REGENERATION A REPLY TO MAX NORDAU WITH INTRODUCTION BY NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER Professor of Philosophy and Education in Columbia College in the City of New York New York G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS London: ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO. 1896 Copyright, 1896 BY G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS The Knickerbocker Press, New Rochelle, N. Y. INTRODUCTION Max Nordau is perhaps the most daring toreador of recent years. He challenged Modern Civilization to mortal combat in the presence of assembled thousands. Had the customs of the Roman arena prevailed, the thumbs of the interested spectators would doubtless have been extended or pressed down in about equal numbers, when the huge beast lay momentarily stunned by his blow. That Nordau had ingeniously tormented the monster was apparent; had he earned the right to put an end to its existence? The shrill cries of the excitable and easily moved predominated for a moment, but they were soon drowned by the insistent demands of the sober-minded for a calm consideration of the fairness of the blows that had been struck, as well as of the permissibility of the weapons that had been used. Yet the contest, whether fair or unfair, had been exciting; and it was not without its uses. It stimulated thought among the habitually unthinking. The habit of reflective analysis, like letter-writing and other accomplishments that require much leisure, is slipping away from us under the pressure of our complex modern life. The newspaper, with its surges of insensate passion and unreasoned opinion, thinks for large portions of the community; and its thinking, like the amusements of the nursery, expresses itself in ways that appeal chiefly to the eye and to the ear. Information about things is too often mistaken for knowledge of things. Highly specialized activities on the one hand, and the task of adjusting our part in the struggle for existence to economic conditions wholly new in the world’s history, on the other, mark off our civilization from any that have preceded it. The activities of modern men are so numerous, so varied, and so interesting, that we often omit to ask on what principles they are based and whither they are tending. Apparent success has led us to forget sometimes that all sound practice has a reason behind it, and reasons are seldom asked for or given.