198 SEX 



many elements. Some of these may be 

 deplored such as miseducation, arrested 

 development, hyper-fastidiousness, and a 

 selfish self-sufficiency; but there are others 

 of a different sort, notably two. The reluct- 

 ance to the loss of child-freedom, youth- 

 freedom, the shrinking from the older and 

 more passive maternal life is one main 

 element. But there is also an anticipation of 

 the fuller maturity which lies beyond sex-love 

 altogether, a recognition of a possibility (be 

 this spiritual or social, as education, religion 

 or temperament may determine) of a paradise 

 " in which there is neither marrying nor 

 giving in marriage, but in which we are as 

 the angels of God in heaven " or in more 

 modern and everyday (yet happily also, not 

 unspiritual) phrase a " Society of Friends." 



Is it not a little significant that it is a 

 religious society of that name who, taking 

 them all over, seem most nearly to have 

 realised their heaven upon earth? For to 

 them the secular life of good deeds and social 

 intercourse is most normally accompanied by 

 the spiritual life. Is not this not merely in, 

 but also largely through, that measure of 

 sex-equality and sex-fellowship beyond that 

 of other faiths and churches ? 



It should be noted, perhaps, that vigorous 

 attempts were made in the early monastic 

 times to establish mixed convents ; and that 

 these, despite all the difficulties and dis- 

 appointments, did express a true ideal, 

 namely of co-operation, not separation, of the 

 sexes. Despite of failures and shortcomings, 

 this ideal has actually been realised in many 



