cience and progress, far surpasses all those which have
preceded it in the richness of its means of production for the wants
of humanity, not only shows more and more rich with superfluous
wealth, but also more and more poor who vegetate from the want of it.

What is still more grave is that, for reasons of economy, the
intelligent, educated and cultured marry less often and procreate
fewer children. Again, our descendants degenerate more and more, owing
to the consumption of alcohol or other narcotics, and the unhealthy
life they lead. This degeneration is dissimulated by their
well-nourished appearance, but is revealed in their increasing
neuropathic tendency. They become accustomed to a number of artificial
wants, which make them increasingly difficult to satisfy. This results
in their exacting from society much more than they give to it by their
work; whereas each ought to give to society more than he receives from
it. As evil omens, I must mention the idleness of many women with
regard to household and manual work. What are the effects of this
state of things on the sexual life of modern society? They are of
three kinds:

(1) _Marriage for money_; (2) _prostitution_, exploited by
proxenetism, and between the two (3) _venal concubinage_.

MARRIAGE FOR MONEY

Marriage for money is the modern form or derivative of marriage by
purchase. Formerly one bought a wife and sold a daughter; to-day one
is sold to a wife and buys a son-in-law. The improvement consists in
the fact that the buyer and the bought are no longer in the positions
of proprietor and object possessed, respectively. Nevertheless,
marriage at the present day gives rise to much traffic, speculation
and exploitation of an evil nature.

These things are so well known that I need not dwell upon them. In
place of love, force of character, capacity, harmony of sentiments,
intellectual and bodily health, money is the _alpha et omega_ of
marriage. Money dazzles most men so that they are blind to everything
else. They no longer understand that the health and the physical and
moral worth of a woman constitute a capital which is far preferable to
all the title-deeds deposited in the coffers of the future
father-in-law, which are rapidly squandered by children tainted with
bad physical or mental heredity. In this way ignorance of the laws of
heredity and the rapacity of pecuniary interests perpetually tend
toward the antisocial procreation of a degenerate post