id; and yet nothing that
we can unearth regarding her personal life and habits would seem to
have warranted the cruel gibes that were hurled at her. The dear old
lady lived a most continent, even ascetic life.

But the world has made rapid strides since that time, and we trust
that the urgent need of something reasonable and feasible upon the sex
question will inspire the reader to an unprejudiced review of this
chapter. We would that it were possible to supply a modicum of
understanding with each copy of this volume; but since it is not, we
must take our chance with the average. Let us reason together:

Expediency is the mother of morality in social organizations, which
have, of necessity, unstable, ever-changing standards. These standards
represent, for some, ideals yet to be attained; while for others they
become mere mileposts on the path of Evolution. The individual
reaches, and then passes, an accepted ideal; gradually when a
sufficient number, constituting a majority, have reached this ideal,
it ceases to be a standard for the social organization, and another
ideal is substituted.

The laws of the cave-man called for self-restraint exercised toward
his own immediate clan, and this necessity for self-restraint was
based upon nothing higher than the law of self-preservation; but
gradually the sphere widened; from clan to nation. So do our ethical
and moral standards enlarge. Traditional concepts are not necessarily
wrong, but they are almost sure to be inadequate to evolving Mankind.

Formerly, sexual morality consisted of the reservation of the person
of a sister to the use of her brothers. Any infringement upon this
moral code was punished by death to the woman and to her out-clannish
lover.

And we have today an analogous example, although we are glad to say,
it is not the highest standard; still, if one's husband or wife
violates the marriage vows, it is more condonable, if the
co-respondent be of the wealthy class; and in monarchies it is
accounted an honor to have been selected as the king's favorite.

The institution of prostitution which exists everywhere today has its
standards in the different countries; and the white races seem to
think that their morality is superior to that of the Orientals because
the social standing of prostitutes in the Orient is not irretrievably
lost; they are permitted, in the event of marriage, to resume social
equality with other women. Among white people, prostitutes ha