ery birth.

III

For let no one make a mistake. There is a sin of illegitimacy, which,
indeed, I would emphasize as strongly as I am able. Irresponsible
parenthood must always be immoral, and the mother's sin is greater than
is that of the father. I must insist upon this, though I realize how
unpopular such a view will be to many women. But the mother, through her
closer connection with the child, must bear the deeper responsibility
for its birth, a responsibility that can be traced back and back to the
very lowest forms of life. The insect mother does not fail to place her
offspring--the children she will never see--in a position chosen most
carefully to ensure their future protection, and to achieve this good
frequently she sacrifices her life. Shall the human mother, then, be
held guiltless when she shows no forethought for the future of her
child?

IV

The English law has always looked with great disfavor on the
illegitimately born child. A bastard is _filius nullius_, "nobody's
child." He cannot be legitimized even on the subsequent marriage of his
parents. In Scotland this injustice is not found. There (as also in
every other civilized land except our own) the child becomes legitimized
by the simple natural process of the father marrying the mother. Can the
cruelty of our English law have any positive value? It is difficult to
think so. At common law the illegitimate can have no guardian, he has no
relations and no rights of inheritance; he is given unprotected into the
custody of his mother, and until the age of fourteen is wholly in her
power.

Here we have a clear duty, and another case of the urgent need of a
readjustment of our moral attitude, of a change in our laws and in our
judgments strictly parallel to several we have considered. Once more I
am convinced of the poverty, and selfishness, and the immorality of our
views. Nor do I find great improvement to-day over yesterday. There is
much talk and some tinkering, but though our judgments are less harsh,
still we are choked with the weeds of false sentiment and feminine
egoism. We fail to attack straight and think boldly.

The sin of illegal parenthood is really a collective concern: to turn
our backs on the pitiable plight of these children, to refuse to fulfill
our duties toward them, is to leave them entirely to those who are often
least fitted to help them, and also to open up direct ways to every kind
of wickedness. And it follows, almost