98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



highest possible character and to the continual advancement of 

 the race.* 



I think I have fairly summarized the essence of Mr. Grant 

 Allen's proposal, which, though enforced with all his literary skill 

 and piquancy of illustration, can, in my opinion, only be fitly de- 

 scribed by the term already applied to it by one of his reviewers, 

 " detestable." It purports to be advanced in the interests of the 

 children and of the race ; but it would necessarily impair that 

 family life and parental affection which are the prime essentials 

 to the well-being of children ; while, though it need not necessa- 

 rily produce, it would certainly favor, the increase of pure sen- 

 sualism, the most degrading and most fatal of all the qualities 

 that tend to the deterioration of races and the downfall of nations. 

 One of the modern American advocates of greater liberty of di- 

 vorce, in the interest of marriage itself, thus admirably summa- 

 rises the essential characteristics and purport of true marriage : 

 " In a true relation, the chief object is the loving companionship 

 of man and woman, their capacity for mutual help and happiness, 

 and for the development of all that is noblest in each other. The 

 second object is the building up a home and family, a place of 

 rest, peace, security, in which child-life can bud and blossom like 

 flowers in the sunshine." f For such rest, peace, and security, per- 

 manence is essential. This permanence need not be attained by 

 rigid law, but by the influence of public opinion, and, more surely 

 still, by those deep-seated feelings and emotions which, under 

 favorable conditions, render the marriage tie stronger and its 

 influence more beneficial the longer it endures. To me it appears 

 that no system of the relations of men and women could be more 

 fatal to the happiness of individuals, the well-being of children, 

 or the advancement of the race, than that proposed by Mr. Grant 

 Allen. 



Before proceeding further with the main question it is neces- 

 sary to point out that, besides the special objections to each of the 

 proj)osals here noticed, there is a general and fundamental objec- 

 tion. They all attempt to deal at once, and by direct legislative 

 enactment, with the most important and most vital of all human 

 relations, regardless of the fact that our present phase of social 

 development is not only extremely imperfect but vicious and rot- 

 ten at the core. How can it be possible to determine and settle 

 the relations of women to men which shall be best alike for indi- 

 viduals and for the race, in a society in which a very large pro- 

 portion of women are obliged to work long hours daily for the 



* See The Girl of the Future, in The Universal Review, May, 1890, and a previous 

 article entitled Plain Words on the Woman Question, in the Fortnightly Review, Octo- 

 ber, 1889. 



f Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the Arena, April, 1890. 



