THE FUTURE EVOLUTION OF MAN 263 



divorce shall be allowed to remedy a mistake may be 

 a matter of dispute, but at best it is a bad remedy 

 for a mistake that should never have been made. No 

 ideal society could ever consider divorce as any per- 

 manent portion of its activities. Children are not 

 like cattle. It is not simply a question of their being 

 brought into the world sound and strong. Their 

 long infancy which in the biological as well as in the 

 legal sense, lasts until they are grown up, should be 

 spent in surroundings which can minister, by ex- 

 ample and precept, to moral and intellectual develop- 

 ment. Surely no such end can possibly be attained 

 when man and woman mate lightly, to part quickly. 

 At first sight it would seem a wise thing to require 

 health certificates for those who would be married. 

 I doubt not the Chicago Bishop who declined to 

 marry his parishioners except under such conditions, 

 will exert a beneficial effect upon the country by 

 the attention he thus attracts to the subject. It 

 would be a bad day for the city if all the clergy and 

 all the other authorities who are authorized to sol- 

 emnize marriage should take this step. We have 

 not yet arrived at such a stage of development that 

 a marriage certificate is essential to mating, and a 

 restriction of this sort would simply mean that there 

 could be no legitimate union except of those in strong 

 health. To the burden of ill health would be added 



