choice ultimately put before the human male today, as in the past; and this
constitutes his labour problem. (The nearest approach to complete
parasitism on the part of a vast body of males occurred, perhaps, in
ancient Rome at the time of the decay and downfall of the Empire, when the
bulk of the population, male as well as female, was fed on imported corn,
wine, and oil, and supplied even with entertainment, almost entirely
without exertion or labour of any kind; but this condition was of short
duration, and speedily contributed to the downfall of the diseased Empire
itself. Among the wealthy and so-called upper classes, the males of
various aristocracies have frequently tended to become completely parasitic
after a lapse of time, but such a condition has always been met by a short
and sharp remedy; and the class has fallen, or become extinct. The
condition of the males of the upper classes in France before the Revolution
affords an interesting illustration of this point.)

The labour of the man may not always be useful in the highest sense to his
society, or it may even be distinctly harmful and antisocial, as in the
case of the robber-barons of the Middle Ages, who lived by capturing and
despoiling all who passed by their castles; or as in the case of the share
speculators, stock-jobbers, ring-and-corner capitalists, and monopolists of
the present day, who feed upon the productive labours of society without
contributing anything to its welfare. But even males so occupied are
compelled to expend a vast amount of energy and even a low intelligence in
their callings; and, however injurious to their societies, they run no
personal risk of handing down effete and enervated constitutions to their
race. Whether beneficially or unbeneficially, the human male must,
generally speaking, employ his intellect, or his muscle, or die.

The position of the unemployed modern female is one wholly different. The
choice before her, as her ancient fields of domestic labour slip from her,