[842] ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS, "Women's Views of Divorce," _North Am. Rev._, CL, 130, 131.
It is vain to conceal from ourselves the fact that here is a real menace to society. Marriages thus formed are almost sure to be miserable failures from the start. It is the simple truth, as earnest writers have insisted, that often under such conditions the nuptial ceremony is but a legal sanction of "prostitution within the marriage bond," whose fruit is wrecked motherhood and the feeble, base-born children of unbridled lust. The command to "be fruitful and multiply," under the selfish and thoughtless interpretation which has been given it, has become a heavy curse to womanhood and a peril to the human race.[843] On the face of it, is it not grotesque to call such unions holy or to demand that they shall be indissoluble? What chance is there under such circumstances for a happy family life or for worthy home-building? In sanctioning divorce the welfare of the children may well cause the state anxiety; but are there not thousands of so-called "homes" from whose corrupting and blighting shadow the sooner a child escapes the better for both it and society?
[843] _Cf._ FLOWER, "Prostitution Within the Marriage Bond," _Arena_, XIII, 59-73; _idem_, "Wellsprings of Immorality," _ibid._, XI, 56-70; HEINZEN, _The Rights of Women and the Sexual Relations_, 44 ff.; STETSON, _Women and Economics_, 63 ff.; CAIRD, _Morality of Marriage_, 73-91, 134 ff., discussing the influence of the Reformation upon sensuality; KARL PEARSON, "Socialism and Sex," in his _Ethic of Free Thought_, 427-46, on the alleged evil influence of Luther on the sex-relations; BEBEL, _Die Frau und der Sozialismus_, 93 ff., taking the opposite view as to Luther, and considering the causes of the decline in the birth and marriage rates.
The traditional opinion is represented by NAUMANN, _Christenthum und Familie_, 21, 22, who believes in getting children at all hazards, relying on God to take care of them: "Es gibt auch Christen," he says, "welche sich vor Entfaltung des vollen Gottessegens in den Ehen fürchten, ganz als ob es nicht wahr wäre: was unser Gott erschaffen hat, das will er auch erhalten. In unsern Augen ist es Glaubensschwäche, wenn ein christliches Volk sich vor dem Gottessegen reicher, blühender Kinderschaaren fürchtet." On the same side see HARTMANN, _The Sexes Compared_, 28 ff.; POMEROY, _The Ethics of Marriage_, 45 ff., 94 ff. For an antidote read the able discussion of the diminishing need of child-bearing under modern conditions, by OLIVE SCHREINER, "The Woman Question," _Cosmopolitan_, XXVIII, 51 ff.; and LADY SOMERSET, "The Welcome Child," _Arena_, XII, 42-49; criticised by USSHER, _Neo-Malthusianism_, 101 ff., 201. _Cf._ WRIGHT, _Practical Sociology_, 68 ff.; BERTHEAU, _Lois de la population_, 299 ff., 342 ff.