CHAPTER X

THE SOCIAL FORMS OF THE SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP

I.--_Marriage_

The difficulty of the problem of marriage--Facts to be considered--Marriage and the family among the animals--Among primitive peoples--Progress from lower to higher forms of the sexual association--An examination of the purpose of marriage--The fear of hasty reforms--Practical morality--Marriage an institution older than mankind--The practical moral ends of marriage--The racial and individual factors--No real antagonism between the two--What is good for the individual must react also for the benefit of the race--Various systems of marriage--Monogamy the form that has prevailed--The higher law of the true marriage--Conventional monogamic marriage--Its failure in practical morality--Coexistence with polygamy and prostitution--Chief grounds for the reform of marriage--An indictment by Mr. Wells--Our marriage system based upon the rights of property--This not necessarily evil--The Egyptian marriage contracts--The Roman marriage--The influence of Christianity--Asceticism and the glorification of virginity--Confusions and absurdities--The failure of our sexual morality--Mammon marriages--Sins against the race--Two examples from my own experience--The iniquity of our bastardy laws--The waste of love--Free-love--Its failure as a practical solution--The reform of marriage--The tendency to place the form of the sexual relationship above the facts of love--The dependence of the consciousness of duty upon freedom--The sexual responsibility of women.

II.--_Divorce_

Traditional morality--Practical conditions of divorce--The moral code--This must be modified to meet new conditions--The enforced continuance of an unreal marriage--This the grossest form of immorality--The barbarism of our divorce laws--The

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absurdities--Divorce relief from misfortune, not a crime--Personal responsibility in marriage--A recognition of the equality of the mother with the father--Sanction by the State of free divorce--The example of Egypt and Babylon--The Roman divorce by consent--The condemnation of free divorce not the outcome of true morality--The immorality of indissoluble marriage--Loyalty and duty in love--The claims of the child--One advantage of free divorce--Adoption of children under the State--Growing disinclination against coercive marriage--The waste to the race--Our responsibility to the future.

III.--_Prostitution_

The dependence of prostitution upon marriage--The extent and difficulties of the problem involved--Prostitution essentially a woman's question--Women's past attitude towards it--The diffusion of disease by means of prostitution--Apathy and ignorance of women--This changing--What action will women take in the future?--Grounds for fear--The White Slave Bill--Its absurd futility--The opinion of Bernard Shaw--Poverty as a cause of prostitution--This not the only factor--The real evil lies deeper--The economic reformer--The moral crusade--Men's passions--Seduction--These causes need careful examination--Lippert's view--Idleness, frivolity, and love of finery as causes--The desire for excitement--The need for personal knowledge of the prostitute--What I have learnt from different members of this profession--The prostitute's attitude towards her trade--The sale of sex very profitable to the expert trader--The sexual frigidity of the prostitute--Importance and significance of this--A further examination into the causes of the evil--Poverty seldom the chief motive for prostitution--The influence of inheritance upon the sexual life--The degradation of our legitimate loves the ultimate cause of prostitution--The demand for the prostitute by men--Causes of this demand--Repression of the primitive sexual instincts by civilisation--The foolishness of casting blame upon men--The duplex morality of the sexes--Its influence on the degradation of passion--Woman's unprofitable service to chastity--The connection with prostitution--My belief in passion as the only source of help.

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