p exclusively of their own mothers and sisters.

A more rational mode of life should be adopted which would include
abstinence from all alcoholic drinks, from excess in eating and from
flesh meat, on the one hand, and recourse to physical labor on the
other. I am not speaking of gymnastics, or of any of those occupations
which may be fitly described as playing at work; I mean the genuine toil
that fatigues. No one need go far in search of proofs that this kind of
abstemious living is not merely possible, but far less hurtful to health
than excess. Hundreds of instances are known to every one. This is my
first contention.

In the second place, I think that of late years, through various reasons
which I need not enter, but among which the above-mentioned laxity
of opinion in society and the frequent idealization of the subject in
current literature and painting may be mentioned, conjugal infidelity
has become more common and is considered less reprehensible. I am of
opinion that this is not right. The origin of the evil is twofold. It is
due, in the first place, to a natural instinct, and, in the second, to
the elevation of this instinct to a place to which it does not rightly
belong. This being so, the evil can only be remedied by effecting a
change in the views now in vogue about "falling in love" and all that
this term implies, by educating men and women at home through family
influence and example, and abroad by means of healthy public opinion, to
practice that abstinence which morality and Christianity alike enjoin.
This is my second contention.

In the third place I am of opinion that another consequence of the false
light in which "falling in love," and what it leads to, are viewed
in our society, is that the birth of children has lost its pristine
significance, and that modern marriages are conceived less and less from
the point of view of the family. I am of opinion that this is not right.
This is my third contention.

In the fourth place, I am of opinion that the children (who in our
society are considered an obstacle to enjoyment--an unlucky accident, as
it were) are educated not with a view to the problem which they will be
one day called on to face and to solve, but solely with an eye to
the pleasure which they may be made to yield to their parents. The
consequence is, that the children of human beings are brought up for
all the world like the young of animals, the chief care of their parents
being not to