he State.

The barrier which in Christendom has opposed itself to the natural
recognition of this fact, so injuring alike the child and the State, has
clearly been the rigidity of the marriage system, more especially as
moulded by the Canon law. The Canonists attributed a truly immense
importance to the _copula carnalis_, as they technically termed it. They
centred marriage strictly in the vagina; they were not greatly concerned
about either the presence or the absence of the child. The vagina, as we
know, has not always proved a very firm centre for the support of
marriage, and that centre is now being gradually transferred to the child.
If we turn from the Canonists to the writings of a modern like Ellen Key,
who so accurately represents much that is most characteristic and
essential in the late tendencies of marriage development, we seem to have
entered a new world, even a newly illuminated world. For "in the new
sexual morality, as in Corregio's _Notte_, the light emanates from the
child."[369]

No doubt this change is largely a matter of sentiment, of, as we sometimes
say, mere sentiment, although there is nothing so powerful in human
affairs as sentiment, and the revolution effected by Jesus, the later
revolution effected by Rousseau, were mainly revolutions in sentiment. But
the change is also a matter of the growing recognition of interests and
rights, and as such it manifests itself in law. We can scarcely doubt that
we are approaching a time when it will be generally understood that the
entrance into the world of every child, without exception, should be
preceded by the formation of a marriage contract which, while in no way
binding the father and mother to any duties, or any privileges, towards
each other, binds them both towards their child and at the same time
ensures their responsibility towards the State. It is impossible for the
State to obtain more than this, but it should be impossible for it to
demand less. A contract of such a kind "marries" the father and mother so
far as the parentage of the individual child is concerned, and in no other
respect; it is a contract which leaves entirely unaffected their past,
present, or future relations towards other persons, otherwise it would be
impossible to enforce it. In all parts of the world this elementary demand
of social morality is slowly beginning to be recognized, and as it affects
hundreds of thousands of infants[370] who are yearly branded as
"illegi