ugal status, 33.2 unmarried male and
29.3 female lunatics, while the percentage of the married ones was 9.5
for men, and 9.5 for females, and of the widowed, 32.1 males, and 25.6
females. Social conditions can not be considered healthy, that hinder a
normal satisfaction of the natural instincts, and lead to evils like
those just mentioned.
The question then rises: Has modern society met the demands for a
natural life, especially as concerns the female sex? If the question is
answered in the negative, this other rises: Can modern society meet the
demands? If both questions must be answered in the negative, then this
third arises: How can these demands be met?
"Marriage and the family are the foundation of the State; consequently,
he who attacks marriage and the family attacks society and the State,
and undermines both"--thus cry the defenders of the present order.
Unquestionably, monogamous marriage, which flows from the bourgeois
system of production and property, is one of the most important
cornerstones of bourgeois or capitalist society; whether, however, such
marriage is in accord with natural wants and with a healthy development
of human society, is another question. We shall prove that the marriage,
founded upon bourgeois property relations, is more or less a marriage by
compulsion, which leads numerous ills in its train, and which fails in
its purpose quite extensively, if not altogether. We shall show,
furthermore, that it is a social institution, beyond the reach of
millions, and is by no means that marriage based upon love, which alone
corresponds with the natural purpose, as its praise-singers maintain.
With regard to modern marriage, John Stuart Mill exclaims: "_Marriage is
the only form of slavery that the law recognizes._" In the opinion of
Kant, man and woman constitute only jointly the full being. Upon the
normal union of the sexes rests the healthy development of the human
race. The natural gratification of the sexual instinct is a necessity
for the thorough physical and mental development of both man and woman.
But man is no animal. Mere physical satisfaction does not suffice for
the full gratification of his energetic and vehement instinct. He
requires also spiritual affinity and oneness with the being that he
couples with. Is that not the case, then the blending of the sexes is a
purely mechanical act: such a marriage is immoral. It does not answer
the higher human demands. Only in the mutual at
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