d be
sufficient. The idea that celibacy for woman is "the aristocracy of
the future" is soundly based if the Business of Being a Woman rests on
a mystery so questionable that it cannot be frankly and truthfully
explained by a girl's mother at the moment her interest and curiosity
seeks satisfaction. That she gets on as well as she does, results, of
course, from the essential soundness of the girl's nature, the armor
of modesty, right instinct, and reverence with which she is endowed.

The direst result of ignorance or of distorted ideas of this
tremendous matter of carrying on human life is that it leaves the girl
unconscious of the supreme importance of her mate. So heedlessly and
ignorantly is our mating done to-day that the huge machinery of Church
and State and the tremendous power of public opinion combined have
been insufficient to preserve to the institution of marriage anything
like the stability it once had, or that it is desirable that it should
have, if its full possibilities are to be realized. The immorality and
inhumanity of compelling the obviously mismated to live together, grow
on society. Divorce and separation are more and more tolerated. Yet
little is done to prevent the hasty and ill-considered mating which is
at the source of the trouble.

Rarely has a girl a sound and informed sense to guide her in accepting
her companion. The corollary of this bad proposition is that she has
no sufficient idea of the seriousness of her undertaking. She starts
out as if on a lifelong joyous holiday, primarily devised for her
personal happiness. And what is happiness in her mind? Certainly it is
not a good to be conquered--a state of mind wrested from life by
tackling and mastering its varied experiences, the _end_, not the
beginning, of a great journey. Too often it is that of the modern
Uneasy Woman--the attainment of something _outside_ of herself. She
visualizes it, as possessions, as ease, a "good time," opportunities
for self-culture, the exclusive devotion of the mate to her. Rarely
does she understand that happiness in her undertaking depends upon the
wisdom and sense with which she conquers a succession of hard
places--calling for readjustment of her ideas and sacrifice of her
desires. All this she must discover for herself. She is like a voyager
who starts out on a great sea with no other chart than a sailor's
yarns, no other compass than curiosity.

The budget of axioms she brings to her guidance she