Principles of Political Economy Part 37

At the same time, the frequency of illegitimate births is always an evidence that the rightful founding of a home is made difficult[249-4]

by the economic condition of the police provisions of a country; and that the moral force of the people does not suffice to resist the temptation[249-5] which such condition and provisions suppose. In the latter respect, this phenomenon may be considered, not only as a symptom but also as a cause: since b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are generally very badly brought up.

A large parthenic population is always an element of great danger in a state.[249-6] The frequency of illegitimate children must, however, be designated as a tendency counter to over-population, for the reason that still-born births and early deaths occur much more frequently among them than among legitimate children.[249-7]

B. The trade of the women of the town is indeed an exceedingly old one.[249-8] But this evil a.s.sumes large dimensions only where a large cla.s.s of men and women have no prospect to marry at all, or only late in life; especially when, at the same time, families have become unaccustomed to keeping together for life.[249-9] Prost.i.tution may be considered a counterpoise to over-population, not only because of the polyandry it involves, but also of the infecundity of its victims.[249-10] Even the diseases which it propagates are not without importance in this regard. The love of change and impatience of restraint which it produces keeps many a man who, economically considered, might very well engage in marriage, in a state of criminal celibacy.[249-11] This moral poisoning of the nation's blood is more pernicious in proportion as vice is decked with the charms of intellect,[249-12] and reflected in literature and art.[249-13] When Phryne had wealth enough to project the rebuilding of Thebes, and boldness enough to ask to be allowed to put this inscription on its walls: "Alexander destroyed them, but Phryne, the hetaera, rebuilt them,"

not only the dignity but the nationality of Greece was gasping for the last time for breath.[249-14] [249-15]

C. I know no sadder picture in all history than the wide diffusion and even sovereignty which unnatural vice possessed among the declining nations of antiquity. Egypt and Syria seem to have been the original seat of this moral plague.[249-16] In Greece, there was a time noted for the brilliancy of its literature and art, when the poetic fancy, in its dreams of love, pictured to itself only the forms of beautiful boys; and that this love was generally an impure one, there is, unfortunately, no room to doubt.[249-17] In more ancient Rome, it was most severely punished;[249-18] but afterwards, again, it seemed reprehensible to a Tibullus only when it was bought with money.[249-19] Even under Caesar, a censor could threaten an aedile with a charge of sodomy; the latter reciprocate the threat, and think it witty to invite a man like Cicero to a.s.sist at the curious argument which such a case might call forth, before a pretor with a reputation of being guilty of the same vice.[249-20] When the horrible deeds of which Tiberius was guilty are known, we cannot consider them capable of exaggeration. But Tiberius, at least, sought secrecy, while Nero, Commodus and Heliogabalus felt a special delight in the publicity of their shame.[249-21] [249-22] [249-23]

[Footnote 249-1: The ratio between the number of illegitimate births and legitimate, so generally brought forward, leads to no correct conclusions whatever. The ratio between the number of illegitimate births, on the other hand, and marriageable men and women, especially of those who are yet unmarried, may afford a basis for valuable inferences. Compare _Hoffmann_, in the Preuss.

Staatszeitung, 1837, No. 18. In Prussia, nearly 75 per cent.

of all women between 17 and 75 are married. (_v. Viehbahn_, II, 189.)]

[Footnote 249-2: In Bavaria, not only was the frequency of marriage surprisingly small (one marriage a year in every 151.59 inhabitants, while the average in 14 European countries was 1 in 123.9), but marriage was there contracted at a surprisingly advanced age. Of 10,000 of both s.e.xes engaging in marriage, there were, in Bavaria, only 2,081 25 years of age and less, while in England, there were 5,528.

Compare _Wappaus_, A. Bevolk. Statistik, II, 241, 270.]

[Footnote 249-3: In Oldenburg, it is estimated that 48 per cent. of its illegitimate children are legitimatized _per subsequens matrimonium_ (_Rau-Hanssen_ Archiv. N. F., I, 7), in the agricultural districts of Na.s.sau even 70 per cent.

(_Faucher's_ Vierteljahrsschrift, 1864, II, 19), in the whole of Bavaria, 15 per cent.; in the Palatinate, 29.7 per cent.

(_Hermann_, Bewegung der Bevolkerung, 20); in the Kingdom of Saxony, 1865, at least 21 per cent. (Statist. Zeitschr.

1868, 184.) In France 10 per cent. of the marriages contracted legitimatize children. (_Legoyt_, Stat. Comp., 501); in Saxony, 1865, 11.7; in Bavaria up to 1852, about 1/8 of the marriages belonged to this category; 1858-61, 1/7; 1861-64, nearly 1/6. Compare Heft XII, of the official statistics. In the manufacturing towns of France, especially the border ones, a large number of the children of female operatives and of males having their domicile in foreign parts, are legitimatized by marriage: thus in Muhlhausen, 23.7 per cent. Recherches statist. sur M., 1843, 62.]

[Footnote 249-4: In Mecklenburg-Schwerin there was one marriage _1841._ On domanial lands, on every 137 of population.

On manor " " 145 "

On monastery " " 163 "

In the cities " " 115 "

_1850._ On domanial lands, on every 149 of population.

On manor " " 269 "

On monastery " " 175 "

In the cities " " 104 "

The number of illegitimate births stood to the aggregate number of births in 1800, as 1:16; in 1851, as 1:4.5; in 1850-55, as 1:4.8; in 1856-59, as 1:5.04; in 1865, as 1:4.0; in 1866, as 1:4.8; in 1867, as 1:5.33; in 1868, as 1:6.0; in 1869, as 1:7.2; in 1870, as 1:7.08, In 260 localities, in 1851, 1/3 and more of the aggregate number of births were illegitimate; in 209, and more, and in 79 the entire number! The small improvement afterwards made was probably due in great part to emigration, which from 1850 to 1859 must have amounted to 45,000. How relative the idea of over-population even in this respect is, is shown by the small number of illegitimate births in very densely populated parts of England--Lancas.h.i.+re, Middles.e.x, Warwick, Stafford, West York--while districts as thinly populated as North York, Salop, c.u.mberland, Westmoreland, have very many illegitimate births. The number increases in the best educated districts, where their "education" begins to cause them to make "prudent" and long delays in marrying.

(_Lumley_, Statistics of Illegitimacy: Statist. Journal, 1862.)]

[Footnote 249-5: Strikingly more favorable influence of the _ecclesia pressa_. In Prussia, in 1855, the Evangelicals had 12.3 legitimate births for one illegitimate; the Catholics 19.4, the Jews 36.7, the Mennonites 211.5. (_v. Viebahn_, II, 226.)]

[Footnote 249-6: The relative number of illegitimate births in many nations of to-day is unfortunately an increasing one. In France, in 1801, only 4.6 per cent. of all live births were illegitimate; in 1811, 6.09; in 1821, 7.07; in 1830, 7.2; in 1857, 7.5; 1861-65, 7.56 per cent. The German especially must confess with deep shame that the southern half of the fatherland presents a very unfavorable picture in this respect. Can a nation be free when its capital, Vienna (1853-56), counts on an average 10,330 illegitimate and 11,099 legitimate births? Compare _Stein-Wappaus_, Handbuch der Geogr., IV, 1, 193. According to observations made between 1850 and 1860, in England between 1845 and 1860, there were in Holland for every 1,000 legitimate births 44 illegitimate, in Spain 59, in England and Wales 71, in France 80, in Belgium 86, in Prussia 91, in Norway 96, in Sweden 96, in Austria 98, in Hanover 114, in Saxony 182, in Bavaria 279. (Statist. Journ., 1868, 153.) Compare _Wappaus_, A. Bevolk. Stat., II, 387. In Russia, according to _v. Lengefeld_, 36.9; in the electorate of Mark, 1724-31, 1 in 18. (_Sussmilch_, I, -- 239.) During the 17th century it is estimated that the ratio of illegitimate to legitimate births in Merseburg was as 1:22-30, in Quedlinburg as 1:23-24, in Erfurt as 1:13. (From the Kirchenbucher in _Tholuck's_ Kircliches Leben, etc., I, 315 seq.) In Berlin in 1640, only 1-2 per cent. of illegitimate births.

(_Konig_, Berlin, I, 235.) In Leipzig, 1696-1700, 3 per cent.; 1861-65, 20 per cent. _Knapp_, Mitth. des. Leipz.

Statist. Bureaus, VI, p. X.]

[Footnote 249-7: Thus, in 1811-20, the still-born births in Berlin, Breslau and Konigsberg amounted to five per cent. of the legitimate, and to eight per cent. of the illegitimate; in the country places in Prussia, to 2 and 4 per cent. Of 384 illegitimate children born in Stettin in 1864, 45 were still-born and 279 died in their first year. (_v.

Oettingen_, Moralstatistik, 879.) In the whole monarchy, 1857-58, three to 4 per cent. of legitimate children died at birth, and 5 to 6 per cent. of the illegitimate; while during the first year of their age 18-19 per cent. of the former, and 34-36 per cent. of the latter, died (_v.

Viebahn_, II, 235). In France, in 1841-54, of the legitimate births, an average of 4 per cent., and of illegitimate 7 per cent., was still-born; and the probability of death during the first year of life was 2.12 times as great for an illegitimate child as for one born in lawful wedlock.

(_Legoyt._) After the first year the proportion changes.]

[Footnote 249-8: Genesis, 38; Joshua, 1, ff.; Judges, 16, 1, ff. It must not here be overlooked that the Canaanites possessed a much higher degree of economic culture than the contemporary Jews. In Athens, Solon seems to have established brothels to protect virtuous women. (_Athen._, XIII, 59.) In France, as early a ruler as Charlemagne took severe measures against prost.i.tution. (_Delamarre_, Traite de Police, I, 489.) Compare L. Visigoth., III, 4, 17, 5.]

[Footnote 249-9: Travelers are wont to be the first to make use of prost.i.tution. I need only mention the extremely licentious wors.h.i.+p of Aphrodite (Aschera) which the Phoenicians spread on every side: in Cypria, Cytherae, Eryx, etc. Connected with this was the mercenary character of the Babylonian women (_Herodot._, I, 199); similarly in Byblos (_Lucian_, De dea Syria, 6); Eryx (_Strabo_, VI, 272: _Diod._, IV, 83), in Cypria; (_Herodot._, I, 105, 199); Cytheria (_Pausan._, I, 14); Athenian prost.i.tutes in Piraeus and very early Ionian in Naucratis. (_Herodot._, II, 135.) In all the oases on the grand highways of the caravans, the women have a very bad reputation. Temporary marriages of merchants in Yarkand, Augila, etc. (_Ritter_, Erdkunde, I, 999, 1011, 1013, II, 360; VII, 472; XIII, 414.) It is remarkable how the legislation of German cities at the very beginning of their rise was directed against male bawds and prost.i.tutes; at times with great severity, the death penalty being provided for against the former and exile against the latter, while the earlier legislation of the people was directed only against rape. (_Spittler_, Gesch. Hannovers, I, 57 ff.)]

[Footnote 249-10: Conception in the case of women of the town is indeed not a thing unheard of, but abortion generally takes place or is produced; their confinement is extremely dangerous, and nearly all the children born of them die in the first year of their life. (_Parent Du Chatelet_, Prost.i.tution de Paris, 1836, I, ch. 3.)]

[Footnote 249-11: In the time of Demosthenes, even the more rigid were wont to say that people kept hetaeras for pleasure, concubines to take better care of them, wives for the procreation of children and as housekeepers. (adv.

Neaeram., 1386.)]

[Footnote 249-12: In Greece as well as in Rome, only slaves, freedmen and strangers sold their bodies for hire; but under the Emperors, prost.i.tution ascended even into the higher cla.s.ses. (_Tacit._, Ann. II, 85; _Sueton._, Tiber, 35; _Calig._,41; _Martial_, IV, 81.) Concerning the Empress Messalina, see _Juvenal_, VI, 117 ff. Address of Heliogabalus to the a.s.sembled courtesans of the capital, whom the Emperor harrangued as _commilitones_. (_Lamprid_, V.; Heliogabali, 26.) In Cicero's time, even a man of such exalted position as M. Coelius was paid for cohabitation with Clodia, and even moved into her house. (_Drumann_, Gesch. Roms., II, 377.) Even in Socrates' time, the hetaeras at Athens were probably better educated than wives: Compare _Xenophon_, Memorabilia, III, 11.]

[Footnote 249-13: On the p.o.r.nographs of antiquity, see _Athen._, XIII, 21. Even _Aristophanes_ was acquainted with some of the species. (Ranae, 13, 10 ff.) Compare _Aristot._, Polit., III, 17. _Martial_, XII, 43, 96. Of modern nations, Italy seems to have been the first to produce such poison flowers: _Antonius Panormita_ (ob. 1471); _Petrus Aretinus_ (ob. 1556). Of the disastrous influence on morals, during his time, of obscene pictures, _Propert_, II, 5, complains.

It is dreadfully characteristic that even a Parrhasios painted wanton deeds of shame. (_Sueton._, Tiber, 44), and that Praxiteles did not disdain to glorify the triumph of a _meretrix gaudens_ over a _flens matrona_. (_Plin._, H. N., x.x.xIV, 19.) But indeed also Giulio Romano!]

[Footnote 249-14: Compare _Jacobs'_ Vermischte Schriften, IV, 311 ff.: _Murr_, Die Mediceische Venus und Phryne, 1804.]

[Footnote 249-15: The number of registered prost.i.tutes in Paris, in 1832, amounted to 3,558; in 1854, to 4,620 (_Parent Du Chatelet_, ch. 1, 2); in 1870, to 3,656. These figures are evidently much below the real ones. Compare the extracts from the abundant, but, in particulars, very unreliable literature on the great sin of great cities, in _v. Oettingen_, Moralstatistik, 452 ff. According to the Journal des Econ., Juin, 1870, 378 ff., there was an aggregate of 120,000 _femmes, qui ne vivent que de galanterie_.]

[Footnote 249-16: _Nequitias tellus scit dare nulla magis_, says _Martial_, of Egypt. Wors.h.i.+p of Isis, in Rome: _Juvenal_, VI, 488 ff. See, further, _Herodot._, II, 46, 89; _Strabo_, XVII, 802. On Syria, see Genesis, 19, 4 ff., 9 seq.; Leviticus, 18, 22 seq., 20, 13, 15. The _cunnilingere_ of Phoenician origin. (_Heysch_, _v._ s???a?.) Frightful frequency of the _fellare_ and _irrumare_ in Tarsis: _Dio Chrysost._, Orat, 33. The Scythians also seem to have learned the ???s?? ???e?a (pederasty?) in Syria: _Herodot._, I, 105. Similarly during the crusades.]

[Footnote 249-17: Compare _Becker_, Charicles, I, 347 ff.

_aeschines_ condemns this vice only when one prost.i.tutes himself for money (in Timarch., 137). _Lysias_, adv. Simon, unhesitatingly speaks to a court about a contract for hire for purposes of pederasty. Compare _aeschin._, l. c., 159, 119, where such a contract is formally sued on. Industrial tax on pederastic brothels. (_aeschin._. I, c. R.) _Aristophanes_ alludes to obscenity still more shameful: Equitt., 280 ff.; Vespp., 1274 ff., 1347; Pax., 885; Ranae, 1349.]

[Footnote 249-18: _Valer. Max._, VI, 1, 7, 9 ff. The Lex Julia treats it only as _stuprum_: L. 34, -- 1. Digest, 48, 5; Paulli Sentt. receptt., II, 26, 13. Permitted later until Philip's time, in consideration of a license-fee. _Aurel.

Vict._, Caes., 28. Earliest traces of this vice in the year 321 before Christ. (_Suidas_, v. Ga??? ?a?t?????.) Later, it caused much scandal when the great Marcellus accused the aedile Scatinus of making shameful advances to his son.

(_Plutarch_, Marcell., 2.)]

[Footnote 249-19: _Tibull_, I, 4. Even the "severe"

_Juvenal_ was not entirely disinclined to pederasty, and _Martial_ does not hesitate to boast of his own pederasty and onanism. (II, 43, XI, 43, 58, 73, XII, 97.)]

[Footnote 249-20: _Cicero_, ad. Div., VIII, 12, 14.]

[Footnote 249-21: _Sueton._, Tiber, 43 ff.; Nero, 27 ff.

_Tacit._, Ann., VI, 1; Lamprid. Commod., 5, 10 seq.; Heliog.

pa.s.sim. On the _greges exoletorum_, see also _Dio Ca.s.s._, LXII, 28; LXIII, 13; _Tacit._, Ann., XV, 37. _Tatian_, ad Graecos, p. 100. Even Trajan, the best of the Roman emperors, held similar ones. (Ael. Spartian, V, Hadr., 2.) Trade in the prost.i.tution of children at the breast.

(_Martial_, IX, 9.) The collection of nearly all the obscene pa.s.sages in the ancient cla.s.sics elucidated with a shameful knowledge of the subject in the additions to _F. C.

Forberg's_ edition of the Hermaphroditus of _Antonius Panormita_, 1824.]

[Footnote 249-22: How long this moral corruption lasted may be inferred from the glaring contrast between the purity of the Vandals at the time of the migration of nations. Compare _Salvian_, De Gubern. Dei, VII, pa.s.sim.]

[Footnote 249-23: In keeping with the vicious counter tendencies described in this section, is the increasing frequency of the rape of children in France. The average number of cases between 1826 and 1830 was 136; between 1841 and 1845, 346; between 1856 and 1859, 692. Infanticide also increased between 1826 and 1860, 119 per cent. (_Legoyt_, Stat. comparee, 394.)]

SECTION CCL.

INFLUENCE OF THE PROFANATION OF MARRIAGE ON POPULATION.

D. In the preceding paragraphs, we treated of the wild shoots of the tree of population. But the roots of the tree are still more directly attacked by all those influences which diminish the sacredness of the marriage bond. It is obvious how heartless _marriages de convenance_,[250-1] inconsiderate divorces and frequent adulteries mutually promote one another. And the period of Roman decline also is the cla.s.sic period of this evil. I need only cite the political speculation in which Caesar gave his only daughter to the much older Pompey, or the case of Octavia, who when pregnant was compelled to marry the libertine Antonius.[250-2] Instead of the Lucretias and Virginias of older and better times, we now find women of whom it was said: _non consulum numero, sed maritorum annos suos computant_.[250-3] In the numerous cla.s.s of young people who live without the prospect of any married happiness of their own, we find a mult.i.tude of dangerous persons who ruin the married happiness of others, especially where marriage has been contracted between persons too widely separated by years.

_Corrumpere et corrumpi saeculum vocatur._ (_Tacitus_).[250-4] It is easy to understand how all this must have diminished the desire of men to marry. Even Metellus Macedonicus (131 before Christ) had declared marriage to be a necessary evil.[250-5] [250-6]

In such ages young girls are kept subject to a convent-like discipline, that their reputation may be protected and that they may be able to get husbands; but once married they are wont to be all the more lawless. In a pure moral atmosphere, precisely the opposite course obtains.[250-7]

And so it has been frequently observed, that among declining nations the social differences between the two s.e.xes are first obliterated and afterwards even the intellectual differences. The more masculine the women become, the more effeminate become the men. It is no good symptom when there are almost as many female writers and female rulers as there are male. Such was the case, for instance, in the h.e.l.lenistic kingdoms, and in the age of the Caesars.[250-8] What to-day is called by many the emanc.i.p.ation of woman would ultimately end in the dissolution of the family, and, if carried out, render poor service to the majority of women. If man and woman were placed entirely on the same level, and if in the compet.i.tion between the two s.e.xes nothing but an actual superiority should decide, it is to be feared that woman would soon be relegated to a condition as hard as that in which she is found among all barbarous nations. It is precisely family life and higher civilization that have emanc.i.p.ated woman. Those theorizers who, led astray by the dark side of higher civilization, preach a community of goods, generally contemplate in their simultaneous recommendation of the emanc.i.p.ation of woman a more or less developed form of a community of wives. The grounds of the two inst.i.tutions are very similar. The use of property and marriage is condemned because there is evidence of so much abuse of both. Men despair of making the advantages that accompany them accessible to all, and hence would refuse them to every one; they would improve the world without asking men to make a sacrifice of their evil desires. The result, also, would be about the same in both cases. (-- 81.) So far would prost.i.tution and illegitimacy be from disappearing that every woman would be a woman of the town and every child a b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

There would, indeed, be a frightful hinderance under such circ.u.mstances to the increase of population. The whole world would be, so to speak, one vast foundling asylum.[250-9]

But there is another sense to the expression emanc.i.p.ation of woman. It should not be ignored that, in fully peopled countries, there is urgent need of a certain reform in the social condition of woman. The less the probability of marriage for a large part of the young women of a country becomes, the more uncertain the refuge which home with its slackened bonds offers them for old age, the more readily should the legal or traditional barriers which exclude women from so many callings to which they are naturally adapted be done away with.[250-10] This is only a continuation of the course of things which has led to the abolition of the old guardians.h.i.+p of the s.e.x. It may be unavoidable not to go much farther sometimes; but such a necessity is a lamentable one.[250-11] The best division of labor is that which makes the woman the glory of her household, only it is unfortunately frequently impossible.