
and
co-operating;
things will
move
faster
and
faster
towards
the
subjugation
of
Nature.
In
the end,
wisely
and
carefully
we
shall
readjust
the
balance
of
animal
and vegetable
life
to
suit
our
human
needs.

"This
adjustment,
I
say,
must
have
been
done,
and
done
well;
done indeed
for
all
Time,
in
the
space
of
Time
across
which
my
machine had
leaped.
The
air
was
free
from
gnats,
the
earth
from
weeds
or fungi;
everywhere
were
fruits
and
sweet
and
delightful
flowers;
brilliant
butterflies
flew
hither
and
thither.
The
ideal
of
preventive
medicine
was
attained.
Diseases
had
been
stamped
out.
I
saw
no
evidence of
any
contagious
diseases
during
all
my
stay.
And
I
shall
have
to
tell you
later
that
even
the
processes
of
putrefaction
and
decay
had
been profoundly
affected
by
these
changes.

"Social
triumphs,
too,
had
been
effected.
I
saw
mankind
housed
in splendid
shelters,
gloriously
clothed,
and
as
yet
I
had
found
them engaged
in
no
toil.
There
were
no
signs
of
struggle,
neither
social
nor economical
struggle.
The
shop,
the
advertisement,
traffic,
all
that commerce
which
constitutes
the
body
of
our
world,
was
gone.
It
was natural
on
that
golden
evening
that
I
should
jump
at
the
idea
of
a social
paradise.
The
difficulty
of
increasing
population
had
been
met, I
guessed,
and
population
had
ceased
to
increase.

"But
with
this
change
in
condition
come
inevitably
adaptations
to
the
change. What, unless biological science is a mass of errors, is the cause of
human intelligence and vigour? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which
the active, strong, and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall;
conditions that put a premium upon the loyal alliance of capable men, upon
self-restraint, patience, and decision. And the institution of the family, and
the emotions that arise therein, the fierce jealousy, the tenderness for
offspring, parental self-devotion, all found their justification and support in
the imminent dangers of the young. Now, where are these imminent dangers? There
is a sentiment arising, and it will grow, against connubial jealousy, against
fierce maternity, against passion of all sorts; unnecessary things now, and
things that make us uncomfortable, savage survivals, discords in a refined and
pleasant life.