tion is made of anticonceptional methods. This false modesty,
created by custom and prejudice, waxes indignant at innocent things,
whilst it encourages the greatest infamies.

=Hygiene of Marriage.=--When marriage is consummated on the basis of
free reciprocal consent, when both parties know exactly to what they
have pledged themselves, when the corrupting influence of money is
eliminated, when all unnatural regulation is suppressed, when the
superfluous blending of religion and legislation have been abolished
from the bonds of matrimony, when woman has finally obtained equal
rights with man--then love and mutual respect, combined with the
sexual appetite, will constitute the intimate and personal ties of
marriage. At the same time, instinctive sentiments and legal duties
toward the offspring will furnish it with a complementary and lasting
cement. Among men whose nature is true, the instructive sentiment of
altruism or conscience urges them to the performance of social duties
without the necessity of any legal obligation.

A few medical points now require our attention. The husband should be
older than the wife, on the average from six to twelve years. This
point is very important if a monogamous union is to be lasting. Woman
matures earlier than man, both mentally and sexually; her personality
becomes more rapidly adult than his; she ages more quickly and loses
her faculty of procreation sooner than man. Certain savage races solve
the problem by marrying as boys and girls, casting off their wives
when they grow old, to marry younger ones. Among civilized races, man
manages his affairs by making use of prostitution. From his youth he
succumbs to physical and moral corruption, often complicated with
venereal infection, and then often regards marriage as a kind of
hospital for incurables, where the wife plays the parts of housekeeper
and nurse combined!

It is not easy to steer clear of these rocks, nor to formulate a rule
for lasting monogamy. The old style of polygamy is brutal, and
prostitution is still more disgusting. The sentiments of the egoist
are summed up in the maxim, "After me the deluge!" To this the
preacher of morals replies that "man should curb his passions." But
this eternal dialogue does not help us in the least.

I propose a middle course, as follows: The young man who possesses
sufficient strength to overcome his sexual appetite, or whose sexual
appetite is so moderate that he can remain continen