CHAPTER XII

_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.