The record-union., 1894-02-08
PURITY OF BLOOD.
The Mental and Physical Perfec-
ti0n of the Race.
Marriages Should be Resolutely Dis
couraged Where the Parties Are
UNIT Through Any Disqualification
Lady Cooks Advanced Views.

Lady Cook, nee Tennessee c. Claflin, the
well-known social agitator, Is pubilshed
in order to give the readers of the REC
oRD-UNIoN clear idea of certain propo-
sitions whichFare now put forth seriously
by quite a large number of prominent
sociologists, but without the Endorsement
of the paper.-EDs.
Crime has been loosely defined as an
offense punishable by law, but there may
be crinnes of which the law has no cog
niZance. Laws are OF many KINDS, ma
tural, political civil, domestic, and so on.
AS Montesquieu says: The sublimity OF
human reason consists in perfectly know
ing to which of those orders the things
that are to be determined ought to have
principal relation, and not to throw into
confusion those principles which should
govern mankind. For instance, we ought
not to decide by divine laws what should
be decided by human laws, nor deter
mine by human what should be deter
mined by divine laws. These two sorts
of laws differ in their origin, in their OBJ
iect, and in their nature" All laws should
be protective, even when punitive, and all
Just law has one of two designS-the pro-
lection of the community or the protec-
ton of the individual. ct these form
but one ultimate object-the protection OF
u.
assert that the good OF the individual
ought to give way TO that of the pubic,
for 1.-The public good consists in every
one having that property which was
given him by the civil laws invariably
preserved Also the duty to one
self is stronger that the duty TO the COM
munity. And as the law of nature is
superior to all human laws, so ''Selt-de-
fense is duty superior TO every precept."
live were to pursue the subject weshould
lind that laws have been sometimes more
criminal than the otfenses against which
they were directed: that they have Deen
frequently used to manufacture crime IN
those who have neither injured the lndl-
Vidual nor the community; that even
benefcent actions have been treated as
public otfenses; and that public offenses
and private injuries of gravest character
have been completely overlooked. The
field however, is so wide that we can
only glance at it as we pass on.
Imaginary offenseS, as sorcery and
witchcraft, have been treated as crimes;
scientific discoveries and mechanical
arts have met the same fate; the opinions
of the minority have always been hetero-
dox and heterodoxy has invariably been
punished in some form or another. Men
and women were burnt alive for their
harmless theological beliefs, when thieves
and murderers were only branded. SO
that we cannot always judge Of the good
or evil of thing, or even OF its magnI-
tude, by calling it crime or no crime. 1t
is true that we do not burn a man now
for his belief. We only ostracise him.
If the process should ruin him, so much
the worse for the man, but why could he
not learn to believe like ourselves?
In the limited space of this paper my
reflections must be narrowed 10 point
or two. L shall briefly call attention to
conduct that constitutes a crime against
society and against individuals, although
it is not to be found in our statutes.
If to poison one person be an infamous
crime-and no one questions it-what
shall be said of him who polsOns multi
tude, who entails untold suf1erings upon
innocent and defenseless generations;
who for his own wanton qualification
gives life to another whom he knows will
be cursed with hereditary disease and
premature death? If >we were not so
blinded as we are by customs and selfish
ness. we should regard such one as a
monster of depravity. Daily we see
those in whose blood some horrible dis
ease turks marry and multiply with light
hearts and easy consciences. Friends
and relations look on approvlngly. Rev
erends and right reverends give their
benedictions. demonstrate and they an
swer they leave it all to Providence, as
itated guilt. Do they expect to gather
grapes from thorns and figs from this
ties? Were society wise 1t would mimi
mize crime Of this nature.
For what peril to posterity can be
greater than thus TO poison the river of
life at its source? " bat other crime can
equal this wholesale dissemination of
well-nigh ineradicable disease among the
countless sufferers who follow after, to
whom the gilt of life comes as a curse
lowered with evil. Minds and bodies
that should have been radiant with JOY
and beauty are befouled, deformed,
blasted, dragged down to unutterable
depths of misery and agony. Existence,
which comes TO each but once, Tor these
had better never come at all We picture
them, like one of old, loathsome, ulcer
ated without and within, sitting III the
ashes of all their spiritual aspirations and
human hopes, and we, too, are almost
tempted to exclaim: 1T is better to
curse God and die."
In the presence of such a crime, so COM
mon and widespread, now can we be
silent? The laws are silent. Our moral
and religious teachers are as dumb
dogs" Society, with its cant and hy-
procisy, turns up its eyes in pious terror
at the mere mention of the subject. AS
though it could be indelicate to diagnose
any form OF disease, or one more than
another; or as if no depravity should be
reInediaIly discussed if it happen to be
sexual. But if we remember that the
sect OF the Pharisees is not extinct, we
also bear in mind that III all ages there
have been fearless teachers who refused
to hide the truth, and humbly following
in their steps we have dared to ''cry aloud
and spare not"
An excellent writer long ago said:
Truth is, in everything, not only the
shortest, but the only road to excellence
the only foundation on which every
thing permanent can ever be raised and
all ways of evading, sighting, or oppos-
ing it are, in fact only loss OF time and
hlndrance of business in the affairs of
men,"
The marriages of the physically unfit
form only a part of the welded evil.
Ioyeless marriages are answerable for
much, 1t is with US now as 1t was in
France before the revolution. Persons
OF the rank of mobiles were found vile
enough TO accept III marriage, and to be-
stow the name of wife on those whose
conduct, as well as birth, would other
wise have denied them an entrance into
society. Sometimes the same dlsgr2ceIuI
bargain was made with those OF their
own rank. who found a more honorable
establishment difficult. The husband sac
riticiug at once his honor and his rights
at the church door, was sent to eat the
wages of his base compliance in distant
provincial town. Here his title and his
money soon procured him the good graces
OF some provincial beauty, who consoled
him Tor the contempt with which he had
been treated elsew mere, and whose hus-
band initiated his own example of for
bearance and submission. The sacrifice
of youth ana beauty was often made. and
made without to defornity,
TO age, and even i'm becllity, among per-
sons equal in birth, when one OF the par
ties had to offer the wealth and brilliant
existence in society which was wanting
to the other.r The Editor OF Madame
du Deffaud's Letters. lS2S.
W n ara ahaatp1 byr words for &boso -,