A CHAPTER FOR MARRIED PEOPLE 523 



''We hear a good deal said about certain crimes 

 against nature, such as pederasty and sodomy, and they 

 meet with the indignant condemnation of all right- 

 minded persons. The statutes are especially severe on 

 offenders of this class, the penalty being imprisonment, 

 between one and ten years, whereas fornication is pun- 

 ished by imprisonment for not more than sixty days 

 and a fine of less than one hundred dollars. But the 

 query very pertinently arises just here as to whether 

 the use of the condom and def ertilizing injections is not 

 equally a crime against nature, and quite as worthy of 

 our detestation and contempt. And, further, when we 

 consider the brute creation, and see that they, guided 

 by instinct, copulate only when the female is in proper 

 physiological condition and yields a willing consent, 

 it may be suggested that congress between men and 

 women may, in certain circumstances, be a crime 

 against nature, and one far worse in its results than 

 any other. Is it probable that a child born of a con- 

 nection to which the woman objects, will possess that 

 felicitous organization which every parent should ear- 

 nestly desire and endeavor to bestow on his offspring? 

 Can the unwelcome fruit of a rape be considered, what 

 every child has a right to be, a pledge of affection? 

 Poor little Pip, in 'Great Expectations,' spoke as the 

 representative of a numerous class when he said, 'I 

 was always treated as if I had insisted on being born, 

 in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and 

 morality, and against the dissuading arguments of my 

 best friends.' We enjoin the young to honor father 

 and mother, never thinking how undeserving of re- 

 spect are those whose children suffer from inherited 

 ills, the result of the selfishness and carelessness of 

 their parents in begetting them. 



