The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-06-12

: himself as follows:
The right of u single soul to fully and freely
/ express itself to live out and show forth all
/ the truth about itself 50 that II need have
I within itself no hidden thing. but be naked be
/ fore the universe and not be ashamed, Is IN
} HnIteiy more important than the whole fabric
! OF civilization
/ To this Mr. MacSherTy opposes the
following argument:
In plain language. this means that If a per
son Is not satisfied with the laws OF the land
AGAINST murder adultery or any form of crime,
| that he must live out his life and show the
! truth about himself In other words, - com
nit crime openly Is not sin
On this basis society would not exist year
! carry out such ideas these and in var
( from today 1t would not he safe tor q decent
! woman 10 walk the streets Motherhood would be
dlzhonored, true affection would be blasted. and
| property and position Insecure"
! The question is rather delicate one
| for general discussion. and is not likely
| to be settled permanently for some
time to come. for It is, at bottom. the
/ question what shall be the laws under
which marriage is permitted or forbid
den. 4 dozen different plans have been
tried for perfect adjustment of these
relations. and not one has been found
which did not bear hard on some par
Z :
minority if not the majority of cases.
Mr.. Heron has undoubtedly gotten
held OF one wrong end of the law. as
most of the right-minded people of this
country viii think; but the kind Of ar
gument which his opponent offers. If
it may be called an argument at all, is
about as bad. Mr.. AIacSherry makes a
number Of statements which are quite
unnecessary and mostly untrue. and
which, if they were true, would be some
extenuatiOn of the course OF the man
whom he so violently condemns. An ar
gument of that kind is a sort of boone
! rang
If it were really true that the result
/ Of peoples acting out their own natures
would be that no decent woman could
walk the streets. that motherhood
would be dishonored, and true affec-
ton blasted. society would be suspended
over the crater of a volcano to which
Kilauea Is three-penny blaze. There
could be no security in any mans at
fecticn for his wife. or any yroman's
for her husband. If the legal bond were
absolutely the only tie which held them
fty- The truth probably IS that the
genuine force of public sentiment. in
this country at least, is in favor Of
clean. decent living and respect for wo-
manhood. # there were not something
in human nature which tended that
way, the ideal of a home would never
have been formed at all Of realized
even in one instance It is true that
one cannot always tell which of the
homes in any given community harpors
some dreadful skeleton in the closet;
but neither can one tel which OF the
citizens of that same place is going to
have smallpox. The probabilities are
that one or more Of them will have it,
but no human power can pick out the
victim beforehand. Moreover, smallpox
and measles are considerably alike in
their incipient stages. and a goOd many
young married people become thorough
Iy convinced for a little time that they
have the plague, only to discover later,
with mingled joy and sheepishness, that
it was nothing but measles after all.
The truth Is thai there is more than
one way IN which & man can act out
!
restraint and tumble ANONYMOUSLY
into the clutch Of his lower impulses,
or ne cen make up his mind to follow
MS higher ones and act for the best
interests Of others as well as himself
It is not acting out his real nature
that is the matter with Mr. Heron: it
is MS implied teaching that every per
son has a right TO seek happiness
whether II interferes with other peoples !
rights and the general tone Of society
or not Instead Of striking at this self
induIgent philosophy as II Is, his critic /
is whacking away at a perfectly Iegiti- /
mate doctrine-the doctrine that an
honest man does not make false pre-
fences The distinction is rather a fine
one but il makes ali the difference in |
the world.
Various ways have been tried to set !
tie the relations between men and wo- |
men. The way Of the old French court
was TO preserve certain hollow and Iy- /
ing conventions. which everybody ex- !
cept rovices knew were false, and !!
which entrapped honest and innocent +
young folk into network of lies and t
know where the deceit and seIf-induI- /
gence stopped and prudence and prin- !
ciple began Partisan decay ate so far /
into the heart Of civilization during two /
or three centuries that the world is not /
even now rid of its evil This Republic |
started out with the idea, sneered at |
as somewhat bourgeois. that only love
justified marriage. and nothing justified !
divorce, consequently. the average per
son was rather careful about getting
married and about post-maritaI con-
duct, for some generations. When sos
ciety became more complex and social
relations more limited. AID the circle
Of acquaintance larger. there was a
tendency to give easy divorces. on the
ground that it was better to do this
than 10 tolerate a condition Of things
in which nobody knew just what was
to he allowed and what was not The
problem is still before the country, and
has been solved, after a fashion. by
nearly every State in a different way
It is certainly better to have as little |
deceit about sIch matters as possible.
In that way the indiscriminate mixture
Of pure and impure elements in society
is avoided. and those who wish to keep |
certain standards in their home life car