eption in the
senses are, fundamentally, of carnal origin._ The waltz is aesthetic,
yet all of its pleasure is based on an emotion closely akin to
sensuality. Men derive no pleasure from waltzing with one another, nor
do women under like circumstances.

Nature demands in the interest of health a certain amount of exercise.
The luxurious society man or woman utterly disregards this demand of
nature, consequently indigestion, with all of its associated ills, steps
in, and becomes an additional factor in the production of nervous
exhaustion. To tempt the appetite, highly seasoned foods, many of which
are deleterious and injurious, are prepared and taken into the torpid
and crippled stomach. Finally nature rebels and the unfortunate
dyspeptic is forced to go through life on a diet of oatmeal, or,
weakened by lack of healthy sustenance, the brain gives way, and the
victim passes the remainder of his or her life in a lunatic asylum.
Children begotten by miserable invalids like these, beyond a
peradventure, must necessarily be degenerate.

Indigestion is not the only ill that nature inflicts for any disregard
of her laws. She is a rough nurse but a safe one, consequently she
forbids the rearing of her hardiest creation, man, in hot houses, as
though he were a tender exotic. The luxurious individual pampers his
body, following the dictates of his own selfish desires and utterly
disregarding the laws of nature, and before he reaches middle age,
discovers that he has become an old, old man, weak in body, but still
weaker in mind.

The children resulting from the union of the various neurasthenics
described above are necessarily degenerate. As they grow up, they show
this degeneration by engaging in all kinds of licentious debauchery, and
unnatural and perverted indulgences of appetite. In nine cases out of
ten, they will spend the fortunes inherited from their parents in
riotous debauchery, and will eventually sink, if death does not
overtake them, to the level of their fellow degenerates--those who have
been brought into existence by poverty and debauchery, and who await
them at the foot of the social ladder. Among such degenerate beings, the
doctrines of socialism, of communism, of nihilism, and of anarchy have
their origin.

Now let us turn our attention to the evidences of luxury and debauchery,
and the consequent evidences of degeneration, which obtrude themselves
on all sides. The reckless extravagance of the nobility