An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish

by Bertrand Russell

Man is a rational animal: so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favour of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents. On the contrary, I have seen the orld plunging continually further into madness. I have seen great nations, formerly leaders of civilisation, led astray by preachers of bombastic nonsense. I have seen cruelty, persecution, and superstition increasing by leaps and bounds, until e have almost reached the point here praise of rationality is held to mark a man as an old fogey regrettably surviving from a bygone age. !ll this is depressing, but gloom is a useless emotion. In order to escape from it, I have been driven to study the past ith more attention than I had formerly given to it, and have found, as "rasmus found, that folly is perennial and yet the human race has survived. The follies of our o n times are easier to bear hen they are seen against the background of past follies. In hat follo s I shall mi# the sillinesses of our day ith those of former centuries. $erhaps the result may help in seeing our o n times in perspective, and as not much orse than other ages that our ancestors lived through ithout ultimate disaster. !ristotle, so far as I kno , as the first man to proclaim e#plicitly that man is a rational animal. %is reason for this vie as one hich does not no seem very impressive& it as, that some people can do sums. %e thought that there are three kinds of soul: the vegetable soul, possessed by all living things, both plants and animals, and concerned only ith nourishment and gro th& the animal soul, concerned ith locomotion, and shared by man ith the lo er animals& and finally the rational soul, or intellect, hich is the 'ivine mind, but in hich men participate to a greater or less degree in proportion to their isdom. It is in virtue of the intellect that man is a rational animal. The intellect is sho n in various ays, but most emphatically by mastery of arithmetic. The (reek system of numerals as very bad, so that the multiplication table as )uite difficult, and

complicated calculations could only be made by very clever people. *o +a+ days, ho ever, calculating machines do sums better than even the cleverest people, yet no one contends that these useful instruments are immortal, or ork by divine inspiration. !s arithmetic has gro n easier, it has come to be less respected. The conse)uence is that, though many philosophers continue to tell us hat fine fello s e are, it is no longer on account of our arithmetical skill that they praise us. ,ince the fashion of the age no longer allo s us to point to calculating boys as evidence that man is rational and the soul, at least in part, immortal, let us look else here. -here shall e look first. ,hall e look among eminent statesmen, ho have so triumphantly guided the orld into its present condition. Or shall e choose the men of letters. Or the philosophers. !ll these have their claims, but / think e should begin ith those hom all right thinking people ackno ledge to be the isest as ell as the best of men, namely the clergy. If they fail to be rational, hat hope is there for us lesser mortals. !nd alas+though I say it ith all due respect+there have been times hen their isdom has not been very obvious, and, strange to say, these ere especially the times hen the po er of the clergy as greatest. The !ges of 0aith, hich are praised by our neo+scholastics, ere the time hen the clergy had things all their o n ay. 'aily life as full of miracles rought by saints and i1ardry perpetrated by devils and necromancers. Many thousands of itches ere burnt at the stake. Men2s sins ere punished by pestilence and famine, by earth)uake, flood, and fire. !nd yet, strange to say, they ere even more sinful than they are no +a+days. 3ery little as kno n scientifically about the orld. ! fe learned men remembered (reek proofs that the earth is round, but most people made fun of the notion that there are antipodes. To suppose that there are human beings at the antipodes as heresy. It as generally held 4though modern 5atholics take a milder vie 6 that the immense ma7ority of mankind are damned. 'angers ere held to lurk at every turn. 'evils ould settle on the food that monks ere about to eat, and ould take possession of the bodies of incautious feeders ho omitted to make the sign of the 5ross before each mouthful. Old+fashioned people still say 8bless you8 hen one snee1es, but they have forgotten the reason for the custom. The reason as that people ere thought to snee1e out their souls, and before their souls could get back lurking demons ere apt to enter the unsouled body& but if any one said 8(od bless you,8 the demons ere frightened off. Throughout the last 9:: years, during hich the gro th of science had gradually sho n men ho to ac)uire kno ledge of the ays of nature and mastery over natural forces, the clergy have fought a losing battle against science, in astronomy and geology, in anatomy and physiology, in biology and psychology and sociology. Ousted from one position, they have taken up another. !fter being orsted in astronomy, they did their best to prevent the rise of geology& they fought against 'ar in in biology, and at the

present time they fight against scientific theories of psychology and education. !t each stage, they try to make the public forget their earlier obscurantism, in order that their present obscurantism may not be recogni1ed for hat it is. ;et us note a fe instances of irrationality among the clergy since the rise of science, and then in)uire hether the rest of mankind are any better. -hen Ben7amin 0ranklin invented the lightning rod, the clergy, both in "ngland and !merica, ith the enthusiastic support of (eorge III, condemned it as an impious attempt to defeat the ill of (od. 0or, as all right+ thinking people ere a are, lightning is sent by (od to punish impiety or some other grave sin+the virtuous are never struck by lightning. Therefore if (od ants to strike any one, Ben7amin 0ranklin ought not to defeat %is design& indeed, to do so is helping criminals to escape. But (od as e)ual to the occasion, if e are to believe the eminent 'r. $rice, one of the leading divines of Boston. ;ightning having been rendered ineffectual by the 8iron points invented by the sagacious 'r. 0ranklin,8 Massachusetts as shaken by earth)uakes, hich 'r. $rice perceived to be due to (od2s rath at the 8iron points.8 In a sermon on the sub7ect he said, 8In Boston are more erected than else here in *e "ngland, and Boston seems to be more dreadfully shaken. Oh< there is no getting out of the mighty hand of (od.8 !pparently, ho ever, $rovidence gave up all hope of curing Boston of its ickedness, for, though lightning rods became more and more common, earth)uakes in Massachusetts have remained rare. *evertheless, 'r. $rice2s point of vie , or something very like it, is still held by one of the most influential of living men. -hen, at one time, there ere several bad earth)uakes in India, Mahatma (andhi solemnly arned his compatriots that these disasters had been sent as a punishment for their sins. "ven in my o n native island this point of vie still e#ists. 'uring the last ar, the British (overnment did much to stimulate the production of food at home. In /=/>, hen things ere not going ell, a ,cottish clergyman rote to the ne spapers to say that military failure as due to the fact that, ith government sanction, potatoes had been planted on the ,abbath. %o ever, disaster as averted, o ing to the fact that the (ermans disobeyed all the Ten 5ommandments, and not only one of them. ,ometimes, if pious men are to be believed, (od2s mercies are curiously selective. Toplady, the author of 8Rock of !ges,8 moved from one vicarage to another& a eek after the move, the vicarage he had formerly occupied burnt do n, ith great loss to the ne vicar. Thereupon Toplady thanked (od& but hat the ne vicar did is not kno n. Borro , in his 8Bible in ,pain,8 records ho ithout mishap he crossed a mountain pass infested by bandits. The ne#t party to cross, ho ever, ere set upon, robbed, and some of them murdered& hen Borro heard of this, he, like Toplady, thanked (od. !lthough e are taught the 5opernican astronomy in our te#tbooks, it has not yet penetrated to our religion or our morals, and has not even

succeeded in destroying belief in astrology. $eople still think that the 'ivine $lan has special reference to human beings, and that a special $rovidence not only looks after the good, but also punishes the icked. I am sometimes shocked by the blasphemies of those ho think themselves pious+for instance, the nuns ho never take a bath ithout earing a bathrobe all the time. -hen asked hy, since no man can see them, they reply: 8Oh, but you forget the good (od.8 !pparently they conceive of the 'eity as a $eeping Tom, hose omnipotence enables %im to see through bathroom alls, but ho is foiled by bathrobes. This vie strikes me as curious. The hole conception of 8,in8 is one hich I find very pu11ling, doubtless o ing to my sinful nature. If 8,in8 consisted in causing needless suffering, I could understand& but on the contrary, sin often consists in avoiding needless suffering. ,ome years ago, in the "nglish %ouse of ;ords, a bill as introduced to legali1e euthanasia in cases of painful and incurable disease. The patient2s consent as to be necessary, as ell as several medical certificates. To me, in my simplicity, it ould seem natural to re)uire the patient2s consent, but the late !rchbishop of 5anterbury, the "nglish official e#pert on ,in, e#plained the erroneousness of such a vie . The patient2s consent turns euthanasia into suicide, and suicide is sin. Their ;ordships listened to the voice of authority, and re7ected the bill. 5onse)uently, to please the !rchbishop+and his (od, if he reports truly+victims of cancer still have to endure months of holly useless agony, unless their doctors or nurses are sufficiently humane to risk a charge of murder. I find difficulty in the conception of a (od ho gets pleasure from contemplating such tortures& and if there ere a (od capable of such anton cruelty, I should certainly not think %im orthy of orship. But that only proves ho sunk I am in moral depravity. I am e)ually pu11led by the things that are sin and by the things that are not. -hen the ,ociety for the $revention of 5ruelty to !nimals asked the pope for his support, he refused it, on the ground that human beings o e no duty to the lo er animals, and that ill+treating animals is not sinful. This is because animals have no souls. On the other hand, it is icked to marry your deceased ife2s sister+so at least the 5hurch teaches+ho ever much you and she may ish to marry. This is not because of any unhappiness that might result, but because of certain te#ts in the Bible. The resurrection of the body, hich is an article of the !postles2 5reed, is a dogma hich has various curious conse)uences. There as an author not very many years ago, ho had an ingenious method of calculating the date of the end of the orld. %e argued that there must be enough of the necessary ingredients of a human body to provide everybody ith the re)uisites at the ;ast 'ay. By carefully calculating the available ra material, he decided that it ould all have been used up by a certain date. -hen that date comes, the orld must end, since other ise the resurrection of the body ould become impossible. ?nfortunately I have forgotten hat the date as,

but I believe it is not very distant. ,t. Thomas !)uinas, the official philosopher of the 5atholic 5hurch, discussed lengthily and seriously a very grave problem, hich, I fear, modern theologians unduly neglect. %e imagines a cannibal ho has never eaten anything but human flesh, and hose father and mother before him had like propensities. "very particle of his body belongs rightfully to someone else. -e cannot suppose that those ho have been eaten by cannibals are to go short through all eternity. But, if not, hat is left for the cannibal. %o is he to be properly roasted in hell, if all his body is restored to its original o ners. This is a pu11ling )uestion, as the ,aint rightly perceives. In this connection the orthodo# have a curious ob7ection to cremation, hich seems to sho an insufficient reali1ation of (od2s omnipotence. It is thought that a body hich has been burnt ill be more difficult for %im to collect together again than one hich has been put underground and transformed into orms. *o doubt collecting the particles from the air and undoing the chemical ork of combustion ould be some hat laborious, but it is surely blasphemous to suppose such a ork impossible for the 'eity. I conclude that the ob7ection to cremation implies grave heresy. But I doubt hether my opinion ill carry much eight ith the orthodo#. It as only very slo ly and reluctantly that the 5hurch sanctioned the dissection of corpses in connection ith the study of medicine. The pioneer in dissection as 3esalius, ho as 5ourt physician to the "mperor 5harles 3. %is medical skill led the emperor to protect him, but after the emperor as dead he got into trouble. ! corpse hich he as dissecting as said to have sho n signs of life under the knife, and he as accused of murder. The In)uisition as induced by @ing $hillip II to take a lenient vie , and only sentenced him to a pilgrimage to the %oly ;and. On the ay home he as ship recked and died of e#haustion. 0or centuries after this time, medical students at the $apal ?niversity in Rome ere only allo ed to operate on lay figures, from hich the se#ual parts ere omitted. The sacredness of corpses is a idespread belief. It as carried furthest by the "gyptians, among hom it led to the practice of mummification. It still e#ists in full force in 5hina. ! 0rench surgeon, ho as employed by the 5hinese to teach -estern medicine, relates that his demand for corpses to dissect as received ith horror, but he as assured that he could have instead an unlimited supply of live criminals. %is ob7ection to this alternative as totally unintelligible to his 5hinese employers. !lthough there are many kinds of sin, seven of hich are deadly, the most fruitful field for ,atan2s iles is se#. The orthodo# 5atholic doctrine on this sub7ect is to be found in ,t. $aul, ,t. !ugustine, and ,t. Thomas !)uinas. It is best to be celibate, but those ho have not the gift of continence may marry. Intercourse in marriage is not sin, provided it is

motivated by desire for offspring. !ll intercourse outside marriage is sin, and so is intercourse ithin marriage if any measures are adopted to prevent conception. Interruption of pregnancy is sin, even if, in medical opinion, it is the only ay of saving the mother2s life& for medical opinion is fallible, and (od can al ays save a life by miracle if %e sees fit. 4This vie is embodied in the la of 5onnecticut.6 3enereal disease is (od2s punishment for sin. It is true that, through a guilty husband, this punishment may fall on an innocent oman and her children, but this is a mysterious dispensation of $rovidence, hich it ould be impious to )uestion. -e must also not in)uire hy venereal disease as not divinely instituted until the time of 5olumbus. ,ince it is the appointed penalty for sin, all measures for its avoidance are also sin+e#cept, of course, a virtuous life. Marriage is nominally indissoluble, but many people ho seem to be married are not. In the case of influential 5atholics, some ground for nullity can often be found, but for the poor there is no such outlet, e#cept perhaps in cases of impotence. $ersons ho divorce and remarry are guilty of adultery in the sight of (od. The phrase 8in the sight of (od8 pu11les me. One ould suppose that (od sees everything, but apparently this is a mistake. %e does not see Reno, for you cannot be divorced in the sight of (od. Registry offices are a doubtful point. I notice that respectable people, ho ould not call on anybody ho lives in open sin, are )uite illing to call on people ho have had only a civil marriage& so apparently (od does see registry offices. ,ome eminent men think even the doctrine of the 5atholic 5hurch deplorably la# here se# is concerned. Tolstoy and Mahatma (andhi, in their old age, laid it do n that all se#ual intercourse is icked, even in marriage and ith a vie to offspring. The Manicheans thought like ise, relying upon men2s native sinfulness to supply them ith a continually fresh crop of disciples. This doctrine, ho ever, is heretical, though it is e)ually heretical to maintain that marriage is as praise orthy as celibacy. Tolstoy thinks tobacco almost as bad as se#& in one of his novels, a man ho is contemplating murder smokes a cigarette first in order to generate the necessary homicidal fury. Tobacco, ho ever, is not prohibited in the ,criptures, though, as ,amuel Butler points at, ,t. $aul ould no doubt have denounced it if he had kno n of it. It is odd that neither the 5hurch nor modern public opinion condemns petting, provided it stops short at a certain point. !t hat point sin begins is a matter as to hich casuists differ. One eminently orthodo# 5atholic divine laid it do n that a confessor may fondle a nun2s breasts, provided he does it ithout evil intent. But I doubt hether modern authorities ould agree ith him on this point. Modern morals are a mi#ture of t o elements: on the one hand, rational precepta as to ho to live together peaceably in a society, and on the other hand traditional taboos derived originally from some ancient

superstition, but pro#imately from sacred books, 5hristian, Mohammedan, %indu, or Buddhist. To some e#tent the t o agree& the prohibition of murder and theft, for instance, is supported both by human reason and by 'ivine command. But the prohibition of pork or beef has only scriptural authority, and that only in certain religions. It is odd that modern men, ho are a are of hat science has done in the ay of bringing ne kno ledge and altering the conditions of social life, should still be illing to accept the authority of te#ts embodying the outlook of very ancient and very ignorant pastoral or agricultural tribes. It is discouraging that many of the precepts hose sacred character is thus uncritically ackno ledged should be such as to inflict much holly unnecessary misery. If men2s kindly impulses ere stronger, they ould find some ay of e#plaining that these precepts are not to be taken literally, any more than the command to 8sell all that thou hast and give to the poor.8 There are logical difficulties in the notion of sin. -e are told that sin consists in disobedience to (od2s commands, but e are also told that (od is omnipotent. If %e is, nothing contrary to %is ill can occur& therefore hen the sinner disobeys %is commands, %e must have intended this to happen. ,t. !ugustine boldly accepts this vie , and asserts that men are led to sin by a blindness ith hich (od afflicts them. But most theologians, in modern times, have felt that, if (od causes men to sin, it is not fair to send them to hell for hat they cannot help. -e are told that sin consists in acting contrary to (od2s ill. This, ho ever, does not get rid of the difficulty. Those ho, like ,pino1a, take (od2s omnipotence seriously, deduce that there can be no such thing as sin. This leads to frightful results. -hat< said ,pino1a2s contemporaries, as it not icked of *ero to murder his mother. -as it not icked of !dam to eat the apple. Is one action 7ust as good as another. ,pino1a riggles, but does not find any satisfactory ans er. If everything happens in accordance ith (od2s ill, (od must have anted *ero to murder his mother& therefore, since (od is good, the murder must have been a good thing. 0rom this argument there is no escape. On the other hand, those ho are in earnest in thinking that sin is disobedience to (od are compelled to say that (od is not omnipotent. This gets out of all the logical pu11les, and is the vie adopted by a certain school of liberal theologians. It has, ho ever, its o n difficulties. %o are e to kno hat really is (od2s ill. If the forces of evil have a certain share of po er, they may deceive us into accepting as ,cripture hat is really their ork. This as the vie of the (nostics, ho thought that the Old Testament as the ork of an evil spirit. !s soon as e abandon our o n reason, and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our troubles. -hose authority. The Old Testament. The *e Testament. The @oran. In practice, people choose the book considered sacred by the community in hich they are born, and out of that book they choose the parts they like, ignoring the others. !t one

time, the most influential te#t in the Bible as: 8Thou shalt not suffer a itch to live.8 *o +a+days, people pass over this te#t, in silence if possible& if not, ith an apology. !nd so, even hen e have a sacred book, e still choose as truth hatever suits our o n pre7udices. *o 5atholic, for instance, takes seriously the te#t hich says that a bishop should be the husband of one ife. $eople2s beliefs have various causes. One is that there is some evidence for the belief in )uestion. -e apply this to matters of fact, such as 8 hat is so+and+so2s telephone number.8 or 8 ho on the -orld ,eries.8 But as soon as it comes to anything more debatable, the causes of belief become less defensible. -e believe, first and foremost, hat makes us feel that e are fine fello s. Mr. %omo, if he has a good digestion and a sound income, thinks to himself ho much more sensible he is than his neighbour so+and+so, ho married a flighty ife and is al ays losing money. %e thinks ho superior his city is to the one A: miles a ay: it has a bigger 5hamber of 5ommerce and a more enterprising Rotary 5lub, and its mayor has never been in prison. %e thinks ho immeasurably his country surpasses all others. If he is an "nglishman, he thinks of ,hakespeare and Milton, or of *e ton and 'ar in, or of *elson and -ellington, according to his temperament. If he is a 0renchman, he congratulates himself on the fact that for centuries 0rance has led the orld in culture, fashions, and cookery. If he is a Russian, he reflects that he belongs to the only nation hich is truly international. If he is a Bugoslav, he boasts of his nation2s pigs& if a native of the $rincipality of Monaco, he boasts of leading the orld in the matter of gambling. But these are not the only matters on hich he has to congratulate himself. 0or is he not an individual of the species homo sapiens. !lone among animals he has an immortal soul, and is rational& he kno s the difference bet een good and evil, and has learnt the multiplication table. 'id not (od make him in %is o n image. !nd as not everything created for man2s convenience. The sun as made to light the day, and the moon to light the night++though the moon, by some oversight, only shines during half the nocturnal hours. The ra fruits of the earth ere made for human sustenance. "ven the hite tails of rabbits, according to some theologians, have a purpose, namely to make it easier for sportsmen to shoot them. There are, it is true, some inconveniences: lions and tigers are too fierce, the summer is too hot, and the inter too cold. But these things only began after !dam ate the apple& before that, all animals ere vegetarians, and the season as al ays spring. If only !dam had been content ith peaches and nectarines, grapes and pears and pineapples, these blessings ould still be ours. ,elf+importance, individual or generic, is the source of most of our religious beliefs. "ven sin is a conception derived from self+importance. Borro relates ho he met a -elsh preacher ho as al ays melancholy. By sympathetic )uestioning he as brought to confess the source of his sorro :

that at the age of seven he had committed the sin against the %oly (host. 8My dear fello ,8 said Borro , 8don2t let that trouble you& I kno do1ens of people in like case. 'o not imagine yourself cut off from the rest of mankind by this occurrence& if you in)uire, you ill find multitudes ho suffer from the same misfortune.8 0rom that moment, the man as cured. %e had en7oyed feeling singular, but there as no pleasure in being one of a herd of sinners. Most sinners are rather less egotistical& but theologians undoubtedly en7oy the feeling that Man is the special ob7ect of (od2s rath, as ell as of %is love. !fter the 0all+so Milton assures us+ 2... The sun %ad first his precept so to move, so shine, !s might affect the earth ith cold and heat ,carce tolerable& and from the north to call 'ecrepit inter& from the south to bring ,olstitial summer2s heat.2 %o ever disagreeable the results may have been, !dam could hardly help feeling flattered that such vast astronomical phenomena should be brought about to teach him a lesson. The hole of theology, in regard to hell no less than to heaven, takes it for granted that Man is hat is of most importance in the ?niverse of created beings. ,ince all theologians are men, this postulate has met ith little opposition. ,ince evolution became fashionable, the glorification of Man has taken a ne form. -e are told that evolution has been guided by one great $urpose: through the millions of years hen there ere only slime, or trilobites, throughout the ages of dinosaurs and giant ferns, of bees and ild flo ers, (od as preparing the (reat 5lima#. !t last, in the fullness of time, %e produced Man, including such specimens as *ero and 5aligula, %itler and Mussolini, hose transcendent glory 7ustified the long painful process. 0or my part, I find even eternal damnation less incredible, and certainly less ridiculous, than this lame and impotent conclusion hich e are asked to admire as the supreme effort of Omnipotence. !nd if (od is indeed omnipotent, hy could %e not have produced the glorious result ithout such a long and tedious prologue. !part from the )uestion hether Man is really so glorious as the theologians of evolution say he is, there is the further difficulty that life on this planet is almost certainly temporary. The earth ill gro cold, or the atmosphere ill gradually fly off, or there ill be an insufficiency of ater, or, as ,ir Cames Ceans genially prophesies, the sun ill burst and all the planets ill be turned into gas. -hich of those ill happen first, no one kno s& but in any case the human race ill ultimately die out. Of course, such an event is of little importance from the point of vie of orthodo# theology, since men are immortal, and ill continue to e#ist in heaven and hell hen none are left on earth. But in that case hy bother about terrestrial developments. Those ho lay stress on the gradual

progress from the primitive slime to Man attach an importance to this mundane sphere hich should make them shrink from the conclusion that all life on earth is only a brief interlude bet een the nebula and the eternal frost, or perhaps bet een one nebula and another. The importance of Man, hich is the one indispensable dogma of the theologians, receives no support from a scientific vie of the future of the solar system. There are many other sources of false belief besides self+importance. One of these is love of the marvellous. I kne at one time a scientifically+ minded con7urer, ho used to perform his tricks before a small audience, and then get them, each separately, to rite do n hat they had seen happen. !lmost al ays they rote do n something much more astonishing than the reality, and usually something hich no con7urer could have achieved& yet they all thought they ere reporting truly hat they had seen ith their o n eyes. This sort of falsification is still more true of rumours. ! tells B that last night he sa Mr.+, the eminent prohibitionist, slightly the orse for li)uor& B tells 5 that ! sa the good man reeling drunk, 5 tells ' that he as picked up unconscious in the ditch, ' tells " that he is ell kno n to pass out every evening. %ere, it is true, another motive comes in, namely malice. -e like to think ill of our neighbours, and are prepared to believe the orst on very little evidence. But even here there is no such motive, hat is marvellous is readily believed unless it goes against some strong pre7udice. !ll history until the eighteenth century is full of prodigies and onders hich modern historians ignore, not because they are less ell attested than facts hich the historians accept, but because modern taste among the learned prefers hat science regards as probable. ,hakespeare relates ho on the night before 5aesar as killed, 2! common slave++you kno him ell by sight++ %eld up his left hand, hich did flame and burn ;ike t enty torches 7oin2d, and yet his hand, *ot sensible of fire, remain2d unscorch2d. Besides++I ha2 not since put up my s ord++ !gainst the 5apitol I met a lion, -ho glared upon me, and ent surly by, -ithout annoying me: and there ere dra n ?pon a heap a hundred ghastly omen, Transformed ith their fear& ho s ore they sa Men all in fire alk up and do n the streets.2 ,hakespeare did not invent these marvels& he found them in reputable historians, ho are among those upon hom e depend for our kno ledge concerning Culius 5aesar. This sort of thing al ays used to happen at the death of a great man or the beginning of an important ar. "ven so recently as /=/9 the 8angels of Mons8 encouraged the British troops. The evidence for such events is very seldom first+hand, and modern historians refuse to accept it+e#cept, of course, here the event is one that has religious

importance. "very po erful emotion has its o n myth+making tendency. -hen the emotion is peculiar to an individual, he is considered more or less mad if he gives credence to such myths as he has invented. But hen an emotion is collective, as in ar, there is no one to correct the myths that naturally arise. 5onse)uently in all times of great collective e#citement unfounded rumours obtain ide credence. In ,eptember, /=/9, almost everybody in "ngland believed that Russian troops had passed through "ngland on the ay to the -estern 0ront. "verybody kne someone ho had seen them, though no one had seen them himself. This myth+making faculty is often allied ith cruelty. "ver since the middle ages, the Ce s have been accused of practising ritual murder. There is not an iota of evidence for this accusation, and no sane person ho has e#amined it believes it. *evertheless it persists. I have met hite Russians ho ere convinced of its truth, and among many *a1is it is accepted ithout )uestion. ,uch myths give an e#cuse for the infliction of torture, and the unfounded belief in them is evidence of the unconscious desire to find some victim to persecute. There as, until the end of the eighteenth century, a theory that insanity is due to possession by devils. It as inferred that any pain suffered by the patient is also suffered by the devils, so that the best cure is to make the patient suffer so much that the devils ill decide to abandon him. The insane, in accordance ith this theory, ere savagely beaten. This treatment as tried on @ing (eorge III hen he as mad, but ithout success. It is a curious and painful fact that almost all the completely futile treatments that have been believed in during the long history of medical folly have been such as caused acute suffering to the patient. -hen anaesthetics ere discovered, pious people considered them an attempt to evade the ill of (od. It as pointed out, ho ever, that hen (od e#tracted !dam2s rib %e put him into a deep sleep. This proved that anaesthetics are all right for men& omen, ho ever, ought to suffer, because of the curse of "ve. In the -est votes for omen proved this doctrine mistaken, but in Capan, to this day, omen in childbirth are not allo ed any alleviation through anaesthetics. !s the Capanese do not believe in (enesis, this piece of sadism must have some other 7ustification. The fallacies about 8race8 and 8blood,8 hich have al ays been popular, and hich the *a1is have embodied in their official creed, have no ob7ective Custification& they are believed solely because they minister to self+ esteem and to the impulse to ard cruelty. In one form or another, these beliefs are as old as civili1ation& their forms change, but their essence remains. %erodotus tells ho 5yrus as brought up by peasants, in complete ignorance of his royal blood& at the age of t elve his kingly bearing to ard other peasant boys revealed the truth. This is a variant of an old story hich is found in all Indo+"uropean countries. "ven )uite modern

people say that 8blood ill tell.8 It is no use for scientific physiologists to assure the orld that there is no difference bet een the blood of a *egro and the blood of a hite man. The !merican Red 5ross, in obedience to popular pre7udice, at first, hen !merica became involved in the present ar, decreed that no *egro blood should be used for blood transfusion. !s a result of an agitation, it as conceded that *egro blood might be used, but only for *egro patients. ,imilarly, in (ermany, the !ryan soldier ho needs blood transfusion is carefully protected from the contamination of Ce ish blood. In the matter of race, there are different beliefs in different societies. -here monarchy is firmly established, kings are of a higher race than their sub7ects. ?ntil very recently, it as universally believed that men are congenitally more intelligent than omen& even so enlightened a man as ,pino1a decides against votes for omen on this ground. !mong hite men, it is held that hite men are by nature superior to men of other colours, and especially to black men& in Capan, on the contrary, it is thought that yello is the best colour. In %aiti, hen they make statues of 5hrist and ,atan, they make 5hrist black and ,atan hite. !ristotle and $lato considered (reeks so innately superior to barbarians that slavery is 7ustified so long as the master is (reek and the slave barbarian. The *a1is and the !merican legislators ho made the immigration la s consider the *ordics superior to ,lavs or ;atins or any other hite men. But the *a1is, under the stress of ar, have been led to the conclusion that there are hardly any true *ordics outside (ermany& the *or egians, e#cept Duisling and his fe follo ers, have been corrupted by intermi#ture ith 0inns and ;aps and such. Thus politics are a clue to descent. The biologically pure *ordic loves %itler, and if you do not love %itler, that is proof of tainted blood. !ll this is, of course, pure nonsense, kno n to be such by every+one ho has studied the sub7ect. In schools in !merica, children of the most diverse origins are sub7ected to the same educational system, and those hose business it is to measure intelligence )uotients and other ise estimate the native ability of students are unable to make any such racial distinctions as are postulated by the theorists of race. In every national or racial group there are clever children and stupid children. It is not likely that, in the ?nited ,tates, coloured children ill develop as successfully as hite children, because of the stigma of social inferiority& but in so far as congenital ability can be detached from environmental influence, there is no clear distinction among different groups. The hole conception of superior races is merely a myth generated by the over eening self+esteem of the holders of po er. It may be that, some day, better evidence ill be forthcoming& perhaps, in time, educators ill be able to prove 4say6 that Ce s are on the average more intelligent than gentiles. But as yet no such evidence e#ists, and all talk of superior races must be dismissed as nonsense.

There is a special absurdity in applying racial theories to the various populations of "urope. There is not in "urope any such thing as a pure race. Russians have an admi#ture of Tartar blood, (ermans are largely ,lavonic, 0rance is a mi#ture of 5elts, (ermans, and people of Mediterranean race, Italy the same ith the addition of the descendants of slaves imported by the Romans. The "nglish are perhaps the most mi#ed of all. There is no evidence that there is any advantage in belonging to a pure race. The purest races no in e#istence are the $ygmies, the %ottentots, and the !ustralian aborigines& the Tasmanians, ho ere probably even purer, are e#tinct. They ere not the bearers of a brilliant culture. The ancient (reeks, on the other hand, emerged from an amalgamation of northern barbarians and an indigenous population& the !thenians and Ionians, ho ere the most civili1ed, ere also the most mi#ed. The supposed merits of racial purity are, it ould seem, holly imaginary. ,uperstitions about blood have many forms that have nothing to do ith race. The ob7ection to homicide seems to have been, originally, based on the ritual pollution caused by the blood of the victim. (od said to 5ain: 8The voice of thy brother2s blood crieth unto me from the ground.8 !ccording to some anthropologists, the mark of 5ain as a disguise to prevent !bel2s blood from finding him& this appears also to be the original reason for earing mourning. In many ancient communities no difference as made bet een murder and accidental homicide& in either case e)ually ritual ablution as necessary. The feeling that blood defiles still lingers, for e#ample in the 5hurching of -omen and in taboos connected ith menstruation. The idea that a child is of his father2s 8blood8 has the same superstitious origin. ,o far as actual blood is concerned, the mother2s enters into the child, but not the father2s. If blood ere as important as is supposed, matriarchy ould be the only proper ay of tracing descent. In Russia, here, under the influence of @arl Mar#, people since the revolution have been classified by their economic origin, difficulties have arisen not unlike those of (erman race theorists over the ,candinavian *ordics. There ere t o theories that had to be reconciled: on the one hand, proletarians ere good and other people ere bad& on the other hand, communists ere good and other people ere bad. The only ay of effecting a reconciliation as to alter the meaning of ords. ! 8proletarian8 came to mean a supporter of the government& ;enin, though born a $rince, as reckoned a member of the proletariat. On the other hand, the ord 8kulak,8 hich as supposed to mean a rich peasant, came to mean any peasant ho opposed collectivi1ation. This sort of absurdity al ays arises hen one group of human beings is supposed to be inherently better than another. In !merica, the highest praise that can be besto ed on an eminent coloured man after he is safely dead is to say 8he as a hite man.8 ! courageous oman is called 8masculine8: Macbeth, praising his ife2s courage, says: 2Bring forth men children only,

0or thy undaunted mettle should compose *othing but males.2

!ll these ays of speaking come of un illingness to abandon foolish generali1ations. In the economic sphere there are many idespread superstitions. -hy do people value gold and precious stones. *ot simply because of their rarity: there are a number of elements called 8rare earths8 hich are much rarer than gold, but no one ill give a penny for them e#cept a fe men of science. There is a theory, for hich there is much to be said, that gold and gems ere valued originally on account of their supposed magical properties. The mistakes of governments in modern times seem to sho that this belief still e#ists among the sort of men ho are called 8practical.8 !t the end of the last ar, it as agreed that (ermany should pay vast sums to "ngland and 0rance, and they in turn should pay vast sums to the ?nited ,tates. "veryone anted to be paid in money rather than goods& the 8practical8 men failed to notice that there is not that amount of money in the orld. They also failed to notice that money is no use unless it is used to buy goods. !s they ould not use it in this ay, it did no good to anyone. There as supposed to be some mystic virtue about gold that made it orth hile to dig it up in the Transvaal and put it underground again in bank vaults in !merica. In the end, of course, the debtor countries had no more money, and, since they ere not allo ed to pay in goods, they ent bankrupt. The (reat 'epression as the direct result of the surviving belief in the magical properties of gold. It is to be feared that some similar superstition ill cause e)ually bad results after the end of the present ar. $olitics is largely governed by sententious platitudes hich are devoid of truth. One of the most idespread popular ma#ims is, 8human nature cannot be changed.8 *o one can say hether this is true or not ithout first defining 8human nature.8 But as used it is certainly false. -hen Mr. ! utters the ma#im, ith an air of portentous and conclusive isdom, hat he means is that all men every here ill al ays continue to behave as they do in his o n home to n. ! little anthropology ill dispel this belief. !mong the Tibetans, one ife has many husbands, because men are too poor to support a hole ife& yet family life, according to travellers, is no more unhappy than else here. The practice of lending one2s ife to a guest is very common among uncivili1ed tribes. The !ustralian aborigines, at puberty, undergo a very painful operation hich, throughout the rest of their lives, greatly diminishes se#ual potency. Infanticide, hich might seem contrary to human nature, as almost universal before the rise of 5hristianity, and is recommended by $lato to prevent over+population. $rivate property is not

recogni1ed among some savage tribes. "ven among highly civili1ed people, economic considerations ill override hat is called 8human nature.8 In Mosco , here there is an acute housing shortage, hen an unmarried oman is pregnant, it often happens that a number of men contend for the legal right to be considered the father of the prospective child, because hoever is 7udged to be the father ac)uires the right to share the oman2s room, and half a room is better than no room. In fact, adult 8human nature8 is e#tremely variable, according to the circumstances of education. 0ood and se# are very general re)uirements, but the hermits of the Thebaid esche ed se# altogether and reduced food to the lo est point compatible ith survival. By diet and training, people can be made ferocious or meek, masterful or slavish, as may suit the educator. There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast ma7ority by ade)uate governmental action. $lato intended his Republic to be founded on a myth hich he admitted to be absurd, but he as rightly confident that the populace could be induced to believe it. %obbes, ho thought it important that people should reverence the government ho ever un orthy it might be, meets the argument that it might be difficult to obtain general assent to anything so irrational by pointing out that people have been brought to believe in the 5hristian religion, and, in particular, in the dogma of transubstantiation. If he had been alive no , he ould have found ample confirmation in the devotion of (erman youth to the *a1is. The po er of governments over men2s beliefs has been very great ever since the rise of large ,tates. The great ma7ority of Romans became 5hristian after the Roman emperors had been converted. In the parts of the Roman "mpire that ere con)uered by the !rabs, most people abandoned 5hristianity for Islam. The division of -estern "urope into $rotestant and 5atholic regions as determined by the attitude of governments in the si#teenth century. But the po er of governments over belief in the present day is vastly greater than at any earlier time. ! belief, ho ever untrue, is important hen it dominates the actions of large masses of men. In this sense, the beliefs inculcated by the Capanese, Russian, and (erman governments are important. ,ince they are completely divergent, they cannot all be true, though they may ell all be false. ?nfortunately they are such as to inspire men ith an ardent desire to kill one another, even to the point of almost completely inhibiting the impulse of self+preservation. *o one can deny, in face of the evidence, that it is easy, given military po er, to produce a population of fanatical lunatics. It ould be e)ually easy to produce a population of sane and reasonable people, but many governments do not ish to do so, since such people ould fail to admire the politicians ho are at the head of these governments. There is one peculiarly pernicious application of the doctrine that human nature cannot be changed. This is the dogmatic assertion that there ill al ays be ars, because e are so constituted that e feel a need of them. -hat is true is that a man ho has had the kind of diet and education that

most men have ill ish to fight hen provoked. But he ill not actually fight unless he has a chance of victory. It is very annoying to be stopped by a speed cop, but e do not fight him because e kno that he has the over helming forces of the ,tate at his back. $eople ho have no occasion for ar do not make any impression of being psychologically th arted. , eden has had no ar since /E/9, but the , edes ere, a fe years ago, one of the happiest and most contented nations in the orld. I doubt hether they are so still, but that is because, though neutral, they are unable to escape many of the evils of ar. If political organi1ation ere such as to make ar obviously unprofitable, there is nothing in human nature that ould compel its occurrence, or make average people unhappy because of its not occurring. "#actly the same arguments that are no used about the impossibility of preventing ar ere formerly used in defence of duelling, yet fe of us feel th arted because e are not allo ed to fight duels. I am persuaded that there is absolutely no limit to the absurdities that can, by government action, come to be generally believed. (ive me an ade)uate army, ith po er to provide it ith more pay and better food than falls to the lot of the average man, and I ill undertake, ithin thirty years, to make the ma7ority of the population believe that t o and t o are three, that ater free1es hen it gets hot and boils hen it gets cold, or any other nonsense that might seem to serve the interest of the ,tate. Of course, even hen these beliefs had been generated, people ould not put the kettle in the ice+bo# hen they anted it to boil. That cold makes ater boil ould be a ,unday truth, sacred and mystical, to be professed in a ed tones, but not to be acted on in daily life. -hat ould happen ould be that any verbal denial of the mystic doctrine ould be made illegal, and obstinate heretics ould be 8fro1en8 at the stake. *o person ho did not enthusiastically accept the official doctrine ould be allo ed to teach or to have any position of po er. Only the very highest officials, in their cups, ould hisper to each other hat rubbish it all is& then they ould laugh and drink again. This is hardly a caricature of hat happens under some modern governments. The discovery that man can be scientifically manipulated, and that governments can turn large masses this ay or that as they choose, is one of the causes of our misfortunes. There is as much difference bet een a collection of mentally free citi1ens and a community moulded by modern methods of propaganda as there is bet een a heap of ra materials and a battleship. "ducation, hich as at first made universal in order that all might be able to read and rite, has been found capable of serving )uite other purposes. By instilling nonsense it unifies populations and generates collective enthusiasm. If all governments taught the same nonsense, the harm ould not be so great. ?nfortunately each has its o n brand, and the diversity serves to produce hostility bet een the devotees of different creeds. If there is ever to be peace in the orld, governments ill have to agree either to inculcate no dogmas, or all to inculcate the same. The former, I fear, is a ?topian ideal, but perhaps they could agree to teach

collectively that all public men, every here, are completely virtuous and perfectly ise. $erhaps, hen the ar is over, the surviving politicians may find it prudent to combine on some such programme. But if conformity has its dangers, so has nonconformity. ,ome 8advanced thinkers8 are of the opinion that any one ho differs from the conventional opinion must be in the right. This is a delusion& if it ere not, truth ould be easier to come by than it is. There are infinite possibilities of error, and more cranks take up unfashionable errors than unfashionable truths. I met once an electrical engineer hose first ords to me ere: 8%o do you do. There are t o methods of faith+healing, the one practised by 5hrist and the one practised by most 5hristian ,cientists. I practice the method practised by 5hrist.8 ,hortly after ards, he as sent to prison for making out fraudulent balance+sheets. The la does not look kindly on the intrusion of faith into this region. I kne also an eminent lunacy doctor ho took to philosophy, and taught a ne logic hich, as he frankly confessed, he had learnt from his lunatics. -hen he died he left a ill founding a professorship for the teaching of his ne scientific methods, but unfortunately he left no assets. !rithmetic proved recalcitrant to lunatic logic. On one occasion a man came to ask me to recommend some of my books, as he as interested in philosophy. I did so, but he returned ne#t day saying that he had been reading one of them, and had found only one statement he could understand, and that one seemed to him false. I asked him hat it as, and he said it as the statement that Culius 5aesar is dead. -hen I asked him hy he did not agree, he dre himself up and said: 8Because I am Culius 5aesar.8 These e#amples may suffice to sho that you cannot make sure of being right by being eccentric. ,cience, hich has al ays had to fight its ay against popular beliefs, no has one of its most difficult battles in the sphere of psychology. $eople ho think they kno all about human nature are al ays hopelessly at sea hen they have to do ith any abnormality. ,ome boys never learn to be hat, in animals, is called 8house trained.8 The sort of person ho on2t stand any nonsense deals ith such cases by punishment& the boy is beaten, and hen he repeats the offence he is beaten orse. !ll medical men ho have studied the matter kno that punishment only aggravates the trouble. ,ometimes the cause is physical, but usually it is psychological, and only curable by removing some deep+seated and probably unconscious grievance. But most people en7oy punishing anyone ho irritates them, and so the medical vie is re7ected as fancy nonsense. The same sort of thing applies to men ho are e#hibitionists& they are sent to prison over and over again, but as soon as they come out they repeat the offense. ! medical man ho speciali1ed in such ailments assured me that the e#hibitionist can be cured by the simple device of having trousers that button up the back instead of the front. But this method is not tried because it does not satisfy

people2s vindictive impulses. Broadly speaking, punishment is likely to prevent crimes that are sane in origin, but not those that spring from some psychological abnormality. This is no partially recogni1ed& e distinguish bet een plain theft, hich springs from hat may be called rational self+interest, and kleptomania, hich is a mark of something )ueer. !nd homicidal maniacs are not treated like ordinary murderers. But se#ual aberrations rouse so much disgust that it is still impossible to have them treated medically rather than punitively. Indignation, though on the hole a useful social force, becomes harmful hen it is directed against the victims of maladies that only medical skill can cure. The same sort of thing happens as regards hole nations. 'uring the last ar, very naturally, people2s vindictive feelings ere aroused against the (ermans, ho ere severely punished after their defeat. *o many people are arguing that the 3ersailles Treaty as ridiculously mild, since it failed to teach a lesson& this time, e are told, there must be real severity. To my mind, e shall be more likely to prevent a repetition of (erman aggression if e regard the rank and file of the *a1is as e regard lunatics than if e think of them as merely and simply criminals. ;unatics, of course, have to be restrained& e do not allo them to carry firearms. ,imilarly the (erman nation ill have to be disarmed. But lunatics are restrained from prudence, not as a punishment, and so far as prudence permits e try to make them happy. "verybody recogni1es that a homicidal maniac ill only become more homicidal if he is made miserable. In (ermany at the present day, there are, of course, many men among the *a1is ho are plain criminals, but there must also be many ho are more or less mad. ;eaving the leaders out of account 4I do not urge leniency to ard them6, the bulk of the (erman nation is much more likely to learn cooperation ith the rest of the orld if it is sub7ected to a kind but firm curative treatment than if it is regarded as an outcast among the nations. Those ho are being punished seldom learn to feel kindly to ard the men ho punish them. !nd so long as the (ermans hate the rest of mankind peace ill be precarious. -hen one reads of the beliefs of savages, or of the ancient Babylonians and "gyptians, they seem surprising by their capricious absurdity. But beliefs that are 7ust as absurd are still entertained by the uneducated even in the most modern and civilised societies. I have been gravely assured, in !merica, that people born in March are unlucky and people born in May are peculiarly liable to corns. I do not kno the history of these superstitions, but probably they are derived from Babylonian or "gyptian priestly love. Beliefs begin in the higher social strata, and then, like mud in a river, sink gradually do n ard in the educational scale& they may take F,::: or 9,::: years to sink all the ay. Bou may find your colored help making some remark that comes straight out of $lato+not the parts of $lato that scholars )uote, but the parts here he utters obvious nonsense,

such as that men ho do not pursue isdom in this life ill be born again as omen. 5ommentators on great philosophers al ays politely ignore their silly remarks. !ristotle, in spite of his reputation, is full of absurdities. %e says that children should be conceived in the -inter, hen the ind is in the *orth, and that if people marry too young the children ill be female. %e tells us that the blood of females is blacker then that of males& that the pig is the only animal liable to measles& that an elephant suffering from insomnia should have its shoulders rubbed ith salt, olive+oil, and arm ater& that omen have fe er teeth than men, and so on. *evertheless, he is considered by the great ma7ority of philosophers a paragon of isdom. ,uperstitions about lucky and unlucky days are almost universal. In ancient times they governed the actions of generals. !mong ourselves the pre7udice against 0riday and the number thirteen is very active& sailors do not like to sail on 0riday, and many hotels have no thirteenth floor. The superstitions about 0riday and thirteen ere once believed by those reputed ise& no such men regard them as harmless follies. But probably G,::: years hence many beliefs of the ise of our day ill have come to seem e)ually foolish. Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something& in the absence of good grounds for belief, he ill be satisfied ith bad ones. Belief in 8nature8 and hat is 8natural8 is a source of many errors. It used to be, and to some e#tent still is, po erfully operative in medicine. The human body, left to itself, has a certain po er of curing itself., small cuts usually heal, colds pass off, and even serious diseases sometimes disappear ithout medical treatment. But aids to nature are very desirable, even in these cases. 5uts may turn septic if not disinfected, colds may turn to pneumonia, and serious diseases are only left ithout treatment by e#plorers and travellers in remote regions, ho have no option. Many practices hich have come to seem 8natural8 ere originally 8unnatural,8 for instance clothing and ashing. Before men adopted clothing they must have found it impossible to live in cold climates. -here there is not a modicum of cleanliness, populations suffer from various diseases, such as typhus, from hich -estern nations have become e#empt. 3accination as 4and by some still is6 ob7ected to as 8unnatural.8 But there is no consistency in such ob7ections, for no one supposes that a broken bone can be mended by 8natural8 behaviour. "ating cooked food is 8unnatural8& so is heating our houses. The 5hinese philosopher ;ao+tse, hose traditional date is about >:: B.5., ob7ected to roads and bridges and boats as 8unnatural,8 and in his disgust at such mechanistic devices left 5hina and ent to live among the -estern barbarians. "very advance in civili1ation has been denounced as unnatural hile it as recent. The commonest ob7ection to birth control is that it is against 8nature.8 40or some reason e are not allo ed to say that celibacy is against nature& the only reason I can think of is that it is not ne .6 Malthus sa only

three ays of keeping do n the population& moral restraint, vice, and misery. Moral restraint, he admitted, as not likely to be practised on a large scale. 83ice,8 i.e., birth control, he, as a clergyman, vie ed ith abhorrence. There remained misery. In his comfortable parsonage, he contemplated the misery of the great ma7ority of mankind ith e)uanimity, and pointed out the fallacies of reformers ho hoped to alleviate it. Modern theological opponents of birth control are less honest. They pretend to think that (od ill provide, ho ever many mouths there may be to feed. They ignore the fact that %e has never done so hitherto, but has left mankind e#posed to periodical famines in hich millions died of hunger. They must be deemed to hold+if they are saying hat they believe+that from this moment on ard (od ill ork a continual miracle of loaves and fishes hich %e has hitherto thought unnecessary. Or perhaps they ill say that suffering here belo is of no importance& hat matters is the hereafter. By their o n theology, most of the children hom their opposition to birth control ill cause to e#ist ill go to hell. -e must suppose, therefore, that they oppose the amelioration of life on earth because they think it a good thing that many millions should suffer eternal torment. By comparison ith them, Malthus appears merciful. -omen, as the ob7ect of our strongest love and aversion, rouse comple# emotions hich are embodied in proverbial 8 isdom.8 !lmost everybody allo s himself or herself some entirely un7ustifiable generali1ation on the sub7ect of oman. Married men, hen they generali1e on that sub7ect, 7udge by their ives& omen 7udge by themselves. It ould be amusing to rite a history of men2s vie s on omen. In anti)uity, hen male supremacy as un)uestioned and 5hristian ethics ere still unkno n, omen ere harmless but rather silly, and a man ho took them seriously as some hat despised. $lato thinks it a grave ob7ection to the drama that the play right has to imitate omen in creating his female roles. -ith the coming of 5hristianity oman teak on a ne part, that of the temptress& but at the same time she as also found capable of being a saint. In 3ictorian days the saint as much more emphasi1ed than the temptress& 3ictorian men could not admit themselves susceptible to temptation. The superior virtue of omen as made a reason for keeping them out of politics, here, it as held, a lofty virtue is impossible. But the early feminists turned the argument round, and contended that the participation of omen ould ennoble politics. ,ince this has turned out to be an illusion, there has been less talk of omen2s superior virtue, but there are still a number of men ho adhere to the monkish vie of oman as the temptress. -omen themselves, for the most part, think of themselves as the sensible se#, hose business it is to undo the harm that comes of men2s impetuous follies. 0or my part I distrust all generali1ations about omen, favourable and unfavourable, masculine and feminine, ancient and modern& all alike, I should say, result from paucity of e#perience. The deeply irrational attitude of each se# to ard omen may be seen in

novels, particularly in bad novels. In bad novels by men, there is the oman ith hom the author is in love, ho usually possesses every charm, but is some hat helpless, and re)uires male protection& sometimes, ho ever, like ,hakespeare2s 5leopatra, she is an ob7ect of e#asperated hatred, and is thought to be deeply and desperately icked. In portraying the heroine, the male author does not rite from observation, but merely ob7ectives his o n emotions. In regard to his other female characters, he is more ob7ective, and may even depend upon his notebook& but hen he is in love, his passion makes a mist bet een him and the ob7ect of his devotion. -omen novelists, also, have t o kinds of omen in their books. One is themselves, glamorous and kind, and ob7ect of lust to the icked and of love to the good, sensitive, high+souled, and constantly mis7udged. The other kind is represented by all other omen, and is usually portrayed as petty, spiteful, cruel, and deceitful. It ould seem that to 7udge omen ithout bias is not easy either for men or for omen. (enerali1ations about national characteristics are 7ust as common and 7ust as un arranted as generali1ations about omen. ?ntil /EH:, the (ermans ere thought of as a nation of spectacled professors, evolving everything out of their inner consciousness, and scarcely a are of the outer orld, but since /EH: this conception has had to be very sharply revised. 0renchmen seem to be thought of by most !mericans as perpetually engaged in amorous intrigue& -alt -hitman, in one of his catalogues, speaks of 8the adulterous 0rench couple on the sly settee.8 !mericans ho go to live in 0rance are astonished, and perhaps disappointed, by the intensity of family life. Before the Russian Revolution, the Russians ere credited ith a mystical ,lav soul, hich, hile it incapacitated them for ordinary sensible behavior, gave them a kind of deep isdom to hich more practical nations could not hope to attain. ,uddenly everything as changed: mysticism as taboo, and only the most earthly ideals ere tolerated. The truth is that hat appears to one nation as the national character of another depends upon a fe prominent individuals, or upon the class that happens to have po er. 0or this reason, all generali1ations on this sub7ect are liable to be completely upset by any important political change. To avoid the various foolish opinions to hich mankind are prone, no superhuman genius is re)uired. ! fe simple rules ill keep you, not from all error, but from silly error. If the matter is one that can be settled by observation, make the observation yourself. !ristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that omen have fe er teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs. !ristotle to keep her mouth open hile he counted. %e did not do so because he thought he kne . Thinking that you kno hen in fact you don2t is a fatal mistake, to hich e are all prone. I believe myself that hedgehogs eat black beetles, because I have been told that they do& but if I ere riting a book on the habits of hedgehogs, I should not commit myself until I had seen one en7oying this unappeti1ing diet. !ristotle, ho ever, as

less cautious. !ncient and medieval authors kne all about unicorns and salamanders& not one of them thought it necessary to avoid dogmatic statements about them because he had never seen one of them. Many matters, ho ever, are less easily brought to the test of e#perience. If, like most of mankind, you have passionate convictions on many such matters, there are ays in hich you can make yourself a are of your o n bias. If an opinion contrary to your o n makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously a are of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If some one maintains that t o and t o are five, or that Iceland is on the e)uator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you kno so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your o n contrary conviction. The most savage controversies are those about matters as to hich there is no good evidence either ay. $ersecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmetic there is kno ledge, but in theology there is only opinion. ,o henever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard& you ill probably find, on e#amination, that your belief is going beyond hat the evidence arrants. ! good ay of ridding yourself of certain kinds of dogmatism is to become a are of opinions held in social circles different from your o n. -hen I as young, I lived much outside my o n country in 0rance, (ermany, Italy, and the ?nited ,tates. I found this very profitable in diminishing the intensity of insular pre7udice. If you cannot travel, seek out people ith hom you disagree, and read a ne spaper belonging to a party that is not yours. If the people and the ne spaper seem mad, perverse, and icked, remind yourself that you seem so to them. In this opinion both parties may be right, but they cannot both be rong. This reflection should generate a certain caution. Becoming a are of foreign customs, ho ever, does not al ays have a beneficial effect. In the seventeenth century, hen the Manchus con)uered 5hina, it as the custom among the 5hinese for the omen to have small feet, and among the Manchus for the men to ear+pigtails. Instead of each dropping their o n foolish custom, they each adopted the foolish custom of the other, and the 5hinese continued to ear pigtails until they shook off the dominion of the Manchus in the revolution of /=//. 0or those ho have enough psychological imagination, it is a good plan to imagine an argument ith a person having a different bias. This has one advantage, and only one, as compared ith actual conversation ith opponents& this one advantage is that the method is not sub7ect to the same limitations of time or space. Mahatma (andhi deplores rail ays and steamboats and machinery& he ould like to undo the hole of the industrial revolution. Bou may never have an opportunity of actually meeting any one ho holds this opinion, because in -estern countries most people take the advantage of modern techni)ue for granted. But if you ant to make sure

that you are right in agreeing ith the prevailing opinion, you ill find it a good plan to test the arguments that occur to you by considering hat (andhi might say in refutation of them. I have sometimes been led actually to change my mind as a result of this kind of imaginary dialogue, and, short of this, I have fre)uently found myself gro ing less dogmatic and cocksure through reali1ing the possible reasonableness of a hypothetical opponent. Be very ary of opinions that flatter your self+esteem. Both men and omen, nine times out of ten, are firmly convinced of the superior e#cellence of their o n se#. There is abundant evidence on both sides. If you are a man, you can point out that most poets and men of science are male& if you are a oman, you can retort that so are most criminals. The )uestion is inherently insoluble, but self esteem conceals this from most people. -e are all, hatever part of the orld e come from, persuaded that our o n nation is superior to all others. ,eeing that each nation has its characteristic merits and demerits, e ad7ust our standard of values so as to make out that the merits possessed by our nation are the really important ones, hile its demerits are comparatively trivial. %ere, again, the rational man ill admit that the )uestion is one to hich there is no demonstrably right ans er. It is more difficult to deal ith the self esteem of man as man, because e cannot argue out the matter ith some non+human mind. The only ay I kno of dealing ith this general human conceit is to remind ourselves that man is a brief episode in the life of a small planet in a little corner of the universe, and that, for aught e kno , other parts of the cosmos may contain beings as superior to ourselves as e are to 7ellyfish. Other passions besides self+esteem are common sources of error& of these perhaps the most important is fear. 0ear sometimes operates directly, by inventing rumors of disaster in ar+time, or by imagining ob7ects of terror, such as ghosts& sometimes it operates indirectly, by creating belief in something comforting, such as the eli#ir of life, or heaven for ourselves and hell for our enemies. 0ear has many forms+fear of death, fear of the dark, fear of the unkno n, fear of the herd, and that vague generali1ed fear that comes to those ho conceal from themselves their more specific terrors. ?ntil you have admitted your o n fears to yourself, and have guarded yourself by a difficult effort of ill against their myth+ making po er, you cannot hope to think truly about many matters of great importance, especially those ith hich religious beliefs are concerned. 0ear is the main source of superstition and one of the main sources of cruelty. To con)uer fear is the beginning of isdom, in the pursuit of truth as in the endeavour after a orthy manner of life. There are t o ays of avoiding fear: one is by persuading ourselves that e are immune from disaster, and the other is by the practice of sheer courage. The latter is difficult, and to everybody becomes impossible at a certain point. The former has therefore al ays been more popular. $rimitive

magic has the purpose of securing safety, either by in7uring enemies, or by protecting oneself by talismans, spells, or incantations. -ithout any essential change, belief in such ays of avoiding danger survived throughout the many centuries of Babylonian civili1ation, spread from Babylon throughout the empire of !le#ander, and as ac)uired by the Romans in the course of their absorption of %ellenistic culture. 0rom the Romans it descended to medieval 5hristendom and Islam. ,cience has no lessened the belief in magic, but many people place more faith in mascots than they are illing to avo , and sorcery, hile condemned by the 5hurch, is still officially a possible sin. Magic, ho ever, as a crude ay of avoiding terrors, and, moreover, not a very effective ay, for icked magicians might al ays prove stronger than good ones. In the fifteenth, si#teenth, and seventeenth centuries, dread of itches and sorcerers led to the burning of hundreds of thousands convicted of these crimes. But ne er beliefs, particularly as to the future life, sought more effective ays of combating fear. ,ocrates on the day of his death 4if $lato is to be believed6 e#pressed the conviction that in the ne#t orld he ould live in the company of the gods and heroes, and surrounded by 7ust spirits ho ould never ob7ect to his endless argumentation. $lato, in his 8Republic,8 laid it do n that cheerful vie s of the ne#t orld must be enforced by the ,tate, not because they ere true, but to make soldiers more illing to die in battle. %e ould have none of the traditional myths about %ades, because they represented the spirits of the dead as unhappy. Orthodo# 5hristianity, in the !ges of 0aith, laid do n very definite rules for salvation. 0irst, you must be baptised& then, you must avoid all theological error& last, you must, before dying, repent of your sins and receive absolution. !ll this ould not save you from purgatory, but it ould insure your ultimate arrival in heaven. It as not necessary to kno theology. !n eminent cardinal stated authoritatively that the re)uirements of orthodo#y ould be satisfied if you murmured on your death+bed: 8I believe all that the 5hurch believes& the 5hurch believes all that I believe.8 These very definite directions ought to have made 5atholics sure of finding the ay to heaven. *evertheless, the dread of hell persisted, and has caused, in recent times, a great softening of the dogmas as to ho ill be damned. The doctrine, professed by many modern 5hristians, that everybody ill go to heaven, ought to do a ay ith the fear of death, but in fact this fear is too instinctive to be easily van)uished. 0. -. %. Myers, hom spiritualism had converted to belief in a future life, )uestioned a oman ho had lately lost her daughter as to hat she supposed had become of her soul. The mother replied: 8Oh, ell, I suppose she is en7oying eternal bliss, but I ish you ouldn2t talk about such unpleasant sub7ects.8 In spite of all that theology can do, heaven remains, to most people, an 8unpleasant sub7ect.8 The most refined religions, such as those of Marcus !urelius and ,pino1a,

are still concerned ith the con)uest of fear. The ,toic doctrine as simple: it maintained that the only true good is virtue, of hich no enemy can deprive me& conse)uently, there is no need to fear enemies. The difficulty as that no one could really believe virtue to be the only good, not even Marcus !urelius, ho, as emperor, sought not only to make his sub7ects virtuous, but to protect them against barbarians, pestilences, and famines. ,pino1a taught a some hat similar doctrine. !ccording to him, our true good consists in indifference to our mundane fortunes. Both these men sought to escape from fear by pretending that such things as physical suffering are not really evil. This is a noble ay of escaping from fear, but is still based upon false belief. !nd if genuinely accepted, it ould have the bad effect of making men indifferent, not only to their o n sufferings, but also to those of others. ?nder the influence of great fear, almost everybody becomes superstitious. The sailors ho thre Conah overboard imagined his presence to be the cause of the storm hich threatened to reck their ship. In a similar spirit the Capanese, at the time of the Tokyo earth)uake took to massacring @oreans and ;iberals. -hen the Romans on victories in the $unic ars, the 5arthaginian became persuaded that their misfortunes ere due to a certain la#ity hich had crept into the orship of Moloch. Moloch liked having children sacrificed to him, and preferred them aristocratic& but the noble families of 5arthage had adopted the practice of surreptitiously substituting plebeian children for their o n offspring. This, it as thought, had displeased the god, and at the orst moments even the most aristocratic children ere duly consumed in the fire. ,trange to say, the Romans ere victorious in spite of this democratic reform on the part of their enemies. 5ollective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity to ard those ho are not regarded as members of the herd. ,o it as in the 0rench Revolution, hen dread of foreign armies produced the reign of terror. !nd it is to be feared that the *a1is, as defeat dra s nearer, ill increase the intensity of their campaign for e#terminating Ce s. 0ear generates impulses of cruelty, and therefore promotes such superstitious beliefs as seem to 7ustify cruelty. *either a man nor a cro d nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear. !nd for this reason poltroons are more prone to cruelty than brave men, and are also more prone to superstition. -hen I say this, I am thinking of men ho are brave in all respects, not only in facing death. Many a man ill have the courage to die gallantly, but ill not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for hich he is asked to die is an un orthy one. Oblo)uy is, to most men, more painful than death& that is one reason hy, in times of collective e#citement, so fe men venture to dissent from the prevailing opinion. *o 5arthaginian denied Moloch, because to do so ould have re)uired more courage than as re)uired+ to face death in battle.

But e have been getting too solemn. ,uperstitions are not al+ ays dark and cruel& often they add to the gaiety of life. I received once a communication from the god Osiris, giving me his telephone number& he lived, at that time, in a suburb of Boston. !lthough I did not enroll myself among his orshipers, his letter gave me pleasure. I have fre)uently received letters from men announcing themselves as the Messiah, and urging me not to omit to mention this important fact in my lectures. 'uring prohibition, there as a sect hich maintained that the communion service ought to be celebrated in hiskey, not in ine& this tenet gave them a legal right to a supply of hard li)uor, and the sect gre rapidly. There is in "ngland a sect hich maintains that the "nglish are the lost ten tribes& there is a stricter sect, hich maintains that they are only the tribes of "phraim and Manasseh. -henever I encounter a member of either of these sects, I profess myself an adherent of the other, and much pleasant argumentation results. I like also the men ho study the (reat $yramid, ith a vie to deciphering its mystical lore. Many great books have been ritten on this sub7ect, some of hich have been presented to me by their authors. It is a singular fact that the (reat $yramid al ays predicts the history of the orld accurately up to the date of publication of the book in )uestion, but after that date it becomes less reliable. (enerally the author e#pects, very soon, ars in "gypt, follo ed by !rmageddon and the coming of !ntichrist, but by this time so many people have been recogni1ed as !ntichrist that the reader is reluctantly driven to scepticism. I admire especially a certain prophetess ho lived beside a lake in *orthern *e Bork ,tate about the year /EG:. ,he announced to her numerous follo ers that she possessed the po er of alking on ater, and that she proposed to do so at // o2clock on a certain morning. !t the stated time, the faithful assembled in their thousands beside the lake. ,he spoke to them, saying: 8!re you all entirely persuaded that I can alk on ater.8 -ith one voice they replied: 8-e are.8 8In that case,8 she announced, 8there is not need for me to do so.8 !nd they all ent home much edified. $erhaps the orld ould lose some of its interest and variety if such beliefs ere holly replaced by cold science. $erhaps e may allo ourselves to be glad of the !becedarians, ho ere so+called because, having re7ected all profane learning, they thought it icked to learn the !B5. !nd e may en7oy the perple#ity of the ,outh !merican Cesuit ho ondered ho the sloth could have travelled, since the 0lood, all the ay from Mount !rarat to $eru+a 7ourney hich its e#treme tardiness of locomotion rendered almost incredible. ! ise man ill en7oy the goods of hich there is a plentiful supply, and of intellectual rubbish he ill find an abundant diet, in our o n age as in every other.