“I wanted to come round to-day, and wished to deal with the matter by word of mouth, but I can’t do it, and so I must write to tell you that we cannot marry, for, in fact, I have now less money even than when I was a journeyman. The few hundred marks that I had I have put into the business; and, in fact, I really cannot marry; if I did, I couldn’t exist at all. I should have to shut up the shop. What should we do then? I shouldn’t be able to show my face in H---- again; besides, at best, the business is not worth very much. So, my dear Dora, write to me now how we can settle matters; you mustn’t draw the string too tight, or ask too much; if you do, you see, you will have to find your own way out of the trouble. Of course, I shall be glad enough to do what’s right, because I am as much to blame as you are. If after a while I get on as well as my brothers have done, I can do more for you. =But just now I can’t help you much.= Let’s hope you may find some other man with whom you may live more happily than you have lived with me. Dear Dora, don’t make such a fuss about it: there are plenty more in the same case, up and down the world; you are not the only one. Now, write to me directly what you want to do; let’s get the matter settled quietly; that’ll be better for you. Your mother won’t leave you in the lurch, and you will find it will all come right. “Best love. “FRITZ H. “P.S.--Write soon.” Let us imagine the state of mind of the young woman who receives this letter, characterized as it is by such crafty heartlessness! And yet this heartlessness is no greater than that of modern European society, which =simultaneously= makes fun of the “old maid” and condemns the unmarried mother to infamy. This double-faced, putrescent “morality” is profoundly =immoral=, it is =radically evil=. It is moral and good to contest it with all our energy, to enter the lists on behalf of the right to free love, to “unmarried” motherhood. Let us make a clearance of this medieval bugbear of coercive marriage morality, which is a disgrace in respect of our state of civilization and economical development. Two million women in a condition of =compulsory= celibacy and--coercive marriage morality. It is merely necessary to place these two facts side by side, in order to display before our eyes the complete ethical bankruptcy of our time in the province of sexual morality. In addition to this necessity for a radical alteration in sexual morality, we must, in the second place, enunciate the demand for a general =insurance of motherhood=, for =the foundation of homes for pregnant women, for women in child-birth, and for infants=. The fulfilment of these demands alone will bring us a great step forward in the restoration to health of our sexual life, and in the preparation of a more beautiful future.[215]