New Publications [pp. 569-576]

572 2\?~w Publicatio,is.
under a delusion never possible in il~e either side can protect her virtue, secure
case of the pure in heart, or to any but her respect, or belief in the purity of
those who take pleasure in iniquity. her intentions; for no education or
We have no intenti9n of reopening tr~ni ng can reverse nature. The prac discussion of the woman question, tice, if adopted and become general,
or that of spiritists and spiritism; the would degrade woman to the lowest
questions of divorce and free religion level, put an end to marriage, extinguish
have also been amply discussed, at the family, and with it society and the
least for the present, in this magazine. race.
We can touch here only on two ques. Mr. Sargent, whether he intends it or
tidns raised by il~e author-that of free- not, advocates free-love as he does free
love and that of the nght and propriety religion. Love, he says, must be free,
of lemale wooing. The aini of the au- and bound by no chain but its own
thor has been to defend the woman who silken cords. The least constraint kills
dared woo openly and in plain words it. The marriage is all in the mutual
the man she wished to be her husband love; and when that leaves, il~e marriage
and the father of her child. He con- is dissolved. To compel a couple who
tends, in the smoothest and most seduc- do not mutually love to come together,
tive blank-verse he is master of, that or, after the love is dead, to live tothis is proper, and woman's right; and - gether, as husband and wife-we beg
that it is only il~e tyranny of a barbarous pardon, as wife and husband-is downcustom, created by male predominance, right tyranny, outrageous cruelty. This
that requires the woman to wait till she is the cant of nearly all female and
is sought Linda Percival, il~e bastard much of mate popular literature, which
of a bigamist, is for him il~e mo- relies fer its tragic interest on the ohdel woman. She dares break through stacles thrown in il~e way of true love
this custom and proposes to a very re- by an imperious mother, a despotic faspectable young gentleman; but gets ther, a hard~hearted old uncle, barbaat first the mitten, and succeeds finally rous custom, or cruel and tyrannous
only by buying him up for a hundred marriage laws. This literature, the
thousand dollars in hard cash, paid only literature except newspapers this
down to his swindled and bankrupt restless, busy age reads, has already
father. Yet Linda is a combination of corrupted modern society, made away
incompatible qualities, an impossible with parental authority, obl~terated the
woman, a monster in nature, and her love and ieverence of children for their
conduct is no precedent for the sex. parents, and rendered a happy houseShe is a man-woman, and the last in hold well-nigh impossible.
the world that a real man could love or This popular doctrine mistakes the
marry. The woman who does not in- love marriage demands as well as the
stinctively shrink from soliciting a man nature and end of mardage itself. The
to marry her could appreciate no argu- love it extols is at best only a romantic
ment that would prove its impropriety or sentiment, which in its own nature, like
the gross immorality that would result all sentiments, is capricious and evafrom the practice, were it once held nescent. It can give no security to
reputable. Mr. Sargent knows well marriage, for it can neither control the
enough, without our telling him, that senses nor be controlled by reason.
nature has made woman strong for de- Suppose it as pure and as lofty as that
fence, but weak when acting on the of the fabled knight of chivalry for his
offensive. When she solicits a man to "ladie fair," to whom he devotes his
be her husband and "the father of her sword and worships as a distant star
child," she steps out from her strong pure and serene in the heavens above
fortress of modesty and reserve, throws him, it cannot survive possession, and
off her defensive armor, and places her- never does and never can exist between
self at his mercy. Resistance after- husband and wife. The reason why
ward avails nod~ing. She has surren- love matches are so seldom happy is,
dered at discretion. No training on that they are formed with the expecta