175 



Two weeks pass ; the breasts continue without pain ; 

 no scabs appear ; the infant whitens in due course : 

 smiles on the world; utters its natural cries; laughs 

 loudly, and bye and by begins to lisp "papa! mama!" 



The joy of the family can be imagined, the old folks 

 buy toys and sweets; the father, depressed by the sins 

 of his own youth and the sufferings of his spouse, pre- 

 pares himself to accept and to amuse the little stranger. 

 As to the mother she is like a child with excess of 

 happiness ; pinching and tickling the baby until it crows 

 with glee, kissing it with open mouth as though to swal- 

 low it with kisses. All around in the family circle reigns 

 jollity and merriment and laughter merely thanks to the 

 appearance in its midst of this one healthy child, the 

 future world-worker and helper in the execution of the 

 cosmic laws. 



The question arises - - under such circumstances wich 

 is more wholesome and more moral, matrimonial fidelity 

 resulting in a generation of miserable weaklings, or 

 adultery crowned by family felicity ? I fear that this ques- 

 tion is easily settled in favour of the second alternative 

 and am forced to confess that the fashionable views on 

 early marriage not only fail to rescue the young from 

 immorality and financial ruin, but distinctly drive them 

 in that direction, producing a state of affairs in which, 

 both physically and socially, conjugal infidelity becomes 

 of use to the community. Not early marriage is the 

 root cause of evil here but our social ignorance and 

 slavishness, which renders marriage union a state from 

 which there is practically no escape. 



Men of a certain superior moral class and training 

 are willing to bear tenfold more from their partner in 

 life than they could bring themselves to inflict ; others 

 of a rude and overbearing sort rejoice in domestic bul- 

 lying, and act as insufferable tyrants in their own house- 

 holds, the members of which, especially the poor wife, 

 live in terror, and either seek protection from strangers 

 or take refuge in-flight. 



