[Footnote 37: In trying to account for this state of affairs, however, it should not be forgotten that the entrance of women into industry, among the proletariat, and feminism in the wealthier classes, have both accomplished a good deal in the matter of breaking valuable domestic traditions among women.] [Footnote 38: For a demonstration of the damage done to food by unskilful cooking, see the present writer’s “Man’s Descent from the Gods” (Heinemann, 1921).] [Footnote 39: For proofs in support of this statement, see the present writer’s work already referred to on p. 193.] [Footnote 40: By the Free Mash Tun Act of 1880 the regulations for charging the duty were so framed as to leave the brewer practically unrestricted as to the description of malt, or corn, or sugar, or other description of saccharine substitutes which he might use in the manufacturing and colouring of beer.] [Footnote 41: For a confirmation of this statement, see p. 61 of the Medical Research Committee’s Report on Accessory Food Factors. For a more elaborate discussion upon the whole subject of old English Ale, see the present writer’s _Defence of Aristocracy_, Chapter V.] [p199] CHAPTER IX THE GREAT ALTERNATIVE TO SOCIAL REFORM “Ay, if dynamite and revolver leave you courage to be wise: When was age so crammed with menace? Madness? Written, spoken lies?” Tennyson--(_Locksley Hall, Sixty Years After._) It has been man’s besetting sin, almost throughout history, to trace whatever evils might befall him, rather to his institutions, his social systems and his conditions, than to himself and his fellows. Many a precious scheme of life, many a sound system, has been broken up and abandoned, not because of its inherent badness, or of the incorrigible vices of its design, but owing to the fact that those men who attempted to carry it on in its last days, were neither as able nor as vigorously endowed as those who inaugurated it and laid its foundations. Institutions may thus outlive the quality of men, although the reverse of this proposition, that men outlive the quality of institutions, is always taken for granted. If we saw a man of our acquaintance forsake house after house, however perfectly designed and beautifully appointed; if we saw him wander from town to town, from country to country, and even from continent to continent, always leaving the best for something else and yet never feeling at ease; furthermore, if we noticed that he dropped friend after friend, relative after relative, all [p200] in bitter enmity and anger, we might be excused if we felt tempted to suspect that his repeated changes and upheavals were not the fault either of his houses, his various adopted towns or countries, or his friends and relatives, but were due to some obscure infirmity in the man himself, some hidden though serious hepatic affection, which rendered him radically unfit to be happy or contented anywhere.