g together. It is a day-by-day
consolidation, not only of interest or experience, but of satisfactions.
It is this that led Plato long ago to say that the man or woman apart
from the other is incomplete, a partial person, hungering for the needed
lover. Monogamy is, however, not a mere getting together; it is a
growing together. It furnishes the opportunity for continued unrivaled
intimacy, and its on-going not only strengthens the life together, but
makes it pregnant with the forces that lead to character growth.

Monogamy is therefore a preference, usually so much a matter of course
as to seem the natural way of living. This explains its supremacy among
the schemes of human mating. It is a product of love ties, but only as
these flourish in a maturing intimacy. It asks no more than that each
member of the fellowship grow with the other.

Monogamy is indeed a test of character, but not in some extraordinary,
aristocratic way that would put it out of the reach of most of us.
Although its benefits cannot be had for the mere asking, it is denied to
no one who in sincerity lives in love with the person of his choice. It
is an achievement, but not in the sense that one eventually awakens to
discover that he has at last arrived at a monogamic relationship. It is
rather a hand-in-hand walking through life of a man and woman, each
having chosen the other and offered his every possession. It as surely
adds to character as it demands character.

The vitalizing union provides incentives that enrich both character and
ambition. The two sharing a common life add more, do more, and feel more
than each found possible in their one-time isolation. This in turn
strengthens the union and makes each more indispensable to the other.
They do not attempt to duplicate each other, but knowing that their love
is secure, each gains through the life contact of the other. It was thus
that Robert and Elizabeth Browning each affected the quality of the
other's work, both being able to write deeper and more human poetry as a
result of their marriage.

It is most important for an understanding of monogamy that it not be
thought of as a monotony, a petering out of the energy of love until the
high hopes of the confident lovers disappear in a drab, toilsome
existence. This fading out does come to married people just as it does
to those who have never married. Rightly used, however, monogamic
fellowship protects by making adventure in life more zestfu