Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/474

470, to a woman with a sound body about eighteen years of age, is almost, if not the only, means of preserving the virtue of the rising generation of men. People, and even mothers, speak lightly of their daughters at twenty-six or twenty-seven marrying men who have sown their wild oats; but one must reap what he sows and do they realize what an awful misfortune such a harvest has brought to the character of the man, and will almost surely bring to the health of the innocent woman? If one has any doubts on this subject they would soon be set right by the testimony of any physician who has made a specialty of attending men, or who has devoted his practise especially to women.

Just as there are occasionally cases where a divorce becomes necessary, but very much fewer than those actually granted, so, occasionally, the life of an unborn child must be sacrificed to save the life of the mother. But will anybody pretend for a moment that there is any excuse for the two million of child-murders which is a fair estimate of the number occurring annually on the North American continent? The crime has become so general that public opinion has ceased to condemn it, and among the few who do condemn it we certainly do not find those women who claim that wifehood and motherhood are degrading and should be reserved to the lowest class of the population. It is well known that were it not for the enormous immigration pouring into America day by day and week by week, the population of this continent would have died out ere now. And it is generally admitted that the original American people have almost died out. Even the foreigners who are so quickly assimilated soon learn the practise of race-suicide, although never to the appalling extent of the native-born Americans. As far as my experience goes, the crime is most prevalent among the highly educated classes, while it is almost unknown among those with an ordinary education.

Another way in which the higher education is making people unhappy is in the cultivation of the powers of analysis and criticism. When the power of analysis is applied to one's own self it is especially unfortunate, for then it becomes introspection, a faculty which is carried so far with some women that their whole life is spent in looking into themselves, caring nothing for the trials or troubles of those about them. This produces an intense form of egotism and selfishness. These people are exceedingly unhappy, very often suffering from what is wrongly called t nervous prostration,' but which should rather be called 'nervous prosperity.' When the wonderful power of criticizing is applied to others it takes the form of fault-finding. Such a woman must have many victims; will she make them happy?

One of the greatest objections to the higher education of women, namely, the interference with outdoor exercise, no longer can be raised,