rom such a charge would
be unworthy of the name of human--a very brute. Nevertheless, it is
necessary to look the plain facts squarely in the face, and shrink not
from the decision of an enlightened conscience. We quote the following
portions of an extract which we give in full elsewhere; it is from the
same distinguished authority[27] whom we have frequently quoted:--

"There is, in fact, no moment after conception when it can be said that
the child has not life, and the crime of destroying human life is as
heinous and as sure before the period of 'quickening' has been attained,
as afterward. But you still defend your horrible deed by saying: 'Well,
if there be, as you say, this mere animal life, equivalent at the most
to simple vitality, there is no mind, no soul destroyed, and, therefore,
there is no crime committed.' Just so surely as one would destroy and
root out of existence all the fowls in the world by destroying all the
eggs in existence, so certain is it that you do by your act destroy
the animal man in the egg and the soul which animates it.... Murder
is always sinful, and murder is the willful destruction of a human being
at any period of its existence, from its earliest germinal embryo to
its final, simple, animal existence in aged decrepitude and complete
mental imbecility."

[Footnote 27: Gardner.]

Difficulties.--Married people will exclaim, "What shall we do?"
Delicate mothers who have already more children on their hands than
they can care for, whose health is insufficient to longer endure the
pains and burdens of pregnancy, but whose sensual husbands continue
to demand indulgence, will echo in despairing tones, while
acknowledging the truth, "What shall _we_ do?" We will answer the
question for the latter first.

Mr. Mill, the distinguished English logician, in his work on "The
Subjection of Woman," thus represents the erroneous view which is
popularly held of the sexual relations of the wife to the husband: "The
wife, however brutal a tyrant she may be chained to--though she may
know that he hates her, though it may be his daily pleasure to torture
her, and though she may feel it impossible not to loathe him--he can
claim from her and enforce the lowest degradation of a human being,
that of being made the instrument of an animal function contrary to
her inclinations."

Woman's Rights.--A woman does not, upon the performance of the marriage
ceremony, surrender all her personal rights. The law r