Towards democracy

Surely the Time will come 389

refinement, punctiliousness of nose, and so forth—and who would tum up the latter at the sight of a pig and q few fowls in an Irishman’s cabin—actually tolerating in their own persons the perpetual presence of the most disgusting organisms ;

And other men and women, through sheer ignorance, believing such a state of affairs to be necessary.

Surely the time will come when to be diseased, to spread disease around one, or transmit it to descendants,

To live willingly in the conditions that produce disease, or not strenuously to fight against such conditions,

Will be looked on as a crime—both of the individual and of society.

For since a little self-control, since a clean and elementary diet, pure water, openness of the body to sun and air, a share of honest work, and some degree of mental peace and largesse, are the perfectly simple conditions of health, and are, or ought to be, accessible to everybody— .

To neglect these is sheer treason ;

While to surrender them out of fear (should one stick to them) of being robbed of other things far less precious, is to be a fool, as well as a coward.

Surely the time will come when people, seeing how obvious and simple is the problem of human life,

Will refuse (even at the bidding of the Parson, the Policeman, Mrs. Grundy, and the commercial Slave-driyers and Tax-collectors) to live the lives of idiots ;

Will refuse to do other work than that which they like, and which they feel to be really needed ;

Will cease to believe that their own well-being can only