Human Physiology. 



of flirtation ; but there are men and women who have the hap- 

 piness of loving, and of being tenderly and devotedly loved, by 

 persons of the opposite sex loved purely, nobly, and happily, 

 without injury, and with great good. Where such loves are 

 accompanied by perfect trust in the goodness, purity, truth, and 

 honour of the beloved, there can be no jealousy no desire for 

 selfish absorption no fear of deprivation of any right. There 

 is no reason why a husband or a wife should limit the range of 

 pure and spiritual affections to near relatives. The man who 

 can love a sister as sisters are often loved, may love in the 

 same way, or as purely, any woman who might be his sister 

 As men and women learn to purify their lives, the world will 

 grow more tolerant, and love will become more universal. The 

 tender and fervent exhortations to mutual love, to be found in 

 the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament, are now almost 

 without a meaning. But they had a meaning to those to whom 

 they were addressed, and when we are better Christians, and 

 bring our lives to the purity of Christian morality, they will 

 have a meaning to us, and we shall learn that, in a sense we 

 have not dreamed of, God is Love. 



Marriage, as it has existed in the world, has in most cases 

 fallen far short of our idea of what such an institution should 

 be. During the historic period, over a large portion of the 

 earth, polygamy or the marriage of one man to several 

 women has prevailed. And this custom is now prevalent 

 among more than two-thirds of the inhabitants of the Bri- 

 tish Empire. Polyandry, or the marriage of several men 

 usually, several brothers to one woman, is the custom in 

 some savage tribes, and some districts of India and Thibet. 

 Monogamy, or the marriage of one man to one woman, 

 prevails over Europe, with the exception of Turkey, and in 

 America, except among the Mormons, Chinese immigrants, In- 

 dians, and Esquimaux. But in both Europe and America, in 

 spite of religion and law, polygamy exists as really as in 



