ction (as will be seen in the
next essay) is hedged by restrictions, suggested by present-day
circumstances.

_Third Essay_

THAT WHICH IS WANTING:

A CHAPTER WHICH ADVOCATES FREE DIVORCE

"That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which
is wanting cannot be numbered."--Ecc. i. 15.

I

I am well aware that there will be many among my readers who, having
gone so far in my book and agreed more or less with my point of view,
must here fall into disagreement with me. This essay upholding free
divorce, and the three that follow, the first one recommending
regulation and firm action in suppressing prostitution as the only way
to stay the spread of venereal diseases; the second essay on the
illegitimately born child, where I differ in one important matter from
the accepted view of what is chiefly needed to protect these unhappy
children; and, even more, the proposal I make in the last essay, where
I plead for an open recognition of honorable sexual partnerships outside
of marriage--this half of my book will be disapproved of, very probably
disliked, and my views more or less violently disputed. It will be said
that what I advocate now is in direct opposition to my ideal of marriage
being a religious duty, which demands the consecration of women to the
service of the family and the home. This, however, is not so: if I have
been understood at all, it should be evident that the opposition is not
there.

I care little for our existing and chaotic forms of morality; what I
desire is to create a new reality, the value of which consists in that
it provides wider possibilities of decent and honorable conduct. We have
to brave moral danger in trying to attain a higher moral reality. To me
what seems the first necessity is to face things as they are, and not to
go on eternally pretending that our world is what it is not.

Our vague-minded lax society has to pull itself together, has to
reconsider and administer and formulate a more helpful system of
regulations; has to learn to express again its united will in some
better way than "go as you please," or fail. What is wanted is a new
honesty to create standards of conduct, which will fix the every day
indispensable duties, that, after all, make up the total of life. We
have but a choice between the danger of falling deeper into confusion
and dishonesty or the danger of awakening to a clearer and more
difficult consciousness. Now, I do not believ