e fact which we here wish to emphasize is that the Female Principle
is refusing maternity, and above all the _bondage_ of matrimony for
the important reason that the time has come for the rearing of the
Man-god; for the establishment of the spiritual function of sex,
superceding the mere instinctive animal urge of procreation and sense
gratification.

Evolution is apparent in all other phases of our life-activities. Why
should it not manifest in this most important of all our systems of
intercourse?

The mere act of bringing forth children is not in itself either sacred
or holy. Far more often it has been a perfunctory duty or a punishment
for indulgence in an act of which men and women have been more than
half ashamed, even while seeking it with the instinctive urge of a
cosmic law which cannot be escaped, although it may be co-operated
with to advantage.

Nor does the act of giving birth to children confer true motherhood.
Maternity is not necessarily motherhood any more than matrimony is
always marriage. There are many mothers who have never borne children.
And there are many women with children who know not the first faint
dawn of that wonderful, beautiful and intense (because spiritual) love
which comes most often in the guise of motherhood, but which is
always present when two souls who are truly mated contact each other's
inner nature.

If the women of today will insist upon the sacredness and the
rightfulness of birth the women of tomorrow will not seek to evade
motherhood. If the women of today will establish the sacredness of all
life; if they will not rest until every child that is born into this
world is recognized as legitimate and more, is welcomed; is given
every advantage of education, of healthful body, of right moral
training, rest assured that the women of the future will seek only to
rival each other in the quality and the perfection of their
motherhood.

The efforts of many radicals to enact legislation regulating the
birthrate, the struggle to disseminate knowledge of how to prevent
conception, may be well meant as these things are consistent with
prevailing conditions. But they are not the final answer to the
problem. Love is the only answer. Where love is permitted to rule,
children are not only welcome but ecstatically desired and provided
for.

Motherhood is a hope and a joy to the normal woman. Comparatively
every woman would be normal under proper social and economic
conditions. Whe