194 SEX 



here of the vivid heroism of Don John of 

 Austria, and many a hero more; and in the 

 converse ill-assorted manage de convenance 

 lies half the cause of the sinister devilry of 

 Philip II, of Pedro the Cruel, of mad czars 

 and imbecile kinglets without end. Here, in 

 the virtuous, prudent, timid, sordid cloister- 

 ing of French maid and man, lies the old 

 decadence of the nobles of France, and 

 in part at least of its analogue among the 

 wealthy and governing classes of to-day. 

 Similarly, in Scotland, in the exceptional 

 freedom in marriage choice, in love-choice 

 (illegitimacy and all), is one of the root explan- 

 ations of the organic vigour, of the ingenium 

 perfervidum of a strenuous race. There may 

 of course, be base-born children without 

 wedlock, but there are also too many base- 

 born with it. 



Are we therefore attacking marriage 

 " sapping the foundations of morality," as 

 foolish people always say when they are asked 

 to face facts ? Not so, but defending marriage, 

 re-defining it ; making clear its fundamental 

 and indispensable nature the mutual selec- 

 tion of congruent types, at the culmination of 

 organic and psychic life. We are deepening, 

 therefore, the foundations of morality. 



Over-toleration often means both moral and 

 intellectual slackness, but we submit that 

 social judgments on passionate lapses from 

 the virtue of control may be unreasonably and 

 unprofitably severe. When the lover and his 

 lass lose their heads before they marry, their 

 loss of self-control will certainly not make their 

 married life happier ; but it may have a virtue 



