gain very simple--the unconscious
desire of the male to be a father, of the female to become a mother."

"And there is but one man on earth who could thus affect me?" Mary asked
excitedly.

"Rubbish! There are thousands."

"Thousands?"

"Literally thousands. The reason you never happen to meet them is purely
an accident of our poor social organization. Every woman has thousands
of true physical mates if she could only meet them. Every man has
thousands of true physical mates if he could only meet them. And in
every such meeting, if mind and body are in normal condition, the same
violent disturbance would result--whether married or single, free or
bound.

"Marriage therefore is not based merely on the passion of love. It is
a crime for any man or woman to marry without love. It is the sheerest
insanity to believe that this passion within itself is sufficient to
justify marriage. All who marry should love. Many love who should not
marry.

"The institution of marriage is the great SOCIAL ordinance of the race.
Its sanctity and perpetuity are not based on the violence of the passion
of love, but something else."

He paused and listened to the call of the quail again from the field.

"You hear that bob white calling his mate?"

"Yes--and she's answering him now very softly. I can hear them both."

"They have mated this spring to build a home and rear a brood of young.
Within six months their babies will all be full grown and next spring
a new alignment of lovers will be made. Their marriage lasts during the
period of infancy of their offspring. This is Nature's law.

"It happens in the case of man that the period of infancy of a human
being is about twenty-four years. This is the most wonderful fact in
nature. It means that the capacity of man for the improvement of his
breed is practically limitless. A quail has a few months in which to
rear her young. God gives to woman a quarter of a century in which to
mold her immortal offspring. Because the period of infancy of one child
covers the entire period of motherhood capacity, marriage binds for
life, and the sanctity of marriage rests squarely on this law of
Nature."

He paused again and looked over the sunlit valley.

"I wish our boys and girls could all know these simple truths of their
being. It would save much unhappiness and many tragic blunders.

"You were swept completely off your feet by the rush of the first
emotion caused by meeting a man who was y