This evil is shown in the broad distinction now drawn between different kinds of sexual immorality, and the results which follow such distinction. Some persons who would shrink from the guilt of being the authors of a first seduction, or of running the risks of legal prosecution, will not hesitate to engage in ‘ordinary immorality’--that is, they will without scruple purchase the temporary use of a consenting woman for a little money; they will justify the transaction by the plea that what women will sell men may buy; they may even consider that they show a little contemptuous kindness to women in such buying, as industrial conditions press most heavily on women. Women also accept false theories of human nature that blaspheme their Creator, and degrade their exalted rank of motherhood by welcoming profligates and sacrificing their daughters in mercenary marriages. Until the higher law of human relations is more clearly understood, great confusion of thought will necessarily exist as the result of ignorance and selfishness. But as old errors are gradually proved, an inevitable and growing discussion will arise in the present age as to the natural relations of the sexes. The most contradictory theories are even now brought forward and actively spread abroad, and in the course of this unavoidable growth of the mental faculties, the necessity or expediency, the wisdom or the guilt, of what is called ordinary immorality must finally be brought before the highest court of public opinion--_i.e._, the enlightened conscience of men and women. Although, however, the widest diversity of opinion may still exist on abstract questions, there is one practical point on which all persons are compelled to agree. It is this--viz., if temporary bargains are made, either expressly or tacitly, by which one party gives money to another for a certain return, such a bargain is trade. If few such bargains are made it is a limited trade, if many it is an extensive trade, but in each case the transactions are equally trade, and are necessarily subject to the laws which govern trade. If, therefore, women are made the subjects of temporary purchase they become the subjects of trade. Now, trade is always directed by the rules and customs prevailing at the time, and the economic aspect requires to be studied; for the laws which govern trade are not fanciful theories, but very real practical facts, which lie at the foundation of our social institutions and silently mould our every-day life.