Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-06-16

It's Relation TO Nature, Christian
tty and Civilization.


ity and Civilization.
In the last number Of the Atlantic
Magazine there is an article on Mar
rage" by Henry James, which contains
some sound arguments, The author ev'
identity took his text from the McFar-
land trial, and says a great many things
that he should not have said. We select
a few extracts from review by the Ma
ton for our readers laM tN
SACRAMENT OR COMPACT?
Marriage being simply the agreement
of two friends of opposite sexes to live
together and share expenses, from feel
ing of sentimental attachment, and with
view to the improvement of each
others character, the efforts of society to
make the relation perpetual are, of
course, as outrageous as would be a SIM
liar effort to make the friendship of two
men or two women perpetual. Two
friends of the same sex separate when
one "outgrows the other; or when one
of them ceases to derive comfort or ed
ification from the others society, or sees
another friend to whom he or she feels
more strongly drawn; and why not two
friends OF opposite sexes? That the rule
should be the same in both cases-that
is, that the continuance of the married
relation should be left to the discretion
of the parties-is indeed the doctrine
now openly preached by the advocates
of 81 easy divorce" 1t crops out, IN one
form or other, in most of the discourses
on matrimony which pour from the re
formatory press.
LAW TO OUR NATURE.
Now. what is the view that civil So
ciety takes of marriage, and has taken
ever since the institution was founded?
What is the view which it must take, not
simply to secure its own existence
which is, after all, no paltry end-but to
save the race from moral ruinf The SEX
ual passionate animal, brute passion
through which God, apparently in igno-
rance of the laws of moral progress,
has provided for the perpetuation of the
human species-is the most untamable
of all the passions, and is an inseparable
concomitant of physical health, and,
though susceptible of control by mora
means, is not capable of extinction or
repression; there is not particle of rea-
son for supposing that it is any weaker
now than it was six thousand years ago,
though it seeks qualification in different
ways. The experience of the race shows
it to exert more powerful influence on
the moral and material welfare of human
beings than any other agency whatever.
ITS REGULATION
that is, the limitation of the field over
which men or women should be permitted
to indulge in it--was therefore the very
first step in clvilization--the first thing
which had to be done to raise man above
the beast The foundation Of the family
was the first attempt to regulate it. 1t
is matter of individual as well as ma
tional experience, that there is probably
nothing which does more to brutalize
and depraye, to foster selfish and mate
realistic views of life, than a multiplicity |
of sexual connections on the part of the |
same person, and one of the most marked
tendencies of the sexual passion is tow
ard safety and change Of object. More
over, though it makes some difference, it
does not make a very great difference in
the effect on Individual or national char
acter whether this love OF change be
gratified under cover Of discretionary
divorce law, or in open defiance of law
and of public opinion.
coYsTANcY.
That mysterious law of our nature
which makes sexual constancy not only |
one of the signs but one of the conditions
of our elevation above the brute works in |
complete indepence Of divorce legisla-
ton, and no law or custom can save the |
wife of many living husbands, or the |
husband of many living wives. any more
than the mistress of many lovers, or the |
lover of many mistresses, from the mark |
of the beast. We leave it to theologians
and moralists to say whether chastity be
a virtue in itself, or only conventional
virtue. 1t is enough for us to know, as
matter of experience, that Burns was a
sound sociologist, as well as a good poet, |
when he said of libertinage that
at hardeps a. within,
And petrifes the feelin's"
and that the hymns to Consistency which |
lovers are always singing, are not the
mere outpourings of sickly sentiment,
bnt embody an unconscious recognition
of the source from which all that is
noblest and purest in the sexual relation |
flows.
CARE OF CHILDREN.
The second reason of society in max
ing the marriage contract nermanent il /
that the birth of children is, whether the
object of marriage or not, one of its or
binary results. Society, therefore, says
to couples about to marry: There is
every reason to suppose that children /
will be the result of your union The |
young Of the human species are helpless
and dependent on their parents for sup
port for about fifteen years; they are de-
pendent on them for education and /
counsel for at least twenty. | have no
objection TO your getting married and /
having children: in fact. / approve of il. /