So far as the animal
kingdom was concerned his ideas were sound enough, but when he came to
the consideration of human kind he was as erratic as ever. As they walked
back from the stables he began to descant on the population question,
denouncing the century, and repeating all his old theories. Perhaps it
was jealous rancor that impelled him to protest against the victory of
life which the whole farm around him proclaimed so loudly. Depopulation!
why, it did not extend fast enough. Paris, which wished to die, so people
said, was really taking its time about it. All the same, he noticed some
good symptoms, for bankruptcy was increasing on all sides--in science,
politics, literature, and even art. Liberty was already dead. Democracy,
by exasperating ambitious instincts and setting classes in conflict for
power, was rapidly leading to a social collapse. Only the poor still had
large families; the elite, the people of wealth and intelligence, had
fewer and fewer children, so that, before final annihilation came, there
might still be a last period of acceptable civilization, in which there
would remain only a few men and women of supreme refinement, content with
perfumes for sustenance and mere breath for enjoyment.
Pages:
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583