most powerful and persistent force in the universe. And man in his greed has seized upon it and attempted to regulate it from Harrisburg, Hartford and Helena. Now there are many folks who think it should be looked after from the District of Columbia. God help us all—just lift off the roofs and take a look at Social Washington some night at four A. M.! ¶ The lawyer here steps in and becomes as insistent and as dogmatic as the priest. Once you could marry only through the ministrations of a priest; now you can secure a divorce only through the services of a lawyer—often a dozen are employed, counting both sides. ¶ “Why make life difficult, complex and heavy?” cries Emerson. And well does he ask the question ❦ This supreme thing in life, our love, can not be regulated by man’s law ❦ The Supreme Power that made, fashioned and gave it to us provided for its automatic regulation. ¶ When love, honor and respect die, it is time in the name of purity to part. No priest can consecrate the holy relationship of a man and a woman, but God can and does. Love is the only consecration—and love is enough ❦ To imagine that God should endow us with this mighty passion, and then leave its regulation to those who govern us for a consideration, is an insult to the Divine Intelligence of which we are a part ❦ The mating of a man and a woman is the one sacred thing in life. And left alone it is lovely and true in all its attributes. In law, they will tell you that “the plaintiff has all the rights his contract gives him and no more.” In Nature, a man should have all the rights which love bestows, and no more. And when I speak of man I mean woman, too, for there is the male man and the female man ❦ I believe in equality—the equality of Nature, or, if you please, of God. I do not believe in the law interposing and giving a man rights and a woman privileges. Neither do I understand why the money a woman earns should belong to a man, unless we first grant the righteousness of master and slave, and frankly admit that the man owning the woman, also owns _per se_ all that she produces, including her children ❦ God has decided who the children belong to—they belong to the woman who bore them and whose body nourished them. But man steps in and makes laws about a mother’s instincts. ¶ Men and women mate, and being mated cleave together until death do them part—and longer. They whom God has joined together no man can put asunder. The mischievous meddling of man leads to a condition where the parties think they own each other. This is slavery. Many married men treat any other woman with more respect than they treat their wives. ¶ The gallantry that holds through gentle treatment and just is gone when the man thinks he holds a warranty-deed for the property. To be free you must be on your good behavior. And do not for a moment imagine that a man would leave his mate if law did not manacle him to her. He is held by an unseen silken cord as strong as Fate, as constant as Life,