n of further phenomena has been here unfolded, sharply
illustrative of the irrationableness and unhealthiness of modern
conditions. These are evils deeply rooted in our social state of things,
and removable neither by the moral sermonizings nor the palliatives that
religious quacks of the male and female sexes have so readily at hand.
The axe must be laid to the root of the evil. The question is to bring
about a natural system of education, together with healthy conditions of
life and work, and to do this in amplest manner, to the end that the
normal gratification of natural and healthy instincts be made possible
for all.

As to the male sex, a number of considerations are absent that are
present with the female sex. Due to his position as master, and in so
far as social barriers do not hinder him, there is on the side of man
the free choice of love. On the other hand, the character of marriage as
an institution for support, the excess of women, custom;--all these
circumstances conspire to prevent woman from manifesting her will; they
force her to wait till she is wanted. As a rule, she seizes gladly the
opportunity, soon as offered, to reach the hand to the man who redeems
her from the social ostracism and neglect, that is the lot of that poor
waif, the "old maid." Often she looks down with contempt upon those of
her sisters who have yet preserved their self-respect, and have not sold
themselves into mental prostitution to the first comer, preferring to
tread single the thorny path of life.

On the other hand, social considerations tie down the man, who desires
to reach by marriage the gratification of his life's requirements. He
must put himself the question: Can you support a wife, and the children
that may come, so that pressing cares, the destroyers of your happiness,
may be kept away? The better his marital intentions are, the more
ideally he conceives them, the more he is resolved to wed only out of
love, all the more earnestly must he put the question to himself. To
many, the affirmative answer is, under the present economic conditions,
a matter of impossibility: they prefer to remain single. With other and
less conscientious men, another set of considerations crowd upon the
mind. Thousands of men reach an independent position, one in accord with
their wants, only comparatively late. But they can keep a wife in a
style suitable to their station only if she has large wealth. True
enough, many young men have exag