hirty years ago Lange's pessimism would be comprehensible; but ideas
have progressed since then, and the prospects of to-day give us more
courage for social work.

The Utopian ideas which I have expressed have in no way the pretension
to be new. Analyzing the facts in the most diverse domains, I have
simply attempted to find those which seem to me suited to solve the
sexual problem of the human race most advantageously under the present
social conditions. Every one to-day admits that our sexual life leaves
much to be desired, but is afraid of touching the crumbling edifice.

I leave it to my readers to decide whether my ideas are nothing more
than Utopian, or whether they do not rather represent a realizable
ideal, begging them to reflect as calmly and independently as possible
before giving their judgment.

After all, we have to choose between pessimistic acceptance of the
fatal decay of our race for the benefit of the Mongols, and an
immediate and energetic effort toward selective and educational
improvement, an effort which will alone be capable of reviving our
hereditary vital energy. Whoever decides in favor of the latter
alternative should occupy himself with the sexual question, and boldly
declare war against the domination of private capital, the abuse of
alcohol, and all the prejudices by which we are hampered. He should
abandon the luxury and effeminate comfort of our time and return to
the principles of Lycurgus and the Japanese--to the education of
character and self-control by methodical training in continuous social
work combined with voluntary fatigue and privation.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REMARKS

I shall no doubt be reproached for not having taken sufficient notice
of other works on the subject of this book. I have, however, desired
to express my own opinion without allowing myself to be unduly
influenced by others. I will nevertheless make a few remarks on the
bibliography of this subject.

I may mention the celebrated work of the Italian physician,
Mantigazza, on the _Physiology of Love_. It is a curious fact that
this author, after his poetic descriptions of love, is in favor of
prostitution. The German socialist, Bebel, has written a very
remarkable book on woman in the past, the present and the future. In
spite of scientific errors, which are easily excused in a self-made
man who became one of the leaders of the German Reichstag, this book
remains a veritable social monument on the sexual q