61

7. THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF DOUBT 73

8. A SUMMARY OF A FALSE THEORY 82

PART II

The Real Aim

1. THE IMPOTENCE OF IMPENITENCE 91

2. TRUE HISTORY OF A TRAMP 101

3. TRUE HISTORY OF A EUGENIST 114

4. THE VENGEANCE OF THE FLESH 126

5. THE MEANNESS OF THE MOTIVE 136

6. THE ECLIPSE OF LIBERTY 148

7. THE TRANSFORMATION OF SOCIALISM 159

8. THE END OF THE HOUSEHOLD GODS 169

9. A SHORT CHAPTER 180

Part I

THE FALSE THEORY

Eugenics and Other Evils

CHAPTER I

WHAT IS EUGENICS?

The wisest thing in the world is to cry out before you are hurt. It is
no good to cry out after you are hurt; especially after you are
mortally hurt. People talk about the impatience of the populace; but
sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because
men moved too late. It is often essential to resist a tyranny before
it exists. It is no answer to say, with a distant optimism, that the
scheme is only in the air. A blow from a hatchet can only be parried
while it is in the air.

There exists to-day a scheme of action, a school of thought, as
collective and unmistakable as any of those by whose grouping alone we
can make any outline of history. It is as firm a fact as the Oxford
Movement, or the Puritans of the Long Parliament; or the Jansenists;
or the Jesuits. It is a thing that can be pointed out; it is a thing
that can be discussed; and it is a thing that can still be destroyed.
It is called for convenience "Eugenics"; and that it ought to be
destroyed I propose to prove in the pages that follow. I know that it
means very different things to different people; but that is only
because evil always takes advantage of ambiguity. I know it is praised
with high professions of idealism and benevolence; with silver-tongued
rhetoric about purer motherhood and a happier posterity. But that is
only because evil is always flattered, as the Furies were called "The
Gracious Ones." I know that it numbers many disciples whose intentions
are entirely innocent and humane; and who would be sincerely
astonished at my describing it as I do. But that is only because evil
always wins through the strength of its splendid dupes; a