his in some few
cases, but where I failed, I was convinced that my failure was due to
the insufficiency of the evidence at my disposal, rather than to the
actual absence of the condition. Now, let us take almost any two cases
you will, and seek for this common condition: let us take, for example,
the first two that attracted the attention of the world--the poor woman
of the slums of Berlin, and the celebrated man of science. Separated by
as wide an interval as they are, we shall yet find, if we look closely,
in each case the same pathetic tokens of the still uneliminated
_striae_ of our poor humanity. The woman is not an old woman, for she
has a "small young" family, which, had she lived, might have been
increased: notwithstanding which, she has suffered from hemiplegia,
"partial paralysis." The professor, too, has had not one, but two,
large families, and an "army of grand-children": but note well the
startling, the hideous fact, that _every one of his children is dead!_
The crude grave has gaped before the cock to suck in _every one_ of
those shrunk forms, so indigent of vital impulse, so pauper of civism,
lust, so draughty, so vague, so lean--but not before they have had time
to dower with the ah and wo of their infirmity a whole wretched "army
of grand-children." And yet this man of wisdom is on the point, in his
old age, of marrying once again, of producing for the good of his race
still more of this poor human stuff. You see the lurid significance,
the point of resemblance,--you see it? And, O heaven, is it not too
sad? For me, I tell you, the whole business has a tragic pitifulness
too deep for words. But this brings me to the discussion of a large
matter. It would, for instance, be interesting to me to hear what you,
a modern European, saturated with all the notions of your little day,
what _you_ consider the supreme, the all-important question for the
nations of Europe at this moment. Am I far wrong in assuming that you
would rattle off half a dozen of the moot points agitating rival
factions in your own land, select one of them, and call that "the
question of the hour"? I wish I could see as you see; I wish to God I
did not see deeper. In order to lead you to my point, what, let me ask
you, what _precisely_ was it that ruined the old nations--that brought,
say Rome, to her knees at last? Centralisation, you say, top-heavy
imperialism, dilettante pessimism, the love of luxury. At bottom,
believe me, it was not o