ve existed. Modern
women have remarked that the absurd custom of naming the celibate
woman differently to the married stigmatizes in society a number of
poor women and innocent children, and that it would be quite as just
to apply the term "damoiseau" to celibate men as "mademoiselle" to
non-married girls. An unmarried woman who has a child, and who has
only committed the sin of obeying nature, is branded with the stamp of
shame.

It is the children who constitute the true bond of marriage and give
it a legal character. When there are no children all legal and State
interference with conjugal affairs loses its sense so long as no one
is injured, and civil marriage can then be greatly simplified. I
maintain that so long as a sterile union, of whatever kind, between
responsible persons is voluntary, provokes no conflict between those
who have contracted it, and causes no injury to a third party, the law
has no right to meddle with it; because this union does not concern
society nor any of its members, excepting the two parties interested,
who are in accord.

At the present time, in many countries, the existing laws can be
utilized to form marriage contracts stipulating separation of
property, the right of each of the conjoints to the produce of his or
her work, as well as certain reciprocal rights and duties between the
parents and children. Matters can thus be arranged so as to correct
more or less the defects of the law.

=Marriage of Inverts.=--A peculiar and characteristic phenomenon is
the ardent desire of many sexual perverts, especially inverts, to
become secretly engaged or married to the abnormal homosexual object
of their love. It is needless to say that there can be no question of
legal regulation of such pathological marriages. But the law may
ignore them when they do no harm to any one, and regard them as
private affairs, especially when they prevent much worse evils, such
as the marriage of an invert to a normal individual.

=Civil Rights of Children. Matriarchism.=--As we have already said, it
is the children who constitute the real phylogenetic and
psychological bonds in marriage and the family, bonds which are deeply
rooted in human nature. This is so true that among many savage
peoples, if not in most, marriage is not considered legal as long as
it is sterile. Even among civilized people sterile women are generally
regarded as of less value. We may, therefore, regard the article in
the Code Napoleo