Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/310

294 well as into yours, at the thought that they could be our friends."

And yet, she ought to have added, each one of the sixty thousand considers himself qualified to play the part of superior moral teacher, and to condemn Mrs. Julia Branch, because she said that she alone was to decide where, when and whom she was to love. The fact that this liberty is not recognized and practiced everywhere, she considers to be the chief. cause of prostitution. "The cause lies in our present institution of marriage, which forces a man and woman to remain together until death separates them, without love, without intellectual, moral and physical harmony." The objection, that without the present marriage bonds our sexual relations would sink into a state of anarchy, she meets with the true observation that worse conditions than the present are impossible, and that perfect liberty at its worst would create a better generation of men and women. The hypocrisy which declares that bonds are necessary to restrain those who cannot restrain themselves, and as an example mentions "Mr. So-and-so, who neglects his wife," etc., she silences with the question, "How old is the youngest child of Mr. So-and-so?" Answer: "Two or three months." "Does it not make one heart-sick to see such degraded conditions and the wretched subterfuges behind which they are to be concealed?" — The second subject upon which Mrs. Branch spoke was infanticide. She proved by statistical