Page:The Truth about Marriage.djvu/21

Rh its end chiefly the gratification of the physical man.

And with this kind of pure animal-like gratification there goes the love of variety. There may be indeed the promise of permanence in the relationship, but it is too often found to be merely promiscuous mating.

Some men, and some women, never rise to what is characteristic of some of the higher animals, namely, love of one of the sex, fidelity to what we know among humans as the marriage vow.

It is a characteristic of the lust of variety that a new face is needed constantly to keep up the stimulation of sense enjoyment, and, while such a union may produce offspring and thus serve the biological end, it does not do so in the way best calculated to provide for the offspring or the discarded mate. And these factors must be kept in mind.

Thus we see that merely the biological purpose in marriage—the procreation of offspring and the continuance of the race—is not sufficient in itself to justify mere animal-like lust or promiscuous mating. For human beings the truly human elements must enter in order that there may be a relationship worthy of being called human marriage.

Actually it is quite conceivable that there may be true marriage when the biological end of offspring is not possible. Rh