SEX AND SOCIETY 221 



these was Christianity. There is room for a 

 long discourse here, but we can only allude to 

 four points. The first is the far-reaching 

 effect of a belief in the value of the individual 

 soul. It is very noteworthy that a due 

 valuation of women and a due recognition of 

 the worth of the individual go hand in hand. 

 The re-assertion of the freedom of the indi- 

 vidual at the Reformation had some com- 

 plement in an improved attitude to women, 

 and other examples might be given. This 

 is one of the reasons why the Woman-cause 

 and the Labour-cause must go together. The 

 second point is simply that the genius of 

 Christianity which sublimed the common- 

 place tasks of life into an apprenticeship of 

 the heavenly citizen, also made for the 

 ennoblement of every human relationship, 

 including marriage. What Christianity in 

 essence should have meant for women, must 

 be distinguished from what actually came 

 about. And again, while biologists cannot 

 but regard the celibate ideal as erroneous for 

 the individual and disastrous in its racial 

 consequences by removing so many of the 

 best ears from any share in the seed-corn, 

 and dissent from the false shame which did 

 long and lingering harm by branding sex as 

 animal or even devilish, we must recognise 

 all the great work the church did in opening 

 avenues of culture and of usefulness to Plato's 

 children of the spirit. 



The period of chivalry, too, was not without 

 its great influence. There was a beneficent 

 humanisation of feeling towards women. 



