ty point. It is necessary for a better social organization to
artificially restrain the passion for pleasure, at the same time
raising the social quality of men; that is to say, their altruism or
instinct (social ethics). We can only expect immediately the first of
these two objects; but we have seen that it is possible to prepare the
second for the future, by neglecting none of the factors of social
salvation.

We have become acquainted with the most important roots of sexual
degeneration, due to semi-civilization. I use the word
"semi-civilization" because our present culture is still very
incomplete and has hardly done more than skim over the surface of the
masses.

Men of higher culture have overcome the maladies of infancy of
civilization much better than the uneducated masses, and it is
precisely this fact which should give us courage and confidence in a
future in which a true higher culture will be the appanage of all. The
roots of degeneration are either directly or indirectly associated
with sexual life. It is our duty to declare war of extermination
against all of them, and not to cease this contest before reducing
them to their natural primitive minimum. The following are the chief
evils to be contended against.

=1. The Cult of Money.=--We have recognized the primary sources of
degeneration in the historical development of humanity and its sexual
life (Chapters VI and X). They consist in the exploitation of man by
man, in the desire of possessing riches and power, which become the
source of marriage by purchase and by abduction, of prostitution and
all the modern requirements by the aid of which is cultivated the
passion for sexual pleasures, thanks to the power of money.

The priests and disciples of Mammon lie when they say that their
god--the golden calf--is the most powerful stimulus to work and the
principal promoter of culture. If we look closer we see the contrary.
Men of genius, thinkers, inventors and artists are urged to work by
their hereditary instinct, by true love of the ideal and thirst for
knowledge. The disciples of Mammon, on the watch for the discoveries
and creations of these men, rob them not only of the fruit of their
work, but often of the honors which belong to them. Intellectual
robbery is added to pecuniary robbery.

These are the methods of "Mammonism," which must be seen to be
appreciated; and we are told that this kind of industry should be the
only stimulus to human work