A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 3 of 3Howard, George Elliott
History
A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 3 of 3
Howard, George Elliott
Families; Marriage -- History
In the future educational program sex questions must hold an
honorable place. Progress in this direction may be slow, because
of the false shame, the prurient delicacy, now widely prevalent
touching everything connected with the sexual life. Nor is it a
light matter to brave orthodox sentiment in this regard. It is not
always safe for the teacher, even in institutions deeming themselves
modern, to deal frankly with the organic facts which are of vital
concern to the human race. The folly of parents in leaving their
children in ignorance of the laws of sex is notorious. Yet how much
safer than ignorance is knowledge as a shield for innocence. The
daughter will face the vicissitudes of life more securely if she
has been told of the destiny that awaits her as wife and mother;
if she has been warned of the snares with which lust has beset
the path of womanhood. The son is likely to live a nobler life if
he has learned to repudiate the dual standard of sexual morality
which a spurious philosophy has set up; if he understands that
"instincts" may be safely controlled; if he has been warned that
selfish excesses within or without the marriage bond must be dearly
paid for by the coming generations. Indeed, it is of the greatest
moment to society that the young should be trained in the general
laws of heredity. Everywhere men and women are marrying in utter
contempt of the warnings of science. Domestic animals are literally
better bred than human beings. Through ignorance and defiance of the
rules of health, we are destroying our physical constitutions. Under
the plea of "romantic love" we blindly yield to sexual attractions
in choosing our mates, selfishly ignoring the welfare of the race.
Is there not a higher ideal of conjugal choice? Experience shows
that in wedlock natural and sexual selection should play a smaller
and artificial selection a larger rôle.[844] The safety of the
social body requires that a check be put upon the propagation of
the unfit. Here the state has a function to perform. In the future
much more than now, let us hope, the marriage of persons mentally
delinquent or tainted by hereditary disease or crime will be legally
restrained. Yet law can do relatively little. A reform of this kind
must of necessity depend mainly upon a better educated popular
sentiment; upon a higher altruism which shall be capable of present
sacrifice for the permanent good of the race. "When human beings and
families rationally subordinate their own interests as perfectly to
the welfare of future generations as do animals under the control
of instinct the world will have a more enduring type of family
life than exists at present. This can only be accomplished by the
development of controlling ideals which are supported not only by
reason and intelligence but by ethical impulse and religious motive.
This larger altruism which protects the permanent interests of the
future against the more temporary values of the present must be
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