Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/300

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

Robert Grant's novel "Unleavened Bread," pon- der seriously the character of Sehna, and think of the fate that would surely overcome any na- tion which developed its average and typical woman along such lines. Unfortunately it would be untrue to say that this type exists only in American novels. That it also exists in Amer- ican life is made unpleasantly evident by the statistics as to the dwindling families in some localities. It is made evident in equally sinister fashion by the census statistics as to divorce, which are fairly appalling; for easy divorce is now as it ever has been, a bane to any nation, a curse to society, a menace to the home, an in- citement to married unhappiness and to immo- rality, an evil thing for men and a still more hid- eous evil for women. These unpleasant tenden- cies in our American life are made evident by articles such as those which I actually read not long ago in a certain paper, where a clergyman was quoted, seemingly with approval, as express- ing the general American attitude when he said that the ambition of any save a very rich man^ should be to rear two children only, so as to give his children an opportunity "to taste a few of the good things of life."

/ This man, whose profession and calling should have made him a moral teacher, actually set be- ifore others the ideal, not of training children to do their duty, not of sending them forth with stout hearts and ready minds to win triumphs for themselves and their country, not of allowing 260

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