ess to say the resolution broke down under the intimacy of one
roof, but meanwhile a conflict was engendered that took some vigorous
counsel to dissipate.

This purely occidental idea that sexual pleasure is somehow unworthy is
responsible for a disparity of a further kind. There are parts of the
physical side of love in which the majority of men need education,
though in the well-adjusted married life the proper knowledge comes.
Nature has not completely adjusted the sexes to one another; it is the
part of the man to bring about that adjustment. This part of the
adjustment need not here be detailed; the books of Havelock Ellis are
explicit on the matter. Certainly no small share of the difficulties of
our housewife result, for it is a law that excitement without
gratification brings about nervous instability.

Whether or not the American domestic life is too intimate, too constant,
is an important question. For the majority of people, after the first
ecstasy of the bridal year, separate rooms might be better than a single
chamber occupied together. There are people to whom one bed and one room
is symbolic of their close unity, of their joined lives, who find
comfort and companionship in the knowledge that their life partner
sleeps beside them. Where sexual compatibility or adjustment exists,
there is nothing but commendation for this arrangement. Where it does
not exist, the separate chambers are better for obvious reasons.

A development of recent times is the rapidly increasing use of what are
politely known as birth-control measures. This development is rapidly
changing the number of births in the community to a figure below that
necessary for the perpetuation of the race. We are not concerned here
with the morality or immorality of these measures. Modern woman
undoubtedly will continue to take the stand that childbearing should be
voluntary, that involuntary motherhood is incompatible with her dignity
and status as a person. In this, through the increasing cost of living
as well as sympathy with her attitude, she will be backed by her
husband. I predict without fear that Church and State will have to
adjust themselves to this situation.

The fear of pregnancy has brought about this situation, that many a
woman undergoes an agony of symptoms which is only relieved when her
monthly function appears. This fear makes the sexual relationship a risk
almost outweighing its pleasure. The notoriously "unsafe" character o