This spineless and meaningless ranting is really pitiful when one compares it with the passage in Capital ， pages 508 to 515， in which Marx develops the thesis that "from the Factory system budded， as Robert Owen has shown us in detail， the germ of the education of the future， an education that will， in the case of every child over a given age， combine productive labour with instruction and gymnastics， not only as one of the methods of adding to the efficiency of production， but as the only method of producing fully developed human beings".
We must skip the university of the future， in which the philosophy of reality will be the kernel of all knowledge， and where， alongside the Faculty of Medicine， the Faculty of Law will continue in full bloom； we must also omit the "special training institutions"， about which all we learn is that they will be only "for a few subjects". Let us assume that the young citizen of the future has passed all his educational courses and has at last been "made to rely upon himself" sufficiently to be able to look about for a wife. What is the course of events which Herr Dühring offers him in this sphere？
"In view of the importance of propagation for the conservation， elimination， blending， and even new creative development of qualities， the ultimate roots of the human and unhuman must to a great extent be sought in sexual union and selection， and furthermore in the care taken for or against the ensuring of certain birth results. We must leave it practically to a later epoch to judge the brutality and stupidity now rife in this sphere. Nevertheless we must at least make clear from the outset， even in spite of the weight of prejudice， that far more important than the number of births is surely whether nature or human circumspection succeeded or failed in regard to their quality. It is true that at all times and under all legal systems monstrosities have been destroyed； but there is a wide range of degrees between the normal human being and deformities which lack all resemblance to the human being... It is obviously an advantage to prevent the birth of a human being who would only be a defective creature" {D. Ph. 246}.
Another passage runs：
Philosophic thought can find no difficulty ... in comprehending the right of the unborn world to the best possible composition... Conception and， if need be， also birth offer the opportunity for preventive， or in exceptional cases selective， care in this connection" {395-96}.
Again：
"Grecian art -- the idealisation of man in marble -- will not be able to retain its historical importance when the less artistic， and therefore， from the standpoint of the fate of the millions， far more important task of perfecting the human form in flesh and blood is taken in hand. This form of art does not merely deal with stone， and its aesthetics is not concerned with the contemplation of dead forms" {256} -- and so on.
Our budding citizen of the future is brought to earth again. Even without Herr Dühring's help he certainly knew that marriage is not an art which merely deals with stone， or even with the contemplation of dead forms；but after all， Herr Dühring had ： promised him that he would be able to strike out along all roads which the course of events and his own nature opened to him， in order to discover a sympathetic female heart together with the body belonging to it. Nothing of the kind -- the "deeper and stricter morality" {D. Ph. 396} thunders at him. The first thing that he must do is to cast off the brutality and stupidity now rife in the I sphere of sexual union and selection， and bear in mind the right of ' the new-born world to the best possible composition. At this solemn moment it is to him a matter of perfecting the human form in flesh and blood， of becoming a Phidias， so to speak， in flesh and blood. How is he to set about it？
Herr Dühring's mysterious utterances quoted above give him not the slightest indication， although Herr Dühring himself says it is an "art". Has Herr Dühring perhaps "in his mind's eye， schematically"， a textbook also on this subject -- of the kind of which， in sealed wrappers， German bookshops are now so full？ Indeed， we are no longer in socialitarian society， but rather in the Magic Flute [128] -- the only difference being that Sarastro， the stout Masonic priest， would hardly rank as a "priest of the second order" {460} in comparison with our deeper and stricter moralist. The tests ~ to which Sarastro put his couple of love's adepts are mere child's play compared with the terrifying examination through which Herr Dühring puts his two sovereign individuals before he permits them to enter the state of "free and ethical marriage"{296}. And so it may happen that our "made-to-be-self-reliant" Tamino of the future may indeed have the so-called absolute underfoot， but one of his feet may be a couple of rungs short of what it should be， so that evil tongues call him a club-foot. It is also within the realm of the possible that his best-beloved Pamina of the future does not hold herself quite straight on the above-said absolute， owing to a slight deviation in the direction of her right shoulder which jealous tongues might even call a little hump. What then？ Will our deeper and stricter Sarastro forbid them to practice the art of perfecting humanity， in flesh and blood； will he exercise his "preventive care" at "conception"， or his "selective care"at "birth" {396}？ Ten to one， things will happen otherwise； the pair of lovers will leave Sarastro-Dühring where he stands and go off to the registry office.
Hold on there！ Herr Dühring cries. This is not at all what was meant. Give me a chance to explain！
If the "higher， genuinely human motives of wholesome sexual unions...
