Page:Little Essays of Love and Virtue (1922).djvu/81



has always been common to discuss the psychology of women. The psychology of men has usually been passed over, whether because it is too simple or too complicated. But the marriage question to-day is much less the wife-problem than the husband-problem. Women in their personal and social activities have been slowly expanding along lines which are now generally accepted. But there has been no marked change of responsive character in the activities of men. Hence a defective adjustment of men and women, felt in all sorts of subtle as well as grosser ways, most felt when they are husband and wife, and sometimes becoming acute.

It is necessary to make clear that, as is here assumed at the outset, “man” and “husband” are not quite the same thing, even when they refer to the same person. No doubt that is also true of “woman” and “wife.” A woman in her quality as woman may be a different kind of person from what she is in her function as wife. But in the case of a man the distinction is more