SEX AND SOCIAL RELATIONS 209 



other's needs in all directions. This is a strongly 

 antibiological notion which cannot stand close 

 scrutiny. It is true, that it often happens among 

 people of limited interests and intelligence, who are 

 mainly occupied with getting the means of subsist- 

 ence, that the marriage relation is regarded in a 

 matter-of-fact way and its perfection is never chal- 

 lenged. If the couple be true to one another in the 

 limited physical sense, if the father makes the neces- 

 sary gains to support his family, and the mother 

 faithfully tends her children, we have the picture of 

 commonplace bourgeois happiness and contentment. 

 But this happiness is really less secure than it appears, 

 for it is in danger from the invasion of new human 

 interests into the minds of either parent. And when 

 such invasion occurs, it frequently breeds trouble, 

 because neither party to the marriage contract under- 

 stands the situation. One partner, or both, fails 

 to recognize the naturalness and legitimacy of the 

 new and intrusive human interest and, therefore, 

 tends to act without full sincerity. The result is 

 usually either an unnatural stultifying and absurd 

 retreat from new human interests, or a lack of sym- 

 pathy and understanding between man and wife, 

 which lead to dissension or coldness and, too often, to 

 the vulgarities of divorce. 



The essential truth as to human marriage is simple 

 enough. Man is naturally an imperfectly monog- 

 amous animal. Woman is conversely mildly poly- 

 androus in tendency, but this inclination is power- 



