It will then be answered, not without a sneer, 'And what would

you prefer? Would you go back to the elegant early Victorian female,
with ringlets and smelling-bottle, doing a little in water colors,
dabbling a little in Italian, playing a little on the harp,
writing in vulgar albums and painting on senseless screens?
Do you prefer that?' To which I answer, 'Emphatically, yes
It will then be answered, not without a sneer, 'And what would
you prefer? Would you go back to the elegant early Victorian female,
with ringlets and smelling-bottle, doing a little in water colors,
dabbling a little in Italian, playing a little on the harp,
writing in vulgar albums and painting on senseless screens?
Do you prefer that?' To which I answer, 'Emphatically, yes.'
I solidly prefer it to the new female education, for this reason,
that I can see in it an intellectual design, while there is
none in the other. I am by no means sure that even in point
of practical fact that elegant female would not have been
more than a match for most of the inelegant females.
I fancy Jane Austen was stronger, sharper and shrewder than
Charlotte Bronte; I am quite certain she was stronger, sharper and
shrewder than George Eliot. She could do one thing neither
of them could do: she could coolly and sensibly describe a man.
I am not sure that the old great lady who could only smatter
Italian was not more vigorous than the new great lady who can
only stammer American; nor am I certain that the bygone
duchesses who were scarcely successful when they painted
Melrose Abbey, were so much more weak-minded than the modern
duchesses who paint only their own faces, and are bad at that.
But that is not the point. What was the theory, what was the idea,
in their old, weak water-colors and their shaky Italian? The idea
was the same which in a ruder rank expressed itself in home-made
wines and hereditary recipes; and which still, in a thousand
unexpected ways, can be found clinging to the women of the poor.
It was the idea I urged in the second part of this book:
that the world must keep one great amateur, lest we all become
artists and perish. Somebody must renounce all specialist conquests,
that she may conquer all the conquerors. That she may be a queen
of life, she must not be a private soldier in it. I do not think
the elegant female with her bad Italian was a perfect product,
any more than I think the slum woman talking gin and funerals
is a perfect product; alas! there are few perfect products.
But they come from a comprehensible idea; and the new woman comes
from nothing and nowhere. It is right to have an ideal, it is
right to have the right ideal, and these two have the right ideal.
The slum mother with her funerals is the degenerate daughter
of Antigone, the obstinate priestess of the household gods.
The lady talking bad Italian was the decayed tenth cousin of Portia,
the great and golden Italian lady, the Renascence amateur of life,
who could be a barrister because she could be anything.
Sunken and neglected in the sea of modern monotony and imitation,
the types hold tightly to their original truths. Antigone, ugly,
dirty and often drunken, will still bury her father.
The elegant female, vapid and fading away to nothing, still feels
faintly the fundamental difference between herself and her husband:
that he must be Something in the City, that she may be everything
in the country.

How many times have you been disappointed in some article of dress,

because when you planned it you were unable to see it all at once so as
to get the full effect; or else you could not see yourself in it, and so
be able to judge whether it suited you! How many homes have in them
draperies and rugs and wall paper and furniture which are in constant
quarrel because someone could not see before they were assembled that
they were never intended to keep company! How many people who plan their
own houses, would build them just the same again after seeing them
completed? The man who can see a building complete before a brick has
been laid or a timber put in place, who can see it not only in its
details one by one as he runs them over in his mind, but can see the
building in its entirety, is the only one who is safe to plan the
structure
How many times have you been disappointed in some article of dress,
because when you planned it you were unable to see it all at once so as
to get the full effect; or else you could not see yourself in it, and so
be able to judge whether it suited you! How many homes have in them
draperies and rugs and wall paper and furniture which are in constant
quarrel because someone could not see before they were assembled that
they were never intended to keep company! How many people who plan their
own houses, would build them just the same again after seeing them
completed? The man who can see a building complete before a brick has
been laid or a timber put in place, who can see it not only in its
details one by one as he runs them over in his mind, but can see the
building in its entirety, is the only one who is safe to plan the
structure. And this is the man who is drawing a large salary as an
architect, for imaginations of this kind are in demand. Only the one who
can see in his 'mind"s eye,' before it is begun, the thing he would
create, is capable to plan its construction. And who will say that
ability to work with images of these kinds is not of just as high a type
as that which results in the construction of plots upon which stories
are built!

Hitherto figures on smoking and athletics have been open to question

because comparisons were made between groups that are not of necessity
of the same physical and mental type, having no important difference
except in the use of tobacco
Hitherto figures on smoking and athletics have been open to question
because comparisons were made between groups that are not of necessity
of the same physical and mental type, having no important difference
except in the use of tobacco. But Prof. Pack has sought to avoid this
objection. As he points out, the football squad is probably as nearly a
homogeneous group as it is possible to find. It seems reasonable to
account for the inferior physical and mental work of these particular
groups of smokers on the theory that in the main the well known toxic
effects of tobacco are sufficient to create this difference.

Medical treatment by a physician can always mitigate and shorten the

duration of a cold and lessen the danger of complications, the symptoms
of which can not always be appreciated by the patient
Medical treatment by a physician can always mitigate and shorten the
duration of a cold and lessen the danger of complications, the symptoms
of which can not always be appreciated by the patient.

'The second maxim is: _Never suffer an exception to occur until the new

habit is securely rooted in your life
'The second maxim is: _Never suffer an exception to occur until the new
habit is securely rooted in your life._ Each lapse is like letting fall
a ball of string which one is carefully winding up; a single slip undoes
more than a great many turns will wind again. _Continuity_ of training
is the great means of making the nervous system act infallibly right....
The need of securing success nerves one to future vigor.

The concluding chapter (IX

The concluding chapter (IX.) of the Book reflects on the great
difficulty of hitting the mean in all things, and of correctly
estimating all the requisite circumstances, in each particular case.
He gives as practical rules:--To avoid at all events the worst
extreme; to keep farthest from our natural bent; to guard against the
snare of pleasure. Slight mistakes on either side are little blamed,
but grave and conspicuous cases incur severe censure. Yet how far the
censure ought to go, is difficult to lay down beforehand in general
terms. There is the same difficulty in regard to all particular cases,
and all the facts of sense: which must be left, after all, to the
judgment of Sensible Perception [Greek: aisthaesis].

The views of Stewart represent, in the chief points, although not in

all, the Ethical theory that has found the greatest number of
supporters
The views of Stewart represent, in the chief points, although not in
all, the Ethical theory that has found the greatest number of
supporters.

But it was not with this aspect of the startling air of

artifice about all strange objects that I meant to deal
But it was not with this aspect of the startling air of
artifice about all strange objects that I meant to deal.
I mean merely, as a guide to history, that we should not be surprised
if things wrought in fashions remote from ours seem artificial;
we should convince ourselves that nine times out of ten
these things are nakedly and almost indecently honest.
You will hear men talk of the frosted classicism of Corneille
or of the powdered pomposities of the eighteenth century,
but all these phrases are very superficial. There never was
an artificial epoch. There never was an age of reason.
Men were always men and women women: and their two generous appetites
always were the expression of passion and the telling of truth.
We can see something stiff and quaint in their mode of expression,
just as our descendants will see something stiff and quaint
in our coarsest slum sketch or our most naked pathological play.
But men have never talked about anything but important things;
and the next force in femininity which we have to consider can
be considered best perhaps in some dusty old volume of verses
by a person of quality.

If, then, the identical co-education of the sexes is condemned both by

physiology and experience, may it not be that their _special and
appropriate co-education_ would yield a better result than their
special and appropriate _separate_ education? This is a most important
question, and one difficult to resolve
If, then, the identical co-education of the sexes is condemned both by
physiology and experience, may it not be that their _special and
appropriate co-education_ would yield a better result than their
special and appropriate _separate_ education? This is a most important
question, and one difficult to resolve. The discussion of it must be
referred to those who are engaged in the practical work of
instruction, and the decision will rest with experience. Physiology
advocates, as we have seen, the special and appropriate education of
the sexes, and has only a single word to utter with regard to simple
co-education, or juxtaposition in education.

Tobacco contains a powerful narcotic poison, nicotin, which resembles

prussic acid in the rapidity of its action, when a fatal dose is taken
Tobacco contains a powerful narcotic poison, nicotin, which resembles
prussic acid in the rapidity of its action, when a fatal dose is taken.

That perfect happiness is to be found in the philosophical life only,

will appear farther when we recollect that the gods are blest and happy
in the highest degree, and that this is the only mode of life suitable
to them
That perfect happiness is to be found in the philosophical life only,
will appear farther when we recollect that the gods are blest and happy
in the highest degree, and that this is the only mode of life suitable
to them. With the gods there can be no scope for active social virtues;
for in what way can they be just, courageous, or temperate? Neither
virtuous practice nor constructive art can be predicated of the gods;
what then remains, since we all assume them to live, and therefore to
be in act or exercise of some kind; for no one believes them to live in
a state of sleep, like Endymion. There remains nothing except
philosophical contemplation. This, then, must be the life of the gods,
the most blest of all; and that mode of human life which approaches
nearest to it will be the happiest. No other animal can take part in
this, and therefore none can be happy. In so far as the gods pay
attention to human affairs, they are likely to take pleasure in the
philosopher, who is most allied to themselves. A moderate supply of
good health, food, and social position, must undoubtedly be ensured to
the philosopher; for, without these, human nature will not suffice for
the business of contemplation. But he will demand nothing more than a
moderate supply, and when thus equipped, he will approach nearer to
happiness than any one else. Aristotle declares this confidently,
citing Solon, Anaxagoras, and other sages, as having said much the same
before him (VIII.).

Aside from nicotin it also contains small quantities of related

substances--nicotellin, nicotein, a camphoraceous substance termed
nicotianin, said to give tobacco its characteristic flavor, and likewise
a volatile oil developed during the process preparation
Aside from nicotin it also contains small quantities of related
substances--nicotellin, nicotein, a camphoraceous substance termed
nicotianin, said to give tobacco its characteristic flavor, and likewise
a volatile oil developed during the process preparation. On heating,
pyridin (a substance often used to denature alcohol), picolin, collidin,
and other bases are formed, as well as carbolic acid, ammonia, marsh
gas, cyanogen and hydrocyanic acid, carbon monoxide (coal gas) and
furfural. Furfural is a constituent of fusel oil, which is so much
dreaded in poor whisky. The smoke of a single cigaret may contain as
much furfural as two ounces of whisky.

Certainly no philanthropic association, however rationalistic and

suspicious of emotional appeal, can hope to help a girl once overwhelmed
by desperate temptation, unless it is able to pull her back into the
stream of kindly human fellowship and into a life involving normal human
relations
Certainly no philanthropic association, however rationalistic and
suspicious of emotional appeal, can hope to help a girl once overwhelmed
by desperate temptation, unless it is able to pull her back into the
stream of kindly human fellowship and into a life involving normal human
relations. Such an association must needs remember those wise words of
Count Tolstoy: 'We constantly think that there are circumstances in
which a human being can be treated without affection, and there are no
such circumstances.'

The Rational Principles of Action are Prudence, or regard to our own

good on the whole, and Duty, which, however, he does not define by the
antithetical circumstance--the "good of others
The Rational Principles of Action are Prudence, or regard to our own
good on the whole, and Duty, which, however, he does not define by the
antithetical circumstance--the "good of others." The notion of Duty, he
says, is too simple for logical definition, and can only be explained
by synonymes--_what we ought_ to do; what is fair and honest; what is
approvable; the professed rule of men"s conduct; what all men praise;
the laudable in itself, though no man praise it.

Ancient commerce, if we omit to notice the conjecture that the mariner"s

compass was in possession of the old Phoenician and Indian navigators,
reproduced, rather than invented, in modern times, did not rest upon any
enlarged scientific knowledge; but, in this era, many of the sciences
contribute to the extension and prosperity of trade
Ancient commerce, if we omit to notice the conjecture that the mariner"s
compass was in possession of the old Phoenician and Indian navigators,
reproduced, rather than invented, in modern times, did not rest upon any
enlarged scientific knowledge; but, in this era, many of the sciences
contribute to the extension and prosperity of trade. After what has been
accomplished by science, and especially by physical geography, for
commerce and navigation, we have reason to expect a system, based upon
scientific knowledge and principles, which shall render the highway of
nations secure against the disasters that have often befallen those who
go down to the sea in ships. Science gave to the world the steamship,
which promised for a time to engross the entire trade upon the ocean;
but science again appears, constructs vessels upon better scientific
principles, traces out the path of currents in the water and the air,
and thus restores the rival powers of wind and steam to an equality of
position in the eye of the merchant. Will any one say that all this
inures to capital, and leaves the laborer comparatively unrewarded? We
are accustomed to use the word prosperity as synonymous with
accumulation; and yet, in a true view, a man may be prosperous and
accumulate nothing. Suppose we contrast two periods in the life of a
nation with each other. Since the commencement of this century, the
wages of a common farm laborer in America have increased seventy-five or
one hundred per cent., while the articles necessary and convenient for
his use have, upon the whole, diminished in price. Admit that there was
nothing for accumulation in the first period, and that there is nothing
for accumulation now,--is not his condition nevertheless improved? And,
if so, has he not participated in the general prosperity?

A very common and at the same time injurious form of air-vitiation is

that from tobacco smoke
A very common and at the same time injurious form of air-vitiation is
that from tobacco smoke. Smoking, especially in a closed space such as a
smoking-room or smoking-car, vitiates the air very seriously, for smoker
and non-smoker alike.

This is especially true, as will be seen, of Thomas Aquinas

This is especially true, as will be seen, of Thomas Aquinas. His
predecessors can be disposed of in a few words. ALEXANDER of HALES (d.
1245) was almost purely theological. BONAVENTURA (1221-74) in his
double character of rigid Franciscan and mystic, was led far beyond the
Aristotelian Ethics. The mean between excess and defect is a very good
rule for the affairs of life, but the true Christian is bound besides
to works of supererogation: first of all, to take on the condition of
poverty; while the state of mystic contemplation remains as a still
higher goal for the few. ALBERT THE GREAT (1193-1280), the most learned
and complete commentator of Aristotle that had yet appeared, divide the
whole subject of Ethics into _Monastica, Oeconomica_, and _Politica_.
In this division, which is plainly suggested by the Aristotelian
division of Politics in the large sense, the term _Monastica_ not
inaptly expresses the reference that Ethics has to the conduct of men
as individuals. Albert, however, in commenting on the Nicomachean
Ethics, adds exceedingly little to the results of his author beyond the
incorporation of a few Scriptural ideas. To the cardinal virtues he
appends the _virtutes adjunctae_, Faith, Hope, and Charity, and again
in his compendious work, _Summa Theologiae_, distinguishes them as
_infusae_, the cardinal being considered as _acquisitae_.

"The degeneration and depravity of the mongrels was so great

that they deified the emperors
"The degeneration and depravity of the mongrels was so great
that they deified the emperors. And many of the emperors were
of a character so vile that their deification proves that the
post-Roman soul must have been more depraved than that of the
Egyptian mongrel, who deified nothing lower than dogs, cats,
crocodiles, bugs and vegetables."

The word comradeship just now promises to become as fatuous as

the word 'affinity
The word comradeship just now promises to become as fatuous as
the word 'affinity.' There are clubs of a Socialist sort where all
the members, men and women, call each other 'Comrade.' I have no
serious emotions, hostile or otherwise, about this particular habit:
at the worst it is conventionality, and at the best flirtation.
I am convinced here only to point out a rational principle.
If you choose to lump all flowers together, lilies and dahlias
and tulips and chrysanthemums and call them all daisies,
you will find that you have spoiled the very fine word daisy.
If you choose to call every human attachment comradeship,
if you include under that name the respect of a youth for a
venerable prophetess, the interest of a man in a beautiful woman
who baffles him, the pleasure of a philosophical old fogy in a girl
who is impudent and innocent, the end of the meanest quarrel
or the beginning of the most mountainous love; if you are going
to call all these comradeship, you will gain nothing, you will
only lose a word. Daisies are obvious and universal and open;
but they are only one kind of flower. Comradeship is obvious
and universal and open; but it is only one kind of affection;
it has characteristics that would destroy any other kind.
Anyone who has known true comradeship in a club or in a regiment,
knows that it is impersonal. There is a pedantic phrase used
in debating clubs which is strictly true to the masculine emotion;
they call it 'speaking to the question.' Women speak to each other;
men speak to the subject they are speaking about. Many an honest
man has sat in a ring of his five best friends under heaven
and forgotten who was in the room while he explained some system.
This is not peculiar to intellectual men; men are all theoretical,
whether they are talking about God or about golf.
Men are all impersonal; that is to say, republican. No one
remembers after a really good talk who has said the good things.
Every man speaks to a visionary multitude; a mystical cloud,
that is called the club.

Phelps, Edward Bunnell: _The Mortality from Alcohol in the United

States_, Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene
and Demography, Washington, 1912, Vol
Phelps, Edward Bunnell: _The Mortality from Alcohol in the United
States_, Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene
and Demography, Washington, 1912, Vol. I, p. 813.