their Anglo-Saxon brethren resist sentimentality.

In America the dot is almost unknown, partly because money-getting is
easier to men than in Europe and is regarded as less degrading, and
partly because American men are more naive than Frenchmen and are
thus readily intrigued without actual bribery. But the best of them
nevertheless lean to celibacy, and plans for overcoming their habit are
frequently proposed and discussed. One such plan involves a heavy tax on
bachelors. The defect in it lies in the fact that the average bachelor,
for obvious reasons, is relatively well to do, and would pay the tax
rather than marry. Moreover, the payment of it would help to salve his
conscience, which is now often made restive, I believe, by a maudlin
feeling that he is shirking his duty to the race, and so he would be
confirmed and supported in his determination to avoid the altar. Still
further, he would escape the social odium which now attaches to his
celibacy, for whatever a man pays for is regarded as his right. As
things stand, that odium is of definite potency, and undoubtedly has its
influence upon a certain number of men in the lower ranks of bachelors.
They stand, so to speak, in the twilight zone of bachelorhood, with one
leg furtively over the altar rail; it needs only an extra pull to bring
them to the sacrifice. But if they could compound for their immunity
by a cash indemnity it is highly probable that they would take on new
resolution, and in the end they would convert what remained of their
present disrepute into a source of egoistic satisfaction, as is done,
indeed, by a great many bachelors even today. These last immoralists are
privy to the elements which enter into that disrepute: the ire of women
whose devices they have resisted and the envy of men who have succumbed.

22. Compulsory Marriage

I myself once proposed an alternative scheme, to wit, the prohibition
of sentimental marriages by law, and the substitution of match-making
by the common hangman. This plan, as revolutionary as it may seem, would
have several plain advantages. For one thing, it would purge the serious
business of marriage of the romantic fol-de-rol that now corrupts it,
and so make for the peace and happiness of the race. For another thing,
it would work against the process which now selects out, as I have said,
those men who are most fit, and so throws the chief burden of paternity
upon the inferior, to the damage of posterit