To understand the true relations of men and women in their bearing upon the race (relations which must determine the moral aim of education) the duality of sex and the peculiarity of the womanly organization must be recognised. Woman, having a special work to perform in family life, has special requirements and sharpened perceptions in relation to this work. She demands the constant presence of affection, an affection which alone can draw forth full response, and she possesses a perception which is almost a special instinct for detecting coldness or untruthfulness in the husband’s mental attitude towards her. The presence of unvarying affection has a real, material, as well as a moral power on the body and soul of a woman. Indifference or neglect is instantly felt. Sorrow, loneliness, jealousy, all constantly depressing emotions, exercise a powerful and injurious effect upon the sources of vital action. This physiological truth and the necessity of securing the full assent of the mother in the joint creation of superior offspring, are important facts bearing on the character and happiness of one-half of the human race, and influencing through that half the quality of offspring. These facts have not yet received the attention which so weighty a subject demands. In pursuing the physiological inquiry, we are met by one remarkable fact which it is impossible to ignore, and which remains from age to age as a guide to the human race. This guide is found in the physiological fact of the equality in the birth of the sexes. This is a clear indication of the intention of Providence in relation to sexual union, a proof of the fundamental nature of the family group. Boys and girls are born in equal numbers all over the world, wherever our means of observation have extended, a slight excess of boys alone existing. Sadler writes: ‘The near equality in the birth of the sexes is an undoubted fact; it extends throughout Europe and wherever we have the means of accurate observation, the birth-rate being in the proportion of twenty-five boys to twenty-four girls.’[23] The injurious inequality which we so often find in a population is not Nature’s law, but is evidence of our social stupidity. It proves our sin against God’s design in the existence of brutal wars and our careless squandering of human life. All rational efforts for the improvement of society must be based upon Nature’s true intention--viz., the equality of the sexes in birth and in duration of life, not upon the false condition of inequality produced by our own ignorance. It is essential always to bear in mind this distinction between the permanent fact and the temporary phenomenon. * * * * *