“Mr. Midith, you have not yet told us how your old marriage system was gradually superseded by your present system of sexual freedom,” said Rev. Dudley. “I am sure it would be highly interesting to us to have you point out the most important transitional steps.”
“It is, of course, impossible for me to point out all the countless gradations through which we passed in the sex relations from the lowest stages of barbarism to that highest state of equal sexual freedom which the Marsites now enjoy. It will suffice here to say that the progress with us, as far as I can learn up to the point which you have reached at the present time, were almost identical with yours.
“Under the head of sex relations I showed you how marriage was instituted, both here and on Mars. How the primitive savage often stole or captured his wife or wives; how he often compelled prisoners of war to become his wife or wives; how, later on, the father or parent sold his daughters to become the wives of the purchasers; how, still later, the parents, instead of the young couple, made the marriage contract; and now the contracting parties to the marriage, at least in the United States and in some European countries, are generally only interfered with by the state; that is, the state demands of them certain acts before they can live together, and it also demands of them, when once married, certain other acts before they can separate or live with some one else; that is, your marriage contract is always a life contract, and nothing but the most flagrant cruelties, as the state looks upon them, will induce the state to grant a divorce.
“The last is the highest point in the sex relation that the earthly inhabitants have thus far reached, and I need, therefore, not point out any of the gradations below this point, for you have passed through them in almost the same manner as we did, and how you did pass through your past gradations can, to a certain extent, be ascertained from your historical records. But what interests you most is how we made the transitional steps of advance from the highest point that you have at present attained to that complete sexual and other freedom which the Marsites now enjoy.
“We have seen that all advancement is wrought out by intelligence, and if sexual freedom is a higher and purer state of human activity than the practice of wife-stealing or life-wedlock, we must have attained that higher plane by some intellectual powers which taught us that life, accompanied with a certain quantity and quality of intellectual culture, is, as a whole, purer, more complete, and therefore happier under sexual freedom than under the various forms of force marriage systems; otherwise the statement that happiness is a feeling which we seek to bring into consciousness and retain there is not true.
“The trend of human advancement, then, must ever be toward individual freedom; not only in the sex-relations, but in all other directions also. Let me therefore point out to you a few of our transitional steps from your highest present sex-relations to that which now exists on Mars. Let us also, as we go along, try to discover if any of the same signs are already discernible here on earth.
“When we were in your present stage of progress, our marriage contract began to be much less esteemed than formerly; the power of the church and state was rapidly waning; the ceremonies grew less solemn, and divorces increased in number and respect. All these signs are already more or less strongly visible with you, too.
“In ancient times a wife, no matter how much abused, could obtain no divorce from her husband without his consent. Later on thousands of wives obtained divorces. The same is true with your men and women now. With us actresses and such other ladies who were best capable of supporting themselves financially were the first and most numerous who desired to be free and independent, and therefore applied most frequently for divorces when the marriage was no longer mutually agreeable. With you the same holds true.
“As several couples of married men and women began to co-operate and live together in the same house, they all grew more sociable and less jealous because each desired more and more to be free himself and would therefore be willing to accord a greater latitude of freedom to his married or other companions. We can already often see slight traces of that with you where two or more families live and work in close proximity, and where two married couples, when out walking or riding, exchange ladies and gentlemen.
“In the foregoing stage of co-operation, the death of a man or a wife would not desolate and break up the home and family like it formerly did when only two parents were living together. There were always plenty left to have the work go on as before. In this small co-operative family the surviving member would continue to live as a member of the family almost the same as before. He could either again take in a companion or not, just as he pleased. By these closer and wider social, industrial and sexual bonds, man became more and more sensitive to injustice and discord. He looked upon aggressiveness and compulsion of every kind with continually increasing repugnance. The reward of co-operation on the one hand and individual freedom on the other urged him on to a still higher eminence.
“Thus as our families and communities unfolded in size, order and prosperity, and as each member—man, woman and child—became more and more intelligent, independent, self-reliant and non-aggressive, as I have pointed out in the preceding part of my narrative, the marriage contract, like the oath and other superstitions, first became a mere form, and later on disappeared altogether. The social and sexual web grew wider, purer and stronger. All forms of monopoly died with the compulsory state. Jealousy and aggressiveness were crowded out of the mind by higher and nobler feelings. Filial affection overflowed from its former narrow bounds. The individual became the sole owner of his or her own person. We began to feel that all of us had received parental care during our infancy and that we in turn, whether parent or not, should do the same to our contemporaneous infants. The sexual affairs, with the enlargement of individual freedom, naturally glided under the exclusive control of the woman under whose efficient management, sexual freedom and instructive desires, the excessive sexual function was gradually reduced, to about its normal activity, the same as we find with the lower animals when they are in a state of freedom. Thus the highest human efforts were always crowned with health, purity, freedom and happiness.
“I am well aware of the fact that these higher feelings of which I have here spoken are not sufficiently developed in the masses of the earthly inhabitants at the present time to be keenly appreciated by them. All that any of us can do is to aid in bringing the masses up to that standard by a diffusion of a higher intelligence which improves their organization. As I told you before, a rude savage would not feel at home in an elegantly furnished parlor, but he is not to blame for the fact that he can not appreciate such a parlor. His organization is not yet in tune with it. He must be elevated before he can appreciate such surroundings. The same is true with the vast majority of your people. With their present state of mind they can not appreciate those higher and purer feelings of which I have spoken; if they could, they would surely have them. A rude, uncleanly person would find it a great burden, instead of a comfort, to live a life appropriate with a clean, elegant, orderly residence in which there would be no invasion, and equal right.
“To illustrate: Such a person would not want to clean his shoes or put on his slippers before he walked in. He would want to spit on the stove or floor. He would want to slam the doors or leave them open after him when they ought to be closed. He would want to be loud and noisy. He would want to smoke, chew and get drunk in it. He would not want to bathe and divest himself of his labor-garments which are scented with perspiration. He would find no delight in keeping his finger and toe-nails clean and trimmed. He would not want to clean his teeth nor comb his hair. He would want to dictate to, and domineer over his physically weaker and intellectually inferior companions. As a male he would want to manage sexual affairs which can be managed with purity only by the female. At table he would want to rise, reach and smack while eating. He would want to interrupt you in conversation. At night he would want to come into the house like a whirlwind, waking all in the house. From labor he would want to shirk all he could. In discussion he would get angry if he could not carry his point. In courtship he would become pouty and jealous if things would not just suit him. Instead of learning, discussing and contemplating something high and noble, he would want to indulge in obscene and vulgar frivolities. All these acts would be inappropriate with a fine residence and highly distasteful to a cultivated person whose social feelings are in tune with a clean handsome residence. With their present sentiments, the vast masses of your people would therefore not appreciate the wholesome conduct and elegant ‘big-houses’ of the Marsites; but, on the contrary, a multitude of your rudest men and women would, no doubt, turn our elegant dwellings more or less into brothels, filthy saloons, smoking rooms and nasty spittoons. They would quarrel, fight and shirk from their equitable labor. They would be jealous and unclean. But all this is no sign that our social, industrial and sexual relations are not better suited for a higher and purer life than your institutions are. It simply shows that those who are not in sympathy with our institutions, or who deem them impracticable on account of their high standard, still contain within them too many primitive propensities and passions which are revolting against a healthful, peaceable life.”
“How did you arrive at your present methods of education?” asked Viola. “I am sure an account of some of the most important transitional steps would be very interesting to us, and I hope that you will find it as agreeable to give us the explanation as it will be for us to receive it.”
“Of course I need not tell you that we reached the point of education that you have attained at present by the same process and in the same order that you did, and I need, therefore, not go back of that point, for you know that as well and perhaps better than I do. It is modern history with you and more or less ancient with me. You want to know by what path, from your present position, you can reach a higher plane.
“We have seen that the sovereignty of the state gradually weakened, and that the sovereignty of the individual correspondingly increased. Your public school system depends for its financial support on the power of the state. As soon as the state loses its power of compulsory taxation, the public school can not exist on its present principles.
“But mankind will always maintain existing institutions until they begin to see some disadvantages, or until they can supplant them by what they consider to be better ones. This is as true of education as of everything else. Mankind slowly learns that not all instruction furnishes useful information. The direct object of education, as we have seen, is to discover truth, so that we may live in accord with the facts of the universe; for every violation of a natural function is a violation of a natural law, and every violation of a natural law is attended with suffering. Hence, in order to enjoy the greatest happiness, the ultimate aim and end of all sentient beings must be to live in tune with facts; we must understand the true relations of things so that we may be able to look a great distance into the future, so as to avoid or remove all stumbling blocks from our path of future progress.
“We may easily illustrate the fact that not all instruction furnishes useful information. The instruction which was inculcated in the minds of the people during the dark ages that a supernatural power may be and often was purchased from the supposed evil fiend, was instruction which led to the torture and murder of millions of innocent human beings. The instruction, during former ages, that war and slavery are justifiable, has done an immense evil, and is doing so still, but in a somewhat more lenient form. Your modern instruction that profit, interest, rent and taxes are right, and conducive to human well-being, is causing nearly all your present evils and discord.
“Some are beginning to see and feel this clearly. But no teacher in your public schools is allowed at present to teach that profit, interest, rent, and taxes are wrong because they arise from the monopolization of natural opportunity and are therefore destructive to the highest human welfare. No teacher in your public school is allowed to teach that we ought never to take up a gun for the purpose of shooting our neighbor in defense of any flag; for a man as such is always better than a flag; for a collection of people can even be happier and more orderly without a flag than with one. As a rule, your teacher who teaches that your women are not enjoying the same privileges that your men enjoy is looked down upon, and your board of directors or state do not desire to employ such a person as teacher. They look upon him as the contemporaries of Socrates looked upon Socrates.
“By this you can plainly see that thousands of your most cultivated and thoughtful teachers of your public schools, the same as many of your preachers, are not at liberty to teach all their best thoughts and sentiments. The masses are not sufficiently matured intellectually to assimilate them. He must therefore suppress some of his best thoughts.
“In proportion as people became conscious of the facts, they lost their patriotic sentiments for the compulsory public schools, and they could find no other solution out of the difficulty than to take the control of school education out of the hands of the state and place it in the hands of the individual, the same as they had done with the church long before. You see as long as we are compelled by the state to think only in one narrow, prescribed channel, there is little opportunity for rapid mental development. Under this state constraint, some of the best thoughts are frequently never born, and if they are born, they are generally dwarfed for want of room and opportunity. All who desire aid from the public school room are compelled to walk within the narrow path laid out by the state.
“But things are entirely different when any individual, under free competition, can open a school and teach whatever he desires. His school must then prosper by virtue of its own merits, in a large field of keen, free competition. Under individual instruction there would be the widest possible difference in the course of study and in the mode of discipline. All could very likely be suited somewhere, no matter how widely they may differ in thought and belief. Those who desire to pray could find schools in which prayer is the most important exercise; those who desire to study the doctrine of special creation could find their school and teacher. The evolutionist could find his. There would be schools in which all the various phases of thought were taught and discussed—social, political, theological, industrial, sexual, and scientific. Under such keen, free competition, all but the fittest would soon disappear.”
“But did you not say, Mr. Midith, that ministers, too, often feel the burden of narrowness brought to bear upon them by their congregations? They are not under the control of the state. How, then, do you reconcile these facts?” asked Rev. Dudley.
“In the first place, they are partly under state monopoly, because church property is exempt from taxation, while other property is taxed. In the church there is a wide range of latitude in the thought and belief between the most primitive Catholic, who believes himself to be under the guidance and paternalism of an infallible pope, and the most liberal Unitarian or Universalist, who is free nearly to believe as he likes. As a minister, then, nearly every one can find a gradation of individual freedom corresponding with his intellectual advancement, and when he is ready to step out of the church beyond all sectarian dogmas, he is at liberty to do so at any time. He is not now forced by the state, like formerly, to be a member of a particular church, or of any church, nor is he forced to contribute toward the support of any church more than the increase of his taxation caused by the exemption of church property. But with your public school and your teacher it is altogether different. You are taxed to support them whether you are in sympathy with them or not; whether you send your children to the public school, or to a private one where you pay tuition. The state-prescribed course of study and mode of discipline are nearly alike everywhere. There is but one narrow channel in which your intellectual activity must be confined. In your state-schools, you as an individual can not, like a minister and a church member, pass, step by step, as you grow intellectually, through a wide range toward the more liberal, and even pass entirely beyond all sectarian doctrines, like the tendency of your present theological movement clearly indicates. A minister, under your present regime, can preach any doctrine he desires from an independent pulpit, but an independent school is taxed out of existence by the state, because the private teacher can not get the required number of pupils as long as the parents of the pupils must first pay taxes to support the public school and then pay tuition to the private teacher.
“Let me give an illustration. The church, I think, furnishes the best example, showing how your public school will slowly but gradually lose its despotic state power and influence. According to your history, only a comparatively few years ago your people thought that the church and state were inseparably bound together by some superhuman tie. You then thought that it was the state’s duty to look after the welfare of the ‘soul’ as well as the body. Churches were built and the clergy maintained by compulsory taxation, the same as you now build and maintain public schools and teachers. There was but one denomination then, and every person was a member of that denomination or church. But as the mind unfolded toward self-reliance, kindness and individual liberty, different denominations were born to suit the rising intelligence. Thus step by step the separation of church and state continued until the only remnant of compulsory authority the state claims to exercise over the church at present is to exempt her property from taxation, and that remnant is already getting very feeble.
“Thus we see that the church continually grew weaker in dictatorial authority and membership, and stronger in simplicity and individual freedom. With every forward step of advance it became more natural, and this forward movement continued with us and will, no doubt, continue with you until the church loses itself in nature by becoming identical with it. Only a few centuries ago nearly every man, woman and child in your Christian world was a church member. Now the population of the United States in round numbers is about 60,000,000; of these about 8,000,000 are Catholics and about 12,000,000 are Protestants. About 20,000,000 out of the 60,000,000 are church members. Formerly, then, the rate per cent. of church members was nearly 100 per cent., now it is only 33 per cent. More than 66 per cent. passed through the successive steps of theological liberty, or they passed entirely beyond all theological dogmas as far as church membership is concerned.
“In a similar manner did our public school lose its state authority. As I have told you, the state itself, in all its functions, was gradually weakened, and lost its paternalism with every step of intellectual advance and personal liberty. But the disappearance of the public school was more rapid than the disappearance of the state in some other direction. Men gradually withdrew from the old, narrow, despotic school, the same as they had withdrawn from the old, narrow, cruel church. As the intellectual sun of freedom, kindness and prosperity rose and shed his congenial rays on our progressive Mars, the chains of superstition, cruelty and slavery fell off one by one; and the same tendency is already discernible with you. I find that many of your foremost thinkers and most impartial judges feel the narrowness and stagnation of your public school and your system of education. They favor the abolition of state schools and the substitution of private institutions in which there is a wide range of liberty, so that every teacher can teach what he desires, and every child can go where it desires. In such a keen, free field of competition every teacher and school must stand or fall by their own merit, and the survival of the fittest will soon crowd out all others.
“The public school, before its disappearance, assumed different forms. The teachers grew in kindness and ability. The days were shortened. I mean the school day in the compulsory school-room. The weeks and years were also gradually shortened. The child became a freer agent in a more natural position. In the course of time the people of the cities and towns erected and supported spacious public buildings in the most suitable parts of their cities and towns. These buildings were intended for enjoyment and also for the acquisition of useful information, not for the man only, like most of your public buildings now are, except the churches, but for the wife and child also. Every man, woman and child who wished to enjoy a social intercourse for a few hours, either during the day or evening, could always find a fit place in these public buildings.
“These public buildings, or natural schools, were built on the center of about four acres of the most suitable land in the center of a town. Of course, in large cities there were many such buildings. The ground was fenced so that no small child could get out. The entrance was guarded by a trustworthy person so that little children could not leave the ground without a nurse to care for them. This arrangement insured mothers and others that their children were out of danger when brought within the inclosure. Part of the inclosure was fitted up for a play-ground, part of it for an outdoor nursery, and the remainder was planted in flowers and ornamental trees, etc. These buildings, or natural schools, were divided into apartments by movable partitions, so that it could be set off into rooms or be thrown all into one hall. This inclosure and building were in charge of several lady and gentlemen marshals, or teachers. (But both the marshals and teachers had already lost nearly all of their aggressiveness.) These teachers instructed the children wherever they found them. The child studied biology, botany, geology, physiology and psychology whenever it went in the inclosure. It received instruction in music, reading, language, elementary sounds, cleanliness, politeness, honesty, truthfulness and kindness by words and examples, and all this was done in such a natural and pleasant manner that the child was not aware that it was studying. At the close of the day it would exclaim, ‘To-day we had lots of fun! I shall be here again early to-morrow morning!’
“These natural schools, or places of amusement, were supplied with a fine library, all kinds of musical instruments, commodious and elegant furniture, a fine laboratory and a good supply of philosophical apparatus, and a supply of confectionery and articles of amusement.”
“But is not that quite expensive,” asked Rev. Dudley, “to purchase the land, erect and furnish the building, and pay the teachers; and do you think that our bad boys would appreciate all this after all?”
“The cost of it would not begin to be as much as that which you expend in saloons, liquor, opium, tobacco and cigars. Your men build their saloons, club-houses, etc., and spend in the United States alone about a thousand million dollars for liquor, and over two hundred and fifty million dollars for tobacco, cigars and cigarettes per annum, and they handle nearly all the money, but invest scarcely a nickle for the wife and child in public buildings and places of learning and amusement.
“And as to the bad boys, it is no wonder that they are bad with the treatment they receive; the wonder to me is that your women and children do not revolt against the tyrannical treatment of the men. As long as you coerce your boys, who are chased from store to store, from postoffice to street, and kicked out of the saloon by the father who happens to be there, that long you can not expect your boys to be what you want them to be. I never saw any of your boys do anything so bad and cruel but what I saw your men do something worse and more cruel. No doubt, if you treat your boys and girls kindly and justly they will be just as good as our boys.
“But we are digressing from our subject; let us return to it. From what I have told you, you can, no doubt, see the tendency of educational advancement by a comparison of religious progress. To be sure in my limited narration, I can array only a few of the most important facts to suggest others.
“The primitive savage has not the mental ability and desire for deep thought and profound study. As the tribes coalesce and the brain increases in size and function by a wider social intercourse and a more complex experience concomitant with a greater national union, he begins to believe that man’s ‘heart’ can be made perfect by the guidance of man-made laws. In this mental stage, he endeavors to put everything under the dominion of man-made laws, the same as in former periods, he put everything under the dominion of his own created Deity. In this law-period, he owns his land by law; he makes his money by law; he owns slaves; kills witches and heretics, builds churches and school-houses, organizes and disciplines an army, executes criminals and marries all by law. Everything which is done in accordance to law is considered right and just. He is now an aggressor and invader, but with a still higher intelligence and a higher sense of justice, he begins to question the justice and equity of a man-made law. He finds that aggressiveness implies discord, and that society can never be orderly and happy as long as there are aggressors and invaders.
“So it was with the school, and with the entire system of education. The state school or public school, was succeeded by private schools. Our idea of school and education now rapidly broadened. With the enlargement of the family and community all parents, by the assistance of co-operation and closer association, became better educated and more highly cultivated, and this general advancement continued until every person, young and old, was considered a teacher, and every field, yard, park and ‘big-house’ an institution of learning; the direct teaching changed almost wholly to the indirect. Here you see that the school, too, loses itself in nature by becoming identical with it. Just as every person in a former period became his own minister and preached whatever doctrines he pleased, so does every person now become or is his own teacher and teaches whatever and wherever he pleases, and our education continues as long as we live. We do not graduate at the age of fifteen or twenty like you do. Hence, our system of education is now perfectly free, natural and agreeable. It has turned into play. We study only those things which are agreeable to us. But you must not forget that the higher branches of study and inquiry are more agreeable as our mental ability increases.
“By improved intercommunication of travel and correspondence, the survival of the fittest rapidly diminished the number of languages, until but one was left, and this one is so simple and easily learned by always hearing it spoken correctly that very little technical grammar is now studied. With the lapse of time we began to see more and more clearly that he who is capable of living with the most complex structure and function, most nearly in accord with the facts of the universe, is most highly educated; and he who is least aggressive is most highly cultivated, because these conditions are necessary for the enjoyment of the greatest happiness. Thus all the social, industrial and sexual questions gradually became a part of our practical course of study in our daily life.
“I am aware that my explanation of education has been very brief, but I have already kept you too far into the night. I am afraid that I am teaching you a bad lesson when I keep you up too late. On some future occasion we may be able to have more of the details, but now it is time to retire.”