sexual desires. To them sexual abstinence seems more natural than
sexual satisfaction. But for the majority of mankind and womankind--for
all normally healthy men and women--there is this continuous desire to be
happily mated.

For the sake of health and happiness there is everything to be said for
early marriage, but better late than never.[A] The chief obstacles to
early and happy marriage are financial, and these would largely disappear
if women were able to control fecundity. The chief obstacles to healthy
marriage are the venereal diseases, and these could be extirpated in two
or three generations if sexual cleanliness was properly taught to all
adults, and if promiscuous intercourse was properly regulated during the
same period. Unfortunately most women's idea of regulating promiscuous
intercourse is to have none of it. This is impossible in the present stage
of moral evolution, but it will become increasingly possible as we
succeed in extirpating the venereal diseases, particularly syphilis.
Syphilis is the one great cause of immorality, because persons born with a
syphilitic taint (and what family is entirely free from this hereditary
disease?) are apt to be mentally and morally deficient; hence, tend to
indulge in anti-social and unnatural practices, such as engaging in
promiscuous intercourse.

[Footnote A: Marriage, whether early or late, cannot of course benefit and
elevate society until the present mischievous and archaic Divorce Laws are
simplified and reformed in accordance with modern sociology and ethics.
Unhappy and unsuitable marriages necessarily foster immorality and promote
disease, and the community as a whole gains by their being dissolved in a
ready but responsible and dignified manner. The refusal of the Church to
marry diseased persons would greatly benefit the nation, whereas its
refusal to marry healthy divorced persons not only injures the nation but
dishonours the Church.--E.A.R.]

The normally healthy man is a highly selective creature, and the normally
healthy woman still more fastidiously selective in romantic relationship.
Neither man nor woman is naturally in the least attracted by promiscuous
intercourse. On the contrary, it is repugnant to both. Both regard the
elements of romance, reciprocity and permanence as essential. These
elements are present in marriage and absent in prostitution. Therefore, it
is beneath the dignity of any decent, intelligent woman to suppose that
promiscu