CHAPTER XXII. 



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HEREDITY AND THE DOUBLE STANDARD. 



Nature and law are always consistent. What- 

 ever is inconsistent is abnormal. The social 

 ethics which fosters in man what it condemns in 

 woman is wholly inconsistent and therefore ab- Abnormal. 

 normal. The conditions which give rise to the 

 double standard are as truly the product of dissi- 

 pation as are those that produce drunkenness, vice 

 and crime. The double standard is most demor- 

 alizing. As a factor in obstructing human prog- 

 ress, in perverting man's nobler instincts, in de- 

 stroying domestic happiness, in filling the world 

 with misery and in robbing offspring of a good 

 inheritance, it has no equal. 



According to the evolution theory of man's 

 origin, the double standard simply indicates a 

 lack 'of development. Man has not yet outgrown 

 the animal. Chastity, like all the nobler virtues, 

 had an humble origin. Looking back to the age 

 of savagery, woman was the possession of man ; 

 she was bought and sold, or "swapped" like other 

 chattels. The value of a man's daughters de- 

 pended largely upon their purity. Later on when 

 the contracting parties were allowed to make their 

 own matrimonial choice, the same law was ob- 

 served. 



Both sacred and profane history indicate that 



