573751

COPYRIGHT, 1899

BY

W. DUNCAN MCKIM

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

PREFACE

ROFOUNDLY convinced of the inefficiency of

PROFES

the measures which we bring to bear against the weakness and depravity of our race, I venture to plead for the remedy which alone, as I believe, can hold back the advancing tide of disintegration.

With the flood of light recently thrown upon the nature of man by the researches of mental pathology and criminology, and with the independence of judgment induced by the methods of modern science, it is a marvel that we halt in indecision before that greatest of all practical problems-how to stem the: ever-strengthening torrent of defective and criminal humanity.

Religion, philanthropy, and the law have in this -shown themselves powerless. If civilization cannot devise more efficient means of self-protection, its progress will continue to be leaden-footed or even, as we may fear, be gradually transformed into retrograde motion. History shows by many examples how, through inadequate self-regulation, mighty nations wane and vanish.

The remedy here proposed is in part a very old idea, but so modified and expanded as to differ profoundly from its prototype. Some recent writers have hinted that, in the near future, this old idea

might need readaptation; others have mentioned it, but with disapproval only. The subject is by no means a novelty, but as yet, to the best of my knowledge, no one has given it much serious consideration, or sought to elaborate it into a plan susceptible of practical application.

As here presented, the remedy may appear to many readers injudicious, incompatible with the best. sentiment of the epoch, or even completely impracticable. Of such readers I would ask that they suspend their judgment, and give an unprejudiced hearing until the end. I would ask that they bring their intelligence and human sympathy to bear not upon the mere book-the product of an individual mind-but upon the great idea which, more or less consciously, now surges restlessly in many minds and here finds extended expression.

Ithink that the most conservative of my readers will admit that there has been a very sure, if also a very gradual, modification of all human sentiments and beliefs; that every idea which has enlightened and advanced the race has been at first generally unacceptable; and that the idea here pushing to the light, as an expression of the spirit of the age, may be destined to develop, in spite of conservative opposition, into a rich and wide usefulness.

The reader who raises the usual time-worn objections to any change, and thereby condemns the book, does nothing of worth for himself nor for the cause of humanity; but he who weighs the merits of the essential idea with the honest weights of an independent judgment will, to that degree, whether he

bestow approval or condemnation, have given of his strength to the cause of truth and right.

A part of the proposed remedy-the method of dealing with the vicious-may, I believe, be made an immediate practical issue; another part-that relating to the "defective "-must remain, no doubt, an issue for the distant future. Yet we live in an age characterized by rapid transformations of opinion and custom, and the times appear ripe for the weighing of the plan in its entirety.

The real value of the views here presented, no single mind can determine: it is my aim and end simply to awaken a wide, intelligent, and honest discussion of a question which, to me, appears, both for nation and race, of the greatest importance. It is my hope that the plan may have dispassionate and conscientious consideration, and that such good as it contains may find practical adaptation to the deep needs of humanity.