AND WHOLESOME.

INTRODUCTION

=A Threefold Aim.=--This book is based upon three theses--namely,
first, that the monogamic, private, family is a priceless inheritance
from the past and should be preserved; second, that in order to
preserve it many of its inherited customs and mechanisms must be
modified to suit new social demands; and third, that present day
experimentation and idealistic effort already indicate certain
tendencies of change in the family order which promise needed
adjustment to ends of highest social value.

Many learned books have been written concerning the evolution of sex,
the history of matrimonial institutions and the development of the
family. This volume is not an attempted rival of any of these. The
work of Havelock Ellis, of Le Tourneau, of Otis T. Mason, of Geddes
and Thompson, and others building upon the foundations laid by the
great pioneers in the study of the family, constitute a sufficient
mine of historical information and scientific analysis and evaluation.
The studies and suggestions of Olive Schreiner, Mrs. Clews Parsons,
Mrs. Helen Bosanquet, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ellen Key and others
indicate the tendency of modern inquiry into the just basis of the
family order. The work of Professors Howard, Giddings, Thomas, Boss,
Goodsell, Calhoun, Patten, Dealey, Cooley, Ellwood, Todd and others in
college fields, shows the importance of the family and the necessity
of giving all that concerns it the most serious attention.

This book aims to begin where many of these students leave off and to
turn specific attention to the problems of personal and ethical
decision which now face men and women who would make their own married
life and parenthood successful. The past experience of the race is
drawn upon only in so far as it seems to explain present conditions
and point the way to future social and personal achievements.

=Basic Principles Underlying All Socially Useful Changes.=--A
fundamental principle in democracy is the right and duty of every
human being to develop a strong, noble and distinctive individuality.
For such development it is necessary that a person be self-supporting,
free of despotic control by others, and able and willing to bear equal
part with every other human being in the social order to which he or
she belongs.

This implies that no human being should be wholly sacrificed in
personal development to the service or welfare of any other human
being, or g