But the man who knowingly continues to throw his influence toward the degradation of the human race must find his sympathizers among his kind, where he will readily find a host of friends. We cannot be content if nothing is accomplished by our efforts beyond lessening the pleasure which libertines may experience after due instruction, but must greatly mourn over those whom we know to be possessed of admirable qualities, and who continue to act as though vices of the first order were of trifling importance.
A large part of humanity is unmanageable in the finer grades of conduct. It is aimed to regulate marriage and divorce, partly on account of religious opinions, and partly to prevent the vicious, the deformed, the unhealthy, and the criminal from having offspring. But these defectives are the very ones who cannot be controlled and who will marry and beget children improvidently.
Any attempt to prevent syphilitics or epileptics, or other diseased persons, from marrying, would result merely in the worse evil of concubinage without respectable support of the women, and in the bastardizing of children. The same appalling evils result from too strict refusal to grant divorce, and there can be no darker outlook for society than when Solons with smug satisfaction imagine that the difficulties are dissipated by statutory enactment or religious canon.
It seems to the writer that the New Testament injunctions concerning divorce were meant for those who were recognized as adherents of the primitive Christian Church. But it is too much to ask of a woman to submit herself to the probability of impregnation by a loathful husband; or of a man to continue his union with a wife who purposely aborts his children, or is otherwise sexually criminal.
Marriage, with clandestine concubinage, partakes closely of the nature of polygamy or bigamy, which are felonious and relics of barbarism. The author takes the physiological position that those who cohabit illegitimately are in the eyes of Nature partially, or inferiorly, married, certainly so if the sperm cell marries the ovum. Any religious denomination, of course, has a right to demand conformity to its teachings from those who are members of that body.
But those who require divorce are little amenable to religious obligation, and if they assume the responsibilities of open, legal marriage and the support of their children, such remarriage is better than the irresponsible semi marriages which they will consummate in secret. Illegitimacy and prostitution thrive best in countries where divorces are difficult to obtain.
Following the clumsy experimentation and anathematization of centuries the solution will probably be found in the developing of a Zeitgeist which will condemn prodigal and improvident sexual offenders as despised outcasts. But the drift of public opinion is by no means so severe as yet, and we might as well shout at the problematical inhabitants on Mars as to expect decorum from those to whom judicial or religious divorce is denied.
There are some who are well fitted for marriage and who long to found a legal family who perhaps have relatives dependent on their care to whom honor and love compel service. This is but one instance out of many which could be adduced. What is a man to do who is in splendid health, heart hungry for children, and denied honorable sexual privileges? It is simply a hard case which calls for fortitude. He must take wisdom for his medicine, love the children of others, make no change of ground, and abandon the search for substitutes. "And surely a man shall see the noblest works and foundations have proceeded from childless men, which have sought to express the images of their minds, where those of their bodies have failed. So the care of posterity is most in them that have no posterity".