union precludes the possibility of
"temptation" in any other direction, what is to be done with all the
marriages which we know to be imperfect; wherein it is evident that
soul-union is not present? Are they immoral, and are they to be
abandoned? And is marital infidelity in such instances immoral?

It is. Infidelity is always immoral, because all deceit and deception
and dishonesty are immoral.

Let us see what constitutes infidelity, irrespective of marriage.
Infidelity is to be unfaithful to a trust imposed; to betray a
confidence; to break a promise. This is the abstract definition and it
is the only definition that will withstand analysis, whether applied
to the marriage vows or to other promises and pledges.

Obviously the answer to this question, then, is to either not impose
upon oneself or upon another "vows"; or, if we do so impose, not to
break them; but if vows are not to be broken, they may, thank Heaven,
be dissolved.

And surely the marriage ceremony of the future will not impose vows or
promises, because intelligent men and women must rise superior to the
necessity for bonds and promises. A marriage ceremony is, even at its
very highest, when the contracting persons are spiritually mated,
nothing more than announcement to the society of which they are
members, of the fact of their mutual agreement to live outwardly, as
well as inwardly, in sexual union.

We make too much of the marriage ceremony and too little of the
fitness for marriage. The business of the clergyman is altogether too
much confined to seeing whether a couple is "respectably" bonded, and
altogether too little as to whether they are spiritually united.

Possession! that is the word that spells unhappiness, in married life;
each wants to possess the other; neither one tries for the spirit of
union. Possession cannot be divorced from deceit.

Vows and promises challenge us to keep them, and because our pathway
leads upward to freedom, we constantly find these vows and promises
staring us in the face and daring us to advance. We must substitute
mutual confidence for vows. Vows are childish and puerile. If we
cannot keep faith without vows then are we sadly lacking in faith and
should cultivate it by offering to others the freedom of action we
would have ourselves. When the time comes, as it will, that a husband
and wife can "talk it over" in a friendly, mutually helpful frame of
mind, when either one is attracted by another, there wi