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 
