WAS ACCOMPLISHED. [_Concluded._]
“Mr. Midith, you have not yet told us how your old marriage system was
gradually superseded by your present system of sexual freedom,” said
Rev. Dudley. “I am sure it would be highly interesting to us to have
you point out the most important transitional steps.”
“It is, of course, impossible for me to point out all the countless
gradations through which we passed in the sex relations from the lowest
stages of barbarism to that highest state of equal sexual freedom which
the Marsites now enjoy. It will suffice here to say that the progress
with us, as far as I can learn up to the point which you have reached
at the present time, were almost identical with yours.
“Under the head of sex relations I showed you how marriage was
instituted, both here and on Mars. How the primitive savage often stole
or captured his wife or wives; how he often compelled prisoners of
war to become his wife or wives; how, later on, the father or parent
sold his daughters to become the wives of the purchasers; how, still
later, the parents, instead of the young couple, made the marriage
contract; and now the contracting parties to the marriage, at least
in the United States and in some European countries, are generally
only interfered with by the state; that is, the state demands of them
certain acts before they can live together, and it also demands of
them, when once married, certain other acts before they can separate
or live with some one else; that is, your marriage contract is always
a life contract, and nothing but the most flagrant cruelties, as the
state looks upon them, will induce the state to grant a divorce.
“The last is the highest point in the sex relation that the earthly
inhabitants have thus far reached, and I need, therefore, not point out
any of the gradations below this point, for you have passed through
them in almost the same manner as we did, and how you did pass through
your past gradations can, to a certain extent, be ascertained from your
historical records. But what interests you most is how we made the
transitional steps of advance from the highest point that you have at
present attained to that complete sexual and other freedom which the
Marsites now enjoy.
“We have seen that all advancement is wrought out by intelligence, and
if sexual freedom is a higher and purer state of human activity than
the practice of wife-stealing or life-wedlock, we must have attained
that higher plane by some intellectual powers which taught us that
life, accompanied with a certain quantity and quality of intellectual
culture, is, as a whole, purer, more complete, and therefore happier
under sexual freedom than under the various forms of force marriage
systems; otherwise the statement that happiness is a feeling which we
seek to bring into consciousness and retain there is not true.
“The trend of human advancement, then, must ever be toward individual
freedom; not only in the sex-relations, but in all other directions
also. Let me therefore point out to you a few of our transitional steps
from _your_ highest present sex-relations to that which now exists on
Mars. Let us also, as we go along, try to discover if any of the same
signs are already discernible here on earth.
“When we were in your present stage of progress, our marriage contract
began to be much less esteemed than formerly; the power of the church
and state was rapidly waning; the ceremonies grew less solemn, and
divorces increased in number and respect. All these signs are already
more or less strongly visible with you, too.
“In ancient times a wife, no matter how much abused, could obtain no
divorce from her husband without _his_ consent. Later on thousands
of wives obtained divorces. The same is true with your men and women
now. With us actresses and such other ladies who were best capable of
supporting themselves financially were the first and most numerous
who desired to be free and independent, and therefore applied most
frequently for divorces when the marriage was no longer mutually
agreeable. With you the same holds true.
“As several couples of married men and women began to co-operate and
live together in the same house, they all grew more sociable and less
jealous because each desired more and more to be free himself and would
therefore be willing to accord a greater latitude of freedom to his
married or other companions. We can already often see slight traces
of that with you where two or more families live and work in close
proximity, and where two married couples, when out walking or riding,
exchange ladies and gentlemen.
“In the foregoing stage of co-operation, the death of a man or a
wife would not desolate and break up the home and family like it
formerly did when only two parents were living together. There were
always plenty left to have the work go on as before. In this small
co-operative family the surviving member would continue to live as a
member of the family almost the same as before. He could either again
take in a companion or not, just as he pleased. By these closer and
wider social, industrial and sexual bonds, man became more and more
sensitive to injustice and discord. He looked upon aggressiveness and
compulsion of every kind with continually increasing repugnance. The
reward of co-operation on the one hand and individual freedom on the
other urged him on to a still higher eminence.
“Thus as our families and communities unfolded in size, order and
prosperity, and as each member--man, woman and child--became more and
more intelligent, independent, self-reliant and non-aggressive, as I
have pointed out in the preceding part of my narrative, the marriage
contract, like the oath and other superstitions, first became a mere
form, and later on disappeared altogether. The social and sexual web
grew wider, purer and stronger. All forms of monopoly died with the
compulsory state. Jealousy and aggressiveness were crowded out of the
mind by higher and nobler feelings. Filial affection overflowed from
its former narrow bounds. The individual became the sole owner of
his or her own person. We began to feel that all of us had received
parental care during our infancy and that we in turn, whether parent
or not, should do the same to our contemporaneous infants. The sexual
affairs, with the enlargement of individual freedom, naturally glided
under the exclusive control of the woman under whose efficient
management, sexual freedom and instructive desires, the excessive
sexual function was gradually reduced, to about its normal activity,
the same as we find with the lower animals when they are in a state
of freedom. Thus the highest human efforts were always crowned with
health, purity, freedom and happiness.
“I am well aware of the fact that these higher feelings of which I
have here spoken are not sufficiently developed in the masses of the
earthly inhabitants at the present time to be keenly appreciated by
them. All that any of us can do is to aid in bringing the masses up to
that standard by a diffusion of a higher intelligence which improves
their organization. As I told you before, a rude savage would not feel
at home in an elegantly furnished parlor, but he is not to blame for
the fact that he can not appreciate such a parlor. His organization is
not yet in tune with it. He must be elevated before he can appreciate
such surroundings. The same is true with the vast majority of your
people. With their present state of mind they can not appreciate those
higher and purer feelings of which I have spoken; if they could, they
would surely have them. A rude, uncleanly person would find it a great
burden, instead of a comfort, to live a life appropriate with a clean,
elegant, orderly residence in which there would be no invasion, and
equal right.
“To illustrate: Such a person would not want to clean his shoes or
put on his slippers before he walked in. He would want to spit on
the stove or floor. He would want to slam the doors or leave them
open after him when they ought to be closed. He would want to be
loud and noisy. He would want to smoke, chew and get drunk in it.
He would not want to bathe and divest himself of his labor-garments
which are scented with perspiration. He would find no delight in
keeping his finger and toe-nails clean and trimmed. He would not want
to clean his teeth nor comb his hair. He would want to dictate to,
and domineer over his physically weaker and intellectually inferior
companions. As a male he would want to manage sexual affairs which
can be managed with purity only by the female. At table he would want
to rise, reach and smack while eating. He would want to interrupt you
in conversation. At night he would want to come into the house like
a whirlwind, waking all in the house. From labor he would want to
shirk all he could. In discussion he would get angry if he could not
carry his point. In courtship he would become pouty and jealous if
things would not just suit him. Instead of learning, discussing and
contemplating something high and noble, he would want to indulge in
obscene and vulgar frivolities. All these acts would be inappropriate
with a fine residence and highly distasteful to a cultivated person
whose social feelings are in tune with a clean handsome residence.
With their present sentiments, the vast masses of your people would
therefore not appreciate the wholesome conduct and elegant ‘big-houses’
of the Marsites; but, on the contrary, a multitude of your rudest men
and women would, no doubt, turn our elegant dwellings more or less
into brothels, filthy saloons, smoking rooms and nasty spittoons.
They would quarrel, fight and shirk from their equitable labor.
They would be jealous and unclean. But all this is no sign that our
social, industrial and sexual relations are not better suited for a
higher and purer life than your institutions are. It simply shows that
those who are not in sympathy with our institutions, or who deem them
impracticable on account of their high standard, still contain within
them too many primitive propensities and passions which are revolting
against a healthful, peaceable life.”
“How did you arrive at your present methods of education?” asked Viola.
“I am sure an account of some of the most important transitional steps
would be very interesting to us, and I hope that you will find it as
agreeable to give us the explanation as it will be for us to receive
it.”
“Of course I need not tell you that we reached the point of education
that _you_ have attained at present by the same process and in the same
order that you did, and I need, therefore, not go back of that point,
for you know that as well and perhaps better than I do. It is modern
history with you and more or less ancient with me. You want to know by
what path, from your present position, you can reach a higher plane.
“We have seen that the sovereignty of the state gradually weakened, and
that the sovereignty of the individual correspondingly increased. Your
public school system depends for its financial support on the power of
the state. As soon as the state loses its power of compulsory taxation,
the public school can not exist on its present principles.
“But mankind will always maintain existing institutions until they
begin to see some disadvantages, or until they can supplant them by
what they consider to be better ones. This is as true of education as
of everything else. Mankind slowly learns that not all instruction
furnishes useful information. The direct object of education, as we
have seen, is to discover truth, so that we may live in accord with
the facts of the universe; for every violation of a natural function
is a violation of a natural law, and every violation of a natural law
is attended with suffering. Hence, in order to enjoy the greatest
happiness, the ultimate aim and end of all sentient beings must be
to live in tune with facts; we must understand the true relations of
things so that we may be able to look a great distance into the future,
so as to avoid or remove all stumbling blocks from our path of future
progress.
“We may easily illustrate the fact that not all instruction furnishes
useful information. The instruction which was inculcated in the minds
of the people during the dark ages that a supernatural power may be and
often was purchased from the supposed evil fiend, was instruction which
led to the torture and murder of millions of innocent human beings. The
instruction, during former ages, that war and slavery are justifiable,
has done an immense evil, and is doing so still, but in a somewhat more
lenient form. Your modern instruction that profit, interest, rent and
taxes are right, and conducive to human well-being, is causing nearly
all your present evils and discord.
“Some are beginning to see and feel this clearly. But no teacher
in your public schools is allowed at present to teach that profit,
interest, rent, and taxes are wrong because they arise from the
monopolization of natural opportunity and are therefore destructive
to the highest human welfare. No teacher in your public school is
allowed to teach that we ought never to take up a gun for the purpose
of shooting our neighbor in defense of any flag; for a man as such
is always better than a flag; for a collection of people can even be
happier and more orderly without a flag than with one. As a rule,
your teacher who teaches that your women are not enjoying the same
privileges that your men enjoy is looked down upon, and your board of
directors or state do not desire to employ such a person as teacher.
They look upon him as the contemporaries of Socrates looked upon
Socrates.
“By this you can plainly see that thousands of your most cultivated and
thoughtful teachers of your public schools, the same as many of your
preachers, are not at liberty to teach _all_ their best thoughts and
sentiments. The masses are not sufficiently matured intellectually to
assimilate them. He must therefore suppress some of his best thoughts.
“In proportion as people became conscious of the facts, they lost their
patriotic sentiments for the compulsory public schools, and they could
find no other solution out of the difficulty than to take the control
of school education out of the hands of the state and place it in the
hands of the individual, the same as they had done with the church
long before. You see as long as we are compelled by the state to think
only in one narrow, prescribed channel, there is little opportunity
for rapid mental development. Under this state constraint, some of the
best thoughts are frequently never born, and if they are born, they are
generally dwarfed for want of room and opportunity. All who desire aid
from the public school room are compelled to walk within the narrow
path laid out by the state.
“But things are entirely different when any individual, under free
competition, can open a school and teach whatever he desires. His
school must then prosper by virtue of its own merits, in a large field
of keen, free competition. Under individual instruction there would be
the widest possible difference in the course of study and in the mode
of discipline. All could very likely be suited somewhere, no matter
how widely they may differ in thought and belief. Those who desire to
pray could find schools in which prayer is the most important exercise;
those who desire to study the doctrine of special creation could find
their school and teacher. The evolutionist could find his. There would
be schools in which all the various phases of thought were taught and
discussed--social, political, theological, industrial, sexual, and
scientific. Under such keen, free competition, all but the fittest
would soon disappear.”
“But did you not say, Mr. Midith, that ministers, too, often feel the
burden of narrowness brought to bear upon them by their congregations?
They are not under the control of the state. How, then, do you
reconcile these facts?” asked Rev. Dudley.
“In the first place, they are partly under state monopoly, because
church property is exempt from taxation, while other property is taxed.
In the church there is a wide range of latitude in the thought and
belief between the most primitive Catholic, who believes himself to be
under the guidance and paternalism of an infallible pope, and the most
liberal Unitarian or Universalist, who is free nearly to believe as
he likes. As a minister, then, nearly every one can find a gradation
of individual freedom corresponding with his intellectual advancement,
and when he is ready to step out of the church beyond all sectarian
dogmas, he is at liberty to do so at any time. He is not now forced by
the state, like formerly, to be a member of a particular church, or of
any church, nor is he forced to contribute toward the support of any
church more than the increase of his taxation caused by the exemption
of church property. But with your public school and your teacher it is
altogether different. You are taxed to support them whether you are in
sympathy with them or not; whether you send your children to the public
school, or to a private one where you pay tuition. The state-prescribed
course of study and mode of discipline are nearly alike everywhere.
There is but one narrow channel in which your intellectual activity
must be confined. In your state-schools, you as an individual can not,
like a minister and a church member, pass, step by step, as you grow
intellectually, through a wide range toward the more liberal, and
even pass entirely beyond all sectarian doctrines, like the tendency
of your present theological movement clearly indicates. A minister,
under your present _regime_, can preach any doctrine he desires from an
independent pulpit, but an independent school is taxed out of existence
by the state, because the private teacher can not get the required
number of pupils as long as the parents of the pupils must first pay
taxes to support the public school and then pay tuition to the private
teacher.
“Let me give an illustration. The church, I think, furnishes the best
example, showing how your public school will slowly but gradually lose
its despotic state power and influence. According to your history,
only a comparatively few years ago your people thought that the church
and state were inseparably bound together by some superhuman tie. You
then thought that it was the state’s duty to look after the welfare
of the ‘soul’ as well as the body. Churches were built and the clergy
maintained by compulsory taxation, the same as you now build and
maintain public schools and teachers. There was but one denomination
then, and every person was a member of that denomination or church.
But as the mind unfolded toward self-reliance, kindness and individual
liberty, different denominations were born to suit the rising
intelligence. Thus step by step the separation of church and state
continued until the only remnant of compulsory authority the state
claims to exercise over the church at present is to exempt her property
from taxation, and that remnant is already getting very feeble.
“Thus we see that the church continually grew weaker in dictatorial
authority and membership, and stronger in simplicity and individual
freedom. With every forward step of advance it became more natural, and
this forward movement continued with us and will, no doubt, continue
with you until the church loses itself in nature by becoming identical
with it. Only a few centuries ago nearly every man, woman and child in
your Christian world was a church member. Now the population of the
United States in round numbers is about 60,000,000; of these about
8,000,000 are Catholics and about 12,000,000 are Protestants. About
20,000,000 out of the 60,000,000 are church members. Formerly, then,
the rate per cent. of church members was nearly 100 per cent., now
it is only 33 per cent. More than 66 per cent. passed through the
successive steps of theological liberty, or they passed entirely beyond
all theological dogmas as far as church membership is concerned.
“In a similar manner did our public school lose its state authority. As
I have told you, the state itself, in all its functions, was gradually
weakened, and lost its paternalism with every step of intellectual
advance and personal liberty. But the disappearance of the public
school was more rapid than the disappearance of the state in some
other direction. Men gradually withdrew from the old, narrow, despotic
school, the same as they had withdrawn from the old, narrow, cruel
church. As the intellectual sun of freedom, kindness and prosperity
rose and shed his congenial rays on our progressive Mars, the chains
of superstition, cruelty and slavery fell off one by one; and the same
tendency is already discernible with you. I find that many of your
foremost thinkers and most impartial judges feel the narrowness and
stagnation of your public school and your system of education. They
favor the abolition of state schools and the substitution of private
institutions in which there is a wide range of liberty, so that every
teacher can teach what he desires, and every child can go where it
desires. In such a keen, free field of competition every teacher and
school must stand or fall by their own merit, and the survival of the
fittest will soon crowd out all others.
“The public school, before its disappearance, assumed different forms.
The teachers grew in kindness and ability. The days were shortened. I
mean the school day in the compulsory school-room. The weeks and years
were also gradually shortened. The child became a freer agent in a
more natural position. In the course of time the people of the cities
and towns erected and supported spacious public buildings in the most
suitable parts of their cities and towns. These buildings were intended
for enjoyment and also for the acquisition of useful information, not
for the _man_ only, like most of your public buildings now are, except
the churches, but for the wife and child also. Every man, woman and
child who wished to enjoy a social intercourse for a few hours, either
during the day or evening, could always find a fit place in these
public buildings.
“These public buildings, or natural schools, were built on the center
of about four acres of the most suitable land in the center of a
town. Of course, in large cities there were many such buildings. The
ground was fenced so that no small child could get out. The entrance
was guarded by a trustworthy person so that little children could not
leave the ground without a nurse to care for them. This arrangement
insured mothers and others that their children were out of danger when
brought within the inclosure. Part of the inclosure was fitted up for
a play-ground, part of it for an outdoor nursery, and the remainder
was planted in flowers and ornamental trees, etc. These buildings, or
natural schools, were divided into apartments by movable partitions,
so that it could be set off into rooms or be thrown all into one
hall. This inclosure and building were in charge of several lady and
gentlemen marshals, or teachers. (But both the marshals and teachers
had already lost nearly all of their aggressiveness.) These teachers
instructed the children wherever they found them. The child studied
biology, botany, geology, physiology and psychology whenever it went
in the inclosure. It received instruction in music, reading, language,
elementary sounds, cleanliness, politeness, honesty, truthfulness and
kindness by words and examples, and all this was done in such a natural
and pleasant manner that the child was not aware that it was studying.
At the close of the day it would exclaim, ‘To-day we had lots of fun! I
shall be here again early to-morrow morning!’
“These natural schools, or places of amusement, were supplied with a
fine library, all kinds of musical instruments, commodious and elegant
furniture, a fine laboratory and a good supply of philosophical
apparatus, and a supply of confectionery and articles of amusement.”
“But is not that quite expensive,” asked Rev. Dudley, “to purchase the
land, erect and furnish the building, and pay the teachers; and do you
think that our _bad boys_ would appreciate all this after all?”
“The cost of it would not begin to be as much as that which you expend
in saloons, liquor, opium, tobacco and cigars. Your men build their
saloons, club-houses, etc., and spend in the United States alone about
a thousand million dollars for liquor, and over two hundred and fifty
million dollars for tobacco, cigars and cigarettes per annum, and they
handle nearly all the money, but invest scarcely a nickle for the wife
and child in public buildings and places of learning and amusement.
“And as to the bad boys, it is no wonder that they are bad with the
treatment they receive; the wonder to me is that your women and
children do not revolt against the tyrannical treatment of the men. As
long as you coerce your boys, who are chased from store to store, from
postoffice to street, and kicked out of the saloon by the father who
happens to be there, that long you can not expect your boys to be what
you want them to be. I never saw any of your boys do anything so bad
and cruel but what I saw your men do something worse and more cruel. No
doubt, if you treat your boys and girls kindly and justly they will be
just as good as our boys.
“But we are digressing from our subject; let us return to it. From what
I have told you, you can, no doubt, see the tendency of educational
advancement by a comparison of religious progress. To be sure in my
limited narration, I can array only a few of the most important facts
to suggest others.
“The primitive savage has not the mental ability and desire for deep
thought and profound study. As the tribes coalesce and the brain
increases in size and function by a wider social intercourse and a more
complex experience concomitant with a greater national union, he begins
to believe that man’s ‘heart’ can be made perfect by the guidance of
man-made laws. In this mental stage, he endeavors to put everything
under the dominion of man-made laws, the same as in former periods, he
put everything under the dominion of his own created Deity. In this
law-period, he owns his land by law; he makes his money by law; he owns
slaves; kills witches and heretics, builds churches and school-houses,
organizes and disciplines an army, executes criminals and marries all
by law. Everything which is done in accordance to law is considered
right and just. He is now an aggressor and invader, but with a still
higher intelligence and a higher sense of justice, he begins to
question the _justice_ and equity of a man-made _law_. He finds that
aggressiveness implies discord, and that society can never be orderly
and happy as long as there are aggressors and invaders.
“So it was with the school, and with the entire system of education.
The state school or public school, was succeeded by private schools.
Our idea of school and education now rapidly broadened. With the
enlargement of the family and community all parents, by the assistance
of co-operation and closer association, became better educated and more
highly cultivated, and this general advancement continued until every
person, young and old, was considered a teacher, and every field, yard,
park and ‘big-house’ an institution of learning; the _direct_ teaching
changed almost wholly to the indirect. Here you see that the school,
too, loses itself in nature by becoming identical with it. Just as
every person in a former period became his own minister and preached
whatever doctrines he pleased, so does every person now become or is
his own teacher and teaches whatever and wherever he pleases, and our
education continues as long as we live. We do not graduate at the age
of fifteen or twenty like you do. Hence, our system of education is
now perfectly free, natural and agreeable. It has turned into play. We
study only those things which are agreeable to us. But you must not
forget that the higher branches of study and inquiry are more agreeable
as our mental ability increases.
“By improved intercommunication of travel and correspondence, the
survival of the fittest rapidly diminished the number of languages,
until but one was left, and this one is so simple and easily learned
by always hearing it spoken correctly that very little technical
grammar is now studied. With the lapse of time we began to see more and
more clearly that he who is capable of living with the most complex
structure and function, most nearly in accord with the facts of the
universe, is most highly educated; and he who is least _aggressive_ is
most highly cultivated, because these conditions are necessary for the
enjoyment of the greatest happiness. Thus all the social, industrial
and sexual questions gradually became a part of our practical course of
study in our daily life.
“I am aware that my explanation of education has been very brief, but
I have already kept you too far into the night. I am afraid that I am
teaching you a bad lesson when I keep you up too late. On some future
occasion we may be able to have more of the details, but now it is time
to retire.”