Page:The Truth about Marriage.djvu/45



The only true basis for marriage is mutual love.

But this love must be based upon mutual respect. When a man feels that he can trample on the rights and privileges and happiness of a woman he ought not to marry her.

For this reason we can see why the so-called marriages of the past among many peoples, notably where the woman was purchased or stolen, was not apt to be a marriage, but the woman was merely a plaything of a man to be tossed aside when he felt like it, as a child might drop a plaything, or else she was a servant, or worst of all a mere slave.

It takes a very high degree of civilization and spiritual development for one human being to treat another well when that other has no rights or privileges that one must respect.

We see therefore the importance of a woman being considered as a human being, with equal rights and privileges as man, but it has taken a long time