IX. Parenthood

Henee all requirements touching the proximate' end, nlarriage are to be considered in subordination to re quirements touching the ultimate end-the raising up Inembers of a new generation. Evolutionary ethics de mands that this last end shall be regarded as the supreme end. § 236. Obviously the parental instincts in large measure secure fulfilment of this supreme end; since any species or PARENTHOOD •. 545 variety in vvhich they are not strong enough to do this, must presently become extinct. Here, then, we are introduced to the truth that achievernent of those pleasures which parent hood brings, has a double sanction-that which the ethics of individual life directly yields, and that which is yielded in directly by the ethics oi social liie. F'But satisfaction of the parental affections, while not to be ignored as an end in itself, is, as above implied, chiefly to be regarded as a spur to the discharge of parental responsi bilities. The arrangements of things are dIslocated if the two are not kept in relation--if the responsibilities, instead of being discharged by parents, are shouldered upon others.

It might have been thought that this truth is too obvious to need enunciation; but, unhappily, it is far other~"ise. We have fallen upon evil times, in which it has come to be an accepted doctrine that part of the responsibilities are to be discharged not by parents but by the publica part which is gradually becoming a larger part and threatens to become the whole. Agitators and legislators have united in spread ing a theory which, logically followed ont, ends in the monstrous conclusion that it is for parents to beget children and for society,to take care of theIne The political ethics now in fashion, makes the unhesitating assumption that while each man, as parent,. is not responsible for the' mental culture of his own offspring, he is, as citizen, along with other citizens, responsible for the nlental culture of all other men's offspring! And this absurd doctrine has now become so well established that people raise their eyebro'vs in aston islunent if you deny it. A self-evident falsehood has been transformed into a self-evident truth !Along with the almost universal superstition that society is a manufacture and not a growth, there goes the un"ravering belief that leg islators, prompted by electors, can with advantage set aside one of the fundamental arrangements under wl~ich organic nature at large, and human nature in particular, has evolved thus far! Men who have proved cunning in business-specu546 THE ETHIOS OF INDIVIDUAL LIFE.

lation, men "rho ride well to hounds and are popular in their counties, men ,vho in courts of justice are skilled in making the worse cause appear the better, filen who once wrote good Latin verses or proved themselves learned about the misbe haviour of the Greek gods, unite in trying to undo organized dependencies resulting from millions of years of discipline. Men whose culture is so little relevant to the functions they have assumed, that they do not even see that everything in social life originates from certain traits of individual life, that individual hUlnan life is but a specialized part of life at large, and that therefore until the leading truths presented by life at large are comprehended, there can be no· right comprehension of society-men ,vho are thus ignorant of the great facts which it chiefly concerns them to know, have prolnised to do the behests of men "rho are ignorant not only of such facts but of most other things. The half-blind elected by the wholly blind take upon themselves the office of creation-menders! Daily accuston1ed to discover that established laws are bad and must be repealed "by Act of Parlifnnent, they have unawares extended their thought to laws not of human origin, and calmly undertake to repeal by Act of Parliament a law of Nature!

But this ignoring of the truth that only by due dis charge of parental responsibilities has all life on the Earth arisen, and that only through the better discharge of them have there gradually been made possible better types of life, is in the long run fatal. Breach of natural law· will in this case, as in all cases, be followed in· due tilne by Nature's revengea revenge which will be terrible in proportion as the breach has been great. A system under ·which parental duties are performed wholesale by thos"e who are not the parents, under the plea that many parents cannot or will not perform their duties-a systeln which thus fosters the inferior children of inferior parents at the necessary cost of superior parents and consequent injury of superior children -a systerH which thus helps incapables to multiply-and hinPARENTIIOOD. 547 ders the multiplications of capables, or diminishes their capa bility, must bring decay and eventual extinction.· A society which persists in such a system must, other things equal, go to the, wall,in the cOlnpetition with a society which does not commit the folly of nurturing its worst at the expense of its best.

The ethical code of Nature, then, allows of no escape of parents from their obligations. While under its hedonistic aspect it sanctions in an emphatic way the gratification of parental .affections, under its evolutionary aspect it per emptorily requires fulfilment of all those actions by which the young are prepared for the battle of life. And if the circumstances are such that part of these actions must be performed by deputy, it still requires that the implied cost and care shall be borne, and not transferred to others' shoulders. §237. The time will come 'when, along with full recog nition of parental duties, there will go an unyielding resist ance to the usurpation of those. duties. While the parent, as be ought tobe,.will conscientiously satisfy all ~the de lllands which his parenthood entails, he, will sternly deny the right of any assemblage of men to take his children from him and mould them as they please.W e have out grown the stage during which the despot, with an army at his back,.could impose his will' on all citizens; but ,ve have not yet outgrown the stage during which a Inajority of citizens, with police at their back, can iInpose their will, 'concerning all lllatters ,vhatever, upon citizens not of their number. But when' there has passed away this contempti ble superstition tl~at, having the power, the majority h~ve the right, to do as they please with the persons, and prop erty and. actions of those who happen to be' in themi nority-when it is understood that governnlental orders a,re limited by ethical injunctions; every parent will hold his sphere as one into which the State may not intrude.

548 THE ETHICS OF INDIVIDUAL LIFE. And if under such conditions there occasionally, though rarely, happens a non-performance of parental duties, the entailed evil brings, in Nature's stern way, its own cure. lTor with mankind as with lower kinds, the ill-nurtured offspring of the inferior fail in the struggle for existence with the well-nurtured offspring of the superior; and in a generation or two die out, to the benefit of the species. A harsh discipline this, most 'will say. True; but Nature has much discipline which is harsh, and which lTIUst, in the long run, be submitted to. The necessities which she imposes on us are not to be evaded, even by the joint ef forts of university-graduates and "vorking-men delegates; and the endeavour to escape her harsh discipline results in a discipline still harsher. Measures which prevent the dwindling away of inferior individuals and fatnilies, lnust, in the course of generations, cause the nation at large to dwindle away.

At the same time that intrusion into the parental sphere must, in a normal social state, be resented as a trespass, it will be further resented as a deprivation of those daily pleasures yielded by furthering the development of the young in body and mind. For when there have died out the stupidities of an education which may be briefly described as denying the mind that "which it wants and forcing upon it that which it does not want, there will have COlne a tilne when the superintendence of education, at any rate in all its simpler parts, will be at once easy and enjoyable. The general la"w that through successive stages of organic evolution, there is an elongation of the period during which parental care is giyen, shown :finally in the contrast between the hurnan race and inferior races, as well as in the contrast between uncivilized and civilized, is a law which, involving as now a long and careful physical nurturing of the young by t~eir parents, will hereafter involve a long and careful psychical nurturing P ARJ1JNTHOOD. 549 by them; and .though the higher and more special educa tional functions ,vill have to be discharged by proxy, yet the proxy-discharge will be under parental superintend ence.

People feel no adequate, pride in bringing to maturity fine human beings. It is true that the mother, exhibiting each infant with triunlph, and during the childhood of each pleasing herself by presenting it to visitors prettily clothed and with hair on which much time has been spent Inorning and evening, is not wholly neglectful of diet, and takes-care that the day's lessons' are attended to.· It :Is true, also, that the father, cOlnmonly leaving fashion to determine the' places of education for his boys, sometirnes makes inquiries and exercises independent judgment; and, moreover, looks with satisfaction on a 'well-grown youth and one who has brought home prizes. But it is never theless true that scarcely anY'where do we see proper selieltude. Grave mischiefs are daily done in almost' every family by ignorance of physiological requirements; and in the absence of guiding knowledge in parents, in numerable children grow up with constitutions. damaged for life. .At the same time there is no such thoughtful ministration to the mind of each child as is called for no search for a course of intellectual culture which is rational in matter and -method, and nothing beyond a rough and ready moral discipline. On observing what energies are, expended by father and mother to ac.hieve wordly success and fulfil social ambitions, weare reminded how relatively small is· the space occupied by the ambi tion to make their descendants physically, morally, and intellectually, superior. Yet this is the alnbition which will replace those they now. so eagerly pursue; and which, instead of perpetual disappointluents, will bring permanent satisfactions.

And then, following on the discharge of these high 550 THE ETHICS OF INDIVIDUAL LIFE. parental functions, will COlne that reward in old age con..: sisting of an affectionate· care by children, luuch greater than is now known. § 238. Anything like due fulfilment of pp.rental func tions as thus conceived, is possible only under conditions commonly disregarded-conditions the disregard of which is supposed not to fall within the range of ethical judg ments. "Providence has sent me a large family," is a remark which may occasionally be heard fr.om one who has more children than he can provide for. Though) in other direc tions, he does not profess an oriental fatalism, in this direc tion he does. "God has willed it so," appears-to be his thought; and thinking this, he holds himself absolved fronl blame in bringing about the distresses of a poverty stricken household. If, however, improvident marriages are to be reprobated -if to bring children into the world when there will probably be no nleans of nlaintaining any, is a course calling for condelnnation; then there must be condemna tion for those who bring many children into the world when they have means of properly rearing only a few.

Improvidence after marriage cannot be considered right, if improvidence before marriage is considered wrong. The .stunted and ill-forlued bodies of dwellers in_ the East end of London, tell of the lueagre diet and deficient clothing from which the many children of parents with narrow means, have suffered during their early days; and even in country villages, where the sanitary conditions are relatively good, one may see in feeble and sickly people, the results of attempting to rear large families on Snlan wages. This reckless nlulti plication, while it inflicts the daily-recurring pains of unsatisfied appetites and the miseries of insufficient warlnth-while it is to be debited "\\"ith that lack of bodily strength which makes efficient PARENTHOOD .. 551 work impracticable, cOlnrnonly involves also a stupidity which negatives all but the most Inechanical functions; for mental power' cannot be got from ill-fed brains.

Unhappy and wearisome lives are thus entailed by parents who beget more children than they can properly bring up. lVlatters are made worse, too, by the undue tax brought on the parents themselves--,-on the father, if he is ~ consci... entious· by an injurious amount of labour; and still more on the mother, whose system, exhausted by the bearingc/ of many children, is still further exhausted bJ the cares which all day long the many children •need. l'Ianifestly hedQnistic ethics if we regard it as contemplating,· more es.. pecially, immediate effects on happiness, severely. denounces conduct wl~ich thus creates n1iseries all round;· while evolu tionary ethics, if we consider it as Inore especially contem... plating future results, severely denounces conduct which thus bequeaths lower natures instead of higher to subs~quent gen erations. Even "rhere parents have means sufficient to provide abundantly for the bodily welfare of many children, there must still be an insufficient provision for their mental weI...

~fare. Though, in a family of several, the children ,amuse and teach one another, and thus mutually aid Inental growth; yet, when the number is large, the parental attention they severally need becomes too lnnch subdivided; and the daily display of parental affection, ·which is a large factor in the moral development. of children, cannot be given in adequate aillount to each. § 239. With the ethical censure of this· improvident lin}... Hplication, must be joined a like censure of an improvi dence ha1?itually associated with it, and in large measure the cause .of it. The nature .of this will best be shown by citing some facts·furnished by races ·which, being uncivil ized, are regarded as therefore in all respects our inferiors.

552 THE ETHICS OF INDIVIDUAL LIFE. The first of thern comes from a society utterly brutal in most of its usages-Uganda. " The· women rarely have more than two or three children, an:d the law is that when a woman has borne a child she must live apart from her husband for two years,at which age the children are weaned." In a still more brutal society-that of the Fijians-we meet with a kindred fact. Says Seemann"A.fter childbirth, husband. and wife keep apart for three, even four years, so that no other baby may interfere with the time considered necessary for suckling children .... I heard of a white man, who being asked how many brothers and sisters he had, frankly replied, •Ten!' 'But that could not be,' was the rejoinder of the natives~ 'one mother could scarcely have so many children.' When told that these children were born at annual intervals, and that such occurrences were common in Europe, they were very much shocked, and thought it explained sufficiently why so many white people were 'mere shrimps.' "

In these. cases, however, polygamy prevails: in Uganda, for instance, the enormous preponderance of 'women, due partly to the destruction of men in war and partly to the capture of ,vornen by war, rendering it almost universal. Here, therefore, the usage, in so far as it affects men, is not so remarkable. But in two leading districts of New Gui nea, there are monogamo-n,s peoples among whom a like rule holds. The Rev. J. Chalmers tells us that in Motu-Motu, the parents, after the birth of a child, "do not Iive together again until the child is strong, walking, and weaned, and all that time he [the husband] sleeps in dubu. His friends cook food for him." Similarly of the Motu tribe, he tells us that the parents keep apart" until the child walks and is weaned." To ascertain the current opinion on the Inatter he asked the question-" If another child is born before the first is big and able to walk, are they ashamed? " To which he got the answer-" Yes, terribly; and all the village will be talking about it."

Even these warlike and sanguinary peoples then, and PARENTHOOD. 553 . still more these trading, peaceful, and· monogamous tribes of New Guinea, show us a deep consciousness of the truth that too frequent child-bearing is injurious to the race tells against the fullest development of both the already born child and the child to be presently born. Beyond that constant surplus vitality which, in the female econolny, remains after meeting the expenditure of individual life, there is also what we may call a reserve· of vital capital, accumulated' during intervals in which the surplus is not being demanded. This reserve,. used up during the interval in which an infant is being developed, takes some time to replace-a time shorter or longer according as the con stitutional vigour is great or small. And if, much before the. end of that time, the reproductive system is again called into action, the double result is an overtax of the maternal systenl, and an infant which falls short of the fullest development; at the sarne time that its predecessor is too early deprived of its natural supply of food. These are necessary consequences. They are collateral results of that general cause which Inakes reproduction jmpossible before and after certain ages.

Here then, as in· sundry preceding cases, evolutionary ethics utters an interdict which current ethics, from what ever source derived, shows no signs of uttering. § 240. Ho,v then are there to be reconciled the interests of the individual and the interests of the race ~ This ques tion, which here unavoidably presents itself, is one diffi· cult, if not impossible to answer-perhaps they cannot be reconciled. As already many times said, men have been long in ~ course of acquiring fitness for that social state into which increase of numbers has forced them, and have still but partially acquired fitness for it. In multitudinous ways the survival of instincts appropriate to the pre-social stage, lIas been a chronic cause of Iniseries; and in multitudinous 554 THE ETHICS OF INDIVIDUAL LIFE. ways the lack of sentiInents appropriate to the social stage, has been a chronic cause of other miseries.

While it has continually increased that pressure of population which has been a cause of progress, excess of fertility, has been among the chief factors in the produc tion of these llliseries, and must long continue to be such; but, as is shovvn in The Principles of Biology, §§ 373-374, the implication of the general law traceable throughout the whole animal kingdom, is that still a higher develop ment of mind, brought about by still increasing pressure of population, and still greater cerebral activity entailed by it, ,vill gradually diminish the fertility, until the excess prac tically disappears: the highest degree of individuation entailing the lo,vest degree of reproduction. And the further implication, there pointed out, is that this degree of individuation, especially shown in a more exalted mental life-wider intelligence and more intense feelings-will not involve conscious stress, but will be the natural outcome of an organization adjusted to the requirements of a .more costly self-sustentation. lIenee, if there are deprivations which ethics dictates, they must step by step be accompanied by compensations, probably greater in amount.

Only in the slow course of ages, however, can any such such change of balance be wrought. Whether, in the mean time, there may arise any qualifications of the process, it is impossible to say. One thing, however, is certain. No conclusion can be sustained which does not conform to the ultilllate truth that the interests of the race must predomi nate over the interests of the individual.