"Between the system of _presumed_ paternity, _which is the system of the law_, and the system of maternity, _bearing its proof within itself, which is the system of Nature_; the latter is in conformity with incontestable truth, the former is condemned by undisputed statistics. The system of paternity is _inequality of children before the mother and before the law; it is woman possessed and not possessing_; ... it is no longer the legal slavery of woman, _but is still conjugal servitude_."--_Liberty in Marriage._ "Without equality of children before the mother, equality of citizens before the law _is only an imposture_, for evidently and incontestably, this equality does not exist for 2,800,000 children, who, arbitrarily entitled illegitimate, are placed outside of common right in violation of natural law."--_Id._ According to De Girardin, the logical consequences of the system of maternity would be: The abolition of civil marriage; The mother's name alone given to the child; The inheritance placed solely in the maternal line. "Marriage," says he, "is a purely individual act, and, as regards its celebration, a purely religious act.-- "Marriage is an act of faith, not of law: it is for faith to govern it, _not for law to make rules for it_. "As soon as the law intervenes, it intervenes _without right_, without necessity, _without utility_. "For one abuse that it pretends to avert, it gives rise to innumerable others which are worse, and from which society afterwards suffers seriously, without taking into account the cause that produced them. "Legal liberty in marriage is durable love in the household; indissolubility of marriage is habitual love outside of the household."--_Id._ With respect to inheritance and dowry, the author expresses himself thus: "To inherit at the death of the mother, because maternity and certitude are two equipollent terms, and to receive a support from the father, because paternity and doubt are two inseparable terms; such is the true law of Nature."--_Id._ In De Girardin's opinion, woman has the same rights as man to liberty and equality; the sexes are equal, not through _similitude_ but _equivalence_ of faculties and functions; man produces, acquires, woman administers, economizes; it belongs therefore to man to provide for the expenses of the household. It is his duty, on uniting himself to a woman, to settle on her an inalienable dower that will permit her to perform her maternal functions properly, and to escape from the vices that frequently result from want and abandonment.