CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| Preface | [v] |
| [CHAPTER I.] CHARACTER, THE BASIS OF SOCIETY. | |
| Production of character the most important object, p. [1]. The known conditions of physical variation, p. [2]. Mental equivalents of physical variation in (1) benefits of ability, p. [4]; (2) Inheritance, p. [4]; (3) Artificial increase of variation, p. [5]; (4) Excitement of variation, p. [6]; (5) Gain by use, p. [6]; (6) Loss by atrophy, p. [7]; (7) Variation made permanent by competition, p. [10]. Immutability of general type, physical and mental, p. [11]. | |
| [CHAPTER II.] PRESENT CHANGES OF CHARACTER. | |
| Loss of national character by emigration, p. [13]; by promotion of sloth, p. [16]. Lack of adaptability, p. [16]. Low type of public pleasure, p. [17]. Repression of character by communism, p. [20]. Conditions of successful communism, p. [20]. Communism in early Christianity, p. [23]. Intense competition among herbivora, p. [25]. Communism fatalistic, p. [26]. Destruction of character by municipal communism, p. [26]. | |
| [CHAPTER III.] TRADE UNIONISM, ITS FLOWER AND FRUITION. | |
| Town influence in Rome, p. [28]. Decay of the country, p. [29]. Growth of trade unions, p. [30]. Trade unions compulsory, p. [30]. Cheap production for the proletariat, p. [32]. Sharing of proletariat burden by a trade, p. [32]. All property hypothecated to the Trade Unions, p. [33]. The social burden the destruction of Rome, p. [34]. The growth of the little-Italy party, p. [35]. Devolution of government, p. [36]. The state regulation of prices and wages, p. [37]. | |
| [CHAPTER IV.] REVOLUTION OR EVOLUTION? | |
| Great effects best produced by small causes, p. [40]. Revolution leads to greater tyranny, p. [40]; also leads to military despotism, p. [41]. Radical changes show ignorance, p. [42]. Scope to be allowed for gradual change, p. [43]. Variability tolerated by bye-laws, p. [44]. Effects of small changes as seen in Death Duties and reduced colonising power, p. [44]. Income tax and expulsion of trade, p. [47]; benefits of taxing extravagance, p. [52]; Irish tenant right, p. [53]; high interest on loans, p. [55]; equalisation of land values, p. [56]; growth of cities, p. [57]. Effect of workmen's compensation, p. [58]; of old age pensions, p. [59]; of state help for children, p. [60]. Effects of wealth in the hands of different classes, p. [60]. | |
| [CHAPTER V.] THE NEED OF DIVERSITY. | |
| Variability needful for advance of a species, p. [65]. Large states a necessary result of rapid communication, p. [66]. Diversity needed therefore within the state, as well as between states, p. [67]. No moral obligation to uniformity, p. [67]. Separate states needed for a doubled-centred diversity, p. [70]. Diversity as yet remaining in marriage-law and custom, p. [71]. Society a mixture of many past stages of culture, p. [72]. Present education a bar to progress by diversity, p. [73]. Need of diversity in education, p. [75]. | |
| [CHAPTER VI.] LINES OF ADVANCE. | |
| Personal initiative essential, p. [78]. Prevention of waste the main principle of advance, p. [79]. Gain in health, p. [79]. Gain in amount of activities of life, p. [80]. Gain in rapidity, p. [81]. Gain by working instead of playing, p. [81]. Gain by saving waste in renewal, p. [83]. Gain by permanent marriage, p. [84]. Gain by high-tending of families, p. [85]. Gain by improving or weeding of bad stocks, p. [86]. Gain by individualism, p. [89]. Gain by free combinations, p. [92]. Gain by international labour, p. [93]. The meaning of war, by trade, by armament, and by violence, p. [95]. Improvement of checks, p. [99]. The ultimate type of states, p. [100]. The ultimate type of man, p. [101]. | |
| Index | [105] |
JANUS IN MODERN LIFE.
CHAPTER I.
CHARACTER, THE BASIS OF SOCIETY.
In considering or designing any kind of work the first and most essential condition is the quality of material that has to be used. "You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." And what is true materially is true also mentally; the character of a people is the essential basis of all their institutions and government. If we intend to consider what improvements are possible, or what degradations may occur, we must treat the matter entirely as a question of character. "For forms of Government let fools contest, whate'er is best administered is best," and the administration depends upon the character of the people. We see on all sides that races of a low character necessarily pass, by the force of events, under the domination of other races who have a higher or stronger character. It is the quality of the race which is the most essential and determining factor in its history. That every nation has the kind of government which it deserves, is an old remark, which implies that its character determines its fate. The diligent but cautious Scot; the slovenly Slovene; the self-deceived Gaul; the tediously complete and logical German; these all show the manner in which their administration is the product of the individual character. Further, happiness is essentially dependent upon character, and is—by comparison—determined by character alone, almost apart from external circumstances.