Hunt: Matrimonial Views of Students 



19 



women, are opposed to childless fami- 

 lies. 



Table II is a tabular digest of the 

 replies to division 4 of the men's ques- 

 tionnaire. 



The table gives the average ratings for 

 each of the characteristics. It was 

 compiled from the answers of two 

 hundred and forty-four men from all 

 departments and years of study in the 

 University. 



"Moral character" easily heads the 

 list in this column. It is unfortunate 

 that this point was not subdivided into 

 chastity, honesty, etc., yet chastity 

 was no doubt the trait that most of the 

 men had in mind in grading this point. 

 The high rating of morality is fortu- 

 nate eugenically, as previously indi- 

 cated. 



"Health" and "disposition" come 

 next, and are rated about the same. 

 This emphasis on health is eugenically 

 desirable, as mentioned before. 



Next comes "education," then "nat- 

 ural mental ability." A person can 

 not proceed far with the first without 

 the second. Natural talent is ranked 

 high, as it should be in any eugenic 

 scheme. 



"Willingness to rear a family," 

 "interest in religion," "housekeeping 

 ability," and "beauty" follow in the 

 order named. The fact that religious 

 interests are separated so clearly from 

 moral character indicates that the men 



students had the theological aspects of 

 religion in mind, for the most part, in 

 rating this point. The fact that physi- 

 cal attractiveness in a woman is so 

 distinctly subordinated to her morality, 

 health, education, and intelligence, 

 shows that the University men are 

 influenced in their matrimonial ideas 

 more by their intelligence than by their 

 sex passions. 



The comparatively low rating of "so- 

 cial ability" shows that a "social 

 butterfly" is not particularly desired. 



It seems to the writer that "wealth" 

 and "family connections" should not 

 have been ranked below "social abil- 

 ity." As a rule wealthy women prob- 

 ably come from families of superior 

 mentality, for the acquirement of mon- 

 ey doubtless depends to a large extent 

 on inheritable mental abilities. A 

 woman's membership in a "good fam- 

 ily" should favor the development of 

 desirable traits in her children. But 

 possibly here too the existence of many 

 innately mediocre families who strive 

 to imitate genuine aristocrats has led 

 the University student to regard family 

 connections as unworthy of serious 

 consideration. 



Table III is a comparison between 

 the data of Tables I and II. The 

 left column shows the order of charac- 

 teristics as arranged by the men, with 

 those traits omitted which were not 

 in the women's questionnaire. Simi- 

 larly the right column shows the traits 

 as arranged by the women, with those 

 characteristics left out which were not 

 inserted in the men's questionnaire. 

 This treatment makes it possible to 

 compare the women's average ideal of a 

 mate with the men's. In the women's 

 column "sex purity" and "honesty" 

 have been combined in one and con- 

 sidered equivalent to "moral charac- 

 ter." 



The men and women practically 

 agree on the high ranking of morality, 

 health, disposition, education, and 

 native mental ability. In short, they 

 agree on the social and eugenic funda- 

 mentals. The men rate the willingness 

 to have a family and physical attrac- 

 tiveness significantly higher than do 



