THE DOUBLE STANDARD. 341 



generative function. Only perverted instinct and 

 perverted custom make it a privilege of mar- 

 riage. The law of chastity, so indispensable to The License of 

 health and moral purity in single life, is quite as 

 applicable and would prove fully as beneficial to 

 the married. That which is vice in single life 

 cannot be made virtue by a marriage certificate. 



Acquired characters are transmitted. Those 

 qualities which parents exercise most, other things 

 being equal, determine the hereditary tendencies A Fact for 

 of their offspring. The children of artists learn 

 art more readily than do the children of the in- 

 artistic. The same is true of all acquired ten- 

 dencies, whether normal or abnormal ; therefore, 

 it must be apparent to all thoughtful persons that 

 the habitual excitation of the procreative function 

 in parents must predispose their offspring to 

 sexual dissipation. 



The question of marital rights is not to be con- 

 sidered. Custom is not law. Licensing a wrong 

 does not make it right. Nature never licenses 

 dissipation, neither will she withhold punishment 

 from those who break her laws, even though 

 their acts are sanctioned by custom. The evil Custom is not 

 effects of intemperance are fully transmitted, no w * 

 matter whether the intemperance is practiced 

 under the license of marriage or out of it. It 

 matters not how a character is acquired, if it be- 

 comes an established psycho-physical condition 

 it will be transmitted. Thoughtful parents will 

 abstain from that which they do not care to have 

 manifest in the character of their children. 



I am aware that in advocating the law of chas- 

 tity for the married that I will incur the opposi- 



