he establishment of equal rights,
the first step toward that abyss of immoral horrors so repugnant to our
cultivated ethical tastes--the matriarchate. Sunk as low as this,
civilized man will sink still lower--to the communal _kachims_ of the
Aleutian Islanders.

IS IT THE BEGINNING OF THE END?

When we come to examine the history of the world we find evidence that
certain nations have, at times, reached a high state of prosperity, and
have then degenerated to such a degree that they have either passed
entirely out of existence, or have lapsed into a state of
semi-barbarity. This has generally been brought about by conquest, but
the races conquered had first become enfeebled by their habitudes of
thought and manner of living. It is a well-established fact that luxury
brings debauchery, and that debauchery occasions degeneration. All
nations that have, heretofore, reached the zenith of their prosperity,
have been engulfed, at some time or other, in the maelstrom of luxurious
habits, and have fallen under the lethal influence of a degeneration
occasioned solely by debauchery; for the luxury and debauchery of one
class brought increased poverty on, as well as excess in, other classes,
and poverty and excess are prominent factors in the production of
degeneration, as we shall see further on in this paper. Says the
brilliant author of "Psychopathia Sexualis," Krafft-Ebing: "Periods of
moral decadence in the life of a people are always contemporaneous with
times of effeminacy, sensuality, and luxury. These conditions can only
be conceived as occurring with increased demands upon the nervous
system, which must meet these requirements. As a result of increase of
nervousness, there is increase of sensuality, and, since this leads to
excesses among the masses, it undermines the foundations of society--the
morality and purity of family life. When this is destroyed by excesses,
unfaithfulness, and luxury, then the destruction of the state is
inevitably compassed in material, moral, and political ruin."

Such was the condition of the Latin race when the fierce and hardy
Vandals overran the Roman peninsula; such was the condition of the
Assyrians when Babylon fell beneath the onslaughts of the great
Macedonian; such was the condition of the Egyptians when the northern
myriads swept down upon the fertile valley of the Nile, and destroyed
forever the once powerful and all-conquering kingdom of the Pharaohs;
and such, too, was