Page:Conventional Lies of our Civilization.djvu/321

Rh laws of natural selection, nor in the interests of the offspring; while theoretically it is an institution dictated by the interest of the preservation of the race,—although it is true, a falsely comprehended interest—created not for the benefit of the parents, but of the children. Theoretically the adult generation is sacrificed to the undeveloped or unborn, the stomachs of the little ones are provided for at the expense of the hearts of their parents—inexorably in those countries lying still under the direct influence of the Christian theological views of the world, rather more indulgently in those in which the enlightenment of more natural and human conceptions has been diffused. Catholicism which, as we have seen, considers love to be unauthorized and a sin, will not allow a dissolution of the marriage under any circumstances; it will not concede that two persons may have been mistaken in each other, or if they have been mistaken, that their life's happiness requires a separation. The peoples who are emancipated from Catholicism, make the concession to love that it exists, that it has rights, that it can even make its appearance outside of wedlock; but they make the concession reluctantly and only partially; they allow the separation to take place only under difficulties, they pursue the divorced pair with invidious prejudices, and carry their heartlessness so far, that they forbid a marriage with the person for love of whom the divorce has been obtained, who has been loved before the legal separation of the wedded pair took place—a prohibition whose stupidity and barbarity are really frightful.

This is immaculately consistent from the standpoint of the self-seeking economic organization of society, but from that of physiology and psychology, on the contrary, we see in it a cause for the gravest reflection. The marriage Is contracted for life. Let us suppose the most favorable