sexual field their natural demands, rather than
those of men,
must furnish the standard.
With the realization of the moral responsibility of
women the natural
relations of life spring back to their due biological
adjustment.
Motherhood is restored to its natural sacredness. It
becomes the concern
of the woman herself, and not of society nor of any
individual, to
determine the conditions under which the child shall be conceived. Society
is entitled to require that the father shall in every
case acknowledge the
fact of his paternity, but it must leave the chief
responsibility for all
the circumstances of child-production to the mother.
That is the point of
view which is now gaining ground in all civilized lands both in theory and
in practice.[311]
FOOTNOTES:
[257] E.g., E. Belfort Bax, _Outspoken Essays_, p. 6.
[258] Such reasons are connected with communal welfare.
"All immoral acts
result in communal unhappiness, all moral acts in
communal happiness," as
Prof. A. Mathews remarks, "Science and Morality,"
_Popular Science
Monthly_, March, 1909.
[259] See Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the
Moral Ideas_, vol.
i, pp. 386-390, 522.
[260] Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, pp. 9,
159; also the whole of Ch. VII. Actions that are in
accordance with custom
call forth public approval, actions that are opposed to custom call forth
public resentment, and Westermarck powerfully argues
that such approval
and such resentment are the foundation of moral
judgments.
[261] This is well recognized by legal writers (e.g.,
E.A. Schroeder, _Das
Recht in der Geschlechtlichen Ordnung_, p. 5).
[262] W.G. Sumner (_Folkways_, p. 418) even considers it desirable to
change the form of the word in order to emphasize the
real and fundamental
meaning of morals, and proposes the word _mores_ to
indicate "popular
usages and traditions conducive to societal reform."
"'Immoral,'" he
points out, "never means anything but contrary to the _mores_ of the time
and place." There is, however, no need whatever to abolish or to
supplement the good old ancient word "morality," so long as we clearly
realize that, on the practical side, it means
essentially custom.
[263] Westermarck, op. cit., vol. i, p. 19.
[264] See, e.g., "Exogamy and the Mating of Cousins," in _Essays Presented
to E.B. Tylor_, 1907, p. 53. "In many departments of primitive life we
find a naïve desire to, as it were, assist Nature, to
affirm what is
normal, and later to confirm it by the categorical
imperative of custom
and law. This tendency still flourishes in our civilized communities, and,
as the worship of the normal, is often a deadly foe to the abnormal and
eccentric, and too often paralyzes originality."
[265] The spirit of Christianity, as illustrated by
Paulinus, in his
_Epistle XXV_, was from the Roman point of view, as Dill remarks (_Roman
Society_, p. 11), "a renunciation, not only of
citizenship, but of all the
hard-won fruits of civilization and social life."
[266] It thus happens that, as Lecky said in his
_History of European
Morals_, "of all the departments of ethics the questions concerning the
relations of the sexes and the proper position of woman are those upon the
future of which there rests the greatest uncertainty."
Some progress has
perhaps been made since these words were written, but
they still hold true
for the majority of people.
[267] Concerning economic marriage as a vestigial
survival, see, e.g.,
Bloch, _The Sexual Life of Our Time_, p. 212.
[268] Sénancour, _De l'Amour_, vol. ii, p. 233. The
author of _The
Question of English Divorce_ attributes the absence of any widespread
feeling against sexual license to the absurd rigidity of the law.
[269] Bruno Meyer, "Etwas von Positiver Sexualreform,"
_Sexual-Probleme_,
Nov., 1908.
[270] Elsie Clews Parsons, _The Family_, p. 351. Dr.
Parsons rightly
thinks such unions a social evil when they check the
development of
personality.
[271] For evidence regarding the general absence of
celibacy among both
savage and barbarous peoples, see, e.g., Westermarck,
_History of Human
Marriage_, Ch. VII.
[272] There are, for instance, two millions of unmarried women in France,
while in Belgium 30 per cent, of the women, and in
Germany sometimes even
50 per cent, are unmarried.
[273] Such a position would not be biologically
unreasonable, in view of
the greatly preponderant part played by the female in
the sexual process
which insures the conservation of the race. "If the sexual instinct is
regarded solely from the physical side," says D.W.H.
Busch (_Das
Geschlechtsleben des Weibes_, 1839, vol. i, p. 201),
"the woman cannot be
regarded as the property of the man, but with equal and greater reason the
man may be regarded as the property of the woman."
[274] Herodotus, Bk. i, Ch. CLXXIII.
[275] That power and relationship are entirely distinct was pointed out
many years ago by L. von Dargun, _Mutterrecht und
Vaterrecht_, 1892.
Westermarck (_Origin and Development of the Moral
Ideas_, vol. i, p. 655),
who is inclined to think that Steinmetz has not proved conclusively that
mother-descent involves less authority of husband over wife, makes the
important qualification that the husband's authority is impaired when he
lives among his wife's kinsfolk.
[276] Robertson Smith, _Kinship and Marriage in Early
Arabia_; J.G. Frazer
has pointed out (_Academy_, March 27, 1886) that the
partially Semitic
peoples on the North frontier of Abyssinia, not
subjected to the
revolutionary processes of Islam, preserve a system
closely resembling
_beena_ marriage, as well as some traces of the opposite system, by
Robertson Smith called _ba'al_ marriage, in which the
wife is acquired by
purchase and becomes a piece of property.
[277] Spencer and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central
Australia_, p. 358.
[278] Rhys and Brynmor-Jones, _The Welsh People_, pp.
55-6; cf. Rhys,
_Celtic Heathendom_, p. 93.
[279] Rhys and Brynmor-Jones, op. cit., p. 214.
[280] Crawley (_The Mystic Rose_, p. 41 et seq.) gives numerous instances.
[281] Revillout, "La Femme dans l'Antiquité," _Journal Asiatique_, 1906,
vol. vii, p. 57. See, also, Victor Marx, _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_,
1899, Bd. iv, Heft 1.
[282] Donaldson, _Woman_, pp. 196, 241 et seq. Nietzold, (_Die Ehe in_
"_Agypten_," p. 17), thinks the statement of Diodorus that no children
were illegitimate, needs qualification, but that
certainly the
illegitimate child in Egypt was at no social
disadvantage.
[283] Amélineau, _La Morale Egyptienne_, p. 194;
Hobhouse, _Morals in
Evolution_, vol. i, p. 187; Flinders Petrie, _Religion and Conscience in
Ancient Egypt_, pp. 131 et seq.
[284] Maine, _Ancient Law_, Ch. V.
[285] Donaldson, _Woman_, pp. 109, 120.
[286] _Mercator_, iv, 5.
[287] Digest XLVIII, 13, 5.
[288] Hobhouse, _Morals in Evolution_, vol. i, p. 213.
[289] For an account of the work of some of the less
known of these
pioneers, see a series of articles by Harriet McIlquham in the
_Westminster Review_, especially Nov., 1898, and Nov., 1903.
[290] The influence of Christianity on the position of women has been well
discussed by Lecky, _History of European Morals_, vol.
ii, pp. 316 et
seq., and more recently by Donaldson, _Woman_, Bk. iii.
[291] Migne, _Patrologia_, vol. clviii, p. 680.
[292] Rosa Mayreder, "Einiges über die Starke Faust,"
_Zur Kritik der
Weiblichkeit_, 1905.
[293] Rasmussen (_People of the Polar North_, p. 56),
describes a
ferocious quarrel between husband and wife, who each in turn knocked the
other down. "Somewhat later, when I peeped in, they were lying
affectionately asleep, with their arms around each
other."
[294] Hobhouse, _Morals in Evolution_, vol. ii, p. 367.
Dr. Stöcker, in
_Die Liebe und die Frauen_, also insists on the
significance of this
factor of personal responsibility.
[295] Olive Schreiner has especially emphasized the
evils of parasitism
for women. "The increased wealth of the male," she remarks ("The Woman's
Movement of Our Day," _Harper's Bazaar_, Jan., 1902),
"no more of
necessity benefits and raises the female upon whom he
expends it, than the
increased wealth of his mistress necessarily benefits, mentally or
physically, a poodle, because she can then give him a
down cushion in
place of one of feathers, and chicken in place of beef."
Olive Schreiner
believes that feminine parasitism is a danger which
really threatens
society at the present time, and that if not averted
"the whole body of
females in civilized societies must sink into a state of more or less
absolute dependence."
[296] In Rome and in Japan, Hobhouse notes (op. cit.,
vol. i, pp. 169,
176), the patriarchal system reached its fullest
extension, yet the laws
of both these countries placed the husband in a position of practical
subjugation to a rich wife.
[297] Herodotus, Bk. ii, Ch. XXXV. Herodotus noted that it was the woman
and not the man on whom the responsibility for
supporting aged parents
rested. That alone involved a very high economic
position of women. It is
not surprising that to some observers, as to Diodorus
Siculus, it seemed
that the Egyptian woman was mistress over her husband.
[298] Hobhouse (loc. cit.), Hale, and also Grosse,
believe that good
economic position of a people involves high position of women. Westermarck
(_Moral Ideas_, vol. i, p. 661), here in agreement with Olive Schreiner,
thinks this statement cannot be accepted without
modification, though
agreeing that agricultural life has a good effect on
woman's position,
because they themselves become actively engaged in it. A good economic
position has no real effect in raising woman's position, unless women
themselves take a real and not merely parasitic part in it.
[299] Westermarck (_Moral Ideas_, vol. i, Ch. XXVI, vol.
ii, p. 29) gives
numerous references with regard to the considerable
proprietary and other
privileges of women among savages which tend to be lost at a somewhat
higher stage of culture.
[300] The steady rise in the proportion of women among English workers in
machine industries began in 1851. There are now, it is estimated, three
and a half million women employed in industrial
occupations, beside a
million and a half domestic servants. (See for details, James Haslam, in a
series of papers in the _Englishwoman_ 1909.)
[301] See, e.g., J.A. Hobson, _The Evolution of Modern Capitalism_, second
edition, 1907, Ch. XII, "Women in Modern Industry."
[302] Hobhouse, op. cit., vol. i, p. 228.
[303] Fielding, _Tom Jones_, Bk. iii, Ch. VII.
[304] Even the Church to some extent adopted this
allotment of the
responsibility, and "solicitation," i.e., the sin of a confessor in
seducing his female penitent, is constantly treated as exclusively the
confessor's sin.
[305] Adolf Gerson, _Sexual-Probleme_, Sept., 1908, p.
547.
[306] It has already been necessary to refer to the
unfortunate results
which may follow the ignorance of husbands (see, e.g.,
"The Sexual Impulse
in Women," vol. iii of these _Studies_), and will be necessary again in
Ch. XI of the present volume.
[307] Pepys, _Diary_, ed. Wheatley, vol. vii, p. 10.
[308] Lombroso and Ferrero, _La Donna Delinquente_; cf.
Havelock Ellis,
_Man and Woman_, fourth edition, p. 196.
[309] Gury, _Théologie Morale_, art. 381.
[310] "Men will not learn what women are," remarks Rosa Mayreder (_Zur
Kritik der Weiblichkeit_, p. 199), "until they have left off prescribing
what they ought to be."
[311] It has been set out, for instance, by Professor
Wahrmund in _Ehe und
Eherecht_, 1908. I need scarcely refer again to the
writings of Ellen Key,
which may be said to be almost epoch-making in their
significance,
especially (in German translation) _Ueber Liebe und Ehe_
(also French
translation), and (in English translation, Putnam,
1909), the valuable,
though less important work, _The Century of the Child_.
See also Edward
Carpenter, _Love's Coming of Age_; Forel, _Die Sexuelle Frage_ (English
translation, abridged, _The Sexual Question_, Rebman,
1908); Bloch,
_Sexualleben unsere Zeit_ (English translation, _The
Sexual Life of Our
Time_, Rebman, 1908); Helene Stöcker, _Die Liebe und die Frauen_, 1906;
and Paul Lapie, _La Femme dans la Famille_, 1908.
CHAPTER X.
MARRIAGE.
The Definition of Marriage--Marriage Among Animals--The Predominance of
Monogamy--The Question of Group Marriage--Monogamy a
Natural Fact, Not
Based on Human Law--The Tendency to Place the Form of
Marriage Above the
Fact of Marriage--The History of Marriage--Marriage in Ancient
Rome--Germanic Influence on Marriage--Bride-Sale--The
Ring--The Influence
of Christianity on Marriage--The Great Extent of This
Influence--The
Sacrament of Matrimony--Origin and Growth of the
Sacramental
Conception--The Church Made Marriage a Public Act--Canon Law--Its Sound
Core--Its Development--Its Confusions and Absurdities--
Peculiarities of
English Marriage Law--Influence of the Reformation on
Marriage--The
Protestant Conception of Marriage as a Secular Contract-
-The Puritan
Reform of Marriage--Milton as the Pioneer of Marriage
Reform--His Views on
Divorce--The Backward Position of England in Marriage
Reform--Criticism of
the English Divorce Law--Traditions of the Canon Law
Still Persistent--The
Question of Damages for Adultery--Collusion as a Bar to Divorce--Divorce in France, Germany, Austria, Russia,
etc.--The United
States--Impossibility of Deciding by Statute the Causes for
Divorce--Divorce by Mutual Consent--Its Origin and
Development--Impeded by
the Traditions of Canon Law--Wilhelm von Humboldt--
Modern Pioneer
Advocates of Divorce by Mutual Consent--The Arguments
Against Facility of
Divorce--The Interests of the Children--The Protection of Women--The
Present Tendency of the Divorce Movement--Marriage Not a Contract--The
Proposal of Marriage for a Term of Years--Legal
Disabilities and
Disadvantages in the Position of the Husband and the
Wife--Marriage Not a
Contract But a Fact--Only the Non-Essentials of
Marriage, Not the
Essentials, a Proper Matter for Contract--The Legal
Recognition of
Marriage as a Fact Without Any Ceremony--Contracts of
the Person Opposed
to Modern Tendencies--The Factor of Moral
Responsibility--Marriage as an
Ethical Sacrament--Personal Responsibility Involves
Freedom--Freedom the
Best Guarantee of Stability--False Ideas of
Individualism--Modern Tendency
of Marriage--With the Birth of a Child Marriage Ceases to be a Private
Concern--Every Child Must Have a Legal Father and
Mother--How This Can be
Effected--The Firm Basis of Monogamy--The Question of
Marriage
Variations--Such Variations Not Inimical to Monogamy--
The Most Common
Variations--The Flexibility of Marriage Holds Variations in
Check--Marriage Variations _versus_ Prostitution--
Marriage on a Reasonable
and Humane Basis--Summary and Conclusion.
The discussion in the previous chapter of the nature of sexual morality,
with the brief sketch it involved of the direction in
which that morality
is moving, has necessarily left many points vague. It
may still be asked
what definite and precise forms sexual unions are
tending to take among
us, and what relation these unions bear to the
religious, social, and
legal traditions we have inherited. These are matters
about which a very
considerable amount of uncertainty seems to prevail, for it is not unusual
to hear revolutionary or eccentric opinions concerning them.
Sexual union, involving the cohabitation, temporary or permanent, of two
or more persons, and having for one of its chief ends
the production and
care of offspring, is commonly termed marriage. The
group so constituted
forms a family. This is the sense in which the words
"marriage" and the
"family" are most properly used, whether we speak of animals or of Man.
There is thus seen to be room for variation as regards both the time
during which the union lasts, and the number of
individuals who form it,
the chief factor in the determination of these points
being the interests
of the offspring. In actual practice, however, sexual
unions, not only in
Man but among the higher animals, tend to last beyond
the needs of the
offspring of a single season, while the fact that in
most species the
numbers of males and females are approximately equal
makes it inevitable
that both among animals and in Man the family is
produced by a single
sexual couple, that is to say that monogamy is, with
however many
exceptions, necessarily the fundamental rule.
It will thus be seen that marriage centres in the child, and has at the
outset no reason for existence apart from the welfare of the offspring.
Among those animals of lowly organization which are able to provide for
themselves from the beginning of existence there is no family and no need
for marriage. Among human races, when sexual unions are not followed by
offspring, there may be other reasons for the
continuance of the union
but they are not reasons in which either Nature or
society is in the
slightest degree directly concerned. The marriage which grew up among
animals by heredity on the basis of natural selection, and which has been
continued by the lower human races through custom and
tradition, by the
more civilized races through the superimposed regulative influence of
legal institutions, has been marriage for the sake of
the offspring.[312]
Even in civilized races among whom the proportion of
sterile marriages is
large, marriage tends to be so constituted as always to assume the
procreation of children and to involve the permanence
required by such
procreation.
Among birds, which from the point of view of erotic
development
stand at the head of the animal world, monogamy
frequently
prevails (according to some estimates among 90 per
cent.), and
unions tend to be permanent; there is an
approximation to the
same condition among some of the higher mammals,
especially the
anthropoid apes; thus among gorillas and oran-utans
permanent
monogamic marriages take place, the young sometimes
remaining
with the parents to the age of six, while any
approach to loose
behavior on the part of the wife is severely
punished by the
husband. The variations that occur are often simply
matters of
adaptation to circumstances; thus, according to J.G.
Millais
(_Natural History of British Ducks_, pp. 8, 63), the
Shoveler
duck, though normally monogamic, will become
polyandric when
males are in excess, the two males being in constant
and amicable
attendance on the female without signs of jealousy;
among the
monogamic mallards, similarly, polygyny and
polyandry may also
occur. See also R.W. Shufeldt, "Mating Among Birds,"
_American
Naturalist_, March, 1907; for mammal marriages, a
valuable paper
by Robert Müller, "Säugethierehen," _Sexual-
Probleme_, Jan.,
1909, and as regards the general prevalence of
monogamy, Woods
Hutchinson, "Animal Marriage," _Contemporary Review_, Oct., 1904,
and Sept., 1905.
There has long been a dispute among the historians
of marriage as
to the first form of human marriage. Some assume a
primitive
promiscuity gradually modified in the direction of
monogamy;
others argue that man began where the anthropoid
apes left off,
and that monogamy has prevailed, on the whole,
throughout. Both
these opposed views, in an extreme form, seem
untenable, and the
truth appears to lie midway. It has been shown by
various
writers, and notably Westermarck (_History of Human
Marriage_,
Chs. IV-VI), th