[187] One of the most remarkable instances of free love as a popular institution was the “island custom” of the (so-called) Isle of Portland. Here, until well on into the nineteenth century, experimental cohabitation was universal, and marriage did not take place until the woman became pregnant. But if, as a result of this experimental cohabitation, “the woman does not prove with child, after a competent time of courtship, they conclude they are not destined by Providence for each other; they therefore separate; and =as it is an established maxim=, which the Portland women observe with great strictness, =never to admit a plurality of lovers at one time=, their honour is in no way tarnished. She just as soon gets another suitor (after the affair is declared to be broken off) as if she had been left a widow, or that nothing had ever happened, but that she had remained an immaculate virgin” (Hutchins, “History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset,” vol. ii., p. 820, 1868). So faithfully was this “island custom” observed that, on the one hand, during a long period no single bastard was born on the “island,” and, on the other, every marriage was fertile. But when, for the further development of the Portland stone trade, workmen from London, with the “wild love” habits of the large town, came to reside in Portland, these men took advantage of the “island custom,” and then refused to marry the girls with whom they had cohabited. Thus, in consequence of freer intercourse with the “civilized” world, the “Portland custom” has gradually fallen into desuetude. But the words I have emphasized in the quotation show how faithfully the conditions of “free love,” as defined in this work, were observed in Portland. An account of Portland, with allusions to the local practice of “free love,” will be found in Thomas Hardy’s novel, “The Well Beloved.”--TRANSLATOR. [188] A. Blaschko, “Prostitution in the Nineteenth Century,” p. 12 (Berlin, 1902). [189] _Cf._ Helen Zimmern, “Mary Wollstonecraft” in _Deutsche Rundschau_, 1889, vol. xv., Heft 11, pp. 259-263. Consult also C. Kegan Paul, “William Godwin: His Friends and Contemporaries,” 2 vols. (London, 1876). [190] “Shelley’s Poetical Works,” edited by Edward Dowden, p. 42 (Macmillan, 1891). [191] _Ibid._, p. 44. [192] _Cf._ the admirable critical investigation by Georg Hirth, “Goethe’s Christiane,” published in “Ways to Love,” pp. 323-366, containing new and valuable aids to our judgment of this relationship.