t is absolutely futile, for it ignores
the fact that, while love and even monogamy are natural, legal
marriage is merely an external form, with a very feeble power of
subjugating natural impulses, except when those impulses are
weak, and no power at all of subjugating them permanently.
Civilization involves the growth of foresight, and of
self-control in both sexes; but it is foolish to attempt to place
on these fine and ultimate outgrowths of civilization a strain
which they could never bear. How foolish it is has been shown,
once and for all, by Lea in his admirable _History of Sacerdotal
Celibacy_.

Moreover, when we compare the respective aptitudes of men and
women in this particular region, it must be remembered that men
possess a greater power of forethought and self-control than
women, notwithstanding the modesty and reserve of women. The
sexual sphere is immensely larger in women, so that when its
activity is once aroused it is much more difficult to master or
control. (The reasons were set out in detail in the discussion of
"The Sexual Impulse in Women" in volume iii of these _Studies_.)
It is, therefore, unfair to women, and unduly favors men, when
too heavy a premium is placed on forethought and self-restraint
in sexual matters. Since women play the predominant part in the
sexual field their natural demands, rather than those of men,
must furnish the standard.

With the realization of the moral responsibility of women the natural
relations of life spring back to their due biological adjustment.
Motherhood is restored to its natural sacredness. It becomes the concern
of the woman herself, and not of society nor of any individual, to
determine the conditions under which the child shall be conceived. Society
is entitled to require that the father shall in every case acknowledge the
fact of his paternity, but it must leave the chief responsibility for all
the circumstances of child-production to the mother. That is the point of
view which is now gaining ground in all civilized lands both in theory and
in practice.[311]

FOOTNOTES:

[257] E.g., E. Belfort Bax, _Outspoken Essays_, p. 6.

[258] Such reasons are connected with communal welfare. "All immoral acts
result in communal unhappiness, all moral acts in communal happiness," as
Prof. A. Mathews remarks, "Science and Morality," _Popular Science
Monthly_, March,