_REGENERATION_
If the manifold discussions which have raged around the question of
human progress have failed to establish a consensus of opinion, it
is largely due to the absence of any exact definition of the term
progress. There can be no doubt about our advance in science. The trite
references to the use we make of steam, of which the ancient sages knew
so little as to call it smoke, establishes this beyond the possibility
of denial. But, on the other hand, our advance in literature and art
has been crab-like; for it has been accomplished with our face turned
towards antiquity. To set up ideals out of the actualities of the past
involves the recognition that we, as a race, stand lower than we have
done before, or at least at one time we have slided backwards and not
yet retrieved the lost ground.
The progress of humanity, with all its deviations and backslidings,
may appear as one decided march onwards, if we look upon our ideals,
plucked from the past, as so many pegs thrown out into the distant
future demarcating the ground to be occupied by the road of
civilization. The Greeks showed us, as in a flash, and within a limited
space, ideals of poetry and art, and since the time of the Renaissance
we have been striving to attain them. Christ has been the moral ideal
held up to us for well-nigh nineteen hundred years; but this we are so
far from having realized, as to be filled with doubt whether, in our
awkward groping, with our faces turned towards Calvary, we move in the
right direction.
There are many circumstances which render it difficult to decide
whether we have progressed or not. How are we to determine which
represents the greater advance, the high degree of æsthetic
civilization in a small group of the human family, and all the
rest plunged in barbarian darkness; or a lower degree of æsthetic
civilization uniformly spread among all the peoples of the world? We
have, thus, to consider not only the degrees of progress, but the
nature—whether æsthetic or moral—and its extension, before we can
decide whether we have progressed or not. But this is not all. We must
agree, or at least have clearly determined in our minds, towards what
goal the progression is supposed to move. If it be to bring the whole
of humanity up to an ideal beauty, perfect health, and a maximum of
strength and agility, our civilization in our present stage certainly
tends in the other direction. If, on the other hand, the goal be the
conquest of Nature’s forces, we are certainly moving rapidly towards it.
In face, then, of the complexity of the question, whether humanity is
progressing or not, the best method of replying to it rationally is
to take one feature of human development only, but one in which the
others are included, or on which they depend. To select for such a
test-feature the psychological conditions of civilized humanity, at
a certain period as manifested in literature and art, might at the
first glance appear as the most rational course, because with strong
and sound minds, with well-balanced psychological faculties, a nation
is most likely to shape its destiny in such a fashion as to secure
excellency in all the domains of its existence.
But there are strong objections to this method of gauging human
progress. The fashionable writers and artists may not represent the
mass of their contemporaries, but may be the exponents of a temporary
mood in a small uninfluential clique. Features of literature and
art may, as we have already pointed out, convey the impression of
retrogression simply because they reflect the unrest and confusion
which prevail in the majority of minds at periods when new ideas and
new views, healthy in themselves, trample out the old ones. Art and
literature do not always reflect the ethics of a nation at a given
period. The nation may be intellectually strong and morally sound, but
political events, economic troubles, may momentarily goad it into
abnormal moods and drive it, by sheer necessity, into a course which,
under normal circumstances, it would shun. A despot with æsthetic
leanings, and his nobility, might be instrumental in causing art and
literature to blossom forth most vigorously, while the people at large
might be sunk in the deepest depths of demoralization and misery in
order to furnish the means for the maintenance of a brilliant court.
History and actualities afford ample confirmation of the fact that
art and literature may flourish while the people degenerate. When
the culture of Greece was at its zenith, a large proportion of the
people—the slaves—had fallen so low as actually to afford object
lessons to the young citizens, in order to deter them from the
horrors of vice and degradation. During the Renaissance in Italy the
courts were corrupt, and the Church had sunk to its deepest stage of
demoralization. While the “Roi Soleil” was developing literature and
art in the hothouse of his royal patronage, the immorality of the
nobles and the degradation of the people were unprecedented.
Nor are there wanting examples of how a nation may be in a vigorous
state of progression without developing any remarkable features in art
and literature. Switzerland was for a long time the leading nation
in Europe in the matter of government, legislation, administration,
civic virtues, and education, but has never distinguished itself
æsthetically. During the period in which America was most progressive,
its people were too busy with practical affairs to give much attention
to the arts. If, therefore, we were to judge the progress of a nation
by its arts and literature, we might feel disposed to conclude that
these two blossoms of civilization sprout forth in the same ratio as
the people degenerate. But this would be absurd, for it would be to
give the palm of civilization to the Esquimaux, or to the pigmies in
the dark forests of Africa. The idea, therefore, of judging whether a
nation, or a race, is rising or degenerating by the state of its arts,
must be rejected as utterly misleading.
The political and social institutions of a nation are surely the
features that best lend themselves to the test of the stage it has
attained in progressive development, or degeneration. If laws and
institutions are such as to give every inhabitant the best chances
of attaining to a high degree of civilization, of morality, and of
happiness, and such laws and institutions emanate from the people
themselves, and are not imposed by another nation and not by the freak
of a despot, that nation is in a progressive state. It is difficult
to imagine a country with good laws and good institutions without
corresponding healthy conditions in all the other features of its
existence. History offers no example of a community, or of a people,
that has given itself laws and institutions equally beneficial to all
the individuals, and yet exhibiting signs of decay in any domain of
its culture. It is true that in a free, healthy, progressive State,
especially a thoroughly democratic one, literature and art may not
attain that hectic florescence so often co-existent with bad laws and
bad institutions. But it has never been found that art and literature
in such healthy nations are in a degenerating state.
It is true that different minds hold different opinions as to the
attributes of good laws and institutions. A man who believes that human
beings are essentially wicked and brutal would call a government good
only when it possessed power enough to keep the people in subjection;
while he who has discovered that the good qualities in human beings
spring from a natural instinct, and the bad ones from unfavourable
conditions and corrupt surroundings, would only call that form of
government good which afforded to each individual the greatest possible
liberty consistent with the same degree of liberty in others. But there
can be no hesitation as to what constitutes good government and good
institutions, if we appeal to the only authority capable of judging
with full knowledge of the case, namely, the individuals themselves.
We often meet with people who look with distrust upon institutions
and systems of government based on liberty, but this does not affect
our assertion that the great mass of individuals would personally,
and for themselves, claim as much liberty as they could obtain. Those
who advocate authoritative administration and the subjection of the
people to a class, or an elected body, behold in such constitutions the
means not of reducing their own liberty, but of extending it beyond
legitimate boundaries, and at the expense of the liberty of others.
It is hardly possible to imagine a nation that has given itself, and
is living under, a system of personal liberty, and is at the same
time degenerate. A degenerate man fears liberty, he prefers to lean
on others; he feels not ashamed to live on charity, and would abuse
his liberty in order to satisfy his base instincts. A sound-minded
and morally healthy man needs no compulsion to respect the right and
liberties of others. He trusts and respects others, because he trusts
and respects himself. He would assist no man in his attempts and
intrigues to injure others. He would, therefore, uphold his own, as
well as the liberty of others.
Such bad results as Nordau fears from institutions based on liberty
can only arise out of oppression. We have shown how the anti-semitic
movement, which he erroneously regards as an outcome of too much
liberty, is the result of oppression exercised by the Jewish
capitalists and employers in virtue of bad legislation, and no one
will deny that the anarchistic tendencies spring from the same cause.
From these reasons we may fairly conclude that, if we wish to form an
opinion of the intellectual soundness and moral strength of a nation,
we cannot do better than examine to what an extent it has attained to
good institutions based on personal liberty.
If civilized mankind is actually degenerating, we must find a tendency
among the people in the countries under examination to give themselves,
or to accept under compulsion, laws and institutions which rob them of
their personal liberty.
In gauging the present epoch by this standard, we might first be
inclined to side with Nordau. Those great nations which may fairly
be looked upon as the leaders of civilization present spectacles of
political corruption and retrogression, which might well suggest
the idea that, instead of developing into a race intellectually and
morally strong enough to live free, they show a marked willingness to
place themselves under control of some kind—to abandon their divine
attributes and to assume those of domesticated animals. But a correct
opinion about so important a question cannot be formed on a superficial
glance. In no branch of knowledge are appearances so deceptive as
in sociology. Apparently the same effects are often produced by two
opposite causes, and under slightly different circumstances the same
cause may produce two opposite effects. Thus, a man may vote for a
measure because he is corrupt and selfish, and with the object of
benefiting himself at the expense of his fellow-men; while another
man may vote for the same measure because he does not happen to be
in possession of certain special knowledge which would enable him to
understand the nugatory character of his action.
There are nations in Europe at this moment presenting such a mass
of anomalies as to render it extremely difficult to decide whether
they are bent on improving their laws and institutions, or on making
them worse. Much, for example, that has happened in Germany has been
pronounced as a decided forward movement. The German army has displayed
physical and mental qualities which bear witness to healthy development
rather than degeneration. The unification of the German States into
one Empire had for some time before the last war been the goal towards
which the nation aspired. When it was reached, patriotic Germans
expected it to be made the starting-point of a new departure for
further progress. But the very accomplishment of national unification
involved features which clearly pointed to retrogression. The mediæval
principle of conquest was revised. The future peace and good-will
among the nations was destroyed by the annexation of the two provinces
conquered from France. Standing armies for Germany became more than
ever necessary, and the nation was called upon to make enormous
sacrifices in order to ward off the consequences of retrogression in
foreign politics. The heaviest burdens were laid upon the working
class, and their struggle for existence became desperate. They have
shown many signs of discontent, and these have led to the consolidation
of repressive measures. Thus Germany now presents the spectacle of a
curious amalgam of mediæval and modern features.
At the head of this great empire we find a young Emperor who, though
not a despot in the widest sense of the word, possesses, as an
indispensable feature of the system, sufficient power to plunge not
only the whole of Germany, but all Europe, into unspeakable misery.
The individuals of the nation sink into insignificance before him.
They plainly feel that their destiny is in his hands as much as that
of their ancestors was in the hands of their mediæval emperors. And
yet the people are highly civilized, well educated, and show, in their
different walks of life, intelligence, strength of character, moral
worth.
Here, then, is a people which, judged collectively by our standard,
would stand at a low point of development, because their laws and
institutions are not based on personal liberty. If we consider
the direction in which they are moving, the verdict becomes as
unfavourable. The country is torn by two divergent tendencies, neither
of them aiming onwards. The one represented by the Emperor, the
official bodies, the plutocrats, and men who think as Nordau, who wish
to keep a keener watch on the destitute classes; the other represented
by the Socialists, who clamour for the destruction of the present
system, not for the purpose of securing personal liberty, but of
wresting what little is left of it from the people, and of establishing
complete State tyranny.
If the standard we are applying be trustworthy, neither of the two
currents of development noticeable in Germany run in the direction
of a high degree of civilization. At the present moment it seems
difficult to discover whence, within Germany, could come the impulse
for such general mental and moral progress as would be manifested by
good and free institutions. If the present conditions could prevail
indefinitely, and gradually improve so as to safeguard, or at least not
impede, the development of the individuals, Germany might look forward
to the future with equanimity.
But, unfortunately, actualities in that country confirm only too
well the trustworthiness of our standard. The result of the present
system cannot fail to exercise degenerating effects on the people,
but whether these effects will influence the present generation
only, or by heredity be perpetuated in the nervous systems and the
brains of the race, is a question for psychologists to settle. The
stupendous standing army, the heavy taxation, and a host of bad
laws have undermined, and are still undermining, the welfare of the
people. The immediate results are, among the working classes: extreme
penury, hopeless lives, low morals, intense hatred of the wealthy
class, a growing sympathy with the destructive programme of the
advanced Anarchists, decay of religious belief without any growth of
the religion of humanity of science. Among the commercial class, the
results are: intense competition, small profits, nervous application
to business, a thirst for gold and recklessness with regard to the
means of satisfying it. Among the bureaucratic classes the dread of
reduced and retarded advancement has caused discipline and absolute
submission to take the place of religion and philosophy. The landed
aristocracy, seeing their incomes threatened by the deplorable state of
agriculture, plot and plan how to recoup themselves at the expense of
the people, and have even shown an inclination to resist the Emperor
himself when their interests require it. This state of affairs is more
than sufficient to account for such signs of degeneration as Nordau
has noticed in his own country. What wonder that artists and writers,
menaced by misery and actuated by the general thirst for gold, should
consult their market rather than their inspiration, and that they
should copy successful authors and artists in France and elsewhere,
rather than take the trouble and the risk to do original work. A
comparison between German literature of to-day and that of decaying
Rome could not fail to impart important lessons.
Everything in Germany points to a coming catastrophe. Even if we
consider only one of the directions from which the first alarm
may come—that is, the Finance Department—it seems impossible that
the system can last much longer. The heavy taxation unfortunately
undermines its own basis, namely, the ability of the people to pay,
and the much-strained credit of the State is likely to collapse at the
very moment it will be most needed. It is, therefore, not premature
to consider what will happen in that country at about the end of this
century, when the financial resources, the patience of the people, and
the confidence of the army may be exhausted.
Two alternatives are possible. The crisis which seems bound to come
may be a violent one, arising from below; or it may be a peaceful
one, taking its origin from above. In the one case, there will be
a momentary social chaos; for all the military and bureaucratic
institutions, all systems, theories, prejudices, will be cast into the
furnace. At what time and under what conditions Germany will emerge
from the crisis will depend on the number, and the strength of mind, of
those Germans who understand that good institutions based on liberty
are the cardinal attributes of a sound-minded and morally strong nation.
The other case—the crisis coming from above—does not seem possible just
now, because the Emperor himself would have to take the initiative. It
is not likely that he would give up his power, his military tastes and
pastimes, in order to render Germany a free and happy nation, living in
peace with other free nations. For a sovereign to conceive such an idea
would be almost supernatural, and to carry it out successfully would
require the highest degree of human intelligence, because it could not
be done except in harmony and in co-operation with the other European
States.
From whatever direction the crisis comes, there is much in the
Germans to warrant a final successful issue. We cannot believe, with
Nordau, that such signs as we see of degeneration spring from moral
and intellectual weakness. In the external circumstances, we find
sufficient cause for far more demoralization than actually exists;
and the Germans, taken as individuals, show themselves to possess
plenty of those mental and moral qualities which are the only possible
foundations of a healthy State. They bear witness to the fact that,
despite unfavourable outward circumstances, the race is not decaying;
and that the present corruption and demoralization may be decay only of
one stage of human development, from which in obedience to some strong
impulse a new regenerating era may arise.
In order to elucidate the apparent state of degeneration which
characterises civilization at the close of this most remarkable
century, as well as its causes, we have instanced Germany—the
country where Nordau has studied and written, and where he seems
to have received his most vivid impressions. The circumstances
and tendencies of other countries, especially in those governed
more or less on despotic principles, are akin to those in Germany.
Everywhere increasing penury, discontent among the destitute classes,
a rapidly growing power among the plutocrats, national indebtedness,
financial corruption, the decay of all religious belief, and general
demoralization. But the similarity does not end here. In every country
there are numbers of people striving and hoping to bring about a better
state of things, even at the cost and sacrifice of some of the leading
features of our civilization. There is a mass of evidence, including
those peculiar features of modern society on which Nordau has dwelt so
largely, showing that a deep unrest has taken hold of humanity. The
feeling is not only that we are in a wrong position, but that we are
moving in a wrong direction. The general fear is not that degeneration
has set in, but that, moving on the road that we do, we cannot escape
it.
The most striking characteristic of our time is that in no nation do
we find, on either side of the Atlantic, any distinct indication of
the road which can lead us past the Slough of Despond. The moral state
of the civilized world is like a nation preparing for revolt against
a tyrant: gloomy, discontented, and excited men are encouraging one
another with secret signs and passwords, mustering and drilling in
secret places, to be ready for action, but without any trustworthy
leaders, without any plans for the future, without even any tactics
for the first struggle. In some countries the cry is for leaders; but
the old faith that the situations will bring out the men seems to have
been utterly falsified: for everywhere mediocrity, prejudice, and
corruption hold the helm. The cry in England and other countries is not
for leaders, but for more light. We want a higher philosophy, nobler
arts, a loftier literature, sounder principles of legislation, a purer
religion.
No nation holds a higher responsibility than the English. Its vast
possessions all over the globe, its financial and commercial supremacy,
its ethical influence over all the English-speaking countries, mark
it out as the standard-bearer of civilization. Nothing great can
happen among us without re-echoing in the remotest corners of the
earth, and any step onward taken by us will send a thrill throughout
humanity. Degenerate Englishmen may still wish to meekly follow other
nations, but our mission is to be the practical, energetic, daring
pioneers heading the march of progress. By using its great power and
influence, the British nation can render invaluable service to humanity
in the present crisis. On England must therefore rest our hopes for
the practical solution of the grave questions on which progress and
retrogression depend. From England alone can proceed that electrifying
impulse of which the bewildered nations stand in need, that they may
marshal the forces and focus the goal of progress.
In our political circles, in the ranks of literature, and throughout
all the strata of society there are already unmistakable signs that the
period of scepticism, selfishness, and rant will end with the century;
that scientific superstition and sickly Collectivist chimeras are
doomed; and that the nation is sternly entering upon the mission of
leading humanity towards good laws and institutions based on liberty,
and thus inaugurating a universal movement which by its glorious
results shall demonstrate that the alarming symptoms of degeneration,
revealed by the psychologists, are the first symptoms of regeneration.
INDEX.
About’s (Edmond), _La Question Romaine_, 250
Anarchism, rapid spread of, 194;
causes of, 195-7
Andersen, Hans, 58
Andersen’s _Ugly Duckling_, 74
Angelo, Michael, 224
Anstey, F., 141
Anti-semitism in Germany and elsewhere, 185 _ff._
Armies, English, French, and German, no degeneracy is proved by
recent events, 134
Art, 56 _ff._;
does not necessarily reflect the ethics of a nation, 292
Artists and symbolism, 73 _ff._
Arts, the, and science, future harmony of, 228, 229
Association of Men for the Suppression of Immorality, 246 _ff._
Atheism, effect of, upon morals, 85, 90 _ff._;
upon religion, 86 _ff._
Auricular confession, 162-4
Austria, causes of anti-semitism in, 187 _ff._
Avinain, French assassin, 164
Baudelaire, Charles, 231, 237
Beethoven, Ludwig, 106
Bismarck, Prince, 137
Björnsen, Björnstjerne, 170, 177
Borgia, Pope (Alexander VI), 265
Bornmüller, Franz, 116;
his estimate of Tolstoi, 116
Brahe, Tycho, 66
Bremer, Frederika, 142
Bronté’s _Jane Eyre_, 146
Cavour, di, Count Camillo Benso, 137
Cervantes, Miguel, 152
Chitral, British expedition to, 134
Church and religion, the, distinction between, 77 _ff._
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 219
Columbus, Christopher, 66
Communism, absurdity and impracticability of, 190
Confession of wrong-doing, the yearning for, 162-5
Consciousness of man, 204
Correggio, Allegri, 127
Cotta, Johann Friedrich, 277
Dante’s _Divina Commedia_, 224
Darwinian theory of evolution, 159
Degeneration, the causes of, 255 _ff._
Dishonesty as a means of acquiring wealth, 267-9
Drummond, Henry, 8, 12
Drunkenness in England, 136, 137
Egoism, 260 _ff._
Egomania, 230
England, degeneracy in, 136, 137;
estimation of women in, 142, 217-9;
æsthetic revolt in, 237;
high moral responsibility of, 305, 306
English army, no degeneracy in, 134
Ethical Culture, Berlin Society for, 247, 248
Eroticism, 205 _ff._
Faraday, Michael, 54
France, marriage in, 90, 91;
æsthetic revolt in, 234 _ff._
Free Labour Association, the, 31
French army, no degeneracy in, 134
French hatred of Germany, 24, 25
French symbolists, the, 76 _ff._, 94
Galileo, 66
Gautier, Théophile, 231
Germans, submission of, to discipline, 15 _ff._;
their treatment of women, 18-19;
ideas concerning marriage, 19;
hatred of France, 24, 25
Germany, marriage in, 18, 19;
army system in, 138;
position of women in, 142 _ff._;
influence of, upon Norway, 173 _ff._;
causes of anti-semitism in, 187 _ff._;
the development of the empire, 298;
burdens upon the working people in, 298, 299;
despotic rule of the Emperor, 299;
bad effect of present system of government, 300-2;
the coming catastrophe, 301-3
Gladstone, William Ewart, 137
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, 56, 152, 224
Goethe’s _Werther’s Leiden_, 104;
_Faust_, 157, 216
Gounod, Charles François, 226
Hanseatic League, the, 173
Heller, Ferdinand, 222, 223
Heredity, 159, 160
Hugo’s _Notre Dame de Paris_, 59
Human instincts, 270-2
Humanity, the religion of, 232
Hunt, Holman, 64, 68
Huxley, Professor Thomas Henry, 54
Huysman, Joris Karl, 236
Huysman’s _A Rebours_, 273
Ibsen, Henrik, 132 _ff._, 140 _ff._, 177, 258;
influence of, upon women, 142
Ibsen’s _Ghosts_, 154, 155, 158;
_Pillars of Society_, 155, 156;
_The Lady from the Sea_, 157;
_The Doll’s House_, 74, 179-81
Immorality, Association of Men for the Suppression of, 146 _ff._
Immoral literature, impossibility of prohibiting the circulation of,
249-51
Instinct in human beings, 270-2
Italian army, no degeneracy in, 134
Jew, the free-thinking, characteristics of, 20, 21
Jews, the, Wagner’s dislike of, 184;
hatred of, in Russia, 185;
in Germany and Austria, 187 _ff._;
inherent good qualities of, 191, 192
Jones, Burne, 68, 127, 130, 258
Kant, Immanuel, 3
Kidd, Benjamin, 8, 12
Kock, de, Charles Paul, 277
Legrain, 46, 47
Lemerre, Alphonse, 277
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, 105
Lessing’s _Amelia Galotti_, 105
_Liberty_ (periodical), 32
Liebknecht, Herr, 16, 139
Lie, Jonas, 170, 177
Literature does not necessarily reflect the ethics of a nation, 292
Lombroso, Dr. Cesare, 21;
Nordau’s dedication to, in _Degeneration_, 132
Love, the purity of, 213, 214
Loyola, Ignatius, 265
Lutheran Church and confession, the, 163
Marriage laws, how inaugurated, 150
Marriage relations in Germany, 18-19;
in France, 90, 91
Mallarmé, Stephane, 104 _ff._
Martineau, Dr. James, 54
Maudsley, Dr. Henry, 251
Millais, John E., 63, 64
Molière’s _Malade Imaginaire_, 12
Moltke, Count Helmuth Karl Bernard, 7
Morel, Dr. B. A., 48
Morice, Charles, author of _La Littérature de tout à l’heure_, 106
Music, the influence of, 60, 61, 220 _ff._
Mysticism, 44 _ff._;
definition of, 47
Napoleon III, 138
Neo-Catholicism and the Church of Rome, 76
Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, 138
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 201, 223, 243
Nietzsche’s _Der Fall Wagner_, 223
Nihilists, Russian, 197
Nordau, Max, influence of his book _Degeneration_, 9;
importance of closely investigating his theories before accepting
them, 10;
intemperance of his methods, 11;
a typical German, 12;
his German bias, 17;
an enemy to France, 24;
his attitude toward art, 56 _ff._;
his animosity against the symbolists, 77 _ff._;
views upon the poetry of Paul Verlaine, 99 _ff._;
denunciation of Tolstoi, 108 _ff._;
estimate of Ibsen, 132-82;
attack upon Wagner, 183;
judgment of Zola, 274 _ff._
Norway, position of women in, 145 _ff._
Norwegians, national characteristics of, 171 _ff._
Ohnet’s (George) novels, 28
Poets and symbolism, 73 _ff._
Pre-Raphaelitism, 55 _ff._
Raphael, Sanzio, 75, 127
Religion, influence of, upon civilization and progress, 49, 50;
and the Church, distinction between, 77 _ff._;
relation of, to science, 232 _ff._
Rollinat, Maurice, 231
Roman Church and neo-Catholicism, 76
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 127, 130, 135, 258
Rossetti’s masterpiece, “Dante’s Dream,” 69, 70, 75
Rubinstein, Anton, 223
Ruskin, John, 58, 59
Russia, causes of anti-semitism in, 185-7
Russian, characteristics, 109;
government, 110;
serfs, 110, 111;
nihilists, 197
Scandinavia, position of women in, 145 _ff._
Science, the unsolved problems of, 22, 23;
the bankruptcy of, 73 _ff._;
and the arts, future harmony of, 228, 228 [sic];
relation of, to religion, 232 _ff._
Scientific atheism, 90 _ff._
Scientists, dogmatic attitude of, 65 _ff._;
influence of, upon religion, 86 _ff._
Schopenhauer, Arthur, 225, 226
Schumann, Robert, 222, 223
Self, the religion of, 230-40
Serfs, emancipation of, in Russia, 110, 111
Shakespeare, William, 56, 152
Society for Ethical Culture (Berlin), 247, 248
Sound mind, the test of, 133
Stage, the, purity of, 211
Stöcker, Dr., anti-semitic agitator, reception of, in London, 193,
194, 265
Swinburne, Algernon C., 135
Symbolists, the French, 76 _ff._
Tintoretto, Giacomo, 127
Tjerulf, Norwegian composer, 177
Tolstoi, Count Leo, 108 _ff._
Tolstoi’s _Kreutzer Sonata_, 115, 116;
_My Confession_, 117;
_My Faith_, 117;
_A Short Exposition of the Gospel_, 117, 126;
_About my Life_, 117;
_From the Diary of Nechljudow_, 125
Trades unions, 31
United States, the, treatment of women in, 142
Verlaine, Paul, 97 _ff._;
his poem addressed to Louis II of Bavaria, 101;
his “Chevaux du Bois” and “Chanson d’Automne,” 103, 104
Victoria, Dowager Empress of Germany, 146
Voltaire, Arouet, 1, 9, 223, 254
Wagner, Richard, 28, 29, 151, 184 _ff._, 194, 198 _ff._
Wagner’s _Art Work of the Future_, 209, 224
Wealth, dishonesty in the acquisition of, 267-9
William II, Emperor of Germany, 138, 299
Wolseley, Lord, 7
Women, position of, in the United States, England, and other
countries contrasted, 142 _ff._
Zola, Émile, 29, 130, 274 _ff._
Zola’s _La Joie de Vivre_, 281
Transcriber's notes:
This book was published anonymously and is now attributed to
Alfred Egmont Hake.
One "[sic]" has been placed in the index, and a presumed missing comma
in the original is indicated with "[,]".
The book contains a single footnote, which is placed below the relevant
paragraph.