The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-03-18
A PHYSICIAN ON MARRIAGE.
Present-day Loose Views seathineIy
Condemned.

DR.. Stanton Colt, lecturing before
Woma9's club in Milwaukee recent
ly, spoke straight from the shoulder
when scoring the radical thought of
the sday concerning matrimony.
BERNARD Shaw" he said, ''in Man
and Superman,' tells us that the dis
eliminating man wants three women.
one to give him domesticity, make
nest for him; a second to be his pre-
siding genius, his collaboratrice, a
buffer between him and the world;
while thirdly, he wants woman to
be the mother of his children.
SHAW says that it is too much to
expect these three in one woman.
Now this is clever-diabolical
clever, but it isn't true. A youth of
20, before he knows anything about
himself, might think so, and he
wouldn't be a mailman; but a man of
IS, if he were still doing that sort of
thing, would be a mailman, an enemy
of society, and so would a woman of
that type.
THE essence of sanity is found in
the coordination of all these needs
in one woman. Sanity is the blending
of the sex instinct with the spiritual.
1T is only at 80 or 40 years of
age that most men fully realize the
true beauty and holiness of marriage
1t becomes all holy, all united in one
person.
THE man who feels this disinte-
the very man who needs the one wom-
an of the home.
Il wonder if you don't realize that
true attachment deepens in men as
the specialized function weakens. PeO-
pie must wait through the first crude
years for the knitting of sex and
spirit. co-ordinating all instinct into
one unity. That is true marriage
AS a woman's beauty fades, as a man
sees that his wife could not fascinate
anyone else, his love deepens and his
tenderness grows, and the same is
that l speak of.
Think of the monstrousness of
people who are fascinated, but do not
want offspring. Think Of the mon
StrousnesS of women who will bring
children into the world and then turn
them over to a wet nurse or bottle.
Such people ought to be bounded.
Every woman who brings child into
the world should make herself good
nurSemaid.
Il have never been able to see why,
when woman is married to a man.
she shouldn't be kind to him, nor why
a man should not be kind to a wom-
an just because he has married her.
The Don Juans and Donna Juan
mas, who sip here and there, faithful
to none, cannot be trusted i'll any re-
latiOn of life Lincoln's marriage was
failure, but he didn't drop the WOm-
an. He was a shy man, SO shy that
he didn't turn up at his marriage,
and SO the woman, it is said, mar
ried him to retaliate upon him. But
he maintained his absolute loyalty to
her That is the type of man who
would be absolutely loyal to his oath
Of office. No Don Juan is fit to be a
leader, teacher, a preacher, head of a
navy, or in any other position of trust.
Il would not have divorce granted
simply for incompatibility. There are
too many people in the world, in the
words of Galsworthy, who are too
fine and not fine enough They are
20
commonplace. Your incompatibility
may only be because you are half
cracked Perhaps because you see
someone handsomer. But wandering
fantasies can be checked, and one
can shut ones eyes. Perhaps you
have been concentrating too much on
each other, and all you need is trip
around the world.
4 would not have divorce granted
for childlessness. Are we of so much
Importance, is it SO vital to the world
that we bequeathe our stock to it,
for that reason alone, that we should
drop a woman who has been a true
wife, a spiritual helpmate?
Many who call themselves Social
lists declare that they don't believe
in marriage, that the right to mate,
to reproduce life, is the individual
right of every person. 1 believe that
is rank anarchy.
Il believe the time will come when
one man and one woman will be the
rule, when monogamy will be the
principle advocated by every adyanc-
ed thinker"