Whatever the cause which leads to the presence of many old bachelors and spinsters in a community, it must be condemned by the anthropologist, because it is certain to bring about mental deterioration of the stock; and the higher the motive, the more exalted the reason offered for such abstention, the surer is the deterioration, because it means that the class capable of such superior motives will be extinguished in the community.
(d) Licentiousness; Divorce.—No one will need to be persuaded that open licentiousness, the disregard of those sentiments and principles which attach in lasting unions persons of opposite sex, can have other than a detrimental effect on individual and national character. Wherever this has prevailed, the community has been weakened and its powers misdirected. Any stimulus to the sex feeling beyond that for its physiological purpose detracts from the general energy, physical and mental; and any indulgence of it in other than physiological methods develops degenerative tendencies.
Sexual psychopathy has been abundantly investigated of late years by Krafft-Ebing, Ellis, and other students, and its prevalence is too extended for it not to have profound effect on the ethnic mind. What is one of the worst features is the attraction that such psychopathic subjects have for each other, whether of the same or opposite sexes. It thus becomes an inherited trait, and in a majority of the cases this is easily recognised.
The question here arises, to what extent in a community the marriage tie may be relaxed without injury to or to the advantage of the general psychical welfare. This practical inquiry should be decided not by religious or social prejudice, but by a study of the peculiar conditions of the community and of the application of general principles to them.
It is impossible for me here to enter into this vast and vital question; but some of these general principles may be briefly stated.
Students of primitive conditions have reached the conclusion that neither sex in the human species is inclined to permanent sexual unions. They point out that among savage tribes, and indeed in various advanced religions, ceremonies and customs are in vogue to expiate such attachments as contrary to the divine ordinances. They further show that the forms of marriage were instituted either for selfish sensual purposes on the part of the male or for property reasons; and that in a condition of freedom and advanced culture neither sex is inclined to regard them as durably binding.
With progressive enlightenment, bringing with it, as it must, the freedom of woman from civil disabilities, divorces increase, and only those marriages are stable in which both parties are satisfied. The result of this is constantly beneficial. Facility of separation is a potent stimulus to connubial harmony; for the one most satisfied with the relation will always strive to render it agreeable to the other, in order to avoid a dissolution of the tie.
Licentiousness, therefore, is not synonymous with loose marriage relations, but the reverse.
(e) Diminution of Natality.—There is no more certain sign of the degeneration of a race, nation, or class than a decreasing birth-rate. When it reaches the point that the deaths in its ranks exceed the births, extinction has already begun. Providing that fecundity continues normal, the onslaughts of war, famine, and pestilence may be remedied; but when, through agencies of any description, the birth-rate sensibly falls off, there is no escape from destruction. This disaster may arise from physical, but is generally due to psychical causes, and therefore points distinctly to mental pathology in the group where it occurs.
Striking examples of this have been presented by studies of the noble families of Europe. Placed in positions where their chief aims were amusement, self-indulgence, and ostentation, their best faculties were allowed to rust and finally to decay, bringing with this the extinction of their lines.