f dispute, but at best it is a
bad remedy for a mistake that should never have been made. No ideal
society could ever consider divorce as any permanent portion of its
activities. Children are not like cattle. It is not simply a question
of their being brought into the world sound and strong. Their long
infancy which in the biological as well as in the legal sense, lasts
until they are grown up, should be spent in surroundings which can
minister, by example and precept, to moral and intellectual
development. Surely no such end can possibly be attained when man and
woman mate lightly, to part quickly.

At first sight it would seem a wise thing to require health
certificates for those who would be married. I doubt not the Chicago
Bishop who declined to marry his parishioners except under such
conditions, will exert a beneficial effect upon the country by the
attention he thus attracts to the subject. It would be a bad day for
the city if all the clergy and all the other authorities who are
authorized to solemnize marriage should take this step. We have not
yet arrived at such a stage of development that a marriage certificate
is essential to mating, and a restriction of this sort would simply
mean that there could be no legitimate union except of those in strong
health. To the burden of ill health would be added the still worse
handicap of an illegitimate parentage, with all its bitter train of
scorn and shame. Accordingly, it must be possible before the law for
those who are not thoroughly vigorous to marry. But, year by year, we
may come nearer accomplishing a finer mating by the aims and purposes
we foster in the growing generation. Marriages will never be worth
while when they are not freely entered into by the contracting
parties. Choice must be free and unrestricted if it is to last for
life; but this does not mean that it must be unguarded. It would be
bitter folly for parents to leave to their children, without attempt
to influence or restrain, the making of their marriages. The mating of
our children must be inspired, not directed.

There is one taint from which society has the right and the duty of
freeing itself, so far as in its power lies. This is the taint of
feeble-mindedness. Of all the calamities that can befall a human
being, feeble-mindedness is, perhaps, the worst. From most misfortunes
it is possible to recover; with most of the rest one may exist without
detriment to the race. To be feeble-minded si