Chapter CXII: Section CCL

INFLUENCE OF THE PROFANATION OF MARRIAGE ON POPULATION.

D. In the preceding paragraphs, we treated of the wild shoots of the tree of population. But the roots of the tree are still more directly attacked by all those influences which diminish the sacredness of the marriage bond. It is obvious how heartless _marriages de convenance_,[250-1] inconsiderate divorces and frequent adulteries mutually promote one another. And the period of Roman decline also is the classic period of this evil. I need only cite the political speculation in which Caesar gave his only daughter to the much older Pompey, or the case of Octavia, who when pregnant was compelled to marry the libertine Antonius.[250-2] Instead of the Lucretias and Virginias of older and better times, we now find women of whom it was said: _non consulum numero, sed maritorum annos suos computant_.[250-3] In the numerous class of young people who live without the prospect of any married happiness of their own, we find a multitude of dangerous persons who ruin the married happiness of others, especially where marriage has been contracted between persons too widely separated by years. _Corrumpere et corrumpi sæculum vocatur._ (_Tacitus_).[250-4] It is easy to understand how all this must have diminished the desire of men to marry. Even Metellus Macedonicus (131 before Christ) had declared marriage to be a necessary evil.[250-5] [250-6]

In such ages young girls are kept subject to a convent-like discipline, that their reputation may be protected and that they may be able to get husbands; but once married they are wont to be all the more lawless. In a pure moral atmosphere, precisely the opposite course obtains.[250-7]

And so it has been frequently observed, that among declining nations the social differences between the two sexes are first obliterated and afterwards even the intellectual differences. The more masculine the women become, the more effeminate become the men. It is no good symptom when there are almost as many female writers and female rulers as there are male. Such was the case, for instance, in the Hellenistic kingdoms, and in the age of the Cæsars.[250-8] What to-day is called by many the emancipation of woman would ultimately end in the dissolution of the family, and, if carried out, render poor service to the majority of women. If man and woman were placed entirely on the same level, and if in the competition between the two sexes nothing but an actual superiority should decide, it is to be feared that woman would soon be relegated to a condition as hard as that in which she is found among all barbarous nations. It is precisely family life and higher civilization that have emancipated woman. Those theorizers who, led astray by the dark side of higher civilization, preach a community of goods, generally contemplate in their simultaneous recommendation of the emancipation of woman a more or less developed form of a community of wives. The grounds of the two institutions are very similar. The use of property and marriage is condemned because there is evidence of so much abuse of both. Men despair of making the advantages that accompany them accessible to all, and hence would refuse them to every one; they would improve the world without asking men to make a sacrifice of their evil desires. The result, also, would be about the same in both cases. (§ 81.) So far would prostitution and illegitimacy be from disappearing that every woman would be a woman of the town and every child a bastard. There would, indeed, be a frightful hinderance under such circumstances to the increase of population. The whole world would be, so to speak, one vast foundling asylum.[250-9]

But there is another sense to the expression emancipation of woman. It should not be ignored that, in fully peopled countries, there is urgent need of a certain reform in the social condition of woman. The less the probability of marriage for a large part of the young women of a country becomes, the more uncertain the refuge which home with its slackened bonds offers them for old age, the more readily should the legal or traditional barriers which exclude women from so many callings to which they are naturally adapted be done away with.[250-10] This is only a continuation of the course of things which has led to the abolition of the old guardianship of the sex. It may be unavoidable not to go much farther sometimes; but such a necessity is a lamentable one.[250-11] The best division of labor is that which makes the woman the glory of her household, only it is unfortunately frequently impossible.

[Footnote 250-1: This expression is applicable only in times
of higher civilization where individual disposition of self
is considered the most essential want. During the middle
ages, when the family tie is yet so strong, the contract of
marriage was generally formed by the family; but this was
not, as a rule, felt a restraint. In France, at the present
time, of 1,000 men who marry before their 20th year, 30.8
marry women from 35 to 50 years of age, and 4.8 who marry
women over 50 years of age. (_Wappäus_, A. Bevölkerung.
Stat. II, 291.)]

[Footnote 250-2: _Propertius_ bitterly complains of the
corruption prevalent in love affairs in his time. (III, 12.)
In the Hellenic world, also, among the successors of
Alexander the Great, there was a revoltingly large number of
_marriages de convenance_, so that even the old Seleucos
took to wife the grand-daughter of his competitor Antegonos,
Lysimachos the daughter of Ptolemy etc. _Dante's_ lament
over the anxiety of fathers to whom daughters are born
concerning their future dowry: Paradiso, XV, 103. Florentine
law of 1509, against large dowries: _Machiavelli_, Lett.
fam., 60. In the United States, marriage dowries are of
little importance. (_Graf Görtz_, Reise um die Welt, 116.)

[Footnote 250-3: _Seneca_, de Benef., III, 16--a frightful
chapter. Also, I, 9. _Juvenal_ speaks of ladies who in five
years had married eight men (IV, 229, seq.), and _Jerome_
saw a woman buried by her 23d husband, who himself had had
21 wives, one after another, (ad. Ageruch, I, 908.) The
first instance of a formal divorce _diffareatio_ is said to
have occurred in the year 523, after the building of the
city (_Gellius_, IV, 3), a clear proof that the Romulian
description of marriage, as koinônia hapantôn hierôn kai
chrêmatôn (Dionys., A. R. II., 25), was long a true one. The
old manus-marriage certainly supposes great confidence of
the wife and her parents in the fidelity of the husband,
while the marriage law of the time of the emperors relating
to estates never lost sight of the possibility of divorce.
The facility of obtaining amicable divorces (the most
dangerous of all) appears from the gifts allowed, _divorti
causa_, in L., 11, 12, 13, 60, 61, 62; Dig., XXIV, 1. In
Greece, we meet with the characteristic contrast, that, in
earlier times, wives were bought, but that later, large
dowries had to be insured to them or the risk of divorce at
pleasure be assumed. (_Hermann_, Privataltherthümer, § 30.)
How women themselves married again, even on the day of their
divorce, see _Demosth._, adv. Onet., 873; adv. Eubul., 1311.
On Palestine, see Gospel of _John_, 4, 17 ff. Concerning
present Egypt, where prostitution is carried on especially
by cast-off wives, see _Wachenhusen_, vom ägypt, armen Mann,
II, 139. During the great French revolution, divorces were
so easily obtained that but little was wanted to make a
community of wives. (Vierzig Bücher, IV, 205; Handbuch des
französischen Civilrechts, § 450.) The more divorces there
are in a Prussian province, the more illegitimate births
also. Thus, for instance, Brandenburg, 1860-64, had 1,721
divorces, and one illegitimate birth for every 7.8
legitimate (max.). Rhenish Prussia, four divorces and one
illegitimate birth for every 25.4 legitimate (min.). In the
cities of Saxony, it is estimated there are, for every
10,000 inhabitants, 36 divorced persons; in the country,
only 19 (_Haushofer_, Statistik, 487 seq.); in Württemberg,
20; Thuringia, 33; all Prussia, 19; Berlin, 83. (_Schwabe_,
Volkszählung von, 1867 p. XLV.)]

[Footnote 250-4: _Cicero_, in his speech for Cluentius,
gives us a picture of the depth to which families in his
time had fallen through avarice, lust, etc., which it makes
one shudder to contemplate. Moreover, of the numerous
families mentioned in _Drumann's_ history, there are
exceedingly few which, either actively or passively had not
had some share in some odious scandal. Concerning even Cato,
see _Plutarch_, Cato, II, 25. Messalina's systematic
patronage of adultery: _Dio Cass._, LX, 18.]

[Footnote 250-5: _Gellius_, I, 6. In Greece, the same
symptoms appear clearly enough, even in _Aristophanes_:
compare especially his Thesmophoriazusae. The frequently
cited woman-hatred of Euripides is part and parcel hereof;
also the fact that since Socrates' time, the most celebrated
Grecian scholars lived in celibacy. (_Athen._, XIII, 6 seq.;
_Plin._, H. N., XXXV, 10.) Compare Theophrast in Hieronym.
adv. Jovin, I, 47, and _Antipater_, in _Stobæus_, Serm.,
LXVII, 25.]

[Footnote 250-6: In modern Italy, the monstrosity known as
cicisbeism had not assumed any great proportions before the
17th century, in consequence of the bad custom which
permitted no woman to appear in public without such
attendant, and ridiculed the husband for accompanying his
own. In the time of the republics, the conventual seclusion
of girls and the duenna system were not yet customary.
(_Sismondi_, Gesch. der Italiennischen Republiken, XVI, 251,
ff., 498, ff.) Adultery punished with death in many cities
of medieval Italy: for instance, the Jus Municipale
Vicentinum, 135. Concerning the Spanish cicisbeos, who
evince as much shamelessness as fidelity, see _Townsend_,
Journey, II, 142, ff. _Bourgoing_, Tableau, II, 308, ff. The
so-called _cortejos_ are generally young clerics or young
officers.]

[Footnote 250-7: A young American woman says to Mrs. Butler:
"We enjoy ourselves before marriage, but in your country
girls marry to obtain a greater degree of freedom, and
indulge in the pleasures and dissipations of society." While
the young girls are always to be met with in the streets,
wives are to be found always in the kitchen. (_Mrs. Butler_,
American Journal, II, 183.) Compare _Beaumont_, Marie ou
l'Esclavage aux États-Unis, I, 25 ff. 349. The opposite
extreme in Italy, where, therefore, too favorable an
inference should not be drawn from the small number of
illegitimate births. Morally considered, one act of adultery
outweighs 10 _stupra!_ Even in the age of the renaissance,
the free intercourse of young girls in England and the
Netherlands made a favorable impression on Italian
travelers; _Bandello_, Nov., II, 42; IV, 27.

Similar contrast in antiquity between Ionian and Dorian
women. Wives were more rigidly excluded from entering
gymnasia for males in Sparta than young girls. (_Pausan._,
V, 6, 5; VI, 20, 6; _Plato_, De Legg., VII, 805; _Xenoph._,
De Rep. Laced., I.) Compare _K. O. Müller_, Dorier, II, 276
ff.]

[Footnote 250-8: _Plato_, De Legg., VI, 774, and
_Aristotle_, Polit., II, 6; V, 9, 6; VI, 2, 12, complain of
the too great supremacy of women in their day. Colossal land
ownership of Lacedemonian women. (_Aristot._, Polit., II, 6,
11.) And yet even Plato advises that women be allowed to
participate in the gymnasia, in the assemblies and to hold
public office, etc. They were indeed different from men, but
not as regards those qualities which fit for ruling. (De
Rep., V, 451 ff.; De Legg., VI, 780; VII, 806.) That the
Roman courtesans wore the male toga and were therefore
called togatæ. _Horat._, Serm., I, 2, 63 ff., 80 ff.;
_Martial_, VI, 64, recalls certain caricatures of very
recent times; for instance, Bakunius' demand that both sexes
should wear the same kind of dress. (_R. Meyer_,
Emancipationskampf des 4 Standes, I, 43.) Later, concerning
wifish men, see _Apuleius_, Metam., VIII; _Salvian_, Gubern.
Dei VII. We are led to a related subject in noticing that in
England of persons charged with serious crimes there were 10
women to 30 men; in Russia only 10 women to 81 men. (_v.
Oettingen_, 758.) As _Riehl_ remarks, Famille 15, the
undeniable _consensus gentium_, that the costume of men
should differ from that of women, is an equally undeniable
protest against this species of emancipation. I would add
that, as among ourselves in the earliest years of childhood,
so also among lowly civilized peoples, the difference in
costumes of the sexes is least apparent. (_Tacit._, Germ.,
17; Plan. Carpin., Voyage en Tartarie; Add. éd., Bergeron,
art. 2.) Even the physical difference is smaller there
(_Waitz_, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, I, 76), especially
in the size of the pelvis. (_Peschel_, Völkerkunde, 81,
86.)]

[Footnote 250-9: Even _Plato_ complains of the unnatural
relations of the sexes to one another, and would instead
have the unions of couples of short duration introduced, and
complete community of children under the direction of the
state. (De Rep., V.) The Stoic Chrysippos approves the
procreation of children by parent and child, brother and
sister. (_Diog. Laert._, VII. 188.) In the time of Epictetus
(Fr. 53, ed. Duebner), the Roman women liked to read Plato's
republic, because in his community of wives they found an
excuse for their own course. The Anabaptists appealed to
Christ's saying that he who would not lose what he loved
could not be his disciple. Thus the women should sacrifice
their honor and suffer shame for Christ's sake. Publicans
and prostitutes were fitter for heaven than honorable wives,
etc. (_Hagen_, Deutschlands Verhältnisse im
Reformationszeitalter, III, 221.)

In our days, the theory inimical to the family is based
rather on misconceived ideas of freedom and science. The
Christian mortification of the flesh is, it is said,
one-sidedness; and that the flesh no less than the spirit is
of God. Hence it is that Saint Simonism would reconcile the
two, and "emancipate" the flesh. (_Enfantin_, Economie
politique, 2d ed., 1832.) _Fourier_, in his Harmonie, allows
each woman to have one _époux_ and two children by him; one
_géniteur_ and one child by him; one _favori_ and as many
_amants_ with no legal rights as she wishes. His "harmonic"
world he would protect against over-population by four
organic measures: the _régime gastrosophique_, the object of
which is by first-class food to oppose fecundity; _la vigeur
des femmes_, because sickly women have most children;
_l'exercise intégral_, since by the exercise of all the
organs of the body the organs of generation are latest
developed; lastly the _moeurs phanérogames_, the minuter
description of which _Fourier's_ disciples omitted in the
later editions. (_N. Monde_, 377, ff.) _Fourier_ was of
opinion that only one-eighth of the mothers should be
occupied with the bringing up of the children, and that a
child's own parents were least adapted to bringing it up, as
is proved by the natural aversion of the child to mind the
advice or obey the injunctions of its own parents. (186 ff.)
If all were left free to choose their employment, two-thirds
of all men would devote themselves to the sciences, and
one-third of all women; the fine arts would be cultivated by
one-third of the men and two-thirds of the women. In
agriculture, two-thirds of the men and one-third of the
women would take to large farming, and to small farming
one-third of the men and two-thirds of the women.

The Communistic Journal, L'Humanitaire, is in favor of a
community of wives proper, while _Cabet_ leaves the question
an open one. Compare, besides, _Godwin_ on Political
Justice, 1793, VIII, ch. 8. In beautiful contrast to this
are _J. G. Fichte's_ (compare, _supra_, § 2) views on
marriage and the family in the appendix to his Naturrecht,
although he, too, would largely facilitate divorce.]

[Footnote 250-10: _J. Bentham_, Traité de Législation, II,
237, seq., says that it is scarcely decent for men to engage
in the toy trade, the millinery business, in the making of
ladies' dresses, shoes, etc. Compare _M. Wolstoncraft_,
Rettung der Rechte des Weibes, translated by Salzmann, 1793;
_v. Hippel_, über die bürgerliche Verbesserung der Weiber,
1792. Rich in remarks on the woman question are _K. Marlo_,
System der Weltökonomie, and _Schäffle_, Kapitalismus und
Socialismus, 444 ff., who, for the most part, supports him.
Compare _Josephine Butler_, Woman's Work and Woman's
Culture: a Series of Essays, 1792; _Leroy-Beaulieu_, Le
Travail des Femmes au. 19, siècle, 1873. Between 1867 and
1871, the number of men dependent on their own action in
Berlin, increased 22.9 per cent.; of women dependent on
their own labor, 36.6 per cent. (_Schwabe_, Volkszählung,
1871, 84.)]

[Footnote 250-11: _J. S. Mill_, on the other hand, rejoices
over the great economic independence of women, and expects
from it especially a decrease in the number of thoughtless
marriages. (Principles, IV, ch. 7, 3. Compare by the same
author, The Subjection of Women, 1869.) I need only mention
the dramatic art and the factory proletariat, where the
independence in question obtains and indeed with very
different results! It is very characteristic of the time,
that _Homer_(Il., XII, 433) considered the spinning for
wages as despicable, while _Socrates_, in the mournful
period following the Peloponnesian war, earnestly counsels
that free women without fortune should employ themselves
with home industries. (_Xenoph._, Memor., II, 7.) It is in
keeping with this that during the time of scarcity after the
Peloponnesian war even female citizens hired themselves out
as nurses. (_Demosth._, adv. Eubul., 1309, 1313.) The
frequency of such engagements has, in many respects, causes
related to these which produce a frequency of illegitimate
births.]