Page:The Truth about Marriage.djvu/150

 animals. I am sure that most people are more than animal, with the capacity to become the sons of God. Animal mating seems to be inspired merely by the instinct to propagate. It is blind, unreasoning, animal.

But human mating is the highest friendship and companionship. The propagation of the human race ought to be, because of the superior nature of man, as superior to animal mating as heaven is superior to earth. True marriage love is human. Mere animal love in human beings is bestial. In animals it is merely the order of their nature.

I will go further and say that many unhappy marriages arize from the fact that one or both parties to the marriage enter into it merely as an animal might. If they are only animal in their feelings and outlook on life nothing better can be expected for them than a caricature of marriage. Such people can never know what true marriage is, or, for that matter, can never know what truly human living is and enjoy the life of a human being. They are still, despite the veneer of good clothes and apparent friendliness, animals dressed up as men.