"Considered domestically, this transformation would render the constitution of the human family more in conformity with the general spirit of sociocracy, by completing the just emancipation of woman, thus made, even physically, independent of man. The normal ascendancy of the affective sex would be no longer contestable with respect to children _emanated from it exclusively_. "But the principal result would consist in perfecting the fundamental institution of marriage (the improvement of the married couple without sexual motive), the positive theory of which would then become unexceptionable. Thus purified, the conjugal tie would experience an amelioration as marked as when Polygamy was replaced by Monogamy: for we should generalize the utopia of the Middle Age, in which Maternity was reconciled with Virginity. "Regarded civilly, this institution alone permits the regulation of the most important of productions, which can never become sufficiently susceptible of systematization, so long as it shall be accomplished in delirium and without responsibility. "Reserved to its best organs, this function would perfect the human race by better determining the transmission of ameliorations due to external influences, both social and personal.... Systematic procreation coming to remain more or less concentrated among the better types, the comparison of the two cases would give rise not only to valuable enlightenment, but also to an important institution which would procure to sociocracy the principal advantage of theocracy. For the development of the new mode would soon cause a non-hereditary caste to spring up, better adapted than the common populace _for the recruital of spiritual and even temporal chiefs_, whose authority would then rest on a truly _superior_ origin, which would not shun investigation. All these indications will suffice to show the value of the utopia of the Virgin Mother, destined to procure to Positivism a synthetic résume, equivalent to that which the institution of the Eucharist furnishes to Catholicism."--_Ibid._ It is much to be feared, alas! that the disciples of this great man, however ardent seekers of _vital harmony_ they may be, will never find the _synthetic résume_ of Positivism, the _equivalent_ of the Eucharist: and it will be a great pity: to order children as we order shoes, and leave them on the mother's hands when they do not suit, would be very convenient. And what, I ask you, will the future leaders of humanity do, if they can only obtain respect and obedience on the condition of proving that they are _sons of virgins_? But we will not jest with so grave a personage as the High Priest of Humanity: we will only say in passing, that never was atheist seen to show himself more profoundly a Christian through contempt for works of the flesh. Hear what he says on page 286 of the work before cited: