to be pure. Men she
should study carefully. She should not allow them to sit with their
arm about her waist, to hold her hand, to kiss her. No approach nor
touch beyond what the best social observance sanctions should be
permitted. Even the tendernesses and familiarities of courtship should
be restrained. An engagement does not necessarily culminate in a
marriage, and once the foot has slipped on virtue's path the error
cannot be recalled. These considerations, together with those adduced
in the preceding section, "Why Young Girls Fall," are well worth
taking to heart by every young woman who wishes to approach matrimony
in the right and proper way.

CHAPTER VII

SEX IN THE MARRIAGE RELATION

THE HUSBAND

Marriage is the process by which a man and woman enter into a complete
physical, legal and moral union. The natural object of marriage is the
complete community of life for the establishment of a family.

THE MARRIAGEABLE AGE AND ADAPTATION

At twenty-four the male body attains its complete development; and
twenty-five is a proper age for the young man to marry. Romantic love,
personal affection on a basis of congeniality, mutual adaptation, a
similar social sphere of life, should determine his choice. Nature and
custom indicate that the husband should be somewhat older than the
wife.

MEN WHO SHOULD NOT MARRY

Men suffering with diseases which may be communicated by contagion or
heredity should not marry. These diseases include: tuberculosis,
syphilis, cancer, leprosy, epilepsy and some nervous disorders, some
skin diseases and insanity. A worn-out rake has no business to marry,
since marriage is not a hospital for the treatment of disease, or a
reformatory institution for moral lepers. Those having a marked
tendency to disease must not marry those of similar tendency. The
marriage of cousins is not to be advocated. The blood relation tends
to bring together persons with similar morbid tendencies. Where both
are healthy, however, there seems to be no special liability to mental
incompetency, though such marriages are accused of producing defective
or idiot children. Men suffering from congenital defects should not
marry. Natural blindness, deafness, muteness, and congenital
deformities of limb are more or less likely to be passed on to their
children. There are cases of natur