Quo vadimus?

by E. E. Fournier d'Albe

I do not agree with Mr. H. G. Wells that the final ideal of clothing is its total abolition. Clothing has the effect of enlarging man’s sphere of activity until it covers the entire globe from the poles to the equator. Another advantage is that it emphasizes mental qualities rather than physical qualities. If mere physical beauty were the one essential to human well-being, mankind would have long ago insisted on its being freely displayed—and judged—without the disguise of clothing.

Instead, a common agreement among civilized peoples insists that on everyday occasions little but the face is to be visible, because its features and expression give a clue to the mentality behind them. On special occasions, such as balls and dinner parties, more may be revealed by the gentler sex, but even then the area revealed must be confined to what is least likely to show defects and is of least physiological interest and importance, so that the attention may still be directed towards mental rather than emotional or physical qualities.

The evolution of clothing will, therefore, be in the direction of adaptability to climate and occupation. New fabrics will no doubt be invented, combining the warmth of fur with the softness and flexibility of silk and the strength of linen. Dress will be light, so that half a dozen changes of costume can be carried in a handbag, and will be so designed that each change will involve no more inconvenience than does the removal of a raincoat. And so we shall eventually combine the Greek ideal of expressive drapery with the exacting conditions of a strenuous modern life.

Housing.—Man is an animal with a cubical shell. If the earth were reduced to the size of a football and its surface were examined with a powerful microscope, we should see it studded with incrustations like dried salt, especially about the river mouths. These incrustations would be the cities, consisting of thousands of rectangular or cube-shaped blocks. With a greater magnification we might see minute specks swarming about these shell-like houses, elongated specks with their longer axis vertical, and with a marked tendency to enter the houses at nightfall and emerge again after daybreak.

If a giant had been watching the development of these incrustations for several thousand years, he would have seen them spreading from the Mediterranean and some parts of Asia till they studded the Atlantic regions. Thence, after a time, they would spread to the other side of the Atlantic, and become particularly numerous along its western shores. Watching them again for several thousand years, he might see these incrustations gradually dissolved, and the disease—he would probably call it a disease—become “generalized” all over the planet, the local incrustations giving way before a universal but only slightly crusted condition of the earth’s entire land surface.

This is the most probable solution of the general housing problem. Ordinary and wireless telephony, soon to be supplemented by “television,” will gradually reduce the isolation brought about by mere space, while underground and overground transport of goods will render the distribution of supplies less and less laborious. Houses will, therefore, be built more widely apart than they are in cities, and each will have its own private grounds. The structures will be of a material impervious to heat and cold, but transparent or translucent to light, though there will be means of darkening the whole house if desired. Artificial lighting will not be by lamps, but by a close imitation of diffused daylight, which is coolest and most restful to the eyes. There will be no domestic servants. All the “work” of the house will be done by machinery requiring but the turning of a switch and the aiming of implements resembling magic wands. Cooking will be a pleasant domestic art, most of the preparations being made by the purveyors of food stuffs. As it is unlikely that the anatomical structure and the physiological functioning of the human frame will be materially changed for thousands of years to come, food will not be very different from what it is now, but there will be a nicer discrimination of what foods, and what quantity of them, are best calculated to maintain perfect health.

Children.—Most prophets concerning the future of the human race postulate many and radical changes in the birth and rearing of children. Some say that advancing civilization will make the present process impossible on account of the steadily increasing size of the human skull, which will eventually make normal birth impossible. Professor Haldane forecasts “ectogenesis” or the artificial ripening of the embryo outside the human body. Whatever may happen to the physical act of birth—it will no doubt be alleviated in many ways—one hopes that the tender joys of watching over the development of a child’s body and mind will not be taken away from us.

Much more enlightened care will, no doubt, be bestowed upon the welfare of the infant than is done at present. How many crimes are unwittingly committed against a child’s mentality by ignorant parents and nurses! Lies and prevarications and evasions are always reprehensible, but with children they are of fatal and life-long effect. We owe the truth to a child more than to any adult. Our promises to a child should be as binding as an oath. Tell them fairy tales by all means, but tell them with a voice and expression which inevitably stamps them as such, and makes belief optional.

I cannot see any effective substitute for family life so long as there are children to bring up. Children feed on love as they do on food and fresh air, and no vicarious love can take the place of the natural affection between children and their parents. The institution of marriage may undergo many and far-reaching changes[3], but nothing is likely to change the paramount necessity of parental care of, and responsibility for, children. Children are rooted in their parents. They are, in a sense, survivals of their parents’ personality, and constitute their chance of physical immortality. It is, therefore, absurd to suppose that the human race will at any time in its history consent to the “nationalization” of its children. On the other hand, the supervision of ill-disposed or incompetent parents by the State will, no doubt, become more and more strict.