Self Knowledge and Guide to Sex Instruction: Vital Facts of Life for All AgesShannon, Thomas W. (Thomas Washington)
Philosophy
Self Knowledge and Guide to Sex Instruction: Vital Facts of Life for All Ages
Shannon, Thomas W. (Thomas Washington)
Sex; Sexual health
=How they differ.=--They differ in their functional relations to the
building of a home. While their interests are mutual and their duties
often overlap each other, yet they differ in some respects in their
relations to the home. The husband is the producer; nature and God place
on him the responsibility of feeding, clothing, sheltering and educating
the family. The wife is the housekeeper; nature and God place on her the
duty of motherhood and the love and care of children. Both husband and
wife need special preparation before and after marriage for their
respective relations to the home.
=Marriage means motherhood.=--Unless a woman loves little children and
desires to teach and train boys and girls to become ideal men and women,
she should not think of accepting a marriage proposition. Marriage is
for the purpose of offspring. All girls should train and develop
themselves with a view to the sacred functions of motherhood. Those who
are mentally opposed to and physically incapable of motherhood should
decline marriage. Such women can and should find some other occupation
better fitted to their tastes, or physical condition, where they can be
contented and help make the world better.
=A farce.=--In apartment houses, hotels and lodging places are to be found
men and women living together under a form of legal matrimonial
alliance, where the true idea of home is not contemplated, children are
not wanted and no domestic happiness anticipated. These are human
abodes, where the echo of birth is never heard; where the thrill of joy,
caused by cooing babies, is never felt; and where conversation is never
disturbed by romping children. This is a home only in name. This is a
place of lodging where two miserable selfish beings are waiting for
death to step in and end the farce.
=A good substitute for a home.=--I was once entertained in a home where
the husband and wife had crossed over the half century line of life.
During my first day in that home, every few hours, the husband or wife
would bring in from two to six boys and girls introducing them to me as
their boys and girls. When the number had run up in the neighborhood of
twenty, that home got interesting. When I inquired how often they had
been married and how many children they had, I was informed that they
were only borrowing them from the neighbors. I never saw a home with a
greater influence for good. Though childless, their home was a heaven;
for the neighboring children resorted, played games, and received
instructions of the highest order there. The children were trained to
hunt up the old, the sick and the poor and to daily carry them flowers
gathered from the yard and garden of this old couple. This was an ideal
imitation of the real thing--a model home. I wish every childless home
could be converted into such an ideal imitation, or a real home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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