[258] The phrase _Laissez faire_ is sometimes used as though it were the watchword of a party which graciously accorded a free hand to the Devil to do his worst. As a matter of fact, it was simply a phrase adopted by the French economists of the eighteenth century to summarize the conclusion of their arguments against the antiquated restrictions which were then stifling the trade and commerce of France (see G. Weuleresse, _Le Mouvement Physiocratique en France_, 1910, Vol. II, p. 17). Properly understood, it is not a maxim which any party need be ashamed to own. [259] I would again repeat that I do not regard legislation as a channel of true eugenic reform. As Bateson well says (_op. cit._ p. 15); "It is not the tyrannical and capricious interference of a half-informed majority which can safely mould or purify a population, but rather that simplification of instinct for which we ever hope, which fuller knowledge alone can make possible." Even the subsidising of unexceptionable parents, as the same writer remarks, cannot be viewed with enthusiasm. "If we picture to ourselves the kind of persons who would infallibly be chosen as examples of 'civic worth' the prospect is not very attractive." [260] "Aristotle, herein the organ and exponent of the Greek national mind," remarks Gomperz, "understood by the hygiene of the soul the avoidance of all extremes, the equilibrium of the powers, the harmonious development of aptitudes, none of which is allowed to starve or paralyse the others." Gomperz points out that this individual morality corresponded to the characteristics of the Greek national religion--its inclusiveness and spaciousness, its freedom and serenity, its ennoblement alike of energetic action and passive enjoyment (Gomperz, _Greek Thinkers_, Eng. Trans., Vol. III, p. 13). [261] _Convito_, IV, 27. THE END INDEX (_Names of Authors quoted are italicized._) Abortion, facultative, 99 Age of consent, 288 _et seq._ Aggeneration, 24 Alcohol, legislative control of, 277 _et seq._, 295 _et seq._ Alcoholism, 33, 41 _Allen, Grant_, 394 _Allen, W.H._, 11 Ancestry, the study of, 2 _Angell, Norman_, 321 _Anthony, Susan_, 111 Antimachus of Colophon, 117 Anti-militarism, 328 _Aristotle_, 403 _Ashby_, 33 _Asnurof_, 283 _Aubry_, 42 _Augustine_, St., 5 Australia, birth-rate in, 146 _et seq._, 162; moral legislation in, 291 _Azoulay_, 188 Bachofen, 91 _Baines, Sir J.A._, 153 _Barnes, Earl_, 223 _Basedow_, 244 _Bateson_, 27, 194, 402 Beatrice, Dante's, 122 Beaufront, L. de, 372, 373 Bebel, 71, 88 _Becker, R._, 118 _Belbeze_, 211 _Benecke, E.F.M._, 117 Bergsonian philosophy, 31 _Bertillon, G._, 63 _Bertillon, J._, 278 _Beveridge_, 171 Bible in religious education, 230, 240 _Billroth_, 353 _Bingham_, 274