Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/218

202, and morality of men — if I am to separate the latter qualities from the former — stand the test of truth before a feminine tribunal. Every man will agree with you unconditionally that it is knavery to rob another of money, honor, liberty and happiness. But this morality is at once lifted off its feet, as soon as the treachery is directed towards a woman, and concerns a sexual relationship. True, you do have a few laws, which, for instance, make it a penal offense to seduce or compromise a girl; but few of you have principles that would condemn such an offense. And what is your punishment for it? Marriage! That the victim of your depravity receives the name of the miscreant, that the unfortunate one is chained to the originator of her misfortune, by order of the police — that is the ‘highest compensation your justice can discover.

Men are accustomed to play with the happiness of women, as boys do with the life of an insect. Does not every day experience teach us that their conscience ceases to exist when their animal desires are aroused; that they do not in the least hesitate to sacrifice the happiness of a woman's life to the sensual enjoyment of a minute; that no means of cunning or even of violence is too wile for the attainment of ends which never, and under no circumstances whatever, can compensate for the one hundredth part of the self-degradation, which their attainment implies? To deceive a man, you consider a disgrace' but is it not a triumph for you to deceive