outh had been themselves active labouring peasants.
Everywhere, in the past as in the present, the parasitism of the female
heralds the decay of a nation or class, and as invariably indicates
disease as the pustules of smallpox upon the skin indicate the existence
of a purulent virus in the system.

We are, indeed, far from asserting that the civilisations of the past
which have decayed, have decayed alone through the parasitism of their
females. Vast, far-reaching social phenomena have invariably causes and
reactions immeasurably too complex to be summed up under one so simple a
term. Behind the phenomenon of female parasitism has always lain another
and yet larger social phenomenon; it has invariably been preceded, as we
have seen, by the subjugation of large bodies of other human creatures,
either as slaves, subject races, or classes; and as the result of the
excessive labours of those classes there has always been an accumulation
of unearned wealth in the hands of the dominant class or race. It has
invariably been by feeding on this wealth, the result of forced or
ill-paid labour, that the female of the dominant race or class has in
the past lost her activity and has come to exist purely through the
passive performance of her sexual functions. Without slaves or subject
classes to perform the crude physical labours of life and produce
superfluous wealth, the parasitism of the female would, in the past,
have been an impossibility.

There is, therefore, a profound truth in that universal saw which states
that the decay of the great nations and civilisations of the past has
resulted from the enervation caused by excessive wealth and luxury; and
there is a further, and if possible more profound, truth underlying the
statement that their destruction has ultimately been the result of the
enervation of the entire race, male and female.

But when we come further to inquire how, exactly, this process of decay
took place, we shall find that the part which the parasitism of the
female has played has been fundamental. The mere use of any of the
material products of labour, which we term wealth, can never in itself
produce that decay, physical or mental, which precedes the downfall of
great civilised nations. The eating of salmon at ten shillings a pound
can in itself no more debilitate and corrupt the moral, intellectual,
and physical constitution of the man consuming it, than it could
enervate his naked forefathers who speare