The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-02-25
AF-.
MARRIAGE.

+ MAHH1AGE.
| Prof. William Graham Sumner holds
| the chair Of social and political science
in the Yale university He has recently
! delivered lecture on marriage before
his class, which, must have occasioned
surprise to many Of the 800 or more young
bachelors who heard it. Among the
| other unusual and unexpected things
which the lecturer said about marriage
was the declaration that only about 10
| per cent Of married people, looking back
at their married life, can truthfully say
| that they have realized their ideals of
happiness According to him vicissitudes
| act on and change the married pair, and
therefore marriage In the strictest sense
is an ideal that has never been realized.
Like all human institutions, marriage
is Of course more or less Of a failure.
Men. and especially women, enter upon 1t
on an entirely false understanding of its
duties and obligations It Is hard to ask
young folks who are in love to look at
the serious side Of the proposition, but
usually before they have Travelled very
far on the matrimonial journey they are
brought up. often with a sharp turn, to
the realities Of the marriage existence.
Prof. Sumner says that marriage is
based on the struggle for existence
Originally, he adds, it was cooperation
by man and a woman against the ne
cessty Of sustaining life. Together a
man and a woman could fight better
against common antagonist than each
of them, separately, against the same an
tagonist. This is certainly not very In
spring view Of marriage, but no doubt it
represents the essence, Of the compact
among primitive peoples In such view
those who are disposed to simplify the
marriage ceremonies and who insist on
treating outwardlyo andin the legal sense
marriage a mere civil contract do
what they can toIsreduce the matter Of
ments.
The idealization of marriage has been
one of the most powerful influences work
II So u
ing toward human refinement. The
woven about the relation have lifted it
up to a plane of reverence and sanctity
which it's supreme Importance in the So
cial state entities 1t to occupy. The
Catholic church has always treated the
marriage as its Importance to society
merits She holds it divine institution
Making it a sacrament, she removes the
popular conception of 1t far above the
grossness which conceites of It only as
matter of worldly convenience. Except
to the scholar. 1t matters very little
whether the marriage ceremony was In
stituted, as Prof. Sumner insists, in the,
sixteenth century. or whether it was or
dained at the very outset of the Christian
era The fact remains, which no student
of social conditions win deny, that the
marriage ceremony In itself Is a good
thing, and that where it is observed fewer
marriages end in speedy disruption than
where it is dispensed with. ~
often ends with the ceremony. Nova
days too many young men marry because
they think they should: because they
think 1t is time for them to marry. Many
times they fail to marry their ideals; too
often they fail to1crealtze their ideals in
the married life. Nowadays, think, the
very marriage ceremony is very much
matter Of show, sfsaidasProf Sumner to
Importance of the declaration is not very
plain. Would the professor wholly dis
pense with the ceremony? And. If so,
what good results does he believe might
follow? Would he have4young men defer
marriage indefinitely, or until they could
secure some infallible assurance that
they had met their ideals and that the
poetry of the marriage relation would
end only with the grave?
Not even a professor of social science
can argue marriage out of court. There
it Is, and there 1t will remain, and the
prime duty of all who set themselves to
its direction or regulation Is to perpetu-
ate If and do what they can to render its
continuance as little of burden as posi-
Bile to those who enter upon it. 1t is the
great bond which holds Christian society
together. Everything that Is said or
done to diyest it of all the sacredness,
the poetry, the spirituality, which the
Catholic church, Of all the forces of our
age surrounds 1t with, merely helps to
bring 1t down to the level of animal as
ISOLATION With such tendency, sup
plemented by the moral influence Of
the divorce court. the era of social
disintegration and marital promis-
Guilty may not be actually In sight,
but 1t assuredly is not as far off as the
millennium by any means.
The man who made the complaint
against Olga Nethersole's play, "Sapho,
admits that he attended the performance
twice 1t Is not a long shot to wager
that he will not again get past the box
Office if the people Inside recognize him.
And the celebration Of sWashington's
birthday was held amid the glare of cleo
-.,t4t,t.ss roooI, ~ t,Ia